To Dr. John D. Runkle, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the founder of manual training as an educational institution in this country, I cannot express too strongly my deep obligation for valuable suggestions and constant encouragement. To him also am I indebted for nearly all my illustrations, as also particularly for the excellent portrait of M. Victor Della Vos, the founder of the new system of education in Russia. I am also under obligations to Col. Augustus Jacobson, a leading advocate of the new education, for constant counsel and support, as also to Dr. Henry H. Belfield, Director of the Chicago Manual Training School, and Mr. John S. Clark, of Boston.
Of the authors consulted, I cannot forbear mention of Lord Bacon, Rousseau, and Herbert Spencer, whose great works constitute the foundation of the new system of education according to nature. Nor can I omit to acknowledge, with all the emphasis of which words are susceptible, my obligations to Mr. Samuel Smiles. His works, from the lives of the engineers to the shortest of his biographies, constitute an inexhaustible treasure-house of facts from which I have drawn without stint. Mr. Smiles has traced the springs of English greatness to their true source, the workshop. I have attempted to continue his office by showing that the workshop is a great educational force, and hence that its educational element ought to be incorporated in the system of public instruction.
The propositions of the following pages involve an educational revolution destined to enlighten, and so ultimately to redeem manual labor from the scorn of the ages of slavery, and, in the end, to render the skilled laborer worthy of high social distinction, thus presenting at once a solution not only of the industrial question but of the social question.
Charles H. Ham.
INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION
By Col. Francis W. Parker,
Principal of the Chicago Normal School.
The last twenty-five years have brought much of intrinsic value into American education. Rapid increase in population and ever-changing conditions have made imperative demands for schools adequate to self-government.
The Kindergarten led the way to other substantial reforms in education, and called attention to the actual needs of childhood. It proved conclusively that hand-work is one of the dominant interests of the child, and demonstrated the absolute dependence of brain-growth upon Manual Training.
Manual Training is thus a direct outcome and sequence of the Kindergarten. It supplies a need for which there is no substitute. The belief that that which is begun in the Kindergarten should be continued and expanded in all upper grades, forces itself more and more upon thoughtful minds. Modern psychology brings its potent evidence as to the tremendous value of the work of the hand in the building of the brain. The trend of educational thought will always be in the direction of hand training as a fundamental element in education.
Twenty-five years ago Manual Training was little known in this country as a factor in education. Charles H. Ham, imbued with a fervid patriotism, saw clearly that one of the intrinsic needs of education—an absolute necessity in the evolution of a democracy—is the training of the whole being, hand, brain, and soul, through educative work. He was, indeed, a pioneer, beginning his work when there was very little attention given to this important subject, and at a time, too, when it was opposed by nearly all leading educators.
Mr. Ham, together with Colonel Jacobson, brought a strong influence to bear upon the Commercial Club of Chicago, to found a Manual-Training school. This school is now a department of the Chicago University and has been in successful operation for thirteen years. There are in Chicago to-day the Armour Institute, the Lewis Institute, and the Jewish Manual-Training School, all prominent and well established. There is also a high school for Manual Training in connection with the public schools, and, best of all, there are indications which show that hand-work is making its way throughout the grades.