International Relations of Uno Cygnaeus and Development of Handicrafts Education in The

1

Tapani Kananoja

International Relations of Uno Cygnaeus and development of Handicrafts Education in the Nordic Countries

Published before in: Kantola, J., Nikkanen, P., Kari, J., Kananoja, T. 1999. Through

education into the world of work. Uno Cygnaeus, the Father of Technology

Education. JyväskyläUniversity. Institute for educational research. Jyväskylä:

JyväskyläUniversity Press, pp. 9 – 17.

Uno Cygnaeus (1810 - 1888), ‘The Father of the Finnish Folk School’, was a man of world; trained to be a priest, made grades also in Science and History, communicated in several languages, worked abroad and adapted quickly in new circumstances, where he made innovations with his diligence and perseverance.

Finland as the starting point for Cygnaeus in a remote corner of the big empire, Russia, was not suitable to support the international relations or channels of influence. Cygnaeus had the basis for his work through working himself abroad. The era, however, also favoured internationalisation of the country; Finland created the cultural-economic basis for independence and could gain publicity, whatever original was developed in the country. The precondition was the network of relations in other countries. The few civilised people, for example Snellman and Cygnaeus had their networks, where they were well known in Europe, and through which the discussions became supported.

For institutionalisation of Education for Work the time was appropriate. National general education systems were started. Development of education was needed when the dawn of industrialisation also was seen. Work Education was started in many countries according to the ideas in the air in the shift of 1800 and 1900 and quite often according to the development already made in the Nordic Countries.

Cygnaeus as the creator of Handicrafts Education have been written about in Finland for example: Laurila (1912), Ottelin (1934), Salo (1940), Harni (1949), Gladh (1968), Jussila (1968; 1974), Kananoja (1989; 1991; 1998), Kantola (1997) and Autio (1997).

International relations of Cygnaeus

Cygnaeus created the basis for his educational work by self studies. His own academic discipline was Theology, but at that time Education Science also had close relations with Theology and Philosophy.

In St. Petersburg Cygnaeus became acquainted with the old authorities of education. It gave basis for his internationalisation and educational thinking. Cygnaeus acknowledged himself to be a ‘Pestalozzi - Fröbelian - Diesterwegian’ (letter the 15th of March 1882). He discussed the new trends in education also with a Petersburgian educationalist Paulson, who later on was a long-term pen friend. Handicrafts were taught already in the 1830s in Petri-school, the school for the Finnish children in St. Petersburg. This was still more emphasised in 1856, when Cygnaeus made another initiative concerning Education for Work (Nurmi 1988).

In Alaska Cygnaeus applied his own technical skills in practice for example when constructing a church and a school for his congregation. The need for Handicrafts Education might have deepened as a result of the own experiences added to that he already as a child had got training in woodwork. Cygnaeus expanded his educational studies and purchased literature all the time for the library of the Russian Company of Commerce.

The correspondence of Cygnaeus was rich. From 1859 - 1888 in the library of Faculty of Education in Helsinki University there is a collection with hundreds of copies of Cygnaeus’ letters or drafts and the letters he received; added to that the Government Archives and private archives have more.

As international relations of Cygnaeus might also be called his correspondence to Finland from St. Petersburg, Alaska or from travelling through Siberia, a.o.t. letters in 1845 from OhotaSea and Lena river. The letters came to family members; former students, who needed support for their work; national political decision makers and foreign friends and colleagues. Part of the letters are either preparation for own or students´ or future lecturers´ study tours or reporting them. With family members the letters were written at first with mother, cousin (Fredrik) and sister (Johanna). After the marriage the private correspondence mostly happened with the spouse, Axianne; handling advancement of travelling and work and was close and tender.

Correspondence with the former students has been described in quite many Finnish pieces of research. The topics of the letters were connected with the initial local or regional problems of launching the FinnishSchool system or Handicrafts Education.

Political influence Cygnaeus geared on the senators, the civilised people (a.o.t. Topelius), or Committee members and other influential persons (e.g. Paavo, see Schybergson 1959). This national communication will in this connection, however, not be further commented.

Amongst the friends and colleagues in Sweden, Meijerberg, Hedlund and Siljeström were in ca. 1859 - 1880 continuously in correspondence with Cygnaeus. In 1877 - 1887 there were a lot of contacts with Otto Salomon, who created his Handicraft Education system (Salomon 1896). For example both of them visited each other in order to become familiarised with the work done in the neighbouring country. Cygnaeus sent Finnish students to participate the courses of Salomon and quite many textile handicrafts teachers trained in Jyväskylä working in Nääs were appreciated in Sweden a lot. Thorbjörnsson (1990; 1992) has also mentioned Cygnaeus in his research about Salomon.

Added to Sweden the influence of Cygnaeus also reached other countries, Iceland (J.P., Um kennslu 1890), England (Whittaker 1964); and through Salomon Denmark (Mikkelsen), Norway (Kjennerud), and the U.S.A. (Larsson). Handicraft Education in Denmark and Norway was started after courses at Nääs, participated by Mikkelsen and Kennerud. Cygnaeus visited all the Nordic Countries but was not satisfied with realisations of Handicrafts Education. Also he became thoroughly familiarised with the Handicraft Education and education systems in the Middle European Countries (Cygnaeus 1860).

The Seminar of Wettingen in Aargau, Switzerland, was an important training institute for the future Finnish teacher trainers, with which Cygnaeus had contacts in the beginning of the 1860s. In this connection also must be mentioned, that in the 14th of June in 1861 Cygnaeus wrote in a letter to his four becoming lecturers about technology as a school subject (‘…Ahlmann zum Lehrer im Zeichen und Technologie…’). In Bern in Switzerland Cygnaeus also found out a girls´ school, and with the principal, Fröhlich, the correspondence continued for a long time.

Also Germany and Austria were important sources for Cygnaeus. Familiarising in Germany with the program of Fröbel and work of Diesterweg in Berlin and Georgens in Austria gave basis for the thoughts. However, Cygnaeus also wrote, that he was not totally satisfied with the German education practice. Wilfried Lange in Berlin remained for a long time an important contact and friend and among other things mentioned Cygnaeus as the teacher of Salomon (Nurmi 1988). Pabst (1907; 1912) has written already early about Cygnaeus as the pioneer of Handicrafts Education. Later on also in Germany for example Kaiser (1974), Raapke (1995), Reincke (1995) and Wilkening (1970) have highly regarded the value of Cygnaeus.

Practical education in England was speeded already from the thoughts of John Locke. The influence of industrialisation with changes in artefact culture made the decorator Morris and the philosopher Ruskin to collaborate in development of Handicraft Education. Mostly through the initiatives of these two the Arts & Crafts -movement and the subject title were born in the U.K., influencing the development trough out the world. The position and influence of Cygnaeus on the English development of Handicraft Education has been researched by Whittaker (1964). According to him Sloyd Education according to Cygnaeus was started in the U.K. in 1886.

The influence of Cygnaeus reached also United States (Bennet 1937) when Mr. Larsson, who was trained by Otto Salomon, moved to the U.S. and founded in 1888 the ‘Boston Sloyd School’, which disseminated the new ideas. This institution still is regarded as an important step in American technological education (Phillips 1985). The inputs of Dewey and Kilpatrick were naturally based on the actual global trends, one of the most important ones being the Sloyd movement begun by Cygnaeus. The first American researcher writing about technology education, Olson, regards Cygnaeus quite high (Olson 1963).

Also for example the historians of education in Poland, Hungary, Greek (Tsiantis 1989) and Japan know Uno Cygnaeus.

In Poland (Elzbieta Podoska-Filipowicz 1998) Tadeusz W. Nowacki tells about Uno Cygnaeus in "Praca i wychowanie" (" Work and Education", Warszawa 1980, 57 - 58):

‘…amongst the different pedagogic ideas in the 19th century a very original handicraft education system (craft - "slöjd") was born. It was started by a Finnish education reformer Uno Cygnaeus. According to him Handicrafts is one of the main subjects in the school and it is needed for education of an independent and rational human being. After getting training in Finland (!) Otto Salomon founded supported by August Abrahamsson a handicraft education seminar in Nääs in Sweden, where he started teacher training. With the other reformers of Handicrafts, e.g. the Danish Clauson-Caas and Mikkelsen, a statement was given that, Handicrafts is the best way to train in independence, give skills, good management skill of work and accuracy and patience for the children and youth. The student also learned to appreciate work. Many European Countries, also Poland, were interested in Handicrafts and it had a positive influence also on learning in other subjects in the Polish schools. Teachers from many countries were trained in Nääs Seminar.’ - In the same way handicrafts and Uno Cygnaeus have been written of by Henryk Rowid in "Szkola tworcza", ("CreativeSchool", Warszawa 1958).

In Iceland in 1890 the first ‘Education Director’ of the country wrote in the beginning of his career in an article "School industry", how the School Handicrafts must be different from cottage crafts, that Work Education of the school has an educational meaning and therefor a pedagogically trained teacher is better than a craftsman. The article also told about the other authorities of work education, how Uno Cygnaeus developed the idea and how it spread to the other countries (Thorsteinsson 1998b).

In Japan, Matsuzaki (1977) tells about Cygnaeus as the father of Handicrafts Education. Toshiaki Endo (1987), Kunihiko Ikebe and Etsuo Yokoyama (1998) have recently visited Finland and Linköping in order to make acquaintance with the subject.

In the history of education also for example Brubacher (1966), Grue-Sörensen (1961) and Myhre (1985) emphasise the meaning of Cygnaeus.

About the development of Handicraft Education in the Nordic Countries

The influence of Cygnaeus on the FinnishSchool was immediate, but not as close on the Handicrafts Education in the other Nordic Countries or in the whole world. However, in the History of Education Cygnaeus is generally mentioned as the initiator and developer of handicrafts education and not the skilful marketing manager of the idea, Otto Salomon.

The school reform of Cygnaeus did not only mean initiation of handicrafts. He strongly emphasised the moral and social aims of education. Betterment of the status of women, emphasis of education at home and the idea of general education for everybody were the core of his program. Fröhlich (1861; letters) writes appropriately about the program of Cygnaeus: ‘…In Finland the question is not about reforming the school but actually about creating totally New (Schöpfung)…’

Allingbjerg (1983), who acted for ten years after Mikkelsen as the principal for the sloyd Seminar in Copenhagen, tells about the Nordic innovators of handicrafts education and mentions Cygnaeus as the first one, who among other things used the term ’slöjd’.

The beginning of Handicrafts Education in different countries

(1) Salomon started In Sweden the Nääs handicraft school in 1872. In 1874 - 77 the school was changed to be a ‘FolkSchool’ with handicraft in the program.

The lively correspondence between Cygnaeus and Salomon in 1877 - 1887 is coloured by a lengthy discussion about the meaning of handicrafts and about its position in the school. The FolkSchool was founded in Sweden in 1842; In Finland in 1866. Cygnaeus expressed his disappointment about the missing handicrafts education in Sweden and in other Nordic Countries, and about lacking understanding of his message. In 1877 Salomon visited Jyväskylä Seminar, and Cygnaeus visited Sweden in 1858 - 59, 1866, 1868 and 1878, when he was given the Honorary Doctorate in Education in the University of Uppsala.

Salomon and Cygnaeus agreed about the importance of Handicrafts in school education. They had disagreement about the position of Handicrafts in the school. Salomon founded ‘HandicraftsSchools’; Cygnaeus considered them as vocational and wanted Handicrafts as a subject equal to other subjects in the FolkSchool. The fight was continued for a long time. Agreement was made later on; Salomon expressed finally: ‘…I hope warmly, that … - I would be given the honorary status to belong to the School of Uno Cygnaeus …’ (letter the 24th of June 1882). Salomon, however, generally is known from his method, which was quite vocational having series of working skills and artefacts as the basis (see e.g. Reincke 1995, 141), which could not as such belong for example to the ComprehensiveSchool ideology.

Salomon published a newsletter, Slöjdundervisningsblad , where he led the Swedish discussion about development of Handicrafts Education. In 1885 - 1902 totally 212 newsletters were published.

The Sloyd System of Salomon became known in the whole world because of his courses and the booklets published in many languages. It was the first systematic didactic (pedagogic) program of Handicrafts Education and was based on the heritage of the old authorities of education.

After Salomon the Swedish Handicrafts Education experienced some changes in the 1920s, when Carl Malmsten (1888 - 1972) organised his courses at Nääs. Malmsten was a decorating architect and he could not approve the strict model series by Salomon. His input was pupils’ own design, creativity, as his own original application. This was continued nicely in Sweden by Thorsten Lundberg as the principal of the teacher training institute of Linköping from the 1960s up to the 1980s. Also he was originally a decorating architect.

The 1962 curriculum in Sweden brought a new subject to the school, ‘Teknik’, based on modern technology, to support handicrafts. It still (1998) has a separate position in Sweden. In the beginning of the 1990s the Ministry of Education tried to change Handicrafts to be an optional subject and Teknik as obligatory. It did not, however, work, because of a large social debate organised by the teachers. As the result the weekly period allocation for Handicrafts was diminished and also Teknik became a compulsory and integrative subject.

(2) In Denmark Meldgaard made a course in the Danish home Crafts Society, started as a teacher in 1879, and also brought Handicrafts Education in his school. In 1882 he participated a course in Nääs and started to apply it in his work. Meldgaard founded in 1886 the Askov Handicraft Education school. In 1887 and 1890 Meldgaard visited again Nääs, Salomon in 1891 Askov, so the collaboration was continuous.

Aksel Mikkelsen, another Danish developer of Handicrafts Education, was from a family of handicrafts men and owner of a metal workshop. He instructed his workers in handicrafts, produced handicraft equipment and tools, visited Nääs, Göteborg and Norway (1882), founded HandicraftsSchool (1883) and teacher training institute in Copenhagen (1885) and wrote books about Handicrafts Education. He also is called ‘The Creator of the Danish Handicraft Education’. The Sloyd Insitution founded by him also later on collaborated with Salomon.

Allingbjerg writes that ‘fysiksløjd’ by Mikkelsen had a good success (Allingbjerg 1983, 70). In ‘The programme statement’ by Mikkelsen 1895 (Allinbjerg 1983, 58) he wrote that ‘the aim of handicrafts education is not to educate craftsmen but to give general dexterity, teach to appreciate beautiful, to research, experiment and invent … - to develop hand and eye …’ So the aim was more type of Cygnaeus than of the early Salomon.

After Handicrafts came to school in Denmark two ‘Schools’ were born quite soon; the Nääs supporters in Askov and the Mikkelsen supporters in Copenhagen. The disagreements of them were discussed also around the change of the century in the newsletter of Salomon. The share of the previous one developed as follows:

In 1892 7,8 %; 1908 6,1 %; 1920 10,8 %; 1930 15,3 % (according to Allingbjerg 1983, 79). The 1975 School Law did not anymore separate the two teacher training institutions in Denmark. The disagreements between the two Danish Handicrafts Schools can also be found out in the fact that in about one hundred years seven different associations for Handicraft teachers were founded. Three of them are still working (1998).

In 1998 Denmark still has two teacher training institutions in ‘Sløjd’. The differences have become smaller and the curricula have been integrated. Also new technology has come in Handicrafts, even if Technology Education belongs in the school in Science Education.

(3) Norway had around 1870 various cottage industry schools according to the models from Sweden and Denmark. In Kristiania (Oslo) and in Fredrikstad there were ‘Work Schools’. In 1875 the Fredrikstad Handicraft Society was founded. Kjennerud visited in 1880 Nääs and brought with him the model series, which was taken to use in Fredrikstad. The tools and methodology Kjennerud brought, however, from Denmark, and also invited the author, Mikkelsen, to work as a teacher. In 1880 Handicrafts was an optional subject and in 1885 a compulsory subject in teacher training institutions.

The Norwegian Handicrafts Education tradition was defeated ca. in 1959, when the Art Educator Bull-Hansen created a new subject, called Forming, which integrated Handicrafts and Art. The aims or contents had no ‘artefactual education’; the task of the subject was artistic and expressive.

In 1995 Norway had a new curriculum, which returns ‘artefact education’ to the school. Technology Education belongs to Science as in Denmark.

(4) In Iceland Uno Cygnaeus was valued as the continuity of the work of Fröbel and the inventor of

the Nordic term ‘slöjd’. Also his relations to Nääs are mentioned (J.P., Um kennslu… 1890). At the moment (1998) Iceland is drafting the curriculum for practical education. The main contents and aim will be (‘artefactual’) ‘innovation’ (according to Thorsteinsson 1998a).

Summary

Education for Work was institutionalised in the shift of 1800 and 1900 quickly and powerfully in

many countries. The main reason was the founding of general education systems just at the same

time, when the morally directed Education for Work by Cygnaeus had its opportunity, and it was