“3. That the scholars be kept in the morning two hours, at reading, writing, book-keeping, etc., and the other two hours at work in that art, mystery, or trade that he or she most delighteth in, and then let them have two hours to dine and for recreation; and in the afternoon, two hours at reading, writing, etc., and the other two hours at work at their several imployments.”
Budd quotes from a book by Andrew Yarenton an account of the spinning-schools in Germany, as follows: “In all towns there are schools for little girls, from six years old and upwards, to teach them to spin, and to bring their tender fingers by degrees to spin very fine; their wheels go all by the foot, made to go with much ease, whereby the action or motion is very easie and delightful. The way, method, rule, and order how they are governed is, 1st. There is a large room, and in the middle thereof a little box like a pulpit. 2ndly, There are benches built around about the room, as they are in playhouses; upon the benches sit about two hundred children spinning, and in the box in the middle of the room sits the grand mistress, with a long white wand in her hand,” with which she designates the idle for punishment.
“They raise their children as they spin finer to the higher benches. 2d. They sort and size all the threds, so that they can apply them to make equal cloths; and after a young maid has been three years in the spinning-school, that is taken in at six, and then continues until nine years, she will get eight pence the day, and, in these parts I speak of, a man that has most children lives best.”
Eight pence a day at that time was good wages for an artisan.
Thos. Budd was more than two hundred years ahead of the teachers of America, for they are just beginning to introduce Industrial Education, and they have not reached up to this idea of making the work of pupils pay their expenses, which Budd proposed, and which Rich realized.
In Yarenton’s account of the spinning-schools, the reader will observe that the children are occupied solely in spinning, their minds being left without culture. How easy would it have been for the grand mistress, instead of merely watching their work, to have been instructing them orally in any species of knowledge, or leading them in singing, which would have made their time pass delightfully, and cultivated all the finer sentiments of the soul.
Rich has the honor of proving that this could be done, and that there was no fatigue, but continual pleasure all day long when the monotony of work was relieved by instruction, and the instruction that would have been monotonous by itself was made pleasant by being intermingled with hand work.
Man cannot be well trained or developed in fragments. Head, hand, and soul must all co-operate, and then each strengthens the other. When shall we have another Rich?
Boston is making progress in industrial education. At the exhibition of a school in Brookline, conducted by our worthy friend, Mr. Griffin, fine cabinet work, bureaus, desks, etc., were shown, equal to the work of the best mechanics, produced by boys of from twelve to sixteen years, after forty or fifty lessons of three hours each.
This is the true method of conquering poverty and putting an end to social discontent. When all youth of both sexes are trained in industrial skill and diversified employments, poverty will disappear.