Middle Year.—(1.) Mathematics.—Geometry. (2.) Science.—Physics. (3.) Language.—General History and Literature; or Cæsar. (4.) Drawing.—Orthographic Projection and Shadows; Line and Brush Shading; Isometric Projection and Shadows; Details of Machinery; Machine from Measurement. (5.) Shopwork.—Molding, Casting; Forging, Welding, Tempering; Soldering, Brazing.
Senior Year.—(1.) Mathematics.—Plane Trigonometry; Mechanics; Book-keeping. (2.) Science.—Chemistry; or Descriptive Geometry and Higher Algebra. (3.) Language, etc.—English Literature, Civil Government, Political Economy; or Cicero, or French. (4.) Drawing.—Machine from Measurement; Building from Measurement; Architectural Perspective. (5.) Machine Shopwork.—Such as Chipping, Filing, Fitting, Turning, Drilling, Planing, etc. Study of Machinery, including the Management and Care of Steam Engines and Boilers.
Latin and French may be taken instead of English Language, Literature, and History. Instruction will be given each year in the properties of the materials—wood, iron, brass, etc.—used in that year.
Throughout the course, one hour per day, or more, will be given to drawing, and not less than two hours per day to laboratory work. The remainder of the school day will be devoted to study and recitation. Before graduating, each pupil will be required to construct a machine from drawings and patterns made by himself. A diploma will be given on graduation.
The new education is a blending of manual and mental training. It recognizes the fact that science discovers and art utilizes, and that these two forces move the modern world.
At present the Manual Training School is a missionary enterprise. Its purpose is to create in the public mind an imperative demand for the incorporation of its scientific methods into the public-school course of instruction.
A vast majority of our people are employed in the useful arts, and distinction in every department of labor now depends upon scientific education. Without technical education or manual training the laborer of the future cannot hope to rise above the grade of a piece of automatic machinery. He falls into the routine of the shop like a cog or lever moved by steam. To avert this dire misfortune our common schools must be made institutions for manual as well as intellectual training. They must inculcate the dignity of labor not by precept merely, but by example. It is not enough that schools of technology, polytechnic institutes, and manual training schools are being established here and there by private subscription. The supply of these classes of education is only a drop in the bucket to the public demand. Technical and manual training must be made part of the general public educational system. In our city high-schools we now fit boys for college. In those schools we must hereafter fit them for the colleges of art. When this shall have become the fashion in education there will be thousands of high-school graduates with a grand passion for mechanical pursuits—boys with more curiosity on the subject of the expansive force of steam than on the subject of “Greek roots;” with more ambition to invent something useful to man than to learn how to draw a bill in chancery; with a stronger desire to discover a new secret in electricity than to carry off a prize for the best Latin oration.
CHAPTER XI.
THE INTELLECTUAL EFFECT OF MANUAL TRAINING.
Intelligence is the Basis of Character. — The more Practical the Intelligence the Higher the Development of Character. — The use of Tools quickens the Intellect. — Making Things rouses the Attention, sharpens the Observation, and steadies the Judgment. — History of Inventions in England, 1740-1840. — Poor, Ignorant Apprentices become learned Men. — Cort, Huntsman, Mushet, Neilson, Stephenson, and Watt. — The Union of Books and Tools. — Results at Rotterdam, Holland; at Moscow, Russia; at Komotau, Bohemia; and at St. Louis, Mo. — The Consideration of Overwhelming Import.
The quality of all civilizations depends upon intelligence and character, or morality, in the order stated; for morality springs from intelligence, not intelligence from morality. This is an axiomatic deduction of historic analysis.[2] Nor would it be difficult to prove that practical intelligence is more conducive to a high development of morals than mere theoretical intelligence. For is it not true that the nations most skilled in the useful arts are most highly cultured in morals? And if it be true, it constitutes a potential argument in support of joining to intellectual instruction in the schools a course of training in the elements of the useful arts. And of the fact which forms the basis of this argument there is a logical explanation.