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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 78

Manual Training

page 83

Manual Training.

The ninth annual Conference of the National Association of Manual Training Teachers was held in the middle of last month at Sheffield. Perhaps to-day we are all convinced of the value of training in handicraft. Two things stand inthe way of translating conviction into action. In the first place, we are accustomed to rely upon the "Reader." It is so simple, so easy, and, above all, so cheap Sixty shilling "Readers." bought at the net price of sevenpence halfpenny, will last a class for years. And when the desire and the energy necessary for making a change have been aroused we are met by the cry of expense. If in our public elementary schools the nation would bear the cost of three teachers where at present there is one, other difficulties would soon be overcome. No one proposes to teach sixty, or even forty, children together in a workshop. It is m the multiplication of teachers that the real expense lies Reforms are not carried out in a moment; all that can be done at present is to continue to represent the need, and to trust to insistence and to time The brain centres controlling the hand and the faculty of speech are closely contiguous There is no ground for believing that the atrophy of the one will strengthen the other.