INTRODUCTION

Needlework is one of the most valuable forms of handwork practised in schools. Many other forms are taught chiefly on account of the muscular or the intellectual training they pro­vide, the actual exercises performed in school being rarely continued in after life; while needle­work, besides having considerable value as a means of education, is also of the greatest prac­tical value after school days are over.

In common with other forms of handwork, needlework makes an appeal to the understand­ing and the imagination, as well as to the hand and eye. According to the character of the worker, the intellectual or the mechanical side of the subject will appeal more strongly. The intel­lectual worker may plan and carry out ingenious ideas in work lacking perfection of stitchery or daintiness of finish, while the mechanical worker may produce beautiful work by blindly following directions, or by copying. Needlework-teaching in schools aims at producing workers who combine to a reasonable degree thoughtful and beautiful work. That is to say, in school, needlework should be a true handicraft, for which imagination and an appreciation of the beautiful are required, as well as understanding and prac­tical skill. Indeed, the patient, diligent work necessary for the acquisition of practical skill will be lacking if interest is not present; and interest springs from the emotions rather than from the intelligence, from the imagination of the finished work rather than from the knowledge of its details. It is beginning at the wrong end to keep children working at mere practice pieces until they have gained sufficient ability to make some article of real importance. The short time allotted to needlework in schools makes it almost impossible to reach any sort of perfection in stitchery, but more will be achieved if the pupil is so interested that she puts her whole mind into her work. The relation of the pupil to her work should be that of the craftsman of old times rather than that of the specialized workman of to-day. The workman does as he is told with his own section of the work, but the originality and beauty of the finished article is not his business. The craftsman planned his work from the begin­ning, with a vision before him of the ultimate result of all his labor. The modern method may be necessary in the economy of industrial life, but it is certainly not education.

During the earliest stage, the essential thing is to form correct muscular habits, and to gain mastery over the materials and implements used; for until the mechanical difficulties are so far overcome, the mind is not wholly free to initiate or to develop new ideas. The first work must therefore be accommodated to the child's physical powers, and the introduction of fresh obstacles must be very gradual, so that mental and physical development may keep pace. But work that is too easy or monotonous ceases very soon to be interesting; so, while the simplest stitches may require long-continued practice, the plan­ning of the work as a whole, or of its details, should relieve the monotony of the steady work by which alone proficiency is gained. It is not very difficult to avoid monotony, because, while young children are bent on making " something real", their ideas of " reality" are not as ours. Handkerchiefs or table-cloths or bed-clothes for dolly, mats for mother, and bags for oneself will give good practice, and variety can be obtained by changing the shape, color, and quality of the material. A large number of small articles will be found more satisfactory than one large piece of work, each new beginning forming an incen­tive to better work.

It is desirable that a child should practice various kinds of handwork before being taught to sew. A sewing-needle is a very fine imple­ment to handle, and it is characteristic of children's work that the smaller the instrument is, the more difficulty a child has in using it. Handwork in any form teaches the pupil to control the muscles and makes the hands flexible and strong; and exercises involving large and easy motions should always precede those re­quiring finer and more intricate work. Some occupations, such as paper-tearing, paper-cutting, weaving, give practice in judging or measuring distance and in handling implements, and this practice bears more directly on the needlework lessons. The apparent loss of time caused by delaying the teaching of needlework will find full compensation in the knowledge of colour, form, and proportion, and in the mechanical ability gained by the pupil from the preliminary handwork lessons. When the actual needlework lessons begin, the child is found provided with ideas of construction or decoration ready to be expressed in new ways.

Even after such a preliminary course of work, it is necessary to remember that what is to the experienced worker the simple act of making a stitch consists, for a child, in a number of sep­arate actions, involving difficult positions of the hand and considerable muscular strain. Even the thimble is apt to prove a burden, and, until its value is felt, is very often taken off and laid away. A teacher who has been out of touch with the difficulties of young children would find it most useful to allow a class a piece of cloth, needle, and thread to experiment with for an hour unhindered by directions or advice. The teacher would watch carefully how the children work, and afterwards examine the results of their labor. This experimental work would show what things are natural for children to do, and would therefore indicate the point at which the teaching must begin.

What has been said about sewing refers equally to knitting and cutting out. C'est le premier pas qui coute, and the first process attempted, however simple in itself, implies all the difference between not being able and being able to sew or knit or cut out. Later, new ideas may succeed each other much more rapidly.

The methods of working taught to children should be as simple and direct as possible, and should be based on some real principle appli­cable to pieces of work other than the one imme­diately concerned. The best way of working will vary according to circumstances, therefore con­siderable freedom must be allowed as to choice of method, and fixed rules should be laid down only with regard to really important matters, such as security and thoroughness of finish, even in parts of the work not noticeable at a casual glance. Thoroughness of finish will, of course, mean something quite different for the child of eight and the girl of fourteen, but the essential thing is that the child should produce the best work she is capable of. Slipshod work need never be accepted.

Although for convenience the pronoun "she" is used to represent the needlework pupil, there is no reason why boys should not share the instruction given. If boys' work is less fine than girls', it is frequently more accurate, and they enjoy the lesson quite as much. No doubt men can learn to sew well, if they must sew, after they have grown up, but they would use their ability more readily if their fingers were trained while they were young and flexible. Except in very elementary classes, boys would spend less time on the subject than girls, their stronger muscles suggesting the suitability of other forms of exer­cise; and the articles in which their ideas are expressed would be chosen to suit boyish tastes and needs. On the whole, the practical rather than the imaginative or purely decorative would be emphasized in boys' work, and the aim would be to give them some facility in handling needle and thread, rather than to induce them to make the practice of needlework a regular occupation.

A well-conducted needlework course should teach a pupil—

1. To use the smaller muscles of the hand with accuracy, grace, and lightness;
2. To use materials carefully and with respect to their varying qualities;
3. To be clean and tidy;
4. To develop a sense of beauty and proportion ;
5. To be thorough in small details;
6. To make useful things.

EQUIPMENT FOR NEEDLEWORK TEACHING

The Room

With very young classes the work can be carried on in an ordinary classroom, provided that dual desks are used, so that a pupil may leave her seat without disturbing others; and that the desks are flat, so that the work may be conveniently handled.

When fairly large pieces of work have to be cut out and made, the necessity for adequate accommodation begins to be felt. If work is to be practical, then the provision of furniture and implements should be that of an ordinary home or workroom.

Tables and chairs are better than desks, since they allow more freedom, and more variety in spacing. A good deal depends on whether the teaching is generally individual or simul­taneous. Where the teaching is individual, desks with one or two special cutting-out tables may serve, but each girl requires as much space as is usually allowed for two in ordinary class-work.

Tables about 20 in. wide are convenient. A wide table necessitates the pupils sitting on both sides of the table, some therefore having their backs to the teacher when an explanation is being given, and some probably being badly placed with regard to the light. A table 20 in. wide will accommodate a piece of 40-in.-wide material when folded double, as it usually is for cutting out. A wider space is not often required in school, and when it is, two tables can be moved up together for the occasion.

One of the main advantages of a special room is the possibility of greater cleanliness in the work, the ordinary classroom desks being frequently soiled by ink or paint or in some other way. One difficulty, however, is not always considered. A special room is usually provided for only one class at a time, the seats being of one height only. If chairs are used, they are suitable for grown-up persons, and children of nine or ten cannot place their feet on the ground. A pupil whose feet are dangling has not full power over her hands.

At least two sets of seats are required for the accommodation of the classes in a school, or some rest must be provided for the feet of the smaller pupils.

In a needlework - room there should be accommodation for the work of the pupils, not rolled up, but folded flat, and arranged in an orderly way, so that a monitor from the class can easily find it for distribution, and put it awy again at the end of the lesson. A needle­work-room should contain at least one sewing-machine; water, soap, and a towel should be available; and if dressmaking, however simple, is attempted, an iron is absolutely necessary, so that the work may be pressed at intervals, to render the next stage more easily managed.

The furniture should be placed so that the pupils get the best light possible on their work. As in other work, light from the left-hand side is most desirable, and no pupil should be very far from the light. Where desks are used, with one or two cutting-out tables, these tables may well occupy the darker portion of the room.

Apparatus for Teaching

Apparatus for teaching includes all that may serve to illustrate a lesson in any way. In the needlework-class, finished examples of beautiful work may inspire the pupils to make their own work better. Pictures may serve the same purpose when real work is not available.

If simultaneous lessons can be given to a class, the teacher must use apparatus that can be clearly seen by the whole class. For lessons in cutting out, no special apparatus is necessary. The teacher uses the same articles as her pupils, and has the black-board at hand for illustration. If the class is large, and the measurements to be used are very small, it may be well for the teacher to use a measure marked on a scale of 2 in. or 4 in. to the inch. This is a very convenient piece of apparatus for showing, say, the cutting of a narrow band, or the planning out of tucks, and it may easily be made by the teacher from a strip of cardboard.

Sewing and knitting are fine and complicated processes, and the actions performed by the teacher, even when explained, are not very clearly observed by the pupils except at close range, unless the illustrative apparatus is on a very large scale, and has an arrangement of colour which makes the important points stand out clearly. It is important to enlarge the various parts of the apparatus proportionately, so as to get the right effect.

For knitting, rug or any other thick wool of bright colour, with the thickest possible knitting-pins, may be used. For sewing, any coarse, open material, or even paper, will serve for illustration. It will often be of advantage to have material or paper of two contrasting colours. With the coarse material, a large needle (double long darners are excellent) should be used, so that the pupils can see how it is handled. Wool (coarse tapestry or crewel wool or even thick knitting wool) makes a large stitch look correctly proportioned. Thick em­broidery cotton may also be found suitable, but a large stitch made with thin thread only looks like bad sewing.

What is important is that the teacher should be able to work quickly on her apparatus, showing what is necessary without waste of time. Material which is too stiff to sew makes this impossible. For the same reason, it is often advisable to have apparatus representing two or more stages of the work. The teacher cannot entirely accomplish any piece of work along with her pupils — she requires only to show the difficult points. For instance, in giv­ing a lesson on finishing an opening, the teacher would have ready a piece of work (paper or cloth) showing how to arrange the hems or false hems, and another piece showing how to manage the cutting and overlapping at the bottom. The preparation of special apparatus may seem to involve a great deal of work, but a collection of the necessary pieces is made by degrees, and once made can be used, in most cases, again and again.

The black-board is most useful to the teacher of needlework, but again, the use of it must not lead to waste of time. The most helpful drawing is no doubt one which grows while the pupil looks, and which shows exactly the changes that are made upon the work by the process being illustrated. But where an illus­tration requires a good deal of preliminary drawing, it should be prepared beforehand, and preferably in a form that will be more or less permanent. Sheets of grey or brown paper, for example, are easily stored and easily pro­duced and fixed up at the right moment. The advantage of a drawing over a piece of actual apparatus is that it can remain in view of the class during the whole of the lesson, for purposes of comparison and correction.

With regard to color, it will be found that red stands out most clearly on the white or neutral ground of a piece of coarse cloth, while yellow or orange is the color which carries best in a diagram on the black-board or on brown paper. In making diagrams, it is a good plan to reserve certain colors, say blue, for needles and pins, and others, say yellow, orange, bright green, for stitches. This helps to avoid con­fusion in the minds of the pupils.

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