Remarks on Table 79. Of the several columns in which are given the receipts of manual training schools the two devoted to the amount received from municipalities and from tuition fees are the most interesting. Considering the public schools only, Philadelphia stands first with an appropriation of over $19,000, 73 per cent, of which was expended in salaries; at the Baltimore school, 69 per cent. of the $16,000 appropriated were expended for salaries, excluding that of the principal for reasons already noted under Table 75. The expenses of the Baltimore City College-the city high school-for the year 1887 were $35,293, of which 78 per cent. were for salaries. For the same period the amount paid for salaries in the Manual Training School was about 60 per cent. of the total amount ($11,000) expended, and the cost of material for lessons in the shops, 5 per cent. This matter of proportionate expense will be again taken up. The very large appropriation made for the Cleveland school must also be noted. Of the schools charging tuition, the St. Louis and Chicago schools are preeminent by reason of their receipts from this source, the latter being the only manual training school, precisely speaking, that reports an endowment. Of the $1,945 (Column 8) received by the Chicago school, $1,763 were given by the Chicago Commercial Club to supply a deficit, and, as before stated, the Cincinnati Commercial Club pays half of the expenses of the school in that city. The Hebrew Technical Institute is entirely supported by subscriptions. No gifts or bequests have been made to this class of schools. Of the expenditure for new buildings, the amount expended at Philadelphia and at the Miller Manual Labor School, where forging and foundry work have just been introduced, are noteworthy. Comparing the amount paid for salaries in the Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Philadelphia schools, and bearing in mind that the principal's salary of the Baltimore school ($2,400) is not included in the amount paid by that school, it is noticeable how little they vary. These schools are complete institutions, not departments of a high school or college, and now are fully equipped for work. If these figures can be generalized upon it may be said that the annual cost of the teaching corps of a manual training school falls somewhere about fourteen or fifteen thousand dollars. It must be admitted, ⚫ however, that the Hebrew Technical Institute pays a third less than this, but as the course has recently been extended, additional instructors may be required. The Cincinnati Technical School, also complete in itself, may be said to have just gotten fully under way. Considering the same schools as above, the annual cost of materials used is between seven and nine hundred dollars annually. The reader will readily see that if the cost of teaching in an institution containing 10 students were $10,000, the per capita cost of teaching would be $1,000; and if in the same institution, with the same teachers, there were 100 students, $100. In brief, not to expand so obvious a thought, before such a per capita becomes of value it is necessary, especially when the amounts are comparatively small, to have, as a standard, the per capita of some school, ideal or real, where the teaching is perfection and the attendance just what it should be, and even then it would be necessary to compare the facts of observation, as well as the averages. But the cost of the material annually used, although not entirely free from error, has an individuality about it that does not belong to the teaching of a member of a class. Comparing the number of pupils (not the average attendance be it understood) enrolled in the manual training department (Column 12, Table 78) with the cost of material used, the following per capitas are obtained, so varying as to defy generalization: In the foregoing division we have examined a species of educational influences which is brought to bear upon the pupil by placing in his hands the implements of mechanical labor. We have seen that this education of a pupil by his using tools has been a development, a compromise between the theories of an educational philosopher and the practical system of teaching the principles of the mechanic arts inaugurated by a Russian engineer. We have examined the opinions of those who contend for the introduction of this education as such into the public schools and the view of an opponent, while attempting to find what one side desires and the other opposes. But we have neglected the argument of the party which would have the study introduced as a matter of political economy, whose argument may be briefly stated by the pedagogical commonplace, "What you would have come out in the land you must first put in the schools." Teach the mechanic arts in the school and you will have meehanics without number, just as the public schools are turning out, say the members of this party, a multitude of half-grown persons incapable of filling any position save that of a clerk, just as the State board of Massachusetts would put drawing into the schools in order that "in a few years our enterprising people will begin to discover in our own communities and schools as good artists and artisans as can be found in the most favored portions of other countries." This is not a pedagogical argument, but the practical common sense of a man of business, and as long as the sentiments expressed by the New York Industrial Association continue to have a following so long must manual training and industrial training, elementary or technological, be kept separate and distinct. One of the most important purposes desired by the partisans of industrial training, and by those of manual training also, is the inculcation of ideas about labor that will remove the contempt in which it is now said to be held. If the public school pupil can be familiarized with tool work before this unreasonable prejudice can be formed the idea that manual labor is degrading will not be an obstacle to pursuing some form of it; the pleasant nature of the manual training not producing the repugnance towards labor that is felt towards books and study by those who have pursued the usual literary course of the public school. But here the two great parties to the propaganda part company. The industrialists, however, are not unanimous as to the philosophy of their object. Some observing the beneficial results of manual labor in reformatory or protective institutions, on those ambiguously called "juvenile delinquents," appear to view the whole schoolable body, or a large part of it, as wearing the menacing attitude of the "juvenile delinquent," and the public school as a sort of reformatory or protective institution. Others, seeing how unequally the wealth of the world is distributed, think it but right that the monied class, for several reasons, should make some compensation to the less fortunate. Finally, a third section, and this appears to be not only by far the largest, but also of native American growth, would have the schools used as apprentice shops. We may only briefly refer to the second and third opinions, the social importance of the first would require a chapter to itself. A SOCIALISTIC VIEW OF THE QUESTION. In giving the characteristics of the course of manual training instruction at Paris, we have refrained from giving a feature that is very remarkable to Americans, at least as a feature of the public school system. Not only are manual training shops added to the equipment of the schools, but a kitchen and dining room have been annexed, in which meals are served for the children. Those who can, pay the small fee asked; those too poor, are given, in a way that the recipients need not be known, the ticket that permits them to obtain the meal. If the parent is too poor to properly clothe the child, the director gives the child an order on the clothing contractor. "It is interesting to see at what little expense this advantageous institution can be introduced into a school, and I" (we are quoting from Consul Schoenhof's report on industrial education in France) "give here in illustration the account of one of the schools. This school has about 500 pupils. From October 1 to December 1 they distributed 5,260 portions, of which 4,116 were sold. The whole cost to the school was 367 francs 85 centimes [about $74]; the receipts were 205 francs 80 centimes, leaving a deficit of 162 francs 5 centimes [about $32]." Commenting on these facts, a writer in a religious journal of the highest literary character uses the following language, republished by the great Industrial Association of New York: "While the world has had its attention wholly occupied with military preparations and intestine dissensions on the part of France, that country, especially the Socialistic government of its capital, has been silently elaborating an experiment in education that now ought to challenge the attention of every thoughtful mind. "For this experiment should be credited to Socialism in its noblest aspect. Paris is at present Socialistic-that is to say, inclined to Socialism, though not yet Socialist; and so is its present municipal council. At a recent election that capital gave to the Socialist candidate for a vacant seat in the lower legislative chamber over 100,000 votes, while the united opposition could muster but 135,000 votes, and even the candidate who united these votes upon himself had to style himself a "Socialistic-Radical." The municipal council, though not having more than a dozen thorough, self-conscious Socialists, is yet in its ruling majority governed by Socialistic instincts. In no way is that better shown than by the thoroughness with which they have carried out two educational acts passed by the French legislature in 1880 and 1881. "These acts provided for perfectly gratuitous, compulsory education of all French children, and-what is the significant feature-manual training in the public schools. This, it must be understood, is a very different thing from the technical institutions that already existed in France, as well as other countries, even in Russia, for the special training of the few for becoming skilled managers, foremen, or artisans. The recent French legislation proposed to make industrial and art education an organic, an integral, part of the whole system of public instruction, and to have manual training begin at the very bottom of the school system; to have it run from the "kindergartens" through the primary, grammar, and high school grades, so that every child, whether destined to be a mechanic or not, should have its hands and mind trained in industrial operations.' Thus it is apparent there is a party of those who urge industrial education which they call manual training on socialistic grounds. Whether these warm-hearted and devoutly religious individuals are they whom Browning, in his History of Educational Theories, describes as "those who have wished to reform or to reorganize the world, meeting with many difficulties in dealing with the mass of grown-up people, have turned their eyes to the more hopeful body of ingenuous youth, whose minds are like white paper or pliant wax," and who, as he says, should have been taught better by experience than to indulge in such hopes, or whether they are perfectly justified in entertaining such hopes on the elder Humboldt's aphorism which we have quoted above, must be left to the statesman, and to the reader to decide for themselves. THE PRACTICAL PARTY'S VIEW. But by far the larger party is that which sees not the regeneration of the world, not the philanthropy of the thing, but its practicableness, its directness in going into business at the earliest possible moment. It recognizes with the poet that "art is long and time is fleeting," and with Lord Salisbury that the first necessity of man is to live, and his first duty to work. As to culture it would say with Mr. Frederic Harrison, "perhaps the very silliest cant of the day is the cant about culture." The apprenticeship system, says this party, is a thing of the past, and its downfall is one of the most portentious signs of the times. In looking around to find a substitute it sees in the public schools an organization durable and respectable, upon which trade instruction can be grafted. These schools teach too much theory, says this party, and by curtailing such instruction, ample time may be obtained for industrial teaching. The president of Harvard also thinks that the public school course could be advantageously shortened, but he would have this done that the pupil may be enfranchised the sooner, and thus enabled to begin other work. The "conflict between labor and capital" is also a great element in this party's argument, but as this is to be remedied by a substitute apprenticeship system, it resolves itself into that question. MANUAL LABOR AS MANUAL TRAINING AND AS INDUSTRIAL TRAINING. The superintendent of an institution for educating one of the "special classes" may think that the mere fact of calling tool-work in a public school manual training and toolwork in his school industrial training, does not make a real distinction. He may think that the work of his school loses none of its value as a form of education because it is used in learning a specific branch of industry. But it is to be observed that, in the first place, the work of one of these institutions is made for sale, making it more of a factory than a school; in the second, specific trades are taught which the advocates of real manual training are almost tired of telling the public they do not teach; and in the third place the paternal feature is present, the care for the pupil's future business life, that characterizes benevolent foundations. Should it still be objected that these are differences of a material nature and have no bearing on the effect produced by the work, the Office will, in order to avoid the psychological as it has the social discussion of this question, defend its classification on the perfectly obvious grounds of difference of aim. Technological schools, are treated elsewhere. I. INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENTS OF SCHOOLS FOR THE SPECIAL CLASSES. Not long after Haüy conceived the idea that since a blind man can readily distinguish two pieces of money he could also distinguish an "a" from an "f" if he could feel them, the first school for the blind was established in Paris, about 1784. Music from the first was a prominent feature of its instruction. The French Revolution having scattered the Société Philanthropique, by which the tuition of the blind pupils was paid, the state adopted the school. By the great reorganizers of those tumultuous times the school was at first united with that for the deaf, the first instance of this undesirable combination; then given the character of a workshop and its scholars called "young workers," I Can School Programmes be Shortened and Enriched, p. 1005 U. S. Education Report 1886-87. in conformity with the practical spirit of the day; then attached to an asylum; and finally, under the restored Bourbons, reorganized as a separate institution. The new regulation, issued in 1815, says that the aim of the school shall be "to instruct blind children and to give them a useful trade." It may be safely assumed that the many schools established in Europe on this type during the first ten years of the century were also dual in purpose, aiming to impart knowledge and a trade. "The blind in the United States are socially far above those of any other country," says F. J. Campbell, the president of the Royal Normal College for the Blind, of England, and as even now in America it is thought advisable by some to impart the rudiments of a trade in view of the great majority who follow the humbler callings of business life after leaving the school, so, in all probability, was it deemed advisable in Europe in the early decades of the century. The blind child, having lost the most important of the senses that connect the human being with the outer world, is compelled to rely upon a more than ordinarily heightened condition of the others-Dr. Armitage1 would say upon a superiority "in intelligence❞— in the conduct of life, and his profession should be adapted to his physical condition. Such a profession is music. This subject in its branch of tuning was first introduced into the Paris school by the persistency of a pupil, whose success soon put this instruction on the highest plane of proficiency, and it has become one of the most important objects of the school, though instrumental music as such is most thoroughly taught. About 1859 systematic musical instruction was introduced into the Perkins Institution at Boston, and, under the immediate superintendency of F. J. Campbell, carried to a high degree of proficiency. In England it was not until 1872 that the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind was established. But while music is eminently adapted as a profession for the blind, by its side in our institutions is the workshop for making brooms, brushes, mattresses, and caning chairs, not introduced, it is believed, on Froebelian principles. "When the three schools of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were established," says Superintendent Wait, of the New York Institution," "undoubtedly the views held in Europe, concerning both young and old, made a great impression upon those who established them. The European view was that blind people are, in some way or other, destined to work with their hands." Turning now to the schools for the deaf the double technical feature is not present, only the workshop remains. Superintendent Clarke, of the Arkansas Institution for the Deaf, put the case of industrial education in these institutions thus: "The high honor of establishing the first schools in this country where any persistent attempt was made to teach trades belongs to the institutions for the deaf," and he rather regretfully adds, "But though we began first I hardly think we are keeping abreast of those who started later in the race." In the schools for the feeble-minded but little, even a little in this case is extraordinary, can be expected; from the reform schools much more than has yet been attempted. In the latter case, however, a reaction has set in against "the self-supporting" theory, as shown in the last report of this Office. The tables which follow are the first of their kind. They show the statistics of the industrial and, in the case of the schools for the blind, the musical departments of the several classes. * * * IN SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF. "Suppose we simply told a pupil in school to add," says Superintendent Clarke in the address above quoted from, "and never taught him to carry. He might, after a long effort, find it out for himself, but his progress in arithmetic would probably be very slow; yet that is the way trades are taught [in a work-shop of an institution for the deaf taken in an abstract way]. The help the master gives is often worse than none. He 'lays off' the work and leaves the pupil to do it. Better let the pupil 'lay off' and teach him how to work. If he makes mistakes they may be pointed out, but the reason why he made them is very seldom explained to him. * * If there is any possibility of a boy picking up the knowledge necessary to use it on the job in hand he is left to do so; if not, so much of its use as there is present pressing need for is explained, and no more. "Are the masters of the shops responsible for this state of things? I don't think so. * Their efficiency is judged, not by the shortness of the time in which they can teach a boy their trade, or the number they teach, but by the amount of finished work they turn out-by the dollars and cents the shops make or save. * * * "This is the fundamental error that lies at the root of all our mechanical teaching and causes much of our trouble. We expect profitable work from learners." The Education and Employment of the Blind, p. 62. 2 Proceedings ninth Biennial Meeting Instructors of the Blind, 1886, p. 36. As Superintendent Clarke, in order to bring out the lights of the "Russian system," may unintentionally have painted the insufficiency of the present industrial instruction in colors too sombre, we will quote from the remarks of Principal Williams, of the American Asylum for the Deaf, in his report for 1885-86: "Almost from the foundation of this school [the first for the deaf in America] industrial training has formed an important part of the education of every able-bodied pupil. So long ago as 1824, two shops had been built for the use of our pupils. If I am not mistaken this school was the pioneer in this country of conjoint industrial and literary education, and most of the schools for the deaf in the United States have followed its example. "The success of the experiment undertaken by the managers of the school, with many misgivings at first, very soon demonstrated its wisdom. The habits of industry here acquired clung to the pupils as they went forth to the duties of life, and with rare exceptions they have been industrious, self-supporting, law-abiding citizens, not ashamed of work, and having the knowledge and skill to do their work well. "This double education is insisted upon in the case of every pupil. Sometimes, in mistaken kindness, parents plead to have their children excused from the industrial training, as they will not need to work for a living, or, at least, will not pursue the trades taught here. We can make no exceptions on such grounds. Habits of industry are invaluable, and they should be acquired at the formative period of life. It is of much less importance what one learns to do, than that one should learn to do promptly and well whatever one undertakes. With industrious habits, a trained eye, a skilled hand, and a cultivated judgment, one may acquire a new trade with comparative ease, but where all these are wanting, to start on any new line of work is a difficult task." The principal then describes the manner in which the two principal trades-cabinet and shoe making-are taught, quotes from a recent address on manual training by the Hon. R. B. Hayes, and remarks on the occupations followed by the male graduates thus: "It will be seen at a glance at the list given above that there is great variety in the occupations of our former pupils. Comparatively few of them have followed the trades learned here, but all have carried with them the trained hand and eye, the cultivated judgment, and industrious habits here acquired." At the Pennsylvania school, the third to be established, of 119 pupils taught shoemaking or tailoring (the trades principally taught), 34.5 per cent. followed that taught them at the institutions, and supported themselves thereby. Shoemaking is a very popular trade. |