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CREATIVE EXPRESSION
THROUGH ART
§
|
3
º
A SYMPOSIUM
By
HUGHES MEARNS, FREDERICK G. BONSER, L. YoUNG
CoRRETHERS, WILLY LEVIN, PEPPINo MANGRAVITE,
FLORENCE E. Hous E, ELIZABETH BYRNE
FERM, LUCY SPRAGUE MITCHELL,
FLORENCE CANE, MARGARET
NAUMBURG, ELLEN W.
STEELE, HELEN
.ERICSON
2
}
Editor
GERTRUDE HARTMAN
§
Published by
THE PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON, D. C.
|
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jºyººs Vºjº Wºjciº Mºjº/ºjº

FOREWORD
The type of art teaching generally prevailing in ſchools aims
at perfection of technique. There are innumerable ſyſtems of
art, special methods—even graded leſſons! Within recent
years, however, as a by-product of the new educational atti-
tude toward childhood, which aimſ to conſerve and develop
the preciouſ matural qualitieſ of individuality, it haſ been
discovered that children, when granted opportunity to ex-
press themselves in various art media, frequently produce,
with little or no inſtruction, reſultſ of recognizable art value.
Moſt of their productions are accepted as part of the day'ſ
work and are eventually loſt.
This volume is an attempt to give ſome idea of the types of
creative art being produced in ſchool'ſ ſcattered all over the
United States. It is not a ſpecial ſelection of the creationſ
of unusually gifted children, tºllected over a long period, but
is representative of regular. day to day work. A number of
school; ſimply ſent in what they had on hand. What is
here aſſembled, ranging all the way from the earlieſt kinder-
garten to high-school work, ſeemſ ample evidence of the latent
talent dormant in the ordinary child.
The discerning reader will discover in the articleſ, written
by teacherſ doing thiſ new type of work, a healthy divergence
of opinion and an interesting variety in approach. Under-
meath all, however, is an unſhakable belief in the creative
ability of children.
s
**
&
Øa & Zwre
7.7%.
/72/3-
cºcºcº.
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
THROUGH ART
CONTENTS’
* THE CREATIVE SPIRIT AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR EDUCATION
Hughes Mearns
MY ART CREED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frederick G. Bonser
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE IMPULSES IN ART CLASSES
L. Young Correthers
PLASTIC ART. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Willy Levin
THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peppino Mangravite
CREATIVE EXPRESSION THROUGH BLOCK PRINTs. . . . Florence E. House
CREATIVE WoRK AT THE MODERN SCHOOL. . . . Elizabeth Byrne Ferm
MAPs AS ART EXPRESSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lucy Sprague Mitchell
| ART IN THE LIFE OF THE CHILD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Florence Cane
How CHILDREN DEcoRATE THEIR Own ScHool...Margaret Naumburg
FREEING THE CHILD THROUGH ART. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ellen Steele
) INFLUENCES IN ART APPRECIATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Helen Ericson
Costributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Copyright
O UR birth iſ but a ſleep and a forgetting:
The ſoul that riſeſ with uſ, our life'ſ ſtar,
Hath had elſewhere its ſetting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulneſſ,
And not in utter nakedneſſ,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who iſ our home:
Heaven lieſ about uſ in our infancy!
Shadeſ of the priſon-houſe begin to cloſe
Upon the growing boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He ſeeſ it in hiſ joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the eaſt
Muſt travel, ſtill iſ nature'ſ prieſt,
And by the vision splendid
If on hiſ way attended;
At length the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.
Earth fillſ her lap with pleaſureſ of her own,
The homely nurſe doth all ſhe can
To make her foſter-child, her inmate man,
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.
Thou over whom thy immortality
Broodſ like the day, a maſter o'er a ſlave,
A preſence which iſ not to be put by;
Thou little child, yet glorious in the might
Of heaven-born freedom on thy being'ſ height,
Why with ſuch earneſt pain'ſ doſt thou provoke
The yearſ to bring the inevitable yoke,
Thus blindly with thy bleſſedneſs at ſtrife?
Full ſoon thy ſoul ſhall have her earthly freight
And cuſtom lie upon thee with a weight,
Heavy aſ froſt, and deep almoſt aſ life.
WILLIAM WoRDsworth.
&
º
}
§§
{º
&
sº
fºLIAT is the title suggested by
ºff the editor. My own prefer-
tº ence was "All God's Chil-
* lun Got Wings” until I re-
membered that all God's chillun are not
permitted to use them. I visit many
schools which, in spite of a modern cheer-
fulness and a seeming acquiescence of
pupils, are to me places where the wings
of God's children are gradually and pain-
lessly removed. High marks are given
to them who know least about flying;
future advancement is open only to those
who keep their feet always on the ground.
When the creative spirit strives here and
there to flutter, it becomes an activity that
must be practiced in stealth, rarely with
full approval of the authorities.
In the pages of this issue of the Quar-
terly one sees the Creative spirit in action,
sometimes in full flight; and these are but
representatives of myriad activities; hun-
dreds of illustrations had to be left out
for lack of space and only the pictorial
could be shown, for the creative spirit
is something more than a product in
clay and canvas: it is dancing, rhythmic
living, a laugh, a flash of the mind,
strength of Control, Swiftness of action,
an unwritten poem, a song without words;
it is life adding its invisible living cells
to more and abundant life. But these
pictures will serve; for the object is to
tempt the unbeliever to loiter a moment
at the shrine of the true gods. Our argu-
THE CREATIVE SPIRIT AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
FOR EDUCATION
FHUGHES NMEARNS
ۼs
ment may not move him, but the grace
of our service may win him into the
faith.
To the unbeliever, then, I address my-
self when I would tell of the creative
spirit and its varied manifestations; and
also, of Course, to those who believe but
would have their faith strengthened.
The creative impulse is more easily ob-
served in young children but the house-
wife who bakes unerringly without book
or recipe knows it; the carpenter fashion-
ing a cupboard to his own notion of shape
and line, the Office man given free sway
in the phrasing of a sales advertisement,
the lawyer playing upon the mood of
judge and jury, these practice it without
knowing it; my true love's letter is the
perfect product of instinctive artistry;
all our adult ways of interacting one with
another, in short, Call on the creative
spirit, and Our life is artistic or dull in
proportion to Our Creative gifts. But
adults are in the main wingless; con-
vention, tribal taboos, mechanistic living,
long years of schooling, something has
stilled the spirit within or walled it
securely. It is to children we must go
to see the creative spirit at its best; and
only to those children who are in some
measure uncoerced.
Outwardly it is harmony; a unity of
eye, hand, bodily muscles, mind; a con-
centration upon the object of desire that
sets the world aside. It is frequently

98
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
balked by the need of special information
or of special skill; these are the obstruc-
tions that it must surely overcome or the
heart's desire is not achieved and the
spirit dies; these, too, are the strategic
places where the wise teacher is at hand
with just the right assistance. But of
that later; the outward picture concerns
us now. Not only is there harmony of
mind and body but there is the closest
connection between the thing conceived
as worthy to be done and the media
necessary—brush, paint, wood, metal,
clay, blocks, script, tool, machine.
It flourishes, of course, in what we
call play, but mindful of our religious
inheritances, in which play has been
conceived as touched with evil, I hasten
to note concrete illustrations of play
that has taken on all the characteristics
of work: a butterfly collection occupying
five steady years which brought technical
knowledge of family and species, of
habitat, environment, breeding, and cul-
ture, of correspondence with other col-
lectors and with foreign sales agents,
and an ability to present orally to an
assembly of several hundred children and
adults the serious business of preparing
such a collection and to lead the discus-
sion that followed with the skill of ex-
perience; a study of biological specimen
that led an elementary school boy first
to museums and then to Summer school
(Wood's Hole) until all unwittingly the
avocation put him so far outside the
rôle of pupil that an ornithologist and
later a marine biologist claimed that they
must talk to the lad as a colleague and
defer to him in his special scientific field;
an elementary school boy who constructed
photostatic apparatus and motion pic-
ture cameras from lard cans found on the
village refuse pile and from Odds and ends
picked up at rummage sales; a young
artist who built herself a five thousand
dollar studio through a persistently ap-
plied scheme of savings, earning, and
Commercial borrowings.
Illustration of such activity is at hand
in every class-room including the college
class-room if one has the skill to look for
it. The common ingredient in each case,
that which makes it different from formal
instruction, is that the "urge to do”
is self-engendered; it seeks its own way
to fulfilment; it is not stopped by time,
space, apparatus, or by teachers or school
administrators, although because of the
last two it may often conceal every out-
ward trace of interest in the thing that
Occupies the main tracts of the mind, in
this regard behaving like a conquered
people in the presence of the ruling race.
It may even at these times assume a cau-
tious stupidity; for neither to the unsym-
pathetic nor to the arrogant and unfeel-
ing will it confess an interest in the inner
dream. Under unfriendly questioning it
may even deny, and thus through clumsi-
ness and inexpertness get into the coil
of adult morality.
II
When the creative spirit is at work, not
only are body and mind coöperating with
instinctive harmony to secure the desired
result, but the language art is functioning
at a high degree of excellence. A child
may speak haltingly in classroom recita-
tion, or in a school "composition'' write
with despairing inadequacy, who in the
midst of a bit of self-initiated artistry,
the making of a toy motor-boat, a radio
set, a cartoon, or a poem, will talk with
the effectiveness of an inspired expert.
In his own language and idiom, of course,
and provided you do not bring with you
the flavor of the impossible linguistic
THE CREATIVE SPIRIT 99
standards of adult perfection. You may
ask questions then, if you are not of the
forbidding sort; and if you have an ear
for right rhythmic speech you may have
cause to marvel at the language sense that
these youngsters really have; and you
may wonder why we as teachers do not
take advantage of the gifts that children
have in this line instead of damming—
both spellings apply here—their utter-
ance through our insistence on the use
of an alien tongue.
The claim for "lessons” and “home
assignments’’ is that they teach persist-
ence, but who can equal the persistence
of children when engaged in Creative
work? Ask the mothers and fathers who
have tried to keep up with the demands
of their offspring for continuous attention
to a loved story or game! And the work
which they set for themselves is not
stopped by the ending of the day; it carries
over, day after day, until the accom-
plished end is reached. The astonish-
ing paintings that decorate Miss Keelor's
room (second grade) were not done at a
sitting. Day by day they grew. She
has just told me the history of one re-
markable water color of an autumn
orchard, how the house and the trees
and the far off hills came slowly to their
present places in the picture and then one
morning a shy voice confided, "I was
thinking about it last night in bed, so
I put some apples on the tree as well as
on the ground, for, of course, they all
wouldn't have fallen off, would they?
And the red apples are so pretty I wanted
more of them.” A teacher has just
dropped in to tell me of a remarkable
speech delivered from a most unexpected
source at a recent Lincoln Day assembly.
"It was done with such ease and master-
fulness” he said, “with the modesty of
a trained speaker, and yet it was the
boy's first serious public appearance. We
found out that he had been at work for
weeks in various libraries. He had con-
centrated on a bibliography that no
teacher would have had the heart to give
anyone as an assignment, even in the
old days; and no one knew he was at it!
He saturated himself with material like
an expert research student, and then
calmly talked out of full knowledge.
The school is so thrilled by it that they
are thinking of naming him for the most
responsible position in the vote of the
pupils, chairman of the Student Council,
a most coveted office, I tell you, and never
held but by the all-around best man in
the place!”
“And no one knew he was at it!”
That is a quality that must not be missed,
in which regard these young artists are
one with the older artist. The same
artist-shyness is here, the same fear of
spoiling the picture through the wrong
word from outside; even suggestions, the
artist knows, are dangerous until the
work is finished. And flattery can knock
one out of the humor—shatter the in-
spiration—as well as dispraise, or stupid
misunderstanding, or nagging (parents
and teachers, elder sisters and govern-
esses, please take notice!), or that un-
feeling looking-over-the-shoulder which
has dished many a promising canvas.
Artists and children hide from onlookers
until enough of the work is done to
insure a possible completion (that's why
they should have their own rooms,
studios, workshops). But they work
cheerfully enough among their own kind;
so in some schools the artistic work is
done out of hours and teachers never
hear of it; but in the schools that are
represented in this issue of the Quarterly
one senses that the artist has been pro-
tected from the cold eye of the outsider.
IOO
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
"I'm painting that red barn,” I heard a
Woodstock celebrity once say to a group
of gushing ignorants, “but if you ask
me what I am painting I shall have to
go fishing for a week.” He was bitter
with a sense of outrage at their unfeeling
impertinence in hovering over him, but
all they said was, "Isn't he just ſcream-
ingly funny! And don't you love it! It
is the barn you're painting, isn't it? I'm
just crazy about it!” And as he folded up
his work he remarked hopelessly, “I’m
off! Fishing it is!”
But at the right moment they want
praise like any other artist. Or, rather,
they want what the artist-student calls
a “crit.’’ ‘‘Oh,’’ cried one of Miss
Keelor's little boys, "you didn't hang
mine up!” It was a moment of real
torture. Miss Keelor brought the paint-
ing out slowly (while, no doubt, she
thought hard) and looked at it again.
“I didn't think it had enough in it,”
she explained, but not with an air of
really knowing. “So much space here,”
she mused, and then looked at the pictures
of the others. He looked too and under-
stood. "I could do some more!” he
caught the idea eagerly, explaining
spiritedly new thoughts that began to
come to him with a rush. And away he
went, satisfied with the judgment.
And at other times, just like real artists,
they are dismayed at praise. You hang
their pictures; they are grieved. “It is not
good enough,’’ they say in real distress and
go sturdily to work to make a better one
to take its place. Every one who has
been intimate with gifted poets and
painters knows how difficult it is go get
them to pack their work off to maga-
zines or to exhibitions. To go through
the agony of such necessary business is
one of the last things learned by the pro-
fessional; and more often than not it is
his prudent and practical wife who sup-
plies the needed motivation.
III
This then is the torrential force that
comes unbidden out of the mysterious
recesses of personality and fashions things
Out of wood, color, fabric, clay and words;
the thing that dances, sings, leads a dozen
dramatic reincarnations; the thing that
drives a small child into profound re-
search or sets him digging into a difficulty
with the energy of a dog at a woodchuck
hole; whose ways are sure, whose out-
come is beauty. Not that I would say
that the conscious end is beauty. Chil-
dren seem to be driven by an inner neces-
sity of putting forth something; that it
shall turn out to be beautiful is not their
concern, their impulse at its best is to
place something in the outside world
that is already (or almost ready) in their
inside world of perceiving, thinking,
feeling; they measure their success or
failure by the final resemblance of the
thing done to the thing imagined. And
in their best moments they seem to know
exactly what to do: the muscles ripple in
perfect harmony to the right touch, line,
blow; in painting the brush is swung
fearlessly and surely, in pottery the
punches and patches are thumbed with-
out hesitation. In this regard they are
in tune again with the professional
artist. Experience has loosened his fears;
he trusts his instinct for level, balance,
the swift adjustings of his medium and
his materials to satisfy those flashing
demands from within.
One needs to emphasize here that the
modern discovery of the child as artist—
a very ancient bit of knowledge, of
course—is co-incident with the realiza-
tion of the beauty of primitive art gen-
erally. The child is a genuine primitive.
THE CREATIVE SPIRIT
IOI
He needs little or no instruction, but he
must have materials and his surroundings
must be such as to call his effort worthy;
he is susceptible to condemnation and
will give up all his precious art and lose
one of the most gracious of nature's gifts
—for, alas, it may be easily lost—if his
overlords command. The art of the
uncivilized tribes, ancient and modern,
is just that untutored art of our own
children. And it is fitting now that we
are treasuring every trace of the craft of
the primitive peoples, the native art in
Africa, Mexico, Egypt, the South Seas,
it is fitting that our educational leaders
should be rediscovering with joy and
understanding the work of our own young
“natives.”
The undeniable result, however, is
beauty; and fortunately we do not in these
days need to justify it. Here and there,
to be sure, its utility is questioned; but
the sense of its importance in American
life is growing at such bounds that we
no longer worry over the eventual result.
Some further argument is necessary, how-
ever, to meet the demands of those ace-
tics, often in power in education, who
still have faith in information, in as-
signed tasks, in “the discipline of diffi-
culty” and other fading theories of the
way of life.
Those of us who have watched young
life grow from dependent insecurity to
independent power through the oppor-
tunities for the cultivation of the spirit
which the newer schools afford, are as-
sured that something ever so much more
important than a beautiful product is
the result of the new freedom in educa-
tion. Personality develops with
springing certainty of a dry seed dropped
into moist earth. Character emerges;
and with it knowledge, a kind of wisdom,
so sure in its judgments as to make us
the
listen and attend rather than command
and instruct. Taste is never, as with us,
a hypocrisy. Confidence comes into the
spirit and thrives there, for fear and be-
wilderment—the acknowledged tools of
the older education—never yet begot
faith in oneself. New hungers arise, new
desires, new satisfactions, and these are
the very food of education. The cultiva-
tion of the creative spirit makes for great
artists, giant scholars and thinkers; it is
the recipe for distinction.
The story of the leaders of the race is
the story of those who cultivated the
creative spirit in spite of the schools.
Why is it, I wonder, that we have never
taken that lesson to heart? The masters
of men have ever refused formal educa-
tion, or they have revolted, or they have
evaded instruction, or have cleverly turned
it to their own uses. But these are the
strong of will who have fought their way
to the right to be free. The mass has not
been strong of will; a little fluttering of
the wings, and then an acceptance—that
is their story. The newer education is
learning the uses of the mysterious forces
of the spirit through which one may
literally educate oneself for all the impor-
tant needs of living. It is like the heart
beat; no one has found the source of its
power but no one doubts that the source
is within us. The creative spirit is
another heart; it will keep us alive if we
give it a chance to beat for us; it may be
stilled, but there is then no more life.
IV
Education is at last learning to use the
natural creative impulses. At present
it is experimenting, and the results are
good; it has no assured technique as yet,
but the beginnings are in sight. There
is a general agreement that the school
life should be free from arrogant authori-
T ~ * -------—.--— — . - - -
IO2.
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
ties; that the teachers should be guides "growth theory” that it will hardly
rather than instructors, and that these
should be learning about children rather
than certain about children; that the
school environment should be rich in
suggesting material for the creative im-
pulses, and that the unfolding of the
best personality should be watched and
noted as important rather than "marks’’
in assigned home tasks called "lessons.”
When we meet, those of us who have
dealt with children on this side of their
nature, we talk a different jargon from
the professional pedagogue because our
class-rooms are set to another rhythm
than that of our more military brothers;
nor do we speak so despairingly of the
work of school children, rather we ply
one another with this and that astonish-
ing products of their effort. Information
we do not prize so much—"the world is
so full of a number of things!"—nor the
“skills’’ that one will supposedly need
at maturity (mostly very bad guesses, as
any text-book thirty years old will abun-
dantly testify); nor are we much attracted
by the prevailing drill psychology ("Force
them to do it a certain number of times
and they will continue to do it joyfully
for life ') which we are apt to classify
flippantly with the claim of the New
England Catechism as a formula for in-
suring the pious life. In this connection
I am reminded of the illiterate Kentucky
mountaineers in the army whom we
insisted upon teaching to shoot from
the shoulder; with the gun at the hip
these lads could pick the whiskers off a
bouncing rabbit!
We dispute in the most friendly and
heated manner when we meet, for we are
very much concerned that no mistakes
shall be made in a matter so vital to
human kind. One group of “progres-
sives,’’ for instance, believes so much in
permit any instruction at all. It banks
all upon Nature. With these “natura-
lists’’ some of us have delightful disputes.
Nature is wonderful, as all the poets tell
us, but we, some of us, don't trust her
altogether. She is a powerful Djinn to
summon, and also a lusty, sly wench.
We must make Nature work for us, that
is our contention; but, of course, we should
know what help and what interference
we may expect of her. Because of hav-
ing written a book on the poetry of youth
I am in constant receipt of sheaves of bad
poetry from all parts of the country.
“See what my children have done without
any instruction whatever!'' is the tenor
of the accompanying letters. My pity
goes out to the children; so obviously
have they needed someone to be by to
point out the way. Not to tell them
what to say! Heaven and Poesy forbid!
But they never should have been allowed,
I say as I read, to continue to write in the
style of yesteryear, and even in the style
of the year before yesteryear; and their
copyings, their hackneyed phrasing and
their silly platitudes should have been
gently made known to them—an art of
teaching required here that is nothing but
the highest. If growth under pleasantly
free surroundings were all of the new
education, then my occupation is gone;
for I conceive of my professional skill as
something imperatively needed to keep
that growth nourished.
Notably is this true of drawing, paint-
ing, and color work generally. Chil-
dren do very good work and they do very
bad work. If no one is by to suggest to
them the difference they may never grow
in taste, in discriminating art judgment.
Nature, the jade, may or may not help
them. They may even turn away from
the sure voice of the instinctive creative
THE CREATIVE SPIRIT
Io9
spirit within them to copy the work of
others or, worse, to copy themselves.
The teacher must know enough to
entice them into the right road. And
just any teacher will not do; scholarship
here is a smoky flare, and the diploma,
Master of Pedagogy, is not exactly en-
lightening. Children, for example are
often too satisfied; then they need an
immediate experience with a better than
they have hitherto known. Nothing
so surely disgusts one with poor work
as a goodish experience with something
better. But it must not be too much
better. (At this point the standardized
teacher presents the "classics" in litera-
ture and in the fine arts, with the usual
classic result.) The newer type of teacher,
herself always more artist than teacher,
knows the better, really knows it for
what it does to one; and she knows how
to place it in the child's life so that
—most importantſ—it may be wholly
acceptable.
Further, children are balked by diffi-
culties in the handling of materials, how
to make an effective linoleum block,
for instance, or what to do with color
that changes when brought into contact
with other colors; they want to know the
uses of crayon, charcoal, grease pencil,
India ink, the mechanics of enlarging
illustrations for the printer, and so on
endlessly. It is the new business of the
teacher to provoke children into wanting
to know about these and other varying
matters, and then to provide materials
and such help as is asked for.
Growth is not enough, nor is environ-
ment enough, unless, as I believe it should
be, the teacher is considered an essential
part of the environment. Richer results
may be expected of children than the
standardized schoolmaster has hitherto
considered possible; richer results may be
expected from those even who are leading
the way in the progressive schools; and
that richness will come no faster, I sus-
pect, than the coming in greater numbers
of the gifted artist-teacher,
V
We talk of these and other matters
when we meet professionally, but we
consider it no particular justification of
our work that the "free children’’ sur-
pass the controlled children not only in
an enlarged and gifted personality but
in the customary school branches. Super-
intendent Washburne of the Winnetka
Schools has the proof, if any one is
interested. We note the fact, to be sure,
because of its influence upon parents and
upon the powers that control educational
organization and administration. We
may win our argument by way of the
results in the standardized tests—and we
do not despise winning our argument—
but our main interest lies not there but
in the sure knowledge we possess of the
effect of our sort of education upon the
mind and spirit of youth.
Lincoln School New York

IO4
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
I believe
That life itself is the finest of all arts and that its richest reali-
zation is art's Supreme excuse for being.
That human life is the progressive evolution of the spiritual
nature of God and that the measure of growth in the appreciation
of the beautiful in the conduct of life is also a measure of the true
and the good in man's character.
That the mission of art is to teach a love of beautiful clothes,
beautiful households, beautiful utensils, beautiful surroundings, and
all to the end that life itself may be rich and full of beauty in its
harmony, its purposes, and its ideals.
That the spirit of art lifts the artisan from the plane of the
animal laboring to provide itself with creature comforts, to the
plane of man working to the end that he may thereby most fully
and deeply live the spiritual life of human idealism.
That the spirit of art is to lighten the labor of the artisan while
at work, no less than to ennoble his leisure by the uplifting influ-
ence of its appropriate use.
That art appreciation and art values in human life grow most
consistently and most toward life control by the exaltation of the
element of beauty in all things—the pursuit of life's common needs
and the conduct of man's daily intercourse, no less than in the ab-
stracted idealizations of these relationships of man to man, and man
to God conceived and produced by the imagination of artistic genius.
That all progress in art lies in the expression of the experiences,
the hopes, the ideals, and the aspirations of our own environment,
of our own times, and of our own lives. The past is studied to
refine and stimulate creative effort for the expression of the life of
the present, not to become a substitute for it.
That the appreciation of beauty in the thousand common things
of daily life will result in the final appreciation of beauty as a dis-
sociated ideal.
from MY ART CREED
FREDERICK GoRDON BONSER.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE IMPULSES IN ART CLASSES
L. YOUNG CORRETHERS
=ºHE teacher who is trying to
*: ºº extract something in the form
º: of original drawing or painting
* from the modern child, has at-
tacked a difficult problem. He does not
even know what name to give his course.
The present
idea of what
constitutes
“Art,” is a
hotly disputed
point and he
is none too
sure of his own
attitude to-
ward it. The
old comfort-
able days when
one could sit
back and quote
Ruskin are
gone. If the
teacher is in
sympathy with
the conserva-
tives and their
nicely formu-
lated rules of
perspective,
chiaroscuro,
balance, and
so forth and
plans to follow
their guidance,
the mere glanc-
ing from his
window at the
newer forms of office buildings or the de-
sign of modern clothing or even the picking
up and handling of the latest books and
magazines should cause him to alter and
re-adjust his decision. If he is a real pro-
(Age 11 years)
The Sound of A BRAss BAND
gressive, he will realize that following the
conservative point of view will make his
work deadly and dull, and that the charm
of the undiscovered which is the most
fascinating phase of creative life will be
entirely lacking. He will decide, as have
somany others,
that after all,
what has been
done, has been
done—so why
do it again?
On tº
in contact with
his pupils he
discovers that
the mind of the
modern child is
filled to over-
flowing with
images and pic-
tures derived
from the flood
of illustrated
children's
books with
which it has
been deluged,
from the mov-
ing pictures,
the roto-gra-
vure section of
the daily news-
papers, as well
as from many
visits to the
museums and
picture galleries with their endless collec-
tions of the bric-a-brac and pictures of the
ages. Place before one of these sophisti-
cated little people a drawing-board and a
box of colors, ask him to do something
Keith school, Rockford, Iu.



Io9
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
original and he will turn out a color ar-
rangement suggested by something from
the store house of his memory. When
analyzed it will yield up nothing new.
Most likely you will find naive or weak
echoes of the assortments of valentines and
Christmas cards that he has received, win-
dow displays
gazed at, or a
color arrange-
ment sug-
gested by the
“Interior Dec-
oration" at-
mosphere in
which helives.
In short, the
average child
of today tends
to reflect in his
work, his made-
to-order exist-
ence. Every-
thing, work,
play, games
and amuse-
ments are pro-
vided by
others. He is
simply a small
cog in a high-
ly organized
machine and
must move in
the prescribed
path. It is too
much simply
to ask him to
create something that has not existed.
The best that he can do is to take bits from
_º memories and re-assemble them.
ere are of course exceptions. There are
children who are wisely limited as to
playthings, who are given raw materials
with which to work, but in our present
(Age 12 years)
WHEN You ARE Dizzy
stage of educational development they are
sadly in the minority. º
To interest and encourage the child in
original creation one must of necessity
present something new. It would be the
height of folly to place a child in a room
hung with the works of the old masters
and ask him to
compete with
them. If how-
ever we make a
bold stand and
reject every-
thing that has
been done, we
at once enlist
his sympathy
and he becomes
enthusiastic
over this ad-
venture into
the unknown.
Planting the
idea is a simple
matter. Ex-
plain that we
are no longer
interested in
telling stories
in pictures as
that is done
In Orc SucCCSS-
fully in books,
that flowers
and vegetables
are more at-
tractive in
gardens than
when hung on living-room walls, that we
can get a better and more satisfying un-
derstanding of rhythm and theme develop-
ment from an orchestra than from any
amount of paint and that landscapes and
views are more thrilling when framed in
an automobile window than in dusty gilt,
Keith School, Rockford, Ill.


DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE IMPULSE.5
IoW
and he will understand. He will agree
with you that modern photography is very
skilfull in obtaining likenesses of people
and that living representations of the life
of other times and other lands are often
adequately handled by the directors of the
film studios and the theatres, that it seems
a useless and -
wasteful thing
to use One art,
solely for the
interpretation
of another.
The question
then arises,
what is there
left for us to
do? The logi-
cal answer is
that we can ar-
range color
patterns and
combine forms
in such ways
that they will
give to the be-
holder, reac-
tions that are
not given by
the written or
spoken word,
by music, danc-
ing, or the
drama.
The child,
feeling that he
is at liberty to
do anything that he pleases and that the
result will be judged only from the point
of view of his sincerity and truthfulness
and not by laws formulated by experts of
the old schools, will attack his work with
the energy born of the joy of creation.
The appearance of a class awakened to this
joy is very different from that of a group
(Age 15 years)
Nº.
working along the old arts and crafts
methods, trying to produce something
that will resemble a model, an illustra-
tion in a book or a past experiment dug up
from the memory of the training period of
the teacher. Perhaps all of this sounds
hazy and up in the air, so it may be well
to give an ac-
count of an ac-
tual working
out of the
theory.
In one school
in this country
where work is
being carried
on along these
lines,the studio
is a large well-
lighted room
at the top of
the building.
The simple but
peculiar equip-
ment consists
of chairs, long
tables, a sew-
ing machine,
laundry tubs,
and vessels for
dyeing, a car-
penter's bench,
a large scrap-
box of textiles,
leather and
wood-working
tools, modeling
clay and plaster and shelves holding tem-
pera, oil, and water-colors and brushes.
At one end of the room is a small stage
with a proscenium arch and curtains,
equipped with spot lights and gelatine
screens for trying out light effects.
The classes are small, rarely exceeding
twelve. A class of say thirty in the throes
Keith School, Rockford, Ill.







Io8
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
of creative activity would probably result
in the collapse of the teacher. There is
very little lecturing but a great deal of
good-natured criticism by fellow workers.
The favorite medium of expression seems
to be the use of tempera on large sheets of
bogus paper. Some, however, attack
their problems in wood, leather, metal,
stone, embroidery, or even in the making
of doll-like figures of stuffed cloth. It is
interesting to note that the children
usually start expressing their ideas in two
dimensions and progress to three dimen-
sional work. As all materials have the
same value—that of being merely vehicles
used for visualization—it seems to make
no difference to either boys or girls as to
what they use or whether they are at
the sewing-machine or the carpenter's
bench.
The first part of each period is devoted
to talk—a free-for-all discussion of what
can be done, what can not be done, and
possible methods of accomplishing re-
sults. The workers are not encouraged
to tell too specifically of what they are
about to do, as it has been discovered that
many individuals experience the thrills of
creation in discussion and when the
working out takes place the result is found
to be labored and uninspired. The teacher
attacks an individual piece of work at the
same time as the pupils and accepts their
'triticism as easily as he gives his. All the
projects started do not reach completion.
If at any time the material seems to run
away with the idea, or the subject is
beyond the worker's power of expression,
the project is abandoned and a new one
started. The old one may be taken up
later from a fresh angle or in a different
medium. Everything that is finished is
left in the studio for a time so that it may
be exhibited and discussed when cold.
Many things are found weak or inade-
quate when not more than seven days old
and are often destroyed by their creators.
The one thing insisted upon is sincerity.
The only thing demanded as to technique
is that it must be straightforward, not
muddled, and must show a conscious seek-
ing after color pattern and significant
living form. There are those who cannot
at first evolve original forms. These are
encouraged to take some natural living
form and selecting a portion of this, use it
as a starting point. Sometimes when no
idea comes to the worker, the actual hand-
ling or playing with the material results
in a suggestion.
Most of the ideas expressed are more or
less serious and seem to be based on a past
emotion or experience of the creator.
Here are some of the titles given by the
workers to their projects: "Feelings on
Entering a Large Building,” “Being Sub-
merged,” “Disappearance,” “Growth,”
“Awakening,” “Paganism,” “Sleep,”
‘‘How the Leaves Feel When Rain
Touches Them,” “Coming from Sunshine
into Shadow,” “Depth.” These are for
the most part executed in paint. The
older students sometimes attack very
abstract subjects such as "Envy,” “Kind-
ness,’’ ‘‘Satisfaction” and “Fear.” It
is interesting to note that the first at-
tempts are usually simply mingled shades
of color, no forms being discernible. At
first strong colors are used, reds, blues, and
crude greens. The next stage shows a
refining of the color-sense and the colors be-
come weak half-tones. This process is
continued until the sheets of paper are
covered with shadings so quiet that they
finally resolve into neutral tints. From
this point a fresh start is usually taken
and the interest in form awakens. The
younger children are addicted to the use
of the circle and the arc while the older
ones make a conscious effort to avoid such
|
DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE IMPULSES Io9
simple forms as circles, triangles, and
Squares.
– Various arrangements of color have been
applied to cloth by means of painting,
embroidery, and dyeing. Objects have
been cut from wood, sometimes, but
more rarely from stone, and have also
been riveted together from copper. An
interesting phase has been the creation of
peculiar animal-like forms in various
materials. Experiments have also been
carried out using the monotype process
and linoleum blocks.
Some of the work is crude, some frankly
ugly, some beautiful, but there is a joyous
spontaneity about it all that is delight-
ful. The spirit of attack and enthusiasm
has carried over and shows its result in
otherforms of study. It is too early yet to
decide what has really been accomplished,
but the school sponsoring the work feels
assured of this: that there is a keen inter-
est in creation through the mediums of
color and form, that a desire has been
awakened to produce original things, not
for the pleasure of possession but to realize
the joy of creation.
(Age 16 years)
Keith School, Rockford, Ill.
RADIATION
-

PLASTIC ART
WILLY LEVIN
º
º
º
º
WºrcHIPENKO, the great sculp-
# tor, has said very cleverly,
“Art begins where Nature
ends.” These words really
express almost entirely my philosophy of
art. The impressions we get in our every
day life, worked over in our minds with
the help of our senses and our inner self,
make the foundation of art. Nature is
only a means for us to bring out what
is in us.
Before I be-
gin to speak
about the
creative abil-
ity of chil-
dren and how
I help them
create, I must
say that I am
not a profes-
sional teach-
er, but prim-
arily an artist
whom life has
thrown into
a teacher's
profession,
and very interesting I find, is the study of a
child's creative soul. But please excuse me
if my technical terms are not professional.
During my five years' experience with
children in clay-modelling, I have be-
come convinced that every child can
create, and the fewer standards we force
upon them the richer will be the creative
results obtained. The only standards I
recognize for them in using certain
materials are: technique, which grows
with the child; proportion and movement,
Mº
fº
º
º º
(Age 9 years)
when they get to be ten years of age, and
form after that age. In short, I give
them some crude elements of fundamen-
tals when they are old enough not only
to understand but to experience them,
and the expression of this living-through
of the thing is the creation. A child
does not reason, does not recognize rules;
it wants to do a thing, it does it. It is the
teacher's task to draw out of them just
the one right
thing which
is the crea-
tion.
Achild sees
things differ-
ently, there-
fore it ex-
presses itself
differently
from grown-
ups, it is per-
sonal, it is an
expressionist;
itfeels strong-
ly and impul-
sively, and
goes away
from nature instinctively, that is, it exag-
gerates—which really is the aim of all art.
To force our conceptions upon children is
to suppress them, to kill their imagination,
their spontaneity, to take away their
creative ability: this is what happens in
the old school, and what makes the
greatest difference between the old and
the progressive school in teaching art.
In saying that all children can create,
I, of course, recognize differences of
ability; some are naturally more artistic
City and Country School, New York













PLASTIC ART
III
than others, have natural feeling for pro-
portion, for composition, and so on, due
to certain circumstances in life, such as
heredity, environment and others.
Ialso have been asked to tell how Iwork
with the children to get results. This is
the hardest thing to do, because it can't
be formulated. . You have to feel the
thing the child wants to do, to think their
thoughts, in short to become a child
yourself, and to be able to do so, you must
have the soul of a child, and unless it
is so and only so, you can't get results.
I often have
been asked the
questions: Do you
give children
models to copy?
Do you tell them
what to make?
No, the only help :
I give them in
choosing the sub-
ject (if they don't
come full of ideas
themselves) is to
go through their
class program
with them which
suggests subjects
to the children.
Another thing I
sometimes do is to
let them squeeze
the clay and develop the forms suggested
by it. In modelling figures (by figures I
mean animals as well as human figures)
children always begin with the details
of the figure and by and by produce the
whole. They make the feet first or the
head, putting in the eyes, nose, and mouth,
which seem to them the most important;
even in pottery they often make the cover
of a dish before they make the dish. I
let the small children go ahead in this
(Age 12 years)
City and Country School, New York
way, showing them only how to work
the parts together so they don't fall apart
in drying. But when they are about nine
years old, I ask them to make the whole
figure at once, or to produce the biggest
part of the figure first. I get this result
through the question: Which is the big-
gest part of the figure? They usually
say the body, though occasionally I
have answeres like the head or the feet.
Here the question of proportion comes in
for the first time. I ask them to com-
pare their own heads with their own
bodies, and ask
which is larger.
When they are
about eleven years
of age they begin
to model figures
in movement. I
have them make
primitive arma-
tures. They con-
tinually try out
the pose them-
selves, in order to
experience, to feel
the movement.
The understand-
ing of form-con-
struction grows
with the growth
of the child's
mentality. When
I feel that the child can understand form,
I explain the construction of the human
body to them in an elementary way. I
show them the big forms of the body and
the joints, to make them understand that
twisting or bending of the parts can only
be done at the places where joints exist.
But they only model movement, not form.
I have noticed that children instinctively
compose their designs well; they have a
natural feeling for balance. They show

II2.
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
it mostly in getting their designs into a
tile. They experience it still more in
modelling groups, in which I encourage
them when they are older, as it takes
them into composition in a wider
Scn SC.
Our materials are clay, which can be
fired, and plasteline, which does not
harden. In order to preserve the ob-
jects modelled in this medium, they have
to be cast in plaster of Paris. Besides
figure work we do a great deal of pottery.
We use the Indian Coil Method in build-
ing by hand, but the children often find
their own individual ways. Some who
have patience enough learn how to use
the primitive Kick Wheel. I fire their
pottery and figures when they are techni-
cally well made. We put colored glazes
on, and the children learn something
about changes of materials going through
a firing process. I let the little ones
paint their clay things with water colors.
They learn how to use their brushes on
clay, but I seldom fire their work, nor
do they glaze it.
By the time the children are eight years
old they make finished products. For
decoration of these, we use besides colored
glazes, under-glazes, colored clays etc.,
and as they grow older, they learn many
other techniques of decoration.
The best medium for little children to
work in is, in my opinion, clay; it hardens
enough so it can be painted or varnished.
It is very important to make them knead
their clay before they begin to model.
Besides learning the technique of pre-
paring clay, it develops their finger
muscles. For older children clay is ad-
visable only with the purchase of a kiln.
It is too disappointing to children, having
worked hard at a vase or a bowl or at
any other piece of pottery, not to be able
to finish the article; that is: to fire it in
a kiln, glaze it, fire it again to make it
waterproof.
To speak more about techniques would
lead us too far into the science of cera-
mics which cannot be treated in a few
words. I am sending some photographs
of examples of the children's work which
were made in the way described by me in
this article.
(Age 12 years)
City and Country School, New York

PLASTIC ART II3
Shady Hill School, Cambridge, Mass.
(Age 11 years) City and Country School, New York


II4 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
CHEvy CHASE Country Day School,
CHEvy CHAse, MD.
(Age 7 years)
THE LINcolN School,
New York
(Grade V)
THE LINcolN School,
New York
(Grade III)



PLASTIC ART II5
Carson College Flourfown Pa.
Public School 45, New York
CHILDREN WoRKING AT CLAY MoDELLING


II6 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
Ethical Culture Branch School, New York
Shady Hill School, Cambridge, Mass.



PLASTIC ART 117
(Age 9 years) (Age 10 years) (Age 8 years)
Francis Parker School, Chicago, Ill.
(Age 12 years) Walden School, New York


II.8
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD
PEPPINO MANGRAVITE
*HE ordinary methods of at-
§ tempting to foster the creative
impulse have proved so unsuc-
cessful that an entirely new ap-
proach must be made. My idea of a teacher
of art is a person who is clairvoyant, who
is able to penetrate the mind and soul of
a child. A teacher must comprehend
what the child wants to do. He must
never interfere with the child's mental
image by telling him how to begin.
The idea—the mental picture—must be
the child's. Once he is started a teacher
can help him.
Getting the idea started is really the
most difficult part of a teacher's work.
What shall be the teacher's approach to
the child's nature in order to stimulate
him to express himself through the medium
of art? It is most essential for the teacher
to establish the right relationship be-
tween himself and the child. He must
gain the child's confidence and establish
within the child the desire to create, or
he will not do anything. One of the
most difficult situations to meet arises
when children say, "I can't do this.”
I always answer, "Why?" Sometimes
they can tell and sometimes they can-
not. If they can answer, I can help
(Age 8 years)
Potomac School, Washington, D. C.


I2 O
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
them at once. If not, I must find out
why they cannot. Sometimes I say to a
child, “Very well, if you can't draw
anything, don't try to, but suppose I
should ask you now if there is anything
you would love to do.” The child
answers perhaps, "Go swimming.”
“Do you like to swim and dive?”
“Yes.”
“Do you like to go alone?”
“NO.”
“How many should you like to have
with you, and do you like children or
grown-ups?”
He answers perhaps,
children.”
“Well, do you like to go in the ocean,
or a lake, or a pool?"
“In the lake.''
“Are there trees around the lake?
Tell me about it.” You see, I am de-
veloping his mental picture. We are
working it out together, but the ideas
are all coming from him. When I feel
that he has the picture sufficiently in
mind I say, “All right, now draw it for
me. Draw me a picture of the place
you would like to go swimming in. I
should like to see the kind of place you
like.”
When I am confronted for the first
time with a young child or a group of
children I sometimes appeal to , their
sense of humor by Caricaturing with a
few quick strokes on the blackboard
some animal with which they are familiar
—first the eyes, then the Contour of the
head, and so on. Soon the children
recognize the creature. While I am draw-
ing I talk to them and the room is filled
with laughter and merriment. In this
short time I have established a favorable
relationship with the children; their
sense of strangeness has disappeared.
They look upon me as a sort of magician
‘‘About three
who, with a piece of chalk, can transform
the blackboard into a living circus.
By this time all the children are eager to
draw—but draw what? I tell them that
they may draw anything they like.
They wonder what to draw and how to
begin. Sometimes I suggest that they
can visualize the picture more clearly
on the cleaned blackboard if they think
hard enough, or in their minds, if they
close their eyes and think hard. Closed
eyes—eyes with gaze lost in space—the
approach of vision. Soon things are
under way, pencils moving in every
direction on large sheets of light gray
paper, rolling tongues, firmly set lips—
then, behold the creation!
I look about and discover that Bob
and Jane have too extensive a vision for
the sheets of paper they have. I notice
that Bob has extended the drawing of the
cow's tail on the other side of the paper,
while Jane has drawn what is apparently
a part of a haystack out on the drawing-
board. This indicates a lack of sense of
limited space. It is a quite common
characteristic of young children. When
it is manifest I give the children what is
known as the boundary lines—the four
lines, an inch or two from the edge of
the paper, within which the picture must
be drawn.
At the other end of the room Michael
calls for help. He is distressed because
the color combination of his picture
looks queer. “What is wrong with this?
Please help me get the right color.” I
answer, “How do I know, what is wrong
with it? If I were painting it, I would
know. Now, if it were my picture, I
would go to a distance away from it, re-
lax physically, look at it, and find out
what colors go best.” He walks away
from his picture, looks at it, and soon
returns happy. “I see now,” he says,
THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD
I2 I
ſooſ ºs tuossºſuojºſ uoſ ºutrºspae
x LIO OILNvTLy
(supºſ º 95 y)

12–2. PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Age 6 years) Washington Montessori School
The Rescue


THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD
I2-3
“The greens and blues are too raw for
the other colors.”
A sense of color harmony is one of
the fundamentals of art that must be de-
veloped in working with children. I get
children to work out harmony of color
through using various combinations, but
never by standardized methods. Out of
standardized systems can come only com-
monplace conceptions. Emotional reac-
tion is what counts most in working out
new color combinations and new har-
monies. My aim with children is to
keep them always experimenting. This
experimentation is to me one of the most
fundamental characteristics of my work.
In order to be really creative in life, we
must ever look forward, creating new
things—vital, strong figures—or new com-
binations of old things. Experimenta-
tion keeps alive the soul, out of which
springs a new and beautiful growth—a
new emotion. If then in the class-room
today we discover one method of paint-
ing, tomorrow we shall be in quest of
another.
I begin color work with four year old
children and I also begin clay modelling
with this age children. Young children
see the world in one dimensional plane
because of their lack of experience with
things. Our sight is a complex faculty.
It consists of visual sensations plus the
memory of sensations of touch. Before
children can comprehend things through
the sense of sight they must get the idea
through touch. The young child has a
natural instinct to touch everything. It
is his surest way of learning about the
world in which he lives. As the child
works with his fingers with clay gra-
dually he will come to understand the
Second and the third dimension. Later on
he will be able to discern these things
through the sense of sight alone.
Sometimes a child even gets a vision of
the fourth dimension. A very excep-
tional child came to me one day and said,
"I am tired of expressing nature and life;
I want to paint something else.”
My answer was, “Why, Buzzy, what
else is there to express?”
He said, "There are other things to
express; I want to draw gods.”
“How would you draw a picture like
that?’”
‘‘That is what I don't know.
“Well, what made you think about it?”
"One day, last summer, when we were
away, I was lying out under a tree on the
hilltop, when all at once I saw gods
among the clouds.”
“What did they look like? Tell me.”
‘’I Can't.”
"Close your eyes and see if you can see
them again.”
He did. I said, “Now draw without
opening your eyes the picture in your
mind.” When he had finished, the draw-
ing looked like a strange bird among
some clouds. It seemed to me that he
needed a Conception of space, in order to
express the idea more clearly. After
thinking it over for two days I came to
the conclusion that perhaps the best
way was by means of a funnel. I had
him look through the funnel. He finally
drew a picture of circles, conical shapes,
infinite space. It is really beautiful and
absolutely abstract. He called it, “The
Gods.”
As we work I talk to the children try-
ing to explain to them the inner meanings
of things in the simplest language. I
try to recall to their minds vivid experi-
ences they have had and impress upon
them that it is nature and life they must
express, but not the mere reproduction of
the things they see. If a child is paint-
ing a tree, for instance, I tell him that it
3 *
I2.4
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
is not the outline that counts. He must
think how the tree developed. First
it was a tiny seed, then it grew and put
forth sprays, leaves, buds, flowers, fruit.
I lead the children to imagine things, I
tell them to think of the inside of things
instead of the outside, for my aim is to
encourage imaginative and creative rather
than reproductive art. It is not represen-
tation but creation. Representation is
literal; creation is spritual.
It is because of my belief in the true
creative vision of children that I dis-
approve of illustrated children's books.
In such books we have a triangular ar-
rangement so far as mental imagery is
concerned: first, that of the person who
wrote the book; second, that of the per-
son who illustrated the book (and of
course this must necessarily be different
from that of the author, because a second
person cannot possibly express what
another person conceives); third, that
of the child who is reading the book.
Such a situation cannot but be confusing
to the child. If the words of a book
are meant to evoke pictures, why the
accompaniment of pictorial representa-
tion?
Modern children are becoming in-
creasingly less imaginative. There was
a time when children's imaginations were
nurtured by nature and life. Now they
are overwhelmed by illustrated books,
trips to art galleries and museums, and the
like. Art can be brought into the lives
of our children not by sending them to
museums but by bringing them closer to
nature and life. Looking at pictures,
if it teaches them anything, teaches
them the art of imitation. Art must
express the age in which it is created.
How can a child express any other age
when it is the age in which he is living
that he feels? Children should not be
allowed to go to galleries and museums
until they have learned to realize the
emotional beauty of the lines of a factory
or a locomotive; until they understand
that it is exaltation and not edification
that they must seek in art; until they can
comprehend that forms can be expressive
and significant without resembling any-
thing. Music is the purest of the arts
because it is abstract expression; visual
art should be the same. My children
are not allowed to look at picture books,
for it distorts their sense of reality. I
want them to create freely from the ex-
periences and images they have in their
minds. The child is often more right
about these things than we are. We
are sophisticated; we have lost the crea-
tive vision; the child approaches art as
a naïve and simple creature. If we could
only add to the intelligence of the artist,
the unspoiled vision of the child, we
should create art in naïve forms. While
I am teaching the child what I know
about art, he is teaching me life—the
fundamental principle of art—he teaches
me to look at life as naïve forms.
I believe that it is absolutely impossible
for anyone who is not an artist to succeed
in teaching art. The made-to-order
teacher of art depends upon standardized
methods rather than upon his own sensi-
bilities. No one but an artist has the
delicate intuition to sense what another
person is trying to express. Art educa-
tion, as I conceive it, aims at nothing
but sharpening sensibilities and strength-
ening power of expression. Ouspensky
clearly describes this in his fascinating
book Tertium Organum. “He’’ (the ar-
tist) writes Ouspensky, “hears the
voices of stones, understands the whisper-
ings of ancient walls, of mountains,
rivers, woods, and plains. He hears the
voice of the silence, understands the psy-
THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD I2.5
chological differences between silences. elusive differences." This poetical under-
All art in essence consists of the under- standing of the world only an artist can
standing and representation of these impart.
(Age 7 years) -
Potomac School, Washington, D. C.
THE THREE KINGs
-
i


12.6 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Kindergarten)
Ethical Culture Branch School, New York
House witH CHIMNEY AND FIRE Escape


THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD I2.7
(Kindergarten) Tower Hill School, Wilmington, Del.
(Age 9 years) Tower Hill School, Wilmington Del.


12.8 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Age 10 years) Lincoln School, New York
(Age 9 years) Rosemary Junior School, Greenwich, Conn


THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD I2-9
(Age 7 years) Lincoln School, New York
THE FARMER GATHERING APPLEs
(Age 8 years) Rosemary Junior School, Greenwich, Conn. (Grade VI) Winnetka Public School, Winnetka Ill.
VIKING SHIPs THE Fjorps of Norway





I3o
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
C - is
-
-
… .
º
a
-
º º
º -
do y Nº. 6 ſ (25.
-
(Age 6 years) Junior Elementary Schaol, Downers Grove, Ill.
Park School, Baltimore, Md.








THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD
I31
(Grade VI)
Hubbard Woods School, Winnetka, Ill.

132. PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Age 14 years) Ethical Culture School, New York
Large Batik HANGING

THE ARTIST AND THE CHILD I33
(Ages 7 to 9 years)
Montessori School, Washington, D.C.
Soap As A MEDIUM For Sculpture
Art has recently discovered the possibilities of soap
as a plastic medium. The use of soap makes possible
in schools a technique hitherto not possible. Before
the recognition of its value as a means of self-expres-
sion, clay, wax, and plasticene were used as plastic
mediums. But soap is used not as a modelling mate-
rial but as one to be carved. It is clean . easily
manipulated. In fact, the average child can cut it
with a precision which he would have difficulty in
doing in the moister clay or plasticene. This clean-
cut quality of soap makes it possible for a child to
translate his imagination directly into plastic forms
resembling ivory in their beautiful texture and color.
Even young children can produce results which give
a satisfying tone and finish obtainable only in
marble itself.
-

CREATIVE EXPRESSION THROUGH THE BLOCK PRINT
FLORENCE E. HOUSE
º:OT many years ago block print-
§§ Kºlº ing was introduced into the
jº schools of this country. It
* has become very popular.
Some children who cannot express them-
selves in other art forms will express
themselves freely in a wood or lin-
oleum cut. For this and other reasons
the block print has come to its own
in the schools. The school magazine
needs an attractive cover, or it may be
that end sheets would add to the beauty
of a book that is being made. At Christ-
mas time children enter almost sponta-
neously into a block printing experience.
The library needs a bookplate or a child
wishes to make one for his own little
library at home. Sometimes a poster is
wanted for a school program or play.
The wood or preferably the linoleum cut
is an easy and an inexpensive way to
supply these needs.
There are various methods in use today
in the making of block prints. The sug-
gestions here are a simplified process to
be used with children from nine to twelve
years. The design as originally drawn
may be reversed by placing it on the carbon
side of impression paper. After tracing
over the lines the back of the paper will
show the drawing reversed. This may
be transferred to a piece of grade A lino-
leum which for convenience has been
painted with white tempora paint. De-
signs which leave a maximum of linoleum
in mass and provide for comparatively
little to be cut away seem most appropriate
for this medium. Lines may be incised
with a veiner, or the cutting may be done
with a penknife or razor blade having but
one sharp edge. The tool should be
held slanting outward to make the base
slightly larger than the surface. It need
not be cut deeper than one-sixteenth of an
inch. The block may be inked by means
of a printer's brayer rolled over a slab
of glass or marble, on which a small
quantity of ink has been placed. The
brayer should be rolled over the block
lengthwise and crosswise. The printing
can best be done by placing the linoleum
On the paper and putting it through a
clothes wringer. This goes still better
when children improvise a shelf fastened
to the wringer and on a level with the
lower cylinder. Quite rapid printing
may be done in this way. If the block is
mounted, a letter press may be used to
make the impression. If that is not
available, a mallet would do. If mounted
type high, it may be placed in any school
printing press. It would be interesting
for the children to compare the method
described above with the process used by
the Orientals, that of using an ink ball,
laying the paper on the inked surface and
rubbing it to make the impression. Chil-
dren sometimes pull off a proof in the same
way.
This work not only takes children into
a new and delightful craft, but goes still
further by giving them the possibility of
a program full of activity and so full of
stimulating content material that they
express themselves freely and creatively
when opportunity arises. For instance,
children about ten or eleven years of age
at work on amediaeval nativity play and
saturated with the mediaeval setting are
as quaint and naïve in their prints as
were the artists of that day when they
pictured the star, the Mother and Child,

EXPRESSION THROUGH BLOCK PRINT
I35
In a
the angels, the shepherds and kings.
school where this really happened some
of the groups studied quite deeply into
the historical setting of the Christmas
tree, taking up not only the Scandinavian
myths, but also all the pagan festivals of
the sun and the symbols which came to be
used on the tree. What could be more
natural than to use some of these symbols
on their blocks?
There is another way in which the
block print can enrich the lives of the
children. I mean a study of the begin-
nings of block-printing and its develop-
ment to the present time. Children would
enjoy following block-printing through
the five centuries of existence in Europe
to its present revival both here and abroad,
or to reach still further back into its
Asiatic beginnings to the time when the
first inked impressions on paper were
made in China.
Imagine with what interest and delight
children will follow this historical de-
velopment while having the experience of
making a print of their own, and with
what appreciation they will examine and
pour over prints of all kinds and of every
time and place.
It would be quite worth their while also
to make a collection of prints. They
could easily get the modern ones in the
current magazines, such as those of
Rockwell Kent. They would enjoy own-
ing the funny little cuts in the New Eng-
land Primer and the “One Thousand
Quaint Cuts from ‘Books of Other Days,’’’
or the whimsical blocks of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries or of the early
Renaissance. They could get acquainted
with Dürer and Holbein not only as
painters but as famous block-printers of
their time. They would value the St.
Christopher dated 14.3 not only because
it is considered by most authorities to be
the earliest known print in Europe, but
for its quaint conception of the mediaeval
mind and its combined crudity of propor-
tion and beauty of line. Then there is the
“Ars Moriendi’’ or “The Bible of the
Poor’’ with its forty pictures meant to
give religious teaching to the illiterate
people of the middle ages. To come to
our own time again there are the repro-
ductions of the old masters done so skill-
fully in wood by Timothy Cole and Henry
Wolf. Fine Japanese colour prints are
also easy to obtain. They are an interest-
ing study in themselves and would natur-
ally lead to a study of the modern four
colour process and other methods of illus-
tration in use today.
All this material, and more too, will
give children in the elementary school a
rich background of history, an added ap-
preciation of beautiful prints of all times,
an interest in the modern processes of
today, and a desire to express in their own
blocks interests which they have, not
in commonplace ways but with individual-
ity and which, in spite of crudities, have
a beauty of their own.
136
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Age 11 years)
City and Country School, New York

EXPRESSION THROUGH BLOCK PRINT I37
THE BRONx
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
LINCOLN's BIRTHPLACE -
From Our Story Book, written, designed, and printed by Pupils of Public School #5, Yew York City



3
S
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(.4 ge 14 years) Skokie School, ſſ in netka, I?!.
(Age 12 years) Shady Hill School, Cambridge, Mass.
IF WE COULD SEE GRENDEL AS A SHIP Go Es Over HIs HEAD


EXPRESSION THROUGH BLOCK PRINT I39
The Man of fhe Winter Nights
Te Swind is levåly calling,
|he Sno Vaſ \s dºt) falling,
And through tº 6 an old man comes
The Men' ºf the wººler Night
He w old and bent, bot still We CC tºrne S *
T. his castle of silver, the Fair Meslºt.
And QºS he Corne S, the trees all bow
Tº their Kira. He Man ºf the Water Nºt.
(4.ge 12 years) Carson College, Flourtoºn, Pa.
ORIGINAL POEM AND ILLUSTRATION

I4O PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
Park School, Baltimore, Md.
Park School, Baltimore, Md.


CREATIVE WORK AT THE MODERN SCHOOL
ELIZABETH BY RNE FERNM
|
sº
|HE educational value of the art
§ work of the Modern School at
§ Stelton, New Jersey, cannot be
ºs C_ºn_j & = * measured by its technique,
color, line, or subject. Its distinction and
value lies in its being a pure reflection of
the inner life of the child. There are no
external stimulus, suggestion or example;
there are no art talks; no art walks; no
journeys to museums. The children are
free to paint all day or no day. Pencils,
Crayons, paints, paper, Canvas are accessi-
ble—just as clay, wood, metal, reed, yarn
and type are accessible.
It is safe to say that no school was more
devoid of decoration than the building
of the Modern School. No Venus; no
Apollo; no Winged Victory. Not even
photographs of beautiful things or places.
Just an ordinary building with unat-
tractive rooms. If there was any aesthetic
influence it was indirect, like the sky-line,
the fine sunsets, the distant blue range of
the Watchung mountains, a brook and a
few trees. The immediate surroundings
were flat.
We did not regard art in terms of sculp-
ture, drawing, printing, literature, danc-
ing, music or acting. We recognized art
as self-expression, as a revelation of the
spirit projected outwardly. We believed
that man to know himself was necessi-
tated to objectify his inner life in the very
outermost that that outermost might serve
as a mirror to reflect his image. This
belief made us zealously guard the outposts
of the child's life. So many good people
are always ready to do things for children.
Copying a Rembrandt or a Botticelli
may be an aid in acquiring style, taste or
technique, but we did not look upon
immitation or reproduction as art. Art
meant more to us than any of these ac-
complishments. We saw in art the signa-
ture of the child's inner life.
Did the glorious sunsets provoke the
children to work so freely and joyously
with color, or was their free, independent
use of Color a reflection of an inner state
or need? We did not probe the children to
find out. We were satisfied that their
work was spontaneous and creative. We
pondered over the crude endowment or
environment of the children and the aes-
thetically beautiful conceptions that the
children gave birth to in their work. Our
conclusion was that a child has more
Opportunity for expansion in a crude than
in a finished surrounding; that equipment
very often clogs the space in which the
child needs to exercise himself physi-
cally and spiritually. If a child is sur-
rounded by models of perfection where
can he find a place for his crude effort?
By presenting models of beauty we erect
standards which may react on the child
by obscuring the spiritual value of his
own expression.
Believing that the great reservoir of
human Creativeness is inexhaustible, we
religiously withdrew from the child so
that he might discover himself in his work
and also incidentally, that we might
discover him. We were not trying an
experiment; we tried to provide an
environment in which the child might
experiment. Our experience taught us
that life is realized and enriched through
Creativeness; that it is unrealized and im-
poverished by repetition, immitation, and
reproduction. We maintained that idling
was better than copying and reproducing.






I42.
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
Art cannot be separated from life for it is
life revealed. The cooing of the infant
is his first music; the kicking of the in-
fant's legs is his first rhythmic dance.
The child's early drawing of the spiral
and circle is his first art expression.
The spiral and circle reveal the homo-
geneous, spiritual at-oneness of his stage
of development. Every object made from
an inner impulse, no matter how insignifi-
cant or useless it may appear, is a creation,
and bears the hall-
mark of the creator
upon it. We have
observed that when
the older children
express themselves
in drawing, they
make pictures ac-
tually resembling
theirselves.
An unhampered
child is always self-
active and creative.
He is absorbed in
his own interests
and is therefore
reluctant to receive
suggestion or direc-
tion from the out-
side. He needs no
encouragement to
do things. His
own impulses and
desires are so alive and urgent they keep
him busy fulfilling the promptings of his
own being. Outside suggestion or direc-
tion only serves to interrupt and retard
the work of the self-active child.
In the early stages of a child's develop-
ment he is satisfied with any form which
he can create. He is possessed by the
spirit of his own activity and finds his
satisfaction in the doing of the thing.
The concrete forms made by the child,
reflect back to him his own image and
likeness. Through his own activity his
vague purposeless feelings assume a shape
which make visible and tangible to him
the indwelling force which necessitated
his activity. He is able to relate the form
which he has created to himself because
he has not been diverted from his own
center by outer suggestion or direction.
He has left his impression on matter and
through that impression he has learned
the properties of
matter. Through
his creation he de-
velops a knowledge
of himself as a cre-
ator. At the same
time he recognizes
that every visible
form exists and is
manifested through
and by means of
the spiritual im-
pulse in dwell-
ing in the thing
itself. In the de-
gree that he recog-
nizes himself in his
acts he in that de-
gree is able to un-
derstand the cause
of existing things
surrounding him.
When the child
feels satisfied with the form of his crea-
tion it no longer holds for him as vital
an interest, but until he senses it as
complete he is urged on and on until he
perfects it. In the time and order of a
child's development he becomes critical
and exacting toward his own work.
But before that takes place the form is
always subservient to the spirit and we
find the child engrossed in his own
creation.
Modern School, Stelton, N. J.
º

CREATIVE WORK AT MODERN SCHOOL
I43
Z
When a child is directed from the out-
side to do this or that thing, he is not
exercising his own power. He may be
active, but he is not self-active. He can
gain no consciousness of the force in-
dwelling in his own nature as long as he
is subject to guidance and direction.
The impression that outside direction
leaves on the child is a sense of unsure-
ness. Direction implies that the natural
inclination and impulse of the child are
not in accord with the demand of the out-
side, so the child is left in doubt of him-
self and unsure about his outside relations.
The child who has been subjected to
direction is always noncreative, restless,
exacting and Capricious. He has been
trained to look to the outside for sugges-
tion and direction. If the outside fails to
supply him he is lost and confused. Sug-
gestion becomes such an accepted thing
in the life of such a child, that to be left to
his own resources for even a few minutes
is a cause of complaint. In the midst of
his own unexplored nature, his own
inexhaustible resources, the child is a
beggar—stunted and starved, dependent
upon the outside for help because that is
where we adults have led him to believe
X2.
that the source of supply exists.
One day I found a block of wood on one
of the tables with a design carved on it.
That wood-cut dropped from a clear sky.
It was the origin of the wood and linoleum
cuts that appeared in the children's
magazine. A child had played with the
block and then dropped it. We adults
marvelled over the how and where of the
creations that followed, but the children
treated them as normal every-day affairs.
It was but necessary to provide the raw
material for them to find their expression.
Perhaps the greatest reward that came
to us was that every creator had his place
in the sun with the children. They
seemed to realize that each creation was a
contribution to the whole social body.
The recognition that was accorded to a
new accomplishment was very beautiful.
It gave us a vision of a new society founded
on Creativeness instead of rivalry and
Competition.
Sometimes I think that because a crea-
tion must have its root in the inner life
and come from an inner necessity it is
spiritually recognized by other creators
because they also work from within,
where there are no standards, no loss, no
gain. It establishes a creative fraternity.
This may seem very speculative. It is,
however, the only solution that I have
been able to come to. The bare, bald fact
was, that not one case of envy or dispar-
agement by the children was manifested
in all the years of our creative work.
Even dispositions and temperaments that
did not combine freely were united when
they expressed themselves creatively.
Very naturally the questions must arise
as to whether there is any place for past
achievements in the present demand for
creative expression; whether or not there
is any connection, any bridging over of
the past to the future, whether the past
is to be ignored or included in our present
educational life.
To these questions I would reply that
the past is the stream from which the
present flows. It is irrevocably bound up
in the present. To become conscious of
the relation of the past and present the
individual must first realize himself in his
own creations before he is capable of
recognizing the creations of others. If he
can trace his outer attainments to an inner
prompting, urge or impulse, he is then ready
to review and comprehend his relation to
the past. Until he understands himself he
is incapable of understanding others. In
truth, he cannot even see them cor-
I44
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
rectly. Art is synonymous with the
inner life of humanity. The artist is
moved by an inner need for self-expression.
We must become conscious of this before
we can respond or vibrate to our past
inheritance. The past is ours, let us
include it in our life with insight and
understanding.
How shall we educators know when the
child is ready for connection with the
past? Our study of the child indicates
that the adolescent stage reveals the need
and time. The youth shows less con-
fidence in taking the initiative and less
satisfaction in his own accomplishment.
He turns his back on his inner promptings
and faces round towards the external
world. He tries to understand the exter-
nal by absorbing it. His necktie, shoes
and clothes, hair and manners are as true
copies of the external as he can get or
make. He identifies himself with the
forms of the past. It is like a complete
surrender to the forms of life and a repudia-
tion of the spirit of life. The novitiate is
not long however, for the youth who has
been creative and who has ventured away
from his own creative centre, soon realizes
that the formalities and externalities of
society have their origin in a spiritual need
similar to his own. He journeys back to
his own life, enriched by his outer experi-
ence. He has enlarged his outlook and
has gained consciousness of the underlying
unity in the great diversity of human
expression.
Edgewood School, Greenwich, Conn.
CANTERBURY PILGRIMs

CREATIVE WORK AT MODERN SCHOOL I45
(Age 16 years)
- -
-
º
(Grade III) Lincoln School, New Fork City
VikiNG Boat

(Grade IV) Lincoln School, New York
(Age 10 years) Francis W. Parker School, Chicago Ill


CREATIVE WORK AT MODERN SCHOOL
I47
-
(Age 11 years)
-º- - *
-- - -
A " - - * * * * ºº:
- º - --
º -- - -- - -
-
-
-
- - - -
- -
-
Lincoln School, New York


148 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Grade III) Tower Hill School, Wilmington, Del.
(Age 7 years) Francis Parker School Chicago, Ill.
PALM Beach


CREATIVE WORK AT MODERN SCHOOL I49
(Age 7 years) Lincoln School, New York
THE CITY AT NIGHT
(Grade II) North Shore Country Day School, Winnetka, Ill.
NEGRO FIELD WoRKERs


MAPS AS ART EXPRESSION
LUCY SPRAGUE MITCHELL
F A map means the representa-
tion of a part of the earth's
surface with reference to the
relative position of certain
factors, then it is fair to say that in the
City and Country School, maps begin in
block-building. The general floor play
of “boats’’ on “water” or "elevated'' on
“streets” or “trains’’ on "land" early
develops into ferries, ocean-liners, barges
in the Upper and Lower Bays or on the
Hudson, the Sixth Avenue Elevated Cross-
ing the familiar streets around Twelfth
Street, or the Pennsylvania Railroad. So
that with five-year-olds a floor scheme will
often represent true locational relation-
ships actually observed by the children in
their trips. Of course much practice in
orientation of the children in their own
immediate surroundings—their classroom
in the building, their school in reference
to their homes, and so on, precedes and
determines such observation. These floor
maps are incident to play. They are
simply the children's recall of particular
aspects of their actual experiences.
From the early floor-scheme maps where
water may appear as wavy chalk lines on
the linoleum floor and four or five build-
ings important to the children appear as
block constructions placed in their rela-
tive positions and where the block-
constructed boats or the bench-made
autos and trucks move along their respec-
tive highways—from these early floor
maps there is a logical development to the
decorative map of the world, or to a sym-
bolic map of Indian tribes and their modes
of life, or to a scientific map of the life of
cows in the United States in relation to
the kind of lands and kind of workers
º
§§
\º
needed for their progress from the grassy
plain to the table. The early orienta-
tion of the children facilitates the transla-
tion of geographic observations into
symbols. This early use of symbols to
record their own observations leads to
an understanding of scientific maps
of human or earth factors, and to con-
sequent ability to use such scientific
maps independently as tools in their
own study.
But it is equally true that the maps
Originated as play—a re-living of an actual
experience. This play element persists
in the development of map-making in the
school until it reaches a pitch of organiza-
tion which ranks many of the maps as art.
The children in the early stages make no
distinction between science and art in their
recalls of their experiences. With the older
children—perhaps from ten to twelve—
their keen analysis of all their own
processes makes many of them distinguish
between play-maps and real maps. There
is no absolute or genuine distinction,
however. It is merely a matter of em-
phasis. The play-map pretends to less
accuracy than the real map. The real
map on the other hand seldom appears in
the school without some element which
the child put there for the sake of form or
beauty, rather than as a help to the under-
standing. It has, therefore, a play, an
art, element. Maps as tools for study
and maps as expressions of form do not
conflict in the children's minds. Is it too
much to hope that the children will never
make the devastating divorce of these two
elements which makes most adults feel
that a scientist Cannot be an artist or an
artist a scientist?








MAPS AS ART EXPRESSION
I51
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(supºſ 6 ºffſ)

I52. PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
º
-º
º
* † ^
- - º,
(Age 11 years City and Country School, New York
A CHART DRAwn AND Used BY A Boy TAKING PART of Sea
CAPTAIN IN A MEDIAEval Play
(12 year old group) City and Country School, New York
THE Routes of The Explorers











MAPS AS ART EXPRESSION
I53
www.o "ſºumwaaa!) "ſooiſºs uolunae ſapuºsoy
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NoisNvdx@I CINv No.II v（iotaxȚ Io croiſſaq a HL
(ſnowº pro aevo， 11 )
| -



I54 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
Space
(Age 10 years) Mohegan Modern School, Peekskill, N. Y.


-------
ART IN THE LIFE OF THE CHILD
FLORENCE CANE
ºHE world of art is truly a
º
cosmos. It contains within it
& the whole drama of life.
creative process is life itself re-
vealing all its phases: Conception and
growth, play and work; its problems, Con-
flicts, failures, overcomings, and achieve-
ments. Therefore art may hold within it
possibilities for the development of the
child in relation to life far more important
than the possibilities for the development
of the artist. Too often man has identi-
fied himself with his art in a false way:
pinned his ego on his art and said: “If
my art is great, I will be great." I do
not believe this to be true. On the con-
trary, I believe that man is like a tree and
art is one of the fruits of that tree. The
fruit is a measure of that tree's worth.
The quality of the painting inevitably de-
velops if the child develops as an indi-
vidual, and equally the child grows with
his growth as a painter. Therefore the
direction of my teaching has been towards
the liberation and growth of the child's
soul through play and work and self-
discipline involved in painting.
The play spirit is the primary one. The
creative impulse is born of it and without
play art cannot exist. Art always starts
in play, or, it is not art, and it must pre-
serve this element or lose its purity. I
mean play in the sense that it springs from
an inner wish for satisfaction of the true
self. In early youth this satisfaction
seems to be completely achieved.
“Heaven lies about us in our infancy
Shades of the prison house begin to close
Upon the growing boy.”
As the child matures the possibility of
complete achievement slips away from
The
him, but in his effort to approximate it
the element of work enters in. His
search for truth and beauty drive him on
to infinite labor. This labor must always
be related to the play—the inner wish to
express the unattainable—or it is no
longer art and contains neither beauty nor
truth. When outer standards enter, such
as the desire to please, to be accepted, to
receive praise and fame, the shrine is
desecrated and art takes flight. In the
play aspect lies the instinctive, irrational,
and unconscious; the black as well as the
white; the grotesque and crude as well
as the beautiful; the wild as well as the
controlled. Its outpouring is like the
unfolding of life: it brings with it release
and joy. Perhaps it is the recognition of
both these values that makes this work
vital. The young child is uncritical and
easily pleased; endless fantasies stream
forth; their projection through the paint-
ing makes a channel for the subjective life,
builds in the child a faith in himself and
forms the beginning of his own center.
Man is born with the creative impulse and
this impulse may become the means of
revealing and developing the self. The
work side being a continuation and de-
velopment of the play becomes more con-
scious and directed; it brings in its train
strength and power, the ability to conquer
difficulties and achieve a completed thing.
Though I speak of work and play as two
aspects they occur in the same work of
art and one must do nothing to separate
them. In the play side lies the instinctive
creative impulse that must be cherished
above all else; in the work side lies the
searching need for perfection, the develop-
ment of the material thrown up by the

156
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
first. The first is like the birth of life,
the second is its overcoming and trans-
forming. This must come in natural
stages adapted to the individual needs of
each student. Infinite care must be taken
to do nothing that may stifle the creative
impulse.
Creation is a process like life itself.
It rises out of a state of quiet, a sacred
spot where the miracle is born. Out of
the dark the unconscious, a spring wells
forth, and like a stream cutting its own
bed through the meadow it flows. After
this process a detachment sets in and the
artist views, judges and develops ac-
cording to his taste and maturity. In the
young child or a great genius a state of
unity may exist and the two processes
occur at the same time. Because of this
simple unity in the young child painting
is play for him and he is better off with
almost no teaching. The Creative fantasy
must be respected and allowed free play
a long time before any laws of art can
be brought to the child without harm.
The expression of feeling or the represen-
tation of objects as they appear to the Com-
prehension of the child are essential to
the building of an inner honesty and a
faith in his own powers. A flower may
appear larger to a child than himself.
He should be permitted to make it so
without comment. For it he gives up
belief in his own concept for that of the
adult's a conformity may begin which
leads to sterility. If, however, his ideas
and feelings are permitted to flow freely
regardless of whether they appear clear
or confused to the adult, they will satisfy
him. As he makes these fantastic patterns
and forms he gains empirical experience.
In placing colors next to each other often
enough he discovers harmony; in inter-
lacing lines he finds rhythm; and in op-
posing masses he learns balance. So
in this early period there is little teaching
except to show the child how to take
care of the material and to use his body
freely as he paints.
But when he grows older a change
gradually takes place in him. At about
ten or eleven years he is no longer so easily
pleased. He becomes critical. The thing
projected in Canvas does not conform to
the inner image and the child becomes
dissatisfied. But his desire to achieve in
his painting what he imagines drives him
on to a search for truth. He enters a
new period, the second stage of creation.
He no longer merely plays; he works.
At this time teaching is needed. T
teacher must give the children whatever
technical help they require individually as
the need appears, but more important
than that she must keep them related to
their own center, the source, continually
leading them back to themselves for the
answer whenever possible. All through
the years when they are acquiring tech-
nique she must see to it that the door to
their imagination is kept open. The
greatest harm that teachers of art can
do is to let the acquiring of technique post-
pone or exclude creation. Form is man’s
language for expressing his spirit and if
the spirit slips away the form is empty and
dead.
Building on these observations the gen-
eral plan of art in the Walden School is
somewhat as follows: The young children
from two to ten are given free use of
materials: Crayons and large paper,
water-colors, post-Card colors, and clay.
They draw, or paint, or model, at will—
just as they play with blocks or toys.
As it is a free spontaneous impulse and
only followed as such it will be impractical
to have a special teacher come in regularly.
So the class-teacher has care of the chil-
dren in art as well as in their regular work.

ART IN LIFE OF CHILD
157
I go in at the begining of the year a few
times and give the class-teacher my point
of view. The teachers furthermore ob-
tain their own creative experience by
learning to paint in a special class for
teachers. The teachers' class is an irrer-
esting development that has grown out of
our experimentation. A number of teach-
ers wanted to paint and asked me whether
they could. I consented to try the experi-
ment. Now many of them come regularly
and are doing very interesting work; and
it actually does have an immediate liber-
ating effect on the work of their children.
I begin by giving the child carefully
chosen materials, materials that respond
well. The crayons must be soft enough
to mark easily, not to require pressure, and
yet not so soft they will smudge. Paper
must be good enough in quality to take
the strokes well and hold them. If it
is too coarse the child's efforts are
often balked. Water-colors must be moist
in order to respond. Brushes must be
large to help keep the work free. There is
always a tendency to cramp and niggle.
In using post-card colors for young chil-
dren if they are to help themselves and
keep the work clean a systematic plan
must be made. I give each child a china
palatte with the divisions for the colors.
The large jars of colors stand in a row on a
table covered with oil cloth. In front of
each large jar stands a small empty jar con-
taining a wooden mustard spoon. The
child can help himself to a color with this
spoon, place it on his palette, replace the
spoon in the empty jar, ready for the next
child to use. By this method the problem
of waste and mixed colors is done away
with. I teach the children such practical
details as the need to dip the brush in
water before using a new color, to change
the water frequently when it gets muddy;
(Age 12 years)
Walden School, New York

158
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
to start work on the upper part of the
paper first so as to avoid Smearing, or in
using crayons the need of keeping them
sharp and clean. All such small details
are the means towards giving the child the
power to express what he wants. Often
discouragement comes from simply not
knowing how to keep the colors clear or
the brushes clean. A class-teacher who
does not paint herself may be unaware of
the importance of these matters. I want
to cultivate in the child a love of his tools,
such as good craftsmen always have. It
builds something in the child. The care
he gives his materials reflects in his paint-
ing and then in his life. In learning to
make his strokes with care he finds he
needs a supple brush; the washing of it
properly is therefore closely related to
good work.
Next as to the free use of his body: If
the child is working in a standing position
I see that he is well balanced so that he
may sway easily from one foot to the
other. One should be able to dramatize a
gesture, as a dancer or an actor would.
For the arms I try to teach large gestures
with the shoulder as a working point. So
often the children Cramp themselves and
use only the finger muscles. I tell them
that all their joints, the wrist, elbow, and
shoulder are pivots to work from as reli-
able as the center of a compass. When
they draw I want them first to feel the line
they are going to make and then trust the
arm to do it. Here may be found the
difference between fear and faith, and the
line shows it. Let the child mark two
points far apart on the paper and join
them with a curve. There are two ways:
if he tries timidly to guide the line in a
cramped fashion it will be poor and uncer-
tain because it is determined by fear;
but if he swings it in freely trusting
the arm, the line will assume a beautiful
strong curve and express the organic use
of the whole being.
Having given the child his materials I
trust him to do what he wants and let him
Continue to draw or paint as long as his
interest lasts. To the extent he is content
with his work I am assured the thing pro-
jected on paper corresponds to the image
within. One little girl of five said of her
painting: "It looks the way you feel
inside.”
At the ages of ten or eleven the plan
changes. The children leave their class-
room and come to me in the studio. All
of their work is more differentiated now
and being carried beyond mere spontaneous
impulse. Here they are given oil-paints,
or colored inks, or linoleum, or wood
blocks, or clay. The modelling is under
Ruth Fairbanks Smith, who with rare
intuition is bringing forth remarkable
work. Besides the direct painting we
are trying to develop some of the practical
arts. The students have decorated rooms,
not only mural painting, but all the work-
man side—the scraping, Crack filling, and
ordinary painting. They also decorate
lockers and doors and paint screens. They
have printed a magazine and illustrated it
with their own wood blocks. They have
put on plays and made their own costumes
and scenery. The competent, confident
way in which they tackle these jobs as-
sures us that the undirected early work is
bearing its fruit.
Having sketched the general plan of art
in the school I will outline my approach to
the work. I believe that art is a search
for the unattainable and that craft
work is a search for the attainable.
The difference, if clearly realized, defines
the approach. Since it is the unattain-
able, the immortal thing we seek, natur-
ally it is within the child's own soul the
source is found. It is because I have this
ART IN LIFE OF CHILD
I59
faith in children and build their faith that
they respond as they do. It is for this
reason that I do not volunteer criticism. I
feel it is a violation of the creative process
for one human being to interrupt or direct
another. Who knows what the vision of
the worker is, except the worker himself,
and how can a teacher be of use except at
the point of dissatisfaction when the
worker has reached an impasse? There-
fore I wait until I am asked for help. It
is not only what is taught but when that
is important. I never lessen the child's
self criticism. I must ask him what he
thinks is poor and by questioning find
out what he meant to do; then show him
how he failed, and find a way to come
nearer to his conception. It calls for
all one's understanding and all one's
technique, for with the right direction—
not correction—the child should move on;
a new door should be opened where he
will perceive more directly, or feel more
deeply, or think more clearly.
I never suggest a subject; it is always the
children's choice. If one says occasion-
ally she doesn't know what to paint I
talk with her until I draw out of her a
hidden wish for something she wanted to
do but was afraid she couldn't. It is
very interesting to observe how the in-
terest will flag if they attempt to paint
something they don't really care about,
but they attempt something that is really
dear to them, no matter how difficult it is,
the necessary energy is there. That is
why it is so important for them to choose
their own subject.
Here follow a few illustrations of com-
mon difficulties and the way I try to meet
them. A very conscientious boy was
trying to paint a landscape; he was
thoroughly dissatisfied with it; the sky,
hills and lake were wooden, dark and life-
less. I realized that he was in bondage to
the object. He was so definitely searching
for a literal likeness to the object that he
had lost all sense of joy in it, all natural
feeling of design and color. It was simply
three parallel strips of blue sky, green
hills and blue lake. After several sug-
gestions on my part had helped not at all,
I said to him: "Sometimes a horse must
drive in harness with a definite direction
to go to, and sometimes he needs to run
loose in a field just for the fun of romping.
How would you like to take a canvas and
just play with color and shapes and romp
like the pony in the field?" A most sud-
den change took place. He was delighted
at the idea and began at once making
rapid free lines all over the canvas. He
drew a large tender flower in the center
surrounded by forms and many colors and
shapes, by far the most light and clear
color he had ever used. It was as if my
words had revealed his play side to him
which brought up fantasy and in its train
intuition and sensation came to his aid.
He had been dealing almost entirely in
thought before he was ready for it.
Another way to release a child from the
bondage of the object is to turn the
painting upside down, then he sees it
freshly as design and can judge whether
he likes it as pattern; he can see the color
as harmonious or otherwise rather than
the colors literally conforming to the ob-
ject. He frees himself from the slavery
of representation and usually discovers
what is next to be done.
The problem of relative value in color is
a constant one. For instance, a model is
posing; she is an Assyrian woman, dusky
skin, shimmering peach-color costume
against black background. One of the
girl students starts to paint the face, quite
a dark color. She is building it against
the white canvas and the dark tone seems
true; but the moment she adds the black
16o
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
background the face appears too dark be-
cause in relation to black it seems light,
just as before against white the skin
seemed dark. The same thing applies to
(Age 13 years)
amount of red in the drapery. So I
try to give children the general idea
through the particular problem—that no
value or colors are absolute, but only
Walden School, New York
FLAMEs
the relative amount of red in the skin and
the draperies. There seemed to be a great
deal of red in the face until the drapery
was added. Then the face needed more
yellow in order to bring out the greater
exist in relation to the others. A fur-
ther development of the idea of relativity
comes out in another case. A student was
doing a three-quarter figure seated with
hands in the lap. All was going well

ART IN LIFE OF CHILD
I61
until she struck difficulty in the arms and
hands. They remained wooden and
Cramped. She persisted in trying to get
them right and concentrated on them
alone. She forgot where the arms grew
from, what they were resting on, and
what they were seen against. I said:
“If you would stop thinking only of the
hands and see them in relation to the
whole body perhaps they would come of
themselves. They rest between the two
thighs and their large Curves contain
them. Paint in the beautiful cool shadow
back of them, developing the legs they
rest on rather than the arms and hands
themselves, and feel and paint the form
of the whole body back of them; they will
live in relation to it.”
The same sort of thing happened with
regard to the object in relation to its back-
ground. One girl came to the school
whose work was always on a shallow
level. She always painted a simple
silhouette like a poster. She put in no
background at all or only a flat tone with-
out much meaning or relation to the ob-
ject. I asked her why she didn't develop
the rest of the picture, and she said:
“Oh I always spoil it if I do.” I ex-
plained to her that the environment was
so closely related to the object that one
could not exist without the other—like
the relation of herself to her environment.
So I asked her to try, and said that I would
help her if she got into trouble. A change
took place. The next thing she did was
a ship at sea, and as she made the effort
to relate her ship to the world about it,
her painting assumed depth and beauty,
such as it never had before.
The problems connected with light are
many of course, as it is so important and
difficult a part of painting. A child will
say: “What is the matter with the sky?
It seems the color blue sky looks to me,
and yet this doesn't look like sky. It is
solid like blue cloth.” I answer: ‘‘Per-
haps the reason may be you have tried
to match the blue of light with the blue
of paint. Now light is a transparent
medium and paint an opaque one. The
range in light is much greater than in
paint. So we can only suggest light rela-
tively. When we want to suggest the
blue of the sky in paint, we have actually
to paint it a much lighter color than it
seems in order to suggest light.” I also
explain to them how a ray of light is pure
white, and as it strikes an object is broken
up into the spectrum; even a speck of
dust may be sufficient to do this. And
so in the sky we find red and yellow as
well as blue, each keyed high with white.
The use of the prism to show them the
spectrum is valuable here.
There is also a problem in dealing with
different types of children. Some need to
be stimulated to use their imagination,
and some to be disciplined in mastering
form. For instance, one student is an
introvert, with feeling and intuition as
superior functions, the other student an
extravert, with sensation and thought
as superior functions. The former has her
own center well established; she works
best from imagination, needs very little
stimulus from the outside. If she wants
to know how a figure looks in a certain
position it is best for her to see it only a
few minutes, secure her acquired knowl-
edge and then work from memory. If
she observes an object too long it destroys
her unified conception. Perhaps she will
never need a model for long periods be-
cause this method of working develops
the perceptive eye. Mental notes doubt-
less go on all the time her eyes are open
and the needed information is being
stored up. The latter type does best with
a model. The sight of a beautiful form
I62.
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
and color in the outer world stimulates
her to her best work; through this she
gets a sense of achievement and power, but
this alone is not sufficient; it is well for
her also to work from imagination, in
order to develop deeper feeling and her
OWIl CentCſ.
Many people may question the validity
of my view that such work as this may
change the life of the child. At the
Walden School we have so many examples
of it continuously that we hardly realize
that any proof is needed. Of course it
should be emphasized that the point of
view expressed herein is not confined to the
special teachers in the arts and sciences,
but is the point of view of the Walden
School. Each teacher in his or her own
way develops an individual technique.
The balance between individual freedom
and the quiet needed for creation is a
difficult task. Its solution, I think, lies
first in the teacher's having learned to find
that balance in herself, before she is able
to help the student find it. Brancusi, the
sculptor, said: "It is not so difficult to ~
make things; it is difficult to achieve the
state where creation is possible.” If the
teacher is strong, and clear, and still
enough, she may find the necessary wis-
dom to teach, just as the student, if he
achieves this state, may find the power to
create. In searching always for the
child's deepest center and in assisting
him to draw from that ever living well
lies the one essential service from which
all others come almost of themselves.
It is like first seeking the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, "for all other
things shall be added unto you.”
HOW CHILDREN DECORATE THEIR OWN SCHOOL
MARGARET NAUMBURG
School has belonged to its
children. An attempt was
made in the beginning to
break the traditional formality of school
interiors by developing an intimate and
child-like atmosphere. Gay print Cur-
tains, vari-colored tables and chairs, Odd
bits of pottery, Indian baskets made each
room distinctive in color scheme and
arrangement. And the children of every
group then went ahead, added, improved
and changed the rooms, with paintings,
wood carvings, pottery, and so on, of
their own devising.
As the children of the school matured
a more systematic cooperation about the
care and decoration of the school became
possible. On one occasion a class of
nine-year-old boys and girls, feeling the
monotony of their cream-colored dining-
room, offered to design appropriate door,
fire-place, and window panels. The re-
sult was a series of bright flower garlands
and prancing wild creatures that gave
life and accent to the room. Another
group of older boys and girls heard that
new nursery screens were in need of
decoration and undertook a series of screen
designs of boats, and rabbits, and fairies,
to delight the youngest group in its
nursery.
Last year the growing aesthetic Con-
sciousness of the older children led to
even more serious undertakings. Usually
the repairs and re-decoration of the school
are done in the summer when school is
closed. This time the work was begun
in the spring. A professional plasterer
was called in to teach the children how to
do the work themselves. He was amazed
to find a ready group Qf eager boys and
girls in business-like Smocks climbing up
ladders to clean down the walls. He was
followed by a painter who instructed
them in the next phase of the work. The
children had decided to carry out a com-
pletely fresh color scheme for the two
rooms and staircases that they were to
decorate. A committee consisting of the
best artists of each class was chosen and
placed in charge of the work. When the
plans and fresco designs were ready, they
were submitted to both classes and some
of the teachers for consideration and sug-
gestion. These discussions brought out
the necessity of relating the degree of
room light to the intensity of color
scheme chosen as well as the need of
Selecting colors that were simultaneously
serviceable and beautiful for the wear and
tear of school activity.
In one room the children frescoed life
in the sea, in the same blue-green and
orange color scheme of the adjoining hall.
Here, in luminous tones were panel ar-
rangements of seaweed, fish, and irrides-
cent foam. In the other room a country-
side with peasant girl and high arched
trees appeared. The frescoing of each
room went ahead under the direction of
the chief designer, each child undertaking
to carry out a special part of the work.
Once the technic of the great sweeping.
arm movements necessary for fresco work.
were understood, the frescoes were carried
to swift completion by the children them-
selves without further instruction.

164
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
The Walden School, New York
(Age 12 years)
AN UNSIGHTLY FIRE Door is Converted INTo A THING or BEAUTY
AND GAY Color AFTER A Visit to THE AQUARIUM

HOW CHILDREN DECORATE THEIR OWN SCHOOL
165
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(savºſ fºr ø5 y)

I66 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Age 15 years) The Walden School, New York
AN APRIL DAY

HOW CHILDREN DECORATE THEIR OWN SCHOOL
167
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(supºſ 91 98 y)

FREEING THE CHILD THROUGH ART
ELLEN W. STEELE
º relationship between himself
º and other people—the group—
* the rest of the world. It has
two sides. Educationally speaking, the
two aspects of freedom are working
out the relationship for any given in-
dividual between the development of
his powers so that he expresses himself
through them, and the place that his
expression takes in the group. The
unadjusted individual is the one whose
expressions have no place, no apprecia-
tions, who feels he can make no desirable
contribution to other human beings, and
he is the least free being on earth.
The reason why art is an easy and
natural channel of development is that, for
reasons that perhaps go back into the his-
tory of the race, art expression is valued
and appreciated by the group. Children
get great joy from each other's work.
It takes form under their eyes and they
like it. They even get the particular
flavor that is originative in each other's
work. A school, therefore, in which art
is a vital part of the life of the children
provides opportunity for the develop-
ment of freedom, for it offers a condition
under which the kind of freedom I am
talking about can grow. From the point
of view of teaching art, however, this
is not as simple as it sounds. I mean
just having art work going on in the
school is not necessarily going to bring
this thing to pass. The way the art
life is lived within the school has every-
thing to do with the point.
With very young children practically
all the teacher has to do is to give them
art materials and plenty of time to paint.
They are fearless with color. They need
no technique. They have much to ex-
press pictorially and, above, all, they have
perfect unselfconsciousness, since no adult
standards have as yet interfered with
their ideas. "See my boat," they say
of a few straggling lines, feeling perfect
satisfaction. And, indeed, artistically,
their work is interesting because of its
vigorous freedom, its really unconscious
originative quality. This unselfcon-
scious work seems to continue for several
years, through the first few grades of


FREEING THE CHILD THROUGH ART
I69
school. This is because through experi-
ence the child develops a kind of method
or technique which is satisfying to him
since it serves to express his ideas and be-
cause his mind, more concerned with
ideas than with the means of expression,
is not blocked by the difficulties of “how
to do it.”
It would be a comparatively simple
matter to teach art to children of all ages
if this condition kept up indefinitely. My
experience, however, convinces me that
this is not always true. I find that there
is a point somewhere after eight or nine
years of age at which the child's ideas
are perhaps ahead of his technique and he
begins to say, "How do I draw a horse to
look like a real horse?"' or, "I could never
draw a man!" Or perhaps he says, “I
have nothing to paint!” And when you
ask him about expressing some of his re-
cent experiences he says, "That's too
hard!” I have even known some children
to say, "I haven't anything I want to
paint, I'm tired of painting.” They
seemed to have "gone stale” on the ex-
pression that came easily to them in their
earlier years. A boy of nine who loved
boats and had always painted them freely
insisted on using the ruler and making
careful tight drawings of boats with every
detail in shape, rigging and nautical
equipment put in. He had no interest in
coloring them. His passion was for ac-
curacy in detail and I think he felt this of
anything which interested him, and where
he formerly would have painted vigor-
ously and pictorially bridges, trains, sky-
scrapers and all the vividly impressing
objects of New York life, he now wanted
to put down only his observations ac-
curately, or to do no art work at all. I
believe many children at this stage
observe and appreciate form and detail
far beyond their power or technique to
Set them down with
themselves.
This seemed to me to point to the teach-
ing problem of finding some way to meet
the difficulty and in some way to preserve
the former freedom, else, I feared, in-
hibitions might be set up and the chil-
dren might lose the great fun of express-
ing themselves in line and color and lose
Out on growth in art conception which
is due one at any age. This growth best
comes through the free and joyous try-
ing and expressing on the part of each
individual after his own desires and
interests. I came to the realization then
that the children must be given the feel-
ing that they could use the art mediums,
that they might attain a technique or
method of work that would express their
satisfaction to
ideas, and further, that they could have
the fun of this kind of creative play. I
have grown to feel that a policy of non-
interference is in itself not quite adequate.
In some way I must enrich the child's
experiences: First, that he may have
ideas to express which seem within his
scope, and second, that he may live in a
situation where these are greatly valued.
In this I have found history a great help.
I have found that a dramatic living
through the experiences of other times
and places and getting into the spirit of
another period through its own literature
and art and architecture and daily life,
furnishes an imaginative environment
where the material is simple and easy for
the child to use. This is because he can
build up a Castle or a Greek landscape,
and so on, imaginatively and, artistically.
He will easily then eliminate non-essen-
tials because he has no object present
with which to compare, whereas if he
tires to paint the Brooklyn Bridge he
may be dashed by his inability to have
the cables absolutely accurate.
17O
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
Also in living through a period, dra-
matic situations come up. A group of
children who know the daily life of a
people and become filled with their
legend and lore and their great pieces of
literature, usually create naturally dra-
matic expressions of this in the form of
dance or plays. Sometimes this calls
for stage-sets, costumes, properties, and
all sorts of materials which are easily
decorated in the spirit of the period.
Usually a group of children begin to
express in such a situation, to decorate
their things, and the old freedom comes
back and a new freedom is attained.
They swing into this expression without
fear and without thought of technique.
But this does not take place except where
their minds are filled with images and
ideas about those times. When this is
true, expression happens naturally and
spontaneously.
A group of eleven year old children
illustrated this point most convincingly
in a Greek experience which culminated
in their creating an autumn festival of
song and dance. Their interest centered
on the early or archaic Greek period.
They studied the daily life of the people
and they looked into facts about their
houses and their costumes, and the proc-
esses of weaving and spinning and other
forms of daily work. They filled their
minds with myth and legend, and read
parts of the Odyssey, and they gained a
real imaginative conception of those
early Greeks in the different settings of
their activities. Early in this experience
they had laid out a Greek farm in plasti-
cene, with hills and plains that led down
to a sea, and they peopled it with Greek
figures and farm animals in clay. Very
crude and archaic these were, Carrying
out all the activities of a Greek farm.
Then, too, the children expressed in
words—what they call “word-pictures”
—these scenes, and had each other act
them out in pantomime. We tried these
pantomimes to music, and they took, we
found, definite rhythmic form which it
seemed might be like the Greek dance
as it had first arisen with the Greek
people. We decided to present these to
the rest of the school as a harvest festival
to Dionysus in much the way the early
Greeks would have danced and sung their
harvest celebration with their chorus and
chorus leader, as the villagers gathered
on the hillsides. So the class picked out
four scenes of daily life on a Greek farm
to present. This required a stage-set
and costumes in the spirit of this
period.
Our first art problem was the stage-
set. For this a number of children made
a painting of their idea of a Greek land-
scape. First we had discussed the Greek
contour and seen some museum slides of
Greece and I had read the children a
most interesting chapter called “The
Soil” from Zimmern’s “Greek Common-
wealth.” The class chose parts of each
person's painting, things he or she could
do best, to go on the big backdrop. It
was decided that one was to sketch in
hills and rocks, another a vineyard,
another fields and sheep, others sea and
boats, and so on. In working at so
large a picture, it became very important
to have variety in color and to break up
the space into interesting shapes and to
have them take related form. In this
we often appealed to group judgment.
Certain children became expert at color
mixing, and decided what colors would
balance and what colors were needed in
the composition. The costumes the
children decorated with Greek borders,
using as nearly as they could the colors
the Greeks might have used, each child
FREEING THE CHILD THROUGH ART
171
cutting his own stencil, and painting
on the border with tempora color.
To me an interesting feature of this
experience was the way in which one
art re-inforced the other. The spirit of
the Greek landscape found expression in
the action, and the action called for some
explanation through words, and these
gave in another form the same picture
again. The children felt they would
need to tell the audience what to look
for in each scene. And since I had earlier
read them a number of Homeric Hymns,
the suggestion came that each scene should
be described by a hymn the children
should write to the patron god of each
activity. Thus the scene of the shepherds
seeing their god Pan dance into their
midst was announced by a Hymn to Pan.
Hail to Thee, O Pan!
Hail to the one who doth help us and
putteth heavy fleece on our sheep!
Thou, who with fleet hoofs, doth dance on
rocky crags,
Thou, who hideth in shaded groves and
playeth sweet tunes on thy merry pipes,
To Thee, O Pan, I sing and give prayerſ
The Hymn to Demeter which followed
foretold the action of the second scene.
Oh, thou Demeter,
Goddess of both grain and fruit!
Be with us in our harvest
So our grains may be prosperous!
Our heavy oxen will draw the plow
Which turneth the dark soil.
Our slaves will sow the seed.
Then will our oxen tread the ripe grain.
Beg Aeolus to send strong winds
To blow the chaff away,
And leave us the golden kernels
As we winnow the grain.
To Thee, of Demeter,
We will give our thanks,
And then we shall sing to another god!
Then came a scene of the women in the
courtyard spinning and weaving before
the queen, announced by a Hymn to
Athene and this was followed by a
spinning song written by the children
which they acted as they sang. The
children had pictured in words the proc-
esses of the weaving and spinning, and
when they came to act them out to the
music they recast these word pictures
into a rhythm that fitted with the music,
and thus made a song:
All the maidens come in,
All the maidens come in,
With their spindles a-twirl,
They come in!
Slaves are beating the wool,
Slaves are beating the wool,
Bending bodies so brown–
Arms so strong!
Women washing the wool,
Women washing the wool,
Squeezing, pounding the wool,
In the stream!
Maidens carding the wool,
Maidens carding the wool,
Fluffing, rolling the wool,
On their knees!
Now we show the fine thread,
Now we show the fine thread,
White and strong, the fine thread,
For our Queen!
The last scene was the grape harvest
where the slaves picked baskets of grapes
and emptied them into a wooden trough
where other slaves trampled out the wine.
While the workers rest a bard tells them
the myth of Dionysus and the pirates,
and as he speaks, the scene he describes
comes true before their eyes. This ac-
tion was suggested through the Hymn to
Dionysus:
To Thee, O Dionysus, we sing songs of praise
For the plentiful harvest of grapes
And for the rich-flowing purple wine:
On land hast thou endured great dangers
In thy travels among mortal men so that
172
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
ºuuoo ºipumua wao "ſooiſºs uolunae ſabwºswae
WN||
TvAlisº ， Isa Aviv H xaºriſ) v noga NaoS
(ºſnowº pro uvºſ ir)

FREEING THE CHILD THROUGH ART
I73
Thou couldst teach them to grow the winding
vine.
On the sea, thou hast fought the foaming waves,
the angry storm and the cunning pirates,
Pirates who would steer thee far from
thy course and sell thee as a slave!
But Thou, who hast come down from Olympus,
Thy power is great!
Thou didst change thy form to that of the
King of Beasts and roar angrily.
Thou didst grow the winding vine about the
Iſla St
Of the ship whilst all beheld in wonder!
Whereupon the savage pirates ever after
Obeyed thy word.
This hymn to Thee, and one more, O Dionysus!
It is this kind of experience which pro-
vides the situation that places a value on
art expression. It gives the opportunity
for such a vital and desired use of art
that it makes a working that Centers on
the ideas and takes away from conscious-
ness of technique. No one stops to
debate whether or not he can do it, but
just helps do the thing every one wants
done. In the Greek work described, the
facts with which the children dealt were
few, but the vividness with which they
selected them and the variety of meanings
which they built from them made the ex-
perience a rich one.
From this particular experience I noticed
a great gain on the side of technique for
the children. We had a discussion of the
stage set and they talked of balance
both in the composition and the color,
and showed an advancement in their
understanding of composition. Their
understanding of color as a problem
that requires extreme Care, was great-
ly increased and I felt that every child
went forth renewed in art interest, and in
technical lines turned with increased
power into other art work. I think that
using art through history in this way
does not mean turning one's back on the
present but, on the contrary, it offers
opportunity to make the stride forward
in technique that will tide the child over
his period of self-consciousness and send
him into the expressing of any ideas
he chooses.
The place of the special art teacher in
any work of this kind, is to bring an
advanced experience to bear upon the
problems that arise that are too difficult
for the children to solve alone with a
group teacher, such as just the right Color
to go in some part of a stage set where
one wrong color may spoil the beauty of
it, how to break up a a canvas with
interesting shapes, how to enlarge a
small sketch for a large canvas, how to
eliminate non-essentials, and similar art
problems. These difficulties are dis-
cussed and the children have the benefit
of contact with the point of view of a
real artist. From this contact their art
ideas are greatly enriched and very often
their technique visibly strengthened. No
formal art lessons are given, as the em-
phasis is placed on each child's learning
to attack his own art problem and on his
working out his own technique. Any
help from the real artist, then, merely
serves to further each child in the direc-
tion of his own growth, thus preserving
the individual differences which the
children manifest.
A great help with children about eleven
and twelve is painting in oils. Children
like very much painting with oils because
they have outgrown Crayons which are
too harsh, and water colors which often
lack solidity to them, whereas oils give
them depth in color and at the same time
a chance for variety which is easily at-
tained. Then, too, they permit a great
individual difference in handling. In
oil painting I believe in allowing the
children to choose whether they want
I74
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
to go out doors and sketch some real ob-
ject, or stay in the studio and do what
they call a “make-up” painting. I think
they get a sense of developing their
technique out of either. I have had an
interesting experience, however, in hav-
ing a child who had become quite skill-
ful for one of her age, work with oil
sketches mainly out of doors until she
came into the studio one day and said,
“I'm tired of making just paintings of
things I see. I want to make something
different. I want it to be some kind of
a design, but I don't care whether it's
real things or not.” And so she sat down
and thought out and planned a painting
that was purely imaginary of a woods
with tall trees and deer in the foreground.
These forms she arranged into a most
creative relationship, showing that she
had come through to a new art under-
standing. She felt that she had the
power to use oils for originating. She
was now freed from the necessity of ob-
jects that were before the eye and yet
she embodied in her imaginary work
skill in her arrangement of forms and use
of color that she had gained from sketch-
ing out of doors.
This is, I think, the last development
that will come out of art experience in
the school. First, there is desire to have
new experiences, next unconscious de-
velopment of technique through doing and
through having the chance to do things
one's own way, though sometimes for a
common cause, and lastly, the conscious-
ness that one's own power is strengthened
and may be carried into a use that is
creative art in the fullest sense.
To my mind, the school that offers
these opportunities can enrich the child's
life so that he will have untold material
to create with; it can set a great value on
the particular quality any one individual
can contribute; it can provide situations
in which shared experiences offer oppor-
tunity for art expression, and through
which the child comes to a consciousness
of his own power and a fearlessness in
the application of his own technique to
new situations; it can provide him with
a deep appreciation of his creative work,
giving him a happy environment for
growth. Not every child is an artist,
but through art every child can have, not
only the joy of doing the thing, but also
the experience by which he can see
more deeply into the art expression of
others.
FREEING THE CHILD THROUGH ART I75
THE FRENch AND THE INDIANs SMokING The FRENch ForT WHERE CHIcago
The Peace Pipe Now STANDs
EARLY CHIcago
(Grade III) Hawthorne School, Glencoe, Ill.
ScENEs FRosſ A Moving Picture MADE WHILE STUDYING CHICAGo HISTORY.
THE WHoLE is on A REEL SEveRAL YARDs LoNG



176
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
Laa HSCITO NvNo aqv.IN“Nosorn Hx?INAH HILIAA ONI Tvºq xvTaTvN1Ðrio Nv HoaLAS V
）
quoae ma w ſtoorſºs ſuſunoo put ſºo
(supºſ º 25 y)

FREEING THE CHILD THROUGH ART 177
-
sis ºf º-, i.
(Grade IV) Tower Hill School, Wilmington, Del.
THE Story of LAND TRANspoRTATIon Resulted IN THE Construction of THE
Cover ED WAGos AND THE FIRst RAILRoAD


178 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Grade IX) Lincoln School New York
A MoDEL of THE SANTA MARIA
Moraine Park School Dayton, Ohio Moraine Park School, Dayton, Ohio
º
Moraine Park School, Dayton, Ohio Orchard School, Indianapolis, Ind.
STUDIEs of PRIMITIve BoATs






INFLUENCES IN THE CULTIVATION OF ART APPRECIATION
HELEN ERICSON
*HE parents of a distinctly gifted
% thirteen-year old daughter,
Seeking the advice of an emi-
tº sº nent artist concerning her fu-
ture training, exhibited to him a treasured
collection of her artistic productions cover-
ing a period of some seven years. These
Creations had been entirely spontaneous
with no special art instruction or criticism
either at school or at home. The artist,
accepting the rôle of the kindly critic to
the fond parents of a child-prodigy, was
arrested by something he had not antici-
pated in these childish efforts. After
thoughtful scrutiny he said, “This work
shows a technical skill common to native
talent but nothing out of the ordinary
other than in its content. The variety
and scope of the subjects and imaginings,
the sincerity, vitality and vividness of
expression are however outstanding and
truly remarkable! Where did it come
from, what brought it about? How can
she know all this?'' It was readily ex-
plained by the parents as due to her school,
since practically every impetus for art
expression sprang from some interest or
activity of her school life and studies.
The naïve imaginings and richness of
Subject content which so moved the artist
(who perhaps received his first glimpse of a
modern school curriculum through this
child's creations) is characteristic of all
the art expression produced in the
"Schools of Today.” The art work of
present-day school children reflects the
new orientation of art training and appre-
ciation. Every collection of children's
Creations bears witness to the richness and
fulness of the school program.
And how is it done? Not by formal
appreciation courses, not by copy-book
exercises, nor drill in art formulas. Chil-
dren produce their creations under the same
impetus which has moved the great ar-
tists of all times, which is having some-
thing of importance to say which must
find expression.
The use of literary and historical sub-
jects as the inspiration of art expression
need not be repeated here but they are
without doubt the richest field in which
to mine throughout the entire school
Course. However, every subject has in-
herent some art aspect which may yield
its contribution to a full art knowledge
and experience. Even the higher mathe-
matics course, the apparently arid plane
and solid geometry, furnishes invaluable
grist, and the general mathematics studies
of the Junior High School places emphasis
upon the application of principles of
geometry to architectural art forms. Ex-
periments in type forms are made in the
construction of arches, rose windows,
arabesque decorations, domes, bridge
spans, and so on. Special projects are
undertaken such as a Gothic window cut
from heavy card board and the tracery of
patterns filled with translucent colored
paper. Such a construction was used
most effectively as the dominant feature
of a mediaeval stage setting in one school
for a high school play. A Junior High
School class miraculously transformed a
regulation stage "set" with rectangular
door and window spaces into a beautiful
Moorish palace by inserting typical arches
constructed of beaver board which they
had designed. A beautiful Renaissance
portico to frame a reproduction of an
Italian nativity scene proved an interesting

I8O
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
and valuable experiment in the construc-
tion of arches and rectangles in per-
spective.
In the yearly celebrations of the harvest
and spring and Christmas festivals funda-
mental and renewed understanding and
a joy in the beauties of the world about
us are gained. Picture an autumn festi-
val—a stage setting, with a cyclorama
backdrop of an elusive blue color, a figure
draped in warm purples, flaming reds and
gold, suggesting Keats' AUTUMN or a
Greek Goddess of the Harvest, who sits
enthroned above a simple earth Colored
mound. A central flight of steps lead up
to the stage; a procession of children forms
in the outer aisles of the auditorium;
the procession moves forward to stately
music and ascending the Central steps
each member lays upon the improvised
altar the wealth of the harvest, the
choicest of fruits, vegetables, autumn
leaves and flowers. Having made their
offerings, parting to right and left, they
gather below the stage and in chorus
render thanks and homage to the giver
of life and beauty. To this the presiding
goddess responds in the words either of
some great poet or her own. The entire
scene has the quality and spirit of an
ancient Panathenaic ceremony. The
movement and scenic effect of massed Color
of fruits, leaves and flowers, impress
themselves deep in the emotions. The
inner significance and Outward appeal to
the eye unite a religious and an aesthetic
experience.
Such ceremonies and the ideas contained
in the great universal anniversaries of
mankind make possible in their celebra-
tion an infinite variety of experiences
which develop and train the aesthetic
sense. Year by year, under the leadership
of a person endowed with a sincere and
true understanding, who is as well an
artist, the children who participate in and
those who look upon such celebrations
may penetrate ever deeper into the secrets
of beauty. In addition the inspiration
which comes to a child in feeling himself
One with all mankind brings an even
greater impetus for a true and adequate
expression of the underlying thought.
The spring celebration and all it signifies
of the renewal of life and joy lies close to
a child's instinctive reaction to the world
of nature. The occasion described below
has always been eagerly anticipated by
all the children of the school from the
youngest to the oldest. It is the poets'
day—nature poets. For this occasion
each child seeks to express in words, a
creation of his own, some aspect or experi-
ence in nature which has been to him one
of a special beauty or joy. Each class
group has heard and enjoyed the creations
of its members and has chosen one which
it deems the best. Its author is “their
poet." A faculty committee selects one
Composition among these which is out-
standing in quality and idea. The author
SO chosen is to be recognized as the
"Meistersinger" of the occasion, a poet
of poets.
On the morning of the day selected as
the May Day the children come to school
laden with flowers and leafy boughs from
garden and woods. The school stage is
transformed into a Flora's bower, with a
flowery throne for the Queen of the
May. Some of the most perfect blooms
of purple Iris are set apart and near the
throne in readiness is placed a laurel
wreath.
At the appointed time the children of
the school and their friends gather.
And to their joyous singing of an old song
of the May the Queen and her train take
their places. The picture is one of loveli-
ness, an embodiment of eternal spring
CULTIVATION OF ART APPRECIATION
I8I
and youth. The Queen of the May,
dressed in gleaming Samite, with flowing
train of green (a robe of honor kept and
worn each year upon this occasion),
crowned and girdled in garlands of flowers,
a blossoming bough her emblem of
majesty, greets her subjects.
So begin the ceremonies. Then the
maids of honor, themselves as lovely as
the Queen, in quaint medieval gowns of
spring colors, lead the Queen to her
throne. She receives the poets, one by
one, who come before her to recite their
songs of the spring. Each poet presents a
scroll whereon is inscribed his verse which
is to become a part of the book of the
Golden Treasury of the school. Each
receives from the Queen the poets' coveted
award, a purple Iris blossom, token of his
achievement. Conducted to places of
honor near the Queen by her attendants
they await the moment when one of them
shall be called forth to receive highest
honor.
When all have paid tribute, the Queen,
according to custom long established,
reads the roll of the poets laureate of
former years and makes gracious acknowl-
edgement of the achievement of the poets
assembled before her. She then names the
new recipient of the special title. He
comes and kneels before her and is crowned
with the laurel.
Each year this part of the May Day cere-
monies is repeated with little or no vari-
ation. Upon occasion other festivities
and features of old English or mediaeval
European spring celebrations are added,
especially such as take place out of
doors.
The central thought of the spring festi-
val embodies the joyous response of
humanity to the renewal of life and the
beauties of nature. All old customs dear
to the hearts of the race have their place
and will bear endless repetition since they
deepen the understanding and love for
the simple eternal things of life. Such
active participation by children in festivals
giving opportunity for the use of beautiful
color, pageantry, and movement is of
basic importance in forming aesthetic
attitudes. Children instinctively respond
to the inner meanings of these occasions
because they are of a kind that have origi-
nated in the childhood of the race.
They may be used to lead them to ever
finer expression.
The Christmas anniversary is another
deep source which may supply other
inspiration and insights. The symbolic
aspects give spiritual values in relation to
art. With its past rich in lore and tradi-
tions of a noble kind the celebration of
Christ's nativity offers an unlimited scope
for presentation of sublime and uplifting
aesthetic feeling. In one way or another
the naïve beauty of the works of the
master artists of the Renaissance may be
revealed to the children and in addition
contribute a definite art knowledge. A
vastly worth-while project was under-
taken by a Junior High School group in
the production of the Nativity play.
The costuming and setting of the play
were made from the study of pictures of
certain early Italian artists. This necessi-
tated a careful study of the pictures. A
thorough acquaintance and a great fund
of knowledge of the art of the Renaissance
was thus gained. One group, with the
aid of their experience in geometry exe-
cuted and applied to their costumes de-
signs which they found in the pictures of
Fra Angelico angels. Another interest-
ing development, carried out in another
department was the study of musical
instruments which had been inspired by
those in the hands of the angels. The
chorus which this group sang was a tra-
182.
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
ditional melody which originated at the
same period as the pictures. This gave
added interest as the reason for the quaint-
ness and peculiar quality of the music.
To expand by descriptions of Christmas
festivals, of masque, play, pageant and
tableau would over-reach my alloted
space. In the main the manner and type
of presentation are similar to that of the
harvest and spring celebrations.
Another phase of the cultivation of art
appreciation, is concerned with the in-
fluence of good pictures. Children should
live and make personal and intimate
relationships to works of art. It is the
privilege of the children of some schools
to have brought to them from time to
time some great work of art which is
placed in a much frequented part of the
school building where its presence will
arrest attention and interest. From time
to time this is replaced by other examples
of fine art. The circulation of great
masterpieces in this way—where he who
runs may read—may play a tremendous
part in the growth of art knowledge and
appreciation.
Such ingenuous day by day experiences
with beauty as have been here presented
are perhaps by their very nature the most
potent influence for the cultivation of the
aesthetic sense. It is the conviction of
the writer that they are fundamental in
the establishment of true art standards.
Perhaps the greatest influence of all
for the cultivation of art standards and
aesthetic appreciation is to be found in
the school surroundings themselves. The
beauty and taste which should be there
manifested are more often conspicuous
for their absence than their presence.
How many thousands of adults of today
hold in their memory this almost identical
dreary picture of the school rooms of their
childhood: row upon row of rigid two-
in-one iron-bound yellow maple forms—
Oceans of gray-streaked blackboards ex-
haling an atmosphere of stale sponges—
bare windows, high along one wall,
janitorially banned never to be opened,
grimy gray floors—why continue? A
sensitive child seeking healing for his
wounded spirit in this dreariness could
sometimes perhaps find relief in a bit of
sculpture, perched high in the offing, or a
photographic reproduction of some artist's
dream, a bright chromo, perchance, or,
and a rare event, a flower on a teacher's
desk. At a magic moment a bell frees
the little regiment to the measure of
"one, two, three—turn, stand, pass.”
Through gloomy halls and worn stairways
they pass lock-step to cinder-patch play
grounds. The entire picture bears evi-
dence of the then prevalent idea of the
practical exigencies and economy in school
surroundings.
What a contrast to the schools of to-
day—rooms flooded with sunshine, low
windows framing the skies, treetops and
green lawns, opening in sections, free to
admit the freshening air, simple, strong
movable furniture, pleasing in line,
healthful and comfortable, often painted
in glowing colors, suited to the age of the
children in class and the general lighting
of the room. No two rooms alike.
Blackboard, so-called, of green, brown,
blue, soft hangings at windows and
cabinets decorated with designs, made by
the children themselves, some well chosen
pictures, a vase lovely in color and form,
blooming plants, the entire impression,
one of order and charm, looking its part
as a work and living room of live, happy
children. The halls lighted all the way;
along the wall, cases and Cabinets, filled
with interesting exhibits, museum col-
lections, picture exhibits, delightful places
to linger and gather. Out-of-doors,
CULTIVATION OF ART APPRECIATION 183
spacious grounds, shade trees, grassy And here in the words of John Drink-
play-fields, the buildings beautifully set water we find the answer as to which is
in the midst, the whole perhaps bordering the best environment for our school
a woods or a brookside. children:
If all the carts were painted gay
And all the streets swept clean,
And all the children came to play
By hollyhocks, with green
Grasses to grow between,
+ + +
I think this gayety would make
A spiritual land.
I think that holiness would take
This laughter by the hand
Till both would understand.
North Shore Country Day School, Winnetka, Ill.

PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
* -
Photographed by Clara E. Sipprell Ethical Culture School, New York
CHILDREN PAINTING THE SceneRY FoR ONE of THEIR PLAYs

CULTIVATION OF ART APPRECIATION 185
(Age 13 years)
Beaver Country Day School, Brookline, Mass.
STAR TALK
"Are you awake, Gemelli,
This frosty night?”
"We'll be awake till reveille,
Which is sunrise,” say the Gemelli,
"It's no good trying to go to sleep;
If there's wine to be got we'll drink it deep,
But rest is hopeless tonight,
But rest is hopeless tonight.”
"Are you cold too, poor Pleiads,
This frosty night?”
“Yes, and so are the Hyads;
See us cuddle and hug," say the Pleiads,
"All six in a ring; it keeps us warm;
We huddle together like birds in a storm;
It's bitter weather tonight,
It's bitter weather tonight.”
“What do you hunt, Orion,
This starry night?”
"The Ram, the Bull, and the Lion,
And the Great Bear,” says Orion;
“With my starry quiver and beautiful belt,
I am trying to find a good thick pelt
To warm my shoulders tonight,
To warm my shoulders tonight.”
“Did you hear that, Great She-Bear,
This frosty night?”
"Yes, he's talking of stripping me bare,
Of my own big fur,” says the She-Bear;
"I'm afraid of the man and his terrible arrow;
The thought of it chills my bones to the marrow.
And the frost so cruel tonight!
And the frost so cruel tonight!"
-Robert GRAves.

186 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Age 15 years)
Beaver Country Day School, Brookline, Mass.
- -
BLACK AND WHITE
I met a man along the road
To Withernsea;
Was ever anything so dark, so pale
As he?
His hat, his clothes, his tie,
His boots
Were black as black
Could be,
And midst of all was a cold white face
And eyes that looked wearily.
The road was bleak and straight and flat
To Withernsea;
Gaunt poles with shrilling wires their weird
Did dree;
On the sky stood out, on the swollen sky
(Age 17 years)
Beaver Country Day School, Brookline, Mass.
The black blood veins of tree
After tree, as they beat from the face
Of the wind which they could not flee.
And in the fields along the road
To Withernsea,
Swart crows sat huddled on the ground,
Disconsolately,
While overhead the seamews wheeled and skirled
In glee,
But the black cows stood, and cropped where
They stood,
And never heeded thee,
O dark pale man, with the weary eyes,
On the road to Withernsea.
—H. H. ABBoIT.
Two ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIons of A PoEM




CULTIVATION OF ART APPRECIATION 187
Park School, Buffalo, N. Y.
A PUPPET SHow—HANSEL AND GRETEL
Carson College, Flourtown, Pa.
MAKING Costumes


I88 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
(Age 6 to 10 years) Montessori School, Washington, D.C.
THE CITY of HAPPINEss
A miniature city—the city of the future-with all the things necessary to make people happy.
Conceived, built, and gaily colored by a group of children.
sound tº
(Age 10 years) Edgewood School, Greenwich, Conn.
MAP of ODysseus' TRAvels
Showing where his various adventures took place. Made by a group of children after studying the
Palmer translation. The original is quite large and charming in color and detail.


Carson College, Flourtown, Pa.
Weaving
Community School, St. Louis, Mo.
Sewing, DYEING AND STAMPING Costumes
189


I90 PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
Coºs CA
as ºs
* * * sºlº
(Age 10 years) City and Country School, New York
A MAP MADE IN Connection witH THE STUDY of WRITING AND REcoRDs
(Grade IV) Lincoln School, New_York
A MEDIAEval Castle





CULTIVATION OF ART APPRECIATION I91
(Age 8 years) Carson College, Flourtown, Pa.
AND she BRought ForTH HER FIRSTBorn son, AND wrapped HIM
IN Swaddling CLOTHES, AND LAID HIM IN A MANGER; BECAUSE
THERE was No Room for THEM IN THE INN. Luke II.

I92.
PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
Carson College, Flourtown, Pa.
(Age 8 years)
Now when Jesus was Born IN BETHLEHEM of JUDEA IN THE DAYs
of HERod THE KING, Behold, THERE cAME wise MEN FROM THE East
To JERUsALEM,
SAYING, WHERE Is HE THAT Is Born KING of THE Jews? For we
HAVE SEEN HIS STAR IN THE EAST, AND ARE COME TO WORSHIP HIM.
MATThew II.

HE type of art teaching generally prevailing in schools aims at perfection of
technique. There are innumerable systems of art, special methods, even graded
lessons! Within recent years, however, as a by-product of the new educational
attitude toward childhood, which aims to Conserve and develop the precious natural
qualities of individuality, it has been discovered that children when granted opportunity
to express themselves in various art media frequently produce with little or no instruc-
tion results of recognizable art value. In schools scattered all over the United States
children are doing amazing things. Most of their productions are accepted as part of
the day's work and are eventually lost. "Museums ought to collect and preserve the
art works of children. What living springs have been lost to the world because no one
has cared for them. How sad, for instance, that we have lost the works of Durer and
Titian as children. People make a great mistake in thinking of child-art as a step to
adult-art. It is a thing in itself, quite shut off and isolated, following its own laws and
not the laws of grown-up people. Once its blossoming time is over it will never come
again.” Thus says Professor Cizek, apostle of the new art education movement.
This number of the magazine is an attempt to give some idea of the types of creative
work being produced by children. We wrote to a number of schools that we happened
to know about and asked them to send in anything they might have. No doubt there
is much more work just as valuable of which we do not know. From the wealth of
material sent in a committee consisting of Mrs. Avery Coonley, Miss Lucia Morse, Mrs.
Richard Boeckel, Mr. Stanwood Cobb, Mr. Mangravite and the editor chose what
seemed most suitable for inclusion in the magazine. The matter of choosing was ex-
ceedingly difficult; often much that was valuable had to be discarded for practical
reasons. What is here assembled seems to us however ample testimony confirming our
point of view. It is our hope that from this beginning may develop a more extensive
plan of collecting and preserving the unusual productions of children to be used for
general educational purposes.
The editor wishes to express her appreciation to the schools, to the contributors of
articles, to the committee for their careful and painstaking work in selecting the il-
lustrations, to Mr. Mangravite for suggestions as to the arrangement of the color prints,
and to every one else who has assisted in the special work of bringing out this number.
It is fitting to close with an expression of gratitude to Mrs. Avery Coonley who through
her great generosity has added once again to her many services in the cause of education
by making it possible for us to have an illustrated edition of the magazine.
Play aſ work, aſ freely productive activity, induſtry aſ leiſure, that iſ, aſ occupation which
fills the imagination and the emotionſ aſ well aſ the handſ, if the effence of art. Art is not an
outer product nor one which demands for itſ own ſatisfaction and fulfilling a ſhaping of matter
to new and more ſignificant form. To feel the meaning of what one is doing and to rejoice in that
meaning, to unite in one concurrent fact the unfolding of the inner emotional life and the ordered
development of material external conditionſ—that iſ art. The external signs of its presence—
rhythm, ſymmetry, arrangement of valueſ, what you pleaſe—there thingſ are ſigns of art in which
they exhibit the union of joyful thought and control of mature. Otherwiſe they are dead and
mechanical.—John Dewey.
(11th grade)
(Lincoln School, New York)
-
FOR FURTHER READING
CANE, Florence—Teaching Children to
Paint, The Arts, August, 1924.
CHENEY, SHELDoN–A Primer of Modern
Art. Boni and Liveright.
Cizek, FRANz–The Child as
Cizek Exhibit, Greenwich, Comm.
CUSHMAN, LILLIAN-Principles of Educa-
tion as Applied to Art. Elementary
School Record, No. 1 (Out of print.
May be had in libraries).
DEwey, John—Art in Education.
paedia of Education, Vol. I.
Dewey, John–Imagination and Expres-
sion. Kindergarten Magazine, Septem-
ber, 1896 (Out of print. May be had
in libraries).
Dewey, John–Individuality and Exper-
ience. Journal of the Barnes Founda-
tion.
Dewey, John—The School and Society.
University of Chicago Press. Chap.
II. The School and the Life of the
Child.
FURST, HERBERT-The Modern Woodcut.
Dodd, Mead Co.
HARTMAN, GERTRUDE—The Child and his
School, E. P. Dutton Co. The Rela-
tion of Art and Science to Occupa-
tions, page 34. Art Activities, page
77.
HINKLE, BEATRICE M.–The Re-creating
of the Individual, Harcourt Brace Co.
Artist.
Cyclo-
Chap. VII. The Psychology of the
Artist and the Significance of Artistic
Creation.
MATHIAs, MARGARET-The Beginnings of
Art in the Public School—Charles
Scribner's Sons.
MEARNs, HUGHEs—Creative Youth.
Doubleday Page Co. A School En-
vironment for Creative Writing.
OverstREET, HARRY A.—Influencing Hu-
man Behavior, People's Publishing Co.
Chap. XIII. Training the Creative
Mind.
WILson, FRANCEscA—A Lecture of Profes-
sor Cizek—Cizek Exhibit, Greenwich,
Conn.
Wilson, FRANCEscA—A Class at Professor
Cizek's. Cizek Exhibit, Greenwich
Conn.
Creative Effort, Franciſ Parker School,
Chicago, Ill. -
The New Era Magazine, 11 Tavistock
Square, London, England.
Abstract Art for Children.
ing-Williams, April, 1923.
Creative Art in Childhood. Franz
Cizek, October, 1923.
A New Approach to Drawing in Vienna
Schools. Hans Gunther, April, 1926.
Musical Design. Muriel Mackenzie,
April, 1916.
C. Flem-

3%
<)
§
CONTRIBUTORS
Ever since his pioneer work at the Speyer School Professor Bonser has
been actively engaged at Teachers College, Columbia University, ad-
vancing the new curriculum, particularly in the field of Industrial Arts.
Mrs. CANE, director of art in the Walden School, New York, has
studied with William Chase, Kenyon Cox, Robert Henri, and other well
known artists.
Mr. CoRRETHERs has made a special study of the modern art tendencies
in this country and abroad. He is instructor at the Keith Country
Day School at Rockford, Illinois.
Miss ERICSON, formerly head of the Riverside School, one of the earlier
Schools of Tomorrow, is at the Sunset Hill School in Kansas City,
Missouri.
Mrs. FERM was for a number of years head of the Modern School at
Stelton, New Jersey.
Miss House is in the Department of Industrial Arts at Teachers Col-
lege, and is also teaching at Rosemary Junior School, Greenwich, Con-
necticut. -
Miss LEVIN brings to her teaching a rich and varied experience. She
was born in Russia, studied art in Paris and Munich, and in America at
Alfred University. She has classes at the Hoffman School and the City
and Country School in New York City.
Mr. MANGRAVITE studied painting under Guastini in Rome, and also in
Paris. When he first came to America he specialized in ecclesiastical
mural painting. From this he turned to teaching. At present he has a
studio in Washington and also conducts classes at the Washington Montes-
sori School and at the Potomac School.
Mr. MEARNs, the well known author of Creative Youth, is at present
conducting courses in creative education at New York University.
Mrs. LUCY SPRAGUE MITCHELL has been actively engaged in experimental
work with children for a number of years at the Bureau of Educational
Experiments in New York.
Miss NAUMBURG founded the Walden School twelve years ago under the
name of the Children's School. She is now advisory director of the
school.
Miss STEELE is a teacher at the Rosemary Junior School, Greenwich,
Connecticut.
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PRINTED BY THE WAVERLY PRESS
IN THE CITY OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
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