8o2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



houses, we robbed tliein of much of their natural physical activ- 

 ity, and lessened the education that comes through the senses. 

 There were some compensations. We brought about a certain 

 amount of self-control. We made the boys acquainted with cer- 

 tain facts. We bespoke an interest in the things of the spirit. 

 The humanities made some progress. But the fact remained that 

 in all this we were dealing with the symbols of things rather 

 than with the things themselves. It was observed that our chil- 

 dren dwelt in a curious and a somewhat unwholesome world of 

 unreality. It was startling to find, as I once did, a boy of four- 

 teen who had been so persistently taught that the moon shone by 

 reflected light, that he believed the moon to be nothing more than 

 an image of the sun cast on the celestial sphere, much as we 

 throw a sunbeam on the wall. He was greatly surprised at the 

 time of an eclipse to find that the moon was a solid body. It re- 

 flected somewhat on the usefulness of geography to find children 

 whose main impression, after a considerable study of the map, 

 was that Pennsylvania was yellow and New Jersey pink, while 

 for some unexplained reason New York was green. Doubtless 

 things have improved since those days, but even now, in the year 

 of grace 1895, the study of child psychology is revealing the fact 

 that large percentages of our school children are ignorant of the 

 most everyday realities of life. These same children can out- 

 talk and out-name their less-schooled elders. They can make a 

 quiet country boy silent and abashed in the presence of their 

 wordy knowledge. But in spite of it all they leave an impression 

 of undesirable helplessness. Now, we are all agreed that, as things 

 stand at present, the school can not be dispensed with. Its bene- 

 fits are much too substantial. But it can be supplemented, and 

 some at least of these deficiencies corrected. The early motive for 

 the introduction of manual training was precisely this. It was a 

 desire to bring boyhood back into a world of reality through an 

 acquaintance with things. Dexterity in the use of tools, and in 

 the handling of such stubborn facts as wood and clay and metal, 

 was held to be important as a part of this reality. The work went 

 on with earnest singleness of purpose and commands the respect 

 of even those who see in manual training something much deeper 

 than this mere convenience. 



This first end was objective. It must always remain valid. 

 An intelligent regard for the conditions imposed by a world of 

 matter is a large element in successful living. No one appreciates 

 this more keenly than your out-and-out transcendentalist. After 

 all, he is our truly practical man. But this quiet good began to 

 expand into something larger when men came to cherish it for a 

 wider motive. To do certain things was useful to saw and plane 

 and chisel and turn and chip and file. To do them well was more 



