The Artistic Value of the Montessori Geometrical Insets

Investigators of the Montessori method may be interested to know what has been accomplished in drawing by a class of eighteen children between the age of five and eight years. During a school term of eight months, these children by the use of the geometrical insets, have conceived a series of over five hundred drawings without the aid or suggestion of the teacher. The material held the interest and attention of the children from the beginning, and even the older ones preferred it to any other busy work. There was no regular period for the drawing; it was done by the older ones in short intervals betw een the regular school lessons, and by the younger ones whenever they desired to select the insets. The purpose of the material was to train the powers of observation of form and color and to develop muscular control preparatory to writing. The children exceeded this purpose by discovering the artistic value of the forms. It is doubtful if the younger ones, those five and six years of age, could have accomplished such results except through the spirit of emulation. Each child, however, maintained is own individuality of expression and perfected his work inde-