LESSON FOR APPRECIATION
Education aims not only to enable one to avoid error, to discover
truth, and to equip him with desirable habits, but also to develop
the power to appreciate and to enjoy that which is beautiful, whether
in literature, painting, sculpture, art, or music. It is not enough
that a man be able to make a living; he ought, as a result of his
education, to be able to enjoy life. Matthew Arnold’s definition of
culture, “the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known
and said in the world,” embodies much that is essential in modern
education. The ability to enjoy a drama of Shakespeare, a picture
of Millet, or an opera of Wagner, means the possibility of noble
pleasure, of leisure time spent in such a way that inspiration and
strength, instead of possible waste, or, even worse, degradation
and weakness, result. It is, then, a vital part of our school work
to give opportunity for and to encourage in every way possible the
development of power of appreciation.
Some of our schoolroom exercises ought to aim primarily to develop
power of appreciation in the several fields mentioned above. Not
that appreciation can be taught directly, but because there are
conditions which are negative in their influence. No one will ever
learn to appreciate music or literature or art because some one tells
him that he ought and that this is worthy and that unworthy. This
sort of teaching will result in hypocrisy and cant. On the other
hand, the best guarantee of development along these lines is found
in association with those who do genuinely appreciate. It is in this
fact that we find our first suggestion for work of this kind.
Do not try to teach any one else to enjoy that which you do not fully
appreciate yourself. The fundamental qualification for the teacher is
power to appreciate. She must enjoy to the full that which she hopes
to make appear beautiful in the eyes of her pupils. It is useless to
ask children to enjoy one of Stevenson’s child rhymes, if you find
yourself unable to enter into the spirit of the poem. Pictures may be
hung on the wall and religiously taught; but children will not want
to buy good pictures, nor are they apt to frequent the art galleries,
unless they have associated with those for whom pictures are a
genuine source of pleasure. The best preparation for the teacher who
feels that her teaching is inadequate in those phases of her work
which involve appreciation is to plan to do what she can to insure
her own growth in this particular. Read more poetry, and especially
read it with those who derive great pleasure therefrom, if you wish
to teach poetry better. If you are familiar with the great musicians,
and have through your acquaintance with their work developed some
measure of appreciation for this type of expression and for the
method by which the musician has been able to build up his wonderful
composition, then you may rest assured that your pupils will not find
music uninteresting.
The question most frequently asked concerning the teaching of those
subjects in which we seek to develop appreciation is whether one must
command the technique involved in creation in order to grow in power
to enjoy the work of the masters. For example, must one be able to
read music in order to appreciate music; must one be able to state
the rhetorical excellence of Stevenson’s narratives in order to enjoy
his stories; is it essential that one fully appreciate the technique
of painting in order to get the most out of Corot? In general, the
answer is that such knowledge of technique may either help or hinder
one in his actual power of appreciation. It will hinder, if the
consideration of technique is constantly uppermost in one’s mind;
it will help in so far as knowledge of technique gives one the
feeling of excellence or perfection of form, provided always that
it is this beauty of the product which most engages the attention,
and that interest in technique is subsidiary. To express the same
idea in another way: if one’s knowledge of technique makes him
overcritical or oversensitive, he is apt to lose all enjoyment in his
concentration upon the technique, in looking for weaknesses, or in
his feeling of discomfort because of imperfection. What significance,
it may be asked, has this for our teaching? Mainly this, that we
must remember that appreciation is in large measure a matter of the
emotions, and that any attempt to overintellectualize the process
will defeat the end we desire to secure.
There is no other kind of work in which the attitude of the
individual at the beginning of the exercise is as important. There
is a story told of a teacher who wished to teach a beautiful poem,
the burden of which was the beauty of kindness to birds. She began
with the birds that the children knew—sparrows. In a short time the
children developed the notion, and very justly, that sparrows were
a pest, that they had driven away our song birds, and that it would
be a good thing to exterminate them. The children were ready to go
forth to the slaughter; and then came the poem with its admonition
to kindness toward birds. These children would, of course, have been
more impressed had this preparatory work been omitted entirely. Very
frequently for work of this kind, the very best preparation is found
in placing children directly in contact with that which you hope
to have them appreciate. Read the poem, play the music, expose the
picture to view, and allow them to do their work. Later a somewhat
more detailed treatment, possibly involving many repetitions, will
give opportunity for increased appreciation.
Children should not be forced to give expression to the feeling
awakened. The teacher may accept gladly such expression as comes
spontaneously. She may at times ask for a selection of the part
most enjoyed. Especially to be avoided are expressions such as:
“Don’t you think this beautiful?” “Don’t you enjoy this?” and the
like. Children under such stimulation are apt to say that they enjoy
whether they do or not. They are just as anxious to do the right
thing as are some of their elders. To be constantly directed, always
told what to admire, means lack of confidence in one’s own ability to
judge of excellence, or, even worse, the attitude of the hypocrite
who admires that which he thinks it fashionable to favor. It is
probably safer to judge of the success of work of this kind by the
expression on the faces of the children than by the words you may
persuade them to use.
In a lesson of this type the teacher does the best work when she acts
as interpreter. Success depends not so much upon initiative on the
part of the children as upon the ability of the teacher to sympathize
with the childish point of view, and to lead them to greater heights
by the force of suggestion growing out of her own joy in that which
she presents. It is by voice, by gesture, by suggestion, and by
explanation,—in all, by providing the most favorable opportunity
possible for appreciation, keeping herself as much as possible in the
background,—that the teacher makes provision for the development of
this power by children.
Much is gained in power of appreciation by giving opportunity for
creative work on the part of children. The group of children who
have composed a song, and who have labored diligently to make the
music which they have written fit the spirit and rhythm of the words,
will find a new meaning in the lullaby which they are asked to learn
to-morrow. Music will mean so much more than pitch, time, notes of
different value, and the like. Through their own attempt they will
have realized in the best possible way the fact that the music of
the song is intended to express feeling in harmony with the words
that they sing. The child who has attempted to draw a landscape will
by virtue of that fact grow in power to enjoy the landscape placed
on the wall for his enjoyment. And so for any other field in which
we seek to develop power of appreciation; to attempt to create for
himself will give the child a better understanding of the elements
which go to make up excellence, and the contrast between his own
effort and that of the master will greatly enhance the value of the
latter in his eyes.
Thus far in our discussions of the lesson for appreciation we have
interpreted it to mean the development of the æsthetic emotions.
There is another sort of appreciation which involves rather more of
the intellectual element, but which, so far as teaching method is
concerned, may probably be treated to greatest advantage in this same
connection. Indeed, there are cases, as in literature, where both
elements are involved. In the study of a drama of Shakespeare we are
concerned not only with the beauty of expression, but quite as much
with the portrayal of the lives of men and women as they have acted
and reacted on each other in their common environment. In history
we have this drama extended to include a nation or the nations of
the world in their relations to each other. In either case we have
the record of cause and effect, an account of social experience
fundamentally akin to our own. Appreciation here involves the ability
to follow the logical relations which are recorded. In proportion
as one becomes aware of the motives which have actuated men, the
relationships which have existed among them, the organization and
outcome of their activities, he has widened his own experience. This
possibility of a vicarious extension of the child’s social experience
is one of the reasons for giving history and literature a place in
our school curriculum.
Let us inquire what is involved in securing appreciation of this
type. Take, for example, the appreciation of the period just
preceding the Civil War. How are we to understand this remote
situation? We cannot observe directly; we cannot, as is the case in
the solution of a problem in our present experience, gather data by
means of observation; nor can we test our conclusions by experiment.
Our first great need is to have presented all of the facts possible.
We may read the historian’s account, or have it read to us; we may
get hold of the newspapers published at that time; read the debates
which took place in Congress; peruse the letters of men and women
who lived and wrote at that time; make inquiry concerning the number
of slaves, and the value of the Southern plantations worked by them;
try to find out why slavery had been abolished in the North, and by
every means possible familiarize ourselves with what men said and
did and the conditions under which they worked at that time. We must
have this material made accessible to the children through books or
by word of mouth before we ask them to follow the logical relations
established among these facts by the historian. Appreciation has its
beginning in the abundance of data supplied which makes possible
the imagery with which the children are to work, and is consummated
when the child has, through his own efforts and by following the
development of another, come to understand the play of cause and
effect, the organization and relationship existing among these human
activities. Work of this sort has in the last step something in
common with the inductive lesson, but with this difference, that the
children are in the main concerned with appreciation of facts and of
the relationships established among them by some one else, presumably
the expert historian. It is more a matter of understanding than the
discovery of new truth. Of course, there are lessons in history in
which the problem is just as distinct as in any science, and where
the work can be best described as inductive or deductive reasoning.
And so likewise for literature. The author presents the situation,
and draws his conclusions, supposedly true to the logic of human
action. The teacher may need to supply details which are missing,
may need to guide the children in their attempt to follow the
interpretation of the author, but it must be mainly interpretation of
facts provided; and presumably, if great literature is studied, the
appreciation of the author’s interpretation of the human relations
is of vastly greater importance than the attempt at interpretation
which the children may make.
Appreciation does not mean quiescence,—far from it. Neither does
it concern itself primarily with the discovery of new truth or
excellence. Rather we aim to understand, and to enjoy, when the
æsthetic emotions are involved, the work of the masters. If we can,
even in some degree, lead children to think their thoughts, to
interpret human activity and human feeling as they have interpreted
it, we shall have most signally widened and enriched their
experience, and shall have made available for them for all their
lives a source of recreation and enjoyment, a storehouse of wisdom,
which may constitute their greatest indebtedness to our efforts in
their behalf.
FOR COLLATERAL READING
E. L. Thorndike, _Principles of Teaching_, Chapter XII.
E. A. Kirkpatrick, _The Fundamentals of Child Study_, Chapter XIII.
_Exercises._
1. Why is it worth while to train children to enjoy literature,
music, or painting?
2. Do those who look at the pictures in the art gallery which have
been specially mentioned in the catalogue or guide book necessarily
show any power of appreciation of good pictures? What would be a
better test of such power?
3. Why is it essential that you should enjoy a poem which you try
to teach to children?
4. What advantage is there in changing the pictures on the walls of
the schoolroom from time to time?
5. Is there any good argument for having children write poetry?
6. What could you do to grow in ability to teach art appreciation?
7. Does your technical knowledge of music interfere with your
enjoyment of good music?
8. What advantage is there in having children compose the music for
a song which they have written?
9. Why is it important that we arrange our poetry, music, and
pictures with reference to the seasons?
10. How would you hope to discover whether or not children enjoyed
a new picture?
11. Why ask children to choose from among three or four poems the
one that they will commit to memory, instead of requiring that they
all memorize the same one?
12. What value is there in reading great literature to children
without comment?
13. In what way may a good history lesson differ from an inductive
lesson in geography?
14. Do you think it essential that children should always have
problems to solve in their lessons in literature?
15. Choose a poem which you teach in your grade. Tell what it means
to you. What may it mean to the children? Write four questions
which you would ask to help bring out meaning which might escape
the pupils.