Two thoroughly equipped Manual Training schools are projected: one, to be in Pullman, Illinois, is to result from a bequest in the will of the late Mr. George M. Pullman, who left a large sum for its construction, and an annuity of $25,000 for its maintenance; the other school is to be built by the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, at Calumet, Michigan. Both these schools will be free, and will probably become a part of the public-school system of their respective towns.
The legislature of Massachusetts in 1898 passed an act establishing a trade-school for weavers, to be located at Lowell, Massachusetts, provided the city would raise half the money necessary for its construction, the state to pay the other half. This is the first well-defined movement in this country to establish public trade-schools to teach the trades prevailing in the locality of the school. Europe has many such schools.
Manual Training in Russia.
There is, as yet, no established national school system in Russia. The school systems of Finland and other Russian dependencies are provincial and local. An imperial decree of March 7, 1888, however, contained an elaborate plan for elementary national education, in which Manual Training, Technical, and Trade education were given not only prominence but precedence. The doctrine of state aid to educational institutions is, however, fully and liberally recognized. Manual Training was founded in Russia in 1868, as mentioned in the first edition of this work, by M. Victor Della Vos, and revived and extended in 1884 by the then Minister of Finance, who sent two teachers to Naäs, Sweden, to take a six weeks’ course of instruction, and a workshop for boys’ hand labor was the same year established in connection with the Teachers’ Institute in St. Petersburg. In 1885 this was made a permanent feature of Teachers’ Institute work, and an annual grant of 3000 rubles ($1659) was voted; and in 1887 a course in metal work was added to this school. In 1888 three normal courses for instructing teachers in Manual Training were instituted and subsidized by the imperial government. One of these at Novaia Ladoga trains both city and country school-teachers; at Riga, city teachers only, while at Kiev only country teachers are trained. The instruction of teachers in Manual Training was also made part of the teachers’ institutes at Glookhov, Vilna, and Orenboorg in 1889. Besides these there were in 1890 eleven vacation institutes, training two hundred and fifty teachers for the work of imparting manual instruction. These teachers’ institutes, vacation and permanent (or normal schools), have increased rapidly and received rich subsidies from the imperial treasury. In 1891 the Russian Minister of War introduced Manual Training into all the cadet schools. The most recent available data indicate the introduction of Manual Training into one hundred and sixteen establishments, as follows: four teachers’ institutes, fourteen teachers’ seminaries, four intermediate schools, forty-four higher public schools, and thirty-four elementary common schools. A more recent report—which, however, is not at hand—is said to show remarkable developments in Manual Training in common and rural schools. A brief survey of technical and trade schools in Russia follows.
The technical schools at Moscow and St. Petersburg are imperial schools of university grade, richly endowed, and reputed to be the best equipped schools in Europe. The oldest and best technical school in Moscow below university rank, and making no attempt to teach trades, is the Komisarof Technical School, founded in 1865 by two railroad contractors. It now receives government aid, and has about four hundred pupils. The Society for the Promotion of Technical Education in 1873 founded a school called the “Mechanical Handicraft School of Moscow.” The government contributes $1000 per year to this school. There are five technical schools having a grade of academic work comparable with our high schools—the Komisarof Technical School of Moscow, mentioned above, founded in 1865; the Lodz, in 1869; Irkootsk, 1873; Kungursk, 1877; and the Omsk, in 1882. The five schools had 1052 students at date of latest available report. Trade-schools of grammar grade, twenty-three in number, had 2474 pupils. Of these schools three were established in 1868; one in 1871; two in 1872; one in 1873; one in 1874; one in 1875; two in 1877; one in 1878; two in 1879; one in 1880; two in 1883; two in 1885; three in 1886; one in 1887. Trade-schools of primary grade, sixty-three in number, with 2562 pupils. One was established in 1865; one in 1866; two in 1867; one in 1870; one in 1871; three in 1872; two in 1873; five in 1874; six in 1875; one in 1876; six in 1877; four in 1878; three in 1879; two in 1880; two in 1881; four in 1882; five in 1883; five in 1884; one in 1885; one in 1886; four in 1887; two in 1888; one in 1889.
Manual Training in Finland.
Finland was the birthplace of the man who first devised and practised that method of education known as Sloyd—a form of Manual Training.
Otto Cygneans, of Helsingfors Teachers’ Seminary, after a thorough study of Froebel and Pestalozzi (to whom he gives ample credit), originated in 1858 a system for carrying the education of the hand beyond the kindergarten into all grades of schools. To Finland also belongs the credit of being the first country to officially recognize the value of such education. Since 1866 (sometimes stated 1868) Manual Training (Sloyd) has been compulsory in all the elemental and normal schools of Finland. In 1896 there were four normal schools with 569 students, and 75,712 pupils taking Manual Training in the elementary schools of the cities. Statistics of rural schools are not obtainable. In addition to these, there were in 1896 forty-two separate and distinctively Manual-training high-schools, with 1030 pupils, besides eight industrial schools, with 56 teachers and 380 pupils. All are public schools. There are technical and trade schools of all grades, from the Polytechnic School at Helsingfors to the elementary trade and weaving schools. There are seven schools where navigation is taught, twelve weaving, dyeing, and sewing schools, supported wholly or in part by the government, fourteen elementary technical schools, five high-grade technical schools, and ten trade-schools other than weaving and navigation. Government aid is granted to all of these schools.
Manual Training in England.
The activity of Germany along the line of trade and technical schools, immediately following the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, alarmed the people of England, producing in 1882 what has been termed a “Technical education scare.” The friends of Manual Training, acting upon this popular and commercial anxiety, secured the passage of the “Technical Instruction Act of 1889.” By the terms of this act the schools organized under it were not to be trade-schools; and the construction put upon the expression “Manual Instruction” makes the term practically synonymous with our term Manual Training. The following table shows the growth of these schools. The growth of cooking schools is also statistically represented in the table.