to afford such culture at home to young people as will render attendance at the university unnecessary; but, on the contrary, the object is to fire ambitious young minds with resolutions to enlarge their possibilities for advanced culture by attendance at the university. No one claims, no one can claim that this movement replaces attendance at the higher institutions of learning, or, indeed, that it can at any time rival the peculiar and incomparable training given in a university or college atmosphere. But it is claimed that this extension movement can stimulate to increased attendance at these institutions; and that it can afford to those to whom resident study is impossible, the next best thing, namely, in a somewhat limited way, a part at least of what in its fullness the university itself affords.

If University Extension enlarges the sphere of higher education and educates respect for and confidence in higher culture among all classes in every community it has, indeed, a mission worthy of the highest respect and of the heartiest support.

THE RELATION OF MANUAL, OR INDUSTRIAL TRAINING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

THE

DR. Z. RICHARDS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

HE sentiment of the following propositions will probably be indorsed by all intelligent, and thoughtful friends of elementary education.

First. Every child in our country, is entitled to, and should receive such an education, as will fit him best, for that work and position in life, to which he is adapted.

Second. Our system of public schools should be such, as will offer to every child, that kind and degree of training, which his abilities, and environments demand.

Third. The training required should recognize the triune nature of the child; viz., his physical, his intellectual and his moral nature.

As all instruction is made effectual, by being communicated to the mind through the perceptive faculties; and as the accuracy of perception depends upon the soundness of the physical being, the proper training of the physical being becomes an important factor in child-training.

1st. In the first place, the physical training of the child should be such, as will best fit him, for the performance of such physical labor, in the material world, as may be required of him.

2nd. This training should be such as will contribute most effectually to the growth, development and activity of the intellectual powers; by recognizing always the fact that the body is the temporary tabernacle of the mind.

3rd. This training should, also, as a matter of course, be such as will develop and cultivate most effectually, the moral powers of the child; by recognizing always the fact, that the body is the temporary and probationary home of the soul- of the spiritual being; the real All, there is of the child. The above propositions challenge the approval of every rational being; and they comprehend all the principles which are to be recognized in a complete education.

In considering the relation of industrial and manual training (for in this discussion the two terms are considered, as essentially synonymous) to our public schools, we must recognize the fact, that public schools should be so organized and conducted, that they will secure the ends aimed at in the above propositions.

And, first. All the exercises of the public school; and all the environments, should be such as will contribute directly to sound physical health; and to proper physical development. The school-room or the place of training should always have an abundance of pure air; a proper temperature; well adapted school furniture within the building, and freedom from all malarious, and unhealthy surroundings.

Second, As rest is always recuperative, and should always follow exercise, the intellectual exercises of the children should be regularly varied so as to give the rest, which always follows a change of employment, and thereby secures a healthful development of the physical powers.

Third. The position of the child at his desk, or seat, should always be that which is best adapted to the natural growth and development of the body; including the form of the body and the preservation of the eyesight. Whenever the position of the child has been continuous, in his exercises, it should be judiciously varied by marching, by systematic movements, or by some kind of light gymnastics. Every teacher should be thoroughly trained to conduct some such exercises, and be familiar with the laws of

hygiene and physical development, and he should see that these laws are properly observed.

Fourth. Teachers should bear in mind that the chief reason for promoting and preserving the physical health of the children, is to put their bodies in the best possible condition, for the successful operation of the intellectual powers. "Mens sano, in corpore sano." "A sound mind in a sound body."

All physical training should be so conducted as to prepare the body to become a better tenement of the mind, so as to increase the efficiency of the intellectual powers.

That kind of physical exercise which simply secures the growth and development of muscle, and the increase of physical strength, may be necessary for the wrestler, the pugilist, and the matadore; but the physical exercises of the youth of our public schools, should have the higher and the nobler aim of making the body a better home of the soul. It is also true, and very important, that a proper physical development prepares all persons for better success in performing the manual labor, so much needed in the world, and for greater endurance in severe mental labor. The acquisition of physical power, for these purposes alone, is commendable; yet, how much nobler are the purposes of those who so train their physical powers, that their mental and their moral powers may have a more suitable and a better prepared probationary home.

But, while a sound training of the physical powers is one of the necessities of a sound education, it is, in no true sense, the chief, or the most important part of a good school education. Physical training, and all manual training as well, should be required of the child in obedience to the laws of natural and healthful development. The powers of the body, like those of the mind, grow and strengthen as the child grows older. "Milk for babes and strong meat for those who are of full age." All physical and manual training should be adapted to the natural development of the human powers. At the first, the child is not only to be taught the simple elements of knowledge, but more especially the language by which those elements are represented; for the most important parts of every child's elementary education consists in the acquisition of the meaning and the use of the language by which all knowledge must be represented.

In the elementary stages of child-training all the knowledge

which the child needs of manual and industrial training, is the objective language training, which will make him familiar with the names and terms used in the common employments of life. There is no necessity for the child to use the tools and implements of the trades until the muscles, ligaments and bones of the body are sufficiently developed to be able to use them without any unnatural strain.

This is the period of early training, when the child's chief work is to acquire a knowledge of the common facts of life, and of the language which represents these facts. By the time that these common elements of practical knowledge, and the language which represents them are fully acquired, the pupil is prepared to make choice of the avocation in life for which he is specially adapted; when he may make use of the manual principles of his calling, and perfect himself in the use of its tools, and of the necessary practice to make him master of his chosen calling in a specially designed trade school or professional institution. For this purpose, trade schools should make a part of every school system. Trade schools, like all professional schools, should be schools of science and of practice. In them should be taught, specially, these principles and facts which relate to the selected trade or profession; leaving the principles and facts of other trades and professions to be acquired, as opportunities and demands may be offered. In the trade school, or professional institution, is the place for the pupil to study and master the scientific, linguistic and mathematical knowledge requisite to complete his professional education. The elementary, or common school is not the place for learning trades nor for the practice of a profession; but for learning such facts and principles as are necessary for all children to learn, to fit them for any employment, and for mastering the language, which represents those facts and principles. The present "craze" for manual or industrial training has led very many of its advocates to overlook the real object of elementary training; viz., that of preparing the minds of children for entering upon the special preparation needed to qualify them for success in their chosen vocation of life. Not only is the time of many of our children largely wasted in following out the conflicting courses of training in the thousands of experimental schools of manual and industrial training in our country, but as a general thing, the pupils of these experimental schools, (for as yet, they are really

experimental schools), leave them without becoming masters of any one branch, and with a very defective knowledge of the essential elements of a good common school education which ought to be given to every child in the land.

Much is said in these days about enriching the course of common school training, by dispensing with many things, which some people consider, as either unnecessary or of small value, and by adding new branches of study considered more valuable, for apparently no better reason than that they are more difficult of acquisition. We are also told that science-training is crowded out of our school, by engrafting upon them many subjects pronounced of less value, or useless. But the subject of science-training is quite as badly mystified in the minds of many people as that of manual training or of any other subject.

If science-training, in elementary schools, is made to consist of instruction in the simple elementary facts of nature, which are open to common observation and experience, it is all right; but the teaching of the philosophical principles of science in their logical relations to each other, involving "cause and effect," does not properly belong to a common elementary education. Such teaching belongs to the trade and the professional school. When children are to be taught the science and the art of cooking without learning to spell correctly the names of the common articles. of food and the terms used in teaching the art, the course of such training would be enriched by converting the "cooking class" into a "spelling school." Again, when boys are required (not to say, taught), to construct a dove-tailed, in-laid, ornamented box before they have learned to construct a well-arranged, grammatically correct English sentence, such a course of training would be greatly enriched by requiring daily drills in enunciation, articulation and pronunciation, and in reading some good common school reader.

In closing the present discussion, we would say, let just so much of manual training, or industrial training, be introduced into the common curriculum of the elementary school, as will make the pupils familiar with the language and terms of the common employments of life, and leave the practical manipulation of the employments to the trade schools, and to the professional schools.