E-text prepared by Stephanie Eason
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from digital material generously made available by
Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)

PRIMARY HANDWORK

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO

HOUSE OF THE THREE BEARS
Built by first-grade class. Columbia, Missouri. See page 58.

PRIMARY HANDWORK

BY

ELLA VICTORIA DOBBS, B.S., A.M.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MANUAL ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1923

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1914,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1914.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

DEDICATED TO
THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF AMERICA
WITH THE WISH
THAT ALL THEIR SCHOOL DAYS
MAY BE HAPPY DAYS

[Pg vii]

PREFACE

This book is the outgrowth of long experience as a teacher of primarygrades, followed by special study of handwork as a factor in elementaryeducation. It is written with three objects in view:

First, to gather into a single volume various methods already in use inthe more progressive schools, and for which the best suggestions arescattered through current periodicals:

Second, to organize these methods and present them in a simple form forthe use of teachers who have had no special training in handworkprocesses:

Third, accepting conditions as they exist in the small town school and theone-room country school, as a basis of organization, to offer suggestionswhich may be easily adapted to the conditions of any school with a view tobringing present practice into closer harmony with the best educationalideals.

No claim is laid to originality, beyond the small details in which oneperson's interpretation of a large problem will differ from that ofanother.

The projects here outlined have been tested in the Public Schools ofColumbia, Missouri, under conditions which are common to towns of aboutthe same size.

The point of view has been influenced chiefly by the educationalphilosophy of Prof. John Dewey, especially as expressed in his essay "TheChild and the Curriculum." The author wishes here to make grateful...