Transcriber’s Notes
Texts printed in italics and boldface have been transcribed between
_underscores_ and =equal signs respectively. Small capitals have been
replaced with ALL CAPITALS. The caret ^ indicates a superscript
character.
[Illustration]
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.”
[Illustration]
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 5
CHAPTER I--FOREWORD--AIMS 7
CHAPTER II--CLASSIFICATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF TOOL OPERATIONS, for
Grades 7, 8, 9, 10; Discussion 12
CHAPTER III--CLASSIFICATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF ELEMENTS OF
MECHANICAL DRAWING, for Grades 7, 8, 9; Discussion 22
CHAPTER IV--SHOP ORGANIZATION--Location of Shops; Division and
Allotment of Time; Informational and Related Matter Pertaining to
Woodwork and Mechanical Drawing; Structural and Decorative
Design; Shop Excursions; Stock Bills; Estimating Cost of
Material; Standardizing Materials and Tools; Records, Forms of
Reports, Grading Work; Shop Conduct; The Lesson; Maintenance 29
CHAPTER V--EQUIPMENT--Size of Classes; Lockers; Bench and Tool
Equipment for Grade Center; Individual Tools; Equipment for
Mechanical Drawing, Grade Center; High School Joinery Shop; High
School Bench and Tool Equipment 73
PART II--LESSON OUTLINES 89
CHAPTER VI--LESSON OUTLINES FOR GRADE VII 91
CHAPTER VII--LESSON OUTLINES FOR GRADE VIII 110
CHAPTER VIII--LESSON OUTLINES FOR GRADE IX 130
PART III--WORKING DRAWINGS 133
CHAPTER IX--DRAWINGS OF PROJECTS, for use in Grades VII and VIII.
Group I--Squaring up stock surfaced on two sides to thickness.
Group II--Squaring up stock surfaced on two sides, continued.
Group III--Squaring up Rough Stock. Group IV--Working Curves.
Group V--Duplicate Parts. Group VI--Design. Group VII--Groove
Joints--Applications. Group VIII--Cross-lap Joints--Applications 135
CHAPTER X--DRAWINGS OF PROJECTS, for use in High Schools. Group
IX--Mortise-and-tenon Joints, Miter Joint, Glue Joint, Modeling
Exercise--Applications. Group X--Dovetail Joints, Rabbeted and
Grooved Joints--Applications 187
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.