17

E.—ld.

ence how able and useful a servant the hand may become when we are willing to give it regular exercise. We will follow the example of the pupils in the class at Emden, who have set themselves the task of making practical researches through all parts of Germany, showing them by experiment how far the system of Clauson Kaas is suited in the schools of the people. In order to realise precisely the manner in which manual work is given to children, I have visited some schools where this instruction is put in practice. Thus at Dresden there exists a school of manual work attached to one of the communal schools of that town. The founding of this establishment is mainly due to Dr. Birch-Hirschfeld, who, in 1880, made a trip to Sweden and Norway, where, thanks to the kindness of M. Ahlborn, of Stockholm, and of MM. Abrahamson and Salomon, of Naiis, he had the opportunity of studying closely the schools of manual work for boys. The result was that the Gemeinniitzige Gesellschaft of Leipsic opened on the 6th October, 1880, a school of work under the direction of Dr. Woldemar Gotze, and that in the month of May, 1881, the Gemeinnutziger Verein inaugurated at Dresden a school for pasteboard-work and woodwork. But where was any one capable of teaching these things to be found ? Four schoolmasters voluntarily undertook to go to a binder and a carpenter and make themselves conversant with the work. This school, however, was not opened for the benefit of poor children, for each child had to pay two marks (2fr. 50c.) a month, of which one mark and a half was for the teacher and half a mark for the materials. At the opening of the school forty-seven pupils were already enrolled ; they were divided into five groups, each of which had two hours' work a week. Thirteen poor children were also allowed to share in the lessons gratuitously. To-day the school counts eightynine pupils arranged in eight sections. The objects made by these children attracted my attention particularly ; they were for sport, for school, and for home use. I saw there benches, stilts, boxes, bootjacks, plant-stands, cameravobscurse, almanacs, money-boxes, pen-cases, manuscript-books, and geometrical figures. All the articles made remain the property of the children. This enterprise is a simple experiment designed to ascertain in what manner this school will answer the proposed end, and, above all, what would be the pernicious consequences that manual work might involve. The result, up to the present, is most favourable. The pupils attend their lessons with the greatest punctuality, work with zeal and application, and show once more that the desire to create, and to embody a thought in a tangible object, is innate in a child. The Dresden school does not desire that the knowledge acquired should serve as a preparation for any definite . trade, nor that the articles manufactured should be exposed for sale. It sees in work only a means of exercising the eye, of giving skill and dexterity to the hand, of accustoming the child to perform all work carefully ; of procuring for him, by the making of useful objects, a source of pleasure—in short, of inspiring him with love both for work and for the workman. I was no less agreeably surprised when I visited the school of manual work belonging to M. Emile Yon Schenckendorff, at Gorlitz, in Silesia. This noble friend of the people was so impressed with the great educational importance of manual work, that he erected a most beautiful school at Gorlitz, and contributed much towards a better knowledge of the true character of manual work not only by his writings, but also by the lectures he delivered in all parts of Germany. The direction of this school has been intrusted to M. Neumann, a student of the course at Emden. The school was opened on the 3rd of March, 1881, and commenced with sixty pupils separated into four groups. The first of these groups was made up of fifteen teachers, the throe other groups were composed each of fifteen pupils of thirteen years of age, all pupils from the primary and middle schools in Gorlitz. In the first year the school met with much opposition, but when people were convinced that it was in no way prejudicial to trade, they manifested a different disposition. The school is to-day attended by 120 scholars, who all receive gratuitously four hours' lessons a week. The expenses, including the salary of the four masters, do not exceed 1,800 marks a year. The school comprises only scholars from the upper classes of various schools in Gorlitz. M. Yon Schenckendorff has hopes, however, of ultimately extending his establishment to such a degree that children will come to be admitted there at eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven years of age, and to make manual work a sequel to the exercises of Froebel. M. Yon Schenckendorff has sought by preference occupations which demand little strength and few tools, and have at the same time great educational value, and he has found them in modelling, pasteboard-work, and wood-carving. The objection has been raised against him that modelling is impossible without a certain knowledge of drawing, to which he replies that he has seen in Sweden and Southern Germany little peasants who were modelling with great art without ever having learnt to draw. However that may be, I have been very much astonished to see the taste with which the pupils of the Gorlitz school modelled pretty leaves without being great draughtsmen. For the rest, everything done in that school is simple but well executed. It is with good right that it has taken for its motto, " Was dv ihust, thu' gut, thu' ganz." It is intended to add to the school materials some benches for carpentry. What more am Ito say of other schools I have visited ? Here there is a wish for occupation in carpentry alone, there this kind of work is found to be beyond the strength of a child ; in some schools only pupils who pay are admitted to the manual work, in others the desire is that poor children only should benefit by them. Everywhere, in short, we see the desire arising to take part in the solution of the problem of ascertaining whether manual work can be introduced into the school, and in what manner that introduction should take place. The course at Dresden had been opened but a few days when the unfavourable sentence passed on manual work by the fourth General Assembly of German schoolmasters arrived from Cassel. The following is the motion adopted by this Assembly : "I. The meeting fully appreciates the attempts made—doubtless with good intentions —to establish schools of work, designed to make a larger number of children practical and active men, and thus to save them from a demoralising career. 11. Nevertheless, whilst recognising the good intention of these attempts, it is important to insist on the following points : (a.) Instruction in manual work has not for our youth the same importance that must perhaps necessarily attach to it in the northern part of the country, 3—E. Id.