Correlated courses in woodwork and mechanical drawing

by Ira Samuel Griffith

With the limited time allowed manual training, at most one-half day each week in the general educational scheme, a seventh grade beginner has about all he can well manage in becoming familiar with his subject matter, with learning to handle his tools and work his material.

But one group in the seventh grade will admit of decorative design. These problems, Group VI, have purposely been made simple as to woodwork that the pupil may give most of his attention to the design. In eighth grade, modifications of outline and dimensions of any project are permitted where a fair degree of merit is shown. Modifications of joints or fastenings are not to be made, however, unless a pupil wishes to transfer a project from some other group into the group in which the class is working.

In high school the pupil is expected to “work up” in his drawing class projects original in so far as his ability will permit, subject to limitations mentioned hereafter.

Eighth grade boys are expected to make at least one application of decorative design to the pieces of woodwork made. The projects made by the high school boys are, as a rule, not so well calculated to take decorative design. Their efforts at decorative design will come later in connection with the metalwork of the first year.

In high school the design is to be taught by special drawing teachers who have informed themselves of the limitations of the shop methods when it comes to applying these designs. It is for the shop instructor to specify the kind of joint or joints that are to be used and the material, also the limitations as to decoration. Present methods of organization in high schools hardly permit of the teaching of shopwork and design and by the same instructor, which is the ideal way providing, of course, that the instructor is expert in both. This is a combination difficult to find. It is gratifying, however, to know that some schools are insisting that their shop men become informed in design as well as shopwork.

While these drawings are being worked up in the drafting room the pupil’s shop periods are given over to the making of the exercise joints and mastering the principles involved in their making. By the time these exercises are completed, the working drawing will be completed ready for use in the shop.

The proper correlation of design and shopwork is not a problem beyond solution, because of the direct relation of the two departments, providing there is a strong administrative head able to secure proper esprit de corps. In the grammar schools, however, the problem becomes less satisfactory of solution by correlation.

The first objection lies in the fact that the regular grade teacher has both boys and girls to teach and the problems must therefore be the same for the whole room. The second objection lies in the fact that the problem in design has to pass thru too many hands before it reaches the boy. If design is to be taught to the best advantage, it must have the interest of the teacher and she must have an intelligent understanding not only of the subject of design but of the particular problem that is to be presented. The difficulties in the way are not insurmountable where the drawing supervisor herself presents the problem to the pupils. Even here, however, one frequently finds the drawing supervisor so much more interested in the freehand drawing that her dislike for the design makes her unfitted for such correlation work.

When, however, as is the case in cities, the drawing supervisor must reach the pupils thru the regular teacher, correlation becomes in most every instance a farce. The teaching of design is another imposition on an already overburdened grade teacher. Very seldom does she understand the problem and it becomes a distasteful subject to be got over in the easiest way possible. Department teaching in the upper grammar grades would do much to aid in the correlation of drawing and shop. Until this is made possible, we can hope for little in the way of results from grammar school correlation, unless it be in a small system where the supervisor teaches the children directly.

The whole subject of design as it relates to woodworking is a constant source of discussion among manual training shop men. Many good teachers insist that design has no place at all in a course in woodworking. Others admit that it ought to have a place but feel that the results obtained do not justify the time spent upon it. Still others approach the whole field of woodworking from the side of design, tool processes and organized woodworking subject matter being mere incidents to the problem in design.