First | Previous Picture | Next Picture | Last | Thumbnails
CABINET WORK FOR HOME WORKERS
FIGURE SEVEN.-PORTABLE CABINET FOR WRITING TABLE.
make furniture after such models as we show here and the very necessary element of usefulness is added to the things they make. The only difficulty is that the craft itself is not well enough understood by the teachers to be imparted to the students in such a way that they derive any permanent benefit from it. The teaching is, as we have said, largely theoretical and the object
of the whole training is mental development along general lines rather than the moral development that comes from learning to do useful work thoroughly and well. As cabinet-work is handled in the manual training departments of the schools, it is distinctly a side issue, and exhibitions of the work to which public attention is frequently invited show ambitious pieces of furniture that are wrongly proportioned, badly put together and finished in a slovenly way, thus producing exactly the opposite effect upon the pupil from what is intended. If the State or municipal authorities would see to it that manual training in the form of wood-working of all kinds, and especially the making of furniture, were placed under the charge of thoroughly skilled craftsmen who understood and were able to teach all the principles of construction, the moral and educational effect of such work would be almost incalculable.
In order to make the training of any real value, it is absolutely necessary that the student begin simultaneously with mechanical drawing and the application of its principles
to his work as he goes along. If he began with simple models to which could be applied the elementary lessons in mechanical drawing, the laying out of plans, the reading of detail drawings and the like, and would also afford a chance to demonstrate lessons in the use of the square, the level, the saw and the plane ;—a good foundation would be laid not only for the understanding of right principles of construction but for the accurate use of tools. A boy trained in this way would be able in future years to put his knowledge to almost any use that was need-ed. Instead of this the students endeavor to make something that is interesting and that shows well at home or in an exhibition. In fact, the situation now is very much as it would be if a student of music were to take two or three lessons in the rudiments and then endeavor to play a more or less elaborate composition. There is no question as to the benefit that boys, and girls too, derive from being taught to work with their hands ; but it is better not to teach them at all than to give them the wrong teaching. No one expects a schoolboy or an amateur worker of any age to make elaborate furniture that would equal similar pieces made by a trained cabinet-maker. But if the student be taught to make small and simple things and to make each one so that it would pass muster anywhere, he learns from the start the fundamental principles of design and pro-portion and so comes naturally to understand what is meant by thorough workman-ship.
There is no objection to any worker, however inexperienced, attempting to express his own
FIGURE SIX.-PIANO BENCH, STRONGLY MADE WITH SOLID ENDS.
171to his work as he goes along. If he began with simple models to which could be applied the elementary lessons in mechanical drawing, the laying out of plans, the reading of detail drawings and the like, and would also afford a chance to demonstrate lessons in the use of the square, the level, the saw and the plane ;—a good foundation would be laid not only for the understanding of right principles of construction but for the accurate use of tools. A boy trained in this way would be able in future years to put his knowledge to almost any use that was need-ed. Instead of this the students endeavor to make something that is interesting and that shows well at home or in an exhibition. In fact, the situation now is very much as it would be if a student of music were to take two or three lessons in the rudiments and then endeavor to play a more or less elaborate composition. There is no question as to the benefit that boys, and girls too, derive from being taught to work with their hands ; but it is better not to teach them at all than to give them the wrong teaching. No one expects a schoolboy or an amateur worker of any age to make elaborate furniture that would equal similar pieces made by a trained cabinet-maker. But if the student be taught to make small and simple things and to make each one so that it would pass muster anywhere, he learns from the start the fundamental principles of design and pro-portion and so comes naturally to understand what is meant by thorough workman-ship.