Jan. i, 1885] 



NATURE 



207 



for situations where skilled manual labour is require 1. In this 

 13 - are worse off than girls. It is only in the drawing 

 lesson that the boys receive any training of the hand, whilst girls 

 obtain it in the needlework and cooking lessons as well. The Co -11- 

 mittee do not consider it desirable to attempt to teach any special 

 trade 01 handicraft in the schools of the Board : but they are of 

 opinion that in boys' departments greater attention should lie 

 teaching of " elementary science " and to freehand 

 drawings from model- ; that mechanical drawing and modelling 

 in clay should be introduced ; that the peripatetic plan of teach- 

 ing mechanics should be tried as an experiment in some district 

 in I 1 11 >n ; and that, as an experiment, arrangements should 

 be made for the establishment of a class for the elementary in- 

 struction of boys in the use of tools a- applied to working in 

 attendance being voluntary and out of school hours, 

 ommittee desire to express their high appreciation of 

 the services rendered by Mr. Thomas Smith, and the zeal with 

 which he ha- assisted them in their work. 



1 q ) Recommendations 



The ( 'ommittee accordingly submit for adoption the following 

 recommendations, which are intended to apply to boys' depart- 

 inly : — 



in That it i- not desirable to attempt to teach any special 

 trade or handicraft in the schools of the Board. 



121 That the instruction in drawing commence with Standard I. 

 and be carried out according ti 1 a graduated scheme laid down for 

 each standard. 



1 ;i I hat increased attention be paid to freehand drawing from 

 m.uhl- in all schools, and that mechanical drawing and modelling 

 ii' I 1 i\ lie introduced into certain schools. 



(4) That greater attention be pat 1 to the teaching of " ele- 

 mentary science" in the schools of the Board. 



(5) That the peripatetic plan of teaching "mechanics" be 

 tried in some district or districts of London. 



(6) That, as an experiment, arrangements be made for the 

 establishment of a class for the elementary instruction of boys 

 in the use of tools as applied to working in wood, the attendance 

 being voluntary ami out of school hours. 



(7) That the above resolutions be referred to the School 

 Management Committee, with instructions to carry them into 

 effect. 



a the sum of 10/. be paid to Mr. Thomas Smith, Prin- 

 cipal Clerk of the School Management Department, as remu- 

 neration for hi- extra services in connection with thi- Committee. 



(Signed 1 



J. H. Gladstone, Chairman 

 B. I res AFT 

 H. D. Pearson 



Appendix 



Statements <>/ Dr. Silvanus P. Thompson, Mr. 11. Trueman 



Wood, and Mr. Philip Magnus 

 I. Statement of Dr. Silvanus Thompson, Professor of Natural 

 ilosophy at University College, Bristol, made before an 

 informal meeting of the Committee on Technical Education, 

 April 17, 1S83. 



rhompson stated with regard to drawing, that in his 

 opinion the drawing taught and paid for by results by the Science 

 and Ait Department was not of the character which he con- 

 ould be taught. The subject he wished to see taught 

 was what he liked to call industrial drawing, by wbichhe meant 

 that a block of wo id or metal being placed before the children, 

 they should execute from it drawing- showing il in two or three 

 different ways, exactly in the fashion in which workmen's draw- 

 made. Drawings made to scale represented in the 

 workmen's fashion would be very much more valuable than the 

 drawings executed under the regulations of the Science and Art 

 nt. Industrial drawing such as this may be made 

 applicable to all kinds of work, carpentry, masonry, &c. 



He then described a lesson on drawing given in Paris on the 

 general mechanism of tools. The lesson consisted in the master 

 sketching roughly on the blackboard the outline- 

 pieces of machinery. He had neither compasses not ruler. 

 Every line had a distinct meaning, and every single detail was 

 labelled. The boys were then told to make proper working 

 drawings from this sketch. This kind of training seemed I" 

 him 1 very valuable thing. To know how to " read " a drawing 

 is much more important than to turn out a highly-finished work 

 of art. The main difficulty in introducing such a system would 



be that it would have to be created. No instructor in technical 

 education had yet made it worth his while to evolve a system. 



Prof. Thompson suggested that a section of certain schools 

 might be devoted to the teaching of handicrafts. Some of the 

 ordinary handicrafts in wood or metal would be good subjects 

 to commence with. It would be better to try the experiment 

 in one small school unless the Board are prepared to go to a 

 very great expense. 



He considered that a good deal might be done in training the 

 hand and the eye by the introduction of clay modelling. As 

 illustrating the value of modelling in clay, he stated that in 

 Paris the masters' union for the manufacture of jewellery had 

 established a little school for teaching the knowledge and prac- 

 tice of art required in making jewellery. In this school there 

 is modelling in clay and wax, drawing from the cast and from 

 the flat, and also a little actual model work. Various works of 

 art are hung round the room, and from the cast the pupils model 

 in clay. After that there is a course of modelling in wax. The 

 children are about nine or ten years of age. Some begin their 

 attendance here as early as eight. 



Cutting stone and carving in wood are good subjects. Plas- 

 tering is merely pouring plaster into a mould, and mechanics is 

 not of a very technical order. He doubted whether glass- 

 blowing wo ild be useful. The opinion of the union was greatly 

 against the increase in the number of apprentices. Glass-blowing 

 was taught at a disadvantage in England, because the union 

 would not sanction each master having more than one boy. 



The subjects that might be taught to girls are wood carving, 

 vellum painting, the making of artificial flowers, and dress- 

 making. Engraving would be expensive. A great deal of 

 chain-making is &om by female labour, hut there is not much to 

 learn in it. 



He knew of no place where these handicrafts were carried on, 

 with the exception of a few orph: 



II. Statement of Mr. H. Trueman Wood, Secretary of the 

 Society of Arts, made before the Special Committee on 

 Technical Education, June 13, 1883. 



Mr. H. Trueman Wood gave the Committee some informatio 

 about the origin of the City and Guilds Institute for the Ad- 

 vancement of Technical Education, with the foundation of which 

 he had been associated. The work which that Institute was 

 now engaged upon the Committee would have more fully set 

 before them by Mr. Magnus. He gave a brief sketch of the 

 movement which, originating in a proposal to establish a 

 Technical University in London, had resulted in the formation 

 of the City Institute, with its "Central Institution" now in 

 course of erection at South Kensington, and its Technical 

 Schools in Finsbury and Lambeth. He also described the 

 system of Technological Examinations which, originated by the 

 Society of Art--, had been taken over by the Institute, and 

 developed to its present condition by the aid of a scheme of 

 payment on results, similar to that of the Science and Art 

 Department. 



Mr. Wood, in reply to various questions put by Members of 

 the Committee, gave the following additional information : — As 

 regards those who attended the school in Finsbury, he could not 

 speak with any knowledge, but he did not think that the larger 

 proportion of them were artisans ; he believed they were chiefly 

 clerks and young people of the usual science student class. Some 

 of them, he understood, were boys from the Middle-Class 

 School in Cowper Street. He did not know of any school 

 where boys of the artisan class of twelve or fourteen years of age 

 could gu and learn the use of tools, anil he was not aware of the 

 existence of any such school in England. He stated that he was 

 strongly of opinion that mechanical drawing should be taught in 

 all elementary schools. The industrial training given in indus- 

 trial schools was, of course, one form of technical education, but 

 he should scarcely include this in what should be taught in 

 elementary schools. He was of opinion that it was not possible 

 to give definite technical instruction in elementary schools ; the 

 children were too young, and, in many cases, it could not be 

 said which trade they would follow in after-life. He did not 

 himself see how more could be done than was being done in 

 Birmingham, where, he understood, practical teaching in ele- 

 mentary science was given to the children. Such teaching as 

 this he believed to be most valuable, and the best possible 

 preparation for the specialised technical instruction which would 

 come later on. Elementary mechanics should certainly be taught 

 and should be illustrated by suitable apparatus. He quite 



