Class Book. Gopight^J". £M COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. A NEW COURSE OF STUDY AND OTHER PAPERS V ^ti/v-rt/V-^C K. , b \A^auuU A NEW COURSE OF STUDY AND OTHER PAPERS BY EDWARD R. SHAW, Ph.D, LATE DEAN OP THE SCHOOL OF PEDAGOGY NEW TOBK UNIVERSITY NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1904 IBlOZS LVB^ARYnf CONGRESS TWO OoDles Received AUG 17 1904 Cooyrtght Enhy CLAS!^ ^ XXe.N«. Q i^ If S ^ 0©PY B Copyright, 1904, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY TO Dr. SHAWS students in grateful appreciation of their loyalty and devotion, this book is dedicated PUBLISHERS' NOTE At the urgent request of friends and students of the late Dr. Edward R. Shaw this Httle volume has been published. No attempt has been made to present Dr. Shaw's lectures as a whole. In selecting from the material at hand it seemed necessary and best to follow his own judgment and use for the most part what had already been published at different times under his personal supervision. CONTENTS FAGB Biographical Sketch xi A New Course of Study 1 The Value of the Motor Activities in Edu- cation 24 The Spelling Question 42 The Logic of Children 63 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Dr. Edward Richard Shaw^ the author of the chapters in this httle volume, was born at Bellport, Suffolk County, N. Y., Janu- ary 13, 1850. At this time the original farming and fishing population of Long Island was still unspoiled by city residents and summer visitors. This simple homely life, dealing directly with the realities of sea and land, influenced powerfully the chil- dren who grew up in it. Those who knew Dr. Shaw best often recognized under the eager, restless life of the city student and teacher of pedagogy echoes of the early Long Island days. Why he began to teach he never knew. Most American boys drift or fall into their life's work, but in Dr. Shaw's case the acci- dent was fortunate. Teaching and study- ing by turns, he worked his way through xi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Lafayette College, and in 1881 he took his degree of Ph. B. He was a student by na^ tm^e, and the student's life is contagious. Alert, energetic, ambitious, he gave to the boys and girls in his Long Island schools the spirit of inquiry and the enthusiasm for humanity which have carried some of them out into large fields of usefulness. Dr. Shaw was married in 1876 to Miss Huldah Green. To his energy and single- hearted devotion to educational studies she added the calmness and the larger interest in life that almost every man who has accomplished much in the world has found in some woman. One son was born to them, but in the prime of the most promising young manhood he was carried away after a few days' illness of pneumonia. This was the most terrible affliction that ever came into their lives. From 1883 to 1892, Dr. Shaw had made a reputation as one of the able high school principals of the country, through his work at Yonkers. But during all this prelim- inary period of teaching and school manage- ment the young teacher's interest extended far beyond his school buildings and the sub- xii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH jects he was teaching. He was a leading figure in teachers' organizations; he wrote extensively for school journals; and he trav- eled widely, visiting normal schools and edu- cational experiments of all kinds. It was in connection with one of these educational expeditions that I first met Dr. Shaw, and his eager interest, his quick detection of pre- tense and sham, his devotion to the science and art of teaching, and his belief in its future, made a deep impression on my mind. He was at this time thoroughly convinced of the inadequacy of the normal schools to furnish the pedagogical leadership needed by the country; the idea of university courses for teachers was gradually coming into prominence, and he gave it his hearty support. In 188T, partly through Dr. Shaw's personal efforts and advice, the New York University established a Professor- ship for Pedagogy in the Graduate School. Dr. Shaw registered for the lectures of Dr. Allen; he had already been given the mas- ter's degree by his alma mater, and in 1889-'90 he was given the doctor's degree in the newly established department. The following autumn, October 1, 1890, xiii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH the original professorship of pedagogy was expanded into the School of Pedagogy, and Dr. Shaw became Lecturer on Educational Classics. For two years he held this lecture- ship while retaining his position in the high school at Yonkers, but in 1892 he was given the professorship of methodology and de- voted all his time to the School of Pedagogy. In 1893 the title of his chair was enlarged to Institute of Education and in 1894 he be- came Dean of the School of Pedagogy, and retained the position until 1901. During these twelve years of his connec- tion with New York University, Dr. Shaw helped to build up the School of Pedagogy from nothing to a position of prominence and leadership in the country. The diffi- culties of the position can hardly be overesti- mated. There M^ere no traditional lines along which such work could be developed; funds for expansion were lacking and had to be foLmd from year to year; the students were mainly teachers giving their best ener- gies to schools in New York and the vicin- ity; the standard of scholarship was low when the school was opened, and had to be rapidly raised. But through all discourage- xiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH merits Dr. Shaw's untiring energy, courage, and tact steadily won the way. In this higher position, as in his earher work, Dr. Shaw never became a mere ad- ministrator. He made repeated journeys to Europe and to all parts of America in search of new ideas. Realizing that "to con- duct a school of pedagogy without a school of children is as absurd as to conduct a school of medicine without a hospital," he organized and directed the Heusinger School as a model and experimental school. With an excellent corps of teachers and a good plant he here brought to the test of practical application many of the theories which he presented before his students. In the midst of all these varied activities Dr. Shaw still found time for writing. He had previously written English Composition by Practise, Physics by Experiment and a purely literary work. Legends of Fire Isl- and. To these he now added Three Studies in Education, a translation of Ostermann's, Interest in its Relation to Education, and a half-dozen abridgments of standard works for supplementary reading in the grades. Besides these he contributed more than a XV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH dozen important articles to educational jour- nals. Any one who examines Dr. Shaw's written work as a whole must feel how greatly it improved in his later years. The School Hygiene, published in 1901, is now the standard work in a difficult field where much had already been written. In 1901 Dr. Shaw gave up the deanship of the School of Pedagogy and confined himself to his work in the Institute of Edu- cation. The remarkable unanimity with which Dr. Shaw's former students combined in expressions of regret over his withdrawal from the deanship of the school, shows how deeply his personal qualities and his work had impressed themselves upon the army of teachers which had passed into his hands. In November of 1902 Dr. Shaw was called to the superintendence of the schools of Rochester, N. Y. The position would have brought him into active contact with practical school affairs in a progressive cen- ter, where he could have developed plans which he had long desired to see carried into effect. In the midst of his preparations for the new work he was, however, stricken down and died February 11, 1903. xvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH It is idle to estimate the permanent value of any man's work while we are in the midst of it; but the man's personal qualities and his immediate influence can be better known and expressed by his contemporaries than by those who come later. As a man, Dr. Shaw endeared himself to many people. His genial personality, his boundless energy, his devotion to his work, and the freedom with which he gave himself to help any struggling student, endeared him to all who worked in his classes. One of the ablest primary supervisors in the country in explaining her success to a friend recently said, "It was Dr. Shaw's friendship that gave me my start, and kept me going." There are many teachers in the country who could say the same. As a teacher, he had undoubted genius. He loved to teach and his students caught his spirit. His varied experience, covering the whole field of American education, his broad reading, and his long work in teach- ing pedagogical principles gave him ac- quaintance with all that was best in educa- tional practise. To this knowledge of teach- ing he added indefatigable industry, critical 2 xvii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH judgment, and common sense. He was certainly one of the best teachers of his generation. As an educator, in the broader sense of the word, his reputation will stand or fall with that of the group of men with whom he was identified in his professional career. Possi- bly the most marked characteristic of his generation of schoolmen has been a tend- ency to base educational practise on physi- ological laws; looking upon life from the evolutionary point of view it has sought to determine methods from a study of growth ; and it has had a profound faith in education as the greatest developing and conserving power of the modern world. Dr. Shaw was thoroughly in sjmipathy with all these tendencies. That he sought physiological foundations for his theories and beliefs is seen in the fact that his best work gathered around the study of motor ability and school hygiene. He was keenly aware of the tendency to base method on genetic studies, and he was strongly identified with the child-study movement. He loved children, and yet his work was animated not so much by a pas- xviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH sionate love of children as by a desire for educational efficiency. Education was to him an institution exercising functions which needed to be related and perfected; and still he always reahzed that the institu- tion with all of its functions must be pri- marily conditioned by the nature of the children with which it deals. His attitude was not that of Fenelon or Pestalozzi, but rather that of Locke. Of the importance of education in our modern life he had no doubts. Devotion to teaching was to him almost a religion. Who- ever teaches well profoundly influences some lives. A man who trains teachers well exerts an influence upon humanity which can not be overestimated. Among Americans of this generation who have given their lives to this highest form of influencing belief and conduct, the name of Edward Richard Shaw will always have an honored place. C'OlaA. J^, CULtAX^ XIX A NEW COURSE OF STUDY A NEW COURSE OF STUDY The accompanying outline shows in analytical form the result of an attempt to arrange the underlying requirements of an enriched course of study for elementary schools in accordance with the principles of correlation, coordination, and interrelation. The meaning here taken for correlation is the principal meaning assigned the term by the subcommittee on correlation of the Committee of Fifteen in its report to the National Educational Association, in 1895. Accordingly, the various significations in which the term correlation was used in the active, prolonged, and somewhat confused discussion which preceded the report, some of which, it is to be regretted, persist at the present time, are abandoned. Previous to S A NEW COURSE OF STUDY the report several plans of coordination were put forth, while the report also essentially embodied a plan of coordination. In the various plans of coordination ad- verted tOjDr.Hailman proposed seven groups of studies ; Dr. Harris, five groups ; Dr. Prince, four groups ; Dr. DeGarmo, three groups ; while some plans of concentration were in one aspect tantamount to two groups. In studying these plans with the object in view of arranging a working course of study which should secure to the fullest extent possible, the ends and benefits to be gained by correlation, coordination, interrelation, and even some phases of concentration, the writer found himself best able to realize these ends by adopting as a basis the plan of coordination set forth by DeGarmo in his article on the "Coordination of Studies," Educational Review ^ May, 1893. A long time has passed since DeGarmo's article appeared, but time has been neces- sary for careful selection, preliminary test, adaptation, and repeated trial. The present 4 ANALYTICAL OUTLINE OF A COURSE OK STUDY FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS FIRST VF.AK piRST Y'EAR SCIEXT'HC PXONOMIC ud CIVIC Slurfjo/.Vil'"""' •'*"'»<«'***' (V, , , , Study of Nrighborlued. ""^ Und. •»!«. ttj. \i,mli"r'' on r r" ' '" — ' ^"^- f't^"*. "bHter. Writing at llratTtilx bodie*. ]a and Tmdng t AniniBli. pUnU . il^-'irinif willi'll^T'"!*^^ '^■"'y ™'''P**''«"'''' *«pnda ™"iw( HHST YEAR HUMA \rsric Jirz™, ^5i^" i«D «f Eskimo ffiuw „J h^.. KS;^,.,. li.„..n Wy- ^ j^^-'^nmrk'lTfifjlLm!'''' ""^ Snuh-work w daj-. Gamw-Bujio SECONT) VEAU SECOND YEAR SCIBK rii-K- ECONOMIC Odd CIVIC .ShJi, ol Naturd Sijm»wi*np«. S«iw.ii.. wcBther (doud^ wind.). Anininl*. plaiiU. minmdi. Space and quimlily tdalioni. I'by/iml fon-ct oiid phmom- ''9''iJ."Sx^''d„u:;: Srufy 0/ NrigUarfuod. Writiqi- Food. doUiing. .licllfr, E.M|.l..>n,.-ii1 E«i^^nd,^.«xl .n.d» and ^ -:;, - ; f^xily ciirupMirndnJ sgcncin ^' ' Civil- m|uirciiieulj. . ..( .1 THIKU VEAU HUMANISTIC D«lb*o •i IMatiim*. fitailing. Fairy Ulc*.r I)Im. Bcprwlurinic a^^tXl. ;Xk.' Spelling j;;,-;^ Dewnplion . po.plc». Billing poe IJOM. THIRD V-EAR SCIENTIFIC Sludi/DtNiiltiralSiannJitUn^. Fonnin; and n-ril ."i™i''""i "."'Zr Snd "J; iCSJ', THIKl YEAR ECONOMI C nnd CIVIC Efonemte Study of Loaalil\i. Writing. TnidB «nd occupktioai. O urging producti. Incom- ing pnxJucti. fe FOURTH YEAR HUMANMSriC FOURTH YEAH SCIENTIFIC FOURTH YEAR ECONOMIC and CIVIC DeKtiption of pooplra FIFFH YEAR HUMANISTIC Ihitttt and fUlatioiu. Sjwct; and qunnlj H°™.abodr. Phyiical forces |-ri.iioi»- SM^ .too.. p^„ Ferfamini'«^rini'c.'u PMcil'?l.liurf FIKril YEAR SCIKNTIFIC Skctcliing in pencil ol poMa, FIFTH ■i'EAR ECONOMIC and CIVIC A NEW COURSE OF STUDY outline is a revision of one privately printed in 1899. It includes such educative ma- terial as may well be given in progressive elementary schools. As has already been indicated, correlation is here regarded as such a selection of edu- cative material as will induce in the child, so far as his capacities permit, that kind and degree of knowledge with its concomitant applications and uses requisite to fit him for his environment. Coordination is regarded as the division of the material into groups of studies having a similar educative trend, the distribution affording opportunity for closer interrelation. Interrelation is regarded as the bringing together in teaching of those parts of different subjects between which there exist such relations as admit of the in- terconnecting of the parts into a unitary whole; or, in some instances, as the linking of certain parts of two or more subjects in which there is a dependence of one series of ideas upon another, the interconnection of which strengthens associations in the learn- 5 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY er's mind, enhances interest, and develops the power to detect closer relations between the ideas brought together — a power which is not necessarily developed when such series of ideas are presented in isolation. Important interrelations can be effected between history and certain phases of geog- raphy, as there is an interdependent content through place and the relation of causality; between mathematical geography, parts of arithmetic and geometry, through spatial, quantitative, and form relations; between other parts of arithmetic, concrete geome- try, manual construction, and color ; between literature, home, school, and social relations, and civic requirements and obligations; be- tween certain phases of geography and experiments illustrating the laws of physical and chemical forces and phenomena; be- tween geographical features and conditions and hterature, as books of travel and de- scription ; between grammatical analysis and composition; etc. As has been previously stated, DeGarmo's 6 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY plan of coordination was adopted as a work- ing basis for the reason that it afforded, in the judgment of the writer, opportunities for a greater number of interrelations. An- other reason was that existing courses of studies in elementary schools could be adapted, with no great modification, to this plan and cause the least disturbance to pres- ent direction of the program and time allot- ment of studies. Some, however, of the pro- posed plans of coordination, while logically and theoretically defensible, presented insu- perable difficulties in interrelation, and upon analysis of the possibilities they afforded in this direction, there seemed to be inherently in them a certain rigidity of isolation be- tween the groups. DeG-armo's three groups are the Hu- manistic, the Scientific, and the Economic. These seem happily chosen, as they repre- sent the three fundamental divisions of knowledge and thought activity. The Humanistic core or group possesses "a distinct ethical content in literature and 7 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY historical development arising from hmnan progress through different stages of civiH- zation." Accepting this statement m gen- eral, but not as to some of its possible impli- cations as interpreted by the Herbatian school, the writer makes literature and his- tory the principal part of the humanistic core in the outline presented. These sub- jects are selected with reference to the pu- pil's capacity at each stage to interpret them. His attention is especially directed to the imaginative and real situations which the material furnishes, in order to evoke his judgment and so cultivate it that it will guide him aright with reference to home, school, and social relations and duties. Em- phasis, then, is put upon duties, home and social relations in order to implant ideas and arouse right f eehng with reference to these. The pupil, therefore, after he leaves school, because of the very tendency of his ideas and feelings, will be led to apply to life in all its varied connections his conception of what is best and right. a A NEW COURSE OF STUDY It will be noticed that there also appears in the humanistic core a description of alien peoples in their social environment and insti- tutions. When the pupil's attention is thus directed it has been observed that, through the contrast arising by virtue of the neces- sary and constant comparison with home surroundings, a special interest arises and with it clearer and more distinct concep- tions of home environment, home institu- tions, and their significance. Lastly, there is included in this core, songs and hymns and pictures, which not only re- enforce the ethical notions drawn from the literature and history but also supplement them, and evoke different feelings and emo- tions, heightening noble aspiration, inciting to good will, and quickening the spiritual nature. With Uterature, moreover, songs and hymns, and pictures may be so combined as to lead to a contemplation of certain phases of art apart from the ethical content inherent in the material. In other words, 9 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY attention may be directed solely upon the esthetic to develop artistic judgments, fur- nish acceptable standards of taste and refine certain forms of emotion. The Scientific group provides for an ac- quaintance with certain facts of unques- tioned utility, the development of habits of observation, comparison, and discrimination, and the creation of an attitude of mind on the part of the pupil receptive to the conclu- sions of science, and appreciative of the necessity and value of the discovery of new facts and the reconstruction of held conclu- sions in the light of newly discovered facts. It will be admitted that in achieving the above results, there are developed in the mind of the pupil, processes of thought, powers of inference, insight into certain kinds of relations which are distinctly differ- ent from the mental activities that result from the pursuit of the subjects of the hu- manistic group. Space to speak of the treatment of each subject of the group is not at command. 10 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY Some explanation, however, should appear of the treatment of arithmetic. In the out- line a minimum requirement in this subject is indicated and the first steps proceed leisurely. The sequence of topics, it will be noticed, is substantially the order which is to-day unquestionably most widely fol- lowed. This is preferred to that succession of topics and treatment of the subject em- ployed at present in a few schools — a treat- ment which, at the earliest stage possible, seeks to establish several different processes of thought, as, for instance, those belonging to common fractions, to decimal fractions, to percentage, to ratio, to proportion, etc., carrying these processes along abreast, so to speak. In other words, the pupil solves a few simple problems under the first topic, and then under the next, and so on through the last topic, when he passes through the cycle again, the examples offered him for solution increasing in difficulty at each re- turn. Such a practise does not commend itself as a means of securing mental econ- 11 I c " A NEW COURSE OF STUDY omy. With an enriched course of study, it will be conceded that mental economy is a most important consideration, one which must be constantly held in mind. In the out- line the sequence of topics in arithmetic is a sequence which is most economical of men- tal energy. The processes of fractions evolve naturally into processes in decimals. The transition is easy, for the general rela- tions are the same in decimals as in common fractions, the processes of handling the rela- tions by the mind are the same, attention, however, being directed to one particular aspect of the relations and different forms of expression substituted. The same rea- sons will apply in proceeding from decimals to percentage, etc. In the outline arithmetic is interrelated with concrete geometry and there is a grad- ual progression into algebra. There are also many interrelations with topics of the Eco- nomic and Civic group. It should be stated that there is little interrelation of arithmetic with nature study. An application of arith- A NEW COURSE OF STUDY metic in this field has been strongly urged by some educators, but such recommenda- tion, it is to be said, is based upon a mis- conception of the educational value of arithmetic. In the third group, the Economic and Civic, something more than DeGarmo indi- cated in his plan is provided for. His third group was the Economic, and its underly- ing idea is "man and nature in interaction." By means of the studies of the group he seeks to prepare the pupil through industrial training the better to master and direct the forces of nature, at the same time providing "a literary or imaginative contemplation of the economic field.'* It must not, however, be overlooked that the studies of the scien- tific group contribute an important part in equipping the pupil for the direction and mastery of the forces of nature, and it is through interrelations with the scientific group that this end is the more fully achieved. But the underlying idea of DeGarmo's 3 13 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY third group is adopted. It has been found advantageous, however, to enlarge his sug- gestion of the economic group to include the civic. The approach to civics in the lower grades comes about easily and naturally by way of the economic, as certain aspects of government are very closely connected with the trades and occupations and with indus- trial and commercial operation. By reason of this concrete connection these aspects are easily made objects of attention. Accord- ingly, at the beginning of the course the pu- pil's attention is directed to the easily com- prehended agencies of government, and later, in addition to these, to those means of gov- ernment with the pupil's observation and understanding, then progressing gradually from these so as to include civic requirements. An understanding of civic requirements forms an excellent groimdwork for an ap- preciation of civic obligations. By careful selection, the topics relating to civics become differentiated from their connection with the trades, occupations, industries, and com- 14 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY merce and appear in the eighth year as civics proper. This approach to the subject is felt to be fully justified, as in the manner indi- cated a deeper interest is incited, and a broader appreciation for the subject in its more abstract presentation established, be- cause of the numerous concrete instances which the approach supplies as an interpre- tative groundwork. In the lengthy discussion on correlation and coordination to which reference has pre- viously been made, the divisions content and formal side were used to denote certain as- pects in which the course of study was to be viewed. Most of the plans of coordinated courses of study put forth at that time rec- ognized these divisions for each core or group, and DeGarmo in his fruitful article maintains the distinction. In the outline presented, the terms content and formal side have not been employed, but two divisions have been made, which, while they implj'^ cer- tain things meant by the terms content and formal side, yet include in their meaning 15 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY something which these terms do not mean. They indicate, moreover, certain phases of advance in methods of teaching — an advance which may at the present time be rather widely noted in progressive schools. The divisions adopted are material^ and expres- sive and constructive activities. Through the employment of the activities, certain processes of thought are developed, and knowledge results, knowledge which is truly mastered and carries with it skill to do and to apply. The introduction and advocacy of activ- ities, let it be said on the one hand, is not to be construed as favoring the deferment of the learning of the formal and symbolic as- pects of studies to a period when it is sup- posed the child will see the necessity and value of these aspects, and by virtue of this attitude of mind and from inner impulsion set out and rapidly acquire the formal and the symbolic. It must not be overlooked that the acquirement of the formal and sym- bolic aspects of studies develops for each 16 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY study its own apperceptive procedure. The race has been centuries systematizing edu- cational processes, and the school is able to give the child the past experience of the race and to fit him to aid in social progress, be- cause it induces in him the apperceptive sys- tems which are the outgrowth of long pe- riods of trial and selection. The acquire- ment, therefore, of the formal and symbolic aspects of studies can not be safely deferred, but should begin as soon as the child enters school. On the other hand activities are intro- duced for the purpose of leading the child the easier and the more fully into the differ- ent apperceptive systems with their inherent economic apperceptive procedure, and in ad- dition to give the child greater skill and power to apply his knowledge and to per- ceive relations. The activities, moreover, afford a larger appeal to the self -activity of the pupil. They are a means of evoking more fully all his powers, of centering his attention, of awakening interest, and of en- n A NEW COURSE OF STUDY abling him the more readily to acquire the formal and symbolic aspects of studies. They are not for the purpose of establish- ing a procedure of their own, but that a larger experience may be given subservient of the logical sequence and apperceptive procedure which the studies require. But activities must not be carried to such extremes, made so numerous and extended, by bringing in factor upon factor of new conditions, that the child is rendered desul- tory in his thinking and his interests, and falls into such a mental attitude that his at- tention can be fully secured only by the nov- elty of change of situations. The develop- ment thus resulting is one too largely on the plane of sense-perception. The sequence of impressions in his mind is of a haphazard character. Sense elements have been fur- nished in overabundance, and relational ele- ments and their sequence have been neg- lected. Nor should we be deceived into thinking that the pupil will acquire the nec- essary formal and symbolic systems if the 18 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY teacher merely brings these in incidentally in a great range of activities. That experiment has been tried over and over again outside the schoolroom, so that there is little warrant for repeating it in the schoolroom. One meets on every hand men and women of good native ability, who have achieved success in life as success is gener- ally measured. They began their careers very early, when several years of elementary school life had yet to be completed ; in other words, they left school early and went out into the world. From an early age they have been constantly engaged in activities, constantly in contact with some concrete phase of vocational life. And yet they freely confess their limitations and deeply regret that they did not acquire those indis- pensable formal systems. Contact with ac- tive life, engagement in manifold activities, will give executive ability, a certain kind of organizing power, will develop that side of mental life and its apperceptive procedure, but as observation at every turn reveals, will 19 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY not secure in proper degree those formal sys- tems which require to be built up most care- fully and patiently. The school, therefore, can not trust to the acquirement of these in- cidentally. It must address no small frac- tion of its energies to their acquirement, but not, however, in the old narrow way. The point we are contending for is simply the right use of activities. The child must be led to work toward definiteness, exact- ness, concentration, and not be led into scatteredness of mental effort, a random expenditure of mental energy. He must be guided from the day he enters school into habits which lead to order, sequence, pro- gressive relation of ideas. Activities prop- erly subordinated through the sequence in each and the sequence of all to those apper- ceptive systems which have been slowly evolved, are a means of incalculable worth in securing the important ends already cited. In determining the interrelations possible in this plan of coordination, trends of inter- relations revealed themselves which point 20 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY quite clearly to the combination of several groups of interrelations into certain unified composites. The very conditions of lack of time to teach all that is required by the en- riched curriculum, and the demand of the age for a larger equipment of knowledge on the part of each individual unit of society, involving as this does not only more highly developed processes of thought, but also a greater diversity of acquired mental and manual activities, indicate the need of some condensation and unification of topics of the course of study. The formation of new unities seems, then, a logical outcome of the thought and dis- cussion on correlation and coordination. For some time it has been apparent to the writer that the formation of four such unities is not only possible but feasible. Each of the unities would constitute in itself an apper- ceptive system, but a system more complex than that of the individual parts fused, as more factors would be involved and a greater number of relations included. 21 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY It is not to be assumed that all the edu- cative material of the course of study could be comprised in the four unities suggested. Much of it, however, could be so embodied. In teaching the knowledge thus combined, a surprising gain in time and effort ex- pended would be found to result not only on the part of the teachers in presentation, but to a greater extent on the part of the pupil in acquiring. Besides the gain in time and effort, the pupil's range of mental activity, and his power to apply in new fields the ideas constituting the new composite, would be largely increased, since by the method of acquirement, he would not only be made aware of the relations established to produce the unity, but at the same time be constantly led to discover new possibilities of relations among the elements, whereas when the same parts or ideas are presented separately or in isolation, the pupil, because of the nar- row method of presentation, is not made aware of the relations, nor is mental activity in recognizing or discovering these called forth. 22 A NEW COURSE OF STUDY In conclusion, it may be said that with much of the material of the course of study fused into four unities, departmental teach- ing in the upper grades would become an easier and simpler problem than it will ever be possible to make it with conditions such as they are at the present time. £3 THE VALUE OF THE MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION THE VALUE OF THE MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION The physical activity of children is a fact attested by common observation. The value of physical activity in the education of chil- dren must have been recognized by Comeni- us, as this recognition seems to be implied in his maxim, "Learn to do by doing," for it is only upon the knowledge gained through recent investigations and researches that we are able to comprehend the import of the Comenian maxim. "Learn to do by doing" has been controverted from the time of its enunciation by Comenius down almost to the present day. It has been discussed pro and con, and Httle new light came out of the discussion. The disagreement grew out of the fact that there was not scientific knowl- ^7 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION edge enough to interpret the maxim, and so it became the basis of a long controversy. Many educators all the while believed in the maxim ; others repudiated it. But to-day we have sufficient knowledge to interpret and understand this maxim, and to remove it from the grounds where controversy has so long found it necessary to detain it. Its import, I trust, will become, in part, appar- ent to the reader from what I shall try to state concerning the demands of the motor activities in teaching. I shall be able to put before the reader more clearly these de- mands, and how the motor activities aid in mental development, if I ask him to recall the mental impressions he has received when his observation has centered upon a child in the few weeks following its birth. IMPULSIVE MOVEMENTS All persons have noticed the physical movements of a very young child. These movements are principally of two kinds, and 28 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION they are to be distinguished from each other by the way in which they are initiated. The first class includes those movements which arise from some cause solely within the or- ganism. The contractive movements made with the arms, the kicking movements made with the legs, the twistings and contortions of the body, are for the most part movements of this kind, and are initiated by the dis- charge of nervous force from the lower cen- ters of the brain. These movements are not directed by the child, but take place because the cells in the centers from which the im- pulses start become filled with cell material gathered, of course, by reason of the nutri- tive and assimilative processes. When these cells are filled they undergo some change, because they have reached the point of ful- ness. It is by virtue of this change that im- pulses to muscular action are sent out along the nerves connected with the muscular sys- tem. In all this, we have the building up of the cell, and then its breaking down, or, to speak in other words, the using up of the ^ 29 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION cell material according to some rhythmic and mysterious law of nature. Every dis- charge from these impulse centers sets into activity some set of muscles, and as soon as the muscles act, a stimulus is returned to the brain. In this manner a large part of the nervous mechanism of the child, which at this period is relatively simple in its struc- ture, as compared with the nervous mecha- nism of the fully developed adult, is brought into action, or made to function in a normal manner. REFLEX MOVEMENTS The second class of movements consti- tutes those which arise from some cause pri- marily outside the organism; that is, from external stimulus. For instance, when a bright light is brought into the room where a young infant is lying, his head is turned toward the light because of the stimulus fall- ing upon the nerves of the retina. There are, moreover, movements resulting from 30 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION sound, as a stimulus, from taste, from touch, and from smell as a stimulus. These move- ments are due to the effect of stimulus upon the organs of sense. Now such is the nature of the nervous mechanism that its extension and complex- , ity of growth are aided by the very means which nature provides in muscular move- ments. The movements not only include the two kinds mentioned, but also other kinds, as, for instance, the instinctive movements. By virtue of all these movements the cells un- dergo modifications of development, and take on a deeper complexity of structure; and the development of the cells in complex- ity is accompanied by the shooting out of more nerve filaments or connections, or, as some neurologists hold, the opening up of connecting fibers, which are there at birth but not developed. In the fully matured child at birth the centers of the impulses, which are in the lower part of the brain, and their main con- nections, have completed their development; 31 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION but in the cerebrum only a comparatively few connecting nerves are developed. There is also connection of the muscles and a few sense-organs with the central seat of con- sciousness. This central seat of conscious- ness is the surface layer of the brain, or cor- tex. In the surface layer of the brain are located the centers of sight, of hearing, of touch, of taste, and of smell, and the activity of each of the centers is quite apart, Flech- sig holds, from the activity in any other cen- ter. In other words, these centers of sense are each of them, for the time being, so many separate seats of consciousness. As the child grows, and the nervous mechanism develops, these centers begin to push out nerve filaments toward each other, or to de- velop the fibers and filaments already there, and also to connect themselves with the lower regions of the brain, and with the spinal marrow. In the fully developed brain, aU the centers of sense are connected, and even- tuate in a unitary action of all of them. These centers of sense are connected with 32 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION the lower centers, and later certain higher centers become developed, whose office seems to be to control the lower centers. The con- trol over the lower centers comes very slowly and the gradual acquirement of control over these is one of the immediate ends to be at- tained in education. FLECHSIG^S THEORY Flechsig has called those parts of the brain which lie between the centers of sense and the impulses, and into which parts of the brain these centers push out nerve fila- ments, the association centers. Association regions, however, would seem to be a better term, and less confusing. Of course, we must not think that all association comes about solely in these association regions. The cells in the centers, as well as their ramifying connections through these regions, are in- volved in association on its physical side. I have now accounted for the physical ac- tivity which the very processes of nature MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION compel in the early stages of the child's de- velopment. But as the child develops, and his conscious life enlarges, this tendency to- ward physical activity still remains, guided somewhat by the child's consciousness and will, prompted by motives which rise and control him. These motives are capricious when regarded from the point of view of the mature mind. But however this physical ac- tivity may spring out of the capricious motives of the child, and may result in asso- ciations, it is due, in fact, to an underlying necessity of the child's nature. Unless there was physical activity, sensations and impres- sions could not be conveyed to the brain, and the progressive modifications of the cells which compose the centers, and the shooting out of the filamentary nerve connections or the development of the nascent connections would not go forward. Physical activity, then, you will see, is necessary for the devel- opment, for the health, and for the imity of the nervous mechanism. Proper development of the nervous sys- MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION tern through physical activity may be se- cured, some one will say, by a judicious pro- vision of intervals of play for the child and youth. It may be granted that the proper amount of play would secure nervous unity to the individual. Modern researches, how- ever, have shown us that the physical activ- ity of the child, or, to speak more compre- hensively, the motor activities of the child, may be so employed as to aid largely in men- tal development, thereby making that men- tal development not only a fuller one, but rendering its attainment easier for the child. ATTENTION The employment of the motor activities enables the child to give attention the easier ; it aids largely in establishing associations; it furnishes all states of consciousness with a richer content. The reason why the child's attention can be held for a surprisingly long time, pro- vided he is so employed that the motor 35 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION energy may be expended in movement, seems to be found in the conditions already set forth ; namely, that there are several cen- ters of cells not closely connected with one another, but with the main branches of the nervous mechanism. There is a constant discharge of motor energy into these main channels of the motor system, in order to produce movement so that the nervous mech- anism may be developed thereby. If, then, we can so employ motor activities as to make them a contributing part, or an accompani- ment in the child's lessons, we are enabled thereby to hold the child's attention ; but, on the other hand, if we do not employ the motor activities as an accompaniment, or contributing part in teaching the child, this energy which must be expended in move- ment withdraws his attention from what we have in hand for him. The impulses to motor activity seem to be the dominating factor in the capricious at- tention of the child; consequently, if we would hold the child's attention to any task, 36 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION we must provide some motor accompani- ment. In so doing, we use up the motor energy, which, by its very consumption, pro- motes the growth and development of the nervous mechanism. Moreover, by this con- sumption of motor energy in accordance with the normal functioning of the nervous system, we not only free the child from its otherwise disturbing influence, but give him at the same time a feeling of pleasure. Not only is the child enabled the easier to give his attention to any matter in hand by the employment of motor activities with the more purely intellectual efforts required of him, not only is this way the shortest way to develop to their fullest perfection the con- trol centers, and to aid in the development and strengthening of the powers of will, but association and memory are largely aided by such motor means. ASSOCIATION Association is made stronger, we well know, by increasing sense experiences and 37 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION related mental experiences. If we wish, then, to strengthen the associations and memory, we must give the child as many sense experiences about any object as possi- ble, and as many experiences in which he perceives some thought relation as we can give him. Now, the motor gives more sense experiences, and it enables the mind to per- ceive more relations, because the hands and the eyes are working together, and there is a progressive, developing concrete, contin- ually forming as the outcome of the con- joint use of hands and eyes. It will be evident that the presentative and representa- tive images are thereby enormously in- creased as to nimiber. The representative images are also clearer. It follows, then, that the judgments formed through discrim- ination and comparison are not only innu- merably greater in totality, but they are also more accurate. Consequently, the motor makes clearer thinkers, because the pupil constructs more definite pictures of projec- tions. And because of this reciprocal effect 38 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION of one power of mind upon another, all his thinking is more definite and exact. MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AIDED BY MOTOR MEANS No one will question the proposition that mental development is dependent upon the development of the central nervous system, or the brain and its attached branches. Al- though the cells which constitute this sys- tem may not be increased in number after the birth of the fully matured infant, the education of the child is always a matter of the development of more or less of those cells, and also of the establishment of more numerous connections between the centers. If, through any system of school methods and prescription of studies, a part of the potential cells of the brain remain unde- veloped, we have a brain of less power, a brain of less balance, a brain less able to stand the stress which is sure to come upon it. Besides, many difficulties will be expe- S9 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION rienced when the higher development of the mind is sought. The greater the number of potential cells that are appealed to, and the more numerous the connections we attempt to establish between centers, the easier will it be for that brain to acquire the various forms of thought activity which have resulted from the long intellectual development of the race. By the employ- ment of motor activity in teaching the child in our schools, not only is a greater number of cells called into action, thus in- creasing largely the pathways of intercon- nection and filling in the association regions, but the reaction in many of the centers is rendered more complex because additional elements enter thereby into the reaction. Clearness of conception is dependent upon the variety and strength of the images fused in the centers, during the reaction whose consequence is the psychic product. What special application now is to be made of this knowledge in regard to the mo- tor activities, and how are the demands 40 MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION which these motor activities make, to be met in the education of the child? Seek in every subject of study, especially in the lower grades, to provide motor activity, at least as an accompaniment of study and of recita- tion. If possible, however, invent means which shall use up the motor tendencies, and at the same time make them a contributing part in the more purely thought work re- quired of the child. In short, let some doing accompany all the child's efforts to learn. 4.1 THE SPELLING QUESTION THE SPELLING QUESTION During the past three years four sepa- rate investigations upon the spelling prob- lem have been made in the School of Peda- gogy, New York University. Two of these investigations were made by myself and the other two were carried forward imder my immediate direction. The object of these investigations was to see whether some new knowledge might not be gained that would render more specific guidance in the teach- ing of speUing. Other investigators have been working on this problem, but no re- ports of those investigations have come under the writer's notice except that of Miss Ade- laide Wyckoff on "Constitutional Bad Spellers" in the Pedagogical Seminary for December, 1893, and that made in Sioux 5 45 THE SPELLING QUESTION City, the returns of which were published in the Iowa Normal Monthly and also in The School Journal for May 16, 1896. Miss WyckofF made tests upon an extremely small number of spellers, who were mature pupils with some power of introspection. Her study is valuable for its suggestive- ness. The investigation made at Sioux City, starting out with the proposition that spell- ing exercises as usually conducted appeal to three kinds of memory, namely, that of form through the eye, that of sound through the ear, that of muscular resistance through muscular effort in writing, sought to deter- mine which of these three kinds of memory is most potent in learning to spell, so that in teaching spelling the greater measure of success might be attained by making the ap- peal chiefly to that kind of memory. In the Sioux City investigation, seven hundred and forty-three pupils were tested with meaningless words of five and ten let- ters, as grynaphisk, halep-mirus, so using 46 THE SPELLING QUESTION these words as to appeal to the eye, to the ear, and to the eye and ear together. INTERPRETATION OF INVESTIGATIONS In the four investigations already re- ferred to, between five and six thousand chil- dren have been tested, and although, for the sake of greater accuracy and the further verification of the data collected, full reports of those investigations will not be made for some time to come, yet some of the conclu- sions may be set forth for guidance in teach- ing spelling. In two of those studies the interpretation of the returns is so different from the conclusions reached in the Sioux City investigation as to warrant, in the in- terest of pedagogy, not only an examination of those conclusions, but to question in some degree the fundamental proposition under- lying that investigation. The auditory tests in the Sioux City in- vestigation were made by naming each let- ter of the meaningless combinations spoken 47 THE SPELLING QUESTION of, and then directing pupils to write down the letters of the word in the order given. The visual tests were made by exposing each word, printed in large letters upon a card. Upon removal of the card, the word printed thereon was written down by the pupils. For the audo-visual test, the pupils named in concert each letter of the word from the printed card held before them, after which the command was given to write. In the tabulation of the returns the aver- ages resulting therefrom were as follows: for the auditory test 44.8^ for the visual test 66.2^, and for the audo-visual test 73.7^. It will be noticed that the lowest percentage of the letters recalled was by the auditory test; that with the visual test 21.4^ more letters were recalled ; and that when the audi- tory test and the visual were combined, 7.6^ more letters were recalled than by the visual alone, and 29^ more than by the auditory test. The conclusion drawn from these per- 48 THE SPELLING QUESTION centages was stated in the following words: *'This seemed to point to the conclusion that to the average pupil the appeal in spell- ing should be made chiefly to the eye." Do not the percentages resulting from the three kinds of test, I wish to inquire, seem rather to indicate that the appeal should be made to that combination of powers which gives the highest percentage of correct re- sults, viz., the audo-visual? If an appeal to the eye and the ear together gives 7.6^ better returns than an appeal to the eye alone, how can it be reasoned that the appeal should be made chiefly to the eye? But an important factor is overlooked if the audo-visual test which was given to the seven hundred and forty-three pupils in Sioux City is regarded merely as a test of eye and ear combined. That important fac- tor is the motor apparatus which operates in speech. 49 THE SPELLING QUESTION APPEAL TO SEVEEAL SENSES Learning to spell is largely a matter of association, and, therefore, in teaching spell- ing the more sense avenues from which ele- ments may be complicated, the stronger are the resulting associations formed and the more easily will those associations rise under call, for the simple reason that there are more clues for their revival. The greater the number of complicated elements, the easier will the association rise in conscious- ness under recall and the easier will it be to hold it there for reproduction. The greater part of the difference of 7.6^ between the visual and the audo-visual tests I should rather be inclined to regard as representing a gain contributed by the motor apparatus of speech which was employed in the audo- visual test. In this audo-visual test, or, to name the test correctly, the visual-auditory- motor test, the eye, the ear, and the motor speech apparatus are working almost simul- 50 THE SPELLING QUESTION taneously and in harmony. Can there be any question that under such conditions the proper association of letters in words is not stronger than by the use of only one or two of the senses involved? In one of the four investigations already referred to, over 2,000 children were tested with nonsense combinations of from three to ten letters in length. In the first part of the investigation 140 visual presentations of these were made. From thirty to forty pu- pils were tested at a time, and the tests were so divided as to make no fatiguing demands upon the pupils. Each child wrote down what he could recall of the 140 printed cards held up before him for a given length of time. The pupils were requested not to move their hps when looking at the combina- tions ; and although we impressed upon them as strongly as we could that they must not use their lips, we found that though they started out with a very commendable effort not to do this, they would soon lapse into the use of their lips. When another strong ap- 51 THE SPELLING QUESTION peal not to use the lips was made, many cases came mider our observation of children who, while inhibiting the use of their lips, were moving their hands or fingers as if tell- ing off the letters silently. After repeated observation by those who assisted in making the tests, the conclusion was reached that at least 90^ of all the children tested lapsed into aiding themselves by using their lips — unless strongly appealed to when each com- bination was held up. This lapsing, more- over, occurred in schools where the spelling had been taught almost wholly by appealing to the eye. So strong a tendency as this to use a motor accompaniment is significant in suggesting that the motor speech apparatus be turned to use in learning to spell, not that it be repressed, thus making, I believe, addi- tional difficulties not only for the pupil but also for the teacher. ORAL SPELLING Spelling is a very arbitrary matter, and yields to but slight extent to the logical and 5S THE SPELLING QUESTION causal helps which are employed in teaching other subjects. Motor elements are impor- tant elements in association, and with so arbi- trary a subject as English spelling every aid in strengthening the association should be employed. From the experiments made and the verification of the conclusions in actual school application, I am convinced that the motor apparatus used in speech should be employed to a large extent in teaching spell- ing. All preparation of words to be written should be oral preparation, and very careful preparation at that, particularly in the sec- ond, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth school years. Writing should be the final test, but only after careful preparation orally. And in that preparation the letters should be grouped into syllables and the syllables pro- nounced according to the method of a gen- eration or two ago. The poor results now so common in spelling would thereby be greatly bettered. In the end, time would be gained, and the pupil rendered better able to help himself. The method of leading the 53 THE SPELLING QUESTION pupil to grasp the word as a whole through the eye has made confused spellers of large numbers of children. With some, however, it has produced excellent results. The tests show that in the appeal to the eye many children seized the first and the last letters of the word, but left out some of the middle letters or mixed these. It would seem, then, that the naming of the three, four, or five letters, as the case may be, that constitute a syllable, and then attaching a name to these grouped letters, thus binding them into a small unity, would aid the pupil to a remarkable degree. The putting of these small unities together into the larger word unity, gives the pupil a syn- thetic power to this end and makes his prog- ress more rapid and easy on the long road he must traverse in learning to spell. But this is a return to an old method, it will be remarked. It is taking what was good from an old method and using it as a part of a broader and better method than is now generally employed in our schools. 54 THE SPELLING QUESTION Written spelling is not to be neglected, but it is to come last, after careful oral prep- aration. THE METHOD OF WRITTEN SPELLING QUESTIONED For the last two decades or more this method has been almost wholly repudiated as an aid in learning to spell. The false notion that the eye is the avenue to which to appeal in teaching spelling began to obtain at that time a very fom hold upon the minds of teachers. Institute lecturers made strong efforts to inculcate this idea and their efforts met with large success. As much greater power was imputed to the eye in this regard than it actually has, the time devoted to learning to spell naturally became shortened, and the spelling lesson passed from the place of prominence in the program of work to a place of subordinate importance, and quite generally the spelling lesson was merely the writing of words selected from the reading 55 THE SPELLING QUESTION lessons, with repeated drill in writing upon words incorrectly spelled. The larger knowledge which has resulted from the great development of psycholog- ical study of recent years leads us to see that the teachers of a generation and a half ago were not wholly wrong after all in their teaching of spelling. They were right as far as they went, but they did not go far enough. Those who repudiated the old method, and made the appeal almost whollj'' to the eye, were right in holding that for most pupils the eye is a stronger sense avenue of appeal than the ear when only these two are considered. But the motor speech apparatus was not regarded as a factor in the matter. It is true that in testing any hundred pu- pils according to the methods which are sup- posed to determine whether they are eye- minded or ear-minded, we shall find a large percentage of the hundred eye-minded and only a small percentage markedly ear- minded. But it will also be found that a 56 THE SPELLING QUESTION very large percentage will give good re- turns to the tests for determining eye- mindedness and also to the tests for deter- mining ear-mindedness, with the returns usually in favor of the test for eye-minded- ness. In every grade of pupils, it must be remembered, such diiFerences will be found. The method in teaching spelling should therefore be broad enough to appeal fully to these differing aptitudes in different pu- pils and also broad enough to appeal to those pupils in which these aptitudes are more nearly balanced. The method already sug- gested is broad enough to make this varied appeal. In the article giving account of the Sioux City investigation the opinion was also ad- vanced that accurate observation should have some bearing upon correct spelling. Tests were also made in the Sioux City investiga- tion upon 149 good spellers and 149 poor spellers to see which were the best observers when ten different articles were exposed at the same time to each pupil and the pupils 57 THE SPELLING QUESTION afterward asked to write the names of the objects. Because it was found that the good spellers were the best observers, it can not be inferred from such a test that poor spell- ing "is largely due to inability to picture the word correctly and promptly in the mind's eye." Good spellers are good observers as a rule because they possess better all-round mental capacity than poor spellers. Our tests showed us that the poor spellers in their power to learn to spell new words were from a year to a year and a half behind the good spellers, taking, of course, children of the same age. Training the power of observa- tion through nature study has been recom- mended as aiding the pupil in learning to spell. Such a recommendation has no war- rantable foundation, and its employment would prove of little if any specific value in aiding the pupil to spell; nor will efforts made to develop the so-called eye-minded- ness avail much. Spelling is largely a matter of association, and the eye, the ear, and the motor must be 58 THE SPELLING QUESTION appealed to so as to produce the strongest complication of sensory elements. Care then in the right kind of oral preparation, with considerable oral test before writing, train- ing pupils to build up words by using the small unities into which words can be divided, is a method of teaching spelling productive of the best all-round results. 59 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN Daily humanity renews itself. Of all the miracles that have been witnessed or re- corded, the most marvelous is that which we continually see in the renewal of life. There is nothing in the world so wonderful as a little babe. Mysterious comer, typifjdng the immortality of life! But for its advent the springs of all that is best in man's heart would dry up as a leaf in autumn ; but for its advent society would become selfish, sordid, and base. There is always a wonderful rich- ness and depth in all Bible truths, and this is more and more revealed as society evolves toward finer organization. The Sacred Word saith "A little child shall lead them." The little child has steadily led man to higher things and the little child still leads 6S THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN man to-day. It is the child who has been the wonder-worker in the ascent of man. The purpose hmnanity conceives for it- self may be aptly expressed in the aphorism, "All for the child, because all is in the child." Social, ethical, spiritual progress — all is in the child. We appreciate this in these days as has never been appreciated in the past; and therefore we have begun studying the child that we may learn how best to aid his highest development. We have turned to this study that we may do the utmost for each particular child, let his heritage be what it may. What better proof of the strength of this new tendency could there be than the rapid growth in the new field of inquiry called Child Study? This study is revealing much to its votaries, and it is changing our whole attitude toward the little ones entrusted to our care. Never before were we so patient of their blunders as in these first years of the twentieth century; never before have we been so ready to admit that the 64 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN blunders of children in their first approach of knowledge are not such grave matters after all, since even grown-up persons when they attempt to learn that which is new and strange make equally laugh- able mistakes and blunders. We have at length come to recognize that we must put ourselves on the child's plane; that we must follow him as he reveals himself to us ; and that we can not lead him according to our preconceived ideas. Only through wise- ly directed and patient effort can he be brought to think in accordance with our thinking. In the past, we have tried to teach the child in our schools so that at the end of each year we should get an all around develop- ment so far as the child had traversed the field of knowledge. We acted as though the child's advance in knowledge could be rep- resented by a series of circles, one within an- other and all having the same center, the smallest circle representing what the child ought to know at the end of his first year, 65 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN the next larger circle what he should know at the end of his second year, and so on. We had the same measure for each child; and the purpose of the teacher was to roimd out each child to the circumference of the circle which bounded his year. During the recent years no other fact has forced itself upon the attention of teachers to such a degree as the fact of the individual mental differences of children of the same age. In the first place, there are many va- ried types of mind, and each one exerts it- self most strongly along some line deter- mined not by education, but by the inherent nature of the mind itself. In the second place, individual differences result, from the fact that the time when the child's mind be- gins to function in a particular direction dif- fers widely with different children. These differences are still more emphasized by the fact that when the child's mind begins to function in any direction, that is, when he begins to rapidly acquire some kind of knowledge and his interest in this is intense, 66 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN suddenly we find this interest gone and further acquirement in this particular di- rection is made with great difficulty and with most unsatisfactory results. In such cases it will often be found that the child's self -activity has begun to function in some other direction. This apparent capricious- ness of the functioning of the child's mind is a matter which must always be taken into account and provided for in our eiForts to educate him. In view of the inherent natural differences in minds, in view of the inconstant functioning of the child's self- activity of mind, it is not surprising that we should get mistakes and failures from him. Nor should we unduly distress ourselves over these nor misinterpret them. To understand a child's mistakes we must know the individual child, something of his past history and of the conditions under which he works, and then we shall be able to explain the incongruous products of his thinking. We do not realize sufficiently in our educational demands with what the child 67 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN is beset. We do not appreciate the condi- tions of his situation. He is in the midst of innumerable objects, manifestations of com- plex and varied phenomena, events occur- ring in succession and then simultaneously; and he has to seek an explanation of all these varied things. Suppose, for instance, there were a race of human beings above us of wider knowl- edge, of broader experience, of keener per- ception, of greater insight into causes and effects and their subtile connections, of more remarkable power in making inferences and inductions than ourselves — a race express- ing its observations, inferences, and thoughts, and communicating with each other, by means of a language much more intricate and complex than any language of which we have knowledge. Suppose, fur- ther, that at thirty years of age we should enter into this new environment and come under the tutelage of this race. Every one must concede after a moment's thought that our efforts to understand and master the 63 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN new surroundings would result in some suc- cesses and in a production of much rich and varied caricature. But, mind you, it would not be caricature to us; we should regard it all in quite a serious light. How frag- mentary and disjointed would our thinking appear to the superior race! What a lack of unity would show itself! How supreme- ly confident we should be of our conclusions, because we thought we saw all that was to be noted! What false and irrelevant associ- ations would somehow form themselves in our minds! What misunderstanding and misuse there would be ! The illustration with reference to that su- perior race under whose tutelage I have asked you to imagine yourselves is defective, I fear, in one particular. Would a race with such keen perception of relations, with such insight into causes and effects, and with such powers of observations and induction as I have imputed to them, seek to drag us up at once to the level of their knowledge and thinking; or would they come down to 69 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN us, study and master our limitations, and lead us up according to the natural way of the development of our minds? Would they judge all our efforts by their philosophical standards? Or would they judge our ef- forts and measure our progress compara- tively and always from our mental condi^ tion and from our equipment ? There can be but one answer to these ques- tions. We must come down to the child, take him by the hand, and lead him up the tortuous and uneven path of knowledge, willing to loiter with him here and there in nooks and open, even to wait for him. We must not stand on the heights of knowledge and thought, beckoning and calling to him to come straight up to us. It is necessary that we should cast aside our preconceived ideas as to how the child should learn, and be guided by the characteristics of the child's thinking. An acquaintance with these char- acteristics will enable us to understand the stages through which his thinking must pass, and will enable us to understand the various 70 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN and dissimilar steps which children take in coming at last to the ability to use the forms of thought of mature people. The incompleteness or fragmentary na- ture of the child's processes of thought may be clearly seen in the drawings which he spontaneously makes. They are simply dia- grams composed of certain synthetic ele- ments which the child uses to express his crude thinking, to body it forth. These syn- thetic elements are used over and over again by the child to such an extent as to lead us to regard them in the nature of symbols. One of the most striking of these synthetic elements or symbols is the representation of the human face. Young children, with scarcely an exception, draw ovals or circles for a face and plant two dots in it for eyes. Usually a straight vertical line represents the nose, and next after the nose the mouth appears. This consists first of one or two straight marks very long, cut later oval, in- dicating that a crude idea of the mouth as an aperture is becoming more prominent in 71 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN the child's mind. Sometimes nose and mouth are represented together by two or three round lines. Ears and hair are a later addition. All this indicates the way in which the child's ideas are built up by Uttle accre- tions, and how slow in growth are some of his processes of thinking. Later on hats are added, and even girls draw the conventional head covering worn by men and boys. The reason for this is not far to seek. There are two or three types of men's hats which are not departed from in the main; but with ladies, who will attempt to describe the vari- eties of the constant change? All who have watched the evolution of the child's drawings know that legs appear be- fore the body and always with the feet turned out. At the next stage, arms branch out from the legs. Later we find an oval for the body and the legs and arms are at- tached to this. Then buttons are added. Fingers are placed upon the hands. Ears and hair begin to appear. These are sub- stantially the synthetic elements or symbols 72 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN by which the young child represents the hu- man form. Houses always have roofs and many of them are made with the two ends facing the observer, showing that children at that pe- riod have no idea of perspective. Nearly all houses have a chimney, indicating the child's interest in motor images and his ap- preciation of them. Doors and windows ap- pear almost from the start. All the chil- dren's houses are transparent, that is, the interior can be seen from the outside. The child does not consider that the furniture can not be seen through the side of the house. These representations of various objects embody only fundamental characteristics or attributes. Children, then, use these syn- thetic elements in much the same way that they use language to express their crude conception of ideas. All who have observed the child's expression of his thought in his spontaneous drawings must conclude that the child's thinking is fragmentary, or inco- 73 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN herent. We find an utter disregard of the relation of objects in space and time, as well as of the succession of events in time. We also find much unrelated matter brought in. The child's thinking is successive rather than progressive, or related. He forms in- numerable judgments, but these are isolated, unrelated one to the other. This results from the fact of the great activity of sense-per- ception and from the slight organization of mental activities. His products, each a simple observation or inference, absorb his attention, which flits fitfully from one ob- ject to another. All these objects are rec- ognized by the child and known to him not by the combination of many qualities by which we know the objects, but one or two main characteristics, as his drawings show; and even these characteristics are not per- ceived with much definiteness. The charac- teristic is usually that which is most prom- inent or striking. It may not be an essen- tial characteristic, and if there is attributed any relation as cause and effect, it is quite 74. THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN likely to be a false one. Professor Krohn's little boy came to him one day and wanted his shoes polished so that when he walked they would squeak. The gloss was the stri- king characteristic to the eye and the squeak- ing sound the striking characteristic to the ear, of new shoes. When considered in the light of his experience the child's conclusion was consistent. I once heard a boy of six ask a very sensi- ble question about the evil spirit. It was Sunday afternoon and the little fellow stood in reverie looking out of the window. A thought was shaping itself into expression, for shortly he turned about and asked very earnestly, "If the devil goes about like a roaring lion, why can't we see him?" That morning he had heard in church the fifth chapter of First Peter read, where the bold imagery is used. Now of all the ideas in this passage the boy was able to apprehend only three, and all of these more or less vaguely. He had seen pictures of a lion and had been told some things about this interesting ani- 75 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN mal. He had some dim idea about "roar- ing." His third dim, crude idea was that of "going about." Now, "going about" meant to this boy being out of doors, running around the house, or making short excur- sions into the neighboring field. His ques- tion, then, was perfectly consistent, per- fectly logical, when we take into account what he had with which to think. In the past, and to a large extent to-day, educational practise has dwelt far too much upon trying to give the child as complete a notion as possible when any new object was taken up ; it had dwelt far too much upon bringing out all the qualities or character- istics and all of their relations. And in doing this, there has been not only much waste of effort on the part of the teacher, but also much annoyance to the pupil. Teacher and pupil have worked at cross pur- poses because it was not seen that the child demands variety, many objects of thought, from each of which he gains one or two broad impressions. Do not hold the child 76 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN down too closely to qualities. He needs many things, and we must remember that he gets only a little from each particular thing. The aim of the past has been to lead him to get many qualities out of a few objects. It was thought that the object must be ob- served until all the qualities that could be found in it were exhausted. We see to-day very clearly the defects in the once widely used system of object-lessons. Bother him very little with qualities that have no inter- est for him. But stop at every point where he asks a question and answer him. This asking of questions is the child's natural way of helping himself to apperceive. By means of his questions he gains the necessary in- termediate ideas which enable him to under- stand the new, or, in pedagogical parlance, the unknown. At this period of his development he groups together these vague impressions and unifies them. He is creating just as we cre- ate, and what the product will be depends upon what he has to throw together in this •7 'y»7 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN act of creation. His images are indistinct as yet ; his ideas of time are unformed ; every- thing is in the present with him. And from this grouping, relating and creating, result the fanciful creations of the child. Many a young parent has treasured up these stri- king sayings, thinking them indications of genius. They are, however, but accidents; some of them are poetic; and some of them seem to indicate extraordinary insight, as interpreted by us. When we enter the child*s mental world, however, we see that these sayings are only ordinary products of his mode of thinking. Thus a little boy, seeing a flash of lightning for the first time, remarked, "See the sky wink." A grown person and a little girl of four years were sitting out-of-doors one evening and the little girl, happening to see the moon come out from behind a cloud, cried, "See, see, the moon has waked up!" The next evening was cloudy, and as the two were standing by the window the grown person said, "Where is the moon to-night, 78 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN dear?" "Oh," she replied, "it's asleep and hasn't waked up yet." Walter, a four-year-old, asked Anna, a six-year-old, how the stars and moon came into the sky at night. Anna answered, "Oh, those are holes in the sky and the light from heaven shines through." The next morning it was raining. Walter, the four-year-old, came up to Anna and said, "Oh, dear, there must have been a flood in heaven last night, 'cause the water is coming through the holes where the stars were." These sayings are very beautiful to us, but to the children they were not products of beauty. Nor are they indications of coming genius. Children have been saying such things in all ages since the world began. The child, I have said, demands quantity. It is further true that he cares little for ex- pression in itself; he holds it subordinate to movement and use. I knew a little girl with a fine ear for tones and a fine sense of time, with marked powers, it proved in later years, for language. When seven and a half years 79 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN old she could read a page from Washington Irving, which she had never seen before, sur- prisingly well. Yet one day I heard this little girl singing from the Gloria, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without men,'* Her aunt remarked at the time that she hoped this would not be prophetic. One clause from the Lord's Prayer she rendered, "Give us this day our daily breath/^ Such verbal accidents oc- cur in every household where there are chil- dren, and afford a perennial spring of humor. Children learn as we do by trying and making mistakes. The mistakes of adults are less frequent because they have become cautious. If weems, nurhags, and cranocks were to come up in conversation, and the hearers should catch just the faintest and vaguest idea thereof, how many of those adult hearers would venture to use any of these words? And yet they are all in the dictionary. To illustrate further: I once knew an illiterate but most excellent and 80 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN practical farmer. The crops he produced were the finest and his work was always well up to the standard. He had charge of a farm on a wealthy gentleman's estate. This gentleman had ordered a car-load of super- phosphate for the spring planting. It had been delayed and news of its arrival came in the evening. Early next morning the farmer met his men and said, "Come, men, we've got to move lively to-day. Mr. wants all that superhorsefoot got into the ground by night." This man was interested in things, in their use, in movement. And yet his mistake was a case of accidental asso- ciation exactly parallel to the many instances which every child fiunishes. This farm lay by a large body of salt water. Before the days of patent fertilizers, it was the custom to gather at the proper time large quantities of horsefeet, or kingscrabs, as they were sometimes called, and use these to fertilize the land. Hence this new fertilizer — super- horsefoot. Here is another case of accidental associ- 81 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN ation, and that of such a nature — so obdu- rate — that we do not even try to break it up, but leave the matter to straighten itself out : A sister said to a child of three, "Take your spoon in your right hand." He asked, "Is this my wrong hand?" "No, that is your left hand." He changed the spoon, and said: "If this is my right hand, that is my wrong hand," and his sister could not make him understand why, if one hand was the right, the other wasn't the wrong hand. Fortunately this sister gave up the matter, but had such a case arisen in school, the teacher, with no knowledge of the logic of the child's thinking, would have felt it her duty to eradicate this idea. She would have made a difficulty for herself, where she should have done nothing, and one of those struggles so common to the schoolroom would have followed. Association and that of a mechanical kind is very active in the early periods of the child's conscious life. The most incongru- ous things often link themselves together, 82 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN not at all, as one might suppose, from con- tiguity in space or time. A word, a symbol, a phrase, arising representatively in the child's mind, will link itself with no Httle tenacity to some other phrase or expression from the fact that the word or expression so linked has originally been the accompani- ment of some strong visual or other sensory impression. Often such false and accidental associations arise from pictures and papers and magazines. Even children who have made some headway in learning to read are frequently known to form them. An illus- tration of this came to my notice recently in the prayer of a httle girl. "O Lord," she prayed, "make me pure, make me as abso- lutely pure as Royal Baking Powder." Let us see how the logic of children mani- fests itself in their efforts to imderstand and learn the why of things. To seek the causes of things has been a characteristic of human nature from the beginning of time. But adults have learned through long experience that there are many inexpUcable things past 88 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN finding out, and they give over attempts at their solution. The children have not this experience behind them. Their wonder grows out of their inability to appreciate causal relations, and so they wonder why this is so and why that is so. Out of this wonder spring their questions, and these they ply without stint. The most perplex- ing question I ever heard a child ask was, "Where does the fire go when it goes out?'* A small boy asked after he had returned home from his first lesson in the gymnasium, "When I hang by my feet on the horizontal bar, the blood rushes to my head. Now when I stand on my feet why doesn't it all rush to my feet and stay there?" Much that is surprising to children springs out of their inability to discern the cause when certain effects are strikingly ap- parent. Here are instances of this: George had on new stockings. At night, when his mother took them off, his feet were colored. He said in surprise, "O mamma! these ain't the feet I had this morning." A gentleman 84 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN once told me of a little boy who, upon going into the kitchen one day, saw for the first time a colored baby. He came back to his mother and said, "O manmia! there is a lit- tle baby in the kitchen with black hands and face." "Yes," the mother said, "that baby has a black body ; it is a colored baby." "Oh, no, mamma, not mider its white dress." "Yes, my dear, its whole body is black." "How did it come so?" "God made it so." The boy reflected a moment and then said, "Well, He must have laughed at it when He got through." When, however, the child learns that a certain cause will produce a certain effect, he has no scruples about using it. "Why don't you come to play with me?" said one child to another. "Won't your mother let you?" "No," said the second child. "Why don't you cry and kick? Then she'll let you." "Do you do that?" the second child immedi- ately asked. "Yes," replied the first, "and mother says, 'Well, go along then.' " The child at his entrance to school has 85 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN comparatively few lines of association; he has little power of inhibition; his impulses, when they rise, dominate his whole mind, hence the peculiar outbreaks and persistent demands of the child. A recognition of these conditions will explain the child's un- reasonableness. One winter morning a mother had put outside the window a mug of water in order that, after freezing, she might let her little daughter break the ice and thus show her one of the mysteries of nature. The little girl was highly delighted with this bedroom lesson, and the purpose of the mother was achieved, as this example of nature's phenomena made a strong im- pression upon the mind of her little daughter. Next morning the mother was awakened very early by hearing her child call to her in a suppressed voice, "Mamma, mamma, won't you put the mug of water out to freeze?" "Hush, Margaret, and go to sleep," answered the mother. "Mamma, do please put out the mug of water." "Mar- garet," replied the mother, somewhat agi- 86 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN tated, "you will wake your papa. If you ask me that again I will get up and spank you." Margaret tried to obey, but only a few minutes had passed when she said, "Mamma, when you get up to spank me, won't you please put the mug of water out to freeze." This reveals very clearly the fact that the child's power to repress ideas, desires, and impulses that rise in its mind is very weak. Control over ideas and inhibition of im- pulses are slowly acquired, and logical con- sistency in thought and in conduct are prod- ucts that come tardily, and only after long and careful training. Our figurative way of speaking and our use of metaphorical language deceive the child and make many difficulties for him. In the most widely used grammar published in this country this line from Byron is found as a simple sentence for analysis : "From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, leaps the live thunder." A boy fourteen and a half years old came to me one even- Si THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN ing to get help upon this sentence. He had been required to diagram it for next day's lesson. Now, this boy had seen mountains, had played upon rocky crags, but had never heard that term used. The time I spent with him was consumed in trying to lead him to understand the thought. He could get hold of the idea "crags," but "rattling crags" he could not clear up to his satisfac- tion. The same was true of "live thunder," Nor could he see how thunder could "leap." I spent nearly an hour with him. The time I spent was misused, wrongly used. Yet the boy was given the sentence for home work, and must have it next day or be kept in. Did the maker of the text-book or the task-maker using it know much of the logic of children? That teacher was to my mind an object for the deepest pedagogical pity. Children form ethical ideas and concep- tions very slowly. One teacher has found that young children judge actions by their results, while older children look at the mo- 88 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN tives which prompt them; that threats and forced promises do not impress children; that if a young child disobeys a command and no bad results follow, he does not see that he has done wrong. This indicates very clearly the course to be pursued in this par- ticular with many young children. A little girl for some bad behavior had been put in a chair to sit still. After a time the mother spoke to the child about her naughty be- havior and said that if she would ask God perhaps He would take away her naughty feelings. The child answered somewhat fer- vidly, "I don't want God to take away my naughty feelings. I want to keep my naughty feelings." Great patience is nec- essary in aiding the child to form ethical ideas. Not only must there be great pa- tience, but the effort must be long continued. And our schools are doing defective work; they are not rendering the service they should, because there is so little appreciation on the part of teachers of how moral ideas should be built up in the child's mind, and of 89 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN the great influence of such ideas upon the will. Nor must we overlook the fact that all children make generahzations. Their gen- eralizations are, as a rule, too wide; they overshoot the mark. We must, however, remember that they are often logical and consistent when viewed in the light of the ideas with which the children have to work. The thinking of children shows us that the warp and woof of the child's mental de- velopment are judgments growing out of his experience. In order to correct and amend these judgments, to multiply them, we must enlarge his experience. With his undeveloped judgment he is overconfident. Only by his overconfidence, however, or his confident assurance, is he enabled to gain experience to correct his own judgments. Our aim should be to give him full oppor- tunity to make these tests and to be patient with his mistakes, remembering that we are not to look at these, but at the end we are 90 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN reaching, or rather enabling the child to reach. It is said that the child, in reaching the maturity of his powers, passes through all the stages through which the race has passed in its development. The analogy is impres- sive and instructive. In the childhood of the race, men thought by means of vague images; they looked only at the striking or obtrusive characteristics of things and phe- nomena ; they had little power to see the true relation of causes and effects; their logic was the logic of our children. All progress in thinking and in knowl- edge has been attained because the human race has been able to see below the external characteristics other characteristics more cau- sal, and below these others still more causal. In other words, we have gone from visible eiFect to more and more ultimate causes. To-day we can not see the ultimate causes as will those who are to come a century after us. Race thinking, then, is a slow growth, and ever progresses toward insight into 91 THE LOGIC OF CHILDREN deeper relations, but it acts upon obtrusive relations first. In support of this, think of the long array of exploded theories that we might caU up from history. Hippocrates had a doctrine that the veins contained ether and that this fed the heart. He also thought that the temperament of a person originated through the mixing of four humors — blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy. Aristotle, nearly a century after Hippocrates, de- scribed the brain as the coldest and most bloodless organ of the body, of the nature of water and earth whose office was to tem- per the great heat from the heart, just as the cooler regions of the atmosphere condense the vapors rising from the ground. Our knowledge, then, and our forms of thinking are a heritage out of the growth of the past. The child enters into this heritage of the ages, little by little, and comes at last to the extent of his native endowments, to think not through fanciful associations, but in accordance with causal relations, and with appreciation of the unity of knowledge. 92 a) AUG 17 1904