THE FRUITS OF MANUAL TRAINING. 353 



thing is one way, practically another. The truth is, that correct theory 

 and practice agree perfectly. If in his theory one leaves out a single 

 element of the problem, or fails to give each its due weight, his theory 

 is false. The school-men have been so accustomed to living in an ideal 

 world, the world of books and books only, where they have found 

 only ideal problems, and they have been so ignorant of the real world 

 and the conditions of real problems, that their solutions have very gen- 

 erally been false. 



A harmonious culture develops common sense, and common sense 

 is at the basis of good judgment. We aim to raise that kind of fruit. 

 Boys who put every theory to the practical test, who know something 

 about what the idealists call " the total depravity of inanimate things," 

 who probe and test every statement and appliance, with whom au- 

 thority and tradition, the bane of too much "book-learning," have little 

 influence, and who therefore are apt to take things at their true value, 

 are fitted to focus correctly upon the problems of real life. 



We hear much, and with good reason, of the value of directive 

 intelligence. To be a director one must have good judgment. He who 

 would successfully direct the labor of other men must first learn the 

 art of successful labor himself ; and he who would direct a machine 

 properly must understand the principles of its construction, and be 

 personally skilled in the arts of preservation and repair. Dr. Harris, 

 therefore, tells but a half-truth when he says that " The new discovery 

 (the invention of a new tool) will make the trade learned to-day, after 

 a long and tedious apprenticeship, useless to-morrow. The practical 

 education, therefore, is not an education of the hand to skill, but of 

 the brain to directive intelligence. The educated man can learn to 

 direct a new machine in three weeks, while it requires three years to 

 learn a new manual labor.^'* — (" Education," May-June, 1883.) 



This last sentence is not clear to me. Somehow it seems to imply 

 that the man who learns to run a machine should be more intelligent 

 and requires more education than the man who made it. As to 

 " directive intelligence," I respectfully submit the following as a sub- 

 stitute for the dictum of Mr. Harris : " The practical education is, 

 therefore, an education of the hand to skill and of the brain to in- 

 telligence. The combination will give the highest directive power." 



5. Better Choice of Occupations. — This point is one of the 

 greatest importance, for out of it are the issues of life. An error here 

 is often fatal. But to choose without knowledge is to draw as in a 

 lottery, and when boys know neither themselves nor the world they 

 are to live in, and when parents do not know their own children, it is 

 more than an even chance that the square plug will get into the round 

 hole. 



Parents often complain to me that their sons who have been to 

 school all their lives have no choice of occupation, or that they choose 

 to be accountants or clerks, instead of manufacturers or mechanics. 



TOL. XXT. — 23 



