The Scandinavian way into craft

Anyone who has ever watched a glassblower, a porcelain painter, or an embroiderer at work knows how much patience and stamina, how much expert knowledge and precision are required when people translate ideas into a material with skilled hands.

The intelligence of the hands, the active act of making with one’s hands and haptic understanding, the direct contact with real things—one does not have to be a cultural pessimist to notice what is currently at risk of being lost between social media and AI, between doomscrolling and passive consumption. Do we need to relearn patience? Mindfulness workshops, at any rate, are booming.

Craft education as a path to competent individuals

Perhaps it would be worthwhile to rediscover an approach from the 19th century. The term sløyd literally means “handwork” or “craft.” The idea: craft as a means of personal development. It was first formulated around 1865 by a Finnish priest, Uno Cygnæus (1810–1888). A few years later, it was developed further in Sweden—specifically at Nääs Estate, a teacher-training college near Gothenburg—where the educator and publicist Otto Aron Salomon (1849–1907) laid the foundation for the international sløyd movement. Initially, the pedagogical concept focused on working with wood, but it was soon expanded to include textiles and paper. And it had a global impact: the school attracted teachers from many countries and existed for almost a century.

Sløyd shapes character

Salomon’s concept: through practical work, children were to develop perseverance, concentration, and a sense of responsibility—skills that go beyond mere technical ability. Working with one’s hands was seen as a way to shape character, promote moral behavior, and sharpen thinking. Since the 1870s, sløyd has been a fixed part of school education in Sweden, and since 1955 even a compulsory subject. The teaching has traditionally been divided into “soft materials” (textiles) and “hard materials” (wood and metal). The aim of the curriculum is to give students the ability to realize their ideas through craft, to use materials and tools thoughtfully, and to evaluate their own design process in terms of expression, quality, and sustainability—and at the same time to grow into holistically competent individuals. Salomon himself puts it precisely in The Theory of Educational Sløyd (London, 1892):

“The educational aims of sløyd are:

(1.) To awaken joy in and love for work in general.
(2.) To instill respect for hard, honest physical work.
(3.) To develop independence and self-reliance.
(4.) To train habits such as order, accuracy, cleanliness, and tidiness.
(5.) To train the eye and the sense of form; to impart general manual skills and develop the sense of touch.
(6.) To accustom [students] to attention, diligence, perseverance, and patience.
(7.) To promote the development of physical strength.

The utilitarian aims are:

(1.) Direct instruction in skillful use of tools.
(2.) The execution of precise work.”

Salomon’s pedagogical method was carefully thought out and systematically structured: each project was to build on the previous one and gradually expand the children’s abilities. Simple paper folding (incidentally, just as later used in the famous Bauhaus Vorkurs) often served as preparation for more complex activities such as sewing or woodworking. The aim was to train eye, hand, and mind simultaneously—to refine observation, strengthen motor skills, and develop a sense of proportion and precision.

Worldwide spread

Almost simultaneously, the German educator Friedrich Fröbel, the “inventor” of the kindergarten, developed very similar ideas; his work also emphasized the value of creative activity. Sløyd quickly spread beyond Sweden. The Finnish-born educational theorist Meri Toppelius introduced the system to the United States at the end of the 19th century. Particularly influential there were the Sløyd Teacher Training School founded by Gustaf Larsson in Boston and the Baron de Hirsch Trade School in New York.

Sløyd today

To this day, sløyd holds a firm place in Scandinavian education: in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway it is still a compulsory subject—with varying emphasis on wood, metal, and textiles. In Iceland, the principle even forms the basis for the entire design and craft curriculum. And worldwide, new initiatives show that the concept has not lost its relevance. In 2019, the Sløyd Experience was founded in Boulder County, Colorado, an organization aiming to strengthen the character of young people through woodworking. It teaches values such as independence, concentration, perseverance, a sense of order, and an appreciation of work. In this way, the Sløyd Experience directly continues Salomon’s original idea of understanding craft not merely as a technical skill, but as a school for life.