The Manual Training School; Comprising a Full Statement of Its Aims, Methods, and Results, with Figured Drawings of Shop Exercises in Woods and Metals (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 Excerpt: ... single trade is educationally very narrow, while their number is legion. "The arts are few, the trades are many," says Mr. Runkle. The arts underlie all trades: therefore, let us teach the arts as impartially and thoroughly as possible, and then it is but a step to a trade. BUT A STEP TO A TRADE. And this brings me to a very important point. Admitting that with a suitable outfit of tools, shops, etc., a program such as I have described can be carried out, you ask, "Cui bono? What, after all, is the manual training acquired at school good for? Has the mind been nourished through the fingers' ends? Has the hand gained any enduring skill? Is it really but a step from the door of the manual training school to the shop of the craftsman?" Experience answers all these questions satisfactorily, and adds that there is scarcely a calling in society that is not edified by manual training. Rousseau once remarked that " to know how to use one's fingers gave a superiority in every condition in life." I recently made systematic inquiry among the parents of my boys, as to the effect of the one or two year's training in our school. Their reports on the points now under consideration are both interesting and encouraging. They write: --(( UNIVERSITY, Chap. VII. 1 TUE TEST OF UTIlkTrr, A 197 '" Gerald takes great interest in fixing up things generally." "Charles fixed my sewing-machine." "George has made many little matters of household utility, and seems to delight in it." "We go to Henry to have chairs mended, shelves put up, etc., and he does excellent work. He made a fine set of screen frames." "The mechanical faculty was quite small in John's case, and it has been developed to a remarkable extent.&q...