valueless things possess transcendent beauty when we become capable of seeing it.

But the lesson that we are in the midst of beauty, and the training in power to see beauty, great as they are, are not so important as the habit of searching consciously for the beautiful. The greatest modern art teachers make alertness to beauty and responsiveness of life to its influence their supreme aims. The true teacher of art says to her pupils: Draw or sketch or paint during next week or next month the flower or the tree or the tower or the landscape that is most beautiful to you. Or she may say: Bring me the pattern or the picture or the object that you like best. At first it is enough to have the choice made, but later the reason for the preference should be given.

Of course it is essential that the choice of each child be recognized as of absolute value to him, and reverently respected by his teacher. If his choice be inferior, his taste cannot be lifted truly to a higher plane by the adoption of another's choice. It is by continued choosing and by conscious delight in what at present appeals to us and satisfies us that we gain a higher power of choice; not by weakly accepting the choice of someone else, consciously or unconsciously. The teacher should simply arrange the pictures or objects for exhibition, without praise or disapproval. She should aim to establish standards of beauty by teaching the fundamental principles of correct taste, but such teaching should always be impersonal. All the pupils may be asked to choose the best specimens brought by their companions, but they should not be asked to include their own in the comparison, and they should report their choice privately to the teacher, not that a summarized vote may be given to the class, but as a revelation to the teacher of the present development of the individuals of her class.

The making of such choices, and the explanations of the reasons for making them, form a very productive intellectual exercise; but the chief value of such training is the development of a persistent tendency to search consciously for the beautiful and true in our environment and conditions. The constant relating of the best outer to the best inner will lead to a conscious purpose to make the best inner become the outer by the joyous desire of not only appreciating the best, but doing it. The habit of choosing the most beautiful in environment will necessarily develop the most beautiful characteristics of the life, and exercise the highest elements of the intellectual and moral nature.

Ideals transform individuals, and ultimately transform national life. Ideals become vital in our lives by consciously choosing them. The child who is trained to choose consciously the most beautiful things in his environment is being trained in the most effective way to consciously adopt true ideals in manhood.

Art has a high moral influence because it tends to lift the race soul above materialism. As Dr. Harris has said, "it arouses emotions and

feelings, not appetites." Every working man should feel that he can create and reveal ideals. So will his life be ennobled. Unless the material life can be spiritualized, man's tendency is toward the jungle. The spiritual in literature and music and art has lifted the race slowly toward the divine. This is the only true education.

The time has come when, not the leading few, but all, should become conscious of the exultant thrill of the soul when in conscious relationship to the universal spirit. Art can do more to achieve this grand result than any other subject.

Let us accept Ruskin's philosophy: "If we do not use the faculty of color to discipline a people, they will infallibly use it to corrupt themselves." The artistic power is one of the highest, and therefore is capable of highest development. With grander ideals of liberty and individual power and the possibility of human achievement as we grow toward a truer spiritual emancipation, let us teach the best we know of art to all the children as a basis for a nobler art and a purer individual and national life.

ELEMENTARY PREPARATION IN DRAWING FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS WHAT MAY REASONABLY BE EXPECTED

CLARENCE VALENTINE KIRBY, TEACHER OF ART, HIGH SCHOOL,

DENVER, COLO.

We, directors and instructors in art education, have reason, I think, to congratulate ourselves, for we are teaching a subject which is more valuable than any other. The best education develops a sound muscular system, which responds to every bidding of a clear brain and wellorganized nerve centers; and thru right drawing methods the eye is not only trained to observe accurately and the hand to be the willing servant of the mind's impulses, but the impressions received from nearly every school study, which might otherwise be nebulous and evanescent, are firmly fastened in the mind thru the hand, which is really rooted in the brain, and traces there the fabric of each idea. Thus drawing can make all knowledge partake of the nature of experience. How well we remember our experiences when other learning has flown!

In considering the subject, "Elementary Preparation in Drawing for Secondary Schools," it may be well for us to remind ourselves that our observations from the standpoint of the high school are based upon a small percentage of the entire number who have received elementary instruction, it being generally known that nearly 90 per cent. of the number who started have dropped by the way; persumably these were less equipped than those it is our opportunity to study. Desiring to

make this paper the true concensus of opinion, rather than my own weightless criticism, I have communicated with prominent members of our profession from all parts of the country, and shall consider their recommendations in this paper, together with the conditions that have appeared to me. I am aware that, while my position as critic may not make me altogether popular, it is nevertheless easy compared with the efforts earnestly put forth by those criticized, for the reason that it is always easier to pull down than build up.

Drawing has a threefold mission, and it fulfills this mission to the degree that it develops the whole child physically, intellectually, æsthetically, and morally, instead of part of him: First, drawing is an energizing power in forming a disposition and habit of work with mind and. body; second, drawing is one of the most valuable instruments for co-ordinating memories and ideas on all subjects; third, drawing ennobles and exalts the mind by acquainting one with the mysteries of nature, and by enabling one to appreciate beauty, and thus bring joy into the most sordid life.

In considering the first mission, it appears of paramount importance, for if there is one thing that the pupil seems to lack upon entering his secondary course it is power, and the thing he possesses most is the fear that handicaps joyous spontaneous expression. In spite of the wellgraded courses and attractive exhibitions of supervisors and teachers, who are laboring zealously all over the country, the general sentiment among high-school educators seems to be that pupils are not satisfactorily prepared for advanced work; in fact, it is not uncommon to be obliged to return to first principles. As we view the exhibitions of grammer-grade work, we are impressed with the broad scope of the field under cultivation, and if improvement can be made along any line it might be along the line of the quality of individual power, rather than the quantity of product. But as we are getting away from the weak, tentative touches of old, I believe we are implanting thru the larger, more vigorous efforts of the present, deep in the motor centers of each child's organism, the ability to make in a bold, fearless way the fundamental forms which are the rudiments of all creations in nature and art. The best publishers are urging this larger control today. On blackboard, where fear of error is abolished, the child attains the facility which only large arm movements, in accordance with nature's law, give. This is the way the mechanic draws when he desires to express his thought. It is the way we express our thoughts on the piano and in writing, unconsciously, fearlessly. And yet, some teachers have stood over the child and expected accurate results where there was no control. We have been afraid of spoiling the paper, and so we have spoiled the child. And the child still grasps the pencil as tho it were a crowbar, and his labors show the lack of spontaneity which all agree is the only true expression.

An old axiom defines spontaneity as the soul of art. This power, like every other, comes thru the performance of deeds; deeds that give the hands skill to represent with certainty and precision the shape of a leaf, or the charmning lines of the human figure, and inculcate in the organism ideas of uprightness, symmetry, balance, right proportions, and other fundamentals in art instruction. These are the underlying principles in all technical pursuits, and they can be mastered in early years by every child who can write. The favored few endowed with a special talent may soar higher æsthetically, but I like to think of the many less fortunate, who, I believe, can all express themselves in drawing as well as in writing. Goethe tells us that "all art is preceded by a certain mechanical expertness." There will be no failures when we all come to recognize the deeper physiological principles of drawing, which can never fail where there are eyes to see with and hands to do with.

Closer and closer each year have grown the ties between art work and manual work. Art workers are finding that art methods which are not manual training are a delusion; and manual workers are learning that the manual training which is not artistic is a snare. William Morris said: "Drawing is the basis of all the arts." As a product of the art schools, I can say that I wish someone might have helped me at the beginning to lay such a foundation. We thought that art was monopolized by the easel-picture, and we forgot the ennobling influence of the handicrafts and the men they produced-Men like Michael Angelo, Cellini, and Leonardo da Vinci. Gradually we found the art in joinery, in wood-carving, turning, and in other crafts. I am determined always to make a plea for the ones who, thru some misapprehension of the already crowded field, have found themselves unable to cope with the difficulties in the way. Having aimed so high, they have failed, because they were unprepared for the practical. A preparation for the minor arts is the very best preparation for the high arts; for, if a man falls from success in the so-called "high arts," he lands on a solid foundation, for craftsmen are needed, and the progressive ones in our profession have found it out, and we shall soon be rewarded by their labors in this direction.

The growing appreciation of art instruction among superintendents and others in authority has come thru the second mission of drawing as a means of co-ordinating memories and ideas on all subjects, and this has brought about to a large degree a closer relationship of the drawing course to the other school work. From lessons in object drawing, distinct and detached from the other departments of the school, we have made ourselves felt by the means we have at hand to fix in the young mind the impressions the teacher is trying to make in the various school studies. Yet I feel that we have hardly began to show our real strength. Let us put away some of our pet ideas, and if the grade teacher has a geography lesson on Egypt, let the drawing lesson for that day consist of

drawing and clay-modeling of mummies, sphinx, obelisks, pyramids, the plan of the country, and the flag in colors, and perhaps these boys and girls will know more geography than some of us do today. We plan each year to acquaint the child with flowers, shells, birds, and animals, but why not help out in botany, geology, zoölogy, illustrate the great events of history, or learn lettering and constructive drawing in geometry? Let the art man and the school man come and reason together.

There is a distinct mental process in memory drawing that is too valuable to be neglected. Tests should frequently be made by removing the model from sight, requiring a drawing from memory, and in every case returning the object that it may be compared with the child's effort, and the differences noted. Of course the child will fail at first, but he will soon acquire the ability to construct proper mental images from material previously seen; and these mental images, by the way, should contain the facts of form, rather than of hair and feathers. In early years it is undoubtedly an error to force too many abstract exercises upon the child; to give him part of a thing when everything indicates that he is concerned only with the whole. A better method encourages the child to illustrate from time to time some circumstance in his own life or environment that directly concerns him; then he has a story that he wants to tell, and he is anxious to learn how to tell it. In one case he has to say something, in the other he has something to say. Let us first create a consciousness of need; then the child is ready to assimilate the instruction which will help him over the difficulty. Our methods should be an unfolding from within, rather than stucco work on the outside.

As for imaginative ability, most children are born with it; that is, with the kind that creates hobgoblins, fairy-tales, and other indefinite conceptions. This is unbridled imagination, but it is not the kind that concerns itself with the intricate workings of a marvelous machine, a splendid building, or an enduring statue. This untrained imagination must first become subjected to the control of the will thru right drawing methods. By accurate observations, the receiving of correct impressions, and the expression of right ideas does the imagination come under the mastery of the mind.

The importance of perspective is urged on all sides, and yet pupils leaving the elementary course seem to have a very vague idea of its principles. I have wondered if we have not confused them with too many principles and too little observation, for we are reminded that altho these principles can be applied to a table or chair, there are none that will foreshorten the human arm or head.

The increased use of color in the grades is most delightful. It not only gives joyful satisfaction to the child, but it conveys a clearer idea of form by helping to distinguish objects and parts of objects one from the other.

It has been my experience that high-school pupils are not always