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 ^-^ ' 
 
 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 OF 1 
 
 CHILDREN 
 
 BY 
 
 ERNEST BECKWITH KENT, A. M. 
 
 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
 
 FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Faculty of Philosophy 
 Columbia University 
 
 New York 
 1903 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/constructiveinteOOkentrich 
 
THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 OF 
 
 CHILDREN 
 
 BY 
 ERNEST BECKWITH KENT, A. M. 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 ^iUFORN\^s 
 
 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
 
 FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Faculty of Philosophy 
 Columbia University 
 
 New York 
 1903 
 
C 1 \\A- 
 
 li^ 
 
 /A'^^i 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 I. THE FREE CONSTRUCTIVE WORK OF 150 SCHOOL CHIL- 
 
 DREN 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction i 
 
 Classification .16 
 
 List of articlfes, boys . . . . : 22 
 
 Changing interests . . . 24 
 
 The vitality classification . : . 26 
 
 Gift motives 27 
 
 The more stable interests 29 
 
 List of articles by classes . 32 
 
 Statistics of girls' work . 34 
 
 Statistics of materials . . . 41 
 
 II. THE EARLY INTERESTS AND EDUCATION OF 72 TAL- 
 
 ENTED ENGINEERS 
 
 Introduction 44 
 
 Method of tabulation 49 
 
 Environment 51 
 
 Extent of mechanical environment 53 
 
 Fathers' occupations 57 
 
 Special interests and abilities * 57 
 
 Ability in school work 58 
 
 Relative preference for studies 60 
 
 Constructive work during boyhood 62 
 
 Opinions regarding the value of manual training .... 70 
 
 Educational applications . 73 
 
 Summary . . . 75 
 
 106 145 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The school's obligation is no doubt to society first, and 
 only afterward to the child ; so that the curriculum in its broader 
 outlines must be determined with a view to what society will 
 require rather than .to what will please the child. But in devel- 
 oping the details, interests need to be carefully reckoned with. 
 This is especially important with all of the more expressional 
 subjects, whether manual training, design or English composi- 
 tion. Society is certainly demanding acquaintance with indus- 
 trial life, and any mere tool practice, no matter how formal, 
 which will give the pupil some notions about industrial life and 
 his fitness for it, is probably worth having in the school. But 
 practice in inventing is worth infinitely more — in inventing new 
 uses for old tools and machines, new economics of material, new 
 applications of old principles. A child's inventiveness is never 
 either trained or tested except while he is deep in some absorb- 
 ing problem. The following study was a quest for additional 
 data upon the question of what problems are the most likely to 
 prove absorbing to children in the latter half of the elementary 
 school period. It is the writer's hope that some of the sugges- 
 tions which it developed may be found applicable and helpful in 
 practice. 
 
THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS OF CHILDREN 
 
 I THE FREE CONSTRUCTIVE WORK OF 150 
 SCHOOL CHILDREN 
 
 Introduction 
 
 A large number of studies upon children have given data 
 which bear upon the subject in hand. The instincts and reac- 
 tions of infancy and early childhood have been studied intensely 
 by Baldwin, Perez and many others. Studies by Bryan, Burk, 
 and Hancock have traced the general course of motor develop- 
 ment and have shown the degrees of motor control normal to the 
 different stages of childhood. Children's plays and games, as 
 their most spontaneous form of expression, make the best single 
 index to the general trend of interests during any given period 
 and extended reference to certain studies of these will be neces- 
 sary as we proceed. Most directly valuable of all is Dewey's 
 account of the constructive interests which grow out of three 
 successive mental attitudes or modes of attention.^ 
 
 James makes construct iveness a special instinct which he 
 
 says is as genuine and irresistible in man as in bee or beaver. 
 
 "Whatever things are plastic to his hands, those things he must remodel 
 into shapes of his own, and the result of the remodelling, however useless it 
 may be, gives him more pleasure than the original thing. The mania of 
 young children for breaking and pulling apart whatever is given them is 
 more often the expression of a rudimentary constructive impulse than of a 
 destructive one."^ 
 
 However important this constructive instinct may be, it 
 
 clearly does not in any sense explain or constitute the motive of 
 
 the bulk of that construction which forms so large a part of the 
 
 ^Elementary School Record, Vols. 1-9 
 
 Direct attention, focused wholly upon the outgoing activity itself; 
 Voluntary attention, directed to the accomplishment of certain prac- 
 tical ends; 
 Reflective attention, concerned with ends which persist in the form 
 of intellectual problems. 
 "^Principles of Psychology, Vol. 2, p. 426. 
 
lo THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 world's work. While constructive instincts may determine in 
 a measure which men are to work in constructive lines, the 
 actual motive for doing the work is an ulterior one; it is the 
 utility of the things made and their power in satisfying human 
 needs that causes their production. In other words, most con- 
 struction is carried on as work and it is only within the limits 
 of construction-play that we can class the constructive instinct 
 as an importan^t motive. But these instinctive activities to 
 which James refers are constantly observed in small children 
 and we need to trace through the years of childhood the gene- 
 ral development of constructive motive from this instinctive 
 one to a motive which, having little to do with processes and 
 materials as such, rests in the distant purpose to be subserved 
 by the product. 
 
 Between these two extremes we may distinguish two inter- 
 mediate stages. Following the instinctive activities with 
 materials comes a time when certain forms of construction are 
 attempted by the child not — or at least not wholly — because of 
 the **besoin de creer"^ but from mere impulse to imitate the 
 activities of adults. This results in his reproduction of con- 
 structive activities among others— possibly more of these than 
 of most others, but if so not necessarily because of reinforcement 
 by "constructive instinct. '' For while this may count some- 
 what, the presence of certain tangible and dramatic elements m 
 the constructivities of his elders would sufficiently explain the 
 partiality which he shows for them at certain times. 
 
 Gradually, however, this imitation construction ceases to 
 satisfy and the construction comes to be carried on for definite 
 ends, though not ordinarily of course for the utility ends of the 
 adult, but the various play ends of childhood. The worker's 
 point of view here is that of the adult so far as separation of 
 means and end is concerned, for with both there is a definite 
 need to be satisfied irrespective of any pleasure involved in the 
 constructive process as such. On the other hand, it is generally 
 very close to the earlier stages of imitation activity in that the 
 ends themselves are often of an imitative sort. That iSj while 
 the construction is merely a means of obtaining play apparatus, 
 
 ^Which Ribot says corresponds in the mental sphere to the ''besoin de 
 la generation" in the physiological. Psychologie des sentiments^ p. 3:23. 
 
OF CHILDREN ii 
 
 the play itself gets its main meaning and interest from the fact 
 that it in turn is an imitation of some phase of adult life, the 
 imitation element being simply pushed a little further away. 
 We have then these four stages in the development of con- 
 structive motive: 
 
 1. The instinctive. 
 
 2. The imitational. 
 
 3. The play-utility. 
 
 4. The adult-utility. 
 
 We may now study these more in detail to determine as 
 clearly as possible (i) just what forms of activity belong to each 
 stage, (2) how definitely and how exclusively different purposes 
 and their forms of expression belong to children of a certain age, 
 and (3) what materials are best adapted to the realization of 
 these purposes, the abilities of the children being considered. 
 Any data gained regarding these points will be of direct assist- 
 ance in determining what lines of constructive work best fit the 
 different stages of elementary education. 
 
 (i) It may be questioned whether the purely instinctive 
 handling of materials should be called constructive in the ordi- 
 nary sense of the word. James in the passage quoted suggests 
 a fundamentally constructive motive for even the so-called 
 destructive acts of early childhood. Groos takes exactly the 
 opposite view, looking at these as responses to the fighting in- 
 stinct.^ Perhaps it would be safer to call most of these efforts 
 mere random responses to the general impulse to activity react- 
 ing in the easiest way upon the most convenient material. This 
 we. may call the manipulative instinct as distinguished from 
 either the constructive or destructive. In the following pages 
 we shall use the word manipulation for activity of this sort, 
 while the word construction will mean work (ordinarily synthetic 
 in nature) carried on with reference to some end other and 
 more remote than that of the mere sensations involved in the 
 process itself. Along with this wholly sensational pleasure of 
 pure manipulation there is probably the beginning of an in- 
 tellectual pleasure, and from this side the activity might be 
 called experimentation as well as manipulation —the child wants 
 
 ^Play of Man^ pp. 97-8. 
 
12 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 to see what will happen. But this shows no such strength as 
 the other. Groos mentions another element, "pleasure in being 
 a cause," which he thinks appears very early and which is re- 
 sponsible for the way in which "moist sand is heaped up or dug 
 away, snow tunnelled through or rolled into a great ball, sticks 
 of wood piled, water collected in a pond, etc. '^^ 
 
 As to the period of this manipulation interest : Groos sug- 
 gests no dates whatever in connection with the list of activities 
 just quoted. With Miss Shinn's niece the "era of handling 
 things'^ began in the sixth month. ^ How "synthetic" or at 
 least how "analytic" the acts of that period might be would 
 probably depend a good deal on the materials at hand. Perez 
 says that they appear in all children from the age of eight or ten 
 months.^ Probably only isolated cases will be found in which 
 the activity is due wholly to this manipulation impulse, for the 
 imitation factor begins to count very early. But the former 
 persists for several years as an important factor in the 
 child's relation to concrete materials and indeed many adults 
 are affected by it in a degree, as is shown by their tendency to 
 handle, modify airnlessly and play with any new material which 
 may be presented to them. With the adult, however, this 
 tendency is a mere survival and cannot be strong enough to in- 
 fluence perceptibly his work, though perhaps it does his 
 recreation. At what age it loses its influence on a child's more 
 serious voluntary activities it would be difficult to say. 
 
 (2) The '*mud pie" is perhaps the most typical representa- 
 tive of the transition to the imitation stage, or rather of the infu- 
 sion of the imitation motive into the one preceding. Here is clear- 
 ly a double pleasure in manipulation and imitation. Heretofore he 
 has been contented to "heap and dig away" his sand, but now 
 
 '^Play of Man, p. 99. 
 
 ^Biography of a Baby^ pp. 141-161. 
 
 ^A child of nine months, seated on the floor in the middle of a room, 
 seemed like a creating and despotic deity in the midst of his playthings, 
 and anything else that was given to him or that he could get hold of by 
 crawling along, — trumpets, drums, balls, paper, books, cakes, fruit, — were 
 piled up together, ranged side by side, separated, put back higglety-pigglety, 
 pushed away, fetched back again, hugged, kissed, gnawed, etc., etc., and all 
 with bursts of joy which showed his imperative need of exercising his 
 physical powers, of satisfying an ever new curiosity and of imitating. The 
 First Three Years of Childhood, pp. 276-7. 
 
OF CHILDREN 13 
 
 he adds to the pleasure of modifying a plastic material, that of 
 reproducing a household occupation. The pie is clearly not an 
 end in itself. ^ It is demolished as soon as completed or at least 
 set aside to make room for another and another."^ Building with 
 blocks is perhaps the line of work that depends most exclusively 
 upon the imitation motive — manipulation pleasure would seem 
 small compared with that obtained from plastic materials, and 
 the product is still nothing. This work retains the interest for 
 a long period, probably because of its imitative adaptiveness — 
 because of the variety of things and activities which may be 
 reproduced by means of blocks. 
 
 Common observation and the general tendencies of kinder- 
 garten practice combine in pointing to the kindergarten period 
 of childhood as the one in which this motive has the longest and 
 most direct connection with handwork. No one seems to have 
 ventured any sharper definition of this stage. The gifts and 
 occupations, so large a part of the kindergarten program, seem 
 to be motived almost entirely by the combination of this manipu- 
 lation and imitation interest. With the gifts there is no perma- 
 nent product, and while occupation work does issue in a perma- 
 nent product, this does not seem to be a large center of interest 
 —except perhaps near the end of the course, when their 
 occasional utilization in play forms the connection with the next 
 kind of activity.^ 
 
 (3) The play-end stage comes when these very crude imi- 
 tations of adult activities cease to satisfy the child. 
 To be sure, many if not most of the plays of the 
 whole preadolescent period are directly imitative in 
 
 ^The object has no conscious existence at the time save in the activity. 
 The ball to the child is his game, the game is his ball. 
 Dewey, Interest in Relation to Will^ p. 16. 
 
 2See Dewey, Elementary School Record^ p. 49. Also p. 50 for sugges 
 tion as to how the realization of ends should at first be developed. 
 
 ^Compare Dewey : "The work of children of ages six and seven in- 
 cludes activities which combine an immediate appeal to the child as an out- 
 let of his energy with leading up in an orderly way to a result ahead. It 
 thus forms habits of working for ends and controlling present occupation 
 so as, by a sequence of steps, to accomplish something beyond. These 
 habits may be gradually transferred to ends more consciously conceived 
 and more remote," Elementary School Record. 
 
14 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 their method and motive.^ But the imitation becomes 
 more refined, detailed and accurate, and consequently 
 requires more highly specialized apparatus than hereto- 
 fore. So the child can hardly help giving more or less attention 
 now to making what might be called the tools of play — the 
 things necessary to the carrying on of this more definite imita- 
 tion. Play houses, toy boats, furniture and weapons, dolls, 
 dolls' clothing, etc., are made and used in this form of play. 
 It seems accepted that this imitation type of play holds the in. 
 terest until into the eleventh or twelfth year,^ and that it must 
 influence constructive preferences seems evident— though how 
 much or in just what ways we have no means of telling. But 
 it is clearly within this period and generally in connection with 
 these forms of play that we must look for the first real apprecia- 
 tion of construction as means rather than end. It seems safe to 
 say that during this period work is occasionally done with the 
 adult-utility motive, and that the proportion of this work in- 
 creases with age up to adolescence and beyond. 
 
 On the whole, it can hardly be denied that our knowledge 
 regarding these factors of constructive interest is exceedingly 
 vague. This becomes particularly apparent when one attempts 
 to give it any influence upon school work. About all we can 
 really hold to is the conviction that in the development of con- 
 structive motive the progress is through instinctive manipula- 
 tion, imitative occupational work, and the making of play 
 materials, to the making of things useful in the adult sense. 
 We hardly know whether these attitudes are sufficiently 
 differentiated to justify calling them stages, or, with any 
 definiteness, at what age any one of them reaches its point of 
 greatest influence, if indeed there is any such point clearly de- 
 fined. We know little of how far sex affects motive in con- 
 structive work. We have no data by means of which we can 
 compare these stages with the various physiological and psycho- 
 
 ^Outside of school a large proportion of children's plays are simply 
 more or less miniature and hap-hazard attempts at reproducing social 
 occupations. 
 
 Dewey, ibid, p. 84. 
 
 ^Johnson, Pedagogical Seminary^ Vol. 6, p. 519. 
 Gulick, Pedagogical Seminary^ Vol. 6, pp. 137-8. 
 
OF CHILDREN 
 
 15 
 
 logical stages of growth established from other points of view. 
 The following material is offered as a preliminary contribution 
 of data upon such points. 
 
 THE FREE CONSTRUCTIVE WORK OF CHILDREN 
 IN TWO SCHOOLS 
 
 A natural material for such a study of construction motives 
 and interests was thought to be detailed knowledge of the vari- 
 ous lines of constructive work done spontaneously by children 
 of both sexes and the different ages. As an attempt to obtain 
 such knowledge, papers headed as follows were given to 200 
 children from eight to sixteen years of age in the Horace Mann 
 and the Ethical Culture Schools, both in New York City :— 
 
 LIST OF THINGS MADE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL DURING THE 
 LAST TWELVE MONTHS 
 
 By. 
 Grade 
 
 Age. 
 
 .yrs.. 
 
 mos. 
 
 Brothers' ages. 
 
 .Sisters' ages. 
 
 Directions : Put down everything you can think of, no matter how 
 small or simple. Ask your parents if they will help you to make the list as 
 complete as possible. 
 
 Made in 
 what 
 month 
 
 Name of 
 Article 
 
 Of what 
 materials? 
 
 How 
 
 large? 
 
 What Whom 
 for ? for? 
 
 Remarks 
 
 These questions, when all answered (as they were with 95 
 per cent of the articles listed), give what would seem to be a 
 fairly clear idea of the main motives behind the making of an 
 object, its purpose and its value to the child, and a considerable 
 basis for judgment regarding the technical difficulties involved. 
 
 One hundred and seventy sheets were returned filled out. 
 Of these twenty-two children mentioned less than three articles 
 made and their records were not computed with those of the rest 
 lest they should have undue influence upon the averages. There 
 
i6 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 remained one hundred and forty-eight sheets, sixty-three being 
 from boys and eighty-five from girls. ^ 
 
 The number of articles reported seldom exceeded ten, the 
 average number being seven for the boys, and eight for the 
 girls. Considering the age of the children and the chance of 
 accidents to papers, it is hardly fair to assume that the 13 per 
 cent of unreported cases necessarily represent lack of work or 
 different work by those children. And the 13 per cent of 
 meagre reports omitted from the tabulation give no indication of 
 being fundamentally different from those of the 74 per cent 
 studied. Still, strictly speaking, the study related only to that 
 74 per cent of the whole group which pays the most attention to 
 handwork, or rather, reports the largest number of articles. It 
 should be noted also that most of the children in these two 
 schools remain till graduation, and thus are more alike in 
 general ability than could be claimed for children of the same 
 ages in public schools where so many are withdrawn before 
 reaching the age of 14 years. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION 
 
 Five independent classifications of this material were 
 attempted, the child's age being made in each case the basis of 
 the tabulation. Of these the two most important dealt with the 
 motive behind the making of the article, and the material of 
 which it was made. The third tabulation shows the number of 
 times that such distinctively art work as drawing, painting, 
 etc. , were recorded, and the fourth shows the presence of an 
 element which we will call "vitality" — the '*go" which belongs 
 to a toy water wheel or windmill, and is lacking in a tool chest 
 or picture frame. Both of these really belong under the general 
 
 ^While a larger quantity of them would have been exceedingly desirable 
 and easily obtained, it seemed important that the tabulating should not be 
 delegated and that it should have the uniformity of one person's view-point. 
 It is believed that a somewhat careful and detailed treatment of the data 
 presented has more value as a preliminary study than the kind of work 
 which would have been necessary with a larger amount of material. 
 
OF CHILDREN 17 
 
 head of motive but are tabulated independently of what appears 
 to be the ruling motive of a project. The fifth tabulation was 
 an effort to determine the part played by the school in suggest- 
 ing the handwork done outside, but the information here proved 
 too meagre to be worth recording. "^ 
 
 It was difficult to determine what classification of the 
 motives for making these different articles would be the most 
 inclusive and fruitful. The utility class and the play class are 
 the two which we are perhaps most interested in comparing. But 
 while these are very general they do not seem to cover the whole 
 field. Things made as gifts are often useful and often play- 
 things, but the utility or play motive here involved is quite a 
 different thing from that centering in the making of things for 
 the child's own use. So the most l)gical basal division would 
 seem to be into the two classes, made-for-self and made-for- 
 others, each of which may be subdivided into play and utility 
 classes. This, however, is an incomplete analysis of the made- 
 for-others section, for in addition to useful gifts and play gifts 
 there are also those which are m^re remembrances, and have no 
 further purpose. However, our m lin purpose is a quantitative 
 study of the various forms of the play and utility motives already 
 mentioned and of their relative importance in the different years 
 or periods of childhood. So the smaller made-for-others classes 
 were kept separate, not so much for their own significance as in 
 order not to prejudice results in these main groups. The most 
 practical though not the most logical primary division is into 
 classes representing the play, the utility and the gift motives. 
 
 The subdivisions of play motive are in general those already 
 discussed, the two main ones being play-imitation in which the 
 construction itself constitutes the game, and play-utility in 
 which the purpose is to obtain tools of play. Several lines of 
 work which were quite prominent and continuous were listed 
 independently of these two classes. These were (i) the making 
 of boats, (2) construction connected with animals (houses, traps, 
 etc.), (3) the making and dressing of dolls, and (4) cookery. 
 These are all particularly hard to separate into the two classes 
 first mentioned. It seems to the writer, however, that in the 
 making of boats, dolls and animal traps, the play-utility motive 
 is the most general and prominent and that making animal 
 
i8 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 houses belongs here also, though less completely, as the simple 
 utility motive seems to enter rather more. Cookery is hardest 
 of all to classify. It probably depends more largely upon the 
 instinctive manipulation pleasure than any other line of pro- 
 ductive work included in this study. At least, it will seldom 
 be practiced voluntarily except by the children who do gain 
 some of this kind of pleasure from it. But this motive will be 
 greatly reinforced by that of play imitation in the case of younger 
 girls and doubtless by the utility—or gustatory — motive with 
 the older ones. Things made with the adult-utility motive 
 were placed in two classes: that of ** utility," containing the 
 things made for the worker's own use, while such things made 
 for others fall into the useful-gift class. The gift class as a 
 whole was divided into the three of useful gifts, play gifts and 
 gifts, the last including such gifts as are mere remembrances 
 and without other value. It is evident that these classes must 
 shade into each other with great delicacy at times, and that the 
 attempt to take things which must represent such an interplay 
 of motive, and place them in classes so simple and sharply de- 
 fined is bound to raise some question as to the real value of such 
 a study. It must be admitted that it was sometimes difficult to 
 select one of two or even three classes for a given article. This, 
 however, was far more often due to the fact that the article 
 clearly represented a transition stage than for mere lack of in- 
 formation about it. For example, does the building of a camp- 
 hut to sleep in or the making of a real row-boat belong in the 
 play-utility or in the adult-utility class? They were finally 
 placed in the former, but so far as the separation of means and 
 end is concerned the adult view-point seems fully reached, and 
 the utility class would seem to have an almost equal claim upon 
 them. Then there were sometimes difficulties in classifying 
 certain things which proved to be made by children of all ages 
 and would thus seem to have some place in all three of these 
 classes. Thus the making of a dam might mean anything from 
 the mere play with water to furnishing the power for a large 
 factory. But if we have in addition the statement that the dam 
 was made in order to sail toy boats, then this particular dam 
 stands out plainly as a member of play-utility class. With these 
 articles some such cue to the motive was generally at hand so 
 
OF CHILDREN 19 
 
 that they were a less serious problem than the first one men- 
 tioned, while the great majority of articles belonged quite 
 clearly to one or another of the groups. 
 
 The method of tabulating was as follows : Each article in 
 a child's list was scored in that motive column which seemed 
 most appropriate, then the child's record as a whole was formed 
 by reducing the number of articles recorded in any one column 
 to its percentage of the total number of articles recorded by that 
 child. Thus two useful gifts in a sheet mentioning eight arti. 
 cles, would give a weight of 25 per cent to that motive. The 
 following is a sample record of a boy : No. 207. H. R. Grade 
 V. Age, 10 yrs., 2 mo. No. of articles, 9. 
 
 For animals 
 
 2 articles 
 
 22 per cent 
 
 Play utility 
 
 3 '' 
 
 33 
 
 Play imitation 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 Useful gifts 
 
 3 
 
 33 
 
 Vitality 4 " 44 
 
 As no sheet containing less than three articles was included 
 in the final tabulation, no one article could make a showing 
 higher than 33 per cent in the individual child's record, while 
 its average weight there would be from 12 to 14 per cent. Then 
 a variety of age groups were formed and the aggregate of percen- 
 tages was divided by the number of children in the group, thus 
 giving an average per cent indicative of the rank of that motive 
 within the group concerned. 
 
 Partly as a check upon accidental results due to the small 
 number of cases, six independent groupings were formed and 
 averaged, three for each school. The first was into three 
 groups, including ages 8-9 years, lo-ii years, 12-14 years respec- 
 tively; the second grouping was by periods of one year; and the 
 third by periods of six months. We may call these the groups 
 by periods, the groups by years, and the groups by half-years. 
 On the following page will be found the period averages of boys 
 for each school and for the two schools combined; the year aver- 
 ages of both schools combined ; then the total averages for each 
 school and both schools. The half-year and year groupings of 
 
20 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 the two schools separately contained too few cases to give any 
 curves. The half-year groups of the schools combined devel- 
 oped a few points of interest which will be mentioned later. 
 
 The only material similar to this known to the writer is in 
 Crosswell's study of games already referred to\ In a 
 questionaire given to 10,000 Worcester school children he 
 asks thern to describe anything which they themselves have 
 made. Wherever possible, I have tabulated his lists of articles 
 according to the present plan. The results here, representing 
 as they do a much larger number of children, furnish some in- 
 tt-resting comparisons with our own general averages and with 
 the rtrlative frequency of the different projects shown in the 
 artit k- lists. These figures will be indicated as we proceed. 
 The ages of his children not bt-ing stated, this material cannot, 
 of course, h Ip us on the genetic problems within this period. 
 
 "^Pedagogical Se7}ti7iary^ Vol. 6, 315. 
 
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22 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 LIST OF THE ARTICLES MENTIONED BY BOYS. BOTH 
 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 Play-imitation, 59 articles: Spears, swords, etc. 10, theatres 8, houses 
 5, docks 3, chairs 3, claywork 3, beds 2, cranes 2, windmills 2, elevators 2, 
 derricks 2. Wild West show, cave, card-board monkey, acorn pipe, Indian 
 head-dress, cannon, camera, spoon, railway track, Indian village, saw-mill, 
 brush, mud-pie, paper pasting, telephone, mask, bridge, i each. 
 
 Play-utility, 188 articles: Boats 64, for animals 28 (13 traps and 15 
 houses), wagons 12, balls 11, bows and arrows 9, houses 9, kites 5, bean 
 shooters 5, guns 3, tents 2, bean bags 2, whistles 2, stilts 2, sleds 2, water- 
 wheels 2, derricks 2, elevators 2, dams 2, toboggans 2. Swing, bridge, 
 sh6w-house, ring-toss, tennis-poles, gunpowder, cave, bathing-chute, paddle, 
 lead-cannon, high-jumping poles, basket-ball goal, torpedo, reins, whip, 
 scrap-book, "wether vain," fishing tackle, fish-nets, mask, jumping-jack, 
 camp-bed, i each. 
 
 Utility^ 45 articles : Picture frames 6, boxes 3, tool chests 2, pen 
 wipers 2, book covers 2. Hen-coop, basket, braid, shooting-blind, loom, 
 clothes-rack, wand, flower-box, paper-cutter, candle-holder, easel, pen- 
 holder, pen-rack, book-case, ruby lamp, sail-boom, tray, calendar, book, 
 "sew clothes," caning chair, tooth-brush holder, stamp book, card printing, 
 type making, camp sign, ladder, stone bridge, pin cushion, camp hut, i each. 
 
 Gift-utility, 72 articles: Baskets 14, boxes 5, picture frames 4, calen- 
 dars 4, mats 4, match boxes 3, book covers 3, brackets 2, paper knives 2, 
 pen wipers 2, pen holders 2. Scrap book, thermometer back, book, bib, 
 lamp shade, book mark, match scratcher, table, sleeve board, letter rack, 
 "monogram frames," blotter, breast pin, sponge bag, foot stool, soap box, 
 "burnt work," "paper weight," hat, fernery, chicken nest, doiley, corn-pop- 
 per stand, sofa pillow, hammock, Christmas tree stand, whist counter, i each. 
 
 Play-gifts, 14 articles: Doll's chairs 2, doll's hammocks 3, boats 2, 
 Rolling pin, dart, doll's house, reins, knotted cord, doll's bedding, hunting 
 knife, i each. 
 
 Afere gifts, 12 articles: Easter cards 5, valentines 4, paintings 3. 
 
 Painting and Drawing. Mentioned by 12 boys. 
 
 Looking first at the three columns of Table I which repre- 
 sent the total averages, it will be seen that with one or two 
 exceptions the records of the two schools are very close together. 
 With five of the fifteen motive^elements recorded they are only 
 I per cent apart, and with five others only 4 per cent apart. So 
 the averages of the two schools seem to offer a fairly good basis 
 for a quantitative ranking of these various interests during this 
 
OF CHILDREN 23 
 
 six or seven-year period of childhood taken as a whole. Assum- 
 ing that we are justified in looking at this period as a unit, we 
 may conclude that nearly half of a boy's voluntary construction 
 projects will be things to be used in his play and that some 
 three-tenths will be articles of real use (two-tenths for use by 
 others against one-tenth for his own use). Of the work devoted 
 to play it appears that one-fourth to one-third of the articles 
 within this group will be boats, while a rather even one-tenth 
 of them will relate to animal life. It is further shown that 
 roughly a third of the whole, and a much larger part of the play 
 division, have the element which we have named vitality. 
 
 Croswell's study^ furnishes material for an interesting com- 
 parison at this point. It includes lists of 10,000 articles re- 
 ported to be made within a group of 4000 boys. How many of 
 them mentioned things made is not stated. These articles, clas- 
 sified in the rough way possible with no data except their names, 
 give to — 
 
 Utility I per cent. 
 
 Dolls I per cent. 
 
 Play-imitation 2 per cent. 
 
 Play-utility 96 per cent. 
 
 and furnishes a rather startling evidence of the conservativeness 
 of our own play record. The contrast is an indirect suggestion 
 of the relative intensity of these different motives, for Cross- 
 well's request to ''describe anything you have made" was only 
 one among a number relating to different subjects and would 
 likely elicit only the most important and best remembered pro- 
 jects, while our own request to ''mention everything you can 
 recall no matter how small or simple," might better from this 
 point of view have been omitted as it has doubtless resulted in 
 the recording of more or less that has very little comparative 
 interest. A comparison^of the two tables suggests very strongly 
 that if the relative intensity of these different construction 
 motives were measurable the result would give a far larger place 
 to the play-utility type of work than is indicated by considera- 
 tion of the mere number (44 per cent) of articles. How far the 
 96 per cent of the Worcester boys might vary with age we have 
 no means of knowing. 
 
 "^Pedagogical Seminary^ Vol. 6, p. 315 
 
±4 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 There remains, however, the question, —is there sufficient 
 unity to these six years of l^oyhood to give value to such analysis 
 of it as a single period, or are the interests of its different pirts 
 so diverse that this lump average of the whole has no meaning 
 for any particular part and cannot in the least degree serve as a 
 guide to school practice? This must be d Mermined by compari- 
 son of the sub-groups formed on a basis of age. If diversity 
 appears vve shillneed to subdivide the period into divisions con- 
 taining the greitest possible degree of homogeneity, defining 
 them and measuring their differences so far as p )ssibh\ We 
 shall quote from the figures ior the combined schools, with 
 which it will be seen that the separate records of the two 
 schools largely agree, calling attention to the discrepancies as 
 they occur. The division by ye irs allows only ten cases to a 
 group, so that perfectly smooth curves here could not be ex- 
 pected, but it is valuable in showing the limits of variability 
 within the larger groups, where the results are much more uni- 
 form. 
 
 It will be seen that, while a number of interests remain at 
 about the same level for the while time cov Ted and one or two 
 fluctuate irregidarly, the four in the following table show a dis- 
 tinct rise or decline: 
 
 Changing Interests 
 Age 8-9 lo-ii 12-14 9 10 II 12 13 14 
 
 5 29 19 20 10 4 3 
 
 51 31 51 50 45 39 69 
 
 20 5 7 5 21 25 6 
 
 14 21 26 14 II 15 15 
 
 While the directions of these changes are what one would 
 expect, the figures give some meisure of their extent. Pliy- 
 imitation decreises quite evenly from year to yeir. If similar 
 figures were avail.ible bearing up )n this el ^ment in th i sixth to 
 eighth years, it would doubtl *ss prove very strong there. That 
 the reports of the eight -year-olds show an amount less than that 
 at 9 years should not be thought to weaken the argument seri- 
 
 Play imitation 
 
 27 
 
 20 
 
 Play utility 
 
 29 
 
 48 
 
 Utility 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 Useful gifts 
 
 34 
 
 20 
 
OF CHILDREN 25 
 
 ously, both because there are only three of them and because 
 being in advance of their age at school they would likely be pre- 
 cocious in respect to these interests also. Although a waning 
 interest, it seems to be a not unimportant element in the work of 
 the period from Q-12 years. The twelfth is evidently the transi- 
 tion year showing 10 per cent here between 20 per cent in the 
 eleventh and 4 per cent in the thirteenth. There is an almost 
 identical difference between the 10- 11 year period and that of 12- 
 14 years, one which is fully supported by the separate tabula- 
 tions of the two schools. 
 
 The play-Utility interest increases, though not with the 
 regularity of the curve just noted, though it is doubtless mainly 
 responsible for the decline of the play-imitation interest. Its 
 maximum of 69 per cent at fourteen years should be qualified by 
 the fact thit there were only seven boys of that age. The 
 general tendency, however, is evident and its decline, like its 
 beginning, would seem to occur outside the age limits of this 
 study. 
 
 Th e other two most changing interests are those of utility. 
 That the utility (for self) cLiss vvax^s. while that of the useful 
 gifts wanes, would suggest a reaction between them. However, 
 the figures in detail do not correspond closely enough to demmd 
 that position, and there is nothing in common experience to sug- 
 gest that children in any direct way transfer their interests from 
 making useful things for others to the making of useful things 
 for themselves. The way in which the extreme figures of the 
 play-imitation and utility columns counterbalance each other 
 would give more reason for claiming a direct transfer of interests 
 here, and this would support the idea of a sequence of develop- 
 ment through play-imitation, play-utility and utility. 
 
 The reasons for the diminution in useful gifts are not so easily 
 determined, coming in the twelfth to fourteenth years during 
 which time the social instincts are thought to be coming to the 
 fore. In fact the large percentage of these useful gifts during 
 the earlier years is itself rather surprising. The results with 
 the girls seem to throw a little light on this point. It will be 
 seen later that their proportion of useful gifts is much higher 
 throughout, with a general average of 40 per cent against that 
 of 20 per cent for the boys. Girls seem in general to be more 
 
 OF THE "^^ 
 
 ^W'VERSITY 
 
26 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 amenable to suggestion than boys, and the boy's attitude seems 
 much more like that of the girl before the age of eleven or 
 twelve than it does afterwards. It will be seen by reference to 
 the lists of articles that the useful gifts tend to be of a conven- 
 tional sort— calendars, picture frames, match-boxes, and such 
 things as a child would hardly think of making except through 
 direct suggestion and imitation. These are the things most 
 likely to be suggested by the elders to a child as a means of 
 satisfying his craving for doing something he knows not what, 
 or as a means of keeping him busy. So it might be held that 
 the utility element as such is not a large one in the motive for 
 the making of these more or less useful gifts during the ages 8- 
 II, and that the motive is rather the general instinct toward 
 constructiveness manifested along suggested lines. However, 
 it is a matter of common observation that the desire to give pre- 
 sents reinforces this motive strongly in many cases, even with 
 very small children. To the relative importance of these 
 motives such figures furnish no clue. 
 
 The Vitality Classification 
 
 This is independent of the others and gives a fairly definite 
 quantitative statement of a constructive tendency, the existence 
 of which would be sufficiently attested by common observation — 
 the tendency to make things that will ''work,'' *'go," ''do 
 something." 
 
 Ages 8-9 lO-ii 12-14 9 10 II 12 13 14 8-14 
 
 Vitality 22 37 41 25 35 40 35 32 58 33 
 
 It is thus seen to belong to from one-quarter to one-third of 
 the articles made. It might be questioned whether the increase 
 is due to development of the taste itself or merely to increase of 
 power for satisfying it, but the latter seems to the writer the 
 more probable explanation. Its distribution, too, is striking. 
 Only eight boys, four in each school, fail to record at least one 
 
OF CHILDREN 27 
 
 article falling within this class, thus making it the most widely 
 diffused element of motive — that of play in general excepted — 
 which our analysis of these returns discovers; for to the useful- 
 gift class, which stands next, there are twenty-five boys who 
 contribute nothing, and thirty-seven record nothing in the 
 utility column. 
 
 The Gift Motives 
 Ages 8-9 10- 1 1 12-14 9 10 II 12 13 14 8-14 
 
 Useful gifts 
 
 34 
 
 20 
 
 14 
 
 21 26 
 
 14 
 
 II 15 15 
 
 20 
 
 Play gifts 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 4 10 
 
 3 
 
 Mere gifts 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 3 3 
 
 7 
 
 2 2 
 
 3 
 
 Total gifts 
 
 39 
 
 30 
 
 22 
 
 35 30 
 
 24 
 
 14 27 17 
 
 26 
 
 The sub-divisions here have only a negative value. The 
 gift element in the motive is doubtless altogether dominant in 
 all three, so that the question into which sub-group the article 
 falls is a very incidental matter. The play gift may be looked 
 upon as a useful gift in the fullest sense so far as the maker's 
 motive is concerned. The doll's bed made for the small sister 
 may in a much more real sense be called a useful gift than the 
 match-scratcher made for an uncle. We may, however, give 
 the name of *'serviceableness" to the common element in these 
 play and adult forms of utility, and this is almost invariably 
 present in the children's gifts here recorded. The mere- 
 remembrance gifts, consisting largely of drawings, Easter cards, 
 etc., are seen to be generally less than one-tenth as numerous 
 as those having more or less of this serviceableness, so it would 
 seem that the child likes to do something definite for the person 
 concerned as well as merely to give expression to the feeling of 
 friendship. 
 
 The division into play and useful gifts may be made to 
 serve another purpose. The so-classified ''useful" gifts are al- 
 most invariably for adults while the play gifts of course go to 
 children. However explained it is an interesting and rather 
 surprising fact that even including the mere gift with those of 
 
28 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 plav, many of the former being also intended for children, they 
 are seldom more than one-half as numerous as those made for 
 adults, and sometimes one-eighth of the latter. The figures are 
 as fflluws: 
 
 -Ages 8-9 lo-ii 12-14 9 10 11 12 13 14 8.14 
 
 Gifts made for adults 39 20 14 21 26 14 11 i5 15 20 
 Gift made for children 5 6 834104122 6 
 
 This very striking preponderance of making for adults may be 
 looked at in various ways. It may be that the question has no 
 relation at all to that of motive in construction, and that if all 
 pres nts given by children were classified in this way they 
 would show the same preference for adults. On the other hand, 
 there are two influencfs which might bear on the handwork con- 
 cerned. The child p rhaps giins a feeling of dignity in making 
 sonefhing which he imagines will be c^f actual use to a grown 
 ptTSon, which might not ace rue from the making of something 
 for a playmate. Further the adult is likely to make much of 
 the fact that thechild made it himself— a fact which would 
 mean much less to a playmate. 
 
 It is apparent that the excess of gifts to adults is in the 
 years 8- 10 and th it it becomes much reduced later. This is 
 due to decrease of gifts to adults much more than to increase of 
 those for children, yet there is a clearly marked increase of the 
 latter. The things which the older boys make for chlidren are 
 appirently for children much younger than themselves. 
 
 R-'garding gift construction as a whole, then, we seem to 
 have fir^t the very pronounced tendency of the small boy to make 
 things for adults, and with the adolescent boy a smaller gift 
 t<'tal. divideil much more equally between adult and small 
 children, but nowhere any marked tendency to make presents 
 for his friends of his own age. How far this tendency deserves 
 encourjging or discouraging on ethical grounds is a question 
 which might be worthy of consideration, and it would be of in- 
 terest to know whether this means a comparative non-exchange 
 
OF CHILDREN 29 
 
 of gifts between mates or simply that ** store presents" are here 
 substituted for the work of one's own hands. 
 
 The More Stable Interests 
 
 The following groups appear to be much more stable in their 
 appeal, and while fluctuating somewhat betray no genetic reason 
 fur so doing. 
 
 Ages 89 lo-ii 12.14 9 10 II 12 13 14 8-14 
 
 Total Play 56 68 55 56 66 70 55 43 76 59 
 
 Total Utility 39 30 34 37 32 19 3i 40 21 31 
 
 The total formed from the two utility classes is seen to keep 
 fairly close to its general average of 31 per cent. This, how- 
 ever, does not seem to the writer to be significant of any special 
 stability in the utility interest as such, for the reason already 
 suggested that in the class named useful gifts the utility element 
 in the motive is distinctly incidental to the gift motive. So 
 this total utility class is in reality a combination of two very 
 different interests which vary in opposite directions. 
 
 With regard to the play total, the same thing is true but in 
 considerably less degree. In all of these the play element of 
 motive is in one form or another the leading one, (play gifts are 
 not here included) and the general average of 59 per cent seems 
 a fair estimate of the influence of play upon construction be- 
 tween the ages of eight and fifteen. The fluctuation is consider- 
 able but too irregular to suggest any inferences, the minimum 
 and maximum appearing in the thirteenth and fourteenth years 
 respectively. It is to be said regarding the y6 per cent of the 
 fourteenth year, that it includes various pieces of camp and 
 athletic apparatus which might with almost equal propriety be 
 placed in the utility column (which is proportionately weak at 
 this point), thus giving a much smoother curve for both these 
 interests. 
 
30 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 The two special classes of boats and things- made-for- 
 animals also make a comparatively even record throughout the 
 six years. 
 
 Ages 8-9 lo-ii 12-14 9 10 II 12 13 14 8-14 
 
 For Animals 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 5 5 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 Boats 
 
 9 
 
 18 
 
 15 
 
 II 
 
 17 20 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 22 
 
 15 
 
 This, coupled with the evidently large amount of the imitation 
 element in boat-play, suggests that boats might be given 
 partially to the play-imitation motive. While a very few might 
 fit better there, the great majority seemed to belong most 
 naturally to the play-utility class, while the ''for-animals" class 
 seems to belong there unquestionably— though with a leaning 
 occasionally towards that of utility in the case of a very few 
 articles like chicken coops, etc. As the list of articles (p. 22) 
 shows, these are clearly the two great constructional projects of 
 boyhood. Twenty-eight pieces reported are for animals and 
 sixty-four are boats, making them respectively twice and five 
 times as numerous as the baskets, which rank third. Of the 
 boats twelve were rafts built for use in paddling about, diving, 
 etc. Of these twelve, ten were made by boys of the Horace 
 Mann School. Probably a larger proportion of these boys spend 
 their summers in the country. The boats appear quite evenly 
 after the age of ten years, the numbers for each year beginning 
 with the ninth being i, o, 3, 2, 2, 4. The toy boat holds its own 
 in the later years as well as the earlier ones, and is here generally 
 a model racing yacht or a rather elaborate model of a battle ship. 
 The fact that in each of these six years from ten to twenty 
 per cent of the boys' free construction goes to boat-making 
 seems a strong demand for much more attention to the boats as 
 an object of school handwork. On the side of interest at least, 
 its claim is seen to be sufficiently pre-eminent. And when we 
 think of the possibilites either of simplicity or of complexity, 
 the exceedingly varied constructional problems that boat-making 
 
OF CHILDREN 31 
 
 may develop, the variety of materials which it may require one 
 to work in and the problems in physics which must be solved 
 experimentally in order to insure success, it would seem very 
 advantageous to have a rather definite series of boat-contructions 
 in the handwork curriculum which would develop the problems 
 in a progressive way, and one of which would appear in every 
 year or second year of the elementary course. 
 
 Of the twenty-eight things relating to animal life, thirteen 
 
 are some form of trap and fourteen are houses, cages, etc. 
 
 However much or little these may be thought to differ in 
 
 motive, they are just as nearly balanced for each year as they 
 
 are in the total. 
 
 Ages 9 10 II 12 13 14 9 
 
 Animal-Houses 321423 14 
 
 Animal-Traps 24232 13 
 
 These are the work of sixteen boys, four having made traps 
 alone, eight houses alone, and four both. 
 
 The percentages for art work as such are as follows : 
 Ages 8-9 lo-ii 12-14 9 10 II 12 13 14 8-14 
 
 Art Work 3 4 4 3423454 
 
 No. of children 
 reporting 221222 
 
 These figures have not the same significance as those already 
 discussed as they generally rest only upon some such statement 
 as "some paintings,'' '* several drawings,*' etc., and so give 
 little idea of the comparative importance of this work in the 
 child's mind. The fact that fourteen out of the sixty-three boys 
 mentioned drawing or painting is more significant than the 
 general average of 4 per cent which is an attempt at representing 
 
32 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 the'proportion of interest in this as compared with constructive 
 work. But in every case the per cent is based on a single sheet 
 and necessarily recorded as such. But the evenness of the per 
 cents for the different years and periods is equaled by that of 
 the number of children of such age reporting art work. It 
 seems safe]^to say not only that an average of two children in ten 
 do some such work of their own accord, but that two children 
 out of every ten do so, and no more. The attention given to 
 art work in the school room is too i early the same in the two 
 schools to allow of any judgment regarding its influence upon 
 this form of home work. It is considerable in both of them. 
 
 The List of Articles by Classes 
 
 These lists which follow Table I on p. 22 present points 
 of interest, some of which have been already touched upon. 
 Some articles such as windmill, house, etc., appear in the list 
 of more than one class, the detailed description seeming to re- 
 quire this. 
 
 The play-utility class is seen to have the least variety of ar- 
 ticles, its size being considered, while the utility class is the 
 most diffuse in this respect. Even omitting the 64 boats and 
 the 28 animal contrivances which so far exceed everything else, 
 there are still the 12 wagons, 11 balls, 9 bows and arrows, and 9 
 houses, while in the utility class there are only four articles 
 mentioned more than once (6 picture frames, 3 boxes, 2 tool 
 chests, 2 pen wipers,) with 33 things mentioned only once, as 
 against 22 pieces mentioned once in the play-utility class, whose 
 total' is four times as large. A rather common argument for 
 making only useful articles in the school room is based on the 
 thought that it is only such work that can be expected to appeal 
 to every child in a large class. If the play interests are as 
 general and the utility interests as highly special and individual 
 as these figures suggest; if the tendency among boys to use the 
 same things is so much weaker than that X.o play the same things, 
 an exactly contrary practice should prevail in so far as the cur- 
 rent one is based on this idea. 
 
OF CHILDREN 33 
 
 It must be added at once that the useful-gift class is almost 
 as diverse as that of utility. The variety here is somewhat 
 against the suggestion already offered that the things made for 
 this purpose are largely suggested by adults ; still the list of 
 articles does not read like one evolved v^holly from a boy's inner 
 consciousness. The number of baskets recorded (14) is more 
 than twice that of any other article in the gift list. This is the 
 only kind of home work recorded by boys v^hich gives evidence 
 of influence by the manual training v^rork of the school, and it is 
 doubtful whether any would be made by children who were not 
 taught to do so at school. That so much of the work is done 
 outside is a decided argument for basketry as a part of school 
 handwork, and , the fact of its almost exclusive connection with 
 the gift motive would suggest attention to basketry as one of 
 the most effective ways in which the school may encourage the 
 gift habit. 
 
 Perhaps mention should be made of the articles mentioned 
 about ten times each which may be looked at as forming a 
 second class : They are : Houses, 14 ; baskets, 14 ; toy 
 machines, 13; weapons, 10; picture frames, 10; bows and 
 arrows, 9 ; other shooters, 8 ; theatres, 8. 
 
 The suggestion offered by the play- utility list regarding the 
 relative popularity of the different projects is corroborated in a 
 striking way by a similar arrangement of Crosswell's toy lists. 
 The same 12 articles rank first in both, with considerable agree- 
 ment respecting position within the group. Below are given 
 these tw^elve in the order of their rank in our own list, the rank 
 and the number of articles for each being expressed by open 
 figures, while their ranks and numbers in Croswell's list are 
 enclosed in parentheses. 
 
 I 
 
 (i) Boats 64 (205) 7 (6) Kites 5 
 
 (39) 
 
 2 
 
 (8) For animals 28 (27) 8 (11) Bean shooters 5 
 
 (16) 
 
 3 
 
 (3) Wagons 12 (138) 9 (7) Guns 3 
 
 (28) 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 (5) Balls II (42) f (2) Sleds 2 
 (4) .Houses 9 (125) 10 4 (9) Whistles 2 
 (11) Bows and Arrows 9 (16) l(io) Stilts 2 
 
 (151) 
 (26) 
 
 (25) 
 
34 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 The evidence from these two lists seems to the writer 
 sufficient basis for an emphatic demand that the elementary 
 school include each of these twelve projects at least once, per- 
 haps oftener, as a part of its constructive work. His opinion is 
 that there are very few programs of handwork that touch even 
 half of them in any adequate fashion. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE GIRLS' HANDWORK 
 
 The same scheme of classification is used as for the work of 
 the boys except that a special place was made for the food-mak- 
 ing activities to avoid the responsibility of placing them in any 
 one of the other classes, for the source of interest here seems a 
 peculiarly even combination of manipulation, imitation pleasure 
 and utility pleasure. This need not, however, be called a de- 
 parture from the first tabulation scheme, as not a single boy re- 
 ported the making of food or candy. 
 
 The results looked at in a broad way, point to two main 
 classes for girl's constructive work: (i) The making of things 
 directly connected with doll play, (2) the making of (more or 
 less) useful gifts ; the one having a general average of 24 per 
 cent, the other of 40 per cent. The only other class with any 
 claim at all to a place beside these is that of utility with 14 per 
 cent, nothing else rising above 6 per cent. 
 
STATISTICS OF THE [GIRLS' HAND- WORK 
 
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36 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 LIST OF THE ARTICLES MENTIONED BY GIRLS. BOTH 
 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 Utility, 75 articles: Baskets 7, collars 5, hats 5, pen-wipers 4, ties 5, box- 
 es 3, shirt waists 3, skirts 3,'aprons 3, trimming hats 3, mats 3, purses 2, pillows 
 2, pen cushions 2, picture frames 2, night gowns 2, dresses 2. Napkin ring, 
 table cover, doily, pillow case, quilt, guimpe, glove case, "patches," darning, 
 wash cloth, "made my bed during summer," address book, sachet bag, 
 pencil slip, stockings, slippers, school bag. 
 
 Useful Gifts ^ 380 articles: Doilies 48, baskets 27, picture frames 13, 
 pin cushions 13, sewing bags 10, "embroidery" 10, calendars 10, pillows 9, 
 mats 6, needle cases 6, silk bags 6, pen wipers 5, tidies 5, handkerchiefs 7, 
 collars 5, babies' garments 5, slippers 4, pillow cases 4, book-marks 4, dish 
 towels 4, napkin rings 3, books 3, wash cloths 3, napkins 3, towels 3, 
 dusters 3, capes (crocheted) 3, sachet bags 3, picture mounting 2, book cov- 
 ers 2, card cases 2, glove cases 2, match-scratchers 2, glove menders 2, nap- 
 kins 2, Christmas tree decorations 2, stockings 2, towels 2, shaving-paper 
 holders 2. Apron box, shawl, stamp case, picture easel, iron holder, copper 
 bowl, curtains, toothbrush case, hair receiver, handkerchief case, hat, shirt 
 waist, blotter, envelope, tapestry, portfolio, shaving case, neck tie, clipping 
 holder, postal holder, jewel bag, bib. 
 
 G^^y/j, 34 articles : Valentines 21, Easter cards 6, Christmas cards 3, 
 Easter eggs 3, gilded clam-shell i. 
 
 Play-utility, 282 articles : Dolls and dolls' clothing 162, boats 6, ani- 
 mals 3, bean bags 3, balls 2, houses 2, whistles 2, bows and arrows 2, jump- 
 rope handles,pop-guns. 
 
 Play -imitation^ 10 articles : Making flowers 2. Tent, flag, dish, napkin 
 rings (for nobody), chair, barn, hay wagon, doll's cap (What for ? "to do 
 something." Whom for? The ash barrel.") 
 
 The doll is evidently the center of practically all of a girl's 
 play-construction. It is doubtless motived in the earlier years 
 by what was called in the case of the boys the play-imitation in- 
 terest, and later becomes the counterpart of the boys play-utility 
 work. The lists of articles as well as the percentages show how 
 very few toys, not directly connected with doll play, are made 
 by girls of any age. The boat and animal classes, so prominent 
 with the boys, are almost negligible with the girls. 
 
 The figures point to a definite decrease in this sort of con- 
 struction and its disappearance at about fifteen years. But the 
 two schools differ very widely in their doll records : 
 
OF CHILDREN 37 
 
 Ages 8-9 lO-ii 12-I4 15 8-15 
 
 Plorace Mann School 
 
 18 
 
 23 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 Ethical School 
 
 56 
 
 36 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 Both 
 
 34 
 
 32 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 The Ethical Culture School thus shows nearly three times as 
 much doll-handwork throughout with the maximum of 54 per 
 cent in the first period, while in the Horace Mann School it is 
 only 23 per cent with the children of lO-ii years. ^ 
 
 The play totals of boys and girls show striking differences 
 both in size and direction of change. 
 
 Age 8-9 lo-ii 12-14 15 • 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 : Av. 
 
 Girls 43 43 26 10 : 48 44 40 25 30 22 10 : 34 
 
 Boys 56 68 55 : 56 66 70 55 43 ^() : 59 
 
 The boys' play-construction, nearly always more than half of 
 their work, reaches 3-4 in the fourteenth year, while that of the 
 girls, always less than half, drops to 22 per cent and 10 per cent 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth years. 
 
 As the doll and play elements weaken, those of utility take 
 their place and the making of useful gifts is seen to be the lead- 
 ing occupation of these girls, though here again there is a 
 difference between the schools. This work increases with the 
 age of the girls as clearly as it decreases with that of the boys. 
 
 Utility 
 Age 8-9 lo-ii 12-14 15 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 
 
 Girls 32 36 45 58 32 32 39 59 36 44 58 
 
 Boys 34 24 14 — 21 26 14 II 15 15 
 
 ^These curves agree in a general way with that of the period of general 
 doll interest as given by Hall and Ellis : ''The doll passion seems to be 
 strongest between 7 and 10 and to reach its climax between 8 and 9. . . . 
 Girls often play with dolls regularly till 13 or 14, when with the dawn of 
 adolescence the doll passion generally abates." Pedagogical Seminary^ 
 Vol. 4, PP- 156-7. 
 
38 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 The evidence for this increase with age is, however, somewhat 
 weakened by the 59 per cent which appears in the twelfth year 
 with its 14 girls, when that of the fifteenth year is only 58 per 
 cent. This may be taken as showing a considerable degree of 
 variability in individuals without wholly contradicting the 
 direction and degree of development indicated by larger periods 
 which contain 20 or 30 cases each. 
 
 It is in the useful things made for one's self, however, that 
 we find the most noticeable increase with age and the one strik- 
 ing agreement between the records of boys and girls. 
 
 Age 
 
 8.9 
 
 lO.II 
 
 12-14 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 II 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 Girls 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 17 
 
 32 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 18 
 
 20 
 
 32 
 
 Boys 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 ~ 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 
 It would seem that there is a very marked turning to this kind 
 of work at the twelfth year, and with both sexes. If the making 
 of bread, cake, etc., were included here, as it probably should 
 be, this increase with age would be for the girls still further 
 accented. Reference to the class list will show that with the 
 girls as with the boys it is here that the largest proportional 
 variety of project occurs, and that about half of the things men- 
 tioned are articles of clothing, most of the others being also 
 needle work of one form or another. 
 
 The drawing and painting recorded by girls is seen to be 
 even less than that of the boys though very close to it. 
 
 Age 8-9 10- 1 1 12-14 9 10 II 12 13 14 Gen. Av. 
 
 Girls 34 3 346382 3 
 
 Boys 34 4 342345 4 
 
 This sex similarity in pure art is very far from holding good in 
 respect to applied art. For a very large part of the doilies, pil- 
 low covers, embroidery work, etc., which constitute so much of 
 
OF CHILDREN 39 
 
 the girls' work, evidently includes a considerable art element, 
 while there is comparatively little of the boys' work which 
 shows any special thought about or interest in the art side. 
 
 The sex differences here shown may be summed up as fol- 
 lows . 
 
 (i) The toy is the boy's leading product and the useful 
 gift that of the girl. 
 
 (2) Doll play is the center of nearly all of the girl's play- 
 construction, while with boys the doll hardly appears at all al- 
 though there is in the earlier years some of the play.imitation 
 construction which has a certain resemblance to doll play. 
 
 (3) The girl's play construction as a whole is always less 
 than half of the total and decreases with age, the boy's is more 
 than half and tends to increase somewhat up to the age of four- 
 teen at least. 
 
 (4) The useful-gift class, while holding about a third of 
 the articles with both sexes under ten years, decreases to one- 
 sixth with the boys while increasing to neirly half with the 
 girls. The element which we have called vitality appears in 33 
 per cent of the boys' projects and in only 2 per cent of the girls'. 
 
 In addition to these differences of underlying purpose in con- 
 struction, it is further to be noted that where the motive is the 
 same, the things made with the work and materials involved are 
 radically different;— e. g., although boats seem to belong 
 exclusively to boys and dolls to girls, both seem to be rooted in 
 very much the same sort of play instinct. As will later be 
 shown, the boy depends very largely upon wood as his material 
 and the girls upon cloth. The only marked similarity in 
 materials or projects appears in the class of useful gifts which 
 with both sexes contains quite a number of calendars, picture 
 frames, and, most notably, baskets. 
 
 These facts regarding sex differences would point toward an 
 almost complete separation of boys' and girls' handwork from 
 the ninth year up— so far as the question of interest is con. 
 cerned, which of course is far from the only consideration . in 
 planning a course of study. However, such a conclusion is 
 limited by the fact that we do not know how far external sug- 
 gestion has given form to the work which we have studied. Of 
 course an element of that must be present in every case. The 
 
40 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 fact that this suggestion is accepted and built upon voluntarily 
 by the child is evidence that it meets some innate need, but is 
 no evidence whatever that anyone of a hundred other lines of 
 work if suggested would not meet the same need as well or 
 even better. So while these records show the suitability of 
 certain kinds of work, they do not prove any other work unsuit- 
 able except in so far as it may appear that the suggestions for 
 the other work were actually received and refused. If then we 
 can assume that boys and girls do build upon the same body of 
 suggestion, the exclusion of articles not made by one or the 
 other sex will be evidence against the naturalness of that type of 
 work for that sex. If we take the view that they build upon 
 radically different suggestion foundations, we can draw no con- 
 clusions about the unsuitability of a line of work from the mere 
 fact of its omission. 
 
 Upon this question it is to be said on the one hand, that the 
 environment of boys and girls of these ages is practically identi- 
 cal, that they see, hear, and read about the same things in 
 home and school, in city and country, and that consequently the 
 widely separate elements of that environment which boys and 
 girls select for reconstruction in play must have a peculiar 
 adaptation to innate needs which are fundamentally different in 
 the sexes. From this point of view these records support a de- 
 mand for decided sex differences in school handwork, i. e., so 
 far as the question of interest is concerned. 
 
 On the other hand, it may be said, and with considerable 
 force, as it seems to the writer, that while both boys 
 and girls have the same environment there is at pres- 
 ent a pressure of suggestion from without that has 
 almost the force of law, and that this, rather than in- 
 stinctive tendencies, is the reason why a , boy becomes so 
 early ashamed to sew or to play with dolls, and a girl feels it 
 unlady-like to saw a board or sail a boat. The children were 
 asked to state the ages of brothers and sisters in the hope of ob- 
 taining light on this question, but in this we were disappointed. 
 Common observation furnishes isolated cases in which girls once 
 started do supposedly boys' work with much enthusiasm, groups 
 of boys have been known to become deeply absorbed in acquir- 
 ing a knowledge of ''camp cooking, " etc. But only experiment 
 
OF CHILDREN 41 
 
 in giving to each sex the other kind of work under conditions 
 peculiarly favorable to it in respect to suggestion can determine 
 the actual importance in education of the sex differences so 
 clearly shown in the above records. For the present, these 
 must be regarded as bearing only on the question of what kinds 
 of work will appeal to either sex, not on that of what kinds of 
 work will not. 
 
 The Materials Used 
 
 Table III shows the same articles grouped on a basis of 
 material, within the same age groups. As in the motive classi- 
 fication, the unit is not the number of articles but the per cent 
 of articles of a given material, on the total number of articles 
 reported by that particular child. 
 
 It will be seen that the attempt has been made with the 
 three most general materials, wood, cloth, and paper, to dis- 
 tinguish articles made by combination of different parts, from 
 those which may be made out of a single piece of the material ; 
 e. g.^ rabbit houses, sail boats, shirt waists, sewing bags, paper 
 dolls' furniture, etc., are placed in the construction class (i), 
 while a whittled out arrow or paper knife, a doily or a paper 
 book mark, vvould be placed in the non-construction class (2). 
 Paper used for mere drawing and painting was not recorded in 
 the "paper" class. The class *'metals" includes, in addition 
 to the few which were wholly of metal, those in which metal 
 other than nails and screws was used as an important material. 
 
 These tables have little significance on the genetic side, 
 the only regular variations with age being those which might 
 have been pretty safely prophesied in advance,—^, g,, for the 
 boys:(i) Increase in constructive wood work coupled with a 
 decrease of the non-constructive; (2) Marked decrease in use of 
 paper — 19 per cent, 13 percent and 10 per cent for the age- 
 periods—most of the decline being in the non-construction 
 class; (3) Decrease in the use of cloth— 10, 6, 4 per cent by 
 periods;. (4) An increase from i to 11 per cent in the use of 
 metals, though the two schools vary widely here. With the 
 girls we find (i) much the same decrease in the use of paper as 
 
STATISTICS OF THE BOYS* HAND- WORK 
 
 Ogn!73 
 
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STATISTICS OF THE GIRLS' HAND- WORK 
 
 
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44 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 with the boys— 25, 14, 11 per cent; (2) Something of an in- 
 crease in the use of cloth— 46, 51, 55 per cent (not fully sup- 
 ported by the separate record of the Ethical School). 
 
 Since all but one of these changes ( ome within a range of 
 10 per cent, the general averages may be taken as fair indica- 
 tions of the relati\e suitability of these different materials to 
 the needs and powers of the children during this whole period, 
 and they offer direct suggestions of some value regarding the 
 comparative attention to be given in the school room to work in 
 these different materials. These points hardly n quire detailed 
 comment, being sufficiently suge;ested by thefiguies themstlves, 
 as are also the differences between boys' and git Is' materials. 
 
 Materials. General Averages 
 
 o c. o 
 
 X5 'T^ H 
 
 o o "^ 
 
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 ?: ^ § 
 
 0) 
 
 a, 
 
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 (V 
 
 Pi 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 TO 
 
 H 
 
 
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 Reed ar.d 
 
 Raffia 
 Cord and 
 
 
 
 12 
 6 
 
 Boys 42 13 55 8 6 14 5 I 6 4 4 5 10 
 Girls 3 3 4 II 15 39 13 52 8 9 5 
 
11. THE EARLY INTERESTS AND EDUCATION 
 OF 72 TALHNTED ENGINEERS 
 
 Introduction 
 
 It will hardly be questioned that the lines of school hand- 
 work now in use give some general motor training which is of 
 value to the child, and some knowledge of tools, materials and 
 processes which is different in degree or quality from what he 
 would othv^rwise acquire; or that these various acquisitions, 
 skill, knowledge, inventiveness, aesthetic app'eciation, habits 
 of s )cial acti )n, and the like, so far as developed thereby, would 
 increa>-e somewhat the child's value to society. 
 
 But this is probably as strong and definite a statement as 
 would meet with general acceptance. As to the extent of such re- 
 sults, we have no definite knowledge, and there is the widest 
 difference of opinion regarding their relative values as compared 
 one with another or with the regular school subjects. Each of 
 these elements of value is exalted as the main purpose of the 
 work by the adheients of one or another system. More numer- 
 ous still are those who hold the opinion that any and all of these 
 values are too insignificant in comparison with the regular 
 school studies to justify their entrance into the curriculum. We 
 may as well admit that we know little about the real social 
 significance of these aims and less about the eflficiency of the 
 means used to obtain them. 
 
 We have no positive evidence that the school handwork 
 affects a child's general motor control seriously, or even appre- 
 ciably. We do not know whether or how far the elements of 
 knowledge which a child gains through handwork differ in kind 
 or degree from those gained through an equal time given to 
 observation and study. We know very little of the relationship 
 between the lines of ability n quired or cultivated by handwork 
 and those which belong to the other school subjects. The known 
 facts here are so few that one need consult only his personal 
 
46 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 taste and inclination in deciding whether to go with him who 
 says that it is the best general student who excels in con- 
 structive work, or with him who claims that it is just the boy 
 stupid at his books who will lead his class in these more con- 
 crete and practical lines. 
 
 The situation is the same in regard to the specifically 
 economic values of manual work. We do not know whether the 
 adult efficiency of men in any walk of life is affected appreciably 
 by the handwork now found in the school, and can only guess 
 at the comparative importance from this point of view of the 
 different kinds of work now in vogue. It would indeed seem 
 probable that if the manual work were much increased and 
 specialized it would materially affect the future efficiency of 
 those children who are destined to earn their living in the 
 manual occupations, and it might perhaps have equal signifi- 
 cance for those who are to become industrial leaders and organ- 
 izers. But the school, in this country at least, has not dared 
 to offer enough special work to justify the expectation of any 
 such results in a marked way, for lack of knowledge as to what 
 children ought to receive it. Any way of ascertaining in ad- 
 vance what children would or should enter industrial occupa- 
 tions would probably make possible advantageous adaptations of 
 their early education. Such problems will doubtless become 
 subjects of serious study, and when this is done we may expect 
 results regarding all of them such as will have decided influence 
 on educational practice. 
 
 Tests will be devised which will develop facts regarding the 
 influence of handwork upon general motor ability and its 
 efficacy in developing constructive insight, inventiveness, and 
 the like; the correlations of skill and success in manual lines 
 with ^those in other lines may be easily determined; following 
 the later records of children from different types of schools 
 would give suggestions as to the influence of the curriculum on 
 choice of occupation ; a study of the boyhood characteristics of 
 men in different occupations ought to indicate ways of judging 
 what type of occupation a given child would incline to choose 
 when grown, and furnish suggestions regarding what sort of 
 specialization at school is desirable ;— or at least it would prove 
 the impossibility of any such fore-knowledge. The following 
 
OF CHILDREN 47 
 
 section deals with material of this last sort bearing upon a single 
 set of occupations. 
 
 The desirability of a considerable opportunity for specializa- 
 tion was admitted after a long struggle so far as the colleges 
 were concerned, and more recently secondary schools have also 
 been developing an elective system. But in connection with 
 the elementary school the question has hardly been discussed, 
 in this country at least, the assumption being that this period 
 must be given wholly to lines of work which are supposedly 
 essential to all callings alike. This is however an assumption 
 rather than a proved fact, and the possibility of advantageous 
 specialization within these school years seems at least a question 
 worth considering. Perhaps the broadest basis for any specializa- 
 tion here would be the division of the children into two classes; 
 those who are to engage in constructive and mechanical occupa. 
 tions, and those who are not. In this case the problem of 
 selecting the right pupils for industrial occupations and of giv- 
 ing them the right kind of special training, is at present identi- 
 cal with the general specialization problem as regards the ele- 
 mentary school. The class of workers-with-materials apparently 
 would need to be divided into: (i) those who in subordinate 
 positions perform the actual operations upon the materials, 
 and {2) those who invent new methods and processes and suc- 
 cessfully organize industrial effort. 
 
 The present study deals only with this second class, and 
 is a consideration of facts regarding the boyhood environment, 
 education, activities, and interests of men of marked con- 
 structive talent, with a view to determining what boyhood 
 characteristics, if any, give promise of constructive talent in 
 the adult, and what elements of education and experience, if 
 any, regularly precede the manifestation of this ability in the 
 adult. 
 
 While one would expect the main significance of such study 
 to lie in its answer to the question of how definitely and in just 
 what ways boyhood may be expected to indicate adult abilities, 
 still it would be a rather extreme emphasis upon innate equip- 
 ment as the only factor in the production of genius which would 
 find ho suggestions for education in the facts about to be ex- 
 amined regarding the boyhood of these engineers. Even Gal- 
 
48 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 ton, whose Hereditary Genius gives such striking evidence in 
 support of the view that men having certain types of inborn gen- 
 ius are bound to attain ultimately a given degree of such suc- 
 cess regardless of environmental influences during childhood/ 
 dismisses mechanical talent with these words : 
 
 "I do not, however, see my way clear to makin-^ a selection of eminently 
 gifted engineers because their success depends in a very great degree on 
 early opportunities. "^ 
 
 Such an admission— or assumption — from such an authority 
 would in itself seem a sufficient warrant for the attempt to 
 ascertain just what the early opportunities are which produce 
 eminently gifted engineers. 
 
 The following material was obtained by means of a question- 
 naire which is reproduced on the following page. It was sent 
 to one hundred 1 *a ling members of the American Society of 
 Mechanical Engineers.- As a suggestion regarding the degree 
 of ability here represented it maybe stated that some half-dozen 
 («)f those who replied) are millionaires, two of them many times 
 such. It was estimated that the list included no one who, if 
 salaried, would receive less than ^7,500, while the average 
 salary-rate was placed at ;^ 12, 000. 
 
 Occupation ^^'^''MroTpr^fer) 
 
 At what age did you enter upon it? 
 
 Did you choose it then because it seemed necessary? 
 
 Because it seemed the most profitable? 
 
 Because of liking for just that kind of work? 
 
 Where was your home during boyhood? 
 
 Country Village Town(j>-X-J City 
 
 With what lines of mechanical work were you thrown into close contact, if 
 
 any? 
 
 iGalton, Hereditary Genius^ pp. 37-49. 
 
OF CHILDREN ' 49' 
 
 In what lines of ability or taste were you considered exceptionally gifted dur- 
 ing this period? 
 
 Please number the following studies in the order of your preference for 
 them as a boy : 
 
 Arithmetic History Geography Literature 
 
 Science .. , 
 
 In which ones was your work exceptionally good? 
 
 " " " " poor? f 
 
 At what age did you leave school ? 
 
 What kinds of handwork did you do previous to your 17th year, and at 
 what ages respectively ? 
 
 Were you much or comparatively little interested in this work ? 
 
 Did father or mother possess exceptional manual skill? ... 
 
 Father's occupation? 
 
 If you can recall them, please mention below, six things made or built by 
 you previous to your 17th year? 
 
 If unable to recall age, please state btiirecn what years : f. p. 8-1 1 1 1 2-1 4- 1 6-1 6- 
 
 Article 
 
 Agk 
 
 Approx. Size 
 
 Purpose 
 
 Remarks 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
50 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 How far in your judgment did the doing of such work as a child affect your 
 choice of life work or your success therein? 
 
 If your experience has led you to any conclusions respecting the place of 
 handwork in the Elementary School, will you please indicate them on 
 the other side of this sheet. 
 
 Method of Tabulation 
 
 Of these loo men, 22 were found to reside in Greater New 
 York, and these were selected as a test group with the hope of 
 making the returns absolutely complete within its limits. A 
 second letter to the six who ignored the first was all that proved 
 necessary to accomplish this. Thus the New York group repre- 
 sents the full 100 per cent of returns, and is valuable as a check 
 upon the results to be obtained from the whole body of returns, 
 which included 72 replies. As will be seen, however, the two 
 classes agree very closely; sufficiently so to justify the assump- 
 tion that the percentages would not differ sensibly if the returns 
 were complete, i. e., that the 28 who failed to reply did so for 
 accidental reasons and not because of any fundamental differences 
 with respect to the characteristics we are to study. 
 
 The names were also separated into three groups thought 
 to represent somewhat different types of mechanical ability, 
 group A including those whose success was primarily due to ex- 
 ceptional constructive and inventive ability as such ; group B, 
 thos3 who combine large constructive ability with the ability 
 required to organize and conduct successfully a large con- 
 structive or manufacturing enterprise ; and group C, men whose 
 success, although along strictly constructive lines, has been due 
 primarily to their powers of organization rather than to their 
 scientific or mechanical ability. 
 
 The differences between these classes are not large nor 
 regular, but the results are given in this form as helping to 
 show the limits of variation within the group as a whole. The 
 fact of such similarities, joined to these differing types of 
 talent, suggested that the boyhood characteristics which were 
 found common here might have no special application to men of 
 engineering ability but might belong to men of similar talent in 
 
^ OF 
 
 OF CHILDREN 51 
 
 almost any occupation. As a test of this, thirty men equally 
 successful as lawyers were asked to answer the same set of ques- 
 tions. The results will be given beside those of the engineers. 
 While all means failed to extract replies from more than nine 
 of the lawyers, these returns seem worthy of some regard be- 
 cause they are so uniformly negative in regard to the mechanical 
 element in their make-up. It would doubtless be the most un- 
 mechanically minded of this group who would be the least likely 
 to attempt to answer such questions, so that it seems fair to as - 
 sume that we have here the records of that part of the thirty 
 which possesses the strongest mechanical interest, and that the 
 complete returns would show (if possible) still less of the charac- 
 teristics of the engineers than do those of the nine lawyers who 
 replied. 
 
 Their reports are tabulated in the same manner as those of 
 the engineers and are given in a parallel column. Though so 
 meagre, they seem to the writer a sufficient indication that the 
 early evidences of mechanical talent are not to be found to any 
 extent in boys who are to become talented lawyers. Whether 
 the lawyers or the engineers are the more highly specialized 
 type, cannot be determined without a study of still other pro- 
 fessions. 
 
 As the New Yorkers were distributed quite evenly through 
 these three classes, it was necessary to make, in reality, six 
 separate classes instead of three. The results with these classes 
 support the general averages in most cases and are not recorded 
 separately in the text. The figures are in every case the percent- 
 ages of answers upon the total number (of sheets returned) 
 within that class; in other words, each class record reads as if 
 based on 100 replies. ^The number of replies in each main group 
 is as follows : 
 
 A 19 New York (complete) 22 
 
 B 30 Lawyers 9 
 
 C 23 
 
 Total ^2 
 
52 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 These returns may be considered under the heads of (i) en- 
 vironment, (2) special interests and abilities, (3) the handwork 
 actually done by them, (4) their views and opinions regarding 
 the place of handwork in the school. 
 
 Environment 
 
 Under this head we may consider the information regarding 
 location of home, parents' occupation, personal contact with 
 constructive and mechanical work, etc. The percentages show 
 the number living in country, city, etc. 
 
 
 Total 
 
 N. Y. 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 Lawyers 
 
 Farm 
 
 21 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 23 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 Village 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 S 
 
 20 
 
 9 
 
 II 
 
 Town 
 
 26 
 
 9 
 
 21 
 
 23 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 City 
 
 53 
 
 78 
 
 58 
 
 43 
 
 61 
 
 89 
 
 If the distribution of the population at the time of the boyhood 
 of these men be taken into account, the contrast between city 
 and country is still further heightened. Only three of them are 
 under forty years of age, and the average age is estimated at 
 between fifty-five and sixty. So their boyhood would center m 
 a general way about the year i860. At that date the cities of 
 this country contained 16 per cent of the population.^ This 16 
 per ceat apparently furnished 51 per cent of the mechanical en- 
 gineers of the grade of ability which we are considering. As 
 the proportion of urban population has doubtless more than 
 doubled since that time (being 22 per cent of the whole in 1880 
 and 29 per cent in 1890)^ it is seen that merely upon a basis of 
 numbers to select from the city's present advantage over the 
 country in furnishing these men is very much increased. Add 
 to that the undoubted fact that it is on the whole the best of the 
 country population which the city has been adding to itself dur- 
 ing these forty years, and we cannot but conclude that the pro- 
 portion of talented engineers- to-be who are now living out their 
 
 ^Mayo Smith, Statistics and Sociology^ p. 369. 
 aibid. 
 
OF CHILDREN , 53 
 
 boyhood on the farm is far below this 21 per cent, and that the 
 cities are at present producing far more such than the 53 per 
 cent of i860. 
 
 Whatever may be the present situation, the fact that forty 
 years ago the large city furnished 53 per cent of such men as 
 against 21 per cent from the country contrasts strongly with 
 widely held views concerning the exceptional value of farm and 
 country life as education, and concerning the quality of mind 
 that it develops. In so far as this type of ability is held to be a 
 thing inborn, these figures indicate that the city succeeded 
 several decades ago in winning the larger proportion of the best 
 blood— the best, that is for this purpose. Regarding their bear- 
 ing on early opportunity as a factor in the production of 
 mechanical ability, one would have said that this would be 
 just the kind of ability to profit in a peculiar degree from the 
 environment and experiences of farm and country life. Think- 
 ing of its varied contact with the physical world, its demands of 
 all sorts for amateur construction, building repairs and the like 
 which must often be met by novel and ingenious uses of the tools 
 and materials lying at hand, one would be quite likely to con- 
 clude that this life would be far the most effective in develop- 
 ing an acquaintance with materials and a versatility in discover- 
 ing and adapting means to ends which would count in an excep- 
 tional degree toward a constructive or mechanical career. 
 Evidently, however, the farm has no great significance here. 
 It would seem either that environment is an unimportant factor 
 compared to inborn genius and that the city has sometime since 
 possessed itself of the families that contain most of the genuises, 
 or else that, advantageous as the country environment appears 
 to be, the city somehow surpasses it as a soil for at least this 
 particular kind of talent. When we come to examine the 
 features of mechanical environment most often mentioned, we 
 shall see indications that the city does furnish certain important 
 elements of experience which the country lacks. 
 
54 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 Fathers' Occupations 
 
 Total 
 
 N. Y. 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 Lawyers 
 
 Mechanical 57 
 
 59 
 
 47 
 
 57 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 Farmer 12 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 Non-mechanical 30 
 
 45 
 
 37 
 
 27 
 
 30 
 
 100 
 
 The general average of 57 per cent of mechanically employed 
 parents against 30 per cent who were not is maintained approxi- 
 mately in the sub groups, and, as is natural, corresponds in a 
 general way to the proportion of parents having mechanical 
 skill. (68 per cent yes, 24 per cent no. ) Of course this some, 
 what better chance which the son of a mechanically employed 
 father evidently has of gaining distinction in the same line may 
 be attributed to heredity or environment according to one's 
 taste. The fact that the parents of mechanical skill are a little 
 more numerous than those of mechanical occupation, gives 
 emphasis to the heredity factor.^ 
 
 Extent of Mechanical Environment 
 
 The question, **With what lines of mechanical work were 
 you thrown into close contact, if any.?" brings the most sug- 
 gestive facts regarding environment. The following list gives 
 the lines of work mentioned first or most prominently by each 
 man, — some men having mentioned several : 
 
 Total. 
 Mechanical environment 84 
 Farm 4 
 
 Non-mechanical environ- 
 ment 12 18 56 13 6^ 
 
 These answers may repay a more detailed analysis. 
 
 ^With the lawyers, five fathers were the same, two were clergymen, one 
 a banker, one not ascertained. 
 
 N. Y. 
 
 A 
 
 B C 
 
 T .awyers 
 
 82 
 
 90 
 
 80 87 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 22 
 

 OF CHILDREN 
 
 55 
 
 Cases 
 
 
 Cases 
 
 Machinery 
 
 45 
 
 (63 %) 
 
 Other Mechanical 15 (21% ) 
 
 Machine shop 
 
 24 
 
 
 Carpentry 
 
 6 
 
 Steam engine 
 
 
 
 Blacksmithing, 
 
 2 
 
 work, 
 
 5 
 
 
 Railroad, 
 
 I 
 
 Steam ship bldg. 
 
 3 
 
 
 * *Saw everything 
 
 
 Engine building. 
 
 2 
 
 
 I could" 
 
 I 
 
 Rolling mill, 
 
 2 
 
 
 Foundry, 
 
 I 
 
 Carriage factory 
 
 2 
 
 
 ** Saw various 
 
 
 Sugar machinery 
 
 I 
 
 
 factories" 
 
 I 
 
 Bolt factory, 
 
 I 
 
 
 ** Boiling in 
 
 
 Factories, 
 
 I 
 
 
 vacuum" 
 
 I 
 
 Iron works. 
 
 I 
 
 
 Masonry, 
 
 I 
 
 Textile machin- 
 
 
 
 "General" 
 
 I 
 
 ery, 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 Steam saw mill. 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 Pattern making. 
 
 I 
 
 
 Non-Mechanical 
 Farm, 
 
 **Noneatall" 
 Blank, 
 
 10(14%) 
 3 
 7 
 2 
 
 In some cases more than one line of activity was mentioned. 
 Farm and carpentry work were mentioned three or four times 
 each as subordinate factors, and factories in the same way seven- 
 teen times. 
 
 Eighty-four per cent then had some direct contact with 
 mechanical work, 63 per cent with machinery in one form or an- 
 other, and, if we include the engine work and rolling mills, 
 exactly 50 per cent give first place to their contact directly with 
 machine-shop work, — the special line in which nearly all of them 
 achieved their success. The occupation which ranks next to 
 that of the machine shop is carpentry with only 8 per cent— this 
 in spite of the obvious fact that the number of boys having 
 contact with carpentry work would exceed many times the num- 
 ber having contact with machine-shop work. 
 
56 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 This striking and detailed similarity between early environ- 
 ment and the field of adult success may be explained in at least 
 three ways. It may bo held that the mechanical elements in the 
 environment have been sought out by the boy himself in re- 
 sponse to innate craving. The spirit of the reply, **Saw every- 
 thing I could," is reflected in a number of answers. It would 
 seem that city-bred boys in genenl would have an approxmately 
 equal chance at machine shops, etc., and therefore that the 
 city-bred lawyer who reports so little mechanical environment 
 could probably have hvid such opp )rtunities as readily as the 
 city-bred engineer (provided that the father of the later were 
 not himself a machinist, which he was not in 39 per cent of the 
 cases of strictly machine shop environment). From this point 
 of view the early environment becomes in a sense an early 
 record of natural and enduring mechanical interests and abili- 
 ties, and evidently a fairly detailed and reliable record in at 
 least half the cases of large mechanical success. 
 
 This early acquaintance with mechanics may, on the other 
 hand, be looked at as a training which contributed in a direct 
 way to the later success of these men, and it is to be said here 
 that many of those who add comments on school manual work 
 speak very appreciatively of their boyhood contact with shops 
 and factories. In the third place, it may be thought of not as 
 a direct cause of the success but as the means of leading into 
 mechanical occupations boys of such ability as wo\dd perhaps 
 make them equally successful in many oihtr lines of work. 
 Whether such environmt-nt serves as a means of training or as 
 simply the means for an intelligent choice of occupation, it may 
 be considered a definite educational asset for any boy. An 
 illustration of its importance is found in one record .of a lawyer's 
 son who reports "no mechanical environment whatever;" he 
 graduated from college at 19, studied law three years, practiced 
 two years, and then went to an engineering school, graduating 
 and getting to work at 28. A number of men, as will later 
 appear, value school handwork chiefly as a means of discovering 
 one's natural tastes, s^me of them questioning, and with reason 
 as it seems to the writer, whether the kinds of work generally 
 carried on help in this way to any great extent. 
 
OF CHILDREN 57 
 
 The fact that 50 per cent of these men had contact 
 with definite machine-shop work shows a detail of cor- 
 relation between environment and success in engineering 
 that was hardy to be expected in ability of this rank, 
 though it might be natural enough with the ordinary 
 machine-shop hand. It seems to support in a consid- 
 erable degree Galton's view of the importance of early oppor- 
 tunity. It would be interesting to know whether leading men 
 of other constructional occupations, such as architects, mining 
 engineers, or textile manufacturers, had during boyhood an 
 equally intimate connection with the line which they now 
 follow, apart from any connection with it which their fathers 
 might have had. 
 
 This detail of correlation throws added light on the relation 
 of farm experience to engineering ability — or rather the lack of 
 relation— which has already been discussed. Of the 1 5 men who 
 are recorded as having lived on a farm, only three report the 
 farm activities as the sole or leading mechanical experience of 
 their boyhood. The other twelve had or found access to neigh- 
 boring saw-mills, factories, and the like. Thus the real 
 effectiveness of the farm as an environment productive of en- 
 gineering ability should be rated at 4 per cent rather than the 21 
 per cent as indicated by mere location, the most obvious ex- 
 planation being that farm experience, while strong on the 
 general constructive side, is too far removed from engineering 
 to contribute much toward the success of an engineer, or to 
 satisfy his interests. The city with its factories and machine- 
 shops evidently meets either or both of these requirements much 
 more effectively. That so few (13 per cent) make any mention 
 at all of carpentry, the most generally accessible type of con- 
 structive work, is an added emphasis upon the relation between 
 actual machine shop experience during boyhood and the making 
 of a successful engineer. 
 
 The following table gives an idea of the correlation between 
 mechanical enviroment and the occupation of the father: 
 
58 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 Fathers' Occupations 
 
 No. of Environment Machinists & Other mechani- Non-me- 
 cases of Boys Manufacturers cal chanical 
 
 36 Machinery en- 
 vironment, 61% 11% 28% 
 
 24 Other mechanical 
 
 environment 54% 8% 37% 
 
 12 Non-mechanical 
 
 environment, 25% 17% 58% 
 
 Thus of the 36 boys who went from a definite machine- 
 shop environment into the machinist's profession, only 22 (61 
 per cent) had fathers who were machinists, the other 14 (40 per 
 cent) procuring this experience independently of the father's 
 occupation. The fact here shown that nearly half of those re- 
 cording no mechanical environment had fathers who were em- 
 ployed mechanically, would suggest that their denial of such 
 experience be taken with some reservation and that the 
 mechanical environment class may in reality be considerably 
 more than 84 per cent of the whole. 
 
 Special Interests and Abilities 
 
 With regard to interest taken in actual performance of me- 
 chanical work during boyhood, the answers affirming such inter- 
 est generally do so with a positiveness and detail which marks it 
 as the dominant one of the period. The figures run very closely 
 parallel, even in the sub-groups to those on mechanical environ- 
 ment. A number failed to reply to the question, as is indi- 
 cated by combining the two sets of figures. 
 
 Total N. Y. 
 
 A 
 
 B C Lawyers 
 
 Mechanical Interests 83 , 82 
 
 89 
 
 83 83 II 
 
 No Mechanical Interest 8 9 
 
 II 
 
 7 9 67 
 
 The answers relating to the lines of exceptional ability 
 shown in boyhood may be mentioned here. Doubtless modesty 
 
OF CHILDREN 59 
 
 was one of the reasons for the 20 per cent of omitted or evasive 
 answers. The answers given are as follows : 
 
 Total 
 
 N. Y. 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 Law 
 
 Exceptional Mechan- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ical Ability 57 
 
 55 
 
 52 
 
 66 
 
 48 
 
 
 
 Exceptional Ability 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (other) 14 
 
 18 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 33 
 
 No exceptional Ability 10 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 33 
 
 Less than one-fifth of the 57 per cent who plead guilty to 
 the possession of exceptional mechanical ability mention any 
 other youthful specialty and we shall later find still more 
 evidence to indicate that these boys as a class were far from uni- 
 versal geniuses. The non-mechanical lines were: 
 
 Mentioned as co-ordinate with early mechanical talent: 
 Freehand drawing 4; music, chemistry, mathematics, i 
 each. 
 
 Mentioned as the only lines of early talent : Freehand 
 drawing, music, botany, willingness to work, sticking at 
 work, knowledge of animals, plants and fishes, "organiz- 
 ing plans of all kinds,'' "memory and declamation," 
 "eating, growing and reading," i each. 
 Several of the ten who deny that they had any special talent 
 at all, describe things made at fourteen or fifteen years of age, 
 which from the point of view of the writer's experience and ob- 
 servation would indicate very decided mechanical ability. The 
 writer is tempted to venture the guess that nearer 90 per cent 
 than 57 per cent of them were, even as boys, gifted mechanically. 
 
 Ability in School \A^ork 
 
 The comparative interests and abilities of these men in the 
 regular school studies show a definite and detailed correlation 
 with their mechanical tendencies. 
 
 As a group they seem to have been a strong but poorly 
 balanced set of students. Not one claims to have been poor in 
 all studies, and only 3 per cent admit themselves exceptionally 
 
6o THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 good in all. Twelve per cent rank themselves as average in all 
 and one omits the question. The remainder admit some excep- 
 tional strength or weakness — generally both — in their school 
 work. Omitting all equivocal answers, such as ''arithmetic if 
 any/' we find that 8i percent admit exceptional strength in 
 some study and 60 per cent some exceptional weakness, while 
 56 per cent place themselves in both groups. 
 
 The lawyers, on the other hand, seem a much better 
 balanced group. Fifty-six per cent admit with various apologies 
 that they were good all around students (against 3 per cent above) 
 and not one says he was "average in al].^' These facts may be 
 stated in tabular form : 
 
 Engineers Lawyers 
 
 Weak in all o o 
 
 Average in all 12 u 
 
 Strong in all 3 56 
 
 Strong in something 81 100 
 
 Weak in something 60 44 
 
 Both strong and weak 56 44 
 
 The following table shows how this strength or weakness 
 divided itself among the different studies : 
 
 Exceptional Strength 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 N. Y. 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 C 
 
 Lawyers 
 
 Science 
 
 41 
 
 32 
 
 49 
 
 33 
 
 43 
 
 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 48 
 
 36 
 
 58 
 
 40 
 
 48 
 
 44 
 
 Geography 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 II 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 History 
 
 8 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 56 
 
 Literature 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 (Classics) 56 
 
OF CHILDREN . 6i 
 
 Exceptional Weakness 
 Total N. Y. A B C Lawyers 
 
 Science i 
 
 0004 22 
 
 Arithmetic 10 ^3 5 7 17 22 
 
 Geography 6 0574 o 
 
 History 7 5 5 10 4 o 
 
 Literature 25 9 37 20 26 
 
 Arithmetic is seen to have a decidedly varied record. 
 While it is the subject in which most men report special strength, 
 yet it is second only to literature— though by a long interval— in 
 respect to weakness. So its position is perhaps less definite than 
 that of science in which 41 per cent reported strength but only i 
 per cent weakness. Thus, while strength in either arithmetic or 
 science would not in itself go very far toward suggesting that a 
 given boy would ultimately belong to this class of engineers, 
 exceptional weakness in science would seem to be a very decided 
 bar to his ever doing so. Exceptional strength in literature would 
 also seem to be something of a bar, being possessed by only 3 
 per cent. The lawyers' records form a strong contrast here 
 also, their only weakness being in arithmetic and science, while 
 most of their strength is in history and the classics. 
 
 Relative Preference for Studies 
 
 The responses regarding relative preference for and interest 
 in the school studies show a remarkably definite interest rank for 
 each one in the collective engineer-mind. The question was : 
 ''Number the following studies in the order of your preference 
 for them as a boy." The following tables show the number of 
 times (raised to 100 cases) each 'rank was assigned to each sub- 
 ject, and should be read both downward and horizontally. The 
 more significant numbers are in italics. 
 
62 
 
 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 Rank 
 Science 
 Arithmetic 
 Geography 
 History 
 Literature 
 
 Engineers 
 
 Total 
 1st 2d 3rd 4th 5th 
 
 36 
 
 49 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 / 
 
 37 8 
 19 II 
 14 28 
 
 o 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 8 24 36 14 
 6 7 IS 4g 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 N. Y. 
 
 I St 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 
 
 4S 3^ o S o 
 
 45 18 14 5 9 
 
 14 14 28 14 9 
 
 5 9 23 ^^ 18 
 
 o (^ \s \^ 41 
 
 Lawyers 
 
 Science O O \\ 33 33 
 
 Arithmetic 22 11 22 o ^ 
 
 Geography o 11 ^ 33 o 
 
 History ^6 11 11 11 o 
 
 Literature 11 56 o 11 o 
 
 Though arithmetic has the largest number of firsts, it is 
 clear that science is the subject most generally preferred, since 
 73 per cent give it first or second place and only one ranks it 
 lower than third on this scale of five, arithmetic having twelve 
 below this point. The unpopularity of literature is as noticable 
 as the preference for science, since 49 per cent give it the low- 
 est rank against one who places it first. History and geography 
 lie between these and have clearer relative rank than one would 
 expect, the one having a decided maximum in the 4th place, and 
 the other belonging almost as definitely in the third. 
 
 With the lawyers the order of preference is exactly inverted 
 in every detail, with the exception of the somewhat natural lead 
 of history over literature. Arithmetic has the largest number 
 of fifths but also quite a number of admirers, fully sustaining 
 the rather irregular position it has held heretofore. Science is 
 fifth here in exactly the same sense in which it was first with the 
 
OF CHILDREN 63 
 
 engineers, having no firsts nor seconds and the largest total of 
 fourths and fifths. 
 
 Geography is condemned by both lawyers and engineers to 
 the same dead level of mediocrity. As taught thirty years ago, it 
 evidently did not involve enough science to arouse either the 
 hostility of the one class or the enthusiasm of the other. 
 
 The interest evidenced by the engineers in science has 
 something of a counterpart in the interest of eminent scientific 
 men in mechanics. Of those studied by Galton, a considerable 
 number possessed very marked mechanical aptitude and taste. ^ 
 The two professions certainly seem to have a great deal in com- 
 mon, and it is quite likely that many or most of the men in 
 either would succeed fairly well in the other. It would be 
 natural to suppose that a man would turn to the one or the 
 other according as theoretic or practical interests were dominant 
 with him, and this view is supported with some definiteness by 
 the reports of both classes regarding actual work done. For 
 the scientists, while describing some interesting productive 
 construction done during boyhood, speak much oftener of a 
 tendency to ''experiment" ; while, as we shall see ,the engineers 
 report very little pure experimentation, practically all of their 
 work being productions of concrete things, with ''tinkering,'' 
 repairs. 
 
 Constructive Work During Boyhood 
 
 A more concrete notion of their methanical interests is to 
 be obtained from the statements of these men regarding the con- 
 structive work which they actually carried on as boys. 
 
 Of the 72 men, 57 mention or describe work done. Four have 
 done none at all, i "nothing of importance," 2 "cannot recall 
 
 '^English Men of Science^ pp. 124-126. 
 
 ■^The following, from one of the engineers, is an interesting illustration 
 of the combination of these motives : "As to articles made by me during 
 boyhood, they consisted principally of carts, wagons, sleds, etc., used by me 
 and my brother for our own amusement, I might add here that I was never 
 entirely satisfied with any of these constructions until they were subjected 
 to loads and punishments of various kinds until they were destroyed, when 
 the building of a new one came in order." 
 
64 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 anything,'' while 8 ignored the question. A list of these arti- 
 cles follows. They are divided into three classes. List (a) 
 contains those which display in a striking way mechanical taste 
 and mechanical ability; things the making of which would have 
 little or no motive for the unmechanical boy and would prove 
 too difficult for any who lacked exceptional mechanical ability. 
 List (b) includes the toys and articles connected with play 
 which the average boy is likely to make or try to make for his 
 own use, — doubtless with less success than the present group. 
 List (c) is of the articles useful from an adult point of view. 
 The number following the name of the article means primarily 
 the total number of times the article was mentioned. But in all 
 the more serious projects, it means also the number of men who 
 mentioned it (unless the contrary is stated.) Many of the 
 smaller articles {i. e., carts, boats, tops, etc.) were usually 
 mentioned in the plural and where this was done the plural is 
 retained in the lists. 
 
 (a) Special Mechanical Work 
 
 64 projects^ J2 boys 
 
 Steam Engine 24 Turning lathe 5 
 
 (21 boys, 2 others in 17th (One a converted flax- 
 
 year.) I in. — 2 in. cylinders. spinning wheel. ) 
 
 One, made at 9 years, was "no 
 good for lack of ej^haust." 
 Same boy made one success- 
 fully at 15 years. 
 The earliest success was 
 at 12 years. 
 
 Electrical appliances 15 Working models of machines, etc. 10 
 (6 boys) Weaving machine 
 
 Telegraph lines 3, Mowing machine 
 
 2 of them I mile long Hay press 
 
 Dynamo 2 Toy saw mill at o years 
 
 Telephone 2 — ''run by means of spin- 
 
 Frictional Elec. Machine 2 ning wheel — would saw 
 
 Leyden jars 2 bread" 
 
OF CHILDREN 
 
 6S 
 
 Telegraph relay i 
 Telegraph self- 
 adjusting relay i 
 Microphone i 
 Arc light I 
 Induction coil i 
 
 Printing Press 2 
 Hand fire engine 2 
 Spring automobile i 
 Bridge models i 
 
 Very large kites i 
 
 Boat models 7 
 
 Full rigged brig 3 
 Model of steamer i 
 Side wheel steamer model 
 Propeller model i 
 Tug model i 
 
 Water wheels 4 
 
 Perpetual motion machine 2 
 
 **Much experimental^work, parts 
 of machines, etc.'' i 
 
 (b) Other Play Articles 
 
 Sled 9 
 
 Carts and wagons 9 
 
 **Goat and calf wagons' = 
 
 Boats (for use) 9 
 Row boats 7 
 Sail boats i 
 Foot power boats i 
 
 Boats (toys) 8 
 Animal houses 4 
 Animal traps 2 
 Bows and Arrows 4 
 Kites 3 
 Cross bow 3 
 Pop gun I 
 
 6y projects 
 
 Squirt gun i 
 
 Pistol I 
 
 Gun I 
 
 Bicycle i 
 
 Tin keyed bugle i 
 
 Horse shoe nail i 
 
 Cannon i 
 
 Chess men i 
 
 Carving birds i 
 
 Tricycle i 
 
 Violin— **learned to 
 
 play it" I 
 Railroads i 
 Wooden velocipede i 
 Dams I 
 
 Peg tops — ''outspin any I 
 have ever seen'' i 
 '*A11 sorts of things ever 
 made by a boy" i 
 
66 
 
 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 (c) Things for Use 
 60 items 
 
 Fences 2 
 
 Fret saw work 2 
 
 Wheel barrows 27 
 
 Yarn frame 2 
 
 Turned articles 2 
 
 Tinkering 2 
 
 Tool chests 
 
 Desk 
 
 Ladders 
 
 Taps and dies 
 
 Cellar stairs 
 
 Rat traps 
 
 Coal scuttles 
 
 Silk reels 
 
 Cider mill 
 
 Go-cart for baby 
 
 Core points 
 
 Pipe patterns 
 
 Grinding machine 
 
 6 room house (17 years) 
 
 Porch to home 
 
 Altered house 
 
 Barn— "built wholly by 
 
 boys under 17 years. '' 
 3 in. obj. telescope 
 Gun stock 
 Jig saw 
 Mechanical fly brush — 
 
 '*in use many years'' 
 Register for seeds 
 Cogs for main wheel 
 
 Bolster 
 
 Spoked wagon wheel 
 
 Compound-lever cheese- 
 press— "used many years.'' 
 
 Improved gavel fork 
 
 ''Tables, benches, lounge, 
 cabinet, closet, fences, 
 board walks, out buildings, 
 tombstones, — toys never. ' ' 
 
 Cabinet 
 
 Setting grates 
 
 Laying brick 
 
 Steel tools 
 
 Ox yokes 
 "Would use and repair 
 any kind of machine" 
 "Mostly repairs" 
 
 "Repairs" 
 
 Was making "a living" after 
 12 years 
 
 Ran loom half the year 
 I 2- I 5 years 
 
 Textile work in factory after 
 12 years 
 
 To the writer the preponderance of the steam engine is the 
 most striking feature of the first list,— or of any of them. Some 
 of the individual records are worth quoting verbatim, e. g.— 
 
OF CHILDREN ' 67 
 
 No. 2. ''Beam Engine (steam) 1-2" x i" cylinder. Age: 
 14-15 years. Purpose : * ' To see it operate. ' ' 
 
 Remarks: ''Surreptitiously made furnace in outhouse, to 
 cast cylinder. Stole the fuel and the bricks with which furnace 
 was made. Made taps and dies with 3 cornered file originating 
 thread. ' ' 
 
 No. 47. "Engines,— -small,— from 15 years up. Purpose: 
 "Chiefly as means of utilizing a foot power engine lathe and to 
 indulge my propensity to 'make things' .'' 
 
 No. 60. "Steam Engine, — Cylinder i 1-2" x 4". Age 12 
 years. Purpose: "To play with. Have it yet.'' 
 
 This last is the only case of an engine made at an age as 
 early as 12 years. The maker is now vice president of one of 
 the largest manufacturing establishments in New York State. 
 
 The significance of such work seems about the same on the 
 side of early abilities and on that of early interests. As to the 
 ability required : The writer has seen a number of boys quite 
 gifted mechanically make the attempt with great care and 
 patience but without success. This, and his recollections of the 
 trials and pitfalls encountered by a quite ingenious friend who 
 was barely successful with his engine (of the simplest type) at 
 18 years, convince him that the making before the 17th year of 
 engines like those recorded, proves the possession in boyhood 
 of mechanical ability of a very high order. As the early inter- 
 ests indicated, the steam engine is in a peculiar degree the most 
 typical product and the most important tool of the mechanical 
 engineering profession. While the engines of these boys were 
 sometimes utilized later on in sawing wood or running churns, 
 the purpose is generally stated as "mainly for fun''; "to satisfy 
 my propensity for making things that would go," etc. So it 
 may be fairly said that those who made them had shown before 
 the age of 17 years not merely a pronounced taste for mechanics 
 in general, but a very clearly specialized taste for mechanical 
 engineering in particular. 
 
 Thus of these 72 men, 21 produced 24 engines before reach- 
 ing their 17th year. Two others made them during the 17th 
 year. The uniformity here is emphasized by comparison with 
 the remainder of the lists which show such great variety. Even 
 the boat, which as we have seen in the preceding chapter is so 
 
68 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 decidedly the standard project of the average boy, falls far be- 
 hind the engine here : (boats i6, engines 24). 
 
 The conclusion seems justified — on the safe assumption that 
 modern environment has not so changed as to prevent it — that 
 nearly 1-3 (29 or 32 per cent) of the boys who are to attain the 
 rank of these men as engineers will make steam engines before 
 their 17th year. Further than this, the writer knows of not a 
 single case outside of this list where such a thing has occurred ; 
 and until he locates at least one case in which a man in another 
 profession or a less successful machinist has during boyhood 
 succeeded with this same piece of work, he cannot but assume 
 that the making of a steam engine by a boy before the age of 17 
 is proof positive that the boy is destined to become an engineer 
 and to obtain a rank correspondmg to that of the men in this 
 class. So that what we might call the ^' steam engine'' test 
 would seem both to be any boy's passport into this class and to 
 be a means of picking in advance from a fourth to a third of its 
 future members. 
 
 The first list of work, in addition to the work of these 21 
 engine builders, includes projects made by 11 others which in 
 their peculiar mechanical appeal, and in the difficulties of 
 their construction suggest machinery-interests and machinery- 
 talent of almost if not quite an equal grade. 
 
 That only six men mention electrical work of any sort seems 
 surprising. However, during the boyhood of most of them 
 electricity was but little in use except for the telegraph. It is 
 interesting to note also that boys generally at the present time 
 appear to take much less interest in electrical than in steam 
 toys, as evidenced by the far greater demand for the latter as 
 premiums from the publishers of the Youths Companion.^ The 
 seond list includes the more ordinary toys and things useful in 
 play and sport. These are the kind of things which any boy 
 might try to make, though success with a number of them, such 
 as rowboats, bicycle, tricycle, violin, etc., would indicate much 
 more than average constructive ability. 
 
 List (c), containing the articles for real use, is seen to be 
 rather smaller than either of the others but by far the most 
 varied — which was the case with the school children's work. 
 
 '^Pedagogical Seminary^ Vol. 6, p. 650. 
 
OF CHILDREN 69 
 
 Seven men represented only in these two last lists record 
 work (bicycle, house, barn, etc.) of a type which seems to 
 justify placing them with the 32 in the first list so far as excep- 
 tional constructive ability of a general sort is concerned. Their 
 work differs only in its failure to indicate that taste for engines 
 and machinery which is an equally prominent characteristic of 
 the work recorded in the first list. 
 
 Of the lawyers, one built a model of Caesar's bridge across 
 the Rhine, and another printed a school paper. Three report 
 **no handwork at all,'' one ''recalls none'' and three leave the 
 space blank. 
 
 The comparison of the work of these 72 engineers with that 
 of the 63 school boys already studied, is somewhat interesting 
 though not wholly fair to the latter, since their reports were on 
 all the handwork done in one year while the engineers doubt- 
 less picked out the three or four most worthy efforts of their 
 whole boyhood. The facts are too obvious to require comment. 
 
 I. Machinery & II. III. Utility "Vitality" 
 
 Mechanical Class Toy Class Class element 
 
 Engineers, ages, 8-16 35% 34% 3i% 
 
 Schoolboys '' 8-14 o 59% 3i% 33% 
 
 To sum up the facts indicated by the handwork of the mechani- 
 cal engineers of this age and rank : 
 
 At least 79 per cent did more or less constructive work be- 
 fore reaching the age of 17. 
 
 Fifty-four per cent did such work as proves the possession 
 during boyhood of decidedly exceptional constructive ability. 
 
 Forty-four per cent of the whole, or 4-5 of this talented 
 section, did work which indicates that this talent and their 
 tastes already possessed a decided bent towards machine con- 
 struction. 
 
 Thirty per cent of all built steam engines, thus proving 
 and defining in a peculiarly distinct and conclusive way both an 
 already developed taste for mechanical engineering as such and 
 
70 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 their possession during boyhood of very exceptional talent for it. 
 
 It would seem quite possible that a comparison of the con- 
 structive work of these men with their relative rank within the 
 group, might develop some very interesting facts; i. e.y most of 
 the engines might prove to have been made by the more eminent 
 half of the group. Unfortunately, however, it has not been 
 posisble to procure such a ranking according to ability as would 
 make this possible. 
 
 The question regarding the influence of their boyhood con- 
 structive work upon choice of occupation and success therein 
 was poorly stated and the answers are not always clear, but are 
 sufficiently so to indicate great variety of opinion. Some 
 assert positively that it was a very important factor in both, 
 some that it had no influence in either respect, being entirely 
 an effect rather than a cause. Some assign it a decided in- 
 fluence upon choice alone, some upon success alone. 
 The following are a few examples : 
 
 "If I put it in dollars, would estimate that each of the six 
 years of manual labor as a boy (age 10.17 years) was worth to 
 me ^100,000. '' "It had everything to do with both." "To 
 the fullest extent. '^ "Yes, it determined the whole course of 
 my professional life. It made the making of things second 
 nature." "Not much in the choice but materially in the suc- 
 cess." "It undoubtedly caused me to take up mechanical work 
 as a profession. " "The work was an effect not a cause : was a 
 manifestation of my natural tendencies." '' I do not imagine 
 that it had any influence." "Not in the slightest," etc. 
 
 All told, there are 22 who assert its influence upon choice 
 against 13 who deny such influence, and 18 who think it affected 
 their success against 11 who think the contrary. Of course the 
 weight to be given to these opinions is largely a matter of specu- 
 lation, but the fact that strong majorities affirm the influence of 
 this work may have some significance if the writer's view is 
 correct that people generally find it very difficult to look upon 
 any one influence or phase of environment as a determining 
 factor in after life. 
 
OF CHILDREN 71 
 
 Opinions Regarding the Value of Manual Training 
 
 Sixty-six engineers approve of handwork in the elementary 
 school and two disapprove of it. Forty-two of them responded 
 by letters of from one hundred to eight hundred words in length, 
 which contain facts and suggestions of great interest, some of 
 which seem to have rather direct bearing upon school practice. 
 While ten of them mention the traditional values, such as 
 manual skill, moral training, etc., the value most emphasized is 
 the assistance which it might give a boy in finding his proper 
 work. The following are a few typical extracts :— 
 
 (i) I believe thoroughly in having a work-shop connected 
 with the public school, as I think it helps very much to develop 
 latent talent. 
 
 (2) It may develop some talent which would otherwise 
 be hidden. 
 
 (3) I have noted in my many years experience that very 
 young boys usually have a preference for some special line of in- 
 vestigation which if encouraged and properly directed may cause 
 them to develop into remarkable men. If a young man fails to 
 select or be guided in his preference until past a certain age, he 
 is liable to become lost and entirely at sea with no definite ob- 
 ject in view, and finally takes up the first thing that presents 
 itself, regardless of his fitness for that line of work. 
 
 (4) Of the opinion that the elementary schools like the 
 older schools should give opportunities for developing the 
 natural gifts or likings of the child, and further that forcing 
 children to do that for which they have no gifts or likings does 
 not do so very much good— beyond the few things they will al- 
 ways regret not knowing in afterlife, notably the ''Three R's. " 
 
 (5) I believe that the importance of handwork of a great 
 variety and wide range of character is greater in education than 
 has ever even been claimed. The object of it should be to give 
 the pupil real experience in the work of his life while he is still 
 in school. 
 
 It is clear that work aiming in any large way at this ''de- 
 velopment of latent talent" must necessarily be work "of great 
 variety and wide range of character" and in the writer's opinion 
 it is the lack of this and the consequent relative inefficiency 
 toward this end that is one of the most serious faults of school 
 handwork, as generally carried on. This is in effect the criti- 
 
72 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 cism of one of the two engineers to decline to indorse such 
 school work. He says: 
 
 I have been fairly successful in my mechanical career, 
 but I never could have been a success in a manual training 
 school as my natural craving for large things would have made 
 it impossible for me to have applied myself. 
 
 The only other point emphasized with any unanimity con- 
 cerned the relation of early observation to mechanical achieve- 
 ment. The experiences related by six men would seem to contain 
 suggestions for the school^ that are of very great importance. 
 To quote from the letters of some of them : 
 
 (i) My actual work was undoubtedly an incentive to apply 
 my decided taste for mechanical work later, but it was rather 
 watching mechanics at their work that led me on. For in- 
 stance, though I have not at all observed the operations care- 
 fully since I was, say ten years old, I know I could fit a horse- 
 shoe or set a buggy tire to-day now that I am strong enough, 
 though I learned /^^ze* it was done then. When I came to fire 
 and run a locomotive and work at locomotive repairs, it was a 
 good deal like harnessing a horse you had seen harnessed a 
 hundred times. ... I spent my boyhood time in such ways 
 constantly— whole days in engine rooms of mills, etc. — but I 
 actually made and finished few things of importance, if any 
 . . . . . I vote for anything that will develop ''mechanical in- 
 tuition;" and watching and thinking and trying to do this. 
 
 (2) (After indorsing the manual training idea in a general 
 way). . . in my own case, I feel that my constant love for see- 
 ing machinery at work, and learning by questioning and obser- 
 vation the what and why of things had most to do with my tak- 
 ing up engineering. 
 
 (3) I was fond of watching the machinists in the factory 
 and spent as much time there as I was allowed, with the result 
 of quickening my power of observation until I had the faculty of 
 carrying in my mind complex mechanisms. 
 
 (4) We need practical men, to be sure, and there are char- 
 acters which are distinctly mechanics. These must practice the 
 mechanical arts and must take delight in the execution of work. 
 The future engineer needs no such dexterity .... What I con- 
 sider of eminent importance for the future engineer would be 
 much observation especially if it can be done under a competent 
 teacher. With a bright student this develops into a comprehen- 
 siveness that can never be over- valued. 
 
OF CHILDREN 73 
 
 These replies seem to the writer to suggest a very strong 
 possibility that the ''school excursion" properly developed and 
 systematized might become in the case of at least a few children, 
 the most broadly determining factor in their elementary educa- 
 tion. 
 
 It may seem surprising that none make any allusion to the 
 place of mechanical drawing as a school subject. Two, how- 
 ever, speak of freehand drawing as follows : 
 
 (i) I think freehand drawing .... very important as it 
 teaches a boy to express his conceptions clearly. I think 
 everyone should be taught to draw, just as to write, although 
 only those of natural talent can become either great authors or 
 great artists. 
 
 (2) I believe drawing the most important of all. Nothing 
 helps architect, engineer, mechanic, more than the ability to 
 sketch rapidly his ideas on paper. 
 
 The following from a man eminently successful both as en- 
 gineer and manufacturer, is perhaps the most comprehensive of 
 all the letters received : 
 
 I have no experience in teaching — only in using those who 
 have been taught. My ideas so far as they go on this subject 
 are about as follows : 
 
 1. Manual training and constructive work should be 
 taught and be as compulsory as arithmetic from the kindergarten 
 up to a certain point which seems to vary with each in- 
 dividual and can only be "stabbed at'' by the careful and indi- 
 vidual attention of the teacher. 
 
 2. The point to stop manual training as a part of the en. 
 forced curriculum and let it become elective, may be some- 
 where short of the high school, and I think it is. 
 
 3. Manual training is as natural and necessary to the 
 humans as hiding or running or chasing is to the wild animal's 
 young. All humans need some of it. Some humans need and 
 benefit greatly by a lot of it, while others need it to a certain 
 point beyond which it is an absolute waste and injury to them. 
 
 This is the only definite recognition of the importance of 
 opportunity in the school to specialize away from as well as 
 toward mechanics. 
 
 The two who refuse indorsement^ to school handwork write 
 as follows : 
 
 (i) Notwithstanding my love for mechanical work and en- 
 gineering, I do not favor instruction in manual operations in 
 
74 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 schools or colleges, believing that the time can be spent to much 
 better advantage in the ordinary course of study. This does not, 
 of course, apply to manual training schools, where special in. 
 struction is given in some particular trade or occupation which 
 the student proposes to pursue as a life work. 
 
 (2) I have never been opposed to handiwork as taught in 
 manual training schools, but I have never been in favor of it. 
 I consider it of very little value. I believe that any boy in- 
 clined toward the mechanic arts will find a way to satisfy his 
 cravings in the most practical manner. ... I consider the 
 workshops of the nation the best mechanical training schools; 
 in them the science is "up to date'' and everything is conducted 
 on a plane relative to the commercial value of the product. 
 
 Educational Applications 
 
 The value of this study to education is in the light it may be 
 thought to yield on these two questions, (i) How— if at all, 
 may the boy of exceptional mechanical talent be recognized as 
 such during boyhood.? (2) When recognized, what special 
 education should be permitted or encouraged during boyhood ?^ 
 
 Regarding the first we have the following facts : Of 72 
 leading enginers, 83 per cent took great interest in mechanical 
 work, S7 per cent admit exceptional ability therein, most of 
 them (and some others who made it not) substantiating this ad- 
 mission by records of work done. Forty-four per cent report 
 work which shows exceptional talent for and interest in 
 machinery, while 30 per cent made actual steam engines. 
 Science was a study liked by 72 per cent and thoroughly dis- 
 liked by none. Literature was the favorite study with only one 
 and the least favored by 49. Arithmetic, geography and his- 
 tory, each rank definitely as second, third and fourth re- 
 spectively. Ability in these studies runs closely parallel to 
 taste. Comparatively few (12 per cent) were good all-around 
 
 ^Cf. Gallon: "We may therefore rest assured that the possession of a 
 strong special talent is a precious capital and that it is a wicked waste of 
 national power to thwart it ruthlessly by a false system of education. But 
 I can give no test which shall distinguish between a taste that is destined to 
 endure and a passing fancy, further than by remarking than whenever the 
 aptitudes seem hereditary they deserve special consideration." 
 
 English Men of Science^ p. 196. 
 
OF CHILDREN 
 
 75 
 
 Students, most of them showing no special abilities except 
 mechanics, science and mathematics, and very little interest in 
 other matters— in anything pertaining to literature, history or 
 art. 
 
 The agreement within the sub-groups is such as to justify 
 the assumption that all these statements would hold true in a 
 general way for any chance group of more than twenty engineers 
 of the same rank, provided their boyhood occurred during the 
 same period,— and it seems safe to assume further that they 
 would apply to those boys of the present time who are destined 
 to become engineers of that rank. 
 
 As to whether these are facts peculiar to engineers, we have 
 only partial evidence. They are seen to be flatly contradicted 
 by the boyhood characteristics of talented lawyers in every case 
 except the one of city rearing. A study of other professions is 
 needed. 
 
 On the whole, it would appear that we might select in ad- 
 vance something like half of the future engineers of this grade; 
 at least one-fourth, by the "steam engine test'' alone, another 
 fourth perhaps by consideration of their general mechanical and 
 scientific interests, abilities and the exclusiveness of these.^ 
 
 On the question of the early specialization to be allowed 
 such boys, there are these facts:— Eighty-four per cent of the 
 engineers had during boyhood a considerable contact with 
 things mechanical, 63 per cent had contact with machinery and 
 50 per cent with the machine shop itself, (though 42 per cent of 
 the fathers were in non-mechanical occupations). Only 21 per 
 cent were reared on the farm and four-fifths of this farm group 
 mention more definite contact with machinery than the farm 
 itself afforded. 
 
 Nearly all approve of school handwork most often on the 
 ground of its assistance in developing "latent talent," this aim 
 seeming to involve the demand expressed by some that it should 
 be work of great variety. This great variety may not be easily 
 
 iThe records considered make it sufficiently evident that talented 
 engineers as a rule do not have during boyhood that great variety of succes- 
 sive and equally absorbing interests which would seem to belong to the 
 boyhood of talented psychologists, if the boyhood of Professor Miinsterberg 
 is considered a typical one for that profession, 
 
 (See Atlantic Monthly, May, 1899.) 
 
76 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 obtainable in schools generally and indeed might not be so de- 
 sirable except for this type of boy. However, it would seem at 
 least that this boy might well be encouraged to strike out on 
 lines perhaps impracticable for the bulk of the class, instead of 
 following a narrow and prescribed course. It would seem that 
 shops of the elementary school should be provided with a special 
 equipment including such things as foot lathes, small forge, 
 anvil, crucibles, etc., to furnish such boys opportunities for 
 the range of work demanded by their abilities and interests. 
 
 Their emphasis upon the value of observation as equal if 
 not superior to that of actual work, would suggest a responsi- 
 bility on the part of the teacher for making possible and en- 
 couraging such boys (if not the whole class) to spend a large 
 amount of time in such shops and factories. 
 
 As to the regular school work of such boys it appears that 
 they took little interest in such subjects as literature and his- 
 tory, and were consequently weak in them. Not one ex- 
 presses any personal gratitude felt in later years that he was 
 forced to do this work — though two or three do speak in 
 more general terms of the value of being made to study hard at 
 thi gs regardless of preferences. One, recording his weakness 
 in history, says, ''I had great difficulty with such work as 
 Roman history that I could see no use in" ; and other replies 
 already quoted imply hearty belief in the value of early speciali- 
 zation, with little fear of its consequences. On the whole, such 
 specialization would seem advantageous for this type of talent 
 and rank of ability. 
 
Summary 
 
 On the psychological side this study furnishes nothing 
 more than a quantitative statement of interests the existence of 
 which was already fully recognized. We know, for example, 
 from common observation that small boys like to make things 
 merely for the sake of making them. But the figures under 
 play-imitation measure this as a "20 per cent interest'' just 
 before the twelfth year and less than a 5 per cent interest after 
 it. It is further shown that at the age of ten years, four-fifths 
 of a boy's play construction has passed beyond the stage of mere 
 play, and aims at an ulterior purpose of some sort. This pur- 
 pose is more often connected with play than otherwise. The 
 close agreement in these cases between the records of the two 
 schools taken separately seems a sufficient basis for assuming 
 that the estimates given are not far from correct. 
 
 While these figures have little direct practical application 
 to school work, the lists of articles given suggest specific pro- 
 jects for school handwork and give an idea of their relative 
 popularity with children. With reference to the record of girls' 
 work little need be said, as the interests there suggested are 
 well recognized in many schools. With the boys it 
 is seen that there is much variety in the play- imita- 
 tion class, the class which belongs mainly to boys 
 under eleven years. This would imply that the selection of a 
 subject for work is not a matter of serious importance at this 
 age; that any common occupation or object may be taken 
 indifferently, and that any phase either of primitive or of 
 modern life which can be brought in a vivid way before chil- 
 dren will stimulate initiative construction. Consequently hand- 
 work need not be made an independent subject, but may pro- 
 perly be subordinated to any line of study which may for other 
 reasons find place in the curriculum of these years. The play- 
 utility list, on the other hand, names only a few objects. Boats 
 alone make one-third of the whole, and the next third includes 
 only four other articles, animal contrivances, wagons, balls, and 
 houses. Croswell's list, as has been shown, agrees exactly on 
 
78 THE CONSTRUCTIVE INTERESTS 
 
 this point except that his colder winters cause sleds to take the 
 place of animal contrivances. 
 
 If the 12-14 year old boy so regularly chooses to make these 
 things the school should evidently recognize this interest as 
 far as possible— as far, that is, as may be done without 
 sacrifice of educational ends. The teacher may well study with 
 care the mechanical and constructive possibilities of the ten or 
 so objects which rank first to discover how far and how well he 
 can utilize them. To the writer it seems quite obvious that in 
 the making of courses of study in handwork, much more atten- 
 tion might be given to the interest of the child than is done at 
 present. Whether the aim uppermost in the mind of the teacher 
 is to develop mechanical ingenuity, to vitalize work in physical 
 science or to give a general acquaintance with typical industries, 
 he will find an abundance of material adapted to his purpose in 
 the work preferred by the child. For instance, repro- 
 ductions in miniature of the boat or wagon may 
 appeal to the toy-interest, and at the same time estab- 
 lish connections with a large number of industries. The prob- 
 lem of motive power may be introduced and suited accurately to 
 the age, ingenuity, and attainment of the child; the subjects of 
 railroad and water transportation may also be brought in in this 
 connection. The vitality classification strongly encourages 
 attention to motive power as well as the facts brought out in the 
 boyhood work of the talented engineers. Of course facts regard- 
 ing a group of such men must not be applied too generally. 
 Still it seems to the writer that many of these suggestions for 
 the education of the engineer would be fully as applicable in the 
 case of the mechanic. The ordinary man whose best future lies 
 in mechanical work has probably a less insistent craving for it 
 than the future engineer, certainly less ability to push his way 
 into it against odds. So the opportunity for large variety of 
 work and experience during boyhood may be even more valuable 
 to the mere machinist than to the engineer in directing him to 
 his proper field of work. 
 
 ^ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
Vita 
 
 The writer of this dissertation, Ernest Beckwith Kent, was 
 born in Michigan City, Indiana, November i8, 1873. After 
 taking the degree of A. B. from Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa, 
 in 1894, he served as Director of Manual Training in the 
 Indianapolis Public Schools from 1897 to 1900. In 1901 he 
 received the degree of A.M. from Columbia University and the 
 following year was Fellow in Manual Training in Teachers 
 College. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Columbia Uni- 
 versity in the year 1903. 
 
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