352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



ercises of the shop train mental power rather than load the memory ; 

 they fill the r)iind with the solid merchandise of hnowledge, and not 

 with its empty packing-cases.'^'' — {Professor E. P. Sea,ver, Boston.) 



3. A MORE Wholesome Moral Education. — The finest fruit of 

 education is character ; and the more complete and symmetrical, the 

 more perfectly balanced the education, the choicer the fruit. 



To begin with, I have noted the good effect of occupation. The 

 programme of a manual-training school has something to interest and 

 inspire every boy. The daily session is six full hours, but I have never 

 found it too long. The school is not a bore, and holidays, excej)t for 

 the name of the thing, are unpopular. I have been forced to make 

 strict rules to prevent the boys from crowding into the shops and draw- 

 ing-rooms on Saturdays and after school-hours. There is little tend- 

 ency, therefore, to stroll about, looking for excitement. The exercises 

 of the day fill the mind with thoughts pleasant and profitable, at home 

 and at night. A boy's natural passion for handling, fixing, and mak- 

 ing things is systematically guided into channels instructive and use- 

 ful, as parents freely relate. 



Again, success in one branch or study (shop-exercises are marked 

 like those of the recitation-room) encourages effort in others, and the 

 methods of the shop affect the whole school. Gradually the students 

 acquire two most valuable habits which are certain to influence their 

 whole lives for good — namely, precision and method. As Professor 

 Runkle says, " Whatever cultivates care, close observation, exactness, 

 patience, and method, must be valuable training and preparation for 

 all studies and all pursuits." 



Dr. Adler has pointed out, with great force and elegance, the influ- 

 ence of the exercises of the shop upon the formation of character. This 

 influence, he holds, will be "nothing short of revolutionary, inasmuch 

 as it will help to overthrow many of the impure conceptions that pre- 

 vail at the present day." The tasks we set are not to be judged by 

 commercial standards ; our standard is one hundred per cent ; the 

 articles we make are not to be sold ; they have no pecuniary value ; 

 they are merely typical forms ; their worth consists in being true, or 

 in being beautiful, as the case may be. 



The manual-training school, when well conducted, seems to me to 

 furnish to its pupils just the opportunity which Walter Scott, in " Wa- 

 verley," says that his young hero was losing forever — " the opportu- 

 nity of acquiring habits of firm and assiduous application ; of gaining 

 the art of controlling, directing, and concentrating the powers of his 

 mind for earnest investigation — an art far more essential than even 

 that intimate acquaintance with classical learning which is the primary 

 object of study " (at school). 



4. Sounder Judgments of Men and Things. — The proverbially 

 poor judgments of scholars have led to the popular belief that theory 

 is one thing and practice a very different thing ; that theoretically a 



