The morning call., 1893-06-18
WHAT SLOYD IS.
A Few Popular Errors
Corrected.
NOT MANUAL TRAINING ONLY
1t Is as a Character Forming Factor
That it Is Bound to Prove
of Value.
Written for THE MORNING CALL.

Sloyd, briefly defined. may be said to be
a method of mental and manual training
carried out by means of q graded system
of drawings and models, calculated to
lead the pupil from the study of one form
to another, from the use of one tool or
i'm plement to another. the training of head
and hand being carried on simultaneously,
the result sought being not an industrial
but an educational development of the in
dividpal.
But that is not what the average mind
understands by sioyd.
sit is the latest fad of the educational
cranks," says one; "a system of manual
training" thinks another; ga scheme for
pockets" declares third; while very
system by which all children are to be
taught trades" 44o ,
No one of these lay definitions is correct,
though all are from time to time heard in
explanation of what the Swedish s,oyd
system really is. It's effects as a charac-
ter building agent seem wholly unknown.
Sloyd Is not fad-auy more than evolu-
tion is fad-or the rule of three. AS a
system of education it has its foundation
in deep scientific principles. not yet uni
versally recognized. because not univer-
sally understood-as evolution is not yet
universally understo0d-but bound to
come into universal accordance as evolu-
tion will come. as the rule of three from
time out of remembrance has come.
Nor do the advocates OF sloyd propose to
mulct taxpayers. The system will rather
serve to tighten the load of this over
burdened class.
Sloyd is not, correctly speaking, a sys-
TEN of manual training. All that manual
training is slOyd is. and more, bnt its
| underlying principles are primarily
psychologist. Through the. reason the
| spirit of the child il aims to train eye,
hand. foot, until the whole nature comes
into harmonic action. Above all, though,
this is the very hardest point to make peo-
Pile understand, sloyd Is not designed TO
teach people trades.
We put hammer and saw, planer. knife,
| bit, brace and drill INTO child's hands not
| to make carpenter of him, but to teach
him to drive a nail; not to train him in a
trade. but to enable him to execute and
give to the world what his brain has
soul desires to prnduce of his share of the
worlds work The end desired is not
the rolling-pIn, the flowrr-stand or
whatever other thing he may at that time
construct. but the harm ious development
of brain, hands, bOiy-the establishment
OF the young beings Integrity by making
OF him an integer-a whole one. He
cannot be this until his whole capacity is
developed.
By training his eye to subtleties of form
and proportion, his hand TO govern ing
tools and his brain to conceiying and ex-
eculng designs, the child is taught not
merely handlcraft and the art OF making a
living, but world craft and how to live
| The eve and brain trained 70 follow and ap-
| preclate subtleties of form ard design mo e
! quickly see and grasp ST. btleties of thought
| aud business and human relationship. As
| they become skilled to discern tbs false
and the true in design and construction,
| so d o they become keen to iscriminatp
between the true and The false. the right
and the wrong in the mental and spiritual
| world. The child who learns to appreciate
right values OF size, form and shape. har-
m0ny OF Geslgn, fitness t. purpose, the whole
correct and true relation of each To EACH
| OF part TO part, In whatever he is con-
| strucJing, thereby lays hnld upon eternal
truth, eternal harmony and relationship.
1t was not accident of birth or environ
ment that produced that early American
| type OF which we meet now and then, a
| surviving specimen-the keen, shrewd
sturdy craftsman who pIaned his thoughts
and opinions down to the line of truth as
! he planeC and smoothed and shaped the
wood or iron he was fashioning to pur-
poses of use; who listened TO the words
and onIni0ns of others and matched them
10 the square of invinclble logic as he ap-
piled his inexorable square 10 the angie
he was joining; whose reason turned aside
| sophlstries as his hand brushed away the
curling shavngS from the pathway of his
plane. Little knew he in his busy life of
book lore and science and scholastic
| views of government, but his was the
! 10 I0cyi ,f hota
ness. the truth of honest han dicraft, and the
mental grasp and foresight of a mind and
body trained to plan, to see and 10 execute /;
and this Government has not yet wholly lost
the lmpeius his personality gave 1t at the
outset OF our national life. His was char
| acter-forIniug work, and character is the
end and aim of all work and all education.
Character is, really. the only thing that
counts In the sum total of our worlds
werk-and character is the quality that.
| by its absence, is becoming so woefully
| conspicuous in our national life. The de-
| generation of handicraft, the introduction
| OF the sham, the cheap. the temporary. in
our arts and manufi ctnres, has had much
| to do with the disappearance of integrity,
| OF Whole1ess and honor among our people.
We prate much of the dignity of abor,
but seldom do we stop to consider " hat we
ourselves mean by this fine-sounding g
phrase. In point of fact labor has no dig
nifty save SucD as is conferred upon it by
the laborer. If he has none neither has
his work.
But what has all this to do with sloyd {?
Everything. just as in Sweden the Gov
ernment has traced the decadence of the
| people to the decadence of the ancient
handicraft that, learned by the children
at their parents knees in the long win ter
evenings, and, handed down from parent
to child, became thoroughly ingraned in
the very foundations of national character,
| so we are learning to-day that there is some
some want that even our vauntpd public
| school system fails to meet. Slowly, ami by
degrees, the idea Ia making itself felt that
we cannot expect integers If we only put
down fractions, aud fractions, too, of
widely differing denominations. In other
words. we cannot half train boys and
girls and expect wholly trained men and
women.
So in Sweden the Government schools
are resurting to systematic training in the
old-time sloyd. and so. in this country, the
far-sighted instructors are urging the
adoption of the system as a means of
training all-round honest. right-thinking
men and women.
The word sloyd is of Icelandic origin.
and its first meaning was skill in all kinds o
handiwork. The term is used in Sweden
in that sense in one of the provincial laws
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
protecting the people in ''what they OBJ
tain by their labor, their trades, or other
IL