Author: Emma Marwedel

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-13

Total Pages: 68

ISBN-13: 9781331319610

Excerpt from The Connecting Link: To Continue the Three-Fold Development of the Child, From the Kindergarten to the Manual-Labor School "Oh, how happy this work will make our children; how good and how useful they may become to themselves and to others through this fascinating initiation into manual dexterity!" This was the exclamation of my California friend on first seeing these models for the Connecting Link. In her simple, yet deeply expressive words, spoke the mother heart of our great Nation. In them was embodied the truth that "Childhood's happiness is Manhood's blessing." We owe our children not simply a schooling, but a happy, rounded development of their best capacities. Compulsory education will no longer be necessary when the school can be made a joy to the child. It is not the toilsome, overburdened, dissatisfied school-child that makes the best citizen. It is the light-hearted, creative boy or girl who has learned in childhood to love work for its own sake that becomes the best man or woman in after life. The following paper is not offered as a completed theory to this point, but as a mere collection of statements, in part theoretical, and in part practical. The practical part illustrates, descriptively and by drawings, what has already been proved successful in filling the gap between the Kindergarten and the Manual Labor School. It may be aptly termed the "Connecting Link," and is meant to be applied as the stepping-stone to a systematized development, presenting a logical sequence to the principles, method, and occupations prescribed by Fr bel in the kindergarten. Personal investigation and study of the existing labor schools in Europe for young children, together with the inspiration gained from the reform through extension of play-work, have developed the plan of this pamphlet, which presents a series of occupations suited to the growing capacities of the child. The extension of Fr bel's system into manual training is being ably promoted in America through Hailman's High School, Parker's Normal School, E. Marwedel's Circular Drawing System and Botany, and many other less known methods. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."