slowly; too many, alas! never gain it at all. The world is full of men who have no power of persistent effort. They are intelligent enough to do good work, but they are restless and unstable. The schools should be places not only to inform the mind, but also to invigorate the character. To store the memory and train the reflective powers without arousing the executive faculties is like loading a steamer without providing engines and rudder. Indeed, the best training of the other powers is impossible if the will is neglected. The universal weakness of human nature, until trained and disciplined, is a tendency to do things imperfectly, partly from ignorance, partly from reluctance to make the requisite effort. The boys and girls in our public schools need to learn, more than any other lesson, the value of earnestness, of a great o'er-mastering purpose. Manual training strengthens the will. It gives specific direction and force to every mental act. The boy acquires in the workshop the habit of overcoming difficulties and persisting in an undertaking till it is crowned with success. He conquers his sluggish tendency to do things carelessly. He learns the lessons of industry, perseverance, and genuineness.

Let me again quote the testimony of a manual training instructor of large experience :

"When a boy has put a question to nature in regard to a matter which can only be answered through the aid of a compound microscope, and by his own application has obtained the information sought, rather than take it second-hand from his teacher or text-book, he has done something to entitle him to respect; and when he has chipped and filed a block of iron so well that no light shines under the try-square as he applies it to the faces and angles of the block, he has done something which requires patience, attention, and care. He can prove his work to be well done, and he has a right to be proud of it, for he is developing those qualities which go to make up the highest human character. It requires mind and will to do such work. Good intentions are of no avail unless the will is strong enough to carry them out. No other exercises of the school train to sustained effort like those of the workshop."

Another instructor in manual training says:

"After several years of careful study of this subject, it is my belief that manual training proves a more complete and thorough all-round education than studies which are purely mental. It broadens the views, teaches exactness, makes students practical and self-reliant, affords vent to nervous restlessness, and stimulates to industry and perseverance. It reaches some students who are not interested in intellectual work. I saw last summer most beautiful and artistic work in the free schools of the People's Palace, London, which was executed by students who had proved to be almost absolute dunces in classical and literary work."

In this connection we also note that the success of each pupil after leaving school depends largely on his will-power-on his ability to work.

While we would not teach trades in the public schools, this incidental benefit of manual training should not be overlooked, that the productive power of a workman is at once visibly increased by giving dexterity to his hands. The future leaders of our industries will receive their first training in the use of tools in the public schools. The highest mechanical and artistic skill is usually the product of early training. Intellectual and manual training are both needed to qualify a man for the position of foreWhen can the foundation of both these requisites be better laid than simultaneously in the public school?

man.

Chauncey M. Depew, whose voice has been so often raised in defense of classical culture, said at the opening of the Drexel Institute: "Steam, electricity, and inventions have hardened the conditions of competition and multiplied indefinitely the number of specialties. In the briefest time, and almost without warning, we are brought face to face with the problem that education and prosperity, education and livelihood, education and morals, education and law, education and liberty are wedded together. Manual training solves the problem of labor and industrial development. It so equips the youth and opens avenues for his energies, that, instead of dynamiting the successful, he will be himself a success."

The demand for manual training is not ephemeral. Such magnificent institutions as the Pratt Institute and Drexel Institute illustrate both the wide-spread need and the clearness with which that need is seen by philanthropic men. It should be the part of the patriotic leaders in educational affairs to guide this great movement to practical results—to make it the means of infusing strength and interest into the work of our schools.

If now the value of this training be admitted, but the lack of time for it be urged; if it be said that our courses of study are already overcrowded, I will venture to quote once more from Dr. Johnson. Boswell relates that one day Mrs. Gastrell set a little girl to repeat to Dr. Johnson Cato's Soliloquy, which she went through very correctly. After a pause he asked the child what was the meaning of "bane and antidote" in the passage. She was unable to tell. Mrs. Gastrell said: "You cannot expect so young a child to know the meaning of such words."

He then said to the little girl: "My dear, how many pence in sixpence ?" "I cannot tell, sir," was the half-terrified reply.

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On this, addressing himself to Mrs. Gastrell, he said:

"Now, my dear lady, can anything be more ridiculous than to teach a child Cato's Soliloquy who does not know how many pence there are in sixpence ?"

Our courses of study have recently been much improved, but there are a few Cato's Soliloquies still left. There are some teachers who still cling with pride to exercises which might better be spared. The good names of drill and thoroughness are made to cover much misdirected work. We

need more of the spirit, less of the letter, of these things. If manual training could crowd out some of the dreary repetitions which still prevail, it would be a great gain. If freedom and originality could take the place of slavery to method, if powers could be evoked which are now repressed, all would rejoice.

Already teachers and pupils feel that pressure is removed as the range of instruction is widened. Interest in the work makes it easier. Adaptation to the age, capacity, and needs of the pupils makes interest possible. Troublesome problems disappear as the schools become truly attractive. If we are now able to accomplish double the work in geography with half the labor formerly required, because our aims are better, let us not hesitate to welcome other changes which will increase the helpfulness of our schools. Let us remember with Lowell that:

"New occasions teach new duties,

Time makes ancient good uncouth."

Useless experiments need not be tried; good work need not be given up. But improvement is always possible, and vitality and progress should be steadily gained. The scope and methods of our work should be made. more flexible. Provision should be made for the harmonious training of all the pupil's powers, and the people should have new reason for pride in their cherished system of public schools, because of their adaptation to the changing needs of society.

MANUAL TRAINING BETWEEN THE EMPLOYMENTS OF THE KINDERGARTEN AND THOSE OF THE TOOL LABORATORIES OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

BY SUPT. W. B. POWELL, WASHINGTON, D. C.

FIVE years ago a small beginning in teaching the use of wood-working tools was made in the high school of Washington.

Gradually, from that time to this, new branches of work have been added, each of which, together with the one with which we began, has been extended, so that now manual training is recognized as a regular and permanent branch of education in all the schools. The manual training done in our schools, resulting from changes to which reference has been made, may be stated in a general way, as follows:

All the girls of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades are taught sewing one hour a week. We are gradually introducing shops in which the girls of the sixth grade are taught to cut and fit.

All the girls of the seventh and eighth grades are taught cooking two hours a week.

All the boys of the seventh and eighth grades are taught the use of wood-working tools two hours a week.

All kinds of work thus far mentioned are practically compulsory, or as nearly so as is any other branch of the school curriculum.

The girls of the high school are not taught cooking, as it has been determined that the two years of instruction given below the high school are as much as it is desirable for the schools to give in that branch of education.

Boys of the high schools have one year at lathe work, one year of forging, and one year of machine tool work.

All manual training in the high schools is optional, as is every other branch of education with the exception of English.

The subject that I propose to discuss is not the one stated in the programme exactly, being stated better as follows:

Manual Training between the Employments of the Kindergarten and those of the Tool Laboratories of the Grammar Schools.

The manual training that is now given in our schools is very inadequately set forth in the foregoing remarks relating to the subject.

a comparatively easy task to project plans for giving instruction in sewing, cooking, and tool laboratory employments. It was not difficult, the financial means being assured, to provide and arrange appliances, and practically to put the work into the respective grades of the school. It was seen, however, at the start, though much might be done by the introduction of the employments named, to give to some of the children valuable training in the use of the eye and hand, and a profitable acquaintance with practical things, that such a course would be unsymmetrical; that it would postpone the beginning of some kinds of muscular training too late for the most profitable returns for a given expenditure of effort; that it would omit entirely some lines of desirable training because of its narrowness, and that children withdrawing from school during the early years of the school course would get little training of the kind we were seeking to give them.

It was felt that a year or two of kindergarten work at the beginning of school life and a corresponding amount of shop or laboratory work at the close would not develop to a very high degree that accuracy of perception, deftness of hand, and trustworthiness of judgment in application that a child's school training should give to him.,

It was believed that the gap between the sense-training of the kindergarten and the use of carpenter's and metal-worker's tools in manual training shops might be filled by a system or course of hand-work in the schoolroom running parallel with the purely mental studies of the curriculum of the same grades; that such a course should, by its many and varied employments, develop the eye, the hand, and the judgment in the direction of expertness, facility, and reliability; that definite, measurable results in skill, in ingenuity, and in continuity of effort for the accomplishment of purpose should be the aim of all teaching in this course of work; that the objects studied and formed might serve as a foundation for or be the beginning of other kinds of work in the school, and for supplementing, broadening, or explaining still other kinds of work; that such a course, if practicable, would be in the interest of economy.

Since the beginning of manual training exercises in our schools, therefore, efforts have been made to arrange some practicable lines of hand-work that should begin in the first primary grade and lead sequentially to the employments of the tool laboratories of the seventh and eighth grades, for the boys, and that should be equally profitable to the girls who would be instructed in cooking when reaching the same grades.

Drawing was at the time mentioned a branch of instruction in the schools. It was determined that the subject could not be taught well from flat copies. Though we had not been able, previous to the time to which reference is made, to direct the work of drawing in the light of our best knowledge, it was known that only by a liberal and intelligent use of objects by which children could be made acquainted with natural and