AN AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 629 



No one of the French plans exactly suits me. I prefer to incorpo- 

 rate manual with intellectual education, and include both under the 

 name school. We do not have what you call school in the morning 

 and shop in the afternoon ; nor do we spend the forenoons with tools, 

 and devote a few evening hours to study and recitation. 



The Manual Training-School of St. Louis differs from all other 

 technical schools with which I am acquainted. It much resembles the 

 Boston School of Mechanic Arts, though it differs from it in admitting 

 boys at fourteen instead of fifteen years of age ; in having a three 

 years' course instead of two, and in having a full and independent 

 equipment of study and recitation rooms, as well as shops. I gladly 

 avail myself of this occasion to publicly acknowledge our indebtedness 

 to the able reports and papers published by ex-President Runkle on 

 the Russian system of tool-instruction and the organization and work 

 of his school. 



Prospectus op the School. A prospectus of our school has just 

 been issued, giving in detail our course of study, and the methods of 

 tool-instruction. I shall be happy to give a copy to every one who is 

 sufficiently interested to ask for it. To those who do not care for the 

 details, I will say that our course of study runs through three years, in 

 five parallel lines : 



1. A course in pure mathematics. 



2. A course in science and applied mathematics. 



3. A course in language and literature. 



4. A course in penmanship and drawing. 



5. A course in tool-work in woods and metals. 



Our school is not managed on the assumption that all the boys who 

 go through it will become mechanics, or that they will be manufac- 

 turers. Our graduates will doubtless be found in all the professions. 

 We strive to help them find their true callings, and we prejudice them 

 against none. I have no sort of doubt, however, that the grand result 

 will be that many who otherwise would eke out a scanty subsistence 

 as clerks, book-keepers, salesmen, poor lawyers, murderous doctors, 

 whining preachers, abandoned penny-a-liners, or hardened school-keep- 

 ers, will be led, through the instrumentality of our school, to positions 

 of honor and comfort as mechanics, engineers, or manufacturers. 



No Articles made for Sale. For the purpose of discountenanc- 

 ing certain grave popular fallacies in this country, I will add a word, 

 even aj; the risk of repeating what I have said elsewhere, as to our plan 

 of shop management. We do not manufacture articles for sale, nor do 

 we pretend to fully teach particular trades. 



A shop which manufactures for the market, and expects a revenue 

 from the sale of its products, is necessarily confined to salable work, 

 and a systematic and progressive series of exercises is practically im- 

 possible. If the shop is managed in the interest of the student, he is 

 allowed to leave a step or a process the moment he has fairly learned 



