Is there time for manual training?

It was a big question back in 1902... Is there time for manual training in schools? Here is what Gustaf Larsson, founder of the Sloyd School in Boston said:

That time can be taken for Sloyd without injury to the common school studies has been proved over and over again in places where the matter has been adequately tested. Even when the time has been taken directly from the ordinary studies, the increased ability to grasp the other subjects has more than made up for the loss of time.

A child who turns from books to tools continues to think. He will think more clearly, and he will reach a more definite end by his thinking, if the problem is before him in concrete form as it is in Sloyd, than if he has to consider an abstract problem such as is given him in books. We should do well to follow Horace Mann's advice, "Give one-half of the school time to creating a desire to learn, and you will teach more than by devoting all to books." In addition to the fact that the pupil's interest is greatest in the concrete problem, it has been scientifically proved that the mind as well as body is strengthened by judicious physical exercise. It is also true that, although the overworked student may be earnestly thinking out his Sloyd problems (and I have the testimony of many teachers, themselves students of Sloyd, that this same Sloyd problem in wood costs them more careful thinking than had ever been given to their algebra, Greek, or Latin), nevertheless I believe that the change from hours of sitting still to the vigorous physical activity of Sloyd affords such relief that some of the evils of over-study may be counteracted thereby.

A well-known principal of a high school once said to me that he believed that he could prepare his students for college in half the time usually taken, provided the other half be given to well-directed manual training. Time is thus gained, not lost. Old Bishop Comenius's idea of teaching may be well applied here. "It is to seek and find a method of instruction by which teachers may teach less, but learners learn more, to inspire the children with the love of learning and to bring greater happiness to mankind through active doing."