Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/806

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786
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

can here be merely indicated in a very general way. This system agrees with ether systems of manual training in making physical i 'rise the basis of its instruction and training, also in adopting the inductive method of teaching. But it differs from most of these in using wood as the only material for construction, and in the form of its models. From the various handicrafts in wood, as carpentry, wood-carving, wood-engraving, etc., it differs in not

Fig. 1.—Models.

being a trade; and from other Sloyd systems, in avoiding their tendency of either aiming at a mere technical skill or a mere mental discipline. Thus, it differs from those adopted in France and Denmark in being less technical, from those in Germany in being less theoretical, and from the Russian system chiefly in laying greater stress on the utility of the articles and introducing curved lines at an earlier stage.

How far Sloyd may be adopted in the public schools has been extensively discussed in Europe. That it should be introduced into the public schools, either as a separate branch of study or incorporated with the ordinary branches as a continuation of the Kindergarten system, has been earnestly urged by some schools of pedagogy, and as strenuously opposed by others. It is not possible to enter fully into the subject here; but it may be noted that