PRESIDENT HOMER H. SEERLEY (in closing the discussion)—I hardly think it best to prolong this discussion, altho I desire to express my appreciation of the courtesy extended. I had purposed to not make any reply to criticism upon the paper I previously read, because I have no doubt of its shortcomings. However, I am glad to express my pleasure at the unbounded optimism of my friend President Cook. He is remarkable in being able to be optimistic in whatever condition he finds himself officially. "Whatever is is best" is a good motto for all of us to have who are workers for the American people. We do what we can much more than what we would. Each has his environment of statutes and customs to more or less regulate his work, and no state normal school in the Union is able to decline to accept the conditions and limitations thus imposed. President Cook is optimistic regarding the normal-school plans of Illinois, and I am just as optimistic regarding the plans of Iowa. We certainly cannot, therefore, agree; neither do we need to do so nor care to do so, as we can respect the efforts of each other despite these differences of opinion.

I think the state normal school ought to be a training school in which all kinds of teachers needed by all grades of public schools can be prepared. I believe in the training of teachers for primary and elementary grades, and Iowa is busily doing this very thing. It is certainly the function of the normal school to do such work, but that cannot be its sole function, as there is no reason that is worthy of the name that excludes a normal school from training all kinds of special teachers and all varieties of high-school teachers if the state sees fit to properly support and equip such departments as are necessary. The college and the university have no particular right to claim those higher lines of public-school work by virtue of their individual ownership. The right kind of a normal school can even make a better preparation for teachers of Latin, science, history, aud other subjects in secondary schools, if scholarship is recognized as a part of the lawful work of the normal school, than can now be secured in any college or university as at present managed, as the training in teaching and the professional instruction possible have much to do in the development of the power and the spirit of the teacher.

My claim is, therefore, that the normal school can be a greater and more useful school for the state than most of those who have spoken have thought; and furthermore, that it is the business of the normal school to occupy these neglected fields, as the states stand ready to give the buildings, the equipment, and the teachers to meet this larger service, if we but feel ourselves to be capable for the larger task. What the American people need to know is that these larger things are possible, and that we are ready to be their servants in every way that we can help the public schools. The normal schools need to put themselves upon such a basis that they are entitled to the respect and esteem of the public as being equivalent in utility and possibility to the best educational institutions in the land. That the people are more than ready to permit such expansion and development so as to make them great institutions is a fact. I have had such experience as to justify me in saying to you all: Come upon the platform of a greater service and demand such public support as will guarantee the most satisfactory success.

DEPARTMENT OF MANUAL TRAINING

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

FIRST SESSION.-WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1902

The Department met in the chapel of the Minnesota State University at 9:30 o'clock A. M., and was called to order by President Charles R. Richards, of the Teachers College, Columbia University, New York city.

After a vocal solo by Mrs. L. M. Park, Professor Arthur W. Richards, of the Ethical Culture Schools of New York city, presented a paper on the subject, "From the Practical to the Intellectual in the Shop."

J. E. Painter, supervisor of manual training, city schools, Minneapolis, Minn., read a paper on "The Field of Shop-Work in the Elementary Schools."

The following named were elected as officers for the ensuing year:

For President- C. F. Warner, of Springfield, Mass.

For Vice-President—J. E. Painter, of Minneapolis, Minn.

For Secretary-A. W. Richards, of New York, N. Y.

The department adjourned to Thursday afternoon, July 10.

SECOND SESSION.-THURSDAY, JULY 10

The Department met in the University chapel in joint session with the Department of Art Education, and was called to order at 2:30 P. M., President Richards in the chair.

Miss Gertrude Louise Hale sang a waltz song, "Nymphs and Fauns," Bemberg. The following papers were presented :

"Possibilities of Art in Relation to Manual Training," by Ernest F. Fenollosa, and "Practical Co-operation between Art and Manual Training," by Harold Peyser, instructor in manual training, public schools, New York city.

Discussion of the papers was opened by W. H. Hatch, superintendent of schools, Oak Park, Ill., who was followed by Homer H. Kingsley, superintendent of schools, Evanston, Ill.

After the discussion the joint session adjourned.

THIRD SESSION.-FRIDAY, JULY II

A round-table conference was held at 2:30 P. M., in the University chapel, to discuss the topic, "The Relation of Household Economics to Science in the High School."

Miss Lillie Collamore Smith, of the Brookline (Mass.) High School, presided at the conference and introduced the subjects for discussion.

The question of the relative value of cooking and other forms of hand work as compared with instruction in applied science was first taken up. The weight of opinion expressed was that actual constructive work with the hands is the natural road to the interests of high-school pupils, and represents the essential feature in any real develop. ment of knowledge and capacity in the field of household economics.

The conference then discussed the correlation of instruction in household economics with that in pure science. Many points of view were expressed, but the current of opinion was clearly toward denying the importance of a close correlation between instruction in the two subjects. The conference closed by adopting the following resolution:

Resolved, That in the opinion of this conference intimate correlation between instruction in household economics, especially in its early stages, and the teaching of pure science is not essential, and that a scheme of instruction in household economics can be most effectively arranged on the basis of its own subject-matter. CHARLES R. RICHARDS,

PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS

Acting Secretary.

FROM THE PRACTICAL ΤΟ

THE INTELLECTUAL
THE SHOP

IN

ARTHUR W. RICHARDS, ETHICAL CULTURE SCHOOls, new york, N. Y.

Let us think of the title of this paper as indicating a movement, not a goal, and as a larger world-movement not less than one of possible or desirable bearing upon the question of hand work in the school.

Looking about upon the activities of life, even as a citizen, does it not appear that progress in their conduct from religion and philosophy to the arts and industries is ever toward a greater intelligence concerning the processes and laws involved? And altho the outcome in present world affairs may seem chaotic and unsatisfactory, these have nevertheless a very natural and lawful descent from a past which with much fitness we may take seriously.

In the fabric of life it is with the weft thread cast by Bacon and the pattern then begun and yet in process which the present day has to do— the warp and woof of science, which has shown the outlines of an orderly world and the presence of an intelligence with which man feels some kin.

In no department of human affairs has this thread woven to greater effect than in the arts and industries of life, and the social and educational purport to man is not at all a clear and settled matter. It is, however, becoming plain that the whole fabric of life is affected, and that some adjustment is demanded of its beneficent institutions, even its schools.

Of the handwork of man especially is some adjustment of the vision now and then necessary if it is to be contemplated with due perspective.

The moderate and crude rule-of-thumb methods of the crafts and trades of old; the contentment of a son with the craft of his father; the simple, home-made paraphernalia of life, with its homely and human touch; and, finally, the leisurely day necessary to give this lingering touch --are fast dropping from the ways of life. Regret for this the author shares with many, yet the world ever moves on, and no artificial resurrec

tion of the arts and crafts of old will stay those real movements which are organic.

But the time is at hand when the arts and crafts of old, picturesque and human as was the art they gendered, do not represent or cover by a long way, either as to motive or matter, those constructive activities of man which are expressed thru the work of his hands.

Little wonder that the age of crafts and primitive forms of industry and the present age of steam and electricity show not immediately marked common factors. Man is, however, very much the man he was "a toolusing animal." Because his tools have become infinite and complex, and the forces subject to his intelligence surpass the highest flights of the imagination of his earlier day, shall we say, therefore, as we may no longer hail him as craftsman, that he is a less worthy kind?

This matter of values in differences of kind bothers us sometimes to balance, so often is it more of one than another kind with which we have dwelt. It was under such stress, in fact, that the several forms of hand work entered the school-thru the familar kinds, not thru philosophic considerations, from the technical school on the one hand and the kindergarten on the other, with an intermediary movement springing from and devoted to the home and household interests.

This latter movement there is some reason to think will move on under the pressure of the art and æsthetic interests into the arts and crafts point of view. If so, again will manual training fail, as it has in the past failed, to adequately represent in the school the workshop of the world as a social and civilizing factor in the life of man; for, failing to represent the workshop of industry and science, it fails to represent also many important human and world interests, and omits material of too great educational value.

This material which has come into the workshop of the world thru the impulse of science, discovery, and invention is, it is believed, of special significance to the child of the elementary school age, considering the needs of motive, intellect, and imagination.

From the workshops of industry and science come those servants and tools of man which are the attractive features of the world of action which he sees about him, the factors which give it "go," ever challenging his curiosity and understanding. But is this not just the appeal we would expect of these things to him who is in nature something of the man concerned with making the mysterious in nature subject to his intelligence?

More than this, is not the dominant impulse of the elementary school age an impulse to acquire a larger grasp of and intelligence about man's world and its activities? And tho we may leave by the wayside multitudes of ordinary impulses, are there not some large and dominating

impulses which we would hardly be justified in not considering, so much

w

do they seem to indicate something of "the nature of the living principle within" with which Plato would have us start, and so much is it necessary to consider them if we would "order their lives for the best", as is his injunction?

The question, then, of what material offers the most fitting food for these larger impulses is one of some importance, and it is purposed to consider here that material which science and invention have given to the workshop of the world in its significance to the needs of the elementary school, and in the several aspects first, as concerns the nature of the motives which it lends to the work; second, as concerns the intelligence which it lends to the activities; and, third, as concerns the qualities it lends to the imagination.

Considering the motives which may be associated with our handwork, the question is, what desires, what ends, shall we consider of most worth as the conscious impelling and directing agents of the activities, when valued according to the social, ethical, and intellectual life and purpose to which they lead? Have those superior worth in this direction which constantly seek the aesthetic, the beautiful, the emotional, or must this place be given to those which seek delight in the rational, the philosophic, the perception of purpose, law, and order in creation? Or shall the honors be divided between these two types?

Or, further, are these but exterior aspects of the same more fundamental thing, the human quality and import of which, if acquired thru either exterior form have much the same culture value? Knowledge for knowledge's sake is quite as sane and useful a proposition as "Art for art's sake," both art and knowledge in themselves being quite on equal terms until to humankind a difference in value and import is manifest. If we come to their subjective co-ordinates and consider knowledge, not in itself, but as leading to intelligence, exaltation, and inspiration thru a comprehension of something of the majesty of truth and order in creation, then it is hard to escape the feeling that we are on the borderland of the æsthetic, and if forbidden the word according to present-day usage, it is mainly because at present the field of the aesthetic has not its final and fixed limits.

However, it is not of much concern here as to whether they are or are not in the final analysis the same in kind or are covered by the same term, for it is desired but to present them here in opposition to indicate, as bearing upon the matter in hand, that there are motives which, thru other form and manner than that commonly assumed by those of the æsthetic, are to human-kind of much the same purport as to the social, intellectual, and culture values involved.

Of such bearing are those motives and aspirations which have kindled the imagination of and stirred to absorbing labor the man of science, discovery, and invention; and the results of these, if measured either in terms