farnham] IXDUSTRIAL work in OSWEGO xormal 13 



Beginning witli the fifth grade and continuing to the high 

 school the girls take up fine sewing and basketry, and the boys 

 chair caning and woodworking. 



Fine sewing consists of dressing dolls and making garments for 

 themselves. While darning and patching may not come under 

 fine sewing, they are done so neatly that fully as skilled use of 

 the needle is required as is required for fine sewing. 



In basketry reeds are used to make work baskets, jardiniere 

 baskets, and scrap baskets; ash splints to make handkerchief 

 boxes and measuring baskets; and willow to make melon- 

 shaped baskets. 



Miss Mary L. O'Geran, ot the Oswego Normal School, in her Notes on 

 Sewing and Basketry says: "The purpose of sewing and basketry in the 

 school is to train the children in action as well as in thought, and to help 

 them to interpret their environment and to become efficient members of 

 society- An efficient person is one who canc/o as well as know. Because 

 a girl is taught to sew or to make a basket, it is not to be supposed that 

 she is to follow the vocation of seamstress or basket-maker. Sewing and 

 basketry are factors of the educative process." 



"The objects made should be of .some practical value, and should 

 awaken interest in some of the more general human industries." 



Woodworking in the grades consists of making match strikes, 

 match-boxes, whisk-broom holders, shelves, coat hangers, 

 bread-cutting boards, tooth-brush holder and shelf combined, 

 towel rollers, book racks, key racks, inkstands, windmill vanes, 

 foot stools, floor-broom holders, blotter pads, knife boxes, camp 

 stools, picture frames, counting boards, sweet-pea racks, umbrella 

 racks, and jardiniere stands. 



Woodworking in the high-school and normal grades involves 

 the manufacture of chess boards, artistic boxes, folding screens, 

 combination desk and bookcase, corner and medicine shelves, 

 plate racks, magazine racks, picture frames, sleeve boards, and 

 tabourets. 



That this line of industrial work may be more intelligent, 

 studies ot the difl:"erent materials are pursued, such as the dis- 

 tinguishing characteristics of cabinet and building woods, and 

 adaptation of different woods to the uses of the articles made; 

 the making, grade, and use of sandpaper and glue; brads, nails, 

 and screws; burnt umber, burnt sienna, shellac, and varnish; 

 wood finishing, etc. 



Quoting from "Educational Woodworking for Home and School," by 

 Joseph C. Park of the Oswego Normal School, "The importance of indus- 

 trial work, as a subject which helps to give definite ideals of the value of 

 toil and of the real worth of things that are made by the sweat of the 



