MANUAL TRAINING IN SCHOOL EDUCATION. 493 



MANUAL TRAINING IN SCHOOL EDUCATION. 



By Sir PHILIP MAGNUS. 

 "Manual labor i8 the study of the external world. 1 " Emekson. 



THE first object of education being to bring the mind of man into 

 direct relation with its surroundings, and as this communion is 

 only possible through the senses, the importance of the cultivation of 

 the senses is duly insisted upon by all educational authorities. Now, 

 of the several organs through which we obtain a knowledge of the 

 external world, the sense of touch and the muscular sense have a cer- 

 tain prominence as giving us perceptions which are mainly intellectual. 

 For this reason we should expect that the training of the muscular 

 and tactile sensibility of the hand, and the training of the muscular 

 sense generally, as exercised in the determination of size, shape, and 

 resistance, would form an essential factor of education. But so little 

 has this been the case that, until comparatively recent times, the train- 

 ing of the faculties by which we obtain, at first hand, our knowledge 

 of the things about us has been sadly neglected, and education has 

 consisted mainly in storing the memory with words, with the state- 

 ments and opinions of others, and with inferences therefrom. Apart 

 altogether from the value of the constructive power which manual 

 skill affords, the knowledge of the properties of matter which is ob- 

 tained in the acquisition of that skill is considerable, and can not be 

 equally well acquired in any other way. It is this which gives to 

 manual training its value as an educational discipline, and it is mainly 

 for this reason that it is coming to be regarded as an important part 

 of the educational system of nearly every country. " The introduc- 

 tion of manual work into our schools is important," says Sir John Lub- 

 bock, "not merely from the advantage which would result to health, 

 not merely from the training of the hand as an instrument, but also 

 from its effect on the mind itself." * And it is to this effect on the 

 mind that I desire to call especial attention in this article. 



By manual training one commonly means exercises in the use of 

 the tools employed in working wood and iron. 



It can not be too often repeated that the object of workshop prac- 

 tice, as a part of general education, is not to teach a boy a trade, but 

 to develop his faculties and to give him manual skill ; that, although 

 the carpenter's bench and the turner's lathe are employed as instru- 

 ments of such training, the object of the instruction is not to create 

 carpenters or joiners, but to familiarize the pupil with the properties 

 of such common substances as wood and iron, to teach the hand and 

 eye to work in unison, to accustom the pupil to exact measurements, 



* " Fortnightly review," October, p. 467. 



