Discussions in 1882 and 1885 led to an official adoption of Manual Training in normal schools in 1892, when twenty selected teachers were given one month’s gratuitous training. In 1893 Sloyd was made obligatory in the practice department of all normal schools. In 1893, 34 men and 34 women teachers were taking the Manual-training course at Repatrausone. The school authorities in Italy acting upon the English idea of teaching Manual Training to the teachers first, and so interest them that they will introduce Sloyd into the elementary schools of their districts.
Beyond the statement that Manual Training was experimentally taught to 400 pupils in Genoa in 1892, no data is at present obtainable as to the success of this plan. There are 194 industrial schools, seeking to teach special industries. In 1887 there were 419 technical schools, of more or less importance, and 74 institutes of secondary technology. With the exception of the Aldini-Valeriani institute in Bologna, founded in 1834, and the Scuola Professionale at Foggia, established by the state in 1872, the trade and technical schools of Italy seem to be of recent origin.
Manual Training in Belgium.
The law of July 1, 1879, reorganizing the public-school system of Belgium, made kindergartens a universal and integral part of the public schools. Children are admitted at 3 years of age, remaining till seven. “At Brussels, Liege, and Verviers, experimental transition classes exist, which prolong kindergarten methods in the primary grades, the Manual-training exercises of Froebel reappearing in the primary schools, and there developing into some simple form of actual hand labor, with paper, pasteboard, or clay. The results have been very satisfactory.” In 1891 the city of Liege reported 4717 children attending public kindergartens. A normal school for training kindergarten teachers is maintained at Liege. In 1890 Belgium maintained 1042 kindergartens having 104,760 pupils. The movement to generalize Manual Training in the public schools began in 1882, took definite shape three years later, and by 1887 the state made Manual Training obligatory in all state normal schools, sixteen in number. Fifty cities also reported Manual Training established in their public schools in 1888. The more recent reports, while not given much to statistics, show satisfactory growth in the system. Schools of apprenticeship and of trade have received more encouragement in Belgium than Manual Training has in the schools of grammar and high-school grades.
Apprenticeship schools to teach lace-making to the indigent peasantry were established by the state as early as 1776. With the introduction of machinery, and the expansion of industries, the character of these schools was changed. Abuses grew up. Academic tuition was abandoned for work, and the schools practically turned over to financial interests of the exploiters of the labor of children. A reorganization occurred in 1890 when the state subsidized some forty of these apprenticeship schools, and abolished many others.
Trade-schools of every variety, from the schools for fishermen at Ostend and Blankenberg to the famous trade-schools of Brussels, abound in Belgium. While these schools are for the most part private schools, they are usually subsidized by the city or local government. The industrial school at Ghent is a technical school of importance founded in 1828. That at Tournay was opened in 1841. These are the oldest schools of their type in Belgium. A new impetus was given to these schools in 1885, and from that date many have sprung up in all parts of the country, the local industries determining the character of the trade-schools. The trade-school at Ghent, established in 1890, is the best expression of modern methods, as distinguished from the early ideas represented by Tournay. This school was overcrowded with pupils in 1892. The state grants a subsidy of 6000 francs ($1158), and the province also aids the school. In 1889, 54 industrial schools were reported in Belgium. In 1872 a house-keeping school for girls was established by M. Smits, of Couillet, the first of its kind in Belgium. In 1890 there were 160, and in 1892, 250 such schools, and classes in house-keeping attached to other schools. Practically all of these were either public schools or free classes in private institutions.
Manual Training in Austria.
In Austria no attempt is made to combine in the same institutions the discipline of shop-work and the academics of the public schools. The first shop-school was established in Vienna by a private association, August 10, 1883. The second followed, February 16, 1887. In 1884 a normal school for the training of Manual-training teachers was established. At Budapest a Manual-training school was organized by private initiative in 1886.
The municipal statutes almost immediately required one such school to be maintained by each school district, and in 1889 there were in the twelve districts sixteen such schools. One unimportant trade-school dates back to 1871; but with the exception of the work done in Vienna and Budapest, and a few so-called “continuation schools” and trade-schools, nothing of importance was done by Austria until 1896. The activity of the empire since the latter date has been directed towards the establishment of apprenticeship schools.