Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The art appreciation test, by Erwin O. Christensen and Theodore Karwoski, of the University of North Dakota, deals with the realm of applied design and is still uncompleted. However, a bulletin on it is published 15 and gives to date the findings of the experiments. In the foreword it states that:

A test in art appreciation that functions should make it clear that art appreciation is a definite thing, which can be measured without doing violence to any personal factor involved which is not reached by the intelligence tests.

The "test is based on two main ideas-on the ability to react sensitively to the aims of the artist and to discriminate between inferior and superior art quality." It consists of a considerable number of mounted reproductions in black and white and color of paintings, architecture, sculpture, abstract design and color, applied design in posters, furniture and home furnishings, wall papers, illustrations, and advertisements. The student is asked to check the test by drawing

two circles for each judgment; one around (A) or (B), etc., and one around one of the reasons, which are numbered (1), (2), (3), (4), etc. Only one of these reasons is right. All others are wrong or do not apply. Select the one you think is most right.

A typical test in painting offers two pictures (marked A and B) with the following information to be checked:

[blocks in formation]

THE FEDERATED COUNCIL ON ART EDUCATION

Another important and, it is to be hoped, far-reaching movement in the interests of art education in the United States is the recent organization of the Federated Council on Art Education. For many years art organizations have given considerable time and energy to the consideration of the many problems involved in art education, but the papers, discussions, and committee work have borne little fruit. Each association did its own work independently of the others; there was no united plan. Meantime the important questions of credits and standardization were pressing their needs, and when the Beck questionnaire was rounded up it gave impetus

15 Art Psychology, Bul. No. 3, Vol. IV, Jan., 1925, No. 1.

[ocr errors]

to a unification of effort in the closing paragraph of the pamphlet, where it said:

In offering the results of this questionnaire may I make the following suggestions:

1. That the Eastern Arts Association, the Western Arts Association, the College Arts Association, and other bodies having to do with art instruction in the schools appoint committees to meet and confer upon the problems of art education and the best way to solve them.

2. That these committees later confer with leading educational experts from our great universities to the end that, if possible, “effective art education" may be defined.

In the spring of 1924 the Western Arts Association adopted at its annual convention resolutions seeking to bring about some organization whose business it would be to bring to a head the various educational questions confronting the different art associations. These resolutions were presented and adopted at the annual meetings of the Eastern Arts Association, the American Federation of Arts, and the American Institute of Architects. In each case representatives were appointed and in December of that year the Federated Council on Art Education was formed to study, investigate, and report on the art education problems which individually the associations had been considering. Since that meeting in Chicago, the American Association of Art Museum Directors, the College Art Association, and the Pacific Art Association have joined the council.

THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION

Finally, and perhaps more significant than any other one movement for art education this country has yet seen, is the recent announcement of the activities of the Carnegie Corporation. Considerable sums of money have already been granted through the recommendations of President Frederick P. Keppel to several college art departments and to art organizations, including the Federated Council on Art Education. But even more important is the policy of the immediate future to study art in relation to the American public and to use its funds and influence in thus promoting art in America.

Such a movement must at once give courage and support to the art teacher, professor, and supervisor, and to the educational work for which he or she stands. Presidents of colleges, principals, superintendents, boards of education, and teachers and the public generally must realize the growing recognition of the great value of art education in the immediate and future lives of the children and to the State and Nation at large. America may thus take her rightful place in art education among the nations of the world.

CHAPTER VIII

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION

By MARIS M. PROFFITT

Specialist in Industrial Education, Bureau of Education

CONTENTS.-General recognition of the value of industrial education-Types of industrial work and objectives-The all-day trade schools-Types of full-time trade schoolsOther types of organizations-Scope of the work-Evening schools-Apprenticeship for the skilled trades-Legal provisions affecting part-time education--Manual work, not vocational-Home mechanics-The general shop-Private and corporation schools

GENERAL RECOGNITION OF THE VALUE OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION

Industrial education in some form is as old as the industries themselves, but it has been only in the past dozen years that the public schools have undertaken in a serious way to incorporate courses in vocational industrial education in their program of studies. With the breakdown of the old apprenticeship system and with the growing realization of the need for some effective method of training to help the great army of industrial workers better and more quickly to adjust themselves to their life work, it was proposed to make it a responsibility of the public schools to offer at least some service in adjusting transition from school to work. The arguments for and against this proposition were the results of a difference of opinion between two social groups-the first believing that the purpose of public education was to contribute to culture and to the enjoyment of leisure and life satisfactions of the individual, and the second group holding that public education should emphasize vocational objectives and regard the development of the economic productive ability as worthy of attention.

Only during the past 10 years has the point of view of the believers in the social importance of effective vocational training of less than college grade resulted in a sufficient body of crystallized public opinion to support a widely diffused and highly developed program. Naturally, the rather sudden initiation of such a broad program was accompanied by acrimonious discussion and doubt as to its success on the part of many workers in the educational field. It is highly gratifying to note that during the past two years much of this discussion and confused thinking has ceased. There is an increasing tendency to regard the whole educational program as

conducted essentially for the purpose of promoting progress and stability of our democratic form of social organization. Much literature has appeared during the past two years that has directly or by implication set forth the conception that the ultimate standard by which any form of education must be measured and evaluated is the degree to which it contributes to effective adjustment in our form of social organization.

TYPES OF INDUSTRIAL WORK AND OBJECTIVES

In the United States the term "industrial education" is frequently used to designate everything from the simplest form of bench work in the elementary schools to full-time trade-school work and the work done in training departments of industrial plants. This broad use of the word often leads to considerable confusion, especially since certain types of industrial education are classified as industrial arts, manual arts, or manual training. A decision as to the classification of industrial work should be based upon the nature of the objective set up for training.

The objectives for industrial-education courses are best defined on bases of function. What contribution does the training offered in one of these courses make toward qualifying one to perform any of the life activities which require on some level manual dexterity and knowledge for its performance is the first question that should be asked in determining what courses shall be offered and to whom they shall be offered. During the past two years there has been an increasing tendency to define objectives in terms of ability to perform worth-while activities.

The important objectives for industrial courses which are generally recognized are as follows:

1. To train the hand and eye in the intelligent use of tools and materials through certain fundamental operations which it is well for an individual to be able to perform, regardless of his occupation. 2. To develop an appreciation of constructive work with different types of materials, in order that the individual may be a more intelligent consumer, regardless of his occupation.

3. To gain an insight into and an appreciation of some of the important industrial arts, in order that the pupil may make an intelligent choice of an occupation.

4. To develop ability to perform a variety of practical tasks sufficiently well to meet general social demands and the needs of home life but not necessarily up to the standard of occupational practice.

5. To prepare an individual for profitable and advantageous entrance into employment in a definite industrial occupation, with the status of an advanced apprentice.

6. To provide an opportunity for those who have already entered occupations to add to the knowledge and skill which they already possess, in order that they may become more expert workers, with increased earning capacity and a better chance for promotion.

Some general education values will accompany the realization of any of these specific objectives, but they will be especially pronounced in connection with the objectives suitable for the elementary grades. The first four objectives are or should be those of manual training or manual arts departments in the elementary schools and junior and other high schools. There is considerable evidence to support the statement that the fourth objective is recognized to an increasing degree as one of the most socially worth-while objectives for industrial arts and manual training courses. The last two are specifically vocational objectives and should characterize the work of every school or class that claims to be vocational. The fifth applies to the full-time trade extension evening schools, and in most cases of part-time trade extension classes.

Work which has a vocational aim necessarily has definite and clear-cut objectives, and it is unquestionably true that the clear definition of aims and purposes of vocational schools and classes is reacting upon nonvocational work in shop subjects and tending toward a clearer definition of the aims and purposes of such work. While some progress has been made along this line in the past two years there is still great need for further improvement in the definition and aims in the whole field of industrial arts and manual training. Definite objectives must be set up in terms of abilities to perform some specific life activities in these lines and which will qualify one for normal living experience.

THE ALL-DAY TRADE SCHOOLS

During the past two years there has been a slight increase in the number of of the all-day trade schools and in the enrollment in such schools. During the year ended January 30, 1924, the total enrollment in all-day trade and industrial schools, federally aided, was 33,262. Of this number, 27,012 were boys and men and 6,250 were women and girls. It is generally recognized that the all-day or full-time school is a rather difficult type of school to establish. This is especially true in cities where the high schools are predominantly of the academic type, with the emphasis upon college preparatory courses. In such a situation the tendency is for the children completing the elementary school either to go to the regular academic high school or to leave school and go to work. Regardless of the fact that the great majority of high-school pupils enter employment either before graduation from high school or soon after graduation,

« AnteriorContinuar »