MANUAL V.MENTAL LABOR

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1495, 12 January 1885, Page 2

MANUAL V.MENTAL LABOR

An American paper says: — " There is almost an entire absance of American

I boys learning trades. Formerly the earpetners, the m-wons, the printers, and the nrirnn smiths, formed the i backboneof New England Society. To '' day, few boys Jof American parents j are becoming printers, still less masons and hardly any carpenters, or blacki smiths. Where eonld we now find the j village blacksmith of fifty y ars ago, ! who on week days swings his heavy I sledge, and on Snnday goes to church to listen to his daughter's voice singing in the village choir? Ameri.:*n »v>ys seem averse to soiling their hands. Tuey despise overalls and frocks, and d-aire occupation in which they can ! wear ctifls. and sport a Rhine stone I pebble on an immaculate ihirt front ! Hence the solid and substantial trade given up to boys of foreign prent»ge, Americans are crowding into cferlnhips of various kinds, where there is little opportunity to display natural abilities and small chance of promotion or of larsre profits. We cannot see why the calling of any mechanic, l»e he black smith or bricklayer, is lower th*n that of a dry goods clerk or telegraph operator. Only by one criterion can it be considered so, and that is the criterion of clothes. A trade rcquira: a better physiqne. steadier ha'wts, and larger mental power. It giVet greater opportnnites for the exercise of special talents; it gives better opportunities for advancement Yet a hundred American boys seek a clerkship where one seeks a trade, and the reasons for the choice are not creditable. It is an important question whether our sys tern of public schools is no* in a weas nro responsible for this state of affair*, As a system, it educates the youth of both sexes directly away from all manual exercise. It is an important educational problem whether we are not training the memory at the expanto of the preceptive faculties The -rammer tahoolt of America throw l»oys and girls of fourteen, and the high schools beys and girls of eighteeu

out i Jta the world, n^ o v .» i»n the U'a«t tiaiiiiug in luanaa! pn S |;'.», bat, in modt cases, with t .Ir-j.j^d aversion to; them. Ther- is a eill now f*>r .Vint aii^iii; lie •,- im- i *\ le lo'.Vtir ed'-icuioti, edu^atiou >f ii^ tiie lia:i<l; a.i etliu-atioii which stall fit I '>«>*■♦ to hiij.lk: th r pU,,eas w^ll as the yinlsi^k. h;i,| #ik to d-*te.-t the _a w ..f * ii- ivy Hit-to.-iv i n ag* tence Fn p j .|jo s;hi>ols ar^ largely Mli > » i Jin .jh working people Ni.^ re ha -»r" t in ire l,»y S a .d girl* «■;,... . , «• ii 1.1.1 oa n, wi.l I* oWli^l v n '.h „v T i-, <t ;id uuto u 9 ....... I- „,...... O f p.^,,.,J tf tM4t tfie I -J '1«» not ii;.,i ;he p i lie "* ll ■> --A to tbf veeiis of t.i-iir cu.U .. . i v hive th- opto>: of pvi-*ai,«-schools and private tutors, the pjor li^ve no .such option. If the public ac ioo'h ar« not ad.pied r,» \r th;ir Quills, for iif if the children lQiiSk .suffv.