Drawing teaches the arithmetic of space, as figuring teaches the arithmetic of numbers.
— T. R Ablett, Esq.
How do you begin to use drawing as a learning tool in a classroom with 35 students?
Here is an approach that may be worth trying in today’s busy classroom setting.
What follows is a format proposed by T.R. Ablett, Esq. as it was explained in the January 1888 issue of the journal Science. The article, The Teaching of Drawing, is about a paper Ablett presented at the College of Preceptors. In this paper, Ablett argues that drawing must become a subject every student learns, regardless of their future vocation. He argues that incorporating drawing across the curriculum has many advantages, namely:
- It helps students think about proportion and scale.
- It makes students better at describing what they see when they combine writing with drawing.
- It develops students’ “graphic memory”.
In his presentation, Ablett describes a way to teach drawing to different grade levels. Here is the approach he proposes:
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Class 1: Students should learn how to observe, how to create contour drawings of simple subjects, and how to “ward off color blindness”.
Class 2: Students should learn about simple forms and curves, should learn art-related terms and continue to develop their “graphic memory.”
Class 3: Students should learn how to draw the outlines of common objects.
Class 4: Students should learn how to draw rounded objects.
Class 5: Students should learn how to shade live subjects.
Class 6: Students should learn about other branches of art.
Ablett also argues that public perception about drawing needs to be raised. He says teachers need to do their part to prove that drawing is “one of the bases of education”, equal to other subjects such as arithmetic. He says that if students are going to learn arithmetic, there is no reason they shouldn’t learn drawing at the same time.
To accomplish such a formidable task, Ablett says teachers must learn how to teach drawing in a group setting. He says they can do this by using drawing subjects large enough for all students to see, by ensuring that all students have the same view of a subject, and by demonstrating the principles they are teaching with lots of enthusiasm.
The Teaching of Drawing is available online through the American Association for the Advancement of Science. One-day access to this article costs $20. Alternatively, you can search for this issue of Science at your local college library.
Literature Cited
The Teaching of Drawing. 1888. Science. 11(259): 30-31. Published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
ArtPlantae Today 
Tips & Tools: How do you teach botanical drawing to large groups?
You are kidding! Re- printing an article from 1888. To justify the teaching of art in today’s world! Would you do the same for medicine or science?
Yes. These are basic concepts, but the fact that almost 150 years later, that there has been so little change in perception of what needs to be taught, is appalling as well as discouraging.
The change in perception represented by this article is that drawing is not just for artists. Many educators have forgotten this. Drawing is an essential tool for architects, city planners, product designers, scientists, graphic designers, animators, storyboard artists, illustrators, mathematicians, botanists, game designers, interior designers, web developers, toy designers, etc. Drawing includes floor plans, elevations, exploded views, perspective, sketchbooks, concept design, maps, charts, graphs, diagrams, doodles, cartoons, napkin sketches, field notes, etc. What technology is teaching us is that math and language are easy for machines but seeing, moving and hearing are harder.
As both a science and arts educator I was happy to see this article. I’m sure at the time it was written this idea was fresh, cutting edge and a bit wacky… There was another revival for the importance of art in the late 1930’s in John Dewey’s book, “Art As Experience”. This was not the 1st time he wrote about this but actually started in the 1880’s writing about aesthetic experience.
When I attended grad school (2003) for a MA in Aesthetic and Leadership Education, Dewey was required reading among other education philosophers of more recent decades. Coming out of an undergrad degree in sculpture and installation art I was then focused, not alone on art education but, how to incorporate and teach other teachers to have aesthetic experiences in their classrooms, from math to writing to history etc.
As medicine and science may have changed in 100 yrs the fundamental impact of art has not. And of course, now, there have been many studies to prove its impact in all aspects of life.
Surprisingly in a society where arts/humanities (and science for that matter) are being cut from public schools there are actually an increase of private donor and grant money for non-traditional, extra curricular art and science programing, proving that someone cares about this. Working at an interactive, non-profit, children’s museum I see many school groups coming to us just to have exposure to science and the arts.
It is sad to think that the arts have been valued for so long yet the embracing of them are so far from where they need to be thanks to initiatives like “No Child Left Behind”, and standardized testing.
On a final note. For further look into this dilemma I recommend the following TED talk:
“Schools Kill Creativity”
MHz, Martin and Alan – thank you all for your thoughts and feedback and for sharing your experiences with us.
Alan, thank you for the link to Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk.