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.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.
ARRANGEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL SHOP WITH REFERENCE TO MAIN BUILDING.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN OF POLYTECHNIC HIGH SCHOOL
LOS ANGELES CAL. FRANKLIN P. BURNHAM ARCH’T
From the June, 1908 MANUAL TRAINING MAGAZINE]
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.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. EXTERIOR GRAMMAR SCHOOL BUILDING FOR MANUAL
TRAINING AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS.]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: FIG. 5. CHART ILLUSTRATING TIMBER DEFECTS.
By T. B. Kidner, October, 1908 MANUAL TRAINING MAGAZINE]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: FIG. 7. TEACHING DESIGN IN THE PROBLEM OF THE BOOK-RACK.]
CONSTRUCTION
DECORATION
OUTLINES
MOTIVE GIVEN
ADAPTATION
APPLICATION--BY A PUPIL
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)
NAME________________________ ARTICLE_____________________
GRADE_______________________ KIND OF WOOD________________
-----------------------------+-----------------------------
FINISHED SIZES | CUTTING SIZES
------+---------+-----+------+------+---------+-----+------
Pieces|Thickness|Width|Length|Pieces|Thickness|Width|Length
------+---------+-----+------+------+---------+-----+------
1 | ³⁄₈ | 3 | 5¹⁄₂| 1 | ³⁄₈ | 1³⁄₄| 6
1 | ¹⁄₂ | 1¹⁄₂| 4¹⁄₂| 1 | ¹⁄₂ | 1³⁄₄| 5
2 | ¹⁄₂ | 1¹⁄₂| 9 | 2 | ¹⁄₂ | 3¹⁄₄| 9¹⁄₂
1 | ¹⁄₂ | 5¹⁄₂| 12 | 1 | ¹⁄₂ | 5³⁄₄| 12¹⁄₂
------+---------+-----+------+------+---------+-----+------
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
----+-----------------------------------------------+------
2 |square feet of ³⁄₄ inch stock @ 7c | $ .14
³⁄₁₀|square ft. of ³⁄₈ inch stock @ 5c | .02
4 |1 inch, No. 10, flat head, bright screws @ ¹⁄₄c| .01
5 |square feet of finish @ 1c | .05
| +------
| | $ .22
----+-----------------------------------------------+------
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.
LUMBER--
Chestnut, 1st grade, clear, kiln-dried:
S-2-S to ³⁄₈″, per square foot 5¹⁄₂c
S-2-S to ³⁄₄″, per square foot 7¹⁄₂c
S-2-S to 1″, per square foot 9¹⁄₂c
Yellow Poplar or White Pine, clear, kiln-dried:
S-2-S to ³⁄₈″, per square foot 5c
S-2-S to ¹⁄₂″, per square foot 6c
S-2-S to ³⁄₄″, per square foot 7c
Rough, 1″, per square foot 6¹⁄₂c
HARDWARE--
Screws:
1″ No. 10, flat head, bright, each ¹⁄₄c
1¹⁄₄″ No. 10, flat head, bright, each ¹⁄₄c
1¹⁄₂″ No. 10, flat head, bright, each ¹⁄₄c
2¹⁄₂″ No. 10, flat head, bright, each ¹⁄₂c
3″ No. 10, flat head, bright, each ¹⁄₂c
⁵⁄₈″ No. 10, round head, blued, each ¹⁄₄c
1¹⁄₂″ No. 10, round head, blued, each ¹⁄₄c
Nails:
6d, common wire (used with, and price included in
Mission nail)
1¹⁄₄″ No. 17 wire brads (used in Groups V and VI
with ³⁄₈″ stock)
enough nails for nailing one box 1c
1¹⁄₂″ No. 16 wire finishing nails (used in Groups
VII and VIII)
enough nails for nailing one project 2c
No. 1617 and 1618 Mission nails, each 1c
MISCELLANEOUS--
No. 81, ³⁄₄″ brass shoulder hooks for key rack, each 1c
No. 81, 1″ brass shoulder hooks for plate rack, each 1c
2¹⁄₂″ black Japanned wire coat hooks, each 1c
Wire hook for coat hanger, each 1c
No. 1214¹⁄₂ brass screw-eye and No. 1614 hook (calendar
mount) per pair, 1c
Fixtures for electric lights and hooks for hall mirror
are to be purchased by the individual--prices and
tastes vary so greatly.
Wood Finish:
Stain, filler, shellac, wax or filler, shellac, wax or
stain and wax, per square foot of surface 1c
=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----
LUMBER--Quality, 1st, clear, and kiln-dried.
----------------------+-----------------------------------------------
KIND OF WOOD | Per 1000 feet when surfaced on two sides
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
Thickness in the Rough| ⁵⁄₈″ | ³⁄₄″ | 1″ | 1¹⁄₄″ | 1¹⁄₂″ | 2″
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| | | | | |
Yellow Poplar | | | | | |
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| | | | | |
White Pine | | | | | |
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| | | | | |
¹⁄₄ Sawed White Oak | | | | | |
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| | | | | |
Mahogany | | | | | |
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| | | | | |
¹⁄₄ Sawed Red Sycamore| | | | | |
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| | | | | |
Black Walnut | | | | | |
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
| | | | | |
Plain Sawed Red Oak | | | | | |
----------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------
HARDWARE--
For prices on hardware consult Hardware Catalog provided for you.
Figure retail price, that is, figure screws at price per dozen, not
price per gross.
WOODFINISH--
Per square foot of surface covered.
LABOR--
Per hour.
(Form for high school use)
BILL OF MATERIAL
NAME__________________________ DATE BEGUN____________________________
CLASS_________________________ DATE FINISHED_________________________
ARTICLE_______________________ EXTRA HOURS___________________________
======+==================+=============================+
Pieces| Size | Description |
------+------------------+-----------------------------+
2 |¹⁄₂ × 3¹⁄₄ × 12¹⁄₂|Walnut Slats S-2-S to ³⁄₈ in.|
1 |1 × 8¹⁄₄ × 14¹⁄₂ | “ Stretcher “ ⁷⁄₈ in. }|
6 |1 × 3¹⁄₄ × 12¹⁄₂ | “ Rails “ “ }|
1 |1 × 14¹⁄₄ × 14¹⁄₂ | “ Top “ “ }|
4 |1¹⁄₂×1¹⁄₂ × 24¹⁄₂ | “ Posts “ 1¹⁄₄ in. |
| | |
8 |2 inch No. 10 |Flat Head Brt. Screws |
4 |1¹⁄₂ inch No. 10 | “ “ “ “ |
| | |
|13 sq. feet |Wood Finish |
| | |
| | MATERIAL COST|
|30 hrs. | Labor |
| | |
======+==================+=======+======+====================
Pieces| Size |Price | Feet | Cost
------+------------------+-------+------+----+-----+----+----
2 |¹⁄₂ × 3¹⁄₄ × 12¹⁄₂| .10 | ⁵⁄₁₀ | |.05 | |
1 |1 × 8¹⁄₄ × 14¹⁄₂ | | | | | |
6 |1 × 3¹⁄₄ × 12¹⁄₂ | .10 |03⁹⁄₁₀| |.39 | |
1 |1 × 14¹⁄₄ × 14¹⁄₂ | | | | | |
4 |1¹⁄₂×1¹⁄₂ × 24¹⁄₂ | .11 | 02 | |.22 | |.66
| | | | | | |
8 |2 inch No. 10 | .00¹⁄₂| | |.04 | |
4 |1¹⁄₂ inch No. 10 | .00¹⁄₄| | |.01 | |.05
| | | | | | |
|13 sq. feet | .01 | | | | |.13
| | | +----+-----+----+----
| | | | | | |.84
|30 hrs. | .15 | | | | 4 |.50
| | | +----+-----+----+----
=TOTAL COST $5.34=
INSTRUCTIONS
Under “pieces” put the number of parts that are alike.
Under “size” put the various dimensions of pieces. In finding the
sizes of the various pieces of lumber, examine the working drawings
for finished dimensions, making due additions for tenons, then add
¹⁄₄″ to the width and ¹⁄₂″ to the length to allow for cutting out and
squaring up. Tho you are to make use of stock mill-planed to
thickness, you are to specify the thicknesses from which this
mill-planed stock is got. Allow ¹⁄₈″ for mill-planing.
Remember that length always means along the grain.
Fractions of an inch in width and length are not considered. Neither
are fractions of a cent in the final results. If the fraction is ¹⁄₂
or over, take the next higher whole number. If it is less than ¹⁄₂,
drop it. Fractions of an inch in thicknesses that are over 1″ and
fractions of a cent in the price per foot are to be figured as they
are.
Lumber is measured by the superficial foot which is 1″ × 12″ × 12″.
Boards that are less than 1″ thick are sold by surface measure. In
other words, boards less than 1″ thick are figured for quantity as 1″
thick.
Standard sawed thicknesses are 1″, 1¹⁄₄″, 1¹⁄₂″, 2″, 2¹⁄₂″, 3″, 3¹⁄₂″,
4″. Thicknesses less than 1″ necessitate re-sawing these sizes. In
some communities the price per square foot for re-sawed stock varies
for each difference of ¹⁄₄″ in thickness.
In figuring, multiply the length by the width by the thickness, by the
number of pieces. If any piece is less than 1″ thick figure it as 1″.
Combine all results that are the same in price per foot. Reduce to
square feet by dividing by 144. Reduce decimally and do not carry the
result beyond tenths place. Dispose of any fractional part beyond
tenths as directed above. Write your result in fractional form that
the decimal point may not be overlooked and be the cause of trouble.
The price list gives the price of lumber per 1,000 feet. The price per
foot is readily obtainable.
In figuring finish for these cabinet pieces, double the number of feet
of stock as given by the stock bill to get the number of feet of
finish. This is only an approximate method but is sufficiently
accurate for such pieces as are to be made in first year high school,
as specified in “Advanced Projects in Woodwork,” Group IX.
=10. Standardizing Materials and Tools.= Standardization in the manual
training shop is just as desirable and as profitable as in commercial
shops. Not infrequently young teachers begin their work with the idea
that the greater variety of tools and materials they can introduce into
their course the richer is its content. To a certain extent this is true
but experience will soon prove that there is a limit beyond which it is
not profitable to go. In grammar schools, with classes of twenty, it is
inadvisable to have more than one plane on a bench--or even in the
general tool equipment, if the courses outlined herewith are followed.
By planning the joint work carefully beforehand, or requiring the pupils
to plan their joints according to certain standards as to size, no more
than two chisels need be placed at the disposal of each boy and none in
the general equipment. The same may be said of bits, etc. Make use of
certain screw sizes, as few as can be used to advantage, and equip in
auger bits accordingly. This practice not only is less expensive but it
enables the instructor to keep the equipment well in hand both as to
sharpening and accounting.
Except with individual oversight, in small classes, it is not advisable
to plan projects for grammar schools in which holes smaller than ³⁄₁₆″
diameter are to be bored. The expense of maintaining or replacing bits
of smaller size that get broken is unwarranted.
Of course, it is not to be inferred from the foregoing that any
necessary tool is to be omitted, or that any tool is to be made to do a
work that will cause it to be injured thereby.
There is educational value in the way of imparting information in
providing pupils with a different kind of wood for each project. This
used to be specified in some of the very best courses some years ago.
Today the tendency is not only to standardize the kinds of wood but to
standardize the thickness. The economic problems arising from the
handling of many kinds and sizes of lumber more than offset the
informational value that pertains to the practice. A study of samples of
wood that are placed within easy reach of the pupils will compensate
somewhat for the loss occasioned by standardizing the kinds of stock.
After all, the presentation of three or four type woods is about all
that can be expected, as the work is now presented.
Wood finishes can be standardized in a manner similar to that of lumber
and hardware. There is undoubtedly educational value in a boy’s making
his own stains. Under ordinary school conditions, however, it is not
possible to have him do so. Nor is it advisable for the instructor
himself to mix his own finishing materials. Even the most expert
woodfinishers find it taxing their ability to mix a fresh lot of stain
that will exactly match that of a previous lot. There is nearly always
some boy, or boys, with pieces but partly covered when the stain in any
given lot is exhausted. The best way, everything considered, is to make
use of some standard color of finish in stain and filler. When a given
quantity is exhausted it is an easy matter to order more of the same
color with the assurance that the color of the new lot will match that
of the old. It is not possible to teach everything in the short time
allowed and there are excellent reasons for omitting these.
The price list and the list of equipment given herein show to what
extent the author has standardized his material and tools.
=11. Records, Forms of Reports, Grading Work.= The following forms have
proven satisfactory.
(Form for front cover)
CLASS BOOK
MANUAL TRAINING CENTER___________________
INSTRUCTOR_____________________
(Form for pages)
School____________ Grade_______________ Teacher______________
========++==========+=====+======+==========++===================
NAMES ||Attendance|Grade|Acct. |Deportment||
========++==========+=====+======+==========++===================
|| September || October, Etc.
--------++----------+-----+------+----------++-------------------
1 || | | | ||
--------++----------+-----+------+----------++-------------------
2 || | | | ||
--------++----------+-----+------+----------++-------------------
3 || | | | ||
--------++----------+-----+------+----------++-------------------
|| | | | ||
Etc. || | | | ||
|| | | | ||
The foregoing form is for use in grammar school centers. One book for
each center will suffice. On the cover, the instructor will fill in the
name of the school at which the center is located, also his own name.
There should be placed after “school” on the inner page the name of the
school from which any class of boys come. Their grade and the name of
their academic teacher is to be filled in.
In marking attendance in the class book, use a short straight line for
absence. If a boy is marked absent and later comes in, a straight
horizontal line thru the vertical line made to indicate absence will
indicate tardiness. By arranging these marks in the square in some
definite order the particular time of absence or tardiness can be told.
For example, if a class comes to manual training once a week, a mark in
the upper left hand corner may indicate absence or tardiness the first
week of that month; if in the upper right hand corner, for the second
week, etc.
In the column marked “Grade” will be recorded the teacher’s estimate of
the boy’s work. In some schools boys are required to pay for material
used. The column marked “Acct.” is to be used in keeping record of money
paid by the pupil.
The column marked for deportment is not to be filled unless a boy
insists in calling the instructor’s attention to himself because of his
misconduct. On such occasions a check is recorded after his name at the
time reproof is given.
These books will be taken up by the supervisor of manual training at the
close of the year and will be kept by him.
Boys who enter or leave at times other than the beginning or close of
the regular school period should have the fact and date indicated in
connection with their names.
Where money is collected from students, the supervisor should insist
that the instructor keep a separate purse for this purpose in addition
to keeping a record in his class book. The class book record will be of
service in checking the purse account and in aiding in settling any
dispute between instructor and boy and in giving the supervisor a check
in case any parent asks for information. It is not an unusual thing,
however, for the instructor to find his purse account in excess of his
book account. This is due to the fact that he has forgotten in the
stress of other shop duties to make a record. In such a case the purse
account, not the book account is to be turned in. Since the instructor
is not a purchasing agent there will never be occasion for his book
account to exceed his cash account.
The directions given for the grammar school class book apply equally to
this high school form, except that the week is the unit instead of the
month. If a class comes five days in the week, a mark in each of the
four corners of the square for Attendance and one in the center will
indicate that the boy was absent or tardy five times that week. Always
placing the marks in definite places for definite days will indicate
what day of the week a boy was absent or tardy.
(Form for High School)
(Outer cover)
CLASS BOOK
SCHOOL_________________________
SHOP_________________________
INSTRUCTOR_________________________
(Form for pages)
Class_________________________ Section_________________________
=============++==========+=====+=====+==========++====================
NAMES ||Attendance|Grade|Acct.|Deportment||
=============++==========+=====+=====+==========++====================
|| First Week || Second Week, Etc.
-------------++----------+-----+-----+----------++--------------------
1 || | | | ||
-------------++----------+-----+-----+----------++--------------------
2 || | | | ||
-------------++----------+-----+-----+----------++--------------------
3 || | | | ||
-------------++----------+-----+-----+----------++--------------------
Etc. || | | | ||
|| | | | ||
At the end of each month there will need to be sent to the regular grade
teacher information suggested in the following form. This form, when the
teacher takes off the data contained thereon, is to be returned to the
manual training center. The information contained upon this form is to
be used by the regular teacher in making up her monthly report for the
boys whose names are recorded. Deportment and attendance will be
combined with similar marks in the regular work while the manual
training grade will be recorded in the space so indicated on the regular
monthly report.
As for the form of the monthly report for the high school, most high
schools have their marking systems so arranged that the different
instructors can transfer their markings directly from the class book to
the card. If a form is desired, the grammar school monthly report will
answer as well for the high school by changing the words “School” and
“Grade” to “Shop” and “Section.”
MONTHLY MANUAL TRAINING REPORT
SCHOOL_____________ GRADE_____________ TEACHER_____________
=========++=====+======+=====+==========++===================
NAMES ||Times| Times|Grade|Deportment||
||Tardy|Absent| | ||
=========++=====+======+=====+==========++===================
|| September || October, Etc.
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
1 || | | | ||
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
2 || | | | ||
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
3 || | | | ||
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
4 || | | | ||
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
5 || | | | ||
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
6 || | | | ||
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
7 || | | | ||
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
8 || | | | ||
---------++-----+------+-----+----------++-------------------
Etc. || | | | ||
|| | | | ||
To the Teacher--Deportment is satisfactory unless checked. A boy with
two or more checks needs a word of caution and advice.
Excuses for absence or tardiness are to be given the regular teacher
except where a boy is absent from manual training but is in attendance
at the regular school the same day. In such a case the excuse is to be
given the shop instructor.
In addition to this the teacher will appoint a monitor who will
telephone to her the class attendance at the beginning of each manual
training period. Unwarranted absentees are to be attended to by her.
This record is to be returned at the very earliest opportunity to the
manual training shop. Otherwise, it may be the cause of delay in your
getting your class report from manual training the following month.
In grading work the tendency today is not to try to make fine
distinctions such as 83 per cent, etc. “Excellent” for work that is
equal to that of a mechanic, “Good” for work that is above average,
“Passed” for average work and “Poor” for work that is not acceptable
will be sufficiently exact. If the system of marking is by numbers, mark
by tens, as 90, 80, 70, and 60, seventy being “Passed.”
=12. Shop Conduct.= In conduct, a boy at the manual training center
should be governed by the same rules that obtain in the regular school,
with slight exception.
It is sometimes argued that shopwork provides an opportunity for free
and natural or unrestricted action on the part of the pupils. This they
argue is a distinct advantage of manual training over the restraint of
the academic classroom and results in greater development educationally.
Theoretically this seems reasonable. Practically, it soon becomes
evident that young pupils, such as our manual training boys, are lacking
sadly in judgment in the power to discriminate between liberty and
license in shop conduct. Allow them the privilege of talking to one
another about necessary matters without asking permission of the
instructor and you must be a strong teacher to prevent abuse of the
privilege. To allow unrestricted conversation, however, is decidedly
bad. Even with grown men and women working in shops, only restricted
conversation is allowed. The reason is evident. If with men and women of
supposed judgment there must be insistence on order and system, how much
more so with immature boys.
Have definite signals and insist upon their being heeded promptly. The
three bells used in the regular school work serve well to open the
school. One, the opening of the doors; two, the call to order; three,
the tardy bell.
Some instructors do not allow the pupils to enter the shop--do not open
the shop--until the second bell rings. Other instructors allow the boys
to enter the shop at the first bell and begin work as soon as they like.
The first method is used mainly in large cities where large classes have
to be cared for and where the boys are morally inacute. The second is
preferable in some ways. It allows the pupil to make the most of his
time. It has the disadvantage in that it requires the instructor’s
immediate supervision after the first bell, or else allows the pupil to
commit errors because of no supervision. As a rule it is the boy who
most needs the extra time who does not make use of the privilege.
Of course, where pupils are not admitted to the shop before the second
bell, provision must be made for taking care of them inside the building
in inclement weather.
To fully appreciate the merits of either practice it should be explained
that each boy is to be held responsible for the tools at his bench and
the class as a whole for all other tools. Each boy is expected to look
over his tools upon coming into the shop that he may report any tool
that is missing or damaged. Should he fail to make a report until late
in the period, or not at all he should be made to feel the
responsibility. Broken or lost tools should be paid for as the case
merits.
At the close of the period, all tools are to be in their places ready
for the instructor’s inspection. It should be explained to the pupils
that this inspection is not to relieve them of responsibility but merely
to assist them in avoiding an oversight.
Unnecessary damage to the bench is to be reported and the responsibility
fixed as is that concerning tools.
At the ring of the tardy bell every boy should be in his place with his
material, ready for work. Since the recitation generally follows the
tardy bell, that should be the signal for quietness and attention such
as is demanded in the regular schoolroom. The instructor will have
marked his attendance by the time the pupils have got in order and the
recitation may begin at once.
Insist upon continued attention during the recitation and demonstration.
The author has made it a point to call upon any boy showing signs of
inattention to recite. No boy likes to be considered a dullard and
usually he will confess to inattention after which the proper note can
be made of it.
Where the full half-day is given to shopwork, a five minute rest period
is advisable. This allows the boys to relax and to make known to one
another their ideas. Where possible, they should be allowed to move
about and converse freely. Under no circumstances, however, should there
be allowed scuffling or loud talk, either at rest or before the tardy
bell. Aside from the damage that might be done themselves and the
equipment, there should be instilled a feeling of respect for the shop
environment.
The instructor should aim to have on each bench as many of the tools as
will be in great demand. The general tools will be kept in a wall case.
Permission should be given to boys to go after any such tool whenever he
needs it without asking for it. Likewise it is advisable to allow boys
standing permission to go to the drinking fountain, if it be in the same
room, or to the wash basin or the finishing tables. It should be
understood that there is to be no congregating at these places.
Permission to leave the room should be required.
At the close of the period a tap of the bell will be the signal for the
boys to put away their tools and work, get their wraps, brush off the
shavings from the bench top and from under the bench into the aisle.
When all are ready and the tools have been inspected, the teacher’s
signal to rise, and then to pass may be given. Have the rows instructed
to pass out in a definite order.
A few schools require the boys of the last class of the day to clean up
the entire shop. In many communities this is not advisable for there is
some justice in their complaints that they are not janitors. There will
be no objection by boys in any community, however, to brushing out from
under and around their own benches. This practice makes the janitor’s
work comparatively light and does not offend the boy’s sense of justice
or fitness. They do not object to the cleaning of the room so much as to
the idea of doing what another is paid for doing.
The discussion of ways and means of maintaining discipline is not
appropriate in a book of such brevity as this. Sufficient to say that a
manual training teacher to do his best work should be a teacher well
trained in methods of teaching and the psychological bases back of them.
He should at least understand the art if not the science of good
teaching.
Where an instructor is engaged in teaching his entire time it is not
just that he should be required to attend to formal disciplining of
pupils. In most schools, therefore, an instructor, like the regular
grade teacher, conducts his shop as best he knows how. When a boy
insists in being unruly in spite of all the instructor can do, then that
boy should be sent to the principal of the building in which he belongs
for further treatment. The shop instructor will be expected to make use
of the many little devices for maintaining order that are required of
other teachers. Otherwise he will find himself wanting to send boys to
the principals more frequently than he should. His maintenance of order
will be a much easier task than is that of the regular teacher.
While these restrictions may occasionally work a hardship, they
effectually prevent such injustices as the boy who is inattentive during
the demonstration bothering the boy who was attentive, when it comes to
doing the work. Our American boy is not in much danger of being injured
by our school requirements of order and discipline. In fact, he would be
benefited by a little more strictness than is now the custom, both at
school and at home.
The high school shop bells will of necessity be those for other classes
with the exception of the double period. There will be no necessity for
a rest period, of course.
=13. The Lesson.= An examination of the Lesson Outlines of Part II will
make clear the component parts of the lesson. These parts are:
Recitation, Preparation for Demonstration, Demonstration, Work.
In making an analysis of the lesson, let us begin with “Preparation for
Demonstration.” The recitation really belongs to the preceding lesson,
and will be discussed last. The preparation for demonstration consists
in having a pupil read aloud sections of a text which bear directly upon
the demonstration which is to follow. The purpose of this is primarily
to assist in preparing the minds of the pupils for the demonstration. Of
course this preparation could be made orally by the instructor. In
centers where the classes repeat the work day after day for the full
week, the instructor finds himself enthusiastic in giving the beginning
classes their lessons but, in spite of good intentions, slighting the
lessons of the classes that come the latter part of the week. The
reading from the text insures every class equal attention. Of course,
the instructor will enliven the text by the addition of information from
his own experience. There are other uses for the text, such as a
reference book in case the worker finds as he works that he has
forgotten some point. Also it enables the instructor to formulate
definite questions on the work with some assurance that the student can
answer them the week following. The preparation must not be too
elaborate. This is a common fault of beginners in teaching. It is a
means, not an end.
Some instructors object to reading before the demonstration on the
ground that it detracts from the demonstration. When one thinks only of
the exercise of observation this seems reasonable. It must be
remembered, however, that young pupils are not skilled in making
observations as are grown people. It is wise therefore to give them some
aid in making their observations by giving them preliminary hints. In
fact, those instructors who object to the preliminary reading frequently
do precisely the same thing, that is prepare the boys for the
demonstration, when they talk during the demonstration--they usually
explain each step just before taking it. With the preliminary reading of
the text very little talking need interrupt the demonstration, which may
proceed rather rapidly.
Here one sees the necessity for a well organized course. Each lesson
must have its subject matter connected with previous knowledge of the
class.
A successful demonstration demands an equipment such that each boy may
see what is being done by the instructor. The closest of attention
should be demanded. The matter to be demonstrated should be unfolded
step by step. It is not necessary that all the steps be given. Any steps
that have been given in a previous demonstration may be presupposed.
Little time should be lost between the demonstration and its
application.
The remainder of the lesson, the recitation, is to be given at the
beginning of the next period or session. If shopwork has been lacking in
one thing more than another it has been in the failure of the instructor
to “clinch” his instruction. “The best test that a person has understood
a thing is, that he can reproduce it in his own way in his own words.”
The woodshop instructor has a right and, in justice to the boys and his
work, should insist that they stand squarely upon both feet and express
the information asked for in good, plain, correct English. A boy who
says he “knows but cannot tell it” only half knows. Unless he learns the
lesson well enough to express it well, that lesson will soon fade so
that when the instructor attempts to build upon that knowledge later, as
he must, there will be trouble for both teacher and boy.
In written tests insist upon a definite form and neat papers. For
example, on one line have the date and name, one to the left side of the
paper and the other to the right. In the middle of the paper on the line
just below this, have the name of the subject. Insist upon marginal
spaces at either side of the paper. Do not have the questions copied
upon the boys’ papers, but insist that their answers shall be in the
form of complete statements, a subject and predicate--so complete that
the instructor need not refer to the question to mark the answers.
At all times use good English, never rough language if you expect the
boys to respect you and the surroundings. Quietly correct their
grammatical errors. These things cost little in effort and assist in
overcoming the slovenly tendencies so characteristic of boys at this
age.
In the Lesson Outlines will be found questioning hints under Recitation.
Some fifteen or twenty years ago our text books in geography, grammar,
history, etc., had suggestive questions after each lesson. These
questions were very helpful but like many another good thing they were
abused. Weak teachers found it easier to conduct a recitation by putting
these questions to the students in routine order, instead of using them
merely as hints to enable them to present to the pupils all the matter
of the lesson. To conduct a recitation by asking routine questions like
conducting a recitation with a text open before the teacher when pupils
are required to recite without the text, is not the sign of the highest
type of teaching and is bound to result in more or less formalism and
lack of vital interest.
Of recent years, texts have gone to the other extreme and not a few
educators are wishing texts would give some hint as to the points of
importance in the lesson. This the present book aims to do in the hints
by questions under Recitation. These questions are purposely put in an
incomplete form so that the instructor must needs formulate them before
putting them to the pupil. They are intended, as are any public
speaker’s notes, merely to enable him to carry on the discussion or
recitation in a systematic and logical manner, missing none of the
important facts to be brought out.
The whole time taken in any one lesson for recitation, preparation for
demonstration and demonstration should not exceed, ordinarily,
twenty-five or thirty minutes.
It is a skilled teacher who can present a lesson to the best advantage.
The best possible presentation is a subject that manual training men can
investigate with profit. Asking questions and getting answers and giving
demonstrations may mean much or may mean little in the way of developing
the boys--nor can you tell always by the material results obtained--it
all depends upon how these things are done.
=14. Maintenance.= By maintenance we refer to the cost of keeping a
center running after it has once been fully equipped, exclusive of
teachers’ salaries. This will be found to have several variable factors
entering. A careless instructor can very quickly run the cost of
maintenance to a point almost prohibitive. The loss of tools by theft,
waste of lumber in getting out stock, etc., the careless planning of the
work so that articles are made, requiring much lumber and little work,
quickly makes inroads upon the appropriation for manual training
purposes.
An allowance of ten per cent. for depreciation in equipment should be
sufficient under all ordinary conditions. An allowance of one dollar per
pupil per year should be ample where all material used is provided free.
In fact, observation covering a period of several years shows that boys
coming one-half day a week for the school year of ten months and making
models similar to those in “_Projects in Beginning Woodwork and
Mechanical Drawing_” cost the Board approximately seventy-six cents per
pupil for maintenance. This center had very close supervision, however,
and waste and breakage was reduced to a minimum.
The most prolific source of monetary outlay is caused by planning
projects--it makes no difference whether they are small or large, a boy
uses just as much lumber in a given amount of time,--that require little
effort in their construction. For illustration, a boy may make a taboret
with four solid sides and with butt joints where he should be making a
taboret with grooved joints. The former construction has its place, but
should not monopolize the whole scheme as it is so often allowed to do.
A course properly planned will show that the cost of eighth grade work,
such as taborets, etc., is no greater than that of the seventh grade
which is composed of much smaller but more numerous projects.
Again, it is a mistake to plan many small projects consisting of small
parts in the hope of effecting economy. The awkwardness of the average
grammar school boy will make it necessary to discard much of such stock.
Where the parts are of some size, it is possible in most every instance
to give him a new but smaller set of dimensions and require him to
continue to work on the piece originally given.
A scrap box for holding small pieces that remain after cutting out stock
from the board, closely supervised so that the boys shall look over the
pieces it contains before cutting a full board, is another source of
economy. There should be comparatively little “kindling” for the
janitor, if due care is taken by the instructor. Above all things, it
should be understood and enforced that no boy is to discard a piece once
he has worked upon it without the instructor’s permission. This he
seldom needs to give for he can usually show the boy how to make further
use of the piece in question by reducing its size.
While most schools provide the materials free, some do not, but require
the pupils to pay the actual cost of the material used should they care
to take the article home. There is something to be said in favor of each
practice. The latter is not unjust as it provides the necessary
training. It tends to make class distinction, however, in communities
where pupils are not able to purchase their pieces. On the other hand,
it discourages the taking of things that are not really wanted and
permits a most economical administration--provided the supervisor uses
judgment in the selection of his projects. It tends to make him
resourceful in providing projects of interest, which is an advantage
provided the projects selected are in harmony with the general plans of
the course, which is supposed to provide for the orderly introduction of
processes.
High school pupils, according to the course outlined herein, will have
about the same amount of time in the half-year allotted to benchwork in
wood as do the grammar school boys in the full school year. The cost of
maintenance will therefore be approximately the same for the half year
as is that of the grades for the year.
In purchasing supplies it is possible, where the courses are organized
and the materials standardized as indicated herein, to save by ordering
in quantity lots. The lumber can be purchased by the 1,000 feet of the
various thicknesses wanted. Likewise the hardware can be got in quantity
lots, with the assurance that next year’s work will call for any stock
that may not be used the present year.
Short lengths in lumber are just as good as long for manual training
purposes and are cheaper.
Whatever is to be purchased by open quotations should be definitely
specified so that one and only one quality can be delivered.
The printed catalogs of the various dealers with their retail prices are
helpful, tho these prices are always “shaded” when quantity quotations
are asked.