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I would commend to attention here the gap which seems to exist between the freer mental work of literature and history, with its full content, and the abstract mathematics with its meager content, and suggest that such matter as the water wheel is concerned with would very effectively occupy an intermediary position.

In closing, space not permitting a summary, I express a conviction that the workshop of the school will soon emancipate itself from the petty and special influences to which it has been subject, and attach itself to the serious matters and methods which dominate the school as a whole.

THE FIELD OF SHOP-WOrk in the ELEMENTARY

SCHOOL

J. E. PAINTER, SUPERVISOR OF MANUAL TRAINING, CITY SCHOOLS,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

"Education," says Dr. Emerson E. White, "is a complex process. In its widest sense it includes all those processes, activities, and influences that occasion subjective changes in man, whether the changes be physical, mental, moral, or spiritual. The home, the school, the church, civil society, the state, industry, physical environment, and all else that touches man, are, in this wide sense, educational agencies, and each contributes something to the complex result called 'education.""

Leaving out of consideration all these agencies save the school, it is the purpose of this paper to discuss one phase of school education, commonly known as "manual training," and this in its relation to the elementary school.

As the end sought must determine the means to be employed in its attainment, I will first state in a general way what I believe this end to be.

The school has always concerned itself with the physical, mental, and moral uplift of the race, and we must defend whatever enters the curriculum on the ground that it contributes in the highest degree to these ends. We must know that its reactions upon young lives will produce a higher type of manhood and womanhood, that it will result in clearer vision and finer feeling, and furnish the strongest incentive to nobler doing. In brief, my conception of the purpose or object of education, from the public-school point of view, is to instill into the lives of the pupils such high moral principles, to give them such facility for obtaining useful knowledge, and such power of all-round expression as will insure to them the greatest happiness thru life, and to society the highest example of true living.

What, then, should the construction work in our schools contribute toward this result?

"Man without tools," says Carlyle, "is nothing; with tools he is all." In Ruskin we read:

A boy cannot learn to take a straight shaving off a plank, or to draw a fine curve without faltering, or to lay a brick level in the mortar, without learning a multitude of other matters that books could never teach him.

The reason for this is well stated by Professor Henderson in describing the interaction between the inner and the outer world.

Thought is not carried on in terms of thought, but in terms of things, and is as dependent upon these as bodily action is dependent upon thought. Every bodily experience affects one or more of the sense organs, and sends one or more impulses along the nerves to the central receiving station, the brain. Here something very wonderful takes place, something so wonderful that we have no explanation for it in the whole realm of empirical science. The nerve-current setting in from the outer world to the inner world of the brain manifests itself there as a fact of consciousness, a sensation. All we know about it is that these impulses taken together produce that stream of thought which is the drama of existence. The richer and more varied these impulses or sensations the richer and more varied the stream of thought. With meager sensation comes meager thought.

This perceptual knowledge, this report of the senses, is the only thing that comes to us, and out of it we build the entire world. Reflection and reason make use of this material, but they can add nothing to its original content. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of having the senses alert and keen, that they may report the outer world accurately. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of giving the senses much to operate upon, the largest possible field, that they may report the outer world fully. We want for the complete life the fullest and most accurate perceptual knowledge, and we can get this only thru the activity and training of the senses.

The application in education is obvious. This is what constitutes the great difference in environment and makes one favorable to growth and another unfavorable. "A keen tool with nothing to work upon, a dull tool with a wealth of material, can neither of them turn out much of value."

A great deal of energy is wasted in attempting to get children to reason about a world with which they are unfamiliar. Their stock of perceptual knowledge is so meager that they have no foundation upon which to build. By compelling a strict adherence to a prescribed course of formal studies we cheat our pupils of all perceptual knowledge, except, as some one has aptly said, "what they get on holidays and when they play truant."

Now, it is very largely the province of manual training to furnish this perceptual knowledge-this wide acquaintance with things. "If we arrange a series of bodily acts," says Professor Henderson, "we bring about a corresponding series of mental reactions; and if we arrange the bodily acts with sufficient cleverness, we bring about a series of mental reactions of high educational value." Now this is what manual training attempts to do, and it is in the utilization of this "newly apprehended avenue of approach to the spirit" that the construction work in our elementary schools finds its legitimate field.

It is a principle of all good teaching that the spirit and character of the work should be in accord with the best interests and highest capabilities of the pupil. It is evident, therefore, that any series of exercises, or "bodily acts," in order to adequately represent these interests and capabilities, must be broad in their application. They cannot be circumscribed by the narrow limits of any set course of models. No better can they be served by turning the boy loose in the shop and allowing him to make such use of the tools and materials as suits his fancy. We hear much of late about leaving the boy free and untrammeled in his choice of what he shall do, but, in the words of Professor Bennett:

We all know that it is the regular business of the school to influence the choice of the pupils. We could not eliminate the personal influence of the teacher or of fellowpupils or of the school-room if we would, and we would not if we could. To nullify the influence of the teacher would be to repudiate the fundamental idea of the kindergarten- the development of character by means of organized and directed selfactivity.

Nothing succeeds like success, and for this reason the pupil should not be permitted, much less commanded, to undertake anything which he cannot do well. He should proceed by easy stages from the simple exercises to those of more complex nature, and every object completed should represent the best that he can do. Nothing less than this should satisfy him. Nor will it if his activities are wisely directed at every stage of his work. Notice that I say "directed," not "led." It is possible to lead a pupil until he becomes a mere blind follower, an imitator, with no power of initiative, no individuality. But by wise direction or supervision his power of initiative is developed, his individuality culti vated.

In manual training, as in any other subject, there are certain fundamental principles that cannot be omitted in the training, and it is this fact that makes the course of instruction necessary.

Now, the question which confronts us at this point is: have our courses of instruction in shop-work been so formulated as to give every child these fundamentals, and at the same time to adequately serve the highest interests and capabilities of each ?

In attempting to answer this question, I wish to introduce into the discussion a form of manual training which, to my mind, is peculiarly adapted to the needs of the elementary school, and which, I believe, has done more than anything else to place manual training on the high educational plane which it occupies today. I refer to the sloyd, and I do so notwithstanding that I was informed but a few days since, by a gentleman whose intelligence in most directions cannot be questioned, that sloyd was rapidly becoming passé.

Sloyd has sometimes been called the "kindergarten of the elementary school," and very appropriately so, for in fact it is but the application to

higher grades of that same principle of self-activity which Froebel made the corner-stone of the kindergarten.

"It is permeated," says Professor Henderson, "with the true Froebelian spirit, and is quite worthy to follow the kindergarten in a rational scheme of education." It stands for all that is best in manual training for primary and elementary schools, and I will add further that it is better adapted to the needs of most high schools than the average course employed in such schools. When I say this I do not wish to be understood as discrediting everything in manual training that does not bear the name of sloyd. To do so would be to discredit sloyd itself, for what manual training stands for today in its most advanced stage, sloyd has stood for since its inception in this country.

A difference in phraseology does not necessarily mean a difference in principle. And this leads me to say that it seems a pity that our phraseology is not more uniform. It is eminently desirable, if not necessary, that we adopt a common distinguishing term for all purely educational handwork in our schools—one that would eventually become at least as definite in its significance as history or mathematics in their respective fields and I know of no other word that is broad enough to fill this place.

Perhaps the keynote of the sloyd idea is the importance which it attaches to "the great worth and carrying power of right motive." Right motive, or the desire in the mind of the child to realize an end which he recognizes of real worth, impels to right action, which, in turn, leads to the development of the power of concentrating all his energies upon the attainment of the desired end. With this power of concentration comes the power of inhibition in the nervous system.

"The power of physical inhibition," says Mr. Carley, "means selfdiscipline, and, when coupled with right ethical ideas, means high ethical conduct." This is a consideration of tremendous importance at this particular period of school life.

From the viewpoint of method, sloyd is most thorogoing. It strives to develop the body by a series of physical movements physiologically arranged, to develop the mind by means of the rich mental reactions which accompany all motor activities, and no less to develop the heart by enlisting in all the work the child's good will and unselfishness, and by so doing to cultivate a tendency to healthful sentiments and impulses.

It has been well said that "sentiments and impulses make all the difference between good and bad character." The intellect and the will, to which we usually direct all our attention, are as much constituent parts of bad character as of good, for their highest cultivation is not inconsistent with the worst moral degeneracy. One of the greatest gains in sentiment is cheerfulness in disposition; and let no one suppose that a happy dis

position, bred from constant exercises in mastering the tasks of school, will not affect the character of after life.

Truthful care in work is one of the most precious elements of good character. The errors, slights, and misconceptions of the pupil's sloyd work cannot escape detection as easily as in memory recitation studies, while good, honest, careful work will always show for its real value. It often happens that a passing embarrassment so misrepresents honest work in memory recitations that the sensibilities of the pupil are wronged and his feelings biased toward evil and resentful thoughts. This is exceedingly unfortunate from a moral point of view.

Having taken the stand in favor of sloyd pure and simple, as the best form or system of construction work that has yet been devised for elementary schools, I wish to notice briefly some of the criticisms that have been and still are urged against it, and try to show that such criticisms are due to a general misconception of its fundamental principles.

Some say it makes mere imitators of the children; that they simply copy what some one else has worked out for them, and no opportunity is afforded for independent thought. To this I answer: It is a fundamental principle of all sloyd work that each effort shall be a direct product of the pupil's own thought. Conceive, if you can, of a boy making, for example, the sugar scoop without first forming in his mind a definite. and intelligent plan of operation.

The trouble with this class of critics is that they look only at the outward forms, and fail utterly to comprehend either the principle or the method of the work.

Then there is a much higher type of criticism coming from those who have looked more deeply into the subject and who realize the absolute need of systematic work; yet they feel that a close adherence to any course of models is open to grave objections. They argue that no course can be devised each piece of which will appeal to a large number of children as something in itself worth working for, and, as a result, the work is not done under the best motive. They further urge that the pupil's initiative is not given opportunity to develop.

To the first I would say that a close adherence to any course of models is contrary to the spirit of sloyd. If a model in a given course meets the needs of one child and not those of another, it should be used in the one case and not in the other. The course of models is not an inflexible thing that must, in all cases and under all circumstances, be adhered to. Even the series of exercises may and should be varied to suit individual needs. I realize when I say this that I am setting a high standard for the teacher, for the selection of the specific exercises best suited to the needs of each child requires a fine power of discrimination not possessed by the average manual-training teacher.

As to the second objection, I cannot see why sloyd methods should

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