We get manual training in school education
The word (manual) comes from the Latin words for a hand manus. Manual works is hand work, and a manual worker is one who works with his hands. So manual training is hand training, training in which a person have to use his hands rightly in a particular kind of work.
Manual training consists mostly in steady practice, or the duplicating over and over again of certain movements of the hands until they become what we call automatic. When we first begin to learn any manual work such as (carpentry, carving, spinning, weaving, typewriting, sewing, knitting and so on), we have to think carefully of every movement and do it with careful and conscious attention. And at that stage our hands are clumsy and awkward and do not answer quickly to the orders of the brain. In consequence the work is slow and mistakes are many.
For example watch a person learning to type. He has to remember where the key for each letter is in the machine or in key board and carefully pick it out, and then strike it properly. Consequently he types very slowly and sometimes his memory fails him and he gets confused and touches the wrong keys. But regular practice teaches his hands to answer immediately to the direction of his brain, and he knows, without thinking where each letter –key is and his fingers find it punctually, exactly and without aware direction. The work has become automatic, and the typist can type a letter correctly and at great speed.
All manual trainings must of course begin with careful instruction by teaching and examples. The learner has to know what his tools are for and how to handle them properly. But once this is learnt the rest is all practice. In nothing more then in manual training is the old maximum true, practice makes perfect. The workman must practice until he becomes dexterous, a word that comes from the Latin word Dexter which mean is the right hand people generally use their right hand for doing work. Not only writing and typing but the wood-works and mental work, knitting and sewing are also manual works. And this work trains the head as well as the hand.
By Rehana khan(111/10)
