438 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cerns itself more with the production of artisans than of men. 

 This view of manual training makes the school very much akin 

 to the trade and industrial schools, and would end by converting 

 it into a shop. The school is heralded as the legitimate successor 

 of the apprentice system, and as an institution whose highest end 

 is to restore the advantages lost in the abolition of that system. 

 According to this theory, the ability to do becomes the standard 

 of success for the school, and the chief object of its ambition, the 

 production of well-executed handiwork. The results of the year's 

 work would be summed up in an exhibition of things. 



The other theory also sees in the school an establishment for 

 the fabrication of a definite product, but it is a product too subtile 

 to find its complete expression in wood or iron or clay. It is 

 believed that the specific purpose of education is to cultivate 

 character, to induce sound thinking, and to make a necessity of 

 scientific inquiry. Its highest end is ethical. Of great value, but 

 secondary to its supreme purpose, are the skill and the informa- 

 tion which would be the natural result of such cultivation. The 

 aim of the school is to prepare for completeness of life. The cen- 

 tral thought in its entire organization is always the boy himself, 

 and everything that is done, every study that is taken up, every 

 influence that is brought to bear, has for its sole purpose his 

 development. In this view of its proper function, the school is a 

 purely educational institution, and is industrial only in making 

 use of the tools of industry to accomplish its chosen purpose. 

 The manual work, like the work in science and literature, is sim- 

 ply a means of development. It bears the same relation to the 

 process of education that a railway train does to travel. One may 

 select slower modes of approach if he choose, but, in his delight at 

 the rapid transit, he must not confuse the journey with the end 

 for which the journey is made. Those who hold this view of 

 manual training, watch with sincere regret any encroachment of 

 that spirit which places the inanimate product, however ingenious 

 and beautiful it may be, above the human product. The object 

 of manual training, they believe, is the production of thoughtful, 

 self-reliant, honest men. 



It will be seen that these two theories are antagonistic. The 

 first, in its anxiety for material results, is somewhat impatient at 

 the slower unfolding of the spiritual handiwork. The second, 

 while it admits all the claims of the first, objects to their limited 

 scope — they do not go far enough. It believes thoroughly in men 

 and women who can do something, but it believes also, and more 

 thoroughly, in men and women who are something. Both theo- 

 rists sow in all sincerity, and reap as they have sown. One har- 

 vest is gathered before the other. The seed matures early, and 

 blossoms and bears fruit in objects of beauty and utility. There 



