Others planned, cut out and prepared the work, and the child came in as an unwilling and imperfect sewing machine merely to put in the stitches.

The sense of mastery over material was not developed, yet that is the only way in which a child's attainment of skill can be linked on to the future.

What cannot be done without help always at hand drops out of life, and likewise that which calls for no application of mind.
To reach independence in the practical arts of life is an aim that will awaken interests and keep up efforts, and teachers have only a right to be satisfied when their pupils can do without them.

This is not the finishing point of a course of teaching, it is a whole system, beginning in the first steps and continuing progressively to the end.

It entails upon teachers much labour, much thought, and the sacrifice of showy results.