MANUAL TRAINING. This term, in spite of considerable criticism, has come to be gencr ally applied to the use of constructive hand work in the schools, as a feature of general education. 'the term is broadly used to include the work of both boys and girls in various materials, in which case instruction in domestic art and science is understood, but it is often used in a narrower sense as relating only to the work with tools commonly given to boys.
The earliest official recognition of manual training as a legitimate part of school work was obtained in European countries. As early as 1858, l uo Cygnams organized a plan of manual training for the primary schools of Finland, and in 1866 instruction in some branch of manual work was made compulsory in the training col leges for male teachers in that country, and in all primary schools for boys in country districts. Sweden is. however, the country which con tributed most toward the early development of manual training, and from which has come the largest influence in its propagation. In 1872 the Government reached the conclusion that schools for instruction in Sloyd were neee,ary to counteract the tendeney toward concentration in cities, and the decline of the old home indus tries. The schools first established had natu rally an economic rather than an educational significance. This was changed, however, as the movement grew, until a thoroughly organized scheme of educational tool work for boys between twelve and fifteen years of age was developed. In 1877 the work was introduced into the folk school, and the Government granted aid in sup port of the instruction. In 1897 it is reported that Sloyd instruction was given in about 2000 schools. The Sloyd Seminarium at Nails, estab lished in 1874 under the direction of Otto Solo man, has not only been an active and stimulating force in the development. of the work in Sweden, but has exercised a far-reaehing influence upon the thought and practice of other countries. At present Sloyd is taught in all the regular normal schools of the emintry.
In France manual training was made obliga tory in the elemwmc•y primary schools by the law of 1882. The official programme for manual training is very complete and thorough, but its provisions are only partially realized because of the failure of communes to provide workshops, and of the insufficient supply of trained teachers. In Paris one hundred and twenty-four schools were equipped With wOrksiuopS in 1897-98, and at this time one-third of the regular teachers in the city schools 11:1(1 taken normal courses in manual training. A feature of the French work is the variety of materials and processes used, and the fact that hand-work instruction has been planned for every grade of the elementary pri mary school.
Germany, although the seat of a very active propaganda issuing from the German Association for Manual Training for Bo•s. has done very little toward ineorporating manual training with the regular work of the eoilwnou schools. A large number of workshops have been established in various parts of the Empire. supported mainly by individuals and societies, in which pupils of the public schools are given out of school hours. The edueational ministries of Prussia, Saxony, and Baden now make annual eontributions in aid of this instruction. but the work is obligatory in only a very few places. Manual work for girls, on the other hand, has been for a long time a compulsory branch of in struction in the common schools of Germany. The Manual Training Seminary at Leipzig, founded in 1887 by the Association for 'Manual Training for Boys, under the leadership of Dr. Waldemar Gotze, is the active centre of the movement, and the main institution for the training of teachers.
The history of manual training in the United States involves both the development of the idea and the development of practice. Expressions of the layman's point of view are presented in such books as the following: Dam, Manual Train ing (London, 1886) : :McArthur, Education in its Relation to Manual Industry (New York, 1884) ; .hteobson. Ilighcr Ground (Chicago, 1SSS ). In the tield of practice. little of a purely educational character appeared before 1878, at which time the Workingman's School was founded by the Ethical Culture Society of New York. This in stitution comprised a kindergarten and an ele mentary school, in which manual work formed from the first a vital and important part of the educational scheme. The general movement, however, took its large beginning, as has been the case with so many educational movements, at the top instead of the bottom of the school system. In 1380, through the efforts of Dr. Calvin A. •Woodward, the Saint Louis Manual Training School was opened in connection with Washington University. The work of this school attracted wide attention, and its success led to the speedy organization of similar schools in other large cities: Chicago. Baltimore, and Toledo, 1884; Philadelphia, 1835; Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Omaha. 1336. The first provision for girls' work in these schools was made in the ease of the Toledo school, and included sewing. dressmaking, millinery. and cooking. In 1S95 the Massachu setts Legislature, under the lead of the State Board of Ed neat ion, made it obligatory upon every city- in the State of 30,000 or more inhab itants to establish and maintain manual training in a high school.