MANUAL TRAINING. 801 



growth be limited. They are generous, if the material of growth 

 be plentiful. And by material of growth I mean available mate- 

 rial. A dyspeptic organism in the presence of food which it can 

 not assimilate ; a feeble brain structure face to face with possible 

 sensations which for it are impossible these are the victims of a 

 fatal stint. We can set no limit to the power of assimilation. 

 We can see no boundaries to the possibilities of sensation. The 

 unfolding spirit finds itself at the beginning of a road, the end of 

 which lies in infinity. 



The distance between the mother and child is very great. Yet 

 it may be traversed, and by one path, that of experience. This is 

 only another way of saying that the child drinks in the outer 

 world. The avidity with which it drinks, the completeness with 

 which it assimilates, these condition its growth. What the one 

 is, the other may become. What the one is, the other does not 

 necessarily become. The process of education, conscious and un- 

 conscious, formal and informal, the education of daily contact 

 with life, determines the resemblance or divergence. 



It would be a serious matter if we allowed the education of 

 the child to proceed without guidance. This would be to lose the 

 profit of our own experience. It is a still more serious matter 

 when we attempt to guide it. I am afraid that with our sophisti- 

 cated ways we often do things which make life, acting uncon- 

 sciously, a far better schoolmaster than we, with all our conscious 

 methods. 



Have I made myself clear ? Have I pointed out with sufifi- 

 cient plainness and sufficient emphasis that men are the children 

 of their own experience ; that education is a process by which we 

 enlarge this experience ; that the art of teaching lies in the dis- 

 crimination with which we decide upon the desirability of any 

 possible experience, and the skill with which we bring the select- 

 ed experience within reach of the child ? I have meant to do so, 

 and for a special reason. What to do ? that is one question. 

 How to do it ? that is another. These two lie at the basis of 

 manual training, as they do at the basis of every other scheme 

 of education. The different answers give rise to the different 

 schemes. 



In adding manual training to current education, we are called 

 upon to justify both the end and the means. The end must be 

 rational ; the means must be adequate. This is a reasonable de- 

 mand. I am glad to answer for manual training, and to try to 

 tell why we do it. I hope that others will be minded to correct 

 and to complete the answer that I am about to give. 



We did it in the first place for a quiet good. 



In the face of matter, man seemed so helpless. In taking boys 

 from the home and field and farm, and packing them into school- 



