The desire to construct and create is strong in childhood, and here in basketry will be found an astonishing aid in inspiring such desire and in developing constructive ability. Children, especially boys, find it fascinating and it is a work which appeals to them in all their moods; frequently when they are unable to do any other kind of school work they turn with delight to basketry.
The child who works steadily over a basket, and may have it to weave and reweave many times before completing it satisfactorily, is not only receiving a valuable lesson in patience and thoroughness, and gaining much experience which will be of inestimable value later on in this particular work, but he is being trained into an efficient workman of the future.
Basket making, which handwork the children love best to do, not only develops their judgment, makes keen their observation, makes them discriminating, but it has a stimulating effect upon their minds and awakens in them the desire to put forth their best efforts. Hanging baskets, scrap baskets, trays, etc., mean something more to them than a piece of basket work done merely because of its utility. Instinctively they recognize the true intrinsic value of the work and that they are real workers, but also it is the beauty and the surprises in basketry development that has its strong and attractive appeal for them.
Owing to the simplicity of basketry the work is being generally accepted. The child of seven or eight years may make a simple mat and basket and find it play work, while the older child may make beautiful useful baskets and trays for the home.
Originality in the child has full play and should always be encouraged since the field of work in this ground is abundant; and he should never be discouraged, no matter how loose the weaving may be nor how crude it may look: he will soon be able, through comparison, to discover his mistakes and correct the poor work.
I would suggest that children be permitted to criticise their own and each other’s work.
The celebrating of the holiday seasons can be nicely carried out in the manual training period when the making of birthday gifts, Christmas trays, Easter baskets, sewing baskets, hanging baskets and scrap baskets can be appropriately introduced. Try this suggestion, and watch the happiness of the child who makes gifts for his loved ones.
Sequence in basketry should be followed carefully with beginners, and although it will be impossible to give in detail all the steps included in the subject, the most essential and important will be given, with many suggestions in models for advanced workers.
In conclusion, just a word to the special class teacher of backward, defective, and the backward or defective delinquents. The course presented in
this book may be used in the sequence given or adapted just as is necessary to the class of children taught. Most of the models here demonstrated have been successfully taught to children in the backward delinquent class and have been a means of promoting, mentally and morally, the welfare of the child; directing his miscontrolled energy into proper channels, besides making his school life a brighter and happier one.