The Washington herald., 1916-04-12

| Several letters have reached me Of late
| from mothers In different parts Of the
country complaining Of lack OF accu-
racy they observe in their children; lack
| Of carefulness in the things they do with
their hands, lack Of attention to the de-
| tails of the things they see. lack of en-
| tire truthfuIness in the statements they
make about what they have seen or
| heard. One letter, from the mother Of
| a son. says:
Dear Aunt Chatty: My husband and
/ are distressed about the way our boy
of Il does things with his hands. He
is smart enough at his lessons, and he
is leader in all the boys games OF
| baseball and football, but when II comes
to making things with his hands he Is
as awkward as anything 1 ever saw. 1
| tell him he cannot nail two sticks to-
| gether so they will hold. We notice 1t
So much more because his father. who
is now a contractor and builder. started
life as carpenter, and he is unusu-
ally skiIful with his hands. Wouldn't
you think his son would have inherited
| some dexterity? Is It because that kind
of skill isn't developed by our modern
methods OF education? Please write us
one of your good letters and tell US
| what you think about II, as i know other
mothers arc beginning to be troubled
about the same things. and we want to
Mothers Circle for one Of our club dis
cussions."
1t does seem to be q fact that in these
days Of machinery we have forgotten the
old manual dexterity that made Gre
ative artists Of the artisans Of other
days. In former times, you remember,
nearly every man had trade. The lit
tie red schoolhouse" furnished only a
meager, part OF his education. Eye and
f1A 20 bah ftG nf
accurate observation and manipulation
that were potent for efficiency whether
the boy grew up to be a farmer, hunter
blacksmith. or carpenter.
We lay SO much stress today on what
we are pleased to call the higher edu-
cation" including so many 'ologies and
'isms In the curriculums of our modern
schools that It is all the children can
do to make their grades in their book
studies and there Is no time for that
manual training without which educa-
ton is not education in the real sense
of the word. The great authority on
educational matters, DR.. Charles w.
Eliot, complains of this lack Of accura-
cy in an article ou Changes Needed in
American secondary Education" writ
ten for the general education board In
that article DR.. Eliot said:
Many an elderly professional man.
looking back on his education and eN-
amining his own habits of thought and
Of expression, perceives that his senses
were never trained to act with precision;
that his habits of thought permit vague
ness, obscurity and inaccuracy, and
that his spoken or written statement
lacks that measured, cautious, candid,
simple quality which the scientific spirit
fosters and inculcates."
The scientific spirit teaches accuracy
of thought and statement, just as man
ual training compels a dextrous use of
the hands, and as physical training de-
velops a correct use of the body. What
we want, therefore, in our educational
methods is something that will train
hands and eyes and bodies and brains,
and give to our boys and girls that CO.
ordinated use OF their nerves and senses
we expect in the "superman' we hope
for from the human race.
am afraid we shall never attain to
this standard unless we mothers require
II of those who educate our children
for US. We need to take concerted &C
tion in all our mothers clubs in a de-
mand that the schools furnish train
ing of such quality that accuracy and
dexterity become the usual instead Of
the exceptional Characteristic OF the
pupils we send there. \
But we must not rely too much on
the schools for these qualities. Without
good home training no school training
is going to be wholly efficient, More
than any teacher, the mother fashions
the thought. of her child, We, are told
in these days that thoughts are things,
and in the formative years Of the child s
life before he is ready for school, his
mother can so train his mind to pre-
cision of thought, to exact truthfulness
of expression that his bodily movements
win take on corresponding accuracy.
One Of our mothers, whose small son
is the headstrong. tumultuous Milton
about whom / have written you before,
has already begun this training of her
boy to exactness OF speech. When the
excitabIe little man runs to her with
d tale of some experience and his words
begin to tumble over themselves In their