ABSTRACT
Technology as a subject in the modern curriculum may be new but technology itself is not new. Even in the earliest times the aim of technology wasnot unlike its modern counterpart, being concerned with generating products, for example clothing, tools, weapons, buildings, all to satisfy human needs (Newton 1991). In education, early nineteenth-century schools, for example, introduced children to practical skills such as needle-work for girls and woodwork for boys. Important influences came from thinkers such as Froebel (1782-1852):
Froebel expected that children should play with Gifts which made up the resources for the key Occupations for learning in a carefully prescribed manner. It is fascinating to note that when the Occupations were done by rote in the tiered galleries of the monitorial schools, the purpose was defined as ‘to train hand and eye’, an appropriate technical skill for future artisans.
