A Plea for the Criminal / Being a reply to Dr. Chapple's work: 'The Fertility of the Unfit', and an Attempt to explain the leading principles of Criminological and Reformatory Science

by James Leslie Allan Kayll

By Sloyd, we understand a system of educational hand-work. The children are employed upon various kinds of hand craft with the object of developing their mental, moral, and physical powers. The object is NOT to make artisans of the children, although undoubtedly those children who afterwards become tradesmen find that the educational principles of their trade has already been grasped by the intellect, but the same will apply to those entering any legitimate vocation without exception.

Although there are many different kinds of Sloyd, woodwork has been discovered to be the most useful, and it alone survives the severe tests imposed. A glance at the accompanying table will explain what is meant.

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF SLOYD.

Key:
A - Does it accord with children's capability?
B - Does it excite and sustain interest?
C - Are the objects made useful?
D - Does it give a respect for rough work?
E - Does it train in order and exactness?
F - Does it allow cleanliness and neatness?
G - Does it cultivate the sense of form?
H - Is it beneficial from an hygienic point of view?
I - Does it allow methodical arrangement?
J - Does it teach dexterity of hand?

Branches of Sloyd.	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J
Simple Metal Work	Yes & no	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes & no	Tolerably No	Yes	Yes?	Yes	Yes
Smith's Work	No	Hardly	Tolerably	Yes	No	No	No?	Yes & no	Perhaps	No
Basket Making	No	Hardly	Tolerably	Yes	No	Yes?	No	No	No	No
Straw Plaiting	Yes	Yes?	Yes	Yes & no	Yes	No & yes	No?	No	Yes	No
Brush Making	No?	Yes??	Yes	Yes?	Tolerably	Yes	No	No	No	No
House Painting	No	No	Yes & no	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Fretwork	Yes?	No & yes	No & yes	No	Yes	Yes	No & yes	No	No & yes	No
Bookbinding	No	No & yes	Yes Tolerably	Hardly	Tolerably	Yes?	No	No?	Perhaps	Tolerably
Cardboard Work	Yes & no	Yes?	Yes	No	Yes very high	Yes	Yes?	No	Yes	No?
Sloyd Carpentry	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes?	Yes	Yes
Turnery	No	Yes	Yes?	Hardly	partly (not quite No)	Yes?	Yes	No	No	No
Carving in Wood	Yes?	Yes & no	Yes & no	No	Yes	Yes	Yes & no	No	Yes	No
Clay Modelling	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes & no	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
From "Theory of Sloyd," Salomon.

The objects of Sloyd are:—(a) to instil a taste for, and love of, labour in general.

Note.—(For this analysis of the Sloyd system the author has based his study upon Herr Salomon's works "The theory of educational Sloyd" and "The Teacher's hand book of Sloyd.")

Children love to make things for themselves and prize their own work much more than ready made articles. The educator should follow Nature's lead and satisfy this craving. By a skilful direction of the child's interest a love for labour in general is instilled, and rewards are found to be unnecessary, the children being only too eager to achieve. To sustain their interest in the work they are engaged upon must be useful from THEIR OWN STANDPOINT. The work should not be preceded by fatiguing exercises, but the first cut should be a stroke towards the accomplishment of the desired end. The exercise must afford variety. The entire work of the exercise must be within their power and not requiring the aid of the teacher to "finish it off." It must be real work and not a pretence; and the objects should become the property of the children. To give children intricate joints to cut is of no real value. The child has no genuine interest in what are simply the parts of an exercise, it must make something complete and useful in itself. To make a garden stick accurate according to model is of more value than to make the most intricate joint. One may say that the child who could do the one could do the other, but that is not the point, for the object is not merely to gain manual dexterity but to develop all the faculties of a child, and this is what the complete exercise achieves and in what the partial exercise absolutely fails.

(b) To instil respect for rough, honest, bodily labour, which is achieved by the introduction of the work into schools of all grades so that ALL classes of the community may engage upon it, and by the teachers taking pride in it themselves, and by their intelligent teaching of it to their classes.

(c) To develop independence and self-reliance. The child requires individual attention, the teacher must not tell too much, the child should endeavour as far as possible to discover by experiment the best methods for holding and manipulating tools, and also to be allowed as much free play as possible for its judgment.