Show TALKS tfZf 5tf BY t UTAH EDUCATORS i j H 1 1 I NUMBER 8 > The FunctionofArt in the Development J of the Individual By Mrs Franc lot Supervisor of Drawing inSalt Lake City Schools I There is ample proof that we are not a fallen but an ever risinfe race in the fact I that a educational clubIs willing to dIscuss dIs-cuss the proposition that beauty has a place in educating a human being Ten years ago tho propqsal that art should b given a place along with the time honored studies that minister directly to the intellect would have been considered to say the least ridiculous but thanks to a growing consciousness on the part of every liberated man and woman who has the welfarerof the community at heart that the true basis for deciding whether I any subject shall have a place on the school programme is that the subject must be educational not economic that tat i In the culture of so definitely interdependent interdepend-ent a unity as the human mind the attempt I at-tempt to train only certain powers and omit the training of others must inevitably inevit-ably result In the partial development even of those powers whose training is attempted fefdhO Jngssh tempted That the established school I course of tho past has been onesided and I the result n warped training educationists education-ists are ready to admit There has been much preaching on the training of the wi though the formal intellectual studies stud-ies that have claimed most of tha attention at-tention of the schools spch a mental exercise I I ercise in number the technicalities of I grammar and the study of language but after allthe results have been disappointing I disappoint-ing And has the will c been trained to tho t I purifies or enobles selfhood the individual 1 individ-ual Drawing which is one form of art affords one of the best opportunities for I solfexpresslon for this reason I would make n large place fqr i in the schools Drawing trains the bbservatlon Seeing is really an act of the mind thousands of pictures form themselves In the c c daily that are not seen We see onlr i those things to which we give attention 1 Culture In seeing means culture of the mind not of the eye The power to see accurately and fully depends on the power of giving intelligent attention jfo two men see exactly the j same picture in the same lanscape I I ten men will see ten different pictures from the same point of view Each sees the picture most In harmony with hjs main center of interest No finite mind can s them all the power to see increases in-creases a the finite mind grows consciously con-sciously toward the Infinite The true work of education promotes a growth of the finite toward the Infinite All true a tralniuir increases the ability t se size color form and relationship In the childs environment Children do not reason Very much but they observe a great deal The greater part of the study of drawing I should be in observation simple and direct di-rect from objects simple free and un initiative work I would lay more stress on that part of drawing that trains the I eye to see and the hand to test the peal tion and relation of actually observed objects I ob-jects and less on that whlcji makes i Sw I w S E iIi P1j li UBS FRANC Ik ELLIOTT I extent that warrants the effort To the student of sociology the conclusion Is inevitable that the present education Is not a guarantee against selfishness and I does not direct to the best wellbeing of the whole community Childrens eyes and ears and hearts have a hunger that I the mastery or the three Rs by the old time process cannot feed Through my heart I am what I am exclaimed the I great Pestallolzi The thirst of the imagination im-agination must be satisfied in the schoolroom school-room or materialism will leave its blight on our people The state does not do its duty to the individual or the community if it fails to develop the best in each child The progressive and harmonious i growth of the universal community depends l I de-pends on the complete development of the I Individuals of which it is composed The highest test of any educational system Isis I Is-is influence on the expansion and strengthening of the spiritual nature In I the old Greek world they knew l better than we There the triune nature of the I individual was recognized and those studies stud-ies which brought culture to the soul a well a the body and intellect were fostered fos-tered Because of this the > Greeks were I tho most harmoniously developed of any people and we hold a n result their rich legacy In art literature and mathematics mathe-matics The pressing demand that the I social order be spiritualized can be accomplished ac-complished through the only available I avenue the public schools The conditions condi-tions of life In large centers are such that from ethical and social reasons the I demand must be granted Today the I anxiety on the part of those who form the plan of study for the schools Is how Itself Educa education may spiritualize Itsel ton has come to mean the development of the whole man the physical intellectual and aesthetic or spiritual I must help the Individual to understand himself to justly value his kind put himself in harmony with his surroundings and show him how to better social conditions Tho social idea is the center of all the teachings of Froebel I we go right to the heart of things we will find that the clay modeling the drawing the mat weaving the song and the game exist primarily to relate the child to his world for the promotion of altruism between be-tween him and his teachers hs companions com-panions and his studies I is through this relating things to each other and through their application in life that the soul gains its intelligence not through the producing of a result Drawing in the schools has come to its present importance import-ance because preeminently it mediates relates and unifies other studies to each other In its several forms when rightly taught It is more altrustic than any other study I transports and connects imagination im-agination and intellect the actual and ideal the objective and subjective worlds I lends itself out to all other recognized recog-nized studies while in itself it is a thought study generating In the mind an activity a quality of feeling and synthetic grasp of ideas not to be attained through the most faithful devotion to literature or mathematics The instinctive love for 1 beauty is innate with every human and with it its natural outgrowth expression Side by side with this Instinctive love of beauty in childhood we find the other instinctive in-stinctive desire of productions desire I I to create to put outside of himself in some form the loved idea In the crudest crud-est drawing or rudest most absurd clay figures seemingly lacking in every element ele-ment of beauty we must assure ourselves our-selves we see the testimony of the divine creative power As I note this universal love for beauty and the desire to create in my continual contact with children I j am convinced that the potential artist poet or seer is within every child and that tho world has been made the poorer I because through our clumsy educational processes we have stifled the best until the stupid average or commonplace citi zen is the result The difference between I the artist or poet and the rest of the world is simply that on the one hand the mind has been trained to give attention atten-tion to the things about him until he sees ton in the most common things beauties of which tho other never dreamed In his immortal confession Wordsworth tells of this highly trained soulsense when he says that the meanest thing that grows gave him thoughts too deep for tears I ow A g ofhaenfi We wonder sometimes that men follow so meekly the leadership Of demagogues We should not wonder when the training in the schools has been so much that which makes copyists of them too often the most successful teacher has been the one who could soonest distroy individuality I individu-ality The mind is weakened by all school processes that increase the store of knowledge lf oJEc at the same time and I by the same processes increasing the I tendency to express and use the knowledge knowl-edge gained I is a law that the one who never has learned to exercise selfexpres falon forever remains a material being always ways influenced from the without and subject to the will of others Unexpressed feeling or thought is accompanied by gradual loss of mental power The possibility pos-sibility of mind growth is evidenced by increasing the power of expression No thought can be thoroughly wrought into selfhood until it h > s been expressed and each now form of exprt 5blon strengthens < 3 i I smooth finished false drawings that please pupils and parents and too often teachers We do 2writo words for mere show wo want > the idea the thought bock of the expression Drawing is nothing if it is not putting things in their right place of what use is a line it It Is not in the right place If it means nothing expresses nothing The practice of art trains the judgment judg-ment to judge to judge vertically to I judge horizontally to judge height and width the greatest height and the greatest I great-est width and every Height and every wIdt to block in and leave blocked into in-to simplify and see that there is beauty I in simplicity and that such a thing as imitation is false Accurate observation leads to correct judgment and comprehensive I compre-hensive observation leads to broader thinking in regard to n greater variety of I individual things and their true relationship j relation-ship to each other A great portion of human thought depends on conceptions I of size form color and relationships Art training cultivates new and exact appe ceptive centersof size form color and relationships and defines judgment reba hf df I One of the most important advantages of an art training comes from its usefulness useful-ness in revealing the child to himself I is an important epoch in the Jife of a child when i gains the consciousness of original power While any form of self expression may be made the means of I selfrevelation no other form exceeds this I for making clear to the child the transforming I trans-forming truth that I was Intended to be more than an imitator and follower The I highest school processes are those that do most to develop the childs originality and apply it to lines of utility orIgnalty i thetlc culture There should be no bar f I ren lives No man accomplishes his I true destiny who fails to put forth some I thought or product that will make It easier I eas-ier for his fellow man to be happy and to attain a more complete development Art develops originality and helps men to aid in the Increase of human wisdom and power by the production of new thought of new power and new appliances No teacher should ever be satisfied un less the thought Implanted In the mind of the child comes forth In improved form charged with new life and dynamic power through the childs individuality Mistakes Mis-takes have been made in teaching drawing draw-ing I do not speak of it in the old sense of copying from the lat making lines and reciting definitions This had little or nothing in it that developed selfhood I In music the Instruments the hand the voice and the ear have been trained but the soul that should originate the music I has been left to chance development Even the art of oral expression has been I made a process of Imitation I is doubtful I doubt-ful whether I is possible to cultivate the I habit of repeating the thoughts of others in the exact language of others without weakening selfhood and the powers of selfexpression There is no doabt whatever what-ever that we may be trained to express most admirably the thoughts of others In the language of others without bavin our powers of selfexpression improved by the process Oftrepeated drill as mere drill has been too much practiced as a means of defining and establishing certain I cer-tain powers of the mind and hand Drill divorced from selfexpression cannot retain I re-tain interest and without interest there can be no lasting benefit to the child All true growth is from within outward All I drill for drills sake attempts the unnatural unnat-ural to produce growth from without inward In-ward Imagination is the foundation for all I the constructive arts the builder machinist machin-ist Tho inventor as well as the artist I and poet lives In the imagination Wherever Wher-ever inert wood heavy stone dull cold I I iron and steel have been made to come I Into life and join hands to produce abridge a-bridge an engine a dwelling houe a I j printing press there you find human im1 agination at the heart of i positive clear and creative Cultivating the aesthetic I aes-thetic nature kindles the Imagination and quickens the conscience Through the Imagination Im-agination we put ourselves in the place of another without imagination there can i be no sympathy for others The Imagina Imagna I tlve man is Indignant at the perpetration of a wrong and feels for the time that he 1 Is the victim of the wrong Through the imagination we become cosmopolitan I cultivating the aesthetic creates an atmosphere at-mosphere in which the proprieties the I amenities and virtues unconsciously grow The latest testimony of the scientist is that tho study of the harmonious and I beautiful builds cell tissues in the brain that makes for the harmonious In all relations 1 lations of Ufe One high in authority the 1 director of Smithsonian Institute recently recent-ly declared that If all the people could I study the beautiful In color and form prisons eliminated and police courts would soon be Art should form a part of the education o every child so that he may enjoy the productions of the human mind and the beauty and uplifting suggestiveness of nature The poet and artist Interpret for us at every point RobertBrowning shows us this when Tie makes Fzp Lippo LIppo a century artisttmqnk say For wo donlt love youmark were made so that c k First when we see them painted things pnte i we have passed I tPerhaps n hundred times nor cared to J see A s they are better paintedbetter to us Which Is the same thing Art was given for that bven God uses us to help each other so Lending our minds out Pictures are the most subtle and far reaching of any influence I would rather put before the children impure books than a picture in which there is false teaching Because of this subtlety of art reproductions of the very best examples from worldfamed artists in pictures and casts should find a place on the walls of every school room What could be more powerful or farreachlng in its influence upon the future citizens of this beautiful city than to have the daily influence of the best art upon the children of the ar I schools during the most impressionable t period of their lives School rooms should I b the most beautiful places on earth far more so than churches which are closed iore t six days out of the seven but Instead I the vision of the typical school room bare as factory walls aside from a few maps perhaps haunts meT me-T is something that grows It Is not gws j innate To create taste requires an atmos of If to have a national I phere beauty I we are I I tonal art if we are to bring the beauti ful Into the lives of the American people t the public schools where the children pass so much of their time Is the place I to begin One of the most practical ways In which ministers artists cultured fath ers and mothers womens and mens clubs can cooperate with teachers Is th9 organization of art leagues for the purpose of raising money to purchase ekrtfht carefully selected l pictures for the schools Nothing will bring the homes and schools which have been tQ long divorced together to-gether sooner than an effort of this kind Here in Salt Lake City where we are sofa so-fa from art centers is this sort of effort most desirable The children too should be intereste and help In such a movement move-ment The wholesome social Influence of hfvln a hand in working together toward to-ward I beautiful object fosters a community com-munity spirit which the children cannot afford to lose With a word from John La Fare In a recent address in which he pleads for what he calls the habit of a and I will close He says From the point of view of making more money from the point of view of the employer and the wealth gi li of the state the education of children in art has been thoroughly examined but I do not know that its general advantage to the whole state to the protection of wealth to the orderly arrangement of life ha been sufficiently recognized I allude to place and order which the habit of art seems to encourage because I care more for that side of the question Such forms of culture help In good citizenship and ono in another making men bear more easily with 4 |