x

each end of each bench, in which is placed a set of tools, seventeen in number. Two boys are assigned to each bench, each boy having a box of tools for which he is held responsible. The loss of tools is nothing, and the breakage very slight.

Besides carpentry tools the shop is also furnished with a full set of carving tools. Then there are grindstones, oilstones, vises, clamps, turning-lathes, scroll-saws, augers, and such other appliances as render the shop sufficiently equipped for the kind of work to be done in it.

When well advanced in the work, the boys are taught to grind and sharpen their tools, but this is led up to slowly and cautiously.

Two classes a day do work in the shop. The time allowed for each class is forty minutes, so that just one quarter of the school day is taken up in this way. The boys, when the time of shop work arrives, leave their respective rooms, repair quickly to their places in the shop, don aprons, and take up their work where they left it the day before. A lively scene of enthusiastic industry now ensues. They are no longer school-boys, trammeled by the quiet conventionalities of the school-room; they are workmen, each being engaged in some undertaking in which his interest increases with his success and progress. The interest and enthusiasm of the boys is evinced by the fact that fully half of the Saturdays during the current year they have spent in the workshops upon their work-in fact, they are always ready for Saturday's work when their instructor signifies a willingness to be with them."

Sewing class: Sewing is taught in the high school. One class of girls is taking its work with good results. Plain sewing, patching, darning, etc., only are attempted. Hon. O. V. Towsley, superintendent of schools, Minneapolis, Minn., in his report for 1884-'85, states that the subject of industrial education is now before the board of education.

Hon. H. M. James, superintendent of public schools, Omaha, Neb.,

writes:

The idea of a high school workshop was first born in July, and the arrangements were made so that the shop was ready for use in October. Up to this time we have only made a beginning, but have sufficiently advanced the work to settle a few points. 1. The manual work in no way interferes with the regular academic work of the school. Those who go into the shop (this work is optional) are doing just as much in the regular lessons as those who do not. It has been remarked by some of the teachers that those who take the manual training are more manly and earnest in consequence. The time given to this line of work comes out of the recreation and waste time, of which boys have so much.

2. The work is popular with the community, and increasingly attractive to the boys who are engaged in it. None of those who undertook it at first now ask to be excused from it, and they seem anxious to take this lesson under any circumstances. One class goes into the shop at the close of school, and yet they accept the situation as in no sense a hardship. At the first we organized four classes of twenty boys each, and the number has kept up as well as any class in the school. Quite frequently now inquiries are made by parents if their boys can undertake the work next year.

3. We are convinced that while manual training is expensive, it is not more expensive than we had anticipated, and hardly as much so. In this, however, the judgment is based on the work of the first year, which is in the use of the saw, plane, and chisel. Probably as we advance and take more difficult work, the expenses will be increased.

You will understand that with so brief an experience we ought not to presume too much on the final result. At this point we can simply say that the experiment is promising well. We obtained a teacher from the Saint Louis school, one of Professor Woodward's graduates.

The president of the school board of Atlanta, in his report for the year ending January 1, 1886, says:

I cordially approve of schools of technology, wherever the city, State, or locality is in condition to maintain them, and I submit the question to the consideration of the honorable mayor and council, whether Atlanta is at present in condition to sustain a school of technology in connection with her public schools.

Hon. J. F. Ellis, superintendent of schools, Eau Claire, Wis., writes, March 5, 1886:1 We have in our schools a manual training department. Expenses last year in fitting up rooms, wages of teacher, and everything required for the year's work, were, in round numbers, $600.

The letters quoted were all received in March, 1886, while this Report was going to the press. As they describe work conducted during the period covered by this Report, it seemed proper to insert thein here. These experiments are treated in extenso in Part II of the Special Report on Industrial and High Art Education in the United States, soon to be issued.

We found the boys did their work in the other rooms as well' as before, also that they dropped base ball and other athletic games in a measure.

We use a basement room in one of the houses.

The only trouble that I can see is that the course is not long enough, so that when this class has finished none will be ready to take its place.

If a course can be suggested that will avoid too much repetition, or that will not be monotonous, and that can be put in without additional buildings, sufficiently extended to occupy a class of 40 or 50 until another class is old enough to succeed it, in schools of the size of ours, then manual training will be a success.

The foregoing experiments differ substantially from manual training schools of the grade of high schools, forming indeed, as expressed by Doctor Philbrick, "a variety of the non-classical high school."

Schools of this class are increasing among us. Since the organization of the Manual Training School of Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., in 1880, the following have been established:

The Baltimore Manual Training School, organized in 1883, supported by public funds. The Chicago Manual Training School, founded in 1884 by an association of gentlemen connected with the Commercial Club of Chicago.

The Philadelphia Manual Training School, opened September, 1885, as a part of the public school system.

The Cleveland Manual Training School, incorporated June 2, 1885. This school is supported by a stock company. Applicants for admission must be at least fourteen years of age, and be of high school grade or have acquirements equivalent to those required for admission to the city high school.

These schools are classified with the institutions reported in Table X, Part 2, Division B. Their advantages must necessarily be limited to a much smaller proportion of the population than those of industrial schools co-ordinated to the grammar grades. The latter schools take pupils at an age when it is possible and desirable that a taste for mechanical work should be excited; the former are for the benefit of those in whom the aptitude has decided development.

EXERCISES OF UNIVERSAL APPLICATION.

These two classes of schools, however, do not meet the demand which has become quite general for some method of training which shall develop a certain degree of manual skill and a taste for manual work among all children. So far the only exercise of this kind that it has been found practicable to bring within the reach of entire school populations are drawing, clay modeling, and sewing. Sewing, which was introduced into the grammar grades of Boston in 1876, can no longer be regarded as an experiment in that city. Every year affords new evidence of the great value of the instruction, and shows a slight increase in the number of cities following the example of Boston. Of the 276 cities enumerated in Table II, 73 report special teachers of drawing; it is also included in the course of instruction in many other cities which make no special provision for the instruction. In a number of cities the instruction in this branch is of a high order, and its beneficial effects are felt in many branches of industry; but as a rule provision for this important art is altogether too meager and the course of instruction exceedingly defective, while modeling and design are largely neglected. The result of all experience bearing upon the subject and the testimony of all competent judges justify the assertion that drawing and modeling ought to be included in all elementary training, and the need of adequate provision for this work cannot be too persistently nor too urgently forced upon the attention of legislators and school authorities.

EXHIBITIONS OF INDUSTRIAL WORK BY SCHOOL CHILDREN.

In several cities the influence of the public schools has been thrown on the side of industrial work executed by the pupils outside of school hours, and independently of school instruction.

This has been done by arranging for exhibitions of such work and by the distribution of prizes for the same. Moline, Ill., has gained distinction by such exhibits, with reference to which the superintendent of schools, Hon. W. I. Mack, in his report for 1885, says:

The industrial exhibit for 1885, measured by the number, but more especially by the quality of the articles exhibited, was superior to that of 1884. Nearly double the number of drawings was exhibited, and three times the number of wood carvings, besides nearly a hundred more miscellaneous articles.

While the plan followed here during the last two years has been productive of most excellent results, it must be remembered that participation by the pupils is optional, and that a continuation of the present interest can hardly be expected without the introduction from year to year of some new feature. We have no doubt this can be done without detriment to the main object. However, the educational weather vane seems to be pointing toward hand training as an indispensable element of a consistent and harmonious elementary training. To our mind nothing in public school education is more inevitable. Communities like our own, where almost the sole occupation of the people is the transformation of raw material into useful products, should be the first to perceive this tendency, and to demand that their educational instruction conform to it.

The Industrial Education Association of New York city was organized in 1884. Its object is to promote the cause of manual and industrial training, by disseminating information relating to it; by securing its introduction into schools of all grades; by training teachers and organizing classes in special branches. The work of the association is entrusted to committees which have been formed to meet the needs of the specific work assigned to each. What has been accomplished thus far may be briefly indicated.

Through the office much valuable information has been obtained, and a large correspondence maintained. Toronto, Canada, owes the impulse of a successful movement in favor of industrial education to a normal class held under the auspices of the association. Similar classes have been held in other cities, and classes in domestie economy have been introduced into several well known young ladies' schools outside of New York city, while the Industrial Education Association of New Jersey is a promising offshoot from the parent society.

The introduction of "kitchen garden," or "little housekeepers'" classes into mission schools, orphan asylums, and tenement houses; the development of a system of sewing, under which teachers have been carefully trained and sent out to mission schools and to public and private schools; the formation of classes in domestic economy in the leading private schools of New York city; and the introduction of the same practical teaching into working girls' clubs, and girls' friendly societies, are some of the means employed. Still another is the opening of a training school, where classes in industrial drawing and clay modeling, in sewing, "kitchen garden," cooking, and domestic economy, are crowded almost beyond their capacity by children who come from the public schools on Saturdays and after school hours. A daily kindergarten, morning classes for ladies in some of the above practical branches, and evening classes for girls employed during the day, are likewise held. A training school for servants is also established in connection with this house, where girls are thoroughly trained in all departments of domestic service.

While practical work is thus vigorously prosecuted, the association emphasizes most strenuously the importance of its work as a bureau of information, and in creating a public sentiment in favor of handicraft or manual training. Active cooperation from principals and teachers in both public and private schools, the sympathy of the press, and the support of public spirited citizens indicate the success of their efforts.

The possibilities of the work before the association are limited only by the funds and resources at command of the workers.

As a means of increasing interest in the subject, it is proposed to hold during the ensuing spring an exhibition of children's handiwork in a public hall of New York city. Exhibits from other cities will be included.

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IN NORMAL SCHOOLS.

It is evident that if industrial training is to become a feature of the common schools, it must be included in the normal school curriculum; hence all experiments in this direction are followed with peculiar interest. Hon. James MacAlister, superintendent of schools, Philadelphia, says with reference to an experiment of this kind: It took a good deal of earnest effort to get sewing introduced into the Girls' Normal School, and it was feared by many that it might interfere with what was regarded as the more important work of the pupils. We have learned, however, that no step ever taken in connection with the school has yielded more satisfactory results. The scholarship has not suffered; the sewing exercise affords an agreeable relief to the other duties of the girls, and a graduate now leaves the school skilled in the use of the needle to an extent that must add to the sum of her happiness, in whatever position of life she may afterwards be placed.

Professor Hagar, of the normal school, Salem, Mass., has tried the experiment of training the girls of his school in the use of common wood-cutting tools with very satisfactory results.

The following prospectus has been issued by Prof. C. M. Woodward, principal of the St. Louis Manual Training School:

PROPOSED TEACHERS' MANUAL INSTITUTE IN SAINT LOUIS.

It is hoped that the following proposition will meet the eye of every teacher in the United States and Canada, and all editors and managers of journals, newspapers, and periodicals are respectfully invited to give it a place in their columns. Our motive is not mercenary; we wish to give practical encouragement to the movement to put mannal training into American education. Teachers protest:

"How can we give what we do not possess? How can we teach what we have never learned?" "We are well prepared and willing to help them on.

To teachers, students, and others interested in manual training:

It is proposed to open the shops and drawing rooms of the St. Louis Manual Training School during the summer of 1886, from the middle of June till the end of July or the middle of August, and to organize classes of adults in manual work, for the special purpose of enabling teachers to fit themselves for giving manual instruction.

We contemplate classes as follows:

1. In projection, isometric, machine, and detail drawing; line and brush shading, lettering, tracing, etc.

2. In bench and lathe work in wood, including wood carving.

3. In modeling in clay and plaster; in molding in sand and casting in plaster. 4. In iron and steel forging.

5. In iron and steel turning, planing, drilling, and fitting.

The full details of the programme cannot be published till the number and wishes of applicants are known. It may be assumed that the school will be in session six hours per day and six days per week; that a member may devote his time to one, two, or three subjects; that some consideration may be necessary to secure equal privileges to all members; that sufficient uniformity will be insisted on to illustrate the class-method of tool instruction; that men and women will be received on equal footing; that tuition fees will be at the uniform rate of 123 cents per hour; that all tools and materials in the shops will be furnished; that members will furnish their own drawing instruments and paper; that all drawings and specimens of shop work will become the property of the makers; and that no allowance will be made for occasional absences.

An intelligent and earnest teacher, who devotes four hours a day for six days per week, and for six weeks, will make as much progress as an average 15-year-old boy makes in the shop allowances of an entire year. The same may be said of drawing two hours a day.

The capacity of the school for manual work is as follows:

Forty-eight drawing stands.

Forty-eight wood-working benches and sets of hand tools.

Forty-eight wood lathes and sets of turning tools.

Twenty-four molding and modeling benches.

Twenty-two anvils and forges.

Twenty places in the machine and fitting shop.

And I have an adequate number of very competent teachers.

Now I wish every person who desires to secure a place in the institute during the coming summer, to write me at once, giving his full name, age, occupation, residence, the probable lines of manual work, and the number of hours to be devoted to each. I suggest drawing an hour or two, and one kind of shop work for the rest of the day. If responses are promptly made, I can issue a definite programme in March, and secure places to as many as we can receive. I shall give the preference to teachers and those more than eighteen years of age.

Good plain board and lodging can be found in the neighborhood for five dollars ($5.00) per week.

To school boards and managers I suggest the great propriety and economy of continuing the salaries of such teachers as may attend this Institute, and of paying the same upon my certificate of attendance here. In no other way can they get so cheap' correct ideas of the methods of manual training.

Should the number of applications be small, the school will not be organized this year.

January 20, 1886.

C. M. WOODWARD, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IN THE SOUTH.

The South offers an important and interesting field for the training under consideration, and while perhaps public opinion has been less active on the subject in that section than at the North, the training has been introduced into a large number of schools.

The action taken by the trustees of the Slater Fund is giving a special impetus to industrial training in schools for the freedmen. It is a feature of nearly all the schools established by the American Missionary Association and the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of many other normal schools and universities of the South, as will be seen by reference to the tables and abstracts of the Appendix. A very great want of the South is a system of industrial training for the mass of the colored youth who will never reach the higher grade schools.

Hon. Ulric Bettison, superintendent of schools, New Orleans, in his report for 1885 calls attention to the efforts of Tulane University for the practical training of the youth of that city. He says:

The most effective of its efforts to reach the masses has been perhaps the free instruction furnished in drawing. Evening classes for the benefit of mechanics and others who are occupied during the day have been formed and eagerly attended. On Saturday free instruction is given to all teachers who wish to undertake the course. These classes are fully attended, and the instruction given has made possible the introduction of drawing into our schools.

PUBLIC OPINION.

The disposition manifest for several years among leaders of public opinion to attribute the distaste for manual labor on the part of our young people to the influence of the public schools is passing away. Other and more probable causes of the evil are attracting attention, and other agencies are suggested for its correction. Said Prof. Charles O. Thompson: "It is safe to rest upon the certain endowment of private institutions for the teaching of handicraft. Nearly $10,000,000 have been given to found institutions of technology, and mainly by private givers, since 1868, and the good work still goes on." Every year chronicles some new and important movement in this department, due to private benefactions or the enterprise of some corporate body.

SPECIAL SCHOOLS.

One of the most recent instances is the inauguration by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company of the Baltimore and Ohio Technological School, for the promotion of a higher course of instruction for the apprentices of the service than is now attainThe headquarters of the school are at St. Clare, Baltimore.

able.