nto modern men and women? Can we save the artist
that is in almost every child? At least we can offer some practical
advice. Do not tamper with that direct emotional reaction to things
which is the genius of children. Do not destroy their sense of reality
by teaching them to manipulate labels. Do not imagine that adults must
be the best judges of what is good and what matters. Don't be such an
ass as to suppose that what excites uncle is more exciting than what
excites Tommy. Don't suppose that a ton of experience is worth a flash
of insight, and don't forget that a knowledge of life can help no one to
an understanding of art. Therefore do not educate children to be
anything or to feel anything; put them in the way of finding out what
they want and what they are. So much in general. In particular I would
say, do not take children to galleries and museums; still less, of
course, send them to art schools to be taught high-toned commercialism.
Do not encourage them to join guilds of art and crafts, where, though
they may learn a craft, they will lose their sense of art. In those
respectable institutions reigns a high conception of sound work and
honest workmanship. Alas! why cannot people who set themselves to be
sound and honest remember that there are other things in life? The
honest craftsmen of the guilds have an ideal which is praiseworthy and
practical, which is mediocre and unmagnanimous, which is moral and not
artistic. Craftsmen are men of principle, and, like all men of
principle, they abandon the habit of thinking and feeling because they
find it easier to ask and answer the question, "Does this square with my
principles?"--than to ask and answer the question, "Do I feel this to be
good or true or beautiful?" Therefore, I say, do not encourage a child
to take up with the Arts and Crafts. Art is not based on craft, but on
sensibility; it does not live by honest labour, but by inspiration. It
is not to be taught in workshops and schoolrooms by craftsmen and
pedants, though it may be ripened in studios by masters who are artists.
A good craftsman the boy must become if he is to be a good artist; but
let him teach himself the tricks of his trade by experiment, not in
craft, but in art.

To those who busy themselves about bringing art into the lives of the
people, I would also say--Do not dabble in revivals. The very word
smacks of the vault. Revivals look back; art is concerned with the
present. People will not be t