(d) To train in habits of order, exactness, cleanliness, and neatness.
Which are acquired by keeping the models well within the children's range of ability, demanding that the work shall always be done in an orderly manner and with the greatest measure of exactness that the child is capable of. How far cleanliness and neatness may be instilled is apparent from the nature of the work.
(e) To train the eye, and the sense of form. To cultivate dexterity of hand and develop touch.
The models are of two kinds:—rectilinear and curvilinear. The former are tested by the square, the rule and the compasses, but the accuracy of the latter depends upon the eye, the sense of form and that of touch. This training enables the child to distinguish between good and bad work and to put a right value upon the former, to understand the right use of ornament, and also cultivates the æsthetic taste upon classic lines. An enormous number of jerry built articles are sold, which the public readily buy simply on account of their ornamental appearance. If the ability to distinguish between good and bad work were more universal it would go far towards improving trade morality.
(f) To cultivate habits of attention, interest, etc. The success of the work requires that the mind shall be closely concentrated upon it. The nature of the work excites the interest of the child, and under careful direction this interest is sustained throughout. A genius has been described as a man capable of taking pains—a master of detail. Sloyd is eminently suited for concentrating the attention upon the details of work and for training the Sloyder to be thorough and never content with "making a thing do."
The desire of the child to finish the work and to finish it well, overrides any element of impatience or irritability that may be in his character, and in a natural way introduces the elements of patience and perseverance in his work. These qualities are not confined to his Sloyd work but extend throughout his character, so that he realises that the work of life all contributes to some definite aim.
(g) Uniform development of the physical powers. Statistics collected from any country show that many forms of disease before unknown among the young, are now very prevalent among the children taught in the schools. These diseases are attributed to the many hours during which children are required to sit and to the bad positions they assume during those hours. Skoliosis—curvature of the spine—a serious disease, as it produces displacement of the internal organs, nose bleeding, ænemia, chlorosis, nervous irritation, loss of appetite, headache, and myopia, are diseases which are declared by experts to accompany the present system of education.
Sloyd when properly taught tends to develop the frame according to the normal standard. It may not be as good as gymnastics in this direction: but it has this advantage that it trains the pupil to engage in his work in such a manner as not to hinder nor stunt the development of his body, and not to cramp the vital organs in such a manner as to interfere with the discharge of their functions. The pupils are taught to use both hands and to develop both sides of the body. The following chart from Herr Salomon's work will show to what degree the body may develop on a lopsided manner when one side only is used in performing work. The chart shows the sectional measurement of the chest of a boy of thirteen years of age who for three years had worked at a bench using the right side only.
The foregoing brief analysis may show the ends which Sloyd is destined to accomplish, and upon the value of those ends no explanation is required. Habits of industry, patience and perseverance are inculcated. The child learns to know his own power and how best to use it. His tastes are cultivated and he learns to love work and understand the true dignity of labour. Such results are not the results of the copy book but they are permanently impressed upon the child's character. That such an education must react upon the parent is obvious. The child's life is full of aim and he does everything with a purpose, and in such a child only the most depraved parent will fail to take interest, and children have this characteristic, that they force their knowledge upon the notice of their parents whenever they can. The boy who begins to learn house painting soon expresses the wish to paint his own home; if carpentry, he wishes to build a shed; if joinery, he wishes to make a table; and how often one notices a home where tidiness and order are due to the educated child, and where taste in furnishing is accounted for by the daughter's cultivated æsthetic taste. Children then, so trained as the Sloyd system provides, may contribute enormously to the happiness and brightness of the home life. Instead of regarding them as a burden their parents will behold them with delight and pride, and instead of looking out for "something for them to do," indifferent whether it be driving a cart, selling in a shop, or clerking in a lawyer's office, they will find that the child himself has a definite idea of where his after course should lie, and they will do their utmost towards assisting him to follow it.
