Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/934

 T5S 2 he Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [June, EDUCATION FOR MECHANICS. IS it not a fact that our system of pub- lic education is exceedingly defect- ive, notwithstanding all the pride we take in it ? The great bulk of those who look to district schools for mental nour- ishment are our future mechanics. And what do they learn? Beading and writing, arithmetic and geography. Now these are all desirable, every one of them. But do they embrace what the future mechanic wants ? No, most de- cidedly they do not. In arithmetic do they not positively waste time on studies which will never be of use to them — and in algebra do they not waste their valu- able hours over, to them, abstruse de- ductions, which could be better learned when the want of their use was felt and understood ? In the time wasted over geography (we mean of course unneces- sary study of that branch) it must be confessed that golden opportunities are lost to the embryo mechanic. In these remarks we would be dis- tinctly understood as merely alluding to what might be done for a large class in every community, who at present are forced to put up with the same mental discipline that is bestowed on the future banker, merchant or trader, to whom the wants of the embiyo mechanic are foreign. For instance, the class we speak of, should learn mensuration, practical geometry, and the primitive principles of draioing. These branches we know are taught to those who can afford the time to reach them in the upper departments, but that does not meet the requirement. Most of the boj's we allude to leave school, and go to work long ere they can be inducted .into the studies so absolute^ necessary to them and their future welfare. There is a neglect of primary geome- try that should not be an}' longer per- mitted to exist. In fact there is a crude idea prevalent amongst the majority of teachers that geometry cannot be eluci- dated to youthful minds. What ab- surdity ! when we see these same teachers demonstrating to these same pupils the rotundity of the globe, the orbits of the planets, and in fact the most abstruse problems as compared with the simple axioms of geometry. A very youthful mind can with a knife and an apple model out some of the choicest prob- lems in conic sections. Cannot that same mind be taught the philosophy of the section he has so naturally made ? The time devoted to singing and com- mitting to memory the State capitals, territory and population, with the lakes, rivers, mountains, and so forth, which go to make "Uncle Sam's Farm," could be far more advantageously employed by the mechanic student in learning duodecimals, mensuration and practical geometry, the want of which they are sure to feel hereafter, and which they must acquire at private tuition, to be paid for out of their apprentice allow- ance, when the}' could have acquired it all at school. We would put the ques- tion here — Is this doing justice to a very large portion of the growing com- munity, on whose future knowledge and handicraft so much depends ? If the teachers of the higher depart- ments are well qualified to instruct and finish those who are able to work their way up to them, all right ; but it seems to us that the lower department might take up the question of the mechanic student's educational wants and feed his mind with instruction on which he can hereafter gain his living, even to the exclusion of both surplus geography and acquirement of vocal music. In plain English — utility is the one thing wanted in our public schools.