Part 6 (1/2)

a.s.sume that the group to be taught is a ninth-grade cla.s.s in art related to the home. Very few members of the cla.s.s have had any previous art training and such training has consisted of some drawing and water-color work in the lower grades. Previous to this lesson, it is a.s.sumed that the teacher has developed the pupils' interest in the beauty to be seen and enjoyed in the everyday surroundings of their community, and has developed pupil ability to understand and to use a principle of proportion, namely, that _a shape is most pleasing when one side is about one and one-half times as long as the other_.

The establishment of the above principle has probably given the cla.s.s an opportunity to read of the Golden Oblong or the Greek Law of proportion in an art reference such as Goldstein's Art in Everyday Life. This will have served to further establish a feeling for interesting shape relations.h.i.+ps and also will have made the pupils familiar with the term ”proportion.” The cla.s.s may or may not have developed an ability to recognize and use the principles of balance.

=Details of Lesson Procedure=

[Sidenote: Problems and questions to introduce the principle needed to solve this and many similar problems]

The first-aid room in the school is very bare and cheerless. Miss M., the school nurse, and Mr. B., the superintendent, have decided that some thin ruffled curtains at the two windows will soften the light and make the room more homelike. Miss M. has purchased some ready-made curtains and has asked if the cla.s.s would like to determine the best way to arrange the tie backs. ”How many of you think that this is an art problem? Will it be helpful to us to know how to divide a window s.p.a.ce with curtains? Tie-back, ruffled curtains have been very much in vogue for some time. The models in the drapery departments and the ill.u.s.trated advertis.e.m.e.nts show a variety of methods to use. Since there is so much variation, how can we be sure that curtains are tied back in the most attractive way possible?”

[Sidenote: Use of ill.u.s.trative materials]

The curtains have been hung at the two windows in the first-aid room.

At one window the curtains are not tied back and come to the bottom of the casing, at the other one they are arranged in two other ways designated as A and B. By the A method the curtain is tied back exactly in half; by the B method it is tied back between one-half and two-thirds of the length. The initial question would probably be: ”Which of these two arrangements, A and B, do you think contributes most to the appearance of the window?”

[Sidenote: Cla.s.s discussion]

Some of the cla.s.s will undoubtedly choose A. Their reasons for this choice may be as follows:

1. The uncurtained window s.p.a.ce is more or less diamond shaped.

2. The four sections of the curtains are almost exactly alike.

Others will choose B, and give such reasons as follows:

1. The window s.p.a.ce is less noticeable.

2. There is more variety in the curtains.

3. It is more interesting if the eye can travel down the longer part of the curtain and then come to rest at the part tied back.

These reasons will probably lead the majority of the cla.s.s to decide that B is more desirable than A.

At this time another arrangement designated as C may be introduced. For this, one curtain at the second window may now be tied back so near the sill that the two parts do not seem to be related. One designated as D may also be introduced, in which the arrangement is exactly like that of B, except that the curtains are tied back above the center instead of below.

A summary of the points which may be brought out by the cla.s.s on each arrangement of curtains follows:

[Sidenote: Summary of cla.s.s discussion]

A, in which the curtains are divided exactly in half, is not interesting for a very long time because--

1. The divisions on each side as well as above and below the tie backs are all alike.

2. It leaves too much of the window exposed.

3. The window s.p.a.ce exposed does not follow the lines of the window.

4. The arrangement becomes tiresome the longer one looks at it.

5. One's curiosity is quickly satisfied when it is obvious that the two areas are exactly alike.