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"I guess we who are not too old to learn could run machines as well as anybody, if we tried," returned the young man, scornfully; "and as for the rest, handwork is always going to have a market value, and there'll always be some sort of a demand for it.
=Hero days= suggest a variety of forms of handwork, such as picture making with crayons or cuttings, or pictures in three dimensions on the sand table, for intensifying important phases of the hero's life; illustrated stories in booklet form; and the making of "properties" for dramatic representations.
When Buonaparte's Bodyguards came up they charged these, making fearful havoc amongst their number; they were routed and obliged to retreat, but the Life Guards and Scotch Greys fortunately making their appearance immediately, some close handwork took place, and the Bodyguards at last finding their match, or even more, were in their turn compelled to fall back before the charge of our cavalry, numbers of them being cut to pieces.
The various holidays which come during the year mean so much to little children that they should receive special notice and should suggest the form of handwork to be done at the time.
It is quite unnecessary to give more direct details as to the kind of work suitable and the method of doing it; more than enough books of help have been published on every kind of material, and it might perhaps be well if we made less use of such terms as "clay-modelling," "cardboard-work," "raffia," and took handwork more in the sense of constructive or expressive work, letting the children select one or several media for their purpose; they ought to have access to a variety of material; and except when they waste, they should use it freely.
To obtain uniform results practice had to come before actual performance, and many weary hours were spent over drill in reading, drill in number, drill in handwork, drill in needlework. The extreme point was reached when babies of three had thimble and needle drill long before they began needlework.
But anything in the nature of story periods, games periods, handwork periods, only impedes the variously developing children in their hunger for experiences. Their curriculum is life as the teacher has spread it out before them; there are no subjects at this stage; the various aspects ought to be of the nature of a glorious feast to these young children. Traherne says in the seventeenth century:
The variety of possible constructions in building the staircase corresponds to the varying ability of classes. A strip of paper may be folded back and forth and made to serve with least mature classes. This paper stair will sag unless it rests on a board or piece of stiff pasteboard. There is usually one boy in every first grade who is capable of as difficult a piece of handwork as this.
As in arithmetic and in handwork, they will come to recognise the need for practice, and be willing to undergo such exercise for the sake of improvement, as well as for the pleasure in the activity which actual writing gives to some children. We must be quite clear about relative values.
The possibilities for apprentice work with dressmakers or milliners or in other handwork should also be made known. Girls begin here, as in the factory, at simple and monotonous tasks, but the possibilities of advancement are far greater and mental development is unquestionably more likely.
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