Momence High School - Monesse Yearbook (Momence, IL)

Page 26 text:

THE JUNIOR YEAR BOOK For five years, hand work in the form of paper cutting, cardboard construc¬ tions, weaving, etc., has formed a part of the curiculum in the primary and intermediate grades of the Momence city schools, and in November, 1906, wood¬ work for the boys of the grammar grades was introduced. The start was very mea¬ ger. We had one four-pupil bench and sufficient tools for four pupils to work at one time—cost just $30. This enabled us to work twenty pupils each one-quarter day period a week. Just before the Christmas holidays, an entertainment was given and the proceeds enabled us to increase the equipment to two benches with tools. The remainder of the school year, we were thus enabled to work thirty- two boys each a quarter of day a week. We now have live beuches (four-pupil) and tools for working twenty pupils at a time. Besides the bench tools, we have a fair equipment of general tools, including a splendid foot-power saw. On the opposite page we give a cut made from kodak pictures taken of boys at work in our shop. The group of boys at the bench are sixth year pupils who are working on picture frames. The boy at the saw entered the High School in January. The following are among the various articles which the boys have made during the past year: Rulers, bread boards, bench hooks, picture frames, hat racks, book racks, comb cases, match scratchers, flower pot rests and taborets.

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THE JUNIOR YEAR BOOK. MANUAL TRAINING. The intellectual education which we seek to give our children thru the rne- i im of the public school should be equally valuable to them whether they b v me business men, lawyers, doctors, teachers or ministers. The state has no r t to make trade or professional schools of the common schools unless it can c: r a sufficient number of courses to satisfy the demands of all. Smith, who - a pharmacist, should not be taxed to educate Brown’s boy to become his com- . :it r. unless Smith’s boy, who wishes to become a lawyer, can also obtain his : ssional training at public expense. No such attempts have yet been made, h : does it not border on this when some of our cities are spending public funds : quip and maintain expensive departments to train book-keepers and stenog- hers? I have no fault to find with commercial education,— with practical ation, but it should be general not special—of such a character that it pro- - intelligent, thinking men and women who will go out into the world and ■ lily earn for themselves and those dependent upon them the necessaries of E: and some of its luxuries, but who will reflect honor and credit upon their n nmunity and state. Let our public schools lay the foundation for good, lion- - intelligent citizenship. Leave the rest to the business college and the trade - hool. We shall have enough to do. What, then, about manual training in the public schools? I repeat, it is t f place in so far as it is not in accord with the above principles. A manufac- ti :- : • if thirty years experience has said: “We can never send the whole child to school till we give those who are destined for the mechanical class of the . IT workers a fair mental training, and also impart to those who make up : : rofessional class the fundamentals of hand culture. After this has been i we can well afford to leave technical education, whether it seeks to produce wyer. a plumber, an engineer, or a stenographer to the technical schools.” Thirty or forty years ago in the rural schools the children got nine or ten ths of manual training of the very best kind. Their mental training curi- ci in covered two to three months each year, during which time they learned idly. They had too much manual training and too little mental training. 7 v were hungry for the mental and studied hard and learned rapidly. But ti pendulum of progress, always swings from one extreme of its arc to the :cner extreme, and conditions so changed—due largely to the growth of cities the use of modern machinery on the farms—that the child was given eight i ten months of pure mental diet, and from two to four months of hand culture year. (The pendulum never quite reached this extreme in the rural school 5 -tricts i Owing to these changed conditions the children of our city schools 3 l - more mental diet than they can digest. They are hungry for manual edu- n which the home cannot supply, therefore the school is their only hope, x hence manual training is fast coming to have a place in the courses of study ■ r best village and city schools.

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THE JUNIOR YEAR BOOK. A NOVEL PLAN. America uses nearly twenty million pounds of raw silk each year. Thus sii : -luces and consumes more silk goods than any other country in the world. The company of Belding Brothers, of Belding, Michigan, stands at the head silk manufacturing industry in this country. They have mills in sev- m. ther cities in the United States and Montreal. When this company found i ssciry to employ large numbers of young women in its mills at Belding, it tself compelled to employ large numbers of non-residents, as only young Been of high character and intelligence can render the service desired by this m ay. In order to secure such employees, it was necessary to offer induce- n - not offered to factory employees elsewhere. Hence the company estab- 1 - ■ - : nd has maintained a unique system of welfare for its employees. Not ft a philanthropic spirit, but as a clear cut business proposition was this plan ■A’ !The firm erected two handsome buildings, equipped in every way with ml fehn modern conveniences of the best city residences, as homes for its young in» employees. Each of these houses will accommodate 125 young ladies. Eaw: home is presided over by a matron, and rules just sufficiently stringent : -luce and maintain a high moral tone are enforced. At 9:30 p. m. these I, close, and lights must be out by 10 p. m., unless there is good reason Sur ::.r- lights burning later. If a young woman desires to remain out later, she -ecure permission from the matron, but in any case all must be in by 12 i night. From a business point of view, the Beldings only want in their l . v only such young women as are regular, punctual in their habits, and w 7 ho — ■ -s high moral qualities. They will retain no others. This firm has presented to our Industrial Museum a splendid exhibit in a i Isome oak case containing: (1)—A silk worm moth; (2)—eggs; (3) —cocoon v doss as spun by weavers; (4)—moth escaping from cocoon; (5)—cocoon ■ . for reeling; (6) section of cocoon showing interior; (7)—crysalis; (8)— of silk, each thread composed of 11 cocoon filaments; (9)—larvae at inter- -=■ of S days, 16 days, 24 days, and 30 days of age. You may see this handsome it when you visit the High School.