NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 53 



wood from working drawings previously prepared by the boys themselves,- 

 not with a view of making them tradesmen, not from any vocational aim' 

 which we rnay have in other schools of somewhat similar type, but merely 

 from an educational standpoint, a standpoint recognized by educationalists 

 and men of affairs alike today. That is to say that an education which con- 

 sists entirely of the study of books does not fit one for the work of this world 

 and the demands that will be made upon the men and women of the future. 

 Therefore we carry on this work, not with any idea of preparing the children 

 for particular trades, but to develop them in the broadest way and to give 

 them an all-round trainincr so as to reach that side of their nature not 



O 



reached by books. 



Side by side with this instruction in drawing and tool work there is' 

 given at every session a brief lesson dealing with the properties of the 

 materials they are using. The lesson takes the form of what educationists 

 know as an object lesson, that is to say, a lesson illustrated with specimens 

 and by experiments. As many as possible of these are given in the course, 

 which is carried on for about three years. 



I prefer the term which we give in our training course to our object 

 lessons, viz., "General Intelligence Talks," for that is their aim to arouse 

 the intelligent interest of the children in the materials they are using and to 

 enable them to understand the principles involved in construction. To this 

 end we have arranged a series of lessons, a brief schedule of which I shall 

 present to you in a moment and these are carried out, as I have said, at every 

 session of practical work. The boys spend one-half day per week in this 

 practical work, during which they are excused from the ordinary studies. 

 They make their working drawings and then construct some article of wood 

 and are given this object lesson, this scientific demonstration of the properties 

 and the characteristics of the materials they are using, side by side with the 

 bench work. The schedule of lessons is as follows, but I am leaving out of 

 this the lessons dealing with materials other than wood the metals and the 

 glue and the other materials that are dealt with necessarily in the shop work. 



SCHEDULE OF LESSONS ON THE TREE, ETC. 



The Timber Tree 



1. How it grows. 



2. The three broad divisions : bark, sapwood and heartwood. 



3. The annual rings : their divisions and their formation. 



