The Newtown bee., 1897-12-10
Fairfield County News.
GREENFIELD HILL.

At the public exercises in Greenfield
Hill Academy, the day before Thanksgiv
ing, Mrs Frederick Bronson gave a yer.
interestir & and instructive talk to tn
teachers and scholars. She also incor
porated in her remarks some excellen
thoughts and suggestions from pape
read before the Newport scht OILS b.
Mrs Edward Wharton, her co-worker il
the art movement IN schools. The room
in which Mrs Bronson spoke was the ont
which she had decorated with the beau
tiful photographs and plaster casts
which are so much admired by all inter,
ested In the school. She prefaced hel
remarks with the statement that this art
decoration was something new in the
schools hereabouts; that Greenfield
Academy must take the lead and not
wait to follow, for the movement was
one Of such Importance and value that
it would in time embrace all the schools
of America. Continuing, she spoke sub
stantially as follows:
want your help in completing the
decoration of Greenfield Hill academy
not your contributions, but your per-
sonal cooperation in making your pupils
and their parents understand the pur.
pose of our undertaking, in making the
pc ople feel that to put some beauty into
the bare rooms ia not only a good thing
but a necessary thing, and necessary
o. only Oh artistic grounds but on
moral grounds as we'll. Our object in
| decorating the sch oo!rooms is not to
turn all the school children into painters
and sculptors or to teach them history,
but to surround with such representa-
tions or beauty as in older civilizations
the streets, the monuments and galleries
Of almost every city provide. In our
ScNAhA viz SOhuAblOIS &AV AAAoNOAoDAC
10 the development of taste. We must
teach our children to care for beauty
before great monuments and noble
buildings arise. There are signs of i'm
provCment; the desire for beauty is in
creasing and people are beginning to
understand the immense educational
value of good architecture and art.
Our object Is to advance this develop
school children with an atmosphere of
beauty, by putting in the rooms repre-
sensations Of the best works of art. II
with your aid prove to the fathers and
mothers that in surrounding the chill
dren with beauty we are also protectir g
them from Ugliness-the ugliness of
Indifference, the ugliness of disorder, the
ugliness of evil; having done this our
cause is gained.
Beautiful pictures and statues may
influence conduct as we'll as taste. To
keep children out of mischief they must
be kept busy. Every one knows the
ceaseless, irrepressible activity of
children's hands and tongues. The
hands are always investigating, the
tongue is always asking questions, and
the more thoughtful parent realizes that
the child's eyes are equally busy; and
to supply fitting objects for its investigs-
ton in one of the most important duties
OF parents and teachers In decorating
the schoolrooms we strive to provide
answers for the questions which the
child's eye is always asking. No child
will sit with his eyes perpetualiy glued
to his lesson-book. Now and then his
glance will wander, and his thoughts
with it. These distractions will not be
met by bare expanse of dreary, white
washed wall, but rather by some object
which will instantly present to the
child's mind an image of beauty, her,
oism, wisdom or virtue. We have
learned to make the schoolbook inter-
esting, and the next step forward in the
science Of education is to make the
school room interesting too.
Education is the discipline of learning,
the train of thought aroused by what is
learned, the formation Of child's char.
acter. The fact that schooling is q
means, not the end-the means of max
ing efficient, enlightened and useful
| citizeus-has almost become q truism
The tendency of modern education Ii
rather towards the harmonious develop
ment of the whole character than to thu
acquisition of any set of facts. Tit
value of object lessons is more generally
recognized. The underlying principle
of the kindergarten system is applied t,
the higher branches of education
Everywhere the exaction OF the eye i
considered-that is, everywhere excep
on the school room wall. But evel
these, happily, are no longer Away
bare. In the several cities charg
has been made.
In time perhaps the need for which W
are pleading will be recognized by tn
municipalities. Bot first the citize
must educate the city; we must prov
our readiness to be taxed for beautifr