TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 751 



Manual training is being carried on with much success in France and America. 

 A more practical system of instruction is destined to grow and to occupy an important 

 place in our educational methods of the future, the aim of which will he, while 

 sacrificing none of the present advantages, to enable the schools to render more 

 efficient help than in the past to the nation's industrial progress. 



3. Technical Education,. Bij the Rev. H. Solly. 



The author stated that preparation for technical training in handicrafts must 

 begin in the Kindergarten and be continued by instruction in drawing, decimal 

 arithmetic, and the elements of geometry in the Ijoard schools and be completed in 

 the "workshop and class-room. 



The apprenticeship system having for the most part broken down, the practical 

 training of the workshop must be supplemented by the combined practical and 

 scientific teaching which can be given only in the class-room. Systematic and 

 scientific instruction in the principles which underlie all manual industries, and the 

 application of those principles to the material of each handicraft (wood, iron, 

 sheet-metal, chemical combinations, textile fabrics, &c.) is essential for thorough 

 technical training, and can be given only by class teachin(j, not in the workshop. 

 Illustrations of this statement were given from various facts and instances. At present 

 it is apparently no one's interest, nor legally anyone's duty, and certainly no one is 

 in general qualified to give this instruction to apprentices or youths ; while it too 

 often appears to be the employer's interest to keep the lads in particular grooves of 

 work from which they learn nothing but very limited routine dexterity. Other 

 nations have long since acted on a wiser system, and we are feeling the conse- 

 quences. 



The remedy is to secure systematic and thorough technical training for the 

 rising generation of artificers, by returning to a regular system of ' indentured 

 apprenticeships,' whereby the employers, if they take lads at all into their work- 

 shops, shall be bound to see that they attend technical trainmg classes for a certain 

 number of hours in the week during the first three years of their apprenticeship. 

 The increased value of the services of the apprentice during the remainder of his 

 term, and in some cases money premiums, should recoup the employer. The 

 apprentice to be required to pass certain examinations, at the last of which, if passed 

 satisfactorily, the indentures to be given up to the apprentice, constituting thence- 

 forward his certificate of competency. Employer and apprentice to have legal 

 remedy for neglect of obligations on either side. 



Technical classes to be taught by men who, to practical knowledge of their trade, 

 add scientific or artistic acquaintance with its principles. Teachers to show students 

 how such principles are to be applied to manipulation of material. Advanced 

 technical training to be carried forward by professors and college teaching. Repre- 

 sentative working men agreed as to necessity of compulsory teaching for apprentices 

 on plan now described and in force on the Continent. Legislation in this matter 

 quite as important as in the case of ' half-timers.' First three years of apprentice- 

 ship to be regarded as a time not for earning monej^, but for learning a trade 

 efficiently. Hours for attending classes, when possible, to be arranged for two after- 

 noons in the week instead of evening classes. The interests alike of employers and 

 the lads themselves, as well as the whole manufacturing and commercial prosperity 

 of the nation, largely depend on these arrangements. 



4. Economic Value of Art in Manufactures. ^ By Edward R. Taylor. 



The lack of beauty in many English manufactures arises, not so much from 

 bad taste on the part of the purchaser as from the producer's want of artistic 

 culture. In this case supply must precede demand. Instances are given of this. 

 Manufacturers too often ignorantly regard art as an adjunct, instead of an essential, 



' The paper will be published, with others by the author, in book form. 



