International studio (35.1908)

Craft Classes in Public Schools

manual training
for the boroughs
of Manhattan and
The Bronx, D r .
James P. Haney,
and with the
hearty cooperation
of City Superin-
tendent of Schools
Dr. William H.
Maxwell, a num-
ber of these craft
classes have been
organized
throughout the
city.
These classes
have been devel-
oped through the

APPLIED DESIGN
BY CRAFT CLASSES

NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOLS
(MANHATTAN AND BRONX)



RAFT CLASSES IN THE PUBLIC
SCHOOLS

‘ What are the public schools doing
to train the rising generation to be use-
ful citizens ? ” This question is being asked on all
sides, for we are beginning to realize how small a
proportion of the wage earners are comprised in the
class known as “professionals.” Even when we
add to these the stenographers and bookkeepers and
others who are doing mental work, the mass, of our
population, something like 80 per cent., is doing
manual labor.
Many organizations are trying to solve the prob-
lem of the kind of school best suited to develop this
large class. Among the most active are the Massa-
chusetts Commission on Industrial Education and
the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial
Education, with its many State branches. In the
meantime the New York public schools are teaching
the children useful things in the courses of the man-
ual arts and the domestic arts. In the grammar
grades the teaching of design is intimately related to
the practical problems in construction. The child’s
sense of appreciation is also cultivated by leading
him continually to consider the questions of color,
size and proportion.
To advance still further those pupils who show
unusual aptitude
and skill, craft
classes have been
established. This
plan was con-
ceived by the di-
rector of art and

interest and assistance of the departmental and
supervisory teachers. The classes are held after
school; attendance is entirely voluntary and admis-
sion to them is eagerly sought. As a rule but a sin-
gle type of work is developed in each class, the pu-
pils furnishing the material for the more elaborate
pieces and they then retain the work. In this way
classes have been established in leather tooling,
pierced and hammered metal work, chip and wood
carving, bookbinding, weaving, stenciling, wood-
block printing and the making of monotypes.
Some of the work of these classes was included in
the exhibit sent by the United States to the Third
International Congress on Art Education, which
met in London August 3 to 8, 1908. The craft
classes were also invited to make a showing at the
last exhibition of the Municipal Art Society of New
York, where the wall occupied by this work proved
one of the most interesting. It was difficult to bor-
row these pieces, for the children were loath to part
with their creations and they could only be obtained
by promising that they would be safely returned.
Some of the work is fully up to the standard of ex-
pert craftsmen and several sales have been made.
These children are sure to have a dignified attitude
toward labor; they are not afraid of soiling their
hands, they are prepared to do their share of the
world’s work. F. N. L.

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