Richard Bazeley sent me a paper called
Teaching making:
A brief history of secondary school craft education textbooks
by Ian Holdsworth, and which includes the following quote:

Most children love to make things and should be
encouraged to do so for many reasons. Craft lessons are
of the greatest educational value, because they stimulate
mental and motor activity simultaneously. It is
generally admitted that when hand and brain are both
employed much more is grasped and retained than
when the brain alone is called upon to function.
Furthermore, habits of industry are formed which are
bound to be beneficial in the future. Children so
trained are more likely to become useful and contented
members of society in after-life than are those brought
up with no craft instruction whatsoever.

F.W. Glass, Metal Craft (University of London Press, London,
1928), p.5.