Manual Training
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lines. Gardens, workshops, and treatment rooms should be provided,
and the work in every line should be under the direction of skilled
instructors.
The work should have a definite aim and should be thorough.
While every person needs some knowledge of different handicrafts, it
is indispensable that he become proficient in at least one. Every youth,
on leaving school, should have acquired a knowledge of some trade or
occupation by which, if need be, he may earn a livelihood.
The objection most often urged against industrial training in the
schools is the large outlay involved. But the object to be gained is
worthy of its cost. No other work committed to us is so important
as the training of the youth, and every outlay demanded for its right
accomplishment is means well spent.
Even from the viewpoint of financial results, the outlay required
for manual training would prove the truest economy. Multitudes of
our boys would thus be kept from the street corner and the groggery;
the expenditure for gardens, workshops, and baths would be more
than met by the saving on hospitals and reformatories. And the youth
themselves, trained to habits of industry, and skilled in lines of useful
and productive labor—who can estimate their value to society and to
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the nation?
As a relaxation from study, occupations pursued in the open air, and
affording exercise for the whole body, are the most beneficial. No line
of manual training is of more value than agriculture. A greater effort
should be made to create and to encourage an interest in agricultural
pursuits. Let the teacher call attention to what the Bible says about
agriculture: that it was God’s plan for man to till the earth; that the first
man, the ruler of the whole world, was given a garden to cultivate; and
that many of the world’s greatest men, its real nobility, have been tillers
of the soil. Show the opportunities in such a life. The wise man says,
“The king himself is served by the field.”
Ecclesiastes 5:9
. Of him
who cultivates the soil the Bible declares, “His God doth instruct him
to discretion, and doth teach him.”
Isaiah 28:26
. And again, “Whoso
keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof.”
Proverbs 27:18
. He
who earns his livelihood by agriculture escapes many temptations and
enjoys unnumbered privileges and blessings denied to those whose
work lies in the great cities. And in these days of mammoth trusts and
business competition, there are few who enjoy so real an independence