Katherine Ball was the Director of art in public schools in San Francisco. In this article, the naturalization of the child as an artist is evidenced, but not a given. The value of arts education was not to produce artists but rather "to give a training designed to develop the faculties of observation, imagination and graphic expression".
We highlight some of the passages in the text:
"The young everywhere are variously talented. Some are creative, others merely imitative. Some are artists, other mechanical. Some are precocious, giving great promise which they never fulfilled. We know that instruction can at best only develop faculties. It cannot create them, but who is to say that faculties may not lie dormant in the child ready to unfold, or what soil is ready for the sowing?
Expression is one of the principal functions of life. The small child uses drawing as his medium, even before he is able to make himself understood by speech. He marks a paper and directs your attention to it as the representation of his baby idea. For this reason graphic expression should be correlated with all studies as far as possible.
The child lives in dreamland. His is the world of imagination, where all things are vague and indefinite. Drawing should be the channel through which he reveals himself, therefore his training should begin with the illustration of the pictures of his imagination, while the particular study and portrayal of objects should be reserved for a later period of his education.
The teacher, through well told stories, should equip him with a veritable mental gallery, and then not merely permit him to play at drawing, but she should direct him in his expression, not by dictation, but by processes which will stimulate his interest, establish his confidence in his own ability and guide him in working according to method."
Even if Ball admitted that not all children were creative, the gardening side of the educator was shown. If imagination was lacking, the child should be helped to imagine.
Afterall, she concluded:
"Realising the value of genius and the great importance of fostering and preserving it for the benefit of humanity in general, it is most distressing to see it blighted and withering away for want of sustenance, when it should be conserved as one of the most possessions of a people."
CM
Article by Katherine M. Ball in the journal of Education, 1916. Katherine Ball was the Director of art in public schools in San Francisco.
"The young everywhere are variously talented. Some are creative, others merely imitative. Some are artists, other mechanical. Some are precocious, giving great promise which they never fulfilled. We know that instruction can at best only develop faculties. It cannot create them, but who is to say that faculties may not lie dormant in the child ready to unfold, or what soil is ready for the sowing?
Expression is one of the principal functions of life. The small child uses drawing as his medium, even before he is able to make himself understood by speech. He marks a paper and directs your attention to it as the representation of his baby idea. For this reason graphic expression should be correlated with all studies as far as possible.
The child lives in dreamland. His is the world of imagination, where all things are vague and indefinite. Drawing should be the channel through which he reveals himself, therefore his training should begin with the illustration of the pictures of his imagination, while the particular study and portrayal of objects should be reserved for a later period of his education.
The teacher, through well told stories, should equip him with a veritable mental gallery, and then not merely permit him to play at drawing, but she should direct him in his expression, not by dictation, but by processes which will stimulate his interest, establish his confidence in his own ability and guide him in working according to method." (p. 545)
"Realising the value of genius and the great importance of fostering and preserving it for the benefit of humanity in general, it is most distressing to see it blighted and withering away for want of sustenance, when it should be conserved as one of the most possessions of a people." (p. 549)