In this final chapter I am attempting to summarize some of the suggestions made, under age group headings. It is not altogether easy to do this in an abstract way without particular children in mind. Children develop at varied rates in art and craft as they do in other work, and in any case teaching in art and craft, as in other creative subjects, must rest partly on the teacher's observation of the children. It is sometimes necessary, as in mathematics, to have groups within a class who are at various stages of development.

You may find also that you are virtually starting from scratch with a group of children who are some way through the Primary school, for, after all, there are quite a number of schools who hold the view that art and craft is a frill not worthy of serious attention, and certainly not a subject where progress is real and in many ways measurable. Their children are in consequence very backward in the subject. If you have to teach such a group, you cannot start at the point where the children would be if they had had good teaching. You must go back and provide the experience that they would normally have had at the early stages. It should be possible to work through this more quickly than would have been the case had it been done at the right time, but it needs to be there.

Art is not really divisible from craft. As you will have seen from the arrangement of this book, crafts have a habit of growing out of art activities and vice versa. Ideally the two should be planned as one with the accent now on art, now on craft. It is often necessary for timetable purposes to plan them separately, but they should be closely related. I deplore the practice of allowing only the boys to do craft, using it as an alternative to needlework, although I know from my own timetable problems that it is hard to avoid. I think some provision must be made for the girls to do craft work, even if this means less time for needlework.

In summarizing the work in age groups, I have made three divisions of two years. These divisions correspond very roughly to the natural development of children's work. The Infant work is concerned with "scribble", with the use of symbols and with drawing what is known from environment. This is mainly a time of exploring the various media. In the first two years in the Junior school children are still drawing what they know to be there rather than what they can see, but they are beginning to look outward. They are gaining skill and can work with more accuracy. Work in this period is more concerned with a systematic exploration of media. The children at the top of the Junior school are much more concerned with the appearance of things and are ready to understand the more intellectual business of composition and colour mixing and pattern structures.

5-7 years

Children in the Infant classes should be given the Opportunity to explore and control a variety of media and tools. Most of the teaching will be given by suggestion to individuals, by the introduction and display of particular materials and by the work which is praised, encouraged and displayed. Most of the work at this stage should be of the children's own choice. Particular interests will often arise in relation to work in art and craft or in other work. Ideas may also be stimulated by visits, or festivals, or other events inside and outside school. These will give rise to a variety of work and full use should be made of them.

A. Painting, picture and pattern making

The following opportunities should be provided:

1. Opportunity to paint on white and on coloured paper of various sizes with brush, sponge and fingers.

2. Opportunity to draw on white and on coloured paper of various sizes and on the blackboard in crayon, chalk and pastel.

3. Opportunity to combine these media.

4. Opportunity to make pictures and patterns from collage materials, using coloured paper, scrap material, and other odds and ends, such as lace, ribbon, feathers, silver paper, etc.

5. Opportunity to make patterns by printing on paper and on material with potato blocks, fingers, felt and rubber blocks, and oddments, such as the ends of cotton reels.

6. Opportunity for the children to mix their own paint.

7. Opportunity to make patterns by cutting and folding paper.

As a result of these activities the following learning should take place:

1. Whatever the size of the paper, it should be filled.

2. Paint, if it is too wet, runs down the paper when used on an easel. It also mixes into the next colour, if two colours are placed together before one is dry.

3. Different ways of using the brush, pencil, chalk, fingers, sponge and pastel produce different results. By the end of their time in this group children should have gained sufficient control of these media to use them in many different ways.

4. Different results are obtained from using a dry or a wet brush.

5. Many children will discover and use the following pattern structures:

Large abstract patterns. Cross and mirror patterns.

Non-repeating patterns in spirals and concentric circles. Repeating patterns made by printing methods.

6. As a result of work and discussion children should know most colours by name, have begun to appreciate that there are several, at least, of each kind, and many children, from their colour mixing, should have discovered that red and yellow mixed together make orange, that blue and yellow make green and that blue and red make purple. They should also have discovered what happens when black or white is added to a colour.