The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-12-28
BY HAND TO HEAD
The "Sloyd System " in
Our Education.
GRADED MANUAL TRAINING.
Mrs. Charles Webb Howard Its
Chief Sponsor.
A NOTED EXPONENT LECTURES.
The Plan Originated i'm Sweden and
Has Now Reached Cultured
Oakland.
GRADED MANUAL TRAINING.
A NOTED EXPONENT LECTURES

The educational atmosphere which is
supposed to be we'll charged with pedagogic
ozone in the city of churches and schools
across she bay seems to have a decidedly
murky hue just now.
Indeed veritable reformation is in prog
ress there. the keynote of which is man
ual training. or as the reformers techni-
cally call it, the slOyd system.
The leader in this most important move
ment is also one of the leaders of social
life on this coast, Mrs. Charles Webb How
ard.
This intelligent and active woman has
set society talking many times before.
Her charming residence on Alice street is
always open to those men and women who
bring to US what is best and new and pro-
gressiye in art and life. Her parlor talks
have become proverDial in the cultured cir
cles about the bay.
Ii Is now some time since she became in
tensely interested in manual training
and she has frequently opened her house
to educate the School Directors. the public
school principals and even university pro-
fessOrs up to her ideas
reformation and opposition always have
gone together. ltis not an altogether easy
task to pierce the Uranium of university
president or of high school principal on
this coast with an educational idea that Is
both new and valuable.
You see," the reformers explain.
things are so different here. A cluster
OF cultured cities such as Boston, Phila-
delDhIa, Brooklyn and New York devel0p
and circulate with exceeding rapidlty new
and progressive ideas; but here the lsOla-
ton and the consequent ruts which our
ancient and eminenty respectable educa-
tlonal dlgnltares have fallen into make
the life OF new idea. even when it has
the vitality TO get above the surface, a
somewhat hazardous proposition"
Inc particular cause bringing "Sloyd"
to the front at this time is the visit to this
coast Of Gustaf LARSON, principal of the
Sloyd Training School of Boston. This
weil-known teacher has come at the
Instance of Miss Blake, who proposes to
incorporate his ideas into her school
Mrs. Howard seized the opportunity, ana
lecture at the Oakland High School last
evening was her coup.
Mr.. Larson explained to the interested
audience his methods and how his system
differs from what Is known and practiced
In San francisco and Oakland as manual
training. The idea of industrial training,
carpentry, or, as the so-called practical
man says. Learning trade" is what is
attempted In these cities, and all this, he
saws, is furthest from the idea of sloyd.
The 5l0yd system had its origin in
Sweden, where IL has been practiced for
over twenty years. The word sIoyd means
manual training for the sake of general
development, physical, mental and moral,
and 1t also means a kind of hand work
which will best slim ulate the right kind of
head work.
The methods are based on the following
ideas: The exercises should follow in a
progressive order from the simple to the
complex without an injurious break.
There should be the greatest possible
tension, confusion or physical strain.
Some useful and complete article should
be the result sought at the very outset
Beauty OF form and proportion should be
united to utility. A beginning is made
with children just out of the Kindergarten.
Drawing from models is the first step.
The knife is the first and fundamental
tool. Sloyd demands carefully trained
teacher
This is the point which the Oakland re-
formers first propose to win. The Oak
land School Department has an adequate
sum of money which 1t intends to devote
TO manual training.
There seems little doubt that The Oak
land schools will be the first to incorpor-
ate the Sloyd system. Superint ndent
MeCiymonds and Principal McChesney
took MI Larson 10 the educational con-
vention at Stockton on Friday evening,
Mr.. LARSON will meet the Berkeley, PalO
Alto and local educators in the artrooms
of Mr.. Nickery, 224 Post street.
Letters from Senator George G. Perkins
and Francis A. Walker, president of the
Massachusetts, Institute of Technology.
have added much to the enthusiasm of the
reformers. General Walker in his letter
TO Mrs. Howard says enthusiastically:
While there is much extravaganza and some
folly In the utterances of those who strongly
favor this Kind OF instruction | am convinced
that IL IS TO bring almost incalculable blessings
social. educational. personal, TO The next gen.
Grafton.
After referring her to publications on the
subject he says:
have one other utterance yet TO make
Wnen tnat VIII come L do not know. bur NV
mind has been dwelling lately on the value OF
manual training as means of STRENGTHENING
weak cords and tendonS, Strengthening crooked
limbs aud twisted joints. aud correcting de.
formties and lnfrmities generally in the mind
When we go TO an orthopedc hospital we are
shocked and disheartened. but we console orr
selves by saying, "Well. IL is but one child in n
thousand who comes here" We go to school,
room ana look about on room full (too full, OF
course) OF children with pretty, bright faces
who can answer lots OF questions Zoo many, 10
facD and do lots OF things and we do not in
spect the existence OF mental defects of one
KIND or another. IL is my belief that manual
training Is coming In TO correct, straghen ana
strengthen minds of the children much as the
ortbopedlc surgery does their deformed feet. /
don't believe that with a generation of men
trained In the mechanic arts there would be
one railroad accident where there are now five.
These are also the sentiment. of Mrs
Howard and her disciples. The present
head OF the manual training department
of Oakland calls all this bosh. Which ar
gument will prevail with the School Di-
rectors will soon be known. and the educa-
tiOnal hubDub will then then subsde 10
hoa ton rnf,