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methods, has begun to be introduced in the schools and mechanic's classes of England, and, also, so notably here in the schools of Quincy, Mass., that it now goes in the United States by the name of the "Quincy method."

This has so developed as to lead the gentleman who was the first promoter of the publication of Walter Smith's books of industrial drawing, to form a new publication company; with the purpose of issu ing in economical form, the materials requisite for such "object teaching" as is here referred to. This movement, so far as it tends to awaken the intellectual faculties of the child, and to encourage improved habits of study and observation is to be commended and fostered.

RESULTS OF THE INTRODUCTION OF DRAWING AS A PART OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.

It is referred to here only as one evidence of the rapid progress of the "evolution" of the principle embodied in the introduction of indus. trial drawing into the elementary public schools of the country. The practical bearing of this study upon the industries of the country, is shown in this tendency to begin the technical training of the future workman or workwoman, at a far earlier age than had been before thought practicable. The danger, as already suggested, lies in not recognizing the limitations set by nature. While the kindergärten method avails itself of the natural curiosity and wonderful activity of very young children, and in its educational processes closely follows the leadings of nature; the attempt to teach handicrafts to young boys may very easily go contrary to nature, by imposing tasks unfit for untrained minds and undeveloped muscles. No such objection can, however, lie against the study of industrial drawing. Weak indeed must be the hand that cannot lift a pencil, weaker the mind that, beginning at the beginning, cannot follow the graded and orderly steps, by which Walter Smith, basing his teaching on the everlasting truths of geometry, has arranged his progressive studies.

RESULTS TO BE ANTICIPATED FROM GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF DRAWING IN SCHOOLS.

When the study of drawing is regarded in all public schools as of the same importance as the study of reading and spelling, and as much time in the week is given to teaching drawing, as is given to either of these studies, which has nowhere yet been done, for even in Boston this study has been admitted largely on "sufferance"-then, judging

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from the results already secured, it is reasonable to anticipate an increase in the numbers, as well as superior expertness in the skill, of American-born workmen. It is by reason of its direct bearing upon the development of skilled labor that this subject of the introduction of the study of elementary drawing based on geometry, and with a direct view to its application to industries, is of the national and general importance which seems to justify the preparation and publication of the present Report. Accounts of the experiments in introducing "manual training" in the public schools, as well as the reports of the special schools for such training and of the technical industrial schools, will be found in their appropriate connections in Part II of this Report.

THE LAND GRANT ACT OF 1862 THE RECOGNITION BY CONGRESS OF THE ADVENT OF SCIENCE AS A FACTOR IN EDUCATION.

The passage by Congress of the law establishing the "Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts" as long ago as 1862, is proof that the need of some form of educational training, other than the purely literary courses which then comprised all that was given in the higher schools and colleges, was widely recognized. The new scientific education may justly be said to owe its beginning in this country, in the second quarter of the present century, to the zeal of the elder Professor Benjamin Silliman, of Yale College, whose few laboratory students were the precursors of the thronging numbers that have since crowded the halls of that department of the college known as the Sheffield Scientific School.

It is not forgotten that the youthful Professor-elect visited Philadel phia and Princeton, as well as Europe, during his preparation for assuming the new position made for him at Yale; but it was the enthusiasm and zeal of the young Yale Professor, that first awakened any general interest in the United States, in the study of the natural sciences. The example and profound ability of his then student James D. Dana, since the distinguished professor of geology and mineralogy, in the same college, and whose fame is world-wide; and later, the coming of Agassiz to Cambridge, gave a wonderful impetus to the study of the sciences; and resulted in the developing of a group of distinguished scientists, and of numbers of skilled engineers and inventors, who have shed lustre upon American scholarship, while they have been potent factors not only in the development of the resources of their own country but in the material progress of the world.

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DRAWING A REQUISITE PREPARATORY STUDY FOR ALL SCHOOLS OF

SCIENCE.

A knowledge of drawing is so essential to any progress in many of the studies comprised in the regular courses of the schools of science that, in view of the almost total neglect at that time of this study in the public, or private elementary schools, it is little wonder that when the new colleges, created by the national land grant act, were first opened, there were frequent complaints that, for want of this indispensable preliminary training in the elements of drawing, nearly a year's time was lost in teaching the pupils that which should have been taught in the primary schools. While there were doubtless other studies in which a lack of suitable training was observed, drawing was both the most important of these preliminary studies, and the one in which deficiency was most common and most disastrous.

It is because this knowledge is indispensable as a preparation for the courses in the schools of science, that the teaching of the study of drawing in all the public schools of the country, is of importance to the colleges created by the national land grant of 1862; and it is in this connection, that one element of the practical value and importance of this training of the public school children in elementary drawing, can be readily seen.

THE COMMON SCHOOLS ARE THE PREPARATORY ACADEMIES FOR
THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

The public schools are the academies that fit the students for the national agricultural colleges and therefore it is of importance to these colleges, that the studies taught in the public schools shall be such as are preparatory to their own courses of study.

In a country so vast as ours, with such variety of climate, material resources, and local needs; with communities in such different stages of development, as well as of such different dates of settlement-ranging from the two-and-a-half-century-old towns of the first settled Atlantic States, to the six-months-old mining camp of the frontiers; the educa tional needs of the several communities, varying as the commercial, manufacturing, agricultural, or mining employments of the inhabitants predominate; it follows, that, whenever, in a single work, an attempt is made to include that which may be applicable to the needs of each of these separate communities, there must be much which may seem to

be either too elementary for the more advanced community, or too com. plex for the newer community, busied with the first needs of a new settlement.

THIS REPORT COMPRISES A GREAT VARIETY OF TOPICS.

The present Report, made in response to a call by the Senate for "all the information" in the possession of this Department "relative to the development of instruction in drawing as applied to the industrial or fine arts," as given in any of the public educational institutions of the United States," with special reference to the utility of such instruction in promoting the arts and industries of the people" is therefore, of necessity, of a very miscellaneous character.

UNIVERSAL TEACHING OF ELEMENTARY DRAWING ESSENTIAL.

Its fundamental idea is, that universal teaching in all public schools of the elements of "industrial drawing"-meaning by that, an orderly progressive course of drawing based on geometry-is an essential part of any general system of the public education of a people; and is equally necessary, whether the after training of the child is to be that of an artisan, an artist, or a citizen engaged in any productive pursuit, or whether the child is to be so situated as to be removed from the ranks of producers to those of consumers.

NATURAL DIVISIONS OF SUBJECT.-INFLUENCE OF THE ART KNOWLEDGE OF A PEOPLE UPON THEIR ART INDUSTRIES.

The subject naturally separates into two main divisions: on the one hand, that embracing all matters relating to the technical industrial producing arts and artistic industries; on the other, those relating mostly to the Fine Arts; this last division properly includes three distinct subdivisions, relating, separately, to the theory and history; to the study and practice; and to the enjoyment and patronage, of art. The first of these minor divisions includes such a knowledge of the historical development of art, as must hereafter be implied in the term "liberal education," such as, within the past few years, has been taught in some of the classical colleges and universities; the second includes the special art schools, and academies for the technical training of artists,-architects, sculptors, painters, and engravers, preparatory to the actual production of works of high art; the third comprises the various means for promoting that general information and art culture of the public, which is derived largely from the opportunities of seeing choice works of art,

in the collections of art museums and art loan exhibitions. The latter, having perhaps as important, if not as manifest, an influence upon the development of the industries and arts of a people, as the former; for the industries and arts of a people, are determined by their needs, their desires, and their intelligence.

So long as individuals and communities have never seen the added attractions given to buildings, furniture, clothing and household implements, by the application of art to such articles of prime necessity, so long there is no demand for the production of similar artistic articles; but let once their eyes be opened by a sight of the wonders of a "world's fair," or an "art loan collection," and immediately the demand is created. There is at first no ability, owing to lack of knowledge and skill on the part of the home workmen, to produce similar articles, consequently this demand must be met by importation. An increase of imports with no corresponding increase of exports is an evident disadvantage for the importing country. It is, therefore, of importance to any community, or country, to ascertain by what methods other countries have trained skilled artists and artificers, in order to adopt similar means; hence, an account of the experiments, expenditures and systems adopted by foreign countries, for these purposes, is directly demanded in such a report as this.

ACCOUNT OF THIS REPORT;-ITS DESIGN AND CONTENTS.

In order to a clearer understanding of the purposes of this Report, and of the variety of subjects considered in its pages, and the accompanying Appendices, the following condensed description of its preparation and contents is given:

In the preparation, by the author of the present Report, of the brief pamphlet, issued by the United States Bureau of Education as Circular No. 2, 1874, entitled "Drawing in the Public Schools; Art Education in the United States," an attempt was made to give a condensed statement of the history of the rise and progress of industrial art education, in Great Britain, and in the continental countries of Europe; more especially as explaining and illustrating the motives and methods of the then recent adoption, by the State of Massachusetts, of the study of drawing as one of the required studies in the public schools of that Commonwealth; in order to afford to the educators and educational offi cials of other States, and communities, an opportunity to form an intel ligent judgment in relation to an experiment which had already excited much interest.

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