AN AMERICAN MANUAL TRAINING-SCHOOL. 631 



impartially and thoroughly as possible, and then it is 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 programme such as I have 

 described can be carried out, you ask : " 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 years' training in our school. Their reports on the 

 points now under consideration are both interesting and encouraging. 

 They write : 



" 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." 



" Leo does all the jobs around the house." 



And so on, for nearly a hundred pupils. 



Again, the parents testify to an increased interest in practical affairs, 

 in shops and machinery, and in such books and periodicals as the "Sci- 

 entific American." Beyond question, there is a certain intellectual 

 balance, a good mechanical judgment, a sort of level-headedness, in 

 practical matters consequent upon this sort of training, that in value 

 far outweighs special products. Said Rousseau, in his "Erailius," one 

 hundred and twenty years ago: "If, instead of keeping a boy poring 

 over books, I employ him in a workshop, his hands will be busied to 

 the improvement of his understanding ; he will become a philosopher 

 while he thinks himself only an artisan." 



As to enduring skill, I will let you judge for yourselves. The 

 blacksmithing has occupied the second-year class about two hundred 

 hours ten a week. Each man had his forge and set of tools, and 

 each executed substantially the same set of pieces. Here is a partial 

 set of the work done. The pieces are numbered in the order in which 

 they were done. They were first wrought in cold lead while the order 

 of the steps and the details of form were studied, and then they were 

 executed in hot iron. I have a few of the lead specimens here. The 

 boys have not yet learned to weld the lead. The instructor's estimate 



