Please see the [Transcriber’s Notes] at the end of this text.

Correlated Courses
IN
Woodwork
AND
Mechanical Drawing

By Ira S. Griffith, A. B.

Assistant Professor of Manual Arts, Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, Illinois.
Author of “Essentials of Woodworking,” “Woodwork for Amateur
Craftsmen,” “Projects for Beginning Woodwork and
Mechanical Drawing,” and “Advanced
Projects in Woodwork.”

The Manual Arts Press
Peoria, Illinois

Copyright
Ira S. Griffith
1912

PREFACE.

The author wishes to state that the basis of the following courses rests more upon the art or practice of teaching manual training than upon the theory. It is the result of carefully prepared plans executed under public school conditions by the author himself, covering a period of some nine years of experimentation. Wherever plans, or theory, were found producing results which common sense indicated plainly were not for the pupils’ highest good, practical expediency supplanted theory.

If manual training practice in the two upper grammar grades has merited criticism it has been because school men have not taken its subject matter seriously enough.

It is too much to hope that results can be achieved that are truly educative, when a shop, however well equipped, is turned over to a teacher but slightly experienced in, and appreciative of, the “finer points” of the subject matter to be dealt with. Loose and unorganized efforts in any line of work cannot become educative, it matters not what fine spun theories may be offered as proof to the contrary. Indeed, much positive injury may be done.

If the present demand for vocational training teaches manual training anything, it is that the subject matter of manual training must receive more serious attention. The aims of manual training and vocational training, in one sense, are not so very different; both seek, or should, to assist the boy to become a “thinking doer.” The distinction is mainly a matter of “direction” and of allotment of time, with possibly a slight difference in the placing of the emphasis on one or the other of the words “thinking doer.”

We do not mean to imply that manual training and vocational training are the same, but we do mean to say that the educative value of any shop training, whether given from the point of view of general culture or of special preparation for life’s work, is evidenced in the attitude which pupils are allowed to assume toward their work. Incorrect and slovenly habits of thinking and doing have no more place in manual training than in vocational training. Organization of subject matter is as essential in manual training as in any other line of endeavor.

Among other things, it is the author’s hope that the book may offer some suggestions that will help to bring about a better understanding of the relation of the high school and grade school manual training. The arrangement and division of the subject matter and the grouping of the problems represent one method of attack.

The employment of skilled instructors in both grade and high school and the making of the work of the upper grammar grades serious mechanically rather than merely “expressional” will wait in many communities upon the initiative of the school authorities.

Normal school students will find the outline representative of a manual training practice that is being carried on in some schools that are reputed to be progressive.

Finally, it is expected that the book will prove helpful to young instructors in their first year of teaching, assisting them over many of the petty details which spell success or failure in varying degree, which otherwise would not be foreseen.

Ira S. Griffith

Oak Park, Ill., June, 1912.

For the convenience of the teachers, the drawings used in “Projects for Beginning Woodwork and Mechanical Drawing” and “Advance Projects in Woodwork” are printed in this book. The notes and working directions, however, are not included. The inking of the drawings and the making of the perspectives in both of these books is the work of Mr. George Gordon Kellar.

CONTENTS

PART I.
ORGANIZATION.

CHAPTER I.
FOREWORD—AIMS

Foreword.

It is assumed that woodworking and mechanical drawing have subject matter and that it is desirable to have an orderly arrangement. Such an assumption may seem unwarranted to some—to those who labor in private institutions where the instruction is individual or nearly so. It is believed, however, that to teachers of these subjects in the public schools, where for economic reasons, classes of considerable numbers must be cared for, the necessity for a careful selection and arrangement of subject matter is very evident.

It has taken some years for the manual training movement to recover from the extremes into which the late psychology and child study movement had led it. The exaltation of the “individual” and the reign of the “self-expressionist,” it would seem, is about over. Not that this latter movement was an evil—far from it. Its influence was needed and came none too soon. Like other great movements, however, it led some teachers to extremes, causing them to overlook the good in the old with the result that the new alone has proven no more desirable than the old alone. The pendulum of opinion is returning and in not a few important places, is already swinging to the other extreme. It is for manual training teachers to try to determine by an exchange of ideas where the sanest position lies.

In this discussion, we should ever keep in mind that the American public school system is maintained mainly to prepare boys and girls for good and useful citizenship; that this is a democracy in which neither individual nor class is to be exalted unduly and that our system of education must result neither in the chaos of anarchy nor in the dull formalism of a despotism. To the writer it appears that manual training as practiced before the psychologist took possession was quite typical of the countries from which its influence came, Russia and Sweden-formalism. Under the influence of the most radical of the psychologists, manual training became synonymous with educational anarchy.

The best American citizenship cannot be developed by means of either the new alone or the old alone. There must be due attention paid to the development of the individual but that same individual must learn that he is but one of many and that he must do some things because they make it possible for all to enjoy equal rights and privileges. With this thought in mind, irrespective of any consideration of economic advantages, orderly arrangement of subject matter and class instruction, made necessary in large schools, must be looked upon as helpful rather than harmful in the preparation of the individual for citizenship.

Superintendent L. D. Harvey has said:

Members of society may be roughly classed into four groups: those who think without doing; those who do without thinking; those who neither think nor do; and those who think and do because of their thinking. This fourth class comprise the productive, constructive, organizing element of society. It is the function of the public schools to produce members of this fourth class. It must be evident to all that for the production of a thinking and doing individual the two forms of activity should be carried on side by side; the doing growing out of the thinking, and the thinking made clear and definite thru the doing.

In this statement the writer sees the proper relation of those two essential elements that make manual training valuable as a school subject—the thought element and the element of skill. Manual training suffered by having the one—skill—unduly emphasized when our European importations were made. Recently, it has suffered by having the other—the thought side—unduly magnified. Both of these elements are important.

In the author’s experience the practical application of a system that would make the most of each of these elements has been a source of no little disappointment. Effort in one direction seemed always to result in a sacrifice in the other. That is, when the thought side was emphasized there was a falling off in the accuracy of the results. When skill was magnified it was attained only with a sacrifice of the thought element. With many misgivings the conclusion was reached that the introduction of original thinking on the part of the pupil must mean somewhat of a sacrifice on the skill side. Concerning this phase of the subject Professor Richards writes:

In order to develop in the highest degree independence of thought and power of initiative the pupil must be given opportunities for determining ends and working out means. Only in this way is the natural cycle of mental activities—thinking, feeling and doing—fully realized and made effective. The practical realization of this principle means, of course, a distinct problem of instruction. The problem is essentially one of proportion and balance between freedom of expression on the one side and skill and mastery of process on the other. Extreme emphasis on the one leads inevitably to a class of crude and ill-considered products while attention restricted to the other results in mere drill and formalism.

Further, in “The Manual Training Teacher,” Charles L. Binns, an Englishman just returned from a trip thru the United States, writes of manual training in the grades as follows:

The lack of exactness is the main defect of American manual training. But there are many compensations to be balanced against this, and these arise chiefly, in my opinion, from the fact that the teacher is allowed more liberty to follow his own judgment in teaching the subject than is the case here. He has more scope for exercising his initiative, with the result that he retains the freshness of interest and enthusiasm for his work that our own stereotyped and restricted schemes do much to quell. There is a fine spirit of free activity, eager interest, and industry permeating most of the manual training classrooms. Even the inferior work is done with a happy glow of achievement that half excuses it. * * * To emphasize unduly the aim of rigid mechanical accuracy generally means a sacrifice of the thought side of the work. Those qualities which lead eventually to the realization of the pupil’s highest powers—such qualities as intelligent self direction; an alert resourceful attitude of mind; and power to plan means to an end—are too valuable to lose for such an aim. * * * At the same time a system of handwork that ignores a reasonable standard of accuracy does not count for much. In the course of my visits I found more than once not only an almost entire disregard for exactness in the work of the boys, but also an almost entire neglect on the teacher’s part to strive for it. Something may be said for a method which grants the pupils liberty to express themselves freely in their work, if the results are critically examined and the errors pointed out, but to accept and pass complacently work manifestly inferior is quite inexcusable. There is an element of haste about some of the work which may account for some of this.

More recently Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner the eminent German authority of Munich while on a tour of the United States is quoted by the “Manual Training Magazine” as criticising our manual training strongly, saying:

He could not see why children are encouraged to make big pieces of furniture before they can square up a piece of wood properly or make a single joint of the type that must be multiplied many times in the piece of furniture, if it is properly constructed. From this statement it must not be concluded that his pedagogy is of the dried out kind. On the contrary he stated with marked emphasis that the first requisite in training for skill is to cultivate joy in work. “It is in that way that we appeal to the heart,” and “it is only when the feelings are brought into action that we can most truly educate.”

We may conclude from this brief statement of the situation that it is desirable to organize and have courses in our manual training and mechanical drawing and that whatever system is adopted it must make allowance for emphasis upon both the thought element and upon skill.

What System Shall We Use.

It is pretty generally conceded that manual training as exemplified by the Russian system of joint making and the Swedish system of model making fails to lead forth the powers of the child to the fullest extent. The educational theory, now generally accepted, that interest is the indispensable basis of every method of education is sufficient to condemn the Russian system so far as its application in non-technical schools is concerned, while Swedish Sloyd, unmodified, is weak in that it fails to take into account the reflective phase of interest, namely, the power of self-initiative. Extreme “educational manual training’s” greatest weakness lies in its undue emphasis upon the thought element resulting in too great sacrifice of that other equally important element, skill or accuracy. The manual training movement is to be congratulated in that all signs now seem to point to its speedy delivery from the hands of these latter extremists. Is it too much to hope that out of our past experiences with the joint making Russian system with its admitted disciplinary value, the Swedish model making with its effort to utilize the energy of the worker toward useful products, and the self expression of the pedagogical movement with its attendant elements of interest and initiative there may come a manual training practice that shall be marked by a combination of the best of these elements with a consequent elimination of the weaknesses of each?

The outline of study suggested in the Illinois State Course of Study, credit for which is due mainly to Professor Charles A. Bennett, the chairman of the committee on manual training in woodwork, has proven a source of very great help to the writer in his efforts to properly present the subject matter of woodwork to his pupils. The introduction to this course is well worth repeating and is in substance as follows:

Any course in woodworking worthy of a place in the eighth and ninth grades of public school work should meet the following requirements:

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.

CHAPTER II.
CLASSIFICATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF TOOL OPERATIONS FOR GRADES 7, 8, 9, AND 10.

WOODWORK. GRADE VII.

Time: 2¹⁄₂ hours per week.

GROUP I. Squaring up Mill-planed Stock. (No definite dimensions but to be square and as large as the stock will allow.)

Time: 1 week.

GROUP II. Squaring up Mill-planed Stock. (Definite dimensions.)

Time: 3 weeks.

GROUP III. Squaring up Rough Stock.

Time: 4 weeks.

GROUP IV. Working Curves.

Time: 3 weeks.

GROUP V. Fastening with Nails and Screws. Duplicate Parts.

Time: 6 weeks.

GROUP VI. Appreciation in Design. Structural, Decorative.

Time: Remainder of school year.

GRADE VIII.

Time: 2¹⁄₂ hours per week.

GROUP VII. Groove Joints. Woodfinishing.

Time: 12 weeks.

GROUP VIII. Cross-lap Joint.

Time: 12 weeks.

HIGH SCHOOL.

GROUP IX. Joinery. Board and Framed Structures. (Accompanied by Mechanical Drawing ³⁄₄ hour per day.)

(Time: 1¹⁄₂ hours per day.) (18 weeks.)

(Benchwork in Metal 18 weeks.) (Accompanied by Freehand Drawing and Design ³⁄₄ hour per week.)

GROUP X. Cabinet-Making. Paneled Structures. (Optional and on a par with other advanced courses in shopwork.) (36 weeks.)

Note—Freshmen boys will be divided into two divisions. The first will take Joinery the first semester, and second division will take Metalwork. The second semester these divisions will exchange shops.

Discussion of Woodwork Course.

Column one describes the condition of the stock when given the pupil. Column two names the new principles involved in the construction of the articles.

In Group I. stock mill-planed upon two surfaces to the thickness wanted is given the pupil and he is required to square it up. No definite dimensions are demanded but the class is given to understand that the best workman is he who can square up his piece with the fewest shavings removed. The gage is not used on this piece. The uniformity of width is determined by the sliding try-square test. The broad surfaces are not worked by the pupil at all in making this piece. In the first place, the use to which the piece is to be put demands no fine surface treatment. In the second place, experience shows that it is advisable to make this first piece as simple as possible and pupils, at least grammar school pupils, learn to handle the plane better on edge planing than on surface planing.

An examination of the headings of the groups suggested for seventh grade, and the directions given in connection with the problems will show that each of these groups introduces a new method of squaring up stock. For illustration, Group I is typical, as to the surface treatment, of the method used by carpenters and others in preparing outside finishing material such as cornice and window and door casings, corner boards, etc. Here mill-marks are not considered objectionable so that neither broad surface is worked. Group II is typical, as to the surface treatment, of the method of preparing interior wood trim. One surface is planed smooth, and straight as to its width, but no effort is made to take out the wind, nor is the back surface treated at all. Again, certain kinds of shelving and box construction require that both broad surfaces be smoothed of their machine or mill-marks but do not require either surface to be true, depending upon the manner of fastening the parts together to take out any unevenness. Group V typifies this method of treatment. Of course, if the stock is badly curled or cupped no attempt is made to use it for the thickness for which it was originally intended, tho it is possible to “nail out” pretty badly warped boards on certain kinds of carpentry work. In furniture making this is hardly ever possible or advisable. A sleeve pressing board does not require a face edge or square ends, etc., Group IV. Group III typifies the standard treatment of which these others are modifications.

In the third column tools necessary for performing the process are named. In elementary woodwork the block-plane and smooth-plane may be omitted, the jack-plane doing the work just as well.

In the [Lesson Outlines], section numbers of a text on woodworking to which the student is referred are given. The text to which the numbers refer is “Essentials of Woodworking.” The necessity for a text to accompany but not to take the place of the demonstration is well appreciated by most teachers of manual training. With a text in the hands of each pupil a lesson may be assigned and the pupil required to familiarize himself with the text and the illustrations relating to the subject matter. The use of a text removes most effectually the necessity for a constant repetition of oral instruction. With a text there is never any excuse for the pupil bothering the instructor with the otherwise semi-valid excuse of “I forgot” or “I was absent when the demonstration was given,” etc., etc.

In Groups VIII and IX will be found exercise pieces. One of the advantages claimed for the group system is that it permits class instruction at stated intervals, thus reducing individual instruction to a minimum. For illustration, a class beginning Group II would continue to work upon the problems of that group until all but the few acknowledged failures had completed the work required in that group. After this the class is to be instructed in the new things of Group III. This plan to continue thruout the whole course.

The work of the groups will of necessity overlap each other. For, as soon as a pupil finishes one problem in a group, he begins another problem in the same group, unless he is the slowest in the class. When the class is ready to begin a new group we are confronted with the question of whether to give the instruction belonging to the new group and allow the boys to proceed with the unfinished work of the old group, or to start them on problems of the new group. To proceed with the old is objectionable in that the worker forgets his new instruction before he has opportunity to apply it. To start new work before finishing the old is bad in that the pupil will have lost interest in the old when asked to complete it after finishing the new work. Not to complete the old at all would be a practice too vicious to be tolerated for a moment.

In the seventh grade this overlapping is not a serious problem, for the objects being small and quickly finished allow all to finish the old group before the instruction of the new has faded. In the eighth grade and high school, however, where the objects are larger, this objection is a serious one.

As stated before, the aim of the group arrangement is to permit class instruction at the beginning of each group. To make this effective the practice and application must follow within a reasonably short time. Here the “exercise” offers aid.

If ever an exercise piece has a legitimate use, it has it here. The great objection to exercise pieces lies in their inability to create a vital interest on the part of the pupil. The writer has made it a practice to talk over the applications of each exercise and to state briefly the need for the exercise before beginning it. First, that the class because of numbers must be instructed all at the same time; second, that the joints, unlike the simple one-piece objects previously made cannot be remedied or patched up by reducing the size, as in the bread board, when lack of knowledge or skill causes errors; third, that postponing the practice any length of time would be unwise. As the time required for making the exercises, as arranged in the course outlined above, is short there has never been a lack of interest either in the exercise or in the unfinished objects of the old group to which some must return after completing the exercise.

High school boys begin to take on a different attitude toward exercises and technique. Their increased knowledge and skill permit applications requiring considerable time for completing. For this reason all the exercises are grouped in the fore part of their year.

To the writer it seems unnecessary to apologize for this use of exercises. He has felt free to utilize parts of any system which seemed to serve his purpose. He does feel, however, that a long continued series of exercises in elementary woodworking without application would be fatal. American school methods have been criticised by Europeans as being superficial and lacking in thoroness. It may be that in our eagerness to develop the individual we have made ourselves subjects for such criticism to a certain extent. We need not fear the introduction of this small amount of drill and formalism, especially when there is no loss of interest or incentive. It is impossible to teach a pupil a thing that is entirely new to him unless he has in his possession a fund of “known” thru which the unknown may be made known. For this reason drawings and sketches are plentifully provided.

Experience has shown that better results are obtained, both in the development of ability to think and ability to do, if the ability to “do” is given a maximum of attention at the beginning of the course, opportunities for original thinking being introduced gradually as the pupils’ knowledge, appreciation, and skill increase. In the beginning groups the sizes or dimensions are fixed, no variation being permitted except as poor work necessitates. Requiring all to make the same pieces in the beginning groups permits comparison of results and the establishing of standards of accuracy as well as making it possible to give definite instruction with the minimum of talking.

Another reason for emphasizing technique and processes at the beginning is that interest is so easily directed. A beginner is interested in anything. In fact, a few exercises—not more than two or three—might be introduced at the very beginning without in any way violating the principle relating to interest previously mentioned. The writer does not make use of exercises in this way but can understand some of the advantages secured by so doing.

Having taught the pupil to respect a “working line,” which experience shows takes the greater part of the seventh year, it will be time to begin to encourage original thinking on the part of the pupil. This, because of the pupil’s ignorance of the subject matter, will come slowly, if satisfactorily. Modifications of the dimensions of the projects should be the first step. While originality is to be encouraged in every way it should never be forced at the expense of appreciation. Appreciation must be developed first. Better a chair of good design and proportion made after another’s design with appreciation than an absurdity made after one’s own design and its weaknesses not seen. The greatest value of design in public school education is expressed well by Professor Sargent when he says, “For one who will produce a design, a thousand must know how to select it.”

Pupils possessed of exceptional originality and ability will find ample opportunity for expression in the group system without hindrance upon the part of the slower neighbors and without requiring all the instructor’s time at a sacrifice of the time which the slower pupils have a right to. The slow pupil has a right to an equal share of the instructor’s time, and this is not always easy to give when the brilliant pupil is to be given individual and advanced instruction as the systems other than the group system necessitate.

In general, it will be found advisable to hold seventh grade pupils quite rigidly to the execution of the projects offered. In the eighth grade pupils should be encouraged to modify existing projects, while in high school they should be encouraged to “work up” original ideas. By this time they should have acquired a fair fund of information and some judgment and appreciation.

A glance at the outline on woodworking will show that the projects in eighth grade and in high school are most all of such a nature as to demand considerable repetition of processes. For illustration, in the making of the taboret there are eight dado joints. We have heard so much of the non-educational value of repeated processes that one may be inclined to question the arrangement of a course which introduces but two joints in the course of a year’s work, as is done in the eighth grade of this outline. In view of the fact that very many courses introduce the glue joint, mortise-and-tenon, etc., in the eighth grade it may be well for the writer to state his point of view. It is this: The highest educational value comes not from many joints put to the pupil in such rapid succession that he has not time for the acquirement of a fair degree of proficiency, but rather from the mastery of a few by repetition so planned as to maintain a keen interest in each joint made. As a recent writer has said, “There is need for more investigation on the point that repeated processes are non-educational. Doing certain things until the process becomes automatic sometimes leads one to take the first step toward a higher freedom.” This, in view of the present demands of industrial education, is the excuse for offering a few joints well made rather than many joints with the consequent mechanical indigestion that usually follows. As soon as the process has become fairly automatic, or when the joint has been fairly well mastered, then are we ready to proceed to new fields. In the seventh grade outline the introduction of new processes is more frequent. This is due to the fact that the operations are simple and of such a nature, planing for example, that future work necessitates their frequent repetition.

The accurate use of the chisel is kept until the eighth grade, as is also accurate sawing to a knife line with the back-saw. It has taken us a long time to come to a realization that, while the chisel and saw are simple tools, their proper handling is not simple. A general survey of the groups for grade seven will show that each is concerned with one of the various type processes used in squaring up stock, both mill-planed and rough. In eighth grade the groups are concerned with the accurate use of the chisel and back-saw in chiseling, or paring, and sawing to fit.

In Group IX, which is the first year high school work, the pupil may be expected to give most of his attention to the principles of simple joinery of board and framed structures with the necessary joints. A full set of individual edged tools should give the instructor excuse for demanding a much higher degree of technique than is to be found in the grades. The pupils will not be perfected in the use of the chisel, saw, and other tools but they should have acquired enough skill to enable them to proceed with the work of the mortise and tenon.

Exercise pieces in mortise-and-tenons, miter, modeling and glue joint belong here. It is possible to arrange the work so that the modeling and glue joint exercise pieces may be considered under Application. The modeling exercise may well be a hammer handle, the metal part of which is to be worked in the metal class the other half of the first year. The glue joint may well be made upon wood of sufficient size that it may be used later, such as the taboret top. The mortise-and-tenon and miter, however, will be most profitable as exercises pure and simple. A moment’s thought will indicate the reason for making the distinction.

Many courses give modeling in the grades. Modeling to be of value requires judgment and experience. This a grade pupil has not. The first year high school is sufficiently early for this kind of work. To place it earlier is to give the pupil a wrong impression of the requirements of good modeling, and his later work, in pattern-making for example, suffers accordingly.

Two machines should be made use of in the first year high school work, the band-saw and scroll or jig-saw. Both, when properly safeguarded, are well suited to give the pupil his first acquaintance with machinery. There is little educational value in further excessive ripping by hand at this stage of the course.

The cabinet-making course is not to be considered as manual training per se. It is best to make it optional and more purely a trade course, tho the work may still be individual in its nature. An exercise in making a small door and one in the making of a drawer will introduce the student to the use of most of the machinery specified. These exercises should be detailed so as to involve stock of the same size for each boy. In this way the machines may be set and all the parts of similar kind run thru. Classes of considerable size may be taught with the use of the minimum of machinery. Each boy should, of course, be taught the setting of the various machines.

After these two exercises, with hinging and locking, the pupils may be allowed to work out pieces of their own choosing involving these elements, preparing their own stock, setting their machines, etc. In this way the “shop” practice, quantity or piece work, is obtained in the making of the exercises while the application later allows for the individuality of the pupil.

CHAPTER III.
CLASSIFICATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF ELEMENTS OF MECHANICAL DRAWING FOR GRADES 7, 8, AND 9.

MECHANICAL DRAWING

GRADE VII.

Time: 2¹⁄₂ hours per week for 12 weeks.

GRADE VIII.

(Time: 2¹⁄₂ hours per week for 12 weeks.)

HIGH SCHOOL

(Time: ³⁄₄ hour per day for 18 weeks. Freehand Drawing and Design, ³⁄₄ hour per day, 18 weeks.)

Discussion of Drawing Course.

The course in mechanical drawing, like that in woodworking, is arranged in groups according to the principles to be developed. The arguments for the group system in woodworking apply equally to the group system in mechanical drawing.

There has been an aim to correlate the woodworking and mechanical drawing just as far as the logical presentation of each would allow. From the concrete and near by to the more general has been the guiding principle in laying out the course in mechanical drawing as well as in woodwork. For this reason the seventh grade problems in woodwork have been utilized to introduce the elementary principles in mechanical drawing. Even as the pupils of our primary schools learn to read without being conscious of the “dry bones” of language and spelling back of it, so, in the teaching of mechanical drawing, the aim is to arouse in the beginner an interest in the ability to draw and to read drawings, as an accomplishment, and to inspire him to work, because he sees that there is something he needs, wants, and must have.

Little or no effort is made in seventh grade drawing to develop originality. Almost all effort is spent in developing a drawing technique and a good style. Most all of the pupils’ drawings are made with plates before them. These they copy, using a different scale, however. To encourage the pupils to establish a high standard these drawings have been inked by a draftsman selected because of his excellence in this line of work.

The drawing of the grammar schools in most places is best taught by the instructor in woodwork. Extreme care should be taken to see that the pupils are given the correct method of attack in making a drawing. They should be made to follow this instruction just as conscientiously as they are required to attempt correct execution in woodwork. In drawing, as in woodwork, slovenly habits come handier to some pupils, and, if allowed to become fixed, they will cause sorrow to the pupil and misunderstanding later on. In the very first drawing, for example, and all others, insist on having lightly penciled blocking out lines of indefinite length—lines that are just visible, that is all. Do not allow the pupil to form the habit of drawing a heavy line between two points previously located. It is needless to say that the pencil must be of good lead, properly sharpened, and kept sharp. It is an excellent plan to insist that all construction or blocking out lines be left just as originally drawn, no eraser being used at all. If lightly made, as they should be, they will be inconspicuous in the finished drawing. They will be proof positive that the method of procedure has been the correct one, will save the pupil’s time, and give him a lightness of touch that will come in to excellent advantage later on. After the drawing has been laid out in light lines and inspected by the teacher, the lines that represent outlines of the object can be gone over a second time and made to stand out.

By the close of the seventh grade a boy ought to be able to read and to construct simple working drawings of three views properly related. He will have had all of the simple conventions and should know them by name with their meanings. While inking is not given a place in either seventh or eighth grade, the drawings should show a good finish in penciling and there should be no habits formed that will have to be overcome later.

In eighth grade mechanical drawing, the first four groups review the principles introduced in the seventh grade. They are in the form of problems to be solved, however, and thus necessitate thought on the part of the pupil.

In the solving of these problems a carefully made freehand, dimensioned working drawing is first required. This, when correct, is followed with a mechanical drawing, full size and without dimensions. It will be noted that no attempt has been made heretofore to have the pupils make freehand working drawings or sketches. It has been the author’s experience that better results are obtained by introducing the freehand drawings after the pupil has been taught and has had experience in the exactness of the mechanical drawing.

The working drawings of this grade introduce no new principles but give opportunity for practice in more difficult combinations of elements. They provide opportunity for acquiring greater facility in handling the instruments which results in drawings that are to be used in the shops. While the drawings are copied from plates, as in the seventh grade, the pupil is permitted to modify the designs within certain limitations, with one problem in original design, structural and decorative.

In high school drawing more time is allowed and the drawing becomes more of a subject in itself, requiring more and deeper thought on the part of the pupil. The high school drawing course is complete in itself. The first four groups are given mainly as problems in inking but they furnish a review of that part of the eighth grade drawing incidentally. They also furnish a familiar starting point for the high school work and make of the high school course a complete whole. High school drawing is best given by a specialist.

As in the eighth grade, these problems are to be solved and drawn freehand with dimensions. Afterward they are drawn mechanically and inked. The inking of problems is specified in only the first four groups in the outline for drawing. The amount of inking to be done thereafter will best be determined by the instructor. Too much inking has a tendency to result in careless penciling. It is for the instructor to determine when his class is doing its best in both penciling and inking. The problems of these latter groups are well calculated to necessitate thought and study and the instructor will do well to make much of this part of the subject.

The making of high school working drawings is placed early in the course that they may be ready to use in the shop by the time the exercises in joint work preparatory to their application, are completed. These working drawings are to be original as far as possible. Plates of suitable projects are to be provided to give the necessary starting points.

CHAPTER IV.
SHOP ORGANIZATION

1. Location of Shops.

Shops for high school pupils will be located in or near the high school building. A special effort should be made to have both wood shop and drawing room placed in suitable environment. Where manual training has been introduced into high schools with buildings planned for academic work only, it has been the custom to place manual training in the basement and drawing in the attic, these being the only places available for subjects that had yet to prove their worth. Even today, when it is a well established fact that handwork as a part of our educational course has not only proven its worth but is prophesied a greater place in our educational scheme in the form of industrial training, some school authorities not only place shops in basements of old buildings but plan new buildings with basement shops. This is an economy with nothing to justify it but tradition.

In many cities the custom of building basements high out of the ground serves to mitigate some of the evils, by giving a fair degree of light and ventilation. Any basement, however, that is formed with a cement floor directly on the ground will be damp in the spring and fall when the heating apparatus ceases to force warm air thru the rooms. The result upon tools, upon wood, and upon the health of those who must spend their time in such surroundings is not a matter of speculation.

Any subject to be taught to the best advantage must not only be a subject that will win the respect of the pupils but it must be given surroundings that will not tend to degrade it in the eyes of the immature student. Excellent work has been done in basement rooms and excellent discipline maintained under very adverse conditions but it has been in spite of these conditions and not because they do not influence the student unfavorably. In spite of the instructor’s best efforts to create a feeling of respect toward the basement shopwork similar to that entertained toward the academic work, pupils in going from the comfortably furnished rooms above, in which the decorator’s art has helped to make everything agreeable to the eye, unconsciously assume an attitude in their first conduct and deportment that places the shop instructor at a disadvantage.

Fig. 1.
ARRANGEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL SHOP WITH REFERENCE TO MAIN BUILDING.

From the June, 1908 Manual Training Magazine

Ground Floor Plan ^of Polytechnic High School

Los Angeles Cal. Franklin P. Burnham Arch’t

The chief objection, aside from cost, to placing shops above ground is the noise. This objection has been met, and can easily be met by any competent architect. The accompanying floor plans are indicative. [Fig. 1].

In some high schools, the shops are entirely separated from the main or academic classrooms. This is unsatisfactory, as any one familiar with high school organization knows. The frequent change of classes after short periods makes the going from one building to another a matter of serious moment, especially in our northern winter climate.

Shopwork has won its place fairly in our school courses and it is encouraging to note an increasing tendency on the part of progressive communities to place shop and drafting-room in environment calculated to create a feeling of respect, to give dignity equal to that of other school subjects, and to provide favorable conditions for the best working of materials.

In the grammar schools the problem is but slightly different. In a city of any size, shopwork will need to be given in centers. The alternative of a shop in each school with an instructor going from shop to shop on different days of the week is hardly practicable. The equipment of a shop is a matter of too great cost to have it lying idle part of the school time. There is added disadvantage in that a peripatetic shop instructor cannot “keep up” his several shops with divided interest as well as he can keep up one in which he works constantly.

The best plan is to have a center or shop located favorably for several neighboring schools and install an instructor in this center. The pupils are to be sent to him from a sufficient number of schools to occupy his entire time at this shop.

Here again the basement makes its appeal to school authorities first, the basement of some one of the grammar schools being utilized for a shop center. Since almost all of the pupils come from other schools, there is no excuse, other than economy, in placing grammar school manual training shops in basements of schools already established. If the high school shopwork suffers a disadvantage by being placed in basement rooms, grammar school shopwork suffers more, and with less excuse.

Since domestic science cannot well be taught in basements, and is objectionable on main floors because of noise and odors, and since there is no reason for having the laboratories directly connected with any grammar school building, the best plan is to erect a special building to house both manual training and domestic science. The cost need not be great and the building may be erected upon grounds of some one of the grammar schools. Evanston, Illinois, public schools offer a good illustration. [Figs. 2] and [3].

FIG. 2. EXTERIOR GRAMMAR SCHOOL BUILDING FOR MANUAL TRAINING AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.

FIG. 3. FLOOR PLANS OF BUILDING, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.

The proper placing of centers in a community will depend upon the number of pupils to be cared for, the distance they must travel to get to the center, and the site available.

2. Division or Allotment of Time.

Two divisions of time are common in grammar school shopwork, the one-fourth and the one-half day period once a week. In some cities manual training is given in sixth, seventh and eighth grades of the grammar schools. In others it is given in seventh and eighth grades only. In the former case, to the best of the author’s information, the period never exceeds one-fourth day each week. In the latter it very frequently occupies one-half day a week. The outline for drawing and manual training as given in this book presupposes the one-half day period. In favor of this period of time are the following: The pupils go and come to manual training on time out of school hours. This is a very decided gain and permits the placing of centers so as to accommodate schools of widely differing locations. Second, more and better work is accomplished in a one-half day period of one year than in a one-fourth day period for two years. In the one-fourth day period the pupil hardly gets his tools set and adjusted when the bell signals him to begin to “clean up,” resulting in much unprofitable effort. Our college administrators, who are responsible for originating the short and infrequent period spread over a long period of months or years, have long since found that better work and more of it is obtained where the study is given a more intensive view, the total number of hours for the course remaining the same but being condensed into less calendar time.

The chief objection offered against the one-half day period is that the pupil becomes tired, exhausted, and therefore disinterested and troublesome before the close of the period. Where the full two hours and a half are devoted entirely to shopwork, especially if the shopwork is of such a nature as to make little appeal to the interest of the pupil, this argument is valid. If, however, each period has its recitation on assigned study and its demonstration on the new work to be presented there remains but two hours of work requiring the student to be on his feet and, if the interest is what it should be, very few boys will complain of fatigue. The writer makes it a custom to give, in the place of the conventional recess, a short five minute rest period. Boys are permitted to talk and move about the shop but he has found that as many boys prefer to continue their woodwork as prefer to rest.

If the one-fourth day period is to be used, it will be necessary to give recitations and demonstrations on alternate days, and will necessitate introducing the work lower than the seventh grade. It is hardly profitable to begin serious, systematic work lower than the seventh grade, and when it is begun in seventh grade it is hardly possible to make it serious with a time allotment of less than one-half day each week.

There is not the same need for recess in shopwork as in academic work. A five minute rest period is sufficient to permit pupils to make known to each other their wishes or information. In this way it is possible to dismiss the pupils ten minutes earlier than they otherwise would be, thus allowing the morning class extra time for reaching home.

In the high school the time allotment is generally permitted to be governed by the periods arranged for the academic subjects. The common arrangement is to give two consecutive periods equal to two of the recitation periods of the academic subjects for shopwork and another for drawing each day thruout the week. If the periods are one hour each, which is unusual in high schools tho common in colleges, but one period is given to the shop.

Where manual training has been given serious consideration in the seventh and eighth grades of the grammar schools under competent instructors it ought to be possible to cover the necessary benchwork in wood in the first half of the freshman year of the high school. This will leave the second half for turning or for benchwork in metal, preferably the latter.

To mechanical drawing the first half of the freshman year of one period each day should be devoted, followed in the second half by freehand drawing, perspective and design.

The mechanical drawing of the grammar schools, it will be noted in the lesson outlines, takes the first twelve weeks or lessons of each year. Mechanical drawing in grammar schools is usually presented in one of three ways. First, by having the pupil make his drawing then immediately make the object drawn in wood, carrying on woodwork and drawing side by side thruout the year. Second, by having the pupil make the object in wood first, followed by the drawing. Third, by taking the first ten or twelve weeks of the year for making up all the drawings of that year, following this with a continuous application in wood.

After experimenting thru a number of years the writer finds the third practice possesses many marked advantages. Among other things that make it more satisfactory are the following: It permits concentration of the pupil’s attention upon one thing at a time. Where woodwork and drawing are carried on side by side or even where they alternate the pupil’s attention and interest are divided. So much more interesting do the pupils find the woodwork with its freer activity that the drawing suffers immeasurably, it being almost impossible to get anything like the proper attitude toward the technique of drawing when the young pupil is allowed to see the immediate application in wood all around him. The instructor’s struggles for neatness and accuracy in the drawings are no match for the barbarous haste of the beginner in his desire to get thru with the drawing and get at the woodwork. It is impossible to get concentration on drawing in a woodshop with tools all about and the knowledge on the part of the pupil that only the drawing separates him from the tools.

The ideal way would be to have a separate drawing-room and equipment as in high school. This, however, is impracticable in most grammar schools. The woodworking teacher being the drawing teacher makes it impossible to utilize both shop and separate drawing-room to advantage. The fitting up and heating of rooms that are to be used only part of the school time makes a separate drawing-room an unwarranted expense in grade schools. A satisfactory substitute is to utilize the woodshop benches for drawing benches but to remove all tools, having it distinctly understood that ten or twelve weeks are for drawing, and that, no matter how many drawings are produced by a pupil, he will begin no woodwork until the time allotted to drawing is up. It becomes possible to secure the right attitude toward the drawing. By this concentration of attention both drawing and woodwork are the gainers.

Second, it enables the shop instructor to tell what supplies are going to be needed for the woodwork and to get them delivered in time without returning from his summer’s vacation several weeks before school begins. In the twelve weeks of drawing the woodworking tools and equipment can be looked over and put in order in plenty of time without breaking into the summer months that belong to the instructor. Where the woodwork begins at the beginning of school in September the instructor must either take the fore part of his vacation at the close of school to put his tools in shape or, if he has them simply cleaned and vaselined by the pupils and stores them for the summer, he must come back several weeks before school. This is true whether he does his own sharpening or has it done, and the advantage in having woodwork begin some weeks later than school is very manifest.

Third, this latter arrangement gives the pupil an intelligent preview of the whole year’s work in wood thru the drawings he makes in the first ten or twelve weeks.

Mechanical drawing, even in the grades, has a right to a clean, quiet, well lighted room without unnecessary distractions either to the eye or ear. This, with a definite understanding on the pupil’s part that drawing technique is the major and the utility of the drawing the minor consideration, should put the pupil in the right attitude toward his drawing work and make it possible to secure the best drawings he is capable of producing. No one, not even a finished draftsman, could produce good drawings surrounded by the noise and dust of neighboring woodworkers. Under the alternating system there are always slow pupils who, if they finish their drawings before they make the application, must do it while the others are working in wood. Add to the noise and dust this pupil’s feeling that he too ought to be at his woodwork and the limit of unfavorable conditions for producing a drawing are reached. Making the year’s drawings the first twelve weeks of the year enables one to avoid these unfavorable conditions.

Fourth, this arrangement makes possible a graduated transition from the quietness and restrictedness of the academic class room to the noise and greater freedom of the woodshop.

When beginning pupils come to the grammar school manual training shop for the first time at the beginning of school in September, it is with an overplus of energy and noise. To reduce these sufficiently to permit of getting anything like satisfactory results in shopwork, the instructor is placed at once squarely before a large problem in discipline. This problem is very greatly simplified by introducing the pupil to ten or twelve weeks or lessons in mechanical drawing before beginning the woodwork.

Conditions surrounding a pupil in mechanical drawing classes are very similar to those he finds in his regular academic classes and he can readily be brought to understand that quietness, and orderliness with seriousness of purpose are as necessary a part of his manual training as of his academic work. After this attitude has been fixed in the pupil’s mind in connection with his manual training thru the mechanical drawing when the transition to woodwork is made, where more freedom must be allowed, the pupil will be better able to distinguish between legitimate noise and noise that is entirely unnecessary, and between freedom and license.

3. Informational and Related Matter Pertaining to Woodwork and Mechanical Drawing.

Closely related to any subject is a vast fund of informational matter. If the student is to have an intelligent understanding of the subject matter, he must be given opportunity to become acquainted with at least the most important of this related information.

In the seventh grade the necessary study of tools and processes occupies the pupil’s time fully. In the eighth grade opportunity offers itself for introducing such subjects as wood structure, tree growth, lumbering, and milling. In high school, the pupil should be made familiar with the most common woods, their classification, characteristics, and uses.

High school pupils should be assigned outside readings on forestry. They should secure and classify specimens of the more common woods and should be able to recognize the tree by leaf, fruit, bark, wood and tree form. See Figs. 4, 5, and 6.

In the grammar grades, mounted specimens should be prepared illustrative of tree structure, shrinkage, defects, etc. As in the high school, pupils should be encouraged to seek and prepare specimens illustrative of the subjects under consideration.

It is now possible to rent or purchase very excellent lantern slides on forestry, lumbering, milling, etc. Add the use of these to that of the mounted specimens if at all possible.

The detailed lesson outlines indicate definitely where these subjects are to be given attention in the course. The pages of the text are also indicated. The high school library should be provided with the very excellent bulletins of the United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry, most of which are for free distribution.

4. Woodfinishing.

The subject of woodfinishing is treated in a manner quite similar to that of woodworking. No pieces of woodwork that should have a finish are ever sent from the shop until they have been treated to a finish calculated to make them fit for immediate placing in their future surroundings.

While the general outline of the course in woodwork makes no mention of woodfinishing, the lesson outline indicates the gradual introduction of the subject, beginning with the simplest finishes first and terminating in high school in the rubbed copal varnishes.

FIG. 4. CHART ILLUSTRATING WOOD STRUCTURE.

By T. B. Kidner, October, 1908 Manual Training Magazine

In woodfinishing, as in woodworking, the aim has been to have the pupil treat the subject in a serious and workmanlike manner. In seventh grade little woodfinishing is done. The woodworking processes need the centering of the pupil’s attention, in the first place. Second, the simple pieces which the beginner is able to make require no finish as a rule. In one group stain and wax is used. This is the group in which decorative design is emphasized. In the eighth grade the woodfinishing problem becomes important. Almost all of the pieces require a finish.

FIG. 5. CHART ILLUSTRATING TIMBER DEFECTS.

By T. B. Kidner, October, 1908 Manual Training Magazine

FIG. 6. CHART ILLUSTRATING PROPERTIES OF TREES.

By T. B. Kidner, October, 1908 Manual Training Magazine

The greatest obstacle to proper woodfinishing lies in the desire of the pupil to take his piece home as soon as the woodwork is completed. Unless a definite understanding is had with the class beforehand, proper woodfinishing is difficult to obtain. Most boys are subject to reason, so that it is not at all necessary to have woodfinishing slighted or to resort to makeshifts. The writer makes it a practice to take plenty of time when the subject of woodfinishing comes up for its first discussion to explain in detail the commercial methods of finishing fine furniture, a piano for illustration, counting the different operations and coatings it will receive and the labor and time expended upon the finish. A comparison is then made between a finely rubbed finish and the cheap, sticky, unrubbed finishes of cheap furniture.

Having established in the minds of the pupils the fact that woodfinishing is an art second to none and that it requires time to do it well, there is not that impatience that breeds sullen looks when the woodfinishing is to be begun after the woodwork has been completed. The pupil will take the woodfinishing as a matter of course and goes about it in a cheerful and manly spirit.

In grammar schools, woodfinishing has been made as simple as is consistent with good work. Coming as the boys do but once a week and each finishing application requiring over night for drying or hardening, the total time is quite long even with the simple finish of filler, shellac, and wax. If the pupil wishes a very dark finish, a stain which requires one or more periods must precede his filler.

In high school, pupils come every day thus permitting the application of rubbed varnish finishes, either shellac or copal, without unnecessary loss of time. Here special finishing rooms are necessary.

5. Structural and Decorative Design.

Among other requirements for a course in woodwork and drawing as stated in the foreword is this: “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 present outlines in woodwork and drawing have been planned with this in mind. In the seventh grade the pupil is given little opportunity to exercise his initiative in either woodwork or drawing. The reason for this, as has been previously stated, is a firm belief that initiative in any subject to be of value must be based upon a fair knowledge of the subject matter dealt with, its limitations and its possibilities. In other words, that appreciation must precede invention or initiative.

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.

Like every extreme position each of these points of view has good in it, but there is sufficient error accompanying each to impair the validity of the conclusions and to make the resulting applications unhappy as related to ordinary public school conditions.

The whole subject of design as it relates to the manual training shop is one that has demanded thought on the part of the author. It is one of those places where teaching theory failed to bring efficiency either in the results obtained in design or in the reaction upon the boy. He has been forced to the opinion, from his own experience and from his observation of the efforts of others to teach design to grammar school pupils, that the cause for dissatisfaction and discouragement is due to our insistence upon one and only one method of presentation—the inductive or synthetic.

In judging results we must consider the results obtained from every member of a class and the good each boy has got out of his experience. This efficiency test most effectively excludes the exhibition of a few “accidentals” as evidence that our method is the correct one. There is no reason why design should seek justification on any ground other than that offered by other subjects.

Inductive or synthetic teaching of design has its place; so also has the deductive or analytic. Happily those educators who insist on the use of one method or the other only are becoming few. In other subjects we are finding that the teaching results which demand the respect and approval of educators of safe and sane judgment are obtained by the use of both methods interchangeably. There is no formal notice when one is to be used or the other—whichever method fits the occasion is used without apology. This is right; to do otherwise is to sacrifice the boy or girl for the sake of the method. We are all agreed that the child is the more important consideration. In fact, some psychologists tell us that induction and deduction are one and the same process, the difference being merely a matter of emphasis. It is this difference in placing the emphasis that we seek to discuss.

Our methods in the high school have made much of the inductive. This is right. Pupils of high school and college age are ready for this method, tho our high school pupils often would profit by having a little less of this with more of the deductive.

However, when it comes to grammar school teaching, the maximum of use has to be made of the deductive or analytic method. This is acknowledged in the academic subjects. Woodworking when taught so as to meet the efficiency test that is applied to academic teaching also makes use of this method mostly. Our design, however, has always been taught by the inductive or synthetic method, no one seeming to have the temerity to make use of any other. As a result we find the views of design in the grammar school as stated above. Those who advocate it urge the “accidentals” as sufficient justification. Those who reject it base their argument on the fact that results based on a few accidentals will not satisfy the same efficiency test that is applied to other subjects.

Experience has shown, at least to the author’s satisfaction, that the deductive or analytic method when given maximum emphasis with beginners in design is all that is needed to bring the results up to a standard equal to that of other subjects. It is the rational method of presenting any subject to beginners.

The terms deductive and inductive have such wide application that it may be well to specify more particularly just what we mean. A concrete illustration will suffice to show the distinction we seek to make between what we choose to designate the deductive or analytic and the inductive or synthetic methods.

Suppose we wish to have a class, with little or no information about the subject, design a booklet to meet certain specified conditions. Three distinct stages of progress manifest themselves in what we shall call the complete method. First, the pupils must be given information bearing upon the problem. Second, they must be given experience in handling problems of that type. Third, they will utilize this information and experience in designing the booklet to meet given conditions.

The first step will be the taking of a type form and analyzing it. Either the instructor will demonstrate or, better, each pupil may be given a booklet of type form and required to take it apart and put it together again. Any way to give the pupil the information in a form that will cause it “to stick.” In woodwork, it would be done by means of the traditional shop demonstration—a wise practice, since psychology teaches us that sight percepts are among the strongest.

Second, the pupils must acquire experience. Let them make a booklet according to definite specifications provided them by the instructor.

The process thus far is mainly deductive or analytic. So far there has been no invention or design, but the pupils are now prepared for it. Using the information and experience now available, let them design a booklet to meet certain conditions. This latter part we would call the inductive or synthetic process.

We should have two aims in our teaching of design: (1) Appreciation, (2) Development of the creative faculty. Since all must be able to appreciate good line and good form when they get out into life while only a few will ever become designers in a creative sense, it is essential, as it is also rational, that attention should be paid first to appreciation. Past efforts show how hopeless is the problem when we strive to give to the pupils appreciation of and feeling for line and form by demanding original forms in the very beginning. The beginner’s efforts at creation are abortive and the appreciation that he derives is nil. By our insistence on this method we have given to our pupils the idea that design means making something out of nothing. He is not far wrong if we demand of him original designs before we have given him anything tangible upon which to work. We say tangible as distinguished from academic principles or rules of design. If nothing tangible is given the pupil he must get it outside of his school experience. This explains the superabundance of “wienerwurst” forms, bouquets tied with ribbons, circles, etc., etc.

It is possible to create unknown out of what is seemingly unknown. When we stop to analyze the process, however, we find that we have made use of information, appreciation, and feeling that are known. Sometimes we make ourselves believe that our pupils are creating unknown out of unknown without these requisites. Analysis will show that our continued suggestions to him, drawn from our own fund of known are the causes, and not the pupil’s faculty. This method of teaching is the kind we have been used to in design. It works pretty well with small classes and individual instruction. Try it on large classes of beginners and it is not possible to bring results that stand for class efficiency.

And why should this particular method be insisted upon exclusively with beginners? Why should not design, like mechanical drawing and woodwork and other subjects be developed upon a substructure consisting of information and appreciation secured by allowing or even insisting that the boy handle good design until he becomes saturated with a feeling for good line and good form? Of course, if any pupil comes to a beginning class with this information and feeling, due allowance should and can readily be made. It is highly probable that there would be less inclination on the part of our pupils to insist that designers are born not made were more use made of the deductive method. When the boys no longer see their efforts result in crudities and are enabled to acquire the necessary feeling and information as their work proceeds, then you find a happy and interested class that as a whole takes design as a matter of course and not as something intended only for the few.

Whatever the method of teaching design in the regular classroom, lack of time demands the most direct treatment of shop design. A grammar school boy is not inclined to listen very patiently to anything that smacks of the academic. (1) Give the boy something definite with which to work and (2) keep him working, or “playing,” as one has fittingly designated it, until he has made a conscientious effort to “make it a part of himself,” that is, until he succeeds in changing the form until it no longer resembles the original but still possesses the pleasing appearance of the original.

If he succeeds in doing this, he is well on the way to creative effort. Not all boys are of equal ability in other lines of endeavor, neither are they in this. By this method of attack, however, even the stupidest—usually stupid only in the matter of design—is not without compensation for his effort. He has learned somewhat of the principles that govern good design by hearing them explained and seeing them illustrated in a piece of good design. He will have developed some feeling for line and form thru having played with good line and form. He can at the very least fit the form given him to an outline made by himself after suggestions of good line placed upon the board. To this extent, at least, you have benefited him, whereas, by the usual method he—and there are many like him—would have simply sat idle in discouragement—if he were not more mischievously occupied.

If our old art schools were to be criticised because they made too much use of the imitative method when they strove to give to their students information and appreciation and feeling for form and line thru copying historic ornament, it would seem, from results obtained, both tangible and in the effect upon the pupils, that our modern schools are open to criticism when they seek to force originality upon immature minds before they have given these minds any information or feeling.

Of course grammar school boys are not interested in historic ornament, at least not in America. This is the weakness of the imitative method and helped to bring in the movement which now seems to have swung to the opposite extreme—it lacks vitality for young pupils. Instead of giving the boy historic fragments, give him a form that is vitally interesting to him because he sees its immediate application in the thing that is to be made in wood. Let him play with this form combining imitation and modification and creation just as far as he is able.

Make the problem concrete, stating the principles you have to state in a language the boy can understand. There will not be time to bring out every principle that might be involved in design. There must be time to bring out those involved in the particular problem under discussion. Balance and symmetry, for illustration, are pretty well understood by the boy in the simple form in which he will have occasion to use them.

Take as an illustration the bookrack, [Fig. 7]. To present such a problem we would place upon the blackboard the blank forms as shown, also the decorative form as shown.

The lesson immediately divides itself into two parts for consideration: (1) The Construction, (2) The Decoration. Under the subject of Construction our normal school notes would suggest the following points to be brought up: Use, Construction, Decoration; Requirements of Utility; Limitations of Materials and Processes; Proportions of Parts and Details; Harmony of Parts and Details; Points of Force; Construction as Decoration. (According to Payne.) Under Decoration: Supporting Outline; Center of Interest; Symmetry; Repetition; Radiation; Rhythm; Contrast; Proportion in Curves; Proportion in Spaces; Unity; Subordinate Centers of Interest; Balance.

FIG. 7. TEACHING DESIGN IN THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK-RACK.

Taking these in their natural order, but without making much ado about the “framework,” the shop man who has made some study of the principles involved can call the boys’ attention to the most important points:

(1) The construction. Since the shopwork is to be carried on by class instruction and not individually, it will be necessary to limit the joint or joints used to those specified for the Group in which the project is to be worked out. Joints of previous Groups may be used also. The book rack will be made in Group VII. Some form of the groove joint is to be used, none other.

Here we call attention to the difference between the designer and the shop man in their handling of the problem. The discussion of construction gives the designer an opportunity to display the possibilities of his subject. He enumerates all the joints that may be used with propriety in making such a piece as the bookrack, and the pupils are encouraged to make use of as many varieties as possible. He is totally oblivious of the fact that, while this is good teaching in design, it is making the applications impossible except with individual instruction—a method of instruction that may be used in small school systems but not in cities.

(2) The manner of placing the members and the use to which the rack is to be put will together determine the proportions of the members.

(3) For decoration, we might depend entirely upon the good form of the outline and the stain and grain of the wood. With this particular piece, however, we shall make use of a decorative form which will be outlined or incised and colored with a dye.

(4) Since the design is to be made in wood and wood splits easily along the grain, we must be careful in making an outline not to get sharp points. Also, in making a decorative design we must avoid thin parts that will bring incised lines close together. Also, we must take into account in planning the members the facts of shrinkage or swelling and the strength of the wood. The grain on the vertical members must extend vertically and that of the horizontal member must extend from vertical member to vertical member. This to be illustrated by referring to some similar construction.

(5) In striving for pleasing outlines, or decorative forms either, strive to avoid a sameness made by using many lines or forms of the same size. “Large, medium and small” is a key that unlocks many a puzzle as to what causes unpleasant feelings in both outline and decoration. Long sweeping curves with short snappy ones, rather than a series made with a compass. Make a special point of the fact, which almost every boy overlooks, that the simple forms of outline are invariably the more pleasing. To the beginner design means making something unlike anything that was ever seen on the earth below or heaven above—hence the freakish, fussy forms that are usually offered. Try telling the class you are going to place an excellent form on the board then draw a well proportioned oblong and watch the expressions on their faces. Yet a well proportioned oblong with appropriate decorative form is one of the most pleasing of forms. There will be no need to urge them to make “unique” forms. Their inexperience and their zeal will produce a sufficient number. Rather urge, or insist that they postpone search for “unique” form until they have more information.

Illustrate with blackboard sketches as you go along each of these points. Keep the boys “playing” with outline forms until you have assured yourself they have done their best. With them, pick out three of the best and place these in permanent form for keeping—put them on another sheet of paper. Next, start them on the decoration. The development of a decorative form will come much harder than the outline. Here again the beginner will want to exhibit “unique” forms—unique only in that they are founded upon his ignorance. Unless the boy is not a beginner, it will be necessary in about twenty-four out of every twenty-five cases to insist that he start with the form you have placed upon the board for his use. If you were dealing with a few pupils, you might take his “original” form and step by step get him to work it into a good form. With large classes this is not possible, nor is it necessary. Simply insist that he place the form given him in his outline and in so doing he will acquire enough feeling for line and form to enable him to proceed of his own accord.

(6) Have the boy put on a supporting outline, that is, tell him to draw a line around his outline and parallel to it. Show the class on the blackboard how this is to be done.

(7) Put in the main mass and break it up explaining as you do so that you are seeking to get large, medium and small forms-proportion of parts. Call attention to the efforts made to keep the lines in harmony.

(8) Call attention to the center of interest you have created. It is unfortunate that lack of time forbids the boy’s placing colors on these designs. Very frequently a touch of color is used to create a center of interest, the form for this in black and white not giving the proper significance at all. A design which in outline seems to be fussy because of too many parts will, by a proper selection and placing of colors, be made most pleasing. On the other hand, a design in outline that seems agreeable may, when in color, not be agreeable because the colors make certain parts stand out too prominently. A study of the color plate in Projects in Beginning Woodwork and Mechanical Drawing will make this clear.

(9) If the form proposed happens to illustrate repetition, radiation, symmetry, or if some boy develops a form that does, take time to say a word about them. While you will not have time to “teach design” in the few lessons, a word here and there may serve to awaken further interest on the part of some boy.

After all is said, we recognize that the time is short, that not much can be done. On the other hand, what little can be done is worth doing and doing well; its possible significance can not be overestimated.

6. Shop Excursions.

In the grammar schools, and more especially in the high schools, plans should be made for several excursions to near by shops in which the pupils may get an insight into the workings of related industries. The saw-mill, lumber yards, planing mills, furniture factories, architectural or drafting-rooms and, in fact, anything relating to the industrial employment of men and machinery may be visited.

That the trip may be one of profit the instructor should see to it that the pupils are prepared for the trip by previous talks on what is to be seen and by after talks on the meaning of what they saw.

In every case it will be necessary, or at least advisable, to have a time arranged with the superintendent of the factory to be visited. Pupils should be given to understand that they are being privileged and must act the part of gentlemen, refraining from asking needless questions of the workmen or handling the equipment. In many factories no talking to the men at all is desired. The questions of young pupils are often impertinent and embarassing without their intending them so to be. The better plan is, as has just been suggested, to have the pupils prepared by preliminary talks then take them thru the shop with eyes and ears only open, clinching the lessons of observation afterward.

Pupils should keep together in solid lines and, should any accident occur, the instructor should see that any loss to the factory owner or workmen is “made good.” Usually the class will voluntarily make recompense. It is safer and less likely to cause embarassment if it is understood beforehand that all members of the class who go will be expected to help repay the instructor for any money so expended.

One might think the company well able to stand such loss. It is, but it is not always the company’s loss. Even if it were, their courtesy ought not to be abused. We have in mind a mold for an intricate piece of casting representing a day’s labor for two men ruined by a student’s accidentally brushing against it with his overcoat. As the men were on “piece work” it meant no loss to the company, except delay in getting out the finished article. It did mean a loss to the two men, who could ill afford it. The instructor quietly settled for the damage or loss and the pupils reimbursed him upon reaching school. This probably prevented the factory from excluding succeeding classes as undesirables. In woodworking shops there is little chance for such accidents. Nevertheless workmen there do not wish their tools or work handled. Each class should bear constantly in mind, while on the shop excursions, that it is making succeeding classes welcome or unwelcome in that shop.

7. Stock Bills.

Every piece of woodwork made by a pupil consisting of more than one member should have in addition to the working drawing a carefully made stock bill. The reason is two-fold: It not only prevents the pupil’s cutting out stock wrongly thru misreading the drawing, but it saves time for the pupil. It is a practice that he will have to master later in life if he follows any of the mechanical trades and is just as essential a part of his shopwork as is the drawing or woodwork. Where the drawings are made by referring to plates, experience has shown that many a boy will be able to make a good drawing without fully interpreting its meaning. The making of the stock bill will show him his weakness, also it will show the instructor. No boy can make out his stock bill without being able to read his drawing. After the drawing has been made and then its stock bill, the boy will have become so conversant with the plans of the thing he is to make that few mistakes are made in working the wood, that is, mistakes due to ignorance of the drawing.

STOCK BILL

(Form)

INSTRUCTIONS

All articles in seventh grade will be made of White Pine or Yellow Poplar; those in eighth grade of Chestnut.

Stock bills are not needed for articles composed of one piece of material only.

Finished sizes are the sizes to which the pieces are to be planed. Your drawing will tell you these sizes.

Pieces of irregular shape are to be figured at their widest and longest dimensions.

Cutting sizes are obtained from the finished sizes by adding ¹⁄₄″ to the width and ¹⁄₂″ to the length. Cutting sizes are the sizes to which you work in sawing out the stock preparatory to planing it.

All stock will be mill-planed on two surfaces to the correct thickness except that for the ring toss, spool holder, game-board, and laundry register. Thickness of mill-planed stock will be the same whether for finished sizes or cutting sizes. On rough stock, or stock that has not been mill-planed, if the finished size is ³⁄₄″ thick the cutting size will be 1″ thick.

Sometimes it is possible to save material by combining two irregular pieces. The finished stock sizes will indicate the number of pieces while the cutting size will indicate the size of the single piece from which they are to be cut.

Remember that length always means “along the grain of the wood,” and that a piece may be wider than long. Under the word “Pieces” put the number of pieces that are of the same size.

In the elementary schools the form of stock bill used should be as simple and explicit as is possible. The appended form is one that has proven satisfactory. That it may be in convenient form for student use, it has been included with “Projects in Beginning Woodwork and Mechanical Drawing,” as also is the Form for Price List and Estimate of Cost.

8. Estimating Cost of Material.

The accompanying form indicates clearly what is expected of the boys in figuring their cost of material. Since these costs are figured before the articles are made in wood, no account is taken of material wasted. With a carefully planned course of projects and an instructor who knows the possibilities of requiring a boy to reduce the size of his piece when one member has been reduced under size there is very little use for extra stock. As a rule what stock is so returned can be used for other smaller parts. If a boy is unnecessarily wasteful, he should be required to figure extra stock. This is to be done only in justice to the other boys, not as a check to the wasteful boy. Such boys, as a rule rather glory in their wastefulness. The best check for such a boy is to require him to use his original stock, reducing the sizes of all affected pieces as may be necessary.

As this is, in all probability, the first problem in which the boys deal with approximate rather than mathematically exact results, the instructor should not become discouraged with their first attempts. No better opportunity exists for introducing the boys to problems such as will confront them after they leave school. The instructor will do well to check the boys’ results by means of his own previously figured results after the boys are all thru their figuring. There is a difference between figuring for an answer previously given and figuring as they must after leaving school.

In order for the boy to figure his bills he must have a Price List. A form for a price list such as is needed for the materials that are to be used in “Projects in Beginning Woodwork and Mechanical Drawing” is appended. The prices given are neither retail nor wholesale but about midway between what the boy would have to pay for his stock bought in the limited quantity he needs and the cost to the school in quantity lots. Only the best of lumber is used. Money might be saved by buying short lengths but none is saved by buying “cull” stock with the expectation of cutting out the defects. The prices are for Chicago, 1911-1912, and are inserted for comparison only. On lumber, 15 to 25 per cent has been added for waste in cutting up. Since all of the stock used in the grades is in board form, wood finish is figured only for the two broad surfaces. The price will be found sufficient to cover the material used on edges. The price will also cover such waste as ordinarily comes thru the inexperienced handling on the part of the boys—they will not “spread out” the materials to as good advantage as will a mechanic, of course.

(Form, reverse side of a Stock Bill)

ESTIMATE OF COST OF MATERIAL

INSTRUCTIONS

Base your lumber estimate on the Cutting Sizes. All prices of lumber in your Price List are per square foot, therefore your stock should be figured by surface measure, only width, length, and number of pieces being considered.

Fractions of an inch and fractions of a cent are not considered, except in the price per foot, and in the number of feet as noted in the next paragraph. If the fraction is ¹⁄₂ or over, use the next higher whole number; thus, 2¹⁄₂ or 2³⁄₄ becomes 3. If the fraction is less than ¹⁄₂, drop it; thus, 2¹⁄₄ becomes 2.

In figuring, find the number of square inches in all pieces that are the same in price per foot. Reduce this to square feet by dividing by 144. Reduce it decimally and do not carry the result beyond tenths place. Dispose of any fractional figures beyond tenths as directed above. Always write your decimal as a fractional form in the bill—otherwise a decimal point might be overlooked and the result be greatly changed. In the form above note that .3 is written ³⁄₁₀.

In figuring finish, both surfaces of the stock are to be covered so that the easiest way to find the number of square feet of finish is simply to double the number of square feet of lumber. Edges are not considered. Only Groups VI, VII, and VIII have finish applied.

PRICE LIST 1911-1912.

9. Lumber and Material Bill for High School.

In the grammar schools the lumber is figured by surface measure per square foot and the form of bill is made as simple as is possible. A high school boy should be able to handle a problem somewhat more in keeping with commercial practice. In addition to the material cost he should keep account of the time expended in making his piece of woodwork so that he may figure the labor cost as well. The small size of the stock used does not admit of the full commercial practice. This, however, ought to be explained to the class at this time. The following form is for High School use:

PRICE LIST, 19—— 19——

HARDWARE—