Economists have classified the activities of the race into three main divisions, as follows: First, the house industries, or the period of domestic economy, which lasted from the earliest times until the beginning of towns in the tenth century. Second, the period of town economy, or the period of handicrafts, extending from the tenth century to the beginning of modern times. Third, the period of national economy, or the age of machinery and the factory, in which we now live. In passing through these activities many stages are represented. We note the hunting stage, the fishing stage, the pastoral stage, the agricultural stage, the age of metals, the stage of trade, travel, and transportation, the city state, the feu-dal system, the handicraft system, and the factory system.

It is believed that the child in the course of its development passes through practically all of the stages that the race has passed through, and manual training in the home and in the school helps to supply the needs of the child in passing through the different stages of his development. Manual training not only helps the child to appreciate the activities of life of to-day, but it also shows the relation between the activities of the past and the present. Manual training deals with life, and is one of the serious considerations in the history of child development. In Carl Bucher's "Industrial Evolution"1 he writes: "After all, the comforting result of every serious consideration of history is, that no single element of culture which has once entered into the life of men is lost, that even after the hour of its predominance has expired it continues in some more modest position to cooperate in the realization of the great end in which we all believe, the helping of mankind toward more and more perfect forms of existence".

The rough highway between the aboriginal and man has been paved by means of the seven hand tools - the hammer, the axe, the saw, the plane, the square, the chisel, and the file. The influence of tools upon civilization is expressed most graphically by Carlyle in these words: "Man is a tool-using animal. He can use tools, can devise tools; with these the granite mountains melt into light dust before him; he kneads iron as if it were soft paste; seas are his smooth highways, winds and fire his unwearying steeds.

"Nowhere do we find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all".

In early times, before the institutions of society became so complex and so far reaching in their demands and influences, the home was one of the most potent factors in education. In rural communities to-day and in the best regulated Homes wherever they may be this institution is still a powerful influence in the cause of education. The homes of our ancestors were made by men and women of great practical efficiency and this efficiency was imparted to the rising generation largely through the influences of the home. In speaking of the influence and efficiency of men and women in early times, Henry Turner Bailey, in "The Arts and Crafts in the Public Schools,"1 says: -

1 Page 184.

The Man

Cleared land, cut wood, made rails and posts, built stone walls; built barns and sheds, made simple furniture and farm utensils, involving carpentry, blacksmithing, and painting; cared for bees, poultry, sheep, cattle, horses; could break colts and steers; milk, shear sheep, butcher; could plow, plant, cultivate and harvest vegetables; sow, mow, reap, thresh, and winnow grain; could read the sky, tell birds, wild animals, insects, and common plants and trees at sight; could plant, prune, and graft trees; make maple sirup and vinegar, cure ham and bacon; fish, trap, and hunt successfully; make shoes, harnesses, and simple tools; weave baskets; make kites, bow guns, darts, whistles, etc., for the children; repair anything; shave himself; make a telling speech at town meeting.

The Woman

Understood all phases of housework, sweeping, dusting, washing, ironing; could cook, make yeast, soap, candles, butter, cheese, sausages, preserves of all sorts, candy, wines, and cordials; could spin yarn from wool and thread from flax; dye and knit, weave and embroider; shrink cloth, bleach cloth; cut out and make ordinary garments, darn, and mend anything well; braid rugs, paper a room, cut hair; gather medicinal herbs, nurse the sick, rear children; manage a flower garden, have potted plants bloom all winter indoors; milk, make hay, and have all the children clean and neatly dressed at church on time, Sunday morning".

1 An address before The American Institute of Instruction at New Haven, Conn., July, 1906. Published in the January, 1907, School Arte Book, The Davis Press, Worcester, Mass.

The average home of to-day has not the discipline which gives the efficiency that the old home life used to give, and this naturally puts greater responsibility on the schools of to-day which are called upon to provide adequate training in hand work, training that formerly was given in the home. Industry has always been a dominant force in the upbuilding of all social structures. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in child development. Professor O'Shea, in speaking of the child's first absorbing interest which is based upon industrial activity, says:1 "In the earliest years the pupil's chief interest is in constructive activity. If he be given freedom to do as he chooses, and suitable equipment, by far the larger part of his time will be spent in construction, in imitation of the activities going on about him. If he has blocks, he will be building; if paper and scissors, he will be cutting; if sand, he will be modeling; if tools, he will be framing a box or a house or what not; all, of course, in a crude, imperfect way." These constructive activities, as Professor Dewey expresses it,2 "evoke and direct what is most fundamental and vital in the child, that in which he is the heir of all the ages, and through which he recapitulates the progress of the race. It was certainly a gain for educational theory and practice when appeal to personal and immediate sense perception displaced reliance upon symbols and abstract ideas. But, after all, to have sensations, to receive impressions through sight or hearing, is not the ultimate thing. To do, to perform, to execute, to make, to control and direct activity - it is for the sake of such things that perceptions and impressions exist. Indeed, to see and to hear is more than to have impressions; to see and to hear is to do, to do in cooperation with head, arm, hand, and leg".

1 In "Dynamic Factors in Education," New York, 1906, p. 59 (Macmillan).

2 In Manual Training Magazine, July, 1901, page 97.