The decorated motif is selected or else invented by the child himself. He is allowed the same freedom of choice in his backgrounds as he enjoys for his inks or water-colors. The observation of nature (flowers and their different parts—pollen, leaves, a section of some part observed under the microscope, plant seeds, shells, etc.) serves to nourish the child's æsthetic imagination. The children also have access to artistic designs, collections of photographs reproducing the great masterpieces, and Haeckel's famous work, Nature's Artistic Forms, all of which equipment is so interesting and delightful to a child.
The children work many, many hours on drawing. This is the time we seize for reading to them (see above p. 197) and almost all their history is learned during this quiet period of copy and simple decoration which is so conducive to concentration of thought.
Copying some design, or drawing a decoration which has been directly inspired by something seen; the choice of colors to fill in a geometric figure or to bring out, by small and simple designs, the center or side of the figure; the mechanical act of mixing a color, of dissolving the gildings, or of choosing one kind of ink from a series of different colors; sharpening a pencil, or getting one's paper in the proper position; determining through tentative means the required extension of the compass—all this is a complex operation requiring patience and exactitude. But it does not require great intellectual concentration. It is, therefore, a work of application rather than of inspiration; and the observation of each detail, in order to reproduce it exactly, clarifies and rests the mind instead of rousing it to the intense activity demanded by the labor of association and creation. The child is busy with his hands rather than with his mind; but yet his mind is sufficiently stimulated by this work as not easily to wander away into the world of dreams.
These are quiet hours of work in which the children use only a part of their energies, while the other part is reaching out after something else; just as a family sits quietly by the fireside in long winter evenings engaged in light manual labors requiring little intelligence, watching the flames with a sense of enjoyment, willing to pass in this way many peaceful hours, yet feeling that a certain side of their needs is not satisfied. This is the time chosen for story telling or for light reading. Similarly this is the best time for our little children to listen to reading of all kinds.
During these hours they listened to the reading of books like The Betrothed (of Manzoni), psychological books like Itard's Education of the Savage of Aveyron, or historical narratives. The children took a deep interest in the reading. Each child may be occupied with his own design as well as with the facts which he is hearing described. It seems as though the one occupation furnishes the energy necessary for perfection in the other. The mechanical attention which the child gives to his design frees his mind from idle dreaming and renders it more capable of completely absorbing the reading that is going on; and the pleasure gained from the reading which, little by little, penetrates his whole being seems to give new energy to both hand and eye. His lines become most exact and the colors more delicate.
When the reading has reached some point of climax we hear remarks, exclamations, applause or discussions, which animate and lighten the work without interrupting it. But there are times when, with one accord, our children abandon their drawing so as to act out some humorous selection or to represent an historical fact which has touched them deeply; or, indeed, as happened during the reading of the Savage of Aveyron, their hands remained almost unconsciously raised in the intensity of their emotion, while on their faces was an expression of ecstasy, as if they were witnessing wonderful unheard-of things. Their actions seemed to interpret the well-known sentiment: "Never have I seen woman like unto this."
Artistic Composition with the Insets: Our geometric insets, which are all definitely related to one another in dimensions and include a series of figures which can be contained one within the other, lend themselves to very beautiful combinations. With these the children make real creations and often follow out their artistic ideas for days and even weeks. By moving the small pieces or by combining them in different ways on the white background, these very insets produce various decorations. The ease with which the child may form designs by arranging the little pieces of iron on a sheet of paper and then outlining them, and the harmony which is thus so easily obtained, affords endless delight. Really wonderful pieces of work are often produced in this way.
During these periods of creative design, as indeed during the periods of drawing from life, the child is deeply and wholly concentrated. His entire intellect is at work and no kind of instructive reading would be at all fitting while he is engaged in drawing or designing of this nature.
With the insets, as we have said, we have reproduced some of the classic decorations so greatly admired in the Italian masterpieces; for instance, those of Giotto in Florentine Art. When the children try with the insets to reproduce these classic decorations from photographs they are led to make most minute observations, which may be considered a real study of art. They judge the relative proportions of the various figures in such a way that their eye learns to appreciate the harmony of the work. And thus, even in childhood, a fine æsthetic enjoyment begins to engage their minds on the higher and more noble planes.