On Sunday last, a Jews' Orphan Asylum was inaugurated at
West Norwood, the principle of which is to teach the children handicrafts, as well as to give them an ordinary elementary education. The new building has been built and endowed by the generosity of Mr. Benjamin Lewis Cohen. Sir Philip Magnus, who spoke at the opening, declared his belief that handicraft instruction is an essential part of the education of all children. The boys at this school are to be taught the use of tools, mechanical drawing, plane and solid geometry, metal- work, &c., and Mr. Cohen believed that the new experiment would be so successful as to lead to the introduction of technical instruction very widely into our elementary schools. We have no ,doubt that he is right ; but let it not be forgotten that some boys and girls are singularly destitute of manual dexterity, and could almost as easily be taught to fly, as to carpenter or draw success- fully. There are dunces with their hands, and perhaps as many of them as there are of dunces with their heads.
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