The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1913-05-23

of practical work. The theories
that had been put forth for quar-.
ter of a century had been held in
check for want of trained teachers
and superintendents to carry them in
to effect, and during the past five
years normal schools have been
specializing in these things and it is
now possible to secure proficient
teachers by paying the price.
Blackfoot is one of the towns that
have been doing pioneer work in this
line, and manual work is here to stay,
With tools such as are necessary for
the individual, the training has been
carried on at great disadvantages in
many respects and results have been
slow. For example, if boy designs
something that calls for materials
in oak and he has to, saw them out
of two-inch plank, ripping 1t the
flat way to get boards or pieces the
right thickness, it is fiery hard ted
ious task, and when he gets them cut
out they require great amount Of
dressing to get them true on the
surfaces he sawed. A band SOW oper-
ated by power would enable him to
do this quickly and well and he
would get results days or weeks soon
er. The same thing applies to the
use of a lathe, and the work has been
done by simple, almost primitive me-
thods which ought to be done quick
ly and perfectly by the use OF the In
struments and power that are used
in practical, commercial activities
This would enable the teacher and
the pupil to devote their time to get
ting results instead of rasping indie
finitely to get it in form.
The school board have under con
sideration the matter of installing
band saw and lathe, to be arranged
that additional machinery can De
hitched to the same line shaft as ad
ditions can be made, and in time de-
velop complete workshop. The ex-
penditure they contemplate making
for the coming year is only a few
hundred dollars but it Is thought that
it will enable the pupils and teacher
of that department to increase their
products several fold with the same
overhead expenses.
, For the coming year mechanical
drawing is to be given and pupils
will design some houses and barns,
studying carefully the details to Sc
cure the greatest service and conven-
fence by reason of the arrangement
of the building and it's adaptability to
modern things and especially to sani-
tation. The girl will be called upon
to decide as to the size of the kitch-
en- to see that it is not too large for
the coming of electricity and built
in "cupboards, storage devices, plumb
ing, the lack of wood box, coal
scuttle, slop bucket, water bucket and
various other things allowed for in
the home of today that will be eli
minated from the home of the near
future. She will do some fine cal
culating to determine whether she
wants to have big kitchen and take
a few superfluous steps to get each
commodity and utensil or have them
grouped around a small area where
she can reach most of them from her
work table and make work quick and
easy.
She will be called upon to furnish
information as to the size of the liv-
ing room in which she is to place the
furniture and still have room for the
guests and enough space to get about
without crowding. She will have put
up to her all manner of problems re-
lating to the relative positions of bed
room, bath room and kitchen, and the
choice Of placing the kitchen or the
bed room on the cool side of the
house, the choice of outlook for the
kitchen on a given landscape when
she remembers that the housekeeper
spends about one-third of her life in
the kitchen. Will she have it with
large windows opening out on gard
en-, flower beds, fields or barnyard?
Will she make the kitchen to come IN
as the forlorn side of the house or
will she dignity it with the best To-
cation and call it the department
of nourishment" and bring the en-
vironment up to the level it deserves?
While the boys are building houses
next year there will be interesting
times among the girls to get all these
questions threshed out so they will
be willing to place their o. X. on the
plans and never come back to