Knabenhandarbeit

This morning I was reading in Charles A. Bennett's History of Manual and Industrial Arts, 1870-1917 about the manual arts training movement in Germany. My reading in that direction was inspired by hearing from a manual arts (woodworking) teacher in New Zealand, who grew up in Leipzig and was familiar with some Sloyd models and with Froebel's Gifts. Leipzig was ground zero for the manual arts movement in Germany. But it was also a destination for British and American bombers during WWII so it is unlikely that the Training College for Teachers as shown in the photo above still exists.

Much of the movement at Leipzig revolved around Waldemar Goetze, and Der deusche Verein für Knabenhandarbeit, the German Association for Boy's Handwork. We need something similar today in the US, but for all children, not just boys.

I have been nursing a head cold (a thing that seems to have swept through school) and packing boxes for shipment to Little Rock prior to a big event that requires corporate gifts. (I will reveal no surprises before the time comes.)

Make, fix and create...