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which could be done in the family circle. In pursuance of this aim, in the year 1873, the general Danish Home Industry Society was founded. The object of this society was to direct the efforts which were being made all over the country by the home-industry unions, and to make a common centre for them. The leader of this movement soon recognised that the strongest lever in his hand for the extension of home industries was the school. It was a more grateful task to awaken in the young people a taste for practical employments, than to arouse in those already grown up a pleasure in home industries. It was far easier to bring young people up to industry than to wean their elders from idleness and self-indulgence. So then Clauson-Kaas, in accordance with the old saying, " The future is in the hands of him who controls the school," soon energetically directed his activity to the founding of " work-schools " by the side of the " learning schools," as he calls them; and in this he was effectively supported both by the Danish Government, and also by the popular representatives. The ultimate object is the introduction of workinstruction as an organic member into the plan of general school-instruction. In Sweden, for instance, the pedagogical side of the home-industry idea is accepted with the liveliest interest; and the "slojd," the work-instruction, found such eager recognition there that a motion was speedily brought forward in the parliament to make the introduction of the system into the public schools obligatory, a motion which fell through only through the impossibility of finding sufficient trained teachers. After this the Swedish Government supported the introduction of workinstruction by granting considerable sums of money. Later on the idea found its way into Germany. In Berlin in 1876 a union for promoting home industry was formed, which busied itself in establishing a teachers' course and founding a scholars' workshop. Since that work-instruction has taken root in other places—viz., in Kiel, Brunswick, and Gorlitz; and quite lately the provisional Government of Hanover granted a sum of 1,000 or 1,500 marks towards the holding of a teachers' course. If in Germany the pedagogical side of the question has found the readiest sympathy, this is easily explained by our peculiar situation. In the first place, the conditions of domestic life are quite different with us from what they are in the north. The winters are shorter; agricultural work does not entirely cease during the coldest time of the year ; the countryman is, with us, not separated by long and dreary distances from centres of industry, and so compelled to help himself, as are the inhabitants of lonely Swedish farms which lie far away from any town; further, the saving on the cheaper articles that are made on a large scale would not be appreciable; and finally, the countryman has had his taste for what is pleasing in form and colour so cultivated by artistic manufactures that he would not be satisfied with his own coarse work. On the other hand, home industry, carried out with great zeal and directed to the home production of simple utensils and household objects, would certainly prove injurious to our industries; and if it became the rule for every one to help himself wherever it is possible, and by his own skill to be able to do without the carpenter, then, indeed, an active propaganda of home industry would bear hardly upon our already hard-pressed industries. As a consequence of this, the good cause of home industry would arouse such bitter enmity that its important influence on other departments would be destroyed, and the thing itself would fall to the ground. If these considerations tell against the attempt to establish amongst us unions for the promotion of home industry for adults, still the implanting of the idea of home industry in connection with schools is of great value, because through this a great want in our system for bringing up young people has been supplied. It appears to be generally desired that a beginning should be made in acknowledging that our present system of bringing up young people upon a purely mental instruction is founded upon a false basis; that it is trying to effect its object by means of overcrowded acquirements; that in imparting an overwhelming mass of information the careful balancing of the different elements is neglected; that the conversion of the "to know" into the "to do," the cultivation of a strong moral will, the gradual development of the pupils into decided characters, is not accomplished. In days when every glance reveals our weaknesses and failings to the public eye, when the stones declare what we need, it is unnecessary to speak more particularly on this point; and this is very evident, that our failings are for the most part failures in educational method, and that consequently it is in education that we must seek the most effective means of redress. If there were nothing else to prove the defectiveness and onesidedness' of our training of our youth, it would be forced on our notice by the proposals for improvement which come in from every side, and are urged upon us with the greatest earnestness. However these may differ from one another fundamentally, they have always one end in view—to fight against the onesided culture of the intellect by instruction, and since the matter of the instruction is not everywhere fully and clearly understood by the pupil, much less gained by his own labour, against the unpedagogical overloading of the memory. They are agreed in their demands that the harmonious development of the complete human being should not be forgotten in the care for one part, be that part ever so important. Herr Frobel's scholars point to opinions of their master on the subject of pedagogic reform—opinions which in spite of the repellant coldness of his opponents, and in spite of all the misty fanaticism of the adherents of the orthodox system, have always maintained their place in the pedagogic order of the day. Others speak with enthusiasm of the happy results of the school gardens, which not only lead to a knowledge of nature, and implant a love for her in young hearts, but are also useful in giving palpable evidence of the blessedness of work and of pleasure in its results. They are most conducive to the health of the scholars by inducing them to remain out of doors, as well as by the break the gardening makes in the hours of instruction. Some insist strongly upon drawing, and urge that it should take its place next to instruction in language, and should occupy an important position in the school plan; by others the necessity is pointed out of giving the rising generation more bodily vigour, and making them more active, whilst rendering them capable of bearing arms. These last objects are advocated by physicians and those who teach the rules of health. These point out the danger to health from the immoderately long sitting in enclosed spaces, the contracted and continuous exertion of the eyes necessitated by the school rules, and earnestly plead for a lower standard of instruction. But the battle against the system which has gradually grown up and is now in force, is a very hard one,

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