The Series by Subject

Resources:

Charlotte Mason's ideas are too important not to be understood and implemented in the 21st century, but her Victorian style of writing sometimes prevents parents from attempting to read her books. This is an imperfect attempt to make Charlotte's words accessible to modern parents. You may read these, print them out, share them with your local study group--but they are copyrighted to me, so please don't post or publish them without asking.
~L. N. Laurio

The Beauty Sense: Art, Drawing and Music

Volume 1, Home Education, pg 48-50

III. 'Picture-Painting

The Method of Picture Painting

The ability to take a mental picture of the beauties of nature is so fulfilling that it is well worth teaching our children how to do it. Keep in mind that children tend to focus on what's right in front of them and have to be coaxed to notice what's more distant. Have children look thoroughly at some landscape, then ask them to close their eyes and bring up the image in their minds. If any part of their image isn't clear, then they should take another look at the actual landscape to fill in details, and then try again. When their mental image is complete, have them describe it, like this: 'I see a pond, it's shallow on the side closest to me but deeper on the other side. There are trees along the water on the deep side and you can see a reflection of the green leaves and branches so clearly that it looks like there's a woods under the water. Almost touching the trees in the water is some blue sky with a soft white cloud. When you look up, you can see the same white cloud but there's more sky because there are no trees up there. There are also beautiful water lilies in the far edge of the pond and two or three of the leaves are turned up so that they look like sails. Near where I am, three cows have come to get a drink. One is already in the water nearly up to her neck,' etc.

Strain on the Attention

Mental picture painting is a game that children enjoy, although it takes a good bit of concentrated attention and is therefore tiring. It should only be done once in a while. Still, it's good to have children memorize some scenic landscape images because, while making the memory requires effort, the habit of looking more closely at detail is learned as an unconscious by-product when children are asked to make detailed mental images every now and then.

Seeing Fully and in Detail

In the beginning, children will need help to get them started. So the mother might show how it's done by saying, 'Look at the trees reflected in the water. What do the leaves standing up remind you of?' until children notice the main details. She should memorize a couple of mental images and impress her children by closing her eyes and describing it from memory. Children are such little mimics that they will copy her example, even using variations of her own minute details in their own versions.

Children will enjoy this game even more if the mother introduces it by describing 'a wonderful gallery I've seen,' and then she goes on to describe individual pictures of different landscapes, children playing, an old lady sewing--and then she explains that these pictures don't have frames and aren't painted on canvas. This gallery goes with her everywhere inside her mind, and, every time she sees a pretty picture, she studies it until she can make a mental image to add to her collection. So now, these pictures are hers forever, wherever she goes, to look at anytime she wants.

A Means of Solace and Refreshment

The habit of storing mental images can't be overrated. It can comfort us and refresh us. Even in our busiest times, we can stop and take a mini-vacation in our own piece of nature to be refreshed and gladdened by 'the silence and calm of things that can't speak or feel.'

Volume 1, Home Education, pg 130-131

Neatness is Related to Order

Neatness is similar to order, but it implies more than everything being put in its proper place. It also means things must look nice, and requires a sense of good taste. A little girl must not just put her flowers in any old jug of water, but she must arrange them nicely in a pretty vase with a delicate form and a harmonious color, even if it's just a cheap thing. In the same way, everything in the nursery should look nice. Children should be encouraged to arrange things in their rooms to look pleasing. Nothing clumsy or unworthy, whether it's a book or picture or toy, should be allowed in the room. It might spoil his discernment or encourage a taste for common, ugly things. But one or two carefully selected works of art might elevate and refine his taste, even if it's only an inexpensive reproduction.

Volume 1, Home Education, pg 133-134

The Habit of Music

It's hard to know how many musically talented people were born that way, and how many grew into it by growing up hearing music and trying to reproduce it. In other words, music developed because it was made a habit as a result of living with a musical family. A Mr. Hullah insisted that the ability to sing was a trained skill that every child should be taught to have. Even that may have some inborn talent involved. It's too bad that most children's musical training is random. Few are trained with graduated ear and voice exercises to make notes and distinguish between musical tones.

Volume 1, Home Education, pg 307-315

Study of Pictures

Training children in art should take two forms. A six-year old should begin to express himself creatively, and should begin learning to appreciate art. And he will be able to appreciate before he has the skill to accurately express what's in his mind or imagination. So it's sad when the only art children are exposed to is colorful illustrations in their picture books or Christmas music sheets. But some might say, 'Young children can't appreciate real art. The only thing that will appeal to them is something colorful and that shows something he likes. A bright picture of a birthday party or a little girl's broken doll is what they like looking at. So, nature has limited the sort of art that's suitable for children.' But, the truth is, the minds of children are just like the minds of adults. They get used to whatever they're around. If all children can appreciate is what's popular and stereotyped, it's because that's all they've been exposed to. Some nine year olds studied copies of six pictures by Millet during a school term. At the end of the term, they were asked to describe the picture they liked best. And they did, and they did a good job. One little boy said, 'I like The Sower the best. The sower is sowing seeds and the picture is all dark except high on the right side where there's a man plowing a field. While he's plowing, the sower is sowing. He has a bag in his left hand and he's sowing with his right hand. He's wearing wooden clogs. It's about six o'clock in the morning. You can see his head better than his legs and body because it's against the light.'

A seven year old girl prefers the Angelus and says, 'The picture is about people in the fields, a man and a woman. There's a basket next to the woman with something in it and there's a wheelbarrow behind her. The man has his hat off, it's in his hands, and they're praying. You can tell that it's evening because the wheelbarrow and the basket are loaded.'

Picture Study Should be Regular

At age six, when children begin formal school lessons, this sort of picture study shouldn't be left to chance. They should study one artist at a time, term by term, and they should quietly study six reproductions of his work in the term.

The children's quotes show that they learned about the pictures, but that's not the most important thing they gain. We don't know how much influence any artist might have on a child's sense of beauty, and his ability to see the common sights around him as if he's seeing a picture. He is enriched more than we'll ever know by looking at even one picture closely. Contrary to common thought, children don't need a lot of color in their picture studies. They can find color anywhere, and can be satisfied for a while studying form and feeling in a picture [that's less colorful.] And for hanging on the schoolroom wall, the best art I know of are the Fitzroy Pictures ['The Fitzroy Pictures engraved by James Akerman, such as 'Work' and 'St. George and the Dragon.'], especially The Four Seasons [try searching by name: summer, winter, etc.] which has beautiful lines and color, and poetic feeling. I also agree with John Ruskin that children should be familiar with Ludwig Richter's picture books for children, such as Unser Vater (Our Father) and Sontag (Sunday). [An illustration from Der Sontag in Brilden, or, Sunday in Pictures, can be seen here or here.]

I am including notes from a Picture Study lesson given to children aged eight and nine by a teaching student at the House of Education. This will show how this kind of lesson might be given.

Picture Talk

Object:
1. To continue the term's study of Landseer.
2. To get the children more interested in Landseer's works.

3. To show how his knowledge of animals was important.
4. To help them to truly be able to read a picture.
5. To help them to be more observant and better focused.

Step 1. - Ask the children if they remember what their last picture-talk was about, and which artist was famous for painting animals. Tell them that Landseer was familiar with animals when he was very young. He had dogs for pets, and because he loved them, he studied them and their habits, so he was able to paint them.

Step 2. - Show them the picture 'Alexander and Diogenes,' and ask them to find out all they can about it themselves, and to try to figure out what idea the artist had in his mind, and what idea or ideas he meant his picture to convey to us.

Step 3. - After three or four minutes, take the picture away and see what the children have noticed. Then ask them what the different dogs suggest to them; the strength of the large, strong mastiff representing Alexander; the dignity and stateliness of the bloodhounds behind him; the look of the wise counselor on the face of the setter; the rather contemptuous look of the rough-haired terrier in the tub. Ask the children if they noticed anything in the picture that shows the time of day: for example, the tools thrown down by the side of the workman's basket suggesting lunch; and the bright sunshine on the dogs casting a shadow on the tub shows that it must be about noon.

Step 4. - Let them read the title of the picture, and let them tell anything they know about Alexander and Diogenes. Then tell them that Alexander was a great conqueror who lived between 356-323 BC. He was famous for the battles he won against Persia, India, and along the coast of the Mediterranean He was very proud, strong, and boastful. Diogenes was a cynic philosopher. Explain what a cynic is by telling them the legend of Alexander and Diogenes. Let them figure out which dog represents Alexander and which represents Diogenes. [read the story of "Diogenes the Wise Man" in James Baldwin's "Fifty Famous Stories Retold" online at Gateway to the Classics.]

Step 5. - Have the children take five minutes to draw the main lines of the picture with a pencil and paper.

Original Illustrations

I have mentioned illustrations drawn by the children. It might be helpful to include notes from a lesson given by a student teacher from the House of Education to show the kind of help a teacher can give with this kind of work. But it is best to leave the children to themselves with their drawing.

Object:
1. To help children make clear mental pictures from descriptions and then to show that on paper.
2. To increase their imagination.
3. To help them learn about form and color.
4. To help them be more interested in the story of Beowulf by letting them draw a picture from the book.
5. To help them develop their concept of an unknown creature [by imagining and drawing Grendel].

Steps

Step 1. - To draw out what the children know of the poem Beowulf, and of Beowulf the hero.

Step 2. - To fill in points they may have missed in their reading so far (up to the death of Grendel).

Step 3. - To read the description of how people dressed at that time, and to read the account of Grendel's death (including three possible pictures).

Step 4. - To draw out the mental images that the children have formed from their reading, and then to re-read the passage.

Step 5. - To let them put their mental pictures on paper with brush and paint.

Step 6. - To show them George Harrow's picture of Beowulf from Heroes of Chivalry and Romance.

Drawing Lessons

But, someone might ask, 'What about actual drawing lessons? Do you use oval blobs of paint made with the flat of the brush?' I think blobs can help give a sense of freedom with color. But, other than that, blobs allow a child to produce something like a flower that looks good, but that he hasn't really learned to draw. And he can produce such a picture without ever feeling anything for the flower. And feeling for a subject is the very soul of art. Giving a child tricks to make a picture that looks impressive damages his delicate sensitivity to approaching art.

John Ruskin said, 'If, while chatting with a friend, your eye merely rests on a rough piece of a branch that looks curious, then, no matter how unconsciously the eye rests, even after the conversation has been long forgotten and the specific memory of the branch is forgotten, yet forever afterwards, your eye will always take a certain joy in that kind of branch that it hadn't before. It will be such a slight pleasure and such a delicate trace of feeling that you will be totally unaware of its power. Yet no amount of reasoning can destroy it, and it will become a permanent part of who you are.'

And that's just what we want to give children when we teach them to draw. We want to make their eye rest, not unconsciously, but consciously, on some beautiful object that will leave a delightful image in their minds for the rest of their lives. Even children as young as 6 or 7 can draw budding twigs of oak, ash, beech or larch trees with such accuracy of color, tone and line that their crude little drawings are beautiful to see.

Children Have Art in Them

Just like lots of other things in children, we must have faith that art is there, or else we'll never find it. It's like a delicate Ariel that we can set free from bondage. So we set a twig or flower in front of a child and let him deal with it in his own way. He'll figure out how to get the form and color he wants. Our help should be limited to technical matters, like showing him how to mix colors. We don't want to interfere with the child's freedom, or inhibit the expression of the art that's inside him, so we need to be careful not to offer crutches like guiding lines and points. Also, we should make sure children have the easiest medium to work with--paint brushes or charcoal, not black lead pencils. Avoid cheap boxes of paint. Children are worth the best we can offer. A half dozen tubes of really good watercolors will last a long time and will produce quality color that will satisfy the little artists' eyes.

Modeling With Clay

As long as we're discussing art, we might as well talk about clay modeling. Nice little birds nests and baskets of eggs don't help develop artistic skill and get boring. The main thing a teacher should do is to show the child how to prepare the clay to get rid of air bubbles, and give him the idea of making a platform for his work so that his creations will look more artistic from the beginning. Then, put in front of him an apple, or banana, or walnut. Instead of letting him take a lump of clay and squeezing it into shape, have him build up the shape he wants morsel by morsel. His own creativity will pick up on the pit in the apple, or the crease in a child's shoe--all the little individual differences that make art unique.

Piano and Singing

As I near the end of this section on subjects, I know that important subjects have had to be left out, and the subjects that are included haven't been covered as thoroughly as they could have been.

For instance, some subjects that have special educational value, like music, I haven't even mentioned, partly because of space limitations, and partly because, if a mother doesn't have some natural sense of art within her, nothing I can say as an outsider can produce in her what she needs in order to convey a feeling for art in her child. If possible, children should learn from real artists who love what they do. It's no good for a child's foundation for future art appreciation to be laid by mechanical teachers who aren't qualified and who can't kindle an enthusiasm for art. As far as singing, I'd like to mention the wonderful educational results from the Sol-fa method. With the Sol-fa method, children learn what seems like a magical way to make hand signs for sounds. They are then able to read music, and write notes for, or make hand signs for, passages that are sung to them. Thus, the ear and the voice are cultivated at the same time.

[John?] Curwen's book Child Pianist uses the same method, worked out with great detail. If a child learns music theory as he learns to make music, he won't be bored and tired of practicing.

Volume 2, Parents and Children, pg 185

Discriminating Sounds

A quick, discriminating ear is something else that doesn't come by nature. Or, if it does, it's usually lost. How many different sounds can you distinguish when it suddenly gets quiet outside? Let the child name them in order from the quietest to the loudest. Let him try to notice different bird notes, both bird calls and songs. Let him try to listen for four or five distinct sounds that a brook makes as it flows. Develop accuracy in distinguishing footsteps and voices. Have them practice telling the direction that a sound is coming from with their eyes closed, or which way footsteps are moving. Try to tell the difference between different vehicles driving by only from their sound--such as a truck, van, or sports car. Music is unquestionably the best way to train this kind of ear culture. Mrs. Curwen's book 'Child Pianist' provides carefully graduated exercises of this kind for the parent. Even if a child never becomes a performer, acquiring a cultivated and correct ear is a big part of music education.

Volume 3, School Education, pg 238-239

Drawing

In pictures, we avoid mechanical aids like grids and directional lines. We don't use black lead pencils because they tend to encourage the copying of lines instead of the free rendering of objects. Children tend to always work in the round, whether they're using charcoal or drybrush. They also illustrate stories and poems, which aren't usually impressive as far as drawing skill goes, and don't lend themselves to art instruction. Still, they're useful exercises.

Picture Talks

We believe that our picture talks have a lot of value. A reproduction of an appropriate picture, perhaps by Millet, is put into the children's hands, and they study it by themselves. Then, children from ages six to nine describe the picture, giving all the details and showing with a few lines on the blackboard where a certain tree or house is, seeing if they can guess what time of day the picture depicts, and discovering the story of the picture if there is one. Older children can also study some of the lines of the composition, light and shade, the particular style of the artist, and draw certain details from memory. The purpose of these lessons is to help students appreciate art, not to create it themselves.

Volume 3, School Education, pg 77-78

Aesthetic Appreciation

Appreciation for beauty usually comes after recognition. Notice how, from the time he's little, this young child tries to capture a flower's beautiful color and graceful form with his own paintbrush. A wise mother is careful to make her child aware and appreciative of stylized art. She has him look at a wild cherry tree from a distance, or a willow tree with its soft pussy willows. Then she shows him how the picture on a Japanese screen has captured the very look of the thing without being an exact representation. When he compares a single pussy willow or cherry blossom with the ones in the picture, he can see that the pictures aren't attempts at exact duplication. From an early age, he learns the difference between painting what we actually see, and painting what we know is there even if we don't see it. He learns that it's more satisfying to try to paint what is actually seen.

First-hand Knowledge

Soon the child goes from nodding acquaintance to pleasant recognition of familiarity, to real knowledge--the kind of knowledge that we'd call science. He starts to notice a similarity between wild roses and apple blossoms, a resemblance between buttercups and windflowers, and some sameness between the large rhododendron and the tiny clustered heather flower. At his mother's suggestion, he'll initiate his own research to find out what specifically makes them alike--and then he'll discover the concept of plant families. His little discovery is real science because it came first-hand. In his own small way, he's like Carl Linnaeus.

Appreciative Knowledge vs. Exact Knowledge

All this time, the child is storing up delightful associations that will come back to him and give him pleasure when he's an old man. With this kind of educated appreciation of things from the beginning, his foundation of exact scientific data won't be merely some dull facts picked up in text books to pass a test. He'll want this information because a natural desire to know about it has been planted in him. It works the same way with art appreciation. The child who has been taught to really see will appreciate pictures with an educated, discriminating eye.

Volume 3, School Education, pg 121-122

Living Ideas Provide Sustenance

Intellectual life, like all the other facets of spiritual life, can only live and grow on one food: the nourishment of living ideas. I can't repeat this too many times or emphasize it too insistently. This is probably the area we fail in most often when raising children. All we feed them are dry, gray ashes from a fire of ideas whose spark of original thought has long since been extinguished. We give children inferior story books with tired clichés, unimaginative situations, mere threads of other people's thoughts, and unoriginal, worn-out attitudes. Our children complain that they already know how the story is going to end! Even worse, they can predict how every page will play out. Just the other day I heard someone say that children don't like poetry, that they prefer an exciting story told in prose. I have no doubt that they like the story, but poetry does appeal to children, although in other ways. Shelley's Skylark will captivate a child sooner than any touching tale. What about art? We tend to hang their rooms with sentimental illustrations [such as this 'Christmas number 'picture * * *] and the pictures in their books are even worse. We're getting a little better in the area of children's illustrations, but there's still room for improvement.

Volume 3, School Education, pg 208-209

For now, it's enough if we've seen how children attach themselves to the affinities they're born with if they have the opportunity and proper freedom. Our role is to make sure plenty of opportunities are freely provided at home and at school. Children should have relationships with earth and water. They should run, jump, ride, swim, and establish the relationship that a maker has with material resources, and thy should do this with as many kinds of material resources as possible. They should have treasured intimate relationships with people, through face to face talking, through reading stories or poems, seeing pictures or sculpture, through finding flinthead arrows and being around cars. They should be familiar with animals, birds, plants and trees. Foreign people and their languages shouldn't be something unknown to them. And, most important of all, they should discover that the most intimate and highest of all relationships--the relationship to God--fulfills their entire being.

Volume 3, School Education, pg 238-239

Drawing

Picture Talks

Volume 3, School Education, pg 353-357

A PICTURE TALK.

Group: Art. Class III. Age: 13. Time: 25 minutes.

OBJECTS.

1. To give the girls some idea of composition, based on the work of the artist Jean Francois Millet.
2. To inspire them with a desire to study the works of other artists, with a similar object in view.
3. To help them with their original illustrations, by giving them ideas, carried out in Millet's work, as to simplicity of treatment, breadth of tone, and use of lines.

MATERIALS NEEDED.

See that the girls are provided with paint-boxes, brushes, water, pencils, rulers, india-rubber, and paper.
Photographs of some of Millet's pictures.
A picture-book by R. Caldecott.

LESSON.

Step 1. Introduce the subject by talking with the children about their original illustrations. Tell them how our great artists have drawn ideas and inspiration from the work of other artists; have studied their pictures, copied them, and tried to get at the spirit of them.

Tell them that to-day we are going to study some of the pictures of the great French artist, Millet, some of whose works Mr Yates has drawn for us on the walls of our Millet Room, considering them to be models of true art.

Step 2. Tell the children a little about the life of Millet (giving them one or two pictures to look at meanwhile); give only a brief sketch, so that they will feel that he is not a stranger to them. Just talk to them a little about his early childhood, how he worked in the fields; how he had two great books--the Book of Nature and the Bible, from which he drew much inspiration; how later on he went to Paris and studied the pictures of great artists, Michael Angelo among them.

Step 3. Show the pictures to the girls, let them look well at them, and then draw from them their ideas as to the beauty and simplicity of the composition; call attention to the breadth of tone, and the dignity of the lines. Help them, sketching when necessary. to reduce a picture to its most simple form; half-closing their eyes to shut out detail, help them to get an idea of the masses of tone, etc.

Step 4. Let the children reproduce a detail of one of the pictures, working in water-colour with monochrome and making their washes simple and flat, reducing the tones to two or three.

Slep 5. Suggest to them to study the works of other artists in a similar way, and show them how the books of R. Caldecott will help them in making their figures look as if they were moving.

Subject: Fra Angelico.

Group: Art. Class IV. Average age: 16 1/2. Time: 30 minutes.

OBJECTS.

1. To show reproductions of some of Fra Angelico's pictures.
2. By means of them, to point out such distinguishing features as will enable my pupils to recognise Fra Angelico's work wherever they may see it.
3. To show in what degree his work holds a place in high art.

LESSON.

Step 1. Give a short sketch of the life of Fra Angelico.
Step 2. Allow time for my pupils to look at the pictures provided, namely, various reproductions of 'Christ in Glory,' 'Saints in Paradise,' 'Angels,' 'Christ as Pilgrim,' 'Annunciation,' 'Crucifixion,' 'Noli me tangere,' 'Descent from the Cross,' 'Transfiguration.'

Step 3. To notice what strikes us most in Fra Angelico's work--the exquisite jewel-like finish; the pure open skies and unpretending clouds; the winding and abundant landscapes; the angels; the touches of white light; the delicacy and grace of form; the colouring; the peace.

Step 4. If high art is to be seen 'in the selection of a subject and its treatment, and the expression of the thoughts of the persons represented,' how far does Fra Angelico come up to this standard?
He unites perfect unison of expression with full exertion of pictorial power. This will be illustrated by further reference to the pictures, and by reading some passages from Modern Painters.

Step 5. Allow my pupils time to look again at the pictures, summarising meanwhile by a few questions.

Subject: Design.

Division: Art. Class IV. Average age: 16 1/2. Time: 40 minutes.

OBJECTS.

1. To give the girls an idea of how to fill a space decoratively, basing the design on a given plant.
2. To show them that good ornament is taken from nature, but a mere copy of nature to decorate an object is not necessarily ornamental.
3. To give them an appreciation of good ornament and help them to see what is bad.
4. To draw out their originality by letting them make designs for themselves.
5. If possible, to give them a taste for designing by giving them some ideas as to its use.

LESSON.

Step 1. Ask the girls what is meant by a design.

Step 2. After getting from them as much as possible, explain to them that a design is not a mere copy from nature, although it should be true to nature; make them see this by simply copying a plant in a required space to be designed (let this space be for a book cover). It will look meaningless and uninteresting, and does not fill the space, therefore it will not be ornamental. Then show the girls that a design requires thought and invention in arranging it to ornament the object. In the case of the book cover the flower must be designed to fill the space in some orderly pattern, and should be massed in good proportion. Give a few examples of this by illustrations on the board, and show them a book with a design upon it.

Step 3. Point out to them that the most beautiful designs and those that have had the most thought spent upon them are the most simple. Show examples of this in Greek Ornament--Greek Honeysuckle, Egg and Dart Moulding.

Step 4. Tell the pupils that you wish them to make a design for a linen book cover, 7 in. by 5 in., and if they have not time to finish to go on with it at home; if they like to carry the design out practically, to transfer it to linen and work it.

Step 5. Show the girls the flower from which they are to take their design, and point out its characteristics--the general growth of the plant, the curves which it makes, the form of the flower and leaves, and the way the leaves are joined to the central stem; these characteristics should not be lost sight of, but be made use of in giving character to the design, and treated as simply as possible.

Step 6. Let them begin their designs first of all by construction lines, and then clothe them with flowers and leaves, seeing that the masses are in good proportion. If time permits the design could be tinted in two colours, one for the background representing the linen, and the other for the pattern upon it.

Step 7. Suggest to them different ways in which they can make use of design in making simple patterns for their handicrafts, such as leather-work, wood-carving, and brass-work.

Volume 4, Ourselves, pg 41-43

The Beauty Sense

Intellect has one more region where he can go. This region is very beautiful and wonderful. Intellect can't go here without Imagination. And even more important, he'll need an educated ear and eye that can recognize the lyrical quality and beauty in words and how they're arranged. It's the Beauty Sense who holds the key to this delightful palace. There are few joys in life greater than beauty, or more constant. Yet it's impossible to define what beauty consists of. Some of its elements are color, form, proportion, and harmony. Words can have those qualities, and therefore, words can be beautiful. That's why the Beauty Sense is needed to fully enjoy Literature.

Beauty in Nature

Beauty doesn't just exist in Literature. It's everywhere--in fluffy white clouds in a blue sky, the gray trunk of a beech tree, a kitten playing, the graceful flight and lovely colors of birds, the hills, valleys, streams, golden fields of buttercups, and a broom tree in full bloom. Nature is full of beauty and enjoyment. People like the poet William Wordsworth who watch nature closely and know her intimately will always have an active Beauty Sense, and it will always bring them joy.

We can't get away from Beauty. Perhaps the most beautiful thing of all is the face of someone we love.

The Palace of Art

We can find beauty in the way a tasteful room is arranged, and its color scheme, or a nice dress, a pretty book cover, the metal hinges and knob on a door, if they're done artistically. And here's another region of beauty that can be entered by people whose Beauty Sense allows them to do more than just see the beauty in things--their souls become so filled with the beauty that that they see and hear, that it spills out in their own beautiful creations. They create paintings, statues, glorious churches, elaborate decorations, symphonies, sonatas and simple tunes. If we stop to consider how much there is for us to enjoy, we can't help but admire how good God is for putting us in a world so full of beauty, and for giving us a Sense of Beauty that lets us see and hear and, in a single moment, be overwhelmed with pleasure. There's beauty in art and in nature[maybe because nature is God's art?].

The Hall of Imitations

Like every other of the good gifts we've received, this one is also subject to neglect and wrong use. It's not enough to live in the midst of beauty. We also have to keep our Beauty Sense sharp and alert, and make sure that it's always quick to discern what's truly beautiful. A poet says this about a man who had lost his Beauty Sense:

'A primrose by the river's brim
Was just another rose to him
Just that, and nothing more.'

He totally missed the subtle aspect of beauty. He saw a river, and a flower, but not the pretty way it grew right there. The danger for us is that, in the same way that a bleak, barren land lies right on the border of the Kingdom of Literature, there's also a dull, dreary place that we can go into and mistake for the Palace of Art. It's called the Hall of Imitation. In this hall, people are busy painting, sculpting, molding and making things, Even the sun itself works many hours so they can take photographs. And the sun is as good an artist here as anyone else. You see, in this hall, people have the notion that the purpose of art is to make an exact copy of what they see in life. The 'artists' work hard trying to get the color and shape exactly like it is in real life. They paint photo-quality pictures, or life-like figurines. Yet, the whole time, they're missing the whole point. They don't see the subtle presence of Beauty in what they're looking at. Many people allow themselves to be deceived this way. They live their entire lives without even once entering the Palace of Art, and they only perceive a little bit of the Beauty of nature. It takes training to really see and to have our eyes opened to take in the joy that was created for us in this beautiful life.

Volume 4, Ourselves, pg 48-49

Living Pictures

We've mentioned My Lord Chief Explorer, Imagination, as a companion of Intellect, but he really deserves his own introduction. He's amazing and, as mentioned earlier, he has the ability to create a whole series of living pictures about any region that the Intellect can think of. Great artists who create poetry, stories, paintings, architecture or music are able to express and show the rest of us part of the wonderful visions that Imagination has revealed to them. And we can appreciate and enjoy their work because our own Imagination does the same thing for us in a lesser degree. Our Imaginations make us pictures and poems inside the private room of our minds. Little children try to express what they see in their minds by playing. They act out things, but often in strange ways. Since they don't know the complete facts, they jumble things up. They might call a cow a hyena, and they sincerely expect to meet lions and tigers in every cluster of bushes.

The Cultivated Imagination

The more we know, the richer and more fleshed out our Imagination will be. Have you read Feats on the Fjord? The author, Harriet Martineau, never even visited Norway. Yet nobody could describe life on the fjords more vividly than she did. That's because her imagination felt comfortable in foreign lands and in different historical eras. Have you ever considered that Sir Walter Scott must have lived in all the different times and places in his imagination that he wrote about? No wonder people called him a wizard! In order to have a well-stocked collection of pictures in our imagination, we have to read a lot and work to imagine the things we read about to ourselves in our minds.

Volume 4, Ourselves, pg 2 (Book II)

Imagination takes living pictures of glorious things from the past and strange things from far away places. The Beauty Sense loves to say, 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever,' and is always ready to take hold of any lovely thing in pictures, poems, flowers or heavens, and save them as something to be enjoyed forever.

Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 212-213

Parents have to abandon any attempts at academic training once their children start school, but they can still provide intellectual culture. If students don't get that at home, they won't get it at all. When I say intellectual culture, I'm not talking about acquiring knowledge or even learning how to learn. I'm talking about cultivating the ability to appreciate and enjoy whatever is true, noble, right and beautiful, both in thought and the way it's expressed. For example, a person might read,

'He lay along
Under an oak whose old root poked up
In the brook running through these woods.
Here a poor hunted, secluded deer
That had been wounded from a hunter's arrow
Came to die.'
-- adapted from Shakespeare, As You Like It

and that person might miss everything except the four main details--the man laying down, the oak tree, the brook, and the wounded deer. But someone else can read those exact same words and get, not only those main details, but something else. He gets a delicious mental picture, and a sense of exquisite pleasure in the words used to convey this image. Assuming everything else is equal, the second person gets a hundred times more enjoyment than the first one. It's as if he has a sixth sense, an extra avenue of pleasure that adds to every hour of his life. If the purpose of life is to get rich rather than to enjoy the satisfaction of living, then people can live just fine without intellectual culture. But if we're supposed to make the most of life as our years go on, then we have a responsibility to enable our children to get this enjoyment.

Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 224

Goethe said that we should see a good picture, hear some good music, and read some good poetry every day.

Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 231-235

Aesthetic Culture

In attempting to discuss how to develop aesthetic culture [the beauty sense], I think that giving a list of what's supposed to be tasteful is like writing rules about matters of conscience. It's like dictating to other people what they should be working out and deciding for themselves. Perhaps it's unacceptable to have a large floral pattern on our carpets but acceptable to have such a pattern on our curtains. If that's the case, then, rather than having somebody forbid it, it's better that a person be able to come to that conclusion himself as a result of his own growth and exposure to culture. If we decorate our rooms with bulrushes and peacock feathers, or geometric shaped art instead of traditional natural forms, or a sage and terra-cotta color scheme because it's the current fashion, then, no matter how nice the room might look, there's not much taste involved. Taste is the very essence and most delicate expression of individuality in a person who has grown up around lovely, fitting objects and had experience with the habit of discrimination. This helps us to understand what we can and can't do as we attempt to cultivate the beauty sense in youths. As much as possible, let their surroundings be decorated using a principle of natural selection--not haphazard selection, and not with a slavish obedience to fashion. Keep in mind the three or four general principles that work well with all the different aspects of building, decorating, furnishing and embellishing. It's good for children to hear these kinds of things discussed, and to see them applied in real life. Any item ought to be suitable for its purpose, and should harmonize with the people and things around it. After these priorities are considered, the thing should be as beautiful as possible in form, texture and color. And, last of all, remember that it's better to have too few things than too much. A child who is used to seeing a vase disposed of, or a fabric selected using these four guidelines, will develop the ability to discriminate without even being aware of it. He'll sense the discord of color schemes that don't harmonize, choose a pitcher with natural, flowing lines over one that's all geometric angles, and know his own mind enough to know what he likes. It may not be financially or logistically feasible to surround a child with works of high art, but that isn't necessary. What is necessary is that the child not live among ugly, unharmonious things. A blank, empty nothing is always better than the wrong thing. William Morris wrote, 'Nothing can be a work of art if it isn't useful. By useful, I mean that it should minister to the body that's well under the command of the mind, or it should amuse, soothe or elevate a healthy mind. If this rule were followed, then tons and tons of atrocious garbage that pretends to be art of some kind would be thrown out of the homes in our towns.'

It's a shame that, with music and art, we tend to use compilations and 'Best Of' collections like we do with poetry. Avoid collections. Every painter or composer who's earned a name for himself has a few master ideas in his mind that he works out in his art--not just in a single piece, but a little here, a little there, in a series of studies of those ideas. If we want to treat an artist's work merely like a decorative ornament, then a little of one artist and a little of another is fine. But if we recognize that an artist is a teacher who can have a refining, uplifting effect on our cruder nature, then we'll realize the importance of studying his 'lessons' in sequence as much as we can. A house that has one or two engravings by Turner in one room, a Millet reproduction in another room, and Corot in another would be a real school of art for a child. He'll have the opportunity to study every line from at least three different masters of art. He'll be able to compare their styles, learn their individual characteristics by heart, perceive what they were trying to say through their pictures, and how they use their art to express it. This is a solid foundation for art education. For most of us, art education should consist of awakening the ability to appreciate, rather than the skill to create. Also, children should be familiar with one or two good watercolor landscapes to give them an idea of what to look for when viewing scenery.

But it's not always possible to choose pictures according to this kind of plan. If it's not, it's not a good idea to get a lot of other art to compensate. In fact, it's an advantage to get so intimately familiar with even a single good reproduction that the image left in the mind is almost as clear and distinct as the picture itself. The only thing the parents can do is to make sure that the child sees the picture. The refining influence and artistic culture happen independently, with no connection to efforts made from outside the child. The most important thing is not to corrupt the child's taste. It's better to have one single work of art in the house that will help the child's ideas form themselves, than to have the wall covered with mediocre pictures. Youths usually have to wait for an opportunity to visit an art gallery to discover the way a brush can capture the very spirit and meaning of nature, but that's not as bad a disadvantage as it might seem at first glance. Studying real landscapes in nature itself is what should prepare them to appreciate landscapes in art. No one can truly appreciate the moist, solid freshness of the newly plowed soil in Rosa Bonheur's pictures unless they've noticed for themselves what dirt clods look like after they've been turned up by the plow. On the other hand, what about this, by Fra Lippo Lippi?

'Haven't you noticed that we're made so that we love
Things we've passed a hundred times and never paid attention to,
Only after we first see them painted?
That's why they're better painted--at least better for us,
Which is the same thing. That's why art was given to us--
It's God's way of using us to help each other,
Borrowing from each other's minds. Have you ever noticed
Your rascal's hanging face? If you had some chalk to sketch it,
Believe me, you'd never forget it! How much more so is it
When I sketch higher, nobler things!
I'd be acting like a preacher
Interpreting God to all of you!

Whether it's paintings of landscapes or real scenery in nature, the only thing that parents can do is to help their children really see by using a suggestive hint to get them to really look. Seeing is what eyes need if they're going to learn. But they also need deliberate instruction. I don't think it's necessary to mention that John Ruskin's Modern Painters is the best book for teaching art appreciation to those who are unfamiliar with it.

If culture can flow in through the eyes with art, imagine how much more that's possible with the ears! Hearing is like a blessed sixth sense, but it doesn't seem to be bestowed on everyone alike. A lot of time, money and effort is spent to give children the skill of performing indifferently on an instrument. Playing an instrument indifferently isn't necessarily a bad thing, but people sometimes forget that listening with an appreciative, discriminating ear is as educational and 'happy-making' as playing an instrument, and appreciative delight is an ability that can probably be developed in anybody if the same effort were spent on appreciation as on playing. Students should hear good music as often as possible, and with educational guidance. It's too bad that we tend to like our music the same way we like our art and poetry--mixed, so that there aren't many opportunities to listen through all of the works of a single composer. This is what we should do for our children. Occasionally, they should study the works of a single great composer until they've caught some of what he had to teach, and are familiar with his style.

Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 301-302

The concept of self-improvement and personal culture is fascinating, and seems so deceptively pseudo-virtuous, that many noble-minded women can be deceived. They believe that improving their minds and conserving their emotions is the best thing they can do for themselves and for society because, as they reason, if every person looks to himself, and takes care of cleaning the street in front of his own house, then the whole street will be clean. They bring up their children with the same attitude. Their children work and seek after their own personal improvement, but are aloof from the lives of other people. We need to be perfectly clear about this issue and recognize once and for all that personal improvement isn't a legitimate goal. It's fine to seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and to improve our mind and body so we're better prepared to serve others. When we recognize this, then our own self takes on an objective aspect rather than a self-centered one. We'll look at pictures and read books because the pictures and books deserve to be experienced, not just for our own gratification. Our children will carry on this wider perspective of life.

Volume 5, Formation of Character, pg 312-313

I once heard a German man in the Hartz valley tell his five-year-old little boy that this was the scene of Johann Tilly's famous march against Magdeburg, and, naturally, the child could envision the valley filled with armed soldiers, and pawing horses with waving plumes. He would never forget that association. A very young child on the streets in Bruges, Belgium could tell you where a specific painting by Hans Memling can be found. At the Hague in the Netherlands, you might find a working-class father taking his children around to the art galleries. You can't tell what he's explaining to them, but they certainly seem interested. But this kind of interest doesn't seem to exist for probably eighty percent of our children born in England. There seem to be two or three reasons for this. First of all, we've been raised to only approve of whatever is 'useful' in education and has utilitarian, practical value. We decide that reading, writing and balancing a checkbook are worthwhile because they help us to earn a living. Playing the piano, singing, and conversational French can help us in social settings. Classical Greek literature and math skills might earn a scholarship. But what good is it to know what happened in the past, or to even know what happened down the street? What's the practical value of having an imagination filled with beautiful pictures of various things and scenes that enrich life and provide a nobler existence?

It's the same old story. That's why I say that a strictly utilitarian education is extremely immoral. It cheats a child out of the relationships and associations that should provide an intellectual atmosphere for him.

Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, pg 43

How should we prepare a child to use the sense of beauty that every child seems to be born with? His education should familiarize him with entire galleries of mental pictures by great artists from the past and present, such as Jozef Israels' Pancake Woman, his Children by the Sea; Millet's Feeding the Birds, First Steps, Angelus; Rembrandt's Night Watch, The Supper at Emmaus; Velasquez's Surrender of Breda. In fact, every child should leave school with at least a couple hundred paintings by great artists hanging permanently in his mental gallery, as well as great buildings, sculpture and beautiful forms and colors that he sees. It would also be good to supply him with a hundred lovely landscapes, too, such as sunsets, clouds and starry night skies. Anyway, he should have plenty of pictures because imagination grows like magic. The more you put in, the more it can hold.

Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, pg 56

What about what Coleridge called the aesthetic appetite? Much of the appreciation for culture depends on it. But it is vulnerable. Without beauty to feed on, it becomes empty and dies. It needs to feed on beauty--beauty in words, art, music and nature. The purpose of our beauty sense is to open a paradise of beauty for our enjoyment. But what if we grow up admiring the wrong things? Or, even worse, what if we grow up believing in our arrogance that only we and those just like us know how to discern and appreciate beauty? An important part of education is being exposed to lots of beauty, and learning to recognize it and being humble in its presence.

Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, pg 213-218

(f) Art

Art appreciation is regarded with a lot of respect, but teachers tend to be intimidated about how to teach it. We all agree that children should cultivate their ability to discern and appreciate beauty, especially those who already have that ability. The question is how to do that. The novel solution suggested by South Kensington in the 1860's--freehand drawing, perspective, drawing from the round (from life?) has been rejected, but nothing has arrived to fill its place. We still see schools with models of cones, cubes, etc. placed so that the student's eye can take them in freely and perhaps inspire the hand to reproduce it on paper. But now we understand that art can't be experienced through mechanical exercises. Art is a thing of the spirit, and we need to teach it in ways that affect the spirit. We realize that the ability to appreciate art and interpret it is as universal to all people as intelligence, or imagination, or the ability to form words to communicate. But that ability needs to be educated. Teaching the technical skill of producing pictures isn't the same as appreciating art. To appreciate, children need to have a reverent recognition of what's been created. Children need to learn about pictures: they need to learn about them a line at a time, and as groups, by studying pictures for themselves rather than by reading about them. In our schools, we have a friendly art dealer who provides six nice copies of the pictures of one artist each term. The children hear a short story about the artist's life, and a few words to draw their attention to the artist's best features, perhaps his trees or skies, or rivers or figures of people. The six reproductions are studied one at a time so that the students learn to not just see a picture, but to look carefully at it, absorbing every detail. After looking at the picture, it's turned over and the children narrate, telling what they saw, perhaps, 'a dog driving a flock of sheep along a road all by himself. No, wait, there's a boy, too. He's lying at the river, getting a drink. You can tell by the light that it's morning, so the sheep must be going out to graze in the pasture,' and so on. The children don't miss any details--the discarded plow, the crooked birch tree, the beautifully formed clouds that look like it might rain. There's enough to talk about to keep the children busy for half an hour, and afterwards, the picture will have formed such a memory that the children will recognize it wherever they see it, whether it's a signed proof, an oil reproduction, or the original itself in a museum. I heard of a small boy who went to the National Gallery with his parents. He had wandered off on his own, and came running back, saying, 'Mommy! They have one of our Constables on that wall!' With this plan, children get to know a hundred or more great artists during the years they're in school. And they learn with the kind of intimacy that will stay with them all their lives. A group of children were in London on an excursion. When asked what they'd like to see in the city, the answer was, 'Oh, Mommy, let's go to the National Gallery so we can see the Rembrandts!' Another group of young children went for tea to a place they'd never been before, and they were excited to see two or three De Hootch pictures on the walls During the course of their school years, children have many opportunities to visit galleries. In art, they have the opportunity to see glimpses of life illustrated. As Robert Browning said,

'Keep in mind, we're designed so that we only come to appreciate and love something we've passed by a hundred times, only after we see its beauty in a painting.'

Here's an example of how beautiful but familiar and common things can grab our attention when an artist brings them to our notice in a picture. A lady writes:

'I was invited to a small village to talk about the Parents Union School. Even though it was raining heavily, twelve very interested ladies came to listen. I suggested that I introduce them to some friends their children had made at school--some great artists they had been learning about. We had a nice 'picture talk' with the works of artist Jean B. Corot. I enjoyed it even more because of one of the women's narrations. She narrated as if she'd been liberated for the first time in months. We were looking at his 'Evening' picture. It has a canal on the right and a great group of trees in the middle. Most of the ladies talked about individual parts of the picture, but this woman talked about everything. It refreshed her like a green pasture.'

These women were all familiar with the kinds of details that are in Corot's paintings - he paints the kind of natural beauty that is common in the area where they live. But Browning is right, we tend to overlook what's common to us until we're clued in to its beauty by seeing it in a painting. Only then do we learn to truly see and appreciate it.

Remember that the talks that are recorded, (they can be seen at the PNEU office) are from the children themselves. They don't mention 'schools of painting,' or art style. These are things they'll consider later, when they're older. In the beginning, it's more important for them to simply know the paintings. In the same way we do with worthy books, we let the artist tell his own story without our interference telling the child what to think about it. We trust a picture to say what the artist wanted via the medium the artist chose. In art, just like in everything else, we eliminate the middleman and let the work speak for itself.

Students in Forms V and VI are asked to 'describe, by doing a study in sepia colors, Corot's Evening.' Students never do more than this kind of a rough sketch from memory. Their picture studies aren't for the purpose of providing them with drawing material. In fact, they are never asked to copy the picture, because attempting to copy might diminish the student's reverence for the picture as a great work of art. I am hesitant about sharing how we teach drawing now that Herr Cizek has shown us what great things children are capable of with very little discernible teaching and a little bit of suggestion. But that kind of training probably only works under the inspiration of an unusually gifted artist. The people I'm writing for are mostly teachers who will need to depend on their students rather than rely on their own inherent talent. We have students illustrate their favorite episodes from books they've read during the term, and the spirit their pictures show and the appropriate details they include make it apparent that they've picked up more from the passages than even the teacher! They aren't afraid to try to tackle techniques they've never learned about, which shows us something about children. They attempt to draw a crowd with wonderful ingenuity, such as including a crowd of people listening to Mark Antony's speech, or a crowd cheering for the Prince of Wales in India. Whenever they try to show a crowd, they seem to do it in the same way that most real artists do: by just showing the heads. Like the children in Vienna, they use all the space on their paper, whether they're drawing a landscape or the details in a room. They add horses leaping brooks, dogs chasing cats, sheep wandering on the road, always giving a sense of motion. Their drawings show that they've studied the things they see with some attention. When they draw people, they show them doing something appropriate: a gardener sharpening his clippers, their mother scrapbooking, a man steering a boat or driving or mowing. Their chairs always stand on four legs, their people always stand on two legs with surprising regularity. They're always quick to correct their mistakes when they see that their drawing doesn't match what they see in the real world. They're not afraid to use bold colors. Almost all children will try to convince you that they have what it takes to be an artist. Their nature notebooks give them a perfect opportunity to practice. The first buttercup in a child's nature notebook is crude enough to scandalize someone who teaches brush-drawing, but later, he'll paint another buttercup, and this one will be much improved, capturing the delicate poise and radiance of a real buttercup.

Drawing is pretty much well-taught enough these days. All we need to do is to emphasize a couple of points about the specific kind of drawing our students will be doing--studying the work of great artists and illustrating their nature notebooks.

We try to do what we can to introduce students to architecture. We also do a little modeling with clay, and other various handicrafts, but nothing extraordinary. You can see more details by taking a look at our Parents Union School Program schedules.

We do more with music appreciation. The best way to explain what we do is to share a quote from Mrs. Howard Glover from the talk she gave at the Ambleside Conference in 1922:

'Music appreciation is focused on so much these days. We began it in our PNEU schools about 25 years ago, when I was playing a lot of the best music that I was interested in for my own young child. Charlotte Mason heard about what I was doing. She realized that music just might provide much joy and interest to everyone's life. Since students in her PNEU schools were getting the best of everything--the greatest literature and art, she thought they should have the greatest music, too. She asked me to write an article in the Parents Review about the results of what I was doing, and to plan a schedule of music for each term that could be played for the students. Since then, music has been included in the Programme schedule each term. And that's how the movement began, and it's spread far and wide.

Of course, music appreciation has nothing to do with playing the piano. It's often been thought that 'learning music' can only mean that. So it was assumed that children who showed no special talent for playing the piano were simply not musically inclined and wouldn't like concerts. But music appreciation is different from playing an instrument in the same way that being a natural actor is different from enjoying a Shakespeare play, or being able to paint is different from enjoying a painted picture. I think that all children, not just the musically inclined ones, should learn to appreciate music. It's been proven that only three percent of children are actually tone-deaf. If children are started early, it's amazing how even those who seem to have no musical 'ear' can develop one, and can learn to listen to music with understanding and enjoyment.

Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, pg 275-276

I've already explained how we help to make children acquainted with great music and great art. One leading art dealer paid us a nice compliment by saying, 'God help the children!' if our work ceased. He had good reason. He had just sold thousands of beautiful little reproductions by Velasquez to PUS students for their term's picture study. It's no surprise that a man who loves and believes in art should feel that our work is worthwhile. In learning to draw, our students work very freely from natural figures and objects using colors [watercolor?] to illustrate scenes they visualize from the term's reading. We don't teach drawing as a means of self-expression. Our students aren't expressing themselves, but what they can see and what they can think of.

Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, pg 277

Mr. Masefield said,

'There can't be great art without great stories. Great art can only exist where great men reflect intensely about the kinds of things that common men think about a little. Without a popular body of legends, no country can have any unselfish art. Shakespeare's art, for example, was selfish until he turned to the great tales in the four most popular books in his time--Raphael Holinshed, Thomas North's Plutarch, Geraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi and Francois De Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques. Ever since newspapers became popular, topical events have replaced epics. Now inspiration comes to artists directly, without the life-giving cropping and enlightening of many previous minds.'

It's this life-giving vitality of many minds that we want. We beg educational workers and thinkers to join us in forming a collective body of thought that will be common to everyone. Then England will surely be great in both art and life.

Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, pg 328-329

We also know that the human hand is a wonderful and precise tool that can be used in a hundred different ways that require intricacy, accuracy and strength. Using the hand in this way brings pleasure in the process itself that's separate from the end result. We understand this, so we make an effort to train young students to accurately handle tools and do handicrafts. Maybe someday we'll see a revival of apprenticeship in various trades, and we'll start to see quality work again as people take pride in the work of their hands. Our goal should be to make sure that each person 'lives his life' with pleasure, but not at the expense of someone else. The world is such that, when a person truly lives his life [rather than just survives day to day], it benefits those around him as much as it benefits himself. Everyone thrives on the well-being of others. We also understand that the human ear is attuned to harmony and melody. Each person has a voice that can express musical notes and hands that are capable of delicate motion to draw out musical tones on instruments. The ancient Greeks were the first ones to realize that music is a necessary part of education. Art is also necessary. We are finally realizing that anyone can draw, and everyone enjoys it. Therefore, everyone should learn how to do it. Everyone enjoys looking at pictures, so education should train people to appreciate pictures of quality.

People can sing, dance, enjoy music, appreciate the beauty of nature, sketch what they see, be satisfied in their skill at crafting things, produce honest work with their hands, understand that work is better than wages, and live out their individual lives in any of a number of ways.