CHAPTER II
PAPER CUTTING AND POSTER MAKING
Paper and scissors form a fascinating combination to all children, and offer a very direct means of self-expression. In the language of a small boy who attempted to tell how to do it, "You just think about something and then cut out your think." The teacher is concerned chiefly with the "think" and the way in which it is expressed. The children are interested in paper cutting chiefly from the pleasure of the activity. Beyond the immediate pleasure in the process, the cuttings are valuable only as they indicate the clearness of the child's ideas and measure his ability to express them. The process is educative only in so far as it helps the small worker to "see with his mind's eye" and to give tangible shape to what he thus sees. It is important, therefore, that the work be done in a way that will emphasize the thinking rather than the finished product.
The first question arising is, To what extent shall a pattern be used? Shall the teacher cut out the object and bid the class follow her example? Shall she display a silhouette or outline drawing of the object she desires the children to cut, or shall they work without any external guide to justify or modify the mental picture? Shall they be given a pattern and be allowed to draw around it?
All of the above methods are used to a greater or less extent. Long experience seems to indicate that the first cutting of any object should be unassisted by any external representation of it whatever, in order that the attention of each child may be focused upon his own mental picture of the object. When he has put forth his best effort from this standpoint, he should compare his cutting with the real object or a good picture of it and be led to see the chief defects in his own production and then allowed to try again.
Fig. 1.—Story of Jack Horner on poster and sand table.
Snowflakes in background. First grade. Columbia, Missouri.
For example, after telling the story of Mother Hubbard, the children may be interested in cutting out dogs. No picture or other guide should be used at first, since every child knows something about dogs. The first cuttings are likely to be very poor, partly because the children have not sufficient control over the scissors and largely because their ideas are very vague. In a general comparison of work they will help each other with such criticisms as, "This dog's head is too big." "That dog's legs are too stiff." They are then ready to try again. Only when they have reached the limit of their power to see flaws in their work do they need to compare it with the real dog or its picture. Only after a child has attempted to express his idea and has become conscious in ever so small a degree of the imperfection of his expression will he really be able to see differences between the real object and his representation of it, and thereby clarify his mental picture.