A well-equipped manual-training room should have blueprints or drawings of a large number of different designs and models, suitable for the various grades taught, as a reserve upon which to call when the original ideas of the students are not forthcoming or are too elaborate to answer the purpose.

Many suggestions for models may be procured from published bulletins of various schools, and from stores dealing in supplies for manual-training schools, though much skill is necessary upon the part of the teacher to obtain original ideas from the students, based upon the suggestions secured from these sources.

To assist in the development of original ideas, the teacher should persuade the student to design continually; not only for his own work, but to stimulate his creative faculties. The teacher should suggest only, aiding the student to keep within the bounds of difficulty, and always insisting upon the utmost simplicity of design and construction. The model the student selects should be one that he will feel is worthy of his best energies, but not so difficult that it cannot be made well, nor so intricate or large that he will become tired of it before its completion.

In the ability to advise in the selection of work for his pupils, and in discriminating between individuals, lie the most important qualifications of the manual-training teacher; and the most difficult part of this aspect of his work is selecting that which will bring out the various forms or shapes, and which will include the use of different tools to furnish change of exercise for the muscles in the several positions in which tools must be used. There should be frequent alternations of straight and curved lines, that the student may learn to know and to detect true form and the laws that govern it, and that he may receive such training of the eye as will enable him to detect any deviation from the desired form.

Working Drawings

Before beginning work upon a model, each student should make a working drawing of it, not only to familiarize himself with the details, but that he may receive a drill in making working drawings and working from them, which will be of great practical use to him, and that he may learn the value of drawing as a means of expression.

If the student originates a design, he may need help in putting all that is necessary upon paper, but if he is working from a model already made, he should be required to work with as little assistance as possible.

Stock Cutting

A stock list should be made out for every model, each student working from the plan that he has drawn. After the stock list has been made out, and passed upon by the teacher, the student should lay out the pieces as they are to be cut from the board, but the cutting should not begin until the teacher has approved of the method of getting out the pieces; otherwise much valuable material may be wasted.

Many teachers prepare the pieces from which the models are to be made, before the class meets. This method has economy to recommend it, both of material and of the time spent in cutting the stock in class, but with much of the work, these advantages will not compensate for the loss of the drill received by the student in planning the most economical way of cutting his own material.