te^ 1.-9 f'?? Rnn V. H ^ CoBliglitlS'" CORMGHT DEPOSm THE UNSEEN SIDE OF CHILD LIFE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO THE UNSEEN SIDE OF CHILD LIFE For the Guardians of Young Children BY ELIZABETH HARRISON Author of *A Study of Child-Nature/' "Misunderstood Children/' "When Children Err," "In Story Land/' "Some Silent Teachers/' Etc. "The day of days, the feast-day of life, is when the inner eye opens to the unity of things." — Ralph Waldo Emebson. l^W YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1922 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Copyright, 1922 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1922. FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY NEW YORK CITY JAN 25 1922 ©r,!.A654370 -^^ . I this book is dedicated to Belle Woodson fob whom my love has steadily increased dubin€ the twenty yeaes we have lived together. Chicago, Elizabeth Haeeison. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 9 Processional 12 Visitors from the Outside World . 24 Mastering the Machine 61 The Invisible Bridge 90 The Child's Art World 119 Recessional 156 Present Day Tendencies 163 THE UNSEEN SIDE OF CHILD LIFE INTKODUCTION It is an acknowledged fact among the leaders in the educational world that there are three mighty forces upon which civiliza- tion depends. They are inherited ability,* right kind of environment,t and the develop- ing will-power in man, which latter may be so strengthened and trained that it recog- nizes whatever is best in the disposition or talent inherited and will make use of the environing conditions which aid in the de- velopment of these best inherited character- istics. But the will-power of the individual cannot develop alone but must receive from the social whole, and in return give to the social whole or community of which it is a * In my " Study of Child Nature '* I have endeavored to show how to encourage the better inherited instincts. t In my " Two Children of the Foot Hills " I have related how I made use of environment in helping two little children to realize themselves as part of a eocial whole. 9 10 Unseen Side of Child Life part the best it has to give. This will-power, therefore, in man is the most important of these three great forces. It is called by various names : " self-activity," " self-mak- ing," " auto education," " character build- ing," " ideal end," " freedom," and so on. Last, but not least, by those whose faith has increased to insight, it is designated as the " divine element in humanity," which trans- forms men from mere animal life into sons of God. The purpose of this book is to show that much may be done to free children from many of the limitations of inherited traits and too confined an environment, and to give to each young life some of the joy of the inner growth of will-power, as well as the muscular control of the body, both of which rightly belong to the realm of child- hood. I once heard a superintendent of the pub- lic schools of a large city say to an assembly of six or seven hundred teachers, " Of course, we do not expect a little child in the kindergarten to obey any law but his own caprice, and we do not expect much voluntary obedience in the first grade. But somewhere, somehow, between the end of the Processional 11 first grade and the end of the high school, every boy and girl should have learned how. to submit his or her will to the law of the school and the law of the land, else he or she will be sent out into the world an unde- sirable citizen/' This is foolishness, unless he meant coer- cion when he said obedience, and yet co- ercion, if necessary, should begin in the nursery. In fact, it has to begin there. What I hope to show is how it may begin BO early that the child In arms may learn that there are certain things which he must not do. For upon this matter-of-course obedience to necessary laws, depends the foundation of health, of family harmony, of business honesty, of patriotic citizenship and of a reasonable religion. 12 Unseen Bide of Child Life PROCESSIONAE Just across the way from my home, is a large open space, near the center of which stands an old oak tree. Its twisted and gnarled branches tell of the many storms through which it has passed, and its straight, sturdy trunk tells of how it has mastered the tempest and has gone on grow- ing. Now, in its old age, it reveals an inspiring story of oak-tree life, for we all know that deep down under the ground are the roots which gave to it the strength and nourishment it needed to make it a noble specimen of the oak-tree race. We know that the trunk and the branches, the twigs and the leaves and shining acorns could not have grown and matured without the help of these unseen, often unthought of, tiny root fibers below the ground. They have continuously received nourishment from the mysterious power which Mother Earth gives. We know not how, but we do know that the thousands of forms of tree-life are dependent upon this same invisible power for growth, each after its own kind. Tree Processional 13 surgeons tell us that any injury done to these unseen rootlets and any lack of proper soil for these same rootlets to absorb and transform into tree-life, lessens and mars the beauty and symmetry of the tree which we see above ground. This is only an analogy, it is true. Yet is it not through the visible world and the laws which govern it that we get glimpses of the invisible spiritual world and its laws? Every insight into the ethical as well as into the religious world we receive or we com- municate through the analogies of language. We speak of a " straight " man when we mean an honest man ; of a " warm heart " when we mean a sympathetic nature. We speak of the " bent twig " when we tell of the warped life of a misunderstood child. So, too, we have been taught by the Great Teacher to say "Our Father" when we speak of the Infinite Creative Power that awakens reverence and quickens prayer and praise. Comfort and consolation come to the sorrowing heart when the spirit of some loved one has laid aside its earthly body and there come to the mind these words : " In my Father's house are many mansions: If it were not so, I would have told you." 14 Unseen Bide of Child Life Let, us, therefore, return to the unspeak- ably great and significant lesson given us by this marvelous analogy between the life of man and the life of the tree; yet how blindly w^e stumble on in the greater work of caring for and nurturing the unseen side of child-life! Do we not all know parents who seem to think healthy bodies, fairly comfortable surroundings and as much freedom as is compatible with adult comfort are all that a child needs? Do we not all know that in thousands of homes too little thought is given to the guiding of the affections and emotions towards a sympathetic love for the best and most beautiful in this wonder- ful world of created things? Do we not all know mothers and fathers who have failed to discern the tiny, embry- onic efforts of the will in an infant strug- gling to express himself? Were it not so, we would have in our nurseries more balls to roll or toss, more blocks with which to build, more rag dolls which the child could dress and undress, more low-hung black- boards on which the tiny hands could learn to scrawl, rather than expensive ready- made, mechanical toys or flimsy, cheap ones Processional 15 that are destroyed in a few days. In our back yards or on our side porches, we would have a swing or a climbing ladder, or a trapeze, or a sand box, or a jar of modeling clay instead of formal gardens that the child must not disturb, for we would realize that will-power strengthens and develops aright when allowed to master, transform and create with the materials by which it is surrounded. Do we not all know guardians of child- life who do not realize that one of the chief duties of the guardianship of the spiritual life of a child is to help him to change the chaos of sensations which greet him at birth into clear-cut, mental images such, as life's problems multiply, will reveal to his reason- ing power a well ordered, law-abiding uni- verse? Distinct speech aids this intel- lectual grasp of life and a willing obedience to its demands more than any other factor. We all rebel unless we have some compre- hension of why we must obey the laws of health, of time, of home routine, of com- munity life, and these greater laws of the growth of the soul. The sooner the child understands the meaning of words, the Booner he can begin to understand the ex- 16 Unseen Side of Child Life planation of these laws. We shall consider this important subject more fully later on. As we consider the " embryonic impulses " in very young children we realize more and more the suggestive and picturesque name " root fibers of the soul," which Froebel has given to the feeling, willing and thinking powers of the young child, faculties which distinguish him from the lower orders of animal life. We know that in animals there is a reaction of motor-nerves to sensory-impressions and we are by no means sure that there is not some dim foreshadow- ing of the same in plant life. Froebel, with his training as a forester, speaking to the village peasant mothers about him, who w^ere familiar with the care of plant life, w^as wise in calling these " embryonic im- pulses " of the child the " root fibers of the soul." He thus, by analogy, emphasizes the spiritual significance of these early impulses. I know of no other leader recog- nized in the pedagogical world who does this. I think it is the frequent use of anal- ogy in interpreting the spiritual life of man that has caused the kindergarten world to take a religious tone, which Dr. Stanley Hall has wittily called " Froebelolatry." Processional 17 Kindergartners have learned to discern the infinite in the seemingly trivial matter of every-day life of the young child who has not yet learned to conceal his emotions and desires, or to cover up the struggle which goes on between the higher and the lower impulses. It is the same insight which has caused many a thoughtless young mother to fall upon her knees and pray for strength and wisdom to realize the greatness and sacredness of motherhood. I have had many and many a mother come to me with beaming face and say, in substance, "Oh I I am learning so much patience and wisdom from the new meaning that I see in my child's play." A splendidly trained woman once said to me " My college training has to retire into the background. My nursery with my two children in it is now giving me a university course.'' I laughingly assured her that the two courses would soon cooperate. Almost any other kindergartner could tell you of the same enthusiastic in- terest awakened in the mothers of her Mothers' Classes. For the true meaning of insight is that it sees through the seen thing into the unseen. It brings the invisible side 18 Unseen Side of Child Life of life so close that little or no doubt re- mains as to its divine, immortal significance. It seems strange to me that with the recent widespread and important interest in the physical development of children that there has been shown so little reference to the growth of the spiritual life of the child, or, to use a pedagogical term, " the psychologi- cal dawn of his emotional life.'' For upon the wise understanding of this depends much of his sympathy with humanity, his desire for harmony and his love of true beauty as well as his reverence for God. It is equally incomprehensible to me why the will-power in the infinitesimal mani- festations of babyhood is not better under- stood when the development of character depends almost entirely upon the growth of a strong will-power which is ready, never- theless, to submit to just laws even though they demand subordination of one's personal preferences, and to demand of one's self the performance of a duty no matter how tax- ing it may be. This, as we all know, is the essence of strong personal character. A more definite idea of what are the essentials of education is much needed. I have told elsewhere of the man who adver- Processional 19 tised that he had three daughters to be edu- cated and that he would pay a thousand dol- lars a year or more, if need be, for each if he could get the right kind of school for them. He added that he required but three things: namely, that they should leave school with well bodies, with a conscious- ness of their own ignorance, and with a de- sire to learn. This sounds very fine and up-to-date, but how pitifully inadequate it is when we think of the many demands of life for which education should prepare the child. What is it that develops the higher life of the individual? What is it that suffer- ing humanity most needs as it blunders along from one mistake to another? To bring the thought closer home, what are the characteristics you and I love most in our friends? Are they not the loving, sym- pathetic understanding of" little children and the tender care of the aged? Is it not their generous and ready appreciation of excellence in others? Are they not the friends who are unfailing in their demands upon themselves as to sincerity and loyalty to duty? How lenient they are to our limi- tations! Yet, in some subtle way, are they 20 Unseen Side of Child Life not continually holding us up to our best selves? Are such friends as these educated merely to care for their health and to have a desire for more intellectual growth? How the trappings of mere wealth or learning fall away and the true worth of the individual shines forth when we contem- plate such characters ! Not but that wealth, learning, social rank, buoyant health and personal charm add much to the possessor's influence and for a while may attract more than the higher, more sterling virtues. But in time, the soul seeks the true man or woman and history accords the highest places to these possessors of the eternal verities. There is no other explanation of homage paid by succeeding generations to Moses, the leader of a wandering and apparently insignificant tribe of escaped slaves; to Homer, the blind beggar, journeying about from city to city, in ancient Greece, singing his songs of the ways of gods and men; to the humble fisherman and the obscure tent- maker, under whose teaching proud and profligate Rome forgot her glut of gold and her lust for power, and, as the centuries rolled by learned to seek the successors of Processional 21 Peter and the writings of Paul for spiritual guidance and help. Again, we see the im- mortal Dante, a poverty-stricken exile, re- jected by his own city and despised by his contemporaries. The highest Christian authorities and the keenest theological intel- lects have learned to turn to him now for the marvelous pictures of the human soul making for itself a Heaven or Hell here and now, as well as hereafter. We see the same recognition of true worth on down through the ages to Huss and Wycklif, to Luther and Savonarola, to Wesley and John Knox and, nearer and nearer to our own time to Washington and Pitt, Lincoln and Glad- stone, and to hundreds of scientists and doc- tors, to teachers and preachers, each of whom has tried to help mankind to know the laws of the eternal God and to obey them. Need I speak of the great Christ Jesus, son of an obscure Nazarene carpenter, who in the brief period of thirty-three years so manifested the meaning of the divine in human life that he taught the everlasting truths concerning God, eternity, and man's immortality, truths which caused the re- ligions and gods that had been handed dovrn 22 Unseen Side of Child Life for five thousand or more years, from Egyptian despots, through Greek intellect- uals and Roman empire-makers, to be swept out of European civilization and which caused the Christ-life and Christ-teaching to become the foundation of all that is best in what the world calls civilization? This is not the place to argue concerning my dogma or your theology. I am speaking now of the influence which Christ has had upon the life of the world, whether we look upon Him as incarnate God or a human life that had the vision of the Divine ideal. Does not the old orthodox catechism be- gin with the words : " The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever"? What do we mean by " to glorify God " or "enjoy Him forever''? Right here is the difficulty. Here is where the mother's most important work comes in. She should feel herself to be God's assistant in leading her children to enjoy Him. This is not a mysterious something that she may not understand. We have been given a well-defined statement of what she is to teach in every way she can, by personal example and by gentle suggestion. Saint Paul has described the " fruits of the spirit " Processional 23 as ^^ love, peace, joy, long suffering, gentle- ness, goodness, faith, meekness and temper- ance." This attitude toward life brings the joy of obeying and serving. Is not this the meaning of the formal statement of the old catechism? It is because we do not realize that the beginning of all these love-engendering, peace-producing virtues are in the nursery that we chill young hearts or warp young wills by our "lust for power.'' We dull their ability to think by doing their thinking for them; we neglect to give them opportunity to grow strong. We do not let them, when- ever it is possible, make their own choice as to what is right; and then, when they have grown into manhood and womanhood, we wonder why they are not truer, stronger men and women and why religion plays no vital part in their lives. VISITORS FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD I Out of the warm, dark silence of his mother's womb the child comes into a world of countless sensations or attacks upon the sense organ of sight, of sound, of touch, of taste, of smell. No wonder that his first manifestations in response to this new world are a struggle and a cry, — the first faint dawn of the bodily activity and of language. " But all animals have these same manifesta- tions,'' says the skeptic. " Yes " ; and yet to the believer in the divine nature of man and in the immortality of his spirit they mean more. Froebel calls them " hints from Heaven unto the mother given." The thoughtful mother can easily trace the steady growth from mere animal cry to fretful tones of impatience, to wrathful tones of anger, to pitiful tones of injury, to purring tones of pleasure and cooing tones of delight, as her child develops his human nature as distinct from his animal 24 Visitors from the Outside WorZcZ 25 nature. All these manifestations sliow the existence of an emotional life in the child which is beyond the mere sensation of com- fort or discomfort, although in the begin- ning they are closely related to these agree- able or disagreeable physical conditions. It is this God-given instinct in the mother that makes her coddle her infant in a tender embrace and speak to him in loving tones and smile coaxingly when she looks down into his eyes until she wins an answering smile. But it may be said this is simply " mother instinct.^' The cow licks her new-born calf; the hen clucks to her baby chicks. True; and some human mothers do little more. If, however, the mere " mother instinct " is il- luminated by the thought of the divine des- tiny of man, it becomes insight, and she sees through the inarticulate cry and restless tossing of her infant's limbs the call for help to master his body and to learn to articulate in order that he may begin to live his human life and not merely that of an animal. These physical manifestations common to all babies are the summons to the mother to come and assist her child in creating a world of order out of the chaos 26 Unseen Bide of Child Life of sensations awakened by things around him and to lead him into human speech as soon as possible. It is through the senses that the right use of the body and of human language must rouse the child's inner life. There is nothing great accomplished in this world without faith in its greatness. Even if her mind has not yet reached this clear definite insight into the meaning of true motherhood, let the mother hold on to her faith that her child has an immortal destiny and that she is here to nurture his higher instincts for that destiny. This holding of an ideal or standard of life begins with the faintly conscious will- activity of infancy. It is these " root fibers of the soul," so often unnoticed, so seldom understood and yet so important in the nourishing of the right attitude toward life which by and by will develop genuine religion in the heart — that religion which recognizes in its deeds as well as in its emo- tions the brotherhood of man and the father- hood of God. But it must begin in the heart. It can begin nowhere else, and thus aroused, it must be allowed sincerity of ex- pression. This is why it is best to keep the infant in a calm, happy mood in general, yisitors from the Outside World 27 but to let liim learn also that tliere are laws that even he can understand and must obey. The first time that a child becomes con- scious that his mother or any one whom he has trusted has lied to him, the seeds of doubt of God are sown in his soul, and in a dim way, he becomes conscious that speech may be false. This is long before he can express himself in words. Have you not seen some adult tell an untruth to a young child, and then noticed how quickly he turns his questioning eyes to his mother's face? I was present one day when a young mother was feeding candy to her baby. I modestly remonstrated on the amount she was giving him. She hid it behind her on the chair in which she w^as sitting. The child reached out for more. The mother said, "All gone. The candy is all gone." The child, who could not yet talk, demanded by gesture that he w^anted more of the sw^eet sensation. The mother held up her hands, shook her dress and continued to say "All gone." In the meantime, she motioned to her husband to put the box farther away. The child, not yet a year old, evidently sus- pected something. He sat up on the bed, reached over and, catching her arm, began 28 Unseen Side of Child Life searching lier blouse and skirt. If a child cannot trust those who are nearest to him, how hard it will be to lead him to trust an all- wise, all-loving, all-truthful but invisible God! This is not the place in which to discuss lying to children or deceiving them in any way. It is too large a subject for discus- sion here. The above is given to show how important it is that all sense-impressions should be as clear and definite as possible, as these lead to distinct mental images. II A'ccurate mental images are formed through the right exercise of the senses; even the very young child begins to note form, color, motion and the various other properties of objects about him. This is easily proved by the baby's trying to stop a moving object and trying to move an object at rest, by reaching out for a red or yellow or other gaily colored ball and ignoring the blue and purple ones. Of course, the time of the baby's beginning to connect the pleasant or unpleasant sensa- tions with the objects varies with different [Visitors from the Outside World 29 children, but it comes much earlier than most people are aware. The child begins as the race began, first by accidental discovery of the properties of matter, which leads gradually to learn- ing the laws by which he can use materials about him ; from these he creates new forms and finds new ways of utilizing nature's forces. Man accidentally discovered how glass could be made of melted sand; later he learned to shape the glass into telescopes and microscopes. These reveal the incon- ceivable magnitude of the starry heavens and the undreamed-of conformity to geo- graphical shapes found in the microscopic atoms at the bottom of the sea. Merely to mention what changes physics, mechanics, chemistry, and a score of other scientific studies have made in the life of man, even in our lifetime, would take us too far afield for the purpose of this book. The important point, just now, is how easily the child through his creative work may begin to distinguish between himself as a feeling, willing, thinking being and the unresting waves of the sea, the immov- able rocks of the shore, the silent plants and trees of the hillside, the inarticulate 30 Unseen Side of Child Life beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, which in thousands and thousands of years have not changed voluntarily their habits of life or the kinds of homes in which they live, while the child may change his activi- ties a dozen times within an hour if he so wills. We shall speak more fully of what con- nection this has with the religious life when we come to " creative play " in our study of the value of understanding the deeper meaning of play. Just now, I wish to call attention to the way a mother helps or hin- ders the process which is going on within her child, by means of which, having seen the objects often enough, he learns to recog- nize, i. e., to have a mental image of objects and to note resemblances and then to dis- guish differences between these familiar or unfamiliar objects. This is as near as we have, as yet, traced the awakening of that spiritual process through which man selects the materials he wishes to use and rejects those that will not help him give form to the impressions within him that are urging to be uttered or " outered.'^ Have you not had some idea come into your conscious mind that left you eager and Visitors from the Outside World 31 impatient until you could communicate it to your most congenial friend? It is the same impulse that causes baby's delight in holding up some toy for his mother to ex- press surprise or pleasure concerning it. Why does he at less than a year of age wave his hand " by-by " with pleasure, or play " pat-a-cake '^ when his mother begins to sing it, unless he is beginning to feel the delight of communicating, even when he does not understand the full meaning of these simple gestures? The father's or mother's part is to mani- fest pleasure at this uttering of the inner self, which sensations have awakened, and to add new sensations that will enrich this inner world of his, not too many and not too complex sensations, but enough to keep that dim dawning mind active and at work taking in and giving out, with quiet periods of rest between times. There are many means by which a baby may begin to compare sensations. The child less than two years of age would do much more of it if he were not thoughtlessly checked by his mother or nurse. Let me illustrate an instance of this self-education by means of which the child carries forward 32 Unseen Side of Child Life this inner power of contrasting and judging the world about him. One day, I chanced to be seated in a suburban train opposite two young women w^ho were evidently much occupied by their conversation. Between them stood a little girl about fourteen or fifteen months of age, looking out of the window. In a short time, she turned and gazed, in child fashion, at her mother's friend; then she reached out her little hand and softly caressed the seal- skin of the lady's coat. The sensation evi- dently pleased her and she repeated it several times, stroking the velvet-like fur. Her mother drew the little girl's hand away rather impatiently and said : " Don't do that. It isn't nice." The temptation, how- ever, to repeat this new and delightful sen- sation of touch was too much for the child and in a few moments her hand was travel- ing slowly and caressingly over the sleeve of the sealskin coat. Again the mother pulled the hand down to her side and went on talking to her friend, still holding the little one's hand. As her own grasp re- laxed, the child again reached out and felt of the soft, pretty fur. It was done so quietly and gently, with such a pleased ex- Visitors from the Outside World 33 pression of the face, tliat it seemed to me that anyone ought to have understood the situation, — but in polite society it is not considered proper, I realized, for a child to indulge the sense of touch by actual expe- rience. Therefore, to the mother it evi- dently became a duty to take the child's hand away from the attractive fur. This time somewhat emphatically, with a rather sharp word of rebuke at the " naughtiness " of disobedience she slapped the child's hand. For a short time, the little one, whose con- sciousness of a pleasing touch-sensation had been awakened, ran her fingers back and forth over the woven willow of the seat- back, then it returned to the warm, soft fur of the lady's coat. Again the mother slapped the disobedient hand quite severely. The child's face instantly showed resent- ment at what, to her, w^as an unjust and unnecessary pain inflicted upon her, and she raised her hand to strike back at her mother. Accidentally, it touched the plush of her own little bonnet, and instantly the wounded feelings vanished and an expres- sion of intense astonishment and awakened interest appeared in the child's face. She eagerly smoothed down the soft, silk plush 34 Unseen Side of Child Life for a moment or two and tlien by way of yerifying this wonderful new discovery that two sensations in different localities could be the same, she was impelled to identify it iWith the former experience. She did the most normal and natural thing possible; she reached out and felt the fur. Her expres- sion and manner were those of an inves- tigator with no thought whatever of dis- obedience. The mother, however, did not see it from the child's standpoint. To her the child seemed troublesome and was annoying her friend. She took her down from the seat and placed her on the other side of her, at the same time reproaching her by the use of several unpleasant adjectives. The child at first looked perplexed, then sulky and finally moved away from her mother as far as the space would allow. She had been investigating an amazing, interesting, new world and her mental powers had received the stimulation of suddenly recognizing identical sense-impressions of soft furriness in different localities, and by means of different material. It was a real discovery in the outside world and this revelation was followed by an intense desire to verify thor- Visitors from the Outside World 35 oughly the discovery; but the mother saw none of this and went on talking with her friend about some trivial matter. It was but one illustration of the thousand mis- takes and obstacles that daily hinder the young child's growth, — in acuteness of sense-perception and in development of mental images of judgment and of power to discriminate. This would mean much in some line of work or of pleasure in after life. Mission- aries tell us all primitive tribes of people are in the habit of examining the clothes of visitors, handling them and asking ques- tions about them. It is their instinctive child-way of investigating the new phe- nomena by touch as well as by sight. I do not mean by this, that children should ordinarily be allowed to annoy guests in this way, but I do mean to urge that the " touch hunger " should be taken more into consideration in a child's early experiences. May we not stop here to explain a little more fully that it is the power to contrast and compare things rather than the recog- nition of objects which is educationally im- portant, although the recognition of the object must necessarily come first? 36 Unseen Side of Child Life One valuable contribution which Dr. Montessori has made to education has been her insistence upon the importance of chil- dren being allowed to handle objects. She shows that the sense of touch is the sense which is developed first in the infant and is the most important sense to be developed throughout early childhood, and yet, that it is the one which is oftenest forbidden for the sake of the convenience of grown people. In one of her lectures, she significantly re- marked that if seeing and hearing were as troublesome to the average adults as is the touching of objects by children we would undoubtedly hear parents and teachers say : " Don't see that ! Don't hear that ! '' as often as they say : " Don't touch that ! " This emphasis upon the training of the sense of touch is one of the very strong points, pedagogically considered, in her method. Our own Dr. Dewey long ago pleaded eloquently for the satisfying of this "touch-hunger" of children. Froebel had called our attention to the fact that young children run their fingers around the edge of the table or book thus by touch to help get the shape of objects more clearly fixed in their minds. Visitors from the Outside World 37 However, neither of these had at the time discovered the tools which Dr. Montessorl afterwards found Dr. Seguin had used so well in the arousing and quickening of the minds of defective children, and which she refined, completed and reorganized for use in her Children's Houses in Rome. The phenomenal success, in the almost miracu- lous rapidity with which these children learned to write after feeling the outline of the two-inch long cardboard letters, proved conclusively how much the sense of touch aids the sense of sight in building up mental images. There are many games which may be created for the exercise of this sense and for the other senses also. The child learns through the direction from w^hich a sound comes to distinguish one Bound from another and often one voice from another. The winter that I was studying in Rome, Dr. Montessori had a set of bells, or rather gongs, fastened to a low table. When struck by a small hammer, they gave forth the sounds of the scale of C. First one and then another of the children frequently created little melodies by rhythmically com- bining three or four notes. Thus they^ 38 Unseen Side of Child Life learned to listen for melodies when the directress played on the piano. Even more and greater varieties of plays are created by a child's being allowed to see more than one object for a moment and then to let him try to name each object. If such exercises are carried on in the true spirit of the play, they are good for the nursery as well as for the kindergarten and elementary grades, provided, of course, that the nursery games are simpler and have fewer objects. Psy- chologically speaking this is playing with mental images of former sense-impressions. Have you not met people with such acute powers of observation that they could take a street car ride down a familiar street and on returning, recall their experiences so vividly as to hold the most jaded attention of indifferent listeners? Joyce Kilmer, in that charming book " The Circus and Other Essays," has a sketch entitled " Noon-hour Adventuring,'' which tells w^hat James Jones, a country boy with awakened senses and quickened imagination, saw during his noon hours when free fifty minutes from the task by which he earned his living. Does not a part of the enjoyment of for- eign travel consist of gaining fresh sensa- yisitors from the Outside World 39 tions by comparing foreign scenery and customs with our own? Again, much of the difference between skilled and unskilled workmen in any line of work is largely due to the sense-percep- tion on the part of the skilled worker and the haziness of the sense-impression of the unskilled worker. The slightest flaw is de- tected by the trained sense of touch of the sculptor. Kodin, the famous French artist, claimed that his power to give the wonder- ful, lifelike effect to his marble came from his having discovered the almost impercep- tible irregularities of surface which the Greeks gave to their statues of the gods. Michael Angelo before him had made use of the same discovery. The story is told of Theodore Thomas that in the middle of a rehearsal he rapped his orchestra into silence and then said in a tone of annoy- ance : " The third string of the seventeenth violin is out of tune." On examining his violin, Number 17 found that the third string of his instrument was not in the right condition. Similar stories are told of great painters and of famous scientists. After this frank acknowledgment of the importance of training a child in sense-per- 40 Unseen Side of Child Life ception, I hope I shall not be misunderstood when I say that to restrict even a young child's play to mere exercise of the body and of the senses is to check his spiritual growth and leave him in the enjoyment of mere sensations that early lead to the life of a sensualist or lead to a dull, prosaic compiler of dull, prosaic facts. Fortu- nately, a child's inner self insists upon the right to be developed and bursts forth in some form of imagination. It is not always realized by mature minds that the imagina- tion, rightly understood, is simply the Ego or inner-self changing and transforming the images brought to it by the senses, so that these images can express the world of dreams and fancies which exist within the child ; and that out of the rightly developed imagination grow the men of creative vision who lead their generation in the great " yet- to-be's" which the mass of men do not be- lieve possible because not yet proved by the senses. James J. Hill, the creator of the North- ern Pacific Kailroad, when he was trying to persuade moneyed men to help him build the Northern Pacific Kailroad, realized the difference between the man with creative Visitors from the Outside World 41 imagination and tlie man lacking in imag- ination. He found that the one saw pros- perous farms, growing towns and crowded cities where the other saw only stretches of untilled prairies, muddy swamps and moun- tain passes. During the past decade, domestic science has slowly and cautiously crept into the best high schools, at first as an optional study for girl pupils. But the appalling ignorance of relative values of foods which the late war has revealed shows how limited has been the influence of this valuable course of study. When the far-seeing imagination of Her- bert Hoover showed what could be accom- plished by saving on the part of each American of one slice of bread per day it became the clarion call to our nation to arise and shake off the sloth and feed the starving millions who were fighting to save the world's ideals. How unprepared we were to give up our surplus sweets and wheats and meats! Why? Was it not that the right guidance of our appetites had not been made in childhood? Long before adult life, an interest in the true purpose of food should have been established. We 42 Unseen Side of Child Life know now how much health and how much money have been wasted on unneeded feed- ing. And it is so easily done in the early, oftentimes, untended years of the child. In many homes, it has been considered an in- significant thing as to just how a child is fed. Thanks to the National Child Wel- fare Movement, this great blunder is being remedied, but we still have many, many families where condiments and stimulants are recklessly given to children, with the mistaken idea of thus being kindly indul- gent to them, and in so many other homes children's capricious preferences for this or that article of food are humored. Let me give you an illustration of how easy it is to appeal to the rational element of a child, even when he is too young to be reasoned with. I was dining one evening with some friends whose little four-year-old son pushed away the plate of meat which had been carefully cut up for him, saying in a fretful tone : " No, I don't want any meat.'' " Oh, Freddie," urged his mother coaxingly, " please eat the meat. Don't jou know the doctor said he wanted you to eat more meat? " " I don't care. I don't like meat, and I won't eat it," was the re- yisitors from the Outside World 43 sponse. " Come, now, Freddie," said the father, " you eat that meat and I'll give you a nickel.'' " I don't want your nickeL" re- plied the boy, pushing the plate a little far- ther away. Again the mother coaxed, and again the father bribed, but evidently the boy had had his own way and did not pro- pose yielding the point, so I concluded I would take a hand in the matter. " Fred,'' I said, "do you know what that little stomach of yours, away down inside of you, will do, if you chew up a piece of that meat and swallow it? " His curiosity was awak- ened and he replied : " No, what? " " Well, if that little stomach could talk, it would say : ^ M-m-m, this is fine ! That boy has sent me down some nice beefsteak, now I can make good bone and muscle out of this, which will help him to run faster.' Then if you should take another piece of steak and chew it up well and swallow it, the stomach would say : ^ M-m-m, here's some more of that nice beefsteak. Now I can make this boy's muscles strong, so that he can climb and jump.' Then, if you sent down another piece of steak, all chewed up, it would say : ' Well, well, well, now, I can get this little fellow so he can run 44 Unseen Side of Child Life very fast, and can soon climb a tree/ '' By this time the child had pulled the plate to him, and had begun eating his steak. A bit more of such humorous nonsense, and the entire amount of meat had been con- sumed with great glee by the boy. It was merely a device, of course, but it gave him a purpose which had not been presented be- fore for eating the meat. He was not mature enough to understand the transfor- mation of food into bone and muscle, but the dramatic presentation of this same thought caught his imagination. At the risk of fatiguing you, I want to give you one more illustration of hindrance of the right development of children which comes from encouraging them to indulge their appetites. I was in one of our lovely parks one afternoon just at sunset time. On a bench near me, sat a young mother, reading a book. Playing about on the grass near her, was her little three-year-old son. In a few moments, the sunset clouds had changed into a marvel of gold and crimson and purple which flooded the landscape with its own glory. The child looked up in wonder and evident admiration. " Look, Mom ! Look ! " he cried, running to her and yisitors from the Outside World 45 pointing to the sunset clouds. She did not lift her eyes from her book but answered, " Yes, yes, run away and play now.'' But the child, longing for sympathy in this new vision of beauty which had so suddenly ap- peared, again pulled at her dress and said : "Look, look up at the sky.'' " Run away and play, dear, mother is reading," came again the response. A third time, the little boy made his appeal. The mother then, in an absent-minded way, laid her book down, picked up a paper bag which was in her lap, took from it a large cream chocolate and stuffed it into the boy's mouth, saying: " There, there, now, dear, don't bother Momie any more." A great educational opportunity to in- crease her child's love of beauty and to share with him this wonderful experience of a glorious sunset was hers. Instead of embracing it, she substituted an opportu- nity to encourage his appetite for sweets between meals. More than this, she was helping him to form the habit of self-indul- gence which is created by an undue catering to the taste for sweets. And yet, I doubt not that this mother would have been as- tounded had I asked her if she considered 46 Unseen Side of Child Life the book she was reading more important than the aesthetic and moral education of her child. Even more than this, she was losing a " psychic moment " when the little one's emotions were deeply stirred by the splen- dor of the pageant of the skies. She could have entered into his feeling of mystery and reverence which the indescribable beauty of the moment had awakened. She could have taken him upon her lap and told him in a few, simple words the story of a shepherd lad, in a land where it was warm enough to live out of doors ; how he learned to love the wonderful sunsets so much that when he was grown he wrote a beautiful poem about the heavens declaring the glory of God. Then she might have added : " For you know, my son, that no man on earth could create one, single sunset, no matter how rich or how great he might be," or some such suggestion that would have helped him to begin to connect the sublime in nature with the emotion of reverence which is the foundation of true religion as well as the check to mere superstition. A great musician has said " Music begins where language ceases." Kather let us say Visitors from the Outside World 47 that music may appeal to a child's emo- tions, may begin long before language is at- tained, for the earliest cradles of the race were rocked in rhyme to sleep. Though modern science now forbids the " rocking " the rhyme may still continue. I had an intimate friend who possessed a remarkably musical voice. So fond of music was she that unconsciously she would hum some simple melody to her baby when the child's sleeping time came. Before the little one was three months old her face would wear a pleased expression when her mother would hum one simple tune. This caused the mother to repeat this particular melody. Within a few months the child began to hum in tune with the mother. Before she was a year old she could hum three different tunes. The mother would begin the first bar of the music and the child would continue the melody alone. The daughter is now sixteen years old, and is in no way a musical genius. But music is one of the joys of her life and she plays with much feeling. Dr. W. C. Bagley has defined a cultured person as one who sees through the deeper meaning of the common things of life. In 48 Unseen Side of Child Life order to attain unto this insight one must have learned the relative values of activi- ties. Valuable as may be this or that method of teaching, or of home training, one must always keep the end to be attained in sight. All methods and devices are but means to an end and necessarily must vary with different children. This is one reason why all teachers should have some knowl- edge of and love for the great poets, musi- cians and other artists of the world as well as methods. Even " projects and plans '^ may be overdone. A good illustration of this is shown by the use of the piano, not only to train the child's voice in singing, but as a means of impressing him pleasantly and imperson- ally with the presence of what Froebel calls " the invisible third,'' which means simply this : that in every life there should come a comprehension of an impartial, impersonal law of right which commands obedience regardless of your or my individual incli- nations. In the school room the piano can com- mand silence on the part of the teacher as well as of the children, or can command cessation of work, the beginning of marches Yisitors from the Outside World 49 and the ending of the same, fast and slow, time, etc. When children are marching, skipping, or otherwise expressing them- selves they instinctively obey the piano. This may seem a trifling device or it may be so used as to be the harsh arbitrary com- mand of the teacher, but if she has the right insight as Dr. Bagley defines it, she can so use the piano as to have it teach the children to obey law promptly and gladly, as well as to love good music. A friend of mine gave me an amusing ac- count of her little four-year-old boy, who was playing kindergarten by himself at home one afternoon. He had been at work with some blocks on his play table. He sud- denly arose, walked to the piano and softly touched one or two of the keys. Then came back, sat down in his chair and folded his arms, as was the custom in the kinder- garten that he attended. He sat perfectly quiet for a minute or two, then rising, he walked again to the piano, struck another chord, then came back to his seat and began putting away his work. He had learned to obey " the voice of the piano " in the kin- dergarten and part of his reproduction of his morning's experience was his delight in 50 Unseen Side of Child Life this prompt obedience to its impersonal command. I frankly acknowledge that this is a somewhat arbitrary use of the piano. It, nevertheless, is a very effectual instru- ment for commanding obedience, if the teacher herself has suffiicent power of im- agination to separate herself from it in the minds of the children. But the piano does much more than this. It can be the means of stirring the emotions, or of quieting rest- less discontent; or, deep joy and profound reverence may be awakened by it. Unless we except the tones of the well- trained voice, there is no other means which can so arouse the full gamut of human emo- tions as does music. In fact, music goes far beyond words. Our military bands prove this and so do our church organs, not to mention the effect of the sweetness of a violin solo or of a piano when played well :^ith a sympathetic touch. In one of the many admirable articles concerning the training of little children, sent out by the National Kindergarten As- sociation, Mrs. Jean Barrett, a mother who has had the kindergarten training, gives the following examples of how music in the Visitors from the Outside World 51 home sweetens the mood, lightens labor, and works off unhealthy emotions. "A little girl who was very miserable and managed to make mother or nurse most unhappy all through the process of hair- dressing and getting into bothersome clothes, would submit most graciously if mother sang *My motlier bids me bind my hair, With knot of fairest hue; Tie up my sleeves with ribbon rare, And lace my bodiice blue. For, why, she says, sit still and weep While others are at play?* an adaptation of Hayden's beautiful air." She tells how another mother learned to help her little boy work off some of his stormy fits of temper by going to the piano and playing some stormy, impetuous bit, like Schumann's " Wild Eider.'' The boy did not know why this was done, but he felt the mood of the music because it exactly fitted his own, and he would career around the room like a veritable wild pony, until his emotion, which might have worked in- jury to himself and others, had spent itself in this harmless way. She then adds these two interesting stories : " My sister remembers that even as a child 52 Unseen Side of Child Life she recognized this power of music to bring sweetness out of temper. She was very angry one day with a sense of some injustice done to her and in this mood started to play her beloved piano. As she did this, she realized that if she played she would soon cease to be angry and not being ready to give up her resentful mood, she rejected the gentle ministry of music and went to her room to nurse her unhappiness. "As an incitement to bravery, music has often been used in the home. A little boy much afraid of the dark would go upstairs to a dark room for mother when she played a strong march for him as he wxnt." While the kindergartner's opportunity comes later than that of the mother, she has the same responsibility to see that the children under her care are given the oppor- tunity for " full and all-sided development " to enable them to understand and appreci- ate the products of true art. Many children will come to her without having experienced in the home any of the delight in music which might have been theirs, and to her will fall the duty of awakening the first loving emotion for sweet sounds. Who that has ever witnessed the happi- Visitors from the Outside World 53 ness of little cliildren in the poorer, less con- ventional districts of a large city when they hear a street hand organ can doubt that music should be regarded as a beneficent influence in life and not as an accomplish- ment to be cultivated only by those of more than ordinary endowment? When the kin- dergartner says : " Who will sing our new song for us alone? " how often it is that the little fellow who cannot yet carry a tune eagerly responds, especially if mother is there to hear? If teacher and mother are wise, there will be no expression of surprise or dissent; for the correctness or lack of correctness in carrying the tune just now is not to be compared with the inner urge which makes the child want to express him- self in this new and delightful way. Of all the sensations that come to quicken the life within, good music brings perhaps the best and quickest appreciation of love for the beautiful. This alone should give it a place in the education of every child and a part of the time of every adult. It is the most universal of all arts. Our Protestant churches are just beginning to comprehend the added hold which the Roman Catholic Church has upon its wor- 54 Unseen Side of Child Life Bliiping members by its appeal to them through beautiful music that awakens the more exalted emotions. I was one morning inspecting one of our free kindergartens in a very destitute dis- trict, when, soon after the singing began, a woman opened the door, entered quietly and sat down. Over her head was a worn shawl of the cheap order usually seen upon women who are in very limited financial condition. Wrapped in part of the shawl, she carried a ten-months-old infant. To my surprise, the director of the kindergarten seemed to take no notice of her other than with a slight welcoming nod. The woman sat motionless and the sickly looking child lay in her arms, with closed eyes, though I could see that he was not asleep. Wishing to make her feel that she was welcome, I went, in a few moments, over to her side, and after some words of greeting had passed between us, took the baby in my arms. He opened his eyes listlessly and then his head dropped. I changed his position in order that he might see the children who were singing. The mother saw what I was try- ing to do and leaning forward, said " Ye needn't be doing that, mum, he's blind; he yisitors from the Outside World 55 can't see, mum.'' " Blind ! " I exclaimed. " How long lias lie been so? " " Ever since he was born, mum, and that's why I bring him over every day I kin, so's to hear the music. It ain't much enjoyment he's going to have out of life, but I thought I would let him learn to like music. It will be such a pleasure to him." I felt humbled and reverent in the pres- ence of so great a mother-heart, as I looked at this poor, struggling, working woman, who had taken time from her wash tub, her getting of meals, or some other part of her weary round of daily drudgery, in order that she might implant something sweet and pure in the life of her helpless child. The director of the kindergarten, who had become accustomed to these daily visits, af- terwards told me that she was the mother of three other children, two of whom came regularly to the kindergarten, that her hus- band was a day laborer and that the family lived in two small rooms over a shop about a block away. She said there was scarcely a day, when the weather permitted, that the woman did not drop in with her blind baby in time for the musical part of the morning. I wondered how many mothers, who have 56 Unseen Side of Child Life every opportunity and advantage to give their children the true love of music were doing as much as this overworked, underfed and loving-hearted woman. Ill There are perhaps none of the great myths of the old Greek world which signify more than those which give us the story of Pan and his pipes, or Orpheus and his lute. We all remember how Pan with his simple pipes of reed tamed all the wild beasts and commanded them to do his bidding. Again there is the ancient legend which tells us of the fatal power of attraction which the sen- sual songs of the sirens possessed ; of Ulysses in Hades, warned that he must put wax into the ears of his sailors when he passed the fatal spot where the voices of the sirens could be heard. This he did, but that was not enough. Wise man that he was, know- ing full well the baneful destruction which lay beneath the sirens' smiles and alluring songs, he distrusted himself to such an ex- tent that he had his body fastened with ropes to the mast of the ship, when about to pass their island, and gave instructions to his sailors that they were under no circum- Visitors from the Outside World 57 stances to release liim from these bands, no matter to what extent lie might by gesticu- lation indicate that he wished to be released. A later legend shows us that a deeper insight had grown around these old Greek stories. It describes Orpheus as sailing past the direful place, all unmindful of the songs and sighs of the sirens, because his ears and heart were filled with the sweet music of his own harp. This last to me has always been a wonderfully significant and suggest- ive myth. Is there a mother who reads this page who will not draw from it a lesson full of import and help, as she looks into the pure, confi- dent face of her little boy and feels with a shudder the coming of that dreadful day, when the sirens will sing their songs to him and hold out their beautiful, bare arms to embrace him? If she knows anything of life whatever she knows that this time must come. She cannot always protect her boy from it, and oftentimes it may come in such form as she dreams not of. Sometimes ifc comes before the little lad has reached his teens. Let her read again the story of Orpheus and learn what these wise old pagans can teach us Christians. Let her 58 Unseen Side of Child Life fill her child's soul while he is yet a child, with a love of sweet music, of high and holy music, such as will of itself arouse his as- piration and lift him into the higher life beyond the voices of the sirens of tempta- tion. Let her teach him to love good music as she teaches him to love pure air, sun- shine and the beauties of nature. Even when the confines of a crowded city-life seem to limit her in the use of these she can still help her child to love good music. I have spoken elsewhere* concerning the wealth of enjoyment that refines and up- lifts, which a training in the perception of beautiful color brings, whether it be in the man-made fabrics or the inexhaustible vari- ety and marvelous harmonies and contrasts that are to be found in the world of nature, the tints of color in the twigs and branches of shrubs — even before the leaf buds begin to take on their delicate pinks and pale yellows — in insects, moths and butterflies, the tones of green that sunlight and shadow bring to the tree tops, the blues and greens and grays and purples that water takes on in reflecting the sky. All these and a thou- sand other pleasures are for him who has * See " Some Silent Teachers " chapter on color. Visitors from the Outside World 59 learned to enjoj color as color; and the most limited income can give this perception of beauty to one's child. It is always in the sky and often lurks in the vegetable-man's cart. But the art of music expresses the joys and sorrows of the human heart as can no other art, because, as has been said, it lends itself so readily to the emotions. Any life that is hampered in its emotional expression is hindered not only in the keen enjoyment of a thousand sources of pleasure but also in the power to sympathize with and help others. Again Mrs. Barrett says : " To sing the lilting measure when the heart is gay, to give thanks for cherished blessing in the glad hymn of praise, to send aloft on the wings of song a prayer for strength to bear the burden or grief too heavy to be borne alone — this is what God's great gift of music should mean to us. Let us help the little children to enter into their heritage of song." Have not soldiers rushed into the arms of death singing mighty battle hymns of their nation ! Are not the great anthems and the oratorios the means by which the soul of the multitude rises soonest to the most ex- halted religious moods? These are the vis- 60 Unseen Side of Child Life itors, wlio may, in time, become your child's friends, leading liim tlirougli exalted emo- tions to noble deeds, and tlius opening wide the door to comradeship with the truest and best men and women that his community affords. Dante pictures the happy souls in his Paradiso as surrounded always with an infinite variety of color and ever-changing light, music — glad songs of worship — and that joyful fellowship where each soul recog- nizes the best in all other souls. To such as these is granted the vision of God. Truly a profound psychologist was Italy's im- mortal poet. MASTEKING THE MACHINE' I FroebePs deep insight into the inner nature of man is nowhere shown more clearly than when speaking of the infant's first conscious smile. He says : " This feel- ing of unity first uniting the child with mother, then later on with father, brothers and sisters, and resting on a higher spiritual unity with humanity, with God, this feeling of community is the very first germ of all true religious spirit y for all genuine yearn- ing for unhindered unification with the Eternal — with God.'' This is the so-called incomprehensible mysticism of Froebel. Yet is it mystical? If we believe that man has the power to recognize himself as possessing an infinite, immortal spirit that can conquer all ex- ternal conditions, even all fear of death it- self, must not that realization begin with the beginning of consciousness of the self within, of which the body is merely the chief instrument? Therefore, is it mysticism to 61 62 Unseen ^ide of Child Life claim that, when the love which illumines a mother's smile awakens a smile in re- sponse on the child's face, it means more than a " motor response to sensory nerves.'' When and where is the beginning of the feeling of pleasure in his mother's presence which is not included in the gratification of the appetite given by the nourishment obtained from her breast? Entirely aside from this interpretation of an infant's smile, we all know that a baby will reach out his arms to a swinging ball sooner than to one that is not in motion, will coo in response to the cooing tone of his mother or nurse, will cry when harshly spoken to, will cease his crying when the strong, warm arms embrace him and a gen- tle voice soothes him. All this is, of course, partly physical, but is it not also partly psychical? And is not the inner life being nurtured or injured as the outside stimulus awakens helpful or harmful emotions? Is not this too serious a matter to be lightly set aside? I saw a nursery-maid force a six-months baby into his carriage and tuck the carriage blanket so closely around him that his legs and arms could not assist in expressing the Mastering the Machine 63 awakened wrath and indignation within him, until his face grew purple and his eyes had an expression of murder in them. I moved to one side so as to see the face of the nurse. It was angry and flushed also. Her mood had undoubtedly intensified the child's emotional excitement. Again, I have seen the same preparation for the home-going made so lovingly and gently, with bright, cheery words to the baby who had seemed unwilling, at first, to be placed in his carriage. He could not understand the words, but the tone of the nurse's voice awakened a corresponding mood within him, until he crowed with de- light as the blanket was tucked around him. In each case, the child was unconsciously absorbing the mood of the older person, and this absorbing of mental conditions comes before the actual imitating of physical activ- ities. It thus indicates the importance of selecting the right person to take care of early infancy. It is not enough to hire a trained nurse to care for the child, she should have a true mother-heart also, if the inner life of feelings, involving instincts, impulses and emotions are to be guarded and developed as well as the child's body. 64 Unseen Side of Child Life They are dim and helpless feelings, but they are there, and many a child has been made wilful and selfish by the mistreatment of them. In early infancy, the tone of a voice may jar or soothe this tender inner-self fully as much as rough or gentle handling can arouse physical pain or pleasure. As the child grows older this instinctive absorbing of the moods of those about him soon develops into imitating their gestures and tones. This, in turn, very soon passes into the effort to imitate the activities of those around. We have all laughed over the nine-or-ten-months-old baby's imitation of his mother's delight when, having achieved the tremendous feat of letting go of the chair and standing alone, he has thrown up his hands in mimic astonishment and uttered an exclamation of joy before he tumbled over. I have seen a year-old child take a dust cloth and after rubbing it along the surface of a chair or stool, shake it vig- orously in imitation of his energetic mother. Who has not seen the little two-year-old girl stir up imaginary cake, or sip imaginery tea out of her toy cup? She is not merely imitating tea-drinking, she is absorbing the social mood of tea-drinking. Watch the boy Mastering the Machine 65 of the same enchanting age spread out a newspaper before him and pretend to be absorbed in its contents. He is imitating the preoccupied mood of his father as well as his act of newspaper reading. Their young minds are more responsive than the most sensitive photographic films. Yet each impression made is awakening and feeding some instinct, or impulse, or desire, which is helping to make or mar the serene inner- life which ought to be the mood of every child. I do not mean by this that every word and deed should be guarded when in the presence of a child, but I want to emphasize the importance of keeping children in sur- roundings that are wholesome, and with peo- ple who are sympathetic without being weak or sentimental. In other w^ords, the child absorbs the " spiritual atmosphere " that surrounds him and is fully as much affected by it as his body is affected by the fresh or foul air of his physical environment. He absorbs the one as surely as he breathes in the other. This is the reason why it is so vital a matter that what we call " the spirit of the kinderofarten '' should be in the home 66 Unseen Side of Child Life and nursery as well as in the child's first yenture into the life of the school. With this psychological insight, what shall I say about homes in which the teasing of the little child is one of the amusements of the adult life about him, or of those homes in which the child is permitted to hear the jars and jangles that, most unfortunately, sometimes come between parents or between mistress and maid? Blows upon the child's tender flesh are less marring. In time, bruised flesh will heal. But who can say, when will be wiped out the effects when such evil emotions as anger, suspicion, jealousy and rage are aroused? They, literally, not only poison the blood, but they check the impulses which should reach out from the innermost depths of a child's being toward fellowship with and love of all mankind. Better a millstone around one's neck and that he be cast into the sea than thus to offend one of these little ones. It is because we have trifled with these great, serious forces in human life that men have learned to talk lightly and glibly of the soul and of God, and that men and women have oftentimes thoughtlessly given over the religious training of their children MasterHng the Machine 67 to inexperienced young girls whom, fre- quently, they do not even know personally. As before said, it is only when we realize the tremendous importance of these spiritual factors in the battles of life that we com- prehend the importance of how to appeal to the right emotions. Centuries of time have proved that it is the spiritual power in man that has built up those conditions of society which distinguish civilization from the savage. " Where there is no vision the people perish " is literally true. The definite religious training of a little child should not be delayed, but rather, if rightly understood, it is to be given early and it is to be a constant, daily, nourished activity. I will try in the following pages to explain how this may be done. II Let us come back to FroebePs statement that the first smile with which a young in- fant consciously responds to its mother's smile is the dim dawning within the child's soul of its spiritual relationships. Froebel explains that this is the faint beginning of the child's consciousness of an harmonious relationship between himself and other hu- 68 Unseen Side of Child Life man companions; thus he grows into the feeling of fellowship of human beings until it embraces ever larger and increasing num- bers. Finally, the brotherhood of man will signify more than mere words which often- times become empty and meaningless. The child soon begins to have moods of his own not mere reaction to the moods of his attendants. We all know that he reaches out to seize any object that pleases his attention, even if it be the moon. He enjoys also tumbling down the blocks that mother or nurse may have built up for him, throwing things on the floor, rattling news- papers, etc. A little later, the shaking of his rattle attracts him. In fact, anything that in any way quickens the dim feeling of power to control or alter any part of the external world which surrounds him is a matter of concern to him. All efforts of the child at creeping, sitting erect and trying to stand steadily upon his two legs come from the impulse or the de- sire within to master the muscular control of the body ; not that the child is at all con- scious of this, but the mother should be con- scious, and in a thousand and one ways should encourage the mastery of his body. Mastering the Machine 69 She says, " How tall is baby? '^ and the lit- tle one learns to stretch his body and extend his arms to their full height ; or, " How much does baby love Mamma?" and the little arms will clasp around her neck with a vigor heretofore unexercised. All such bodily activities indicate his will trying to tell of his love. She teaches him to wave " good-by " as father leaves the house. She plays with him a little game of " Pat-a- cake" long before he has any idea of the significance of the words. He simply knows that the rythmic clapping of his hands pleases his mother. She plays " Peek-a- boo " with him and his whole body joins in the hiding or the discovery. She lets him crawl laboriously across the room when it would have been so easy to have carried him to where he wanted to go. She allows him to pull and drag at the small stool when it would have saved time had she picked it up and placed it where he would have it. She lets him climb with much difficulty into the low, easy chair, climb out of it and again climb into it, because she knows that all such vigorous activities of the body are helpful in the growth of the will as well as in the development of physical strength. 70 Unseen Side of Child Life Of course, there is danger of activity to the point of fatigue and the intelligent mother knows that little arms and legs soon tire as they have not yet attained their pro- portionate growth; and yet she knows also that exercise is quite essential for them. When he has attained unto that marvelous accomplishment — when physically he is separating himself from her — she can still keep him close to her spiritually by her sympathetic interest in each of these new, attainments. I had once the great pleasure of being in the home of an almost ideal, kindergarten- trained mother. Every evening when the fretting time of her baby daughter drew near she dropped all other activities, undressed the little one and robed her in her freshly aired nightgown and laid her flat on her back on the bed. Then began a romp with her, singing a rollicking little song as she caught first one leg and then the other, or perchance one arm and then the other, some- times rolling the little body over, still sing- ing gleefully. The child squirmed and twisted, pulling her legs free from the mother's hands or rolled herself back into her former position, crowing with delight throughout the entire play. .When the Mastering the Machine 71 child's voice began to lessen its tone of pleasure, the romp ceased. The mother smoothed down the rumpled gown and the baby was laid, tired and happy, on her own small bed and was soon sound asleep. This was not only good for the baby physically, as it caused the wholesome fatigue that brings sound sleep; but it was also good for the child spiritually in that it left her in a mood of companionship and trust. We all know when a child begins to walk alone, how he loves to run around tlie table or chair with no other motive than the enjoyment of running on two legs. Even when he tumbles down or stumbles over his stool, a word of encouragement from the mother starts him out again. In some nurseries a flat-top fence is pro- vided so that the little one may exercise the muscles used in walking and yet not fatigue them too much, as he soon learns to rest the weight of his body on the top of the hori- zontal fence while stepping along. A little later is used a board, about five inches wide and raised by strong supports about an inch above the floor, " to walk on " which be- comes the young adventurer's delight. On this board, so near the floor, a child soon 73 Unseen Side of Child Life learns to walk with ease and poise and some- times to run. A like delight is shown by older children when walking on the elevated curbstone so dear to the childish heart. For several years, in my own kindergar- ten, I had what is known as a housekeeper's step-ladder. A substantially built ladder with six broad steps. It usually stood near the blackboard in order that the children could use it when they wanted to draw the sun, moon or stars " way up above the houses." I do not now recall our ever hav- ing an accident in connection with this lad- der as the custom of the school was that the older children usually drew the celestial bodies for the children who had not yet learned to climb. And, oh, how proud they were of the achievement ! Years later I found that in both Germany and France one of the requirements in the kindergarten was that the children should climb a stairway each day. It was with them, so far as I could ascertain, merely an exercise, not the means to an end. When we were studying in Kome, with Dr. Montes- sorl, a friend of mine visited an outlying Casa dei Bambini. The children were on the roof of the three-story house playing, but a Mastering the Machine 73 signal was given and my friend saw them, thirty-five in all, some not three years of age, come down a flight of steep, outside stone steps, built against the wall of the house. The steps were less than two feet wide, yet not a child hesitated. Toymakers have invented a contrivance — • called " kiddie car " — by means of which a child may be seated and yet keep pace with his adult attendant by moving his legs up and down without the weight of his body pressing upon them. For older children there are swings giving free, rhythmic mo- tion, the trapeze, with which the limitations of the weak muscles may be overcome in play, and sliding boards for destroying tim- idity and engendering physical courage. Tight clothing or very elaborate clothing, in fact any form of clothing that makes the child conspicuous or conscious of his body, hinders this very important form of play, for until the body becomes free, with the spontaneous use of every muscle of the body — the easily commanded instrument of the spirit — it cannot rightly deliver the spirit's message. How a young child loves to be held high in the air by its father, and sometimes to 74 Unseen Side of Child Life be tossed still higher. It is a lesson in faith fully as much as in bodily courage. I one time saw a little two-year-old child jump from a second story porch into the arms of her father who stood on the ground below; again, I saw the same child wade fearlessly into the water until it reached her chin, because her father's outstretched arms were waiting for her. Long before the kindergarten age, the child is unconsciously training his body to obey the commands of his spirit. If this cooperation of body and mind could be kept up there would not be the self-consciousness so often painfully expressed by older boys and girls when they become conscious that their bodies are not obeying their intentions. Do you yourself not know men and women who have been handicapped throughout life by awkward bodies which should have been rightly exercised in childhood? The diffi- culty is that many mothers do not realize the value of these simple forms of a young child^s physical activity in which the mind and heart begin their training along with the body. Many children in the stage of infancy are left feebly to express themselves through Mastering the Machine 75 meaningless gestures which are without mental stimulus. Let me illustrate. There came one autumn, into my kindergarten, a five-year-old boy, the only son of wealthy parents. He was one of the shyest and most easily embarrassed children I have ever met, and this shyness often showed itself in grotesque attitudes of his body and grimaces of his face. He would sometimes seem al- most to twist his features out of shape. At first, this astonished the other children and then amused them. When they would laugh at the comic expressions which his twisted nose or crooked mouth would produce, he would blush and squirm in a painful man- ner. I saw that he was really suffering, al- though to the children he was apparently trying to be funny. I quietly persuaded them not to laugh when he made these funny gestures, telling them that he did not yet know how to act in our kindergarten, but that he would soon learn. In the meantime, I called upon his mother to try to get her help in the case. After talking on indifferent subjects for a little while, I asked her to tell me something about his infancy and early childhood, stat- ing that I did not quite understand him. 76 Unseen Side of Child Life She seemed a little surprised at my remark, and said there was nothing unusual to tell, but added : " When he was a baby he would lie for hours on the bed doing nothing, but he was perfectly good-natured/' I asked if he had any toys or other objects within his reach. She said : " Oh, no, he would simply lie there and twist his mouth into funny shapes, or lift his eyebrows up and down but that he was such a good baby and was so little trouble.'' I saw at once the begin- ning of the child's difficulty. His body had responded to the thousand and one sensa- tions which every hour of the day poured in upon the infant mind, but there had been no mother's cooing songs or baby play to help direct the response of the motor nerves to the stimulation that the outside world was bringing to him through his sense or- gans. Consequently, the physical response had been haphazard and meaningless. In other words, his body had grown while his mind lay torpid. Of course, my remedy was to keep him so busy and to give him so much to do that he would forget his awkwardness. But it was a painful task for both him an(3 me. On the other hand, infants are often stim- Mastering the Machine 77 ulated too much by their vain mothers or proud nurses, who are desirous of showing their friends "how smart the little fellow is." Both of these mistakes are serious sins against the child's physical welfare and hamper the development of his mental life and the true sincerity which comes from the body expressing frankly the spirit's message. This ought to be the most precious gift that parents can bestow upon their offspring. These first nursery games are seemingly so insignificant that they are either neg- lected or used thoughtlessly because of the parent's desire to fondle his child when he himself wants to be amused and his love has found no better way to express itself. But to the student of the psychology of chil- dren's play, they are significant; first, be- cause they are the almost imperceptible means by which mother-love instinctively guides these spontaneous activities of the child's body. They cause also a change of brain activity which is quite necessary, as the brain of an infant is only partially de- veloped at the time of birth and fatigues very easily. They also, in the form of play, create a cheerful or happy mood in the 78 Unseen Side of Child Life mother herself which brings her into a closer relationship with her child, who is as yet unconscious of why he loves a merry tone of voice instead of either an irritated or a tired tone. It is also an excellent thing for every adult at times to become as a little child. Our purpose here is to call attention to the value of knowing how to suit the young child's external surroundings to his physi- cal condition and thereby help him to form an harmonious, happy, attitude toward life and the world at large. The too high- strung, nervous child needs quiet surround- ings with simple, pleasing exercise that does not excite him, and crowds should be avoided. The child who early shows that he is physically handicapped, slow or men- tally defective, needs stimulating exercise. I once witnessed a most pathetic scene and at the same time a beautiful evidence of instinctive mother-love and wisdom. It was a summer day ; in the park on a bench, was seated a young mother, evidently of the poorer class of wage-earners. Near her, romped two of her children, about three and four years of age ; on her lap was a ten- or-twelve-months-old baby. One glance into Mastering the Machine 79 the little one's face was enough to tell of the lack of mental life. Every now and then, the mother would dandle the child in the air or trot it on her knee, singing a lively little dance song, then she would nestle it close in her arms and let it rest awhile and then renew the enlivening sensation of song and dance. This was done so systematically and regularly that I felt sure she knew con- sciously that she was quickening the child's inner life by outer stimulus. Whether this insight had been given her by some good doctor, or sensible nurse, or was the almost divine " mother instinct " often found in women of limited education, I could not ascertain as the barrier of a foreign lan- guage stood between us. I longed to ex- plain to her that it would be better for the child, to have him reach out for some object such, for example, as a bright-colored ball swung on a string, a canary in its cage or some other moving object, as in that case he would have to make an effort to reach the object, whereas her dancing him up and down, although good in itself, lacked the definite effort of will on the baby's part. All infirmaries and schools for handi- capped children use some such plan in devel- 80 Unseen Side of Child Life oping the feeble will of these unfortunate little ones. A visit for a day to the State In- stitution for the Feeble-Minded at Waverly, Massachusetts, would convince any one of the value of understanding the significance of the relation between the right exercise of the mind and body. Children who enter this institution unable to walk or to dress themselves are in time trained into being willing and efficient helpers in the house- hold work and later join in the labor on the farm. They also have dancing and some dramatic entertainments of a simple kind, and most of them thus developed seem happy and contented in their limited sphere. I wish every young mother might read Dr. Dearborn's little book on the " Influence of Joy " which shows the effect that joy has on the nervous system, the respiration and the rest of the functioning organs of the body. Any educated physician will tell you that fretfulness retards, and happiness pro- motes, health; and any true kindergartner will tell you that happiness is as necessary to a child's right growth as sunshine is to a flower. I do not mean by this that a young child's mere caprices should be humored; that does not bring happiness. Right activ- Mastering the Machine 81 ity prompted by right emotions is what is needed. Study a child whose feelings have been hurt: see how his body shrinks back, how his chest sinks, how his head droops and the light in his eyes recedes. Study an angry child and notice the tense tightening of the muscles, the set strain of the face and the harsh tone of the voice. Or, on the other hand, watch for a few minutes a child bubbling over with happiness. Notice the relaxing of every muscle, the lifting of the head, the added light that comes into the eyes, the smile on the face, the light, joyous tone of the voice, and you will be convinced that the emotions are moulding and shaping bodily conditions. And yet, from the average educational standpoint, how much attention is given to keeping children happy and interested in their occupations? Go into the average day nursery, where children have come from their drab, dreary homes and have been washed and dressed and fed but whose emo- tional life has been considered no more than if it did not exist. In many of the day nurseries that I have visited the children are placed in chairs, or allowed listlessly to wander about until the time comes for feed- 82 Unseen Side of Child Life ing again or for the morning nap. All these precious hours could be utilized in some baby plaj or some simple activity which would give them just enough concentration to awaken interest and stir the dawning consciousness of power to do things. Later on, we all know what such delights as football, tramps, rowing, swimming, and the like do for the body and if used aright, how they aid the higher life. Boy scouting has taught many a boy to eat plain food, to sleep on a hard bed and to tramp miles uncomplainingly when out scouting. And this has taught him to master indulgence in the mere gratification of sensation and to use his body for higher purposes than sensu- ous enjoyment, which so easily turns when tempted into sensual indulgence. If thus trained to show his manliness by abstaining from what is unwholesome for his body, he will the more readily understand that the body is the temple in which the Spirit dwells. Girls' camps are also valuable, when rightly conducted. I know a fourteen-year-old boy who had developed his muscular power to an unusual degree, of which achievement he was very proud. Not infrequently, when guests were Mastering the Machine 83 present, he made a display of liis physical strength by picking his mother up in his arms and carrying her from the dining room to the living room on the second floor. After an exhibit of this sort on one occasion, a friend, who was dining with the family, said to him : " You certainly have a remarkable amount of strength. How are you going to use it; as a Goliath or a St. Christopher? " The boy afterward told me of the incident and he added : " That question was a corker ! " It contained the two ways in which physical strength may be trained, and it suggested the two motives, one or the other of which may be given for the encour- agement of physical exercise from the be- ginning. This was the idea Froebel had when he wrote his " Mother-Play Songs," now so much derided, because so misused and so misunderstood. We frequently hear men say, " That fel- low must learn to stand on his own legs if he is ever going to amount to anything," meaning that the young man in question must learn to depend on his own exertion to earn a living. They are probably not aware of the fact that, in commenting thus on a young man's moral stability they are 84 Unseen Side of Child Life using a figure of speech which comes direct from the nursery, where self-reliance prop- erly begins. Ill Physiological psychologists tell us that the sensory nerves of the child receive a stimulation from the sights, sounds, etc., of the outside world through the sense organs of taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing, weight and temperature, and communicate the same to the motor nerves, although they frankly confess that they do not know just how the stimulation is transmitted from the one set of nerves enclosed in a medullary sheath to the other set similarly enclosed. These au- thorities do not attempt to explain why the body is thus constructed. Our purpose has been to suggest how the mother may help the little child in his feeble attempt to master his own body and to give her a reasonable explanation for his de- sire to control this complex construction of nerves and muscles. This explanation is almost as old as the record of mankind, certainly as old as the time when man began to think of and discuss his " self " or inner life of emotion, will and thought. From Plato down it has been a Mastering the Machine 85 familiar theme discussed by all thinkers; and probably long before Plato's day it was doubtless the subject of earnest thought. It is the master message of the great Christ Jesus to mankind — the devout and rever- ent belief that man has within him that which is superior to time, space and the material world, and which will rise above these into eternity. As already stated, the fundamental doctrine of all forms of the Christian religion, Greek, Eoman and Protestant is that man is a child of God, not bodily, in flesh and in blood, but in the power of the spirit to go out of the body in genuine sympathy with the sorrowing, or to rejoice with the happy, to transform de- sire and choice into actual deed and to com- municate thought through centuries of time. I have had young women come to me so shut in and hampered by their bodies that it took a long time for them to get the free- dom which is necessary for the kindergart- ner if she is to be the true playmate and inspiration of little children. They some- times reminded me of the statues which have been sent to our Art Institute encased in stiff wooden crates through the slats of which one gets glimpses of the beautiful 86 Unseen Side of Child Life imprisoned forms within. I feel that this is a serious subject for the young mother to consider. It lies within her power to send her child forth to fight both the material and spiritual battles of the world with a well, strong body, rightly poised and at ease. The world should be alive and full of friends to every child before he reaches the stage of development when discriminations and antagonisms necessarily come in. This " unity of life " is one of the most delight- ful traits of children, as it is the re- sult of a natural, normal and wholesome development. I had occasion one time to take a walk with a charming little girl five years of age. On our way home she was describing to me, in a bright, animated fashion, how the af- ternoon before she had washed her dolls' clothes and hung them up to dry. She was in the midst of the eager description of this domestic experience, when a tall, dignified- looking man approached us from the oppo- site direction. The child's animated face and voice evidently attracted his attention. His own features relaxed, and just as he Mastering the Machine 87 was about to pass us, lie apparently could not resist the temptation to come personally for a moment in contact with such sweet child-life, for he said : " Hello ! hello ! what's all this about? " The little girl instantly stopped and looking up smilingly into his face said: "I was just telling her about how I washed Mary Louise's petticoats and underwear yesterday. They were awful dirty and I had to scrub 'em hard." The man was taken by surprise at this sudden manifestation of perfect confidence in the sincerity of his request. He looked embar- rassed and said : " Oh I oh ! Is that so ! Is that so ! '' lifted his hat politely and hur- ried on. The child slipped her hand in mine again and continued her conversation as unconcernedly as if it had been momentarily interrupted by her father or some familiar friend. To her all the world were friends, so why not tell of her delightful experiences to anyone who might inquire concerning them? The boy or girl who shrinks from strangers or becomes self-conscious when spoken to has lost the sweet " unity of life," which begins with the unity of the body and mind that leads to genuine sincerity. 88 Unseen Side of Child Life IV But you may ask, " What has this to do with religion? " We answer unhesitatingly, " Much, if done in the right way.'' A sound mind is sometimes found in a frail body and a strong body sometimes contains a weak soul. There are always exceptions, of course, but I am speaking of the general rule. When I was once urgin^^ the impor- tance of healthy babyhood from the stand- point of morality and religion, a witty friend said : " If I understand you aright. Jack Johnson, the prize fighter, is a more to be desired citizen than Kalph Waldo Emerson, the philosopher." " No," I replied, " But undoubtedly Jack Johnson would have been a less desirable citizen if he had had a dis- eased body. And who can say what Ralph Waldo Emerson or Thomas Carlyle might have accomplished if they had possessed good digestive powers? To come closer home : would Theodore Roosevelt have been of as much service to this country had his father not had the wisdom to fit up the upstairs side porch in his New York City home with gymnastic apparatus and encour- age the delicate boy to make use of it? " However, in this day when a National Mastering the Machine 8S Better-Health Movement is being so vigor- ously pushed it seems almost absurd to stop to comment on the value of training the body into strong, vigorous life were it not that the moral result and the consequent religious view engendered is so often lost sight of, and this is largely because of the non-comprehension of the importance of be- ginning the physical activities aright. THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE I Emerson has well said, " The mastery of a new language doubles a man's capacity for expression." We know that practically in the affairs of this life, man attains through the mastery of language much power to serve in a material way, and there dawns on us still greater significance of language when we observe how readily a child with far more ease can acquire two or three languages than can an adult. Per- sonally, I have met children in Europe who spoke correctly and fluently, French, Eng- lish and German, and I have known of one case where a child five years of age could speak five languages, not with a large vocabulary, of course, but with accuracy of accent and expression. Modern psychologists teach us that the special language center of the brain is most active when the child is learning articulate speech. But if we accept the Christian phil- osophy of life as meaning the brotherhood 90 The Invisible Bridge 91 of man and the fatherhood of God, we see the larger and deeper reason for this early ability to acquire a mastery over the natu- ral, racial barriers of speech. But for the wide range of expression that language gives, there would be very little develop- ment of religious life beyond the supersti- tious prostration of the body before the forces of nature and the uttering of groans and lamentations of sounds, or the wild, so-called religious dance of savage tribes that often end in sensual indulgence. With definite, clearly understood language, man is enabled not only to communicate his best thoughts and experiences to his fellow man, but to leave these high moods expressed in language for help and inspiration to future generations. How much mankind has ob- tained from the noblest minds of the past! How many hearts have been comforted by the Twenty-third Psalm! How many lives have been guided by the Sermon on the Mount; to how many minds the thirteenth chapter of Corinthians has shown the path of Christian love and sympathy ! How much poorer the spiritual life of man would be but for the records left by the great poets, philosophers and saints! 92 Unseen Side of Child Life Though dead these hundreds of years their utterances still soothe our hearts, strengthen our will-power and make clear the meaning of life ! Thus they sweep away Jealousy, envy, self-pity and all those meaner traits that hinder the God-ward growth of the soul. Of all the inborn in- stincts that surge within a little child, seeking for utterance, the impulse to imi- tate the activities about him and to repeat the words and tones he hears are those to which the mother should give closest atten- tion and the true significance of which she should understand, if she desires to aid her child, sympathetically and intelligently, in the development of his inner, spiritual life. The child's power to express himself not merely through bodily action but also by means of words, starts lines or " tracks '^ of emotion, good or bad. The right or wrong feeling is easily repeated, and once manifested, leads readily to right or wrong willing and thinking, which soon form habits or attitudes toward life and thus help or hinder the receptivity to religious teaching. A young child, even a mere infant, begins to manifest his hunger for closer comrade- The Invisible Bridge 93 ship with those about him, by look and ges- ture, by holding out the object he has cap- tured for mother or nurse to admire or use. Little children have in common with young animals what is commonly called " the play instinct.'' That is, they love to run, to jump, to hop, to skip and to handle the objects with which they come in con- tact. Even very young children toss their legs and arms about seemingly in enjoy- ment of mere motion. This apparently aimless activity is usually spoken of as " animal spirits '' and is rightly considered as a healthy indication showing that the child is in good physical condition. But the mother instinctively feels that her child is something more than a " little animal.'' Therefore, when her baby looks up into her face, although he is as yet scarcely able to steady the muscles of his eye sufficiently to focus his gaze upon her face, she smiles lov- ingly down upon him and instinctively, almost unconsciously, utters some cooing sound in order to hold his feeble attention. This is the dim dawn of language. It is the child's first effort to cross the invisible bridge that separates him from the rest of humanity. Soon his mother begins to play 94 Unseen Side of Child Life with him, uttering all sorts of sounds best known to mother hearts. The longing within her to come nearer to her baby's real inner-self than mere caresses and hugs of his body can bring her, causes her to begin to speak a few simple words to her child. She says : " Mother's precious one ! '^ " Mamma's little lamb ! " " Sweetest thing in the world ! " or some similar term of en- dearment, although she knows that the child does not understand a word she is saying. Out of this instinctive desire on her part to begin her closer companionship with her child's spirit, have arisen the " nursery songs " that from time immemo- rial have been crooned or sung to each suc- ceeding generation of helpless infants ten- derly nestled in mother-arms. As soon as the baby begins voluntarily to move its limbs and voluntarily to open and shut its eyes, to utter faint, gurgling sounds, the instinctive mother feels and the intelligent mother knows^ that her work of nurturing her child's spiritual life through play and song is to begin. For these feeble efforts are not merely the beginning of the development of the muscles and the vocal organs, but are also the awakening of his The Invisible Bridge 95 soul or inner life. Each mother feels this; some dimlj, some with a clearness of insight that awakens all that is best and most God- like in the soul of man. If we believe that God, as Creator of the material universe and Creator of man, en- dowed man, as has already been stated, with power as creator to re-create and so adapt the materials and forces of nature, as to free himself from the bondage of climate, of space, of food and hundreds of other limita- tions; and that God also created man with power through language to enter by sym- pathetic understanding into the lives of his fellowmen and thereby assist them in their higher spiritual life as well as to strengthen his own inner life, — if we believe this, then we must realize the importance of language, which is, truly, the invisible bridge between soul and soul. II Dr. Hailman in his translation of " Edu- cation of Man " calls our attention to the fact that mothers and other attendants of children not unfrequently retard thought by excessive indulgence in so-called " baby talk." He says, "The child struggles against many difficulties of speech, calls 96 Unseen Side of Child Life cows, 'tows'; calves, Halves'; bread, ' bed ' ; brown, ' bown ' ; and so on. Fond mothers and attendants find these imper- fections of speech so attractive that they^ imitate them and they are loath to have their children lose the charming defects of babyhood. In the mistaken indulgence of their selfish delight, they even intensify these faults and invent new ones, which they force upon the child. Such inventions as ' hannies ' for hands, ' hootsy tootsies ' for feet, ' dinks ' for drink, and other un- meaning plurals for singular corresponding forms. In all cases, it is the mother's clear duty to speak plainly and correctly, in order to aid her child in overcoming the troublesome difficulties that speech in- volves. She need not on this account ad- dress her child any less tenderly, soothingly and fondly, for the tone means as much as the words. " There are indeed phases of baby talk that are not open to these objections. As soon as the child begins his meaningless monologues of practicing certain sounds, such as ' ta-ta, ta-ta, ta-ta, pa-pa, pa-pa, pa-pa, da-da, da-da, da-da.' The attendant may join in these exercises. This helps the The Invisible Bridge 97 child to listen to others as well as to him- self." The average mother comes instinctively to the rescue. She repeats any number of times his " ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, f, f, f, m, m, m, gh, gh, gh, gh," and wisely delights in his growth toward human speech when she per- ceives in her baby's babbling a new vowel or consonant or combination of the same. Just as she has lovingly helped him to locate the different parts of his body, by such play as " Where are baby's toes? Here they are ! Here they are ! " " Where are baby's eyes? '' and so on. This is so universal a custom that it would be stupid to take time to speak of it, were it not for the far-reaching effect pro- duced by the right kind of help or the lack of help. As already stated, these first move- ments of the face and body seemingly mean nothing to the child. They are probably the mere physical reaction of the motor nerves to the sensory nerves. But they are the first utterance of the child. They, the body and the voice, are to be the tools, so to speak, which will enable him to develop his moral, his intellectual and his spiritual life. For without expression, impression ceases to 98 Unseen Side of Child Life grow. Stop a moment and think wliat it is that most helps man to express his sym- pathy for a grief-stricken fellow-man, or to encourage real effort by showing true ap- preciation of it. Is it not the power to say just the right thing at the right time? What is it that best strengthens man's char- acter? Is it not the resolute will formu- lated in concise words that prompts the courageous deed or checks the unrighteous one? What is it that makes clear and defi- nite the thought? Is it not the power to express the thought in clear and definite language? While the child is not yet able to commu- nicate by means of language, the mother may in her play with him, when giving him many experiences in touching things, in hearing new sounds, in seeing new objects, etc., use simple, distinctly pronounced words that will help the mental image he is forming. There are many pleasant little games, familiar to mothers, in which all babies delight, because they help to distin- guish parts of their bodies or objects about them, and at the same time, they aid them in their effort to enter this new world of language. The Invisible Bridge 99. As soon as the baby can creep about, he begins his voyages of discovery. He finds new objects and brings them to his mother and puts them in her lap and looking up with an eloquence far beyond words, dumbly asks her to help him by giving him some word or words that will aid him in this difficult task of learning to use human speech. As stated above, the mother should distinctly name the object and later on, add some descriptive adjective, such as smooth table, red apple, etc. When she under- stands and responds to these questionings of her child, how he loves to bring each new discovery to her, although she may be as unconscious as the child of the fact that she is helping him to master the material world in order that he may live more freely the life of the spirit in the immaterial world of language. One of the dangers of gossiping in the presence of children is that they listen eagerly to the language of grown-ups with whom they are associated because their young souls are hungering to master human speech. But while they are attempting to get new words and their meaning by thus listening, they are having petty views of 100 Unseen Side of Child Life life and critical attitudes towards neighbors implanted in their hearts when they should have given to them instead a love for all mankind and an appreciation of every good quality that they can understand, in order that they may begin through seeing good- ness in others, to have faith in the Infinite Goodness of God. " If you love not your brother whom you have seen how can you love God whom you have not seen?" There is nothing more beautiful in child- life than its loving trustfulness, as a rule, in all human beings whom it meets, and there is nothing which so helps the child in free, spontaneous conversation as this feel- ing that everyone he meets is his friend. And nothing hinders more this beautiful sincerity in communicating one's thoughts and desires than suspicion created by ilL natured gossip. Sometimes a child instinc- tively discriminates between sincere and insincere people and withdraws from those who are cold or evil-hearted. But this instinct, which seems almost a guardian angel, may be terribly injured or even destroyed by the child's hearing those who are his guides belittle people whom they receive with seeming cordiality. The Invisible Bridge 101 It is equally helpful in the training of the spiritual life of the child to use definite lan- guage as to the moral quality of this or that line of conduct. Rather than say : " Be good," or " Be a nice boy while Mamma is away/' say instead: "Don't tease little sister while Mamma is away/' or " Be a good boy and do what nurse says," or " Don't play in water in the bathroom till Mamma gets home," or name whatever destructive tendency might tempt the little fellow during your absence. Or, better still, say : " Help take care of little sister," " Try to help nurse keep little sister from crying," or "Play with your blocks, ball and wagon, and when Mama comes home, then we shall have another play with the water in the bathroom." This makes defi- nite the " do " rather than the " don't " side of life. It is vitally important that one should be truthful with children. For them to learn that one can say one thing and mean another is a marring of that sincerity of character which is essential to true reli- gion. One of the saddest illustrations of many so-called Christians is the habit of evading the disagreeable by vague terms. 102 Unseen Side of Child Life They lack the courage to tell the truth, or to lie deliberately and be conscious of the fact. I am speaking of the training of the child in intelligent speech now, not of the ethics of lying. The opportunity to help the child to understand and use aright this great medium of communication with his fellow- men comes also when he looks at pictures — simple pictures, such as animal or child- activity, pictures of home life or other nearby adult activities. Strong but not 'crude coloring, adds to the attractiveness of the picture. At first, pointing to the object, animal or human being, and calling it by name is sufficient. I know of one child to whom a dozen pictures of the animals in Lincoln Park Zoo had been given. He played with these pictures until he was familiar with them, and when he was four- teen months old his mother and grand- mother took him to the Park, and of course he was taken to the Zoo to see if he w^ould recognize any of the animals. Much to the astonishment of his elders, he not only pointed out this or that animal, but called each by its proper name, not making a single mistake. As yet he could not articu- The Invisible Bridge 103 late a sentence, but with delight he would point to the animals, saying : " elfant," *^ deer,'' etc. At the same time, he watched keenly the movements of these animals and later at home he tried to imitate them. Too many picture books, however, tend to confuse rather than help the child. A few well-selected ones are better; and where some activity is represented, the picture is more interesting to him than merely the man, cat or dog standing still. I had at one time as a neighbor a dear little lad a year and a half old. He had never attempted any articulate speech. I soon began showing him pictures as well as objects, pronouncing the names dis- tinctly. He was especially attracted by a picture of a little girl seated on a stool beside her baby brother's crib. The baby was apparently asleep. At the other end of the picture was a large dog that had just bounded into the room. The little girl was holding up her hand in warning to the dog. My young friend had a baby brother only a few weeks old, which I presume was the attraction, as the picture was in black and white and in itself not particularly well drawn. I began, of course, pointing to the 104 Unseen Side of Child Life objects in the picture saying ^^ girl," then "dog," then "baby." Soon I began with " baby asleep," dog says " bow wow," little girl says " Hus-s-sh." In a few days the little fellow could say these three simple words, especially enjoying the " hus-s-sh," which I had dramatically uttered. Over and over again he wanted this simple, one-act drama. I thus began intro- ducing him into the great world of lan- guage and of dramatic expression. About a month later he came into my home. I was busy and told him I could not play with him just then. He went to the table where the picture books were kept in an adjoin- ing room, selected the book which contained the above mentioned picture, took it over to his small table by the window, drew up his chair and settled himself with an air of anticipated pleasure. He opened the book, looked for a minute or two at this or that picture, then turned to the picture of the baby, the dog and the girl. He sat studying it for several moments. Then he said " Bow wow " quite gruffly. Then he raised his hand warningly and whispered: " Hus-s-sh." His back was to the door and he was entirely unconscious of the fact that The Invisible Bridge 105 I had to come into the room. He repeated the scene several times with evident delight. After that, jou may be sure we talked over other new pictures and dramatized them. I have given this instance in detail partly because the child had been made painfully self-conscious in his own home by hearing himself discussed by his elders, — an inju- rious habit of many adults. This little scene shows that he had forgotten himself and had entered a new world where dogs and girls and babies lived and acted. I cannot emphasize too much the injury done to children by their elders who discuss in their presence their good and bad traits. It checks the child eagerly reaching out for the larger life of the world and throws him helplessly back into his own limited world. I wanted also in the above sketch to show how simple little stories can easily grow from showing a picture to a child not yet sufficiently developed to follow a language story; and how the great world of story- land may thus be opened to him and bring a hundred experiences which the narrow life of the senses cannot give but which that richer world of the imagination fur- nishes, adding wealth to the fast-growing 106 Unseen Side of Child Life vocabulary of speech, which will help him later to understand the plans and desires of his fellow-men and will interpret to him religious imagery. But let me return to the early nursery stages of the great world of human lan- guage. If the little child is encouraged to pick out two or more objects for his mother to touch, to look at or otherwise " to sense '' as a part of the game, the more interested will he become in this unconscious language lesson. We could not, if we wanted to, stop this inner life of the child in mere sensing of the outer world, but we can help or retard it. He is ever striving to master it, to transform it, to make it over into an expres- sion of himself, of his inner world of emo- tions which rouse action and awaken rea- soning power for good or bad. So infinitely small at first are these efforts, that we are prone to reject the idea of their importance. But do we not see that he is unwilling to remain in a world of mere sensation? He begins to bite his rubber ring, to thrust his finger through it, even to try to put his toe through it. He drops it on the floor; you pick it up and he throws it again to the floor The Invisible Bridge 107 and in a score of baby ways tests it and in a score of baby ways tries to master it, even without speech. If we remember from the Christian point of view that these efforts are the " image of God '' within the child, reaching out to get, in some way, more of the great God's uni^ verse we will rejoice in his ceaseless activity. It has already been shown that the senses assisted by language, are to be part of the training of the inner life of the child. The process is simple. It is through the making of mental images of sense-perceived objects, through the recalling of these images at will, through transforming them by means of the imagination into a language that speaks to the spirit that this training comes. The greatest help that language can give is thus gained by the power to use mental images for the expressions of love, of sym- pathy, of desire to help, of the ideals that urge us upward and forward. So many thoughtless people speak of children being destructive at this age. Just the contrary is true. Here comes another difference between the child and a young animal. Children are striving to trans- form, to create, to construct with the mate- 108 Unseen Side of Child Life rials about tliem, and yet clear sensations must come first, else the cliild will construct confusedly. What animal does this? Lan- guage, definite language, clearly pro- nounced, as has already been stated, is of the greatest help in aiding the bewildered little being sooner to come into communion with intelligence beyond his own. Let us remember that it is compari- son rather than sensation that helps the child to go forward in his mastery of lan- guage. In speaking of this first stage in which the soul or inner-self is not yet conscious of itself and does not separate itself from the impressions made upon it, Froebel in his " Education of Man " urges, " It is highly important for man's present and later life that he absorb nothing morbid, low, mean; nothing ambiguous, nothing bad." He goes on to say that quiet voices and pure counte- nances are necessary not merely for the physical welfare of the infant but also in order that only the purer, better emotions of the inner-self may be awakened. This is but another example of the truth that out of the emotional activity of the child grows his voluntary will-activity. What a child is The Invisible Bridge 109 interested in, lie willingly does. It is not what he is coerced into doing that tells most either in character-building or in vigor of mental acquisition. I do not mean by this that children should never be compelled to obey authority, but I do mean that freedom and self-control grow best from voluntary obedience. Coercion is the surgeon's knife that must sometimes be used. Eight obedi- ence to authority is the salvation of every child. But the wise understanding of how to awaken the better emotions and how to give the needed impressions while the young mind is in this absorbing, unresisting stage is highly important. It secures for the young child a quiet, serene and as undis- turbed infancy as possible, with proper sur- roundings, obtained often at the mother's sacrifice of travel, society and other recrea- tion. It also holds good as the child grows older. I was reading the other day an article written by a famous musician, in which he urges that the educating of the young child's ear should begin long before the training of his fingers. He argues that a large amount of the needless indifference to good music, even hatred of it, is caused 110 Unseen Side of Child Life by putting the child to the practice of the technical side of it before a love for it has been awakened. This is recognized in our best schools but not always in our homes. It is but one illustration of the mistakes of well-meaning mothers and the worse than wasted hours of childhood that come from the lack of understanding of this first state- ment of psychology — that out of the unconscious depths of the child's being come forth the emotions, impulses and per- ceptions, good or bad, which are awakened by his surroundings or, psychologically speaking, by the external stimuli. Is it not worth while then for any earnest mother to know how to supply the right kind of stimulation for the awakening of the right impulses? This study of the needs of the inner life of the child is not so difficult as it may seem to be to many young mothers. Sunshine, fresh air, wholesome activities, not too* much, not too little, and affectionate treat- ment are the first requisites after the first few weeks of quiet sleep. When we come to the art world of the child, we explain also the need of creative activity. Just now we are considering neither health nor manual The Invisible Bridge 111 activity but the development of power to communicate by language. One of the reasons why Mother Goose rhymes are so popular in the nursery is that most of the words are short Saxon words, easily pronounced. I had, at one time, daily contact with a little boy about two years old w^ho, so far as his mother had observed, had made no effort at articulate speech. I amused him quite frequently by showing him highly colored pictures in the " Mother Goose Khyme Book,'' reciting a line or two of the rhyme as I pointed to the picture. After two or three experiments of this sort, he caught the easily pronounced sounds of " Bo Peep." You will notice that the consonants here are lip sounds and the vowels are two of the easiest, " o " and " e." After the book was closed and we had turned to something else, he continued to say " Bo Peep." The next time we took up the picture book he instantly said " Bo Peep " and when I turned to the picture an expression of intelligent pleasure came on his face. I recited the verse and he tried to follow me. He succeeded so far as to say "LiP Bo Peep." For days, that was the first picture for which he asked and he 112 Unseen Side of Child Life seemed proud to be able to designate by words one of the pictures. As be had never seen a sheep, had never seen a woman cos- tumed as a shepherdess, I could not help feeling that it was the smooth, easy-sound- ing words which caught his attention and made him conscious of the fact that words had meaning. Afterwards we had frequent recourse to the simpler " Mother Goose Rhymes.'' In the early education of the child the Mother Goose words and rhyming lines, and oftentimes its excellent pictures, are help- ful in aiding the child to master speech, until such time when the true poet will give us a more normal and childlike content with equally good lilt and rhythm. Another great value of leading the child as early as possible into simple and correct speech is that it enables one to teach the reasonableness of obedience to rational rules, such as ought to govern all nursery life. Of course, I do not mean abstract laws but the necessary requirements of baby life. I know a dear little three-year-old who, when offered anything to eat either shakes his head and says, " That's not good for li'P boys," or asks, " Is that good for liT The Invisible Bridge 113 boys? '' It is needless to say liow this splendid control of appetite came about or liow fortunate the little fellow is to have a mother such as his. The kindergarten does much in training the child to under- stand this inhibition that is often necessary by being clear and explicit in her own use of words. Conversation should be an important feature of school life and should not only be allowed but encouraged, with always the accompanying courtesy or tol- erance which permits each child an oppor- tunity to express his opinion or relate his experience and the rest to listen while he does so. How many an angry religious contro- versy could have been tempered with mild- ness if the disputants' early training had been such as to establish a habit of toler- ance ! Encouraging the child in courteous, intelligent conversation is only one of the many advantages of letting a little child associate with children of his own age. This should be done under the supervision of adults who believe that right habits, con- sciously formed, help to make the entrance into a life of self-control over appetite and passions. The consciousness of one's own 114 Unseen Side of Child Life invisible power that self-control brings comes later and leads more readily into a faith in the great, unseen power that reli- gion demands. A little child instinctively understands the tone of voice and knows when he may not heed and when he must obey. I was amused by an instance of this sort not long ago. A young father in my neighborhood was starting off one morning to his business when his active little two-year-old son ran after him. He let the little fellow follow him about fifteen or twenty feet, then he turned and said : " Go back, Ned/' But he said it in a laughing tone of voice, as he was evidently much amused by Ned's deter- mination to go with him to the city. He walked on and the child continued to follow. Again he turned and said : " Go back, Ned," and again walked on, and the child continued to follow. This was re- peated once or twice more before he reached the corner where a traffic street had to be crossed. The father then turned and said very seriously : " Ned, go home." Ned looked disappointed, but he instantly turned and walked slowly back to his home. I happened at another time to have close The Invisible Bridge 115 and intimate contact with three very lov- able little children in whose home there seemed to be no law, no order, no system of any kind. When these children first began coming into my home, the mother, a sweet, lovable woman, told me I would have to watch them, that they destroyed everything they laid their hands on. The first time the little boy, less than two years of age, pulled down from the table one of my books, I went to him, gently and pleasantly taking the book from his hand and said : " No, Charlie, my book," and at the same time I handed him a ball and said : " Charlie's ball.'' Then aga;n, pointing to the book, I repeated : " My book." He understood and we began a little play with the ball. The next day the temptation came again for the book and the little hand reached out for it. I repeated again quite firmly : " No, no, my book," and took his hand away from the book, calling his attention immediately to some object with which he was allowed to play. Within a week I was able to trust the child where books were on the open shelves, lying on the library table and some- times on the window sills, and he made not the slightest effort to disturb any of them. 116 Unseen Side of Child Life After playing lieartily and freely with my toys, these children learned to pick up the playthings and put them away or when I told them it was time to go home, or, occa- sionally, when a guest came in and they knew that would end our play together, they would gather up the playthings and quietly leave. Ill In his book " What Can Literature Do for Me,'' Dr. Alphonso Smith tells us of Lincoln's effort even when a boy to make every new idea that came to him first clear to himself and then he could not rest satis- fied until he had put it into language plain enough for any boy to understand. Dr. Smith adds that it was this acquired habit of Lincoln which made him a leader among men, because he was able to say in his letters and speeches what other men were beginning to feel but could not express. In his immortal address at Gettysburg, last- ing less than five minutes, in which he dedi- cated the field of the dead soldiers, he enno- bled the emotions and comforted the hearts of tens of thousands of sorrowing fathers and mothers and wives by a few simple, tender words. This speech alone would The Invisible Bridge 117 have made him immortal ii he had done naught else in the winning of the war. So great is the power of the mastery of lan- guage when a truly noble soul speaks in an exalted moment. Dr. Smith has so admir- ably worded this thought in the inspiring book referred to above that I take the lib- erty to quote him more fully : " When lit- erature holds before us the vision of the ideal, it points us to the future; when it gives us a more sympathetic insight into men and women with whom our lot is cast, it points us to the present ; when it restores to us the men and events long since van- ished, it points us to the past. It has three tenses because human nature has three tenses, each tense is an outlet. " No power of the poet gives me a greater feeling of awe than that by which he says to oblivion : ' Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.' The enemies that man has fought most persistently from the begin- ning are death and oblivion. He fights death with science; he fights oblivion most successfully with literature. The historian may galvanize the past but the poet vital- izes it. The great deeds of the heroic dead 118 Unseen Side of Child Life are preserved in annals and chronicles, but they live in song and story. Enshrine his- tory in literature and you give it both cur- rency and permanency. We often speak of ' the irrevocable past ' but to literature there is no irrevocable past. Literature cannot only recall the past, but can make of it an ever-living present." It is only when we understand the important part which language plays in the development of the higher relationships of life that we can understand what is meant by the words, " Man is made in the image of God." Does not that great revela- tion mean that we have this power of enter- ing one into the life of another, of helping to develop the nobler impulses, to encourage the weak faith, to define the ofttimes con- fused conception of what is duty to man and what is worship of God? THE CHILD'S ART WORLD I Antiquarians in their discoveries of towns and cities, so ancient that we know not of their origin, tell us that they come upon children's toys, such as dolls, toy ani- mals, etc., that must have been used by chil- dren in those ancient times. Again, there is recorded in the tombs of Egypt and on the vases of early Greece, pictures of chil- dren playing and dancing. I know of no records concerning the habits of the early races of mankind that do not speak of the child-like play of the adult in their day. Old Homer gives us a charming picture of Nausicaa and her maidens playing ball after a hard day of labor. Plato in his *' Republic " realizes the educational value of play to the extent that he urges public playgrounds for the children and free instructors to be with them, in order that they might learn — by being active and at the same time obedient to the laws of the game — that obedience is an essential thing. 119 120 Unseen Side of Child Life The twelfth- and thirteenth-century painters, picturing Paradise, represented angel children as at play, sometimes tossing flowers, sometimes flying about, sometimes singing with all their hearts, sometimes per- forming on musical instruments and some- times just simply playing. Luther took the Christmas festival out of the church and put it into the home with the Christmas tree and the Christmas plays and games. Tur- ner, the English painter, in his great pic- ture, " The Fall of Carthage," has some innocent-looking and happy little children in the foreground playing at ship-building and rope-making in imitation of their elders, who were vainly striving to save the city. Jean Paul Kichter and many of the poets and thinkers have exalted play as a beautiful and significant expression of child-life. In fact, it would be hard to con- ceive of child-life, when not tyrannized over, as existing without some form of play. The mere fact that child-play has been univer- sally recognized shows it to be a natural and normal activity of the young human being. Genetic psychology shows that the play of animals seems to be a rudimentary The Child's Art World 121 preparation for the higher use of the muscles. I had an acquaintance who was a teacher in interpretative and fancy dancing and who spent most of her time w^hen at the World's Fair in Chicago, watching the trained animal show. She said she learned more from the graceful coordination of the muscles of the lions, leopards and foxes than all of her previous training had given her. The ethical benefit as well as the physical value of the right kind of play has been recognized by educators who are thinkers. The great period of intellectual activity which brought forth Fichte, Shelling, Hegel, Beethoven, Hannaman, and Sweden- borg also brought forth the great poet Schiller, who seems to have summed up the insight of that era in his famous, but to many people mystical saying, " Deep mean- ing often lies in childish play." But it remained for Frederick Froebel to organize definitely and to utilize play as the chief element in educating and developing char- acter during the earliest periods of child- life as well as to show it as a " spiritual activity '' in this period of the child's devel- 122 Unseen Side of Child Life opment. Froebel's persistent and insistent demand for play as a part of education has developed a play period in elementary grades and children's playgrounds in our large parks. In fact, the first regular play- ground ever established was in the Tier- garten in Berlin, through the influence of the English wife of Emperor Frederick. She was an ardent advocate of the kinder- garten, and a real lover of little children. " Parental environment " is a term coined by recent writers to define the subtle, uncon- scious influence in the home which arises from a parents' psychological view of a child's needs, and is not to be confused with the ideas of material environment which all well-meaning parents strive to provide for their children. In other words, this new term refers to the father's and mother's gen- eral attitude of love and solicitude for, or of indifference to and neglect of, the needs of a child's inner life. This kind of a psy- chological environment can only be sup- plied by intelligent parents, especially while the young child is in the plastic stage of infancy and early childhood. All orphan asylums, no matter how well conducted, show the lack of this parental environment. The Child's Art World 123 It cannot be given to children en masse. Nowhere is this intangible but ever- present influence more to be reckoned with than in the mother's attitude toward her child's play. If she looks upon her child as a creature living solely in a world of sense- impressions y she will inevitably lead him into the kind of play in which exercises for the body and senses predominate. If she regards him as an Ego or spirit of which his body is the chief instrument or tool, she will just as inevitably encourage him in the kind of play in which self-expression is emphasized. Even in the earliest nursery plays this distinction begins. I have seen fathers tease infants until the fighting instinct brought every muscle into play. For our present purpose it is sufficient for us to observe the three forms of play that are most easily understood. The first is right exercise of the body, such as jumping, hopping, running, skip- ping and various other seemingly aimless activities; but these are not without pur- pose, for they are in reality helping the child to master his muscles. This form of play has been described in a preceding chapter in this book. 124 Unseen Side of Child Life In the schools this kind of play at the present time takes the form of dancing or rhythmic gymnastic exercises, which a witty friend of mine has called " sterilized dancing." In the home life, little songs are used in which the child keeps time, chant- ing an easily rhymed poem committed to memory; and in the present-day use of vic- trolas, children can learn much that is valuable by the use of a few simple melo- dies for dance steps that awaken only happy emotions. I once heard Miss Frances Willard laughingly tell that she learned to dance by her mother clapping time as she sang a hymn tune while she and her sister kept step to the clapping. In that day, dancing was strictly prohibited in the Methodist Church but the wise mother saw to it that little Frances and her sister should have graceful and rhyth- mic use of their bodies. The second form of 5)lay includes the beginning of the child's mastery of the material world about him. He is trying to understand the secrets of materials and to discover and create new forms. For exam- ple, he tries to find the possibilities of his ball; he rolls and tosses and throws and The Child's Art World 125 bounces it. In a like manner lie tests other objects about him. Later the kindergarten provides the opportunity for his full and free expression in the use of many kinds of materials and aids him in creative self-ex- pression through them. The third form of play, which is dramatic play, may be expressed in the words of Schiller already quoted, viz., " Deep mean- ing often lies in childish play." This thought is the main basis of Froebel's system of the play-school. It is the child's effort to understand the activities of life about hiniy and in a childish way to feel the emotions which cause these activities, " Play is the highest point of human development in the child-stage, for it is the tree expression of the child's inner being. Play is at once the purest and most spir- itual product of the human being at this stage. It is a type and copy of all human life, of the inward natural life that is in man and in all things; and it brings forth joy, freedom, contentment, rest within and without and peace with the world." Because play with the materials of the world about him helps the child to express his inner freedom and contentment, and 126 Unseen Side of Child Life because in dramatic play he reproduces the activities of animal and human life which add to the joy of the child as quoted above, we call play the art world of the child. Because all true art is the result of the human souFs adequate expression of its emotions in some form which will awaken corresponding emotions in others. II Having already dwelt at length on the mere play of the body, let us consider more fully the child's " creative play," keeping in mind the most important message that the founder of the Christian religion brought to mankind, namely, that God is our Father and we are His children. All the rest of true religion is included in this. We believe that the child has an immortal life of the Spirit, w^hich, if trained aright, not only sweetens and makes helpful and harmoni- ous this life here on earth but prepares him, on entering the next stage of existence, to begin it in a form of life nearer the Divine purpose. If we have this genuine Christian religion we will rejoice to help forward the lovable and more Christ-like characteristics of every child. A profound thinker has The Child's Art World 127 said, ^^ It takes the recognition of all that is best in all humanity to give us some faint comprehension of the nature of the great Eternal Creator of the Universe whom Jesus taught us to call ^ Our Father,' '' We are taught that God created the Universe and created man, giving him a creative power far beyond that of any animal. Dogs and horses and some other animals can be trained into a few tricks and even show some intelligent understanding of the com- mands of their masters. But no dog or horse ever built a fire, no animal has ever invented a machine, built a ship, or discov- ered the law of aviation. No animal has ever erected a temple, carved a statue, painted a picture, written a poem or com- posed a symphony. No animal has ever worked the miracles that synthetic chem- istry is now creating. No animal has ever developed any of the great sciences, such as geology, medicine, surgery and the like. Therefore we have the right to say that man is the created being who has been given cre- ative power. Stop and think on the far sweep of thought into which this takes us. The Christian religion claims that we are children of God — surely not in form, with 128 Unseen Side of Child Life legs, arms, torso, etc. Is it not because of the power to transform and make over the world about us, to level mountains and build up valleys, to turn the course of rivers and unite ocean with ocean and to perform other and mightier deeds, trans- forming and transcending our limitations of temperament and character, that we are called "children of God"? The more we dwell upon the achievement of man's creative power the easier it is to think of him as partaking of the nature of the Infinite Creator, and in reality being a child of God. There are greater reasons than this which will be given later. With this marvelous thought of man's power to create let us turn to the nursery and to what we may call its " creative play." Was it not Aristotle who first made use of the term " Time arts and space arts," the former including music, poetry and danc- ing, or the rhythmical motion of the body, the latter including architecture, sculpture and painting? Each of these arts has its place in the development of the human race, through the appeal which beauty makes to the soul, and each of them serves to enrich and to ennoble the child's life and may be The Child's Art World 129 given in such a way that the child learns gradually to love them more and more. A taste for each of these arts may begin in the nursery and can there be fostered and developed to a much larger extent than the average mother realizes. The little one's building blocks may be well proportioned, his rag doll may be pretty instead of ugly ; materials which he may take apart and put together in some new way are far more stimulating than ready-made mechanical toys. His picture books may have to be few in number but the pictures may be well drawn and may be bright in color but not gaudy. If carefully handled with freshly washed hands, and respectfully used they last a long time. As for poetry and danc- ing, all little children love rhythmic sound and easily respond to melody. The right kind of education includes not only the head to think or the hand to work and the heart to love, but it also includes the careful, thoughtful and abundant training of each child into a love of beauty, in order that the richer realm of imagination may be his as well as the realm of fact and of thought. Through sense-impressions are awakened the emotion, desire or understanding which 130 Unseen Bide of Child Life the child wishes to express. Oftentimes this awakened effort at expression is so crude or inadequate that only the most sym- pathetic soul can recognize it. I was pres- ent one Christmas day when a little two- year-old, who had been much impressed by the excitement of the giving of Christmas gifts at breakfast time, after a couple of hours of refreshing sleep began to re-enact the scene as she understood it. She tore off a piece of the newspaper that lay in her mother's lap and crumpled it into a small wad; going solemnly up to her father she handed him the bit of crumpled paper and said " Dat's pencil for oo I " Then repeat- ing the crumpling up of another scrap of paper she presented it to her mother as a box of candy. Again another piece of paper became a doll, and still another a handker- chief, and so on, until each person in the room had received some object which the child had been given in the morning. For- tunately the family were all sympathetic and thanked her duly for her gifts. She was in the world of imagination and as she was too immature to understand the real signifi- cance of the morning's activities, she was trying to express the impression it had The Child's Art World 131 made on her and thereby to get a better idea of it. It was not the object given but the joy of the giving that had impressed her. Not consciously but instinctively she was striving to enlarge her life so as to take in what had so pleased the rest of the family, and either ridicule or indifference would have pained her and would have seriously retarded her efforts at self-expression of the emotion that had stirred her. This is an illustration of the early stage of what for the lack of a better term I have called " creative play.'' By the word " cre- ative " I mean the putting of an emotion, desire or impression, enriched by the child's imagination, into some form that may be recognized by the senses, using as the means of expression any object or material near at hand that the child can change or trans- form. With the aid of sand, mud, clay, water, blocks of wood, sticks, rings, paper, chalk pencil, a tube of paste and scissors or other simple tools to help, this may be accomplished. All these and any addition of nature materials, such as stones on the sea shore, new mown hay, autumn's dead leaves, in fact almost any transformable material, may become a treasure to a child's 132 Unseen Side of Child Life young eyes. Often they are things that are trash to our eyes because we have allowed our hearts to grow old and our eyes to become dim as to the needs of little children. The thought I wish to emphasize is that a child should have materials about him which he may easily re-arrange or transform into some new form with which his imagina- tion for the time being may be busy. One point of resemblance is oftentimes sufficient. A few boards on the crooked branches of a tree may become a robber's hiding place or a king's throne according as the child's imagination has been fed. I have seen a newspaper cap transform a child's every- day clothing into a military uniform, some easily molded clay furnish all that was needed for an entire banquet, three chairs in a row become a train starting for New York, and so on. " Science has given us a new universe not more marvelous in its vastness than in its unity. For the spectroscope has shown that everywhere through immeasurable space the same chemical properties and laws obtain. The telescope has revealed with what math- ematical precision the orbits of the heavens are traced and how unwaveringly here and The Child's Xrt World 133 among the stars gravitation maintains its hold. Man never had so immense and yet so varied a world before. Polytheism once was possible, but science has banished it forever.'' * May not this advance toward unity — notwithstanding the immensity of variety which science reveals — lead to a more thorough understanding of the value of pre- senting a project to a child, or accepting his project and helping him to work out a plan which shall definitely lead him to discover the possibilities and the limitations of material and thereby learn the laws of construction? This will quicken his cre- ative ability and energize his power to exe- cute a plan, until a universe with self-evi- dent laws in all its manifestations — and yet without a Law-Maker — will be banished forever. The League of Cook County, — including Chicago Women's Clubs, — in their research work concerning the beginnings of educa- tion, report among other things that they have been surprised and pleased by the readiness with which young children learn * Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick in " The Meaning of Faith." 134 Unseen Side of Child Life the laws of construction and apply them in constructive activities in ways that have heretofore been considered far beyond the concepts of the child-mind. This is an ad- vanced step in both nursery and elementary school education — long ago realized by kindergartners, but now being reaffirmed by non-professional research workers. This is from the side of man as a creative being whose possibilities are only beginning to be discerned. Now let us turn to the hopeful aspect of the other end of the proposition. The recent appointment of Professor Maurice De Wulf to the newly created chair of scholastic philosophy at Harvard indi- cates that a new era in the annals of great universities of America has begun. Let us hope that other great universities will fol- low Harvard's example. For scholastic philosophy teaches that at the center of the universe is one great creative power desig- nated as " God the Father.'' This does not demand that we accept all of St. Thomas Aquinas' theology. Of course, much fun has been made of some of the old monks arguing as to how many angels — immaterial beings — could The Child's Art World 135 dance on the point of a needle — a limited bit of space in the material world, etc., etc. My point is that Harvard, which was the first university in America to demand that science be given a place in university courses of study equal to the place given to the classics — even while science was asserting that the conflict of material " forces " caused the creation of the universe, and such books as Draper's " Conflict between Science and Religion " were pronouncing the Christian Religion a mere traditional superstition — that this great University is now placing side by side the marvels of scientific research and the historic and theological bases of Christian faith. It was, I think, with this thought in mind that Frederick Froebel invented his "Gifts." He realized that clear-cut sensations were the starting point by means of which the mind of man begins to climb toward univer- sal thought, and that mathematics has to do with each material object, and yet the science of mathematics is in itself universal, immaterial and tremendously creative when once mastered. He therefore suggested put- ting among the child's playthings objects which helped the child to see that rounded 136 Unseen Bide of Child Life objects move readily and rectilinear objects remain stationary. Also to learn the differ- ence between horizontal, vertical and slant- ing surfaces, positions of surfaces and straight and curved lines. So convinced was he of the value of these and similar mathematical concepts that he called his "Fourth Gift'' "The Doorway to Archi- tecture " because by building with these ob- long blocks the child learned to notice the relative value of the blocks placed in a per- pendicular and in horizontal positions and thus began to feel dimly the right propor- tion between the uplifting and down-bearing principles that underlie all beautiful archi- tecture. His one thought in all his work was to bring the soul of man nearer and nearer to feel the unity of all creation with God as its Creator. This is why he placed religion as the first and most important sub- ject in his plan of education.* Undoubtedly Froebel was too abstract and too technical in his demands and still more undoubtedly we, his followers, have almost destroyed his original thought in our zeal and have crowded into the two precious years between four and six much that was * See " Education of Man," paragraph 60. The Child's Art World 137 intendent to have begun in infancy and to have extended to the eighth or ninth year. For the sake of the hand work we have in the past omitted, much of the wonder-world of Nature which feeds all that is poetic in the child's heart and awakens his reverence for the unseen power which manifests itself in all out-of-door life. However, it must be kept in mind that the creative use of materials has an important place in the development of the child, and that the early discovery of the fundamental laws which govern the right use of materials saves time and temper, and awakens the mind to logical thought upon which rational religion is based. Mere blundering ahead with the wrong use of material or with pur- poses that are of no real value is one of the most materialistic forms of the reaction against mathematical exactness of the Froe- bel material. Toys were excluded from the early kin- dergartens and have been used in excess in some of the later kindergartens. They have their place in the child-world. They are the means of guiding his affections and thoughts in right directions and they lead him into an appreciation of the work of others in the 138 Unseen Side of Child Life great world of industry and art. But they should be simple, strong and as artistic as circumstances will allow. Let me illustrate by an experience of my own how easy and simple a thing it is to awaken and satisfy a child's desire for new- experience with which to enlarge his inner life by some creative play, even if it must be in the world of imagination instead of with actual human experience in the world about him. Similar experiences are com- mon occurrences in the life of any kinder- garten-trained woman. While on a railway journey not long ago, I became much interested in a young mother who was traveling alone with two small chil- dren. She looked weary, as the demands which the two active little creatures made upon her were incessant. I motioned to the older, a bright little fellow four years of age, to come over to my seat and see my flowers. In a short time, having discovered that he was accustomed to gardens, I made the suggestion that he should play he was a gardener, planting flowers in a park. The iron lattice work, which protected the steam pipe near the floor of the car, was selected for the park. For a time he was The Child's Art World 139 greatly entertained by sticking the flowers, one at a time, in the open lattice-work, occa- sionally calling my attention to this or that arrangement of them. At last, tiring of this, he said, " Now that will do. I guess I will go back to Mama." I glanced across the aisle and saw that the baby had gone to sleep, and that the tired mother was just closing her eyes, so I felt that my services were still needed. I turned to the boy and said, " If you go away, I must get a new gardener. Will you be kind enough to stay and teach this new gardener how to take care of the garden? I am afraid he does not even know the names of the flowers." Then I tore a bit of paper in the shape of a man and handed it to the child. He was much pleased by being given the position of authority with his supposed superior knowledge that this phase of the play Implied. He at once assumed the role and for ten minutes or more was happily engaged in instructing his successor. At the end of that time he began to glance uneasily toward his sleeping mother. I saw that he had exhausted his imagination along that line, and that it was now time to change the play, so taking another piece of paper, 140 Unseen Side of Child Life I folded it quickly into the shape of a house and then placed it on the window-sill and said, " Here is the new gardener's house on the top of this hill. Do you suppose you could get a painter to come and paint the gardener's house?" I spoke as if much perplexed by the problem. " I'll be the painter," he exclaimed joyfully. This, of course, was what I had expected. The change from sitting on the floor to standing by the window rested him physi- cally and the change of thought refreshed him mentally. I twisted a small fragment of paper into a paint brush and showed him how to play that his nearly closed left hand could be the paint-pot. Later on we made a chair for the gardener to sit on when he was tired. Then we created a bed for him to sleep on, I making each object very slowly and carefully at first and then taking the pieces apart and showing the child how to make it. When the play of painter began to flag, we made a hoe and a rake and a garden house to keep them in. With very little trouble I kept him pleasantly and cre- atively occupied for nearly an hour and all the materials needed were a few half with- ered flowers and one or two advertisement The Child's Art World 141 leaves from the back of a magazine. The look of gratitude which came to me from the mother when she opened her eyes more than repaid me for the slight effort I had made. What I was in reality doing was not merely entertaining the boy but helping him to utilize his creative power in arranging the flower garden and constructing the gar- dener's house, bed and chair and by means of his imagination to enter into the human activity of house painter. This may seem only a device to the average reader, but to the kindergartner it was helping him to enlarge his conception of life by thus enter- ing through play into the activities of other lives. Do not smile when I add that he was beginning to learn that form of philosophic thought which reasons that all created things must have a creator. This may seem absurd to you, but never- theless it is true. The child who has every- thing brought to him ready made can not develop what is called " inventive power " as can the child who has learned how to make things. 142 Unseen Side of Child Life III Let us now take up a form of creative play which is known as " dramatic play "in which the child's body, the expression of his face, the gesture of his arms, the tone of his voice are the chief instruments used, although occasionally a bit of drapery or other accessories will add much to his en- joyment of expressing to the outside world some of the surging, ever-active inner world. In dramatic play the child is striving not only to gain more of human life by under- standing more of the people about him, but he is also learning to recognize his own spiritual inner-self by putting it forth or uttering it in dramatic form, in order that he may the better understand it. This is the child's deepest need at this period of life. It is the beginning of his effort to un- derstand the conduct of other people, which is always and at all times of great value. The child here puts forth his effort in play and unconsciously feels the result of the play. It is his way of enlarging his life by adding the life of others to his personal experience through re-enacting the human activities about him. As has already been said, the adult ex- The Child's Art World 143 presses his spiritual life in forms of art, either the art of the plastic world, such as sculpture, painting, carving, or building beautiful buildings, or he expresses it in writing, singing or in the drama. These are the great forms of art, but the greatest and most beautiful of all art expression is beautiful living where the gracious, serene and sincere self is to be seen in every word and deed. What do we mean when we say of the teacher that " she is an artist in her work "? Is it not that she puts her whole soul into her work and makes it so beautiful that it is a joy to see her with her children? Who is there among us who does not recognize that sublimest of all forms, the beautiful in the ideal mother's beautiful love shown in the wise nurturing and training of her children? Does this interpretation of the dramatic play of children seem mystical or far-fetched to you? If so, observe the children around you with this thought in mind and see how direct and child-like their play is. And yet it is always the child trying to be at one with the thing played. As a rule the more robust and vitally alive a child is the 144 Unseen Side of Child Life more heartily lie plays; that is, the more eagerly he tries to get hold of the life about him, to make it his own. Let me give you an illustration of one of the many hundred scenes of this kind with which my memory is stored. I was on a visit to my sister once at Christmas time when her little boy, two and a half years old, was given a toy menag- erie, the animals of which averaged about two and a half inches in size. The father and the uncle of the boy amused themselves by describing to him the wildness and sav- agery of some of the strange new animals represented by the toys. As he was a child of vivid imagination he soon became frightened and refused to play with the menagerie. Among the animals was a lion, the de- scription of whose roars and savage strength seemed to intimidate the little fellow more than any of the other animals. A few days later I came unseen by him into his play- room. He had put the toy lion behind the bars of the cage which came with the menagerie and had placed himself in a crouching attitude on his hands and knees just in front of the cage. He then roared loudly and shook his head as much like a The Child's Art World 145 lion as his limited knowledge permitted; then he paused to see the effect of this chal- lenge to the wild beast. Soon he began gnashing his teeth and roaring again with savage fierceness, shaking his head at the same time. After this highly dramatic per- formance had been re-enacted several times, he called out, " I am not afraid of you ! Come out of your cage, you old lion." With that he reached his hand in the cage and drew forth the lion. His timidity had van- ished because he had taken the supposed fierceness of the lion into himself, and had discovered that he too could roar and gnash his teeth. In other words he had added lion life to little boy life and therefore felt equal to the lion and even his superior. I have related the above incident because it illustrates the early stage of imitation, namely, the imparting of the child's own life to inanimate objects, which is usually called animism. The child thus imparting the only kind of life he really knows, which is his own, oftentimes represents quite ear- nestly the supposed activity of the object. When your two or three-year-old boy noisily rushes around the room puffing out " choo, choo, choo " then calls out " toot, toot, toot,'- 146 Unseen Side of Child Life he has attributed life to the attractive steam-engine in order that he may add steam-engine experience and thereby under- stand steam-engine life. This is one way at this stage of his development that he can come into a sympathetic understanding of the steam-engine. When, with a string tied around his waist, he delightedly gallops along in front of you, pawing and shaking his imaginary mane, he is trying to add horse-experience to his own experience and thereby to understand horse-life. The only way he can get this added life as yet, let me again repeat, is to impart his own life and feelings to the objects about him and then to interpret their external appearance or manifestations by how he would feel if he were those objects — steam-engine, horse or what not. It is, therefore, a mistake to try to divert a child from auto-education or self-instruction when he is engaged in this kind of play, by laughing at him and thus making him self-conscious, for this shuts the door of steam-engine life or galloping- horse life and brings him painfully back to merely little-boy life with its limited experi- ences. It is equally harmful to try to give to a child who is thus playing, a scientific The Child's Art World 147 explanation of the facts of tlie case. He is not yet ready for scientific laws and facts. He must first gain a live and sympathetic interest in the animate and inanimate world about him through his simple childish ef- forts to understand these by putting his own life into the life of the world about him. Let me give an instance of a less imagi- native character, one of the kind that is taking place every day in the average home. I was calling on an intimate friend one morning when our conversation was inter- rupted several times by her little two-year- old boy coming in front of her and dropping a book on the floor, at the same time calling out in a slow, drawling tone, " D-i-i-z-e I '' He would then trot off, hunt up another book, bring it to her, drop it on the floor as he had dropped the former book, and again drawl out in a sing-song tone of utter indif- ference " D-i-i-z-e." After this somewhat unique performance had been repeated three or four times, the mother said, " Yes, yes, dearie, run away now. Mamma is busy." " What is he trying to do? " I asked, for I realized he was dead in earnest over it, whatever it was. " Oh, he is just playing," 148 Unseen Side of Child Life she replied laughingly. "But playing what? " I persisted. Then she explained that each morning while she was dressing him, they could see from the bedroom win- dow the ice-man drive up, jump off his wagon, pick up their block of ice between his tongs and drop it over the gate into their yard, calling out at the same time, " Ice ! " and that it was a favorite game of her child to play that he was the ice-man. I took up the game much to the little fellow's delight, and played that I w^as a nearby neighbor who consumed a vast amount of ice. Each time he deposited a book in front of me, I called out, " Please bring me some more ice this afternoon.'^ At this he would nod glee- fully and run off to pull down another book from the book shelf or table. When he would bring this new supply of ice, I would call out as if from an upstairs window, " Mr. Ice-man, will you be so kind as to lay that ice over there in the shade? I am afraid it will melt where it is. The sun is so hot to-day." I thus helped him to live for the time being the life of an ice-man and thus enlarge his own narrow life. Let me again illustrate how this im- portant activity of childhood is often The Child's Art World 149 thwarted by well-intentioned adults. I was on a railway train one breezy spring day, and just opposite to my seat was an intelli- gent-looking gentleman with his little three- year-old son. He had placed the boy on the window side of the seat and then opening his newspaper was soon absorbed in reading it. The little fellow amused himself for a time by looking out of the window at the passing objects. He then began to ask ques- tions concerning them, but as he received no replies from his father, he soon tired of this occupation. He next began a restless climb- ing off and on the seat. This slightly dis- tracted his father who, almost unconscious of what he was saying, uttered the words, *^ Keep still, Henry, can't you ! '' The lit- tle fellow obeyed as long as he could, then the restlessness began again. I motioned for him to come over and share my seat with me. He turned eagerly to the father and said, " That lady over there wants me to come over and visit with her, can't I go? " The father looked at me for a moment, smiled and bowed his consent, and in an- other moment the child was climbing joy- fully into my corner nearest the window. We chatted together for a while, when sud- 150 Unseen Side of Child Life denly the engine of the train blew a long, sharp, shrill whistle. " What did the car say then?" the little fellow asked, turning eagerly to me. I realized that he wanted to put his life in touch with the new life about him and that in his stage of development this could only be done through imagination. So I replied, " Oh, it was just saying ' good morn- ing ' to the trees and cattle and things that we pass on the road.'^ A pleased smile lighted his face. Again the train w^histled, and again he asked, " What did it say this time? '' and I replied, " It said * Good morning ! Good morning ! How do you do,' to all those tall old trees over there. Don't you see they are bowing * Good morning ' to the train? " He nodded assent and then said, " Tell me some more about how the engine talks to the trees." This was followed by an imaginary and friendly conversation between the trees that had lived all their lives in one place and the engine that had led a varied train-life, com- ing and going through many towns and see- ing many people. The boy was greatly in- terested in this play of fancy as it was en- larging his world and quickening his sym- The Child's Art World 151 pathies. But the newspaper in the seat op- posite rattled uneasily. In a few minutes more the train again whistled and again the boy asked eagerly for an interpretation of the shrill sound, and again I created an imaginary conversa- tion. This was too much for the father across the aisle and he said, " Come over here, Henry, I want you.'' The boy reluctantly obeyed. Again, in a short time, the engine whistled once more. The little fellow looked up, his face full of animation as he asked, " Papa, what did the train say that time? " The father laid down his paper and, turning to the boy, said quite seriously, " My son, an engine is made of iron, it cannot talk; the sound you hear is that of steam escaping from the boiler. Some day I will take you out and show you how the steam escapes and what causes the noise you hear." With that he resumed the reading of his paper and the little boy, ex- iled thus ruthlessly from a world of imag- inary companionship to which he had a right, sat silent and dejected with his hands folded in his lap, looking drearily out of the window. This semi-tragedy of childhood need not 152 Unseen Side of Child Life have taken place had the father understood the necessary steps in the growth of a child's inner life. Let me illustrate with a still higher form of dramatic play, without inanimate ob- jects — play in which the child tries to in- terpret human emotions through actions re- sulting from human emotions, thus not imputing emotions to inanimate objects but re-enacting the deeds of human beings. The little five-year-old daughter of a friend of mine, returning home from a week- end visit with her grandmother, was full of interest in the story of Cinderella, which she had heard for the first time while on her visit. She told it and retold it to her mother with great animation and evident pleasure in emphasizing the crossness and irritability of the wicked stepmother. Then she said, " Oh, let's play Cinderella. We can play it just lovely ! You be Cinderella and I will be the stepmother." The wise, young mother, realizing that her child was trying to internalize phases of human nature with which she had not personally come in contact, said, "All right! What shall I do? " The child replied : " You stoop right down there by the fireplace and play you The Child's Art World 153 are scrubbing the floor, and you must be crying just as bard as you can cry." The mother entered into the spirit of the play, at once and scrubbed and sobbed in fine dramatic fashion. The little girl straight- ened her body into the haughty attitude of assumed superiority and in a tone of con- temptuous scorn said, " Now, Cinderella, you just scrub that floor good and hard, and you stop your crying, I tell you! Don't think you can go to the ball. You can't because you have got only ragged and dirty clothes." At these words, the new Cin- derella began to sob pitifully. This was too much for the tender-hearted child. In- stantly she sprang forward, threw her arms around her mother's neck and exclaimed, " I'm not the ugly, old stepmother any longer ! I'm the fairy god-mother ! " Then turning her head critically to one side, she said in a light, airy tone, " Now, my dear, stop your crying at once and stand up. I am going to send you to the prince's ball in a beautiful dress, all embroidered in gold." Touching her mother lightly with her hand, she cried, " There, now ! See how lovely you look." And the play went forward rap- idly with chairs and stools representing the 154 Unseen Side of Child Life coach and horses supposed to be made from transformed pumpkins and mice. By trying to act out the part of the hard- hearted stepmother, the child had awakened to a consciousness of the odiousness of such conduct which no amount of didactic moral- izing could have made her realize. What more does the great actor do than through his imagination fill his heart so full of the emotions of a Hamlet or an lago that he relives for the brief hour the Hamlet or lago life? In fact, what is the greatest ser- vice that a great artist gives to humanity? Is it not to lend us his eyes that we may see more beauty, to give us what he hears that we may hear more harmony, to touch with his sympathy our hearts that we may be more alive to the joys and sorrows of the world, and thereby enter more into the greater meaning of life? This is why President Hadley in accept- ing the Harkness Memorial Building at Yale, said, " Of the various means to develop and perpetuate this spiritual side of educa- tion, beautiful buildings are one of the most important." Cardinal Newman placed them in the forefront among educational agencies. as more essential to the main purposes of a The Child's Art World 155 college than anything else. There are many reasons for thinking that he was right. A monumental building, if it be really beau- tiful and glorious, gives a visible and per- manent object round which life and loyalty can grow and to which tradition and senti- ment can attach. The man who looks out day after day into the college quadrangles of Oxford or Cambridge finds a stimulus both to his love of beauty and to his love of learning. This is why every form of art lifts the emotional life of man beyond bodily appe- tites and passions. No wonder the wise old Catholic Church sought art in her structures, her stained glass windows, her frescoed walls and sol- emn rituals. But there is something greater than an appreciation of art, and that is the creation of some art expression which to be true art must come from the inmost depths of the soul. It must be se//-expression, and when this self-expression is noble, it becomes beauty and we come nearer that " image of God '^ which the world of art tell us is a reality because man alone can create it. 156 Unseen Side of Child Life RECESSIONAL Man's conviction that his spiritual self is at one with God is the foundation of re- ligion. With this thought in mind let us recall the closing sentence of the greatest and at the same time the most practical ser- mon ever preached on the subject of religion. " Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Note that throughout this sermon Jesus gives no theo- logical dogma, no formal ritual is presented. It is simply the translating, oftentimes transfiguring, the common-place affairs of life by showing their spiritual significance. The theological teachings and the im- pressive symbolic rituals of this or that church have their significant place as en- vironing influences over their people. They are the mother tongue through which chil- dren learn to express religious emotions. But these are not enough unless they lead to consciousness of union with God. The surest possible preparation for the great at-one-ment with the Divine Creator and Source of all things, is the fundamental foundation of the religion that shows itself in service to mankind and love and rever- ence for God. More than this, a child who 'Recessional 157 has been brought up to have a friendly rela- tionship toward all about him, has ten times the chance of coming in contact with the best in the people by whom he is surrounded, and thereby to have the inspiration and the help which such revelations bring. Whereas, the child whose social instinct has been warped or starved, is apt to be critical be- cause of this isolation of his soul. In such a condition, of course, he calls forth the dis- agreeable limitations of his associates, and in consequence, his belief of what is heroic or great in his fellow-man lessens and his vision of God becomes dim. Insight illumines necessary work and makes of it a divine opportunity to help our children to live richer, fuller lives. Like all other really precious things, insight costs much. You must really want to help your chil- dren to grow into noble men and women more than you want anything else in the world, or you will not be willing to pay the price that true insight demands. I have tried to give you a few devices, some prac- tical suggestions, a certain general method of dealing with the average child, but I can- not give you insight. That comes only when 158 Unseen Side of Child Life we try to live according to the highest standards we can comprehend, no matter how much effort it may cost. A great teacher has said that one of the chief difficulties in the way of the religious development of our children is our own lack of vital piety. " It is easy to teach the cate- chism, but it is not easy to awaken and fos- ter the spirit of faith, hope and love. Any mother can force her child to memorize the definition of God, but only a mother who has herself the filial spirit can teach him to know his Heavenly Father. She whose own fioul is dead may be a religious drill master, but only the living spirit can communicate spiritual life.'' * Dr. Marie Montessori when questioned concerning her ideas of religious training of children, almost invariably answered: " Young children cannot know God. They can only feel Him," which was her way of making simple the psychological fact that all religion is based on the emotional nature, although it is strengthened by the develop- ment of the will in the right direction and it is clarified by thought. The great affirmation of Christianity that * Susan Blow in " Educational Issues." Recessional 159 there is a beneficent Personality at the cen- ter of the Universe which we call God is confirmed by the conviction that " I am I.'' It is the power of this conviction that rises above bodily conditions that assures us of the truth that there is something within us that is beyond the body. Else why is it that you and I have smiled while tears were dropping from our eyes, that in the midst of unrest we have attained unto rest, that in sorrow some of us have found that peace which passeth understanding? This union between man and God is the central thought of FroebePs theory of education. A famous biologist* has recently acknowledged most frankly that he finds his serious biological studies interfered with in a confusing way when he thinks of sympathy, love, pride and hope. Such emotions have not yet been explained by the most earnest and learned scientists. Has any present-day materialist taught us how the bodily functions cause thought to think thought? I have tried to emphasize in the foregoing chapters of this book the important fact that the child should begin at the beginning of active life to know he is an individual and that he should grow steadily in the con- • Dr. Vernon Kellogg in AtUmtio Monthly, M&j, 1921. 160 Unseen Side of Child Life sciousness that lie must develop separate and distinct from all other individuals whom he may meet, that he must be re- sponsible for his own deeds and for his share in the betterment of the community in which he lives. Then the Comtist theory of racial growth, in which the life of the indi- vidual with its temptations, its struggles, its defeats and its victories is to be sub- merged, will seem less plausible. Some few parents wishing to avoid teach- ing what seems to them to be the out-worn creed of past traditions, and some who are not quite sure of what they themselves be- lieve, try to get rid of the problem of the religious training of their young children by postponing all teaching concerning the supernatural. They might as well try to postpone the growth of a child's muscles or the development of his nervous system. Some theory concerning this unseen but very real life about him will inevitably arise within him, as shown by the questionings of children as soon as they can talk. Aye, even before they can formulate sentences their questioning eyes, the alert turn of their heads at any unusual sound, the puz- zled expression on their baby faces, each Recessional 161 tells that the spirit within is already seeking the unseen cause of things. If the mother is not ready or not willing to undertake this most delicate and im- portant part of her child's training, then gome one else will do it. Her child will get it from his ignorant superstitious nurse, or from his untrained Sunday School teacher, or from some older but still immature child^ or in the bewilderment of his own little mind he will build up some crude confusing explanation of the questionings that arise within him. The extremely interesting study of the superstition of children in gen- eral help, if any other proof is needed, and the sympathetic study of one's own child and his questions prove this. Most mothers, however, realize in some fashion the sacred- ness of their high office and strive to lead the inquiring young soul into some form of religious belief, and oftentimes their blun- ders are as pitiful as is the child's unaided fetish worship. The training of a child along lines that help him to accept the teachings of Jesus Christ concerning the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man and to strive to live according to this divine conception 162 Unseen Side of Child Life of life is the parent's supreme duty and tlie child's greatest need and is the true basis of education. It includes all that is best for man's body, for his heart, his will and his thought and it is his surest guide into true service for his fellow-men. Let us remem- ber always that it is what a man is^ not what he does, that counts most in the sum total of life, and helps most to strengthen our faith in God and immortality. Present-Day Tendencies 163 PKESENT-DAY TENDENCIES Throughout the last half of the nineteenth century man learned to control the forces of nature as he had never dreamed of before, and science seemed to advance by leaps and bounds. In a single half-century he mas- tered many of her laws and learned to ap- ply them to his every-day life as he had not done in any thousand years of the world's past history. And now in this first quarter of the twentieth century, having learned that nature seems immutable in the regu- larity with which she obeys these laws, he has caused her to work miracles before our eyes. For example, when we think of the sci- ence of mechanics, we see how man has caused nature to defy gravity and lift tons of weight into the air and speed through space with the swiftness of time. We have but to recall how brief has been the period since man learned to compress and condense his forts, and putting them on wheels, send them forth over ditches, climbing steep hill- sides, butting through thick walls to the battlefields, there to crush all that opposes 164 Unseen Side of Child Life them. These are but two striking instances of the thousand things that the mind of man has done in the name of science, in order to enforce his passion of hatred or, perchance, to check the greed and ambition that would destroy the slowly growing ideals of the world. Think of the marvels that chemistry has performed. Note how the mind of man has succeeded in extracting nitrogen from the air and has fertilized his fields with it, caus- ing them to bear from three to five times their former harvest; and how he has con- densed the oxygen and with it created heat so intense that it melts steel into molten liquid, and how he has performed other " miracles " too numerous to mention. Again with the mere mention of the word " electricity " comes the vision of man's turning night into day, winter into summer and summer into winter; utilizing the means to speed along the great highways, or sooth himself into quiet repose with sweet music. All these things and many more has man achieved since he has learned that nature has laws and that he must obey themo Frequently the earnest student of any Present-Day Tendencies 165 branch of science, be it astronomy, geology or other " sub-human '^ study, forgets that it is the mind of man which has mastered these laws and utilized them. Therefore, when we come to biology why should we be surprised that the biologist, absorbed in his own great work, seems to forget that mightiest of all forces which we call the self or mind of man? I have attempted to condense the many books that I have studied, the many maga- zine articles that I have read and lectures and convention speeches I have heard in the last twenty years, into as simple a state- ment as possible of the main theory of the following list of leaders in the educational world who do not accept the Christian in- terpretation of life. They have been, all of them, earnest, sincere men searching for more light in the dim dawn of the great world of psychology. We are learning how undreamed of pos- sibilities in the material world are revealing themselves, then why should we doubt the undiscovered possibilities in the human mind. At the present time the educational processes of the past are being turned up- side down in order to develop the creative 166 Unseen Side of Child Life power of the child. This is partly because we are beginning to realize that education must begin in infancy ; partly because of the appalling educational deficiency of men called to the front by the recent war ; partly also because of the brilliant discoveries of modern science. The danger before us lies in our overesti- mate of the value of ingenuity and skill in the use of materials to the neglect of cre- ative thought. If the former is the im- portant thing in education our mechanical inventors in the development of material power would take precedence over our teachers, poets and the prophets. We who subscribe to the Christian philosophy are still clinging to narrow creeds and dogmatic interpretations of the Bible. We are still apt to give lip-service instead of life-service. Our spiritual advance is not keeping pace with our material advance, and yet, there are strong indications to-day that science and religion are reaching out to clasp hands. Science is admitting that it must have faith in unknown power and future possibilities, else it must cease experimenting; religion is recognizing that faith must be accompanied by works or it is of no value; and philoso- Present-Bay Tendencies 167 phy is asking ps^^chology " How do you ex- plain thought's power to think thought? '^ The " theistic philosophers '^ — the think- ers who place a personality at the center of the universe — are the only teachers who have explained genius. To them it is the downpour of the over-soul which Christian- ity has called the inspiration from God. For a good illustration of this read Vernon Kellogg in the Atlantic Monthly, May and June, 1921, on the subject of Life and Death from a biologist's standpoint, and Harry Emerson Fosdick's little book entitled, "The Meaning of Faith.'^ Other broad- minded men are making the same con- cessions. The question of how shall the finite ex- plain the infinite reaches far back into the past. We hear Socrates driving home the truth concerning it with the unanswerable logic of his questions, Epictetus reasoning about it, and Marcus Aurelius meditating upon it. I feel almost as if an apology were needed in summarily condensing the writings of grave and learned men, whose devotion to their special field of study demands our sin- cerest respect and admiration. But this is 168 Unseen Side of Child Life not a book on anthropology, biology, phys- iological psychology or pragmatism. It is a book which concerns itself with the Chris- tian explanation of the higher human in- stincts and its application to the early life of childhood. The writings of the men men- tioned may be obtained at any public library. I have a list of some forty-six of them and each year adds more names. But the documents of Christian writers are as the sands of the sea. If we go no further back than to Herbert Spencer, we get a connected outline of the ups and downs of the psychology which leaves out God. In Spencer's book " Edu- cation " and also in his " Psychology '- he explains the activity which the child ex- hibits in play as so much " surplus energy '^ not needed in the maintaining of physical life. To him these necessary activities do not absorb all the vitality created by sleep and food, and this " surplus energy '' is used in play. This is, as you plainly see, a purely physiological explanation of child- life. Professor Groos in his " Play of Man " follows Spencer with the argument that this " surplus energy " serves as practice or Present-Day Tendencies 169 preparation of the nerves and muscles and senses for the serious pursuits of adult life. So his theory also has a physiological basis and shows no spiritual response to the acquisition of food, clothing, shelter and the propagation of the race. Yet he claims this activity is instinctive; that it is born in the healthy child, no matter what may be the race, religion or economic conditions. His theory seems to center in the development of the higher type of animal called man. He does not answer the questions, " Is there a God? '' " Is immortality a dream or not? '' In one place he says, " Even in the case of instincts which are not now useful it does not follow that if they appear before their life-serving usefulness, they must serve as a practice and preparation for such later use. Nature is not so parsimonious as that would indicate; it is not necessary to ex- plain doll plays of little girls as practice and preparation for their future and ma- ternal duties. They may be simply exhibi- tions of a material instinct which somehow in the life of the individual may be useful, as when a tree showers down ten thousand seeds of which only one may germinate." Professor Gross does not seem to realize 170 Unseen Side of Child Life that lie is giving tlie best possible argument for the theory that all instincts which are shown to be universal must be of value in the growth of the individual if rightly un- derstood, and if given the right environing stimulus and protected from injurious in- fluences. Luther Burbank and his co-work- ers have demonstrated the almost unbelieva- ble possibilities of what may be done in the plant world by right care of seeds and patient study of what have hitherto been called worthless weeds. Shall we claim less for the undeveloped " weeds of humanity "? As already stated, Dr. Edwin E. Slosson in his book " Creative Chemistry " tells of the transformations that have been achieved by that great science. They would seem to be but the excited imagination of an unbal- anced mind, except for the fact that they exist and are being used in a multitude of ways undreamed of twenty years ago. Why should we then not assume that the in- stinctive activities of childhood if developed aright will function the higher life of man- kind? This is a problem for both parents and teachers to study because it is the true " science of education." The difficulty in the case of many men of Present-Day Tendencies 171 science seems to be that they have given their attention exclusively to the definite forms of life or to the material forces that have been discovered, which make up the finite world and have neglected the study of the infinite Something to which every pro- cess of reasoning, every outgo of emotion, every physical activity inevitably lead, to God, the Infinite, the Unknown. In the psychology that is being promul- gated to-day in our institutions of learning we come to another instance of the mind of man trying to explain the infinite by ex- plaining the finite. Herbart's theory, as explained by De Garmo in " Herbart and the Herbartians,'' — I have not read the original German, — claims that the child's free activity comes from the necessity of passing through the more important stages of racial history. Dr. Stanley Hall, in his great book "Ado- lescence," as well as in his many articles in Journals, says that the seemingly un- necessary activities of the child are the re- mains of animal activities that were once necessary for the preservation of life in the pre-human world. Dr. John Dewey in his " The Child and 172 Unseen Side of Child Life the School," and other writings, as well as in his demonstration schools in Chicago and New York, has tried to show that the natural environment of primitive man is being taken away from the child by city life and by the use of machinery, and that it must be artificially supplied in the school curriculum. Dr. Patrick claims that provision must be made in our schools for more play, in order to counter-balance the strain and stress of modern life. Dr. Kirkpatrick insists that the fighting instinct is the first instinct to manifest itself in the race and in the child — fighting for one's mate or figthing for individual self- expression. But he adds that seeking the favor of the mate also develops from the racial instinct of continuation. In other words, self-development and propagation are the instincts that run through the ani- mal and human world. The one balances the other; the one creates power, the other creates the desire to serve ; the one develops individuality, the other sympathy; the one awakens desire for recognition of one's self, one's personal ability and attainments; the other the desire to give some part of one's Present-Day Tendencies 173 self to another. Here we find some recog- nition of the spiritual side of instincts in man as contrasted with instinct in animals. Dr. Watson, whose work along this vast line of thought has made him one of the authorities, with the modesty of the true scientist says, " I believe that more mere nothing has been written about human in- stincts than any other subject connected with human activity. Those of you who are familiar with what has been said on the sub- ject know that most elaborate lists of human instincts are put down. Hence anyone at- tempting to study instinct now goes in with the wrong point of view. He sees in the child's activity examples of instinctive ac- tion, regardless of whether that action really belongs to the original nature of the child or to his social surroundings." Dr. Watson later adds, " I have spent some time in an orienting study of the instincts but my results are so pitifully meager that I advance my conclusions with a great deal of hesitation.'' The above are but a few examples — with scores of present-day psychologists omitted — of the many who have attempted to explain life without including the Christian 174 Unseen Side of Child Life theory of a personal God and of the immor- tality of the human soul, which has done more than all other forces to lift man from the state of the beast to that of highest humanity. Unquestionably the child has been helped to attain unto a larger life through the val- uable contribution of this form of anthropo- logical research, which has resulted in the demand for playgrounds, school-gardens, pets, excursions, festivals, pageants, etc., all of which give a child a freer, larger physical life, and may help his inner life. The recent war has shown the world-wide struggle between hatred and idealism, between retaliation and tolerance, between greed and generosity, between profiteering and patriotism; in fact, seemingly between all that is good and bad in the heart of man. A century or more will be needed to clear away the confusion that has arisen through the conflict of so many emotions. Then it will be seen that " the Lord hath caused the wrath of man to praise him." The war has already awakened America to the all-important subject of the health of our children. When thousands of young men stood ready to serve our country, even Present-Day Tendencies 175 to . tlie giving up of life itself, tliey were debarred by ill liealth caused by ignorance of their parents, or their own ignorance of the fact that sins against the body bring their own penalty. With our usual energy we have estab- lished a nation-wide campaign for health. The children's bureau in the Department of Labor at Washington, D. C, sends out, without charge, a list of books and pamph- lets on seemingly every topic that concerns the health of children: the right kind of diet and exercise for the pregnant mother, the prenatal care of the child; the danger of employing ignorant mid-wives; the prevention of blindness at time of birth; the tremendous importance of breast feedv ing, and when breast feeding is not possible, definite directions as to the preparation of pasturized milk, sterilized milk, condensed milk, dried milk or milk powder as the next best food to be given. Pamphlets on diet for children from the age of six months to twelve or fourteen years are furnished on application. All these are written by experts of agricultural colleges or domestic science schools of national reputation. The doctors, surgeons 176 Unseen Side of Child Life and nurses have contributed simple and easily understood directions as to the care of the skin, the hair, the eyes, the nose and the throat. And the dental associations have given invaluable information relative to the care of the teeth. How to detect and meet children's diseases is also explained for any mother who cares for the health of her children. The far-reaching and exceedingly import- ant matter of weighing and measuring chil- dren, as a means of discovering normal or subnormal conditions of a child's health, has been especially helpful. The United States Government has intrusted its R. F. D. men to allow rural mothers to weigh their infants on the parcel-post scales. In my own state, Illinois, the tender and beautiful thought that established the Eliz- abeth McCormick Memorial Fund for a little eleven year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus McCormick has made it possible for mothers throughout the state to know the value of weighing and measuring a child as a test of his physical condition. Town community centers, mother's study- clubs, parent-teacher associations, social settlements and visiting nurses' associa- Present-Day Tendencies 177 tions all stand ready to give information as to where and how help along the lines of parental efficiency may be obtained, or how new welfare associations may be estab- lished. Most of our leading newspapers have health departments which furnish advice or at least information as to what to read or where to apply for help. The work still grows and much more can be done. This national movement for the welfare of the child's body is so far-reach- ing, so important as an aid in the making of future healthy citizens, that it can scarcely be over-estimated. And yet — is there not as vital a need that character should be built according to spiritual laws as that the body should be cared for with reference to physical laws? Our psychologists seem to have turned their attention almost exclusively to the material side of life, forgetting that the spirit grows on what it feeds upon as surely as the body grows on what it is fed upon. "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." In one of Maurice Maeterlinck's books I came across the following : " We are not considering the ordinary text-book psy- chology which concerns itself only with 178 Unseen Side of Child Life such spiritual phenomena as are closely interwoven with the material, having indeed usurped the beautiful name of Psyche. The psychology of which I speak is transcendental and throws light on the direct relationship that exists between love and soul and on the extraordinary presence of the soul. It is a science that is in its infancy ; but by it shall men be taken a full step higher, and very speedily shall it dismiss the elementary phychology that is dominant to-day.'^ In this book I have attempted to place before you, kind reader, the two explana- tions of the unseen side of child life. The one is based on the study of the child's body and its influence upon his spiritual life; the other is based on the spiritual life of the child and its influence upon his material life. All that is best in mankind, all that causes him to rise above mere gratification of animal instincts is the result of the ideals^ which increase his bodily strenfith, extend his influence for good in his com- munity and add assurance that there is life beyond that of the body. We pray " Thy kingdom come. Thy will T Present-Daii Tendencies 179 be done on earth as it is in heaven/' for- getting that the kingdom of heaven is within. It is the man behind the gun that does the fighting, not the gun. We may destroy our battleships and limit our armaments but not until we destroy our hatreds and limit our greed will we cease to be in danger of war. This is the law of that kingdom within. We forget also that loyalty can begin and should begin in the heart of the little child. 021 337 933 1