The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-05

than in previous years. The Importance
OF expression in the learning process has
! become quite obvious from the very be-
ginning Of the experiment in the use of
active subjects. There is no final test
of the rtghtness of feeling or of the ac-
curacy of thinking Ike the action or the
expression which is the result of these.
We are realizing more as we proceed that
the school Is TO turn out men not only
With appreciative power. but men with
the ability to influence life through ex-
pTessive power. Thus far our efforts
have been fragmentary, however, and il
seems a meet time TO consider from a
unified and broad point of view the ex
pressive work of the school, aRd more
particularly for the purposes of this ad
dress to show the place Of the story and
the poem.
Types of Expression.
There are many types of expression
through which man comes TO. influence
himself and the world in which he lives.
Some of these are in analysis simple, oUn-
ers are compact. For purposes of con-
Venience and clearness one might say that
there are four simple types OF human ex-
preston and action These we may term
ID organic expression, % reconstruct1Ye
expression, 90 representative expression
and ca expression through language.
Other important types which are combi-
nations of two or more Of these might
he noted, such as the fOrceful expression
or a great executive, VINO uOtS MS GIEd-
tive work mainly through the control of
men. Dramatic expression, which is also
a combination of these various types,
might likewise be noted.
The first type of expression which l
have chosen to call organic expression, is
the expression OF human life which man
gives through his own physical organism.
Movement of all sorts, facial expression
and every other form which reveals the
human mood, may be included under this
head. From the play OF the child and
the irritation which a man reveals
through the nervous systems of his body
up TO the fine art of pantomime and ia
ciaI expressions, as revealed in the
drama, lie a series of the human mani
festatiOns which make up the influential
factors in human personality. Give me
a man who is devoid of personal expires
sion of this organic type, and you will
find man who is likely TO be personally
uninfluential among his fellow beings.
In the order of precedence organic ex-
preston is the most instructive and is the
first general power of eXpressiveness
which a child attains.
Reconstructive Expression.
But a child not only makes over him
self, readjusting his inner states by his
organic action: he goes further and be
comes expressive and creative with the
world beyond his physical self. When a
child changes an object from one posi-
ton TO another, or tears 1t 10 pieces, scat
tering its fragments; or builds the torn
fragments together again, he is modify
ing the world in which he lives; he is
engaging in reconstructive expression.
This is the second large type. In. the
school it is represented by the subjects of
manual training and the fine arts.
In the work of making over the world
after the fashion of his hearts desire, a
child soon faces his own impOtency. A
child, like a man. may wish to hold a
fleeting picture or the evanescent view of
a sun dial. He may wish TO change the
sky line TO the fashion or his own inter-
probation, but the untold forces of na-
ture are mightier than he; the round of
days. with its fleeing beauties, goes on
and the mountains hold their rigid sill
hOuettes against the sky. for man can
little change them. But the idealistic ma
ture of man must have its way. ana so ne
represents Nature to himself in stone
and lire and color. out Of it came
the arts of drawing and painting This
is representative expression.
All that man has done in the preceding
types of expression Is 10 tell OF some con-
crete thing; to Indicate a special mood;
to mold a special object or TO represent q
particular picture. Man, with his intel
lectual powers, sees more than the con-
crete, behind the world of particular
things his interpretive mind has builded
distractions and congratulations. laws
and gods. and so for these he has created
a special language, the language not Of
sticks, and stones, and lines, and coiOrS,
but the language of sounds and symbols.
Al liiE SGliOoA On the iONSI pA4lleS e Celll
such expression language, and when II
rises to the plane of fine art we speak
of it as literature.
Must Develop ExpressiVeness.
II the school is TO train thoroughly the
expressive life 50 that man may be in
fluential through all his powers, in all /
his domains. the school must develop not
only those four types Of eXpressiveness, |
but the various completes of these, which
are everywhere current in life. SpOntau- /
eOus play. with its free organic express
plastic arts, the formal expression of Ian
guage. the executive control of their fell
lowmen must all have a place in the
public school. They may not all be set
down in tne formal course of study. but
in the inclusive round of school activity
each will have its place. Now the special /
subject in hand, the place of the story
and the poem, has direct reference to but
one type-that is, expression in language, |
and to but one single aspect of one form |
of language-that is, to the esthetic side |
of oral language.
For the most part human experiences
have the same meanings to different peO-
pie the world over. This is due to the |
similar constitution Of human beings. But |
the language which expresses the mean |
ing of these experiences viii differ with |
Frenchmen, Englishmen or Germans. The |
training of linguistic expression then de- |
ponds upon. clear and fixed association |
between the meaning of an experience and |
the language symbol which expresses it. |
For our American public schools il in |