Los Angeles herald., 1905-09-10

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receive daily, asking about them. These
letters come from all over-many of
them from the middle west and north
west. They are from people who want
TO come here to spend their winters.
and bring their children. This has been
especially true this season. Last win
ter was severe one back east, and
people are learning that they can come
here and live for vastly less and be
comfortable. and thousands are doing
that very thing.
$50 they write and ask about the
schools, and everyone says that he
has heard they are excellent, and equal
to any, and. most of them ask me to
save a place for their children. Los
Angeles schools, even hampered as
they are by lack of room, stand second
to none"
Having thus delivered himself Of this
burst of candidness Superintendent
Foshay leaned back and looked re-
lieved
And 1t is just such a rush as will
come this fall that I say we hereafter
must prepare for" he added. EVERY
thing indicates that the incoming
throng will be greater than ever be-
fore, and we are not prepared to meet
it."
won't the new polytechnic school
help some?"
"Yes. 1t will. There is going to be
great school: there isn't another like 1t
on the coast, or west of Kansas City.
That city has a fine one, and so has st.
Louis; spent some time studying
each. But we will be ahead of even
those because we are so much more
modern. 1t will be wonderful thing
for Los Angeles
For Manual Training
"But It will be only for high school
work; what about manual training in
the grade schools?"
THAT is now a part of the study
course In all of them," said he. ''The
sloyd system is taught here. Begin
ming with the kindergarten we will
now be able to carry out the course
clear to the end. 1t is a wonderful
addition to our system; proper COM
pletion.
"The modern way Of education" went
on this head Of Los Angeles educative
forces, '1s through the hand to the eye
and the mind. 1t used to be that every
thing had to be learned by the eye
first; now. we are wiser. We have
learned that pupils will absorb what
they can do and feel with their hands
much quicker and more thoroughly than
they will if they learn it theoretically
only. So we aim first to have them do
things with their hands. This begins
in the kindergarten, and the sloyd sys-
tenn takes it into the regular class
rooms. So on UP 1t goes; now. 1t will
culminate in the polytechnic school.
"That will be school of practical
work, not of the classics. A little Latin
will be taught in the highest classes,
but our aim is to pay especial attention
to the English branches and towards
giving pupil good knowledge Of how
to use his mind and his hands. We will
not turn out finished mechanics; that
Is not the aim. But we will train
boy to know that because his hands are
soiled with the CRIME of honest effort.
and because he can do things cleverly
with tools, he is none the less able to
be a. scholar and gentleman.
"There is an ethical side to this
manual training that people do not gen.
orally see," said Mr.. Foshay, earnestly;
'it teaches boys not to despise the
roughness of physical work. 1t edu-
Gates them to the fact that because
man may have scars and red hands
he is not to be despised.
"There is a tendency nowadays