It will be seen by the foregoing table that special effort has been made to secure statistics relative to instruction in drawing in high schools. A summary of these statistics is here given:

Status of Industrial Drawing in High Schools.

Number of high schools which made returns,

212

Number in which drawing is a required study for at least one year,
Number in which drawing is not required, but is an elective for at least one year,
Number in which drawing is not taught at all,

96

55

61

This table shows that in but 45 per cent. of the high schools of the State drawing is a required study; in 36 per cent. it is elective for at least one year; making 81 per cent. in which instruction in drawing may be had by every pupil for at least one year. In 29 per cent. of the schools the law requiring drawing is ignored. These delinquent schools are of two classes: (1) The country high school, in which one teacher is supposed to do all the work. Under such conditions no good work in drawing can be reasonably expected. (2) The larger town school, in which is found a principal whose one ambition, like that of his predecessors for a hundred years, is to discover, cultivate and perfect the bright pupils, that they may enter college unconditioned. How many high school principals have said, "We have no time for drawing," and later in the conversation have boasted, "I never had a pupil conditioned by any college." These men seem never to have discovered the significance of the fact that but two or three per cent. of those entering their high schools ever enter the colleges. Have the "dull" pupils no rights? Those who drop out of these strenuously classic schools are not dull pupils. More than half of them are as bright as the brightest, but bright with other areas and convolutions of the brain than those which have to do with Latin terminations and Greek roots. A high school principal of the right sort is as proud to

send pupils to an institute of technology, or to a conservatory of music, or to an art school, as to a college of letters.

Drawing should be a required study for at least one year in every high school, and elective for succeeding years. There should be two distinct courses in the larger schools, one closely related to manual training and the constructive arts, the other closely related to the decorative and pictorial arts, and both as rich as possible in those elements which make for a broad culture. The work in drawing from high schools should crown the work of all grades below. The recent State exhibition would almost lead one to believe that, taking the State as a whole, the reverse is now the fact, the primary schools are at the head, judged by fair standards, and the high schools are at the foot. There are notable exceptions, such as Boston, Somerville, Medford, Malden, Newton, Holyoke, Springfield and others; but on the whole the drawing in the high schools is relatively poor.

The high school courses and programs need to be readjusted to meet the demands of all classes with impartial justice. Such revolutionary changes as have occurred during the past four years in the organization of the Holyoke High School need not be inaugurated in every school; but changes almost as radical must be made in many high schools before anything like satisfactory results in drawing can be expected.

The prevalence of instruction in drawing in the elementary schools and of instruction under special teachers of drawing is shown graphically by means of the map.

The darkness is most in evidence among the hills. The reasons for this are obvious. The dark towns are not wealthy or populous. Twelve towns in this region, Hawley, Plainfield, Goshen, Chesterfield, Worthington, Middlefield, Washington, New Ashford, Alford, Mount Washington, Tyringham and Tolland furnished last year, all told, but 824 pupils, an average of about 68 pupils to each town. These towns cannot afford such teachers as are to be found in cities, nor can they long retain the services of such good teachers as they can afford. The movement is from the springs in the hills, to the brooks, to the rivers, to the sea; and in the teaching profession it is from the isolated town to a town in a supervised district, then

to the large town with graded schools, then to a suburban city, and to Boston. Many of these hill towns cannot furnish the appliances for teaching drawing. Drawing paper and pencils cost money; and what shall be said of paints and brushes, models and objects, helpful reproductions and reference books? The State must more liberally help these towns, sooner or later, if they are to be expected to maintain high standards of teaching.

The totals gathered from the foregoing table are here placed for comparison against the totals of previous years:

Status of Industrial Drawing in the Public Day Schools.

These figures are encouraging, to say the least. To me the increase in the number of supervisors is most gratifying. In the special report on the State exhibition of drawing I have expressed somewhat fully my opinion as to the value of the supervisor, and therefore I need not here multiply words. I believe a town secures more ample returns from money invested in a live supervisor than from money invested in other "aids" to instruction in drawing. All other aids are desirable in their proper place, but first and foremost stands and always will stand the competent teacher. The supervisors of drawing in Massachusetts, Dec. 30, 1899, are here tabulated for reference: