The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-09-20


institution the great power for good
which it has become for Birmingham
young people.
With the advent of new text books the
public schools have taken on new life
Four days were spent by the Birmingham
teachers this week in consultation and
study to familiarize themselves with the
coming years work. The institute held
in the high school building has been the
means of equipping the teachers in the
various schools for the tasks to come.
New ideas were discussed and plans ex-
changed that were helpful to ALL Many
of the teachers with whom I have talked
are looking forward enthusiastically to
the change in the school work, brought
about by the new text books-for in the
school room as in other places, variety
has its charm. One young woman said,
1T have been examining the drawing
outline to be followed next term and
find that Miss Brace, our supervisor has
her pet wish gratified-we are to use
water-c olors in the grammar schools. Last
year we felt that wonderful strides had
been taken when the little boxes of cray
ons were introduced to supplement-
sketches in soft pencil line. Some of the
daintiest pictures Imaginable were pro-
duced by the little fingers after their
first awkwardness had worn off, but in
every little study, whether landscape,
still life or drawing from life there was
a grave lack in the color tones, which
could not be supplied with an inferior
grade of crayons. We have all hoped
for the pretty water-colors, which will
give unlimited scope to our young artists
and now we have them.
The department of drawing and manual
art are Of the greatest Importance and
capable of development along broader
lines-the inventive bent of the mind be-
ing given here fuller sway than elsewhere
in the public school course. What
splendid thing 1t is that the people OF
the United States are awakening to the
need of further public school courses
in the arts and crafts. Educators in the
east are advocating the great advantages
that would be derived in increasing school
attendance if practical instruction could
be offered in the public schools to boys
and girls DESTROYS of entering the funda-
mental trades which supply the worlds
industrial needs.
Dr. Dennis j. Mcdonald, a member of
the New York board of education, has
I interested himself in this subject for
! years While in Massachusetts, recently
| he delivered an address to a gathering OF
| people interested in furthering art work
! in the public schools. He said: Il
prophesy that within the next few de-
I cades if we, as I hope we will, teach
every child from the entry into the school
until it's exit from High school or col
lege suitable and congenial handicraft,
that it will at once put the student on
self-supporting footing, and will enrich
our American Industrial manufacturers
beyond any foreign standard.
zone of the great drawbacks In the
fostering of skill in the industries and
arts is that so little publicity is given to
these things. One is surfeited with news
about this prize-fghter, this jockey or
that stock broker. But how much is said
about the man or woman who creates
some artistic weave of cloth, or who has
made some notable design for jewelry or
some excellent reclining chair or painted
beautiful picture or designed mag
nlficent gate?
Hundreds of designs can and will be
made by our graduates, and in order to
| encourage them suitable mention should
| be made of their efforts. DR.. James T.
! Haney director of art and manual train
/ ing in the New York public schools, deliv-
| cred an address in London before the In
| ternational Congress for the Development
| of Industrial Art, in which he illustrated
by example the work of hundreds of
! pupils of the eastern schools who had
| made useful and valuable working draw
| ings In the course of his lecture he en-
phasized the fact that drawing is the
| foundation of successful practice of all
| forms of handwork."
These principles are employed in
| moderate form by our manual training
and drawing teachers in the Birmingham
schools. Here the art of designing, de-
Grating, construction, weaving, wood
carving, forging, with substitution in sew
eral instances of Industries of a gentler
nature for the girls, such as sewing and
domestic science, are taught in the va
rious stages of public school life. No de-
partmmt has been more broadly produc-
tive of good, and the work is still grow
ing.
Miss Leta Kits, the supervisor Of music
in the public schools, returned last week
from New York, where she has spent
the summer with relatives. She was ac-
companied by Miss Hogin, who will be
her assistant in the work in the grammar
schools Miss Edna Earl Moore will have