Note 106 — Chapter XXVI · THE MANUAL ELEMENT IN EDUCATION IN 1884.

In a letter to the author, Mr. MacAlister re-enforces the observations quoted in the text. He says,

“I wish you to understand that all my own convictions and action in connection with this movement are based upon what in my judgment should constitute an education fitted to prepare a human being for the social conditions of to-day, and not merely upon the industrial demands of our time.... I believe there is a great future for the manual training movement in Philadelphia. I feel encouraged to go forward with the work. The great principles which underlie the system are with me intense convictions; they mean nothing less than a revolution in education. The great ideas of the reformers of school training must be realized in the public schools, or they will fail in accomplishing the ends for which they were instituted and have been maintained.”