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ART  EDUCATION.

from  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  and  Philadelphia  furnished  characteristic
specimens.
Taste  can  only  be  educated  by  means  of  well-organized  museums
  and  thorough  instruction  in  art  in  the  schools  ;  but  in  both
these  particulars  America  is  still  upon  the  lowest  stage.  Speaking
  of  schools  especially,  it  must  indeed  be  conceded  that  their
importance  is  everywhere  fully  recognized,  and  that  the  amplest
means  are  at  the  command  of  education.  Specialists  awarded
high  praise  to  the  American  schoolhouse  at  the  Exhibition;  the
aids  for  teaching  in  the  United  States  may  be  called  moclels  of
their  kind:  but  this  is  not  all.  The  first  condition  in  education  is
the  teacher,  and  there  is  a  want  of  these  everywhere  in  America;
not  to  speak  of  the  fact,  that  there  is  as  yet  no  System  in  relation
to  the  categories  of  schools,  and  that  each  State,  or  perhaps  even
each  city,  has  a  different  arrangement,  which  fact  is  al.so  detrimental
to  a  healthy  development  of  educational  matters.  It  can  readily  be
perceived,  therefore,  why  it  has  been  impossible  so  far  to  establish
High  Schools  (Universities)  of  the  character  of  those  in  Europe.
But,  in  spite  of  these  less  favorable  auspices,  numerous  demands
have  been  made,  especially  of  late,  for  the  introduetion  of  drawing
  into  the  schools,  and  with  the  same  aims  which  are  now
recognized  in  Europe.  In  the  more  prominent  cities,  drawing  is
already  practiced,  and  the  results  were  to  be  seen  at  the  World’s
Fair.  It  was  hardly  to  be  expected,  in  view  of  the  circumstances
just  indicated,  that  these  results  should  be  of  much  importance,
even  if  the  Originals  and  the  method  in  use  were  the  best;  but  it  is
in  these  particulars  more  especially  that  nearly  every  tliing  is  still
left  to  be  desired.  Thus  drawing  is  taught  in  many  schools  by
teachers  who  have  no  special  knowledge  of  the  subject  themselves,
while  the  Berlin  copies  (by  Hermes)  are  used  as  examples.
Now  and  then  special  drawing-teachers  are  indeed  employed  in
some  of  the  larger  cities;  but  how  can  rational  instruction  be
looked  for,  when  most  of  these  teachers  are  in  Charge  of  far  too
great  a  number  of  pupils?  A  report  from  Toledo  (Ohio),  for
instance,  States  that  one  general  teacher  of  drawing  is  charged
with  the  care  of  seventy-four  school-rooms!  The  method  employed ­
  could  not  be  learned  from  the  specimens  exhibited  by  these
schools.