Blackboard Drawing

OF THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS
SIXTH EDITION
PUBLISHED BY Atkinson, Mentzer & Company Boston New York Chicago Atlanta Dallas
Copyright, 1902-1903 , by The Davis Press All Rights Reserved
This monograph is a reprint of a series of articles first published in the second volume of the magazine now known as The School Arts Book . The articles attracted wide attention on account of their timeliness and their illustrations. The plates were made from photographs of actual work upon the blackboard by Mr. Whitney, and are undoubtedly the most attractive blackboard drawings ever published. The demand for these articles has been so great that the original editions have been exhausted. They are republished in this form in the hope that they may influence yet more strongly the increasing number of teachers who find the blackboard indispensable in teaching.
HENRY TURNER BAILEY
September, 1903

one of the teachers who read “The School Arts Book” from month to month doubt in the least the value of drawing in our schools, and there is no need of the slightest argument in its favor. Even in the lowest grades the teacher appreciates drawing as the natural expression of the thought and experience of the child; a spontaneous activity, having its relation to life, not a thing apart from life or an end in itself. Throughout the grades the teacher should cultivate this spirit of freedom and interest, remembering that drawing is a language to be used as naturally and freely as one written or spoken.
Why should these suggestions not apply to the teacher as well as to the child? Why should she not express herself, the interests of school life and of the pupil in the same free, natural way?
Upon entering a schoolroom the teacher finds the blackboards bare and dull. There is little in the line of decoration in the room and in order to relieve this monotony she stencils a border, the picture of some great hero or well-known author, draws with colored chalk the inevitable flags crossed at right angles or puts upon the board some design which possibly may or perhaps may not have relation to the needs of the children, their life and activities, or the industries of the school.