u^sl in honesty of line rather than A Class in Pottery Work at the Normal School STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 7 over-elaboration and profuse omateness. He sees the dif- ference between the fine and dignified and restrained, and the ugly and pretentious building. HOUSE PLANNING Then there is the matter of this own home upon which rests the strength of American democracy, which expresses the family life that is lived within the house, where the ideals and standards of living bring the development of all mem- bers of the family. How can it be beautifully built, what considerations govern the building of a beautiful home — cost, location, etc.? He is taught to plan the interior with an intelligent thought for the utmost convenience, and com- fort, with the elimination of unnecessary and unbeautiful de- tails; and the exterior, with harmonious relation to his loca- tion, surroundings, and to make it a matter of beautifully- ordered designs in itself. He learns what to demand of the furnishings of a home of any sort so that when he estab- lishes his home he may do it knowingly. CIVIC ART He is led to consider that a whole community is en- riched by one beautiful home and how essential community interest in beautiful building is to the aesthetic welfare of a group of people. The thought of beautifying private and public grounds leads him to some fundamental laws of good planting — landscape gardening, and the value of cooperation in obtaining these ends. He becomes familiar with public enterprise along these lines, and establishes standards of civic decorative schemes. In our own state nothing seems more essential than that we learn, before we go farther, to build our towns more attractively. The bleakness and un- attractiveness of the average prairie town makes many a passing traveler feel with the famous George Kennan that “North Dakota is the Siberia of America.” A little more artistic planning of buildings, and providing for planting and parking, would, in a large measure, remove the im- pression of bleakness and poverty, and prove of tremendous economic value to the state. And no phase of public-school art is more important than this, that we train children to think of their problems as part of a larger community whole which is dependent on individual cooperation. 8 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN HOUSE DECORATION Household decoration comes to take its place with the work of the home economics department, and to apply the principles of art to guide in furnishing a home which shall produce an environment of harmony, of beauty of form, line, and color. The girl of today should have a fund of infor- mation along these lines that will make her surround her- self and her family with the colors and forms that tend to promote an atmosphere of refinement and well-ordered living. Too often the furnishing of a home has been the result of whimsical uneducated taste, and the results have not been pleasant. The study of good styles of historic furniture, as surely as the study of fine pictures and statuary, is a study of fine arts, and is most helpful in establishing a criterion of good taste. DRESS DESIGN The subject of dress is one of importance. Our garments are not a meaningless covering. They speak loudly for us or against us to the most casual observer. Dress design is first of all an art problem and not only deserves but demands at- tention to itself in any democratic system of art education. Every woman ought to be taught how to clothe herself so as to make herself more beautiful, instead of less so, and how to buy most economically to this end. Here again the art and the home economics departments join hands. “Dress yourself beautifully says Ruskin. “Also you are to dress as many other people as you can and to teach them how to dress, if they do not know, and to consider any ill-dressed woman or child whom you see anywhere as a personal dis- grace, and to get at them somehow, until everybody is as beautifully dressed as birds.” This is an exhortation of par- ticular importance to our students at the Normal School. Again Ruskin says: “Good taste is essentially a moral quality.” Taste is not only a part and an index of mor- ality, it is the only morality. The first, last and closest trial question to any living creature is ‘What do you like?’ And the entire object of education is to make people not merely do the right things, but enjoy the right things. What we like determines what we are, and to teach taste is inevit- ably to form character.” This can hardly be gainsaid, and, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 9 judged from this standpoint, no department of school work is more productive of educative results in the largest sense than that of public-school art. THE MUNSELL COLOR SYSTEM People of all sorts are very strongly influenced by color, but until very recently nothing but the vaguest sort of gen- eralizations regarding its best use had been in the hands of the art teacher. Students were left to their own whims as to its selection, and no criticism more constructive than “That's good,” or “That’s bad” has been given. There seemed to be no exact science controlling its use, and art teachers every- where deplored the fact. Finally, Mr. A. H. Munsell, of the Boston School of Technology, following up the abstruse work of Helmholtz, and Professor Rood of Columbia, has given what seemed to be a complete scientific development of a measured color system. It is accurate, easy to learn even for children, and of very great value not only for decorative, but for pure art. It formulates certain principles and meas- urements by which the correct use of color may be learned by even the least artistic. So convenient, complete, and truth- ful an arrangement of the content of the color sense is of great aid, first, in the observation, and thereafter, in the ap- preciation of colors and their harmonies. It affords also an exact nomenclature for color which is being adopted by leading manufacturers of color products, sucn as the Cheney Silk Company and others. Its final adoption for all com- mercial purposes seems only a matter of a short time, be- cause it gives universal and accurate names for every known color used in the trade world. “Sky blue,” “cerise,” “taupe,” and all the other color names in common parlance are so very indefinite and often changed. The Munsell color names are absolutely definite, accurate and scientific. Color work in the Normal School is based on this system, and the work never fails to arouse the enthusiastic interest of the students. THE CROSS DRAWING GLASS An invention of more than usual importance has come into use in the Normal School art classes as an instrument for training the eye to see the eccentricities of perspective, and of light and shade known as value. To be able to see cor- rectly the facts of proportion and foreshortening is all there 10 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN is to drawing, which depends on the eye, rather than the hand. This drawing glass, the invention of Mr. Auson K. Cross, a drawing teacher in one of the great art schools of America, is really a device by which any one can teach him- self to draw as well as the professional artist. By it he is enabled to criticize his own work and train his own power of seeing. After one term of faithful use of the glass, the students have conquered the big difficulties and are able to draw correctly and intelligently. The glass simplifies the teaching of drawing where it has to be done by the small-town teacher or the rural-school teacher without the help of a specialist. With its aid she is able to make sure the work of the children is right or wrong and to help them correct their work. It is a very simple device and the wonder is that it has not been thought of before. As it is becoming known, it has the endorsement of many of the great educators and is mak- ing more friends constantly. It will some day become a ne- cessity in every schoolroom. THE COMPLETE COURSE The work in art as it is conducted at the State Normal School is designed to give students pursuing the elementary curricula, first, the power of seeking and interpreting the beauty of the familiar, world, and a knowledge of practical aesthetics and established laws of good taste in the appoint- ments of everyday life; second, a practical knowledge of perspective and color. Advanced courses pursued in this department give stu- dents the required training to fit them as special teachers and supervisors of public-school art. Such students are offered three terms of work in the training of the hand and eye, three terms of work in methods of teaching, and three terms in applied design, in addition to the elementary work. The curriculum follows: STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 11 First Year Fall Psychology 41 Education 41a Art 13 Manual Train. 41j Art 41 Physical Educa- tion 41 Winter Psychology 42 Language 41b and Art 22 Manual Train. 42c Art. 42 Physical Educa- tion 42 Spring Psychology 43 Science 41a Art 23 Manual Train. 43c Art 43 Physical Educa- tion 43 Education 41 Art 51a Art 51d. Language 41a Teaching Thesis Second Year Education 42 Art 52a Art 52d History 41a Teaching Thesis Education 43 Art 53a Art 53d Mathematics 41a Teaching Thesis For a complete description of each subject in this cur- riculum, as well as other valuable and interesting informa- tion about the State Normal School the prospective student is urged to consult the general catalog, sent free upon request. Address the Registrar, State Normal School, Valley City, North Dakota. 3 0112 105658865 12 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SAYS ABOUT ATTENDING SCHOOL AT THIS TIME (The following statement is taken from Teachers’ Leaf- let No.- 3 of April, 1918, published by the Bureau of Educa- tion of the Department of the Interior, under the above cap- tion.) “The entire spirit of the administration in Washington, is and has been from the beginning, that the war should in no way be used as an excuse for giving the children of the country any less edu- cation, in quantity or quality, than they otherwise would have had, but, on the contrary, that the schools should do everything possible to increase their efficiency, to the end that the children now in the schools may at the conclusion of their course be even better qualified than ever before to take up the duties and responsibilities of life. Both the present demands of the war emergency and the prospective demands of the necessary readjustments inevitable to follow emphasize the need of providing in full measure for the education of all the people. Boys and girls should be urged, as a patriotic duty, to remain in school to the completion of the high school course, and in increasing numbers to enter upon college and university courses, especially in technical and scientific lines, and normal courses to meet the great need for trained men and women. — Letter to Secretary Lane, July 20, 1917.) Later the President again expressed his “very urgent concern that none of the educational processes of the coun- try should be interrupted any more than is absolutely un- avoidable during the war.” (Jan. 18, 1918, letter to the De- partment of Superintendence, N. E. A.)