442 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



complete their entire course, for three years. It is not less liter- 

 ary and not less scientific than the best of our high schools, hut 

 it is, we believe, far more practical in preparing boys to meet the 

 real problems of life. The customary high-school course covers 

 four years, but, as only a small percentage of students remain to 

 graduate, it is thought wiser in the manual training school to 

 limit the course to three years, and to offer a fourth year of post- 

 graduate study in any department where a student has shown 

 special aptitude. One third of the school day is devoted to man- 

 ual work, and the rest to science and literature. It seems impos- 

 sible, however, to consider such a school except as a whole. It 

 refuses to be divided into sections. Representing, as it does, a 

 purpose rather than a method, all departments are bound to- 

 gether by a common aim, and are subservient to that. They are 

 members one of another, and the head no longer says to the hand, 

 or, for that matter, to any other member of the anatomy, " I have 

 no need of thee." We venture to hope that the impulse whose 

 spirit I have been attempting to describe is only at the begin- 

 ning of its work. "When the new aspirations in education, which 

 are now called manual training, come to a fuller development, 

 they will concern themselves not with the hand only, but with 

 the entire body and the entire being. We even hope that at 

 some time in the future parents and teachers will feel it their 

 duty to acquaint themselves with the condition and needs of the 

 little bodies of which they are now the ignorant guardians, and 

 will attempt by definite means to make them more fitting vest- 

 ments for the human soul. The time has come, it seems to me, 

 when evolution should be a conscious process, and man should 

 work in happy sympathy with the purposes of that power which 

 makes for righteousness. 



Although the most distinctive feature in these schools is nat- 

 urally the manual department, its success from the educational 

 standpoint can only be judged by observing its effect upon the 

 rest of the school work. It is true that the boy does not in all 

 cases understand the full significance of his work, but he is, 

 nevertheless, gaining unconsciously that degree of patience, of 

 perseverance, and of judgment needed to accomplish his task. 

 The next thing he undertakes demands these qualities in fuller 

 measure, and so the work of character-building goes on simul- 

 taneously with the production of handiwork. The boy sees, per- 

 haps, only these finished pieces of work as his result. We who 

 are looking on see something vastly more important. We see the 

 sturdier virtues — self-reliance, manliness, and helpfulness — devel- 

 oping to wholesome proportions. The boy takes pride in his work, 

 and we take pride in him. 



The constructive faculty in children and boys is very strong. 



