52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



definite reactions upon the organism. The self-activity of the 

 child offers such a set of reactions. It is valuable because it 

 means development. This should be the spirit of the work in 

 manual training. It is the educational idea of the kindergarten. 

 But this development is at its best the result of the most careful 

 and accurate work, the sort of work that gives products of a high 

 degree of perfection. This should be the method of manual 

 training. It embodies the technical idea of the universities. 

 With the blending of these two ideas, the motif of the kinder- 

 garten and the method of the technical school, we shall have the 

 manual training school par excellence. 



It is in this spirit that I wish to present manual training, and, 

 though I may not myself have the requisite skill, I shall still be- 

 lieve it possible to show that such a training for such a purpose 

 possesses the highest possible educational value. The motif be- 

 longs essentially to the inner content of manual training, but it 

 must needs be stated in the beginning, since, like the anatomy of 

 an animal, it determines very definitely its outer form. 



In speaking of manual training, then, we speak of a branch 

 of instruction capable in precisely the same way as English or 

 mathematics of being represented throughout the entire course 

 of formal education. It has so happened, however, that the full- 

 est development of manual training has been reached in the sec- 

 ondary schools. So much is this the case, that when one speaks 

 without modification of a manual training school, it is understood 

 that a high school is meant that is to say, a secondary school 

 one standing between the elementary schools on the one hand, 

 and the higher education represented by the colleges and uni- 

 versities on the other. 



In their organization these schools resemble the typical high 

 school. They draw their material from the same sources and re- 

 quire the same entrance examinations. In the majority of them 

 the unit course is three years. There is observable, however, a 

 decided tendency to extend the time to four years, and to make 

 the curriculum as complete as in the best four-year classical high 

 schools. It is encouraging to believe that this tendency results 

 from a growing recognition of the edij.cational motif underlying 

 manual training. In * several of the larger manual training 

 schools, and notably in the two schools in Philadelphia, a very 

 complete fourth year of post-graduate study has already been 

 formulated. It is probably only a question of a short time before 

 this additional year will be included in the regular course, thus 

 making the unit four years. Such a tendency must be regarded 

 as highly desirable, for the work which the manual-training high 

 schools are attempting to accomplish can scarcely be realized in 

 less time. 



