Bridgewater State University - Alpha Yearbook (Bridgewater, MA)

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Volume XI NORMAL OFFERING Page 21 effort and time that will be required to complete it, but with a confidence begotten of experience, that he can do it well. This is a very different sort of confidence from that which undertakes athing with the idea of finishing it with little effort because there has been no experience with the difliculties of shaping material. Manual training thus brings a sympathetic appreciation of the intelli- gence and labor entering into the planning and executing of the world's industrial work. Manual training also gives opportunity for a practical use of design. It should emphasize the truth that good design is not merely ornament added after a thing is made, but consists of the following elements : I. Well related proportions and shapes of necessary partsj 2. Excellent workmanship. 3. Such decoration as will unobtrusively emphasize the shape, structure, or significance of the object. Much of the beauty of a constructed object is in the relation of proportions of the necessary parts. For example, the greatest element of beauty in the front of a house is the relation of height to width, and the spacing of the windows and doors within the area. The feeling of satisfaction that arises because a piece of work is skillfully done is another large element in aesthetic pleasure. The addition of decoration helps, but is a much less important element than the other two. Manual training of the right sort is a necessary part of education for all, whatever the future occupation is to be. It also is the beginning of industrial education. The efficiency of any school system that does not include the manual arts may reasonably be questioned.

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Page zo NORMAL OFFERING -:Volume xr Manual Training. Walter Sargent, Director of Dmfwing and Manual T1'az'n1'fzg, Boston, Mass. HE purpose of education is to fit people for the world in QQ which they are to live, so that, to the fullest degree of 1 their capacity, they may understand it, be efficient forces in it, and enjoy it. An important part of human development has come through constructive work, through industries, through dealing at first hand with actual materials. To plan any useful piece of construction and carry it to completion so it is suited to its purpose and is a creditable piece of workmanship, requires clear thinking, and a concrete use of arithmetic, so exacting and necessary that mere book problems seem like phantoms in contrast. A childwhose arithmetic is occasionally put to the test of someshop problem where the results of mistakes are indicated, not by marks on paper, but by pieces of wood that will not fit, is aroused to a new sense of the reality of mathematics and its necessity in the world's work. He has a new incentive to accuracy. Q Manual training impresses upon students two important truths : I. That persistent effort is required to carry an idea to completion in material. i p ' 1 2. That in spite of discouragement, sustained effort, carefully planned, will usually bring success. The realization of these two things is an essential part of education and it is difficult to see how it can be developed without actual ficontact with materials. I I A child who thinks that hasty, thoughtless sawing and planning will produce a creditable box, soon learns his mistake. If he has a, skillful teacher the result will not be discouragement but a desire to do the sort of planning and shaping that will result in a satisfactory box. He approaches a new piece of construction in a soberer spirit, with a realization of the

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Page 22 NORMAL OFFERING Volume XI The Search for Significance. Emily Curtis Fisher. Ever lei Ike Fancy vfoczm, Fancy, high-c01m1zz'ssz'01eerz' .'-semi her! I, EACHERS, read if you will for your text I-lenryis stentorian v appeal: You, good yeoman, whose limbs were made in I LL Tl 4 Q England, show us here the mettle of your pasture. The game's afoot: follow your spirit. Find your seemingly is small field within its walls of your school-room one of the foci of the world action today, This is no mere fancy: it is prophetic vision of the world response. Over in the corner of the world province: this school-room, is an empty seat. Far outside, somewhat farther away than the eye can reach, on the edge of the great swamp, in the little hut lay the sick child, the youngest child of the oldest remnant of the last tribe of the North American Indians. The doctor has merely stated conclusively that her life must close. It is a lawgsthat tribe must die. There is only the fading of the centuries behind her. No individuality attained 5 no immor- tality gained. just outside the gate of the schoolaroom huddle the Messinians over the few bundles of possessions saved by effort and gathered with them- selves out of the wreckage of their last heritage, and their vanished world. Within the hrm walls of the newly reached oasis sit the frightened, keen- eyed searchers. They have fled from the gods of undoing, they are seeking the gods of being The pathway is blazed and open for each one. There is no hesitation in their choosing and -eager acceptation of the entrance to American ideals. Thro' the open door of our school-rooms are filing the procession of Messinian children who have fled with all their possessions. Only a few months ago one of these pioneer Aideks brought into the school-room. with a noble mien, and a proud possession a band-box which