The question of providing for manual or industrial training by other instrumentalities and under conditions different from those pertaining to the institutions which are classified under Table X of this Report, has become one of deep and wide-spread interest.

MEANING OF THE EXPRESSION, "INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION."

In the general discussions of the subject two lines of thought are noticeable, which were distinctly defined by Professor Felix Adler in an article in the Princeton Review of March, 1883. Professor Adler says:

* *

The phrase "industrial education" may have, and has acquired two entirely distinct meanings. As understood by one party it means the kind of education that is intended to foster industrial skill, and to fit the pupil, while at school, for the industrial pursuits of later life. Perhaps the majority of those who insist on the importance of industrial education in public schools, and who are urging its adoption, use the phrase in this sense. But there is a totally different sense in which the phrase "industrial education " may be understood; not that education shall be made subservient to industrial success, but that the acquisition of industrial skill shall be a means for promoting the general education of the pupil; that the education of the hand shall be a means of more completely and more efficaciously educating the brain. It is in the latter sense, in which labor is regarded as a means of mental development, that industrial education is understood by the most enlightened of its advocates. They are well aware that to introduce a trade into the school is to degrade the school; that to take away from the young the time that should be dedicated to the elements of general culture and devote it to training them in a special aptitude, however useful later on, is to impair the humanity of the child. They desire nothing of this sort, and they ask that a workshop be connected with every school for no other reason than that a chemical laboratory is connected with every college.

There are thus two antagonistic parties whose watchword "industrial education" has alike become. The one seeks to make the mass of mankind more machine-like than they already are, though with the proviso that they shall be made more perfect machines, more skillful to increase wealth and to feed the channels of the manufacturer's profits. The other party, standing at the opposite pole of thought, seeks rather to elevate the masses, to more completely develop the humanity of the young, and looks upon technical and art education in the school as a novel and admirable means for achieving this result. Since, then, the phrase "industrial education" is susceptible of interpretations so diverse and so incompatible with each other, it is in the interest at least of those who have the higher educational aim in view to make use of a less equivocal designation; and the phrase "the creative method" will henceforth be adopted by us.

THE WORKINGMAN'S SCHOOL.

Various efforts have been made to develop a system of training in accordance with the latter conception. The most notable of these is the Workingman's School of New York city, conducted by Prof. Felix Adler, under the auspices of the United

Relief Works of the Society for Ethical Culture. As the name of the school indicates, its benefits are intended especially to accrue to the children of the working people, although the methods employed are believed by those engaged in the enterprise to be desirable for all children. The Workingman's School receives children from the Free Kindergarten (maintained by the same society) at six years of age, and retains them until their fourteenth year. The school aims at an "all-sided development" of the child, and to this end takes into account in all its processes the intellectual, the æsthetic, and the moral nature.

As is the case in many public and private schools, the importance of a sympathetic co-operation between parents and teachers in the work of training the young is fully recognized.

In the Workingman's School such co-operation is promoted by teachers' meetings, and meetings of parents and teachers, held at regular stated times. With reference to these conferences Professor Adler says in the article above referred to:

A close connection between the parents and the teachers of the school has been established. Every month a so-called parents' meeting takes place, at which the progress or deficiencies of the pupils are brought to the notice of their parents. At these meetings, moreover, some special features of the method of the school are always discussed, so that the parents may gain an insight into our plans and give us their assistance in carrying them out. The result has thus far been most satisfactory. The parents have, of their own accord, organized a committee to support the managers of the school, and a feeling of mutual confidence and good-will prevails. The branches pursued in the school are reading, penmanship, composition, grammar, history, geography, natural science, ethics, drawing, modeling, manual training, and calisthenics.

The distinctive feature of the school is the system of manual training, which has been elaborated by experiment combined with the careful study of principles, methods, and results. This feature is described as follows:

The chief practical difficulty in carrying out the plan of the school was found to consist in formulating a series of workshop lessons whose value should be educational.

Numerous attempts at so-called industrial education have been made, both in this country and abroad, but to our knowledge they are for the most part aimless, incoherent, and lacking in system. There are thousands of manual occupations from which a selection must be made, and of these now one kind, then another, has been chosen for introduction into the school (printing, carpentry, basket-making, and the like), without much rhyme or reason in the choice. What is needed is a principle of selection which shall organically connect the work-instruction with the remaining branches. It seemed to the writer that such a principle of selection might be found in the drawing course in both its departments: mechanical drawing to be the basis of instruction in the workshop, and free-hand drawing the basis of work in the atelier. In the department of art-instruction the realization of this idea seems comparatively easy; in the department of technical instruction the difficulty is much greater. An attempt to solve it has, however, been made, and the following outline would afford a survey of the scheme of workshop lessons projected for and partly carried out in the school. The board of managers of the school are not committed to all the details of the plan, which will continue to be modified as the experiment proceeds. But the schemo will show at least the lines along which we hope to advance toward our goal.

*

This plan consists of a series of exercises so arranged that the different tools and materials of construction employed are successively introduced according to the ages and abilities of the pupils, so that the actual practice necessary for the skillful manipulation of the tools may be given simultaneously with an education of the mind. The exercises planned for the five lowest classes involve the rudiments and most important principles of geometry and most useful laws of mechanics and physics. Throughout the scheme the exercises in the work-instruction course will be constructed from the pupils' own drawings. By this means the work of both the drawing and the work-instruction departments will be pursued at a greater advantage than they would be if entirely independent of each other; but besides this, the pupil will be taught to appreciate the true relation between the plan and the construction. The habit of working from a definite plan will be inculcated, which will be of great

value and an important factor to the pupil's success in whatever he may undertake later in life.

To illustrate definitely the connection that exists between the drawing and the work-instruction courses, an example of an exercise designed for the fourth class is taken. In the drawing-room the pupil will be given a model of a cone, from which he will take measurements and then make a complete working drawing. In the workshop, with the drawing, proper material, and tools, the pupil will turn in his lathe a cone according to his drawing, which when completed will be a copy of the original model used in the drawing-room.

The following is a very brief summary of the plan for each class:

The exercises planned for the eighth and seventh classes introduce the use of paper, pencils, triangles, compasses, and rules in the drawing-room. In the work-room small toy squares and chisels are employed for carving geometrical forms from pieces of clay. Only plane figures are involved in the exercise for the eighth and seventh classes, from which the pupils will acquire a knowledge of the names and properties of lines, angles, polygons, circles, parts of the circle, and also the methods of construction of many geometrical forms.

In order that the exercises may have greater interest to the pupil than could be elicited from the study of abstract geometrical figures, the pupil will first be shown a model of some familiar object composed of pieces representing different geometrical forms. For example, a model of a house will be taken at first, and then the different geometrical figures, as the square the rectangle, and the triangle, which enter into the structure of the model will be taken as the subjects of different exercises.

The pupils of the schools are arranged in eight classes, and a day's session, excluding recess, is 5 hours, which gives, for 5 school days, 284 hours; there is also a short Saturday session for three of the classes, devoted entirely to work instruction. Each class, or rather each division of a class, spends a certain portion of the school time in drawing, modeling, and work exercises, the time so devoted varying from 44 hours a week in the third class to 1 hours in the eighth class.

Work instruction for the girls comprises cutting and sewing, cooking and design. ing.

According to the report for 1883-'85 the total number of pupils in the school was 217, and the number of teachers 12, assisted by 9 volunteers.

The annual expenses of the school are about $20,000.

EXPERIMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The experiment of combining tool work with the ordinary course of school instruction is now going on in several cities. So much interest attaches to the subject that it seems desirable to give a somewhat extended account of these experiments in this place.

The operation of the Boston Manual Training School is thus described by Superintendent Seaver in his report dated March, 1885:

The experiment in manual training for boys has made interesting progress. Two hundred boys from ten different grammar schools have been under instruction in carpentry two hours a week since September. Most of them were beginners at that time, but a few were members of the classes formed last April.

The boys were selected by the masters of the grammar schools, no boy being taken who was not fourteen years old, and who had not the express permission of his parents to take the instruction. This limit as to age is well suited to the usual size and strength of boys, and has the additional advantage of avoiding some possible legal difficulties.

The interest in their work shown by the boys is very lively, such as I have seldom seen surpassed in any kind of school work. Many boys come to the shop afternoons an hour before the appointed time, and get the teacher's permission to work three hours instead of two. Some, seeing the gas-fixtures provided for use on dark days, and fancying that instruction was going to be given in the evening, begged to be allowed to come and work then, as well as in the daytime. But there were others, of course, whose ardor cooled as the novelty wore off, and the truth began to dawn upon them that manual training was, after all, work and not play. Still, the number of these last was not large enough to disturb the generally favorable impression the classes produce.

The experiment has already gone far enough to prove that work of this kind can be joined to the ordinary grammar-school work with good effect. It enlisted the sym

pathy, encouragement, and support of the masters from the beginning, and to this cause the success already achieved is largely due.

So long as there are nearly three thousand boys in the grammar schools, fourteen, fifteen, or more years old, it will be desirable to give them good opportunities to discover and improve their mechanical aptitudes, and thus to gain a mental discipline which otherwise they would miss. But where is the time for a new branch of instruction? The answer has been given that manual training, being a kind of physical exercise, is a relief from other school work, and therefore a boy will do all his regular studies and the shop work too, in the time usually given to the former. This answer can be defended to some extent by an appeal to experience; still, it is taking rather high ground to say that manual training can be added to the branches of instruction now pursued without diminishing the latter. I would rather take a more moderate position, and pay due regard to the average possibilities.

It would be wiser to make room for a new branch of instruction by dropping some of the old. For example, if the question were between physics, as commonly taught out of a book, on the one hand, and instruction in carpentry on the other, I should unhesitatingly prefer the latter. Indeed, by means of the latter we might be able to get some real instruction in the former. The time given to carpentry would not be wholly a loss to the other studies, for some of them, as drawing and the geometrical part of arithmetic, would be aided.

The manual training practicable in school-rooms seems to be limited to those kinds of work which can be done at a bench with hand tools. Within this limit the way now seems clear to spread instruction among the schools, as far as may be thought desirable.

Mr. L. L. Camp, principal of the Dwight Grammar School, New Haven, says of the experiment in that city:

Forty-eight boys have enjoyed the privilege of manual training each week, and, as the classes can be changed every two months if the principal thinks best, we have actually had during the past year seventy-three different boys from the Dwight School, twenty-five from the Webster, and twenty from the Washington School, making one hundred and eighteen in all who have had the opportunity of working two months or more during the year, aud with hardly an exception they have all seemed to appreciate the privileges and improve their time so as to become quite handy in the use of tools. While teaching the correct use of tools has been our chief object and aim, yet, in addition to the numerous small articles and blocks upon which practice has been given, the pupils have made 14 molding tray tables, 12 sewing tables, 74 stools, 4 small cabinet boxes, 3 black-walnut book shelves, 2 tool chests, 2 easels, 1 bookcase, 1 lap cutting-board, 1 knife tray, 1 inlaid checker board, 4 drawing boards, besides a great number of small articles. There are also now in the process of manufacture numerous tables, stools, boxes, book-cases, etc., so that there is a real money value to the work the pupils have done, though that is not the object aimed at in the formation of the industrial classes.

While the boys have been thus engaged in the shop, learning the use of tools, the girls have not been neglected. A class of forty or fifty meet every week in the recitation rooms, under the charge of one of the lady teachers, and learn all kinds of sewing, knitting, crochetting, embroidery, and other work suitable for girls. We also have classes formed in wood-carving, repoussé work, and modeling.

We are now extending this industrial work or manual training through all our grades, selecting the kind of work best suited to the age and capacity of each pupil, from the kindergarten to No. 12.

Hon. George A. Littlefield, superintendent of schools, Newport, R. I., in his report for 1884-'85 earnestly recommends that the city council be requested to make provision in the next annual budget for instruction in sewing for the girls of the grammar schools, and in carpentry for the boys above the third grammar grade.

The Industrial Art School of Philadelphia was opened September 22, 1885, in connection with the public schools. Admission is limited to boys and girls who are pupils of the grammar schools. The course of instruction includes drawing and deɛigus, modeling and wood carving, carpenter and joiner work, and metal work.

An act providing for the establishment of schools for industrial training was approved by the legislature of New Jersey March 24, 1881, and at a meeting held June 26, 1884, the secretary reported that a technical school was about to be established under the provision of the act in the city of Newark.

In the report of the Newark board of education for 1884, the following statement is made:

As was stated in last year's report, the James Strect Industrial School is well pro

※

vided for in the matter of school-room accommodations. The building is fully completed, with the exception, perhaps, of some additional blackboards and closet accommodations. The school is well attended, well supplied with teachers, and reasonably prosperous.

Hon. Randall Spaulding, superintendent of schools, Montclair, N. J., writes concerning an industrial department in that city:

This department has been in operation nearly four years, and with eminently satisfactory results. All pupils of both sexes in the second and third grammar grades are engaged in industrial work. Each pupil during the two years is employed in this work two, and in some cases three, hours per week.

The boys are trained during the first year in the use of carpenters' tools, and during the second in wood carving. The pupils generally originate their own designs for wood carving, though this has not been the case until recently.

While the boys are in the workshops the girls are engaged in needle-work under the supervision of the regular class teacher. During the first year they are taught to embroider patterns upon linen, momie cloth, etc. In this work the pupils learn the various stitches used in ornamental needle-work and drawn work. During the second year the various stitches used in plain sewing are taught; also a little cutting and fitting. The girls have invented of late their own designs for their ornamental work. A special instructor is provided in carpentry and wood carving. The shop is in a large and well-lighted attic of one of the school buildings. It is provided with two dozen sets of carpenter tools and as many sets of wood-carving tools. The chief aim in this industrial work is disciplinary. No effort is made to produce salable articles, but rather to provide such work as will best train the hand and eye.

Drawing is taught in the primary and grammar departments, with special reference in the higher grades to decorative design.

Hon. R. H. Miller, superintendent of Scott Manual Training School of Toledo University, Toledo, Ohio, writes respecting manual training in connection with the public schools of that city:

We have a four-story brick building 120x40 ft., containing eight well lighted rooms 40x55 ft., besides large halls, store rooms, wash rooms, etc. Every floor of the manual training building is connected direct with the high school, so that no time is lost running up and down stairs.

We have two fully equipped wood-working shops. The first contains bench room for a class of twenty-four students, one grindstone, and seventy-two complete sets of carpenter tools for the accommodation of three classes per day. The second shop, in addition to all contained in the first, has twenty-four wood-turning lathes, one dimension saw, one jig saw; also seventy-two sets each of wood-turning tools and wood-carving tools. We are also fitting up a blacksmith shop and foundry, to be ready for work by September next. They will each accommodate three classes of twenty-four students each per day. One year from September next we shall open a fully equipped machine shop. Power is furnished by a sixty horse-power ball engine; steam for heat and power is provided by a seventy horse-power steel boiler.

We also have two drawing rooms, one for free-hand and the other for mechanical drawing. The course of manual training instruction covers four years. Students have three recitations per day in the high school, and two hours of laboratory practice and one hour of drawing per day. The grammar students take manual training four times a week, and the high school students five.

The object of the school is general education; the manual training work will be made as much as possible a practical application of the principles taught in the high school course. A department of domestic economy will be opened next year in two fine rooms reserved for the purpose, in which girls will receive instruction in drawing, entting, and fitting of garments, plain sewing, cooking, purchasing of household supplies, care of the sick, household decoration, etc.

Hon. R. L. Barton, superintendent of schools, Peru, Ill.,

writes:

For three years the board of education of Peru, Ill., has supported a workshop in connection with the public schools, and has run it as a part of its system of schools. The boys of the high school and grammar grades are permitted to take the course of manual training in the workshop.

The workshop is nearly self-supporting. The superintendent of schools orders all the material needed at the shops, and the board pays the bill. The materials used are lumber of all kinds, nails, sand paper, paints, oils, varnishes, brushes, putty, glass, etc. These the boys use in their work, taking what they need, and paying for what they use, which money is turned over to the district.

A basement of one of the school buildings is used as a workshop. In it are ten work benches furnished with twenty sets of carpenters' tools, a lock-box being in