Education as a Factor in Civilization. 241 



A Nihilist lecturer recently stated that there are four 

 hundred schools in Europe whose sole work is to teach the 

 use of explosives, and there are already a few of these 

 schools in the United States. If the Old World is thus 

 diligently sowing the seeds of discontent and rebellion, 

 scattering some of them on our own too prolific soil, 

 teaching that to brute force alone can humanity look for 

 the redress of its wrongs, how much more necessary it be- 

 comes for this new continent to show the world that not 

 in killing each other, but in helping each other to live, is 

 the only possible solution of our social difficulties. Unless 

 our schools can teach respect for labor, it will never be 

 learned ; and unless it is learned, and learned practically, 

 we may expect worse things to come upon us than any of 

 the lamentable upheavals which of late years have dis- 

 turbed and threatened society. Manual training is the 

 logical outcome of the kindergarten principle as advocated 

 by Froebel, the foundation for thorough and symmetrical 

 development. No true education is possible which ignores 

 either of these factors, so lately recognized, so reluctantly 

 adopted. Those who consider the name of the French 

 nation a synonym for frivolity may yet feel considerable 

 hope for the future of a country whose principal city is 

 supporting one hundred and twenty-six free kindergartens, 

 educating body and soul, as well as brain more than 

 thirty thousand of its coming citizens. The application 

 of this simple principle of political economy has been 

 made in a few cities of our own country, and the testi- 

 mony of tlie police concerning the consequent diminution 

 of disorder and crime in those places proves beyond all 

 need of argument the superiority of prevention to cure. 



The only valid reason given for not including kinder- 

 garten and manual training in our school-course is the 

 difficulty of obtaining funds for the enterprise and 

 teachers qualified to conduct it. Few of these teachers 

 yet exist for they nuist be teachers as well as mechanics 

 but many are enthusiastically serving an apprentice- 

 ship. In the meantime the fact that the best educational 

 thought of the civilized world is engrossed in the prac- 

 tical consideration of these reforms guarantees the hope 

 of their ultimate adoption. 



However much at variance may be our theory and our 

 practice, it is conceded that character is the aim of cul- 



