v 15 THE MANUAL ARTS BY CHARLES A. BENNETT, B. S. Editor of Industrial Education Magazine, Formerly Professor of Manual Arts, Bradley Polytechnic Institute THE MANUAL ARTS PRESS PEORIA, ILLINOIS Copyright, 1917, CHARLES A. BENNETT, 32B31 Printed in the United States of America .. I L IT ix q. COLLEOB CALIFORNIA PREFACE 'l A HE greatest present problems affecting the -* manual arts in education, whether that educa- tion be vocational or cultural in its aim, are cen- tered around the selection and organization of subject-matter and methods of teaching. Believ- ing this to be true, the author contributes the fol- lowing chapters to the discussion of these prob- lems, hoping that they may be of some service to his fellow workers. Several of the chapters have previously ap- peared as articles in magazines. When brought together, however, they have a significance which they did not possess as isolated articles appearing from time to time over a period of several years. Acknowledgment for permission to republish is due to Education, Educational Review, Vocational Education and Manual Training Magazine. CHAS. A. BENNETT. Peoria, Illinois, March 28, 1917. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS? 11 Manual efficiency of our forefathers. Manual work not taught in school, but the three R's taught for their practical value. The expansion of educa- tion to include science, engineering and history. Modern living and business conditions compared with those of our grandfathers. The greater use of machinery. Modern home conveniences and labor- saving devices require a more general knowledge of the principles and processes of industry. Apprecia- tion of industrial products and ability to purchase intelligently require industrial knowledge. The school must teach industry. The manual arts classified with reference to subject-matter. The graphic arts a language. Interdependence of the graphic arts and constructive arts. The mechanic arts. Increasing importance of the plastic arts. The textile arts. The peculiar importance of the book-making arts. All of the five groups of manual arts should be taught in the schools. CHAPTER II. THE PLACE OF THE MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 22 The dual function of the manual arts in educa- tion. The manual arts as a means in attaining the end in education. Ways in which the manual arts contribute to social efficiency. The manual arts as 5 6 THE MANUAL ARTS a factor in the educative process. Importance of experience. The manual arts regarded as both sub- ject and method. The place of the manual arts in the primary grades; in the grammar grades; in the high school. Variety of materials, processes, ex- periences, and little technic in the primary grades. Good technic, the formation of correct habits, thoroness, problems of industrial value in grammar grades. Vocational purpose, emphasis on processes that are fundamental, industrial standards in the high school. CHAPTER III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AP- PRECIATION 35 Results of manual arts instruction; power to do, power to appreciate what others do. Conditions of appreciation: ability to produce, ability to express, experience. To know about a work of art is not sufficient basis for appreciation. Illustrations from music. Similar illustrations in water-color paint- ing, art smithing, hammered copper. Difference between appreciation of the thing represented and appreciation of the art employed in representation. Experience essential. Summary. The function of the public schools in reference to teaching appre- ciation. Public school curriculum should include fundamental processes of the five manual arts. CHAPTER IV. VOCATIONAL TRAINING : To WHAT EXTENT JUSTIFIABLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 46 Educational expenditure in business enterprises. The amount of such expenditure that is justifiable. TABLE OF CONTENTS Application of the same principle to public educa- tion. Purpose of public schools fundamentally vocational. Economic value of education not suffi- ciently appreciated in America. Emphasis on voca- tional elements in education need not mean sacrifice of cultural elements. The best cultural education may come thru a training that is fundamentally vocational. The nation is justified in training specialists. Origin of the term "Made in Ger- many. " Motive in the development of vocational education in Germany. CHAPTER V. THE SELECTION AND ORGAN- IZATION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN THE MANUAL ARTS 54 No need of sharp line of demarkation between vocational training and cultural training. Voca- tional training in the manual arts is good manual training plus the factory system. Desirable to select subject-matter having present industrial value. Select subject-matter from typical common industries rather than from exceptional or un- common ones. Statistics concerning industries. Selection of subject-matter based on analysis of industries. Factories recognize the importance of analysis. Different kinds of analysis. Importance of selecting typical modern industries for analysis. Group analysis. Each group to contain some vital element or elements. Groups arranged in sequen- tial order. 8 THE MANUAL ARTS CHAPTER VI. THE GROUP METHOD OF OR- GANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER IN THE MAN- UAL ARTS WITH REFERENCE TO TEACH- ING 68 Original purpose of the group method to har- monize class and individual instruction. Difficul- ties in teaching that called forth the group method. Illustrations of these difficulties. A course of in- struction under the group method. Class instruc- tion. Individual instruction. The group method and class management. No two pupils work the same combination of problems. A parallel found in the teaching of history. Illustration of a course. A group described. Allows for varied methods of teaching in the same class. Graph of accomplish- ment. Individual differences provided for. Indi- vidual development combined with class progress. CHAPTER VII. THE USE OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING THE MANUAL ARTS 85 Turning out a salable product is not sufficient guarantee that a school shop is giving superior in- struction; a factory does that and makes no pretense at being an educational institution. Large factories are teaching their apprentices in non-productive shops organized on an educational basis. Producing woodworking factory shop at Bradley Institute. Its equipment. Disposing of the products of the fac- tory. Cost system introduced. Shop order sheet, cost sheet, time slip. Course of instruction. Groups A, B, C, D, E, and F. Conclusions. Value of a producing factory demonstrated for advanced in- TABLE OF CONTENTS 9 struction; non-producing factory better for early stages of shop instruction. Opinions of manufac- turers. CHAPTER VIII. THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING THE MANUAL ARTS 103 Three typical methods described: (i) imitative, (2) discovery, (3) inventive. Utilization of the in- stinct to imitate. Value of the imitative method in teaching technic, in guiding habit formation. The control of imitation. Claims for the discovery method. Emphasizes individual differences. As a matter of fact pupils will imitate each other if not allowed to imitate the teacher. Discovery method uneconomical. Effect of the inventive method compared with that of the imitative. Student's re- lation to his work in the inventive method. Sum- mary. All three methods should be used in teaching the manual arts in public schools. QUESTIONS . 113 CHAPTER I. WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS? OUR forefathers came to this country civil- ized and equipped for the tasks before them. They came with habits of worship and reverence, with ideals of liberty and with knowl- edge of legal procedure. They came also with manual efficiency; some were farmers; others were carpenters, masons, millers, wheelwrights and blacksmiths; the women could spin and weave, sew and cook, clean and manage a house- hold. When schools were established, these were to train men to become lawyers, statesmen and preachers of the gospel. Schools for the manual industries were not needed because everybody worked with his hands, and the the- ories, recipes and traditions of the crafts were handed down from father to son, or from master to apprentice. The common schools taught all children to read and write because such instruc- tion was considered a necessary safeguard to the democratic form of government which was adopted. Ability to cipher, also, was considered desirable for all, and in the villages and towns it soon became essential because it had to do with money and the sale of merchandise. 12 THE MANUAL ARTS Decades came and went and left pioneers still subduing the forest lands and exterminating the Indians. Generations passed; cities began to spring up and grow; the prairie lands of the Central States began to yield an abundant har- vest and the mines to give up their rich stores. Manual labor, joined with natural resources, yielded great wealth. But during all this time the school was not called upon to train in manual industry. The school had, however, greatly in- creased its facilities for training for citizenship and the professions; academies, colleges and pro- fessional schools had been established and were rapidly growing into great universities; and the common schools had been multiplied to keep pace with the expanding frontier. Then came the demand for men trained in science and engineering to build railroads and bridges, canals and aqueducts, engines, ships and machinery of all kinds. This practical demand led to the establishment of schools of science and engi- neering, and soon the science studies found their way into the curriculum of the common schools. The growth and struggles of the nation demanded a more broadly educated citizenship, and historical studies and the study of social problems also found a place in school work. While all this remarkable development has been going on in the national life and in the school, the WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 13 mode of living has changed as rapidly. The simple life of the earlier days has given way to the many complexities of our present life. Now we all want modern houses; we want them individual in design, finished in hard woods, heated by automatically regulated furnaces, supplied with an abundance of water, gas, electricity, and telephones connect- ing us with our neighbors and friends. We want artistic draperies, rugs and wall coverings, good furniture, fine pictures, statuary and musical instru- ments. If we compare our present homes with the homes of our grandfathers when we were chil- dren, we realize what a rapid and remarkable change has taken place. About the same change has taken place in reference to our food and cloth- ing. Instead of contenting ourselves with what can be raised in our own garden or our own town, we get food from the most distant parts of the earth, and by rapid transportation we have largely over- come the limitations of season. We no longer spin and weave in our own homes ; knitting by hand is almost a lost art, and most of the sewing is done "on the machine." When we turn from the home to business the same is true. The farmer who is not equipped with motive power and machinery, can hardly expect to compete in the market. The ox team has given way to the traction engine, the cradle to the self-binding reaper, and so on thru the list. This is equally true in manufac- turing and nearly every other line of business. 14 THE MANUAL ARTS Things are being done at greater speed and in a manner that requires a more elaborate equipment. All this development has immensely increased the output demanded of the producing and dis- tributing industries. This demand in turn has increased the need for skilled workmen. Another factor that has acted with this need is the internal development in the industries themselves, which has come in part from the necessity of a more eco- nomical use of materials, but principally from the discoveries of science and their application to industry. If one tries to enumerate the changes in the metal industries alone that have followed the application of electricity in the telegraph, the tele- phone, the electric light, and electric motors he soon sees how endless is the undertaking. A very important result of this development in the indus- tries is the need of men with a wider knowledge of the materials and processes of industry and the principles upon which the processes and the use of the materials rest. This knowledge is not being handed down from father to son to any great extent, nor from master to apprentice, partly because the factory system does not easily lend itself to education, and partly because the knowl- edge needed is so new that even the masters them- selves find it difficult to keep up with the develop- ment. But this need for a wider knowledge of the principles and processes of industry is not confined to the workers in these producing industries. Every WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 15 man who would intelligently use the modern con- veniences of his own home, or the labor-saving devices and conveniences of business life, must know something of the materials and principles of industry; and if he is to have any adequate appre- ciation of the product if he is to judge the quality of the thing he purchases or uses, he must know something of the process that produced it. In fact, industrial development has been so rapid and so varied in our country it has affected every man's life to such an extent that if he is to retain sufficient mastery of his environment to make it serve his needs, he is forced to acquire consider- able practical knowledge of the materials, princi- ples and processes of industry. As we have already seen, this knowledge is not being handed down from parent to child in any adequate way, and so we look to the school to furnish it. And if the school is to furnish it, the school must be equipped with the tools of industry. Having accepted the responsibility for giving instruction in the industries, the school finds itself facing a long series of problems of selection, organization and administration. Most of these problems are still unsolved, tho many of them are being solved. Perhaps the problem of first importance relates to the selection of subject-matter. Which of the many manual arts shall be taught? Are some more fundamental than others? How can the 1 6 THE MANUAL ARTS manual arts be classified? What shall be the basis of our choice between them? These ques- tions are consciously or unconsciously being answered for individual schools, but too often without a sufficiently broad view of the needs and the possibilities. To find adequate answers one must survey the whole field of the manual arts as applied to industry; he must search out a basis for classification; then he must select fundamental processes in each class. Perhaps no better classi- fication has been suggested than the following: (a} the graphic arts. (b) the mechanic arts. (c) the plastic arts. (d) the textile arts. (e) the book-making arts. These five should be found in every course in the manual arts which extends thru the elementary school period, and if cooking is more art than science, the culinary arts should form a sixth class. The graphic arts were the first to be given a place in school work. These include all forms of drawing, both freehand and mechanical. The industries they represent are numerous architec- tural and machine drafting, all forms of engineer- ing drawing, designing for a variety of industries, and illustrating for newspapers, magazines and books. The increasing importance of these arts is apparent to everyone who gives the matter WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 17 thought, and the more one gives it thought, the more firmly convinced does he become that there is great need of revising many of our school courses in drawing so that they will be in harmony with the needs of the industries. Courses may be made far more practical than they are at the pres- ent time without being less cultural, and the more they harmonize with the best industrial practice in these arts, the more highly will they be valued by the community. Too often the drawing work has been a blind struggle for self-expression, when good representation would have been far better. Drawing is a language, and as such, a considerable knowledge of its symbols and forms must precede effective expression, especially in grades above the primary school. The fact that the graphic arts do serve as a language, transmitting thought concerning form and relative size, direction and curvature, tone and color, gives them a unique and important place in their relation to the other man- ual arts. For this reason, then, the graphic arts are fundamental, and rightly deserve first place in any course of instruction in the manual arts. But just as power to write good English is of comparatively little value without thoughts to express, so the graphic arts are robbed of half their value if not accompanied by some of the other manual arts. Mechanical drawing, for example, becomes too theoretical and often almost useless when not accompanied by woodworking 1 8 THE MANUAL ARTS and metalworking. Design, as we have been told so many times during the past few years, and are now just coming to believe, can be taught at its best only when associated with work in the mate- rial into which the design is to be wrought. The use of the object suggests the form; this is modified by the materials; both form and materials, to- gether with the tools, limit the design, and often suggest it. If necessary, other examples could be given to show the dependence of the graphic arts upon the constructive arts. Without the graphic arts the constructive arts have no means of com- munication, no language; they are dumb. With- out the constructive arts the graphic arts are lack- ing in content, in thought, in application. The interdependence is thus apparent. Of these constructive arts the mechanic arts have been most prominent in the minds of advo- cates of manual training. This is chiefly due to the fact that they deal especially with the two great constructive materials of our civilization wood and metal. Not only the building and ma- chine industries, but most manufacturing and engineering enterprises ships, railways, private vehicles, home furnishings and conveniences de- pend upon the skillful use of these two materials. The mechanic arts therefore appropriately head the list of constructive arts. In marked contrast with the mechanic arts, yet in many ways associated with them, are the plastic WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 19 arts. These include brick and tile making, con- crete construction, pottery, terra cotta and model- ing. These arts at present find their best school counterpart in clay-work. Year by year the indus- tries involving the plastic arts are becoming more and more important. The exploitation of our forests is making recourse to the clay bank a necessity in building. Demonstration of the possi- bilities of reinforced concrete construction is plac- ing sand and cement in competition with steel. As the cities grow in size calling for more large buildings, the demand for ornamental tiles and terra cotta increases, and under similar circum- stances there is an increased demand upon the plastic arts for the decoration of the interiors of buildings. From the standpoint of industry, then, the plastic arts constitute an important division of the manual arts, and from the school standpoint clay-work is one of the very best means of train- ing; it is form study work par excellence. The fourth group of arts is the textile arts. This includes spinning, weaving, braiding, dyeing, basketry, knitting, sewing, embroidery, garment making a large number of processes fundamental in our civilization. No further discussion of these is necessary; their vital importance is apparent. The fifth group consists of the book-making arts printing, engraving, lettering, leather tooling, bookbinding and construction work with paper, cardboard and paste. While these arts are not 20 THE MANUAL ARTS as fundamental to man's existence as the fourth group, which provides his clothing, and the second and third, which provide his shelter, they do pro- vide his chief means of storing up thought and transmitting it from one man to another and from generation to generation. This group of arts, then, is essential to progress if not to existence, and to that extent it is fundamental. From the school standpoint this group is one of especial value because it relates so readily to other school work; many of its processes are simple, requiring but little equipment and only such materials as are readily obtainable. To these five may be added the culinary arts; yet for some reasons the preparation of foods is more fittingly classified among the sciences than among the arts. Undoubtedly it is both a science and an art, and whether it is more one than the other is of no importance here. The essential point is that food-work is fundamental to civiliza- tion, and should have a place among the other manual arts in the school. No school system should be satisfied with teaching only one or two of the manual arts; some practical experience in all of them is necessary to prepare for the enjoyment of modern home and industrial conditions, and essential to an adequate appreciation of the arts of modern life. The public school has a noble record and should not be diverted from its traditional purpose, which WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 21 manifestly is to round out preparation for living, not in the remote or the near past, but to-day, in modern surroundings. Thomas Davidson has said that education "has grown with the growth of practical intelligence, and has been in all cases a preparation for life under existing institutions." It is the schoolman's duty to analyze present con- ditions, determining what constitutes a prepara- tion for adequate living, and then shape the work of his school accordingly. CHAPTER II. THE PLACE OF THE MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION. A S the field of school education broadens, its ** aims and methods become more varied and complex, and often confused. This is certainly the case today in that department of education which deals with the manual arts. The motives for the introduction of these arts have come to be so varied that to think clearly concerning this phase of school work is very difficult. This is perhaps fundamentally due to -changing social ideals and consequent demands, but it is partly due to a failure of educators to recognize that the manual arts function in school education both in .attaining the end of education and in facilitating the educative process. The teacher needs to keep in mind this dual capacity which the manual arts possess as a means in education. This duality of function is not peculiar to the manual arts. It is equally true of the natural sciences, and many have been the pedagogical battles fought out in that field in times past. One can readily recall the time when the science teach- ers were dwelling in two camps, one emphasizing the facts of science and the other the method. It THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 23 would seem, therefore, that the arts might have profited by the experience of the sciences, but in much of the discussion during the past fifteen years, this surely has not been the case and is not today. One man looks upon the manual arts as a body of subject-matter to be taught as he would teach the facts of history; another insists that the manual arts must be regarded as a fundamental method of education, and claims to care little or nothing for the subject-matter involved in this method. The place, therefore, of the manual arts in the one case is quite different from that in the other. One leads chiefly to a mastery of the ma- terials and the manual processes of industry, the other to a new motive and means of expression in teaching other subjects. The man whose vision penetrates deep enough sees that the big truth concerning the manual arts includes both of these, and that instead of being in conflict, they are really in harmony. When this viewpoint has been gained, a most fundamental step has been taken toward finding the place of the manual arts in education. In discussing this larger view, four propositions may be considered: /. In so far as the end in education can be attained more readily through the employment of the manual arts, these arts should have a place in education. The end of education changes from age to age as civilization advances, and should be in harmony 24 THE MANUAL ARTS with the ideals and institutions of the time. At the present time no end seems so much in harmony with needs and the highest ideals as that of social efficiency in the individual. In its broad interpre- tation, this term seems to summarize all other worthy aims, and points toward a goal not yet reached. Taking for granted, then, that the ulti- mate end of education is social efficiency in the individual, the manual arts should have a place in school education corresponding to their effective- ness in helping men to become socially efficient. As social efficiency in the individual means first of all that each individual must be directly or indi- rectly a productive member of society, the arts must answer the demand of productivity. To be productive a man must at least "pull his own weight." He may do so either "directly as a productive agent, or indirectly by guiding, inspir- ing, or educating others to productive effort." 1 As productivity in the great majority of individ- uals is the direct result of the intelligent and skill- ful use of the hands, it follows that training in the manual arts, which more than any other division of school work develops such use of the hands, should be given a place sufficiently large to allow such training to be effective. Until sufficient time is allowed in the school program for manual arts, no one should expect large results from them. With a time allowance which will require as much iBagley: The Educative Process. THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 25 of the pupil's effort as is given to the other funda- mental studies, both inside and outside the school, the manual arts will yield results which count large on the side of productivity. The manual arts contribute to social efficiency in several ways. They not only give vocational power, contributing largely to ability to earn a livelihood, but they impart first-hand knowledge of the material accessories of modern life. Every man's effectiveness and happiness is dependent in some measure sometimes in large measure upon the ease and intelligence with which he util- izes the modern conveniences in his own home or the material devices which make for economy and efficiency in business life. Moreover, the manual arts develop appreciation of beauty in its relation to material form, color, tone, and texture, which is an element not only in esthetic enjoyment but in general efficiency and productivity. And, further, the manual arts provide a means in addition to written language, of transmitting from generation to generation and age to age, some of the choicest thoughts and feelings of man. Since the manual arts contribute so largely to social efficiency, and social efficiency is the end sought in education, the manual arts deserve a place in school work. 2. In so far as the educative -process can be accelerated and made more thoro thru the em- ployment of the manual arts, these arts should have a place in education. a6 THE MANUAL ARTS The educative process is one of gaining ex- perience either directly, or indirectly, thru other persons or their records in books or works. In this process of gaining experience, the value and effectiveness of indirect experience is dependent to a very large extent upon related direct experi- ence. There is no substitute for such of these direct experiences as are fundamental, and the greater the number, the greater will be "the mass of apperceiving ideas," tho after some funda- mental direct experiences have been gained, it is often economy to make use of indirect experiences. To gain the fundamental direct experience at the time when needed and in the right relation to asso- ciated indirect experience is most desirable. To bring this about is largely the work of the school, and therefore the school must have the necessary means at hand. Applied to the manual arts, this indicates that if these arts are to be effectively taught in the school, or if real appreciation of these arts is to be developed, first-hand experience must be gained in them in the school. It is folly to try to teach a girl to appreciate needlework without giving her needle and thread and cloth and teaching her to sew, but after she has learned the fundamentals of sewing this knowledge will serve as a basis for the appreciation of results in needlework quite beyond her skill to produce, and wholly beyond her ability to appreciate before she had learned THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 27 the fundamentals of needlecraft. Moreover, many of the other subjects of the school curriculum certainly of the elementary school are naturally so interwoven in the manual arts and find practi- cal application so widely thru them, that direct experience in these arts provides a motive, a need, recognizable by the child, which is at the basis of many of our modern methods of teaching. A child wants to make a picture book. In making it he must measure and he must divide; he should also increase his practical vocabulary; in addition to these he may learn something of the early his- tory of books and of the source of paper and strawboard and cloth and paste ; he may then col- lect pictures and learn something of the lives of the men who painted them and the thoughts and feelings they desired to express thru them. Thus the manual arts serve as a method or means of teaching other subjects, and so contribute an ele- ment of value in the educative process. 5. If the place of the manual arts in education depends upon their service in attaining the end of education and their value in the educative process, then they should be regarded as both subject and method. The history of handwork in education reveals two traceable tendencies concerning the place of the manual arts which have been more or less in conflict. One has been to regard these arts as a subject and the other as a method. a8 THE MANUAL ARTS Dr. Pabst of Leipsic has pointed out 1 that Heusinger believed that the impulse to activity should be used to lead man to avenues of knowl- edge which otherwise would remain closed to him. Froebel emphasized and developed this idea and placed handwork at the very center of the curricu- lum. Herbart, on the contrary, and many of his followers, use handwork as a means of teaching the other school subjects, and make handwork dependent upon the other branches of instruction for its problems. Salomon in Sweden, Goetze in Germany, and most of the early leaders of manual training in England and in this country regarded their work as a subject co-ordinate with other sub- jects in the curriculum, while Colonel Parker and several child-study specialists in this country and in England have given marked emphasis to hand- work as a method in education; and much of the literature of the subject of a few years ago was written from the viewpoint of these men. During the past few years, with the advent of the movement toward industrial education, there has been a growing tendency again to give emphasis to the manual arts because of their content value, but, let it be hoped, without forgetting their process value. Today it seems clear that the manual arts in education should function both as subject and \Handwork Instruction for "Boys, translated by Bertha Reed Coffman. THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 29 method. The advocate of either view by itself seems not to present the whole truth. To contend that in order to have educative value, work in the manual arts must smack of a trade, or to look upon these arts in the school as merely producing certain specified material forms in clay or wood or metal, without reference to how they are pro- duced; or again, to think of the manual arts as merely a body of facts to be learned about materi- als, tools, forms, colors, and processes, is to fail to get an adequate idea of the place of the manual arts in education. On the other hand, to insist, as some have done, that the function of the manual arts is to provide a concrete method of teaching other school subjects, or to supply a motive or need which will admit of a better method of teach- ing the other subjects, is to reveal an equally inade- quate conception of the function of the manual arts in education. Only thru the unification of these two views of the manual arts, regarding them as possessing at once the characteristics of both subject and method, can we hope to get the true and adequate conception which will be a safe guide in organizing manual arts work in the school. 4. Considering the place of the manual arts in education as dependent upon the aim of education and the needs of the educative process, and regard- ing these arts as both subject and method, the place which they should occupy in the work of any sec- 3O THE MANUAL ARTS tion of the school, as primary, grammar, or high, can be determined by discovering the specific end sought in that section and the special needs of the educative process with reference to the manual arts in the particular stage of child development represented by the section. In considering the primary grades it may be assumed that it is clear to every one that so far as fhe manual arts are concerned, the end of social efficiency in the individual is better served by lay- ing a broad foundation of first-hand experience than by taking him thru any narrow course of more specific technical training. It has been proven that if sufficient time be given to basketry for sev- eral years, American primary school children can make most remarkable baskets, some of them almost rivaling the work of the aborigines them- selves in fineness and technic. But it is hardly the function of the primary school to train expert basket makers, and it would be difficult, on any other ground, to justify such a narrow course of training in handwork. It would be far better to give the young child experience in a large variety of materials and processes, not so much to teach technic as to stimulate and guide his natural con- structive activity, and to utilize the great oppor- tunity that presents itself at this age for expres- sion, more or less free, thru concrete material. In fact, in these grades the manual arts should be regarded as a method far more than a subject. THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 31 Let them serve every other subject or embryo- subject in every natural and reasonable way. In- stead of limiting the child in this work to paper and raffia, or clay and cloth, or wood and wire, give him all of these and more. Cultivate in him the habit of observing how things are made, of expressing ideas in concrete form, of constructing well enough to serve a purpose which he under- stands, and of doing it all so neatly and in such good form and color that it is pleasing to his gradually more discriminating eye. Stimulate in him that real joy and wonder at the possibilities of construction with his own hands, which the little kindergarten boy felt when in great enthusi- asm he said, "Isn't it fine to see how one thing busts into another without breaking." The aim, then, in the primary grades should be to utilize the manual arts in giving the child an opportunity to gain a wide range of direct and useful experi- ence with constructive materials and processes, without very much reference to technic. t In the early grammar grades the emphasis begins to shift toward the manual arts as a sub- ject, and in the upper grammar grades, technic is as essential as was freedom from technic in the lower primary grades. Physically and mentally the child is now ready to form very definite habits in the use of his hands. In fact, he will form them whether we wish him to or not, and it is therefore essential that we see that the right ones instead 32 THE MANUAL ARTS of the wrong ones are formed. If he uses a tool, he should be taught to use it in the right way. Otherwise he may have to go thru the expen- sive process of inhibiting a bad habit and acquiring a good one in its place. When such bad habits are multiplied they become discouraging and well-nigh impossible to unlearn; hence the justice of the criticism of some work for pupils of this age that has passed under the name of manual training, but fails to possess the first fundamentals of real manual training. This emphasis on technic does not lessen the interest of the child in his work; on the contrary, it deepens it and renders it more permanent. Moreover, emphasis on technic does not mean returning to the rigid systems of models imported many years ago from Europe; neither does it mean adopting the factory system in all our gram- mar schools. It does mean thoroness where too often there is lack of it, and it does mean teaching a technical process in harmony with recognized technical standards. All this does not interfere with the manual arts in these grades being of value as a method in teaching other subjects, but it does mean that the work during this period contributes to social effi- ciency, the end of education, more distinctly and definitely than it does to the educative process. A lack of clearness of conception concerning this point has caused much confusion among teachers. THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 33 The present demand for industrial education, if rightly interpreted and conservatively heeded, may bring us to our pedagogical senses in this matter. If all our art and manual training work of the upper grammar grades were more thoroly done, more technical in character, more in harmony with the industries of adults were more definitely a serious subject and if it were given sufficient time in the school program to become really effective, we would hear less complaint about the defects of the school system. Sufficient time is essential. What could an eighth grade teacher do in teaching United States history if her pupils spent no time outside of the recitation period in the preparation of their lesson and were to recite but once a week thirty-six hours a year? What practical results could she expect? And yet that is what some schools are doing in the manual arts and are looking for prac- tical results. It is impossible. A few are giving from three to five hours a week and are beginning to get results. This amount should be further increased. In the high school the manual arts have become differentiated into special subjects, as dressmaking, wood-turning, forging, machine drawing, etc. As a method in education they are still valuable, but it is the educational end they serve far more than any value in the educative process that gives them their place in the curriculum. The end sought may 34 THE MANUAL ARTS be vocational or general, but in either case the arts taught should be so correct in technic, should place such emphasis on processes that are funda- mental, should be so in harmony with the cor- responding industry that they will have distinct vocational value as far as they go. Possibly they may go far enough in the high school or even in the grammar school to give to selected groups of students all that any school can give toward a trade or occupation, but whether the manual arts aim for immediate vocational results or not, the technical standard should be the same. The place of the manual arts in school educa- tion, then, is that of both subject and method. As method, it is most effective in the_^imary grades. As a subject, it grows more and|Bbre ^important as the grades advance, and becomes a highly spe- cialized subject or group of subjects in the high school. A full recognition of these two aspects of the manual arts, and what naturally follows as a result, should be a help to every teacher and school superintendent in organizing his course of instruction. CHAPTER III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION. ' I A WO of the direct results of instruction in the A manual arts are, first, power to do, and, sec- ond, ability to appreciate what is done by others. Both of these results must be embodied in the aim of the teacher who would wisely guide his pupils in work in the manual arts. Emphasis is rightly placed on the first, but the second deserves more thought than it usually receives. Froebel tells us that "man only understands thoroly that which he is able to produce." Accept- ing this stateJftnt as fact, we see that it is only thru mastery^f processes, tools and materials, color, form and values, laws of construction and harmony, that we can completely understand any masterpiece of art or handicraft. And we know from experience that such mastery is exceedingly difficult to acquire. William M. Hunt in his "Talks on Art" * has given emphasis to the same fact when he says, "I flatter myself that I know and feel more than I express on canvas; but I know that it is not so." Here is the point of view of complete mastery of materials and processes. If one becomes a master 1 First Series, page 5. 36 THE MANUAL ARTS of brush and pigment, he can express his thought and feeling thru painting, and it is only thru such power of expression that one comes to know the thought and feeling expressed by other painters to fully appreciate a great work in painting. But here again we who would appreciate art and handi- craft find that it takes a lifetime to gain the mastery of even the painter's art; and when we think of sculpture and metalwork, cabinet-making, textiles, jewelry, the building of a cathedral, a great bridge or machine, we realize how impossi- ble it is to fully appreciate work in all these arts and crafts. With our human limitations, the span of a single life is not long enough to include so much, yet we desire the power to appreciate the good in the arts and to help others to do the same. So we are led to try another and easier course. We throw aside the philosophy of Froebel and seek to store our minds with facts about the arts, in the hope that by this means we may reach our goal of appreciation. We search the latest books and magazines. We read what Mr. A. says of the opinion expressed by Mr. B. concerning the work of Mr. C. We find that Mr. D. does not agree with either Mr. A. or Mr. B. on several important points, and we take little satisfaction in knowing their combined opinions. When we are honest with ourselves we admit that we do not appreciate the real thing they are writing about. Like the young clerk in the draperies department THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 37 of a downtown store, we can talk "arts and crafts style" or we can discuss the report of the latest ex- hibition, and quote good authorities too, but we are conscious of the fact that this is not apprecia- tion. We know that appreciation involves feeling, and this newspaper reading has begotten no art feeling in us. We would not only know about art, but we would feel we would respond to the influ- ence of the art; we would have the artist's emo- tions transmitted to us, and this we find does not come about thru the medium of words merely. We must see and touch and do ; we must get our knowl- edge first-hand; we must learn thru experience. In learning about the art we have avoided the thing itself. As Dr. Munsterberg points out \ we have taken the scientist's attitude instead of the artist's "The scientist explains, where the artist appreciates." This brings us to our problem: If we cannot learn to appreciate the arts by reading books and magazines, and if life is not long enough to allow us to secure the mastery of all the arts we would appreciate, what are we to do? Is there not a median course open to us? For our purposes, can we not combine the scientist's explanation with the artist's appreciation? Would not such a course be in harmony with the aim of the public school? If so, is it possible, and what does it in- rolve ? l The Principles of Art Education y page 28. 38 THE MANUAL ARTS Perhaps we may get a suggestive illustration from music: We would appreciate the oratorio. We read of the origin and early form of the oratorio and its identity with the opera. We read the life of George Frederick Handel, a description of his "Messiah," and learn of the effect it pro- duced when it was first given in the city of Dublin. We read of its presentation in London shortly after, when the audience was so electrified by the "Hallelujah Chorus" that the King and all present rose involuntarily and remained standing till its close. We are interested in this account, but the reading does not enable us to appreciate the ora- torio. Next we go to the Auditorium and hear the "Messiah" presented by noted soloists and the great chorus and orchestra. We are more than interested now, tho many parts of the compo- sition find no response in us we have not been educated in music. The grandeur of other parts, however, does affect us, but we do not yet appre- ciate the oratorio. Then we learn to sing, and join the great chorus. Under the inspiring leader- ship of a Thomas or Damrosch, we sing the parts over and over; we rehearse with the soloists and orchestra ; and on the night of the concert we pour out our souls in music till we are lifted above our- selves and things of earth and are touched by the same emotion that inspired the composer. We may not think we see "all heaven before us and the great God Himself" as did Handel when he THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 39 wrote the "Hallelujah," but we have in some meas- ure come to appreciate the "Messiah," and we have established a basis for the appreciation of all other oratorios. Another illustration from music: A boy in the fifth grade in the public school read in his school reader an account of the writing of Mozart's "Requiem." He read how the unknown visitor came and gave Mozart the commission, how he disappeared so mysteriously that Mozart believed the stranger had been sent from another world; he interpreted the coming as announcing his own ap- proaching end, and so applied himself with in- creased ardor to the task of writing the "Requiem." Later the boy learned to play a selection from the "Requiem" on the piano and recalled what he had read two years before. He hunted up his old reader and re-read the story; then going to the piano he sat down and played the selection again. It was evident that his emo- tions were affected by the music as they had not been before. The "Requiem" had a new meaning to him; he had reached a stage of appreciation which was not evident before he re-read the story, and certainly not before he learned to play the selection from the "Requiem." He does not yet fully appreciate the "Requiem," but he has the foundation for a growing appreciation. Turning now to the manual arts we may find similar illustrations. A young man sees a water- 4O THE MANUAL ARTS color painting and likes it, but he does not appre- ciate it until he has struggled with muddy washes and hard edges and false values and learned to produce something of that purity and delicacy of color and those atmospheric effects which belong particularly to paintings in water-color. He may have read much about water-color painting and water-color paintings and water-color painters, but he gets only part value in return for his reading until he has studied the art itself. After that, the reading is of great value. The same is true of the art of smithing. Not until one has drawn out the hot iron with the hammer and anvil and discovered the difficulties in making a graceful bend or a neat weld can he appreciate medieval wrought-iron work. Until then the hinges on the doors of Kenilworth Church or Notre Dame Cathedral are so many black scrolls and sprays. They might just as well have been made of painted stucco as nobly wrought metal. After he has himself worked in iron, every fact in the history of the craft, and every master- piece has a new interest to him. The fact that so few of us appreciate wrought iron is why we ac- cept substitutes from those who would deceive us. A short time ago while in an art store a clerk wished me to admire some pieces of copper work "A very fine new line, just in," she said, and then spoke of the individual pieces in most en- thusiastic terms, telling me that they were all THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 41 beaten up by hand. The moment I saw them I knew they were not hand work. Having ham- mered copper myself, I knew that the pieces before me were not even good imitations of hand work, and so I pointed out her mistake. She still insisted and carried the case to the proprietor for vindica- tion. Much to her chagrin he admitted the truth. The clerk herself did not intend to misrepresent facts; she was merely repeating what had been told her. She had no appreciation of the wares she was trying to sell. She could talk glibly about a dozen kinds of handicraft work, but she had no real appreciation of any of them. Every day she was misleading an ignorant public that came to the best art store in town to buy genuine art products. In this connection it is well to remember that one may be attracted by the form of an object or its use without appreciating it as an art product; or, in painting, one may be interested in the subject of the composition and may value the picture without appreciating the painting as a work of art. I used to know a man who painted pictures of farm houses and cornfields and sold them to the owners of the farm houses. The farmers bought his pic- tures not because they appreciated the painting, but because they were interested in the thing he represented in his pictures. If they had appre- ciated painting they would not have bought his pictures. Appreciation of an art, then, demands a high standard in works that are representative 42 THE MANUAL ARTS of that art. To raise the level of appreciation in a community is to raise the standard of art prod- ucts that can be sold in that community. What we have observed to be true in reference to the arts of painting and metalwork is equally true in reference to any of the mechanical arts. For a generation our engineering colleges have recognized that to read about pattern-making, or moulding or machine construction, is not sufficient for the engineer, even tho as an engineer he may never have to do the handwork. In order to gain reasonable knowledge of processes and an appreciation of quality in construction, it is essen- tial that the student in training have actual shop experience in all the fundamental crafts he is likely to deal with as an engineer. In this way only can a feeling for good workmanship an educated sense of fitness be imparted in the short period of the school preparation of an engineer. But here, too, mere practice in the craft is not suffi- cient. Along with the practice must come a study of the theory of construction and the economics of its application to industries, also a study of the materials employed, the source of supply, methods of refining, etc. The student gets the theory and the practice the science and the art together. Each helps the other. If these illustrations have been pertinent to the problem under discussion we may infer, ( 1 ) that some definite knowledge of the technic of an art THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 43 is fundamental to any real appreciation of that art, (2) that appreciation involves feeling which can be gained only thru experience in the art itself, (3) that after such experience, appreciation may be developed by reading about processes, methods, motives, relationships, about the masterpieces, and especially by studying the works themselves. With the foregoing discussion in mind we may now turn our thoughts for a moment to the public schools. The aim of the public schools, in refer- ence to the manual arts, is not fundamentally to turn out a few great artists and master craftsmen. It is rather to educate many pupils to a reasonably high degree of industrial efficiency, and to give all pupils the power of discrimination and apprecia- tion. With our present ideas of training for citi- zenship in a democracy, we usually discourage much specialization in the elementary school, and aim to produce a high general average of manual efficiency. We prefer considerable familiarity with several crafts to expertness in one. Likewise in the matter of appreciation we prefer to have it cover a wide range of handicrafts rather than be narrowed down to one or two. Accepting this point of view, for the present, at least, it follows from what has been said that in order to develop the kind of appreciation we want in American citizens, it becomes necessary for the public schools to give instruction in a variety of arts and crafts rather than to confine its efforts 44 THE MANUAL ARTS to one or two. Without forgetting the dangers of a mere "smattering" of a subject, we recognize the importance of an intimate acquaintance with a variety of materials and processes as the basis for a broad appreciation. Moreover, such acquaint- ance is the foundation for effective work in voca- tional guidance. A course thru the grades con- sisting merely of paper and cardboard work, still- life drawing, and a course of benchwork in wood is decidedly inferior to a course which includes fundamental processes in (a) the graphic arts drawing and picture making, (b) the mechanic arts woodworking and metalworking, (c) the plastic arts modeling and pottery, (d) the textile arts weaving, braiding, sewing, and garment making, and (e) the bookmaking arts paper and cardboard work, lettering, bookbinding and leather tooling. Not one of these five subdivi- sions of the manual arts can be omitted from the course without correspondingly limiting the possi- bilities for the development of appreciation. But it is not sufficient that the child do the work merely, even in all these varied arts and indus- tries; he must be led to see beyond the work of his own hands; he must learn something of the rela- tionship of each art to the great out-of-school world into which he will soon be thrown, and to the history of industrial effort. Information con- cerning the origin and development of any art the social conditions that called it forth and nour- THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 45 ished it will give the pupil's own work new sig- nificance. The masterpieces, too, and the experi- ences of the men who created them, should be an inspiration to him. Biography, history, economics, science and literature may all contribute elements to his developing appreciation. The development of appreciation in the manual arts as a factor in public school effort does not mean less handwork and more information, but it does mean more information of a significant char- acter connected with the handwork, from what- ever source it may come. It means a new point of view for many teachers of the manual arts, and especially it means enrichment of the course of study and rational correlation. CHAPTER IV. VOCATIONAL TRAINING To WHAT EXTENT JUSTIFIABLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS? TN business the amount of money that may profit- ably be spent in advertising depends upon the financial returns from such advertising. Whether a business house can afford to spend one thousand or one hundred thousand dollars in educating the public up to its standard of quality and taste de- pends upon the returns it can get in sales which are the result of such educational expenditure. There is no limit to the justifiable expenditure so long as the returns come in in sufficient ratio to the capital invested in this way. Likewise the question of how much the business house can afford to spend in the special education of salesmen depends upon the returns in sales in proportion to the outlay for education and wages. This same principle holds true in public educa- tion. Any expenditure is justifiable so long as the returns are sufficient in kind, quality, and amount. In this case, however, the returns are not in terms of dollars for the business corporation, or salary for the individual, but in terms of benefits realiz- able by all the people of the city, the state, the nation by the public. The late General Francis 46 VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 47 A. Walker once said that the demand for public schools "has been purely socialistic in character, springing out of a conviction that the state would be stronger, and the individual members of the state would be richer and happier and better if power and discretion in this matter of education of children were taken away from the family and lodged with the government." It is of the great- est concern to the public how the children of the nation are educated, and the nation or the state is justified in adopting any reasonable measures that will produce efficient citizens. The more one studies the history of the public schools the more it becomes clear to him that the great purpose of such schools is fundamentally vocational. We are aware of the fact that it is customary to speak of the aim of the public schools as being, first, cultural, and incidentally vocational. From the standpoint of the state, however, the former may be regarded as incidental to the latter. General education at least, that part of it that is given during the first six years, which we call elementary education is, so far as the state is con- cerned, but the beginning of an education, the whole of which is the making of efficient social units. And an efficient unit of society must have a vocation, and to be most efficient that unit must be trained in some way either in public schools or at private expense or thru vocational experience or by means of a combination of these. Elementary 48 THE MANUAL ARTS education is, then, from this point of view, the foundation of a structure which is essentially voca- tional. And it is, or ought to be, just as funda- mental to success in the vocations connected with the industries as with the professions, and, in fact, far more so, if there must be a difference, because the great majority of students go into the indus- tries. But whether we regard elementary educa- tion as chiefly a means to vocational ends or not, the fact of a vocational end in public education as a whole seems evident. The economic value of education certainly is not sufficiently appreciated in America. We be- lieve, in general, that education makes a man a bet- ter member of society, but we do not believe it in particular. We realize that an educated man has greater possibilities of making himself useful, but we do not see clearly the economy of educating every man to the point of making him the most efficient possible social unit. As some one has said, we believe in educating corn until it contains the highest possible proportion of the desired ele- ments; we believe in breeding horses and cattle and hogs and poultry; but we have not yet come to realize that educating men is just as profitable, provided, of course, that the education is in the direction of giving the best possible social results. We seem to be a long way from an appreciation of the full value of a healthy, efficient, happy human being. Perhaps the cultivation of such VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 49 beings is to be the great work of the twentieth century. If so, vocational education is going to be a big factor in accomplishing the desired result. Greater emphasis on the vocational elements in education need not cause any sacrifice in the total cultural effect. On the contrary it will tend to raise the general average of culture, (a) because it will keep pupils in school longer, and (b) be- cause the vocation may, for many students, become the most effective focal center around which a broad education may be gathered. There are two roads to a broad culture one by way of a course that is general from beginning to end, the other by a narrower, vocational course which, if pursued long enough, is bound to lead out into paths cov- ering the broad field. Dr. Kerchensteiner of Munich, when in conference with the Illinois Edu- cational Commission in Chicago, indicated that it was his belief that of the two roads the latter was the better. It is not in harmony with the curricula of our American schools, but it is in harmony with one of the fundamental laws of our educational psychology. It possesses the advantage of build- ing upon natural interests, and in addition to this, it insures getting to some definite end which is socially worth while. It would seem that the carrying out of this theory in the schools of Munich is striking a new note in educational method. Herbart would make history the focal center of the curriculum; Colonel Parker would 50 THE MANUAL ARTS give that place to geography; but it has remained for Dr. Kerchensteiner, with his social and peda- gogical insight and his rare statesmanship, to make the vocation of the individual the focal center for his education, thereby elevating the vocation, while at the same time leading the stu- dent in the most natural possible way out into broad fields of knowledge and culture. Such a program is not a study of the humanities with humanity left out; on the contrary, it is in vital touch from beginning to end with the work and thoughts, the aspirations and the victories, of hu- man experience. While making a student, it pro- duces also a man an efficient social unit. The best vocational education, then, is also cultural, and the best cultural education may come thru a training that is fundamentally vocational. Coming now to the question before us, we may say that in so far as vocational education is eco- nomically profitable to a city, state, or nation, it is justifiable, but as a matter of course, it should not take the place of any fundamental education that is more profitable. The nation is justified in training a few military leaders at West Point and Annapolis because the welfare of all the people of the nation, in time of war, depends upon the knowledge and leadership of these few experts. The nation is justified in educating chemists and biologists to test foods and prevent the spread of disease, also to train meter- VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC" SCHOOLS 51 ologists to prognosticate concerning the weather, because all the people benefit directly or indirectly by their work. By the same token the state is justified in educating every man to his highest efficiency in his chosen occupation, provided that in the pursuit of that occupation he serves the community in a beneficial way. It is not the func- tion of the state to educate pickpockets and hold- up men, boodlers, yellow-journalists, and anarch- ists. Indeed we should do everything possible to eliminate the kind of vocational training that pro- duces these in our midst. They are a very dan- gerous by-product of our social system, and may be, in part, at least, the result of our failure to give vocational guidance and adequate vocational training in the schools. For a striking illustration of the value of voca- tional education to a nation, we may turn to Ger- many : Years ago English manufacturers were both- ered by the importation of cheap goods from Ger- many. As England had no protective tariff to prevent such damage to her markets she resorted to an ingenious device, passing a law that all goods coming from Germany should be marked "Made in Germany." The aim in this act was to create a sentiment against such goods, and to warn every English buyer against the inferior imported articles that were threatening to undermine cer- 52 THE MANUAL ARTS tain English industries. "Made in Germany" was thus intended to signify inferiority. To an aspiring commercial nation this was a severe blow. It was in fact humiliating; but it was accepted as a challenge. Germany set about to turn the trick back upon England, and quietly de- veloped her remarkable system of industrial schools and compulsory continuation schools. Her scientists and artists multiplied and focused their efforts upon industry. The quality of her goods improved steadily until today the phrase "Made in Germany" stands for a substantial quality and artistic finish that command the attention of the markets of the world. In many instances German products have crowded out English goods. In January, 1899, Germany's mastery of one of England's greatest industries had enabled her to produce that splendid steamship, "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse." This great vessel, perfect in every detail, had just crossed the Atlantic, making the swiftest passage of any vessel. With glowing pride in this achievement the captain painted on the side of his vessel, in great letters, the legend, "Made in Germany," and triumphantly sailed up the Solent to the port of Southampton. This was a fine bit of retaliation, and it was appreciated. After relating this incident to a body of stu- dents, J. H. Reynolds, director of the Municipal Technical School at Manchester, said, "The effi- cient cause for all I have been saying about Ger- VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 53 many is her schools." Germany believes that edu- cation pays because it helps men to become more efficient and she believes in making it compulsory because every worker should have a chance to rise to his highest efficiency, not only for his own sake but for the sake of the nation. Vocational training is justifiable in the public schools to such an extent as will be effective and economical in producing efficient citizens. CHAPTER V. THE SELECTION AND ORGANIZATION OF SUB- JECT-MATTER IN THE MANUAL ARTS. T T seems unnecessary and even undesirable to attempt to draw a sharp line of demarkation between the manual arts for vocational ends and the manual arts for general educational ends. We should recognize a dual end in education, but we would not sever the whole educational system by a social line as Europe has done, and we would not start on that road by trying to separate the practical from the cultural in the subjects of instruction. With reference to this matter we believe that the layman who views school work from the outside and calls all handwork by the same name all manual training or all industrial training or all vocational training, whichever word may have come into his vocabulary is nearer the big truth than the educational expert who tries to divide what is and, in the nature of things, should be fundamentally an indivisible unit. The expert may point out different aspects of this unit and give them names, but he cannot make clear to the layman or the practical workman who thinks for himself, just where lines can reasonably be drawn 54 SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 55 between the two. Why, then, should we try to emphasize such differences? But let us see; let us consider the matter. And in order to do this in a reasonable way let us first eliminate all manual training that is not practi- cal that does not help in the formation of good habits in the use of tools and train for intelligent workmanship, and at the same time eliminate all vocational work that makes a man a mere ma- chine leads him into a narrow alley of thought and effort. This will eliminate a great deal of trash that by sufferance still passes under the name of manual training, but ought not to any longer because something better is here to take its place. It will also eliminate much repressive work now done under apprenticeship agreements, and some done by part-time and co-operative schools; but this also ought not to continue because a better way for all concerned has already been pointed out. After eliminating these, what is left has more likenesses than differences. The differences are no greater than between arithmetic and shop arith- metic; both are arithmetic, but the approach or the selection or the application is different. In both the same eternal fundamentals are taught. Just so in woodworking or metalworking; the funda- mentals that are at the basis of any good work in either manual training or vocational training in these subjects are identical. This fact is so easily recognizable by every man who has been both a 56 THE MANUAL ARTS practical workman and a teacher that it seems unnecessary to instance the early history of manual training when the fundamentals the elements of instruction were obtained by subjecting the best practice in the mechanic arts to a process of analy- sis with reference to teaching, or to the fact that in the best trade courses today both in this country and Europe those which have become well estab- lished and are turning out skillful men base their instruction on these same fundamental elements. So far as the fundamentals of hand-tool instruc- tion are concerned the main difference between good manual training and good vocational train- ing is in the amount of time and the age of students, and not in the fundamental elements themselves. This, however, is not the whole story. There is a notable difference between arithmetic and shop arithmetic and that is in its application to modern shop problems. Likewise there is a difference be- tween manual training woodworking and voca- tional school woodworking and that difference is in its application to modern shop conditions. In other words, vocational woodworking is good manual training in wood plus the factory system. This formula seems too simple a one in which to state the complex situation we sometimes hear about in educational meetings and in the educa- tional press, but we believe it to be true. And if it is true for woodworking, it is likely to be SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 57 just as true in other manual arts that have come under the modern factory system. By this formula, however, one should not at- tempt to solve all the problems of external and internal organization nor of method, tho it may help in some of these. The addition indicated in the formula may be performed in a physical sense, as by fusion, or in a biological sense as by natural selection thru a process of growth, using the best available means. Both of these processes are going on in vocational school experiments. And whichever way the addition is being per- formed there is always to be found on the inside a unity in the art that is being taught which is far more vital for the future of all this great movement in education than are the superficial and organization differences. When we analyze the situation for ourselves, instead of accepting somebody's dictum, we are forced to the conclusion that there is no sharp fundamental line of demarkation that should be drawn between the manual arts for vocational ends and the manual arts for general educational ends. The factory system which has been a dis- tinctive element in vocational schools has seemed to suggest the most reasonable line of demarka- tion, but, as has been shown, pedagogically speaking, the factory system in the school is essentially a means of teaching the application of fundamentals, which are the very essence of 58 THE MANUAL ARTS manual training work. In the interests of future development this unity should be maintained and strengthened. Accepting this point of view, no marked dis- tinction will be made in the following discussion between the arts pursued for vocational ends and those for ends usually denominated as cultural or general. Indeed, an effort will be made to forget that there may be any difference. /. It is desirable to select subject-matter that has some industrial value at the present time in our own nation or state. At Bradley Institute there is an exhibit of fish traps, basket work, and mat-weaving that came from the Philippine Islands about a dozen years ago. In several respects it is a remarkable exhibit of handicraft. It represents a great deal of skill and knowledge. It would be quite possible, with the requisite materials imported to this country, to work out a course of problems which, if taught thoroly in our upper grammar grades, would en- able our American boys to make good fish traps of the Philippine type, also baskets and mats. But who would be willing to recommend that such work take the place of our own American wood- working and metalworking in the schools? Even though it were proven that the physical and mental effects of the fish trap course were superior, we would still refuse to make the substitution simply because we have no use for such fish traps, except SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 59 to place them in museums. On the other hand, knowledge and skill in woodworking and metal- working are usable in America. Woodworking and metalworking with American bench tools have an industrial value. The city of Strasburg has developed a peculiar course in wood-carving. The work is done with tiny carving tools set in engraver's tool handles. In carving, a student takes a small block of wood about three inches square and holds it with his left hand on another block that is fastened to a desk top. He works in about the same way as an engraver of copper or silver who, with his left hand, holds his work on a leather pad filled with sand, while with his right hand he holds the tool and does the cutting. We would not recommend this type of work in the United States, even though we considered it good manual gym- nastics, because it has very little or no industrial value. It is neither real wood-carving nor is it good wood engraving. It is merely a hybrid industrial work developed by a school teacher for disciplinary purposes. If we are to teach wood-carving in the manual training school, it should be the kind of wood-carving used in America. To meet our first demand, then, the subject- matter of the manual arts must have some indus- trial value in the country where it is to be taught. 2. For public school instruction it is desirable 60 THE MANUAL ARTS to select subject-matter from typical common in- dustries rather than from the exceptional and uncommon ones. If we consult the United States census for 1910, we find that 36 per cent, or 10,851,000 of the male population above 10 years of age, who are employed in gainful occupations are engaged in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry; 29 per cent, or 8,837,000 are engaged in manufac- turing and mechanical industries; 10 per cent, or 3,146,000 are engaged in trade; 8 per cent, or 2,531,000 are engaged in transportation; and less than half the latter number in each of the follow- ing: clerical occupations, domestic and personal service, professional service, public service and the extraction of minerals. This shows that agricul- ture employs the largest number of men, that manufacturing employs the second largest, and that these two together occupy the time of 65 per cent of the entire body of male workers. This would seem to indicate that the school is making no mistake when it looks to agriculture and manu- facturing for subject-matter. If we carry our analysis a little further, making a distinction between farmers and farm laborers, assuming that the former need more schooling than the latter, we find that more than half the total number engaged in agriculture, or about 5,850,000 are in occupations in which a good education ought to be regarded as a necessity. If SELECTION or SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 61 we analyze the workers in the manufacturing in- dustries we find about the same to be true: A little more than half, or about 4,700,000 are skilled workers, 1,725,000 are semi-skilled, 2,400,- 000 are laborers, and 100,000 are apprentices. If we carry the analysis still further we find that by grouping together the brick and stone masons, the carpenters, the builders and building contrac- tors, the plumbers and gas and steam fitters, and the painters, glaziers, varnishers, etc., we have the building group of 1,643,000 skilled workers. Then by bringing together the blacksmiths, forge- men and hammer men, the machinists, millwrights and toolmakers, the molders, founders and casters, the tinsmiths and coppersmiths and one-half of the foremen, overseers, manufacturers and offi- cials we have a metal industries group of 1,092,- 000 skilled workers. It should be remembered in this connection that the number of semi-skilled and unskilled workers in the metal industries is especially large, being over 900,000. Besides these two major groups there are smaller groups, such as the printing and publish- ing industries, the textile and clothing industries, the shoe and leather industries, and the group of engineers and electricians. It would seem to be clear, then, that in the two great fields of agriculture and manufacturing, American schools should seek subject-matter. 6a THE MANUAL ARTS j. The selection of subject-matter in any in- dustry should be based on an analysis of that industry. The same is true if the subject-matter is to be taken from a group of industries. Of all the heretical notions that have crept into our discussion of industrial education during the past few years none seems to be more damag- ing than the idea that all you have to do to give a boy a vocational education is to give him jobs of work to do after the manner of the factory. We realize that this idea came as a reaction against a supposed or a real over-emphasis of logical procedure in rigid courses of instruction in handwork. But that is not sufficient excuse for throwing aside forty years of experience and going back to the point where we began in 1876. Even the factories themselves have proven that this is not the best way to educate their apprentices; they have established non-productive shops or semi-productive shops where courses of instruc- tion organized from the teaching standpoint are given. If proof were necessary several of the corporation schools in this country could fur- nish ample evidence that work organized for instruction purposes is quite different from work organized for the immediate production of manu- factured goods. In other words, the factory method of employing a boy's time is not the most economical from the instruction standpoint. SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 63 If this be recognized as fact then the road seems clear toward the organization of work from the teaching point of view, and this involves selecting fundamental elements of subject-matter. This selecting, in turn, involves an analysis of the processes of the industry itself. All the famous courses in handwork, whether for the training of mechanics, like the Russian system, or the course in the technical school at Chalon, France, or in the Carnegie Technical School in this coun- try; or for general education, like the sloyd work of Finland, Sweden and Denmark, or the manual training system of France, Germany, England and America; or in the highest schools of art crafts- manship in England, France and Germany; in all of these the courses in handwork are based upon an analysis of trades, or groups of trades or industries or parts of these. In every case some more or less definite field of industrial work is selected usually one trade, or several very closely allied trades and analyzed with reference to selecting elements of subject-matter to use in in- struction. But not all analyses of the same trade are alike. One may be better than another. The usual analysis reduces the processes of the trade to its simplest teaching elements, so that they appear one after another in mathematical order, like a string of beads, where the biggest is at one 64 THE MANUAL ARTS end, and all are graded down to the smallest at the other. The group analysis is the division of the proc- ess into masses or groups of homogeneous or related matter. These may or may not be graded. They may be like the little bear, the middle-sized bear and the big bear in the story of the three bears, or they may be like bears of the same size. In either case each group must contain some vital element or elements in the process. A course of instruction based on the string-of- beads or course analysis takes into consideration the capacities and sometimes the interests of the average normal child to be taught, but it is weak because it is narrow and rigid; it may easily become stereotyped for the reason that it treats all students alike it "runs them all thru the same mill." This kind of analysis used as a basis for the selection and organization of subject-mat- ter in certain manual training work would seem to be the cause of reaction against such work. A course of instruction based on a group an- alysis is better because it is flexible. It allows for individual differences. It lends itself far bet- ter to the use of factory methods in so far as they may be used at all to advantage. It seems to be in harmony with what has come to us thru the study of the principles of modern pedagogy. The selection and organization of subject-mat- ter, then, should be based upon an analysis of the SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 65 processes, trade, industry or industries studied, and that analysis should be made with reference to discovering groups or masses or chapters of subject-matter in each of which there are funda- mental, vital elements. 4. The trade or industry analyzed for the purpose of obtaining elements of subject-matter should be typical and modern. It is quite possible to make an analysis of indus- trial processes that are not typical. For example, one might readily find a man called a machinist in a big factory and follow him in his work from day to day, making an analysis of his trade, but it would be found to be lacking in elements which are considered vital in the equipment of a machin- ist for another shop. And so the question arises, Where shall we find the typical machinist? in the big factory or in the small? in the specialized work of the big industrial city or the more varied work common to the smaller town? To train men for one set of factory conditions is not usually re- garded as the highest type of vocational education, and certainly not the best general education. The typical example of a trade or industry is not always easy to find, but it should be sought for purposes of educational analysis. Besides being typical it should be modern. The analysis of cabinet-making as it would have been made by a New York or New England cabinet- maker of fifty years ago would be defective today. 66 THE MANUAL ARTS The same would be true of nearly every trade or industry. Re-analysis will be needed from time to time. It does not take very many years in some industries for a process to become obsolete. The school should recognize this fact in selecting its subject-matter for industrial courses. 5. The resulting groups of subject-matter may vary greatly in amount, in time required, in general character, but each must contain some element or elements vital to the subject under instruction and the groups should, as a rule, be arranged in some sequential order. For fear that there may be some reader who is afraid of that word "sequential," it should be stated that the resulting groups mentioned are not based on the string-of-beads or course analysis, but rather on the group analysis: there is a great difference. There is no reason to be afraid of a sequential order if it does not lead to stereotyped teaching. It surely is a safeguard against attempt- ing things too difficult. It is also an insurance against lack of preliminary training. By way of summary we may again ask and briefly answer the question : What should govern the choice of subject-matter in courses of study in the manual arts? Subject-matter in the manual arts must have some industrial value whether it is given in a voca- tional course or in a scheme of general education. It should be taken from typical, present, common SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 67 industries rather than from obsolete or uncommon industries or parts of trades, except of course in the case of highly specialized vocational courses which are intended to meet specific demands. The selection of subject-matter in any industry should be based on an analysis of that industry. This analysis should be made with reference to finding groups of related subject-matter, each of which is vital to the industry being taught. Only such examples of the industry under consideration as are typical and modern should be used in making this analysis. The resulting groups of subject- matter should then be arranged in sequential order for purposes of instruction. It is believed that these are safe governing propositions whether the instruction be given in a vocational class or is an integral part of a scheme of general education. CHAPTER VI. THE GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT- MATTER IN THE MANUAL ARTS WITH REFERENCE TO TEACHING. Group Method of organizing subject- matter in the manual arts grew out of an effort to harmonize class and individual methods of instruction. The Russian system of tool in- struction with its "string-of-beads" course or an- alysis and its tool exercises and joints demonstra- ted the value of class instruction. The Swedish sloyd, also with a "string-of-beads" analysis, but with useful models, emphasized individual instruc- tion. The Russian system was developed to train men for service in connection with the government railways. The aim was to produce intelligent and skillful workers as rapidly and economically as pos- sible. Consequently the class was the center of the teacher's effort. Consideration of the indi- vidual was secondary or supplementary. The Swedish system was evolved as part of a scheme of general education. Its first aim was child de- velopment, and having this aim, it recognized individual differences, and so insisted on individual instruction. The coming together of these two systems in the United States resulted in clashing GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 69 of ideals and methods out of which has been developed an American system which is essentially different from either but includes elements gained from both. The group method of arranging the course came from neither one, but it was the result of an effort to combine the economy and stimulus of class instruction with the best consideration of the needs of individual pupils. In the period before 1893 it was the common fault of teachers who had been trained to or had imbibed the idea of class instruction, that they constantly strove to keep all the pupils of a class together in their work. The striving of these teachers was constant because their aim could never be accomplished under ordinary school con- ditions. Children were not alike and they could not be made so. Many were the devices resorted to in this vain effort. Some of these may be illus- trated by observations made on a tour thru cities in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1892. For convenience the schools visited may be designated as A, B, C, D, and E. A was a manual training high school. Here the teacher of woodworking was demonstrating the making of a dovetail-lap joint. At the close of a very skillful demonstration he said to the class, "These joints must all be handed in tomorrow afternoon at three o'clock." When questioned about this statement he said that there would be no 7O THE MANUAL ARTS difficulty about the matter. He was sure that even the slowest in the class could get the work done by that time. When asked what the rapid pupils would do who completed the work before that time he said. "They will be excused, and allowed to go to the library or to the drawing room to do other work." This teacher had avoided the usual problem by gaging his work to the capacity of the slowest pupil and then excusing pupils as fast as they com- pleted the required work. This was no solution of the real problem because in most schools teach- ers were required to keep all their pupils and to keep them busy until the end of the class period. B was a normal school. The teacher was asked if he had any difficulty in keeping his class to- gether for class instruction. "No," he replied, "as soon as the first pupil has completed the given model I call the class together and demonstrate the next one. All go to work on the new model, and the previous one has to be completed out of regular class time mostly on Saturdays." When the remark was dropped that some pupils might need a good many Saturdays, he cheerfully replied, "Yes, already some of them have all their Satur- days spoken for to the end of the year." This was in the winter. Like the teacher at A this one had avoided the real problem, but unlike the teacher at A, he had GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 71 gaged his work by the fast pupil instead of the slow one, and thus accumulated difficulties for himself and his pupils. C was an ordinary high school with a manual training annex. When the teacher was asked what he did with the rapid worker who completed his joint before the other members of the class, he said, "I give him repair work to do about the shop. If a bench needs fixing, or a belt needs lacing, or a drawer needs to be planed off, I keep him busy at that till I am ready to demonstrate the next exercise." "Do the boys like it?" he was asked, "Yes, they look upon it as a reward of merit." He admitted, however, that if they ever ceased to look upon such work as desirable, he might have some difficulty with his plan. In this case the personality of the man was a large factor in the success of the plan in this particular school. D was a well organized grammar school center. When the teacher was asked whether he had ex- perienced any difficulty in keeping his rapid pupils busy while they were waiting for the others to catch up, so that he could give class instruction on a new exercise or model, he said, "Last year as soon as the first boy completed the first exercise in the course I gave him a blueprint of a stool and told him to get out stock for the legs. He worked on that till the demonstration of the second exercise was given. He was usually ahead 72 THE MANUAL ARTS on the second exercise also, and then did some more work on his stool. This continued until the end of the year when several of the boys had completed their stools besides all the required exercises and models." When asked whether the plan was a success he said, "Yes, only some of the boys wished they had never seen those old stools before the year was out." The breaking off and beginning over and over again was too severe a strain on the boys' interest. "I have a new plan this year that is working out better," he said, and then showed some blueprints of exercises in chip- carving. "As soon as the first boy is thru his first exercise I give him a block of wood and a blue- print, and tell him to lay out the first exercise. He can usually do this. Then I show him how to cut out a chip, and he proceeds with the work. It doesn't take him long to complete the first exer- cise; then he takes the second, and so on. As a reward to the rapid pupils, when they come to the towel roller, each one carves a design on it, while the slow pupils finish theirs without the carving." The teacher was asked whether he had ever noticed that some pupils prefer the carving to the regular work, and so are inclined to slight the latter to get more time for the former. He said he had. Likewise he admitted that some pre- ferred the regular work and always managed to GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 73 slow up enough toward the end of an exercise so that they would not have to do the carving. The testimonies of the teachers at C and D seemed to indicate that the solution of the real problem did not lie in the direction of doing two kinds of work one as the regular course and the other as busy work. E was a grammar grade center. In this school the teacher had come one step nearer to finding a solution of the problem. He had arranged two parallel courses one of exercise pieces, and the other of useful models involving the same proc- esses as the exercise pieces: One of these sug- gested a Russian course, the other a Swedish, tho all the models were thoroly American in design. As soon as the fast boy had completed an exer- cise he was given the corresponding model in the parallel course as a supplementary problem. Comparing this plan with that of the teacher at D, it had the advantage over the stool of not requiring so much time for completion and over the chip-carving of being work of the same general character as the required exercise. It had the added advantage of involving a repetition of the same processes as were in the previous exercises and of not including any fundamental ones which had not been involved in some previous exercise. This method of organizing the course, therefore, stimulated interest, enabling a rapid pupil to ac- 74 THE MANUAL ARTS quire increased skill and to nroduce useful articles of a higher order The net results of all these observations was the conclusion that instead of trying to devise schemes for keeping pupils together, an effort should be made to so organize the work that each pupil would develop freely as an individual while at the same time having the advantage of class instruction in the fundamentals of the work. Thought for the average pupil should give way to thought for each individual pupil. The idea of one fixed series of models for all pupils should give way to the idea of as many different series as there are individual pupils, yet so grouped together as to have common elements which would be subjects for class instruction. Out of this new conception of the teacher's problem came the group method of arranging the course, which was first displayed by Teachers College, New York City, at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. The group method is based on a group analysis referred to in the previous chapter. A course of instruction is made up of groups or blocks or chapters of subject-matter, usually, tho not neces- sarily, arranged in sequential order, just as one chapter in a book usually follows naturally after the preceding one. Each group must contain one or more of the fundamental elements of the GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 75 course which forms the focus or center of the group. In woodworking, for example, one such fundamental element might be the construction of a miter joint; the group might be devoted to the miter joint and its applications. Or in mechanical drawing the fundamental element might be the drawing of tangent lines; the group might include a large number of problems involving the draw- ing of tangent lines. This fundamental element is made the subject of class instruction. Class instruction should also be given on In- formational elements, which are important for all members of the class, tho not fundamental to suc- cessful manipulation of tools. Facts concerning materials and tools and related processes in factor- ies, commercial value of materials and products, etc., are included in such informational elements. Supplementing this class instruction a large amount of individual instruction must be given. Even after exercising all the skill that the best teacher possesses and utilizing all the help that can be gained from note-books and textbooks and reference material of various kinds, the teacher will still have to give a large proportion of his time to individual instruction, and it is important that he have time to do this effectively. In fact, the group method of arranging a course is intended to assist the teacher in his management of the class so that he will be able to preserve the 76 THE MANUAL ARTS proper balance between class and individual in- struction, while maintaining the maximum of the pupils' interest and their intelligent procedure in the work. Working under the group arrangement, no two pupils will be likely to accomplish the same amount of work, yet all may readily pass the minimum requirement. No two will work the same combi- nation of problems, but each may make the things that appeal most to him. One student may do work that is far more difficult than another, yet each may be most profitably employed, and both deserve the passing credit for the course. This is just what happens in a class in history: Suppose, for example, that a history class is study- ing the Civil War. One pupil learns the bare facts of the chapter in the textbook; another learns these plus what he gained from several other text- books suggested for reference; a third pupil adds what his uncle, who was a soldier in that war, has told him; a fourth has read "The Boys of '61," by Charles Carlton Coffin; a fifth has gone to the public library and searched out several large his- tories and some volumes of state papers published during the war. Now it is clear that at the end of the chapter on the Civil War no two of these pupils know just the same group of facts about the Civil War, but all know enough to pass on to the next topic. Each has learned according to his interest or capacity or effort. Each may have GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 77 done well for him. They are not all given the same mark, but all pass. A group in a manual arts course corresponds almost point for point to this chapter in. history. It is the same flexible, expansive mass of subject- matter. One student may do only the minimum amount required to pass on to the next group; another may complete a specified problem in the group that demands a typical application of the fundamental principle of the group as it appears in industry; another may complete a specified prob- lem in the group that stimulates him to look up references in books or to make inquiries of indus- trial workers or to do some experimental work on his own account; still another may work out a project of his own designing which applies the principle of the group to an object for which he has a definite need. To illustrate the group method of organizing subject-matter the following outline by groups is taken from the author's book, Grammar Grade Problems in Mechanical Drawing: Group I. Horizontal and Vertical Lines Layout of Sheet. Group II. Horizontal and Vertical Lines Dash Lines. Group III. Inclined Lines Foreshortening Use of Tri- angles. Group IV. The Octagon and the Hexagon. Group V. . The Circle Center Lines Sections. Group VI. Tangents. Group VII. Working Drawings. 78 THE MANUAL ARTS Another illustration of the grouping of subject- matter is found in the outline for a course in forg- ing, published by the Illinois Manual Arts Associ- ation in its report of 1 9 1 1 . It is as follows : Group I. Drawing Out Bending and Twisting. Group II. Upsetting Splitting. Group III. Punching Fullering Swaging. Group IV. Welding. Group V. Case Hardening. Group VI. Tool Making. Group VII. Hardening and Tempering. Group VIII. Project involving Assembling. Each of the groups in both of the above courses includes several problems. For example, Group V in the first course includes the following objects to be drawn : A, target; B, wheel; C, ink bottle stand; D, cast iron washer; E, mallet head; F, collar; G, bushings; H, pulley; I, roller; J, washers; K, emery wheels; L, picture frame twelve prob- lems given, but more may be added by the teacher if needed. A group is capable of indefinite ex- pansion so far as the number of problems, or applications of the principles to be taught is con- cerned. Referring now to the method of presenting these problems, A and B are given complete; B shows a cross-hatched section. In C the section is given complete, but the top view is incomplete. In D two views are given, and the student is GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 79 required to substitute a section for one of them. In E three views are given, but one of them is incomplete. In F two views are given to find a third, which is a sectional view. In G one view of each bushing is given incomplete. In H the sub- stitution of a section for one view, and the com- pletion of another, are required. In I one view is incomplete. In J the problem is given in the form of a sketch and a data table, such as is commonly used in the drafting room. In K there are really four problems given in the form of sections, only one of which is intended to be drawn by an indi- vidual pupil. In L two sections of circular picture frames are given, from one of which a drawing is to be made. If the extra problems in K and L are counted, there are sixteen specified problems in this group. It is expected that each teacher will add others of his own selection or of selections made by pupils. With so many and so varied problems to select from, the teacher ought to be able to meet all ordinary individual needs, while at the same time keeping within the range of the group without anticipating the next group, and destroying the effectiveness of class instruction in that group. With such a group of problems, too, a teacher may assign problems in such a way that there will not be the possibility of one pupil copy- ing from his nearest neighbor, thus getting the neighbor to do his thinking for him. 8o THE MANUAL ARTS Only a small proportion of these problems should be required of any one pupil. While increased skill would be gained by doing them all, such skill might not be an economical use of time for all pupils, and the working out of all the problems by every member of the class would defeat the very purpose of the group method of arrangement. Instead, the teacher should deter- mine some kind of a minimum standard for pass- ing. It may be a specified number of drawings up to an acceptable grade; it may be a standard of skill and intelligence in the work, without refer- ence to the number of problems completed. In the particular group of drawing problems given above the requirement might be stated as "Prob- lem A, one of problems B to F, and one of prob- lems G to L three in all." This would allow for a very considerable range of ability, and demand at least a fair standard of attainment. However, the requirement for a given class must depend upon conditions known only to the teacher of the class or some one giving close supervision to the work. Two very simple graphs have been devised to indicate to the pupil his individual progress and success. One shows the amount of work done and the other the quality. GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 81 Fig. 1 is a quantity diagram. Area represents work. The Figure ABCD represents the possible work in a course of study consisting of eight groups. The areas are left open at the top be- cause the total amount of work that might be done .__. , T B in rsr Fig Y .1 m TUL Vlll in each group is indefinite. The rectangle EBCF represents the required amount of work in the course. In this case the figure assumes that the same amount is required in each group. The line GH represents the record of one of the students in the class who has made most commendable progress. The area GBCH represents the work he has done in the course, which in quantity is more than twice the amount required for passing. The line IJ. is the record of a student found in many schools. He made a brilliant start, was enthusi- astic until the baseball season, when he changed to another hobby and ended the course below the required standard, though the amount of work 82 THE MANUAL ARTS accomplished as indicated by the area IBCJ is greater than that included in the minimum area EBCF. In like manner the amount of work accom- plished by each individual may be represented, but, as will be readily seen, the construction of any such graph requires that the teacher shall have reasonable means of evaluating the quantity area that shall be allowed for each problem as- signed. But this kind of graph may prove stimu- lating, even when very roughly done. The quality graph is similar in some respects. It is shown in Fig. 2. /+^ x* m. Z - V r ^-S V v2 *^ "V V I n m TV 3C "vr tvn ^/ut. Fig. 2 The letters ABCD and E represent the usual grades, the line between D and E being the passing line. If desired, the position in the area can indi- cate whether a mark is high or low, plus or minus, as a high C or low C for example. Fig. 2 shows the record of one student only. It is quite pos- sible for a teacher to have a card with the cross lines as shown in Fig. 2 for each student in the class and fill in his record as fast as work is com- GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 83 pleted. These can be kept in card catalog form and readily consulted at any time. It is quite possible for the card to represent approximate quantity as well as quality. For example, in Fig. 3, . ^ -*v ^ i ^x ^^ ^* << V -f ^ 13 us m> BZ~2 12 331 3012 ynn Fig. 3 the small figures beside the group numbers indi- cate the number of pieces of work required in each group. The student's record shown on the card indicates, by being broken, that he has not done all required pieces of work. There are two short in Group III and the one in Group VIII. On the other hand it reveals the fact that he did one more than the required number of pieces of work in Group II. It should now be evident that under the group arrangement of the subject-matter of the course of instruction a class moves forward together group by group, yet each member of the class grows breadth-wise, so to speak, within each group as an individual. Individual expansion or de- velopment is combined with class progress. While the use of this arrangement did not involve any 84 THE MANUAL ARTS new principle in teaching, it was essentially new in teaching manual training at the time when the "war between the jointers and sloyders" began, but since that time it has come to be a commonly applied device in arranging the subject-matter of courses of instruction in the manual arts. More- over, it deals with so many fundamental factors in good teaching that, altho it originated in courses taught for their general educational value, it is equally applicable to strictly vocational courses. It is applicable wherever there are indi- vidual differences in children coupled with a desire to give class instruction on vital or common ele- ments in the course. CHAPTER VII. THE USE OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING THE MANUAL ARTS. A S one goes from city to city visiting the newer types of industrial school shops it is easy to get the impression that many advocates of voca- tional training think there is special virtue in the fact that a school shop is turning out a marketable factory product. Such men seem to think that all that is necessary to be done to bring shopwork up to date is to have the boys manufacture stools to sell to the local furniture dealer or study tables to sell to the Board of Education, or to make the equipment for a teachers' rest room in the high school. The inference seems to be that the school shop that can do such work must be a superior shop; it must be giving real vocational training. On the other hand, any person who has had real vocational experience in a woodworking shop, who is acquainted with the processes of manufac- turing, and at the same time is acquainted with the processes of teaching, is well aware of the fact that it is quite possible to get a group of boys to turn out a salable product without teaching them much of anything. Even the factories can do that. They are doing it right along, and it is 86 THE MANUAL ARTS because such a factory system is an educational failure that schools for vocational training are needed. The accomplishment of such a feat in the school is no more guarantee of real vocational edu- cation than when the same thing is done in a fac- tory. Merely turning out a valuable or salable product is no adequate criterion for a school shop. A factory may or may not be a good educational institution, depending upon the way it is organized and administered. If it employs educational methods and keeps education as the chief aim, it may be a good school; if it makes material prod- ucts its sole aim, it is not fundamentally an educa- tional institution at all. A man working in it may "pick up" a trade or a part of a trade, but he might get much more of the trade in the same length of time were the shop organized to teach instead of to make money. Even the large fac- tories are recognizing this fact, and the corpora- tion schools are teaching their apprentices at first in a shop that is either non-productive or nearly so. It was with some appreciation of this point of view that Bradley Institute, in the year of 1911, set out to discover thru actual experiment some of the possibilities of utilizing a producing wood- working factory as a means of teaching a vocation and as further aid in training teachers of voca- tional woodworking. It was realized that this was not entirely a new experiment, for similar work had been carried on successfully at Hampton In- FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 87 stitute, Virginia, and in other places. But the con- ditions at Bradley Institute seemed favorable for testing certain claims concerning methods of voca- tional training and the educative value of factory shop experience. To go into all the difficulties encountered and the means taken to solve new problems would take one beyond the limits of the present chapter, but it is possible briefly ( 1 ) to state a few facts con- cerning the material equipment of the shop; (2) to explain the cost system adopted; (3) to give a summary of the results in manufactured products; (4) to state the main facts concerning the organ- ization of the subject-matter taught and the method of procedure in teaching; and (5) to give a few conclusions based on experience. The room selected for the factory shop was 40 by 100 feet. It was fitted up with the usual wood- working machinery. In arranging the machinery the first consideration was facility in handling the work. In other words, the considerations were chiefly those of equipping a commercial factory. The main difference was in having a long row of benches on one side of the room, but these were inherited from a former school shop and might not have been quite as numerous under other con- ditions. Also, some of the machinery was in- herited, but that was essentially what would have been purchased if it had not been already on hand. 88 THE MANUAL ARTS There was one entirely new feature of the equip- ment which was looked upon as essential in any school shop that adopts factory methods, and that was the trucks for storing and carrying material in process of manufacture. Whenever one goes to a school woodworking shop that claims to be giv- ing vocational instruction by factory methods, he should at once look for the trucks. If woodwork- ing machinery is there and the trucks are not, he may begin to question in his own mind whether he is in a vocational shop or in a manual training shop. In other words, the truck has come to be the symbol of the woodworking factory shop. It would be difficult to conceive of modern factory methods being carried out in a real way where no such trucks are available. This, then, is a sum- mary of the factory shop equipment: machines in sufficient number, with plenty of trucks, and all so arranged that there is sufficient space around the machines for the placing of the trucks, and a clear aisle for trundling the trucks of material from one part of the shop to another. To this should, of course, be added the statement that the machines must be so arranged that a job may be routed with- out undue waste of time in going from one ma- chine to another. No school can afford to maintain a woodwork- ing factory without disposing of its products in such a way as to pay for the material used. This becomes a problem because a woodworking fac- FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 89 tory requires a large amount of lumber to keep it busy. Some schools can find a market for their school factory products in their own institution; others will find it necessary to seek a market for at least a part of their products. Bradley Institute has pursued the latter course. It manufactures for its own use, and then sells to other schools a limited quantity of products, such as drawing boards, workbenches, drawing tables, cabinets, samples of wood, mitered table legs, and cases for unfinished work. It also does occasional special jobs by contract, when they are needed to keep up a sufficient supply and the requisite variety of work. In order to handle all this work in an intelligent and businesslike way a cost system was adopted. Before adopting this, however, several systems were studied, and finally a very simple one was decided upon. The blanks used are, first, the shop order sheet, Fig. 4, which is made out in the busi- ness office of the Department of Manual Arts and forwarded with the drawing or other specifications to the teacher in charge of the factory shop. These order forms in duplicate are made up in books. The original is on a white sheet; the carbon dupli- cate is on a pink sheet and remains in the order book as an office record. When the job is completed the teacher sends to the office a cost sheet, Fig. 5. The order number corresponds with the number on the shop order 90 THE MANUAL ARTS SHOP ORDER No Date of Issue- To Department, Under the Supervision of Have the following work done, and a memorandum of cost (time and materials in separate items) sent to this office. It should be completed Signed. BRADLCY POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE DEPARTMENT OF MANUAL SHOP ORDER SHEET. Fig. 4 FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 91 SHOP ORDER NO. FOR LABOR: Class A,. " B,_ " C,_ " DI- " EI_ " F,_ " 0,_ " H,_ MATERIALS: Date of Report . Mad* by BHADLIY POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. DIPARTMENT or MANUAL AUTO COST SHEET. Fig. 5 92 THE MANUAL ARTS sheet. The labor is classified strictly according to commercial value, or as near to that as the teacher can estimate. Class A represents an expert work- man, usually the teacher, working at a machine. Class B represents an expert workman working at the bench. Class C represents a good workman ORDER WORKMAN DATE START FINISH TIME Fig. 6. Time Slip one of the strongest students and a machine; Class D represents a good workman at the bench. And so the labor is graded down to G and H, which stand for work of the "helper" grade. Each of these grades has a corresponding money value, which is used in completing each labor item on the sheet after it has been sent to the office. Materials are reported in similar detail. These items added, together with any extra office charge, give the total cost of the job. As in many modern factories, these cost items are figured so as to per- mit of the usual trade discounts. The time slip used is shown in Fig. 6. This is printed, four on a sheet, with perforations be- tween each. It is essentially a copy of a time slip which has been in successful use for many years FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 93 in certain woodworking factories in New England. The workman makes out a separate slip for each order worked on during the day, and therefore hands in as many slips each day as there are jobs worked on. The teacher on receiving them mere- ly sees that the total is correct for the day and marks the classification on each slip as C, F, etc. Then he tears the slips apart, if still fastened to- gether, and hangs them on hooks for the purpose, one hook for each order, or he groups them in a drawer or box, as seems to him to be convenient. When the job is done he summarizes the slips and puts the totals on the cost sheet, Fig. 5. This sheet is made in duplicate as was the case with the shop order sheets, so that a carbon copy is kept by the teacher. In this case, however, the original is a yellow sheet and the duplicate a white one. The colors add to the convenience in handling, especially in the Department office. When the system was first started, material slips similar to the time slips were used, but now stock bills made out by the workmen or a sub-foreman or by the teacher, as the case may be, are substituted for these slips in keeping a record of the material for a given job. The cost sheets in the Department office serve in making out bills, in making financial statements of the shopwork, and in estimating future jobs. The first shop order issued under this system was on Jan. 16, 1912. Between that date and 94 THE MANUAL ARTS Sept. 1, 1912, work was completed to the value of about $800. The reports for the next three years give the following figures : Year ending Sept. 1, 1913. .$1,595.11 Year ending Sept. 1, 1914.. 2,052.81 Year ending Sept. 1, 1915.. 1,475.11 In making up the above figures a discount was taken off of all items not sold for cash, so that the figures are well within the actual value. Among the products sold for cash were drawing tables for a local public school, rural school benches, play- ground slide and teeter-totter for a children's home, a variety of furniture, drawing boards, study tables, bench-hooks, bread rack for a bakery, case of small drawers, stock for school use, etc. For the use of other departments of the Institute there were made a spring board, trestles, bleach- ers, etc., for the gymnasium; benches and table for the horology school; and tables, bookcases, and chart cases for several other departments. For the Manual Arts Department there has been made a large volume of work, including individual lock- ers for drawing room, drawing tables, interlocking drawing board cabinets, coat lockers, exhibit frames, foundry equipment, work-benches, tool cabinets, tables, furniture, drawing boards, T- squares, wood pulleys, and many more. The man employed as teacher in the factory shop had taught very little before taking charge of FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 95 this shop, but during thirteen years of practical experience he had come in contact with the real problems of carpentry and millwork and pattern making. He therefore approached the problem from the vocation, and not from the school stand- point. During the first year he was working under the supervision of a man with many years of ex- perience in teaching manual training classes in woodworking. The aim of both men was, first, to organize a real producing factory, admitting a comparatively few students, and then, little by little, to solve the problems of giving instruction as they came along in the natural order of devel- opment. It took comparatively little time to es- tablish the factory routine, but it has taken much more time to determine the most effective organ- ization of subject-matter and the best methods of giving instruction. In making decisions it has been necessary to keep two facts constantly in mind: First, that the aim of the shop is to teach and not to make money; and, second, that the factory routine and factory methods of doing work are an essential part of the educational scheme and must therefore be retained. The big problem, then, has been to harmonize the educational aim, namely, to produce intelligent, thoroly trained workmen, and the factory routine, which is intended to pro- duce high-grade manufactured products at a speed that is acceptable in a commercial factory. 96 THE MANUAL ARTS After three and one-half years of experiment- ing, the scheme of training, or the course of in- struction, may be outlined as follows : Group A. Before any student is allowed to use the machines of the shop, or any one machine, a series of demonstrations is given to acquaint the members of the class with the construction and operation of the machines. Minute instruction concerning the positions to be taken in working at each machine is given, and emphasis is placed on precautions to be taken in order to avoid acci- dents. Group B. The first real experience at the ma- chines is in getting out stock and such other rough work as will give experience in the use of the cut- off saw, the jointer, and the surfacer. The time spent in such work varies, with the student, from ten days, four hours a day, to two months, accord- ing to his ability. The average time is about six weeks. During this period it is expected that every student will be taught to measure lumber and identify a few of the common woods, both in the rough and surfaced. Group C. As soon as the students have proven their reliability in the rough work they are taken off, one or two at a time, and started on the second type of work. This consists of making three or more joints from models given to the students. From the commercial factory standpoint this work is entirely non-productive, but experiments seem FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 97 to have proven conclusively that it is really a time saver and a lumber saver. It usually occupies from four to seven days and it prevents wasting many feet of lumber. The joints required of all are (a) a panel joint, (b) glass door joint, or rab- beted mortise-and-tenon joint, and (c) table leg joint. Others that are often added to this list are the sash joint, the table leaf joint (made later in the course when the student is allowed to use the shaper), the stretcher joint, etc. The joints are kept by the students for reference. The experi- ence gained in this type of work seems to be of great value in thinking out the parts of a structure in their relation to each other, and it helps to de- velop an appreciation of the importance of ac- curacy in setting the machines. Group D. The third type of work consists of small panel doors, glass doors, backs of cases and such other work of about the same grade of diffi- culty as may be available. Here, as elsewhere thruout the course, the students are promoted in- dividually from one type of work to another, the basis of promotion being dependent on reliability in doing a thoro piece of work in a reasonable length of time, judged by the standard of the com- mercial factory. During this period each student makes a sketch of the piece he is making, and pre- pares a stock bill. This sketch is often made from a blueprint or drawing of the structure of which he is making a part. Often the problem involves 98 THE MANUAL ARTS many duplicates, and two or more students work together on a job so as to do the work most ef- ficiently. This type of work occupies about one month. Group E. The fourth type of work occupies the remainder of the first year, and consists of construction and assembly work. This often re- quires one student to make a complete case from beginning to end, or the problems in hand may be such as to require that two or more students work together. Sometimes there are many duplicate parts to be worked, and sometimes there are but few. The student makes a sketch of each part of the structure he is making and puts the working dimensions on it. If a student has special ability he may be given charge of a complex job and sub- divide it, thus laying out work for several students in different stages of skill. The assembling will later be done by the student who laid out the work, acting as a sub-foreman. During this period of work students get experience in wood-finishing and are given thoro instruction in the proper use of glue, and in the handling of gluing apparatus. They are taught the sharpening and use of the hand scraper; saw-filing is begun. They are also taught the economical use of lumber, which in- volves maintaining an organized system of caring for and utilizing scrap pieces. Scraps are classi- fied, sometimes by sizes, sometimes by their use. FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 99 Group F. The fifth type of work is in many respects a continuation of the fourth, except that the work is done in harder and more valuable woods, requiring more accurate results. Such problems as an oak cabinet or the interior finish and casework for an office belong in this stage. It is in this stage that most of the students hope for an opportunity to act for a while as a sub- foreman. In this stage the most reliable students, and those only, are allowed to run the shaper. All students in this stage are required to make at least one wood pulley, and to get some experience in belting work and the elements of millwrighting. Special jobs involving templet work are included, circular-saw filing and band-saw filing and braz- ing are taught, and before the end of the course some problems in estimating are given. Thruout the entire two-year course there are occasional class demonstrations, lectures, and discussions, but in the work at the machines the students are as- signed according to individual efficiency and held up to a commercial standard of accuracy, and ap- proximately up to a commercial standard of speed when actually working at the machines. The result of the three and one-half years of development is gratifying. While there are many things yet to be learned about the new problems involved in maintaining such a school factory on a sound educational and economic basis, enough ioo THE MANUAL ARTS has been learned to state the following as con- clusions : ( 1 ) That school work in a factory shop must be organized with reference to teaching as well as with reference to producing. Such organization is necessary if instruction is to be efficient, and economical of the learner's time. (2) The non-productive work has a place in the school factory shop even exercise pieces pure and simple. (3) That it is practicable, under favorable conditions, to operate a school shop under the fac- tory system, but the factory system should not be allowed to prevent the instructor from stopping the work of any number of students at any time to give class or group instruction. The producing purpose of the factory shop must give way to the instruction purpose. (4) That a school factory shop may be organ- ized in such a way as to be a superior educational workshop, giving the most practical kind of in- struction with a high degree of thoroness by methods that are sound pedagogically and that call forth a high type of interest on the part of students. It seems to have been demonstrated that in the advanced stages of vocational training, after a good grounding in manual training work, experi- ence in a producing factory is highly educative, provided a reasonable variety of work is done. FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 101 This has been proven in manufacturing establish- ments and in producing factories in schools, such as the one above. It seems also to have been demonstrated that in the earliest stages of shop instruction, whether that instruction be with strict vocational end in view or merely with a prevoca- tional or a manual training end as the goal, ex- perience in a producing factory is not as educative as experience under proper instruction in a school shop, tho certain school problems in duplicate pro- duction, both by hand and machine, are valuable in the school shop. As proof of the general state- ment it would seem necessary only to cite cases where factories have provided apprentice schools with special rooms for the beginners to learn the elements of handwork thru graded courses of les- sons designed to give apprentices the fundamentals in the best way. The factories have found this way to be the cheapest in the long run. Some figures gathered by Mark B. Hughes, of Detroit, for a report to the National Association of Corporation Schools are significant. To the question, "Do you believe manufacturers would be sufficiently benefited to warrant the expense of es- tablishing apprenticeship or corporation schools?" 38 of the large corporations in the country, includ- ing 11 of the largest railroads and many great factories such as the General Electric Co., The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., The Western Electric Co., Browne and Sharpe loa THE MANUAL ARTS Manufacturing Co., and R. R. Donnelly & Sons Co. answered "Yes." There was not a single "No" vote and only one voted with a question mark. To the question, "Do you favor a special mechanical instructor or allowing the shop fore- man to do all the instructing?" Thirty answered in favor of the special instructor, 5 the shop fore- man, and 2 both. Anyone who has visited such a school as the one at the Lakeside Press in Chicago must be im- pressed with the fact that both the boy and the factory are profiting by separating the apprentices from the journeymen during the early stages of their apprenticeship and giving them work which is for the most part unproductive, except educa- tionally. The factory training which follows this preliminary school is equally essential in making the finished workman. CHAPTER VIII. THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING THE MANUAL ARTS. BUT of the experiences of the past thirty years of school instruction in the manual arts, there have come three more or less distinct and fundamental methods of teaching, namely, (1) the imitative method, (2) the discovery method, and (3) the inventive method. Briefly stated the imitative method is as follows : Show the pupil how to do something by doing it in his presence. Explain to him every step in the process which he does not already know. Tell him why each step should be taken in a certain way. Explain any theory involved; answer his questions. Then tell him to do it himself. This method is the method of demonstration; it is de- ductive. It applies equally well to both class and individual instruction. In sharp contrast with the imitative is the dis- covery method. In this the teacher shows the pupil the completed thing he is expected to make, but not the process of making it. He gives him the tools but does not show him how to use them. No demonstration lessons are given. Instead, he asks him to tell how he proposes to use the tools, and by what process he expects to produce IO4 THE MANUAL ARTS the object. The teacher stimulates him to think. Exercising his curiosity and his resourcefulness, he is expected to discover, or rather, to re-discover the correct methods of using tools. The reasoning is largely inductive. The instruction is almost ex- clusively individual. In the imitative method the teacher tells or shows the pupil almost everything; in the discovery method the teacher tells or shows him nothing. The teacher's constant effort in the discovery method is to develop rational thinking and this, he believes, will lead to good technic. He assumes that there is a discoverable, rational best way to do everything. The inventive method is different from both the imitative and the discovery methods in that it be- gins, not with something planned ready to make and materials all selected, but with a conscious need for something to serve a known purpose and a desire to make something to supply that need. The procedure by this method is, first, to know definitely the conditions to be met by the thing to be made, second, to invent or design the thing to fulfill the conditions, third, to select materials and make the thing designed. From beginning to end the mind is centered on the thing being made and whether it will serve its purpose; the process of producing the thing, which in both the imitative and the discovery methods is given greatest em- phasis, is here given secondary consideration. The instruction is largely individual, tho the THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 105 problem may be presented and discussed in class. It consists in supplying ideas from which the pupil may choose ; it stimulates original thinking by questioning, by criticism, and by the statement and exposition of laws and principles. I THE IMITATIVE METHOD. Imitation is instinctive, and the teacher who does not utilize this natural force fails to avail himself of one of his strongest allies. Writers on psychology have made this clear. Professor Bag- ley says, "It seems to be a fundamental law of psycho-physics that an idea or a perception always tends to work itself out in action; the child's con- crete experience of witnessing a given process is applied instinctively in repetition of that proc- ess." 1 Professor Thorndike points out that one of the chief dangers in teaching the doing of things is neglect of imitation. He says: "Young chil- dren rarely, if ever, learn well such things as how to hold a pen or to cut or to sew by being told how; they have to be shown how." " This is in accord with the experience of every teacher of handwork; he knows that the easiest and quickest way to get a boy to hold and use a tool correctly is to show him how to do it. Often it is not necessary to speak a word; to do the thing in his presence is The Educative Process , page 239. 2 Thorndike: The Principles of Teaching, page 221. ic6 THE MANUAL ARTS sufficient. Again, Professor Bagley says, "The process of habit forming, once started by imita- tion, goes on by what may be called the method of trial and error. * * * All school activities that we group under the head of manual training (including writing, drawing, sloyd, etc.) and moral training (cleanliness, industry, silence, etc.) are important from this point of view. Here the aim is to train the muscles to certain specific adjust- ments, and the only way in which this can be done is by imitation, trial and error, and persistent prac- tice. The task of the teacher is to provide a good model in the first place, and then to keep the child constantly returning to the process, frequently comparing the results of his work with the model, until proficiency results." 1 If we can accept this as fact, then the imitative method is fundamental in all manual arts teaching. In this connection, however, it may be noted that imitation, being an instinct, does not need de- velopment; it needs to be utilized or transformed or even eliminated, for only the desirable, the good should be imitated; the undesirable and bad should be eliminated, and imitation should be held in check in this direction. The child imitates what he admires, and so the teacher's opportunity lies in the direction of helping the child to admire skill and good proportions and fine finish and graceful curves and all the other good qualities that are essential to fine craftsmanship. Bagley: The Educative Process, page ^43. THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 107 II THE DISCOVERY METHOD. The discovery method is often spoken of as the heuristic method. This word "heuristic" comes from a Greek word which means to "find out." According to Professor De Garmo this method involves (a) the discovery of the essential facts of a lesson and (b) the cause of a phenomenon or the law governing it. In this method the teacher surrounds the child with apparatus and atmos- phere favorable to certain discoveries and expects him to make the discovery. In its application to the teaching of the manual arts this method has found its most ardent advocate in Charles Bird, Supervisor of Manual Training in Leicester, Eng- land. With him it is largely a reaction against the machine-like method of extreme imitative teach- ing which leads to automatic action but fails to develop the thought power. In discussing his method Mr. Bird says : "It will hardly be denied that the normal child possesses in a marked degree such characteristics as curiosity, inquisitiveness, a love of prying into things, of questioning and doubting, which are frequently amusing and sometimes embarrassing. Of his originality, adaptability, resourcefulness, and independence there can be no possible doubt. It is these characteristics, so pre-eminent in their importance as assets in after life, which a reason- able system of educational handwork can stimu- io8 THE MANUAL ARTS late and strengthen. It is greatly to be feared these characteristics have not been strengthened but rather weakened by the educational method of the past. "For this purpose the children must be allowed to depend upon their own thought and judgment in doing things. If the work given be interesting in character, and not too difficult for mind and hand to fashion, surely the children may be al- lowed to exercise their whole powers upon it with- out let or hindrance; the cause is discoverable, and it is the business of the teacher to see that the children discover it. Let the children see, think, and do ; later may possibly be time for explanation, surely not before. * * * "There is a discoverable reason why one method is better than another, if it be better; one tool more adapted to the purpose in hand than another, etc. If we wish the children to develop a reasonable judgment in all things, as we surely do, we must on no account discover for them what they can discover for themselves. And what can they not discover? "Uniformity of method in other words, the teacher's method is not even desirable. What is wanted is that each child find its own method. If the children reveal themselves, the teacher can act from sure knowledge of strengths and weak- nesses, of needs and necessities. Otherwise, if the teacher supplies the method, the children are THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 109 robbed of their natural inquisitiveness and curi- osity, and may become mere storehouses of dead information. A little patience and a cheerful man- ner are all that are required to bring out the innate courage and capacity of the children, and cause them to attack their work with an intelligence, a vim, and a vigor delightful to observe." In seeking to avoid the weaknesses of the imi- tative method the discovery method almost ignores a fundamental principle of habit forma- tion, which is intended to avoid the formation of bad habits that must later be inhibited if good habits are to control. The study of a class at work under this system is sufficient to convince one that it emphasizes individual differences in chil- dren unduly. The pupils who come to the class prepared to think logically go ahead rapidly, while those who have not that preparation and need the more fundamental imitative basis for their work go very slowly. As a matter of fact, such pupils do imitate instead of think out the process. They have to ; they have no power to do otherwise. If they are not allowed to imitate the correct method of the teacher they will imitate the incorrect method of the nearest fellow student, or if oppor- tunity presents itself, of the student whom they know to be one of the best workmen in the class. The imitation will take place whether the teacher wants it to or not. In this respect the discovery theory cannot be strictly carried out in practice no THE MANUAL ARTS unless pupils are isolated. Moreover, it has a tendency to discourage the pupil who has not de- veloped sufficient reasoning power. With all such students it is uneconomical of time and effort both on the part of the pupil and the teacher. On the other hand it does have certain advantages, which have been pointed out by Mr. Bird. III. THE INVENTIVE METHOD. From the standpoint of ultimate results the in- ventive method stands higher than the imitative because an inventor is regarded as more Valuable to society than a mere imitator. On the other hand, society has need for many more routine skilled workers than inventors. In our present in- dustrial organization most men must follow in- structions; they must read a blueprint and produce work to given dimensions; they must do as they are told. Otherwise their product does not fit into the general scheme of production. Each workman's piece must take just the place intended in the mechanism or his labor is of no value. Co- operation, then, in industrial work, which is the fundamental method of the factory system, must be secured, and this means that hundreds of thousands of workers must carry out the plan of one man who is the inventor or designer. Thousands of parts even millions must be THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING MANUAL ARTS in made from one design. The power to read a blue- print is needed by a thousand workers, where the power to design a piece of mechanism is needed by only one. The public school must not omit the fundamental preparation for the man who must take industrial orders, and obey. On the other hand to stop with training to obey orders is to fall short of training for American citizenship. While the worker must have the ability to follow direc- tions he must also, within his personal limitations, have the power of initiative. He should have power to think and the skill to do things outside of the limitations of a routine job even a job re- quiring skill. The inventive method places the worker in a re- lation to his work that is entirely different from that in the imitative method. It places him in the position of a master, of a person with authority and power to control. If a student is working from a blueprint or other working drawing given him by the teacher, he is expected to follow the drawing exactly in material and form and dimen- sions. On the contrary, if he has designed or in- vented the piece he is making, he is the guiding force in the work; he can change material or form or dimension. His own ideas are to be carried out, not those of some other man, except, of course, as he takes advice from the teacher. In this method, then, the teacher is more an inspirer, a counselor, than a boss who makes demands. 112 THE MANUAL ARTS SUMMARY. Comparing the three methods, the imitative is the most elementary. It prepares for industry; it is economical. The discovery method is good in certain places, or in modified form, to follow the imitative. Alone, or as a beginning method, it is industrially weak. With the imitative as a founda- tion it is good; it helps to make foremen and superintendents. The inventive method, also, is valuable after the imitative. It may produce in- ventors, designers, architects. It is sure to pro- duce initiators instead of followers and mere obedient servants. Its chief weakness is that it may and often does ignore standards of construc- tion and of technic. If the schools are to produce American citizens with (a) skill, (b) initiative and (c) power to think for themselves those who can follow directions efficiently or can invent a better way, all three of these methods must be employed in teaching the manual arts in the schools. QUESTIONS CHAPTER I These questions, based on the text of this book, are in- tended for the use of students, members of reading circles and individual readers. Teachers, also, will find them con- venient. I. In Colonial times was the motive for teaching the three R's a cultural one or a vocational one? a. What led to the establishment of schools of science and engineering? 3. What is demanding a more widespread industrial intelligence today? 4. What manual arts should be taught in the schools? 5. What is the chief function of that section of the manual arts which is called the graphic arts? 6. Indicate the social significance of each of the following groups of constructive arts: (a) mechanic arts; (b) plastic arts; (c) textile arts; (d) book-making arts. 7. Show how the teaching of the manual arts in the schools is in harmony with the fundamental aim of education. CHAPTER II 8. Compare the educational duality of function in the natural sciences and the manual arts. 9. To what great end in education may instruction in the manual arts effectively contribute? IO. In what special way do the manual arts contribute to the educative process, and why is this important? ii4 THE MANUAL ARTS n. What school of educational thought has emphasized the value of handwork as a method in teaching? What school the value of handwork as a subject? 12. Why should present-day work in the manual arts be regarded as both subject and method? 13. What should be the leading characteristics of the manual arts in (a) the primary grades, (b) the grammar grades, (c) the high school? CHAPTER III 14. What is the differencf between knowing a product of art and craftsmanship and knowing about it? Which is the proper basis for appreciation? Give illustra- tions. 15. What three elements are involved in the development of real appreciation of products of art and craftsman- ship? 16. If the development of appreciation is one of the aims of teaching the manual arts in public schools, what do the above-mentioned three elements suggest con- cerning manual arts instruction and methods of teaching? CHAPTER IV 17. To what extent is a nation, a state, or a city justified in spending money for public education? 1 8. What evidences are there that Americans do not yet properly estimate the economic value of education? 19. Show how that increasing vocational training need not decrease cultural training. ao. Give a specific example of a nation accomplishing a great economic purpose thru vocational training. QUESTIONS 115 CHAPTER V 21. What is the chief difference between a good manual training course in a given craft or trade machinist's, for example and a vocational training course in the same craft or trade? 22. Name three fundamental considerations in selecting subject-matter for courses in manual arts, whether for vocational or general educational ends. 23. In what two major groups of occupations are found the majority of the male population of the United States of America? 24. What is meant by group analysis of an occupation, craft or trade? 25. What evidence may be gained from the development of the modern corporation school concerning the best way to organize instruction for purposes of vocational training? CHAPTER VI 26. What serious fundamental difficulties in teaching shop- work called forth the group method of arranging the subject-matter of a course of ins ruction? Give specific examples of some of these difficulties 27. What are the essentials of the group method? 28. How does the group method solve many problems arising because of the individual differences among pupils? CHAPTER VII 29. What is the essential difference between a successful productive factory school and a commercial factory? 30. Why are some large commercial factories teaching their apprentices in non-productive shops? n6 THE MANUAL ARTS 31. Give briefly the essential facts concerning the productive factory woodworking shop at Bradley Institute: (i) equipment, (2) cost system, (3) results in manufac- tured products, (4) organization of subject-matter, (5) conclusions. CHAPTER VIII 32. What three fundamental methods of teaching the manual arts have developed during the past thirty years? Describe each. 33. Why is the use of the imitative method alone unde- sirable? Why the discovery alone? Why the in- ventive alone? 34. Why should all three methods be employed in teaching the manual arts in public schools? 35. Discuss each of these three methods briefly with refer- ence to (a) teaching technic, (b) habit formation, (c) developing power to think, (d) individual differences in pupils, (e) power of the pupil to do things that he has not been directly taught to do, (f) economy in learning. ujMVjm OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara College Library BRA I ~j$L Santa Barbara > California Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. LD 21-207n-8,'52 (A2854s4)476 A 000 580 681 5 TT S" 4645