Seat Weaving

Transcriber’s Note
The cover image was created by the transcriber for the convenience of the reader, and it is placed in the public domain.
By L. DAY PERRY
Supervisor of Manual Training, Joliet, Illinois, and Instructor, Department Esthetic and Industrial Education, Summer Quarters, The University of Chicago
THE MANUAL ARTS PRESS PEORIA, ILLINOIS 1917
Copyright, 1917, by L. Day Perry

Woodworking shops in manual training schools far outnumber those for other manual activities, and as a result, courses in woodwork have come to be termed the stable courses in a handwork curriculum. However, experience in woodwork alone is not sufficient, and needs to be supplemented by other and more varied activities to give to the boy a proper foundation for choice of vocation.
A definite way to produce necessary variety as applied to woodwork, especially if woodwork is the only course offered, is thru the use of such mediums as cane, reed, rush, splints and allied materials in correlation with the wood. These materials add life to the problems and generally arouse interest and enthusiasm in the work at hand. The result is careful application to construction details, with resultant appreciation of constructive design.
It would prove a difficult task to make a fair estimate of the value such mediums have in manual training shops. Their use produces very definite reactions upon boys who could not be reached by woodwork alone, awakening them to a new interest in their work and making them more workmanlike and exacting in construction.
There exists some element in such mediums which cannot be defined, but which nevertheless stimulates the average or mediocre boy, as well as the exceptional one, to produce the best work of which he is capable. Experience with these materials utilized in correlation with wood will prove the truth of these statements and demonstrate that they are not only worth while, but necessary to any well-rounded course in wood.