Book_ ' 
 
 Copyright^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
The 
 
 Career of the Child 
 
 MAXIMILIAN P. E. GROSZMANN, Pd. D. 
 
 Author of "Some Fundamental Verities in Education" 
 
 RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 THE GORHAM PRESS 
 BOSTON 
 
Copyright, 1911, by Richard G. Badger 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 v v ^' 
 
 
 The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
 ' CI. A '2 S (> 4 01 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE subject of pedagogy is making rapid strides. 
 A body of scientific principles is rapidly being 
 collected from the sciences of biology, psychol- 
 ogy, anthropology, and sociology, all of which 
 must be considered in the composite, applied science of edu- 
 cation. One of the keenest, most patient and far-sighted 
 workers in this applied science is Dr. Groszmann, author 
 of the present volume. He has devoted many years to care- 
 ful observation and experimentation in schools for both nor- 
 mal and abnormal children. This work has been supple- 
 mented by a careful testing of results in a practical way. 
 
 The long experience of Dr. Groszmann in the Ethical 
 Culture School of New York City, and his more recent ex- 
 perience at Watchung Crest in dealing with atypical and 
 subnormal children, added to his thorough and critical 
 scholarship of the German type, has fitted him admirably 
 for a discussion of the curriculum and of scientific methods 
 in education. 
 
 In making a curriculum it is frequently assumed that the 
 selection of subjects and the amount of time given to each 
 subject can be determined without any reference to the chil- 
 dren to be taught or the ultimate aim of education. Tradi- 
 tion has been the dominant factor determining both the 
 matter and the method in education. 
 
 Dr. Groszmann has made a careful analysis of the aims 
 
 3 
 
4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of education; of physical, mental, and moral stages of growth 
 and the best conditions under which this growth can be pro- 
 moted and the aims of education attained. The subject mat- 
 ter is then analyzed to see in what way it may be made to 
 contribute to the ideal development. But as the experiences 
 of a normal individual are complex and varied it is neces- 
 sary that unity of life and development be brought out of 
 disparity of experiences, oftentimes apparently conflicting. 
 This problem of co-ordination is an important factor in Dr. 
 Groszmann's treatment. 
 
 In addition to the German idea of the spiral arrangement 
 of studies, Dr. Groszmann has emphasized the idea that no 
 true center of correlation can be found in the subjects them- 
 selves. At best such correlations must be artificial and un- 
 psychological. The true center of correlation is the child 
 himself. By this plan it is possible to follow the child's in- 
 terests — and needs — and to emphasize things important for 
 the particular child or group, and to "eliminate what is un- 
 essential, useless, and consequently burdensome." Dr. 
 Groszmann has shown how the various activities should not 
 properly be called subjects, but that there are the play ac- 
 tivities, manual activities, and the various kinds of interests 
 which demand varieties of knowledge which we conveniently 
 systematize into subjects such as geography, arithmetic, his- 
 tory, etc. While he does not advocate making these sub- 
 jects incidental, they should grow out of the interests of the 
 child and the problems which he must feel to be real prob- 
 lems. 
 
INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 The first phase of pedagogy to receive discussion was 
 that of methods. Many volumes have been written upon the 
 subject of general and special methods, but upon no branch 
 of pedagogical knowledge has the influence of scientific prin- 
 ciples been so little felt. A great part of all that has been 
 written down to the present time has been either from the 
 purely logical point of view or has consisted of trite discus- 
 sions by pedagogical theorists. In the present book, the au- 
 thor has made a long step in advance in the direction of 
 working out methods from the standpoint of the science of 
 education. 
 
 Method should be determined by the laws of development 
 of the child instead of by pure logic and the subject matter 
 itself. Method means not only a logical arrangement of the 
 materials in a given subject of instruction, but also the ques- 
 tion of its adaptation to nascent growth periods of the child 
 and his interests as determined by native instincts and en- 
 vironment. Even in teaching mathematics the laws of 
 growth and development of the child must be considered. In 
 recent years the order of topics in mathematics has been very 
 materially changed to harmonize with the well established 
 laws of growth. Dr. Groszmann has pointed out the fact 
 that not only chronological growth and physiological growth, 
 but also psychological growth periods must be observed. 
 
 While the teacher of the various subjects which are treated 
 in this volume will find little or nothing of prescription in 
 the way of a definite curriculum to be followed day by day, 
 the fundamental principles which determine what a child 
 
6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 can be taught and the relations between the given subject 
 and other subjects are thoroughly established. 
 
 It would mean much if every teacher from the kinder- 
 garten through the university could be well grounded in 
 the fundamental principles of biology, anthropology, psy- 
 chology, and sociology, and could then under guidance of a 
 master study the great educational problems in the light of 
 all the foregoing contributory sciences. This should be fol- 
 lowed by a careful study of the special method in the par- 
 ticular subject to be taught. Adequate knowledge of the 
 subject itself is, of course, presupposed. The present vol- 
 ume points in the direction which subsequent writers on 
 education will find it profitable to travel. 
 
 Frederick E. Bolton, 
 i State University of Iowa. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 Introduction 3 
 
 I Dignity and Responsibility of the Teacher's 
 
 Profession 9 
 
 // The Significance of the Kindergarten and Its 
 
 Rational Development 24 
 
 777 The Principle of Co-ordination of Studies. . 45 
 
 IV The Physical Side of Education 66 
 
 V A Rational Course of Study 78 
 
 VI The Manual Principle 102 
 
 VII Kinds of Manual Expression 114 
 
 VIII The Mathematical Evolution of the Child . . 130 
 
 IX Geography as a Collective Center 148 
 
 X History as a Collective Center 157 
 
 XI Nature Work as an Objective Basis 170 
 
 XII Language Teaching 180 
 
 XIII Reading and Literature 209 
 
 XIV Oral and Written Composition 227 
 
 XV Grading and Promotion 242 
 
 XVI Hygienic Suggestions 225 
 
 XVII Problems of Discipline 269 
 
 XVIII The Treatment of Defectives 282 
 
 XIX Criminality in Children 298 
 
 A — As to Causes. 
 B — As to Redemies. 
 XX The Meaning of High School Education and 
 
 Secondary Differentiations 322 
 
The Career of the Child 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Dignity and Responsibility of the Teacher s Profession 
 
 BEFORE the life of man had assumed the differ- 
 entiated character which resulted from the division 
 of labor, the functions which now are singly 
 assigned to different individuals were more or less 
 collectively represented by all. In patriarchal 
 society, every head of a family was his own provider, and 
 what are now diverse trades were pursued as the common 
 tasks of daily life. During the pioneer period of our own 
 country, similar conditions prevailed, and the stately matron 
 of by-gone times wove and finished with her own hand the 
 linen and cloth from which she would make her lord's and 
 her children's as well as her own garments ; while the worthy 
 husbandman was his own blacksmith, shoemaker, carpenter, 
 and what not. Of course, at times they had, like Robinson 
 in the story, recourse to the vast stores and manufactures of 
 their European homes, importations from there having been 
 the basis of their pioneer life in the wilderness. The primi- 
 tive family, however, had no opportunity for such importa- 
 tions — it had to exist upon its own resources exclusively ; and 
 the knowledge and skill requisite for the various perform- 
 ances which signaled the dawn of civilization, were handed 
 down from father to son, from mother to daughter. The 
 parents were the natural teachers of the young, they were 
 the centers from which the moral influence radiated, the 
 guardians of the family gods, of the tribe's religion and 
 honor. 
 
 In the more advanced society of a later period, we find 
 
io THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 indeed the family organization modeled after essentially the 
 same plan ; but the wisdom and higher knowledge of the 
 tribe and incipient nation have become concentrated in a sepa- 
 rate class, or caste, that of the priesthood. The priests are 
 now the spiritual guardians of the people; it is their special 
 function to commune with the gods and to mediate between 
 them and the nation. From this divine intercourse, by their 
 being devoted entirely to the searching into the mysteries of 
 nature and human life, they obtain a knowledge which to the 
 uninitiated appears truly magical and supernatural. They 
 are not only priests, but philosophers, poets, astronomers, 
 scientists, physicians, teachers; all the learned professions as 
 we know them, were represented in their rudimentary, un- 
 differentiated form by this caste which endowed all knowl- 
 edge with a spiritual significance — as coming from the gods 
 whose agents they were. All knowledge was then a divine 
 revelation ; even the arts of husbandry, of metalworking, 
 and other crafts, were ascribed to the teachings of gods who 
 had come down among men as helpers and teachers. Teach- 
 ing was a sacred profession, then, and was essentially con- 
 cerned in spiritual matters. 
 
 "Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis". Times 
 change, and we change in time. When the old order of 
 things gave way to new institutions ; when Greece and Rome 
 became masters of the world, and in their turn were de- 
 throned by the ascendency of the Teutonic tribes which hold 
 sway over the civilized world up to the present day : — science, 
 religion and philosophy became more and more democratized, 
 and gradually accessible to the masses that had formerly been 
 kept in subjection and ignorance. Teaching was now a 
 secular profession. But the struggle between the guardians 
 of religion and the promoters of secular ideas was long and 
 fierce, and is not fought to the end yet. Church and State 
 are still at war over the same issue, i. e. to whom the control 
 of popular education properly belongs. The secular view 
 that education, at least as far as school training is concerned, 
 means merely the transmission of information, the imparting 
 of so-called knowledge, the training of the intelligence, the 
 drill in useful occupations, and that consequently it is a mat- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD n 
 
 ter entirely separate from ethico-religious considerations, is 
 certainly a very shallow conception. Knowledge and skill in 
 themselves are neutral possessions; they may work good or 
 evil in accordance with the character of the one who possesses 
 them. It has been truly said that it requires as much me- 
 chanical genius and intelligence to pick a lock as to construct 
 its intricate mechanism ; and whether your boy will grow up 
 to be a prophet or a seducer, will depend not upon what he 
 knows, but upon his spiritual nature which will convert his 
 knowledge either into a weapon of destruction or into a 
 means of inspiration. Wisely administered intellectual train- 
 ing will certainly broaden a man's mind and make him ca- 
 pable of appreciating the relations which exist in the human 
 life and in the life of nature; he will thus be helped to dis- 
 criminate better between right and wrong and to choose more 
 wisely in perplexing situations: but his actions will in every 
 case be determined by the kind of character he has. 
 
 Indeed: teaching is essentially a spiritual thing. All de- 
 pends upon the spirit in which information is imparted, upon 
 the ideal towards which knowledge is directed; upon the 
 educator's power to strengthen the will, to inspire the heart, 
 to ennoble the aspirations of his pupil. If education has any 
 reference at all to the building up of character — and who 
 will undertake to dispute this claim ? — it must have an ethico- 
 religious background. In fact, ethics and religion are the 
 fountain-heads from which the true teacher will draw his 
 strength, and towards which the eyes of the inspired stu- 
 dent must turn for invigoration and revelation. 
 
 When the conditions of the religious life were simple and 
 elementary; when the life of all individuals was believed 
 to be directed by powers which to all serious people re- 
 vealed themselves in practically the same form; in other 
 words, when the God of the prophet was the God of the 
 multitude, when the national life expressed itself spiritually 
 in a national religion : — the case was free from complexity. 
 Education was then permeated by ideas and ideals which 
 all held practically in common. Conscience was then the 
 product of universal agreement, so to speak. Nowadays there 
 is a perplexing difficulty. The form in which the religious 
 
12 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 idea manifests itself is no longer a simple and constant 
 element; out of universal oneness, of elementary uniformity, 
 there has emerged a differentiated organism of which the dif- 
 ferent parts live their individual lives. It has become a mat- 
 ter of common justice to respect the freedom of the indi- 
 vidual, notably in matters of conscience; to recognize that 
 each individual is a unit by himself, produced by forces which 
 differentiated him from all others, and that the world will 
 necessarily picture itself in each one in a form characteristic 
 of his special constitution. Thus what was once a national 
 church has been split up into a large number of sects and 
 sub-sects; and religious notions shade off on one hand into 
 creeds which were originally foreign elements, and were im- 
 ported subsequent to the closer intercourse of nations; and 
 on the other to abstractions of a more or less philosophic char- 
 acter. Unfortunately, mistaken fervor which fails to recog- 
 nize that all these various groups strive for the same goal, 
 believe in the same ideal, and draw their strength from the 
 same eternal facts of existence, only in different ways and 
 under different symbols, has produced a mutual mistrust and 
 enmity between these groups, and education is very much the 
 sufferer for it. Even in purely secular matters we are apt 
 to be impressed much more by the manner of a thing, than 
 by its meaning or essence; a pleasant lie offends us less than 
 impetuous frankness. And it is only too true that religious 
 fervor is prone to lead to intolerance and fanaticism. Thus 
 free thinkers will ridicule orthodox believers as being plainly 
 ignorant, and believers will denounce all who do not pro- 
 fess a personal god, as necessarily wicked and immoral ; and 
 Jews and Christians, Baptists and Methodists, Episcopalians 
 and Presbyterians, Catholics and Protestants, are constantly 
 branding each other as transgressors and gentiles. 
 
 This very struggle between different religious attitudes has 
 led to a still greater secularization of public instruction than 
 when there was merely a quarrel between the Church and 
 State. For into whose hands can the spiritual guidance of 
 our children be entrusted if there is so much uncertainty as to 
 what is the true religion ? The public schools have therefore 
 in many instances declined all responsibility for the ethico- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 13 
 
 religious training of their pupils, confining themselves to sec- 
 ular instruction pure and simple ; on the other hand, numer- 
 ous sectarian schools have sprung up, all supplying an educa- 
 tion which indeed contains the ethico-religious element, but 
 which, by its pronouncedly dogmatic and separatistic char- 
 acter, tends to widen the gulf that unhappily gapes between 
 different portions of the nation. Denominational schools, 
 like all denominational institutions, exhibit the tendency 
 inherent in all political and religious systems that have be- 
 come institutionally fixed and authoritative, viz. the ten- 
 dency of self-perpetuation in place of growth; of acquiring 
 and maintaining power instead of recognizing the principle 
 of freedom and progressive differentiation. 
 
 The secularization of instruction has, among other things, 
 exerted a deplorable influence upon the quality of the teach- 
 ing talent. When education was a matter of spiritual con- 
 cern, when it was a prerogative of a class which represented 
 the most spiritually minded elements of the community, the 
 teaching was undertaken with a seriousness of purpose, and 
 an equipment of knowledge, as high as the respective stage of 
 culture allowed. Teaching was, then, a life-calling. And 
 we must not fancy that the priest-teacher of those times was 
 not professionally fit for his particular work. There was 
 perhaps little, or no, strictly professional training in these 
 ecclesiastical times; but teaching was then as now an art; 
 what lack of training there was, was largely compensated by 
 empiric knowledge of child-nature, by intuitive insight, and 
 by recognition of an ethical aim. At an early date, those 
 among the priests who showed eminent fitness for the office 
 of teacher, were selected for the special function ; and indeed, 
 even tho the caste appeared as a unit before the multitude, 
 ability and preference soon worked a differentiation of tasks 
 among its members. Measuring the teaching done under 
 these conditions by the standard of the times, it was cer- 
 tainly of a high order, even tho it was of an exclusixe char- 
 acter and bestowed upon a favored few. 
 
 When teaching became the business of secular persons who 
 did it for hire, the spirit of the work degenerated at once. 
 Not that there had not been from Quintilian's time down 
 
14 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 to our own, many inspired secular teachers whose influence 
 was ennobling and far-reaching. But the general trend of 
 secular education was utilitarian, and the teachers were re- 
 cruited from all walks of life, mostly the lowliest. Secular 
 education had a democratic tendency — it embraced wide cir- 
 cles and gradually developed the idea of popular education. 
 Grand and momentous as this new ideal was, it increased 
 the demand for teachers at such a rate that the supply was 
 often insufficient. For the so-called people, i. e. common 
 people, a minimum of instruction was supposed to be ample, 
 which permitted the employment of very ignorant persons 
 as teachers; as these were selected, as a rule, by "patrons", 
 or boards, rarely representing the highest culture of the 
 times, incredible conditions prevailed in many schools of this 
 type. These were the days when anyone who was not good 
 enough for anything else, was still thought competent to be 
 a school-master; if he could wield the rod with satisfactory 
 energy, all was well. Cripples and invalids of all kinds, slaves 
 or servants, broken-down traders, shepherds and blacksmiths 
 were the teachers in the secular elementary schools, or were 
 employed in homes as tutors of the young. In higher instruc- 
 tion alone students of divinity long held their own and were 
 employed in Colleges and High Schools and as private tu- 
 tors in wealthy families. But on the whole, the profession, 
 if such it can be called, was in a degraded state; it was "low 
 business" as it was called even in the earlier days of our 
 own glorious republic. Teachers had no social standing at 
 all; in compensation and respect they often ranked lower 
 than ordinary servants. 
 
 These conditions are not altogether a thing of the past. 
 Even nowadays, it is not uncommon for a man to try his 
 hand at teaching after he has failed in everything else; and 
 the scholarship and professional training of teachers is not 
 generally high. A French, German, or Italian immigrant, if 
 he does not readily find employment will set himself up as 
 a "professor" of languages or music, or what not, suppos- 
 ing to have a perfect right to do so. Many people entertain 
 the idea that all that is necessary for being able to teach a sub- 
 ject is to know it; the fallacy of this notion it is not easy 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 15 
 
 to demonstrate to one who is ignorant of the psychological 
 laws that govern the workings of the human mind. But the 
 conditions would not be half so sad as they are if these pro- 
 fessed teachers really did know what they undertake to teach ; 
 yet instances are only too numerous when a very little knowl- 
 edge is puffed up in a very delusive semblance of proficiency. 
 Teaching has as yet become a profession with a very few; 
 most teachers found employed in many of our schools are 
 either young men who use their position in a public school 
 as a stepping stone to "something better", or young girls who 
 want to fill the interval between their own school days and 
 the blessings of married life with some sort of respectable oc- 
 cupation — and school teaching has at last gained recognition 
 as a respectable occupation. The case of these young girls 
 is perhaps not the worst feature of the general situation, by 
 any means; they gain in this way an experience which may 
 stand them in good stead when they have children of their 
 own. It has become a growing conviction among progres- 
 sive educators that Frobel was right when he suggested that 
 every young woman should be given a chance to study and 
 handle children as a preparation for motherhood. The only 
 difficulty is this that most of our young teachers enter upon 
 their work without real preparation for it; they have little 
 understanding of it, they have likewise little love for it. With 
 them it is a daily mechanism, the veriest routine; and there 
 is danger that they will carry the superficial notion of child- 
 life and education which governs their work in school, into 
 their later life of maternal functions. And if we may judge 
 the public valuation of the teacher's services by what they 
 are "worth" to the school boards in dollars and cents, their 
 social standing is still very mediocre; few receive a salary 
 that makes them financially independent, or even free from 
 care or that can compare with the wages paid to clerks, cooks, 
 and other such worthies whose responsibilities are vastly in- 
 ferior. 
 
 However, if we survey the whole field of public instruc- 
 tion, we may congratulate ourselves upon the great change 
 that has taken place during the last century. Ever since the 
 days of Rousseau and Pestalozzi, there has been gradually 
 
1 6 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 evolved a higher conception of the office of the teacher. Both 
 these great minds recognized the need of a better understand- 
 ing of the child-soul before we can administer to its wants. 
 It was the dawn of a child-psychology that was destined to 
 revolutionize education. Herbart and Frobel were the 
 apostles of this new gospel, and whatever is good in modern 
 developments can be traced back to suggestions from these 
 two great teachers, erroneous as some of their philosophical 
 premises were. All at once the child became the center of 
 interest, and teaching assumed a new significance. The great 
 movement of child-study has stirred up the minds of 
 educators especially in our own country and in Germany, and 
 has resulted in the beginning of a new pedagogy 
 based upon the careful study of the object of education, the 
 child, a pedagogy which is at once a science and an art: — 
 it has served to spiritualize the work which has so long been 
 under the bane of a one-sided secularism. The teacher, from 
 the new point of view, is not merely a lesson-giver, a me- 
 chanical contrivance for the pouring in of information; he 
 is not the child's jailor, and the arch-enemy of all the child's 
 natural impulses and instincts : he is his friend and counselor, 
 loving him and studying him; his spiritual helper and, per- 
 chance, his assistant physician, his servant and his ideal — in 
 one word : his educator. Child-psychology has brought to 
 light with scientific accuracy the fact that it is idle to under- 
 take intellectual instruction without influencing the moral 
 faculties; that no absorption and normal assimilation of 
 instructive matter is possible without due attention to the 
 training of the will ; that intellectual training of the whole- 
 some kind is identical with will training, and that all we do 
 with the child will be somehow reflected in his moral and 
 religious character. All the forces that make up the child's 
 environment are of educational import and will influence his 
 fortune in after life. Secular education as it has been under- 
 stood is an illusion, an impossibility; all education is in its 
 very essence spiritual education, for good or evil. Where the 
 spiritual element is neglected, education will be a dismal 
 failure ; it will not be simply negative or neutral in its effect, 
 but will tend to corrupt, or at least confuse, he moral char- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 17 
 
 acter of the child. 
 
 Thus the profession of the teacher assumes a new dignity. 
 He is again, as of old, recognized to be a spiritual power, 
 and comes next to the parent in direct and telling influence 
 upon the future and character of the child. His is an almost 
 priestly function inasmuch as the young soul is given into 
 his keeping; and since it has been demonstrated that psycho- 
 logical development is bound up with physiological conditions 
 of health and disease, he will have to assume at certain junc- 
 tures some of the duties which are professionally assigned to 
 the consulting physician. In his person, he will therefore rep- 
 resent a combination of functions which in a measure re- 
 vives that ancient order from which the special functions of 
 the teacher has become disintegrated. As he will have 
 to be in close touch with the ethical and religious life of the 
 community as represented by the progress in church and 
 philosophy, so as to develop and refine his own religious life; 
 further with the medical profession whose assistance he will 
 need daily in solving the educational problems which individ- 
 ual children will present to him ; and finally with the progress 
 of science in general which he is to mediate to young minds 
 in his charge : he will be instrumental in bringing about a new 
 brotherhood and community of spiritual interests — a commu- 
 nity which will differ from the ancient caste-organization of 
 patriarchal times mainly in this that it will be based upon 
 freedom of conscience and the spirit of progress and mutual 
 tolerance and helpfulness. 
 
 This new dignity entails a new responsibility, indeed one 
 so vast that none of us will ever be able to attain the ideal. 
 "But no end can arouse enthusiasm if complete attainment 
 be possible" (Prof. Geo. H. Palmer). The teacher must 
 stake his whole life, spiritually, on his work ; he must sanctify 
 his entire personality and sacrifice it to the sacred duties 
 which he assumes. 
 
 The teacher is the school. It is not the course of studies, 
 nor the "methods" employed, upon which the success of 
 school education depends ; but the principles which the teach- 
 er lives, the spirit which imbues him, the character and per- 
 sonality of him thru whose agency the abstract facts of knowl- 
 
1 8 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 edge become living realities and moral forces to the children. 
 
 Not every scholar is necessarily a teacher, but every teacher 
 must be a scholar. Not in the sense that he be an expert in 
 any one science or a number of sciences. But he must pos- 
 sess the scientific spirit; the spirit of research and progres- 
 siveness, and that genuine scholarship which is not so much 
 concerned in the accumulation of a vast number of facts as 
 in the intelligent use of those which are at hand. The teacher 
 must be an investigator and aspire to larger knowledge, such 
 as will expand his own personality and widen the horizon of 
 his interests. He must not know just enough to teach and 
 not be found out by his pupils — but must personate to them, 
 not an infallible oracle by any means, but the incorruptible 
 dignity, the broad interests and salutary influences of true 
 science, even tho it be in a modest way. The teacher's inter- 
 est ought not to be confined to the four walls of his school 
 room lest he become narrow and self-complacent, and petty 
 and nagging. He must live the larger life, and concern him- 
 self in the great problems of his age, so that he may keep 
 steadily before him the great aim of all educational effort, 
 viz. to fit the children to carry the banner of civilization to 
 still loftier heights, that "banner with the strange device 
 'Excelsior!'" 
 
 The true teacher will cherish motives in his bosom so as 
 to awaken high motives in the breasts of the young. Too 
 much is our present life given to emulation ; it is not excel- 
 lence we strive after, but the ability to excel, to surpass, to 
 outstrip others. Our age is one of merciless competition, and 
 our ordinary school practice, by a seductive system of marks, 
 reports, and prizes, arouses and stimulates this unhappy ten- 
 dency in our young children. "The larger part of the pu- 
 pils leave the school with no higher aim than to outstrip 
 their neighbors, not to help them, in the pursuit of the com- 
 forts and luxuries of life." (A. Caswell Ellis, in the "Ped- 
 agogical Seminary", Oct., 1897). Here is the teacher's op- 
 portunity. If he has the high motive, if he is not swayed by 
 sordid considerations, petty jealousies and emulative ambi- 
 tions ; if he has the unselfish heart, if he loves his neighbor as 
 he does himself : then will he inspire his pupils with the force 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 19 
 
 of his noble example. 
 
 The main factor of the ethical influence of the school is 
 certainly the teacher. "There are teachers, and there are 
 others who falsely enter that holy office. . . . There are 
 teachers in whose very presence is delight. The child feels 
 the inspiration of a great life and is influenced accordingly. 
 Such a teacher is an effective apostle of a better living, and 
 gives an uplift and an impulse to the students' life that can- 
 not be measured this side of eternity." (Preston W. Search, 
 in "The Ethics of the Public Schools". Educational Re- 
 view, Feb., 1896). 
 
 It is not so much a matter of what ideals a teacher teaches, 
 as of what ideals are in his own heart. These ideals will in- 
 fluence his entire manner. There must be absolute fairness and 
 self-control, unfailing cheerfulness and sympathy, a readiness 
 to appreciate the pupil's side of the problem and to forget his 
 own ; a loving interest in the individual needs of each child, 
 a wise discernment of causes and effects, physical, moral and 
 intellectual; a tactful attitude towards the parents whose 
 co-operation must be secured, the influences of heredity and 
 environment having been discreetly studied ; a ready heart 
 and a willing hand to help the most forlorn and abandoned 
 little soul and neglected body even more promptly than the 
 dainty child of wealth and winning manners. "Come unto 
 me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you 
 rest". We must be meek and lowly and glorify ourselves 
 by service. 
 
 In a stirring lecture before the Brookline Educational So- 
 ciety, Professor Geo. H. Palmer expressed these beautiful 
 thoughts: "The great characteristic of teaching, and one that 
 is too often overlooked, is that in the teacher we must expect 
 a readiness for vicariousness. We must take up a double- 
 ended life; we must see not only where truth arises, but 
 where it penetrates. ... A teacher cannot live his own 
 life, but must live the lives of others — many others, and all 
 different. He must take on conditions not his own, and look 
 at things from another's standpoint. He must lead the stu- 
 dent on, step by step, and then must be continually retreat- 
 ing to the first standpoint and first principles." 
 
20 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 We must perhaps not take it literally when he says a teach- 
 er cannot live his own life. Unless a teacher has freedom to 
 be himself, to live up to the best that is in him, to live his 
 own individual life, he cannot understand the lives of oth- 
 ers. Truly by "taking on conditions not his own", he will 
 expand his own individuality, and his must be the capacity 
 to be truly happy only when living with and for children. 
 Well does Prof. Palmer say: "The teacher puts himself in- 
 side of the young lives ; many times he lives the lives of all ; 
 he is among you as one who serves. . . . We must bear 
 the child's burdens vicariously, we must study out the line of 
 the least intellectual resistance; must spend days in discover- 
 ing where the burden can be rolled away. Knowledge buffets 
 the child ; we must aid it in penetrating the young mind with 
 the least friction. All this we must do, not for our own sake, 
 but for the sake of the children. We must love to do it, and 
 unless we do, it is no profession for us." 
 
 It has been said before in this chapter that the 
 teacher should have larger interests outside of the school- 
 room. Then, reference was made principally to the expan- 
 sion of the teacher's own personality. But there is another 
 side to this suggestion. The fuller conception of education 
 recognizes the fact that the teacher is only one of many fac- 
 tors that determine the future character of the rising gener- 
 ation. He is one of the most effective to be sure; but the 
 more or less silent influences of the general environment of 
 the child, at home, in the public thorofares and conveyances, 
 in places of amusement and recreation, must not be under- 
 estimated in their distinct significance. This environment 
 comprises the city where the child lives, the state to which this 
 belongs, the native country, and in a larger sense the civilized 
 portion of our globe of which the immediate school location 
 is but a small and perhaps insignificant part. Remote as 
 some of these influences may seem, they are no less real and 
 determinative. The institutions of the immediate com- 
 munity, the politics of the state, the ethical conscience 
 of the nation as expressed in its public opinion and family life 
 no less than in national problems of finance and foreign rela- 
 tions; the general trend of thought which shapes the world's 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 21 
 
 destiny: all these elements affect very notably the conditions 
 under which our children grow up, and they will be reflected 
 in their lives. The broad-minded teacher will have an active 
 interest in all that pertains to these common human affairs. 
 He is himself a social factor of no mean importance and 
 should make himself felt as such. "I perceive," says Walter 
 Channing, "the idea gaining ground that true education 
 means a correlation of all educative forces, both of the home 
 and the school, supplementing each other and working har- 
 moniously together". 
 
 The conscientious teacher will endeavor to bring about an 
 intelligent co-operation of school and home, first of all. He 
 will everywhere and under all circumstances stand up pub- 
 licly for the cause of a rational education. In the rural dis- 
 tricts whose school problem is particularly perplexing, he will 
 be a missionary, an educational center from which may 
 radiate impulses of enlightment and progress, inspirations 
 for a higher life. There should be as many such radiating 
 centers as there are school districts. In the city the teacher 
 will be interested in the cleanliness and decency of streets, 
 highways, cars, etc. ; he will propagate the idea of public play- 
 grounds ; he will be an ardent auxiliary to the social reformer 
 in the cause of uplifting the conditions of the poor and mis- 
 erable, as to better homes, better food, better wages for the 
 laboring man so that his children be not cheated out of their 
 birthright; he will be active in all endeavors to elevate the 
 moral tone of the community. He will be one of the factors 
 that shape public opinion. He will be a worker along phil- 
 anthropic and religious lines of activity — not with narrow 
 denominational fanaticism, but with the enlightened zeal of 
 the true humanitarian. He will be an energetic politician, 
 not in the spirit of selfish partisanship, but with a view of 
 leading the commonwealth of which he is a member, on to 
 the realization of loftier social and political ideas than are 
 embodied in it at the time being. 
 
 Great problems are agitating men's minds now, and strug- 
 gle for solution; the generations of the twentieth century 
 will have a purer religion, a juster social order, a more per- 
 fect political government, it is to be hoped, than we have. 
 
22 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 What all these changes will imply, who can tell? Theories 
 and systems have been advanced by many among us, but the 
 new order of the future will necessarily shape itself in accord- 
 ance with eternal laws of growth, and the outcome can be 
 only dimly divined by living men. We can, however, as 
 teachers, help to make the happier and better mankind of 
 coming days ; they who are now children will be the builders 
 of that future. Let us do our share that they may see with 
 clearer vision than we can, that they aspire to noble aims, 
 that they may think their own thoughts, that they be touched 
 in their innermost hearts by the sense of the responsibility 
 that awaits them; that they be free from cant, prejudice and 
 narrowness, that they may divine the eternal in contrast to 
 their own finite existence, that they will recognize the spirit- 
 ual forces which rule the world. Reform is not so much a 
 matter of laws and government; it is the outcome of a spir- 
 itual ethical regeneration. The problems of today are edu- 
 cational problems in their very essence. This means indeed 
 a new conception of the teacher's functions, and a reversal 
 of common methods of education. "The utilitarian and 
 money-getting, so called 'practical' side of life," says A. Cas- 
 well Ellis in his "Philosophy of Education" ("Pedagogical 
 Seminary," Oct., 1897) "must be balanced off by giving in 
 the schools a deeper appreciation of those spiritual elements 
 in man's nature which alone distinguish him from the brutes. 
 They must feel that there are inexhaustible stores for the 
 human soul far beyond mere worldly goods or intellectual 
 possessions, and that this truer wealth can be shared by every 
 one to his full capacity without limiting the supply to his 
 neighbor, that of this wealth it may be truly said that he who 
 scattereth abroad increaseth. The full breadth and depth of 
 the human soul must be better touched by our educational 
 efforts, and the abnormal amount of attention given to the 
 logical, intellectual faculties be balanced by a more sane 
 development of those no less human and God-given powers 
 which so potently affect life and character, and whose proper 
 development alone can make the sane and wholesome life. 
 In a word, full unity and balance of the human soul should 
 be maintained and the whole man educated." 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 23 
 
 This is the spiritual regeneration of which the teacher is 
 largely the representative and agent. It has been said before 
 that in the teacher there is re-established the union of those 
 spiritual forces which were integrated in the ecclesiastical 
 caste of ancient times. This thought may be put into another 
 form : it is thru the educational idea, thru the conception of 
 human progress as an educational process, that a new unifi- 
 cation of spiritual efforts can be effected. The physician is 
 then no longer a mere administerer of drugs and medicines, 
 but the teacher and apostle of the healthy and vigorous life. 
 The priest is no longer a savage shaman or exorcist, or denom- 
 inational fanatic, but a mediator between man's secular and 
 spiritual natures, a teacher of the higher life, irrespective of 
 separative creeds. Science and philosophy have ceased to be 
 magic and idle speculation; they have attained significance 
 as bearing directly upon the life conditions of our race, and 
 upon a truer conception of the divine universe. All these 
 professions are educative forces; education is the new focus 
 in which these various activities center. Thus a new brother- 
 hood of spiritual potencies is forming on a broader basis along 
 lines of greater freedom and more vigorous growth and effec- 
 tiveness. There is no longer a community of creed ; you 
 and I may conceive of the powers that govern the universe 
 and make for righteousness, in very different ways, and call 
 them by different names. But let there be a community of 
 spirit; an honest seeking after truth; let there be a unity of 
 effort, of deed, if not of creed. Let us all grasp hands and 
 unite our forces in the service of humanity. For such is the 
 new dignity and the new responsibility of the teacher's pro- 
 fession. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Significance of the Kindergarten and its Rational 
 Development 
 
 THE new education, as the progressive educational 
 movement of our times has been called, took its 
 origin in Pestalozzi's seemingly impractical enter- 
 prise in Switzerland. Pestalozzi died imagining 
 that his life-efforts had been a failure; yet his 
 ideas have fertilized the barren field of pre-revolutionary edu- 
 cation and have made it bring forth an abundant harvest. It 
 was, however, due to the intuitive mind of Frobel to divine 
 the needs of childhood in their fullness, and to give a definite 
 shape to the new educational ideas so as to serve as a working 
 system for the practice of early education. 
 
 Herbart, the German philosopher; Spencer, the English 
 thinker, and the later child study movement, with a host of 
 other influences, have given an enormous impetus to progres- 
 sive activity, and we have now a very different conception 
 of the meaning of education from what it had been at the 
 time of our fathers. But the Frobelian Kindergarten is the 
 only division of the school system at the present time which 
 is altogether based upon definitely framed and widely recog- 
 nized principles, and the practice of which has been worked 
 out in satisfactory detail so that it may be at once intro- 
 duced and permanently established. This cannot yet be 
 claimed for the more recent reform ideas which are destined, 
 let us hope, to revise our entire educational system. 
 
 It must further be admitted that many of these later prin- 
 ciples have been directly derived from the experiences of the 
 kindergarten. Thru these latter the child was re-discovered, 
 
 24 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 25 
 
 as it were, by educators; the child became the center of 
 pedagogical thought and interest, and the right relation and 
 proportion of educational forces became recognized. 
 
 The kindergarten, then, has been truly the pioneer of pro- 
 gressive educational methods. Following the introduction of 
 kindergartens in our school systems, there came a new awak- 
 ening of teachers and parents to the real meaning and im- 
 port of education. This introduction signified a powerful 
 reaction against formal teaching, routine methods, mere book 
 learning, and undue forcing of the child. It is curious to 
 note how the kindergarten has everywhere served as a wedge 
 for opening a point of vantage where the new forces could 
 enter. This process was not always a conscious one on the 
 part of its promoters, but it was ever sure of success, altho oc- 
 casionally slow and patience-trying. It is an interesting fact 
 to be recorded that our first efforts to reclaim Cuba from 
 the desolation and ruination in which Spanish misrule and 
 internal strife had left the Pearl of the Antilles, included 
 the sending of educational missionaries for the reorganization 
 of the schools, and that the kindergartners were the advance 
 guard of this army of peaceful conquest. Thru the kinder- 
 garten the little waifs of the Reconcentrados were being won 
 over to civilization and prosperity: it preaches the gospel of 
 good will to man, of freedom, and of happiness. So it did 
 in the Philippine Islands. 
 
 Thus, the kindergarten is a missionary of Teutonic civi- 
 lization in far-off India, the dreamland of the Brahmans, 
 where now Eastern and Western methods of culture are com- 
 ing into close contact. Under the direction of the Swami 
 Vivekananda who was India's representative at the World's 
 Congress of Religions at Chicago in 1893, a Miss Noble, an 
 English girl, opened the first kindergarten for Hindoo chil- 
 dren some years ago. 
 
 New as the kindergarten seems to be, it is in reality an 
 old ideal revived by the educational renaissance of the xixth 
 century. The great Amos Comenius who was born in 1592, 
 did not only anticipate the modern psychological methods of 
 concrete and constructive teaching, but he even outlined an 
 Infants' or Mothers' School which corresponded broadly to 
 
26 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 what we now call the kindergarten. He maintained that in 
 this Infants' school the child must be taught the elements of 
 everything necessary to the building up of the life of man, 
 including the rudiments of nature-knowledge, history, 
 language, etc. His phraseology appears at times strange to 
 us, but he means essentially the same thing which we mean, 
 altho naturally his psychology was rudimentary. He even 
 compares the school to a garden, and in his "Schola Ludus" 
 (The School as Play) he revives the ancient Roman concep- 
 tion of the school as "schola", viz. leisure, pastime — or rather 
 an opportunity for culture thru the free play of our facul- 
 ties where the mind is not weighed down by professional and 
 routine duties. 
 
 Why, then, is the kindergarten called a "kindergarten", a 
 children's garden? Poetically inclined minds have likened 
 the children to plants and flowers, and to them the kinder- 
 garten is that wonderful place where children are reared and 
 cherished as a gardener cherishes his roses and violets. This 
 metaphor is not without significance, for we may well learn 
 from the plants the lesson of natural growth, nourishment, 
 care, and sunshine, and apply it to the bringing up of our 
 little ones. Even their growth must be carefully guarded, 
 and their minds and bodies properly fed so that they may 
 mature in due time, and not sicken and degenerate; and into 
 their young hearts must shine the sunshine of love and cheer- 
 fulness to make them thrive and grow strong. 
 
 But Frobel's idea of the kindergarten was rather that it 
 should be a garden for children — a place where there was 
 freedom from the restraint of conventional life ; where there 
 was pure air and abundant light, healthy exercises and inspir- 
 ing observation, play, and joyfulness, and common with na- 
 ture, direct and spontaneous. 
 
 This was in itself a new departure. It rescued the chil- 
 dren from the pedantic tasks of the traditional school. The 
 four walls of the narrow schoolroom with its overcrowded 
 floor space, its stuffy air, its cheerless routine, were a verita- 
 ble prison for the young soul whose longings were for that 
 outer world of beauty and activity, of freedom and frag- 
 rance from which it was now shut out. The kindergarten 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 27 
 
 meant a re-establishment of natural conditions, at least in 
 principle. For the ordinary city child, even the nursery is 
 devoid of those charms and of that healthy atmosphere which 
 the child needs for his normal development — it means confine- 
 ment, restraint, lack of oxygen and of experience. 
 
 For this reason it has been maintained that the genuine 
 kindergarten should not be merely a room or hall set aside 
 and fitted up for games and occupations, but a real garden, 
 or open air space, where the children might run about and 
 play and see plants, even planting them, taking care of them, 
 etc. In the kindergartens maintained by the "Kindergarten- 
 verein" in my native city of Breslau (there are no public 
 kindergartens in Germany), the children are kept indoors 
 only in inclement weather; otherwise they play in the open, 
 and benches and tables are provided under a shed where they 
 devote themselves to the quiet occupations. At the Pesta- 
 lozzi-Frobel-Haus in Berlin, there is a real flower and vege- 
 table garden for the use of children where they dig and plant 
 and water and harvest. Here is the first stage of the develop- 
 ment of school gardens whose importance for nature study 
 and elementary agriculture cannot be overestimated. 
 
 This arrangement is particularly helpful in familiariz- 
 ing our young children with their natural environment. True, 
 conscientious teachers are ever endeavoring to bring Nature 
 to the children by way of detached pieces from her vast 
 store of creations. It is best, however, to take the children 
 out to Nature whenever possible, and to transplant many of 
 the lessons under the vast dome of the sky which is usually 
 shut out from the child's consciousness by the low ceiling of 
 the schoolroom. Let us substitute for some of the symbols of 
 the ordinary school course, the realities abounding around us. 
 This would correspond to Frobel's principle of internal- 
 izing the external, that is of converting the world of reality 
 outside of us into a system of sensations, precepts, and con- 
 cepts which makes it our own world. The world of objects 
 thus becomes a world of experiences and of mental images, 
 upon which our mental life depends. Doing this, the chil- 
 dren's organs of perception, their senses, are trained to receive 
 correct impressions and to be capable of exact observation. 
 
28 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 How necessary such training is, those will know who have 
 had occasion to test the ideas of young children whose early 
 experiences had been deficient; the perusal of Dr. Stanley 
 Hall's now famous monograph on "The Contents of Chil- 
 dren's Minds on Entering School" (New York, E. L. Kel- 
 logg & Co., 1893) will also be very instructive. Cf. also 
 "Vorstellungskreis der Berliner Kinder beim Eintritt in die 
 Schule." Berliner Stadtisches Jahrbuch 1870. 
 
 A pathetic story was told by the principal of the kindergar- 
 ten department of the Ethical Culture Schools. It was the 
 custom to send the little ones to Central Park for games and 
 nature work whenever possible. One day a new child from 
 a down-town district was among them, and when the chil- 
 dren were invited to play on the lawn, the little waif cried 
 and could be induced to step upon the grass only after much 
 effort. It apparently regarded the green surface as dangerous 
 to tread upon; the warning in the down-town parks, "Keep 
 off the Grass!" had played havoc with its young mind. 
 
 Quaint sayings and doings are reported of the children who 
 attend the Vacation schools, particularly when the children 
 are taken to the country; they are a source of delight to the 
 directors and teachers of the schools. Many of the children 
 have never been on a street car, a train or a boat, and the com- 
 monest sights of country life are wonders to them. Here are 
 a few of the funny things that happened: 
 
 In the Chicago Vacation Schools an early trip was to Lin- 
 coln Park. One of the boys, seeing a chicken asked : "Teach- 
 er, wot's dat t'ing?" "That's a chicken. Its the — " "Wot 
 yer givin' me? Dat ain't no chicken. It's got fedders on. 
 I know a chicken, I guess. My ma she had a chicken onct 
 for dinner, 'n' and it didn't hev nut'in on but skin." This 
 same ignorance, or unacquaintance with the manifold nature 
 of their environment is displayed in reference to other ob- 
 jects. 
 
 "There goes a fu-ne-ral! There goes a fu-ne-ral!" sang 
 out a little girl as she waited in the door of a railway sta- 
 tion. She saw the cab passing. "Somebody's daid! There 
 goes a kerridge!" Her only ideas of cabs and carriages were 
 connected with death and she could hardly be made to under- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 29 
 
 stand that they were pleasure vehicles as well. 
 
 These facts teach a tremendous lesson. They show how 
 essential it is to give the child a well-rounded experience of 
 every day facts. We take too much for granted. In differ- 
 ent environments, children's misunderstandings will, of 
 course, be found along different lines; we must, however, 
 be on our guard against them everywhere. 
 
 Here the significance of the true kindergarten is evident. 
 It helps the child to gain true and clear concepts, thru sense 
 training, and thus to develop his inner life. 
 
 The counterpart of the Frobelian principle mentioned be- 
 fore, viz., of internalizing the external, is the opposite prin- 
 ciple of externalizing the internal. In other words there are 
 forces in the child's soul constantly striving for expression. 
 Indeed, if man were but receptive, he were not man. What 
 makes life LIFE, is activity — such an activity as corresponds 
 to our individual character, which is an expression of our na- 
 ture and being. Without activity, we were to all intents and 
 purposes as good as dead. True, even the ordinary school 
 affords opportunities for self-expression in the various 
 branches of school work. But this opportunity is often based 
 upon an adult standard and upon adult methods, apart from 
 the fact that it deals largely with symbols of things, instead 
 of with realities. It is the great service of the kindergarten 
 that it has recognized the demand that a child must be meas- 
 ured by a standard of his own, and that the young child needs 
 opportunity for concrete expression — for muscular activity. 
 The various occupations of the kindergarten have been de- 
 vised to meet this need. And they partake of the nature of 
 play j in this manner corresponding to a natural instinct which 
 deserves much more recognition in the school curriculum 
 than is usually accorded to it. In this sense the gifts and occu- 
 pations answer practically the same purpose ; and while they 
 are in the nature of expressive work, thru building, weaving, 
 modeling, etc., they also serve the reverse purpose of medi- 
 ating innumerable experiences as to material, form, color, 
 tools, etc., which in their turn complete the internalizing of 
 the external. Thus there is mutuality of effort and effect; 
 impressions strive for expression, and expression converts it- 
 
30 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 self fnto experience. 
 
 Said Mrs. Kraus-Bolte, a veteran of the kindergarten in 
 this country, "Play thus rightly understood, proves itself a 
 means of assisting the inner growth of the child, independent 
 of formal instruction. Self-seeing, self-hearing, self-making, 
 self -experience, self-thinking — these are the activities of the 
 child, and rightly developed, they are associated with happi- 
 ness, gayety and joyousness." 
 
 Again, in their representative, or if you will, dramatic, 
 games, the children are introduced to the various typical oc- 
 cupations of man, and learn to appreciate the part each indi- 
 vidual pursuit plays in the network of human civilization and 
 service. The games of the shoemaker, of the blacksmith and 
 others, never fail to arouse the children's interest and 
 to satisfy their natural imitativeness of adult ways. Chil- 
 dren of this age want to be and do all they see their elders 
 be and do. It is well to take advantage of this natural in- 
 stinct so as to widen the child's circle of experience. 
 
 Other games are intended, not so much to dramatize hu- 
 man existence, as to symbolize the life of nature. These 
 rarely fail to personify the forces of nature, and so to estab- 
 lish a personal, sympathetic relation between the child and 
 the so-called dumb creation. When this method is not viti- 
 ated by over-sentimentalism, it corresponds with a natural 
 instinct. Thus, the rain comes down to the great brown 
 house where the flowers dwell; or the alder by the river 
 shakes out her powd'ry curls; the pretty little violets are 
 waking from their sleep; the child asks of pussy-willow, the 
 pretty little thing, where it is it comes from, how it is it 
 grows ; he sympathizes with the chilly little chickadees buried 
 in the snow; and after an imaginary walk thru field and 
 lane, the little boy runs home to mama to tell her: I saw so 
 many things! 
 
 While all these plays serve to stimulate observa- 
 tion and to arouse the sense of consanguinity of man with 
 all things alive; while further they are of inestimable value 
 for the awakening of moral feelings in these young hearts — 
 they have also quite another significance. There is a deeper 
 cause for the pleasure the child takes in this immediate com- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 31 
 
 munion with nature, in identifying himself with animals and 
 flowers. I quote from the study of Profs. Hall and Allin 
 on "The Psychology of Tickling, Laughing, and of the Com- 
 ic" (American Journal of Psychology ix., 1) as follows to 
 illustrates this point: "The antics of animals are a source of 
 great amusement to children. They pull down the corners 
 of the eyes and pull the mouth open, put their hands to their 
 ears, crawl like snakes, root like pigs, fly like birds, swim like 
 fish, catch and devour prey, make faces, wear animal masks, 
 form shadow pictures, watch animals and laugh at and per- 
 haps imitate their every movement, personate trick animals. 
 
 . . . Some children desired to be, and others thought 
 they were becoming some favorite animal. They play that 
 they have claws, trunks, tails, tusks, big teeth and eyes, drink 
 or sleep, walk, play, like animals. Games that involve catch- 
 ing or grabbing are often very mimetic of animals, and are 
 always hilarious. The element of suddenness, too, often 
 intensifies this factor. The wearing of animal masks of 
 great variety has always been a source of great pleasure for 
 children, and even plays a very important part in the games 
 and ceremonials of the Chinese, most European folk-lore and 
 amusements, in mediaeval revels, and in savage dances. Pin- 
 ning on tales, ears, horns, feathers, mane, wings, going on all 
 fours, enacting the animal poses that have come down to us 
 from the middle ages and from remote antiquity, with the aid 
 of these accoutrements suggest . . . that children must 
 approximate the animal consciousness by these devices. On 
 the other hand, the long struggle of man with the other ani- 
 mals for survival and supremacy, the history of domestication, 
 the folk-lore and religion of totemism show us what a role 
 animals have played in human fear, reverence, and even love 
 in the past." 
 
 This reflection shows that the child of kindergarten age 
 represents a particular stage in mental development, one 
 which cannot be immediately compared with the adult stage, 
 but which, broadly speaking, corresponds to an epoch in the 
 history of civilization when our race was yet just beginning 
 to be humanized, i. e. differentiated from the lower crea- 
 tion. The kindergarten child exhibits the instincts and facul- 
 
32 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 ties characteristic of the dawn of civilization. He is, so to 
 speak, yet half way between animal and man, or if you will, 
 in his mental disposition savage-like, which does not neces- 
 sarily mean that he is savagely vicious. We must use the 
 term savage without reproach — merely to indicate an unde- 
 veloped state of mind. There will be further occasion, in 
 later chapters of this volume, to dwell on this point, which 
 is fundamental in an intelligent dealing with children. 
 
 It is due to the kindergarten that this condition has been 
 recognized in the work of the school, at least as far as the 
 p re-elementary child is concerned. This alone is a far-reach- 
 ing reform. It is thru the kindergarten that we have been 
 awakened to a sense of the tremendous opportunities which 
 are offered to the educator in these tender years of the child 
 which previously were regarded as more or less useless, so 
 that parents and teachers co-operated to abbreviate them as 
 much as possible and to drive the child headlong towards 
 precocious development. Now we know that these are the 
 most precious years in the life of the child, and that upon 
 their successful turning to account depends the future health 
 and maturity of body and mind. 
 
 It is instructive to read what former Indian Commissioner 
 Jones said in one of his reports: "It is sometimes stated in 
 the public prints and by those who should be better informed, 
 that the present method of educating the Indian is a failure, 
 because, as set forth, the pupils after receiving the advantages 
 of a government schooling, and living for years in its moral 
 associations, return home and take up the blanket and breech 
 clout, and relapse into the customs and manners of their 
 parents. This is true in some cases, but on the other hand, 
 many of these children enter into agricultural pursuits and 
 take up trades, and become an important adjunct in the work 
 of civilizing their brethren. 
 
 "The hope of the Indian race lies in taking the child at 
 the tender age of 4 or 5 years, before the trend of his mind 
 becomes fixed in ancient moulds or bent by whims of his 
 parents, and guiding it into the proper channel. Children 
 who have thus early been placed under the influence of the 
 school show a percentage of success equal to, or greater than 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 33 
 
 that which attends the public schools of any great nation of 
 the world which draws its material from the slums. A 
 greater percentage of the latter sink back into the degrada- 
 tion of their parents and revert to the life from which they 
 were taken, than do the Indian boys and girls who have re- 
 ceived proper training in the Indian schools". 
 
 There is another aspect of this evolution of the child from 
 the savage state to one of maturity. By the undeveloped 
 mind, the relation of cause and effect is but dimly recog- 
 nized. Imaginary causes are substituted for real causes, and 
 a mere semblance becomes the symbol of reality. Thus the 
 kindergarten child lives in a symbolical world where every- 
 thing has strange meanings and may be converted, in a mo- 
 ment, into some other thing, or be endowed with mysterious 
 powers. 
 
 An application of this fact of evolution may be made, 
 briefly, upon the religious training of the young child. It 
 has become customary in many places to make the kinder- 
 garten contributary to the Sunday school as it were, by trying 
 to inculcate the lofty ideals of a refined religion in the young 
 soul. If we remember that the kindergarten child has prac- 
 tically the instincts and the reasoning power of a barbarian, 
 that he is steeped in nature worship, animalism, and fetichism, 
 we shall realize that these attempts must necessarily end 
 disastrously and produce, instead of a wholesome sense of 
 reverence, rather a grotesque caricature of religion. Particu- 
 larly, such ideas as the omnipresence, omnipotence, and om- 
 niscience of God are far beyond the grasp of young children. 
 Many instructive investigations have been made in this direc- 
 tion years ago. (Cf. Sully, "The Child's Religious Ideas and 
 Religious Teaching", Pop. Science Monthly, Jan., 1895. — 
 Barnes, "Theological Life of a California Child," Pedagog- 
 ical Seminary, Dec, 1893. — "Notes on the Theological De- 
 velopment of a Child," Arena, Feb., 1898, Crisman. — "Re- 
 ligious Periods in Child Growth", Educ. Review, June, 1898, 
 and many others.) Here is a little story which may be 
 considered significant: A little Pennsylvanian was sitting 
 on the floor playing with his blocks. Presently he looked 
 up at his mother and asked: "Ma, can God see every- 
 
34 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 thing?" "Everything, Harry." He returned to his blocks 
 again, but evidently did not drop the subject from his 
 thoughts for he soon asked: "Can he see the back of his own 
 neck?" (Reported in the Child Study Monthly.) 
 
 Can it be assumed that conceptions and reasonings such 
 as this are conducive to genuine religiosity? 
 
 There are other fundamental principles of early educa- 
 tion which have received their first comprehensive and sys- 
 tematic recognition in and thru the kindergarten. 
 
 There is music which does not only add so much to the 
 cheerfulness of the kindergarten, but which, in its rhythmical 
 movement, corresponds to a deep-rooted want of the youthful 
 soul and body. Life is in its very essence rhythmical, and 
 whatever chimes with this rhythm or stimulates it, will 
 necessarily enhance the sense of life, its vigor, and functional 
 intensity. And by way of the sweet strain of song, the 
 beauty of harmony and measure is awakened in the child, his 
 soul is being uplifted to nobler aspirations, his activity is de- 
 veloped to be a power for good — to let him be a builder of 
 ideals. Music's effect upon the child — as well as upon grown 
 men and women — is truly magical, and is being more and 
 more recognized as an educational force. 
 
 And then there is the story. The child, as well as primi- 
 tive man, revels in stories which appeal to his imagination 
 and stimulate thought and action. In the myths and fairy 
 tales, the child is initiated to a primitive world conception 
 which is as typical and simple, as it is grand and poetic, and 
 which corresponds closely to his own understanding of the 
 forces manifesting themselves to his experience. This is per- 
 haps a safer way toward the awakening of true religious feel- 
 ings than attempting to cast their immature minds at once in 
 the modern religious mould. 
 
 Further, there is little that appeals more to the child than 
 genuine poetry — not made up rhymes and ditties so much 
 as genuine poetry, such as is eternal, typical, great, coming 
 from master minds of our race, whose intuitive understand- 
 ing of the fundamental truths and cravings have enabled 
 them to touch adult and babe alike with the divine spark. 
 And again, poetry that is epic rather than reflective, that deals 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 35 
 
 with doings rather than with sentiments. For the child is 
 supremely interested in action and has very little patience 
 or understanding for fine emotions. He may feel them but 
 he cannot analyze them or reflect upon them. Poetical form 
 also satisfies the rhythmic tendency and lends itself gracefully 
 to musical treatment. Music was perhaps the first art of our 
 race, and poetry its first literature. 
 
 The kindergarten age is the language-making age of the 
 child's life. He learns language readily by imitation, by ab- 
 sorption, by instinct. This age repeats the epoch in the his- 
 tory of man when he emerged from primitive barbarism and 
 made civilization possible by the creation of speech. It is a 
 pity that the language-making instinct of the young child is 
 as yet utilized to so small an extent. In the kindergarten 
 the child could easily acquire oral facility in speaking one 
 or several languages in addition to his mother tongue, as is 
 practically illustrated in some foreign countries. Even if 
 this training were not followed up in the succeeding grades, 
 various beneficiary results can be obtained in this manner. 
 The speech centers of the child would receive a most help- 
 ful stimulus for variegated and more comprehensive de- 
 velopment such as cannot be got from the one-sided ex- 
 perience of the mother tongue only. And what was once 
 gained will never be entirely lost. Whenever the child 
 should later take up anew a foreign language, there will be 
 deep down in the recesses of his brain latent associations 
 which will awaken under the new impulses and the child 
 will profit from the stimulus applied to the language-making 
 faculty at its budding time. 
 
 Further, there is a methodical element of vital importance 
 which has first been recognized and organically developed 
 in the kindergarten. I mean the principle of co-ordination, 
 whose significance for the rational organization of the course 
 of instruction will be discussed in another chapter. In the 
 kindergarten all the work is related, articulated, organized. 
 The aim is, to produce so far as possible a conceptual 
 whole in the mind of the child. Thus there is a central 
 thought selected, e. g., the idea of shelter, or of home life, 
 or of food, or of protection, around which all the activities 
 
36 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 of the children are grouped, and which is also illustrated 
 by story, song and game. Unfortunately, (or fortu- 
 nately?) the child's mind is not capable of relating every- 
 thing to a central thought, as it lacks the faculty of abstrac- 
 tion, and the child's thinking and conceiving are fragmen- 
 tary, touching the external world at many different and often 
 wholly unrelated points. To restrict him to such things 
 only as fit in with the "center of thought" as conceived by 
 the adult, means a narrowing down of his circle of experi- 
 ence to meet the requirements of an abstract theory, with- 
 out gaining anything on the side of depth, or intensity. There 
 is no harm in letting the child pick up his information and 
 experience at random ; there is a whole life before him when 
 he may convert the loose threads into a skilful fabric, and 
 work out a unification of his concepts. To do that com- 
 pletely is the criterion of the master's mind, and few, if any, 
 attain to this glory. The principle of co-ordination has 
 frequently been carried to extremes. Even one of our fore- 
 most representatives of the kindergarten movement, Miss 
 Susan E. Blow, as early as in the year 1898, "objected" to 
 the practice more or less prevalent of making the gift exer- 
 cises illustrate some selected idea — or "center of thought" 
 for the week or month, such as the Flower-casket, the Car- 
 penter, or Hiawatha, and "requiring each child to repeat the 
 same illustration," to the entire sacrifice of Frobel's idea of 
 self-expression. 
 
 Here for the first time we have touched upon a point 
 where the prevailing practice of the kindergarten seems to 
 be in need of revision. Indeed the kindergartner has never 
 been free from criticism, more or less intelligent and fair, 
 but often pertinent, and it is well to consider a few of these 
 in order to arrive at a clearer understanding of what may 
 be done towards developing the kindergarten idea in a ra- 
 tional manner. 
 
 No time need be wasted on discussing the ignorant criti- 
 cism that the kindergarten is merely a play-school, by which 
 is meant that it has no value at all. But more weight must 
 be attached to the contention that the kindergarten usurps 
 the functions of the home, and that children of that age 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 37 
 
 belong properly to the family. It cannot be denied that 
 much of Frobel's teachings have no reference at all to a 
 school-like kindergarten such as we are accustomed to call 
 by this name, but to the early educationary efforts of the 
 mother in the home. Thus, the ingeniously beautiful "Mut- 
 ter-und-Koselieder" are not intended for the kindergarten 
 pupil, as their very name signifies, but as a help towards the 
 proper training of the youngest babes. Much of the ma- 
 terial suggested for an earlier stage has indeed been usurped 
 by the kindergarten, tho surely in a well-intentioned way, 
 and because it was in reality not used in the family at all; 
 just as primary classes will not infrequently make use of 
 kindergarten material tho this is not at all suited, in the 
 nature of things, to the next higher stage of the child's de- 
 velopment. 
 
 We may even maintain, with some degree of justice, that 
 the proper application of the kindergarten methods would 
 seem to make a grouping of a relatively few children together, 
 in the home circle, if you please, or by the co-operation of a 
 few families standing in friendly relations towards one an- 
 other, preferable to a massing and mixing of large numbers. 
 In this respect, certain modifications of the present practice 
 may eventually commend themselves to us. But surely, there 
 is a place for the kindergarten as such, as a connecting link be- 
 tween the home and what is called the school proper. Small 
 groups, especially such as are based upon the family circle, 
 foster one-sidedness and exclusiveness, and even young chil- 
 dren need the friction afforded by larger company and com- 
 petition. On the other side, in the practice of the best kin- 
 dergartens much has already been done to break up the 
 unwieldy mass of children into well-matched groups of man- 
 ageable size. 
 
 The more noteworthy criticisms refer to the routine of 
 the kindergarten itself. Its very perfection and detailed or- 
 ganization have caused it to become more formal and rigid 
 than is consistent with wholesome growth. There is a 
 certain dogmatism about it all, and the gifts and occupations 
 no more than the games and songs have become more and 
 more stereotyped. This is utterly averse to the spirit of 
 
38 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 P'robel, whose main appeal was for natural growth. If 
 he suggested a certain series of exercises and embodied his 
 thought in certain forms, it was because these were at the 
 time the method most suitable, in his estimation, to express 
 his ideas. But his experience was limited, and his psychology 
 but rudimentary. His great principles remain essentially 
 unchanged and will forever guide us; the form in which he 
 attempted to embody them, the manner in which he applied 
 them in his practice, are necessarily transitory. Those kin- 
 dergartners who have, in their admiration for the perman- 
 ent glory of the new gospel of the kindergarten, elevated its 
 form in all its details into a dogma, have become slaves of 
 the letter and have lost the spirit. 
 
 The stereotyped character of the present kindergarten prac- 
 tice as found in many places has worked against the natural 
 instincts of the children, the very ones it was intended to 
 foster. 
 
 Very severely expressed was the judgment of the well- 
 known Italian educationist Guiseppe Sergi, who said in his 
 book "Education ed Instruzione" (reviewed in "Pedag. Sem- 
 inary," ii., 437): "It seems to me that this (Frobelian) 
 method when it is a question of teaching things and of giv- 
 ing ideas of things, is false, because in reality real things are 
 not presented before the children for them to know, but 
 figures of things; in other words, simulation is substituted 
 for reality, figures and semblance of things are substituted 
 for real things, — natural and artificial, or, in more general 
 terms, the abstract for the concrete. I call simulation those 
 artifices which are wont to be made with the hands and 
 with objects to represent natural things, e. g., animals, or 
 artificial things, e. g., a temple, a house, etc., by means of 
 sticks and bits of wood combined when the children ought 
 to be shown the real things, in order that they may begin 
 to have exact ideas of these — Suggestion in education has its 
 limits. At an age when mental activity is in process of de- 
 velopment, certain procedures may have grave and danger- 
 ous results — the brain continually waiting for new sugges- 
 tions after the first, may be arrested and remain in habitual 
 inertia ... the result of hindering proper functional 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 39 
 
 development. The Frobelian method is weighed down by 
 these defects, for, while seemingly desiring to allow liberty 
 and independence of mental activity in children, in reality it 
 suppresses them. In the use of games and plays suggested 
 or made by the instructors, and of which the children are 
 merely the automatic executors, the same method of sugges- 
 tion continues, which ruins the natural development of the 
 children, tends to equalize them all and to abolish all initia- 
 tive and individuality — Thruout Frobelianism there is the 
 symbol which destroys methodical and natural development. 
 . . . Instead of its being said that the activity of the 
 children is manifested in plays, as Frobel declared, we ought 
 to say rather, that marionettism and refined automatism 
 destroy the spontaneous activity of the children." 
 
 This scathing denunciation of the kindergarten has been 
 quoted not because it is considered a just criticism of Fro- 
 bel's system, but because it shows how a vicious and unen- 
 lightened practice, represented by those who undertake to in- 
 troduce a new idea while being themselves steeped in the 
 old, will turn reformatory measures into their very opposite. 
 It seems plain that the kindergartens observed by Prof. Sergi 
 had only Frobel's letter, not his spirit. 
 
 As it often happens, the disciples of a great teacher over- 
 do what they conceive to be his teachings, and are apt to 
 carry his system to extremes. This is surely true of Frobel's 
 gifts to which a sentimental and overstrained philosophy has 
 attributed many more secret and mysterious virtues than 
 Frobel himself may have dared to dream of. Educationally 
 questionable as his mathematical type-forms may appear to 
 the unbiased mind, they have not escaped this overstraining 
 process. 
 
 There seems to have been a stage in the artistic develop- 
 ment of many peoples, when the mind conceived of life forms 
 in mathematical, or specifically geometrical, symbols. The 
 decorative motives of primitive tribes, picture writing, animal 
 mounds, etc., give ample proof of this. Similarly there may 
 be a tendency among young children to image in geometrical 
 symbols. The fact is that many children delight in recogniz- 
 ing life forms which are presented to them in geometrical dis- 
 
4 o THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 guise. Yet the question is whether they can be expected to 
 create their own mathematical symbols, or whether it is ad- 
 visable to force the symbolism of the gifts so extensively upon 
 them. The primitive artistic creations mentioned above were 
 apparently due to the first awakening, in the mental evolu- 
 tion of the race, to appreciation of form as such, of sym- 
 metry, and of geometrical relations. Geometry was the first 
 of the exact sciences to be systematized by the ancients. But 
 after all, the parallelism between the evolution of the race 
 and that of the individual can not be carried so far as to make 
 us overlook that primitive artists were, after all, adults living 
 in primitive environment, while our children are modern hu- 
 man beings, children tho they be. Mathematical form is surely 
 an abstraction probably beyond the comprehension of the 
 young child. Besides some of the apparently geometrical sym- 
 bols of primitive art may not have been conceived as such by 
 their creators, but were simply the result of immature skill, 
 while we moderns, with our mathematically trained eyes, 
 imagine to recognize mathematical conceptions. 
 
 While it is certainly true that the kindergarten child lives 
 in the symbolic stage, it is open to doubt whether the mathe- 
 matical symbolism as represented by the sphere, cube, and 
 cylinder, has much value in early education. 
 
 Just as the stereotyped gifts are open to criticism as long 
 as they are claimed to be the only, or the best suited means 
 for the development of the young soul, the character of the 
 occupations has also been exposed to severe censure. Some of 
 these strictures are excessive and unjust. 
 
 Yet there is much justification in the demand for a 
 revision of the occupations as generally practiced. President 
 G. Stanley Hall finds that much of the work done in the 
 kindergarten is not at all suited to the nature of the little 
 child, referring particularly to paper weaving with narrow 
 paper strips, pricking, bead work, stick laying with tooth 
 picks, and in general all occupations with small articles. Ex- 
 periments have brought out the fact that a large proportion 
 of the kindergarten pupils had neurotic diseases brought on 
 and developed by this kind of work. In "A Preliminary 
 Study of Motor Ability", in Pedag. Semin., in., i., John H. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 41 
 
 Hancock recorded some instructive tests which were under- 
 taken to examine into the children's ability to do the regu- 
 lation work of the kindergarten. A pattern found in most 
 kindergarten guides consists of four slats interlaced. This 
 was taken for a test, using slats 8 inches long and 3^ inch 
 wide. Four were taken and interlaced before the children, 
 and left so for them to see; four others were then given to 
 each child and the children were asked to interlace them. 
 The slats were interlaced a second or even a third time before 
 the children, yet but one child, a girl of six, succeeded ; 
 nine copied the figure, the remaining fifty failed wholly. The 
 ages ranged from 5 to 7. "I am not at present concerned," 
 says the experimenter, "with the effect of training on the abil- 
 ity of children to make these movements, but rather with the 
 problem, what is the period of development of function in the 
 nerve centers controlling the finer muscles concerned in deli- 
 cate co-ordinations. Evidently for these children it is only 
 beginning. Fifty-six boys were asked to thread a large 
 needle; fifty succeeded, but only after two or three efforts; 
 six failed, tho given extra large needles and more time. It 
 was evidently new to most of them. After the first trial 
 there was in many cases apparent a feeling of nervousness". 
 
 Of course there is a reason for these effects. This rea- 
 son is to be found in the natural order of development of 
 control and co-ordination of movement in the child. This 
 Drder is quite generally disregarded in the ordinary practice 
 of the kindergarten owing to the mistaken idea that little chil- 
 dren must do little things. The fact is that little children 
 will do crude things, and that their scale must be compara- 
 tively large. To insist upon accurate adjustments will neces- 
 sarily result in failure, or in injury to the child. On the 
 whole, the child's development does not follow what we may 
 call a logical order, but it complies with the laws of growth, 
 which are biological, not logical. Says Mr. Hancock: 
 
 "The order of development of control is evidently, body, 
 shoulder, arm, forearm, and hand. In the hand control the 
 index finger differentiates between that of the others. . . . 
 
 . Kindergarten work is usually too fine. Too great pre- 
 cision, involving delicate and complex co-ordinations in past- 
 
42 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 ing, weaving, folding, pricking and sewing is insisted on. 
 Occupations and games for young children should be of a 
 nature that will involve large muscles and movements." 
 
 And F. Burk, in his valuable study, "The Development 
 of the Nervous System" (Pedag. Semin. vi., i) has this to 
 say: 
 
 "If infants first learned to make the simple reflexes, and 
 this step performed, they proceeded to combine these elements 
 into new unities and so on, we would have a logical 
 order to retrace. But there are few evidences either in in- 
 fancy or in later childhood of such steps from the logically 
 simple to the complex. . . . Several other hand move- 
 ments could be more or less definitely traced, commencing in 
 the infant with complex reflexes, inexplicable as yet upon any 
 theory except that of evolutionary origin and developing into 
 human forms by modifications and additions that show no 
 trace of logical arrangement. . . .Nor do all these com- 
 plex but original co-ordinations appear immediately at birth. 
 They are scattered along thru infancy and childhood sugges- 
 tively corresponding to the development by distinct parts 
 observed in the growth of the nervous system. . . . 
 
 "We may sum up the matter of accuracy: (i) that as a 
 primary condition which makes accuracy of hand and arm 
 possible, the child must have a matured degree of control un- 
 der directions of his higher level centers (i. e. voluntary). 
 The fact that this maturity is not reached, normally, until 
 the ninth or tenth year, makes questionable the efforts of the 
 school to compel accuracy such as is required by the kinder- 
 garten, and also by the primary school in writing, weaving, 
 etc. (2) That the ability to be accurate in hand and finger 
 movements increases very materially during school ages. (3) 
 That accuracy depends indirectly upon the development of 
 the body as a whole, the steadiness of the trunk muscles being 
 as essential as the accuracy of hand or finger movements 
 themselves. . . . (4) That steadiness of the trunk or 
 central movements (fundamental) necessarily precede ability 
 to be accurate in peripheral (or accessory) movements". 
 . . . (It should be stated in fairness to progressive 
 kindergartners that much has already been done in the best 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 43 
 
 kindergartens of this country to effect a rational modification 
 of the existing practice.) 
 
 There is then to be a new adjustment of Frobel's thought 
 to the needs and conditions of the child as revealed by the 
 later researches into child nature. The laws of growth must 
 be the governing laws in our dealings with the children, and 
 the kindergarten itself must reflect these laws in its own 
 constitution by liberating itself from dogmatism, so as to 
 breathe anew the air of freedom wherein alone there is 
 healthy development. Let us cast Frobel's immortal thoughts 
 into new and nobler forms, such as will never again become 
 rigid and stereotyped, but will change and expand and ma- 
 ture as our own conceptions of child-life change and expand 
 and mature. The very words of Frobel will inspire and 
 guide us herein. Says he: "The fall from childhood's para- 
 dise begins painfully early in these modern times. . . . 
 By forcing the child out of his unconsciousness, by demanding 
 of him reflection, by checking the joy of his receptiveness, by 
 too much teaching, we spoil the divine teaching of God and 
 Nature. . . . Let the child remain for a time ignorant 
 of himself, live naturally, and drink in his wisdom and his 
 religion which God makes play around him. Make the 
 bridge from the cradle to manhood just as long as you can, 
 leaving the child as a child as long as possible, not forcing 
 him into premature development by intelligence or by any- 
 thing else. Let him be a child and not a little ape or a man 
 running about town." 
 
 And it is well to understand that in the Kindergarten age 
 no less than in other ages, the individual condition and 
 need of a child must be the first consideration. What is best 
 for one child may be injurious for another. Says Dr. Isaac 
 A. Abt, a specialist in children's diseases, in a recent article: 
 (An Inquiry into the Status of the Kindergarten. Archives 
 of Pediatrics, April, 1909.) "In the final analysis we are 
 forced to the conclusion as indeed one cannot fail to have 
 been thruout the discussion, that each child must be con- 
 sidered as an individual. In other words, the desirability 
 of the kindergarten depends upon the state of health of the 
 child, the qualifications of the teacher, the disposition and 
 
44 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 capacity of the mother, the environment of the home and the 
 equipment of the kindergarten." 
 
 As a closing thought to this, the following consideration is 
 suggested. The kindergarten, as was affirmed in the begin- 
 ning, has its value not only in administering to the peculiar 
 needs of the children of a certain age, but mainly in estab- 
 lishing a better recognition of the meaning of education 
 generally. The principles evolved and practiced in the kin- 
 dergarten are fundamental principles and must be understood 
 as regulating all our educative efforts, thruout all the 
 "grades" of the school no less than in the home. The ideas 
 of objective work, of constructive activity, of "Learning by 
 Doing", of sense training, of interrelation and co-ordination 
 of the elements of instruction, of following the natural steps 
 in the gradual unfolding of the child's soul and body, etc., 
 etc., must pervade the entire curriculum. In others words, it 
 is the mission of the kindergarten to leaven the whole lump 
 of school education by the same principles which gave it 
 birth; to emphasize the necessity of erecting the entire edu- 
 cational superstructure on the kindergarten foundations; and 
 while varying the methods employed according to the ages 
 of the children, to apply thruout the fundamental thoughts 
 of Frobel. Thus the kindergarten will be but the basement 
 story, as it were, of a larger structure devoted in its en- 
 tirety to the New Education. It must no longer be a separate 
 branch of school instruction, distinctly different from the 
 rest, and patched onto the routine system — in an external, 
 superficial manner — but it must set the pace, it must point 
 to the goal, it must lead the way to better things. It should 
 teach us how to discover the child wherever he is, whether 
 in the primary classes or in the high school. It should ex- 
 pand so as to embrace the entire school, and absorb the whole 
 system within itself, converting it into one large KINDER- 
 GARTEN. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Principle of Co-ordination of Studies 
 
 THE term "co-ordination of studies" has been fre- 
 quently used to designate an educational prin- 
 ciple which has reference to a systematic unifi- 
 cation of all instructional elements in the school 
 curriculum. We owe the suggestion of this prin- 
 ciple mainly to the advocates of the educational philosophy 
 of the great German thinker, Friedrich Herbart. Herbart, 
 however, only laid the psychological foundation of what is 
 now known in educational history as the "scientific peda- 
 gogy"; it was due to such men as Ziller and Stoy that the 
 new movement mapped out a practical system of school edu- 
 cation. Tuiscon Ziller and his followers based their system 
 and course of instruction on a "central idea". This central 
 idea was pre-eminently an ethical one. The development of 
 the moral and religious character of the pupil was, with 
 them, the principal aim of education. In their endeavor to 
 group all the different studies around this central idea, they 
 advanced the theory that the child passes, in rapid succes- 
 sion, thru a series of mental stages which represent, in an 
 abbreviated form, the various epochs in the evolution of the 
 race. 
 
 It is a well-known biological law, in accordance with the 
 theory of evolution, that the physical development of each 
 living being is a repetition, or epitome, of all stages of de- 
 velopment thru which the entire series of its ancestors has 
 passed, so that the differential characteristics of the species 
 to which the creature belongs, will develop last. The men- 
 tal development is thought to be good and by the same law. 
 
 45 
 
46 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 In the following chapters more will be said about the latest 
 conception of this "culture epoch theory", which has also 
 been confronted with much adverse criticism. Many, or 
 most, of the author's own suggestions will be based upon 
 a revised form of this principle. 
 
 With their "central ethical idea" in view, and considering 
 that this race development is recorded in such studies as 
 Biblical and secular history, in literature, language, etc., the 
 educationists of the Herbart-Ziller school grouped their en- 
 tire course of instruction around these literary records and 
 the thoughts suggested by them, disfranchising, as it were, 
 all other studies by making them subservient to this princi- 
 pal end. The leading studies, therefore, which supply the 
 effective principle of co-ordination, are the humanistic 
 branches: history, literature, dogmatic religion, and lan- 
 guage, which form the central group. Such studies as geo- 
 graphy and natural science, even arithmetic, are grouped 
 around these so that they progress in close connection with, 
 and principally directed by, the religio— ethico-historical 
 group. This is what Ziller called "concentration of in- 
 struction." 
 
 Much might be said by way of criticism of this concen- 
 tration scheme of the Herbartians which represents an er- 
 roneous application of some very sound educational and philo- 
 sophical principles. It may suffice here to refer briefly to 
 the artificiality of a plan which selects certain branches as 
 primary to which all others are forcibly subordinated. To 
 constrain the entire subject-matter of school instruction, geo- 
 graphy, natural history, reading, writing, etc., into an un- 
 natural dependence on ethico-historical topics which are sup- 
 posed to represent eight different culture periods and as 
 many different epochs in the child's development, or school 
 grades, is mere pedantry. Each subject of instruction has, 
 to some extent, an independent province, with laws, aims, 
 and an individual life and organization of its own which 
 must be respected. 
 
 The terms "correlation" , "interrelation" , "co-ordination" , 
 and "concentration" have been used somewhat indiscrimin- 
 ately and interchangeably by educationists. Some apply the 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 47 
 
 term "correlation" as a collective, or general, term, and then 
 distinguish "concentration", in the Herbartian sense, as 
 meaning a subordination of all other branches to the so-called 
 culture studies; "co-ordination", as meaning the arrange- 
 ment of all studies in a series of separate but co-ordinate 
 groups which have each an independent value, but are not 
 only correlated with one another so as to produce a unity 
 of conception, but are each so organized that in each a cen- 
 tral idea controls all the elements therein included. Thus, 
 Dr. Harris, one of the earliest and most devoted Herbart- 
 ians, recognized five co-ordinate groups: (i) mathematics; 
 (2) geography (as the elementary form of science) 5(3) lit- 
 erature; (4) grammar and language; (5) history. 
 
 It is interesting to note, however, that even Dr. Harris' 
 mind was haunted by the idea of concentration pure and sim- 
 ple. True, he spoke of "unity" in an article in which he 
 explained his contribution to the once famous Report of 
 the Committee of Fifteen: "The report finds a deep under- 
 lying unity, and affirms the necessity of approaching this 
 unity at all points of the course of study, but without the 
 hope of reaching the fundamental unity until the period of 
 higher education." But elsewhere, he had arrived at this 
 surprising conclusion: "The whole elementary course may 
 be described as an extension of the process of learning the 
 art of reading"! It is evident from this sentence that Dr. 
 Harris had a very inadequate conception of the objective and 
 motor elements of education, at that time, at least. 
 
 The third term frequently suggested, "interrelation", has 
 been used to denote a system which places the different 
 branches of instruction in mutual relation without attempt- 
 ing to organize them in groups or to subordinate any of 
 them to so-called centers. Much discussion has been going 
 on as to which of these plans is best. But there is not neces- 
 sarily an antagonism between the different plans. They 
 have all their values at different stages of the educational 
 and instructional practice if we allow the evolutionary 
 stages of the child to guide us in organizing the instructional 
 elements. Of this, more will be said in later chapters of this 
 book. 
 
48 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 The term "co-ordination" seems to commend itself as pre- 
 ferable, in a general sense, because it recognizes, as has been 
 shown, the independence of the different branches, each in 
 its own sphere; and while it allows of the grouping of stud- 
 ies in co-ordinated and correlated clusters, this grouping may 
 be varied to suit different and successive needs as they may 
 manifest themselves in the gradual unfolding of the child's 
 mind. The term "co-ordination" does not imply the subor- 
 dination of any study to any other, but permits us to con- 
 ceive of all individual branches as co-ordinate elements, if 
 this conception should at any time suggest itself. Thus, 
 while it denotes the connection and interrelation of all, it 
 also grants freedom to each. 
 
 But before entering further into a discussion of the prin- 
 ciples of co-ordination as the author understands them, a 
 few preliminary remarks seem pertinent. 
 
 Co-ordination, as ordinarily understood, is based prin- 
 cipally upon the real or assumed relationship of the subjects 
 of instruction. This relationship may, of course, be very 
 differently apprehended by different persons, in accordance 
 with their individual idiosyncrasies. Everybody, e. g., will 
 appreciate the relation and interdependence of arithmetic, 
 algebra, and geometry; or of history and geography. But 
 whether the one or the other is to figure as the primary, 
 or the secondary, study — as to which one must be consid- 
 ered the leading and which the subservient and accessory 
 discipline, is a matter of individual preference and attitude. 
 Even the relative value of the different branches, or groups, 
 is variously estimated. There are not a few who maintain 
 that language and arithmetic are but form studies whose 
 only function is to serve as tools for the acquisition and ex- 
 pression of the thought as contained in the "content studies" 
 such as geography, history, literature, science, etc. Again, 
 some place language and arithmetic in the front rank, as 
 being pre-eminently educational, and to whose proper cultiva- 
 tion the other studies merely furnish the material. 
 
 It is certainly advantageous, in surveying the many differ- 
 ent branches of instruction, to group them in an organically 
 connected and articulated system, and were it but for the pur- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 49 
 
 pose of penetrating into their mutual relations and of learn- 
 ing to conceive of them as parts of a great whole which may 
 be differently denominated as Knowledge, or Culture, or 
 Civilization. The final aim of such efforts is the unification 
 of all branches in a philosophic order or theory which is prac- 
 tically identical with a conception of the World as an organ- 
 ism, or a divine creation, or whatever you will, wherein all 
 forces and elements combine to further certain, more or less 
 clearly recognized or recognizable ends. 
 
 Evidently useful and necessary as such unification must be, 
 and even tho we should awaken in each pupil the desire, and 
 strengthen the faculty, to correlate all culture elements, so as 
 to build up a unified world-conception of his own — this pro- 
 cess is absolutely dependent upon the individual point of view, 
 or the individual mental attitude and aptitude of the thinker 
 himself. It appears educationally doubtful to force any 
 such individual viewpoint upon any child, or school, or school 
 system. We ought rather to help each child to find his own 
 point of view among the multitude of possible attitudes, even 
 tho his may materially differ from our own. For this reason, 
 any co-ordination of studies which is based exclusively and 
 rigidly upon our conception of their interrelation as branches 
 of a philosophic unity, disregards the CHILD as an organ- 
 izing center and agent. It is, at best, a logical or theoretical 
 co-ordination, but not one which is adequate to respond to the 
 needs of the child. 
 
 For the sake of convenience we may group all subjects 
 under some definite heads, or collective centers, such as, 
 e. g., (1) ENVIRONMENT, which would be a differ- 
 ent name for geography, ethnography, and would include 
 nature study, even mathematics, this latter study being 
 based upon measurement, and establishing the science of 
 relations; and (2) HISTORY, which would refer to all 
 the experiences of the race, and would therefore embrace 
 language and literature and art. Accepting these two cen- 
 ters, manual and art training would assume the function of 
 methodical elements thru whose agency the forces of nature 
 and the civilization of man would be better comprehended ; 
 while music, perhaps, would in one sense be accessory to 
 
50 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 literature, in another to physical training. 
 
 Again, there is the division of subjects into form-studies 
 and content-studies, as has been mentioned before. Then we 
 may divide them into such as develop the mind intellectually ; 
 others, whose function is the moral training of the young 
 hearts to the acceptance and assimilation of noble ideals; and 
 thirdly those which have the normal development of the body 
 for their prime object. Mathematics may be placed in the 
 first group; literature in the second, and gymnastics in the 
 third. There are many other ways of grouping the subjects 
 — all more or less helpful and convenient in the working out 
 of a course of study, but none of them fully satisfactory and 
 solving all difficulties. There will have to be cross-references 
 everywhere. 
 
 The principal danger in working out plans of this sort 
 consists in this that there will be an ever-present temptation 
 to seek and establish artificial centers such as recommend 
 themselves to the philosophizing mind of the adult while they 
 may be foreign to the thought and interest of the child. 
 Thus, where the story of Robinson Crusoe has been made the 
 center of the work of a certain grade, all the exercises of that 
 grade will for the time being be made to refer exclusively to 
 that interesting figure until the child loathes tp hear of him. 
 The kindergarten, as has been shown in the previous chap- 
 ter, has especially suffered from this conception of co-ordina- 
 tion. In the sequence of weekly themes which cover such 
 subjects as home-life, shelter, food, covering, Thanksgiving, 
 Christmas, winter, the resurrection of the flowers and the like, 
 it has been customary to correlate all work of the week so as 
 to have a bearing upon the "theme". Amusing and grotesque 
 examples of the absurd things that have been done in conse- 
 quence of this attempt to force everything into the straight- 
 jacket of the "theme" might be quoted. In fact, kindergart- 
 ners have sometimes refused to adopt certain lines of work into 
 their course for the only reason that they did not know how 
 to "co-ordinate" them with their weekly themes. Here is 
 the rhyme-bound groan of a teacher whose supervisors in- 
 sisted on this sort of artificial correlation: 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 51 
 
 With back that was aching and tired 
 
 And brain in a pitiful state, 
 A teacher sat at a laden desk 
 
 Attempting to correlate: — 
 
 Cocoons and Indian chiefs, 
 
 And the length of Agoonac's hose; 
 The cubic root of the Nation's debt, 
 
 Turtles and niggertoes; 
 
 Earth and water and air, 
 
 Elephants, adverbs and cheese, 
 Box-elder trees and the pyramids, 
 
 With the cause of the ocean breeze. 
 
 Oh, but to teach again 
 
 As once I used to teach 
 Before I heard of "unify" 
 
 Or "pedagogic speech"; 
 
 Only for one short hour 
 
 To think as once I thought — 
 That schools were made for the children 
 
 And lessons to be taught. 
 
 Oh, to be at rest 
 
 Under the violets blue, 
 Where "daily outlines" never come 
 
 And reports are never due. 
 
 Cocoons and Indian chiefs, 
 
 Presidents, camels and seas, 
 Olympic games and glacier beds, 
 
 Pronouns and bumble-bees. 
 
 (School Education.) 
 
 We may not, perhaps, agree with all her longings, but we 
 can surely sympathize with her perplexity and distress. We 
 shall see presently that it is well to establish associations in 
 
52 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 the mind of the child ; yet we need not fear that at random — 
 impressions will get lost. Something must be left to the 
 spontaneous associative ability of the child. It is an idle 
 attempt to pre-digest everything for him. We can trust in 
 his natural ability to assimilate the wealth of excitations and 
 sensations rushing to him from all sides, in his own individ- 
 ual way. The child is unable to control and organize all 
 these perceptions at once, and we, on the other hand, shall 
 find it to be far beyond our power to control, or even to be 
 aware of, this enormous mass of sense-impressions and stim- 
 ulations of thought. The child stores up this treasure in his 
 brain without the possibility of immediate correlation; his 
 thinking is necessarily fragmentary. This need cause no 
 anxiety, for the process of organizing these impressions is 
 long, but sure, if otherwise care be taken to establish rational 
 habits of thought. This process of organization is com- 
 mensurate to the child's process of maturing, and is governed 
 by the eternal laws of mental activity. In other words, the 
 loose threads will be occasionally gathered up and gradually 
 woven into a conceptual fabric characteristic of the individual 
 mind. 
 
 We must look for leading principles of true co-ordination 
 not so much in the interdependence of the subject matter of 
 instruction as such, but rather in the psychological laws which 
 govern the working of the juvenile mind, and of mind gen- 
 erally. The interdependence of the instructional details of 
 the subject matter will assist us in the practical work of the 
 schoolroom, to establish psychological relations; but the prin- 
 ciples of arrangement must be derived from the psychological 
 conditions themselves. That is to say, the logical relations 
 of the branches of instruction are external facts, and can be- 
 come internalized, i. e., they can become modes of thought, 
 or mental organisms, only thru a psychological process. 
 
 Were it not so there would never be cause of feeling 
 aggrieved at observing how many minds there are to be 
 found in which a great many external facts are stored up as 
 so many pebbles in a bag — facts which are obviously related, 
 objectively considered, but which have not become subjec- 
 tively associated. The sad effect of this condition will become 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 53 
 
 manifest in the general conduct of these individuals which 
 will be characterized by pitiful inconsistency. Thus, a man 
 who is a scientific genius may be discovered to be a bigot in 
 matters of religion ; or a kind-hearted man who is a loving 
 father and husband, may be a veritable tyrant and egotist in 
 his social intercourse, or in his relations to employees. Exam- 
 ples of such inconsistency may be multiplied — but they are 
 all due to the fact that an objective relation of external facts 
 is not always mirrored in the mind of man by a correspond- 
 ing psychological organization which has produced a subjec- 
 tive reality, a mental attitude, a mode of thought. 
 
 It appears, then, that the real center of a co-ordinative 
 system of instruction must be the CHILD. We are indebted 
 to Herbart for a distinct formulation of the principle which 
 governs the acquisition of knowledge by the learning child. 
 The process by which the mind appropriates and assimilates 
 knowledge is called apperception. Dr. Karl Lange, in his 
 famous monograph on the subject, defines this process as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "In general, we master the outer world thru our percep- 
 tions, and only thru them; yet in their very nature there 
 lies at the same time an important limit for all knowing. 
 Just because the perceiving mind does not passively receive ex- 
 ternal things or their images, because nothing foreign can 
 press in upon it or be communicated immediately to it, but 
 because it relates itself actively to all outer excitations and 
 responds to them in its own way, therefore, in a strict sense, 
 our perceptions have only relative truth and validity. 
 
 "This activity of the perceiving mind, however, explains 
 another important fact. It is a well-known experience that 
 one and the same object seldom occasions precisely similar 
 perceptions in the minds of different people. Of the same 
 landscape the poet's image would differ greatly from that of 
 the botanist, the painter's from that of the geologist or the 
 farmer, the stranger's from that of him who calls it home. 
 
 . . . There are as many ideas of one and the same 
 thing as there are observers. Whence this variation in ap- 
 prehension, with otherwise similar sense apparatus? . . . 
 The mind apprehends the things of the outer world with the 
 
54 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 assistance of what it has already experienced, felt, learned 
 and digested. And so it comes about that with nearly all 
 new perceptions the former content of our mind makes itself 
 felt, so that we become conscious of more than that which 
 the objects themselves furnish us, seeing the latter thruout 
 in the light of similar ideas already present in the mind. 
 
 "The process of perception must not therefore be regarded 
 as such a simple matter as superficial observation might seem 
 to indicate. ... In order that a sensation may arise, 
 there is, as a rule, a fusion or union of its content with similar 
 ideas and feelings. With the assistance of the latter, the 
 sensation is held in consciousness, elevated into greater clear- 
 ness, properly related to the remaining fields of thought, and 
 so truly assimilated. We call this second act, in distinction 
 from that of simple perception or the reception of a sensation, 
 APPERCEPTION, or mental assimilation." 
 
 This same fact has often been expressed as a principle of 
 method, in the form of maxims, such as: "From the known 
 to the unknown", or, with another element added to it: 
 "From the easy to the difficult," — "From the simple to the 
 complex", — "From the concrete to the abstract." It is evi- 
 dent that the logical relation of the details of the subject mat- 
 ter will enable us to make the application of this general rule 
 a comparatively easy thing. In this manner we shall establish 
 an instructional interrelation of topics — introducing new 
 ones by establishing apperceptive associations with those which 
 existed before. In order to accomplish this effectively, teach- 
 ers will have to ascertain the mental status of the children 
 entrusted to their care, the extent and character of the con- 
 cepts already forming their intellectual possessions and deter- 
 mining their emotional attitude; and there are other factors 
 to be observed, as the reaction time, inhibition power, fatigue 
 limit, and the like, of individual children, and other things. 
 
 It is clear that the concepts gained in one branch of 
 study, or thru one kind of activity, will condition and re-en- 
 force concepts which are to be mediated thru others. Thus, 
 historical and geographical elements will prove mutually help- 
 ful; arithmetical concepts will attain greater distinction by 
 geometrical methods of instruction; laboratory practice will 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 55 
 
 form a basis for true scientific ideas; the making of objects 
 will complete their conceptual images; and animistic myths 
 will prove themselves a fit introduction to science proper. 
 
 A relation of new matter, by way of concrete examples, 
 of examples which refer back to the child's previous experi- 
 ence, to an "apperceptive basis", is especially mandatory in 
 the case of elements which are remote from the senses, or 
 foreign to the immediate environment and experience of the 
 child. Here, teachers frequently make the mistake of neg- 
 lecting the apperceptive process, taking it for granted that 
 children can as easily jump from one concept to another as 
 adults, with their much wider range of experiences and as- 
 sociations, may be expected to do. 
 
 It is often amusing as well as instructive to observe how 
 easily children are tempted, by the narrow circle of their 
 experience, to make false analogies, that is to connect new 
 impressions with the wrong apperceptive group. In reading 
 about the triumphal entrance of Columbus, with King Ferd- 
 inand and Queen Isabella, of Spain, after his first voyage to 
 America, a certain class of children was much interested in 
 the "royal mantle" which the king wore. When asked what 
 that was, a bright little girl answered, 'A kind of light." 
 She had confused the royal garment with a Welsbach man- 
 tle, the only kind of a "mantle" she had ever heard of. A 
 king in a Welsbach mantle would have been an interesting 
 spectacle indeed. 
 
 By interrelating subjects so as to respond to the demand 
 of apperceptive procedure, we need in no wise destroy their 
 individual independence. So far, indeed, there is no sugges- 
 tion of an absolute unification at any stage, or of the subor- 
 dination of any one subject to any other. They must be 
 made mutually helpful; and it is a principle of economy 
 in evolution to relate details to common groups, or prin- 
 ciples, so as to enable the child to establish a conceptual 
 order in the wilderness and embarrassing multitude of de- 
 tails so that he may recognize old friends in new settings or 
 dress. Unless this be accomplished, he may have to learn 
 anew about the same geometrical form in the workshop 
 which had become familiar to him as an element of his 
 
56 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 mathematical study; or he will not recognize in the con- 
 struction of a stove an application of the same laws which 
 he had studied in his physical laboratory as governing the 
 radiation and distribution of heat. 
 
 But this apperceptive relation once established, it is well 
 to rigidly isolate the details in the daily lesson so that there 
 may be concentration of attention upon the object or subject 
 in hand. Without such isolation and specialization, a clear 
 understanding of the individual subject as such will be just 
 as impossible as it would be thru neglect of the apperceptive 
 helps. Each detail has its individual importance, and even 
 its correlative significance will lack definiteness if we allow 
 it to be constantly mixed up with more or less hazy associa- 
 tions. 
 
 The apperceptive process is based upon the law of inter- 
 est. What has no relation to things we already know fails 
 to appeal to our interest, and there will consequently be no 
 effort on the part of the mind to seize upon the new object 
 and assimilate it. Speaking of "native" and acquired inter- 
 ests", Prof. William James, in his "Talks to Teachers on 
 Psychology", said : 
 
 "Other objects can artificially acquire an interest only 
 thru first becoming associated with some of these natively 
 interesting things. Begin with the line of his native inter- 
 ests, and offer him objects that have some immediate con- 
 nection with these. . . . The interest, being shed along 
 from point to point, finally suffuses the entire system of ob- 
 jects of thought. . . . This is the psychological mean- 
 ing of that whole method of concentration in studies. . . . 
 When the geography and English and history and arithme- 
 tic simultaneously make cross-references to one another, you 
 get an interesting set of processes all along the line." 
 
 In this way, the immediate environment of a child, such 
 as the idea of shelter, food, clothing, etc., may in fact fur- 
 nish valuable centers of interest, thruout the grades, in all 
 their various aspects, co-ordinating geography, science, man- 
 ual work, mathematics, history. If these are recognized in 
 the practice of the school, there is no objection to be raised, if 
 they are treated in the elastic manner which has been sug- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 57 
 
 gested before. 
 
 The following principles may be pointed out, as apt to 
 guide us in the correlative arrangement of the subject mat- 
 ter in a rational course of study: 
 
 The Principle of Elimination is suggested as the first of 
 these. We must eliminate what is unessential, useless, and 
 consequently burdensome. There can be no doubt whatever 
 that the old practice of devoting the entire school time to a 
 few subjects has created the unwholesome custom of dwell- 
 ing too much on unnecessary and even positively harmful 
 details. The abuses characterizing the spelling lessons are 
 still fresh in the memory of teachers, and were it not for 
 the fact that they are not yet wholly a thing of the past, 
 and that there are many people clamoring even now for a 
 return to the old methods, we should not need to emphasize 
 once more that there is no advantage in drilling the pupils 
 in the orthography of hundreds and thousands of words 
 which they will possibly never use in their writing. 
 
 In a similar manner, much of what now constitutes the 
 course in arithmetic, notably the greater part of the so-called 
 practical, i. e., commercial examples, should be left out from 
 the curriculum. All this ballast cannot be advantageously 
 co-ordinated. 
 
 A second principle is that of Direct Combination. Math- 
 ematics, e. g., cannot claim a place on the school program 
 as an abstract, isolated study. It should be largely "ob- 
 jectified", by being directly combined with the world of ob- 
 jects. Wherever accuracy in thought is demanded, there 
 is mathematical material of some kind. The abundance of 
 really practical problems that may be supplied by manual 
 exercises in pasteboard, wood, iron-work and construction, 
 sewing, by exercises in drawing, designing, and modeling, 
 needs no explanation. Science lessons are especially fruitful 
 in offering problems for mathematical consideration. In 
 geography, the number of inhabitants and area of cities and 
 countries ; the length of rivers ; absolute and relative eleva- 
 tion; distances, etc., may be measured and compared. The 
 density of population ; miles of railroads ; kinds and per- 
 centage of products; import and export; postal, railroad and 
 
58 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 steamer service ; the rising and setting of the sun ; the rela- 
 tive size of the earth, continents, and oceans, etc., etc., afford 
 an endless variety of exercises. Even history abounds with 
 welcome opportunities. We may measure and compare the 
 duration of institutions and historical conditions; the dis- 
 tance in time between important events; results of wars; 
 taxes; feudal services and tributes; value of money at dif- 
 ferent periods and in different countries; cost and organi- 
 zation of communal and national governments; of public 
 institutions, schools, prisons, police, etc. Beginning in the 
 lowest grades, in fact in the kindergarten, approximately 
 accurate numerical statements, growing more and more ex- 
 act as the pupils increase in maturity, ought to accompany 
 all form study, occupations and even games. Form study 
 proper will lead up to the recognition of typical forms, thru 
 direct observation, comparison and construction of solids; 
 and in the highest grades, the abstract mathematical truths 
 discovered may find expression in algebraic form, which, in 
 turn, will enable the pupil to solve a number of problems 
 of really practical value with greater ease and more under- 
 standing^. 
 
 In a like or similar manner other subjects will be combined 
 or connected, e. g., geography with history and natural his- 
 tory; grammar with composition; spelling with reading, writ- 
 ing, and grammar, etc. Thus suggests another principle re- 
 sulting from the necessity of readjustment, viz.: 
 
 The Principle of Variety in Practice. "Repetitio est mater 
 studiorum." There is a need of a certain amount of drill 
 and exercise in each branch of study for the sake of clarifying 
 and intensifying the concepts, and of making them the in- 
 destructible property of the mind. Heretofore endless repe- 
 titions and reviews within the limits of each separate study 
 were the rule; this required an undue amount of time and 
 was extremely wearisome to both pupil and teacher. Besides, 
 it amounted to little more than a mechanical re-iteration of a 
 number of relatively meaningless separate facts. The wise 
 teacher will realize that practice and exercise do not mean a 
 mere going over the same ground again in endless succes- 
 sion, but rather the application of what has been learned in 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 59 
 
 one way, in a different way, so that the lesson may be seen 
 by the pupil in a new light, and assume the more attractive- 
 ness to him the more new sides and properties he discovers 
 in it. 
 
 What can be practiced in the shop needs not be practiced 
 over in the laboratory; what can be reviewed in a reading 
 lesson will relieve history instruction of part of its burden. 
 This is the age of the "supplementary" reader. Thus time 
 can be gained all around and a number of "new" branches 
 can be introduced for which there seemed no room on the pro- 
 gram. And in the same measure in which such an arrange- 
 ment, based on the principle of variety in practice, accords 
 with the psychological laws of attention, interest and exer- 
 cise, it serves to unify the instructional elements im- 
 parted to the child, by establishing relations and associations, 
 and thus tends to bring about that harmony of conception 
 which is the foundation of ethical culture. 
 
 Discussing the principles governing the psychological ad- 
 justment of concepts in mind, it becomes evident that the 
 co-ordination of studies will have to be based mainly upon 
 the 
 
 Principle of Objectivity which is apparently the most effec- 
 tive principle of co-ordination; and if any studies are to be 
 selected to occupy an honorary place on a methodically ar- 
 ranged curriculum of the elementary school, we must look 
 for those that embody this principle most efficiently. The 
 child is constantly dealing with objects; objects stand fore- 
 most in his mind; his sense-perceptions pertain to objects on 
 which he sharpens and trains his powers of apprehension and 
 conception ; which supply him with those concepts which are 
 destined to form the groundwork of all his mental activity, 
 and the material of his thoughts and reflections, the founda- 
 tions even of his abstract reasoning, and on which certainly 
 his interest concentrates. 
 
 As in the kindergarten, so in the entire elementary school 
 course, all other studies will group themselves around objec- 
 tive work. This may be summed up under two different 
 heads: (i) Nature studies, and (2) Manual work. This 
 is practically in accord with Herbert Spencer's demand to 
 
60 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 assign to science the first place in school instruction, on the 
 ground that it is the "knowledge which is of most worth." 
 To distinguish manual work from the object lessons, or 
 science work, is perhaps superfluous: for manual exercises 
 may be considered merely as a methodical device. In them 
 the principle of objectivity finds its most forcible applica- 
 tion ; they represent the experimental and constructive side of 
 nature studies — for the word "nature" stands for the entire 
 world of objects that appeal to the sense. There is hardly 
 an essential difference between the production of a crystal, 
 the construction of some piece of physical apparatus, the dis- 
 section of a fish, and the manufacture of a box, the making 
 of a garment, or the preparation of a savory dish, as long as 
 these exercises are conducted in an educational spirit. In the 
 workshop the properties of matter are as practically studied 
 as in the physical laboratory. 
 
 It is well to say in parenthesis that the principle of objec- 
 tivity, as a principle of method, applies to all subjects of 
 school instruction, even to those which appear to be the most 
 remote from the senses. 
 
 When we connect theoretical instruction more or less di- 
 rectly with practical studies and work, and group its different 
 branches concentrically, as it were, around the latter, a 
 system of associations will be elaborated which will prove 
 very beneficial in all directions. When a child has learned 
 to apply the law of gravitation or the mathematical prin- 
 ciple of proportion in his shop work or in a physical experi- 
 ment, he will recall it more easily, and will likewise under* 
 stand it better: for the work he does in his endeavor to pro- 
 duce something which is governed by what he has theoretic- 
 ally learned to recognize as laws or principles, will make an 
 incomparably deeper impression upon his imagination and will 
 be retained much longer and more distinctly by his memory 
 than any mere theoretical exposition. 
 
 Apperception of new concepts would be impossible, as we 
 have seen, were we not in the condition to associate them 
 with, and assimilate them to, concepts already formed. The 
 entire body of concepts, however, which represents our intel- 
 lectual possessions, is the product originally of direct sense- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 61 
 
 perception, and the discrimination, combination, classification, 
 and modification of the same by the activity of our imagina- 
 tive and reasoning powers. The more comprehensive, ac- 
 curate, and suggestive our perceptions, the more reliable and 
 better grounded will be our apperception, the better equipped 
 and more powerful our mind. 
 
 Of the motor values of objective and manual exercises, 
 more will be said in a later chapter. But even the foregoing 
 argument will suffice to set forth the claims of these exercises 
 to be recognized as efficient for the stimulation of the higher 
 processes of mental activity, so that they may fitly be con- 
 sidered the vantage ground of successful instructional effort. 
 
 In grouping the studies of the school curriculum in the 
 light of the principle of objectivity which we have recog- 
 nized to be the effective principle of co-ordination, the usual 
 order of relative values appears to be reversed. Heretofore 
 reading, writing, and arithmetic occupied the central position, 
 and the other branches, including natural science and manual 
 training, were reluctantly admitted and barely tolerated at 
 first. Now the objective branches dethrone the ancient trin- 
 ity, and a new dynasty ascends to the seat of honor. The 
 central group is formed by elementary natural science, includ- 
 ing geography and manual training, as well as the education 
 of all the senses, consequently such branches as physical exer- 
 cise, vocal music, and elocution. Around this central group 
 are arranged those studies which derive their subject matter 
 from indirect observations or secondary concepts, but which, 
 nevertheless, are of supreme importance on account of their 
 specific culture value: literature, ethics, history. Language, 
 as being essentially a means, or mode, of reception, formula- 
 tion, and expression of thought, is the common servant to all, 
 which, as a servant and as a vehicle of the assertion of indi- 
 viduality, is worthy of the most careful training. The mathe- 
 matical element whose function it is to give accuracy and 
 exactness to ideas, and to evolve the definite from the in- 
 definite, permeates the entire body of studies. 
 
 What distinguishes this scheme from that of Ziller and 
 other educationists of the concentration school, is not only 
 the substitution of another effective principle of co-ordination, 
 
62 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 but also the democratic spirit which pervades it. It is, be- 
 sides, largely a methodical scheme, selecting, as it does, the 
 natural vantage points in each branch of human knowledge; 
 it purports a grouping of activities rather than one of so- 
 called branches of instruction. It establishes a right relation be- 
 tween the studies without forcing the majority of them into a 
 humiliating subservience to one central idea. It preserves for 
 each a wholesome amount of independence. They are grouped 
 in the order of their functions, true; but the central group 
 represents rather the government of a democratic republic 
 than an absolute monarchy. In it the principle of educa- 
 tional unity manifests itself, and the highest functions of the 
 entire system are, therefore, vested in that group. 
 
 And there is another significant point of difference. The 
 system here suggested preserves a wholesome elasticity. The 
 arrangement proposed rests on the discrimination of the re- 
 ceptive and the expressive powers of the mind. Now, while 
 it is true that the mind receives its primary ideas thru direct 
 sense-perception, so that language appears to be nothing 
 but a vehicle of expression, it is no less true that language 
 also mediates a vast number of secondary concepts which, in 
 the end, form the larger and more important part of our 
 stock of knowledge. Language, as will be seen later, has 
 also a distinct value for the training of the reasoning powers. 
 And it must not be overlooked that language is only one of 
 the modes of expression, even, as Dr. N. M. Butler once 
 expressed it, "of all the modes the most difficult, the most 
 abstract, the latest acquired." The very same experiments, 
 and manual and art exercises, which we have included in the 
 central group, are so many modes of expression. "Man can 
 express his mental states or ideas by the use of language, by 
 gesture, by delineation and by construction." Now this 
 mode, then another mode of acquisition or of expression will 
 be the most appropriate and efficient, and the exercises will 
 have to vary accordingly, one "study" or "subject", or one 
 method of treatment, being substituted for another. 
 
 This outline of principles points to another consideration 
 which has only recently been appreciated in its fuller sig- 
 nificance. If the center of any rational system of co-ordin- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 63 
 
 ated instruction is the child — if it is acknowledged that the 
 child's native interests will regulate our course and guide 
 our steps in all our educational efforts: it is plain that it 
 would be futile to attempt the establishment of a system of 
 correlation which would neglect the successive stages of 
 growth, and which would remain rigidly stereotyped thru- 
 out the grades. For the child's native interests change with 
 his growth, as he passes thru successive developmental epochs 
 which, while making him very unlike the adult at each in- 
 dividual stage, can roughly be compared to the successive 
 stages which are historically and biologically evident in the 
 evolution of civilized man. These shifting interests, expres- 
 sive as they are of the relative culture level which he has 
 reached, will have to be utilized as points of vantage; and 
 the work of each grade, or instructional period, will have to 
 be grouped around the central interest. In this way, indeed, 
 an arrangement will commend itself which may justly be 
 called an approach to concentration; for tho there never need 
 be an absolute sacrifice of what I have called the "loose 
 threads", there will have to be a temporary subordination 
 of certain branches, not so much to any particular other 
 branch, but to some central idea which will correspond to 
 the child's supreme interest at each epoch, and to his stage 
 of physiological and psychological evolution. As these 
 change, so the central ideas will change, and now this, now 
 another "leading principle" will assume prominence. There 
 will have to be a continuous re-adjustment of subject mat- 
 ter as the child progresses from infancy to maturity. 
 
 To illustrate once more, as has been done in the foregoing 
 chapter: the kindergarten and even the primary child, rep- 
 resenting the symbolic stage, will be supremely interested in 
 mythological conceptions of the world around him. All 
 the work in nature study, in literature, in history, in con- 
 structive activity even, will exhibit symbolical and mytho- 
 logical aspects, and correspond to the play instinct of these 
 early years. Again, the boy of pubescent age, in the sixth 
 and seventh grades of the ordinary system, cares little for 
 dreamy symbolism and mere make-believe activity. His in- 
 terest centers in adventurous heroism, and he evolves altru- 
 
64 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 istic feelings out of primitive selfishness. The work of this 
 period must be heroic, bold, and partake of the nature of 
 conquest, as it were. Heroic history, with its geographi- 
 cal setting, virile poetry, arduous and incentive work in 
 mathematics and science such as will engage fullest intel- 
 lectual strength and desire for conquering obstacles, much 
 physical exercise and the like, will constitute a wholesome 
 diet for him. The girl of this period is quite different — 
 sexual differentiation setting in at this time, and she needs 
 a different instructional prescription. It will be seen that 
 reference is here made not so much to a subordination of 
 subjects, as to a careful selection of topics and tasks, and to 
 the method of their presentation. 
 
 There is, however, one particular point requiring atten- 
 tion. It has been shown by psychological research that there 
 are what has been called "nascent periods" for different ac- 
 tivities, in the mental evolution of the child, periods which 
 give birth, as the name implies, to new developments. Thus, 
 we have the language instinct arising at the time of infancy 
 and reaching its climax during the years from seven to 
 eleven. The years from five to seven are the "counting 
 period", when children will count anything and everything. 
 At 9, children reach maturity in hand and finger control; 
 but not before the eleventh year is the freedom of the wrist 
 movement gained. At IO, the pleasure of thinking out log- 
 ical sequences springs up ; at 1 1 , there is a minimum of inter- 
 est in reading, followed immediately by a maximum at 12. 
 This age is also the maximum point of the interest in geo- 
 metrical and in mechanical puzzles. More of this will be 
 said in another chapter. It requires no extensive argument 
 to point to the great instructional importance of these periods 
 of nascent interests, for it is at these junctures when we can 
 enlist the child's greatest effort in the mastering of the sub- 
 jects upon which his attention is concentrated, to which his 
 mind awakens. Consequently, we shall do well to lay spe- 
 cial emphasis upon such subjects at such times, and to sub- 
 ordinate all others. Tho we are yet far from being able to 
 determine in detail these nascent periods for all branches 
 of instruction, or for all children individually, we have at 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 65 
 
 least learned to recognize the variation of emphasis at dif- 
 ferent stages as a leading principle of co-ordination; and 
 some of these periods are certainly quite well established. 
 We may, for instance, justly lay special stress upon the 
 acquisition of the art of reading at the age of nine; upon 
 literature and extensive collateral reading at the age of 
 twelve and upward. We shall have occasion to refer to 
 other centers of energy in another chapter. These centers 
 of energy will determine what has been called the "core" 
 of study at the different periods. 
 
 It is beyond doubt that the kind of co-ordination here sug- 
 gested will have a distinct ethical effect, altho we may not 
 select the so-called "Gesinnungsstoffe", or ethico-religious 
 subjects, such as literature, history, and the Bible, to form 
 the central "core" around which the others would have to 
 be grouped, as the Herbart-Ziller school of educationists 
 had suggested. The most effective element of school in- 
 struction will be found in the principle of co-ordination it- 
 self, with its tendency to unify all instructional factors into 
 an organic whole, so that, in the child's mind, there be pro- 
 duced what German thinkers call "Totalanschauung" 
 (unity of conception, as well as conception of the world as 
 a whole, or unity). The principal agent in this process of 
 unification must be the teacher in whose own mind the idea 
 of unity must reign supreme, and who must be able to pro- 
 duce in the child's mind a consciousness of the right rela- 
 tions, a totality of concept, in which all individual elements, 
 percepts, impulses, sentiments, are arranged in an order not 
 only logical but ethical. This cannot be accomplished by 
 the practice of the old school which undertook to pour a 
 vast amount of information into the child in order to give 
 him what was supposed he needed ; nor according to the 
 Socratic idea that the teacher should simply make the child 
 conscious of what he really knows — for he does not "know" 
 anything — : but by simply directing the child and creating 
 such conditions for him that he can find the truth and the 
 higher law, which is the same in the world of objects as it is 
 in the field of ethics, by his own effort and activity. Self- 
 activity of the child is the key-note of this scheme of co- 
 ordination. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Physical Side of Education 
 
 WHATEVER may be our conception of the 
 nature of the human being — whether we con- 
 sider mind and body as one, the mental and 
 the physical manifestations representing merely 
 two different aspects of the same thing, or one 
 being the function of the other, in reciprocal relation (mon- 
 ism) ; or whether we understand them as two different ele- 
 ments, or principles, belonging to different worlds, one ma- 
 terial and the other spiritual, and being governed by differ- 
 ent sets of laws (dualism) : this fact will be recognized by all 
 that there is a close relation between body and mind, a mu- 
 tuality of dependence which is becoming more and more un- 
 derstood and scientifically determined. Bain says: "The 
 organ of mind is not the brain by itself; it is the brain, 
 nerves, muscles, organs of sense, and viscera." 
 
 It is now well known among educators and alienists that 
 mental and moral disorders and defects are often but symp- 
 toms, or effects of disease. It will therefore commend itself 
 to teachers and supervisors to watch pupils carefully as to 
 abnormal developments for the purpose of forestalling, or at 
 least recognizing, disease signs. Every teacher ought to learn 
 to make a simple diagnosis of common children's troubles, 
 and to be versed in the conditions and factors of normal and 
 abnormal child growth; and regularly appointed school 
 physicians should assist them in this respect. Each school 
 should be supervised in a systematic way by such physicians, 
 some of whom ought to be specialists of different kinds, and 
 all of whom ought to have a particular familiarity with pe- 
 
 66 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 67 
 
 diatrics. A careful and complete system of educational child 
 study, such as should be organized in every school, will in- 
 clude physical measurements and examinations at regular in- 
 tervals. 
 
 In some larger school systems some such organization 
 has already taken place, and in some instances there is a sys- 
 tematic co-operation with the Boards of Health. But a com- 
 plete organization such as the author has in mind, has not 
 yet been established anywhere. And it is a matter of his- 
 torical interest, perhaps, that the first complete system of this 
 kind in this country at least, was inaugurated during the 
 author's superintendency in the "Workingman's School", later 
 called the "Ethical Culture School" of New York City, as 
 early as the year 1892. A full description is contained in the 
 author's little book, "A Working System of Child Study for 
 Schools" (C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, 1897) t0 which refer- 
 ence is here made for details. 
 
 Here it may suffice to say that the child's physical history, 
 his hereditary and environmental conditions, were ascertained 
 as far as possible as soon as the pupil entered the school. A 
 regular system of body measurements and examinations fol- 
 lowed the child up from year to year. 
 
 The advantages of such investigations are patent and mani- 
 fold. They enable physicians and school authorities to dis- 
 cover incipient diseases, and to militate against the spread 
 of contagious and infectious maladies. Much of subnormal 
 and abnormal deviation and derailment can be traced to its 
 first causes, and occasionally checked, or at least placed under 
 proper observation. 
 
 Infectious diseases are fraught with danger not merely 
 by their immediate presence, but also by the injurious after- 
 effects which follow in their wake. There is consequently 
 need of careful control, and even rigid measures may have to 
 be insisted upon, on the part of the school authorities, even 
 tho they may find parents, and at times even their family 
 physicians, disinclined to submit to the inconvenience which 
 is caused by quarantine precautions. 
 
 Other troubles needing careful and conscientious watching, 
 and often producing serious effects on the mental and moral 
 
68 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 condition of the pupils, are eye, ear, throat, and nose defects. 
 Impaired vision is responsible for much seeming inefficiency 
 in the school room, as is likewise weakness of hearing which 
 is frequently caused by adenoid vegetations in the nasal- 
 pharingeal passages. Mouth-breathers can be readily recog- 
 nized by their more or less stupid expression. Inflamed eyes 
 are often infectious. A watchful study and conscientious con- 
 sideration of these ailments will be very helpful in discipline, 
 as they are the cause of much aberration from the straight 
 and narrow path of what is styled "good conduct." More of 
 this will be said in the chapter on discipline. 
 
 The reformative value of physical training has been fully 
 demonstrated in the treatment of the delinquent classes. 
 Physical exercise and activity are a valuable means in treat- 
 ing defects even of a seeming moral nature, and will some- 
 times brighten up a brain whose functions were thought to be 
 dull. It is a common experience even of adults that a change 
 of occupation, particularly a change from mental to physical 
 activity, relieves weariness and effects a restoration of the 
 mental powers. Fresh air has proved itself a wonderful 
 remedy for obstreperousness and ugliness of temper. 
 
 This suggests the necessity of hygienic measures of precau- 
 tion for the purpose of forestalling distressing developments. 
 As a complete chapter will be devoted to hygienic suggestions, 
 it will suffice here to give a brief survey of the requirements. 
 Many of the measures to be reckoned under this head are 
 of course dependent upon the conditions of the home life 
 of the children, and are but indirectly under the control of 
 the teacher or school authority. It is mandatory, then, that 
 efforts be made to establish a closer connection between home 
 and school, so that parents may be induced to listen to the 
 advice of professional educators and physicians in matters 
 touching the privacy of their homes, as long as they refer to 
 the educational environment of the children. Parents' meet- 
 ings, school and visiting nurses, and similar agencies, have 
 already been arranged for in some places to bring about such 
 a closer contact and co-operation. 
 
 First of the conditions of healthy child life is proper 
 nutrition. What kind of food, and what quantity, children 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 69 
 
 should have at different periods of their lives, requires not 
 only a great deal of common sense, but of scientific research. 
 Students of pediatrics have devoted much time to this re- 
 search. The problem of school lunches is such an important 
 one that in some places the schools have undertaken to furnish 
 lunches, the composition of which is made the object of much 
 painstaking study. Few parents have as yet given this ques- 
 tion its full share of attention. Insufficiency of nourishing 
 food is one of the most ordinary causes not only of physical, 
 but also, and largely, of mental and moral disturbance, and 
 even abnormality. Malnutrition (insufficient breakfasts, for 
 instance) is at the bottom of most of the "school headaches", 
 improperly so called. 
 
 Cleanliness is the second prerequisite of normal work. 
 Cleanliness of the body and cleanliness of the clothing, of 
 the bed the child sleeps in, of the rooms, at home and in 
 school. It may not be clear to everybody that the skin has 
 an essential function in the process of assimilation and nutri- 
 tion so that cleanliness is really an accessary to food. Bath- 
 ing, its frequency, time, and nature, is a subject which should 
 receive much care. In the schools there should be ample pro- 
 visions for cleaning, ventilating and washing. School baths 
 have been introduced in many cities abroad and in some of 
 this country. Those who have no experience in this matter 
 would possibly be surprised to see the difference it makes in 
 the alertness and attention of pupils whether they had their 
 bath or not. Sending a listless child under the shower bath 
 recommends itself in many instances as a much more rational 
 measure of discipline than to send him to the principal's 
 office for punishment. 
 
 The matter of rest and sleep is another factor of enormous 
 influence. Children are not infrequently kept up too late at 
 night, partly from over-indulgence, because our little ones 
 like it only too well to imitate the evening hours of their 
 elders; partly as a result of the objectionable custom of tak- 
 ing children out to parties and amusements when they ought 
 to be in bed. Again, there is pernicious overburdening of 
 pupils with home work, or with home duties of various 
 kinds; teachers and parents are jointly responsible for this 
 
70 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 abuse. 
 
 The effects of hygienic neglect are designated as fatigue. 
 Fatigue, then, must be understood as being caused not only 
 by lack of rest, or by overwork ; malnutrition and absence of 
 cleanliness are just as responsibe for it. It produces serious 
 mental results which mean, broadly speaking, a "relapse 
 into the animal method of non-reasoning." The human be- 
 ing ceases to be rational when under the effect of fatigue; 
 it is plain that children, having less power of resistance than 
 adults, suffer particularly from these conditions. Every ef- 
 fort, long enough continued, or indulged in too intensely, 
 produces fatigue. Interesting investigations have been made 
 in regard to the fatigue values of the different school studies. 
 The daily program of exercises must therefore be carefully 
 planned in order to balance the pupils' powers of application. 
 Forenoon and afternoon work must differ in character, as 
 surely the different hours of the day have different energy 
 values for the children, individually and collectively. Re- 
 cesses should be systematically distributed to afford relief and 
 recreation at the proper junctures; the length of the instruc- 
 tion periods must be adjusted to the fatigue values of the 
 studies referred to before. A change of employment, altho 
 generally having the function of relief, is not in every case 
 recreative. 
 
 Fatigue, it ought to be noted, is often due, not to over- 
 strain or hygienic neglect, but to poor training. It will 
 manifest itself when children have not learned the best 
 method of applying themselves. When there is a lack of 
 interest and inspiration, there will be ready fatigue. More 
 frequently, of course, fatigue follows over-exertion. A ten- 
 sion of the attention and energy which may even succeed in 
 overcoming the first stage of fatigue and in calling forth 
 what has been denominated "second breath", will end in a 
 still more serious collapse.* 
 
 There are several definite signs that can be observed as 
 indicating fatigue, no matter by what this fatigue may have 
 
 *Cf. G. E. Partridge, "Second Breath", Pedagogical Seminary 
 IV, 3- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 71 
 
 been caused. An enumeration of these, as given by Edward 
 D. Meek some time ago, may not be useless for the teacher. 
 They are as follows: 
 
 Physical fatigue: (i) Angles of mouth depressed; (2) 
 furrows across forehead; (3) eyes wandering; (4) colora- 
 tion beneath the eyes; (5) white line around the mouth; 
 (6) bluish spots on cheeks and neck; (7) pulse unusually 
 slow or rapid; (8) frequent attacks of headache; (9) awk- 
 ward position of body; (10) neurasthenic voice; (11) un- 
 natural action; (12) general appearance of depression. 
 
 Mental fatigue: (1) Lack of ability to give attention; 
 (2) weakening of perception; (3) unreadiness and inaccur- 
 acy of judgment; (4) diminished power of insight; (5) 
 loss of sensitiveness; (6) lack of self-control; (7) lessened 
 work-rate; (8) lengthened reaction time; (9) deep sense 
 of misery in the morning; (10) one or more insistent ideas 
 which cannot be thrown off. 
 
 Lack of exercise, sedentary habits, are just as apt to les- 
 sen the vitality, producing a kind of chronic fatigue, as is 
 over-stimulation. Girls in the pubescent period suffer par- 
 ticularly from too sedentary and confining a life. 
 
 This consideration alone would prove the great value of 
 physical exercise, and of excursions and walks in connection 
 with nature, geography, and history work, even if these had 
 no claim as excellent methodical devices. And the demand 
 for manual training, apart from its tremendous importance 
 educationally, as set forth in the previous chapter, also has 
 its function as healthy bodily exercise. The recreative and 
 inspiring effect of games, gymnastics, and vocal music are 
 very evident in this connection. The value of rhythm, and 
 of rhythmical movements, has been touched upon before. 
 This element will enhance and stimulate all physical exer- 
 cise. 
 
 A factor which cannot be too often urged as operating in 
 a marked degree against the natural vitality of children, is 
 the dull routine of the schoolroom over which a mechanical 
 teacher presides. Monotonous lessons, over-exacting exer- 
 cises, tedious repetitions make a naturally bright child fa- 
 tigued and dull. Add to this overheated and ill-ventilated 
 
72 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 rooms, improper and ill-fitting furniture, vicious methods in 
 writing, sewing and other handwork, and you have a com- 
 bination of evil influences militating against the natural im- 
 pulses of the child. 
 
 A very pronounced difference has been observed in the 
 rate of growth of city school children during the summer 
 vacation months, as compared with the growth during the 
 nine or ten months of school; these children gain as much 
 during the summer as they do the rest of the year. While 
 perhaps the summer temperature may increase slightly the 
 metabolism of the children, it cannot be denied that the un- 
 natural restraint to which they are subjected during school 
 time, has much to do with this remarkable difference. For 
 with children who live under natural conditions all the year 
 around, the very opposite condition has been observed. With 
 them there is a minimum growth during the summer months, 
 and they are even apt to lose during this time the amount 
 of weight they had acquired during the middle period which 
 lasts from about April to June or July. The maximum 
 period when the child accumulates the increment in weight 
 which is to last him for the year, covers naturally the winter 
 months. 
 
 As early as in the year 1897, Dr. Townsend Porter has 
 shown by most interesting investigations that the growth 
 periods of a child are intimately connected with his men- 
 tal evolution. He demonstrated that children nearest to the 
 average weight of their age are to be found a class higher 
 than they are supposed to be according to the artificial stand- 
 ard. He also found precocious children to be taller as well 
 as heavier than dull children. Successful children have 
 larger chests than the unsuccessful. The width of the head, 
 or distance from one parietal eminence to the other, meas- 
 ured with calipers, is also greater in more advanced pupils 
 than in those less advanced. He thought that no child whose 
 weight is below the average of his age should be permitted 
 to enter a school grade beyond the average of his age, ex- 
 cept after such a physical examination as shall make it prob- 
 able that the child's strength shall be equal to the strain. 
 It was also shown by him that the normal age for each 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 73 
 
 "school grade" was about a year higher than the traditional 
 standard, which goes to prove that this standard is artificial, 
 unjust and consequently injurious. 
 
 Recent investigations in New York have led to a dis- 
 crimination between what may be called the "chronological 
 age", and the "physiological age" which is determined not 
 by the number of years a child has to his record, but by the 
 degree of physical maturity. (Dr. C. Ward Crampton). To 
 this distinction we may add the other of psy etiological matur- 
 ity. The mental and moral development of a child is by no 
 means parallel to his "chronological" or "physiological" age, 
 in every instance. But the proper grading of a child depends 
 naturally upon all these factors. 
 
 It is clear, then, that these growth periods, in the indi- 
 vidual children, must be carefully observed. Regular meas- 
 urements, accompanied by physiological and psychological 
 tests, will render the opportunity. 
 
 In regard to a proper application of the data obtained, 
 we must first consider what must be avoided to prevent 
 unwholesome influences, arrest of development, interference 
 with normal growth, etc. Let us remember that, while exer- 
 cise stimulates growth, too much of it has a stunting ef- 
 fect. The tall races are the conquering ones, and pigmy 
 tribes and dwarfed children show the effect of lessened vi- 
 tality, or relentless drudgery. Then again, we ought to 
 be very clear as to where stimulation and exercise are 
 needed, in what degree, and of what kind. 
 
 A few facts may here be mentioned, by way of introduc- 
 tion to the subject. The years from six to nine require ex- 
 ercises exciting growth. Joyful, simple games are all that 
 is needed, none that strain a small number of muscles, but 
 such as give full play to the central movements of the 
 whole body. There must be ample opportunity for such 
 exercise; forcing the children of these tender years to stand 
 or sit still for any length of time implies an intense strain. 
 If we further remember that at the age of 8, the brain 
 reaches almost its full weight, we shall understand why now 
 the period of choreatic attacks begins, a period which may 
 also be called the fatigue period. This period has been de- 
 
74 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 scribed as one in which the anomaly of a dilated heart oc- 
 curs in children, with evidence of cardiac incompetence, 
 such as shortness of breath and readiness of fatigue. This 
 critical period is fraught with danger, as it is quite insidi- 
 ous in its approach. Physical and mental fatigue signs are 
 both present, and the child, instead of needing more exercise 
 as some may be inclined to think, should be given oppor- 
 tunity for lying fallow and conserving his strength. Ap- 
 plied to the work of the school at this stage, it should be 
 diminished temporarily, in quantity as well as in intensity. 
 
 It may be assumed that this manifestation of weakness in 
 the child has its cause in the fact stated before, that the 
 brain has now attained almost its full weight and that the 
 functional development begins which draws a large share 
 of the blood supply to the nervous system thus taxing the 
 heart more than before and depleting somewhat the vital 
 organs. And during the period of transition the nervous 
 system is naturally more sensitive to injurious influences 
 than at other times. 
 
 The years from nine to sixteen are the period of most 
 rapid growth in height and weight. Again, exercises excit- 
 ing growth are well adapted to this age, and the aim must be 
 to co-ordinate motion and emotion. A well-poised carriage and 
 a control over the body in general and its movements, mak- 
 ing these expressive and rhythmic, will be the result. Tac- 
 tics and calisthenics are most appropriate at this period, but 
 care is necessary to avoid exhaustion as the power of resist- 
 ance is yet low. 
 
 The new forces which mark the dawn of puberty are now 
 manifesting themselves, and the racial and national instincts, 
 reverberations of the early history of the special branch of 
 humanity from which the individual has sprung, now force 
 themselves into the foreground and give to the age of adoles- 
 cence the character of adventure and conquest. The chil- 
 dren delight in forming predatory societies, in teasing and 
 bullying. The primitive instinct of exultation of victory 
 leads the pubescent boys to give the impression of having 
 lost all sense of sympathy and charity; and the practical 
 jokes, so much indulged in at this stage, are relics of the 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 75 
 
 spirit of primordial warfare and torture.* 
 
 Athletic games which symbolize these tendencies and make 
 them harmless, will serve as a safety valve. 
 
 The year from n to 12 inaugurates the perfection of the 
 muscular system. Games of skill at this period will afford 
 training in muscular quickness. This is also the age when 
 sexual differentiation sets in. 
 
 Girls have a period of maximum growth from 1 1 to 12 
 years of age. In boys, the antero-posterior diameter of the 
 chest reaches, at the age of 12, double the width it was at 
 birth. Boys differentiate so as to represent the katabolic, 
 energy expending, masculine type; girls assert their fem- 
 ininity by the anabolic, energy conserving quality of their na- 
 ture. Boys of 12 exhibit fighting tendencies; their interest 
 changes from playful symbolism to bold realities. They brave 
 danger; they organize in "gangs"; they are hero-worshippers 
 and follow readily a leader if they cannot themselves be 
 leaders. Rough games and strength-trying athletics stand 
 foremost in their minds. They are so conscious of the ad- 
 vantages of masculinity that they have little patience or ad- 
 miration towards girls. In opposition to this exhibition of 
 ancient tribal instincts on the part of the male sex of 12 
 years of age, the girls of the same age develop subjective ten- 
 dencies. They become sensitive mimosae and indulge in what 
 is called the "proprieties", sometimes to a morbid degree of 
 excess. Sentimental friendships take with them the place of 
 the boys' hero-worship. Their tendency is towards grace- 
 fulness in exercise, and poise in vigor. 
 
 At 13, two years later than the girls, the boys have their 
 maximum of growth. Still endurance games, such as mile 
 run, tug of war, football, should be avoided as they involve 
 too great a strain for the imperfectly developed organs of 
 the child of this age. Apparatus work, intricate ball games 
 and other games of alertness will prove valuable at this time. 
 Similar- exercises, toned down to graceful proportions, will 
 
 ^President Stanley Hall and his school of investigators have 
 furnished much of the material from which these conclusions 
 are drawn. 
 
76 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 satisfy the needs of the girls at this period who reach now 
 their maturity in rapidity of movement. 
 
 The years from 14 to 20 are, for the boys, the period of 
 physical development par excellence. There is now a strong 
 activity of the vital organs, heart and lungs, to be observed, 
 which manifests itself in a high degree of skill, daring and 
 courage. Yet, before the end of this period, endurance games 
 would still involve a great amount of risk ; high school foot- 
 ball teams are really an anomaly. The maximum of strength 
 and endurance is reached at the age of 20 or 21 — an age 
 designated by ancient usage as the age of "majority". 
 
 The girls are considerably less vigorous at this stage of 
 their life. There is a rapid falling off in the growth rate, and 
 the girls are more apt to contract disease now than at any 
 other time, so that this epoch in their development may fitly 
 be called the disease-period. Yet, there is also rapid increase 
 in strength, while with the boys this occurs a year later. It 
 is interesting to note, however, how weight and vitality pro- 
 gress along parallel lines. 
 
 From the foregoing, the function of gymnastics in educa- 
 tion will be plainly intelligible. Gymnastics is a collective 
 term, including all such exercises in physical training as per- 
 tain to a healthy and poised development of the body as a 
 substratum of the mind, or, if one prefers, of the body as a 
 ready tool of the spirit. It purports a harmonious develop- 
 ment in proportion to physical and mental growth, and min- 
 isters to the various and varying demands of this growth. 
 Its outward result manifests itself in a proper carriage and 
 control in all positions of the body, in sitting, walking, 
 standing, and in the performance of all its functions. It 
 means, finally, complete self-control with reference to the 
 physical factors of human life. 
 
 Sports and athletics can only be considered a part of a 
 complete system of physical training, and are embraced in 
 the term "gymnastics". Taken separately they can never 
 suffice or take the place of a full-rounded course in gymnas- 
 tics. Sportsmen and athletes are specialists, and their train- 
 ing has little of genuine educational features. Particularly 
 one-sided is military drill which has sometimes been suggested 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 77 
 
 as a fit exercise for school children. Exercises of a "military" 
 character may have a place at certain stages in a complete 
 physical curriculum ; but their scope is narrow, and their ten- 
 dency of doubtful ethical significance. It may prove helpful 
 only at the stage when primitive instincts manifest themselves 
 in the adolescent boy, and it requires careful handling so as 
 not to perpetuate those brutal impulses and to elevate them 
 to the dignity of a patriotic ideal. 
 
 Physical training ought to be regulated by individual con- 
 ditions, particularly weight, and not by school grades, arti- 
 ficial as these are usually organized. The pupils of a school, or 
 even of an entire school system, should rather be taken in sec- 
 tions, carefully grouped on the basis of measurements and 
 examinations. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to emphasize the need of open air 
 gymnasia to supplement the indoor halls for gymnastic exer- 
 cise. And there ought to be a generous proportion of games 
 included. These should be graduated, to follow the leading 
 interests and needs at different stages of child development, 
 and would include dramatic impersonations. Certain games 
 derive their educational value from the fact that they assist 
 the child in working off primitive instincts, which must make 
 room for higher civilisatory impulses, by a "lopping off" 
 process, as it has been called. 
 
 Playgrounds, open all day to the children for exercise, will 
 supplement the systematic work of the school. To make these 
 educationally valuable, they must be under the direction and 
 supervision of trained teachers. 
 
 The general tendency of a well-organized system of phys- 
 ical education is all-aroundness, symmetry; the final aim is 
 power, vigor, self-control. There is, then, a very de- 
 cided ethical element in physical training when it is rightly 
 understood, and it assists to a marvellous extent in the train- 
 ing of the will. 
 
 The physical side of education is as essential a part of the 
 general scheme of a co-ordinated course of study as the 
 scholastic part, and it pertains to the realization of the ancient 
 motto: "Mens Sana in Corpore Sana" 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A Rational Course of Study 
 A . 
 
 IT is not intended to present in this chapter an outline of 
 a rational course of instruction in detail, but to sug- 
 gest the consideration of the principles which ought to 
 determine the selection and arrangement of the instruc- 
 tional elements. Some of the details have already been 
 alluded to in previous chapters, and more will be submitted 
 for consideration in the following sections. 
 
 The first question which presents itself to us would be, 
 it seems: Is a course of study, as one is generally under- 
 stood, a necessity, or can a school do without it? Pesta- 
 lozzi, at Burgdorf, worked without a course of study, and 
 yet his work meant an educational revolution. But surely he 
 had a well-defined plan, or purpose, in his mind which regu- 
 lated and articulated the details of his daily routine, if there 
 was such ; and the creative genius of the man was equal to 
 the task of adjusting himself momentarily to the exigencies 
 of individual situations. If every teacher were a creative 
 genius, and if any given set of co-workers in a school could 
 work in harmony by intuition, an outline of the work in 
 hand would not be so necessary. On the other hand, if a 
 written and formulated course degenerates into a formal, me- 
 chanical thing; when it becomes a straight- jacket which pre- 
 vents freedom of movement; when it is the embodiment of 
 punctilious rules and prescriptions, edicts and directions, for- 
 mulas of formalities of "methods" and devices: it will 
 surely prove itself an obstruction in the way of rational edu- 
 
 78 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 79 
 
 cation. A course of study, intended for the development of 
 the growing minds of living children, must itself be a living, 
 growing organism. It must not check, but encourage the 
 originality and spontaneity of the teacher. Teachers dif- 
 fer in attitude and capacity; classes differ likewise, and a 
 "fourth grade" of one year may not easily be compared with 
 the same grade of the previous term. There must be oppor- 
 tunity for adjustment; there must be elasticity. The same 
 object can be accomplished by various means, and what is 
 impossible for one person is a matter of course with another. 
 A course of study ought therefore to have the character of 
 an outline to be filled in, rather than of a detailed, cast-iron 
 prescription. It must be suggestive rather than authorita- 
 tive. If the director of a school, or of a school system, is 
 really a "director", and not merely a figure-head, or a 
 pedantic crank, he will find little difficulty in articulating 
 the spontaneous work of intelligent teachers within the limits 
 of a suggestive course. 
 
 The second fundamental question would be: What must 
 be the aim of a rational course of study? The answer to 
 this question, surely, depends upon the answer to another: 
 What is the meaning of education, notably school education ? 
 To avoid a lengthy discussion of this question which has been 
 answered quite differently by different persons and at differ- 
 ent times, the author may be permitted to suggest his own 
 answer at once. In his estimation the purpose of educational 
 efforts is threefold: First, to mediate to the young the ex- 
 perience of the race; second, to minister to the perfection of 
 our race; third, to place each individual in a position that he 
 may work out his own salvation and destiny in his own in- 
 dividual best way. 
 
 If this definition is accepted, the aim of a course of in- 
 struction would also present a threefold aspect. There 
 should be: 
 
 (1) Information and experience; 
 
 (2) Training and exercise; 
 
 (3) Individual tests, universality of opportunity, and 
 freedom of expression. 
 
 The ultimate aim would appear to be the development of 
 
80 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 power and character in the individual. 
 
 Tht traditional course of study clung to the "three R's", 
 and such things as geography, history, music, drawing, gym- 
 nastics, sewing, shop work, nature work, were only admit- 
 ted after a long and painful struggle. At present, an or- 
 dinary program looks pretty full. Teachers sigh whenever 
 a new suggestion is made because it means new effort, more 
 time; or less time to the old branches, and yet the same 
 amount of work, or "results", seems to be demanded as 
 before. 
 
 How can this difficulty be adjusted? 
 
 A review of the chapter on the "Principles of Co-ordina- 
 tion" will give the clue. 
 
 In the first place, by eliminating unessential details from 
 the curriculum. The restriction of the school work to a 
 few branches has given occasion to dwelling too much on 
 details, and this detail work is yet haunting our minds, be- 
 ing mistaken as indispensable when it can only too readily 
 be dispensed with. Spelling, grammar, and arithmetic have 
 been veritable fetiches. Even at the present enlightened age, 
 some schools which enjoy an enviable reputation endeavor 
 to teach spelling by obliging their pupils to commit page af- 
 ter page from a dictionary to memory, with all the defini- 
 tions and variations. The spelling of a vast number of un- 
 interesting, unintelligible and unusual words, for the sake 
 of "drill", is still a common practice in many schools. Then 
 there is the attempt to inculcate a knowledge of grammati- 
 cal relations in the minds of children whose power to think 
 in abstract forms is only budding. The result is an accumu- 
 lation of dead matter in the memory, which is less than 
 worthless for the development of correct manners of speech. 
 Of these things, and of the senseless practices in arithmetic, 
 there will be occasion to say more in the chapters devoted 
 to these disciplines. There is great need of a radical sim- 
 plification of the course in these branches, as well as in some 
 others, notably penmanship. Exhaustive thoroness within 
 what appear to the adult mind "elementary" limits is be- 
 yond the possibility of the child. 
 
 The second requirement of adjustment is a proper distri- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 81 
 
 button of the work so that the different parts may be intro- 
 duced at times when there is least friction and resistance 
 in the assimilating process within the brain, when there is an 
 awakening interest. In a later part of this chapter the 
 nascent periods, and the culture epochs, will be discussed 
 more fully. Let us here illustrate what a proper distribu- 
 tion means by referring briefly to the waste of time caused 
 by a too early introduction of the arts of reading and writ- 
 ing. That reading and writing are identical with "learn- 
 ing" in the minds of still too many, has often been brought 
 home to the author by the question almost regularly asked 
 of him when he suggested to teachers the omission of these 
 two branches in the primary grades, postponing them to 
 perhaps the third. "But what else can we teach?" was the 
 puzzling problem confronting the amazed pedagogs. And 
 parents who wanted their children promoted from the kin- 
 dergarten to the primary so that they would "learn some- 
 thing", had the same perplexed attitude when an attempt 
 was made to argue with them. 
 
 Children of six or seven years of age are far-sighted, and 
 the fine adjustment to the requirements of the printed page 
 are directly injurious. Then there is the evident lack of 
 muscular control in eye and hand at this stage, in both read- 
 ing and writing. In writing, this lack of control has long 
 suggested the use of slates in the primaries. There have 
 been schools where the pupils were hardly ever allowed to 
 outgrow the slate stage for rapid practice at any time. And 
 yet, few things were more injurious than slates. They make 
 a heavy hand, and cause a waste of time in after years 
 for the pupils and acquire a fair degree of fluency in 
 writing. Of the hygienic objections to the use of slates, 
 most teachers ought now be thoroly convinced. Penman- 
 ship ought not to require much time; if a rational system is 
 used, it may be considered almost incidental. The intro- 
 duction of simplified forms, either vertical or with a "modi- 
 fied" slant, has already done much toward a solution of the 
 problem of teaching penmanship without undue sacrifice of 
 time. 
 
 This reflection suggests the third requirement of adjust 
 
82 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 ment: better methods of presentation. With regard to 
 these, the following considerations offer themselves: 
 
 There must first be the recognition and construction of 
 an apperceptive basis. We must ascertain what the chil- 
 dren know and think, what concepts were formed in their 
 minds before they were handed to our care, so that we may 
 build upon a sure and safe foundation. As said before, we 
 take too many things for granted in this respect. Even the 
 simplest things are often unknown, or imperfectly known, 
 to young children. Dr. K. Lange's experiments in the 
 schools of Saxony revealed the following facts: 
 
 Per Cent, of 
 City Chil- Country 
 
 (i 
 
 (2 
 
 (3 
 (4 
 (5 
 (6 
 (7 
 (8 
 
 (9 
 (io 
 
 ( IJ 
 
 (l2 
 
 ('13 
 
 (i4 
 (15 
 (16 
 
 (i7 
 
 Question or Concept: dren. Children. 
 
 Seen the sun rise 18 42 
 
 Seen the sun set 23 58 
 
 Seen the moon and the stars 84 82 
 
 Seen and heard a lark 20 70 
 
 Seen fish swimming wild 72 83 
 
 Been to a pond 51 86 
 
 Been to a brook or river 71 82 
 
 Been on high hill or mountain .... 48 74 
 
 Been in a forest 63 86 
 
 Know an oak 18 57 
 
 Seen a corn or wheat field 64 92 
 
 Know how bread comes from grain. 28 63 
 
 Seen a shoemaker at work 79 80 
 
 Seen a carpenter at work 55 62 
 
 Seen a mason at work 86 92 
 
 Been in a church 50 49 
 
 Know aught of God 51 66 
 
 Discoveries of this character may be easily made on this 
 side of the water, and in every school of the country. And 
 the results are very helpful. They show that not in any 
 one instance were all the children informed about the sim- 
 ple concept referred to in the question, the highest per cent, 
 in any case being 92 ; in many cases the percentage of ignor- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 83 
 
 ance is so surprising that it will set many a teacher a think- 
 ing. And again, the influence of the environment is clearly 
 seen ; upon the impressions rendered by the immediate early 
 environment depends largely what we have learnt to call the 
 apperceptive basis. How true this is can be demonstrated 
 in many ways. In visiting the schools of a Western town 
 some time ago, I invited the pupils of the primary classes of 
 different buildings to draw for me a tree. The pupils in an 
 outlying district drew, almost to a man, pine trees; those 
 living within the town, ordinary foliage trees. The school- 
 house in the outlying district was surrounded by lofty pines, 
 and the concept "tree" was, in the minds of these children, 
 intimately connected with this experience — a pine tree was 
 the tree for them. The trees in the town itself were shade 
 trees, and furnished a different basis for conceptual recogni- 
 tion and reference. 
 
 In Berlin, some years ago, in a similar investigation, the 
 children in the primary grades of the schools were asked 
 whether they knew what a mountain was. Now, the capital 
 of Germany is situated in a plain absolutely devoid of eleva- 
 tions. The nearest approach to a hill within the limits of 
 the city is a sandmound complimentarily appellated "Kreuz- 
 berg" on top of which there is a soldiers' monument. It 
 caused no surprise to discover that the children whose con- 
 cept of a mountain had been built on the sand of this mound, 
 defined a mountain as being an elevation "with a monument 
 on top". The monument was considered a necessary requi- 
 site of a mountain, as it had been religiously connected with 
 the first formation of this concept in their young minds. 
 
 Then, even when children answer a certain question, as, 
 for instance, "Have you seen a cow?" in the affirmative, it 
 does not prove that they state a fact in our sense of the 
 word. It may happen that in reply to the next question, 
 "How big is a cow?" they will tell you all sizes from that of 
 a butterfly to that of an elephant. They may have seen but 
 a picture of a cow. The distinction between pictures and 
 real things is not readily made in childhood ; and to infer 
 from the scale of a picture the actual size of an object is 
 not an easy matter for minds untrained in the experience of 
 
84 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 ratio and proportion. 
 
 Besides taking into account the apperceptive basis which is 
 already there, we must see to it that for all the new concepts 
 which we desire to mediate, we build up another appropriate 
 foundation. This alone will enable the child to advance in 
 mastering the world around him conceptually, and to assim- 
 ilate the wealth of new impressions which await him. In 
 this process we shall do well to remember that the child is 
 apt to employ the rudimentary logical method of analogy to 
 connect later facts with previous experiences. This method 
 often leads to curious mistakes, and it is only the very watch- 
 ful teacher who will successfully avoid the shoals and rocks 
 of false analogies. This amusing anecdote will illustrate the 
 point: The governess was giving little Tommy a grammar 
 lesson the other day. "An abstract noun", she said, "is the 
 name of something which you can think of but not touch. 
 Can you give an example?" Tommy: "A red-hot poker." 
 
 In this apperceptive process the maxims quoted in the chap- 
 ter on co-ordination assume their full significance: 
 
 From the known to the unknown; 
 
 From the simple to the complex; 
 
 From the concrete to the abstract. 
 
 From the concrete material in the immediate environment 
 of the child, from the images of his own house and lawn, the 
 trees, hills, rocks, valleys, creeks, rivers, ponds, etc. ; of 
 people he knows and occupations he sees carried on; of 
 natural processes like water running down his own hill, of 
 dirt washed down the watersheds of his own road, of tov 
 boats floating in his gutter, etc., etc., from all this he must 
 learn to construct in his mind concepts of things remote, of 
 the Himalayas, the oceans, foreign people, and all the won- 
 derful things that make up the life of nature and man. 
 Words, names, pictures, samples of material even, maps, and 
 the like, are nothing but symbols, meaningless to him unless 
 he can connect them with real experiences of his own. 
 
 It is plain then that there must be ample opportunity for 
 learning the significance of the symbols mentioned. There 
 must be good language teaching and a careful study of the 
 meaning and the use of words; children must learn to read 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 85 
 
 maps, drawings and pictures, which, by the way, is not quite 
 so easy and convenient as it may seem. 
 
 But it must be repeated over and over again that these 
 things are after all only symbols, utterly meaningless and 
 unintelligible without a knowledge of the realities for which 
 they stand. It is sometimes amazing to observe how intensely 
 interested even young children are sometimes in reading, and 
 how they will swallow book after book, admired by their 
 parents who pride themselves in the supposed cleverness of 
 their children; but the question may be asked in all fairness: 
 What do these children get out of the books they read ? Those 
 who care to investigate will discover the vast number of ab- 
 surd misconceptions and the depth of ignorance character- 
 istic of children who have been allowed to juggle with sym- 
 bols which had no meaning in fact to them. 
 
 Begin, then, with the realities, with the concrete world of 
 objects. Observation and experiment are the basis of expe- 
 rience. Let us not confine the pupils to the four walls of the 
 schoolroom. Take them on excursions to hill and forest, thru 
 the city streets and along the country roads, on street cars, 
 cabs and elevated trains, railroads, sailing and steam vessels, 
 to shops and factories, so as to open their eyes to see, their 
 ears to hear, to train all their senses to perceive keenly. Let 
 us teach them to record their observations accurately, to put 
 them in order, to understand their significance, to draw infer- 
 ences, to form judgments. Let us give them a many-sided 
 experience of this sort in order to make their apperceptive 
 basis broad and strong. 
 
 Follow this up by practical work and experiment, the learn- 
 ing by doing. The school garden is an open-air laboratory; 
 the shop, an accessory to the science room. In the class room, 
 the studio, and the laboratories, let the children reproduce 
 the objects of knowledge, mechanically, in manual training; 
 and artistically, with brush, pencil and in clay; and symbo- 
 lize the life about them in their games, and thru the typical 
 occupations representing man's conquest of nature thru mate- 
 rial civilization. This latter method may be styled the dra- 
 matic element in educational instruction. 
 
 All this will build up and strengthen the apperceptive basis 
 
86 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 upon which the entire superstructure of knowledge and ex- 
 perience is to rest. 
 
 Another requirement of better method is individualization. 
 As the apperceptive basis of one child's mind will forever 
 differ from that of another, owing to the fact that their 
 early environments differed, and that we can never control 
 or equalize the various environmental conditions which de- 
 termine their impressions and modes of thought: we shall 
 find each child differently prepared for the various lines of 
 thought which we desire to start in their minds ; and also dif- 
 ferently interested, and eager and anxious to follow them. 
 Each child, consequently, may be expected to have a different 
 point of vantage. These environmental predispositions are 
 re-enforced by hereditary influences which endow the chil- 
 dren with various sets of talents, attitudes, and aptitudes. 
 We must not, and can not, make the attempt to grind every 
 child in the same mill, or try to turn out machine-made grad- 
 uates who resemble mechanically the same pattern, at least 
 instructionally. 
 
 For this reason a course of study must present a great 
 variety of subjects, such as will meet the various needs of dif- 
 ferent child types. This demand will be better understood 
 if we dismiss from our mind the old fallacy that it is the pur- 
 pose of the school work to furnish a certain amount of infor- 
 mation to the pupil. It has an information value, also, to 
 be sure ; but this is in a way secondary ; its main purpose is 
 to develop power. Considered in this light, the various 
 branches of "study" appear as so many tests thru which we 
 endeavor to penetrate to the souls of our pupils, each one of 
 whom may have to be reached by a very particular road lead- 
 ing to his individual retreat. 
 
 Likewise, there should be elasticity in grading and re- 
 quirements so as to do justice to individual aptitudes. Neither 
 the non-mathematical child nor the constitutional bad speller 
 ought to be kept back in the grades, on account of his pecu- 
 liar disposition. Nothing is more pernicious in educational 
 effort than to preserve the lock-step of promotional require- 
 ments. "I have no objection to 'courses of study', in the 
 sense in which the term is used," said President Nicholas 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 87 
 
 Murray Butler once, "but I object very much to the theory 
 that the child who is able to take the third step must not be 
 allowed to take it because he has not taken the second. I do 
 not believe in holding a child back for the sake of 'thoroness' 
 or 'completeness' of the course of study. I believe the human 
 mind in education should always be put at that task for 
 which it is competent." 
 
 Another consideration is this: It has often been believed 
 that there is some special virtue in certain studies to develop 
 the powers of the mind so as to make it apt to take up other 
 studies with greater facility. This is what has been called the 
 "formal value" of studies. Mathematics, specifically arith- 
 metic, as far as the elementary school is concerned, and gram- 
 mar, were particularly considered as having a large amount 
 of "formal value." This view is largely erroneous, and it 
 depends principally upon the kind of mind to determine what 
 studies will have the best disciplinary effect upon its train- 
 ing. Every training is preponderatingly specific. 
 
 Thru correlation in the sense explained in chapter in, 
 there is given an opportunity for making one subject fruit- 
 ful in the teaching of another. Co-ordination, consequently, 
 is the third requirement of improved method. 
 
 As has been demonstrated before, co-ordination means first 
 that an interrelation of the subjects taught must be estab- 
 lished. For the sake of convenience, all subjects are summed 
 up under collective heads. Rector Dorpfeld's first demand 
 was: normality of the curriculum, i. e. the full number of 
 branches. Dr. Harris, in his formulation of the Herbartian 
 theory, had in mind five co-ordinate groups, as follows : ( I ) 
 mathematics; (2) geography, as the elementary form of sci- 
 ence; (3) literature; (4) grammar and language ; (5) his- 
 tory. These systems have been strongly criticized, and the 
 entire theory of co-ordination almost fell into disrepute on ac- 
 count of these artificial applications of the underlying princi- 
 ples, so that passivity and receptivity were considered rather 
 than the child's own activity and creative power. 
 
 It seems more rational to divide the volume of human 
 knowledge which should be mediated to the child, into two 
 main departments, with this understanding, however, that 
 
88 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 this is fundamentally a logical, not a psychological division, 
 and not necessarily as such a basis of method unless it is 
 "psychologized" (Dewey) ; further, that this division is not 
 to be considered dogmatical, but suggestive and tentative, 
 for the purpose of surveying the entire field of instruction; 
 that there will be cross-references between the two depart- 
 ments, that they will constantly condition one another, and 
 that the two main groups as here differentiated represent 
 in reality only two different aspects of the same thing. 
 
 The interrelated scheme presents itself somewhat in this 
 form: 
 
 A. KNOWLEDGE 
 
 (a) Environment (b) History 
 
 Geography The Past: Man's Evolution, 
 
 (present conditions). The Present: Contempo- 
 
 raneous History. 
 Science The Outlook: Civics, Eth- 
 
 ics, 
 (evolution and laws). American and general his- 
 tory. 
 Geometry Literature and art. 
 
 (formal side of geogra- Language and languages, 
 raphy). 
 
 Mathematics is an element of knowledge pervading all 
 branches (the precise cognition). 
 
 Laboratory and constructive work is a method of acquiring 
 knowledge: 
 
 As laboratory work it pertains to environment; 
 
 As constructive work it pertains to history ( occupations, 
 development of civilization thru conquering the forces of na- 
 ture) . 
 
 B. DEVELOPMENT OF SELF-EXPRESSION 
 
 Physical Training, including music and gymnastics, games, 
 etc. ; composition ; art work ; inventive construction. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 89 
 
 This arrangement is based upon the conception of the aim 
 d function of education as submitted in the beginning of 
 
 and function of education as 
 this chapter. 
 
 B. 
 
 The author's second contention in regard to the applica- 
 tion of the principle of co-ordination to a rational course of 
 instruction was this: that we must, in distributing the ma- 
 terial, follow the natural stages in the evolution of the 
 child soul; in other words, that not only the "nascent peri- 
 ods" for the various interests and kinds of study and work 
 should be carefully watched and utilized, but that the entire 
 course must be so laid out as to adjust itself as closely as 
 possible to the even more basic successive "culture epochs" 
 characteristic of the development of each individual child 
 from primitive instincts to civilization. Dr. Stanley Hall, 
 Caswell Ellis, Prof. Jackman and many others have shown 
 in the past that a contemplation of these demands will demon- 
 strate beyond doubt that the school grades as they are tra- 
 ditionally established, on the basis of the information-idea of 
 education, are altogether incommensurate to the natural order 
 of the child's development. 
 
 Two great divisions in the development of the young soul 
 have already been indicated, viz., the period of symbolism 
 and play, and the subsequent period of realism and work. 
 For illustration: during the first period, man's typical occu- 
 pations are symbolized and imitated in games; in the second, 
 they are taken up realistically in the manual work, with an 
 increasing degree of actuality. Again, first, even the making 
 of things will have symbolical elements in it — the making 
 of familiar objects on a small scale, e. g. on the dollhouse 
 scale, on the play level, using a few tools only which symbo- 
 lize all the rest (the knife, symbolizing all cutting and saw- 
 ing instruments; the awl, representing all boring tools, etc.) ; 
 in the second period, there is real work, in due proportion 
 and with a variety of typical implements. 
 
 And along another line of interest: first, there will be the 
 pleasure in myths and fairy tales, representing that stage in 
 
90 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 human development when all the world surrounding primi- 
 tive man was wonderland ; this will be fo21owed by an appre- 
 ciation of cause and effect, in science and history. In the 
 first stage of observation and experiment, the sand table, or 
 the sand heap, and a little garden plot will supply practically 
 all the needs of the child; in the second, there will be experi- 
 ment in laboratories, workshops, school gardens, etc. 
 
 This suggests the problem of the proper sequence, not so 
 much of the studies as such, but of fittingly selected topics 
 within the different groups of work. And it must be under- 
 stood that it is not a logical sequence which is needed, in con- 
 formity perhaps with some strictly scientific classification; 
 but a growth sequence, one which follows biological and 
 psychological data and laws. 
 
 Thus, in following the nascent periods, we may at differ- 
 ent stages have to emphasize different kinds of work, and 
 omit other kinds, or carry them along with diminished effort. 
 
 The culture epoch theory which is basic to this concep- 
 tion, will here be outlined briefly as it presents itself to the 
 author's mind on the strength of modern researches into 
 child psychology and anthropology. 
 
 Four periods may be distinguished in the evolution of the 
 child, altho it would be hazardous to attempt the fixing of 
 age limits without allowing a large amount of margin either 
 way. Individuals differ in regard to the length, and even the 
 perspicuity and definiteness of characteristics, of these periods ; 
 and while we may recognize, in a general way, the sequence 
 of evolutional manifestations, and set down, tentatively, limits 
 of age for each epoch, there is no lock-step, and much individ- 
 ual variation. The four periods thus distinguishable are: 
 
 ( i ) The human animal stage, up to perhaps 6 years of 
 age; 
 
 (2) The race period, from 6 to 11 ; 
 
 (3) Differentiation of national characteristics, from 1 1 to 
 
 15; 
 
 (4) Evolution of individual traits proper, from 15 up. 
 Let us consider the four periods a little more in detail. 
 The first stage has been designated as the stage of the 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 91 
 
 Human Animals 
 
 It is the stage from birth to about the fifth or sixth year. 
 On seeing the light, the baby, altho surely the "heir of 
 ages", is just emerging from the realm of the unconscious 
 to the assumption of animal functions. The human in him, 
 altho it is there in potentiality, is embryonic; the infant rep- 
 resents the first period of differentiation in the evolution of 
 the human species, as distinguished from the lower crea- 
 tion. The baby's movements are largely of the animal type, 
 and even his muscular control, his intellectual activity, rudi- 
 mentary as it is, and his incipient reasoning, are on the ani- 
 mal level. The clinging power of the hands of infants has 
 often been commented upon; it reminds us of the arboreal 
 life of the immediate ancestors of the human race, perhaps 
 of the "missing link", and surely of the first stages of human 
 life. The baby is born with a "monkey thumb" ; the humani- 
 zation of the thumb, that is to say the power to set it op- 
 posite the other fingers, is a later development. The move- 
 ments are pre-eminently reflex in character, without the inter- 
 vention of the conscious brain levels; they are controlled 
 by the spinal chord, and represent the muscular activity 
 earliest acquired by the animal creation and perpetuated in 
 the form of stereotyped instincts. These movements con- 
 cern the body as a whole, and the limbs as wholes. Kick- 
 ing, dropping, digging, piling, are among the movements of 
 this group. 
 
 Gradually, certain lower parts of the brain itself come 
 into activity. The years from one to three contain, it has 
 been shown, the greater part of all education, taking educa- 
 tion in its broadest sense. For in these few years, the funda- 
 mental habits of activity are acquired, on the basis of in- 
 herited animal instincts. The pre-human, and primitive 
 human periods comprise the longest epoch in the develop- 
 ment of civilization compared with which later civilized 
 life itself is but an episode as yet; no wonder that the cor- 
 responding epoch in the child's life is basic, and pregnant 
 with formative elements. 
 
 The reflex habits of obedience, cleanliness, truthfulness, 
 
92 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 etc., are now acquired and fixed. As habits, these faculties 
 have no ethical significance; but unless the foundation of 
 the well-regulated life is now laid in the forms of fixed 
 modes of conduct, the character of the individual will for- 
 ever lack the element of stability. But it needs no argu- 
 ment to show that these "virtuous" habits are after all not 
 yet human, but animal in kind. 
 
 This contention must not be misunderstood. The baby 
 is, notwithstanding all that has here been said, a human be- 
 ing, differentiated as such even before birth, and having a 
 human organism, a human brain, etc. Thus, all these de- 
 velopments, altho they are on the animal level, appear in 
 human form, with human modifications and with adapta- 
 tions to the human environment into which the child is 
 born. 
 
 At the age of fifteen months, the child has been called 
 "mentally the equal of the mature ape." But there is 
 one particular instinct which even at this early stage differ- 
 entiates the baby from the animal world: the language in- 
 stinct asserts itself in the second year of his life, even earlier. 
 It becomes evident in the baby's tendency to "name" every- 
 thing he comes in contact with, imitating, even tho imper- 
 fectly, the names he hears, or even inventing name 
 words of his own choosing. There is an interesting parallel 
 between this naming period of the baby, and the Paradise 
 story which relates how "God . . . brought every beast 
 of the field, and every fowl of the air unto Adam to see what 
 he would call them : and whatsoever Adam called every living 
 creature, that was the name thereof." (Genesis 2, 19). 
 This shows that even the early records of man's dominion 
 on earth recognize the "naming" of things to be the first 
 evidence of intellectual awakening. 
 
 At the age of three, the idea of "outside" and "inside", 
 that is of "body" and what is "inside the body", begins to 
 dawn upon the child. This indicates the awakening of the 
 sense of life and of personality, and indeed, from now on, 
 the child recognizes himself as a self, as an "I" in distinc- 
 tion from other selves. 
 
 The animal and primitive trait of fetich worship may be 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 93 
 
 observed in children at this stage; dolls, curiosities of vari- 
 ous kinds, playthings, etc., often appear distinctly in the 
 role of fetiches. There is an element of superstition and 
 fear in these early notions concerning which G. Stanley 
 Hall has made investigations which may now be considered 
 fundamental. The child indulges in abstruse symbols and 
 develops a sort of materialistic, or rather pagan, theology. 
 Even animals may be considered to have rudimentary traits 
 of what may be styled religious conceptions. 
 
 The next step in this period is the rise of free spontaneous 
 imitations of adult institutions and occupations such as have 
 found recognition in the kindergarten games. Even in these, 
 the dramatic instinct of the children crops out with peculiar 
 force. This dramatic instinct is a valuable help in the de- 
 velopment of the sense of self, as different from other selves, 
 by the attempt to place one's self into the position of some- 
 body else, imitating him. Not only is thus the difference of 
 the individual from other individuals emphasized, but surely 
 an element of altruism is first introduced, inasmuch as the 
 child, by thus entering into the life of others, learns to ap- 
 preciate their rights. He may, in a fanciful way, even ex- 
 change his personality, as it were, with that of his friends, and 
 create for himself a world of reversed conditions. All this 
 means to him an exploration of possibilities; and judging 
 of children we must, before condemning them as prevari- 
 cators and performers, take this dramatic instinct into con- 
 sideration. Children are born actors, and it has been main- 
 tained that great actors are essentially childlike in their 
 nature. 
 
 In a similar way, the child of this age will surround him- 
 self with a number of imaginary companions. In other words, 
 he will add to the real things of his environment which he 
 sometimes endows with strange, fantastic qualities, creatures 
 of his own imagination which have no external reality at 
 all. The imaging activity of the young mind is as yet 
 non-discriminating; and the limits of reality and imagery 
 are indistinct. 
 
 In the counting period, which follows the naming period, 
 the child rises to a clearer conception of values and propor- 
 
94 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 tion. Primitive counting is bound up with objects, and based 
 upon the sense of rhythm in movement and sequence, and 
 gradually extends to the appreciation of the harmonious ar- 
 rangement of groups which are numerically identical. The 
 mathematical concept, then, is of later nascency than the lingu- 
 istic* The counting period, covering the age from about 
 five to seven, and indicating the dawn of precise cognition, 
 also marks the transition to the next "culture epoch". 
 
 The Race Period. 
 
 At the age of six, or thereabouts, the race traits awaken. 
 The human species differentiates itself, in the rising conscious- 
 ness of each young scion of the common stock, into racial 
 groups, differing from one another in consequence of influ- 
 ences that shaped the various primitive types. These racial 
 differences are deeply ingrained in the soul of the children, 
 and manifest themselves in the order of their natural succes- 
 sion. Now, the Caucasian child differentiates himself from 
 the Negro; the Aryan issue from the Semitic; the Teuton 
 from the Celt. There is now a gradual outgrowing of the 
 stage in which crude, material symbols helped the nascent 
 mind to develop the rudiments of thinking; and higher spir- 
 itual symbols are evolved. Many primitive religious notions, 
 such as are reverberations of racial religious lore, crop up; 
 doll fetichism is merging into mythological and dogmatical 
 conventions. The early race period has nothing of the demo- 
 cratic spirit about it, not even in those children who represent 
 races that were liberty-loving from the first; this is the age 
 of submission to authority and implicit belief. 
 
 Physically, children of this age need exercises exciting 
 growth. Fingers and hands are now becoming partially free 
 
 *More details in respect to these developments will be pre- 
 sented in those of the following chapters which are devoted to 
 the special topics included in the proposed scheme of instruc- 
 tion. At the end of this chapter, the reader will find a partial 
 list of earlier studies upon the results of which the main line 
 pf this argument is based. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 95 
 
 from the lower simultaneous impulse, and can move in a fair 
 degree independently. As shown in a previous chapter, the 
 development of muscular control is as follows: body, shoulder, 
 arm, forearm, hand. But not before the ninth year is ma- 
 turity in hand and finger control reached, and the freedom 
 of the wrist movement not earlier than the eleventh. 
 
 With the ability to handle tools, as produced by these de- 
 velopments of control, goes hand in hand the increasing inter- 
 est in tool work. Thru working with tools, primitive man 
 created civilization and developed his mind; but not before 
 man was ready for racial differentiation was there much 
 chance of his being deft with tools. 
 
 Sailing, rowing, swimming and other primitive exercises 
 and occupations upon which the life of early man depended, 
 excite the intensest interest in children of this period. Tag, 
 and other games of this nature, reveal reverberation of the 
 hunting instinct and of savage warfare. There are obvious 
 nomadic inclinations: the instinct to run away and roam, the 
 great interest in animals and animal pets. The wandering 
 life of the early tribes which differentiated the races from 
 the common stock from which they separated themselves in 
 their search for new hunting grounds and fresh pastures, and 
 the period of domesticating the wild creatures of prairie and 
 forest are revived in these tendencies. All the actions of this 
 period are impulsive and instinctive, without the intervention 
 of much conscious deliberation, showing that they are mani- 
 festations of hereditary influences. The children are very 
 suggestible and easily impressed at this time, just as the early 
 nations were plastic and open to the influences of their en- 
 vironment. Environment was the most prominent factor in 
 racial differentiation, and likewise the child of the correspond- 
 ing period is the creature of his environment. 
 
 A few more detailed statements about the different years of 
 this period may here be added. 
 
 At seven the speech organs have just completed their 
 growth and are still pliant. The interest in names is still 
 prominent. The period of from seven to eleven is the prime 
 epoch for language teaching. At eight the interest in "se- 
 cret", made-up languages reaches its maximum. In reasoning 
 
96 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 there is but the beginning of the logical process, very little 
 rationalizing, in spite of the many questions into the where- 
 for and how and why. The children are as a rule satisfied 
 with any answer we give them. They are fond of comparing 
 things as to their qualities, in this way laying in a stock of 
 valuable concepts. 
 
 In their story interest the eighth year marks a transition 
 by the appearance of the question: Is it true? The mere 
 fairy tale gives way to stories like Robinson Crusoe; the 
 Homeric Stage is reached, and the beginning interest in his- 
 tory centers in persons, leading up to true hero-worship 
 at the age of pubescence. This reminds us of the age of the 
 Bard and Singer at the courts of ancient kings. It must not 
 be understood, however, that there is as yet, that is to say 
 during the early part of the racial period, much desire to 
 ascertain the actual truth; the child will still believe you 
 implicitly when you tell him the story is true. 
 
 Up to nine years there is preference for geometrical prob- 
 lems and puzzles: form and size, the concrete side of things, 
 mean more to them than number, or the quantitative side. 
 Not until this year is passed does the interest for arithmetical 
 puzzles awaken. 
 
 The tenth year is a year of important changes, preparing 
 the transition to a more advanced development. The pre- 
 pubertal period begins, and the body is getting ready for new 
 adaptations. It is now that a change takes place from simple 
 belief to doubt and disbelief in superstitions. There is a 
 pleasure noticeable in thinking out logical sequences, starting 
 with the simple causative series of the order of "the house that 
 Jack built". The children begin to take an interest in classi- 
 fication, marking the dawn of logical categories and abstract 
 thinking. The nomadic, separatistic tendencies give way to 
 tribal inclinations. Boys band together in athletic game 
 clubs, in predatory societies, for fishing trips, camping expedi- 
 tions, etc. ; there is a pronounced interest in Indian life, ad- 
 venture, peril. Games of competition are much indulged in, 
 and the exultation of victory, the delight in teasing and bully- 
 ing and in "practical jokes", are relics of primordial war- 
 fare. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 97 
 
 Now the national traits commence to assert themselves. At 
 11 there is a maximum of predatory societies. The nation- 
 making instincts stand foremost in the minds of the children. 
 But it is the colonizing, conquering, adventurous epoch of 
 the incipient nation which is here recapitulated. The Ger- 
 manic tribes of whose modern descendants these statements 
 are particularly true, were migratory tribes, and it was the 
 "migration of peoples" which shaped the nations that are now 
 in the lead of civilization. Hughes speaks of the age of II 
 and 12 years as "the most reckless time of British youth." 
 
 It ought to be self-evident that the traditional school 
 work is less adapted to this period than to any other; and 
 at no time does the child, especially the boy, hate the school 
 prison more than now. This is the age of pupil-suicides. The 
 fifth grade, the grade of the pre-pubertal period, is a con- 
 spicuous failure in most schools. The interest of the chil- 
 dren does not center in nouns and adjectives, or least com- 
 mon multiples and greatest common divisors, and such 
 things, but in the stories of heroes and adventure. 
 
 Sexual differentiation in the physical life and in interest 
 begins to set in. Boys, from 11 to 12, reach their maximum 
 of industrial organizations; girls, from 11 to 16, have their 
 counterpart in the maximum interest in social clubs. Boys 
 now commence to learn the art of community-making ; girls, 
 the art of home-making. 
 
 At the age of 12, broadly speaking, 
 
 The National Spirit 
 
 is born. There is now a maximum of life intensity. The 
 upper level of association centers and fibres in the brain 
 develops ; in other words, the primordial reflex activity is be- 
 coming transformed into brain function. Instead of the 
 reflex responding to every impulse, or every impulse being 
 directly translated into action, there is now a co-operation 
 of the brain centers which serve to regulate, and occasionally 
 to check, impulsive responses. Control and inhibition 
 evolve; thought is born — real thought which has been 
 styled by some psychologists as "repressed action." 
 
98 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 The organization tendency is at its height; the boys rally 
 around leaders and indulge in hero-worship. In girls, the 
 same tendency leads to the formation of sentimental friend- 
 ships and incipient love affairs in which they worship with 
 exaggerated fervor some person, or persons, whom their 
 fancy selects. The boys' heroes and the girls' friendships 
 are powerful agencies in the building up of their characters. 
 This is therefore a period requiring very great attention 
 and caution, and much special study. 
 
 Gradually, the child awakens to independent thinking 
 and logical reasoning. 
 
 The Individual Attitude 
 
 arises, often with much over-confident self-assertion, in op- 
 position to heretofore recognized standards. At the same 
 time, changes are noticeable which bring to light latent 
 heredities of family traits. 
 
 Family and personal characteristics combine finally to 
 form the individual whose birth may be considered to take 
 place at the age of about 15 years. We have, then, this 
 sequence of developmental stages: species, race, nation, fam- 
 ily, individual. 
 
 Now there enters into the formation of mind and char- 
 acter the element of individual differentiation, attitude and 
 aptitude, of choice and selection. The aboriginal selfishness 
 slowly gives place to altruistic emotions, and the basis of 
 that youthful enthusiasm which is creative and world-cen- 
 tered. 
 
 Let us understand that what has been said in these pages 
 is merely a rough outline of evolutional stages which will re- 
 pay more detailed study, and which determine the rational 
 basis of a course of education and instruction. The applica- 
 tion of the facts here enumerated seems easy enough in the 
 general aspect, but is certainly difficult in detail and indi- 
 vidual adaptation. Much will depend upon the insight and 
 tact of the teacher who must be given a great deal of lati- 
 tude for immediate and varying adjustment. The course, 
 as indicated in another place, must preserve a wholesome de- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 99 
 
 gree of elasticity, to allow of sensible modification and adap- 
 tation. 
 
 As early as 1894, in the author's little book, "The Com- 
 mon School and the New Education", the following sug- 
 gestions were made: 
 
 "The graded course of instruction . . . should com- 
 prise the germs of all knowledge in the lower stages as well 
 as in the higher and progress should be sought by way of 
 a gradual widening of the pupils' horizon in concentric 
 circles, as it were, rather than pushing forward in certain 
 particular directions. 
 
 "While thus each class, or grade, of the common school 
 should impart to its pupils such knowledge as may be consid- 
 ered a whole in itself, so that no matter at what stage or age 
 the children leave school they may take with them an edu- 
 cation which is, as far as it goes, complete and all 'round ; 
 there will, in the higher grades, be the need of differentia- 
 tion. Pupils of the requisite intellectual ability who are 
 desirous of pursuing the higher courses of learning, might 
 well be accommodated, even while they are still in the com- 
 mon school, by substituting for some of the ordinary 
 branches other studies which have not only an educational or 
 formal value, but may at the same time serve as introduc- 
 tory to the higher courses. They may also be taxed intel- 
 lectually in a greater measure than those whose natural abil- 
 ities or aims run lower and who should for their part be 
 given the opportunity to finish a relatively simplified ele- 
 mentary course which is complete in itself. 
 
 "In other words, in the sixth or seventh school year, at a 
 period of the child's life when his natural tendencies and 
 capacities have had time to develop sufficient strength, the 
 curriculum of the public school might branch out in two 
 distinct directions, the one leading on toward higher intel- 
 lectual achievements and the learned professions, the other 
 tending to finish the common school course proper. Care 
 must be taken not to erect insurmountable barriers . . . 
 so that a passing from one to the other, when found ad- 
 visable or desirable, may not be prohibited." 
 
 Of the sexual differentiation which means a differentia- 
 
ioo THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 tion in interests and aptitudes, and which occurs at about 
 the same time for which this branching out of the course has 
 been suggested, something has been said before. In the last 
 chapter of this volume, on "High School Education and 
 Secondary Differentiation", more will be suggested in re- 
 gard to the needs of that particular period. There is an- 
 other factor which should be considered in the adaptation 
 of the school work to different wants, and that is the dif- 
 ference in the rate of growth and development which is 
 noticeable in children. 
 
 It will be recognized that the main function of a rational 
 course of study is not to prepare children for any particular 
 occupation, or for any utilitarian object, but to develop their 
 human and individual faculties to the fullest extent so 
 that they become truly humanized and civilized in the service 
 of the highest ideals. Only he who is in the best sense a 
 man will be the most useful citizen, wage-earner, or pro- 
 fessional worker. A quotation from Prof. Wm. F. Phelps' 
 little Chautauqua text book on the Greek philosopher Soc- 
 rates may fitly close this chapter: 
 
 "His antipathies were strong against the whole system of 
 acquiring knowledge, as it was termed, for use. The thing 
 to be accomplished, he avowed, was to become true men, and 
 the uses would follow. Does the oak of centuries send out 
 its strong arms that they may cast a shadow? On the con- 
 trary, it ascends and spreads thru the vigor of its inner life, 
 and then tribes and nations sit down under its grateful 
 shade. This is a cardinal truth. Knowledge attained with 
 a view chiefly to specific uses never forms the man, and it 
 is not true knowledge. First and last, therefore, it was the 
 counsel of Socrates, BE MEN!" 
 
 A PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS AND ARTICLES CONSULTED 
 
 GULICK, "Aspects of Group Games," Pedagogical Seminary, 
 VI, 2. 
 
 KROHN, "Physical Growth Periods and Appropriate Exer- 
 cises", Forum, June, 1899. 
 
 VOSTROVSKY, "A Study of Children's Superstitions", 
 Studies in Education, October, 1896. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 101 
 
 STARBUCK, "Psychology of Religion", American Journal of 
 Psychology, ix, I. 
 
 SHELDON, "Institutional Activities of American Children", 
 lb. ix, 4. 
 
 LINDSAY, "A Study of Puzzles", lb. vm, 4. 
 
 PHILLIPS, "Number and its Application", Pedagogical Sem- 
 inary, Oct., 1897. 
 
 BURK, "Growth of Children", American Journal of Psychol- 
 ogy, ix, 3. 
 
 TRlPLETT, "Pacemaking and Competition", lb. ix, 4. 
 
 BURK, "Development of the Nervous System", lb. x, 1. 
 
 HALL and ALLlN, "Tickling and Laughing" , lb. ix, I. 
 
 CHRISMAN, "Children's Secret Languages", Child Study 
 Monthly, Sept., 1896. 
 
 DAVIS, "Children's Interest in the Causal Idea", lb. 
 
 BARNES, "A Study in Children's Interest", Studies in Educa- 
 tion, 1, 6. 
 
 BURK, "Teasing and Bullying", Pedagogical Seminary, April, 
 1897. 
 
 ELLIS, "Suggestions for a Philosophy of Education" , lb. Oct., 
 1897. 
 
 SULLY, "Studies of Childhood." 
 
 HALL, "Some Aspects of the Early Sense of Self", American 
 Journal of Psychology, ix, 3. 
 
 HALL, "A Study of Fears", lb. vm, 2. 
 
 ALLlN, "Social Recapitulations", Educational Review Nov., 
 1899. 
 
 VAN LIEW, "Racial Traits in the Group Activity of Chil- 
 dren", N. E. A. Proa, 1899. 
 
 MONROE, "Play Interests of Children", lb. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Manual Principle 
 
 IT is now generally admitted that industrial training, 
 i. e., professional training and preparation for good 
 artisanship, for trades, for technical pursuits of all sorts, 
 elementary and higher, should receive much more at- 
 tention in this country than it has received so far. 
 Manual Training, however, educationally understood, is a 
 different thing. It is not proposed on account of its 
 possible effect upon so-called practical pursuits, or on ac- 
 count of its trade or industrial value; such it has, without 
 question, and children having received good manual train- 
 ing will be better fitted for "practical" occupations than 
 those whose training was one-sidedly formal. But it cannot 
 be the aim of the public school to make artisans of all pupils. 
 On the other hand we may even go a step further: in this 
 age when machinery is superseding hand labor with growing 
 rapidity, we shall often observe that much suffering is caused 
 by this transition to new modes of production, for those who 
 are thrown out of employment, and who find it difficult to 
 re-adjust themselves to the new conditions and to new and 
 different lines of work. It may safely be assumed that chil- 
 dren who were educated in schools where their manual dex- 
 terity was developed more or less parallel to the intellectual 
 training they received, will be better able than their fathers 
 were before them to adapt themselves to the changing phases 
 of industrial evolution, both by having a better mental grasp 
 of the situation, and by having acquired skill and a mastery 
 of tools and materials along various typical lines of activity. 
 But this result, while natural and welcome, may here be con- 
 
 102 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 103 
 
 sidered as incidental; it is not the first and foremost aim 
 of the movement on behalf of manual training. This aim 
 is purely educational. Manual training, in this sense, is 
 valued as an element of culture. 
 
 Nevertheless, even the "practical" result has its educational 
 significance, inasmuch as a man can be called fully developed 
 only in proportion to his fitness for his life's work. 
 
 Yet, with educators, manual work is pre-eminently a form 
 of expression, a mode of "externalizing the internal", as well 
 as a method of gaining experience, of "internalizing the ex- 
 ternal". Manual expression is valuable to all; with many it 
 is their only form of successful self-expression. A cathedral or 
 a Brooklyn Bridge are as much expressions of noble thoughts 
 and feelings, as is Milton's "Paradise Lost." Again, all of 
 us have our concepts enhanced in clearness and efficiency thru 
 manual experiment; some are forever unable to grasp the 
 world around them without such. 
 
 Manual training leads necessarily to construction, or rather 
 educational manual training must essentially be construction. 
 As construction, it is dependent upon observation and experi- 
 ment, the two great factors in the development of the mind 
 towards self-activity and creativeness. As a matter of fact, 
 all construction is experiment. It has recently been again 
 emphasized that many machines invented by man have their 
 prototypes as to form and functional structure in natural ob- 
 jects and organisms. 
 
 Said a writer in the "American Machinist": "All ideas 
 are new but once; man cannot always be original, and he 
 soon acquires the habit of absorbing ideas relating to his 
 business. He sees how beautifully some mechanical device 
 accomplishes its purpose, or how fitting is some shape or form, 
 and unconsciously stores these ideas away in his mind and 
 draws from them when needed. Probably the inventor of the 
 hay-tedder made no extended study of orthoptera, but only 
 put to a practical use the action of the grasshopper which he 
 had seen all his life. The hypodermic syringe is a pointed ap- 
 plication of the principle of the sting of a bee, and it is re- 
 ported that a successful tunneling system was designed from 
 the boring apparatus of an apple-worm. A suspension bridge 
 
io 4 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 represents the highest mechanical, mathematical, and engineer- 
 ink skill, and yet it is only the adaptation of a spider's web 
 to man's requirements. Of all pumps the most common, the 
 most reliable, the most efficient is the heart, and there is a 
 significant parallelism between its form and the designs for 
 some modern pumping machinery. Whoever has 'caught a 
 crab' while in bathing will remember the powerful grip of 
 its jaws, and the inventor of the hay-carrier seized upon the 
 idea as the crab seizes upon the toe of the bather. 
 
 "The pillar of an upright drill resembles a tree trunk in 
 size and shape. It has limbs and branches. Naturally then, 
 the base, where stability is required, is modeled after the foot 
 of the trunk. . . . 
 
 "Sometimes the influence of natural forms appears in a 
 real or fancied resemblance to some object which gives it a 
 name, as an alligator wrench or a whaleback barge. . . . 
 The tailor has his goose and the spinner his mule, and there 
 are donkey engines and pony presses. The head of a ram is so 
 manifestly adapted for butting that the ancient Romans 
 carved it on the ends of their battering artillery, and while 
 we have today abandoned the form we still retain the word 
 'ramming'. 
 
 "Machines have bodies, feet, arms; they are provided with 
 wrist-pins, knuckle-joints, and elbows, and occasionally they 
 break a rib or a leg like their human relatives. This shows 
 the effect of natural forms on mechanical designs; not that 
 they are copied literally. The tree-trunk is not reproduced 
 with the bark on, or the elephant's foot with the toe-nails,* 
 but they are adapted to man's purpose, conventionalized, 
 as they say in art. 
 
 "In decoration, nature's influence is even greater. 'The 
 heavens above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the 
 earth' all lend their products toward decorative art." 
 
 The final result in the evolution of a machine is sometimes 
 the outgrowth of a long series of observations and experi- 
 ments, and the perfect machine has had, in the course of its 
 
 *In designs for chairs, tables, etc., the toes of the animal 
 whose foot furnishes the motif, are often carefully carved. G. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 105 
 
 evolution from crude beginnings, many less perfect forerunners 
 in ages gone by. 
 
 Thus it is clearly seen that inventions are the effect of 
 intelligent study of nature, sometimes perhaps of a more 
 or less unconscious absorption of natural facts, combined 
 with the ability of imaginative and constructive expression. 
 While certainly invention depends upon imagination, the lat- 
 ter draws its impulse from observation ; and science and con- 
 struction go hand in hand. 
 
 That human constructions are to a high degree imitations 
 of nature, and as such the results of observation and experi- 
 ment, sometimes of many successive generations, has been 
 demonstrated long ago. Huts and houses are artificial caves; 
 bridges are imitations of natural arches, trunks of trees or 
 fallen rocks; a Gothic colonnade is a palm forest of stone; 
 implements and weapons are for the most part direct copies of 
 natural objects which first served as crude tools in the dawn 
 of civilization. Here is shown the relation of manual work 
 in its constructive sense to other branches with which it forms 
 a conceptual whole. 
 
 Considered from another viewpoint, manual training pos- 
 sesses a value which proves it an indispensable helper in gen- 
 eral education, at the same time demonstrating its "practical" 
 utility apart from mere industrial or trade interests in a nar- 
 rower sense. A physician, e. g., whose hands have not ac- 
 quired skill, whose eyes and ears have not been trained to be 
 acute and quick, will be much less fit for medical and surgical 
 practice than one who has received this training; and in 
 recording observations, the scientist will find well-trained 
 sense-organs, and the ability of graphic expression as help- 
 ful as he will find constructive skill in the arrangement and 
 construction of his experimental apparatus and his instru- 
 ments. Even the philosopher may be benefited by having ac- 
 quired an aptitude for graphic representation of abstract 
 thought. It may be maintained that such skill will be ac- 
 quired at the time of professional preparation; but not so. 
 At the age when such specialized training is received, the 
 senses and limbs have lost some of their original pliability and 
 plasticity. The great difference in professional effectiveness 
 
106 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 we observe in the callings here alluded to, may readily be 
 traced back, in a measure, to differences in the early oppor- 
 tunities for sense and motor training, apart from natural apti- 
 tudes. 
 
 Manual training, in the educational sense, does not mean 
 the addition of a little sewing, or wood work, or the like, 
 to an ordinary course of study. That would produce an in- 
 congruous patchwork. There must be a co-ordinated sys- 
 tem of studies and occupations: studies finding expression 
 in occupations, and occupations forming a basis for intel- 
 lectual work. Each branch may be considereded as one of 
 many tests by which the children's individual abilities can 
 be sounded, as has been shown in previous chapters. It 
 will then be found, what everybody indeed knows in a 
 general way without always allowing himself to be guided 
 by this knowledge, that all children differ in various de- 
 grees, and that each one may require a different point of 
 vantage from which to reach his highest interest. In- 
 struction may have to be compounded like unto a medical 
 prescription, in doses containing varying proportions of 
 ingredients, so as to fit individual cases. Some children 
 are distinctively manual and non-literary, others literary 
 and non-mathematical, etc. A uniform standard is impos- 
 sible. The traditional distinction between "illiterates" and 
 those who are called educated, does not cover all considera- 
 tions. 
 
 On the other hand, every child will be benefited by be- 
 ing led to contemplate the world around him from various 
 viewpoints, each branch, or study, or occupation, represent- 
 ing in reality but a special point of view from which the 
 entire world of knowledge and human existence is ap- 
 proached. He will thus acquire a stronger hold on, and a 
 clearer conception of, the world about him, and learn to ap- 
 preciate the viewpoints of others that differ from his own 
 peculiar attitude. This again, has an ethical significance. 
 
 In an organized system of studies, manual training is 
 rather a method of presentation than a separate discipline. 
 Even special so-called manual occupations must be judged 
 with reference to their educational value by determining 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 107 
 
 their influence upon the building up of clear concepts and 
 upon the development of the ability to control and organize 
 sense-impressions and motor-impulses. The "manual method" 
 represents the objective, experimental, and creative (con- 
 structive) side of all school work; it ought to pervade all 
 branches. The making of a thing, even by way of crude 
 imitation, intensifies its conceptual identification and recog- 
 nition. 
 
 Manual work strengthens the knowledge of natural 
 forces and materials; it illustrates the evolution of civiliza- 
 tion by mediating a knowledge of typical tools and occupa- 
 tions, which in turn is made more vivid and effective by 
 the fact that it is not merely theoretical knowledge, but is 
 substantiated by practical tests. Tools are nothing else than 
 artificial hands, or elongations of our hands, invented by 
 the brain to enlarge the sphere of manual effectiveness; or, 
 as in the case of telescope, microscope, and telephone, arti- 
 ficial sense-organs capable of enormously increasing the 
 power of the receptive senses. Man, thru the co-operation 
 of brain and hand, advances spiritually towards the very 
 limits of time and space, in the microcosmos as well as in the 
 macrocosmos.* 
 
 Manual training mediates to the child a far greater circle 
 of experience than he would otherwise become conscious of. 
 Care must be taken that these experiences, while they will 
 naturally remain within narrow limits, be typical, A me- 
 chanical laboratory (using this general term so as to in- 
 clude all kinds of manual work proper, so-called, such as 
 shopwork, sewing, cooking, etc.), to be an educational in- 
 stitution, must in a way be an adjunct to, and co-operate 
 with, the physical and chemical laboratories. The work in 
 all of these laboratories will virtually answer identical pur- 
 poses, i. e., it will mediate knowledge and experience, thru 
 the experimental method, gradually assuming a more and 
 more differentiated, technical or scientific character, respec- 
 tively, in proportion as the pupil advances in age and ma- 
 
 *Cf. also Dr. Paul Carus, "The Philosophy of the Tool", 
 Chicago. 
 
108 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 turity and gets ready for specialization. In the lower stages, 
 the work will serve to satisfy the natural instincts of chil- 
 dren to build and construct. Manual work, in this sense, 
 is also constructive play. The value of the play ele- 
 ment is a topic by itself, and has been referred to in the 
 chapter on the kindergarten. 
 
 Manual training is sense training. It exercises all senses 
 and constitutes each into a helper to all others. It trains eye 
 and hand, and makes both mutually subservient. It recog- 
 nizes the immense value of the much-neglected sense of touch 
 which is, in point of fact, the fundamental sense of which 
 all other senses are but modifications and ramifications, or, 
 if you please, differentiations, and with which all funda- 
 mental, racial sensations are intimately connected. Above 
 all, it brings the motor sense into play for the gaining of 
 exact conceptions. Few people realize how deeply the 
 motor element enters into the formation of our ideas, and 
 how much more accurate our concepts are, how much more 
 apt to associate organically with one another, for containing 
 motor elements. At birth, all brain cells which the individ- 
 ual will ever possess, are already present, partly in an un- 
 developed state; a majority of these are motor centers — if 
 they are not exercised and stimulated they will atrophy. If 
 this happens, of course, no association fibres can issue from 
 them to connect with other centers. Even tho they be de- 
 veloped partly, the association tracts will be less easily pass- 
 able than if the cells had received their proper share of ex- 
 ercise. Associations, however, form the basis of apperception 
 and judgment; the more there are of smooth association 
 tracts and of connected, i. e., organized, functioning cen- 
 ters, fit to receive and connect impressions, the higher de- 
 veloped the brain will be, the more perfect our concepts, 
 the more circumspect our judgments. 
 
 Thought is connected with motion. Language is, indeed, 
 a vehicle of thought: it expresses and conveys thought not 
 only, but clarifies, crystallizes thought, makes thought more 
 definite, more distinct, more exact. Max Miiller went so 
 far as to maintain a parellelism, or even identity, of langu- 
 age and thought. But the first language, as a means of com- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 109 
 
 munication, had nothing to do with "lingua", the tongue; 
 it was gesture language. Gesture language is as universal 
 as it is practically the same, that is to say, using the same 
 symbols, with a few curious exceptions, all over the globe. 
 Even now, when we use "lingua-language", gestures will 
 accompany and intensify speech, and sometimes be substi- 
 stuted for speech. Every thought, however, is connected 
 with some form of motor concomitant. Motor training may 
 create, and will certainly stimulate thought, and make 
 thought more concrete and true. 
 
 Manual training, further, being a recognition of the play 
 instinct, is also exercise. It sets free those natural and valu- 
 able impulses which induce the child to try his strength 
 and skill in a large number of various activities. It helps 
 towards a completer self-projection of the child upon his 
 environment, towards his more perfect self-realization. At 
 the same time, it turns into useful channels those activities 
 and tendencies which may, when left unemployed, atrophy 
 and cripple the child's soul; or, when left unguided, may lead 
 to destruction and crime. It converts them into constructive 
 force. 
 
 The remedial function of manual training has often been 
 demonstrated in reform institutions for criminally disposed 
 children, and in the treatment of deficient and degenerated 
 persons generally. The reason is obvious from the forego- 
 ing argument. 
 
 When it is remembered that, in manual training, the play 
 instinct of children receives a recognition, we shall under- 
 stand that it must partake of the character and function of 
 play; in other words, it must not be too formal and should, 
 at least as far as younger children are concerned, never be 
 introduced as a tedious, pedantic task. There must be an 
 element of freedom and variety, an appeal to children's spon- 
 taneous interests. By watching children's play, with build- 
 ing blocks, sand, "mud", constructive toys of all kinds, we 
 can learn many valuable lessons, as to what manual training 
 should do for them. It is for this reason that the traditional 
 "sloyd" does not possess the virtue ascribed to it by many. 
 Sloyd, in the first place, restricts the child as to the material 
 
1 10 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 and tools used, and then it insists on too pedantic a course 
 of models, requiring a high degree of patient toil, of accur- 
 acy, and of finish. 
 
 As regards patience, young persons have, and can have, 
 but little of it, and when it is demanded beyond the limit of 
 their capacity, or of their interest in the work in hand, their 
 pleasure will be lost and they will hate the task as well as 
 the task master. Some may regret this fact — it is an 
 indisputable fact, nevertheless, that children will never do 
 anything "with a will" that does not appeal to their inter- 
 est in some way. The abstract ideas of duty and training 
 have little charm for them, and it is the teacher's function 
 to arouse the child's natural interests, or to create new mo- 
 tives of action. But at his best, the child cannot work long 
 over the same thing — he cannot sustain his attention. 
 
 And then his standard of accuracy and finish is not the 
 same as that of the adult. It is futile as well as unjust and 
 cruel to force the adult standard upon him. There is no 
 need of demanding that every piece he begins must be fin- 
 ished to be exactly like the model set before him. It is 
 more essential that he should learn to begin right, and this 
 can be better accomplished by his trying his hands on a large 
 number of experiments than by restriction to a few pieces in 
 a so-called series. "Logical sequences" of exercises have lit- 
 tle value in teaching the young whose development is irreg- 
 ular and unsymmetrical in outward appearance. Let us 
 have the young student try new pieces as many as possible. 
 Let us adjust the "course" so that approximate results are 
 acceptable. After the child has learned to make a good 
 start, his constructive instincts will lead him on to finish 
 each piece to his own satisfaction especially when he sees 
 some purpose in it, and were it but a make-believe purpose, 
 a play interest. 
 
 The development of real accuracy is very gradual and cor- 
 responds to the child's degree of experience, and of his power 
 to co-ordinate muscular and nervous activity. This is a mat- 
 ter of nervous development, and has been referred to in a 
 previous chapter. It is sufficient if the product of the chil- 
 dren's efforts represents the swing and character of the object 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 1 1 1 
 
 which serves as a model or prototype. Exactness will be re- 
 quired also, parallel with a growing appreciation of the neces- 
 sity of fitting parts together ; this illustrates the value of con- 
 structive exercises, properly so called, as compared with non- 
 constructive work. It may sometimes prove helpful to have 
 certain pieces produced by co-operation, several pupils com- 
 bining in their construction. This will bring home to each 
 the necessity of exact fitting more strongly even than when 
 one works alone. 
 
 Truly there are children who exhibit abnormal symptoms 
 and who need special consideration. Aimless scatterbrains 
 that flit from one thing to another can only be cured by find- 
 ing some point of vantage thru which to reach their supreme 
 interest. But those who cannot be reached at all are fewer 
 in number than those who are at an early stage discouraged 
 because too much is expected of them. It must also be re- 
 membered that talents differ, and all will not be able to do 
 technically accurate manual work even after practice, just as 
 there will always be some to whom spelling and composition 
 will remain unfathomable mysteries all their life. It is the 
 variety of tests of which mention has been made before that 
 will enable us to do justice to all. 
 
 If reference be made to abnormal children to whom ordin- 
 ary measures will not appeal, it may be stated that they need 
 the curative treatment which can only be devised by the co- 
 operation of the educator and physician, notably the alienist. 
 
 For reasons similar to those enumerated in regard to ac- 
 curacy, variety of material (cardboard, wood, wire, tin, clay, 
 canvas, etc.), as well as of tools will add to the attractive- 
 ness of the work. Besides, there will be possible in this way 
 a many-sided experience as to natural forces and man's con- 
 quest of the same which could not be obtained if we were to 
 restrict the exercises to a one-sided series. 
 
 In progressing from elementary to higher stages of work, 
 it is well to bear in mind what has been said in the previous 
 chapter on the gradual evolution from "symbolism" to "real- 
 ism . 
 
 Manual training, as an element of culture, includes art 
 culture. Or rather art is the redeeming feature of all con- 
 
ii2 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 structive work; it lifts it from the lower level of mere me- 
 chanical drudgery to the higher plane of creative activity; it 
 represents the finishing touch, the liberating element. 
 
 The art idea of construction has perhaps never been so 
 fundamentally expressed in words as by Walter J. Kenyon 
 in an introductory article to the first number of the "Manual 
 Training Magazine" years ago. He said : 
 
 "There is probably more of esthetic possibility in un- 
 adorned construction than we are wont to recognize. All 
 spontaneous expression, be it under skilled guidance, will ulti- 
 mately make for beauty. . . . Wherever a creation is 
 the expression of an eager soul, undriven save by native im- 
 pulse, it makes towards art, whether it is decorative or not, 
 and whether it be slightly to the unenlightened or not. Art is 
 saying to your brother what God says to you. The vehicle 
 of expression does not signify. . . . function is the 
 basis of all art. . . . Art cannot transcend mathe- 
 matics, whether it outreaches mathematical research or 
 not. Whether it be a question of music, or color, or 
 form, it is a question of interval. Interval, in turn, deter- 
 mines proportion. And proportion subserves function." 
 
 The art idea should enter into all work, and direct it to- 
 wards the ideal of beauty and fitness. What is most perfect 
 as to fitness is also most beautiful in its way. A table, for 
 instance, constructed on the most simple lines of fitness for 
 its purpose, is also the most beautiful piece of furniture of 
 its kind. It is this thought which has now revived a taste 
 for the so-called Old English and Mission styles in furni- 
 ture. 
 
 Yet, art has its individual claim as the highest form of 
 self-expression; it strives for typical, eternal creations. It 
 projects human nature upon the background of infinity and 
 eternity, and relates the finite human life with universal 
 existence. 
 
 Art expression, however, is plainly dependent upon proper 
 sense-training and manual culture as premises, or prerequi- 
 sites. 
 
 These suggestions have a bearing not only upon ele- 
 mentary education, but on secondary school work as well, 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 1 13 
 
 altho here there is a greater need of differentiation. The 
 elective system, as characteristic of adolescent education, has 
 this significance that the individual differences of the pupils 
 now receive more distinct recognition, and that each one is 
 allowed to construe his world conception from the stand- 
 point of more specialized aptitudes. Thus, a manual training 
 high school may have a true function; but the general high 
 school should certainly not be devoid of manual training fea- 
 tures in an educational sense. More will be said in the last 
 chapter of this book. It needs to be emphasized, however, 
 that it is better to work a system of manual training from 
 the elementary stage up to the secondary stage, than to work 
 down from the high school with its specialized aims to the dis- 
 trict schools, as has too often been done. The reasons for this 
 contention are obvious. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Kinds of Manual Experience and Expression 
 
 THE following series of suggestions is informally 
 presented and naturally fragmentary. It is 
 largely based upon practical work which has been 
 actually done, under the author's supervision and 
 elsewhere; but a careful selection has been at- 
 tempted, in accordance with the principles pronounced in the 
 previous chapters. Some of the suggestions have not yet been 
 thoroly tried in school practice, but grew out of the general 
 view of the subject as it appears in the light of the argument 
 upon which this volume is based. 
 
 The work may be considered under four heads: 
 
 (i) Materials employed; 
 
 (2) Typical occupations and tools; 
 
 (3) Illustrative work, that is such as will be intimately and 
 
 methodicaly connected with other branches ; 
 
 (4) Assembled work. 
 
 This arrangement does not imply a succession of exercises 
 in this order; for the work will have to be arranged in peda- 
 gogical order. The schedule will serve merely as a help in 
 surveying the work. 
 
 The four groups suggested here are closely interrelated in- 
 asmuch as the first and second are in the nature of experiences 
 which often will illustrate facts from other branches, such as 
 science and history; and illustrative work will often have the 
 character of assembled work. 
 
 The use of a variety of materials will illustrate different 
 
 114 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 115 
 
 natural forces, their reaction upon human effort, and the 
 means of utilizing them. Thus, their employment will be in 
 the nature of physical experiments, and be subservient to the 
 formation of scientific concepts. Again, the typical occupa- 
 tions and tools will elucidate the history of civilization, and in 
 this wise connect closely with history and geography, and in a 
 measure even with literature. 
 
 How manual work is a valuable form of expression has 
 been set forth before. Complete expression requires the em- 
 ployment of various forms simultaneously, or rather in close 
 succession. The same idea may be expressed in different 
 modes, clay, wood, drawing, etc. Form and size can be best 
 expressed by modeling and construction; light and color by 
 drawing and painting. There are other qualities that cannot 
 be expressed in such form but for which music or poetry 
 are needed: thus, the children will receive a training in the 
 meaning of adequate expression as a function and an art. 
 
 It may be well to speak in passing of the enormous value 
 of drawing which enters largely into all kinds of manual ex- 
 pression and productive activity. It is a necessary adjunct to 
 the study of natural objects; without it construction would 
 be hazardous ; it will enhance the work in composition, litera- 
 ture, history, and geography. Mechanical drawing as such 
 deserves careful attention, to be preceded in the lower grades, 
 where only a small degree of accuracy can be expected, by a 
 crude kind of mechanical sketching. Boys and girls alike 
 should learn to read a working drawing, and to produce one, 
 if it were only to become conscious of the principles of con- 
 struction and design. Then, of course, the conception of geo- 
 metric form, and of mathematical relations and laws, must 
 be completed by the application of drawing, even tho the 
 fundamental cognitions in this province of knowledge will 
 have to be based upon the direct handling and making of 
 bodies. 
 
 Design, again, while based upon mathematical relations, 
 is principally concerned in harmony of arrangement, pro- 
 portion of parts, and fitness for its purpose, and depends 
 upon invention and the awakening of the sense of beauty. 
 Taking its origin in mechanical construction, it assumes 
 
1 16 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 the function of beautifying decoration. From it, indeed, 
 all truly artistic forms have derived their being, for altho 
 art is intrinsically a form of expressing a thought or feel- 
 ing, its object is primarily to add beauty to a thing which 
 is otherwise utilitarian. Thus, designs were carved on knife 
 or sword handles; the monotony of walls and floors and 
 ceilings was broken by decorative effects, and carvings and 
 statuary helped to beautify the outside and inside of build- 
 ings. Or, we may assume a twofold origin of art: first the 
 desire to express, which led to picture-writing and kindred 
 lines of work (even modern paintings of the highest type 
 may be construed as perfect hieroglyphics, intended to ex- 
 press and communicate a thought) ; and then the desire to 
 beautify, which led to decoration. But the two lines of 
 artistic activity are closely allied with one another, since 
 even in the early times picture-writing, or hieroglyphics, 
 were used with decorative effect, and decoration at its best 
 is always used to express a definite meaning and will be 
 appropriate to a specific purpose. 
 
 Be that as it may, all decorative design is based on draw- 
 ing. 
 
 Design, as well as drawing without design, includes 
 color. Pencil drawing is essentially concerned in outline. 
 As soon as we use color, we deal with masses. Inserting 
 color into outlines is not a very commendable practice altho 
 it is quite common. Colored pencils, as they are a tempta- 
 tion to outline, have therefore their drawbacks. 
 
 The use of washes may be advocated as early as the kin- 
 dergarten. We may begin with ordinary ink washes, then 
 using prepared water colors. Design can also be expressed 
 by the use of colored papers, in folding, cutting, and pasting, 
 even using blue prints to effect. But while some simple 
 exercises of this kind may be done in the youngest classes, 
 this work will reach its true function in the higher. 
 
 Design includes carving. As design, it is art work; in its 
 execution, it is tool work in the sense of technique. Carv- 
 ing, therefore, partakes of the character of both lines of 
 expressive activity, and represents a blending of manual and 
 art work. And as it eventually leads to the construction 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 1 17 
 
 of beautiful articles of use, such as carved boxes, benches, 
 chairs, etc., it will serve to connect the two departments, if 
 departments they be, quite closely. 
 
 As to the material for carving, the following sequence 
 may be suggested : soap, clay, plaster, soft wood, hard wood. 
 Attention may be called to the valuable training and pretty 
 effects afforded by the German "Kerbschnitt" (notch-cut) 
 exercises. There are also valuable exercises in beaten brass and 
 similar design work. 
 
 Another occupation of which more will be said later, is 
 also in the nature of design and will require artistic thought 
 and invention, viz., weaving. 
 
 A large share of the art work will be modeling in clay. 
 Without entering here into the details of this work, it may 
 be remarked that it is fundamental in gaining artistic power 
 and conceptions of form, besides being admirably fitted to 
 the use even of the youngest children. It also leads over to 
 other occupations of a more "manual" and constructive type. 
 It appeals most fully to the primary sense of touch. 
 
 One of the first things to be mentioned is the sand-table 
 which ought to be found in every kindergarten, primary, 
 and intermediate room. Apart from the free representative 
 play of which it will allow, it will serve, as nothing else 
 will, to illustrate all essential geographical and physiogra- 
 phic facts on a small scale. Besides, it will form the basis 
 for illustrative and assembled work in the study of different 
 countries, and in history, such as will be referred to later in 
 this chapter. The sand-table in the room will be fitly sup- 
 plemented by the sand-heap outdoors, in the open air play- 
 ground which ought to be more organically connected with 
 all the work of the school than has heretofore been at- 
 tempted. 
 
 For manual training proper, the use of a great variety of 
 materials, representing a large circle of experiences and 
 occupations, is advocated. Among the material which is 
 desirable may be mentioned: sand, clay, paper, cardboard, 
 wood, tin, wire (lead, copper and iron), iron, and the ma- 
 terials needed for domestic work of various kinds. 
 
 Again, speaking of the occupations to be represented, and 
 
1 1 8 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 their successive introduction, we may take our clue from the 
 historic order in which they were evolved, as this delineates 
 the successive stages in intellectual grasp, and nerve and 
 muscle control, exhibited by the human race in its gradual 
 development of civilization — a development which is paral- 
 leled in the child's individual evolution. This does not 
 mean, as has been shown before, that we must disregard 
 the child's present and immediate environment and inter- 
 ests, in other words, his apperceptive basis, and force him 
 to be a primitive man and do primitive things — but rather 
 to follow his natural line of growth and allow him to do 
 modern things in a primitive manner. For example, the 
 child may be led to build and construct in simple fashion, 
 but not necessarily Eskimo huts or an Egyptian chair, but 
 modern dwellings in a simple and perhaps symbolical style, 
 and doll house furniture. Or he may weave and sew, not 
 necessarily an Indian blanket or wigwam, but a carpet for 
 his doll, or a tent for an outing camp. Let us not forget 
 that even apart from the apperceptive basis upon which we 
 must build, the modern child is after all a child, and the 
 savage adult was an adult, which means quite a difference 
 in strength, co-ordination, and purposeful activity. 
 
 In the development of the child's movements, we must 
 consider several distinct periods. Up to seven, the reflex 
 movements (spinal cord movements) prevail. The whole 
 body, and the whole limb, are in motion. The hand is not 
 yet really a human hand — the thumb is more like an or- 
 dinary finger in the beginning. We may again be reminded 
 of the powerful grasp of the baby who can support his own 
 weight for a surprising length of time, and this grasp has 
 been likened to the monkey grasp. The movements preva- 
 lent at this period are such as kicking, dropping, digging, 
 piling — blocks and sand, for instance; again, swinging, 
 running, throwing. Cutting and folding are still beset with 
 difficulties. Whatever requires nice adjustment, with the 
 help of the sense of vision, is beyond the baby's power; the 
 sense of touch is far ahead of that of sight. Children are 
 far-sighted to the age of eight. 
 
 This being the symbolic, or play, age, a symbolic scale 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 119 
 
 and symbolic use will characterize all work. 
 
 At six, simple tools can be introduced. The hand is at 
 last perfectly straight; yet the movements are still whole 
 arm and shoulder movements. The fingers and hands are 
 but partially free from the lower simultaneous impulse. 
 The rapidity even of hand and arm movement is only 60 
 per cent, of what it is at sixteen. Writing and drawing at 
 this age imply an intense strain, and such work, as far as 
 it may seem unavoidable, should be confined to blackboard 
 exercises. 
 
 At seven, sense impressions predominate in the movements, 
 and the mere reflexes are under control. We should now 
 attend particularly to the training of the sensory responses. 
 Partly for this purpose, partly because of the greater degree 
 of muscular co-ordination possible at this stage, we may begin 
 to introduce tools of greater complexity, again following 
 somewhat the order in which the tools were differentiated in 
 history from the first primitive implements. The club was, 
 perhaps, the primordial form of all human tools — the branch 
 of a tree, or simply a stone. Of all manufactured tools, the 
 hammer comes first, and it was from the hammer that all 
 other tools were developed. A hammer with a sharp edge 
 became a knife; a pointed knife gave origin to the needle. 
 Likewise in children's work, let us begin with crude tools 
 and crude work, and work up to differentiated tools and di- 
 versified tasks. 
 
 At the age of eight sensory education can be diversified 
 and emphasized thru the introduction of simple selected exer- 
 cises from many different occupations; the motor education 
 cannot yet employ special groups of muscles and nerves, but 
 must still be more general and elementary. One of the dan- 
 gers of this period is from overstrain; this is, as will be re- 
 membered, the fatigue period. 
 
 In the next year, there is great gain in precision, but ma- 
 ture accuracy in hand and finger control is not reached before 
 nine or ten. Application of this fact can easily be made upon 
 the traditional methods of teaching writing, drawing, and 
 sewing to young children. 
 
 At eleven, the free use of the wrist movement is gained, 
 
120 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 and from now on exercises dependent upon this may be intro- 
 duced. Games of skill are valuable at this time; and gener- 
 ally there must be training with respect to muscular quick- 
 ness. As this is the pre-pubertal period, the "wild time", full 
 occupation is necessary so as to lead the surplus activity into 
 constructive channels. 
 
 The age of twelve marks the final and consummate transi- 
 tion from make-believe to definite ends. The child now de- 
 sires to make useful, real things. This is the shop work pe- 
 riod, when sewing proper also has its place. 
 
 The primitive occupations are building, tool making, pot- 
 tery, sewing and weaving, planting, cooking. 
 
 The child delights in building. Building blocks, first pure- 
 ly symbolical, in other words, capable of representing every- 
 thing in free play, and then such as can be used for archi- 
 tectural constructions, form one of the most widely accepted 
 and welcome playthings for children. The blocks of the 
 Fourth Gift and their divisions and multiples can be employed 
 for a variety of instructive exercises in building and construc- 
 tion. The children may make doll houses and furnish them by 
 crude carpenter work. It is well to remember, however, that 
 the scale should not be miniature, but sufficiently large to 
 allow of whole arm movements in the making. The tools 
 to be used now would be hammer, knife, awl, drill. A primi- 
 tive drill with bowstring may be easily constructed by the 
 children. Practice in whittling would fitly follow the first 
 cruder exercises. 
 
 The knife develops into the saw, and there is a possibil- 
 ity to introduce some coarse sawing even in the lowest grades. 
 The scroll saw may become a valuable adjunct at this stage, 
 and its use may be perfected thru the grades. 
 
 A more complicated course in wood construction, combin- 
 ing the use of all foregoing tools and materials, may be taken 
 up in the older grades of the school, care being taken that 
 there be no excessive indulgence in the formalities and techni- 
 calities of the trade, and that ample opportunity is afforded 
 for free spontaneous invention. 
 
 All this time, some primitive tools may be constructed of 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 121 
 
 wood, wire, and like material. 
 
 Wood, indeed, is only one of the material bodies with 
 which the experimenting child should occupy himself. Wire 
 lends itself very readily to the making of many interesting 
 forms, and is particularly helpful in the development of the 
 sense of touch and of muscular adjustment. In the lower 
 grades, many forms of symbolic size (hooks, chains, etc.) 
 may be bent in pliable lead wire, using the fingers and a little 
 mandrel of wood for forming. In the next step copperwire 
 of increasing thickness may be substituted, and with the help 
 of hammer and vise more realistic articles can be fashioned. 
 Later the child may fashion a needle of copper wire; and fol- 
 lowing this, a steel needle may be introduced for the use in 
 sewing. The wire work may lead up to forging (first cold, 
 using lead ; then hot, using iron and forge) when actual im- 
 plements may be made (chisel, chain, pokers, etc.), and to 
 other kinds of metal working. In the "grammar" grades and 
 the high school, a course in actual tool making would eventu- 
 ally complete this course. 
 
 Pottery is the industrial side of modeling. The children 
 will delight in shaping vessels of all kinds, Indian like, first 
 with the fingers alone, and finger marks for decoration. Then 
 in the next grades a simple potter's wheel (the first machine 
 invented by man) can be used for more exact work, and dec- 
 orations may be in design and color. The making of a pot- 
 ter's wheel of simple construction, by the way, would be a 
 suitable exercise in the shop work of higher grades. 
 
 Sewing and weaving can be summed up under the general 
 head of the making of household articles, and will form one 
 group with basket making, bead work, netting, plaiting, string 
 work, etc. All these are primitive occupations, largely in- 
 vented and practiced by primitive woman, and will fitly illus- 
 trate the civilizing arts, besides being admirably adapted to 
 the possibilities of children. But again it must be understood 
 that this primitive work need not be altogether an imitation 
 of savage work; it may largely be adapted to the modern 
 environment and the modern interests and needs of the child, 
 in addition to its illustrative features. 
 
 With children the coarser work should precede the finer. 
 
122 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 Weaving, with reeds, raffia, chamois strips, ribbon, cloth, 
 worsted, shoestrings, should be the forerunner of sewing, and 
 a primitive loom, on a fairly large scale, may be employed for 
 the manufacture of simple fabrics. As a continuation of weav- 
 ing, darning and knitting will introduce sewing proper. 
 
 Sewing, requiring rather fine muscular adjustments in eye 
 and hand, should first be quite coarse and crude. Accurate 
 stitching on a small scale, which is usually offered as the first 
 "logical" exercise in sewing, the making of "samplers" and the 
 like, should be avoided ; it is not only injurious but an actual 
 waste of time. Begin, perhaps, with a big bone needle (made 
 from a crochet needle), coarse canvas and burlap, and large 
 threads. Cord and worsted threads will answer the purpose. 
 And have the child make things, in rapid work, even with 
 colored threads — bags, doilies, dresses for a large doll, in sav- 
 age or crude fashion, with as few stitches as necessary. It is 
 immaterial at this stage whether the child knows the names 
 and functions of different stitches. There are many sug- 
 gestive courses published in raffiia and cord work, basketry, 
 netting, etc. The intelligent teacher will have a wealth of 
 applications of the general principle to choose from. 
 
 In parenthesis it may be said that even work of this nature, 
 altho it appears pronouncedly industrial and "practical", par- 
 takes in a singular way of the nature of expressive work. 
 Those who can read the meaning of the patterns and meth- 
 ods of Indian basketry for instance, will be surprised to find 
 that there is a significance in every variation of form. On 
 baskets and blankets, totemic figures were worked in a mul- 
 titude of ways. Picture-writing as ordinarily understood was 
 "preceeded by the use of material objects which afterwards 
 were reproduced graphically in paintings, cuttings and carv- 
 mgs. * 
 
 Among these may be here mentioned : knotted cords and 
 objects tied, notched or marked sticks, and wampum, the 
 
 *This passage and a few following, are quoted from Gar- 
 rick Mallery's study of "Picture Writing of the American 
 Indians", Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1888-89. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 123 
 
 latter representing bead work. "A peculiar and ingenious 
 mode of expressing thoughts without pronouncing or writ- 
 ing them in language is still met with among the Indian 
 shepherds in the Peruvian Cordilleras, tho it is practised 
 merely in the accounts of the flocks. This system consists 
 of a peculiar intertwining of various strings into a net-like 
 braidwork, and the divers modes of tying these strings form 
 the record, the knots and loops signifying definite ideas and 
 their combination the connection of these ideas. This sys- 
 tem of mnemonic device, which was practised by the an- 
 cient Peruvians, was called quipu, and, tho a similar knot- 
 writing is found in China, Tartary, eastern Asia, on many 
 islands of the Pacific, and even in some parts of Africa, yet 
 in Peru, at the time of the Incas, it was so elaborately de- 
 veloped as to permit its employment for official statistics of 
 the government. Of course, as this writing gave no picture 
 of a word and did not suggest sounds, but, like the notched 
 sticks, merely recalled ideas already existing, the writing 
 could be understood by those only who possessed the key 
 to it; but it is noteworthy that when the Jesuit missions 
 began their work in Peru they were able to use the quipus 
 for the purpose of making the Indians learn Latin prayers 
 by heart." The descendants of the Quiches still use a 
 modified quipu, or rather a sort of bead work, for numera- 
 tion. "They pierce beans and hang them by different col- 
 ored strings, each of which represents one of the column 
 places used in decimal arithmetic. A green string signifies 
 1000; a red one, ioo; a yellow, 10; and a white refers to 
 the 9 smaller digits. Thus if 7 beans are on a green, 2 on 
 a red, 8 on a yellow, and 6 on a white string, and the whole 
 tied together, the bundle expresses the number 7,286." 
 Prof. Terrien de Lacouperie reports: "The Yang tung, 
 south of Khoten, and consequently north of Tibet, who first 
 communicated with China in A. D. 641, had no written 
 characters. They only cut notches in sticks and tied knots 
 in strings for records." 
 
 In his fantastic story, "The Man Who Would be King", 
 Rudyard Kipling has one of his adventurers speak of a 
 "string talk letter, that we'd learned the way of it from a 
 
I2 4 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 blind beggar in the Punjab." And he to whom the man 
 tells his story makes this comment: "I remembered that 
 there had once come to the office a blind man with a knotted 
 twig and a piece of string which he wound round the twig 
 according to some cipher of his own. He could, after the 
 lapse of days or hours, repeat the sentence which he had 
 reeled up. He had reduced the alphabet to eleven primi- 
 tive sounds, and tried to teach me his method, but failed." 
 
 The knots tied in handkerchiefs by forgetful people to 
 this day, to remind them of things they want to remember, 
 are a relic of this ancient method of record. And it sug- 
 gests itself that the various primitive occupations mentioned 
 might be utilized even with our modern children in a simi- 
 lar way, at least in the pre-writing period. It shows that 
 this pre-writing period may not be entirely devoid of record- 
 taking. 
 
 Considering other occupations fitted for children, plant- 
 ing deserves much more attention than it receives even now 
 when the school garden idea has been broached. Planting has a 
 close connection with cooking, and should be related to it 
 in part. School gardens ought to be a regular appendage 
 to every school. They should have a use not only for the 
 study of plants as such, as a help in nature work, but also 
 for the raising of plants and vegetables for consumption in 
 kitchen work. Cooking is also intimately related to physio- 
 logy and hygiene, and a rational correlation of these sub- 
 jects will prove far more beneficial than the teaching of a 
 bogus physiology from unscientific textbooks. 
 
 That cooking is not merely an upper grade and high 
 school study for girls who don cap and apron in effective 
 coquetry, but can be introduced systematically and with 
 good effect in the lowest grades, has been demonstrated in 
 progressive kindergartens and primary classes. 
 
 Let us be reminded that planting, as explained before, is 
 one of the most interesting experiences for the young by 
 which to learn one of the first fundamental conditions upon 
 which human civilization rests. The transition from 
 nomadic life to agriculture marked the beginning of settled 
 society in the history of the race, and it is well that this 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 125 
 
 stage in the humanizing of the child should be well im- 
 proved. 
 
 On the general value of domestic study for girls, a wise 
 mother, in reply to the question, "If you had girls of your 
 own, would you give them the same education that you had, 
 or would you try to improve upon it?" is quoted by Jeamie 
 Josephine Starr, in "Good Housekeeping", as saying: 
 
 "I shall make them (the daughters) feel the dignity of 
 hand labor, and teach them not to despise household work, 
 by beginning in early childhood to teach them to sew, to be 
 orderly about their own possessions, to take the responsi- 
 bility of some light household duty, and hold them to its 
 correct fulfilment. When they leave school or college, I 
 shall entrust to them, by degrees, as much of the home 
 management as possible; but I shall insist on an early ac- 
 quaintance, in childhood and girlhood, with some details 
 of homemaking; because, however brilliant a girl may be 
 mentally, she needs the practical knowledge which the man- 
 agement of a home can best give and if she acquires a dis- 
 taste for household affairs thru lack of habit and training, 
 no amount of brains will help her over the knotty problems 
 of domestic life, till she learns how to do things herself, and 
 an early training, acquired most unconsciously, will save 
 hours of unhappiness. I know of so many college-bred 
 women and teachers who loathe housekeeping, even in homes 
 of their own, because they never learned how; while to me 
 housekeeping, because I understand it, is an interesting oc- 
 cupation — one which forms but a single item in my daily 
 interests, because I learned to systematize and then dismiss 
 it." 
 
 Domestic science and practice, it ought to be added, is 
 not exclusively a study for girls. When rightly taught, as 
 the science and art of right living, it is as interesting and 
 valuable to boys. It was a lesson not soon to be forgotten 
 by the managers of vacation schools that boys were as eager 
 as the girls in taking lessons in cooking and sewing, as they 
 were to do shopwork, and not a few surpassed the girls in 
 application and ability. It may be remarked that the best 
 cooks are "chefs", and the best ladies' tailors are men. 
 
126 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 Another kind of work well adapted to children is paper 
 work. There is the weaving of mats which should, how- 
 ever, be done on a considerably larger scale than is usually 
 done in the kindergarten. "Bogus paper" and linen are 
 other materials which can be used for the same work and 
 have many advantages. With the introduction of scissors, 
 many helpful exercises will commend themselves. Pictures 
 may be cut out and mounted; thru folding and cutting, 
 many forms of beauty may be developed, and much work 
 in design can be done. But the same caution as for weav- 
 ing should be heeded; avoid small-sized work — it is best for 
 little fingers to do coarse work on a large scale. 
 
 Freehand tearing and cutting is very valuable in art 
 representation, and may be developed into silhouette work. 
 This affords much inspiration for home occupation; indeed 
 all work done in school will find its test as educational work 
 by the effect it will have upon the conduct of the child at 
 home. 
 
 Cardboard exercises, leading up to the essential elements 
 of decorative pasteboard work and even bookbindery, will 
 lend their aid to geometrical construction and demonstra- 
 tion. Or rather, out of the concrete experience of this 
 kind of work will gradually arise an understanding of 
 mathematical relations of form. Then, it will be connected 
 with other studies, by being made subservient to them. 
 Boxes and trays may be made for seeds, specimens and col- 
 lections of all kinds; files and portfolios, to keep pictures 
 and clippings, etc. 
 
 Many of the forms built in cardboard may be repeated in 
 the workshop of the higher grades, in tin; while there will be 
 few new form concepts developed in this way, there is a set 
 of new experiences as to material, tools, and method. 
 
 Much of this work, as has been shown, will serve as 
 illustrative work, by being intimately interwoven with other 
 branches, so as to establish a system of associations and ap- 
 perceptive relations. We may once more be reminded of the 
 value of motor images, or memories, for the building up and 
 reproduction of our concepts. 
 
 Special work may be required in special branches. Draw- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 127 
 
 ing, e. g., is the common servant of geography, history, na- 
 ture work, etc., etc. Map drawing, the making of relief maps 
 in papier mache, salt, putty, and other material, will enhance 
 the work in geography; pictures and products will be col- 
 lected, stored and mounted. 
 
 Here are a few suggestions from the practice of some pro- 
 gressive schools: 
 
 I. Articles for use in the school made with easy stitches, e. 
 g. overcasting, braiding of soft fibres and coarse weaving. 
 
 II. Work in sewing is connected on the side of clothing 
 with the social work; skins, furs, and their treatment; study 
 of wool ; all primitive processes of preparation from raw wool 
 to woven cloth. Technical work: making of work bags. 
 
 Knotted cords, plaited mat, bow and arrow, knotted bag, 
 wigwam, moccasin, snowshoes, bead weaving, canoe, baskets. 
 
 III. Textile work: textile industry taken up from social 
 side in each race studied. Technical work: characteristic 
 costume for each race ; equipment for work bags, e. g. needle- 
 book and pin cushion. Alaska: course in simple tie knots, 
 frame for fishing sloop, net for fishing sloop, frame for bead 
 weaving, bead weaving. Scandinavia', milk wagon, Viking 
 ship. Switzerland: Chalet, dress doll. Lincoln: log cabin, 
 rough stool and table. Robinson Crusoe: baskets, tent, raft, 
 ladder, cable. 
 
 And thus it is carried on to higher modes of occupation and 
 an understanding of higher processes of manufacture. These 
 samples of what has been done in some schools cannot serve 
 as models, as every school has its own problem to solve. They 
 are simply suggestive, even in their mistakes. 
 
 Assembled Work, by which is meant the combination of 
 separate pieces or kinds of work into sets, or groups, is largely 
 illustrative in character. It will draw upon various occupa- 
 tions to produce a whole. There may also be an assembling 
 from different classes, each contributing its share, on the level 
 of its ability, to the complete production. Thus, one class 
 may build the doll's house; another may furnish it; still 
 another may surround it with a fence and supply it with gar- 
 den and farm tools for the attached farm yard ; a fourth may 
 dress the dolls, supply the beds and blankets, etc. Or an 
 
i28 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 entire farm may be built up ; or a set of furniture for a large 
 doll may be made, including pictures and picture frames, car- 
 pets (on a half-grown scale) woven, curtains and doilies sup- 
 plied, and the doll herself furnished with a complete "trous- 
 seau" to finish out the idea of complete equipment. 
 
 The sand table will be an important basis for another 
 class of illustrative, assembled work. On it there may be 
 built up landscapes and scenery for illustration of countries, 
 customs and historical events. Cities may be outlined, and 
 Indian villages constructed. The human figures may be mod- 
 eled in clay, or whittled out in wood, and dressed appropri- 
 ately in various fashions. The houses may be built of wood 
 and clay, or modeled in cardboard. So-called "modeling 
 sheets" may be bought ready drawn at the stationer's. Huts 
 and wigwams may be made of twigs, cloth and chamois. Pot- 
 tery and implements can be supplied, and mosses, ferns and 
 other plants of proper selection, rocks and soils, will add to 
 the effect and instructional value. The work can be made 
 to grow, by gradual additions thruout the year, or term. 
 Mechanical devices and moving things may be added: mills, 
 water works, processions, workmen at work — driven by sand, 
 water, or clockwork. Models of inventions may be con- 
 structed : engines, machines, steamers, bridges, in wood, wire, 
 tin and cardboard. It has been the custom of many high 
 schools, in reading Caesar, to have the pupils make models 
 of the famous bridge across the Rhine. There is a multi- 
 tude of other things. 
 
 The schools that afford their pupils the advantage of a 
 large school yard, perhaps even a real school ground, may 
 transplant some of this work outdoors. Thus the pupils may 
 have their forts and wigwams, their mills and bridges, 
 their mountains and play houses on a semi-natural scale in the 
 yard, and represent with their own persons events and cus- 
 toms of foreign lands or olden times dramatically. 
 
 The suggestions offered in this chapter are but fragmentary, 
 it is true. But they will suffice to indicate the enormous pos- 
 sibilities which a well-articulated course of manual work pos- 
 sesses, and the great variety of exercises that may be summed 
 up under this head. This variety leaves ample margin for 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 129 
 
 individual freedom and choice, and for the manifold differ- 
 ences which may exist in the local conditions of schools, or the 
 varying characteristics of classes, or groups of children. There 
 will never be any need of forcing a child into the narrow 
 grooves of artificial and one-sided "sequences". There is 
 enough of the play interest connected with the exercises sug- 
 gested to make the work attractive; and enough of plan, and 
 practice, and information, thru experience and expression, to 
 bring out the full educational value of manual training. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Mathematical Evolution of the Child 
 
 ONE of the chief values of the study of mathe- 
 matics has been found in its universality. It 
 encompasses the entire world of existence. It 
 enables us to bring the most distant worlds and 
 the most minute forms under the scrutiny of 
 the mind, and to organize them all in one grand system of 
 order and harmony. Where words would be clumsy, 
 awkward and circumlocutary, entirely inadequate to medi- 
 ate a clear and immediate perception, a mathematical form- 
 ula will be found to express a universal truth in terse and 
 pregnant form. To illustrate this, we need only to com- 
 pare the statement: "The square of the sum of two quanti- 
 ties is equal to the sum of the squares of the two quantities 
 plus twice their product," with the formula: (a+b) 2 =a a + 
 2ab+b 2 . 
 
 Quantitative relations of enormous proportions can, thru 
 a formula, be reduced to simple forms easily handled and 
 readily understood. The statement of the eternal lawp 
 which govern this wonderful world of ours would be very 
 difficult if we were left without the use of mathematical 
 symbols. Thru them, we can arrive at the highest abstrac- 
 tions. Mathematics has therefore proven itself an indis- 
 pensible helper towards a philosophical conception of the 
 world and its forces. It is a ready tool of the thinker, and 
 he who has not learned to think in abstract mathematical 
 terms will never reach the mountain top of thought from 
 where a universal view may be taken. 
 
 No wonder that when the ancients, from early crude 
 
 I30 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 131 
 
 conceptions, had worked out the science of mathematics, 
 as the first of the exact sciences, they exalted it into a 
 philosophic system which they imagined would solve the 
 problem of existence. Magic powers were attributed to 
 numbers, and even Greek philosophers built their world 
 conception upon mysterious numerical relations. What 
 had been merely a tool for the training of the mind in mas- 
 tering the thought-forms of space and time — what was not 
 in itself concrete existence, but a symbol of relations — as- 
 sumed the semblance of reality and developed a ghost-like 
 substantiality which has haunted our minds ever since the 
 time of Plato. How little of concreteness number has to 
 us, how clearly it manifests its symbolical function, will 
 become evident when we probe into our numerical concepts 
 and ask ourselves how far up in the scale of number we 
 have any clear notion of quantity. Who is there that can 
 readily recognize 100, or even 50, yea, 10, without count- 
 ing, or grouping, the units? And yet, we manipulate mil- 
 lions and hundreds of millions. This is a purely abstract 
 function. 
 
 If we apply these facts to the mathematical side of in- 
 struction, we may have to admit the unquestionable and 
 prodigious value of mathematics in the training of the 
 faculty of abstract thinking. Yet, we should avoid falling 
 into the error of confusing mathematical symbols with reali- 
 ties. Again, the faculty of abstract thinking is of slow 
 growth, and we must not attempt to force it before its time. 
 The geometry of Euclid was not created until ages of civil- 
 izatory efforts had been lived thru by our race, and before 
 there could be any science of number, there were crude 
 number superstitions coupled with the conception of quan- 
 tity. These superstitions are not yet entirely vanquished; 
 the curious dread many uneducated people still have of the 
 census, and the beliefs still haunting many persons' minds 
 with regard to the mysterious powers of such numbers as 7, 
 3, or 13, are sufficient proof of the survival of these ancient 
 notions. The symbol which was destined to become the 
 ready tool of the rational mind, was at first a magical sign 
 endowed with mystic powers. And then, all abstractions 
 
132 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 took their origin in the world of objects — they are im- 
 possible without being abstracted from the concrete, and use- 
 less unless they symbolize concrete things in their actual or 
 possible relations. 
 
 Thus, mathematical instruction must be based upon the 
 world of concrete things, and be continually related to it. 
 Like time and space, the mathematical element is a method 
 of the mind to categorize. Except in relation to geometry, 
 mathematics is not in itself concrete. But, as Prof. W. S. 
 Jackman once put it, "it is its function to give accuracy and 
 exactness to ideas; to render hazy notions clear, and to 
 evolve the definite from the indefinite." 
 
 Our common practice in the schools is not sufficiently 
 consistent with rational methods. 
 
 First of all, there is too much abstract work in the early 
 grades. Indeed, some of it will always prove helpful in the 
 training of the budding faculty of abstraction, and, in the 
 form of mental arithmetic, will assist in developing the 
 power to hold mental images in mind, and to strengthen the 
 memory along this line. Let us not forget that even the 
 use of "denominate" numbers requires much abstraction un- 
 less the concrete image of the things which these denomina- 
 tions signify, is very vivid in the child's mind ; and all "men- 
 tal" work is, to the young child at least, much in the nature 
 of abstraction since he must then even image the mathemat- 
 ical symbols. So much of abstract work is stultifying, and 
 when we give our little children examples like this to puzzle 
 over: 
 
 Divide 25 by 2-9 of 7-8 of 1-17, etc. — 
 we may well question the advisability of wasting time and 
 energy on such stuff. Truly said R. B. Carter, in "Arti- 
 ficial Production of Stupidity in Schools": 
 
 "An urchin may be able to say correctly that a word point- 
 ed out to him is an adverb or a pronoun, may proceed to give 
 a definition of either, and examples of instances of occurrence, 
 and may produce the impression that he understands all this, 
 when the truth is that he has only learned to make certain 
 noises in a particular order and is unable to say anything intel- 
 ligible about the matter in language of his own. Or he may 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 133 
 
 repeat the multiplication table, and even work it, saying that 
 7x8=56, without knowing what 56 is, or what 7x8 means. 
 He knows all about 7 or 8, not from schooling, but from 
 the lessons of life, from having had 7 nuts or 8 marbles; 
 but of 56, which is beyond his experience, he knows nothing. 
 The nature of the mental operations of such children is per- 
 haps as little known to the teacher, or to the vicar of the 
 parish, or to the kind ladies who take an interest in the school, 
 as the mental operations of the inhabitants of Saturn. The 
 adults distinctly understand a thing which they feel to be 
 very easy, and do not know that any children can talk about 
 it correctly without attaching an idea to their words." 
 
 Mr. Carter wrote these words in England, fifty years ago ! 
 
 We shall see later that some such drill has its value during 
 the "counting period" of the child, or for utilizing the 
 memory for the storing up of material for future use. But 
 surely Mr. Carter was right in claiming that 56 means noth- 
 ing concrete to the child. To how many of us does it? 
 
 Another common mistake is the attempt to exhaust the 
 logical possibilities of number relations at too early an age. 
 Thus the child is not allowed to proceed to the number 8 
 until he is supposed to have mastered all the possibilities up 
 to 7. This is the most flagrant fault of the still surviving 
 "Grube" method. In fact, the child can easily learn to count 
 up to large numbers without exhausting any, and the hope to 
 make him understand 7 before he attacks 8 is largely an illu- 
 sion. It is a premature attempt at rationalizing, besides 
 neglecting the child's early concrete notions of number as 
 derived from actual observation. He usually knows a good 
 deal about 8 before the pedantic schoolmaster deigns to take 
 official cognizance of the fact. It is like the legal fiction that 
 a man whose death certificate has once been filed, even tho by 
 mistaken identification, remains legally dead, altho he may 
 present himself in person to the court, until the court annuls 
 the death certificate officially, and with much show of method. 
 
 We shall see later that the child's number concepts are of 
 twofold origin; the result, on the one hand, of a continuous 
 series (counting), and of space conceptions on the other. 
 
 In previous chapters mention has been made of the unes- 
 
134 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 sential details with which the course in arithmetic is usually 
 overloaded. Problems in partial payment, broker's discount, 
 and in fact almost the whole of commercial arithmetic are 
 altogether outside of the child's province, and should be 
 omitted. Most of the so-called "practical examples" ought to 
 be weeded out and replaced by others which are more truly 
 real problems to the child. Of these mistermed "practical 
 examples", we may distinguish two classes: 
 
 First, those that are absolutely wrong, and which only seem 
 to be "practical", because "practical" denominations are em- 
 ployed. To this class belong examples like the following : If 
 one horse costs $40.00, how much will 20 horses cost? or: 
 If one man can do a certain job in two days, and another 
 could do the same work in four days, how long would it take 
 if they were to work together? The answer expected to the 
 first problem, $800.00, would be "mathematically" correct, 
 but "practically" it would signify an exception. It happens 
 rarely that there are 20 horses of exactly the same value on a 
 stock farm ; and if there were, you could buy 20 of them at 
 one time at a considerable discount. In the second case much 
 would depend upon the possibility of the two men working 
 together profitably. They might be in each other's way. Or 
 the "personal equation" might interfere. Or, they might help 
 each other, thus saving time. Asked one teacher: "If one 
 servant girl could clean three rooms in two hours, how long 
 would it take two girls to do the work?" Little Girl: "Four 
 hours." Teacher: "Wrong. It would take only one hour." 
 Little Girl: "Oh, I didn't know you were talking about ser 
 vant girls that wasn't on speaking terms." 
 
 As far as examples of this nature are legitimate at all, they 
 would better be postponed until the time that an algebraic 
 solution can be given. 
 
 A second class of spurious "practical" examples are those 
 which are outside of the child's knowledge and interest. Most 
 of the commercial details belong here. A child has no inter- 
 est in corner lots and business speculations, and if he has he 
 is not a genuine child. The true child has no experience in 
 these things. Those children who will later enter a business 
 life will then have opportunity of obtaining the knowl- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 135 
 
 edge and concentration requisite for these operations. 
 
 In the next place there is great need of simplification and 
 unification. Altogether too many divers operations are dis- 
 tinguished which confuse the child's mind and prevent him 
 from seeing the simple relations, and the fact that some opera- 
 tions are merely self-evident adaptations of others. 
 
 There is, for instance, no need at all to draw a sharp line 
 between division and ratio and proportion. These two pro- 
 cesses, or relations, are intimately connected, in a measure even 
 identical. The artificial distinction is unduly emphasized by 
 a multiplicity of signs. The child will be unable to recognize 
 the essential identity of these three propositions: 
 
 3:4-9:12; 
 
 3-r4=9-ri2; and 
 H— 9-12. 
 
 In arithmetical text books on the continent of Europe, no 
 distinction is made between the signs of division and equa- 
 tion, and those of ratio and proportion. The signs : and = 
 are the only ones used, in addition of course to the fractional 
 line. It is not claimed here that there is not a logical dis- 
 tinction between division and proportion; but a child is not 
 concerned in this. 
 
 Much can be gained by introducing the idea of equation at 
 an early time. Algebraic methods, e. g. the parenthesis, can 
 also be used at an early stage to advantage ; arithmetical ex- 
 amples too complicated for a convenient arithmetical solution 
 may fitly be postponed until the algebraic form can be used. 
 Occasional demonstrations of the value of algebraic form will 
 arouse an interest in this before the children are mature 
 enough to employ it themselves. The bewildering complexity, 
 apparent, not real, of the problems in percentage will be re- 
 duced to a minimum when once a formula like this will be 
 grasped : 
 
 Capital (Base) x Per Cent x Time 
 
 =Interest 
 
 IOO 
 
i 3 6 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 which may be abbreviated in various ways, e. g. : 
 C x °/o x T 
 
 -=1. 
 
 ioo 
 
 Above all things let us avoid juggling with figures in the 
 elementary grades. When the work of comparison begins 
 mathematical exercises become fruitful and educative. It 
 was preceded by the collection of data (counting) whose 
 principal value consists in that it affords opportunities for 
 mental discipline. "In making comparisons", says Jackman, 
 "there may be recognized four modes; . . . these four 
 modes in their cumulative complexity also bear a natural re- 
 lation to the development of the child's mind. The first 
 mode of comparison which a child uses is where all the 
 quantities are considered as wholes" (the four fundamental 
 operations; the multiplication tables). . . . "The sec- 
 ond mode is by considering one of the quantities directly 
 as a part of the other" (fractions). . . . "In the third 
 mode of comparison the child may use either quantity as the 
 standard, but he must be able to conceive of it as being rep- 
 resented by unity" (ratio and proportion). . . . "In 
 the fourth mode the pupil must be able to conceive of one 
 of the quantities being represented by one hundred" (per- 
 centage) . . . 
 
 All exercises in mathematical accuracy will have to be 
 grouped around these central thoughts and relations, and 
 consequently be adapted to the development of the child's 
 mind itself. 
 
 As a reaction against the ordinary methods of teaching 
 number, the ratio method has been suggested by such men as 
 Dewey, McClellan, and Speer. The keynote of this doc- 
 trine is struck in the preface to Mr. Speer's book: "The 
 fundamental thing is to induce judgments of relative magni- 
 tude." The theory is that the child should be set, not to 
 studying about number, nor to learning how to manipulate 
 the bare symbols of number, but to exercising an activity 
 which involves number, or which is number. It is claimed 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 137 
 
 by this theory that the number by itself indicates relative 
 value. It always expresses ratio, i. e. the relation which the 
 magnitude to be measured bears to the unit of reference. 
 
 We may agree that number, being based on measurement, 
 is ratio, philosophically considered; but this relation is not 
 graspable by young children to the extent this newer method 
 of teaching number demands. The ratio idea, being a ra- 
 tional idea, develops slowly. The child compares primarily 
 magnitudes in a more or less crude way. Magnitude to the 
 child is more or less the same as aggregation. 
 
 We cannot be too cautious in not expecting too much rea- 
 soning from the young child. It is clearly a mistake to in- 
 sist pedantically upon the "whereas" and "therefor". Ex- 
 periments on mathematical reasoning have been made by 
 numerous psychologists. John A. Hancock shows that in the 
 solution of the examples upon which the tests were based, 
 and which were graduated according to the knowledge the 
 pupils were supposed to possess, errors in reasoning were 
 quite frequent below the 12th year; not before this period 
 is the number of errors less than 50 per cent., the boys being 
 usually ahead of the girls. "The errors may be all heard or 
 seen daily; children hearing them rarely manifest suspicion 
 of their absurdity." Typical examples of the mistakes are 
 as follows: "Three feet equals fifteen inches, or one-third of 
 twelve inches." "Five dozen eggs cost five times fifteen 
 cents, or sixty eggs cost sixty times fifteen cents." 
 
 Speer's method which has found favor with many teachers, 
 employs the motor activities of the child, and is thoroly 
 objective. It bases arithmetic on geometry. So far, it is 
 rational. But it neglects too much one of the two sources 
 of mathematical conceptions. These two sources are, first, 
 counting, and second, measurement and form. The "new 
 arithmetic" is based on the second, to the exclusion of the 
 first. 
 
 "The starting point of arithmetic", says Prof. Hermann 
 Schubert, "is the idea of counting and of number as the re- 
 sult of counting. . . . The idea of addition springs 
 immediately from the idea of counting." Of the "counting 
 period" in young children, following the "naming period", 
 
138 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 mention has been made before. Pres. G. Stanley Hall refers 
 to the primitive tallying and counting, to be observed in 
 babies, as previous to the use of mathematical symbols. To 
 the extreme advocates of exclusive workshop arithmetic, 
 Prof. J. A. McClellan answers very justly as follows: 
 
 "The normal action is thwarted by the irrational arithme- 
 tic of quality, and the servile worshippers of qualitative 
 unities. For when the child, in counting and measuring, 
 is forced, by the workshop routinist, to dwell upon the 
 'qualitative aspects': to exercise his growing power of dis- 
 crimination and relation upon the qualities of things, care- 
 fully noting perceived objects, and all the qualities that 
 make them what they are, the mental movement of numeri- 
 cal abstraction and generalization, which alone results in 
 numerical ideas, is either impeded, or absolutely arrested. 
 But let the child be interested in finding the how much of 
 some quantity; then, in his operation of counting and meas- 
 uring he will inevitably 'drop the qualitative and consider 
 only the quantitative aspect.' Every parent has seen the 
 little one counting the groups of familiar things about him; 
 has seen and rejoiced in it as indicating a higher energy 
 struggling for expression. . . . When our playmates 
 challenged us to a comparison of treasures, of playthings 
 . . . we emptied our capacious pockets of all that they 
 contained — common marbles, china alleys, jewsharps, knives, 
 tops, whistles, pea-shooters, and so on — motley quantities 
 they were; but they were quantities; quantities needing meas- 
 urement to decide the question as to who was the richer or 
 richest boy. Was ours then an arithmetic of the qualitative 
 or the quantitative sort? . . . We saw in an instant 
 that top, marble, and whistle, and knife, whatever their 
 qualitative differences, were all alike in this — they were 
 playthings — and therefore each contributed its part in mak- 
 ing up the 'how many' which defined the 'how much', the 
 end and purpose we had in view." 
 
 In the matter of facts, McClellan is correct; but he 
 overestimates plainly the abstractive faculties of the young 
 child. This primitive counting is based not so much upon 
 measurement as upon the series idea. Boys, when interested in 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 139 
 
 measurement, have already touched the threshold of mathe- 
 matical reasoning, and cannot be said to be still on the level 
 of rudimentary concepts. 
 
 Dr. Paul Carus contributes these observations to the prob- 
 lem under discussion: 
 
 "My experience is that children will, without the slightest 
 trouble, learn to count first to 12, then to 20. When they 
 have learnt to count to 20, they are prepared to count to 
 any number up to 100 or more. The third step is an intel- 
 lectual step, by learning to understand the function of the 
 decades 30, 40, 50, etc., which are, however, clearly grasped 
 as running parallel with 3, 4, 5, and so forth." 
 
 This counting is not necessarily bound up with objects. 
 It is in its nature rhythmical, neither qualitative, nor truly 
 quantitative, in the sense in which Prof. McClellan uses 
 these terms. Says Dr. Carus: 
 
 "One peculiar phase in learning how to count is marked 
 by the child's ability to stop at the right time. Children 
 first acquire the mechanical memory of saying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
 etc. When they are shown five spoons or five chips or other 
 things of any description and are requested to count them, 
 they begin to count mechanically without being able to stop 
 at the right time. It indicates a more advanced degree of 
 mentality when the child possesses a perfect parallelism be- 
 tween the names of the numbers and the things which, by 
 being pointed at, are to be counted. The process of counting 
 has reached its maturity when a child learns to stop at the 
 proper time. In the beginning the tendency will predomin- 
 ate that whenever the child begins to count, it will count the 
 whole series of numbers as far as it knows them; but the 
 relation between the things and the series of word-images 
 of the numerals is easily established by stopping the child 
 and summing up the situation by saying: There are five 
 spoons, there are five chips, or whatever it may be." 
 
 Counting is automatically induced by the rhythmical 
 movements of the body — breathing, heart-beat, walking, the 
 swinging of arms in walking, etc. We are bound up in 
 rhythm — our life is a rhythmical series. To what minute 
 extent this is true, and how the fate of our existence depends 
 
Ho THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 upon this individual rhythm of each one of us, has quite 
 recently been brought to light by the investigations of the 
 Austrian professor Swoboda on the "Critical Days of Man." 
 This natural life series has given rise to the number series; 
 the names are but symbols, mnemonic signs, serving as cogs 
 to the memory. In this sense, the concept of time is gained 
 by counting, as a rhythmical succession. This concept is 
 very hazy in the beginning. The historic sense, conditioned 
 as it is by the time concept, depends in the beginning of its 
 evolution upon tallying and concrete helps which characterize 
 the early records, transmitted first orally, and then in some 
 symbolic form. The sense of space is also conditioned by the 
 rhythmical movements of the body in walking, counting the 
 steps. 
 
 The idea of real number develops very slowly. Prof. Th. 
 Ribot, in his researches concerning the intelligence of ani- 
 mals, speaks of the perception of plurality as distinct from 
 numeration. The former is found in animals. The logic 
 of animals, or rather the sole kind of logic possible without 
 speech, is the logic of images. This is refractory to attempt 
 at substitution, as of signs for concrete facts. Even elemen- 
 tary arithmetical problems, it must be noted, are worked out 
 by using the logic of signs, replacing the concrete facts by 
 figures, and working out the relations of these. "The child", 
 says the same author elsewhere, "may recite a series of nu- 
 merical words that have been taught him ; but so long as he 
 fails to apply each term of the series correctly to a number 
 of corresponding objects, he does not understand it. . . . 
 This comprehension is only acquired slowly and at a some- 
 what late period. . . . The child appreciates by space 
 and not by number." 
 
 Of this last statement, more will be said presently. 
 
 To understand more clearly the painful slowness which 
 characterizes the development of numeration out of the per- 
 ception of plurality, we may remember the development of 
 the ideas of singular, dual, and plural. To quote again from 
 Ribot: "Nothing appears more natural and clear-cut than 
 the distinction between one and several ; as soon as we exceed 
 pure unity, the mother of numbers, plurality appears to us 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 141 
 
 to be homogeneous in all its degrees. It has not been so from 
 the beginning. This is proved by the existence of the dual 
 in an enormous number of languages. . . . One, two, 
 were counted with precision ; the rest was vague. Accord- 
 ing to Sayce, the word 'three' in Aryan language at first 
 signified 'what goes beyond.' It has been supposed that the 
 dual was at first applied to the paired parts of the body: 
 the eyes, the arms, the legs. Intellectual progress caused it 
 to fall into disuse." 
 
 The slow development of clear number conceptions is 
 paralleled by the tardy invention of handy methods of fig- 
 uring. It is not even necessary to go back to the primitive 
 methods of using fingers, knotted cords, abacus, and other 
 concrete helps. Even the Roman notation throws obstacles 
 in the way of the mathematician of which we have hardly 
 a conception now. How irrational appears the Roman form 
 in comparison with the Arabic notation in this simple prob- 
 lem: 
 
 XI 11 
 
 XL 40 
 
 LI 51 
 
 Giving just one example of an ancient method of reckon- 
 ing we may select the Egyptian as typical. In spite of the 
 fact that the ancient Nile valley dwellers were wonderful 
 architects and were quite advanced in astronomy and re- 
 ligious philosophy, they worked their examples largely by a 
 series of additions, splittings of fractions, and with the help 
 of tables of doubles, etc. For instance, if one wished to 
 find out how many times 7 is contained in 77, he must use 
 the following table of factors of 7 : 
 
 "2 14" 
 
 4 28 
 
 *8 56* 
 
 16 112 etc., etc. 
 
i 4 2 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 Those numbers are marked with asterisks whose sum on 
 the right is 77, and the sum of the corresponding numbers 
 on the left is the answer. They therefore substituted an 
 addition process for one of division. The ancient Egyptian 
 calculators seem to have preferably used multiples and sub- 
 multiples of 2. Thus, to divide 19 by 8, the following ta- 
 ble of factors was used: 
 
 I 
 
 *2 
 
 8 
 16 
 
 % 4 
 
 * l A 
 
 2 
 
 *Vs 
 
 1 
 
 As 16+2+1=19, the quotient sought was accordingly 
 2+^4+^6, or 2%. Fractions with numerators greater 
 than unity seem not to have been employed. For the solu- 
 tion of what would to us seem a simple algebraic problem, 
 the Egyptian calculator would probably have had to consult 
 half a dozen different tables of factors.* 
 
 The movements with which young children accompany 
 their counting — tapping, pounding, etc., indicate that coun- 
 ing is a motor act. Number is the result of repetition. It is 
 therefore evident that even this side of the mathematical de- 
 velopment is based upon concrete activity. 
 
 Ribot claims that the child appreciates by space and not by 
 number. Early number conceptions, involving the idea of 
 magnitude proper, are in reality space conceptions. This is 
 also corroborated by the curious "number forms" with which 
 
 *A very instructive treatise on primitive and ancient meth- 
 ods of calculation and the development of the number con- 
 cepts in the past and in the child is contained in Vol. VIII 
 of the Science History of the Universe, Current Literature 
 Publ. Co., 1909. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 143 
 
 most people, more or less unconsciously, accompany their 
 ideas of number. A very instructive study of these "num- 
 ber forms" has been published in the American Journal of 
 Psychology, by D. E. Phillips. He writes: "Without doubt 
 children tend to connect some movement or extension in 
 space with numbers, and it is here that we are to find the 
 genesis of number forms. Back of any visual image seen by 
 the mind's eye is the motor element in thought, which must 
 have space as background." 
 
 But these space concepts are very indefinite in the begin- 
 ning. They contain little of attempted measurement, only 
 perhaps a crude comparison of distance and aggregation, or 
 perhaps only of form in general. The idea of ratio as such 
 is still rudimentary. 
 
 However, this consideration introduces the second source 
 of mathematical conceptions: measurement, i. e. geometrical 
 perception. And here suggestions like Speer's have their 
 place if they are supplemented by manual exercises of various 
 kinds. Elementary geography has decided geometrical fea- 
 tures — the relation of objects in the room, position, etc., are 
 all elements to be considered. 
 
 Now, the real problem seems to be: which of these pro- 
 cesses precedes the other in the mathematical evolution of 
 the child? And it is this problem over which the greatest 
 diversity of opinion has been expressed, from the time of the 
 famous Report of the Committee of Fifteen to this day. 
 
 As is the case in so many discussions, both contending 
 opinions are perhaps right to some extent, and the truth can 
 be found midway between them. It may be difficult to de- 
 cide absolutely which one of the two operations, counting or 
 measuring, or quantitative and qualitative arithmetic, is 
 chronologically prior to the other. In all likelihood, the two 
 processes develop partways alongside of each other, without 
 at first being logically connected. To follow them up in 
 their distinctive evolution will require more exact psycho- 
 logic data than there are at hand. Primitive counting, cer- 
 tainly, does not consider quality, but is a mechanical, or per- 
 haps physiological, series, and the objects serve as artificial 
 cogs, as the primitive knotted cord. 
 
144 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 The rhythmic movements of the body which are at the 
 basis of counting, have possibly induced the idea of space and 
 time relations, and with them the process of comparison and 
 measurement in space and time. At any rate, the higher 
 conceptions of number rest on motor and space elements 
 that have a qualitative interest. From there, the still higher 
 abstraction is made towards the conception of pure quantity, 
 quantity as free from qualitative elements. 
 
 This suggests that in the youngest years of the child's 
 school life, including at least the so-called first grade, we 
 should be satisfied mainly with crude exercises in counting 
 and tallying, together with some memory drill in the multipli- 
 cation tables, for the sake of storing up material. Little or no 
 rationalization, or "example" work, should be attempted. 
 Many children will need patience, and long toleration of 
 crude conceptions, thru the greater part of their school life. 
 
 For the development of real mathematical conceptions, 
 ideas of number and magnitude, manual work and actual 
 measurements of all kinds will form the safest basis, and this 
 may be done somewhat independently, alongside with count- 
 ing. 
 
 The artificial (logical) sequence of exercises as found in 
 our schools is largely unwarranted. The method of presen- 
 tation is really more important than the "logical" grading 
 of problems. Yet, we may remember the sequence of the 
 four processes as described by Jackman. In a simple way, 
 these processes may be introduced simultaneously, and carried 
 on in concentric circles. Care should be taken not to mix 
 the processes unduly, as is often done, e. g. when a pretense 
 is made to teach decimals when in reality they are treated 
 as common fractions. For example: when 0.25 is treated as 
 if it read Y\. It is equal to %, and the child may be made 
 to see that; but the decimal fraction must not be handled 
 in operation like a common fraction. Correlation is not 
 identical with mixing and confusing. 
 
 As to method, the following hints may here suffice: 
 
 Of the first suggestion: correlation with everything the 
 child does, nothing need to be said here, as there are ample 
 references to this requirement in these pages. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 145 
 
 An objective basis will be established if really practical 
 examples accompany all work. Practical in this sense refers 
 to experience and actual work done. Nature observations, 
 weather records, experiments, manual exercises, geographical 
 and historical data, etc., etc., will furnish an abundance of 
 problems. Cardboard work, cutting out of forms in soft 
 material and wood, and similar work, will serve as an em- 
 piric basis for geometry. Constructive games and puzzles, 
 arithmetical games and riddles, and the like, will appeal to 
 the great puzzle interest of the children. 
 
 Within the province of mathematical work, there should 
 be established an interrelation of geometry and algebra with 
 arithmetic. Geometrical and constructive puzzles precede 
 purely numerical puzzles in the interest curve of children. 
 
 The relation between the three forms of mathematical 
 cognition and operation which are kept logically distinct by 
 the adult mind and the philosopher, but which should not be 
 pedantically separated with the child, should be constant. 
 We should at every stage use the method best adapted to 
 an easy and lucid solution of the problem in hand. Short 
 cuts are welcome whenever the child can see thru them, 
 even tho he may not be able to reason them out absolutely 
 with a whereas and therefore. The intuitive method of 
 children need not be too much discouraged. The algebraic 
 notions of equation, parenthesis, and the unknown quantity 
 x, can be employed to great advantage even in the earlier 
 years. 
 
 We must understand that the concrete work here recom- 
 mended is to furnish the apperceptive basis. There is beyond 
 doubt need of drill in operations and memory work — in 
 quick perception and rapid solution. The aim must surely 
 be to develop the faculty of abstract reasoning, apart from a 
 clearer perception of objective work. Prof. J. T. McCor- 
 mack said in one of his thoughtful essays: "Natural arith- 
 metical machines have been in use among savage and civilized 
 nations from the earliest time. Their employment, however, 
 from our present advanced point of view, denoted rather an 
 inferior than a superior stage of intellectual development. 
 The fingers, strings of beads, knots in cords, notches in 
 
i 4 6 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 sticks, etc., etc., were the means primitively employed in com- 
 putation ; counting was a motor act, an act of sense, and not 
 one of the intellect ; the results were the actual things added 
 or subtracted, and not symbols representing those results. 
 The original intellectual advance, therefore, consisted rather 
 in the abolition of this primitive machinery and in the sub- 
 stitution for it of a procedure which was mainly psychical 
 and mnemonic, involving a mechanical knowledge of the 
 simple combinations of numbers, of the multiplication table, 
 and of the use of pencil and paper." 
 
 These statements throw much light upon the problem as 
 discussed in this chapter. From the standpoint of the mathe- 
 matical philosopher, indeed, these objective helps denote in- 
 ferior intellectual development. But the child below twelve 
 is still in the primitive mental stage, and the rationalization 
 and abstraction of number cannot advantageously be forced 
 before its time. 
 
 Hodge, in his study of the homing of pigeons, was led to 
 investigate the natural logic of search. Believing that those 
 animals survive who have developed the most exhaustive 
 methods of searching a given area for food, he sought to 
 discover how nearly the procedure of carrier pigeons ap- 
 proximates the ideal. For comparative determinations he 
 devised the following experiment which was chiefly tried by 
 children and adults. A ball is so hidden in a square field 
 that it can be seen when the observer is 20 feet distant. From 
 the stake at the center as a starting point, what is the best 
 method of finding the ball ? The mathematically best method 
 is a path of spiral shape, the distance between the lines being 
 40 feet. This involves practically no researchings. Another 
 logical method is that of a series of straight paths gridironing 
 the field in a way. This involves the searching of some areas 
 a second time. There are simpler logical methods, but they 
 need not be mentioned. As to results, most of the adults ap- 
 proximated very nearly the theoretical curve. A boy of 
 twelve, however, starts for the fence, follows it for some 
 distance, then turning in, discovers the ball by accident. His 
 curve is somewhat logical but naturally of a lower degree 
 than those of adults. Tests of a number of children vary- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 147 
 
 ing in age from 3 to 12 show surprisingly little logic. The 
 tracings of a bright six-year-old girl resembled the tracings 
 of Lubbock's ants, revealing scarcely a trace of system, and 
 were full of researchings of areas already searched time and 
 again. After 75 minutes, she still failed to find the ball 
 which adults discovered in from 4 to 12 minutes. 
 
 When the time comes that the faculty of true reason- 
 ing and abstract thinking arises, then the children will take 
 great pleasure in wrestling with these problems. At this 
 time, the pubescent period, intense work ought to be done, 
 and the scientific aspects of geometry and algebra may be 
 introduced, and mathematical laws formulated. Some sexual 
 differentiation will have to be considered in accordance with 
 the suggestions recorded elsewhere. 
 
 But before that time, it should be repeated, the children 
 have very little appreciation of law and abstraction. 
 
 It is not merely for its intellectual value that mathematics 
 deserves a high place in the curriculum of the school, pro- 
 vided it is taught with an understanding of child nature; 
 but also for its ethical significance. Mathematics involves 
 precise cognition; it makes, as Pestalozzi expressed it, for 
 truth. The recognition of truth, as scientifically distinct 
 from error and tentative conjecture, grows slowly in the 
 young mind. First it is approached thru doing and trying 
 concrete things; this is the stage of crude empiricism, which 
 is half unconscious and automatically intuitive. It is de- 
 pendent upon an early training in right life habits. This 
 non-reasoning period is largely furnishing the degree of fa- 
 cility which is the prerequisite of successful handling of the 
 material when the rational period sets in. In the rational 
 stage, truth is recognized to be a matter of law and order, of 
 causative sequence, of patient toil, of a surrender of personal 
 idiosyncrasies. Paradoxically it may be said that while the 
 child is in the objective stage, truth is subjective to him, a 
 matter of personal equation ; after outgrowing the primitive 
 stage, and objective cogs; after evolving his truly human 
 personality; he recognizes that truth is not subjective, but ob- 
 jective, the same for all. And this development from con- 
 crete empiricism to reason marks a decided ethical gain. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Geography as a Collective Center 
 
 GEOGRAPHY, as a description of the earth, 
 includes natural history. As a science, geogra- 
 phy includes natural science. Considered from 
 the standpoint of evolution, it embraces the his- 
 tory of the earth: geology, mineralogy, and the 
 origin and development of life, up to man. Thus it com- 
 prises biology and history. 
 
 As physiography, it helps to explain historical events in 
 their causality. For the earth is the habitation of man, and 
 man's life is conditioned in a great measure by the configu- 
 ration of land and sea, and by the products of both, by cli- 
 mate, etc. 
 
 These conditions change. Physiographic changes throw 
 light upon events which would otherwise be unintelligible to 
 us. Thermopylae is now no longer the narrow pass be- 
 tween mountain and sea that it was at the time of the heroic 
 struggle of the Spartans under Leonidas, and we could not 
 understand that event had we no knowledge of the physio- 
 graphic history of the location; and Ostia, at the present 
 time an inland town, can no longer be recognized as the one 
 time "mouth" (ostium) of the Tiber. 
 
 Geography further relates to the earth as a unit in space; 
 to the universe of which it is a part : this leads to astronomy. 
 
 Astronomy depends upon mathematics; in fact it repre- 
 sents the greatest triumph of mathematics. The terms longi- 
 tude and time introduce mathematical geography. Geometry 
 is the science of measuring the earth; it is the science of 
 distance relations; it mediates the conception of space, and 
 
 148 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 149 
 
 of form in space. Earth measuring, again, is conditioned 
 by a knowledge of the points of the compass; this introduces 
 the study of magnetism and electricity. The study of the 
 seasons, of climate, of isotherms, etc., opens up the science 
 of meteorology. 
 
 Geography thus proves its claim to be considered as a 
 collective center of study ; in its complete sense it is compre- 
 hensive and full of diversified stimulations of interest. 
 
 Geography study depends on the sense of cause and effect, 
 and the sense of space. Both develop slowly in the child. 
 "Alice in Wonderland" and "Thru the Looking Glass" 
 illustrate fitly the wild guesses and beliefs as to possible 
 locations and conditions characteristic of the child. His 
 imaginary world is not hedged in by space limitations. He 
 is living in a fairy land where cause and effect have no log- 
 ical coherence, and where the impossible is possible. He sees 
 no objection to big things being enclosed in small compass, 
 e. g. a spacious palace in what is outside but a small, low 
 hut; or to little things extending over vast space, as Hop 
 o' my Thumb in his Seven Miles Boots. We, as adults, may 
 discover a wonderful symbolism in these tales; the child 
 takes them as reality. 
 
 Again when confronted with the reality of things, his limit 
 seems soon to be reached. As the train stopped at Thornton 
 on the first railroad excursion of the Chicago Vacation 
 Schools, one little miss whose ideas of the geography and the 
 size of America were somewhat hazy, whispered in awe- 
 struck voice to the teacher: "Is this still the United 
 States?" 
 
 What a change comes over us when we grow older in 
 regard to our conception of space, is evident from the well- 
 known observation that things which looked very big to us 
 when we were small, now seem surprisingly insignificant. 
 
 In building up geographical concepts, we must consider 
 and establish the proper apperceptive basis. It will not be 
 amiss to repeat here what was said in a previous chapter:* 
 
 "From the concrete material in the immediate environment 
 
 ♦Page 84. 
 
1 5 o THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 of the child, from the images of his own house and lawn, the 
 trees, hills, rocks, valleys, creeks, rivers, ponds, etc. ; of peo- 
 ple he knows and occupations he sees carried on ; of natural 
 processes like water running down his own hill, of dirt 
 washed down the watersheds of his own road, of toy boats 
 floating in his gutter, etc., etc., from all this he must learn 
 to construct in his mind concepts of things remote, of the 
 Himalayas, the oceans, foreign people, and all the wonder- 
 ful things that make up the life of nature and man. Words, 
 names, pictures, samples of material even, maps, and the like, 
 are nothing but symbols, meaningless to him unless he can 
 connect them with real experiences of his own." 
 
 Too much reliance upon maps, pictures, or descriptions, 
 from geographies, or by word of mouth, is therefore unwise. 
 There must first be observation and experiment to furnish 
 the concrete basis. 
 
 Opportunity for these, as far as the school can afford it, 
 will be rendered by systematically organized excursions, the 
 proper use of the sandtable, and later the laboratory. As 
 soon as possible, observations should be carefully recorded. 
 Home geography is the natural starting point; and we must 
 confine ourselves to concrete experiences for a long while 
 before venturing out on the making of inferences. 
 
 All sorts of illustrative material are welcome in conjunc- 
 tion with the objective work: collections of flowers, animals, 
 and birds, shells, pictures, dressed dolls, etc. The making 
 of illustrative work, the building up of scenery and physio- 
 graphic configuration on the sandtable, leading up to as- 
 sembled work as described in Chapter VII, will be of partic- 
 ular and concrete reality. 
 
 Maps should first be developed by the children from ex- 
 perience. Their walks can be illustrated and reproduced 
 on the sandtable, with buildings put in of wood and card- 
 board. The sandtable reproduction may then serve as the start- 
 ing point for map making and map reading. In order to take 
 but one step at a time and not produce the illusion that north 
 is invariably at the top, it will be well to present the first 
 maps on the horizontal plane, in exact agreement with the 
 natural directions, and then proceed to vertical maps which 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 151 
 
 should be hung in very different positions. How difficult it 
 is for an ordinary mortal who had been taught geography prin- 
 cipally from maps placed before him in the traditional posi- 
 tion, to recognize a country when there is any deviation from 
 this position, will at once become evident as soon as we try 
 to recognize bits of country with the map turned around at 
 a greater or lesser angle. Such difficulties and absurdities 
 should be avoided from the start. 
 
 Let us not abstract too early. The fact that a child knows 
 what a ball is does not enable him to understand the earth to 
 be a big ball. Yet, the globe is often introduced in very 
 young grades, and recently attempts have been made, even 
 by persons bearing illustrious names, to teach to the babes 
 of the kindergarten the celestial movements by symbolic 
 games. The effect of such premature abstractions, no matter 
 how much we try to symbolize, is largely illusory. An ex- 
 periment was undertaken in the second grade of the Ethical 
 Culture Schools some years ago to test the conceptions of the 
 children in regard to matters of this sort. They were taught 
 the form of the earth to be round like a ball; each child 
 had an opportunity of seeing and handling a large globe; 
 and every effort was made, in traditional fashion, to develop 
 the idea. They seemed to grasp it and talked glibly about it. 
 A little while later, apparently without connection with the 
 geography lesson, they were requested to write out their 
 conception of the earth, and what would happen if they 
 would set out to travel from New York as far as they 
 could. The surprise of the teacher who imagined that she had 
 successfully developed the idea of the earth's roundness, was 
 complete. For a large number of the children gave descrip- 
 tions and expressed conceptions very suggestive of primitive 
 notions. They would come to the end of the earth and 
 fall off, or not get any farther, etc., etc. As the papers 
 were not preserved I cannot give actual quotations or sub- 
 mit statistics; but the experiment showed that what the 
 children had seemingly learned and mastered was a con- 
 glomeration of words and symbols, without much real sig- 
 nificance to them. They were not mature enough to grasp 
 the abstraction, and when properly tested they proved that 
 
1 5 2 THE CAREER OF THE* CHILD 
 
 they were still intellectually on the level of primitive cul- 
 ture. 
 
 As the earth is of interest to us mainly, yea almost exclu- 
 sively, because it is the abode of man, there must be a con- 
 stant reference to man's development on earth, in other 
 words, a close interrelation with history. 
 
 In venturing to outline a course in geography, the author 
 wishes merely to present some suggestive details, also indi- 
 cating, in a general way, the succession of topics. 
 
 first grade: 
 
 Observe the sun in morning and afternoon. Points of 
 compass developed : first east and west, then north and south. 
 Mark walls with points of compass. Direction of wind. 
 Weather charts. 
 
 Read typical expressions and terms, such as the points of 
 the compass, or words like "fair", "cloudy", etc., from the 
 blackboard. Construction of same words with cardboard 
 letters or other devices. Later in course, typesetting may be 
 introduced. 
 
 Days of the week; count weeks; then introduce month, 
 and names of months; count days in month; date. (Naming 
 and counting periods.) 
 
 On level surface (work table), outline with blocks 
 schoolroom from measurements, foot reduced to inch (idea 
 of scale) ; count tables and chairs, mark their position by 
 using blocks (cubes of Fifth Gift, and multiples). 
 
 Then mark same on sandtable, with lines scratched in. 
 This is the second step towards symbolic representation. 
 
 Then draw same, with coarse pencil, on a level sheet of 
 manila paper (inch net, or rule; always same scale) : third 
 step. 
 
 The fourth step is reached when the map is reproduced on 
 the black board, with the help of ruler at first. This marks 
 transition from horizontal to vertical plane, or map. Dif- 
 ferent positions of the map on board. Introduction of draw- 
 ing distances, or lengths, by sight. 
 
 Study direction of street; mark it on sandtable, following 
 natural direction. Indicate schoolhouse by block, or by 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 153 
 
 building cardboard house. 
 
 Develop idea of square (block) of houses and cross streets. 
 Way home and to school: count number of blocks; names 
 of streets in neighborhood. Reading and setting of these 
 names, as well as of previously learned names. Reproduce 
 location on sandtables or worktable with blocks. Rough 
 drawing on manila sheet. 
 
 Walks thru the city; discussion of reminiscences. Repro- 
 duction of locations remembered (squares, parks, fountains, 
 music-stands, public buildings, etc.) on sand table, with 
 blocks, clay-models, cut-out figures, and the like. 
 
 Building-blocks for fancy reproductions and free play; 
 then introduction of architectural ideas. 
 
 Modern buildings and primitive dwellings. Constructions 
 in school yard. Connection with history and literature. 
 
 Paper-cutting of familiar objects, scenes, events, etc. 
 
 Watch domestic animals, common birds, simple wild and 
 garden flowers, and note location, migration, and conditions 
 of life. Seasons. 
 
 The lands of winter, summer, spring, fall, in myths and 
 fairy tales. 
 
 Principal types of men: white, black, red, brown, yellow. 
 
 SECOND GRADE : 
 
 Same things observed and discussed on a higher plane. 
 
 From home to school. 
 
 In clay, home and schoolhouse. Paper-cutting of same. 
 
 General idea and plan of city and environment (not too 
 many details of streets, etc.!), on sandtable, with representa- 
 tion of rivers, hills, principal buildings, etc. 
 
 Relief maps in sand, of ranges of hills, etc. 
 
 Special scenes represented: public parks, squares, mills, 
 ponds, waterworks, and the like. 
 
 Observe "that the rills flowing in wheel-ruts widen them 
 and carry the washings to the nearest mud-puddle." Watch 
 rivers and brooks in spring; observe the current. Idea of 
 elevation and watershed; movement of the water; hills and 
 valleys. 
 
 Observe rain and clouds; thunderstorms, hail. 
 
i 5 4 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 In winter, lessons, with experiments, on water, ice, snow. 
 
 In summer, the same on air (balloon, etc.). 
 
 Protection from weather. Idea of home-building: nests, 
 huts, tents (make same). Furnish doll's house. Miniature 
 carpentry. (Cf. manual training course.) 
 
 Roads; railroads. Idea of distance, and of distant settle- 
 ments. 
 
 Sunrise and sunset; motion of stars at night. Directions. 
 
 Creation myths (cf. subsequent chapter). Gradual prep- 
 aration for idea of globe in space. 
 
 THIRD GRADE: 
 
 Watching ships on ocean and lake; or, moving trains, 
 wagons, etc., on plains. Story of Columbus. Large globe 
 to experiment with. 
 
 "Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe." "The Seven Little 
 Sisters." "Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard." 
 
 Concentration on reading and writing. — 
 
 Sun, moon, stars ; constellations. 
 
 Some nature study, on common things, perhaps in connec- 
 tion with last book mentioned above; Horace H. Cummings' 
 "Nature Study by Grades" is well adapted to connect geo- 
 graphy and nature in this and in other classes. 
 
 Travel. Robinson Crusoe. Typical occupations. 
 
 Build house and barn ; make doll's house for Second 
 Grade. Figure out material necessary for this work. Com- 
 bination of wood-work (sawing and knife), parquetry, paper 
 cutting, and pasting. 
 
 Miniature carpentry: garden tools, fence, hay-wagon, etc. 
 Model animals and dolls to represent various scenes. 
 
 FOURTH GRADE: 
 
 Excursions thru city and surrounding country on different 
 kinds of vehicles of transportation, to get empiric notions 
 of travel, of life conditions, interesting places, centres of 
 trade within the limit of observations, manufacture, farming, 
 public institutions, etc. Apperceptive basis for following 
 work: 
 
 Imaginary work : Roaming thru the world. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 155 
 
 (a) Noted cities and buildings, bridges, etc., showing 
 man's conquest of nature; 
 
 (b) Nature's beauties (cataracts, mountains, rivers, etc.). 
 
 (c) Inventions — from the potter's wheel and the primi- 
 tive loom to modern machines (sewing machines, mariner's 
 compass, steamboats, railroads, electric cars, electric light, 
 telephone and telegraph, automobiles, flying machines.) 
 
 Idea of commerce and communication. 
 
 Biographies of the inventors will '"humanize" this work. 
 
 Bits of history from all lands. 
 
 fifth grade: 
 
 Summary of early experiences. 
 
 Study of the heavens and the simple facts of astronomy. 
 Seasons, weather, climate. 
 
 Concentration upon geography of North America. 
 
 Survey of South America. Map modeling and drawing. 
 Shaded maps in color. The vertical and horizontal planes. 
 
 sixth grade: 
 
 ( 1 ) The Mediterranean Basin and the Nile Valley, as the 
 scenes of early civilization. 
 
 (2) Progress of geographical knowledge. 
 
 (3) The globe. 
 
 (4) Beginning of mathematical geography. 
 
 SEVENTH GRADE: 
 
 Intense work. 
 
 Migration of people. Study of Europe. In connection 
 with Crusades and Discoveries, geography of the countries 
 concerned. 
 
 Commercial geography; ideas of food, clothing, shelter; 
 manufacturing; export and import. The great staples. 
 This to be continued in Eighth. 
 
 Distribution of flora and fauna. 
 
 Physiography; geology; minerology. Experiments. Math- 
 ematical geography. 
 
 EIGHTH GRADE: 
 
 Detailed study of the United States. 
 
156 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 The bird's eye view of the earth and the world as the 
 home of man, taken in the previous grades and summed up 
 in the highest, leads up to a particularized reference to the 
 mother country. The aim here should be to imbue the pupil 
 with a clear view of its proportional significance in the 
 sum total of human interests, and also to develop true 
 patriotism, and love of country, as distinct from what has 
 been called chauvenism and Jingoism. 
 
 "Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself hath said, 
 This is my own, my native land! 
 Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, 
 As home his footsteps he hath turned, 
 From wandering on a foreign strand !" 
 
 (Scott, "Lady of the Last Minstrel"). 
 
 And few countries are so favored as ours, appeal so much 
 to the sense of just appreciation of her unusual advantages 
 and glories. Here, the destiny of the race seems to be ful- 
 filled ; here the representatives of all civilized nations of the 
 world are meeting on common ground, to evolve, in the form 
 of a new nation, the ideal of humanity, by each offering its 
 best, all blending together, and adjusting themselves to a 
 common aim. 
 
 "O beautiful and grand 
 My own, my native land! 
 
 Of thee I boast: 
 Great Empire of the West, 
 The dearest and the best, 
 Made up of all the rest, 
 
 I love thee most!" 
 
 (Abraham Coles). 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 History as a Collective Center 
 HIS passage is from G. Ebers' "The Sisters": 
 
 "Behold, the puny Child of Man 
 Sits by Time's boundless sea, 
 
 And gathers in his feeble hand 
 Drops of Eternity. 
 
 "He overhears some broken words 
 
 Of whispered mystery — 
 He writes them in a tiny book 
 
 And calls it 'History' ! 
 
 "We owe these verses to an accomplished friend; another 
 has amplified the idea by adding the two that follow : 
 
 "If indeed the puny Child of Man 
 Had not gathered drops from that wide sea, 
 
 Those small deeds that fill his little span, 
 Had been lost in dumb Eternity. 
 
 "Feeble is his hand, and yet it dare 
 Seize some drops of that perennial stream ; 
 
 As they fall they catch a transient gleam — 
 Lo! Eternity is mirrored there!" 
 
 It is well that we should, at the outset, fix this thought 
 in our minds. No other study relates the human soul so 
 closely to the eternal powers that make for perfection and 
 
 157 
 
158 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 righteousness, as does history. It reveals to us the laws 
 which govern human existence, and each event is a link in a 
 grand evolutionary chain leading up to the ideal. History 
 discloses to us the sequence of human ideals of perfection as 
 they unfolded themselves in the mind of man from crude 
 beginnings when he but dimly discerned the force that urged 
 him along the arduous road of progress, down to our own 
 times when we imagine to understand better than ever before 
 these divine promptings. 
 
 "After death," says Sadie E. Simons, in Educational Value 
 of Biography, "the great man of the tribe is idealized, and 
 with the passing of years he develops into the type admired 
 by the particular people among whom he once lived. This 
 type in the course of centuries becomes farther and farther 
 removed from its source, until we can scarcely discover its 
 origin. Who is Arthur, Siegfried, or Roland but the ideal 
 man of his respective age and land?" (Educ. Review, Jan., 
 
 1899.) 
 
 Each epoch in human evolution is characterized by the 
 ideal types of manhood which it matured, either in actuality 
 or as a spiritual goal. Man as a national chief or a tribal 
 god, as a citizen in a democracy or leader in the struggle for 
 advance and greatness, man as a spiritual hero and teacher 
 of better things — man in all his various phases of active liv- 
 ing, stands out from the pages of history and teaches the 
 lesson that uplifts, and fills our hearts with courage and 
 hope. The lesson of history is concentrated and sublimated 
 in the study of civics and ethics which open up a future of 
 greater perfection and beatitude, when man will carry the 
 banner of civilization to still loftier heights, "that banner 
 with the strange device: Excelsior!" 
 
 Human development is conditioned by natural laws. Says 
 the geographer Redway:* 
 
 "At some time in the near future the teacher of history 
 will doubtless discover what the critical student of history 
 has already made the basis of study, namely: that history is 
 nothing more than an echo of the operation of geographical 
 
 *Educ. Rev., November, 1894. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 159 
 
 laws ; that humankind as well as other organic life is a slave 
 to hunger; that all migrations and dispersions of peoples are 
 merely quantitative expressions of moisture and temperature; 
 and the nationalism of government is merely a machinery for 
 the rapid and equitable distribution of food. These are not 
 only fundamental principles of history, but they are none the 
 less principles of physiographic science as well." 
 
 Thus the interrelation of history with geography, with the 
 distribution of the flora and fauna, with the climatic condi- 
 tions, as well as on the other hand with literature, civics 
 and ethics in which the ideals of successive periods have found 
 their expression, is clearly seen. 
 
 The interest in history dates back to the time when man 
 became conscious of himself. Ancestor worship marks the 
 beginnings of history no less than of religion. Tribal and 
 national heroes became gods, and shared with the forces of 
 nature the first stammering reverence of pristine peoples. 
 The bards who sang the deeds of heroes and gods were not 
 only the first poets, but also the first historians; the rude in- 
 scriptions on tombs and rocks were the first records. 
 
 But the true historic sense was slow of growth. Fear and 
 fancy composed the first records; credulity and superstition 
 brought forth innumerable fabulations. Thru legend and 
 myth, the human mind rose in a long struggle with its own 
 misconceptions to a sense for certainty and truth. The 
 notions of time and space evolved but gradually to distinct- 
 ness and scientific accuracy. 
 
 Hazy as the ideas of primitive man were, so are the 
 child's. 
 
 "Children appear to have very vague ideas about the past. 
 On the one hand, as in the case of their measurements of 
 space, their standard of time is not ours; an hour, say the 
 first morning at school, may seem an eternity to a child's 
 consciousness. The days, the months, the years, seem to fly 
 faster and faster as we get older. On the other hand, as in 
 the case of space judgment, too, the child, thru his inability 
 to represent time, on a large scale, is apt to bring the past 
 too near the present. Mothers and young teachers would 
 be surprised if they knew how children interpreted their first 
 
160 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 historical instruction introduced by the common phrase: 
 'Many years ago,' or similar expressions". (James Sully, 
 "Studies of Childhood") 
 
 In a delightful little story, apparently a fond father's con- 
 fession, "W. V.— Her Violets", By Wm. Canton, (Mc- 
 Clures, August, 1897) we read: 
 
 "As we wander along I think of all the change which has 
 taken place since last I recorded our birthday rambles in the 
 Forest. It is only a year ago, and yet how amazingly W. V. 
 has grown in a twelve-month! Even to her the Forest is 
 no longer quite the same vague enchanted region it used to 
 be. Strange people have started up out of history and in- 
 vaded its green solitude; on the outskirts 'ancient Britons', 
 tattoed with blue woad, have made clearings and sown corn, 
 and 'old Romans' have run a long straight 'street' thru 
 one portion of it. There still lingers in her heart a coy 
 belief in little green plaid oak-men, and flower-elves, and 
 subtle sylvan creatures of fancy ; indeed, it was only the other 
 day that she asked me, 'How does the sun keep up in the 
 sky? Is it hanging on a fairy tree?' but I notice a growing 
 impatience at sham stories and a preference for what has 
 really happened, — 'something about the Romans or the 
 Danes or the Saxons or Jesus.' When I begin some wonder- 
 ful saga, she looks up alertly, 'True'? — then settles down to 
 her enjoyment. . . . 
 
 "In spite of her devotion to history and love of truth, I 
 fear W. V. cannot be counted on for accuracy. What am I 
 to say when, in a rattle-pate mood, she tells me that not only 
 Julius Caesar but Oliver Cromwell was lost on board the 
 'White Ship', — like needles in a haystack? Her perception of 
 the lapse of time and the remoteness of events is altogether 
 untrustworthy. . . . It is incomprehensible to her that 
 'everyone' should have died so long ago. She does not un- 
 derstand how it happens that even I, venerable as I am, did 
 not know the Druids, or the Saxons, or any of those 'old 
 Romans'. 'You are very old, aren't you, father? — thirty- 
 four?' 'I am more than thirty-five, dear.' 'That is a lot 
 older than me,' somewhat dubiously. 'Nearly six times. . .' " 
 
 The question now arises, what is the true historic sense? 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 161 
 
 Mrs. Mary Sheldon Barnes has attempted to answer this 
 question. Says she: ("The Historic Sense among Primi- 
 tive Peoples," Studies in Education, i.) : 
 
 "The historic sense can be separated into certain elements. 
 It is born wherever the human mind attains a conception of 
 making a true record of real and concerted human action, 
 progressive thru time and connected by cause and effect. 
 Take the Sagas of the North, Herodotus, the Books of the 
 Kings, Mommsen's Rome, — take anything you will that men 
 call history, and you will find this to distinguish it from myth 
 as history, — that it is considered as true; this to mark it 
 off from biography, — that it relates to groups of men; this 
 to separate it from sociology, philosophy, or literature — that 
 actions are its theme, and these actions are related by cause 
 and effect acting thru continuous time. . . . Thru the 
 historic sense humanity becomes self-conscious and self-di- 
 recting. . . . 
 
 "To sum up: First, the knowledge which we call history 
 rests upon the sense of cause and effect, the sense of the 
 social unit, the sense of time, the sense of the value of a 
 true record. These all appear early in vague forms, as in 
 myths of origin, and all advance together, now this idea, now 
 that, leading, but no one idea allowed to get positively ahead. 
 Of the four, the idea of time and of the true record lag; 
 and yet we find even these well developed among peoples as 
 advanced as the Polynesians. ..." 
 
 In a similar way the historic sense develops in the chil- 
 dren. Rarely before ten occurs a change from belief to dis- 
 belief in superstitions, and begin children to appreciate im- 
 possibilities. Up to 12 their interest turns from fairy tales 
 to stories of adventure and history. But not before 12 is 
 there any marked tendency to search into the relations of 
 cause and effect, and to care for a true record. 
 
 I reproduce here some paragraphs from Mrs. Barnes' 
 careful study of the parallelism between the primitive man 
 and the child in relation to the evolution of the historic 
 sense. 
 
 " ( 1 ) As to the order in which those notions appear we see 
 that among savages they appear altogether in the rudimentary 
 
1 62 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 form of the myths of origin, which, on placed in space, 
 vaguely placed in time, attempt to give some true account 
 of the beginnings of man and of the world. . . . Among 
 children we find the same fact. From the age of seven on- 
 ward we find them inquiring after time, cause and effect, 
 the social unit, and the truthful record, — that is, all the 
 elements lie within the field of the child's curiosity; and 
 it is interesting to note how early they inquire after origin : 
 Who made us? Where did we come from? The plain 
 conclusion as to the method here is that history is a suitable 
 subject for children from the age of seven at least. 
 
 "(2) As to the sense of time we see that this sense with 
 savages is based on the power to count, and the power to 
 record that count concretely, either with the fingers, the 
 notch stick, or the knotted cord, and that it develops along 
 with the development of the inventions for keeping count ; 
 in other words that this sense requires much objective assist- 
 ance. With children we have seen that sense seems slight, 
 and that time is badly understood until the age of twelve 
 or thirteen. The conclusion as to the method is that the 
 child should be assisted, as the savage was, by some concrete 
 symbol or invention by which he can keep his counts in 
 sight, and reckon time visibly. 
 
 "(3) As to the notion of cause and effect, or, to put it 
 differently, the power to infer, we see that both with sav- 
 ages and children it is present from the beginning, but that 
 it is unconscious with primitive peoples, and that with chil- 
 dren the power does not become at all critical before the age 
 of twelve or thirteen, and that it seems then to receive a 
 positive impulse, becoming stronger as well as more exact. 
 The conclusion as to method is clear, that children should 
 not be especially trained or urged in inference until the ages 
 of twelve or thirteen, and that then we may reasonably en- 
 courage them to draw independent and correct conclusions 
 from given premises. 
 
 "(4) As to sense of the social unit, we have seen that with 
 primitive peoples the sense concentrates itself about ancestors, 
 heroes, kings, developing into a sense of wider personality 
 as their history, that is, their experience widens. The inter- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 163 
 
 est of the children according to the indication follows the 
 same order; but, since education partially takes the place of 
 experience, we cannot yet say positively at what age we may 
 develop the larger interest; at present we may say not be- 
 fore the age of 11 or 12. The application to method is that 
 history should first interest itself with the biographies of 
 heroic and striking characters who are connected with the 
 previous knowledge of life of the child. . . . They 
 should always be connected with that life of action which 
 belongs to children and primitive people alike. These biog- 
 raphies should be of men who fight and hunt and build, 
 rather than of men who write or think or legislate. John 
 Smith is nearer to the child than William Bradford. . . . 
 
 "(5) The sense of a truthful record seems to be quite pos- 
 itive with savages, altho it does not occur to them to sub- 
 stantiate that truth by any searching criticism of evidence. 
 Children, too, are very anxious to know whether a record 
 or story is true or not altho they are largely contented with 
 being told that it is true by a person in whom they have faith, 
 not showing a tendency to inquire critically into the mat- 
 ter until the ages of 12 or 13. . . . (Even the inter- 
 est in "true or not" is not present in the very young 
 child. G.). 
 
 "(6) As to the forms of history we have seen that critical 
 history develops last in the history of the race, being pre- 
 ceded by beautiful history, moral history, and mnemonic his- 
 tory, all these forms running along contemporaneously. With 
 children we see that history finds natural expression in 
 stories, pictures, dramatic plays and poems, with or without a 
 moral. From both these sets of facts I conclude that we 
 should seek our history for children in Plutarch, Homer, 
 and Shakespeare, before seeking it in edited documents with 
 notes and criticisms of the modern school of history. Nor 
 must we forget that primitive history shows a large mnemonic 
 element, appearing in lists and genealogies. This arises from 
 the fact that memory requires an artificial cog, and these 
 lists and genealogies supply the place of the earlier knotted 
 cord. . . . The wide employment of aesthetic and di- 
 dactic forms of history indicates that they should form a 
 
1 64 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 large element in the early presentation of our subject. On 
 the aesthetic side, Homer, Ossian, the Nibelungenlied, on the 
 didactic side, Plutarch and the Bible, give us plenty of ap- 
 propriate material. The scientific forms must wait on the de- 
 velopment of material, and also on the development of the 
 critical sense; that is, until the ages of 12 and above." 
 
 This investigation corroborates the contention that a 
 course in history teaching must follow the natural stages of 
 the child's mental evolution. Even in the development of the 
 historic sense, children pass thru the successive forms of con- 
 sciousness of the race. 
 
 Let us also be reminded of these three things: 
 
 (1) There must be the proper apperceptive basis, begin- 
 ning with the known and proceeding to the unknown. There 
 should be the proper geographical setting. On the whole, 
 a going backward from present conditions to older times, by 
 a process of gradual divestiture of the later accoutrements 
 and forms of civilization, in reverse order of acquistion, will 
 commend itself, for the earlier stages of history teaching 
 at least. 
 
 Illustrations are, in this work, a secondary help; direct 
 observation is the primary requisite. Typical occupations 
 should be studied, again beginning with the present form and 
 going back to primitive processes, such as the children them- 
 selves are capable of testing thru personal experience. They 
 may be made to use a simple potter's wheel, or loom, to study 
 the manipulations which led up to modern machines. 
 
 (2) There must be, as indicated in this last suggestion, 
 expression thru motor activity: making, drawing, modeling. 
 
 (3) This again involves the principle of co-ordination. 
 Further there should be no narrowing down to U. S. 
 
 History. Children must be initiated to the universal human 
 interests, to gain the proper background and perspective 
 for their national growth. 
 
 Professor Ellis (quoted before) reminds us that the pe- 
 riod from 7 to 1 1 is "the period for language teaching. . 
 
 . . It is also shown that during this period the verbal 
 memory is good, reaching maximum power about its end, 
 while children now are particularly interested in names," 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 165 
 
 Mrs. Barnes shows that the "indications are at present that 
 names should by all means be emphasized in our early his- 
 torical work". Biographical stories, first mythological and 
 legendary, or of the fairy-tale order, then approaching his- 
 torical truth, should be offered all thru the elementary 
 course. There are ethical truths, poetical truths, typical 
 truths, to precede exact historic truths so that in the latter 
 the former may be recognized. The myth of Santa Claus, 
 the story of Siegfried, or of Achilles, the legend of Odin or 
 Baldur, contain truths of the former order, and their presen- 
 tation will pave the way for an appreciation of the scientific 
 verities of religious, social, or political development, in the 
 progress of civilization. 
 
 Following is an outline of the course as it suggests itself to 
 the author: 
 
 In the Lower Grades: 
 
 Study of the children's immediate environment as man's 
 habitation. How the city or village grew from small begin- 
 nings; going, as suggested before, backwards in time, to pe- 
 riods when some things the child knows and perhaps thinks 
 are as natural as air and water, were not ; early history ; In- 
 dians, primitive life, types and races of men. 
 
 Home-making in different lands. 
 
 The hunter. 
 
 The nomad. 
 
 The planter. 
 
 Compare with modern types: hunting, camping, farming. 
 
 Interesting stories, centering upon individuals, from gen- 
 eral history. 
 
 Historical poetry. The interest of primitive peoples and 
 children is pre-eminently epic, not lyric; consequently epic 
 poetry, ballads, etc., are most appropriate at this period. 
 
 No attempt need be made at strict chronological order. 
 The children's sense of time is undeveloped, and chronology 
 has little or no meaning to them. Group the work around 
 central themes of ethical import, without being too pedantic 
 in concentration. Many interesting detached bits will be 
 
1 66 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 gathered up at this time, to be organized later. 
 
 National holidays and heroes can be taken up in between, 
 in some way, as there is no logical co-ordination necessary, 
 rather a co-ordination of interests, and a following up of 
 the changes of emotional states. Care must be taken not to 
 expand too much. Excursions should be undertaken to his- 
 torical points, first of strictly local interest (site of first 
 house, first bridge, etc.) then in the nearer and farther en- 
 vironment. 
 
 The city as it was, and as it grew up, may be built up on 
 the sandtable. Local biographies and stories will give emo- 
 tional color to the work. 
 
 Any widening of the geographical horizon leads to un- 
 known fairy-lands where only imagination, more or less ra- 
 tional, can guide. First, there is no distinction made by the 
 child between the possible and the impossible. He takes an 
 intense interest in the wildest fancies which satisfy his desire 
 to probe into all possibilities which his mind can construct. 
 This is the time of Alice's Wonderland, of the Arabian 
 Nights, of Gulliver's Travels. The child will revel in 
 legends, myths, and fairy tales. Creation myths will lead 
 over to the present conception of the earth as a globe. The 
 stories of Columbus and Robinson Crusoe will prove help- 
 ful in this connection. 
 
 Then there are these topics to be introduced: travel, and 
 means of travel ; sailing, steamboats ; wagons, oxteams, sleds, 
 railroads. Buildings and wonders from everywhere. Con- 
 stant reference is here suggested to the proposed work in 
 geography as outlined in the previous chapter. 
 
 The topics of (a) Inventions (in connection with manual 
 occupations — potter's wheel, loom, tools, etc.) and (b) the 
 Domestication of Animals (pet animals discussed) wall lead 
 to a clearer perception of the factors in the gradual growth 
 of civilization. For an organization of this knowledge as 
 to space and time, we may well wait until a later period. 
 
 In the Upper Grades: 
 
 At about eleven when the true historic instinct dawns, 
 we may enter into the colonial development of our own coun- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 167 
 
 try, in somewhat more chronological order, and concentrate 
 on an outline course in American history. The term "out- 
 line", however, must be rightly understood ; it does not mean 
 a skeleton, or an abstraction, but a brief and pregnant presen- 
 tation of typical events and leading figures, dramatically and 
 vividly pictured. 
 
 At puberty (vi to vm grades), the awakening soul of 
 the child strikes out on new paths. This is the colonizing, 
 adventuresome, conquering, hero-worshipping, leader-follow- 
 ing, nation-making period. The migratory instinct will 
 manifest itself irresistibly in excursions, campings, and a gen- 
 erally reckless mode of life. The children will organize into 
 clubs or gangs, as the case may be. This is the time when 
 we should develop the idea of government and organization. 
 
 The history course should correspond to these interests. 
 The nation-making epochs of history, and the great men of 
 each, may be studied with profit. Take up the Nile Valley 
 and the Mediterranean Basin as scenes of early civilization. 
 These are some of the topics suggesting themselves : Rameses 
 the Great — King Solomon — the Trojan War — Greek and 
 Roman history in typical selections — Cyrus — the Migration 
 of Peoples — the Vikings — Nibelungenlied — Siegfried sagas 
 — Knighthood in Medieval Times — Hiawatha — Miles 
 Standish — Bacon's Rebellion. This list illustrates the char- 
 acter of the themes that can now be taken up, to correspond 
 to the natural interests of the children at this period, partly 
 in cross-sections, partly in chronological order, to unfold the 
 great panorama of nation building. 
 
 All along the literature of every epoch should be con- 
 nected with the history work in concentric circles, up to the 
 high school. This may be supplemented by a reading of the 
 best historic novels and poetry, such as Iliad and Odyssey, 
 Nibelungenlied, Sagas, Bible, Macaulay's Lays of Ancient 
 Rome, Scott's, Eber's, Kingsley's novels and stories, Long- 
 fellow's epics, etc. 
 
 In conjunction with all this, the study of languages — 
 German, French, Latin, later Greek — and their literatures, 
 will exhibit the spirit of the different nations as it reveals it- 
 self in language, and will enable the pupils to read the prin- 
 
168 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 cipal historic documents, or typical selections from them, in 
 the original. 
 
 In the viii grade, the work in history may be rounded 
 out by a new and comprehensive study by American history, 
 introducing some original research, using perhaps the 'Amer- 
 ican History Leaflets" (edited by Albert Bushnell Hart and 
 Edward Channing), and similar material. Then there 
 should be a course in civil government. 
 
 Civil government, if rightly taught, will not mean merely 
 a presentation of so many facts and details, but the awaken- 
 ing of the right ethical principles in the breasts of the young, 
 for their guidance in the performance of their duties as citi- 
 zens and human beings. Civics and ethics are intimately 
 related in this sense. And this is the time when, in the souls 
 of the children, those ideals and principles, or habits of 
 thought and attitude are forming which will give character 
 and tone to their actions in after life. "The universal pos- 
 session of ideals," says E. G. Lancaster, in Psychology and 
 Pedagogy of Adolescence, "affords an excellent opportunity 
 for the educator. There are different stages. The period 
 (of adolescence) is one when command should give place to 
 the presentation of an ideal, and an ideal adapted to the age 
 and interest of the youth. In early adolescence there needs 
 to be something heroic or self-sacrificing in the ideal. . ." 
 for now, thru the very forces that make the youth long for 
 adventure and tests of courage, thru his tendency to submit 
 to leadership, his aboriginal selfish instincts take a turn 
 towards self-renunciation, by way of devotion to some per- 
 son or cause, towards surrender of self to the influence of 
 altruistic motives generally. 
 
 History, to have its full beneficial effect upon character 
 building, must be so presented that it opens up a perspective 
 of human destiny to the child, and that it have an ethical 
 bearing in reference to the problems which will confront him 
 in his career thru life. Referring to the racial struggles, 
 especially those between Europe and Asia, which seem to be 
 drawing near, Prof. Barrett Wendell, of Harvard, in a re- 
 view of Kipling's works, writes as follows: "When history, 
 past or present, takes on such aspects as this, human affairs 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 169 
 
 suddenly assume a new, startling, bewildering guise. At 
 comfortable moments we are accustomed to assume that men 
 of various ability control, first themselves, then one another, 
 and finally the course of things on earth. At critical mo- 
 ments we are beginning to know with tragic certainty that 
 men, like other earthly things, are to an incalculable degree 
 the sentient victims of forces, or, if you prefer, of powers 
 utterly beyond human control. . . . This struggle of 
 ours is with the rising tide of an oceanic eternity." 
 
 Indeed we are in the hands of powers which we cannot 
 control. Call these powers natural laws, call them God, 
 call them with any exalted name you will, they are real and 
 ever-present. Thus, the realization of human destiny in all 
 its awe-inspiring mysteriousness dawns upon us. "Lo! 
 Eternity is mirrored there!" This lesson our children must 
 learn, even tho symbolically at first, for the full grasp of this 
 idea, as far as it is within human reach, is left for mature 
 age. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Nature Work as an Objective Basis 
 
 SPENCER calls natural science the "knowledge 
 which is of most worth" as it determines the regu- 
 lation of our lives and the progress of humanity and 
 civilization in every particular. 
 Nature must duly be considered as the appercep- 
 tive basis of all other work: it furnishes the only concrete 
 experience outside of emotional experience. 
 
 As we have seen, natural science work is in reality the 
 attempt to understand our physical environment, apart from 
 the higher stages which lead to an appreciation of the na- 
 ture even of our mental and moral qualities and functions. 
 In the sense just spoken of, as referring to the physical en- 
 vironment, it is geography, or intimately related to, and 
 based upon geographical apperception. This is at least true 
 of the elementary stage. 
 
 In the high school there will be specialization and dif- 
 ferentiation. The different branches of science will be 
 studied separately and intensely, to prepare for a higher unity 
 of conception: world-conception — the conception of an en- 
 vironment of the highest order. 
 
 The climbing of the ladder that leads up to this broad 
 view of the universe is a slow process, and must begin with 
 the training of those organs of the mind which mediate ex- 
 perience. In the beginning, and really thruout, science work 
 is a training of the senses to observe quickly and exactly, 
 and the training of the mind to interpret truthfully. 
 
 All concrete experience has an emotional value. In other 
 words it appeals to our feelings and depends upon our inter- 
 est. Experience not based on interest fails to become prop- 
 
 170 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 171 
 
 erly assimilated and is largely lost. 
 
 There is, however, unconscious absorption going on all the 
 time which may eventually lead to later associations creat- 
 ing unexpected interests. Therefore, the proper environ- 
 ment will manifest its silent influence sooner or later. Yet 
 for the complete and ready internalizing of the external, 
 every sense impression must rouse in our soul a correspond- 
 ing emotional vibration. This emotional element is what 
 has been called interest. 
 
 Interest depends to a very large extent upon early ex- 
 periences and absorptions. But there is another element in 
 it: the mental condition which the individual has reached in 
 the process of evolution, of awakening, or maturing. We 
 must, therefore, study the successive interests dominating the 
 child mind. 
 
 Prof. Earl Barnes made, some years ago, a comprehen- 
 sive study of children's interests. He first referred to Alf. 
 Binet's experiments on his two girls of 2^2 and 4*^ years 
 respectively, as reported in the "Revue Philosophique", 1890. 
 Judging from their answers to certain selected questions, 
 their greatest interest in the common objects mentioned in 
 these questions, lay in their use, and in the second place, 
 in their movements. They almost never described an object 
 by telling its color, form, size, material, or structure. They 
 gave, not its qualities, but what it was good for, and what 
 it could do. Of his own experiments Prof. Barnes says 
 this: 
 
 "An examination of the papers showed that the answers 
 could be grouped under the following general heads: USE, 
 —a clock is to tell time; LARGER TERM,— a clock is a 
 time piece; ACTION, — a clock goes tick tack; QUAL- 
 ITY, — a clock is pretty; PLACE, — a clock is on the wall; 
 COLOR, — a clock is yellow; FORM, — a clock is round; 
 STRUCTURE,— a clock has a face and wheels; SUB- 
 STANCE, — a clock is made of wood and iron. . . ." 
 
 At 7, Barnes shows, use is far in the lead, larger term and 
 action come next, but are still far behind. At 11, use is still 
 the leader, while larger term has overtaken all the rest and 
 is half way up to use. At 15, use and larger term are the 
 
172 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 leaders, larger term being a little ahead of use. Substance 
 and structure have gained ground considerably since II, and 
 are now about one-third of use. He continues: 
 
 "Prof. Oliver P. Jenkins has called my attenion to the 
 fact that most of the definitions of use also describe actions. 
 The children describe an object by putting it in action, so 
 as to satisfy their own particular desire or needs.* 'A horse 
 is what takes us riding,' or A knife is good to cut bread 
 with,' illustrates this combined use and action. . . . 
 With the children of all ages substance and structure are 
 hard to express. . . . 
 
 "They show that our natural history and object lessons 
 with primary children if they are to appeal to their interests 
 must start with the uses and activities of objects, gradually 
 lead out thru what the things can do and what they are 
 made of, to their structure, form, color, etc. In work with 
 objects we generally start out with the superficial qualities 
 taking what Agassiz found interesting to college boys and 
 applying it directly to primary children. We take an apple 
 and say : What is this ? What is it covered with ? What is 
 on this end? What shape has it? What color is it? etc., 
 etc. This study seems to indicate that if we are to follow 
 the child's natural bent we should start with the discussion 
 of what the apple is good for. One of our new readers 
 starts out with: 'An apple is round like a ball;' this study 
 seems to say that it would be better to start with: 'The 
 apple is good to eat ;' or, 'The apple grows on a tree.' . . . 
 
 "Whether one accepts the theory that each individual lives 
 over the history of the race or not, it is still interesting to 
 note that in Homer or Herodotus one finds this same ten- 
 dency to dwell on movement, use, and substance." 
 
 Prof. Barnes' study shows, in his own words, that chil- 
 dren's interests develop according to pretty definite laws 
 which can be determined and used as a basis on which to 
 build educational activity. It also shows that with young 
 children we must not expect elaborate conceptions of the 
 
 This is precisely the method Homer employs in his descrip- 
 tions and comparisons. G. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 173 
 
 things about them. One or two of the most striking attri- 
 butes of an object are sufficient to identify and describe it. 
 
 His results were later corroborated in the main features 
 by experiments made by the late Prof. Edward R. Shaw, 
 altho there is some little difference in terminology. 
 
 We may put the results of these studies in another form. 
 Use refers to the relation of the nature-material to man. It 
 is thru the human element that we reach an interest in the 
 world we live in. 
 
 This is functionally true of young minds. The purely 
 intellectual interest in science is a late development and char- 
 acteristic of the very few. 
 
 This suggests another principle of presentation. We must 
 humanize the material by referring it in every possible way 
 to the interests of the human soul, or connecting it with the 
 human personality which appeals to the emotional interests 
 of the child. Scientific discoveries e. g., will be fitly human- 
 ized by the biographies and struggles of their discoverers. 
 
 The primitive mind endows all natural forces with per- 
 sonal qualities. This is what has been called the animistic 
 view of nature. 
 
 To the savage and the child the recognition of a difference 
 between the self and the non-self implies a tremendous step 
 in mental evolution. But even this recognition does not 
 mean that the difference between the outside world phenom- 
 ena and the inside world of feelings and thoughts is properly 
 grasped. It involves an advanced intellectual insight in the 
 causality of things to realize the difference between organic 
 and inorganic processes and qualities. The immature mind 
 will therefore naively endow the outside world, the non-self 
 world, with the same qualities which is possessed by man 
 himself. This is what is called the animistic view of nature, 
 — a view which transfers upon external phenomena and ob- 
 jective facts such causes as may be working subjectively in 
 the human mind and feelings. It is neither an easy nor 
 a rapid process to emancipate the mind from this tendency, 
 and we shall do best by taking the child on his own terms 
 in this as in every phase of his development during the years 
 of school education, In other words, it commends itself to 
 
174 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 make proper use of his animistic tendency in the teach- 
 ing of nature, as other methods will fail. 
 
 Here we are again reminded of the necessity of grading 
 the material and adjusting our methods of presentation in 
 accordance with the successive natural instincts of childhood. 
 
 We may, in this work, rely upon the children's native love 
 of nature. But, indeed, it is not classified knowledge they 
 care for in the beginning. Inspiration must come before 
 inclination. 
 
 "The great love of nature, compared with the distaste for 
 science existing in the same individuals, is a blow at the 
 present methods of killing scientific interests by the text book 
 method of instruction. 640 were lovers of some form of 
 nature, while only 290 of the same individuals liked any one 
 science. This love of nature should be utilized to develop 
 the scientific spirit in the pupil."* 
 
 The same thought is expressed by J. O. Quantz, in his 
 fascinating study of "Dendro-Psychoses",* in the following 
 language : 
 
 "Children are already and naturally in sympathetic 
 rapport with nature. Our training of them must contain 
 enough letting alone to allow this attitude toward nature to 
 continue. This reverence for nature, and feeling of at-home- 
 ness with her, is one aspect of the child-like spirit which 
 surely need never be outgrown. Scientific description and 
 classification of objects is as artificial to child mind as simi- 
 lar abstraction and generalization would be to the lowest 
 savage." 
 
 Altho experiments and other concrete experiences should 
 be introduced in the earliest years in conjunction with geo- 
 graphical and other studies to secure proper training of the 
 power of observation, and to build up a rational apperceptive 
 basis, the symbolic and mythological element must precede 
 the strictly rational. Myths, legends, and fairy tales will 
 lead to scientific conceptions of the world, properly so-called, 
 
 *E. G. Lancaster, "Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence," 
 Pedag. Sem. V. I. 
 *Amer. Jrl. of Psych., IX, 4. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 175 
 
 and we must not thrust the rationalizing interpretation upon 
 the children in a pedantic way, but leave this to their own 
 natural adjustment. Well says A. C. Ellis, in his "Philoso- 
 phy of Education" :* 
 
 "The larger correlation in teaching the mythopoetic and 
 instinctive with the scientific and intellectual views of na- 
 ture, is now demanding attention from a new standpoint. 
 . . . On every hand the reports of the higher teachers is 
 that the little smattering of science has not only failed to 
 give children the accurate knowledge desired, but has often 
 seared off the budding interest beyond the possibility of re- 
 vival in the serious later science work. . . . It is an- 
 other illustration of the danger of applying the adult stand- 
 ard to children and of building a-priori educational ideals, 
 instead of first examining into the mental condition of the 
 child to see what he wants and what he can handle. If we 
 had known ten years ago what is now known of children, it 
 could have been seen beforehand that they have little or no 
 interest or apperceptive organ for scientific theories till well 
 on into adolescence, that their reason, interest in original 
 sources and scientific accuracy, powers of making large in- 
 ference, and critical judgment, eagerness to question and 
 solve doubts of this kind do not rise till late, while the early 
 school years are filled with an animistic appreciation of na- 
 ture, with intense love of the usual mythopoetic and folk- 
 conceptions. . . . The race unable to develop this myth 
 in youth has failed to develop the philosophy and science in 
 adult life. The question is then asked in all seriousness if 
 the later healthy growth of scientific interest is not starved 
 in its embryonic period when the child is started with the 
 strong food of pure science and not fed first upon the pap of 
 nature myth and folk-lore. Certain it is that studies of chil- 
 dren show them, in spite of our efforts, often saturated with 
 these notions and ever in sympathy with them. . . ." 
 
 It has been objected to a course of this nature that it will 
 lead the children to take a superstitious view of phenomenal 
 life. But again we must not impose the standard of the 
 
 *Pedag. Semin., Oct., 1897, 
 
176 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 rational adult upon the immature child. What appears a 
 superstition to us is a mythopoetic conception from the stand- 
 point of the undeveloped mind. A mythopoetic view becomes 
 a superstition only when it persists in surviving the develop- 
 ment to maturity. Superstitions must be lopped off, but it 
 is doubtful whether a child whose attitude is rationalizing 
 from the start, can be considered a pleasing and wholesome 
 creature. There is danger that such a child will never grow 
 up to have ideals, or, for that matter, genuine science and 
 philosophy. 
 
 We need not be afraid of these early superstitions, and 
 should realize how obstinately, in spite of our efforts at 
 times, they will take possession of our children. If we oppose 
 them injudiciously, we may lose the power of influencing 
 the children altogether. 
 
 It is unnecessary to emphasize that, at the proper period, 
 this symbolic treatment must be made to lead up to scien- 
 tific view-points. We must not allow the children to "get 
 stuck" in the myths, altho our most modern experience may 
 show that some people will never outgrow the mythological 
 stage. 
 
 In introducing the objective and rational element, how- 
 ever, it is well not to forget that experiments in school will 
 forever be narrow and typical, and consequently limited in 
 application. The myths, even at this stage, will essentially 
 assist in giving the elementary mind the broad outlook which 
 the experimental treatment will fail to give. And even in 
 the higher stages, experiment can cover only a small portion 
 of the entire ground, and will mainly serve to give a key to 
 the appreciation of authoritave teaching. Thus, experience 
 will be forever supplemented by belief, thru book study which 
 must be taken on faith. Truly, there is an essential differ- 
 ence between the simple faith of the primitive mind, and 
 scientific faith, in so much as the latter is at all times sub- 
 ject to proof, on the basis of the typical experience spoken of. 
 
 The concrete work itself should be varied and typical, as 
 said before, and it should call forth the self-activity of the 
 pupils, not merely their contemplative powers. In other 
 words, they should not be lookers-on in the experimental 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 177 
 
 efforts comprised under this head. Some of the experiments 
 may have to be performed by the teacher for the class to 
 observe; but the greater part must be done by the pupils 
 themselves. These experiments and observations have a dis- 
 tinct relation to manual training exercises as has been shown 
 in previous chapters. 
 
 The experiences conveyed to the pupils by this concrete 
 work may be divided into two groups: 
 
 (1) First-hand experiences. 
 
 These will be gathered not only in the laboratory or school 
 room, but in school and kitchen gardens, in the shop, and 
 on excursions. School gardens will furnish the basis for 
 horticulture, kitchen gardens will be the first step to agricul- 
 ture; both will lead up to a practical study of domestic sci- 
 ence, which will later include physiology and hygiene. They 
 will also offer opportunity for the introduction and use of 
 some primitive, typical occupations and tools ; in the working 
 of the ground, and in the nursing of plants, they will use 
 the hoe, spade, rake, budding knife, pruning shears, etc. 
 
 Out of the narrow precincts of schoolroom and school 
 garden, botanizing excursions, trips to study the configura- 
 tion of the country, and the animal life characteristic of it, 
 will take the children with their teachers into the woods 
 and fields, the hills and valleys of the surrounding country, 
 and in later stages, even to more distant regions. It has been 
 shown that these excursions, besides being instructionally val- 
 uable and ministering to healthful exercise, answer a natural 
 instinct of the children of this age: the migratory instinct, 
 "die Wanderlust" of the Teutonic races, and that a neglect 
 of recognition of this tendency must necessarily work mis- 
 chief, and breed truancy. Says Mr. L. W. Kline, in his 
 study of truancy:* 
 
 "The great majority went to river, pond, brook, to fish, 
 skate, swim and play in the water. Next in order comes the 
 woods and fields, then to play ball and other games, to see 
 parades and be in great gatherings and on the street. Many 
 
 *Pedag. Semin. V. 
 
178 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 are described as having an immoderate love for sight-seeing, 
 excitement and outdoor experiences." 
 
 This sight-seeing might well be made an organic element 
 in school instruction, if intelligently managed, for it affords 
 a vast amount of special experience. But this belongs only 
 indirectly under the head of science teaching. However, the 
 city streets, the fields, the forests, and the brookside; mu- 
 seums, zoological and botanical gardens, aquaria, factories, 
 machine shops, etc., etc., furnish an inexhaustible opportu- 
 nity for concrete experience. 
 
 These excursions will be the occasion for gathering nu- 
 merous specimens of all kinds, illustrative of the territory 
 explored. The world of plants and animals, of rock and 
 mountain side, of industry and trade, will thus be carried 
 concretely into the schoolroom ; and collections of this kind, 
 made by the children themselves and fraught with live asso- 
 ciations, will be a hundredfold more valuable and impressive 
 than ready made collections, or museum-like specimens, 
 brought to them. 
 
 Collections need not be of dead things, or dried and with- 
 ering things only. There ought to be living plants in the 
 schoolroom; and there might be living pets about at home 
 and in school: rabbits, or birds, or fishes; terraria, aviaries, 
 aquaria. 
 
 Then there are: 
 
 (2) Second-hand experiences which the skill and care 
 of the teacher will make as vivid as possible. Among the 
 means to produce these are colored pictures, photographs, and 
 representations of all kinds; lantern slides and moving pic- 
 tures; and in the largest measure, books and the live word of 
 mouth from the inspired teacher. 
 
 This caution is necessary in all science teaching to young 
 pupils: do not classify too early, and always respect the 
 apperceptive basis of the child. 
 
 The mental and moral injury done by faulty methods is 
 the more deplorable as the final aim of true science work 
 should be to develop in the pupil, in the first place, a scien- 
 
 *As to Nature vs. Curator, cf. Chap. II, p. 27. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 179 
 
 tific method of research and thinking, and the scientific at- 
 titude generally; and secondly, that reverence for life in 
 nature, and that ethical attitude which are the foundation 
 of true religiosity. 
 
 The ethical, reverential attitude, of which mention has 
 been made and which constitutes the most precious gain of 
 genuine science work, is well characterized by the following 
 lines from two of our master minds and prophets whose 
 words need no comment: 
 
 To him who in the love of nature holds 
 Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
 A various language. 
 
 (Bryant, Thanatopsis). 
 
 Flower in the crannied wall, 
 
 I pluck you out of the crannies, 
 
 I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
 
 Little flower — but if I could understand 
 
 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 
 I should know what God and man is. 
 
 (Tennyson). 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Language Teaching 
 
 GRAMMAR is elementary logic as Bain has it. 
 In an able article on the "History of English 
 Grammar Teaching" (Educational Review, 
 XII, 5) Mr. F. A. Barbour puts the same 
 thoughts in the following words: "Grammatical 
 analysis . . . not only exemplifies etymological changes 
 and rules of syntax, but it is a critical investigation into the 
 logical structure of sentences. It cannot be committed to 
 memory; it is a direct exercise of all the logical faculties." 
 That the English language, almost uninflected as it is, pre- 
 sents particular difficulties to one who is not well trained in 
 logical reasoning, is also shown conclusively in the same 
 article, and is a fact too well known to need further demon- 
 stration. "In Latin the form of a word is a direct aid to 
 recognizing its function in the sentence. Now the mere fact 
 that in English the pupil is obliged to get the meaning of the 
 sentence from the order of the words, and from a logical in- 
 sight into the content of thought with little or no aid from 
 the form of the words — this very fact makes the study of 
 English grammar a more abstract and difficult disciplinary 
 subject than the grammar of any highly inflected speech." 
 (Barbour, loc. cit.) 
 
 The difficulties appear to be highest when definitions of 
 the parts of speech are attempted. To pick out the subject 
 and predicate, to find modifiers and adjuncts, to distinguish 
 between simple, compound and complex sentences, and the 
 different kinds of phrases, puzzling as the task often is, may 
 perhaps be learned with some intelligent effort by bright, 
 
 180 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 181 
 
 linguistically efficient boys and girls of the highest grammar 
 grades, if careful questioning by the teacher points the way 
 and practical exercises are employed to give skill. But to 
 recognize a noun and to define it in distinction from an ad- 
 jective or verb, is a trying task even to the skilled gram- 
 marian. In Latin and Greek, inflection is so highly devel- 
 oped that it is impossible to mistake a nomen for a verbum, 
 even though nomina adjectiva and nomina substantiva may 
 not always be readily distinguished. In German, nouns can 
 at once be recognized by the fact that they begin with a capi- 
 tal letter and by the use of the gender-indicating article with 
 them; when used to modify another noun, they are never 
 used adjectively, but are invariably joined to the noun they 
 qualify to form a compound noun, or are employed in the 
 form of an apposition. But in English the same uninflected 
 word may be used ad libitum now as a noun, now as an ad- 
 jective or verb, and some nouns even as prepositions, conjunc- 
 tions and what not. Compare the following sentences: "An 
 abstract of title is a document." "Abstract doctrines are 
 difficult to understand." "All philosophy that would ab- 
 stract mankind from the present is no more than words." 
 Here the word abstract occurs three times, each time in a 
 different role, the last time even with a different pronuncia- 
 tion. In the title "The New York Daily Evening Messen- 
 ger," the proper noun "New York" and the common noun 
 "evening", are both used as qualifying adjectives. These 
 are examples of very ordinary occurrence. But there is a 
 large number of less frequent expressions which have the 
 effect of veritable grammatical puzzles — the glaring head- 
 lines of newspaper articles are full of them. Many words 
 have their puzzle character enhanced by the fact that they 
 may not only belong to different parts of speech, but that 
 they have more than one meaning, or that a different pro- 
 nunciation gives them a different significance. (Cf. bow, 
 sow, read, etc.) 
 
 It requires little thought to realize that the difficulties 
 presented by such cases are indeed insurmountable for young 
 children with minds untrained in logical discrimination. And 
 yet one of the first things they are expected to learn in gram- 
 
1 82 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 mar is a series of definitions of the parts of speech. These 
 definitions are, as a rule, very unsatisfactory and misleading; 
 exact definitions require so high a degree of analytic acute- 
 ness and insight that only trained grammatical minds can 
 frame and appreciate them. There are, besides, few gram- 
 mars for school use that agree on the definition of some of 
 the most common words of the language. To illustrate: 
 Such words as "this" and "that" (in "this book" and "that 
 hat") are called by Swinton's Grammar (1877) and Whit- 
 ney's Essentials of English Grammar (1877) "demonstrative 
 pronominal adjectives"; by Metcalf's English Grammar 
 (1894) "demonstrative adjective pronouns"; by Maxwell's 
 Advanced Lessons in English Grammar (1891) simply "ad- 
 jectives" (p. 121). The last named Grammar, however, 
 names "which" and "what" when used with a noun (as in 
 "what dignity," "which numbers") interrogative pronouns. 
 In all these grammars "my" and "mine", "your" and 
 "yours", etc., are merely given as the possessive cases of "I", 
 "you", etc., respectively; while their independent adjectival 
 character is recognized by West's Elements of English Gram- 
 mar (1893). And thus, examples may be multipled, even 
 from the most modern language books for schools. 
 
 Now what degree of power does a child possess to grapple 
 with the tasks of grammatical discrimination and analysis? 
 In other words, in what measure does the development of 
 the logical faculty in the child correspond with the demands 
 usually made upon his reasoning power? 
 
 In ordinary school practice the child is expected to be 
 able to assimilate any kind of knowledge presented to him. He 
 is considered, so to speak, as a small adult; as endowed with 
 pretty much the same faculties as the grown-up mind, only 
 perhaps, on a smaller scale, or in an untrained condition. 
 In most cases the teacher will treat her pupil as if the lat- 
 ter were simply ignorant, owing to his lack of years, and 
 as if the business of teaching were merely to pour into his 
 empty head that amount of knowledge and information which 
 is thought necessary, yet wanting. Thus the child of 
 school age is regarded as equally able as the adult to learn, 
 that is to comprehend, any branch of human knowledge, no 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 183 
 
 matter to what activity of mind it appeals. It is therefore 
 thought perfectly feasible, if only the necessary time is grant- 
 ed, to teach the so-called elements of so abstract a discipline 
 as grammar, even to young students. We may be reminded, 
 by the way, that what is meant to be a presentation of the 
 elements often takes the form of a highly abstract synopsis 
 of the science of grammar — a synopsis which in its totality 
 can really be mastered only by very mature minds. 
 
 That the development of the child-mind is, in point of 
 fact, a process of maturing; that the young child is by no 
 means a logical being, but pre-eminently imitative; that his 
 knowledge, and his mode of thinking, are fragmentary; that 
 the power of reasoning is of slow growth; that there are 
 nascent periods in the child's mental evolution, when new 
 forces manifest themselves in the form of new activities and 
 interests; that these periods of increased power alternate 
 with periods of seeming retrograde, or at least suspended de- 
 velopment, but which are in reality times of latent growth, 
 when the child's physical and mental forces are gathering 
 strength for the next important stride forward ; that the 
 power of assimilation is conditioned by the laws of apper- 
 ception and interest; and that all these changes and condi- 
 tions are intimately related to, and dependent upon, the 
 physical growth and development of the child : all these 
 facts, which have grown old with the race, now force them- 
 selves upon the teachers like a new revelation, born out of the 
 new enthusiasm for a more systematic study of the child soul. 
 This new recognition of the laws governing the child's pow- 
 ers of acquisition and assimilation, will, of course, gradually 
 affect the school curriculum, and new standards, and a new 
 sequence of topics will result therefrom. 
 
 To a young child, logical order, or logical requirements, 
 mean little. His knowledge being fragmentary, he has no 
 conception that anything essential is wanting to complete a 
 logical whole, or to meet a logical demand. There is nothing 
 extraordinary in a fairy-tale to the conception of a child, im- 
 possible as a hero's exploits may seem to us. The fabulous 
 phoenix, with its resurrection from the flames; or the crea- 
 tion of armed men out of dragon's teeth, do not present any 
 
1 84 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 logical difficulties to the young mind ; even if it doubts their 
 truth in matter of fact, this is merely because it has learned 
 to appreciate the charms of fanciful invention, and not on 
 account of their logical absurdity. The ability to appreciate 
 law and order, and to reason out possibilities and impossibil- 
 ities, to distinguish between desirable, indifferent, and neces- 
 sary things, — presupposes a large stock of experiences stored 
 up in the brain, with the association fibres well established 
 between them and the relation of cause and effect frequently 
 observed and sounded. The absence of these prerequisites 
 causes the child to make so many blunders in grammar, and 
 to remain unimpressed by what the adult mind conceives to 
 be a self-evident logical necessity. The child of pre-pubertal 
 age will rarely understand why some verbs are transitive 
 and require an object; and in countless other ways teachers 
 will meet with an apparent obtuseness which leads to so many 
 well-known grammatical mistakes. The learning of rules 
 does not help this condition. Some minds will never out- 
 grow this stage of non-reasoning. 
 
 Let us not mistake the child's early interest in the causal 
 idea for a sufficient evidence of logical ability. The child 
 asks "Why?" at a very early period of his life; he is a born 
 investigator into organic causes. But whether these causes 
 are logical causes, necessary causes, inevitable causes; wheth- 
 er the same cause must always have the same effect, and 
 whether a cause is potent in all its relations, being modified 
 only by other potent causes; all this which characterizes ab- 
 stract reasoning, is utterly indifferent to him. He is usually 
 satisfied with any cause that you will state to him, even if it 
 be logically absurd. Not until his manifold experiences will 
 have assumed form and order in his mind, will he gradually 
 learn to appreciate what is termed the true causal nexus and 
 become capable of making logical inferences, at least in mat- 
 ters of abstract thought. 
 
 Young children are not as apt, as many may suppose, to 
 profit by their errors. In his instructive "Study of Puzzles," 
 in the "American Journal of Psychology" (July, 1897) 
 Ernest H. Lindley has convincingly shown that in the at- 
 tempt to solve problems, children will have to repeat their 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 185 
 
 errors many times before their significance is understood. 
 Their mode of procedure is essentially dependent upon habit 
 and imitation; "recency and vividness" of concrete experi- 
 ences are responsible for most of their notions and acts. If 
 reason is a perception of relations, then young children are 
 little above the "sense trial and error" order of procedure; 
 and while they may perhaps early learn to perceive simple 
 relations and make simple adaptations thereby, fatigue, tem- 
 porary loss of interest, etc., may produce a relapse into the 
 animal method of absolute non-reasoning (loc. cit. p. 479). 
 "Tests of a number of children varying in age from 3 to 12, 
 show surprisingly little logic" (p. 476). 
 
 Experiments on mathematical reasoning have been reported 
 on by John A. Hancock, in the "Educational Review" of 
 October, 1896. 
 
 If such lack of insight into simple mathematical relations 
 can be observed — and no teacher of arithmetic will fail to 
 observe specimens of it — it is not to be wondered at that 
 the more difficult problems of grammar, involving not only 
 some subtle logic, but also an appreciation of etymological 
 development and syntactical peculiarities — will encounter 
 still greater "obtuseness" on the part of a large percentage 
 of pupils. 
 
 The investigations just alluded to, and which are corrob- 
 orated by many other tests, indicate that there are critical 
 periods in the development of the child's mind — periods of 
 rapid growth, preceded or followed by periods of apparent 
 dullness. Whether physical growth and mental growth 
 progress in inverse ratio or not, it is as yet an open problem ; 
 the facts at our disposal are somewhat contradictory with re- 
 gard to this point. But all tests point to the eighth, tenth, 
 and twelfth years as times of change. These stages corre- 
 spond broadly to periods of marked significance in the devel- 
 ment of the brain. According to H. H. Donaldson ("The 
 Growth of the Brain"), the brain attains almost its full 
 weight at the eighth year of a child's life and, with some 
 fluctuations, the maximum weight is reached between the 
 thirteenth and fifteenth. "The young child is a reflex and 
 automatic organism. . . . The child even so old as 
 
1 86 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 eight years is rather like an animal in method of adaptation 
 than like the human adult" (Lindley, loc. cit. p. 480). His 
 mental characteristic is imitativeness. "This does not de- 
 grade the mental status of children, but rather dignifies imi- 
 tation, or suggestibility, or whatever this instinct may be 
 called as that psychic element which has largely shaped hu- 
 man destiny whenever the higher intellectual faculties were 
 pushed in the background." (Cf. Prof. Edw. A. Ross, "The 
 Mob Mind," Popular Science Monthly, July, 1897.) How- 
 ever, from the eighth year, a beginning of true reasoning, 
 that is the perception of simple relations, may be observed. 
 
 In a study of children's superstitions (Clara Vostrovska, 
 Studies in Education, I. 4), the children's natural inclination 
 towards absurd beliefs and their inability to do abstract rea- 
 soning is strongly emphasized. But while it is shown that 
 "few children know how to generalize", and that "each case 
 is a separate case to them", it is also demonstrated that the 
 "change from belief to unbelief" occurs "about the tenth 
 year." With regard to matters of discipline, rules of conduct 
 and punishments of transgressions, we find that "the great 
 majority of young children do not discriminate kinds and de- 
 grees of offences." (Studies in Education, I, 9, p. 348). 
 Here the same absence of power of logical discrimination and 
 of the ability to generalize. Yet in a study of "Class Pun- 
 ishment" (by Caroline Frear, loc. cit.) we read: "It is in- 
 teresting to notice that the sentiment that the class ought to 
 co-operate with the teacher in the detection of guilt increases 
 with age, from 39 per cent, before 10 years of age, to 50 per 
 cent, after ten years." Thus the tenth year is again established 
 as an important turning point in the child's mental develop- 
 ment. For without a keener appreciation of the need of con- 
 scious adjustment, of the relation of cause and effect, of 
 mutual obligation, dim as it yet may be, this new social senti- 
 ment could not spring up. It marks the dawn of true rea- 
 soning. Other studies point the same way, and Earl Barnes 
 (loc. cit. p. 356) recognizes the age of from ten to thirteen 
 as a period of great mental activity, tending to develop the 
 power to think in logical sequences, crude as these attempts 
 may yet be. During this, the pre-pubertal period, we shall 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 187 
 
 observe in the child glimpses of that critical tendency which at 
 the age of pubescence and adolescence proper will induce 
 the young man and woman to doubt and revise most of their 
 notions and beliefs hitherto accepted upon the authority of 
 teacher and parent, and to establish new association tracts 
 in accordance with their bold attempt at independent think- 
 ing. Now, logical thought, radical reasoning, often sur- 
 prisingly unconventional, often producing even a revolution- 
 ary attitude towards established modes of thought, will as- 
 sert their influence powerfully. 
 
 If we allow ourselves to be guided by the results of these 
 investigations, in laying out a course of language, or specific- 
 ally grammar, instruction, we must first take care to remove 
 from the curriculum of the lower and intermediate grades all 
 such exercises which require strictly logical processes of 
 thought. We may even doubt the wisdom of too early an 
 introduction of any kind of formal language training before 
 the eighth year. Might it not be safer to devote all the time 
 in the first two grades of school work to objective and sense 
 training, to the building up of clear concepts thru nature 
 and manual work, including geometrical exercises of a con- 
 crete character ; and to purely oral exercises and drill in oral 
 expression, — postponing the beginning of reading, writing, 
 and number work proper until the pupil enters the third 
 grade? The advisability of such a course ought to be seri- 
 ously discussed as with the present mode of procedure so 
 much precious time and energy seem to be wasted which 
 could be put to better advantage, and as the children after 
 having passed the first critical turning point of their develop- 
 ment would perhaps be much better able to cope with the 
 perplexing tasks of formal instruction. But be that as it 
 may, all are agreed that with regard to language training no 
 successful attempt can be made in these early years to teach 
 rules of grammar. Main stress will have to be laid upon 
 opportunities for unconscious absorption and imitation of 
 good language, from the speech of parents and teachers, by 
 reading to the children, by having them commit to memory 
 carefully chosen selections of poetry and prose. The 
 dramatic instinct of the child which is so prominent in the 
 
1 88 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 early years, will make him delight in impersonating different 
 characters, professions and occupations, thus learning to mas- 
 ter a number of terms and expressions peculiar to them. Ani- 
 mal and folk-lore should be turned to account, fables will 
 be helpful, and even flowers and minerals can be inspired to 
 speak to the child their various languages. A number of 
 simple rules and directions — in correcting the child's speech 
 — such as have no particular logical reason but are essentially 
 idiomatic, can be emphasized now, and will be obediently 
 respected by the youthful learner. For this is the age when 
 he has implicit faith in authority, and will believe things to 
 be right or wrong just as he is told, without question. Con- 
 stant practice, varied in form, to command the interest of the 
 pupil, will lay the safe foundations for future language 
 study ; but there must be a thought content to every word he 
 is made to use. 
 
 Every observer of children knows that their first attempt 
 to venture out on the field of independent word-formation 
 and inflection is characterized by the method of analogy. 
 This, while assumed to be a logical process, and undoubtedly 
 containing a germ of true reasoning, is clearly a mode of 
 imitative activity. The child will conjugate "I bring, I 
 brang", as he does "I sing, I sang," without doubting his per- 
 fect right to do so. This tendency to analogize, as being the 
 first dawn of reason, will be taken advantage of by the skill- 
 ful teacher to fix the regular forms in the child's mind, not 
 dwelling, of course, on grammatical terms. The danger aris- 
 ing from the same tendency concerning the so-called irregu- 
 lar forms will be largely obviated by simply appealing to the 
 authority of good usage, and making the seemingly anoma- 
 lous forms, types to be followed in the formation of new 
 analogical sets. But this can be done to advantage only dur- 
 ing these early years, before the child's first awkward at- 
 tempts to reason may confuse his idiomatic speech. This is 
 another argument in favor of the belief that formal studies 
 be best postponed until after the eighth year, so as to gain 
 time for a firm grounding in the idiomatic use of the lan- 
 guage. As the memory is very active and tenacious at this 
 age, these teachings will be a gain forever. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 189 
 
 With many children, if not with all, the study of another 
 living language in addition to the vernacular will prove 
 helpful. Such study is by no means an overtaxation, and 
 will in no wise injure the mother tongue, if competently 
 taught. On the contrary, these early years are the very ones 
 when languages are acquired with remarkable facility, and 
 the practice of many foreign families of the nobility where 
 children are expected to converse in two languages at an 
 early age, is proof that there is no difficulty. And it will be 
 noticed that the change from one language to another, while 
 it affords great pleasure to the children, answering to their 
 play instinct in a particular form, will also stimulate their 
 appreciation of idiomatic differences; it will decidedly 
 strengthen their "feeling" for the idiomatic characteristics 
 of their own language. The author has been frequently 
 struck by the fitness of expressions chosen by young children 
 from English speaking homes, in the rendering of German 
 phrases in idiomatic English. They hit the right translation 
 intuitively. Class instruction will here prove beneficial inas- 
 much as each child will thus be benefited by the joint lin- 
 guistic experiences and instincts of all the rest. 
 
 This remarkable aptness of young children to catch the 
 spirit of the language need not surprise us. It was in the 
 childhood of the race and of nations when language and lan- 
 guages were created and developed. These creations and de- 
 velopments were due to certain physiological laws inherent 
 in human nature, — laws which are now being more and 
 more studied and understood, but of which the language- 
 makers themselves were of course entirely unconscious. Lan- 
 guage is a growth, as it were, and we say that humankind 
 created language by following the language-making instinct. 
 There are general laws governing all languages; and there 
 are peculiarities found in individual idioms, also due to 
 deeper causes. Thus each language has a "genius" of its 
 own — each pictures a different attitude towards environment, 
 a different reaction to external conditions ; and this difference 
 of "genius" is commensurate to the degree of variation which 
 the tribe, or people, whose product it is, represents among the 
 multitudinous species of the human race. In other words, 
 
190 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 each people's language reflects that people's racial character- 
 istics, its individual life-attitude, resulting from that "strug- 
 gle for existence", that adaptation to environment, which 
 fixed its status as a separate type. But this "language-mak- 
 ing instinct" was especially active and effective in the early 
 days, before the type was fixed, when everything in the type 
 character which was to be, was formative, potential, flexible. 
 
 This same condition is observed in the child of the age we 
 speak of, which is pre-eminently a formative age; it even con- 
 tinues through the pre-pubertal years. The language making 
 instinct of young children is very marked, and manifests 
 itself at one period in the production of distinct child-lan- 
 guages, totally different from the vernacular, and sometimes 
 framed by children spontaneously in addition to the learning 
 of the mother tongue; and at a later epoch, by the child's 
 lively interest in the invention and use of multifarious "se- 
 cret languages". Under specially favorable circumstances, 
 the first mentioned child-language "would become the mother 
 tongue of a new community and of the nation that would 
 spring from it" ( Horatio Hale, quoted in "Children's Secret 
 Languages" by Oscar Chrisman, The Child Study Monthly, 
 Sept., 1896). This wonderful faculty of child-nature as 
 Chrisman calls it (loc. cit.) ought to be led into the learning 
 of useful foreign languages so that the specific energy at 
 our disposal may not go to waste. And as the young mind is 
 still relatively free from the conventionalisms which in later 
 years beset and obscure the clear fountain of the national 
 genius, and represents more purely the original instincts that 
 differentiated the type; and as the child of this age repeats 
 the formative "culture epoch" of his tribe, it is not surprising 
 that he is ready to "feel the pulse of his mother tongue;" 
 to develop that "feeling for the peculiarities of his language 
 which enables him to grasp intuitively the intricacies of its 
 idiomatic phraseology." 
 
 With the acquisition of the art of reading and writing: a 
 new element comes to the assistance of language study. Vis- 
 ual and motor impressions, from the printed page and from 
 the attempt to reproduce it in writing, are of inestimable 
 value for the awakening of language concepts. As, in the 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 191 
 
 previous period, careful enunciation and scrupulously correct 
 language on the part of parent and teacher were powerful 
 agencies for establishing in the child's mind a feeling for 
 corrections of expression: now with the throwing open to 
 the youthful learner the golden gates of the vast and rich 
 domain of literature, noble examples of what there is best in 
 his language must surround and inspire him from the begin- 
 ning. It is not necessary here to dwell at length on the prin- 
 ciples which must guide the teacher in the selection of read- 
 ing matter for school use; suffice it to say that only such 
 matter is permissible which the child can learn to admire and 
 imitate. The language of his immediate surroundings is 
 now supplemented by that used, exalted and made immortal 
 by the great minds of his race. Again his native imitative- 
 ness will be the efficient factor in his appropriating these great 
 models for the sake of his own self-expression. His power 
 of discrimination between adequate and inadequate expres- 
 sion will be strengthened, and his natural tendency towards 
 the beautiful, the rhythmical, the melodious, will receive a 
 new stimulus. Children need much more poetry than prose; 
 and much more fanciful, rhetorical, epic, rhapsodical prose 
 than common-place narratives and descriptions. 
 
 At the dawn of civilization and literature, the poet was 
 rhetor, rhapsodist, historian, naturalist, philosopher, teacher; 
 mastery of the language appeared first in the form of poesy. 
 And youthful minds to this day delight the most in rhythmic 
 style: in the measured step of the epos and the sublimely 
 simple language of the classic tale and folklore, the wild 
 movement of the dithyramb, the sweet numbers of lyric 
 song; and this poetic disposition, wedded to their love of 
 action, gives the child and the youth that intense fondness for 
 dramatic expression so often observed. 
 
 It suggests itself, then, that young children should read 
 real literature — pieces composed by the masters of literary 
 expression; and that poetical and dramatic compositions 
 should have the preference. May be that in imitation of 
 these models the child's language will at first be a little florid 
 and high-flown; no matter — what is exuberant and rank in 
 it, will soon enough be trimmed down by the more prosaic 
 
192 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 influences of later years. 
 
 And let us not undervalue the intense enjoyment the child 
 takes in humorous things, nor forget that the sense of humor 
 is not merely the merry monarch of idle pastime, but truly a 
 promotor of intellectual development. To appreciate a joke 
 means to see a relation between ordinarily unrelated things. 
 Children's enjoyment of humor, therefore, has not only an 
 emotional value, giving their minds an optimistic trend ; it 
 also illustrates their "proneness to explore all the possibili- 
 ties of human life" (G. Stanley Hall and A. Allin, "The 
 Psychology of Tickling, Laughing and the Comic", Amer. 
 Journal of Psych., Oct., 1897) and is a legitimate outcome 
 of the play-instinct. It represents a distinct form of intel- 
 lectual play, as valuable for the evolution of logical thinking 
 as the puzzle interest of which more will be said hereafter. 
 Hence there should be a goodly admixture of humorous read- 
 ing matter, from the funny nonsense of Mother Goose rhymes 
 and 'Alice in Wonderland" to the scholarly pleasantries of 
 the 'Autocrat of the Breakfast Table", and were it only for 
 the purpose of elevating the children's taste in this direction, 
 and to guard them from falling into the vulgar modes of 
 thought towards which reckless witticism often leads. 
 
 The cardinal thing for language development is the more 
 or less conscious absorption of the model of expression set 
 before the children ; and this absorption will again be greatly 
 helped by committing to memory a number of well-chosen 
 selections. There are, however, other devices. 
 
 In the first place let us remember that correct speech is 
 greatly benefited by perceiving and recalling to the mind the 
 correct form of the word. What enunciation is for oral ex- 
 pression, spelling is for the written form of language. There 
 is a distinct relation between spelling and grammar, and 
 error and muddle in one will injure the other. 
 
 The vividness of the mental images of word-forms depends 
 largely upon visual and motor impressions and memories. 
 Relatively few people (often those that have a peculiar ear 
 for music) are ear-minded and the ear-minded ones among 
 the pupils of an elementary school receive enough of the at- 
 tention due to their peculiarity if teachers are careful about 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 193 
 
 enunciation. But even they will have their word-images 
 made more distinct by accompanying motor memories. These 
 facts show the absurdity of the tiresome, monotonous, one- 
 sided sing-song of oral spelling. How unnecessary this is, 
 is also made clear by the circumstance that few teachers will 
 follow this insipid practice when they teach a foreign 
 language. Who has ever heard of a French, German, Latin 
 or Greek spelling match? Spelling proper is of use mainly 
 for writing, and as we learn to swim by going into the 
 water, we learn to spell by writing words. Constant prac- 
 tice in writing, first by copying, and then by composing. 
 
 Copying is a very valuable exercise indeed. It goes with- 
 out saying that there must be discretion in the selection of 
 copies. Not everything needs to be copied ; but many of the 
 selections which have been chosen for memorizing; proverbs 
 ("epigramatic condensations of applicable wisdom which have 
 long served as a sort of moral code of direction to mankind" 
 — Anomy., Frazer's Mag. — and which are admirable examples 
 of concise and pregnant expression) ; fables and the like may 
 well be copied. This copying, alternating with dictation 
 exercises covering the same ground, will intensify the mental 
 images of the selections and help memorizing and preserv- 
 ing them. If more of intelligent copying and dictation were 
 practiced, teachers would experience less difficulty in hav- 
 ing the pupils copy simple directions from the blackboard, or 
 make notes of very ordinary explanations. How can a child 
 whose mental images of the words and forms of his language 
 are indistinct, confused, and fragmentary, be expected to 
 use this language with an adequate degree of correctness? 
 
 Spelling and grammar go hand in hand in many grammati- 
 cal forms. The tendency of the child to build words and 
 forms by analogy will here again be helpful, and the lists of 
 words and inflections based upon common type-forms can be 
 made to the delight of the children. It is true that many forms 
 appear arbitrary and will seem to defy attempts at analogical 
 classification. But, if introduced as new types, as suggested 
 before, children of this age will, as a rule, accept them un- 
 questioningly. Reference is here made not only to spelling 
 lists as such, but to lists which have a grammatical signifi- 
 
194 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 cance. Thus, singulars and plurals may be contrasted, in 
 lists somewhat like these: 
 
 First Type: 
 
 father 
 
 fathers 
 
 
 table 
 
 tables 
 
 Second Type: 
 
 dish 
 
 dishes 
 
 
 fox 
 
 foxes 
 
 Third Type: 
 
 man 
 
 men 
 
 
 woman 
 
 women, etc, 
 
 In a similar manner, lists of comparatives and superlatives, 
 of possessive cases, etc., may be prepared. Verb forms can be 
 tabulated thus: 
 
 First Type : 
 
 I praise, 
 
 I praised, 
 
 I am praised. 
 
 
 I love, 
 
 I loved, 
 
 I am loved. 
 
 
 I hate, 
 
 I hated, 
 
 I am hated, etc. 
 
 Second Type 
 
 : I regret, 
 
 I regretted, 
 
 I am regretted. 
 
 
 I shun, 
 
 I shunned, 
 
 I am shunned, etc 
 
 Third Type: 
 
 I bend, 
 
 I bent, 
 
 I am bent. 
 
 
 I send, 
 
 I sent, 
 
 I am sent, etc. 
 
 and so on. 
 
 Such lists ought to be copied in notebooks kept especially 
 for this purpose, and added to as occasion suggests. It need 
 hardly be said that only such words must be given a place on 
 these "growing" lists whose meaning and use is satisfactorily 
 understood ; in other words such that form the stock vocab- 
 ulary of the children, and have been frequently read and 
 used by them. 
 
 Some general notions of name-words (nouns), words de- 
 noting quality (adjectives), and words denoting action 
 (verbs) will have sprung up in the minds of the children by 
 this time, under the careful guidance of the teacher. Exer- 
 cises in contrasting words like "pro-duce" (verb) and 
 "prod-uce" (noun) in sentences and then tabulating them 
 will throw the difference of their respective functions into 
 bold relief. But care must be taken not to make these notions 
 formal or inelastic; no definition or general rule should be 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 195 
 
 demanded, the less as by such crude definitions as were al- 
 luded to before, the children would only learn to recognize 
 some nouns, verbs and adjectives, but by no means all. The 
 greater number of verbs, e. g., they have in daily use would 
 thus escape recognition. True, there will perhaps always be 
 a small percentage of precocious or otherwise intellectually 
 exceptional children in a class; if these do see relations and 
 can be helped to derive a general principle from their observa- 
 tions and concrete exercises, well enough for them ; they must 
 not be repressed. But their standard cannot be the class 
 standard. The aim at this stage can only be to establish 
 good habits of expression, to take advantage of the child's nat- 
 ural tendency to analogize, and to give their incipient ability 
 to discern simple relations, sufficient stimulus. 
 
 As the greatest effort will be made in the direction of the 
 greatest interest, we should not overlook the intense delight 
 which children take in riddles and puzzles of all kinds. 
 What is presented to them in puzzle form is sure to arouse 
 at once their alert attention. Lindley's study of puzzles (loc. 
 cit.) shows that "the riddle interest proper, beginning at 4, 
 culminates at 8, 9 and 10. Language puzzles exclusive of 
 riddles are most in favor from 12 to 15." Let us mark the 
 culmination periods which coincide with the critical periods 
 previously pointed out. The puzzle interest should certainly 
 be utilized in language teaching. 
 
 It is evident that many riddles which deal with letters 
 and syllables, can be made helpful in the teaching of spell- 
 ing. Many riddles, however, describe "the object in question 
 in a paradoxical or ambiguous way" (Lindley). This sug- 
 gests the use of the riddle as a device to detect the character 
 of subject, object and predicate. Again care must be taken 
 to avoid formal drill which would only kill the interest just 
 kindled and serve no purpose. Below the tenth year, when 
 children are most interested in what Lindley calls the rid- 
 dle proper, namely a simple question (as: Lives without 
 a body, hears without ears, speaks without mouth, to which 
 air alone gives birth; what is it? — Echo), this exercise may 
 simply serve to loosen the children's intellectual joints, as it 
 were, and prepare them for the more trying tasks of the next 
 
196 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 period. 
 
 The tenth year is again the turning point. From now on 
 thru the pre-pubertal period (a period of uncertain length, 
 differing in the two sexes and in individuals) the interest in 
 the other classes of language puzzles is marked. These are 
 really nothing else than more elaborate riddles. Lindley 
 enumerates the rebus, the conundrum, the enigma, the cha- 
 rade (also in its dramatic form) ; word squares, diamonds, 
 etc.; the acrostic; logogram, metagram, decapitations, cur- 
 tailments, retailments, hidden words, and the like. "Alto- 
 gether there are more than 30 species of language and word 
 puzzles. It is obvious that many of these not only challenge 
 ingenuity and involve the logical processes, but also have 
 points as information tests." It would be a welcome under- 
 taking if someone would collect puzzles, and grade and ar- 
 range them in their bearings upon different branches of in- 
 struction; and with regard to language training as such, as 
 orthographical, word building, subject, object and predicate 
 puzzles, etc. The skillful teacher will soon find a way to 
 make good use of them. 
 
 For a clearer understanding of the educational value of 
 puzzles Lindley's article should be consulted. The follow- 
 ing quotations must suffice to illustrate the bearing of this 
 intellectual play upon mental development of children ap- 
 proaching the most critical period of their life. "It is fair 
 to presume a priori that the systems of cortical association 
 fibres now begin to develop more rapidly. . . . Experi- 
 mental data concerning growth of reasoning power . . . 
 furnish corroboration for the above neurological assumption. 
 
 . . . May not this pre-pubertal intellectual play ac- 
 tivity bear direct propaedeutic relations to adolescence ? The 
 resulting flexibility of mind, due to the breaking up of nar- 
 row modes of thought, and the accompanying increment of 
 gain in strength and poise of intellect and will, may help 
 somewhat to mitigate the dangers of the 'new birth'." 
 
 By working enthusiastically over puzzles the child's abil- 
 ity to grasp relations quickly, to reason logically, is greatly 
 strengthened, and he becomes ready for formal instruction. 
 We are reminded by Lindley that twelve is the age when 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 197 
 
 Rousseau would have Emile, after years of freedom from 
 restraint, placed under formal tuition. 
 
 Lindley's study also demonstrates that even in this point 
 the development of the child is parallel to that of the race. 
 Riddles have played an important role in the childhood of 
 mankind, at a time preceding intellectual maturity. "The 
 making of riddles," says Taylor (Primitive Culture, I) 
 "requires a fair power of ideal comparison, and knowledge 
 must have made considerable advance before the process could 
 become so familiar as to fall from earnest into sport." Let 
 us be reminded of the riddle of the sphinx; of the part 
 riddles play in Fairy Tales; and that the rebus is perhaps 
 only a degenerated form of picture writing and hieroglyphics. 
 
 The pupils will now be ready to discern the grammatical 
 relations of words in a sentence. The sentence will become 
 the starting point of formal grammatical instruction. Wheth- 
 er it is best, as Franz Kern suggests, to begin with the finite 
 verb, as containing the essential elements of the sentence, 
 the sentence with its subject, predicate, object and other mod- 
 ifiers, will form a firm basis of elementary analysis. This 
 analysis must remain general at this stage, and omit con- 
 fusing details. Observations will illustrate to the child the 
 simple relations of these parts of the sentence, and of sub- 
 stantive, adjectival, adverbial, and verbal elements to one 
 another, without the need of formal definitions. 
 
 It is open to discussion whether diagramming the sentence 
 will contribute much to the clearness of its conception. If 
 there were a way — interesting to the children as well as 
 illustrating the organic facts of the sentence — the weight of 
 the argument would be in favor of the diagrammatic meth- 
 od. But the ordinary diagram forms are utterly unsatis- 
 factory ; they ignore the evolution of the thought as expressed 
 in the sentence ; they regard the latter from the standpoint of 
 formal grammar — that is, as "a thing dead and static, a man- 
 ufacture instead of a growth" (Gertrude Buck, "The Sen- 
 tence Diagram", Educ. Rev., Mar., 1897). Miss Buck re- 
 minds us of the evolution of the sentence, from the inter- 
 jectional expression of a homogeneous feeling (the single 
 word of the child is more or less interjectional in character, 
 
i 9 8 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 at any rate, stands epigrammatically for the expression of the 
 entire thought) to a differentiated, tho stenographic assertion 
 of an empirical judgment that has crystallized into a logical 
 concept; and she suggests a tree-shaped diagram. It is 
 well to consult the writings of Franz Kern on the subject 
 of sentence analysis ("Die deutsche Satzlehre," Berlin, 1883; 
 "Zur Methodik des deutschen Unterrichts," 1883; "Zustand 
 und Gegenstand", 1886) ; he was the first to demonstrate 
 the untenability of the copula-idea. However, it may be 
 best to postpone diagramming which presupposes a good deal 
 of exact discrimination, till the time of secondary instruc- 
 tion; for the child's standard of exactness is considerably 
 lower than the adult's and can be prematurely advanced only 
 at an expense of time and energy better employed in other 
 directions. 
 
 The so-called compound sentence will hardly need special 
 treatment at this stage ; a recognition of the co-ordinated rela- 
 tionship of parts found there will suffice. The complex 
 sentence can be treated as what it really is, viz., an expanded 
 simple sentence, the expansion being produced by substitut- 
 ing "dependent" sentences (clauses) for single words or 
 phrases. Of course, it is not strictly true that such clauses 
 were consciously substituted by the writer or speaker; the 
 process is rather this, that a clause is used when a single 
 word or phrase would be inadequate. 
 
 It may be added that the common practice to dissect selec- 
 tions from literature by so-called analysis, deserves to be de- 
 nounced as truly barbaric; selections should be used as illus- 
 trations only. The children's own compositions will furnish 
 material for analytic treatment, the main function of which 
 is to demonstrate the need of well connected and precise 
 expression. 
 
 To recapitulate: at this stage of logical development the 
 child may be expected to discriminate in a general way, be- 
 tween subject, predicate, object and modifiers; and also to 
 recognize (not define) nouns, prom uns, verbs adjectives, 
 adverbs, and perhaps prepositions and conjunctions. If there 
 should be any hesitation in anyone's mind as to the possibility 
 of recognizing parts of speech without defining them, let him 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 199 
 
 be reminded that he knows and recognizes a great many 
 things without being conscious of their definitions, or ever 
 having defined them; and he would often be very slow in 
 recognizing an object from its definition. In thinking of 
 a table, e. g., is Webster's definition of this useful piece of 
 furniture present to his mind, or does he know it at all? 
 Or would the following definition taken from the Standard 
 Dictionary: "A sliding receptacle, as in a cabinet, bureau, 
 table, chest, bench, or the like, for containing clothing, pa- 
 pers, valuables, etc." — help him materially to recognize a 
 common drawer? Why should it be otherwise in grammar? 
 Definitions are the climax of cognition — the final label which 
 a logical mind affixes to a concept; but the principal condi- 
 tion of correct conception is correct perception, whether de- 
 fining words are used as an additional description or not. 
 
 If further analysis should be deemed desirable, the con- 
 struction of sentences may be represented in the following 
 manner :* 
 
 Signify principal statements by capital letters, in their nat- 
 ural series, e. g. 
 
 "An inventor is rarely a scholar" = A. 
 "It was a consoling dream; but it was only a dream" = 
 A; B. 
 
 Or in case one statement is parenthetically enclosed in an- 
 other : 
 
 "Rarely (for invention presupposes technical skill) is an 
 inventor a scholar" = A (B) A. 
 
 Sentences like the following should be allowed to pass as 
 simple sentences (with more than one subject, predicate, or 
 object) : 
 
 "My sister and her friend met me at the gate; we took a 
 walk and enjoyed ourselves" = A; B. 
 
 Only when there can be no mistake about several sentences 
 having been compounded or contracted into one, may the 
 sentence figure assume this form: 
 
 *This method, in its essential features, tho it appears here 
 in a somewhat modified form, has been suggested by J. Wollin- 
 ger, "Lehrbuch des gesammten Sprachunterrichts." 
 
200 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 "The little girl had brown eyes and black hair, and was 
 clever and courageous" = A-f B. 
 
 In complex sentences, the principal statement is treated as 
 the original simple sentence; the dependent clauses are de- 
 noted thus: 
 
 (i) Subject clauses = s; abbreviated, = sb: 
 
 "Whoever (or He who) finds the book should bring 
 
 it to me" = s, A. 
 "To die for one's country is an honor" = sb, A; also 
 in this form: "It is an honor to die for one's coun- 
 try" = A, sb. 
 
 (2) Object clauses = o, or ob: 
 
 "He says that he never saw anything like it" = A, o. 
 "The sick desire to be cured" (that they be cured) 
 = A, ob. 
 
 (3) Predicate clauses = p: 
 
 "He is not what he seems" = A, p. 
 
 (4) Attributive clauses = a: 
 
 "A friend who remains true in affliction is a great 
 blessing" = A, a, A. 
 
 ( 5 ) Adverbial clauses = x : 
 
 "When spring awakens the flowers, my heart, too, 
 feels a new power rising into existence" = x, A. 
 
 If there are any clauses dependent upon clauses, we may 
 consider these as clauses of the second degree, and designate 
 them respectively s 2 , o 2 , p 2 , a 2 , x 2 . In the same way we may 
 have, in still more complicated constructions, clauses of the 
 third and even of the fourth degree. The following quota- 
 tion from Webster, analyzed by this method, will illustrate 
 the process: 
 
 "(These few and scattered historical notices of important 
 inventions have been introduced only for the purpose of sug- 
 gesting) = A, xb (that there is much) =o 2 (which is both 
 curious and instructive in the history of mechanics:) = a 3 
 (and) = + (that many things) = o 2 (which to us, in our 
 state of knowledge, seem so obvious) = a 3 (that we would 
 think) = x 4 (they would at once force themselves on men's 
 adoption )=o i (have, nevertheless, been accomplished slowly, 
 and by painful efforts.)" = o*. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 201 
 
 , xb, o,a: + o,a,x,o,o. 
 
 It will be readily seen that this method of analysis is very 
 different from the ordinary mechanical and barbaric way; it 
 does not dissect, but goes right to the core of sentence compo- 
 sition and touches upon style as well. It has enough of the 
 puzzle quality to arouse the intense interest of the pupils who 
 will delight in exercises of transposition, re-arrangement, and 
 change of expressions, such as the following: 
 
 "That it is wise to curb our passions nobody will deny" 
 = o, sb 2 , A. Make it A, o, sb 2 ; or A, o. 
 
 "Iron is found in almost every country. Nowhere it occurs 
 pure. Most of our tools are made of iron." How can these 
 three statements be combined in one sentence ? Or, make it : 
 A, a + a, A. 
 
 This kind of analysis may even with profit be extended to 
 the literature read, and will serve to make the pupils more 
 appreciative of the peculiar style and manner of an author; 
 but it is well to have it understood by them from the outset, 
 not only that some constructions permit of different interpre- 
 tations, but also that every sentence cannot be reduced to a 
 formula; that genius defies and transcends mechanism and 
 rule. This work will call forth much ingenuity, if the teach- 
 er is wise enough not to present it in the form of tasks, but 
 as literary puzzles and pastime. 
 
 Devices like the ones in the foregoing will greatly facili- 
 tate the criticisms of the children's own language, especially 
 in compositions, by the instructor. For constant practice in 
 self-expression following the study of great models, will after 
 all be the cardinal method of developing the language of the 
 child. It must never be forgotten that it cannot be the aim 
 of elementary instruction to appeal to the higher logical fac- 
 ulties of the mind, or to teach grammar as such; training of 
 this kind belongs properly to the next higher stage, that of 
 secondary or adolescent education, when the juvenile mind 
 becomes conscious of itself. In the pre-adolescent period all 
 exercise should be directed to the development of the power of 
 self-expression, and great caution must be employed lest self- 
 consciousness be awakened prematurely, as that would destroy 
 the child's freedom and naturalness before he has acquired 
 
202 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 the power to reason out his way for himself and to become in- 
 dependent. The well known anecdote of the centipede will 
 furnish a valuable lesson in this connection. 
 
 The term "self-expression", in speaking of the children's 
 compositions, has been used with a purpose. Nothing affords 
 a sadder spectacle than what is ordinarily understood by 
 essay-writing in schools — a painful struggling with foreign, 
 undigested matter, mere word-play, illuminated now and 
 then by borrowed fireworks of other people's brilliancy. It is 
 the very training school of cant. Children should be encour- 
 aged to write only of what they have themselves experienced, 
 either in the world of reality or emotionally. They should 
 be led to express themselves — their own knowledge, their 
 own thoughts, their own feelings, be they ever so crude and 
 simple; and not second hand thoughts and emotions to make 
 a false show. When once the child knows that nothing but 
 his own self is wanted and appreciated, his language will 
 flow without restraint, and he will grope his way, as it were, 
 thru the intricacies of grammar. Grammar is, to put it in 
 another form, the law that has, unconsciously to themselves, 
 governed the thought of human beings when it sought ex- 
 pression; language is thought materialized. Make, there- 
 fore, the child perceive accurately, think clearly, and feel 
 distinctly, and his expression will become accurate, clear and 
 distinct, grammar will take care of itself as it did in the great 
 minds of the race from whose immortal creations we have 
 abstracted those rules of expression which in them were liv- 
 ing forces. The language of children is an unmistakable in- 
 dex of their training and education in general, or else of their 
 native genius, but rarely of the amount of grammar they 
 have absorbed. 
 
 Special exercises need not be neglected, but they should be 
 concrete rather than formal. If you wish to practice plurals 
 you may have the pupils write statements which are true 
 of all flowers after they have studied one; or all metals af- 
 ter they have worked with one or the other. And if you think 
 practice in comparing adjectives is desirable, let them com- 
 pare real things with which they are familiar, as in a nature 
 lesson. But avoid it as much as possible — and that can be 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 203 
 
 done even when tables are prepared as described before — to 
 make the exercise smack of formal grammar. It is POWER 
 rather than reflection for which we must strive. List-mak- 
 ing will, as a rule, follow, not precede, these composition 
 exercises. 
 
 Minds of an elementary, or of a non-philological stamp, 
 can perhaps never go beyond the limit of what has been so far 
 suggested. Let us not deceive ourselves about the logical 
 capacities of perhaps a majority, at least in this particular line 
 of mental activity. Abstract reasoning is not a quality of 
 the multitude; few will assimilate more than the rudiments 
 of science, few will ever assume a scientific attitude. It would 
 be unjust, however, to brand all unscientific or non-philo- 
 logical minds with the epithet "inferior". Granted there are 
 only too many who will forever remain on a lower plane of 
 intellectuality; but a large number whose scientific, or spe- 
 cificially philological accomplishments can be but elementary, 
 will display superior ability in other lines of human activity. 
 Elsewhere ("The Common School and the New Education," 
 C. W. Bardeen, Syracuse, 1897, P- 7)> the writer has sug- 
 gested a differentiation of school instruction in the pre- 
 pubertal years; and such differentiation may be carried on 
 and further specialized in adolescent (secondary) education 
 by establishing a series of co-ordinated High School courses 
 which would correspond to the different view-points of indi- 
 vidual groups of adolescent students. In a crude way, sec- 
 ondary differentiation has already been instituted, tho with 
 this principal defect that only those pupils who have pre- 
 viously shown themselves philologically and mathematically 
 talented, find admission while all the rest are excluded, may 
 their otherwise superior gifts make them ever so capable of 
 higher training if only the proper course were provided for 
 them. 
 
 Grammar, then, in its function as elementary logic, is not a 
 discipline suited for all; but there will always be a certain 
 percentage of pupils in each class that can be taxed higher 
 in exercises employing the logical faculties. To them the 
 opportunity for such practice must not be denied, and while 
 we must not allow ourselves to be worried or disgusted by 
 
2o 4 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 the hazy notions of the non-abstractive children we may de- 
 mand close attention and exact work from those that are 
 capable of it. Adjustment to different needs or individuali- 
 zation in class work, must be the watchword. 
 
 As indicated in the beginning, the study of foreign 
 languages will prove to be of great assistance in language 
 work. The harder tasks may always be assigned to the so- 
 called brighter pupils (only so-called, as this work which 
 has hitherto been the main criterion of ability forms their 
 specialty) who will be the leaders in analysis, in discover- 
 ing relations and laws; the others being the followers, the 
 imitators, taking the laws for granted and meekly obeying 
 them as well as they can. But even this latter category will 
 perhaps gain a clearer insight into grammatical facts from 
 studying the completer forms and more intelligible construc- 
 tions of German and Latin. 
 
 The child may fitly be allowed to profit by the experience 
 of the race here as in other respects. It has been shown that 
 in the development of the language of the child, three stages 
 may be distinguished: his first language is the primitive 
 language of the species; the second represents the race 
 language; the third the vernacular (Winfield S. Hall, "The 
 First 500 Days of a Child's Life", Child-Study Monthly, 
 March, 1897). Highly inflected languages are the fore- 
 runners of the simpler which more and more discard the 
 "scaffolding of the structure" with the aid of which the 
 human mind created for itself a means of adequate expres- 
 sion (Cf. Edm. Noble, "The Principle of Economy in Evo- 
 lution", Popular Science Monthly, July, 1897). 
 
 To illustrate the point in question, attention may be called 
 to the utter inadequacy of the ordinary definitions of subject 
 and predicate. Swinton's (loc. cit. p. 205) definition is: 
 "The subject names that of which something is thought; the 
 predicate tells what is thought." Metcalf's (loc. cit. p. 
 15) says: "The part of the sentence which represents the 
 thing of which something is said, is the subject; the part of 
 a sentence which represents what is said of the thing named 
 by the subject, is the predicate." Maxwell's: "The subject, — 
 the word or words denoting that about which something is 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 205 
 
 said ; the predicate, — expressing what is said of the thing de- 
 noted by the subject." Even a good mind will find it some- 
 what puzzling to get the sense of these stilted and labored 
 explanations; the majority will certainly fail to recognize 
 subjective and predicative relations in even a simple sentence, 
 from studying these definitions which vainly attempt to give 
 an elementary, yet at the same time highly logical form to 
 a concept which cannot be understood in its abstract fulness 
 by children whose minds are as yet hedged in by a wilderness 
 of concrete objects. But how will anyone succeed in sifting 
 out the grammatical subject and predicate, following the 
 above directions, from the following, not very complex pe- 
 riod taken from "Black Beauty": "We saw a light at the 
 hall door and at the upper windows, and as we came up, 
 Mistress ran out saying, 'Are you really safe, my dear?' " etc. 
 Nine out of ten will point out the light, or being safe, or 
 almost any other word, as the things "about which some- 
 thing is said," rather than the apparently insignificant words, 
 "we" and "Mistress". And what will impress the children to 
 be the "main thought" ? Will Swinton's definition help them 
 to recognize the predication? 
 
 As has been before suggested in these pages, an apprecia- 
 tion of grammatical relation cannot be developed in children 
 by abstract definitions and formal drill. But let us suppose 
 that the pupils have had plenty of exercises with puzzles as 
 described before, and that close questioning on reading lessons 
 has enabled them to grasp readily the meaning of what they 
 read, and has made them appreciative of the value of concise 
 and coherent expression. Then the component parts of the 
 sentences will stand out to them in clear relief, even without 
 being labeled ; and exercises in substituting synonyms and 
 antonyms for the words and phrases used in the text, and in 
 compositions, so as to modify or entirely change the original 
 meaning, will further prepare them for understanding sen- 
 tence-construction. The substitution exercises will lead up 
 to sentence-building, still preparatory to more formal drill. 
 
 The idea of subjectivity will be fitly introduced by a 
 clearer conception of substantivity, at least in a concrete way. 
 To this the reading of German text will help : all nouns, or 
 
206 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 words used substantively, beginning with capitals in that 
 language. By the assistance of this device, children will soon 
 learn to distinguish nouns from the other parts of speech, 
 even tho they would not be able to give or understand a sat- 
 isfactory definition. Thru the German and later on thru the 
 Latin, the idea of case will come naturally to the child, and 
 frequent exercises (in sentences) will fix the concept of case 
 relation in his mind. Then there will come a time when it 
 will dawn upon the child that while other cases are irregu- 
 larly represented, there occurs in every sentence some sub- 
 stantive word in the nominative case, to which the rest of the 
 sentence stands in a relation of grammatical dependence. The 
 nominative functions will reveal the idea of subject in distinc- 
 tion from the predication, not vice-versa, as is the course 
 taken by most grammars for schools. In a similar manner, 
 which may be called the method of observation and experi- 
 ment, the object will be recognized no matter whether it be 
 an accusative, dative, or genitive object. The study of 
 French will be found less helpful in this connection than 
 German and Latin, as it is as caseless as in English. 
 
 When the time arrives for crystallizing the young student's 
 grammatical experience relative to the elements of a sentence, 
 in the form of definitions, the following which are here 
 tentatively suggested may be found convenient: 
 
 ( 1 ) The nominative case in a sentence names that which 
 is the subject, i. e. the cause, or agent, of some action. It is 
 called the SUBJECT. In the sentences expressing a quality, 
 condition, or state, the nominative, or Subject, names that of 
 which the quality, condition, or state, is asserted. 
 
 (2) The action performed by the Subject, or the quality 
 or state, which is asserted of the Subject, is called the Predi- 
 cate of the sentence. 
 
 The function of Object, of activity and passivity, etc., can 
 be deduced from these fundamental definitions without much 
 difficulty. 
 
 There is a class of sentences which are not infrequently a 
 source of trouble to a teacher and learner. The author refers 
 to those expressing a quality, etc., or as Maxwell puts it in his 
 "Advanced Lessons in English Grammar", those containing 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 207 
 
 "verbs of incomplete predication" whose "complement is 
 either an adjective modifying the subject, or a noun or pro- 
 noun denoting the same person or thing as the subject." The 
 predicate noun, pronoun, or adjective is easily misunderstood 
 by inexperienced students and confused with the object of a 
 transitive verb. It will elucidate the relation of Subject and 
 Predicate in these expressions and throw the functions of the 
 so-called "copula" into stronger relief if we conceive of these 
 sentences as equations either actual or apparent, or condi- 
 tional. Subject and Predicate are then the terms or members 
 of the equation, and the "copula" represents the sign of equa- 
 tian. Thus : 
 
 "The man is a gentleman", means: 
 
 The man = a gentleman. 
 
 "Anna seems sick" means : 
 
 Anna = a sick person (in appearance). 
 
 "The soldier lay lifeless but beautiful" means : 
 
 The soldier = a lifeless but beautiful form (the verb re- 
 ferring at the same time to his position, and to past time). 
 
 In this way the possibility of confusion seems eliminated, 
 and a rational conception of the true significance of the ex- 
 pression made possible. In highly inflected languages the 
 nouns, pronouns, and adjectives of the predication signify the 
 equation character of the expression by agreeing with the 
 subject in gender, number and case. 
 
 Instruction in the correct use of English should, for rea- 
 sons which are apparent from the foregoing statements, be 
 strictly correlated to that of the foreign languages, and not so 
 much by way of parallelism as of sequence, so that they may 
 be mutually helpful, and that each may supply what is wanted 
 in the other. Latin, with its stricter rules and completer 
 forms, requires more concentration than even German does, 
 and while some knowledge of it will prove helpful to all (Cf. 
 the Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School 
 Studies, N. E. A.), it will serve as a touchstone of the power 
 of abstract reasoning, and assist the teacher in recognizing 
 those who are capable of special scientific study of a higher 
 order. Its study is fitly introduced towards the close of the 
 pre-pubertal period, or right at, or shortly after pubescence, 
 
208 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 when the dawn of true reasoning sets in, when the new forces 
 manifest themselves vigorously and give a more pronouncedly 
 individual character to each child. 
 
 The framing of definitions of the parts of speech, and 
 formal exercises in etymology and syntax, with which ordi- 
 nary grammar instruction used to begin, may be legitimately 
 reserved for secondary or even college courses. Thus, the 
 accepted order of grammar teaching may have to be altogether 
 reversed to meet the demands of a better psychological appre- 
 ciation of the child's mental development. 
 
 The writer is not ignorant of the many intelligent attempts 
 which have been made to place language instruction upon a 
 more rational basis. He knows that many teachers are now 
 following progressive lines in this branch, and he has exam- 
 ined many new language books which, in a large measure, 
 recognize the facts and principles here set forth. But most 
 of even the more meritorious ones of these books contain not 
 only too much matter (and some utterly superfluous things, 
 such as pedantic distinction between "statement and ques- 
 tions") but too many, and often ill-expressed definitions. And 
 the order in which the different topics are introduced is rarely 
 even approximately commensurate to the different stages of 
 child development. It may recommend itself to the compe- 
 tent teacher to place no text-book at all into the hands of the 
 pupils, but to adapt the instruction to the varying needs and 
 opportunities. 
 
 No attempt is here made to outline a definite course of 
 study on the basis of the principles set forth. What has been 
 here proposed is mainly suggestive, and may have to be re- 
 vised. Yet, the value of the facts presented will remain un- 
 shaken, even if some of the inferences drawn from them may 
 prove to be fallacious ; and many of the more practical sugges- 
 tions have already been tried in actual work and been found 
 helpful. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 Reading and Literature 
 
 MUCH criticism has been made in the last few 
 years on the result of the teaching of reading 
 in the schools. It is maintained that the output 
 of our elementary as well as high schools has 
 lost much of that appreciation of good litera- 
 ture in the broad sense which it is claimed was characteris- 
 tic of their forefathers. Present day pupils know a few class- 
 ical writers with fair accuracy, but have no knowledge of the 
 field of literature as such, not even English literature, not 
 to speak of the world's masterpieces. Allusions to ancient 
 and modern classics, to Homer, Virgil, Dante, Goethe, Schil- 
 ler, Thackeray, George Eliot, seem to be completely lost on 
 the child of modern education. And this in spite of the fact 
 that the market is flooded with inexpensive reprints of every 
 "classic" under the sun. The knowledge of the great writ- 
 ers of the past seems to be fast disappearing, according to the 
 views of these critics. 
 
 The old Reader, containing bits of literature from many 
 sources, has now in many schools been replaced by a few 
 complete books. The tendency was to have, in lieu of the 
 fragmentary reading of former times, something that is com- 
 plete. There was much to be commended in this innova- 
 tion, except that it was overdone. It is not natural with 
 children to make an exhaustive study of a few things. Such 
 an attempt has a stultifying effect. It causes, as it were, 
 mental dyspepsia. Children want to be touched on many 
 points. They can take in a wide range of inspirations and 
 typical suggestions. On the other hand, if they were fed 
 
 209 
 
210 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 merely on bits, never getting a full well-balanced meal, they 
 would be apt to develop that weakness of mental digestion 
 which would disable them ever to assimilate and enjoy a 
 complete work of literature. The desire for short stories, 
 and the chopped style of newspaper information, so charac- 
 teristic of this period, may in a measure be due to our hav- 
 ing been fed upon the fragmentary and cut-up food served 
 out to us in our younger days from the old time Reader. 
 Both forms of reading material, it seems, should be provided. 
 Practice in rapid reading, instead of constant patient delving 
 into details should be secured. Children need not study like 
 a philologist, or a literary critic. 
 
 Another cause for the phenomenon above referred to may 
 be found in the failure of the ordinary reading course to 
 adapt itself to the successive interests of the children. The 
 consequence is that the school reading ceases to mean much to 
 them; it is considered as a tedious task to be done with as 
 speedily as possible. Enjoyment is sought in promiscuous 
 reading out of school, and as their taste has not been cul- 
 tivated, and their needs have been supremely disregarded by 
 the educational agencies, the children turn to trashy, sensa- 
 tional stuff which burdens their minds with unwholesome 
 notions and enters into their souls like an insidious poison. 
 The Elsie books are but apparently different from the reg- 
 ulation dime novel in this respect. Even the great mass of 
 Sunday school books, and books written expressly for chil- 
 dren, are trashy and cater rather to their perverse taste than 
 that they satisfy their real, normal needs. 
 
 The cultivation of the children's taste for wholesome read- 
 ing is as easy or difficult a task as is their habituation to 
 truly nourishing food for their bodies. He who is accus- 
 tomed to regular nourishing meals such as are adapted to his 
 varying needs in physical development, in health and disease, 
 and who has been given healthful exercise stimulating the 
 natural functions, will rarely feel that craving for an exces- 
 sive use of sweets, dainties, and spices which is characteristic 
 of the underfed or the overfed, or of those who wallow in 
 sloth and idleness. Likewise, when the child is given the 
 proper mental food, at regular times, alternating with periods 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 211 
 
 and exercises for mental assimilation, enough food and not 
 too much, such as corresponds with the real needs of the 
 child, there will be little danger of his developing morbid 
 desires. A healthy child, properly brought up, enjoys healthy 
 things and has a natural aversion to mental and physical 
 poison. Temporary aberrations need not alarm us as long 
 as we follow carefully the successive fluctuations of the child's 
 evolution. 
 
 School reading becomes a hateful burden to the child, even 
 in the early periods of his school career, also because of the 
 interest-killing methods of teaching employed in many schools. 
 It degenerates too often into a mechanical exercise, and the 
 thought is lost for the sake of the letter. This again has 
 two causes: First, reading is begun too early, before the 
 child's organs of perception are ready for it, and before his 
 mind is mature enough to assimilate properly the matter of 
 the reading lessons, so that the process becomes a painful 
 struggle from beginning to end; and second, the study of 
 reading lessons is too formal, laying stress on structure, gram- 
 mar, parsing, etc., rather than upon the living thought. Read- 
 ing after all is for gaining the thought — not for the taking 
 apart of the dead bones of the language. By dissecting the tis- 
 sues of a body you will fail to find the soul. 
 
 As to the first point: We begin reading too low down in 
 the grades. Attempts have even been made to vitiate the 
 atmosphere of the kindergarten by teaching the babes the 
 art of reading. 
 
 We are altogether too impatient to introduce our chil- 
 dren to the formal arts. This means a misconception of the 
 meaning of education. Should the fact that there have been 
 advanced so many different methods for the teaching of read- 
 ing to little children, each of them claiming to be the patent 
 method, and each being effective only within very narrow 
 limits and largely failing to produce satisfactory results any- 
 where — should not the further fact that it costs such an 
 enormous expenditure of time and energy on the part of 
 teacher and pupils to learn the rudiments of reading in the 
 primary grades, and that the reading of the upper grades 
 rarely loses this rudimentary character — should these facts, 
 
212 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 among others, not cause us to hesitate and reflect before we 
 decide to continue the practice? 
 
 When we remember that the child repeats, in a general 
 way, the successive developmental stages of the race, we may 
 well doubt whether we should base early education upon 
 these formal arts. There have been ages of civilization before 
 reading and writing played any important part in general 
 culture. We may concede that the modern child, being the 
 heir of all previous ages, is born into a modern environment 
 which presents to him a vastly greater opportunity than 
 primitive man had, and that his mind itself is an inheritance 
 of inestimably greater value than his ancestors possessed, — 
 yet we need not draw the conclusion that we should stimulate 
 and hasten his development, his coining and squandering his 
 patrimony, before he reaches the degree of maturity to do that 
 with impunity. 
 
 It is certainly wrong to judge popular education mainly 
 by the standard of reading and writing. They are by no 
 means the only means of spiritual culture. It is a pity that 
 the value of oral instruction is so thoroly overlooked in our 
 textbook age when a child is not thought to be learning any- 
 thing unless he absorbs one of the many methods of primary 
 reading when he is not more than six, and can scrawl his 
 name and a number of empty words on his slate or in his copy 
 book. Justly a reference has been made by thoughtful writers 
 to the fact that the patriarchs of the Bible were illiterate, and 
 that there are now not only primitive tribes, but portions of 
 our own white population, in remote districts of our land, 
 people who have been called "our contemporary ancestors", 
 in the Southern mountains, for instance, whose life is truly 
 patriarchical to this day, "men and women who with deep 
 tho narrow experiences have reflected upon the problems of 
 life, and subjected themselves to its discipline, until they 
 have gained the poise and power of true philosophers." Yet 
 they are practically illiterate. There have been ages of civil- 
 ization, of even high culture, in the past, created by peoples 
 uninitiated to the arts of reading and writing in the modern 
 sense, and where popular education in these arts was con- 
 spicuously absent, where only the most initiated of the priest- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 213 
 
 hood had any knowledge of the kind which we now are in- 
 clined to take as a criterion of education even in the youngest 
 school child. 
 
 Everyone learns oral language before written language. 
 This is the order of procedure in the racial development. 
 Consequently those brain centers which govern heard and 
 spoken speech, the auditory and motor centers, are earlier 
 developed and better organized than the writing and reading 
 centers which represent a much later development. Reading 
 and writing are but a veneer of civilization as yet. 
 
 We may even make an application of this fact to our deal- 
 ings with the undeveloped races to which our colonizing ef- 
 forts are reaching out. In an address by the eminent Egyptol- 
 ogist, Dr. Flinders Petrie, on "The Anthropological View of 
 Civilization," the professor said things which have signifi- 
 cance not only for modern problems of the "white man's bur- 
 den", but also for ordinary school education as long as we 
 appreciate children to represent, in their gradual advance thru 
 school classes, successive civilizatory stages. To quote from 
 an editorial on Petrie's article : " 'We talk complacently,' 
 says the professor, 'about the mysterious decay of savages be- 
 fore white man.' There is nothing mysterious about it; we 
 change their environment, we subject them to new laws, 
 force them to adopt new habits, give an unwonted direction 
 and exercise to their mental faculties, subject them in a hun- 
 dred ways to a psychological strain which they are unable 
 to stand, and the result is that they wither just as we should 
 do if we were similarly treated. Of all systems, that which 
 the Anglo-Saxon race seeks to impose upon the weaker peo- 
 ples with which it comes in contact is the most oppressive. 
 'Scarcely a single race,' the professor emphatically declares, 
 'can bear the contact and the burden.' In regard to the 
 Egyptians, he gives his own experience. 'Some of the peasan- 
 try are taught to read and write, and the result is that they 
 become fools. I can not say this too plainly: an Egyptian 
 who has had reading and writing thrust upon him is, in every 
 case that I have met with, half-witted, silly, or incapable of 
 taking care of himself. His intellect and his health have 
 
214 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 been undermined and crippled by the forcing of education.'* 
 "Is it impossible, then, for the more advanced races to lend 
 any real assistance to the less advanced? It is, if the only 
 idea of assisting them is to Europeanize them; but not, if the 
 more rational idea is adopted of a gradual education along 
 wholly natural lines, with due regard to conditions both 
 present and antecedent. 'Our bigoted belief,' says Prof. 
 Petrie, 'in reading and writing is not in the least justified 
 when we look at the mass of mankind. The exquisite art and 
 noble architecture of Mykenae, the undying song of Homer, 
 the extensive trade of the bronze age, all belonged to people 
 who neither read nor wrote. The great essentials of a valu- 
 able character — moderation, justice, sympathy, politeness and 
 consideration, quick observation, shrewdness, ability to plan 
 and prearrange, a keen sense of the uses and properties of 
 things — all these are qualities on which I value my Egyptian 
 friends, and such qualities are what should be evolved by any 
 education worth the name.' " 
 
 To the modern adult, reading seems so simple a process 
 that he overlooks the fact that it involves a complex activity 
 of nerves and brain which presupposes a certain maturity of 
 mental adjustment. The combination of thing, name, sound, 
 and symbol into one organized concept is a difficult perform- 
 ance. 
 
 Each one of these perceptions has its own center in the 
 brain, and it requires the establishment of strong concepts 
 for each, and of smooth association tracts, to enable a child to 
 have a connected mental image of an object or an action. 
 
 In the endeavor to "simplify" the reading in the beginning, 
 the teacher is obliged to introduce at first uninteresting and 
 slowly progressing reading matter to which the child has no 
 natural leaning. 
 
 But even tho there were a natural or artificial craving on 
 the part of the children to learn how to read at this early 
 period, or even if their minds were mature enough to grapple 
 
 *It may be well to draw a lesson from this statement with 
 regard to the schooling of the colored population of our own 
 South. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 215 
 
 with the difficulties of the conceptual process, — their sense 
 organs, their nervous development generally, would offer a 
 most emphatic veto. There are physiological considerations 
 which will cause us to look at these early attempts at reading 
 and writing, as a performance fraught with grave dangers 
 for the healthy development of the child. 
 
 The child, as has been stated before, is far-sighted at this 
 age, and if required to concentrate his vision on near and 
 minute objects, is apt to be more or less seriously injured in 
 his power of vision and in his nervous vigor. Reading, writ- 
 ing, and even drawing involve, as has been shown, a high de- 
 gree of motor specialization, in arms, wrist, hand, finger, and 
 eye adjustment. Even the body posture is an element in this 
 adjustment, and if the child is forced at an early age to 
 assume strained positions for the purpose of those finer 
 specializations of movement as required by reading and writ- 
 ing in books, he may suffer in consequence. It is a notable 
 fact that visual and spinal defects increase in number and 
 percentage in the child's progress from lower to higher grades 
 in school. 
 
 It may be interesting to remind the reader in this connec- 
 tion of the instructive investigations of the late Prof. Her- 
 man Cohn, of Breslau. He has shown that the range of vi- 
 sion in the open, not only with primitive peoples, but even 
 with modern school children, far surpasses that ever tested 
 within the walls of house or room, and indeed all expecta- 
 tions. 
 
 Even with regard to spoken language, the premature teach- 
 ing of reading, requiring fine adjustments of speech organs, 
 seems at times to have an injurious effect. Attention has 
 been called to the high per cent, of stutterers in the element- 
 ary schools, and the great increase of stuttering after the 
 transition from the kindergarten to the lowest primary 
 classes. It is a very significant fact that this increase hap- 
 pens, with boys and girls alike, at a time when instruction in 
 reading aloud is begun, and it may be asked whether there 
 might not be a cause and explanation for this in faulty meth- 
 ods of teaching. Even in enunciating clearly and precisely, 
 altho certain discreet exercises are sure to be helpful, an 
 
216 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 undue forcing may lead to disaster. 
 
 The fact should be emphasized that a child mature enough 
 in mind and body to grapple with the written and printed 
 symbols of words and things, that is, a child of about eight 
 or nine years, will learn to read without much effort and dif- 
 ficulty, and indeed in a comparatively short time. There will 
 have been, up to this period, a great deal of more or less 
 unconscious absorption of literal symbols, and reading will 
 come to him almost without purposive application. Here, 
 as in other branches, he learns by psychological, not by log- 
 ical methods. In the Third grade, perhaps there may be con- 
 centration on the formal side of reading. 
 
 The child will apply himself to the conquest of books as 
 soon as he awakens to an understanding of their use and 
 meaning. When he is interested in the subject matter to be 
 gotten out of them, he will learn to read as quickly as did 
 the boy Alfred in the olden times of Anglo-Saxon England. 
 The element of interest is of supreme importance here as in 
 all other studies. 
 
 It is true some children are, by the force of their environ- 
 ment, stimulated to a very early development of the faculty 
 of reading. Where there is a book-loving atmosphere in the 
 home, the growing children may breathe it in as they will 
 the natural air in which they thrive. Where reading comes 
 thus natural, and where an inheritance of special culture will 
 strengthen their power of absorption along this line, the harm 
 done may be minimal. Yet, artificial desires are awakened 
 only too often by the hot-house culture some children are 
 subjected to from the time of their birth. The conventional 
 notions of what constitutes education have unfortunately in- 
 vaded the very nurseries. Or again, there are precocious 
 children whose rate of mental growth is abnormally rapid. 
 The nervous tension of our modern society has produced 
 many such. But in neither case will the further develop- 
 ment of the children justify the early overstimulation; few 
 precocious children will fail to evince signs of weakness some- 
 where at a relatively early period. 
 
 In investigating the rational method of teaching reading, 
 let us be reminded of the steps the race has taken in develop- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 217 
 
 ing graphic and literal symbols for things, sounds, and words. 
 A detailed reference to totems, cord records, and similar meth- 
 ods of recording events and emblematising objects and 
 thoughts, may here be omitted. It is, however, well enough 
 known that writing proper took its origin in picture rec- 
 ords, hieroglyphic representations of various kinds. In "La 
 Science Francaise", T. Obalski said this: 
 
 "An instinct for imitation leads man to reproduce the 
 forms of surrounding objects, and in the invention of the 
 graphic art he has aimed to materialize his thoughts and give 
 them form and substance ; he has wished to supply the place 
 of the absent word, and even to depict it to the eye in the 
 present and in the future. . . . 
 
 "It is generally admitted that writing was at first ideo- 
 graphic and solely by means of pictures, as it is yet among 
 certain Indian tribes of North America; it then became pho- 
 netic, then syllabic, and finally alphabetic, thus reaching its 
 apogee. 
 
 "Certain of the letters of the alphabet themselves have a 
 very pronounced pictorial origin. The first letters of the 
 Greek alphabet, for instance, had once the form of an ox's 
 head, of a house, of a tent, of a camel, of a door, etc. 
 
 "In ideographic writing, man limits himself to the repre- 
 sentation pure and simple of the beings or objects which he 
 wishes to recall, such as a tree, a brook, a lion. This is 
 ideographism proper or concrete. . . . 
 
 "Next we come to pure symbolism, which consists in ex- 
 pressing abstract ideas by figures that will suggest these ideas 
 to others, a bird signifying speed, a fox cunning, etc. 
 
 "From this point to phonetic writing there is an immense 
 step to be taken. Here the image or symbol must represent 
 a sound. The 'rebus' is really a transition form between 
 ideographic and phonetic writing. 
 
 On the strength of these facts, would it not commend 
 itself to introduce, with children, the arts of writing and 
 reading also by way of picture writing and picture reading? 
 Picture books have been the delight of children ever since 
 there were children and picture books. A more systematic 
 use might be made of these, so that the ideographic method 
 
2i8 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 would lead over to symbolic representation, and from there 
 to phonetic conception. The rebus, being pictorial in char- 
 acter, but at the same time phonetic and introducing letter 
 forms as representations of certain elementary sounds, may 
 still be employed to initiate the children to phonetic apprecia- 
 tion. It is apt to arouse their intense interest, and will thus 
 engage their close attention. It is surer to develop phonetic 
 distinction in the child than if we would begin to harass him 
 by sounding every vocal element of each word with tedious 
 pedantry. 
 
 Such work as this need not exclude altogether an early in- 
 troduction of a selected number of printed or written words, 
 or even phrases, as wholes, serving as cogs to the memory, in 
 connection with the oral and objective work done at this 
 stage. Thus, remembering that this is the "naming period", 
 we may teach the children to recognize the names of things, 
 of the points of the compass, of the heroes and heroines of the 
 stories told and retold, as of Cinderella, Apollon, Baldur, 
 etc. These names will, in the children's memory, be asso- 
 ciated with the mental images they have gained of these 
 things and personages, and altho at the beginning more or 
 less hieroglyphic in character, they will form a bridge towards 
 a more abstract conception of symbolic representation. Con- 
 sisting of alphabetic elements as these words do, they will also 
 initiate the child, without much conscious effort, largely by 
 absorption, to an appreciation of the alphabetic symbols of 
 certain sounds at least. 
 
 The first books to be placed in the hands of children, it has 
 been said, should be picture books. But the first printed vol- 
 umes given them, in the Third grade, for instance, might fitly 
 contain the stories told in the previous grades, quite closely 
 following the oral form in which they were originally pre- 
 sented, so that the child may readily recognize his old friends, 
 and thru them have opened up to him the wide world of book 
 knowledge. 
 
 As soon as the printed page is offered to the child, the 
 hygiene of reading requires attention. Few schoolbooks meet 
 hygienic requirements. And yet, when we consider what fine 
 muscular adjustments are necessary to enable the child to 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 219 
 
 recognize readily the complex and intricate forms of letters 
 and get snapshots of the words read on his retina, we shall 
 appreciate how important it is, especially with beginners, to 
 make the conditions for reading as normal as possible. 
 
 "Type should not be less than 1.5 mm. in height; it should 
 be leaded, and the illumination of the printed page should not 
 be less than 100 candle-meters. Yet most schoolbooks are 
 printed in small type, without leads, on poor or glazed paper, 
 and the illumination in many school rooms is less than two 
 candle-meters. Prof. Catell found the relative legibility of 
 the small letters to be in the following order rdkmqhbpw 
 ultvzrofnaxyeigcs. Thus some of the let- 
 ters most frequently used are among the most illegible."* 
 
 To make the hygienic conditions of reading favorable is 
 the least we must do to enable the child to build up with ease, 
 rapidity, and clearness the composite concept which is the 
 result of the reading process. To analyze briefly the elements 
 of this composite concept, let us be reminded that there must 
 first be the mental image of the thing itself — this image is, 
 indeed the first symbol of the real object. Then there is the 
 name of the thing. This again, as a spoken word, produces a 
 sound image; as a written or printed word, a visual image. 
 Here we have already three mental images which must blend 
 to produce a complete concept. That each of these is in itself 
 composite, in as much as the object no more than its spoken or 
 written name consists of component parts to each of which 
 corresponds a mental counterpart, may be remarked in pass- 
 ing. But each also contains at the same time not only 
 sensory elements, but also motor elements. Hearing may be 
 considered a relatively simple sensory process; but in seeing 
 the word on the page or the blackboard, there is a fine muscu- 
 lar adjustment of the visual apparatus, to secure true focus- 
 ing. This muscular effort leaves a motor trace in the mem- 
 
 *From a report on "Conditions of Fatigue in Reading," based 
 on investigations by Prof. Catell, of Columbia University, in 
 Child Study Monthly, November, 1896. A complete statement 
 of hygienic requirements in reading, by Prof. Burnham, will be 
 found in the School Jrl. of Dec. 30, 1899, p. 720. 
 
no THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 ory. Again the word as heard, calls forth a more or less 
 conscious reproduction by imitation, by means of our vocal 
 organs, even tho this were done "silently", i. e. without the 
 uttering of a sound, the vocal musculature being merely 
 "tuned" to the word ; and the motor element of muscular 
 effort in pronouncing the word is also recorded in the brain, 
 alongside with and overlapping the other elements of this 
 composite concept. It should also be remembered that the 
 sound of our own voice, in speaking the word, produces an 
 additional element in this composition. Further, there is the 
 motor activity needed in zvriting the word, which must be 
 superadded to the previous elements. All these memories 
 combine in the production of the complete concept, and may 
 recall each other mutually, so that the sound or the printed 
 form, of the word, may automatically call forth the rest of 
 these memories, including the image of the thing itself, and 
 vice versa. But to make this possible, care must be taken to 
 knit these elements closely together. 
 
 The component parts of such a conceptual colony do not 
 necessarily form a democracy, each having equal right and 
 influence. There are, among men, different types, according 
 to one or the other of these elements prevailing, predominat- 
 ing, and controlling the others. Thus, we distinguish the 
 visual type where a visual image predominates, whereas the 
 others are more or less dim and ineffective. In the auditory 
 type, the spoken word recalls most easily all the other com- 
 ponent factors. Then we have the motor type when the 
 motor memories prevail ; and the indefinite mixed type. Ear- 
 mindedness and eye-mindedness, as the corresponding two 
 types are sometimes called, play an important part in learning 
 to spell. Then again, the curious observation has been made 
 that different persons have quite different mental symbols 
 which are employed by them to represent the whole of these 
 conceptual compositions. Thinking of a tree, e. g., some of us 
 will have rising before the mind's eye the image of a tree 
 itself, usually belonging to the species to which they attached 
 the label "tree" when they first formed this concept, thus 
 showing the effect of their early environment. To others, 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 221 
 
 the word "tree" will conjure up no such objective image, 
 but merely an auditory memory, or image, so that, with them, 
 the symbol of the whole concept comprised therein will be 
 the memory of the spoken word. Others, again, especially 
 those the bulk of whose knowledge comes from books, will 
 have the image of the printed word. In fact, it will be a rare 
 occurrence when all composing elements will be called up at 
 the same time. It is in the nature of the human mind to 
 work thru symbols and formulae, and for each mind to select 
 its own symbol, the one which corresponds most closely to 
 its individual life-conditions. 
 
 This tendency to drop the majority of the constituent parts 
 of a concept unless they are absolutely needed for a pains- 
 taking identification of the same, and to rely for its rapid 
 recognition upon some reduced symbol, so to speak, is also evi- 
 dent in the process of reading. When we have once mastered 
 the mechanical part of this art, we rarely take the trouble to 
 recognize in detail every letter or even every single word, 
 but allow ourselves to be guided mainly by the thought-sug- 
 gestions which the words convey. In a report on his prelim- 
 inary experiments in the Physiology and Psychology of Read- 
 ing* Edmund B. Huey shows that "sense" reading is faster 
 than nonsense reading, owing to the subexcitations of asso- 
 ciation tracts, one word suggesting its usual complement. 
 The first part of a word more readily suggests the entire 
 word than the last part. In sense reading, he claims we 
 really do not decipher every word. Says Prof. Jos. Jastrow :* 
 
 "There is a mind behind the eye and ear and the finger 
 tips which guides them in gathering information, and gives 
 value and order to the exercise of the senses. This is par- 
 ticularly true of vision, the most intellectual of all the 
 senses, and one in which mere acuteness of the sense-organ 
 counts least and the training in observation counts most. 
 The eagle's eye sees farther, but our eyes tell us much more 
 of what is seen. . . . The importance of the mind's 
 eye in ordinary vision is also well illustrated in cases in which 
 
 *Amer. Jrl. of Psych., IX, 4. 
 
 *"The Mind's Eye", Pop. Science Monthly, Jan., 1899. 
 
222 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 we see or seem to see what is not really present, but what 
 for one cause or another it is natural to suppose is present. 
 A very familiar instance of this process is the constant over- 
 looking of misprints — false letters, transposed letters, and 
 missing letters — unless these happen to be particularly strik- 
 ing. We see only the general physiognomy of the word and 
 the detailed features are supplied from within; in this case 
 it is the expected that happens. Reading is done largely by 
 the mental eye; and entire words obviously suggested by the 
 context, are sometimes read in, when they have been acci- 
 dently omitted. . . . The mental predisposition . . . 
 
 . . becomes the dominant factor." 
 
 From this the conclusion is justified that even in the teach- 
 ing of reading there must be an interesting, attention arous- 
 ing thought which will attract the child and which he will 
 endeavor to cull from the printed page. It is needless to 
 prove that such sentences as "The cat is on the mat," or, 
 "The man has a stick," erroneously nicknamed "stories", do 
 not present to the child an attractive thought. 
 
 When, in his eager and impatient search for the thought, 
 the child should occasionally happen to omit certain words, 
 or to substitute others for those in the book, we need not feel 
 unduly disturbed. Let us be satisfied if the child, above all 
 other things, does get the thought. During this process of 
 finding the thought, we should not harass him by pedantic 
 interruptions and corrections. After he has got the sense of 
 the sentence, or selection, we may, by judicious questioning, 
 call his attention to the correct expressions, and in general 
 to the form in which the thought is expressed. It is well, 
 then, to cultivate an appreciation of the lucid and pregnant 
 manner in which the author has handled the language as his 
 tool for adequate expression, and to give the pupil practice 
 in the proper use of words and phrases, following the great 
 examples set by masters of style. 
 
 But before books can be intelligently used, much oral 
 work should be done, not only that the child may gain ma- 
 turity of thought and appreciation, so as to read understand- 
 ing^ and with due amount of pleasure from the beginning, 
 but also for the purpose of training his vocal organs ju- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 223 
 
 diciously so that they be pliable and ready agents for correct 
 enunciation and pleasing delivery. Oral work in foreign 
 languages will assist the child in exploring and practicing a 
 wide range of sounds; he will then find himself capable of 
 adjusting himself to all requirements of well-modulated, 
 clear and agreeable reading. Singing is also a great help in 
 training the vocal organs, including a proper use of lungs and 
 chest. "In the correction of errors in language," suggests 
 Prof. Lukens, "the ear can be more easily trained than the 
 eye to recognize and use correct forms. Children appreciate 
 and take delight in matters of euphony. Pretty sounds are 
 enjoyed, and if matters of this kind receive their due place 
 early in life, they will later widen out to beauty of style. The 
 ear is the organ of the emotions more than any other sense, 
 and there is much less danger from too great use of the ear 
 in early school work than of the eye." 
 
 But in all these efforts we must take care to form the 
 child's taste by giving him real literature from the beginning. 
 The oral work may be done by telling, or reading, stories, 
 poetic selections, etc., to the children; these the pupils may 
 reproduce, and in part commit to memory. There is too 
 little of this telling and memorizing of good selections done 
 nowadays. Let us carefully select gems of poetry, interest- 
 ing to children, even tho their language may remain partly 
 mysterious to them; proverbs and sayings, such in which the 
 wisdom of ages is crystallized. Stories, myths, and fairy- 
 tales will be largely suggested by the other work of the 
 school, as frequently indicated in these chapters. But let us 
 understand that all these selections must represent eternal 
 motives, not merely silly fancies ; that they must be typical in 
 form and content, so as to have an imperishable value for 
 the children's mental and moral development. We should 
 give only what is best and lasting, the perennial creations of 
 the human mind, those that symbolize eternal truths in the 
 life of nature and of man. Bar out the silly trash written up 
 by the penny-a-liner children's books manufacturer. 
 
 The old myths can be told over in a modernized form, if 
 you please, such as President David Starr Jordan has at- 
 tempted in his charming "Book of Knight and Barbara" 
 
224 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 (New York, Appleton), without fear that the true spirit 
 would be lost. Let us remember that, after all, our chil- 
 dren are modern children, living in a modern environ- 
 ment, and that they have no apperceptive basis for ancient 
 conditions. To adapt the ancient myths to modern concep- 
 tions is therefore perfectly legitimate; it is the eternal, typ- 
 ical thought for which we care most, surely at this stage more 
 than for ethnographic information. Our own fairy-tales, 
 what else are they but mediaeval adaptations of ancient myth- 
 ological elements? No fear need to be entertained that such 
 treatment will spoil the children's future enjoyment of the 
 classic form, provided they are introduced to the latter at 
 the proper stage of their development and in a spirited way. 
 
 This oral work should be continued thru the reading 
 period, supplementing the book work; and similar selec- 
 tion should characterize the reading material. Have them 
 read only what is worth reading. There is a wealth of good 
 literature to draw from. There is no excuse for restricting 
 the children to a few made-up books when they should read 
 as much as they can assimilate. 
 
 Reading has two objects: to mediate information, and to 
 give inspiration. Information represents the knowledge-ele- 
 ment; inspiration is drawn from the ethical ideals which 
 lofty poetry and literature is destined to arouse in our souls. 
 But no sharp line can be drawn between the two. Even 
 information, if of the right kind, and presented in the right 
 form, will give inspiration: inspiration towards mental ef- 
 fort, self-culture, and self-perfection, and towards following 
 the lead of the masters of thought, of knowledge, of action. 
 To secure this effect we should place in the hands of the 
 young only the best books, even on the side of mere infor- 
 mation. The master of a science is usually best able to ex- 
 press its message. At any rate, supplementary literature 
 reading should accompany all other work. Read Bancroft 
 and Mommsen and Hawthorne and Ebers for history; read 
 the best poetry illustrative of historical events and geo- 
 graphical facts; read Ruskin to accompany your art work; 
 read Kipling's "The Ship that Found Herself", or his "007", 
 to learn how even brute machinery, the product of man's 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 225 
 
 most ingenious conquest of nature, can be endowed with a liv- 
 ing soul. 
 
 Children, furthermore, must be taught not only what to 
 read, but also how to read, so that they would get the full 
 benefit of their reading, and learn to get the fullness of 
 thought out of the books, and also enjoy the beauty of form. 
 Their home-reading should be controlled as much as we can 
 do that, by supplementing the school work thru the help of a 
 school library, making use of current magazines, and con- 
 necting the school systematically with the public library. Chil- 
 dren must learn how best to look up references, and to find 
 instructive and interesting material anywhere, or at least 
 wholesome enjoyment. They might be invited to report at 
 school on some, or even all, of this supplementary reading, 
 for the benefit of their classmates, and for the purpose of 
 enabling them to become fully conscious of what they have 
 read ; yet, while aiming at some systematic form of doing so, 
 avoid becoming pedantic. We must keep alive in our pupils, 
 as much as feasible, the sense of freedom of choice, and we 
 must respect to some degree their privacy of enjoyment. All 
 this, however, requires careful, methodical procedure, so as to 
 avoid waste of time and energy. 
 
 In selecting and grading material, we shall have to follow 
 the successive interests of the child as being indicative of 
 natural periods of development. The culture epoch theory 
 as it has been set forth in previous chapters will be our guide 
 in this respect. 
 
 Then there are two special adjustments to be made. The 
 first is in regard to the periods of the reading interest. There 
 are, as has been shown before, maximum and minimum pe- 
 riods of this interest. Thus, while at the proper stages we 
 may concentrate on reading, in school and supplementary, at 
 others there should be a letting off, and concentration on 
 other work, objective and manual. 
 
 The second adjustment is one to individual conditions 
 and needs. Each one can be reached best thru his supreme 
 interest; and if care is taken that in class work there be an 
 exchange of individual experiences, by reports and discus- 
 sions under proper guidance, there will be no narrowing 
 
226 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 down to individual idiosyncrasies, no danger of the pupils be- 
 coming one-sided and unredeemable, but a community of in- 
 terests will be established, and mutual appreciation and re- 
 spect secured. Individualization as to special interests in- 
 cludes, of course, a proper regard for the different interests 
 of the two sexes, at the successive stages of sexual differentia- 
 tion. 
 
 The main purpose of the study of literature, as Dr. Wm. 
 T. Harris once put it, is that it affords "vicarious experi- 
 ence". The author will close this chapter with a quotation 
 from the essay in which this helpful view is set forth : 
 
 "The greatest poets are Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and 
 Goethe, and these artists are in the truest sense educators of 
 mankind. The types of character exhibited in their literary 
 works of art, Achilles, Agamemnon, Ulysses, Macbeth, Ham- 
 let, Wilhelm Meister, and Faust have helped and will always 
 help all mankind to self-knowledge by showing them how 
 feelings become convictions, and how convictions become 
 deeds, and how deeds react upon the doer thru the great 
 organisms of human society. The world-wisdom of a people 
 is largely derived from its national poets not as a moral 
 philosophy but as vicarious experience. Aristotle said that 
 the drama purifies the spectator by showing him how his feel- 
 ings and convictions will result when carried out. Without 
 making the experiment himself, he profits by participating 
 in the world of experience depicted for him by the poet." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Oral and Written Composition 
 
 IN order to ascertain what part composition is to play 
 in education, and by what means we may accomplish the 
 best results, we must first be clear in our minds as to 
 what is the real purpose of composition. In most schools 
 it is mainly subservient to grammatical drill; sentence 
 building and even essay-writing are utilized for the formal 
 practice in the application of certain grammatical rules and 
 usages, or of rhetorical prescriptions. The author has never 
 been able to reconcile himself to the use of the term "com- 
 position" as applied to the teaching of Latin and Greek syn- 
 tax in our schools, signifying as it does here a putting together 
 of detached language bits into certain grammatical relations 
 without particular reference to the development of a thought 
 content. Such exercises are indeed valuable and necessary, 
 altho in lower grades they are often overdone; when the 
 child's mind has reached a certain degree of maturity, when 
 it has become capable of abstraction and reflection, work of 
 this nature will prove itself very helpful if judiciously em- 
 ployed. But it is composition as little as would be exercises 
 in putting chords together to form a musical sequence and 
 harmony, according to the rules of the grammar of music ; or 
 exercises in light and shade and outline and washes and bits 
 from nature, in drawing and painting. To deserve the name 
 "composition", a melody, or a picture, must be more than a 
 mere technical exercise. Likewise a composition in language. 
 Composition refers to composing, not of technical forms, but 
 of thoughts as expressed thru form, and is in its very nature 
 an art. "There is", says Disraeli, "an art of reading, as well 
 as an art of thinking, and an art of writing." It has refer- 
 
 227 
 
228 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 ence to a re-arrangement of the impressions we have received 
 from the outside world, into some organic whole which cor- 
 responds to our individual mental attitude towards these 
 impressions. There must first be such an individual attitude 
 — the impressions must have been worked over so as to be men- 
 tal possessions, to become our own inner world, or world- 
 view, world-conception. He who cannot thus assimilate his 
 impressions, who cannot first of all compose them within 
 himself to form organized groups in his mind, will never be 
 able to make more than a bungling attempt at composition, in 
 speaking or writing, however well he may master the techni- 
 cal rules. 
 
 Orderly thinking is the prerequisite for orderly speaking 
 and orderly writing. A training in the art of receiving im- 
 pressions, in the art of perceiving, conceiving, thinking, must, 
 then, precede the training in composition. Composition sig- 
 nifies the expression of our inner self. When we have suc- 
 ceeded, as educators, in doing our share towards enabling the 
 child to set himself right with the world about him, to find 
 his mental bearings, to develop an individual attitude, — then 
 the expression of this attitude will be found to be a relatively 
 simple process. 
 
 "Is it not true," asks John Burroughs, "that in literature 
 proper, our interest is always in the writer himself, — his qual- 
 ity, his personality, his point of view? We may fancy that 
 we care only for the subject matter, but the born writer 
 makes any subject interesting to us by his treatment of it or 
 by the personal element he infuses into it. This 
 
 intimate personal quality is no doubt one of the secrets of 
 what is called style, perhaps the most important one. . . ." 
 
 We must then, above all other things, work for the thought 
 and feeling which may then strive for expression, and which 
 will prompt the child to seek for the most adequate, precise, 
 and suggestive form of expression. Form has value only as a 
 means to an end. Beauty has no independent existence. 
 "Function," says Walter J. Kenyon, "is the basis of all art. 
 . . . The sure way to miss beauty is to try to create 
 without a core of principle; to invent style for style's sake 
 instead of for the truth's sake." And again : "All spontaneous 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 229 
 
 expression, be it under skilled guidance, will make ultimately 
 for beauty. No other expression is educative. . . . 
 Wherever a creation is the expression of an eager soul, un- 
 driven save by native impulse, it makes towards art, whether 
 it is decorative or not, and whether it be sightly to the en- 
 lightened or not. Art is saying to your brother what God 
 says to you. The vehicle of expression does not signify." 
 
 Thus, when there are in the child's soul real experiences, 
 thoughts, feelings, aspirations, we shall have the basis of ex- 
 pression thru genuine composition. If we, to the child, se- 
 cure the opportunity for spontaneous expression, he will 
 reveal himself to us. Essay writing, when intelligently con- 
 ducted, will prove a very valuable help in the study of indi- 
 vidual children. Thru their expression, we shall learn to 
 understand what their impressions have been, as well as their 
 characteristic attitude, their nature and longings. 
 
 There is another side to this which is shown by Prof. Wm. 
 James in these words :* 
 
 "No reception without reaction, no impression without 
 correlative expression, — this is the great maxim which the 
 teacher ought never to forget. An impression which simply 
 flows in at the pupil's eyes or ears, and in no way modifies 
 the active life, is an impression gone to waste. It is physio- 
 logically incomplete. It leaves no fruits behind it in the way 
 of capacity acquired. Even as mere impression it fails to pro- 
 duce its proper effect upon the memory; for, to remain fully 
 amongst the acquisitions of this latter faculty, it must be 
 wrought into the whole cycle of our operations. Its motor 
 consequences are what clinch it. No impression 
 
 without expression, then — . . . The expression itself 
 comes back to us, . . . in the form of a still further 
 impression, namely, of what we have done. We thus receive 
 sensible news of our behavior and its results. We hear the 
 words we have spoken, feel our own blow as we give it, or 
 read the success or failure of our reactions in the bystander's 
 eyes. Now, this return wave of impression pertains to the 
 completeness of the whole existence." 
 
 *"Talks to Teachers on Psychology." 
 
2 3 o THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 Attempts at expression, it will be seen, are a means to clar- 
 ify our own thoughts and feelings. Everyone of us will have 
 experienced this. As soon as we endeavor to communicate 
 what is in our soul to others, we realize many an indistinct- 
 ness of idea and incompleteness of argument. By putting 
 our thoughts into words, we develop them and make them 
 more definite. Of course, in mature life we always think in 
 words; but unless we endeavor to formulate our thoughts in 
 communicable form, these words will be relatively indistinct, 
 as much so as the thought itself. There is, then, a reaction of 
 our attempts at expression upon our own inner self which 
 grows thru expression. The value of an exchange of opinions, 
 of discussions, does not only lie in our gaining new light on 
 the subject from the view-points of our opponents, but in 
 our being obliged to define our own position more exactly and 
 to adjust it to opposing argument. This is perhaps the reason 
 why quite generally we come out of such discussions with 
 our own opinions considerably confirmed and "stubborn- 
 ized". Again, by putting our emotions into clear-cut words, 
 we shall often succeed in emerging from harassing agitation 
 of heart, harassing because vague and full of intoxicating, or 
 torturing, imageries and indistinct visions, and thus we are 
 enabled to rise above them and master them. This was the 
 way in which one of the world's master-minds, Goethe, lib- 
 erated himself from his ephemeral passions. (Cf. "Werthers 
 Leiden." ) 
 
 Let us not forget that of a vast number of the ideas and 
 impressions dwelling in our minds we must confess that they 
 are characterized by vagueness and lack of outline. Were it 
 not so, there would be less nonsense, wavering, and irrational 
 fancy at large. Only as far as we can express our ideas ade- 
 quately, will they assume a certain degree of rational distinc- 
 tion and fertility — motive power for rational action. Ex- 
 pression in words is almost like a mathematical test. What 
 remains unuttered and vague cannot be reasoned about ; only 
 what is expressed can become a matter of argument. It is 
 therefore plain enough why it is that the masters of expres- 
 sion have ever been the leaders of thought, and vice versa. 
 
 Unquestionably, definite thought depends largely upon 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 231 
 
 definite impressions — concrete experiences well digested. 
 There is a physical, or sense, basis to all thinking. "The 
 Spartan children," as Edward M. Plummer* shows, "were 
 superior to the other Greek children in the power of expres- 
 sion, altho they were not so highly educated. This is no 
 doubt due to the fact that at a very early age the Spartan 
 children were forced into a free life in the open air and to 
 systematic gymnastic exercise." 
 
 Before we can expect, then, much power of expression we 
 must provide ample opportunities for wholesome experience 
 and natural conditions of growth. 
 
 However, without proper exercise, the faculty of adequate 
 expression will never be fully developed. We learn to swim 
 by swimming, as the old adage has it. We learn to talk by 
 talking; we learn to write by writing. Afford, then, the chil- 
 dren abundant opportunity, in connection with all other 
 school work, to express themselves in oral and written form. 
 Encourage them to say and write out what they know, feel, 
 hope, aspire. In this age of formal book drill, the child has 
 little such chance. He is weighed down by the formulas, 
 rules, and technical exercises which are, to a young child, 
 principally a tax to the memory without appealing to interest 
 and imagination. The effect is deplorable enough: few of 
 our elementary school pupils attain to a satisfactory fluency 
 in expression, and even the poor results in spelling of which 
 the so-called modern school is accused are largely due to the 
 fact that our children have too little chance for using the 
 words in compositions of their own. Mechanical spelling 
 exercises are a miserable surrogate for free application of the 
 proper terms for self-expression. 
 
 There is need of caution, however. What is true in regard 
 to other potential activities of the child, is also true of his 
 expression. We must carefully avoid forcing it before its 
 time. Expression, like every other faculty, is a growth, and 
 premature stimulation will either produce nervous strain or 
 empty babbling. In either case, the natural growths will be 
 
 ♦"Toys and Games for Children among the Ancient Hel- 
 lenes," Amer. Phys. Educ. Rev., Sept., 1898. 
 
2 3 2 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 arrested or perverted. First of all, children must take in a 
 wealth of impressions. They cannot readily convert these 
 into communicable form. The young child is mainly recep- 
 tive, and quite fragmentary and stumbling in expression. He 
 cannot say all he knows or feels, or say it in a form which 
 would correspond to an adult standard. His thoughts, and 
 his sentences, lack perspective as conspicuously as do his draw- 
 ings, and he records things quite out of natural proportion 
 and relation. 
 
 We may forgive children their stammering way of expres- 
 sion the more readily, the more clearly we recognize the often 
 insurmountable difficulties which even adults undergo in try- 
 ing to give utterance to their thoughts. Our deepest feelings, 
 notably those of a religious character, are really incommuni- 
 cable, because more or less formless, not for the reason that 
 they are below the level of rational definition, but that they 
 are above it, — transcendent, metaphysical. In speaking of 
 them, we are forced to employ conventional symbols which 
 are quite ambiguous, and mean different things to different 
 people. Thus, the terms "God," "Nature," "destiny," "im- 
 mortality," etc., will forever remain indefinite, and therefore, 
 unfortunately, a source of contentions among fanaticists. 
 
 The reader is referred back to what has been said in the 
 foregoing chapter on oral work to precede work in reading 
 and writing. We may well style this period in the child's 
 development as the oral age. Likewise, as in reading, oral 
 work should precede written work in composition. It is inter- 
 esting to note how even adults, especially those who have 
 comparatively little practice in writing, have a certain horror 
 of the blank page which they are supposed to fill with expres- 
 sions of their own mind; how even practiced poetasters will 
 often rack their imagination to find the first word or line with 
 which to break the horrid white monotony of the empty sheet 
 of paper. This horror of the blank page is quite pronounced 
 in the case of the child who is bidden to write a composition. 
 But if he has gained practise in oral expression and learns 
 that a written composition is nothing but a putting down in 
 record-form of what he has previously expressed by word of 
 mouth, this horror will be minimized. The child may be asked 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 233 
 
 to reproduce the stories he was told, by telling them back 
 to the teacher, or to the class; judicious questions will elicit 
 from him statements as to his experiences, at home, in the 
 street, in school, in manual work, etc. Thus the child may 
 be led to express himself freely, and connectedly, on what 
 he has done, seen, heard, enjoyed, etc. 
 
 Details may be gathered up, the making of successive state- 
 ments should be constantly encouraged, and gradually, the 
 idea of the relation of one to the other statement can be de- 
 veloped. At first, all statements seem co-ordinate: the child 
 strings them up, using invariably the conjunction "and". 
 Then comes a realization of the subordinate elements, and 
 other conjunctions, relative phrases, and the like are slowly 
 introduced. But this is a laborious process. Much practice 
 must be given in this direction, and much patience and cau- 
 tion needs to be exercised. 
 
 A helpful practice is dictation by the children to the 
 teacher. The teacher will then read aloud what the children 
 have dictated, inviting amendments. This will arouse the 
 children's desire to read their own statements. By putting 
 these on the blackboard, or manifolding them on the type- 
 writer, such opportunity can be provided ; this will be found 
 a simple way of encouraging and simplifying exercises in read- 
 ing. The children will of course more easily recognize their 
 own sentences than they would foreign matter. Reading 
 should precede writing; there is absolutely no need of en- 
 forcing a copying of these statements by the children, or any 
 writing exercises whatsoever, at this stage; indeed, writing 
 may for some time continue to be hieroglyphic, even after 
 reading has already commenced to appreciate alphabetical 
 elements. 
 
 In the gradual transition to genuine written work, letters 
 will probably commend themselves as the first form of this, 
 as they are in the nature of a personal effusion, containing 
 personal elements in author and addressee. In fact, letters, 
 communications, offer the first incentive to writing. 
 
 It is essential that clear oral and written statements ac- 
 company all work in school. "Kein Tag ohne eine Zeile!" 
 (no day without a line) was the suggestive maxim of an old 
 
234 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 German teacher. 
 
 It does, however, not impress me as imperative to insist 
 pedantically on complete sentences in every instance, es- 
 pecially not when such statement would be merely a repetition 
 of the teacher's question in affirmative or negative form. Yet 
 constant insistence upon good language is absolutely necessary. 
 In doing this, be gentle and suggestive rather than nagging 
 and pedantic. Some apparently incorrect expressions used by 
 children, even certain slang forms, altho they appear antagon- 
 istic to adult refinement, have peculiar force. And it is not 
 well to substitute forever conventional phraseology for the 
 spontaneous ebullitions of childhood, crude and uncouth as 
 they may seem. Primitive thought needs a primitive dress. 
 An Indian in a stovepipe is an absurdity. 
 
 Rather than to discourage the children by too much criti- 
 cism, set the good example in your own speech, for more or 
 less unconscious absorption by the pupils. Teachers are in 
 this respect, unfortunately, not above reproach, by any means. 
 Mr. Percival Chubb is authority for the fact that many 
 of the teachers in New York City use bad English habitually. 
 
 With discreet guidance, children will grow in mastery of 
 language. No doubt there are drawbacks. The home and 
 street environment of the child may quickly destroy what the 
 teacher has builded with patient toil. Little can be done in 
 this respect, and the teacher must be satisfied with the self- 
 effacing consciousness of having done his best — unless he gain 
 an influence over home and community by co-ordinating all 
 educational factors in a harmonious way. 
 
 At any rate, he may console himself with the reflection that 
 after all it is the thought, and not the form, which is the 
 principal thing. Work for the thought, and accept individual 
 forms of expression be they ever so unconventional. Even 
 tho germanisms and slang forms and idiomatic crudities may 
 abound : as long as there is evidence of some careful, rational 
 thinking and organized argument, let it pass without 
 struggling against the inevitable. And even where the home 
 and street conditions are most favorable, we shall have to 
 accept many a deviation from conventional modes, and shall 
 have to exercise discretion in correcting the children's speech. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 235 
 
 Patience there must be above all things ; and by being encour- 
 aged in good reading the children will gradually learn to use 
 passably good form. Says Samuel Thurber: 
 
 "It is of no use to correct young children's work in detail. 
 Why should not the boy or girl be allowed to write in the 
 boyish or girlish way, as well as to speak in the boyish or girl- 
 ish voice, or to move, to sing, to dance, in the boyish or 
 girlish way? The pedant corrects young compositions into 
 mature molds — a ridiculous and useless labor. You will 
 distinguish between things positive, like spelling, which are 
 distinctly right or wrong, and things relative and elastic, like 
 the choice of words and phrases, which are good or bad ac- 
 cording to season and place. . . . By correcting too much 
 you may easily check spontaneity." 
 
 And Prof. Earl Barnes comments as follows on a little 
 girl's letter: 
 
 "The girl is letting her soul shine out. If she knew that 
 she should find in her mother a critic of spelling, punctuation, 
 and grammar, she could not write in this way. . . . The 
 arts of expression are mastered only by expressing, and in each 
 of them one must pass thru a period of blundering before he 
 comes out into the field of perfect mastery. . . . The 
 pedagog can help most by providing incentive and then by 
 keeping out of the way. His aid must come, here a little and 
 there a little — but never so as to attract attention from the 
 doing to the form. . . . We spend our days teaching a 
 child how to write "rite" right, and thereby destroy his abil- 
 ity to grow by going out thru expression." 
 
 In order to train the children in doing justice to tasks in 
 composition, they must be given exercises in finding, and in 
 arranging, the material. Finding the material is easy enough 
 for him who knows how to use reference books, indexes, lists, 
 and bibliographies; who has learnt to skim over many pages 
 and select what is helpful and essential; who is master over 
 his own stock of stored up knowledge, and who has trained 
 himself to find on short notice in the storehouse of his own 
 mind the impressions and thoughts needful for a present dis- 
 cussion. He who is orderly in his mental possessions, will 
 be ready at any time to lay his grasp on the wanted material. 
 
236 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 But the child has to slowly acquire these habits and to develop 
 these faculities, and it is our office as teachers of composition 
 to assist him in this habituation and training. 
 
 Arranging the material is practically identical with finding 
 it ; for unless there is a well-conceived logical order of the sub- 
 ject in hand, in our mind, we shall never succeed in discover- 
 ing suitable material; or perhaps it is more correct to say, 
 finding and arranging are mutually subservient, — the one 
 process helps the other. Of little children whose experience 
 is fragmentary and whose thinking is incoherent and unre- 
 lated, we cannot expect a proper arrangement of argument. 
 The faculty of arranging thoughts in a rational sequence will 
 grow with increasing maturity. We may help this develop- 
 ment by tabulating in an orderly manner our daily lessons 
 so that the children will get into the habit of storing up their 
 knowledge in organized groups. 
 
 To secure unity and continuity in composition, let us re- 
 member, and impress it upon our pupils, that an essay, or 
 book, must express virtually one thought, not a promiscuous 
 bundle of thoughts. This one thought may be subdivided, or 
 made to rest on a host of subordinated thoughts ; but the aim 
 must always be to elucidate the one main idea. A composi- 
 tion should express one idea, as does an architectural creation, 
 or a painting, or a drama; and unless this is brought out in 
 clear shape, the composition is a failure. The main thought 
 must never be lost in a jungle and wilderness of accessory 
 ideas. Of a composition, much more truly than of a mere 
 sentence, can it be said that it expresses a complete thought. 
 It is always in the nature of a logical syllogism: there must 
 be premises and a conclusion. There must be a fitting in- 
 troduction, a body of substantial argument, well articulated 
 and organized, and the inference from all the foregoing must 
 crown the effort. 
 
 It is beneficial to accompany these exercises with a study of 
 examples of good arrangement and style, from literature. 
 Even mere reproductions from memory are helpful, as they 
 will illustrate, and clinch, the idea of sequence of thought. 
 Reports on books read, in school or at home, following chap- 
 ter after chapter; and reports on supplementary information 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 237 
 
 to assist in school work, all these will contribute to the same 
 end, viz., the appreciation of proper sequence, and the train- 
 ing in suitable, logical arrangement of the subject matter. 
 
 The study of proper forms of expression will be enhanced 
 by experiments in altering expressions in masterpieces of style, 
 to discover whether they may be improved upon, and if not, 
 as will be found to be the case in the great majority of in- 
 stances — why not. The study of good literature generally 
 will have a purifying effect upon juvenile style. But let us 
 present to our pupils specimens of different styles rather than 
 dwell too long on a few selected authors lest they conform 
 their mode of expression too slavishly and conventionally to 
 some one of these, accepting and imitating his mannerisms 
 no less than his elegancies, and sacrificing their own indi- 
 viduality. 
 
 The selection of themes ought to present no difficulties. 
 The daily experience of the pupils offers boundless opportun- 
 ity for work in composition. Only let us be careful not to 
 overreach the children's ability. Even high school topics are 
 often too old, requiring more mature thought and more com- 
 prehensive experience than adolescent boys and girls can possi- 
 bly command. 
 
 The subjects of compositions, in the same way as the form 
 of treatment, must be allowed to accord with the successive 
 interests of the children. The culture epochs are dominant 
 in this branch as they are in reading, and practically in all 
 branches of school instruction. This regard for the native 
 developmental interests of the children will also prevent us 
 from forcing absolutely the same subject upon all children, 
 and will induce us to provide for individual selection. Not 
 every pupil will approach a subject with the same degree of 
 eagerness and native talent. And altho it would be proper 
 to give from time to time such class exercises as will afford 
 needful training to all alike, we should strive to secure class 
 results by the co-operation of the individuals composing the 
 class, each working within his own sphere, and exchanging 
 results with all others, much rather than by forcing all into 
 the same narrow groove. 
 
 Of composition exercises, there are two kinds. 
 
238 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 First, STATEMENTS OF FACTS. Here, the power 
 of observation, and of giving an account of what has been ob- 
 served, comes into play. To require such statements, involves 
 a training of the judgment. 
 
 "For training of the judgment, it is of course necessary that 
 the perceptions be first educated. . . . Judgment con- 
 sists essentially in comparison, and it is consequently by com- 
 parison that we must train this faculty. . . . The train- 
 ing of the judgment must naturally begin by a comparison of 
 objects with which the child is familiar, and in which he takes 
 some interest. In fact, the more they interest him, the more 
 profitable the lessons will be. After some experience with 
 familiar objects, unfamiliar or abstract ones may be taken, 
 their difficulty increasing by regular gradations until we 
 come to such complex cases as the relative goodness or badness 
 of some supposed action. By such steps it will be found an 
 easy matter to give almost any child a sound judgment."* 
 
 Statements of facts may be demanded in connection with 
 the concrete experiences of the child — his home and school 
 life — observations in reference to science and geography — ex- 
 periments — studies in history — manual and art work, etc. 
 To this class belong also those clear-cut lines of argument 
 which are based on facts, and are deductions from facts. 
 These statements exclude largely the personal element, at 
 least in a measure, and a certain degree of objectivity of view 
 can be insisted upon. Yet, in all combinations of facts, the 
 creative and imaginative faculities come into play. Even in 
 mere statements, the personal equation cannot be altogether 
 excluded, as all facts have first to become internalized, sub- 
 jectified, before they can become possessions of our mind. 
 
 In matters of conclusions and demonstrations, the personal 
 equation often becomes decisive. What may be true and con- 
 vincing to me, need not be so to you. This is a matter of in- 
 dividual constitution and attitude. We must respect the same 
 in our children. 
 
 ♦Clement Fezandie, "Mental Education," School Jrl., Oct. 6, 
 1894- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 239 
 
 Thus we have, as the second class: 
 
 CREATIVE AND IMAGINATIVE WORK in com- 
 position. The psychological basis for this is elucidated in the 
 following extract from the proceedings of the Illinois Society 
 for Child Study, 1899, ("Imagination and Education") : 
 
 It is not simply the image-'maxion involved in perception 
 and memory, but it is most solidly based upon this. Indeed, 
 at first the images are brought into consciousness as memories 
 of what has been experienced thru the action of the senses. 
 Repeated reproductions of this kind, with little emphasis upon 
 the time and place in which the original sense-experiences 
 were gained, tend to free these memory images from their 
 connection with real material — to give them a purely ideal 
 existence, and thus prepare them for new combinations. 
 Thereupon, interest transforms these released images into 
 novel and hitherto unexperienced products. Some of these 
 products are images of actual material existence. Others have 
 an ideal existence only. Such images as these, the results of 
 this dissociative and recombining process carried on without 
 any unusual or phenomenal emotional activity, constitute a 
 very large part of the 'mind-stuff' of the ordinary mortal. 
 These images, to an inconceivably greater degree than the 
 pure memory images in which they had their origin, constitute 
 the 'stock in trade' in the fundamental part of all educative 
 effort." 
 
 The final outgrowth of this kind of work would be genuine 
 fancy, which, when normally developed, wholesome, and in 
 accord with the natural instincts of the race, produces poetic 
 conceptions ; but when morbid or abnormal in some way, will 
 degenerate into fallacies t delusions, and insanity. Here, dis- 
 creet guidance is most needed. 
 
 We should, however, recognize that, by younger children, 
 fact and fancy are yet undistinguished. They live in a world 
 little explored by experience, and largely imaginary. They 
 are apt to project their own personality unhesitatingly into 
 the objects around them. They play with imaginary com- 
 panions as readily as with wooden dolls which they endow 
 with the semblance of life. In his very instructive study on 
 
2 4 o THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 the early sense of self, President Stanley Hall* gives these 
 valuable hints: 
 
 "The dramatic passion is almost universal with children. 
 They personate all kinds of people, and imitate even defects. 
 . . . It seems as if children sometimes hate to have or be 
 a self; felt that personality was not essence but phenomenon, 
 and before they attain the virtue of unfolding what is 
 peculiar to self, strove to develop what is common to all the 
 species ; feel reluctance to be merely a specimen of a type, and 
 experience a touch of the sublime indifference of nature and 
 of philosophy. ... In their plays children even become 
 a post, street-lamp, rock, chair, mirror, table, tree, etc. . . 
 A girl of six passionately felt that she could and would not 
 be herself; because it was too dreadful. . . . Girls fre- 
 quently wish to be boys, and often expect to be when they 
 grow older, or fear they may become boys. Others fear at 
 night that they will wake up someone else in the morning. 
 . These phenomena are hard to interpret, but suggest 
 that childhood is generic and full of promise and potency of 
 many kinds of personality and consciousness before the shades 
 of the prison-house close in upon it. (There is) 
 
 a longing for the broadest possible basis of experience and to 
 touch life at every possible point, even if it be vicariously." 
 
 This longing, and the capacity for vicarious experience 
 should be made use of in composition work. And, with the 
 proper direction on the part of the teacher, it will serve to 
 strengthen the child's consciousness of self, to widen his hori- 
 zon, to direct his gaze upon the ideal, to broaden his selfish 
 instincts to embrace the destiny of the race. 
 
 Composition is a means of self-expression, no doubt. But 
 in every attempt at doing this, the child will become more 
 conscious of his limitations the older he grows, and the less 
 fancy supplies what his own circumscribed experience and 
 personality cannot. Composition, therefore, is also a means 
 of self-knowledge and self-control. It teaches the child how 
 vast is the material from which he may draw; how small an 
 amount thereof he can make serviceable to himself; how im- 
 
 *Amer. Jrl. of Psych., IX, 3. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 241 
 
 perative is proper care in selection, and how insignificant and 
 needful of adjustment is his own individual opinion. He 
 will, at least may or ought to, realize that not every problem 
 which he undertakes to grapple with, is capable of ready so- 
 lution thru his individual effort, and that he must be satisfied 
 with an honest searching after truth, and with contributing 
 his mite towards making a later solution approachable — that 
 all he may do is to establish more clearly in his own mind the 
 principles, logical and ethical, upon which all rational ma- 
 turity rests, and become more and more conscious of true 
 composition being a difficult art — one of the many ways by 
 which a thought, an idea, an ideal, can be crystal ized, and 
 for which each individual has a different aptitude. "The con- 
 scious utterance of thought by speech or action, to any end, 
 is art," says Emerson. And Holland has this thought in his 
 essay on "Art and Life" : "The temple of art is built of words. 
 Painting and sculpture and music are but the blazen of its 
 windows borrowing all ther significance from the light, and 
 suggestive only of the temple's uses." 
 
 The closing words for this chapter may be quoted from 
 Bulwer Lytton: "Art in fact is the effort of man to express 
 the ideas which Nature suggests to him of a power above 
 Nature, whether that power be within the recesses of his own 
 being, or in the Great First Cause of which Nature, like him- 
 self, is but the effect." 
 
 The true artist, however, is the most humble of men. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Grading and Promotion 
 
 THE traditional grades, with their system of pro- 
 motions according to stereotyped rules, are incon- 
 sistent with the natural development of the child. 
 This has been very strongly urged long ago by 
 Prof. W. S. Jackson, in his article, "The School 
 Grade a Fiction." Said he, among other things: 
 
 "It is evident that the fundamental thing in the concep- 
 tion of a school grade, as at present recognized, is an arbitrary 
 unit of time. . . . 
 
 "So far, all attempts made to prepare a course of study 
 close fitting to each grade have ended in disappointment. . . . 
 "It is certainly open to question whether skill should be 
 taken into serious account at all in establishing grades. Skill 
 is a variable quantity with the same pupil in different sub- 
 jects." 
 
 The evils of the present system have long been recognized 
 by observing teachers, but it has been found signally difficult 
 to solve the problem of how to re-adjust matters. In mass- 
 instruction, there is need of some system of grouping the 
 pupils; and as there is everywhere a tendency to be economi- 
 cal as to the number of teachers employed, the breaking up of 
 the mass into small groups has been found inconvenient. The 
 greatest obstacle, however, has always been the routine stand- 
 ard of proficiency forced upon the pupils, and the unelastic 
 character of the courses of instruction. 
 
 Many attempts have been made to individualize and to 
 promote within the grades. The grades have been subdivided 
 into divisions, two or three in a grade. This works well in a 
 
 242 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 243 
 
 certain way, but means an additional burden to the teacher 
 who has so many more recitations to hear. "Our children", 
 says Julia Richman, "are so accustomed to giving close at- 
 tention to the teacher that, when separated into groups, their 
 minds invariably wander from their own tasks to listen to the 
 instruction given to some other group." Then again, complete 
 systems have been devised to give the "brighter" pupils the 
 chance of advancing more rapidly than the slower ones. Presi- 
 dent Elliot, of Harvard, and Superintendent Shearer, of 
 Elizabeth, N. J., have developed and introduced plans of this 
 kind. 
 
 Miss Julia Richman describes what she calls a "successful 
 experiment in promoting pupils," as made in Public School 
 No. 77, New York. She placed the brighter pupils of one 
 grade in a room by themselves, and the poorer ones also. 
 Where there were enough pupils in one grade to warrant the 
 establishment of more than two separate grade rooms, she 
 divided them accordingly. Individual attention, advancement, 
 and promotion, were thus secured. The objection that a plan 
 like this were possible only in a large school is not very valid. 
 There might be consolidations made of several grades from 
 neighboring schools; and then, by stretching the idea of 
 "grade", it would be feasible to put the "bright" pupils of 
 two or more grades into one group by themselves and to ad- 
 just the course of study accordingly, expecting that they 
 would cover the ground in less time, while the slower ones 
 would be given proportionately more time. All this can be 
 accomplished in some way, as long as the purpose of the 
 school is considered to be mainly the imparting of knowledge, 
 the giving of information. Some, the so-called brighter 
 pupils, will absorb this more quickly than others. The mere 
 information school will permit of plans like this: Out of a 
 class of 228 pupils completing eighth grade work in Seattle 
 on the once famous "Shearer plan" i. e., promoting any day 
 when the pupil is fitted, thirty-one did it in six years, seventy- 
 eight in seven years, seventy in eight years, nineteen in nine 
 years, eight in ten years, and two in eleven years.* 
 
 ♦Quoted in Child Study Monthly, Sept., 1808. 
 
244 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 There are, however, serious objections to this plan. The 
 practice of allowing the "bright" ones to proceed at break- 
 neck speed, may do them more injury than good. Our ordi- 
 nary school education is hot-bed culture at best, a driving of 
 children along the path of adult-invented systems and stand- 
 ards into nervous collapse and depletion. Surely, we may 
 succeed in stuffing some of our pupils with facts and rules 
 and definitions and names and dates at an increasingly higher 
 rate of speed, and in graduating them a year or two earlier, 
 so that we shall finally promote to our high schools children 
 who have hardly entered their teens, and on to college boys 
 in knee-pants, and girls in short skirts and long braids. But 
 that would be a generation of neurotics, of precocious im- 
 beciles and blase fools, — such ones as are sometimes intro- 
 duced to the readers of funny papers as "genuine Bostonians" 
 who play with the differential calculus at an age when nor- 
 mal children play with dolls and building blocks. 
 
 What sort of children do we call "bright", after all? 
 "Bright" is an ambiguous term. It may mean a retentive 
 memory which absorbs quickly like a sponge and may as easily 
 be squeezed empty. Or it may be applied to the ready talker 
 who can make much ado about nothing and dazzle us with 
 the eloquence of empty phrases. Or "bright" may be taken 
 to be synonomous with "quick" referring to the shorter re- 
 action time of such individuals. It is a well known fact in 
 physics that some liquids boil at a lower temperature 
 than others. Likewise, some individuals respond more 
 quickly to excitations than others. But the term "bright" 
 is surely not in every case identical with "mature." And is 
 not maturity the thing we strive for ? 
 
 Under the caption, "Speed as an Element of Weakness," 
 Dr. M. W. Van Denburg has contributed an investigation, 
 which he introduces by the scriptural quotation, "The race is 
 not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; . . . 
 nor yet favor to men of skill ; but time and chance happen- 
 ed! to them all." Among other things, he says this in the 
 course of his argument: 
 
 "If Charles Darwin were a pupil in one of our public 
 schools to-day, the chances are nine out of ten, that he would 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 245 
 
 be set down as a very commonplace, dull boy. His mind 
 always moved slowly and with extreme caution from his 
 earliest school days. This was his individual constitution. 
 
 "If John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer were two boys 
 in the same grade, Mill, who would be several years younger 
 than Spencer — and who for a moment doubts that the bril- 
 liant, ready, quick-witted Mill would far outstrip the shy, 
 nervous, plodding Spencer: the one would become a petted 
 little pedant, and the other would be plunged into the deep- 
 est discouragement. These are not altogether fancy 
 sketches. . . . 
 
 "Nothing is more certain in psychology than the vast dif- 
 ference in the rate of speed at which different minds work. 
 This is not all a habit by any means. It is to a far greater 
 degree an endowment.* 
 
 "Suppose in public examinations as much time was given 
 as is desired by each applicant, and thereby quiet of mind on 
 this point assured. Suppose in school work the difference 
 in natural endowment, in physical energy, in physical health, 
 in previous training, in home training, and, above all, the 
 natural gait of the mind were taken into account in each case. 
 Suppose accuracy, and reliability, and completeness of grasp 
 and sincerity of purpose were put in their proper places in 
 estimating the value of work accomplished, the Darwins 
 would not then always be set down as dunces, neither would 
 the Mills so enormously out-rank the Spencers."* 
 
 There is, as has been shown in a previous chapter, a phy- 
 sical basis for precocity and dullness. Prof. W. Townsend 
 Porter has shown that the more successful pupils are taller 
 as well as heavier than dull children, that they have larger 
 
 *Stanley Hall speaks in this respect of the "individual rhythm." 
 G. 
 
 *It may be interesting to consult in this connection what the 
 author of this volume has said about the system of valuing, 
 grading, and promoting pupils as worked out by him in the 
 Ethical Culture Schools of New York, and set forth in his 
 little book, "A Working System of Child Study for Schools," 
 Bardeen, Syracuse, 1897. 
 
246 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 chests, and greater width of heads. He recommends that 
 grading be based rather upon height and weight, i. e., on a 
 determination of the physical development of the individual, 
 than upon his age or accomplishments. His tables also prove 
 that the children approaching the average weight of their 
 age are found at least one grade lower than our artificial 
 system of grading would have it. Thus, the seven year old 
 child of average weight (47.73 lbs.) is found in the first 
 grade, not in the second. Those children of seven, who 
 have reached the second grade, are above the average weight. 
 The boy of average weight, 10 years old, is in the third 
 grade; of 12 years, in the fourth; while at puberty, there 
 are great variations. 
 
 All this proves that real success and progress is a matter of 
 biological development whereby mental and physical pro- 
 cesses are intimately related. In other words, instead of 
 mistaking one-sided brilliancy for an evidence of satisfactory 
 progress, we should consider progress largely as a process of 
 maturing. It is power, not information and examinable 
 knowledge, by which we must gauge a child's fitness for 
 higher tasks. 
 
 The culture epoch theory as set forth in previous chapters 
 will be a safer guide for a rational system of grading than 
 anything else. We have seen that there are distinct devel- 
 opmental stages in the life of a child, and that these do not 
 closely correspond to average ages, at any rate that they do 
 not follow each other in annual progression. Some are longer 
 and some are shorter. It would, therefore, seem to be the 
 simplest plan to establish groups in accordance with these 
 natural periods. May be that this will be the outcome of 
 the present confusion when once we shall be better able to 
 apply psychological criteria to the daily practice of the school 
 room. It is obvious that there is one main difficulty in the 
 way of such an arrangement, viz. the fact that not any two 
 children pass thru these developmental stages in exactly the 
 same way, at the same age, or at the same rate of speed. The 
 school groups would therefore never be thoroly homogeneous 
 — there will forever be a need of continuous re-adjustment 
 and individualization even under the most perfect system. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 247 
 
 The difficulty will be largely overcome when we have an 
 elastic and rational course of instruction, arranged in con- 
 centric circles, where information is insisted upon only to the 
 limit of actual necessity; when due care is taken to recognize 
 individual talents and powers; when there can be instan- 
 taneous adjustment and readjustment to the varying needs 
 of individual groups. It is the author's opinion that a system 
 of special teachers would often be better suited for such re-ad- 
 justments than the one-sided class-teacher system. The special 
 teacher has the larger perspective of his work in various 
 parallel and successive groups of pupils; and can therefore 
 fit it better to these various needs, keeping his final aim 
 steadily in view. 
 
 While we need not at once give up the grade system, 
 adapting it gradually to our increasing enlightenment con- 
 cerning the problem under discussion, we may even now 
 supplement it by the establishment of ungraded classes which 
 can be considered as the safety-valves of the system. Here 
 may be placed, under the direction of particularly well-qual- 
 ified teachers, those children who for one reason or another 
 cannot keep pace with mass, and where they may be re-ad- 
 justed, or for that matter, receive individual attention. Such 
 ungraded classes will prove particularly welcome where there 
 are older pupils entering the school whose maturity is well 
 advanced while they may need some coaching in rudimen- 
 tary arts. Again, ungraded classes will be found helpful in 
 the treatment of mildly atypical children. There may even 
 be special classes for precocious pupils, where they would 
 receive an educational treatment suited to their needs. For 
 even they may be considered as atypical. 
 
 These considerations will throw light on the problem of 
 promotions, and the principles upon which they should be 
 based. Heretofore, and in fact up to the present day, exam- 
 inations and percentage marks have been the main, or only 
 means for determining promotion lists. Originally, examina- 
 tions, held at the end of the grade term, were the exclusive 
 criterion. When the viciousness of this system began to be 
 recognized, promotion was based upon a combination of 
 daily marks and examination records. Or, to mitigate the 
 
248 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 evils of the chance results of the one "examination for pro- 
 motion," there were instituted series of tests, or a multiplicity 
 of examinations in the course of a term, the average of which 
 was then taken. Of course, these examinations were fit 
 merely to test the capacity of the pupil to absorb, and repro- 
 duce, information; and the substitution of many tests for 
 one final examination meant as much as driving the devil 
 out by means of Be-elzebub. According to Dr. Sturgis, 
 among the incidents of school life apt to be injurious and 
 productive of chorea, there stand out prominently (i) writ- 
 ten examinations; (2) moving into higher classes.* 
 
 The question of examinations as tests of fitness, and of 
 their effect upon the pupils, is so serious a one that the au- 
 thor may be permitted to quote further from authoritative 
 sources, so as to elucidate the situation. An examination 
 has been called a "periodical inspection of results", "a kind of 
 intellectual dress parade." It is claimed that such a day 
 of reckoning is needed as otherwise the pupil, following the 
 line of least resistance, would never make an effort to con- 
 centrate his thoughts and organize the results of his daily 
 study. The pupil, in an examination, is required to be 
 ready for the occasion, to have perfect command of his re- 
 sources, to meet a crisis, to be willing to submit his work 
 and his character, as shown in his work, to the most search- 
 ing scrutiny. In this way, an examination resembles the 
 trials of life, so that, even tho it may cause difficulty and 
 suffering, it has its inestimable value even to the school 
 child for the purpose of character training. 
 
 The question may arise whether, what may perhaps be 
 well suited to the age of college and university students, 
 would be equally adapted to the nature and needs of ele- 
 mentary children. 
 
 Prof. Friedrich Paulsen, of Berlin, recognizes the value 
 of school examinations proper, those which arise entirely out 
 of the exigencies of the instruction and have purely didac- 
 tic ends. But against all other kinds, including examinations 
 
 *Cf. Will S. Monroe, "Chorea among Public School Children," 
 Amer. Phys. Educ. Rev., Ill, 1. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 249 
 
 for positions, he raises grave objections. Among these are: 
 1. The examination changes the mental attitude of the stu- 
 dent to the subject. The prospect of being examined neces- 
 sarily turns his attention from the subject-matter itself and 
 fixes it upon the examination; it therefore takes on a more 
 external meaning. ... 2. The examination gives to 
 previous study a tendency to be superficial and directed to 
 what lends itself to recitation. The knowledge that can be 
 "shown off" counts for the most. . . . 3. In all exam- 
 inations the most successful are those who come to them 
 without strong tendencies or gifts in any direction, but who 
 tread the even path of mediocrity, whereas natures with un- 
 mistakable and decided originality and special talents often 
 suffer under them. 
 
 "Why," says "the shade of Socrates," in an interview with 
 Wm. Hawley Smith,* "I have been shocked beyond measure, 
 a thousand times, as I have seen your young men and maid- 
 ens go thru the process of what they call 'cramming for ex- 
 aminations.' For a few days before the test of their attain- 
 ments they pore over their books, filling themselves with 
 words, even as a toad fills herself with wind, till it would 
 seem that the addition of another iota would burst them. 
 And then they sit down and write for an hour, using what 
 of the pent-up matter within them they may be able to com- 
 mand, in their present distended condition; after which, the 
 ordeal over, they open the safety valve of forgetfulness, and 
 in a week after they are as lank and flabby on the subject, 
 and as unable to stand alone and say their say regarding it, 
 as an empty meal sack is without ability to erect itself, and 
 out of its nothingness to fill the bin." 
 
 On the score of the physical dangers, we should be re- 
 minded that the school girl is one of the most unfortunate 
 victims of the pernicious system, and that examinations are 
 often responsible for lasting menstrual disorders. Just at 
 the time when the pubescent girl should be free from the 
 cramped conditions of the school room, she is subjected to the 
 trials of the grammar grades, with a daily strain of studies 
 
 *Educ. Rev., March, 1897. 
 
250 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 and tests. Examinations are threatening and harassing her 
 mind at periods when she should have rest and should not 
 worry. The anticipation of possible failure is working mis- 
 chief of the most unpardonable kind. For the menstruating 
 school girl of pubescent years is apt to be emotionally over- 
 strung, and to be given to hysterical exaltation, both upward 
 and downward — towards exultation as well as towards mel- 
 ancholia. The "blues" are a distinct functional disease. And 
 on the very day of the examination, there are always many 
 girls in every class or school who are at a decided disadvan- 
 tage. 
 
 A teacher meeting a pupil who had taken a Bryn Mawr 
 examination in algebra the day before, asked to see the paper, 
 and inquired what she had done. "Why did you leave 
 out this problem" said the teacher. The pupil said that 
 it had looked puzzling to her. "Try it", said 
 the teacher. In five minutes the young girl had 
 solved it correctly, and had written it out neatly. 
 For want of that cool five minutes, she failed in her exam- 
 ination, and had to study algebra another year. 
 
 Of course some may claim that, examinations being a test 
 of character, and approximating the actual experiences of 
 life, this result is perfectly legitimate. But we may reply to 
 this that after all, it was not the girl's presence of mind, but 
 her algebra, that was being examined, and that for a defi- 
 ciency of character the punishment, to make her study alge- 
 bra another year, knowing it well enough as she did, is ab- 
 surd, to say the least. Forcing a student to go over the 
 same ground again is justifiable only when the proof of 
 lack of mastery is given. 
 
 Of the injustice, deceptiveness, and viciousness of the 
 marking system, especially in percentages, much has already 
 been said. It will never enable us to size up a child's pro- 
 gress adequately and fairly, and it establishes a false incentive 
 for the child. 
 
 As soon as we realize that the proper test for promotion 
 has reference to general maturity, we shall understand that 
 neither examinations nor marks will serve as a safe basis, 
 that these are, at best, merely accessories. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 251 
 
 Deficiency in one, or even several subjects should never 
 be taken as a cause for holding a pupil back unless there is 
 very unmistakable evidence of general immaturity. Let us 
 remember that there are distinctly different types of chil- 
 dren. Will you prevent a non-mathematical child from go- 
 ing on in language, geography, history, art and science be- 
 cause he is weak in computation ? Or must the constitutional 
 bad speller be prohibited from grappling with mathematical 
 and scientific problems that would rouse forth his intensest 
 interest and native genius, for the reason that he cannot 
 readily recognize a bare bear or a fair fare ? Mere repetition 
 is unprofitable under most circumstances; it is usually better 
 to provide for new opportunities of applying the unmastered 
 art ; these new opportunities will bring about new revelations 
 and call forth fresh effort. And have we never heard of 
 unexpected awakenings? 
 
 Holding back a child in a lower class means to tie him 
 to interests which he has outgrown. It is as a rule much 
 wiser to trust to his ability to go on with his class to higher 
 work than to keep him back. He may grow with the de- 
 mands made upon him ; only when discovered to be a failure 
 in the next class should he be placed — not necessarily back 
 into the previous grade, but into an ungraded class where his 
 special deficiency may receive proper attention while he will 
 do the work of his class in all those branches which he has 
 mastered sufficiently. Should it become evident that in cer- 
 tain things he can make no noticeable progress at the time, 
 teachers ought not to worry, but simply leave him alone. 
 This may sound heretic from the standpoint of the tradi- 
 tional school, but is surely just in regard to the needs of the 
 individual. We cannot make every one conform to a com- 
 mon standard. 
 
 There are, as we know, maximum and minimum periods 
 in the life of every child. An apparent falling back, dullness, 
 or arrest of development may be due to a minimum activity 
 at the time being. With such children we must have pa- 
 tience. The dull spell may not last long — there may be a 
 process of unconscious adjustment going on within which 
 will make him blossom out in the next grade so as to sur- 
 
252 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 prise us, especially when we allow him to develop along 
 the lines of his special capacities and interests. In winter, 
 the trees and plants are seemingly asleep. Will you force 
 their foliage and blossoms before Spring touches them with 
 his magic wand? 
 
 It has been said to be a common experience among tele- 
 graph operators that when they first learn their profession 
 there will come a period when they will make apparently no 
 progress at all, when everything seems difficult, desperately 
 so, and their professional education seems to have come to a 
 standstill. But all of a sudden, the veil will be lifted, as 
 it were, and they will at once not only regain their former 
 skill, but really achieve proficiency. During the "dead per- 
 iod," there had been going on subconscious adjustments, 
 which used up all the mental energy, and, being once per- 
 fected, produced a sudden awakening to conscious mastery. 
 
 On the effect of non-promotion upon the pupils, Miss Ju- 
 lia Richman (quoted before) says this: 
 
 "The children who are not promoted are known as 'hold- 
 overs.' A 'hold-over' who has missed a promotion because of 
 illness, change of school, absence of the teacher, or any other 
 reason for which the child is not personally responsible, occa- 
 sionally makes a creditable record during the second term 
 in the grade; but usually the unpromoted remnant will in- 
 clude the dull child, the careless or inattentive child, the 
 child who lacks the proper foundation, and the child whose 
 development has been arrested by some physical defect or re- 
 tarded by faulty teaching. That the 'hold-overs' form the 
 most undesirable material in the newly organized class is 
 an inevitable result of this method of promotion; the incal- 
 culable injury suffered by the individual 'hold-over' has long 
 been recognized by the thoughtful observer." 
 
 It is largely from the "hold-overs" that the class of chil- 
 dren which are termed "troublesome" is recruited. In a dis- 
 cussion of the troublesome child in school, before the Kan- 
 sas Society for Child Study, 1898, Supt. Glotfelder made 
 these pertinent remarks : 
 
 "In every case the child is older than the average in his 
 grade, and sixteen of them (those that had come under his 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 253 
 
 observation) are twelve years of age, or above. Every child 
 mentioned has failed of promotion once or more. . . . 
 Many of the terms used in describing these pupils' faults, are 
 synonymous. Probably all these troublers could be classi- 
 fied into three classes, the first and largest being the uninter- 
 ested, those that from wide and various experience upon the 
 streets, and in conversation and contact with those older 
 than themselves, find the school exercises, planned for young- 
 er minds than theirs, stale and irksome; another class would 
 include those who have little or no power to concentrate 
 their attention upon anything, and so wander from one thing 
 to another, craving the companionship and conversation of 
 those about them; the third class includes those actually an- 
 tagonistic to the school, its discipline, its exercise, and all its 
 requirements." 
 
 As helps towards avoiding the opening up of too wide 
 gulfs between the different types and groups of children, in 
 matters of mere information, there have already been 
 suggested a greater elasticity of the course of study, short 
 divisions of the subject-matter, and principally the arrange- 
 ment of the subject-matter in what has been called concen- 
 tric circles, so that practically the same work, on different 
 planes, will be done all along, with occasions for frequent 
 repetition and re-inforcement, in careful adjustment to the 
 successive stages of maturity, widening the horizon of the 
 child at each step, taking in more and more comprehensive 
 views, into greater depths of distance and abstraction. 
 
 It is imperative, however, that all possible precautions be 
 taken, by removing artificial standards, stimuli, and incen- 
 tives, rewards and demerit marks, to establish the right con- 
 ception of promotion in the minds of the pupils, and for that 
 matter, of their parents. The very term "promotion" is mis- 
 leading as it implies the idea of reward, while it should 
 signify merely the idea of growth. Promotion should be 
 considered as a reward as little, as non-promotion should 
 mean a punishment or disgrace. 
 
 It may be contended that the philosophy of pace-making 
 and competition has pointed to the ambition to excel, not to 
 be beaten by others, as a powerful incentive to increased ek 
 
254 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 fort. Granting this, we may admit that competition for 
 honors may have a beneficial effect in the race for knowledge 
 of scholarship, when judiciously employed. There will, even 
 under the most perfect system of grading and promotion, be 
 enough margin for wholesome competition. But the primi- 
 tive instinct to excel others so as to get ahead of them, should 
 be early converted into an ethical force. It must be tem- 
 pered with the desire to help the weak, and be transformed 
 into an ambition to excel one's self. 
 
 Pupils of equal maturity should be kept together even tho 
 they may differ in matters of age, talent, information, skill, 
 and accomplishments. Rather than making the gulf between 
 them increasingly wider have them appreciate the value and 
 beauty of co-operation and mutual helpfulness. The bond of 
 fellowship will be found to be in the community of interests 
 characteristic of their respective periods of development. 
 
 The slow ones need the stimulus from the quicker ones; 
 the quick ones need the clog afforded by their slower mates. 
 The quick workers can be taxed more by extra work which 
 will widen their experience and at the same time add to the 
 sum total of the class work so that even the slower pupils 
 may derive their share of benefit from the contributions of 
 their more rapid comrades. 
 
 Let us not forget that overstimulated precocity has to pay 
 its penalty later on. Unless borne up by a powerful vitality 
 such as may be found only in rare instances, real precocity is 
 a curse which leads invariably to serious nervous tension and 
 depletion. 
 
 The lesson we may draw from all this is that we must indi- 
 vidualize. The basis of rational grading and promotion is a 
 better knowledge of the individual needs of our pupils. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Hygienic Suggestions 
 
 THIS chapter is not to be devoted to the discussion 
 of diseases and abnormal conditions, but rather 
 to that of prophylactic hygienic measures. But at- 
 tention should be called to the following points: 
 First : There ought to be connected organically 
 with every school a school physician, for the purpose not only 
 of supervising the children so as to control the spread of con- 
 tagious diseases, but also of giving general hygienic advice 
 and direction, of assisting in the discovery of defectives of all 
 kinds, and of being the teacher's assistant in every case where 
 physical and mental abnormality require a comprehensive 
 diagnosis. 
 
 Perhaps the first institution where regular medical inspec- 
 tions and examinations were provided for was the Working- 
 man's School (later enlarged into the system of Ethical Cul- 
 ture Schools) of New York, under the direction of the 
 author. This dates back to the year 1891. Since that time a 
 number of city systems have appointed a regular staff of phy- 
 sicians, and their functions are becoming more and more 
 clearly defined and organized. Everywhere the physicians 
 have soon found opportunity for demonstrating the para- 
 mount necessity of the work for which they have been de- 
 tailed. In almost every instance of investigation, appalling 
 conditions were discovered to exist, especially with regard 
 to the exposure of the pupils to the spread of contagious dis- 
 eases. 
 
 Second: Every teacher, and especially every school princi- 
 pal, should have training in the ready recognition of the or- 
 
256 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 dinary symptoms of the common children's diseases and of 
 other physical danger signals. 
 
 Third : There must be a strictly enforced system of regu- 
 lating the attendance in the case of infectious and contagious 
 disease. 
 
 Fourth : All abnormal, defective and atypical children, in- 
 cluding nervous children, stammerers and others with sug- 
 gestive habits, should be removed from the ordinary school 
 and taught in special classes or institutions. 
 
 This article is especially concerned in such hygienic sugges- 
 tions as will tend to make the school conditions normal for 
 generally normal children. 
 
 First in importance here is the location and equipment of 
 the schoolhouse as such. There must be selected a location 
 affording an abundance of light and air, freedom from ob- 
 noxious noises and odors, inspiring and helpful views across 
 the surrounding country, etc., etc. In a large city these con- 
 ditions cannot always be fulfilled, and compromises more or 
 less fraught with danger must be resorted to. Then there 
 should be fireproof construction, convenient stairways and 
 elevators, airy basements, perfect sanitary arrangements. All 
 these are largely architectural problems and need not be elab- 
 orated here. Suffice it to say that care must be taken to have 
 the schoolhouse surrounded by ample and shaded playgrounds, 
 with trees and shrubbery and flower beds, to afford outdoor 
 recreation and exercise. Gymnastic apparatus for outdoor 
 practice, and school gardens proper, ought to be provided ; 
 and there ought also to be convenient places for kindergarten 
 and primary work in the open air. Sand heaps, croquet, ten- 
 nis, and other equipments for plays and games are valuable 
 accessories. 
 
 One point, however, ought to be emphasized. The mod- 
 ern tendency to erect large central school buildings with 
 many stories should be decidedly discouraged. The assem- 
 bling of great numbers of pupils in one building increases the 
 danger of exposure in case of contagious diseases. But the 
 main objection to tall buildings is the stairways. There has 
 been established a very distinct relation between heart disease 
 and tall schoolhouses, and the climbing of stairs has often a 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 257 
 
 very injurious effect upon pubescent girls. Smaller school- 
 houses are therefore preferable. 
 
 But the room, or rooms, in which the child spends so 
 many of his waking hours, deman3 our particular attention. 
 The first warning must be against overcrowding. In some 
 schools, especially in large cities, this overcrowding assumes 
 criminal proportions. Not to speak of the impossibility of 
 individualizing instruction and discipline in an overcrowded 
 room, the presence of too many children in one room vitiates 
 the air, promotes disease, and produces generally unhygienic 
 conditions. Thirty pupils — under especially favorable cir- 
 cumstances, forty — to a teacher should be the extreme. If 
 there could be groups of twenty, it would be better. Where 
 there are more than twenty-five in a room, the teacher ought 
 to have an assistant. 
 
 The first requirement of a proper schoolroom is a sufficient 
 amount of light and air space. The figures determining these 
 factors can be found in any handbook on school hygiene. 
 Ventilation, e. g., arrangements for drawing off the vitiated 
 air and for supplying the room with a constant current of 
 breathable, pure air, is even more important than an exact 
 allowance of air space. Proper ventilation without produc- 
 ing draft is a matter of engineering science. It is usually, 
 and causally, connected with the maintenance of the proper 
 temperature in the schoolroom. There is as yet hardly a 
 system of heating invented which gives an even temperature 
 all over the room ; usually those children who sit nearest the 
 heating apparatus (be it stove, register, or radiator) are being 
 boiled and driven frantic, while those who sit at a distance 
 are chilled thru and thru on cold days. School life 
 in winter is full of dangers; overheated rooms weaken the 
 power of resistance to the effect of cold weather, and cold 
 rooms lay the foundation for colds and bronchial troubles, 
 digestive disturbances and the like. Yet we should remem- 
 ber that children, whose respiratory functions are more rap- 
 idly operative than ours, and who are moving about more 
 energetically than we do, need less heat than adults. The 
 temperature to be maintained has been fixed by the Buffalo 
 Board of School Examiners in its seventh annual report as 
 
2 5 8 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 follows : In classrooms, with thermometer in center of room, 
 68 degrees F. ; with thermometer on unexposed wall, 70 de- 
 grees F. In halls, 62 degrees F. Observe and rely upon 
 thermometers — do not rely upon personal feelings. 
 
 It should be observed that care must be taken not to have 
 the air in classrooms too dry; there must be the proper de- 
 gree of humidity. Sometimes in bad weather there is too 
 much of it, not only because of the general dampness of the 
 atmosphere, but because the wet clothes of the children add 
 a large share by evaporation in the warm room. Children 
 should be made to take off wet shoes and stockings on com- 
 ing to school; they should be instructed to bring extra gar- 
 ments and shoes to school on wet days, so that they may 
 change their wet raiment for dry. It is needless to repeat 
 here that it is perniciously dangerous to children, or to 
 grown people, to sit for hours in damp garments. Provision 
 should be made to have a place in school where damp shoes, 
 stockings, and other clothes can be dried. All wardrobes 
 and cloak rooms should be ventilated with particular care. 
 But we may even go a step farther. 
 
 School washrooms with ample capacity to accommodate 
 all the children with satisfactory promptness, and school baths 
 with shower baths, tubs, and swimming tanks, will in time 
 be common institutions in all schools. They have been 
 widely introduced in many places, notably in France and 
 Germany. They afford not only opportunities for cleansing, 
 but also for healthful stimulation and exercise. A special 
 article might be written on cleanliness of hands and fingers, 
 particularly of the finger-nails; they are hotbeds of bacteria. 
 But cleansing the bodies, where that is needed, does not 
 suffice. The clothes of many children are sources of danger 
 as well, apart from the disgusting odor that often emanates 
 from them. Many change their underclothing but seldom, 
 and their upper garments are worn, uncleaned and unaired, 
 for long periods at a time, gathering dust and microbes and 
 issuing the stuffy smell characteristic of neglected homes. As 
 long as we cannot change these homes, it is a simple matter 
 of self-protection to provide means in school for the proper 
 cleansing of the children's garments, eventually even for 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 259 
 
 furnishing them with temporary substitutes. But possibly 
 the cleaning process of both persons and garments could go 
 on simultaneously. 
 
 There is further the adequate cleaning and disinfecting of 
 the schoolrooms themselves, as well as of the utensils and ma- 
 terials employed in the daily work of the school. One of the 
 first counsels in this regard would be: Keep the dust out as 
 far as possible, — not only by preventing the children (by 
 proper arrangement for cleaning, brushing, and scraping) 
 from carrying dirt and dust into the building on their shoes 
 and in their clothing, but also by avoiding within the four 
 walls of the building and the room all those things and 
 practices which would cause, stir up, and re-distribute dust. 
 Mark: every cubic centimeter of air in an ordinary room 
 within the confines of a city contains 400,000 particles of 
 dust. How many there may be in an ordinary schoolroom 
 I do not know. Not only is there an ever-present danger 
 from the admixture of micro-organisms, but these enormous 
 clouds of dust clog our respiratory organs and stop up the 
 pores of the skin. Use, then, as dustless a crayon as you can 
 purchase on the market, and wash your blackboards with a 
 wet sponge or rag instead of using those vicious erasers. 
 Throw your sponge away after use, for few things are 
 more effective as germ breeders than sponges and brooms. 
 Wash your rags once a day, and do it well. Moist cloth, 
 dipped in a solution of corrosive sublimate (bi-chlorate of 
 mercury, 1 :3O0o) for disinfection, should be used daily for 
 the cleansing of seats and desks, etc. Employ moist sawdust 
 for sweeping the floors. Burn up all dusters and other hell- 
 ish devices for raising and distributing dust under the pre- 
 tense of cleaning. The windows should be washed once 
 a week to secure the full benefit of the light supply for which 
 they are intended ; and the walls need frequent cleansing and 
 ought to be recalsomined annually, as this process also secures 
 excellent disinfection. All schoolroom decoration should 
 therefore be simple and inexpensive, so that it can be re- 
 moved and renovated without undue expenditure and cha- 
 grin. 
 
 Attention must further be called to the dangers lurking 
 
260 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 in apparently innocent utensils and materials. Slates, apart 
 from their bad effect on vision and handwriting, harbor 
 countless colonies of microbes and bacilli. Soap and towels, 
 when used in common by children ; likewise common drink- 
 ing cups; pencils which are kept in common receptacles and 
 exchanged; even the bits of chalk which wander from hand 
 to hand, are carriers of infection. The same may be asserted 
 of the books that are not individual property. Clay, espec- 
 ially when kept moist and used over and over again too 
 long, is particularly dangerous. Children should wash their 
 hands carefully (with soap and some disinfectant) before 
 and after using clay; in fact, by insisting upon scrupulous 
 cleanliness of hands and face, much of the danger here re- 
 ferred to may be obviated. Still better would it be if a suit- 
 able system of disinfection at regular intervals would be in- 
 augurated to supplement the measures for daily cleansing. In 
 times of epidemics of any kind, even the seemingly most 
 trivial, such disinfection should be undertaken daily after 
 school hours. Formaldehyde (formic Aldehyde, CH2O), a 
 gaseous body formed from methyl alcohol by oxidation, is a 
 very effective and easily applied disinfectant which will 
 even cleanse the utensils contained in the schoolroom in a 
 satisfactory manner. It requires no special mention that all 
 sanitary appliances, toilets, washbasins, and the like, must be 
 kept absolutely clean and disinfected. 
 
 One of the most effective destroyers of disease germs is 
 sunlight. Abundance of light — pure, diffuse light — in all 
 parts of the room is a pre-eminent requirement of schoolroom 
 hygiene. As there is such an enormous difference between 
 sunlight and artificial light, even if each desk were provided 
 with a special lamp, care should be taken to preserve the eye- 
 sight of growing boys and girls by having them work as much 
 as feasible in daylight, and to warn them against the peril 
 of working and reading under insufficient illumination. Let 
 the light supply, be it repeated, always be plentiful, and 
 available even in the farthest corner of the room. "The 
 pupils sitting farthest from the windows naturally adopt the 
 habit of holding the book nearer to their eyes when the light 
 is dim, and in this way become nearsighted, and, thru sym- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 261 
 
 pathy with the strain upon the eyes in study, the stomach be- 
 comes disordered. Nervous dyspepsia and headaches abroad 
 in the community owe their origin to some extent to this 
 defect in school building. To bring about a proper distribu- 
 tion of light, avoiding unpleasant and blinding reflection 
 and glare, attention must be paid to the use of proper window 
 shades, the tinting and finishing of walls and ceiling, the mat- 
 glass and shades, the tinting and finishing of walls and ceil- 
 ing, the matter of blackboards (which would be more profit- 
 ably green boards), etc. The infalling natural light is, of 
 course, greatly modified by the color of the room. Too much 
 blackboard of the ordinary sort causes a great loss of light by 
 absorption. Although there is some difference of opinion as to 
 the best colors for wall decoration, it seems that the red end 
 of the spectrum is less desirable for rooms in which fine work 
 is demanded, as it absorbs too much of the infalling light. 
 The lighter and more delicate shades of yellow and gray are 
 recommended ; a light buff tint of dull surface is also good. 
 The wood work should receive a coat of light paint harmoni- 
 ous with the rest. 
 
 The effect of a school room should be pleasing, bright, in- 
 vigorating, inspiring. Tasteful combinations of color and 
 decorative motives of a simple, restful kind; flowers on the 
 window sills; greens and pictures on the walls and doors; 
 here and there a bit of suggestive statuary ; specimens and col- 
 lections of interest and value; and all-pervading, a home-like 
 atmosphere, — these will make the room a positive power for 
 good to pupils, and to the teacher as well. For what con- 
 tributes to the healthy and inspiring influences of the place 
 where we spend our working hours affects not only our physi- 
 cal, but also our mental and moral status. 
 
 Speaking of the requirements for keeping the visual ca- 
 pacity of our children, as well as their nervous energy in gen- 
 eral, intact, reference may be made to the hygiene of reading 
 and writing, and fine work in general. "The implements we 
 employ in our 'daily tasks,' " says O'Shea, "are responsible 
 for much useless drain upon the nervous system, — such appar- 
 ently simple and harmless things as writing pens, pencils, 
 and the like. Co-ordination of the peripheral muscles in- 
 
262 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 volves a relatively larger expenditure of energy than coarser, 
 less delicately adjusted movements. Thus, fine needle work 
 is more fatiguing to most women than washing dishes, and 
 'getting pigs out of clover' is a much greater strain on any 
 man than playing golf or croquet." Let us be reminded of 
 the proper size and body of type, length of line, size of page, 
 etc. Glazed paper to read from is much more injurious than 
 dull paper, and the white sheet should be replaced by the 
 tinted page, preferably of a dull, yellowish-gray color. 
 
 A source of much functional disturbance in school is the 
 improper posture of children in standing, marching, sitting, 
 largely caused by too much confinement to the unhygienic 
 and non-adjustable seats and desks of the ordinary school. 
 Nosebleed is a not infrequent result of leaning forward in the 
 seat to bend over a book. Many investigators have been 
 struck by the number of children that presented some irregu- 
 larity of growth, being afflicted with a marked lowering of 
 the right or left shoulder, scoliosis, lordosis, and round shoul- 
 ders, while the habitual standing position of about one-third 
 of all approached more or less closely to what Bernard Roth 
 has aptly named the "gorilla type," — abdomen protruded, 
 chest flat, and head shoved forward. There is also a form 
 of scoliosis produced by fatigue. This latter point is signifi- 
 cant ; for improper seating — apart from its direct effect upon 
 the growth of the bodily structure — causes an enormous men- 
 tal tension of which few are fully aware. "People who do 
 not habitually stand or sit in such a manner that the body 
 is poised, as it were, and at rest, will certainly suffer for their 
 error in lessening efficiency in both physical and mental work. 
 The attention of the student is called to the importance of the 
 matter of right seating in the hope that he will try to arrange 
 his chair and desk so as to save nervous wear and tear to the 
 fullest possible extent. The matter of seating is of conse- 
 quence not simply from the point of view of saving energy, 
 but it has an important influence also upon the generation of 
 force. A student leaning over his desk, with his lungs con- 
 stricted and the arteries leading to the head compressed, is in 
 a good way to foster mind wandering and napping. The 
 organism then becomes clogged, as it were; it does not re- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 263 
 
 ceive its due of oxygen, as a result of which the brain must 
 certainly be seriously handicapped."* 
 
 Nervous tension, however, is produced in many other ways. 
 There is need of a proper recognition of the hygiene of in- 
 struction. A rational, elastic course of study following the 
 natural lines of growth is the first requisite for wholesome 
 work. To meet individual differences, there should be a cer- 
 tain elasticity of requirements and the possibility of instan- 
 taneous adjustment whenever a child, or group of children, 
 evinces signs of fatigue or strain. The question of recesses 
 deserves attention. Some teachers have injudiciously sug- 
 gested a one-session plan under high pressure, with no recesses, 
 or with very brief respites only, so as to get home early in the 
 afternoon. Such a plan is utterly objectionable. Concentrated 
 attention and intense effort during a very few brief periods 
 is all a child, even of adolescent age, can afford ; and breaks 
 — that is, shorter and longer recesses — between these periods 
 of work are indispensable. It his been convincingly demon- 
 strated that a long noon recess, with ample time for lunch 
 and rest and outdoor exercise, improves the quality of the 
 work all around. 
 
 And then, we ought not to be stingy in the matter of holi- 
 days and vacations. Far from losing time, we gain time by 
 timely intermissions. While our long summer vacation is 
 probably an evil, there should be shorter and longer vacations 
 spread over the year and come at proper stages, — at the begin- 
 ning of spring, at midsummer, at harvest time, and at the 
 winter solstice. Instead of suspending operations altogether 
 in summer, a change of occupations, a transplanting of the 
 school into the country wherever this is feasible, concentration 
 on outdoor work, horticulture, agriculture, nature study and 
 geography, manual occupations, art sketching, physical exer- 
 cise, and the like, will be found advisable. The vacation 
 schools conducted for a number of years in New York, 
 Chicago, and other places have demonstrated the wisdom of 
 such a course beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 *Prof. O'Shea, "The Conservation of Mental Energy," Journal 
 of Pedagogy. 
 
264 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 Our ordinary methods of school instruction imply a great 
 degree of overstimulation, while the nagging methods of 
 discipline produce a large amount of worry and tension in 
 the minds of our pupils. As sunshine is the most powerful 
 agent in destroying the germs of bodily disease, cheerfulness 
 is the best guarantee for a normal condition of the mental 
 and moral organism. 
 
 But having provided healthy conditions and stimuli as far 
 as our own foresight will avail, there must be conditions in 
 the children enabling them to respond in a normal manner. 
 As to these, referring, for example, to the proper amount of 
 sleep and nourishment, to hygienic clothing, proper care of 
 the body, and the like, — the teacher may be supposed to have 
 little influence and responsibility. And yet, as to his re- 
 sponsibilities, since teachers are the only ones professionally 
 trained for educational functions, we may justly expect them 
 to do their share toward bringing about healthier conditions, 
 even of home life, than are generally found. Thru visits to 
 the homes, thru parents' meetings, mothers' clubs, the co-op- 
 eration of the press, much can be accomplished. Yet there 
 are direct measures which will reflect themselves in the 
 homes. In the first part of this chapter some of these have 
 been enumerated. 
 
 As to securing for the children the necessary amount 
 of rest, let us be cautious and reasonable in the mat- 
 ter of home work.* In order to bring about a more 
 
 ♦While reading the proofs of the first publication of this 
 chapter, the writer had opportunity of watching some school 
 girls, about twelve years old, trudging home from a New York 
 Public School, carrying packs of books so large and heavy 
 that he asked the children to allow him to weigh them. In 
 one of these packs there were about a dozen printed books, as 
 many copy books, and a large geography. This pack weighed 
 ii*A pounds! It was admitted that the children, pupils of a 
 Fourth Grammar Grade, did not always carry quite as many 
 books ; but when the regular pile was weighed it was found to 
 represent still a load of over seven pounds. The books were 
 needed on account of the home work required. Do teachers 
 and principals who oblige growing children to carry such heavy 
 and bulky packages home and back to school, realize for how 
 many cases of strain, scoliosis, and other ailments they make 
 themselves responsible ? 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 265 
 
 rational style of dress for children of both sexes, where there 
 is less of show and more of hygiene, let us insist upon proper 
 habiliment in the gymnasium and on the open air playground. 
 Several European governments like the Russian have pro- 
 claimed that school girls are henceforth forbidden, under 
 penalty, to wear corsets. Such an opportunity is not ours, 
 but we can do much toward fighting this pernicious "gar- 
 ment" by introducing a rational gymnasium gown and by 
 encouraging healthy sports generally. The school physicians, 
 with their measurements and examinations, will effectively 
 come to our aid in this matter. 
 
 An English surgeon calls attention to the great discomfort, 
 or actual injury, caused by ill-fitting garments worn by a 
 growing child. Clothing for young children is usually made 
 in large quantities at a time. All the garments of the lot 
 are cut after a fixed pattern, the different parts being pieced 
 together rapidly and stitched by machine, all at the least pos- 
 sible cost. The clothes are usually graded according to age 
 instead of by size, and so a child who is slightly larger or 
 smaller than the average for his years gets a misfit. But even 
 those whose size and age agree are often no better off. The 
 parent may notice that the child stoops and cannot be made to 
 carry himself or herself erect. Some one, perhaps the family 
 physician, may suggest that the frock is not loose enough, but 
 the mother demonstrates to her own satisfaction that it is, by 
 gathering up folds of the garment in her hands or by running 
 her hand under it. But if the frock is removed and measured 
 front and back, it will be noticed that the measurements 
 over the chest and back are the same; in other words, the 
 armholes are directly in the center. If the child's arms were 
 also directly in the center, the shirt or blouse would be an 
 excellent fit; but the child's anatomy is not so ordered, na- 
 ture having intended that its chest should bulge out to make 
 room for the lungs, while the back should be flat and more 
 or less rigid. 
 
 A very important factor for normal mental and moral 
 functioning on the part of the children, not to speak of phy- 
 sical growth, is proper nourishment. Here much neglect has 
 been recorded. Thousands of children, even from good 
 
266 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 homes, come to school without sufficient breakfast, and hun- 
 dreds of thousands have to be content with a cold lunch at 
 noon. Louise E. Hogan in her article on "Diet for School 
 Children," makes these suggestions: "The custom of send- 
 ing children to school upon a light breakfast, or none at all, 
 with a cold lunch for the noon meal, is reprehensible to the 
 last degree. Or, if a hot dinner is provided, the habit of 
 rushing home at noon in a limited time to consume eagerly 
 and rapidly the food which should be eaten leisurely and en- 
 joyed, has a strong influence upon the integrity of the child's 
 health, and it should not be allowed under any circumstances. 
 Constant nibbling between meals should be forbidden by 
 both parents and teachers. A half hour's play should be 
 given between the eating of a meal and the beginning of 
 study. Children should not be allowed to gulp down their 
 meals in order to have more time to play. An enforced 
 presence at table or lunch basket for the time necessary for 
 slow consumption of food will soon regulate this matter." 
 
 The latter point is important; insufficient chewing and 
 salivation is responsible for much dyspepsia. As many par- 
 ents are often too ignorant or too poor to make proper provi- 
 sion, and as even well prepared lunches are likely to become 
 stale before they are eaten, the furnishing of meals (break- 
 fasts and luncheons) has become a well established institution 
 in many schools. The food consists of sandwiches, soup, 
 warm hash or stew, assorted cakes, and hot tea and coffee. 
 The pupils cannot spend more than ten cents a meal, and 
 they can get a good one for five. There was a cooking de- 
 partment in a certain high school, and the teacher in charge 
 co-operated with the Superintendent with the establishment 
 of hot luncheons as a result. As early as 1892 in France, 
 school children took their midday meal at a public table pro- 
 vided by the state. They pay for what they eat with counters 
 bought by their parents at so much a dozen. Parents who 
 cannot pay are provided with counters free, which their chil- 
 dren pass in without their schoolmates knowing that they are 
 eating the bread of charity. Thus every child is sure of one 
 good meal a day. "There is wonderful sympathy," says the 
 School Journal, "existing between their midday lunch and 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 267 
 
 the afternoon brightness of the children." That proper at- 
 tention should be given to the matter of regular and com- 
 plete digestion, may be remarked in passing. 
 
 What has been said so far refers, it seems, exclusively to 
 the welfare of the pupils of the school, and appears to imply 
 that the teacher is beyond the reach of unwholesome influ- 
 ences, that he has an iron constitution both mentally and 
 physically, so as to be altogether unconcerned in provisions of 
 a sanitary nature, or in the hygiene of instruction. And yet, 
 we know well enough that this is not the case; that if the 
 pupils suffer from unhygienic conditions, the teachers are 
 sufferers also. Especially as he is mostly a she, the severe 
 physical and mental tension to which the teacher is exposed 
 creates havoc in the delicate organism which often strives in 
 vain to adjust itself to abnormal demands and circumstances. 
 There is a long record of breakdowns and nervous collapses, 
 temporary disablements and lasting injuries. Yea, even 
 tho it may not always come to such serious consequences, 
 the unhappiness, worry, and morbid moods in the teacher 
 which reflect themselves so unfortunately and mischievously 
 in the spirit, temper, and work of the children and which 
 form, indeed, the worst unhygienic condition for their activi- 
 ty, are sad enough to observe and easy enough to explain 
 by prevailing unwholesome influences. There is unnecessary 
 overwork, an overburdening with harassing details, and over- 
 abundance of wearisome rules and regulations, too much 
 cramming for examinations, and monotonous, pedantic work 
 with the children; often lack of inspiration from the head of 
 the school, or of the school system, or from the schoolboard, 
 or from the community at large; and last but not least, 
 there is the irritating uncertainty with regard to the tenure 
 of the position, in spite of faithful and effective work, and 
 the ever pressing financial anxiety caused by insufficient sal- 
 aries which, in some states, are on a par with the cost of 
 maintaining paupers. 
 
 Better sanitation of schools, better hygienic conditions gen- 
 erally, more rational and elastic courses of study, and all 
 those things which make the school life of our pupils more 
 normal, more healthy, more certain of good results, and above 
 
268 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 all happier, will also favorably react upon the teacher. Even 
 he is, as it were, a human being. And let us remember that 
 upon him and his normal condition depends the greater part 
 of the influences that shape the school life of our children. 
 He is, even in matters of the hygienic administration of a 
 schoolroom, the executive officer whose ability, intelligence, 
 faithfulness, consideration, and ready tact are determinative. 
 The very best hygienic equipment and the most psychological 
 course of study will remain ineffective without an effective 
 management and careful application by the teacher. And 
 from him must radiate those inspiring influences which set 
 the mental and moral organism of the child into normal 
 activity to secure normal progress and higher differentiation. 
 In applying our best hygienic knowledge to the needs of the 
 teacher as well as of the pupils, let us remember the incontro- 
 vertible fact that, after all, the teacher is the school. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Problems of Discipline 
 
 THE discussion of discipline requires a clear con- 
 ception of its meaning and object. Discipline is 
 not only that condition which enables a pupil, or 
 a class, to put their best efforts to their work, but 
 also that force which tends to develop in each in- 
 dividual an amount of self-control and self-direction sufficient 
 for right living generally. The school contributes its share 
 to the building up of this sort of discipline, altho, of course, 
 this share varies in amplitude in accordance with the influ- 
 ence a school succeeds in exerting, and is, at best, but a part 
 and fraction of the disciplinary influences potent in the life of 
 a child. It is evident that many factors enter into the sum 
 total of these influences, factors upon which a healthy dis- 
 ciplinary condition depends, and it requires some insight into 
 these factors and influences to appreciate the full meaning of 
 disciplinary effort on the part of the educator. 
 
 The prevailing notion of discipline is based on gross mis- 
 conceptions of its character and purpose. It is superficial and 
 perfunctory. It is mechanical and dead. It is a sham and a 
 delusion. It means an abuse of the significant terms order 
 and attention. "What is the aim of the teacher?" once asked 
 Col. Parker, the great pioneer for better methods in our 
 schools. "Some think of nothing but keeping the children 
 still ; they cry out for order; their aim is stillness. It is often 
 obtained by the expenditure of cant, hypocrisy and wicked- 
 ness. The attempt is to look like an angel in the face while 
 the devil is in the heart." 
 
 The idea of discipline has been so long connected, in the 
 
 269 
 
270 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 minds of many, with the notion of punishment that the term 
 "to discipline" has come to mean almost the identical thing 
 as "to punish". Children playing "school" will be found to 
 take greatest delight in administering punishment ; this seems, 
 in their minds, to be the dominant element of the teacher's 
 functions. To tell the truth, very little faith is to be placed 
 in punishment under otherwise normal circumstances, — in 
 its moral effect, — or even in our right to punish, as long as 
 punishment retains the old significance of "retaliation", or 
 "revenge", "penalty", "chastisement." It is true we have, in 
 these modern times, learnt to appreciate that, after all, the 
 only function we have as educators is that of placing the child 
 into the position to work out his own salvation. We are 
 neither his masters nor his beadles. Sometimes, perhaps, in 
 mediating to him experience so as to train him in the faculty 
 of adjusting himself to his surroundings, or to prepare him 
 for future emergencies, we may have to employ means which 
 symbolize, or interpret, to him the forces and laws of nature 
 which he not yet knows. In this process, we may be obliged, 
 occasionally, to use forcible measures, even "corporal punish- 
 ment", if you please, and were it only to make it plain that he 
 must submit to our guidance as we have to submit to the 
 divine order of nature. If the child himself represents a 
 lower type of humanity, with brutal instincts and irrational 
 emotionality, we may have to take recourse to methods which 
 are adapted to his special case while they would be utterly 
 out of place with the majority of children. In fact, the 
 teacher in the ordinary school will have little occasion for 
 desperate methods; children who would seem to require them 
 are in need of special diagnosis and require expert treatment. 
 Then, again, methods of "discipline" adapted to young chil- 
 dren who represent the primitive stage of development are ill- 
 chosen for those who have outgrown that stage. Each devel- 
 opmental level has its own disciplinary laws. 
 
 But the proper administration of disciplinary measures 
 must rid itself of the character of punishment pure and sim- 
 ple. "Evil must be resisted, but we must not retaliate", said 
 Dr. Paul Carus. We must assume the same attitude towards 
 the youthful offender in the schoolroom which enlightened 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 271 
 
 criminology takes towards abnormal or atypical members of 
 society. The new view of the function of criminal courts has 
 not been realized in practice to any extent, and there is still 
 much miscarriage of justice. But the reform must come 
 along the line of what has been expressed in the words of Dr. 
 Edward F. Brush, who once said: "When our courts of jus- 
 tice recognize that their functions are not to avenge, but to 
 cure society of its diseased members, and that the treatment 
 must be scientific, effectual, and humane, then the sentiments 
 exhibited toward the criminal will be the same that we dis- 
 play toward the person afflicted with small-pox, typhoid fever, 
 and the like. As organized society we have the right to 
 protect ourselves both against the unfortunate criminal and 
 the unfortunate person afflicted with a contagious disease, but 
 this right should not be deemed the right to punish. All men 
 of scientific turn of mind who have made a study of criminal 
 anthropology are fast approaching the physician's position 
 regarding such questions". 
 
 In the matter of public administration of justice one nota- 
 ble step forward has been taken which is of particular value 
 to the educator: the establishment of special courts for juven- 
 ile offenders, coupled with the system of probation. 
 
 If this is the right attitude toward criminals, it should be 
 easy for us, as educators, to assume the same position toward 
 the more or less innocent transgressions which confront us in 
 the schoolroom. A teacher ought never to get excited, as 
 little as a physician would when called upon to handle a case 
 of persistent chills and fever; children should never succeed 
 in angering us, or arousing in us a desire for retaliation. A 
 child's standard of morality has little relation to the adult 
 standard. What to the adult would be immoral, has perhaps 
 no significance to a child. The child is mostly influenced by 
 unconscious imitation and suggestion, and by the formation 
 of habits of response for which his environment is largely re- 
 sponsible. Children act by impulse, not purposefully. We 
 cannot suppress impulses altogether ; we may divert them. If 
 the gratification of an impulse should invariably be accom- 
 panied with unpleasant feelings, it will expend itself in an- 
 other direction. This is the logic of "punishment". 
 
272 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 A scientific and charitable view of children's actions was 
 not entertained by our predecessors in schoolmastery. They 
 believed in the native depravity of their pupils, and their 
 whole career was one continuous warfare with the devils 
 possessing them. This prospect was even one of the reasons 
 why women were for a long while thought incapable of 
 teaching school ; they lacked the physical strength which was 
 supposed to be necessary for a successful fight with the per- 
 verse instincts of the traditional pupil. An Eton headmaster 
 flogged eighty boys in one night. There is the instructive 
 record of the old Suabian schoolmaster who, during the fifty- 
 one years and seven months of his official life inflicted 91 1,527 
 blows with a rod, 124,010 blows with a cane, 20,989 taps 
 with a ruler, 136,715 blows with the hand, 10,235 blows 
 over the mouth, 7905 boxes on the ear, and 1,118,800 raps 
 on the head. Seven hundred and seventy-seven times he made 
 boys kneel on peas, and 613 times on a three-cornered piece 
 of wood, made 3001 pupils wear the dunce cap, and 1707 to 
 hold up the rod. 
 
 This schoolmaster "Hauerle" (literally: "The Little Beat- 
 ing Master") may be a myth; but schoolmasters of this sort 
 have surely been typical for centuries. 
 
 The old idea of punishment as a method of discipline, i. 
 e. discipline thru retaliation or revenge, is the result of a 
 lack of scientific insight, especially of psychologic under- 
 standing. Let us not forget that we can never radically 
 change a child whatever influences we can bring to bear up- 
 on him — we can only develop those qualities which he al- 
 ready possesses in a manner as will turn them to best advan- 
 tage. This implies, to be sure, also a repression or re-direc- 
 tion of impulses and instincts which are disadvantageous 
 from the viewpoint of constructive civilization. But this re- 
 pression and re-direction must after all come from within, 
 to be lasting, from an awakening of the inhibitory powers of 
 self-control and higher motives. A mere external repression 
 would never be permanent. 
 
 Old-fashioned punishment is negative in character. It 
 may act as a deterrent inasmuch as the child receiving a pain 
 sensation of some kind may be momentarily checked in his 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 273 
 
 unbridled impulse and have time for reflection. Even if the 
 punishment should be "deserved," that is to say if there was 
 justice and fairness on the part of the teacher, mere punish- 
 ment goes no farther. A teacher has been quoted as saying: 
 "When a child is punished I sometimes think that he feels 
 that he has had his way, and that having paid the price the 
 account is squared. If willing to pay the price he feels that 
 he can do the same thing over again; no finer moral deter- 
 rent having been infused by the punishment." 
 
 Punishment is often enough the confession of weakness on 
 the part of the educator. If we could, or knew how to, con- 
 trol at every moment all the influences working upon the 
 child, there would be little occasion for abnormal develop- 
 ment. Punishment, then, which is called forth by some sort 
 of real or seeming perversion in the child, is frequently a des- 
 perate attempt to remedy the effect of our own helplessness, 
 neglect, ignorance, or blunders. If we would always consid- 
 er this fact we should be less ready to punish the child ; some- 
 times the punishment should be applied "higher up". And 
 then punishment appeals to one of the lowest and most primi- 
 tive instincts of childhood, to fear. Fear, however, is the 
 worst possible incentive to right doing. It has its place only 
 on the lowest rung of the ladder of the child's evolution. 
 
 We shall reach the best results by kindling in the child's 
 breast the right incentives; and as each child feels and acts 
 and reacts in his own individual way, the only rational 
 method to reach him is to study him as an individual and to 
 employ individual tests and incentives. Generally speaking, 
 positive measures will be found the most effective ones: en- 
 couragement, positive suggestion, making the child believe 
 in his own powers for good. 
 
 In determining what factors constitute a rational discipline 
 we must first consider the causes of those breaks and defects 
 which may call forth disciplinary measures. There is no 
 one such cause, and the cause is not always of what may be 
 styled a moral nature. The doctrine of original sin and to- 
 tal depravity has worked so much mischief in the ethical and 
 religious evolution of mankind that we should, in our dealing 
 with children, eliminate it from our pedagogical catechism. 
 
274 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 In the course of countless ages, since the early beginnings 
 of the human race on this globe, there has been evolved a type 
 of man which we may call the normal civilized type. This 
 evolution was controlled by the well-known law of the sur- 
 vival of the fittest. The civilized type is the normal type of 
 the present time because it most closely corresponds to the 
 conditions which determine human existence on earth. Every 
 deviation from the normal type stamps an individual as more 
 or less exceptional. As will be shown in the chapter on de- 
 fectives, and in the chapter on criminality in children, there 
 are several kinds of true abnormality. One is caused by 
 arrested development; the second by pathological changes. 
 The first class comprises those individuals whose devel- 
 opment was normal enough as far as it went — but it 
 was checked for some reason or other before it reached the 
 present normal level of typical man. Persons of this class 
 represent a more or less primitive or savage type, with ab- 
 original instincts in full force which have been, in normal 
 man, restrained by the effects of later civilization; and with 
 a lower degree of intellectuality. Defectives of this kind 
 are seldom redeemable. They are the congenital idiots, crim- 
 inals, degenerates, etc. In the pathological group, on the 
 other hand, the defect is the result of disease, of functional 
 disturbance. Derangements of the nervous system are at 
 the bottom of many of the symptoms observable in these in- 
 dividuals, be they of a physical, intellectual, or moral na- 
 ture. 
 
 As in other pathological cases, there are in these, different 
 degrees of severity. Some are chronic, others acute; some 
 individuals will forever retain a certain amount of irregular- 
 ity; with others, the irritation, derailment, or weakness is only 
 temporary. Some will need special treatment, in special 
 classes or schools; others can be dealt with in the ordinary 
 classes. But in every instance curative, not penal, measures 
 are required in the handling. 
 
 The author has carried on special investigations of the 
 problem of the exceptional child, and refers to his other pub- 
 lications on the subject. It has been his endeavor to evolve 
 a suitable classification and terminology which could be used 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 275 
 
 as a working basis for further researches, and this classifica- 
 tion, as finally formulated in a paper presented before the 
 Atlantic City meeting of the American Academy of Medi- 
 cine, has met with a cordial reception and is at present recog- 
 nized by many as a helpful starting point.* 
 
 Some seeming abnormalities are really symptoms of nor- 
 mal conditions. Let us be reminded of those periods in the 
 life of a child when grave functional changes are talcing place, 
 as for example the fatigue period from 8 to 10 years of age, 
 and the pubescent and adolescent periods from 12 to 20. 
 Judicious and discreet handling of these cases is particularly 
 mandatory lest the temporary aberrations and morbid devel- 
 opments, due as they are to natural irritations of the nervous 
 system at these periods, lead to permanent defects. One of 
 the characteristic troubles of both these periods is truancy, 
 which in these cases is largely due to reverberations of the 
 migratory instinct, as set forth before. Says Hawthorne, in 
 his "Twice-Told Tales", in beginning the story of "Little 
 Annie's Ramble": "She feels that impulse to go strolling 
 away — that longing after the mystery of the great world — 
 which many children feel, and which I felt in my childhood." 
 And so Annie and Hawthorne wander forth, forgetting to 
 tell anybody of their ramble, so that the afflicted mother had 
 to send the town-crier after the strayed child. 
 
 In fact, most cases of truancy may be explained not so 
 much by an inherent viciousness of the child, as by conditions 
 which make school life a burden or a monotony to him. The 
 normal child in a school adapted to his needs will never play 
 truant. 
 
 The cause of children's seeming misdemeanors is often 
 grossly misinterpreted. Not only that we misjudge the mo- 
 tives of children too frequently — we take it for granted that 
 
 *Cf. (a) "Classification of Exceptional Children as a Guide 
 in Determining Segregation", Bulletin of the American Academy 
 of Medicine, Vol. X, No. 5, October, 1909. 
 
 (b) "Mid-Year Statement of the National Association for the 
 Study and Education of Exceptional Children", Watchung 
 Crest, Plainfield, N. J., September 1, 1009. 
 
276 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 the child is to blame when it is really ourselves, or the con- 
 ditions under which the child works that are responsible. 
 A child may not really know or understand what is expected 
 of him, and may need information and help rather than pun- 
 ishment. And again, physical irregularities, in digestion and 
 circulation, in hearing and seeing, ill-fitting clothing, lack of 
 proper nutrition, etc., may be the potent causes of irritation 
 and sulkiness. Indolence is in many instances a disease, not 
 a moral defect. And even if it were a "moral" defect, what 
 does that mean? It implies lack of will power, lack of self- 
 control, of application and concentration. It means defective 
 development of the higher association centers, of inhibition 
 and voluntary adjustment. The cause of all this may be con- 
 stitutional ; it may be the effect of arrested development, of 
 functional disturbances in the nervous system, and what not. 
 Let us seek for the cause, and remove it if we can — not 
 punish the symptom. A similar argument may be advanced 
 in the matter of children's lies which require a particularly 
 intelligent handling. 
 
 Furthermore, an overheated or overcrowded room, lack of 
 oxygen and of exercise, fatigue, nervous tension due to un- 
 hygienic conditions of work and program, of seats and desks, 
 and light and air, etc., etc. ; the effect of the weather upon 
 pupils and teachers, and many other things may be responsible 
 for many disagreeable happenings in the schoolroom. It has 
 been statistically proven that more crimes and suicides have 
 been committed, and more school punishments recorded, on 
 cloudy days, or when the air was oppressive, the weather 
 threatening, and the electric tension excessive, than on bright 
 and pleasant days. And have the varying moods of the 
 teacher nothing to do with this effect? Again, sometimes the 
 child comes to school from a stormy home atmosphere which 
 has swept away the current of his energy and left him deplete 
 of cheerfulness. In other instances, a refreshing or cleansing 
 bath will readily wash off the repulsive ugliness which had 
 clogged the child's physical and moral pores. 
 
 Or, the child is mischievous because he wants to get rid of 
 accumulated energy which must be expended in some way. 
 Is he to blame if we fail to direct this activity into the proper 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 277 
 
 channels where it may be turned to advantage and be con- 
 verted into a constructive force? 
 
 A rational discipline, be it repeated, will be characterized 
 by positive measures and influences. It will be based upon the 
 old experience that an ounce of prevention is better than a 
 pound of cure, and that a busy child is seldom a mischievous 
 child. There should greet the child a bright schoolroom over 
 which a bright, sympathetic, well-trained and intelligent 
 teacher presides. The physical light will be transformed into 
 mental and emotional light; the brightness of the room will 
 inspire the children to be bright and cheerful. 
 
 Light, indeed, there be, and an abundance of it. Proper 
 hygienic conditions generally. A hygienically constructed 
 school house, schoolroom, daily program and course of study 
 are in themselves mighty agents in matters of discipline. 
 There must be a recognition of the individual needs of each 
 and every child, physical, mental, and moral. There must be 
 healthy work which keeps the children busy because it is ade- 
 quate to their ability and natural interests, and which will 
 concentrate their attention. Their interests, not their pleas- 
 ure. There is a fine distinction between interesting, and 
 amusing, or pleasing, a child. Manual work, excursions, phy- 
 sical training, etc., will afford an outlet for those pent-up en- 
 ergies which require direction. 
 
 Of course, there will arise, in spite of all precautions, op- 
 portunities for unhappiness and friction. Here the teacher's 
 tact and justice must come forward. His aim must be, not 
 to enforce an outward conformity, but to develop motives 
 for right action in the heart of the child. A child is ever 
 open to timely suggestions. The suggestiveness of children 
 is marvelous, and just as it is not infrequently the cause of 
 much morbid development, it will, in the hands of the tact- 
 ful educator, become a serviceable and indispensable means 
 for the building up of wholesome motives and ideals in the 
 mind of the child. Prof. Baldwin, in his book on "Mental 
 Development," states: "The transition from the involuntary 
 class of muscular reactions to which the general word 'sug- 
 gestion' applies, to the performance of actions foreseen and 
 intended, occurs . . . thru the persistence and repeti- 
 
278 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 tion of imitative suggestions." We see, then, the determina- 
 tive effect which suggestions have upon the development of 
 the child's will. 
 
 Whenever there are cases of persistent wilfulness, do not 
 become angry or impatient. Punishment will avail little, it 
 may even increase the stubborn resistance. In fact, it will 
 often act as a sort of additional suggestion toward the wrong 
 action, concentrating as it does the child's attention still more 
 forcibly upon it. Stubbornness is frequently the result of 
 some persistent idea in the mind which craves attention and 
 crowds out other thoughts, and has the effect of an almost in- 
 sane auto-suggestion. The best plan under such circum- 
 stances is to make as little as possible of the perverse activity 
 and to gently lead the child's attention away from the per- 
 sistent idea into another channel. 
 
 An early training in obedience will do much to guard the 
 child against the development of fits of stubbornness, no 
 doubt. Yet, a child's obedience is not a virtue. It has noth- 
 ing in common with the willing submission of the mature 
 mind to natural and ethical law. The child has not this 
 maturity. His obedience is a reflex habit, acquired in the 
 earliest years by careful and consistent training. The early 
 implicit belief in authority, characteristic of the period of 
 childhood, is quite instrumental in deepening the effect of 
 the early training in the habit of obedience. It can be pre- 
 served only by ever-purposeful and harmonious treatment 
 on the part of all educative forces, — a treatment which 
 should never be harsh and tyrannical, but always firm and in- 
 telligent. Disobedience, if it is not the effect of pathological 
 conditions, is invariably due to inconsistent and unwise treat- 
 ment. 
 
 Prompt obedience being a reflex habit, the faculty to ren- 
 der it can also be trained by proper exercises in attention 
 and reaction. Among these are the rising and standing on 
 signal, taking books and pencils out in a certain order, cal- 
 isthenic and rhythmic exercises, drills of various kinds. If 
 these things are not overdone so as to degenerate into pe- 
 dantic formalism, they are helpful in the training of the 
 senses, of muscular co-ordination and nerve-control. They 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 279 
 
 tend to shorten what is called the reaction time, i. e., the time 
 which elapses between a sensation and the responsive activi- 
 ty set free by the brain which receives the sensory message. 
 
 Generally, inasmuch as this responsive activity in its evolution 
 from mere reflex reaction to a co-operation of the higher 
 centers becomes truly voluntary, — exercises of this kind, and 
 manual work, art work, constructive work of all sorts, prove 
 their value for the training of the will. The will, like any 
 other faculty of the human soul, can be trained only by prac- 
 tice. 
 
 This training of the will thru exercises in reflex activity is 
 the reverse process from the one which first engages the will 
 to develop activities which may become reflex or auto- 
 matic by practice. In the case under discussion, what is meant 
 is the evolution of a higher consciousness and self-control 
 from the combination of lower excitations on a higher as- 
 sociative level. Both processes are active in the development 
 of the will, being mutually subservient. Yet, it is plain 
 that the higher organisms, being distinguished from the low- 
 er by the development of these higher brain levels which are 
 conducive to consciousness and true volition, have been 
 evolved by the force of natural causes, thru reaction upon 
 external stimuli, from those lower forms where there is no 
 conscious activity. 
 
 There is no better way for the training of our pupils in 
 self-control than to give them chances to exercise it. That 
 is to say, we must early enlist their own sense of responsi- 
 bility. As a rule, we govern too much, and hedge in our 
 pupils with a large number of rules and restrictions the 
 sense of which they cannot often fathom. This is the surest 
 way of weakening their will-power towards right living. An 
 arm all bandaged up, or chained to a wall, will lose its 
 strength and flexibility; and a mind never allowed to move 
 freely, will never be independent. Or again, our efforts to 
 restrict the youthful spirit of our pupils and to tie them down 
 to a set of mechanical regulations, may call forth a feeling of 
 resentment in their maturing minds, and while we may suc- 
 ceed in repressing open rebellion, there will be estrangement. 
 And can we suppose that we may train a body of children 
 
280 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 to republican citizenship if we lord it over them all the 
 while in true monarchical fashion? Indeed, by enlisting the 
 co-operation of our pupils, by allowing them an increasing 
 amount of freedom and self-government the older and ma- 
 turer they grow, we shall not only lighten our own burdens 
 of discipline, but enable the children to develop in their souls 
 the precious faculties of self-confidence, self-control, and 
 civic responsibility. 
 
 And in employing methods of discipline, let us be re- 
 minded again and again of the different stages the child passes 
 thru from infancy to adolescence. To each of these stages, 
 different methods will have to be applied, because the stand- 
 ard of the child's emotions, thoughts and activities changes 
 materially during these periods. 
 
 It is the most absurd thing in the marking of school rec- 
 ords to mark that intangible thing which is called "conduct". 
 It would require a more than human — it would require a div- 
 ing insight into the workings of the human heart, to say with 
 any amount of accuracy and justice that one child's conduct 
 is io per cent, or 20 per cent, better than another's. For 
 in the problems of discipline, what are we concerned in if not 
 in character-building? Character — and the power for good. 
 This once realized in our own minds, we shall reduce the 
 various expressions of individual attitudes as we meet them 
 in the daily life of the schoolroom, to their just, relative pro- 
 portions. 
 
 To do this, the teacher himself must have the right spirit 
 and attitude. He must believe in the child's better nature; 
 he must not weigh down the child's soul by distrust, bitter- 
 ness, sarcasm and injustice. Injustice destroys the child's 
 confidence which it is naturally so ready to bestow; often it 
 causes utter grief and resentment. The teacher who is an 
 inspiration to his pupils and who possesses their implicit con- 
 fidence and trust, will never be much worried by petty mat- 
 ters of discipline. He who knows how to arouse and hold 
 his pupils' attention and interest, will have rare occasion for 
 fault-finding and punishment. 
 
 Here, the teacher, the true teacher, is recognized to be an 
 artist whose wonderful achievements are due to the intuition 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 281 
 
 of genius. It is the privilege of the artist, and the secret of 
 his uplifting influence upon his surroundings, that he can see 
 beauty in everything. 
 
 This thought has perhaps been never expressed as fitly as 
 in the words of Elmer E. Brown, now Commissioner of 
 Education, in an article which he wrote years ago. Said he : 
 
 "For the artist teacher, it is of first importance to be able 
 to see the good. Every school superintendent knows the 
 teacher who has skill in finding the worst side of children; 
 but such a teacher is not a true artist. There is another type 
 of teacher, by no means rare — the teacher who finds good in 
 every pupil, no matter how deeply it be overlaid with evil. 
 In comparison with the severe critic of childhood, this teacher 
 seems a fond and foolish dupe. I suspect that all true artists 
 are affected with a certain sort of blindness. It is a merciful 
 provision which enables them to see realities without the in- 
 trusion of actualities. The existence of this blind spot must 
 be taken into account when we ask real teachers to make an 
 impartial and dispassionate study of their children. 'To see 
 the best,' as Mr. Barrie has said, 'is to see most clearly;' and 
 he adds that 'it is the lover's privilege.' But next to the 
 lover, it is the artist's privilege. This means, for the teacher, 
 that it is his to find some aptitude in the dullest pupil and 
 some virtue in the most vicious. He may reveal to his pupils 
 capabilities and aspirations which they had never themselves 
 discovered. It is not enough that he believe them to be good 
 for something: he must have the wit to find what that some- 
 thing is. . . It is not by frivolous condescension to 
 their childishness that the true teacher nears himself to his 
 charges. He takes them by the hand and leads them up to 
 the higher ground where he is himself at home. ... A 
 great teacher is one in whose presence we think great 
 thoughts; but our best teachers are they who lead us to our 
 noblest thoughts after their bodily presence is withdrawn." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 The Treatment of Defectives 
 
 THERE is a class of children who for many ages 
 past have been the object of much misdirected 
 indignation and condemnation, who have not 
 seldom been considered as incarnations of the 
 devil, when they were largely the product of vices 
 of their ancestors, of the injustice practiced in our yet rather 
 unenlightened society, and of a generally unhealthy environ- 
 ment; at any rate, of conditions for which they were not re- 
 sponsible. It is a sad chapter in the history of our race in 
 which the treatment of defectives is written — cruel, vindic- 
 tive, reckless as it has often been. And where these unfor- 
 tunates were not subjected to barbaric measures which were 
 intended to drive out the evil spirits supposedly possessing 
 them, they suffered from neglect or were made the butt of 
 ridicule. The poor simpleton hooted at by ragamuffins in the 
 street, the "fool" hung over with gilded bells and abused to 
 please the drunken guests at some king's court, the blind beg- 
 gar in the public thorofare — they all testified to the crude- 
 ness of an age when the thought that these unhappy persons 
 ought to be the subjects of sympathetic care, and that much 
 might be done to alleviate their suffering and restore them to 
 approximately normal conditions, had not yet dawned upon 
 men. Luckily we are now living in a more enlightened age, 
 and many burdens have already been lifted from the shoulders 
 of our ill-fated brethren and sisters. We have asylums for 
 our insane, and institutions for defectives of all kinds, for the 
 deaf and dumb and crippled and blind, and many are re- 
 deemed from apparent degeneracy to enter upon a useful life. 
 
 282 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 283 
 
 And yet there are still many who do not receive the atten- 
 tion and care and ready sympathy they stand so much in need 
 of. The most pronounced cases are recognized and, as a rule, 
 properly handled ; but our schools and homes are full of such 
 as are dragging along an unlucky existence because their con- 
 ditions are not understood. 
 
 In order to arrive at an intelligent appreciation of the sub- 
 ject under discussion, it may be well to review the different 
 classes of defectives which may be met with. It is hardly 
 necessary to mention those afflicted children whose senses are 
 so badly impaired that they are readily recognized as defec- 
 tives. We may, however, remember that some, while not 
 really blind or deaf, have such defective vision or hearing that 
 they are prevented from doing normal work. Leaving out 
 this class for the present, we may distinguish two great 
 groups of defectives. First there are those suffering from 
 genuine psychoses, i. e. mental diseases. Here again we have 
 several subdivisions, viz.: Those in whom we can observe 
 insanity proper, then idiots, and finally criminals. On the 
 other hand we have the group of what German psychologists 
 have called ' 'psychopath ische Minderwerthigkeiten," a term 
 not easily translated into English. We may designate them, 
 following Van Liew's translation of the term, as "minor men- 
 tal abnormalities." 
 
 Both groups are characterized by abnormal development 
 either from congenital causes (i. e. those working upon the 
 child before birth), or in consequence of pathological influ- 
 ences of some kind after birth, or from both causes. There is 
 noticeable an undeveloped state of body and mind, which 
 represents either arrested development or pathological aberra- 
 tion of organ and function. Oftentimes the source of arrest 
 or aberration was an accidental one, and the consequences 
 could have been obviated had there been an early recognition. 
 Certain periods in a child's life are particularly fertile in 
 causes of temporary derangements which need careful and 
 wise attention. Let us be reminded of the fatigue period at 
 eight or nine, when undue forcing of the child may produce 
 lasting debility which may injure not only his physical but 
 his spiritual growth. Particularly fraught with perils are 
 
284 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 the periods of pubescence and adolescence when our girls 
 and boys represent the adventurous stage in the development 
 of state and nation, when their actions bear a striking resem- 
 blance, not only to the habits of pioneer and frontier life, but 
 also to the life of those strata of society which even in our 
 present civilization must be considered as residual of past 
 historical stages of race development. The migratory impulse 
 which is so largely the basis and explanation of truancy at 
 this age, is very characteristic for the spirit of our adolescents 
 no more than for the reckless life habits of a certain portion 
 of our population. In his study of The Migratory Impulse 
 vs. The Love of Home ( Amer. Journal of Psychology, X, I ) 
 Mr. L. W. Kline shows that many "have an insatiable de- 
 sire for conjuring with the unknown factor that lurks in the 
 untried, to commit their fortunes to the play of the mys- 
 terious and unconscious forces of the universe which to so 
 many lend an irresistible charm to a new game, new neigh- 
 bors, a new house, a new farm, a new position, a new enter- 
 prise. In gambling it is the element of chance, in trading and 
 barter it is termed luck. Hence it is that we find so many 
 of these people doing a shiftless, bartering, and gambling 
 business where the conditions of chance and luck have their 
 fullest swing. In all probability these conditions were at 
 their best during the life of the primitive hunter and trapper. 
 Here the probability that labor will be proportionately re- 
 warded is at a minimum. The ratio of reward to labor be- 
 comes so infinitely small that he comes to regard his rewards 
 and successes as due to chance rather than personal effort. 
 One should not wonder, then, at barbarous and semi-civilized 
 people persistently and continually creating conditions in 
 which chance is at a maximum. Trapping, hunting and fish- 
 ing are pursuits that reward more by chance than deliberate 
 effort or certainty. Daily bread is the reward of one lucky 
 arrow, spear, trap, or net out of a hundred of such instru- 
 ments, and not by the sweat of the brow. The psychology 
 of longing to be in some other place, for new conditions, for 
 speculating, for gambling, is a reassertion of the old associa- 
 tion between chance and reward formed when the welfare of 
 man was largely dependent on the mysterious forces of 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 285 
 
 chance." 
 
 This view of the psychology of these cases of lower hu- 
 manity is corroborated by many other observations. Miss 
 Jane Adams of Hull House, Chicago, once remarked that a 
 very little familiarity with the poor districts of any city is 
 sufficient to show how primitive and frontier-like are the 
 neighborly relations among this class of people. Later she 
 points out the impossibility of substituting a higher ethical 
 standard for a lower one without the intermediate stages of 
 growth. And, again, she speaks of the ethical epochs to 
 which the different types of defectives and paupers belong. 
 "We are," she says, "singularly slow to apply the evolution- 
 ary principle to human affairs in general." 
 
 It requires but little reflection to understand how in our 
 adolescents, by neglect of their particular needs, we may 
 cause such an arrest of their normal development that they 
 will never grow beyond this primitive stage and thus be- 
 come permanently defective — from the point of view of pro- 
 gressive civilization. 
 
 They will never grow beyond this stage? That would 
 designate them as hopeless cases. Strong as this statement 
 may appear, and altho it may not apply generally, pro- 
 vided the symptoms of defectiveness are early recognized and 
 adequately treated, — we must not blind ourselves against the 
 sad fact that there is indeed a percentage of defectives which 
 we are forced to pronounce as unredeemable. Cretinism, e. 
 g., is well known as an incurable malady in which bodily de- 
 formity and mental imbecility combine. Cretinism as well 
 as idiocy admits of no complete restoration, altho we may 
 mitigate it to a certain extent. The feeble-minded and also 
 the morally abnormal ought never to be allowed to re-enter 
 human society or propagate their kind after their own free 
 will, as far as they have any. 
 
 Among the many causes producing these unredeemable de- 
 fects are hereditary influences, defects and vices in the par- 
 ents, malnutrition, the giving of alcohol to infants, epilepsy, 
 etc. Darwin states that idiots who resemble the lower spe- 
 cies of primates, mentally and physically, are often much 
 more hairy than normal persons. "In idiots," says Pro- 
 
286 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 fessor Quantz,*) "the higher volitional functions are ab- 
 sent, and their restraining hand — which is heavy upon all 
 of us, but unfelt because of its continual presence — is lifted 
 from these unfortunates, and they often show by action and 
 expression a forcible likeness to apes. The hopeless cases, 
 which have much less intelligence than apes, show such atav- 
 istic characteristics as the vacant stare, gluttonous appetite, 
 thick, everted lips, ill-formed, large ears, fingers long and 
 slender." 
 
 Referring to Dr. Hamarberg's studies, Dr. Frederick 
 Burk* reports: "In all cases, the brains of defectives showed 
 marked deficiencies. The developed cells were far fewer in 
 number and of irregular and retarded development. His 
 study leads to the conclusion that the idiot brain is one which 
 has suffered arrest of development in some particular, in- 
 volving larger or smaller areas of the brain, at some early 
 period. * * * 
 
 "Dr. Down some years ago contributed a classification of 
 congenial idiots according to ethnic types — Negroids, Malays, 
 Indians, Mongols. He asserts that more than ten per cent, 
 of the congenital feeble-minded children are typical Mon- 
 gols." 
 
 A curious class of idiots are those who exhibit some pecu- 
 liar excellency along a special line of activity. To this class 
 belong the negro idiot, "Blind Tom," a musical prodi- 
 gy, and Inaudi, the mathematical prodigy, whose lightning 
 calculations have been the wonder of the world. Dr. Fred- 
 erick Peterson made a careful study of these cases. He says: 
 
 "We may deduce from a study of such cases several facts 
 which are noteworthy. First, the mathematical aptitude in 
 idiocy is never of a high order. The faculty consists entirely 
 of excessive powers in mental arithmetic — in simple calcula- 
 tion, which is a better term to apply to it. Secondly, it is in- 
 stinctive and congenital. It is observed only in the congen- 
 
 *Dendro-psychoses, American Journal of Psychology, IX, 4. 
 ♦Development of the Nervous System, Pedagogical Semin- 
 ary, VI, I. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 287 
 
 ital variety of idiots, imbeciles, and degenerates; and on 
 careful examination we shall find anatomical and physiologi- 
 cal as well as psychological stigmata of degeneration in such 
 cases. Thirdly, much of the faculty is due to the increased 
 power of visualization — to great development of certain parts 
 of the sight centres. Most of us, in mental arithmetic, com- 
 pute by means of visual images." 
 
 These are his conclusions: "The aptitudes of various 
 kinds described above as not infrequently encountered in 
 idiots are all of rather low order. They are never found in 
 any but the congenitally defective, who usually present the 
 stigmata of degeneration. They consist chiefly of great 
 powers of memory, visual or auditory, and of facility in im- 
 itation. There is no spontaneous invention. The idiots sa- 
 vants are mere copyists in music, modeling, designing, or 
 painting; yet at the same time their talents stand out in 
 strong contrast to their general feeble-mindedness. As a 
 rule, the aptitudes are precociously developed, and are fre- 
 quently lost before reaching adult life."* 
 
 Let us also be clear about one thing: Idiots are absolutely 
 incapable of what we call choice — they possess no conscious 
 individuality — their mental activity is automatic and essen- 
 tially irrational. In this respect they resemble very closely 
 that class of criminals which we may call "born criminals." 
 The following chapter contains a more detailed reference to 
 criminal tendencies in children. Only this may be said here, 
 that criminality is either a pathological, i. e., diseased con- 
 dition, or the result of what has been called degeneration. 
 "By degeneration," says Fere, "should be understood the loss 
 of the hereditary qualities that have determined and fixed 
 the characteristics of the race." 
 
 The last class of psychoses to which attention must be 
 called is insanity. It may be supposed that it is unnecessary 
 to speak of insanity in a discussion especially devoted to the 
 educational treatment of children. But this would imply an 
 
 *Cf. the author's paper on "Exceptionally Bright Children", 
 proceedings of the National Association for the Study and 
 Education of Exceptional Children, April, iqio. 
 
288 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 erroneous conception. Even children have not infrequently 
 been known to be subject to mental derangements which 
 must be classed as genuine insanity. The critical periods in 
 the life of a child to which reference has before been made 
 are often conducive to mental disturbances of this kind, 
 again particularly the period of sexual development. And 
 then insanity not only occurs in a form more or less perma- 
 nent, but is much more frequently a transitory aberration, 
 lasting some times not longer than an hour. Physical irri- 
 tations, depressive influences (melancholia), fits of despond- 
 ency, fright, etc., will produce temporary dementia. These 
 phenomena must be recognized and properly handled, lest 
 they lead to permanent derangements which, as has been in- 
 dicated in earlier pages, will defy curative treatment. Many 
 a case of discipline will be understood in its true causality if 
 we remember these facts. Further, nervous troubles of all 
 kinds, neurotic conditions, neurasthenia, in its manifold 
 forms, sometimes border very closely upon true mental aber- 
 rations. The degeneration and inhibition of motor expres- 
 sion with a resultant breaking down of mental activity, such 
 as we observe in incipient adolescent insanity, or dementia 
 praecox, may be mentioned as typifying a more radical and 
 permanent derangement occasionally to be found among our 
 youth. The prevalence of nervous disorders in our times 
 has led many to believe that they are becoming an increasing 
 menace to our civilization and should be stamped out. There 
 may be a difference of opinion on this point. But the author 
 is inclined to agree with an editorial writer in the "Medical 
 Record" who says: "There can be no doubt that if neurotics 
 never married, in the course of time diseases of the nervous 
 system would greatly lessen and probably die out; and it 
 may also be true that a world peopled with phlegmatic, thick- 
 skinned mediocrities would be happier, in a sense. But the 
 question may here be asked : Do we want to be without our 
 neurotics or can we get along without them? If history be 
 ransacked, it will be found that most of the great deeds of 
 the world have been performed by individuals of an highly 
 sensitive, nervous temperament. The contention too that 
 the thick-skinned mediocrities are the happiest persons is 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 289 
 
 open to doubt. If a more or less animal life is the end to be 
 gained, then they may; but at the same time the fact ought 
 to be borne in mind that, while they never descend into the 
 depths of misery, like the being with the ill-strung nervous 
 system, yet, on the other hand, they are incapable of exper- 
 iencing many of the delightful emotions and of ascending into 
 the heavens of joy, as are the neurotics." 
 
 Insanity proper is a disease which befalls its victims after 
 periods of health. In this and in the following point does it 
 differ essentially from idiocy which is largely congenital. 
 Idiocy is an all round mental imbecility, the idiots savants 
 notwithstanding, while insanity unbalances the mind with- 
 out necessarily destroying the mental faculty. Many inmates 
 of our asylums will astonish us by their rational mentality 
 within the limits imposed upon them by their disease; some 
 exhibit a really remarkable genius; and indeed, the relation 
 of insanity to genius has often occupied and puzzled the mind 
 of many a psychologist. On the other hand, it is often diffi- 
 cult to determine where rational mentality ends and insanity 
 begins. 
 
 Some have maintained that all these children who are 
 classed among the "minor mental abnormalities", and, in fact, 
 all persons who deviate in any manner from the normal type 
 have a touch of insanity in their mental or moral constitution. 
 Certainly they represent the borderland of mental health and 
 psychosis, and call for the most earnest attention and con- 
 sideration of parents, teachers, and physicians. There are a 
 large number of "exceptional" children, those who are pe- 
 culiar or defective in some way, and require conscientious 
 observation and adequate handling. 
 
 A very thorough study of these cases and their history and 
 philosophy will be amply repaid by the resultant greater 
 facility in solving problems of discipline. Details cannot 
 here be given. Generally a distinction is made between 
 moral, mental, and physical defects. This is, however, an 
 artificial distinction ; mental and moral abnormalities go hand 
 in hand with, and are essentially conditioned by, disturbances 
 in the higher associations which lead to organized thinking 
 and self-control ; and not infrequently physical defects lead 
 
2 9 o THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 to apparent mental and moral derangements. Captain 
 Charles E. Woodruff, assistant surgeon, United States Army, 
 had a most instructive article in the Philadelphia Medical 
 Journal for April 7, 1900, on the use of alcohol by our 
 soldiers in the tropics, in the course of which he mentions the 
 terrible nervous exhaustion that results from long exposure 
 to heat and moisture; this exhaustion of the nervous tissue, 
 he asserts, produces a temporary craving for alcohol precisely 
 similar to that of many periodical or chronic drunkards or to 
 the craving of certain degenerates among tramps, beggars, 
 and criminals, who are in a condition of congenital nervous 
 exhaustion unfitting them for work, and whose periodical 
 orgies are proverbial. 
 
 Lying, disorder, disobedience, sexual aberrations, etc., may 
 often be traced to bodily causes. Truants of the degenerate 
 type are found to be defective in sight, hearing, growth, etc. 
 Eye defects of various kinds, nasal troubles, catarrhs, adenoid 
 vegetations, etc., are frequent causes of mental and moral 
 derangements, epilepsy, neurasthenia, and similar disturb- 
 ances. 
 
 Troubles of digestion are a frequent source in children, 
 of what is called persistent ideas, of anxiety, fear, irritation, 
 bordering on temporary insanity. The child does not really 
 know or understand what is the matter with him, but is 
 obstinate and ugly. Mistaken strictness in such cases will 
 produce very deplorable results. We may also be reminded 
 of the night-terrors of many children which have their origin 
 generally in digestive disturbances. Even temporary ailments 
 in boys and girls (in the case of the latter particularly the 
 monthly periods) will occasionally lead to mental and moral 
 disorders. 
 
 In the discussion on the troublesome child in school, Super- 
 intendent Lowther made these remarks: "One day a boy 
 came to my office with a note from his teacher saying that the 
 bearer had become so obnoxious that it was impossible to 
 allow him to remain in the room. He was idle, noisy, inat- 
 tentive, obstinate, impudent, and perhaps a score of other 
 misdemeanors could be charged to his account. My investi- 
 gation developed the surprising facts that he was subject to 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 291 
 
 violent fits of headache, that he had some form of catarrh, 
 that he was almost blind in one eye, and that his hearing in 
 one ear was defective. He admitted that at times he felt per- 
 fectly miserable. Poor, afflicted boy! No wonder he grew 
 discouraged as he saw his inability to measure up with his 
 classmates! His teacher, ignorant of his defects, held him 
 responsible for all the work. He became despondent, morose, 
 distrustful of his teacher, finally disliking her and charging 
 maltreatment as a cause for his misconduct. Evidently the 
 first duty of a teacher on observing a peculiarity in a child, is 
 to study the cause." 
 
 That ignorant and vicious methods of education at home 
 and in school will "spoil" children, morally, and mentally, is 
 too well known to require special mention. Many a home, 
 not only in the poorer classes by any means, forms the worst 
 imaginable environment for a child. The only child in 
 families where there are over-refinement and undue nervous 
 tension offers a fruitful field of investigation. But there are 
 cases of genuine defectiveness. Says Professor Allen M. 
 Starr:* "There is an inherent activity in the brain of a child 
 which leads to thought and soon to actions and speech; yet 
 there are children who never get to the point of definite 
 purposeful activity. Such children are usually in constant 
 motion, but their movements have no object. . . . 
 
 "Another type of child far less defective is not uncommonly 
 seen, who has nevertheless failed to reach that point of de- 
 velopment which is evidenced by the power of self control, 
 . . . lapsing into a state of apathy and mental inertia 
 . . . incapable of arousing (itself) to effort. This is 
 not laziness — it is an inherent mental defect. . . . That 
 self-control is the highest quality of mind is evident from the 
 fact that the first evidences of mental deterioration is seen in 
 a beginning failure of this power." 
 
 Lack of veracity in children may sometimes be due to de- 
 fective associations — a defectiveness which leads to illusions 
 and hallucinations. It has been shown that there is a physi- 
 
 *Some Curiosities of Thinking, Popular Science Monthly, 
 April, 1895. 
 
292 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 cal basis of precocity and dullness. Dullness may be only 
 apparent and, as has been indicated elsewhere, an effect of a 
 slower rate of development or a longer reaction time. "Dull 
 and backward children", says F. M. Powell, (Backward and 
 Mentally Deficient Children, Child Study Monthly, I, 9) 
 "varying in degrees of mental torpidity, ... are sub- 
 jects requiring distinct methods of stimulation to unfold 
 intellects hidden within their tardy cell structure. There 
 are many factors, both physical and psychical, causing the 
 semblance of mental dullness ; in the former the cell structure 
 of the brain tissue develops slowly during the plastic period, 
 maturing later than the average, but when fully developed 
 under favorable environment, they often rank with the strong- 
 est minds. It has been so in the past and will be so in the 
 future. . . . Webster, Beecher and Frobel were of 
 this class. Also I may mention Linnaeus, Volta, Burns, Bal- 
 zac, Edison and Scott as dullards in youth. . . . This 
 class of individuals is not deficient, but ripens late in life." 
 The same author states that a commission appointed by the 
 British government to investigate the condition of 100,000 
 school children in Great Britain report seven per cent, as 
 being mentally dull. 
 
 Real stupidity is a great affliction deserving of our most 
 ready sympathy. "Natural stupidity is some form of mental 
 weakness, or the child's mind may grow very slowly, or its 
 growth may be temporarily arrested, or there may be great 
 disproportion in the development of its various faculties, or it 
 may inherit the induced or natural stupidity of its parents. 
 It may be the stupidity of the poor drudge, prematurely de- 
 prived of its right to grow and play in freedom by the needs 
 of life, stupid descendant of down-trodden human beings 
 who, age after age, have but one hope and one aim, to keep 
 body and soul together by unremitting toil; or, again, the 
 stupid child of gifted parents, sad, strange stupidity where 
 the parents seem to have exhausted all their intellectual force 
 in themselves and have nothing left to bequeath ; or what is 
 called natural stupidity may be nothing of the kind — only in 
 nine cases out of ten a misinterpretation of some outward 
 signs misinterpreted by the stupidity of the people who deal 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 293 
 
 with it. ... The natural tendency of schoolmas- 
 ters is to condemn as stupid the child who is dull in things 
 scholastic. Life often reverses the schoolmaster's verdict, and 
 shows that the so-called dullness was intelligence which had 
 not yet found its proper channel." (Emily Miall, The 
 Stupid Child, Educational Foundations, December, 1897.) 
 
 If we are to deal intelligently with all these cases of seem- 
 ing or real mental defectiveness, we must first of all resist 
 all promptings toward impatience and vindictiveness, and 
 assume the attitude of sympathetic investigators and ration- 
 al friends and helpers. Truly says Dr. W. Xavier Sudduth 
 (Nervous and Backward Children, Child Study Monthly, 
 1898) : "The old ideas of viciousness still obtain in regard to 
 the milder forms of mental perversion. Lying, stealing, and 
 kleptomania, from a biological standpoint, are the outcrop — 
 being of purely natural instincts, commendable in a pure state 
 of nature ( ? G) — but greatly to be deplored in our pres- 
 ent state of civilization. If my premise is correct it seems to 
 me that the rationale of treatment does not lie in harsh, un- 
 sympathetic measures of condemnation, in which the mo- 
 tives of the individual are impugned, but in a careful sys- 
 tem of education looking toward the moral, intellectual, and 
 physical upbuilding of a child." 
 
 It is impossible of course to give here detailed prescriptions 
 for the treatment of these cases. Individual adjustment is 
 the prime virtue in respect to it. In many cases it is merely 
 a question of right nutrition, cleanliness and fresh air. A 
 very telling example is told by Miss Jane Addams, in the 
 Annual of the American Academy of Political and Social 
 Science, as follows: "Permit me to illustrate from a group 
 of Italian women who bring their underdeveloped children 
 several times a week to Hull House for sanitary treatment, 
 under the direction of a physician. It has been possible to 
 teach some of these women to feed their children oatmeal in- 
 stead of tea-soaked bread, but it has been done, not by state- 
 ment at all, but by a series of gay little Sunday morning 
 breakfasts given to a group of them in the Hull House Nur- 
 sery. A nutritious diet was thus substituted for an inferior 
 one by a social method. At the same time it was found that 
 
294 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 certain of the women hung bags of salt about their children's 
 necks to keep off the evil eye, which was supposed to give the 
 children crooked legs at first, and in the end to cause them 
 to waste away. The salt-bags gradually disappeared under 
 the influences of baths and cod-liver oil. In short, rhachitis 
 was skillfully arrested, and without mentioning that disease 
 was caused not by the evil eye, but by lack of cleanliness and 
 nutrition, and without passing thru the intermediate belief 
 that disease was sent by Providence, the women form a little 
 center for the intelligent care of children, which is making 
 itself felt in the Italian colony. Knowledge was ap- 
 plied in both cases, but scarcely as the statistician would have 
 applied it." 
 
 A rational method of life and tonic treatment in general 
 will do much toward redeeming deficient children. The 
 stimulus of wholesome and interesting work thru which 
 a concentration of attention can be effected will do wonders. 
 Sense-training and manual work have been shown to 
 be particularly helpful in this direction; in fact, they have 
 been the only means in many cases to effect a regeneration. Dr. 
 Seguin says physiological training advocates that "the educa- 
 tion of the senses must precede the education of the mind" 
 and the true physiological methods of instruction for those 
 whose nervous system is imperfectly developed are "to exer- 
 cise the imperfect organs so as to develop the functions"; 
 and, second "to train the functions so as to develop the imper- 
 fect organs." Dr. Fernald says: "As compared with the ed- 
 ucation of normal children, it is a difference of degree and 
 not of kind." 
 
 Hypnotic suggestion has also been applied with much suc- 
 cess in the case of perverse mentality, persistent ideas, moral 
 aberrations, etc. Individual methods, of course, are the only 
 ones that promise satisfactory results. It is, therefore, and 
 also for the sake of normal children, absolutely necessary 
 that the defectives be, at least temporarily, if you will, re- 
 moved from the regular classes and educated in special 
 classes and special schools. 
 
 Professor Monroe of Stanford University obtained data 
 relating to 10,000 pupils in California schools, finding ten 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 295 
 
 per cent, mentally dull and three per cent, feeble-minded. He 
 states that there are many children in public schools who 
 could be more economically and wisely trained in schools 
 adapted to their special needs, and remarks "There are many 
 more who altho not positively feeble-minded, skirt the bord- 
 erland of abnormality, and because of their large numbers — 
 nearly ten per cent, of the whole public school enrollment — 
 should receive the thoughtful attention of teachers and spec- 
 ialists." (Quoted in Child Study Monthly, March, 1896). 
 
 Very valuable and instructive is Mr. George Dawson's 
 Study in Youthful Degeneracy. (Pedagogical Seminary, 
 IV, 2.) He found that compared with the normal standard 
 the general health of the delinquent children he studied was 
 poor. In height, weight, girth of chest, strength of grip, 
 they were also inferior to the normal type. Later the author 
 speaks of "the neurotic character of many of the delin- 
 quents. . . . 
 
 "The fact that the prevailing criminal face is unusually 
 broad suggests that the typical delinquent may either not 
 have outgrown the infantile characteristics of his own race, 
 or that he may tend to revert to a lower race altogether." 
 He mentions many physical anomalies as indicating degen- 
 eration. "They are out of harmony with their environ- 
 ments; and are, far more than is usually appreciated, incapa- 
 ble of meeting the demands of a civilization that exists only 
 by assimilating the good and eliminating the bad." And 
 with regard to the unredeemable portion of these unfortu- 
 nates, Dawson remarks: "The curative method, however, 
 sure and satisfactory it may be in many cases, falls short of 
 meeting all the requirements. There is a residuum of bad 
 cases that cannot be gotten rid of thru physical, intellectual 
 or moral discipline. The fate of an evil destiny is upon them. 
 . . . Society has not yet learned to supplement cure 
 with prevention. It quarantines its communities or famil- 
 ies infected by disease; it takes advantage of every known 
 prophylactic to prevent the onslaught or advancement of 
 small-pox or yellow-fever; but it throws no quarantine about 
 its plague-spots of vice and crime; it destroys no germs of 
 immorality thru disinfection. . . . Like the man 
 
296 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 in the allegory, it is chained to a corpse whose dissolution 
 must make civilization itself sick unto death." 
 
 Isolation — permanent isolation — is the only measure pos- 
 sible in these cases. 
 
 It goes without saying that in classes or schools for 
 defectives only such teachers should be employed who 
 have made a particular and conscientious study of their 
 peculiarities and needs. But there are so many different 
 grades of defectiveness — such a fine shading into degeneracy 
 proper on one hand, and into normal mental health on the 
 other — and so many will never be recognized in their true 
 condition without intelligent and sympathetic observation in 
 the regular school classes that every teacher of children should 
 make it his duty to keep eyes and heart open to reach out to 
 these unhappy creatures and to lift them up to higher levels 
 of mentality and morality if possible. 
 
 Professor Josiah Royce, the eminent Harvard philosopher, 
 published a contribution to the knowledge of mental dis- 
 orders and defects from the teacher's point of view, in the 
 Educational Review for October and December, 1893, from 
 which these helpful and inspiring passages are cited: "There 
 is no mental disease that is not also a nervous disease . . . 
 Your ideal must be here to get a real, or close, a truly psy- 
 chological insight into this possibly deranged mental mechan- 
 ism. You must come not now any longer as disciplinarian, 
 but quite sincerely as friend, as humane man offering help 
 to a younger brother in distress. . . . You must be a 
 true naturalist, and study this live creature, as a biologist 
 would study cell growth under the microscope, or as a 
 pathologist would minutely examine diseased tissues. In or- 
 der to study, you must, of course, love. Minds and their 
 processes must be delightful things in your eyes. . . . 
 Intolerance and impatience have absolutely no place in such 
 a scrutiny. You must fear nothing. You will be very tender 
 with the sanctities of youthful feeling; but if in the course 
 of your scrutiny, a poor heart gets open to you and you find 
 it a very evil heart indeed, you will never show, yes, if you 
 are wise, you will very seldom feel any contempt." 
 
 The words of Principal E. H. Russel of the Worcester, 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 297 
 
 Mass., Normal School, will fitly close this chapter: 
 
 "It is a wholesome and helpful thing for a teacher to feel 
 that all her pupils are exceptional children — which, indeed, 
 in a deep sense is always true." 
 
 To the physician, in conclusion, the advice should be giv- 
 en to seek in all cases of this description the counsel and co- 
 operation of the educator and psychologist who, in his turn, 
 will act wisely by combining his efforts with those of the phy- 
 sician so as to establish perfect harmony between the vari- 
 ous curative forces whose help is needed in the treatment of 
 defectives for a further study of this subject in the light 
 of newer investigations, of the publications of the National 
 Association for the Study and Education of Exceptional Chil- 
 dren, Plainfield, N. J.; of the Research Department of the 
 Training School, Vineland, N. J., etc. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Criminality in Children 
 
 I. AS TO CAUSES 
 
 THE warfare against sin and crime is as old as the 
 race. Yet the victory of virtue over the powers 
 of evil is still but a beautiful dream. The rack, 
 the gallows, and the executioner's axe, the prison 
 and the torture-chamber, and the multitude of 
 solemn judges, grave juries and of the less dignified beadles 
 and jailers, which have for so many centuries been employed 
 in the fierce and merciless struggle against Sin, by what is 
 commonly called the administration of justice, have not 
 succeeded in exterminating her. She triumphs now as ever. 
 Some of our opinions as to what is right or wrong have 
 changed somewhat in the course of ages ; but wrong itself still 
 exists. 
 
 Will this go on forever? The philosophy of pessimism 
 answers "Yes." "We may," says Schopenhauer, "demon- 
 strate to the egoist that he can gain large profits by fore- 
 going small gains; to the malicious, that causing pain to 
 others will bring suffering upon himself; but we can never 
 hope to succeed in eliminating selfishness and malice, as 
 little as we can ever persuade a cat to give up mousing. 
 . . . We may enlighten the head, but the heart 
 will remain untouched. That which is fundamental 
 and fixed, in the province of morality, no less than in the 
 intellect and the physical constitution, is born with us; edu- 
 cational influences can only mitigate, never radically 
 change."* 
 
 *Die Kunst kann iiberall nur nachhelfen. 
 298 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 299 
 
 What Schopenhauer says is true enough; but is it the 
 whole truth? 
 
 The well known story of the painter's model may serve to 
 illustrate a point in question. An Italian artist met with a 
 child of exquisite beauty, and wished to preserve its features, 
 for fear he should never see such loveliness again. So he 
 painted the charming face upon canvas, and hung it upon 
 the walls of his studio. In his most sombre hours that sweet, 
 gentle countenance was like an angel of light to him. Its 
 presence filled his soul with the purest aspirations. "If ever 
 I find," he said, "a perfect contrast to this beauteous face, I 
 will paint that also, and hang them side by side, as ideals of 
 heaven and hell." Years passed. At length, in a distant 
 land, he saw, in a prison he visited, the most hideous object 
 he ever gazed upon, — a fierce, haggard fiend, with glaring 
 eyes, and cheeks deeply furrowed with lust and crime. The 
 artist remembered his vow, and immediately painted a pic- 
 ture of this loathsome form, to hang beside the lovely boy. 
 The contrast was perfect. His dream was realized. What 
 was the surprise of the artist, on inquiry into the history of 
 this horrid wretch, to find that he was once that lovely boy! 
 The demon had once been the angel : the innocent beginning 
 and the sad ending of a tragic romance of life.* 
 
 Was this evolution inevitable? Is Schopenhauer right in 
 maintaining that education could only have mitigated, but 
 never changed, this course? Was the angel predestined to 
 degenerate into a demon, to end his life as a convict? 
 
 There are three explanations of the apparent change: was 
 there a mistake in the first judgment? The boy's face was 
 that of an angel, the artist thought. What do we call angelic? 
 Features that are merely beautiful, regular, and bewitching 
 in outline? Blue eyes, rosy cheeks, ringlets of golden hair? 
 Is an expressionless face angelic? A child's face looks un- 
 touched, undisturbed, inexperienced, so to say. It may 
 move us because of this very absence of character, when we 
 think of what furrows time and sorrow will engrave on this 
 velvety skin. But does such an untouched face imply that 
 
 *Cf. John W. Kramer. The Right Road. 
 
300 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 behind it there dwells an angelic soul ? Indeed not ; a child's 
 is an untried soul; his possibilities are as yet unawakened. 
 It requires a knowledge of human nature rather than a mere 
 enjoyment of childish beauty to understand a child. For the 
 development of an angelic character, there is often need of a 
 long life of trials and self-conquest. The features of a ripe 
 old man or woman may be more truly angelic than those of a 
 budding child. Or were there bad influences — an unwhole- 
 some environment — which ruined an originally well-disposed 
 heart? Or, is it possible that a good child, endowed with 
 fine qualities of character, can suddenly change and become a 
 different being, as it were? We may find that such reverses 
 are not infrequent during the pubescent period, when atavis- 
 tic traits are apt to manifest themselves and to alter the 
 course of a child's life. 
 
 These questions, however, indicate plainly in what manner 
 alone we can hope to gain an insight into the nature of crim- 
 inality, to wit, by investigating the causes and influences that 
 make for crime. Psychology and anthropology must be our 
 guides; they prove that the thing needful is not so much a 
 strict penal system for the punishment of offenders, as cura- 
 tive measures for the extirpation of defects which, under the 
 now existing social conditions, appear as criminal tendencies, 
 but were not so considered in past ages; defects which in- 
 dicate, in the majority of cases, arrested or impaired develop- 
 ment. 
 
 In one sense, crime is an anomalous condition — a degenera- 
 tion of the perfect type; a disease of the mind, which has very 
 distinct symptoms and causes. On the other hand, the crim- 
 inal class represents an undeveloped or underdeveloped type, 
 one that has not kept pace with the normal evolution of the 
 race — a savage condition of the mind. Criminals of this class 
 belong to a social stratum which has never been reached by 
 the progresss of civilization; whose psychic development had 
 come to a standstill many generations ago, or who are con- 
 tinually lagging behind. By investigating the causes of these 
 two conditions — the pathological type and the savage type — 
 we shall better understand the real nature of criminality. 
 
 The two great factors that determine our existence are 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 301 
 
 heredity and environment. They also affect our moral life. 
 Environment includes all those elements that influence us 
 after birth, of which example and education are the most 
 powerful. 
 
 There is, then, first the criminal by heredity. There may 
 either be a direct transmission of criminal tendencies, or 
 merely a transmission of degenerative traits which may de- 
 velop into criminality in the children, even tho the parents 
 were otherwise defective. 
 
 Little doubt is entertained at present that there is such a 
 thing as criminal neurosis, i. e., a transmissible constitutional 
 condition of the nervous system which prevents the develop- 
 ment of a wholesome moral sentiment, of will power, and 
 of self-control. We may be reminded of the well known 
 Juke family. The progeny of five sisters consisted of 540 
 individuals; of these, 76 per cent, were criminals, 20 per 
 cent, paupers; only 4 per cent, were not a burden to society. 
 Another criminal woman, studied by Dr. Elisha Harris, had 
 623 descendants; among them two hundred criminals, the 
 others mostly drunkards, idiots, paupers, and prostitutes. 
 Up to 1883, of all the girls admitted to the Michigan In- 
 dustrial Home for Girls, one-seventh had insanity in their 
 parentage; one-third had criminality, and two-thirds had 
 intemperance in their parentage. This shows what a fatal 
 role intemperance plays in the production of criminal neu- 
 rosis, or at least of general degeneration. 
 
 G. E. Dawson, in his valuable study of youthful degen- 
 eracy,* arrives at this conclusion : "Crime, insanity, idiocy, 
 pauperism. . . . happen as virtue, health, intelligence, 
 and prosperity happen, because some antecedent conditions 
 have produced them." 
 
 There is, then, a criminal class, and among them, there 
 are such individuals who are incurable and irredeemable, from 
 whom the dependent and criminal classes are being constantly 
 recruited. 
 
 Of criminals born from criminals there are relatively few. 
 More numerous are the representatives of an indirect crim- 
 
 *Pedagogical Seminary, IV, I, p. 225. 
 
302 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 inal heredity. Thus we have criminals born from intem- 
 perates, paupers, defectives of all kinds. Their abnormality 
 is due to a mind inherited by them, which is infested with 
 inherent weakness, containing unstable elements. But even 
 these unfortunates are not in many cases criminal from birth. 
 Accessory factors are needed to develop in them true crim- 
 inality. In other words, there is some weakness or defect 
 present which makes these individuals less effective and po- 
 tentially criminal, but always more or less dependent. 
 
 Intellectual weakness is a frequent symptom indicating 
 also moral weakness, and it has been observed that intellect- 
 ually abnormal children incline to criminal offenses. Weak- 
 ness of the mind involves an insufficient grasp of the relation 
 of cause and effect — a feeble comprehension of consequences; 
 it marks an undeveloped, animal type. Idiocy has been called 
 an atavistic backsliding into savagery — closely related to 
 criminality, i. e., to manifestations which in reference to our 
 state of civilization appear criminal, while they were per- 
 fectly normal at the savage stage. Investigations have es- 
 tablished the fact that idiocy is pre-eminently a hereditary 
 phenomenon, the following hereditary causes having been 
 pointed out: (i) Neurosis in the family of one or both par- 
 ents; (2) Intemperance in the family of one or both 
 parents; (3) Excessive strain (by physical or mental labor, 
 or worry) on the part of the mothers; also their lack of prep- 
 aration, physical, mental and moral, for motherhood. 
 
 The point mentioned last is especially significant as it is 
 only too often disregarded. M. A. Pinard* testified to the 
 greater influence of the mother in the determination of the 
 future well-being of the child. Landor says, "Children are 
 what their mothers are." E. W. Bohannon, in his investiga- 
 tions of peculiar and exceptional children,* comes to this 
 conclusion : "The influence of the mother in transmitting pe- 
 culiarities is greater than that of the father, is greater for 
 girls than for boys, and about equal to that of the father for 
 boys." The mother represents the conservative, type-pre- 
 
 *Pedagogical Seminary, IV, 1, p. 50. 
 *Pedagogical Seminary, IV, 1, p. 3. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 303 
 
 serving element; man the variable element — for better or 
 for worse — in the reproductive process. But how often is 
 not a girl's preparation and fitness for motherhood problemat- 
 ical; how often is not her body debilitated by overwork or 
 overstimulation of some kind, her nervous system depleted, 
 her mind superficial and frivolous — how often is not the 
 lot of woman, especially in the poorer classes, that of a 
 drudge who almost succumbs under the pressure of her man- 
 ifold burdens and duties. This wretched condition is re- 
 sponsible for much of the idiocy, or at least some sort of de- 
 ficiency, observable in the offspring. 
 
 Researches based upon data on a large number of children 
 possessing peculiar traits have shown beyond doubt that phy- 
 sical, moral, and mental deficiencies are intimately related 
 to one another, being largely due to causes and influences 
 which date back into remote family history. For, as is well 
 known, it is not always our immediate progenitors from 
 whom we inherit our peculiarities; the life-germ of an in- 
 dividual is a compendium of his family tree with all its 
 branches; it contains potential energy in manifold compo- 
 sition and varying proportions of all the different elements 
 which have been transmitted to our time from our ancestors. 
 Indeed, we recapitulate, in a certain abbreviated form, dur- 
 ing the years of embryonal life and childhood, our entire 
 family history, from the dawn of human existence, in con- 
 secutive culture-epochs; and in the same measure as the 
 younger years reproduce the earliest stages of human civil- 
 ization, we pass consecutively thru stages of greater dif- 
 ferentiation — race, nation, kin, — and at the age of puberty, 
 the family traits proper will assert themselves with especial 
 vigor. It is not a rare occurrence that at this stage, all of 
 a sudden as it may seem, new characteristic traits will crop 
 out, an inheritance from this or that ancestor, probably long 
 forgotten, and which may modify very materially the na- 
 ture and course of the child. In consequence of such a con- 
 stitutional revolution, we may then observe the unexpected 
 appearance of an ancestral neurosis, i. e., of a defect based 
 upon an inherited weakness which only now reveals itself 
 and which may eventually lead to crime. 
 
3o 4 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 While we are, to a certain extent, helpless in dealing with 
 the effects of a decidedly criminal heredity, a consideration 
 of the factor of environment presents a much more hopeful 
 case. And yet, as things are, it is a chapter of intense human 
 misery and wretchedness which we now enter upon and which 
 must be studied with the most serious attention. 
 
 In reviewing the life conditions of children who develop 
 criminal tendencies, we find, as was stated in the beginning, 
 that the dependent classes are the main source of crime. 
 Even if children should escape the burden of hereditary in- 
 fluences, there are factors in their environment which tend 
 to affect their development abnormally. Evidently we must 
 admit that criminality is in a large measure the product of 
 social conditions. 
 
 Dr. Bayard Holmes* says: "The greater portion of our 
 defective classes acquire their defects after birth, either 
 thru (i) improper environment, (2) thru disease, (3) 
 thru the machinery of society and industry." One who 
 knows the wretchedness of life conditions which are the 
 portion of so many thousands of our fellowmen will under- 
 stand and appreciate this assertion. Dawson, in his study of 
 youthful degenerates, quoted above, says: "Nearly 58 per 
 cent, of the boys and 46 per cent, of the girls come from poor 
 homes, that is to say homes in which poverty and drunkenness 
 were the rule. Twenty-three per cent, of the boys and 30 per 
 cent, of the girls appear to have had no regular home at all. 
 They either were inmates of public or private institutions or 
 they were practically vagrants. The most of the cases had 
 poor educational advantages, either because of parental or 
 social neglect. Practically all of them had bad associates, and 
 were allowed to run the streets in idleness." The average 
 industrial or reform school does not seem to have a good 
 showing in these figures. Dawson continues: "The first ele- 
 ments to be noticed in the early surroundings of these delin- 
 quent children are the poverty and improvidence of the par- 
 ents. These things mean improper and insufficient food in 
 infancy and childhood. ... If the children of immoral 
 
 *Child Study Monthly, October, 1895. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 305 
 
 and improvident parents suffer from semi-starvation physi- 
 cally, much more do they suffer from intellectual starvation. 
 Mental growth is not favored by conditions that constantly 
 tend to impair physical vitality, by irregular attendance at 
 school, or by general parental or social neglect to supply in- 
 centive and stimulus. As regards morality, the disadvantages 
 of bad environments are equally obvious. Whether moral 
 sensitiveness be regarded as innate or as a development like 
 any other quality of mind, it depends for its fullest and best 
 expression upon circumstances. In the language of Strahan, 
 'As surely as the blush of health fades before starvation and 
 disease, so does moral loveliness fade in the presence of vice 
 and degradation.' A man of large experience in dealing with 
 delinquents recently said to the writer, 'Perhaps there are 
 some people who would be moral under any circumstances, 
 and others who would be immoral under any circumstances; 
 but most people are moral or immoral as circumstances make 
 them so.' " 
 
 Who will dare to refute this assertion? "Judge not, that 
 ye be not judged!" Who will ever sound the human heart 
 to its deepest depths? Can anyone among us boast of never 
 having felt the promptings of evil? He that is without sin 
 among us, let him first cast a stone at the unhappy creatures 
 whose childhood was a curse and a martyrdom, and who 
 may end their luckless lives in a prison cell. It is so easy, in 
 a cozy home, surrounded by love and care, or at the joyous 
 feast of plenty, to forget the hungry and shivering and to be 
 hypocritically scandalized over the fallen. 
 
 There are three main adversaries of virtue that are con- 
 stantly at work attacking the walls of righteousness and 
 breaking down its ramparts, so that crime may triumphantly 
 enter thru the gap; (1) insufficient nutriment, (2) fatigue, 
 (3) disease. 
 
 These physical causes of evil are often the effect of the life 
 conditions of the unfortunate classes; but they are also not 
 infrequent guests in the homes of the well-to-do. 
 
 Proper nutrition is a much more essential factor in the 
 well-being of children (no less than of adults) than most peo- 
 ple suppose. The preacher in the pulpit, the teacher in the 
 school, have no surer determinative influence upon the ethical 
 
306 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 development of our national life than has the cook in the 
 kitchen. And yet the "new woman" fancies household duties 
 to be beneath her dignity and just about good enough for 
 menials and slaves. The hearth was sacred to our ancestors ; 
 it ought to remain a sacred place in every home to our chil- 
 dren and children's children. Not only is a man's heart most 
 safely reached thru his stomach, as the saying has it, but 
 the welfare, the mental and moral salvation of the children, 
 of the generations to come, depends very largely upon rational 
 nutrition. The French physician, Dr. F. Hallager, in "De 
 la Nature de l'Epilepsie," maintains that epilepsy is anaemia 
 and that lack of nutrition is a potent irritation. The capacity 
 for normal mental work is determined in a large measure 
 by the character and quantity of food. There is certainly 
 much malnutrition in the homes of the poor. Poverty is only 
 one cause among others of this deplorable condition ; igno- 
 rance and improvidence do the rest. 
 
 But, as Prof. M. V. O'Shea says: "It happens frequently 
 in the homes of the well-to-do, where the expense can have 
 nothing to do with the matter, that the children are permitted 
 to live almost wholly upon those foods which seem to delight 
 the palate, as cookies and cakes in a variety of forms, but 
 which contain relatively little nutrition, the principal in- 
 gredient being starch in the form of wheat flour. It is often 
 the practice to begin in the early months of a child's life to 
 feed it highly seasoned and sweet foods, thus establishing an 
 appetite which later is not satisfied with the simple nourishing 
 meats, grains, or milk. . . . Albumin is brain food. . . . 
 In the poorer homes, in our cities particularly, many are 
 unwise in the expenditure of what money they can spare for 
 food, purchasing mainly starchy foods, which, altho of 
 relatively little value anyway, are yet more suited for the 
 adult engaged in out-of-door labor, than for a child at mental 
 work in school."* 
 
 It needs to be emphasized that it is not advisable to give 
 children the same fare as the adult. The needs of children 
 
 *"When Character is Formed." Appleton's Popular Science 
 Monthly, Sept., '97. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 307 
 
 are essentially different from those of their parents. Here is 
 a fruitful field of study for the conscientious mother, much 
 more important and momentous than the study of Greek in 
 "ladies' colleges." It is a study, too, requiring a high degree 
 of common sense, science, and art. What is needed is not the 
 filling of the stomach with an indifferent mass of palatable 
 dainties, but the provision of really nourishing substances 
 such as are needed to build up the tissues consumed by the life 
 process in the various activities pertaining to human exist- 
 ence and development. Insufficient nutrition, while interfer- 
 ing seriously with normal mental activity, also produces 
 moral defects. "That imperfect nutrition is the cause of 
 much of that emotional estrangement in childhood which is 
 called irritability, ugliness, viciousness, or something of that 
 sort, has been satisfactorily evidenced to the writer as the 
 result of a number of observations which he has been able to 
 make upon young children."* 
 
 These morbid symptoms disappear as soon as rational nu- 
 trition is provided. 
 
 The pitiful conditions which are the lot of the pariahs of 
 society, which prevail among the children who work in 
 factories and coal mines, in shops and stores, as newsboys or 
 bootblacks, — who suffer from chronic fatigue and overwork 
 — are well enough known. Fatigue is caused by a variety 
 of causes, among which, indeed, malnutrition must again be 
 enumerated, so that this first mentioned enemy of virtue is 
 doubly dangerous. There are, however, a number of other 
 hygienic causes active at home, in school, wherever we are: 
 lack of the proper amount of light and air, of order and 
 cleanliness, of warmth and comfort, of rest and recreation, 
 as well as of moderate diversion and amusement: and, fur- 
 thermore, those numerous overstimulations of overtaxa- 
 tions which are characteristic of the modern rush and bustle 
 of life, even in the so-called "best" classes — in the salons and 
 academies, at theatres, restaurants, and ball-rooms, and in 
 a thousand ways. Many children, from whatever cause, 
 are really in a more or less chronic state of fatigue all or 
 
 *0'Shea, loc. cit. 
 
308 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 most of the time, and there are not a few adults, too, who 
 can keep themselves on their feet in the mad rush of busi- 
 ness or professional duties, only by resorting to artificial stim- 
 ulation. None of these are normal, and of "tonics" there 
 are untold numbers. Fatigue, it has been shown, produces a 
 relapse into the animal method of reasoning, or rather non- 
 reasoning; it interferes with the keenness and integrity of 
 the intellectual processes; the memory becomes halting and 
 uncertain, and reason grows illogical and erratic. 
 
 As pointed out before, fatigue is often the result of over- 
 stimulation. Such overstimulation begins not infrequently 
 in the nursery, when mothers are ignorant of the simplest laws 
 of nursery hygiene. "Infants of a few months as well as 
 children of maturer years are permitted to be in the presence 
 of the older members of the family much of the time. Guests 
 always expect to see the baby, to hold it and to stimulate it 
 in all sorts of ways to see how prettily and intelligently it 
 reacts. . . . Few people seem to appreciate how such 
 treatment taxes the nervous strength of an infant. . . . 
 The young child with its fresh, innocent ways, is not infre- 
 quently regarded as a plaything for the entertainment of its 
 elders, and so is teased and tormented in all sorts of ways 
 because its response is so novel and interesting. . . . 
 The evil effects of overstimulation are evident also in the at- 
 tempts of parents and teachers to hasten as rapidly as possible 
 the intellectual development of the children under their 
 care. * 
 
 Many parents consider it perfectly legitimate to make 
 the children recite, sing, and perform on the slightest pro- 
 vocation for the friends and visitors of the family, or to "show 
 off" at more or less public entertainments, without special 
 care that pedagogical and hygienic precautions be not neg- 
 lected. It is a common practice, too, especially among the 
 poorer classes, to take young children to various public 
 places and make them stay up late, and go home, or be car- 
 ried home, in a more or less sleepy condition, at dead of 
 night, in crowded and ill-ventilated public conveyances. Few 
 
 *0'Shea, loc. cit. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 309 
 
 mothers consider it their solemn duty rather to forego for a 
 time such amusements than to expose their tender babes to 
 the evil effects of such educational and hygienic transgres- 
 sions. The consequences, common as they are, are pitiably 
 serious. 
 
 During the various critical periods of the child's life, of 
 which there are at least three, hygienic neglect and over- 
 stimulation are fraught with particular danger. This is 
 especially true of the period of pubescence and adolescence. 
 Physical neglect, caused by ignorance and false modesty, is 
 apt to breed untold sufferings, to impair the equilibrium of 
 the nervous system, and health and strength generally, and 
 to result finally in the ruin of thousands of constitutions, 
 particularly of girls. Again, impairment of health predis- 
 poses for all kinds of deviations from the code of morals. 
 Concerning the hygiene of the pubertal period, much enlight- 
 enment is still needed. Adolescence is an epoch in the life 
 of every young person that requires the most careful and in- 
 telligent treatment; it is a time when old and narrow modes 
 of thought are broken up and old ideas are being revised; 
 when the flexibility of the mind, resulting from a peculiar de- 
 velopment of the brain occurring at this time, promotes the 
 formations of new associations and ideals. Out of the ruins 
 of unconscious childhood, there rises the new personality, the 
 consciousness of independent thought and power. The ripe 
 fruit severs itself from the parent tree and begins its indi- 
 vidual life. This process is often painful; it may cause 
 friction and unhappiness for both parent and child, and 
 sometimes leads to an outspoken rebellion against once re- 
 spected and revered authority and order. From the chaos 
 of contending emotions, there emerges an individual charac- 
 ter. This is the age when the young man (or woman) be- 
 comes aware of the tremendous variety of life possibilities — 
 when he tries many of these, and finally chooses those that 
 fit his individuality best; and these will become his perma- 
 nent possessions and activities. In this confusion of ideas 
 and inspirations, the straight and even path is sometimes 
 lost sight of, and there appear symptoms of seeming moral 
 trespasses which, tho not always of a very serious im- 
 
310 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 port, nevertheless require the strictest attention of the edu- 
 cator. Truth and falsehood are at times confused in these 
 young struggling souls; especially young girls of this age 
 are frequently given to untruthfulness and prevarication 
 without apparent cause or reason. Even in otherwise per- 
 fectly normal children of this age, we may come across dis- 
 tinctly criminal tendencies. Says Tolstoi in his autobiogra- 
 phy: "I have read somewhere that children between twelve 
 and fourteen years of age are especially apt to become mur- 
 derers and incendiaries. When I recall my own adoles- 
 cence (and the state of mind I was in one day), I can under- 
 stand the incentive to the most dreadful crimes committed 
 without aim or purpose, without any precise idea to harm 
 others — done simply out of curiosity, out of an unconscious 
 need of action." And E. G. Lancaster states in his valua- 
 ble treatise on "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Adoles- 
 cence"*: "On the moral side there is a new and tremendous 
 access of possibilities. The young person awakens to the 
 fact that he can commit crimes of which he never dreamed 
 before. There are numerous expressions of intense sur- 
 prise at the awful thoughts of crime that go rushing thru 
 the mind at this time." 
 
 We tremble, in reading these statements, to picture to 
 ourselves what the consequences would be if from some 
 cause, the mental and moral development of adolescents, 
 passing thru this stage, were checked, especially in the 
 absence of educational advantages which could act as a cor- 
 rective, so that this condition of their minds would become 
 the permanent one thru life. Such things do occur — 
 more frequently, indeed, than one cares to believe; and it 
 is probably due to some form of arrested development dur- 
 ing the pubertal age, or to some unchecked impulse to realize 
 in action the demoniac promptings of adolescent fancy, that 
 we have so large a percentage of criminals of adolescent age. 
 Of 7,473 prisoners in France in 1885, under twenty-one 
 years of age, there were 4,718 boys and 1,063 girls, or a 
 total of 5,781 (77.36 per cent.) of children of from twelve 
 
 *Pedagogical Seminary, V, 1. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 3 1 1 
 
 to eighteen years of age. Out of 26,000 evildoers arrested 
 in Paris in one year, 16,000 were less than twenty years of 
 age.* I 
 
 Fatigue is in the last instance a pathological phenomenon, 
 and is often caused by disease, or will in its turn produce dis- 
 eased conditions. Impaired health, as has been shown in the 
 preceding paragraphs, is responsible for many abnormal symp- 
 toms in the life of the soul, and modern child study has col- 
 lected a great number of surprising data. Selfishness, for 
 example, a common fault in children — and parents, — and 
 which is a very evident stimulus for criminal tendencies, is in 
 many instances occasioned by ill health, and will disappear as 
 soon as a normal physical equilibrium is re-established. 
 
 Certain diseases leave the body in a depleted and weakened 
 condition of a very specific kind and which is the source of 
 much intellectual and moral anomaly. Reference is here 
 made to disorders of the visual and auditory centers. The 
 percentage of children whose vision is abnormal or whose 
 sense of hearing is more or less impaired, is surprisingly high. 
 Upon perfect sense training, however, depends the possibility 
 of reliable observation and conception ; and thus it becomes 
 very plain that sense impediments must necessarily interfere 
 with the normal intellectual development of the children. 
 Soon we may observe graver disturbances — apparent indif- 
 ference, disobedience, laziness, and a number of other seem- 
 ingly moral defects.* If not speedily recognized, diagnosed, 
 and cured, such phenomena may indeed lead to truly moral 
 inefficiency. Helot shows that when these cases are cured, a 
 large number of children are transformed, so to speak, both 
 from a physical and a moral standpoint. Yet about twenty- 
 five per cent, of all children suffer from defects of hearing, 
 adenoid vegetations and the like alone. What a field for 
 exact observation and curative measures! 
 
 That these troubles are so wide-spread, is largely due to 
 the almost criminal negligence with which even in educated 
 
 *A. Corre, "Crime and Suicide." 
 
 *Cf. "A Working System of Child Study for Schools," Grosz- 
 mann, p. 32. 
 
312 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 families infectious diseases are handled, such as measles, 
 scarlet fever, etc., which often leave these defects behind, 
 tho the attack itself may have been mild. It requires the 
 greatest amount of energy on the part of school and health 
 authorities to guard against the spread of infection among the 
 pupils of schools, in places of public amusement or meeting, 
 in street cars and railroads, etc. Few care to be restricted in 
 their personal liberty, and the danger of infection and the 
 spread of disease germs is usually underrated. All these fac- 
 tors, nevertheless, contribute to keeping the general health of 
 the community on a low level, and to thus making possible a 
 more or less universal, intellectual and moral inefficiency. 
 
 Besides these more or less physical elements which influ- 
 ence the child after birth, and aid in the determination of its 
 future, we must consider the educational effect of the en- 
 vironment. Educational effect is really caused by everything 
 that surrounds the child ; and it is by example that the most 
 powerful impressions are produced: the example of the per- 
 sons who constitute his immediate society, no more than the 
 example of the street where he spends the plastic years of his 
 childhood; the example of parents, teachers, brothers, sisters, 
 and schoolmates, of relatives and friends; the example of the 
 milkman and the scrubbing woman, of the cook and the rail- 
 road conductor; the example of the pictures which beautify 
 his home, and that of the glaring posters which advertise 
 theatrical performances or patent medicines; the example of 
 the books and newspapers which are tolerated or cherished in 
 the home, as well as of those which find an illegitimate way 
 into his hands and interest. Even a very essential portion of 
 the direct training at home and in school is a matter of ex- 
 ample: the child is made to imitate what his elders do. The 
 first potent factor in education is the imitativeness of children. 
 Children possess surprisingly little logic; rationality and 
 really independent opinions are the result of long experience 
 and a vigorous adolescence. Imitation is one of the great 
 means by which experience is obtained. Thus is shown the 
 tremendous responsibility of parents and teachers, whose ex- 
 ample rather than precept will work its way determinatively 
 into the child's soul. The trouble is, that the child is apt to 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 313 
 
 imitate what is pernicious as well as what is beneficial, being 
 yet unable to discriminate. "Folly is always infectious; epi- 
 demics of good sense are rare," says a German humorist. If 
 we could only place our children in an environment where all 
 examples make for righteousness! The millenium would 
 then not be far away. But alas! we live in a world where 
 deceit and duplicity have the upper hand ; where public and 
 private administration and business are based largely upon 
 falsehood ; where conventional lies mar even the sacred integ- 
 rity of the home. How few of us are really frank toward one 
 another ! 
 
 And in such an atmosphere our children are brought up. 
 We preach to them a sincerity and charity which we do not 
 always practice. Dare we wonder when the carelessly scat- 
 tered seed of evil takes root and sprouts forth in many an un- 
 wary young soul? 
 
 That children are imitative is a trite fact. And yet, few 
 of us realize how very imitative they are. Wondrous tales 
 may be told of the so-called suggestibility of childhood. We 
 may be reminded of the influence of companions and chums, 
 which is often much greater than that of the parent and 
 teacher. Dawson, in his study of youthful degeneracy, quoted 
 before, found that in the case of every boy and almost every 
 girl, some chum, or several chums, had played a more or less 
 important part in their lives. 
 
 How necessary, then, is a careful supervision and guidance 
 of our children — how essential it is that we eliminate from 
 their environment as much of bad example as we can control, 
 even tho it be at the sacrifice of our own convenience! 
 
 The problem of right education, so that the product be 
 an ethical character, is truly a difficult one. Much of urgent 
 import can be said on this score. Our present so-called ed- 
 ucational system deserves this name only in a very modest 
 measure. It stimulates the intellect at the expense of char- 
 acter; it develops shrewdness rather than wisdom. It im- 
 plies more drill than development; it grafts upon the real 
 nature of the child an artificial, conventional substance. Of- 
 ten it conflicts with the most fundamental instincts, and 
 thus causes an instability of character, a vacillation of will 
 
314 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 impulses, such as will become sadly manifest in moments of 
 trial and temptation. Much in our present education is arti- 
 ficial, mechanical, arbitrary; and its product is only too fre- 
 quently a living, conventional lie. 
 
 Thus we have a society wherein many factors co-operate 
 to intercept the healthy growth of virtue, and to favor the 
 development of moral defects and criminal tendencies. 
 
 2. AS TO REMEDIES 
 
 The case being thus stated, the question arises: What 
 can be done to remedy the evil, to eradicate crime if this be 
 at all possible ? Space will permit of only a few suggestions, 
 such as are obvious from what has been said before. 
 
 We ought to be settled in our mind about one sad fact, to 
 begin with, viz. that there exists such a thing as a criminal 
 class many members of which are practically unredeemable, 
 and which a healthy society casts out as it casts out lepers, 
 without, however, being justified in condemning them. The 
 Italian criminologist and psychologist Lombroso has intro- 
 duced the term "born criminals." A majority of imbeciles 
 will forever remain public burdens, and a certain percentage, 
 small but distinct, will never outgrow criminal tendencies. 
 
 We may apply to this psychic phenomenon the general 
 term "degeneration," remembering that we include two dis- 
 tinct types under this term: the pathological type, and the 
 savage type. Degeneration signifies a deviation from the 
 normal type as it has been evolved thru the centuries of civ- 
 ilizatory progress and differentiation ; such deviation natur- 
 ally implies a lesser degree of stability and power of pro- 
 creation. It means the loss of those hereditary qualities that 
 have differentiated and fixed the characteristics of the race 
 so that it attained permanency; and consequently a decreased 
 capability of competition in the normal struggle for existence. 
 Indeed, the unredeemably deficient would die out but for 
 intermarriage with individuals of a more normal type, as 
 sterility is a recognized effect of inherited deficiency. 
 
 This suggests the desirability of a timely recognition, man- 
 agement and isolation of the unredeemable by the agency of 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 315 
 
 organized society. Isolation, however, must not be under- 
 stood to mean punishment in this case any more than it is 
 in the case of people suffering from infectious diseases. We 
 may insist upon small-pox patients being isolated in special 
 hospitals without desiring to brand the unfortunate inmates 
 as outcasts, or connecting the idea of punishment with their 
 confinement. The time will come, let us sincerely hope, 
 when sin will be understood to mean misfortune; when 
 moral defects will be treated like intellectual and physical 
 defects: that is to say, as pathological cases, symptomatically, 
 and not as punishable crimes. Our penal system is sadly in 
 need of reform on the basis of psychological and anthropolog- 
 ical science. All these problems are in their very essence 
 pathological, or in another sense, educational problems.* 
 
 It is almost needless to say that even apart from the de- 
 mand of isolation, there ought certainly to be special schools, 
 or at any rate, special classes, established for the education 
 of children who are in any marked degree deficient. To lay 
 the burden of their education upon the ordinary schools, is 
 a grave error. Not only do they constitute an ever present 
 danger of infection and contagion for the healthy children; 
 but their own peculiar needs can be best attended to where 
 all educational efforts are adjusted to that end. We ought 
 to save as many as can be saved. 
 
 There is another side to this. Bohannon (loc. cit.) shows 
 that advantageous traits are inherited more than twice as 
 frequently as disadvantageous ones. This indicates greater 
 vitality on the part of those who are in greater conformity 
 with the fixed type of civilization. It points on the one 
 hand to the fact of a natural weeding out of degenerates, 
 as shown before ; on the other hand to the great blessing of 
 the influence of better environment and education. Bohan- 
 non proves that less and less deficient children may be ob- 
 served to be born in a family of degenerates as the biological 
 conditions of the parents improve. He calls this the tri- 
 umph of environment over heredity. 
 
 *Cf. also LaMettrie, "L'Homme-Machine", published 1748. 
 
3i6 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 The change at adolescence may also join in as a helpful 
 factor, viz. when good, e. g., race-preserving hereditary traits 
 should happen to crop out at this period so as to defeat the 
 degenerative effect of the bad, and of the environment. This 
 possibility may explain some seemingly miraculous regenera- 
 tions. 
 
 But the problem under discussion is only one part of the 
 great social problem of elevating the masses. The creation 
 of healthy social conditions will go a great way towards the 
 elimination of crime. For the sake of illustration of at least 
 one factor in this process, I will quote from a very sugges- 
 tive report of Mr. Jacob A. Riis on the first public play- 
 ground instituted in the slum districts of New York City. 
 "It may have been a coincidence that the rough gang of 
 boys which used to disgrace that block on Second Ave. and 
 occasionally did much mischief, has not been heard from 
 since the old graveyard became a playground. It is a fact, 
 anyhow, and my experience with Poverty Gap makes me 
 feel quite certain that there is a connection between the 
 two things. Over there it used to be next to impossible to go 
 thru the block without being pelted with mud by the raga- 
 muffins who very early developed into toughs of a peculiarly 
 vicious stamp. They half killed two policemen, and out of 
 sheer malice, beat to death the one boy in the block with a 
 good reputation. The neighborhood was as desolate as it 
 was desperate ; but when the wicked old tenements were torn 
 down, and a public playground was opened on the site of 
 them, with swings and sandheaps and wheelbarrows and 
 shovels, the whole neighborhood changed as if by magic. 
 There were no more outrages." 
 
 Here is a wide field for the social reformer and for pro- 
 gressive city boards! 
 
 Then there is need of a systematic fight against intemper- 
 ance, the great evil ; but care must be taken that this fight 
 does not degenerate into ill-advised fanaticism and immoder- 
 ate infringements of personal liberty for which there is no 
 scientific basis and justification. There must be an intelli- 
 gent and civilized warfare, such as will remove the real causes 
 of intemperance. What we must principally fight against are 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 317 
 
 the conditions of malnutrition and fatigue, of nervous deple- 
 tion and degeneracy which will produce an undue craving for 
 stimulants. 
 
 Malnutrition and fatigue are the two great curses of suf- 
 fering humankind. Well said Ingersoll in his lecture, "What 
 Must We Do in Order to be Saved?" : "I believe in the gos- 
 pel of good health, and I believe in the gospel of good living. 
 . . . Let us have good food, and let us have it well 
 cooked ; it is a thousand times better to know how to cook it 
 than it is to understand any theology in the world". 
 
 And let us elevate the conditions of women. The woman's 
 question does indeed need most serious attention. The over- 
 burdened women in the lower and middle classes ought to 
 have their share of the higher aspirations of life, such as will 
 lift them on the plane of modern civilization. The problem 
 of how to relieve woman of the burden of home-duties with- 
 out destroying home-life and atrophying her sacred functions, 
 is a very difficult one; but we must bend our energies on its 
 solution so that our wives may preserve that precious physi- 
 cal strength which is requisite for blissful motherhood, and so 
 that they may have time and energy left to devote themselves 
 intelligently to their prime office, the education of our chil- 
 dren in the home. Let us remember the wretched conditions 
 of most of our working girls from whose ranks the mothers 
 of the poorer classes are recruited. Miserable wages, over- 
 work, temptations of all kinds are their lot; vain and un- 
 wholesome amusements relieve their cheerless existence only 
 to cast a peculiarly dismal light upon their pitiless situation. 
 Only too true is what Hall Caine, in the "The Christian", 
 makes John Storm say on the present position of working 
 women upon whose well-being so much of society's welfare 
 rests. 
 
 In the upper classes we may discover a high degree of over- 
 stimulation and frivolity. How few of the well-to-do women 
 of to-day are capable of fully living up to the functions of 
 motherhood, or are willing to do so. Most of them are vic- 
 tims of fashion and "society." Alone the irrational dress of 
 women is responsible for many defects in children and thus 
 of many burdens to society. During adolescence, when girls 
 
318 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 (and boys, too) need the most careful consideration and most 
 hygienic attention, they are most mercilessly chained down to 
 their schooldesks, to pass their examinations, to graduate, at 
 the risk of studying to exhaustion. Such is the decree of 
 vanity and morbid ambition ; so will it tradition and fashion 
 which walks without remorse over thousands of ruined con- 
 stitutions. Let us not forget: the problem of ethical strength 
 is at the same time a problem of physical health, of normal 
 nervous activity. 
 
 It must further be demanded that our boys and girls 
 should be educated for the duties of parenthood. Away with 
 that Pharisaical prudishness which prompts us to ignore the 
 sexual element in the education of the healthy and moral 
 life, a prudishness which anyway has nothing in common 
 with genuine purity, but which causes countless sufferings. 
 When it comes to marriage, let this holy union be based upon 
 love rather than commercial and "society" considerations; 
 and make sure that the biological conditions, the transmissible 
 factors, in the contracting parties be healthy and advanta- 
 geous. Not only the sins, but even the conventional follies of 
 the parents are visited on the children upon the third and 
 upon the fourth generations. 
 
 The keynote of salvation is not a crusade of emotion, but a 
 reform of public and private education. A rational education 
 of the masses, of the classes, of the public, of the individual, 
 of the parents, of the children. What we need is a new 
 moral conscience, a new spirit and enthusiasm, a renewed 
 sense of our tremendous responsibility. "He who wrongs 
 the child, commits a crime against the state," says John 
 Storm in "The Christian". The problem of popular edu- 
 cation is, consequently, one of the most serious tasks of the 
 state. But the more essential portion of that education whose 
 most beautiful fruit is an ethical character, is within the 
 domain of home-influences. This is a great subject which here 
 can be alluded to only in passing. We must not persuade 
 ourselves, by the way, to think that the homes of the so-called 
 better classes offer in all instances a wholesome environment. 
 Those homes where father and mother intelligently co-oper- 
 ate, are unfortunately quite rare; generally one will destroy 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 319 
 
 what the other builds. And let us understand that nothing is 
 so confusing to the moral standard of our children ; nothing 
 will more piteously and effectively destroy their simple and 
 natural confidence than this ruption between those who ought 
 to stand before their children's minds as ideals if not of per- 
 fection, at least of noble aspiration and effort, of unity, har- 
 mony, and love. 
 
 And which are the "better" classes? The wealthy? But 
 wealth, as a result of success in business, is not infrequently 
 due to a wide and elastic conscience. Can we measure our 
 commercial system with a rigorous moral standard? It has 
 been claimed that nowadays no business can be successfully 
 operated without systematic lying. This may be an exaggera- 
 tion ; but the assertion is not so very wide off the mark. In 
 the homes of the representatives of this commercial order, 
 outwardly refined as they may seem, there is no genuinely 
 moral atmosphere, there can be no healthy child-life. 
 
 Even where wealth is the result of thoroly honest ef- 
 fort, this effort may be so excessive, an effect of a mad com- 
 petition, that an over-stimulation and a depletion of the 
 nervous system is produced, and the rush of business may 
 leave the unfortunate millionaire a nervous wreck. Under 
 the circumstances, children may on the outset inherit nervous 
 defects, and their development, while seemingly normal for a 
 time, may contain the germ of degeneration. The commer- 
 cial spirit which rules our age, does not offer an unqualifiedly 
 healthy environment for the rising generation. At best, it 
 imposes upon us the spurious standard of outward success in 
 the place of the ethical standard of wisdom and moral per- 
 fection. 
 
 Even in the really good homes — and fortunately there wilL 
 ever be a majority of these, among the rich and poor — moral 
 education is a subtle, difficult task. We must first of all 
 study and understand each individual child in order to de- 
 velop him along his own individual lines, and to adjust our 
 measures to his individual needs. No more fatal error can 
 be made than to judge him from the standpoint of the adult. 
 Children are by no means little men and women who can 
 think and feel as their elders do, or whose standards are es- 
 
320 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 sentially like ours, or who can be expected to appreciate in 
 every instance our adult standards and motives. Children are 
 altogether different beings — they represent in their evolution 
 from infancy to manhood and womanhood a series of epochs 
 which correspond broadly to the periods in which the race has 
 gradually emerged from barbarism and attained civilization. 
 If this development is in any way interfered with or arrested, 
 they may remain in a condition, or stage, which unfits them 
 for the normal civilized life, and which will eventually give 
 rise to abnormal and, perchance, directly criminal tendencies. 
 
 Children of school age are not moral beings, strictly speak- 
 ing; to them, few things are in themselves either right or 
 wrong. Conscience is not an early growth ; it is the outcome 
 of a slow process of maturing. A sane mind is the product 
 of rational education. Where this is wanting, the mind 
 remains more or less irrational. Children live in the present 
 — to them, the future is only a dream of wild possibilities; 
 they do neither understand, nor are they particularly con- 
 cerned in, the logical consequences of their actions. This is, 
 indeed, the paradise of childhood: the age of inexperience. 
 Let us not unduly hasten their development lest by impa- 
 tience or indiscretion we destroy precious germs. Yet how 
 often do we not make the attempt to fashion child-nature in 
 accordance with our own foolish notions; how often do 
 we not misunderstand our children, and misinterpret their 
 motives — and treat them as sinners when they were but chil- 
 dren! 
 
 Let us be reminded once more of the greatest factor in the 
 education of young children: their imitativeness and suggesti- 
 bility. It has been seen how dangerous is the unwholesome 
 example. We must fortify our children against the evil in- 
 fluences of spurious suggestions, by developing in them the 
 art of independent thinking. "One very important thing for 
 the schools to teach is the art of independent thinking. His- 
 tory is replete with the records of delusions, evil scares, 
 crazes, and stampedes, and one who reads these records and 
 sees their parallel in a thousand phenomena of every day 
 life, cannot help wishing for some process in education that 
 will prepare men to see all possible aspects of a thing, enable 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 321 
 
 them to play a sort of mental solitaire until these aspects are 
 classified, and make them self-reliant enough to trust to 
 their own judgment after it is formed." (M. H. Small, 
 loc. cit.) 
 
 The power of independent thinking will enable the child 
 early to distinguish between helpful and spurious suggestions. 
 
 We must also endeavor to win and retain our child's con- 
 fidence so that he may in each and every case come to us, 
 and to us alone, with his troubles and problems to seek ad- 
 vice and consolation. By converting our children into our 
 friends, and making their friends our friends, as far as this 
 is reasonable, there will be established a unity of educational 
 influence. The school-life of the child ought to be but a 
 phase of his home-life, or a widening of the home circle. But 
 above all, let us surround our children with an atmosphere 
 of noble inspiration. Let us make the home a place where 
 love and righteousness reign supreme. Let us remember: 
 good examples are better than precepts. Then we may hope 
 that iniquity will gradually disappear from this world. Let 
 us hope that Ingersoll was right when he said : "I believe we 
 are growing better. I don't believe the wail of want will be 
 heard forever: that the prison and the gallows will always 
 curse the ground. The time will come when liberty and 
 law and love, like the rings of Saturn, will surround the 
 world ; when the world will cease making these mistakes ; 
 when every man will be judged according to his worth and 
 intelligence." 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 The Meaning of High School Education and Secondary Dif- 
 ferentiation 
 
 THERE has been a tendency to construct school 
 curricula upon a retroactive basis, that is to say, 
 to determine the courses of the lower schools so 
 as to make them directly preparatory for en- 
 trance into the higher. Much mischief has 
 been done in this way. Not only has there been 
 much misconception afloat as to what constitutes an 
 elementary preparation for higher courses; but the 
 special needs of the successive stages of child-develop- 
 ment have been signally disregarded. We should turn 
 the order around and say not that the ordinary school 
 should adjust itself to the requirements of the high school, 
 nor the high school offer a fitting for college, but that the 
 high school courses must adjust themselves to what a rational 
 elementary course has done for the child, and the college 
 must adjust its requirements to the possibilities and charac- 
 teristics of the high school graduate. Or still better, we 
 must recognize that each school represents a distinct stage 
 of mental evolution, and ought to minister to the needs of 
 the growing mind at each stage. 
 
 The high school age is that of adolescence. At 15, the 
 individual is born, and a new awakening takes place in the 
 mind of the youth and maiden. It is the time when reasoning 
 buds forth, altho it is counterbalanced, and occasionally al- 
 most drowned, by a tremendous gushing up of emotional 
 elements. The individual attitude asserts itself, often with 
 a force so antagonistic to the transmitted, conventional moulds 
 
 322 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 323 
 
 of family and general environment that it is truly startling. 
 Out of the many possibilities afforded by hereditary and 
 acquired endowments, there takes place the selection of a 
 differentiated activity, commensurate to individual charac- 
 ter, and which will make the individual a force to react 
 upon his environment. It is the office of secondary education, 
 then, to handle appropriately the material it is to work with, 
 to develop the minds of our youth along truly rational lines, 
 to allow of choice as well as to provide breadth of experi- 
 ence in order to avoid a premature narrowing down to one- 
 sided notions and passing fancies; to direct the heart from 
 the crude self-centered emotions which well up at this period, 
 to those ideals which point to the race, the human family as 
 such, and to its preservation and uplifting. 
 
 "During adolescence, when the interests, the likes and dis- 
 likes, the enthusiasms and energies are very intense for periods 
 of moderate length, it seems that specialization along lines 
 of strong interest should, by all means, be allowed in the 
 high schools, and possibly in the last grammar grades, in 
 order that those adolescent energies be not wasted or turned 
 into morbid channels, and that the habit be fostered in the 
 youth of doing serious, intense work in the pursuit of what 
 appears to him to be a worthy problem."* 
 
 That the high school age is that of individual choice, has 
 long been recognized. First, there set in a reaction against 
 the prejudies of the classicists who maintained that without 
 an exhaustive study of the ancient languages, or the so- 
 called humanistic course in general, no higher education 
 was possible, and this reaction has assumed enormous propor- 
 tions. While the humanistic studies still hold their own to a 
 certain extent, the educational value of the so-called realistic 
 studies has become more and more admitted. Science, and even 
 technical instruction, are gaining ground steadily and in- 
 creasingly. "English, the modern languages, history, and 
 the sciences," said Pres. Elliot, "can be made in secondary 
 schools the vehicle of just as substantial training for the hu- 
 
 *A. C. Ellis, "Suggestions for a Philosophy of Education," 
 Ped. Sem., V, 2. 
 
324 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 man mind as Latin, Greek and mathematics." 
 
 The desire to restore to the individual of high school age 
 the right of individual choice, has given us the struggle over 
 a system of "electives." In some high schools, there are ex- 
 clusively elective courses, offered under different names, each 
 separate course being somewhat meagre, it is true, and each 
 furnishing a somewhat different combination of instructional 
 elements. The recognition of the fact that none of these sep- 
 arate courses may just meet the requirements of particular 
 students has led to the further provision that each student 
 may, under certain conditions, elect his studies to suit him- 
 self. In some instances, this arrangement has produced al- 
 most an instructional anarchy. 
 
 An elective anarchy would be preposterous. It has been 
 shown that under such a system a boy or girl may go up to 
 college, or graduate from high school, without ever having 
 had a decent training in history. Yet, history is a subject of 
 which every truly educated person ought to have more than a 
 smattering. It is at the foundation of intelligent citizenship. 
 There are certain studies which are, at least in a measure, 
 needful for everyone; such as history, language, science, and 
 mathematics. To eliminate any of these elements from the 
 secondary course of any individual would mean to cripple it 
 sadly. Art inspiration, literature, and manual dexterity be- 
 long in the same class. 
 
 Again, too much "electiveness" would make re-adjustments 
 on the part of the maturing student very difficult. Yet, such 
 re-adjustments are characteristic of this period of wondrously 
 rapid development. The individual attitude does not spring 
 into existence full-grown like Minerva from the head of Jup- 
 iter. It is a growth. Few boys and girls of 15 are quite sure 
 of their future career; it is a pity if they are forced to choose 
 then. They require more opportunity for experience. And 
 then, there are unexpected changes, sometimes complete re- 
 versions of feeling and aspiration. For these, we must be 
 prepared, and in order to build securely for the future, we 
 must lay in every youth's mind a broad and solid founda- 
 tion composed of those things which are indispensable for 
 culture, be it directed to whatever special subject it may 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 325 
 
 hereafter. 
 
 Of course, we may even at the outset recognize the differ- 
 ent types of mind which present themselves to the observant 
 educator, and which we may discover as early as in the ele- 
 mentary school — always remembering, however, that the 
 mind of the child of this age is not fixed and stereotyped, but 
 still plastic. There are the linguistic type, the constructive 
 type, the mathematical type, the artistic type, the scientific 
 type, among others. We may be permitted to arrange them 
 all in two great groups: 
 
 ( 1 ) The classical type — the abstract mind ; 
 
 (2) The modern type — the realistic mind. 
 
 All such classification has inherent defects ; but much might 
 be said in justification of this way of grouping. 
 
 But so much seems evident that high school differentiation 
 should not consist so much in a more or less arbitrary selec- 
 tion of subjects as in an opportunity for the individual atti- 
 tude toward the subjects to assert itself. We must start with 
 the pupil's own point of view, and from this lead him to a 
 recognition of the proper relations and proportions of all 
 branches of human knowledge with reference to his indi- 
 vidual needs. But before a special subject can assume the 
 dimensions of a world-view, the different studies and occupa- 
 tions must have been explored and partly assimilated to be 
 at last organized under the common heading of the individual 
 aspiration and view-point. 
 
 The individual attitude, tho, of course, based upon special 
 aptitudes and experiences, is pre-eminently an emotional atti- 
 tude. 
 
 "It seems to be a universal fact that intellect grows out 
 of emotion. Feeling, knowing, willing, is the order. . . . 
 Instead of the regular repression now almost universally 
 practiced toward what many may be pleased to call a craze or 
 fad, these should be encouraged. The boy or girl should be 
 pushed into them, and the glow should be turned, if possible, 
 to a white heat. . . . The well-poised man of many 
 sides, who, altho a specialist, sees the value and bearing of all 
 other branches of knowledge on his own subject, cannot well 
 result from anything else. To repress or discourage such 
 
326 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 tendencies limits our horizon at once."* 
 
 The plan the author has in mind would present itself in 
 about this form: with some exceptions perhaps, which need 
 not here be specified, the course of study should contain about 
 the same subjects for all. There should be the languages and 
 literature, mathematics, history and geography, science, man- 
 ual and art work, civics, etc. But not every student would 
 approach each branch from exactly the same point of view, or 
 do precisely the same work. To the philological mind, the 
 structure of the languages, the style and mannerisms of an 
 author, the historic evolution and kinship of languages and 
 their distribution over the face of the globe, the abstract 
 phases of mathematical reasoning, would appeal most 
 strongly, while science work would assist him in his training 
 in scientific methods of deduction. Art would to him be of 
 interest mainly in its bearing upon the style and mannerisms 
 of different peoples, while manual work would counterbal- 
 ance his tendency to soar in abstract heights, by making him 
 conscious of the concrete conditions of life on the earth which 
 is after all the habitation of those speech-endowed peoples, 
 and the source of all those concepts the mode of expression of 
 which is so fascinating to him. 
 
 The commercially inclined will seek facility in operating 
 quantities thru their mathematical study. They will familiar- 
 ize themselves with the great staples and products of different 
 countries and with scientific methods of manufacture, by way 
 of botany, zoology, mineralogy, chemistry, physics, and 
 geography. The manual occupations will be found extremely 
 valuable as illustrative of, and instructive in, industrial civil- 
 ization, technical progress, and the means of transportation. 
 The historical evolution of mankind will present itself to 
 their minds under the aspect of a gradual development 
 toward intercourse, exchange, and commerce. The lan- 
 guages, modern rather than ancient, will be of importance to 
 them as vehicles of intercommunication. They will study art 
 from the industrial side, in its application upon the mechanical 
 
 *E. G Lancaster, "Psychology and Pedagogy of Adoles- 
 cence." 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 327 
 
 arts, and the perfection of designs for textile and other deco- 
 rative trades. They will need a training in the proper and 
 rapid reading of technical and scientific literature, books of 
 travel and exploration, as well as on the character and idio- 
 syncrasies of the peoples with whom they expect to traffic. 
 Even civics will have a differentiated meaning to them, as it 
 will represent the idea of law and order, of equity and mu- 
 tuality, as the only sure basis upon which to build a safe 
 commercial structure and international intercourse. 
 
 Again, the artistic mind will assimilate all those things 
 most readily which appeal to his sense of beauty. History 
 and literature are, to him, the history of ideals and of meth- 
 ods in art, expressive of the genius of the nation which pro- 
 duced them. The earth presents to him a variegated aspect 
 of impressive scenery, the characteristic setting of the great 
 events of history which arouse his emotional interest and in- 
 spire his representative imagination. Science opens up to him 
 a stupendous empire of beautiful forms; even anatomy and 
 physiology serve him only to appreciate the true and har- 
 monious proportions of the human form. The artist under- 
 stands thus how function and form are intimately related. 
 Language, to him, is also a matter of artistic handling — he 
 cares for its poetry, beauty of sound, style, and grace of ex- 
 pression. Mathematics appeals to him as the science of pro- 
 portion and symmetry, and thru the manual occupations, he 
 acquires skill and trueness of hand and eye. Likewise, the 
 scientific mind, the constructive mind, or whatever you please, 
 will approach these self-same subjects which are truly needful 
 for all, each from his own individual point of view. 
 
 There are, in every true high school course, elements of 
 general culture which cannot be readily disposed of as sub- 
 servient to special needs and ends. Thus, the inspiration of 
 human idealism as afforded by literature and art, and the 
 development of a just estimation of civic duties which every- 
 one needs as the future citizen of a democratic republic, must 
 not be made light of in secondary education. 
 
 It will be seen that a scheme like this would make the 
 transition from one course to another easy enough, as soon as 
 the student's attitude of mind should change. For the sub- 
 
328 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 ject matter in all courses would be essentially alike, so that 
 there would be no gaps to speak of. In fact, a change would 
 hardly be called a transition from one course to another in- 
 asmuch as the change of attitude would work its own ad- 
 justment. 
 
 This plan would also afford the most natural basis for cor- 
 relation. "Correlation", says Arnold Tompkins, "in its 
 deeper and truer sense, is nothing more than the organic life 
 of the subject in its construction by the student in the pro- 
 cess of realizing some life purpose. The objective world is 
 fluid to the purposes of life and thought; and . . . the 
 external world shaped to one purpose constitutes one subject, 
 and shaped to another, another, etc. To correlate truly is 
 nothing more nor less than to organize a subject." 
 
 It may be asked whether secondary differentiation as the 
 author understands it would require the establishment of sep- 
 arate high schools that would correspond to these different 
 individual attitudes. It will be seen later that for speciali- 
 zation on the high school level, separate schools may com- 
 mend themselves; but where secondary education is con- 
 sidered an intermediate step toward higher culture, sepa- 
 ration would seem inadvisable. 
 
 Even when there are pronounced promptings in this or 
 that direction the wisest course would be not to allow the 
 student to devote himself to special studies too exclusively 
 at this stage, to the exclusion of general culture, notwith- 
 standing what has been said before. Crazes and fads should 
 be temporary. 
 
 It is especially the plasticity and immaturity of the adoles- 
 cent mind, its frequent conversions and sudden transforma- 
 tions which should make us cautious. 
 
 Indeed, it would be equally unwise to force a young man 
 or girl of this age into studies which are distasteful to him or 
 her. There must be discreet acquiescence, at least temporar- 
 ily, and tactful guidance, and above all: patience. While 
 special provisions may be made for such particular cases, 
 there may not even be any need of special courses. We may 
 group the students as to age, maturity, and companionship, 
 and in other ways which would present themselves to the 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 329 
 
 executive wisdom of the principal of the school, for the pur- 
 pose of convenient handling. But otherwise, we may teach 
 the same subjects to the different types of mind in the same 
 class as long as the teacher knows how to individualize so 
 as to bring out each student's best effort, and to make each 
 one a factor in the development of those broad elements of 
 culture which are indispensable to all. Each student will 
 then be allowed to do the work in the way he likes best, 
 and can do best, and he will contribute to the common lesson 
 what interests him most from his point of view. This very 
 co-operation of all will prevent anyone's becoming too nar- 
 row or superficial, and there will be wholesome competition 
 mingled with the spirit of mutual respect and appreciation 
 of the different individual standpoints and talents — a very 
 valuable gain on the ethical side, to be sure. 
 
 Respect for the individual attitude implies, of course, a 
 valuing of results from the individual standpoint. There 
 must be a certain elasticity in the requirements for examina- 
 tions and graduation. 
 
 One other point demands attention. Of all the differen- 
 tiations taking place at this stage, the sexual differentiation 
 is the most marked and momentous. There is not only a 
 change taking place in maturity and aptitude, but essentially 
 in emotional attitude. The girl of 15 is much more different 
 from the boy of 15, than is a girl of 12 from the boy of 12, 
 or the boy of 15 from the boy of 12. Should not this dif- 
 ferentiation be recognized in high school work? 
 
 The justifiable tendency to give woman as perfect an edu- 
 cation as man has enjoyed thru ages of woman's disfran- 
 chisement, has induced us to treat girls as if they were boys, 
 to urge them thru the same instructional grist mill which 
 grinds out our male citizens. In many instances the effect 
 has been that boys were treated as if they were girls ; in other 
 words, in the effort to fit the course to an average non-sex- 
 ual standard, the best interests of the boys were sacrificed, 
 and there happened what the author called elsewhere a 
 "femalization of public school education." At any rate, 
 there has been a great disregard everywhere of the special 
 needs of the two sexes. I do not by any means plead for a 
 
33o THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 complete separation of the sexes in school, for co-education 
 has many advantages and is the natural condition; neither 
 do I wish to recommend a curtailment of the girls' oppor- 
 tunities. But the girls of high school age need such train- 
 ing as is best suited to their particular wants, and which 
 would correspond to their special functions and sphere of 
 activity without barring out the possibility of special pro- 
 fessional training. 
 
 To the author's mind, a girls' course which would appeal 
 to, and educate, the female instincts, should lay special 
 stress first of all upon a proper training of the emotions, 
 thru literature and history. Thru literature, the girl will 
 be introduced to character study which is the best foundation 
 for psychologic insight. With woman, this insight will re- 
 main largely intuitive, and literature is the best means to 
 cultivate, deepen, and mature this intuitive power. History 
 will mediate to the girl the ideals of civilization such as have 
 found expression not only in the large life of communities 
 and nations, but in the family circle whose inspiration was 
 basic in all civilizatory efforts and developments. It is 
 woman's share and function to inspire man to action, and 
 this function is expressed largely thru the medium of those 
 emotional ties which create the home. Woman is the home- 
 maker, and the arts of home-making should stand foremost 
 in the girl's course as it commends itself to me. A beauti- 
 ful, bright home is a wonderful thing, and the cultivation of 
 beauty thru art is one of the methods of acquiring the skill 
 to create one. But there must be more substantial verities 
 to enter into this precious fabric to make it real and durable. 
 A home cannot thrive on sunlight and moonshine only. The 
 hard facts of daily life must be mastered, and the battle with 
 those little things that compose human existence must be 
 waged. Domestic science, sewing, and the knack of house- 
 keeping are indispensable factors in the training of the young 
 girl. And she should study mathematics, too, as a counter- 
 weight to overstrained romantic tendencies perhaps — or rath- 
 er to train her in logical thinking or, if you please, in order 
 to enable her to keep the household accounts straight. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Wright Sewall, as president of the Interna- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 331 
 
 tional Council of Women, Indianapolis, in a symposium in the 
 October, 1899, "Chatauquan", said with regard to the ed- 
 ucation of her own sex: 
 
 "In fundamentals, I would not differentiate the education 
 of woman from that of man at all. I think what is good for 
 man is good for the development of the same fiber in the other. 
 In advanced education I would differentiate woman, educa- 
 tion from that of man by giving her more of history and phil- 
 osophy. I would give her more history because she will get 
 less of the value of history thru her contact with life than 
 man will thru his. I would give her more philosophy for 
 three reasons: First, her habits of life will probably give 
 her more time in loneliness, which to the untrained mind is 
 almost certain to induce a habit of day-dreaming and mental 
 idling. Second, the habit of mind induced by philosophical 
 study results in larger patience and surer fortitude, quali- 
 ties which woman particularly needs. Third, as her life is 
 likely to be given to details, and to the details of relatively 
 small matters, she needs the horizon and inspiration derived 
 from considering large general questions such as those which 
 are the subject of philosophy. Practically, I would dif- 
 ferentiate her education by giving her more natural science, 
 that her more limited contact with human life may be sup- 
 plied by quick perception of the relationships and resources 
 of nature." 
 
 One caution must be added with regard to our endeavors 
 to give our girls the best possible education. Their organ- 
 ism is much more delicate than the boys' ; and especially dur- 
 ing the adolescent period the girl needs much care, and dis- 
 creet attention. This warning is given by H. S. Curtis:* 
 
 "Woman has such severe drains upon her energy . . . 
 that in physical and intellectual achievements she has ever 
 been the inferior of man. She may not be inferior in capacity, 
 but she is in ability to endure protracted labors. The effect 
 of excessive brain activity is most disastrous of all. . . . 
 Mitchell, after commenting on the sad state of health of the 
 American girl, lays the blame to the schools. He says: 'I 
 
 *"Ii hibition," Ped. Sem., VI, I. 
 
332 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 firmly believe, and I am not alone in this opinion, that as 
 concerns the physical future of women, they would do far 
 better if the brain were very lightly tasked, and the school 
 hours but three or four a day until they reach the age of 17 
 at least.' " 
 
 Every young woman, however, should be a graduate in 
 housekeeping, as it were. Norwegian girls must be educated 
 in household duties and render proof thereof before they are 
 allowed to marry. Taking a suggestion from Helene Lange, 
 E. A. Fabarius proposes in "Die allgemeine Dienstpflicht" to 
 require by law of every normal girl of 18 years of age, three 
 years' service in housework, nursing, sewing, etc., correspond- 
 ing to the obligatory army service of the men.* 
 
 Woman's work were not complete did it not include ma- 
 ternal functions. Truly, motherhood is the crowning glory 
 of woman's life, and if she has no children of her own, she will 
 bestow that tenderness and educational intuition which are 
 inherent in her nature, upon other women's children, as nurse, 
 or governess, or teacher, or friend. But intelligent mother- 
 hood does not come by instinct alone. There is need of care- 
 ful training also in this direction. Every high school course, 
 at least, for girls should include some sort of pedagogic prep- 
 aration, some instruction in the handling of children, a kind 
 of kindergarten course of a more general character, perhaps, 
 leaving out the specially professional exercises. The girls 
 should be given abundance of opportunity to assume responsi- 
 bilities in taking care of younger children, at recess, on excur- 
 sions, and the like. Similar provisions, by the way, should be 
 made for boys — intelligent fatherhood is about as rare as in- 
 telligent motherhood. 
 
 Mental overstrain is apt to work much mischief at this 
 period, as we have seen. This should not be so construed as 
 to mean that there be only perfunctory work done, in a 
 dawdling, frolicsome sort of way. Not at all. This is also 
 the time for concentration of attention, and many suffer, 
 not from overstrain, but from lack of concentrated effort 
 in regular intervals. There must be intense work done by 
 
 *"Notes abroad," Ped. Sem., VI, 1. 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 333 
 
 both boys and girls, at the proper periods and in due 
 proportion. But this strain should not be prolonged un- 
 duly, and must be supplemented by physical exercises, 
 sports, and gymnastics, so as to develop their youthful bodies 
 to their full strength and to supple springiness, that they may 
 be the ready tools of elastic, energetic minds. 
 
 In what manner, then, does a real high school distinguish 
 itself from a special school, a trade school, a technical school, 
 a commercial school of like grade? 
 
 We may perhaps express the difference between the two 
 classes of secondary schools in this wise: a high school is an 
 institution for the imparting of higher culture, commensurate 
 to the individual mental attitude of adolescent students, and 
 affords a training preparatory to further specialization on a 
 higher level. The special high school, on the other hand, 
 is an institution for the finishing of a life preparation along 
 specially defined aptitudes; — it affords opportunity for 
 elementary differentiation. It is for those who are either 
 incapable of higher culture, or whose life aim to on the plane 
 of rapid adaptation to "practical" pursuits; or who are pre- 
 vented by some cause from attaining to the realization of the 
 best that is in them. 
 
 Much discussion has arisen of late as to whether in the 
 high school a difference should be made in the training of 
 those pupils who expect to go to college, and those who do 
 not. While the reader may be reminded of what has been 
 said in the beginning of this chapter as to the folly of retro- 
 active courses of study, and as to each stage of a child's devel- 
 opment demanding a treatment responding to the natural 
 wants of this period, some other consideration may be allowed 
 to enter into the discussion. A "preparatory" pupil, that is 
 to say, one who expects to prepare himself in the high school 
 for a college course, will study languages, modern and an- 
 cient, with a view of using them as tools in his college work, 
 for gaining culture thru the study of literature, science, and 
 philosophy. The "non-preparatory" pupil, on the other hand, 
 the one whose career will probably end with the high school 
 course, should approach these same languages in a different 
 way. He must be inspired by the humanistic side of language 
 
334 THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 
 
 study now t as there will be no later opportunity. Out of his 
 language work he must derive the literary, artistic and ethical 
 influences which the preparatory pupil will enjoy later on, 
 on the college level. The non-preparatory high school pupil 
 will have to sacrifice some of the drill in correctness and fa- 
 cility so as to have the full benefit of the culture value of 
 language study at this stage. This view of the two currents 
 of educational effort which are supposed to run side by side 
 in the work of the high school, involves indeed an interest- 
 ing aspect of the problem. 
 
 It may perhaps be claimed, with some degree of justice, 
 that the distinction between preparatory and non-preparatory 
 pupils refers rather to the differentiation between high schools 
 proper and the secondary special schools of which mention 
 has been made. And it would surely be unwise to emphasize 
 the difference between these two classes of students so 
 strongly that readjustments to changing attitudes and as- 
 pirations were futilized. Whenever a prospective preparatory 
 pupil, having been confined to narrower limits, should find 
 that he cannot, or cares not to, go to college, his high school 
 education will have largely failed of its purpose. Prof. Dewey 
 says of the function of the high school : 
 
 "It must on the one hand serve as a connecting link be- 
 tween the lower grades and the college, and it must, upon the 
 other, serve as a final stage, as itself the people's college, to 
 those who do not intend to go, or who do not go to college." 
 
 It seems that a student who has received a good all-around 
 high school education, will prove to be the best possible ma- 
 terial for college. 
 
 Broadly speaking, the high school stands for the adolescent 
 part of what has been called a liberal education. The follow- 
 ing inspiriting paragraph from an editorial in Appleton's Pop- 
 ular Science Monthly, of January, 1900, will fitly close this 
 argument : 
 
 "A liberal education, let it be thoroly understood, is not 
 one which delivers over an individual to the dominant influ- 
 ences of his place and time, whatever they may be, but one 
 which enables him to react, when necessary, against such in- 
 fluences under the guidance of wider views and deeper prin- 
 
THE CAREER OF THE CHILD 335 
 
 ciples. It is an illiberal education, let it embrace what it may, 
 which simply equips a man for exploiting for his own benefit 
 the conditions and tendencies which he finds prevailing in 
 the society around him ; and too much of what passes for lib- 
 eral education has, we fear, had no better result. . . . 
 Let our colleges and universities see to it that they under- 
 stand 'a liberal education' in the right sense." 
 
it I ^ I » 
 
One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
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