Americans, being young, and having come to the fore, so to speak,
full-fledged, have been able to profit by the lessons which they have
derived from their neighbors--though it is none the less to their credit
that they have profited so well and so quickly. Technical and industrial
education has received a more general recognition, and been developed
more rapidly, than the general education of the country, partly for the
reason that there is no uniform system of the latter throughout the
States, but that each individual State and Territory does that which is
right in its own eyes. The principal reason, however, is that to possess
the knowledge, how to work is the first creed of the American, who
considers that the right to obtain that knowledge is the birthright of
every citizen, and especially when the manual labor has to be
supplemented by a vigorous use of brains. The Americans as a rule do not
like heavy or coarse manual labor, thinking it beneath them; and,
indeed, when they can get Irish and Chinese to do it for them, perhaps
they are not far wrong. But the idea of idleness and loafing is very far
from the spirit of the country, and this is why we see the necessity for
industrial education so vigorously recognized, both as a national duty,
and by private individuals or communities of individuals.

From whatever source it is provided, technical education in the United
States comes mainly within the scope of two classes of institutions,
viz., agricultural and mechanical colleges; although the two are, as
often as not, combined under one establishment, and particularly it
forms the subject of a national grant. Indeed, it may be said that the
scope of industrial education embraces three classes: the farmer, the
mechanic, and the housekeeper; and in the far West we find that
provision is made for the education of these three classes in the same
schools, it being an accepted idea in the newer States that man and
woman (the housekeeper) are coworkers, and are, therefore, entitled to
equal and similar educational privileges. On the other hand, in the more
conservative East and South, we find that the sexes are educated
distinct from each other. In the East, there is generally, also, a
separation of subjects. In Massachusetts, for instance, the colleges of
agriculture and mechanics are separate affairs, the students being
taught in different institutions, viz., the agricultural college and the
institute of technology. In Mis