The Sloyd system of woodworkingeducation, introduced to the UnitedStates during the last part of the 19th

century, was designed to be part of generaleducation. Unlike vocational programs,which were designed to prepare students forjobs in industry, Sloyd regarded woodwork-ing as an important developmental resourcefor all children. The belief was that use of thehands supported and encouraged braindevelopment, advanced the intellect andconfidence in innumerable ways, and devel-oped greater respect for the dignity of labor.

Anyone who has ever done woodwork-ing or taught woodworking will know thesethings are true. In The Sloyd System of Wood

Working (1892) by B. B. Hoffman, Superin-tendent of the Baron De Hirsch Fund TradeSchools in New York City, Hoffman quotedan unidentified writer’s view,“As the devel-opment of the motor centers in the brainhinges, in a great degree, upon the move-ments and exercises of youth, it will be read-ily understood how important is the natureof the part played by the early exercise of thehand. There can be no doubt that the mostactive epoch in the development of thesemotor centers is from the fourth to fifteenthyear, after which they become comparativelyfixed and stubborn. Hence it can be under-stood that boys and girls whose hands havebeen left altogether untrained until the fif-

teenth year are practically incapable of highmanual efficiency thereafter.”

In essence, use it and develop it early oryou will never have it. If children were notoffered the opportunity to explore anddevelop the use of their hands, as adults theywould be deprived of their highest use ofthem. This was a serious concern during theperiod of rapid industrial growth in theUnited States, when success of industry wasbased on the efficiency and manual dexter-ity of the worker. But, Sloyd went even fur-ther in its belief that the use of the handsshaped the development of the brain, ratherthan just the reverse. This belief has beenwidely confirmed by modern research. As

W O O D W O R K 52 A U G U S T 2 0 0 5

BEGINNING SLOYD Woodworking in an elementary school

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DOUG STOWE

expressed by Frank Wilson, author of TheHand—How its use shapes the brain, lan-guage and human culture (1999): “Biome-chanical changes in the hand permitted agreatly enlarged range of grips and move-ments of the hand and fingers; the brainprovided new control mechanisms for morecomplex and refined hand movements.These changes took place over millions ofyears, and because of the mutual interde-

pendence of hand and brain it is appropri-ate to say that the human hand and brainco-evolved as a behavioral system.…Thissame hand-brain partnership exists geneti-cally as a developmental instruction pro-gram for every living human. Each of us,beginning at birth, is predisposed to engageour world and to develop our intelligenceprimarily through the agency of our hands.”

The use of our hands to manipulate thematerials of our existence into objects of

beauty and purpose is the source of ourwisdom, and the essence of our humanity.Education that fails to engage the hands ofour children in making and shaping objectsfails to activate the processes through whichintelligence is delivered. It offers a flat-screened two-dimensional wasteland of lostopportunity and failed engagement in lieuof the rich three-dimensional visual andtextural tapestry of human reality.

At the Clear Spring School, we startedour woodworking program at the highschool level. As we became more acutelyaware of the essential role of the hands inbuilding basic human intelligence, andinspired by Sloyd, we gradually expandedactivities into the lower grades.

Our first projects in elementary schoolwoodworking were projects suggested bythe classroom teachers at various grades, butout of an interest in Sloyd, we began doing

projects drawn almost directly from earlySloyd teacher training manuals, which wereplanned to fully express the philosophy ofSloyd. What better place to begin than at thebeginning. A pencil sharpener that is noth-ing more than a piece of wood with coarsesandpaper glued on may seem overly sim-plistic to most woodworkers, but must beunderstood in light of the philosophy ofSloyd, which proposes that instruction

should move gradually: from the known tothe unknown; from the easy to more diffi-cult; from simple to more complex; fromthe concrete to the abstract.

In addition, the philosophy of Sloyd asksthat projects be useful and relevant to thelives of children and their families. The sim-ple pencil sharpener project—making anobject useful to the student in his or herother schoolwork, an object still useful inthe hands of professional draftsmen anddesigners—provides a starting point in theuse of various woodworking tools. It is notdependent on absolute accuracy for success,so if measuring is not exact, or if sawing isnot perfectly straight, the product of the

W O O D W O R K 53 A U G U S T 2 0 0 5

La vere pura auxto veturas alrapide. Kvin domoj gajnas du katoj, kaj tri telefonoj malvarme havas ses

katoj, sed kvar belega bieroj igxis du sxipoj, kaj nau tre eta arboj veturas. Multaj bildoj pripensis tri klara

domoj, sed la arbo falis alrapide.Kvin vere belega cxambroj tre forte havas multaj radioj. Londono pripen-

sis du vere stulta bilKvin vere belega cxambroj tre forte havas multaj radioj. Londo

child’s work will still be a useful object. Noneed for perfection in the use of tools. Thatcan come in time. Pencil sharpeners give farmore pleasure in the making than I couldhave dreamed possible.

To prepare for the project, we resawedand planed 3/4" white pine to 1/4" thickness,leaving the stock wide enough to require oneripcut and one crosscut. We used a Japan-ese-style pull saw for both rip- and crosscuts.

The fine teeth are easier to start in the cutthan Western-style saws and cut very quicklyin softwood. We have been experimentingwith the use of bench hooks for crosscuts,but smaller children do best with the woodheld in the vise for both rip and crosscuts,particularly when first learning the naturalmovement of the saw. Like sloyders of over100 years ago, we use a standing positionrather than the conventional carpenter’spose with knee holding the workpiece to thesawhorse and body leaning over the work,partly because of the difficulties of holdingsmall stock safely in that manner, and partlybecause by orienting the cut line vertical, itis easy for a small child to steer the saw alonga straight line. Originally, in Sloyd, wood-working was seen as a way to develop pos-ture and physical fitness, in contrast to thecommon carpenter’s approach to sawingthat involved being hunched over the work.Mastering the saw can come in time with-out very much instruction, but it sometimeshelps small children to have an adult part-ner hand-over-hand to learn the motion ofthe saw for more effective cutting. For mak-ing pencil sharpeners, the required tools arefairly simple: a workbench with vise andbench hook; marking gauge (pencil style);Japanese Bear Saw (Vaughan Tool Co.) forboth ripping and crosscuts; square; #3 plane;sanding block; coarse sandpaper; Elmer’sGlue and spring clamps.

The project can be modified for beginningstudents in upper grades by asking for a higherdegree of precision, chamfering edges with aplane, drilling holes to fit a 3-ring binder.

Sloyd need not be limited to classroomuse. I began woodworking with my daugh-ter when she was only 3. Parents and grand-parents can do these things with their ownchildren while enriching their own timespent in the woodshop, knowing that thiskind of activity is needed and far moreimportant for early age development thancomputers or time spent on experiences withno tactile response. For ideas on projects thatcan be shared with children, Richard Starr’sWoodworking with Kids is a book I highly rec-ommend both for the excellent advice andcharming photography of children at work.And who knows, making a pencil sharpenerwith hand tools could be your child’s firststep into the pleasures of working with wood.

Doug Stowe is a contributing editor forWoodwork magazine.

W O O D W O R K 54 A U G U S T 2 0 0 5

La vere pura auxto veturas alrapide. Kvin domoj gajnas du katoj, kaj tri telefonoj malvarme havas ses e eta

arboj veturas. Multaj bildoj pripensis tri klara radioj. Londono pripensis du vere stulta bilKvin vere bel-

ega cxambroj tre forte havas multaj radioj. Londo

W O O D W O R K 55 A U G U S T 2 0 0 5

WOODWORKING SAFELY with childrenrequires a bench vise to hold stock securely.While stools might be used to raise a child tothe height of your workbench, there is nothingsafer than having your feet firmly planted onthe ground for activities that require physicalstrength.While most woodworking tools aresafe to the hands that hold them, injuries hap-pen to hands left loose with their temptationto hold the wood or otherwise get in the wayof sharp edges. Use of a vise allows both handsto be used in holding the tool, or allows theother hand to be put safely behind the back.Either way, the hand most at risk is kept safe.

When we decided to introduce woodwork-ing to elementary school students at the ClearSpring School, the first challenge was to makebenches secure and stable enough to enablehand planing and rigorous sawing, that could beeasily adjusted for students of different heights,and yet be light enough that they could bemoved out of the way during middle and highschool classes.We also wanted benches thatcould be transported to the elementary schoolcampus or other locations for special events.

Larry Williams, an expert in hand planes,helped me design and build these benches forClear Spring.They are based on the sawhorseconcept, but have holes for bench dogs and 7"Jet woodworking vises at each end.To makethem adjustable for different working heights,without making the legs at all wobbly, we madebootie boxes to slip over the regular legs,adding 7-1/4" in height. One of my hopes isthat this design will be helpful to parents andgrandparents interested in sharing their enjoy-ment of woodworking with their children.Thisis a bench that can grow with your child, andlater serve as a heavy-duty super-charged saw-horse when your children are grown.We usedvises at each end to allow a total of 10 stu-dents at a time to work on our 5 benches. Fora single child, one vise would suffice.

To make the benches, we chose 1/2" Balticbirch plywood for structural panels, with softmaple legs and tops.The soft maple was a giftto the school from a forest products company,so while hard maple might have been pre-ferred, in practice the soft maple has offeredsufficient resistance to wear, and it was free.To attach the birch plywood to the legs, weused Gorilla glue and an air-powered nail gunwith 18-gauge brads.The combination of birch

ply, Gorilla glue and solid maple provides avery rigid and stable structure, strong enougheven for adult use. Additional stock must beglued and screwed to the underside of thetop at the ends to adjust the vise level withthe surface of the benchtop. If making one ofthese benches, first buy the vise, since differ-ent brands of vises may require differently-sized openings at the end to allow for themechanism to slide.

The Clear SpringElementary SchoolWorkbenchesBY DOUG STOWE