1. It should arouse and hold the interest of the pupils.
2. Correct methods of handling tools should be taught so that good technique may be acquired by the pupils.
3. Tool work should be accompanied by a study of materials and tools used in their relations to industry. Special attention should be given to the study of trees—their growth, classification, characteristics and use.
4. Drawing should be studied in its relation to the work done.
5. The principles of construction in wood should be taught thru observation, illustration and experience.
6. At least a few problems should be given which involve invention or design or both, thereby stimulating individual initiative on the part of the pupils.
The course is arranged in groups, each group representing a type of work. These groups are given in the order of procedure. The teacher is expected to provide problems of the greatest value educationally. This means that the things to be made should be worth making and that the process of making them should be interesting to the student.
From this it follows that the things to be made must come to the pupil in an order which gives reasonable consideration to the difficulties to be encountered in making them.
Our outline will aim to present the work so as to meet the conditions specified above. It has been thoroly tested over a period of years in public school work. It follows the group plan. The advantages of the group system are distinct. It permits class instruction and therefore minimizes the amount of demonstrating and talking that the instructor must do by preventing needless repetition. By grouping a number of projects having similar tool operations it permits a boy to satisfy his individual needs without interfering with the orderly presentation of the subject matter. It provides work for the fast worker of an interesting and profitable nature until the slow worker completes the minimum requirement. It provides for the “repeater,” who often has to repeat, not because of poor work in manual training but because of poor work in academic studies, by giving him choice of different models upon which to work. In general, the group plan possesses the manifest advantages of class instruction at the same time making allowance for the individuality of the worker.