Page:Elementary Color (IA gri c00033125012656167).djvu/18

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8
PREFACE.

decided upon and at the end of fifteen years the efforts begun in doubt have resulted in a definite system of color instruction which it is the purpose of this book to concisely set forth.

It is prepared in response to inquiries from primary school teachers for a clear and condensed explanation of the Bradley System of Color Instruction. The aim is to offer a definite scheme and suitable material for a logical presentation of the truths regarding color in nature and art to the children of the primary schools. Much of this instruction is so simple that it should be familiar to children who have had kindergarten training and has therefore already been explained in substantially the same form in "Color in the Kindergarten."

A few years ago it might well have been thought necessary to preface a treatise on the subject with arguments to prove that color is a legitimate object for school instruction, but today this is not a question with thoughtful educators, whether considered from the practical, industrial or aesthetic standpoint. With the establishment of professorships of practical psychology and the equipment of laboratories, provided with delicate and expensive apparatus for making and recording tests, there comes with increasing force the demand for some means by which the experiments in color made in various localities may be unified both as to the colors used and the terms and measurements for recording the result. It is the hope of the author that the system here outlined may be the initial step in gathering together such facts regarding color effects as will form a fund of knowledge little dreamed of at the present day.