John D. Sutcliffe

“ HAND-CRAFT. For some generations there has been cultivated in Sweden, and amongst Scandinavian and kindred peoples, a course of training in personal ingenuity, unknown in most other countries. It does not seem to have ever been persevered in after the manner of trading industry, but as a means of promoting throughout the community a taste and skill for the performance of highly-finished productions in mechanical art, proceeding from the simple to the complex, and resulting in a widely-diffused facility for all kinds of constructive occupations. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Education being the object that should be constantly kept in view, in the teaching and practice of Hand-Craft, it should be thoroughly appreciated that it is adapted for forming and shaping the entire bent of all the faculties. ”

“ 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. In their Sloyd-lessons many of these children have found themselves the equals, some more [6] than the equals, of companions far their superiors at book-work, and have by this gained a confidence in their own ability which has often reacted on their power and their will to conquer their other lessons. ”

“ Find and mark the centre line A to B in Fig. 1 of drawings No. 18. Set the compasses to a radius from A to B, and describe, with A for the centre, the semicircle shown at the top of the Fig. Fit a 1-in. Centre-bit to the Brace, and drill a hole with A for the centre, taking care that it goes vertically through at right angles, and that there is no splitting when the bit is nearly through. With the small turning saw, cut round the semicircle at right angles, and, with the chisel, shave off and round the two corners that spring from the semicircle, also at right angles. ”

“ Genuine respect and sympathy are developed for manual toil by familiarity with its application.
Love of work in general is developed, and a taste for it instilled by practical experience of its utility. ”

“ 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. ”

“ An earnest determination to promote amendment in these respects cannot be better carried into effect than by insisting that Hand-Craft shall be regarded as an essential branch of the Technical Education that is now struggling to assert itself usefully. ”

“ So it is with Hand-Craft, with this difference, that Hand-Craft, while supplying an incentive to wholesome perseverance, developing into a fascinating recreation, is suggestive at every turn of life-long utility, with reference to an infinite variety of probable subsequent experience. ”

“ To complete the bottom side, leave the ellipse in the centre untouched, and from its outline to the outer edge of the lip of the bowl, shave with the knife so as to produce in all directions a curve corresponding to those at each end of Fig. 4. Take a shaving off the flat bottom with the smoothing plane, so as to remove the compass marks. Then file judiciously and lightly where required, scrape perfectly smooth, and finish with sand-paper. ”

“ It imparts and cultivates mechanical dexterity, just as learning to read and write spontaneously developes mental capacity. Therefore, whoever masters a course of Hand-Craft acquires an aptitude for all kinds of material processes. Such an aptitude, while useful and gratifying to the individual, is of the greatest consequence amongst people so deeply interested as the English are in manufacturing pursuits.
Hand-Craft also has strong claims to be cultivated as a recreation, and experience proves that it may be so regarded, with every prospect of becoming popular as such. ”

“ This is important, for, though it is generally easier to make something large and rough than small and smooth, no one who is incapable of making a small model well can make a large one any better. [12] Small objects are invariably the best training to work upon, as being certain to inspire appreciation for neatness, exactness, and accuracy.
BASIS OF TEACHING.
Practical teaching of Hand-Craft is based upon models for imitation. ”

“ It promotes a delightful consciousness of the merits of neat, natty tastefulness and judgment with reference to every material thing, and trains the mind and the eye, as well as the hand, to perceive and appreciate excellence of design and finish, proportion, beauty, and adaptability of the most familiar appliances. ”

“ The subsequent mission of each of those teachers is to diffuse the taste and knowledge he has thus acquired amongst his own people on his return to them, or amongst other people where he may find encouragement to settle for that purpose. ”

“ Then gauge-mark for thickness of lath shown in Fig. 4, and saw off a shade inside the gauge-lines. In like manner cut five laths, and plane each to the gauge line.
The laths being thus made, sufficient wood will be left for the supports. Make the width of the supports the same as that of the laths. After gauging and planing the supports to depth as Fig. 4, saw off to the 6-in. length. Square the ends with a chisel and set out on each the distance a a, Fig. 3. Gauge to b b, Fig. 4, and with the tenon saw, cut to the gauge-line at a a, and with the knife remove the piece between a and a. ”

“ Training of this kind has, in recent years, been much stimulated by the establishment of an Institute or Seminary for its teaching and cultivation at Nääs in Sweden, where very generous accommodation and facilities are provided for the instruction of teachers from all parts of Sweden and the rest of the world. ”