A Plea for the Criminal Part 7

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF SLOYD.

Key: A - Does it accord with children's capability?

B - Does it excite and sustain interest?

C - Are the objects made useful?

D - Does it give a respect for rough work?

E - Does it train in order and exactness?

F - Does it allow cleanliness and neatness?

G - Does it cultivate the sense of form?

H - Is it beneficial from an hygienic point of view?

I - Does it allow methodical arrangement?

J - Does it teach dexterity of hand?

------------------+--------+--------+---------+--------+-----------+ Branches of Sloyd.| A | B | C | D | E | ------------------+--------+--------+---------+--------+-----------+ | | | | | | Simple Metal Work |Yes & No|Yes |Yes |Yes |Yes & no | Smith's Work |No |Hardly |Tolerably|Yes |No | Basket Making |No |Hardly |Tolerably|Yes |No | Straw Plaiting |Yes |Yes? |Yes |Yes & no|Yes | Brush Making |No? |Yes?? |Yes |Yes? |Tolerably | House Painting |No |No |Yes & no |Yes |No | Fretwork |Yes? |No & yes|No & yes |No |Yes | | | | Yes | | | Bookbinding |No |No & yes|Tolerably|Hardly |Tolerably | | | | | | Yes | Card-board Work |Yes & no|Yes? |Yes |No |very high | Sloyd Carpentry |Yes |Yes |Yes |Yes? |Yes | | | | | |partly (not| Turnery |No |Yes |Yes? |Hardly |quite No) | Carving in Wood |Yes? |Yes & no|Yes & no |No |Yes | Clay Modelling |Yes |Yes |No |No |Yes & no | ------------------+--------+--------+---------+--------+-----------+ From "Theory of Sloyd," Salomon.

Table continued

------------------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------- Branches of Sloyd.| F | G | H | I | J ------------------+---------+--------+--------+--------+--------- |Tolerably| | | | Simple Metal Work | No |Yes |Yes? |Yes |Yes Smith's Work |No |No? |Yes & no|Perhaps |No Basket Making |Yes? |No |No |No |No Straw Plaiting |No & yes |No? |No |Yes |No Brush Making |Yes |No |No |No |No House Painting |No |No |No |No |No Fretwork |Yes |No & yes|No |No & yes|No | | | | | Bookbinding |Yes? |No |No? |Perhaps |Tolerably | | | | | Card-board Work |Yes |Yes? |No |Yes |No?

Sloyd Carpentry |Yes |Yes |Yes? |Yes |Yes | | | | | Turnery |Yes? |Yes |No |No |No Carving in Wood |Yes |Yes & no|No |Yes |No Clay Modelling |No |Yes |No |Yes |No ------------------+---------+--------+--------+--------+---------

The objects of Sloyd are:--(a) to instil a taste for, and love of, labour in general.

NOTE.--(For this a.n.a.lysis of the Sloyd system the author has based his study upon Herr Salomon's works "The theory of educational Sloyd" and "The Teacher's hand book of Sloyd.")

Children love to make things for themselves and prize their own work much more than ready made articles. The educator should follow Nature's lead and satisfy this craving. By a skilful direction of the child's interest a love for labour in general is instilled, and rewards are found to be unnecessary, the children being only too eager to achieve.

To sustain their interest in the work they are engaged upon must be useful from THEIR OWN STANDPOINT. The work should not be preceded by fatiguing exercises, but the first cut should be a stroke towards the accomplishment of the desired end. The exercise must afford variety. The entire work of the exercise must be within their power and not requiring the aid of the teacher to "finish it off." It must be real work and not a pretence; and the objects should become the property of the children. To give children intricate joints to cut is of no real value. The child has no genuine interest in what are simply the parts of an exercise, it must make something complete and useful in itself. To make a garden stick accurate according to model is of more value than to make the most intricate joint. One may say that the child who could do the one could do the other, but that is not the point, for the object is not merely to gain manual dexterity but to develop all the faculties of a child, and this is what the complete exercise achieves and in what the partial exercise absolutely fails.

(b) To instil respect for rough, honest, bodily labour, which is achieved by the introduction of the work into schools of all grades so that ALL cla.s.ses of the community may engage upon it, and by the teachers taking pride in it themselves, and by their intelligent teaching of it to their cla.s.ses.

(c) To develop independence and self-reliance. The child requires individual attention, the teacher must not tell too much, the child should endeavour as far as possible to discover by experiment the best methods for holding and manipulating tools, and also to be allowed as much free play as possible for its judgment.

(d) To train in habits of order, exactness, cleanliness, and neatness.

Which are acquired by keeping the models well within the children's range of ability, demanding that the work shall always be done in an orderly manner and with the greatest measure of exactness that the child is capable of. How far cleanliness and neatness may be instilled is apparent from the nature of the work.

(e) To train the eye, and the sense of form. To cultivate dexterity of hand and develop touch.

The models are of two kinds:--rectilinear and curvilinear. The former are tested by the square, the rule and the compa.s.ses, but the accuracy of the latter depends upon the eye, the sense of form and that of touch.

This training enables the child to distinguish between good and bad work and to put a right value upon the former, to understand the right use of ornament, and also cultivates the aesthetic taste upon cla.s.sic lines. An enormous number of jerry built articles are sold, which the public readily buy simply on account of their ornamental appearance. If the ability to distinguish between good and bad work were more universal it would go far towards improving trade morality.

(f) To cultivate habits of attention, interest, etc. The success of the work requires that the mind shall be closely concentrated upon it. The nature of the work excites the interest of the child, and under careful direction this interest is sustained throughout. A genius has been described as a man capable of taking pains--a master of detail. Sloyd is eminently suited for concentrating the attention upon the details of work and for training the Sloyder to be thorough and never content with "making a thing do."

The desire of the child to finish the work and to finish it well, overrides any element of impatience or irritability that may be in his character, and in a natural way introduces the elements of patience and perseverance in his work. These qualities are not confined to his Sloyd work but extend throughout his character, so that he realises that the work of life all contributes to some definite aim.

(g) Uniform development of the physical powers. Statistics collected from any country show that many forms of disease before unknown among the young, are now very prevalent among the children taught in the schools. These diseases are attributed to the many hours during which children are required to sit and to the bad positions they a.s.sume during those hours. Skoliosis--curvature of the spine--a serious disease, as it produces displacement of the internal organs, nose bleeding, aenemia, chlorosis, nervous irritation, loss of appet.i.te, headache, and myopia, are diseases which are declared by experts to accompany the present system of education.

Sloyd when properly taught tends to develop the frame according to the normal standard. It may not be as good as gymnastics in this direction: but it has this advantage that it trains the pupil to engage in his work in such a manner as not to hinder nor stunt the development of his body, and not to cramp the vital organs in such a manner as to interfere with the discharge of their functions. The pupils are taught to use both hands and to develop both sides of the body. The following chart from Herr Salomon's work will show to what degree the body may develop on a lopsided manner when one side only is used in performing work. The chart shows the sectional measurement of the chest of a boy of thirteen years of age who for three years had worked at a bench using the right side only.

The foregoing brief a.n.a.lysis may show the ends which Sloyd is destined to accomplish, and upon the value of those ends no explanation is required. Habits of industry, patience and perseverance are inculcated.

The child learns to know his own power and how best to use it. His tastes are cultivated and he learns to love work and understand the true dignity of labour. Such results are not the results of the copy book but they are permanently impressed upon the child's character. That such an education must react upon the parent is obvious. The child's life is full of aim and he does everything with a purpose, and in such a child only the most depraved parent will fail to take interest, and children have this characteristic, that they force their knowledge upon the notice of their parents whenever they can. The boy who begins to learn house painting soon expresses the wish to paint his own home; if carpentry, he wishes to build a shed; if joinery, he wishes to make a table; and how often one notices a home where tidiness and order are due to the educated child, and where taste in furnishing is accounted for by the daughter's cultivated aesthetic taste. Children then, so trained as the Sloyd system provides, may contribute enormously to the happiness and brightness of the home life. Instead of regarding them as a burden their parents will behold them with delight and pride, and instead of looking out for "something for them to do," indifferent whether it be driving a cart, selling in a shop, or clerking in a lawyer's office, they will find that the child himself has a definite idea of where his after course should lie, and they will do their utmost towards a.s.sisting him to follow it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _To perceive the amount of distortion, fold the paper along the axis of the diagram, and hold it between the eye and the light._

_From "Theory of Sloyd"_--SALOMON.]

It cannot be supposed that Sloyd will succeed in the midst of incongruous surroundings. To train the eye to a sense of the beautiful in a dirty schoolhouse is somewhat difficult. The glorious handiwork of G.o.d will not be taught in the playground which, with its mudholes, ruts, and filth, more resembles a cattle yard than anything else. A school and its grounds must at least show that the authorities themselves really appreciate the lessons they are endeavouring to have instilled into the minds of their scholars. So, too, a similar system must underlie the method of teaching the ordinary lessons at the school desk. How many children will say "I love history but I detest dates"? What value are the dates? Let history be taught as Fitchett teaches it in his "Deeds that won the Empire" and the end will be accomplished, patriotism will be inspired, and the nation loved. Dates, names of deeds, causes of war, international policies may easily be introduced incidentally. Let geography be taught as Fraser teaches it in his "Real Siberia" or Savage Landor in his "In the Forbidden Land" and the map will be studied with interest and the subject never forgotten. Let the notation be dispensed with until the child understands the problem or theorem and Euclid will become fascinating.

Without a shadow of doubt the best preventive of crime is an universal system of education so designed that the whole interest of the child is absorbed in its work. An absolute solution of the whole problem undoubtedly requires that the religious education of the child be also undertaken and effectively carried out. The question of the religious education of the young is one which is exciting attention throughout the whole of the English speaking world. There are those who advocate that instruction in the Bible lessons should be given by teachers during school hours to the scholars attending the Government schools, and there are those who vigorously oppose such a course.

The advocates base their arguments upon their belief that no system of education which ignores religious teaching can be effective or complete.

Their opponents declare that it is unjust to call upon the teachers of a secular education to give instruction in religion, or for the State to, in any way, subsidise the various religious denominations or to supplement their efforts in this particular direction. Both sides pet.i.tion the Government and both sides prepare the people for a possible referendum upon the question.

The State cannot be expected to regard the matter from other than a purely utilitarian standpoint. "Will it make the people better citizens?" it enquires. "Will it lesson crime and promote honesty, thrift and loyalty?" These questions still remain unanswered, and in the midst of so much rationalistic teaching, and especially with the example of the n.o.ble lives of many rationalists before it, the State believes that there is room for much difference of opinion, and therefore it cannot move in the matter. The advocates of religious education seem to take it for granted that their beliefs are una.s.sailable and that they are simply fighting against the powers of Darkness: but they forget that they are doing very little to bring others to hold the same convictions as themselves. It should not be a difficult task to answer to the utilitarian position with an emphatic affirmative and to bring conclusive evidence to support that affirmative. Where, it may be asked, are to be found the men who are leaders in thought and action who have, without any religious influence whatever, risen from the depths of misery, crime and filth? Where are to be found the families now living in honesty and virtue, though still in poverty, families in the midst of which every form of wickedness was once to be seen, who owe nothing to religious influence? The rationalist may claim that when his educational theories are adopted and put into practice all dens of misery and vice will disappear, but he cannot support his statement with convincing proofs. The teacher of religion is infinitely better off. While he strenuously supports the adoption of better and larger educational effort, he insists that, in order to gain the active co-operation of those on behalf of whom it is to be employed, religious influences must be brought to bear, and for the support of his statement he need only say "open your eyes and look around you."

The influence of religion in regaining criminals cannot be gainsaid by any, and the United States Educational Report for 1897-98 declares that it is most important for the inculcation of sound morality, that children should, from a very early age, be brought under the influence of good religious teaching.

When the State is convinced that religious education is an absolute necessity, it will approach the question of ways and means with a determination that a satisfactory solution must be arrived at, and what it will then demand is not so much an emasculated Bible as the bringing to bear upon the children of the vital regenerative influences of religion.

Chapter IX.

SOME AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS:--

THE PROBATION SYSTEM.

THE ELMIRA SYSTEM.

=The Probation System.=--In several of the States of America an attempt has been made to devise a subst.i.tute for imprisonment in the cases of persons convicted for minor offences.

The State of Ma.s.sachusets was the first to take the lead by initiating a somewhat elaborate system of probation.

Briefly described, it is an attempt to reform a prisoner OUTSIDE.

Imprisonment for minor offences has had many bad features and should, where possible, be avoided. Firstly, there is the stigma that attaches to every man who has worn the broad-arrow. Secondly, there is the loss of self-respect which, together with the contaminating influences existing in a prison, often convert the minor offender into the hardened criminal. Thirdly, there are the hardships that the wife and family are called upon to endure while the bread-winner is in gaol and not earning wages.

The Probation System seeks to overcome all these difficulties. Instead of sentencing an offender to a period of imprisonment, the judge confides him to the care of the probation officer for a period co-terminous with that which he would otherwise have had to spend in prison. The minimum period of this sentence is six months, and the average about twelve months.

In the cases of female offenders and of youths under the age of 18 years the probation officer is usually a woman; for adult males, a man acts as officer.

The officers are invested with very considerable authority. It is their duty to keep the very closest watch over their wards and to report continually upon their behaviour. They frequently visit the homes and do their utmost to become acquainted with the conditions of the home and industrial life under which their wards live. The visits are so arranged that they by no means imply an official errand, the officers endeavour to discover the weaknesses of their wards and the temptations to which they are most likely to succ.u.mb, and as far as possible to remove them out of the reach of these temptations or to strengthen them against their power. Some officers provide for meetings to be held for those committed to their charge. Especially is this the case with those who have the charge over youthful offenders. At such meetings games, edifying entertainment and instruction are provided. It is also quite competent for an officer to receive the wages of a probationer. In these cases, he will give the man's wife a sufficient sum to meet the ordinary household expenditure, allow him enough for his personal expenses, and retain a small sum to be returned when the period of probation has expired. This course is invariably pursued in the case of drunkards. A drunkard may, upon the authority of the probation officer, be forbidden to enter a public-house or to enter it during certain hours only, and he may also be obliged to remain at home after a certain hour. In fact, the probation officer may make almost any such rules that he thinks best to be observed by his ward, and there is always the threat of being sent to prison to discharge his sentence, if he should refuse to behave properly when under probation.

To have an officer constantly watching over a man may affix a certain stigma to the man, but even so, it is not indelible nor nearly so great as that which the prison leaves behind it. To make this disadvantage as small as possible, the officers wear no uniform and, within their prescribed area, work among the convicted and unconvicted alike.

The type of officer required is not easily found. Of humane instincts, and yet a firm disciplinarian, well educated, competent to give good advice and able to gain the affections and confidences of those amongst whom they work, is the type of person required. The ex-soldier or the ex-policeman is just the man who is NOT wanted. The advantages of this system Miss E. P. Hughes thus sums up:--

Firstly.--Instead of a few highly-paid officials and many badly paid warders, you have a number of independent, well-paid probation officers, chosen for their knowledge of human nature, and their skill in reforming it.