REFERENCE MATERIAL
The home of the future will become more and more an art laboratory for the homemaker. When housewives make a serious study of art in the home—and this may be manifest in the preparation of food as well as in the color arrangement of the house—there will be better homes as well as houses.—Richard Allen.
A wide use of reference material is essential in the successful teaching of art through the use of problems. Many sources of information are necessary for pupils to evaluate tentative conclusions and to verify final conclusions as well as for elaboration of facts. Reference to several different authorities will reveal to students the fact that there are differences of opinion regarding art and will help in making them realize the importance of weighing information thoroughly before accepting conclusions. In other words, it is valuable in preventing pupils from jumping to conclusions or accepting hasty conclusions.
This suggests that several books for reference are preferable to a single text. However, many teachers favor the plan of providing three or four copies of the best books for class use rather than single copies of every art book that is published.
In support of the use of references rather than single texts, the following points are made:
1. Opportunity is offered for pupils to verify and elaborate on information.
2. More pupils will have contact with the best references.
3. Resourcefulness in the pupil will be better developed.
4. Teachers are challenged to make better selection of books as well as better use of them.
5. In those schools which provide free textbooks for the pupils it is easier to replace old books, since fewer copies of the newer ones will be purchased at one time.
In addition to books, the teacher of art has at her disposal bulletins, current magazines, and educational advertising materials. In selecting art reference material for pupil use she should keep in mind that—
1. Information must be authentic.
2. It should be pertinent to the study at hand.
3. It should be not only clear, concise, and interesting, but easy to understand.
4. It should include a wide variety of well chosen and clearly reproduced illustrations.
5. Illustrations should for the most part represent objects with which the girls come in frequent contact.
6. It should be up to date.
7. Subject matter and illustrations should avoid extravagant choices that are not within the reach of the average family.
8. It should contain a good table of contents and index.
Since there is such a quantity of current magazine and advertising material, it is obvious that it can not all be used and therefore it is imperative that the teacher evaluate it and choose with keen discrimination all that she plans to utilize for illustrative or reference purposes. Much of this material is valuable and may be had for the asking.
While it is desirable for the teacher to have subscriptions to several of the most helpful magazines for class use, it is not imperative, since she may procure many of them from pupils, from other teachers, and from the school or local community library.
Several State departments have issued helpful lists of available advertising material for home economics, including related art.
1. For pupil and teacher use—
Baldt, Laura I., and Harkness, Helen D., Clothing for the High School Girl, 1931. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia.
Butterick, Helen G., Principles of Clothing Selection. Revised 1930. The Macmillan Co., New York.
Goldstein, Harriett and Vetta, Art in Everyday Life, 1925. The Macmillan Co., New York.
Rathbone, Lucy, and Tarpley, Elizabeth, Fabrics and Dress, 1931. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.
Sage, Elizabeth, Textiles and Clothing. 1930. Scribners, New York.
Snow, Bonnie E., and Froehlich, Hugo B., The Theory and Practice of Color, 1918. Prang & Co., New York.
Trilling, Mable B., and Williams, Florence, Art in Home and Clothing, 1928. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia.
2. For teacher use—
Bailey, Henry Turner, Art Education, 1914. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.
Batchelder, Ernest A., Design in Theory and Practice, 1914. The Macmillan Co., New York.
Degarmo, Charles, and Winslow, Leon Loyal, Essentials of Design, 1924. The Macmillan Co., New York.
Federated Art Council on Art Education, Report of the Committee on Terminology. 1929. L. L. Winslow, secretary. Baltimore.
Heckman, Albert, Pictures from Many Lands, 1925. The Art Extension Society, 415 Madison Avenue, New York.
Morgan, A. B., Elements of Art and Decoration, 1915, 1928. Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee.
Neuhaus, Eugene, Appreciation of Art, 1924. Ginn & Co., New York.
National Committee on Wood Utilization, United States Department of Commerce, Furniture, Its Selection and Use, 1931. Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
Packard, Edgar, Picture Readings, 1918. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, Ill.
Parsons, Frank Alvah, Interior Decoration. Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, N. Y.
Russell, Mable, and Wilson, Elsie, Art Training Through Home Problems. (In press.) Manual Arts Press, Peoria, Ill.
Sargent, Walter, Enjoyment and Use of Color, 1923. Scribners, New York.
Weinberg, Louis, Color in Everyday Life, 1918. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.
Welling, Jane Betsy, More Color for You, 1927. Abbott Educational Co., Chicago.