Thursday, April 29, 2010

READING REPORT FOR PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Introduction
A dictionary definition of the two terms service and manual training state that “Service is a condition of being a slave or the occupation/ function of serving or the work performed by one that serves while manual training is a course of training to develop skill in using the hands and to teach practical arts (as woodworking and metalworking)” (Noah Webster’s 1928 Dictionary)

Service

The youth need to be taught that life means earnest work, responsibility, and care-taking. They need a training that will make them practical--men and women who can cope with emergencies. They should be taught that the discipline of systematic, well-regulated labour is essential, not only as a safeguard against the vicissitudes of life, but as an aid to all-around development. Notwithstanding all that has been said and written concerning the dignity of labour, the feeling prevails that it is degrading. Young men are anxious to become teachers, clerks, merchants, physicians, lawyers, or to occupy some other position that does not require physical toil. Young women shun housework and seek an education in other lines. These need to learn that no man or woman is degraded by honest toil. Hebrews 6:7, 8. {Ed 215.2, 3}

Manual Training

Manual training is deserving of far more attention than it has received. Schools should be established that, in addition to the highest mental and moral culture, shall provide the best possible facilities for physical development and industrial training. Instruction should be given in agriculture, manufactures,--covering as many as possible of the most useful trades,--also in household economy, healthful cookery, sewing, hygienic dressmaking, the treatment of the sick, and kindred lines. Gardens, workshops, and treatment rooms should be provided, and the work in every line should be under the direction of skilled instructors. The benefit of manual training is needed also by professional men. A man may have a brilliant mind; he may be quick to catch ideas; his knowledge and skill may secure for him admission to his chosen calling; yet he may still be far from possessing a fitness for its duties. An education derived chiefly from books leads to superficial thinking. Practical work encourages close observation and independent thought. Rightly performed, it tends to develop that practical wisdom which we call common sense. It develops ability to plan and execute, strengthens courage and perseverance, and calls for the exercise of tact and skill. The physician who has laid a foundation for his professional knowledge by actual service in the sickroom will have a quickness of insight, an all-around knowledge, and an ability in emergencies to render needed service--all essential qualifications, which only a practical training can so fully impart. {Ed 220. 2, 3} {Ed 218.1}


Conclusion

It is in the manual training that service can be part of education and that can help us to see the importance service in the life of a Christian. Many of our young people so much take pleasure in being served than to serve others. The reason behind that is lack of manual training. If all Christian institutions can enhance the issue of manual training as part of the syllabus and therefore put it in a time table like any other subject so that the pupils can grow with it as part of their life. This should not only be done at school even at home and at church so that there can be no place to hide out. This can help young people to understand that to live is to serve even when they are old they will not forget it like Solomon says in Proverbs 22:6 “ Train up a child way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

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