MANUAL INSTRUCTION 79 



easily be added afterwards or be picked up unaided 

 by the women themselves when circumstances make 

 it necessary. 



The other point is that in providing manual 

 instruction in elementary schools as little differentia- 

 tion as possible should be made between boys and 

 girls. Like the boys, the girls should work in the 

 school garden, be members of a school co-operative 

 society and learn something about poultry, bees 

 and pigs, etc. They should also learn a certain 

 amount of carpentry, just enough to enable them 

 to put up a shelf or mend a broken chair leg if needs 

 be. 



On the other hand, the boys should all receive 

 some instruction in simple cookery. It is most 

 pathetic to see how helpless the newly arrived 

 Englishman proves when left to his own resources 

 in the backwoods ; and no one can have followed 

 the course of events during this War without realising 

 what a great boon it would have been to our soldiers 

 if their schooling had included just a little know- 

 ledge of simple cookery. 



I am glad to think that the principle of the 

 development of manual instruction in our schools 

 is now generally accepted, but as it will play a 

 predominant part in producing a more efficient 

 type of citizen the process of instituting it is all 

 too slow and urgently in need of being speeded up. 

 At the same time, I cannot help but say a word of 

 warning here : no teachers should be allowed to 

 adopt the Manual Method (for it is a method and 

 not the mere adding of certain handicraft subjects) 

 unless they are properly qualified to teach it. Our 

 teachers' training colleges must still further develop 

 the manual side so that the new race of teachers 



