The Portland daily press., 1884-01-08

This was the subject of very able address
delivered before the Portland Teachers' Asso-
citation last evening by Mr. John s. Clark of
Boston.
The speaker began by contrasting the ideas
OF education which prevailed forty years ago.
when he received his education in a cross
roads school house in western New York, aud
proceeded to the consideration of what we
mean by education, and the function of educa-
tion in the local organism at the present time.
The speaker then dwelt at some length upon
how education is applied to each individual
that it is the brain that we educate, and that
the brain has threshold form of action, that
OF absorption or of taking in knowledge, that
of assimilation or recreation, and that of ex-
pressing or giving out; and that the proper
equipment of a brain, or the proper education
al training Of brain, was giving it
an expressing power coextensive with
its absorbing power. The speaker showed
that while the brain absorbed knowledge
through all the five senses, it could express
knowledge only by the tongue and the head,
and that we had hitherto in our educational
training, confined the expressing power mainly
to the use Of language. This fact, the speaker
said was the main cause of the present dscon-
tent with our educational system, and he
pointed out, how brain equipment which lin
tied the expression Of thought to language,
was no practical preparation for any occupa-
ton save those connected with the mercantile
or professional employments. We have need
at the present time, to consider the demands
of those who have to get their living By manu-
al labor in the industrial employments, and to
this end, we must provide not SO much for a
training which viii increase the absorbing pow
er of the brain, bat training which will in
crease its expressing power towards the labor
employments
The speaker then showed how drawing
was the fundamental feature needed in this
respect, and pointed out by several illustrat-
ions, how drawing was made use of In the
workshop as the main language OF skilled la
Dor. Drawing was of three kiads: construct
i've, that is drawing as made use of in making
machinery, buildings, &C.; representative, that
ia drawing as made use of IN representing the
appearances of Objects and decorative, that is,
drawing as made use of 10 designing the orna-
N sntaton of objects. The different features
of these three kinds OF drawing we're explained
and their correlation to one another illustrated,
we'll as the feature of instruction in each, for
primary, grammar and high schools.
In particular, the speaker dwelt particularly
upon the important bearing of drawing in the
High School upon historical and clas >ical the
oIies, and also upon its great practical value TO
girls. This demand for drawing in education
was not an ephemersl one. II had its basis in
ths social development of our time; and prop
erly understood and properly taught, it could
be one of the most potent means of bringing
our education into greater harmony with the
practical needs OF the time We ought to rec
ognize Enthusiastically the needs OF our working
population in the public education, and one
of the fundamental necessities in the education
of every skilled workman is a knowledge of
drawing without it he is handicapped for ad-
vancement in his occupation, no matter how
good his other education may be.