Schoolrooms in which pupils spend a large part of their waking hours should provide for the building of appreciation in this way, and it is especially true in the homemaking room. Some home economics teachers have cleverly planned for students to share in the responsibility of creating and maintaining an attractive classroom as a means of stimulating interest in art. It would be well for all home economics teachers to follow this practice.
In many economics laboratories there are several possible improvements that would make better environment for art teaching. Suggestions for such improvements include:
- 1. More color in the room through the use of flowers, colorful pottery, colored candles, and pictures, featuring arrangements that could be duplicated in the home.
- 2. More emphasis upon structural lines—
- a. Pictures that are grouped and hung correctly.
- b. Attractive arrangement of a teacher's desk.
- c. Arrangement of the furniture so that the groupings are well balanced and the wall spaces are nicely proportioned.
- d. Good arrangement of materials on bulletin board.
- 3. More attention to orderliness—
- a. When class is not working, orderliness in window-shade arrangement.
- b. Elimination of unnecessary objects and furnishings to avoid cluttered appearance.
- c. Tops of cases and cupboards or open shelves cleared.
There are few seasons in the year when the teacher can not introduce interesting shapes and notes of color through products of nature. The fall brings the colored leaves and bright berries which last through the winter. Bulbs may be started in late winter for early spring, and certain plants can be kept successfully throughout the year. With such interesting possibilities for using natural flowers, berries, and grasses, why would a teacher resort to the use of artificial flowers or painted grasses?
Morgan[ 19] pertinently discusses the artificial versus the real:
Some say "What about painted weeds and grasses?" No; that is mockery. It doesn't seem fair to paint them with colors that were not theirs in life. One can almost fancy hearing the dead grasses crying out, "Don't smear us up and then display us like mummies in a museum." Remember, a true artist, one who truly loves beauty, despises imitation or deceit.