The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1912-09-12
TEACHING YOUNG FILIPINO IDEA
The Progress of Education on the IS
land-Children Trained in Useful
Arts.

! making a remarkable advance. III
deed, according to recent reports re-
ceived at the United States Bureau OF
Education. there are features of pres
ent- day education in the Philippines
that are well worth the careful at
tention of school leaders in the Gni-
ted States.
1t is in the field of industrial train
ing and useful arts that the Fill
pinos. under American teachers, are
making the most notable progress;
such progress. in fact, that in Ger
tain lines-particularly lace-making
and charlottesville products of the
Philippine schools not only compare
fayorably with the work of the famous
French and Swiss experts, bu+ prom
Use to compete with them successfully
in the worlds markets.
The whole system of education in
the Philippines Is based on the prin-
ciple that the children should receive
training that will prepare them di-
rectly for the life they are to live. The
boys receive manual training from the
very beginning in the lowest grades
/ they make articles that they can use
! and sell, both in their own localities
and elsewhere. The most important
industry taught the boys is hat-weaY-
ing. 1t is a prescribed exercise in
] the primary schools. The Bureau OF
Education at Manila considers it one
of its legitimate functions to give
such training in the making of good
hats as will afford a large number OF
children a permanent means OF earn
ing a livelihood wrote Mr.. Frank X.
White. Director of Philippine educa-
ton, in 1910, after the courses had
been introduced, and the development
of the work has more than Justified
his claim. Chief among the products
are the famous "buntal' hats made
/ from the leaf stem OF the opened burr
leaf. The schools do not attempt to
replace hand machinery with modern
E
! apparatus, for it is recognized that
there is a real demand for the pro-
ducts of careful hand workmanship.
Besides the prescribed courses in the
primary schools, there are regular
trade schools, where the boys spend
the greater part of the school day in
actual manual labor in the shops.
set of dining-room furniture in red
nara. made at the Philippine School
of Arts and Trades in Manila, sold
for 5000 at last years carnival.
In the girls schools plain sewing
and housekeeping have generally
formed the prescribed courses, but re-
Gently lace-making and embroidery
have been introduced because they
are arts which, besides possessing
educational value, furnish the girls
with a remuneratiye occupation
There were already in the Philippines
young women who had learned en-
broidery and lace-making in the con-
vents uIlutI the spanish ANs9iihN' -
thermore. because of their great ma
tural aptitude for such work, and be-
cause of their patience and delicacy
of execution, the Filipino women are
considered among the most skilful
workers in the world in these arts,
their products being classed by ex-
perts as even superior to that of the
French and the Swiss. The schools
are therefore working on sure ground
in teaching making and embroid-
cry, and they have ascertained that
the demand for the kind of work their
children can turn out is practically
unlimited. In an effort to increase
the available supply of teachers for
the work, courses in lace-making and
embroidery have been offered in the
Philippine Normal School since 1910
and also in the various vacation as
semblies.
The first thing a Filipino girl does
in the sewing class In school is tc
make for herself a complete outfit oil
clothing. This work she usually be
gins in the second grade, but some
times in the first or third. Armed
with an embroidery frame and other
apparatus lin most cases made by
the boys in the same school, she adj
vances in proficiency through the var
ious grades; hemming and embroider-
ing cotton squares, fine linen, hand
kerchiefs, waists and so on. The
more expert girls turn out master
pieces in French net and embroidery
In lace they make all varieties o.
pillow lace including 'torchon'
Spanish lace), Maltese, Ceylon oil
Indian, Irish crockett, etc. Battenburf
is also made for local use, bu
it is not encouraged for export, be
cause the Japanese can make it more
cheaply.
An idea of the extent of industrial
education in the Philippines may be
gained from the fact that nearly 400,
600 school pupils are engaged il
some kind of industrial work. Fol
the past four years industrial in
struction has been prescribed in the