Lower Technical Education.

country that, almost invariably, the technical schools have to satisfy public opinion that the course of studies which they provide is calculated to promote mental, moral, and intellectual development, as well as mere wage-earning capacity. Not the least remarkable among such institutions are the Manual Training Schools. The type which they represent cannot be said to exist in England.

The Manual Training Schools are not technical schools, in the sense that they aim at teaching or even preparing for special trades or professions. "It is really," says Mr. J. H. Reynolds, "the principle and practice of the Kindergarten, concerning the value and necessity of which there is no longer any question amongst American educationists, carried forward through the later years of school life. It is 'learning by doing,' and is fast becoming a recognized principle in school methods throughout the States." It appears, indeed, that this form of education is not based on any utilitarian ideas. We find little trace of that desire which we find nearer home to employ educational principles in excuse of systems which have been built up for purely utilitarian purposes. The Manual Training Schools of America are an attempt to prove that "learning by doing" is the best means of promoting natural development. Their influence has been

great, and, thanks to their example, there are now few secondary schools which do not devote some time to manual training and also to industrial drawing. The latter study has been defined by an American as "an orderly progressive course of drawing, based on geometry." As showing the increase of manual training in the schools of America, the following figures, taken from the statistics of the National Bureau of Education, are instructive :-In 1890 reports were given of 37 cities; in 1894, of 93 cities; in 1896, of 121 cities; and in 1898, of 146 cities in the schools of which manual training was taught.

Some of these Manual Training Schools form departments of institutes embracing wider general aims. In the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn-another of the American institutions which owes its origin to individual munificence and enterprise - the Manual Training High School forms but one of the four sections of educational provision. The work of this institute has been classified as follows:

Ist. Education, pure and simple, in the Manual Training High School.

2nd. Normal training in preparing a student to become a teacher (a) in the department of Fine Arts, (b) the department of Domestic Art and Science, (c) in the department of Science and Technology, (d) in the department of Kindergarten.

Manual Training Schools.

3rd. Technical or special training to secure practical skill and knowledge in the Industrial and Domestic Arts.

4th. Opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of, and direction in, special subjects relating to domestic, social, financial, and philanthropic interests.

A full description of this institute will be found in the report presented by Mr. J. H. Reynolds to the Technical Instruction Committee of the city of Manchester, embodying an account of his visit in April and May, 1898, to technical colleges, institutions, schools, libraries, museums and works in the United States and Canada. In this report we have a survey of the great movement in the United States for the promotion of industry through education. It places us under a further debt of gratitude to the city of Manchester. It should be read by all those who are interested in the progress of the great Western democracy.

CHAPTER VII.

CONCLUSIONS.

IN the preceding pages an attempt has been made to show that our foremost rivals in the markets of the world have built up national systems of education, in which full allowance has been made. for the claims of industry and commerce. We have probably as many schools as any country, and no doubt our educational expenditure from all sources is equal to that of any of the three peoples with whom we have dealt; but with us there is a total absence of that common purpose which can alone create a system out of a number of independent efforts, and in no sense of the word can we be said to possess a national system of education.

Germany is the country which presents to our view the best organized of educational systems; a national system in the highest sense of the term, since it was created in response to the needs of a nation which was brought to its knees before foreign rivalry. This system was designed in no narrow

Conclusions.

or one-sided spirit, for on it was seen to depend the upraising of the whole nation, and its future development in every branch of human activity on which man may depend for his existence, his comfort, and his happiness. Prussia, with that central guidance and supervision which can alone ensure a common aim throughout the whole system, has been able to insist on the due recognition in every kind of school of the scientific principles underlying education; and she has been in a position, thanks to her achievements in the interests of the whole Empire, to offer an example to the other German States, who have imitated what was best in her school organization. Taking a wide and general view of the schools of Germany, the impression forces itself upon the mind that there is less special education than in any other country; that the object of Germany has rather been, so to develop each man that he may be ready to perform, to the utmost of his ability, those duties which his country demands of him. And thus he is not, in the first place, a chemist, a manufacturer or a tradesman ; but a German and a man, who in both capacities has reached the highest point of development of which he is capable. His general education may have ceased at the age of fourteen, when he left the primary school, or it may have been continued until the age of sixteen or nineteen in the secondary school. In the former case, as far as it is possible