THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANUAL TRAINING. 495 



academic work, generally one period each to language, science, and 

 inathematics. In the third year, the disposition of the time is some- 

 what diiferent. About six hours per week, sometimes more, are 

 given to manual training proper, four to drawing, and from four 

 to six to the physical and chemical laboratories. Counting all this 

 work as manual, however, the division of the day practically remains 

 much the same as in the lower classes — that is, half the day to manual 

 and half the day to academic work. Although half the curriculum 

 bears so close a resemblance to customary high-school work, it is 

 hardly practicable to consider the curriculum except as a whole, 

 for 'in the best schools the course is distinctly a unit course, and the 

 manual training does not form a bit of unrelated work apart from 

 the rest. There is, of course, a tendency in such schools for the 

 faculty to separate into two distinct parties, the academic and the 

 manual, and the more so since the academic men are college-bred, 

 while the manual men are mostly artisans taken directly from their 

 shops, and devoid of even a high-school training. But such a separa- 

 tion is most unfortunate, for it makes the best results impossible. 

 Where there is sufficient perception to see that the one problem is 

 shared by all, and sufficient tact to co-operate in both spirit and letter, 

 it becomes possible to realize the broad purpose of manual training. 

 I confess that the demands made upon human nature by such a 

 scheme are tolerably large, but I think that if you will go among 

 the training schools of the country you will see that these de- 

 mands are met here and there, and that the schools where they are 

 met are animated by a singularly fine spirit of helpfulness and high 

 purpose. The particular difficulty in the way of manual training 

 just now is in finding men and women wise enough and skillful 

 enough to carry it out. This is especially the case in the manual 

 department. The supply up to this time has been drawn almost 

 exclusively from the artisan class. Some of these men have shown 

 themselves quite equal to the occasion, and have demonstrated anew 

 that teachers are born, not made. But the majority are not satis- 

 factory. The deficiency in general education is a serious drawback 

 to the work of the academic departments, for it inevitably lowers the 

 standard of the school. Particularly is this the case in the matter of 

 language. The English is not the king's. Nor does it seem to me 

 desirable that boys should come under the influence of the artisan 

 view of life. It is bound to be narrow from the very nature of the 

 case, for the artisan life is narrow, and a stream can not rise above its 

 source. A serious objection, too, is that the artisan view of manual 

 training, as I have tried to show, is a relatively poor one. It must 

 suffer a complete change of heart before it can serve the purposes of 

 education, and this is too much to expect from men whose very pro- 



