v 15
THE MANUAL ARTS
BY
CHARLES A. BENNETT, B. S.
Editor of Industrial Education Magazine,
Formerly Professor of Manual Arts, Bradley Polytechnic Institute
THE MANUAL ARTS PRESS
PEORIA, ILLINOIS
Copyright, 1917,
CHARLES A. BENNETT,
32B31
Printed in the United States of America
..
I L IT
ix q.
COLLEOB
CALIFORNIA
PREFACE
'l A HE greatest present problems affecting the
-* manual arts in education, whether that educa-
tion be vocational or cultural in its aim, are cen-
tered around the selection and organization of
subject-matter and methods of teaching. Believ-
ing this to be true, the author contributes the fol-
lowing chapters to the discussion of these prob-
lems, hoping that they may be of some service to
his fellow workers.
Several of the chapters have previously ap-
peared as articles in magazines. When brought
together, however, they have a significance which
they did not possess as isolated articles appearing
from time to time over a period of several years.
Acknowledgment for permission to republish is
due to Education, Educational Review, Vocational
Education and Manual Training Magazine.
CHAS. A. BENNETT.
Peoria, Illinois, March 28, 1917.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS
SHALL BE TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS? 11
Manual efficiency of our forefathers. Manual
work not taught in school, but the three R's taught
for their practical value. The expansion of educa-
tion to include science, engineering and history.
Modern living and business conditions compared
with those of our grandfathers. The greater use of
machinery. Modern home conveniences and labor-
saving devices require a more general knowledge of
the principles and processes of industry. Apprecia-
tion of industrial products and ability to purchase
intelligently require industrial knowledge. The
school must teach industry. The manual arts
classified with reference to subject-matter. The
graphic arts a language. Interdependence of the
graphic arts and constructive arts. The mechanic
arts. Increasing importance of the plastic arts.
The textile arts. The peculiar importance of the
book-making arts. All of the five groups of manual
arts should be taught in the schools.
CHAPTER II. THE PLACE OF THE MANUAL
ARTS IN EDUCATION 22
The dual function of the manual arts in educa-
tion. The manual arts as a means in attaining the
end in education. Ways in which the manual arts
contribute to social efficiency. The manual arts as
5
6 THE MANUAL ARTS
a factor in the educative process. Importance of
experience. The manual arts regarded as both sub-
ject and method. The place of the manual arts in
the primary grades; in the grammar grades; in the
high school. Variety of materials, processes, ex-
periences, and little technic in the primary grades.
Good technic, the formation of correct habits,
thoroness, problems of industrial value in grammar
grades. Vocational purpose, emphasis on processes
that are fundamental, industrial standards in the
high school.
CHAPTER III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AP-
PRECIATION 35
Results of manual arts instruction; power to do,
power to appreciate what others do. Conditions of
appreciation: ability to produce, ability to express,
experience. To know about a work of art is not
sufficient basis for appreciation. Illustrations from
music. Similar illustrations in water-color paint-
ing, art smithing, hammered copper. Difference
between appreciation of the thing represented and
appreciation of the art employed in representation.
Experience essential. Summary. The function of
the public schools in reference to teaching appre-
ciation. Public school curriculum should include
fundamental processes of the five manual arts.
CHAPTER IV. VOCATIONAL TRAINING : To
WHAT EXTENT JUSTIFIABLE IN PUBLIC
SCHOOLS 46
Educational expenditure in business enterprises.
The amount of such expenditure that is justifiable.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Application of the same principle to public educa-
tion. Purpose of public schools fundamentally
vocational. Economic value of education not suffi-
ciently appreciated in America. Emphasis on voca-
tional elements in education need not mean sacrifice
of cultural elements. The best cultural education
may come thru a training that is fundamentally
vocational. The nation is justified in training
specialists. Origin of the term "Made in Ger-
many. " Motive in the development of vocational
education in Germany.
CHAPTER V. THE SELECTION AND ORGAN-
IZATION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN THE
MANUAL ARTS 54
No need of sharp line of demarkation between
vocational training and cultural training. Voca-
tional training in the manual arts is good manual
training plus the factory system. Desirable to
select subject-matter having present industrial
value. Select subject-matter from typical common
industries rather than from exceptional or un-
common ones. Statistics concerning industries.
Selection of subject-matter based on analysis of
industries. Factories recognize the importance of
analysis. Different kinds of analysis. Importance
of selecting typical modern industries for analysis.
Group analysis. Each group to contain some vital
element or elements. Groups arranged in sequen-
tial order.
8 THE MANUAL ARTS
CHAPTER VI. THE GROUP METHOD OF OR-
GANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER IN THE MAN-
UAL ARTS WITH REFERENCE TO TEACH-
ING 68
Original purpose of the group method to har-
monize class and individual instruction. Difficul-
ties in teaching that called forth the group method.
Illustrations of these difficulties. A course of in-
struction under the group method. Class instruc-
tion. Individual instruction. The group method
and class management. No two pupils work the
same combination of problems. A parallel found
in the teaching of history. Illustration of a course.
A group described. Allows for varied methods of
teaching in the same class. Graph of accomplish-
ment. Individual differences provided for. Indi-
vidual development combined with class progress.
CHAPTER VII. THE USE OF THE FACTORY
SYSTEM IN TEACHING THE MANUAL ARTS 85
Turning out a salable product is not sufficient
guarantee that a school shop is giving superior in-
struction; a factory does that and makes no pretense
at being an educational institution. Large factories
are teaching their apprentices in non-productive
shops organized on an educational basis. Producing
woodworking factory shop at Bradley Institute. Its
equipment. Disposing of the products of the fac-
tory. Cost system introduced. Shop order sheet,
cost sheet, time slip. Course of instruction. Groups
A, B, C, D, E, and F. Conclusions. Value of a
producing factory demonstrated for advanced in-
TABLE OF CONTENTS 9
struction; non-producing factory better for early
stages of shop instruction. Opinions of manufac-
turers.
CHAPTER VIII. THREE TYPICAL METHODS
OF TEACHING THE MANUAL ARTS 103
Three typical methods described: (i) imitative,
(2) discovery, (3) inventive. Utilization of the in-
stinct to imitate. Value of the imitative method in
teaching technic, in guiding habit formation. The
control of imitation. Claims for the discovery
method. Emphasizes individual differences. As a
matter of fact pupils will imitate each other if not
allowed to imitate the teacher. Discovery method
uneconomical. Effect of the inventive method
compared with that of the imitative. Student's re-
lation to his work in the inventive method. Sum-
mary. All three methods should be used in teaching
the manual arts in public schools.
QUESTIONS . 113
CHAPTER I.
WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE
TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS?
OUR forefathers came to this country civil-
ized and equipped for the tasks before
them. They came with habits of worship and
reverence, with ideals of liberty and with knowl-
edge of legal procedure. They came also with
manual efficiency; some were farmers; others
were carpenters, masons, millers, wheelwrights
and blacksmiths; the women could spin and
weave, sew and cook, clean and manage a house-
hold. When schools were established, these
were to train men to become lawyers, statesmen
and preachers of the gospel. Schools for the
manual industries were not needed because
everybody worked with his hands, and the the-
ories, recipes and traditions of the crafts were
handed down from father to son, or from master
to apprentice. The common schools taught all
children to read and write because such instruc-
tion was considered a necessary safeguard to
the democratic form of government which was
adopted. Ability to cipher, also, was considered
desirable for all, and in the villages and towns
it soon became essential because it had to do
with money and the sale of merchandise.
12 THE MANUAL ARTS
Decades came and went and left pioneers still
subduing the forest lands and exterminating the
Indians. Generations passed; cities began to
spring up and grow; the prairie lands of the
Central States began to yield an abundant har-
vest and the mines to give up their rich stores.
Manual labor, joined with natural resources,
yielded great wealth. But during all this time
the school was not called upon to train in manual
industry. The school had, however, greatly in-
creased its facilities for training for citizenship
and the professions; academies, colleges and pro-
fessional schools had been established and were
rapidly growing into great universities; and the
common schools had been multiplied to keep pace
with the expanding frontier.
Then came the demand for men trained in
science and engineering to build railroads and
bridges, canals and aqueducts, engines, ships and
machinery of all kinds. This practical demand led
to the establishment of schools of science and engi-
neering, and soon the science studies found their
way into the curriculum of the common schools.
The growth and struggles of the nation demanded
a more broadly educated citizenship, and historical
studies and the study of social problems also found
a place in school work.
While all this remarkable development has been
going on in the national life and in the school, the
WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 13
mode of living has changed as rapidly. The simple
life of the earlier days has given way to the many
complexities of our present life. Now we all want
modern houses; we want them individual in design,
finished in hard woods, heated by automatically
regulated furnaces, supplied with an abundance
of water, gas, electricity, and telephones connect-
ing us with our neighbors and friends. We want
artistic draperies, rugs and wall coverings, good
furniture, fine pictures, statuary and musical instru-
ments. If we compare our present homes with
the homes of our grandfathers when we were chil-
dren, we realize what a rapid and remarkable
change has taken place. About the same change
has taken place in reference to our food and cloth-
ing. Instead of contenting ourselves with what can
be raised in our own garden or our own town, we
get food from the most distant parts of the earth,
and by rapid transportation we have largely over-
come the limitations of season. We no longer
spin and weave in our own homes ; knitting by hand
is almost a lost art, and most of the sewing is done
"on the machine." When we turn from the home
to business the same is true. The farmer who is
not equipped with motive power and machinery,
can hardly expect to compete in the market. The
ox team has given way to the traction engine, the
cradle to the self-binding reaper, and so on
thru the list. This is equally true in manufac-
turing and nearly every other line of business.
14 THE MANUAL ARTS
Things are being done at greater speed and in a
manner that requires a more elaborate equipment.
All this development has immensely increased
the output demanded of the producing and dis-
tributing industries. This demand in turn has
increased the need for skilled workmen. Another
factor that has acted with this need is the internal
development in the industries themselves, which
has come in part from the necessity of a more eco-
nomical use of materials, but principally from the
discoveries of science and their application to
industry. If one tries to enumerate the changes in
the metal industries alone that have followed the
application of electricity in the telegraph, the tele-
phone, the electric light, and electric motors he
soon sees how endless is the undertaking. A very
important result of this development in the indus-
tries is the need of men with a wider knowledge
of the materials and processes of industry and the
principles upon which the processes and the use
of the materials rest. This knowledge is not being
handed down from father to son to any great
extent, nor from master to apprentice, partly
because the factory system does not easily lend
itself to education, and partly because the knowl-
edge needed is so new that even the masters them-
selves find it difficult to keep up with the develop-
ment. But this need for a wider knowledge of the
principles and processes of industry is not confined
to the workers in these producing industries. Every
WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 15
man who would intelligently use the modern con-
veniences of his own home, or the labor-saving
devices and conveniences of business life, must
know something of the materials and principles of
industry; and if he is to have any adequate appre-
ciation of the product if he is to judge the quality
of the thing he purchases or uses, he must know
something of the process that produced it. In
fact, industrial development has been so rapid
and so varied in our country it has affected every
man's life to such an extent that if he is to retain
sufficient mastery of his environment to make it
serve his needs, he is forced to acquire consider-
able practical knowledge of the materials, princi-
ples and processes of industry. As we have
already seen, this knowledge is not being handed
down from parent to child in any adequate way,
and so we look to the school to furnish it. And
if the school is to furnish it, the school must be
equipped with the tools of industry.
Having accepted the responsibility for giving
instruction in the industries, the school finds itself
facing a long series of problems of selection,
organization and administration. Most of these
problems are still unsolved, tho many of them
are being solved.
Perhaps the problem of first importance relates
to the selection of subject-matter. Which of the
many manual arts shall be taught? Are some
more fundamental than others? How can the
1 6 THE MANUAL ARTS
manual arts be classified? What shall be the
basis of our choice between them? These ques-
tions are consciously or unconsciously being
answered for individual schools, but too often
without a sufficiently broad view of the needs and
the possibilities. To find adequate answers one
must survey the whole field of the manual arts
as applied to industry; he must search out a basis
for classification; then he must select fundamental
processes in each class. Perhaps no better classi-
fication has been suggested than the following:
(a} the graphic arts.
(b) the mechanic arts.
(c) the plastic arts.
(d) the textile arts.
(e) the book-making arts.
These five should be found in every course in the
manual arts which extends thru the elementary
school period, and if cooking is more art than
science, the culinary arts should form a sixth class.
The graphic arts were the first to be given a
place in school work. These include all forms of
drawing, both freehand and mechanical. The
industries they represent are numerous architec-
tural and machine drafting, all forms of engineer-
ing drawing, designing for a variety of industries,
and illustrating for newspapers, magazines and
books. The increasing importance of these arts
is apparent to everyone who gives the matter
WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 17
thought, and the more one gives it thought, the
more firmly convinced does he become that there
is great need of revising many of our school
courses in drawing so that they will be in harmony
with the needs of the industries. Courses may be
made far more practical than they are at the pres-
ent time without being less cultural, and the more
they harmonize with the best industrial practice
in these arts, the more highly will they be valued
by the community. Too often the drawing work
has been a blind struggle for self-expression, when
good representation would have been far better.
Drawing is a language, and as such, a considerable
knowledge of its symbols and forms must precede
effective expression, especially in grades above
the primary school. The fact that the graphic
arts do serve as a language, transmitting thought
concerning form and relative size, direction and
curvature, tone and color, gives them a unique and
important place in their relation to the other man-
ual arts. For this reason, then, the graphic arts
are fundamental, and rightly deserve first place in
any course of instruction in the manual arts.
But just as power to write good English is
of comparatively little value without thoughts to
express, so the graphic arts are robbed of half
their value if not accompanied by some of the
other manual arts. Mechanical drawing, for
example, becomes too theoretical and often almost
useless when not accompanied by woodworking
1 8 THE MANUAL ARTS
and metalworking. Design, as we have been told
so many times during the past few years, and are
now just coming to believe, can be taught at its
best only when associated with work in the mate-
rial into which the design is to be wrought. The
use of the object suggests the form; this is modified
by the materials; both form and materials, to-
gether with the tools, limit the design, and often
suggest it. If necessary, other examples could be
given to show the dependence of the graphic arts
upon the constructive arts. Without the graphic
arts the constructive arts have no means of com-
munication, no language; they are dumb. With-
out the constructive arts the graphic arts are lack-
ing in content, in thought, in application. The
interdependence is thus apparent.
Of these constructive arts the mechanic arts
have been most prominent in the minds of advo-
cates of manual training. This is chiefly due to
the fact that they deal especially with the two
great constructive materials of our civilization
wood and metal. Not only the building and ma-
chine industries, but most manufacturing and
engineering enterprises ships, railways, private
vehicles, home furnishings and conveniences de-
pend upon the skillful use of these two materials.
The mechanic arts therefore appropriately head
the list of constructive arts.
In marked contrast with the mechanic arts, yet
in many ways associated with them, are the plastic
WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 19
arts. These include brick and tile making, con-
crete construction, pottery, terra cotta and model-
ing. These arts at present find their best school
counterpart in clay-work. Year by year the indus-
tries involving the plastic arts are becoming more
and more important. The exploitation of our
forests is making recourse to the clay bank a
necessity in building. Demonstration of the possi-
bilities of reinforced concrete construction is plac-
ing sand and cement in competition with steel. As
the cities grow in size calling for more large
buildings, the demand for ornamental tiles and
terra cotta increases, and under similar circum-
stances there is an increased demand upon the
plastic arts for the decoration of the interiors of
buildings. From the standpoint of industry, then,
the plastic arts constitute an important division of
the manual arts, and from the school standpoint
clay-work is one of the very best means of train-
ing; it is form study work par excellence.
The fourth group of arts is the textile arts.
This includes spinning, weaving, braiding, dyeing,
basketry, knitting, sewing, embroidery, garment
making a large number of processes fundamental
in our civilization. No further discussion of these
is necessary; their vital importance is apparent.
The fifth group consists of the book-making arts
printing, engraving, lettering, leather tooling,
bookbinding and construction work with paper,
cardboard and paste. While these arts are not
20 THE MANUAL ARTS
as fundamental to man's existence as the fourth
group, which provides his clothing, and the second
and third, which provide his shelter, they do pro-
vide his chief means of storing up thought and
transmitting it from one man to another and from
generation to generation. This group of arts,
then, is essential to progress if not to existence,
and to that extent it is fundamental. From the
school standpoint this group is one of especial
value because it relates so readily to other school
work; many of its processes are simple, requiring
but little equipment and only such materials as are
readily obtainable.
To these five may be added the culinary arts;
yet for some reasons the preparation of foods is
more fittingly classified among the sciences than
among the arts. Undoubtedly it is both a science
and an art, and whether it is more one than the
other is of no importance here. The essential
point is that food-work is fundamental to civiliza-
tion, and should have a place among the other
manual arts in the school.
No school system should be satisfied with
teaching only one or two of the manual arts; some
practical experience in all of them is necessary to
prepare for the enjoyment of modern home and
industrial conditions, and essential to an adequate
appreciation of the arts of modern life.
The public school has a noble record and should
not be diverted from its traditional purpose, which
WHICH OF THE MANUAL ARTS SHALL BE TAUGHT? 21
manifestly is to round out preparation for living,
not in the remote or the near past, but to-day, in
modern surroundings. Thomas Davidson has
said that education "has grown with the growth
of practical intelligence, and has been in all cases
a preparation for life under existing institutions."
It is the schoolman's duty to analyze present con-
ditions, determining what constitutes a prepara-
tion for adequate living, and then shape the work
of his school accordingly.
CHAPTER II.
THE PLACE OF THE MANUAL ARTS IN
EDUCATION.
A S the field of school education broadens, its
** aims and methods become more varied and
complex, and often confused. This is certainly
the case today in that department of education
which deals with the manual arts. The motives
for the introduction of these arts have come to
be so varied that to think clearly concerning this
phase of school work is very difficult. This is
perhaps fundamentally due to -changing social
ideals and consequent demands, but it is partly
due to a failure of educators to recognize that the
manual arts function in school education both in
.attaining the end of education and in facilitating
the educative process. The teacher needs to keep
in mind this dual capacity which the manual arts
possess as a means in education.
This duality of function is not peculiar to the
manual arts. It is equally true of the natural
sciences, and many have been the pedagogical
battles fought out in that field in times past. One
can readily recall the time when the science teach-
ers were dwelling in two camps, one emphasizing
the facts of science and the other the method. It
THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 23
would seem, therefore, that the arts might have
profited by the experience of the sciences, but in
much of the discussion during the past fifteen
years, this surely has not been the case and is not
today. One man looks upon the manual arts as
a body of subject-matter to be taught as he would
teach the facts of history; another insists that the
manual arts must be regarded as a fundamental
method of education, and claims to care little or
nothing for the subject-matter involved in this
method. The place, therefore, of the manual arts
in the one case is quite different from that in the
other. One leads chiefly to a mastery of the ma-
terials and the manual processes of industry, the
other to a new motive and means of expression in
teaching other subjects. The man whose vision
penetrates deep enough sees that the big truth
concerning the manual arts includes both of these,
and that instead of being in conflict, they are really
in harmony. When this viewpoint has been gained,
a most fundamental step has been taken toward
finding the place of the manual arts in education.
In discussing this larger view, four propositions
may be considered:
/. In so far as the end in education can be
attained more readily through the employment of
the manual arts, these arts should have a place in
education.
The end of education changes from age to age
as civilization advances, and should be in harmony
24 THE MANUAL ARTS
with the ideals and institutions of the time. At
the present time no end seems so much in harmony
with needs and the highest ideals as that of social
efficiency in the individual. In its broad interpre-
tation, this term seems to summarize all other
worthy aims, and points toward a goal not yet
reached. Taking for granted, then, that the ulti-
mate end of education is social efficiency in the
individual, the manual arts should have a place in
school education corresponding to their effective-
ness in helping men to become socially efficient.
As social efficiency in the individual means first
of all that each individual must be directly or indi-
rectly a productive member of society, the arts
must answer the demand of productivity. To be
productive a man must at least "pull his own
weight." He may do so either "directly as a
productive agent, or indirectly by guiding, inspir-
ing, or educating others to productive effort." 1
As productivity in the great majority of individ-
uals is the direct result of the intelligent and skill-
ful use of the hands, it follows that training in the
manual arts, which more than any other division
of school work develops such use of the hands,
should be given a place sufficiently large to allow
such training to be effective. Until sufficient time
is allowed in the school program for manual arts,
no one should expect large results from them.
With a time allowance which will require as much
iBagley: The Educative Process.
THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 25
of the pupil's effort as is given to the other funda-
mental studies, both inside and outside the school,
the manual arts will yield results which count
large on the side of productivity.
The manual arts contribute to social efficiency
in several ways. They not only give vocational
power, contributing largely to ability to earn a
livelihood, but they impart first-hand knowledge of
the material accessories of modern life. Every
man's effectiveness and happiness is dependent in
some measure sometimes in large measure
upon the ease and intelligence with which he util-
izes the modern conveniences in his own home or
the material devices which make for economy and
efficiency in business life. Moreover, the manual
arts develop appreciation of beauty in its relation
to material form, color, tone, and texture, which
is an element not only in esthetic enjoyment but in
general efficiency and productivity. And, further,
the manual arts provide a means in addition to
written language, of transmitting from generation
to generation and age to age, some of the choicest
thoughts and feelings of man. Since the manual
arts contribute so largely to social efficiency, and
social efficiency is the end sought in education, the
manual arts deserve a place in school work.
2. In so far as the educative -process can be
accelerated and made more thoro thru the em-
ployment of the manual arts, these arts should
have a place in education.
a6 THE MANUAL ARTS
The educative process is one of gaining ex-
perience either directly, or indirectly, thru other
persons or their records in books or works. In
this process of gaining experience, the value and
effectiveness of indirect experience is dependent
to a very large extent upon related direct experi-
ence. There is no substitute for such of these
direct experiences as are fundamental, and the
greater the number, the greater will be "the mass
of apperceiving ideas," tho after some funda-
mental direct experiences have been gained, it is
often economy to make use of indirect experiences.
To gain the fundamental direct experience at the
time when needed and in the right relation to asso-
ciated indirect experience is most desirable. To
bring this about is largely the work of the school,
and therefore the school must have the necessary
means at hand.
Applied to the manual arts, this indicates that
if these arts are to be effectively taught in the
school, or if real appreciation of these arts is to
be developed, first-hand experience must be gained
in them in the school. It is folly to try to teach
a girl to appreciate needlework without giving her
needle and thread and cloth and teaching her to
sew, but after she has learned the fundamentals
of sewing this knowledge will serve as a basis for
the appreciation of results in needlework quite
beyond her skill to produce, and wholly beyond
her ability to appreciate before she had learned
THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 27
the fundamentals of needlecraft. Moreover, many
of the other subjects of the school curriculum
certainly of the elementary school are naturally
so interwoven in the manual arts and find practi-
cal application so widely thru them, that direct
experience in these arts provides a motive, a need,
recognizable by the child, which is at the basis
of many of our modern methods of teaching. A
child wants to make a picture book. In making it
he must measure and he must divide; he should
also increase his practical vocabulary; in addition
to these he may learn something of the early his-
tory of books and of the source of paper and
strawboard and cloth and paste ; he may then col-
lect pictures and learn something of the lives of
the men who painted them and the thoughts and
feelings they desired to express thru them. Thus
the manual arts serve as a method or means of
teaching other subjects, and so contribute an ele-
ment of value in the educative process.
5. If the place of the manual arts in education
depends upon their service in attaining the end of
education and their value in the educative process,
then they should be regarded as both subject and
method.
The history of handwork in education reveals
two traceable tendencies concerning the place of
the manual arts which have been more or less in
conflict. One has been to regard these arts as
a subject and the other as a method.
a8 THE MANUAL ARTS
Dr. Pabst of Leipsic has pointed out 1 that
Heusinger believed that the impulse to activity
should be used to lead man to avenues of knowl-
edge which otherwise would remain closed to him.
Froebel emphasized and developed this idea and
placed handwork at the very center of the curricu-
lum. Herbart, on the contrary, and many of his
followers, use handwork as a means of teaching
the other school subjects, and make handwork
dependent upon the other branches of instruction
for its problems. Salomon in Sweden, Goetze in
Germany, and most of the early leaders of manual
training in England and in this country regarded
their work as a subject co-ordinate with other sub-
jects in the curriculum, while Colonel Parker and
several child-study specialists in this country and
in England have given marked emphasis to hand-
work as a method in education; and much of
the literature of the subject of a few years ago
was written from the viewpoint of these men.
During the past few years, with the advent of the
movement toward industrial education, there has
been a growing tendency again to give emphasis
to the manual arts because of their content value,
but, let it be hoped, without forgetting their
process value.
Today it seems clear that the manual arts in
education should function both as subject and
\Handwork Instruction for "Boys, translated by Bertha
Reed Coffman.
THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 29
method. The advocate of either view by itself
seems not to present the whole truth. To contend
that in order to have educative value, work in the
manual arts must smack of a trade, or to look
upon these arts in the school as merely producing
certain specified material forms in clay or wood
or metal, without reference to how they are pro-
duced; or again, to think of the manual arts as
merely a body of facts to be learned about materi-
als, tools, forms, colors, and processes, is to fail
to get an adequate idea of the place of the manual
arts in education. On the other hand, to insist,
as some have done, that the function of the manual
arts is to provide a concrete method of teaching
other school subjects, or to supply a motive or
need which will admit of a better method of teach-
ing the other subjects, is to reveal an equally inade-
quate conception of the function of the manual
arts in education. Only thru the unification
of these two views of the manual arts, regarding
them as possessing at once the characteristics of
both subject and method, can we hope to get the
true and adequate conception which will be a safe
guide in organizing manual arts work in the
school.
4. Considering the place of the manual arts in
education as dependent upon the aim of education
and the needs of the educative process, and regard-
ing these arts as both subject and method, the place
which they should occupy in the work of any sec-
3O THE MANUAL ARTS
tion of the school, as primary, grammar, or high,
can be determined by discovering the specific end
sought in that section and the special needs of the
educative process with reference to the manual
arts in the particular stage of child development
represented by the section.
In considering the primary grades it may be
assumed that it is clear to every one that so far
as fhe manual arts are concerned, the end of social
efficiency in the individual is better served by lay-
ing a broad foundation of first-hand experience
than by taking him thru any narrow course of
more specific technical training. It has been proven
that if sufficient time be given to basketry for sev-
eral years, American primary school children can
make most remarkable baskets, some of them
almost rivaling the work of the aborigines them-
selves in fineness and technic. But it is hardly
the function of the primary school to train expert
basket makers, and it would be difficult, on any
other ground, to justify such a narrow course of
training in handwork. It would be far better to
give the young child experience in a large variety
of materials and processes, not so much to teach
technic as to stimulate and guide his natural con-
structive activity, and to utilize the great oppor-
tunity that presents itself at this age for expres-
sion, more or less free, thru concrete material.
In fact, in these grades the manual arts should be
regarded as a method far more than a subject.
THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 31
Let them serve every other subject or embryo-
subject in every natural and reasonable way. In-
stead of limiting the child in this work to paper
and raffia, or clay and cloth, or wood and wire,
give him all of these and more. Cultivate in him
the habit of observing how things are made, of
expressing ideas in concrete form, of constructing
well enough to serve a purpose which he under-
stands, and of doing it all so neatly and in such
good form and color that it is pleasing to his
gradually more discriminating eye. Stimulate in
him that real joy and wonder at the possibilities
of construction with his own hands, which the
little kindergarten boy felt when in great enthusi-
asm he said, "Isn't it fine to see how one thing
busts into another without breaking." The aim,
then, in the primary grades should be to utilize
the manual arts in giving the child an opportunity
to gain a wide range of direct and useful experi-
ence with constructive materials and processes,
without very much reference to technic.
t In the early grammar grades the emphasis
begins to shift toward the manual arts as a sub-
ject, and in the upper grammar grades, technic is
as essential as was freedom from technic in the
lower primary grades. Physically and mentally
the child is now ready to form very definite habits
in the use of his hands. In fact, he will form them
whether we wish him to or not, and it is therefore
essential that we see that the right ones instead
32 THE MANUAL ARTS
of the wrong ones are formed. If he uses a tool,
he should be taught to use it in the right way.
Otherwise he may have to go thru the expen-
sive process of inhibiting a bad habit and acquiring
a good one in its place. When such bad habits
are multiplied they become discouraging and
well-nigh impossible to unlearn; hence the justice
of the criticism of some work for pupils of this
age that has passed under the name of manual
training, but fails to possess the first fundamentals
of real manual training.
This emphasis on technic does not lessen the
interest of the child in his work; on the contrary,
it deepens it and renders it more permanent.
Moreover, emphasis on technic does not mean
returning to the rigid systems of models imported
many years ago from Europe; neither does it
mean adopting the factory system in all our gram-
mar schools. It does mean thoroness where too
often there is lack of it, and it does mean teaching
a technical process in harmony with recognized
technical standards.
All this does not interfere with the manual arts
in these grades being of value as a method in
teaching other subjects, but it does mean that the
work during this period contributes to social effi-
ciency, the end of education, more distinctly and
definitely than it does to the educative process. A
lack of clearness of conception concerning this
point has caused much confusion among teachers.
THE PLACE OF MANUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION 33
The present demand for industrial education, if
rightly interpreted and conservatively heeded, may
bring us to our pedagogical senses in this matter.
If all our art and manual training work of the
upper grammar grades were more thoroly done,
more technical in character, more in harmony with
the industries of adults were more definitely a
serious subject and if it were given sufficient time
in the school program to become really effective,
we would hear less complaint about the defects of
the school system.
Sufficient time is essential. What could an
eighth grade teacher do in teaching United States
history if her pupils spent no time outside of the
recitation period in the preparation of their lesson
and were to recite but once a week thirty-six
hours a year? What practical results could she
expect? And yet that is what some schools are
doing in the manual arts and are looking for prac-
tical results. It is impossible. A few are giving
from three to five hours a week and are beginning
to get results. This amount should be further
increased.
In the high school the manual arts have become
differentiated into special subjects, as dressmaking,
wood-turning, forging, machine drawing, etc. As
a method in education they are still valuable, but
it is the educational end they serve far more than
any value in the educative process that gives them
their place in the curriculum. The end sought may
34 THE MANUAL ARTS
be vocational or general, but in either case the
arts taught should be so correct in technic, should
place such emphasis on processes that are funda-
mental, should be so in harmony with the cor-
responding industry that they will have distinct
vocational value as far as they go.
Possibly they may go far enough in the high
school or even in the grammar school to give to
selected groups of students all that any school can
give toward a trade or occupation, but whether
the manual arts aim for immediate vocational
results or not, the technical standard should be the
same.
The place of the manual arts in school educa-
tion, then, is that of both subject and method. As
method, it is most effective in the_^imary grades.
As a subject, it grows more and|Bbre ^important
as the grades advance, and becomes a highly spe-
cialized subject or group of subjects in the high
school. A full recognition of these two aspects
of the manual arts, and what naturally follows
as a result, should be a help to every teacher and
school superintendent in organizing his course of
instruction.
CHAPTER III.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION.
' I A WO of the direct results of instruction in the
A manual arts are, first, power to do, and, sec-
ond, ability to appreciate what is done by others.
Both of these results must be embodied in the aim
of the teacher who would wisely guide his pupils
in work in the manual arts. Emphasis is rightly
placed on the first, but the second deserves more
thought than it usually receives.
Froebel tells us that "man only understands
thoroly that which he is able to produce." Accept-
ing this stateJftnt as fact, we see that it is only
thru mastery^f processes, tools and materials,
color, form and values, laws of construction and
harmony, that we can completely understand any
masterpiece of art or handicraft. And we know
from experience that such mastery is exceedingly
difficult to acquire.
William M. Hunt in his "Talks on Art" * has
given emphasis to the same fact when he says, "I
flatter myself that I know and feel more than I
express on canvas; but I know that it is not so."
Here is the point of view of complete mastery of
materials and processes. If one becomes a master
1 First Series, page 5.
36 THE MANUAL ARTS
of brush and pigment, he can express his thought
and feeling thru painting, and it is only thru such
power of expression that one comes to know the
thought and feeling expressed by other painters
to fully appreciate a great work in painting. But
here again we who would appreciate art and handi-
craft find that it takes a lifetime to gain the
mastery of even the painter's art; and when we
think of sculpture and metalwork, cabinet-making,
textiles, jewelry, the building of a cathedral, a
great bridge or machine, we realize how impossi-
ble it is to fully appreciate work in all these arts
and crafts. With our human limitations, the span
of a single life is not long enough to include so
much, yet we desire the power to appreciate the
good in the arts and to help others to do the same.
So we are led to try another and easier course.
We throw aside the philosophy of Froebel and
seek to store our minds with facts about the arts,
in the hope that by this means we may reach our
goal of appreciation. We search the latest books
and magazines. We read what Mr. A. says of
the opinion expressed by Mr. B. concerning the
work of Mr. C. We find that Mr. D. does not
agree with either Mr. A. or Mr. B. on several
important points, and we take little satisfaction in
knowing their combined opinions. When we are
honest with ourselves we admit that we do not
appreciate the real thing they are writing about.
Like the young clerk in the draperies department
THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 37
of a downtown store, we can talk "arts and crafts
style" or we can discuss the report of the latest ex-
hibition, and quote good authorities too, but we
are conscious of the fact that this is not apprecia-
tion. We know that appreciation involves feeling,
and this newspaper reading has begotten no art
feeling in us. We would not only know about art,
but we would feel we would respond to the influ-
ence of the art; we would have the artist's emo-
tions transmitted to us, and this we find does not
come about thru the medium of words merely. We
must see and touch and do ; we must get our knowl-
edge first-hand; we must learn thru experience. In
learning about the art we have avoided the thing
itself. As Dr. Munsterberg points out \ we have
taken the scientist's attitude instead of the artist's
"The scientist explains, where the artist
appreciates."
This brings us to our problem: If we cannot
learn to appreciate the arts by reading books and
magazines, and if life is not long enough to allow
us to secure the mastery of all the arts we would
appreciate, what are we to do? Is there not a
median course open to us? For our purposes, can
we not combine the scientist's explanation with
the artist's appreciation? Would not such a
course be in harmony with the aim of the public
school? If so, is it possible, and what does it in-
rolve ?
l The Principles of Art Education y page 28.
38 THE MANUAL ARTS
Perhaps we may get a suggestive illustration
from music: We would appreciate the oratorio.
We read of the origin and early form of the
oratorio and its identity with the opera. We read
the life of George Frederick Handel, a description
of his "Messiah," and learn of the effect it pro-
duced when it was first given in the city of Dublin.
We read of its presentation in London shortly
after, when the audience was so electrified by the
"Hallelujah Chorus" that the King and all present
rose involuntarily and remained standing till its
close. We are interested in this account, but the
reading does not enable us to appreciate the ora-
torio. Next we go to the Auditorium and hear
the "Messiah" presented by noted soloists and the
great chorus and orchestra. We are more than
interested now, tho many parts of the compo-
sition find no response in us we have not been
educated in music. The grandeur of other parts,
however, does affect us, but we do not yet appre-
ciate the oratorio. Then we learn to sing, and
join the great chorus. Under the inspiring leader-
ship of a Thomas or Damrosch, we sing the parts
over and over; we rehearse with the soloists and
orchestra ; and on the night of the concert we pour
out our souls in music till we are lifted above our-
selves and things of earth and are touched by the
same emotion that inspired the composer. We
may not think we see "all heaven before us and
the great God Himself" as did Handel when he
THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 39
wrote the "Hallelujah," but we have in some meas-
ure come to appreciate the "Messiah," and we
have established a basis for the appreciation of
all other oratorios.
Another illustration from music: A boy in the
fifth grade in the public school read in his school
reader an account of the writing of Mozart's
"Requiem." He read how the unknown visitor
came and gave Mozart the commission, how he
disappeared so mysteriously that Mozart believed
the stranger had been sent from another world; he
interpreted the coming as announcing his own ap-
proaching end, and so applied himself with in-
creased ardor to the task of writing the
"Requiem." Later the boy learned to play a
selection from the "Requiem" on the piano and
recalled what he had read two years before. He
hunted up his old reader and re-read the story;
then going to the piano he sat down and played
the selection again. It was evident that his emo-
tions were affected by the music as they had not
been before. The "Requiem" had a new meaning
to him; he had reached a stage of appreciation
which was not evident before he re-read the story,
and certainly not before he learned to play the
selection from the "Requiem." He does not yet
fully appreciate the "Requiem," but he has the
foundation for a growing appreciation.
Turning now to the manual arts we may find
similar illustrations. A young man sees a water-
4O THE MANUAL ARTS
color painting and likes it, but he does not appre-
ciate it until he has struggled with muddy washes
and hard edges and false values and learned to
produce something of that purity and delicacy of
color and those atmospheric effects which belong
particularly to paintings in water-color. He may
have read much about water-color painting and
water-color paintings and water-color painters, but
he gets only part value in return for his reading
until he has studied the art itself. After that, the
reading is of great value.
The same is true of the art of smithing. Not
until one has drawn out the hot iron with the
hammer and anvil and discovered the difficulties
in making a graceful bend or a neat weld can he
appreciate medieval wrought-iron work. Until
then the hinges on the doors of Kenilworth Church
or Notre Dame Cathedral are so many black
scrolls and sprays. They might just as well have
been made of painted stucco as nobly wrought
metal. After he has himself worked in iron, every
fact in the history of the craft, and every master-
piece has a new interest to him. The fact that so
few of us appreciate wrought iron is why we ac-
cept substitutes from those who would deceive us.
A short time ago while in an art store a clerk
wished me to admire some pieces of copper work
"A very fine new line, just in," she said, and
then spoke of the individual pieces in most en-
thusiastic terms, telling me that they were all
THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 41
beaten up by hand. The moment I saw them I
knew they were not hand work. Having ham-
mered copper myself, I knew that the pieces before
me were not even good imitations of hand work,
and so I pointed out her mistake. She still insisted
and carried the case to the proprietor for vindica-
tion. Much to her chagrin he admitted the truth.
The clerk herself did not intend to misrepresent
facts; she was merely repeating what had been
told her. She had no appreciation of the wares
she was trying to sell. She could talk glibly about
a dozen kinds of handicraft work, but she had no
real appreciation of any of them. Every day she
was misleading an ignorant public that came to the
best art store in town to buy genuine art products.
In this connection it is well to remember that
one may be attracted by the form of an object or
its use without appreciating it as an art product;
or, in painting, one may be interested in the subject
of the composition and may value the picture
without appreciating the painting as a work of art.
I used to know a man who painted pictures of farm
houses and cornfields and sold them to the owners
of the farm houses. The farmers bought his pic-
tures not because they appreciated the painting,
but because they were interested in the thing he
represented in his pictures. If they had appre-
ciated painting they would not have bought his
pictures. Appreciation of an art, then, demands
a high standard in works that are representative
42 THE MANUAL ARTS
of that art. To raise the level of appreciation in
a community is to raise the standard of art prod-
ucts that can be sold in that community.
What we have observed to be true in reference
to the arts of painting and metalwork is equally
true in reference to any of the mechanical arts.
For a generation our engineering colleges have
recognized that to read about pattern-making, or
moulding or machine construction, is not sufficient
for the engineer, even tho as an engineer he
may never have to do the handwork. In order to
gain reasonable knowledge of processes and an
appreciation of quality in construction, it is essen-
tial that the student in training have actual shop
experience in all the fundamental crafts he is likely
to deal with as an engineer. In this way only can
a feeling for good workmanship an educated
sense of fitness be imparted in the short period
of the school preparation of an engineer. But
here, too, mere practice in the craft is not suffi-
cient. Along with the practice must come a study
of the theory of construction and the economics
of its application to industries, also a study of the
materials employed, the source of supply, methods
of refining, etc. The student gets the theory and
the practice the science and the art together.
Each helps the other.
If these illustrations have been pertinent to the
problem under discussion we may infer, ( 1 ) that
some definite knowledge of the technic of an art
THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 43
is fundamental to any real appreciation of that art,
(2) that appreciation involves feeling which can
be gained only thru experience in the art itself,
(3) that after such experience, appreciation may
be developed by reading about processes, methods,
motives, relationships, about the masterpieces, and
especially by studying the works themselves.
With the foregoing discussion in mind we may
now turn our thoughts for a moment to the public
schools. The aim of the public schools, in refer-
ence to the manual arts, is not fundamentally to
turn out a few great artists and master craftsmen.
It is rather to educate many pupils to a reasonably
high degree of industrial efficiency, and to give all
pupils the power of discrimination and apprecia-
tion. With our present ideas of training for citi-
zenship in a democracy, we usually discourage
much specialization in the elementary school, and
aim to produce a high general average of manual
efficiency. We prefer considerable familiarity
with several crafts to expertness in one. Likewise
in the matter of appreciation we prefer to have it
cover a wide range of handicrafts rather than be
narrowed down to one or two.
Accepting this point of view, for the present, at
least, it follows from what has been said that in
order to develop the kind of appreciation we want
in American citizens, it becomes necessary for the
public schools to give instruction in a variety of
arts and crafts rather than to confine its efforts
44 THE MANUAL ARTS
to one or two. Without forgetting the dangers
of a mere "smattering" of a subject, we recognize
the importance of an intimate acquaintance with a
variety of materials and processes as the basis for
a broad appreciation. Moreover, such acquaint-
ance is the foundation for effective work in voca-
tional guidance. A course thru the grades con-
sisting merely of paper and cardboard work, still-
life drawing, and a course of benchwork in wood
is decidedly inferior to a course which includes
fundamental processes in (a) the graphic arts
drawing and picture making, (b) the mechanic
arts woodworking and metalworking, (c) the
plastic arts modeling and pottery, (d) the textile
arts weaving, braiding, sewing, and garment
making, and (e) the bookmaking arts paper and
cardboard work, lettering, bookbinding and
leather tooling. Not one of these five subdivi-
sions of the manual arts can be omitted from the
course without correspondingly limiting the possi-
bilities for the development of appreciation.
But it is not sufficient that the child do the work
merely, even in all these varied arts and indus-
tries; he must be led to see beyond the work of his
own hands; he must learn something of the rela-
tionship of each art to the great out-of-school
world into which he will soon be thrown, and to
the history of industrial effort. Information con-
cerning the origin and development of any art
the social conditions that called it forth and nour-
THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPRECIATION 45
ished it will give the pupil's own work new sig-
nificance. The masterpieces, too, and the experi-
ences of the men who created them, should be an
inspiration to him. Biography, history, economics,
science and literature may all contribute elements
to his developing appreciation.
The development of appreciation in the manual
arts as a factor in public school effort does not
mean less handwork and more information, but it
does mean more information of a significant char-
acter connected with the handwork, from what-
ever source it may come. It means a new point of
view for many teachers of the manual arts, and
especially it means enrichment of the course of
study and rational correlation.
CHAPTER IV.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING To WHAT EXTENT
JUSTIFIABLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
TN business the amount of money that may profit-
ably be spent in advertising depends upon the
financial returns from such advertising. Whether
a business house can afford to spend one thousand
or one hundred thousand dollars in educating the
public up to its standard of quality and taste de-
pends upon the returns it can get in sales which are
the result of such educational expenditure. There
is no limit to the justifiable expenditure so long as
the returns come in in sufficient ratio to the capital
invested in this way. Likewise the question of how
much the business house can afford to spend in the
special education of salesmen depends upon the
returns in sales in proportion to the outlay for
education and wages.
This same principle holds true in public educa-
tion. Any expenditure is justifiable so long as the
returns are sufficient in kind, quality, and amount.
In this case, however, the returns are not in terms
of dollars for the business corporation, or salary
for the individual, but in terms of benefits realiz-
able by all the people of the city, the state, the
nation by the public. The late General Francis
46
VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 47
A. Walker once said that the demand for public
schools "has been purely socialistic in character,
springing out of a conviction that the state would
be stronger, and the individual members of the
state would be richer and happier and better if
power and discretion in this matter of education
of children were taken away from the family and
lodged with the government." It is of the great-
est concern to the public how the children of the
nation are educated, and the nation or the state is
justified in adopting any reasonable measures that
will produce efficient citizens.
The more one studies the history of the public
schools the more it becomes clear to him that the
great purpose of such schools is fundamentally
vocational. We are aware of the fact that it is
customary to speak of the aim of the public schools
as being, first, cultural, and incidentally vocational.
From the standpoint of the state, however, the
former may be regarded as incidental to the latter.
General education at least, that part of it that is
given during the first six years, which we call
elementary education is, so far as the state is con-
cerned, but the beginning of an education, the
whole of which is the making of efficient social
units. And an efficient unit of society must have
a vocation, and to be most efficient that unit must
be trained in some way either in public schools or
at private expense or thru vocational experience or
by means of a combination of these. Elementary
48 THE MANUAL ARTS
education is, then, from this point of view, the
foundation of a structure which is essentially voca-
tional. And it is, or ought to be, just as funda-
mental to success in the vocations connected with
the industries as with the professions, and, in fact,
far more so, if there must be a difference, because
the great majority of students go into the indus-
tries. But whether we regard elementary educa-
tion as chiefly a means to vocational ends or not,
the fact of a vocational end in public education as a
whole seems evident.
The economic value of education certainly is
not sufficiently appreciated in America. We be-
lieve, in general, that education makes a man a bet-
ter member of society, but we do not believe it in
particular. We realize that an educated man has
greater possibilities of making himself useful, but
we do not see clearly the economy of educating
every man to the point of making him the most
efficient possible social unit. As some one has said,
we believe in educating corn until it contains the
highest possible proportion of the desired ele-
ments; we believe in breeding horses and cattle
and hogs and poultry; but we have not yet come
to realize that educating men is just as profitable,
provided, of course, that the education is in the
direction of giving the best possible social results.
We seem to be a long way from an appreciation
of the full value of a healthy, efficient, happy
human being. Perhaps the cultivation of such
VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 49
beings is to be the great work of the twentieth
century. If so, vocational education is going to be
a big factor in accomplishing the desired result.
Greater emphasis on the vocational elements in
education need not cause any sacrifice in the total
cultural effect. On the contrary it will tend to
raise the general average of culture, (a) because
it will keep pupils in school longer, and (b) be-
cause the vocation may, for many students, become
the most effective focal center around which a
broad education may be gathered. There are two
roads to a broad culture one by way of a course
that is general from beginning to end, the other
by a narrower, vocational course which, if pursued
long enough, is bound to lead out into paths cov-
ering the broad field. Dr. Kerchensteiner of
Munich, when in conference with the Illinois Edu-
cational Commission in Chicago, indicated that it
was his belief that of the two roads the latter was
the better. It is not in harmony with the curricula
of our American schools, but it is in harmony with
one of the fundamental laws of our educational
psychology. It possesses the advantage of build-
ing upon natural interests, and in addition to this,
it insures getting to some definite end which is
socially worth while. It would seem that the
carrying out of this theory in the schools of
Munich is striking a new note in educational
method. Herbart would make history the focal
center of the curriculum; Colonel Parker would
50 THE MANUAL ARTS
give that place to geography; but it has remained
for Dr. Kerchensteiner, with his social and peda-
gogical insight and his rare statesmanship, to
make the vocation of the individual the focal
center for his education, thereby elevating the
vocation, while at the same time leading the stu-
dent in the most natural possible way out into
broad fields of knowledge and culture. Such a
program is not a study of the humanities with
humanity left out; on the contrary, it is in vital
touch from beginning to end with the work and
thoughts, the aspirations and the victories, of hu-
man experience. While making a student, it pro-
duces also a man an efficient social unit. The
best vocational education, then, is also cultural,
and the best cultural education may come thru a
training that is fundamentally vocational.
Coming now to the question before us, we may
say that in so far as vocational education is eco-
nomically profitable to a city, state, or nation, it is
justifiable, but as a matter of course, it should not
take the place of any fundamental education that
is more profitable.
The nation is justified in training a few military
leaders at West Point and Annapolis because the
welfare of all the people of the nation, in time of
war, depends upon the knowledge and leadership
of these few experts. The nation is justified in
educating chemists and biologists to test foods and
prevent the spread of disease, also to train meter-
VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC" SCHOOLS 51
ologists to prognosticate concerning the weather,
because all the people benefit directly or indirectly
by their work. By the same token the state is
justified in educating every man to his highest
efficiency in his chosen occupation, provided that
in the pursuit of that occupation he serves the
community in a beneficial way. It is not the func-
tion of the state to educate pickpockets and hold-
up men, boodlers, yellow-journalists, and anarch-
ists. Indeed we should do everything possible to
eliminate the kind of vocational training that pro-
duces these in our midst. They are a very dan-
gerous by-product of our social system, and may
be, in part, at least, the result of our failure to
give vocational guidance and adequate vocational
training in the schools.
For a striking illustration of the value of voca-
tional education to a nation, we may turn to Ger-
many :
Years ago English manufacturers were both-
ered by the importation of cheap goods from Ger-
many. As England had no protective tariff to
prevent such damage to her markets she resorted
to an ingenious device, passing a law that all
goods coming from Germany should be marked
"Made in Germany." The aim in this act was to
create a sentiment against such goods, and to warn
every English buyer against the inferior imported
articles that were threatening to undermine cer-
52 THE MANUAL ARTS
tain English industries. "Made in Germany" was
thus intended to signify inferiority.
To an aspiring commercial nation this was a
severe blow. It was in fact humiliating; but it was
accepted as a challenge. Germany set about to
turn the trick back upon England, and quietly de-
veloped her remarkable system of industrial
schools and compulsory continuation schools. Her
scientists and artists multiplied and focused their
efforts upon industry. The quality of her goods
improved steadily until today the phrase "Made
in Germany" stands for a substantial quality and
artistic finish that command the attention of the
markets of the world. In many instances German
products have crowded out English goods.
In January, 1899, Germany's mastery of one of
England's greatest industries had enabled her to
produce that splendid steamship, "Kaiser Wilhelm
der Grosse." This great vessel, perfect in every
detail, had just crossed the Atlantic, making the
swiftest passage of any vessel. With glowing
pride in this achievement the captain painted on
the side of his vessel, in great letters, the legend,
"Made in Germany," and triumphantly sailed up
the Solent to the port of Southampton. This was
a fine bit of retaliation, and it was appreciated.
After relating this incident to a body of stu-
dents, J. H. Reynolds, director of the Municipal
Technical School at Manchester, said, "The effi-
cient cause for all I have been saying about Ger-
VOCATIONAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 53
many is her schools." Germany believes that edu-
cation pays because it helps men to become more
efficient and she believes in making it compulsory
because every worker should have a chance to rise
to his highest efficiency, not only for his own sake
but for the sake of the nation.
Vocational training is justifiable in the public
schools to such an extent as will be effective and
economical in producing efficient citizens.
CHAPTER V.
THE SELECTION AND ORGANIZATION OF SUB-
JECT-MATTER IN THE MANUAL ARTS.
T T seems unnecessary and even undesirable to
attempt to draw a sharp line of demarkation
between the manual arts for vocational ends and
the manual arts for general educational ends. We
should recognize a dual end in education, but we
would not sever the whole educational system by
a social line as Europe has done, and we would
not start on that road by trying to separate the
practical from the cultural in the subjects of
instruction. With reference to this matter we
believe that the layman who views school work
from the outside and calls all handwork by the
same name all manual training or all industrial
training or all vocational training, whichever word
may have come into his vocabulary is nearer the
big truth than the educational expert who tries to
divide what is and, in the nature of things, should
be fundamentally an indivisible unit. The expert
may point out different aspects of this unit and
give them names, but he cannot make clear to the
layman or the practical workman who thinks for
himself, just where lines can reasonably be drawn
54
SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 55
between the two. Why, then, should we try to
emphasize such differences?
But let us see; let us consider the matter. And
in order to do this in a reasonable way let us first
eliminate all manual training that is not practi-
cal that does not help in the formation of good
habits in the use of tools and train for intelligent
workmanship, and at the same time eliminate all
vocational work that makes a man a mere ma-
chine leads him into a narrow alley of thought
and effort. This will eliminate a great deal of
trash that by sufferance still passes under the name
of manual training, but ought not to any longer
because something better is here to take its place.
It will also eliminate much repressive work now
done under apprenticeship agreements, and some
done by part-time and co-operative schools; but
this also ought not to continue because a better way
for all concerned has already been pointed out.
After eliminating these, what is left has more
likenesses than differences. The differences are
no greater than between arithmetic and shop arith-
metic; both are arithmetic, but the approach or the
selection or the application is different. In both
the same eternal fundamentals are taught. Just
so in woodworking or metalworking; the funda-
mentals that are at the basis of any good work in
either manual training or vocational training in
these subjects are identical. This fact is so easily
recognizable by every man who has been both a
56 THE MANUAL ARTS
practical workman and a teacher that it seems
unnecessary to instance the early history of manual
training when the fundamentals the elements of
instruction were obtained by subjecting the best
practice in the mechanic arts to a process of analy-
sis with reference to teaching, or to the fact that
in the best trade courses today both in this country
and Europe those which have become well estab-
lished and are turning out skillful men base their
instruction on these same fundamental elements.
So far as the fundamentals of hand-tool instruc-
tion are concerned the main difference between
good manual training and good vocational train-
ing is in the amount of time and the age of
students, and not in the fundamental elements
themselves.
This, however, is not the whole story. There
is a notable difference between arithmetic and shop
arithmetic and that is in its application to modern
shop problems. Likewise there is a difference be-
tween manual training woodworking and voca-
tional school woodworking and that difference is
in its application to modern shop conditions. In
other words, vocational woodworking is good
manual training in wood plus the factory system.
This formula seems too simple a one in which to
state the complex situation we sometimes hear
about in educational meetings and in the educa-
tional press, but we believe it to be true. And
if it is true for woodworking, it is likely to be
SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 57
just as true in other manual arts that have come
under the modern factory system.
By this formula, however, one should not at-
tempt to solve all the problems of external and
internal organization nor of method, tho it may
help in some of these. The addition indicated
in the formula may be performed in a physical
sense, as by fusion, or in a biological sense as by
natural selection thru a process of growth, using
the best available means. Both of these processes
are going on in vocational school experiments.
And whichever way the addition is being per-
formed there is always to be found on the inside
a unity in the art that is being taught which is
far more vital for the future of all this great
movement in education than are the superficial
and organization differences.
When we analyze the situation for ourselves,
instead of accepting somebody's dictum, we are
forced to the conclusion that there is no sharp
fundamental line of demarkation that should be
drawn between the manual arts for vocational
ends and the manual arts for general educational
ends. The factory system which has been a dis-
tinctive element in vocational schools has seemed
to suggest the most reasonable line of demarka-
tion, but, as has been shown, pedagogically
speaking, the factory system in the school is
essentially a means of teaching the application
of fundamentals, which are the very essence of
58 THE MANUAL ARTS
manual training work. In the interests of future
development this unity should be maintained and
strengthened.
Accepting this point of view, no marked dis-
tinction will be made in the following discussion
between the arts pursued for vocational ends and
those for ends usually denominated as cultural or
general. Indeed, an effort will be made to forget
that there may be any difference.
/. It is desirable to select subject-matter that
has some industrial value at the present time in
our own nation or state.
At Bradley Institute there is an exhibit of fish
traps, basket work, and mat-weaving that came
from the Philippine Islands about a dozen years
ago. In several respects it is a remarkable exhibit
of handicraft. It represents a great deal of skill
and knowledge. It would be quite possible, with
the requisite materials imported to this country,
to work out a course of problems which, if taught
thoroly in our upper grammar grades, would en-
able our American boys to make good fish traps
of the Philippine type, also baskets and mats.
But who would be willing to recommend that such
work take the place of our own American wood-
working and metalworking in the schools? Even
though it were proven that the physical and mental
effects of the fish trap course were superior, we
would still refuse to make the substitution simply
because we have no use for such fish traps, except
SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 59
to place them in museums. On the other hand,
knowledge and skill in woodworking and metal-
working are usable in America. Woodworking
and metalworking with American bench tools have
an industrial value.
The city of Strasburg has developed a peculiar
course in wood-carving. The work is done with
tiny carving tools set in engraver's tool handles.
In carving, a student takes a small block of wood
about three inches square and holds it with his
left hand on another block that is fastened to a
desk top. He works in about the same way as
an engraver of copper or silver who, with his
left hand, holds his work on a leather pad filled
with sand, while with his right hand he holds
the tool and does the cutting. We would not
recommend this type of work in the United States,
even though we considered it good manual gym-
nastics, because it has very little or no industrial
value. It is neither real wood-carving nor is it
good wood engraving. It is merely a hybrid
industrial work developed by a school teacher
for disciplinary purposes. If we are to teach
wood-carving in the manual training school, it
should be the kind of wood-carving used in
America.
To meet our first demand, then, the subject-
matter of the manual arts must have some indus-
trial value in the country where it is to be taught.
2. For public school instruction it is desirable
60 THE MANUAL ARTS
to select subject-matter from typical common in-
dustries rather than from the exceptional and
uncommon ones.
If we consult the United States census for
1910, we find that 36 per cent, or 10,851,000 of
the male population above 10 years of age, who
are employed in gainful occupations are engaged
in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry; 29
per cent, or 8,837,000 are engaged in manufac-
turing and mechanical industries; 10 per cent, or
3,146,000 are engaged in trade; 8 per cent, or
2,531,000 are engaged in transportation; and less
than half the latter number in each of the follow-
ing: clerical occupations, domestic and personal
service, professional service, public service and the
extraction of minerals. This shows that agricul-
ture employs the largest number of men, that
manufacturing employs the second largest, and
that these two together occupy the time of 65 per
cent of the entire body of male workers. This
would seem to indicate that the school is making
no mistake when it looks to agriculture and manu-
facturing for subject-matter.
If we carry our analysis a little further, making
a distinction between farmers and farm laborers,
assuming that the former need more schooling
than the latter, we find that more than half the
total number engaged in agriculture, or about
5,850,000 are in occupations in which a good
education ought to be regarded as a necessity. If
SELECTION or SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 61
we analyze the workers in the manufacturing in-
dustries we find about the same to be true: A
little more than half, or about 4,700,000 are
skilled workers, 1,725,000 are semi-skilled, 2,400,-
000 are laborers, and 100,000 are apprentices.
If we carry the analysis still further we find that
by grouping together the brick and stone masons,
the carpenters, the builders and building contrac-
tors, the plumbers and gas and steam fitters, and
the painters, glaziers, varnishers, etc., we have
the building group of 1,643,000 skilled workers.
Then by bringing together the blacksmiths, forge-
men and hammer men, the machinists, millwrights
and toolmakers, the molders, founders and casters,
the tinsmiths and coppersmiths and one-half of
the foremen, overseers, manufacturers and offi-
cials we have a metal industries group of 1,092,-
000 skilled workers. It should be remembered in
this connection that the number of semi-skilled
and unskilled workers in the metal industries is
especially large, being over 900,000.
Besides these two major groups there are
smaller groups, such as the printing and publish-
ing industries, the textile and clothing industries,
the shoe and leather industries, and the group of
engineers and electricians.
It would seem to be clear, then, that in the
two great fields of agriculture and manufacturing,
American schools should seek subject-matter.
6a THE MANUAL ARTS
j. The selection of subject-matter in any in-
dustry should be based on an analysis of that
industry. The same is true if the subject-matter is
to be taken from a group of industries.
Of all the heretical notions that have crept
into our discussion of industrial education during
the past few years none seems to be more damag-
ing than the idea that all you have to do to give
a boy a vocational education is to give him jobs
of work to do after the manner of the factory.
We realize that this idea came as a reaction
against a supposed or a real over-emphasis of
logical procedure in rigid courses of instruction in
handwork. But that is not sufficient excuse for
throwing aside forty years of experience and going
back to the point where we began in 1876. Even
the factories themselves have proven that this is
not the best way to educate their apprentices;
they have established non-productive shops or
semi-productive shops where courses of instruc-
tion organized from the teaching standpoint
are given. If proof were necessary several of
the corporation schools in this country could fur-
nish ample evidence that work organized for
instruction purposes is quite different from work
organized for the immediate production of manu-
factured goods. In other words, the factory
method of employing a boy's time is not the most
economical from the instruction standpoint.
SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 63
If this be recognized as fact then the road seems
clear toward the organization of work from the
teaching point of view, and this involves selecting
fundamental elements of subject-matter. This
selecting, in turn, involves an analysis of the
processes of the industry itself. All the famous
courses in handwork, whether for the training
of mechanics, like the Russian system, or the
course in the technical school at Chalon, France,
or in the Carnegie Technical School in this coun-
try; or for general education, like the sloyd work
of Finland, Sweden and Denmark, or the manual
training system of France, Germany, England and
America; or in the highest schools of art crafts-
manship in England, France and Germany; in
all of these the courses in handwork are based
upon an analysis of trades, or groups of trades or
industries or parts of these. In every case some
more or less definite field of industrial work is
selected usually one trade, or several very closely
allied trades and analyzed with reference to
selecting elements of subject-matter to use in in-
struction.
But not all analyses of the same trade are alike.
One may be better than another.
The usual analysis reduces the processes of the
trade to its simplest teaching elements, so that they
appear one after another in mathematical order,
like a string of beads, where the biggest is at one
64 THE MANUAL ARTS
end, and all are graded down to the smallest at
the other.
The group analysis is the division of the proc-
ess into masses or groups of homogeneous or
related matter. These may or may not be graded.
They may be like the little bear, the middle-sized
bear and the big bear in the story of the three
bears, or they may be like bears of the same size.
In either case each group must contain some vital
element or elements in the process.
A course of instruction based on the string-of-
beads or course analysis takes into consideration
the capacities and sometimes the interests of the
average normal child to be taught, but it is weak
because it is narrow and rigid; it may easily
become stereotyped for the reason that it treats
all students alike it "runs them all thru the same
mill." This kind of analysis used as a basis
for the selection and organization of subject-mat-
ter in certain manual training work would seem
to be the cause of reaction against such work.
A course of instruction based on a group an-
alysis is better because it is flexible. It allows
for individual differences. It lends itself far bet-
ter to the use of factory methods in so far as they
may be used at all to advantage. It seems to be
in harmony with what has come to us thru the
study of the principles of modern pedagogy.
The selection and organization of subject-mat-
ter, then, should be based upon an analysis of the
SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 65
processes, trade, industry or industries studied,
and that analysis should be made with reference
to discovering groups or masses or chapters of
subject-matter in each of which there are funda-
mental, vital elements.
4. The trade or industry analyzed for the
purpose of obtaining elements of subject-matter
should be typical and modern.
It is quite possible to make an analysis of indus-
trial processes that are not typical. For example,
one might readily find a man called a machinist
in a big factory and follow him in his work from
day to day, making an analysis of his trade, but it
would be found to be lacking in elements which
are considered vital in the equipment of a machin-
ist for another shop. And so the question arises,
Where shall we find the typical machinist? in the
big factory or in the small? in the specialized work
of the big industrial city or the more varied work
common to the smaller town? To train men for
one set of factory conditions is not usually re-
garded as the highest type of vocational education,
and certainly not the best general education. The
typical example of a trade or industry is not always
easy to find, but it should be sought for purposes
of educational analysis.
Besides being typical it should be modern. The
analysis of cabinet-making as it would have been
made by a New York or New England cabinet-
maker of fifty years ago would be defective today.
66 THE MANUAL ARTS
The same would be true of nearly every trade
or industry. Re-analysis will be needed from time
to time. It does not take very many years in some
industries for a process to become obsolete. The
school should recognize this fact in selecting its
subject-matter for industrial courses.
5. The resulting groups of subject-matter may
vary greatly in amount, in time required, in general
character, but each must contain some element or
elements vital to the subject under instruction and
the groups should, as a rule, be arranged in some
sequential order.
For fear that there may be some reader who
is afraid of that word "sequential," it should be
stated that the resulting groups mentioned are not
based on the string-of-beads or course analysis,
but rather on the group analysis: there is a great
difference. There is no reason to be afraid of a
sequential order if it does not lead to stereotyped
teaching. It surely is a safeguard against attempt-
ing things too difficult. It is also an insurance
against lack of preliminary training.
By way of summary we may again ask and
briefly answer the question : What should govern
the choice of subject-matter in courses of study in
the manual arts?
Subject-matter in the manual arts must have
some industrial value whether it is given in a voca-
tional course or in a scheme of general education.
It should be taken from typical, present, common
SELECTION OF SUBJECT-MATTER IN MANUAL ARTS 67
industries rather than from obsolete or uncommon
industries or parts of trades, except of course in
the case of highly specialized vocational courses
which are intended to meet specific demands. The
selection of subject-matter in any industry should
be based on an analysis of that industry. This
analysis should be made with reference to finding
groups of related subject-matter, each of which is
vital to the industry being taught. Only such
examples of the industry under consideration as
are typical and modern should be used in making
this analysis. The resulting groups of subject-
matter should then be arranged in sequential order
for purposes of instruction.
It is believed that these are safe governing
propositions whether the instruction be given in
a vocational class or is an integral part of a scheme
of general education.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-
MATTER IN THE MANUAL ARTS WITH
REFERENCE TO TEACHING.
Group Method of organizing subject-
matter in the manual arts grew out of an
effort to harmonize class and individual methods
of instruction. The Russian system of tool in-
struction with its "string-of-beads" course or an-
alysis and its tool exercises and joints demonstra-
ted the value of class instruction. The Swedish
sloyd, also with a "string-of-beads" analysis, but
with useful models, emphasized individual instruc-
tion. The Russian system was developed to train
men for service in connection with the government
railways. The aim was to produce intelligent and
skillful workers as rapidly and economically as pos-
sible. Consequently the class was the center of
the teacher's effort. Consideration of the indi-
vidual was secondary or supplementary. The
Swedish system was evolved as part of a scheme
of general education. Its first aim was child de-
velopment, and having this aim, it recognized
individual differences, and so insisted on individual
instruction. The coming together of these two
systems in the United States resulted in clashing
GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 69
of ideals and methods out of which has been
developed an American system which is essentially
different from either but includes elements gained
from both. The group method of arranging the
course came from neither one, but it was the result
of an effort to combine the economy and stimulus
of class instruction with the best consideration of
the needs of individual pupils.
In the period before 1893 it was the common
fault of teachers who had been trained to or had
imbibed the idea of class instruction, that they
constantly strove to keep all the pupils of a class
together in their work. The striving of these
teachers was constant because their aim could
never be accomplished under ordinary school con-
ditions. Children were not alike and they could
not be made so. Many were the devices resorted
to in this vain effort. Some of these may be illus-
trated by observations made on a tour thru cities
in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in
1892. For convenience the schools visited may
be designated as A, B, C, D, and E.
A was a manual training high school. Here
the teacher of woodworking was demonstrating
the making of a dovetail-lap joint. At the close of
a very skillful demonstration he said to the class,
"These joints must all be handed in tomorrow
afternoon at three o'clock." When questioned
about this statement he said that there would be no
7O THE MANUAL ARTS
difficulty about the matter. He was sure that
even the slowest in the class could get the work
done by that time. When asked what the rapid
pupils would do who completed the work before
that time he said. "They will be excused, and
allowed to go to the library or to the drawing
room to do other work."
This teacher had avoided the usual problem by
gaging his work to the capacity of the slowest
pupil and then excusing pupils as fast as they com-
pleted the required work. This was no solution
of the real problem because in most schools teach-
ers were required to keep all their pupils and to
keep them busy until the end of the class period.
B was a normal school. The teacher was asked
if he had any difficulty in keeping his class to-
gether for class instruction. "No," he replied,
"as soon as the first pupil has completed the given
model I call the class together and demonstrate
the next one. All go to work on the new model,
and the previous one has to be completed out of
regular class time mostly on Saturdays." When
the remark was dropped that some pupils might
need a good many Saturdays, he cheerfully replied,
"Yes, already some of them have all their Satur-
days spoken for to the end of the year." This
was in the winter.
Like the teacher at A this one had avoided the
real problem, but unlike the teacher at A, he had
GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 71
gaged his work by the fast pupil instead of the
slow one, and thus accumulated difficulties for
himself and his pupils.
C was an ordinary high school with a manual
training annex. When the teacher was asked what
he did with the rapid worker who completed his
joint before the other members of the class, he
said, "I give him repair work to do about the shop.
If a bench needs fixing, or a belt needs lacing, or
a drawer needs to be planed off, I keep him busy
at that till I am ready to demonstrate the next
exercise." "Do the boys like it?" he was asked,
"Yes, they look upon it as a reward of merit."
He admitted, however, that if they ever ceased
to look upon such work as desirable, he might
have some difficulty with his plan. In this case
the personality of the man was a large factor in
the success of the plan in this particular school.
D was a well organized grammar school center.
When the teacher was asked whether he had ex-
perienced any difficulty in keeping his rapid pupils
busy while they were waiting for the others to
catch up, so that he could give class instruction on
a new exercise or model, he said, "Last year as
soon as the first boy completed the first exercise
in the course I gave him a blueprint of a stool
and told him to get out stock for the legs. He
worked on that till the demonstration of the
second exercise was given. He was usually ahead
72 THE MANUAL ARTS
on the second exercise also, and then did some
more work on his stool. This continued until the
end of the year when several of the boys had
completed their stools besides all the required
exercises and models." When asked whether the
plan was a success he said, "Yes, only some of the
boys wished they had never seen those old stools
before the year was out." The breaking off and
beginning over and over again was too severe a
strain on the boys' interest. "I have a new plan
this year that is working out better," he said, and
then showed some blueprints of exercises in chip-
carving. "As soon as the first boy is thru his first
exercise I give him a block of wood and a blue-
print, and tell him to lay out the first exercise.
He can usually do this. Then I show him how to
cut out a chip, and he proceeds with the work. It
doesn't take him long to complete the first exer-
cise; then he takes the second, and so on. As a
reward to the rapid pupils, when they come to the
towel roller, each one carves a design on it, while
the slow pupils finish theirs without the carving."
The teacher was asked whether he had ever
noticed that some pupils prefer the carving to the
regular work, and so are inclined to slight the
latter to get more time for the former. He said
he had. Likewise he admitted that some pre-
ferred the regular work and always managed to
GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 73
slow up enough toward the end of an exercise so
that they would not have to do the carving.
The testimonies of the teachers at C and D
seemed to indicate that the solution of the real
problem did not lie in the direction of doing two
kinds of work one as the regular course and the
other as busy work.
E was a grammar grade center. In this school
the teacher had come one step nearer to finding a
solution of the problem. He had arranged two
parallel courses one of exercise pieces, and the
other of useful models involving the same proc-
esses as the exercise pieces: One of these sug-
gested a Russian course, the other a Swedish, tho
all the models were thoroly American in design.
As soon as the fast boy had completed an exer-
cise he was given the corresponding model in
the parallel course as a supplementary problem.
Comparing this plan with that of the teacher at
D, it had the advantage over the stool of not
requiring so much time for completion and over
the chip-carving of being work of the same general
character as the required exercise. It had the
added advantage of involving a repetition of the
same processes as were in the previous exercises
and of not including any fundamental ones which
had not been involved in some previous exercise.
This method of organizing the course, therefore,
stimulated interest, enabling a rapid pupil to ac-
74 THE MANUAL ARTS
quire increased skill and to nroduce useful articles
of a higher order
The net results of all these observations was
the conclusion that instead of trying to devise
schemes for keeping pupils together, an effort
should be made to so organize the work that
each pupil would develop freely as an individual
while at the same time having the advantage of
class instruction in the fundamentals of the work.
Thought for the average pupil should give way
to thought for each individual pupil. The idea
of one fixed series of models for all pupils should
give way to the idea of as many different series
as there are individual pupils, yet so grouped
together as to have common elements which would
be subjects for class instruction. Out of this new
conception of the teacher's problem came the
group method of arranging the course, which was
first displayed by Teachers College, New York
City, at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago
in 1893.
The group method is based on a group analysis
referred to in the previous chapter. A course of
instruction is made up of groups or blocks or
chapters of subject-matter, usually, tho not neces-
sarily, arranged in sequential order, just as one
chapter in a book usually follows naturally after
the preceding one. Each group must contain
one or more of the fundamental elements of the
GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 75
course which forms the focus or center of the
group. In woodworking, for example, one such
fundamental element might be the construction of
a miter joint; the group might be devoted to the
miter joint and its applications. Or in mechanical
drawing the fundamental element might be the
drawing of tangent lines; the group might include
a large number of problems involving the draw-
ing of tangent lines. This fundamental element
is made the subject of class instruction.
Class instruction should also be given on In-
formational elements, which are important for all
members of the class, tho not fundamental to suc-
cessful manipulation of tools. Facts concerning
materials and tools and related processes in factor-
ies, commercial value of materials and products,
etc., are included in such informational elements.
Supplementing this class instruction a large
amount of individual instruction must be given.
Even after exercising all the skill that the best
teacher possesses and utilizing all the help that
can be gained from note-books and textbooks and
reference material of various kinds, the teacher
will still have to give a large proportion of his
time to individual instruction, and it is important
that he have time to do this effectively.
In fact, the group method of arranging a course
is intended to assist the teacher in his management
of the class so that he will be able to preserve the
76 THE MANUAL ARTS
proper balance between class and individual in-
struction, while maintaining the maximum of the
pupils' interest and their intelligent procedure in
the work.
Working under the group arrangement, no two
pupils will be likely to accomplish the same amount
of work, yet all may readily pass the minimum
requirement. No two will work the same combi-
nation of problems, but each may make the things
that appeal most to him. One student may do
work that is far more difficult than another, yet
each may be most profitably employed, and both
deserve the passing credit for the course.
This is just what happens in a class in history:
Suppose, for example, that a history class is study-
ing the Civil War. One pupil learns the bare
facts of the chapter in the textbook; another learns
these plus what he gained from several other text-
books suggested for reference; a third pupil adds
what his uncle, who was a soldier in that war, has
told him; a fourth has read "The Boys of '61,"
by Charles Carlton Coffin; a fifth has gone to the
public library and searched out several large his-
tories and some volumes of state papers published
during the war. Now it is clear that at the end
of the chapter on the Civil War no two of these
pupils know just the same group of facts about
the Civil War, but all know enough to pass on
to the next topic. Each has learned according to
his interest or capacity or effort. Each may have
GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 77
done well for him. They are not all given the
same mark, but all pass.
A group in a manual arts course corresponds
almost point for point to this chapter in. history.
It is the same flexible, expansive mass of subject-
matter. One student may do only the minimum
amount required to pass on to the next group;
another may complete a specified problem in the
group that demands a typical application of the
fundamental principle of the group as it appears
in industry; another may complete a specified prob-
lem in the group that stimulates him to look up
references in books or to make inquiries of indus-
trial workers or to do some experimental work
on his own account; still another may work out a
project of his own designing which applies the
principle of the group to an object for which he
has a definite need.
To illustrate the group method of organizing
subject-matter the following outline by groups is
taken from the author's book, Grammar Grade
Problems in Mechanical Drawing:
Group I. Horizontal and Vertical Lines Layout of
Sheet.
Group II. Horizontal and Vertical Lines Dash Lines.
Group III. Inclined Lines Foreshortening Use of Tri-
angles.
Group IV. The Octagon and the Hexagon.
Group V. . The Circle Center Lines Sections.
Group VI. Tangents.
Group VII. Working Drawings.
78 THE MANUAL ARTS
Another illustration of the grouping of subject-
matter is found in the outline for a course in forg-
ing, published by the Illinois Manual Arts Associ-
ation in its report of 1 9 1 1 . It is as follows :
Group I. Drawing Out Bending and Twisting.
Group II. Upsetting Splitting.
Group III. Punching Fullering Swaging.
Group IV. Welding.
Group V. Case Hardening.
Group VI. Tool Making.
Group VII. Hardening and Tempering.
Group VIII. Project involving Assembling.
Each of the groups in both of the above courses
includes several problems. For example, Group
V in the first course includes the following objects
to be drawn :
A, target; B, wheel; C, ink bottle stand; D,
cast iron washer; E, mallet head; F, collar; G,
bushings; H, pulley; I, roller; J, washers; K,
emery wheels; L, picture frame twelve prob-
lems given, but more may be added by the teacher
if needed. A group is capable of indefinite ex-
pansion so far as the number of problems, or
applications of the principles to be taught is con-
cerned.
Referring now to the method of presenting
these problems, A and B are given complete; B
shows a cross-hatched section. In C the section is
given complete, but the top view is incomplete.
In D two views are given, and the student is
GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 79
required to substitute a section for one of them.
In E three views are given, but one of them is
incomplete. In F two views are given to find a
third, which is a sectional view. In G one view of
each bushing is given incomplete. In H the sub-
stitution of a section for one view, and the com-
pletion of another, are required. In I one view is
incomplete. In J the problem is given in the form
of a sketch and a data table, such as is commonly
used in the drafting room. In K there are really
four problems given in the form of sections, only
one of which is intended to be drawn by an indi-
vidual pupil. In L two sections of circular picture
frames are given, from one of which a drawing
is to be made. If the extra problems in K and L
are counted, there are sixteen specified problems
in this group. It is expected that each teacher
will add others of his own selection or of selections
made by pupils. With so many and so varied
problems to select from, the teacher ought to be
able to meet all ordinary individual needs, while
at the same time keeping within the range of the
group without anticipating the next group, and
destroying the effectiveness of class instruction in
that group. With such a group of problems, too,
a teacher may assign problems in such a way that
there will not be the possibility of one pupil copy-
ing from his nearest neighbor, thus getting the
neighbor to do his thinking for him.
8o THE MANUAL ARTS
Only a small proportion of these problems
should be required of any one pupil. While
increased skill would be gained by doing them
all, such skill might not be an economical use of
time for all pupils, and the working out of all
the problems by every member of the class would
defeat the very purpose of the group method of
arrangement. Instead, the teacher should deter-
mine some kind of a minimum standard for pass-
ing. It may be a specified number of drawings
up to an acceptable grade; it may be a standard
of skill and intelligence in the work, without refer-
ence to the number of problems completed. In
the particular group of drawing problems given
above the requirement might be stated as "Prob-
lem A, one of problems B to F, and one of prob-
lems G to L three in all." This would allow for
a very considerable range of ability, and demand
at least a fair standard of attainment. However,
the requirement for a given class must depend
upon conditions known only to the teacher of the
class or some one giving close supervision to the
work.
Two very simple graphs have been devised to
indicate to the pupil his individual progress and
success. One shows the amount of work done
and the other the quality.
GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 81
Fig. 1 is a quantity diagram. Area represents
work. The Figure ABCD represents the possible
work in a course of study consisting of eight
groups. The areas are left open at the top be-
cause the total amount of work that might be done
.__.
,
T
B
in
rsr
Fig
Y
.1
m
TUL
Vlll
in each group is indefinite. The rectangle EBCF
represents the required amount of work in the
course. In this case the figure assumes that the
same amount is required in each group. The line
GH represents the record of one of the students
in the class who has made most commendable
progress. The area GBCH represents the work
he has done in the course, which in quantity is more
than twice the amount required for passing. The
line IJ. is the record of a student found in many
schools. He made a brilliant start, was enthusi-
astic until the baseball season, when he changed
to another hobby and ended the course below the
required standard, though the amount of work
82
THE MANUAL ARTS
accomplished as indicated by the area IBCJ is
greater than that included in the minimum area
EBCF.
In like manner the amount of work accom-
plished by each individual may be represented,
but, as will be readily seen, the construction of
any such graph requires that the teacher shall
have reasonable means of evaluating the quantity
area that shall be allowed for each problem as-
signed. But this kind of graph may prove stimu-
lating, even when very roughly done.
The quality graph is similar in some respects.
It is shown in Fig. 2.
/+^
x*
m.
Z
- V
r
^-S
V
v2
*^
"V
V
I n m TV 3C "vr tvn ^/ut.
Fig. 2
The letters ABCD and E represent the usual
grades, the line between D and E being the passing
line. If desired, the position in the area can indi-
cate whether a mark is high or low, plus or minus,
as a high C or low C for example. Fig. 2 shows
the record of one student only. It is quite pos-
sible for a teacher to have a card with the cross
lines as shown in Fig. 2 for each student in the
class and fill in his record as fast as work is com-
GROUP METHOD OF ORGANIZING SUBJECT-MATTER 83
pleted. These can be kept in card catalog form
and readily consulted at any time. It is quite
possible for the card to represent approximate
quantity as well as quality. For example, in Fig. 3,
.
^
-*v
^
i
^x
^^
^*
<< V
-f
^
13 us m> BZ~2 12 331 3012 ynn
Fig. 3
the small figures beside the group numbers indi-
cate the number of pieces of work required in
each group. The student's record shown on the
card indicates, by being broken, that he has not
done all required pieces of work. There are two
short in Group III and the one in Group VIII.
On the other hand it reveals the fact that he did
one more than the required number of pieces of
work in Group II.
It should now be evident that under the group
arrangement of the subject-matter of the course
of instruction a class moves forward together
group by group, yet each member of the class
grows breadth-wise, so to speak, within each group
as an individual. Individual expansion or de-
velopment is combined with class progress. While
the use of this arrangement did not involve any
84 THE MANUAL ARTS
new principle in teaching, it was essentially new
in teaching manual training at the time when the
"war between the jointers and sloyders" began,
but since that time it has come to be a commonly
applied device in arranging the subject-matter of
courses of instruction in the manual arts. More-
over, it deals with so many fundamental factors
in good teaching that, altho it originated in
courses taught for their general educational
value, it is equally applicable to strictly vocational
courses. It is applicable wherever there are indi-
vidual differences in children coupled with a desire
to give class instruction on vital or common ele-
ments in the course.
CHAPTER VII.
THE USE OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING
THE MANUAL ARTS.
A S one goes from city to city visiting the newer
types of industrial school shops it is easy to
get the impression that many advocates of voca-
tional training think there is special virtue in the
fact that a school shop is turning out a marketable
factory product. Such men seem to think that all
that is necessary to be done to bring shopwork up
to date is to have the boys manufacture stools to
sell to the local furniture dealer or study tables to
sell to the Board of Education, or to make the
equipment for a teachers' rest room in the high
school. The inference seems to be that the school
shop that can do such work must be a superior
shop; it must be giving real vocational training.
On the other hand, any person who has had real
vocational experience in a woodworking shop,
who is acquainted with the processes of manufac-
turing, and at the same time is acquainted with the
processes of teaching, is well aware of the fact
that it is quite possible to get a group of boys to
turn out a salable product without teaching them
much of anything. Even the factories can do
that. They are doing it right along, and it is
86 THE MANUAL ARTS
because such a factory system is an educational
failure that schools for vocational training are
needed. The accomplishment of such a feat in the
school is no more guarantee of real vocational edu-
cation than when the same thing is done in a fac-
tory. Merely turning out a valuable or salable
product is no adequate criterion for a school shop.
A factory may or may not be a good educational
institution, depending upon the way it is organized
and administered. If it employs educational
methods and keeps education as the chief aim, it
may be a good school; if it makes material prod-
ucts its sole aim, it is not fundamentally an educa-
tional institution at all. A man working in it may
"pick up" a trade or a part of a trade, but he
might get much more of the trade in the same
length of time were the shop organized to teach
instead of to make money. Even the large fac-
tories are recognizing this fact, and the corpora-
tion schools are teaching their apprentices at first
in a shop that is either non-productive or nearly so.
It was with some appreciation of this point of
view that Bradley Institute, in the year of 1911,
set out to discover thru actual experiment some of
the possibilities of utilizing a producing wood-
working factory as a means of teaching a vocation
and as further aid in training teachers of voca-
tional woodworking. It was realized that this was
not entirely a new experiment, for similar work
had been carried on successfully at Hampton In-
FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 87
stitute, Virginia, and in other places. But the con-
ditions at Bradley Institute seemed favorable for
testing certain claims concerning methods of voca-
tional training and the educative value of factory
shop experience.
To go into all the difficulties encountered and
the means taken to solve new problems would take
one beyond the limits of the present chapter, but
it is possible briefly ( 1 ) to state a few facts con-
cerning the material equipment of the shop; (2)
to explain the cost system adopted; (3) to give a
summary of the results in manufactured products;
(4) to state the main facts concerning the organ-
ization of the subject-matter taught and the
method of procedure in teaching; and (5) to give
a few conclusions based on experience.
The room selected for the factory shop was 40
by 100 feet. It was fitted up with the usual wood-
working machinery. In arranging the machinery
the first consideration was facility in handling the
work. In other words, the considerations were
chiefly those of equipping a commercial factory.
The main difference was in having a long row of
benches on one side of the room, but these were
inherited from a former school shop and might
not have been quite as numerous under other con-
ditions. Also, some of the machinery was in-
herited, but that was essentially what would have
been purchased if it had not been already on hand.
88 THE MANUAL ARTS
There was one entirely new feature of the equip-
ment which was looked upon as essential in any
school shop that adopts factory methods, and that
was the trucks for storing and carrying material
in process of manufacture. Whenever one goes to
a school woodworking shop that claims to be giv-
ing vocational instruction by factory methods, he
should at once look for the trucks. If woodwork-
ing machinery is there and the trucks are not, he
may begin to question in his own mind whether he
is in a vocational shop or in a manual training
shop. In other words, the truck has come to be
the symbol of the woodworking factory shop. It
would be difficult to conceive of modern factory
methods being carried out in a real way where no
such trucks are available. This, then, is a sum-
mary of the factory shop equipment: machines in
sufficient number, with plenty of trucks, and all so
arranged that there is sufficient space around the
machines for the placing of the trucks, and a clear
aisle for trundling the trucks of material from one
part of the shop to another. To this should, of
course, be added the statement that the machines
must be so arranged that a job may be routed with-
out undue waste of time in going from one ma-
chine to another.
No school can afford to maintain a woodwork-
ing factory without disposing of its products in
such a way as to pay for the material used. This
becomes a problem because a woodworking fac-
FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 89
tory requires a large amount of lumber to keep it
busy. Some schools can find a market for their
school factory products in their own institution;
others will find it necessary to seek a market for
at least a part of their products. Bradley Institute
has pursued the latter course. It manufactures
for its own use, and then sells to other schools a
limited quantity of products, such as drawing
boards, workbenches, drawing tables, cabinets,
samples of wood, mitered table legs, and cases for
unfinished work. It also does occasional special
jobs by contract, when they are needed to keep up
a sufficient supply and the requisite variety of
work.
In order to handle all this work in an intelligent
and businesslike way a cost system was adopted.
Before adopting this, however, several systems
were studied, and finally a very simple one was
decided upon. The blanks used are, first, the shop
order sheet, Fig. 4, which is made out in the busi-
ness office of the Department of Manual Arts and
forwarded with the drawing or other specifications
to the teacher in charge of the factory shop. These
order forms in duplicate are made up in books.
The original is on a white sheet; the carbon dupli-
cate is on a pink sheet and remains in the order
book as an office record.
When the job is completed the teacher sends to
the office a cost sheet, Fig. 5. The order number
corresponds with the number on the shop order
90 THE MANUAL ARTS
SHOP ORDER No
Date of Issue-
To Department,
Under the Supervision of
Have the following work done, and a memorandum of cost (time
and materials in separate items) sent to this office.
It should be completed
Signed.
BRADLCY POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE DEPARTMENT OF MANUAL
SHOP ORDER SHEET.
Fig. 4
FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 91
SHOP ORDER NO.
FOR
LABOR:
Class A,.
" B,_
" C,_
" DI-
" EI_
" F,_
" 0,_
" H,_
MATERIALS:
Date of Report .
Mad* by
BHADLIY POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. DIPARTMENT or MANUAL AUTO
COST SHEET.
Fig. 5
92 THE MANUAL ARTS
sheet. The labor is classified strictly according to
commercial value, or as near to that as the teacher
can estimate. Class A represents an expert work-
man, usually the teacher, working at a machine.
Class B represents an expert workman working at
the bench. Class C represents a good workman
ORDER WORKMAN DATE
START FINISH TIME
Fig. 6. Time Slip
one of the strongest students and a machine;
Class D represents a good workman at the bench.
And so the labor is graded down to G and H,
which stand for work of the "helper" grade.
Each of these grades has a corresponding money
value, which is used in completing each labor item
on the sheet after it has been sent to the office.
Materials are reported in similar detail. These
items added, together with any extra office charge,
give the total cost of the job. As in many modern
factories, these cost items are figured so as to per-
mit of the usual trade discounts.
The time slip used is shown in Fig. 6. This is
printed, four on a sheet, with perforations be-
tween each. It is essentially a copy of a time slip
which has been in successful use for many years
FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 93
in certain woodworking factories in New England.
The workman makes out a separate slip for each
order worked on during the day, and therefore
hands in as many slips each day as there are jobs
worked on. The teacher on receiving them mere-
ly sees that the total is correct for the day and
marks the classification on each slip as C, F, etc.
Then he tears the slips apart, if still fastened to-
gether, and hangs them on hooks for the purpose,
one hook for each order, or he groups them in a
drawer or box, as seems to him to be convenient.
When the job is done he summarizes the slips and
puts the totals on the cost sheet, Fig. 5. This
sheet is made in duplicate as was the case with the
shop order sheets, so that a carbon copy is kept by
the teacher. In this case, however, the original
is a yellow sheet and the duplicate a white one.
The colors add to the convenience in handling,
especially in the Department office. When the
system was first started, material slips similar to
the time slips were used, but now stock bills made
out by the workmen or a sub-foreman or by the
teacher, as the case may be, are substituted for
these slips in keeping a record of the material for
a given job.
The cost sheets in the Department office serve
in making out bills, in making financial statements
of the shopwork, and in estimating future jobs.
The first shop order issued under this system
was on Jan. 16, 1912. Between that date and
94 THE MANUAL ARTS
Sept. 1, 1912, work was completed to the value
of about $800. The reports for the next three
years give the following figures :
Year ending Sept. 1, 1913. .$1,595.11
Year ending Sept. 1, 1914.. 2,052.81
Year ending Sept. 1, 1915.. 1,475.11
In making up the above figures a discount was
taken off of all items not sold for cash, so that the
figures are well within the actual value. Among
the products sold for cash were drawing tables for
a local public school, rural school benches, play-
ground slide and teeter-totter for a children's
home, a variety of furniture, drawing boards,
study tables, bench-hooks, bread rack for a bakery,
case of small drawers, stock for school use, etc.
For the use of other departments of the Institute
there were made a spring board, trestles, bleach-
ers, etc., for the gymnasium; benches and table for
the horology school; and tables, bookcases, and
chart cases for several other departments. For
the Manual Arts Department there has been made
a large volume of work, including individual lock-
ers for drawing room, drawing tables, interlocking
drawing board cabinets, coat lockers, exhibit
frames, foundry equipment, work-benches, tool
cabinets, tables, furniture, drawing boards, T-
squares, wood pulleys, and many more.
The man employed as teacher in the factory
shop had taught very little before taking charge of
FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 95
this shop, but during thirteen years of practical
experience he had come in contact with the real
problems of carpentry and millwork and pattern
making. He therefore approached the problem
from the vocation, and not from the school stand-
point. During the first year he was working under
the supervision of a man with many years of ex-
perience in teaching manual training classes in
woodworking. The aim of both men was, first, to
organize a real producing factory, admitting a
comparatively few students, and then, little by
little, to solve the problems of giving instruction
as they came along in the natural order of devel-
opment. It took comparatively little time to es-
tablish the factory routine, but it has taken much
more time to determine the most effective organ-
ization of subject-matter and the best methods of
giving instruction. In making decisions it has been
necessary to keep two facts constantly in mind:
First, that the aim of the shop is to teach and not
to make money; and, second, that the factory
routine and factory methods of doing work are an
essential part of the educational scheme and must
therefore be retained. The big problem, then, has
been to harmonize the educational aim, namely,
to produce intelligent, thoroly trained workmen,
and the factory routine, which is intended to pro-
duce high-grade manufactured products at a speed
that is acceptable in a commercial factory.
96 THE MANUAL ARTS
After three and one-half years of experiment-
ing, the scheme of training, or the course of in-
struction, may be outlined as follows :
Group A. Before any student is allowed to use
the machines of the shop, or any one machine, a
series of demonstrations is given to acquaint the
members of the class with the construction and
operation of the machines. Minute instruction
concerning the positions to be taken in working at
each machine is given, and emphasis is placed on
precautions to be taken in order to avoid acci-
dents.
Group B. The first real experience at the ma-
chines is in getting out stock and such other rough
work as will give experience in the use of the cut-
off saw, the jointer, and the surfacer. The time
spent in such work varies, with the student, from
ten days, four hours a day, to two months, accord-
ing to his ability. The average time is about six
weeks. During this period it is expected that
every student will be taught to measure lumber
and identify a few of the common woods, both in
the rough and surfaced.
Group C. As soon as the students have proven
their reliability in the rough work they are taken
off, one or two at a time, and started on the second
type of work. This consists of making three or
more joints from models given to the students.
From the commercial factory standpoint this work
is entirely non-productive, but experiments seem
FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 97
to have proven conclusively that it is really a time
saver and a lumber saver. It usually occupies
from four to seven days and it prevents wasting
many feet of lumber. The joints required of all
are (a) a panel joint, (b) glass door joint, or rab-
beted mortise-and-tenon joint, and (c) table leg
joint. Others that are often added to this list are
the sash joint, the table leaf joint (made later in
the course when the student is allowed to use the
shaper), the stretcher joint, etc. The joints are
kept by the students for reference. The experi-
ence gained in this type of work seems to be of
great value in thinking out the parts of a structure
in their relation to each other, and it helps to de-
velop an appreciation of the importance of ac-
curacy in setting the machines.
Group D. The third type of work consists of
small panel doors, glass doors, backs of cases and
such other work of about the same grade of diffi-
culty as may be available. Here, as elsewhere
thruout the course, the students are promoted in-
dividually from one type of work to another, the
basis of promotion being dependent on reliability
in doing a thoro piece of work in a reasonable
length of time, judged by the standard of the com-
mercial factory. During this period each student
makes a sketch of the piece he is making, and pre-
pares a stock bill. This sketch is often made from
a blueprint or drawing of the structure of which
he is making a part. Often the problem involves
98 THE MANUAL ARTS
many duplicates, and two or more students work
together on a job so as to do the work most ef-
ficiently. This type of work occupies about one
month.
Group E. The fourth type of work occupies
the remainder of the first year, and consists of
construction and assembly work. This often re-
quires one student to make a complete case from
beginning to end, or the problems in hand may be
such as to require that two or more students work
together. Sometimes there are many duplicate
parts to be worked, and sometimes there are but
few. The student makes a sketch of each part of
the structure he is making and puts the working
dimensions on it. If a student has special ability
he may be given charge of a complex job and sub-
divide it, thus laying out work for several students
in different stages of skill. The assembling will
later be done by the student who laid out the work,
acting as a sub-foreman. During this period of
work students get experience in wood-finishing and
are given thoro instruction in the proper use of
glue, and in the handling of gluing apparatus.
They are taught the sharpening and use of the
hand scraper; saw-filing is begun. They are also
taught the economical use of lumber, which in-
volves maintaining an organized system of caring
for and utilizing scrap pieces. Scraps are classi-
fied, sometimes by sizes, sometimes by their use.
FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 99
Group F. The fifth type of work is in many
respects a continuation of the fourth, except that
the work is done in harder and more valuable
woods, requiring more accurate results. Such
problems as an oak cabinet or the interior finish
and casework for an office belong in this stage.
It is in this stage that most of the students hope
for an opportunity to act for a while as a sub-
foreman. In this stage the most reliable students,
and those only, are allowed to run the shaper. All
students in this stage are required to make at least
one wood pulley, and to get some experience in
belting work and the elements of millwrighting.
Special jobs involving templet work are included,
circular-saw filing and band-saw filing and braz-
ing are taught, and before the end of the course
some problems in estimating are given. Thruout
the entire two-year course there are occasional
class demonstrations, lectures, and discussions, but
in the work at the machines the students are as-
signed according to individual efficiency and held
up to a commercial standard of accuracy, and ap-
proximately up to a commercial standard of speed
when actually working at the machines.
The result of the three and one-half years of
development is gratifying. While there are many
things yet to be learned about the new problems
involved in maintaining such a school factory on
a sound educational and economic basis, enough
ioo THE MANUAL ARTS
has been learned to state the following as con-
clusions :
( 1 ) That school work in a factory shop must
be organized with reference to teaching as well as
with reference to producing. Such organization
is necessary if instruction is to be efficient, and
economical of the learner's time.
(2) The non-productive work has a place in
the school factory shop even exercise pieces pure
and simple.
(3) That it is practicable, under favorable
conditions, to operate a school shop under the fac-
tory system, but the factory system should not be
allowed to prevent the instructor from stopping
the work of any number of students at any time to
give class or group instruction. The producing
purpose of the factory shop must give way to the
instruction purpose.
(4) That a school factory shop may be organ-
ized in such a way as to be a superior educational
workshop, giving the most practical kind of in-
struction with a high degree of thoroness by
methods that are sound pedagogically and that
call forth a high type of interest on the part of
students.
It seems to have been demonstrated that in the
advanced stages of vocational training, after a
good grounding in manual training work, experi-
ence in a producing factory is highly educative,
provided a reasonable variety of work is done.
FACTORY SYSTEM IN TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 101
This has been proven in manufacturing establish-
ments and in producing factories in schools, such
as the one above. It seems also to have been
demonstrated that in the earliest stages of shop
instruction, whether that instruction be with strict
vocational end in view or merely with a prevoca-
tional or a manual training end as the goal, ex-
perience in a producing factory is not as educative
as experience under proper instruction in a school
shop, tho certain school problems in duplicate pro-
duction, both by hand and machine, are valuable
in the school shop. As proof of the general state-
ment it would seem necessary only to cite cases
where factories have provided apprentice schools
with special rooms for the beginners to learn the
elements of handwork thru graded courses of les-
sons designed to give apprentices the fundamentals
in the best way. The factories have found this
way to be the cheapest in the long run.
Some figures gathered by Mark B. Hughes, of
Detroit, for a report to the National Association
of Corporation Schools are significant. To the
question, "Do you believe manufacturers would be
sufficiently benefited to warrant the expense of es-
tablishing apprenticeship or corporation schools?"
38 of the large corporations in the country, includ-
ing 11 of the largest railroads and many great
factories such as the General Electric Co., The
Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co.,
The Western Electric Co., Browne and Sharpe
loa THE MANUAL ARTS
Manufacturing Co., and R. R. Donnelly & Sons
Co. answered "Yes." There was not a single
"No" vote and only one voted with a question
mark. To the question, "Do you favor a special
mechanical instructor or allowing the shop fore-
man to do all the instructing?" Thirty answered
in favor of the special instructor, 5 the shop fore-
man, and 2 both.
Anyone who has visited such a school as the one
at the Lakeside Press in Chicago must be im-
pressed with the fact that both the boy and the
factory are profiting by separating the apprentices
from the journeymen during the early stages of
their apprenticeship and giving them work which
is for the most part unproductive, except educa-
tionally. The factory training which follows this
preliminary school is equally essential in making
the finished workman.
CHAPTER VIII.
THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING THE
MANUAL ARTS.
BUT of the experiences of the past thirty
years of school instruction in the manual
arts, there have come three more or less distinct
and fundamental methods of teaching, namely,
(1) the imitative method, (2) the discovery
method, and (3) the inventive method.
Briefly stated the imitative method is as follows :
Show the pupil how to do something by doing it
in his presence. Explain to him every step in the
process which he does not already know. Tell
him why each step should be taken in a certain
way. Explain any theory involved; answer his
questions. Then tell him to do it himself. This
method is the method of demonstration; it is de-
ductive. It applies equally well to both class and
individual instruction.
In sharp contrast with the imitative is the dis-
covery method. In this the teacher shows the
pupil the completed thing he is expected to make,
but not the process of making it. He gives him
the tools but does not show him how to use them.
No demonstration lessons are given. Instead,
he asks him to tell how he proposes to use the
tools, and by what process he expects to produce
IO4 THE MANUAL ARTS
the object. The teacher stimulates him to think.
Exercising his curiosity and his resourcefulness, he
is expected to discover, or rather, to re-discover
the correct methods of using tools. The reasoning
is largely inductive. The instruction is almost ex-
clusively individual. In the imitative method the
teacher tells or shows the pupil almost everything;
in the discovery method the teacher tells or shows
him nothing. The teacher's constant effort in the
discovery method is to develop rational thinking
and this, he believes, will lead to good technic.
He assumes that there is a discoverable, rational
best way to do everything.
The inventive method is different from both the
imitative and the discovery methods in that it be-
gins, not with something planned ready to make
and materials all selected, but with a conscious
need for something to serve a known purpose and
a desire to make something to supply that need.
The procedure by this method is, first, to know
definitely the conditions to be met by the thing to
be made, second, to invent or design the thing to
fulfill the conditions, third, to select materials and
make the thing designed. From beginning to end
the mind is centered on the thing being made and
whether it will serve its purpose; the process of
producing the thing, which in both the imitative
and the discovery methods is given greatest em-
phasis, is here given secondary consideration.
The instruction is largely individual, tho the
THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 105
problem may be presented and discussed in class.
It consists in supplying ideas from which the pupil
may choose ; it stimulates original thinking by
questioning, by criticism, and by the statement and
exposition of laws and principles.
I THE IMITATIVE METHOD.
Imitation is instinctive, and the teacher who
does not utilize this natural force fails to avail
himself of one of his strongest allies. Writers on
psychology have made this clear. Professor Bag-
ley says, "It seems to be a fundamental law of
psycho-physics that an idea or a perception always
tends to work itself out in action; the child's con-
crete experience of witnessing a given process is
applied instinctively in repetition of that proc-
ess." 1 Professor Thorndike points out that one
of the chief dangers in teaching the doing of things
is neglect of imitation. He says: "Young chil-
dren rarely, if ever, learn well such things as how
to hold a pen or to cut or to sew by being told how;
they have to be shown how." " This is in accord
with the experience of every teacher of handwork;
he knows that the easiest and quickest way to get
a boy to hold and use a tool correctly is to show
him how to do it. Often it is not necessary to
speak a word; to do the thing in his presence is
The Educative Process , page 239.
2 Thorndike: The Principles of Teaching, page 221.
ic6 THE MANUAL ARTS
sufficient. Again, Professor Bagley says, "The
process of habit forming, once started by imita-
tion, goes on by what may be called the method of
trial and error. * * * All school activities
that we group under the head of manual training
(including writing, drawing, sloyd, etc.) and
moral training (cleanliness, industry, silence, etc.)
are important from this point of view. Here the
aim is to train the muscles to certain specific adjust-
ments, and the only way in which this can be done
is by imitation, trial and error, and persistent prac-
tice. The task of the teacher is to provide a good
model in the first place, and then to keep the child
constantly returning to the process, frequently
comparing the results of his work with the model,
until proficiency results." 1 If we can accept this
as fact, then the imitative method is fundamental
in all manual arts teaching.
In this connection, however, it may be noted
that imitation, being an instinct, does not need de-
velopment; it needs to be utilized or transformed
or even eliminated, for only the desirable, the
good should be imitated; the undesirable and bad
should be eliminated, and imitation should be held
in check in this direction. The child imitates what
he admires, and so the teacher's opportunity lies
in the direction of helping the child to admire
skill and good proportions and fine finish and
graceful curves and all the other good qualities
that are essential to fine craftsmanship.
Bagley: The Educative Process, page ^43.
THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 107
II THE DISCOVERY METHOD.
The discovery method is often spoken of as
the heuristic method. This word "heuristic" comes
from a Greek word which means to "find out."
According to Professor De Garmo this method
involves (a) the discovery of the essential facts
of a lesson and (b) the cause of a phenomenon or
the law governing it. In this method the teacher
surrounds the child with apparatus and atmos-
phere favorable to certain discoveries and expects
him to make the discovery. In its application to
the teaching of the manual arts this method has
found its most ardent advocate in Charles Bird,
Supervisor of Manual Training in Leicester, Eng-
land. With him it is largely a reaction against the
machine-like method of extreme imitative teach-
ing which leads to automatic action but fails to
develop the thought power. In discussing his
method Mr. Bird says :
"It will hardly be denied that the normal child
possesses in a marked degree such characteristics
as curiosity, inquisitiveness, a love of prying into
things, of questioning and doubting, which are
frequently amusing and sometimes embarrassing.
Of his originality, adaptability, resourcefulness,
and independence there can be no possible doubt.
It is these characteristics, so pre-eminent in their
importance as assets in after life, which a reason-
able system of educational handwork can stimu-
io8 THE MANUAL ARTS
late and strengthen. It is greatly to be feared
these characteristics have not been strengthened
but rather weakened by the educational method of
the past.
"For this purpose the children must be allowed
to depend upon their own thought and judgment
in doing things. If the work given be interesting
in character, and not too difficult for mind and
hand to fashion, surely the children may be al-
lowed to exercise their whole powers upon it with-
out let or hindrance; the cause is discoverable, and
it is the business of the teacher to see that the
children discover it. Let the children see, think,
and do ; later may possibly be time for explanation,
surely not before. * * *
"There is a discoverable reason why one
method is better than another, if it be better; one
tool more adapted to the purpose in hand than
another, etc. If we wish the children to develop
a reasonable judgment in all things, as we surely
do, we must on no account discover for them
what they can discover for themselves. And
what can they not discover?
"Uniformity of method in other words, the
teacher's method is not even desirable. What
is wanted is that each child find its own method.
If the children reveal themselves, the teacher can
act from sure knowledge of strengths and weak-
nesses, of needs and necessities. Otherwise, if the
teacher supplies the method, the children are
THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING MANUAL ARTS 109
robbed of their natural inquisitiveness and curi-
osity, and may become mere storehouses of dead
information. A little patience and a cheerful man-
ner are all that are required to bring out the innate
courage and capacity of the children, and cause
them to attack their work with an intelligence, a
vim, and a vigor delightful to observe."
In seeking to avoid the weaknesses of the imi-
tative method the discovery method almost
ignores a fundamental principle of habit forma-
tion, which is intended to avoid the formation of
bad habits that must later be inhibited if good
habits are to control. The study of a class at
work under this system is sufficient to convince one
that it emphasizes individual differences in chil-
dren unduly. The pupils who come to the class
prepared to think logically go ahead rapidly, while
those who have not that preparation and need the
more fundamental imitative basis for their work
go very slowly. As a matter of fact, such pupils
do imitate instead of think out the process. They
have to ; they have no power to do otherwise. If
they are not allowed to imitate the correct method
of the teacher they will imitate the incorrect
method of the nearest fellow student, or if oppor-
tunity presents itself, of the student whom they
know to be one of the best workmen in the class.
The imitation will take place whether the teacher
wants it to or not. In this respect the discovery
theory cannot be strictly carried out in practice
no THE MANUAL ARTS
unless pupils are isolated. Moreover, it has a
tendency to discourage the pupil who has not de-
veloped sufficient reasoning power. With all such
students it is uneconomical of time and effort both
on the part of the pupil and the teacher. On the
other hand it does have certain advantages, which
have been pointed out by Mr. Bird.
III. THE INVENTIVE METHOD.
From the standpoint of ultimate results the in-
ventive method stands higher than the imitative
because an inventor is regarded as more Valuable
to society than a mere imitator. On the other
hand, society has need for many more routine
skilled workers than inventors. In our present in-
dustrial organization most men must follow in-
structions; they must read a blueprint and produce
work to given dimensions; they must do as they
are told. Otherwise their product does not fit
into the general scheme of production. Each
workman's piece must take just the place intended
in the mechanism or his labor is of no value. Co-
operation, then, in industrial work, which is the
fundamental method of the factory system, must
be secured, and this means that hundreds of
thousands of workers must carry out the plan of
one man who is the inventor or designer.
Thousands of parts even millions must be
THREE TYPICAL METHODS OF TEACHING MANUAL ARTS in
made from one design. The power to read a blue-
print is needed by a thousand workers, where the
power to design a piece of mechanism is needed
by only one. The public school must not omit the
fundamental preparation for the man who must
take industrial orders, and obey. On the other
hand to stop with training to obey orders is to fall
short of training for American citizenship. While
the worker must have the ability to follow direc-
tions he must also, within his personal limitations,
have the power of initiative. He should have
power to think and the skill to do things outside
of the limitations of a routine job even a job re-
quiring skill.
The inventive method places the worker in a re-
lation to his work that is entirely different from
that in the imitative method. It places him in the
position of a master, of a person with authority
and power to control. If a student is working
from a blueprint or other working drawing given
him by the teacher, he is expected to follow the
drawing exactly in material and form and dimen-
sions. On the contrary, if he has designed or in-
vented the piece he is making, he is the guiding
force in the work; he can change material or form
or dimension. His own ideas are to be carried
out, not those of some other man, except, of
course, as he takes advice from the teacher. In
this method, then, the teacher is more an inspirer,
a counselor, than a boss who makes demands.
112 THE MANUAL ARTS
SUMMARY.
Comparing the three methods, the imitative is
the most elementary. It prepares for industry; it
is economical. The discovery method is good in
certain places, or in modified form, to follow the
imitative. Alone, or as a beginning method, it is
industrially weak. With the imitative as a founda-
tion it is good; it helps to make foremen and
superintendents. The inventive method, also, is
valuable after the imitative. It may produce in-
ventors, designers, architects. It is sure to pro-
duce initiators instead of followers and mere
obedient servants. Its chief weakness is that it
may and often does ignore standards of construc-
tion and of technic. If the schools are to produce
American citizens with (a) skill, (b) initiative
and (c) power to think for themselves those
who can follow directions efficiently or can invent
a better way, all three of these methods must be
employed in teaching the manual arts in the
schools.
QUESTIONS
CHAPTER I
These questions, based on the text of this book, are in-
tended for the use of students, members of reading circles and
individual readers. Teachers, also, will find them con-
venient.
I. In Colonial times was the motive for teaching the three
R's a cultural one or a vocational one?
a. What led to the establishment of schools of science and
engineering?
3. What is demanding a more widespread industrial
intelligence today?
4. What manual arts should be taught in the schools?
5. What is the chief function of that section of the manual
arts which is called the graphic arts?
6. Indicate the social significance of each of the following
groups of constructive arts: (a) mechanic arts; (b)
plastic arts; (c) textile arts; (d) book-making arts.
7. Show how the teaching of the manual arts in the schools
is in harmony with the fundamental aim of education.
CHAPTER II
8. Compare the educational duality of function in the
natural sciences and the manual arts.
9. To what great end in education may instruction in the
manual arts effectively contribute?
IO. In what special way do the manual arts contribute to the
educative process, and why is this important?
ii4 THE MANUAL ARTS
n. What school of educational thought has emphasized the
value of handwork as a method in teaching? What
school the value of handwork as a subject?
12. Why should present-day work in the manual arts be
regarded as both subject and method?
13. What should be the leading characteristics of the manual
arts in (a) the primary grades, (b) the grammar
grades, (c) the high school?
CHAPTER III
14. What is the differencf between knowing a product of
art and craftsmanship and knowing about it? Which
is the proper basis for appreciation? Give illustra-
tions.
15. What three elements are involved in the development of
real appreciation of products of art and craftsman-
ship?
16. If the development of appreciation is one of the aims of
teaching the manual arts in public schools, what do
the above-mentioned three elements suggest con-
cerning manual arts instruction and methods of
teaching?
CHAPTER IV
17. To what extent is a nation, a state, or a city justified in
spending money for public education?
1 8. What evidences are there that Americans do not yet
properly estimate the economic value of education?
19. Show how that increasing vocational training need not
decrease cultural training.
ao. Give a specific example of a nation accomplishing a
great economic purpose thru vocational training.
QUESTIONS 115
CHAPTER V
21. What is the chief difference between a good manual
training course in a given craft or trade machinist's,
for example and a vocational training course in the
same craft or trade?
22. Name three fundamental considerations in selecting
subject-matter for courses in manual arts, whether for
vocational or general educational ends.
23. In what two major groups of occupations are found the
majority of the male population of the United States
of America?
24. What is meant by group analysis of an occupation,
craft or trade?
25. What evidence may be gained from the development of
the modern corporation school concerning the best
way to organize instruction for purposes of vocational
training?
CHAPTER VI
26. What serious fundamental difficulties in teaching shop-
work called forth the group method of arranging the
subject-matter of a course of ins ruction? Give
specific examples of some of these difficulties
27. What are the essentials of the group method?
28. How does the group method solve many problems arising
because of the individual differences among pupils?
CHAPTER VII
29. What is the essential difference between a successful
productive factory school and a commercial factory?
30. Why are some large commercial factories teaching their
apprentices in non-productive shops?
n6 THE MANUAL ARTS
31. Give briefly the essential facts concerning the productive
factory woodworking shop at Bradley Institute: (i)
equipment, (2) cost system, (3) results in manufac-
tured products, (4) organization of subject-matter,
(5) conclusions.
CHAPTER VIII
32. What three fundamental methods of teaching the manual
arts have developed during the past thirty years?
Describe each.
33. Why is the use of the imitative method alone unde-
sirable? Why the discovery alone? Why the in-
ventive alone?
34. Why should all three methods be employed in teaching
the manual arts in public schools?
35. Discuss each of these three methods briefly with refer-
ence to (a) teaching technic, (b) habit formation, (c)
developing power to think, (d) individual differences
in pupils, (e) power of the pupil to do things that he
has not been directly taught to do, (f) economy in
learning.
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