Called for in the 1870s and 1880s as a solution for the "apprenticeship crisis", the introduction of manual activities constituted one of the major elements of the law of 28th March 1882. This legislation introduced manual work as a primary school subject, envisaging it as a "preparation for vocational education" while associating it with scientific teaching. A certain number of institutional, material, and human constraints influenced the organization of this teaching, which was generally identified with woodwork and metalwork and for which the creation of school workshops seemed necessary. Towards the end of the 1880s, the feeling that this was too close to vocational training, especially in elementary levels of primary schools, led to an original didactic formula which kept the preparation for a trade and the related social practices at a distance and diminished the workshop aspects of the subject. Associated with mathematics and drawing, manual work integrated the space and norms of the class, placing the emphasis laid on its educational dimension aiming at facilitating its recognition as a subject in its own right.
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