The rapid progress of the revolution in education is shown by the fact that manual training in some form has been adopted in certain of the schools of at least twenty-four of the States of the American Union.

In some of the higher educational institutions the new education is warmly welcomed, while in others public sentiment alone compels its adoption. The State Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas has been revolutionized in this way. A member of the Faculty[107] writes as follows:

“This institution was opened on the 4th of October, 1876. In spite of its name, the conditions of its endowment, and its avowed object, it was founded on the plan of the old classical and mathematical college, and had no industrial features whatever till the beginning of the year 1880. At that time the public sentiment of the State had condemned so decidedly and repeatedly the misappropriation of the funds, and perversion of the energies of the college under its administration as a literary school, that the directors found it necessary to reorganize it by accepting the resignation of the members of the faculty without exception, and calling in a new corps of instructors. In 1880-81 a large dormitory building was converted into a shop [laboratory]. This was fitted with tools for elementary instruction in wood-working for the accommodation of about fifty students. A small metal-working plant was also erected, the whole being furnished with power from a twelve-horse-power engine. Since that time a brick shop [laboratory] has been provided for the accommodation of the metal-working machinery, which now includes the principal machines used in ordinary iron-working, all driven by a twenty-horsepower engine.”

Massachusetts, the cradle of the American common-school system, is the first State to legalize by statute the new education, placing manual training on an equal footing with mental training, by the following act:

“Section I. of Chapter XLIV. of the Public Statutes, relating to the branches of instruction to be taught in public schools, is amended by striking out in the eighth line the words ‘and hygiene,’ and inserting instead the words ‘hygiene and the elementary use of hand-tools;’ and in any city or town where such tools shall be introduced they shall be purchased by the school committee at the expense of such city or town, and loaned to such pupils as may be allowed to use them free of charge, subject to such rules and regulations, as to care and custody, as the school committee may prescribe.”[108]

The Legislature of Connecticut adopted a similar statute last year (1884).

The Iowa Agricultural College is the first educational institution in the country to recognize the importance of instruction in the arts of home life. In this college domestic economy has been elevated to the dignity of a department called the “School of Domestic Economy,” with the following “special faculty:”

The course of study is as follows:

Mrs. Ewing, dean of the school, thus states, clearly and powerfully, the reasons for its establishment and its purposes:

“This school is based upon the assumption that no industry is more important to human happiness than that which makes the home; and that a pleasant home is an essential element of broad culture, and one of the surest safeguards of morality and virtue. It was organized to meet the wants of pupils who desire a knowledge of the principles that underlie domestic economy, and the course of study is especially arranged to furnish women instruction in applied house-keeping and the arts and sciences relating thereto—to incite them to a faithful performance of the every-day duties of life, and to inspire them with a belief in the nobleness and dignity of a true womanhood.

“No calling requires for its perfect mastery a greater amount of practice and theory combined than that of domestic economy, and students, in addition to recitations and lectures on the various topics of the course, receive practical training in all branches of house-work, in the purchase and care of family supplies, and in general household management. They are not, however, required to perform a greater amount of labor than is necessary for the desired instruction.

“The course of study is for graduates of colleges and universities. It extends through two years, and leads to the degree of Master of Domestic Economy.”[109]

The Le Moyne Normal Institute of Memphis, Tenn., is a private school, “sustained chiefly by benevolently disposed people at the North, for colored youth.” In a letter to the author the principal of this school thus describes the manual features of its curriculum:

“Besides our Normal work proper, we give girls of the school two years’ training in needle-work of different kinds, one year’s instruction in choice and preparation of foods, with practice in an experimental kitchen, and six months’ training in nursing or care of the sick. One hour a day is given to each of the foregoing subjects for the time indicated.

“I am about to erect workshops for training for our boys in the use of wood-working tools, and in iron-working and moulding—the course to comprise two years’ time, two hours per day at the benches. We shall also have type-setting and printing as specialties for individual students. This work will be in operation in January, 1886.”[110]

The professor in charge of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Michigan writes to the author as follows:

“There can be no doubt in the mind of a sane man that this practical instruction [laboratory work] is exactly what is needed by our engineering students. We are assured of that fact by the expression of gratification on the part of our engineering alumni to find here the very instruction which they were obliged to spend two or three years to secure after graduating. We give our students work of an elementary character for a few weeks, or until they become accustomed to tools, when we put them to work on some part of a machine. If they spoil it, well and good—it goes into the scrap-heap; if they succeed, they have the pleasure of seeing a perfect machine grow up under their eyes and hand. Students having matured minds, as most of ours have, work better with a definite plan in view. We always require them to work from drawings. Our course in forging is very popular; and it is especially useful, as it gives our young men that knowledge of the different kinds of iron and steel which will be of the greatest benefit to them as engineers.”[111]

The National Educational Association of the United States, at its last meeting, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. (1885), took a great step forward in the adoption of a resolution[112] endorsing the kindergarten. The association was, however, singularly illogical in its subsequent action, in voting to lay upon the table a resolution[113] recommending the introduction of manual training to the public schools. The kindergarten and manual training are one in principle, and should be one in practice. All educators will soon see this, and the National Educational Association will no doubt soon place itself as heartily on record in support of manual training as it has already done in support of the kindergarten.

Ohio ranks as the third State in the Union industrially, and she is making great strides in the direction of a more practical system of education. This is shown by the prominent place given to instruction in the mechanic arts in the State University at Columbus, by the prosperity of the Case School of Applied Science, and the introduction of manual training to the public-school system at Cleveland, and by the establishment of the Scott Manual Training School at Toledo. The city of Toledo owes the inception of the movement in support of the new education to the munificence of the late Jesup W. Scott, who during his life conveyed to trustees for purposes of industrial education, in connection with the public-school system, certain valuable real estate. After the death of Mr. Scott, his three sons,[114] still residents of Toledo, supplemented their father’s donation with a sufficient sum of money to secure the erection and complete equipment of a manual training school for three hundred and fifty pupils.

The school is modelled after the schools of St. Louis and Chicago; but it gives only the manual side of the curriculum, because it is conducted in connection with the public High School, receiving its pupils therefrom. It opened in the autumn of 1884 with sixty pupils, ten of whom were girls. Its register now numbers two hundred, fifty of whom are girls. Its course for boys is substantially the same as that of the Chicago school. The course for girls includes free-hand and mechanical drawing, designing, modelling, wood-carving, cutting, fitting, and making garments, and domestic science, including food preparation and household decoration. A distinguished lawyer and citizen of Toledo,[115] who has been prominent in the work of establishing the school, says,

“The brightest and most faithful pupils of the High School have eagerly availed themselves of the opportunity for manual instruction, and the zeal with which this new work is pursued has added a new charm to school life.”

The school is in charge of Mr. Ralph Miller, B.S., who is assisted by Mr. Geo. S. Mills, B.S.[116] It is especially interesting, both as the newest educational enterprise and because it places the sexes on a footing of absolute equality. Reform in education must begin with woman, for it is from her that man inherits his notable traits, and from her that he receives the earliest and most enduring impressions. In the arms of the mother the infant mind rapidly unfolds. It is in the cradle, in the nursery, and at the fireside that the child becomes father of the man. The regeneration of the race through education must, then, begin with the child, and be directed by the mother; and this being the fact, the education of woman becomes far more imperative than that of man.

That the ancients made so little progress in morals is due to the fact of their neglect of the education of woman. Neither in Egypt nor Persia was provision made for her mental or moral training. There were schools for boys in Greece, but none for girls; and not till late in the Empire was there any special culture for girls in Rome.

In the Middle Ages learning was confined to the religious orders. The narrow bounds of the convent contained all there was of science and art. In the castle and at the tournament woman ministered to man’s pride and vanity; and in the peasant’s hut, which was the abode equally of poverty and ignorance, she endured both mental and moral starvation. Sir Walter Raleigh, Lord Bacon, Swift, Addison, Lord Chesterfield, Dr. Johnson, and Southey treated woman with mingled contempt and pity, and yet they were familiar with the story of Lucretia, of Virginia, and of the Maid of Orleans! But Shakespeare, with a sublimer genius, portrayed a Cordelia, a Desdemona, an Imogen, and a Queen Catharine, and with rare prevision of a future better than the age he knew, wrote these glowing lines:

This is the rational age, though not less truly chivalrous than that of Arthur and his knights; for, as Ruskin well says, “The buckling on of the knight’s armor by his lady’s hand is the type of an eternal truth—that the soul’s armor is never well set to the heart unless a woman’s hand has braced it.”[117]

The distinguishing features of this time are its homes and its schools, and the purity of the one and the efficiency of the other depends upon woman. It was reserved for Froebel to rescue woman from the scorn of preceding ages by declaring her superior fitness for the office of teacher—the most exalted of civil functions.

The growth of the kindergarten has not been commensurate with its importance. Indifference and prejudice have united to discourage progress. Ancient contempt of childhood—that contempt which in Persia excluded the boy from the presence of his father until the fifth year of his age[118]—projects its sombre shadow down the ages. But manual training, which is the kindergarten in another form, is leading captive the imagination of the American people, and where the imagination leads, woman is in the van. Woman is to man what the poet is to the scientist, what Shakespeare was to Newton, the celestial guide. She tempts to deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice. She is less selfish than man, because a more vivid imagination inspires her with a deeper feeling of compassion for the misfortunes and follies of the race. Her intuitions are truer than those of man, her ideals higher, her sense of justice finer, and of duty stronger; and she has a better appreciation of the moral value of industry, remembering the temptations of her sex to evil through habits of idleness, enforced by the decrees of custom. And she is our teacher, whether we will or no—our teacher from the cradle to the grave—and it is through her ministry that we are destined to realize our highest mental and moral ideals.[E32]

This sketch of the history of manual training in the United States is doubtless incomplete. It is, however, sufficient to show that the subject is already one of absorbing interest in all parts of the country.

Manual training in the public schools of Europe can scarcely be called educational, since the pupils usually make articles for household use. The purpose is purely industrial, and hence the mental culture received in the course of the manual exercise is the mere incident of a mechanical pursuit. But the making of things in the schools of Europe is gradually extending.

In Denmark an annual appropriation ($2000) is made by the Legislature for the encouragement of slöjd (hand-cunning) in the schools. All pupils in Danish and Swedish schools make things.

In Germany, Dr. Erasmus Schwab published in Vienna, in 1873, a book, “The Work School in the Common School.” Rittmeister Claussen Von Kaas, of Denmark, travelled through Germany and delivered lectures on manual training, and now there is a considerable agitation of the subject.

In Finland all the country schools are slöjd schools.

In 1881 the Legislature of Norway appropriated $1250 for the support of slöjd in the schools.

In France a law (1882) makes manual training obligatory, and a school for training teachers has been established—“L’école Normale Superieure de travail Manuel”—in which there are about fifty students. Prof. G. Solicis was the chief supporter of manual training in France.

In Sweden, in 1876, there were eighty slöjd schools. In 1877 the number had increased to one hundred; in 1878, to one hundred and thirty; in 1879, to two hundred; in 1880, to three hundred; in 1881, to four hundred; and in 1882, to five hundred.

In Nääs, in Sweden, there is a seminary for the training of slöjd teachers.[119] Of this seminary Otto Salomon is director. In the slöjd schools small articles are made for use in the house, kitchen, on the farm, etc. The course of instruction embraces one hundred models. The materials for the first series of twenty-five models cost about 40 cents; for the second series of twenty-five the cost is 75 cents; and for the third series of fifty the cost is $3.25. The annual expense of the manual training in a Swedish country school is about ten to eleven dollars.

The technical and mechanic art or trade schools of Europe, generally, whether public or private, do not come within the scope of this work, since their purpose is industrial, not educational.