The ancients considered mechanics in a twofold respect: as rational, which proceeds accurately by demonstration, and practical. To practical mechanics all the manual arts belong, from which mechanics took its name.
I am an earnest advocate of manual training and trade teaching for black boys, and for white boys, too.
Over time, shop classes sort of disappeared or got marginalized in the states. I don't really know why. Now with tech like 3-D printers and CNCs, shops have acquired a new shine.
I think the absolute worst job I ever had - not because it was a terrible job, just because I was just so bad at it - was when I worked at a scenic factory in Chicago.
The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines... The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at the head of the industrial arts.
Why cannot Georgia girls who need and have to work, and who need and want to go to school, be instructed in some practical training and become proficient in the industrial arts?
The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped, and contribute to the permanent prosperity and strength of the country far more than the most splendid victories of successful war.
I do regard spinning and weaving as a necessary part of any national system of education.
