Aiman Jehangir Roll No: D20589

Module 10
Pakistan Montessori Council Assignment Module 10
By Aiman Jehangir Roll No: D20589

Question No: 01. Write a note on the significance of handwork

Handwork and crafts are to have a specific task within the context of the curriculum, namely to
awaken creative powers which would find fruitful and useful application in as many Ways as
possible in later life and work. The practicing of handwork is not meant to provide just a pleasant
past-time but to specifically help the young child to develop a healthy imagination and
harmonies his unfolding will and feeling life. For the older child, the teenager, the enhancement
of these soul faculties will form the basis for an active thinking life and possibility to form sound
judgment. Again and again Rudolf Steiner points out those adult qualities—for instance, sound
judgment, to have balanced thinking— depend far more on whether a child was taught to use
his hands, his fingers in a right and practical way. This leads to the exercising of logical thinking
in later life. The reason for this is based on one of the fundamental precepts of true teaching,
namely that when we engage the child in physical, practical activity, such as handwork or Craft
work, we are working on the ‘soul spirit nature’ of that child. However, when we address the
‘soul spirit nature’, for instance, in story-telling, the healthy results are to be found in the ‘bodily
organism’. It is consequently no less important for the handwork/craft teacher to be familiar with
the nature of soul life and the development of the child than for the class teacher. Both should
work in accordance with how the child is at any time, how he or she perceives him or herself
and the world. The three phases of development from play in which the child experiences the
world is Good (up to the age of 7), through the experience of beauty (the school child from 7 to
14) to the attainment of truth (the adolescent years) help the child transform what was play into
the basis for his/her motivation in the realm of work. This Golden Path in education forms the
guideline in handwork as well. The younger child learns by play to fashion simple toys,
developing what he or she makes out of stories. The handwork teacher then gradually leads the
child to the awareness of color and form in order to create artistic forms and to have a sense for
what is beautiful. Later with the older child and the teenager, the sense for what is practical is
awakened and developed out of the artistic way of working: by learning to respond to the
materials, by the development of manual skills and the correct use of tools. That all articles
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made in handwork should express beauty in some form goes without saying. It is however,
equally important that the functional aspect, the way to use the article, is also apparent in the
particular design given to the article. This is a new and objective discipline inherent in all
practical 2 activities and is essential to all true Craft Practice. What follows is an attempt to
outline the essential elements and practice of the Formal Hand Work Curriculum. It is one with
which we may be familiar. However, I believe due to changing circumstances of today, we could
benefit from a rethink and adaptation into our present time. Renewing The Craft Curriculum in
view of the increasing occurrence of many basic learning and behavioral problems presented by
children throughout the school, are we not challenged to provide an education more consciously
focused on the ‘experiential’? An education that is artistic, practical and intellectually
stimulating? Perhaps too much of our education is directed at the Thinking Man and rarely
descends to creatively satisfy the Will Man. The renewed Craft Curriculum is an attempt to lead
the child/pupil on a path of education that ascends from below upwards. It is essentially a path
that offers an education of the Will. It would appear that if we are to address the 1

lameness of the Will that is so apparent we would need to be more creative in adopting and
applying a practical approach to our teaching in all classes throughout the school. I have
therefore taken the liberty to augment the traditional hand work curriculum with suggestions for
a variety of practical activities that could be seen as part of a New Developmental Craft
Curriculum, see ‘A Descent Into Matter ‘Soft and Hard Handwork. Some confusion has,
unfortunately, arisen regarding the different areas of handwork. Handwork refers to the soft
material work using mainly unprocessed raw materials. Handcraft includes clay, wood, paper,
leather etc. and is mainly taught to children from 12 years onwards. Craft is a specific type of
work and only applies in Waldorf schools where pupils have already achieved a general
knowledge and range of skills in the use of different materials and tools, which they now apply
to a specific craft, such as weaving. Handwork Children are first introduced to handwork by way
of soft natural materials. Here, in response to the subtle direction of the teacher, the child
creates out of his or her feelings, whilst being shown and guided how to care for the materials
and the simple tools used. The sensitive use of colour plays an important part in the child’s
enjoyment of the handwork lessons: helping the child form a meaningful, personal relationship
to color can also serve to bring that child’s feeling nature into harmony. This in turn can work
beneficially on the breathing and blood circulation of the child. 3 Hand Craft Later in handcraft,
using harder materials, for instance various types of wood, stronger forces of will are needed.
The limbs and the whole body are engaged in this activity. There is a difference in the
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experience of making soft toys, a stuffed animal, for instance, to that of an animal carved out of
wood. In the first instance, soft material, flat pieces of material, receive their nature from inside.
In the case of carving an animal out of wood the hard material receive sits nature from outside.
Again in the first instance, the child makes manifest in the stuffing of the animal, the filling out
processes in his or her own body. In woodwork, however, a person works like the action of
water, sculpting the rock over which it flows. A child is only really ready for this sort of activity
from about the twelfth year on, after the child’s formative forces have developed his or her body.
Only then is it possible for the growing human being to harness these inwardly acting forces and
work with them outwardly, fashioning his or her materials. Craftwork Finally, in craftwork, the
adolescent should have a chance to find a growing sense of confidence and ability in the realm
of work. Correspondingly, the desire to find where he or she can contribute something in the
world around can awaken an interest in the practical affairs of life. To sum up, it could be stated
that while all handwork engages the whole human being, it is essentially in the following ways
that handwork affects a growing child: • It lifts motor activity to the realm of skill • It transforms
will power into beauty of form • It changes what would otherwise be an insignificant activity into
a virtue. Only when the pupil, the crafts person responds sensitively to the nature of his or her
materials and the correct use of his or her tools, is motor activity raised to the realm of skill only
in working artistically with design, color and from is will power transformed into beautiful form.
And only when these two aspects are combined in work that also allows the person to have a
sense of fulfillment, a sense of true purpose in his or her work, can what might otherwise be an
insignificant act be raised to the status of a virtue. These then could perhaps be called the
Three Transforming Powers of handwork, powers that are essential for the unfolding of true
human development.