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WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN.
303
useful, either to the children themselves or to their parents, are, as a rule,
produced. Articles of pure luxury are altogether excluded.
The educational sloyd will also teach the pupil self-reliance and arouse his
faculties of observation and reflection. By letting practice precede theory, and
handiwork go before explanations, the child is put into the custom of thinking
its own thoughts while doing its own work independently. Contributory to this
purpose is the pervading rule that the teacher certainly must carefully lead and
supervise the work of the pupils, but, at the same time, be on his guard against
more or less carrying out any part of it himself. As far as possible, drawing
ought to go hand in hand with sloyd, so that the pupils, after having learnt the
first elements of drawing, are allowed to execute their work from drawings.
The main object of the instruction being the individual development of the pupil
— not the acquiring of technical skill — individual and not class teaching is
applied.
Such, briefly, are the principles of the so-called Swedish sloyd system. As
we have previously pointed out, the method is not everywhere strictly followed
in every detail but the leading thoughts are, however, always the same, both in
Sweden and in those foreign countries where it has been introduced.
Workshops for Children.
On April 4, 1886, the Board of the Institution Lars Hierta’s Memorial
fund (see p. 381) at the initiative of one among its members — Mrs. Anna
Hierta-Retzius — voted means for the establishment of Workshops for Children, i. e. >a
kind of day-schools, where an opportunity is given to poor children during their
leisure hours to occupy themselves in a useful way, learn practical work and
various trades».
The first workshop was opened on January 25, 1887, in the parish of
Adolf Fredrik at Stockholm; similar institutions have been started in the space of
a few years in all the parishes of the capital, each with a special Board to
organize the instruction and superintend the work, etc. A Central committee, to
which every Board elects one member, manages the common concerns, publishes
annual reports, arranges classes for teachers, lends models for work, etc.
Poor children from 7 to 14, who are not looked after at home, are received
in the workshops on the proposal of the board school teachers and are taught
there from 11 a. m. to 1 p. m. (the youngest children), and from 5 to 7 p. m.
(the older ones). The former get their dinners, the latter their suppers as a
remuneration for the work. The cost for the dinner amounts to 8 —13 öre, that for the
supper to 3—8 öre per ehild. (7*6 öre = 1 penny).
The staff of teachers consists partly of voluntary, partly of paid lady-teachers
and of artisans skilled in their professions. Last year, the number of voluntary
lady teachers amounted to 78 and that of paid teachers to 72.
The workshops are managed at a very small cost. They are supported by
subventions from the Town council and parish grants, by private gifts, and by
sale of the children’s works. The income at the annual joint sale of these amounts
from 5,000 up to 7,000 kronor (a krona = l’lo shilling). The annual grant
from the Town council for all the workshops of Stockholm amounts to 25,000
kronor, that of the parishes from 300 up to 1,200 kronor for each shop.
While the object of the sloyd pursued at the schools is chiefly a pedagogical
one, the work at these shops aims more at manual skill and practical usefulness.
The boys are taught brush-making, fret-work, wood-carving, basket-work, joinery,
tailoring, cobbler’s work, and metal work. The girls make slippers, bast shoes,
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