198 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



area. Five years' experience in the Lindsey division of 

 Lincolnshire has proved that three afternoons in the week can 

 be given up to manual instruction with the greatest benefit 

 to the general education of the child. It has been proved 

 that the literary side of the child's education itself derives 

 benefit from this arrangement, and there is no doubt that the 

 child leaves school with his faculties and capacities better 

 developed than was the case before the introduction of the 

 manual method. The term " Manual Method " is used to 

 show that more is meant than merely the addition of one or 

 two manual subjects to an already overcrowded curriculum. 



The " Manual Method " means the utilization of hand- 

 work in an educational rather than a vocational manner. It 

 means making handwork part and parcel of the very life of 

 the school, not merely the tacking on of a handicraft subject 

 taught perchance by some outside craftsman unable to give 

 it educational value. Hence the importance of a handicraft 

 being introduced only into schools where the staff itself can 

 teach it. Ordinary text-book instruction appeals only to 

 one side of the child's brain^ — and in the case of dull children 

 often fails to appeal at all ; but handwork appeals to all chil- 

 dren. Through it the idea of form, colour, quantity, number, 

 become realities, so that the bookwork acquires reality also. 

 Through it the ideas forming in the child's mind, as the result 

 of what he has seen, heard, and read, find actual and concrete 

 expression. 



Thus bookwork of the right type and manual instruction 

 woven together form the " Manual Method " and appeal to 

 the whole child, to all his activities, mental and manual ; and 

 in the case of dull children it has proved the means of stirring 

 their mental activities by teaching them to use their hands. 



There are loo schools in Lincolnshire where this method 

 has been developed. The cost to the county is only some 

 ^250 a year. The chief danger to be guarded against is that 

 of a teacher giving manual instruction who is not qualified 

 to do so. The number of teachers so qualified is much larger 

 than is generally supposed, and the number can be rapidly 



