Theoretically, we believe it to be indisputable, that school E. and industrial train ing ought, for some time at least, to be conjoined. How to make them dove-tail into one another in practice, is one of the chief educational problems of the day. One step towards it has been made iu the half-time system enforced by act of parliament with regard to children employed in factories. Children may be employed as early as the age of 10 years, but all between the ages of 10 and 13 (or 14 if the child have not a certifi cate of educational proficiency) are limited to half-time daily either forenoon or after noon, or to whole-time every alternate day; nor can they be employed even in these ways but on condition of receiving three hours' schooling daily, or the usual school hours every alternate day. Experience has established the fact, that in proportion to the hours spent in school, these " half-timers" make more rapid progress than the whole day scholars; at the same time, whether they are destined to be factory-workers for life or not, they are acquiring habits of industry and manual dexterity which are of essen tial use in any future employment.
Industrial training is now conjoined, to a greater or less extent, with school• in almost all institutions for the E. of pauper children—parochial union schools, ragged schools, as well as in professedly industrial schools. See INDusTittAL SCHOOLS, RAGGED SCHOOLS, REFORMATORIES. The chief difficulty in this movement is to find fitting work. And here it may be observed, that the object is not to teach particular trades with a view to the boys following these in after-life; this, though it were desirable, would obviously be impracticable as a general system. The object is, to promote the health, to develop the muscles, and to induce habits of steady and patient endurance of work.
The industrial training of girls is of yet more urgent necessity than that of boys. The ordinary domestic operations involved in household management ought naturally to be learned at home under the guidance and example of the mother; and the object at school, in a right and normal state of things, would be to initiate the girls in things, in the way of improvements, that their several homes might not exhibit—to insure progress, in short. But unhappily, in the homes of the great mass of the operative population of these islands, the mother is at present quite unfit for this primary duty. The extension of the factory system of work, instead of the domestic, has revolution ized the domestic life of a great part of the operative population, and with our laissez faire policy in E., we have allowed a generation to spring up, in which a great part of the married women have lost whatever traditional housewifery their mothers might have had, and can neither cook, wash, nor sew. The consequence is, that the food of the household is unsavory, indigestible, innutritious, and at the same time unthrifty; while the whole menage has that character of untidiness and discomfort that often drives the husband to the pot-house. For girls of this class, there is needed a training in some public institution in the very elements of housewifery; while, for all classes, there is great need for instruction in a better style of cookery than that gen erally prevalent. The public mind has at last become awake to this necessity. and
domestic economy has been made an essential element in primary schools for girls in Great Britain. See DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT.
2. "Ilow to teach it."—It is a great error to suppose, that because a man knows a thing, he can therefore teach it. Teaching is one of the most difficult arts, and requires natural aptitude and acquired skill. The necessity of special study and practical train ing or apprenticeship to make a schoolmaster, is a discovery of recent date, and has given rise to teachers' seminaries or normal schools (q.v.), where they receive special instruction in the most approved methods of teaching, and practice in their application. It is to the greater atguaintance with xight methods, on the part of schoolmasters, that we are to look for the solution of one the .greatest difficulties—how, namely, to over take all the work that is necessary to be done in the school-period of life, without keep ing the learners too many hours a day at their tasks. As things are usually managed, very little of the time devoted to lessons is spent in actually learning anything what ever; as any one may satisfy himself by calling to mind how his own time was spent while seated on the school-benches. There is here a rich mine waiting to be worked— the gold-fields of future generations. It is not to be disputed, that three hours of hearty, spirited exertion will do more, in the way of learning, than is accomplished in six hours in most schools. The three hours thus set free would be clear gain; for time spent in trifling or in heartless fagging is utterly lost. The child is all the while plagued without being profited, and would be better employed in being happy in his own way. This matter of the happiness of the young has not yet received the attention it deserves in schemes of education. As Sidney Smith has well expressed it, "if you make them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence, by the memory of it;" so that while looking after the formation of other valuable habits, the educator must not over look the habit of happiness.
Increased economy of time in teaching, besides setting free sufficient time for play, would admit the more general introduction into school education of military drill (including gymnastics). This, in addition to its immediate purpose (see VOLUNTEERS), would be a most valuable aid in moral education, by promoting habits of prompt obedience, order, and politeness. On this subject, see Communications from Edwin Chadwick, l Esq., respecting Half-tirne and Military and Naval Drill, made to the education commission, and printed among parliamentary papers, 1861.
For further information on the subject of this article, see, in' addition to the refer ences already given, the heads INFANT SCHOOLS, EVENING SCHOOLS, MONITORIAL SYSTEM, PESTALOZZI, HAMILTONIAN SYSTEM, NATIONAL EDUCATION.