The history of education since the First World War has been the history of a growing realization of the importance of developing a child's personality—a realization that education should be a leading out and nurturing of what is within a child, an appropriate provision for the needs of his mind and body. This kind of education makes tremendous demands upon the teacher. Not only must she1 have a wide experience of whatever she sets out to teach, but, more important, she must have the kind of sensitivity which recognizes what is within a child. Teaching of this kind is an art, demanding everything the teacher has to give.

In the business of observing the developing personality, the general practitioner in the primary school is at an advantage compared with her specialist colleague in the secondary school. She is with her own class for most of the school day and she sees the children's reaction to all kinds of situation. The children themselves are at a friendly age and she will know them well. Real knowledge of the children you teach, is, of course, a necessary element in all teaching. In a creative subject, it is absolutely essential. Only when the teacher is sensitive to the children can she make the right suggestion at the right moment.

The teacher is frequently the source of inspiration in art and craft work. She will often need to make children see with their minds' eyes, the picture she has in her own mind. Before she can do this, she must be able to see for herself the pictures which are in the world around her. She must be alive to exciting combinations of colours and forms, and store her min d with images of these, so that she can kindle the imagination of the children. Many pictures can be started by the teacher describing and the children, preferably with their eyes closed, trying to imagine the picture. Such a description will naturally need to appeal mainly to visual imagination, but I think it is a good idea also to appeal to other kinds of imagery. Thus a description of a street-trader's barrow, for example, is made more real and we get more "inside" the subject, when we try to imagine, not only the shapes and colours, but the smell and the sounds associated with it.

1 Throughout this book I have spoken of the teacher as "she" and the child as "he". This is purely for convenience. What is said applies equally to men and women teachers and to boys and girls.

This method of describing and picturing is a very good one, but it should be remembered that it must lead the children to look, and to find pictures for themselves, and while much Junior art and craft may be directed in subject-matter, there should at the same time be frequent opportunity and encouragement to children to make pictures of things they have seen and discovered for themselves.

The teacher has the task of providing the right atmosphere for the creation of pictures. It goes without saying that the material aspect of organization should be such that it makes as little intrusion as possible into the creative aspect of the work. Smooth organization leaves the teacher time to concentrate on teaching. Art and craft, unfortunately, requires a lot of careful forethought if one is not to spend the lesson dealing with problems of materials and equipment.

The best atmosphere for art and craft teaching, is one of enthusiasm and encouragement. If the lesson has been started in the right way, by the kind of talk and discussion which leaves children clear about what they are to do and with plenty of ideas to get them started, most classes settle down quickly to work. At this stage, the teacher, moving among the children, needs to try to foresee and to prevent the kind of problems which will arise, for example, from drawing too small and in too much detail, or from too great a concentration on one part of the picture. Sometimes when conditions are cramped, children can be helped in their work by better arrangement of themselves, paper and paint. Sometimes they need to be encouraged to step back from their work and to look at it from a distance, thus getting a view of the whole and not of part only. Often a question or comment at the right moment will bring to the forefront some aspect of the picture not adequately considered. Praise of particular pieces of work and parts of pictures at this time also helps to direct the children.

With large classes such as are usual today, many of us find it difficult to follow the development of each individual child and to help him as we would wish. If we are to help each child to develop a personal way of expressing himself in art and craft— a graphic language as it were—we must do everything we can to recognize the individual characteristics in each child. To this end it may be of value to consider the factors which make each child's drawing or painting peculiarly his own and which will be evident in other aspects of his daily life.

Children's work in art and craft is affected by their physical characteristics. Their drawing is, of necessity, connected with the way in which they move. A child who is uncontrolled in movement, may also draw in an uncontrolled way, although it it possible that he may have greater control over his hands than over other parts of his body. Children who use little space in their movement lessons may well use little space on paper. Characteristic movement, in fact, will be characteristic of drawing. Children also reproduce many of their physical characteristics in their drawings and paintings. The plump child will probably draw fat people, fat trees and fat houses. The child with a large mouth or a long nose will probably draw people with these characteristics—puppet heads are often comically like their owners. Children with strong contrasts in their personal appearance often favour strong contrasts in their paintings.