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SCIENTIFIC NEV/S. 



[Oct. 1st, iS 



fact ? Now, keeping in view the wants of the nation and the 

 obvious fact that all the children in our Public Elementary 

 Schools must begin to earn a living very early in life, the whole 

 spirit and purpose of our teaching should be to render know- 

 ledge serviceable by making it thorough and practical and part of 

 the very being of the boy and girl. It is of secondary importance, 

 after reading and writing have been acquired to serve as useful 

 instruments, to pursue systematically the study of grammar, 

 language, and literature, analysis of sentences, refinement of 

 composition, elegance of expression, and remote historical events. 

 An American authority. General Francis Walker, the distinguished 

 President of the Boston School of Technology, U.S.A., the best 

 technical school in the world, judged by its practical results, has 

 said: "There is an alphabet to pass through before the works 

 of our poets and philosophers can be imderstood and appreciated, 

 and in like manner the alphabet of the sciences should be known 

 long before the mind is sufficient)' matured to fully comprehend 

 the phenomena of nature. Our scholars go through nursery 

 rhymes and fairy tales in earliest youth. We do not wait until 

 the twelfth or fourteenth year before instructing our children in 

 the rudiments of language which will enable them to appreciate 

 poetry, and yet in science our traditional method is to postpone 

 its revelations until the school period of most boys in our 

 elementary schools is dravi'ing to a close. In morals our children 

 are made to commit to memory truths, facts, and laws for the 

 guidance of human conduct, long before they appreciate the sig- 

 nificance of these truths upon their well-being." The origin of 

 light, the laws of its action and its use, may be taught long 

 before the science of optics can be systematically pursued. 

 Knowledge of the law of atmospheric pressure, acting through a 

 common pump from which the child fetches water for the house- 

 hold, is surely as important in its educational effect as the 

 ability to spell correctly words of several sj'Uables. So with 

 geometry ; to classify objects and bodies that surround a child, 

 and to shew by dividing and subdividing what a number and 

 variety of forms can be derived from one object ; to accustom the 

 eye to measure correctly and to estimate distance and direction 

 accurately ; all these elements of geometry can be conveyed to a 

 child long before the study of Euclid is seriously begun. The 

 difference between solids and liquids can as readily be taught 

 in the earliest years as the difference between a noun and a verb, 

 and the passing of a liquid into a vapour may be so easily com- 

 prehended that a child will be led to watch with educational 

 effect his mother's tea kettle singing on the hob. The simple 

 laws of mechanics can be made so clear to a child, that his 

 games of marbles, football, and cricket, supply illustrations of 

 their operation to himself So heat, sound, and motion, that 

 daily surround the child, mav be comprehended sufficiently to 

 give more Interest to life, and to produce perception and reflec- 

 tion, in some degree, long before their laws can be fully under- 

 stood, just as melody has its influence before a knowledge of 

 music can be acquired. But in acquiring such knowledge of the 

 natural sciences in the most elementary stages it is absolutely 

 jtecessary to use the hand' as a 7neans of access to the mind and 

 tmderstanding. Thus manual training becomes a necessity if 

 subjects other than literary are to be efficiently taught, and the 

 urgent need of such teaching is no longer a matter of con- 

 troversy. 



It is remarkable that the hand has hitherto been so little 

 employed in our methods of instruction. Much time is now 

 spent in handwriting, and it is the only obligatory subject in our 

 Education Code in which the hand is used. Drawing is of much 

 greater importance, though both are essential, yet drawing is 

 not obligatory in our public schools. Mechanical and freehand 

 drawing should be the foundation of instruction in all subjects 

 not purely abstract. It expresses thought in form, and likewise 

 develops thought. In the study of geography its importance 

 cannot be over-estimated as a means of acquiring correct ideas 

 as to distance, areas, and localities, and topographical conditions 

 of mountains, lakes, and rivers. In the study of geometry, draw- 

 ing is the only means by which language is made intelligible as 

 applied to that subject. In the study of art and nature, 

 drawing makes imagination visible, and reproduces the beauty 

 and grace of form and proportion abounding in the external 

 world. In the study of the natural sciences, drawing assists to 

 illustrate the operations of all the natural laws, by graphic 

 representations of the objects subject to them or forming the 

 media through which the laws are rendered serviceable to man. 

 Drawing is the first step in manual instruction, and its value 



cannot be over-estimated ; there is a direct connection between 

 the drawing and the technical operation of producing. The 

 mind is trained to judge, from a drawing on the flat, of all the 

 proportions of the object portrayed ; and, on the other hand, the 

 correct representations of objects by drawing is rendered easy 

 through the constant practice of expressing abstract forms in 

 concrete objects fashioned by the hands through all the stages 

 of development. 



As an employer I have had opportunities of testing the quality 

 of the education given in our public schools by selecting boys 

 who have passed the e.xaminations brilliantly, and whose school 

 record stood very high even in science subjects. My experience 

 has been sufficient to convince me that the method of teaching 

 in our Public Elementary Schools, admirable as it is in giving a 

 higher tone to our working classes, and in developing consider- 

 able literary power, yet in the main is one-sided in its effect, 

 even on a really gifted boy ; while it does nothing to call forth 

 the practical faculties in boys who, slow and even stupid in the 

 class room, may possess considerable aptitude in acquiring 

 knowledge after they have begun to work for a living. 



Upon the agricultural working classes a great boon would 

 be conferred in affording facilities for their children to become 

 early instructed in the elements of science underlying successful 

 husbandry, by the creative method, in combination with subjects 

 of general education. In their occupations they deal with nature 

 at every point. The knowledge of her laws is necessary to in- 

 telligent labour, if the fruits of the earth are to be cultivated 

 and enjoyed more abundantly. 



In America manual training schools are being rapidly estab- 

 lished in connection with the public school system. During a 

 recent visit I saw many of them, and was greatly impressed with 

 the admirable results achieved. I observed that since my former 

 visit four years ago, when I made the inquiry throughout the 

 United States for the Royal Commission on Technical Instruc- 

 tion, many manual training schools have been established in 

 towns by the school authorities to take the place of the grammar 

 or second grade school in their system, and it is not too much 

 to say that within ten years in all large cities manual training 

 will be established and become a main feature in public educa- 

 tion in the secondary schools. 



About two millions of children and young people are already 

 participating, in some degree, in this recent development 

 towards practical education in America. There is no one cut 

 and dried plan. Each one of the cities now committing itself to 

 industrial and art education will seek to eclipse its neighbours. 

 This freedom of choice is the mainspring of success, for it enables 

 local sentiment and characteristics to exert their utmost in- 

 fluence in the selection of methods of instruction, and in the 

 equipment of schools best adapted to the school population. 



NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF 

 TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 



ACCORDING to the prospectus of this Association just issued, 

 its general aim will be to bring into force the recommend- 

 ations already made by several Royal Commissions, as well as 

 to effect such reforms in our educational system as will develop 

 in the best way the intelligence of those of all classes upon 

 whom our industries depend. The following objects will pro- 

 bably engage the early attention of the Association : — 



I. The encouragement of Educational Reform, whether by 

 legislation or otherwise, to be carried out by the following 

 amongst other means : — 



{a) The promotion in our primary schools of the better training 

 of the hand and eye by improved instruction in drawing, in the 

 elements of science, and the elementary use of tools. 



(I)) The introduction of such changes in the present system of 

 primary instruction as may be necessary to enable children to 

 take advantage of technical teaching. 



(c) The more extended provision of higher elementary schools, 

 where technical education may be provided for those who are 

 fit to take advantage of it. 



(<■/) The reform of the present system of Evening Schools, 

 with special provisions for the encouragement of Technical 

 (including Commercial and Agricultural) instruction. 



(f) The developm"ent, organisation, and maintenance of a 

 system of Secondary Education throughout the country, with a 



