aware that yellow and blue colors mixed would produce green. But, thanks to our enterprising publishers, we now have three-color boxes that have excellent quality at a very low price, and are only dangerous as they fall in the hands of teachers with strong tendencies for purple and reddish combinations. It might be well here to say a word for clay-modeling. While drawing is the representation of a single view, clay-modeling is the actual construction of an infinite number of views, and consequently is thoro in its capacity to form concepts that can be worked out in wood or metal. In the art schools it is noticeable that the pupils who model excel in rendering form on a flat surface, and we are all aware of the successful ones, from Michael Angelo to Sir Frederic Leighton and Gerome of our time, who have modeled as well as painted. As a means of exalting and ennobling the mind, by enabling one to appreciate beauty, our drawing courses are fulfilling their mission. Ruskin said: "Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see." And Emerson exclaims : "We are immersed in beauty, but our eyes have no clear vision." Drawing opens the eye of the understanding to the marvelous message written in every leaf, woven in the architecture of every shell, and painted in the heart of every flower messages of beauty and grace. The child turns directly to nature for these messages, and it is to be regretted that so often in the past artificial copy-books have been his interpreters, instead of teachers who could both see and do. Children cannot be averaged up like bricks, but the artificial system presupposes the same pecularities in each, and so the child is made from the text book, when in truth he should be the textbook for us to follow. While I believe that every teacher of drawing should not only be able to draw skillfully and accurately, but be able to teach successfully with only something to draw on and something to draw with, at the same time I appreciate the progressiveness of certain publishers and the factor they have been in raising our courses to the plane they now occupy. Like every other good thing, they fail, not by use, but thru abuse. In the light of general opinion, it does not seem unreasonable to expect that a pupil upon leaving the grammar grades should have a hand. trained to make forms upright, symmetrical, well balanced, right proportioned, and graceful at will. He should understand the simple laws of perspective, and be able to apply them to simple forms. He should be able to arrange his work pleasingly on the surface it is to occupy and letter it neatly. He should have had enough design to understand its fundamental laws of growth, rhythm, balance, and harmony, and to be able to recognize the characteristics of the leading historic styles. Work with brush and color should not be unknown to him. He should be able to reproduce from science and other studies with freedom and certainty. In the use of instruments he should have at least learned the value of accuracy, and he should understand the principle of working drawings. Now, if these results may reasonably be expected, and yet so often fail, we are led to ask ourselves the reasons, and they are found rather in the prevailing conditions than bad methods. There are two plans: either the grade teacher must be directed by a supervisor, or each subject must be taught by a special teacher. The former plan prevails, and is no doubt better, for the reason that a teacher who has entire charge of a pupil can do more (providing she is wholesome and earnest) in the development of character and good citizenship than the special teacher who comes occasionally. The unfortunate part of it is that the grade teacher is her own lawyer, and she asserts with emphasis that she never could draw, "not even a straight line." In one of our largest cities, the supervisor began three years ago to put the teachers thru a systematic course. Altho it was necessary to take some school drawing hours for this departure, the results, I have learned, far exceeded the anticipation. If there is one criticism that can be laid at the door of supervisors and directors, it is that they endeavor to cultivate too large a field. The actual instruction for the most part falls to the grade teacher, whose training is often so insufficient that she is not aware of the many poor specimens that slip thru her fingers. But let us not be discouraged by these failLet us rather gain hope thru our success. Let us look forward to the time when the pupils who are receiving the benefits of our present methods become the teachers of the future, and teaching becomes a profession instead of a convenience; then will our teachers express their thoughts in drawing so as to win the admiration and regard of their pupils. And the latter will have, thru right drawing methods, such welldisciplined eyes and hands that they too will express their ideas in drawing as readily as they do in writing or talking. Let us inculcate such power in the young that the mind may be left free to think and plan while the hand moves with automatic facility to accomplish the heart's desires. Then we will not be modeling every boy after our own pattern, but we will be helping him grow to be all to which he could possibly aspire. ures. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF TEN ON ELEMENTARY ART EDUCATION APPOINTED AT THE MEETING OF THE ART DEPARTMENT OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION JULY 8, 1898. WITH APPENDICES AND REMARKS OF THE INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ANALYSIS OF THE REPORT Preface. Presentation of Report. Action of the Art Department Constituting the Committee. Names of the Committee. Some General Reflections. Form as the Basis of the Space Arts. I. An Infinite Number of Apparent or Accidental Forms. II. Only one Real Tangible or Potentially Tangible Form. The Two Phases of Appearances. A. The Mere Esthetic Appearance or the Beauty of an Object or of a Scene. The Two Phases of Real Shape or Form. C. The Real Shape in Space of an Object Having Three Dimensions. D. The Real Shape in Space of the Planes, Sections, or Edges of an Object. Suggested Outline of Course of Study for Graded Schools. Outline by School Years or Grades. Suggested Outline of Course of Study for Ungraded Schools. Outline by Groups-Group I. Appendix A. Appendix B. Group II. Appendix C. PREFACE Of what practical use is the work of the Committee on Elementary Art Education? On reading the following report for the first time some may object to the abstract or philosophical form in which some parts of it are expressed. The fact that the committee was required to determine the basis, or bases, of a course of study in elementary art education necessitates somewhat the form of expression of the report, since these principles cannot be clearly stated except in exact language. The manner of expression must be somewhat abstract in order to include the different concrete elements in the minds of different individuals. If expressed in the concrete form of any one individual's thought, such expression would exclude to a greater or less extent the favorite forms of other individuals. Hence the committee feels that a general or abstract form of language gives greater liberty to the individual to read into it his own interpretation, and at the same time secures greater unity in the result of its deliberations. Its should be further stated that the committee has not attempted to make out a course of study that would completely fit the conditions found in any particular school without a single modification. It has endeavored only to lay down basic principles and a general outline which could easily be modified to suit the particular circumstances of any ordinary school. The report, then, appeals to superintendents, boards of education, and general educators, rather than to the class teacher. Many class teachers will no doubt be interested in it, but there are also many excellent class teachers who are not conscious of the underlying principles of the course of study they are helping in an efficient manner to carry out, and for this reason they may not care to study it. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF TEN ON ELEMENTARY ART EDUCATION PRESENTED TO THE ART DEPARTMENT OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION AT MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., JULY 9, 1902, BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE, LANGDON S. THOMPSON The following resolution was passed by the Art Department of the National Educational Association July 8, 1898, at Washington, D. C.: Resolved, That a committee of ten shall be appointed by the president of the Art Department of the National Educational Association, and that the president shall be one member thereof, for two purposes: 1. To determine, in the light of psychology, environment, and experience, a proper basis, or bases, of a course of study in elementary art education, including form study, manual training, drawing, and the study of art works. 2. To outline, in a general way, such a course of study for the common schools. To the Art Department of the National Educational Association: In accordance with the foregoing resolution, the undersigned Committee of Ten on Elementary Art Education, appointed at the meeting of the Art Department of the National Educational Association at Washing ton, D. C., July 8, 1898, has the honor to submit the following report, pointing out the fundamental principles of Elementary Art Education, and suggesting a general outline for a course of study for the common schools. LANGDON S. THOMPSON, Chairman, HENRY T. BAILEY, CHARLES M. Carter, JOHN S. CLARK, JOSEPHINE C. LOCKE,I HERMAN T. LUKENS, M. V. O'SHEA, GRACIA L. RICE, SOME GENERAL REFLECTIONS Committee. Everyone who pursues the vocation of a teacher for any considerable length of time obeys principles, either consciously or unconsciously. Man, as a rational being, must think or reason concerning that which he does. Thinkers demand definitions, clear statements; and hence reasoning on the basis of right perceptions and true conceptions must result in the discovery of more or less truth, which, when stated in language, we call principles. The resolutions above quoted assume that there are principles to be observed in elementary art education which may be determined. It has been the business of your committee to determine and state such principles, and, in accord with these principles, to suggest a general outline for a course of study. Here, as in all courses of study, purpose or aim must be the organizing element. The ultimate aim must determine general principles and methods of procedure, while the immediate aim, at any particular stage of advancement, must determine particular methods and devices. ment. The general aim of elementary art education is the same as of all phases of education. Of the ultimate end of education we may safely look to ethics and philosophy for a stateIt is, in short, the grand march, or evolution, or progressive development of the soul (1) out of the slavery of mere sense perception of thing and environment, the supposition of non-relation, (2) into and thru the category of the understanding and the reason, the supposition of universal relation, (3) to the freedom of pure thought, the supposition of self-relation. Hence all fragments, parts, or departments of education should have in view and should tend toward this development of the self-active soul. The particular scope of elementary art education is the field of the sensibilities, or æsthetics, the leading forth of the emotions from mere capricious spontaneity to the serenity of the habitual admiration and reverence for all ideal and æsthetic expression in sensuous matter, and for the æsthetic realization of the self-active, free spirit of man and of God. The various studies, or sciences, used as stimuli or food for the development or education of the soul may be arranged in such general groups as follows: (1) Those derived from the investigation of the inorganic world, giving rise to mathematics and the physical sciences; (2) those derived from the organic world, giving rise to the biological sciences; (3) those derived from the social world, giving rise to the sociological sciences; (4) those derived from the spiritual world, giving rise to the metaphysical sciences or philosophy. Space-art education, whether elementary or advanced, is not confined to any one of these groups. So far as art education deals with sensuous matter, or with form or space, it finds its basic principles in the first group, in physics, chemistry, or in geometry, which last is par excellence the science of form and space. Here is clearly indicated the proper use of geometry and geometrical forms. 1 Resigned before report was completed. The different forms assumed by the fine arts, coming under the consideration of your committee, as ceramics, architecture, sculpture, and painting, find their sensuous matter or material for embodiment in the first and the second groups. Here we see the necessity for exercises in clay-modeling, in wood-work, and other hard material, in fact for the whole field of manual training, in order that the pupils may get some power of manipulation and self-realization in matter. The particular forms of expression that works of art will probably take at any period are determined by developments in the social world, or in the third group. Here is pointed out the breadth of our proposed course of study. It must include the elements of ceramics, architecture, sculpture, painting, decorative design, and something of their history. The ultimate end of art education, as previously stated, is best explained in the fourth group, in the realm of self-activity, or philosophy. Here we have authority for whatever of self-realization and culture we may find practicable. WHAT, THEN, IS ART EDUCATION? Before we can specifically point out the nature or the purpose of art education it will be necessary to inquire into the nature of art itself. And, first, as to what it is not. It is not a mere recreation of the mind or soul. It is much more than a recreation. Art is an expression of the profoundest interests of human nature and of the most comprehensive truths of the spirit. But art is not religion, nor can it take the place of religion, altho it has power to soften human manners, by giving to man a vision of his ideal self, and indicating what he ought to be. When he thus sees himself objectified in art he is led to dispassionate reflection which enables him to discover higher possibilities for himself. Thus, indirectly at least, art may be said to have a proper moral end. But neither in its form nor in its content is it the highest manifestation or the last and absolute expression by which the true and the good are revealed to the human spirit. Art is not a mere imitation of nature, altho it is perfectly natural in that it has its origin in the nature of man, and in that it uses natural elements thru which to express its ideals. Art is one of the results of the self-activity of man on his environment, one of the results of his self-consciousness. It appeals both to the senses and to the intellect, its object being something between the sensible and the rational; but in its use of images it appeals more directly to the imagination, as well as by its incarnation in a sensible form. art, altho it is the most Beauty is not the merely Beauty is the revelation of Art is not merely the beautiful. Beauty is not all of pleasing element and one of the most important elements in it. useful, nor does it have its origin in the association of ideas. the free spirit in a sensible form, and is both objective and subjective. The real labor of everyday life is serious; it is work rather than play, while the real work of art is serene. Tears and sorrow often belong to the real work-a-day life, in conflicts between sense and duty, while joy properly belongs to art, the field of the ideal, where the spirit works with perfect freedom, where both sense and will may have their way, and where we may do as we like and no mischief will come of it. This is the gladsome kingdom of the beautiful, where man may put forth his supremest creative powers in self-realization. The mission of art, then, is to represent, under sensible forms, the free development of ideal life, and especially of ideal spiritual life. LIMITATIONS OF THE SUBJECT In general, the word "art" is a very comprehensive term, including many different forms of expression. All of these various forms, however, must find their expression in space, or in time, or in both; hence all art subjects may be loosely divided into two general |