wmmx 
 
 THE NORMAL 
 
 School Quarterly 
 
 Striis 2 
 
 April, 1904 
 
 Number 10 
 
 Manual Training in the 
 H H Schools 
 
 By 
 
 WILLIAM T'., BAWDEN, 
 
 J ] 
 
 1 I 
 
 Entered August 18, 190a, Normal, Illinois, as second class matter, 
 under Act of Congress of July 16, 1894 
 
 PUB LI SHE D BY THE ILLINOI S S T ATE 
 NORMAL UNIVERSITY, NORMAL, ILLINOIS 
 
 N. B.— Will persons receiving this Quarterly p lease give 
 prompt notice of any change of address? 
 
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JL<brv3" 
 
 NORMAL SCHOOL QUARTERLY 
 
 Published by the Illinois State Normal University, Normal, Illinois 
 
 Series 2 APRIL, 1904 No. 10 
 
 - 
 
 DEC 9- 1.8 
 Manual Training in the Schools. 
 
 It is the purpose of this article to discuss briefly the nature of 
 manual training, to state some of the reasons why it should be 
 given a place in the course of study, and to set forth the general 
 plan upon which it should be conducted. 
 
 MANUAL TRAINING DEFINED. 
 
 "Manual training is any form of constructive work that serves 
 to develop the power of the pupil thru spontaneous and intelligent 
 self -activity." (Definition adopted by the Eastern Manual Train- 
 ing Teachers' Association.) 
 
 The aim of the instruction, as indicated in this definition, is 
 the development of power in the individual. By power is here 
 meant not simply power in the sense of skill in the handling of 
 tools, but ability to use the hand as an agent of the mind in the 
 expression of thought. We may have training of the hand with- 
 out any tools at all, as in some forms of basketry, weaving, model- 
 ing, etc.; or we may have training that involves a considerable 
 variety of tools, as in bench work. But whatever the form of work 
 selected the special technical skill that results from its use is only 
 of subsidiary value and by no means constitutes the chief aim. 
 The reason why manual training is put into our schools is because 
 it contributes to the complete and rounded development of the 
 
The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 individual; it aims to develop, first, thought power and to give 
 play to the creative instinct; second, control of the physical or- 
 ganism by the mind; and, third, skill in the use of that organism 
 in the expression of thought. 
 
 The secondary importance of mere skill may be brought out 
 by a comparison of manual training with trade instruction. The 
 apprentice learning a trade has as a goal set before him the attain- 
 ment of ability to perform certain tool-operations with sufficient 
 accuracy to satisfy the high standards of commercial utility and 
 finish, and at a rate of speed that will earn him a livelihood in com- 
 petition with other workmen. When a new piece of work is set 
 before him he is usually kept at it until he masters it ; he must per- 
 form the same operations and go thru the same movements over 
 and over again until he acquires the necessary accuracy and speed. 
 It is a well-known principle of psychology that in order to engage 
 the attention the object of thought must be continually changing 
 and bringing in the element of the "new;" and when a given pro- 
 cess, by reason of its repetition, ceases to be an expression of thought 
 on the part of the worker it ceases to contribute to the development 
 of thought power, becomes a mere monotonous grind, and its prin- 
 cipal effect upon the worker is a sort of mechanical skill. 
 
 HANDWORK PROMOTIVE OF SOCIAL EDUCATION". 
 
 Handwork in the school serves to interpret the important role 
 the hand of man has played in human progress. Modern civili- 
 zation is based to a large extent upon material or industrial 
 progress. By this statement we do not mean to ascribe too 
 great honor to the material nor to detract from that which 
 is due to the spiritual. It is true that great advances have 
 been made along intellectual and ethical lines. Vast bodies of 
 knowledge have been reduced to exact sciences, and almost unlim- 
 ited quantities of information, interesting, useful and indispensa- 
 ble have been gathered together and catalogued for the benefit of 
 the human race. 
 
 It does not minimize the importance of all this to say that 
 man's hand has done much to bring about this wonderful thing 
 that we call modern civilization. It has been generally agreed 
 that two inventions are pre-eminently entitled to credit in this 
 
Manual Training in the Schools. 
 
 connection — the printing press and the steam engine; each the 
 product of some man's hand as well as brain, and each doing work 
 that would have to be done by men's hands or be left undone. These 
 are conspicuous examples, and their significance is apparent upon 
 a moment's reflection; but equally typical examples may be found 
 all thru life. The one thing that characterizes life today and dis- 
 tinguishes it from what it was two hundred years ago is the fact 
 that man has set more forces to work "doing" things. After the 
 various domestic animals had been exploited to the limit of their 
 capacities there was still work to be done. Man still dreamed of 
 greater things to be accomplished. Horse-power and ox-power be- 
 ing inadequate, man turned his attention to the natural forces that 
 he found so free and abundant in his environment. So wind and 
 water have been the subjects of endless experiments for the utiliza- 
 tion of the power they were observed to contain. Then steam, hot 
 air and various gases, and more recently electricity, have been set 
 to work. In all cases these forces must be utilized thru the medium 
 of a machine or some mechanical contrivance which man must 
 build with his hands; and after the machine is built it must be 
 controlled and tended by hand. 
 
 Enough has been said to indicate how much of our civilization 
 is due to man's ability and willingness to use his hands and to what 
 extent further progress is dependent upon the acquisition and ap- 
 plication of this ability. If it is true that a person who has stud- 
 ied some musical instrument will be able to appreciate instru- 
 mental music more completely because of that study; and if a 
 person who has attempted to draw or paint under good instruction 
 will be able to see more in the artistic productions of others ; it is 
 equally true that a person who has learned to do things with his 
 own hands will be the better able to recognize merit in the handi- 
 work of another; and, conversely, he who has no personal knowl- 
 edge of what the hand can do and of how things are done must 
 fail to apprehend the significance of much that he sees in the world 
 about him. 
 
 Instruction in manual training, then, will furnish the pupil 
 with a background of personal knowledge and experience in the 
 light of which he may be able to interpret more intelligently the 
 material and artificial features of his environment, and will lay 
 the basis for a wider and genuine social sympathy. 
 
The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 HANDWORK TYPICAL OF ACTIVITIES IN REAL LIFE. 
 
 Nearly everywhere in the history of education may be found 
 the aim, more or less direct, of individual development for social 
 efficiency. The meaning and implication of the term "social effi- 
 ciency" have varied as society itself has changed from one period 
 to another, and ideas as to how to bring about this efficiency have 
 also varied greatly. But in recent years it has more and more 
 come to be accepted that the way to prepare for social efficiency is 
 thru social experience. As some would have it: "Education is 
 not preparation for life ; education is life." In this connection let 
 me make the following quotation from Dr. Dewey's "Pedagogic 
 Creed" : "I believe that the school is primarily a social institution. 
 Education being a social process, the school is simply that form 
 of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that 
 will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inher- 
 ited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social 
 ends. I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living 
 
 and not a preparation for future living I believe that much 
 
 of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental 
 principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives 
 the school as a place where certain information is to be given, 
 where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are 
 to be formed. The value Q-f these is conceived as lying largely in 
 the remote future ; the child must do these; things for the sake of 
 something else he is to do ; they are mere preparations. As a re- 
 sult they do not become a part of the life experience of the child 
 and so are not truly educative I believe that the pri- 
 mary basis of education is in the child's powers at work along the 
 same general constructive lines as those which have brought civili- 
 zation into being. I believe that the only way to make the child 
 conscious of his social heritage is to enable him to perform those 
 fundamental types of activities which make civilization what it is. 
 I believe, therefore, in the so-called expressive or constructive ac- 
 tivities as the center of correlation. I believe that this gives the 
 standard for the place of cooking, sewing, manual training, etc., 
 in the school. I believe that they are not special studies which 
 are to be introduced over and above a lot of others in the way of 
 relaxation or relief, or as additional accomplishments. I believe 
 
Manual Training in the Schools. 
 
 rather that they represent, as types, fundamental forms of social 
 activities ; and that it is possible and desirable that the child's in- 
 troduction into the more formal subjects of the curriculum be thru 
 the medium of these activities." (p. 7 ff.) 
 
 To reorganize our schools upon the basis of the principles 
 here laid down would in truth mean an educational revolution ; in 
 certain features entire reconstruction is indicated. But our elabo- 
 rate courses of study and our ponderous systems of schools with 
 the acquired momentum of years do not readily respond to new 
 forces. Altho certain theories of intellectual development have 
 been shown to lack foundation in fact, nevertheless many features 
 of curriculum and method based upon these supposed laws still 
 persist in practice. When life has changed so marvelously in every 
 other aspect as it has in the last twenty years it is not rational to 
 expect education to continue on the same old lines. 
 
 Perhaps a reference to statistics will bring out the thought 
 of the particular contribution to preparation for complete living 
 now under discussion; viz., that manual training introduces into 
 the school certain selected lines of work that are typical of activi- 
 ties carried on in real life. If activities — and we are speaking now 
 more particularly of manual activities — have no special significance 
 attached to them in real life there is no reason why they should 
 claim very much of the limited time set apart for the purpose of 
 education. If, on the contrary, the hand plays any prominent 
 part as a tool in the doing of the world's work, and the ability to 
 use it as such has anything to do with determining the present 
 comfort and future independence of the individual, then must its 
 rightful place in education be recognized and its claim for atten- 
 tion justified. 
 
 According to the United States census for 1900 the total num- 
 ber of individuals reported as engaged in gainful occupations was 
 29,286,000. This number is classified according to vocations: 
 
 Agricultural pursuits — 10,438,000, or 35.7 per cent. 
 Professional service — 1,264,000, or 4.3 per cent. 
 Domestic and personal service — 5,691,000, or 19.4 per cent. 
 Trade and transportation — 4,778,000, or 16.3 per cent. 
 Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits — 7,113,000, or 24.3 
 per cent. 
 
The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 During the last fifty years there has been a marked decrease in 
 the proportion of the number of individuals engaged in agricul- 
 tural pursuits, and there has been a large increase in the percent- 
 age of those employed in trade and transportation and in manu- 
 facturing and mechanical pursuits. These figures show what a 
 large part manual work and especially the constructive industries 
 play in our national life. It is instructive to note what a large 
 proportion of these methods of gaining a livelihood employ the 
 hand more or less directly. We are pre-eminently an industrial 
 nation, and if we are to maintain our supremacy among the nations 
 of the world we must be even more than we have been a manufac- 
 turing nation. This can only be accomplished by raising up gen- 
 erations of children who can do something with their hands. This 
 does not imply, as has been already indicated, the teaching of 
 trades in the common schools; but it does mean that children 
 should be brought up to know something at first hand about 
 "things/* the realities of life, and the elements of such typical 
 industries as it may be possible to introduce into the work of the 
 school. 
 
 It is to satisfy this demand that we now find in the schools 
 such activities as weaving and basket making, modeling in clay, 
 work in paper and card-board, tin and iron and wood, and the rest. 
 They are put there, not that the children may by means of them 
 become self-supporting, but that the school may be as nearly as pos- 
 sible a counterpart of that life upon which these children are so 
 soon to enter. 
 
 HANDWORK A MEANS OF EXPRESSION" ESSENTIAL TO COMPLETE 
 MENTAL GROWTH. 
 
 Colonel Parker's "Talks on Pedagogics" contains a chapter in 
 which expression is defined as "the manifestation of thought and 
 emotion thru the body by means of the physical agents." (p. 224.) 
 Of the nine modes of expression there enumerated, language is 
 given the chief place as a means of studying human development. 
 "Next to language may be placed the tools and instruments which 
 man has used thru all the ages in manifesting his needs and his 
 aspirations to others." 
 
Manual Training in the Schools, 
 
 Man has been called a thinking animal as if that characteriza- 
 tion were sufficient to distinguish him from the rest of creation. 
 But man is known to be a thinking animal solely by the expression 
 of his thought. In the chapter already referred to occurs this pass- 
 age: "The inward impulse or desire finds expression in outward 
 form or object; as the Creator manifests himself to man thru forms 
 and qualities of matter so man manifests himself to his fellow 
 men by formal creations. The externalization of thought is by 
 means of the physical action called skill. . . . The exercise of the 
 
 physical agents in acts of expression is brought about by 
 
 the striving of the will to make skill in expression adequate to 
 thought; the health, growth, development and elaboration of the 
 body as an instrument of attention and expression depends mainly 
 
 upon the variety, kind, and quality of acts of expression 
 
 Expression demands either reflection or attention, or both. At- 
 tention has for its basis the motive of expression. This implies 
 that the trend of all human thought is toward expressive action; 
 that thought which does not end in action dies or stagnates/ 5 
 (pp. 228-229.) 
 
 The making of things has been stated to be "the material 
 basis of life and living." He who has never "made" anything 
 and is not conscious of any ability to make anything has indeed 
 failed to qualify as one of the "lords of creation." It is the func- 
 tion of manual training in the process of education to assist in 
 the unfolding of powers otherwise neglected and yet essential to 
 complete living — powers which the individual needs for the mas- 
 tery, first, of himself, and then, of his environment. 
 
 CULTIVATION OF USEFUL HABITS. 
 
 Manual training involves the cultivation of habits of neat- 
 ness, regularity, perseverance, self-criticism, self-confidence, indi- 
 vidual initiative, etc. If education is, as Professor James de- 
 scribes it, "the organization of acquired habits of conduct and 
 tendencies to behavior" ("Talks to Teachers," p. 29), then surely 
 manual training is entitled to consideration as an educational 
 factor of great value. It may not be easy for one who knows 
 nothing at first hand of how instruction in handwork is given 
 in the schools to appreciate the extent of its usefulness in 
 
The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 this direction. Of course, there is a question as to whether any 
 given habit is active or effective outside of its particular setting. 
 Persons have been observed to maintain the utmost regularity in 
 certain directions who are just as derelict in others. But, how- 
 ever that may be, since man is a creature of habit the acquisition 
 of any good and useful habit is certainly so much clear gain. 
 
 Time would fail to discuss any of these habits in an extended 
 way, but more than a mere passing mention should be given to 
 the salutary influence manual training exerts in the direction of 
 developing the spirit and habit of self-criticism. Many of the 
 tasks set before pupils, old and young, fail wholly or partially of 
 accomplishing their intended results. There are too many ways of 
 getting assistance here, an explanation there, and the key to the 
 solution of a knotty problem somewhere else, and even the doing 
 of the work entirely by others. Inasmuch as the individual must 
 "learn to do by doing" he must sacrifice his own growth when he 
 substitutes the performance of another for his own. Manual train- 
 ing in the school presents a line of work in the prosecution of 
 which every achievement shows for just what it is. A certain 
 amount of thought and labor are required to produce a certain re- 
 sult upon a piece of - wood; and the condition of that piece of wood 
 at any stage of the process is a declaration, inevitable and inexor- 
 able, of the amount of thought and labor that have been expended 
 and the amount still necessary. Instruments of precision, or tools 
 for measuring and testing the accuracy of results, are a part of 
 the regular shop equipment which the pupils are taught to use 
 and apply constantly to their work. The pupils themselves are 
 able to test their own work and are able to judge intelligently of 
 their progress. They are not aiming at an ideal that exists only 
 in the mind of the teacher — an ideal to the child in many cases un- 
 known and in some cases unknowable. Instead, the aim is some- 
 thing comprehensible, and because concrete it is capable of being 
 dealt with by the child-mind. In most cases the thing to be done 
 appeals to the child as a goal desirable of attainment and worthy 
 of his endeavor quite irrespective of the fact that it was set before 
 him by the teacher. 
 
 That very desirable frame of mind we commonly denominate 
 self-confidence, or self-reliance, is one of the choice fruits of a well- 
 balanced education that reaches its greatest perfection under the 
 
Manual Training in the Schools. 
 
 cultivation afforded thru handwork. Each pupil is judged and 
 stands or falls by the results of his own efforts ; he learns that noth- 
 ing will make a showing save genuine, earnest work. Having ap- 
 prehended the end that is to be reached, and having received ad- 
 vice as to the method of procedure, he must personally go thru 
 every step of the process to the end. At each step there is re- 
 quired a decision, an act of the will, to determine the immediate 
 action; the result of this action must be considered in its bearing 
 upon the ultimate end desired and in determining succeeding ac- 
 tion. In this the pupil feels himself thrown upon his own re- 
 sources. He sees the necessity of making some decision in view of 
 the facts before him and then of carrying that decision out into 
 action. This leads up naturally to our next statement. 
 
 CO-ORDINATION OF THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL. 
 
 Manual training serves to promote the co-ordination of the 
 motor organism and the mind. 
 
 "Brain and mind alike," says Professor James, "consist of sim- 
 ple elements, sensory and motor." (Psychology: Briefer Course, 
 p. 105.) "The whole neural organism, it will be remembered, is, 
 physiologically considered, but a machine for converting stimuli 
 into reactions ; and the intellectual part of our life is knit up with 
 but the middle or 'central' part of the machine's operation." 
 (Ibid, p. 370.) 
 
 Every normal human being is provided with an organism of 
 which the mind is the vital agent. This organic apparatus has two 
 important functions ; one is to carry to the brain the various sensory 
 impressions, and the other is to carry to the appropriate muscles the 
 mandates of the mind and cause them to be executed. Now it is of 
 the utmost importance that this apparatus be adjusted so that its 
 workings can be depended upon. The sensory and motor elements 
 must be co-ordinated. There is a common type of humanity in 
 whom this connection is not well made. Those persons who are 
 always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time do not do so al- 
 ways thru ignorance; in very many cases they know what they 
 want to do or what they ought to do but fail because of their lack 
 of ability to carry their good intentions into effect. The time- 
 worn statement that "knowledge is power" is only a half-truth 
 
10 The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 that, in the case of the ordinary individual, needs its complement, 
 "practice makes perfect." In addition to the knowing and the 
 willing we must have the doing. 
 
 Dr. Gilbert would make this point prominent in the argument 
 for manual training: "The highest activity of the mind is crea- 
 tion, the conceiving a new thing and carefully working out in 
 detail the conception, and then putting it into actual realization. 
 The man who conceives, designs, and makes things is performing 
 the highest function of mind. This is what is done in a proper 
 course of manual training. The imagination is stimulated, ex- 
 pression is encouraged, and then production follows and com- 
 pletes the educational circle. The boy who has thought out a 
 tool, or a machine, or even a definite piece of carpentry, has por- 
 trayed his conception in a drawing upon paper, and then has made 
 it, has really accomplished more and has gotten more power than 
 would have been possible thru any amount of learning about things. 
 
 The advantage of manual training work for young people 
 
 is its reality. It is so tangible. The boy has ideas, but words for 
 their expression escape him; he is frequently embarrassed and un- 
 able to express himself in acts; but give him tools and things to 
 work on, and he possesses himself at once, and thru the exercise 
 of this highest function gains that tremendous power that comes in 
 no other way." (Charles B. Gilbert: Manual Training in the 
 Public Schools; Proceedings of the Eastern Manual Training 
 Teachers' Association, 1901, p. 102.) 
 
 The key-note of the new education is doing. It is not simply 
 to add a new frill to the educational garment that we advocate the 
 method of "learning by doing." Par from that, "it is the vital 
 element in all education, physical, mental, and moral." Life it- 
 self is made up of action rather than dreams and reveries and con- 
 templation. It is not sufficient to read and talk about noble living 
 and right action ; will power is developed only by its exercise. The 
 pupil must be required to make repeated decisions and thus develop 
 ability to determine and regulate his own activities. 
 
 Manual training, therefore, deserves the prominence given it 
 as an educational factor because it does enforce the use of the 
 faculties and because it does cultivate nerve-power, self-control, 
 and decision. 
 
Manual Training in the Schools. 11 
 
 VARIETY OF MATERIALS AND PROCESSES. 
 
 Handwork in the school should introduce a variety of mate- 
 rials and processes. In order to bring in this variety it is our 
 purpose to make use of the following, as circumstances may per- 
 mit: Paper and card-board work, cord-work, weaving or textile 
 work, building with blocks, modeling in clay, basketry, bead work, 
 work in tin and iron, elementary woodwork, and bench woodwork. 
 
 It is well to note why variety is essential. The two principal 
 reasons arise, one from the nature of the child, the other from 
 the nature of the work. In the first place, it will be apparent to 
 any one acquainted with the wide range of the child's interests 
 that no one material or line of work would suffice to hold his at- 
 tention or to keep him profitably occupied for any considerable 
 period of time. And in the second place, no one of these lines 
 of work presents ideal conditions for all kinds of work with all 
 children. Each one of these mediums possesses certain character- 
 istics that recommend it for training along certain lines. Some 
 work calls for accuracy and regularity, while other kinds of work 
 allow for freedom of expression; some materials are hard and 
 unyielding, while others are more plastic and flexible. All of 
 these qualities are valuable in their due proportion and each 
 should have its place. 
 
 MANUAL TRAINING FOR BOTH SEXES. 
 
 Boys and girls alike should receive the benefits of manual 
 training. As has been already pointed out, the end in view is not 
 the making of apprentices to any trade, but the full, rounded and 
 balanced development of the individual; and that this be accorded 
 to pupils of one sex and denied to those of the other would be a 
 discrimination both unjust and indefensible. This does not mean 
 that no differentiation could be made in the work of the boys and 
 the girls. Neither does it mean that girls must be taught nothing 
 that is not essentially feminine and the boys nothing that is not 
 essentially masculine. 
 
 TEACHERS OF MANUAL TRAINING. 
 
 Manual training should be conducted by the regular grade 
 teachers thru the first six years of the elementary school, and there- 
 
12 The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 after by special teachers. Most of the processes suitable for use 
 in the lower grades are easily mastered by the regular teachers. 
 There is no reason why the average teacher should not qualify her- 
 self, by attendance at summer school or otherwise, for the success- 
 ful prosecution of the work. For the more technical work of the 
 upper grades, however, special teachers are essential. 
 
 LINES OF WORK TO FOLLOW. 
 
 Handwork should proceed along lines that appeal to the inter- 
 ests of the pupil. Statements bearing upon this point have al- 
 ready been made in this paper and it is perhaps not wise to pur- 
 sue the argument any further. It is a direct corollary of Froe- 
 bePs great law of self-activity and it ought to be effective in all 
 departments of school practice. The only question is as to how 
 to bring it about. It is physically impossible to execute a scheme 
 of education that would provide that every pupil should be en- 
 gaged only in such work as for the time being interests him, and 
 it would be pedagogically unwise to turn a group of children loose 
 among tools to make anything they choose. 
 
 It seems to be essential to the pupil's continued interest in 
 manual work that he be made conscious of progress — he must feel 
 his own increasing efficiency. To bring this about requires that 
 things be laid out in some orderly way so that there may be a pro- 
 gression from the easy to the more difficult ; but so far as possible 
 the individual tastes of the pupil are consulted and his interests 
 are appealed to. 
 
 ORGANIC PLACE OF HANDWORK IN THE COURSE. 
 
 Manual training should be an integral part of the course of 
 study. One of the objections that has long been urged against 
 manual training in the school is that there is no room for it. It 
 has suffered the fate of the other so-called "special" studies and 
 in most cases has been simply "patched on" to an already over- 
 crowded curriculum. The course of study that was adopted one 
 hundred years ago was planned to meet the demands of the then 
 existing state of society; and it seems almost incredible that those 
 who are responsible for the education of today should be content 
 with a course of study that is but little more than the old one "re- 
 vised and enlarged" and "brought down to date" by the addition 
 
Manual Training in the Schools. 13 
 
 of a few "specialties," apparently heedless of the fact that in the 
 meantime society and civilization have changed so greatlv. 
 
 When the individual grows up and goes out into the world he 
 is not going to have to read and write and spell any more than he is 
 going to have to do other things. His success in life is going to de^ 
 pend pretty largely upon his ability to meet situations demanding 
 clear thought and prompt and intelligent action. Since "doing" 
 plays such a prominent part in real life it ought to play a corre- 
 spondingly prominent part in any plan of education that under- 
 takes to prepare for that life. It is clear that manual training 
 subserves this purpose and the indications are that the curriculum 
 of the not very distant future will recognize this fact officially and 
 give it its rightful place. It is highly probable even that manual 
 work will form the very core and foundation of the curriculum for 
 the elementary school. Indeed this claim is already being made 
 for manual training as noted in the quotation from Professor 
 Dewey, and in the following from Miss Mitchell: "Constructive 
 work, manual training, industrial art, drawing, painting — hand- 
 work of all kinds, by whatever name — form a large part of th* 
 social occupations of the school life. The question is as to theit 
 place and educative value. Psychology as well as experience proves 
 them to be among the central interests of young life, the strong- 
 est forces in the school room, the most economical means to power 
 and knowledge. Grouped together with other social occupations, 
 they should be the center of the course of study, and about them 
 should be ranged all the other subjects of the curriculum." (Man- 
 ual Training Magazine, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 13.) 
 
 Until the problem of adjusting the curriculum to the demands 
 of modern civilization has been scientifically worked out we must 
 accept conditions as they are and make the most of them. This 
 means that for the present at least we must take a certain amount 
 of time from other studies and devote it to manual training. But 
 as the result of such an arrangement we must not suppose that the 
 studies thus subtracted from are to be weakened. On the con- 
 trary manual training will impart new vigor to the rest of the 
 work and there is no reason why any of it should suffer. Take 
 mathematics, for example ; handwork is so closely related to arith- 
 metic and its demands upon the pupiPs knowledge of that subject 
 are so frequent that it acts as a positive stimulus to its study. The 
 
14 The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 same can be shown to be true to a greater or less extent of other 
 studies. 
 
 Provision for manual training in the daily program is in 
 many cases simply a question of arrangement. Wherever possible, 
 study periods rather than recitation periods are used for this pur- 
 pose, so that with a small amount of outside study the regular 
 program undergoes but little change. In the upper grades where 
 the classes are obliged to go to a special shop time can be saved by 
 having one handwork period the first thing in the morning or after- 
 noon session and the other the last thing. The first class would 
 then report from their homes directly to the special teacher and 
 the second class would be excused from the shop to go home. In 
 a great many schools successful beginnings have been made by 
 doing all the handwork outside of school hours (before and after 
 school, during recess periods, and Saturdays) without interfering 
 with the regular work in any way. The interested teacher will 
 not fail to find a way and she may count on the interest and co- 
 operation of her pupils. 
 
 EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS. 
 
 Considerations of expense have frequently prevented the in- 
 troduction of manual training into schools where its value has 
 been recognized. This ought not to be, however, for it has been 
 shown that when necessary any work that is worth while can be done 
 at practically no expense. A modest and inexpensive beginning in 
 good hands is far better than an extravagant and costly experiment 
 ill-conducted. The following extract from the Manual Training 
 Magazine, may be of interest: 
 
 "In a recent address, Capt. C. E. Vawter of the Miller Manual 
 Labor School at Eichmond, Va., gave some pertinent figures as re- 
 gards the cost of hand training The manual training in the 
 
 lower grades should be taught in the regular schoolroom by the 
 regular teacher at an average cost not exceeding one dollar per 
 
 pupil a year, even if the equipment lasts only one year The 
 
 higher grades will include whittling and benchwork, and will re- 
 quire a special teacher who can give instruction in either of the 
 departments to 600 pupils, if one lesson of ninety minutes is given 
 a week, and to 300, if two lessons of ninety minutes are given each 
 
Manual Training in the /Schools. 15 
 
 week. This would cost per pupil 66c for 300 pupils and $1.33 for 
 600. The cost of thirty pupils can be formulated as follows : 
 
 SUBJECT EQUIPMENT MATERIAL TOTAL 
 
 Construction in paper $ 8.70 $ 8.00 $16.70 
 
 Construction in pasteboard 13.65 2.00 15.65 
 
 Clay work 1.80 1.80 3.60 
 
 Basketry and Weaving 3.00 4.20 7.20 
 
 Whittling 90.00 6.00 96.00 
 
 Benchwork 330.80 37.40 368.20 
 
 The equipment will last for several years, while the material 
 is estimated for only one year/' (Vol. 5, p. 120.) 
 
 Those who wish to inquire further into this phase of the work 
 should read "The Economics of Manual Training/' by Louis Bouil- 
 lon; Teachers' College Record, vol. 2, no. 5; price, 20c; published 
 by the Columbia University Press, New York. 
 
 See also two articles on "The Cost of Manual Training" by 
 William E. Roberts, Supervisor of Manual Training, Cleveland 
 Public Schools; Manual Training Magazine, vol 3, pp. 151, 217. 
 
 SOME REFERENCE HELPS. 
 
 For any who may wish to read up more fully on some of the 
 aspects of manual training the following references are among 
 the best : 
 
 Dewey: School and Society; University of Chicago Press. 
 
 Dopp: Place of Industries in Elementary Education; Uni- 
 versity of Chicago Press. 
 
 Chamberlain: Paper and Cardboard Construction; Whita- 
 ker & Ray, San Francisco. 
 
 James : Indian Basketry ; Henry Malkan, New York. 
 
 Tinsley: Practical and Artistic Basketry; Kellogg, New 
 York. 
 
 Wheeler: Woodworking for Beginners; Putnam, New York. 
 
 Keeler : Our Native Trees ; Scribner, New York. 
 
 Pinchot: Primer of Forestry; Government Bulletin. 
 
 For additional material consult Chamberlain's Bibliography of 
 the Manual Arts, published by Flanagan, Chicago. The "Manual 
 Training Magazine/' published by the Manual Arts Press, Peoria, 
 111., is a helpful publication. 
 
16 The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 Summer Session. 
 
 ILLINOIS STATE NORMAL UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Two terms, six weeks each. 
 July 6 to July 15. 
 July 18 to August 26. 
 
 Thirty-nine instructors in the first term. 
 
 Twelve in the second. 
 Sixty-seven courses are offered. 
 
 Especial advantages are afforded in Primary Methods, Manual 
 Training, Art Instruction, Natural Science and Vocal Music. 
 
 Tuition free to all Illinois teachers. 
 
 For description of courses and additional information, address, 
 David Felmley, President, 
 
 Normal, Illinois. 
 
AND STATICS 
 
BE NORMAL 
 
 Quarterly 
 
 iifel 
 
 Series 2 
 
 July, 1904;: 
 
 Number II 
 
 mx 
 
 The School Excursion and the 
 
 School Museum as Aids 
 
 in the Teaching of 
 
 Geography 
 
 ;;. -g ■;,• By 
 D. C RIDGLEY 
 
 I 
 
 ■ j 
 
 I I 
 
 I I 
 
 Entered August 18, 190a, Normal, Illinois, as second class matter, 
 C under Act of Congress of July 16, 1894 
 
 P U B L ISHED BY THB ILLINOIS STATE 
 NORMAL U NT VERSITY, NORMAL, ILLI NOIS 
 
 N. B.— -Wflj persons receiving this Quarterly please give 
 prompt notice of my change 0! address ? 
 

 NORMAL SCHOOL QUARTERLY 
 
 Published by the Illinois State Normal University, Normal, Illinois 
 
 Series 2 JULY, 1904 Number 11 
 
 The School Excursion and the School Museum as Aids 
 in the Teaching of Geography. 
 
 It is my purpose to consider the advisability of using some of 
 the helps in the presentation of the subject of geography which will 
 require the teacher and pupil to go beyond the confines of the 
 schoolroom to obtain them. These helps are not intended to 
 supplant the time-honored textbooks and wall maps, but to put 
 new and fuller meaning into them, to make the book and the map 
 the servant not the master of teacher and pupil. 
 
 Geography is one of the foremost subjects in the curriculum 
 in the study of concrete material. Its subject-matter is objective. 
 It considers the earth in its relation to man. It includes a study 
 of the practical things of every day life at home and abroad. 
 
 To give to the pupil the necessary first-hand knowledge in the 
 study of geography requires that the pupil and the thing to be 
 studied be brought together face to face and at short range. This 
 can be done in one of two ways: by taking the pupil to the thing; 
 or by bringing the thing to the pupil. The first is the most effect- 
 ive way of studying the various topics of home geography and leads 
 to the intelligent and frequent use of the school excursion. The 
 second is the most effective way of giving first-hand knowledge con- 
 cerning the geography of regions beyond the home locality and 
 leads to the building and constant use of the school museum. 
 
The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 I wish to speak of each of these aids in the teaching of geogra- 
 phy not from the theoretical standpoint, but as I have made use 
 of them in classroom practice. My experience with the school ex- 
 cursion has been with classes from the third year thru the remain- 
 ing years of the grammar school in a public school of a thousand 
 pupils in the city of Chicago and in the lower grades of the Train- 
 ing School of Normal, also in the high schools of Chicago and in 
 two of the state normal schools of Illinois. Classes have ranged in 
 numbers from half a dozen to eighty. My use of the school mu- 
 seum has extended over the same range of the curriculum with the 
 addition of the first and second grades. 
 
 THE SCHOOL EXCURSION. 
 
 The school excursion is an expedition made by the pupils of 
 a class under the immediate direction of the teacher for the study 
 of some particular topic in the school work. The pupils are respon- 
 sible to the teacher for attention, interest, and good behavior to the 
 same extent as in a class exercise in the schoolroom. 
 
 Successful school excursions depend upon the hearty co-opera- 
 tion of school officials, principal, teacher, pupils, and parents. All 
 must believe that it is a good thing and work harmoniously and 
 earnestly to make it as successful as other school exercises. The 
 school board and superintendent must recognize the value of such 
 work; they and the principal must willingly permit the use of 
 school time to the extent of a half -day at most for the work. The 
 teacher must be as enthusiastic in this work as in any other if she 
 expects to reap educational results. She must have studied the 
 field of investigation previous to the time of the class exercise and 
 carefully planned the steps of the lesson. To fail to do so means 
 great loss in the net results of the lesson. The pupils must feel 
 that an outdoor lesson is of as great importance and value as any 
 other school exercise. Its importance is evident to the pupils when 
 it is clearly brought before them that the board of education, super- 
 intendent, and principal have permitted school time to be used for 
 the lesson. 
 
The School Excursion and the School Museum. 
 
 Much better spirit is manifest and much better results obtained 
 when attendance of each pupil on any particular excursion, espe- 
 cially if at considerable distance from school, is left to the volun- 
 tary decision of the parent. The excursion is not as effective as it 
 should be, if the discussion of results in class does not make every 
 one who did not go wish that he had gone. 
 
 In Chicago the rules of the board of education require that no 
 excursion be undertaken without the consent of the superintendent 
 or district superintendent of schools, and that no pupil shall be 
 permitted to go on any excursion without the written consent of 
 the parent or guardian. 
 
 Many of the teaching force of the Chicago schools read this 
 rule of the board and say that there are too many restrictions and 
 too much red-tape to do anything in the line of excursions. I was 
 inclined to the same opinion until I learned by trial that each re- 
 quirement instead of being a hindrance was a very decided help in 
 arranging for and carrying out each excursion. 
 
 If the pupils said to their parents that Mr. Cooley, our super- 
 intendent, or Mr. Lane, our district superintendent, had granted 
 permission to have an outdoor lesson in geography, it immediately 
 lent dignity to the event. It was not so likely to be considered a 
 plan of the teacher and pupils to have a picnic. 
 
 The written consent of the parent saves the teacher from any 
 criticism of having taken the pupil off on a useless trip which did 
 not in any way meet with the parent's approval. In order to save 
 trouble to the parents, the pupils carefully copied a letter of re- 
 quest placed on the blackboard by the teacher, carried it home and 
 were remarkably successful in obtaining signature and necessary 
 car fare. 
 
 One hundred and ninety-five pupils out of a membership of 
 two hundred in fourth and fifth year work were taken in sections 
 of twenty-five to fifty to the Des Plaines Eiver, seven miles away. 
 The five remaining pupils were ill or had work at home immedi- 
 ately after school. All of the forty-eight pupils of the seventh 
 
The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 year, save one who had made the trip previously, went to the stock- 
 yards and Swift's Packing House. Ninety per cent or more of 
 each class in the high school went on the excursions. 
 
 I feel that all excursions taken in connection with the various 
 classes from the third year thru the normal school have been more 
 effective as lessons in geography than the same time spent in class- 
 room instruction. Each excursion furnishes the best possible ma- 
 terial for class-room instruction for several days or a week after 
 the trip. The region visited need not be peculiar or striking to 
 the ordinary observer. The almost featureless region of Chicago 
 and vicinity is rich in topographic forms in miniature. So is 
 almost every locality. 
 
 I will now indicate some of the particular trips taken by classes 
 of various grades and the scope of the work considered in some of 
 these classes. 
 
 In excursions of the third year, classes were taken to examine 
 the laying of the cement walks about the school building. They 
 observed the material and its use, also the work of different men 
 engaged. 
 
 In another instance while studying the building of homes 
 third year pupils made trips to a house in process of construction, 
 examined the foundation of brick and mortar, learned that mortar 
 is made of sand and lime, examined the studding, weatherboarding, 
 rafters, roof, arrangement of rooms as indicated by studding, and 
 went to the gravel pit to see how sand is screened and removed from 
 the pit. En route they noted a valley with its divides, slopes, and 
 stream. 
 
 While standing at the bottom of the valley by the stream this 
 question was asked: "How many slopes has this valley?" About 
 half of the class said, "Three;" the others, "Two." One who said 
 "Three" was asked to explain. She said, "It has two slopes this 
 way," bringing her hands together to indicate the side slopes, "and 
 it must slope that way," pointing down stream, "or the water could 
 not run off." All others grasped the point made by their little 
 
The School Excursion and the School Museum. 
 
 teacher within a minute. In the presence of the reality faulty 
 thinking righted itself. 
 
 An excursion to the brick mills was also made by pupils of 
 the third year. The process of brickmaking from the beginning 
 was observed. Not only were the brick mills studied but their 
 association with the coal mine and gas works was thought out and 
 stated by the pupils. They saw (1) that the brick mill is located 
 where it is, so that it can easily get the clay which has been brought 
 from the mine for making the brick and the coal for burning them ; 
 (2) that the gas works are near the coal mine to save cost of trans- 
 porting coal; and (3) that the coke made by manufacturing the 
 gas is used in the early stages of burning the brick in the kilns. A 
 better illustration of associated industries would be hard to find. 
 
 Fourth year pupils in Chicago were taken on various trips, 
 among others to the Des Plaines Kiver, the Drainage Canal, and 
 thru the business district to visit a big store, the Art Institute, 
 Public Library, site of old Fort Dearborn, Water street, and other 
 places of interest. In the upper grades excursions were made to 
 river, canal, stone quarry, and stockyards. 
 
 In the high school, excursions were made especially for the 
 study of physical geography, and included visits to several locali- 
 ties for land forms, the Weather Bureau station for study of mete- 
 orological instruments and their use, and the Public Library for its 
 architecture and the various kinds of building stones used in its 
 construction. 
 
 A single trip to the Hawthorne stone quarry and the Drainage 
 Canal near by brought out many points very strikingly; among 
 them, the following: rock strata, relation of limestone to coral 
 and other animals, relation of Niagara limestone to the Chicago 
 region, relation of mantle rock to bed rock, dip and strike of rock 
 strata, underground water, making of soil by weathering, bed rock 
 scored and striated by glacial action, character of glacial soil, de- 
 velopment of miniature valleys in clay banks at the margin of 
 the quarry showing growth of valleys headward, tributaries, lakes, 
 
The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 waterfalls, deltas, floodplains, river terraces, struggle of streams for 
 territory, and other phases of stream action. At the Drainage 
 Canal the great embankments on each side are of glacial drift 
 thrown out of the canal. Here could be seen, in miniature, moun- 
 tain ranges, mountain peaks made by erosion, mountain valleys and 
 passes, alluvia] cones and their relation to mountain valleys. The 
 pupils obtained a conception of the magnitude of the Drainage 
 Canal and an understanding of its purposes and its geographic 
 location. 
 
 In the Normal School classes at Normal we have visited Macki- 
 naw Dells for stream work, Sugar Creek and its branches for 
 stream work, drainage basin and divides, the brick mills for a study 
 of different kinds of rock and the use of clay rock taken from the 
 mines near by, and Miller Park for a study of a dam and a reser- 
 voir. 
 
 During the summer session of 1903 in the Normal School at 
 DeKalb, Illinois, the classes visited a creamery to see butter-making 
 and pasteurizing of milk; Curler's dairy farm to learn how milk 
 could be so carefully handled as to make it unnecessary to sterilize 
 it, at the same time making it so valuable that it sells in Chicago 
 for twice as much per quart as ordinary milk. 
 
 The longest trip made by the students at DeKalb was one of 
 twenty hours to Chicago. The party numbered fifty. The special 
 purpose was a visit to the stockyards and Swift's Packing House. 
 All else was incidental. The students asked that they be taken to 
 as many places as possible so that they might know how to reach 
 them for further study when in the city alone. To indicate the 
 extent to which their request was complied with I will give a brief 
 itinerary of the day's journey. 
 
 We left DeKalb early on a Saturday morning in a special car 
 attached to the regular train. The ride of two hours was spent in 
 a study of the topography of that region from the car windows. 
 The succession of till plains, belts of morianic hills, and stream val- 
 leys merging into the Chicago Lake Plain to the east were ob- 
 
The School Excursion and the School Museum. 
 
 jects of especial geographic interest. A walk of several blocks 
 along South Water street busy with its early Saturday trade 
 gave us a vivid idea of the labor involved in provisioning a great 
 city. 
 
 A ride of forty minutes on the Halsted street car, took us 
 past the court house and the new post office building, across the 
 South Branch of the Chicago Eiver with its many ships, along a 
 network of railroad tracks and landed us at the entrance to the 
 Union Stockyards. 
 
 We were met at the entrance to Swift's Packing House by three 
 guides furnished by the firm for our party. We spent two hours 
 in visiting the various departments of the packing house. We 
 saw the dressing of hogs and cattle, and the great coolers contain- 
 ing thousands of dressed hogs and beeves. We saw the careful in- 
 spection, selection, stamping, and wrapping of Swift's premium 
 hams and bacon. We saw the sausage chopped and stuffed by ma- 
 chinery, the canned meats deftly wrapped, labeled, and packed ready 
 for shipment. We visited the rooms where great vats were filled 
 with various mixtures to be boiled, cooled, and cut into cakes of 
 soap. The butterine factory was a marvel of care and cleanliness 
 to those who had supposed it otherwise. 
 
 After dinner our next ride brought us to Jackson Park and 
 the Field Columbian Museum. A little more than an hour gave 
 the members of the party an opportunity to visit the lake shore and 
 to make a hurried survey of the exhibits of the museum. A ride 
 of eight miles brought us to the Art Institute and thirty minutes 
 were allowed for walking thru its galleries. A walk thru the vari- 
 ous departments of the Public Library gave interesting glimpses of 
 this magnificent structure. 
 
 It was now five-thirty and all were hungry. After lunch an- 
 other ride brought us to Lincoln Park and we took a hurried sur- 
 vey of the zoological garden, drives, and statues of Chicago's great- 
 est playground. 
 
 I have had no more enjoyable experience in excursion work 
 than with a class of teachers in active service in the city of Chi- 
 
The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 cago during the spring of 1903. I was invited to meet a group 
 of teachers for a lesson in geography once a week after school. At 
 one of these meetings I asked whether any should like to go on 
 Saturday excursions. A number wished to do so and an invita- 
 tion to meet on a certain street crossing on the following Saturday 
 brought out a dozen teachers to visit the stockyards. Two weeks 
 later twenty-seven visited the Weather Bureau station in the Audi- 
 torium tower. Professor Cox took us into his inner room and 
 showed us how he makes weather. 
 
 In May twenty-five teachers went forty miles to visit Dun- 
 ham's Horse Farm — two thousand seven hundred acres and five 
 hundred horses. We were met at the station, driven to the farm 
 house and entertained at dinner. This was followed by as fine 
 an exhibition of horses as the original of Rosa Bonheur's famous 
 Horse Fair. We were then driven over the two thousand seven 
 hundred acre farm with its fine grounds, woods, deer park, great 
 fields of corn, oats, and hay, making our final stop at the railway 
 station. All this was due to the courtesy and generosity of the 
 owners of the farm. 
 
 One Saturday in June sixty teachers made a trip along the 
 Drainage Canal by special electric car to Eomeo, four miles on 
 canal by boat, visited the controlling works at Lockport, took din- 
 ner at Joliet, visited the Des Plaines Eiver to get relation of dam 
 to power house, saw how the Illinois and Michigan Canal crosses 
 the river, examined the lock in the canal by which boats pass the 
 dam, and visited a stone quarry. 
 
 The number of pupils, students, and teachers taken on these 
 trips would reach several thousand. No accident or unfortunate 
 event occurred to detract from the value of any of the excursions. 
 The testimony of pupils, students, and teachers has been strongly 
 in favor of such a method of instruction. It is the common method 
 of the German schoolmaster in teaching geography and can, I 
 believe, be made of great use in our own schools of country, town, 
 and city. 
 
The School Excursion and the School Museum. 
 
 The following brief list suggests some of the possible school 
 excursions: school yard and roadside after a rain, creek or river 
 with its basin and divides, pond or lake, cliff, hills, grove or woods, 
 wheat field, corn field, grist-mill, grain elevator, market gardens, 
 saw-mill, lumber yard, planing mill, brick-yard, park, courthouse, 
 tower of schoolhouse, gravel pit, stone quarry, blacksmith shop, car- 
 penter shop, tin shop, fruit store, department store, foundry, coal 
 mine, telegraph office, electric light works, water works, gas works, 
 dairy, commission houses. 
 
 THE SCHOOL MUSEUM. 
 
 While lessons concerning the local physical features, local in- 
 dustries and home products can be treated first hand by means of 
 the excursion, it is not possible to study by the same means the 
 rubber industry of the Amazon basin, the cocoanut of the islands 
 of the sea, the cork oak of Spain, the cotton fields of the south, the 
 manufactories of New England and a long list of the topics which 
 lie within the field of geography. 
 
 If the pupil is to obtain first-hand knowledge about things 
 foreign to his own neighborhood, the thing must be brought to the 
 pupil. This can be accomplished by means of the school museum. 
 
 I shall consider the school museum as I have considered the 
 school excursion, from the standpoint of its actual use in the 
 schoolroom. This brings me to speak of the organization and work 
 of the Chicago Bureau of Geography, which at the opening of the 
 school year in September, 1903, was furnishing sixty schools with 
 small traveling museums each carried in a single box, usually an 
 egg-crate box, containing specimens, pictures and printed articles 
 concerning some one particular topic in the course of study in 
 geography. 
 
 The Bureau of Geography was organized by forty principals 
 of the Chicago schools for the purpose of collecting, installing, and 
 circulating illustrative material among the schools. Each school 
 represented paid an annual fee of $10.00, which was later reduced 
 
10 The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 to $5.00. This money has been spent almost entirely for material 
 with which to install the collections. The raw material has been 
 donated largely by the Field Columbian Museum, wholesale firms, 
 and large business houses in Chicago and elsewhere. The labor 
 of arranging the collections has been mainly volunteer work. Mr. 
 Eichard Waterman, who first outlined the plan of the Bureau, has 
 done most of the work in the preparation of the material for the 
 collections. 
 
 In September, 1903, the Bureau had one hundred and ten trav- 
 eling museums representing forty-five different subjects. Some of 
 the most valued museums have been duplicated so that all schools 
 may have the use of one during the year. 
 
 Each museum or collection consists of three things : 
 
 1. A series of specimens as nearly complete as could be ob- 
 tained to show the product in its various stages of manufacture 
 from raw material to finished product. Each specimen is care- 
 fully installed, numbered, labeled and catalogued. Whenever the 
 size and shape of the specimen permits, it is placed in a wide- 
 mouthed bottle of standard size and corked. These bottles are 
 placed in a strong pasteboard box made to order, and partitioned 
 into twelve compartments each of which holds a bottle. If the 
 specimen is larger it is placed in a pasteboard box without parti- 
 tions. 
 
 2. Pictures on strong cardboard, ten inches by twelve inches. 
 The pictures representing a single topic are placed in a pasteboard 
 box made to hold cards of this size. They accompany the speci- 
 mens. 
 
 3. Printed articles which will aid in the interpretation of the 
 specimens. These may be books, parts of books divided and bound 
 with manila sheets into pamphlets, government reports on a par- 
 ticular subject, selected material from government reports copied 
 by typewriter and bound in manila covers, magazine articles sepa- 
 rated and bound textbooks and geographical readers cut up and 
 
The School Excursion and The School Museum. 11 
 
 arranged by topics and the material on each topic bound separately. 
 All the printed matter on the same subject is brought together and 
 placed in a strong pasteboard box of convenient size. 
 
 These boxes of specimens, pictures and printed articles, accom- 
 panied by a complete typewritten catalog of the collections are 
 placed inside a wooden box, the "egg crate," and carried from 
 school to school during the year. A school may keep a collection 
 for one or two weeks. At the end of this time the collection is 
 exchanged for another. 
 
 Two objections are strongly urged by some principals and 
 teachers against the use of the same collections by many different 
 schools. In the first place it is not possible to have each collection 
 at the time when the topic is being treated in the regular course of 
 study. In the second place, it is urged that it would be better for 
 each school to build its own museum. I believe that those who 
 offer these objections to the traveling school museum would not do 
 so after using thirty or forty of its collections during a single year. 
 
 If the collection is studied before the topic has been reached 
 in the regular course of study consider how valuable it is for the 
 class to have obtained the first-hand knowledge that comes from a 
 study of things at short range as the basis of the interpretation of 
 the text when the topic is treated more fully later in the year. If 
 the collection chances along while working on the topic well and 
 good. The study of schoolbook and museum go hand in hand each 
 to reinforce the knowledge and interpretation of the other. If the 
 topic has been previously studied what could afford so good a 
 review as an examination of one of these collections ? 
 
 To illustrate : A collection consists of raw cotton, ginned cot- 
 ton, cotton in various stages of spinning, cotton fabrics (ging- 
 hams, calicoes, finer cotton cloth, canvas) , whole cotton-seed,crushed 
 cotton-seed, cotton-seed oil, and cotton-seed cake. These specimens 
 are accompanied by numerous pictures of the cotton plantation, cot- 
 ton shipping and manufacture, in addition to much reading mat- 
 ter not only for the teacher but within the ability of the pupils. 
 
12 The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 If such material is used for a single class period weeks before 
 cotton is studied in the course, the time is well spent as a prepara- 
 tion for future study. If such a collection can be examined months 
 after the class have studied cotton and passed examinations on the 
 same, how quickly will some vague and indefinite idea come out 
 clearly and distinctly ever to be remembered with a joy unknown 
 to the pupil who gleans ideas for the purpose of making practical 
 use of them on examination day only ? 
 
 The financial means and the labor necessary to build and main- 
 tain a satisfactory museum are not at the command of each school. 
 Material to be used by a system of schools can be much more read- 
 ily obtained by request than for a single school. As soon as the 
 authorities of the Field Columbian Museum and the heads of large 
 business houses understood that the material desired is to be made 
 available to thousands of pupils they respond most heartily and 
 generously. They could not do so for 250 individual schools be- 
 longing to the same system. Co-operation is as valuable in the 
 building and use of the school museum as in other lines of human 
 activity. 
 
 It is important that this material be properly used. These 
 collections may be exhibited to the class by the principal of the 
 school, by the teacher, or by pupils of the upper grades. The one 
 giving the lesson must be thoroly familiar with the collection, and 
 should have the exercise carefully planned in order to make the 
 presentation effective. 
 
 I recall an exercise of this kind in which a seventh year teacher 
 selected three boys to describe the cork collection. They prepared 
 their parts well. They liked to do the talking because they had 
 something to say. The lesson was appropriate to the work of the 
 sixth and seventh years. The teachers and pupils of lower grades 
 learned that the boys were giving an interesting and instructive 
 exhibition of cork and its manufactured products, and requested 
 that it be given in other classes. The collection was carried to 
 every room in the building, about eight hundred children receiving 
 
The School Excursion and the School Museum. 13 
 
 the instruction. I saw the boys giving the exercise in a second 
 year room. Each told in clear and simple language his part of 
 the history of cork. Then each one took a number of the speci- 
 mens and passing along the aisle, showed and explained them to 
 interested groups of children. On the following day there was laid 
 on my desk a written exercise from these second year children on 
 the subject of cork. They gave in their own way more informa- 
 tion about cork than would usually be given in a sixth year class 
 wholly dependent on books for their knowledge of the subject. 
 
 The traveling school museum has, I believe, done more to give 
 the teachers and pupils of Chicago good working material than can 
 possibly be given by an equal expenditure for books. The work 
 has been of such benefit to the schools using the collections that re- 
 cently on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the 
 board of education has assumed the financial responsibility for the 
 extension of the work to all the schools. The work is now under 
 the supervision of the head of the department of geography in the 
 Chicago Normal School and an assistant has been employed to de- 
 vote his entire time to the building, circulation, and care of the 
 collections. 
 
 Work along similar lines may be done by co-operation among 
 the teachers of a city, county, township or village. A movement 
 of this kind has been inaugurated by the teachers of St. Clair 
 County, Illinois. At a meeting of the St. Clair County Teachers' 
 Association in February, 1904, a committee who had given the 
 matter careful consideration recommended to the association that 
 the teachers of the county undertake to develop a Circulating Geo- 
 graphical Museum for use among the country, village, and city 
 schools of the county. The recommendation was favorably re- 
 ceived and on motion of the county superintendent the sum of fifty 
 dollars was voted from funds of the association to start the work. 
 Nearly all of this money will be used in buying boxes, bottles, pic- 
 ture mounting-cards and other supplies necessary for properly in- 
 stalling the collections. Each school of the county has been asked 
 
14 The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 to contribute a small sum of money annually for the extension of 
 the work. The work of arranging the collections for use in the 
 class room is being done by the teachers of the county who volun- 
 teer their services, and by a student from S.t. Clair County in the 
 Illinois State Normal University. This student works under the 
 direction of the writer. He gives three hours daily to the work 
 and is paid a small sum for his services. 
 
 The following list is given as suggestive of possible collections : 
 wheat, corn, rice, nuts, spices, cocoanut, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, 
 by-products of the packing house, cotton, flax, manila hemp, rubber, 
 tanning materials, leather, wool, silk, sponge, furs, woods, paper, 
 cork, iron, copper, gold, silver, coal and coke, petroleum, asphalt. 
 Collections may also be made to illustrate a single country or 
 region ; e. g., Mexico, Central America, Peru, Hawaii, India, South 
 Africa, the Philippines. 
 
 Correspondence concerning ways and means of introducing 
 the excursion and the museum more largely into the regular work 
 of the school is invited. 
 
 If desired we will build a sample traveling museum for the 
 cost of material and labor. Such a collection will serve as a test 
 of its value, be suggestive of method of arrangement, and aid in 
 determining whether to develop the museum on a larger scale. 
 
The School Excursion and the School Museum. 15 
 
 The Illinois State Normal University 
 
 Offers superior facilities for the training of teachers. 
 Its equipment includes — 
 
 A library of 15,000 volumes and 4,500 pamphlets, v 
 
 Physical, chemical, biological, and geographical labora- 
 tories supplied with new apparatus, 
 
 A shop for manual training, 
 
 A school garden of two and one-half acres, 
 
 A well equipped gymnasium, 
 
 A campus of fifty-seven acres with every advantage 
 for athletic games. 
 
 Its faculty includes thirty-two teachers, nine of them 
 training teachers. 
 
 Three programs of study are provided: 
 
 A two-year program for graduates of superior high 
 schools, 
 
 A three-year program for graduates of village high 
 schools, 
 
 A four-year program for students needing longer 
 academic preparation. 
 
 The regular programs all include a review of the com- 
 mon branches, five terms of psychology and pedagogy, 
 three terms of practice teaching, and such advanced courses 
 as may be needed. 
 
 Elective substitutes are provided for students prepar- 
 ing for special work. 
 
16 The Normal School Quarterly. 
 
 Summer Session, 1904. 
 
 The summer session of the Illinois State Normal Uni- 
 versity consists of two terms of six weeks each, beginning 
 June G and July 18. 
 
 Twenty-nine instructors have been secured for the first 
 term, twelve for the second. 
 
 Twenty-seven courses are offered. Most of these are 
 the regular twelve-week courses. In these students recite 
 twice a day. There are several extra courses offered in 
 Manual Training, Industrial Art, Drawing, Vocal Music, 
 and Nature Study. 
 
 The primary department of the training school will be 
 in session during the first term. 
 
 Tuition is free to all expecting to teach in the schools 
 of Illinois. Others are charged five dollars per term. The 
 registration fee is one dollar. 
 
 Board and room can be had at from three to four dol- 
 lars per week. 
 
 The railroads of the Western Passenger Association 
 have announced a rate of one and a third fare for the round 
 trip on the certificate plan. A certificate must be ob- 
 tained at each point where a ticket is bought en route to 
 Normal. 
 
 For further information, address 
 
 DAVID FELMLEY, President, 
 
 Normal, Illinois. 
 
3 0112105727447 
 
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 Ptg. & Sta. Co. 
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