Old Industrial Education.

The greatest triumph in the profession of education ever achieved by man was that of Ezekiel Rich, of New Hampshire, born in 1784, whose successful experiments at Troy, New Hampshire, were fully reported in 1838 to the American Institute of Instruction, and were described in the last edition of the “New Education.”

Mr. Rich demonstrated that a solid scientific, literary, moral, and industrial education, qualifying boys and girls for a successful business life, and greatly superior to the education now given, might be imparted to youth while they were also sufficiently occupied in the industrial way to pay all their expenses.

This is incomparably beyond anything that even the most famous teachers have ever done, for it brings the gospel of industrial salvation to all struggling laborers who dwell in poverty—not immediate salvation for themselves, but salvation for their class, by making education free for all, and giving to the children of the poorest laborer the opportunity of a career in which independence is sure, and wealth a possibility.

The profession of teaching, like all other professions, runs in its fixed grooves or, as popularly expressed, its “ruts,” and it will be long ere the noble example of Rich will inspire a spirit of imitation. His exposition of his method lay almost half a century unnoticed, until I brought it before the National Educational Association.

Upon the subject of Industrial Training, Mr. Geo. P. Morris has resurrected an old treatise, published by Thomas Budd, in 1685, describing East and West Jersey, in which he lays down a system of practical education which he wished to see adopted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

He wishes a thousand acres of land given to maintain each school, free for the poor, the rich, and the Indians—the children being maintained free of expense to parents from the profits of the school “arising by the work of the scholars.” They are to be occupied in “learning to read and write true English, Latine and other useful speeches and languages, and fair writing, arithmatick and bookkeeping; and the boys to be taught and instructed in some mystery or trade, as the making of mathematical instruments, joynery, turnery, the making of blocks and watches, weaving, shoemaking, or any other useful trade or mystery that the school is capable of teaching; and the girls to be taught and instructed in spinning of flax and wool, and knitting of gloves and stockings, sewing and making of all sorts of useful needlework, and the making of straw-work, as hats, baskets, etc., or any other useful art or mystery that the school is capable of teaching.

“3. That the scholars be kept in the morning two hours, at reading, writing, book-keeping, etc., and the other two hours at work in that art, mystery, or trade that he or she most delighteth in, and then let them have two hours to dine and for recreation; and in the afternoon, two hours at reading, writing, etc., and the other two hours at work at their several imployments.”

Budd quotes from a book by Andrew Yarenton an account of the spinning-schools in Germany, as follows: “In all towns there are schools for little girls, from six years old and upwards, to teach them to spin, and to bring their tender fingers by degrees to spin very fine; their wheels go all by the foot, made to go with much ease, whereby the action or motion is very easie and delightful. The way, method, rule, and order how they are governed is, 1st. There is a large room, and in the middle thereof a little box like a pulpit. 2ndly, There are benches built around about the room, as they are in playhouses; upon the benches sit about two hundred children spinning, and in the box in the middle of the room sits the grand mistress, with a long white wand in her hand,” with which she designates the idle for punishment.

“They raise their children as they spin finer to the higher benches. 2d. They sort and size all the threds, so that they can apply them to make equal cloths; and after a young maid has been three years in the spinning-school, that is taken in at six, and then continues until nine years, she will get eight pence the day, and, in these parts I speak of, a man that has most children lives best.”

Eight pence a day at that time was good wages for an artisan.

Thos. Budd was more than two hundred years ahead of the teachers of America, for they are just beginning to introduce Industrial Education, and they have not reached up to this idea of making the work of pupils pay their expenses, which Budd proposed, and which Rich realized.

In Yarenton’s account of the spinning-schools, the reader will observe that the children are occupied solely in spinning, their minds being left without culture. How easy would it have been for the grand mistress, instead of merely watching their work, to have been instructing them orally in any species of knowledge, or leading them in singing, which would have made their time pass delightfully, and cultivated all the finer sentiments of the soul.

Rich has the honor of proving that this could be done, and that there was no fatigue, but continual pleasure all day long when the monotony of work was relieved by instruction, and the instruction that would have been monotonous by itself was made pleasant by being intermingled with hand work.

Man cannot be well trained or developed in fragments. Head, hand, and soul must all co-operate, and then each strengthens the other. When shall we have another