58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rect bearing upon all mechanical problems and for the discipline 

 it involves in intelligence and accuracy. It may properly be 

 made a branch of applied mathematics, and as such has a very 

 large thought content in addition to its manual requirements. 

 The art work is more varied. It includes free-hand and perspec- 

 tive drawing, design, clay modeling, and the simpler forms of 

 architectural draughting, as the drawing of floor plans, cross-sec- 

 tions, and front and side elevations. A manual training school 

 can not be made an art school, or indeed the school of anj^ spe- 

 cialty, for this would be fatal to its broader purpose of giving the 

 faculties such general training that an intelligent choice of occu- 

 pation may afterward be made. Nevertheless, the introduction to 

 such work as it is possible to give has led in a number of cases to 

 successful careers in architecture and kindred arts. 



We have now arrived, by a somewhat circuitous path it is 

 true, at the department which difi^erentiates the manual training 

 school from other high schools at the manual training itself. 

 This slow approach has been justified, I hope, by its success in 

 placing the manual training work in proper relation to the rest 

 of the curriculum, and this residue in proper relation to it. A 

 manual training school is a unit, and as such every part of its 

 curriculum is integral. 



The boy just entering the school he is commonly about 

 fourteen or a little over begins at once to work in wood and 

 metal. He has five hours a week of each. It is found better to 

 work in double periods, to save loss of time in putting on and off 

 the aprons, washing hands, and so on, so that in reality he has six 

 hours one week and four hours the next. It is a pleasant sight to 

 see twenty-five bright little fellows at work in the wood shop. 

 There is an air of serious earnestness about them and a sense of 

 being all alive that promises a great deal for the future. Each 

 has a workbench of his own and a full set of carpenter's tools at 

 his hand. He begins by learning the use of the tools and the 

 simpler operations of sawing and planing. When this is accom- 

 plished, the first exercise is taken up. It is a simple parallelopip- 

 edon; but each face must be smooth and true, each angle ex- 

 actly a right angle, and each dimension accurate. There is more 

 in the work than appears at first glance, and few of the little 

 workmen escape spoiling one or two pieces before they fashion 

 an exercise that will bear the rigid examination of the teacher. 

 The next exercise involves chiseling and is a little more difiicult. 

 Then come joints of various sorts, framing and nailing exercises, 

 boxes and drawers. About a dozen exercises are finished in the 

 joinery department during the first year. The rest of the wood 

 work is in pattern-making and starts with the opening of the 

 second term at New Year. This requires greater nicety of touch, 



