Östra Vingåker, Slöjdskola i Claëstorp

[Kathryn Stone]

Can someone tell me about this slöjdskola?  
I was expecting to find it was a rest home because my ancestor went to live there at the age of 67, staying 16 years until he died in 1900.  Now I understand that is a kind of hand-crafts school?  There are families and people of all ages living there.  This seems very curious to me and I am anxious to learn about it.  
 
[I have been tracing Rättaren Lars Jakob Carlsson, but I don't believe that matters to the question.]
 
Here are some of the Husförhörs for Claëstorp Slöjdskola during the years of 1884-1900.
 
   Södermanland > Östra Vingåker > Husförhör > 1881-1885 (AI:16) > 456.8.42200 > page 101
 
   Södermanland > Östra Vingåker > Husförhör > 1886-1890 (AI:17) > 456.5.14100 > page 90
 
   Södermanland > Östra Vingåker > Husförhör > 1891-1895 (AI:18) > 456.6.51900 > page 97
 
   Södermanland > Östra Vingåker > Församlingsbök > 1895-1900 (AIIa:1) > 456.40.13200 > page 117
 
I am grateful as always,
Kathryn

[Bo Johansson]

If you look at the 1891-1895 HFL, the other men are younger and their titles are verkmästare, snickare, träskomakare, sadelmakare (manager, carpenter, clogs-maker, saddle-maker), all appropriate for a handicraft school.
 
But Lars Jakob Carlsson is f.d. rättare (former farm foreman) and the woman below him, born 1824, is f.d. tvätterska (former washer-woman).
 
So perhaps the estate had found two rooms in the school building where two retirees could live?
 
// Bo Johansson

[Kathryn Stone]

So this must be a rather large school, to have room for the wife and children of the instructors to all live there?  
Or maybe there were separate buildings to house the families of the teachers?
 
Do you know what age would the students have been? Is this likely to be extra schooling, after classes for academics?
 
Kathryn

[Eva-Christina Söderman]

Claestorp/Klastorp is an estate owned by count Lewenhaupt. The school was founded in 1872. Ref: Nordisk Familjebok 1911
 
Pictures of the estate can be found on the web site: http://www.claestorp.se/
 
/E 8-)

[Ingela Martenius]

As a reaction against what was perceived as mass-produced junk the Arts & Crafts movement started in England in the 1860's. It was mostly a design movement in England, but in Sweden it was transformed into a practical scheme for teaching young people the crafts their ancestors had always known and practiced - wood, metal and textile handicrafts, or in an old Norse word, popularized for this purpose - slöjd (going back to slug, meaning sly and clever - clever with your hands).
 
And to be able to teach someone you have to have teachers, and those teachers have to be trained. Thus the colleges for slöjd-teachers. In the beginning (1870's) there were one-year courses for the purpose of turning out teachers specialized in handicrafts, but by the late 1880's it was thought that it would be better if the regular schoolmasters held the handicrafts classes too. The one-year courses became 4-to-6 week courses for already trained teachers.
The most famous college training teachers in handicrafts was without a doubt Nääs (outside Göteborg); in its heyday teachers from more than 40 countries trained there. Besides pure handicraft techniques general pedagogic ideas were taught; there was an emphasis on singing, dancing, sports etc. - training teachers to go beyond academic subjects and train the whole student, body and soul, to become a model citizen.
The slöjd-colleges (there were actually two) at Klastorp were also well regarded.
 
Space wasn't a problem: just Klastorp manor had three stories and six wings - and the estate had numerous other buildings for all kinds of purposes. An estate like Klastorp - or Nääs for that matter - wasn't just a big farm, it was a community that produced nearly everything it needed, and also sold much of what was produced. Production wasn't primarily farm produce, it was things like bricks, metal products etc. - industrial production. A school with a dozen teachers or so wouldn't really have been noticed, tucked away on a corner of the estate.
 
Ingela

[Kathryn Stone]

Wow! I just love how much I am learning here! Wonderful information - many thanks to all of you.  
 
My last question  - on this subject :-) - is : do you think Lars was there because he had a skill he could teach?  
or were they just being nice to him and giving him a place to live after his wife died?
 
Kathryn

[Ingela Martenius]

No, I think they were being nice to him, and he could probably help out with many things - having been used to order farmhands around he could very well supervise activities around the school but in a more leisurely fashion, like the pensioner he was. But probably not teaching things.
 
Ingela