I|'( III IM I'Hi'l'i I I'm I'V'i' .'M h. I igmk I I ii'ii!Iiiiit' ii I' I n I I I I I , i,ii' lil'. W % I !l '! . Strata, S^etD $ntb BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND THE BEQUE5TOF WILLARD FISKE LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868-1883 1905 arW38944 °'""' ""'™''"i' "-""^fy ^lli?iii™rmfl5rm.,,'3II??"'"J9! °' manual arts o.in.an^ ^^24 032 129 433 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032129433 THE EDUCATIONAL MEANING OF MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES BY ROBERT KEABLE ROW FELLOW IN EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 1901—1903. AUTHOR OF "practical LANGUAGE TRAINING"; JOINT AUTHOR OF "ESSENTIAL STUDIES IN ENGLISH" AND OF THE "NATURAL SYSTEM OF WRITING" CHICAGO ROW, PETERSON AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY ROBERT KEABLE ROW TO PROFESSOR JOHN DEWEY. WHO INSPIRED THE WORK PREFACE The most vitally important and far-reaching educa- tional movement of our time is that which aims to intro- duce all along the line, from the lowest primary school to the senior college class, appropriate work in various kinds of manual arts and industries, including manual training, household arts, domestic science, agriculture and the like. And yet, when one wishes to know the reasons for the movement he looks in vain for an organ- ized treatment of the subject. In a hundred books and magazines one may find much that is valuable on this or that phase of the subject, but nowhere an attempt to relate these different aspects in a unified view. These conditions account for this book. It would be presumptuous to assume that this brief treatment exhausts the subject, or that on any phase of the question the last word has been said. The book is put forth in the hope that it contributes something to a clearer, understanding and a more judicious promotion of a great movement. It aims to help those who, like myself, are working on the problem. For much of the general point of view presented throughout I am indebted to my former instructors in the University of Chicago, especially to Professor John Dewey and Mrs. Ella Flagg Young. For guidance, encouragement, and direct personal help in the experi- mental studies my thanks are due to Professor James Rowland Angell, and for valuable criticisms and sug- gestions made upon the page proofs grateful acknowl- edgment is made to Dr. W. W. Charters, University of Missouri; Dr. John T. McManus, Chicago Normal School, and Professor George H. Tapy, Wabash College. Chicago, December, 1909. R. K. Row. OUTLINE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Problem of the Book 9 Conception of the Educative Process — The Most Important Educational Institution — The True Function of the School — Aim and Motive in Education — The Congested Curriculum — Subjects Seeking More Recognition — The Aim of This The- CHAPTER II The Development of the Educational Conception of Man- ual Occupations 21 Egyptian Civilization — Hebrew Education — Luther — Comenius — Rousseau — Pestalozzi — Froebel — Russian System — Swedish Sloyci — French System — Introduction into the United States — Conception of Work — Narrow Views. CHAPTER III Fundamental Impulses and Interests the Basis of Manual Occupations as Means of Education 40 Difficulty of Subject — Point of View — Common Errors — Important Factors — Impulses to Sensation — Motor Impulse — ^Im- pulse to Play — Social Iihpulse — Impulse to Imitate — Impulse to Construct — Impulse to Experiment — Artistic Impulse^Owner- ship Impulse — Unity of Impulses — Treatment of Impulses. CHAPTER IV Sense Training — Relative Value of Direct and Indirect Methods • 55 Importance of Sense Training — ^Substitutes for Object Les- sons — ^The First Problem — An Important Distinction — Relative Values— Summary — Sense Training through Manual Industries. OUTLINE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER V The Development of Motor Control 71 Relation of Sensori-Motor to Reflective Activity — Two Errors — Improvement — Influence of Child Study— Immediate Problem — Experiments in Sawing — A New Problem — The Dyna- mometric 'Saw. CHAPTER VI Development of Motor Control (Continued) 94 Another Problem — -Minor Problems — Test of Tension — In- ferences from Experiments — ^Attention — Physical Vigor — Strenu- ous Effort — ^Value of Regularity — Development of Large Nerves the Muscles First — Value of Broad-pointed Instrument — How Tension is Relaxed — Interest — General Summary. CHAPTER VII Physical and Physiological Results 117 Education of the Nervous System — Anatomy — Chief Divi- sions — Development during Childhood — Recapitulation — ^A Two- fold Problem — Probable Limits of Growth — Conclusion. CHAPTER VIII Intellectual Values 130 Three Kinds of Motor Activity — Voluntary Control — Sense- Training — Right Attitudes — Training Attention — Constructive Imagination — Practical Judgment — Reasoning — Motor Training for Defectives — Cautions. CHAPTER IX Aesthetic Values 139 Meaning of Aesthetic Activity — Further Description — Early Evidences of Art Impulse — Origin of Art — Examples of Art Evolution — Application — A Question of Method — Personal Mo- tives — Taste in Color — The General Aim — Scope of Application. OUTLINE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER X Ethical Values 149 Specific Problem — ^Workmanship Impulse — Children Live in the Present — Domestic Conditions — Favorable Conditions — ^A Sense of Responsibility — ^^Sense of Efficiency — Integrity — Will Training. CHAPTER XI Economic and Industrial Values 159 Isolation of the School — Examples — A Problem — Elementary Agricultural Schools — Results — More Advanced Work — Special Courses for Girls — Results — The Problem of the City Boy — Results — ^Another Problem — Possible Solution. CHAPTER XII Social Values 167 Class Distinctions General — Labor vs. Capital — ^A Common Misconception — Evolution in Occupations — Advantages to Labor- ing Classes — Results in Modes of Living — Social Results in Rural Life. CHAPTER XIII Habit and Attention in Relation to Manual Arts and Industries in Education 175 Fundamental Conceptions — 'Education — Habit and Attention — Balance between — Value of Practice — A Possible Danger — Example — Condition of Growth — Application. CHAPTER XIV To Whom Training in Manual Arts and Industries is Most Important 183 Importance to Young Children — Precaution — A Question of Aim — Application — TJie Consolidated School — Special Value to City Child — Importance to Lower Races — To Subnormal Child. OUTLINE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER XV General Method 192 Motive — Principles Relating to Motive — ^Exercises vs. Per- sonal Projects — Models — Plans — Supervision — Cooperation — Re- wards and Incentives. CHAPTER XVI Summarizing the Tentative Answer to the Problem 203 Historical Perspective — Fundamental Meaning — Sense Train- ing — Development of Motor Control — Physical and Physio- logical Results — Intellectual Results — Aesthetic Results — Ethical Values — Social Values — Conclusion. CHAPTER XVII Suggestions for Courses of Study 216 Manual Training in Elementary Schools — Domestic Science in Elementary Schools — The School Garden or Farm — Course for County School of Agriculture and Domestic Econ- omy — High School Course in Domestic Arts and Economics. CHAPTER I The Problem of the Book "The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfills Himself in many ways, Lest one good custom siiould corrupt the world." Before entering upon the investigation of a problem it is only fair that the writer first make clear to the reader what the problem is, and then indicate the general line of the proposed attempt to find a solution. ' , Conception of the Educative Process. — Notwith- standing all that has-been spoken and written regarding education, it seems probable that the great majority of persons fail utterly to comprehend the meaning of the educative process. The most common misapprehension is the confusion of schooling, scholarship, an acquaint- ance with books, with education. Of one person it is said, "His parents gave him an excellent education, but he has never amounted to anything. He has failed in everything he has undertaken." Another man who has proved himself unusually efficient in a calling requiring ability, sound judgment, and skill, is spoken of as "uned- ucated." The fact is, the first man was not educated ; he was merely schooled. Possibly nature gave him little that could be educated, or the years spent over books may have unfitted him for the kind of work he might have done with success, if his schooling had been along 9 10 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES different lines. The second man was merely "unschooled," unscholarly. But he must have had experiences, pro- cesses of training, that developed his power to do the things in which he had succeeded. Ultimately this must be the test of education, the judgment to determine what is worth doing, and the ability to do that thing well. There is another aspect of this misapprehension that deserves a moment's attention. To say a man was edu- cated at Harvard, at Oxford, or at Leipsic is almost as misleading as the uses of "educated" and "uneducated" referred to above. The years spent at college may have been very important factors in the development of power and character; but other experiences quite apart from any kind of schooling, as those of the home, for instance, may have been vastly more important. In like manner, to speak of one as having "finished his education" is utter nonsense, unless he has died or become an imbecile. Accordingly a "finishing school," if true to its name, must be a horrible place. Enough has been said to suggest our general con- ception of education as a whole life process, beginning at birth and ending at physical death, or with the failure of conscious powers. It is not only a whole life process as to time, but it involves the total experience of the organism during the lifetime — every thought, every feeling, every activity of nerve or muscle. Those who understand even the elements of educational psychology THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK 11 know how every experience, that is, every thought, feel- ing, or act, leaves its impress upon the organism. After an activity of any kind the individual is not the same as before. This process of change is going on contin- uously during life, and this is the "educative process." Willy nilly we are being educated every moment, in some way, to some extent. This does not imply that the process is uniform in rate or in significance throughout life. During the period of physical growth the organism is most plastic, most impressionable, and the process goes on most rapidly. Childhood, from birth until early adolescence, is a period of distinctly sensory and motor development ; during the adolescent period there should be a marked transition to reflective activities. There is no distinction in import- ance ; each is important in its own peculiar time. Hence, to force the young child into studies requiring much reflection is to rob him of the opportunity for sensori- motor development, and stunt his growth in reflective power, while to over-emphasize the sensori-motor train- ing during the adolescent period is to set the interests and habits in those forms of activity. In either case there is hopeless retardation in the normal educative process. The Most Important Educational Institution. — If we accept the view that education is a whole life process, our next question is, What starts the process and keeps it going? To some extent it may be said to have its 12 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES initial impetus in the racial instincts with which the child is born, but to this there is immediately added the efforts of the child to adjust itself to its environment. In other words, the educative process is carried on by the activity of the individual impelled by some feeling of need, a desire to get control of something valued. In play it is the need of the pleasure tone of the activity itself; in other voluntary effort it is to attain something that seems of value to the individual. In the organization of society the life activities of the vast majority of the people have centered in and about the home. The children grew up in the home, shared in its activities and responsibilities, learned the arts that pertained to providing for and making a home. After an appren^ ticeship, varying in length and success, the young people selected partners and started in the business of home- making for themselves. Thus the home was the first educational institution, and let us hope that it may long continue to be the most important means of education. It is exceedingly u^ifortunate that educators commonly talk and write as though the school were the one means of education. Parents often go a step farther, they act as though the school should assume all responsibility for the development of the child, physical, intellectual, and moral. The True Function of the School. — The school is an annex to the home; the teacher an assistant to the THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK 13 parents. The phrase, in loco parentis, often used in school legislation, in defining the duties and responsibili- ties of the teacher, implies the real function of the teacher and of the school. The necessity for schools has been brought about by the natural evolution of society. As the family life became extended more and more into community life, needs became more diversified and duties more complex. Parents gradually found themselves unable to meet personally all the demands for the in- struction and training of their children. At first the teacher was brought into the home, or the sons (to whom it was thought special education was more important than to the daughters), were sent to boarding school. Later, several families, who could not well afford to adopt either of the above plans, combined in employing a teacher and in providing a schoolroom. Out of this cooperative school grew our free public school. His- torically, therefore, the function of the school is to pro- vide for carrying on certain kinds of training that were originally part of the ideal home life, and to extend this training in such ways as the developing community life seemed to rnake necessary or desirable. The public school is now an organ of society, but with its roots ' in the home and family life. Society's ideal of education may be higher than that ot the average home in the community, but it cannot be higher than that of the best homes. 14 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES Possibly the ideal kindergarten furnishes the best example of the true function of the school. In a home where the mother has been well prepared for the duties of motherhood; has time to devote to her children; to direct, to some extent, their play ; to tell and read appro- priate stories; to teach simple songs and melo.dies; to furnish suitable occupation in modeling, drawing, paint- ing, making; to explain some of the simple facts and processes that come under observation; for children in such a home the kindergarten is unnecessary. However, there are countless thousands of children not blessed with such a home. For the children of the untrained mother who does not know how to do the things enumera- ted above, for those of the overworked mother who has not time to do them, and for those of the over-leisured mother who does not realize her highest, most sacred duties and privileges, the kindergarten is an inestimable boon in that it does provide in a regular, well organized way, many of those experiences. The real test of the value of the kindergarten is the extent to which it carries on appropriately many of those activities, experiences, that should come abundantly to the life of the child in good home and community surroundings. Aim and Motive in Education. — By an aim we un- derstand that which one desires to do ; by a motive, the reason for wishing to do it. All voluntary activity is inspired by a motive and guided by an aim. Society's THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK 15 aim in establishing and maintaining schools is to prepare its immature members for the duties and responsibihties of those who will soon pass oflf the stage. The motive is to conserve and develop the interests of the community life. The teacher is expected to understand both the aim and the motive of society, but the child knows very i little of either. His voluntary activities arise from motives and are directed by aims of his own. In many ways the child can, to some extent, project himself into the future, can see what he must be able to do in order to take his part in the life of the home and of the com- munity, but in many others he is. 'quite unable to do so. If the school continually imposes work for which the ' child has no personal motive, he becomes indifferent, in- attentive, idle, lazy, irresponsible. But, if the work is of a kind that appeals to his own motives he is interested, attentive, persistent, careful; he derives satisfaction and develops a right attitude, not only toward subsequent school work, but all work that seems worth while. As a people we are justly proud of our schools. In many ways they are excellent. But, when we congratu- late ourselves into self-satisfied complaisance, close our eyes to obvious defects, or neglect to search out weak- ness, we are disloyal to one of our most cherished insti- tutions. Why do so many children voluntarily leave school, if permitted, before they are fourteen years of age? Why do so many of those who remain grow in- 16 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES different and have to be spurred on in one way and another? Why are so many willing to go to "work," even though they share but little in their earning? Is • it because so much "school work" does not seem worth doing? While our children cry for bread, something of value in life, are we giving them stones, things that seem of no value? Why do they turn away from the things we offer? Or, if they gather them up to display them during the recitation, they soon drop them by the wayside, because nature has provided no means by which the child long retains the information he does not use. The Congested Curriculum. — Educators are pretty well agreed that courses of study are overcrowded, that pupils are required to do too mafiy things, and hence the results, in both knowledge and training, lack thorough- ness. They are not agreed upon what can be eliminated. Let us consider some lines of work in the elementary school course to see whether the things we are doing appeal to real motives in the children. First, what shall we say of geography? When a student in high school the writer was invited to. take an optional course in geography especially designed for teachers. Lesson number one was limited to the "rivers of Australia." The rest of the course was not taken, and in a few days even the names of the rivers were forgotten because he had no use for them. In years of educational work and of business he has had no use for THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK 17 the facts of that lesson. To many, that will seem an extreme case, but if they will face the problem frankly they cannot fail to see that every day, in the. best schools in this country, young children are being required to learn lessons that to them are as useless as the "rivers of Australia." Moreover, the course for children is not optional. The evil is further aggravated by the fact that, even in reputable schools, teachers require the pupils to learn the daily assignment in the "words of the book." Second, let us take history. A good home or school environment will prompt most children to want to get some perspective of world history, and a little closer view of the growth of our own nation. In general the interest below the high school will center about a few heroes or other attractive personalities. But what is the common practice? With little or no background of earlier history, children twelve or thirteen years of age are taken through a text-book of United States history containing ten times as many details as they are expected to remember. Then both girls and boys spend a half year studying about "civil government," for which, gen- erally speaking, they have as much feeling of need as a Hottentot has for Hegel. Again, most elementary schools teach arithmetic every day for eight years. Children in the first grade are "drilled" daily on number facts, most of which they 18 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES would learn out of school, or would learn with a fraction of the effort a little later. Problems are given in which the children .have no direct interest. Often the problems are unintelligible to the children because they have had no experience through which to interpret them. The history of the work of many children in formal arith- metic, who for some reason have come to this subject late, shows the absurdity of the usual plan. These chil- dren often get control of arithmetic in half the time usually devoted to that subject. It is the opinion of many eminent authorities that fully half the time usually spent on arithmetic is worse than wasted. Then there is the old bugbear, teichnicat grammar. At one time grammar was a high school subject; the first "grammar schools" in both America and Europe were college preparatory schools. Gradually it was forced down and down in the grades until it has been common to teach grammar during four or five years in the ele- mentary school. Children are thereby befuddled and discouraged before they understand what grammar means. There is, happily, evidence of a reaction against this absurd condition. An enquiry made in 1908 showed that in eighty per cent of the practice departments in the state normal schools of this country the teaching of formal grammar is deferred until the second year below the high school. But this reaction is not widespread. It is probably safe to say that in a large majority of our THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK 19 schools formal grammar is begun at least two years, earlier than it should be. The waste of time is bad, but that is a minor evil. The development in the child of the feeling that school work is not worth while, the consequent attitude of indifference, often aversion to this subject, and more or less toward all school work, is a serious, far-reaching wrong. Subjects Seeking More Recognition. — While these and other wasteful conditions continually stare every alert, thoughtful educator in the face, other lines of work are pleading for their rightful recognition. To leaders in educational thought it has long been clear that the work of the public schools, those schools organized and maintained for all the people, should not be limited to the three R's, or to those distinctly informational studies that have generally pre-empted the whole course. Intelligent, fair-minded business men have condemned our school work as bookish and impractical. They say that our boys leave school with anywhere from seven to twelve years of special training, acquaintance with books, but with little power to do things with their hands, not- withstanding that probably nine out of ten work chiefly with their hands the rest of their lives. Others point out that in the schooling of girls about the only things that are generally neglected are domestic science and household arts, the arts of "home-making" which ought to be the chief concern of the vast majority of women. 20 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES The Aim of this Thesis. — Assuming, without attempt- ing to submit evidence in detail, that, in accordance with the preceding statement, more satisfactory work in sev- eral school studies could, by certain readjustments, be done in much less time, it is the aim of this thesis to show: First, the various educational values of training in certain forms of manual arts and industries, including manual training, cooking, sewing, mending, house furnish- ing and decoration, school gardening and agriculture. Second, in what part of the school course and to which classes of children this sort of training is relatively most important. Third, what general methods of training in these lines most fully realize their educational values. CHAPTER II The Development of the Educational Conception OF Manual Occupations The date of the birth of manual occupations as a feature of school work has not been definitely located by writers on educational history. Probably it never will be determined. Like many other civilizing forces this one appears to have been at work for generations, if not centuries, before any one recognized its potency or the direction of its tendency. Egyptian Civilization. — The civilization of any one of the ancient peoples is marvelously suggestive to us in this connection. Take for one example the first people known to have organized themselves into a settled nation, the Egyptians. Very early records, dating nearly 2,000 years before the Christian era, show them to have been a people of versatile power and skill. Their masonry has never been surpassed. They had a decimal system of numbers, and a system of well adjusted weights and measures. In mechanic arts we have evidence of the skill of the carpenter, the book-binder, the potter, the weaver, the glass-blower and others. In fine arts their statuary and painting, their ornaments of gold and silver, their musical instruments, their engraving, their inlaying, all bear witness to a high stage of development in these 21 22 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES arts and processes. How had it come about? They were without books or a Hterature except in a very narrow sense. What they knew of physical and natural sciences could not have been organized for purposes of instruction. The science of mathematics was in a most elementary stage. How had these people been educated ? There appears but one answer. They had developed their powers through their efforts to manipulate material things as a means of satisfying their felt needs and desires. Manual occupations must have involved a very large part of the active life of the people, must have been in a large measure the medium through which they found their problems and solved them, and hence must have been im- portant factors in the progress of such a people. Hebrew Education. — The civilization of the early Hebrew people was as remarkable in its spiritual con- ception as that of the Egyptians in its industrial and artistic power. Yet the Hebrews of that time had little literature and less science and mathematics. The boys only were taught to read and write, and this usually merely to the extent that they might read the Scriptures and understand their religious duties. The girls were taught to spin, weave and embroider, to prepare food for the table, to superintend the household work, and gen- erally to sing and dance. Much importance was attached to the training of the boys in manual work. The majority HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION 23 of them became farmers, but it is significant that an oft quoted Rabbinical saying of that time was : "He that teacheth not his son a handicraft maketh him an associate of thieves." For the girls the chief means of education were the social intercourse of the family and of the community and the domestic occupations just mentioned above. The boys apparently fared somewhat better, but the point is that without book learning Jewish women became com- monly the equal of their brothers and husbands, and that these limited means of education did produce a great people. Luther. — As early as the beginning of the sixteenth century, Martin Luther, the great religious reformer, strongly urged the introduction of training in manual occupations into the schools as a means of economic and moral development. About the same time Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, made similar recommendations to his people. Comenius. — So far as we know, however, it was John Amos Comenius, 1592-1671, who first apprehended and presented the true significance of manual occupations as a factor in education. He wrote : "Finally, they would learn the most important principles of what goes on in the world around them, and that any special inclination toward things of this kind may assert itself with greater ease later on. 24 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES "'The class lessons should not exceed four hours daily, of which two should be before midday, and two after. The remaining hours of the day may profitably be spent in domestic work (especially among the poor), or in some form of recreation."^ Fraricke, toward the close of the sixteenth century introduced instruction in wood working, glass cutting, and pasteboard work into his school at Halle. Locke, 1632-1704, said every boy should learn a trade or craft, and recommended gardening, husbandry, q^r- pentry, work in iron, brass, or silver. He also proposed a plan for a working school for poor children. The object of this school was to accustom the children to work, to relieve mothers of their care, and, at the same time, relieve the parish in part of the cost of supporting such children by giving it the benefit of their work. Rousseau, 1712-1778, recommended that when be- tween 12 and 15 years of age Emile should learn a trade and gave the preference to carpentry. While his plan for the education of a girl reveals a mediaeval conception, it is worthy of note that Sophie should learn to sew, embroider, and make lace, to be industrious, to dance, and to sing. Martin Planta, 1727-1772, a distinguished Swiss clergyman, who seems to have been the herald of Pestal- ozzi, established a school in which manual work was a 'Comenius. "The Great Didactic," Chapter XXIX. HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION 25 prominent feature. The children were engaged in garden- ing, wood working, pasteboard work, and like occupa- tions. More advanced pupils made their own apparatus for experimental and demonstration work in physical and mathematical studies. Kinderman, 1740-1801, an educational reformer of Bohemia, first forced the question into public discussion by protesting against the limitation of the work of the elementary schools to merely supplying information, much of which could have no direct connection with the present interests or the future needs of the children, and the utter neglect of preparation for or training in the ac- tivities in which the children must later engage. He says : "I became convinced that this was the cause of much laziness arid poverty, of unffuitf"! life, and of great' wickedness. "Working classes and reading classes must be combined. This' is the only way that industry can be made a national characteristic." ^ As a result of his work, it is said, some 200 manual , training departments were organized in connection with the primary schools of Bohemia. Pestalozzi, 1746-1827, lays much stress upon the necessity of providing a system of manual instruction. In some of his own schools the. pupils were engaged in manual occupations more than half the time. *Von der Entstehung vind Verbreitungsart der Indiistrie- Klassen in den Volksschulen des Konigsreichs Bohmens. 26 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES In 1791 Arnold Wageman of Gottingen, Germany, wrote "Uber die Bildung des Volks zur Industrie," ad- vocating the introduction of industrial work in the schools. He says: "It is wrong to begin school work with direct instruction in subjects that are purely mental, and amount to nothing more than mere memory lessons, since the child has had no experience, and it is, only experience that can give interest to the study of abstract subjects. It would be better to follow the hints of Nature, who allows the growth of the body in early childhood to supersede that of the mind. "We need only, unobserved by the children, to watch them at their occupations after school hours. We will soon see how we ought to busy thiem in the class room, in order to make their school life both agreeable and useful." Dr. I. G. Krunitz, in 1794, publis'hed his "The Country Schools Viewed as Instructional and Manual, or Indus- • trial. Schools," in which he strongly reinforced Wage- man's position. By royal command this book vyas ordered to be bought by every parish in Prussia. A. H. Niemeyer, 1754-1828, rector of the University of Halle, pointed out that the great problem of elementary education was to find an occupation suitable to each stage of development of the child. ^ ' Die Grundsatze der Erziehung und des Unterrichtes. HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION 27 J. H. G. Heusinger, 1766-1837, the forerunner of Froebel advocated the same principles and made sug- gestions regarding the choice of occupations in his "Uber die Beniitzung des bei Kindern so thatigen Triebes, beschaftigt zu sein," and in "Die Familie Wertheim." Fallenberg, 1771-1844, established an agricultural and industrial colony on his estate, Hofwyl, a few miles north of Berne, Switzerland. A feature of this colony was known as the "Poor School," having for its motto, "Pray and Work." In this school it is said the children were chiefly occupied in the fields, in shops and with house- work. Their recreation was instruction in theoretical studies. Johann Jacob Wehrli, 1790-1855, was for many years director of Fallenberg's "Poor School." Under him the school gained such a reputation that many similar schools, known as Wehrli Schools, were established in Germany. Fichte, 1762-1814, emphasized the importance of in- corporating manual training into the national schools by positing it as the true aim of education to train the young in the line of their probable future work, hence the training should combine practical labor with theoreti- cal instruction. Every one should be taught how to work that he may not be tempted to commit crime to satisfy his needs. Froebel, 1783-1852, made a distinct advance upon his predecessors, not only in introducing so much in the way 28 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES of manual occupations into his kindergarten system, but in his advocacy of the value of training in such occupa- tions throughout the school course. To him such occu- pations were more than a means of preparing for a manual trade, more than a protection from idleness, more than a training for hand and eye ; they were an essential means of self-expression. Before his time, the method of the schools generally assumed that the child mind was receptive and reproductive. It was apparently taken for granted that only "what goes in can come out." Froebel made practical application of the view that mind is "pro- ductive and creative." This practice he carried into the occupations. Children were expected to think and do, to produce things different from anything that had been shown or explained to them. Sw^itzerland. — Another very significant fact comes from Switzerland. In 1854, a Swiss statesman named Schwindler offered a prize for the best answer to the question: "Hozv shall instruction in our elementary schools he freed from its present abstract method, and be made more conducive to true mental development?" The question attracted much attention, was discussed freely in the pubHc press, and many answers by leading educators of the time were submitted. Among the most significant were, "The Working Schools of the Parishes in their true Relation to the Elementary Schools," by Dr. Conrad Michaelson, and "Education to Work, a Demand which HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION 29 Life makes of the School,'' by Karl Biederman. The former work was a plea for a combination of the working schools, that had been started here and there, with the elementary schools of the country, which were essentially book schools. Biederman's work was still more valuable. He based his plea for manual occupations in school on the nature of the child and upon the general physical, intellectual, and moral results of such training. France. — In the meantime France was not lagging behind. The spirit of the Revolution infected every phase of life. In 1793 Robespierre proposed to the National Assembly a bill for a new educational scheme, prepared by Michael de Peletier. The plan aimed to instill the duty of the habit of work, not as thorough knowledge of any specific trade, but as the development of that energy and industrious activity which .characterizes earnest, diligent persons. Peletier says: "I consider this part of education the most im- portant, and therefore my plan of general instruction contains manual labor as its vital feature. Of all the means likely to stimulate the average child, none will produce a greater desire for activity than physi- cal work. I would desire that various kinds of handicraft work might be introduced." Sweden. — In Sweden we find Torsten Rudenschold, 1798-1859, an earnest advocate of manual training as 30 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES a factor in healthful development, but especially as a precautionary preparation for the needs of adult life. The progress of the movement is more clearly seen in "The Principles for the Study of Educational Instruc- tion," by Ziller, professor of pedagogy in the University of Leipzig, and published in 1864. A notable passage is : "Theoretical and practical work should, as far as possible, bear one another out. On the one hand natural science, mathematics, history, geography and drawing should offer problems to the shop, and on the other hand, the practical. experiences gathered in the manual work should make book lessons the more easily learned." Summary. — Glancing backward we can see the grad- ual development of the recognition of manual arts and industries as an important factor in the process of edu- cation. A new conception was, during three centuries, evolving itself in the minds of religious and moral re- formers, educators, and statesmen in Germany, France, Prussia, England, and Austria. While some of these men appear to have had a quite clear and comprehensive view of the real significance of what they advocated, the gen- eral conception, and especially the more common applica- tion of it threw the emphasis upon two ideas. First, the aim was to develop a kind of manual skill or handicraft, to the poor children a means of livelihood, or of bettering their material condition in life; to the children of the HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION 31 wealthy an inalienable resource in case of loss of their wealth. Second, the purpose was to train boys and girls into habits of productive industry not only for the posi- tive moral value of such training in itself, but to avoid the corrupting and corroding influence of idleness. When we consider how long the reform had been ad- vocated, how widespread the movement had become, and how many reasonably satisfactory experiments had been made, it is not surprising that plans for carrying on the work were systematized and established in several coun- tries almost simultaneously. Finland. — In 1858, Cygnaeus, a teacher in Finland, outlined a simple course in manual training for the schools of his country, and in'1866 it was made obligatory in all elementary and manual schools. The plan was to supplement the gifts and occupations of the kindergarten, and the work included joinery, turning, and basket mak- ing, not with a view to instructing in a trade but with strict reference to the universal aim of education. Russia.— In 1868, Victor Delia Vos, Director of the Imperial Technical School of St. Petersburg, instituted a formal course in tool instruction. The Russian system had a three-fold aim: 1. To give an acquaintance with the nature and functions of the various tools used. 2. To instruct regarding the character, uses and limitations of the materials worked upon. 3. To train in planning, shaping and assembling the parts of models to be con- 32 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES structed. The system included work in both wood and iron, turning, carpentry, forging, and fitting. Sweden. — Swedish educators claim to have had some form of Sloyd since 1850, but it was not until 1870 that this system was introduced into the primary schools of the country. To encourage its introduction a royal man- date provided for the payment of a special stipend of 75 kroner ($21) yearly to each school in which. Sloyd was taught. The system is too well known to need description, but the aims set forth by its advocates are of interest, viz.: to instill a love for work, to develop habits of order, attention, self-reliance, a sense of form and a high degree of manual dexterity. Sloyd spread rapidly to Norway, Germany, Austria, Denmark and America. France. — In 1882 the French provided for a system known as "L 'enseignement du Travail Manuel," and made it compulsory in the public schools. Provision was at once made for preparing teachers to instruct boys in bench and lathe work in wood, iron work at the forge, drawing, modeling and molding. Girls were to be taught various kinds of needlework, cutting, and dressmaking. The aim of the introduction in this kind of work was apparently economic — to fit the children of the working classes for efficient and satisfactory work such as they would probably have to do, to develop a love for work through the habit of working successfully. HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION 33 The United States. — In this country, Worcester, Mass., had, in 1868, a technical school for students learning mechanical engineering. In 1870 the University of Illinois had wood working and iron working shops for students of architecture and engineering. The Stevens Institute of Hoboken, N. J., began similar work in 1871, and Washington University at St. Louis in 1872. A great impetus was given to the movement by the -work of Delia Vos's pupils exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. Within ten years manual training schools, or departments, were established in St. Louis, Baltimore, Chicago, Eau Claire (Wisconsin), Toledo, New York, Philadelphia H. S., Omaha H. S., Denver, Cleveland H. S., Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and many other places. Little more than a quarter of a century has passed since the first real manual training school was established in this country. According to the report of the Commissioner of Education, 1899-1900, there were in the United States 144 schools specially devoted to manual and industrial training, having an attendance of 41,736 pupils. Besides this, various forms of manual training other than drawing were taught in the public schools of 169 cities of over 8,000 population. Educa- tional reforms usually progress slowly, but this manual training movement has been phenomenally rapid, in some cases more rapid than rational. Conception of the Work. — ^While many of the early 34 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES advocates of the educational value of manual occupations seem to have had prophetic insight into its true signifi- cance, and the writings of some indicate a pretty clear intellectual conception of the broader and higher view, and while the idea of preparing children for trades has been continually repudiated, it is clear that the work under these systems, as they have been applied, has rarely risen above the idea of improving visual perception and developing manual skill. Note the expressed, aims of the various systems. Hofifman says: "The primary object of the Russian method was to teach the child manual work, if not directly for the purpose of fitting him for a future vocation in the arts or trades, at least in order to make him more capable, in case he should select some mechan- ical pursuit as his future work in life. "The Sloyd has for its first object to give an indirect preparation for life by teaching branches of certain trades and by imparting general dexterity to the hand. "The object of the French system is clearly ex- pressed in the words of the French Minister of Public Instruction: 'The love for work can only come through the habit of working, and, reciprocally, the habit of work can only come by implanting a love for it.' " ^ 'B. B. Hoffman, The Sloyd System of Woodworking, pp. 14, 19, 23. HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION 35 In Germany and England the movement at first met much opposition from educators because it seemed to be an attempt to yoke the trade school with the school of letters. It may seem a strange, unwarranted statement to say that in America the general conception of manual training has not been much higher or broader. Look at some of the evidence. It was first introduced in this country into purely technical and industrial institutions, and the work was generally carried on in the same way as in a good trade school. The next step was the establishment of special manual training high schools, or of special departments in high schools for those students who were repelled by the regu- lar courses. Though it has been working its way down into the common schools, it is usually limited at first to one or two of the higher grades. Of the 169 cities of over 8,000 population reported as having manual training in the public schools only 24 had extended it below the fifth grade. Later reports are more favorable. In 1906-7 there were 644 cities, of over 4,000 population, teaching manual training in the public schools, of which nearly one-half had some work below the fifth grade. But of the students taking this work only about 25 per cent are in the ele- mentary schools. 36 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES Narrow Views. — In many cases the first qualification sought in the teacher of manual training was skill in the use of tools. Frequently that was the only educational qualification required. The first manual training school the writer knew was put in charge of a carpenter, a man who for thirty years had done nothing but build houses, a man who knew practically nothing of schools, of books or of boys. The school lived less than half a year. Perhaps this was an extreme case ; it certainly was not an isolated one. Very many of those appointed to establish manual training were mechanics, perhaps good mechanics (certainly not teachers), or persons of meager education who took a course in manual training at a summer school or some other short-course institution. But the special teacher was not alone in his limited views. City superintendents, reputed wide-awake and progressive, have confined manual training to the high school, or isolated it entirely from the other school work, or publised courses in manual occupations which indi- cate clearly that the work is regarded chiefly as mechani- cal training having no organic relation with the rest of the child's life, either in or out of school. The kind of work usually done in the schools and proudly placed on exhibition, the talk of training "the eye to see and the hand to execute," of following "shop practice," of "practical education for the working classes" clearly revealed the conception that prevails. HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION o7 Discussion of the subject commonly indicated a higher point of view, but even in discussion there was abundant evidence that manual training meant little more than manual skill. Dr. W. T. Harris will be acknowledged by all as eminent authority. He says : "When we admit that the use of tools in the manufacture of articles of wood or iron is educative, we do not say much for it But is is claimed that skill in the use of tools in these trades would be valuable to all, no matter what their employment might be. This, however, is a position that cannot be maintained Manual training, if it in- cludes only wood and metal work, fits only eight per cent for their vocation, and more or less unfits for their vocation a large part of the remaining ninety-two per cent of laborers." ^ It may be said that Dr. Harris has not been much in sympathy with manual training. Then let us turn to Dr. C. M. Woodward, one of its pioneer advocates in this country. In explaining the origin and purpose of the St. Louis Manual Training School he wrote: "The youth of today are to be the men of the next generation. It is important that we keep their probable life work in view in providing for their 'The Psychology of Manual Training — ^Education in the Industrial and Fine Arts in the United States. 38 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES education As has often been said, nearly all our skilled workmen are imported, our best machin- ists, miners, weavers, watchmakers, iron workers, draughtsmen and artisans of every description, come from abroad ; and this is not because our native-bom are deficient in natural tact or ability, nor because they are in point of fact above and beyond such occupations, but because they are without suitable means and opportunities for getting proper, train- ing." ^ Again referring to the Felix Adler Workingman's School, he says : "Unlike the manual training school proper, it is a school for the youngest children. Its course of study ends at fourteen years, just when our school begins." Such evidence can be multiplied indefinitely, and while much may be offered in defense, it cannot affect the verdict that even in America the general conception of manual training has been largely limited to the idea of preparing for manual trades. That it does this, and that this is an important result, is true, but the point is that this is not the chief reason for manual arts and in- dustries in the elementary schools. Our aim is to show that this does not represent the ' The Manual Training School, pp. 289-90, 14 C. M. Wood- ward (1879). HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTION 39 most advanced theory of the manual element in education. Other educators have taken higher ground and attained a clearer, better perspective view. They rejoice in what has been accomplished and appreciate the efforts of those who have done so much to propagate manual training and household arts in the schools. They recognize that a change so great and vital could come about only by an evolutionary process, and that in this case the evohition has been phenomenally rapid. The attitude of those who have gone farther in the study of t'his subject, it is the purpose of subsequent chapters to set fort^. For, "Whether manual training schools shall develop into industrial schools for the training of apprentices to" the several trades, or on the other hand become incorporated into the school system as a general dis- cipline, depends, of course, upon the answer which educational psychology finally gives to the ques- tion." * 'W. T. Harris, "Psychology of Manual Training.'' CHAPTER III Fundamental Impulses and Interests the Basis of Manual Occupations as Means of Education Marvelous progress has been made in modes of gen- erating, controlling, and utilizing that mysterious and subtle force we call electricity, notwithstanding the fact that we do not know the nature of the thing itself. The scientist and the inventor have studied the thing through its modes of manifestation, through what it does under varying conditions. Similarly, wonderful progress has been made in the control of plant life. From the brier rose we have the American Beauty and from the bitter astringent husk of the almond we have the luscious flesh of the peach. Yet we do not know the nature of plant life, we know it only as a force, an activity which manifests itself in various ways under different condi- tions. Difficulty of Subject. — With what added force the principle here suggested applies to human life and to the study of the development of human mind ! We can- not take a specimen of life or of mind, isolate it, analyze it, and definitely describe and 'define it. We can only observe the manifestations of the activities at different stages and amid various environments. The multiplicity and the complexity of intellectual and emotional activi- 40 FUNDAMENTAL IMPULSES AND INTERESTS 41 ties, make their study supremely difficult. However, the subtle and complicated conditions of the problem must not deter the educator from attaciiing it and working toward its solution, for progress in the science and art of education must always be conditioned primarily by progress in the development of knowledge concerning the being to be educated. Point of View. — ^American educators must have the credit, for having given a great impetus to the investi- gation of one important phase of the problem, that most ancient department of human enquiry under its newer name of "child-study." It is true, individual students of this subject expose themselves to ridicule by unscien- tific methods and by hasty generalizations. Some remind one of young ducks feeding upon mush, each taking up a little lump and running to one side in the apparent be- lief he has the whole thing. One takes later infancy, the kindergarten period, marks off definite limits and sees in that period all the life of the individual worthy of consideration ; another takes "recapitulation" and fan- cies he sees in every child at different stages the cave dweller, the fisher, the hunter, the shepherd, etc.; still another sees a clearly defined adolescent period freighted with dreadful dangers to the physical, intellectual, and moral life of the youth or maiden, as well as with opulent opportunities to them and to parents and teachers to de- velop a race of prodigies. In other words, the tendency 42 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES is to take narrow views limited to particular sections of child life, instead of trying to get a perspective view of the whole life process^ so that childhood may be inter- preted, not from a part of childhood, or by itself alone, but in relation to the whole life of the individual in all its bearings. Common Errors. — As a result of imperfect views of childhood two common errors have prevailed -in educa- tional practice. First, some would set up an ideal adult as the aim of education, and try to superimpose the quali- ties and characteristics of that adult upon the child as early and as rapidly as possible. Second, others would accept the common characteristics of childhood, as they manifest themselves in a fairly good environment, as being natural, and therefore good, hence to be fostered and cultivated as they are and so perpetuated. The for- mer view takes little or no account of the nature of the child, of the real potentialities with which formal edu- cation must deal in order to produce that remote ideal result. The latter fails to recognize that the impulses, attitudes, and activities peculiar to childhood have only a temporary value. They are good for their time and in their relation to the future, but if perpetuated are sure to debilitate or arrest growth. They are, however, of such vital importance that we proceed to give them special consideration. Important Factors. — ^The prime factors in all educa- FUNDAMENTAL IMPULSES AND INTER'ESTS 43 tive processes are the impulses to activity, whether physi- cal or psychical. They are the fundamental characteris- tics of life, developed and dififerentiated imthe evolution- ary process. They constitute the endowment that the child brings with him into the world which makes growth, development, education, possible. The sensory organism is predisposed to receive sensation, the brain is predis- posed to receive and the mind to select and analyze ^im- uli; the muscles are predisposed to receive nervous dis- charge and to respond by contractions. All this must not only be recognized, but it must be basal in our conception of the whole educative process. A second group of factors are the stimulations that the impulses to activity receive from the environment of the individual. These stimuli might be called the op- portunities the impulses seek for their self-expression. Gfanted that there may be a limited range of activities in the system of voluntary muscles due to organic ac- cumulation and discharge of nervous energy, such move- ments have little educative value, they rather serve as a means of distributing, equalizing energy. The great mass of activities are, directly or indirectly, responses to environmental stimulations. Without such stimula- tions the impulses could never become anything more than mere impulses. From another point of view, in ad- dition to being the opportunity for the expression of the impulses, the stimulus appears as an obstruction to some 44 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES activity in the life process. If it were possible for the life process to flow on in a steady, uniform, wholly unim- peded way, there would be nothing to overcome, to con- trol, hence no development, no education. The opposition created by the stimulus necessitates inquiry, investigation as to the nature of the obstruction, persistent efifort to understand and get control of it, and finally a readjust- ment, a reorganization of the forces with increased power to meet subsequent new conditions. Having taken this general view of the impulses we are prepared to consider their differentiated modes of manifestation, but for the purpose of this study we shall here limit our view to those directly relevant to manual arts and industries. Impulse to Sensation. — Among the strongest special impulses universal to the race is the impulse to get sensa- tion, to see, to hear, to touch. Though the last is es- pecially marked in early childhood it is by no means lim- ited to that or to any other period, as the familiar signs "Hands Off," and "Please Do not Handle" in exhibitions testify. The child turns his eyes toward the light to get more of the sensation. Bright colors attract and hold his attention. In a similar way he tries to locate sound. When he discovers that he has control of some means of producing sound he is likely to use his power in count- less repetitions. When his hand touches an object, unless the, sensation is distinctly unpleasant, he grasps the ob- FUNDAMENTAL IMPULSES AND INTERESTS 45 ject or presses his hand against it so as to get more con- tact, more sensation. A bright rattle appeals to his eye, his ear, and his hand, and therefore has a triple charm. 'Motor Impulse. — Most intimately connected with this impulse to get, and the interest in, sensation is the impulse to motor activity. Besides the early movements that may be due to organic stimulations, there is from the first a tendency to set up sensori-motor coordinations, to facili- tate the repetition of those stimuli that give satisfaction to the organism. This point requires no elaboration be- cause the physical activity of the normal child is his most obvious characteristic. In fact it is only as he becomes reflective and "stops to think," that is, checks some of the larger movements, that there is any prolonged suspension of physical activity while awake. Impulse to Play. — As these early activities, so largely instinctive, gradually come under the influence of con- scious control, they have added to them other qualities, and become the means of expressing the play impulse. The child plays with his vocal organs and at the same time with his auditory sense as he coos and babbles his first syllables. He plays with the water in his bath; with a spool or a ball for the joy of the motion; with sand or clay because it yields so readily to his manipula- tions; with pieces of paper because they readily move and make a noise. Later he runs about in mere physical wantonness. Whether this play impulse serves the pur- 46 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES pose of developing in the young those powers which have been evolved by the race, or whether it is merely a means of discharging surplus energy does not concern us in this discussion. We cannot, however, overlook its rela- tion to materials employed. Play, like work, must take materials as they are found, and, like work, it must adapt the materials to its peculiar needs at any particular time. Work actually reconstructs the material, divides it, and combines it in entirely new ways. Pure play trans- forms materials simply by the symbolizing power of the player's imagination. A block of wood is now a ship and now a street car ; a chair may be a horse or a car- riage or a pulpit. No transformation presents the slight- est difficulty to the magic, mirror of the child's imagina- tion. Social Impulse. — In trying to determine the normal course of growth and development we must always take into account the social life of the individual. One is al- ways in a large measure the creature of the social mediurft into which he is born and in which he lives. A part of his racial inheritance is the social impulse. The young child's early interests are almost exclusively personal and social. Apart from what he is conscious of doing, it is what other members of the family or what his immediate associates do and say that interests him. ' It is most natu- ral that these social interests should be important factors in the progressive development of the child's activities. FUNDAMENTAL IMPULSES AND INTERESTS 47 Impulse to Imitate. — The impulse to imitation, which has already been operative with the pure play impulse, finds a most convenient medium for its expression in the household and neighborhood occupations. Boys and girls are often equally interested in making bread or pies, in sewing, or in gardening. It is true these modes of activ- ity with the young child have in them little of the spirit of work. Through imitation the children play at work- ing, but, owing to the love of change and lack of definite purpose, progress is soon interrupted, though the impulse does not necessarily cease to operate. Attention and in- terest and activity are simply transferred to some other channel where this same imitative impulse continues to find expression. Impulse to Construct. — In the normal development of the child, guided and stimulated by social interests growing out of the impulses to physical activity, to play, to imitate, there develops the impulse to make things, the producing, constructive impulse, involving more clear- ly defined purposes, more continued attention, more per- sistent effort, and yielding the satisfaction which accom- panies each and all of these, but especially that which attends the tangible products of purposes accomplished. Impulse to Experiment. — The effort to- satisfy this impulse to do, to construct, to manipulate materials leads naturally to the expression of two other impulses. First, there is the impulse to investigate and experiment. Some- 48 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES times this is simply a naive desire to see how things will act. Frequently it is a necessary element in the process of trying to work out the purposes and plans involved. Different kinds of materials must be tested and different modes of construction tried. Frequently, however, the experiment is a mere incidental episode suggested in the progress of the work, but scarcely less valuable because incidental. First-hand information is gained, and the mind kept alert and receptive by unlocked for changes. The Artistic Impulse. — The second is still more im- portant in connection with our subject, the impulse to decorate, the art impulse. When one comes to feel a con- scious power over his materials, is aware of a degree of technical skill in working, realizes a, degree of pleasure in manipulating the materials, the art impulse begins to assert itself. He wants to add decoration to his work. He wants to express his feelings of joy in his work as well as his intellectual interest in the problem involved. Ownership Impulse. — Finally, there is the impulse to, and interest in, personal ownership, which finds its fullest expression in those things we have produced. With what wholesome pride the little girl shows the doll's dress she has made. How much more satisfaction the boy gets out of the skigh he made than out of the one his father bought for him. He is a rare, abnormal student who seems to get any satisfaction out of the essay he has largely cribbed. That kind of thing is usually done for FUNDAMENTAL IMPULSES AND INTERESTS 49'. prizes, or for class credits, or for public declamation. But an original piece of composition, produced because the writer has seen, thought, and felt something worth telling, "though a puir thing, his ain," is always a source of pleasure to the author. The young bride rejoices, with very commendable pride, in the pie, or cake, or, if she be especially efficient, the loaf of bread, of her "own make." The prosperous business or professional man takes vastly more interest in the products of his own flower plot, or of the fruit tree he has planted and pruned, than in the best his wealth can buy. The marvel- ous development of machinery for manufacturing, with all its accompanying advantages has had this disadvantage, that it has deprived the worker of a large part of the personal pride and joy he had in the work of his hands. It is not unreasonable to hope that shorter hours for the factory worker, cheaper and better transportation to suburban homts, training in manual occupations in the schools, growth of the arts and crafts idea, and develop- ment of an appreciation of the difference between machine made decoration and the work of the artist-artisan, may restore to civilized man in general, and to the city dweller especially, much of that joy in human production Of which machinery has deprived him. Unity of Impulses. — This enumeration of the im- pulses and interests must not be taken to imply that they exist or function in independent and discrete ways. Their 50 MANUAL ARTS AND' INDUSTRIES unity may be seen from two different points of view. First, they all come under the general concept of the child's impulse to activity. During consciousness the whole being continually seeks to express itself in these and many other ways. It is the same unit of life and per- sonality that plays, imitates, constructs, and decorates. The diversity is outside the child, in the objects of the activity, in the materials used, and in the results produced. From another point of view they must be unified in the social life of the child which so largely conditions the particular modes of activity. The impulse to locomo- tion, no doubt strongly instinctive as in lower animals, is stimulated by the observation of persons walking about, and by the desire to get .to persons or objects by which the social life surrounds the child. The impulse to imitate comes out only in response to the observation of some act to be imitated. The impulse to do, to make things, would probably never realize itself in action un- less the child saw things that had been made or, better still, saw them in the process of making. There is also unity in the personal motives of the child. All conscious activities are directed toward the attainment of some end, something the child values. Treatment of the Impulses. — That these impulses ex- ist and are potent elements of human life is beyond ques- tion. The problem for the educator is, what shall be FUNDAMENTAL IMPULSES AND INTERESTS 51 done with them? How shall they be treated? At least four modes of treatment suggest themselves. First. — It is possible to conceive of a scheme of edu- cation which should ignore them, ,take no actual account of them. It would set up the ideal, character to be de- veloped, arrange the course of instruction and training that seemed best adapted to produce that type of charac- ter, then apply these means to each child irrespective of his personality. If the child does not seem to profit by the instruction, or objects to the training, ignore the fact or impress upon him that what he likes ,or dislikes to do cannot be taken into account, that his parents and teach- ers know best what will be for his future good and he must, willy nilly, be guided by them. Second. — -Another mode of treating these impulses might be based upon the idea that in the child they are productive of no good result. His play impulse yields nothing of value, that is, it never produces anything of practical utility, or of commercial value. Nay more, it must inevitably lead to habits of idleness and immorality. The constructive impulse, it might , be said, is usually rather destructive. The child simply spoils materials and tools and produces nothing of value. It is folly to give the child tools and materials until he is old enough to know how to use them to some useful purpose. Simi- larly, the art impulse might, from this point of view, be described as simply a means of disfiguring and wasting 52 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES material. It is impossible for a young child to produce anything of artistic value. His favorite drawings are likely to be caricatures of his friends, his paintings hid- eo"us daubs of crude color. 'Such practice can only give him low, distorted views of art. From such a point of view these impulses should be suppressed. Instead of allowing the child to play he should, as early as possible, have regular work adapted to his ability. Instead of building play houses and mock forts and crude boats he should be learning to read and write and spell, because, though he may have little interest in these things now, they will be useful to him later. The impulses of the child should be suppressed and supplanted by interests and habits that will be of value to him in later life. Third. — Then again, precisely the opposite of this view might be taken. The natural impulses of the child are good, therefore they should be fostered and perpetu- ated. The play impulse is an expression of the instinct of the young to those activities which develop the racial inheritance of powers. When the child makes a stick symbolize a horse, a boat, or a gun, he is simply exercising, his imagination, a power that will be to him not only a source of great pleasure through life, but an essential means of study whether of literature, history or science. This transforming power of the imagination should be • kept alive. Human life never lacks the serious matter- of-fact work-a-day elements. Let the child continue to FUNDAMENTAL IMPULSES AND INTERESTS S3 indulge his childish impulses and interests to the full, and perpetuate them as completely as possible. Finally. — To ignore the impulses named would be the same in principle as to ignore the impulse to take food, to take rest and sleep, or to seek companionship. It would be to ignore the very force of the child's being. It would fail to take account of and would allow to operate at random the most fundamental conditions of life and de- velopment. To restrain or suppress them would be ana- logous to impairing the digestion and restricting respira- tion and circulation. It would retard or check growth and result in a dwarfed individual. To indulge the im- pulses and perpetuate the interests of the child must pro- duce the same result in another way. Instead of there being a progressive development, there will be a tendency to fix and make permanent interests and modes of activ- ity that should be only transitory. If must be recognized •that the normal interests and impulses of childhood are good, but that some of them have only a temporary value. If properly utilized they not only serve important present needs in the child, but prepare the way for future de- velopment. Others, such as the social impulse, the con-_ structive impulse, and the art impulse should be per- petuated and strengthened. This, then, is surely 'the answer to the question asked a moment ago, what shall we do with these impulses and interests of childhood? The impulses are essential 54 MANUAL ARTS AND ' INDUSTRIES elements of life, dififerentiated, developed, and strengthened as the race has evolved. If there is to be growth and de- velopment in the individual the impulses must have ex- pression. The transient interests of childhood are es- sential to the expression of the impulses. Hence these interests should be utilized, each in its proper time, to serve as the means of reaching the next stage in the progress of the child's development. In conclusion, hov/ can the impulses to activity gen- erally, the impulse to get sensation, to motor activity, to play, to imitate, to construct, to experiment, to work, the social impulse, the impulse to art expression, how can each and all of these be utilized in carrying on the edu- cative process ? Is there any better way than through vari- ous forms of manual occupations? What was a necessity to primitive peoples^and has been to a large extent with the whole race should be a well-ordered opportunity for the girls and boys whom new conditions tend to exclude from both the necessity and the opportunity. CHAPTER IV Sense Training Relative Value of Direct and Indirect Methods Importance of Sense Training. — Attention has been called to the fact that the exercise and consequent de- velopment of the sense powers are fundamental impulses in the life process. If this position be accepted the question for the educator is : What methods of exercise will give fullest expression to these impulses, and best development to the powers? This question cannot be answered without a brief glance backward. Comenius appears to have been the earliest writer on formal education to emphasize the importance of giving special attention to the training of the senses. "The ground of this business is,- that sensual (sensuous) objects be rightly presented to the senses for fear they may not be received. I say, and say it again aloud, that this is the foundation of all the rest; because we can neither act nor speak wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the things which are to be done and whereof we have to speak. Now there is nothing in the understanding which was not before in the senses. And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right perceiving of the dififer- 55 56 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES ences of things will be to lay the grounds for wisdom and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in one's ■ course of life, which, because it is commonly neg- lected in schools, and the things that are to be learned are offered to scholars without their being under- stood or being rightly presented to the senses, it Cometh to pass that the work of teaching and learn- ing goeth heavily onward and offereth little benefit."* Rousseau followed in much the same strain, and sug- gested a special search for materials upon which to train the senses during the early years. He thinks it most unreasonable that a child under twelve years of age should be expected to exercise reason or judgment. "The first faculties which are formed in us are the senses. These then are the first which should be cultivated; but these are the very ones that we forget or that we neglect the most. We can neither touch, nor see, nor hear, except as we are taught." ' Even our usually cautious, conservative, English friends have laid special stress upon this phase of de- velopment. Under "Training of the Senses" Sully writes : "A more systematic procedure can be gradually introduced, aiming at an accurate and full knowl- edge of the several sense-elements. Thus in training the color sense, the educator may best proceed by 'Comenius. "Preface to Orbis Pictus." ' Rousseau. "Emile." SENSE-TRAINING 57 selecting first of all a few bright and striking colors as white, red, and blue. Each of these must be made familiar and its name learned. After being shown separately they should be shown in juxtaposition. . . . When a few elements have thus been thoroughly learned, new ones may be added." '■ Further, under the heading, "The Object Lesson," he writes : "After the exercise of the child in the perception of form comes the training of the senses as a whole in the knowledge of objects and their constituent qualities. The systematic development of this side of the training of the senses gives us the objec): lesson. .. .The object-lesson aims at nothing be- yond the training of the observing powers them- selves." ^ Further evidence may be fourid in still more recent writings : "The teacher who tries to train the powers of judgment and reasoning upon incomplete and inac- curate sense-perception is like the man who built his house upon the sand. The wise teacher endeavors to build up the intellectual edifice upon the rock of well-ordered sense-percepts." "In giving a lesson on copper, one teacher deals 'Sully. "Teacher's Handbook of Psychology," pp. 104, 127, 129. 58 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES with the color and then passes on to some such topic as the the method of obtaining the ore, thus appealing- to one sense only, sight. Another teacher not only lets the child look at the copper, but lets him feel it, bend it, put his tongue to it, strike it, thus appealing to the sense of touch, muscularity, taste, and hear- ing."^ Indeed, apart from supplying some unorganized in- formation, the whole theory of object-lessons as they pre- vailed in the schools of America and Europe a quarter of a century ago was based in part upon this idea that a height of power and alertness in sense discrimination is of prime importance to the young child, and that such ability is best developed by a course of training through special exercises. Substitutes for Object-Lessons. — Though the futil- ity of object-lessons has been generally recognized and the practice of giving such lessons generally abandoned in all the more progressive schools the disease, of which they were only a symptom, still prevails in many places. The eruption appears in various forms. Among some teachers it is plain, simple sense-training exercises. The children stand with their backs to the piano while some one strikes a key and the children try to guess, or judge, * Dexter & Garlick. "Psychology in the Schoolroom," pp. 99. 101. SENSE-TRAINING 59 what key has been struck. Cards or beads of various shades and tints of color are given to be assorted. The writer not long ago saw an alleged lesson in sense- training in art. A very bright, enthusiastic teacher had a class of forty or fifty children from seven to e'ight years of age. She stood before the class and held in her hands a number of cards about six by eight inches in size. Upon each card was mounted a cheap reproduction of some fam- ous work of art. A picture was flashed before the children for from two to five seconds and then removed. The chil- dren were expected to name the picture and the artist, and they did it with surprising readiness and precision. What was the value of it all ? "What fools we mortals be." Among another group of teachers, the disease breaks out, and becomes very infectious as "visualisation" or as an alleged system of "mind training." All sorts of ex- ercises and games are devised to provide practice in taking mental snap shots of the form, size, color, and number of objects, pictures, or hieroglyphic symbols. It is the easiest thing in the world to create a high degree of abnormal in- terest in this sort of exercise. Only teachers of enthu- siasm are Hkely to undertake it. The enthusiasm infects the children, and the activities involved are so superficial, and so gently graded, that the majority of children seem to succeed well in them. A spirit of intense emulation prevails and some children soon become very expert in the exercises. It is easy to test results and the method 60 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES lends itself to public demonstrations as only superficial work can. For these same reasons the method becomes epidemic for a time among a certain class of teachers who are especially susceptible to that kind of infection. The First Problem. — The reasons for this special emphasis of sense-training are, perhaps, sufificiently in- dicated in the citations from various authors just quoted. To restate them briefly we may say the senses are re- garded as the only outer gateways of knowledge. They bear to the mind the same relation that the mouth bears to the stomach. They are the only avenues through which the mind can get its raw material. Hence the more alert and active they become the more raw material the mind will have to work over into organized Jcnowledge. Then it has been recognized that the sense powers may be de- veloped to a much higher degree than is usual ; that in the blind the sense of touch and of hearing become peculiarly acute because special demands are made of them; that persons engaged in certain occupations acquire the ability to make sense discriminations Utterly beyond the appre- ciation of others. Moreover, success in many occupations depends upon the possession and exercise of some su- perior sense power. Then, if we grant, as I think we must, that the senses can be rendered especially active by means of special exercises devised for that purpose alone, it must appear that such training is_a proper and commendable phase of education. Is it not highly de- SENSE-TRAINING 61 sirable that the gleaners of the fundamental elements of' all knowledge should be made as active and efficient as possible, and that every child should have the fullest pos- sible training of those powers that are directly necessary to success in so many of the practical occupations of life? Can there be any reasonable objection to such methods of training? An Important Distinction. — Our efifort to find an answer to these questions involves enquiry as to other possible methods of sense-training, and then a compari- son of such methods with those above described. We shall find these methods by considering how sense power has been developed where these special, direct methods have not been employed. How has the race evolved its powers of sense discrimination? 'How does the blind man acquire his acute sense of hearing and of touch? How do men learn to grade lumber, or paper, or textiles with such precision and rapidity that their work is bewildering to the untrained onlooker? How has the painter learned to mix his col- ors? It is evident that the distinction between the mode of training that has produced skill in these per- son?, and that of the direct method employed in some of the schools, lies in the purpose of the activity employed and in the consequent attitude of the person concerned. In the direct method, where there are specially devised school exercises, the discrimination of sense qualities is 62 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES made an end itself, while in the indirect method, certain discriminations are necessary in order to the accomplish- ment of some end of direct personal interest to the one concerned. When one is trying to learn to sing a melody he has an immediate vital interest in discriminating the pitch, force, and quality of the different tones. If he has difiSculty in getting a certain interval he is directly in- terested in hearing it played or sung over and over again until he can not only apprehend the distinction with the ear but can reproduce it with the vocal organs. When one wants to paint a tulip he must observe closely the form and relative position of the leaves and the differences in shade and tint, and his attitude.toward the work is essen- tially different from that involved in assorting leaves or cards according to their shape or color, merely for the sake of showing that he can sort them. Relative Values. — The relative values of the direct and indirect methods of developing sense powers may be clearly seen from several points of view. First. — Let us consider it from the point of view of evolution. How have the powers of sense discrimina- tion been differentiated and evolved ? There seems only one answer to this question.- It has been through exer- cise prompted by impulse and conditioned by the felt needs of the organism. The wolf, the fox, and the hunting dog scent their prey at, great distances. The rabbit and the deer have large mobile ear-trumpets to enable them to SENSE-TRAINING 65 get warning of the approach of possible enemies. The hawk, flying high, has a clear eye for possible food sup- ply upon the ground beneath. The Indian hunter discerns the call, or sees the track of certain game where the or- dinary man distinguishes nothing by either hearing or sight. The sailor forecasts the weather by slight changes in the appearances of the far-off horizon, and detects the dangerous shoal by shades in the water unseen by the landsman. The miller's apprentice soon learns to grade different qualities of flour by the sense of touch, because that is part of his bvisiness. When the hunger of the wolf has been satisfied neither his nose nor his ear is. alert. The sailor walking through the fields or woods,, is likely to notice nothing of the flora about him. The miller whose finger tips are so sensitive to flour may be a very poor judge of cotton, woolen, or silk textiles. In all the course of normal development and evolution it does not appear that there is necessity or provision for special exercises for sense-training. The development of the color sense among oriental peoples illustrates this point. Van Dyke says : "It is said that the people of India are able to^ perceive three hundred different shades of color not perceptible to European eyes, and it cannot be doubted that their years of association with varied, hues has trained them to this keenness of vision. The detection of beauty in color is not a thing that caa 64 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES be argued or learned from a book. As the handler of silk educates the sense of touch and the musician and the poet the sense of hearing, so the artist de- velops the sense of sight without rule or reason, and oftentimes quite unconsciously." ^ Second. — The foregoing Hne of thouglat suggests an essential difiference in the emotional attitude involved in the exercise of the senses as a means of attaining some desired end and in that where the sense-discrimination is the end in itself. In the first case the interest is directly in the qualities observed, as when one mixes colors' in painting, or tests the smoothness of a piece of wood or metal he is polishing, or tunes a violin, or by taste or smell tests a substance for the development of an acid. In the second case the interest is indirect, is transferred from something else. The thing is done to please a sym- pathetic teacher, or to get through with it, or to excel classmates, or because the immediate social environment seems to make it a necessary part of the daily duty. In the case of direct sense training the interest is indirect and the discriminations are more, purely intel- lectual, while in indirect sense training the interest is direct and the intellectual activity is set going and borne along by a more or less strong emotional force. The importance of this contrast cannot be over estima- ted. This is so because this direct interest, this emotional ' John C. Van Dyke, "How to Judge a Picture," p. 29. SENSE-TRAINING 65 attitude toward a personal end lies at the base of all rational activity. Through it the individual sets up h}s standard of what is "worth-while." Things that are done merely as assigned tasks and those done simply from in- direct interest are all on the same plane of values, so that there can be no comparison of values, no judgment of "worth-whileness," hence nothing that makes this ac- tivity rational and* that irrational. Third. — Again it seems quite fair to infer that the character of the resultant will essentially dififer in the two cases. It is a well known psychological fact that strong emotional disturbances produce distinct chemical and physiological effects upon the organism. Good humor is commonly believed to aid digestion. Intense excitement is usually followed by fatigue and weakness, often headache. Apparently authentic cases are reported of the death of infants due to poison generated in the milk of the mothers who have- given away to furious anger. By analogy it may reasonably be inferred that when the -sense organs are exercised with a favorable emotional accompaniment there will be a more normal kind of development, the effect will be more organic and hence deeper and more permanent. This view will ac- count for the fact that the results of special sense-train- ing usually appear so superficial and evanescent, while sense power developed through indirect methods are so deep-seated and abiding. A man who in early years had 66 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES been inspector of woolen fabrics in a large wholesale d?y goods house and afterwards spent twenty-five years in a quite dififerent occupation said he believed his tactile sensibility for woolen textiles of like manufacture had lost little of its acuteness. Another who had learned the blacksmith trade testified that, after twenty years spent as a traveling salesman, the dififerent tints in the heated iron were as clear and full of meaning to him as when he was working at the trade. Fourth. — Another difference between the two modes of sense-training in schools is found in the comparative isolation of a special sense to be exercised by the direct method, and then the over emphasis of attention to cer- tain arbitrarily selected qualities. One aspect of the error in this point of view is admirably expressed in the fol- lowing : "Underlying the sense-training is the recognition of the evolution of the differentiated senses out of one sense as an advance in power. From this foundation has developed much of the- emphasis which has been thrown upon exercises devised to strengthen one form of sense-perception at a time. This accentuation of the functioning of one sense is opposed to the generally accepted doctrine of nervous function. The attempt to train the senses systematically in isolation gives rise to many exer- cises which seem to endeavor to narrow the wide SENSE-TRAINING 67 range of adjustments which are not only possible but desirable. The various kinds of images that are involved in a single perception show the futility, if ' not the wastefulness, of effort directed toward a conscious differentiation of the senses. It is true that the seafaring man has a training of the sight which enables him to distinguish vessels at a dis- tance which would make them invisible to a land- lubber ; that the practiced ear of a Theodore Thomas will detect in one instrument the slightest variation from the standard in tone "or time of that set for a hundred instruments in his orchestra, that one particular sense acts as a fundamental in this or that trade or profession." ^ The following shows clearly another evil of the method : "Another child who has been drilled in recogniz- ing colors apperceives the shades of color to the neglect of all else. The professor of the new psych- ology wants sixty-four shades of color taught to his infant child, as if to finish up that phase of training of the senses once for all. How fine to have the child able to recognize sixty-four shades of color ! A third child, exclusively trained in form studies ' Ella F. Young, "Some Types of Modern Educational Theo- ry," p 37. 68 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES by the constant use of geometric solids and much practice in, looking for the fundamental geometric forms lying at the basis of the multi-farious objects that exist in the world, will, as a matter of course, apperceive geometric forms, ignoring the other phases of objects." ^ It is clearly not the function of the elementary school to give that kind of special sense-training which is neces- sary to the musician or painter or. to the expert in any occupation. That is a form of technical education which properly belongs to special schools or colleges, just as much as training in pharmacy, architecture, or journal- ism. It is the proper work of the elementary school to promote the process of the all round development of the child, without attempting to develop a high degree of skill in any one thing. The aim should be rather to leave the powers in a plastic or fluid condition which ad- mits of further growth, because just as soon as ideas, modes of attention, or other habits, become set and fixed further growth and education is correspondingly retarded. Summary. — To sum up this discussion; direct or special sense-training is artificial, deals with specially • selected materials ; is intellectual but not emotional ; is superficial, tending to inhibit rather than promote think- ing, and to establish habits of merely superficial obser- vation. On the other hand indirect sense-training is ' W. T. Harris, "The Study of Arrested Develooment.' SENSE-TRAINING 69 not only the normal method of the individual in the practical affairs of life ; but it is the phylogenetic method by which all sense powers have been evolved; involves a direct emotional factor as well as the intellectual; ad- mits of logical activities; has a more favorable biologic effect upon the organism; has deeper and more perma- nent results ; is a general preparation for all possible subsequent activity and growth. Sense-Training Through Manual Industries. — The case is so clear, that it seems like pointing a moral to call attention to the conclusion that "manual arts and in- dustries" furnish a better means of developing the sense powers than any system of specially devised exercises. The actual manipulation of various materials, clay, sand, papers, cardboards, woods, metals, cottons, wools, silks, materials that are being worked over for the sake of some end in which the tactile qualities must be appre- ciated, supplies all the conditions for desirable training of the sense of touch. Along with these will go training in visual perception which, however, will have special emphasis iij those occupations involving color, light and shade, details of form and proportion. Another ac- companiment will be the training of the muscular sense in judging weight, pressure, and other forms of force. The other intellectual sense, hearing, will be appealed to much less than touch and sight, but in working wood and metals especially there will always be more or less ear 70 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES ■exercise which has its own signficance in the operations. It is not implied that this kind of training develops the special expert sense of touch necessary in certain trades or professions. Such training in what corresponds with the public school state of the child's development, is -undesirable, because, as has already been pointed out, it tends to set in fixed habits, modes of activity that should remain fluid for later adaptations. To those who need it, this expert training should be given in the tech- nical or industrial trades schools, which must logically follow the general introduction of manual industries into elementary schools. CHAPTER V The Development of Motor Control In Chapter III reference was made to the impulse to motor activity which manifests itself in all normal children. It is doubtful if the true significance of this impulse in the child has ever been fully appreciated in any scheme of formal education. In the fullness of the ^ young child's activities it is obvious to the most casual observer that the sensori-motor forms largely predomi- nate over the reflective. During his waking hours it is a matter of common remark that the child is never still a minute. We wonder at his endurance. Occasionally he stops to think, and gradually these partial inhibitions of the physical activity for the reflective become more and more frequent until in later life, with most persons, the reflective forms of activity exceed the sensori-motor. If we conceive of the whole volume of sensori-motor and reflective activities of life as represented by a cylin- der the relation between the two parts might be illus- trated as in the accompanying diagram. There will be from the first a small central core of reflective activity in a large medium of physical activity. In a normal development of the individual the reflective life will gradually enlarge and the sensori-motor modes of activity 71 72 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES will relatively decrease. This does not mean that the two forms of activity are separate and independent. The fact is, they are inter-related and mutually dependent. Sensori-motor Activity. tv0, Keflectwe A'ctw'ity. ^Sensori-motor Activity. Two Errors. — In this connection the fundamental errors of school education have been, first, lack of a proper estimate of the relative volume of each of the two modes of activity, and second, a failure to appre- ciate the fact that the change of proportions is a matter of imperceptibly gradual growth. Improvement. — During the past few years condi- tions'in this respect have improved greatly. The teach- ings of Froebel, extending quite beyond direct kinder- garten schools, have done much to relieve the shock which the young child of a generation ago must have felt when he passed from the free, physically active life of the home to the restraining, constraining environ- ment of the school room. But the problem is far from being solved. The abruptness of the change demanded has been reduced but by no means entirely removed. DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTROL 7,i Where there are kindergarten schools the sudden transi- tion required often comes between the kindergarten and the primary school, instead of, as formerly, between the home and the school. The shock and consequent re- tardation of growth which the seedling plant suffers when transplanted is typical, in a very small way, of the interruption of growth and waste of time and energy of the child, caused by abrupt breaks in the continuity of his life experiences. Influence of Child Study.— If child study has estab- lished any one practical principle in education more clearly than another it is that in the elementary school the impulse to motor activity must be more fully utilized. The activity does not need to be developed. It already exists in predominating proportions. If we think of life as activity plus the power of adaptation to the end of the growth and development of the organism we shall see that the function of formal education in regard to motor activity must be to increase its power of adapta- tion, in other words, to blend with the activity the element of rational control. This is a psychological as well as a physiological problem. Immediate Problem. — This division of our subject is so large, involves so many ramifications and has come to occupy so important a place in educational discussions, that it could not be treated adequately within the limits of an ordinary volume, much less within a single chapter. 7A MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES For this reason only some of the essential aspects of the subject, vitally connected with our general subject, manual occupations, will engage our attention. With this purpose in mind we posit the following elements as basal in the development of motor control; the impulse to motor activity, under the guidance of attention, oper- ating through nerve and m,uscle. From the outside we may estimate the degree of motor control along three lines: accuracy of the movements, uniformity and steadiness in continued motor activity; rapidity of execu- tion. Our immediate problems are: Do manual occu- pations tend to develop motor control? If so, how and to what extent ? Experiments in Sawing. — To get a body of original data upon which to base our attempt to answer these questions, some simple experiments were undertaken. In general the activities involved in manual occupations are too complex to affords satisfactory material for ex- perimental work. Three conditions are essential. The activities must admit of comprehensive observation. They must be amenable to a reasonable degree of control of the conditions involved. The results must be capable of accurate estimation. For these reasons the first series of experiments consisted in sawing cuts one inch deep in a narrow strip of inch board. The experiments were performed in accordance with the following directions: DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTROL 75 Tools: An ordinary handsaw without a back, try- square, rule, pencil, vise. Material : Pieces of dressed pine 12" x 2" x 1". 1. From end to end upon each wide face of the board, draw a line one inch from the same narrow face. 2. Beginning one inch from the end, upon the nar- row face referred to above, mark 20 points exactly J4 inch apart. 3. Through these points rule lines across the nar- row face at right angles to the edges. 4. From the extremities of these cross lines draw lines at right angles to the long lines and ending in them. 5. Place the board in a vise and saw 20 cuts one inch deep from the narrow face, about 1/32 inch to the right of the guide lines. Those using the left hand will saw a like distance to the left of the guide lines. None of the pencil marks should be cut. 6. Children under 13 years of age will saw only 10 cuts a day, other persons 20 cuts a day. The whole series may be done at once, or in equal parts at an interval of one hour. 7. Each person should continue to practice until he can saw straight cuts three times out of four. 76 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES 8. The date, the hour, and the number of seconds taken for the work, should be written under the group of cuts made at one time.. 9. If possible, notes should be made of the changes in the attitude of the mind toward the work from time to time. The Subjects. — In the first series of sawing experi- ments there were six subjects, four men and two women, all young well-matured adults, with considerable experi- ence in experimental work. All. were right handed, but to make the exercise as nearly de novo as possible, each used only the left hand in sawing. No. 1 is a professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, a man who does everything with exceeding care. At the outset left hand manipulations were performed with great effort. No. 2, a professor in the same department, is also a careful worker. To him left hand co-ordinations seemed at the start somewhat easier than for No. 1. No. 3 is a woman graduate student. For some days before taking the exercises she had been constructing some apparatus that required considerable sawing. To rest her right hand she had done some sawing with the left, and so had acquired a degree of skill in left hand sawing to begin with. No. 4, also a woman graduate student, had done DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTROL 77 considerable sawing, but the left hand work was to her entirely new. No. 5, a graduate student, laid special stress upon precision. No. 6, also a graduate student, aimed to combine speed with accuracy from the first. The first four sawed, ten cuts, and after an interval of an hour the other ten of that day's exercise. Nos. 5 and 6 sawed the twenty cuts each day without a rest. All the exercises for each subject were taken at about the same time each day, between three and five o'clock in the afternoon. Except in the case of No. 4 the prac- tice was taken as nearly as possible on consecutive days. The work of No. 4 was purposely done at longer and less regular intervals. Objectively, it was evident the 'attempt to set up new co-ordinations required unusual effort. There was a high degree of rigidity throughout the whole body, the legs were set as braces, the right hand grasped tightly the piece of wood being sawed, the mouth was usually set, and the eyes watched closely the progress of the work. The last named condition was especially noticea- ble in those who made the practice most effective. In other words, the more concentrated the attention the more rapid the development of control. The accuracy of each cut was quantified by means of a specially prepared miUimeter scale. The possible value 78 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES of each cut was 10 points, 2 for the horizontal direction, 3 on each side for the vertical direction, and one on each side for precision in cutting just to the limiting line. One point was deducted for each deviation of a miUi- meter from the guiding line. The following table shows the day of the month on which each exercise was taken, the estimated accuracy of each cut, and the time, in seconds, for each cut. No. 5 made very little progress in accuracy, in fact he reached the maximum in that, respect on the first day, but it will be noticed that he worked very slowly until the last day when he was reminded that in the end the time element was of distinct importance. Then he showed he could very much lower the time without sacrificing accuracy. The exceptional record of No. 4 is suggestive because there appeared to be no other reason for the lack of im- provement than the irregularly long intervals between the periods of practice. The significance of the results of this series can be seen at a glance from the accompanying chart. The accuracy curve has risen steadily with only one deflection from 61 to nearly 82 and the time curve has fallen, abruptly at first, and then steadily from 300 to 110, Note. — Readers who are interested in results rather than in the experiments should turn to page 101. DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTROL 79 o S? C en o 2. CO 3' „.TO 3 „. (J3 h-il-* I— '»— ' I— 1|— • OQ ^ 1"^ rr sn 3- pi n^ *< W CI. n. o P3 00 00 <1 *J h-* I-* CO CO toto 00 Date 00 <1 05 -q 010 OS -a to H- i—O g!^ Accuracy 1— • >-* 000 l—M OOi «o= 001 to I-- I-" CO OOI 00 00 010 to to Time 1-- >-t CO CO 0060 COCO Date 00 00 wo CO CO -J 00 00 -4 00 M 1^00 sgs gs Accuracy Cn 1—1 h-« OiOJ OOI 1-' to l-i to 00 I-- 5!g 00 Time td to WW h-* 1—1 CO CO l-» h-» 00 00 COCO Date CD M oco *J 00 CD U) ;2g E3S cn OS £S Accuracy Ot I-' to CD t-' CnO 00 5S Cn.O Sco 00 53^ 00 Time g§ to to to to to to Date C71CJI OS a> ^§ OS cn to >4^ to S2 cn it^ tOM:^ Accuracy I—' I-* h-» 1—' CO 00 c;i CO OS CnO OS 00 C7I 00 to to I-" to CnCn Time- g t— ' CO t-i 00 . CO to Date 'i'i CD CX) cnco coco s; lU OJ :* X ■M bo B c ^ o o u •a to 3 in hH tJ _>< vCJ a; (J DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTROL 81' A New Problem. — The introspections reported indi- cated a varying sense of uncertain struggle, with decided fatigue at the end of each test, gradually giving place to confidence and comparative ease. At the end of the six days' practice all except No.' 6 felt they could saw as well with the left hand as with the right. There remained, however, one common 'disability, a pronounced tendency to grip the saw handle, with the result that the hand, and more especially the fingers, were fatigued in from two to three minutes, though the general bodily tension and the unnecessary strain in the arm. had disappeared. * It then appeared possible that this element, gripping the instrument, might be vital to the whole matter of manual motor control. A new problem had arisen ; to devise some method of measuring the force with which the instrument is grasped in different stages of the process of gaining such control. The Dynamometric Sawhandle. — After considerable experimenting a sawhandle was constructed involving the principle of the hand dynamometer. Tlie essential feature of this handle is that the part grasped by the hand is made of a heavy piece of rubber tubing suffi- ciently reinforced' to secure a satisfactory balance .be- tween the degree of strength and rigidity necessary to resist the push and pull effort of sawing, and the degree of sensitiveness to the gripping of the fingers. 82 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES The construction is shown in Fig. 1. The bottom of the tube constituting the hand grasp was closed by a rubber stopper cemented in to make it water-tight. Into the upper end of the rubber tube was inserted and cemented a brass tube which extended upward through the wood of the handle. To this brass tube a small, rather firm rubber tube was attached, the other end being connected with a tambour adjusted to register upon an ordinary kymograph.' Fig. 2. — Shows cross section of dynamometric saw handle. /4, stiff rubber tube ; Bj reinforcing rubber tube ; C, space filled with water; D, brass tube; E, small rubber tube filled with air; F, water-tight plug. A Precaution. — Before using the apparatus each day the cavity C in the handle was filled with water at about 100° Fah. to prevent much variation "in temperature due to heat from the hand. The temperature of the room was kept as nearly as possible at 70° to prevent expansion or contraction of the air in the apparatus. This precau- DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTROL 83 tion was necessary because it was found that a rise or fall of one or two degrees in the temperature of -the air of the room resvilted in a considerable movement of the pointer. The Subjects. — Ten subjects took the exercises with this saw, eight boys from twelve to thirteen years of age, one professor (No. 1 of the first group of subjects), and one graduate student. ' Only six of the boys com- pleted the regular series, sawmg ten cuts a day for six days. All these boys were right handed and used only the right hand in sawing the series. All except No. 11 had had considerable manual training. No. 7, rather underdeveloped physically, below normal in coordinating power and in continuity of attention. No. 8, well developed, stoefcy, attentive, careful and persistent in effort. No. 9, very tall, slight, rather below normal in mus- cular development, intellectual rather than motor, but painstaking in effort. No. 10. well developed, has good motor control, but is a little impulsive. No. 11, underdeveloped, weak in both mental and physical control, attention wandering. No. 12, slightly undersize," but in fair physical condi- tion, very impulsive and spasmodic. Table 11 shows the results for each boy, and Chart II the average result for the group. 84 atn'X g § o OS o 00 K jtoBjnooy s s ?2 ajBQ CO -* w 00 T-H F-l 3"I!i 1-t ft CO o o IN 1-H XoBjnoov cm s CO IN S CD a^UQ -* >o 00 OS o i-H i-H 1—1 auJiX s o OS S s jCoBjnooy g {2 E: g' OS 00 ajBQ s N « 00 OS siuii ^ g § S K o jioBjnoov IN 1—1 IN 00 00 IN OJ a^BQ IN CT) IM CO ■* la aoJJX O OS K 8 o OS yCDBjnoov 00 CO 00 00 o OS OS os a}Bci 00 OS o rH IN r-l a^JX o OJ o O) o o OS o OS XoBinoov IN S 1-1 to § t2 a»Ba a o I-l 1-H to 1— 1 00 o .-I rH rt 1-C .5 bn B S O J5 •n c n HH Ji V A 3 bo M H V DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTROL 85 Chart II, showing average increase in accuracy and average lowering of time for the six boys reported in Table II. For each of these six subjects, as well as for the others of the groups, records were taken on the kymo- graph showing the degree of, and fluctuations in, the hand grip during the progress of the exercise. Plate I gives typical examples of the records of the work of the boys sawing with the right hand. To interpret the tracings it is necessary to know that in each one the more pronounced wave represents the actual sawing, the slight wave or nearly straight part of the line indicates the interval between finishing one cut and beginning the next. The tracings indicate clearly the way in which the 86 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTROL 87 ^° u >>o bo rt O "1 ■t=r 0« (M 0 t^ lO 00 iM CO (N »C CO in M in CO t~ -* (N a> t^ CD i-H i-t i-t 00 O ^ r^ CO (N r-l 1— 1 I— 1 IN (N C^ 1^ (N in in in 1* !■ -ON ?S3X in iM CO CO t-t 15.5 16.2 14.2 00 iC CO cOI> -^ 15.7 14 14.5 26 24.3 21.5 in in t^ in CO 00 i> iniN CO ifl t^ in t^ w CO in (N lOt^iO CD CO ^ 00 CD in 1— 1 .-* T-l ooco -^ 00 T)i t~ rH 00 CO COIM (M (^ (M CO to '^ CO S omssx CO >o in 1-1 16.5 15.8 ' 12.3 t^ t* 00 l> CO CO 16.3 13 18.7 27.5 30 19.2 CO CM 00 CO O lO CO CO o z p 2d <: E3 in-i o CO ■* IN 1-1 ,-H ^ iO CO(N 00 ooo OO in CO CO 1-1 O lO o CO CO CO -;t< (N -1 §23 00 00 ic CD (N 00 t-t i-i r-4 o in o ■* cocq CD CO -^ 00 IM .-1 00 ic»o I-H I-H 1-t 1— t 00-* o ^ r-l CJ >n o o CO CO 1-1 O CM O CO ■0 O (M r-i Ci» t-H 00 "* CO in o 00 .-1 O) 1-1 ooo w Tt< 0^ o ■?. ^ o OJ n lu M c rt -G c« bo c bo .5-5 bD„- C en 3 « §* c c g "■5 " OJ C -=•£ c3 . ?■? I— I Q, OJ HH >+- O I— I o ^ « lU ^ D.t! •I-t *^ DEVELOPMENT OF MOTOR CONTKOL 99 the arm resting but the hand unsupported, (3) with both hand and arm unsupported. Then a fifth test was made in writing upon the blackboard. As in the preceding series six readings of the ten- sion were taken in each case, and the average has been placed in the table. The three lines of figures opposite each subject number represent the three modes of writing enumerated above. Comparing these three lines in each case it will be seen that free-arm writing involves less finger grip on the writing instrument than any other method, and that when the hand as well as the arm rests the tension is greatest. Similarly comparing the five columns, it will be seen that the easiest means of writing for these children was with crayon upon the blackboard, and that the muscular tension is much greater when writing with either a fine pen or a sharp, hard pencil than with a broad pen or broad, soft pencil. A final series of exercises was devised as a simple test of the relative fatigue resulting from five minutes continuous, rapid writing, first, with pen upon paper, and second, with crayon upon the blackboard. The matter written was in all cases a short sentence, and each subject wrote the same sentence in each test. All were instructed to write as rapidly as possible consistent with legibility. The dynamometer test was taken immediately before each writing exercise and again immediately after the writing. The results are given in Table V. 100 MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES O 1- 1° < 111 5-0 111 g| It i 17 9 15 27.2 18.6 31.3 24.5 24 18.2 31.5 26 6 Fair 16,3 18.9 15.5 17.2 7 18 9 14 33.3 26.2 34.6 28 31.2 27 35 31.6 Good 15 20.3 14.6 21.9 12.5 19 9 13 9.9 8 15.2 11.6 14.9 10.3 11.5 11.6 Poor 11.3 9.3 8.2 10.2 8 20 9 13 45 46.3 44.5 42.3 41 38.6 39.6 34.5 Poor 26.3 31.2 31.6 34.9 16.3 21 8 16 15.9 11.6 16.9 14.5 14.5 12.2 15.6 13.2 Good 10.9 9.6 9.9 9.2 7 22 8 14 7.9 4 10.6 7.5 8.6 7.3 11.5 6 Good 5.9 6.2 5 7.2 6 23 8 14 12.5 14.3 14.6 13 12 10.2 13.6 11.5 Fair 11.5 13.2 10.3 12.3 14 24 8 13 40.5 42 42.3 48 37.3 41.5 41.5 38 Poor 48 44.2 36.6 38.5 24 Table IV. Showing the comparative muscular tension in three modes of writing with four different instruments, and in black- board writing. See opposite page. MANUAL ARTS AND INDUSTRIES 101 1 '3 s> Pen Writing Blaolcboard Writing i