With Their Hands

One of the London County Schools at Middle Row, Notting Hill, has apparently taken a step, the mere mention of which has produced horrified expostulation in the United States.

Children who do not learn best from books are permitted to learn without books--to learn, that is to say, with their hands. It is recognized that there are differences and variations between children. It is admitted that some can learn as others cannot. And curiously enough this heretical denial of the right of all children to be equalized where they are not equal has succeeded. These children are taught to make things. Learning to make things, they learn much besides--measurements, simple geometry, arithmetic--but chiefly they learn to make things. They study the Norman influence in England by building a Norman castle of jam cartons and similar materials. They learn geography by building paste-board maps. And the result is not to teach a vocation, but to educate. That the school also prepares the graduates to earn a living is incidental--and not altogether unimportant.