Book Description

Excerpt from Hand-Craft: The Most Reliable Basis of Technical Education in Schools and Classes, a Text Book, Embodying a System of Pure Mechanical Art, Without the Aid of Machinery; Being an English Exposition of Slöjd, as Cultivated in Sweden, and Generally Adopted by All Scandi It is surprising that so few efforts have hitherto been made in this country to introduce manual training into Elementary Schools. Adequate reason for making such training part of the national system of education exists in the fact, that a large proportion of the people have to earn their livelihood by industries for the attainment of a high degree of skill in which early training of hand and eye is as necessary as it is for success in the use of musical instruments. There can be no doubt that if, in 1870, a system, resembling that of Sloyd, had been generally introduced into English Elementary Schools, the joiners, metal-workers, and most other craftsmen of to-day, would possess more skill in their own work, and more interest in all kinds of manual work, than they do now possess, and that English work people, finding that their children received at school kinds of training obviously well fitted to increase wage-earning power, would less commonly than now be careless with regard to their children's attendance at school. This reason for desiring the introduction of manual training into Elementary Schools might have been expected to suggest itself to all persons who are acquainted with the conditions under which the mass of English people live; but experience gained in Sweden and other countries where the Sloyd system has been largely used, proves that there are also strong educational reasons for desiring that Sloyd shall be introduced into all English Elementary Schools as soon as possible. It has been found that this admirably graduated system of training not only fosters deftness of hand and correctness of eye, as it might be expected to do, but also has distinctly moral and intellectual effects, as it promotes patient attention, steady application, and interest in work, to a very high degree. Its effect on many of the large class of children who, though not dullards, show lack of interest in, and deficiency in the power to understand, the subjects comprised in the ordinary school-curriculum, has been most beneficial. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.