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 MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 PLHIN, MKSS. 
 JULY, 1892. 
 
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 manual Training at me Eliot School. 
 
 The introduction of some form of tool work in the earliest 
 *t;i<res of education is only an extension of the laboratory method 
 of instruction, which has become nearly universal within the last 
 twenty years in the colleges and technical schools. 
 
 Experience has shown that the laboratory training of the 
 higher schools, not only gives experimental skill, but cultivates 
 the imagination, strengthens the judgment and forms habits of 
 ai-i-iirate thinking; and it is daily becoming more clear that, 
 according as the mind is well or ill trained before it comes to 
 the college work, so is the success or failure of the pupil most 
 probable. 
 
 Some of the Trustees of the Eliot School, being intimately con- 
 nected with one of the pioneer technical schools, it is quite 
 natural that the Board, in common with other thoughtful 
 educators, should consider the introduction of manual training 
 into the grammar schools. 
 
 In looking for the best uses to which the Eliot School funds 
 could be applied, the Trustees decided that if the Board could 
 contribute a substantial block of knowledge upon the ways and 
 means of accomplishing the introduction of some form of manual 
 training into the grammar schools, it would not only be bene- 
 fiting Jamaica Plain boys, but possibly a larger constituency. 
 
 A summer class was first started as an experiment in 1881. 
 
 The next step was to furnish instruction to classes from the 
 public schools in the vicinity, which, with the permission of the 
 School Board, were attended during the year 1889-90 by the 
 pupils of five grammar schools and one high school. It was in- 
 tended to give the course to the graduating class only, but it so 
 happened that pupils came from the three upper grades, a fortu- 
 nate misunderstanding as it proved, since it gave at the outset an 
 opportunity to make a valuable comparison of interest, ability 
 and mental growth in the three classes during the year. In the 
 year 1890-91, the work was given to the second grammar grade
 
 2 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 only, the pupils coming from four schools. Beside the classes 
 from the public schools, a private class of very young children 
 was given a course in thin work. During this year and sub- 
 sequently, the school received from the City of Boston, not only 
 moral support, but financial aid. 
 
 In 1891-92, the third year of the experiment, a four years' 
 course was given to the four upper grades of a single grammar 
 school. 
 
 It will be seen that the plan outlined in the following pages 
 was perfected as a result of actual experience, and that, whatever 
 its merits, it has been carefully thought out, and the Trustees 
 now place the results before the public in the hope that some 
 substantial good may result. 
 
 Trustees of 
 
 the 
 Eliot School. 
 
 M. D. Ross, Chairman. 
 FRANCIS V. BALCH. 
 CHARLES F. CURTIS. 
 WILLIAM E. JAMES. 
 GEN. THOMAS SHERWIN. 
 PROF. ROBERT H. RICHARDS. 
 T. G. HILER, Treasurer.
 
 II Description of me Eliot scnooi Course. 
 
 BY PRANK M. LEAVITT. 
 
 The Eliot School course in manual training is a course in 
 tool work and drawing adapted to the large classes of graded 
 schools. 
 
 It is arranged to be an integral part of the school curriculum 
 and not a side issue, and reinforces the other branches, both 
 directly and indirectly, by making the pupil more careful, 
 thoughtful and methodical in his work. 
 
 In its present form it is laid out for the four upper grades of 
 the grammar school, three years' experience of the several 
 classes having convinced us that the best results are to be 
 expected when the whole class is taught together. 
 
 The system was originally based on the course of Russian 
 manual training, as introduced by Dr. Runkle, in 1876, in the 
 school of Mechanic Arts at the Mass. Institute of Technology, 
 but has been largely influenced by that modification of Swedish 
 Sloyd for which we are indebted to Mr. Larsson, of the Apple- 
 ton St. School. 
 
 This particular combination is a result of our study of the 
 relative value of exercises as illustrations of principles and of 
 finished pieces, and of the degree of interest felt by the boy in 
 each. We found that the more advanced the boy, the greater 
 his interest in exercises ; the pleasures of solving the problem 
 being sufficient in itself to keep up interest, aside from the value 
 of the piece when finished. This state of mind should, however, 
 be led up to by preliminary work. 
 
 The relation of drawing and tool work has been one of the 
 most important features of our methods, both being taught as 
 the expression of thought ; drawing, like writing, as a means of 
 expressing or recording facts, facts of form and dimension, and 
 tool work as an expression of those facts in material. 
 
 The accuracy of mechanical drawing, apart from its own 
 peculiar value, is of benefit to all drawing, educating the eye as 
 it does to nicer measurements of proportion, and the hand to 
 straightforward, unfaltering work. It is at one with all drawing 
 as the expression of facts of form and dimension. 
 
 All possible helps to increased power of expression are 
 needed, because the average boy is clumsy (if we may be allowed 
 the word.) His eye is clumsy, he does not see things
 
 4 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 correctly, he misjudges form and proportion. His hand is 
 clumsy, when he has done the thing, he cannot tell what he has 
 done. His mind is clumsy, for he neither sees, executes, speaks 
 nor thinks methodically ; he is just as likely to do his work first 
 and his thinking afterward, as to proceed correctly. 
 
 Our method from the first has been that of class instruction, 
 and by that we do not mean that every boy does the same thing 
 at the same time, like a company of soldiers on dress parade, 
 but that each exercise is demonstrated to the whole class, and 
 then each boy is supposed to work the exercises as indepen- 
 dently of the teacher as possible. Those finishing before the 
 end of the session are given extra work. We thus get the 
 stimulus of class work. 
 
 As has been said, the course is a combination of drawing and 
 tool work. 
 
 The drawing has been principally, but not wholly, mechanical 
 or constructive drawing, namely, that done with instruments, T 
 square, triangle, etc. 
 
 The tool work deals with the construction, first, of simple 
 pieces, later, with some principles of construction, then with the 
 application of those principles resulting in finished pieces again, 
 and always with the use of the ordinary wood-working tools. 
 
 The following is an outline of the work of each grade. 
 
 The course being based on a progression of ideas, and not 
 upon a series of definite models, it is impossible to illustrate it 
 fully, but the accompanying plates show the models used in the 
 development of the ideas. 
 
 FIRST YEAR OR FOURTH GRADE. 
 
 The first year's work is shown in the nineteen pieces of the 
 class known as the fourth grade. In this year drawing is the 
 special feature, light tool work only, being introduced. The 
 thin wood (one quarter inch) eliminates all question of form, 
 other than in two dimensions. A piece of thin stock is fastened 
 firmly to the bench, in such a position that it may be drawn 
 upon by means of the ordinary draughtsman's instruments, T 
 square, triangle, arid compasses. The drawings consist of plane 
 figures which are made up of horizontal, vertical, and oblique 
 lines, arcs of circles, and some free-hand curves, and are such as 
 require for their construction a few geometrical problems. 
 
 At the beginning of the lesson the model is held by the teacher, 
 who makes the draAving step by step on the blackboard at the 
 direction of the class, in response to the question, "What must be 
 done next ? " the pupil being required to express himself
 
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 j.
 
 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 5 
 
 accurately. After the pupils have drawn the figure on wood, it 
 is cut out by means of a bracket saw, and finished with a plane 
 and file. 
 
 The lesson not only results in a finished piece, but makes clear 
 to the child the meaning of drawing and the importance of 
 accuracy. The pupil thus begins at once to make accurate work- 
 ing drawings from models and models from drawings. 
 
 The demonstration in tool work is also given to the whole 
 class at once, and is at first simply a direction 'and a reason. Of 
 course, individual help is given during the lesson when necessary, 
 but it is preferable that once directed, the child like the man, 
 should learn by experience. 
 
 SECOND YEAR OH THIRD GRADE. 
 
 The second years' work is shown in the nine figures under the 
 third grade. 
 
 The drawing of the second year continues all the principles 
 and practices of the first year, and introduces thickness with its 
 necessary additional views. When the piece is of thick wood 
 (as in figure 3-5) the drawing is done in exactly the same way 
 as during the first year, except that the pupil is led to greater 
 independence. When, on the other hand, the piece is to be cut 
 from thick stock (as in figure 3-6), two views are drawn on the 
 thin wood and these are cut out and used as templates, or 
 patterns, in working out the real piece. The pupil thus learns 
 what top, front and side views really are. 
 
 The tool work introduces more and larger tools, making a 
 special feature of the form work. 
 
 THIRD TEAR OR SECOND GRADE. 
 
 The third year's work is shown in the ten figures of the second 
 grade. 
 
 The more practical methods in botli drawing and tool 
 work are here introduced. The two are here separated for 
 a time, the pupil making on paper correct working drawings 
 simply as illustrative of principles, and in tool work, executing 
 various exercises from prepared drawings, and using for marking 
 out the rule, square, gauge, and bevel, that is the ordinary tools 
 used by the mechanic for that purpose. The drawing and tool 
 work are at length brought together again, the pupil making in 
 the school room the working drawings of the models he is after- 
 ward to make in the shop. This temporary separation of the 
 drawing and tool work, while not absolutely necessary, is thought 
 advisable for the following reasons: The subjects are now to be 
 presented to him in a new light, the drawing as a means of ex- 
 pressing to some one else facts of form and dimension necessary
 
 6 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 for the construction of the piece, the tool work as the expression 
 in wood of facts some one else has expressed in drawing. Then, 
 too, the whole subject of putting on dimensions must be taught ; 
 that is, of expressing accurately all the facts about the model, 
 though the pupil, by reading the drawings for the two previous 
 years, has unconsciously been learning this most important 
 branch. He has been learning how to express himself in drawing 
 by seeing his teacher draw, as he has been learning to express 
 himself verbally by hearing his teacher talk. 
 
 FOURTH YEAR OR FIRST GRADE. 
 
 The work of the fourth year is shown in the seven figures of 
 the first grade. 
 
 The tool work illustrates further principles of construction, 
 and brings the whole course into harmony and unity in the two 
 finished pieces, the construction of which involves a familiarity 
 with all that has gone before. These pieces are made entirely 
 from the pupil's own drawings and these are made in four ways : 
 First, from models with blackboard instruction ; second, from 
 models only; third, with a written description with one model to 
 make the meaning clear ; and fourth, from a written description 
 only, being thus purely the expression of thought. 
 
 It will be evident to any one who has followed the course thus 
 far that while each year's work of seventy hours can readily be 
 given independently of the rest, yet that there is a very distinct 
 advantage in having the whole given in consecutive order, that 
 the greatest possible benefit may be derived by the pupils for the 
 time spent. 
 
 In conclusion, we will recapitulate the aims we have had in 
 view. 
 
 To plan a course, helpful in every possible way to the mental 
 and moral development of the child, giving him confidence in his 
 own power of expression and of execution, and to make it such 
 that it could be successfully carried out with the large classes of 
 the grammar school. How far we have succeeded in attaining 
 our ideal, the experience of other teachers must determine.
 
 A paper read at the Conference on Manual Training, Boston, April 9, 1892. 
 
 manual Training as an inspiration to msniai Development. 
 
 BY ROBERT H. RICHARDS. 
 
 In discussing manual training before you today, I do not 
 indulge in the hope that I shall be so fortunate as to say any- 
 thing that is new. I believe, however, I can attack this problem 
 from an entirely different standpoint from that taken by others; 
 namely, as a representative of one of the class of boys to whom 
 manual training would have been an especial boon, had it been 
 developed thirty-five years ago. 
 
 My paper will therefore begin with manual training as an 
 inspiration to mental development, and, since my name has been 
 honored by the first place on the list in the present programme, 
 I think it will be quite proper for me to say a few words upon 
 the following topics also : "The Choice of Materials for Manual 
 Training," "The Definition of Trade-schools," and "Manual 
 Training Schools both Swedish and Russian, and the Use of 
 them." 
 
 I feel still further that I have sufficient reason for speaking of 
 these in the fact that people's minds always drift toward a trade- 
 school, whenever tool-work is spoken of. We cannot, therefore, 
 too often emphasize the statement that manual training is intel- 
 lectual training, teaching the child how to think. 
 
 I will now take the liberty to refer to such portions of my 
 own personal history as seem to bear upon manual training as an 
 inspiration to mental development. 
 
 Up to twenty-one years of age I was the dunce of every school 
 I attended. But, while I was doing nothing with books, my 
 mind was always active. I was actively interested in learning 
 about nature, and boys' out-of-door sports. I well remember 
 the labor that was expended upon me to try to teach me how to 
 read. My teacher put the book upside down in front of me, and 
 left me half an hour. She then returned, and said, " Robert, are 
 you studying ?" I answered, "Yes, as hard as I can." She 
 pointed to the book, which was still upside down. I cried when 
 I found how I had deceived her. How, then, could I have told 
 her such a lie, when I believed I was telling her the truth ? My 
 answer is that there was an obstacle between me and the reading 
 which was invisible to the teacher and indescribable by me. 
 
 Various attempts were made to give me a good start at school
 
 8 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 in this country, and later in England, with little success from the 
 school-teacher's point of view. At fifteen years of age, while 
 living in the south of England, a Cambridge University man was 
 engaged as private tutor to myself and brother. He made me 
 study, and he made me recite. By his will he forced me to 
 overcome the barrier between me and my lessons. After lessons 
 he read Grimms' " Household Tales " to us, and other stories 
 which fired the youthful imagination. He took us long walks to 
 the woods, the fields, the swamps, and the streams. We named 
 all the wild places we visited, from the incidents he had read to 
 us. I remember today where Philip Slingsby slew the dragon. 
 We also watched the habits of birds and insects, and many an 
 interesting fact was stored up in this way. 
 
 At the end of the year we went to school at Wellington 
 College, a school modelled on the lines of Rugby. All personal 
 pressure was removed, and now, as formerly, my lessons were 
 never learned. The same barrier, the same missing link, was 
 between me and my books ; and the promise to my mother that I 
 would do my very best was of no avail, on account of it. At 
 this time I learned to be a pretty good cricketer and foot-ball 
 player ; but my ramble in the woods, by the streams and lakes, 
 over the heather, watching the habits of birds and animals, col- 
 lecting insects, were my chief delight. 
 
 The custom of the school was to hold out prizes as induce- 
 ments to the boys to work, the dead languages not having suffi- 
 cient attraction even for the bright boys. I earned one prize by 
 good conduct at drill ; and when my master, for whom I had a 
 warm regard, invited me to select my prize, he having just 
 pointed out a Longfellow or a Shakspere to a bright boy who 
 preceded me, said to me, with almost a sneer, "Here is a book on 
 toads and frogs ; I suppose you will like that," I took the book 
 with my teeth shut and my fists clenched, when I felt the sting of 
 his remark, which showed me that, in his opinion, if I was learn- 
 ing anything at the school, that something was beneath his con- 
 sideration. 
 
 At nineteen years of age I went to Phillips Academy at 
 Exeter, N. H., and while there I studied as hard as I have ever 
 studied. It was, however, wholly up-hill work, and I remained 
 at the foot of my class, in spite of my efforts. While in Eng- 
 land I did not study, because my mind was on other things. 
 When at Exeter, I tried hard to study, and failed because no 
 comprehensible reason could be given me for the study of the 
 dead languages. I never could see the use of Latin and Greek, 
 and no teacher was able to make their use plain to my mind. 
 The answer always came to me, "I tell you it is good for you, 
 and you must do as I tell you."
 
 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 9 
 
 When twenty-one years of age, I finally went to the Ma a- 
 chusetts Institute of Technology. The school was just opened. 
 There were six other pupils besides myself. With them I imme- 
 diately began the study of chemistry, geology, mineralogy, 
 surveying, physics, and drawing by laboratory lidd work, aecom- 
 panied by lectures. Almost the very day I reached the Institute 
 the scales began to drop from my eyes, and 1 began to see for 
 the first time what a school was for, and that its main duty was 
 not to worry slow boys. I began to see that French and Ger- 
 man were of use, because they told me how my laboratory work 
 was to be done, and why it was to be done so. Chemistry 
 opened my eyes to the wonderful labyrinth, ever widening in all 
 directions, of that department of nature. Physics enchanted me 
 with its wonderful and varied range of phenomena. In fact I 
 found that the new school was teaching me nature, which I had 
 been learning how to love and to study all my life, was teaching 
 me nature by direct contact, and that mathematics, language and 
 history were nothing but means to the end. The whole aspect 
 of school life was at once inverted. I now studied because I 
 could not help it, while I had previously studied because I knew 
 I ought to Avant to study. My barrier was gone, and why ? I 
 was now converting, not print, but observation, into thought, and 
 thoughts into acts (drawings, experiments, field-work.) My books 
 became merely a tool to help me convert observation into thought. 
 The use of books being at last found out, I could not read or 
 study enough to satisfy my craving for knowledge, experience 
 and skill. 
 
 I think at the time I told that lie about my lesson that I was 
 designing a culvert for iny little road that I had made, on whieh 
 I drove my toy carriages. I am still troubled with my mind 
 wandering off from the business in hand. I had, while I was 
 writing this very paper, an idea strike me which interfered 
 seriously with my work upon the paper. I had to work it out 
 before I could leave it; and the result of it is I have invented a 
 new objective for a surveying instrument, which looks now as if 
 it would become quite an important addition to the plane table 
 and stadia work of the civil engineer. This absent-minded ne.-> 
 is a very troublesome quality to have. 
 
 Soon after graduating from the Institute, President Runkle 
 placed me in charge of the designing, equipping, and managing 
 the new mining laboratory of the Institute. I knew only the 
 little that a graduate from a very imperfect course in mining and 
 metallurgy might be expected to know, and that hampered by the 
 fact that I was naturally slow at books. I once heard IV. ii 
 Runkle remark "How wonderful it is that Kiehards should have 
 such an aptitude for designing apparatus and arranging the
 
 10 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 practical side of this mining course !" Professor Runkle did not 
 know that I had spent the first twent} r -one years of my life in 
 learning how to observe, and that, however little guided, how- 
 ever unsystematic, however much looked down upon by my 
 teachers for doing it, I had gained a great deal ; and the gain that 
 I had made was beginning to show in results. 
 
 I do not know how to account for my extreme difficulty in 
 learning. I have heard no physiological theory to explain it. I 
 think, however, that it is in this way: the step one takes in con- 
 verting the printed page of a book into thought is a very wide 
 leap, probably the widest leap a child ever has to make. If I 
 were told to jump a stream twenty-five feet wide, I should not even 
 try to do it, knowing the jump impossible; but, if stepping-stones 
 were put in, three feet apart, I could cross the stream with ease 
 and pleasure. I think the Institute of Technology put in the miss- 
 ing stepping-stones, and converted the study which had always 
 been to me a hated task, done only from love for my mother, 
 into an active, living, and intense interest. 
 
 Now, how could this be ? How could one school make ideas 
 so clear, when another school had not done so ? Let me see if 
 I can answer this question. If I convert a page of print into 
 thought, I require to read the page perhaps several times, making 
 notes as I go, taking me some minutes, perhaps hours, to under- 
 stand it. If I convert a working drawing into thought, I glance 
 at it, again a second time yes, I understand perfectly. Seconds 
 only are required. The written description of an object that 
 would take ten minutes, perhaps hours, to understand, is acquired 
 more perfectly by a few seconds from the drawing. In fact, 
 drawing is a separate language by which ideas are conveyed with 
 but a very small expenditure of time and effort, compared with 
 print. But, still better, it is a universal language. The Ameri- 
 can can talk to the Russian by a drawing as fluently as though 
 they had been born and bred in the same country. Drawing 
 becomes, therefore, a means of cultivating the intellectual faculty, 
 and we must now consider how it can best accomplish this end. 
 Free-hand sketching is good. So also is mechanical drawing. 
 They cultivate the hand and the eye to accurate observation and 
 reproduction, as well as the eye for beauty. 
 
 The act of making objects by copying from a like model does 
 the same thing. But when a child makes a drawing from an 
 object, and then makes an object of that drawing, he has derived 
 not only the advantages from both, but he has done a great deal 
 more : he has found out the use of one of the greatest tools of 
 modern progress, namely, a working drawing. The working 
 drawing is, in my opinion, the grand central idea around which 
 all the practical hand-work of the school should be crystalized.
 
 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 11 
 
 Later I expect to demonstrate the fact that a course can be so 
 laid out as to lead the boy gradually to a perfect understanding 
 of it. 
 
 I do not think my experience is extraordinary or unique. I 
 fancy every school has in it just such boys as I was. For them 
 this new scheme of object-teaching is of the highest importance, 
 as it gives them the stepping-stones so much needed. On the 
 other hand, for the bright boys, the new system serves to give 
 them a chance to measure themselves alongside of their neighbors 
 by some other standard than their speed of converting print into 
 thought; and it gives them a chance to see that there are some 
 things in the world to be done that require a little care, a little 
 time, a little thought, and a little patience, all of which are most 
 excellent lessons for the bright, swift thinker to learn. 
 
 I heard a master of one of the public schools of Boston, whose 
 pupils were taking a course in wood-work at the Eliot School in 
 . Jamaica Plain remark that he had a number of dull boys that he 
 could do nothing with. Shortly after the carpentry began they 
 suddenly seemed to open out and understand what their lessons 
 were for. 
 
 In my teaching at the Institute of Technology, I have had in- 
 stances of boys, the finest and brightest from the usual teacher's 
 standpoint, who, while they could outrank all their neighbors in 
 the school, have taken longer and found it harder to adapt them- 
 selves to the world's demands than any others. 
 
 So far for my reasons why I favor manual training. I will now 
 go to the materials and the course of instruction. 
 
 If now we admit that some experience with things, some chance 
 to cultivate observing, recording, collating, and the drawing of 
 conclusions, is good for boys, whether they are quick or slow, 
 whether they are good or bad, how shall we choose a scheme 
 of things ? How shall we choose a material for the course ? 
 Here we are, crowded into great cities. We cannot use the 
 country fields, woods, streams, etc., or even the country black- 
 smith's shop or carpenter's shop ; our numbers are too great, and 
 the country too far away. Natural history is largely ruled out, 
 and experimental science is too abstruse and also expensive. 
 We come down to the making of objects as the simplest and 
 most available plan. 
 
 In choosing material, we shall have to rule out most of the 
 trades, as the special machinery and materials used cost too 
 much. We naturally come to the common materials of con- 
 struction, wood, cast iron, wrought iron. These seem to answer 
 the purpose from both points of view cheapness and availability 
 better than any others. All houses and buildings, as well as 
 engineering construction, are largely, if not wholly, made of
 
 12 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 these materials. It is difficult to imagine a person so placed 
 that a knowledge of the properties of the three great construc- 
 tion materials wood, wrought iron, and cast iron should not be 
 of great value to him, whether he be a laborer, a politician, a 
 watchmaker, a lawyer, an engineer, a physician, or a minister. If, 
 then, the child can obtain a practical knowledge of the common 
 materials and tools of daily life while he is getting his intel- 
 lectual training from them, how much greater the benefit of the 
 course ! So much for the materials. 
 
 Permit me now for a few moments to consider the schemes of 
 instruction that are before the public. 
 
 There are two principal ways of teaching the properties and 
 modes of using materials. One is called the trade-school. The 
 other is called the manual training school ; and of this there are 
 two varieties now before the public Swedish manual training, or 
 Sloyd, and Russian manual training. 
 
 How shall we apply this system of tool-work? Shall we 
 adopt a trade-school, a Swedish manual training, or a Russian 
 manual training school ? The newspapers are talking about all 
 of these different schools. Which shall we adopt for our Boston 
 'boys and girls ? 
 
 In order to answer this question we shall have to sec what the 
 difference is between these systems. 
 
 First, let us consider the trade-school. Here the pupil must 
 be taught upon life-size scale. The pieces he works upon must 
 be as large as they would be in practice. The stock will be a 
 great expense. To pay for this, we must have the boy make a 
 large number of any one article that he has learned how to make 
 in order that the expense of his early clumsiness may be paid for 
 through his later skill by the sale of the articles he has made. 
 The school, then, must become a factory, of which goods, and 
 not boys, are the principal products. That alone is enough to 
 condemn trade-schools for boys and girls. The main object for 
 which a taxpayer supports the public school is that the boys and 
 girls may be educated to the best advantage, not that the doors, 
 and bedsteads, chairs, etc., that the school produces, may be 
 saleable. 
 
 Again, suppose, in our public schools, where we may have the 
 children one-half day per week on manual training, we tried to 
 teach the trade of carpentry. We will say that we start the 
 class in making chests of drawers, in September. They require 
 the first month to make the first dovetailed corner of the first 
 drawer. The dovetails are horrible to look at. The next month 
 perhaps, they make the other three dovetails of the first drawer, 
 each one better than the last ; but the drawer will not lie down 
 flat : it is up at one corner and down at the next. Each new
 
 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAIMMJ. 13 
 
 piece the boy makes better than the last ; and, if he has been so 
 fortunate as to get through his chest of drawers at the end of the 
 year, it will not be a satisfactory job, it will be a history of his 
 advancing skill, beginning with the poorest workmanship at one 
 corner, going on until the last degree of skill was obtained. He 
 will have worked all the year with his early failures staring him 
 in the face, and telling him that his year's work must be a failure, 
 however hard he may try. The fact is, the time is too limited to 
 make him a carpenter, even if we wished to make him one, which 
 we do not. 
 
 Let us now look at a trade-school from another point of view. 
 If we put in a shoemaking course in the public schools, we may 
 either have a good, enthusiastic teacher or a poor, indifferent one. 
 If the latter, the course would amount to nothing, and had better 
 be left out ; but, if the former, observe the consequences : all the 
 children would rush into the course. This course would be the 
 largest and most popular of all the elective departments. The 
 city would soon be flooded with young, only partly fledged shoe- 
 makers ; and then the trades-union would step in, and the imperial 
 voter would say, "Stop! we can't have this." 
 
 Again, observe that the masons' trade would say to City Hall, 
 " We refuse to pay taxes to support a shoemakers' school, when 
 you do not give us a masons' school to teach our boys." Which- 
 ever side of the fence the voter is, he has a well-defined case for 
 grumbling. 
 
 We may say, then, for lack of time, from high cost, from polit- 
 ical reasons, from total inappropriateness, a trade-school is not 
 suitable to the public school system for boys or girls. 
 
 Professor Runkle tells me that this trade-school idea was tried 
 at the great Technical School at Moscow from about 1844 to 
 1868, that it failed through that whole period to produce the 
 effects sought, and that in 1868 the Russian manual training in 
 wood was first started, which has since that time produced such 
 wonderful results in brightening up dull boys and in ballast ing 
 bright boys. There are places for trade schools, and they have 
 their uses. For instance, in a large city like New York, there are 
 many paupers, some of them, perhaps most of them, supported by 
 charity or in the reformatory. There are some of them, however, 
 who, if they were given a trade, would go to work and earn their 
 living, and be glad to do it. A trade-school for nearly or quite 
 grown up men under those circumstances, if discreetly managed, 
 will be a success. 
 
 Again, a trade-school is quite in place where a large firm or 
 company find they have a deficit of a certain class of skilled labor, 
 and it is cheaper and better to educate them than to import. In 
 certain districts of England and Germany, where the whole town
 
 14 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING, 
 
 is devoted to one kind of manufacture. as weaving, for instance, 
 very successful trade-schools exist. They fill a very important 
 want, and do not flood the market, because the market is so very 
 large. 
 
 We now come to the various kinds of manual training, of which 
 the Swedish and the Russian manual training are the two most 
 prominent examples. These systems do not strive to teach any 
 trade at all. They strive to teach the principles which underlie 
 all trades. They bear the same relations to trade-schools that 
 the modern inductive scientific method of thought does to the old 
 rule-of-thumb method, do this because your grandfather did it 
 so. If it was good enough for your grandfather, it is good enough 
 for you. 
 
 Manual training is part and parcel of the great modern move- 
 ment which is coming into everything ; namely, observe, record, 
 collate, conclude. And, so long as this mental faculty is seized 
 upon and developed in the child, I do not care whether he makes 
 a complete chest of drawers or only one corner of one drawer. 
 It is the boy we are making, not furniture. 
 
 Let us now make an analytical comparison between the Swe- 
 dish and Russian methods. The Swedish makes finished articles. 
 The Russian makes mainly typical pieces, with only an occasional 
 finished piece. They are both progressive ; that is, advance by 
 steps from simpler to more complex. The Swedish selects its 
 course from the small wooden articles used in the house and 
 garden. It teaches symmetry of form. The Russian selects the 
 various fittings used by the carpenter in building and furnishing 
 a house. It teaches exactness of fit. The pieces judge them- 
 selves. The Swedish seeks to please the child by the value of 
 the article he carries home, and to develop him by progressive 
 steps in tools and work. The Russian seeks to awaken a child 
 by preliminary work, and to charm him by his own development. 
 The Swedish uses the drawing only on the piece.' The Russian 
 uses the working drawing independently of the piece. The Swe- 
 dish is accepted by all children of ten years : it is a delight to 
 them, and there is no difficulty in keeping up their interest during 
 the early stages. The interest, however, can hardly last through 
 a series of years. The Russian is apt to flag a little at first, with 
 boys of even twelve years, before the effect has been produced 
 and the idea absorbed ; but, as soon as the child's mind has begun 
 to react, advancement is a delight to both teacher and pupil. 
 Pupils who at the start clamored for finished pieces come later 
 and say: "I was mistaken, you knew best." "I am satisfied the 
 course is much better than if I were making finished pieces." 
 
 As to the appropriateness of one or another course, I think we 
 may obtain some light in this way : A child needs the incentive
 
 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OP MANUAL TRAIXWJ. 1 ~> 
 
 of the finished pieces when he is young, say ten to twelve years. 
 On the other hand, the introduction of working drawings and tin- 
 exercise of the intellect mil faculty of thinking out how intricate 
 mortises and other fittings can be made, while they would fall 
 flat on a child of ten to twelve years old, are thoroughly appreci- 
 ated and profited by in the case of a child thirteen to fifteen 
 years, the older, the more so. Therefore, we find in the very 
 principles which control each of these systems the strongly indi- 
 cated opinion that the Swedish should come earlier, say ten to 
 twelve, and the Russian later, say thirteen to fifteen. 
 
 Having now compared the Swedish and Russian methods, what 
 are we to advise? Clearly, we need them both. Shall we take 
 them unchanged as they are from abroad ? Let us look at exper- 
 ience. Can any foreign manufactory succeed in this country with- 
 out proper adaptation ? Answer, No, never. Can any foreign 
 institution be imported without change, and succeed in this 
 country without at first being adapted to the genius of our people ? 
 Answer, No, never. There is clearly here a double reason for 
 adaptation. The two schemes will both need to be adapted to 
 our country, but they must also be adapted to each other. For 
 instance, we may look for the weak and the strong points of each 
 system, and then see if we cannot so w r eld them together that the 
 strong points of the one system supplement the weak points of the 
 other. I think a little welding or splicing between the ends of 
 these two courses will be found to remove the weak points of 
 both, and as a result, give us one continuous whole, strong at 
 every point, which will hold the interest and enthusiasm of the 
 pupils throughout the last four years of the grammar school. In 
 order to put this question to the test, let us place Swedish sloyd 
 in the grammar school curriculum, between ten and twelve years, 
 and the Russian between thirteen and fifteen years. 
 
 Now, let us see where the weak points of the two systems are. 
 We see at once that toward the end of sloyd the pupil's interest 
 is liable to wane, and at the beginning of the Russian the working 
 drawing is uphill work and hard for the child at first. How can 
 these two weak ends which come together be welded so as to 
 mutually strengthen each other ? This can be done by making 
 the working drawing the grand final climax toward which both 
 these courses lead. 
 
 Suppose, for instance, that sloyd be asked to recast its prog- 
 ressive order, which is now done upon a principle which in idea, 
 but not in fact, may be expressed by saying : 
 
 Lesson one, whittle on one side of a stick, one surface. 
 
 Lesson two, whittle on two sides of a stick, two surfaces, one 
 edge.
 
 16 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OF MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 Lesson three, whittle on two sides and end of a stick, three 
 surfaces, three edges. 
 
 Lesson four, use knife and file on a stick. 
 
 Lesson five, use knife, file, and sandpaper on a stick ; and so 
 on, adding an exercise or a tool at every new piece. 
 
 Let the course as it now is to be recast around the central 
 idea or a final working drawing. To do this, place together for 
 the eleven-year-old boys all the pieces which work upon two- 
 dimension stuff, say one-fourth inch thick. The boy draws his 
 piece upon the wood, making the simple horizontal projection of 
 it. Let the pieces be so laid out that the work will be 
 progressive in every sense that Swedish work is pro- 
 gressive. The pupil will here learn to draw plane pieces, and 
 to cut them out accurately, and to make finished objects by 
 combining them ; and, over and above all the other benefits of 
 the course, he will acquire the idea of the plan of an object ; we 
 may call this two-dimension work. 
 
 The twelve-year-old pupil is given three-dimension work, on 
 thicker stock. He draws sections on the face, the side and the 
 end of the piece, and then works down to the finished shape. 
 For this purpose ,all of the sloyd pieces suitable for this work 
 are arranged in series, going from simple to more complex. 
 During this year he has learned the idea of the plan, the elevation 
 and the end view of the object, but does not yet know that he has 
 learned them. 
 
 The thirteen-year-old pupil now begins the Russian course with 
 his drawings, the difficulty of which has entirely vanished be- 
 cause his two previous years have led him up to it. He has been 
 learning the principles of the working drawing without knowing 
 that he was learning them. The difficulty at the beginning of 
 the Russian scheme is therefore entirely removed. 
 
 The sloyd pieces that call out the artistic qualities of the 
 child may be suitably interspersed throughout the course without 
 conflicting with the working drawing idea. Perhaps the greatest 
 charm of all in this manual training is the case in which a child 
 may be brought, at stated stages in his advancement, to attitudes 
 where he knows more than he thinks he does. The discovery 
 which follows is a very great delight and incentive to progress. 
 
 The Russian set of pieces has already been worked out for a 
 two years' course, and it will therefore provide for the remainder 
 of the grammar school curriculum. 
 
 We have thus reached a finished working drawing as the 
 climax toward which the four years have been systematically 
 tending, and which is not only one of the greatest tools of 
 modern progress, but also is a new mode of thought expression,
 
 ELIOT SCHOOL COURSE OP MANUAL TRAINING. 17 
 
 a universal language. There is no reason why a fourteen-year- 
 old boy who has been through these four years should not under- 
 stand an ordinary simple working drawing as well as an engineer 
 of thirty years does now, and he has been gaining besides all 
 the advantages of the tool course; namely, skill, accuracy, 
 throughness, and mental power throughout the entire course. 
 
 In conclusion, I wish to say, I do not claim originality for 
 anything contained in this paper. The ideas are all in the very 
 air we breathe. Perhaps of all the friends to whom I am in- 
 debted, I am more so to Profesor Runkle and Mr. MacAlister, 
 both of whom have helped me greatly. I wish also to mention 
 Mr. F. M. Leavitt of the Eliot School in Jamaica Plain, who has 
 been the living, connecting link between me and manual training 
 for the last two years. Many of his ideas are embodied in this 
 paper. 
 
 Finally, I wish to Say that, while it may have seemed to out- 
 siders that Boston was not progressing as rapidly as other cities 
 in these matters, there has not been a time since the first school 
 was opened in 1876 till the present moment when there has not 
 been pioneer work going on in these lines ; all of it has been in 
 the right direction, and all of it good. It may not be, any of it 
 the exact final scheme which the city shall adopt ; but it has been 
 ploughing the furrow, and sowing the seed, which is to give 
 Boston a good system, and, while doing so, it has been for the 
 boys who have received the training an inspiration to mental 
 development in a degree that words can hardly express.
 
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