Primary Handwork Part 10

For the rings use reeds, venetian iron, or hoops from small buckets or cart wheels. Wrap the rings with raffia or yarn. Make at least three rings of varying sizes. (See Fig. 60.)

Playing ring toss and keeping tally makes an excellent number game.

_Ten Pins._--From bogus or other heavy paper roll and paste cylinders about three inches in diameter and about twelve inches long. These may be set on end, and any of the common ten pin games played with the help of a soft rubber ball. Keeping tally gives excellent practice in number.

_Bean Bag Game._--Draw three circles of different sizes on a large sheet of heavy cardboard. Carefully cut out the circles with a sharp-pointed knife. Mount a picture of some animal on each piece cut out.

Fasten the pieces back in place by a single cloth hinge pasted on the back, and at the lowest part of the circle.

Tack the sheet of cardboard to a light wooden frame to keep it from bending.

Let the frame rest against the wall at a slight angle. Bean bags thrown at the animals will knock them down as they go through the holes. The bean bags should be made by the children. Various number games may be played with bean bags.

CHAPTER IX

HOLIDAYS

The various holidays which come during the year mean so much to little children that they should receive special notice and should suggest the form of handwork to be done at the time.

=Thanksgiving= suggests attention to harvest products, to be modeled in clay, cut from paper, or drawn with crayon; the making of sand-table scenes showing early New England life in various phases; the making of various utensils and commodities of the primitive home which differ from our own; as, for example, the making of candles, the hour gla.s.s, and the sundial.

=Christmas= suggests the making of toys and all sorts of things suitable for gifts. If the work centers around the Christmas tree, it offers opportunity for cooperation in making tr.i.m.m.i.n.g such as paper chains, pop-corn strings, etc., as well as individual gifts. If a tree is not obtainable, a box may be dressed up in imitation of Santa's sleigh drawn by cardboard reindeer. Whatever else is done in honor of the visit of St.

Nicholas, the spirit of giving should be cultivated by making gifts to some younger or less fortunate groups. Picture books may be made for sick children, doll furniture and other toys for the orphans' home or some family of unfortunates. A sack might arrive a week or two before Christmas accompanied by a telegram from Santa requesting contributions to help him out in some specific way and stating that it would be called for at a certain time. When a "real Santa" calls for the sack, he may leave in its place another containing some unexpected treat for the children themselves. The gifts which the children contribute should be of their own making, that they may have a full sense of real giving and not merely the pleasure of delivering the parcels mother has provided.

=Valentine's Day= offers an opportunity for developing appreciation of a higher form of art than the shop windows frequently offer, and also investing with pure, sweet sentiment a day which means, in some quarters, only vulgar sentimentality and coa.r.s.e jests.

=Easter= offers a similar opportunity for emphasis on the fine things in color and subjects for greeting cards. The season also suggests emphasis on study of budding plants and young animal life by means of cutting, painting, and modeling.

=Hero days= suggest a variety of forms of handwork, such as picture making with crayons or cuttings, or pictures in three dimensions on the sand table, for intensifying important phases of the hero's life; ill.u.s.trated stories in booklet form; and the making of "properties" for dramatic representations. These things offer a welcome change from the stereotyped "Speaking day," and stimulate originality and self-reliance.

So much has been written and so many suggestions are constantly being offered in school journals that specific suggestions for _things to make_ seem superfluous here.

=Individual Problems.=--While community problems must form a large part of the handwork in the lower grades, it is desirable to have, from time to time, projects which seek a definite result from each pupil. In the community problem it is possible for the strong pupil to monopolize the values of the work by imposing his ideas upon his fellows and by doing all the work while the slower pupils are getting ready to begin. In the same way it is possible for the lazy pupil to shirk much of his responsibility through the eagerness of his companions. It is therefore necessary to maintain a balance by the use of individual problems of a more definite type. These may often be specific parts of the community problem, but this will not meet all the needs of the case. The special days offer excellent occasion for work of this sort in addition to the cooperative problems which are undertaken by the cla.s.s as a whole.

CHAPTER X

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS AND SUMMARY

=Modification of Outlines.=--All the projects outlined in the foregoing pages are capable of modification and adaptation to the needs of several grades. For this reason, in nearly every problem, many more suggestions are offered than will often be applicable in any one instance of its development. The directions are, for the most part, given from the standpoint of the first grade, on the principle that it is easier to add to the detail of a problem than to simplify it. On the other hand, the directions are not generally specific in detail, in order to prevent as far as possible a mechanical copying of any project.

=Emphasis on Self-expression.=--It is desired to place special emphasis upon the point that each project undertaken, if it is to reach its highest value, must come as fully as possible from the children themselves and be to the very fullest extent _their self-expression_.

_Not any house described in this book, nor any house seen in another schoolroom, nor even the house which I, as teacher, plan in detail, will be most valuable to my cla.s.s_; but rather _our house_, which _we, teacher and pupils_ working together, evolve to suit our own needs and fancies, using suggestions gathered from every available source, but adapting them to our own needs.

=Self-directed Activity and Discipline.=--The terms "self-directed activity" and "self-expression" must not be confounded with the idea of letting the children do as they please in any random and purposeless fashion. If one were to start out to escort a group of children to a certain hilltop, it is quite probable that some of them would run part of the way. Others would walk in twos and threes, and these would change about. They would halt to look at things that attracted their attention.

The leader would halt them to observe some interesting point which they might otherwise miss. Should any of them wander from the right path the leader would call them back, and any frail child would be helped over the hard places. Yet with all this freedom the group might move steadily forward and reach the hilltop in due time.

All progress up the hill of knowledge should follow a similar plan. The teacher should have a very definite idea of the end to be attained. The children should work with a purpose, and that purpose should be of such immediate interest to them that they would be anxious to attain it. They would then work earnestly, and discipline would settle itself. Handwork projects should be sufficiently simple to allow each worker to see his way through, or at least find his way without waiting for directions at each step. Instead of a blind following of such directions the worker should at all times feel himself the master of his tools and materials and be able to make them obey his impulse and express his idea. This att.i.tude toward work can be secured only when the work is kept quite down to the level of the child's ability and appreciation. Only by this means can we hope to establish the inspiring and strengthening "habit of success."

=Introduction of New Methods.=--The question arises, How shall work of this sort be adapted to a course of study which is already full and does not provide time for handwork? Handwork takes more time than bookwork, and children evolve plans but slowly. If the teacher waits for the children to evolve plans and then carry them out on their own responsibility, the quant.i.ty of work produced will be small and the quality poor compared with the results gained by other methods.

The freer method must be justified, not by its tangible results, but by its value as a means of individual development. If it is true that

"One good idea known to be thine own Is worth a thousand gleaned from fields by others sown,"

then it follows that a small quant.i.ty of crude work may often represent greater genuine growth than a larger quant.i.ty of nicely finished work, if the latter has been accomplished by such careful dictation that individual thought on the part of the pupils was unnecessary.

Common sense is the best guide in introducing a new method of work. Any sudden transition is likely to be disastrous. Responsibility in new fields should be shifted from teacher to pupils as rapidly as they are able to carry it, but it should never be transferred in wholesale fashion. This is especially true of a cla.s.s that is accustomed to wait for the teacher's permission or command in all the small details of schoolroom life, such as speaking, moving about the room, etc.

The freer methods may be introduced by either of two plans. In carrying through the first sand-table project, for example, the teacher may plan the details quite as definitely as is her custom in general work, a.s.sign each part to a particular pupil, and guide his execution of it as far as necessary. With each succeeding project more and more freedom may be granted, as the children become accustomed to community work and learn how to use the materials involved. Or, the work may be introduced by allowing two or three very trustworthy pupils to work out, quite alone, some simple project which will appeal to the entire cla.s.s as very desirable. Other projects may be worked out by other pupils as they show themselves worthy of trust. Such a plan sets a premium upon independence and ability to direct one's own actions, and has a beneficial effect upon general discipline. Each individual teacher must follow the plan which best accords with her individual habits and the conditions under which she works. No rule can be rated as best under any and all circ.u.mstances.

=New and Different Projects.=--Teachers frequently spend time and nerve force seeking new projects supposedly to stimulate the interest of the children. Often a careful examination into the true motives back of the search would prove that it is not so much to stimulate the interest of the children as to call forth the admiration of other teachers. Because a house was built last year does not hinder the building of another this year. If the children are allowed ample freedom, the houses will not be alike. If the teacher is centering her interest in the development of the children and not in the things the children make, the projects will always be new because worked out in a new way by a different group of children.

Monotony comes about through the teacher's attempt to plan out details and impose them upon the children, a process quite similar to the use of predigested foods.

=Quality of Work.=--Methods such as outlined above are sometimes criticized because of the crudity of the results. It is sometimes argued that the crude work establishes low standards and that better finished work of a more useful type is more desirable in school projects. Certainly everything which is done in school should be useful. School years are too precious to be wasted, in any degree, on a thing which is useless. But it is important to have a right standard for measuring the usefulness of a project. Since it is the child's interest and effort which are to be stimulated, his work must be useful from his point of view. The things that he works upon must be valuable to him personally. It is not enough for the teacher to be satisfied with the value of the subject matter. It must, as far as possible, be self-evident to the child himself.

In the growing period a child is always anxious to excel himself and attain a higher level, nearer the adult standards. He measures his growth, not only in inches, but in ability to run faster, jump farther, count higher, and so on. So long as he is stimulated by an interesting motive he puts forth his best effort. It is only when we set him tasks and demand blind obedience that he lags. If his crude work represents his best effort, honestly put forth, he will, and he does, desire to do something better each time he tries. If he is permitted to work freely upon projects of immediate interest to him, he not only becomes familiar with various materials and the purposes they may serve, but he also begins to realize his inability to make them always obey his impulse. As soon as he discovers that there are better and easier ways of working which bring about more satisfactory results, he is anxious to learn the tricks of the trade; and he comes to the later, more technical courses in handwork, not only with more intelligence, but also with an appreciation of their value which is reflected in the quality of his work.

=Summary.=--The last word, as the first in this little book, would stress the fact that it is always possible to improve present conditions.

Activity is an essential factor in a child's development in school as well as out. Handwork is an important phase of this necessary activity. Neither lack of time, scarcity of material, nor lack of training on the part of the teacher is a sufficient excuse for failure to use some handwork in every school. Much can be accomplished with materials which are to be found anywhere, without using more time than is ordinarily devoted to the subject, and with better results, if we will but realize that educative handwork is not confined to the making of a few books, boxes, mats, or baskets after a prescribed pattern, however good in themselves these may be, but is also a means through which we may teach other subject matter.

We not only learn to do by doing, but we come to _know_ through trying to _do_. And we often learn more through our failures than through our successes. We defraud the children if we deprive them of this important factor in their development. Any teacher who is willing to begin with what she has and _let the children do_ the best they can with it, will find unexpected resources and greater opportunities at every hand.

Let us not allow ourselves to grow disheartened through vain wishes for the impossible or for the advantages of some other field, but attack our own with vigor and determination; for

"The common problem, yours, mine, every one's Is--not to fancy what were fair in life Provided it could be--but, finding first What may be, then find how to make it fair Up to our means."