11 



cost? And even if at first it would be impossible to ob- 

 tain shop-practice or the tools and machines required for 

 experiments, could not the principles of a trade be tauo-ht, 

 and their working exhibited by models or by diagrams, 

 and could not the problems of mathematics be so adapted 

 to practical questions as to enable the pupil to get a pretty 

 clear idea of what he will be required to do in after life ? 

 At any rate, certain time could easily be taken for instruc- 

 tion and practice in free-hand drawing, which would always 

 be found useful in almost every trade. 



But I think if proper attention were given to this mat- 

 ter by the; school l)()n-ds and educators many of these im- 

 agined difficulties would fade away. In a city like ours 

 arrangements could probably be made with some machine 

 shop or wood-room where a few boys could have the op- 

 portunity to practice certain hours under a competent 

 work-man in real manual work, until some better ar- 

 rangements could be perfected. And if, as it seems prob- 

 able in the near future, a suitable academy can be estab- 

 lished here, which will unite with the present High School, 

 then some such plan as I have suggested in this paper 

 might be carried out. The city would appropriate such 

 sums as it could afibrd, and individuals in the town and 

 county might be inclined to generously endow an academy 

 or school of industrial education. The tendency is, I 

 think, rather in this direction than in the line of mental 

 training only. 



I have in my mind a school of technology which has 

 been successfully managed for fifteen years, provided by 

 the liberality of public-spirited and wealthy men, so as to 

 furnish a theoretical and practical education free to quali- 

 ified boys in its own county in five branches of industrial 

 art. These are mechanical and civil engineering, draw- 

 ing, physics and chemistry. The course in mechanical 

 engineering includes instruction in theoretical mechanics. 



