INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION". 139 



are at present, the change wonkl be worth 50,000,000 pounds ster- 

 ling, or onr quarter of a billion dollars a year, as it would enable 

 the mechanical power of the kingdom to be used to three or four 

 times as great advantage as at present, we can imagine what a mine 

 of wealth lies almost unbroken at our feet. And again from the 

 fact that in this conntry the highly skilled worker earns $3 where 

 the utterly unskilled laborer earns ^1, we can see how immensely 

 the condition of our laboring classes is capable of being improved 

 at little cost. 



One of the principal means has been already mentioned; this is 

 drawing, knowledge of which helps a mechanic to work from plans, 

 and trains eye and hand to act m union. Four or five years ago 

 this branch was introduced into the public schools of Massachus- 

 etts, New York and Connecticut, and the example is being gener- 

 ally followed all over the countr}'. The lack, however, not only of 

 properly qualified teachers, but of sufficient public interest, often 

 prevents the instruction from being much better than nominal. 

 We are very far behind the French practice of teaching every 

 scholar seven years old, to draw and write simultaneously, so that 

 each of the two acquirements may help the other. The Swiss 

 and German primar}-- schools also give to drawing a prominent 

 place. So small a part of the primary school session in this coun- 

 try is spent in actual study, that not only drawing but object les- 

 sons and Kindergarten exercises, as well as needle work for the 

 girls, might be introduced for two or three hours a day without 

 hindrance to the present instruction, and with immense gain not 

 only to the discipline but to the intellectual spirit of the school. 



Enough free hand drawing should be taught in the primary 

 schools to enable the pupils in the grammar schools to use drawing 

 instruments, draft plans, and copy geometrical solids, and it is very 

 important that they should be restricted to these and similar 

 branches of purely industrial drawing; otherwise the desire to make 

 ya show at exhibitions, to get something pretty to hang up in the 

 parlor, and to amuse oneself with little efforts, will tempt both 

 pupils and teachers into giving their attention almost exclusively 

 to fancy dravang of too little industrial value to be paid for justly 

 out of ths school fund. And in the grammar schools might also 

 be given some knowledge of the practical teachings of chemistry, 

 such as would be of assistance not only to the bleacher, dyer, foun- 



