CURRENT PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

Ninth birthday, for example, usually want to express their ideas more accurately and more realistically than younger children. Older boys and girls need art activities that call for more skill than younger children generally require in their art work. A sound plan will take such differences into account. Some clues for art programs come from the child, others from the world around him. We are surrounded by man’s creations. Adolescents should be sensitive to these works of man. Appreciation, of course, will be limited by the child’s maturity. “Art learning needs art teaching” (p. 26). By encouraging appreciation, by teaching techniques, by recognizing when to teach what, the teacher can help the child achieve more mature expression in art. The value of setting up goals is not to be underestimated. Goals are essential to help teachers check the purposeful value of a project. Since pupils enjoy evaluating their own growth, they, too, want goals. Finally, the author believes that a sound art program “encourages and fosters the uniqueness of personality” (p. 65). We are not all artists, but we are all able to participate in the arts. This last point underlines a special qualification of the art teacher: “Every art teacher need not be a practicing artist, but he should be a practicing student of art” (p. 54). The author goes on to define the role of the teacher of art: “Half of the teacher’s work is to stand by and kindle the child’s confidence; the other half is always to be prepared to present the right material and the right stimuli at the right time” (p. 57). Carl Reed’s report on his school tour covers the major topics in art education. Plates in black and white and in color depict a wide range of art activity in the schools. Each chapter presents a list of valuable references. In brief, the author’s report to his readers offers these conclusions: Today educational thought in art extends from the “progressive” to the traditional. School programs belong well between these extremes. Art should be lifted out of the thicket of clichhs, where it is lost, and taught as a subject in its own right.