INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION
By Col. Francis W. Parker,
Principal of the Chicago Normal School.
The last twenty-five years have brought much of intrinsic value into American education. Rapid increase in population and ever-changing conditions have made imperative demands for schools adequate to self-government.
The Kindergarten led the way to other substantial reforms in education, and called attention to the actual needs of childhood. It proved conclusively that hand-work is one of the dominant interests of the child, and demonstrated the absolute dependence of brain-growth upon Manual Training.
Manual Training is thus a direct outcome and sequence of the Kindergarten. It supplies a need for which there is no substitute. The belief that that which is begun in the Kindergarten should be continued and expanded in all upper grades, forces itself more and more upon thoughtful minds. Modern psychology brings its potent evidence as to the tremendous value of the work of the hand in the building of the brain. The trend of educational thought will always be in the direction of hand training as a fundamental element in education.
Twenty-five years ago Manual Training was little known in this country as a factor in education. Charles H. Ham, imbued with a fervid patriotism, saw clearly that one of the intrinsic needs of education—an absolute necessity in the evolution of a democracy—is the training of the whole being, hand, brain, and soul, through educative work. He was, indeed, a pioneer, beginning his work when there was very little attention given to this important subject, and at a time, too, when it was opposed by nearly all leading educators.
Mr. Ham, together with Colonel Jacobson, brought a strong influence to bear upon the Commercial Club of Chicago, to found a Manual-Training school. This school is now a department of the Chicago University and has been in successful operation for thirteen years. There are in Chicago to-day the Armour Institute, the Lewis Institute, and the Jewish Manual-Training School, all prominent and well established. There is also a high school for Manual Training in connection with the public schools, and, best of all, there are indications which show that hand-work is making its way throughout the grades.
Mr. Ham, without doubt, had a strong influence upon the late George M. Pullman, which led him to provide, through his will, for a Manual-Training school for the children of the city which he built.
Manual-Training schools are now maintained in almost every city in the Union. Much remains to be done before Manual Training takes its true place in education. The majority of these schools now in existence are for boys who have graduated from the grammar school, which leaves the years between six and fourteen with little or no hand-work. Thus the most important period for brain-growth through hand activity is neglected.
The future of Manual Training is to introduce hand-work as the principal factor in the first four years’ work, to be continued in the four years of the grammar grades, and correlated with all other subjects. Indeed, the ideal is to introduce Manual Training in all courses of study, from the Kindergarten to the University, inclusive.
The patrons of Cook County Normal School owe to Mr. Ham the establishment of Manual Training in connection with the primary grades of the school, nearly fifteen years ago; for without the practical aid he gave it, it could not have been accomplished at that time. The children—indeed, all the people of this country—owe him an immense debt of gratitude for his heroic championship of hand-work.
Manual Training gives a true dignity to labor; it calls attention to the place of hand-work in human progress, and as civilization goes on it will have a higher and still higher place in the hearts of the people.