fathers of...

There were two men credited as the fathers of the manual arts training movement in the US. Both had attended the 1876 American Centennial World Exposition in Philadelphia celebrating the founding of the United States. Among the exhibits were a huge (the world's largest) steam engine that powered 11 acres of machinery along with an exhibit of the "Russian system" of manual arts training. Calvin Woodward taught mathematics at Washington University, and John Runkle taught math at MIT. Both had observed that as fewer of their students came from the farm where direct from real life learning had built a foundation for abstract studies, students were having greater difficulty understanding concepts in math. 

The answer of course was for them to do real things in school where necessary foundations for abstract studies might be purposely built. The American manual and industrial training movement was thus launched from that exposition and the return of Woodward and Runkle to their respective institutions.

Sorry to be preachy on this subject, but isn't it obvious that children need to be doing real things?

Less noticed at the same exposition was the Swedish School house that featured an exhibit of hand-crafted wooden models representing Educational Sloyd, a system of education bringing the hands, eyes and mind into partnership in developing the whole child. The Swedish School house was moved to New York City's Central Park following the exposition. It currently serves as the Marionette Theater, as it has since that time.

Along with the introduction of manual arts training, Americans were also introduced to Kindergarten at that exposition and the movement to bring Kindergartens to American children and Educational Sloyd to American youth were closely connected and sponsored by some of the same enlightened folks.

You can follow along through this blog and use the search function at upper left to gain more information. The photo shows my visit to the Swedish School House in Central Park.

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