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1914.]
JAINA GAZETTE.
building actually adjoined the open country. A strange commentary on our present system of land tenure.
Being of a constructive turn of mind, I was naturally most interested in the modelling, science, and art classes. The simplest form of design were executed in cardboard, and even at this elementary stage the encouragement of originality was evident in the diversity of shapes chosen by the children of their own accord for quite ordinary odds and ends. For instance a hanging match-holder had provided possibilities of variation in form and colour for each juvenile mind to endow with a touch of its own character; some were quite pleasing, others distinctly quaint, but all were genuine and real of their kind. Some of the models in wood displayed considerable ability not only in design and workmanship, but in regard for utility and the needs of others. For instance one boy was engaged on a complete set of doll's house furniture for his little sister, a result of the excellent practice of allowing children to keep their work when finished. In case of the wood models a working drawing had always to be made first, in three views and perspective; so that the finished article was clear in the child's mind before he sat to work on the raw material. Some of these drawings were really very promising as examples of the kind of talent that may often pass unrecognised in the paralysing monotony of mechanical production. In many of the note-books the sketches of Chemical apparatus, etc., were admirable, especially as they had to be made and explained by descriptive matter during the course of an exposition.
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Another interesting introduction (at least since my early days) was the composite picture. A good example was afforded by a long sheet hung on one wall like a frieze, and depicting a caravan of camels crossing the desert: I was told that each figure had been separately drawn, cut out, and pasted on to the complete sheet, so that each child could point to his own work and judge of its effect on the whole scene. Raised maps, moulded in a paste of moistened flour, and coloured when set, were a favourite means of making Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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