496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this way the material to be manipulated should be made the center of 

 a series of scientific object-lessons. 



Concurrently with the practice in the use of any tool, the pupil 

 should learn its construction, the reason of its shape, and the history 

 of its development from other simpler forms. The saw, the plane, the 

 chisel, and the calipers should each be made the subject of an object- 

 lesson to the pupils. In the same way, the teacher should explain the 

 purposes of the different parts of constructive work, and should have 

 models of tenon, mortise, dovetailing, and other joints to illustrate 

 his explanations.* Fifteen or twenty minutes thus spent might be 

 made the means of stimulating the intelligence and of exercising the 

 observing and reasoning faculties of the children, and of enabling 

 them to fully understand the work they are doing and the instruments 

 they are using. 



Further, the children should be taught, from the very first, to work 

 from correct scale-drawings, made by themselves from their own rough 

 sketches. How simple soever the object may be which the pupil is 

 to construct, it should exactly correspond with his own drawings. In 

 this way, the workshop instruction supplements and gives a meaning 

 to the drawing-lesson, and the school-teaching is made to have a direct 

 bearing upon the subsequent work of the artisan. Dr. Woodward, 

 the instructor of the St. Louis Manual Training-School, who has had 

 considerable experience in organizing and superintending workshop 

 instruction, tells us that " the habit of working from drawings and to 

 nice measurements gives to students confidence in themselves alto- 

 gether new " ; and he justly claims that " it is the birthright of every 

 child to be taught the three methods of expression : 1. By the written, 

 printed, or spoken word. 2. By the pencil and brush, using the vari- 

 ous kinds of graphic art. 3. Through the instrumentality of tools and 

 materials, which enable one to express thought in the concrete." f The 

 Committee of Council on Education, in their recent report, speaking 

 of the teaching of cooking to girls, say : " After the three elementary 

 subjects and sewing, no subject is of such importance for the class of 

 girls who attend public elementary schools, and lessons in it, if prop- 

 erly given, will be found to be not only of practical use, but to have 

 the effect of awakening the interest and intelligence of the children." 

 Surely, what is true of sewing and cooking in the case of girls, is true 

 to a greater extent of drawing and handicrafts in the case of boys. 



In many parts of the Continent manual training has now for some 

 years been associated with elementary instruction. In France, Bel- 

 gium, Austria, Holland, and Sweden the workshop is a part of the 

 school-building ; and in the United States the number of manual train- 

 ing-schools of higher grade, somewhat similar to the well-known ap- 



* Collections of these models for school purposes are sold by Messrs. Schroder, of 

 Darmstadt. 



f " Proceedings of International Conference on Education," London, 1884, vol. li, p. 58. 



