If teachers, who have not examined the subject closely, could realize how valuable to us has been this change from a disciplinary standpoint alone; if they could see, as we do, that a large percentage of the expenditure of energy by the teacher now required in "keeping order" could be saved, and that their classes would become as eager to receive instruction and do the work required as the teacher is to impart it, the demand for the "new methods" would come from every section of the city.

As one result of my five months' experience, and a result worthy, I believe, of being emphasized, I find, after a consultation with my teachers, that I can abolish the practice of "keeping in" after three o'clock for disciplinary purposes.

Much of the supposed necessity for punishment of this kind arises from the use of methods which do not interest the child and against which the child's nature rebels. Why not, then, help ourselves by the use of methods to which the child takes naturally and readily, and thus avoid almost endless friction and loss of energy on the part of both teacher and pupil ?

The work I speak of above and tho spirit evinced by the pupils were not confined to selected cases; they were general; in fact, boys with the previous reputation of being "troublesome," uneasy," "restless," and "inattentive," showed in most instances the very best results.

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In the "workshop"-the logical continuation of the mechanical drawing-work— covering the higher five of the eight grammar grades, there has not occurred a single instance of misbehavior needing even rebuke.

Further, working on the mechanical drawing with strings and pins for drawing instruments, as I have described, not only has the work in all other directions been fully and satisfactorily done, but each class has accomplished in this subject the full work of all the preceding grammar grades; so that now, on beginning the new term, each class will properly enter upon the work allotted to its particular grade. That is to say, for instance, the fourth grade class will take up the work in mechanical drawing belonging to the fourth grade of that subject, having thoroughly covered the preceding four grades during last term; and so, in like manner, all the other classes in the department. And this, not because the pupils were at all "rushed" or "driven" by their teachers, but because the boys did the work with perfect ease and could not be held back.

And here is as good a place as any to say something of the teachers.

When the first proof sheets of the new manual reached us, some time before its publication in book form, I cut them in slips so as to divide the grades and subjects; and I distributed the slips among the teachers to be copied, as far as possible, simultaneously, and thus avoid any loss of time. This had to be done so as to accommodate the teachers of the male and female departments, as we had but one proof copy for both. This done, we met for consultation after school hours, as indeed became our almost weekly practice during the term. At our first meeting the following remark was made in reference to the "mechanical drawing:"

"Why, this demands from the eighth grade alone work in geometry upon which girls have failed in normal college examinations! We'll never do it!" Of course, the reference was to such problems as, "Construct a triangle similar to a given triangle;' "divide a straight line into any given number of equal parts;" "construct a parallelogram when the angle and tho adjacent sides are given," etc. All found in the lowest grades.

After the method of presentation of this work had been made clear, and the evident case and delight of all the pupils in doing the work became manifest, of course this preliminary "scare" subsided.

The work in "free-hand drawing," especially in the lower grades, has shown fully as surprising results. The readiness with which, after a few weeks, the boys of the eighth, seventh, and sixth grades rapidly sketched objects set before them, each boy representing the object correctly as seen from his own position, was almost a revelation. The "kitchen " of the female department has furnished us with a great variety of familiar objects which we have freely useil. The fact that in the younger

boys of these grades we have found a much greater facility than in the older boys of higher grades would seem to indicate great mistakes in our previous methods of teaching this subject.

In the "workshop," too, this same feature was very striking; the work done by the younger boys was, as a rule, the better. When, in time, we shall receive from the primary departments promotions whose training shall have been founded upon the study of "form" and "drawing" under the same system of modelling in clay, and drawing directly from the object, what additional agreeable surprises will manifest themselves none of us can as yet anticipate.

Contrary to general expectation, I have found very few instances of accident occurring from the handling of sharp tools in the "workshop ;" and these few were trivial and noticeably confined to the older boys.

The essentials of geography have been better taught, especially the surface features, by means of modelling relief maps.

[From a report of HUGH P. O'NEIL, principal Grammar School No. 23, Sixth Ward, New York City.]

The workshop, which was fitted up for the instruction of fourteen boys at a time, was made to accommodate twenty-eight by placing pupils at the ends as well as at the sides of the benches. Four classes of this number and one class of seven were formed. The course laid down in the manual was strictly followed, and the following portions covered during this period:

All of the fifth grade shop work from the beginning of the grade to the end of the sixteenth line on page 132 of the manual. In addition to this all the boys (119) were taught to use the drawing boards; the method of fastening paper on boards, and of removing the same; method of using the T-squares; the making of cardboard bevel of 45°, each boy making his own bevel card entirely unassisted and without use of angle made by another person; method of sharpening chisel on oilstone, each boy having been caused to do this kind of work under close inspection; method of sharpening knife in same way; method of gluing down thin wood slips when cut and fitted to an ornamental Greek border drawn on paper on drawingboard, all being the work of boys unassisted.

More than sixty of these boys were taught to make a bevel card of 60°, by aid of compasses, each working unassisted. All the bevels, referred to above, were made of two cards glued together, and cut at the ends into right and left hand bends. One class of twenty-eight were taught to draw simple figures to scale, using the triangular-scale rulers furnished by your committee.

All the boys exhibited the greatest pleasure in doing anything connected with the workshop, whether the work was to be done in shop or in class-room, and this appearance of delight in doing work did not appear to decrease in the least toward the end of the two months' trial.

Some things, which struck me as strange in carrying on the instruction in workshop, may possibly be as interesting to you, as in many cases they were a source of great pleasure to me.

I found that the little fellows-ten to twelve years old-took hold of the tools in a more workmanlike manner than did the larger boys, as a rule; that they followed instructions in regard to holding and handling tools and materials with greater faithfulness; that they tested and tried their work more frequently with bevel-card and eye; that they appeared less discouraged when I rejected work as being poorly done, and were more anxious to try again; that they had a greater regard for the value of the tools intrusted to them, and showed more care in laying down and taking up edge tools in such a way as to avoid touching the edge against any hard substance. I was very much pleased to find that there appeared to be no difficulty in teaching the boys how to put an edge on chisel or knife. This was a source of pleasure and a great surprise to me. I had often noticed among men the utter want of ability to sharpen

even a pen-knife properly, and I expected to meet with great trouble and many failures in the teaching of this kind of work.

Every boy handled the chisel properly, oiled the stone carefully, kept the tool at the same slant-the great difficulty-during the operation, and from time to time tried the edge with his thumb or finger, and removed wire edge as carefully as I could have done myself. Among the boys were some half-dozen "slow boys"-boys recognized as "dull" or "stupid" by all the teachers in whose classes they had been-who had required constant pushing and extra attention at all times. In every case I found these "slow boys" the most attentive to every word I spoke in relation to shop work, and in every case doing as good, if not better, work than their heretofore brighter school-fellows.

On the subject of modelling in clay I desire to suggest that it would be well to take some steps toward the furnishing of instruction to the class-teachers in the kind of work to be taken up, and in the method of handling the material.

The clay-modelling is the only portion of the new course in which there appears to me to be any likelihood of less success than the most sanguine of your committee were hopeful of for the new course as a whole; and this feeling of anxiety may altogether leave me as both principal and teacher receive more light on the subject.

In closing, I wish to say that the short experience I have had in treating the subject of manual training has but caused me to be more firmly fixed in the opinion that some such training, in connection with the school course, cannot fail to be of great benefit to the pupils of our schools, and that should any falling off in efficiency in the other portions of the school course appear on the part of the scholars in the future as a result of the addition of this training to the school work-a thing I do not expect to see-such falling off will be more than compensated for by one single item of knowledge among the many to be acquired through manual training, and that is the knowledge that no good piece of work of any kind can be performed without expenditure of thought and patient attention to detail. This idea is fixed in the pupil's mind, not by the words alone of his teacher, which may, and frequently do, "pass through one ear and out of the other,” but by actual personal experience, and therefore will not be forgotten on leaving school like the thousand details of geography, history, and grammar.

[From a report of ELIZABETH CAVANNAH, principal Grammar School No. 41, New York City.] The cooking has been enthusiastically received by the pupils, and never have I seen more thoroughly interested workers than there are in that branch of the course. Many report, from week to week, the results of home work, thus giving proof of the hold it has upon them, and parents are constantly signifying their gratification at its introduction.

The study of the chemistry of cooking, and an intelligent application of this knowledge, cannot fail to work a complete revolution in the homes of thousands who now suffer from ignorance of the simplest laws governing the proper preparation of food. Its educational advantage is manifested in the gradual development in self-reliance and judgment in pupils who are particularly weak in these respects, and in a corresponding improvement in these who are naturally stronger.

The children who have instruction in sewing are also much interested.

[From a report of W. H. J. SIEBERG, principal Grammar School No. 43, New York City.]

I herewith submit my views as to the results obtained in this school during last term in manual training.

1st. There has been no deterioration in the effectiveness of study in the pedagogic branches.

2d. The children have entered with a will and with zest into the manual-training branches, and the results have been a pleasurable surprise to them, their teachers, and myself. In mechanical drawing, especially, the inventive faculties of the pupils

have been brought out to such a degree that they could well be proud of the work accomplished.

3d. Shop-work and kitchen have been aids to discipline. I would instance the case of a boy who had committed a grievous breach in this regard. As a punishment he was refused permission to work in the shop. After three days had passed he humbly apologized to me, promised future good behavior, and begged to be allowed to go to the shop with his class. He gave no further trouble to the end of the term.

WHAT EVERY PUPIL SHOULD KNOW BEFORE LEAVING THE DISTRICT SCHOOL. [From a report by SUPT. W. E. ANDERSON, Milwaukee, Wis.]

When the boy graduates from the district school he is supposed to have the following knowledge and ability:

First. He should read English intelligently and intelligibly upon all common subjects of knowledge-history, geography, and general literature. He should be able to read a newspaper editorial, a magazine article, a poem, a popular lecture, and to give it such expression as will evince his understanding of the thought presented by the author. He should have a fairly accurate knowledge of the Constitution of the United States, the general plan or the practical workings of the Government as shown in the organization of Congress, and the manner of electing the President, his powers and duties as distinguished from the business of the Legislature; and further, he should understand the necessity and importance of legal tribunals, before which facts and laws are considered. He should know something of his prerogatives as a citizen, his duties and rights as regards the exercise of franchise. These subjects are explained in connection with the reading of the United States Constitution. Further than this, he should be able to express himself upon any subject upon which he has accurate knowledge or definite opinions, and he should do this in conformity with the established rules of literary form-punctuation, capitalization, spelling, etc. Moreover, he should be able to use such phraseology and construction as would enable him to hold intercourse with the business world in discussing matters of fact or conveying information upon any subject in which he may hereafter become interested for culture or business.

Second. He should express himself intelligently in English; he should have a ready and correct facility in ordinary computations-the fundamental rules, with the common method of calculating interest, the use of decimals, the principles of reduction and fractions, and the essentials of mensuration-not learned by rule, but deduced from manual practice and observation. Added to this training, he should have a clear understanding of the elements of book-keeping, as shown in the plain principles of double entry system applied to ordinary business, where the significance of debit and credit, and the relationship of the common principles of accounts are established on this basis of debit and credit. He should be able to exemplify his knowledge of this branch by writing up a simple set of books containing from twenty to thirty items of a miscellaneous nature and involving elementary calculations in the sale and purchase of lots of goods.

Third. Every child leaving school should understand the large facts of geography and history. These branches afford a value in which the child gets his earliest culture. From the one he gets his first notion of the world about him, the earth and its relation to other planets, and the universe, as explained upon the authority of scientific observation; the divisions of the earth into land and water; the nature of its surface, the variations of climate and the resulting facts of vegetation and influence upon human life, the important facts of commercial geography, and the knowledge of those physical laws as exemplified in common natural phenomena. These are all essential to the education of the young citizen. He should, at the same time, be put into possession of the history of his own country. In this field his patriotism is developed, love for his native land is nurtured, and he is better able to understand his own relationship to his country.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF MANUAL TRAINING.

BY GEO. P. BROWN, Bloomington, Ill.

On my way to this meeting I fell in with a paper by Mr. C. M. Woodward in an educational periodical, which I interpret to be a statement of the educational value of shop training as it is estimated by an intelligent advocate of this method of educating the young. This paper was written as a reply to some opinions expressed by Dr. Edward Brooks, some months ago, to the effect that but little reliance should be placed upon workshop training as a method of intellectual development.

I think that I may say that all will be pleased to know that one apostle of this method of education has undertaken to state with some definiteness the educational value of the workshop. This is the first attempt of this kind that has been made public which was not so vague that it could mean anything or nothing.

His claim, in brief, is that, in the construction of things with tools from the raw material, there is a mastery of the constructive process and an exercise of the intellectual faculties essential to a proper education that is not possible to the same extent in the exercises already provided in good schools; that observation and drawing are two necessary preliminary steps, but that actual construction stimulates a necessary psychical activity that the two former do not give.

He incidentally remarks, "I do not say that every public school should have a shop and teach the use of tools." But why not? If these gentlemen have discovered a new form of intellectual training superior to the old, and having capabilities which it does not possess, why shall it not become an integral part of the common school curricu. lum?

We are told that no environment other than a manual training school will suffice to give this training. Mr. Woodward declares that "the ideas involved in the construction of (with) tools-and tools are crowded with ideas-are by no means obvious to the average boy. Under the guidance of a skilful teacher the student recognizes qualities in right methods which he never would discover for himself. And this is true in a tool laboratory, as it is in a chemical laboratory or in the class lecture room. Nothing so stimulates intellectual life as intellectual life, and a skilfully guided class in tool work is full of intellectual life. As I said, the tools are full of ideas, and those ideas are directly related to the materials to be wrought and to the correct use of tools. Without that correct use the ideas involved will not be recog nized. When, however, under skilful guidance, the boy with his own hands realizes correct methods of using tools, he unlocks the secrets of their construction, and the thought of the maker or contriver stands revealed with a vividness that makes the impression lasting and the