Course in Sewing For Children

Introduction: “Upon the education of the American school girl depends the future of the American home.” The object of all education is to prepare men and women for the duties and pleasures of life, to make good citizens, useful men and women of our boys and girls. Every accomplishment a girl possesses is one more thing toward making her a useful woman. Sewing bases its claim to a place in the schools on the same grounds that give wood-work a foothold. “It is a form of Manual Training of hand and head work, of training of the hand for the sake of developing the head as well as the hand.” The art of sewing may be viewed from three stand points. The aesthetic, the practical, and the educational. The aesthetic value of the use of the needle in embroidery is well understood. All nations have manifested their love for the beautiful by the use of the needle The practical value of sewing cannot be contested, but the sewing work in our schools must not be treated from the practical side only. A course in sewing should not only train the hand, but strengthen and develop the mental faculties as well. “Experience has proven that a systematic course in sewing can be made as educational as any other branch of study.” The manual training schools have demonstrated that sewing is an educational means by which the brain is developed by means of the hands. Ruskin has said, “There can be no healthy thought without labor, and no healthy labor without thought, the two cannot safely be separated.” The student of sewing learns that sewing is not merely a useful handicraft, but an art having principles and rules which must be followed. (See more in text