When we speak of drawing in the schools, there is a tendency to think only of those performances which are taught and executed during the time set aside for instruction by the teacher of drawing. But a little reflection will show us to what an extent drawing ramifies through the curriculum, and forms an element in achievement.
In geography map-drawing is required. In nature study, notebooks with drawings of natural objects seen are frequently kept. In sciences taught by the laboratory method drawing is an important element in success. Zoölogy, physiology, and botany are especially taught through drawing. In mechanics, and in engineering, drawing plays a prominent part. Thus it comes about that school marks in all these subjects depend to some extent on drawing of some kind. If psychological study shows capacity for drawing to be largely or utterly dissociated from general intelligence, the use of drawing to so great an extent, as a method of recitation in the sciences especially, may be undesirable. The belief that drawing used in this way fails to meet the need of many pupils, otherwise apt in science, led Ayer to undertake the interesting investigation to which it will be necessary to give our attention in detail, throughout this chapter.
III. PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF TALENT IN DRAWING
It is quite interesting to notice that the analysis of ability in reading, spelling, and arithmetic has been approached largely through studies of the particularly deficient, while in the case of drawing and music the approach has been through study of the gifted, to a greater extent.
The psychographic study of individual talent in drawing was preceded by many investigations of what children draw, at what ages various details appear in drawings, how the drawings of one group compare with those of another, and what people say about the drawings they make. These studies, up to 1915, have been brought together by Ayer, and are so well summarized by him in relation to the study of aptitude, that there is no need to summarize them again. Those who desire to become familiar with the whole literature of the psychology of drawing will do well to consult Ayer’s work.
Several analyses of ability to draw have been undertaken, some through study of the particularly deficient, some through study of the conspicuously talented. Meumann thus states the causes of inefficiency in drawing:
(1) The will to analyze and to notice forms and colors has not been stimulated.
(2) The intention to analyze may be aroused, and yet the individual may find the analysis too difficult. This is a matter of innate talent.
(3) The memory of that to be represented may be deficient. It may be incomplete or vague in form or in color. The memory of spatial relations may be inadequate. This, too, is a matter of innate talent.
(4) There may be lack of ability to hold the image during the act of drawing. This capacity is innate.