" Every task, however simple, Sets the soul that does it free."
FROM time immemorial man has worked with his hands, and his time and attention have been utilized in the production of things both useful and ornamental.
"Necessity" very often was the "mother of invention," and the need for food, shelter, and clothing led to the gradual development of industries, from the simple handwork to the elaborate products of the factory system of to-day.
Whether, then, through necessity, or simply because of joy in expression through the hands, the world is to-day a rich treasure- house stored with the wonderful products which man has created. The instinct for production is not dead, but will last as long as man, for to create is a divine and God-given instinct.
Froebel, in his study of the child, realized that his natural activity could be utilized, and turned into channels which would lead to his gradual development, physical, moral, and intellectual. He believed in the development of head, heart, and hand.
For that purpose he introduced the gifts, occupations, songs, and plays, and allowed the child to invent and create. Joy and happiness in work were the results.
For some time kindergarten training was a precarious feature in education, but now that this branch has been incorporated into the public-school systems and colleges, and finds a place even in university work, it seems an assured fact that children are to receive some of their early training in the kindergarten.
Here their crude ideas are worked out through the materials offered, and the child improves in his ability to express himself with his hands for expression is necessary if images are to be clear.
This handwork satisfies the early craving of the child for play and the practical, and the gifts and occupations become playthings in his hands, but, unknown to him, things of educational value.
When the child leaves the kindergarten and passes to the grade school, too often the change is a very abrupt one.
There is a lack of the old-time freedom, and an absence of the play materials. Children then begin to lose interest, and the attention is often forced rather than spontaneous, and teaching ceases to be as effective.
As a help in alleviating this difficulty, handwork as one of the mediums of expression has been introduced into many of the grade schools, sometimes in correlation with other subjects, but more often simply in an occupational Wray.
Handwork as manual training is most effective when taught in relation to the other work of the grade, so that there is unity and a harmonious development.
By manual training is meant not simply work which is spontaneously interesting and keeps the child alert and active, but work which is educationally effective.
This effectiveness is in the hands of the teacher, and will be worked out by her if she understands the theory back of real manual training.
This little book is in answer to a number of demands which have come from different parts of the country. Busy mothers at home, grade teachers and settlement-workers are constantly asking, "What can I do with my children?
They want something to do." The object of this book is simply to furnish some ideas and to act as a suggestive medium; in no way does it attempt to correlate the work for the teacher. It has been left for her to utilize the material here offered in working out her schemes for unity in the development of the class work.
In the study of various kinds of handwork for children, one will find that they are most interested in form when it is associated with function or color; that children are interested in things in connection with people, animals, and plants, and when they can construct something in which they can feel the sense of self, as the cause of that construction, the joy of expression brings great happiness.
Constructive handwork offers many opportunities for the development of design, and often a detail of design lends an atmosphere of greater reality to an object, especially when the object made is of miniature size and is for play-use, as a doll's table-cover, cushion, chair, hat, etc.
Children feel many things in their imagination, and a little touch of reality in design furthers that imaginative thought.
Many opportunities are offered in this work for the teaching of harmony of color, for the adaptation of design to use, and for the correct placing of design in relation to the space offered for decoration.
Teachers are urged to lay particular emphasis on the design, which in previous years has been very much neglected. "The highest aim of art is to make some useful thing beautiful."
The writers have realized the necessity for keeping the cost of the articles made at a minimum. As represented, perhaps a few are beyond the average public-school treasury or purse of the settlement- worker, but they can, almost without exception, be reproduced in less expensive materials.
The work will be equally valuable, only in the cheaper goods there is not always the same opportunity for harmony of color and for artistic production.
Perfect and accurate work should not be expected from young children, but the teacher must consider the age and ability of the child, and judge the results accordingly.
A very crude piece of work, produced perhaps by a child in some school of reform nature, may have been of far more help and value in that child's development than that produced under far more favorable circumstances.
The writers hope that within these covers may be found suggestions for the teachers of such little people as especially need help, and that the book may be the means later on in life of introducing them to much broader fields of expression through which great joy may come to them and be given to the world.
