With but a few exceptions, we don't have this personal study under masters any more. Craftsmanship has sunk very low. We no longer have any universally creative persons who are able to guide young learners not only in technical matters but also, at the same time, in a formal way.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a concern about the decline of craftsmanship and the lack of mentorship in education.
Walter Gropius highlights the diminishing presence of skilled artisans who can teach and inspire young learners in both technical skills and creative thinking. He laments the loss of personal mentorship, which historically played a crucial role in developing craftsmanship and creativity among students.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the importance of mentorship in education.
The ultimate aim of all artistic activity is building! ... Architects, sculptors, painters, we must all get back to craft! ... The artist is a heightened manifestation of the craftsman. ... Let us form ... a new guild of craftsmen without the class divisions that set out to raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artists! ... Let us together create the new building of the future which will be all in one: architecture and sculpture and painting.
A modern building should derive its architectural significance solely from the vigour and consequence of its own organic proportions. It must be true to itself, logically transparent, and virginal of lies or trivialities.
The utilization of flat roofs as 'grounds' offers us a means of re-acclimatizing nature amidst the stony deserts of our great towns; for the plots from which she has been evicted to make room for buildings can be given back to her up aloft.
Architecture begins where engineering ends.
Today the arts exist in isolation, from which they can be rescued only through the conscious, cooperative effort of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must recognize anew and learn to grasp the composite character of a building both as an entity and in its separate parts.
Good architecture should be a projection of life itself, and that implies an intimate knowledge of biological, social, technical, and artistic problems.
If it is the duty of the State to educate, it is the duty of the State also to bear the burden of education, namely, the taxation out of which education is provided.
Children are not less intelligent than adults; what they are is less informed.
Young cat! If you keep Your eyes open enough, Oh, the stuff you will learn! The most wonderful stuff!
If you want grown-ups to recycle, just tell their kids the importance of recycling, and they'll be all over it.
A book may be very amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.
It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time - for we are bound by that - but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.
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