It would be but hyperbole to claim that without clay the Mosaic tablets would have remained unwritten, but indubitably the clay cylinders of Assyria gave a strong impulse to the development of ciphering and writing and the spread of learning,—an impetus not to be derived from the obstinate granite medium so generally employed by the Egyptians.
It is this amenable ductile quality, so easily
receptive of the most emotional touch, that has made and still makes clay such an admirable medium of expression for the young,—whether young in the history of the world or young in actual years. And this malleability is accompanied by a tenacity that permits slow building up, remodelling, and high finish, suitable to work of the most painstaking character. To this is added the fixed, unalterable quality imparted by fire, so that pottery more than any other craft preserves an imperishable record of the ages.
This positive chronicle is valuable alike to the savant or the student. Indeed the most trivial child’s toys of the Hellenes, the quaint water pots of the Peruvian peasant, or the unassuming tea bowl of the esoteric followers of Riku may chance to convey to the sincere student a clearer idea of the habits and thoughts of their producers than many a pedantic treatise or translation.
So lively shines
In them Divine resemblance and such grace
The hand that made them on their shape hath poured.
—Milton.
Coming down to points in close contact with the curricula of schools, we all subscribe to the dictum of Ruskin that “Everyone, from the King’s son downwards, should learn to do something finely and thoroughly with his hands.” What then more
suitable than sympathetic clay wherein to fashion the first fancies of the child mind. It is a medium at once attractive and easy to mould, giving a tangibility and reality to forms and things that can never be obtained by drawing or painting. Then the limitless uses to which clay is put, and, with the development of hygiene, increasingly will be put, have the closest bearing upon the everyday life of the child. They are intimately connected with other studies that cannot fail to be rendered more attractive by working in clay.
But clay work is a branch now so universal that it seems unnecessary to dwell upon its advantages to the kindergartener.
The valuable remedial effects of clay work upon the defective are perhaps less widely known. The manipulation induces a most beneficial concentration and provides a fine discipline without a trace of inimical restraint. Turning to higher grades, the use of clays should foster an interest in the formation, composition, and disintegration of rocks, and in the properties of the products so engendered; in short, a liking for geology.