Some difficulties
A bit of experience
One solution
Community feeling continued
One important thought in this whole subject is that the work should be so arranged as not to add any additional burden to the already crowded life of the teacher. It is a lamentable fact that we have overcrowded rooms, and only one pair of hands to do all that has to be done. Perhaps a bit of the author's own experience will be of some assistance. After looking the subject squarely in the face and considering it on all sides, the writer came to the conclusion that it would be an impossibility to do all the work alone. So some helpers were called from the pupils of the higher grades, and the request met such a hearty response that it was wondered why it had not been tried before. As it is now arranged the older girls come in before school and at recess. They wind worsted, correct any knitting that may be wrong, start new spools, string looms, cut material for rugs, water plants, keep the closets where the materials are stored in order, and do many other things which relieve in a great measure the burden of detail. When it is possible, the teacher should choose girls who have a sister or brother in the room, because their interest is stronger and more lasting. Of course, some training is necessary, but the result compensates for the trouble. Sometimes the work in other grades can be so planned that the children can make paper mats, etc., for use in the first grade. The beautiful community feeling begun in the kindergarten can thus be continued in the public school. The time will come when boys and girls in the higher grades will design patterns for the younger children to weave.
Nature knows no hurry
Take plenty of time in the first part of the year to teach the children to work well. "Time is nothing when power is growing." There are some children who learn faster than others and they are always delighted to go about the room and help the slower ones. It will sometimes be found that they know just how to explain a difficult point—perhaps because they have just conquered it themselves.
A child's work should be suited to his capacity, without regard to grade
Train the individual
No work has been specified as suited to any particular grade. It should depend entirely upon the children. While, for convenience, courses in industrial training are planned, advising certain lines of work which experience has proved the best for first, second, or third grade, there are in every school, certain children who have more manual than mental ability. These are left behind as the more favored ones are promoted, and because a certain course has been recommended for that particular grade, they must, perforce, do it all over again. Instead of bringing out the best in these less fortunate ones, and developing and strengthening their minds through the hand by offering something not only new and interesting, but which presents new difficulties to conquer, we stunt their growth by giving them the same baby work term after term. It is time that earnest teachers considered this important question. Let us give up training the mass and begin to train the individual. Through our interest in them they may find their life work. If a child in the first grade is prepared to do any industrial work of a higher grade, no matter how dull he may otherwise be, by all means let him do it. It is his way of expressing what lies within him. Not only will his hand and mind be trained thereby, but his heart will be filled with the joy that always comes through achievement.