Balancing work and intellectual activity Boston's Sloyd Training School

• Published in: History of education review Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 56 - 68
• Main Author: Morice, Linda C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bundoora Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.01.2009
• Subjects: 19. Jahrhundert; 19th century; Academic Achievement; Acculturation; Arbeitsschule; Art education; Bildungsgeschichte; Boston, Mass; College faculty; Core curriculum; Craft; Curriculum; Deaths; Educational alternatives; Educational Change; Educational History; Educational innovation; Educational institutions; Educational methods; Educational philosophy; Educational Practices; Educational reform; Elementary Education; Elementary School Teachers; Elementary schools; Geschichte (Histor); Handicrafts; Handwerk; Industrial education; Intellectual activity; Intellectual Development; Kindergarten; Larsson, Gustaf; Learning; Manual work; Migrant Children; Philanthropy; Pädagoge; Reformpädagogik; School boards; Schulgeschichte; Secondary school students; Secondary Schools; Shaw, Pauline Agassiz; Sloyd Training School of Boston (US); Students; Success; Swedish language; Teacher Education; Teacher Improvement; Teacher Qualifications; Teachers; Teaching innovations; Teaching Methods; Technology education; United States: History; USA; Woodcrafts; United States; United States > US; Massachusetts; New Hampshire; Curriculum; USA; Manual work; Educational reform; Intellectual activity
• ISSN: 0819-8691; 2054-5649
• DOI: 10.1108/08198691200900013

This article examines efforts of late nineteenth century educational reformers in Boston, Massachusetts (USA), to meet the pedagogical needs of an industrial age by balancing manual work and intellectual activity. Led by Swedish educator Gustaf Larsson and Boston philanthropist Pauline Agassiz Shaw, they employed traditional Swedish wood handcrafts (slojd, or 'sloyd' in English) to teach theoretical academic subjects and foster individualised learning. The reformers hoped to create, for students in kindergarten through to twelfth grade, a progression of manual work to parallel intellectual activities in the curriculum. That task became difficult as tool work moved from wood to steel, machines replaced hand tools, and artistic handcraft fell victim to efficient production. The school failed to sustain itself following the deaths of Shaw and Larsson. Today sloyd is credited as being a forerunner of technology education as well as an important influence on arts education in the United States.