The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-12-02

AAAo UOlu udlluS ana eyes De Irdlllou,
judgment and character developed, as
well as storing the brain with facts.
This must be lone in such a way as to
Improve the health, strengthen the will
n conserve the vital energy. Thus the
new education aims to discover ones
special bent, then to train the indi-
vidual along the line of his natural ca
pacity, and thus equip VI men and
women to go out into the world capable
of doing it's work.
The old education, on the contrary, so
fills the mind with book learning that
too often the will power is weakened.
the health is injured, desire for work is
lacking, there is little or no power to
apply the hands efficiently, and the
chief ambition is for a soft job The
consequence is h a boy or girl taught
in the old way has to unlearn much
impractical theory in the stern chool
of experience.
The new methods ave to be applied
in such a way as to tighten the pupils
Wor k in school, 1t the same time max
ing their work more effective. It won't
w ~ loou III ol1CduS oNClSIo"u-
ed course of study with more fads.
There has been too much of hat al
ready. The processes and a~pparatuses
OF the new education must be simple.
SO as to be readily taught n applied
without material cost to large numbers
of children. The so-called manual train-
ing high schools have their place.. like
fho hioh c1hoo1c re c1;a~o1 orN 1{$a~o
ture, but only a fraction Of the pupils,
five or ten out of every hundred, reach
these high schools. The vital problem
is to train the so or IS per cent who quit
school after going through the grammar
grades, that they can apply hand, eye,
judgment and Industrious application
to their work, whatever it may be.
PROF. TADD'S METHOD.
Much progress has been made toward
this end. One of the most notable sue
cesses is in Philadelphia, where indus
trial art methods have accomplished
such results in the public schools that
they have been introduced throughout
the p%arOchial schools also. The direc-
tor of these new methods, Prof. J. Lib
erty Tadd, says:
II begin early to train the hands and
eyes, not the brain alone. The mind is
educated even more by doing things
than by reading about them. The COM
mon way is to fill the children with dis
connected facts out Of books, which
they soon forget. Much of the book
learning is of little avail because it
oor,,nt ho rnool1r3 y-l1- ,ool,I p-{ if
we learn by doing, if we study the
actual things all around us in nature
and art, instead Of reading about them,
We get our knowledge first hand. we
lock it into the mind by making the
forms or doing deeds or taking in the
inspiration of nature, instead Of get
ting only a faint impression from print
through the eye or from speech. through
the ear. Fact thus learned are never
forgotten, but become a part of ones
self, that can be used whenever needed.
We also employ the art idea-that is
the doing of work well and in an artis-
tic manner. When a child's eye is
trained to recognize, grace, fitness,
harmony, beauty, proportion, space,
distance, ETC., it will be satisfied only
when it has lone as perfectly and as
well as possible. 1t will have no pa
thence with ugly, slovenly, shiftless
ways or results"
I'm what a 10 you proceed in ap-
plying these methodist
FREE HAND DRAWING FOR LIT
TIE FOLKS.
we begin with free hand drawing,
followed by creative drawing and paint
ing. Along with this go modelling in
clay and wood carving. The children
work in all four departments in rota-
ton. This gives dexterity to the hand
and trains tie hand and eye in a great
variety Of ways, whereas drawing
alone would train in but one way"
A what age would you begin such
training?"
"In the kindergarten and primary
schools. 1t ok at these little children
drawing on the blackboard with large,
free, swing ing lines. How quickly the
eye becom IS able to direct the hand in
drawing a big picture of what the child
sees or remembers. Little children
ol1ouAu A1SI SCI COIIlOl over tuc larger
muscles aid nerves of arm and hand,
making Urge, free movements. The
fine work of paper pricking, weaving,
ETC., should not be allowed: it is now
applied ir too many kindergartens."
I'm thi: lot of photographs of little
children drawing and modelling they
are usinc both hands. The geometric
forms, c, bes, prisms, ETC., are conspic-
uously absent. How is that?"
HTho Thi16ron aro ovor CO much moro