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Handwork 
 Instruction for Boys 
 
 By Dr. Alwin Pabst 
 
 Director of School for Training Teachers of Handwork 
 Leipsic, Germany 
 
 Translated from the German 
 
 By Bertha Reed Coffman, A. M. 
 
 St. Louis, Missouri 
 
 THE MANUAL ARTS PRESS 
 
 PEORIA, ILLINOIS 
 

 COPYRIGHT 1910. 
 
 THE MANUAL ARTS PRESS. 
 
 PEORIA, ILLINOIS. 
 
 CCU 278253 
 
a 
 \ 
 
 r 
 1 
 
 r- 
 
 DEDICATED TO 
 
 E. von SCHENCKENDORFF 
 
 MEMBER OF THE PRUSSIAN DIET AND VERY 
 DISTINGUISHED PRESIDENT OF THE 
 GERMAN SOCIETY FOR HAND- 
 WORK FOR BOYS. 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 In translating this work I have endeavored to be as 
 literal as possible without injury to the English. The 
 clear, concise style of the author has made this easier to 
 do than would be the case with many German writers. 
 
 For the convenience of English readers all technical 
 terms have been translated, with the exception of a very 
 few which have no English equivalent. 
 
 In America there is no institution which corresponds ex- 
 actly to the Volksschule, Bürgerschule, Gymnasium, Real- 
 schule, Seminar, or Hilfschule. 
 
 The Volksschule (plural Volksschulen) is the elemen- 
 tary school of Germany. It differs from the public schools 
 of America in several essentials. In the Volksschule 
 every pupil must pay tuition unless he is too poor to do so. 
 Another point of difference is that while the public schools 
 of our country are attended by nearly every child of school 
 age, the German Volksschule loses many children who pre- 
 fer to attend other schools. 
 
 The Bürgerschule (plural Bürgerschulen) as its name 
 indicates, is a school for the middle classes. 
 
 The Gymnasium (plural Gymnasien) has a course of 
 nine years of classical work preparatory to the university, 
 while the Real-Gymnasium prepares for advanced tech- 
 nical work in the Technische Hochschule, or technical col- 
 lege. 
 
 The Realschule (plural Realschulen) is a non-classical 
 school offering a course of six years in mathematics, the 
 
6 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 sciences and modern languages. This school corresponds 
 to some extent to the American high school. 
 
 The term Seminar (plural Seminare) may mean a nor- 
 mal school for the training of teachers or it may refer, as 
 in the American universities, to a special class organized 
 for advanced study in any particular subject. Dr. Pabst 
 uses the term with the former significance. 
 
 Under the term Hilfschule are included many kinds of 
 institutions. In the beginning of the fourth chapter Dr. 
 Pabst explains his use of the word, applying it to all insti- 
 tutions for the training of mentally defective children. It 
 is also applied to reform schools. 
 
 It affords me pleasure to express at this time my appre- 
 ciation of the assistance rendered by all who have aided in 
 the preparation of this work. I wish especially to thank 
 the author, who has taken an active interest in this Ameri- 
 can edition, furnishing the photographs and offering valu- 
 able suggestions, and Mr. Charles A. Bennett, who has 
 read critically the entire manuscript and rendered valuable 
 aid throughout the progress of the work. 
 
 McMillan Hall, 
 
 Washington university. 
 Saint Louis. 
 November, 1909. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. — Instruction in Handwork Based 
 Upon the History of Civilization (Socio- 
 logical and Technological), upon Psy- 
 chology, AND UPON THE DEMANDS OF 
 
 Teaching 13 
 
 The human hand and the tool. Motor sensations 
 and exercise of the muscles. The significance of the 
 activity of the hand for spiritual development. The 
 sociological importance of instruction in handwork. 
 Instruction in handwork as a means toward educa- 
 tion in general. 
 
 Chapter II. — Instruction in Handwork in 
 the History of Pedagogy and in the 
 Light of Modern Pedagogical Tenden- 
 cies 32 
 
 Comemius, Rousseau, the Philanthropists, Pesta- 
 lozzi, the School of Herbart, Fröbel, and others. The 
 modern movement toward instruction in work: 
 Biedermann, Clauson Kaas, von Schenckendorff and 
 the German Society for Handwork for Boys. The 
 movement toward instruction in work in the north- 
 ern lands, in France, England, and other countries, 
 especially in North America. The psychologic- 
 pedagogic, the sociologic-pedagogic, and the art- 
 pedagogic tendency of our time and their influence 
 in instruction in work. 
 
8 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 Chapter III. — Instruction in Handwork as a 
 Means of Education (outside the 
 School and in Institutions of a Particu- 
 lar Kind: Workshops for Pupils, Boys' 
 Homes, Boarding Schools, etc.) 72 
 
 The educational momentum in instruction in hand- 
 work and the subjects taught in pupils' workshops 
 (tasks for preparatory work, work in pasteboard, 
 wood, and metal, modeling, etc.). 
 
 Chapter IV. — Instruction in Handwork in 
 the School (School for Defectives, 
 Volksschule, Higher School) and in the 
 Seminar for Teachers 88 
 
 The significance of instruction in handwork in 
 sound pedagogy. Attempts to include instruction in 
 handwork in the course of the Volksschule (Hertel, 
 Springer, Brückmann, Kumpa, Scherer). Dexterity 
 of the hand in the service of instruction in the nat- 
 ural sciences in the higher schools and in the sys- 
 tematic training of the normal school. 
 
 Chapter V. — Systems and Practical Carrying 
 out of Instruction in Handwork in Dif- 
 ferent Countries (Swedish Sloyd, In- 
 struction in Handwork in France, Eng- 
 land, North America, and Japan) 112 
 
 System and method of Swedish sloyd and of the 
 French instruction in handwork. Hand and eye 
 training and manual training in English and Amer- 
 ican schools. Instruction in handwork in the educa- 
 tional exhibits in Paris, 1900, and St. Louis, 1904. 
 
LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 I. Boys at Woodwork in the Teachers' Training School 
 
 at Leipsic. 
 
 II. Models for Benchwork in Planing and Carving, Teach- 
 
 ers' Training School, Leipsic. 
 
 III. Modeling, Teachers' Training School, Leipsic. 
 
 IV. Workroom in School of Handwork, Hildesheim. 
 
 V. Feeble-Minded Pupils at Handwork, Institution for 
 Feeble-Minded at Potsdam. 
 
 VI. Class in Sloyd at Gothenburg, Sweden. 
 
 VII. Class in Sloyd at Frederikshavn, Denmark. 
 
 VIII. Manual Training Center in Glasgow, Scotland. 
 
 IX. Class in Sloyd in an Elementary School in Aberdeen, 
 Scotland. 
 
 X. Chestnut Street School Shop, Springfield, Massachusetts. 
 
 XI. Tabourets and Plate-racks designed in Grade VIII, 
 Springfield, Massachusetts. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The origin of the following work goes back to six lec- 
 tures which, in compliance with an invitation from Profes- 
 sor Rein of Jena, were delivered before the summer school 
 there in August, 1906. 
 
 I have consented with greater willingness to let these 
 lectures appear in enlarged form because I am convinced 
 that the question of instruction in handwork for boys is 
 one of the most important problems which is under dis- 
 cussion at the present time. It lays claim tto a universal 
 interest, for to handwork, so often discussed with great 
 vehemence, more than to any other branch of education, 
 can the word of the poet Schiller be applied, Von der 
 Parteien Gunst und Hass verwirrt schzvanki ihr Charak- 
 terbild in der Geschichte. (Confused by the favor and 
 hatred of parties, its image changes in history. ) 
 
 In reality it concerns not simply a new branch of in- 
 struction, but a deep-rooted principle of our whole educa- 
 tional system. Therefore something further must be 
 brought out if one is fully to comprehend handwork in 
 its significance for education. The superficial way in 
 which this question is frequently treated in meetings and 
 by the press can lead to nothing but a war of words, at 
 the end of which neither opponent convinces the other. To 
 avoid the possibility of falling into this error, it has been 
 necessary to bring together material from different fields 
 of knowledge in a comprehensive and yet condensed form 
 in order to establish the necessity of instruction in hand- 
 work. 
 
 11 
 
12 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 The history of civilization teaches that the saying Wis- 
 se?! ist Macht 1 (knowledge is power) does not stand with- 
 out modification. Knowledge in itself is not power, but 
 it becomes power in the service of the will and understand- 
 ing. 
 
 This acknowledgement is decisive in the examination of 
 our present day education, and the discussion of the prob- 
 lems of education from this point of view leads us, as a 
 matter of course, to the necessity of turning our attention 
 also to other civilized countries. Scarcely a phase of in- 
 tellectual life reflects the national character of a people so 
 clearly as that of education ! 
 
 The studies of school matters and systems of education 
 which the author has had the opportunity to make in dif- 
 ferent European countries, and in North America, have 
 contributed essentially to develop fundamental doctrines 
 which are expressed in the book here presented. He 
 who believes with the author that the kind of education 
 given determines essentially what will result from the 
 youth of a people in the future and how they will stand the 
 test in the conflict of the ruling civilized peoples, will also 
 admit that we must go back to the fundamental problems 
 of our education and to the foundations of our civilization 
 if we wish to secure a clear judgment in such a deep-rooted 
 question as that of instruction in handwork for boys. 
 
 From this point of view the author would like to have 
 the following work regarded as a contribution toward the 
 solution of an important problem of education- 
 
 A. Pabst. 
 
 Leipsic, Nov., 1906. 
 
 1 Saint Chamberlain, Die Grundlagen des XIX Jahrhunderts 
 (Foundations of the Nineteenth Century). 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Instruction in Handwork Based Upon the History 
 of Civilization (Sociological and Technologi- 
 cal), upon Psychology, and Upon the 
 Demands of Teaching. 
 
 Aristotle calls the human hand the "tool of tools," and 
 it is really that in a threefold sense. In the first place, it 
 is the natural tool given to man at birth ; then it serves as 
 a pattern for the artificially formed mechanical tools; and 
 finally the construction of the latter, which are commonly 
 called "hand tools," depends primarily upon its activity. 
 
 On account of its formation, by which it is wonderfully 
 fitted for the most varied functions, the hand furnishes 
 the model for all artificial tools. All the tools which 
 were made by primitive man are evidently planned with 
 the intention of reinforcing the activities practiced by the 
 hand, and assume the form of a perfected human hand. 
 
 The stone with a wooden handle, for example, is the 
 simplest artificial imitation of the forearm with the fist 
 clenched, and all hammers and axes can be traced back to 
 this fundamental form. The same form has remained 
 almost unchanged even to the present time in the ham- 
 mers of smiths and miners. Even the gigantic steam ham- 
 mer still shows this fundamental form ; and however great 
 the contrast may be between this mighty tool of modern 
 technique and the stone hammer of remote antiquity, yet 
 there exists, without doubt, a certain connection between 
 
 13 
 
14 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 the lines of thought of the designer of the steam hammer 
 and those of the primitive man who used the first stone 
 hammer. 
 
 The hammer experienced an important transformation 
 when it was changed into the hatchet and ax by the for- 
 mation of an edge; thereby not only its utility as a tool 
 was increased, but its effectiveness for the purpose of de- 
 fense as well. The incisors have evidently furnished the 
 pattern for this transformation ; in the same way the simple 
 row of teeth on the file and saw are designed, while the 
 hand in the act of grasping something and the teeth of the 
 upper and lower jaws are copied in the head of the nip- 
 pers and the jaws of the vise- In a similar way the 
 knife and chisel point back to the incisor, and the gimlet 
 to the extended index finger with the sharp nail. Ham- 
 mer, hatchet, saw, pliers, knife, chisel and gimlet repre- 
 sent primitive tools, the invention and use of which mark- 
 ed the first step in a broader advancement of civilization 
 for the primitive man, as we observe this even to-day in 
 races which stopped at a lower stage of civilization- 
 
 The value of tools increased naturally with the use of 
 different materials (wood, horn, bone, shells, stones of 
 different degrees of hardness, and metal) which gave the 
 tool greater strength and made possible a form better 
 adapted to its purpose. Concerning these stages of de- 
 velopment the history of primitive ages gives us informa- 
 tion which teaches us that the iron age followed the stone 
 and bronze ages, while the success of modern technics 
 could be attained only through the use of the hardest steel. 
 In the improvement of tools there have been only gradual 
 changes, for the steam hammer in its fundamental form 
 is just as much a hammer as one of stone, and in the same 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 15 
 
 way we may trace numerous other tools and implements 
 back to certain fundamental forms which are suggested 
 by the natural tools of man — the hand, arm, and teeth. 
 The cup goes back to the hollow hand out of which we 
 drink; the hook finds its origin in the bent finger; the 
 lance is a prolongation of the arm, the strength of which 
 is increased; and so it is with many other weapons and 
 instruments which are used in the hunt, in catching fish, 
 in agriculture, and in the working up of raw materials. 
 For the improvement of all these tools, which in their 
 original forms are primitive and incomplete, it was of 
 great advantage that nature herself furnished in part the 
 suitable materials (thorns, teeth, and pieces of bone from 
 animals, fire stones, etc.) and that through the use of fire 
 the hardening, hollowing out, sharpening and polishing of 
 these materials were made possible. 
 
 These examples drawn from an inexhaustible supply of 
 material may suffice to show the origin of the first tools 
 and their significance in the further development of civili- 
 zation ; at any rate they give us some idea of the truth and 
 meaning of the assertion of Edmund Reitlinger that "the 
 entire history of man, if examined carefully, finally re- 
 veals itself in the history of the invention of better tools." 
 
 In a similar way the machines and technical aids of our 
 highly developed industry can be traced back to simple 
 fundamental forms. The steam flour mill, for example, 
 and the primitive flour mill of the first people are con- 
 trivances for grinding which have in common, as their es- 
 sential element, the millstone which furnishes a more 
 effective substitute for the molar teeth. 
 
 The tool constantly serves the purpose of giving to man 
 a greater mastery over nature and her products. Through 
 
16 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 the use of mechanical tools this mastery is remarkably in- 
 creased and strengthened. Even the scientific instruments 
 and apparatus are nothing but improved and refined tools, 
 which are especially constructed to secure for us a more 
 complete knowledge of the natural bodies and the powers 
 of nature than would be possible for us with our senses 
 alone. Just as the ordinary tools assist the hand, so the 
 microscope and the telescope assist the eye, the telephone 
 the ear, and the telegraph makes possible communication 
 at great distance without change of place. 
 
 So man has gradually risen by means of the perfection 
 or tools to higher stages of culture; he can rightly be re- 
 garded as the tool-using creature and in this respect is 
 distinguished from all other creatures. But since the dis- 
 covery and improvement of tools depends not alone upon 
 intellectual activity, which, to be sure, cannot be spared, 
 a further development of the hand must take place along 
 with the perfection of the tools. The improved tool de- 
 mands a more skillful hand, and in the same measure as 
 the tool of the present differs from that of primitive times, 
 the skill of our hand differs from that of the hand of the 
 primitive man. 
 
 By the use of the tool the hand is not only trained, but 
 it is protected as well. It is saved from coming in direct 
 contact with hard material and has thus attained a greater 
 delicacy, sensitiveness, and flexibility. Thus in mutual 
 reaction the tool has aided the development of the natural 
 organ. This in turn, after attaining a higher stage of 
 skill, has brought about the perfection and development of 
 the tool, and both factors have increased in power mutu- 
 ally until they have reached the highest attainments pos- 
 sible, as exemplified in the handwork and in the tool of 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 17 
 
 the operator, artist, or skilled mechanic- The latter, for 
 example, who has to work with the finest instruments for 
 measuring, can develop his hand into such a fine tool, that, 
 in the testing and fitting of the draw tube of the microscope 
 into its sheath, it can distinguish differences which cannot 
 be measured by any tool. 
 
 The statement that the improved tool demands also an 
 improved hand is clear without further explanation; its 
 application to machine work may not be quite so self-evi- 
 dent in current opinion. Indeed, many are of the opinion 
 that the machine which saves man from rough work and 
 which performs even finer tasks with a precision which is 
 not possible for the hand, especially in large quantities, 
 makes a further development of the hand unnecessary, 
 while it turns over to it only the work of assistance and 
 takes from it, on the other hand, the real execution of the 
 work. However, this conception is not correct, for a 
 more careful examination shows that progress is possible 
 in the use of machines only when it is united w T ith a cor- 
 responding progress in the development of the people who 
 use the machine. The uneducated workman, for example, 
 who can use a simple agricultural instrument well would 
 utterly fail in the use of the complicated machines of 
 mechanical weaving. The more complicated the machine 
 becomes, the better must be the training of the hand which 
 uses it, and such a training of the hand is necessarily linked 
 with greater executive power of the brain. When the 
 fingers must work so accurately that they deal with differ- 
 ences of millimetres, such exactness is impossible without 
 a corresponding training of the eye, and trained intellec- 
 tual ability, — in other words, a higher executive power of 
 the brain. 
 
18 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 With reference to the use of scientific apparatus and of 
 fine instruments for measuring, this is quite obvious; it 
 applies, however, to every kind of mechanical and techni- 
 cal work as well. Nature has also provided that it should 
 not be possible for a person to receive a wholly one-sided 
 development for a particular service ; if a particular service 
 of the eye or hand is required from a person, the entire 
 man must be developed to a certain power of achievement. 
 Just as it is impossible to bring any particular part of a 
 machine to perfection and develop in it great power of 
 execution at the expense of the other parts which are left 
 in their primitive form, there are also certain fundamental 
 limitations in the development of the power of execution 
 in singje organs of man on account of their relation to 
 other organs and their dependence upon them. 
 
 The preceding statements lead up to a discussion of the 
 physiological - psychological principles of instruction in 
 handwork with reference to the facts given in the preced- 
 ing pages. As far as universal experience goes, the control 
 of the groups of large muscles is easy. On the other hand 
 the finer and finest perceptions of touch and motion of the 
 arm, the hand, and especially the fingers are learned only 
 with great pains. For example, it demands less skill to 
 handle the ax and split wood with the exertion of all the 
 hand and arm muscles than to take hold of a pen with 
 three fingers and write with it. In his first attempt at 
 writing, the child uses almost all the muscles of his whole 
 body; and even among grown people we frequently notice 
 that a movement of the muscles of the face accompanies 
 the motion of the hand in writing. What we call rough 
 work calls into activity the groups of large muscles with 
 their coarser adjustment, while the finer work exercises 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 19 
 
 groups of small muscles with their more delicate adjust- 
 ment. Therefore, the rougher work develops only a few 
 of the crude motor functions, while the finer work devel- 
 ops the more exact motor functions and requires a finer 
 adaptation of the movements of the muscles. This latter 
 alone is educative, while the hardest kinds of handwork 
 dull the motor perceptions. Not the ax and crow-bar, but 
 the light hammer, saw, plane, chisel, knife, and scissors 
 are the tools which ought to be used in the school for hand- 
 work- Hence it is also clear that the instruction in gym- 
 nastic activities does not suffice for the development of the 
 motor perceptions, but their value in other respects is not 
 affected by this fact. 
 
 The investigation into the development of the child has 
 taught us that the training of the motor perceptions must 
 begin early, for the brain centers which control the move- 
 ments of the muscles of the hand develop early (according 
 to Preyer the motions of grasp of the child can be clearly 
 recognized in the seventeenth week). If the training is 
 started at the right time, the movements of the muscles can 
 attain a certain stage of perfection which is not possible if 
 begun at a later period in life. For among grown people 
 the paths of execution are already carved out to such an 
 extent in definite directions, and the cells of ganglion are 
 so far developed, that a perfection of the motor paths is 
 scarcely possible any longer. 
 
 The practical conclusion resulting from these statements 
 of ps3 T chological research must be that instruction in hand- 
 work should not begin too late. As experience has long 
 taught, it is best joined with the play of the children be- 
 fore the school period and in the first school years ; and in 
 general it ought to be pursued as the chief thing in the 
 
20 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 period from the eighth to the sixteenth year. By postpon- 
 ing systematic school exercises for the development of the 
 motor perceptions, the best time is lost and the result be- 
 comes thereby questionable. 
 
 To be sure we must not fall into the opposite mistake 
 and have the finer exercises, especially those of the fingers, 
 commence too soon. Even here a carefully graded ar- 
 rangement is indispensable; the universal, methodical 
 maxim, "From the easy to the difficult," when applied 
 particularly to the motor exercises, would be stated: 
 "From the larger to the finer." 
 
 It is very plain that in this we are only following the 
 law of development, which the course of human history 
 also recognizes, and which we may therefore apply with- 
 out hesitancy in this case. 
 
 In closing this line of thought, if we look over the 
 entire cultural-technical development from the first 
 crude tools to the system of the most highly developed 
 technique of the present, two principal points of view are 
 clearly to be seen: first, the tool is the only, and there- 
 fore, an indispensable means of raising the activity of our 
 minds to refinement and strength. Therefore the tool 
 alone affords us the means of gaining the first knowledge 
 of our surroundings, especially of the products of nature ; 
 and upon it depends all further development in turning 
 the products of nature to account in advancing human 
 civilization. Moreover the tool stands as a result of the 
 activity of the brain and hand in such vital relationship 
 to the man himself that he sees in the creation of his hand 
 a part of his own being — his world of perception embodied 
 ir material revealed before his eyes. Also in the animal 
 world we find valuable technical means for furthering the 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 21 
 
 purposes of existence ; it may be observed even in the nests, 
 webs, and buildings of many animals. As is well known 
 division of labor is also practiced among many animals in 
 a tolerably perfect manner. "But only among men does 
 Nature use the tool as the most important contrivance for 
 the preservation and perfection of organisms. The tool 
 is a higher development, which is mechanically free from 
 organism, but biologically belongs to organism, as the shell 
 tc the mollusk and the house to the snail. The sociolo- 
 gist lays stress upon the fact that man creates the tool ac- 
 cording to his plans for his own purposes; the biologist 
 sees in this planning and creating an action of the brain, 
 and at the same time a function of the body. That the 
 material of the tool is matter supplied from outside, is sec- 
 ondary." 
 
 This thought has already been uttered by Herbert 
 Spencer in a clear manner- Spencer says that every in- 
 strument of observation (for example the telescope, micro- 
 scope, thermometer, scales) is only an artificial expansion 
 of our senses, while the tools and machines, if it is desir- 
 able to distinguish these from apparatus and instruments, 
 constitute an artificial development of our limbs. Otto 
 Wiener developed further this thought in his academic 
 inaugural address, Die Erweiterung unserer Sinne (The 
 Expansion of our Senses, Leipsic, 1900), and has shown 
 especially that even the most perfect tools never have a 
 significance for themselves alone, therefore are never en- 
 tirely independent of the organism of man. The most 
 powerful telescope has no value unless it is united w T ith an 
 optical nerve into a unified apparatus for photographing 
 the picture. In this, the optical nerve may, as far as it is 
 concerned, stand still, or even retrograde, without harm to 
 
22 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 the individual, if the function arising out of the coopera- 
 tion of the nerve and the telescope, only continues in a 
 constant development. He continues, "It is therefore a 
 wholly unbiological thought to regard human culture as 
 if it were a departure from the natural ways of develop- 
 ment, and as if we therefore obeyed the dictates of biology 
 better by destroying human culture with its customary 
 division of labor and its development of tools." 
 
 And so this line of thought also leads to the statement 
 given above, which might be the central idea of all such 
 discussions, "that the entire history of civilization finally 
 reveals itself in the history of the invention of better 
 tools." 
 
 The extraordinary significance of the activity of the 
 tool-perfected hand, in intellectual development is shown 
 clearly in another direction, namely in the development 
 of the language. According to the modern view, lan- 
 guage has risen in and through work, and its develop- 
 ment depends most intimately upon the unequal develop- 
 ment of both hands of the person. In ninety-eight per 
 cent of people the right hand has to perform the greater 
 part of all work and must always especially protect the 
 left hand when greater demands are made upon the 
 strength and skill. Only in the decreasing minority of 
 people, scarcely two in every hundred, does the left hand 
 assume the functions of the right, and it is noticeable that 
 in these cases all attempts at training to bring the right 
 hand to its favored place are in vain ; the individual con- 
 cerned is and remains left-handed. 
 
 Even the pedagogical attempts, which are thoroughly 
 justifiable, up to a certain extent, to develop the left hand 
 through careful training (Liberty Tadd) will not change 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 23 
 
 the natural preference for the right hand. The inequal- 
 ity in the hands of people has deep-rooted reasons which 
 may be considered as historical in development. Accord- 
 ing to the more recent psychology, the right-handedness 
 of people, as well as everything which has to do with the 
 spoken language, has its will center in the left half of the 
 brain. This circumstance causes the supposition that a 
 close relation exists between right-handedness and the de- 
 velopment of the spoken language, a supposition which is 
 thoroughly confirmed by the practical observations of the 
 connection between speech and movements of the hand, 
 and for which certain cases of diseases of the organs of 
 speech also give further proof. In such cases, medical 
 therapeutics makes use of certain exercises of the right arm 
 in order to heal diseases of speech ; and systematic instruc- 
 tion to develop the dexterity of the hand both in schools 
 for the feeble minded and in institutions for idiots is offer- 
 ed with the same purpose. (This is excellently organized 
 in the institutions at Potsdam, directed by Dr. Kluge; cf. 
 Dr. K. Hopf: Der systematische Handfertigkeitsunter- 
 richt, ein Glied ärztlicher Therapie in Idiotenanstalten 
 (Systematic Instruction in Handwork, One Phase of 
 Medical Therapeutics in Institutions for the Feeble 
 Minded), in the Psychiatrisch-Neurologischen Wochen- 
 schrift (Weekly Magazine for Psychiatric Neurology), 
 and published in the Blätter für Knabenhandarbeit (Mag- 
 azine of Boys' Handwork, November 8, 1904.) Exer- 
 cises in movements of the right arm are well known as 
 one of the remedies in the treatment of stuttering and 
 other defects in speech, while corresponding exercises of 
 the left arm can sometimes be used successfully with 
 children, who, through the destruction of the center of 
 
24 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 speech in the left half of the brain have lost the power of 
 speech. By this means the establishment of a center of 
 speech in the right half of the brain is brought about. 
 
 It is not possible here to go into detail in these difficult 
 questions, which are not even wholly cleared up by re- 
 search ; but this much is in any case certain, that systematic 
 training and education in dexterity of the hand must be 
 demanded even in the interest of the development of 
 speech. Each individual movement of the hand has its 
 effect on the brain; indeed it must be said plainly that 
 dexterity of the hand does not have its seat in the hand at 
 all but in the head and brain. Consequently, handwork 
 is without doubt a kind of intellectual training, and the 
 hand is a sixth sense, a way which leads directly to the 
 brain. The customary distinction between "head work" 
 and "handwork" rests upon a fundamental error! There 
 is no kind of handwork which does not require at the same 
 t-'me more or less brain work, and "the man who works 
 energetically and artistically with his hands, as well as the 
 philosopher, must possess a good head." Firmly rooted 
 laziness is inseparably connected with stupidity and dull- 
 ness. 
 
 These suggestions, however imperfect they may be in 
 themselves, must here suffice to establish the assertion that 
 the effects of a good course in handwork, even from a 
 psychological point of view, are entirely unmistakable. 
 Therefore we can, without further ceremony, apply the 
 words of Demoor concerning the significance of handwork 
 in the education of abnormal children to education in gen- 
 eral: "Handwork arouses the initiative, sets in motion the 
 essential activities of the mind, attention and will, and re- 
 quires a correct expression of the will. Thus it is an im- 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 25 
 
 portant tool for the development of the intelligence and 
 the permanent retention of knowledge in the brain." 
 
 But the fact should not be overlooked that instruction 
 in handwork can contribute very essentially to the forma- 
 tion of character in a moral sense. The idea correspond- 
 ing to the Bible utterance that work is a necessary evil for 
 mankind, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy 
 bread," must, as a matter of course, be given up at the 
 outset. It certainly does not apply to our children, for 
 work, especially physical labor, is for them a benefit and a 
 relief from sitting still ; it is the most urgent need of na- 
 ture for the purpose of physical and intellectual develop- 
 ment and at the same time an activity giving positive pleas- 
 ure. And that is true not only of children, but of grown 
 people since primitive times, and it is also voiced in a pas- 
 sage from the Bible which we might place over against the 
 one previously quoted, namely, that our life becomes 
 rich through trouble and work. Goethe says, "Tages 
 Arbeit, Abends Gäste, saure Wochen, frohe Feste." 
 (Guests by night and toil by day; weeks laborious, feast 
 days gay! — Translated by E. A. Boivring.) 
 
 First of all, the play of children is for them serious 
 work. The child is never more industrious than when he 
 plays, and since something definite must be accomplished in 
 the play, he learns through play how to work. But an 
 essential difference still remains: play is voluntary, work 
 is required, and "so through work we learn obedience, the 
 most sterling virtue of children, better than in any other 
 way." (Ziegler, Alle gemeine Pädagogik, General Peda- 
 gogy, page 26.) 
 
 But it is false from a pedagogical point of view to de- 
 mand of the child only so-called head work, the regular 
 
26 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 learning of the school. This is, for the first school years 
 especially, a truly bitter food which the child would not 
 take of his own accord. On the other hand with well- 
 directed and selected activities for the hand, he immedi- 
 ately becomes unwearying in his zeal; it is a well-known 
 experience which can be encountered daily in carefully 
 directed courses in handwork, that one finds there scarcely 
 any children who are not industrious, attentive, and will- 
 ing. 
 
 Instruction in handwork shows its significance for edu- 
 cation in still another respect. From the false distinction 
 between head work and handwork, the dangerous contrast 
 has arisen between head workers and handworkers, and 
 along with that, the lack of respect with which almost 
 every representative of either of these callings regards the 
 other. This disrespect with which handwork has been re- 
 garded since classic antiquity, has resulted in a similar one- 
 sidedness within itself; and from this the mutually false 
 estimate of the different callings and the social gulf which 
 separates them have, for the most part, arisen. "On this 
 account it is a welcome thought that the idea is of late con- 
 stantly gaining new ground, that even our young people 
 who pursue Latin courses are to learn and carry on hand- 
 work." (Ziegler, Allgemeine Pädagogik, page 27.) 
 When the youth understands that it is just as difficult to 
 acquire skill in an artistic piece of handwork as to gain 
 knowledge in mathematics or in a language, then respect 
 for the work of the hand, and, moreover, for work itself, 
 will grow up as a matter of course. It is by no means 
 accidental that instruction in handwork enjoys an especi- 
 ally high esteem in America; indeed this fact stands in 
 closest connection with the characteristic feature of Ameri- 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 27 
 
 can popular opinion, which values in a person strength of 
 will and cheerfulness in work above everything else. 
 Scorn for physical labor is the surest and most unmistak- 
 able sign of lack of cultivation of every kind-" (C. 
 Götze, Die Pädagogik der Tat." Pedagogy of Action.) 
 
 The high social significance of instruction in handw T ork, 
 which Rousseau and Pestalozzi clearly recognized and em- 
 phatically expressed, is constantly receiving more stress of 
 late, and rightly so. Especially worthy of attention are 
 the words of Jules Ferry, former Minister of Public In- 
 struction, who brought about the passage of the French 
 school la\v of 1883, and at that time expressed himself con- 
 cerning instruction in handwork. 
 
 Among other things he said: "In order that the nobility 
 of handwork should be recognized not only by those who 
 practice it, but also by society as a whole, the surest, the 
 only practical method has been chosen: namely, the intro- 
 duction of handwork into the school itself. When the 
 plane and the file have received their place beside the circle, 
 the geographical map, and the book of history; when they 
 have received a place of honor ; and when they shall be the 
 subject of sensible and systematic instruction; then many 
 prejudices will die out, much caste spirit will disappear, 
 and on the benches of the elementary school the way to 
 social peace will be prepared." 
 
 The most prominent men of different nations might be 
 quoted, who have expressed themselves in a similar way, 
 but it is sufficient to refer to the opinions of Tolstoi, who 
 is convinced that "the social problem will not really be 
 solved until handwork has again come into respect, and 
 indeed not merely in theory, but also in practice; until it 
 is considered just as respectable to plane wood and forge 
 
28 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 iron as to count money, to fill out papers, to witness sig- 
 natures, to teach in a technical college, in short, to pursue 
 any one of those occupations which people proudly call 
 head work." There is no doubt that instruction in hand- 
 work is adapted to arouse sympathy for the working man 
 among those who do not earn their livelihood by the work 
 of their hands. The employer, who has himself at one time 
 taken a hand in a workshop, will have more respect for his 
 workmen on that account and will more readily be inclined 
 to favor reforms which serve the interests of the working 
 classes and social peace. He will get a much deeper under- 
 standing not only of the economic situation, but also of the 
 character and the general mode of thinking of the great 
 majority of our people. Perhaps it is on account of this fact 
 that in some of the ruling houses the tradition of having 
 the growing princes learn a trade, still holds. 
 
 The social significance of instruction in handwork rests 
 especially upon the fact that it gives opportunity for asso- 
 ciation in work, and for mutual helpfulness and advance- 
 ment, such as is not permitted in any other branch of in- 
 struction. The external relationships themselves give rise 
 to mutual consideration and helpfulness ; and besides, it lies 
 in the very nature of productive work that it leads to asso- 
 ciation and common interest in work. The social differ- 
 ences are forgotten in zeal for work, each is a friend and 
 helper of his fellow workman; otherwise it would not be 
 possible in the work of our school workshops when the at- 
 tendance is voluntary, for us to unite boys of different 
 ranks in society, who in life scarcely learn to know each 
 other. 
 
 Moreover, the relationship of pupil and teacher becomes 
 different and more favorable than that to which we have 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 29 
 
 been accustomed. The teacher approaches the boy as a 
 friend and helper. The discipline can be managed in a 
 new way, for the children are of themselves willing and 
 zealous; every suggestion and act of assistance is received 
 with thanks, and if the teacher understands how to direct 
 his pupils in the right way, there is no need of scolding or 
 of the customary school punishments. The entire system 
 lies chiefly in developing independence in the pupils and 
 in giving them practice in perceiving and reflecting. The 
 more sparing of words the teacher of practical work is, 
 the surer will he attain this end and the more perfectly he 
 has the technique of his work at his command, the greater 
 will be the confidence of his pupils in him. It is then 
 taken as a matter of course that his friendly advice will 
 be heeded, and he w T ill gain an influence in the education 
 of the boy which is far-reaching in the school and can 
 directly and definitely affect his life. In this very respect 
 instruction in handwork is one of the surest bridges for 
 connecting school with life ; it can exert a special influence 
 in the difficult problem of the choice' of a life work, such as 
 no other course in school can easily do. In the first place, 
 the practical instruction gives the school the opportunity of 
 learning to know the "whole boy," and many a boy, who 
 formerly has caused the teacher only trouble and vexation, 
 becomes agreeable and valuable in the workshop. But 
 his talents are also recognized better, and many parents arc 
 saved the disappointment which is inevitable, when the 
 choice of a life work leads the growing boy upon the 
 wrong road. Especially the tendency, so widespread to- 
 day, of directing the rising young men to the learned pro- 
 fessions or, at all events, to the middle and lower official 
 classes, can by this means be controlled to some extent. But 
 
 5 
 
30 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 let us finally give the youth a free path and teach him to 
 know that other ways can also lead to fortune and con- 
 tentment besides the way through books. Experience has 
 long taught, as Herbart says, that "many a boy finds him- 
 self sooner at handwork than in school." While the 
 model boy has very frequenty failed in life, an efficient 
 man has grown out of many a child, disappointing from a 
 scholastic point of view. Many prominent men of prac- 
 tical life in industry and science have been thrust aside as 
 useless in the school and dismissed as "deficient," a com- 
 ment which they could later apply with justice to their 
 former teachers; the famous Liebig, the historian Gervi- 
 nus, Alexander von Humboldt, and many others are strik- 
 ing examples of this, for they were all regarded in school 
 as people of limited capacity. 
 
 There is no doubt that an important means for develop- 
 ing the will can be seen in the education of the workshop. 
 The practical Americans have long recognized this, and 
 in their system of education, which is built up in such a 
 striking way upon the development of the will, have 
 brought this into application- The value of practical 
 work in ethical education can be directly established by 
 psychology. If psychology teaches that the will is a 
 thought brought into execution, then the motor concep- 
 tions which excite the muscles to conscious movements, are 
 also in a certain sense the raw material out of which the 
 ethical will is formed. Flabby muscles and a weak will 
 can be traced back to the same causes; namely, to a lack 
 of motor activity of the brain. All kinds of physical exer- 
 cises, gymnastics, and sport, naturally arranged, contribute 
 not simply to develop the muscles, but also to make them 
 subject to the purposes of the will. In this matter in- 
 
BASES OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 31 
 
 struction in handwork is especially effective. As has al- 
 ready been shown, all finer work is controlled by groups 
 of small muscles, and this limitation also demands accu- 
 rate control over all the muscles which are not even used 
 in the movement concerned. This power of mastery and 
 the concentration of attention, which is connected with 
 it, form an element which is of the highest significance in 
 the development of the ethical will. 
 
 While instruction in handwork affects, moreover, the 
 eye and hand, and by that prepares the way for a coopera- 
 tion of the sensory and motor parts of the brain, it becomes 
 in still another respect most important in the development 
 of the brain and the will. It unites the different centers 
 and establishes the connection between the sensory parts 
 on the one hand and the motor on the other. This is of 
 the greatest significance for the individual, whose whole 
 value depends ultimately upon a sound and efficient brain. 
 Clear reason, self-control, stability, equilibrium of charac- 
 ter, strong will, and wise accommodation of the thing 
 wished for to the conditions of life are the characteristics 
 by which all human efficiency is attained. Psychology has 
 recognized with perfect clearness the conditions under 
 which these characteristics can develop; when this knowl- 
 edge has once gained a victorious entrance even into peda- 
 gogy, then the old motto of the school workshop at Leipsic 
 will become a motto for every school and educational in- 
 stitution : 
 
 Bilde das Auge, übe die Hand! 
 
 Fest zvird der Wille, scharf der Verstand! l 
 
 1 Train the eye, exercise the hand, 
 Strong will be the will, clear the understanding. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 Instruction in Handwork in the History of Peda- 
 gogy AND IN THE LlGHT OF MODERN 
 
 Pedagogical Tendencies. 
 
 Even with Comenius the thought is found that the train- 
 ing of the hand belongs to the problems of education, and 
 he places it among the "fundamental studies," that is, 
 among those "which comprehend the essence, the kernel 
 and real content of culture." It is true, he includes 
 among the exercises of the hand which he designates for 
 the school, first of all writing and painting, but when he 
 says further on that the person must be taught, "to use the 
 hands for work," and that "children always like to do 
 something," then it is to be assumed that he does not mean 
 to limit the activity of the hand to writing and painting. 
 In a chapter of the Mutterschule (Informatorium mater- 
 num) he also says: "The children like to build and put 
 together houses of clay, shavings, wood, or stones, and this 
 is the beginning of the study of architecture. The fourth, 
 fifth, and sixth years will be full of problems in handwork, 
 tor it is not good for the child always to sit still. There- 
 fore he should be encouraged and helped in everything 
 which he attempts to do, so that whatever he does will 
 have some meaning and will be useful in his later and 
 greater work." (Cf. also Didactica Magna, Chapter 28, 
 § 12, and Chapter 29, §6.) 
 
 In a much clearer way Prof. Erhard Weigel of Jena, 
 (died 1699), who may be regarded in a certain sense al- 
 
 32 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 33 
 
 most as a forerunner of Friedrich Fröbel, expresses him- 
 self concerning the necessity of exercises for the hand. The 
 peculiar inventions which he introduced into his "School 
 oi Virtue" in Jena for the purpose of sweetening the learn- 
 ing, may be mentioned incidentally; it is very significant 
 that he wished the children to be instructed to build with 
 small boards or blocks, to make figures out of paper or 
 pasteboard, to form models out of paper and wood, to con- 
 struct sundials, to measure heights and distances, etc. In 
 ail these requirements there is plainly expressed a thorough 
 understanding of the necessity of activity for the youth, 
 as well as an appreciation of the kind of instruction which 
 should be established to fulfill this need. 
 
 From another point of view John Locke demands the 
 training of the hand. It belongs to the education of the 
 "galanthomme/ the perfect gentleman. Even the noble- 
 man is to learn a trade and be instructed in some practical 
 activity. Indeed, Locke proposes gardening and work in 
 wood, since these activities divert the mind and exercise 
 the body- Skill in working metals, glass, and stones (en- 
 graving, polishing, cutting, etc.) also seems to him especi- 
 ally adapted for this purpose, "since a young man cannot 
 always be occupied with studying, reading and social inter- 
 course." All these activates he regards chiefly as a means 
 for meeting the dangers which idleness brings with it; he 
 seems to fail to understand that they might also have an 
 educative value in other respects. 
 
 Rousseau goes into the pedagogical side of the problem 
 much more deeply. In his jE??iile he expresses himself as 
 being opposed to all instruction which is given in the form 
 of a lecture and to the imparting of any knowledge by 
 
34 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 means of the word of the teacher. He insists that the pupil 
 be required to make all the instruments necessary for his 
 experiments, and that he acquire a knowledge of them him- 
 self. He writes: "If I keep a child busy in a workshop 
 instead of chaining him to books, then his hands work for 
 the good of his intellect. In order that the pupil may 
 learn the dependence of people upon one another, let the 
 teacher take him into the workshops and not allow him to 
 see any work at all except what he himself makes. Let 
 the teacher keep constantly in mind that an hour's work 
 will teach the pupil more things than he can retain in his 
 memory from a whole day's explaining." 
 
 These utterances show clearly Rousseau's conception of 
 handwork as a means of education, from which it can be 
 clearly seen that he emphasizes the significance of hand- 
 work in intellectual development, even though he later 
 thinks more of its importance in another respect; namely, 
 with reference to social development. 
 
 Rousseau's views have influenced the Philanthropists, 
 who have striven toward a practical realization of his 
 ideas in their institutions. In this respect Rousseau had 
 a predecessor in August Hermann Francke, the founder of 
 the Pädagogium 1 in Halle. Francke also occupied the 
 children of his great Orphans' Home with handwork — 
 spinning, sewing, knitting, etc., yet this w r as done especially 
 for economic reasons. In th? Pädagogium in which the 
 sons of aristocratic families were educated, handwork was 
 regarded as a means of education. The pupils were in- 
 structed by masters in turning, pasting, and glass-cutting, 
 and were directed in making all kinds of useful things. 
 Francke considered the chief value of these exercises to be 
 
 1 An educational institution, especially for boys. — Translator. 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 35 
 
 in the fact that "they prevented idleness and childish 
 amusements." 
 
 From the Francke Institutes, handwork passed over to 
 the Realschulen, then newly organized. The founder of 
 the first school of this kind, Semler in Halle, even insisted 
 that a good, accurate eye and a ready hand could be ac- 
 quired by practicing useful manual exercises. In the 
 Realschule founded by Hecker at Berlin, turning, pasting, 
 glass-cutting, finishing, and other activities were carried on 
 and similar work is reported of other Realschulen of that 
 time. So the inspiration went from Halle to South Ger- 
 many and Austria and there caused the establishment of 
 industrial schools and Realschulen. It also appears, that 
 instruction in handwork in the orphan schools was there 
 arranged as a preparation for the future industrial life 
 work of the pupils. These ideas found further enlarge- 
 ment in the industrial schools (Industrieschulen) founded 
 toward the end of the eighteenth century, which after 
 several experiments in Braunschweig, were brought to life 
 in Bohemia chiefly through the efforts of Kindermann, at 
 first pastor, and after 1775 professor and inspector of the 
 public school system in Prag. He had regard for econ- 
 omic considerations when he looked upon instruction in 
 handwork as the chief means for improving the welfare 
 of the people, but in doing so he did not lose sight of its 
 educative and moral significance. Consequently the in- 
 dustrial school is a product of the popular pedagogical 
 strivings of that time, which found their strongest cham- 
 pions in Maria Theresa and Joseph II of Austria and in 
 Frederick II of Prussia. After the example set by them, 
 all parts of Germany joined in emulating them by estab- 
 lishing industrial schools, mostlv in connection with the 
 
36 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 public Volksschulen. For the most part women teachers 
 directed the instruction in the industrial classes. Spin- 
 ning, knitting, and sewing were carried on in the girls' 
 classes, while in the boys' classes woodworking and braid- 
 ing were additional activities. In the country there were 
 added instruction in the cultivation of gardens and fruit 
 trees, and the culture of silkworms and bees. As a sub- 
 ordinate purpose, the effort was made to let the children 
 earn something from their work; the industrial schools 
 were often simply designated as ''schools for making a 
 living." Their connection with the schools for study was 
 merely external ; there was scarcely any thought of carry- 
 ing out pedagogical ideas. Industrial schools were also 
 established especially for children of the lower and poorer 
 classes. 
 
 But even in the educational institutions for the youth of 
 higher rank, handwork was not overlooked, especially in 
 those of the Philanthropists, all of which were under the 
 influence of Locke and Rousseau. Basedow demands in 
 his Methodenbuch (Book of Methods) that children 
 from the fourth year on be gradually accustomed to physi- 
 cal labor, but without any compulsion. Two hours of 
 handwork a day along with six hours of instruction are 
 necessary, and indeed, children should be occupied with 
 garden work in summer and with the construction of play- 
 things, etc., in winter. In accordance with this, lessons 
 were arranged for the older pupils according to the cur- 
 riculum of the Philanthropist of Dessau in turning and 
 cabinet work, and later in pasteboard work and finishing. 
 Handwork was extensively practiced in Schnepfenthal. 
 Salzmann esteemed it most highly and considered it indis- 
 pensable in an education which was to make the people 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 37 
 
 good and happy. "Are not the hands the finest tools of a 
 man? Can one indeed believe that his mind is capable 
 of expressing his manifold powers, when his best instru- 
 ments are rusted, when his hands are useless?" he says in 
 his book, Noch etzvas über die Erziehung (Additional 
 Facts Concerning Education.) In the Ameisenbüchlein 
 (Little Book on Ants) he recommends the use of hand- 
 work for three reasons: satisfaction of the longing for ac- 
 tivity, improvement in the health of the children, and exer- 
 cise of the mind, eye, and hand. In Salzmann's opinion 
 the objections raised against handwork come for the most 
 part, from those educators who have not learned to know 
 this work, and for that reason try to ridicule it. The in- 
 struction in handwork should be turned over to educators, 
 not to handworkers. 
 
 In the institution at Schnepfenthal the following work 
 was carried on: construction of playthings out of paper, 
 wood-carving, net making, basketry, pasteboard work, fin- 
 ishing, cabinetwork, and turning. In every living room 
 there was a workshop with the necessary tools. The in- 
 struction was directed by B. H. Blasche, active as a teacher 
 from 1796 on, whose writings give an interesting insight 
 into his efforts to develop instruction in handwork from 
 the theoretical and practical points of view. These writ- 
 ings are still valuable to-day. 
 
 The remaining Philanthropists shared the views of 
 Basedow and Salzmann concerning the educative value of 
 handwork. Campe, especially, has expressed himself un- 
 equivocally concerning it. In one of his works he de- 
 mands the transformation of the Volksschulen, which he 
 calls schools of laziness and inefficiency for life, into indus- 
 trial schools. In all the educational institutions which 
 
38 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 were founded through the influence of the Philanthropists, 
 the examples of Dessau and Schnepfenthal were followed 
 and instruction in handwork was introduced. In many 
 of these institutions (for example, in Keilhau, Weinheim, 
 and others) it has been retained to the present time. 
 
 As time passed, the industrial schools could not be main- 
 tained, partly on account of lack of means, and partly be- 
 cause of the difficulty in securing good teachers. Most of 
 them became disorganized during the war time at the be- 
 ginning of the nineteenth century- Even the impulse 
 which the educational system received under the influence 
 of the teachings of Pestalozzi, did not favor them, since 
 they were in some respects opposed to his ideas. Yet iso- 
 lated industrial schools have existed until recently, for 
 example, in Holstein and Oldenburg. In like manner the 
 instruction in work, which is carried on for industrial 
 purposes in many educational institutions, can be traced 
 back to the impulse derived from the industrial schools. 
 An instance of this is in those schools for children who are 
 morally depraved or afflicted with physical deficiencies. 
 
 The conviction that work has value as a means of edu- 
 cation has not been lost sight of in German pedagogy. It 
 is presented in an especially clear and impressive manner 
 in the writings of J. H. G. Heusinger (died 1837.) Heu- 
 singer tried to introduce the principle of activity into edu- 
 cation, asserting that man was born for doing and not for 
 speculating. Therefore the impulse for activity is to be 
 used by means of education in every way, since it leads 
 man to avenues of knowledge which w r ould otherwise re- 
 main closed to him. Even in the development of the 
 artistic sense, it is of significance, since modeling, for ex- 
 ample, is more important in the development of taste than 
 drawing. 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 39 
 
 Similar views to those of Heusinger were developed 
 by B. H. Blasche (died 1832), who has already been men- 
 tioned, but preeminent in the development of them was 
 Pestalozzi. 
 
 Pestalozzi's attempt to maintain an educational institu- 
 tion for poor children at Neuhof was a well-known fail- 
 ure. His ideas of how the youth of the poorer classes 
 were to be educated by means of work and their social con- 
 dition improved have been developed in Lien hard und Ger- 
 trud (Leonard and Gertrude). In this book he shows 
 that children were to sew, spin cotton, perform tasks in 
 garden and field, and, along with these activities, learn 
 to read, sing, and study arithmetic- In this way he wish- 
 ed to unite the training for a life work with the Volks- 
 schule, and in different addresses before ministries and 
 other authorities he expressed this thought. The idea of 
 such education for the poor occupied him until his last 
 years, and even at the age of eighty he considered anew 
 the plan of organizing an industrial school at Neuhof. 
 The fact that he comprehended the nature of such a school 
 much more thoroughly than the other representatives of 
 industrial education, is shown by the utterances in Lien- 
 hard and Gertrud and in other writings. He had a clear 
 conception of the educational significance of work and of 
 its influence upon the intellectual and moral development 
 ot man, as is shown, for example, in the following utter- 
 ances: "It has become indisputably clear to me how much 
 more truly a person is moulded through that which he does 
 than through that which he hears;" "in the education of 
 people, serious and severe training for a life work must 
 necessarily precede all word instruction." He makes his 
 schoolmaster, Glülphi, in Lienhard and Gertrud the ve- 
 
40 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 hide of his ideas, and causes him to say: "Every day he 
 saw more clearly how industry trains the understanding 
 and gives strength to the feelings, as it prevents the deadly 
 warping of the senses and saves them for the forces of life, 
 drawing them back from the weakness of listening to our 
 nonsense about activity for activity's sake. These higher 
 views concerning human development caused him to bring 
 the lathe for turning, the planing bench, the sewing cush- 
 ion, etc., into his school." 
 
 Pestalozzi regrets very much that the children of the 
 higher classes so generally lack a simple preparation in 
 mechanical ability. He points out this lack as a 'wrong 
 path upon which the course of nature, in the unfolding 
 and development of its powers, has been forcibly thrust 
 aside." Therefore he considers it necessary that these 
 children should be led by means of the activity of the hand 
 to the activity of the mind ; and, with this end in view, he 
 has the pupils in the institution at Ifferten, in their geog- 
 raphy lesson, imitate in clay the physical features of the 
 surrounding country. Cabinetwork, turning, and paste- 
 board work were also carried on at Ifferten. 
 
 Even in the period of the greatest effectiveness of his 
 system, when he was occupied in writing his Elementar- 
 methode, Pestalozzi did not lose sight of the significance 
 of handwork. He places it in the field of artistic train- 
 ing; that is, the training for technical ability upon which 
 depend all accomplishments which are needed in domestic 
 and civil life. Ability (können) is regarded as the out- 
 ward expression of the inner, the intellectual. The es- 
 sence of the development of artistic ability consists in the 
 development of thought and reason. The use of objects 
 (the A B C of object teaching) offers an opportunity to 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 41 
 
 utilize the means at hand, through the use of which, the 
 foundation is laid and the intellectual foundation for art is 
 established. The development of mechanical ability, which 
 is still necessary — in other words, the development of the 
 physical side of artistic training — includes the training of 
 the human senses and the limbs. Their goal is "the high- 
 est possible control of the nerves, which gives assurance 
 and perfect control of hand and foot." 1 Both phases of 
 artistic training, the intellectual and the physical, must be 
 carried on together from the cradle up, and in close re- 
 lation to each other. Education cannot have as its goal 
 simply to develop mechanical skill. Neither is the artis- 
 tic training of the pupil in itself sufficient. He says 
 "The careful and wise use of the means of training offered 
 in domestic life is just as important from the physical as 
 from the moral and intellectual point of view." Yet it 
 would be wrong to use the ability which domestic life fur- 
 nishes merely as a means of education. But the instruc- 
 tion for acquiring skill in the vocation must be preceded by 
 a general education in art, which is in reality the A B C of 
 art. This A B C of art is a series of exercises which pro- 
 ceed from the simplest (striking, carrying, hitting, pulling, 
 turning, etc.), to the most complicated, and have as their 
 purpose to give the pupil accuracy in whatever he does. 
 
 "These elementary gymnastics in art" are also to fur- 
 nish the natural foundation for the training for industry, 
 so that special training for a trade would arise from the 
 elementary exercises which the system teaches. From it 
 
 1 It might be said that Pestalozzi in this statement shows 
 that he ingeniously foresaw what modern psychology, with its 
 scientific reasons, expresses in the phrase: "Transforming the 
 conscious into the unconscious," and "carving out nerve paths." 
 
42 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 Pestalozzi believes the most varied and difficult move- 
 ments of industry will become mere play, and in his letters 
 to influential people he refers repeatedly to the remark- 
 able results for industry which he expects from the influ- 
 ence of his method. Yet the attempts to devise special 
 exercises as a pedagogical foundation for industry have 
 never been completed. 
 
 The association of study and work is also demanded by 
 Fichte. His Nationalerziehung (National Education) 
 ought to induce anyone to believe that he can help him- 
 self on in the world through his own strength. If the 
 pupil is accustomed to work, he escapes temptation caused 
 by anxiety about nourishment, and it will be a matter of 
 honor with him to depend upon no one else for his liveli- 
 hood. The most fundamental kinds of work are the culti- 
 vation of the field and the garden and the industries con- 
 nected with them. This work is not to sink to mere me- 
 chanical activity, but is to be animated by the thought that 
 it is preparing for the future life work of the pupil In the 
 educational state which Fichte constructs for the execu- 
 tion of his ideas, all the needs of the members of the state 
 must, as far as possible, be satisfied by themselves. Eack 
 one works for the whole and participates in the blessings 
 of the whole. (Fichtes Ideen über die zvirtschaftliche 
 Erziehung (Fichte's Ideas concerning Economic Educa- 
 tion, von E. Zeissig. Blätter für Knabenhandarbeit, 
 1897.) 
 
 Even the great theorist, Herbart, has clearly recog- 
 nized the pedagogic significance of handwork. This is 
 shown especially by his well-known utterance: "The hand 
 has its place of honor along with speech, in lifting man 
 above the condition of the animal." In like manner Her- 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 43 
 
 bart expresses himself in other places concerning the im- 
 portance of training the hand, and demands, for example, 
 that every boy and young man learn to handle the well- 
 known tools of the cabinetmaker. He says: "Mechanical 
 skill would often be more useful than gymnastics. To 
 the Bürgerschulen belong work schools, which need not 
 be exactly trade schools." 
 
 Other places in Herbart's works show that he recog- 
 nizes in physical labor an excellent preparation for sys- 
 tematic activity and at the same time an important means 
 for forming character. He says, "Many a growing boy 
 finds himself sooner at handwork or in business or in agri- 
 culture than in school." 
 
 Among the representatives of the Herbartian school Zil- 
 ler and Ernst Barth in Leipsic have especially valued in- 
 struction in handwork. Ziller sees in it an essential broad- 
 ening of the general instruction in the preparatory school, 
 and a foundation for the later technical instruction in the 
 trade school or workshop. Consequently instruction in 
 handwork necessarily belongs to the training of pupils who 
 wish to devote themselves later to a practical calling. 
 Since 1865 Ernst Barth has carried on in a practical way 
 instruction in work in his preparatory school, where he 
 has found in W. Niederley an expert assistant. In his 
 appreciation of instruction in work, Barth goes farther 
 than Ziller, since he regards it not simply as a preparation 
 for the training for a life work, but as the best form of 
 object teaching as well. In accordance with this idea, it 
 is to begin with the first school year, and in all the grades 
 of the preparatory school it is to be carried on in connec- 
 tion with the other branches of instruction. In his book 
 which was written in conjunction with Niederlev, Die 
 
44 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 Schuhverkstatt (the School Workshop), 1882, Barth 
 shows how instruction in work is to be carried on in the 
 different grades. It is united to history of civilization and 
 natural philosophy, to geography, geometry, and drawing. 
 From the twelfth year on, but not until then, preparatory 
 instruction for the training for a life w r ork is to be offered 
 in special classes, which is to be adapted to the local con- 
 ditions and branches of industry. 
 
 As representatives of the Herbartian school, who accept 
 instruction in handwork in their pedagogical theories, and 
 who also try to some extent to develop it practically, may 
 be mentioned: Willmann, O. W. Beyer, and W. Rein. 
 Willmann has expressed himself concerning instruction in 
 handwork in different places, especially in his Didaktik, 
 (Didactics.) O. W. Beyer in his book, Die Naturwis- 
 senschaften in der Erziehungsschule (Natural Sciences 
 in the Boarding School), developed a system of in- 
 struction in work, the problems of which he derived from 
 the history of human industry; moreover, special stress 
 is placed upon his article in Rein's Encyclopedia. Pro- 
 fessor Rein's reputation for theory and his practical ex- 
 periments in the Pedagogical Seminar in Jena in the way 
 of systematic development of instruction in work are con- 
 sidered of great importance. 
 
 While the representatives of the Herbartian pedagogy 
 agree in disapproving of a mere external connection of in- 
 struction in handwork with the school, but make it de- 
 pendent upon the other branches of instruction, in that it 
 is to take its problems from them, yet we find an essential- 
 ly different position of the instruction in work in the edu- 
 cational system of Friedrich Fröbel. Fröbel agrees with 
 Heusinger in his views since, like him, he emphasizes the 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 45 
 
 fact that man is born for action. Acting, producing, do- 
 ing, precedes thinking, in the development of the single 
 thing as well as in the development of humanity. Activ- 
 ity and doing are the first manifestations in the child's life; 
 in the impulse for activity the very existence of the human 
 being expresses itself. Therefore education must begin 
 with doing; everything must be connected with the train- 
 ing of the impulse for activity and from this everything 
 must be evolved. In this is clearly expressed the contrast 
 between Fröbel and Herbart. While the latter wishes to 
 make handwork dependent upon instruction in other sub- 
 jects, according to Fröbel, instruction in all other subjects 
 proceeds from handwork and is founded upon it. A fur- 
 ther development of these ideas of Fröbel is found in 
 Posche, Georgens, and Deinhardt and, in most recent 
 times, in the American, Dewey. The latter bases his 
 opinions upon the teachings of modern psychology and 
 sociology and, consequently, must be considered more fully 
 in a later place. Concerning those first mentioned, on the 
 other hand, it can be said in general that their theory car- 
 ries out further the thoughts of Fröbel and attempts to 
 make them especially useful with reference to political 
 economy. Pösche, who was inspector of education in 
 Berlin, states that it is his purpose "to make an effort to 
 organize the practical activities of the society into an edu- 
 cational institution for the youth, to found learning and 
 knowledge upon activity and exercise in w T ork, and to add 
 the artistic-industrial element in the life of our people to 
 the theoretical one-sidedness of our present Volksschule." 
 Georgens and Deinhardt, who wrote their works in col- 
 laboration, presented at the Ninth General Assembly of 
 German Teachers theses in which thev sav: "Creative 
 
46 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 work must be represented within the Volksschule if an all- 
 round development is to be the aim of pedagogy Ex- 
 ercises in work must be joined in organic unity with 
 instruction as a whole, and must contain an artistic as 
 well as a gymnastic element." 
 
 Though Diesterweg gave his approval to the method 
 of Georgens and characterized it as the "way of Nature," 
 as "pure instruction of Pestalozzi and Fröbel," there arose 
 between several of the followers of Diesterweg on the one 
 hand and Georgens and Deinhardt on the other, a severe 
 conflict, which was not without influence upon the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of German Teachers soon afterward held in 
 Frankfurt (1857.) After a speech of Dishart, this or- 
 ganization declared itself opposed to the principle advo- 
 cated by him and his friend Georgens, viz. : "Education 
 for work by means of work," and with that the problem of 
 instruction in work for the school seemed to be settled — 
 a precedent which was observed again in a very similar 
 way forty-three years later in the General Assembly of 
 German Teachers at Cologne. 
 
 Isolated efforts were made to disseminate the ideas of 
 Pestalozzi and to turn them to account in the school, but 
 like those of Beust in Zürich, Stoy in Bielitz, Willmann 
 in Vienna, and others, they could gain but little influence 
 and were lost in the mass of proposals for pedagogical 
 reform. On the other hand, the attempts were more effec- 
 tive which started from an economic point of view and 
 which were undertaken in rescue homes, boarding schools, 
 orphans' homes, and similar institutions. Especially 
 worthy of mention in this connection is J. H. Wichern, 
 the founder of the Rauhes Haus in Hamburg, who, in his 
 contribution Über Erziehung zur Arbeit, insbesondere in 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 47 
 
 Anstalten (Concerning Education for work, especially in 
 Institutions), Hamburg, 1867, showed that the idea of 
 education in work was not lost. 
 
 In a still greater measure assistance was given for its 
 advancement by the problem announced by Magistrate 
 Schindler in Zürich: "How can the instruction of the 
 Volksschule be freed from the abstract method and be 
 made more effective in the development of the powers of 
 the mind?" 
 
 For the solution of this problem Dr. K. Michelson 
 (died in Hildesheim in 1862) and Prof. K. Biedermann, 
 (died in Leipsic, 1901), proposed the union of the Volks- 
 schule with a work school. The significance of the book 
 written by Beidermann (Karl Friedrich), Die Erziehung 
 zur Arbeit, eine Forderung des Lebens an die Schule 
 (Education for Work, a Demand of Life upon the 
 School, Liepsic, 1852), justifies us in looking upon this 
 even today as one of the most important writings on the 
 establishment of instruction in work, and in looking into 
 its contents somewhat more closely. Professor Bieder- 
 mann, who through his inquiries into the political life of 
 the middle of the last century, and through his compre- 
 hensive studies in the history of civilization, became con- 
 vinced that there was need of a thorough reform in the 
 German system of education, justified his demand for 
 "education through work" by pointing out, first of all, the 
 drawbacks and disadvantages of purely theoretical instruc- 
 tion. In connection with it he calls attention to the over- 
 burdening of the pupils, and especially to the injuries to 
 the health which exist in all kinds of schools as a result of 
 the overloading. In a later chapter, Schule und Leben, 
 (School and Life), he correctly emphasizes the fact that 
 
48 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 the theoretical knowledge and acquirements gained in the 
 school have in some respects little significance for life, 
 moreover that the school not infrequently weakens in the 
 pupils the taste for domestic and practical pursuits, and 
 accustoms them to look down with scorn from the height 
 of their imagined wisdom upon the activities of their par- 
 ents and companions. In order that the school may really 
 be a preparatory school for life, he demands of it the fol- 
 lowing: along with knowledge and understanding, along 
 with memory and the other powers of receptivity, it must 
 also develop inportant means of independence, viz. : prac- 
 tical ability, the inclination for construction, keenness of 
 eye, skill of hand; and, above all, will power; in a word, 
 it must be not only a school for teaching and learning in 
 the usual sense of the term, but at the same time a school 
 for work, and must assume its task of educating the pupils 
 for work. 
 
 The claim that the youth is in need of training for cre- 
 ative activity is based by Biedermann upon the needs of 
 human nature, especially those of the child and upon those 
 of the German people as a nation. He goes on to discuss 
 the pedagogical advantages of the practical method, and re- 
 futes the objections which have been raised against instruc- 
 tion in work. The question whether it is possible to make 
 room in the curriculum for courses in handwork in the 
 schools, especially in the Volksschule, forms the contents 
 of a further chapter, which is enlarged by proposals con- 
 cerning the organization of instruction in work according 
 to pedagogical principles. 
 
 In the second edition of the work which appeared in 
 1883 in an essentially re-written form, Biedermann has 
 presented the movement for the introduction of instruc- 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 49 
 
 tion in work in its further development up to that year. 
 
 The animated discussions which were caused by the 
 writings of Michelsen and Biedermann, and which were 
 carried on by prominent school men such as Curtmann, 
 Eisenlohr and Diesterweg, led to no settlement of the ques- 
 tion. Eisenlohr declared himself opposed to the proposals 
 of Michelsen and Biedermann, Curtmann wished to se- 
 cure education for work without actual instruction in 
 handwork, and Diesterweg considered the training for 
 practical work necessary, but wished to assign it to the 
 oversight of the family, not the school. "The equipment 
 of schools for work is an encroachment upon the rights of 
 parents and would certainly call forth a protest from all 
 the country people" is the decision of Diesterweg. This 
 he later modified considerably. 
 
 The pietistic-reactionary tendency of the school world 
 at that time was not favorable to the further development 
 of the idea of instruction in work, since it saw in the 
 school for work an expression of the materialism then pene- 
 trating all circles of life, which would necessarily injure 
 the education of the youth for ecclesiastical service. 
 
 In the meantime, however, the ideas of Fröbel and 
 other champions of instruction in work had exerted a fur- 
 ther influence, especially in foreign countries. In Austria 
 in the year 1872 a decree of the Minister of Education 
 had permitted the introduction of modeling into the cur- 
 riculum of the Realschule, and in 1873 appeared a work 
 by Erasmus Schwab, Director of the Gymnasium in 
 Vienna, Die Arbeitsschule als organischer Bestandteil der 
 Volksschule (The School for Work as an Organized Ele- 
 ment of the Volksschule), which had the same effect as 
 the writings of Michelsen and Biedermann in Germany. 
 
50 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 As Schwab expressed himself, "The most important 
 pedagogical problem of our time is the introduction of 
 work as an educative element in the organization of the 
 Volksschule. It cannot otherwise fulfill its duty of edu- 
 cating the people, a task which becomes ever) 7 da) 7 more 
 difficult. After the actual instruction in handwork has 
 been generally established, an effort should be made to 
 unite a school workshop with the boys' schools." At the 
 World's Exposition in Vienna in 1873, Schwab exhibited 
 a model of his own school, which included a school work- 
 shop and a school garden for boys and girls. (Die öster- 
 reichische Musterschule in der Wiener Weltaustellung, 
 1873, von Dr. E. Schwab, mit 2 Plänen von Krumholz, 
 Wien, 1873. The Austrian Model School at the World's 
 Exposition in Vienna, 1873, by Dr. E. Schwab, with two 
 plans by Krumholz, Vienna, 1873.) These suggestions 
 were received by the Austrian Bürgerschulen, as w r ell as 
 in the Seminar at Troppau, and led to the organization of 
 a Society, the purpose of which was the advancement of 
 instruction in handwork in Austria. In the direction of 
 this society Anton Kreuzig (died 1905) performed valu- 
 able service. 
 
 The unsettled internal political conditions in Austria 
 explain why the further development of instruction in 
 work could secure an interest only in limited circles. The 
 service of men like J. Urban, A. Bruhns, R. Petzel, and G. 
 Herbe in Vienna, A. Naske in Brunn and others, who 
 exerted themselves to develop instruction in work from 
 a pedagogical point of view, is the greater because of the 
 difficulties under which they worked. 
 
 It is an often repeated occurrence that ideas, the dis- 
 semination of which makes for the development of cul- 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 51 
 
 ture, get a foothold more easily in smaller districts than 
 in large states in which differences of race and nationality 
 ofier great resistance to the spread of a new idea. This 
 is, in general, also true of the idea of instruction in work 
 (its spread in the United States of America being an ex- 
 ception) which has completely made its way into the 
 small countries of the North, especially in Finland, Swed- 
 en, Norway, and Denmark. The course which the move- 
 ment has taken is as follows: 
 
 In the 3 T ear 1857 a schoolman, Uno Cygnaeus, was 
 commissioned by the Senate of Finland to make a study 
 of the systems of instruction of the people in the different 
 European countries. He traveled in France, Germany, 
 and Switzerland, and upon his return the commission was 
 given him of working out a plan for the reorganization of 
 the system of Volksschulen of Finland. This plan, which 
 went into force in the year 1866, contained the stipula- 
 tion that technical work should be regarded as a required 
 course in the curriculum of the Seminar, and the city and 
 country schools. It was clearly the ideas of Pestalozzi 
 and Fröbel which inspired the Northern schoolman; but 
 at any rate, Finland was the first country to introduce 
 into the school instruction in handwork for boys as a 
 regular course. From Finland it made its way to Sweden 
 and Denmark, and has been carried to a high stage of 
 development there under the name of sloyd. It cannot be 
 said that the idea was developed independently in either 
 one of these countries, since in Denmark, for example, the 
 opposite is true, where the Retired Captain of Horse 
 Clauson-Kaas (died 1906), as early as the sixties, became 
 interested in instruction in handwork thru the education 
 of his own children. He established in Copenhagen a 
 
52 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 kind of wandering school workshop, in which he gave in- 
 struction of all kinds of useful occupations, and in 1873 
 founded the General Danish Society for Domestic Indus- 
 try, which created a stir by its exhibits at the World's Ex- 
 position at Vienna. Through this, Clauson-Kaas became 
 known in Germany, and after he began to defend his ideas 
 publicly in lectures, they found many followers. To be 
 sure his followers at first were mostly people who were not 
 pedagogues, as the name of the organization which he 
 founded at Berlin in 1876, the Society for Domestic In- 
 dustrial Activity, goes to show. A course for the train- 
 ing of teachers contributed most toward the further devel- 
 opment of the idea. This course was offered by Clauson- 
 Kaas in Emden in 1880 and was attended by sixty-three 
 people from different parts of Germany. Thru these 
 people, — most of whom were teachers, whom Clauson-Kaas 
 succeeded in inspiring, — his teachings were carried to dif- 
 ferent parts of Germany and led to practical results in 
 Dresden, Görlitz, Berlin, and other places. 
 
 Clauson-Kaas had not overlooked the educational sig- 
 nificance of instruction in handwork. Rather it had been 
 the starting point of his activity; but in the further course 
 of development this idea of domestic industry came into 
 the foreground. At least his efforts in Germany were at 
 first regarded only from this point of view, as is evident 
 from the statutes of the Berlin Society, mentioned above, 
 which had in mind the construction of objects which were 
 easily made, as far as technique is concerned. A. Lammers 
 in Bremen, who took up the idea of domestic industry and 
 caused it to spread widely by means of his efforts thru 
 his magazine Nordwest (Northwest), as well as by his 
 lectures in different places, took hold of the matter first 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 53 
 
 only from this side. A lecture which Lammers delivered 
 in 1880 in Leipsic before the Society for the Promotion of 
 the Public Good gave the impetus for founding a pupils' 
 workshop in that place, where the ground was already pre- 
 pared for a new movement by the previous activity of Ziller 
 and his pupil Barth. This movement, with a purely peda- 
 gogical tendency, soon found here a further development, 
 which was ushered in by the writings of Barth-Niederley, 
 which have already been mentioned, and by a work of 
 Oberlehrer Dr. W. Götze, Die Ergänzung des Schul- 
 unterrichts durch praktische Beschäftigung (The Com- 
 pletion of the Instruction of the School by Means of Prac- 
 tical Activity), which appeared in the year 1880. 
 
 In the school workshop of Leipsic, which was founded 
 in that year, the educational side of instruction in hand- 
 work was kept in mind from the very beginning, and 
 since courses for teachers were arranged along with those 
 for pupils, which were very soon attended even by foreign 
 teachers, the Leipsic movement found followers in other 
 places and was rapidly advanced. 
 
 E. von Schenckendorff, at that time town-counsellor 
 and later deputy in Görlitz, proved himself the most 
 active and most cautious champion of instruction in 
 handwork. Even in the year 1880 he expressed in a 
 memorial address to the government the advantages of 
 domestic industry for the people of Upper Schleswig, and 
 he further emphasized most forcibly the social-pedagogical 
 significance of instruction in handwork. He stated that 
 it was one of the means of building up an efficient class 
 of handworkers and of creating in the upper classes of soci- 
 ety respect for handwork and an understanding of its 
 
54 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 products; in this way he held, it would be able to contrib- 
 ute essentially to the improvement of industry. These 
 statements received a hearing from the public and from the 
 authorities the more easily, because the eyes of all intelli- 
 gent people had been opened at the World's Expositions of 
 1873 and 1876, by the previous failures of German indus- 
 try, which was branded for a long time by Reuleaux' se- 
 vere judgment, cheap and poor. They succeeded, therefore, 
 in inducing the ministry of public instruction to appoint a 
 committee which was commissioned to make a study of the 
 schools for work in Denmark and Sweden. The commis- 
 sion found, especially in Sweden, much that was deserving 
 of attention; for example, in Gothenburg handwork was 
 carried on in the Volksschule as a regular subject of in- 
 struction, and in the Seminar for Teachers of sloyd at 
 Nääs where Director Salamon, in an institution founded 
 by his uncle Abrahamson, directed in a pedagogical manner 
 the training of teachers for instruction in handwork. The 
 method of Swedish sloyd which was perfected in Nääs has 
 since then exerted a great influence upon the development 
 of instruction in handwork, not only in Germany but also 
 in other countries, and even if we do not allow ourselves 
 to be influenced in many respects by the principles of the 
 Swedish system (for example, in that we carry on, not 
 only woodwork, but also other courses of instruction in 
 work), yet its essential main features are to be recognized 
 in the German instruction in work. 
 
 The external development in Germany was furthered 
 by the formation of a central committee for Instruction in 
 Hand Skill and Home Industry in Berlin in 1881 at the 
 instigation of E. von Schenckendorff. This committee 
 was changed in 1886 into the "German Society for Boys' 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 55 
 
 Handwork," from which arose an organized movement 
 and a systematic effort to develop handwork in accord 
 with pedagogy. The society was directed first by A. 
 Lammers, and since 1892 by E. von Schenckendorff. In 
 the twenty years of its existence the Society has in an 
 effective way been active in the spread and development 
 of the idea of instruction in handwork. The propaganda 
 was accomplished on the outside by means of meetings and 
 the spread of printed matter, and within the society a num- 
 ber of enthusiastic men occupied themselves with the peda- 
 gogical development of instruction in handwork. Among 
 these, along with Grunow, Noeggerath, Groppler, Ku- 
 nath, and others, Götze should be specially mentioned, 
 who by founding a normal institution in Leipsic in 1887, 
 of which he was the head until his death in 1898, as well 
 as by his numerous writings on the further development 
 of instruction in handwork, has exerted the greatest in- 
 fluence. Thru the teachers trained in Leipsic, the num- 
 ber of whom will soon have exceeded two thousand, the 
 "Leipsic Method" has become known all over Germany, 
 and even beyond. The great respect in which the institu- 
 tion at Leipsic is held in foreign countries is shown by the 
 great number of foreign members in its classes. Since 1897 
 this institution has had its own building and on that ac- 
 count has possessed a greater capacity for development. 
 (See article by R. Rissmann, Geschichte des Handarbeits- 
 unterrichts (History of Instruction in Handwork), in 
 Rein's Encyklopädisches Handbuch der Pädagogik (En- 
 cyclopedic Handbook of Pedagogy.) 
 
 Only a few of the men who in the last decades, especi- 
 ally in the German Society for Boys' Handwork, have 
 been active in the spread of instruction in work, were con- 
 
56 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 nected with school work; indeed it is very significant that 
 the new movement found its strongest opponents in 
 the circles of schoolmen. Even in 1882 the German 
 Lehrertag (Teachers' Association) in Cassel expressed it- 
 self as decidedly opposed to instruction in work, and since 
 then similar statements have been made not only in a 
 number of provincial assemblies but they have in fact de- 
 termined the key-note of all the articles which have been 
 published on instruction in handwork in the pedagogical 
 press. Especially violent attacks were published during the 
 nineties against instruction in handwork and its defenders 
 by the Frankfurt Schulzeitung (School Journal), and the 
 tone which the editor of this magazine and other pedagogical 
 writers assumed made it difficult for the advocates of in- 
 struction in handwork to maintain their position in an 
 effective way. The rude rebuff which instruction in hand- 
 work received at the teachers' conference at Cologne in 
 1900 seemed to decide the battle which had raged violently 
 for several years against the new movement. But as often 
 happens in such intellectual battles, the new r ideas founded 
 upon the convictions of the majority were not to be thrust 
 aside ; on the other hand the saying of Goethe was verified 
 that the opponents of such ideas are only like one who strikes 
 into glowing coals: the sparks fly about and kindle a fire 
 even in places where they would not otherwise have reached. 
 The development of things in the last few years has shown 
 this to be true with reference to instruction in work. The 
 opposition caused large groups of people to prove that the 
 new idea had pedagogical value, and the friends of the 
 movement were spurred to stand together the more firmly 
 for its defense and to secure the means of defending their 
 cause. This opposition has prevented the attempt to in- 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 57 
 
 troduce handwork into the public schools too early and too 
 hurriedly; on the other hand, it has not been able to shake 
 the foundation principles of the movement, and so there 
 is definite hope that in the future instruction in hand- 
 work will gradually attain the place which belongs to it 
 in German schools. 
 
 It still remains to give a brief survey of the develop- 
 ment of instruction in work in the countries outside of 
 Germany. With reference to the northern countries, espec- 
 ially Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, the principal facts 
 concerning its historical development have already been 
 recorded. It should be added that sloyd in the Swedish 
 schools is generally not obligatory, but on account of the 
 abundant means which is granted by the state and other 
 authorities it is quite generally accepted and is introduced 
 into the majority of schools. The conditions are similar 
 in Denmark, where, especially in the towns, instruction in 
 sloyd is carried on according to a system worked out by A. 
 Mikkelsen, while Norway, by the school law of 1896, has 
 made it obligatory for all elementary and secondary 
 schools. 
 
 The development of instruction in handwork has be- 
 come of special importance in France, where it was made 
 an obligatory course in all elementary schools by the edu- 
 cational law of 1882. This result was secured after at- 
 tempts to introduce it had been made in several of the 
 schools of Paris ever since 1873. These attempts, dating 
 back to the personal initiative of Salicis, formerly a naval 
 officer, were a preparation for the further activity, cul- 
 minating in the unique combination of theory and practice 
 which is shown in the instruction in handwork in France. 
 At any rate it has developed quite independently, even 
 
58 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 though the inspiration for it came to France from other 
 countries. 
 
 The same can be said of England, which entered com- 
 paratively late the ranks of those countries which have 
 accepted instruction in handwork. The inspiration for 
 it came chiefly from Sweden and Germany, but England 
 thru its independent development and energetic and self- 
 sacrificing help in the advancement of the idea, has already 
 reached a stage in its development which we are at present 
 far from attaining in Germany. The great influence 
 which the lay element exerts upon the English schools in 
 general has been very favorable toward the development 
 of instruction in handwork, since the layman as a rule 
 has met it in a more unprejudiced way than the profes- 
 sional pedagogue. 
 
 The first impulse for reform in the public school sys- 
 tem of England with regard to practical courses of in- 
 struction was started by the distinguished physiologist 
 Huxley, who as early as 1887 demanded a careful investi- 
 gation of the system of industrial education. He points 
 out the chief weaknesses of the present school instruction 
 to be the custom of learning merely from the book and the 
 lack of regard for practical needs and conditions. And 
 furthermore the child is brought too little in touch with 
 real things and facts. As a wholesome remedy for these 
 weaknesses he recommended intensive object teaching, along 
 with which the training of the eye and hand must be ac- 
 complished by means of drawing, modeling, and other 
 kinds of handwork. It is characteristic of English con- 
 ditions that even now the leadership in the province of 
 instruction in handwork lies in the hands of prominent 
 scientific men ; especially has Sir Philip Magnus, for many 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 59 
 
 years President of the National Association of Manual 
 Training Teachers in London, and an authority in the 
 field of theoretic physics, performed great services in this 
 respect. 
 
 The development in the other countries of Europe can 
 be characterized in a few words. Switzerland, in har- 
 mony with the high degree of development of the system 
 of its elementary schools in many of the cantons, has ad- 
 vanced comparatively far in systematically arranged in- 
 struction in work; this is especially true of the cities of 
 Basel, Zürich, Bern, Lausanne, Geneva, Neuenburg, and 
 others. 
 
 In Belgium instruction in handwork is carried on 
 especially in Seminare, in Holland also in several elemen- 
 tary schools, of which that in Enschede has won distinc- 
 tion far beyond the boundaries of Holland, because of the 
 activity of its former Rector, de Vries, (cf. Lehmensick: 
 Eine Studienreise nach einer Holländischen Volksschule 
 (A Journey for the Purpose of Studying an Elementary 
 School of Holland.) The development of instruction in 
 work in Austria has already been touched upon, at least 
 m so far as it offers general interest. In Hungary, Ser- 
 via, Bulgaria, and especially in Roumania, its advance- 
 ment has from time to time been undertaken very ener- 
 getically, even though these efforts have not always been 
 made with the same stress, on account of the frequently 
 changing political conditions. In general this is als ) the 
 case in Russia, where, especially in the provinces of the 
 Baltic Sea, the ideas received from Germany and Finland 
 early took root. On account of the economic conditions, 
 the Russian people have not been able to develop their 
 characteristic talent and inclination for the technical as 
 
60 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 they might have done under more favorable circumstances. 
 Meanwhile it is to be noted that there has come from 
 Russia to the United States of America a very fruitful in- 
 spiration, which has essentially influenced the development 
 of the instruction in work there. Since this development 
 has proceeded in a very characteristic way, it requires a 
 somew T hat more thorough consideration. It actually be j 
 gan in the year 1876 when, at the World's Exposition in 
 Philadelphia, the European exhibits of systems of indus- 
 trial training attracted the attention of the Americans. 
 It was especially the Russian department in which the 
 models exhibited by the Technical College of Moscow 
 gave the impetus for taking up the problem of industrial 
 training and working it out in a practical way, resulting 
 the next year in the establishment of workshops for in- 
 struction in connection with the Massachusetts Institute 
 of Technology in Boston. In the workshops of this 
 famous school there still hang to-day the original Russian 
 models of the year 1876 and remind one of the very be- 
 ginning of the practical, technical instruction which has 
 since made such remarkable progress in America. 
 
 The next important step was the introduction of this 
 instruction into the high schools, that is, the institutions 
 which nearly correspond to our Realschulen and are in- 
 tended for the training of the youth from the age of four- 
 teen to eighteen. There are three types of this kind of 
 schools : first, the classical high school ; secondly, the tech- 
 nical or manual training high school ; thirdly, the commer- 
 cial high school. The second type is the one which con- 
 cerns us in our discussion. The first school of this kind was 
 founded in St. Louis in 1879 through the influence of Dr. 
 C. M. Woodward, Professor in Washington University. 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 61 
 
 Since that time their number has increased with such re- 
 markable rapidity that as early as the year 1901 theie 
 were two hundred and thirty-two. In a number of the 
 states of the Union it is required by law that every town 
 of a certain number of inhabitants shall maintain courses 
 in manual training in connection with its public high 
 school. 
 
 Concerning the organization of manual training high 
 schools the most necessary facts will be given later. 
 
 Even if they are regarded at present simply as institu- 
 tions which offer general training, yet there is an obvious 
 tendency to transform them into preparatory schools for 
 the technical college, and it is very probable that in time 
 the higher technical training of engineers will be uni- 
 formly regulated, and the technical instruction of the 
 secondary school will be required as a necessary prepara- 
 tion for it. On account of the high esteem in which the 
 American generally holds practical efficiency, and on ac- 
 count of the peculiarity of the conditions there, which 
 makes a practical apprenticeship in workshops almost im- 
 possible, the schools must offer instruction in workshops on 
 the largest scale, and for this reason it is everywhere 
 highly appreciated. Moreover, the need of technical 
 training is so great that there is a demand for it in every 
 calling, and institutions for technical instruction meet a 
 pressing need. 
 
 But from still another direction a strong impulse has 
 been given to a surprising development of everything 
 which is included under the name manual training, and is 
 felt in the several grades from the elementary school to the 
 college. This second source of strong influence in favor 
 of manual training is found in the realm of pedagogy. It 
 
62 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 is known that the most important auxiliary science of ped- 
 agoy, psychology, is studied in no other country so zeal- 
 ously as in America. But psychological research has led 
 to the fact that all development of the brain and of the 
 purely intellectual functions is dependent upon the de- 
 velopment of the senses and of the muscular system, espec- 
 ially upon the training of the eye and hand. Therefore 
 psychology demands a thorough consideration of the ele- 
 mentary technical exercises for the purposes of education; 
 this must begin in the kindergarten and in the elementary 
 classes and must be carried on in a systematic way in all 
 the grades in order to develop the intellectual functions, 
 which are inseparable from the activity of the hand. 
 Moreover the social and economic conditions, which have 
 entirely changed, require the introduction of these activities 
 into the school, because the complete transformation of 
 the entire system of production by the use of machines and 
 the elimination of the most important productive work 
 from the activities of the household and their removal to 
 the factory, have caused the growing child of the present 
 day to lose a great many educative influences, which a 
 few centuries ago were still felt. On that account the 
 education of the school must include these, and thus make 
 reparation for that which is lost. This can only be done 
 by the introduction of practical instruction in the activities 
 of the household and in the problems of the workshop. 
 Wherever the school offers this kind of instruction, not 
 only as a new course, but as a principle which must pene- 
 trate through and embrace all instruction, it is fit for 
 the task which it has, or ought to have, in the social life of 
 the present. 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 63 
 
 Arising from this fact, a pedagogical tendency has de- 
 veloped which seeks the development of a form of training 
 in handwork which will correspond to theory. The prin- 
 cipal representative of this tendency is John Dewey, and 
 among the schools which are built upon these principles 
 may be mentioned especially the School of Education in 
 Chicago and the Horace Mann School in New York. 
 Further particulars concerning the organization of these 
 schools will be given later. 
 
 Along with the two tendencies previously characterized, 
 which are based, on the one hand, upon the exalted ap- 
 preciation of technical training in itself, and on the other 
 hand, upon the recognition of the pedagogical significance 
 of technical exercises, there has developed in the practice 
 of the American schools a third tendency, which to a cer- 
 tain extent keeps the middle course, and tries to adapt it- 
 self to the technical, without forsaking the customary school 
 forms. The representatives of this tendency are con- 
 vinced of the value of instruction in work and are at- 
 tempting to develop it in the schools of different kinds, 
 partly in connection with other subjects of instruction, 
 particularly with instruction in drawing and with the 
 practical work in the laboratories of physics and chem- 
 istry, which are given a much larger place in the Ameri- 
 can schools than with us. The branches of work and the 
 methods which are used in instruction are quite numer- 
 ous ; in some respects foreign influences can be recognized ; 
 but in others, independent paths have been followed, for 
 example, in New York where in a number of public 
 schools the experiment has been undertaken of having in- 
 struction in work combined, according to modern prin- 
 ciples, with the instruction given in drawing, the founda- 
 10 
 
64 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 tion of an effective, artistic education. The unlimited 
 freedom which is afforded the American schools for ex- 
 periments, has led to great multiplicity of forms of in- 
 struction in work, of which the educational exhibit of the 
 different states and towns in 1904 at St. Louis gave the 
 best idea. This multiplicity is so great that it seems 
 scarcely possible to give a general characteristic of the in- 
 struction in work carried on in the public and private 
 schools, but, in any case, it is worth while noticing several 
 figures, which have been ascertained concerning the spread 
 of the work. In the year 1890 manual training was car- 
 ried on in the schools of 37 cities, in 1901 the number of 
 cities had risen to 232, and in 1902 to 270, and since then 
 it has grown in at least the same progression. In the year 
 1901 there was spent for manual training in 163 schools, 
 in which 49,369 pupils were instructed by 1,559 teachers, 
 the sum of $1,160,346. Even if corresponding figures 
 from European countries cannot be placed over against 
 these figures, yet their language is in itself eloquent 
 enough. 
 
 If we still try to find the place which instruction in 
 handwork occupies in connection with the pedagogical ten- 
 dencies now standing prominently in the foreground of in- 
 terest, the attention must be directed particularly to three 
 of these tendencies: the psychologic-pedagogic, the social- 
 pedagogic, and the art-pedagogic. 
 
 That these three tendencies are especially worthy of 
 notice, no proof is needed for him who has in mind, above 
 everything else, the practical results of our education. 
 We are to learn, not for school but for life, and all train- 
 ing should tend to make the person useful for life. For 
 this reason it is necessary to test all aims and means of 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 65 
 
 education by asking in what way they are efficient with 
 reference to the connection between school and life, and 
 with reference to the education of the individual for be- 
 coming a member of the social community. But all peda- 
 gogues who comprehend education from this point of view 
 must also consider whether instruction in handwork be- 
 longs to the means which will contribute to provide a 
 more effective training and a better union of the school 
 with life. 
 
 The psychologic-pedagogic tendency is endeavoring to 
 solve this problem while it tries to conform to the laws 
 by which the intellectual development of the person is 
 accomplished. It follows up the impressions of the senses, 
 which mainly arise through activity of the physical organs, 
 on their way to the central organ, and from this center 
 it follows up the impulses of the will which set the crea- 
 tive organs in motion; it arises from play, which for the 
 growing person is the natural school of work, and it tries 
 to direct voluntary play into regulated but often weari- 
 some work. The more the danger exists in the case of a 
 majority of our young people of allowing the inclination 
 for physical activity and the joy of using the hands to be 
 suppressed because of unhealthful conditions, such as are 
 caused especially by our life in large cities, and the greater 
 the intellectual tendency of our schools, with their high 
 aims in teaching and their extensive curricula, claims in 
 a one-sided way the energy of the youth, so much the 
 greater becomes the need of instruction in handwork. Its 
 significance in education is especially noticeable in cases 
 where training is made particularly difficult by intellectual 
 and physical defects, as in the schools for the feeble-mind- 
 ed. Here the psychologic-pedagogic tendency first recog- 
 
66 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 nized the value of handwork as a means of training and 
 has made it serve this purpose to a high degree. The ex- 
 periences of the schools for defectives are gradually carried 
 over into other fields; attempts are made to diminish the 
 difficulties of instruction especially in the first school years 
 by utilizing the activities of the hand as an aid. Thus 
 we see a return to the ideas of Friedrich Fröbel who made 
 self-activity, the development of the creative powers of 
 the child, and joy in work the main thought of his educa- 
 tion. Without doubt further progress will be made along 
 this line and constantly new systems of instruction and 
 more advanced methods of teaching will be undertaken by 
 means of the application of these principles. The ten- 
 dency, already clearly visible, toward a transformation in 
 the teaching of the natural sciences according to the in- 
 ventive method, in which experimenting on the part of 
 the pupils themselves is a vital factor, belongs to this 
 movement; as does also the reform of instruction in draw- 
 ing, and that of instruction in the modern languages which 
 ignores the old forms of grammatical exercise and uses a 
 method which permits the pupil, so to speak, to experience 
 directly the spoken language and to acquire it by speaking 
 it. It is evident that instruction in handwork for boys 
 and in housekeeping for girls corresponds perfectly to this 
 general tendency in the transformation of our school 
 curriculum ; indeed, there can be no doubt that the intro- 
 duction of the workshop into the school is the beginning 
 of a thorough transformation of our system of education. 
 In the educational exhibit at St. Louis there was shown 
 in a series of artistically arranged transparent pictures the 
 education of the different historic periods; the gymnastic 
 development of the Greeks, the schools of the middle ages, 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 67 
 
 those of the philanthropists and of the great educators of 
 modern times were also shown by means of characteristic 
 pictures. The last picture represented education in the 
 twentieth century — not a school class, but a school work- 
 shop ; not a school for study, but a school for work, the 
 boys working with saw and plane, and the girls handling 
 sewing materials and cooking utensils. Undereath it the 
 words were written: "Education in the Twentieth Cen- 
 tury — Recognition of the Necessity of Training the Eye 
 and Hand as well as the Mind." Herein lies the kernel 
 of all the endeavors of the psychologic-pedagogic tendency, 
 which from inner necessity requires instruction in hand- 
 work, in whatever form it expresses this demand. 
 
 The second tendency, the social-pedagogic, leads in a 
 shorter way to the same goal. According to our ethical 
 ideas, a commonwealth cannot exist without the work of 
 the individual in the service of the whole, just as a gradual 
 steady development of humanity is not conceivable with- 
 out serious work, which is performed by the individual 
 within the whole. The higher the culture of a people, 
 the more is work exalted, and it is certainly not a good 
 sign for our German civilization that in our education, 
 training toward a respectful regard for work, especially 
 physical work, is almost wholly lacking. People who 
 are ashamed of handwork do not fully comprehend cul- 
 ture. Education which inspires respect for work and 
 a will for work is a direct means of keeping a high stand- 
 ard of culture, because it compels the wealthy to share 
 with the needy in efforts to obtain culture and in the dis- 
 tribution of it; and even the commonest laborer, who per- 
 forms the most menial service, ought to have the con- 
 sciousness that he is doing it for the community as a whole 
 
68 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 and that by means of that work he is gaining for himself 
 the place to which he is entitled within the whole. "Edu- 
 cation for work" and "Education through work" are the 
 two cardinal points, around which social pedagogy finally 
 turns. The greatest thinkers and poets of all times and 
 peoples have recognized this fact, and each one has ex- 
 pressed it in his own way. The Scriptural exhortation, 
 "Work and pray," places work on as high a plane as the 
 injunction of our Goethe: 
 
 "Wem wohl das Glück die schönste Palme beut? 
 Wer Freudig tut, sich des Getanen freut/" 1 
 
 But the most majestic song of work has been sung by 
 Thomas Carlyle, the words of which run, "There is a 
 perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. The 
 latest Gospel in this world is, know thy work and do it." 
 
 A very persistent demand for instruction in handwork 
 has grown up in the course of the last few years along 
 with the art-pedagogic tendency, which, arising in the 
 Association of Teachers at Hamburg, has been widely 
 accepted. This tendency is an integral part of the civil- 
 ization of the present age. And since it has been recog- 
 nized with chagrin how devoid of art our people have be- 
 come, an attempt is being made to usher in a new period 
 of artistic culture. The Kunsterziehungstage (Associations 
 of Art Teachers) have made the solution of the problem 
 of the art education of the German youth their task, recog- 
 nizing "that the art feeling of a people can flourish only 
 
 1 Upon whom does fortune bestow the most beautiful palm? 
 He who works joyfully receives the greatest pleasure from his 
 work. 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 69 
 
 when we awaken the art faculties of coming generations 
 and develop them as much as possible." For "to educate 
 artistically" means not only "to make capable of appreciat- 
 ing the noble joy of living," but has at the same time the 
 thought of arousing and developing the artistic-productive 
 powers which are of value because they can produce some- 
 thing worth while. 
 
 Experience teaches that artistic training cannot be given 
 by means of lessons in the history of art and by lecturing 
 on works of art, but above everything else it must be 
 done by attempting to bring the pupil into personal rela- 
 tions with art. This comes about most surely by his own 
 activity in some field which stands close to art and which 
 leads finally to art. "Unless we are convinced that mod- 
 eling must have a place in the elementary school, we shall 
 secure no foundation for artistic training. The concep- 
 tion of form and space is the indispensable foundation of 
 all comprehension of nature in the artistic sense; the de- 
 velopment of form concepts at home and in the school is 
 much more important than quiet observation or even pre- 
 mature imitating of graphic copies." (Cf. the work of 
 the art historian, Professor Schmarsow, Unser Verhältnis 
 zu den bildenden Künsten, Our Relationship to the Plas- 
 tic Arts, Leipsic, B. G. Teubner's Publication.) As a 
 matter of course, the significance of drawing is not de- 
 preciated by this fact; instruction in drawing and practi- 
 cal work complement each other, and whenever the re- 
 formers of instruction in drawing point toward a careful 
 study of nature as the foundation for the entrance into 
 art, their efforts will be followed by instruction in model- 
 ing, which completes and strengthens the instruction in 
 drawing. 
 
70 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 It is not the purpose of the school to train artists, but to 
 train a people which will possess undertanding and love 
 for the creations of art. That is certainly a task of the 
 highest significance for the school. At one time a strong 
 feeling and a real "demand for art manifested itself in 
 many parts of Germany; but aside from a few pitiful 
 remnants which have been preserved here and there it has 
 been lost. In a few mountain countries works of artistic 
 value are still to be found in the homes of the peasants, 
 and in Lower Germany, likewise, remnant? of native art 
 still attract the collector and friend of art. But the great 
 mass of the people has become entirely alien to art, and 
 even the fundamental technique of handwork has been lost; 
 it has had to give place to machine work, to production in 
 large quantities. Instead of solid, genuine work, we find 
 false ostentation, imitation, and trash. Not the excellence 
 of work, but its cheapness is the desideratum, and with 
 many people, even in the circles of the educated, the feel- 
 ing for good workmanship is entirely lost. To acquire 
 this feeling again and to win back art for the people will 
 be an important task for the future. The first thing 
 which must be accomplished toward this end is the train- 
 ing of the perception and practice of the eye and hand. 
 Technical work must be recognized in its true significance 
 and, first of all skill must be striven for, because "art" and 
 "skill" go hand in hand. The simple technique of our pu- 
 pils' workshops is the basis for technical skill ; the boy who 
 has worked earnestly at the planing bench, who has forged 
 iron and has modeled clay, will have acquired not only a 
 trained eye and a practiced hand, but also an appreciation 
 of the technique which is adapted to the material. His 
 eye is sensitive to the harmony of conditions; he recognizes 
 
HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL HANDWORK. 71 
 
 in the simple form the purpose for which it should be used, 
 and in the solid material the value of the object. Under 
 these circumstances the simplest object of utility becomes 
 a work of art, as the pictures and wood engravings of the 
 old masters, of Dürer, Rembrandt, and many others, show 
 clearly. All of these masters had arisen from handwork. 
 In fact, art rests absolutely upon handwork. The best 
 artists of the present time have seen this clearly and have 
 turned back to the practice of the pure technique of 
 handwork, so that Goethe's thought now seems to be ver- 
 ified again: "Allem Leben, allem Tun, aller Kunst muss 
 das Handiuerk vorausgehen, ivelches nur in der Beschrän- 
 kung erworben wird. Eines recht wissen und ausüben, 
 gibt höhere Bildung als Halbheit im Hundertfältigen." 
 (Handwork, which is acquired only in a limited way, must 
 precede all life, all activity, all art. More culture is gained 
 by learning how to do one thing well than by attaining 
 mediocrity in a hundred pursuits.) 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Instruction in Handwork as a Means of Educa- 
 tion Outside of the School and in Institu- 
 tions of a Special Kind: Pupils' Work- 
 shops, Boys' Homes, Boarding 
 Schools, etc. 
 
 One of the most important instincts of human nature 
 is the instinct for activity. It expresses itself in the child 
 in many different ways: as caprice, propensity for destruc- 
 tion, and mischief, whenever it finds no satisfaction; and 
 as a valuable aid to education when it is employed in the 
 right manner. It finds its natural satisfaction in play, 
 and accordingly, it is one of the tasks of education to 
 develop and direct the instinct for play. Gradually then, 
 work which is systematically arranged will have to take 
 the place of play. With the close relationship of play 
 and work during childhood, it must not be overlooked 
 that certain dangers lie in the complete extinction of the 
 differences between these two, even if, during the period 
 of childhood, direct opposites do not exist. The child 
 takes his play with thorough seriousness, and he is never 
 more industrious than when he plays. At first, then, 
 play and work are of equal importance in his education. 
 But one difference always exists: play is voluntary and 
 work is required. The true art of education consists of 
 taking the play as seriously as it deserves, remembering 
 that it is the most important expression of the child's in- 
 
 72 
 
HANDWORK IN SPECIAL INSTITUTIONS. 73 
 
 stinct for activity, and of so arranging the work that it 
 will be done by the child with the same joy and with the 
 same zeal as play. 
 
 When in education we speak of work we probably think, 
 first of all, of study, of head work. The significance of 
 handwork in education is often wholly overlooked and in 
 many families children grow up who never experience the 
 blessing of handwork in itself. The importance of the 
 influence of social and economic conditions in this respect 
 has been taken up elsewhere. Whether the school is 
 responsible for these conditions and if so, how far, may be 
 set aside for the present, but the dangers and injuries 
 which have arisen from the complete neglect and disregard 
 of handwork in education we dare not overlook. The 
 history of pedagogy teaches us also that none of the great 
 educators have overlooked it, even though each has had 
 his individual idea of the value and significance of in- 
 struction in handwork. The movement for the introduc- 
 tion of instruction in handwork into education, which was 
 ushered in by Rousseau, the Philanthropists, and Pesta- 
 lozzi, and was revived in the second half of the last cen- 
 tury, has led essentially to a development which has made 
 its way outside of school education and has expressed itself 
 in private institutions. Yet it has kept its pedagogical 
 character, partly for reasons which lie within itself, partly 
 also because the beginning of the movement lay, fortun- 
 ately, in the hands of teachers. 
 
 Inspired and aided by the German Society for Boys' 
 Handwork, which was organized twenty-five years ago, 
 schools for handwork for boys have sprung up in all parts 
 of Germany which, either entirely independent of the 
 school or only in loose connection with it, give opportunity 
 
74 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 and training in practical activity. Since these schools for 
 handwork (pupils' workshops) number at present about 
 one thousand, and many of them have hundreds, in fact, 
 in some of the large cities, even thousands of pupils, their 
 significance in the education of the German youth must 
 not be underestimated. 
 
 The private character of the overwhelming majority of 
 the pupils' workshops offers, aside from certain disadvan- 
 tages which should not be misunderstood, above everything 
 else, the advantage of a free development not hampered 
 by bureaucratic influences. Therefore, they present a 
 rather varied picture in their external equipment as well 
 as in their curriculum, methods of teaching, subjects of 
 instruction, etc. At present the following subjects of 
 instruction are the main ones offered: elementary hand- 
 work; pasteboard work; work at the planing bench, and 
 other exercises in wood, especially carving; work in metal, 
 and in connection with it, the construction of equipment 
 and apparatus to be used in teaching. Recently, in con- 
 nection with the efforts toward training in art, which 
 have already been mentioned, modeling has come more 
 into the foreground. The significance of this in the 
 teaching of drawing is universally recognized by the re- 
 formers in this line cf work. However different the 
 kinds of work named may at first appear, yet the same 
 thought lies at the foundation of all, and, upon this their 
 significance for education depends: instruction in hand- 
 work is to develop and strengthen the talents of percep- 
 tion and observation and make the hand capable of con- 
 structing out of given material something which will serve 
 a definite purpose. Instruction in drawing has the same 
 end in view. But while here the representation executed 
 
HANDWORK IN SPECIAL INSTITUTIONS. 75 
 
 by the crayon or paint brush must be limited to a flat 
 surface, instruction in handwork has at its command much 
 richer material for representation. The material which 
 is available for use in construction is quite varied, and 
 offers in its manifold characteristics an abundance of mat- 
 ter for observation and instruction which can be supplied 
 in no other way. The tools which the pupil learns to 
 handle are most diverse, and require, therefore, the exer- 
 cise of groups of muscles which would otherwise remain 
 inactive, and consequently would not be developed. The 
 making of the objects follows in the course of time, and 
 stimulates the development of the sense of form, affords 
 opportunity for the application of the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of mensuration, and for the development of indi- 
 vidual skill, upon which all effective work depends. 
 Every boy who tries it will find that the construction of 
 any piece of work is not a simple and easy task, and, more- 
 over, is not a thing which can be accomplished without 
 consideration, accurate observation, and energetic action. 
 There is no better means than this for guarding against 
 the undervaluing of handwork, which is very dangerous, 
 and also for developing in the children of aristocratic rank 
 a social sentiment which must express itself in esteem for 
 every active and capable member of human society. The 
 reproach is often justly made against our school educa- 
 tion that it fails in training the pupil to respect work, 
 especially physical work, which is often only held in scorn. 
 The American attitude, on the other hand, is often com- 
 mended because it demands that no one be ashamed of any 
 work whatsoever. The correct valuation of practical 
 work, which exists not only in the consciousness of the 
 American people, but has long ago entered into their sys- 
 
76 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 tern of education as well, gives the American people not 
 only a moral, but also an economic superiority over peoples 
 that fail to recognize the value of work, especially physi- 
 cal and handwork. 
 
 Instruction in handwork has a social significance in still 
 another direction; it shows the pupil repeatedly his de- 
 pendence upon others and gives him occasion to give and 
 receive help. Often the division of work leads to a sort 
 of partnership in work, in which differences of rank are 
 quickly forgotten, and it offers opportunity for the devel- 
 opment of the social virtues — something which is too often 
 neglected entirely in our age. In many places it is recog- 
 nized as a particular advantage of our pupils' workshops 
 that they offer to the children of different rank and from 
 schools of different grade the opportunity of working to- 
 gether; and moreover, the opportunity of learning to know 
 each other. With the sharp separation into social classes 
 which, under our educational system, has been carried out 
 even for the youth, the significance of pupils' workshops 
 even in this respect cannot be overestimated. The youth, 
 at any rate, should be spared as much as possible the divi- 
 sion into professional ranks and classes of society which are 
 unavoidable in later life, and he should be able to occupy 
 himself with a childlike partnership in work just as in 
 play. 
 
 The vital educational force which, as has been indicated 
 in previous pages, is in very large measure characteristic 
 of instruction in handwork, is effective, as a matter of 
 course, not only in the pupils' workshops, but, most of all, 
 in homes for boys, boarding schools, and similar institu- 
 tions ; especially is it here a matter of directing the instinct 
 for activity in the right direction, of developing the will 
 
HANDWORK IN SPECIAL INSTITUTIONS. 77 
 
 power, and of training individual characteristics which 
 are of value to the person in life. As a matter of course, 
 this can occur only by paying attention to the general 
 principles of education which apply to all instruction and 
 which are of special significance in instruction in hand- 
 work for boys. 
 
 Above all, it is required that such problems be selected 
 for each grade, as correspond to the intellectual and phys- 
 ical ability of the children. Spending too much time on 
 simple exercises would be as injudicious as proceeding so 
 rapidly that the difficulties mount up and exceed the 
 child's powers. The introduction of new tools and mate- 
 rials must proceed step by step, since, according to experi- 
 ence, the new always offers a certain charm and by means 
 of it the interest of the youth is sustained. This interest 
 is even increased by choosing objects to be made which can 
 be completed in a comparatively short time, and which, 
 as far as possible, are useful. In this lies, as we might 
 remark in advance, the superiority of the concrete Swedish 
 system to the more abstract French system, in which the 
 pupils are limited mainly to the making of objects merely 
 for practice. 
 
 In the construction of objects, of whatever kind they 
 may be, a purely mechanical imitation (copying, tracing, 
 and the like) should not be allowed; on the contrary, 
 every thing which is to be executed should be indepen- 
 dently laid out according to the rules of drawing and 
 geometry. Only in that way is the pupil trained to an 
 active sense of form and space and only thus is his taste 
 developed. In any case, an effort must be made to stimu- 
 late him to thoughtful work; therefore the teacher must 
 not give any more help than is actually necessary for the 
 
78 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 solution of the problem. The customary procedure, still 
 prevailing in our pupils' workshops, of giving the pupil 
 the form and size of the object to be made, is not in keep- 
 ing with this requirement. The form arises from the 
 purpose of the object. From this the conclusion may be 
 drawn that the simplest form, and that which best con- 
 forms to the purpose for which the object is constructed, 
 is, as a rule, also the most beautiful. In any case, let the 
 pupil be encouraged to find an appropriate form himself. 
 The simplest form which he himself finds, has doubtless 
 more value for him than the best which could be given 
 him. Similar principles also apply to all decorative 
 forms and ornaments applied to objects. Above all, it 
 should be taken into consideration that an ornament may 
 be applied only where there is really something to adorn. 
 The customary overloading with much amateurish art, 
 which in accordance with the principle "Adorn thy home," 
 endeavors to make use of ornament in everything, even in 
 inappropriate places, must not gain ground in our pupils' 
 workshops if they are really to contribute something to 
 aesthetic education. 
 
 The general principles governing instruction in work 
 cannot, however, differ essentially from those of other 
 branches of instruction. The finished object, the discus- 
 sion of which is aided by models and drawings, will always 
 form the starting point for undertaking a new problem. 
 In the work itself the chief thing consists in pointing out 
 and in improving upon previous mistakes; the less that is 
 said while at work, the better. Karl von Raumer was 
 perfectly right when he said that it is a silent, practical 
 wisdom which dwells in workshops; this silent wisdom 
 must, as a matter of course, also govern our instruction. 
 
HANDWORK IN SPECIAL INSTITUTIONS. 79 
 
 For the teacher of practical work it is not the principal 
 thing to be a master of words. "We need skillful, 
 trained hands more than ready tongues," as Liberty Tadd 
 says. 
 
 The question as to whether instruction in handwork 
 should be class or individual instruction needs to be touch- 
 ed upon only briefly here. As a matter of course, the more 
 instruction can be individualized, the more easily can it 
 do its work; that is true of instruction in handwork just 
 as of any other kind of instruction. But that is not say- 
 ing that it cannot be carried on as class instruction. This 
 very assertion has often been brought up as an objection 
 when the question was raised of introducing handwork 
 for boys into the school. We shall have to come back to 
 this objection again in a later sect'on ; if it is a matter of 
 carrying on instruction in handwork in pupils' workshops 
 and educational institutions, it does not seriously enter 
 into the question, since in institutions of that kind the 
 sections of pupils can be formed in a way that is best 
 adapted for the purpose of instruction. 
 
 We shall turn now to the consideration of the subjects 
 of instruction suited to the different ages of the pupils, and 
 keep in mind particularly those wh'ch have been recom- 
 mended by the Institution for the Training of Teachers 
 in Leipsic, and which on this account have gained for 
 years a foothold in our German pupils' workshops. The 
 German Society for Boys' Handwork has established nor- 
 mal courses for the most important of these subjects of 
 instruction, which have been worked out by experts and 
 based upon their experience in different places, and these 
 offer a reliable foundation for carrying on instruction. 
 It is taken for granted that by making use of these courses 
 
80 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 one is not to consider himself bound in details, but rather 
 to utilize them in a sensible adaptation to given conditions. 
 
 For the younger pupils who are found in our pupils' 
 workshops — as a rule those from six to nine years of age 
 — problems in elementary handwork are suitable. These 
 form a transition from play to work and rest essentially 
 upon the gifts suggested by Friedrich Fröbel for the little 
 ones in the kindergarten. The children are to learn first 
 measuring, comparing, estimating, cutting, and to exercise 
 the hand and eye by means of the simplest things. Paper, 
 cardboard, twigs, and thin wood for fret-saw work con- 
 stitute the simplest material; scissors, knife, rule, fret- 
 saw, hammer, and pliers, the tools. By means of the work 
 the fundamental geometric conceptions (corner, triangle, 
 square, etc.) are formed, and the little hands are prac- 
 ticed in making simple and pleasing forms. It is evident 
 that of all the kinds of activity for this stage modeling is 
 especially suitable; that is, imitating in clay or plasticine. 
 Children who are left to their instinct for play select this 
 way themeselves: they model in the sand and knead the 
 moist earth. Our pupils' workshops direct this instinct 
 for play into the right paths and utilize it as the founda- 
 tion for object teaching which is infinitely superior to the 
 customary object teaching. Franz Hertel has pointed out 
 the way to it in his work, Der Unterricht im Formern 
 als intensivster Anschauungsunterricht (Instruction in 
 Modeling as the Most Intensive Form of Object Teach- 
 ing, Gera, Publication of Th. Hoffman.) We shall have 
 to come back later to the significance of this instruction in 
 modeling and the service which it can render in the first 
 school years. 
 
 Work in paper of an elementary character finds its con- 
 
HANDWORK IN SPECIAL INSTITUTIONS. 81 
 
 tinuation in the work in pasteboard which is adapted to 
 the children from ten years on, and can be extended up 
 as far as desired. The chief value of this work lies in 
 training in form concepts (through the construction of 
 boxes and the like) in practice in drawing with instru- 
 ments and in the formation of taste through the selection 
 of good proportions and colors which harmonize. Paste- 
 board work is, moreover, an excellent means for training 
 the pupil in accuracy and neatness. 
 
 The simple woodwork in the elementary stage is a 
 good preparation for the work at the planing bench, which 
 ought not as a rule to be commenced before the twelfth 
 year of age, since the difficulties in this kind of work in- 
 crease in every direction. The material is firmer and, 
 therefore, requires a greater measure of physical strength 
 in working it ; the tools are more varied and more difficult 
 to handle. Consequently the work becomes, according to 
 the opinion of a well-known hygienist, "gymnasium work 
 with tools," in which the work is not done with physical 
 strength alone, since a certain skill must enter in, which 
 is necessary in handling the tool in a way that is best suit- 
 ed to the end in view. In this work the hand and eye 
 complement each other; the execution remains incomplete 
 if either one of these organs does not meet the require- 
 ments for its task. Upon this rests the unique, high 
 value of this work which, in this respect, cannot be re- 
 placed by any other work. Besides, the adaptation of the 
 material gives the pupil an opportunity to learn to know 
 through his own experience the relation of form to the 
 structure of the material. After gaining this knowledge, 
 the way is paved for understanding the most important 
 fundamental laws of all artistic execution. 
 
82 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 The elementary knowledge of the simplest forms of 
 wood construction which are so fundamental from the 
 technical point of view, is also given in our pupils' work- 
 shops; likewise an understanding of the aesthetic motive 
 which is called into service in the decoration of simple 
 pieces of work by means of staining, coloring, or carving. 
 If the principle is maintained that the adornment should 
 conform to the laws of true art in handwork, the boy will 
 be led through the practical work to a correct appreciation 
 of the art in unadorned handwork, which in our times has 
 been almost lost, and which we must acquire again for 
 future generations. 
 
 Consequently, woodwork proves itself most valuable in 
 different directions. To be sure, there are also connected 
 with carrying on this work certain difficulties which con- 
 sist principally in the fact that only a limited number of 
 pupils can be taught at one time, and that the equipment 
 of the workroom is tolerably expensive. In places where 
 conditions do not permit the expenditure of larger funds, 
 the use of benches for planing must, therefore, be dis- 
 pensed with and the woodwork be limited to such exercises 
 as can be performed at ordinary work tables with simple 
 tools. 
 
 Most important of the kinds of work which can be 
 done with this equipment is carving, which to be sure, 
 can scarcely claim to be an independent form of technique 
 in itself, and yet is carried on in many places as the 
 only woodwork. Chip carving, a very old and widely 
 extended form of decorative work, has fallen recently 
 somewhat into disrepute, not without reason, since it has 
 been much abused by too frequent application, and especi- 
 ally in forms which are not beautiful, and by extreme 
 
HANDWORK IN SPECIAL INSTITUTIONS. 83 
 
 minuteness of the carving. It is, however, falling into 
 the opposite error to wish to do away with chip carving 
 on that account, for, applied with moderation and skill, 
 it doubtless produces beautiful effects, which can be in- 
 creased by the use of surface carving and line carving. 
 The latter forms of technique offer the advantage of per- 
 mitting also a limited use of plant forms. As a matter 
 of course, the effect of the ornamental work can be in- 
 creased by means of color and stain or it can be com- 
 pleted in still another way; for example, by inlaying. 
 
 The relation of the ornamental work, which we have 
 just mentioned, to instruction in drawing must not be 
 overlooked, even though its connection with instruction 
 in drawing can be maintained only with difficulty in work- 
 shop instruction carried on outside the regular school. 
 This difficulty arises on account of the variety of the prep- 
 aration of our pupils ; other factors also enter in to make 
 the difficulty still greater. The pupils themselves place 
 value upon practical work above everything else, and since 
 their participation in it is voluntary, their wishes must 
 be respected as far as possible. In places where instruction 
 in handwork is fitted into the curriculum of the school, 
 special stress must be placed, as a matter of course, upon 
 the innner relation of it to the instruction in drawing. 
 As a subject of instruction which is able to offer especially 
 valuable services in this connection, modeling should be 
 mentioned. 
 
 Modeling had not enjoyed great popularity before. 
 One reason for the indifferent attitude of our youth to- 
 ward this kind of work was to be found in the fact that 
 it furnished no directly useful products. But doubtless 
 the prevailing method by which modeling was carried on 
 
84 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 contributed to this result, and as in the case of instruction 
 in drawing, the interest of the youth has developed in an 
 unexpected manner, by the introduction of the so-called 
 reform method, so a gratifying change in the application 
 of instruction in modeling has come in since the reform 
 in that subject. 
 
 Since the geometric and ornamental forms which were 
 formerly used have been given up, and the modeling of 
 objects from nature from the very beginning have taken 
 their place, a largely increased interest in modeling has 
 been awakened. In the Institution for the Training of 
 Teachers at Leipsic this method has been in use since the 
 year 1902, and the results obtained from it are so con- 
 vincing that there can be no longer any doubt concerning 
 the possibility for development which exists in instruction 
 in modeling. For closer confirmation of this assertion 
 reference can be made to the reports of the institution just 
 mentioned. If the matter is taken hold of correctly, the 
 introduction of modeling into the workshops for the youth 
 will be established, and it can scarcely be too urgently 
 recommended for reasons which are universally considered 
 educational. No other activity demands in so high degree 
 a feeling for form as modeling; no other material is so 
 plastic as clay; and in no other work does the hand affect 
 the material in such a directly formative way. The im- 
 portance which modeling has in general, and especially 
 with regard to particular subjects of instruction; for ex- 
 ample, with reference to instruction in the natural sci- 
 ences, cannot be too highly estimated. (In this connec- 
 tion see Die Bedeutung des Modellierens für den natur- 
 geschichtlichen Unterricht, The Significance of Modeling 
 in the Instruction of Natural History, by Dr. A. Pabst, 
 
HANDWORK IN SPECIAL INSTITUTIONS. 85 
 
 in Natur und Schule, Nature and School, 1905, Number 
 9, Publication of B. G. Teubner in Leipsic.) 
 
 The technique of metalwork has been developed as a 
 subject of instruction in the pupils' workshops and has 
 been introduced in several places. But even the material 
 equipment (arrangement of the workshop and such mat- 
 ters) causes many kinds of difficulties, and the work can 
 be carried on successfully only with older pupils under 
 well-trained teachers. With reference to the educative 
 value, the technique of metalwork is scarcely inferior to that 
 of the work at the planing bench. The resistance to be 
 overcome in working up the tough and firm material 
 makes demands upon the strength of the boy which can 
 only be met by an energetic will and a skillful hand. But, 
 on the other hand, the characteristics of the metals, ap- 
 pearing in connection with the work, also arouse the in- 
 terest of the youth to such a degree that, almost without 
 exception, they esteem this kind of work very highly. It 
 is necessary only to suggest the operations of hammering, 
 drilling, soldering, and tempering of steel, to show clearly, 
 without further explanation, the value of metalwork in 
 the education and training of the older boy, since these 
 operations offer at the same time an abundance of theo- 
 retical teaching. 
 
 Metalwork can be developed on its practical-technical 
 side, or it can just as easily be brought into connection with 
 the instruction in physics. The older boys who, along 
 with a knowledge of the simplest technique of metals, 
 have had some practice in working with wood and paste- 
 board, can be successfully trained to make simple physical 
 apparatus and other equipment for teaching. By this 
 means handwork helps the instruction of the natural sei- 
 
86 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 ences, and thus, we shall be led to the necessity of making 
 it a part of the curriculum of the school, especially of the 
 higher school and the Seminar for teachers. Further 
 statements concerning this question will need to be made 
 in another place. For the completion of the foregoing 
 exposition, reference will be made briefly to several points 
 of view which cannot be overlooked in making up our 
 judgment of the educative value of skill of hand. 
 
 The greatest value is that of accustoming one's self to 
 independent thought and action, a thing which must be 
 required of everyone who wishes to complete any practical 
 piece of work. Unsuccessful attempts are accepted from 
 no one; so much the greater then is the joy in final suc- 
 cess. Without careful planning and work aiming toward 
 a definite goal, no satisfactory result can be reached. 
 Even in deportment strict order must be observed and 
 every offense against this avenges itself. The greatest 
 economy in the use of material, and care in the handling 
 of tools is enjoined as a matter of course, and at the same 
 time quickness of perception is stimulated, which makes 
 each person capable of helping himself in the most direct 
 way. In the workshop the pupil finds recreation after 
 intellectual activity, and a stimulus for voluntary achieve- 
 ment. The activity of the workshop is, consequently, 
 one of the most important means of education. To what 
 extent and in what way it is to be organized will be deter- 
 mined by the given conditions and can therefore not be 
 described in further detail here. This will depend essen- 
 tially upon whether the training of the children takes 
 place in town or in the country, in the family or in an 
 institution. Training in institutions depends, moreover, 
 upon the varied character of the pupils ; for example, those 
 
HANDWORK IN SPECIAL INSTITUTIONS. 87 
 
 who are deprived simply of the care of parent (orphans' 
 homes, homes for boys, institutions for protection and 
 training), or those who stand in danger of neglect (rescue 
 homes and institutions for compulsory education), or those 
 who are afflicted with physical and mental deformities 
 (institutions for the deaf-and-dumb, and for the blind, 
 and institutions for idiots, etc.) 
 
 In the great majority of all these institutions, instruc- 
 tion in handwork is more or less extensively carried on; 
 several of them, as for example, the Erziehungsheim am 
 Urban (boarding school, "Urban" for lost children) in 
 Zehlendorf near Berlin, which is excellently conducted, 
 are thoroughly organized on a plan of a training school for 
 handwork. Also the modern Landerziehungsheime (rural 
 boarding school) of Dr. Lietz, 1 and other similar institu- 
 tions in Germany (for example, Dr. KapfFs training 
 school), and in foreign countries (for example, Palmgren's 
 Samskola, and the Swedish workrooms, the American vaca- 
 tion schools, and the institutions for training of negroes 
 and Indians, etc.), make use of handwork in a most exten- 
 sive way as a means of education. 
 
 1 This school is of the type of the one at Abbotsholme in 
 England. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Instruction in Handwork in the School (Schools 
 
 for Defectives, Volksschule, and Higher 
 
 School) and in the Seminar 
 
 for Teachers. 
 
 The consideration of instruction in handwork "in the 
 school" proceeds best from the school for defectives, the 
 youngest member of the system of the Volksschule. The 
 school for defectives deals with children who, on account 
 of deficient intellectual capacity, which is caused by 
 physical deficiency, are not fitted for the school for nor- 
 mal children. Although these children were formerly 
 abandoned to their fate, in the last decades special atten- 
 tion has been devoted to their education and these efforts 
 have in general met with success in training them to be 
 useful members of human society. As an essential means, 
 without which the attainment of the goal is not possible, 
 instruction in handwork is recognized and consequently 
 introduced almost everywhere into the curriculum of such 
 schools. The conviction that it is indispensable in these 
 schools is contantly gaining more ground ; theoretic con- 
 siderations lead without hesitation to this conviction and 
 practical experience confirms it. 
 
 Imbeciles or children who are actually feeble-minded, 
 along with a deficient development of the organs of sense, 
 frequently show disturbances in movement, weakness of 
 muscles, and a greater or less lack of life energy. By this 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 89 
 
 a sufficient amount of exercise of the physical organs is 
 hindered. Through this lack the development of the 
 nervous system is injured, for the development of the brain 
 and nerve paths is dependent upon the activity of the 
 muscles and nerves. The training of all the functions 
 which in the normal child have developed before the school 
 years by means of play and other activities, has remained 
 so far behind in the feeble-minded child that the instruc- 
 tion entered upon at the beginning of the school period 
 must first take up all that which has been developed in 
 the normal child before the school age. The first task of 
 the instruction of the school for defectives will be to equal- 
 ize as far as possible the deficient development of the phys- 
 ical and intellectual functions in the organism and to re- 
 move the disturbances which have been caused by heredi- 
 tary influences or by unfavorable environment. The 
 largest part in this treatment will have to fall upon the 
 development of the physical side, for only through physi- 
 cal activity can the foundations be laid which are necessary 
 for the intellectual development. Through the exercises 
 of the organs of motion and sense the brain is trained. 
 If, as a result of deficient development of the organism, 
 the inner impulse for such exercises is lacking, the stimulus 
 for them must be supplied from outside. The instruction 
 of the schools for defectives must begin then with exer- 
 cises for the organs of sense and muscular activities in or- 
 der to create in the first place a foundation for the further 
 possibility of training. 
 
 The psychic impressions which are gained through the 
 activity of the physical organs are indispensable for the 
 development of the human mind. In authenticated cases, 
 (Laura Bridgman, Helen Keller, and others) in whom 
 
90 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 the inability to see, hear, and speak seemed to prevent al- 
 most any possibility of further intellectual development, this 
 could be attained only through ths exercise of the muscu- 
 lar sense. The muscular sense, that is, the power of per- 
 ceiving location and movement, is, on that account, almost 
 the chief sense for the development of the soul, and the 
 more this is rendered difficult because of the natural con- 
 stitution of the child's organism, the more must the de- 
 velopment of it be emphasized. 
 
 Although for reasons which are derived from the laws 
 of development, the exercise of the physical organs has to 
 begin with the movements of the larger muscles, yet these 
 soon lead to the development of the finer movements which 
 are performed by the hand and fingers. But the train- 
 ing of the hand is especially important. Let us first con- 
 sider the development of sight. It is only by means of 
 the groping hand, which assists the movement of the eye, 
 that the comprehension and distinction of surfaces and 
 bodies become possible. (Goethe: "Sehe mit fühlendem 
 Aug', fühle mit sehende?- Hand." (See with the feeling 
 eye, feel w T ith the seeing hand ) . In order to train, especially 
 the feeble-minded, to see correctly, the hand must be de- 
 veloped by means of a series of exercises which force the 
 eye to activity. Furthermore, the hand must be consid- 
 ered as an essential organ for the expression of thought. 
 In the history of the race the gesture was the original 
 form of expression from which speech developed, and if 
 we accept the theory of Baldwin that the development of 
 the spoken language is connected with right-handedness, 
 then it is proper to refer to the latest utterances of Flech- 
 sig: "We can even now say with reasonable certainty, that 
 object teaching and physics use constantly both lobes of 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 91 
 
 the brain, likewise instruction in gymnastics and hand- 
 work. On the other hand, everything which has to do 
 with spoken language, for example, writing, reading, 
 arithmetic, etc., is performed mainly in the left lobe of the 
 brain." In the practical work of the school for the feeble- 
 minded, courses of instruction in handwork have proved to 
 be necessary. This is also seen from still other points of 
 view. For if, in the history of the race, the training of the 
 hand preceded that of speech ; then the development of the 
 hand may be regarded as a necessary foundation for the 
 development of speech. Upon the activity of the hand, 
 then, the beginnings of casual thinking and the develop- 
 ment of the will are dependent, and consequently the con- 
 clusion may ultimately be drawn that much depends upon 
 the training of the hand. 
 
 We desire to refer only incidentally to the practical sig- 
 nificance which instruction in handwork has in the school 
 for defectives, although we recognize that it contributes 
 essentially in training up the feeble-minded children to be 
 useful members of the community. 
 
 If for the sake of connection the theoretic reasons pre- 
 viously given for the significance of instruction in hand- 
 work in the school for defectives could not be omitted, 
 then its chief value might be presented by means of a few 
 suggestions with reference to development of the practical 
 work of this branch of instruction. Handwork has al- 
 ready been attempted in many schools for defectives. 
 Whether these attempts have always been made with cor- 
 rect insight into the significance of instruction in hand- 
 work in the pedagogy which concerns itself with de- 
 fective pupils is, however, a question. The zealous pur- 
 suit of this branch of instruction has probably succeeded 
 
92 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 more for other reasons. It has been joined as a special 
 course to the other subjects of instruction and an effort 
 has been made to bring it into connection with them with- 
 out being conscious of its fundamental significance, which 
 in any case demands that it must stand in the central 
 place of the instruction of the school for defectives, and 
 that through it the foundations are to be laid for all other 
 branches of instruction. 
 
 Exercises for the larger organs, (gymnastics, garden- 
 ing, games requiring movement, play in the sand, and the 
 like) must precede the instruction in handwork and must 
 accompany it further. Among the first exercises which 
 are particularly well suited for the development of sight 
 by means of the activity of the hand, is the modeling of 
 flat surface forms, to which are added exercises to develop 
 the sense of color (making cakes of paint, colored domi- 
 noes, etc.) Laying blocks, drawing from models, cut- 
 ting, folding, and pasting in definite forms, weaving with 
 the needle and plaiting are also among the most important 
 exercises for this purpose. The plaiting forms the tran- 
 sition to the representation of forms which are used later 
 in the work of box making, construction work with sticks, 
 cardboard work, modeling, basketry, work with twigs, 
 simple pasteboard work, and the like. For the girls, 
 domestic handwork takes the place of many of these. 
 
 It is not possible here to give further details of the cur- 
 riculum outlined above, and for our purpose it is prob- 
 ably not necessary. The special conditions under which 
 the particular schools for defectives are carried on also 
 necessitates an adjustment of the existing curriculum to 
 the needs of these institutions. 
 
 The reasons which have been advanced for the neces- 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 93 
 
 sity of instruction in handwork in the curriculum of the 
 school for defectives can also be directly applied to the 
 training of normal children. That this has not generally 
 been done up to this time proves nothing against the cor- 
 rectness of this conclusion. The importance of the in- 
 stinct for activity is probably recognized now by all peda- 
 gogues and its cultivation as one of the main tasks of edu- 
 cation during the first school years and beyond must be 
 considered. Many, then, who clearly recognize and lay 
 stress upon the significance of the instinct for activity, as 
 soon as the forms of instruction have to be decided upon, 
 come to the atonishing conclusion that the cultivation of 
 this characteristic instinct should be left to the home. The 
 school of today uses only seats. Work tables, on the 
 other hand, and space for work are considered scarcely 
 necessary in our present day method of carrying on in- 
 struction. It is a school for learning in which "instruction 
 in language, through reading and writing, plays an im- 
 portant role from ths very beginning, and not instruction 
 in things with observation and the making of objects." 
 The exercise of the muscles, natural activity, and the 
 motor processes in perceiving, thinking, feeling, and will- 
 ing, are neglected. Thus the intellectual development is 
 greatly injured, and this system is the cause of practically 
 all of the physical injuries and those relating to the health 
 which, according to experience, are accustomed to appear 
 during the first school years and are included under the 
 name "school diseases." (Cf. Dr. Lay, Unser Schulunter- 
 richt im Lichte der Hygiene, Our School Instruction in the 
 Light of Hygiene, Wiesbaden, 1904.) 
 
 Many admit the deficiencies and faults of the instruc- 
 tion of our first school years without hesitancy, but reply 
 
94 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 that it is not possible in our large school bodies and ex- 
 cessively crowded classes to carry on efficient instruction 
 in handwork with success. That the objections raised in 
 this connection cannot hold good is easily shown by more 
 accurate information and an unprejudiced examination of 
 the problem. It is remarkable that the German Volks- 
 schule is the only school which has absolutely refused to 
 adopt the ideas of Fröbel, yet the instruction of the first 
 school years should be based upon these ideas. The com- 
 mon schools of other countries have accepted them and to 
 a greater or less extent have put them into practice. 
 France, Switzerland, and in a still higher degree, England 
 and North America offer examples of this ; the educational 
 exhibits of the World's Expositions in Paris and St. Louis 
 were most instructive in this particular, and when, for 
 example, at the latter a state of the far west (Utah) 
 presented an educational exhibit which emphasized the 
 principle that all instruction must be built upon the ideas 
 of Fröbel, then any further discussion of this fact is super- 
 fluous for him who forms his opinion without prejudice. 
 
 As a matter of course, the instruction in handwork of 
 the first school years must satisfy the general demands 
 which may be made upon any educative instruction. This 
 implies, in the first place, that it must arouse the direct, 
 active interest of the children. This condition can be 
 easily fulfilled if it is directed toward the construction of 
 such objects as are connected with the instinct in the 
 child for play and with his previous occupations. Simply 
 to perform technical exercises at this stage is wholly un- 
 satisfactory ; they are not at all necessary if the technique is 
 so managed that it offers, particularly at first, only slight 
 difficulties. In this connection it should be stated that the 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 95 
 
 use of tools must be introduced gradually and that those 
 which are employed must be simple and inexpensive. The 
 material must also be simple, inexpensive, and easy to pro- 
 cure, and the kind of occupation must make it possible to 
 maintain neatness and order without special difficulty. In 
 mentioning these conditions a further one is implied; 
 namely, that the process of instruction shall offer no par- 
 ticular injuries or danger to the health (dust, injury with 
 tools, etc.) 
 
 We possess forms of technique which meet these de- 
 mands if used correctly ; for example, our problems in ele- 
 mentary handwork — modeling in plasticine or in clay, 
 simple woodwork, and the like. Next to modeling, to 
 which we would, for well considered reasons, under all 
 circumstances, assign the first place, 1 tasks in paper and 
 cardboard (weaving, folding, cutting, etc.) offer very 
 appropriate occupations. (Cf. Über Notwendigkeit und 
 leichte Durchführbarkeit des Knabenhandarbeitsunter- 
 richts auf der Unterstufe, Concerning the Necessity and 
 the Easy Execution of Instruction in Handwork for Boys 
 in the Lower Grades, by Mittag, Instructor in the Seminar, 
 in Blätter für Knabenhandarbeit, 1906, Number 3.) Ac- 
 cording to experiences in places where instruction in hand- 
 work has been offered under the above mentioned condi- 
 tions, the pursuit of the work in classes furnishes most 
 favorable results and requires an expense which is scarcely 
 worth mentioning. Will a yearly outlay, which amounts 
 to less than twelve cents for each child, be considered a 
 sufficient reason for opposing the introduction of a branch 
 
 1 Cf. Dr. A. Pabst, Die Bedeutung des Modellierens (the 
 Significance of Modeling) in Natur und Schule (Nature and 
 School), 1905, Number 9, Teubner, Leipsic. 
 
96 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 of instruction, the significance and purpose of which are 
 for every other reason desirable? 
 
 In carrying on instruction in handwork it must not be 
 overlooked in the very beginning, that it has the closest 
 connection with object teaching, and instruction in draw- 
 ing; attention must be called especially to the fundamental 
 work by Franz Hertel, Der Unterricht im Formen als 
 intensivster Anschauungsunterricht (Instruction in Mod- 
 eling as the Most Intensive Object Teaching; Gera, Th. 
 Hof mann, 1900.) How far instruction in handwork in 
 the first school year can be brought into relationship with 
 instruction in writing and reading cannot at present be 
 finally determined ; the attempts which have been made 
 concerning it at least justify the highest hopes. (Cf. 
 Blätter für Knabenhandarbeit, 1906, Number 2.) 
 
 In connection with the establishment of instruction in 
 handwork in the middle and upper grades of the Volks- 
 schule, we have at least in the German schools, little ex- 
 perience to rely upon. Some time ago School Adviser 
 Springer (died 1905 in Bonn) made the attempt in the 
 schools of the district of Neurode in Schleswig to unite 
 instruction in handwork (carving, bench work in planing, 
 and metal work) with drawing and mensuration in the 
 upper classes for boys. This attempt was brought about 
 by the economic distress of those sections, and is very 
 worthy of attention because of the manner of its execu- 
 tion and its remarkable results. (Concerning it see the 
 Blätter für Knabenhandarbeit, 1903, Number 12.) Rec- 
 tor Brückmann in Königsberg in Prussia also unites wood- 
 work and pasteboard work in the upper classes for boys 
 with drawing and mensuration and has recently supple- 
 mented the object teaching of the first school years with 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 97 
 
 handwork and drawing. A combination of instruction 
 in handwork and drawing has also been accomplished by 
 Instructor Parthum in Glauschau in Saxony. With sim- 
 ple means, and yet in a many-sided way, Prof. Kumpa in 
 Darmstadt (died 1905) sought to establish a union of 
 mensuration, drawing, and handwork. These attempts 
 have been continued by Instructor Hilsdorf and by School 
 Inspector Scherer in the Volksschulen directed by him in 
 the city of Worms. In these schools his efforts have been 
 turned toward instruction in work as a result of the in- 
 spiration aroused by the German Society for Instruction 
 in Handwork. At the congress of this society in 1904 the 
 attempts above referred to were presented in a definite re- 
 port. (Cf. the Report of the Sixtieth Congress of the Ger- 
 man Society for Instruction in Handwork, at Worms, 
 1904, Leipsic.) Attempts have also been made in the prac- 
 tice school of the Pedagogical Seminary at Cöthen in Anhalt 
 for almost ten years to carry on handwork for boys in all 
 eight grades and to unite it organically with the subjects of 
 instruction in each individual class. {Blätter für Knaben- 
 handarbeit, 1899, Numbers 8 and 9.) As the idea of in- 
 struction in handwork has for centuries had its advocates 
 among pedagogues, and as it has made its appearance in all 
 civilized countries, so it has spread at the present time in all 
 directions and assumed very different forms of expression, 
 which have by no means been exhausted by our predecessors. 
 Perhaps an illustration from natural science will give the 
 clearest idea of the many-sided development of instruction 
 in handwork. In countless hues the ray of light is broken 
 up by means of a prism. If desired, either seven or three 
 primary colors can be distinguished in it, but the essential 
 thing is, after all, not the color, but the light — the vibrating 
 
98 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 movement of the minute particles of ether, which are scat- 
 tered everywhere and present all the phenomena of the 
 world of color. Thus the essential thing here is not the 
 form and not the expression of the idea in detail, but the 
 idea itself, the idea of releasing the inborn, creative poll- 
 ers of the child and of developing them through activity, 
 at the same time looking upon the child as a being endow- 
 ed with physical and intellectual talents, the development 
 of which into a harmonious perfection must be the highest 
 task of education. 
 
 With this we turn back to the goal of education set 
 forth by Pestalozzi, from which the Volksschule of the 
 present time, in consequence of its one-sided intellectual 
 tendency, has departed further than ever before. Not 
 only the opinions of school reformers, but, moreover, the 
 practical knowledge of the result, or rather failure, of the 
 training of our Volksschule, which has been shown in the 
 continuation school and in life, proves the correctness of 
 the judgments which have been uttered in this regard. 
 
 Naturally no one will be of the opinion that, by the in- 
 troduction of instruction in handwork, a panacea has been 
 found for all the evils of the Volksschule; but it is at least 
 certain that this school needs a decided reform, and this 
 cannot occur without taking into consideration instruction 
 in handwork. Therefore this is given its proper place in 
 all proposals for reform in instruction of the Volksschule, 
 which are not satisfied with superficial patchwork; for ex- 
 ample, Prof. Hagmann in his work, Zur Reform eines 
 Lehrplanes der Volksschule (Concerning a Teaching plan 
 of the Volksschule, St. Gall, 1904), says: "Instruction in 
 skill of hand offers advantages for the education of child- 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 99 
 
 ren which arc most valuable. Since instruction in hand- 
 work has been desired by the most widely differing com- 
 munities, it would, therefore, be entirely in accord with 
 the spirit of the age to make a new school law, by means of 
 which handwork would be given a prominent place among 
 the school studies." In the Elementen der Erziehungs- 
 und Unterrichtslehre, (Elements of the Theory of Educa- 
 tion and Instruction), by Prof. Barth, Leipsic, 1906, he 
 says: "Instruction in skill of hand is without doubt indis- 
 pensable in intellectual and moral development." If we 
 cannot agree with Barth, that handwork shall be satisfied 
 with that which object teaching and the teaching of draw- 
 ing can offer, because the result of handwork assists them, 
 yet we can support his statement which declares that "the 
 pedagogical and didactic power of handwork has not up to 
 this time been sufficiently fathomed." (Cf. Barth, Ele- 
 mente der Erziehungs-und \J nt errichte slehre , page 498.) 
 
 Whether the forms which have, up to the present time, 
 been worked out for the practical execution of instruction 
 in handwork in Germany and, to a large extent, in other 
 countries, and which have been in some measure tested, are 
 absolutely the correct ones, we do not say. The last sec- 
 tion of the book will give an opportunity of looking at 
 these different forms more closely. He who will not pre- 
 sume like a prophet to look into the future, will have to 
 leave it to the future to give its final decision on the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Very much of that which has been said above concern- 
 ing the significance and the possibility of carrying on in- 
 struction in handwork with reference to the Volksschule 
 can be applied without hestitancy to the higher school. 
 
100 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 The latter suffers in a still greater measure than the 
 Volksschule, from the same fundamental evil. Therefore, 
 it can be helped only by the same means. The training of 
 the youth to independence, the necessary direction of his 
 powers toward that which is clear, practical, and import- 
 ant for life, point to instruction in handwork, which, for 
 these reasons, has been established in a number of higher 
 institutions of learning in different German states and 
 cities; and where it is carried on in the right way, it is 
 estimated at its true value. Even though it is still actu- 
 ally treated at times as a stepchild by many directors and 
 teachers — much less by the parents and pupils themselves 
 — being given the lowest place in the rank of studies, 
 standing far below gymnastics and drawing, and not even 
 existing at all for the majority of the pupils, yet we feel 
 confident that even this stepchild will again receive the 
 place it deserves. The reasons for it are too manifold 
 and too important to be entirely overlooked for a great 
 length of time. Prof. Ziegler in his Allgemeine Päda- 
 gogik, (Leipsic, Teubner, 1901), comments thus: "On 
 this account (that is, for social reasons) it is already a 
 matter for congratulation that the thought is of late con- 
 stantly making headway, that even our pupils in Latin are 
 to learn and pursue handwork. They will then see that 
 it is not an easy and simple matter — nor a thing devoid of 
 thought, and that in this work they themselves are fre- 
 quently surpassed by those who have not succeeded on the 
 school bench or who belong to a lower school — simply to 
 the Volksschule!" And the philosopher, Friedrich Paul- 
 sen, expresses a similar opinion in his System der Ethik 
 (System of Ethics, Volume 2, page 50) : "Still more 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 101 
 
 recently efforts have been made to improve the manual 
 skill of the young by giving them an opportunity to train 
 themselves in the use of tools. It is to be hoped that 
 these attempts will succeed. Practical skill is a desirable 
 thing. I am convinced that at least ninety out of every 
 hundred young people who attend our higher schools, 
 would find more pleasure in manual labor than in their 
 school exercises. When nature formed the eye and the 
 hand, she evidently did not intend them to be used in the 
 way which is almost the only one known to our pupils: 
 that is, for reading and writing. The Germans used to 
 be very proud of their mechanical skill; during the fif- 
 teenth and sixteenth centuries their cities were renowned 
 above all others for the skill of their artisans. Leibnitz 
 once described the difference between the French and the 
 German nature as follows: 'Frenchmen,' he said, 'make 
 useless things which are simply beautiful to look at, while 
 Germans make things which not merely please the eye 
 and satisfy the curiosity of great lords, but also accom- 
 plish something; they bring nature under the control of 
 art and lighten human labor.' As late as a century ago 
 there were places in Germany in which sailors and peas- 
 ants spent their leisure moments in carving; at present 
 the only things which many a man can handle, besides 
 his knife and fork, are his pen and his cigar. May it not 
 be possible for us to return to our first love ? And by do- 
 ing so we can get rid of the new-fashioned contempt for 
 manual labor, that too will be a blessing; indeed, we 
 should not regret the loss of some of the idealism which, 
 in imitation of the ancients, affects to despise banausic 
 work. I am rather afraid anyhow, that we are not mak- 
 ing much headway in Hellenizing our people, and per- 
 is 
 
102 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 haps we have less reason to regret being honest Germans, 
 than old and new humanists try to make us believe." 1 
 
 Another remarkable utterance of the same scholar is 
 found in a discussion of the system of continuation work : 
 
 "The public care for the training of girls in household 
 arts can, in the long run, be dispensed with no more eas- 
 ily than that of boys in all kinds of skill of the hand. 
 Instruction of this kind could be regarded as lying outside 
 the tasks of public education as long as the majority of 
 the children received in the parents' homes the first train- 
 ing in domestic arts. The families of working people 
 who are engaged in large industries in our great cities 
 fail in this important task on account of lack of time, 
 ability, and opportunity; and with the families of numer- 
 ous office employees the condition is not very different. 
 So arises the need of offering thru public training what 
 the home can no longer adequately provide. The sup- 
 pression of the work of children in the factories is cer- 
 tainly justified; but the indifferent interest taken by the 
 state in this matter necessitates that the development of 
 energy for work and skill of the hand should be included 
 among the public responsibilities. In order to bring 
 about a reconstruction of healthy family life, the pos- 
 session of the domestic arts on the part of the woman is 
 of great importance. A skillful hand also gives to the 
 man greater freedom in choosing a life work and free 
 activity in his leisure hours." 
 
 Along with these reasons which are mainly sociological, 
 there are also specifically pedagogical reasons not to be 
 overlooked by men of the higher schools. Ziegler says 
 
 1 Translation by Frank Thilly, published by Charles Scrib- 
 ner's Sons, 1900, p. 476, ff. 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 103 
 
 again in the Allgemeine Pädagogik: "Our youth occupied, 
 often overcrowded, with headwork, is assisted in two 
 ways by this (alternation of headwork and handwork). 
 Further, the hand and eye are trained by it. How un- 
 skillful are our pupils in Latin! especially the most in- 
 dustrious, who are the most unskillful of all! The judg- 
 ment of the unpractical scholar has its origin here and 
 is applied then for a lifetime to us all with justice and 
 yet with injustice." He speaks further of the signifi- 
 cance which technical work has for the knowledge of the 
 laws of nature: "One learns the inexorable value of these 
 laws only when one is thrust against them in his work, 
 when the brittle material offers opposition here and com- 
 pels the person to deal with it according to its laws." 
 With these words he has declared in general principles 
 that which has been discussed in detail in numerous special 
 works of the advocates of particular methods of instruc- 
 tion in the natural sciences and that which is to form for 
 us now the starting point for the establishment of require- 
 ments which we must make upon the Seminar for teachers 
 with reference to practical (technical) instruction. 
 
 It is related of Faraday that according to his own 
 judgment, he was not able to understand an experiment 
 completely if he had not performed it himself ; and Diih- 
 ring says in his prize history of mechanics that the simplest 
 experiments w'hich one makes himself have more value in 
 the study of natural science than the complicated ones 
 which one only sees. If one is compelled then to admit that 
 he finds real systematic progress in all kind of schools 
 chrough the performance of experiments by the pupils 
 themselves, which are adapted to their needs (the so-called 
 "inventive method" which has already been worked out 
 
104 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 very well, especially in England and North America), 1 
 then still other reasons are given the Seminar as a profes- 
 sional school for requiring that theoretic instruction be 
 supplemented by practical exercises in experimenting and 
 in developing skill of hand. With reference to instruc- 
 tion in physics these reasons are discussed thoroughly by 
 Dr. Pabst in a program of the Seminar at Cöthen which 
 appeared in 1889, Über den Physikunterricht im Lehrer- 
 seminar (Concerning the Instruction of Physics in the 
 Seminar for Teachers.) As is shown there, practical exer- 
 cises in the simplest technique of physics (work in metals, 
 glass, application of technical work in wood and other 
 materials) are entirely indispensable for the future teach- 
 er. Whether we regard these exercises as instruction in 
 natural science or assign them a special place under the 
 name ''educational handwork," is of no importance; their 
 chief value lies far less in the requirement for the general 
 purpose of instruction in natural science than in their sig- 
 ificance in the systematic development of the members of 
 the Seminar. They constitute a most essential condition 
 for progress in all efforts which tend to give a true con- 
 ception of the appearances of nature by means of the appli- 
 cation of simple teaching material which is well adapted 
 to instruction in classes. 
 
 What has been previously said with reference to instruc- 
 tion in the natural sciences also applies with certain modi- 
 
 1 Cf. Dr. K. Fischer, Der naturwissenschaftliche Unterricht 
 in England (Instruction in the Natural Sciences in England), 
 Leipsic, B. G. Teubner, 1903; and Dr. A. Pabst, Beobachtung 
 und Experiment im naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht (Obser- 
 vation and Experiment in Instruction in the Natural Sciences), 
 Neue Bahnen (New Paths), 1906, Number 1. 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 105 
 
 ficatfons to the instruction of other branches in the Semi- 
 ar. With the present arrangement of the curriculum, 
 it is, to be sure, impossible that handwork in the Seminar 
 should receive consideration corresponding to its signifi- 
 cance, even if the objection, formerly frequently heard, 
 that the introduction of instruction in handwork would 
 lower the aims of culture of the Seminar, needed any 
 refutation for the expert, who is acquainted with modern 
 methods. But the voices are loud which point out the 
 necessity of a thorough transformation of the institutions 
 for the training of teachers, and at the same time point 
 out an especially important task for instruction in hand- 
 work. Here again it is Hagmann who takes up the prob- 
 lem most thoroughly in his work which appeared recently, 
 Zur Frage der Lehrerbildung auf der Volksschulstufe 
 (Concerning the Problem of the Training of Teachers of 
 the Rank of the Volksschule, St. Gall, 1905.) Instead 
 of the former model school, in which the members of the 
 Seminar could only obtain a small amount of school prac- 
 tice, he demands the connection of the Seminar with an 
 orphans' institution, in which the workshop is a real neces- 
 sity, for in the Volksschule of the future no phase of hu- 
 man activities will be fostered more zealously than those 
 depending upon the skill of hand. The Seminar should 
 increase the capacity for manual work. It should open 
 a special workshop where the Seminar student is tested 
 as to whether and how far he has the skill to take hold of 
 things. And it would be a real test, for he who shows 
 himself altogether incapable here scarcely has in him the 
 stuff which makes a teacher of the Volksschule. In this 
 roomy workshop we place the student with permission to 
 work at the bench. Tools of all kinds lie ready, also 
 
106 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 material in the way of paper, wood, clay, and metal to 
 be worked up. It is supposed that the member of the 
 Seminar will here acquire the ability which will entitle 
 him later to supervise instruction in the handwork of the 
 school ; he also gains an insight into the extensive field of 
 manufacture of the nation, but the most important result 
 is that talents in the direction of skillfulness are unfolded 
 which until now have remained latent in the people. And 
 in fact, the high degree to which the future teacher of 
 the Volksschule can arouse in the pupils the instinct for 
 work can scarcely be estimated." (Page 34 folg. of the 
 above-mentioned work.) This outlook into the future 
 opens up, in fact, an immeasurable perspective. Instead 
 of the educational method which we now have, a method 
 which frequently hampers the productive energy instead of 
 developing it, and which for the sake of a conception of 
 general culture that is not based upon reason, injures the 
 health of our youth and neglects the development of char- 
 acter, the essence of our education should bring about a 
 real culture, that is, a development from within. Then 
 would our people be prepared to solve the culture prob- 
 lems of the future. The introduction of the workshop 
 into the school is the symbol of the changed method of 
 education, which has been developing slowly but surely. 
 Perhaps in a not far distant future the statement will be 
 true: "Only he is truly a teacher who teaches the secret 
 of work." 
 
 But before this perspective becomes complicated, it is 
 probably appropriate to direct the attention once more to 
 the present conditions and to characterize briefly the prac- 
 tical development which instruction in handwork has had 
 in the Seminar up to the present time. Of the attempts, 
 
? HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 107 
 
 partly successful and partly unsuccessful, which have been 
 made in different places to carry on a technical branch of 
 instruction with the voluntary participation of the pupils 
 and under the guidance of whatever teacher happened to 
 be at hand, we need not speak in detail. Such kinds of 
 instruction in work are not only worthless in themselves, 
 as has been shown by different articles which have been 
 presented, but they cannot be recognized as efforts in the 
 direction of a systematic and methodical development of 
 instruction in work. An attempt of that kind presup- 
 poses, at the outset, a required course of instruction, but 
 must at the same time fit naturally into the organization 
 of the institution concerned. Such a plan was completely 
 worked out at one time in the Seminar at Cothen, which 
 has already been mentioned, in which the author was ac- 
 tive in the middle of the eighties in the organization of 
 workshop instruction which would meet the needs of the 
 Seminar. The necessity of something of the sort was im- 
 pressed upon him by considerations which had their be- 
 ginning in the systematic treatment of the branches of 
 natural science. The practical instruction was, therefore, 
 intended, first of all, to develop technical skill, which is re- 
 quired in teaching physics and the related subjects. To 
 this class belongs primarily a certain technique in working 
 up metals, glass, and other materials. This was carried 
 on in the third class of the institution having six classes, 
 with two lessons a week during the winter semester, but 
 in such a way that each section of the class numbering 
 about thirty pupils had only one hour of instruction. 
 This instruction sufficed, with the aid of voluntary work, 
 to complete the most necessary manual exercises which are 
 required in the construction of simple equipment for teach- 
 
108 HANDWORK IiNSTRüCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 ing the natural sciences and other branches. In the next 
 higher class the making of such equipment was systemati- 
 cally carried on in a lesson once a week, but in such a way 
 that the pupils were given a certain amount of scope in 
 the choice of the equipment to be constructed. For since 
 both talent and interest differ greatly in individuals with 
 reference to technical accomplishments, the best oppor- 
 tunity is offered here for individualizing, and the more 
 the talent and inclination of each student in the class are 
 given an opportunity to develop, the greater will be the 
 interest and the better will be the results. Among a 
 large number of young people there are always to be found 
 persons gifted in technique, whose achievements far surpass 
 those of the others and who are on that account inspiring 
 and original. In this there does not result, as is often the 
 case in other branches, a rivalry which from a moral point 
 of view is often not without objection', but rather an in- 
 terest in the cooperation found in the work and in the 
 mutual helpfulness in achievement. Certain processes al- 
 ways require assistance from a fellow student which is 
 gladly given and received on both sides. Moreover, in 
 this lies a valuable educative element, of which one can 
 frankly say that it has a social significance. The social 
 significance of practical instruction can not easily be too 
 highly estimated, because it contributes more than any 
 other branch of instruction to guide into right paths the 
 desire of the youth for independence and freedom by un- 
 folding his individual talents and inclinations in and by 
 directing his interest to serious tasks. These awakened 
 interests prevent a waste of his leisure time and still worse 
 results if he were not thus guarded. For this reason 
 also practical instruction in the Seminare, the pupils of 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. 109 
 
 which live mostly in the boarding school, is of special im- 
 portance. 
 
 But the chief value of practical work lies, as has been 
 said before, in its significance for the systematic training 
 of the members of the Seminar. The result of the in- 
 struction in work in the Seminar at Cöthen was also in 
 this respect very soon noticed, and after the plan of or- 
 ganization described above had been maintained for sev- 
 eral j^ears, it lead to an extension of the instruction to all 
 classes of the institution. For the three lower classes a 
 practical, technical form of instruction in paper or paste- 
 board and work in wood (problems at the planing bench 
 and carving) was introduced, by which the pupils were 
 so far prepared that they could soon enter upon difficult 
 problems in the middle classes. But the introduction to 
 the pedagogy of the system of instruction in work was 
 reserved for the upper classes. This did not stop with a 
 general survey of the history and theory of the subject, 
 but w T as directed particularly to the entrance upon the 
 teaching of it. In this the practice school of the Semi- 
 nar offered a fitting opportunity, and after instruction 
 in handwork had been carried on in this school for two 
 years with voluntary attendance of boys of both the 
 upper classes, where favorable results were unmistakably 
 seen, the instruction in 1898 was made obligatory for all 
 classes of the practice school. The subjects of instruction 
 worked out for the different classes correspond in general 
 to those published by the German Society for Boys' Hand- 
 work, and consist of work in paper or pasteboard and 
 wood, also the chip carving, while modeling received as 
 yet no definite place, but was limited to experimental 
 work in the different grades. 
 
110 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 It would be going too far to follow in detail the further 
 development of instruction in work in the Seminar above 
 mentioned. Probably a later day will fully appreciate 
 the services which the director of the Seminar at Anhalt, 
 Privy Counsellor Rümelin, and Professor Blume, Director 
 of the Seminar, have rendered in this respect. (Cf. the 
 lecture delivered by Privy Counsellor Rümelin at the 
 congress in Kiel in 1897, Die Verbindung des Handfertig- 
 keitsunterrichts mit dem Lehrerseminar und mit der 
 Volksschule, The Connection of Instruction in Skill of the 
 Hand with the Seminar for Teachers and with the Volks- 
 schule.) We cannot yet give a final opinion concerning 
 the entire development up to the present time, but we 
 cherish the hope that it will contribute essentially to the 
 realization of significant ideas which underly instruction 
 in work. This hope is the more firmly established since the 
 instruction in the Seminar at Cöthen rests in the hands of 
 one of our young teachers who has been thoroughly tested 
 both as to theory and practice (Cf. in the Blätter für 
 Knabenhandarbeit articles published by M. Mittag, In- 
 structor in the Seminar at Cöthen.) 
 
 Unfavorable experiences, which have occurred in several 
 places are just as instructive. When one is in a position 
 to examine them more closely, he will nearly always dis- 
 cover that the failure has been caused by some special con- 
 ditions; for example, by lack of time or of appropriate 
 room and equipment, by unsatisfactory training or lack 
 of interest on the part of the teacher, etc. On the whole, 
 then, these experiences prove nothing against the thing 
 itself ; they only show how the success or failure of experi- 
 ments in turning an idea into practice which has been re- 
 garded correct in theory, often depends upon peculiar cir- 
 
HANDWORK IN THE SCHOOL. ill 
 
 cumstances. Here again the thought of Goethe is applic- 
 able: 
 
 "Eines schickt sich nicht für alle! 
 Sehe jeder, wie ers treibe, 
 Sehe jeder, wo er bleibe, 
 Und wer steht, dass er nicht falle." 1 
 
 1 The same thing is not suitable for all. Let one watch 
 how he ventures. Let another be careful where he remains, 
 and he who stands that he may not fall. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Systems and Practical Execution of Instruction 
 in Handwork in Different Countries (Swed- 
 ish Sloyd, Instruction in Handwork in 
 France, England, North America, 
 and Japan.) 
 
 The perfection of the theory of instruction in hand- 
 work went hand in hand with its extension into different 
 countries. By this circumstance a fact is made clear 
 which is important in the existence of education and cul- 
 ture in general; namely, that the character of its develop- 
 ment depends upon the peculiarities of the nation con- 
 cerned. Different nations have tried to solve in various 
 ways the problem of instruction in handwork. 
 
 It was taken up, first of all, from a purely theoretic 
 point of view, while the reasons for the necessity of in- 
 struction in handwork w T ere sought in different depart- 
 ments of knowledge, and the possible forms of its practical 
 execution were derived from pedagogical considerations. In 
 general this course has also been followed in Germany. 
 
 Since Pestalozzi and Fröbel we have not lacked theo- 
 retical discussions concerning the necessity and kind of 
 instruction in handwork, but only in individual cases has 
 anyone decided to turn the theory into practice, and to 
 determine by experiments in the schools of different kinds 
 whether and how far instruction in work can be practically 
 carried on. In other countries, on the other hand, numer- 
 ous and comprehensive experiments of this kind have been 
 
 112 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 113 
 
 tried, and especially does the United States present an 
 example of the development of instruction in work, based 
 on practical experience. Of this more will be said later. 
 But the theory has not been neglected there. Through 
 the study of physiological phsychology, which is carried on 
 with great zeal, the theory has gained an accurate founda- 
 tion. At the same time instruction in work, through its 
 practical significance resulting from economic and techni- 
 cal conditions, is now favored by groups of people who 
 perceive the best security for the progress of the whole 
 nation in a development which accords with the spirit of 
 the age. So here, as in other countries, the reasons given 
 for the necessity of instruction in work, growing out of 
 purely theoretical, pedagogical considerations, frequently 
 coincide with the reasons derived from the practical neces- 
 sities, and, on that account, it is, in general, by no means 
 an easy task to keep these distinct lines of thought separate, 
 and to follow the conclusions to their final and real foun- 
 dations. It is here as in Nature: from a small seed grows 
 the tree, which stands towering before us with a profusion 
 of branches, foliage, and fruit. From many hidden, far- 
 extending roots, it draws its nourishment ; with wonderful 
 circulation its sap rises from the soil, is assimilated by the 
 sunlight, which streams over the forest of leaves, and is 
 changed into different substances which the tree needs for 
 its nourishment and for the formation of its fruit. And 
 as a fruit tree gives out its far-reaching blessing, so does 
 our tree of instruction in work bear rich fruit. The freer 
 and less hindered it has been able to unfold in its growth, 
 the more air and light it has received, and the more care 
 it has had bestowed upon it, the more stately has it grown, 
 and the richer is its fruitage now. And as trees grown 
 
114 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 from seeds of the same kind often show an entirely differ- 
 ent form and are very unlike in their fruit, so there have 
 arisen out of the same pedagogical ideas, which led to the 
 development of instruction in work in individual countries, 
 different forms of the same thing, which at first glance 
 scarcely appear similar. 
 
 To compare these different systems of instruction in 
 work, to present them briefly in their development, and to 
 go back to the simple, primitive forms which they have in 
 common, shall be our further task. 
 
 Swedish sloyd rests upon an exceedingly definite sys- 
 tem. The word "sloyd" means general skillfulness of the 
 hand, in contrast with skillfulness in the way of a trade. 
 The idea of sloyd can include handwork in wood, metal, 
 paper or leather and it does not exclude braiding, weaving, 
 and painting. However, the purpose of sloyd is never 
 the industrial training, but always simply the development 
 of the physical, spiritual, and moral powers of the child. 
 Sloyd acts in an educative way^ it calls into play indepen- 
 dence, accuracy, diligence, and perseverance, upon which 
 the character of the individual rests, and leads to respect 
 for work, especially physical work. The models, the 
 making of which forms the task of sloyd instruction, do 
 not constitute the purpose of the instruction, but only the 
 means to that end. These models might afterwards be 
 destroyed, but the purpose of sloyd instruction would be 
 injured as little as is the handwriting of a child by the 
 destruction of the copy books which he has filled during 
 a school year. By the use of tools and the adaptation of 
 materials, the child acquires a degree of dexterity and 
 knowledge which is useful in life, yet it is not even in 
 this benefit that the chief value of sloyd instruction lies, for 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 115 
 
 the perfection of individual attainments by each pupil is not- 
 taken into consideration, and the knowledge gained will 
 be forgotten by many without ever being put into practice. 
 On the other hand, the development of the spiritual, mor- 
 al, and physical powers is of lasting value, and upon this 
 is based the significance of sloyd in education. In this 
 respect it cannot be replaced by other studies of the school, 
 and for this reason its general introduction should be 
 demanded. The purpose of school education, which is 
 the general development of the individual, is not injured 
 by it. Sloyd is not a branch of technical training, it is 
 not training for industry or a particular trade ; its method 
 must therefore be shaped accordingly; it must harmonize 
 thoroughly with the principles of teaching, and the teacher 
 who handles it should not fall behind the teachers of other 
 branches of learning in pedagogical development. It is 
 of greater importance that the child should learn to be 
 observing and active, and that he should not wait till 
 everything is explained to him. The teacher is to show 
 him nothing which he can find out through the exercise 
 of his own powers ; he is not to talk about the use of tools, 
 but to use them, and the pupil is to observe how he uses 
 them; he is to consider the position of the body and esti- 
 mate the amount of strength which is necessary for the 
 execution of a certain movement. He is to examine with 
 the eye the models from which he works, and learn to re- 
 produce them in a drawing. The model, as a concrete 
 object, forms the starting point; the drawing, as something 
 abstract, comes later into use; and not until the children 
 have reached the highest stage should they work from a 
 drawing, or design a model themselves. To require the 
 children at first merely to do exercise pieces would be 
 
116 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 wrong from a pedagogical point of view, for preliminary 
 exercises are nothing but abstractions, and there would be 
 danger of losing the interest of the child through these 
 wearisome exercises, thereby diminishing the pedagogical 
 value of sloyd. For this reason the goal of sloyd instruc- 
 tion must always be the completion of a really useful ob- 
 ject, for only in such an object does the child take an in- 
 terest; preliminary exercises are admissible only in so far 
 as they make possible further execution, and guard against 
 the useless waste of material. 
 
 The system of instruction in handwork for boys which 
 has been developed in France is, in many respects, in 
 direct contrast to the system of Swedish sloyd, which has 
 already been described. The French instruction in hand- 
 work does not serve directly as a preparation for a trade ; 
 it has, above everything else, an educative character and 
 concerns itself with simple exercises which give the child 
 a certain general skill of hand and development of the eye 
 and of the practical sense. The foundation of all hand- 
 work is drawing; therefore, nothing shall be constructed 
 which is not based upon a design drawn by the pupil. 
 Drawing, geometry, and arithmetic are the branches of 
 scientific instruction with which the practical teaching 
 must be connected. Handwork assists the development 
 of the child to a considerable extent; therefore, every- 
 thing should be eliminated which might in any way sug- 
 gest a trade. 
 
 In the effort to do this, the danger has not been avoided 
 of bringing too much theory into the instruction in hand- 
 work; and this has been done, as a matter of course, at 
 the expense of practical activity. Even for the first school 
 year the plan includes not only simple exercises in folding 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 117 
 
 and weaving, but also an understanding of the meaning 
 of horizontal, vertical, pointed and obtuse angles, a right 
 angle, quadrangle, parallelogram, trapezium, cube, pyra- 
 mid, etc. — certainly an excess of theoretical ideas which 
 can in no case be justified. On the other hand, modeling 
 is not given sufficient importance; only at a later stage is 
 more attention paid to it, but even then it is developed in 
 a one-sided way in the direction of geometric ornament 
 by adorning rectangular clay blocks with geometric fig- 
 ures. Thus the French system, w T hich is otherwise clearly 
 planned and excellently worked out, can by no means be 
 considered entirely free from objections. The concrete 
 Swedish system of sloyd is, without doubt, to be preferred 
 in the lower grades. 
 
 The French masters of method themselves soon recog- 
 nized this weakness of their system and tried to remedy 
 it by the introduction of objects of utility which are made 
 along with the exercises for practice. An authority, at 
 least on the system generally used in the elementary schools 
 of Paris, is the handbook Le Travail manuel a Vecole 
 pr'imaire, (Handwork in the Elementary Schools, Paris, 
 Bel in) by Jully and Rccheron, the two inspectors of in- 
 struction in handwork in the schools of Paris, who, more- 
 over, in directing the courses for the training of teachers, 
 exert a great influence. In general the instruction is 
 based upon the following systematic principles: the tasks 
 selected must be adapted to the physical powers of the child 
 and must take into consideration the exigencies of the 
 school. With the exercises for the eye, training in atten- 
 tion, intelligence, and development of taste are united. 
 Therefore, those exercises are preferred which take into 
 consideration drawing and which require the pupil to 
 
118 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 analyze, estimate, measure, and work out geometric forms. 
 Thus, instruction in handwork not only aids in the teach- 
 ing of physics but assists essentially in the scientific in- 
 struction in drawing, geometry and arithmetic. The 
 work of the first three school years is carried on in the 
 class without the use of special workshops ; from the fourth 
 year on, handwork is conducted in pupils' workshops, 
 {Ateliers de travail ?nanuel) under the direction of a 
 pedagogically trained master of handwork, who is given 
 an assistant teacher. Sketches of the work have been pre- 
 viously discussed in the drawing lesson of the class and 
 have been worked out in accordance with the rules of 
 drawing. Every student possesses a special notebook in 
 which each lesson is worked out on two pages according 
 to the following scheme: first, the work (material, meas- 
 uring, cutting, etc.) ; secondly, the result of the geometric 
 observations (for example, a straight line as the shortest 
 distance between two points) ; thirdly, the drawing of the 
 object (geometric figure with diagonals, etc.) ; fourthly, 
 the application (for example, after a discussion of hori- 
 zontal and perpendicular lines a fence is drawn or a model 
 is designed.) In the work of the shop the principal impor- 
 tance is attached to the handling of tools and to careful 
 ful execution in the technique. The materials used are 
 wood, iron, and clay. As a matter of course, during the 
 six hours which are devoted to the work each week, at 
 least two branches are carried on. The first exercises in 
 wood begin with the square and forms derived from it. 
 To these are added the equilateral triangle, the regular 
 hexagon, and the octagon; later joints are made and are 
 used in the construction of objects. As typical objects 
 which are made in the first year's work may be mentioned, 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 119 
 
 for example, a cross (croisillon), a yarn winder, a panel, 
 a frame, a paper knife, and a letter holder; in the second 
 year are added a clothes rack, ink stand, back for a ther- 
 mometer, little chest, etc. The first construction in iron 
 is made of thin wire, which is worked up into pleasing 
 forms of adornment. Then thin sheet iron is made into 
 rosettes and ornamental forms by means of the file and 
 hammer ; napkin rings, match-holders, square, letter scales, 
 etc., are objects which are made in the next higher grade. 
 All the exercises as well as the use of the individual tools 
 are carefully graded according to the technical difficulties 
 involved, and in each workshop are hung on rectangular 
 wooden boards the complete course of instruction arranged 
 in. a pleasing form, according to the months and years, so 
 that wherever one is he can gain an insight into the progres- 
 sive steps in the work. In the year 1900 one hundred and 
 thirty-five elementary schools in the city of Paris were 
 provided w T ith a completely equipped workshop, while a 
 number of schools possessed still more extensive equip- 
 ment; the total cost for the instruction in handwork 
 amounted to 346,300 francs ($69,260). More complete 
 equipment is found, especially in the upper elementary 
 schools, which are attended by pupils of fourteen to twenty 
 years of age; the equipment of the workshops as well as 
 the kind of work has a direct bearing upon the future 
 vocation of the pupils. In the trade and apprentice 
 schools this specialization is naturally more sharply drawn, 
 a necessity which with the high standing of industrial 
 development in Paris is never overlooked. There is no 
 doubt that the compulsory introduction into the French 
 elementary schools of instruction in handwork, which has 
 been in force since the legislation of 1883, has resulted 
 
120 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 not only in a clear perception of and strong emphasis upon 
 the general educational and pedagogical significance of this 
 instruction, but also in consideration for its importance 
 in industrial training. 
 
 The place which has been assigned to handwork for 
 boys in the English council school and the position which 
 has been given to it as a branch of learning, can only be 
 correctly understood in connection with the peculiar ar- 
 rangement of the English council school. It amounts 
 essentially to this, that the state keeps up no school itself, 
 but simply grants appropriations, the amount of which de- 
 pends upon the kind of school, the branches to be taught, 
 and the number of pupils. On the other hand, the state 
 does not even prescribe a program of instruction for the 
 schools, but leaves the arrangement of it to the local con- 
 ditions. Only reading, writing, arithmetic, and drawing 
 up to a certain stage are made by legislation required 
 studies; the elementary exercises for the lower grades in 
 handwork (hand and eye training) and also the instruc- 
 tion in handwork for the upper grades (manual training) 
 belong to the optional subjects of instruction. The par- 
 ticipation in these and also the care which is bestowed 
 upon them by the school is essentially dependent upon the 
 appropriations of money which the state devotes to it. 
 Since handwork for boys has been included among the 
 subjects of instruction which are provided with appropri- 
 ations (in 1890), a rapid and constantly growing accept- 
 ance of the new branch of instruction has taken place. 
 The appropriations are subject to great variations and 
 local differences, amounting probably in the most favor- 
 able cases to about $2.50 for each pupil of the upper class- 
 es, so that if one hundred boys enroll for instruction in 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 121 
 
 handwork, the school will be provided with $250. For 
 the lower grades the appropriation is essentially smaller, 
 about seven and a half cents a year. 
 
 As the "children's classes" (classes enfantines) of the 
 French elementary school offer a course preparatory to 
 the first real school class, so the infant school in the Eng- 
 lish council school is provided with a preliminary course 
 which fits in an excellent way for the instruction in hand- 
 work which comes later. The infant schools are organ- 
 ized throughout according to the principles of Fröbel, and 
 consider it their task both to develop the talents and pow- 
 ers of the child in a fitting way, and to take into consider- 
 ation especially a good physical development. The or- 
 gans of sense are stimulated and the childish inclination 
 for activity aroused. In accomplishing this purpose many 
 exercises of the system of Fröbel are extensively utilized ; 
 plaiting, folding, sewing, knitting, stick laying, stringing 
 beads, laying strings, and exercises in distinguishing forms 
 and colors alternate with drill in language, playing, and 
 singing; modeling in clay and plasticine as well as draw- 
 ing, plays an important part. Even the rich material 
 equipment of the rooms for instruction — utensils and black- 
 boards, etc., indicate that abundant opportunity is given 
 the childish instinct for development through activity. 
 An insight into the curricula of these schools is exceed- 
 ingly instructive. Just as handwork in the infant school 
 is based upon a carefully thought out and systematic, pro- 
 gressive system, so is the "hand and eye training" which is 
 carried on in the elementary and intermediate classes of 
 the council school. 
 
 It concerns itself, first of all, with the development of 
 the power of observation and with the transmission of the 
 
122 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 first conceptions of space and number, on the basis of self- 
 activity and in connection with object teaching. In this 
 connection, the development of the hand receives due con- 
 sideration and, of course, modeling in clay, cutting in 
 paper and cardboard, drawing, coloring, and brush draw- 
 ing are pursued. In many respects handwork is also 
 brought into relation with theoretical instruction. In 
 this, modeling offers, on the whole, abundant opportunity. 
 For example, the pupils make a model of the course of a 
 river or use modeling in the instruction of physics or 
 drawing. Brush drawing is employed as an excellent ex- 
 ercise for the comprehension of form and the development 
 of a feeling for color, and problems in cardboard are as- 
 signed with reference to mensuration. In many places 
 where the system of "hand and eye training" has been 
 completely carried out it has generally been extended 
 through the first four school years, while the real manual 
 training has been reserved for the three upper classes as 
 in the higher grade schools. This is the case particularly 
 in the board schools of the large industrial cities, but the 
 schools of smaller places also are frequently arranged for 
 it. The instruction is in general imparted by a class 
 teacher and in classrooms; in the larger classes, as a rule, 
 in addition to the main teacher, an assistant teacher or 
 pupil teacher is employed. The school authorities have 
 issued carefully worked out, systematic directions, by 
 which the teachers are led to an efficient handling of the 
 instruction; they lay special stress upon the consideration 
 of general educational principles, while they leave much 
 freedom in the details of the execution. The pupils who 
 have passed through the ''hand and eye training" naturally 
 enter upon the actual instruction of the workshop of the 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 123 
 
 upper classes under much more favorable conditions than 
 those who have not had that kind of preparation. In the 
 school workshops woodwork is mainly carried on; and, as 
 a matter of course, in larger cities, for the sake of econ- 
 omy, so-called "centers" have been established, which are 
 used by several schools. (London, for example, in 1902 
 had one hundred seventy, Leeds sixteen, and Glasgow- 
 eleven such centers.) The buildings in which the work- 
 shops are located resemble on the exterior our Turnhallen; 
 in many cases they also contain, in the advanced schools, 
 in an upper story, rooms for instruction in the natural 
 sciences. The workshops are so arranged that several 
 classes can work in the same room or in adjoining rooms 
 at the same time; they are well equipped with all kinds of 
 material for object teaching, collections of different kinds 
 of wood, models, etc. The courses of instruction are ar- 
 ranged so as to bring the pupil to the handling of the most 
 important tools and to an understanding of useful forms 
 of construction. Frequently in the lower grades of this 
 work only practice pieces are made; every piece of work 
 is based upon a drawing of it w^hich has been made by the 
 pupil. The instruction is carried on in classes, but in such 
 a way that the talented pupil shall not be held back on 
 account of the untalented one, this practice being carefully 
 observed in the English system of education. Even with 
 reference to the prescribed courses of instruction much 
 freedom is granted the individual schools. In the higher 
 schools in which instruction in handwork is also exten- 
 sively carried on, it is frequently made to serve other sub- 
 jects of instruction, being employed, for example, to make 
 apparatus and instruments which are used in the instruc- 
 tion of the natural sciences and mathematics. The teach- 
 
124 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 ers of manual training are mostly special teachers who 
 have received their training in special courses. In con- 
 ducting the instruction, the deportment and zeal of the 
 pupils are usually all that one could wish. In the larger 
 cities special inspectors are appointed for the organization 
 and oversight of the instruction. Centers for metalwork 
 are generally provided only for the higher schools ; in large 
 factory cities, on the other hand, in which metal industries 
 predominate, metalwork takes a more prominent place in 
 the school workshop. It is also worthy of notice that 
 many of the evening schools intended for voluntary atten- 
 dance are equipped for shopwork. The work in these 
 schools, as a matter of course, is of an industrial charac- 
 ter and exerts a great influence in the industrial develop- 
 ment of the growing youth. A strong accentuation of 
 all practical instruction is, on the whole, characteristic of 
 the entire English system of education and culture; this 
 is also true of the educational institutions for girls and 
 women, in which practical activities — housekeeping, cook- 
 ing, making clothes, etc., enjoy a much greater popularity 
 and appreciation than with us in Germany. The judg- 
 ments which are pronounced by the inspectors and leading 
 schoolmen concerning instruction in work in the compass 
 of the entire system of education is also in general very 
 favorable. The report of the school authorities of Bir- 
 mingham in 1896 states: "The reproach, which until now 
 has been made against the method of the elementary school 
 that (in teaching handwork) it was in a one-sided way pur- 
 suing simply theory, has no longer any foundation. But, 
 on the other hand, the theoretic instruction does not suf- 
 fer. It seems as if the limited time for instruction is 
 compensated by a clearer comprehension, which is gained 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 125 
 
 by the united activity of eye, hand, and intellect. I am 
 convinced that practical handwork exercises a distinct ef- 
 fect upon the whole system of the school. It helps in 
 raising the intelligence of the school children." In har- 
 mony with this report, it is also emphasized in a further 
 report by the president of the school authorities that a 
 complete alteration in the attitude of the teachers toward 
 instruction in handwork had taken place and that it has 
 become a favorite study both of pupils and teachers. Be- 
 sides, the president was not satisfied with these expressions 
 from schoolmen but also collected evidence from a num- 
 ber of manufacturers and tradesmen of the city of Bir- 
 mingham whom he gave the opportunity of thoroughly 
 testing the instruction. The purport of their opinion was 
 that they regarded the new branch of instruction as a 
 very valuable part of the training of the elementary school. 
 (H. Bendel, Der Handfertigkeitsunterricht in Englischen 
 Volksschulen. Instruction in Handwork in English Coun- 
 cil Schools, Zürich, 1901.) 
 
 As has been previously indicated at different times, the 
 efforts for the advancement of instruction in work can be 
 traced back essentially to two main tendencies. The one, 
 which is determined by the demands of life and by the 
 necessity of guiding the individual efforts in the direction 
 of industry and technique, might be called the practical. 
 The other has its source in the province of pure pedagogy 
 and is based upon the knowledge that developmnet of the 
 intellect of the child is only made possible by independence 
 and by the use of the elements of culture which are acces- 
 sible to him — in reality then by the simplest technical 
 work. This second tendency, which urges the acceptance 
 of technical work as an indispensable factor in education, 
 
126 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 is called the pedagogical. Both tendencies are represented 
 in the systems of education of the different European 
 nations, but nowhere do they exist side by side in such 
 distinct form as in the system of education of the Ameri- 
 cans. 
 
 A glance at the cultural development of the American 
 people makes it possible to understand this, for if the state- 
 ment is in general true that the national characteristics 
 of a people are mirrored in its system of education, this is 
 especially true of the American people, whose cultural and 
 national development has proceeded in a characteristic 
 way, essentially different from the development of the 
 peoples of Europe. First of all, the high estimate of the 
 value of technique and its extensive application for all pur- 
 poses and ends is characteristic of America. Along with 
 that, is found a high appreciation of the technologist and 
 the need of developing technical powers, which has exerted 
 a decided influence upon the system of training. Thus it 
 can be understood how the manual training high school 
 was developed. This school is thoroughly characteristic 
 of the American system of education and for it scarcely a 
 parallel can be found in Europe. The organization of 
 this type of school cannot be comprehended without fur- 
 ther explanation ; especially is one liable to fall into the 
 temptation of looking upon it as a kind of industrial or 
 trade school, since we are apt to confuse it, in the first 
 place, with such schools on account of its peculiar work- 
 shop instruction. But the American insists that these 
 schools shall be institutions of general culture and that 
 they shall take up and foster shopwork only as an element 
 of general culture. They are connected with the common 
 school, and supplement the eight-year course of training 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 127 
 
 with a four-year course of study which includes, as a rule, 
 six parallel branches; namely, mathematics, natural sci- 
 ence, the English language, history or foreign language, 
 drawing, and shopwork. About a quarter of the entire 
 time of instruction is devoted to shopwork; in the upper 
 classes almost a third of the time. It includes chiefly 
 work in wood and metal done in workshops, which are 
 fitted up on a large scale and equipped with machinery. 
 The pupils of the upper classes are instructed in the ele- 
 ments of the construction of machinery. In many schools 
 the construction of patterns for the metal castings and the 
 pouring of the metal itself find a place in the curriculum. 
 The connection of handwork with drawing is preserved in 
 all the grades; and, whenever suitable teachers can be 
 secured, the handwork is turned in the direction of artistic 
 development, while modeling especially is fostered and is 
 connected with forms of technique which prepare for artis- 
 tic work — pottery, wood-carving, metalwork, chasing, en- 
 graving, book printing, photography, etc. From these 
 suggestions it can be seen that the manual training high 
 schools are arranged quite differently with regard to or- 
 ganization and curriculum. This can be explained thru 
 their extensive application to local needs and thru per- 
 sonal influence, which in the American system of education 
 may be exceedingly effective, since there is no central con- 
 trol and great scope is left to the individual states and cities 
 in the organization of the schools. In the organization of 
 the manual training high school the future technical calling 
 of the pupils is especially taken into consideration ; the ten- 
 dency arising in the technical colleges of making them ac- 
 tual preparatory schools for the latter is recently very mark- 
 ed. But they are still, first of all, institutions which serve 
 
128 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 general culture, and from them the pupil can find his way 
 to some practical calling or to a literary pursuit. It is also 
 contradictory to the American fundamental conception of a 
 system of education to have a road of training lead into 
 a blind alley. It seems to him that the best kind of train- 
 ing for a young person is that which makes possible an en- 
 trance into the different relations of life and the different 
 kinds of calling without laying down from the very be- 
 ginning a definite direction which must be followed. In 
 this comprehension of the term lies the explanation of 
 the great popularity of the manual training schools, 
 the number of which has risen in a little more than twenty 
 years to almost two hundred and fifty; for their equip- 
 ment nearly every large city is glad to make a consider- 
 able sacrifice. The sums which are expended for it are 
 so large that such willingness for sacrifice can, in fact, be 
 understood only by comprehending the high estimate of 
 technique and thorough insight into the value of the techni- 
 cal in education which exists among the whole people. We 
 should like to say frankly that the ideal of training held 
 by the American people is a ' 'modern-technical" one, and 
 not, as with us, the ' 'classic-historic" one. So it is not sur- 
 prising that one often has the impression, even on looking 
 into the schools, that the essential purpose is to build up 
 a people of technicians. 
 
 But, as has been said before, the stimulus for placing 
 great stress upon the importance of instruction in hand- 
 work in education has arisen in another quarter, namely, 
 in the knowledge of pedagogy and psychology. It is 
 known that psychology is fostered in America very zeal- 
 ously. But the study of psychology has shown the sig- 
 nificance of the activity of the hand in the development 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 129 
 
 of the brain, and the practical art of education has fol- 
 lowed up the results of this knowledge and has built upon 
 its foundation a new system of education. We, who are 
 bound by strong tradition, do not at present dare to dis- 
 turb the forms of instruction which have been handed 
 down, even though we may admit that they are based, to 
 some extent, upon unstable foundations. The Ameri- 
 cans have boldly taken the first step and have founded 
 schools in which manual activity forms the central point 
 of all school work and the starting point of all instruction. 
 One of the main advocates of the pedagogical tendency 
 which now comes up for consideration is John Dewey, 
 formerly active at the University of Chicago, where he 
 founded and directed the School of Education. For the 
 past two years he has been effective in the Teachers Col- 
 lege which is connected with Columbia University in New 
 York City, and in the experiment and practice school of 
 this great institution, the Horace Mann School. The 
 main ideas of his system of education have been embodied 
 by him in different works, among which the lectures on 
 the theme, School and Society, have appeared in a Ger- 
 man translation by E. Gurlitt (Berlin, Walther's Publica- 
 tion, 1905.) It is characteristic that Dewey renounces all 
 the pedagogical theories which are our standards as some- 
 thing fundamentally worn out ; of the German pedagogues 
 he mentions only Fröbel, and, like the latter, he builds up 
 his system of education upon the activity of the child. The 
 school of former times treated the child as if he were "in 
 the first place a listening creature." Mere passivity, how- 
 ever, is not natural to him, but activity. Dewey gives four 
 instincts which the school must not suppress, but develop: 
 the communicative instinct, the instinct for investigation, 
 
130 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 the constructive instinct, and the art instinct. While the 
 former school began with reading, writing, and arithmetic, 
 thus with accomplishments which were, first of all without 
 interest for the child, we must on the contrary begin with 
 creative activities and repeat with the child the course of 
 humanity. As humanity begins its life with the procur- 
 ing of nourishment and clothing, so must the child begin 
 with the knowledge of the plants which give us nourish- 
 ment and clothing and with the explanation of the pro- 
 cesses of work which belong to them, cooking, spinning, 
 and weaving. With this work the foundation is laid for 
 history as well as for the natural sciences, for "the entire 
 history of humanity can be comprised in the course of 
 development which the fibers of flax, cotton, and wool 
 undergo." As children in their play turn back wholly 
 of their own accord to the technique of primitive times in 
 building huts and imitating the hunt with bow and arrow, 
 so the foundation for history and natural science must 
 be laid by means of technical work. Only in this way 
 can the school foster the activities which have previously 
 been mentioned and become a real place of education. 
 The technical work in wood and metal, weaving, sewing, 
 and cooking must become a part of the plan of education 
 as if they constituted the purpose of life and were not 
 simply assigned branches of study instruction. They 
 must be a means thru which the school itself is made 
 a natural part of the whole life, while it is now only a 
 place lying at one side in which one only has his lessons 
 to learn. If our education is to be of any significance 
 whatever in our life, it must go through as radical a 
 transformation as that which our social life has experi- 
 enced. This transformation is even now in progress, and 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 131 
 
 the new arrangements in our school activities are signs 
 and proofs of a development of this kind. If we make 
 our school a community on a small scale in which the in- 
 dividual members are engaged in practical work and are 
 equipped with the spirit of obedience and the strength of 
 self-mastery, then the best guarantees are given for a bet- 
 ter future for humanity. 
 
 These are, in brief, the fundamental ideas upon which 
 the system of education of Dewey is built. The practical 
 carrying out of this system in the School of Education at 
 Chicago has led to a rapid development of this school, and 
 the reputation which it has gained, attended as it is by 
 children of the best families, speaks for the good results 
 of its activity. 
 
 Education begins in the kindergarten and in the lower 
 grades lays special stress upon introducing the children to 
 the forms of "primitive life," in order to make clear to 
 them how humanity has progressed from that stage to the 
 high stage of civilization of the present. The relation- 
 ship which exists between the life of the child, and the life 
 in the childhood of humanity becomes clear to the con- 
 sciousness of the child and leads to an active interest in 
 the development of the culture of humanity. The young- 
 er children begin with the activities in the home, while 
 the higher grades are instructed in the industries which 
 are carried on outside of the home, and in the larger social 
 activities such as farming, forestry, and manufacturing. 
 Accordingly, the handwork develops in three directions: 
 first, activities connected w T ith the preparation of means 
 of nourishment ; secondly, activities in the workshop ; 
 thirdly, activities with textiles, sewing and weaving. By 
 means of all these activities the child exercises his organs 
 
132 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 of sense, the eye and the hand, and becomes accustomed 
 to order, diligence, and carefulness. The memory and 
 the power of reason are trained, since the child must 
 learn to do things in systematic order. Through the ac- 
 tivity of cooking, chemical knowledge is acquired; the 
 shopwork leads up to geometric principles and to the 
 handling of numbers; and the theoretical work, which is 
 connected with sewing and weaving, leads to geography. 
 The exercises which are connected with the contemplation 
 of "primitive life" lead to history and to the discussion of 
 social life. The pursuit of natural science leads to an 
 understanding of the forces of nature and their applica- 
 tion in the service of humanity; the construction of castles 
 and clocks forms the starting point of mechanics; the un- 
 derstanding of the telegraph and the telephone, the start- 
 ing point of electricity. 
 
 Concerning the justification of this plan of instruction, 
 which, as will be admitted without further discussion, has 
 had its predecessors in German scientific pedagogy, (Zil- 
 ler, Rein, and O. W. Beyer), further discussion will not be 
 added. For our purpose the fact suffices that the Horace 
 Mann School in New York also works with equally favor- 
 able results according to a curriculum which is based 
 upon the same principles. This school, like the School 
 of Education in Chicago, is also abundantly equipped 
 with means of instruction and workshops. We find 
 there, for example, complete tableaux for the "primitive 
 life," houses built of stone and earth, representations of 
 the simplest forms of agriculture and the relations of man 
 to animal and plant. Models of mills, locks, and con- 
 trivances for intercourse and transportation are made of 
 the simplest material by the children of different ages; 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 133 
 
 vessels of clay are first constructed simply with the hand 
 and later with the aid of a potter's wheel and painted 
 from a model according to nature; thus the relation be- 
 tween drawing and art is established. Work in wool 
 and cotton leads to the textile industry; the preparation 
 of food, which begins in the fifth school year with ex- 
 ercises in cooking of the simplest kind, leads to chemistry, 
 and the observation and culture of plants and animals 
 leads to biology. Instruction in art begins in the lowest 
 grade with drawings from nature and with modeling of 
 simple objects; and since handwork and art here as well 
 as in most of the American schools are regarded simply 
 as belonging together, it is worth while giving space to 
 the complete curriculum of the seven classes of the ele- 
 mentary school. 
 
 The curriculum prescribes the following: 
 First Grade — 
 
 Handwork: Construction of numerous objects which 
 are related to the hunting and fishing stage of the primi- 
 tive life. 
 
 Art : Painting from nature branches of flowers, etc. ; 
 studies in color; modeling of fruits, animals, and simple 
 vessels. Drawing and sketching of man and animal from 
 life, on the blackboard and with the brush. Rendering 
 of atmosphere, in a childish way. Study of pictures. 
 Second Grade — 
 
 Handwork: Construction of numerous objects which 
 represent the development of the activities of the pastoral 
 stage of primitive life. Work with reference to nature 
 study. 
 
 Art: Drawing of branches, flowers, etc. Modeling 
 and drawing from scenes in the pastoral stage. Study of 
 
134 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 color. Proportions. Representations of the activities 
 and simple positions of animals and men. Simple out- 
 lines and studies of pictures. 
 
 Third Grade- 
 Handwork: Construction of objects for the demon- 
 stration of the activities in the stage of the simplest com- 
 merce and discoveries. Life in Manhattan, for example, 
 ships and Dutch houses. (Manhattan was the Indian 
 settlement near which the Dutch established their first 
 colony in 1624.) 
 
 Art: Study of flowers, seed pods, etc. Sketches from 
 life (man and animal) with color and pen and ink. 
 Simple, well-shaped flowers, drawing and modeling. 
 Study of the time of the Vikings and knights. Dutch 
 life, costumes, etc. Study of pictures. 
 
 Fourth Grade — 
 
 Handwork: The curriculum is differentiated; the work 
 concerns itself with the domestic activities of the colonial 
 period. 
 
 Art: Drawing and painting in connection with nature 
 study — trees, blossoms, and fruits. Sketching in color 
 and charcoal. Construction and decorative designs for 
 pottery and weaving. Study of pictures. 
 
 Fifth Grade- 
 Handwork: Transition from domestic industry to in- 
 dustrial art with regard for present social needs. 
 
 Art: Nature studies in grouping of branches with a 
 background. Scale of colors. Constructive and decora- 
 tive designs from Greek vases and lamps which are mod- 
 eled in clay. Study of pictures. 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 135 
 
 Sixth Grade — 
 
 Handwork: Sewing for girls; work in house building 
 for boys. Mechanical elements preparatory to the stage 
 of factory activity. 
 
 Art : Continuation of drawing, painting, and modeling. 
 Scale of colors and their application in designs. Study 
 of pictures. 
 Seventh Grade — 
 
 Handwork: Cooking for the girls; for the boys, in- 
 troduction into industrial activity by means of designs in 
 wood made from drawings. Models of means of trans- 
 portation — carriage, railroad, ship, elevator, etc. 
 
 Art : Continuation of drawing, painting, and modeling. 
 Scale of colors. Designs. Study of objects of nature and 
 landscapes with reference to colonial life. Study of pic- 
 tures. 
 
 If the foregoing plan indicates how extensively hand- 
 work is fostered in connection with drawing in a private 
 school, it will be shown further that the public school 
 is achieving remarkable results in this direction. 
 
 In New York I had the opportunity of seeing an exhi- 
 bition of the results of the instruction in drawing and 
 handwork which included selected typical examples of the 
 work which had been done during the previous year by 
 the boys and girls of th? different public schools of the 
 city. From it a fairly complete picture could be formed 
 of the achievement of these branches of instruction. 
 
 Handwork begins in the first school years with exer- 
 cises in paper and cardboard which are connected with the 
 Fröbel work previously accomplished in the kindergarten, 
 and with instruction in reading and other branches, es- 
 pecially object teaching. It consists of simple exercises 
 
136 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 in cutting, folding, and pasting, all of which are done in 
 different materials; in these activities especial care is taken 
 in using suitable colors together. This work nearly cor- 
 responds to that which we designate in our German 
 courses of study as "work of the preliminary stage." 
 
 Immediately following the work in paper and card- 
 board comes that in pasteboard, which is carried on from 
 the fifth to the eighth school year in those schools which 
 have no special workshop. At the International Congress 
 of Drawing Teachers in Bern in 1904 this work in paste- 
 board from the public schools of New York attracted the 
 attention of competent judges. They noted not only the 
 original forms employed but also the tasteful combinations 
 of colors and the thorough adaptation of the ornament to 
 the material. 
 
 Another department consists of problems in wood which 
 are constructed at the planing bench, and consequently 
 can only be carried on in those schools in which there is 
 the equipment for it. In the public schools of New York, 
 in so far as the conditions mentioned are fulfilled, such 
 work is carried on from the sixth grade up, but only by 
 boys, the girls being given instruction in housekeeping. 
 Elsewhere the girls are permitted to take part in the 
 woodwork, just as boys are allowed to take part in the 
 cooking. 
 
 The work at the planing bench is carried on in close 
 connection with the instruction in drawing in the public 
 schools of New York; an hour and a half each week is 
 devoted to the actual shopwork. Of the objects which 
 are made, for example, clock stands, serving boards, post 
 card holders, book racks, and the like, the fundamental 
 forms are given, but the individual development of those 
 fundamental forms is left to the pupil. 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 137 
 
 Several schools had worked out simple problems in 
 metal, small ornamental objects, and especially small 
 problems in iron. Even here the forms had been happily 
 selected and the technique was in all its simplicity solid and 
 substantial. 
 
 A system of instruction in handwork similar to that of 
 the public schools of New York which has just been char- 
 acterized is found in other cities of the United States; in 
 Boston, for example, the public school system of which 
 shows an especially high development, the instruction in 
 handwork begins likewise in the kindergarten with the 
 Fröbel problems and continues through all the school 
 years. 
 
 The woodwork of the upper grades is carried on in 
 Boston only by the boys, while the girls receive instruc- 
 tion in cooking and housekeeping. Forty-seven public 
 schools of the city are equipped with special workshops 
 for woodwork and are used by several neighboring schools. 
 
 The entire system of handwork of the city is under the 
 direction of a supervisor, to whom the special teachers 
 and their assistants are responsible. 
 
 Even in the evening schools, where the attendance is 
 voluntary, manual training has recently been introduced 
 along with instruction in domestic economy, so that the 
 growing youth is given an opportunity even beyond the 
 school time to be trained in shopwork. 
 
 The systems in accordance with which this work is 
 carried on are, on the whole, very different ; of the foreign 
 influences one often recognizes that of Swedish sloyd, and 
 also, to some extent that of the German instruction in 
 handwork. The principal stress is placed almost entirely 
 upon woodwork, while metalwork and modeling are not 
 everywhere pursued. 
 
138 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 We have yet to mention a kind of handwork which has 
 a large field in the American schools and is probably car- 
 ried to the degree of an artistic accomplishment which far 
 exceeds that which is found elsewhere in this connection. 
 It is the so-called "basketry," work in weaving in differ- 
 ent materials. This is not only carried on with great zeal 
 in the very popular vacation schools — in all large cities 
 such vacation schools are kept up during the long summer 
 vacation from July to September — but has also frequently 
 found a place in the regular work of instruction. It is 
 evident that this work can be very valuable in the devel- 
 opment of the artistic taste with reference to form and 
 color; besides, one must say in praise of such work that 
 it offers especially good exercise for the hand, because the 
 left hand also takes part in it. That it is further adapt- 
 ed to arouse the interest of the pupils is best shown by the 
 answer of a pupil of a seminary in Brooklyn, an intelli- 
 gent young girl, whom I asked if they derived pleasure 
 from this work. She replied, "The best time we have the 
 whole week!" 
 
 The high development of basketry is evidently con- 
 nected with the old artistic accomplishments of the In- 
 dians in whose domestic industry such work even today 
 plays an important part. 
 
 With a correct understanding of the economic signifi- 
 cance of this native industry, the American government 
 offers it every possible encouragement ; it has provided in 
 the Indian reservations special schools for this purpose, as 
 particularly in the education of the colored races (Indians 
 and negroes) handwork is used to the greatest extent. The 
 education of the colored races, especially that of the negroes, 
 is for the United States an exceedingly difficult problem, 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 139 
 
 in the solution of which instruction in handwork for peo- 
 ple of all ages is found to be one of the most effective 
 means. In the large institutions which have been founded 
 for the purpose of educating the colored races it plays, 
 therefore, the chief role; for example, in the school at 
 Tuskegee, conducted by the intellectual leader of the 
 negroes, Booker T. Washington, in which technical work 
 is carried on in all its forms, from the roughest work in 
 the field and in the workshop to the finest work in book 
 printing establishment, mechanical workshops, etc. The 
 results of this education in work, in which, as a matter of 
 course, the female sex also has an interest, are exceedingly 
 favorable. Booker T. Washington himself has published 
 an interesting little book concerning it under the title, 
 "The Fruits of Industrial Training." 
 
 It is noticeable that the American, who is more than 
 anything else a person of will, and who endeavors also 
 thruout his education to work especially upon the will, 
 places so high a value upon technical work as a means of 
 education. Evidently he has in this respect, with his 
 practical sense and insight, which are characteristic of 
 him, recognized the correct thing and fixed his eyes upon 
 its execution from the very beginning. The theoretical 
 establishment of the indispensability of handwork in the 
 system of education, which is encouraged in almost no 
 country as in America, comes about there in response to 
 an instinctive predilection for handwork, and has not 
 been compelled to overcome first the difficulties and pre- 
 judices which in Germany, for instance, are opposed to 
 the deeper pedagogical insight. 
 
 The example set by the United States cannot fail to 
 exert an influence upon other countries in placing strong 
 
140 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 emphasis upon technical instruction for the purpose of 
 education. In the educational exhibit at St. Louis this 
 influence was very marked, for example, in the case of 
 Cuba, the system of eduaction of which has been rapidly 
 improved under American supervision. The countries of 
 South America have been more dependent upon European 
 influences in their development, if we can judge from 
 their educational exhibits; Brazil, for example, shows un- 
 mistakably the influence of Germany, while Argentine 
 Republic works in accordance with the Swedish system. 
 In any case, there was visible in these countries a notice- 
 able cultivation of instruction in handwork for boys and 
 girls. This is a ] so true of India, where naturally the 
 work is carried on according to the English system, and, 
 above all, of Japan, the exhibit of which attracted atten- 
 tion because of its copiousness, excellent arrangement, and 
 systematic perfection. 
 
 Public education in Japan begins with the kindergar- 
 ten, utilizino; all the activities which correspond to the 
 age of the child in an excellent, thorough manner. The 
 complete exhibit of the elementary school, which is con- 
 nected with it, showed, in addition to a large number of 
 pieces of handwork, also very charming drawings, which 
 were done on the finest silk paper and stitched together 
 in an elegant way. In connection with this exhibit was 
 that of the higher schools, of which the Royal Technical 
 School in Tokio especially exhibited excellent, artistic 
 handwork in wood, metal, ivory, ceramics, etc. The ex- 
 hibit of the higher Seminar for teachers in Tokio gave the 
 best survey of the system of instruction in handwork of 
 Japan. This contained, on more than twenty tables, sev- 
 eral hundred models, which illustrated in an excellent 
 
SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 141 
 
 way the instruction in handwork of this school of four 
 classes. It begins in the first school year with two les- 
 sons a week and is followed later by three lessons. In 
 all the grades it is closely connected with drawing and 
 technique in the application of colors. The instruction be- 
 gins with the simplest problems with sticks and strings, 
 succeeded by work with bamboo and wood. Later, paper 
 and pasteboard, tin and iron are used, and modeling re- 
 ceives careful attention. 
 
 The perfection of the Japanese system of instruction 
 in work, which was brought to light in the Exposition at 
 St. Louis and which was noticed even in the educational 
 exhibit at Paris in 1900, in which the northern countries 
 (Sweden, Russia, and Denmark) were very prominent, 
 is in perfect harmony with that which we have learned 
 from other sources concerning the educational system of 
 the people of culture of the Far East. Even in the year 
 1894 it was reported, for example, that Japan possessed 
 two hundred technical schools. If, in connection with 
 this fact, we take into consideration that the Japanese 
 have adopted the best ideas and educational methods of 
 Europe and have known how to use them to advantage, 
 this fact is not altogether surprising. The study of a 
 very interesting collection of pieces of handwork done in 
 Japanese boys' schools, which is in the possession of Prof. 
 Richards of Teachers College, New York, led me rather 
 to another opinion; that is, that the Japanese instruction 
 in handwork has experienced a tolerably independent 
 development. The superiority of Japan, which is now 
 generally recognized in almost every province of indus- 
 trial art, at least in so far as it depends upon handwork, 
 only goes to establish this opinion. At all events, it is 
 
142 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. 
 
 interesting that the Japanese in the technique of metals use 
 certain model forms and methods of work which are al- 
 most exactly like ours; the similarity of the Japanese 
 technique with that which we practice, for example, in 
 Leipsic, is decidedly surprising, and yet, according to all 
 appearances, there is no external connection between our 
 Leipsic system and the Japanese. 
 
 It is then only a matter of confirming the general law 
 that every pure form of technique must be adapted to its 
 material, and this law naturally holds good for Japan just 
 as well as for Germany. 
 
 The thought, that instruction in handwork shows a 
 development which is not limited to any one country or 
 people but is accomplished among the different peoples of 
 the earth along parallel lines and points to a definite goal, 
 expresses a general truth, and can be made a generaliza- 
 tion. As the idea of instruction in work has been fore- 
 seen by the great educators of different peoples, and as it 
 has spread at the present time from Finland to South 
 America, from Scotland to Japan and Australia, so it will 
 also in the future gain a place in the system of education 
 of all peoples. 
 
 Transitory drawbacks, which may for different reasons 
 temporarily hinder, to a greater or less extent, the spread 
 of the idea, will never be able to suppress or destroy it 
 entirely. Such appearances are seen in the spread of all 
 moral, political, and social ideas; they correspond thor- 
 oly to the general laws of intellectual development, for 
 every curve of development has its rise and fall. 
 
 He who desires the most favorable development of the 
 German people for the future will have to wish that its 
 education shall be an education for work and thru work. 
 
PLATES 
 
 ILLUSTRATING TYPES OF HANDWORK AND 
 EQUIPMENT FOR HANDWORK. 
 
145 
 
147 
 
III. MODELING, TEACHERS' TRAINING SCHOOL, LEIPSIC. 
 
 149 
 
151 
 
153 
 
155 
 
L5; 
 
159 
 
KU 
 
163 
 
en *v 
 
 165 
 
Books on the Manual Arts 
 
 HANDWORK IN WOOD. By William Noyes. 
 
 A handbook for teachers and a textbook for normal 
 school and college students. A comprehensive and 
 scholarly treatise, covering logging, sawmilling, season- 
 ing and measuring, hand tools, wood fastenings, equip- 
 ment and care of the shop, the common joints, types of 
 wood structures, principles of joinery, and wood finish- 
 ing. 304 illustrations — excellent pen drawings by Anna 
 Gausmann Noyes. Price, $2.00. 
 
 ESSENTIALS OF WOODWORKING. By Ira S. Griffith. 
 A textbook written especially for the use of grammar 
 and high school students. A clear and comprehensive 
 treatment of woodworking tools, materials, and processes, 
 to supplement, but not too take the place of the instruction 
 given by the teacher. The book does not contain a course 
 of models; it may be used with any course. It is illus- 
 trated with photographs and numerous pen drawings by 
 Edwin V. Lawernce. Price, $1.00. 
 
 BEGINNING WOODWORK. At Home and in School. 
 
 By Clinton S. VanDeusen. 
 A full and clear description in detail of the funda- 
 mental processes of elementary benchwork in wood. This 
 description is given through directions for making a few 
 simple, useful articles, suitable either for school or home 
 problems. The book contains more than one hundred 
 original sketches and ten working drawings by Edwin 
 V. Lawrence. Price, $1.00. 
 
 WOODWORK FOR SCHOOLS ON SCIENTIFIC LINES. 
 
 By James Thomas Baily and S. Pollitt. 
 The American edition of an English book containing 
 120 practical problems, many of which have been designed 
 to correlate mathematics and physical science with manual 
 training. Price, 75 cents. 
 
 published by 
 
 The Manual Arts Press, Peoria, Illinois 
 
Books on the Manual Arts 
 
 PROBLEMS IN WOODWORKING. By M. W. Murray 
 
 A convenient collection of good problems consisting of 
 forty plates bound in heavy paper covers with brass 
 fasteners. Each plate is a working drawing, or problem 
 in benchwork that has been successfully worked out by 
 boys in one of the grades from seven to nine inclusive. 
 Price, 75 cents. Board covers, 20 cents extra. 
 
 PROBLEMS IN FURNITURE MAKING. 
 
 By Fred D. Crawshaw. 
 This book consists of 32 plates of working drawings 
 suitable for use in grammar and high schools and 24 
 pages of text, including chapters on design, construction 
 and finishes, and notes on the problems. Price, $1.00. 
 Board covers, 20 cents extra. 
 
 PROBLEMS IN WOOD-TURNING. By Fred D. Crawshaw. 
 In the first place this is a book of problems — 25 plates 
 covering spindle, face-plate, and chuck turning. In the 
 second place it is a textbook on the science and art of 
 wood-turning illustrated by fifty pen sketches. It gives 
 the mathematical basis for the cuts used in turning. In 
 the third place it is a helpful discussion of the principles 
 of design as applied to objects turned in wood. It is a 
 clear, practical and suggestive book on wood-turning. 
 Price, 80 cents. Board covers, 20 cents extra. 
 
 PROBLEMS IN MECHANICAL DRAWING. By Charles 
 A. Bennett. With drawings made by Fred D. Craw- 
 shaw. 
 This book consists of 80 plates and a few explanatory 
 notes, and is bound in heavy paper covers with brass 
 fasteners. Its purpose is to furnish teachers of classes 
 beginning mechanical drawing with a large number of 
 simple, practical problems. These have been selected 
 with reference to the formation of good habits in tech- 
 nique, the interest of the pupils, and the subjects 
 generally included in a grammar and first-year high 
 school course. Each problem given is unsolved and 
 therefore in proper form to hand to the pupil for solution. 
 Price, $1.00. Board covers, 20 cents extra. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 The Manual Arts Press, Peoria, Illinois 
 
Books on the Manual Arts 
 
 SELECTED SHOP PROBLEMS. By George A. Seaton. 
 
 A collection of sixteen problems in woodworking made 
 to meet the needs of busy teachers of manual training. 
 Each problem has been put to the test and has proven 
 satisfactory to the teacher who designed it and the pupil 
 who made it. Price, 20 cents. 
 
 COPING SAW WORK. By Ben W. Johnson. 
 
 Contains working drawings and suggestions for teach- 
 ing a course of work in thin wood that is full of fun for 
 the children, and affords ample means for training in 
 form study, construction, invention and careful work. 
 Has been called 'applied mechanics for the fourth grade." 
 Price, 20 cents. 
 
 THE CONSTRUCTION AND FLYING OF KITES. 
 
 By Charles M. Miller. 
 This contains seven full-page plates of drawings of 
 kites and fifteen figures — over forty kites shown. Details 
 of construction given; a kite tournament is described. 
 Full of interesting suggestions. Price, 20 cents. 
 
 CLAY WORK. By Katherine Morris Lester. 
 
 This book has been written by a grade teacher and 
 art worker to help teachers in acquiring the technique of 
 clay working, and to give them suggestions concerning 
 the teaching of the several types of clay work suited to 
 pupils in the elementary schools. It covers the study of 
 natural forms, the human figure in relief, and the round, 
 animal forms, story illustration, architectural ornament, 
 tiles, hand-built pottery, and pottery decoration. The 
 book is richly illustrated with more than fifty half-tone 
 and line cuts showing processes, designs, and the work 
 of children from ten to twelve years of age. Price, $1.00. 
 
 THE WASH METHOD OF HANDLING WATER COLOUR. 
 
 By Frank Forrest Frederick. 
 A brief, clear, comprehensive text printed in sepia and 
 illustrated with wash drawings and a water-color paint- 
 ing by the author. Price, 50 cents. 
 
 published by 
 
 The Manual Arts Press, Peoria, Illinois 
 
Books on the Manual Arts 
 
 HANDWORK INSTRUCTION FOR BOYS. By Dr. Alwin 
 Pabst. Translated by Bertha Reed Coffman. 
 A philosophical and historical review of manual training 
 for boys and a discussion of the systems in vogue in the 
 several European countries and in America, by the director 
 of the normal school for teachers of manual training at 
 Leipsic. With plates showing typical manual training 
 workshops. Price, $1.00. 
 
 HANDICRAFT FOR GIRLS. By Idabelle McGlauflin. 
 
 A handbook for teachers, detailing a five-years course 
 in sewing for girls, in the public schools. Chapters on 
 stitches, fibers and fabrics, cloth and cardboard con- 
 struction, basketry, dress in its relation to art, and home 
 furnishing. It is definite enough to be thoroly practical 
 and elastic enough to suit the varied conditions in rural, 
 village or city schools. Price, $1.00. 
 
 SIMPLIFIED MECHANICAL PERSPECTIVE. By Frank 
 Forrest Frederick. 
 A book of simple problems covering the essentials of 
 mechanical perspective. It is planned for pupils of high 
 school age who have already received some elementary 
 training in mechanical drawing. It is simple, direct and 
 practical. Price, 75 cents. 
 
 CLASSROOM PRACTICE IN DESIGN. By James Parton 
 Haney, 
 A concise up-to-date, richly illustrated brochure on the 
 teaching of applied design. Price, 50 cents. 
 
 MANUAL TRAINING MAGAZINE. Charles A. Bennett, 
 Editor. William T. Bawden, Managing Editor. 
 Assisted by a staff of associate and department editors. 
 Illustrated ; published bi-monthly. Subscription price, $1.50 
 a year. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 The Manual Arts Press, Peoria, Illinois 
 

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 One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
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