Chapter 11 Summary: Manual Labourâthe Potter's Art and Building
Distinction from Manual Gymnastics
⢠Manual labor produces useful objects - Goes beyond mere exercise to create socially valuable products
"Manual labour is distinguished from manual gymnastics by the fact that the object of the latter is to exercise the hand, and the former, to accomplish a determinate work, being, or simulating, a socially useful object"
⢠Individual perfection vs. world enrichment - Gymnastics develops the person, labor contributes to society
"The one perfects the individual, the other enriches the world; the two things are, however, connected because, in general, only one who has perfected his own hand can produce a useful product"
Rejection of Froebel's Methods
⢠Froebel's exercises harm developing eyesight - Weaving and cardboard sewing cause visual strain
"I have thought wise, after a short trial, to exclude completely Froebel's exercises, because weaving and sewing on cardboard are ill adapted to the physiological state of the child's visual organs"
⢠Paper folding is exercise, not work - Doesn't produce useful objects or teach real skills
"The other little exercises of Froebel, such as the folding of paper, are exercises of the hand, not work"
⢠Even clay work lacks educational purpose - Free modeling doesn't teach useful production
"In giving them clay to fashion in their own manner, I did not direct the children to produce useful things; nor was I accomplishing an educative result"
Professor Randone's School of Educative Art
⢠Art education teaches civic respect - Learning to appreciate beauty leads to respecting surroundings
"Professor Randone had decided that the society of Giovinezza Gentile could not be based upon sterile theoretical preachings of the principles of citizenship... but that it must proceed from an artistic education which should lead the youth to appreciate and love, and consequently respect, objects"
⢠Located in historic wall - School situated in Wall of Belisarius to embody its educational mission
"Professor Randone founded his admirable school in an opening in one of the most artistic parts of the walls of Rome... decorating it with graceful hanging gardens on the outside"
The Historical Importance of Pottery
⢠The vase as humanity's first need - Preceded even fire production in human development
"The first object of which humanity felt the need was the vase, which came into being with the utilisation of fire, and before the discovery of the production of fire"
⢠Pottery indicates civilization level - Quality of pottery shows cultural advancement
"One of the things most important, ethnically, in judging the civilisation of a primitive people is the grade of perfection attained in pottery"
⢠Sacred and religious significance - Vases appear in temples and burial sites across cultures
"The vase for domestic life and the axe for social life are the first sacred symbols which we find in the prehistoric epoch, and are the religious symbols connected with the temples of the gods"
⢠Art form reflecting aesthetic development - Egyptian, Etruscan, and Greek vases show artistic progress
"People who have progressed in civilisation show their feeling for art and their ĂŚsthetic feeling also in vases which are multiplied in almost infinite form"
Educational Value of Pottery Making
⢠Follows history of human development - Children recapitulate humanity's creative journey
"The vase then comes into being, attains perfection, and is multiplied in its uses and its forms, in the course of human civilisation; and the history of the vase follows the history of humanity itself"
⢠Combines technique and individual expression - Basic skills learned, then personal creativity applied
"When once the handicraft leading to the construction of vases has been learned... anyone can modify it according to the inspiration of his own ĂŚsthetic taste and this is the artistic, individual part of the work"
⢠Industrial education component - Potter's wheel, glazing, kiln firing teach industrial processes
"In Randone's school the use of the potter's wheel is taught, and also the composition of the mixture for the bath of majolica ware, and baking the pieces in the furnace, stages of manual labour which contain an industrial culture"
Building Construction Work
⢠Miniature brick making - Children manufacture and fire their own building materials
"Another work in the School of Educative Art is the manufacture of diminutive bricks, and their baking in the furnace, and the construction of diminutive walls built by the same processes which the masons use"
⢠Real construction techniques - Using mortar, trowels, proper building methods
"The children pass to the construction of real houses,âfirst, resting on the ground, and, then, really constructed with foundations, after a previous excavation of large holes in the ground"
⢠Complete architectural process - From foundation digging to decorative finishing
"These little houses have openings corresponding to windows and doors, and are variously ornamented in their façades by little tiles of bright and multi-coloured majolica: the tiles themselves being manufactured by the children"
Children's Response and Development
⢠Immediate enthusiasm - Children quickly become engaged with pottery work
"After two or three lessons the little pupils are already enthusiastic about the construction of vases, and they preserve very carefully their own products, in which they take pride"
⢠Creative progression - From simple vessels to complex forms with handles and spouts
"One of the first undertakings is the simple vase of red clay filled with eggs of white clay; then comes the modelling of the vase with one or more spouts, of the narrow-mouthed vase"
⢠Integration with other activities - Pottery work connects with gardening and other learning
"What most delights the children is the work of building a wall with little bricks, and seeing a little house, the fruit of their own hands, rise in the vicinity of the ground in which are growing plants, also cultivated by them"
Historical Recapitulation in Childhood
⢠Epitomizing primitive human labors - Children naturally follow humanity's developmental sequence
"Thus the age of childhood epitomises the principal primitive labours of humanity, when the human race, changing from the nomadic to the stable condition, demanded of the earth its fruit, built itself shelter, and devised vases to cook the foods"
⢠Natural progression of civilization - From cultivation to shelter to cooking vessels
"The human race... demanded of the earth its fruit, built itself shelter, and devised vases to cook the foods yielded by the fertile earth"