the most perfect apparatus in physics or chemistry is less instructive than to have the students themselves construct a simple instrument. Given some knack for handicraft, the teacher and his pupils can construct many practical apparatuses, which, because born directly of the school's needs, will prove the more useful in instruction. Any manual or technical skill acquired is of some educational value, just as there is no element of knowledge but will further mental growth and development. Polytechnics is, like polymathy-if kept within the proper boundsperfectly legitimate, though it must, even more than polymathy, guard against resembling Homer's Margites, who was a Jack of all trades, but master of none.

3. Thus we note again in this subordinate department the great contrasts of education: on the one hand, concentration and consequent depth in opposition to many-sidedness; and, on the other hand, compactness in opposition to a branching out in different directions.1

Various attempts have been made to introduce the mechanical arts into the schools. Domestic science is taught in the girls' schools, but has not yet been correlated with the other subjects. With regard to manual training in elementary schools, a court composed of educationists and political economists must pass sentence upon the results obtained. Pestalozzi's view that the people's school should teach the A B C of the mechanical arts because of their direct usefulness for later life, has largely influenced educationists in recommending manual training for the elementary school. But Froebel was guided by higher considerations when introducing manual exercises into the kindergarten. The Froebelian occupations are, in a measure, well adapted to develop simultaneously the hand and the eye, the sense of form and the taste. But many mediocre elements are here mingled with the good, and the false tendency toward systematizing everything prevents the full application of a good principle, so that much of the kindergarten is, despite the excellent beginnings, nothing else than play. Furthermore, no effort is made to connect the occupations with instruction.

This co-ordination has been considered of chief import by the Herbartians. Herbart values technology, because “it furnishes very important connecting links between the apprehension of the facts of nature and human purposes. He says that "every human being ought to learn how to use his hands; the

1 Cf. supra, ch. IX, 2.

1

hand has a place of honor beside language in elevating mankind above the brute." The school-workshop, as successfully organized by Ernst Barth, applies the principle of correlation, for it is arranged to serve the needs of the whole course of instruction, though it is obviously more closely connected with drawing and the natural sciences. The technique of the mechanical arts is in this school-workshop the supreme law for all exercises. We may look in this direction for the development of such educational methods as may bring out best the two sides of the educational value of technological training.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Gymnastics.

1. Gymnastics strengthens, like technology, the body and thus offsets a one-sided mental activity. Technological training, however, has this advantage over gymnastics that all energy spent on a mechanical art proves real work and produces some tangible object and something directly useful; whereas gymnastics is not related to an object. From this point of view, the anvil and the vise are more educative than the vaultinghorse and the trapeze.

In other regards, however, the gymnastic skill is supplementary to the technological. Gymnastic exercises are more popular with young people than any system of manual training, because they tax their patience less and also require less constant application, and are, therefore, more of a recreation for body and soul. They may also be so adapted to the needs of physical education as to develop the muscles and organs of the entire body-which is beyond the functions of mechanical trainingand on account of this feature they have an æsthetical value, which fact prompted the Greeks to introduce calisthenics into the liberal arts course.

The gymnastic exercises must, to exert this ennobling influence on the personality, be properly conducted, and it is well known that athletic exercises, if overdone, are far from being

1 Outlines of Educational Doctrine, transl. by A. F. Lange, New York, 1913, p. 260, § 259.

conducive to the development of either strength or physical grace. In European countries, with their large standing armies, the gymnastic exercises of the schools are regarded as preparatory to the drills of the barracks. But the ancient Greeks teach us to expect of these exercises more than mere physical strength and skill. Plato declared gymnastics to be indispensable in education, because it counterbalances the tendency to search and know-the pilóσopov, which may lead to that excessive study which "saps the strength of the body"—and this tendency it counterbalances by developing mettle and personal courage the Ovpoebés. The fact that the gymnastic Θυμοειδές. exercises may be made in common, is another point in their favor, for thus they may readily promote an esprit de corps. How the gymnasium may be made the home of patriotism, was well shown in the German wars of independence, 1813-1815.

2. Although gymnastics is an old school subject, there are no scholastic traditions with regard to its standing and methods. The attitude of educators toward gymnastics has often changed. At one time they applauded the exaggerated praise which Geronimo Mercuriali lavished, in his book, De Arte Gymnastica, upon the gymnastics of the ancients. The Philanthropinists regarded the increased vigor of the body and the recreational effect as the chief benefits of gymnastics. Jahn and his school attached more weight to its fostering patriotism, and this motive finally gave way to a kindred consideration, viz., the advantages that gymnastics affords as a preparation for military service. Independently of these evaluations and tendencies, other forms of gymnastics for instance, the Swedish system, the purely hygienic physical culture, and calisthenics-followed their own line of development. Gymnastics, as practiced in the schools, was influenced by all these movements, and it must be admitted that mistakes were made in submitting to some of these influences. The value of gymnastics has also been exaggerated at times; e. g., the representatives of "muscular education," a fruit of English utilitarianism, are clamoring (upon the grounds of their exaggerated demands for physical culture) for a complete reform of education.

Though we can not learn from the English on this point, still on another point they may well teach us how to improve our school-gymnastics. The English are fortunate in having preserved in their gymnastics national traditions; their sports

1 Plato, Rep., III, p. 410.

are nationally popular; and we have done well in imitating some of their customs by encouraging children's games and the like. There is much to be gained by continuing in this direction. Athletic games, for instance, are apt to strengthen the power of the will, and they are, indeed, far superior to the most elaborate system of school-gymnastics. For one thing, the movements and exercise required in these games are pleasant; and, what is more, they have a meaning. Another point in their favor is that the rule of the game takes the place of the commands of the teacher of gymnastics, and thus the strength and the enjoyment are disciplined without being curtailed; the teacher's place is taken by the captain, who may be one of the players. Finally, because of the traditional character of the games, the young people may regard themselves as called to preserve them as boons of tradition; and, as a matter of fact, the players are, in this respect, the custodians of a national inheritance.