The Artistic Value of the Montessori Geometrical Insets
- Author:
Harriet Sayre,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Investigators of the Montessori method may be interested to know what has been accomplished in drawing by a class of eighteen children between the age of five and eight years. During a school term of eight months, these children by the use of the geometrical insets, have conceived a series of over five hundred drawings without the aid or suggestion of the teacher. The material held the interest and attention of the children from the beginning, and even the older ones preferred it to any other busy work. There was no regular period for the drawing; it was done by the older ones in short intervals betw een the regular school lessons, and by the younger ones whenever they desired to select the insets.
The purpose of the material was to train the powers of observation of form and color and to develop muscular control preparatory to writing. The children exceeded this purpose by discovering the artistic value of the forms. It is doubtful if the younger ones, those five and six years of age, could have accomplished such results except through the spirit of emulation. Each child, however, maintained is own individuality of expression and perfected his work independently. Upon first presentation the child used the insets as outlined for t is material in ” The Montessori Method.” That is, lie traced around t e frames and their corresponding forms and filled in the enclosed space with colored crayon. After a few days of tracing and coloring, a c ild discarded the frames and used only the insets. He selected e triangle, quatrefoil and small circle and drew a pattern of unique esign. The child had previously made clear his conception by o ing up the insets as if against a background, and the drawing was rue to the description. It was not a rare thing for a child to see a esign synthetically and describe his impression of the whole. h1ln+v.C rdren ^eSS raP^ perception designed as they worked, 1 1 Gf e ^era^? unimaginative child heaped inset upon inset regardless of balance or form. mpTit c*es’^ns were cru(le in color and chaotic in arrange’ u t ey gradually became more symmetrical. In a short time the children began to eliminate parts of the insets and to introduce free hand lines. A little boy six years of age drew a design with the oval and the tip of the large triangle. The oval was colored yellow and the remaining part red. “It’s the sun,” he explained, “and these tips are the sun’s rays.” A little girl repeated the small circle four times in the form of a square and added free hand lines to complete the design.
There had been no attempt to teach the names of the more complex forms, but the demand for the name arose with the use of the object, and the child added the new words to his vocabulary with unusual rapidity, even the smaller children soon learning to recognize the names of the various insets.
It was interesting to note their choice of material and their method of work. Some children preferred the wooden insets, some the metal, while others would select the frames and trace the enclosed outline of the geometrical figure. Some designed on the blackboard and then reproduced the drawing on paper, while others used paper exclusively.
The youngest children, those who had never been in school before, early evinced a tendency toward ambidexterity. Their fingers were unaccustomed to the use of the pencil. They were unrestricted in their use of the insets, and to trace the form in the easiest manner they changed the pencil from one hand to the other. In the filling-in process, when the fingers became cramped by continued movement, they again changed the pencil to relieve the cramped position. They were thus learning to control the muscles of both hands. In the act of writing which followed these preliminary exercises, four of the children could use either hand with equal facility without making any variation in the form or size of the letter. A little boy not five years of age found that he could make the figure one simultaneously with both hands. He then tried to make the figure four. This required a greater mental effort to prevent the lines from diverging to right and left instead of moving in one direction, but after a moment’s hesitation he wrote the figure slowly and accurately. In a short time he could make other figures in the same manner, and also a number of the letters. This ambidexterity existed only during the formative period. When the act of writing became an established habit, those who had been using both hands gradually learned to use the one to which they were more accustomed. Through this formal sense training the child’s power of observation, comparison, and judgment grew wonderfully keen. The sense exercises had attracted his attention to form and color in his environment, and he was learning to apply his ideas.
A child, while in church, had observed a brown hat trimmed with a bow of orange ribbon and blue flowers, and she selected those colors to complete her design. Another child had studied the tints of a stained glass window, another, those of a carpet, while a fourth had seen the green and brown grasses in a field, and showed dissatisfaction because she could not find a crayon the exact shading of the brown grass. This freedom of expression developed not only habits of attention and perseverance, but also diversity of design. The first border was made by a little boy six years of age. He repeated the quatrefoil eight times and colored the drawing with red and black crayon. Another child drew a border with quatrefoil and circle, then cut it out and mounted it on paper of another color. From these first conceptions arose others of varied combinations. Some were conceived by the imagination, some were the result of observation.
Embroidered design was suggested by a child eight years old. She traced a doily on linen with the quatrefoil and outlined it with yellow silk. She then cut the linen in the form of a square, turned the edges under and backstitched them with silk of different color. Soon a number of the girls began to embroider original patterns, while the youngest children of the class expressed a desire to sew. They often gathered in groups helping each other, discussing the size and shape of doily or center piece, or matching different colored silks for harmonious combinations. A child of seven was so pleased with her new accomplishment that she immediately made further use of it. She selected a dress from her doll’s wardrobe, traced it on tissue paper, transferred the pattern twice on thin linen, cut out the two parts and sewed them together. The doll was then arrayed in its new attire and presented for inspection. This ability to enlarge upon suggestion was a source of spiritual as well as intellectual education. The children were happy and industrious and a superior moral tone pervaded the school room.
The next step in development was made by a child seven years of age, a little girl of imperious nature whose attention was easily distracted and who showed but little interest in her surroundings. She gradually became attracted to the insets, and one day while designing on the board with the oval she suddenly cried ” I’ve drawn a tulip!” She had repeated the inset three times to form the petals and had drawn an irregular free hand line to represent the stem. She gazed at the flower delightedly, then drew the leaf. Her conception of its size and shape was imperfect, and discovering her error she drew another leaf of larger size but did not alter its form. A little boy called her attention to this, but she refused to change the design. The little boy whose suggestion had been rejected, also drew a tulip and added the leaves correctly. They were neither stiff nor conventional but were drawn according to nature, one leaf bent slightly to the right. He explained this by saying he had seen leaves bend that way when the wind or rain beat against them. A great interest was now manifested in the portrayal of various flowers by means of the insets. It was imagination that supplemented the material, for the children had not thought of using a real flower as a model. A child drew a daisy with the oval and small circle, adding the leaves free hand. A large crysanthemum was drawn with one side of the quatrefoil repeated many times to form the shape of the flower.
It was colored a delicate pink. A wild rose was drawn with the spherical triangle, also a pond lily. A child of six years drew a “star of Bethlehem” by repeating the spherical triangle five times in the form of a circle. She then erased all the parts save those that produced the petals. Another child drew a violet with the oval and small circle and colored the petals a light purple. She could not recall the color of the stamen so put aside her drawing until she could observe the center of the real flower. Dandelions, sun-flowers, pansies, buttercups, clovers, and other flowers were drawn from the imagination, the choice of insets being the circle, oval, ellipse, quatrefoil, and spherical triangle. This step in development was followed by mechanical drawing. Coloring was discarded for a time and accuracy of form and position was observed. Visual perception had grown so keen that often the slightest discrepancy in line or angle could be detected. Many of the designs were complex in form, but the child with deft fingers could trace his work from the beginning. Designs for wall paper, oil-cloth, and carpet were next conceived. A child of seven filled an entire sheet of drawing paper by alternating the medium and small circles. The design was finished in light and dark brown on a background of green.
Inspired by this conception, the other children reproduced patterns they had observed on the walls or floors of their homes or supplemented the material by the imagination. The first attempt to use other material than the insets was made by a child whose brother had taught her to use a compass. She drew a design of concentric circles, coloring them alternately yellow and light blue. Within a short time ten other children had learned to use the instrument, and were also observing circular forms in their surroundings and applying their ideas. One child drew the face of a clock, another a circular picture frame, while a third reproduced a drawing from the panel of a door. The ease and accuracy with which these small children manipulated the compass was astonishing, as were also the designs they conceived.
The work of the first few months had been mechanical, the various drawings being accomplished with the insets or compass. The children, however, had gained a practical knowledge of form, size, and dimension and had also developed their powers of observation to such extent that free hand drawing when first attempted was as successful as their previous work. The first drawing of this kind was made in the early spring upon observation of flowers from a large magnolia tree. A child brought a bunch of these flowers and several children expressed a desire to draw them. One studied the shape of the petals and selected the ellipse; another the oval, while a third child used the spherical triangle, and being dissatisfied with the result erased the flower and drew it free hand. There was no disparity in the size, the child represented truly what she had seen, and when the drawing was reproduced on paper the proportion was again correct. As the children realized their ability thus to give expression to the beauties of nature, their interest in free hand drawing became unbounded. They began to gather different kinds of flowers and to study their forms and colors, also to express a desire for information upon plant life. The school room became fragrant with the scent of jonquils, pansies, narcissus, cherry blossoms, violets, and other flowers gathered by the children, from which they selected models according to individual taste.
The natural position of the flowers and their comparative size were a notable feature of the drawings as was also the reproduction of the coloring. The children had never been formally taught the blending of two colors to form a third, but they discovered the possibility themselves in the attempt to reproduce the colors of nature. Two weeks before the close of school, a child who had brought a box of paints finished an iris in water color. This soon aroused the emulation of the others. The knowledge they had gained of color combination by the use of the crayons was now applied in the mixing of the paints. A child who had painted a shrub was asked what combination she used. “Oh,” she replied, “I used crimson and purple and orange and added a touch of brown.” One day at recess period a group of four children stretched themselves upon the grass in front of a flower bed. Each child selected a flower, drew it and then colored it. Thus the first out-of-door nature class was formed by the children unaided by any suggestion from the teacher. The importance of the drawings lies in the fact that they were developed without instruction. The spirit of emulation which aroused the inventive nature of the child also indicated his power for observation. As he was unrestricted in the application of his ideas, he made wonderful progress. The question arises, is there a possibility of a new era in artistic development as well as in general education through the application of the Montessori principles? Signora Montessori believes in the development of the child through liberty and activity by placing within his environment such material as may promote his welfare and advancement, and it is undoubtedly through the application of these principles that the children spoken of in this article have developed their drawings with the geometrical insets.
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