people have done work like that which he is doing. Interest in his own building, weaving, and cooking will give him interest in the building, weaving, and cooking done by peoples of all times. If, while weaving a rug, he reads the story of man's struggle for clothing from the beginning, he learns to see in that struggle a great part of the history of man. He is able to interpret that history, because in his own person, thru the work of his own hands, he has partaken of the experience of the race. Struggle with the world's work, however elementary, puts a human being into intelligent relationship with all the workers of the world, past and present, giving him insight into history and sociology, which, reinforced by observation and study, is scholarship of social value. Contact with materials of all kinds, study of qualities, interest in work and workers, build up in the child's mind great images of the earth and its products. Tracing the course of silk from China or Italy, woods from the tropics, metals from Siberia or the Rockies, dyes from the Mediterranean or the depths of the coal bed, the child learns to picture the earth as the rich source of materials, the background of man's life, the scene of his activities. Geography becomes the science which explains to him much of man's history, his work and civilization. So the subject-matters of the sciences, history, sociology, and geography correlate with all forms of social occupation, and on such a basis should they have their place in the curriculum. To recapitulate, the new ideal of education demands the reconstruction of the course of study. It makes social occupations the center of correlation. About these occupations it groups all sciences, mathematics, geography, history, literature, and language as helps to the child's better understanding of his work and its relation to life. Handwork, which is a large part of these occupations, must fill four conditions (1) Everything made in the school shall have distinct social value. (2) The child, in making any object, must appreciate the social need which that object is to fill, thus rendering willing and intelligent service. (3) The handwork must be so varied as to call into activity all the faculties of the children. (4) It must be correlated with such studies in the sciences, history, geography, and mathematics as will give the children increasing knowledge of the work they are doing, and a growing insight into its scientific and social significance. Teachers of handwork, in conjunction with grade teachers, can do most to bring about this reconstruction by establishing the different forms of handwork as social occupations, and bringing all other subjects into relation with them. The most radical change involved in the re-forming of the course of study will be the correlation of he sciences, mathematics, history, sociology, literature, and the languages with the school occupations. To accomplish this, expert knowledge in different branches of subject-matter must be called into consultation. When, with its aid, the school shall be a center of productive social activities leading outward to all sources of knowledge, we shall have an education worthy of our ideal. life our children will be happy co-operators in the work of the world, Its occupations will unite them in the brotherhood of community interest, take them closer to all workers and builders past and present, and direct them toward nature as the source of all knowledge and good. When, thru the co-ordinated working of mind and body, the children of men have learned to help each other in making the earth a garden; in building cities which shall be the beautiful dwelling-places of men; when they have become generous and skilled in fitly clothing all of the children of the race, the world will have a great new art. One product of that art will be the beauty added to the external world of man's building; the other will be the greater beauty wrought in the quality of human spirit - the end of all construction. ARTISTIC HANDICRAFT IN PRIMARY AND INTER- MISS HELEN M. MAXWELL, PRINCIPAL OF THE CORCORAN SCHOOL, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. For many years "construction work" has been written in our course of study. All of us have believed in the necessity of hand-training and its relation to the mental development of children. Living up to their best light, our primary grades have been trying to solve this problem, and have attempted many constructive exercises that proved themselves almost useless and without the first element of beauty. Paper chairs that will not rock and paper wheels that will not turn are a rather discouraging and unsatisfactory product. Last summer a part of the Minneapolis principals and teachers spent a week at the Chicago Institute and at the summer school at Chautauqua, refreshing their minds with study and seeking sources of knowledge wherewith to enrich their future work. At an early day attention was called to weaving and basketry, as taken up in connection with the study of primitive people, and as a phase of manual training for young children. To those of us who had known of the fruitless plans and gropings after something better in the industrial line came the thought that here was the foundation for occupations that would train both hand and brain, and would result in a product of some practical use, and even of artistic worth. It is needless to say that that line of work was pursued with a vigor and interest characteristic of our teachers, roused by the needs of our pupils and inspired by the possibilities in store. Returning in September, the arts we had acquired were shared with fellow teachers, who were quick to see their value, and lessons were planned and given to large classes and to individuals as opportunity offered. The spirit of industry rapidly spread, until before the close of the first term nearly every building in the city was engaged to some extent in the work, tho to a large degree in an experimental way. The question of materials was rather a formidable one at the beginning. The sympathy of our superintendent and supervisors was evinced in a very practical way by the readiness with which they joined the principals in contributing a sufficient sum to purchase enough material for a large beginning. Small hand-looms of pasteboard were used, and many a little rug of pleasing colors and simple design was woven. These were afterward replaced by larger wooden frames, similar to slate frames, and made by older pupils. Ravelings of carpets, yarns, and Germantown wools, large and soft, were used, being supplied mostly by the children, with generous contributions from other sources. Our school board has shown its appreciation of the value of this work by voting a liberal sum for its continuance the coming year. Class exercises in rattan weaving and a combination of rattan and raffia were given in a variety of stitches evolved from the inner consciousness of some of our more resourceful teachers. This is largely individual work. mates. Children were taught in groups, who in turn showed their class- of the year. Raffia, which is a product of the Madagascar palm, is rich in possibilities. Hats for dolls and people, mats, boxes, and shopping bags of real service, which easily claim a commercial value, are made and can be disposed of in the Twin Cities, as well as any other well-made article. But the work has not been introduced as a source of revenue, but as a means of education. Nor are we dependent upon materials of commerce. Willows from the roadside are made to lend themselves to the making of serviceable baskets, and even the reeds and grasses have a use. Pretty effects have been produced by coloring both raffia and rattan with diamond dyes. Few tools are required. A knife, a pair of scissors, and a worsted needle are all that is necessary. One lesson a week has been given in handicraft above the first grade. In that grade it has been used largely as "busy work" for the leisure moments that always come. As far as has been practical, the co-operation of older pupils has been enlisted, they doing those portions which require more muscle, while the smaller fingers carry the work to completion. A feeling of unity and a spirit of interest and helpfulness thruout the building have shown themselves in a very marked degree by this plan. An effort, never lost sight of, has been made to place before the children high ideals as to excellence of results in strength, durability, quality of workmanship, and artistic worth. To this end, class and individual discussions always form a part of every exercise of this kind. What shall we do in this emergency ? You think out for yourself a plan for producing this or that effect. Always, what do you think is the best way to do this? As a result, we feel a just amount of satisfaction, for a beginning, in the exhibit found in our state building at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and in that placed before you today. The revival of handicraft is in no sense local. It is entering all circles, and attracting the attention of educators all over the country as a means of hand and brain development, and as holding a relation to the other work of the school. A recognition of the need is growing every day. To meet this need we know as yet of no more satisfactory means than that which you see before you. I know of no portion of the school work in which the life and individuality of the child are embodied so much as here. It means so much to him in the quick eye, the deft hand, ability to adapt, and in the cultivation of those qualities of patience and perseverance that count so largely in character-building and that go to make up strong manhood and womanhood. DISCUSSION CHARLES H. KEYES, Hartford, Conn.- We are going to give up a great deal of the so-called busy work. There must be more purpose back of our manual training. We have worked too much with blocks. We are getting nearer the crafts and the trades schools. The work must become dominated more and more by art, and the work must become constructive art instead of simply manual training. Clay is the best material for use in awakening the artistic interest in the child. Clay, drawing, reed, and raffia are but different mediums to carry out the constructive art ideals. Manual training must learn more from art. COLONEL FRANCIS W. PARKER, Chicago, Ill.-The art and manual-training work should be united, but we should not stop there. With these we must unite geography, history, and science. Clay is the greatest medium for developing the constructive art instinct, but the work must not be thrown back into the clay box when made. A kiln should be on hand in order to complete the work. C. R. RICHARDS, Teachers College, New York city. I wish to emphasize this union between art and manual training, but art needs as much help from the manual training as the manual training does from the art. Art will never be able to meet its true results until it is the expression of art in useful articles. LANGDON S. THOMPSON, Jersey City, N. J.-I do not think the departments of art and manual training should unite. They should continue their work side by side. PRESIDENT J. L. SNYDER of the Michigan Agricultural College.- We want something more than skill in education. We want culture back of it. I would give all the manual training possible, adapted to the conditions and necessities of the life in the community in which we are situated, but would do nothing that would interfere with the freest mental development, and with the freest right to choose the occupation in life that the student may wish to follow afterward. I believe it is possible to give a technical training and at the same time give a general cultural training with it. And if that can be done, well and good; but if either must be sacrificed, let it be the technical training. THE RELATION OF MANUAL TRAINING TO TECHNICAL EDUCATION VIRGIL G. CURTIS, SUPERINTENDENT OF TOLEDO POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL, Toledo, o. If we were entirely done with urging the claims of manual training to a dignified place in the educational system; if we had carried conviction to the minds of all the doubters, and made it an established and accepted proposition that the full co-operation of hand and mind is. absolutely essential to the realization of a harmonious development of the human powers, then might we address ourselves to the pleasing task of carrying out the logical continuity of the new education and pushing it forward toward the achievement of that skill in useful arts which constitutes the highest stage of civilization. But while all progressive educators, all wise philosophers, and all far-seeing statesmen agree that hand-training is not only a fundamental element in education, but that it bears promise of being one of the most potent factors in the solution of the great economic and social problems of the day, still it must be admitted that the general public has not yet grasped the idea in its full significance. Too many of our administrators of educational affairs still look upon manual training in the school as an innovation, if not a fad, and entertain grave doubts as to the expediency of expending public money for the equipment of shops for teaching boys carpentry, and kitchens for instruction in household science and cookery. Thus has the tremendous obstructive power of tradition stood in the way of progress in education. The speculative philosophy of the Middle. Ages has so long held sway over our institutions of learning that it is extremely difficult to break away from its baleful influences. That blind reverence for the dead past, that self-satisfied content with methods of antiquity, has compelled a slavish adherence to text-books, a study of abstractions rather than things. So the schools have gone on in the old grooves, teaching history, mathematics, languages, literature, and the sciences in the traditional way, to the utter exclusion of those arts and handicrafts that touch human life at so many points. The people of the United States are enterprising enough in material ways. They have conquered the virgin soil of the vast continent, bridged the streams, tunneled the mountains, felled the forests, and in the place of the ancient wilderness set up a thousand populous marts, and made the waste places blossom like the rose; but in matters educational they are slow and conservative. We remember how difficult it was to sciences and the classics in our colleges. establish the equality of the It is now thirty-one years |