The hands as a metaphor for control:

When things get out of control, we say they are out of hand. When we want to take control, we try to get a grip, or get a handle on things. When we are missing a view of fundamental reality, we say we are out of touch with it. When we are likely to say something, truthful, but possibly embarrassing, our mothers tell us to sit on our hands. This last one describes the interesting relationship between the hands and speech. Stifle the hands and the mouth is mute, but the body, its weight squirming on restrained hands, hints of things ready to pop from the mouths of babes. So which came first? The intelligent use of the hands? I would say so, hands down. If the hands have the power to restrain speech, we know where they fit the hierarchy in relation to the brain.

If you want to control someone, and make them mute, take control of their use of their hands... If I thought world leaders were smart enough to understand this, I would be a conspiracy theorist and be looking at the removal of the hands from modern education as the means of our deliberate enslavement.

Educators like Froebel, Otto Salomon, and Felix Adler made it quite clear that the education of the hands was a direct means of social liberation, not just for the lower classes, but for all. It wasn't a conspiracy. They were very clear about their objectives. Froebel's kindergartens were shut down for a time by the Kaiser. Could it be that the Kaiser and rulers of other nations had not yet figured out how to disguise their intentions?