TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 749 



real aim of school education should be to create a desire to continue in after-life 

 the pursuit of the knowledge and skill acquired in school. He explained the 

 method of teaching which should he adopted in order to make the instruction 

 a real educational discipline. He believed that the stimulating effect of the in- 

 struction on the intelligence of the children would be such that their progress 

 in literary studies would be in no way retarded bj^ the time given to practical 

 work. Experiments of introducing workshops iu elementary schools had been 

 tried in this country, with results sufficiently encouraging to justify the ex- 

 tension of the system ; and on the Continent and in the United States much 

 was done in technical teaching. An enthusiasm was spreading among Americans 

 in favour of workshop instruction, which was likely to have an important 

 influence on the industrial progress of that eminently practical and inventive 

 people. As a general rule, he suggested that children should be required to 

 have passed the fifth standard before being admitted into the workshop. As 

 regards the expense, he stated that three items had to be considered : 1. Cost 

 of erection and equipment of workshops ; 2. Cost of material ; 3. Cost of actual 

 teaching. Considering these items separately, he showed that the introduction 

 of workshop teaching would not materially increase the Scliool Board rate. It 

 might involve some slight addition to the Government grant. He estimated 

 that not more than 30,000 boys would be ready to receive workshop instruc- 

 tion in this country, and the additional grants required would be about 5,000/. 

 For this comparatively small expenditure about 30,000 boys might be annually 

 sent out into the world from elementary schools with practical skill at their 

 finger-ends, imbued with an aptitude and taste for the real work of their life, 

 and so educated as to be able to apply to their work the results of scientific teaching 

 and scientific methods. The importance of practical teaching, of studying things 

 before words, had been many times urged, but as yet, such had been the inertia of 

 school authorities and teachers, and such the force of tradition, that we were only 

 now beginning to employ the methods of instruction that had been preached for 

 years by the most eminent educational reformers. It was hoped that the com- 

 mittee of the Association would persevere in the representations it had already 

 made on this important subject, and that the labours of the Royal Commission 

 might result in making our elementary school teaching more practical, less verbal, 

 and less mechanical. In any new Code it should be provided — (1.) That the subject 

 be duly recognised, so that no part of the attendance grant be lost in consequence 

 of the time devoted to it ; (2.) That School Boards be empowered to erect and 

 equip workshops in or near elementary schools for the instruction of children who 

 had passed the fifth or qualifying standard ; (3.) That grants be paid on the number 

 of children receiving instruction and making the required number of attendances. 



2. Technical Instruction in Elementary Schools. By William Ripper. 



Attention has been frequently called of late to the importance of technical 

 education, but hitherto with comparatively little practical result. With a view to • 

 progress in this direction it is important to inquire whether suitable foundations 

 are being laid in the public elementary schools. We are entitled to expect from 

 the schools substantial help towards the future industrial, as well as social, progress 

 of the country, and we should know whether anything more can be done than is 

 being done to accomplish this object. Manufacturing processes are becoming more 

 and more scientific, and the commercial value of the manufactured article more and 

 more dependent upon artistic and tasteful design. We believe that the early training 

 of the children will have much to do with our future national progress ; and, while 

 admitting the many points of excellence, we have to regret the total absence in 

 elementary schools of instruction specifically bearing upon industry, an omission 

 which a manufacturing community would do well to remedy. The energies of 

 teachers and children throughout the country to-day — when not engaged on the 

 three R's — are being expended on much that is unintelligible and useless to the 

 children, such as nice verbal distinctions, elaborate parsing of parts of speech, and 



