TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 857 
as wood-work and metal-work afford to boys. We cannot escape from the con- 
clusion that education must be, in the first place, individual, and prepare us for 
complete living. For this reason the subjects of instruction must be selected with 
reference to the usefulness of the training in the discharge of the primary duties 
of life. We have yet to show how the different branches of domestic economy, 
as it is generally called, may be taught so as to serve asa centre of interest for 
the acquisition of knowledge of other cognate subjects and as a rigorous exercise 
in the practice of scientific method. Progressive schemes of instruction have to 
be elaborated suitable for different types and grades of girls’ schools. But in all 
such schemes the aim and purpose must be educational, and not professional. The 
method of instruction should be such that the girl may grow in intelligence and 
resourcefulness, may have her interests enlarged and her general knowledge 
widened, whilst at the same time she is acquiring that special skill in the 
domestic arts which is essential to her well-being and will increase her usefulness 
in every womanly occupation in which she may be engaged. Underlying the 
domestic arts are scientific principles, the roots of which stretch out wide and far. 
The scheme of instruction, therefore, which should vary with the age when the 
child leaves school, should carefully associate theory with practice, and should 
show in detail the kind of experiments that the child should perform in order to 
acquire that amount of accurate scientific knowledge which will be helpful in her 
work. Under good instruction there should be no learning by heart useless 
scraps of information, to be reproduced verbatim without any intelligent under- 
standing of the meaning of the terms employed, and with very varied spelling. 
No; the methods of manual instruction, some of which have to be worked out, 
must be the same for boys and girls. The aims of the teaching should also be 
identical ; but the subject-matter should be such as has some relation to the future 
life-work of each sex, and this differentiation should commence when the child 
is about eleven years old. 
My observations have been limited to manual work as it should be taught from 
the close of the Kindergarten to the end of a child’s elementary school course. 
Our chief aim should be to make this instruction continuous. After the elemen- 
tary school age, the instruction in certain types of school tends to become profes- 
sional in character. This kind of teaching has become fully developed in France 
and in the United States; but I do not propose to discuss it now. In ordinary 
secondary schools a somewhat different kind of instruction has to be considered, 
but the method does not differ essentially from that of the lower school. It is 
satisfactory to find that manual instruction is now a recognised part of the train- 
ing-college course. But the subject is treated somewhat as an intruder, and 
sufficient time is not yet given to it. The introduction of such teaching, how- 
ever, is likely to exercise a very beneficial influence on the methods of teaching 
‘other subjects. This fact has only now begun to be realised, and important and 
at present unforeseen consequences are likely to follow. 
Mr. Millis expressed his belief that opposition on the part of trade unions 
was frequently a sign that the manual training was either improperly done or 
improperly explained. He had known cases in which the fitting up of a manual- 
training (metal) workshop had been an attempt to copy the fittings of an 
engineer's shop, and years ago much harm was done by talking about the teaching 
of carpentry, instead of the giving of instruction in manual woodwork, and car- 
penters then frequently asked why theirs should be the only trade taught. Mr. 
Millis further added that he was certain that if manual training was given in 
connection with other school subjects, and not treated as a special subject outside 
school work, opposition from trade unions would cease to exist. Manual train- 
ing should be connected with drawing, drawing with geometry, geometry with 
arithmetic, and then we should get much better educational results. 
Mr. Oscar Browning said that he wished to bear testimony to the value of 
manual training as a part of education. He had been led to this opinion in the 
first instance by the teachings of Rousseau and Goethe. He believed that every 
member of the House of Hohenzollern was taught a trade, the present German 
Emperor having been taught bookbinding. As an Eton master he had learnt 
