The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-23

i lie thfiibil uldue ny the university
of Utah in Los Angeles at the meetings
of the National Educational association
is receiving many compliments from
the educators present and from local
papers. The Los Angeles Times in a
recent issue takes notice of the exhibit
in the following complimentary way:
No mention of the work exhibited al
the Spring street school would be COM
plete without comment upon the
exhibit from the University of Utah
While the art work of most of the
other schools shows many points of
correspondence, that of the University
of Utah stands alone, and is worthy of
the most careful study At a first
| glance it would seem crude, singular
! and in some particulars meaningless,
but when the key is given it stands
| out as the most scientific conception of
! kindergarten instruction yet evolved.
and one that is bound to attract at
tention from those who have always
/ opposed the ordinary methods of infant
education, because they seemed out of
! harmony with the nature of childhood
| 1t is truly argued as an objection
| against the ordinary kindergarten plan
! that the correlated work Of hand and
eye required is a tax upon the nervous
energy of a young child that in many
| cases results in great harm. The claim
is made that childhood is the time for
seeing, hearing, taking impressions
and working crudely, and that every
child in his development from infancy
to youth is an epitome of the evolution
of man.
Taking this for granted, the Utah
University through all it's depart
ments. from the kindergarten through
the collegiate, proceeds upon the theory
of evolution. Realizing that man in
the infancy of the race wove from
matted wool rude cloth whose fabrica-
ton taxed no power of invention very
severely, the weaving, instead of being
In symmetrical squares and ovals of
bright-colored paper, is of matted wool,
rails used by primitive man; and these
roals used by primitive man, and these
are made the foundation for early in
Struction in the history of the race.
The miniature houses that are con-
structed begin with the tepee, and,
proceeding through the bark hut to the
various forms of developed house, give
child the correct idea of domestic
architecture. When it is desired to
construct in paper a modern watch or
clock, the first forms made are those
of the pendulum, the lantern with the
candle, the water clock, the sun dial,
and all the primitive timepieces of an
tiquity. Little by little the mind of the
child is led over this road to devel-
oped manual training, and when ne
knows their history, and has learned
their uses naturally and by scientific
procedure.
The color work of this Utah Univer-
sity is truly remarkable. Raw colors.
used at first with the crude forms that
are the original conceptions of young
children. remind us of the art of the
q a r~lr- AE
crudities a power is developed that
gives the work a psychological inter
est that is most absorbing. The theory
of natural unfolding has here its
apothesis, and when originality of
and boldness of handling
are firmly fixed in the mind, then
comes the adoption of these qualities
TO modern and conventional methods of
treatment. Here, indeed, a true chord /
has been struck in education. Educa-
tors feel instinctively that a systematic |
which permits the pupils to |
see natural forms only under the con- |
ditions that deprive them of spiritual |
fails of fulfilling it's whole !
mission. They believe that work, facts I
or ideas that have no connection with /
the history and activity of man as a |
being often prove strait |
jackets for the imagination, and that /
a present that is unconnected in the
mind Of the child with any past is in a
measure unintelligible. They have at
tempted to remedy these defects by
oral instruction in the sciences and in
history in the lower grades, but much
Of this oral work passes from the
,hild's memory because no object that
ne can see and touch connects him di-
rectly with il. The Utah University
has made an attempt to cause the child
20 respect and understand the past
upon which the present and future are
quilt, and to give him a sympathetic
md natural acquaintance with history
through manual training. The idea is
me worthy of consideration. and i'm
olies as a preparation for it's dissent
lation more careful and complete
than is usually undertaken
,y the kindergarten teacher.