MANUAL TRAINING IN SCHOOL EDUCATION 497 



prenticeship-schools of France, is steadily increasing. Indeed, judging 

 from the published accounts of these schools, and from the writings 

 of some of the most prominent educationists in the United States, an 

 enthusiasm is spreading among Americans in favor of workshop instruc- 

 tion, which is likely to have an important influence on the industrial 

 progress of this eminently practical and inventive people. 



In the report of the Commissioners on Technical Instruction, no- 

 tices will be found of some of the principal Continental schools which 

 are now fitted with workshops. Sir John Lubbock, in the article above 

 quoted, has supplemented this information by reference to the "Slojd" 

 system of manual instruction which is adopted in Sweden. An inter- 

 esting account of this system has been written b} r M. Sluys, who is 

 well known to educationists from his connection with the ficole Modele 

 of Brussels. Since the report of the commissioners was published, the 

 movement in favor of workshop-teaching in schools has advanced rap- 

 idly in France. Nearly every large town has now its higher element- 

 ary school (a type of school as yet scarcely to be found in this coun- 

 try) fitted with workshops for wood and iron ; and, out of one hundred 

 and seventy-four primary schools supported by the city of Paris, nine- 

 ty-five are now provided with workshops, ninety for instruction in 

 carpentry and wood-turning, and five for metal-work. In these schools 

 the manual teaching has hitherto been given either before or after the 

 ordinary school-hours ; but the Municipal Council of Paris attach such 

 importance to this training that it is proposed to make the workshop 

 instruction a part of the regular school curriculum. This change will 

 necessitate a rearrangement of the school-hours and the provision of 

 workshops in the remaining seventy-nine schools in which they have 

 not yet been fitted. But it is confidently expected that the munici- 

 pality of Paris, which has done so much for the technical education 

 of its artisans, will not hesitate to incur this additional expense. The 

 action of the city of Paris gives additional weight to the recommenda- 

 tion of the English commissioners on this subject. 



Experiments of introducing workshops into elementary schools 

 have been tried in this country, with results sufficiently encouraging 

 to justify the extension of the system. In Sheffield, Birmingham, and 

 Glasgow the results have been eminently satisfactory. In London the 

 experiment has recently been tried on a small scale, and under not the 

 most favorable circumstances, in the Beethoven Street schools ; but 

 the report of Mr. Tate, the energetic head-master, is so encouraging 

 that the School Board of London is very desirous of extending the 

 system of instruction to a large number of the schools under its con- 

 trol. In his report to the board, Mr. Tate says : 



This class was started on September 28, 1885, in a shed or workshop built 

 by the board in a recess in the playground, and the instruction is given by the 

 school-keeper, a carpenter by trade, under the direct supervision of the head- 

 master. 



vol. xxxi. 32 



