solid forms. Let me state again that the teacher does not tell the pupils how to draw, or how to make these remarkable forms. The instruction given chiefly relates to the principles represented on the charts that are used as the teacher's guide. That instruction leads the pupils to think; and it frequently happens after the lesson, that one thoughtful boy asks for some paper to take home. In a few days he brings in a drawing, and the solid which it will form when the paper is folded. Other boys in his class examine these; they ask for paper, and bring modified drawings and solid forms, the result of their own thinking. In this manner they form octahedrons, decahedrons, etc., with other figures, having corresponding bases, resting on their sides.

This is a flat drawing, representing the six faces of a cube in the center; and drawings of six truncated pyramids, with six small cubes to rest on their tops. Here is the form which the boy made by cutting, folding, and pasting this single piece of paper. I doubt whether the teacher knew what the drawing represented, when the boy first showed it. I do not know what to call the solid form. The principal of this school informed me that the boys frequently bring these inventions—as the result of combining the forms which they have been taught to draw.

Here are several solid forms. a cone and a truncated cone, a pyramid and a truncated pyramid, cylinder, prisms, etc., which were drawn flat, to measurement, so that each should be of exactly the same height when finished; as you may see by the card which I place on the top of them, [illustrating.] These were made by the boys of the first grade in the grammar school.

MR. WOODWARD: What do you mean by first grade?

MR. CALKINS: The highest grade in the school. These pupils had probably been in school, including both the primary and grammar departments, less than eight years.

The specimens of work now before you were made by the pupils in the three higher grades of the school. The memorandum on this remarkable specimen [exhibiting] states that the boy who made it was fourteen years and five months old; that the plan was original with him; and that it was completed without assistance, and not shown to the teacher until completed. Similar statements could be made concerning much of this work.

Please to remember that these pupils are only two years old in the elementary steps of manual training.

MR. RICHARDS, of Washington, D. C.: Before a boy makes one of those forms, does he draw all the parts of it on one piece of paper?

MR. CALKINS: Yes; each form is drawn complete on one piece of paper. MR. RICHARDS: Did the boys stick any parts of them together before the drawing was finished?

MR. CALKINS: In doing this work, the pupil first thinks what he is going to represent, and how to do it; then he makes the drawing complete in all its parts, on one piece of paper; then cuts, folds, and pastes it. No cutting, folding or pasting is done until the drawing has been completed.

MR. RICHARDS: How much of this work of cutting, folding and pasting is done in the school-room?

MR. CALKINS: The specimens which you see before you are the products of voluntary work, and they were made by the pupils at their homes and brought to the school to let the teacher see what they could do.

MR. WOODWARD: Can the boys do anything else?

MR. CALKINS: Yes; they make the drawings for their own shop-work. Sometimes they are given paper, pencil and measure, and requested to observe a simple part of machinery, to measure, make notes, then to draw it to a scale. They can draw a simple flower or fruit, then make a model of it in clay. They make models of maps in their study of geography. They learn to think about what they see and do. One day I asked the principal of this school whether or not the pupils lose anything in arithmetic by spending from two to two and one-half hours each week in manual-training work. He replied, "They do not have as much practice in arithmetic as the pupils did before this course was begun, but I believe they learn to think about arithmetic better than they did before."

Finding that the class then before me was studying decimal fractions, I gave them two or three examples, one of which was— "Boys, please add the following numbers: five and three-fourths, twenty-five hundredths, forty-seven forty-sevenths, two and one-half, five-tenths, four and seventy-five hundredths, one-fourth, fifteen-sixteenths, and seventeen-sixteenths." The teacher said, "I never gave any like that." I replied, "I did not suppose that you had; I wish to see how well the boys think." The boys were soon at work, and in a very short time the majority of them indicated that they were ready to give the result. Noticing a boy still earnestly at work, I inquired, “What are you trying to do?" He replied, "I want a common denominator.” Other boys raised hands, and one said, "I know that 1 and 1 make two, and I put down two; and that four and and make five, and I put down the whole numbers." Other pupils indicated that they thought of the whole numbers represented by the fractions, and put down the results of the several combinations. The correct result was not obtained by all of the class, but the manner in which the boys handled the examples gave evidence that they were learning to think in a practical way.

As another evidence that the boys are trying to learn how to do something besides making these remarkable forms, the principal informed me a few days ago that six or eight of the boys in the highest class of this grammar school wanted to get into architects' offices, or places where they would have mechanical drawing to do, instead of blacking shoes and selling papers. We believe that the course of instruction now in operation in the public schools of New York is leading the pupils to think; that it is training them to use their hands also, and generally broadening their development.

In conclusion, I will add: When the experiment with the manual-training course had been in operation about two years in the schools selected for this

purpose, inquiries were made relative to its effects on the general course of instruction in those schools. The evidence obtained from them was so satisfactory that the Board of Education decided that the manual-training course, essentially, (excepting the provisions for clay-modeling, shop-work, and cooking,) should be introduced into all the primary and grammar schools under its care, beginning with last February. Now the course of instruction for all the public schools of New York city includes the elementary training of this feature of education.

Should any of you care to examine more closely these paper specimens of pupils' work that I have shown you, you are invited to come to the platform, at the close of this session, to get some of them to take home with you.

MANUAL TRAINING IN GRAMMAR GRADES.

JOHN E. BRADLEY, MINNESOTA.

Progressive movements are often misunderstood. The mind is slow to grasp great truths, and does not comprehend them in their full significance till educated, step by step, to understand them. Testing their value by false standards, we unduly exalt, or prematurely reject them. We unconsciously distort or misinterpret facts, and lean in our conclusions towards preconceived opinions. So largely are we the creatures of education and environment, that we can only hope to see truth-not through the prism of prejudice, but in its own white and unbroken light-by patient study of all its details. Before considering, therefore, what branches of manual training shall be attempted in grammar grades, we need to determine what aim and purpose we wish to promote.

The term, manual training, carries widely different meanings to different persons. One sees in it the subversion of our educational system, to empiricism and a fruitless attempt to develop the mechanical industries, instead of the elements of manhood. To another, it means the emancipation of the schools from formalism, the infusion of vitality into their work, and the solution of great social problems. Too much has been claimed for manual training by enthusiastic advocates. Groundless fears and objections have been raised by its opponents. Our present need is a true estimate. It will be my purpose in this paper, first, to state some of the ends aimed at in manual training; and, second, to offer a few practical suggestions on its incorporation into the regular work of the schools, looking at the subject, not with the eyes of the enthusiast and specialist, but from the standpoint of the teacher, wishing to maintain due proportion in educational work, and to give due emphasis to that which is most important.

1. First, then, the aim in manual training is, as the term implies, the discipline of the hand. Why should this end be ignored in a symmetrical education? Are the uses of the hand unworthy of consideration? Does its mechanism indicate that this member of the human body is of small account? The anatomist tells us of the thirty bones in its framework; their marvelous adjustment, and the facility with which the thumb may be brought in contact with each of the fingers. He describes its arteries and veins, and its net-work of beautiful ribbons and bands, twenty of which must unite, we are told, to produce the slightest movement of one of the fingers. But how little can he tell us of its countless nerves, with their facile control of every muscle and joint; and who shall explain the infinite number and variety of messages transmitted from the finger-tips to the centers of thought and volition? or who shall make known the secret of their prompt response to the mandates of the will? Sir Charles Bell, reflecting upon these things in his Bridgewater treatise, declared himself o'erwhelmed with the evidence which they afford of the "wisdom, goodness, and power of the Creator." Do we need arguments to convince us that such an organ should be developed and perfected? or that we should be permitted to enjoy its best service and use?

If, now, it be maintained that nature will take care of the development of the hand, and that our trouble is unnecessary, I reply that the assumption is as gratuitous as it would be to assume that nature will take care of the training of the brain. No mental faculty or bodily organ improves more rapidly under cultivation than the hand. None is more in need of training. Note the clumsy weakness of the little fingers as they attempt the first exercises in paper-folding or drawing. See how awkwardly the childish hand grasps its first pen. Let a few years elapse, and observe the result of judicious training. The handwriting is regular and legible; the drawing is correct, and begins to be artistic; while the manipulation in paper-work, needle-work, and claymodeling commands our admiration. Every movement is firm and graceful. Can anyone doubt that the results of hand-training in such children have. fully kept pace with the results of intellectual training? Look a few years later at the products of higher manual training. Compare the specimens of carpentry, wood-carving and metal-work with the original essays and mathematical demonstrations in the high school. Which affords the greater evidence of progress and improvement? Can any reason be assigned for giving exclusive attention to the brain to the neglect of the hand in our educational work?

2. Again, the aim of manual training is the education of the eye. What has been said concerning the discipline of the hand is equally applicable to the training of the eye. We are dependent upon it for our ideas of color, form, and symmetry; and these ideas are among the most practical and intimate to our daily life of any that we possess. As the eye is trained, these ideas become definite and correct.

Few of us realize the improvement of which the organ of sight is sus

ceptible under specific training. The sailor will clearly discern a distant ship and count her masts before the landsman can discern the slightest speck. The lace-weaver, while passing hundreds of bobbins over and under one another with marvelous rapidity, will detect at once the slightest defect, and catch up a stitch or tie a knot with almost instantaneous celerity, when the ordinary observer will hardly see what has been done. Engravers at first work with a glass, but their sight improves with their skill, until at length they execute the most difficult and delicate work with the eye unaided. So admirably does Nature respond, in such cases, to the demands made upon her for more exact and perfect work! What a pity that such a wonderful piece of mechanism as the eye should render us only half of the service of which it is capable!

3. Thus far we have spoken of the hand and the eye as bodily organs. Let us now consider them as instruments of the mind.

"Nature, crescent, does not grow alone

In thews and bulk; but as the temple waxes,

The inward service of the mind and soul

Grows wide withal."

Here we reach the most important end in objective teaching. The value of manual exercises is to be determined principally by their influence upon the mind. The ultimate aim is educational. Give the child possession and control of all his powers. In so far as the mental is higher than the physical nature, it is entitled to permanent consideration. The supreme end of manual training, as of all education, is the harmonious developmeut of the entire human being. Manual dexterity is an indication of a certain kind of mental power; and the mental power is developed along with the dexterity. When the dexterity is fully established, the mental growth also ceases, and the exercises should be changed.

Our third aim, then, in manual training is the education of the perceptive powers and the formation of clear and correct habits of thought. Whatever theory we may hold with reference to the higher problems of philosophy, all will agree that there can be no knowledge where there has been no basis in perception. Our aim in educational processes is to furnish such materials through the avenues of sense as will cause the mental faculties to act with ease and vigor. In education, seeing is more than believing; it is the beginning of knowledge. The development of intellectual power can only be secured by supplying the materials for intellectual activity. The perceptive operations precede other forms of mental action. The growth of a child's mind is like the opening of a flower; one after another its faculties unfold and expand, each in its proper order. It is impossible to reverse this order, and to attempt to do so, in our educational work, is like tearing open the bud in a vain attempt to produce a premature blossom.

Supply the perceptive powers, then, with abundant materials during the period of their development. Make the conditions favorable, and the growth