There are several interesting possibilities for home table centerpieces to be used during the winter months when flowers are not available. Grapefruit seeds or parsley planted in nice-shaped, low bowls grow to make attractive-shaped foliage for the table. A sweetpotato left half covered with water in a low bowl sprouted and made the graceful arrangement of pretty foliage pictured in Figure 7, [page 29].
Pupils are more apt to provide such plants in their homes if they see examples of the real centerpieces at school. It is, therefore, worth while for a teacher to direct a class in starting and caring for one or more types of them.
In one State a definite effort is made in planning home-economics departments to have the dining room open directly into corridors through which most of the pupils of the entire school pass at some time during the day. See figure 8, [page 30].
This arrangement permits pupils to observe attractive as well as suitable arrangements of the dining room furnishings, and especially of the table. Such a plan should be effective in establishing ideals of what is good and in raising standards in the homes of boys as well as of girls in the community.
A further contributing essential to stimulating interest in art is a teacher who exemplifies in her appearance the art she is teaching. It is said that sometimes our most successful teaching is done at a time when the teacher is least conscious of it. The teacher of an art class who appears in an ensemble of clothing which is unsuited to the occasion and in which the various parts are not in harmony with each other from the standpoint of color, of texture, or of decoration loses sight of one of her finest opportunities for influencing art practices of pupils and developing good taste in them.
