The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-12-23
TEA6HERs'GoLUMN
J. G. CLINKsCALEs, EDITOR.
CONSTRUCTIVE DRAWING,


followed by the making of them at home
children using the material most con
venieut to them, as paper, card board
wood, or clay.
From these and other geometric so i'd:
are derived the principles of more I'D
vanced work; and the child has nothing
to unlearn in the years that are ahead
Whether science or mechanics or liter
ature or business becomes his occupation,
he must bring, as his Inheritance of q
wide awake, observant study, the truth:
of form, quickened intelligence, more
discerning mind, and more independ'
ent judgment. He has learned to inves.
tigate, decide, and formulate for himself,
always finding that such work. when
correctly done, bore definite and legiti.
mate result.
It is the aim of the instructor that
children should not learn by rote-should
not take things on the teacher 8 authority
or on that of any textbook, but should
reach their own conclusions through in
diyidual observation of the objects; even
when the first result is incorrect they are
encouraged to find out their mistakes by
criticism of each Others work, and the
occasion is rare when the teacher has to
supply the information. Her duty
largely consists in directing the interest
of the class, and in formulating for them
the precise technical language to describe
what they have already found out or
done.
The object in teaching construction 10
children is very different from the object
contemplated in teaching the same sub.
iect to adults. The teachers first thought
must be the mind of the child, and not
the subject taught; how shall she interest
that, arouse it, inspire it, make it self
active, self investigative, self.reliaut, 80
that the child shall each day do what he
does more and more self-consciously,
because it is right and best he should,
and hence he wills to do it.
Constructive drawing from objects sup
plies rational basis for such teaching
its results are exact and measurable.
Grant there is not in it the same aesthetic
training as is found in the kindred sub
iects Of freehand perspective and the
study of ornament, yet il takes prece.
dence of these for the beginning of child
education, as it deals altogether with the
concrete and furnishes a tangible and
fixed discovery of truths, the discovery OF
which stimulates and satisfies, while the
simplicity of the drawing required to ex-
press the information brings it within the
reach of every child who has learned TO
hold his pencil.
Iu teaching adults the reverse is true ;
instruction must deal directly with the
subject; "he gets it who can;" their
habits of mind are already acquired ;
they seek an immediate end-the result,
which is usually the solution of prob.
lem, experience has taught them the need
of.
1t has been said that wherein Michael
Angelo excelIed Da Vinci and his COM
peers was in his scientific knowledge.
All the world knows that the pose Of the
figures in the "Last Judgment" was
originally obtained from projection draw.
ings, or from series of back, front, top,
bottom, and end views taken at any
variety of angles and inclinations.
Why was it that Newton could see in
the falling of an apple universal law,
and Watts, in the condensation of steam
upon spoon, mighty force? Apples
had fallen for ages, and the condensation
of steam was but a commonplace thing,
which thousands of men aud women, as
thousands of men and women do still,
had witnessed and seen nothing in: Why
because the secrets Of nature, of science,
of life and being, are revealed only to
the observant and disciplined mind.
We see into forms and things just in pro-
portion to the sight we bring with US to
see with, and which is the result Of the
constant exercise of the preceptive facul-
ties. Cannon Farrar says, "the discov-
cries of modern science might have been
made earlier if minds had been properly
trained"
I think if we look carefully into the
lives of great men, We find equally
characteristic of them all that what they
did, they did we'll what they knew, they
knew accurately. 1t may not be ours to
accomplish their feats, but it is ours to
acquire their habits of thinking and
doing. So far as can be known, Homer
and Eschylus, like John Bright of our
own times, never studied any language
but their own. Tradition reports Shake
speare as knowing "small Latin and less
Greek" yet they we're all intellectual
giants because they made themselves
masters of what they studied, and stopped
not short until they realized in its perfec.
ton the capacities of their mother.tongue.
To Mr.. Gladstone, at seyenty.six, it is
immaterial whether he make Latin
yersihcation of that most noble hymn
"Rock of Ages" or fells tree at Haw-
arden, or pleads the cause of home rule
"in simple, honest, Saxon phrases" each
receives the same amount of care and at
tention, each is equally we'll done. Mr..
Ruskin, too, tells us that if We want to
educate and lift up an individual or a
nation, we must begin by getting them
TO do we'll what they are already doing
i'll, and to know more accurately what
they already know but poorly.
From all of which, / gather the habits
of mems minds are more important than
the deeds they do, and that education oi
boy or man means doing nothing slip
shod, but everything with all ones
might; means doing the little that lies
nearest, before reaching out after the
higher and complex; means getting
acquainted with simple things in the
simplest ways, and knowing these thor.
oug hly from top to bottom, from turret
to foundation stone, from PROV to stern,
from inside wall to outside fence, till the
mind gets the habit of unconscious
diving, never firing till it reaches the
roots Of things, and does this of its OWL
free will because it wants to and cannot
help it-in the language of Faust, "goes
to the mothers"
Such minds are intelligent; pedantry
and narrow. .mindedness have no dominion
over them. 1t is in the province of oul
public schools to educate these healthy
vigorous natures when education shall
cease to rest on mere opinion, and shal!
rather base itself in the nature of mind
Journal Of Education.
| Tbora ora at nroeont nvnr G{0 ran