THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANUAL TRAINING. 333 



form of self-activity that Froebel seized upon. But tlie desire to 

 make things, the constructive faculty, is also there, and this is util- 

 ized in the weaving and other forms of paper work. In older 

 children the play impulse weakens and the constructive impulse 

 strengthens. It is this latter impulse that manual training appeals to. 

 In doing this there is large choice of method. But the essential 

 element is always the motive power, the desire. This bears the same 

 relation to all that follows that the water or steam power does to the 

 mill. It keeps it running. 



The formal manual training does not concern itself specifically 

 with the principle of interest. It lays out a series of abstract exer- 

 cises, involving the primary tool operations in wood and metal. The 

 exercises are as abstract as the propositions of geometry. They are 

 carefully graded so as to be increasingly difficult, and are all dimen- 

 sioned. Thus in wood, the first year's work may consist in a series 

 of from seventeen to twenty-one exercises, beginning with a simple 

 rectangular parallelopipedon, and ending with a somewhat elaborate 

 dovetailed box. In the second year the joinery course gives place to 

 pattern making, the creation of forms which are to be used as 

 molding patterns in casting in lead and iron. Here, too, the exercises 

 are carefully graded, beginning with simple forms and ending with 

 quite difficult problems. The sequence differs in different schools, 

 and no two schools use precisely the same exercises. But this is a 

 detail which is not essential to the method. There are usually three 

 terms a year — terms of about thirteen weeks each — and as the wood 

 work runs for two years in the typical three-year manual training 

 school, this gives six terms in all for the accomplishment of the 

 instruction in wood. It is customary to devote one term to wood 

 carving, and another term to wood turning. This latter is sometimes 

 introduced during the first year, if there are enough turning lathes 

 for all the boys to work at once, and sometimes it is given as a second- 

 ary course, running along with the joinery and pattern making. 



The same principles hold in the metal working. It is all care- 

 fully graded. During the first two years it includes the primary 

 operations of the machine shop and the blacksmith shop — chipping, 

 filing, and fitting; molding and casting; forging and welding, or- 

 namental ironwork and tinsmithing. During the third year the 

 manual work, exclusive of the science laboratories and the drawing 

 rooms, is usually confined to machine-tool practice, and here the 

 time is divided between abstract exercises and finished projects. 



The course is entirely logical. It was originally planned for the 

 one purpose of imparting technical skill, and it does this in a large 

 and surprising manner. It seems incredible that some of the work 

 turned out could have been done by young boys. !N^or do the boys 



