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CHAPTER XII.

MANUAL AND INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.

I. MANUAL TRAINING AND INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENTS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.-Purpose Location, equip ment, and course of training-Coördination with the other studies of the system-Cost-ResultsOpinions of superintendents as to the advisability of introducing manual training into the public schools-Industrial training in schools for the deaf; in schools for the blind; in reform schools; in schools for the feeble-minded; in Indian schools; in colored schools-Societies for the promotion of manual training. II. MANUAL TRAINING AND TRADE SCHOOLS.-St. Louis manual training schoolChicago manual training school-Baltimore manual training school-Other manual training schoolsNew York trade schools-Statistics of manual training schools (Table 67)-Summary of statistics of industrial schools (Table 68)-Statistics of industrial schools (Table 69).

I. MANUAL TRAINING AND INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENTS.

IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The introduction of manual training as a public school study may be said to be yet in the experimental stage, rendering an exposition of its condition less complete and more difficult than an account of the more thoroughly organized branches of the system of public schools. The recent addition of the study, however, invites inquiry as to the objects to be attained by its introduction, the methods of accomplishing them, the cost entailed, and the results; while the agitation against the so-claimed overloaded curriculum of the upper grades of the public schools calls for an examination of the manner of interpolating a study new in a twofold sense into that curriculum. The reports of the city superintendents and other school officials have therefore been examined with reference to these heads of inquiry; for no better testimony, it is thought, could be obtained than that of the agents of the people at whose expense the new study has been introduced and is supported.

Purpose.-In Portland, Me., the superintendent of the city schools was encouraged by a petition signed "by all to whom it was presented," to ask the city council for a grant of $1,500 to establish a manual training school, because "the belief is gaining ground in our own country, as well as in other countries, that youth should be edu cated in the use of the tools of industry as well as in books; and in other cities it has been found by trial that this can be done during school life without impeding other studies." Considerations of a fiscal nature sent the matter over for a year. The school committee of Springfield, Mass., say: "It has been and will continue to be the aim of the committee to bring the course of study in the schools into harmony with the best and most practical educational methods known, in order that the analytical, reasoning, and constructive powers of the scholars may be developed, that they may become familiar with practical things and leave school equipped with knowledge that will be useful to them in whatever honest occupation they may follow. As nearly 95 per cent. of the scholars who go out from the schools will from necessity become engaged in some kind of manual labor, it is important that manual training should have an established place in our school system." In New Haven, Conn., it is considered "as a protest against the teaching of mere words, and makes its eloquent appeal for recognition on the ground that it supplies an element in education that has been almost entirely lacking."

*

In his report for 1885-86, the superintendent of the Newburg, N. Y., schools, after remarking "that drawing gives the qualifications of a good mechanic except the practice," continues: "These views have long been held by the board of education of the city of Newburg, and in order more fully to carry out the ideas involved therein, this board has established a manual training school for the more perfect and symmetrical development of the hand and eye. A most weighty and practical reason for this is that by far the greater number of pupils must after leaving school get their living and employment by the use of their hands and eyes. Primarily, the aim of the manual training school is to train the hands of the pupils, to give them the power of doing."

In their matter-of-fact and otherwise very valuable report on manual training in the common schools, the committee on course of study and school books of the board of education, New York City, after noting that the leading purpose of manual instruction in Europe "is to foster industrial skill," and "only incidental reference is had in most cases to its general educational, disciplinary, and intellectual relations," that "it has long been a matter of deep regret, and even of apprehension, that a large proportion of our young people are growing up with a positive distaste for manual labor;" that the introduction of manual training "into many of the schools and higher educational institutions of the country, has already begun to exert an influence towards bringing about a better state of things;" and that a wide gap exists "between the kindergarten and the high school," arrived at this, the first of several conclusions: "That the introduction of what is generally known as manual training would be an improvement to our present course of study." "Instruction in drawing," they continue," and the introduction of object-teaching have proved of the greatest advantage, and lead directly and naturally to those subjects and methods now under discussion;" and "it has come to be generally recognized as true that a certain amount of work, some application of mental power through the bodily powers, some production of physical results of thought and intention, implying the training of the senses, especially through the hand and the eye, are needed to produce a well-trained mind."

At Minneapolis, Minn., "An important reason for introducing industrial training into the public schools is found in the wide-spread distaste for manual labor. Serious apprehensions may well be aroused in view of the large number of youth growing up to manhood, not only without a handicraft, but even disdaining such an occupation," and "One of the practical benefits which may be expected from the introduction of manual training into the schools is the furnishing of superior foremen and superintendents for our various industries. The apprentice system is a thing of the past. In no way can men be more successfully fitted for these responsible positions, than by combining with a thorough intellectual discipline, early familiarity with the principles of mechanics and the use of tools." In the course of his comments on the recent introduction of manual training in the schools of St. Paul, Minn., the superintendent remarks: "The coordination of mental and manual training to its practical limit in our public schools, will foster an industrial spirit and bring to the surface, not intellectual strength but a genins adapted to this kind of education. That there is in our schools a large amount of undeveloped skill will surely be seen as soon as an opportunity is given, and which has heretofore been clearly demonstrated in the work which has already been done under the general subject of drawing." The object at Omaha, Nebr., among the first to introduce manual training, is not to teach "but to prepare the students for greater proficiency in a trade should they conclude to become mechanics."

Location, equipment, and course of training.-In four cities the school is located in the high-school building of the system, in three other cities it is situated in buildings of other grades. In Boston the present quarters are too small for proper instruction in carpentry, and on the vacation of the building now occupied by the Horace Manu School for the Deaf, the committee on manual training will ask for it. The course of instruction is invariably in wood-working-carpentry-given, as at Springfield, Mass., in 15 lessons of 45 problems, or, as at Mont Clair, N. J., in 40 graded lessons. In several instances the instruction is under the care of graduates of manual training schools, in others under a skilled mechanic who has had some experience in teaching. The equipment is almost invariably for about 10 or 20 students, and consists of carpenters' benches and the necessary tools. It is understood that the course of instruction is of 1 year, with the exception of Mont Clair where it is of 3.

Coordination with the other studies of the system.-Five of the seven school systems giving information on the subject have schools to which the students come especially to receive this instruction, not of course including the pupils attending schools occupying rooms in the same building in which the manual training school is located. One exception is the Minneapolis course, the manual training apparently being confined to the high school pupils, which perhaps would throw it into the category of manual training schools (see page 791). The classes, either 10 or 12 or 20, usually receive one lesson a week, generally occupying the half of a school day; at Omaha and Minneapolis instruction is given for over an hour daily, and at Mont Clair for the second and third grades for an hour semiweekly. The pupils are drawn from the high school or the upper grades of the grammar schools or both, except at Mont Clair, where the pupils of the high school and highest grammar grade are excluded. Cost. This is a very diflicult question to discuss. The word "equipment" may include many things at one place not included by it at another, vitiating results as to per capita cost. Nor is this the only obstacle. In a public school the pupil or his fictitious representative "in average attendance "occupies the same desk every day of the school year; in these schools for manual training, only an hour or two every week, and then gives place to another. In Boston, for instance, the total cost for the first year for 200 pupils was $2,500, a per capita cost of $12.50 each, but as they were divided

into classes of 20, receiving a lesson a week, covering a half a day, the weekly attendance of 200 under such circumstances is merely equivalent to the attendance of 20 pupils for 5 full days; thus the per capita cost viewed in this light would be $125. The cost for the last school year was $7.50. It may be said that the cost of manual training as a part of the public school system should be dealt with as if it were a question as to the cost of grammar or geography. But, even ignoring the fact that the cost of the apartment in which manual instruction is given-and to which instruction it is wholly devoted—is not included as a part of the cost, it would be manifestly wrong to compare the per capita cost of a course in manual training in which a lesson of an hour is given daily to the same class, with the per capita cost of instructing the same class for half a school day once a week. At Springfield, Mass., the equipment cost $503, or $42 per capita (8 classes of twelve each, instructed once weekly), and the running expenses $3.03, based on total number instructed. At Omaha the equipment cost $2,129, and the expenses of running about $18 a pupil, based on average attendance. At Mont Clair the expenses for equipment were $350, those for 1886-87 $1,000. The New York committee, in their report already referred to, compute that an outfit for a workshop will cost $300, and running expenses, exclusive of teachers' salaries, $80, to which must be added the cost of constructing or preparing a workroom, computed at $100.

Results. After giving some statistics of attendance in Boston, the superintendents will again be allowed to speak for themselves.

Of the 200 boys that began the course in the Boston school for the last school year, 49 dropped out, 33, or 17 per cent. of the whole number, from obtaining employment, 2 from dullness in their regular studies, and 4 were expelled for insubordination. In Springfield, Mass., the school committee ask for an appropriation of $5,000 to extend the scope of the school "in view of the encouraging results of the experiment," and "it is the testimony of the principals of the high school and grammar schools that the time given to manual training has not retarded the pupils in their regular studies." In Mont Clair, N. J., the "boys show great diversity of talent, some becoming in a little time quite expert in tool handling, while others find it much more difficult." In New Haven, Conn., "some boys were heedless and seemed to lack the power of close attention and nice execution. The inability of some to use their hands at first and the decided gain in manual power exhibited after a few weeks of practice, furnish strong arguments in favor of such training."

In Newburg, N. Y., it is too soon to speak of results, but "the boys take to the work with enthusiasm, and many of them show unmistakable signs of becoming expert in the use of tools." The introduction of steam power is advised, and the intention to increase the equipment noted.

In Minneapolis, Minn., the principal of the high school remarks: "So far as can be judged from the work of the past term, the school is a success, and will continue to be more and more useful as experience shows better methods of management. This course seems to attract and hold boys who would at this stage of their work drop out of school if such course was not provided."

In Omaha, Nebr., the committee on manual training says: "We can not emphasize too strongly the value of this system, which we believe in time will come into general use." "On the whole," says the superintendent, "our experiment with a manual training department in our high school, as far as it has gone, must be considered a success. It has not interfered with the regular academic work, and the progress of the boys in the mechanic arts has been satisfactory."

Industrial training for girls.-The courses of industrial training for girls are as yet sewing and cooking. With the thorough introduction of "construction" work, as contemplated at New York and Washington, D. C., for instance, the girls will receive instruction in the general principles governing the combination of elements into a harmonious whole, as well as in the specific duties of two branches of industry both eminently adapted to their sphere in domestic life, and also immediately useful. Sewing would appear to be excellently fitted for introduction into the school course, since from its nature the students are not required to leave the class-room while under instruction; and although the superintendents of the evening schools of Brooklyn, N. Y., advocate the congregation of those who desire instruction into a class, their recommendation is based on the complaint of individual scholars of the evening schools that they were being retarded in other studies by the time consumed in sewing, and not upon any fundamental difficulty of teaching the art in the ordinary school-room. At Boston, where the study has been most thoroughly introduced and organized, even to the extent of holding weekly meetings of the sewing teachers for conference, the course of instruction is, in brief, as follows: After the child has been taught how to select both thread and needle, to thread the needle and to hold it, it is put to basting together a "bag-apron," in which to keep the work; then it is taught to back-stiteli, to hem, and to overcast the seams of the basted apron. This method has the advantage, says the supervisor of sewing, of interesting the child, since it is employed in making something that it is to wear. The material is almost invariably furnished by

the pupil; the garment is prepared by the teacher and sewed under her direction. Great interest is manifested at the homes of the children, and cases are known in which the child has instructed the mother in the lesson that it has learned at school. In a few schools dressmaking has been introduced; simple dresses, however, are made in all the schools. In concluding her remarks the supervisor says:

"There is no doubt that the habits formed in connection with learning to sew have an important influence on the life and character of the girls and of their homes. It may be confidently asserted that the influence of the sewing is healthful and lasting upon the mind and character of the pupils, and on that account, no less than for its material utility, it deserves the respect and encouragement of the community. As a department of school work it is second to none in the success which it has attained and the interest it has enlisted in and out of the school-room."

At Philadelphia, the success of the instruction in sewing caused its introduction into the secondary and grammar schools for girls; and the experience of two years has been most satisfactory. "It is believed," says the superintendent, "that the instruction in this branch is more extensively and thoroughly organized in this city than in any other in the country. Twenty-five thousand girls are now regularly taught the principles and practice of sewing by a corps of thirty-two special teachers." At Mont Clair, N. J., three grammar grades receive instruction in a graded course of sewing, cutting, and fitting, given to the girls in their class rooms, while the boys are engaged in the shops.

The inexpensiveness of the materials (in Boston costing about $200 a year), the cleanliness, and particularly the simplicity of the work, permitting the pupil to remain at her desk, render sewing much less difficult to introduce and maintain as a study than cooking, which not only requires appliances that are inappropriate to a school-room, but an activity that is incompatible with the order that is exacted there. At Boston, where instruction in cooking is more extensively introduced than in any other city, there are four cooking schools, or kitchens, as they are there called. Each school has ten classes composed of 15 or 20 pupils, as the case may be, each class receiving about twenty lessons. Taking the oldest school, instituted and as yet sustained by the liberality of Mrs. Hemenway, as illustrating the manner of conducting these "kitchens" and of connecting them with the usual studies of public schools, the course may be said to be as follows: From each of five public schools in the vicinity of the "kitchen," 30 pupils are selected and divided into two equal classes. For the two classes thus formed from the contingent of each school, a day of the week is set apart (it is presumed that in the forenoon one class is instructed and in the afternoon the other) for instruction. Thus the two classes of the Hyde School have Monday, of the Winthrop School, Tuesday, and so on for twenty weeks. Still using the statistics of Kitchen No. 1 as typical of the class, it appears that the cost of giving 150 girls a course of twenty lessons was 28 cents a girl, or 13 cents for each lesson given to each pupil. Of the 700 families who have been represented at this school during the years 1885-87, 692 have expressed themselves in favor of it. "No school," says the chairman of the Committee on Manual Training of Boston, "established among us ever received such quick appreciation from all classes of our people."

Opinions as to the advisability of introducing manual training into the public schools. An analysis of the answers made by 16 State superintendents to an item on one of the Bureau's forms of inquiry shows that 11 favor the introduction of manual training into the public school system, 4 of whom and 2 others who are otherwise non-committal think it impracticable to introduce it into the country schools; 1 considers it a good thing in the abstract, and 2 are opposed to it. The superintendent of Brooklyn, N. Y., thinks the question merely one of expense, remarking: "It is clearly impossible. to introduce manual training to any extent in our present class-rooms, and I do not think the board of education would be justified in expending any portion of its appropriations for the erection of work-shops so long as thousands of children are refused admission or permitted to attend but half a day." The superintendent of Worcester, Mass., though far from questioning the utility or necessity of technical schools, is a determined opponent to the introduction of manual training into the public schools, and the superintendent of Meriden, Conn., says in his report for 1886-87: "The tes timony we have gathered from places where the experiment has been tried are far from satisfactory;" while the superintendent of Joliet, Ill., recommends a middle course, objecting to the manual training as "no part of the public school system, and for several reasons is out of place as an annex to it," but would "encourage the pupil to spend part of his time while out of school in industrial and mechanical work." To this end, annual "industrial fairs" are held with highly satisfactory results.

Drawing.-The unmistakable tendency to make drawing the hand-maiden of constructive work is plainly evinced in several quarters. "The work in this department [that of drawing] was recast somewhat," says the superintendent of the Troy (N. Y.) city schools, "by the adoption of a course which looked wholly toward the industrial features of the study, but preserving and continuing all the advantages derived from the system in ase." "It," [drawing] says the president of the St. Louis

school board, "contributes in several ways to educate; it teaches the eye to see better, the hand to yield up some of its almost incorrigible obstinacy; and the faculty of memory is strengthened by its pursuit. As we are engaged in training some thousands of boys who in the fulness of time will become artisans and mechanics, engaged in the numerous branches of industry common to a great centre like St. Louis, we owe it to ourselves and to them that our well-earned credit for intelligence shall not suffer by any appearance of indifference here. Drawing ought to be kept very near to the three R's, because it is one of the arts of expression, that one which is capable of depicting the worker's thought with graphic clearness, such as no formula of words can always adequately do."

Under the caption "Drawing in the grammar schools as a means of manual training," the superintendent of the Washington (D. C.) schools remarks: "The work, as a whole, is included under three heads, construction, representation, and ornamentation. In each of the above lines of work the effort is first to lead the pupil to see and decide, and afterwards to make or to do."

The new course of study in drawing adopted in 1885 by the Brooklyn (N. Y.) board of education is reported as eminently preferable to the old. The third feature of this new course is its "industrial application." Although the concurrent testimony given above shows a marked tendency to make instruction in drawing an introduction to manual training, the Office has been unable to ascertain its magnitude. The subject of drawing is again, though incidentally, referred to in the following.

Industrial exhibits.-Under the heading, "Opinions of superintendents as to the advisability of introducing manual training into the public schools," mention has been made of the advocacy and adoption by the superintendent of Joliet, Ill., of industrial exhibits; he is not alone in his practice. At several other towns similar exhibits of manual work, "realized drawing," as the superintendent of Moline calls it, are annually made.

The Office is not in possession of sufficient evidence to assert that these exhibits are the natural outcome of the exhibitions in the past of the progress of the pupil in drawing, and that the effort to "realize," to materialize what has been taught as drawing, is a development as natural as the effort now making in several quarters to fill the gap that exists between the kindergarten and the manual training school, but the following quotation from the report of the Albany (N. Y.) superintendent would seem, together with hints from other sources, to justify such a conclusion: "The Drawing Exhibition was made one of the most attractive features of the occasion. The scholars' work exhibited was even more varied and extensive than at the last exhibition. Much interest was shown by the thousands that viewed the drawings; especially in the unusually large number of strictly industrial pieces, which showed to all the highly practical nature of this study, now admitted to be as essential a part of primary education as reading or writing." If the interest was augmented by the representation of industrial pieces, why not still further enhanced by showing the thing itself.

The opportunity of giving the public a tangible evidence of what they are accomplishing is far too favorable to be neglected by superintendents. "Exhibitions," says the superintendent of Lewiston, Me., "possess many valuable features, inasmuch as the public is reached and moved by theni. An interest in behalf of the public schools is aroused which otherwise would lie dormant. *To encourage manual labor I recommend industrial exhibitions, where not only school work may be seen, but work performed out of school, including sewing, cooking, carpentry, etc."

"While there may be a difference of opinion regarding the value of these exhibits,” says the superintendent of Moline, Ill., “there should, it seems to us, be only one opinion concerning the value of the training which must inevitably accompany the doing' or 'making' which have rendered these exhibits possible, especially if properly planned, and accomplished with due regard to the other work of the school." At Oskaloosa, Iowa, where the exhibition lasted 3 days, the handiwork of the pupils filled 5 rooms. The exhibit comprised articles made with tools from wood, drawings, needle-work, and specimens of cooking. At Joliet, Ill., where the exhibitions, inaugurated in 1884-85, are called industrial fairs, and "the effect upon many of the pupils was magical," no exhibition was held for 1886-87 owing to the preva lence of sickness. At Salem, Mass., the pupils of the Bowditch School gave their second industrial exhibition, making a display highly creditable, though not so varied as the first. At Moline, Ill., 10 classes constitute the scheme of exhibition, which is so systematic and well digested as to call for insertion in full:

CLASS I. Drawing:

A. Representative or object drawing (free-hand). All grades.
B. Construction or working drawings. Grade 6 to high school.

C. Decoration designs in black and white. Grado 4 to high school.
D. Free-hand outline copy. First 3 grades.

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