River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1898-02-17
The Right Art for the sohoOl-Room

ID W r. COi1G RNs
What is the proper art for the
school? Is anything that is fairly
artistic and decorative good enough,
or only the best to be shown? Is the
interest Of children more easily gain
ed by modern pictures than 10y classic
art? Is the best in art or literature
necessarily the best for children? OF
the silent and constant influence Of
pictures and statuary upon those who
live IN their presence there ought to
be no doubt. So many Of the childs
days are passed within the four walls
Of the school-room, SO thickly there do
scented impressions crowd upon him,
that the influence Of its decoration is
likely TO be stronger than that Of the
home furnishings. The public
school is the place to which we should
turn our chief attention in our effort
to promote more beautiful public
life in America. The child should be
surrounded by beauty in the school
room from first to last. Trained in
the habit of seeing beauty, he will
come instinctiyely to hate ugliness in
the home and in the street."
If this, then, be the subject-train-
ing in the habit Of seeing beauty-the
general question Of the right Kind Of
art would seem to be solved: for all, |
think,will agree that of all artists the
old masters best repay study Indi-
vidually strong and attractive, they
gain UNNECESSARILY over modern men
by the accident of living in periods
when life was at its best, when the
vision Of beauty was most clearly re
yealed.
The adornment of the school-room
should arouse a craving for the
very best. The need Of beauty must
become organic. Art, that is now a
convention to the classes Of culture, a
riddle to the classes Of toll, ought to
become a living interest toall.
Recognizing the extreme sensibility
Of children TO impressions, we may be
certain that the foundations for a
new birth Of art will be laid most Sc
curely in the schools if care is taken
to exclude from the school-room walls
all but the highest and most serious
art. A bad picture has inevitably a
coarsening influence. The merely
commonplace cheapens life; and no
greater mistake can be made than Of
restoring to paratively inferior
things on the plea of the doctrine Of
interest. 1t is better that some few
in every school should take away from
the Winged Victory" an ideal Of
beauty than that all should conceive
Of art in terms Of a yard OF pansies or
the supplements to a Sunday news
paper The whole series Of such
things the children will find in their
homes; the school should contain the
best that humanity has to offer.
Beauty is not like a lesson in arithmt-
tic: it does not have to be apprehend-
ed by the whole class 1t does not
come through much teaching and eX-
pounding, but only through the re-
action Of what is fine within upon
what is finest outside.
The art, then, for the school-room
should be classic, serious, and beauti-
full. The schools need the inspiration
If perfect beauty. The sensitive
child must learn the value Of an art
istic inheritance, TO sit with rever-
ence at the feet Of the old masters,
and to feel the lovliness Of their lord
ship Of things. Then he will be in
the hands of causes that will arouse
ia him hunger and thirst after the
beautiful and the good.