KEY DOCUMENTS

A Plea for Froebel's Kindergarten as the First Grade of Primary Education
In an effort to gain support for the Kindergarten Movement, Elizabeth Peabody publishes A Plea for Froebel's Kindergarten (1869). In her book Peabody argues that the kindergarten is a necessary precursor to industrial art education.

Massachusetts Drawing Act of 1870
In 1869, a petition for the induction of drawing instruction in Massachusetts public schools is submitted to the state by Edward Hale and John Lowell. Because American production is low and of bad quality, the United States is buying more imports and producing little to nothing that can be used or sold. Petitioners reason that instruction in drawing can rectify the poor economic condition of the country by providing the skills required to make superior products.

Passed on May 16,1870, The Massachusetts Drawing Act makes industrial drawing a requirement for towns whose population exceeds 10,000. The law is a vital and influential force in the history of art education. Because of its immediate implementation, schools are in desperate need of qualified instructors and supervised direction.

Section 1. The first section of chapter thirty-eight of the General Statutes is hereby amended so as to include Drawing among the branches of learning which are by said section required to be taught in the public schools.

Section 2. Any city or town may, and every city and town having more than ten thousand inhabitants, shall annually make provision for giving free instruction in industrial or mechanical drawing to persons over fifteen years of age, either in day or evening schools, under the direction of the school committee.

Section 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. Approved May 16, 1870. (Efland, 1990, p. 99).