“The distinctive feature of the manual training school is the education of the mind, and of the hand as the agent of the mind. The time of the pupil in school is about equally divided between the study of books and the study of things; between the academic work on the one hand, and the drawing and shop-work on the other. Observe, I do not say between school-work and shop-work, for the shop is as much a school as is any other part of the establishment. Nor do I mean that the shop gives an education of the hand alone, and the class-room an education of the brain; but I mean that the shop educates hand and brain. That the hand is educated I need not stop to prove; but the shop educates the mind also.
“Had you been in the wood-working room of this school a few hours ago, what would you have seen? Twenty-four boys at work at lathes driven by a powerful engine. Are any idle? No. Are any inattentive to their work? No; you notice the closest and most earnest attention, frequently approaching abstraction. Here, then, is the cultivation of a most important faculty of the mind, attention, the power of concentration; and it is worthy of remark that this attention is not an enforced attention, but is cheerful, voluntary, and unremitting.
“The young workman is engaged on a problem in wood, just as, a few hours earlier, he was engaged on a problem in algebra. He has before him a drawing made to a scale. The problem is this: He must gain a clear conception of the object represented by the drawing; he must imagine it; he must select or cut a block of wood of the proper dimensions and of the right quality. It must not be too large, for he must guard against waste of material and waste of time. It must be large enough, for there must be no incompleteness about the finished product of his labor. Observe him as the work grows under his hand; observe the selecting of the proper tools for the different parts of the process; observe the careful measuring, the watchful eye upon the position of the chisel, the speed of the lathe, the gradual approach of the once rectangular block to the model which exists in his brain—and you must admit that this work demands and develops, not manual dexterity alone, but attention, observation, imagination, judgment, reasoning....
“My own opinion is that an hour in the shop of a well-conducted manual training school develops as much mental strength as an hour devoted to Virgil or Legendre....
“But of this I am confident, that three years of a manual training school will give at least as much purely intellectual growth as three years of the ordinary high school, because, as has been said, every school hour, whether spent in the class-room, the drawing-room, or in the shop, is an hour devoted to intellectual training. And I am also convinced that the manual training school boy’s comprehension of some essential branches of knowledge will be as far superior to that of the other boy’s, as the realization of the grandeur and beauty of the Alps to the man who has seen their glories is superior to the conception of him who has merely read of them....
“And here is the mistake of those who would degrade a manual training school into a manufacturing establishment. The fact should never be lost sight of for an instant that the product of the school should be, not the polished article of furniture, not the perfect piece of machinery, but the polished, perfect boy. The acquisition of industrial skill should be the means of promoting the general education of the pupil; the education of the hand should be the means of more completely and more efficaciously educating the brain....
“Take two boys, one with little or no education, the other a high-school graduate; let them enter the machine-shop of a large manufactory, beginning, as boys ignorant of the technique of the trade must begin, at the lowest round of the ladder. It cannot be doubted that in three or four years the high-school graduate, if he had been willing to do the drudgery incident to the place, would have reached a higher position than the other boy, and would be in a fair way to succeed to some responsible post in the establishment. But the graduate of the manual training school, by reason of his superior knowledge of machinery and materials, his skill in the use of tools, added to his general mental training, would begin at the point reached by the high-school boy after his years of apprenticeship. From the day of his entrance into the factory he would be conspicuous. While the other boys would stand in the presence of the huge Titan of the shop lost in the wonder of ignorance, the manual training boy would gaze with delight on the marvel of mechanism, wrapped in the admiration begotten of a thorough understanding of its construction, and strong in the consciousness of his mastery of it.”
Manual training was introduced in the Pennsylvania State College, experimentally, about three years ago. In 1883 the course was “greatly extended,” and in September, 1884, it went into full operation. The course is substantially the same as that of the Chicago school; and that it was the outgrowth of the Russian system, and inspired by Dr. Runkle, is shown by the following extract from a circular lately issued by Prof. Louis E. Reber:
“Some may think that the variety of operations in the mechanic arts is so great as to make it impossible to give the student any real knowledge in the time at his disposal. It should be borne in mind, however, that this multiplicity of processes may be reduced to a small number of manual operations, and the numerous tools employed are only modifications of, or convenient substitutes for, a few tools which are in general use.”
A course in tool practice by the laboratory method has been made part of the curriculum of the College of the City of New York.[102] I am permitted to make an extract from a letter written in August last by Alfred G. Compton, Professor of Applied Mathematics of the College of the City of New York, to Dr. Runkle. I print this extract to show the exacting nature of the demands made upon instructors by the new education. It is as follows: