Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Education and Mental Culture. Introd. by P. E. Lindström - 1. Elementary Education. By J. M. Ambrosius - Educational Sloyd. By P. E. Lindström - Workshops for Children. By Anna Hierta-Retzius
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364
iv. education and mental culture.
work himself. Whenever way opens for it., sloyd should go hand in hand with
drawing, in such wise that the pupils, after accpiiring the elements of drawing,
should be set, to work at their sloyd from drawings instead of from models. The
main object of the instruction being the individual development of the pupil,
the system employed is that of individual not class teaching.
The above are in brief the principles underlying the so-named Swedish Sloyd
Method. As above pointed out, it is not strictly followed everywhere in all
particulars; the main features are nevertheless always the same both in Sweden
and in the other countries where it has been adopted.
Workshops for Children (Arbetsstugor för barn).
The arbetsstuga or "workshop" has for its object to provide during the winter
months (October to April) a kind of home and refuge out of school-hours,
for children of poor parents that are unable to look after their children
themselves, owing to their work keeping them away from home. In these "school
homes" the children, safe-guarded from the temptations and dangers of the streets,
are kept occupied with suitable work which develops their dexterity at certain
of the easier handicrafts. The work is superintended by good teachers of both
sexes, and is adapted to the age of the children.
The first workshop was founded in the parish of Adolf Fredrik in Stockholm,
in 1887, on the initiative of Mrs Anna Hierta-Retzius, by the Lars Hierta
Memorial Foundation, which has ever since continued to meet requests for grants
in aid of further workshops. In subsequent years new workshops have been
added, both in the capital and in many towns and villages in the country, so
that they now number no less than 92, of which 24 are in Stockholm, with a
total of about 3 000 boys and girls between 7 and 14 years of age, who receive
instruction in many useful occupations, such as light woodwork, carpentry,
shoe-mending, brush-making, chip and bast work, cutting out and sewing of boys’ and
girls’ clothes, and in some workshops, book-binding, card-cutting, basket-work,
wood carving, weaving, cooking, and metalwork.
All the children receive for their work a good and substantial meal, either
dinner or supper.
These workshops are not expensive to maintain: the expenses are defrayed
by grants from Town Councils, Parishes and by the sale of the children’s
work; the yearly contribution of the Town Council to all the workshops in
Stockholm was 43 000 kronor in 1914, while the parishes subscribed from 300
—2 000 kronor for each workshop.
The staff of teachers consists partly of voluntary, partly of salaried
lady-teachers and of skilled artisans. Last, year, the number of voluntary lady-teachers
in Stockholm was 53 and that, of salaried teachers 130.
Workshops to the number of 65 have been started in the course of the last
27 years also in the provinces.
In Västerbotten, the movement is under the patronage of II. R. H. The Crown
Princess. Both in Västerbotten and in Norrbotten the workshops are often
situated many miles away from the parents’ dwellings; hence, in these regions
they generally take the form of homes, where the children receive board and
education during the eight winter months, going back to their parents during
the summer.
In the course of the 27 years that, have elapsed since these workshops were
started, their organization and methods have been gradually perfected. Indeed
the results yielded by the work have been strikingly good and have not failed
to meet with general recognition. The workshops have proved to be one
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