robison] TIME ECONOMY AND TEACHING DEVICES 129 



devices, it may be said that breeding cages are as easily made as 

 bird houses, though the prospective teacher often seems not to 

 realize the simplicity of the manipulation without actually passing 

 through the experience as a class exercise. The simplest cage con- 

 sists of a cylinder of wire screen netting made just the size to fit 

 into two pie pans forming the top and bottom. Such a cage is easy 

 to get inside of by lifting off one pan, either to replenish the food 

 supply or to clean. The edges should overlap an inch and be 

 sewed by coarse stitches with a raveled wire. The expense of the 

 tins can be saved by using a pasteboard box and its lid, anything 

 from a stationery box up. The wire netting must then be bent 

 over the edge of a table to form the square corners. Careless 

 students are apt to make the sides of the wire netting larger than 

 those of the box and not to get the overlapping edges flat, leaving 

 a place in which insects may get wedged. Heavy galvanized 

 netting makes, the best permanent cage. The netting of cages 

 not used after being made may be flattened out and used again. 



The making of cages may be open to the objection of belong- 

 ing to manual training. So it well may. In fact, nature-study, 

 whether of elementary or of secondary grade, may quite properly 

 furnish the motivation for part of the manual training work. The 

 making of "exercises" belongs to a past chapter of manual train- 

 ing theory. Breeding cages, mounting boards, aquaria, and sim- 

 ilar adjuncts of nature-study may as properly be considered a part 

 •of a young teacher's equipment as a lesson-plan book, clay pigs 

 and Esquimaux boys, or carpet looms, all of which will prob- 

 ably be accumulated from work in the manual training depart- 

 ment. 



Possibly it may seem heresy to suggest that it is not the chief 

 province to "train the hand", or that the organized work of the 

 manual training department can do it better. There are doubtless 

 biology teachers who still believe in a sort of generalized "skill 

 faculty" that will be developed and trained for efficient service in 

 all directions by plenty of practice in a line so far removed from 

 ordinary life activities as is the dissection of small animals. The 

 trend of psychology, however, is away from this belief. To any 

 such teacher the above suggestions regarding time-saving devices 

 may not appeal very strongly. But several things should be 

 borne in mind, among which are these : ( 1 ) More high schools 

 have but one teacher than have five or more, while high schools 

 with three or less are ten times as frequent as those with more 

 than ten teachers. (2) By far the greater number of high schools, 



