(From Woolley's 1926 volume:-- see more details on Woolley's two books in Woodworking Manuals, 1921-1930 and/or click here for more detailed account of IA education in the 1920s.)

From earliest childhood the boy likes to tinker with tools and materials and to make something.

There probably isn't a boy in the United States who has not sometime set out to make something which he thought he needed very much. Possibly it was an animal trap, a fishing tackle box, or a radio cabinet. He carries this tendency into school age and if properly encouraged and guided, furnished with pictures, drawings, books, tools, and congenial conditions, will spend many happy hours both in school and out, at this most wholesome activity. Before the advent of manual training in the schools, for every boy who succeeded in completing what he wanted, there were probably ninty-nine who failed—and they failed because they lacked information, they had no drawings, and they had no one to encourage and guide them. But all this is different now, there are many splendid books and school shops, and there are teachers who are specialists in this guidance work.


Importance of choice projects. What Mr. Cotton said fifteen years ago in his introduction to Manual Training for Common Schools is just as true today:

"From the standpoint of character-building, it matters but little upon what problems pupils work, but the attitude displayed and the habits formed as they attempt a solution, are matters of great moment. Intelligent attack, orderly procedure, skillful execution, painstaking completion, habits of industry, good, honest work, respect for labor, the ability to do things, these are qualities that belong to real education." (What Woolley neglects to mention is that Cotton's words are in Cotton's Introduction to another book, Manual Training for Common Schools New York: Scribner's, 1910)

But it is very important that the teacher understands that to obtain to the highest degree, any one of these qualities on the part of the boy, it is absolutely essential that he approach the subject matter with interest and enthusiasm.

This he will not do when working on a project for which he does not feel a need. Therefore, great importance is connected with choosing a project.

Considerable difficulty arises sometimes concerning projects. The writer has experienced failures and has observed that many other teachers fail to obtain good results in manual arts classes because of having permitted a poor selection of projects. Too often, the course consists simply of work which centers around a few old-type problems such as the taboret, foot stool, and necktie rack. So often big brothers having made these and filled the home with such articles so that no more are needed, but young Johnnie makes one because teacher suggests it, and because almost every other boy makes such projects. In helping choose projects, teachers too often think in terms of their own interests rather than those of their pupils. Young teachers in particular, are generally interested in pieces of furniture because they are equipping their own household and because they themselves made such projects while attending the normal school or college. We need more to vitalize our project selection, to take into account the age of our pupils and to consider their interests.

Some facts which have a bearing on the selection of projects.

1. The things to be made should be worth making and the process of making them should be interesting to the student.

A consideration frequently overlooked by the teacher is that cooperation which he can give to the boy, helping him with his problem of earning money. A boy should not expect, nor be expected to draw upon his father's purse for everything needed in his school activities. It is very important that he learn to earn his spending money so that he may become more independent and that he may appreciate the dignity of labor and the value of a hard-earned dollar. Carefully chosen projects, of value when well made, may be easily sold at school sales and bazaars arranged just before Christmas and at the close of school each year. Private sales may also be encouraged and the boy aided in his boyish financial enterprises which are so certain to be helpful to him in later years.

2. The project should possess educational value.

Education may be general or specific. Projects should provide specific education by necessitating the learning of the proper tool processes, and by calling for a sufficiently large amount of drill to develop skill in using tools. General educational value should be derived in the making of projects which correlate with history, mathematics, and many other subjects which make for more efficient citizenship.

3. We must take into account the child's viewpoint, his inclinations and emotions, his instincts of ownership, curiosity, play, and social tendencies.

 These should be permitted to be expressed through the making of various toys, game projects, puzzles, and "boy activity" projects. Consider the instinct of play. "Let the pupil's work become as play and his play will develop into useful work." While it is not advocated that all shopwork center around play instincts, it seems that we need to cooperate more with boys in producing projects that help take care of their recreation and leisure time. It has been the writer's observation that in many shops no organized activities along these lines have been attempted. This is probably one reason for a lack of interest and for disciplinary troubles in some classes. There are many reasons for encouraging the making of projects for the kitchen and living room, yet there are just as many reasons for these other phases of work.

One very desirable activity which teachers are beginning to find highly successful is toy-making. There are many project books now on the market in which there are veritable gold mines of information along this line. One splendid feature about toys described in one leading series of books is that the greater part of them require little more than the "pick-up" material around the ]ionic. "Children take to this work like a duck takes to water." Anticipation of play or the pleasure of giving a toy to someone will spur any boy on to make a good job of game or play project.

Another such activity is that of boat-building. Every boy likes to build boats. The interest in boats seems to be born in the race. Nature made it inevitable that Americans should be water-loving people. Even the three-year old child is instinctively attracted to a puddle of water in which to sail his boat, which usually consists of nothing more than a chip or a common board.

Growing out of an interest in kites, for the younger children, is that of model aeroplane building. Thousands of boys, the world over, have built these ingenious little crafts, some of which have flown over one mile. The materials required are very inexpensive and there is much training of the hand as well as general educational value in the modeling.

4. The work must be within the mental grasp and constructive ability of the boy, and the age and former experience of the pupil must be considered.

Failure is often due to having permitted a pupil to attempt too large or too difficult projects. Sometimes troubles arise because we attempt to keep all students together on uniform projects, in order to take more advantage of group instruction, regardless of the individualities of the students, and have thereby set up greater difficulties because of a lack of interest on the part of some pupils, and inferior ability on the part of others.

Going more into detail, experience has shown that beginning groups should be held closely to simple projects, the making of which teaches the most fundamental principles and uses of simple hand tools including the plane, square, saw, and hammer. The emphasis should be placed on technique and processes. Dimensions on drawings and blueprints should be fixed, and no variations permitted except as necessitated by poor work. All beginners should be required to make the same exercises the first few weeks so as to permit comparison of results and the establishment of high standards of accuracy. Authorities are well agreed that it takes some formal exercises and drill in beginning woodworking to teach a pupil to respect a "working line," and for this reason the pupil should be permitted to make only the simple projects which involve the squaring up of stock, both rough and mill-planed. Small projects should also be adhered to because beginners ruin more pieces and require extra material. Drawings and designs should be provided and no variation of dimensions permitted.

As the pupils' knowledge, appreciation, and skill increase, they should begin, by the second year, to modify existing projects and to make ones which involve accurate use of the chisel and accurate sawing to knife line with the back-saw. Projects containing dado joints may be found suitable for practice in sawing to fit. Most authorities suggest that projects involving mortise and tenon, miter, glue, joints and modeling, belong to the third year of woodworking, generally the first year of high school. This is probably best as a rule, though some very strong students may be ready for this work in the latter part of their second year. The modeling work, too frequently given in the early grades, should be left for the third year. Good modeling requires skill, judgment, and experience. To place it earlier is likely to give pupils the wrong impression of its accuracy requirements. Projects requiring the use of only a few machines should be allowed in the third years, except with older and larger boys. Those requiring the hand-saw and scroll or jig-saw, and possibly the lathe, are appropriate. Cabinet making or millwork courses, beginning and advanced, allow the more difficult projects which include framed structures such as the various cabinets, desks, tables, and other pieces of furniture. These involve various degrees of difficulty and call for a bit of study on the part of the teacher, of the processes involved and the ability of the pupil before such projects are assigned.

By this time at least a few problems should be given which involve invention or original design, thereby encouraging the development of initiative. This brings us to the problem of just how much attention to give to designing. "Always to construct a project from a borrowed design is not meeting the entire requirements of the educational process," yet, woodworking as well as any other field of manual expression must develop the power to create, and to select and reject. While originality is to be encouraged in every way it should never be forced at the expense of appreciation, which must come first. Griffith says : "Better a chair of good design and proportion made after another's design with appreciation than an absurdity made after one's own design and its weakness not seen." (See CC 16-21, listed on page 16 of Woolley's 1926 "Companion". ) The relative importance of design in public school education is well expressed by Professor [Walter] Sargent [Fine and Industrial Arts in Elementary Schools Boston: Ginn and Co, 1912, page 29]when he says : "For one who will produce a design, a thousand must know how to select it."
 

5. Make a study of what boys most like to do and to make at home, and of the influence of the change of the seasons on the children's interests.

"Tell me what a boy does of evenings after school or during vacations and I will tell you what kind of a man he will be." Taking the seasons into account helps to solve the problem of project selection, it being natural that one's interests are modified by their coming. From spring to fall the boys like to be outdoors. With the younger boys especially, kites should be ready for the kite tournament in March and the bird houses ready for the contest in April. These powerful socializing influences arouse enthusiasm to the "nth" degree. In farming communities, the practical needs of the farmer, which vary with the seasons, influence the interests of the boys on the farm. With the coming of long winter evenings, the indoor part of life assumes larger importance. Then the games and other indoor projects made in the shop should contribute to a harmless enjoyment of leisure time and toward keeping the boy happy and contented in his own home. He then needs healthful diversion, both mental and physical, more than at any other time. It is then that the interests turn to radio, gymnasium equipment, sleds, and Christmas toys.

There are other considerations which might be taken up in connection with projects, but these would only detract from the main issues already enumerated. Projects and boys will ever be associated as long as there are boys. Boys are live subjects, so must projects be, and let's always remember we are teaching boys.

"After ... fourteen years as a manual training instructor, I ... notice that ... students who advance the fastest in their classes are the boys who have a little workshop at home, and who work from good textbooks." P. v, Chelsea Fraser,( The Boy's Busy Book new york: crowell, 1927)