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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10042-0.txt b/10042-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..79bb90e --- /dev/null +++ b/10042-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7728 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10042 *** + +THE MODERN EDUCATOR'S LIBRARY +_General Editor_.--Prof. A.A. COCK. + + + + +THE CHILD UNDER EIGHT + + + + +By + +E.R. Murray + +Vice-Principal Maria Grey Training College +Author Of "Froebel As A Pioneer In Modern Psychology," Etc. + + +AND + + +Henrietta Brown Smith + +Lecturer In Education, University Of London, Goldsmiths' College +Editor Of "Education By Life" + + + "Is it not marvellous that an infant should be the heir of + the whole world, and see those mysteries which the books of + the learned never unfold? I knew by intuition those things + which since my apostasy I collected again by highest + reason." + + THOMAS TRAHERNE. + + +1920 + + + + +THE MODERN EDUCATOR'S LIBRARY + + +_The following volumes are now ready, and others are in preparation_:-- + +Education: Its Data and First Principles. By T.P. NUNN, M.A., +D.Sc., Professor of Education in the University of London. + +Moral and Religious Education. By SOPHIE BRYANT, D.Sc., Litt.D., +late Headmistress, North London Collegiate School for Girls. + +The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in School and University. +By H.G. ATKINS, Professor of German in King's College, London; and H.L. +HUTTON, Senior Modern Language Master at Merchant Taylors' School. + +The Child under Eight. By E.R. MURRAY, Vice-Principal, Maria Grey +Training College, Brondesbury; and HENRIETTA BROWN SMITH, L.L.A., +Lecturer in Education, Goldsmiths' College, University of London. + +The Organisation and Curricula of Schools. By W.G. SLEIGHT, M.A., +D.Lit, Lecturer at Greystoke Place Training College, London. + + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + + +The _Modern Educator's Library_ has been designed to give considered +expositions of the best theory and practice in English education of +to-day. It is planned to cover the principal problems of educational +theory in general, of curriculum and organisation, of some unexhausted +aspects of the history of education, and of special branches of applied +education. + +The Editor and his colleagues have had in view the needs of young +teachers and of those training to be teachers, but since the school and +the schoolmaster are not the sole factors in the educative process, it +is hoped that educators in general (and which of us is not in some sense +or other an educator?) as well as the professional schoolmaster may find +in the series some help in understanding precept and practice in +education of to-day and to-morrow. For we have borne in mind not only +what is but what ought to be. To exhibit the educator's work as a +vocation requiring the best possible preparation is the spirit in which +these volumes have been written. + +No artificial uniformity has been sought or imposed, and while the +Editor is responsible for the series in general, the responsibility for +the opinions expressed in each volume rests solely with its author. + +ALBERT A. COOK. + +UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, KING'S COLLEGE. + + + + +AUTHORS' PREFACE + + +We have made this book between us, but we have not collaborated. We know +that we agree in all essentials, though our experience has differed. We +both desire to see the best conditions for development provided for all +children, irrespective of class. We both look forward to the time when +the conditions of the Public Elementary School, from the Nursery School +up, will be such--in point of numbers, in freedom from pressure, in +situation of building, in space both within and without, and in beauty +of surroundings--that parents of any class will gladly let their +children attend it. + +We are teachers and we have dealt mainly with the mental or, as we +prefer to call it, the spiritual requirements of children. It is from +the medical profession that we must all accept facts about food values, +hours of sleep, etc., and the importance of cleanliness and fresh air +are now fully recognised. We do, however, feel that there is room for +fresh discussion of ultimate aims and of daily procedure. Mr. Clutton +Brock has said that the great weakness of English education is the want +of a definite aim to put before our children, the want of a philosophy +for ourselves. Without some understanding of life and its purpose or +meaning, the teacher is at the mercy of every fad and is apt to exalt +method above principle. This book is an attempt to gather together +certain recognised principles, and to show in the light of actual +experience how these may be applied to existing circumstances. + +The day is coming when all teachers will seek to understand the true +value of Play, of spontaneous activity in all directions. Its importance +is emphasised in nearly all the educational writings of the day, as well +in the Senior as in the Junior departments of the school, but we need a +full and deep understanding of the saying, "Man is Man only when he +plays." It is easy to say we believe it, but it needs strong faith, +courage, and wide intelligence to weave such belief into the warp of +daily life in school. + +E.R. MURRAY. +H. BROWN SMITH. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I + +THE CHILD IN THE NURSERY AND KINDERGARTEN + +BY E. R. MURRAY + + +CHAP. + +I. "WHAT'S IN A NAME?" +II. THE BIOLOGIST EDUCATOR +III. LEARNING BORN OF PLAY +IV. FROM 1816 TO 1919 +V. "THE WORLD'S MINE OYSTER" +VI. "ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE" +VII. JOY IN MAKING +VIII. STORIES +IX. IN GRASSY PLACES +X. A WAY TO GOD +XI. RHYTHM +XII. FROM FANCY TO FACT +XIII. NEW NEEDS AND NEW HELPS + + +PART II + +THE CHILD IN THE STATE SCHOOL + +BY H. BROWN SMITH + + +I. THINGS AS THEY ARE + + XIV. CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWTH + XV. THE INFANT SCHOOL OF TO-DAY + XVI. SOME VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +II. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF VITAL PRINCIPLES + + XVII. THE NEED FOR EXPERIENCE + XVIII. GAINING EXPERIENCE BY PLAY + XIX. THE UNITY OF EXPERIENCE + XX. GAINING EXPERIENCE THROUGH FREEDOM + + +III. CONSIDERATION OF THE ASPECTS OF EXPERIENCE + + XXI. EXPERIENCES OF HUMAN CONDUCT. + XXII. EXPERIENCES OF THE NATURAL WORLD + XXIII. EXPERIENCES OF MATHEMATICAL TRUTHS + XXIV. EXPERIENCES BY MEANS OF DOING. + XXV. EXPERIENCES OF THE LIFE OF MAN + XXVI. EXPERIENCES RECORDED AND PASSED ON + XXVII. THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +INDEX + + + + +PART I + +THE CHILD IN THE NURSERY AND KINDERGARTEN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +"WHAT'S IN A NAME?" + + +It is an appropriate time to produce a book on English schools for +little children, now that Nursery Schools have been specially selected +for notice and encouragement by an enlightened Minister for Education. +It was Madame Michaelis, who in 1890 originally and most appropriately +used the term Nursery School as the English equivalent of a title +suggested by Froebel[1] for his new institution, before he invented the +word Kindergarten, a title which, literally translated, ran "Institution +for the Care of Little Children." + +[Footnote 1: Froebel's _Letters_, trans. Michaelis and Moore, p. 30.] + +In England the word Nursery, which implies the idea of nurture, belongs +properly to children, though it has been borrowed by the gardener for +his young plants. In Germany it was the other way round; Froebel had to +invent the term _child garden_ to express his idea of the nurture, as +opposed to the repression, of the essential nature of the child. +Unfortunately the word Kindergarten while being naturalised in England +had two distinct meanings attached to it. Well-to-do people began to +send their children to a new institution, a child garden or play school. +The children of the people, however, already attended Infant Schools, +of which the chief feature was what Mr. Caldwell Cook calls +"sit-stillery," and here the word Kindergarten, really equivalent to +Nursery School, became identified with certain occupations, childlike in +origin it is true, but formalised out of all recognition. How a real +Kindergarten strikes a child is illustrated by the recent remark from a +little new boy who had been with us for perhaps three mornings. "Shall I +go up to the nursery now?" he asked. + +The first attempt at a Kindergarten was made in 1837, and by 1848 +Germany possessed sixteen. In that eventful year came the revolution in +Berlin, which created such high hopes, doomed, alas! to disappointment. +"Instead of the rosy dawn of freedom," writes Ebers,[2] himself an old +Keilhau boy, "in the State the exercise of a boundless arbitrary power, +in the Church dark intolerance." It must have been an easy matter to +bring charges of revolutionary doctrines against the man who said so +innocently, "But I,--I only wanted to train up free-thinking, +independent men." + +[Footnote 2: Author of _An Egyptian Princess_, etc.] + +It was from "stony Berlin," as Froebel calls it, that the edict went +forth in the name of the Minister of Education entirely prohibiting +Kindergartens in Prussia, and the prohibition soon spread. At the +present time it seems to us quite fitting that the bitter attack upon +Kindergartens should have been launched by Folsung, a schoolmaster, "who +began life as an artilleryman." Nor is it less interesting to read that +it was under the protection of Von Moltke himself that Oberlin schools +were opened to counteract the attractions of the "godless" Kindergarten. + +Little wonder that the same man who in 1813 had so gladly taken up arms +to resist the invasion of Napoleon, and who had rejoiced with such +enthusiasm in the prospect of a free and united Fatherland, should write +in 1851: + +"Wherefore I have made a firm resolve that if the conditions of German +life will not allow room for the development of honest efforts for the +good of humanity; if this indifference to all higher things +continues--then it is my purpose next spring to seek in the land of +union and independence a soil where my idea of education may strike deep +root." + +And to America he might have gone had he lived, but he died three months +later, his end hastened by grief at the edict which closed the +Kindergartens. The Prussian Minister announced, in this edict, that "it +is evident that Kindergartens form a part of the Froebelian socialistic +system, the aim of which is to teach the children atheism," and the +suggestion that he was anti-Christian cut the old man to the heart. +There had been some confusion between Froebel and one of his nephews, +who had democratic leanings, and no doubt anything at all democratic did +mean atheism to "stony Berlin" and its intolerant autocracy. + +For a time, at least in Bavaria, a curious compromise was allowed. If +the teacher were a member of the Orthodox Church, she might have her +Kindergarten, but if she belonged to one of the Free Churches, it was +permissible to open an Infant School, but she must not use the term +Kindergarten. + +Froebel was by no means of the opinion that, if only the teacher had the +right spirit, the name did not matter. Rather did he hold with +Confucius, whose answer to the question of a disciple, "How shall I +convert the world?" was, "Call things by their right names." He refused +to use the word school, because "little children, especially those under +six, do not need to be schooled and taught, what they need is +opportunity for development." He had great difficulty in selecting a +name. Those originally suggested were somewhat cumbrous, e.g. +_Institution for the Promotion of Spontaneous Activity in Children_; +another was _Self-Teaching Institution_, and there was also the one +which Madame Michaelis translated "_Nursery School for Little +Children_." + +But the name Kindergarten expressed just what he Wanted: "As in a +garden, under God's favour, and by the care of a skilled intelligent +gardener, growing plants are cultivated in accordance with Nature's +laws, so here in our child garden shall the noblest of all growing +things, men (that is, children), be cultivated in accordance with the +laws of their own being, of God and of Nature." + +To one of his students he writes: "You remember well enough how hard we +worked and how we had to fight that we might elevate the Darmstadt +crèche, or rather Infant School, by improved methods and organisation +until it became a true Kindergarten.... Now what was the outcome of all +this, even during my own stay at Darmstadt? Why, the fetters which +always cripple a crèche or an Infant School, and which seem to cling +round its very name--these fetters were allowed to remain unbroken. +Every one was pleased with so faithful a mistress as yourself,... yet +they withheld from you the main condition of unimpeded development, that +of the freedom necessary to every young healthy and vigorous plant.... +Is there really such importance underlying the mere name of a +system?--some one might ask. Yes, there is.... It is true that any one +watching your teaching would observe _a new spirit_ infused into it, +_expressing and fulfilling the child's own wants and desires._ You would +strike him as personally capable, but you would fail to strike him as +priestess of the idea which God has now called to life within man's +bosom, and of the struggle towards the realisation of that +idea--_education by development--the destined means of raising the whole +human race...._ No man can acquire fresh knowledge, even at a school, +beyond the measure which his own stage of development fits him to +receive.... Infant Schools are nothing but a contradiction of +child-nature. Little children especially those under school age, ought +not to be schooled and taught, what they need is opportunity for +development. This idea lies in the very name of a Kindergarten.... And +the name is absolutely necessary to describe the first education of +children." + +For an actual definition of what Froebel meant by his Nursery School for +Little Children or Kindergarten, it is only fair to go to the founder +himself. He has left us two definitions or descriptions, one announced +shortly before the first Kindergarten was opened, which runs: + +"An institution for the fostering of human life, through the cultivation +of the human instincts of activity, of investigation and of construction +in the child, as a member of the family, of the nation and of humanity; +an institution for the self-instruction, self-education and +self-cultivation of mankind, as well as for all-sided development of the +individual through play, through creative self-activity and spontaneous +self-instruction." + +A second definition is given in Froebel's reply to a proposal that he +should establish "my system of education--education by development"--in +London, Paris or the United States: + +"We also need establishments for training quite young children in their +first stage of educational development, where their training and +instruction shall be based upon their own free action or spontaneity +acting under proper rules, these rules not being arbitrarily decreed, +but such as must arise by logical necessity from the child's mental and +bodily nature, regarding him as a member of the great human family; such +rules as are, in fact, discovered by the actual observation of children +when associated together in companies. These establishments bear the +name of Kindergartens." + +Unfortunately there are but few pictures of Froebel's own Kindergarten, +but there seems to have been little formality in its earliest +development. An oft-told story is that of Madame von Marenholz in 1847 +going to watch the proceedings of "an old fool," as the villagers called +him, who played games with the village children. A less well-known +account is given by Col. von Arnswald, again a Keilhau boy, who visited +Blankenberg in 1839, when Froebel had just opened his first +Kindergarten. + +"Arriving at the place, I found my Middendorf[3] seated by the pump in +the market-place, surrounded by a crowd of little children. Going near +them I saw that he was engaged in mending the jacket of a boy. By his +side sat a little girl busy with thread and needle upon another piece of +clothing; one boy had his feet in a bucket of water washing them +carefully; other girls and boys were standing round attentively looking +upon the strange pictures of real life before them, and waiting for +something to turn up to interest them personally. Our meeting was of the +most cordial kind, but Middendorf did not interrupt the business in +which he was engaged. 'Come, children,' he cried, 'let us go into the +garden!' and with loud cries of joy the little folk with willing feet +followed the splendid-looking, tall man, running all round him. + +[Footnote 3: One of Froebel's most devoted helpers.] + +"The garden was not a garden, however, but a barn, with a small room and +an entrance hall. In the entrance Middendorf welcomed the children and +played a round game with them, ending with the flight of the little ones +into the room, where each of them sat down in his place on the bench and +took his box of building blocks. For half an hour they were all busy +with their blocks, and then came 'Come, children, let us play "spring +and spring."' And when the game was finished they went away full of joy +and life, every one giving his little hand for a grateful good-bye." + +Here in this earliest of Free Kindergartens are certain essentials. +Washing and mending, the alternation of constructive play with active +exercise, rhythmic game and song, and last but not least human +kindliness and courtesy. The shelter was but a barn, but there are +things more important than premises. + +Froebel died too soon to see his ideals realised, but he had sown the +seed in the heart of at least one woman with brain to grasp and will to +execute. As early as 1873 the Froebelians had established something more +than the equivalent of the Montessori Children's Houses under the name +of Free Kindergartens or People's Kindergartens. It will bring this out +more clearly if, without referring here to any modern experiments in +America, in England and Scotland, or in the Dominions, we quote the +description of an actual People's Kindergarten or Nursery School as it +was established nearly fifty years ago. + +The moving spirit of this institution was Henrietta Schroder, Froebel's +own grand-niece, trained by him, and of whom he said that she, more than +any other, had most truly understood his views. + +The whole institution was called the Pestalozzi-Froebel House. The +Prussian edict, which abolished the Kindergarten almost before it had +started, was now rescinded, and our own Princess Royal[4] gave warm +support to this new institution. The description here quoted was +actually written in 1887, when the institution had been in existence for +fourteen years: + +[Footnote 4: The Crown Princess of Prussia, afterwards the Empress +Frederick.] + +"The purpose of the National Kindergarten is to provide the necessary +and natural help which poor mothers require, who have to leave their +children to themselves. + +"The establishment contains:-- + +"(1) The Kindergarten proper, a National Kindergarten with four classes +for children from 2-1/2 to 6 years old. + +"(2) The Transition Class, only held in the morning for children about 6 +or 6-1/2 years old. + +"(3) The Preparatory School, for children from 6 to 7 or 7-1/2 years +old. + +"(4) The School of Handwork, for children from 6 to 10 or older. + +"Dinners are provided for those children whose parents work all day away +from home at a trifling charge of a halfpenny and a penny. Also, for a +trifle, poor children may receive assistance of various kinds in +illness, or may have milk or baths through the kindness of the kindred +'Association for the Promotion of Health in the Household.' + +"In the institution we are describing there is a complete and +well-furnished kitchen, a bathroom, a courtyard with sand for digging, +with pebbles and pine-cones, moss, shells and straw, etc., a garden, and +a series of rooms and halls suitably furnished and arranged for games, +occupations, handwork and instruction. + +"The occupations pursued in the Kindergarten are the following: free +play of a child by itself; free play of several children by themselves; +associated play under the guidance of a teacher; gymnastic exercises; +several sorts of handwork suited to little children; going for walks; +learning music, both instrumental (on the method of Madame Wiseneder[5]) +and vocal; learning and repetition of poetry; story-telling; looking at +really good pictures; aiding in domestic occupations; gardening; and the +usual systematic ordered occupations of Froebel. Madame Schrader is +steadfastly opposed to that conception of the Kindergarten which insists +upon mathematically shaped materials for the Froebelian occupations. Her +own words are: 'The children find in our institution every encouragement +to develop their capabilities and powers by use; not by their selfish +use to their own personal advantage, but by their use in the loving +service of others. The longing to help people and to accomplish little +pieces of work proportioned to their feeble powers is constant in +children; and lies alongside of their need for that free and +unrestrained play which is the business of their life." + +[Footnote 5: From certain old photographs, I suppose this to have been +what we now call a Kindergarten Band.] + +"The elder children are expected to employ themselves in cleaning, +taking care of, arranging, keeping in order, and using the many various +things belonging to the housekeeping department of the Kindergarten; for +example, they set out and clear away the materials required for the +games and handicrafts; they help in cleaning the rooms, furniture and +utensils; they keep all things in order and cleanliness; they paste +together torn wallpapers or pictures, they cover books, and they help in +the cooking and in preparations for it; in laying the tables, in washing +up the plates and dishes, etc. The children gain in this manner the +simple but most important foundations of their later duties as +housekeepers and householders, and at the same time learn to regard +these duties as things done in the service of others." + +It is worth while to notice the order in which the necessities of this +place are described. First comes a kitchen and next a bathroom, then an +out-of-doors playground with abundant material for gaining ideas through +action--sand, pebbles, pine-cones, moss, shells and straw. Then comes +the garden, and only after all these, the rooms and halls for indoors +games, handwork and instruction. It is worth while also to note the +prominence given to play, music, poetry and story-telling pictures, +domestic occupations and gardening, all preceding the "systematic and +ordered occupations" which to some have seemed so all-important. + +If we compare this with the current ideas about Nursery Schools, we do +not find that it falls much below the present ideal. There has been a +time when some of us feared that only the bodily needs of the little +child were to be considered, but the "Regulations for Nursery Schools" +have banished such fear. In these the child is regarded as a human +being, with spiritual as well as bodily requirements. + +To put it shortly, the physical requirements of a child are food, fresh +air and exercise, cleanliness and rest. It is not so easy to sum up the +requirements of a human soul. The first is sympathy, and though this may +spring from parental instinct, it should be nourished by true +understanding. Next perhaps comes the need for material, material for +investigation, for admiration, for imitation and for construction or +creation. Power of sense-discrimination is important enough, but in this +case if we take care of the pounds of admiration and investigation, the +pence of sense-discrimination will take care of themselves. + +Besides these the child has the essentially human need for social +intercourse, for speech, for games, for songs and stories, for pictures +and poetry. He must have opportunity both to imitate and to share in the +work and life around him; he must be an individual among other +individuals, a necessary part of a whole, allowed to give as well as to +receive service. In the National Kindergarten of 1873 no one of these +requirements is overlooked except the provision for sleep, and from old +photographs we know that this, too, was considered. + +Nursery Schools are needed for children of all classes. It is not only +the children of the poor who require sympathy and guidance from those +specially qualified by real grasp of the facts of child-development. +Well-to-do mothers, too, often leave their children to ignorant and +untrained servants, or to the equally untrained and hardly less ignorant +nursery governess. + +Mothers in small houses have much to do; making beds and washing dishes, +sweeping and dusting, baking and cooking, making and mending, not to +mention tending an infant or tending the sick, leave little leisure for +sympathy with the adventuring and investigating propensities natural +and desirable in a healthy child between three and five. There are +innumerable Kindergartens open only in the morning for the children of +those who can afford to pay, and these could well be multiplied and +assisted just as far as is necessary. In towns, at least, mothers with +but small incomes would gladly pay a moderate fee to have their little +ones, especially their sturdy little boys, guarded from danger and +trained to good habits, yet allowed freedom for happy activity. + +Kindergartens and Nursery Schools ought to be as much as possible +fresh-air schools. They should never be large or the home atmosphere +must disappear. They should always have grassy spaces and common +flowers, and they ought to be within easy reach of the children's homes. + +There must for the present be certain differences between the Free +Kindergarten or Nursery School for the poor and for those whose parents +are fairly well-to-do. In both cases we must supply what the children +need. If the mother must go out to work, the child requires a home for +the day, and the Nursery School must make arrangements for feeding the +children. All little children are the better for rest and if possible +for sleep during the day; but for those who live in overcrowded rooms, +where quiet and restful sleep in good air is impossible, the need for +daily sleep is very great. All Free Kindergartens arrange for this. + +Most important also is the training to cleanliness. This is not +invariably the lot even of those who come from apparently comfortable +homes to attend fee-paying Kindergartens, and among the poor, +differences in respect of cleanliness are very great. But soap and hot +water do cost money and washing takes time, and the modern habit of +brushing teeth has not yet been acquired by all classes of the +community. The Free Kindergartens provide for necessary washing, each +child is provided with its own tooth-brush; and tooth-brush drill is a +daily practice, somewhat amusing to witness. The best baby rooms in our +Infant Schools carry out the same practices, and these are likely to be +turned into Nursery Schools. + +It cannot yet be accepted as conclusively proved that a completely +open-air life is the best in our climate. We have not yet sufficient +statistics. No doubt children do improve enormously in open-air camps, +but so they do in ordinary Nursery Schools, where they are clean, happy +and well fed, and where they live a regular life with daily sleep. +Housing conditions complicate the problem, and all children must suffer +who sleep in crowded, noisy, unventilated rooms. + +Up to the present time Nursery Schools have been provided by voluntary +effort entirely, and far too little encouragement has been given to +those enlightened headmistresses of Infant Schools who have tried to +give to their lowest classes Nursery School conditions. Since the +passing of Mr. Fisher's Education Bill, however, we are entitled to hope +that soon, for all children in the land, there may be the opportunity of +a fair start under the care of "a person with breadth of outlook and +imagination," the equivalent of Froebel's "skilled intelligent +gardener." + +In the following chapter an attempt is made to explain how it is that so +many years ago Froebel reached his vision of what a child is, and of +what a child needs, and the considerations on which he based his +"Nursery School for Little Children" or "Self-Teaching Institution." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BIOLOGIST EDUCATOR + + + Progress, man's distinctive mark alone, + Not God's, and not the beasts': God is, they are, + Man partly is and wholly hopes to be. + +"A large bright room, ... a sandheap in one corner, a low tub or bath of +water in another, a rope ladder, a swing, steps to run up and down and +such like, a line of black or green board low down round the wall, +little rough carts and trolleys, boxes which can be turned into houses, +or shops, or pretence ships, etc., a cooking stove of a very simple +nature, dolls of all kinds, wooden animals, growing plants in boxes, an +aquarium." + +Any Froebelian would recognise this as the description of a more or less +ideal Kindergarten or Nursery School, and yet the writer had probably +never read a page that Froebel wrote. On the contrary, she shows her +entire ignorance of the real Kindergarten by calling it "pretty +employments devised by adults and imposed at set times by authority." + +The description is taken from a very able address on "Child Nature and +Education" delivered some years ago by Miss Hoskyns Abrahall. It is +quoted here, because, for her conception of right surroundings for young +children, the speaker has gone to the very source from which Froebel +took his ideas--she has gone to what Froebel indeed called "the only +true source, life itself," and she writes from the point of view of the +biologist. + +There exists at present, in certain quarters, a belief that the +Kindergarten is old-fashioned, out of date, more especially that it has +no scientific basis. It is partly on this account that the ideas of Dr. +Maria Montessori, who has approached the question of the education of +young children from the point of view of medical science, have been +warmly welcomed by so large a circle. But neither in England nor in +America does that circle include the Froebelians, and this for several +reasons. For one thing, much that the general public has accepted as +new--and in this general public must be included weighty names, men of +science, educational authorities, and others who have never troubled to +inquire into the meaning of the Kindergarten--are already matters of +everyday life to the Froebelian. Among these comes the idea of training +to service for the community, and the provision of suitable furniture, +little chairs and tables, which the children can move about, and low +cupboards for materials, all of which tend to independence and +self-control. + +It is a more serious stumbling-block to the Froebelian that Dr. +Montessori, while advocating freedom in words, has really set strict +limits to the natural activities of children by laying so much stress on +her "didactic apparatus," the intention of which is formal training in +sense-discrimination. This material, which is an adaptation and +enlargement of that provided by Séguin for his mentally deficient +children, is certainly open to the reproach of having been "devised by +adults." It is formal, and the child is not permitted to use it for his +own purposes. + +Before everything else, however, comes the fact that in no place has Dr. +Montessori shown that she has made any study of play, or that she +attaches special importance to the play activities, or natural +activities of childhood, on which the Kindergarten is founded. This is +probably accounted for in that her first observations were made on +deficient children who are notably wanting in initiative. + +Among these "play activities" we should include the child's perpetual +imitation or pretence, a matter which Dr. Montessori entirely fails to +understand, as shown in her more recent book, where she treats of +imagination. Here she maintains that only the children of the +comparatively poor ride upon their fathers' walking-sticks or construct +coaches of chairs, that this "is not a proof of imagination but of an +unsatisfied desire," and that rich children who own ponies and who drive +out in motor-cars "would be astonished to see the delight of children +who imagine themselves to be drawn along by stationary armchairs." +Imitative play has, of course, nothing to do with poverty or riches, but +is, as Froebel said long since, the outcome of an initiative impulse, +sadly wanting in deficient children, an impulse which prompts the child +of all lands, of all time and of all classes to imitate or dramatise, +and so to gain some understanding of everything and of every person he +sees around. + +The work of Dr. Montessori has helped enormously in the movement, begun +long since, for greater freedom in our Infant Schools; freedom, not from +judicious guidance and authority, but from rigid time-tables and formal +lessons, and from arbitrary restrictions, as well as freedom for the +individual as apart from the class. The best Kindergartens and Infant +Schools had already discarded time-tables, and Kindergarten classes have +always been small enough to give the individual a fair chance. Froebel +himself constantly urged that the child should become familiar with "both +the strongly opposed elements of his life, the individual determining +and directing side, and the general ordered and subordinated side." He +urged the early development of the social consciousness as well as +insisting on expansion of individuality, but it is always difficult to +combine the two, and most Kindergarten teachers will benefit by learning +from Dr. Montessori to apply the method of individual learning to a +greater extent. + +We are, however, fully prepared to maintain that Froebel; even in 1840, +had a wider and a deeper realisation of the needs of the child than has +as yet been attained by the Dottoressa.[6] In order to make this clear, +it is proposed to compare the theories of Froebel with the conclusions +of a biologist. For biology has a wider and a saner outlook than medical +science; it does not start from the abnormal, but with life under normal +conditions. + +[Footnote 6: Her latest publication regarding the instruction--for it is +not education--of older children makes this even more plain. For here is +no discussion of what children at this stage require, but a mere plunge +into "subjects" in which formal grammar takes a foremost place.] + +In the address, from which the opening words of this chapter are quoted, +it is suggested that a capable biologist be set to deal with education, +but he is to be freed "from all preconceived ideas derived from accepted +tradition." After such fundamentals as food and warmth, light, air and +sleep, the first problems considered by this Biologist Educator are +stages of growth, their appropriate activities, and the stimuli +necessary to evoke them. Always he bears in mind that "interference with +a growing creature is a hazardous business," and takes as his motto +"When in doubt, refrain." + +To discover the natural activities of the child, the biologist relies +upon, first, observation of the child himself, secondly, upon his +knowledge of the nervous system, and thirdly, upon his knowledge of the +past history of the race. From these he comes to a very pertinent +conclusion, viz. "The general outcome of this is that the safe way of +educating children is by means of Play," play being defined as "the +natural manifestation of the child's activities; systematic in that it +follows the lines of physiological development, but without the hard +and fast routine of the time-table."[7] + +[Footnote 7: It is in this connection that the Kindergarten is +stigmatised as "pretty employments devised by adults and imposed at set +times by authority," an opinion evidently gained from the way in which +the term has been misused in a type of Infant School now fast +disappearing.] + +It is easy to show that although Froebel was pre-Darwinian, he had been +in close touch with scientists who were working at theories of +development, and that he was largely influenced by Krause, who applied +the idea of organic development to all departments of social science. It +was because Froebel was himself, even in 1826, the Biologist Educator +desiring to break with preconceived ideas and traditions that he wished +one of his pupils had been able to "call your work by its proper name, +and so make evident the real nature of the new spirit you have +introduced."[8] + +[Footnote 8: See p. 4.] + +But Froebel was more than a biologist, he was a philosopher and an +idealist. Such words have sometimes been used as terms of reproach, but +wisdom can only be justified of her children. + +At the back of all Froebel has to say about "The Education of the Human +Being" lies his conception of what the human being is. And it is +impossible fully to understand why Froebel laid so much stress on +spontaneous play unless we go deeper than the province of the biologist +without in the least minimising the importance of biological knowledge +to educational theory. As the biologist defines play as "the natural +manifestation of the child's activities," so Froedel says "play at first +is just natural life." But to him the true inwardness of spontaneous +play lies in the fact that it is spontaneous--so far as anything in the +universe can be spontaneous. For spontaneous response to environment is +self-expression, and out of self-expression comes selfhood, +consciousness of self. If we are to understand Froebel at all, we must +begin with the answer he found, or accepted, from Krause and others for +his first question, What is that self? + +Before reaching the question of how to educate, it seemed to him +necessary to consider not only the purpose or aim of education, but the +purpose or aim of human existence, the purpose of all and any existence, +even whether there is any purpose in anything; and that brings us to +what he calls "the groundwork of all," of which a summary is given in +the following paragraphs. + +In the universe we can perceive plan, purpose or law, and behind this +there must be some great Mind, "a living, all-pervading, energising, +self-conscious and hence eternal Unity" whom we call God. Nature and all +existing things are a revelation of God. + +As Bergson speaks of the _élan vital_ which expresses itself from +infinity to infinity, so Froebel says that behind everything there is +force, and that we cannot conceive of force without matter on which it +can exercise itself. Neither can we think of matter without any force to +work upon it, so that "force and matter mutually condition one another," +we cannot think one without the other. + +This force expresses itself in all ways, the whole universe is the +expression of the Divine, but "man is the highest and most perfect +earthly being in whom the primordial force is spiritualised so that man +feels, understands and knows his own power." Conscious development of +one's own power is the triumph of spirit over matter, therefore human +development is spiritual development. So while man is the most perfect +earthly being, yet, with regard to spiritual development he has returned +to a first stage and "must raise himself through ascending degrees of +consciousness" to heights as yet unknown, "for who has measured the +limits of God-born mankind?" + +Self-consciousness is the special characteristic of man. No other animal +has the power to become conscious of himself because man alone has the +chance of failure. The lower animals have definite instincts and cannot +fail, _i.e._ cannot learn.[9] Man wants to do much, but his instincts +are less definite and most actions have to be learned; it is by striving +and failing that he learns to know not only his limitations but the +power that is within him--his self. + +[Footnote 9: This would nowadays be considered too sweeping an +assertion.] + +According to Froebel, "the aim of education is the steady progressive +development of mankind, there is and can be no other"; and, except as +regards physiological knowledge inaccessible in his day, he is at one +with the biologist as to how we are to find out the course of this +development. First, by looking into our own past; secondly, by the +observation of children as individuals as well as when associated +together, and by comparison of the results of observation; thirdly, by +comparison of these with race history and race development. + +Froebel makes much of observation of children. He writes to a cousin +begging her to "record in writing the most important facts about each +separate child," and adds that it seems to him "most necessary for the +comprehension of child-nature that such observations should be made +public,... of the greatest importance that we should interchange the +observations we make so that little by little we may come to know the +grounds and conditions of what we observe, that we may formulate their +laws." He protests that even in his day "the observation, development +and guidance of children in the first years of life up to the proper age +of school" is not up to the existing level of "the stage of human +knowledge or the advance of science and art"; and he states that it is +"an essential part" of his undertaking "to call into life _an +institution for the preparation of teachers trained for the care of +children through observation of their life_." + +In speaking of the stages of development of the individual, Froebel +says that "there is no order of importance in the stages of human +development except the order of succession, in which the earlier is +always the more important," and from that point of view we ought "to +consider childhood as the most important stage, ... a stage in the +development of the Godlike in the earthly and human." He also emphasises +that "the vigorous and complete development and cultivation of each +successive stage depends on the vigorous, complete and characteristic +development of each and all preceding stages." + +So the duty of the parent is to "look as deeply as possible into the +life of the child to see what he requires for his present stage of +development," and then to "scrutinise the environment to see what it +offers ... to utilise all possibilities of meeting normal needs," to +remove what is hurtful, or at least to "admit its defects" if they +cannot give the child what his nature requires. "If parents offer what +the child does not need," he says, "they will destroy the child's faith +in their sympathetic understanding." The educator is to "bring the child +into relations and surroundings in all respects adapted to him" but +affording a minimum of opportunity of injury, "guarding and protecting" +but not interfering, unless he is certain that healthy development has +already been interrupted. It is somewhat remarkable that Froebel +anticipated even the conclusions of modern psycho-analysis in his views +about childish faults. "The sources of these," he says, are "neglect to +develop certain sides of human life and, secondly, early distortion of +originally good human powers by arbitrary interference with the orderly +course of human development ... a suppressed or perverted good +quality--a good tendency, only repressed, misunderstood or +misguided--lies at the bottom of every shortcoming." Hence the only +remedy even for wickedness is to find and foster, build up and guide +what has been repressed. It may be necessary to interfere and even to +use severity, but only when the educator is sure of unhealthy growth. +The motto of the biologist on the subject of interference--"When in +doubt, refrain"--exactly expresses Froebel's doctrine of "passive or +following" education, following, that is, the nature of the child, and +"passive" as opposed to arbitrary interference. + +Free from this, the child will follow his natural impulses, which are to +be trusted as much as those of any other young animal; in other words, +he will play, he will manifest his natural activities. "The young human +being--still, as it were, in process of creation--would seek, though +unconsciously yet decidedly and surely, as a product of nature that +which is in itself best, and in a form adapted to his condition, his +disposition, his powers and his means. Thus the duckling hastens to the +pond and into the water, while the chicken scratches the ground and the +young swallow catches its food upon the wing. We grant space and time to +young plants and animals because we know that, in accordance with the +laws that live in them, they will develop properly and grow well; +arbitrary interference with their growth is avoided because it would +hinder their development; but the young human being is looked upon as a +piece of wax, a lump of clay, which man can mould into what he pleases. +O man, who roamest through garden and field, through meadow and grove, +why dost thou close thy mind to the silent teaching of nature? Behold +the weed; grown among hindrances and constraint, how it scarcely yields +an indication of inner law; behold it in nature, in field or garden, how +perfectly it conforms to law--a beautiful sun, a radiant star, it has +burst from the earth! Thus, O parents, could your children, on whom you +force in tender years forms and aims against their nature, and who, +therefore, walk with you in morbid and unnatural deformity--thus could +your children, too, unfold in beauty and develop in harmony." + +At first play is activity for the sake of activity, not for the sake of +results, "of which the child has as yet no idea." Very soon, however, +having man's special capacity of learning through experience, the child +does gather ideas. By this time he has passed through the stage of +infancy, and now his play becomes to the philosopher the highest stage +of human development at this stage, because now it is self-expression. + +When Froebel wrote in 1826, there had been but little thought expended +on the subject of play, and probably none on human instincts, which were +supposed to be nonexistent. The hope he expressed that some philosopher +would take up these subjects has now been fulfilled, and we ought now to +turn to what has been said on a subject all-important to those who +desire to help in the education of young children. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LEARNING BORN OF PLAY + + + Play, which is the business of their lives. + +There may be nothing new under the sun, but it does seem to be a fair +claim to make for Froebel that no one before or since his time has more +fully realised the value to humanity of what in childhood goes by the +name of play. Froebel had distinct theories about play, and he put his +theories into actual practice, not only when he founded the +Kindergarten, but in his original school for older children at Keilhau. + +Before going into its full meaning, it may be well first to meet the +most common misconception about play. It is not surprising that those +who have given the subject no special consideration should regard play +from the ordinary adult standpoint, and think of it as entirely opposed +to work, as relaxation of effort. But the play of a child covers so much +that it is startling to find a real psychologist writing that "education +through play" is "a pernicious proposition."[10] Statements of this kind +spring from the mistaken idea, certainly not derived from observation, +that play involves no effort, that it runs in the line of least +resistance, and that education through play means therefore education +without effort, without training in self-control, education without +moral training. The case for the Kindergarten is the opposite of this. +Education through play is advocated just because of the effort it calls +forth, just because of the way in which the child, and later the boy or +girl, throws his whole energy into it. What Froebel admired, what he +called "the most beautiful expression of childlife," was "the child that +plays thoroughly, with spontaneous determination, perseveringly, until +physical fatigue forbids--a child wholly absorbed in his play--a child +that has fallen asleep while so absorbed." That child, he said, would be +"a thorough determined man, capable of self-sacrifice for the promotion +of the welfare of himself and others." It is because "play is not +trivial, but highly serious and of deep significance," that he appeals +to mothers to cultivate and foster it, and to fathers to protect and +guard it. + +[Footnote 10: _The Educative Process_, p. 255 (Bagley).] + +The Kindergarten position can be summed up in a sentence from Dr. +Clouston's _Hygiene of Mind_: "Play is the real work of children." +Froebel calls activity of sense and limb "the first germ," and +"play-building and modelling the tender blossoms of the constructive +impulse"; and this, he says, is "the moment when man is to be prepared +for future industry, diligence and productive activity." He points out, +too, the importance of noticing the habits which come from spontaneous +self-employment, which may be habits of indolent ease if the child is +not allowed to be as active as his nature requires. + +There were no theories of play in Froebel's day, but he had certainly +read _Levana_, and in all probability he knew what Schiller had said in +his _Letters on Aesthetic Education_. The play theories are now too well +known to require more than a brief recapitulation. + +It will generally be allowed that the distinctive feature of play as +opposed to work is that of spontaneity. The action itself is of no +consequence, one man's play is another man's work. Nor does it seem to +matter whence comes the feeling of compulsion in work, whether from +pressure of outer necessity, or from an inner necessity like the +compelling force of duty. Where there is joy in creation or in discovery +the work and play of the genius approach the standpoint of the child, + + Indulging every instinct of the soul, + There, where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing. + +In the play of early childhood there may be freedom, not only from adult +authority, but even from the restrictions of nature or of circumstances +since "let's pretend" annihilates time and space and all material +considerations. + +Among theories of play first comes what is known as the Schiller-Spencer +theory, in which play is attributed to the accumulation of surplus +energy. When the human being has more energy than he requires in order +to supply the bodily needs of himself and his family, then he feels +impelled to use it. As the activities of his daily life are the only +ones known to him, he fights his battles over again, he simulates the +serious business of life, and transfers, for instance, the incidents of +the chase into a dance. In this Way he reaches artistic creation, so +that "play is the first poetry of the human being." + +As an opposite of this we get a Re-creation theory, where play, if not +too strenuous, understood as a change of occupation, rests and +re-creates. + +Another theory is that of recapitulation, which has been emphasised by +Stanley Hall, according to which children play hunting and chasing +games, or find a fascination in making tents, because they are passing +through that stage of development in which their primitive ancestors +lived by hunting or dwelt in tents. + +Lastly, a most interesting theory is that which is associated with the +name of Groos, and which is best expressed in the sentence: "Animals do +not play because they are young, but they have their youth because they +must play," play being regarded as the preparation for future life +activities. The kitten therefore practises chasing a cork, the puppy +worries boots and gloves, the kid practises jumping, and so on. + +A full account of play will probably embrace all these theories, and +though they were not formulated in his day, Froebel overlooked none, +though he may have laid special stress on the preparation side. Yet +another value of play emphasised by Professor Royce, viz. its enormous +importance from the point of view of mental initiative, is strongly +urged by Froebel. Professor Royce argues that "in the mere persistence +of the playful child one has a factor whose value for mental initiative +it is hard to overestimate." Without this "passionately persistent +repetition," and without also the constant varying of apparently useless +activities, the organism, says Professor Royce, "would remain the prey +of the environment." + +To Froebel, as we have seen, the human being is the climax of animal +evolution and the starting-point of psychical development. The lower +animal, he maintained, as all will now agree, is hindered by his +definite instincts, but the instincts or instinctive tendencies of the +human being are so undefined that there is room for spontaneity, for new +forms of conduct. + +Professor Royce says that "a general view of the place which beings with +minds occupy in the physical world strongly suggests that their +organisms may especially have significance as places for the initiation +of more or less novel types of activity." And to Froebel the chief +significance of play lies in this spontaneity. + +"Play is the highest phase of human development at this stage, because +it is spontaneous expression of what is within produced by an inner +necessity and impulse. Play is the most characteristic, most spiritual +manifestation of man at this stage, and, at the same time, is typical +of human life as a whole." + +These various theories seem to reinforce rather than to contradict each +other, and it is more important to avoid running any to an extreme than +to differentiate between them. In the case of recapitulation, we must +certainly bear in mind Froebel's warning that the child "should be +treated as having in himself the present, past and future." So, as Dr. +Drummond says: "If we feel constrained to present him with a tent +because Abraham lived in one, he no doubt enters into the spirit of the +thing and accepts it joyfully. But he also annexes the ball of string +and the coffee canister to fit up telephonic communication with the +nursery." He may play robbers and hide and seek because he has reached a +"hunting and capture" stage, but the physiologist points out that +violent exercise is a necessity for his circulation and nutrition, and +to practise swift flight to safety is useful even in modern times.[11] +Gardening may take us back to an agricultural stage, but digging is most +useful as a muscular exercise, and "watering" is scientific experiment +and adds to the feeling of power, while the flowers themselves appeal to +the aesthetic side of the sense-play, which is not limited to any age, +though conspicuous so soon. + +[Footnote 11: An up-to-date riddle asks the difference between the quick +and the dead, and answers, "The quick are those who get out of the way +of a motor-bus and the dead are those who do not."] + +Froebel recognised many kinds of play. He realised that much of the play +of boyhood is exercise of physical power, and that it must be of a +competitive nature because the boy wants to measure his power. Even in +1826 he urges the importance not only of town playgrounds but of play +leaders, that the play may be full of life. Among games for boys he +noted some still involving sense-play, as hiding games, colour games and +shooting at a mark, which need quick hearing and sight, intellectual +plays exercising thought and judgement, _e.g._ draughts and dramatic +games. One form of play which seemed to him most important was +constructive play, where there is expression of ideas as well as +expression of power. This side of play covers a great deal, and will be +dealt with later; its importance in Froebel's eyes lies in the fact that +through construction, however simple, the child gains knowledge of his +own power and learns "to master himself." Froebel wanted particularly to +deepen this feeling of power, and says that the little one who has +already made some experiments takes pleasure in the use of sand and +clay, "impelled by the previously acquired sense of power he seeks to +master the material." + +In order to gain real knowledge of himself, of his power, a child needs +to compare his power with that of others. This is one reason for the +child's ready imitation of all he sees done by others. Another reason +for this is that only through real experience or action can a child gain +the ideas which he will express later, therefore he must reproduce all +he sees or hears. + +"In the family the child sees parents and others at work, producing, +doing something; consequently he, at this stage, would like to represent +what he sees. Be cautious, parents. You can at one blow destroy, at +least for a long time, the impulse to activity and to formation if you +repel their help as childish, useless or even as a hindrance.... +Strengthen and develop this instinct; give to your child the highest he +now needs, let him add his power to your work, that he may gain the +consciousness of his power and also learn to appreciate its +limitations." + +As the child's sense of power and his self-consciousness deepen he +requires possessions of his "very own." Says Froebel: "The feeling of +his own power implies and demands also the possession of his own space +and his own material belonging exclusively to him. Be his realm, his +province, a corner of the house or courtyard, be it the space of a box +or of a closet, be it a grotto, a hut or a garden, the boy at this age +needs an external point, chosen and prepared by himself, to which he +refers all his activity." + +As ideas widen the child's purposes enlarge, and he finds the need for +that co-operation which binds human beings together. And so by play +enjoyed in common, the feeling of community which is present in the +little child is raised to recognition of the rights of others; not only +is a sense of justice developed, but also forbearance, consideration and +sympathy. + +"When the room to be filled is extensive, when the realm to be +controlled is large, when the whole to be produced is complex, then +brotherly union of similar-minded persons is in place." And we are +invited to enter an "education room," where boys of seven to ten are +using building blocks, sand, sawdust and green moss brought in from the +forest. "Each one has finished his work and he examines it and that of +others, and in each rises the desire to unite all in one whole," so +roads are made from the village of one boy to the castle of another: the +boy who has made a cardboard house unites with another who has made +miniature ships from nut-shells, the house as a castle crowns the hill, +and the ships float in the lake below, while the youngest brings his +shepherd and sheep to graze between the mountain and the lake, and all +stand and behold with pleasure and satisfaction the result of their +hands. + +The educative value of such play has been brought forward in modern +times in _Floor Games_ by Mr. Wells, _Magic Cities_ by Mrs. Nesbit, and +notably in Mr. Caldwell Cook's Play City in _The Play Way_. + +Joining together for a common purpose does not only belong to younger +boys. "What busy tumult among those older boys at the brook! They have +built canals, sluices, bridges, etc.... at each step one trespasses on +the limits of another realm. Each one claims his right as lord and +maker, while he recognises the claims of others, and like States, they +bind themselves by strict treaties." + +"Every town should have its own common playground for the boys. Glorious +results would come from this for the entire community. For, at this +period, games, whenever possible, are in common, and develop the feeling +and desire for community, and the laws and requirements of community. +The boy tries to see himself in his companions, to weigh and measure +himself by them, to know and find himself by their help." + +"It is the sense of sure and reliable power, the sense of its increase, +both as an individual and as a member of the group, that fills the boy +with joy during these games.... Justice, self-control, loyalty, +impartiality, who could fail to catch their fragrance and that of still +more delicate blossoms, forbearance, consideration, sympathy and +encouragement for the weaker.... Thus the games educate the boy for +life and awaken and cultivate many social and moral virtues." + +In England we have always had respect for boys' games and more and more, +especially in America, people are realising the need for play places and +play leaders. But all this was written in 1826, when for ten years +Froebel had been experimenting with boys of all ages. At Keilhau play of +all kinds had an honoured place. We read of excursions for all kinds of +purposes, of Indian games out of Fenimore Cooper, and of "Homeric +battles." It was "part of Froebel's plan to have us work with spade and +pick-axe," and every boy had his own piece of ground where he might do +what he pleased. Ebers, being literary, constructed in his plot a bed of +heather on which he lay and read or made verses. The boys built their +own stage, painted their own scenery, and in winter once a week they +acted classic dramas. Besides this, there was a large and complete +puppet theatre belonging to the school. Bookbinding and carpentry were +taught, and at Christmas "the embryo cabinet-maker made boxes with locks +and hinges, finished, veneered and polished." + +In England in 1917 we have given to us _The Play Way_, in which one who +has tried it gives the results of his own experiments in education +through play. Mr. Caldwell Cook was not satisfied with the condition of +affairs when "school above the Kindergarten is a nuisance because there +is no play." His dream is that of a Play School Commonwealth, where +education, which is the training of youth, shall be filled with the +spirit of youth, namely, "freshness, zeal, happiness, enthusiasm." + +The next chapter will show that it has taken us exactly a hundred years +to reach as far as public recognition of the Nursery School where play +is the only possible motive. It is for the coming generation of teachers +to act so that the dream of the Play School Commonwealth shall be +realised more quickly. It is a significant fact that the lines quoted as +heading for the next chapter are written by a modern schoolmaster. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FROM 1816 TO 1919 + + + Poor mites; you stiffen on a bench + And stoop your curls to dusty laws; + Your petal fingers curve and clench + In slavery to parchment saws; + You suit your hearts to sallow faces + In sullen places: + But no pen + Nor pedantry can make you men. + Yours are the morning and the day: + You should be taught of wind and light; + Your learning should be born of play. + + (_Caged:_ GEORGE WINTHROP YOUNG.) + +Had England but honoured her own prophets, we should have had Nursery +Schools a hundred years ago. In 1816, the year in which Froebel founded +his school for older boys at Keilhau, Robert Owen, the Socialist, +"following the plan prescribed by Nature," opened a school where +children, from two to six, were to dance and sing, to be out-of-doors as +much as possible, to learn "when their curiosity induced them to ask +questions," and not to be "annoyed with books." They were to be +prevented from acquiring bad habits, to be taught what they could +understand, and their dispositions were to be trained "to mutual +kindness and a sincere desire to contribute all in their power to +benefit each other." They "were trained and educated without punishment +or the fear of it.... A child who acted improperly was not considered an +object of blame but of pity, and no unnecessary restraint was imposed on +the children." + +But the world was not ready. Owen's "Rational Infant School" attracted +much notice, and an Infant School Society was founded. But even the +enlightened were incapable of understanding that any education was +possible without books, and the promoters rightly, though quite +unconsciously, condemned themselves when they kept the title Infant +School but dropped the qualifying "Rational." Still, Infant Schools had +been started and interest had been aroused. When the edict abolishing +Kindergartens was promulgated in Germany, some of Froebel's disciples +passed to other lands, and Madame von Marenholz came to England in 1854. +Already one Kindergarten had been opened by a Madame Ronge, to which +Rowland Hill sent his children, and to which Dickens paid frequent +visits. In the same year there was held in London an "International +Educational Exposition and Congress," and to this Madame von Marenholz +sent an exhibit, which was explained by Madame Ronge, and by a Mr. +Hoffmann. Dickens, who had watched the actual working of a Kindergarten, +gave warm support to the new ideas, and wrote an excellent article on +"Infant Gardens" for _Household Words_, urging "that since children are +by Infinite Wisdom so created as to find happiness in the active +exercise and development of all their faculties, we, who have children +round about us, shall no longer repress their energies, tie up their +bodies, shut their mouths.... The frolic of childhood is not pure +exuberance and waste. 'There is often a high meaning in childish play,' +said Froebel. Let us study it, and act upon the hints--or more than +hints--that Nature gives." + +Dr. Henry Barnard represented Connecticut at this Congress, and he took +the Kindergarten to America, in whose virgin soil the seed took root, +and quickly brought forth abundantly. But the soil was virgin and the +fields were ready for planting, for America in these days had nothing +corresponding to our Infant Schools. The Kindergarten was welcomed by +people of influence. Dr. Barnard found his first ally in Miss Peabody, +one of whose sisters was married to Nathaniel Hawthorne, while another +was the wife of Horace Mann. Miss Peabody began to teach in 1860, but +eight years later, after a visit to Europe, she gave up teaching for +propaganda work. Owing to her efforts the first Free Kindergarten was +opened in Boston in 1870. Philanthropists soon recognised its importance +as a social agency, and by 1883 one lady alone supported thirty-one such +institutions in Boston and its surroundings. In New York, Dr. Felix +Adler established a Free Kindergarten in 1878, and Teachers' College was +influential in helping to form an association which supports several. +Another name well known in this country is that of Miss Kate Douglas +Wiggin,[12] who was a Kindergarten teacher for many years before she +became known as a novelist. It is Miss Wiggin who tells of a quaint +translation of Kindergarten heard by a San Francisco teacher making +friendly visits to the mothers of her children. While she stood on a +door-step sympathising with one poor woman she heard a "loud, but not +unfriendly" voice from an upper window. "Clear things from under foot!" +it pealed in stentorian accents. "The teacher o' the _Kids' Guards_ is +comin' down the street." + +[Footnote 12: Writer of _Penelope in England_, etc., and of a capital +collection of essays entitled _Children's Rights_.] + +In England things were very different, because of the Infant Schools +which had already been established, but which had fallen far below the +ideal set up by Robert Owen. As every one knows, the education given in +those days to teachers of Elementary Schools was but meagre, and the +results were often so bad that, to justify the expenditure of public +money, "payment by results" was introduced. In 1870 came the Education +Act, and the year 1874 saw a good deal of movement. Miss Caroline Bishop +was appointed to lecture to the Infants' teachers under the London +School Board; Miss Heerwart took charge of a training college for +Kindergarten teachers in connection with the British and Foreign School +Society; the Froehel Society was founded, and Madame Michaelis took the +Kindergarten into the newly established High Schools for Girls. For the +children of the well-to-do Kindergartens spread rapidly, but for the +children of the poor there was no such happiness; the Infant School was +too firmly established as a place where children learned to read, write +and count, and above all to sit still. Infants' teachers received no +special training for their work; their course of study, in which +professional training played but a small part, was the same as that +prescribed for the teachers of older children. Some colleges, notably +The Home and Colonial, Stockwell, and Saffron Walden, did try to give +their students some special training, but it was not of much avail, and +the word Kindergarten came to mean not Nursery School, as was the idea +of its founder, but dictated exercises with Kindergarten material, a +kind of manual drill supposed to give "hand and eye training," and with +this meaning it made its appearance on the time-table. + +Visitors from America were shocked to find no Kindergartens in England, +but only large classes of poor little automatons sitting erect with +"hands behind" or worse still "hands on heads," and moving only to the +word of command. One lady who ultimately found her way to our own +Kindergarten told me that she had been informed at the L.C.C. offices +that there were no Kindergartens in London. + +It was partly the scandalised expressions of these American teachers +that stimulated Miss Adelaide Wragge to take her courage into her hands, +and in the year 1900 to open the first Mission Kindergarten in England. +She called it a Mission, not a Free Kindergarten, partly because the +parents paid the trifling fee of one penny per week, and partly because +it was connected with the parish work of Holy Trinity, Woolwich, of +which her brother was vicar. The first report says: "The neighbourhood +was suitable for the experiment; little children, needing just the kind +of training we proposed to give them, abounded everywhere.... The +Woolwich children were typical slum babies, varying in ages from three +to six years; very poor, very dirty, totally untrained in good habits. +At first we only admitted a few, and when these began to improve, +gradually increased the numbers to thirty-five. They needed great +patience and care, but they responded wonderfully to the love given +them, and before long they were real Kindergarten children, full of +vigour, merriment and self-activity." + +As is done in connection with all Free Kindergartens, Parents' Evenings +were instituted from the first, and the mothers were helped to +understand their children by simple talks. + +Sesame House for Home Life Training had been opened six months before +this Mission Kindergarten. It was founded by the Sesame Club, and at its +head was Miss Schepel, who for twenty years had been at the head of the +Pestalozzi Froebel House. The idea of Home Life Training attracted +students who were not obliged by stern necessity to earn their daily +bread. Though the methods were not quite in line with progressive +thought, the atmosphere created by Miss Schepel, warmly seconded by Miss +Buckton,[13] was one of enthusiasm in the service of children. The +second Nursery School in London had its origin in this enthusiasm. Miss +Maufe left Sesame House early in 1903, and started a free Child Garden +in West London. Four years later she moved to Westminster to a block of +workmen's dwellings erected on the site of the old Millbank Prison. This +"child garden" has a special interest from the fact that it was carried +on actually in a block of workmen's dwellings like The Children's +Houses of a later date. The effort was voluntary and the rooms were +small, but, if the experiment had been supported by the authorities, it +would have been easy to take down dividing walls to get sufficient +space. Miss Maufe gave herself and her income for about twelve years, +but difficulties created by the war, the impossibility of finding +efficient help and consequent drain upon her own strength have forced +her to close her little school, to the grief of the mothers in 48 Ruskin +Buildings. Another Sesame House student, Miss L. Hardy, in her charming +_Diary of a Free Kindergarten_, takes us from London to Edinburgh, but +the first Free Kindergarten in Edinburgh began in 1903 and had a +different origin. Miss Howden was an Infants' Mistress in one of the +slums, and knew well the needs of little children in that wide street, +once decked with lordly mansions, which leads from the Castle to +Holyrood Palace. Some of the fine houses are left, but the inhabitants +are of the poorest, and Miss Howden left her savings to start a Free +Kindergarten in the Canongate. The sum was not large, but it was seed +sown in faith, and its harvest has been abundant, for Edinburgh with its +population of under 400,000 has five Free Kindergartens, in all of which +the children are washed and fed and given restful sleep, as well as +taught and trained with intelligence and love. London with its +population of 6,000,000 had but eight up to the time of the outbreak of +the war. + +[Footnote 13: Author of the beautiful mystery play of _Eager Heart_.] + +In 1904 the Froebel Society took part in a Joint Conference at Bradford, +where one sitting was devoted to "The Need for Nursery Schools for +Children from three to five years at present attending the Public +Elementary Schools." The speakers were Mrs. Miall of Leeds, and Miss K. +Phillips, who had wide opportunities for knowledge of the unsuitable +conditions generally provided for these little children. Among those who +joined in this discussion was Miss Margaret M'Millan, so well known for +her pioneer work in connection with School Clinics, and more recently +for her now famous Camp School. Miss M'Millan had already done yeoman +service on the Bradford Education Committee, but was now resident in +London, and she had been warmly welcomed on the Council of the Froebel +Society. It was from the date of this Conference that the name Nursery +School became general, though it had been used by Madame Michaelis as +early as 1891. In the following year, 1905, the Board of Education +published its "Reports on Children under Five Years of Age," with its +prefatory memorandum stating that "a new form of school is necessary for +poor children," and that parents who must send their little ones to +school "should send them to nursery schools rather than to schools of +instruction," to schools where there should be "more play, more sleep, +more free conversation, story-telling and observation." It would seem +that the recommendations of 1905 may begin to be carried out in 1919, a +consummation devoutly to be wished. + +In the meantime voluntary effort has done what it could. Birmingham had +good reason to be in the forefront, since many of its public-spirited +citizens had in their own childhood the benefit of the excellent works +of Miss Caroline Bishop, a disciple of Frau Schrader. The Birmingham +People's Kindergarten Association opened its first People's Kindergarten +at Greet, in 1904, and a second, the Settlement Kindergarten, in 1907. +Sir Oliver Lodge spoke strongly in favour of these institutions, calling +them a protest against the idea of the comparative unimportance of +childhood. + +Miss Hardy opened her Child Garden in 1906, and that work has grown so +that the children are now kept till they are eight years old. The +Edinburgh Provincial Council for the Training of Teachers opened another +Free Kindergarten as a demonstration school for Froebelian methods, a +practising school for students, and also as an experimental school, +where attempts might be made to solve problems as to the education of +neglected children under school age. It was the Headmistress of this +school, Miss Hodsman, who invented the net beds now in general use. She +wanted something hygienic and light enough to be carried easily into the +garden, that in fine weather the children might sleep out of doors. + +Another Sesame House student, Miss Priestman, opened a Free Kindergarten +in the pretty village of Thornton-le-Dale, where the children have a +sand-heap in a little enclosure allowed them by the blacksmith, and sail +their boats at a quiet place by the side of the beck that runs through +the village. + +It was in 1908 that Miss Esther Lawrence of the Froebel Institute +inspired her old students to help her to open The Michaelis Free +Kindergarten. Since the war, the name has been altered to The Michaelis +Nursery School, which is in Netting Dale, on the edge of a very poor +neighbourhood, where large families often occupy a single room. As in +the Edinburgh Free Kindergartens, dinner is provided, for which the +parents pay one penny. The first report tells how necessary are Nursery +Schools in such surroundings. "The little child who was formerly tied to +the leg of the bed, and left all day while his mother was out at work, +is now enjoying the happy freedom of the Kindergarten. The child whose +clothes were formerly sewn on to him, to save his mother the periodical +labour of sewing on buttons, is now undressed and bathed regularly. The +attacks on children by drunken parents are less frequent. When the +Kindergarten was first opened, many of the children were quite listless, +they did not know how to play, did not care to play. Now they play with +pleasure and with vigour, and one can hardly believe they are the +listless, spiritless children of a year ago." + +In 1910 Miss Lawrence succeeded in opening what was called from the +first the "Somers Town Nursery School," where the same kind of work is +done. One of the reports says: "It is interesting to see the children +sweeping or dusting a room, washing their dusters and dolls' clothes, +polishing the furniture, their shoes, and anything which needs +polishing. On Friday morning the 'silver' is cleaned, and the brilliant +results give great pleasure and satisfaction to the little polishers. +'Have you done your work?' was the question addressed to a visitor by a +three-year-old child, and the visitor beat a hasty retreat, ashamed +perhaps of being the only drone in the busy hive. At dinner time four +children wait on the rest, and very well and quickly the food is handed +round and the plates removed." + +There are other Free Kindergartens at work. One is in charge of Miss +Rowland, and is in connection with the Bermondsey Settlement. It is Miss +Rowland who tells of the "candid mother" she met one Saturday who +remarked, "I told the children to wash their faces in case they met +you." + +The Phoenix Park Kindergarten in Glasgow is interesting because the site +was granted by an enlightened Corporation and the Parks Committee laid +out the garden, while the real start came from the pupils of a school +for girls of well-to-do families. By this time other social agencies +have been grouped round the Kindergarten as a centre. + +The Caldecott Nursery School was opened in 1911 and has grown into the +Caldecott Community, which has now taken its children to live altogether +in the country. This Nursery School was never intended to be a +Kindergarten; it was started as an interesting experiment, "chiefly +perhaps in the hope that the children might enjoy that instruction which +is usually absorbed by the children of the wealthy in their own +nurseries by virtue of their happier surroundings." + +And in the very year in which we were plunged into war Miss Margaret +M'Millan put into actual shape what she had long thought of, and opened +her "Baby Camp" and Nursery School, with a place for "toddlers" in +between, the full story of which is told in _The, Camp School_. In the +Camp itself the things which impress the visitor most are first the +space and the fresh air, the sky above and the brown earth below, and +next the family feeling which is so plain in spite of the numbers. The +Camp existed long before it was a Baby Camp and Nursery School, for Miss +M'Millan began with a School Clinic and went on to Open-Air Camps for +girls and for boys, before going to the "preventive and constructive" +work of the Baby Camp. Clean and healthy bodies come first, but to Miss +M'Millan's enthusiasm everything in life is educative. + +The war has increased the supply of Nursery Schools, because the need +for them has become glaringly apparent. Many experiments are going on +now, and it seems as if experimental work would be encouraged, not +hampered by unyielding regulations. The Nursery School should cover the +ages for which the Kindergarten was instituted, roughly from three to +six years old. Already there are excellent baby rooms in some parts of +London, and no doubt in other towns, and the only reason for disturbing +these is to provide the children with more space and more fresh air, or +with something resembling a garden rather than a bare yard. + +One school in London has a creche or day nursery, not exactly a part of +it, but in closest touch, established owing to the efforts of an +enthusiastic Headmistress working along with the Norland Place nurses. +Its space is at present insufficient, but the neighbouring buildings are +condemned, and will come down after the war. They need not go up again. +Then the space could be used in the same way as in the Camp School. That +would be to the benefit of the whole neighbourhood, and there could be +at least one experiment where from creche to Standard VII. might be in +close connection. + +Miss M'Millan's ideal is to have a large space in the centre of a +district with covered passages radiating from it so that mothers from a +large area could bring their little ones and leave them in safety. It +would be safety, it would be salvation. But, as the Scots proverb has +it, "It is a far cry to Loch Awe." + +Another question much debated is, who is to be in charge of these +children. The day nursery or crèche must undoubtedly be staffed with +nurses, but with nurses trained to care for children, not merely sick +nurses. There are, however, certain people who believe that the "trained +nurse" is the right person to be in charge of children up to five, while +others think that young girls or uneducated women will suffice. We are +thankful that the Board of Education takes up the position that a +well-educated and specially trained teacher is to be the person +responsible. + +We certainly want the help both of the trained nurse and of the motherly +woman. The trained nurse will be far more use in detecting and attending +to the ailments of children than the teacher can be, and the motherly +woman can give far more efficient help in training children to decent +habits than any young probationer, useful though these may be. But there +is always the fear that the nurses may think that good food and +cleanliness are all a child requires, and, as Miss M'Millan says, "The +sight of the toddlers' empty hands and mute lips does not trouble them +at all." + +But every man to his trade, and though the teacher in charge must know +something about ailing children, it is very doubtful if a few months in +a hospital will advantage her much. Here she trenches on the province of +the real nurse, whose training is thorough, and the little knowledge, +as every one knows, is sometimes dangerous. One Nursery School teacher, +with years of experience, says that what she learned in hospital has +been of no use to her, and it is probable that attendance at a clinic +for children would be really more useful. Certainly the main concern of +the Nursery School teacher is sympathetic understanding of children. +There must be no more of _Punch's_ "Go and see what Tommy is doing in +the next room and tell him not to," but "Go and see what Tommy is trying +to accomplish, and make it possible for him to carry on his +self-education through that 'fostering of the human instincts of +activity, investigation and construction' which constitutes a +Kindergarten." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"THE WORLD'S MINE OYSTER" + + + A box of counters and a red-veined stone, + A piece of glass abraded by the beach, + And six or seven shells. + +If early education, consist in fostering natural activities, there can +be no doubt that Froebel hit upon the activity most prominent of all in +the case of young children, viz. the impulse to investigate. For his +crest, the little child should share in the "motto given to the mongoose +family, in Kipling's _Rikki-Tikki_, 'Run and find out.'" + +Most writers on the education of young children have emphasised the +importance of what is most inadequately called sense training, and it is +here that Dr. Montessori takes her stand with her "didactic apparatus." +Froebel's ideas seem wider; he realises that the sword with which the +child opens his oyster is a two-edged sword, that he uses not only his +sense organs as tools for investigation, but his whole body. His pathway +to knowledge, and to power over himself and his surroundings, is action, +and action of all kinds is as necessary to him as the use of his senses. + +"The child's first utterance is force," says Froebel, and his first +discovery is the resistance of matter, when he "pushes with his feet +against what resists them." His first experiments are with his body, +"his first toys are his own limbs," and his first play is the use of +"body, senses and limbs" for the sake of use, not for result. One use +of his body is the imitation of any moving object, and Froebel tells the +mother: + + If your child's to understand + Action in the world without, + You must let his tiny hand + Imitative move about. + This is the reason why + Baby will, never still, + Imitate whatever's by. + +At this stage the child is "to move freely, and be active, to grasp and +hold with his own hands." He is to stand "when he can sit erect and draw +himself up," not to walk till he "can creep, rise freely, maintain his +balance and proceed by his own effort." He is _not_ to be hindered by +swaddling bands--such as are in use in Continental countries--nor, later +on, to be "_spoiled by too much assistance_," words which every mother +and teacher should write upon her phylacteries. But as soon as he can +move himself the surroundings speak to the child, "outer objects +_invite_ him to seize and grasp them, and if they are distant, they +invite him who would bring them nearer to move towards them." + +This use of the word "invite" is worthy of notice, and calls to mind a +sentence used by a writer on Freud,[14] that "the activity of a human +being is a constant function of his environment." We adults, who are so +ready with our "Don't touch," must endeavour to remember how everything +is shouting to a child: "Look at me, listen to me, come and fetch me, +and find out all you can about me by every means in your power." + +[Footnote 14: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +If we have anything to do with little children, we must face the fact +that the child is, if not quite a Robinson Crusoe on his island, at +least an explorer in a strange country, and a scientist in his +laboratory. But there is nothing narrow in his outlook: the name of this +chapter is deliberately chosen, the whole world is the child's oyster, +his interests are all-embracing. + +From his first walk he is the geographer. "Each little walk is a tour +of discovery; each object--the chair, the wall--is an America, a new +world, which he either goes around to see if it be an island, or whose +coast he follows to discover if it be a continent. Each new phenomenon +is a discovery in the child's small and yet rich world, _e.g._ one may +go round the chair; one may stand before it, behind it, but one cannot +go behind the bench or the wall." + +Then comes an inquiry into the physical properties of surrounding +objects. "The effort to reach a particular object may have its source in +the child's desire to hold himself firm and upright by it, but we also +observe that it gives him pleasure to touch, to feel, to grasp, and +perhaps also--which is a new phase of activity--to be able to move +it.... The chair is hard or soft; the seat is smooth; the corner is +pointed; the edge is sharp." The business of the adult, Froebel goes on +to say, is to supply these names, "not primarily to develop the child's +power of speech," but "to define his sense impressions." + +Next, the scientist must stock his laboratory with material for +experiment. + +"The child is attracted by the bright round smooth pebble, by the gaily +fluttering bit of paper, by the smooth bit of board, by the rectangular +block, by the brilliant quaint leaf. Look at the child that can scarcely +keep himself erect, that can walk only with the greatest care--he sees a +twig, a bit of straw; painfully he secures it, and like the bird carries +it to his nest. See him again, laboriously stooping and slowly going +forward on the ground, under the eaves of the roof (the deep eaves of +the Thuringian peasant house). The force of the rain has washed out of +the sand smooth bright pebbles, and the ever-observing child gathers +them as building stones as it were, as material for future building. And +is he wrong? Is he not in truth collecting material for his future life +building?" + +The "box of counters, and the red-veined stone," the brilliant quaint +leaf, the twig, the bit of straw, all the child's treasures--these are +the stimuli which, according to the biologist educator, must be supplied +if the activities appropriate to each stage are to be called forth. +Every one knows for how long a period a child can occupy himself +examining, comparing and experimenting. + +"Like things," says Froebel, "must be ranged together, unlike things +separated.... The child loves all things that enter his small horizon +and extend his little world. To him the least thing is a new discovery, +but it must not come dead into the little world, nor lie dead therein, +lest it obscure the small horizon and crush the little world. Therefore +the child would know why he loves this thing, he would know all its +properties. For this reason he examines the object on all sides; for +this reason he tears and breaks it; for this reason he puts it in his +mouth and bites it. We reprove the child for naughtiness and +foolishness; and yet he is wiser than we who reprove him." + +This experimenting is one side of a child's play, and the things with +which he thus experiments are his toys, or, as Froebel puts it, "play +material." Much of this is and ought to be self found, and where the +child can find his own toys he asks for little more. The seaside +supplies him with sand and water, stones, shells, rock pools, seaweed, +and he asks us for nothing but a spade, which digs deeper than his naked +hands, and a pail to carry water, which hands alone cannot convey. + + The vista of the sand + is the child's free land; + where the grown-ups seem half afraid; + even nurse forgets to sniff + and to call "come here" + as she sits very near + to the far up cliff + and you venture alone with your spade.... + +Even indoors, a child could probably find for himself all the material +for investigation, all the stimuli he requires, if it were not that his +investigations interfere with adult purposes. Even in very primitive +times the child probably experimented upon the revolving qualities of +his mother's spindle till she found it more convenient to let him have +one for himself, and it became a toy or top. + +Froebel, who made so much of play, to whom it was spontaneous education +and self realisation, was bound to see that toys were important. "The +man advanced in insight," he said, "even when he gives his child a +plaything, must make clear to himself its purpose and the purpose of +playthings and occupation material in general. This purpose is to aid +the child freely to express what lies within him, and to bring the outer +world nearer to him, and thus to serve as mediator between the mind and +the world." Froebel's "Gifts" were an attempt to supply right play +material. True to his faith in natural impulse, Froebel watched children +to see what playthings they found for themselves, or which, among those +presented by adults, were most appreciated. Soft little coloured balls +seemed right material for a baby's tender hand, and it was clear that +when the child could crawl about he was ready for something which he +could roll on the floor and pursue on all fours. As early as two years +old he loves to take things out of boxes and to move objects about, so +boxes of bricks were supplied, graded in number and in variety of form. +Not for a moment did Froebel suggest that the child was to be limited to +these selected playthings, he expressly stated the contrary, and he +frequently said that spontaneity was not to be checked. But from what +has followed, from the way in which these little toys have been misused, +we are tempted to speculate on whether these "Gifts" supplied that +definite foundation without which, in these days, no notice would have +been taken of the new ideas, or whether they have proved the sunken +rock on which much that was valuable has perished. The world was not +ready to believe in the educational value of play, just pure play. Nor +is it yet. For the new system in its "didactic" apparatus out-Froebels +Froebel in his mistake of trying to systematise the material for +spontaneous education. Carefully planned, as were Froebel's own "gifts," +the new apparatus presents a series of exercises in sense +discrimination, satisfying no doubt while unfamiliar, but suffering from +the defect of the "too finished and complex plaything," in which Froebel +saw a danger "which slumbers like a viper under the roses." The danger +is that "the child can begin no new thing with it, cannot produce enough +variety by its means; his power of creative imagination, his power of +giving outward form to his own ideas are thus actually deadened." + +"To realise his aims, man, and more particularly the child, requires +material, though it be only a bit of wood or a pebble, with which he +makes something or which he makes into something. In order to lead the +child to the handling of material we give him the ball, the cube and +other bodies, the Kindergarten gifts. Each of these gifts incites the +child to free spontaneous activity, to independent movement." + +Froebel would have sympathised deeply with the views of Peter as +expressed by Mr. Wells in regard to Ideals, which he, however, called +toys: + +"The theory of Ideals played almost as important a part in the early +philosophy of Peter as it did in the philosophy of Plato. But Peter did +not call them Ideals, he called them 'toys.' Toys were the simplified +essences of things, pure, perfect and manageable. Real things were +troublesome, uncontrollable, over-complicated and largely irrelevant. A +Real Train, for example, was a poor, big, clumsy, limited thing that was +obliged to go to Redhill, or Croydon, or London, that was full of +unnecessary strangers, usually sitting firmly in the window seats, that +you could do nothing with at all. A Toy Train was your very own; it +took you wherever you wanted, to Fairyland, or Russia, or anywhere, at +whatever pace you chose."[15] + +[Footnote 15: _Joan and Peter_, p. 77.] + +Froebel asks what presents are most prized by the child and by mankind +in general, and answers, "Those which afford him a means of developing +his mind, of giving it freest activity, of expressing it clearly." For +her ideas as to educative material Dr. Montessori went, not to normal +life, not even to children, but to what may he called curative +appliances, to the material invented by Séguin to develop the dormant +powers of defective children. She herself came to the study of education +from the medical side, the curative. Froebel, with his belief in human +instinct, naturally went to what he called the mother's room, which we +should call the nursery, and to the garden where the child finds his +"bright round smooth pebble" and his "brilliant quaint leaf." No one +would seek to under-value the importance of sense discrimination, but it +can be exercised without formalism, and it need not be mere +discrimination. It is in connection with the Taste and Smell games that +Froebel tells the mother that "the higher is rooted in the lower, +morality in instinct, the spiritual in the material." The baby enjoys +the scent, thanks the kind spirit that put it there, and must let mother +smell it too, so from the beginning there is a touch of aesthetic +pleasure and a recognition of "what the dear God is saying outside." As +to how sense discrimination may be exercised without formality, there is +a charming picture in _The Camp School_: + +"And then that sense of _Smell_, which got so little exercise and +attention that it went to sleep altogether, so that millions get no +warning and no joy through it. We met the need for its education in the +Baby Camp by having a Herb Garden. Back from the shelters and open +ground, in a shady place, we have planted fennel, mint, lavender, sage, +marjoram, thyme, rosemary, herb gerrard and rue. And over and above +these pungently smelling things there are little fields of mignonette. +We have balm, indeed, everywhere in our garden. The toddlers go round +the beds of herbs, pinching the leaves with their tiny fingers and then +putting their fingers to their noses. There are two little couples going +the rounds just now. One is a pair of new comers, very much astonished, +the other couple old inhabitants, delighted to show the wonders of the +place! Coming back with odorous hands, they perhaps want to tell us +about the journey. Their eyes are bright, their mouths open." + +In Chapter II. we quoted the biologist educator's ideal conception of +the surroundings best suited to bring about right development. Let us +now visit one or two actual Kindergartens and see if these conditions +are in any way realised by the followers of Froebel. + +The first one we enter is certainly a large bright room, for one side is +open to light, with two large windows, and between them glass doors +opening into the playground. There is no heap of sand in a corner, nor +is there a tub of water; for the practical teacher knows how little +hands, if not little feet, with their vigorous but as yet uncontrolled +movements would splash the water and scatter the sand with dire effects +as to the floor, which the theorist fondly imagines would always be +clean enough to sit upon. But there is a sand-tray big enough and deep +enough for six to eight children to use individually or together. As +spontaneous activity, with its ceaseless efforts at experimenting, +ceaselessly spills the sand, within easy reach are little brushes and +dustpans to remedy such mishaps. The sand-tray is lined with zinc so +that the sand can be replaced by water for boats and ducks, etc., when +desired. + +The low wall blackboard is there ready for use. Bright pictures are on +the walls, well drawn and well coloured, some from nursery rhymes, some +of Caldecott's, a frieze of hen and chickens, etc. Boxes for houses and +shops are not in evidence, but their place is taken by bricks of such +size and quantity that houses, shops, motors, engines and anything else +may be built large enough for the children themselves to be shopkeepers +or drivers, and there are also pieces of wood to use for various +purposes of construction. There is no cooking stove, but simple cooking +can be carried out on an open fire, and when a baking oven is required, +an eager procession makes its way to the kitchen, where a kindly +housekeeper permits the use of her oven. There is a doll's cot with a +few dolls of various sizes. There are flowers and growing bulbs. There +are light low tables and chairs, a family of guinea pigs in a large +cage, and there is a cupboard which the children can reach. + +Water is to be found in a passage room, between the Kindergarten and the +rooms for children above that stage, and here, so placed that the +children themselves can find and reach everything, are the sawdust, bran +and oats for the guinea pigs, with a few carrots and a knife to cut +them, some tiny scrubbing-brushes and a wiping-up cloth. Here also are +stored the empty boxes, corrugated paper and odds and ends in constant +demand for constructions. + +In the cupboard there are certain shelves from which anything may be +taken, and some from which nothing may be taken without leave. For the +teacher here is of opinion that children of even three and four are not +too young to begin to learn the lesson of _meum_ and _tuum_, and she +also thinks it is good to have some treasures which do not come out +every day, and which may require more delicate handling than the +ordinary toy ought to need. For this ought to be strong enough to bear +unskilled handling and vigorous movements, for a broken toy ought to be +a tragedy. At the same time it is part of a child's training to learn to +use dainty objects with delicate handling, and such things form the +children's art gems, showing beauty of construction and of colour. +Children as well as grown-ups have their bad days, when something out of +the usual is very welcome. "Do you know there's nothing in this world +that I'm not tired of?" was said one day by a boy of six usually quite +contented. "Give me something out of the cupboard that I've never seen +before," said another whose digestion was troublesome. The open shelves +contain pencils and paper, crayons, paint-boxes, boxes of building +blocks, interlocking blocks, wooden animals, jigsaw and other puzzles, +coloured tablets for pattern laying, toy scales, beads to thread, +dominoes, etc., the only rule being that what is taken out must be +tidily replaced. This Kindergarten is part of a large institution, and +the playground, to which it has direct access, is of considerable +extent. There is a big stretch of grass and another of asphalt, so that +in suitable weather the tables and chairs, the sand-tray, the bricks and +anything else that is wanted can be carried outside so that the children +can live in the open, which of course is better than any room. In the +playground there is a bank where the children can run up and down, and +there are a few planks and a builder's trestle,[16] on which they can be +poised for seesaws or slides, and these are a constant source of +pleasure. + +[Footnote 16: See p. 55.] + +In another Kindergarten we find the walls enlivened with Cecil Aldin's +fascinating friezes: here is Noah with all the animals walking in +cheerful procession, and in the next room is an attractive procession of +children with push-carts, hoops and toy motor cars. When we make our +visit the day is fine and the room is empty, the children are all +outside. The garden is not large, but there is some space, and under the +shade of two big trees we find rugs spread, on which the children are +sitting, standing, kneeling and lying, according to their occupation. +One is building with large blocks, and must stand up to complete her +erection; another is lying flat putting together a jigsaw; another, a +boy, is threading beads; while another has built railway arches, and +with much whistling and the greatest carefulness is guiding his train +through the tunnels. The play is almost entirely individual, but very +often you hear, "O Miss X, _do_ come and see what I've done!" After +about an hour, during which a few of the children have changed their +occupations, those who wish to do so join some older children who are +playing games involving movement. This may be a traditional game like +Looby Loo, or Round and round the Village, or it may be one of the best +of the old Kindergarten games. After lunch the washing up is to be done +in a beautiful new white sink which is displayed with pride. + +Our next visit is to a Free Kindergarten. The rooms are quite as +attractive, as rich in charming friezes as in the others, and the +furnishing in some ways is much the same. But here we see what we have +not seen before, for here is a large room filled with tiny hammock beds. +The windows are wide open, but the blinds are down, for the children are +having their afternoon sleep. + +Here, as in all Free Kindergartens, the children are provided with +simple but pretty overalls which the parents are pleased to wash. House +shoes are also provided, partly to minimise the noise from active little +feet, but principally because the poor little boots are often a +painfully inadequate protection from wet pavements. The children are +trained to tidy ways and to independence. They cannot read, but by +picture cards they recognise their own beds, pegs and other properties. +They take out and put away their own things, and give all reasonable +help in laying tables and serving food, in washing, dusting and sweeping +up crumbs, as is done in any true Kindergarten. + +In the garden of this Free Kindergarten there is a large sand-pit, +surrounded by a low wooden framework, and having a pole across the +middle so that it resembles a cucumber frame and a cover can be thrown +over the sand to keep it clean when not in use. + +Froebel's own list of playthings contains, besides balls and building +blocks, coloured beads, coloured tablets for laying patterns, coloured +papers for cutting, folding and plaiting; pencils, paints and brushes; +modelling clay and sand; coloured wool for sewing patterns and pictures; +and such little sticks and laths as children living in a forest region +find for themselves. Considered in themselves, apart from the traditions +of formality, these are quite good play material or stimuli, and Froebel +meant the time to come "when we shall speak of the doll and the hobby +horse as the first plays of the awakening life of the girl and the boy," +but he died before he had done so. In the _Mother Songs_, too, we find +quite a good list of toys which are now to be found in most +Kindergartens. + +Toys for the playground should be provided--a sand-heap, a seesaw, a +substantial wheel-barrow, hoops, balls, reins and perhaps +skipping-ropes. Something on which the child can balance, logs or planks +which they can move about, and a trestle on which these can be +supported, are invaluable. It was while an addition was being made to +our place that we realised the importance of such things, and, as in +Froebel's case, "our teachers were the children themselves." They were +so supremely happy running up and down the plank roads laid by the +builders for their wheel-barrows, seesawing or balancing and sliding on +others, that we could not face the desolation of emptiness which would +come when the workmen removed their things. So, for a few pounds, all +that the children needed was secured, ordinary planks for seesawing, +narrower for balancing and a couple of trestles. One exercise the +children had specially enjoyed was jumping up and down on yielding +planks, and this the workmen had forbidden because the planks might +crack. But a sympathetic foreman told us what was needed: two planks of +special springy wood were fastened together by cross pieces at each end, +and besides making excellent slides, these made most exciting +springboards. + +For representations of real life the children require dolls and the +simplest of furniture--a bed, which need only be a box, some means of +carrying out the doll's washing, her personal requirements as well as +her clothes; some little tea-things and pots and pans. A doll's house is +not necessary, and can only be used by two or three children, but will +be welcomed if provided, and its appointments give practice in dainty +handling. Trains and signals of some kind, home-made or otherwise; +animals for farm or Zoo; a pair of scales for a shop, and some sort of +delivery van, which, of course, may be home-made. + +There must also be provision for increase of skill and possibility of +creation. If the Kindergarten can afford it, some of the Montessori +material may be provided; there is no reason, except expense, why it +should not be used if the children like it, and if it does not take up +too much room. But it has no creative possibilities, and even at three +years old this is required. Scissors are an important tool, and an old +book of sample wall-papers is most useful; old match-boxes and used +matches, paste and brushes and some old magazines to cut. Blackboard +chalks and crayons, paint-boxes with four to six important colours, some +Kindergarten folding papers, all these supply colour. Certain toys seem +specially suited to give hand control, _e.g._ a Noah's Ark, where the +small animals are to be set out carefully, tops or teetotums and +tiddlywinks, at which some little children become proficient. The puzzle +interest must not be forgotten, and simple jigsaw pictures give great +pleasure. It is interesting to note here that the youngest children fit +these puzzles not by the picture but by form, though they know they are +making a picture and are pleased when it is finished. The puzzle with +six pictures on the sides of cubes is much more difficult than a simple +jigsaw. + +All sorts of odds and ends come in useful, and especially for the poorer +children these should be provided. Any one who remembers the pleasure +derived from coloured envelope bands, from transparent paper from +crackers, and from certain advertisements, will save these for children +to whose homes such treasures never come. A box containing scraps of +soft cloth, possibly a bit of velvet, some bits of smooth and shining +coloured silk give the pleasure of sense discrimination without the +formality of the Montessori graded boxes, and are easier to replace. +Some substitute for "mother's button box," a box of shells or coloured +seeds, a box of feathers, all these things will be played with, which +means observation and discrimination, comparison and contrast, and in +addition, where colour is involved, there is aesthetic pleasure, and +this also enters into the touching of smooth or soft surfaces. Softness +is a joy to children, as is shown in the woolly lambs, etc., provided +for babies. A little one of my acquaintance had a bit of blanket which +comforted many woes, and when once I offered her a feather boa as a +substitute she sobbed out: "It isn't so soft as the blanket!" + +In one of Miss McMillan's early books she wrote: "Very early the child +begins more or less consciously to exercise the basal sense--the sense +of touch. On waking from sleep he puts his tiny hands to grasp +something, or turns his head on the firm soft pillow. He _touches_ +rather than looks, at first (for his hands and fingers perform a great +many movements long before he learns to turn his eyeballs in various +directions or follow the passage even of a light), and through touching +many things he begins his education. If he is the nursling of wealthy +parents, it is possible that his first exercises are rather restricted. +He touches silk, ivory, muslin and fine linen. That is all, and that is +not much. But the child of the cottager is often better off, for his +mother gives him a great variety of objects to keep him quiet. The +ridiculous command, 'Do not touch,' cannot be imposed on him while he is +screaming in his cradle or protesting in his dinner chair; and so all +manner of things--reels, rings, boxes, tins, that is to say a variety of +surfaces--is offered to him, to his great delight and advantage. And +lest he should not get the full benefit of such privilege he carries +everything to his mouth, where the sense of touch is very keen."[17] + +[Footnote 17: _Early Childhood_: Swan Sonnenschein, published 1900.] + +Among the treasures kept for special occasions there may be pipes for +soap-bubbles, a prism of some kind with which to make rainbows, a tiny +mirror to make "light-birds" on the wall and ceiling, and a magnet with +the time-honoured ducks and fish, if these are still to be bought, along +with other articles, delicately made or coloured, which require care. + +Pictures and picture-books should also be considered; some being in +constant use, some only brought out occasionally. For the very smallest +children some may be rag books, but always children should be taught to +treat books carefully. The pictures on the walls ought to be changed, +sometimes with the children's help, sometimes as a surprise and +discovery. For that purpose it is convenient to have series of pictures +in frames with movable backs, but brown-paper frames will do quite well. +The pictures belonging to the stories which have been told to the +children ought to have a prominent place, and if the little ones desire +to have one retold they will ask for it. + +It is of course not at all either necessary or even desirable for any +one school to have everything, and children should not have too much +within the range of their attention at one time. Individual teachers +will make their own selections, but in all cases there must be +sufficient variety of material for each child to carry out his natural +desire for observation, experiment and construction. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE" + + + A wedding or a festival, a mourning or a funeral... + As if his whole vocation were endless imitation. + +In every country and in every age those who have eyes to see have +watched the same little dramas. What Wordsworth saw was seen nineteen +hundred years ago in the Syrian market-place, where the children +complained of their unresponsive companions: "We have piped the glad +chaunt of the marriage, but ye have not danced, we have wailed our +lamentation, but ye have not joined our mourning procession." + +Since the very name Kindergarten is to imply a teaching which fulfils +the child's own wants and desires, it must supply abundant provision for +the dramatic representation of life. Adults have always been ready to +use for their own purposes the strong tendency to imitate, which is a +characteristic of all normal children, but few even now realise to what +extent a child profits by his imitative play. The explanation that +Froebel found for this will now be generally accepted, viz. that only by +acting it out can a child fully grasp an idea, "For what he tries to +represent or do, he begins to understand." He thinks in action, or as +one writer put it, he "apperceives with his muscles." This explanation +seems to cover imitative play, from the little child's imitative wave of +the hand up to such elaborate imitations as are described in Stanley +Hall's _Story of a Sand Pile,_[18] or in Dewey's _Schools of +To-morrow._ But when we think of the joy of such imaginative play as +that of Red Indians, shipwrecks and desert islands, we feel that these +show a craving for experience, for life, such a craving as causes the +adult to lose himself in a book of travels or in a dramatic performance, +and which explains the phenomenal success of the cinema, poor stuff as +it is. + +[Footnote 18: Or that delightful "Play Town" in _The Play Way_.] + +We thirst for experiences, even for those which are unpleasant; we +wonder "how it feels" to be up in an aeroplane or down in a submarine. +We are far indeed from desiring air-raids, but if such things must be, +there is a curious satisfaction in being "in it." And though the +experiences they desire may be matters of everyday occurrence to us, +children probably feel the craving even more keenly. "You may write what +you like," said a teacher, and a somewhat inarticulate child wrote, "I +was out last night, it was late." "Why, Jack," said another, "you've +painted your cow green; did you ever see a green cow?" "No," said Jack, +"but I'd like to." + +In early Kindergarten days this imitative and dramatic tendency was +chiefly met in games, and the children were by turns butterflies and +bees, bakers and carpenters, clocks and windmills. The programme was +suggested by Froebel's _Mother Songs_, in which he deals with the +child's nearest environment. Too often, indeed, the realities to which +Froebel referred were not realities to English children, but that was +recognised as a defect, and the ideas themselves were suitable. +Chickens, pigeons and farmyard animals; the homely pussy cat or canary +bird; the workers to whom the child is indebted, farmer, baker, miner, +builder or carpenter; the sun, the rain, the rainbow and the +"light-bird"--such ideas were chosen as suitable centres, and stories +and songs, games and handwork clustered round. + +What was the reason for this binding of things together? Why did +Froebel constantly plead for "unity" even for the tiny child, and tell +us to link together his baby finger-games or his first weak efforts at +building with his blocks chairs, tables, beds, walls and ladders? + +Looking back over the years, it seems as if this idea of joining +together has been trying to assert itself under various forms, each of +which has reigned for its day, has been carried to extremes and been +discarded, only to come up again in a somewhat different form. It has +always seemed to aim at extending and ordering the mind content of +children. For the Froebelian it was expressed in such words as "unity," +"connectedness" and "continuity," while the Herbartians called it +"correlation." Under these terms much work has been, and is still being, +carried out, some very good and some very foolish. Ideas catch on, +however, because of the truth that is in them, not because of the error +which is likely to be mixed with it, and even the weakest effort after +connection embodies an important truth. When we smile over absurd +stories of forced "correlation," we seldom stop to think of what went on +before the Kindergarten existed, for instance the still more absurd and +totally disconnected lists of object lessons. One actual list for +children of four years old ran: Soda, Elephant, Tea, Pig, Wax, Cow, +Sugar, Spider, Potatoes, Sheep, Salt, Mouse, Bread, Camel. + +Kindergarten practice was far ahead of this, for here the teacher was +expected to choose her material according to (1) Time of Year; (2) Local +Conditions, such as the pursuits of the people; (3) Social Customs. When +it was possible the children went to see the real blacksmith or the real +cow, and to let game or handwork be an expression, and a re-ordering of +ideas gained was natural and right. Connectedness, however, meant more +than this, it meant that the material itself was to be treated so that +the children would be helped to that real understanding which comes +from seeing things in their relations to each other. As Lloyd Morgan +puts it, "We are mainly at work upon the mental background. It is our +object to make this background as rich and full and orderly as possible, +so that whatever is brought to the focus of consciousness shall be set +in a relational background, which shall give it meaning; and so that our +pupils may be able to feel the truth which Browning puts into the mouth +of Fra Lippo Lippi: + + This world's no blot for us + Nor blank; it means intensely and means good: + To find its meaning is my meat and drink." + +According to Professor Dewey, some such linking or joining is necessary +"to foster that sense which is at the basis of attention and of all +intellectual growth, the sense of continuity." The Herbartian +correlation was designed to further that well-connected circle of +thought out of which would come the firm will, guided by right insight, +inspired by true feeling, which is their aim in education. + +Froebelian unity and connectedness have, like the others, an +intellectual and a moral aspect. Intellectually "the essential +characteristic of instruction is the treatment of individual things in +their relationships"; morally, the idea of unity is that we are all +members one of another. The child who, through unhindered activity, has +reached the stage of self-consciousness is to go on to feel himself a +part, a member of an ever-increasing whole--family, school, township, +country, humanity--the All; to be "one with Nature, man and God." + +Every one has heard something of the new teaching--which, by the way, +sheds clearer light over Froebel's warning against arbitrary +interference--viz. that a great part of the nervous instability which +affects our generation is due to the thwarting and checking of the +natural impulses of early years. But this new school also gives us +something positive, and reinforces older doctrines by telling us to +integrate behaviour. "This matter of the unthwarted lifelong progress +of behaviour integration is of profound importance, for it is the +transition from behaviour to conduct. The more integrated behaviour is +harmonious and consistent behaviour toward a larger and more +comprehensive situation, toward a bigger section of the universe; it is +lucidity and breadth of purpose. The child playing with fire is only +wrong conduct because it is behaviour that does not take into account +consequences; it is not adjusted to enough of the environment; it will +be made right by an enlargement of its scope and reach."[19] + +All selfish conduct, all rudeness and roughness come from ignorance; we +are all more or less self-centred, and the child's consciousness of self +has to be widened, his scope has to be enlarged to sympathy with the +thoughts, feelings and desires of other selves. "The sane man is the man +who (however limited the scope of his behaviour) has no such suppression +incorporated in him. The wise man must be sane and must have scope as +well."[20] + +[Footnote 19: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +[Footnote 20: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +Professor Earl Barnes always used to describe the child mind as +"scrappy." How can we best aid development into the wholeness or +healthiness and the scope of sanity and wisdom? For it may well be that +this widening and ordering of experience, of consciousness, of behaviour +into moral behaviour is our most important task as teachers. Froebel +emphasised the "crying need" for connection of school and life, pointing +out how the little child desires to imitate and the older to share in +all that, as Professor Dewey puts it, is "surcharged with a sense of the +mysterious values that attach to whatever their elders are concerned +with." This is one of the points to which Professor Dewey called +attention in his summing up of Froebel's educational principles, this +letting the child reproduce on his own plane the typical doings and +occupations of the larger, maturer society into which he is finally to +go forth. + +It is in this connection that he says the Kindergarten teacher has the +opportunity to foster that most important "sense of continuity." In +simple reproduction of the home life while there is abundant variety, +since daily life may bring us into contact with all the life of the city +or of the country, yet, because the work is within a whole, "there is +opportunity to foster that sense which is at the basis of attention and +of all intellectual growth, a sense of continuity." + +Since Professor Dewey gave to the world the results of his experimental +school, all the Kindergartens and most of the Infant Schools in England +have tried to carry out their accustomed reproduction of home +surroundings, more or less on the lines of the Primary Department of his +experimental school. They have extended their scope, and in addition to +the material already taken from workman and shop, from garden and farm, +have also with much profit to older children used his suggestions about +primitive industries. + +Reproduction of home surroundings can be done in many ways, one of which +is to help the children to furnish and to play with a doll's house. But +the play must be play. It is not enough to use the drama as merely +offering suggestions for handwork, and one small doll's house does not +allow of real play for more than one or two children. + +Our own children used to settle this by taking out the furniture, etc., +and arranging different homes around the room. I can remember the +never-ending pleasure given by similar play in my own nursery days, when +the actors were the men and boys supplied by tailors' advertisements. +Many and varied were the experiences of these paper families, families, +it may be noted, none of whom demeaned themselves so far as to possess +any womankind. For that nursery party of five had lost its mother sadly +early and was ruled by two boys, who evidently thought little of the +other sex. + +Professor Dewey tells us that "nothing is more absurd than to suppose +that there is no middle term between leaving a child to his unguided +fancies, or controlling his activities by a formal succession of +dictated directions." It is the teacher's business to know what is +striving for utterance and to supply the needed stimulus and materials. + +To show how under the inspiration of a thoroughly capable teacher this +continuity may be secured and prolonged for quite a long period, an +example may be taken from the work of Miss Janet Payne, who is +remarkably successful in meeting and stimulating, without in any way +forcing the "striving for utterance" mentioned by Dewey. On this +occasion Miss Payne produced a doll about ten inches high, dressed to +resemble the children's fathers, and suggested that a home should be +made for him. The children adopted him with zeal, named him Mr. Bird, +and his career lasted for two years. + +Mr. Bird required a family, so Mrs. Bird had to be produced with her +little girl Winnie, and later a baby was added to the family. Beds, +tables and chairs, including a high chair for Winnie, were made of +scraps from the wood box, and for a long time Mr. Bird was most +domesticated. Miss Payne had used ordinary dolls' heads, but had +constructed the bodies herself in such a way that the dolls could sit +and stand, and use their arms to wield a broom or hold the baby. After +some time, one child said, "Mr. Bird ought to go to business," and after +much deliberation he became a grocer. His shop was made and stocked, and +he attended it every day, going home to dinner regularly. One day he +appeared to be having a meal on the shop counter, and it was explained +that he had been "rather in a hurry" in the morning, so Mrs. Bird had +given him his breakfast to take with him. The Bird family had various +adventures, they had spring cleanings, removals, visited the Zoo and +went to the seaside. One morning a little fellow sat in a trolley with +the Bird family beside him for three-quarters of an hour evidently +"imagining." I did inquire in passing if it was a drive or a picnic, but +the answer was so brief, that I knew I was an interruption and retired. +But a younger and bolder inquirer, who wanted to conduct an experiment +in modelling, ventured to ask if Mr. Bird wanted anything that could be +made "at clay modelling." "Yes, he wants some ink-pots for his +post-office shop," was the answer, with the slightly irate addition, +"but I _wish_ you'd call it the china factory." + +When these children moved to an upper class, Mr. Bird was laid away, but +the children requested his presence. So he entered the new room and +became a farmer. He had now to write letters, to arrange rents, etc., +and the money had to be made and counted. The letters served for writing +and reading lessons, and Miss Payne was careful to send the answers +through the real post, properly addressed to Mr. Bird with the name of +class and school. Mr. Bird hired labourers, the children grew corn, and +thrashed it and sent it to the mill. A miller had to be produced, and +the children, now his assistants, ground the wheat, and Mr. Bird came in +his cart to fetch the sacks of flour, which ultimately became the Birds' +Christmas pudding and was eaten by the labourers, now guests at the +feast. In spring, after careful provision for their comfort, Mr. Bird +went to the cattle market and bought cows. Though the milking had to be +pretence, the butter and cheese were really made. + +The first question of the summer term was, "What's Mr. Bird going to do +this term?" Like other teachers inspired by Professor Dewey, we have +found our children most responsive to the suggestion of playing out +primitive man. But with some, not of course with the brightest, it is +too great a stretch to go at one step from the present to the most +primitive times, and we often spend a term over something of the nature +of Robinson Crusoe, where the situation presents characters accustomed +to modern civilisation and deprived of all its conveniences. Miss Payne +is careful to give the children full opportunity for suggestions--one +dull little boy puzzled his mother by telling her "I made a very good +'gestion' to-day"--so though she had not contemplated the renewed +appearance of Mr. Bird she said, "What do you want him to do?" "Let him +go out and shoot bears," cried an embryo sportsman. Somewhat taken +aback, Miss Payne temporised with, "He wouldn't find them in this +country." "Then let him go to India," cried one child, but another +called out, "No, no, let him go to a desert island!" and that was +carried with acclamation. Mr. Bird's various homes were on a miniature +scale, and were contained in a series of zinc trays, which we have had +made to fit the available tables and cupboard tops. We find these trays +convenient, as a new one can be added when more scope is required to +carry out new ideas. + +The following accounts taken from the notes of Miss Hilda Beer, while a +student in training, show another kind of play where the children +themselves act the drama. The notes only cover a short period, but they +show how the play may arise quite incidentally. + +_Mon., June 18._--As the ground is too damp for out-of-doors work, if +the children were not ready with plans, I meant to suggest building a +railway station, tunnel, etc., and later, I thought perhaps we might +paint advertisements of seaside resorts for our station. + +But the children brought several things with them, and Dorothy brought +her own doll. Marie had left the baby doll from the other room in the +cot, so Dorothy and Sylvia said they must look after the babies. So +Cecil, Josie and I swept and dusted. + +Then we began to play house. Cecil and Dorothy were Mr. and Mrs. Harry, +Sylvia was Mrs. Loo (husband at the war). Josie was Nurse and I was +Aunt Lizzie. The dolls were Winnie Harry, and Jack and Doreen Loo. Mr. +and Mrs. Harry built themselves a house and so did we. Cecil said, "But +what is the name of the road?" Mrs. Harry chose 25 Brookfield Avenue, +and Mr. Harry 7 Victoria Street, but he gave in and Mrs. Loo took his +name for her house. We had to put numbers on the houses; Sylvia could +make 7, but the others could not make 25, so I put it on the board and +they copied it. Josie having also made a 7 wanted to use it, but Mrs. +Loo objected, and said, "The mother is more important than the nurse," +so Josie fixed her 7 on the house opposite. + +After lunch we bathed the babies and put them to sleep, and as it was +time for the children's own rest, we all went to bed. When rest was +over, we washed and dressed, and then Mrs. Harry asked for clay to make +a water-tap for her house. That made all the children want to make +things in clay, so we made cups and saucers, plates, and a baby's +bottle, then scones and sponge-cakes, bread and a bread-board, and one +of the children said we must put a B on that. + +Then Mrs. Loo said, "But we haven't any shelves." I had to leave my +class in Miss Payne's charge, and they spent the rest of the time +fitting in shelves, water-taps, and sinks. + +_June 19._--After sweeping, dusting, and washing and dressing the dolls, +I read to the children "How the House was built." Then we all pretended +to bake, making rolls and cakes as next day was to be the doll Winnie's +birthday. We baked our cakes on a piece of wood on the empty fireplace. + +The other children were invited to Winnie's party, so we went out to +shop. The children wanted lettuces from their own garden, but the grass +was too wet, so we pretended. The shop was on the edge of the grass and +we talked to imaginary shopmen, Cecil often exclaiming, "Eightpence! +why, it's not worth it!" + +As neither of the houses would hold all the guests invited to the party, +we had to have a picnic instead. + +_June_ 20.--I must see that Sylvia and Dorothy do the sweeping +to-morrow, and let Josie bath the doll; she is very good-natured, and I +see that they give her the less attractive occupation. I think too that +the food question has played too large a part, so if the children +suggest more cooking I shall look in the larder and say that really we +must not buy or bake as food goes bad in hot weather, and we must not +waste in war time. + +The children have suggested making cushions, painting pictures, and +making knives and forks, but we have not had time. + +_Report_.--Dorothy and Sylvia swept, Cecil mended the wall of the house, +Josie took the children down to the beach (the sand tray), and I dusted. +We looked into the larder and found that yesterday's greens were going +bad, so decided not to buy more. Then we took the babies for a walk. We +noticed how many nasturtiums were out, how the blackberry bushes were in +flower and in bud, and the runner-bean was in flower, and the red +flowers looked so pretty in the green leaves. We looked at the +hollyhocks, because I have told the children that they will grow taller +than I am, and they are always wondering how soon this will be. The +children found some cherries which had fallen, and Dorothy said how +pretty they were on the tree. I called attention to one branch that was +laden with fruit, and looked particularly pretty with the sun shining on +it. We also looked at the pear tree and the almond. Everything has come +on so fast, and the children were ready to say it was because of the +rain. + +After rest, we went to the Hall to see the chickens. To-day they were +much bigger, and Sylvia said had "bigger wings." We were able to watch +them drinking, how they hold up their heads to let the water run down. +The rest of the morning we made curtains, and the children loved it. +There was much discussion and at first the children suggested making +them all different, but they agreed that curtains at windows were +usually alike. Mr. and Mrs. Harry nearly quarrelled, as one wanted green +and the other pink. I suggested trimming the green with a strip of pink, +and they were quite pleased. Mrs. Loo and Nurse chose green which was to +be sewn with red silk. Sylvia said, "A pattern," and I said, "You saw +something red and green to-day," and she called out, "Oh! cherries." She +cut out a round of paper and tried to sew round it, holding it in place +with her other hand. I suggested putting in a stitch to hold the paper. +Cecil was absorbed in sewing, and it seemed quieting for such an +excitable boy and good for his weak hands. One child said, "Fancy a boy +sewing," so I told how soldiers and sailors sewed. They sewed just as +they liked. + +These notes are continued in Chapter IX., where they are used to show +children's attitude towards Nature. Though separated here for a special +purpose it is clear that there neither is nor ought to be any real +separation in the lives of the children. Their lives are wholes and they +continually pass from one "subject" to another, because life and its +circumstances are making new demands. If it rains and you cannot gather +the lettuces you have grown from seed, you take refuge in happy +pretence; if it clears and the sun calls you out of doors, you take your +doll-babies for their walk. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JOY IN MAKING + + + I, too, will something make, and joy in the making. + + ROBERT BRIDGES. + + Built by that only Law, that Use be suggester of Beauty. + + ARTHUR CLOUGH. + +There has always been _making_ in the Kindergarten, since to Froebel the +impulse to create was a characteristic of self-conscious humanity. +Stopford Brooke points out that Browning's Caliban, though almost brute, +shows himself human, in that, besides thinking out his natural religion, +he also dramatises and creates, "falls to make something." + + 'Tis solace making baubles, ay, and sport. + Tasteth, himself, no finer good i' the world + Than trying what to do with wit and strength-- + +What does a child gain from his ceaseless attempts at making? Froebel's +answer was that intellectually, through making he gains ideas, which, +received in words, remain mere words. "To learn through life and action +is more developing than to learn through words: expression in plastic +material, united with thought and speech, is far more developing than +mere repetition of words." Morally, it is through impressing himself on +his surroundings, that the child reaches the human attributes of +self-consciousness and self-control. One of the most important passages +Froebel ever wrote is this: + +"The deepest craving of the child's life is to see itself mirrored in +some external object. Through such reflection, he learns to know his own +activity, its essence, direction and aim, and learns to determine his +activity in accordance with outer things. Such mirroring of the inner +life is essential, for through it the child comes to self-consciousness, +and learns to order, determine and master himself." + +It is from the point of view of expression alone that Froebel regards +Art, and drawing, he takes to be "the first revelation of the creative +power within the child." The very earliest drawing to which he refers is +what he calls "sketching the object on itself," that is, the tracing +round the outlines of things, whereby the child learns form by +co-ordinating sight and motor perceptions, a stage on which Dr. +Montessori has also laid much stress. Besides noting how children draw +"round scissors and boxes, leaves and twigs, their own hands, and even +shadows," he sees that from experimentation with any pointed stick or +scrap of red stone or chalk, may come what Mr. E. Cooke called a +language of line, and now "the horse of lines, the man of lines" will +give much pleasure. After this it is true that "whatever a child knows +he will put into his drawing," and the teacher's business is to see that +he has abundant perceptions and images to express. + +Another kind of drawing which children seem to find for themselves is +what they call making patterns. Out of this came the old-fashioned +chequer drawing, now condemned as injurious to eyesight and of little +value. + +When children see anything rich in colour the general cry is "Let's +paint it," which is their way of taking in the beauty. We should not, +says Froebel, give them paints and brushes inconsiderately, to throw +about, but give them the help they need, and he describes quite a +sensible lesson given to boys "whose own painting did not seem to paint +them long." + +Teachers who want real help in the art training of children should read +the excellent papers by Miss Findlay in _School and Life_, where we are +told that we must rescue the term "design" from the limited uses to +which it is often condemned in the drawing class, viz. the construction +of pleasing arrangements of colour and form for surface decoration. "We +shall use it in its full popular significance in constructive work.... +The term will cover building houses, making kettles, laying out streets, +planning rooms, dressing hair, as well as making patterns for cushion +covers and cathedral windows.... In thus widening our art studies, we +shall be harking back in a slight degree to the kind of training that in +past ages produced the great masters.... Giotto designed his Campanile +primarily for the bells that were to summon the Florentines to their +cathedral; the Venetians wanted façades for their palaces, and made +façades to delight their eyes; the Japanese have wanted small furniture +for their small rooms, and have developed wonderful skill and taste in +designing it. Neither art nor science can remain long afloat in high +abstract regions above the needs and interests of human life. To quote +A.H. Clough: + + 'A Cathedral Pure and Perfect. + Built by that only Law, that Use be suggester of Beauty; + Nothing concealed that is, done, but all things done to adornment; + Meanest utilities seized as occasions to grace and embellish.'" + +If this is true of the interests of the professional artist, much more +must it be true of the art training of the child. We must not then +despise the rough and ready productions of a child, nor force upon him a +standard for which he is not ready. + +Before any other construction is possible to him, a child can _make_ +with sand, and this is a constant joy, from the endless puddings that +are turned out of patty pans, up to such models as that of the whole +"Isle of Wight" with its tunnelled cliffs and system of railways, made +by an ex-Kindergarten boy as yet innocent of geography lessons. + +The child then who is making, especially making for use, is to a certain +extent developing himself as an artist. + +The little boys at Keilhau were well provided with sand, moss, etc., to +use with their building blocks, and it was a former Keilhau boy who +suggested to his old master that some kind of sand-box would make a good +plaything for the children in his new Kindergarten. Miss Wiggin tells us +that indirectly we owe the children's sand-heaps in the public parks to +Froebel, since these were the result of a suggestion made by Frau +Schrader to the Empress Frederick, and the idea was carried out during +her husband's too brief reign. + +Another very early "making" is the arranging of furniture for shops, +carriages, trains, and the "ships upon the stairs," which made bright +pictures in Stevenson's memory. + +Building blocks are truly, as Froebel puts it, "the finest and most +variable material that can be offered a boy for purposes of +representation." The little boxes associated with the Kindergarten were +originally planned for the use of nursery children two to three years of +age, and in most if not in all Kindergartens these have been replaced by +larger bricks. It is many years now since, at Miss Payne's suggestion, +we bought some hundreds of road paving blocks, and these are such a +source of pleasure that the children often dream about them. Living out +the life around presents much opportunity for making, which may be done +with blocks, but which even in the Kindergarten can be done with tools. +Care must be exercised, but children have quite a strong instinct for +self-preservation, and if shown how real workmen handle their tools, +they are often more careful than at a much later stage. To make a +workable railway signal is more interesting and much more educative than +to use one that came from a shop. The teacher may make illuminating +discoveries in the process, as when one set of children desired to make +a counter for a shop, and arranged their piece of wood vertically so +that the counter had no top. It was found that to these very little +people the most important part was the high front against which they +were accustomed to stand, not the flat top which they seldom saw. +Another set of children made a cart on which the farmer was to carry his +corn, and exemplified Dewey's "concrete logic of action." At first they +only wanted a board on wheels, but the corn fell off, so they nailed on +sides, but the cart never had either back or front and resembled some +seen in Early English pictures. + +Any kind of cooking that can be done is a most important kind of making; +even the very little ones can help, and they thoroughly enjoy watching. +"Her hands were in the dough from three years old," said a north-country +mother, "so I taught her how to bake, and now (at seven) she can bake as +well as I can." + +Children delight in carrying out the processes involved in the making of +flour, and they can easily thrash a little wheat, then winnow, grind +between stones and sift it. Their best efforts produce but a tiny +quantity of flour, but the experience is real, interest is great, and a +new significance attaches to the shop flour from which bread is +ultimately produced. + +Butter and cheese can easily be made, also jam, and even a Christmas +pudding. In very early Kindergartens we read of the growing, digging and +cooking of potatoes, and of the extraction of starch to be used as +paste. + +Special anniversaries require special making. We possess a doll of 1794 +to whom her old mother bequeathed her birthday. The doll's birthday is +a great event, and on the previous day each class in turn bakes tiny +loaves, or cakes or pastry for the party. + +Christmas creates a need for decorations, Christmas cards and presents, +and Empire Day and Trafalgar Day for flags, while in many places there +is an annual sale on behalf of a charity. + +It does not do to be too modern and to despise all the old-fashioned +"makings," which gave such pleasure some years ago. Kindergarten +Paper-folding has fallen into an undeserved oblivion. The making of +boats or cocked-hats from old newspaper is a great achievement for a +child, and to make pigs and purses, corner cupboards and chairs for +paper dolls is still a delight, and calls forth real concentration and +effort. + +Making in connection with some whole, such as the continuous +representation of life around us, and, at a later stage, the +re-inventing of primitive industries, or making which arises out of some +special interest may have a higher educational value, but apart from +this, children want to make for making's sake. "Can't I make something +in wood like Boy does?" asked a little girl. There is joy in the making, +joy in being a cause, and for this the children need opportunity, space +and time. There is a lesson to many of us in some verses by Miss F. +Sharpley, lately published (_Educational Handwork_), which should be +entitled, "When can I make my little Ship?" + + I'd like to cut, and cut, and cut, + And over the bare floor + To strew my papers all about, + And then to cut some more. + + I'd sweep them up so neatly, too, + But mother says, "Oh no! + There is no time, it's seven o'clock; + To bed you quickly go!" + + In school, I'd just begun to make + A pretty little ship, + But I was slow, and all the rest + Stood up to dance and skip. + + When shall I make my little ship? + At home there is no gloy, + And father builds it by himself + Or goes to buy a toy. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +STORIES + + + Let me tell the stories and I care not who makes the textbooks. + + STANLEY HALL. + +"Is it Bible story to-day or any _kind_ of a story?" was the greeting of +an eager child one morning. "Usually they were persuading him to tell +stories," writes Ebers, from his recollections of Froebel as an old man +at Keilhau. "He was never seen crossing the courtyard without a group of +the younger pupils hanging to his coat tails and clasping his arms. +Usually they were persuading him to tell stories, and when he +condescended to do so, the older ones flocked around him, too, and they +were never disappointed. What fire, what animation the old man had +retained!" + +So Froebel could write with feeling of "the joyful faces, the sparkling +eyes, the merry shouts that welcome the genuine story-teller"; he had a +right to pronounce that "the child's desire and craving for tales, for +legends, for all kinds of stories, and later on for historical accounts, +is very intense." + +Surely there was never a little one who did not crave for stories, +though here and there may be found an older child, who got none at the +right time, and who, therefore, lost that most healthy of appetites. +Most of us will agree that there is something wrong with the child who +does not like stories, but it may be that the something wrong belonged +to the mother. One such said to the Abbé Klein one day, "My children +have never asked for stories." "But, madame," was the reply, "neither +would they ask for cake if they had never eaten it, or even seen it." + +It is easy for us to find reasons why we should tell stories. We can +brush aside minor aims such as increasing the child's vocabulary. +Undoubtedly his vocabulary does increase enormously from listening to +stories, but it is difficult to imagine that any one could rise to real +heights in story-telling with this as an aim or end. That the narrator +should clothe his living story in words expressive of its atmosphere, +and that the listener should in this way gain such power over language, +that he, too, can fitly express himself is quite another matter. + +First, then, we tell stories because we love to tell them and because +the children love to listen. We choose stories that appeal to our +audience. It is something beautiful, humorous, heroic or witty that we +have found, and being social animals we want to share it. As educators +with an aim before us, we deliberately tell stories in order to place +before our children ideals of unselfishness, courage and truth. We know +from our own experience, not only in childhood, but all through life how +the story reaches our feelings as no sermon or moralising ever does, and +we have learned that "out of the heart are the issues of life." Unguided +feelings may be a danger, but the story does more than rouse +feelings--it gives opportunity for the exercise of moral judgement, for +the exercise of judgement upon questions of right and wrong. Feeling is +aroused, but it is not usually a personal feeling, so judgement is +likely to be unbiassed. It may, however, be biassed by the tone absorbed +from the environment even in childhood, as when the mother makes more of +table etiquette than of kindness, and the child, instead of condemning +Jacob's refusal to feed his hungry brother with the red pottage, as all +natural children do condemn, says: "No, Esau shouldn't have got it, +'cause he asked for it." + +As a rule, the children's standard is correct enough, and approval or +condemnation is justly bestowed, provided that the story has been chosen +to suit the child's stage of development. One little girl objected +strongly to Macaulay's ideal Roman, who "in Rome's quarrel, spared +neither land nor gold, nor son nor wife." "That wasn't right," she said +stoutly, "he ought to think of his own wife and children first." She was +satisfied, however, when it was explained to her that Horatius might be +able to save many fathers to many wives and children. In my earliest +teaching days, having found certain history stories successful with +children of seven, I tried the same with children of six, but only once. +Edmund of East Anglia dying for his faith fell very flat. "What was the +good of that?" said one little fellow, "'cause if you're dead you can't +do anything! But if you're alive, you can get more soldiers and win a +victory." The majority of the class, however, seemed to feel with +another who asked, "Why didn't he promise while the Danes were there? He +needn't have kept it when they went away." + +Another way of stating our aim in telling stories to children is that a +story presents morality in the concrete. Virtues and vices _per se_ +neither attract nor repel, they simply mean nothing to a child, until +they are presented as the deeds of man or woman, boy or girl, living and +acting in a world recognised as real. One telling story is that of the +boy who got hold of Miss Edgeworth's _Parent's Assistant_ and who said +to his mother, "Mother, I've been reading 'The Little Merchants' and I +know now how horrid it is to cheat and tell lies." "I have been telling +you that ever since you could speak," said his mother, to which the boy +answered, "Yes, I know, but that didn't interest me." Our children had +been told the story of how the Countess of Buchan crowned the Bruce, a +duty which should have been performed by her brother the Earl of Fife, +who, however, was too much afraid of the wrath of English Edward. A few +days after, an argument arose and one little girl was heard to say, "I +don't want to be brave," and a boy rejoined, "Girls don't need to be +brave." I said, "Which would you rather be, the Countess who put the +crown on the King's head, or the brother who ran away?" And quickly came +the answer, "Oh! the brave Countess," from the very child who didn't +want to be brave! + +Froebel sums up the teacher's aim in the words: "The telling of stories +is a truly strengthening spirit-bath, it gives opportunity for the +exercise of all mental powers, opportunity for testing individual +judgement and individual feelings." + +But why is it that children crave for stories? "Education," says Miss +Blow, a veteran Froebelian, "is a series of responses to indicated +needs," and undoubtedly the need for stories is as pressing as the need +to explore, to experiment and to construct. What is the unconscious need +that is expressed in this craving, why is this desire so deeply +implanted by Nature? So far, no one seems to have given a better answer +than Froebel has done, when he says that the desire for stories comes +out of the need to understand life, that it is in fact rooted in the +instinct of investigation. "Only the study of the life of others can +furnish points of comparison with the life the boy himself has +experienced. The story concerns other men, other circumstances, other +times and places, yet the hearer seeks his own image, he beholds it and +no one knows that he sees it." + +Man cannot be master of his surroundings till he investigates and so +gathers knowledge. But he has to adapt himself not only to the physical +but to the human environment in which he lives. In stories of all +kinds, children study human life in all kinds of circumstances, nay, if +the story is sufficiently graphic they almost go through the experiences +narrated, almost live the new life. + +With very young children the most popular of all stories is the "The +Three Bears" and it is worth a little analysis. A little girl runs away, +and running away is a great temptation to little girls and boys, as +great an adventure as running off to sea will be at a later stage. She +goes into a wood and meets bears: what else could you expect! The story +then deals with really interesting things, porridge, basins, chairs and +beds. The strong contrast of the bears' voices fascinates children, and +just when retribution might descend upon her, the heroine escapes and +gets safe home. Children revel in the familiar details, but these alone +would not suffice, there must be adventure, excitement, romance. One +feels that Southey had the assistance of a child in making his story so +complete, and we can hear the questions: "How did the big bear know that +the little girl had tasted his porridge? Oh, because she had left the +spoon. How did he know that she had sat in his chair? Because she left +the cushion untidy, and as for the little bear's chair, why, she sat +that right out." + +That quite little children desire fresh experiences or adventures and +really exciting ones, is shown by the following stories made by +children. The first two are by a little girl of two-and-a-half, the +third is taken from Lady Glenconner's recently published _The Sayings of +the Children_. + +"Once upon a time there was a giant and a little girl, and he told a +little girl not to kiss a bear acos he would bite her, and the little +girl climbed right on his back and she jumped right down the stairs and +the bear came walking after the little girl and kissing her, and she +called it a little bear and it was a big bear! (immense amusement). + +"Once upon a time there was a little piggy and he was right in a big +green and white fire and he didn't hurt hisself, and (told as a +tremendous secret) he touched a fire with his handie. 'What a naughty +piggy,' said Auntie, 'and what next?' He jumped right out of a fire. +Auntie, can you smile? (For aunties cannot smile when people are +naughty.)" + +The third story is said to have been filled with pauses due to a certain +slowness of speech, but the pauses are "lit by the lightning flash of a +flying eyebrow, and the impressive nodding of a silken head." + +"Once, you know, there was a fight between a little pony and a lion, and +the lion sprang against the pony and the pony put his back against a +stack and bited towards the lion, and the lion rolled over and the pony +jumped up, and he ran up ... and the pony turned round and the lion ..." + +His mother felt she had lost the thread. "Which won?" she asked. "Which +won!" he repeated and after a moment's pause he said, "Oh! the little +bear." + +This surprising conclusion points to a stage when it is difficult for a +child to hold the thread of a narrative, and at this stage, along with +simple stories of little ones like themselves, repetition or +"accumulation" stories seem to give most pleasure. "Henny Penny" and +"Billy Bobtail"--told by Jacobs as "How Jack went to seek his +Fortune"--are prime favourites. Repetition of rhythmic phrases has a +great attraction, as in "Three Little Pigs," with its delightful +repetition of "Little pig, little pig, let me come in," "No, no, by the +hair of my chinny chin chin," "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll +blow your house in." + +Very soon, however, the children are ready for the time-honoured +fairy-tale or folk-tale. + +The orthodox beginning, "Once upon a time, in a certain country there +lived ...," fits the stage when neither time nor place is of any +consequence. Animals speak, well why not, we can! The fairies +accomplish wonders, again why not? Wonderful things do happen and they +must have a wonderful cause, and, as one child said, if there never had +been any fairies, how could people have written stories about them? +Goodness is rewarded and wickedness is punished, as is only right in the +child's eyes, and goodness usually means kindness, the virtue best +understood of children. Obedience is no doubt the nursery virtue in the +eyes of authority, but kindness is much more human and attractive. + +"Both child and man," says Froebel, "desire to know the significance of +what happens around them; this is the foundation of Greek choruses, +especially in tragedy, and of many productions in the realm of legends +and fairy-tales. It is the result of the deep-rooted consciousness, the +slumbering premonition of being surrounded by that which is higher and +more conscious than ourselves." The fairy tale is the child's mystery +land, his recognition that there are more things in heaven and earth +than are dreamt of in our philosophy or in our science. Dr. Montessori +protests against the idea that fairy-tales have anything to do with the +religious sense, saying that "faith and fable are as the poles apart." +She does not understand that it is for their truth that we value +fairy-tales. The truths they teach are such as that courage and +intelligence can conquer brute strength, that love can brave and can +overcome all dangers and always finds the lost, that kindness begets +kindness and always wins in the end. The good and the faithful marries +the princess--or the prince--and lives happy ever after. And assuredly +if he does not marry his princess, he will not live happy, and if she +does not marry the prince, she will live in no beautiful palace. And +there is more. Take for instance, the story of "Toads and Diamonds." The +courteous maiden who goes down the well, who gives help where it is +needed, and who works faithfully for Mother Holle,[21] comes home again +dropping gold and diamonds when she speaks. Her silence may be silver, +but her speech is golden, and her words give light in dark places. The +selfish and lazy girl, who refuses help and whose work is unfaithful and +only done for reward, has her reward. Henceforth, when she speaks, down +fall toads and snakes her words are cold as she is, they may glitter but +they sting. + +[Footnote 21: This version is probably a mixture of the versions of +Perrault and Grimm but Mother Holle shaking her feathers is worth +bringing in.] + +Fairy- and folk-tales give wholesome food to the desire for adventure, +whereas in what we may call realistic stories, adventure is chiefly +confined to the naughty child, who is therefore more attractive than the +good and stodgy. Even among fairy-tales we may select. "Beauty and the +Beast" and "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow-white and Rose-red" are +distinctly preferable to "Jack the Giant Killer" or "Puss in Boots," +while "Bluebeard" cannot be told. It seems to me that children can often +safely read for themselves stories the adult cannot well tell. The +child's notion of justice is crude, bad is bad, and whether embodied in +an ogre or in Pharaoh of Egypt, it must be got rid of, put out of the +story. No child is sorry for the giant when Jack's axe cleaves the +beanstalk, and as for Pharaoh, "Well, it's a good thing he's drowned, +for he was a bad man, wasn't he?" Death means nothing to children, as a +rule, except disappearance. When children can read for themselves, they +will take from their stories what suits their stage of development, +their standard of judgement, and we need not interfere, even though they +regard with perfect calm what seems gruesome to the adult. + +As a valuable addition to the best-known fairy-tales, we may mention one +or two others: _Grannie's Wonderful Chair_ is a delightful set of +stories, full of charming pictures, though the writer, Frances Brown, +was born blind. Mrs. Ewing's stories for children, _The Brownies_, with +_Amelia and the Dwarfs_ and _Timothy's Shoes_, are inimitable, and her +_Old-Fashioned Fairy Tales_ are very good, but not for very young +children. Her other stories are certainly about children, but are, as a +rule, written for adults. + +George Macdonald's stories are all too well known and too universally +beloved to need recommendation. But in telling them, _e.g._ "The +Princess and the Goblins" or "At the Back of the North Wind," the young +teacher must remember that they are beautiful allegories. Before she +ventures to tell them, the beginner should ponder well what the +poet--for these are prose poems--means, and who is represented by the +beautiful Great-great-grandmother always old and always young, or "North +Wind" who must sink the ship but is able to bear the cry from it, +because of the sound of a far-off song, which seems to swallow up all +fear and pain and to set the suffering "singing it with the rest." + +_Water-Babies_ is a bridge between the fairy-tale of a child and equally +wonderful and beautiful fairy-tales of Nature, and it, too, is full of +meaning. If the teacher has gained this, the children will not lag +behind. It was a child of backward development, who, when she heard of +Mother Carey, "who made things make themselves," said, "Oh! I know who +that was, that was God." + +Such stories must be spread out over many days of telling, but they gain +rather than lose from that, though for quite young children the stories +do require to be short and simple, and often repeated. If children get +plenty of these, the stage for longer stories is reached wonderfully +soon. + +Pseudo-scientific stories, in which, for example, a drop of water +discusses evaporation and condensation, are not stories at all, but a +kind of mental meat lozenge, most unsatisfying and probably not even +fulfilling their task of supplying nourishment in form of facts. Fables +usually deal with the faults and failings of grown-ups, and may be left +for children to read for themselves, to extract what suits them. + +Illustrations are not always necessary, but if well chosen they are +always a help. Warne has published some delightfully illustrated stories +for little children, "The Three Pigs," "Hop o' my Thumb," "Beauty and +the Beast," etc. They are illustrated by H.M. Brock and by Leslie +Brooke, and they really are illustrated. The artists have enjoyed the +stories and children equally enjoy the pictures. + +The teacher must consider what ideas she is presenting and whether words +alone can convey them properly. We must remember that most children +visualise and that they can only do so from what they have seen. So, +without illustrations, a castle may be a suburban house with Nottingham +lace curtains and an aspidistra, while Perseus or Moses may differ +little from the child's own father or brothers. Again, town children +cannot visualise hill and valley, forest and moor, brook and river, not +to mention jungles and snowfields and the trackless ocean. It is not +easy to find pictures to give any idea of such scenes, but it is worth +while to look for them, and it is also worth while for the teacher to +visualise, and to practise vivid describing of what she sees. Children, +of course, only want description when it is really a part of the story, +as when Tom crosses the moor, descends Lewthwaite Crag, or travels from +brook to river and from river to sea. + +As to how a story should be told, opinions differ. It must be well told +with a well-modulated voice and with slight but effective gesture. But +the model should be the story as told in the home, not the story told +from a platform. The children need not be spellbound all the time, but +should be free to ask sensible questions and to make childlike comments +in moderation. The language should fit the subject; beautiful thoughts +need beauty of expression, high and noble deeds must be told in noble +language. A teacher who wishes to be a really good teller of stories +must herself read good literature, and she will do well not only to +prepare her stories with care, but to consider the language she uses in +daily life. There is a happy medium between pedantry and the latest +variety of slang, and if daily speech is careless and slipshod, it is +difficult to change it for special occasions. Our stories should not +only prepare for literature, they should be literature, and those who +realise what the story may do for children will not grudge time spent in +preparation. If the story is to present an ideal, let us see that we +present a worthy one; if it is to lead the children to judge of right +and wrong, let us see that we give them time and opportunity to judge +and that we do not force their judgement. + +Lastly, if the story is to make the children feel, let us see that the +feeling is on the right side, that they shrink from all that is mean, +selfish, cruel and cowardly, and sympathise with whatsoever things are +true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good +report. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN GRASSY PLACES + + + My heart leaps up when I behold + A rainbow in the sky, + So was it when my life began + So be it when I shall grow old, + Or let me die. + +What is the real aim of what we call Nature-lessons, Nature-teaching, +Nature-work? It is surely to foster delight in beauty, so that our +hearts shall leap up at sight of the rainbow until we die. For, indeed, +if we lose that uplift of the heart, some part of us has died already. +Yet even Wordsworth mourns that nothing can bring back the hour of +splendour in the grass and glory in the flower! + +In its answer to the question "What is the chief end of man?" the old +Shorter Catechism has a grand beginning: "Man's chief end is to glorify +God and to enjoy Him for ever." Do we lose the vision because we are not +bold enough to take that enjoyment as our chief end? To enjoy good is to +enjoy God. + +Our ends or aims are our desires, and Mr. Clutton Brock, in his +_Ultimate Belief_, urges teachers to recognise that the spirit of man +has three desires, three ends, and that it cannot be satisfied till it +attains all three. Man desires to do right, so far as he sees it, for +the sake of doing right; he desires to gain knowledge or to know for the +sake of knowing, for the sake of truth; and he desires beauty. + +"We do not value that which we call beautiful because it is true, or +because it is good, but because it is beautiful. There is a glory of the +universe which we call truth which we discover and apprehend, and a +glory of the universe which we call beauty and which we discover or +apprehend." + +Froebel begins his _Education of Man_ by an inquiry into the reason for +our existence and his answer is that _all_ things exist to make manifest +the spirit, the _élan vital_, which brought them into being. "_Sursum +corda_," says Stevenson, + + Lift up your hearts + Art and Blue Heaven + April and God's Larks + Green reeds and sky scattering river + A Stately Music + Enter God. + +And Browning? "If you get simple beauty and nought else, you get about +the best thing God invents." + +To let children get that beauty should be our aim, and they must get it +in their own way. "Life in and with Nature and with the fair silent +things of Nature, should be fostered by parents and others," Froebel +tells us, "as a chief fulcrum of child-life, and this is accomplished +chiefly in play, which is at first simply natural life." + +Let us surmount the ruts of our teaching experience and climb high +enough to look back upon our own childhood, to see where beauty called +to us, where we attained to beauty. + +Among my own earliest recollections come a first view of the starry sky +and the discovery of Heaven. No one called attention to the stars, they +spoke themselves to a child of four or five and declared "the glory of +God." Heaven was not on high among these glorious stars, however. It was +a grassy place with flowers and sunshine. It had to be Heaven because +you went through the cemetery to reach it, and because it was so bright +and flowery and there were no graves in it. I never found it again, +because I had forgotten how to get there. + +Another very early memory is one of grief, to see from the window how +the gardener was mowing down all the daisies, and there were so many, in +the grass; and yet another is of a high, grassy, sunny field with a +little stream running far down below. It was not really far and there +was nothing particularly beautiful in the place to grown-up eyes, but +the beholder was very small and loved it dearly. To his Art and Blue +Heaven Stevenson might have added Sun and Green Grass. For he knew what +grassy places are to the child, and that "happy play in grassy places" +might well be Heaven to the little one. + +A most interesting little book called _What is a Kindergarten?_[22] was +published some years ago in America. It is written by a landscape +gardener, and contains most valuable suggestions as to how best to use +for a Kindergarten or Nursery School plots of ground which may be +secured for that purpose. Naturally the writer has much to say on the +laying out and stocking the available space to the best advantage, +choosing the most suitable positions for the house, where the teacher +must live, he says, to supply the atmosphere of a home; for animal +hutches, for sand-heaps and seesaws; for the necessary shelter, for the +children's gardens, and for the lawn, for even on his smallest plan, a +"twenty-five-foot lot," we find "room for a spot of green." Later he +explains that for this green one must use what will grow, and if grass +will not perhaps clover will. The way in which the trees and plants are +chosen is most suggestive. Beauty and suitability are always considered, +but he remembers his own youth, and also considers the special joys of +childhood. For it is not Nature lessons that come into his calculations +but "the mere association of plants and children." So the birch tree is +chosen, partly for its grace and beauty, but also because of its bark, +for one can scribble on its papery surface; the hazel, because children +delight in the catkins with their showers of golden dust, and the nut +"hidden in its cap of frills and tucks." And he adds: "How much more +alluring than the naked fruit from the grocer's sack are these nuts, +especially when dots for eyes and mouth are added, and a whole little +face is tucked within this natural bonnet." + +[Footnote 22: G. Hansen, pub. Elder, Morgan & Shepherd, San Francisco, +1891.] + +In addition to the flowers chosen for beauty of colour, this lover of +children and of gardens wants Canterbury Bells to ring, Forget-me-nots +because they can stand so much watering, and "flowers with faces," +pansies, sweet-peas, lupins, snapdragons, monkey flowers, red and white +dead nettles, and red clover to bring the bees. Some of these are chosen +because the child can do something with them, can find their own uses +for them, can play with them. And, speaking generally, playing with them +is the child's way of appreciating both plant and animal. Picking +feathery grasses, red-tipped daisies, sweet-smelling clover and golden +dandelions; feeding snapdragons with fallen petals, finding what's +o'clock by blowing dandelion fruits, paying for dock tea out of a fairy +purse, shading poppy dolls with woodruff parasols, that is how a child +enjoys the beauty of colour, scent and form. He gets not more but less +beauty when he must sit in a class and answer formal questions. "Must we +talk about them before we take the flowers home?" asked a child one day; +"they are so pretty." Clearly, the "talk" was going to lessen, not to +deepen the beauty. And animals? The child plays with cat and dog, he +feeds the chickens, the horse and the donkey, he watches with the utmost +interest caterpillar, snail and spider, but he does not want to be asked +questions about them--he does want to talk and perhaps to ask the +questions himself--nor does he always want even to draw, paint or model +them. Mostly he wants to watch, and perhaps just to stir them up a +little if they do not perform to his satisfaction. He does not +necessarily mean to tease, only why should he watch an animal that does +nothing? "The animals haven't any habits when I watch them," a little +girl once said to Professor Arthur Thomson. + +All children should live in the country at least for part of the year. +They should know fields and gardens, and have intercourse with hens and +chickens, cows and calves, sheep and lambs; should make hay and see the +corn cut. They would still want the wisely sympathetic teacher, not to +arouse interest--that is not necessary, but to keep it alive by keeping +pace with the child's natural development. It is not merely living in +the country that develops the little child's interest in shape and +colour and scent into something deeper. People still "spend all their +time in the fields and forests and see and feel nothing of the beauties +of Nature, and of their influence on the human heart"; and this, said +Froebel--and it is just what Mr. Clutton Brock is saying now--is because +the child "fails to find the same feelings among adults." Two effects +follow: the child feels the want of sympathy and loses some respect for +the elder, and also he loses his original joy in Nature. + +"There is in every human being the passionate desire for this +self-forgetfulness--to which it attains when it is aware of beauty--and +a passionate delight in it when it comes. The child feels that delight +among spring flowers; we can all remember how we felt it in the first +apprehension of some new beauty of the universe, when we ceased to be +little animals and became aware that there was this beauty outside us to +be loved. And most of us must remember, too, the strange indifference of +our elders. They were not considering the lilies of the field; they did +not want us to get our feet wet among them. We might be forgetting +ourselves, but they were remembering us; and we became suddenly aware of +the bitterness of life and the tyranny of facts. Now parents and nurses +(and teachers) have, of course, to remember children when they forget +themselves. But they ought to be aware that the child, when he forgets +himself in the beauty of the world, is passing through a sacred +experience which will enrich and glorify the whole of his life. +Children, because they are not engaged in the struggle for life, are +more capable of this aesthetic self-forgetfulness than they will +afterwards be; and they need all of it that they can get, so that they +may remember it and prize it in later years. In these heaven-sent +moments they know what disinterestedness is. They have a test by which +they can value all future experience and know the dullness and staleness +of worldly success. Therefore it is a sin to check, more than need be, +their aesthetic delight" (_The Ultimate Belief_). + +We cannot all give to our children the experiences we should like to +supply, but if we are clear that we are aiming at enjoyment of Nature, +and not at supplying information, we shall come nearer to what is +desirable. For years, almost since it opened in 1908, Miss Reed of the +Michaelis Free Kindergarten has taken her children to the country. It +means a great deal of work and responsibility, it means collecting funds +and giving up one's scanty leisure, it means devoted service, but it has +been done, and it has been kept up even during war time, though with +great difficulty as to funds, because of the inestimable benefit to the +children. Miss Stokes of the Somers Town Nursery School secured a +country holiday for her little ones in various ways, partly through the +Children's Country Holiday Fund, but since the war she has been unable +to secure help of that kind, and has managed to take the children away +to a country cottage. A paragraph in the report says: "The children in +the country had a delightful time, and what was seen and done during +their holiday is still talked about continually. These joys entered into +all the work of the nursery school and helped the children for months +to retain a breath of the country in their London surroundings. They +realised much from that visit. Cows now have horns, wasps have wings and +fly--alas they sting also. Hens sit on eggs, an almost unbelievable +thing. Fishes, newts, tadpoles, were all met with and greeted as +friends. Children and helpers alike returned home full of health and +vigour and longing for the next time. One little maid wept bitterly, and +there seemed no joy in life at home until she came across the school +rabbit, which was tenderly caressed, and consoled her with memories of +the country and hopes for future visits." + +In the days when teachers argued about the differences between +Object-lessons and Nature-lessons, one point insisted upon was that the +Nature-lesson far surpassed the Object-lesson because it dealt with +life. + +We have learned now that we should as much as we can surround our +children with life and growth. Even indoors it is easy to give the joy +of growing seeds and bulbs and of opening chestnut branches: without any +cruelty we can let them enjoy watching snails and worms and we can keep +caterpillars or silkworms and so let them drink their fill of the +miracle of development. But beauty comes to children in very different +ways, and always it is Nature, though it may not be life. + +Children revel in colour, colour for its own sake, and should be allowed +to create it. In a modern novel there is a description of a mother doing +her washing in the open air and "at her feet sat a baby intent upon the +assimilation of a gingerbread elephant, but now and then tugging at her +skirts and holding up a fat hand. Each time he was rewarded by a dab of +soapsuds, which she deposited good-naturedly in his palm. He received it +with solemn delight; watching the roseate play of colour as the bubbles +shrank and broke, and the lovely iridescent treasure vanished in a smear +of dirty wetness while he looked. Then he would beat his fists +delightedly against his mother's dress and presently demand another +handful." + +The following notes from another student's report show how this may +spring naturally out of the children's life:[23] + +[Footnote 23: Miss Edith Jones.] + +"We were spinning the teetotum yesterday and it did not spin well so we +made new ones. While the children were painting their tops, Oliver grew +very eager when he found he could fill in all the spaces in different +colours, but Betty made her colours very insipid. I want them to get the +feeling of beautiful colour, so I shall show them a book with the +colours graded in it, and we shall each have a paper and paint on it all +the rich colours we can think of. The colours will probably run into +each other, and so the children will get ideas about the blending of +colours, but I will watch to see that they do not get the colour too +wet. If they are not tired of painting I want to show them a painted +circle to turn on a string and they can make these for themselves, using +the colours they have already used. + +"I want the children to do some group work, and I thought we might make +a village with shops and houses under the trees in the garden and have +little men and women to represent ourselves. The suggestion will +probably have to come from the teacher, but the children will probably +have the desire when it is suggested, and I hope we shall be able to go +on enlarging our town on the pattern of the towns the children know. If +they want bricks for their houses they can dig clay in the garden. + +"_Report_.--The children wanted to make a tea-set, so we carried our +clay outside. They began discussing why their china would not be so fine +as the china at home, and I said the clay might be different. Then +Bernard asked what sort of china we should get from the clay in the +garden, and I told him that kind of clay was generally made into +bricks, and suggested making bricks. From that we went on to the use of +bricks, and to-morrow we are going to dig, and make bricks to build a +town. Bernard is anxious to know how we shall make mortar. Just then it +started to rain, and Bernard said that if the sun kept shining and it +rained hard enough we should have a rainbow, and he wished it would come +so as to see the beautiful colours. I thought this rather a coincidence, +and told him I had a book with all the rainbow colours in it. They asked +to see it, so I showed it and suggested painting the colours ourselves. +Those who had finished their dishes started, and we talked about the +richness of the colours. One or two children started with very watery +colour, so I showed them the book and began to paint myself. They all +enjoyed it very much, especially the different colours made where the +colours ran into each other. The results pleased them and they are to be +used as wall-papers to sell in our town, but Sybil wants to have a toy +shop, and she is going to make a painted circle for it like the one I +showed." + +This is clearly the time to show a glass prism and to let these children +make rainbows for themselves, to tell the story of Iris, and to use any +colour material, Milton Bradley spectrum papers, Montessori silks, +colour top, and anything else so long as the children keep up their +interest. The interest in colour need never die out; it will probably +show itself now in finer discrimination, and more careful reproduction +of the colours of flowers and leaves, and the sympathy given will +heighten interest and increase enjoyment. + +Here are some notes showing children's numerous activities in a suburban +garden where they were allowed to visit a hen and chickens. + +"_Monday_[24]--To-day the children took up their mustard and cress, dug +and raked the ground ready for transplanting the lettuces. After their +rest we went to see the chickens at the Hall (the Students' Hostel), and +the Hall garden seemed to them a wonderful place. They watched the +trains go in and out of the station at the foot of the garden, and +explored all the side doors, going up and down all the steps and into +the cycle shed. They helped Miss S. to stir the soot water, then they +went to the grassy bank and ran down it, slid down it, and rolled down +it. They peeped over the wall into the next garden, they peeped through +holes in the fences and finished up with a swing in the hammock. Each +child had twenty swings, and they enjoyed counting in time with the +swaying of the hammock, and swayed their own bodies as they pushed. + +[Footnote 24: These notes are part of those already given on pp. 68-71.] + +"Another example of love and rhythm was when they went to say good-bye +to the hen and chickens, and kept on repeating 'Good-bye, good-bye' all +together, nodding their heads at the same time. + +"I did not know if I should have let them do so much, but I was not sure +that we should be allowed to come back and I wanted them to enjoy the +garden. + +"_Wednesday_.--First we watered the lettuces we had transplanted, and +transplanted more. Then, as we had permission to come again, we took +some of our lettuces to the chickens. We saw the mother hen with one +wing spread right out, and the children were much surprised to see how +large it was. We looked at the roses, and saw how the bud of yesterday +was full blown to-day. The children again ran down and rolled down the +bank, and had turns in the hammock, this time to the rhythm of "Margery +Daw" sung twice through, and then counting up to twenty. Very often +they went to watch the trains. Cecil is particularly interested in them, +and wanted to know how long was the time between. He said three minutes, +I guessed nine, but we found they were irregular. In the intervals while +waiting for a train to pass, we played a 'listening' game, listening to +what sounds we could hear. A thrush came and sang right over our heads, +so the listening was concentrated on his song, and we tried to say what +we thought he meant to say. One child said, 'He says, "Come here, come +here,"' but they found this too difficult. We also watched a boy +cleaning the station windows, and Dorothy said, 'Miss Beer, isn't it +wonderful that you can see through glass?' I agreed, but made no other +remark because I did not know what to say. + +"We rested outside to-day under an almond tree. I pointed out how pretty +the sky looked when you only saw it peeping through the leaves. After +rest the children noticed feathery grasses, and spent the rest of the +morning gathering them. I suggested that they should see how many kinds +they could find. They found three, but were not enthusiastic about it, +being content just to pluck, but they were delighted when they found +specially long and beautiful grasses hidden deep under a leafy bush. +They also found clover leaves, and I told them its name and sang to them +the verse from 'The Bee,' with 'The sweet-smelling clover, he, humming, +hangs over.' + +"_Thursday._--Brushed and dusted the room, gave fresh water to the +flowers, and then went to gardening. The children were delighted to find +ladybirds on the lettuces they were transplanting, and we also noticed +how the cherries were ripening. + +"They joined the Transition Class for games. Later, while playing with +the sand, Cecil made a discovery. He said, 'Miss Beer, do you know, I +know what sand is, it's little tiny tiny stones.'" + +It may be worth while to notice some things in these notes. First the +pleasure in exploring the new surroundings and then the variety of +delights. Our landscape gardener mentions that "any slope to our grounds +should be welcomed.... For as we leave the level land and flee to the +mountains to spend our vacation, so will a child avoid the street and +seek the gutter and the bank on the unimproved lot to enjoy its +pastime." Our own children have been fortunate enough to have a bank for +their play, and though, unfortunately, extension of buildings has taken +away much of this, we have had abundant opportunity to see the value of +sloping ground. Then there are the discoveries, the feathery grasses, +especially those which were hidden, the ladybirds, that sand is really +"tiny tiny stones"--has every adult noticed that, or is sand "just +sand"?--and the "wonder" that we can see through glass, a wonder +realised by a little girl of four years old. Also we can notice what the +children did not desire. They liked listening to the thrush, but to make +out what the thrush was "saying" was beyond them. They liked gathering +feathery grasses, but to sort these into different kinds gave no +pleasure, though older children would have enjoyed trying to find many +varieties. + +Perhaps teachers with a fair amount of experience might have felt like +the beginner who frankly says, "I didn't say anything more because I +didn't know what to say," when Dorothy discovered the wonderfulness of +glass. Perhaps we are silent because the child has gone ahead of us. It +is wonderful, but we have never thought about it. In such cases we must, +as Froebel says, "become a learner with the child" and humbly, with real +sympathy and earnestness, ask, "Is it wonderful, I suppose it is, but I +never thought about it, why do _you_ call it wonderful?" If the child +answers, it is well, if not the teacher can go on thinking aloud, +thinking with the child. "Let's think what other things we can see +through." We can never understand it, we can only reach the fact of +"transparency" as a wonderful property of certain substances and +consider which possess this magic quality. There is water of course, and +there is jelly or gelatine, but these are not hard, they are not stones +as glass seems to be. The child will be pleased too to see a crystal or +a bit of mica, but the main thing is that we should not imagine we have +disposed of the wonder by a mere name with a glib, "Oh, that's just +because it's transparent," but that we realise, and reinforce and +deepen the child's sense of wonderfulness. So teacher and child enter +into the thoughts of Him + + Who endlessly was teaching + Above my spirits utmost reaching, + What love can do in the leaf or stone, + So that to master this alone, + This done in the stone or leaf for me, + I must go on learning endlessly. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A WAY TO GOD + + + Wonders chiefly at himself + Who can tell him what he is + Or how meet in human elf + Coming and past eternities. + + EMERSON. + +It is of set purpose that this short chapter, referring to what we +specially call religion, is placed immediately after that on the child's +attitude to Nature. The actual word religion, which, to him, expressed +being bound, did not appeal to Froebel so much as one which expressed +One-ness with God. + +As a son can share the aspirations of his father, so man "a thought of +God" + + can aspire + From earth's level where blindly creep + Things perfected more or less + To the heaven's height far and steep. + +But we begin at earth's level, and a child's religion must be largely a +natural religion. + +How to introduce a child to religion is a problem which must have many +solutions. In Froebel's original training course, his Kindergarten +teachers were to be "trained to the observation and care of the earliest +germs of the religious instinct in man." These earliest beginnings he +found in different sources. First come the relations between the child +and the family, beginning with the mother; fatherhood and motherhood +must be realised before the child can reach up to the Father of all. +Then there is the atmosphere of the home, the real reverence for higher +things, if it exists, affects even a little child more than is usually +supposed, but children are quick to distinguish reality from mere +conventionality though the distinction is only half conscious. Reality +impresses, while conventionality is apt to bore. Even to quite young +children Froebel's ideal mother would begin to show God in nature. Some +one put into the flowers the scent and colour that delight the +child--some one whom he cannot see. The sun, moon and stars give light +and beauty, and "love is what they mean to show." This mother teaches +her little one some sort of prayer, and the gesture of reverence, the +folded hands, affects the child even if the words mean little or +nothing. Akin to the "feeling of community" between the child and his +family is the joining in religious worship in church, "the entrance in a +common life," and the emotional effect of the deep tones of the organ. +Then there is the interdependence of the universe: the baby is to thank +Jenny for his bread and milk, Peter for mowing the grass for the cow, +"until you come to the last ring of all, God's father love for all." +Next to this comes the child's service; others work for him and he also +must serve. "Every age has its duties, and duties are not burdens," and +it is necessary that feeling should have expression, "for even a child's +love unfostered (by action in form of service) droops and dies away." +There is also the desire for approbation. The child "must be roused to +good by inclination, love, and respect, through the opinion of others +about him," and this should be guided until he learns to care chiefly +for the approval of the God within. Right ideals must be provided: +religion is "a continually advancing endeavour," and its reward must +not be a material reward. We ought to lift and strengthen human nature, +but we degrade and weaken it when we seek to lead it to good conduct by +a bait, even if this bait beckons to a future world. The consciousness +of having lived worthily should be our highest reward. Froebel goes so +far as to say that instead of teaching "the good will be happy," and +leaving children to imagine that this means an outer or material +happiness, we ought rather to teach that in seeking the highest we may +lose the lower. "Renunciation, the abandonment of the outer for the sake +of securing the inner, is the condition for attaining highest +development. Dogmatic religious instruction should rather show that +whoever truly and earnestly seeks the good, must needs expose himself to +a life of outer oppression, pain and want, anxiety and care." Even a +child, though not a baby, can be led to see that to do good for outer +reward is but enlightened selfishness. + +These suggestions are taken for the most part from the _Mother Songs_, +some from _The Education of Man_. Each parent or teacher must use what +seems to her or to him most valuable. Some may from the beginning desire +to teach the child a baby prayer, or at least to let him hear "God bless +you." Others may prefer to wait for a more intelligent stage, perhaps +when the child begins to ask the invariable questions--who made the +flowers, the animals; who made me? If so, we must remember that children +see, and hear, and think, that often in thoughtless ejaculations, or in +those of heartfelt thankfulness, children may hear the name of God; that +a simple story may have something that stirs thought; that churches are +much in evidence; and that the conversation of little playfellows may +take an unexpected turn. + +To me it seems a great mistake to put before young children ideas which +are really beyond the conception of an adult. There are many stories +told of how children receive teaching about the Omniscience or +Omnipotence of God. The stories sound irreverent, and are often repeated +as highly amusing, but they are really more pathetic. Miss Shinn tells +of one poor mite who resented being constantly watched and said, "I will +not be so tagged," and another said, "Then I think He's a very rude +man," when, in reply to her puzzled questions, she was told that God +could see her even in her bath. And the boy who said, "If I had done a +thing, could God make it that I hadn't?" must have made his instructor +feel somewhat foolish. + +It never does harm for us honestly to confess our own limitations and +our ignorance, and that is better than weak materialistic explanations, +which after all explain nothing. To tell a child that the Great Father +is always grieved when we are unkind or cowardly, always ready to help +us and to put kindness and bravery into our hearts, that we know He has +power to do that if we will let Him, but that His power is beyond our +understanding: to say that He is able to keep us in all danger, and that +even if we are killed we are safe in His keeping, surely that is enough. +He who blessed the children uttered strong words against him who caused +the little ones to stumble. + +"From every point, from every object of nature and life there is a way +to God.... The things of nature form a more beautiful ladder between +heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob.... It is decked with flowers, +and angels with children's eyes beckon us toward it." This is true, but +it does not mean that we are always to be trying to make things sacred, +but that we are to realise that all beauty and all knowledge and all +sympathy are already sacred, and that to love such things is to love +something whereby the Creator makes Himself known to us, that to enjoy +them is to enjoy God. + +Religion is not always explained as implying the idea of being bound, +but sometimes as being set free from the bonds of the lower or animal +nature. In this sense Mr. Clutton Brock may well call it "a sacred +experience" for the child, when he forgets himself in the beauty of the +world. If we could all rise to a wider conception of the meaning of the +word religion, we should know that it comes into all the work of the +day, that it does not depend alone upon that special Scripture lesson +which may become mere routine. + +The greatest Teacher of all taught by stories, and when any story +deepens our feelings for human nature and our recognition of the heights +to which it can rise, when it makes us long for faith, courage, and love +to go and do likewise, who shall say that this is not religious +teaching, teaching which helps to deliver us from the bonds that hamper +spiritual ascent. + +Many of us will feel with Froebel that the fairy-tale, with its +slumbering premonition of being surrounded by that which is higher and +more "conscious than ourselves,"[25] has its place, and an important +place, in religious development. + +[Footnote 25: P. 85.] + +The "fairy sense," says Dr. Greville Macdonald, "is innate as the +religious sense itself ... the fairy stories best beloved are those +steeped in meaning--the unfathomable meaning of life ... such stories +teach--even though no lesson was intended--the wisdom of the Book of +Job: wisdom that by this time surely should have made religious teaching +saner, and therefore more acceptable."[26] + +[Footnote 26: "The Fairy-Tale in Education," by Greville Macdonald, M.D., +_Child Life_, Dec. 1918.] + +Fairies, like angels, may be God's messengers. A child who had heard of +St. Cuthbert as a shepherd boy being carried home from the hillside when +hurt, by a man on a white horse, repeated the story in her own words, +"and he thought it was a fairy of God's sent to help him." + +There is, however, nothing the children love more than the Bible story, +the story which shows, so simply, humanity struggling as the children +struggle, failing as the children fail, and believing and trusting as +the children believe, and as we at least strive to do, in the ultimate +victory of Right over Wrong, of Good over Evil. But just because the +stories are often so beautiful and so inspiring, the teacher should have +freedom to deal with them as the spirit moves her. + +What experience has taught me in this way has already been passed on to +younger teachers in _Education by Life_, and there seems little more to +add. + + Wonders chiefly at himself + Who can tell him what he is. + +It is for us to tell the child what he is, that he, too, like all the +things he loves, is a manifestation of God. "I am a being alive and +conscious upon this earth; a descendant of ancestors who rose by gradual +processes from lower forms of animal life, and with struggle and +suffering became man."[27] + +[Footnote 27: _The Substance of Faith Allied with Science_, Sir Oliver +Lodge (Methuen).] + +"The colossal remains of shattered mountain chains speak of the greatness +of God; and man is encouraged and lifts himself up by them, feeling +within himself the same spirit and power."[28] + +[Footnote 28: _The Education of Man_.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +RHYTHM + + + Lo with the ancient roots of Man's nature + Twines the eternal passion of song. + +The very existence of lullabies, not to mention their abundance in all +countries, the very rockers on the cradles testify to the rhythmic +nature of man in infancy. + +In his _Mother Songs_, Froebel couples rhythm with harmony of all kinds, +not only musical harmony but harmony of proportion and colour, and in +urging the very early training of "the germs of all this," he gives +perhaps the chief reason for training. "If these germs do not develop +and take shape as independent formations in each individual, they at +least teach how to understand and to recognise those of other people. +This is life-gain enough, it makes one's life richer, richer by the +lives of others." + +It is to the genius of M. Jacques Dalcroze that the world of to-day owes +some idea of what may be effected by rhythmic training, and M. Dalcroze +started his work with the same aim that Froebel set before the mother, +that of making the child capable of appreciation, capable of being made +"richer by the lives of others." But Froebel prophesied that far more +than appreciation would come from proper rhythmic training, and this M. +Dalcroze has amply proved. + +"Through movement the mother tries to lead the child to consciousness +of his own life. By regular rhythmic movement--this is of special +importance--she brings this power within the child's own conscious +control when she dandles him in her arms in rhythmic movements and to +rhythmic sounds, cautiously following the slowly developing life in the +child, arousing it to greater activity, and so developing it. Those who +regard the child as empty, who wish to fill his mind from without, +neglect the means of cultivation in word and tone which should lead to a +sense of rhythm and obedience to law in all human expression. But an +early development of rhythmic movement would prove most wholesome, and +would remove much wilfulness, impropriety and coarseness from his life, +movements, and action, and would secure for him harmony and moderation, +and, later on, a higher appreciation of nature, music, poetry, and art" +_(Education of Man_). + +Here, then, is an aim most plainly stated, "higher appreciation of +nature, music, poetry and art," and if we adopt it, we must make sure +that we start on a road leading to that end. + +To Kindergarten children, apart from movement, rhythm comes first in +nursery rhymes, and if we honestly follow the methods of the mother we +shall not teach these, but say or sing them over and over again, letting +the children select their favourites and join in when and where they +like. This is the true _Babies' Opera_, as Walter Crane justly names an +illustrated collection. Froebel's _Mother Songs_, though containing a +deal of sound wisdom in its mottoes and explanations, is an annotated, +expurgated, and decidedly pedantic version of the nursery rhymes of his +own country. That these should ever have been introduced to our children +arose from the fact that the first Kindergarten teachers, being +foreigners, did not know our own home-grown productions. Long since we +have shaken off the foreign product, in favour of our own "Sing a Song +of Sixpence," "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and their refreshingly cheerful +compeers. Froebel's book suggests songs to suit all subjects and all +frames of mind--the wind, the moon, and stars, the farm with its cows +and sheep, its hens and chickens, the baker and carpenter, fish in the +brook and birds in nests, the garden and the Christmas fair. + +We can supply good verses for all these if we take pains to search, and +if we eschew ignorant and unpoetic modern doggerel as we eschew poison. +Besides the nursery rhymes, we have Stevenson, with his "Wind," +"Shadow," and "Swing," Christina Rossetti's "Wrens and Robins," her +"Rainbow Verses" and "Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk, White as +swansdown, smooth as silk." There are many others, and a recent charming +addition to our stock is "Chimneys and Fairies," by Rose Fyleman. One +thing we should not neglect, and that is the child's sense of humour. +For the very young this is probably satisfied by the cow that jumps over +the moon, the dish that runs after the spoon, Jill tumbling after Jack, +and Miss Muffet running away from the spider. But older children much +enjoy nonsense verses by Lewis Carroll or by Lear, and "John Gilpin" is +another favourite. + +It is a mistake to keep strictly within the limits of a child's +understanding of the words. What we want here, as in the realm of +Nature, is joy and delight, the delight that comes from musical words +and rhythm, as well as from the pictures that may be called up. Even a +child of four can enjoy the poetry of the Psalms without asking for much +understanding. + +The mother repeats her rhymes and verses solely to give pleasure, and if +our aim is the deepening of appreciation, there is no reason for leaving +the green and grassy path that Nature has showed to the mother for the +hard and beaten track of "recitation." In our own Kindergarten there +has never been either rote learning or recitation. The older children +learn the words of their songs, but not to a word-perfect stage, because +words and music suggest each other. Except for that we just enjoy our +verses, the children asking for their favourites and getting new ones +sometimes by request sometimes not. Anything not enjoyed is laid aside. +We need variety, but everything must be good of its kind, and verses +about children are seldom for children. Because children love babies, +they love "Where did you come from, baby dear?" but nothing like +Tennyson's "Baby, wait a little longer," and especially nothing of the +"Toddlekins" type has any place in the collection of a self-respecting +child. It is doubtful if Eugene Field's verses are really good enough +for children. + +All children enjoy singing, but here, as in everything, we must keep +pace with development, or the older ones, especially the boys, may get +bored by what suits the less adventurous. In all cases the music should +be good and tuneful, modelled not on the modern drawing-room inanity, +but on the healthy and vigorous nursery rhyme or folk song. + +Children also enjoy instrumental music, and will listen to piano or +violin while quietly occupied, for example if they are drawing. One +Nursery School teacher plays soft music to get her babies to sleep, and +our little ones fidget less if some one sings softly during their +compulsory rest. + +"The Kindergarten Band" is another way in which children can join in +rhythm. It came to us from Miss Bishop and is probably the music +referred to in the description of the Pestalozzi-Froebel House. The +children are provided with drums, cymbals, tambourines, and triangles, +and keep time to music played on the piano. They can do some analysis in +choosing which instruments are most suitable to accompany different +melodies or changes from grave to gay, etc. A full account was given in +_Child Life_ for May 1917. + +Several years ago, knowing nothing of M. Dalcroze, Miss Marie Salt +began an experiment, the results of which are likely to be far-spreading +and of great benefit. Desiring to help children to appreciation of good +music, Miss Salt experimented deliberately with the Froebelian "learn +through action," and her success has been remarkable. Because of its +freedom from any kind of formality, this system is perhaps better suited +to little children than the Dalcroze work, unless that is in the hands +of an exceptionally gifted teacher. M. Dalcroze himself is delightfully +sympathetic with little ones. + +Miss Salt tells her own story in an appendix to Mr. Stewart Macpherson's +_Aural Culture based on Musical Appreciation._ + +Good music is played and the children listen and move freely in time to +it, sometimes marching or dancing in circles, sometimes quite freely +"expressing" whatever feeling the music calls forth in them. The stress +is laid on listening; if you see a picture you reproduce it, if the +music makes you think of trees or wind, thunder or goblins, you become +what you think of. It is astonishing to see how little children learn in +this way to care for music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Dvorák, +Brahms, Chopin, and Beethoven. The music is of course selected with +skill, and care is taken that the "expression" shall not make the +children foolishly self-conscious. Emphasis is always placed on +listening, and the children's appreciation is apparent. Such +appreciation must enrich their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FROM FANCY TO FACT + + + Creeps ever on from fancy to the fact. + +Fairy tales suit little children because their knowledge is so limited, +that "the fairies must have done it" is regarded as a satisfactory +answer to early problems, just as it satisfied childlike Man. Things +that to us are wonderful, children accept as commonplace, while others +commonplace to us are marvels to the child. But fairy tales do not +continue to satisfy all needs. As knowledge grows the child begins to +distinguish between what may and what may not happen, though there will +always be individual differences, and the more poetic souls are apt to +suffer when the outrush of their imagination is checked by a barbed wire +of fact. The question "Is it true?" and the desire for true stories +arise in the average child of seven to eight years, and at that age +history stories are enjoyed. Real history is of course impossible to +young children, whose idea of time is still very vague, and whose +understanding of the motives and actions of those immediately around +them is but embryonic. They still crave for adventure and romance, and +they thrill to deeds of bravery. Bravery in the fight appeals to all +boys and to most girls, and it is a question for serious consideration +how this admiration is to be guided, it certainly cannot be ignored. It +is legitimate to admire knights who ride about "redressing human +wrongs," fighting dragons and rescuing fair ladies from wicked giants, +and at this stage there is no need to draw a hard and fast line between +history and legendary literature. It is good to introduce children, +especially boys, to some of the Arthurian legends if only to impress the +ideal, "Live pure, speak true, right wrong, else wherefore born?" +Stories should always help children to understand human beings, men and +women with desires and feelings like our own. But in history and +geography stories we deal particularly with people who are different +from ourselves, and we should help children to understand, and to +sympathise with those whose surroundings and customs are not ours. They +may have lived centuries ago, or they may be living now but afar off, +they may be far from us in time or space, but our stories should show +the reasons for their customs and actions, and should tend to lessen the +natural tendency to feel superior to those who have fewer advantages, +and gradually to substitute for that a sense of responsibility. + +But the narration of stories is not the only way in which we can treat +history. Our present Minister of Education says that history teaching +ought to give "discipline in practical reasoning" and "help in forming +judgements," not merely in remembering facts. Indeed he went so far as +to say "eliminate dates and facts" by which, of course, he only meant +that the power of reasoning, the power of forming judgements is of far +more consequence than the mere possession of any quantity of facts and +dates. Training in reasoning, however, must involve training in +verification of facts before pronouncing judgement. + +Training in practical reasoning takes a prominent place in that form of +history teaching introduced by Professor Dewey. According to him, +history is worth nothing unless it is "an indirect sociology," an +account of how human beings have learned, so far as the world has yet +learned the lesson, to co-operate with one another, a study of the +growth of society and what helps and hinders. So he finds his +beginnings in primitive life, and although there is much in this that +will appeal to any age, there is no doubt that children of seven to ten +or eleven revel in this material. + +If used at all it should be used as thinking material--here is man +without tools, without knowledge, everything must be thought out. It +does not do much good to hand over the material as a story, as some +teachers use the Dopp series of books. These books do all the children's +thinking for them. Every set of children must work things out for +themselves, using their own environments and their own advantages. The +teacher must read to be ready with help if the children fail, and also +to be ready with the actual problems. It is astonishing how keen the +children are, and how often they suggest just what has really happened. +Where there is space out-of-doors and the children can find branches for +huts, clay for pots, etc., the work is much easier for the teacher and +more satisfactory. But even where that is impossible and where one has +sometimes to be content with miniature reproductions, the interest is +most keen. Children under eight cannot really produce fire from flints +or rubbing sticks, nor can they make useable woollen threads with which +to do much weaving. But even they can get sparks from flint, make a +little thread from wool, invent looms and weave enough to get the ideas. + +The romance of "long ago" ought to be taken advantage of to deepen +respect for the dignity of labour. Our lives are so very short that we +are apt to get out of perspective in the ages. Reading and writing are +so new--it is only about four hundred years since the first book was +printed in England, the Roman occupation lasted as long, and who thinks +of that as a long period? Perhaps it is because we are in the reading +and writing age that our boys and girls must become "braw, braw clerks," +instead of living on and by the land. History, particularly primitive +history, should help us all to be "grateful to those unknown pioneers +of the human race to whose struggles and suffering, discoveries and +energies our present favoured mode of existence on the planet is due. +The more people realise the effort that has preceded them and made them +possible, the more are they likely to endeavour to be worthy of it: the +more pitiful also will they feel when they see individuals failing in +the struggle upward and falling back toward a brute condition; and the +more hopeful they will ultimately become for the brilliant future of a +race which from such lowly and unpromising beginnings has produced the +material vehicle necessary for those great men who flourished in the +recent period which we speak of as antiquity."[29] + +[Footnote 29: _The Substance of Faith_, p. 18.] + +Professor Dewey urges that "the industrial history of man is not a +materialistic or merely utilitarian affair," but a matter of +intelligence, a record of how men learned to think, and also an ethical +record, "the account of the conditions which men have patiently wrought +out to serve their ends." + +This interest in how human beings have created themselves and their +surroundings ought to be deeply interesting to any and every age. Young +children can reach so little that one hopes the interest aroused will be +lasting and lead to fruitful work later. But it certainly makes a good +foundation for the study of history and geography, if history is treated +as sociology and if geography is recognised as the study of man in his +environment. + +Coming now to practical details, in our own work we have followed fairly +closely the suggestions made by Professor Dewey, but everything must +vary from year to year according to the suggestions of the children or +their apparent needs. One extra step we have found necessary, and that +is to spend some time over a desert island or Robinson Crusoe stage. +Some children can do without it, but all enjoy it, and the duller +children find it difficult to imagine a time when "you could buy it in +a shop" does not fit all difficulties. They can easily grasp the idea of +sailing away to a land "where no man had ever been before," and playing +at desert island has always been a joy. + +The starting-points for primitive life have been various; sometimes the +work has found its beginning in chance conversation, as when a child +asked, "Are men animals?" and the class took to the suggestion that man +meant thinking animal, and began to consider what he had thought. Often +after Robinson Crusoe there has been a direct question, "How did +Robinson Crusoe know how to make his things; had any one taught him? Who +made the things he had seen; who made the very first and how did he +know?" One answer invariably comes, "God taught them," which can be met +by saying this is true, but that God "teaches" by putting things into +the world and giving men power to think. This leads to a discussion +about things natural, "what God makes" and what man makes, which is +sometimes illuminating on the limited conceptions of town children. +Years ago we named primitive man "the Long-Ago People," and the title +has seemed to give satisfaction, though once we had the suggestion of +"Old-Time Men." + +We always start with the need for food, and the children suggest all the +wild fruits they know, often leaving out nuts till asked if there is +anything that can be stored for winter. Roots are not always given, but +buds of trees is a frequent answer. Children in the country ought to +explore and to dig, and in our own playground we find at least wild +barley, blackberries of a sort, cherries, hard pears, almonds and cherry +gum. Killing animals for food is suggested, and the children have to be +told that the animals were fierce and to realise that in these times man +was hunted, not hunter. Little heads are quite ready to tackle the +problem of defence and attack. They could throw stones, use sticks that +the wind blew down, pull up a young tree, or "a lot of people could +hang on to a branch and get it down." When one child suggested finding a +dead animal and using it for food, some were disgusted, but a little +girl said, "I don't suppose they would mind, they wouldn't be very +particular." + +The idea of throwing stones starts the examination of different kinds, +which have to be provided for the purpose. Flint is invariably selected, +and for months the children keep bringing "lovely sharp flints," but +there is much careful observation, observation which has a motive. "I +would put a stone in a stick and chuck it at them" is followed by much +experiment at fixing. String is of course taboo, but bass is allowed +because it grows, also strips of skin. We very often get the suggestion +"they might find a stone with a hole in it," which leads to renewed +searching and to the endeavour to make holes. To make a hole in flint is +beyond us, but in a softer stone it can be done. + +Then may come the question of safety and tree-climbing, and how to +manage with the babies. Children generally know that tiny babies can +hold very tight, and have various ideas for the mother. How to keep the +baby from falling brings the idea of twisting in extra branches, which +is recognised as a cradle in the tree, and the children delight in this +as a meaning for "Rock-a-bye, baby, in the tree-top." The possibility of +tree-shelters comes in, and various experiments are made, sometimes in +miniature, sometimes in the garden. Out of this comes the discussion of +clothes. Animals' skins is an invariable suggestion, though all children +do not realise that what they call "fur" means skin. + +Skin is provided, and much time is taken in experimenting to see if it +can be cut with bits of flint. How could the long-ago people fasten on +the skins, brings the answers "by thorns," "tie with narrow pieces," and +the children are pleased to see that their own leather belts are strips +or straps. Sometimes much time is taken up in cutting out "skins to +wear" from paper or cheap calico, the children working in pairs, one +kneeling down while the other fits on the calico to see where the head +and legs come. The skins are painted or chalked, and pictures are +consulted to see whether the chosen animals are striped or spotted. + +It may be stated here that we are not very rigid about periods or +climates, and that our long-ago people are of a generalised type. Our +business is not to supply correct information on anthropological +questions, but to call forth thought and originality, to present +opportunities for closer observation than was ever evoked by observation +lessons, and for experiments full of meaning and full of zest. Naturally +we do not despise correct information, but these children are very young +and all this work is tentative. We are never dogmatic, it is all "Do you +think they might have ..." or "Well, I know what I should have done; I +should have ..." and the teacher's reply is usually "Suppose we try." + +Children are apt of course to make startling remarks, but it is only the +teacher who is startled by: "Was all this before God's birthday?" "I +don't think God had learned to be very clever then." It is a curious +fact, but orthodox opinion has only twice in the course of many years +brought up Adam and Eve. Probably this is because we never talk about +the first man, but about how things were discovered. The first time the +question did come up Miss Payne was taking the subject, and she +suggested that Adam and Eve were never in this country, which disposed +of difficulties so well that I gave the same answer the only time I ever +had to deal with the question. + +When we come to the problem of fire, we always use parts of Miss Dopp's +story of _The Tree-Dwellers_. If the children are asked if they ever +heard of fire that comes by itself, or of things being burned by fire +that no human being had anything to do with, one or two are sure to +suggest lightning. They will tell that lightning sometimes sets trees on +fire, that thunderstorms generally come after hot dry weather, and that +if lightning struck a tree with dry stuff about the fire would spread, +and the long-ago people would run away. A question from the teacher as +to what these people might think about it may bring the suggestion of a +monster; if not, one only has to say that it must have seemed as if it +was eating the trees to get "They would think it was a dreadful animal." +Then the story can be told of how the boy called Bodo stopped to look +and saw the monster grow smaller, so he went closer, fed it on wood, and +liked to feel its warm breath after the heavy rain that follows +thunder--why had the monster grown smaller?--found that no animal would +come near it and so on. We never tell of the "fire country," though +sometimes the children read the book for themselves a little later. + +We have never succeeded in making flames, but it is thrilling to get +sparks from flint. Once a child brought an old tinder box with steel and +flint, but even then we were not skilful enough to get up a flame. Still +it is something to have tried, and we are left with a respectful +admiration for those who could so easily do without matches. + +What made these long-ago people think of using their fire to cook food? +Our children have suggested that a bit of raw meat fell into the fire by +accident, and we have also worked it out in this way. We were pretending +to warm ourselves by the fire, and I said my frozen meat was so cold +that it hurt my teeth. "Hold it to the fire then." We burned our +fingers, and sticks were suggested, but we sucked the burnt fingers, and +I said, "it tastes good," and the children shouted with glee "Because +the meat's roasted really." Then something was supposed to drop, and the +cry was "Gravy! catch it in a shell, dip your finger in and let your +baby suck it." A small shell was suggested, and the boy who said "And +put a stick in for a handle" was dubbed "the spoon-maker." At that time +we were earning names for ourselves by suggestions; we started with Fair +Hair, Curly Hair, Big Teeth, Long Legs, and arrived at Quick Runner, +Climber, and even Thinker. + +We have got at pottery in a similar way. The meat was supposed to be +tough. "Soak it" came at once, and "Could you get hot water?" Then came +suggestions: a stone saucepan, scoop out a stone and put it on the fire, +build a stone pan and fix the stones with cherry gum, dig a hole in the +ground and put fire under; "_that_ would be a kind of oven." When asked +if water would stay in the hole, and if any kind of earth would hold +water, the answer may be, "No, nothing but clay, and you'd have to make +that." "No! you get clay round a well. My cousin has a well, and there's +clay round it." "Why, there's clay in the playground." "You could put +the meat into a skin bag or a basket." Asked if the skin or basket could +be set on the fire, or if anything could be done to keep the basket from +catching fire, the answer comes, "Yes, dab clay round it. Then," +joyfully, "it would hold water and you _could_ boil." "What would happen +to the clay when it was put on the fire?" This has to be discovered by a +quick experiment, but the children readily guess that when the hot water +is taken off the fire there would be "a sort of clay basin. Then they +could make more! and plates and cups!" + +Experiments depend upon circumstances and upon the age of the children. +A thick and tiny basin put into a hot part of an ordinary fire does +harden and hold water to a certain extent even without glazing. But +elaborate baking may also be done. + +I have found it convenient to take weaving as a bridge to history +stories, by using Sir Frederick Leighton's picture of the Phoenicians +bartering cloth for skins with the early Britons. The children are told +that the people dressed in cloth come from near the Bible-story country, +and those dressed in skins are the long-ago people of this very country. +What would these people think of the cloth? "They would think it was +animals' skins." And what would they do? "They'd feel it and look at +it." So cloth is produced and we pull it to pieces, first into threads +and then into hairs, and the children say the hairs are like "fur." Then +sheep's wool is produced and we try to make thread. Attempts at +thread-making and then at weaving last a long time, and along with this +come some history stories, probably arising out of the question, "How +did people know about all this?" The children are told about the +writings of Julius Caesar, and pictures of Roman ships and houses are +shown, beside pictures of coracles and bee-hive dwellings, etc. Old +coins, a flint battle-axe, some Roman pottery are also shown, along with +descriptions and pictures of the Roman villa at Brading and other Roman +remains. The children are thus helped to realise that other countries +exist where the people were far ahead of those in this country, and they +can begin to understand how social conditions vary, and how nations act +upon each other. + +The work varies considerably from year to year, according to how it +takes hold upon the children's interest. But children of eight to nine +are usually considered ready for broad ideas of the world as a whole, +and the inquiry into where Julius Caesar came from, and why he came, +gives a fair start. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +NEW NEEDS AND NEW HELPS + + + I am old, so old, I can write a letter. + +Writing and reading have no place in the actual Kindergarten, much less +arithmetic. The stories are told to the child; drawing, modelling and +such-like will express all he wants to express in any permanent form, +and speech, as Froebel says, is "the element in which he lives." His +counting is of the simplest, and the main thing is to see that he does +not merely repeat a series while he handles material, but that the +series corresponds with the objects. Even this can be left alone if it +seems to annoy the little one. In the school he is on a very different +level, he has attained to the abstract, he can use signs: he can express +thoughts which he could not draw, and can communicate with those who are +absent. He can read any letter received and he is no longer dependent on +grown-ups for stories. He can count his own money and can get correct +change in small transactions, and he can probably do a variety of sums +which are of no use to him at all. + +Between these two comes what Froebel called the Transition or Connecting +Class, in which the child learns the meaning of the signs which stand +for speech, and those which make calculation less arduous for weak +memories. + +Much has been written as to when and how children are to be taught to +read. Some great authorities would put it off till eight or even ten. +Stanley Hall says between six and eight, while Dr. Montessori teaches +children of five and even of four. Froebel would have supported Stanley +Hall and would wait till the age of six. The strongest reason for +keeping children back from books is a physiological one. In the +_Psychology and Physiology of Reading_[30] strong arguments are adduced +against early reading as very injurious to eyesight, so it is surprising +that Dr. Montessori begins so soon. It has been said that her children +only learn to write, not to read, but it is to be supposed that they can +read what they write, and therefore can read other material. + +[Footnote 30: Macmillan.] + +If we agree not to begin until six years old, the next question is the +method. The alphabetic, whereby children were taught the letter names +and then memorised the spelling of each single word, has no supporters. +But controversy still goes on as to whether children shall begin with +word wholes or with the phonic sounds. It is not a matter of vital +importance, for the children who begin with words come to phonics later, +and so far as English is concerned, the children who begin with phonics +cannot go far without meeting irregularities, unless indeed they are +limited to books like those of Miss Dale. + +In other languages which are phonic the difficulties are minimised. +Children in the ordinary Elementary Schools in Italy, though taught in +large classes, can write long sentences to dictation in four or five +months.[31] But in Italian each letter has its definite sound and every +letter is sounded. It is true that these children appear to spend most +of their time in formal work. + +[Footnote 31: A class of children who began in the middle of October +wrote correctly to dictation on March 28, "Patria e lavoro siamo, miei +cari bambini, parole sante per voi. Amate la nostra cara e bella Italia, +crescete onesti e laboriosi e sarete degni di lei."] + +The Froebelian who believes in learning by action will, of course, +expect the children to make or write from the beginning as a method of +learning, whether she begins with words or with sounds. But in English, +unless simplified spelling is introduced, the time must soon come when +reproduction must lag behind recognition. One child said with pathos one +day, "May we spell as we like to-day, for I've got such a lot to say?" + +The phonic method dates back to about 1530. The variety used in the +Pestalozzi-Froebel House is said to have originated with Jacotot +(1780-1840). It is called the "Observing-Speaking-Writing and Reading +Method." Froebel's own adaptation was simpler; it was his principle to +begin with a desire on the part of the child, and he gives his method in +story form, "How Lina learned to write and read." Lina is six, she has +left the Kindergarten and is presently to attend the Primary School. She +notices with what pleasure her father, perhaps a somewhat exceptional +parent, receives and answers letters. She desires to write and her +mother makes her say her own name carefully, noticing first the "open" +or vowel sounds and then by noting the position of her tongue she finds +the closed sounds. As she hears the sound she is shown how to make it. +Her father leaves home at the right moment, Lina writes to him, receives +and is able to read his answer, printed like her own in Roman capitals. +He sends her a picture book and she is helped to see how the letters +resemble those she has learned and the reading is accomplished. + +In England the phonic method best known is probably Miss Dale's. It is +very ingenious, the analysis is thorough and the books are prettily got +up, but to those who feel that reading, though a most valuable tool, +still is but a tool and one not needed for children under seven, the +method seems over-elaborate. Much depends upon the teacher but to see +fifty children sitting still while one child places the letters in their +places on the board suggests a great deal of lost time. The system is +also so rigidly phonic that it is a long time before a child can pick up +an ordinary book with any profit. + +Stanley Hall holds that it is best to combine methods, and probably most +of us do this. "The growing agreement" is, he says, "that there is no +one and only orthodox way of teaching and learning this greatest and +hardest of all the arts, in which ear, mouth, eye and hand must each in +turn train the others to automatic perfection, in ways hard and easy, by +devices old and new, mechanically and consciously, actively and +passively ... this is a great gain and seems now secure. While a good +pedagogic method is one of the most economic--both of labour and of +money--of all inventions, we should never forget that the brightest +children, and indeed most children, if taught individually or at home, +need but very few refinements of method. Idiots, as Mr. Seguin first +showed, need and profit greatly by very elaborated methods in learning +how to walk, feed and dress themselves, which would only retard a normal +child. Above all it should be borne in mind that the stated use of any +method does not preclude the incidental use of any and perhaps of _all_ +others." + +An adaptation of phonic combined with the word method can be found in +_Education by Life_. It is simpler than Miss Dale's, and being combined +with the word method, children get much more quickly to real stories. +Stanley Hall advocates the individual teaching of reading, and since Dr. +Montessori called every one's attention to this we have used it much +more freely, and have found that once the children know some sounds, +there is a great advantage in a certain amount of individual learning, +but class teaching has its own advantages and it seems best to have a +combination. Long since we taught a boy who was mentally deficient and +incapable of intelligent analysis, by whole words and corresponding +pictures. Miss Payne has developed this to a great extent. It is +practically an appeal to the interest in solving puzzles. The children +choose their own pictures and are supplied with envelopes containing +either single sounds, or whole words corresponding with the picture. +They lay _h_ on the house, _g_ on the girl, _p_ on the pond, and later +do the same with words. They certainly enjoy it, and no one is ever kept +waiting. Sometimes the puzzle is to set in order the words of a nursery +rhyme which they already know, sometimes it is to read and draw +everything mentioned. + +It is not only how children learn to read that is important: even more +so is what they read. Much unintelligent reading in later life is due to +the reading primer in which there was nothing to understand. Children +should read books, as adults do, to get something out of them. The time +often wasted in teaching reading too soon would be far better employed +in cultivating a taste for good reading by telling or reading to the +children good stories and verses.[32] + +[Footnote 32: It is difficult to find easy material that is worth giving +to intelligent children, and we have been glad to find Brown's _Young +Artists' Readers_, Series A.] + +A revolution is going on just now in the method of teaching writing. It +is now generally recognised that much time and effort have been wasted +in teaching children to join letters which are easier to read unjoined. + +A very interesting article appeared in the Fielden School Demonstration +Record No. II., and Mr. Graily Hewitt has brought the subject of writing +as it was done before copperplate was invented very much to the fore. +The Child Study Society has published a little monograph on the subject +giving the experience of different teachers and specimens of the +writing. + +Little Marjorie Fleming was a voracious reader with a remarkable +capacity for writing. Her spelling was unconventional at times, but +there was never any doubt about her meaning. She expressed herself +strongly on many subjects, and one of these was arithmetic. "I am now +going to tell you the horrible and wretched plaege (plague) that my +multiplication gives me you cant conceive it the most Devilish thing is +8 times 8 and 7 times 7 it is what nature itself cant endure." Yet "if +you speak with the tongues of men and angels and make not mention of +arithmetic it profiteth you nothing," says Miss Wiggin. + +There are a few little children who are really fond of number work. +There are not many of them, and they would probably learn more if they +were left to themselves. There are even a few mathematical geniuses who +hardly want teaching, but who are worthy of being taught by a Professor +of Mathematics, always supposing that he is worthy of them. But the +majority of children would probably be farther advanced at ten or twelve +if they had no teaching till they were seven. They ought to learn +through actual number games, through keeping score for other games, and +through any kind of calculation that is needed for construction or in +real life. + +There are but few true number games, but dominoes and card games +introduce the number groups. In "Old maid" the children pair the groups +and so learn to recognise them; in dominoes they use this knowledge, +while "Snap" involves quick recognition. Any one can make up a game in +which scoring is necessary. Ninepins or skittles is a number game, and +one can score by using number groups, or by fetching counters, shells, +beads, etc., as reminders. The number groups are important; they form +what Miss Punnett calls "a scheme" for those who have no great +visualising power, and they combine the smallest groups into large ones. +It ought to be remembered that the repetition of a group is an easier +thing to deal with than the combination of two groups, that is, six is +a name for two threes and eight for two fours, but five and seven have +not so definite a meaning.[33] + +[Footnote 33: This very morning a child cutting out brown paper pennies +for a shop said, 'Look! there are two sixes; that _would_ be a big +number!'] + +The Tillich bricks are good playthings, and so is cardboard +money--shillings, sixpences, threepences, pence and halfpence. + +When the names have a meaning the children will want signs, i.e. +figures. Clock figures (Roman) can be used first as simplest, showing +the closed fingers and the thumb for V; the only difficulty is IX. The +Arabic figures can be made by drawing round the number groups, or by +laying out their shapes in little sticks. 5 and 8 show very plainly how +to arrange five and eight sticks; for two and three they are placed +horizontally, the curves merely joining the lines. + +In teaching children to count, the decimal system should be kept well in +mind, and the teacher should see that thirteen means three-ten, and that +the children can touch the three and the ten as they speak the word. +Eleven and twelve ought to be called oneteen and twoteen, half in joke. +The idea of grouping should never be lost sight of, and larger numbers +should at first be names for so many threes, fours, fives, etc. In order +to keep the meaning clear the children should say threety, fourty and +fivety, but there should be no need to write these numbers. The +Kindergarten sticks tied in bundles of ten are quite convenient counting +material when any counting is necessary. Tram tickets and cigarette +pictures can be used in the same way. + +The decimal notation is a great thing to learn, how great any one will +discover who will take the trouble to work a simple addition sum, +involving hundreds, in Roman figures. Children are always taught the +number of the house they live in, which makes a starting-point. If, for +instance, 35 is compared with XXXV a meaning is given to the 3. + +Many teachers make formal sums of numbers which could quite well be +added without any writing at all. By using any kind of material by which +ten can be made plain as a higher unit--bundles of sticks or tickets, +Sonnenschein's apparatus, Miss Punnett's number scheme, or the new +Montessori apparatus with its chains of beads: the material used is of +no great consequence--children should be able to deal as easily with +tens as with ones, and there is no need for little formal sums which +have no meaning. + +Everything in daily life should be used before formal work is attempted. +"Measure, reckon, weigh, compare," said Rousseau. Children love to +measure, whether by lineal or liquid measure, or by learning to tell the +time or to use a pair of scales. + +There are a few occasions when interest is in actual number relations, +as when a child for himself discovers that two sixes is six twos. One +boy on his own account compared a shilling and an hour, and said that he +could set out a shilling in five parts by the clock. He looked at the +clock and chose out a sixpence, a threepence, and 3 pennies. But usually +what is abstract belongs to a stage farther on. + +So we can end where we began, by letting Froebel once more define the +Kindergarten. + +"Crèches and Infant Schools must be raised into Kindergartens wherein +the child is treated and trained according to his whole nature, so that +the claims of his body, his heart and his head, his active, moral and +intellectual powers, are all satisfied and developed. + +"Not the training of the memory, not learning by rote, not familiarity +with the appearances of things, but culture by means of action, +realities and life itself, bring a blessing upon the individual, and +thereby a blessing upon the whole community; since each one, be he the +highest or the humblest, is a member of the community." + + + + + + +PART II + +THE CHILD IN THE STATE SCHOOL + + +I. THINGS AS THEY ARE + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWTH + + +Early in the nineteenth century two men, moved by very different +impulses, founded what might be considered the beginnings of the Infant +School. For nearly fifty years their work grew separately, but now they +are merged together into something that seems to be permanent. + +In a bleak Lanarkshire factory village in the south of Scotland, Robert +Owen, millowner, socialist and Welshman, found that unless he could +provide for the education of the children of his factory hands, no +parents would consent to settle in the district and he would be without +workers in his mill. As a consequence Owen found himself in the position +of education authority, privy purse and organiser, and he did not flinch +from the situation; he imposed no cheap makeshift, because he believed +in education as an end and not as an economic means; a twofold +institution was therefore established by him in 1816, one part for the +children of recognised school age, presumably over six, and one for +those under school age, whose only entrance test was their ability to +walk. It is with the latter that we are concerned. + +The instructions given by Owen to the man and the women he chose for +his Infant School may serve to show his general aim; the babies under +their care were above all to be happy, to lead a natural life, outdoor +or indoor as weather permitted; learning their surroundings, playing, +singing, dancing, "not annoyed with books," not shadowed by the needs of +the upper school, but living the life their age demanded. In the light +of the 1918 Education Bill this seems almost prophetic. + +Their guardians were selected solely on the grounds of personality, and +expected to work in the spirit in which Owen conceived the school. They +were gentle, without personal ambition, fond of children, caring only +for their welfare; but the sole guiding principle was Owen, and this was +at once the success and doom of the school, for the personality of Owen +was thus made the pivot round which the school revolved; without him +there was nothing to take hold of. + +Very soon the experiment became known: persons with the stamp of +authority came to see it, and even official hearts were moved by the +reality of the children's happiness and their consequent development. +The visitors felt, rather than knew, that the thing was right. +Arrangements were made to establish similar institutions in London, and +after one or two experiments, a permanent one was founded which was +under the control of a man named Wilderspin. + +Wilderspin's contribution to education is difficult to estimate; +certainly he never caught Owen's spirit, or realised his simple purpose: +he had ambitions reaching beyond the happiness of the children; and far +from trying to make their education suit their stage of growth, he +sought to produce the "Infant Prodigy," just as a contemporary of his +sought to produce the "Infant Saint." From what we can see, his aim was +what he honestly believed to be right, as far as his light went; but he +sought for no light beyond his own; and his outlook was not so narrow +as his application was unintelligent. Owen was still in Lanarkshire to +be consulted; Rousseau had already written _Émile_, Pestalozzi's work +was by this time fairly well known in England, the children were there +to be studied, but Wilderspin pursued his limited and unenlightened +work, until the Infant School was almost a dead thing in his hands and +in the hands of those who followed. The following is Birchenough's +account: + +"The school was in charge of a master and a female assistant, presumably +his wife. Much attention was given to training children in good personal +habits, cleanliness, tidiness, punctuality, etc., and to moral training. +Great stress was laid on information.... The curriculum included +reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry, lessons on common objects, +geography, singing and religion, and an effort was made to make the work +interesting and 'concrete.' To this end much importance was attached to +object-lessons, to the use of illustrations, to questioning and +exposition, while the memory was aided by means of didactic verse.... +The real teaching devolved upon the master and mistress. This was of two +kinds: class teaching to a section of the children of approximately +equal attainments either on the floor or in the class-room, and +collective teaching to the whole school, regardless of age, on the +gallery." + +It is a curious coincidence that in 1816, the year of Owen's experiment, +a humble educational experiment was begun by Frederick Froebel in a very +small village in the heart of the Thuringian forest. Like Owen, his aim +was education solely for its own sake, and he had a simple faith in the +human goodness of the older Germany. But he came to education as a +philosopher rather than a social reformer, with a strong belief in its +power to improve humanity. This belief remained with him; it is embodied +in his aim, and leavened all his work. + +The first twenty years of his experience convinced Froebel that the +neglect or mismanagement of the earliest years of a child's life +rendered useless all that was done later. What came to Owen as an +inspiration grew in Froebel to be a reasoned truth, and like Owen he put +it into practice. In 1837 the little Kindergarten at Blankenburg was +begun, with the village children as pupils; the beautiful surroundings +of forest-covered hills and green slopes made a very different +background from the bleak little Lanarkshire village, overshadowed by +the factory, where Owen's school stood, but the spirit was the same; the +children were in surroundings suitable for their growth, and the very +name of Kindergarten does more to make Froebel's aim clear than any +explanation. He lived to see other Kindergartens established in +different parts of Thuringia, and about the middle of the nineteenth +century some of his teachers came to England, and did similar work in +London, Croydon and Manchester. The private Kindergarten became an +established thing, and educationalists came to understand something of +its meaning. + +In 1870 the London School Board suggested that the Kindergarten system +should be introduced into their Infant Schools, and in doing so they +were unconsciously the factors in bringing together the work initiated +by Owen and by Froebel. The Infant School of Wilderspin, already briefly +described, was almost a dead thing, with its galleries and its +mechanical prodigies, its object-lessons and its theology; now it was +breathed upon by the spirit of the man who said: "Play is the highest +phase of child development, of human development at this period: for it +is the spontaneous representation of the inner, from inner necessity and +impulse." "Play is the purest, most spiritual activity of man." "The +plays of childhood are the germinal leaves of all later life." "If the +child is injured at this period, if the germinal leaves of the future +tree of his life are marred at this time, he will only with the +greatest difficulty and the utmost effort grow into strong manhood." + +It is perhaps not altogether to be wondered at that teachers at first +seized the apparatus rather than the spirit of the Kindergarten when we +remember that we have not accepted in anything like its fulness the +teaching of Froebel. Formalism and materialism always die slowly: play +in the Board School was interpreted as something that had to be dictated +and taught: the gifts, occupations and games were organised, and +appeared on the time-table as subjects side by side with Wilderspin's +theology and object-lessons. The combination must have been curious, but +even with its formalism the change was welcome to the children: at least +they could use their hands and do something; at least they could leave +their back-breaking galleries and dance and skip, even though the doing +and the dancing were according to strict rule. + +The change was not welcome to all teachers. As late as 1907 a +headmistress who was a product of the training of that time remarked: +"We have Kindergarten on Wednesday afternoons and then it is over for +the week." But there were teachers who saw beneath the bricks and sticks +and pretty movements, who felt the spiritual side and kept themselves +alive till greater opportunities came. What was imperishable has +remained; the system of prescribed activities is nearly dead, but the +spirit of the true Kindergarten is more alive than ever. + +The change from the early 'eighties till now is difficult to describe, +because it is a growth of spirit, a gradual change of values, rather +than a change in outward form; there has been no definite throwing off, +and no definite adoption, of any one system or theory; but the +difference between the best Infant Schools of 1880 and the best Infant +Schools of to-day is chiefly a difference in outlook. The older schools +aimed at copying a method, while the schools of to-day are more +concerned with realising the spirit. + +At present we are trying to reconstruct education for the new world +after the war, and so it is convenient to regard the intervening period +of nearly half a century as a transition period: during that time the +education of the child under eight has changed much more than the +education of older children, at least in the elementary school; and +there have been certain marked phases that, though apparently +insignificant in themselves, have marked stages of progress in thought. + +Perhaps the most significant and most important of these was the effect +of the child-study movement on the formal and external side of +Kindergarten work. It is first of all to America that we owe this, to +the pioneer Stanley Hall, and more especially here to Mr. Earl Barnes. +Very slowly, but surely, it was evident to the more enlightened teachers +that children had their own way of learning and doing, and the +adult-imposed system meant working against nature. For the logical +method of presenting material from the simple to the complex, from the +known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract, was substituted +the psychological method of watching the children's way of learning and +developing. Teachers found that what they considered to be "the simple" +was not the simple to children; what they took to be "the known" was the +unfamiliar to children. For instance, the "simple" in geography, in the +adult sense, was the definition of an island, with which most of us +began that study, and in geometry it was the point. To children of the +ordinary type, both are far-away ideas, and not related to everyday +experiences; "the known" in arithmetic, for example, was to teachers the +previous lesson, quite regardless of the fact that arithmetic enters +into many problems of life outside school. The life in school and the +life outside school were, in these early days of infant teaching, two +separate things, and only occasionally did a teacher stoop to take an +example from everyday life. A little girl in one of the poorest schools +brought her baby to show her teacher, and proudly displayed the baby's +powers of speech--"Say a pint of 'alf-an-'alf for teacher," said the +little girl to the baby by way of encouragement to both. This is the +kind of rude awakening teachers get, from time to time, when they +realise how much of the real child eludes them. Psychology has made it +clear that life is a unity and must be so regarded. + +Part of this child-study movement has resulted in the slow but sure +death of formalism: large classes, material results, and a lack of +psychology made formalism the path of least resistance. Painting became +"blobbing," constructive work was interpreted as "courses" of paper +folding, cutting, tearing; books of these courses were published with +minute directions for a graduated sequence. The aim was obedient +imitation on the part of the child, and the imagined virtues accruing to +him in consequence were good habits, patience, accuracy and technical +skill. Self-expression and creativeness were still only theories. + +A second interesting phase of the transition period was the method +adopted for the training of the senses. From the days of Comenius till +now the importance of this has held its place firmly, but the means have +greatly changed. Pestalozzi's object-lesson was adopted by Wilderspin +and thoroughly sterilised; many teachers still remember the lessons on +the orange, leather, camphor, paper, sugar, in which the teacher's +senses were trained, for only she came in contact with the object, and +the children from their galleries answered questions on an object remote +from most of their senses, and only dimly visible to their eyes. Similar +lessons were given after 1870 on Froebel's gift II. in which the ball, +cylinder and cube were treated in the same manner: progress was slow, +but sometimes the children followed nature's promptings and played with +their specimens; this was followed by books of "gift-plays," where +organised play took the place of organised observation. + +About 1890 or thereabouts the Nature Study movement swept over the +schools, and "nature specimens" then became the material for sense +training: as far as possible each child had a specimen, and by the +minute examination of these, stimulated their senses and stifled their +appreciation of all that was beautiful. + +Question and answer still dominated the activity; the poor little +withered snowdrop took the place of the dead camphor or leather. But +underlying all the paralysing organisation the truth was slowly growing, +and the children were being brought nearer to real things. + +A third phase in this transition period is that known as "correlation"; +most teachers remember the elaborate programmes of work that drove them +to extremes in finding "connections." The following, taken from a +reputable book of the time, will exemplify the principle: + + A WEEK'S PROGRAMME + + Object Lesson The Horse. + Phonetics The Foal, _oa_ sound. + Number Problems on the work of horses. + Story The Bell of Atri [story of a horse ringing a bell]. + Song Busy Blacksmith [shoeing a horse]. + Game The Blacksmith's Shop. + Reading On the Horse. + Poetry Kindness to Animals. + Paper Cutting The Bell of Atri. + Paper Folding A Trough. + Free-arm Drawing A Horseshoe. + Clay Modelling A Carrot for the Horse. + Brushwork A Turnip for the Horse. + Brown Paper Drawing A Stable. + +Underneath it all the truth was growing, namely, the need of making +associations and so unifying the children's lines. But the process of +finding the truth was slow and cumbersome. + +A fourth phase of the early Infant School was the strong belief of both +teachers and inspectors in uniformity of work and of results. It is +difficult to disentangle this from the paralysing influences of payment +by results and large classes: it was probably the teachers' unconscious +expression of the instinct of self-preservation, when working against +the heaviest odds. But it was constantly evident to the teacher that any +attempt on a child's part to be an individual, either in work or in +conduct, had to be arrested: and the theory of individual development +was regarded as so Utopian that the idea itself was lost. Goodness was +synonymous with uniform obedience and silence; naughtiness with +individuality, spontaneity and desire to investigate. A frequently-heard +admonition on the part of the teacher was, "Teacher didn't tell you to +do it that way--that's a naughty way"; but such an attitude of mind was +doubtless generated by the report of the inspector when he commended a +class by saying: "The work of the class showed a satisfactory +uniformity." + +To obtain uniform results practice had to come before actual +performance, and many weary hours were spent over drill in reading, +drill in number, drill in handwork, drill in needlework. The extreme +point was reached when babies of three had thimble and needle drill long +before they began needlework. There were also conduct drills; Miss +Grant, of Devons Road School, remembers a school where the babies +"practised" their conduct before the visit of the "spectre," as they +called him, he being represented as a stick set up on a chair. There is +a curious symbolism in the whole occasion. + +It is difficult to see the good underlying this phase, but it was +there. There is undoubtedly a place for practice, though not before +performance, and uniformity was undoubtedly the germ of an ideal. + +All these phases stand for both progress and arrest. The average person +is readier to accept methods than investigate principles; but we must +recognise that all struggles and searchings after truth have made the +road of progress shorter for us by many a mile. + +Perhaps the chief cause of stumbling lay in the fact that there was no +clearly realised aim or policy except that of material results. There +were many fine-sounding principles in the air, but they were unrelated +to each other; and the conditions of teaching were likely to crush the +finest endeavours, and to make impossible a teaching that could be +called educative. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE INFANT SCHOOL OF TO-DAY + + +Taking neither the best nor the worst, but the average school of to-day, +it will be profitable to review shortly where it stands, to consider how +far it has learnt the lessons of experience, and what kind of ideal it +has set before itself. + +In externals there have been many improvements. Modern buildings are +better in many ways; there is more space and light, and the surroundings +are more attractive. Most of the galleries have disappeared, but the +furniture consists chiefly of dual desks, fixed and heavy, so that the +arrangement of the room cannot be changed. The impression given to a +visitor is that it is planned for listening and answering, except in the +Baby Room, where there are generally light tables and chairs, and +consequently no monotonous rows of children, unless a teacher arranges +them thus from sheer habit. In each room is a high narrow cupboard about +one quarter of the necessary size for all that education demands; most +education authorities provide some good pictures, but the best are +usually hung on the class-room wall behind the children, and all are +above the children's eye level. "Oh, teacher, my neck do ache!" was the +only appreciative remark made by a child after a tour made of the school +pictures, which were really beautiful. + +As a rule the windows are too high for the children to see from, and +the lower part is generally frosted. In a new school which had a view up +one of the loveliest valleys in Great Britain, the windows were of this +description; the head of the school explained that it was a precaution +in case the children might see what was outside; in other words, they +might make the mistake of seeing a real river valley instead of +listening to a description of it. + +In country schools of the older type the accommodation is not so good, +but the newer ones are often very attractive in appearance, and have +both space and light. The school garden is a common feature in the +country, and it is to be regretted so few even of the plot description +are to be found in town schools. + +Of late years the apparatus has improved, though there is still much to +be done in this direction. Instead of the original tiny boxes of gifts +we have frequently real nursery bricks of a larger and more varied +character, and many other nursery toys. One of the best signs of a +progressive policy is that large numbers of _little_ toys have taken the +place of the big expensive ones that only an occasional child could use. +It is a pity that the use of toys comes to so sudden an end, and that +learning by this method does not follow the babies after they have +officially ceased to be babies, as is the custom in real life. + +One of the most striking changes for the better is the evidence of care +of the children's health, of which some of the external signs are +doctor, nurse and care committee. A sense of responsibility in this +respect is gradually growing in the schools; a fair number provide for +sleep, a few try to train the children to eat lunch slowly and +carefully, and some try to arrange for milk or cod-liver oil in the case +of very delicate children. Though these instances are very much in the +minority, they represent a change of spirit. This is one of the striking +characteristics of the new Education Bill. A legacy from the old +formalism lies in the fact that every room has a highly organised +time-table, except perhaps in the Babies' Room, where the children's +actual needs are sometimes considered first. The morning in most classes +is occupied with Scripture, Reading, Arithmetic, Writing, and some less +formal work, such as Nature lesson or Recitation; some form of Physical +Exercise is always taken. The afternoons are mostly devoted to Games, +Stories, Handwork and Singing: this order is not universal, but the +general principle holds, of taking the more difficult and formal +subjects in the morning. In the Babies' Room some preparation for +reading is still too frequent. The lessons are short and the order +varied, but in one single morning or afternoon there is a bewildering +number of changes. Some years ago the unfortunate principle was laid +down in the Code, that fifteen minutes was sufficient time for a lesson +in an Infant School, and though this is not strictly followed the +lessons are short and numerous, giving an unsettled character to the +work; children appear to be swung at a moment's notice from topic to +topic without an apparent link or reason: for example, the day's work +may begin with the story of a little boy sent by train to the country, +settled at a farm and taken out to see the _cow_ and the _sow_: soon +this is found to be a reading lesson on words ending in "ow," but after +a short time the whole class is told quite suddenly, that one shilling +is to be spent at a shop in town, and while they are still interested in +calculating the change, paints are distributed, and the children are +painting the bluebell. The whole day is apt to be of this broken +character, which certainly does not make for training in mental +concentration, or for a realisation of the unity of life. Some teachers +still aim at correlation, but in a rather half-hearted way: others have +entirely discarded it because of its strained applications, but nothing +very definite has taken its place. + +The curriculum which has been given is varied in character, and +sometimes includes a "free period." Except in the Babies' Class the +three R's occupy a prominent place, and children under six spend +relatively a great deal of time in formal subjects, while children +between six and seven, if they are still in the Infant School, are +taught to put down sums on paper, which they could nearly always +calculate without such help. As soon as a child can read well, and work +a fair number of sums on paper, he is considered fit for promotion, and +the question of whether he understands the method of working such sums, +is not considered so important as accuracy and quickness. The test of +so-called intelligence for promotion is reading and number, but it is +really the test of convenience, so that large numbers of children may be +taught together and brought, against the laws of nature, to a uniform +standard. + +This poison of the promotion and uniformity test works down through the +Infant School: it can be seen when the babies are diverted from their +natural activities to learn reading, or when they are "examined": it can +be seen when a teacher yields up her "bright" children to fill a few +empty desks, it can be seen in the grind at reading and formal +arithmetic of the children under six, when weary and useless hours are +spent in working against nature, and precious time is wasted that will +never come back. Yet we _say_ we believe that "Children have their youth +that they may play," and that "Play is the purest, most spiritual +activity of man at this stage" [childhood]. + +The lack of any clear aim shows itself in the fluid nature of the term +"results"; to some teachers it signifies readiness for promotion, or a +piece of work that presents a satisfactory external appearance, such as +good writing, neat handwork, an orderly game, fluent reading. To others +it means something deeper, which they discover in some chance remark of +a child's that marks the growth of the spirit, or the awakening of the +interest of a child whose development is late, or the quickened power of +a child to express; or evidence of independent thought and the power to +use it, in some piece of handwork, or appreciation of music or +literature. According to the meaning attached to the term "results" so +the method of the teacher must vary; but one gets the general impression +that in this respect matters are in a transitional state; the first kind +of teacher is always a little uncertain of her ground and a little +fearful that she is not quite "up-to-date," while the second class of +teacher is sometimes a little timid, and not quite sure that she is +prepared to account for the rather subtle and intangible outcome of her +work. + +The same transitional character holds in the case of discipline: while +what is known as "military" discipline still prevails in many schools, +there are a very fair number with whom the grip has relaxed; but it is a +courageous teacher that will admit the term "free discipline" which has +nearly as bad a reputation as "free thought" used to have, and few are +prepared to go all the way. Probably the reason lies in the vagueness of +the meaning of the term, and the fact that its value is not clearly +realised because it is not clearly understood. Teachers have not faced +the question squarely: "What am I aiming at in promoting free +discipline." + +Taking a general view of the present school, one gets the impression of +a constant change of activity on the part of the children, but very +little change of position, a good deal of provision for general class +interest, but little for individual interest; of less demand than +formerly for uniformity of results, but the existence of a good deal of +uniformity of method, arresting the teacher's own initiative; of very +constant teaching on the part of the teacher and a good deal of +listening and oral expression on the part of the children, of many +lessons and little independent individual work. Below all this there is +evident a very friendly relationship between the teacher and the +children, a good deal of personal knowledge of the children on the part +of the teacher, and a good deal of affection on both sides. There is +less fear and more love than in the earlier days, less government and +more training, less restraint and more freedom. And the children are +greatly attached to their school. + +From consideration of the foregoing summary it will be seen that +education in the Infant School is a thing of curious patches, of +strength and weakness, of light and shade; perhaps the greatest weakness +is its lack of cohesion, of unification: on the one hand we find much +provision for the children's real needs, much singleness of purpose in +the teacher's work, such a genuine spirit of whole-hearted desire for +their education: on the other hand, an unreasoning sense of haste, of +pushing on, of introducing prematurely work for which the children +admittedly are unready; an acceptance of new things on popular report, +without scientific basis, and a lack of courage to maintain the truth +for its own sake, in the face of so-called authority, and a craving to +be modern. At the root of all this inconsistency and possibly its cause, +is the lack of a guiding policy or aim, the lack of belief in the +scientific or psychological basis of education, and consequently the +want of that strong belief in absolute truth which helps the teacher to +pass all barriers. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SOME VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +If it be true that the Infant School of to-day suffers from lack of a +clear basis for its general policy, it will be profitable to have +clearly before us such principles as great educators have found to be +most vital to the education of young children. + +We all believe that we have an aim and a high aim before us: it has been +variously expressed by past educationalists, but in the main they all +agree that the aim of education is conduct. + +In actual practice, however, we act too often as if we only cared for +economic values. If we are to live up to our educational profession, we +must look our aim in the face and honestly practise what we believe. + +While training of character and conduct is the accepted aim for +education in general, to make this useful and practical each teacher +must fix her attention on how this ultimate aim affects her own special +part of the whole work. By watching the free child she will discover how +best she can help him: he knows his own business, and when unfettered by +advice or command shows plainly that he is chiefly concerned with +_gaining experience_. He finds himself in what is to him a new and +complex world of people and things; actual experience is the foundation +for complete living, and the stronger the foundation the better the +result of later building. _The first vital principle then is that the +teacher of young children must provide life in miniature; that is, she +must provide abundant raw material and opportunities for experience_. + +The next question is that of the best method of gaining this actual +experience. The child is unaware that he is laying foundations, he is +only vaguely conscious that he finds great pleasure in certain +activities, and that something impels him in certain directions. He +realises no definite future, he is content with the present; he cannot +work for a purpose other than the pleasure of the moment; without this +stimulus concentration is impossible. In the activities of this stage he +probably assimilates more actual matter than at any other period of his +life, and it is the same with his acquirements of skill. In happy +unconsciousness he gains knowledge of his own body and of its power, of +the external world, of his mother tongue and of his relations to other +people: he makes mistakes and commits faults, but these do not +necessarily cripple or incriminate him. He is not considered a social +outcast because he once kicked or bit, or because he threw his milk over +the table; he learns to balance and adjust his muscles on a seesaw, when +a fall on soft grass is a matter of little importance, and this is +better than waiting till he is compelled hastily to cross a river on a +narrow plank. It is all a kind of joyous rehearsal of life which we call +Play. We can force a child to passivity, to formal repetitions of +second-hand knowledge, to the acquisition of that for which he has no +apparent need, but we can never _educate_ him by these things. "Children +do not play because they are young, they have their youth that they may +play," as surely as they have their legs that they may walk. + +_The second principle is therefore that the method of gaining experience +lies through Play, and that by this road we can best reach work_. + +The third principle is the nature of the experience that a child seeks +to gain--the life he desires to live. How can we he sure that the +surroundings we provide and the activities we encourage are in accord +with children's needs? + +Let us imagine a child of about five to six years of age, one of a +family, living in a small house to which a garden is attached; inside he +has the run of the house, but keeps his own toys, picture books and +collections of treasures. We will suppose that not being at school he is +free to arrange his own day, sometimes alone, and sometimes with other +children, or with his parents. What does he do? + +He is interested in inanimate things, especially in using them, and so +he plays with his toys. He builds bricks, runs engines, solves simple +puzzle pictures, asks to work with his father's gardening tools, or his +mother's cooking utensils. He is interested in the life of the garden, +in the growing things, in the snail or spider he finds, in the cat, dog +or rabbit of the family; he wants to dig, water and feed these various +things, but he declines regular responsibility; his interest is in +spurts. + +He is interested in sounds, both in those he can produce and in those +produced by others: soon he is interested in music, he will listen to it +for considerable periods, and may join in it: at first more especially +on the rhythmical side. So, too, he likes the rhythm of poetry and the +melody sounds of words. He is interested in making things; on a wet day +he will ask for scissors and paste, or bring out his paint box or +chalks; on a fine day he mixes sand or mud with water, or builds a +shelter with poles and shawls; at any time when he has an opportunity he +shuts himself into the bathroom and experiments with the taps, sails +boats, colours water, blows bubbles, tries to mix things, wet and dry. + +He is interested in the doings of other people, in their conduct and in +his own; he is more interested in their badness than in their goodness: +"Tell me more of the bad things your children do," said a little boy to +his teacher aunt, and the request is significant and general; we learn +so little by mere uncontrasted goodness. He is interested in the words +that clothe narrations and in their style, he is impatient of a change +in form of an accepted piece of prose or poetry. He is hungry for the +sounds of telling words and phrases. + +He is interested in reproducing the doings of other people so that he +may experience them more fully, and this involves minute observation, +careful and intelligent imitation, and vivid imagination. His own word +for it is pretence. + +There are other things that he grasps at more vaguely and later; he is +dimly aware that people have lived before, and he is less dimly aware +that people live in places different from his own surroundings. He +realises that some of the stories, such as the fairy stories, are true +in one sense, a sense that responds to something within himself; that +some are true in another more material, and external sense, one +concerned with things that really happen. He hears of "black men," and +of "ships that carry people across the sea," and of "things that come +back in those ships." + +He is interested in the immaterial world suggested by the mysteries of +woods and gardens, he has a dim conception that there is some life +beyond the visible, he feels a power behind life and he reveals this in +his early questions. He is keenly interested in questions of birth and +death, and sometimes comes into close contact with them. He feels that +other wonders must be accounted for--the snow, thunder and lightning, +the colours of summer, the changeful sea. At first the world of fairy +lore may satisfy him, later comes the life of the undying spirit, but +the two are continuous. He may attend "religious observances," and these +may help or they may hinder. + +He is keenly interested in games, whether they are games of physical +skill, of mental skill, or games of pretence. Here most especially he +comes into contact with other people, and here he realises some of the +experiences of social life. + +Such are the most usual sides of life sought by the ordinary child, and +on such must we base the surroundings we provide for our children in +school, and the aspects of life to which we introduce them, commonly +called subjects of the curriculum. + +_Our third principle is therefore, evident: we find, in the child's +spontaneous choice, the nature of the surroundings and of the activities +that he craves for; in other words, he makes his own curriculum and +selects his own subject matter_. + +The next consideration is the atmosphere in which a child can best +develop character by means of these experiences. A young child is a +stranger in an unknown, untried country: he has many strange promptings +that seek for satisfaction; he has strong emotions arising from his +instincts, he feels crudely and fiercely and he must act without delay, +as a result of these emotions. He is like a tourist in a new strange +country, fresh and eager, and with a similar holiday spirit of +adventure: the stimulation of the new arouses a desire to interpret, to +investigate and to ask questions: it arouses strong emotions to like or +dislike, to fear, to be curious; it leads to certain modes of conduct, +as a result of these emotions. Picture such a young tourist buttonholed +by a blasé guide, who had forgotten what first impressions meant, who +insisted on accompanying him wherever he went, regulating his procedure +by telling him just what should be observed and how to do so, pouring +out information so premature as to be obnoxious, correcting his taste, +subduing his enthusiasm, and modifying even his behaviour. The tourist +would presumably pay off the unwelcome guide, but the children cannot +pay off the teacher: they can and do rebel, but docility and +adaptability seem to play a large part in self-preservation. For the +young child freedom must precede docility, because the only reasonable +and profitable docility is one that comes after initiative and +experiment have been satisfied, and when the child feels that he needs +help. + +The world that the free child chooses represents every side of life that +he is ready to assimilate, and his freedom must be intellectual, +emotional and moral freedom. In the school with the rigidly organised +time-table, where the remarks of the children provoke the constantly +repeated reproach: "We are not talking of that just now," where the +apparatus is formal and the method of using it prescribed, where home +life and street life are ignored, where there are neither garden nor +picture books, where childish questions are passed over or hastily +answered, where the room is full of desks and the normal attitude is +sitting, where the teacher is teaching more often than the children are +doing, there is no intellectual freedom. + +Where passion and excitement are instantly arrested, where appreciation +for strong colours, fierce punishments, loud noises, is killed, where +fear is ridiculed, where primitive likes and dislikes are interpreted as +coarseness, there is no emotional freedom. A child must have these +experiences if he is to come to his own later: this is not the time to +stamp out but only to deflect and guide; otherwise he becomes a weak and +pale reflection of his elders, with little resource or enthusiasm. + +Where it is almost impossible to be openly naughty, where there is no +opportunity for choice or for making mistakes, where control is all from +the teacher and self-control has no place, there is no moral freedom. +The school is not for the righteous but for the so-called sinner, who is +only a child learning self-control by experience. + +Self-control is a habit gained through habits; a child must acquire the +habit of arresting desire, of holding the physical side in check, the +habit of reflection, of choice, and most of all the habit of either +acting or holding back, as a result of all this. If in the earliest +years his will is in the hands of others, and he has the habit of +obedience to the exclusion of all other habits, then his development as +a self-reliant individual is arrested, and may be permanently weakened. +There is no other way to learn life, and build up an ideal from the raw +material he has gained in other ways. In the rehearsal of life at school +he can do this without serious harm; but every time a mode of conduct is +imposed upon him when he might have chosen, every time he is externally +controlled when he might have controlled himself, every time he is +balked in making a mistake that would have been experience to him, he +will be proportionally less fit to choose, to exercise self-control, to +learn by experience, and these are the chief lessons at this +impressionable period. + +_The fourth principle therefore is that the atmosphere of freedom is the +only atmosphere in which a child can gain experiences that will help to +develop character and control conduct._ + +These four vital principles will be applied to practical work in the +following chapters. + + + + +II. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +Before applying these principles it is necessary for practical +considerations to set out clearly the various stages of this period. +During the first eight years of life, development is very rapid and not +always relatively continuous. Sometimes it takes leaps, and sometimes +appears for a time to be quiescent. But roughly the first stage, of a +child's developing life ends when he can walk, eat more or less ordinary +food, and is independent of his mother. At this point the Nursery School +stage begins: the child is learning for himself his world by experience, +and through play he chooses his raw material in an atmosphere of +freedom. When the period of play pure and simple begins to grow into a +desire to do things better, to learn and practise for a more remote +end--in other words, when the child begins to be willing to be taught, +the transitional period from play to work begins. It can never be said +to end, but the relative amount of play to work gradually defines the +life of the school: and so the transitional period merges into the +school period. Thus we are concerned first with the Nursery School +period which corresponds to what Froebel meant by his Kindergarten and +Owen by his Infant School; secondly, with the transitional period which +has been far too long neglected or rushed over, and which roughly +corresponds to the Standard I. of the Elementary School; and thirdly, we +have the beginnings of the Junior School where work is the predominant +factor. In spite of Shakespeare's assertion, there is much in a name, +and if these names were definitely adopted, teachers would realise +better the nature of their business. + +The following chapters seek to apply practically the four vital +principles to these periods of a child's life, but in many cases the +Transition Classes and the Junior School are considered together. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE NEED FOR EXPERIENCE + + + "The first vital principle is that the teacher of young + children must provide for them life in miniature, i.e. she + must provide abundant raw material and opportunities for + acquiring experience." + +The practical translation of this in the words of the teacher of to-day +is, "I must choose furniture, and requisition apparatus." The teacher of +to-morrow will say to her children, "I will bring the world into the +school for you to learn." The Local Education Authority of to-day says, +"We must build a school for instruction." The Local Education Authority +of to-morrow will say, "We must make a miniature world for our +children." + +The world of the Nursery School child probably requires the most careful +thought in this respect: a large room with sunlight and air, low clear +windows, a door leading to a garden and playground, low cupboards full +of toys, low-hung pictures, light chairs and tables that can be pushed +into a corner, stretcher beds equally disposable, a dresser with pretty +utensils for food; these are the chief requirements for satisfying +physical needs, apparent in the actual room. Physical habits will be +considered later, under another heading. + +Outside, in the playground, there should be opportunities for physical +development, for its own sake: swings, giant strides, ladders laid +flat, slightly sloping planks, and a seesaw should all be available for +constant use; if the children are not warned or given constant advice +about their own safety, there is little fear of accidents. + +Thus the purely physical side of the children is provided for, the side +that they are, if healthy, quite unconscious of; what else does +experience demand at this stage? + +Roughly classified, the raw experience of this stage may be divided into +the experience of the natural world of living things, the world of +inanimate things, and the social world. For the natural world there +should be the garden outside, with its trees, grass and flower beds; +with its dovecot and rabbit hutch, and possibly a cat sunning herself on +its paths; inside there will be plants and flowers to care for; the +elements, especially water, earth and air, are very dear to a young +child, and it is quite possible to satisfy his cravings with a large +sand-heap of _dry_ and _wet_ sand; a large flat bath for sailing boats +and testing the theory of sinking and floating; a bin of clay; a pair of +bellows and several fans to set the air in motion. There is always the +fire to gaze at on the right side of the fire-guard, and appreciation of +the beauty of this element should be encouraged. + +The world of inanimate things includes most of the toys that stimulate +activity and give ideas. The chief that should be found in the +cupboards, round the walls, or scattered about the room, are bricks of +all sizes and shapes, skittles, balls and bats or rackets, hoops, reins, +spades and other garden tools; pails and patty pans for the sand-heap; +pipes for bubbles, shells, fir-cones, buttons, acorns, and any +collection of small articles for handling; all kinds of vehicles that +can be pushed, such as carts, barrows, prams, engines; drums and other +musical instruments; materials for construction and expression, such as +chalks, boards, paints and paper. + +For experiences of the social world, which is not very real at this +individualistic period, come the dolls and doll's house, horses and +stables, tea-things, cooking utensils, Noah's ark, scales for a shop, +boats, soldiers and forts: a very important item in this connection is +the collection of picture-books: they must be chosen with the greatest +care, and only pictures of such merit as those of Caldecott, Leslie +Brooke and Jessie Wilcox Smith should be selected. Pictures form one of +the richest sources of experience at this stage, as indeed at any stage +of life, and truth, beauty and suggestiveness must be their chief +factors. + +The toys should be above all things durable, and if possible washable. +Broken and dirty toys make immoral children. + +Besides the material surroundings there are opportunities, the seizing +of which gives valuable experiences. These belong to the social world, +and lie chiefly in the training in life's social observances and the +development of good habits. This side of life is one of the most +important in the Nursery School, and needs material help. The lavatories +and cloakrooms should be constructed so that there is every chance for a +child to become self-reliant and fastidious. The cloakrooms should be +provided with low pegs, boot holes, clothes brushes and shoe brushes: +there should be low basins with hot and cold water, enamel mugs and +tooth brushes _for each child,_ nail brushes, plenty of towels, and +where the district needs it, baths. The type provided by the Middlesex +Education Authority at Greenford Avenue School, Hanwell, gives a shower +bath to a whole group of children at once, thus making a more frequent +bath possible. Perhaps for very small children of the Nursery School age +separate baths are more suitable. This is a question for future +experience on the part of teachers. There should be plenty of time for +the children to learn to wash and dress themselves. + +In the school-room there should either be tablecloths, or the tables +should be capable of being scrubbed by the children after each meal. +Their almost inevitable lack of manners at table gives an invaluable +opportunity for training, and again in such a case there should be no +question of haste. The meals should be laid, waited on and cleared away, +and the dishes washed by the children themselves, and they should be +responsible for the general tidiness of the room. This involves +tea-cloths, mops, dusters, washing bowls, brushes and dustpans. + +In the Transition Classes and Junior School the furniture and apparatus +can be to a great extent very much the same, their difference lying +chiefly in degree. It is a pity to bring the age of toys to an abrupt +conclusion; in real life the older children still borrow the toys of the +younger ones while there are some definitely their own: such are, jigsaw +and other puzzles, dominoes, articles for dramatic representation, +playing cards, toys for games of physical skill, such as tops, kites, +skipping ropes, etc. Such prepared constructive materials as +meccano--and a great mass of raw material for construction, generally +termed "waste." There should be a series of boxes or shelves where such +waste products of the home, or of the woods, or of the seashore, or of +the shop, might be stored in some classified order: the collective +instinct is stronger than the more civilised habit of orderliness: here +is an opportunity for developing a habit from an instinct. There should +also be materials for expression, such as clay, paper, chalk, pencil, +paints, weaving materials, cardboard, and scenery materials; and such +tools as scissors, cardboard knives, needlework tools, paste brushes, +and others that may be necessary and suitable. The rooms should be large +and suitable for much moving about: the most usual conditions should be +a scattered class and not a seated listening class. This means light +chairs and tables or benches where handwork can be done; low cupboards +and lockers so that each child can get at his own things; broad +window-sills for plants and flowers and a bookcase for reading and +picture books. Here again good picture-books are as essential as, even +more essential than, readers in the Transition Class. They will be a +little more advanced than in the Nursery School, and will be of the type +of the Pied Piper illustrated, or pictures of children of other lands +and times. Some of Rackham's, of Harold Copping's, of the publications +by Black in _Peeps at Many Lands_, are suitable for this stage. Readers +should be chosen for their literary value from the recognised children's +classics, such as the Peter Rabbit type, _Alice in Wonderland, +Water-Babies,_ and not made up for the sake of reading practice. + +The pictures on the walls should be hung at the right eye-level, and the +windows low enough for looking at the outside world--whatever it may be. +The teacher's desk should be in a corner, not in the central part of the +room, for she must remember that the children are still in the main +seeking experience, not listening to the experience of another. They +should have access to the garden and playground, and all the incitements +to activity should be there--similar to those of the Nursery School, or +those provided by the London County Council in parks. The bare +wilderness of playground now so familiar, where there is neither time +nor opportunity for children to be other than primitive savages, does +not represent the outside world of beauty and of adventure. + +The lower classes of Junior School should differ very little in their +miniature world. Life is still activity to the child of eight, and +consequently should contain no immovable furniture. There will be more +books, and the children may be in their seats for longer periods; the +atmosphere of guided but still spontaneous work is more definite, but +the aim in choice of both furniture and apparatus is still the gaining +of experience of life, by direct contact in the main. Such is the +Requisition Sheet to be presented to the Stores Superintendent of the +Local Education Authority in the future, with an explanatory note +stating that in a general way what is actually required is the world in +miniature! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +GAINING EXPERIENCE BY PLAY + + + "The Second Principle is that the method of gaining + experience lies through Play and that by this road we can + best reach work." + +Play is marked off from work chiefly by the absence of any outside +pressure, and pleasure in the activity is the characteristic of play +pure and simple: if a child has forced upon him a hint of any ulterior +motive that may be in the mind of his teacher, the pleasure is spoilt +for him and the intrinsic value of the play is lost. In bringing +children into school during their play period, probably the most +important formative period of their lives, and in utilising their play +consciously, we are interfering with one of their most precious +possessions when they are still too helpless to resent it directly. Too +many of us make play a means of concealing the wholesome but unwelcome +morsel of information in jam, and we try to force it on the children +prematurely and surreptitiously, but Nature generally defeats us. The +only sound thing to do is to _play the game_ for all it is worth, and +recognise that in doing so education will look after itself. To +understand the nature of play, and to have the courage to follow it, is +the business of every teacher of young children. The Nursery School, +especially if it consists chiefly of children under five, presents at +first very hard problems to the teacher; however strong her belief in +play may be, it receives severe tests. So much of the play at first +seems to be aimless running and shouting, or throwing about of toys and +breaking them if possible, so much quarrelling and fighting and weeping +seem involved with any attempts at social life on the part of the +children; there seems very little desire to co-operate, and very little +desire to construct; as a rule, a child roams from one thing to another +with apparently only a fleeting attempt to play with it; yet on the +other hand, to make the problem more baffling, a child will spend a +whole morning at one thing: quite lately one child announced that he +meant to play with water all day, and he did; another never left the +sand-heap, and apparently repeated the same kind of activity during a +complete morning; visitors said in a rather disappointed tone, "they +just play all the time by themselves." One teacher brought out an +attractive picture and when a group of children gathered round it she +proceeded to tell the story; they listened politely for a few minutes, +and then the group gradually melted away; they were not ready for +concentrated effort. If those children had been in the ordinary Baby +Room of a school they would have been quite docile, sitting in their +places apparently listening to the story, amiably "using" their bricks +or other materials according to the teacher's directions, but they would +not, in the real sense, have been playing. This is an example of the +need for both principle and courage. + +It is into this chaotic method of gaining experience that the teacher +comes with her interpretive power--she sees in it the beginnings of all +the big things of life--and like a bigger child she joins, and like a +bigger child she improves. She sees in the apparent chaos an attempt to +get experience of the different aspects of life, in the apparently +aimless activity an attempt to realise and develop the bodily powers, in +the fighting and quarrelling an attempt to establish a place in social +life. It is all unconscious on the part of a child, but a necessary +phase of real development. + +Gradually the little primitive man begins to yield to civilisation. He +is interested in things for longer and asks for stories, music and +rhymes, and what does this mean? + +As he develops a child learns much about life in his care of the garden, +about language in his games, about human conduct from stories; but he +does these things because he wants to do them, and because there is a +play need behind it all, which for him is a life need; in order to build +a straight wall he must classify his bricks, in order to be a real +shopman he must know his weights, in order to be a good workman he must +measure his paper; all the ideas gained from these things come to him +_along with sense activity_; they are associated with the needs and +interests of daily life; and because of this he puts into the activity +all the effort of which he is capable, or as Dewey has expressed it, +"the maximum of consciousness" into the experience which is his play. +This is real sense training, differing in this respect from the training +given by the Montessori material, which has no appeal to life interest, +aims at exercising the senses separately, and discourages _play_ with +the apparatus. It is activity without a body, practice without an end, +and nothing develops from it of a constructive or expressive nature. + +In the nursery class therefore our curriculum is life, our apparatus all +that a child's world includes, and our method the one of joyful +investigation, by means of which ideas and skill are being acquired. The +teacher is player in chief, ready to suggest, co-operate, supply +information, lead or follow as circumstances demand: responsibility must +still belong to the children, for while most of them know quite +naturally how to play, there are many who will never get beyond a rather +narrow limit, through lack of experience or of initiative. + +It is quite safe to let experience take its chance through play, but +there are certain things that must be dealt with quite definitely, when +the teacher is not there as a playmate, but as something more in the +capacity of a mother. It is impossible to train all the habits necessary +at this time, through the spontaneous play, although incidentally many +will be greatly helped and made significant by it. If the children come +from poor homes where speech is imperfect, probably mere imitation of +the teacher, which is the chief factor in ordinary language training, +will be insufficient. It will be necessary to invent ways, chiefly +games, by which the vocal organs may be used; this may be considered +play, but it is more artificial and less spontaneous than the informal +activity already described. It is well to be clear as to the kind of +exercises best suited to make the vocal organs supple, and then to make +these the basis of a game: for example, little children constantly +imitate the cries of ordinary life; town children could dramatise a +railway station where the sounds produced by engines and by porters give +a valuable training; they could imitate street cries, the sound of the +wind, of motor hooters, sirens, or of church bells. Country children +could use the sounds of the farm-yard, the birds, or the wind. In the +recognition of sound, which is as necessary as its production, such a +guessing game could be taught as "I sent my son to be a grocer and the +first thing he sold began with _s_ and ended with _p_," using the +_sounds_, not names of the letters. For the acquisition of a vocabulary, +such a game as the Family Coach might be played and turned into many +other vehicles or objects about which many stories could be told. All +the time the game must be played with the same fidelity to the spirit of +play as previously, but the introduction must be recognised as more +artificial and forced, and this can be justified because so many +children are not normal with regard to speech, and only where this is +the case should language training be forced upon them. Habits of +courtesy, of behaviour at table, of position, of dressing and +undressing, of washing hands and brushing teeth, and many others, must +all be _taught_, but taught at the time when the need comes. Occasions +will certainly occur during play, but the chances of repetition are not +sufficient to count on. + +Thus we summarise the chief business of the Nursery School teacher when +we say that it is concerned chiefly with habits and play and right +surroundings. + +Play in the Transition Class is less informal. After the age of six +certain ambitions grow and must be satisfied. The aspects of life are +more separated, and concentration on individual ones is commoner; this +means more separation into subjects, and thus a child is more willing to +be organised, and to have his day to _some_ extent arranged for him. +While in the nursery class only what was absolutely necessary was fixed, +in the Transition Class it is convenient to fix rather more, for the +sake of establishing certain regular habits, and because it is necessary +to give the freshest hours to the work that requires most concentration. +We must remember, however, that it _is_ a transition class, and not set +up a completely fashioned time-table for the whole day. Reading and +arithmetic must be acquired both as knowledge and skill, the mother +tongue requires definite practice, there must be a time for physical +activity, and living things must not be attended to spasmodically. +Therefore it seems best that these things be taken in the morning hours, +while the afternoon is still a time for free choice of activity. + +The following is a plan for the Transition Class, showing the bridge +between absolute freedom and a fully organised time-table-- + + MORNING. AFTERNOON. + + Monday |Nature |Reading |Stories from |Organised games and + |work. |and Number.|Scripture or other |handwork. + ---------|Care |-----------|literature, and |----------------------- + Tuesday |of the |Reading |stories of social |Music and handwork. + |room. |and Number.|life; music and | + ---------|Nature |-----------|singing; industrial|----------------------- + Wednesday|chart |Reading |activities such as |Excursion or handwork. + |and |and Number.|solving puzzles, | + ---------|General|-----------|playing games of |----------------------- + Thursday |talk. |Reading |skill, looking at |Dramatic representation + | |and Number.|pictures, arranging|including preparations. + ---------| |-----------|collections. |----------------------- + Friday | |Reading | |Gardening or handwork. + | |and Number.| | + +Granting this arrangement we must be clear how play as a method can +still hold. + +It does not hold in the informal incidental sense of the Nursery School: +there are periods in the Transition Class when the children know that +they are working for a definite purpose which is not direct play--as in +reading; and there are times when they are dissatisfied with their +performances of skill and ask to be shown a better way, and voluntarily +practise to secure the end, as in handwork, arithmetic and some kinds of +physical games. The remainder is probably still pursued for its own +sake. How then can this play spirit be maintained side by side with +work? + +First of all, the children should not be required to do anything without +having behind it a purpose that appeals to them; it may not be the +ultimate purpose of "their good," but a secondary reason may be given to +which they will respond readily, generally the pretence reason. +Arithmetic to the ordinary person is a thing of real life; we count +chiefly in connection with money, with making things, with distributing +things, or with arranging things, and we count carefully when we keep +scores in games; in adult life we seldom or never count or perform +arithmetical operations for sheer pleasure in the activity, but there +are many children who do so in the same spirit as we play patience or +chess. And all this is our basis. The arithmetical activities in the +Transition Class should therefore be based on such everyday experiences +as have been mentioned, else there will be no associations made between +the experiences of school and those of life outside. The two must merge. +There is no such thing as arithmetic pure and simple for children unless +they seek it; they must play at real life, and the real life that they +are now capable of appreciating. + +Skill in calculation, accuracy and quickness can be acquired by a kind +of practice that children are quite ready for, if it comes when they +realise the need; most children feel that their power to score for games +is often too slow and inaccurate; as store clerks they are uncertain in +their calculations; they will be willing to practise quick additions, +subtractions, multiplications and divisions, in pure arithmetical form, +if the pretence purpose is clearly in view, which to them is a real +purpose; the same thing occurs in writing which should be considered a +side issue of reading; meaningless words or sentences are written +wearily and without pains, but to write the name of a picture you have +painted, at the bottom of it, or to write something that Cinderella's +Godmother said, or bit by bit to write a letter, will be having a +purpose that gives life to an apparently meaningless act, and +thoroughness to the effort. + +In handwork, too, at this stage, practice takes an important place: a +child is willing to hem, to try certain brush strokes, to cut evenly, +and later on to use his cardboard knife to effect for the sake of a +future result if he has already experimented freely. This is in full +harmony with the spirit of play, when we think of the practiced +"strokes" and "throws" of the later games, but it is a more advanced +quality of play, because there is the beginning of a purpose which is +separated from immediate pleasure in the activity, there is the hint of +an end in view though it is a child's end, and not the adult or economic +one. + +The training of the mother tongue can be made very effective by means +of games: in the days when children's parties were simple, and family +life was united, language games in the long dark evenings gave to many a +grip of words and expressions. Children learnt to describe accurately, +to be very fastidious in choice of words, to ask direct questions, to +give verbal form to thought, all through the stress of such games--Man +and his Shadow, Clumps, Subject and Object, Russian Scandal, the +Minister's Cat, I see a Light, Charades, and acting of all kinds. No +number of picture talks, oral compositions, or observations can compete +in real value with these games, because behind them was a purpose or +need for language that compelled the greatest efforts. + +Physical development and its adjustment to mental control owes its +greatest stimulus to games. When physical strength, speed, or nimble +adjustability is the pivot upon which the game depends, special muscles +are made subservient to will: behind the game there is the stimulus of +strong emotion, and here is the greatest factor in establishing +permanent associations between body and mind; psychologists see in many +of these games of physical activity the evolution of the race: drill +pure and simple has its place partly in the same sense as "practice" in +number or handwork, and partly as a corrective to our fallacious system +of education by listening, instead of by activity: and we cannot in a +lifetime acquire the powers of the race except by concentrated practice. +But no amount of drill can give the all-round experience necessary for +physical readiness for an emergency, physical and mental power to +endure, active co-operation, where self-control holds in check ambitious +personal impulses: and no drill seems to give grace and beauty of motion +that the natural activity of dancing can give. It is through the games +that British children inherit, and by means of which they have +unconsciously rehearsed many of the situations of life, that they have +been able to take their place readily in the life of the nation and even +to help to save it. Again, as in other directions, children must be made +to play the game in its thoroughness, for a well-played game gives the +right balance to the activities: drill is more specialised, and has +specialisation for its end: a game calls on the whole of an individual: +he must be alert mentally and physically; and at the same time the sense +of fairness cannot be too strongly insisted on; no game can be tolerated +as part of education where there is looseness in this direction, from +the skittles of the nursery class to the cricket and hockey of the +seventh standard, and nothing will so entirely outrage the children's +feelings as a teacher's careless arbitration. In physical games, too, +the social side is strongly developed: leadership, self-effacement and +co-operation are more valuable lessons of experience than fluent reading +or neat writing or accurate additions: but they have not counted as such +in our economic system of education; they have taken their chance: few +inspectors ask to see whether children know how to "play the game," and +yet they are so soon to play the independent game of life. But the +individual output of reading and sums of a sneaking and cowardly, or +assertive and selfish child, is as good probably as that of a child that +has the makings of a hero in him. And then we wonder at the propensities +of the "lower classes." It is because we have never made sure that they +can play the game. + +To summarise: play in the Nursery School stage is unorganised, informal, +and pursued with no motive but pleasure in the activity itself; it is +mainly individual. Play in the Transition Class is more definitely in +the form of games, _i.e._ organised play, efforts of skill, mental or +physical; it becomes social. Play in the Junior School is almost an +occasional method, because the work motive is by this time getting +stronger. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE UNITY OF EXPERIENCE + + + "We find in the child's spontaneous choice the nature of the + surroundings and of the activities he craves for; in other + words, he makes his own curriculum, and selects his own + subject matter." + +The next problem we have to solve is how to unify the bewildering +variety of ideas and activities that a child seeks contact with during a +day. We found that the curriculum of the Infant School of to-day +presented a rather confusing variety of ideas, not necessarily arranged +as the children would have chosen; they would certainly not have chosen +to break off some intense interest, because an arbitrary timetable +hurried them to something else, and they would have been right. If we +asked the children their reasons for choosing, we would find no clue +except that they chose what they wanted to, neither could they tell us +why they spent so much more time over one thing than another. If a +similar study were to be made of a child from a slum also free to +arrange his day, we should find that while certain general features were +the same others would be different: he would ask for different stories, +probably play different games, or the same games in a different way, his +back-yard would present different aspects, the things he made would be +different. + +It is evident that the old correlation method has little or nothing to +do with the matter; a child may or may not draw the rabbit he feeds, he +certainly does not play a rabbit game because of the rabbit he has fed, +nor does he build a rabbit-hutch with his bricks. He might try to make a +real one if the rabbit really needed it, but that arises out of an +obvious necessity. If he could put his unconscious promptings into +words, he would say he did the things because he wanted to, because +somebody else did them, or because of something he saw yesterday, and so +on; but he would always refer back to _himself_. The central link in +each case is in the child, with his special store of experiences derived +from his own particular surroundings; he brings to new experiences his +store of present experiences, his interests not always satisfied, his +powers variously used, he interprets the new by these, and seeks for +more in the line of the old. It is life he has experienced, and he seeks +for more life. + +How then can we secure for him that the new experiences presented to him +in school will be in line with the old? We will take three typical cases +of children to illustrate the real nature of this problem. + +The first is the case of a child living in a very poor district of +London or of any large town. The school is presumably situated in a +narrow street running off the High Street of the district, the street +where all the shopping is done; at the corner is a hide factory with an +evil smell. Most of the dwelling-houses abut on the pavement, some with +a very small yard behind, some without any. Several families live in one +house, and often one room is all a family can afford; as that has to be +paid for in advance the family address may change frequently. The father +may be a dock labourer with uncertain pay, a coster, a rag and bone +merchant, or he may follow some unskilled occupation of a similarly +precarious nature; in consequence the mother has frequently to do daily +work, the home is locked up till evening, and she often leaves before +the children start for morning school. It is a curious but very common +fact that, free though these children are, they know only a very small +radius around their own homes. They are accustomed to be sent shopping +into High Street, where household stores are bought in pennyworths or +twopennyworths, owing to uncertain finance and no storage accommodation. +Generally there is one tap and one sink in the basement for the needs of +all the families in the house. There is usually a park somewhere within +reach, but it may be a mile away; in it would, at least, be trees, a +pond, grass, flowers. But an excursion there, unless it is undertaken by +the school, can only be hoped for on a fine Bank Holiday; there is +neither time nor money to go on a Saturday, and Sunday cannot be said to +begin till dinner-time, about 3 P.M., when the public-houses close, and +the father comes home to dinner. + +It is difficult to imagine the conversation of such a household; family +life exists only on Sunday at dinner-time; the child's background of +family life is a room which is at once a bedroom, living room and +laundry. There is nearly always some part of a meal on the table, and +some washing hanging up. Outside there are the dingy street, the crowded +shops, the pavement to play on, and both outside and in, the bleaker and +more sordid aspects of life, sometimes miserable, sometimes exciting. On +Saturday night the lights are brilliant and life is at least intense. +Bed is a very crowded affair, in which many half-undressed children +sleep covered with the remainder of the day's wardrobe. + +What store of experiences does a child from such a neighbourhood bring +to school, to be assimilated with the new experiences provided there? +What do such terms as home, dinner, bed, bath, birth, death, country, +mean to him? They mean _something_.[34] + +[Footnote 34: See _Child Life_, October 1916.] + +Not a mile away we may come to a very respectable suburb of the average +type; and what is said of it may apply in some degree to a provincial +or country town or, at least, the application can easily be made. The +school probably stands at the top corner of a road of houses rented, at +£25 to £35 per annum, with gardens in front and behind. The road +generally runs into a main road with shops and traffic. Here and there +in the residential road are little oases of shops, patronised by the +neighbourhood, and some of the children may live over these. The home +life is more ordinary and needs less descriptive detail, but there are +some features that must be considered. The decencies, not to say +refinements of eating, sleeping and washing are taken for granted: there +is often a bath-room and always a kitchen. The father's occupation may +be local, but a good many fathers will go to town; there is generally a +family holiday to the sea, or less often to the country. In the house +the degree of refinement varies; there are nearly always pictures of a +sort, books of a sort, and the children are supplied with toys of a +sort. They visit each other's houses, and the observances of social life +are kept variously. Often the horizon is very narrow; the mother's +interest is very local and timid; the father's business life may be +absolutely apart from his home life and never mentioned there. The +family conversation while quite amiable and agreeable may be round very +few topics, and the vocabulary, while quite respectable, may be most +limited. Children's questions may be put aside as either trivial or +unsuitable. In one sense the slum child may be said to have a broader +background, the realities of life are bare to him on their most sordid +side, there is neither mystery nor beauty around life, or death, or the +natural affections. The suburban child may on the contrary be balked and +restricted so that unnecessary mystery gives an unwholesome interest to +these things and conventionality a dishonest reserve. + +A suburb of this type is described by Beresford in _Housemates_:--"In +such districts (as Gospel Oak) I am depressed by the flatness of an +awful monotony. The slums vex me far less. There I find adventure and +jest whatever the squalor; the marks of the primitive struggle through +dirt and darkness towards release. Those horrible lines of moody, +complacent streets represent not struggle, but the achievement of a +worthless aspiration. The houses, with their deadly similarity, their +smug, false exteriors, their conformity to an ideal which is typified by +their poor imitative decoration, could only be inhabited by people who +have no thought or desire for expression.... The dwellers in such +districts are cramped into the vice of their environment. Their homes +represent the dull concession to a state rule; and their lives take tone +from the grey, smoke-grimed repetition of one endlessly repeated design. +The same foolish ornamentation on every house reiterates the same +suggestion. Their places of worship, the blank chapels and pseudo-Gothic +churches rear themselves head and shoulders above the dull level, only +to repeat the same threat of obedience to a gloomy law.... The thought +of Gospel Oak and its like is the thought of imitation, of imitation +falling back and becoming stereotyped, until the meaning of the thing so +persistently copied has been lost and forgotten." + +A third case is that of the country child, the child who attends the +village school. Many villages lie several miles from a railway station, +so that the younger children may not see a railway train more than once +or twice a year. The fathers may be engaged in village trades, such as a +shoemaker, carpenter, gardener, general shop merchant, farm labourer, or +farmer. The village houses are often cramped and small, but there is +wholesome space outside, and generally a good garden which supplies some +of the family food; milk and eggs are easily obtainable, and conditions +of living are seldom as crowded as in a town. The country children see +more of life in complete miniature than the slum or the suburban child +can do, for the whole life of the village lies before him. The school +is generally in the centre, with a good playground, and of late years a +good school garden is frequent. The village church, generally old, is +another centre of life, and there is at least the vicarage to give a +type of life under different social conditions. + +The home intellectual background may vary, but on the whole cannot be +reckoned on very much; though in some ways it is more narrow than the +suburban one, it is often less superficial. In a different way from the +slum child, but none the less definitely, the country child comes face +to face with the realities of life, in a more natural and desirable way +than either of the others. It is difficult to estimate some of the +effects of living in the midst of real nature on children; +unconsciously, they acquire much deep knowledge impossible to learn +through nature study, however good, a kind of knowledge that is part of +their being; but how far it affects them emotionally or enters into +their scheme of life, is hard to say. As they grow up much of it is +merely economic acquirement: if they are to work on the land, or rear +cattle, or drive a van through the country, it is all to the good; but +one thing is noticeable, that they take very quickly to such allurements +of town life as a cinema, or a picture paper or gramophone, and this +points to unsatisfied cravings of some sort, not necessarily so unworthy +or superficial as the means sought to satisfy them. + +From these rather extreme cases we get near the solution of the problem; +it is quite evident that each of these children brings to school very +different contributions of experience on which to build, though their +general needs and interests are similar. Therefore the curriculum of the +school will depend on the general surroundings and circumstances of the +children, and all programmes of work and many questions of organisation +will be built on this. The model programme so dear to some teachers must +be banished, as a doctor would banish a general prescription; no honest +teacher can allow this part of her work to be done for her by any one +else. + +Therefore the central point is the child's previous experience, and on +this the experience provided by school, _i.e._ curriculum and subject +matter, depends. One or two examples of the working out of this might +make the application clearer. Probably the realities of life in relation +to money differ greatly. The kind of problem presented to the poor town +child will deal with shopping in pennyworths or ounces, with getting +coals in pound bagfuls. Clothes are generally second-hand, and so +ordinary standard prices are out of the question. Bread is bought stale +and therefore cheaper, early in the morning. Preserved milk only is +bought, and that in halfpenny quantities. Only problems based on these +will be real to this child at first. + +The suburban child's economic experience may be based on his +pocket-money, money in the bank, and the normal shopping of ordinary +life. + +The country child is frequently very ignorant of money values; probably +it will be necessary to take the country general shop as the basis. He +could also begin to estimate the produce of the school garden. + + + + +THE NURSERY SCHOOL PROGRAMME + +It is quite obvious from the nature of play at this stage that a +time-table is out of the question and in fact an outrage against nature. +Only for social convenience and for the establishment of certain +physical habits can there be fixed hours. There must be approximate +limits as to the times of arrival and departure, but nothing of the +nature of marking registers to record exact minutes. Little children +sometimes sleep late, or, on the other hand, the mothers may have to +leave home very early; all this must be allowed for. There should be +fixed times for meals and for sleep, and these should be rigidly +observed, and there should be regular times for the children to go to +the lavatories; all these establish regularity and self-control, as well +as improving general health. But anything in the nature of story +periods, games periods, handwork periods, only impedes the variously +developing children in their hunger for experiences. + +Their curriculum is life as the teacher has spread it out before them; +there are no subjects at this stage; the various aspects ought to be of +the nature of a glorious feast to these young children. Traherne says in +the seventeenth century:-- + +"Will you see the infancy of this sublime and celestial greatness? Those +pure and virgin apprehensions I had in my infancy, and that divine light +wherewith I was born, are the best unto this day wherein I can see the +Universe.... Verily they form the greatest gift His wisdom can bestow, +for without them all other gifts had been dead and vain. They are +unattainable by books and therefore will I teach them by experience.... +Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions +of the world than I when I was a child. + +"All appeared new and strange at first, inexpressibly rare and +delightful and beautiful. I was a little stranger which at my entrance +into the world was saluted and surrounded with innumerable joys.... I +knew by intuition those things which since my apostasy I collected again +by the highest reason.... All things were spotless and pure and +glorious; yea, and infinitely mine, and joyful and precious.... I saw in +all the peace of Eden.... Is it not that an infant should be heir of the +whole world, and see those mysteries which the books of the learned +never unfold? + +"The corn was orient and immortal wheat which never should be reaped, +nor was ever sown. I thought it stood from everlasting to everlasting. +The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold: the gates +were at first the end of the world. The green trees when I saw them +first through one of the gates transported and ravished me: ... the +skies were mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the +world was mine: and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it.... So that +with much ado I was corrupted and made to learn the dirty devices of +this world, which I now unlearn, and become, as it were, a little child +again that I may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." + +If this is what life means to the young child, and Traherne only records +what many of us have forgotten there is little need for interference: we +can only spread the feast and stand aside to watch for opportunities. + +The following extract is given from a teacher's note-book: it shows how +many possibilities open out to a teacher, and how impossible it is to +keep to a time-table, or even to try to name the activities. The +children concerned were about five years old, newly admitted to a poor +school in S.E. London. The records are selected from a continuous +period, and do not apply to one day:-- + + +PLANS FOR THE DAY WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED + +_Number Occupations._--This will The children played, freely +be entirely free and the children chalking most of the time; those +will choose their own toys and threading beads were most +put them away. interested. Again I noticed the + lack of idea of colour; I found + one new boy placing his sticks + according to colour, without + knowing the names of the colours. + The boys thought the soldiers + belonged to them, and laughed at + a little girl for choosing them. + +_Language Training._--I have I realised this was a failure, +discovered that they love to for I asked the children to use +imitate sounds, so we will play their boards and chalks for a +at this. They could draw a cat definite drawing, and they should +and say "miauw," and a duck and have had the time to use them +say "quack." They could also freely and discover their use. I +imitate the wind. got very little information about + their vocabulary. + +_Language Training_ (_another I found that many children +day_).--I shall try to induce the pronounced words so strangely +children to speak to me about their that I could only with difficulty +homes, in order to discover any recognise them. One said she +difficulties of pronunciation and had a "bresser" with "clates" +to make them more fluent. on it and "knies" Others spoke + of "manckle," "firebrace," "forts." + One child speaking of curly hair + called it "killeyer." We had no + time for the story. + +_Playing with Toys._--The Noah's arks, dolls, and bricks +children will choose their own toys, were used, and I found that the +and as far as possible I will put girls who had no dolls at home +a child who knows how to use them were delighted to be able to dress +next to one who desires to sit and undress them and put them +still. to bed. One little girl walked + backwards and forwards before + the class getting her doll to + sleep; the boys were making a + noise with their arks and she + remarked on this, so we induced + them to be silent while the dolls + were put to sleep. The boys + arranged their animals in long + lines. The bricks were much more + carefully put away to-day. + + +THE TRANSITION AND THE JUNIOR SCHOOL PROGRAMME + +Even after the Nursery School period much of the curriculum and subject +matter is in the hands of the children themselves, though the relative +proportions will vary according to the children's experiences. It is +pretty evident to the honest-minded teacher that the subjects are, in +school terms, nature work and elementary science, mathematics, +constructive and expressive work, literature, music, language, physical +exercise and religion. The business of the younger child is with real +things and activity, not with symbols and passivity, therefore he is not +really in need of reading, writing, or arithmetic. We hear arguments +from ambitious teachers that children are fond of reading lessons +because they enjoy the fantasies in which these lessons are wrapped, or +the efforts made by the teacher to create interest; we hear that +children ask to be taught to read; they also ask to be taught to drive a +tram or to cook a dinner; but it is all part of the pretence game of +playing at being grown up. They do not need to read while stories and +poetry can be told or read to them; they are not ready to make the +effort of working for a remote economic end, where there is no real +pleasure in the activity, and no opportunity of putting their powers to +use. No child under six wants to sit down and read, and it would be very +harmful if he did; his business is with real things and with his +vocabulary, which is not nearly ready to put into symbols yet. If +reading is delayed, hours of weary drudgery will be saved and energy +stored for more precious attainments. + +Therefore in the transition class (_i.e._ children over six at lowest) +the only addition to the curriculum already set out for the nursery +class, would be arithmetic and reading, including writing. The other +differences would be in degree only. In the junior class (with children +over seven at lowest) a desire to know something of the doings of people +in other countries, to hear about other parts of our own land, will lead +to the beginnings of geography; while with this less imaginative and +more literal period comes the request for stories that are more verbally +true, and questions about origins, leading to the beginnings of history. + +It is very much easier to give the general curriculum than to deal with +the choice of actual material, because that is involved largely with the +principle of the unity of experience, and, as we know, experiences vary. +The normal town and country child, and the abnormal child of poverty +have all certain human cravings in common, and these are provided for in +the aspects of life or subjects that have been named--but this is far +too general an application to be the end of the matter; each subject has +many sides to offer. There may be for example the pottery town, the +weaving town, the country town, the fishing town, the colliery town: in +the country there is the district of the dairy farmer, of the sheep +farmer, of the grain grower and miller, of the fruit farmer, of the hop +grower, and many districts may partake of more than one characteristic. +Perhaps the most curious anomaly of experience is that of the child of +the London slums who goes "hopping" into some of the loveliest parts of +Kent, in early autumn. And so in a general way at least the concentrated +experience of school must fill gaps and supply experiences that life has +not provided for. + +One of the pottery towns in Staffordshire is built on very unfertile +clay; there are several potteries in the town belching out smoke, and, +in addition, rows of monotonous smoke-blackened houses; almost always a +yellow pall of smoke hangs over the whole district, and even where the +edge of the country might begin, the grass and trees are poor and +blackened, and distant views are seen through a haze. There are almost +no gardens in the town, and very little attempt has been made to +beautify it, because the results are so disappointing. Beauty, +therefore, in various forms must be a large part of the curriculum: +already design is a common interest in the pottery museums of the +district, and this could be made a motive for the older children; but in +the Junior and Nursery School pictures of natural beauty, wild flowers +if it is possible to get them, music, painting and drawing, and +literature should bulk largely enough to make a permanent impression on +the children. In a very remote country village where life seems to go +slowly, and days are long, children should be encouraged, by means of +the school influence, to make things that absorb thought and interest, +to tell and hear stories. Storytelling in the evening round the fire is +a habit of the past, and might well supply some of the cravings that +have to be satisfied by the "pictures." Most of us have to keep +ourselves well in hand when we listen to a recitation in much the same +way as when a slate pencil used to creak; it would be very much better +if the art of storytelling were cultivated at school, encouraged at +home, and applied to entertainments. Indeed the entertainments of a +village school, instead of being the unnatural and feverish production +of hours of overtime, might well be the ordinary outcome of work both at +school and at home--and thus a motive for leisure is naturally supplied +and probably a hobby initiated. + +It is profitable sometimes to group the subjects of experience in order +to preserve balance. All getting of experience is active, but some kinds +more obviously than others. Undoubtedly in hearing stories and poetry, +in watching a snail or a bee, in listening to music, the activity is +mental rather than physical and assimilation of ideas is more direct; in +discovering experiences by means of construction, expression, experiment +or imitation, assimilation is less direct but often more permanent and +secure. Froebel discriminates between impression and expression, or +taking in and giving out, and although he constantly emphasised that the +child takes in by giving, it is convenient to recognise this +distinction. Another helpful grouping is the more objective one. Some +subjects refer more particularly to human conduct, the enlargement of +experiences of human beings, and the building up of the ideal: these are +literature, music, history and geography; others refer to life other +than that of human beings, commonly known as nature study and science; +others to the properties of inanimate things, and to questions +throughout all life of measurement, size and force--this is known as +mathematics; others of the life behind the material and the spiritual +world--this is known as religion. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +GAINING EXPERIENCE THROUGH FREEDOM + + + "The atmosphere of freedom is the only atmosphere in which a + child can gain experiences that will help to develop + character." + +The principle of Freedom underlies all the activities of the school and +does not refer to conduct simply; intellectual and emotional aspects of +discipline are too often ignored and we have as a product the +commonplace, narrow, imitative person, too timid or too indolent to +think a new thought, or to feel strongly enough to stand for a cause. +Self-control is the goal of discipline, but independent thinking, +enthusiasm and initiative are all included in the term. + +It will be well to discriminate between the occasions, both in the +Nursery School and in the transition and junior classes, when a child +should be free to learn by experience and when he should be controlled +from without. We shall probably find occasions which partake of the +nature of each. + +The Nursery School is a collection of individuals presumably from 2-1/2 +to 5-1/2 years of age. They know no social life beyond the family life, +and family experience is relative to the size of the family. In any case +they have not yet measured themselves against their peers, with the +exception of the occasional twin. A few months ago about twenty children +of this description formed the nucleus of a new Nursery School where, as +far as possible, the world in miniature was spread out before them, and +they were guided in their entrance to it by an experienced teacher and +a young helper. For the first few weeks the chief characteristic was +noise; the children rushed up and down the large room, shouting, and +pushing any portable toys they could find. One little boy of 2-1/2 +employed himself in what can only be called "punching" the other +children, snatching their possessions away from them and responding to +the teacher by the law of contra-suggestion. He was the most intelligent +child in the school. He generally left a line of weeping children behind +him, and several began to imitate him. The pugnacious instinct requires +little encouragement. Lunch was a period of snatching, spilling, and +making plans to get the best. Many of the toys provided were carelessly +trampled upon and broken: requests to put away things at the end of the +day were almost unavailing. + +When the time for sleeping came in the afternoon many of the children +refused to lie down: some consented but only to sing and talk as they +lay. Only one, a child of 2-1/2, slept, because he cried himself to +sleep from sheer strangeness. This apparently unbeautiful picture is +only the first battle of the individual on his entrance to the life of +the community. + +On the other hand, there were intervals of keen joy: water, sand and +clay chiefly absorbed the younger children: the older ones wanted to +wash up and scrub, and many spent a good deal of time looking at +picture-books. This was the raw material for the teacher to begin with: +the children came from comfortable suburban homes: none were really +poor, and many had known no privation. They were keen for experiences +and disposed to be very friendly to her. + +After five months there is a marked difference in spirit. The noise is +modified because the children found other absorbing interests, though at +times nature still demands voice production. During lunch time and +sleeping time there is quiet, but the teacher has never _asked_ for +silence unless there was some such evident reason. There is no silence +game. The difference has come from within the children. All now lie down +in the afternoon quietly, and the greater number sleep; but there has +been no command or any kind of general plan: again the desire has +gradually come to individuals from suggestion and imitation. Lunch is +quite orderly, but not yet without an occasional accident or struggle. +There is much less fighting, but primitive man is still there. The most +marked development is in the growth of the idea of "taking turns"; the +children have begun to master this all-important lesson of life. The +strong pugnacious habit in the little punching boy reached a point that +showed he was unable to conquer it from within: about two months after +his arrival the teacher consulted his mother, who confirmed all that the +teacher had experienced: her prescription was smacking. After a good +deal of thought and many ineffectual talks and experiments with the boy, +the teacher came to the conclusion that the mother was right: she took +him to the cloakroom after the next outbreak and smacked his hands: he +was surprised and a little hurt, but very soon forgot and continued his +practices: on the next occasion the teacher repeated the punishment and +it was never again necessary. For a few days he was at a loss for an +occupation because punching had become a confirmed habit, but soon other +interests appealed to him: he has never changed in his trust in his +teacher of whom he is noticeably very fond, and he has now realised that +he must control a bad habit. This example has been given at length to +illustrate the relation of government to freedom. + +If these children had been in the ordinary Baby Room, subject to a +time-table, to constant plans by the teacher for their activities, few +or none of these occasions would have occurred: the incipient so-called +naughtiness would have been displayed only outside, in the playground or +at home: there would have been little chance of chaos, of fighting, of +punching, of trying to get the best thing and foremost place, there +would have been little opportunity for choice and less real absorption, +because of the time-table. The children would have been happy enough, +but they would not have been trained to live as individuals. Outward +docility is a fatal trait and very common in young children; probably it +is a form of self-preservation. But the real child only lies in wait to +make opportunities out of school. The school is therefore not preparing +him for life. + + * * * * * + +Freedom in the transition and the junior school must be differently +applied: individual life begins to merge into community life, and the +children begin to learn that things right for individuals may be wrong +for the community. But the problem of freedom is not as easy as the +problem of authority: standards must be greatly altered and outward +docility no longer mistaken for training in self-control. Individual +training cannot suddenly become class discipline, neither can children +be switched from the Nursery School to a full-blown class system. + +The idea of class teaching must be postponed, for out of it come most of +the difficulties of discipline, and it is not the natural arrangement at +this transitional period. A teacher is imposing on a number of very +different individuals a system that says their difficulties are alike, +that they must all work at one rate and in one way: and so we have the +weary "reading round" class, when the slow ones struggle and the quick +ones find other and unlawful occupation: we have the number lessons +broken by the teacher's breathless attempts to see that all the class +follows: we have the handwork that imposes an average standard of work +that fits nobody exactly. Intellectual freedom can only come by +individual or group work, while class teaching is only for such +occasions as a literature or a singing lesson, or the presentation of an +occasional new idea in number. Individual and group work need much +organisation, but while classes consist of over forty children there is +no other way to permit intellectual and moral freedom. Of course the +furniture of the room will greatly help to make this more possible, and +it is hoped that an enlightened authority will not continue to supply +heavy iron-framed desks for the junior school, those described as "desks +for listening." + +The prevailing atmosphere should be a busy noise and not silence--it +should be the noise of children working, oftener than of the teacher +teaching, _i.e._ teaching the whole class. The teacher should be more +frequently among the children than at her desk, and the children's +voices should be heard more often than hers. + +Such children will inevitably become intellectually independent and +morally self-controlled. Most of the order should be taken in hand by +children in office, and they should be distinguished by a badge: most +questions of punishment should be referred to them. This means a +constant appeal to the law that is behind both teacher and children and +which they learn to reach apart from the teacher's control. + +"Where 'thou shalt' of the law becomes 'I will' of the doer, then we are +free." + + + + +III. CONSIDERATION OF THE ASPECTS OF EXPERIENCE + + +The aim of the following chapters is to show how principles may be +applied to what are usually known as subjects of the curriculum, and +what place these subjects take in the acquisition of experience. An +exhaustive or detailed treatment of method is not intended, but merely +the establishment of a point of view and method of application. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +EXPERIENCES OF HUMAN CONDUCT + + +It is always difficult to see the beginnings of things: we know that +stories form the raw material of morality, it is not easy to trace +morality in _Little Black Sambo, The Three Bears, Alice in Wonderland,_ +or _The Sleeping Beauty,_ but nevertheless morality is there if we +recognise morality in everyday things. It is not too much to say that +everybody should have an ideal, even a burglar: his ideal is to be a +good and thorough burglar, and probably if he is a burglar of the finer +sort, it is to play fair to the whole gang. It is better to be a burglar +with an ideal than a blameless person with very little soul or +personality, who just slides through life accepting things: it is better +to have a coster's ideal of a holiday than to be too indifferent or +stupid to care or to know what you want. + +Now ideals are supposed to be the essence of morality and morality comes +to us through experience, and only experience tests its truth. The +story with a moral is generally neither literature nor morality, except +such unique examples as _The Pilgrim's Progress _or _Everyman_. The kind +of experience with which morality is concerned is experience of human +life in various circumstances, and the way people behave under those +circumstances. The beginning of such experience is our own behaviour and +the behaviour of other people we know, but this is too limited an +experience to produce a satisfactory ideal; so we crave for something +wider. It is curious how strong is the craving for this kind of +experience in all normal children, in whom one would suppose sense +experiences and especially muscular experiences to be enough. The need +to know about people other than ourselves, and yet not too unlike, in +circumstances other than our own, and yet not too strange, seems to be a +necessary part of our education, and we interpret it in the light of our +own personal conduct. Out of this, as well as out of our direct +experience, we build our ideal. When one realises how an ideal may +colour the whole outlook of a person, one begins to realise what +literature means to a child. The early ideal is crude; it may be Jack +the Giant-Killer, or an engine-driver, Cinderella, or the step-cleaner; +this may grow into Hiawatha or Robinson Crusoe, for boys, and a fairy +tale Princess or one of the "Little Women" for girls. In every hero a +child half-unconsciously sees himself, and the ideal stimulates all that +hidden life which is probably the most important part of his growth. As +indirect experiences grow, or in other words as he hears or reads more +stories, his ideal widens, and his knowledge of the problems of life is +enlarged. This is the raw material of morality, for out of his answers +to these problems he builds up standards of conduct and of judgement. He +projects himself into his own ideal, and he projects himself into the +experiences of other people: he lives in both: this is imagination of +the highest kind, it is often called sympathy, but the term is too +limited, it is rather imaginative understanding. + +There is another side of life grasped by means of this new world of +experience, and that is, the spiritual side that lies between conduct +and ideals; children have always accepted the supernatural quite readily +and it is not to be wondered at, for all the world is new and therefore +supernatural to them. Magic is done daily in children's eyes, and there +is no line between what is understandable and what is not, until adults +try to interpret it for them. + +They are curious about birth and death and all origins: thunder is +terrifying, the sea is enthralling, the wind is mysterious, the sky is +immense, and all suggest a power beyond: in this the children are +reproducing the race experience as expressed in myths, when power was +embodied in a god or goddess. Therefore the fairy world or the giant +world, or the wood full of dwarfs and witches' houses, is as real to +them, and as acceptable, as any part of life. It is their recognition of +a world of spirits which later on mingles itself with the spiritual life +of religion. That life is behind all matter, is the main truth they +hold, and while it is difficult here to disentangle morality from +religion, it is supremely evident that a very great and significant side +of a child's education is before us. + +It is by means of the divine gift of imagination, probably the most +spiritual of a child's gifts, that he can lay hold of all that the world +of literature has to offer him. Because of imagination he is independent +of poverty, monotony, and the indifference of other people; he has a +world of his own in which nothing is impossible. Edwin Pugh says of a +child of the slums who was passionately fond of reading cheap +literature:--"It was by means of this penny passport to Heaven that she +escaped from the Hell of her surroundings. It was in the maudlin fancies +of some poor besotted literary hack maybe, that she found surcease from +the pains of weariness, the carks and cares of her miserable estate." + +A teacher realising this, should feel an almost unspeakable sense of +responsibility in having to select and present matter: but the problem +should be solved on the one hand by her own high standard of story +material, and on the other by her knowledge of the child's needs. +According to his experiences of life the interpretation of the story +will differ: for example, it was found that the children of a low slum +neighbourhood translated _Jack the Giant-killer_ into terms of a street +fight: to children living by a river or the sea, the _Water-Babies_ would +mean very much, while _Jan of the Windmill_ would be more familiar +ground for country children. Fairy stories of the best kind have a +universal appeal. + +In choosing a story a teacher should be aware of the imperishable part +of it, the truth around which it grew; sometimes the truth may seem a +very commonplace one, sometimes a curious one. For example, very young +children generally prefer stories of home life because round the family +their experience gathers: the subject seems homely, but it is really one +of the fundamental things of life and the teacher should realise this in +such a way that the telling or reading of the story makes the kernel its +central point. To some children the ideal home life comes only through +literature: daily experiences rather contradict it. Humour is an +important factor in morality; unless a person is capable of seeing the +humor of a situation he is likely to be wanting in a sense of balance; +the humor of a situation is often caused by the wrong proportion or +wrong balance of things: for example the humour of _The Mad Tea-Party_ +lies, partly at least, in the absurd gravity with which the animals +regarded the whole situation, the extreme literal-mindedness of Alice, +and the exaggerated imitation of human beings: a really moral person +must have balance as well as sympathy, else he sees things out of +proportion. These examples make evident that we are not to seek for +anything very patently high-flown in the stories for children; it is +life in all its phases that gives the material, but it must be true +life: not false or sentimental or trivial life: this will rule out the +"pretty" stories for children written by trivial people in teachers' +papers, or the pseudo-nature story, or the artificial myth of the "How +did" type, or the would-be childish story where the language is rather +that of the grown-up imitating children than that of real children. Of +late years, with the discovery of children, children's literature has +grown, and there is a good deal to choose from past and present writers. + +There is no recognised or stereotyped method of telling a story to +children: it is something much deeper than merely an acquired art, it is +the teacher giving something of her personality to the children, +something that is most precious. One of the finest of our English +Kindergarten teachers once said, "I feel almost as if I ought to prepare +my soul before telling a story to young children," and this is the sense +in which the story should be chosen and told. There are, of course, +certain external qualifications which must be so fully acquired as to be +used unconsciously, such as a good vocabulary, power over one's voice, a +recognition of certain literary phases in a story, such as the working +up to the dramatic crisis, the working down to the end so that it shall +not fall flat, and the dramatic touches that give life; these are +certainly most necessary, and should be studied and cultivated; but a +teacher should not be hampered in her telling by being too conscious of +them. Rather she should feel such respect and even reverence for this +side of a child's education that the framework and setting can only be +of the best, always remembering at the same time what is framework and +setting, and what is essence. + +Much that has been said about the method and aim of stories might apply +to those taken from the Bible, but they need certain additional +considerations. Here religion and morality come very closely together: +the recognition of a definite personality behind all circumstances of +life, to whom our conduct matters, gives a soul to morality. The Old +Testament is a record of the growth of a nation more fully conscious of +God than is the record of any other nation, and because of this children +can understand God in human life when they read such stories as the +childhood of Moses and of Samuel. Children resemble the young Jewish +nation in this respect: they accept the direct intervention of God in +the life of every day. Their primitive sense of justice, which is an eye +for an eye, will make them welcome joyfully the plagues of Egypt and the +crossing of the Red Sea. It would be premature to force on them the more +mature idea of mercy, which would probably lead to confusion of +judgement: they must be clear about the balance of things before they +readjust it for themselves. + +Much of the material in the Old Testament is hardly suitable for very +young children, but the most should be made of what there is: the lives +of Eastern people are interesting to children and help to make the +phraseology of the Psalms and even of the narratives clear to them. +Wonder stories such as the Creation, the Flood, the Burning Bush, +Elijah's experiences, appeal to them on another side, the side that is +eager to wonder: the accounts of the childhood of Ishmael, Isaac, +Joseph, Moses, David and Samuel, and the little Syrian maid, come very +close to them. Such stories should be given to young children so that +they form part of the enchanted memory of childhood--which is permanent. + +With the New Testament the problem is more difficult: one hesitates to +bring the life of Christ before children until they are ready to +understand, even in some degree, its significance; the subject is apt to +be dealt with either too familiarly, and made too commonplace and +everyday a matter, or as something so far removed from human affairs as +to be mysterious and remote to a child. To mix Old and New Testament +indiscriminately, as, for example, by taking them on alternate days, is +unforgivable, and no teacher who has studied the Bible seriously could +do so, if she cared about the religious training of her children, and +understood the Bible. + +If the children can realise something of the sense in which Christ +helped human beings, then some of the incidents in His life might be +given, such as His birth, His work of healing, feeding and helping the +poor, and some of His stories, such as the lost sheep, the lost son, the +sower, the good Samaritan. It is difficult to speak strongly enough of +the mistreatment of Scripture, under the name of religion: it has been +spoilt more than any other subject in the curriculum, chiefly by being +taken too often and too slightly, by teachers who may be in themselves +deeply religious, but who have not applied intelligence to this matter. +The religious life of a young child is very direct: there is only a +little in the religious experiences of the Jews that can help him, and +much that can puzzle and hinder him; their interpretation of God as +revengeful, cruel and one-sided in His dealings with their enemies must +greatly puzzle him, when he hears on the other hand that God is the +Father of all the nations on the earth. What is suitable should be taken +and taken well, but there is no virtue in the Bible misunderstood. + +Poetry is a form of literature which appeals to children _if they are +not made to learn it by rote_. Unconsciously they learn it very quickly +and easily, if they understand in a general way the meaning, and if they +like the sound of the words. Rhythm is an early inheritance and can be +encouraged by poetry, music and movement. The sound of words appeals +strongly to young children, and rhyming is almost a game. The kind of +poetry preferred varies a good deal but on the whole narrative or +nonsense verses seem most popular; few children are ready for sentiment +or reflection even about themselves, and this is why some of Stevenson's +most charming poems about children are not appreciated by them as much +as by grown-up people. And for the same reason only a few nature poems +are really liked. + +Without doubt, the only aim in giving poetry to children is to help them +to appreciate it, and the only method to secure this is to read it to +them appreciatively and often. + +Besides such anthologies as _The Golden Staircase,_ E.V. Lucas's _Book +of Verses for Children,_ and others, we must go to the Bible for poems +like the Song of Miriam, or of Deborah, and the Psalms; to Shakespeare +for such songs as "Where the Bee Sucks," "I know a Bank," "Ye Spotted +Snakes," either with or without music; to Longfellow's _Hiawatha_ for +descriptive pieces, and to Scott and Tennyson for ballads and songs, and +to many other simple classic sources outside the ordinary collections. + +In both prose and poetry, probably the ultimate aim is appreciation of +beauty in human conduct. Clutton Brock says, "The value of art is the +value of the aesthetic activity of the spirit, and we must all value +that before we can value works of art rightly: and ultimately we must +value this glory of the universe, to which we give the name of beauty +when we apprehend it." Again he says, "Parents, nurses and teachers +ought to be aware that the child when he forgets himself in the beauty +of the world is passing through a sacred experience which will enrich +and glorify the whole of his life." + +If all this is what literature means in a child's experiences of life, +then it must be given a worthy place in the time-table and curriculum +and in the serious preparation by the teacher for her work. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EXPERIENCES OF THE NATURAL WORLD + + +The first experiences the child gains from the world of nature are those +of beauty, of sound, colour and smell. Flowers at first are just lovely +and sweet-smelling; the keen senses of a child are more deeply satisfied +with colour and scent than we have any idea of, unless some faint memory +of what it meant remains with us. But he begins to grasp real scientific +truth from his experiences with the elements which have for him such a +mysterious attraction; by the very contact with water something in the +child responds to its stimulus. Mud and sand have their charms, quite +intangible, but universal, from prince to coster; a bonfire is something +that arouses a kind of primeval joy. Again, race experience reproducing +itself may account for all this, and it must be satisfied. The demand +for contact with the rest of nature is a strong and fierce part of human +nature, and it means the growth of something in life that we cannot do +without. We induce children to come into our schools when this hunger is +at its fiercest, and very often we do nothing to satisfy it, but set +them in rooms to look at things inanimate when their very being is +crying out for life. "I want something and I don't know what to want" is +the expression of a state very frequent in children, and not infrequent +in grown-up people, because they have been balked of something. + +How, then, can we provide for their experience of this side of life? We +have tried to do so in the past by object and nature lessons, but we +must admit that they are not the means by which young children seek to +know life, or by which they appreciate its beauty. We have been trying +to kill too many birds with one stone in our economic way; "to train the +powers of observation," "to teach a child to express himself," "to help +a child to gain useful knowledge about living things," have been the +most usual aims. And the method has been that of minute examination of a +specimen from the plant or animal world, utterly detached from its +surroundings, considered by the docile child in parts, such as leaves, +stem, roots, petals, and uses; or head, wings, legs, tail, and habits. +The innocent listener might frequently think with reason that a number +lesson rather than a nature lesson was being given. The day of the +object lesson is past, and to young children the nature lesson must +become nature work. + +It is in the term "nature lesson" that the root of the mischief lies: +nature is not a lesson to the young child, it is an interest from which +he seeks to gain more pleasure, by means of his own activity: plants +encourage him to garden, animals stir his desire to watch, feed and +protect; water, earth and fire arouse his craving to investigate and +experiment: there is no motive for passive study at this juncture, and +without a motive or purpose all study leads to nothing. Adults compare, +and count the various parts of a living thing for purposes of +classification connected with the subdivisions of life which we call +botany and zoology; but such things are far removed from the young +child's world--only gradually does it begin to dawn on him that there +are interesting likenesses, and that in this world, as in his own, there +are relationships; when he realises this, the time for a nature lesson +has come. But much direct experience must come first. + +In setting out the furnishing of the school the need for this activity +is implied. No school worthy of the name can do without a garden, any +more than it can do without reading books, or blackboards, indeed the +former need is greater: if it is possible, and possibilities gradually +merge into acceptances, a pond should be in the middle of the garden, +and trees should also be considered as part of the whole. It is not +difficult for the ordinary person to make a pond, or even to begin a +garden. + +In a school situated in S.E. London in the midst of rows of monotonous +little houses, and close to a busy railway junction, a miracle was +performed: the playground was not very large, and of the usual +uncompromising concrete. The children, most of whose fathers worked on +the railway, lived in the surrounding streets, and most of them had a +back-yard of sorts; they had little or no idea of a garden. One of the +teachers had, however, a vision which became a reality. She asked her +children to help to make a garden, and for weeks every child brought +from his back-yard his little paper bag of soil which was deposited over +some clinkers that were spread out in a narrow border against the +outside wall; in a few months there was a border of two yards in which +flowers were planted: the caretaker, inspired by the sight, did his +share of fixing a wooden strip as a kind of supporting border to the +whole: in two years the garden had spread all round the outside wall of +the playground, and belonged to several classes. + +An even greater miracle was performed in a dock-side school, where to +most of the children a back-yard was a luxury beyond all possibility. +The school playground was very small, and evening classes made a school +garden quite impossible. But the head mistress was one who saw life full +of possibilities, and so she saw a garden even in the sordidness. Round +the parish church was a graveyard long disused, and near one of the +gates a small piece of ground that had never been used for any +graveyard purpose: it was near enough to the school to be possible, and +in a short time the miracle happened--the entrance to the graveyard +became a children's flowering garden. + +Inside the school where plants and flowers in pots are numerous, a part +of the morning should be spent in the care of these: few people know how +to arrange flowers, and fewer how to feed and wash them; if there are an +aquarium or chrysalis boxes, they have to be attended to: all this +should be a regular duty with a strong sense of responsibility attached +to it; it is curious how many people are content to live in an +atmosphere of decaying matter. + +If the children enjoy so intensely the colour of the leaves and flowers +they will be glad to have the opportunity of painting them; this is as +much a part of nature work as any other, and it should be used as such, +because it emphasises so strongly the side of appreciation of beauty, a +side very often neglected. It is here that the individual paint box is +so important. If children are to have any sense of colour they must +learn to match very truthfully; there is a great difference between the +blue of the forget-me-not and of the bluebell, but only by experiment +can children discover that the difference lies in the amount of red in +the latter. By means of discoveries of this kind they will see new +colours in life around them, and a new depth of meaning will come to +their everyday observations. This is true observation, not the "look and +say" of the oral lesson, which has no purpose in it, and leads to no +natural activity, or to appreciation. + +It is difficult to satisfy the interest in animals. In connection with +the Nursery School the most suitable have been mentioned. The transition +and junior school children may see others when they go for excursions. +At this stage, too, children have a great desire to learn about wild +animals, and the need often arises out of their literature: the camel +that brought Rebecca to Isaac, the wolf that adopted Mowgli, the +reindeer that carried Kay and Gerda, the fox that tried to eat the seven +little kids, Androcles' lion, and Black Sambo's tiger, might form an +interesting series, helped by pictures of the creature _in its own +home_. It is difficult to say whether this may be termed literature, +geography, or nature study. The difficulty serves to show the unity of +life at this period. Books such as Seton Thompson's, Long's, and +Kearton's, and many others, supply living experiences of animal life +impossible to get from less direct sources. + +As children get older, and have the power to look back, they will feel +the necessity of keeping records; and thus the Nature Calendar, +forerunner of geography, will be adopted naturally. + +Another important feature in nature experiences is the excursion. +Froebel says: "Not only children and boys, but indeed many adults, fare +with nature and her character as ordinary men fare with the air. They +live in it and yet scarcely know it as something distinct ... therefore +these children and boys who spend all their time in the fields and +forests see and feel nothing of the beauties of nature and their +influence on the human heart. They are like people who have grown up in +a very beautiful country and who have no idea of its beauty and its +spirit ... therefore it is so important that boys and adults should go +into the fields and forests, together striving to receive into their +hearts and minds the life and spirit of nature." It is evident from this +that excursions are as necessary in the country as in the town, where +instead of the "fields and forests" perhaps only a park is possible, but +there is no virtue in an excursion taken without preparation. The +teacher must first of all visit the place and see what it is likely to +give the children. She must tell them something of it, give them some +aim in going there, such as collecting leaves or fruits, or recording +different shapes of bare trees, or collecting things that grow in the +grass. These are examples of what a town park might yield. Within one +group of children there might be many with different aims. During the +days following the excursion time should be spent in using these +experiences, either by means of painting and modelling, or making +classified collections of things found, or compiling records, oral or +written. Otherwise the excursion degenerates into a school treat without +its natural enjoyment. + +With regard to the inevitable gaps in the children's minds in connection +with the world of living things, such pictures as the following should +be in every town school: a pine wood, a rabbit warren, a natural pond, a +ditch and hedge, a hayfield in June, a wild daffodil patch, a sheet of +bluebells, a cornfield at different stages, an orchard in spring and in +autumn, and many others. These must be constantly used when they are +needed, and not misused in the artificial method known as "picture +talks." + +There is another side to nature work. Froebel says: "The things of +nature form a more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that +seen by Jacob; not a one-sided ladder leading in one direction, but an +all-sided one leading in all directions. Not in dreams is it seen; it is +permanent, it surrounds us on all sides." + +Froebel believed that contact with nature helps a child's realisation of +God, and any one who believes in early religious experience must agree; +a child's early questions and difficulties, as well as his early awe and +fear show it--he is probably nearer to God in his nature work than in +many of the _daily_ Scripture lessons. All his education should be +permeated by spiritual feeling, but there are some aspects in which the +realisation is clearer, and possibly his contact with nature stands out +as the highest in this respect. There is no conscious method or art in +bringing this about; the teacher must feel it and be convinced of it. + +Thus we come to the conclusion that the Nursery School nature work can +be safely left to look after itself, provided the surroundings are +satisfying and the children are free. + +In the transition and the junior school there should be no nature +lessons of the object lesson type, but plenty of nature work, leading to +talks, handwork, and poetry. The aim is not economic or informational at +this stage, but the development of pure appreciation and interest. There +can hardly be a regular place on the time-table for such irregular work, +comprising excursions, gardening, handwork, and literature at least, and +depending on the weather and the seasons. There should always be a +regular morning time for attending to plants and animals and for the +Nature Calendar, but no "living" teacher will be a slave to mere +time-table thraldom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +EXPERIENCES OF MATHEMATICAL TRUTHS + + +By means of toys, handwork and games, as well as various private +individual experiments, a child touches on most sides of mathematics in +the nursery class. In experimenting with bricks he must of necessity +have considered relative size, balance and adjustment, form and +symmetry; in fitting them back into their boxes some of the most +difficult problems of cubic content; in weighing out "pretence" sugar +and butter by means of sand and clay new problems are there for +consideration; in making a paper-house questions of measurement evolve. +This is all in the incidental play of the Nursery School, and yet we +might say that a child thus occupied is learning mathematics more than +anything else. Here, if he remained till six, he did a certain amount of +necessary counting, and he may have acquired skill in recognising +groups, he may have unconsciously and incidentally performed +achievements in the four rules, but never, of course, in any shortened +or technical form. Probably he knows some figures. It is best to give +these to a child when he asks for or needs them, as in the case of +records of games. On the other hand he may be content with strokes. +Various mathematical relationships are made clear in his games or trials +of strength, such as distance in relation to time or strength, weight in +relation to power and to balance, length and breadth in relation to +materials, value of material in relation to money or work. By means of +many of his toys the properties of solids have become working knowledge +to him. Here, then, is our starting-point for the transition period. + + +AFTER THE NURSERY STAGE + +Undoubtedly the aim of the transition class is partly to continue by +means of games and dramatic play the kind of knowledge gained in the +Nursery School; but it has also the task of beginning to organise such +knowledge, as the grouping into tens and hundreds. This organisation of +raw material and the presenting of shortened processes, as occur in the +first four rules, forms the work also of the junior school. To give to a +child shortened processes which he would be very unlikely to discover in +less than a lifetime, is simply giving him the experience of the race, +as primitive man did to his son. But the important point is to decide +when a child's discovery should end and the teacher's demonstration +begin. + +This is the period when we are accustomed to speak of beginning +"abstract" work; it is well to be clear what it means, and how it stands +related to a child's need for experience. When we leave the problems of +life, such as shopping, keeping records of games and making measurements +for construction; and when we begin to work with pure number, we are +said to be dealing with the abstract. Formerly dealing with pure number +was called "simple," and dealing with actual things, such as money and +measures, "compound," and they were taken in this order. But experience +has reversed the process, and a child comes to see the need of abstract +practice when he finds he is not quick enough or accurate enough, or his +setting out seems clumsy, in actual problems. This was discussed at +greater length in the chapter on Play. + +For instance, he might set down the points of a game by strokes, each +line representing a different opponent: + +John |||||||||||||||| + +Henry ||||||||||| + +Tom ||| + +He will see how difficult it is to estimate at a glance the exact score, +and how easy it is to be inaccurate. It seems the moment to show him +that the idea of grouping or enclosing a certain number, and always +keeping to the same grouping, is helpful: + +John |||||||||| |||||| = 1 ten and 6 singles. + +Henry |||||||||| | = 1 ten and 1 single. + +Tom ||| = 3 singles. + +After doing this a good many times he could be told that this is a +universal method, and he would doubtless enjoy the purely puzzle +pleasure in working long sums to perfect practice. This pleasure is very +common in children at this stage, but too often it comes to them merely +through being shown the "trick" of carrying tens. They have reached a +purely abstract point, but they cannot get through it without some more +material help. The following is an example of the kind of help that can +be given in getting clear the concept of the ten grouping and the +processes it involves: + +[Illustration: Board with hooks, in ranks of nine, and rings] + +The whole apparatus is a rectangular piece of wood about 3/4 of an inch +thick, and about 3x1-1/2 feet of surface. It is painted white, and the +horizontal bars are green, so that the divisions may be apparent at a +distance; it has perpendicular divisions breaking it up into three +columns, each of which contains rows of nine small dresser hooks. It can +be hung on an easel or supported by its own hinge on a table. Each of +the divisions represents a numerical grouping, the one on the right is +for singles or units, the central one for tens, and the left side one +for hundreds: the counters used are button moulds, dipped in red ink, +with small loops of string to hang on the hooks: it is easily seen by a +child that, after nine is reached, the units can no longer remain in +their division or "house," but must be gathered together into a bunch +(fastened by a safety pin) and fixed on one of the hooks of the middle +division. + +Sums of two or three lines can thus be set out on the horizontal bars, +and in processes of addition the answer can be on the bottom line. It is +very easy, by this concrete means, to see the process in subtraction, +and indeed the whole difficulty of dealing with ten is made concrete. +The whole of a sum can be gone through on this board with the +button-moulds, and on boards and chalk with figures, side by side, thus +interpreting symbol by material; but the whole process is abstract. + +The piece of apparatus is less abstract only in degree than the figures +on the blackboard, because neither represents real life or its problems: +in abstract working we are merely going off at a side issue for the sake +of practice, to make us more competent to deal with the economic affairs +of life. There is a place for sticks and counters, and there is a place +for money and measures, but they are not the same: the former represents +the abstract and the latter the concrete problem if used as in real +life: the bridge between the abstract and the concrete is largely the +work of the transition class and junior school, in respect of the +foundations of arithmetic known as the first four rules. + +Games of skill, very thorough shopping or keeping a bankbook, or selling +tickets for tram or train, represent the kind of everyday problem that +should be the centre of the arithmetic work at this transition stage; +and out of the necessities of these problems the abstract and +semi-abstract work should come, but it should _never_ precede the real +work. A real purpose should underlie it all, a purpose that is apparent +and stimulating enough to produce willing practice. A child will do much +to be a good shopkeeper, a good tram conductor, a good banker; he will +always play the game for all it is worth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +EXPERIENCES BY MEANS OF DOING + + +In the Nursery School activity is the chief characteristic: one of its +most usual forms is experimenting with tools and materials, such as +chalk, paints, scissors, paper, sand, clay and other things. The desire +to experiment, to change the material in some way, to gratify the +senses, especially the muscular one, may be stronger than the desire to +construct. The handwork play of the Nursery School is therefore chiefly +by means of imitation and experiment, and direct help is usually quite +unwelcome to the child under six. There is little more to be said in the +way of direction than, "Provide suitable material, give freedom, and +help, if the child wants it." But the case is rather different in the +transitional stage. As the race learnt to think by doing, so children +seem to approach thought in that way; they have a natural inclination to +do in the first case; they try, do wrongly, consider, examine, observe, +and do again: for example, a girl wants to make a doll's bonnet like the +baby's; she begins impulsively to cut out the stuff, finds it too small, +tries to visualise the right size, examines the real bonnet, and makes +another attempt. At some apparently odd moment she stumbles on a truth, +perhaps the relation of one form to another in the mazes of +bonnet-making; it is at these odd moments that we learn. Or a boy may be +painting a Christmas card, and in another odd moment he may _feel_ +something of the beauty of colour, if, for example, he is copying +holly-berries. No purposeless looking at them would have stirred +appreciation. Whether the end is doing, or whether it is thinking, the +two are inextricably connected; in the earlier stages the way to know +and feel is very often by action, and here is the basis of the maxim +that handwork is a method. + +This idea has often been only half digested, and consequently it has led +to a very trivial kind of application; a nature lesson of the "look and +say" description has been followed by a painting lesson; a geography +lesson, by the making of a model. If the method of learning by doing was +the accepted aim of the teacher then it was not carried out, for this is +learning and then doing, not learning for the purpose of doing, but +doing for the purpose of testing the learning, which is quite another +matter, and not a very natural procedure with young children. Many +people have tried to make things from printed directions, a woman may +try to make a blouse and a man to make a knife-box; their procedure is +not to separate the doing and the learning process; probably they have +first tried to do, found need for help, and gone to the printed +directions, which they followed side by side with the doing; and in the +light of former failures or in the course of looking or of +experimenting, they stumbled upon knowledge: this is learning by doing. + +Therefore the making of a box may be arithmetic, the painting of a +buttercup may be nature study, the construction of a model, or of +dramatic properties may be geography or history, not by any means the +only way of learning, but one of the earlier ways and a very sound way; +there is a purpose to serve behind it all, that will lead to very +careful discrimination in selection of knowledge, and to pains taken to +retain it. If this is fully understood by a teacher and she is content +to take nature's way, and abide for nature's time to see results, then +her methods will be appropriately applied: she will see that she is not +training a race of box-makers, but that she is guiding children to +discover things that they need to know in a natural way, and ensuring +that as these facts are discovered they shall be used. Consequently +neither haste nor perfection of finish must cloud the aim; it is not the +output that matters but the method by which the children arrive at the +finished object, not forty good boxes, but forty good thinkers. Dewey +has put it most clearly when he says that the right test of an +occupation consists "in putting the maximum of consciousness into +whatever is done." Froebel says, "What man tries to represent or do he +begins to understand." + +This is what we should mean by saying that handwork is a method of +learning. + +But handwork has its own absolute place as well. A child wants to +acquire skill in this direction even more consciously than he wants to +learn: if he has been free, in the nursery class, to experiment with +materials, and if he knows some of his limitations, he is now, in the +transition class, ready for help, and he should get it as he needs it. +This may run side by side with the more didactic side of handwork which +has been described, but it is more likely that in practice the two are +inextricably mixed up; and this does not matter if the two ends are +clear in the teacher's mind; both sides have to be reckoned with. + +The important thing to know is the kind of help that should be given, +and when and how it is needed. It is well to remember that in this +connection a child's limitations are not final, but only mark stages: +for example, in his early attempts to use thick cardboard he cannot +discover the neat hinge that is made by the process known as a +"half-cut"; he tries in vain to bend the cardboard, so as to secure the +same result. There are two ways of helping him: either he can be quite +definitely shown and made to imitate, or he can be set to think about +it; he is given a cardboard knife and allowed to experiment: if he +fails, it may be suggested that a clean edge can only be got by some +form of cutting; probably he will find out the rest of the process. The +second method is the better one, because it promotes thinking, while the +first only promotes pure imitation and the habit of reckoning on this +easy solution of difficulties. A dull child may have to be shown, but +there are few such children, unless they have been trained to dulness. + +Imitation is not, however, always a medicine for dulness, nor does it +always produce dulness. There is a time for imitation and there is a +kind of imitation that is very intelligent. For example, a child may +come across a toy aeroplane and wish to make one; he will examine it +carefully, think over the uses of parts and proceed to make one as like +it as possible: here again is the maximum of consciousness, the essence +of thinking. Or the imitation may consist in following verbal +directions: this is far from easy if the teacher is at all vague, and +promotes valuable effort if she is clear but not diffuse: the putting of +words into action necessitates a considerable amount of imagining, and +the establishment of very important associations in brain centres. Such +cases might occur in connection with weaving, cardboard and paper work, +or the more technical processes of drawing and painting, where race +experience is actually _given_ to a child, by means of which he leaps +over the experiences of centuries. This is progress. + +If a teacher is to take handwork seriously, and not as a pretty +recreation with pleasing results, she should be fully conscious of all +that it means, and apply this definitely in her work: it is so easy to +be trivial while appearing to be thorough by having well-finished work +produced, which has necessitated little hard thinking on the child's +part. Construction gives a sense of power, a strengthening of the will, +ability to concentrate on a purpose in learning, a social sense of +serviceableness, a deepened individuality: but this can only be looked +for if a child is allowed to approach it in the right way, first as an +experimenter and investigator, or as an artist, and afterwards as a +learner, who is also an individual, and learns in his own way and at his +own rate: but if the teacher's ambition is external and economic then +the child is a tool in her hands, and will remain a tool. We cannot +expect the fruits of the spirit if our goal is a material one. + +One of the lessons of the war is economy. In handwork this has come to +us through the quest for materials, but it has been a blessing, if now +and then in disguise. In the more formal period of handwork only +prepared, almost patented material was used; everything was +"requisitioned" and eager manufacturers supplied very highly finished +stuff. Not very many years ago, the keeper of a "Kindergarten" stall at +an exhibition said, while pointing to cards cut and printed with +outlines for sewing and pricking, "We have so many orders for these that +we can afford to lay down considerable plant for their production." An +example in another direction is that of a little girl who attended one +of the best so-called Kindergartens of the time: she was afflicted, +while at home, with the "don't know what to do" malady; her mother +suggested that she might make some of the things she made at school, but +she negatived that at once with the remark, "I couldn't do that, you +see, because we have none of the right kind of stuff to make them of +here." + +It is quite unnecessary to give more direct details as to the kind of +work suitable and the method of doing it; more than enough books of help +have been published on every kind of material, and it might perhaps be +well if we made less use of such terms as "clay-modelling," +"cardboard-work," "raffia," and took handwork more in the sense of +constructive or expressive work, letting the children select one or +several media for their purpose; they ought to have access to a variety +of material; and except when they waste, they should use it freely. It +is limiting and unenlightened to put down a special time for the use of +special material, if the end might be better answered by something else: +if modelling is at 11.30 on Monday and children are anxious to make +Christmas presents, what law in heaven or earth are we obeying if we +stick to modelling except the law of Red Tape. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +EXPERIENCES OF THE LIFE OF MAN + + +This aspect of experience comes in two forms, the life of man in the +past, with the memorials and legacies he has left, and the life of man +in the present under the varying conditions of climate and all that it +involves. In other words these experiences are commonly known as history +and geography, though in the earlier stages of their appearance in +school it is perhaps better to call the work--preparation for history +and geography. They would naturally appear in the transition or the +junior class, preferably in the latter, but they need not be wholly new +subjects to a child; his literature has prepared him for both; to some +extent his experiments in handwork have prepared him for history, while +his nature work, especially his excursions and records, have prepared +him for geography. That he needs this extension of experience can be +seen in his growing demands for true stories, true in the more literal +sense which he is coming fast to appreciate; undoubtedly most children +pass through a stage of extreme literalism between early childhood and +what is generally recognised as boyhood and girlhood. They begin to ask +questions regarding the past, they are interested in things from +"abroad," however vague that term may be to them. + +Perhaps it will be best to treat the two subjects separately, though +like all the child's curriculum at this stage they are inextricably +confused and mingled both with each other, and with literature, as +experiences of man's life and conduct. + +The beginnings of geography lie in the child's foundations of +experience. Probably the first real contact, unconscious though it may +be, that any child has in this connection is through the production of +food and clothing. A country child sees some of the beginnings of both, +but it is doubtful how much of it is really interpreted by him; the +village shop with its inexhaustible stores probably means much more in +the way of origins, and he may never go behind its contents in his +speculations. It is true he sees milking, harvesting, sheep-shearing, +and many other operations, but he often misses the stage between the +actual beginning and the finished product--between the wool on the +sheep's back and his Sunday clothes, between the wheat in the field and +his loaf of bread. The town child has many links if he can use them: the +goods train, the docks, the grocer's, green-grocer's or draper's shop, +foreigners in the street, the vans that come through the silent streets +in the early morning; in big towns, such markets as Covent Garden or +Leadenhall or Smithfield; such a river as the Thames, Humber or +Mersey--from any one of these beginnings he can reach out from his own +small environment to the world. A town child has very confused notions +of what a farm really means to national life, and a country child of +what a big railway station or dock involves. All children need to know +what other parts of their own land look like, and what is produced; they +ought to trace the products within reach to their origin, and this will +involve descriptions of such things as fisheries at Hull or Aberdeen, +the coal mines of Wales or Lanarkshire, pottery districts of Stafford, +woollen and cotton factories of Yorkshire and Lancashire, mills driven +by steam, wind and water, lighthouses, the sheep-rearing districts of +Cumberland and Midlothian, the flax-growing of northern Ireland, and +much else, and the means of transit and communication between all these. +The children will gradually realise that many of the things they are +familiar with, such as tea, oranges, silk and sugar, have not been +accounted for, and this will take them to the lives of people in other +countries, the means of getting there, the time taken and mode of +travelling. They will also come to see that we do not produce enough of +the things that are possible to grow, such as wheat, apples, wool and +many other common necessaries, and that we can spare much that is +manufactured to countries that do not make them, such as boots, clothes, +china and cutlery. There will come a time when the need for a map is +apparent: that is the time to branch off from the main theme and make +one; it will have to be of the very immediate surroundings first, but it +is not difficult to make the leap soon to countries beyond. Previous to +the need for it, map-making is useless. + +This working outwards from actual experiences, from the home country to +the foreign, from actual contact with real things to things of +travellers' tales, is the only way to bring geography to the very door +of the school, to make it part of the actual life. + +The beginning of history, as of geography, lies in the child's +foundations of experience. In the country village he sees the church, +possibly some old cottages, or an Elizabethan or Jacobean house near; in +the churchyard or in the church the tombstones have quaint inscriptions +with reference possibly to past wars or to early colonisation. The slum +child on the other hand sees much that is worn out, but little that is +antiquated, unless the slum happen to be in such places as Edinburgh or +Deptford, situated among the remains of really fine houses: but he +realises more of the technicalities and officialism of a social system +than does the country child; the suburban child has probably the +scantiest store of all; his district is presumably made up of rows of +respectable but monotonous houses, and the social life is similarly +respectable and monotonous. + +There are certain cravings, interests and needs, common to all children, +which come regardless of surroundings. All children want to know certain +things about people who lived before them, not so much their great +doings as their smaller ones; they want to know what these people were +like, what they worked at, and learnt, how they travelled, what they +bought and sold: and there is undoubtedly a primitive strain in all +children that comes out in their love of building shelters, playing at +savages, and making things out of natural material. One of the most +intense moments in _Peter Pan_ to many children is the building of the +little house in the wood, and later on, of the other on the top of the +trees: that is the little house of their dreams. They are not interested +in constitutions or the making of laws; wars and invasions have much the +same kind of interest for them as the adventures of Una and the Red +Cross Knight. + +How are these cravings usually satisfied in the early stages of history +teaching of to-day? As a rule a series of biographies of notable people +is given, regardless of chronology, or the children's previous +experiences, and equally careless of the history lessons of the future; +Joan of Arc, Alfred and the Cakes, Gordon of Khartoum, Boadicea, +Christopher Columbus, Julius Caesar, form a list which is not at all +uncommon; there is no leading thread, no developing idea, and the old +test, "the children like it," excuses indolent thinking. On the other +hand, the desire to know more of the Robinson Crusoe mode of life has +been apparent to many teachers for some time, but the material at their +disposal has been scanty and uncertain. It is to Prof. Dewey that we owe +the right organisation of this part of history. He has shown that it is +on the side of industry, the early modes of weaving, cooking, lighting +and heating, making implements for war and for hunting, and making of +shelters, that prehistoric man has a real contribution to give: but for +the beginnings of social life, for realisation of such imperishable +virtues as courage, patriotism and self-sacrifice, children must go to +the lives of real people and gradually acquire the idea that certain +things are, so to speak, from "everlasting to everlasting," while others +change with changing and growing circumstances. + +The prehistoric history should be largely concerned with doing and +experimenting, with making weapons, or firing clay, or weaving rushes, +or with visits to such museums as Horniman's at Forest Hill. The early +social history may well take the form best suited to the child, and not +appeal merely to surface interest. And the spirit in which the lives of +other people are presented to children must not be the narrow, +prejudiced, insular one, so long associated with the people of Great +Britain, which calls other customs, dress, modes of: living, "funny" or +"absurd" or "extraordinary," but rather the scientific spirit that +interprets life according to its conditions and so builds up one of its +greatest laws, the law of environment. + +The geography syllabus, even more than the history one, depends for its +beginnings at least on the surroundings of the school--out of the mass +of possible materials a very rich and comprehensive syllabus can be +made, beginning with any one of the central points already suggested. +Above all there should be plenty of pictures, not as amplification, but +as material, by means of which a child may interpret more fully; a +picture should be of the nature of a problem or of a map--and picture +reading should be in the junior school what map reading is in the upper +school. + +In both history and geography the method is partly that of discovery; +especially is this the case in that part of history which deals with +primitive industries, and in almost the whole of the geography of this +period. The teacher is the guide or leader in discovery, not the +story-teller merely, though this may be part of his function. + +The following is a small part of a syllabus to show how geography and +history material may grow naturally out of the children's experiences. +It is meant in this case for children in a London suburb, with no +particular characteristics:-- + + +GEOGRAPHY + +It grows out of the shops of the neighbourhood and the adjoining railway +system. + + _Home-produced Goods_-- + + A. The green-grocer's shop. + Tracing of fruit to its own home source, or to a foreign country. + Home-grown fruit. The fruit farm, garden, orchard, and wood. + The packing and sending of fruit.--Railway lines. + Covent Garden; the docks; fruit stalls; jam factories. + + B. A grocer's or corn-chandler's shop. + Flour and oatmeal traced to their sources. + The farm. A wheat and grain farm at different seasons. A dairy farm + and a sheep farm. + A mill and its processes. + Woollen factories. + A dairy. Making of butter and cheese + Distribution of these goods. + + C. A china shop, leading to the pottery district and making of pottery. + + _Foreign Goods_-- + + Furs--Red Indians and Canada. + Dates--The Arabs and the Sahara. + Cotton--The Negroes and equatorial regions. + Cocoa--The West Indies. + The transit of these, their arrival and distribution. + +[The need for a map will come early in the first part of the course, and +the need for a globe in the second.] + + +HISTORY + +This grows naturally out of the geography syllabus and might be taken +side by side or afterwards. + + The development of industries. + The growth of spinning and weaving from the simplest processes, bringing + in the distaff, spinning-wheel, and loom. + The making of garments from the joining together of furs. + The growth of pottery and the development of cooking. + The growth of roads and means of transit. + +[This will involve a good deal of experimental and constructive handwork.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +EXPERIENCES RECORDED AND PASSED ON + + +Reading and writing are held to have lifted man above the brute; they +are the means by which we can discover and record human experience and +progress, and as such their value is incalculable. But in themselves +they are artificial conventions, symbols invented for the convenience of +mankind, and to acquire them we need exercise no great mental power. A +good eye and ear memory, and a certain superficial quickness to +recognise and apply previous knowledge, is all that is needed for +reading and spelling; while for writing, the development of a +specialised muscular skill is all that is necessary. In themselves they +do not as a rule hold any great interest for a child: sometimes they +have the same puzzle interest as a long addition sum, and to children of +a certain type, mechanical work such as writing gives relief; one of the +most docile and uninteresting of little boys said that writing was his +favourite subject, and it was easy to understand: he did not want to be +stirred out of his commonplaceness; unconsciously he had assimilated the +atmosphere and adopted the standards of his surroundings, which were +monotonous and commonplace in the extreme, and so he desired no more +adventurous method of expression than the process of writing, which he +could do well. Imitation is often a strong incentive to reading, it is +part of the craving for grown-upness to many children; they desire to +do what their brothers and sisters can do. But _during the first stage +of childhood, roughly up to the age of six or even later, no child needs +to learn to read or write, taking "need" in the psychological sense:_ +that period is concerned with laying the foundation of real things and +with learning surroundings;--any records of experience that come to a +child can come as they did to his earliest forefathers--by word of +mouth. When he wants to read stories for himself, or write his own +letters, then he is impelled by a sufficiently strong aim or incentive +to make concentration possible, without resorting to any of the +fantastic devices and apparatus so dear to so many teachers. Indeed it +is safe to say of many of these devices that they prove the fact that +children are not ready for reading. + +When a child is ready to read and write the process need not be a long +one: by wise delay many tedious hours are saved, tedious to both teacher +and children; they have already learnt to talk in those precious hours, +to discriminate sounds as part of language training, but without any +resort to symbols--merely as something natural. It has been amply proved +that if a child is not prematurely forced into reading he can do as much +in one year as he would have done in three, under more strained +conditions. + +With regard to methods a great deal has been written on the subject; it +is pretty safe to leave a teacher to choose her own--for much of the +elaboration is unnecessary if reading is rightly delayed, and if a child +can read reasonably well at seven and a half there can be no grounds for +complaint. If his phonetic training has been good in the earlier stages +of language, then this may be combined with the "look and say" method, +or method of reading by whole words. The "cat on the mat" type of book +is disappearing, and its place is being taken by books where the subject +matter is interesting and suitable to the child's age; but as in other +subjects the book chosen should be considered in reference to the +child's surroundings, either to amplify or to extend. + +Writing is, in the first instance, a part of reading: when words are +being learnt they must be written, or in the earliest stages printed, +but only those interesting to the children and written for some definite +purpose should be selected: a great aid to spelling is transcription, +and children are always willing to copy something they like, such as a +verse of poetry, or their name and address. As in arithmetic and in +handwork, they will come to recognise the need for practice, and be +willing to undergo such exercise for the sake of improvement, as well as +for the pleasure in the activity--which actual writing gives to some +children. + +We must be quite clear about relative values. Reading and writing are +necessities, and the means of opening up to us things of great value; +but the art of acquiring them is of little intrinsic value, and the +recognition of the need is not an early one; nothing is gained by +beginning too early, and much valuable time is taken from other +activities, notably language. The incentive should be the need that the +child feels, and when this is evident time and pains should be given to +the subject so that it maybe quickly acquired. But the art of reading is +no test of intelligence, and the art of writing is no test of original +skill. _The claims of the upper departments must be resisted._ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER + + +The _first_ thing that matters is what is commonly called the +personality of the teacher; she must be a person, unmistakable from +other persons, and not a type; what she has as an individual, of gifts +or goodness, she should give freely, and give in her own way; that she +should be trained is, of course, as indisputable as the training of a +doctor, but her training should have deepened her personality. +Pestalozzi's curriculum and organisation left much to be desired; what +he has handed down to us came from himself and his own experience, not +from anything superimposed: records of his pupils constantly emphasise +this: it was his goodness assimilated with his outlook on life and +readiness to learn by experience, that mattered, and it was this that +remained with his pupils. The teacher's own personality must dominate +her choice of principles else she is a dead method, a machine, and not a +living teacher. She must not keep her interests and gifts for +out-of-school use; if she has a sense of humour she must use it, if she +is fond of pretty clothes she must wear them in school, if she +appreciates music she must help her class to do the same, if she has +dramatic gifts she must act to them. Her standard of goodness must be +high, and she must be strong enough to adopt it practically, so that she +is unconscious of it: goodness and righteousness are as essential as +health to a teacher: for something intangible passes from the teacher +to her children, however young and unconscious they may be, and nothing +can awaken goodness but goodness. + +Part of her personality is her attitude towards religion. It is +difficult to think of a teacher of young children who is not religious, +_i.e._ whose conduct is not definitely permeated by her spiritual life: +young children are essentially religious, and the life of the spirit +must find a response in the same kind of intangible assumption of its +existence as goodness. No form of creed or dogma is meant, only the life +of the spirit common to all. But of course there may be people who +refuse to admit this as a necessity. + +The _next_ thing that matters is that all children must be regarded as +individuals: there has been much more talk of this lately, but practical +difficulties are often raised as a bar. If teachers and parents continue +to accept the conditions which make it difficult, such as large classes, +and a need to hasten, there will always be a bar: if individuality is +held as one of the greatest things in education, authorities cannot +continue to economise so as to make it impossible. It is the individual +part of each child that is his most precious possession, his immortal +side: Froebel calls it his "divine essence," and makes the cultivation +of it the aim of education; he is right, and any more general aim will +lead only to half-developed human beings. If we accept the principle +that only goodness is fundamental and evil a distortion of nature, we +need have no fear about cultivating individuals. Every doctor assures us +that all normal babies are naturally healthy; they are also naturally +good, but evil is easily aroused by arbitrary interference or by +mismanagement. + +The _third_ thing that matters belongs more especially to the +intellectual life; it might be described as the making of right +associations. More than any other side of training, the making of +associations means the making of the intelligent person. To see life in +patches is to see pieces of a great picture by the square inch, and +never to see the relationship of these to each other--never to see the +whole. + +The _fourth_ thing that matters is the making of good and serviceable +habits: much has been said on this, in connection with the nursery +class, and it is at that stage that the process is most important, but +it should never cease. If a child is to have time and opportunity to +develop his individuality he must not be hampered by having to be +conscious of things that belong to the subconscious region. To start a +child with a foundation of good habits is better than riches. + +The _fifth_ thing that matters is the realisation by teachers that +_opportunities_ matter more than results; opportunities to discover, to +learn, to comprehend all sides of life, to be an individual, to +appreciate beauty, to go at one's own rate; some are material in their +nature, such as the actual surroundings of the child in school; others +are rather in the atmosphere, such as refraining from interference, +encouragement, suggestion, spirituality. The teacher has the making of +opportunities largely in her own hands. + +The _sixth_ thing, that matters is the cultivation of the divine gift of +imagination; both morality and spirituality spring from this; meanness, +cowardice, lack of sympathy, sensuality, materialism, quickly grow where +there is no imagination. It refines and intensifies personality, it +opens a door to things beyond the senses. It makes possible appreciation +of the things of the spirit, and appreciation is a thousand times more +important than knowledge. + +The _last_ thing that matters is the need for freedom from bondage, of +the body and of the soul. Only from a free atmosphere can come the best +things--personality, imagination and opportunity; and all are great +needs, but the greatest of all is freedom. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +FROEBEL. The Education of Man. (Appleton.) +MACDOUGALL. Social Psychology. (Methuen.) +GROOS. The Play of Man. (Heinemann.) +DRUMMOND. An Introduction to Child Study. (Arnold.) +KIRKPATRICK. Fundamentals of Child Study. (Macmillan.) +DEWEY. The School and the Child. (Blackie.) +The Dewey School. (The Froebel Society.) +STANLEY HALL. Aspects of Education. +FINDLAY. School and Life. (G. Philip & Son.) +SULLY. Children's Ways. (Longmans.) +CALDWELL COOK. The Play Way. (Heinemann.) +E.R. MURRAY. Froebel as a Pioneer in Modern Psychology. (G. Philip & Son.) +Edited by H. BROWN SMITH. Education by Life. (G. Philip & Son.) +MARGARET DRUMMOND. The Dawn of Mind. (Arnold.) +BOYD. From Locke to Montessori. (Harrap.) +KILPATRICK. Montessori Examined. (Constable.) +WIGGIN. Children's Rights. (Gay & Hancock.) +BIRCHENOUGH. History of Elementary Education. (Univ. Tutorial Press.) +MACMILLAN. The Camp School. (Allen & Unwin.) +HARDY. The Diary of a Free Kindergarten. (Gay & Hancock.) +SCOTT. Social Education. (Ginn.) +TYLOR. Anthropology. (Macmillan.) +KINGSTON QUIGGIN. Primeval Man. (Macdonald & Evans.) +SOLOMON. An Infant School. (The Froebel Society.) +FELIX KLEIN. Mon Filleul au Jardin d'Enfants. I. Comment il s'élève. + II. Comment il s'instruit. (Armand Colin, Paris.) +E. NESBIT. Wings and the Child. (Hodder and Stoughton.) +WELLS. Floor Games. (Palmer.) +RUSKIN. The Two Paths. +DOPP. The Place of Industries in Industrial Education. (Univ. of Chicago + Press.) +PRITCHARD AND ASHFORD. An English Primary School. (Harrap.) +HALL. Days before History. (Harrap.) +HALL. The Threshold of History. (Harrap.) +SPALDING. Piers Plowman Histories. Junior. Bk. II. (G. Philip & Son.) +SHEDLOCK. The Art of Story-telling. +BRYANT. How to Tell Stories. (Harrap.) +KLEIN. De ce qu'il faut raconter aux petits. (Blond et Gay.) +The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze. (Constable.) +FINDLAY. Eurhythmics. (Dalcroze Society.) +WHITE. A Course in Music. (Camb. Univ. Press.) +STANLEY HALL. How to Teach Reading. (Heath.) +BENCHARA BRANFORD. A Study of Mathematical Education. +Fielden Demonstration School Record II. (Manchester Univ. Press.) +PUNNETT. The Groundwork of Arithmetic. (Longmans.) +ASHFORD. Sense Plays and Number Plays. (Longmans.) + + + + +INDEX + + +Abrahall, Miss H., +Adam and Eve question, +Adler, Dr. Felix, +Aim of education and of human life, +America, Kindergartens in, +Anderson, Professor A., +Animals and nature study, +Apparatus. _See_ Equipment +Arithmetic, + transition class, +Arnswald, Colonel von, +Art training, drawing, etc., + _See also_ Colour, Rhythm, etc., +Assistance, warning, + +"Baby Camp", +Barnard, Dr. H., +Barnes, Prof. Earl, +Beauty, + conduct, appreciation of beauty in, + _See also_ Colour, Rhythm, etc. +Beer, Miss H., notes of, +Beresford's _Housemates_, description of a suburb, +Bergson, +Bermondsey Settlement Free Kindergarten, +Biological view of education, +Birchenough, +Bird, Mr., and his family, +Birmingham Kindergartens, +Bishop, Miss Caroline, +Blankenberg Kindergarten, +Blow, Miss, +Bradford Joint Conference, +Brock, Mr. Clutton, quotations, etc., +Brooke, Stopford, +Brown, Frances, _Grannie's Wonderful Chair_, +Browning, +Brown's _Young Artists' Headers_, +Buckton, Miss, +Buildings. _See_ Equipment and Surroundings +Caldecott Nursery School, +Camp School, +Child study, +Class discipline, +Cleanliness and order, +Clough, A.H., +Clouston, Dr., +Colour, +Comenius, +Conduct-- + aim of education, + experiences of--_See also_ Moral Teaching +Connectedness, continuity. _See_ Unity +Constructive play, + varieties of _making_--_See also_ Handwork +Cook, Mr. Caldwell, _The Play Way_, etc., +Cooke, Mr. E., +Cooking, +Co-operation in play, +Correlation, + Infant School programme in Transition period, + present-day Infant Schools, +Country child, +Country life for the child, +Crane, Walter, +Creation. _See_ Constructive Play +Crèche. _See_ Nursery School +Curriculum-- + principle guiding selection, + transition class, + +Daleroze, M. Jacques, rhythmic training, +Dale, Miss, phonic reading books, +Decimal system, +Definition of education, +Desert island play, +Dewey, Prof., quotations, etc., +Dickens on "Infant Gardens," +Discipline, +Docility _v_. self-control, +Dopp Series, +Dramatic play, +Drawing, +Drill _v_. games, +Drummond, Dr., + +Ebers, +Edinburgh, Free Kindergartens, +Education Act of 1870, + of 1919, +_Education by Life,_ +_Education of Man,_ +Environment-- + school equipment, etc. _See_ Equipment + source of child's experience, +Equipment and surroundings, + miniature world, + Montessori didactic apparatus, + transition classes and Junior School, +Ewing, Mrs., stories of, +Experience, education by means of, + child's desires and needs, + grouping subjects of experience, + material and opportunities, + morality and indirect experiences, + passing on experience, + +Fairy tales, +Field, Eugene, verses of, +Findlay, Miss, +Fisher, Mr., +Fleming, Marjorie, +_Floor Games_, +Flowers and plants, 93, 201. _See also_ Garden, Nature Work +Folsung, +Formalism, +Freedom-- + apparent result at first, + definition, + Froebel on, + Montessori, Dr., work of, + vital principle, + warning against interference, +Freud, +Froebel and Froebelian principles-- + aim of education, + beauty, + biologist educator and Froebel, + definitions of Kindergarten, + excursions, + impression and expression, + Montessori and Froebelian systems, + society, +Furniture, _See also_ Equipment +Fyleman, Rose, _Chimney sand Fairies,_ + +Games, +Garden, + activities in a suburban garden, + best use of ground, + possibilities in difficult places, +Geography, + illustrative syllabus, +Glasgow, Phoenix Park Kindergarten, +Glenconner, Lady, +Grant, Miss, +Greenford Avenue School, Hanwell, +Groos, + +Habits, training in, + physical habits and fixed hours, +Hall, Stanley, references to, +Handwork, +Hansen, G., +Hardy, Miss L., +Heerwart, Miss, +Herb garden and sense training, +Herbartian "correlation", +Hewit, Mr. Graily, +High Schools for Girls, Kindergartens in, +History, + discipline in practical reasoning, + illustrative syllabus, + indirect sociology, + industrial, + practical details, + prehistoric, + stories, +Hodsman, Miss, +Hoffman, Mr., +Home surroundings, + reproduction in school, + source of child's experience, +Howden, Miss, +Humour, factor in morality, +_Hygiene of Mind_, + +Imagination and literature, +Imitative play, +Individual, child as, + _See also_ Freedom +Infant Schools, + early Infant Schools, + formalism, causes, etc., + Kindergarten system, perversion of, + present-day schools, + buildings, furniture, etc., + change in spirit since the 'eighties, effect of child study + movement, etc., + curriculum, lack of clear aim and continuity, + discipline, + formalism, promotion and uniformity, + health, care of, + teachers, training of, + transition period, +Instinct, +Interests of a child, +Interference, warning, +International Educational Exposition and Congress of 1854, +Investigation impulse, + +Junior School. _See_ Transition Classes and Junior School + +Keilhau, +Kindergarten Band, +Kindergartens, America, + first English, + Froebelian principles _See_ Froebel, + Germany, + _Kids' Guards_, + London School Board Infant Schools, proposed introduction, + perversion of system in Infant Schools, + Schrader, Henrietta, work of, +Klein, Abbé, +Krause, + +Language training, + games for, +Lawrence, Miss Esther, +_Levana_, +Literature _See also_ Stories and Poetry +Lodge, Sir O., + +Macdonald, George, stories of, +Macdonald, Dr. Greville, +M'Millan, Miss Margaret, +Macpherson, Mr. Stewart, +_Magic Cities_, +Marenholz, Madame von, +Mathematics, + transition class, +Maufe, Miss, +Medical view of education, Dr. Montessori, +Meum and tuum training, +Miall, Mrs., +Michaelis, Madame, +Michaelis Nursery School, Notting Dale, +Middendorf, +Mission Kindergarten, +Moltke, von, +Montessori, Dr. Maria-- + Froebelian views of, + medical view of education, + play activities, failure to understand, +Moral teaching-- + humour as factor in morality, + _See also_ Religion, Service for the Community, Stories +Morgan, Lloyd, +_Mother Songs_, +Music, + Kindergarten Band, + +Name of school for little children and its importance, +Nature work, experiences of the natural world, + activities in a suburban garden, + aim of, + animals, + excursions, + movement _c._ 1890, + nature calendar, + object lesson and nature lesson, + pictures, use of, + plants and flowers, + religion and nature work, +Necessities of the Nursery School, + _See also_ Equipment and Principles +Nesbit, Mrs., _Magic Cities_, +Net beds, +Number work. _See_ Mathematics +Nursery rhymes and nonsense verses, +Nursery School-- + name question, + requirements of, + +Obedience _v._ self-control, +Oberlin schools, +Object lessons, +Observation of children, +Odds and ends, use of, +Open-air question, +Owen, Robert, "Rational Infant School", + +Paper-folding, +Parents' evenings, +Payne, Miss Janet, +Peabody, Miss, +Periods of a young child's life, +Pestalozzi, +Pestalozzi-Froebel House, +Phillips, Miss K., +Phonic method of teaching reading, +Physical requirements, +Picture books, +Pictures, +Play-- + biologist educator's view, + constructive, + co-operation in, + courage in the teacher, + definitions, + distinction from work, + Froebel's theory of, + practice at Keilhau, + imitative, + material, + Froebel's "Gifts," etc., + self-expression in, + theories of, + transition class, +_Play Way, The_, +Playground, equipment, etc., + garden essential, + transition class, +Poetry, +Poor and well-to-do children, different requirements, +Possession, child's need of, + meum and tuum training, +Preparation theory of play, +Priestman, Miss, +Principles, vital principles, +Pugh, Edwin, +Punnett, Miss, + +Reading and writing, + age for, + matter and methods, phonic method, etc., +Recapitulation theory of play, +Recreation theory of play, +Reed, Miss, +Religion, + age for first teaching, _See also_ Stories +Reproducing, _See_ Imitative Play +Results, payment by, +Rhythm and rhythmic training, +Robinson Crusoe stage of history teaching, +Ronge, Madame, +Rossetti, Christina, verses for children, +Rousseau, +Rowland, Miss, +Royee, Prof., + +St. Cuthbert, story of, +Salt, Miss Marie, +_Sayings of the Children_, +Schepel, Miss, +Schiller, _Letters on Aesthetic Education_, +Schiller-Spencer theory of play, +_School and Life_, +_Schools of To-morrow_, +Schrader, Henrietta, +Séguin, +Self-consciousness, +Self-control and external control, +Sense-training, + herb garden, +Service for the community, training to-- + Froebel and Montessori system, + games, social side, + idea of unity, + religion, part of, +Sesame House for Home-Life Training, +Sharpley, Miss F., +Shinn, Miss, +Sleep, provision for, +Slum child's experience, +Somers Town Nursery School, +Speech and vocabulary, +Spiritual life and stories, +Spontaneity in play, +Staff question, training, etc., + _See also_ Teachers +Stevenson, + nursery songs, +Stokes, Miss, +Stories and story-telling, + fairy tales, + how to tell, + illustrations, + made by children, + moral teaching, + religious teaching, + repetition or "accumulation" stories, + selection, + "true" stories--history, legend, geography, +_Story of a Sand Pile_, +Suburban child's experience, +Supernatural, the child's acceptance of, +Surroundings. _See_ Equipment and Surroundings + +Table manners, +Teacher-- + function, + personality question, + religion, + training, +Thornton-le-Dale Kindergarten, +Time-table thraldom, + instance from a teacher's note-book, +Tools, +Touch, sense of, +Toys, + transition classes and Junior School, + Wells, Mr., on, +Traherne, +Transition classes and Junior School, + bridge between freedom and timetable, + curriculum, + discipline, + equipment, etc., + freedom and class teaching, + handwork, + help, methods of, + imitation, + nature work, + play spirit, + +_Ultimate Belief_, +Uniformity in Infant Schools, +Unity of aim and unity in experience, + cases illustrating problem, + previous experience of the child, basing curriculum on, + +War, effect on Nursery School movement, +Warne, illustrated stories for children, +Water, attraction of, +_Water-Babies_, +Wells, Mr., +_What is a Kindergarten?_, +"When can I make my little Ship?", +Wiggin, Miss K.D., +Wilderspin's Infant School, +Windows, +Wordsworth, +Wragge, Miss Adelaide, +Writing. _See_ Reading and Writing + + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child Under Eight +by E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10042 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c712e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10042 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10042) diff --git a/old/10042-8.txt b/old/10042-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe08e4e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10042-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8147 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child Under Eight +by E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Child Under Eight + +Author: E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith + +Release Date: November 11, 2003 [EBook #10042] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD UNDER EIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan Lane, Anne Folland and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +THE MODERN EDUCATOR'S LIBRARY +_General Editor_.--Prof. A.A. COCK. + + + + +THE CHILD UNDER EIGHT + + + + +By + +E.R. Murray + +Vice-Principal Maria Grey Training College +Author Of "Froebel As A Pioneer In Modern Psychology," Etc. + + +AND + + +Henrietta Brown Smith + +Lecturer In Education, University Of London, Goldsmiths' College +Editor Of "Education By Life" + + + "Is it not marvellous that an infant should be the heir of + the whole world, and see those mysteries which the books of + the learned never unfold? I knew by intuition those things + which since my apostasy I collected again by highest + reason." + + THOMAS TRAHERNE. + + +1920 + + + + +THE MODERN EDUCATOR'S LIBRARY + + +_The following volumes are now ready, and others are in preparation_:-- + +Education: Its Data and First Principles. By T.P. NUNN, M.A., +D.Sc., Professor of Education in the University of London. + +Moral and Religious Education. By SOPHIE BRYANT, D.Sc., Litt.D., +late Headmistress, North London Collegiate School for Girls. + +The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in School and University. +By H.G. ATKINS, Professor of German in King's College, London; and H.L. +HUTTON, Senior Modern Language Master at Merchant Taylors' School. + +The Child under Eight. By E.R. MURRAY, Vice-Principal, Maria Grey +Training College, Brondesbury; and HENRIETTA BROWN SMITH, L.L.A., +Lecturer in Education, Goldsmiths' College, University of London. + +The Organisation and Curricula of Schools. By W.G. SLEIGHT, M.A., +D.Lit, Lecturer at Greystoke Place Training College, London. + + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + + +The _Modern Educator's Library_ has been designed to give considered +expositions of the best theory and practice in English education of +to-day. It is planned to cover the principal problems of educational +theory in general, of curriculum and organisation, of some unexhausted +aspects of the history of education, and of special branches of applied +education. + +The Editor and his colleagues have had in view the needs of young +teachers and of those training to be teachers, but since the school and +the schoolmaster are not the sole factors in the educative process, it +is hoped that educators in general (and which of us is not in some sense +or other an educator?) as well as the professional schoolmaster may find +in the series some help in understanding precept and practice in +education of to-day and to-morrow. For we have borne in mind not only +what is but what ought to be. To exhibit the educator's work as a +vocation requiring the best possible preparation is the spirit in which +these volumes have been written. + +No artificial uniformity has been sought or imposed, and while the +Editor is responsible for the series in general, the responsibility for +the opinions expressed in each volume rests solely with its author. + +ALBERT A. COOK. + +UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, KING'S COLLEGE. + + + + +AUTHORS' PREFACE + + +We have made this book between us, but we have not collaborated. We know +that we agree in all essentials, though our experience has differed. We +both desire to see the best conditions for development provided for all +children, irrespective of class. We both look forward to the time when +the conditions of the Public Elementary School, from the Nursery School +up, will be such--in point of numbers, in freedom from pressure, in +situation of building, in space both within and without, and in beauty +of surroundings--that parents of any class will gladly let their +children attend it. + +We are teachers and we have dealt mainly with the mental or, as we +prefer to call it, the spiritual requirements of children. It is from +the medical profession that we must all accept facts about food values, +hours of sleep, etc., and the importance of cleanliness and fresh air +are now fully recognised. We do, however, feel that there is room for +fresh discussion of ultimate aims and of daily procedure. Mr. Clutton +Brock has said that the great weakness of English education is the want +of a definite aim to put before our children, the want of a philosophy +for ourselves. Without some understanding of life and its purpose or +meaning, the teacher is at the mercy of every fad and is apt to exalt +method above principle. This book is an attempt to gather together +certain recognised principles, and to show in the light of actual +experience how these may be applied to existing circumstances. + +The day is coming when all teachers will seek to understand the true +value of Play, of spontaneous activity in all directions. Its importance +is emphasised in nearly all the educational writings of the day, as well +in the Senior as in the Junior departments of the school, but we need a +full and deep understanding of the saying, "Man is Man only when he +plays." It is easy to say we believe it, but it needs strong faith, +courage, and wide intelligence to weave such belief into the warp of +daily life in school. + +E.R. MURRAY. +H. BROWN SMITH. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I + +THE CHILD IN THE NURSERY AND KINDERGARTEN + +BY E. R. MURRAY + + +CHAP. + +I. "WHAT'S IN A NAME?" +II. THE BIOLOGIST EDUCATOR +III. LEARNING BORN OF PLAY +IV. FROM 1816 TO 1919 +V. "THE WORLD'S MINE OYSTER" +VI. "ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE" +VII. JOY IN MAKING +VIII. STORIES +IX. IN GRASSY PLACES +X. A WAY TO GOD +XI. RHYTHM +XII. FROM FANCY TO FACT +XIII. NEW NEEDS AND NEW HELPS + + +PART II + +THE CHILD IN THE STATE SCHOOL + +BY H. BROWN SMITH + + +I. THINGS AS THEY ARE + + XIV. CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWTH + XV. THE INFANT SCHOOL OF TO-DAY + XVI. SOME VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +II. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF VITAL PRINCIPLES + + XVII. THE NEED FOR EXPERIENCE + XVIII. GAINING EXPERIENCE BY PLAY + XIX. THE UNITY OF EXPERIENCE + XX. GAINING EXPERIENCE THROUGH FREEDOM + + +III. CONSIDERATION OF THE ASPECTS OF EXPERIENCE + + XXI. EXPERIENCES OF HUMAN CONDUCT. + XXII. EXPERIENCES OF THE NATURAL WORLD + XXIII. EXPERIENCES OF MATHEMATICAL TRUTHS + XXIV. EXPERIENCES BY MEANS OF DOING. + XXV. EXPERIENCES OF THE LIFE OF MAN + XXVI. EXPERIENCES RECORDED AND PASSED ON + XXVII. THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +INDEX + + + + +PART I + +THE CHILD IN THE NURSERY AND KINDERGARTEN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +"WHAT'S IN A NAME?" + + +It is an appropriate time to produce a book on English schools for +little children, now that Nursery Schools have been specially selected +for notice and encouragement by an enlightened Minister for Education. +It was Madame Michaelis, who in 1890 originally and most appropriately +used the term Nursery School as the English equivalent of a title +suggested by Froebel[1] for his new institution, before he invented the +word Kindergarten, a title which, literally translated, ran "Institution +for the Care of Little Children." + +[Footnote 1: Froebel's _Letters_, trans. Michaelis and Moore, p. 30.] + +In England the word Nursery, which implies the idea of nurture, belongs +properly to children, though it has been borrowed by the gardener for +his young plants. In Germany it was the other way round; Froebel had to +invent the term _child garden_ to express his idea of the nurture, as +opposed to the repression, of the essential nature of the child. +Unfortunately the word Kindergarten while being naturalised in England +had two distinct meanings attached to it. Well-to-do people began to +send their children to a new institution, a child garden or play school. +The children of the people, however, already attended Infant Schools, +of which the chief feature was what Mr. Caldwell Cook calls +"sit-stillery," and here the word Kindergarten, really equivalent to +Nursery School, became identified with certain occupations, childlike in +origin it is true, but formalised out of all recognition. How a real +Kindergarten strikes a child is illustrated by the recent remark from a +little new boy who had been with us for perhaps three mornings. "Shall I +go up to the nursery now?" he asked. + +The first attempt at a Kindergarten was made in 1837, and by 1848 +Germany possessed sixteen. In that eventful year came the revolution in +Berlin, which created such high hopes, doomed, alas! to disappointment. +"Instead of the rosy dawn of freedom," writes Ebers,[2] himself an old +Keilhau boy, "in the State the exercise of a boundless arbitrary power, +in the Church dark intolerance." It must have been an easy matter to +bring charges of revolutionary doctrines against the man who said so +innocently, "But I,--I only wanted to train up free-thinking, +independent men." + +[Footnote 2: Author of _An Egyptian Princess_, etc.] + +It was from "stony Berlin," as Froebel calls it, that the edict went +forth in the name of the Minister of Education entirely prohibiting +Kindergartens in Prussia, and the prohibition soon spread. At the +present time it seems to us quite fitting that the bitter attack upon +Kindergartens should have been launched by Folsung, a schoolmaster, "who +began life as an artilleryman." Nor is it less interesting to read that +it was under the protection of Von Moltke himself that Oberlin schools +were opened to counteract the attractions of the "godless" Kindergarten. + +Little wonder that the same man who in 1813 had so gladly taken up arms +to resist the invasion of Napoleon, and who had rejoiced with such +enthusiasm in the prospect of a free and united Fatherland, should write +in 1851: + +"Wherefore I have made a firm resolve that if the conditions of German +life will not allow room for the development of honest efforts for the +good of humanity; if this indifference to all higher things +continues--then it is my purpose next spring to seek in the land of +union and independence a soil where my idea of education may strike deep +root." + +And to America he might have gone had he lived, but he died three months +later, his end hastened by grief at the edict which closed the +Kindergartens. The Prussian Minister announced, in this edict, that "it +is evident that Kindergartens form a part of the Froebelian socialistic +system, the aim of which is to teach the children atheism," and the +suggestion that he was anti-Christian cut the old man to the heart. +There had been some confusion between Froebel and one of his nephews, +who had democratic leanings, and no doubt anything at all democratic did +mean atheism to "stony Berlin" and its intolerant autocracy. + +For a time, at least in Bavaria, a curious compromise was allowed. If +the teacher were a member of the Orthodox Church, she might have her +Kindergarten, but if she belonged to one of the Free Churches, it was +permissible to open an Infant School, but she must not use the term +Kindergarten. + +Froebel was by no means of the opinion that, if only the teacher had the +right spirit, the name did not matter. Rather did he hold with +Confucius, whose answer to the question of a disciple, "How shall I +convert the world?" was, "Call things by their right names." He refused +to use the word school, because "little children, especially those under +six, do not need to be schooled and taught, what they need is +opportunity for development." He had great difficulty in selecting a +name. Those originally suggested were somewhat cumbrous, e.g. +_Institution for the Promotion of Spontaneous Activity in Children_; +another was _Self-Teaching Institution_, and there was also the one +which Madame Michaelis translated "_Nursery School for Little +Children_." + +But the name Kindergarten expressed just what he Wanted: "As in a +garden, under God's favour, and by the care of a skilled intelligent +gardener, growing plants are cultivated in accordance with Nature's +laws, so here in our child garden shall the noblest of all growing +things, men (that is, children), be cultivated in accordance with the +laws of their own being, of God and of Nature." + +To one of his students he writes: "You remember well enough how hard we +worked and how we had to fight that we might elevate the Darmstadt +crèche, or rather Infant School, by improved methods and organisation +until it became a true Kindergarten.... Now what was the outcome of all +this, even during my own stay at Darmstadt? Why, the fetters which +always cripple a crèche or an Infant School, and which seem to cling +round its very name--these fetters were allowed to remain unbroken. +Every one was pleased with so faithful a mistress as yourself,... yet +they withheld from you the main condition of unimpeded development, that +of the freedom necessary to every young healthy and vigorous plant.... +Is there really such importance underlying the mere name of a +system?--some one might ask. Yes, there is.... It is true that any one +watching your teaching would observe _a new spirit_ infused into it, +_expressing and fulfilling the child's own wants and desires._ You would +strike him as personally capable, but you would fail to strike him as +priestess of the idea which God has now called to life within man's +bosom, and of the struggle towards the realisation of that +idea--_education by development--the destined means of raising the whole +human race...._ No man can acquire fresh knowledge, even at a school, +beyond the measure which his own stage of development fits him to +receive.... Infant Schools are nothing but a contradiction of +child-nature. Little children especially those under school age, ought +not to be schooled and taught, what they need is opportunity for +development. This idea lies in the very name of a Kindergarten.... And +the name is absolutely necessary to describe the first education of +children." + +For an actual definition of what Froebel meant by his Nursery School for +Little Children or Kindergarten, it is only fair to go to the founder +himself. He has left us two definitions or descriptions, one announced +shortly before the first Kindergarten was opened, which runs: + +"An institution for the fostering of human life, through the cultivation +of the human instincts of activity, of investigation and of construction +in the child, as a member of the family, of the nation and of humanity; +an institution for the self-instruction, self-education and +self-cultivation of mankind, as well as for all-sided development of the +individual through play, through creative self-activity and spontaneous +self-instruction." + +A second definition is given in Froebel's reply to a proposal that he +should establish "my system of education--education by development"--in +London, Paris or the United States: + +"We also need establishments for training quite young children in their +first stage of educational development, where their training and +instruction shall be based upon their own free action or spontaneity +acting under proper rules, these rules not being arbitrarily decreed, +but such as must arise by logical necessity from the child's mental and +bodily nature, regarding him as a member of the great human family; such +rules as are, in fact, discovered by the actual observation of children +when associated together in companies. These establishments bear the +name of Kindergartens." + +Unfortunately there are but few pictures of Froebel's own Kindergarten, +but there seems to have been little formality in its earliest +development. An oft-told story is that of Madame von Marenholz in 1847 +going to watch the proceedings of "an old fool," as the villagers called +him, who played games with the village children. A less well-known +account is given by Col. von Arnswald, again a Keilhau boy, who visited +Blankenberg in 1839, when Froebel had just opened his first +Kindergarten. + +"Arriving at the place, I found my Middendorf[3] seated by the pump in +the market-place, surrounded by a crowd of little children. Going near +them I saw that he was engaged in mending the jacket of a boy. By his +side sat a little girl busy with thread and needle upon another piece of +clothing; one boy had his feet in a bucket of water washing them +carefully; other girls and boys were standing round attentively looking +upon the strange pictures of real life before them, and waiting for +something to turn up to interest them personally. Our meeting was of the +most cordial kind, but Middendorf did not interrupt the business in +which he was engaged. 'Come, children,' he cried, 'let us go into the +garden!' and with loud cries of joy the little folk with willing feet +followed the splendid-looking, tall man, running all round him. + +[Footnote 3: One of Froebel's most devoted helpers.] + +"The garden was not a garden, however, but a barn, with a small room and +an entrance hall. In the entrance Middendorf welcomed the children and +played a round game with them, ending with the flight of the little ones +into the room, where each of them sat down in his place on the bench and +took his box of building blocks. For half an hour they were all busy +with their blocks, and then came 'Come, children, let us play "spring +and spring."' And when the game was finished they went away full of joy +and life, every one giving his little hand for a grateful good-bye." + +Here in this earliest of Free Kindergartens are certain essentials. +Washing and mending, the alternation of constructive play with active +exercise, rhythmic game and song, and last but not least human +kindliness and courtesy. The shelter was but a barn, but there are +things more important than premises. + +Froebel died too soon to see his ideals realised, but he had sown the +seed in the heart of at least one woman with brain to grasp and will to +execute. As early as 1873 the Froebelians had established something more +than the equivalent of the Montessori Children's Houses under the name +of Free Kindergartens or People's Kindergartens. It will bring this out +more clearly if, without referring here to any modern experiments in +America, in England and Scotland, or in the Dominions, we quote the +description of an actual People's Kindergarten or Nursery School as it +was established nearly fifty years ago. + +The moving spirit of this institution was Henrietta Schroder, Froebel's +own grand-niece, trained by him, and of whom he said that she, more than +any other, had most truly understood his views. + +The whole institution was called the Pestalozzi-Froebel House. The +Prussian edict, which abolished the Kindergarten almost before it had +started, was now rescinded, and our own Princess Royal[4] gave warm +support to this new institution. The description here quoted was +actually written in 1887, when the institution had been in existence for +fourteen years: + +[Footnote 4: The Crown Princess of Prussia, afterwards the Empress +Frederick.] + +"The purpose of the National Kindergarten is to provide the necessary +and natural help which poor mothers require, who have to leave their +children to themselves. + +"The establishment contains:-- + +"(1) The Kindergarten proper, a National Kindergarten with four classes +for children from 2-1/2 to 6 years old. + +"(2) The Transition Class, only held in the morning for children about 6 +or 6-1/2 years old. + +"(3) The Preparatory School, for children from 6 to 7 or 7-1/2 years +old. + +"(4) The School of Handwork, for children from 6 to 10 or older. + +"Dinners are provided for those children whose parents work all day away +from home at a trifling charge of a halfpenny and a penny. Also, for a +trifle, poor children may receive assistance of various kinds in +illness, or may have milk or baths through the kindness of the kindred +'Association for the Promotion of Health in the Household.' + +"In the institution we are describing there is a complete and +well-furnished kitchen, a bathroom, a courtyard with sand for digging, +with pebbles and pine-cones, moss, shells and straw, etc., a garden, and +a series of rooms and halls suitably furnished and arranged for games, +occupations, handwork and instruction. + +"The occupations pursued in the Kindergarten are the following: free +play of a child by itself; free play of several children by themselves; +associated play under the guidance of a teacher; gymnastic exercises; +several sorts of handwork suited to little children; going for walks; +learning music, both instrumental (on the method of Madame Wiseneder[5]) +and vocal; learning and repetition of poetry; story-telling; looking at +really good pictures; aiding in domestic occupations; gardening; and the +usual systematic ordered occupations of Froebel. Madame Schrader is +steadfastly opposed to that conception of the Kindergarten which insists +upon mathematically shaped materials for the Froebelian occupations. Her +own words are: 'The children find in our institution every encouragement +to develop their capabilities and powers by use; not by their selfish +use to their own personal advantage, but by their use in the loving +service of others. The longing to help people and to accomplish little +pieces of work proportioned to their feeble powers is constant in +children; and lies alongside of their need for that free and +unrestrained play which is the business of their life." + +[Footnote 5: From certain old photographs, I suppose this to have been +what we now call a Kindergarten Band.] + +"The elder children are expected to employ themselves in cleaning, +taking care of, arranging, keeping in order, and using the many various +things belonging to the housekeeping department of the Kindergarten; for +example, they set out and clear away the materials required for the +games and handicrafts; they help in cleaning the rooms, furniture and +utensils; they keep all things in order and cleanliness; they paste +together torn wallpapers or pictures, they cover books, and they help in +the cooking and in preparations for it; in laying the tables, in washing +up the plates and dishes, etc. The children gain in this manner the +simple but most important foundations of their later duties as +housekeepers and householders, and at the same time learn to regard +these duties as things done in the service of others." + +It is worth while to notice the order in which the necessities of this +place are described. First comes a kitchen and next a bathroom, then an +out-of-doors playground with abundant material for gaining ideas through +action--sand, pebbles, pine-cones, moss, shells and straw. Then comes +the garden, and only after all these, the rooms and halls for indoors +games, handwork and instruction. It is worth while also to note the +prominence given to play, music, poetry and story-telling pictures, +domestic occupations and gardening, all preceding the "systematic and +ordered occupations" which to some have seemed so all-important. + +If we compare this with the current ideas about Nursery Schools, we do +not find that it falls much below the present ideal. There has been a +time when some of us feared that only the bodily needs of the little +child were to be considered, but the "Regulations for Nursery Schools" +have banished such fear. In these the child is regarded as a human +being, with spiritual as well as bodily requirements. + +To put it shortly, the physical requirements of a child are food, fresh +air and exercise, cleanliness and rest. It is not so easy to sum up the +requirements of a human soul. The first is sympathy, and though this may +spring from parental instinct, it should be nourished by true +understanding. Next perhaps comes the need for material, material for +investigation, for admiration, for imitation and for construction or +creation. Power of sense-discrimination is important enough, but in this +case if we take care of the pounds of admiration and investigation, the +pence of sense-discrimination will take care of themselves. + +Besides these the child has the essentially human need for social +intercourse, for speech, for games, for songs and stories, for pictures +and poetry. He must have opportunity both to imitate and to share in the +work and life around him; he must be an individual among other +individuals, a necessary part of a whole, allowed to give as well as to +receive service. In the National Kindergarten of 1873 no one of these +requirements is overlooked except the provision for sleep, and from old +photographs we know that this, too, was considered. + +Nursery Schools are needed for children of all classes. It is not only +the children of the poor who require sympathy and guidance from those +specially qualified by real grasp of the facts of child-development. +Well-to-do mothers, too, often leave their children to ignorant and +untrained servants, or to the equally untrained and hardly less ignorant +nursery governess. + +Mothers in small houses have much to do; making beds and washing dishes, +sweeping and dusting, baking and cooking, making and mending, not to +mention tending an infant or tending the sick, leave little leisure for +sympathy with the adventuring and investigating propensities natural +and desirable in a healthy child between three and five. There are +innumerable Kindergartens open only in the morning for the children of +those who can afford to pay, and these could well be multiplied and +assisted just as far as is necessary. In towns, at least, mothers with +but small incomes would gladly pay a moderate fee to have their little +ones, especially their sturdy little boys, guarded from danger and +trained to good habits, yet allowed freedom for happy activity. + +Kindergartens and Nursery Schools ought to be as much as possible +fresh-air schools. They should never be large or the home atmosphere +must disappear. They should always have grassy spaces and common +flowers, and they ought to be within easy reach of the children's homes. + +There must for the present be certain differences between the Free +Kindergarten or Nursery School for the poor and for those whose parents +are fairly well-to-do. In both cases we must supply what the children +need. If the mother must go out to work, the child requires a home for +the day, and the Nursery School must make arrangements for feeding the +children. All little children are the better for rest and if possible +for sleep during the day; but for those who live in overcrowded rooms, +where quiet and restful sleep in good air is impossible, the need for +daily sleep is very great. All Free Kindergartens arrange for this. + +Most important also is the training to cleanliness. This is not +invariably the lot even of those who come from apparently comfortable +homes to attend fee-paying Kindergartens, and among the poor, +differences in respect of cleanliness are very great. But soap and hot +water do cost money and washing takes time, and the modern habit of +brushing teeth has not yet been acquired by all classes of the +community. The Free Kindergartens provide for necessary washing, each +child is provided with its own tooth-brush; and tooth-brush drill is a +daily practice, somewhat amusing to witness. The best baby rooms in our +Infant Schools carry out the same practices, and these are likely to be +turned into Nursery Schools. + +It cannot yet be accepted as conclusively proved that a completely +open-air life is the best in our climate. We have not yet sufficient +statistics. No doubt children do improve enormously in open-air camps, +but so they do in ordinary Nursery Schools, where they are clean, happy +and well fed, and where they live a regular life with daily sleep. +Housing conditions complicate the problem, and all children must suffer +who sleep in crowded, noisy, unventilated rooms. + +Up to the present time Nursery Schools have been provided by voluntary +effort entirely, and far too little encouragement has been given to +those enlightened headmistresses of Infant Schools who have tried to +give to their lowest classes Nursery School conditions. Since the +passing of Mr. Fisher's Education Bill, however, we are entitled to hope +that soon, for all children in the land, there may be the opportunity of +a fair start under the care of "a person with breadth of outlook and +imagination," the equivalent of Froebel's "skilled intelligent +gardener." + +In the following chapter an attempt is made to explain how it is that so +many years ago Froebel reached his vision of what a child is, and of +what a child needs, and the considerations on which he based his +"Nursery School for Little Children" or "Self-Teaching Institution." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BIOLOGIST EDUCATOR + + + Progress, man's distinctive mark alone, + Not God's, and not the beasts': God is, they are, + Man partly is and wholly hopes to be. + +"A large bright room, ... a sandheap in one corner, a low tub or bath of +water in another, a rope ladder, a swing, steps to run up and down and +such like, a line of black or green board low down round the wall, +little rough carts and trolleys, boxes which can be turned into houses, +or shops, or pretence ships, etc., a cooking stove of a very simple +nature, dolls of all kinds, wooden animals, growing plants in boxes, an +aquarium." + +Any Froebelian would recognise this as the description of a more or less +ideal Kindergarten or Nursery School, and yet the writer had probably +never read a page that Froebel wrote. On the contrary, she shows her +entire ignorance of the real Kindergarten by calling it "pretty +employments devised by adults and imposed at set times by authority." + +The description is taken from a very able address on "Child Nature and +Education" delivered some years ago by Miss Hoskyns Abrahall. It is +quoted here, because, for her conception of right surroundings for young +children, the speaker has gone to the very source from which Froebel +took his ideas--she has gone to what Froebel indeed called "the only +true source, life itself," and she writes from the point of view of the +biologist. + +There exists at present, in certain quarters, a belief that the +Kindergarten is old-fashioned, out of date, more especially that it has +no scientific basis. It is partly on this account that the ideas of Dr. +Maria Montessori, who has approached the question of the education of +young children from the point of view of medical science, have been +warmly welcomed by so large a circle. But neither in England nor in +America does that circle include the Froebelians, and this for several +reasons. For one thing, much that the general public has accepted as +new--and in this general public must be included weighty names, men of +science, educational authorities, and others who have never troubled to +inquire into the meaning of the Kindergarten--are already matters of +everyday life to the Froebelian. Among these comes the idea of training +to service for the community, and the provision of suitable furniture, +little chairs and tables, which the children can move about, and low +cupboards for materials, all of which tend to independence and +self-control. + +It is a more serious stumbling-block to the Froebelian that Dr. +Montessori, while advocating freedom in words, has really set strict +limits to the natural activities of children by laying so much stress on +her "didactic apparatus," the intention of which is formal training in +sense-discrimination. This material, which is an adaptation and +enlargement of that provided by Séguin for his mentally deficient +children, is certainly open to the reproach of having been "devised by +adults." It is formal, and the child is not permitted to use it for his +own purposes. + +Before everything else, however, comes the fact that in no place has Dr. +Montessori shown that she has made any study of play, or that she +attaches special importance to the play activities, or natural +activities of childhood, on which the Kindergarten is founded. This is +probably accounted for in that her first observations were made on +deficient children who are notably wanting in initiative. + +Among these "play activities" we should include the child's perpetual +imitation or pretence, a matter which Dr. Montessori entirely fails to +understand, as shown in her more recent book, where she treats of +imagination. Here she maintains that only the children of the +comparatively poor ride upon their fathers' walking-sticks or construct +coaches of chairs, that this "is not a proof of imagination but of an +unsatisfied desire," and that rich children who own ponies and who drive +out in motor-cars "would be astonished to see the delight of children +who imagine themselves to be drawn along by stationary armchairs." +Imitative play has, of course, nothing to do with poverty or riches, but +is, as Froebel said long since, the outcome of an initiative impulse, +sadly wanting in deficient children, an impulse which prompts the child +of all lands, of all time and of all classes to imitate or dramatise, +and so to gain some understanding of everything and of every person he +sees around. + +The work of Dr. Montessori has helped enormously in the movement, begun +long since, for greater freedom in our Infant Schools; freedom, not from +judicious guidance and authority, but from rigid time-tables and formal +lessons, and from arbitrary restrictions, as well as freedom for the +individual as apart from the class. The best Kindergartens and Infant +Schools had already discarded time-tables, and Kindergarten classes have +always been small enough to give the individual a fair chance. Froebel +himself constantly urged that the child should become familiar with "both +the strongly opposed elements of his life, the individual determining +and directing side, and the general ordered and subordinated side." He +urged the early development of the social consciousness as well as +insisting on expansion of individuality, but it is always difficult to +combine the two, and most Kindergarten teachers will benefit by learning +from Dr. Montessori to apply the method of individual learning to a +greater extent. + +We are, however, fully prepared to maintain that Froebel; even in 1840, +had a wider and a deeper realisation of the needs of the child than has +as yet been attained by the Dottoressa.[6] In order to make this clear, +it is proposed to compare the theories of Froebel with the conclusions +of a biologist. For biology has a wider and a saner outlook than medical +science; it does not start from the abnormal, but with life under normal +conditions. + +[Footnote 6: Her latest publication regarding the instruction--for it is +not education--of older children makes this even more plain. For here is +no discussion of what children at this stage require, but a mere plunge +into "subjects" in which formal grammar takes a foremost place.] + +In the address, from which the opening words of this chapter are quoted, +it is suggested that a capable biologist be set to deal with education, +but he is to be freed "from all preconceived ideas derived from accepted +tradition." After such fundamentals as food and warmth, light, air and +sleep, the first problems considered by this Biologist Educator are +stages of growth, their appropriate activities, and the stimuli +necessary to evoke them. Always he bears in mind that "interference with +a growing creature is a hazardous business," and takes as his motto +"When in doubt, refrain." + +To discover the natural activities of the child, the biologist relies +upon, first, observation of the child himself, secondly, upon his +knowledge of the nervous system, and thirdly, upon his knowledge of the +past history of the race. From these he comes to a very pertinent +conclusion, viz. "The general outcome of this is that the safe way of +educating children is by means of Play," play being defined as "the +natural manifestation of the child's activities; systematic in that it +follows the lines of physiological development, but without the hard +and fast routine of the time-table."[7] + +[Footnote 7: It is in this connection that the Kindergarten is +stigmatised as "pretty employments devised by adults and imposed at set +times by authority," an opinion evidently gained from the way in which +the term has been misused in a type of Infant School now fast +disappearing.] + +It is easy to show that although Froebel was pre-Darwinian, he had been +in close touch with scientists who were working at theories of +development, and that he was largely influenced by Krause, who applied +the idea of organic development to all departments of social science. It +was because Froebel was himself, even in 1826, the Biologist Educator +desiring to break with preconceived ideas and traditions that he wished +one of his pupils had been able to "call your work by its proper name, +and so make evident the real nature of the new spirit you have +introduced."[8] + +[Footnote 8: See p. 4.] + +But Froebel was more than a biologist, he was a philosopher and an +idealist. Such words have sometimes been used as terms of reproach, but +wisdom can only be justified of her children. + +At the back of all Froebel has to say about "The Education of the Human +Being" lies his conception of what the human being is. And it is +impossible fully to understand why Froebel laid so much stress on +spontaneous play unless we go deeper than the province of the biologist +without in the least minimising the importance of biological knowledge +to educational theory. As the biologist defines play as "the natural +manifestation of the child's activities," so Froedel says "play at first +is just natural life." But to him the true inwardness of spontaneous +play lies in the fact that it is spontaneous--so far as anything in the +universe can be spontaneous. For spontaneous response to environment is +self-expression, and out of self-expression comes selfhood, +consciousness of self. If we are to understand Froebel at all, we must +begin with the answer he found, or accepted, from Krause and others for +his first question, What is that self? + +Before reaching the question of how to educate, it seemed to him +necessary to consider not only the purpose or aim of education, but the +purpose or aim of human existence, the purpose of all and any existence, +even whether there is any purpose in anything; and that brings us to +what he calls "the groundwork of all," of which a summary is given in +the following paragraphs. + +In the universe we can perceive plan, purpose or law, and behind this +there must be some great Mind, "a living, all-pervading, energising, +self-conscious and hence eternal Unity" whom we call God. Nature and all +existing things are a revelation of God. + +As Bergson speaks of the _élan vital_ which expresses itself from +infinity to infinity, so Froebel says that behind everything there is +force, and that we cannot conceive of force without matter on which it +can exercise itself. Neither can we think of matter without any force to +work upon it, so that "force and matter mutually condition one another," +we cannot think one without the other. + +This force expresses itself in all ways, the whole universe is the +expression of the Divine, but "man is the highest and most perfect +earthly being in whom the primordial force is spiritualised so that man +feels, understands and knows his own power." Conscious development of +one's own power is the triumph of spirit over matter, therefore human +development is spiritual development. So while man is the most perfect +earthly being, yet, with regard to spiritual development he has returned +to a first stage and "must raise himself through ascending degrees of +consciousness" to heights as yet unknown, "for who has measured the +limits of God-born mankind?" + +Self-consciousness is the special characteristic of man. No other animal +has the power to become conscious of himself because man alone has the +chance of failure. The lower animals have definite instincts and cannot +fail, _i.e._ cannot learn.[9] Man wants to do much, but his instincts +are less definite and most actions have to be learned; it is by striving +and failing that he learns to know not only his limitations but the +power that is within him--his self. + +[Footnote 9: This would nowadays be considered too sweeping an +assertion.] + +According to Froebel, "the aim of education is the steady progressive +development of mankind, there is and can be no other"; and, except as +regards physiological knowledge inaccessible in his day, he is at one +with the biologist as to how we are to find out the course of this +development. First, by looking into our own past; secondly, by the +observation of children as individuals as well as when associated +together, and by comparison of the results of observation; thirdly, by +comparison of these with race history and race development. + +Froebel makes much of observation of children. He writes to a cousin +begging her to "record in writing the most important facts about each +separate child," and adds that it seems to him "most necessary for the +comprehension of child-nature that such observations should be made +public,... of the greatest importance that we should interchange the +observations we make so that little by little we may come to know the +grounds and conditions of what we observe, that we may formulate their +laws." He protests that even in his day "the observation, development +and guidance of children in the first years of life up to the proper age +of school" is not up to the existing level of "the stage of human +knowledge or the advance of science and art"; and he states that it is +"an essential part" of his undertaking "to call into life _an +institution for the preparation of teachers trained for the care of +children through observation of their life_." + +In speaking of the stages of development of the individual, Froebel +says that "there is no order of importance in the stages of human +development except the order of succession, in which the earlier is +always the more important," and from that point of view we ought "to +consider childhood as the most important stage, ... a stage in the +development of the Godlike in the earthly and human." He also emphasises +that "the vigorous and complete development and cultivation of each +successive stage depends on the vigorous, complete and characteristic +development of each and all preceding stages." + +So the duty of the parent is to "look as deeply as possible into the +life of the child to see what he requires for his present stage of +development," and then to "scrutinise the environment to see what it +offers ... to utilise all possibilities of meeting normal needs," to +remove what is hurtful, or at least to "admit its defects" if they +cannot give the child what his nature requires. "If parents offer what +the child does not need," he says, "they will destroy the child's faith +in their sympathetic understanding." The educator is to "bring the child +into relations and surroundings in all respects adapted to him" but +affording a minimum of opportunity of injury, "guarding and protecting" +but not interfering, unless he is certain that healthy development has +already been interrupted. It is somewhat remarkable that Froebel +anticipated even the conclusions of modern psycho-analysis in his views +about childish faults. "The sources of these," he says, are "neglect to +develop certain sides of human life and, secondly, early distortion of +originally good human powers by arbitrary interference with the orderly +course of human development ... a suppressed or perverted good +quality--a good tendency, only repressed, misunderstood or +misguided--lies at the bottom of every shortcoming." Hence the only +remedy even for wickedness is to find and foster, build up and guide +what has been repressed. It may be necessary to interfere and even to +use severity, but only when the educator is sure of unhealthy growth. +The motto of the biologist on the subject of interference--"When in +doubt, refrain"--exactly expresses Froebel's doctrine of "passive or +following" education, following, that is, the nature of the child, and +"passive" as opposed to arbitrary interference. + +Free from this, the child will follow his natural impulses, which are to +be trusted as much as those of any other young animal; in other words, +he will play, he will manifest his natural activities. "The young human +being--still, as it were, in process of creation--would seek, though +unconsciously yet decidedly and surely, as a product of nature that +which is in itself best, and in a form adapted to his condition, his +disposition, his powers and his means. Thus the duckling hastens to the +pond and into the water, while the chicken scratches the ground and the +young swallow catches its food upon the wing. We grant space and time to +young plants and animals because we know that, in accordance with the +laws that live in them, they will develop properly and grow well; +arbitrary interference with their growth is avoided because it would +hinder their development; but the young human being is looked upon as a +piece of wax, a lump of clay, which man can mould into what he pleases. +O man, who roamest through garden and field, through meadow and grove, +why dost thou close thy mind to the silent teaching of nature? Behold +the weed; grown among hindrances and constraint, how it scarcely yields +an indication of inner law; behold it in nature, in field or garden, how +perfectly it conforms to law--a beautiful sun, a radiant star, it has +burst from the earth! Thus, O parents, could your children, on whom you +force in tender years forms and aims against their nature, and who, +therefore, walk with you in morbid and unnatural deformity--thus could +your children, too, unfold in beauty and develop in harmony." + +At first play is activity for the sake of activity, not for the sake of +results, "of which the child has as yet no idea." Very soon, however, +having man's special capacity of learning through experience, the child +does gather ideas. By this time he has passed through the stage of +infancy, and now his play becomes to the philosopher the highest stage +of human development at this stage, because now it is self-expression. + +When Froebel wrote in 1826, there had been but little thought expended +on the subject of play, and probably none on human instincts, which were +supposed to be nonexistent. The hope he expressed that some philosopher +would take up these subjects has now been fulfilled, and we ought now to +turn to what has been said on a subject all-important to those who +desire to help in the education of young children. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LEARNING BORN OF PLAY + + + Play, which is the business of their lives. + +There may be nothing new under the sun, but it does seem to be a fair +claim to make for Froebel that no one before or since his time has more +fully realised the value to humanity of what in childhood goes by the +name of play. Froebel had distinct theories about play, and he put his +theories into actual practice, not only when he founded the +Kindergarten, but in his original school for older children at Keilhau. + +Before going into its full meaning, it may be well first to meet the +most common misconception about play. It is not surprising that those +who have given the subject no special consideration should regard play +from the ordinary adult standpoint, and think of it as entirely opposed +to work, as relaxation of effort. But the play of a child covers so much +that it is startling to find a real psychologist writing that "education +through play" is "a pernicious proposition."[10] Statements of this kind +spring from the mistaken idea, certainly not derived from observation, +that play involves no effort, that it runs in the line of least +resistance, and that education through play means therefore education +without effort, without training in self-control, education without +moral training. The case for the Kindergarten is the opposite of this. +Education through play is advocated just because of the effort it calls +forth, just because of the way in which the child, and later the boy or +girl, throws his whole energy into it. What Froebel admired, what he +called "the most beautiful expression of childlife," was "the child that +plays thoroughly, with spontaneous determination, perseveringly, until +physical fatigue forbids--a child wholly absorbed in his play--a child +that has fallen asleep while so absorbed." That child, he said, would be +"a thorough determined man, capable of self-sacrifice for the promotion +of the welfare of himself and others." It is because "play is not +trivial, but highly serious and of deep significance," that he appeals +to mothers to cultivate and foster it, and to fathers to protect and +guard it. + +[Footnote 10: _The Educative Process_, p. 255 (Bagley).] + +The Kindergarten position can be summed up in a sentence from Dr. +Clouston's _Hygiene of Mind_: "Play is the real work of children." +Froebel calls activity of sense and limb "the first germ," and +"play-building and modelling the tender blossoms of the constructive +impulse"; and this, he says, is "the moment when man is to be prepared +for future industry, diligence and productive activity." He points out, +too, the importance of noticing the habits which come from spontaneous +self-employment, which may be habits of indolent ease if the child is +not allowed to be as active as his nature requires. + +There were no theories of play in Froebel's day, but he had certainly +read _Levana_, and in all probability he knew what Schiller had said in +his _Letters on Aesthetic Education_. The play theories are now too well +known to require more than a brief recapitulation. + +It will generally be allowed that the distinctive feature of play as +opposed to work is that of spontaneity. The action itself is of no +consequence, one man's play is another man's work. Nor does it seem to +matter whence comes the feeling of compulsion in work, whether from +pressure of outer necessity, or from an inner necessity like the +compelling force of duty. Where there is joy in creation or in discovery +the work and play of the genius approach the standpoint of the child, + + Indulging every instinct of the soul, + There, where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing. + +In the play of early childhood there may be freedom, not only from adult +authority, but even from the restrictions of nature or of circumstances +since "let's pretend" annihilates time and space and all material +considerations. + +Among theories of play first comes what is known as the Schiller-Spencer +theory, in which play is attributed to the accumulation of surplus +energy. When the human being has more energy than he requires in order +to supply the bodily needs of himself and his family, then he feels +impelled to use it. As the activities of his daily life are the only +ones known to him, he fights his battles over again, he simulates the +serious business of life, and transfers, for instance, the incidents of +the chase into a dance. In this Way he reaches artistic creation, so +that "play is the first poetry of the human being." + +As an opposite of this we get a Re-creation theory, where play, if not +too strenuous, understood as a change of occupation, rests and +re-creates. + +Another theory is that of recapitulation, which has been emphasised by +Stanley Hall, according to which children play hunting and chasing +games, or find a fascination in making tents, because they are passing +through that stage of development in which their primitive ancestors +lived by hunting or dwelt in tents. + +Lastly, a most interesting theory is that which is associated with the +name of Groos, and which is best expressed in the sentence: "Animals do +not play because they are young, but they have their youth because they +must play," play being regarded as the preparation for future life +activities. The kitten therefore practises chasing a cork, the puppy +worries boots and gloves, the kid practises jumping, and so on. + +A full account of play will probably embrace all these theories, and +though they were not formulated in his day, Froebel overlooked none, +though he may have laid special stress on the preparation side. Yet +another value of play emphasised by Professor Royce, viz. its enormous +importance from the point of view of mental initiative, is strongly +urged by Froebel. Professor Royce argues that "in the mere persistence +of the playful child one has a factor whose value for mental initiative +it is hard to overestimate." Without this "passionately persistent +repetition," and without also the constant varying of apparently useless +activities, the organism, says Professor Royce, "would remain the prey +of the environment." + +To Froebel, as we have seen, the human being is the climax of animal +evolution and the starting-point of psychical development. The lower +animal, he maintained, as all will now agree, is hindered by his +definite instincts, but the instincts or instinctive tendencies of the +human being are so undefined that there is room for spontaneity, for new +forms of conduct. + +Professor Royce says that "a general view of the place which beings with +minds occupy in the physical world strongly suggests that their +organisms may especially have significance as places for the initiation +of more or less novel types of activity." And to Froebel the chief +significance of play lies in this spontaneity. + +"Play is the highest phase of human development at this stage, because +it is spontaneous expression of what is within produced by an inner +necessity and impulse. Play is the most characteristic, most spiritual +manifestation of man at this stage, and, at the same time, is typical +of human life as a whole." + +These various theories seem to reinforce rather than to contradict each +other, and it is more important to avoid running any to an extreme than +to differentiate between them. In the case of recapitulation, we must +certainly bear in mind Froebel's warning that the child "should be +treated as having in himself the present, past and future." So, as Dr. +Drummond says: "If we feel constrained to present him with a tent +because Abraham lived in one, he no doubt enters into the spirit of the +thing and accepts it joyfully. But he also annexes the ball of string +and the coffee canister to fit up telephonic communication with the +nursery." He may play robbers and hide and seek because he has reached a +"hunting and capture" stage, but the physiologist points out that +violent exercise is a necessity for his circulation and nutrition, and +to practise swift flight to safety is useful even in modern times.[11] +Gardening may take us back to an agricultural stage, but digging is most +useful as a muscular exercise, and "watering" is scientific experiment +and adds to the feeling of power, while the flowers themselves appeal to +the aesthetic side of the sense-play, which is not limited to any age, +though conspicuous so soon. + +[Footnote 11: An up-to-date riddle asks the difference between the quick +and the dead, and answers, "The quick are those who get out of the way +of a motor-bus and the dead are those who do not."] + +Froebel recognised many kinds of play. He realised that much of the play +of boyhood is exercise of physical power, and that it must be of a +competitive nature because the boy wants to measure his power. Even in +1826 he urges the importance not only of town playgrounds but of play +leaders, that the play may be full of life. Among games for boys he +noted some still involving sense-play, as hiding games, colour games and +shooting at a mark, which need quick hearing and sight, intellectual +plays exercising thought and judgement, _e.g._ draughts and dramatic +games. One form of play which seemed to him most important was +constructive play, where there is expression of ideas as well as +expression of power. This side of play covers a great deal, and will be +dealt with later; its importance in Froebel's eyes lies in the fact that +through construction, however simple, the child gains knowledge of his +own power and learns "to master himself." Froebel wanted particularly to +deepen this feeling of power, and says that the little one who has +already made some experiments takes pleasure in the use of sand and +clay, "impelled by the previously acquired sense of power he seeks to +master the material." + +In order to gain real knowledge of himself, of his power, a child needs +to compare his power with that of others. This is one reason for the +child's ready imitation of all he sees done by others. Another reason +for this is that only through real experience or action can a child gain +the ideas which he will express later, therefore he must reproduce all +he sees or hears. + +"In the family the child sees parents and others at work, producing, +doing something; consequently he, at this stage, would like to represent +what he sees. Be cautious, parents. You can at one blow destroy, at +least for a long time, the impulse to activity and to formation if you +repel their help as childish, useless or even as a hindrance.... +Strengthen and develop this instinct; give to your child the highest he +now needs, let him add his power to your work, that he may gain the +consciousness of his power and also learn to appreciate its +limitations." + +As the child's sense of power and his self-consciousness deepen he +requires possessions of his "very own." Says Froebel: "The feeling of +his own power implies and demands also the possession of his own space +and his own material belonging exclusively to him. Be his realm, his +province, a corner of the house or courtyard, be it the space of a box +or of a closet, be it a grotto, a hut or a garden, the boy at this age +needs an external point, chosen and prepared by himself, to which he +refers all his activity." + +As ideas widen the child's purposes enlarge, and he finds the need for +that co-operation which binds human beings together. And so by play +enjoyed in common, the feeling of community which is present in the +little child is raised to recognition of the rights of others; not only +is a sense of justice developed, but also forbearance, consideration and +sympathy. + +"When the room to be filled is extensive, when the realm to be +controlled is large, when the whole to be produced is complex, then +brotherly union of similar-minded persons is in place." And we are +invited to enter an "education room," where boys of seven to ten are +using building blocks, sand, sawdust and green moss brought in from the +forest. "Each one has finished his work and he examines it and that of +others, and in each rises the desire to unite all in one whole," so +roads are made from the village of one boy to the castle of another: the +boy who has made a cardboard house unites with another who has made +miniature ships from nut-shells, the house as a castle crowns the hill, +and the ships float in the lake below, while the youngest brings his +shepherd and sheep to graze between the mountain and the lake, and all +stand and behold with pleasure and satisfaction the result of their +hands. + +The educative value of such play has been brought forward in modern +times in _Floor Games_ by Mr. Wells, _Magic Cities_ by Mrs. Nesbit, and +notably in Mr. Caldwell Cook's Play City in _The Play Way_. + +Joining together for a common purpose does not only belong to younger +boys. "What busy tumult among those older boys at the brook! They have +built canals, sluices, bridges, etc.... at each step one trespasses on +the limits of another realm. Each one claims his right as lord and +maker, while he recognises the claims of others, and like States, they +bind themselves by strict treaties." + +"Every town should have its own common playground for the boys. Glorious +results would come from this for the entire community. For, at this +period, games, whenever possible, are in common, and develop the feeling +and desire for community, and the laws and requirements of community. +The boy tries to see himself in his companions, to weigh and measure +himself by them, to know and find himself by their help." + +"It is the sense of sure and reliable power, the sense of its increase, +both as an individual and as a member of the group, that fills the boy +with joy during these games.... Justice, self-control, loyalty, +impartiality, who could fail to catch their fragrance and that of still +more delicate blossoms, forbearance, consideration, sympathy and +encouragement for the weaker.... Thus the games educate the boy for +life and awaken and cultivate many social and moral virtues." + +In England we have always had respect for boys' games and more and more, +especially in America, people are realising the need for play places and +play leaders. But all this was written in 1826, when for ten years +Froebel had been experimenting with boys of all ages. At Keilhau play of +all kinds had an honoured place. We read of excursions for all kinds of +purposes, of Indian games out of Fenimore Cooper, and of "Homeric +battles." It was "part of Froebel's plan to have us work with spade and +pick-axe," and every boy had his own piece of ground where he might do +what he pleased. Ebers, being literary, constructed in his plot a bed of +heather on which he lay and read or made verses. The boys built their +own stage, painted their own scenery, and in winter once a week they +acted classic dramas. Besides this, there was a large and complete +puppet theatre belonging to the school. Bookbinding and carpentry were +taught, and at Christmas "the embryo cabinet-maker made boxes with locks +and hinges, finished, veneered and polished." + +In England in 1917 we have given to us _The Play Way_, in which one who +has tried it gives the results of his own experiments in education +through play. Mr. Caldwell Cook was not satisfied with the condition of +affairs when "school above the Kindergarten is a nuisance because there +is no play." His dream is that of a Play School Commonwealth, where +education, which is the training of youth, shall be filled with the +spirit of youth, namely, "freshness, zeal, happiness, enthusiasm." + +The next chapter will show that it has taken us exactly a hundred years +to reach as far as public recognition of the Nursery School where play +is the only possible motive. It is for the coming generation of teachers +to act so that the dream of the Play School Commonwealth shall be +realised more quickly. It is a significant fact that the lines quoted as +heading for the next chapter are written by a modern schoolmaster. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FROM 1816 TO 1919 + + + Poor mites; you stiffen on a bench + And stoop your curls to dusty laws; + Your petal fingers curve and clench + In slavery to parchment saws; + You suit your hearts to sallow faces + In sullen places: + But no pen + Nor pedantry can make you men. + Yours are the morning and the day: + You should be taught of wind and light; + Your learning should be born of play. + + (_Caged:_ GEORGE WINTHROP YOUNG.) + +Had England but honoured her own prophets, we should have had Nursery +Schools a hundred years ago. In 1816, the year in which Froebel founded +his school for older boys at Keilhau, Robert Owen, the Socialist, +"following the plan prescribed by Nature," opened a school where +children, from two to six, were to dance and sing, to be out-of-doors as +much as possible, to learn "when their curiosity induced them to ask +questions," and not to be "annoyed with books." They were to be +prevented from acquiring bad habits, to be taught what they could +understand, and their dispositions were to be trained "to mutual +kindness and a sincere desire to contribute all in their power to +benefit each other." They "were trained and educated without punishment +or the fear of it.... A child who acted improperly was not considered an +object of blame but of pity, and no unnecessary restraint was imposed on +the children." + +But the world was not ready. Owen's "Rational Infant School" attracted +much notice, and an Infant School Society was founded. But even the +enlightened were incapable of understanding that any education was +possible without books, and the promoters rightly, though quite +unconsciously, condemned themselves when they kept the title Infant +School but dropped the qualifying "Rational." Still, Infant Schools had +been started and interest had been aroused. When the edict abolishing +Kindergartens was promulgated in Germany, some of Froebel's disciples +passed to other lands, and Madame von Marenholz came to England in 1854. +Already one Kindergarten had been opened by a Madame Ronge, to which +Rowland Hill sent his children, and to which Dickens paid frequent +visits. In the same year there was held in London an "International +Educational Exposition and Congress," and to this Madame von Marenholz +sent an exhibit, which was explained by Madame Ronge, and by a Mr. +Hoffmann. Dickens, who had watched the actual working of a Kindergarten, +gave warm support to the new ideas, and wrote an excellent article on +"Infant Gardens" for _Household Words_, urging "that since children are +by Infinite Wisdom so created as to find happiness in the active +exercise and development of all their faculties, we, who have children +round about us, shall no longer repress their energies, tie up their +bodies, shut their mouths.... The frolic of childhood is not pure +exuberance and waste. 'There is often a high meaning in childish play,' +said Froebel. Let us study it, and act upon the hints--or more than +hints--that Nature gives." + +Dr. Henry Barnard represented Connecticut at this Congress, and he took +the Kindergarten to America, in whose virgin soil the seed took root, +and quickly brought forth abundantly. But the soil was virgin and the +fields were ready for planting, for America in these days had nothing +corresponding to our Infant Schools. The Kindergarten was welcomed by +people of influence. Dr. Barnard found his first ally in Miss Peabody, +one of whose sisters was married to Nathaniel Hawthorne, while another +was the wife of Horace Mann. Miss Peabody began to teach in 1860, but +eight years later, after a visit to Europe, she gave up teaching for +propaganda work. Owing to her efforts the first Free Kindergarten was +opened in Boston in 1870. Philanthropists soon recognised its importance +as a social agency, and by 1883 one lady alone supported thirty-one such +institutions in Boston and its surroundings. In New York, Dr. Felix +Adler established a Free Kindergarten in 1878, and Teachers' College was +influential in helping to form an association which supports several. +Another name well known in this country is that of Miss Kate Douglas +Wiggin,[12] who was a Kindergarten teacher for many years before she +became known as a novelist. It is Miss Wiggin who tells of a quaint +translation of Kindergarten heard by a San Francisco teacher making +friendly visits to the mothers of her children. While she stood on a +door-step sympathising with one poor woman she heard a "loud, but not +unfriendly" voice from an upper window. "Clear things from under foot!" +it pealed in stentorian accents. "The teacher o' the _Kids' Guards_ is +comin' down the street." + +[Footnote 12: Writer of _Penelope in England_, etc., and of a capital +collection of essays entitled _Children's Rights_.] + +In England things were very different, because of the Infant Schools +which had already been established, but which had fallen far below the +ideal set up by Robert Owen. As every one knows, the education given in +those days to teachers of Elementary Schools was but meagre, and the +results were often so bad that, to justify the expenditure of public +money, "payment by results" was introduced. In 1870 came the Education +Act, and the year 1874 saw a good deal of movement. Miss Caroline Bishop +was appointed to lecture to the Infants' teachers under the London +School Board; Miss Heerwart took charge of a training college for +Kindergarten teachers in connection with the British and Foreign School +Society; the Froehel Society was founded, and Madame Michaelis took the +Kindergarten into the newly established High Schools for Girls. For the +children of the well-to-do Kindergartens spread rapidly, but for the +children of the poor there was no such happiness; the Infant School was +too firmly established as a place where children learned to read, write +and count, and above all to sit still. Infants' teachers received no +special training for their work; their course of study, in which +professional training played but a small part, was the same as that +prescribed for the teachers of older children. Some colleges, notably +The Home and Colonial, Stockwell, and Saffron Walden, did try to give +their students some special training, but it was not of much avail, and +the word Kindergarten came to mean not Nursery School, as was the idea +of its founder, but dictated exercises with Kindergarten material, a +kind of manual drill supposed to give "hand and eye training," and with +this meaning it made its appearance on the time-table. + +Visitors from America were shocked to find no Kindergartens in England, +but only large classes of poor little automatons sitting erect with +"hands behind" or worse still "hands on heads," and moving only to the +word of command. One lady who ultimately found her way to our own +Kindergarten told me that she had been informed at the L.C.C. offices +that there were no Kindergartens in London. + +It was partly the scandalised expressions of these American teachers +that stimulated Miss Adelaide Wragge to take her courage into her hands, +and in the year 1900 to open the first Mission Kindergarten in England. +She called it a Mission, not a Free Kindergarten, partly because the +parents paid the trifling fee of one penny per week, and partly because +it was connected with the parish work of Holy Trinity, Woolwich, of +which her brother was vicar. The first report says: "The neighbourhood +was suitable for the experiment; little children, needing just the kind +of training we proposed to give them, abounded everywhere.... The +Woolwich children were typical slum babies, varying in ages from three +to six years; very poor, very dirty, totally untrained in good habits. +At first we only admitted a few, and when these began to improve, +gradually increased the numbers to thirty-five. They needed great +patience and care, but they responded wonderfully to the love given +them, and before long they were real Kindergarten children, full of +vigour, merriment and self-activity." + +As is done in connection with all Free Kindergartens, Parents' Evenings +were instituted from the first, and the mothers were helped to +understand their children by simple talks. + +Sesame House for Home Life Training had been opened six months before +this Mission Kindergarten. It was founded by the Sesame Club, and at its +head was Miss Schepel, who for twenty years had been at the head of the +Pestalozzi Froebel House. The idea of Home Life Training attracted +students who were not obliged by stern necessity to earn their daily +bread. Though the methods were not quite in line with progressive +thought, the atmosphere created by Miss Schepel, warmly seconded by Miss +Buckton,[13] was one of enthusiasm in the service of children. The +second Nursery School in London had its origin in this enthusiasm. Miss +Maufe left Sesame House early in 1903, and started a free Child Garden +in West London. Four years later she moved to Westminster to a block of +workmen's dwellings erected on the site of the old Millbank Prison. This +"child garden" has a special interest from the fact that it was carried +on actually in a block of workmen's dwellings like The Children's +Houses of a later date. The effort was voluntary and the rooms were +small, but, if the experiment had been supported by the authorities, it +would have been easy to take down dividing walls to get sufficient +space. Miss Maufe gave herself and her income for about twelve years, +but difficulties created by the war, the impossibility of finding +efficient help and consequent drain upon her own strength have forced +her to close her little school, to the grief of the mothers in 48 Ruskin +Buildings. Another Sesame House student, Miss L. Hardy, in her charming +_Diary of a Free Kindergarten_, takes us from London to Edinburgh, but +the first Free Kindergarten in Edinburgh began in 1903 and had a +different origin. Miss Howden was an Infants' Mistress in one of the +slums, and knew well the needs of little children in that wide street, +once decked with lordly mansions, which leads from the Castle to +Holyrood Palace. Some of the fine houses are left, but the inhabitants +are of the poorest, and Miss Howden left her savings to start a Free +Kindergarten in the Canongate. The sum was not large, but it was seed +sown in faith, and its harvest has been abundant, for Edinburgh with its +population of under 400,000 has five Free Kindergartens, in all of which +the children are washed and fed and given restful sleep, as well as +taught and trained with intelligence and love. London with its +population of 6,000,000 had but eight up to the time of the outbreak of +the war. + +[Footnote 13: Author of the beautiful mystery play of _Eager Heart_.] + +In 1904 the Froebel Society took part in a Joint Conference at Bradford, +where one sitting was devoted to "The Need for Nursery Schools for +Children from three to five years at present attending the Public +Elementary Schools." The speakers were Mrs. Miall of Leeds, and Miss K. +Phillips, who had wide opportunities for knowledge of the unsuitable +conditions generally provided for these little children. Among those who +joined in this discussion was Miss Margaret M'Millan, so well known for +her pioneer work in connection with School Clinics, and more recently +for her now famous Camp School. Miss M'Millan had already done yeoman +service on the Bradford Education Committee, but was now resident in +London, and she had been warmly welcomed on the Council of the Froebel +Society. It was from the date of this Conference that the name Nursery +School became general, though it had been used by Madame Michaelis as +early as 1891. In the following year, 1905, the Board of Education +published its "Reports on Children under Five Years of Age," with its +prefatory memorandum stating that "a new form of school is necessary for +poor children," and that parents who must send their little ones to +school "should send them to nursery schools rather than to schools of +instruction," to schools where there should be "more play, more sleep, +more free conversation, story-telling and observation." It would seem +that the recommendations of 1905 may begin to be carried out in 1919, a +consummation devoutly to be wished. + +In the meantime voluntary effort has done what it could. Birmingham had +good reason to be in the forefront, since many of its public-spirited +citizens had in their own childhood the benefit of the excellent works +of Miss Caroline Bishop, a disciple of Frau Schrader. The Birmingham +People's Kindergarten Association opened its first People's Kindergarten +at Greet, in 1904, and a second, the Settlement Kindergarten, in 1907. +Sir Oliver Lodge spoke strongly in favour of these institutions, calling +them a protest against the idea of the comparative unimportance of +childhood. + +Miss Hardy opened her Child Garden in 1906, and that work has grown so +that the children are now kept till they are eight years old. The +Edinburgh Provincial Council for the Training of Teachers opened another +Free Kindergarten as a demonstration school for Froebelian methods, a +practising school for students, and also as an experimental school, +where attempts might be made to solve problems as to the education of +neglected children under school age. It was the Headmistress of this +school, Miss Hodsman, who invented the net beds now in general use. She +wanted something hygienic and light enough to be carried easily into the +garden, that in fine weather the children might sleep out of doors. + +Another Sesame House student, Miss Priestman, opened a Free Kindergarten +in the pretty village of Thornton-le-Dale, where the children have a +sand-heap in a little enclosure allowed them by the blacksmith, and sail +their boats at a quiet place by the side of the beck that runs through +the village. + +It was in 1908 that Miss Esther Lawrence of the Froebel Institute +inspired her old students to help her to open The Michaelis Free +Kindergarten. Since the war, the name has been altered to The Michaelis +Nursery School, which is in Netting Dale, on the edge of a very poor +neighbourhood, where large families often occupy a single room. As in +the Edinburgh Free Kindergartens, dinner is provided, for which the +parents pay one penny. The first report tells how necessary are Nursery +Schools in such surroundings. "The little child who was formerly tied to +the leg of the bed, and left all day while his mother was out at work, +is now enjoying the happy freedom of the Kindergarten. The child whose +clothes were formerly sewn on to him, to save his mother the periodical +labour of sewing on buttons, is now undressed and bathed regularly. The +attacks on children by drunken parents are less frequent. When the +Kindergarten was first opened, many of the children were quite listless, +they did not know how to play, did not care to play. Now they play with +pleasure and with vigour, and one can hardly believe they are the +listless, spiritless children of a year ago." + +In 1910 Miss Lawrence succeeded in opening what was called from the +first the "Somers Town Nursery School," where the same kind of work is +done. One of the reports says: "It is interesting to see the children +sweeping or dusting a room, washing their dusters and dolls' clothes, +polishing the furniture, their shoes, and anything which needs +polishing. On Friday morning the 'silver' is cleaned, and the brilliant +results give great pleasure and satisfaction to the little polishers. +'Have you done your work?' was the question addressed to a visitor by a +three-year-old child, and the visitor beat a hasty retreat, ashamed +perhaps of being the only drone in the busy hive. At dinner time four +children wait on the rest, and very well and quickly the food is handed +round and the plates removed." + +There are other Free Kindergartens at work. One is in charge of Miss +Rowland, and is in connection with the Bermondsey Settlement. It is Miss +Rowland who tells of the "candid mother" she met one Saturday who +remarked, "I told the children to wash their faces in case they met +you." + +The Phoenix Park Kindergarten in Glasgow is interesting because the site +was granted by an enlightened Corporation and the Parks Committee laid +out the garden, while the real start came from the pupils of a school +for girls of well-to-do families. By this time other social agencies +have been grouped round the Kindergarten as a centre. + +The Caldecott Nursery School was opened in 1911 and has grown into the +Caldecott Community, which has now taken its children to live altogether +in the country. This Nursery School was never intended to be a +Kindergarten; it was started as an interesting experiment, "chiefly +perhaps in the hope that the children might enjoy that instruction which +is usually absorbed by the children of the wealthy in their own +nurseries by virtue of their happier surroundings." + +And in the very year in which we were plunged into war Miss Margaret +M'Millan put into actual shape what she had long thought of, and opened +her "Baby Camp" and Nursery School, with a place for "toddlers" in +between, the full story of which is told in _The, Camp School_. In the +Camp itself the things which impress the visitor most are first the +space and the fresh air, the sky above and the brown earth below, and +next the family feeling which is so plain in spite of the numbers. The +Camp existed long before it was a Baby Camp and Nursery School, for Miss +M'Millan began with a School Clinic and went on to Open-Air Camps for +girls and for boys, before going to the "preventive and constructive" +work of the Baby Camp. Clean and healthy bodies come first, but to Miss +M'Millan's enthusiasm everything in life is educative. + +The war has increased the supply of Nursery Schools, because the need +for them has become glaringly apparent. Many experiments are going on +now, and it seems as if experimental work would be encouraged, not +hampered by unyielding regulations. The Nursery School should cover the +ages for which the Kindergarten was instituted, roughly from three to +six years old. Already there are excellent baby rooms in some parts of +London, and no doubt in other towns, and the only reason for disturbing +these is to provide the children with more space and more fresh air, or +with something resembling a garden rather than a bare yard. + +One school in London has a creche or day nursery, not exactly a part of +it, but in closest touch, established owing to the efforts of an +enthusiastic Headmistress working along with the Norland Place nurses. +Its space is at present insufficient, but the neighbouring buildings are +condemned, and will come down after the war. They need not go up again. +Then the space could be used in the same way as in the Camp School. That +would be to the benefit of the whole neighbourhood, and there could be +at least one experiment where from creche to Standard VII. might be in +close connection. + +Miss M'Millan's ideal is to have a large space in the centre of a +district with covered passages radiating from it so that mothers from a +large area could bring their little ones and leave them in safety. It +would be safety, it would be salvation. But, as the Scots proverb has +it, "It is a far cry to Loch Awe." + +Another question much debated is, who is to be in charge of these +children. The day nursery or crèche must undoubtedly be staffed with +nurses, but with nurses trained to care for children, not merely sick +nurses. There are, however, certain people who believe that the "trained +nurse" is the right person to be in charge of children up to five, while +others think that young girls or uneducated women will suffice. We are +thankful that the Board of Education takes up the position that a +well-educated and specially trained teacher is to be the person +responsible. + +We certainly want the help both of the trained nurse and of the motherly +woman. The trained nurse will be far more use in detecting and attending +to the ailments of children than the teacher can be, and the motherly +woman can give far more efficient help in training children to decent +habits than any young probationer, useful though these may be. But there +is always the fear that the nurses may think that good food and +cleanliness are all a child requires, and, as Miss M'Millan says, "The +sight of the toddlers' empty hands and mute lips does not trouble them +at all." + +But every man to his trade, and though the teacher in charge must know +something about ailing children, it is very doubtful if a few months in +a hospital will advantage her much. Here she trenches on the province of +the real nurse, whose training is thorough, and the little knowledge, +as every one knows, is sometimes dangerous. One Nursery School teacher, +with years of experience, says that what she learned in hospital has +been of no use to her, and it is probable that attendance at a clinic +for children would be really more useful. Certainly the main concern of +the Nursery School teacher is sympathetic understanding of children. +There must be no more of _Punch's_ "Go and see what Tommy is doing in +the next room and tell him not to," but "Go and see what Tommy is trying +to accomplish, and make it possible for him to carry on his +self-education through that 'fostering of the human instincts of +activity, investigation and construction' which constitutes a +Kindergarten." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"THE WORLD'S MINE OYSTER" + + + A box of counters and a red-veined stone, + A piece of glass abraded by the beach, + And six or seven shells. + +If early education, consist in fostering natural activities, there can +be no doubt that Froebel hit upon the activity most prominent of all in +the case of young children, viz. the impulse to investigate. For his +crest, the little child should share in the "motto given to the mongoose +family, in Kipling's _Rikki-Tikki_, 'Run and find out.'" + +Most writers on the education of young children have emphasised the +importance of what is most inadequately called sense training, and it is +here that Dr. Montessori takes her stand with her "didactic apparatus." +Froebel's ideas seem wider; he realises that the sword with which the +child opens his oyster is a two-edged sword, that he uses not only his +sense organs as tools for investigation, but his whole body. His pathway +to knowledge, and to power over himself and his surroundings, is action, +and action of all kinds is as necessary to him as the use of his senses. + +"The child's first utterance is force," says Froebel, and his first +discovery is the resistance of matter, when he "pushes with his feet +against what resists them." His first experiments are with his body, +"his first toys are his own limbs," and his first play is the use of +"body, senses and limbs" for the sake of use, not for result. One use +of his body is the imitation of any moving object, and Froebel tells the +mother: + + If your child's to understand + Action in the world without, + You must let his tiny hand + Imitative move about. + This is the reason why + Baby will, never still, + Imitate whatever's by. + +At this stage the child is "to move freely, and be active, to grasp and +hold with his own hands." He is to stand "when he can sit erect and draw +himself up," not to walk till he "can creep, rise freely, maintain his +balance and proceed by his own effort." He is _not_ to be hindered by +swaddling bands--such as are in use in Continental countries--nor, later +on, to be "_spoiled by too much assistance_," words which every mother +and teacher should write upon her phylacteries. But as soon as he can +move himself the surroundings speak to the child, "outer objects +_invite_ him to seize and grasp them, and if they are distant, they +invite him who would bring them nearer to move towards them." + +This use of the word "invite" is worthy of notice, and calls to mind a +sentence used by a writer on Freud,[14] that "the activity of a human +being is a constant function of his environment." We adults, who are so +ready with our "Don't touch," must endeavour to remember how everything +is shouting to a child: "Look at me, listen to me, come and fetch me, +and find out all you can about me by every means in your power." + +[Footnote 14: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +If we have anything to do with little children, we must face the fact +that the child is, if not quite a Robinson Crusoe on his island, at +least an explorer in a strange country, and a scientist in his +laboratory. But there is nothing narrow in his outlook: the name of this +chapter is deliberately chosen, the whole world is the child's oyster, +his interests are all-embracing. + +From his first walk he is the geographer. "Each little walk is a tour +of discovery; each object--the chair, the wall--is an America, a new +world, which he either goes around to see if it be an island, or whose +coast he follows to discover if it be a continent. Each new phenomenon +is a discovery in the child's small and yet rich world, _e.g._ one may +go round the chair; one may stand before it, behind it, but one cannot +go behind the bench or the wall." + +Then comes an inquiry into the physical properties of surrounding +objects. "The effort to reach a particular object may have its source in +the child's desire to hold himself firm and upright by it, but we also +observe that it gives him pleasure to touch, to feel, to grasp, and +perhaps also--which is a new phase of activity--to be able to move +it.... The chair is hard or soft; the seat is smooth; the corner is +pointed; the edge is sharp." The business of the adult, Froebel goes on +to say, is to supply these names, "not primarily to develop the child's +power of speech," but "to define his sense impressions." + +Next, the scientist must stock his laboratory with material for +experiment. + +"The child is attracted by the bright round smooth pebble, by the gaily +fluttering bit of paper, by the smooth bit of board, by the rectangular +block, by the brilliant quaint leaf. Look at the child that can scarcely +keep himself erect, that can walk only with the greatest care--he sees a +twig, a bit of straw; painfully he secures it, and like the bird carries +it to his nest. See him again, laboriously stooping and slowly going +forward on the ground, under the eaves of the roof (the deep eaves of +the Thuringian peasant house). The force of the rain has washed out of +the sand smooth bright pebbles, and the ever-observing child gathers +them as building stones as it were, as material for future building. And +is he wrong? Is he not in truth collecting material for his future life +building?" + +The "box of counters, and the red-veined stone," the brilliant quaint +leaf, the twig, the bit of straw, all the child's treasures--these are +the stimuli which, according to the biologist educator, must be supplied +if the activities appropriate to each stage are to be called forth. +Every one knows for how long a period a child can occupy himself +examining, comparing and experimenting. + +"Like things," says Froebel, "must be ranged together, unlike things +separated.... The child loves all things that enter his small horizon +and extend his little world. To him the least thing is a new discovery, +but it must not come dead into the little world, nor lie dead therein, +lest it obscure the small horizon and crush the little world. Therefore +the child would know why he loves this thing, he would know all its +properties. For this reason he examines the object on all sides; for +this reason he tears and breaks it; for this reason he puts it in his +mouth and bites it. We reprove the child for naughtiness and +foolishness; and yet he is wiser than we who reprove him." + +This experimenting is one side of a child's play, and the things with +which he thus experiments are his toys, or, as Froebel puts it, "play +material." Much of this is and ought to be self found, and where the +child can find his own toys he asks for little more. The seaside +supplies him with sand and water, stones, shells, rock pools, seaweed, +and he asks us for nothing but a spade, which digs deeper than his naked +hands, and a pail to carry water, which hands alone cannot convey. + + The vista of the sand + is the child's free land; + where the grown-ups seem half afraid; + even nurse forgets to sniff + and to call "come here" + as she sits very near + to the far up cliff + and you venture alone with your spade.... + +Even indoors, a child could probably find for himself all the material +for investigation, all the stimuli he requires, if it were not that his +investigations interfere with adult purposes. Even in very primitive +times the child probably experimented upon the revolving qualities of +his mother's spindle till she found it more convenient to let him have +one for himself, and it became a toy or top. + +Froebel, who made so much of play, to whom it was spontaneous education +and self realisation, was bound to see that toys were important. "The +man advanced in insight," he said, "even when he gives his child a +plaything, must make clear to himself its purpose and the purpose of +playthings and occupation material in general. This purpose is to aid +the child freely to express what lies within him, and to bring the outer +world nearer to him, and thus to serve as mediator between the mind and +the world." Froebel's "Gifts" were an attempt to supply right play +material. True to his faith in natural impulse, Froebel watched children +to see what playthings they found for themselves, or which, among those +presented by adults, were most appreciated. Soft little coloured balls +seemed right material for a baby's tender hand, and it was clear that +when the child could crawl about he was ready for something which he +could roll on the floor and pursue on all fours. As early as two years +old he loves to take things out of boxes and to move objects about, so +boxes of bricks were supplied, graded in number and in variety of form. +Not for a moment did Froebel suggest that the child was to be limited to +these selected playthings, he expressly stated the contrary, and he +frequently said that spontaneity was not to be checked. But from what +has followed, from the way in which these little toys have been misused, +we are tempted to speculate on whether these "Gifts" supplied that +definite foundation without which, in these days, no notice would have +been taken of the new ideas, or whether they have proved the sunken +rock on which much that was valuable has perished. The world was not +ready to believe in the educational value of play, just pure play. Nor +is it yet. For the new system in its "didactic" apparatus out-Froebels +Froebel in his mistake of trying to systematise the material for +spontaneous education. Carefully planned, as were Froebel's own "gifts," +the new apparatus presents a series of exercises in sense +discrimination, satisfying no doubt while unfamiliar, but suffering from +the defect of the "too finished and complex plaything," in which Froebel +saw a danger "which slumbers like a viper under the roses." The danger +is that "the child can begin no new thing with it, cannot produce enough +variety by its means; his power of creative imagination, his power of +giving outward form to his own ideas are thus actually deadened." + +"To realise his aims, man, and more particularly the child, requires +material, though it be only a bit of wood or a pebble, with which he +makes something or which he makes into something. In order to lead the +child to the handling of material we give him the ball, the cube and +other bodies, the Kindergarten gifts. Each of these gifts incites the +child to free spontaneous activity, to independent movement." + +Froebel would have sympathised deeply with the views of Peter as +expressed by Mr. Wells in regard to Ideals, which he, however, called +toys: + +"The theory of Ideals played almost as important a part in the early +philosophy of Peter as it did in the philosophy of Plato. But Peter did +not call them Ideals, he called them 'toys.' Toys were the simplified +essences of things, pure, perfect and manageable. Real things were +troublesome, uncontrollable, over-complicated and largely irrelevant. A +Real Train, for example, was a poor, big, clumsy, limited thing that was +obliged to go to Redhill, or Croydon, or London, that was full of +unnecessary strangers, usually sitting firmly in the window seats, that +you could do nothing with at all. A Toy Train was your very own; it +took you wherever you wanted, to Fairyland, or Russia, or anywhere, at +whatever pace you chose."[15] + +[Footnote 15: _Joan and Peter_, p. 77.] + +Froebel asks what presents are most prized by the child and by mankind +in general, and answers, "Those which afford him a means of developing +his mind, of giving it freest activity, of expressing it clearly." For +her ideas as to educative material Dr. Montessori went, not to normal +life, not even to children, but to what may he called curative +appliances, to the material invented by Séguin to develop the dormant +powers of defective children. She herself came to the study of education +from the medical side, the curative. Froebel, with his belief in human +instinct, naturally went to what he called the mother's room, which we +should call the nursery, and to the garden where the child finds his +"bright round smooth pebble" and his "brilliant quaint leaf." No one +would seek to under-value the importance of sense discrimination, but it +can be exercised without formalism, and it need not be mere +discrimination. It is in connection with the Taste and Smell games that +Froebel tells the mother that "the higher is rooted in the lower, +morality in instinct, the spiritual in the material." The baby enjoys +the scent, thanks the kind spirit that put it there, and must let mother +smell it too, so from the beginning there is a touch of aesthetic +pleasure and a recognition of "what the dear God is saying outside." As +to how sense discrimination may be exercised without formality, there is +a charming picture in _The Camp School_: + +"And then that sense of _Smell_, which got so little exercise and +attention that it went to sleep altogether, so that millions get no +warning and no joy through it. We met the need for its education in the +Baby Camp by having a Herb Garden. Back from the shelters and open +ground, in a shady place, we have planted fennel, mint, lavender, sage, +marjoram, thyme, rosemary, herb gerrard and rue. And over and above +these pungently smelling things there are little fields of mignonette. +We have balm, indeed, everywhere in our garden. The toddlers go round +the beds of herbs, pinching the leaves with their tiny fingers and then +putting their fingers to their noses. There are two little couples going +the rounds just now. One is a pair of new comers, very much astonished, +the other couple old inhabitants, delighted to show the wonders of the +place! Coming back with odorous hands, they perhaps want to tell us +about the journey. Their eyes are bright, their mouths open." + +In Chapter II. we quoted the biologist educator's ideal conception of +the surroundings best suited to bring about right development. Let us +now visit one or two actual Kindergartens and see if these conditions +are in any way realised by the followers of Froebel. + +The first one we enter is certainly a large bright room, for one side is +open to light, with two large windows, and between them glass doors +opening into the playground. There is no heap of sand in a corner, nor +is there a tub of water; for the practical teacher knows how little +hands, if not little feet, with their vigorous but as yet uncontrolled +movements would splash the water and scatter the sand with dire effects +as to the floor, which the theorist fondly imagines would always be +clean enough to sit upon. But there is a sand-tray big enough and deep +enough for six to eight children to use individually or together. As +spontaneous activity, with its ceaseless efforts at experimenting, +ceaselessly spills the sand, within easy reach are little brushes and +dustpans to remedy such mishaps. The sand-tray is lined with zinc so +that the sand can be replaced by water for boats and ducks, etc., when +desired. + +The low wall blackboard is there ready for use. Bright pictures are on +the walls, well drawn and well coloured, some from nursery rhymes, some +of Caldecott's, a frieze of hen and chickens, etc. Boxes for houses and +shops are not in evidence, but their place is taken by bricks of such +size and quantity that houses, shops, motors, engines and anything else +may be built large enough for the children themselves to be shopkeepers +or drivers, and there are also pieces of wood to use for various +purposes of construction. There is no cooking stove, but simple cooking +can be carried out on an open fire, and when a baking oven is required, +an eager procession makes its way to the kitchen, where a kindly +housekeeper permits the use of her oven. There is a doll's cot with a +few dolls of various sizes. There are flowers and growing bulbs. There +are light low tables and chairs, a family of guinea pigs in a large +cage, and there is a cupboard which the children can reach. + +Water is to be found in a passage room, between the Kindergarten and the +rooms for children above that stage, and here, so placed that the +children themselves can find and reach everything, are the sawdust, bran +and oats for the guinea pigs, with a few carrots and a knife to cut +them, some tiny scrubbing-brushes and a wiping-up cloth. Here also are +stored the empty boxes, corrugated paper and odds and ends in constant +demand for constructions. + +In the cupboard there are certain shelves from which anything may be +taken, and some from which nothing may be taken without leave. For the +teacher here is of opinion that children of even three and four are not +too young to begin to learn the lesson of _meum_ and _tuum_, and she +also thinks it is good to have some treasures which do not come out +every day, and which may require more delicate handling than the +ordinary toy ought to need. For this ought to be strong enough to bear +unskilled handling and vigorous movements, for a broken toy ought to be +a tragedy. At the same time it is part of a child's training to learn to +use dainty objects with delicate handling, and such things form the +children's art gems, showing beauty of construction and of colour. +Children as well as grown-ups have their bad days, when something out of +the usual is very welcome. "Do you know there's nothing in this world +that I'm not tired of?" was said one day by a boy of six usually quite +contented. "Give me something out of the cupboard that I've never seen +before," said another whose digestion was troublesome. The open shelves +contain pencils and paper, crayons, paint-boxes, boxes of building +blocks, interlocking blocks, wooden animals, jigsaw and other puzzles, +coloured tablets for pattern laying, toy scales, beads to thread, +dominoes, etc., the only rule being that what is taken out must be +tidily replaced. This Kindergarten is part of a large institution, and +the playground, to which it has direct access, is of considerable +extent. There is a big stretch of grass and another of asphalt, so that +in suitable weather the tables and chairs, the sand-tray, the bricks and +anything else that is wanted can be carried outside so that the children +can live in the open, which of course is better than any room. In the +playground there is a bank where the children can run up and down, and +there are a few planks and a builder's trestle,[16] on which they can be +poised for seesaws or slides, and these are a constant source of +pleasure. + +[Footnote 16: See p. 55.] + +In another Kindergarten we find the walls enlivened with Cecil Aldin's +fascinating friezes: here is Noah with all the animals walking in +cheerful procession, and in the next room is an attractive procession of +children with push-carts, hoops and toy motor cars. When we make our +visit the day is fine and the room is empty, the children are all +outside. The garden is not large, but there is some space, and under the +shade of two big trees we find rugs spread, on which the children are +sitting, standing, kneeling and lying, according to their occupation. +One is building with large blocks, and must stand up to complete her +erection; another is lying flat putting together a jigsaw; another, a +boy, is threading beads; while another has built railway arches, and +with much whistling and the greatest carefulness is guiding his train +through the tunnels. The play is almost entirely individual, but very +often you hear, "O Miss X, _do_ come and see what I've done!" After +about an hour, during which a few of the children have changed their +occupations, those who wish to do so join some older children who are +playing games involving movement. This may be a traditional game like +Looby Loo, or Round and round the Village, or it may be one of the best +of the old Kindergarten games. After lunch the washing up is to be done +in a beautiful new white sink which is displayed with pride. + +Our next visit is to a Free Kindergarten. The rooms are quite as +attractive, as rich in charming friezes as in the others, and the +furnishing in some ways is much the same. But here we see what we have +not seen before, for here is a large room filled with tiny hammock beds. +The windows are wide open, but the blinds are down, for the children are +having their afternoon sleep. + +Here, as in all Free Kindergartens, the children are provided with +simple but pretty overalls which the parents are pleased to wash. House +shoes are also provided, partly to minimise the noise from active little +feet, but principally because the poor little boots are often a +painfully inadequate protection from wet pavements. The children are +trained to tidy ways and to independence. They cannot read, but by +picture cards they recognise their own beds, pegs and other properties. +They take out and put away their own things, and give all reasonable +help in laying tables and serving food, in washing, dusting and sweeping +up crumbs, as is done in any true Kindergarten. + +In the garden of this Free Kindergarten there is a large sand-pit, +surrounded by a low wooden framework, and having a pole across the +middle so that it resembles a cucumber frame and a cover can be thrown +over the sand to keep it clean when not in use. + +Froebel's own list of playthings contains, besides balls and building +blocks, coloured beads, coloured tablets for laying patterns, coloured +papers for cutting, folding and plaiting; pencils, paints and brushes; +modelling clay and sand; coloured wool for sewing patterns and pictures; +and such little sticks and laths as children living in a forest region +find for themselves. Considered in themselves, apart from the traditions +of formality, these are quite good play material or stimuli, and Froebel +meant the time to come "when we shall speak of the doll and the hobby +horse as the first plays of the awakening life of the girl and the boy," +but he died before he had done so. In the _Mother Songs_, too, we find +quite a good list of toys which are now to be found in most +Kindergartens. + +Toys for the playground should be provided--a sand-heap, a seesaw, a +substantial wheel-barrow, hoops, balls, reins and perhaps +skipping-ropes. Something on which the child can balance, logs or planks +which they can move about, and a trestle on which these can be +supported, are invaluable. It was while an addition was being made to +our place that we realised the importance of such things, and, as in +Froebel's case, "our teachers were the children themselves." They were +so supremely happy running up and down the plank roads laid by the +builders for their wheel-barrows, seesawing or balancing and sliding on +others, that we could not face the desolation of emptiness which would +come when the workmen removed their things. So, for a few pounds, all +that the children needed was secured, ordinary planks for seesawing, +narrower for balancing and a couple of trestles. One exercise the +children had specially enjoyed was jumping up and down on yielding +planks, and this the workmen had forbidden because the planks might +crack. But a sympathetic foreman told us what was needed: two planks of +special springy wood were fastened together by cross pieces at each end, +and besides making excellent slides, these made most exciting +springboards. + +For representations of real life the children require dolls and the +simplest of furniture--a bed, which need only be a box, some means of +carrying out the doll's washing, her personal requirements as well as +her clothes; some little tea-things and pots and pans. A doll's house is +not necessary, and can only be used by two or three children, but will +be welcomed if provided, and its appointments give practice in dainty +handling. Trains and signals of some kind, home-made or otherwise; +animals for farm or Zoo; a pair of scales for a shop, and some sort of +delivery van, which, of course, may be home-made. + +There must also be provision for increase of skill and possibility of +creation. If the Kindergarten can afford it, some of the Montessori +material may be provided; there is no reason, except expense, why it +should not be used if the children like it, and if it does not take up +too much room. But it has no creative possibilities, and even at three +years old this is required. Scissors are an important tool, and an old +book of sample wall-papers is most useful; old match-boxes and used +matches, paste and brushes and some old magazines to cut. Blackboard +chalks and crayons, paint-boxes with four to six important colours, some +Kindergarten folding papers, all these supply colour. Certain toys seem +specially suited to give hand control, _e.g._ a Noah's Ark, where the +small animals are to be set out carefully, tops or teetotums and +tiddlywinks, at which some little children become proficient. The puzzle +interest must not be forgotten, and simple jigsaw pictures give great +pleasure. It is interesting to note here that the youngest children fit +these puzzles not by the picture but by form, though they know they are +making a picture and are pleased when it is finished. The puzzle with +six pictures on the sides of cubes is much more difficult than a simple +jigsaw. + +All sorts of odds and ends come in useful, and especially for the poorer +children these should be provided. Any one who remembers the pleasure +derived from coloured envelope bands, from transparent paper from +crackers, and from certain advertisements, will save these for children +to whose homes such treasures never come. A box containing scraps of +soft cloth, possibly a bit of velvet, some bits of smooth and shining +coloured silk give the pleasure of sense discrimination without the +formality of the Montessori graded boxes, and are easier to replace. +Some substitute for "mother's button box," a box of shells or coloured +seeds, a box of feathers, all these things will be played with, which +means observation and discrimination, comparison and contrast, and in +addition, where colour is involved, there is aesthetic pleasure, and +this also enters into the touching of smooth or soft surfaces. Softness +is a joy to children, as is shown in the woolly lambs, etc., provided +for babies. A little one of my acquaintance had a bit of blanket which +comforted many woes, and when once I offered her a feather boa as a +substitute she sobbed out: "It isn't so soft as the blanket!" + +In one of Miss McMillan's early books she wrote: "Very early the child +begins more or less consciously to exercise the basal sense--the sense +of touch. On waking from sleep he puts his tiny hands to grasp +something, or turns his head on the firm soft pillow. He _touches_ +rather than looks, at first (for his hands and fingers perform a great +many movements long before he learns to turn his eyeballs in various +directions or follow the passage even of a light), and through touching +many things he begins his education. If he is the nursling of wealthy +parents, it is possible that his first exercises are rather restricted. +He touches silk, ivory, muslin and fine linen. That is all, and that is +not much. But the child of the cottager is often better off, for his +mother gives him a great variety of objects to keep him quiet. The +ridiculous command, 'Do not touch,' cannot be imposed on him while he is +screaming in his cradle or protesting in his dinner chair; and so all +manner of things--reels, rings, boxes, tins, that is to say a variety of +surfaces--is offered to him, to his great delight and advantage. And +lest he should not get the full benefit of such privilege he carries +everything to his mouth, where the sense of touch is very keen."[17] + +[Footnote 17: _Early Childhood_: Swan Sonnenschein, published 1900.] + +Among the treasures kept for special occasions there may be pipes for +soap-bubbles, a prism of some kind with which to make rainbows, a tiny +mirror to make "light-birds" on the wall and ceiling, and a magnet with +the time-honoured ducks and fish, if these are still to be bought, along +with other articles, delicately made or coloured, which require care. + +Pictures and picture-books should also be considered; some being in +constant use, some only brought out occasionally. For the very smallest +children some may be rag books, but always children should be taught to +treat books carefully. The pictures on the walls ought to be changed, +sometimes with the children's help, sometimes as a surprise and +discovery. For that purpose it is convenient to have series of pictures +in frames with movable backs, but brown-paper frames will do quite well. +The pictures belonging to the stories which have been told to the +children ought to have a prominent place, and if the little ones desire +to have one retold they will ask for it. + +It is of course not at all either necessary or even desirable for any +one school to have everything, and children should not have too much +within the range of their attention at one time. Individual teachers +will make their own selections, but in all cases there must be +sufficient variety of material for each child to carry out his natural +desire for observation, experiment and construction. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE" + + + A wedding or a festival, a mourning or a funeral... + As if his whole vocation were endless imitation. + +In every country and in every age those who have eyes to see have +watched the same little dramas. What Wordsworth saw was seen nineteen +hundred years ago in the Syrian market-place, where the children +complained of their unresponsive companions: "We have piped the glad +chaunt of the marriage, but ye have not danced, we have wailed our +lamentation, but ye have not joined our mourning procession." + +Since the very name Kindergarten is to imply a teaching which fulfils +the child's own wants and desires, it must supply abundant provision for +the dramatic representation of life. Adults have always been ready to +use for their own purposes the strong tendency to imitate, which is a +characteristic of all normal children, but few even now realise to what +extent a child profits by his imitative play. The explanation that +Froebel found for this will now be generally accepted, viz. that only by +acting it out can a child fully grasp an idea, "For what he tries to +represent or do, he begins to understand." He thinks in action, or as +one writer put it, he "apperceives with his muscles." This explanation +seems to cover imitative play, from the little child's imitative wave of +the hand up to such elaborate imitations as are described in Stanley +Hall's _Story of a Sand Pile,_[18] or in Dewey's _Schools of +To-morrow._ But when we think of the joy of such imaginative play as +that of Red Indians, shipwrecks and desert islands, we feel that these +show a craving for experience, for life, such a craving as causes the +adult to lose himself in a book of travels or in a dramatic performance, +and which explains the phenomenal success of the cinema, poor stuff as +it is. + +[Footnote 18: Or that delightful "Play Town" in _The Play Way_.] + +We thirst for experiences, even for those which are unpleasant; we +wonder "how it feels" to be up in an aeroplane or down in a submarine. +We are far indeed from desiring air-raids, but if such things must be, +there is a curious satisfaction in being "in it." And though the +experiences they desire may be matters of everyday occurrence to us, +children probably feel the craving even more keenly. "You may write what +you like," said a teacher, and a somewhat inarticulate child wrote, "I +was out last night, it was late." "Why, Jack," said another, "you've +painted your cow green; did you ever see a green cow?" "No," said Jack, +"but I'd like to." + +In early Kindergarten days this imitative and dramatic tendency was +chiefly met in games, and the children were by turns butterflies and +bees, bakers and carpenters, clocks and windmills. The programme was +suggested by Froebel's _Mother Songs_, in which he deals with the +child's nearest environment. Too often, indeed, the realities to which +Froebel referred were not realities to English children, but that was +recognised as a defect, and the ideas themselves were suitable. +Chickens, pigeons and farmyard animals; the homely pussy cat or canary +bird; the workers to whom the child is indebted, farmer, baker, miner, +builder or carpenter; the sun, the rain, the rainbow and the +"light-bird"--such ideas were chosen as suitable centres, and stories +and songs, games and handwork clustered round. + +What was the reason for this binding of things together? Why did +Froebel constantly plead for "unity" even for the tiny child, and tell +us to link together his baby finger-games or his first weak efforts at +building with his blocks chairs, tables, beds, walls and ladders? + +Looking back over the years, it seems as if this idea of joining +together has been trying to assert itself under various forms, each of +which has reigned for its day, has been carried to extremes and been +discarded, only to come up again in a somewhat different form. It has +always seemed to aim at extending and ordering the mind content of +children. For the Froebelian it was expressed in such words as "unity," +"connectedness" and "continuity," while the Herbartians called it +"correlation." Under these terms much work has been, and is still being, +carried out, some very good and some very foolish. Ideas catch on, +however, because of the truth that is in them, not because of the error +which is likely to be mixed with it, and even the weakest effort after +connection embodies an important truth. When we smile over absurd +stories of forced "correlation," we seldom stop to think of what went on +before the Kindergarten existed, for instance the still more absurd and +totally disconnected lists of object lessons. One actual list for +children of four years old ran: Soda, Elephant, Tea, Pig, Wax, Cow, +Sugar, Spider, Potatoes, Sheep, Salt, Mouse, Bread, Camel. + +Kindergarten practice was far ahead of this, for here the teacher was +expected to choose her material according to (1) Time of Year; (2) Local +Conditions, such as the pursuits of the people; (3) Social Customs. When +it was possible the children went to see the real blacksmith or the real +cow, and to let game or handwork be an expression, and a re-ordering of +ideas gained was natural and right. Connectedness, however, meant more +than this, it meant that the material itself was to be treated so that +the children would be helped to that real understanding which comes +from seeing things in their relations to each other. As Lloyd Morgan +puts it, "We are mainly at work upon the mental background. It is our +object to make this background as rich and full and orderly as possible, +so that whatever is brought to the focus of consciousness shall be set +in a relational background, which shall give it meaning; and so that our +pupils may be able to feel the truth which Browning puts into the mouth +of Fra Lippo Lippi: + + This world's no blot for us + Nor blank; it means intensely and means good: + To find its meaning is my meat and drink." + +According to Professor Dewey, some such linking or joining is necessary +"to foster that sense which is at the basis of attention and of all +intellectual growth, the sense of continuity." The Herbartian +correlation was designed to further that well-connected circle of +thought out of which would come the firm will, guided by right insight, +inspired by true feeling, which is their aim in education. + +Froebelian unity and connectedness have, like the others, an +intellectual and a moral aspect. Intellectually "the essential +characteristic of instruction is the treatment of individual things in +their relationships"; morally, the idea of unity is that we are all +members one of another. The child who, through unhindered activity, has +reached the stage of self-consciousness is to go on to feel himself a +part, a member of an ever-increasing whole--family, school, township, +country, humanity--the All; to be "one with Nature, man and God." + +Every one has heard something of the new teaching--which, by the way, +sheds clearer light over Froebel's warning against arbitrary +interference--viz. that a great part of the nervous instability which +affects our generation is due to the thwarting and checking of the +natural impulses of early years. But this new school also gives us +something positive, and reinforces older doctrines by telling us to +integrate behaviour. "This matter of the unthwarted lifelong progress +of behaviour integration is of profound importance, for it is the +transition from behaviour to conduct. The more integrated behaviour is +harmonious and consistent behaviour toward a larger and more +comprehensive situation, toward a bigger section of the universe; it is +lucidity and breadth of purpose. The child playing with fire is only +wrong conduct because it is behaviour that does not take into account +consequences; it is not adjusted to enough of the environment; it will +be made right by an enlargement of its scope and reach."[19] + +All selfish conduct, all rudeness and roughness come from ignorance; we +are all more or less self-centred, and the child's consciousness of self +has to be widened, his scope has to be enlarged to sympathy with the +thoughts, feelings and desires of other selves. "The sane man is the man +who (however limited the scope of his behaviour) has no such suppression +incorporated in him. The wise man must be sane and must have scope as +well."[20] + +[Footnote 19: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +[Footnote 20: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +Professor Earl Barnes always used to describe the child mind as +"scrappy." How can we best aid development into the wholeness or +healthiness and the scope of sanity and wisdom? For it may well be that +this widening and ordering of experience, of consciousness, of behaviour +into moral behaviour is our most important task as teachers. Froebel +emphasised the "crying need" for connection of school and life, pointing +out how the little child desires to imitate and the older to share in +all that, as Professor Dewey puts it, is "surcharged with a sense of the +mysterious values that attach to whatever their elders are concerned +with." This is one of the points to which Professor Dewey called +attention in his summing up of Froebel's educational principles, this +letting the child reproduce on his own plane the typical doings and +occupations of the larger, maturer society into which he is finally to +go forth. + +It is in this connection that he says the Kindergarten teacher has the +opportunity to foster that most important "sense of continuity." In +simple reproduction of the home life while there is abundant variety, +since daily life may bring us into contact with all the life of the city +or of the country, yet, because the work is within a whole, "there is +opportunity to foster that sense which is at the basis of attention and +of all intellectual growth, a sense of continuity." + +Since Professor Dewey gave to the world the results of his experimental +school, all the Kindergartens and most of the Infant Schools in England +have tried to carry out their accustomed reproduction of home +surroundings, more or less on the lines of the Primary Department of his +experimental school. They have extended their scope, and in addition to +the material already taken from workman and shop, from garden and farm, +have also with much profit to older children used his suggestions about +primitive industries. + +Reproduction of home surroundings can be done in many ways, one of which +is to help the children to furnish and to play with a doll's house. But +the play must be play. It is not enough to use the drama as merely +offering suggestions for handwork, and one small doll's house does not +allow of real play for more than one or two children. + +Our own children used to settle this by taking out the furniture, etc., +and arranging different homes around the room. I can remember the +never-ending pleasure given by similar play in my own nursery days, when +the actors were the men and boys supplied by tailors' advertisements. +Many and varied were the experiences of these paper families, families, +it may be noted, none of whom demeaned themselves so far as to possess +any womankind. For that nursery party of five had lost its mother sadly +early and was ruled by two boys, who evidently thought little of the +other sex. + +Professor Dewey tells us that "nothing is more absurd than to suppose +that there is no middle term between leaving a child to his unguided +fancies, or controlling his activities by a formal succession of +dictated directions." It is the teacher's business to know what is +striving for utterance and to supply the needed stimulus and materials. + +To show how under the inspiration of a thoroughly capable teacher this +continuity may be secured and prolonged for quite a long period, an +example may be taken from the work of Miss Janet Payne, who is +remarkably successful in meeting and stimulating, without in any way +forcing the "striving for utterance" mentioned by Dewey. On this +occasion Miss Payne produced a doll about ten inches high, dressed to +resemble the children's fathers, and suggested that a home should be +made for him. The children adopted him with zeal, named him Mr. Bird, +and his career lasted for two years. + +Mr. Bird required a family, so Mrs. Bird had to be produced with her +little girl Winnie, and later a baby was added to the family. Beds, +tables and chairs, including a high chair for Winnie, were made of +scraps from the wood box, and for a long time Mr. Bird was most +domesticated. Miss Payne had used ordinary dolls' heads, but had +constructed the bodies herself in such a way that the dolls could sit +and stand, and use their arms to wield a broom or hold the baby. After +some time, one child said, "Mr. Bird ought to go to business," and after +much deliberation he became a grocer. His shop was made and stocked, and +he attended it every day, going home to dinner regularly. One day he +appeared to be having a meal on the shop counter, and it was explained +that he had been "rather in a hurry" in the morning, so Mrs. Bird had +given him his breakfast to take with him. The Bird family had various +adventures, they had spring cleanings, removals, visited the Zoo and +went to the seaside. One morning a little fellow sat in a trolley with +the Bird family beside him for three-quarters of an hour evidently +"imagining." I did inquire in passing if it was a drive or a picnic, but +the answer was so brief, that I knew I was an interruption and retired. +But a younger and bolder inquirer, who wanted to conduct an experiment +in modelling, ventured to ask if Mr. Bird wanted anything that could be +made "at clay modelling." "Yes, he wants some ink-pots for his +post-office shop," was the answer, with the slightly irate addition, +"but I _wish_ you'd call it the china factory." + +When these children moved to an upper class, Mr. Bird was laid away, but +the children requested his presence. So he entered the new room and +became a farmer. He had now to write letters, to arrange rents, etc., +and the money had to be made and counted. The letters served for writing +and reading lessons, and Miss Payne was careful to send the answers +through the real post, properly addressed to Mr. Bird with the name of +class and school. Mr. Bird hired labourers, the children grew corn, and +thrashed it and sent it to the mill. A miller had to be produced, and +the children, now his assistants, ground the wheat, and Mr. Bird came in +his cart to fetch the sacks of flour, which ultimately became the Birds' +Christmas pudding and was eaten by the labourers, now guests at the +feast. In spring, after careful provision for their comfort, Mr. Bird +went to the cattle market and bought cows. Though the milking had to be +pretence, the butter and cheese were really made. + +The first question of the summer term was, "What's Mr. Bird going to do +this term?" Like other teachers inspired by Professor Dewey, we have +found our children most responsive to the suggestion of playing out +primitive man. But with some, not of course with the brightest, it is +too great a stretch to go at one step from the present to the most +primitive times, and we often spend a term over something of the nature +of Robinson Crusoe, where the situation presents characters accustomed +to modern civilisation and deprived of all its conveniences. Miss Payne +is careful to give the children full opportunity for suggestions--one +dull little boy puzzled his mother by telling her "I made a very good +'gestion' to-day"--so though she had not contemplated the renewed +appearance of Mr. Bird she said, "What do you want him to do?" "Let him +go out and shoot bears," cried an embryo sportsman. Somewhat taken +aback, Miss Payne temporised with, "He wouldn't find them in this +country." "Then let him go to India," cried one child, but another +called out, "No, no, let him go to a desert island!" and that was +carried with acclamation. Mr. Bird's various homes were on a miniature +scale, and were contained in a series of zinc trays, which we have had +made to fit the available tables and cupboard tops. We find these trays +convenient, as a new one can be added when more scope is required to +carry out new ideas. + +The following accounts taken from the notes of Miss Hilda Beer, while a +student in training, show another kind of play where the children +themselves act the drama. The notes only cover a short period, but they +show how the play may arise quite incidentally. + +_Mon., June 18._--As the ground is too damp for out-of-doors work, if +the children were not ready with plans, I meant to suggest building a +railway station, tunnel, etc., and later, I thought perhaps we might +paint advertisements of seaside resorts for our station. + +But the children brought several things with them, and Dorothy brought +her own doll. Marie had left the baby doll from the other room in the +cot, so Dorothy and Sylvia said they must look after the babies. So +Cecil, Josie and I swept and dusted. + +Then we began to play house. Cecil and Dorothy were Mr. and Mrs. Harry, +Sylvia was Mrs. Loo (husband at the war). Josie was Nurse and I was +Aunt Lizzie. The dolls were Winnie Harry, and Jack and Doreen Loo. Mr. +and Mrs. Harry built themselves a house and so did we. Cecil said, "But +what is the name of the road?" Mrs. Harry chose 25 Brookfield Avenue, +and Mr. Harry 7 Victoria Street, but he gave in and Mrs. Loo took his +name for her house. We had to put numbers on the houses; Sylvia could +make 7, but the others could not make 25, so I put it on the board and +they copied it. Josie having also made a 7 wanted to use it, but Mrs. +Loo objected, and said, "The mother is more important than the nurse," +so Josie fixed her 7 on the house opposite. + +After lunch we bathed the babies and put them to sleep, and as it was +time for the children's own rest, we all went to bed. When rest was +over, we washed and dressed, and then Mrs. Harry asked for clay to make +a water-tap for her house. That made all the children want to make +things in clay, so we made cups and saucers, plates, and a baby's +bottle, then scones and sponge-cakes, bread and a bread-board, and one +of the children said we must put a B on that. + +Then Mrs. Loo said, "But we haven't any shelves." I had to leave my +class in Miss Payne's charge, and they spent the rest of the time +fitting in shelves, water-taps, and sinks. + +_June 19._--After sweeping, dusting, and washing and dressing the dolls, +I read to the children "How the House was built." Then we all pretended +to bake, making rolls and cakes as next day was to be the doll Winnie's +birthday. We baked our cakes on a piece of wood on the empty fireplace. + +The other children were invited to Winnie's party, so we went out to +shop. The children wanted lettuces from their own garden, but the grass +was too wet, so we pretended. The shop was on the edge of the grass and +we talked to imaginary shopmen, Cecil often exclaiming, "Eightpence! +why, it's not worth it!" + +As neither of the houses would hold all the guests invited to the party, +we had to have a picnic instead. + +_June_ 20.--I must see that Sylvia and Dorothy do the sweeping +to-morrow, and let Josie bath the doll; she is very good-natured, and I +see that they give her the less attractive occupation. I think too that +the food question has played too large a part, so if the children +suggest more cooking I shall look in the larder and say that really we +must not buy or bake as food goes bad in hot weather, and we must not +waste in war time. + +The children have suggested making cushions, painting pictures, and +making knives and forks, but we have not had time. + +_Report_.--Dorothy and Sylvia swept, Cecil mended the wall of the house, +Josie took the children down to the beach (the sand tray), and I dusted. +We looked into the larder and found that yesterday's greens were going +bad, so decided not to buy more. Then we took the babies for a walk. We +noticed how many nasturtiums were out, how the blackberry bushes were in +flower and in bud, and the runner-bean was in flower, and the red +flowers looked so pretty in the green leaves. We looked at the +hollyhocks, because I have told the children that they will grow taller +than I am, and they are always wondering how soon this will be. The +children found some cherries which had fallen, and Dorothy said how +pretty they were on the tree. I called attention to one branch that was +laden with fruit, and looked particularly pretty with the sun shining on +it. We also looked at the pear tree and the almond. Everything has come +on so fast, and the children were ready to say it was because of the +rain. + +After rest, we went to the Hall to see the chickens. To-day they were +much bigger, and Sylvia said had "bigger wings." We were able to watch +them drinking, how they hold up their heads to let the water run down. +The rest of the morning we made curtains, and the children loved it. +There was much discussion and at first the children suggested making +them all different, but they agreed that curtains at windows were +usually alike. Mr. and Mrs. Harry nearly quarrelled, as one wanted green +and the other pink. I suggested trimming the green with a strip of pink, +and they were quite pleased. Mrs. Loo and Nurse chose green which was to +be sewn with red silk. Sylvia said, "A pattern," and I said, "You saw +something red and green to-day," and she called out, "Oh! cherries." She +cut out a round of paper and tried to sew round it, holding it in place +with her other hand. I suggested putting in a stitch to hold the paper. +Cecil was absorbed in sewing, and it seemed quieting for such an +excitable boy and good for his weak hands. One child said, "Fancy a boy +sewing," so I told how soldiers and sailors sewed. They sewed just as +they liked. + +These notes are continued in Chapter IX., where they are used to show +children's attitude towards Nature. Though separated here for a special +purpose it is clear that there neither is nor ought to be any real +separation in the lives of the children. Their lives are wholes and they +continually pass from one "subject" to another, because life and its +circumstances are making new demands. If it rains and you cannot gather +the lettuces you have grown from seed, you take refuge in happy +pretence; if it clears and the sun calls you out of doors, you take your +doll-babies for their walk. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JOY IN MAKING + + + I, too, will something make, and joy in the making. + + ROBERT BRIDGES. + + Built by that only Law, that Use be suggester of Beauty. + + ARTHUR CLOUGH. + +There has always been _making_ in the Kindergarten, since to Froebel the +impulse to create was a characteristic of self-conscious humanity. +Stopford Brooke points out that Browning's Caliban, though almost brute, +shows himself human, in that, besides thinking out his natural religion, +he also dramatises and creates, "falls to make something." + + 'Tis solace making baubles, ay, and sport. + Tasteth, himself, no finer good i' the world + Than trying what to do with wit and strength-- + +What does a child gain from his ceaseless attempts at making? Froebel's +answer was that intellectually, through making he gains ideas, which, +received in words, remain mere words. "To learn through life and action +is more developing than to learn through words: expression in plastic +material, united with thought and speech, is far more developing than +mere repetition of words." Morally, it is through impressing himself on +his surroundings, that the child reaches the human attributes of +self-consciousness and self-control. One of the most important passages +Froebel ever wrote is this: + +"The deepest craving of the child's life is to see itself mirrored in +some external object. Through such reflection, he learns to know his own +activity, its essence, direction and aim, and learns to determine his +activity in accordance with outer things. Such mirroring of the inner +life is essential, for through it the child comes to self-consciousness, +and learns to order, determine and master himself." + +It is from the point of view of expression alone that Froebel regards +Art, and drawing, he takes to be "the first revelation of the creative +power within the child." The very earliest drawing to which he refers is +what he calls "sketching the object on itself," that is, the tracing +round the outlines of things, whereby the child learns form by +co-ordinating sight and motor perceptions, a stage on which Dr. +Montessori has also laid much stress. Besides noting how children draw +"round scissors and boxes, leaves and twigs, their own hands, and even +shadows," he sees that from experimentation with any pointed stick or +scrap of red stone or chalk, may come what Mr. E. Cooke called a +language of line, and now "the horse of lines, the man of lines" will +give much pleasure. After this it is true that "whatever a child knows +he will put into his drawing," and the teacher's business is to see that +he has abundant perceptions and images to express. + +Another kind of drawing which children seem to find for themselves is +what they call making patterns. Out of this came the old-fashioned +chequer drawing, now condemned as injurious to eyesight and of little +value. + +When children see anything rich in colour the general cry is "Let's +paint it," which is their way of taking in the beauty. We should not, +says Froebel, give them paints and brushes inconsiderately, to throw +about, but give them the help they need, and he describes quite a +sensible lesson given to boys "whose own painting did not seem to paint +them long." + +Teachers who want real help in the art training of children should read +the excellent papers by Miss Findlay in _School and Life_, where we are +told that we must rescue the term "design" from the limited uses to +which it is often condemned in the drawing class, viz. the construction +of pleasing arrangements of colour and form for surface decoration. "We +shall use it in its full popular significance in constructive work.... +The term will cover building houses, making kettles, laying out streets, +planning rooms, dressing hair, as well as making patterns for cushion +covers and cathedral windows.... In thus widening our art studies, we +shall be harking back in a slight degree to the kind of training that in +past ages produced the great masters.... Giotto designed his Campanile +primarily for the bells that were to summon the Florentines to their +cathedral; the Venetians wanted façades for their palaces, and made +façades to delight their eyes; the Japanese have wanted small furniture +for their small rooms, and have developed wonderful skill and taste in +designing it. Neither art nor science can remain long afloat in high +abstract regions above the needs and interests of human life. To quote +A.H. Clough: + + 'A Cathedral Pure and Perfect. + Built by that only Law, that Use be suggester of Beauty; + Nothing concealed that is, done, but all things done to adornment; + Meanest utilities seized as occasions to grace and embellish.'" + +If this is true of the interests of the professional artist, much more +must it be true of the art training of the child. We must not then +despise the rough and ready productions of a child, nor force upon him a +standard for which he is not ready. + +Before any other construction is possible to him, a child can _make_ +with sand, and this is a constant joy, from the endless puddings that +are turned out of patty pans, up to such models as that of the whole +"Isle of Wight" with its tunnelled cliffs and system of railways, made +by an ex-Kindergarten boy as yet innocent of geography lessons. + +The child then who is making, especially making for use, is to a certain +extent developing himself as an artist. + +The little boys at Keilhau were well provided with sand, moss, etc., to +use with their building blocks, and it was a former Keilhau boy who +suggested to his old master that some kind of sand-box would make a good +plaything for the children in his new Kindergarten. Miss Wiggin tells us +that indirectly we owe the children's sand-heaps in the public parks to +Froebel, since these were the result of a suggestion made by Frau +Schrader to the Empress Frederick, and the idea was carried out during +her husband's too brief reign. + +Another very early "making" is the arranging of furniture for shops, +carriages, trains, and the "ships upon the stairs," which made bright +pictures in Stevenson's memory. + +Building blocks are truly, as Froebel puts it, "the finest and most +variable material that can be offered a boy for purposes of +representation." The little boxes associated with the Kindergarten were +originally planned for the use of nursery children two to three years of +age, and in most if not in all Kindergartens these have been replaced by +larger bricks. It is many years now since, at Miss Payne's suggestion, +we bought some hundreds of road paving blocks, and these are such a +source of pleasure that the children often dream about them. Living out +the life around presents much opportunity for making, which may be done +with blocks, but which even in the Kindergarten can be done with tools. +Care must be exercised, but children have quite a strong instinct for +self-preservation, and if shown how real workmen handle their tools, +they are often more careful than at a much later stage. To make a +workable railway signal is more interesting and much more educative than +to use one that came from a shop. The teacher may make illuminating +discoveries in the process, as when one set of children desired to make +a counter for a shop, and arranged their piece of wood vertically so +that the counter had no top. It was found that to these very little +people the most important part was the high front against which they +were accustomed to stand, not the flat top which they seldom saw. +Another set of children made a cart on which the farmer was to carry his +corn, and exemplified Dewey's "concrete logic of action." At first they +only wanted a board on wheels, but the corn fell off, so they nailed on +sides, but the cart never had either back or front and resembled some +seen in Early English pictures. + +Any kind of cooking that can be done is a most important kind of making; +even the very little ones can help, and they thoroughly enjoy watching. +"Her hands were in the dough from three years old," said a north-country +mother, "so I taught her how to bake, and now (at seven) she can bake as +well as I can." + +Children delight in carrying out the processes involved in the making of +flour, and they can easily thrash a little wheat, then winnow, grind +between stones and sift it. Their best efforts produce but a tiny +quantity of flour, but the experience is real, interest is great, and a +new significance attaches to the shop flour from which bread is +ultimately produced. + +Butter and cheese can easily be made, also jam, and even a Christmas +pudding. In very early Kindergartens we read of the growing, digging and +cooking of potatoes, and of the extraction of starch to be used as +paste. + +Special anniversaries require special making. We possess a doll of 1794 +to whom her old mother bequeathed her birthday. The doll's birthday is +a great event, and on the previous day each class in turn bakes tiny +loaves, or cakes or pastry for the party. + +Christmas creates a need for decorations, Christmas cards and presents, +and Empire Day and Trafalgar Day for flags, while in many places there +is an annual sale on behalf of a charity. + +It does not do to be too modern and to despise all the old-fashioned +"makings," which gave such pleasure some years ago. Kindergarten +Paper-folding has fallen into an undeserved oblivion. The making of +boats or cocked-hats from old newspaper is a great achievement for a +child, and to make pigs and purses, corner cupboards and chairs for +paper dolls is still a delight, and calls forth real concentration and +effort. + +Making in connection with some whole, such as the continuous +representation of life around us, and, at a later stage, the +re-inventing of primitive industries, or making which arises out of some +special interest may have a higher educational value, but apart from +this, children want to make for making's sake. "Can't I make something +in wood like Boy does?" asked a little girl. There is joy in the making, +joy in being a cause, and for this the children need opportunity, space +and time. There is a lesson to many of us in some verses by Miss F. +Sharpley, lately published (_Educational Handwork_), which should be +entitled, "When can I make my little Ship?" + + I'd like to cut, and cut, and cut, + And over the bare floor + To strew my papers all about, + And then to cut some more. + + I'd sweep them up so neatly, too, + But mother says, "Oh no! + There is no time, it's seven o'clock; + To bed you quickly go!" + + In school, I'd just begun to make + A pretty little ship, + But I was slow, and all the rest + Stood up to dance and skip. + + When shall I make my little ship? + At home there is no gloy, + And father builds it by himself + Or goes to buy a toy. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +STORIES + + + Let me tell the stories and I care not who makes the textbooks. + + STANLEY HALL. + +"Is it Bible story to-day or any _kind_ of a story?" was the greeting of +an eager child one morning. "Usually they were persuading him to tell +stories," writes Ebers, from his recollections of Froebel as an old man +at Keilhau. "He was never seen crossing the courtyard without a group of +the younger pupils hanging to his coat tails and clasping his arms. +Usually they were persuading him to tell stories, and when he +condescended to do so, the older ones flocked around him, too, and they +were never disappointed. What fire, what animation the old man had +retained!" + +So Froebel could write with feeling of "the joyful faces, the sparkling +eyes, the merry shouts that welcome the genuine story-teller"; he had a +right to pronounce that "the child's desire and craving for tales, for +legends, for all kinds of stories, and later on for historical accounts, +is very intense." + +Surely there was never a little one who did not crave for stories, +though here and there may be found an older child, who got none at the +right time, and who, therefore, lost that most healthy of appetites. +Most of us will agree that there is something wrong with the child who +does not like stories, but it may be that the something wrong belonged +to the mother. One such said to the Abbé Klein one day, "My children +have never asked for stories." "But, madame," was the reply, "neither +would they ask for cake if they had never eaten it, or even seen it." + +It is easy for us to find reasons why we should tell stories. We can +brush aside minor aims such as increasing the child's vocabulary. +Undoubtedly his vocabulary does increase enormously from listening to +stories, but it is difficult to imagine that any one could rise to real +heights in story-telling with this as an aim or end. That the narrator +should clothe his living story in words expressive of its atmosphere, +and that the listener should in this way gain such power over language, +that he, too, can fitly express himself is quite another matter. + +First, then, we tell stories because we love to tell them and because +the children love to listen. We choose stories that appeal to our +audience. It is something beautiful, humorous, heroic or witty that we +have found, and being social animals we want to share it. As educators +with an aim before us, we deliberately tell stories in order to place +before our children ideals of unselfishness, courage and truth. We know +from our own experience, not only in childhood, but all through life how +the story reaches our feelings as no sermon or moralising ever does, and +we have learned that "out of the heart are the issues of life." Unguided +feelings may be a danger, but the story does more than rouse +feelings--it gives opportunity for the exercise of moral judgement, for +the exercise of judgement upon questions of right and wrong. Feeling is +aroused, but it is not usually a personal feeling, so judgement is +likely to be unbiassed. It may, however, be biassed by the tone absorbed +from the environment even in childhood, as when the mother makes more of +table etiquette than of kindness, and the child, instead of condemning +Jacob's refusal to feed his hungry brother with the red pottage, as all +natural children do condemn, says: "No, Esau shouldn't have got it, +'cause he asked for it." + +As a rule, the children's standard is correct enough, and approval or +condemnation is justly bestowed, provided that the story has been chosen +to suit the child's stage of development. One little girl objected +strongly to Macaulay's ideal Roman, who "in Rome's quarrel, spared +neither land nor gold, nor son nor wife." "That wasn't right," she said +stoutly, "he ought to think of his own wife and children first." She was +satisfied, however, when it was explained to her that Horatius might be +able to save many fathers to many wives and children. In my earliest +teaching days, having found certain history stories successful with +children of seven, I tried the same with children of six, but only once. +Edmund of East Anglia dying for his faith fell very flat. "What was the +good of that?" said one little fellow, "'cause if you're dead you can't +do anything! But if you're alive, you can get more soldiers and win a +victory." The majority of the class, however, seemed to feel with +another who asked, "Why didn't he promise while the Danes were there? He +needn't have kept it when they went away." + +Another way of stating our aim in telling stories to children is that a +story presents morality in the concrete. Virtues and vices _per se_ +neither attract nor repel, they simply mean nothing to a child, until +they are presented as the deeds of man or woman, boy or girl, living and +acting in a world recognised as real. One telling story is that of the +boy who got hold of Miss Edgeworth's _Parent's Assistant_ and who said +to his mother, "Mother, I've been reading 'The Little Merchants' and I +know now how horrid it is to cheat and tell lies." "I have been telling +you that ever since you could speak," said his mother, to which the boy +answered, "Yes, I know, but that didn't interest me." Our children had +been told the story of how the Countess of Buchan crowned the Bruce, a +duty which should have been performed by her brother the Earl of Fife, +who, however, was too much afraid of the wrath of English Edward. A few +days after, an argument arose and one little girl was heard to say, "I +don't want to be brave," and a boy rejoined, "Girls don't need to be +brave." I said, "Which would you rather be, the Countess who put the +crown on the King's head, or the brother who ran away?" And quickly came +the answer, "Oh! the brave Countess," from the very child who didn't +want to be brave! + +Froebel sums up the teacher's aim in the words: "The telling of stories +is a truly strengthening spirit-bath, it gives opportunity for the +exercise of all mental powers, opportunity for testing individual +judgement and individual feelings." + +But why is it that children crave for stories? "Education," says Miss +Blow, a veteran Froebelian, "is a series of responses to indicated +needs," and undoubtedly the need for stories is as pressing as the need +to explore, to experiment and to construct. What is the unconscious need +that is expressed in this craving, why is this desire so deeply +implanted by Nature? So far, no one seems to have given a better answer +than Froebel has done, when he says that the desire for stories comes +out of the need to understand life, that it is in fact rooted in the +instinct of investigation. "Only the study of the life of others can +furnish points of comparison with the life the boy himself has +experienced. The story concerns other men, other circumstances, other +times and places, yet the hearer seeks his own image, he beholds it and +no one knows that he sees it." + +Man cannot be master of his surroundings till he investigates and so +gathers knowledge. But he has to adapt himself not only to the physical +but to the human environment in which he lives. In stories of all +kinds, children study human life in all kinds of circumstances, nay, if +the story is sufficiently graphic they almost go through the experiences +narrated, almost live the new life. + +With very young children the most popular of all stories is the "The +Three Bears" and it is worth a little analysis. A little girl runs away, +and running away is a great temptation to little girls and boys, as +great an adventure as running off to sea will be at a later stage. She +goes into a wood and meets bears: what else could you expect! The story +then deals with really interesting things, porridge, basins, chairs and +beds. The strong contrast of the bears' voices fascinates children, and +just when retribution might descend upon her, the heroine escapes and +gets safe home. Children revel in the familiar details, but these alone +would not suffice, there must be adventure, excitement, romance. One +feels that Southey had the assistance of a child in making his story so +complete, and we can hear the questions: "How did the big bear know that +the little girl had tasted his porridge? Oh, because she had left the +spoon. How did he know that she had sat in his chair? Because she left +the cushion untidy, and as for the little bear's chair, why, she sat +that right out." + +That quite little children desire fresh experiences or adventures and +really exciting ones, is shown by the following stories made by +children. The first two are by a little girl of two-and-a-half, the +third is taken from Lady Glenconner's recently published _The Sayings of +the Children_. + +"Once upon a time there was a giant and a little girl, and he told a +little girl not to kiss a bear acos he would bite her, and the little +girl climbed right on his back and she jumped right down the stairs and +the bear came walking after the little girl and kissing her, and she +called it a little bear and it was a big bear! (immense amusement). + +"Once upon a time there was a little piggy and he was right in a big +green and white fire and he didn't hurt hisself, and (told as a +tremendous secret) he touched a fire with his handie. 'What a naughty +piggy,' said Auntie, 'and what next?' He jumped right out of a fire. +Auntie, can you smile? (For aunties cannot smile when people are +naughty.)" + +The third story is said to have been filled with pauses due to a certain +slowness of speech, but the pauses are "lit by the lightning flash of a +flying eyebrow, and the impressive nodding of a silken head." + +"Once, you know, there was a fight between a little pony and a lion, and +the lion sprang against the pony and the pony put his back against a +stack and bited towards the lion, and the lion rolled over and the pony +jumped up, and he ran up ... and the pony turned round and the lion ..." + +His mother felt she had lost the thread. "Which won?" she asked. "Which +won!" he repeated and after a moment's pause he said, "Oh! the little +bear." + +This surprising conclusion points to a stage when it is difficult for a +child to hold the thread of a narrative, and at this stage, along with +simple stories of little ones like themselves, repetition or +"accumulation" stories seem to give most pleasure. "Henny Penny" and +"Billy Bobtail"--told by Jacobs as "How Jack went to seek his +Fortune"--are prime favourites. Repetition of rhythmic phrases has a +great attraction, as in "Three Little Pigs," with its delightful +repetition of "Little pig, little pig, let me come in," "No, no, by the +hair of my chinny chin chin," "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll +blow your house in." + +Very soon, however, the children are ready for the time-honoured +fairy-tale or folk-tale. + +The orthodox beginning, "Once upon a time, in a certain country there +lived ...," fits the stage when neither time nor place is of any +consequence. Animals speak, well why not, we can! The fairies +accomplish wonders, again why not? Wonderful things do happen and they +must have a wonderful cause, and, as one child said, if there never had +been any fairies, how could people have written stories about them? +Goodness is rewarded and wickedness is punished, as is only right in the +child's eyes, and goodness usually means kindness, the virtue best +understood of children. Obedience is no doubt the nursery virtue in the +eyes of authority, but kindness is much more human and attractive. + +"Both child and man," says Froebel, "desire to know the significance of +what happens around them; this is the foundation of Greek choruses, +especially in tragedy, and of many productions in the realm of legends +and fairy-tales. It is the result of the deep-rooted consciousness, the +slumbering premonition of being surrounded by that which is higher and +more conscious than ourselves." The fairy tale is the child's mystery +land, his recognition that there are more things in heaven and earth +than are dreamt of in our philosophy or in our science. Dr. Montessori +protests against the idea that fairy-tales have anything to do with the +religious sense, saying that "faith and fable are as the poles apart." +She does not understand that it is for their truth that we value +fairy-tales. The truths they teach are such as that courage and +intelligence can conquer brute strength, that love can brave and can +overcome all dangers and always finds the lost, that kindness begets +kindness and always wins in the end. The good and the faithful marries +the princess--or the prince--and lives happy ever after. And assuredly +if he does not marry his princess, he will not live happy, and if she +does not marry the prince, she will live in no beautiful palace. And +there is more. Take for instance, the story of "Toads and Diamonds." The +courteous maiden who goes down the well, who gives help where it is +needed, and who works faithfully for Mother Holle,[21] comes home again +dropping gold and diamonds when she speaks. Her silence may be silver, +but her speech is golden, and her words give light in dark places. The +selfish and lazy girl, who refuses help and whose work is unfaithful and +only done for reward, has her reward. Henceforth, when she speaks, down +fall toads and snakes her words are cold as she is, they may glitter but +they sting. + +[Footnote 21: This version is probably a mixture of the versions of +Perrault and Grimm but Mother Holle shaking her feathers is worth +bringing in.] + +Fairy- and folk-tales give wholesome food to the desire for adventure, +whereas in what we may call realistic stories, adventure is chiefly +confined to the naughty child, who is therefore more attractive than the +good and stodgy. Even among fairy-tales we may select. "Beauty and the +Beast" and "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow-white and Rose-red" are +distinctly preferable to "Jack the Giant Killer" or "Puss in Boots," +while "Bluebeard" cannot be told. It seems to me that children can often +safely read for themselves stories the adult cannot well tell. The +child's notion of justice is crude, bad is bad, and whether embodied in +an ogre or in Pharaoh of Egypt, it must be got rid of, put out of the +story. No child is sorry for the giant when Jack's axe cleaves the +beanstalk, and as for Pharaoh, "Well, it's a good thing he's drowned, +for he was a bad man, wasn't he?" Death means nothing to children, as a +rule, except disappearance. When children can read for themselves, they +will take from their stories what suits their stage of development, +their standard of judgement, and we need not interfere, even though they +regard with perfect calm what seems gruesome to the adult. + +As a valuable addition to the best-known fairy-tales, we may mention one +or two others: _Grannie's Wonderful Chair_ is a delightful set of +stories, full of charming pictures, though the writer, Frances Brown, +was born blind. Mrs. Ewing's stories for children, _The Brownies_, with +_Amelia and the Dwarfs_ and _Timothy's Shoes_, are inimitable, and her +_Old-Fashioned Fairy Tales_ are very good, but not for very young +children. Her other stories are certainly about children, but are, as a +rule, written for adults. + +George Macdonald's stories are all too well known and too universally +beloved to need recommendation. But in telling them, _e.g._ "The +Princess and the Goblins" or "At the Back of the North Wind," the young +teacher must remember that they are beautiful allegories. Before she +ventures to tell them, the beginner should ponder well what the +poet--for these are prose poems--means, and who is represented by the +beautiful Great-great-grandmother always old and always young, or "North +Wind" who must sink the ship but is able to bear the cry from it, +because of the sound of a far-off song, which seems to swallow up all +fear and pain and to set the suffering "singing it with the rest." + +_Water-Babies_ is a bridge between the fairy-tale of a child and equally +wonderful and beautiful fairy-tales of Nature, and it, too, is full of +meaning. If the teacher has gained this, the children will not lag +behind. It was a child of backward development, who, when she heard of +Mother Carey, "who made things make themselves," said, "Oh! I know who +that was, that was God." + +Such stories must be spread out over many days of telling, but they gain +rather than lose from that, though for quite young children the stories +do require to be short and simple, and often repeated. If children get +plenty of these, the stage for longer stories is reached wonderfully +soon. + +Pseudo-scientific stories, in which, for example, a drop of water +discusses evaporation and condensation, are not stories at all, but a +kind of mental meat lozenge, most unsatisfying and probably not even +fulfilling their task of supplying nourishment in form of facts. Fables +usually deal with the faults and failings of grown-ups, and may be left +for children to read for themselves, to extract what suits them. + +Illustrations are not always necessary, but if well chosen they are +always a help. Warne has published some delightfully illustrated stories +for little children, "The Three Pigs," "Hop o' my Thumb," "Beauty and +the Beast," etc. They are illustrated by H.M. Brock and by Leslie +Brooke, and they really are illustrated. The artists have enjoyed the +stories and children equally enjoy the pictures. + +The teacher must consider what ideas she is presenting and whether words +alone can convey them properly. We must remember that most children +visualise and that they can only do so from what they have seen. So, +without illustrations, a castle may be a suburban house with Nottingham +lace curtains and an aspidistra, while Perseus or Moses may differ +little from the child's own father or brothers. Again, town children +cannot visualise hill and valley, forest and moor, brook and river, not +to mention jungles and snowfields and the trackless ocean. It is not +easy to find pictures to give any idea of such scenes, but it is worth +while to look for them, and it is also worth while for the teacher to +visualise, and to practise vivid describing of what she sees. Children, +of course, only want description when it is really a part of the story, +as when Tom crosses the moor, descends Lewthwaite Crag, or travels from +brook to river and from river to sea. + +As to how a story should be told, opinions differ. It must be well told +with a well-modulated voice and with slight but effective gesture. But +the model should be the story as told in the home, not the story told +from a platform. The children need not be spellbound all the time, but +should be free to ask sensible questions and to make childlike comments +in moderation. The language should fit the subject; beautiful thoughts +need beauty of expression, high and noble deeds must be told in noble +language. A teacher who wishes to be a really good teller of stories +must herself read good literature, and she will do well not only to +prepare her stories with care, but to consider the language she uses in +daily life. There is a happy medium between pedantry and the latest +variety of slang, and if daily speech is careless and slipshod, it is +difficult to change it for special occasions. Our stories should not +only prepare for literature, they should be literature, and those who +realise what the story may do for children will not grudge time spent in +preparation. If the story is to present an ideal, let us see that we +present a worthy one; if it is to lead the children to judge of right +and wrong, let us see that we give them time and opportunity to judge +and that we do not force their judgement. + +Lastly, if the story is to make the children feel, let us see that the +feeling is on the right side, that they shrink from all that is mean, +selfish, cruel and cowardly, and sympathise with whatsoever things are +true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good +report. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN GRASSY PLACES + + + My heart leaps up when I behold + A rainbow in the sky, + So was it when my life began + So be it when I shall grow old, + Or let me die. + +What is the real aim of what we call Nature-lessons, Nature-teaching, +Nature-work? It is surely to foster delight in beauty, so that our +hearts shall leap up at sight of the rainbow until we die. For, indeed, +if we lose that uplift of the heart, some part of us has died already. +Yet even Wordsworth mourns that nothing can bring back the hour of +splendour in the grass and glory in the flower! + +In its answer to the question "What is the chief end of man?" the old +Shorter Catechism has a grand beginning: "Man's chief end is to glorify +God and to enjoy Him for ever." Do we lose the vision because we are not +bold enough to take that enjoyment as our chief end? To enjoy good is to +enjoy God. + +Our ends or aims are our desires, and Mr. Clutton Brock, in his +_Ultimate Belief_, urges teachers to recognise that the spirit of man +has three desires, three ends, and that it cannot be satisfied till it +attains all three. Man desires to do right, so far as he sees it, for +the sake of doing right; he desires to gain knowledge or to know for the +sake of knowing, for the sake of truth; and he desires beauty. + +"We do not value that which we call beautiful because it is true, or +because it is good, but because it is beautiful. There is a glory of the +universe which we call truth which we discover and apprehend, and a +glory of the universe which we call beauty and which we discover or +apprehend." + +Froebel begins his _Education of Man_ by an inquiry into the reason for +our existence and his answer is that _all_ things exist to make manifest +the spirit, the _élan vital_, which brought them into being. "_Sursum +corda_," says Stevenson, + + Lift up your hearts + Art and Blue Heaven + April and God's Larks + Green reeds and sky scattering river + A Stately Music + Enter God. + +And Browning? "If you get simple beauty and nought else, you get about +the best thing God invents." + +To let children get that beauty should be our aim, and they must get it +in their own way. "Life in and with Nature and with the fair silent +things of Nature, should be fostered by parents and others," Froebel +tells us, "as a chief fulcrum of child-life, and this is accomplished +chiefly in play, which is at first simply natural life." + +Let us surmount the ruts of our teaching experience and climb high +enough to look back upon our own childhood, to see where beauty called +to us, where we attained to beauty. + +Among my own earliest recollections come a first view of the starry sky +and the discovery of Heaven. No one called attention to the stars, they +spoke themselves to a child of four or five and declared "the glory of +God." Heaven was not on high among these glorious stars, however. It was +a grassy place with flowers and sunshine. It had to be Heaven because +you went through the cemetery to reach it, and because it was so bright +and flowery and there were no graves in it. I never found it again, +because I had forgotten how to get there. + +Another very early memory is one of grief, to see from the window how +the gardener was mowing down all the daisies, and there were so many, in +the grass; and yet another is of a high, grassy, sunny field with a +little stream running far down below. It was not really far and there +was nothing particularly beautiful in the place to grown-up eyes, but +the beholder was very small and loved it dearly. To his Art and Blue +Heaven Stevenson might have added Sun and Green Grass. For he knew what +grassy places are to the child, and that "happy play in grassy places" +might well be Heaven to the little one. + +A most interesting little book called _What is a Kindergarten?_[22] was +published some years ago in America. It is written by a landscape +gardener, and contains most valuable suggestions as to how best to use +for a Kindergarten or Nursery School plots of ground which may be +secured for that purpose. Naturally the writer has much to say on the +laying out and stocking the available space to the best advantage, +choosing the most suitable positions for the house, where the teacher +must live, he says, to supply the atmosphere of a home; for animal +hutches, for sand-heaps and seesaws; for the necessary shelter, for the +children's gardens, and for the lawn, for even on his smallest plan, a +"twenty-five-foot lot," we find "room for a spot of green." Later he +explains that for this green one must use what will grow, and if grass +will not perhaps clover will. The way in which the trees and plants are +chosen is most suggestive. Beauty and suitability are always considered, +but he remembers his own youth, and also considers the special joys of +childhood. For it is not Nature lessons that come into his calculations +but "the mere association of plants and children." So the birch tree is +chosen, partly for its grace and beauty, but also because of its bark, +for one can scribble on its papery surface; the hazel, because children +delight in the catkins with their showers of golden dust, and the nut +"hidden in its cap of frills and tucks." And he adds: "How much more +alluring than the naked fruit from the grocer's sack are these nuts, +especially when dots for eyes and mouth are added, and a whole little +face is tucked within this natural bonnet." + +[Footnote 22: G. Hansen, pub. Elder, Morgan & Shepherd, San Francisco, +1891.] + +In addition to the flowers chosen for beauty of colour, this lover of +children and of gardens wants Canterbury Bells to ring, Forget-me-nots +because they can stand so much watering, and "flowers with faces," +pansies, sweet-peas, lupins, snapdragons, monkey flowers, red and white +dead nettles, and red clover to bring the bees. Some of these are chosen +because the child can do something with them, can find their own uses +for them, can play with them. And, speaking generally, playing with them +is the child's way of appreciating both plant and animal. Picking +feathery grasses, red-tipped daisies, sweet-smelling clover and golden +dandelions; feeding snapdragons with fallen petals, finding what's +o'clock by blowing dandelion fruits, paying for dock tea out of a fairy +purse, shading poppy dolls with woodruff parasols, that is how a child +enjoys the beauty of colour, scent and form. He gets not more but less +beauty when he must sit in a class and answer formal questions. "Must we +talk about them before we take the flowers home?" asked a child one day; +"they are so pretty." Clearly, the "talk" was going to lessen, not to +deepen the beauty. And animals? The child plays with cat and dog, he +feeds the chickens, the horse and the donkey, he watches with the utmost +interest caterpillar, snail and spider, but he does not want to be asked +questions about them--he does want to talk and perhaps to ask the +questions himself--nor does he always want even to draw, paint or model +them. Mostly he wants to watch, and perhaps just to stir them up a +little if they do not perform to his satisfaction. He does not +necessarily mean to tease, only why should he watch an animal that does +nothing? "The animals haven't any habits when I watch them," a little +girl once said to Professor Arthur Thomson. + +All children should live in the country at least for part of the year. +They should know fields and gardens, and have intercourse with hens and +chickens, cows and calves, sheep and lambs; should make hay and see the +corn cut. They would still want the wisely sympathetic teacher, not to +arouse interest--that is not necessary, but to keep it alive by keeping +pace with the child's natural development. It is not merely living in +the country that develops the little child's interest in shape and +colour and scent into something deeper. People still "spend all their +time in the fields and forests and see and feel nothing of the beauties +of Nature, and of their influence on the human heart"; and this, said +Froebel--and it is just what Mr. Clutton Brock is saying now--is because +the child "fails to find the same feelings among adults." Two effects +follow: the child feels the want of sympathy and loses some respect for +the elder, and also he loses his original joy in Nature. + +"There is in every human being the passionate desire for this +self-forgetfulness--to which it attains when it is aware of beauty--and +a passionate delight in it when it comes. The child feels that delight +among spring flowers; we can all remember how we felt it in the first +apprehension of some new beauty of the universe, when we ceased to be +little animals and became aware that there was this beauty outside us to +be loved. And most of us must remember, too, the strange indifference of +our elders. They were not considering the lilies of the field; they did +not want us to get our feet wet among them. We might be forgetting +ourselves, but they were remembering us; and we became suddenly aware of +the bitterness of life and the tyranny of facts. Now parents and nurses +(and teachers) have, of course, to remember children when they forget +themselves. But they ought to be aware that the child, when he forgets +himself in the beauty of the world, is passing through a sacred +experience which will enrich and glorify the whole of his life. +Children, because they are not engaged in the struggle for life, are +more capable of this aesthetic self-forgetfulness than they will +afterwards be; and they need all of it that they can get, so that they +may remember it and prize it in later years. In these heaven-sent +moments they know what disinterestedness is. They have a test by which +they can value all future experience and know the dullness and staleness +of worldly success. Therefore it is a sin to check, more than need be, +their aesthetic delight" (_The Ultimate Belief_). + +We cannot all give to our children the experiences we should like to +supply, but if we are clear that we are aiming at enjoyment of Nature, +and not at supplying information, we shall come nearer to what is +desirable. For years, almost since it opened in 1908, Miss Reed of the +Michaelis Free Kindergarten has taken her children to the country. It +means a great deal of work and responsibility, it means collecting funds +and giving up one's scanty leisure, it means devoted service, but it has +been done, and it has been kept up even during war time, though with +great difficulty as to funds, because of the inestimable benefit to the +children. Miss Stokes of the Somers Town Nursery School secured a +country holiday for her little ones in various ways, partly through the +Children's Country Holiday Fund, but since the war she has been unable +to secure help of that kind, and has managed to take the children away +to a country cottage. A paragraph in the report says: "The children in +the country had a delightful time, and what was seen and done during +their holiday is still talked about continually. These joys entered into +all the work of the nursery school and helped the children for months +to retain a breath of the country in their London surroundings. They +realised much from that visit. Cows now have horns, wasps have wings and +fly--alas they sting also. Hens sit on eggs, an almost unbelievable +thing. Fishes, newts, tadpoles, were all met with and greeted as +friends. Children and helpers alike returned home full of health and +vigour and longing for the next time. One little maid wept bitterly, and +there seemed no joy in life at home until she came across the school +rabbit, which was tenderly caressed, and consoled her with memories of +the country and hopes for future visits." + +In the days when teachers argued about the differences between +Object-lessons and Nature-lessons, one point insisted upon was that the +Nature-lesson far surpassed the Object-lesson because it dealt with +life. + +We have learned now that we should as much as we can surround our +children with life and growth. Even indoors it is easy to give the joy +of growing seeds and bulbs and of opening chestnut branches: without any +cruelty we can let them enjoy watching snails and worms and we can keep +caterpillars or silkworms and so let them drink their fill of the +miracle of development. But beauty comes to children in very different +ways, and always it is Nature, though it may not be life. + +Children revel in colour, colour for its own sake, and should be allowed +to create it. In a modern novel there is a description of a mother doing +her washing in the open air and "at her feet sat a baby intent upon the +assimilation of a gingerbread elephant, but now and then tugging at her +skirts and holding up a fat hand. Each time he was rewarded by a dab of +soapsuds, which she deposited good-naturedly in his palm. He received it +with solemn delight; watching the roseate play of colour as the bubbles +shrank and broke, and the lovely iridescent treasure vanished in a smear +of dirty wetness while he looked. Then he would beat his fists +delightedly against his mother's dress and presently demand another +handful." + +The following notes from another student's report show how this may +spring naturally out of the children's life:[23] + +[Footnote 23: Miss Edith Jones.] + +"We were spinning the teetotum yesterday and it did not spin well so we +made new ones. While the children were painting their tops, Oliver grew +very eager when he found he could fill in all the spaces in different +colours, but Betty made her colours very insipid. I want them to get the +feeling of beautiful colour, so I shall show them a book with the +colours graded in it, and we shall each have a paper and paint on it all +the rich colours we can think of. The colours will probably run into +each other, and so the children will get ideas about the blending of +colours, but I will watch to see that they do not get the colour too +wet. If they are not tired of painting I want to show them a painted +circle to turn on a string and they can make these for themselves, using +the colours they have already used. + +"I want the children to do some group work, and I thought we might make +a village with shops and houses under the trees in the garden and have +little men and women to represent ourselves. The suggestion will +probably have to come from the teacher, but the children will probably +have the desire when it is suggested, and I hope we shall be able to go +on enlarging our town on the pattern of the towns the children know. If +they want bricks for their houses they can dig clay in the garden. + +"_Report_.--The children wanted to make a tea-set, so we carried our +clay outside. They began discussing why their china would not be so fine +as the china at home, and I said the clay might be different. Then +Bernard asked what sort of china we should get from the clay in the +garden, and I told him that kind of clay was generally made into +bricks, and suggested making bricks. From that we went on to the use of +bricks, and to-morrow we are going to dig, and make bricks to build a +town. Bernard is anxious to know how we shall make mortar. Just then it +started to rain, and Bernard said that if the sun kept shining and it +rained hard enough we should have a rainbow, and he wished it would come +so as to see the beautiful colours. I thought this rather a coincidence, +and told him I had a book with all the rainbow colours in it. They asked +to see it, so I showed it and suggested painting the colours ourselves. +Those who had finished their dishes started, and we talked about the +richness of the colours. One or two children started with very watery +colour, so I showed them the book and began to paint myself. They all +enjoyed it very much, especially the different colours made where the +colours ran into each other. The results pleased them and they are to be +used as wall-papers to sell in our town, but Sybil wants to have a toy +shop, and she is going to make a painted circle for it like the one I +showed." + +This is clearly the time to show a glass prism and to let these children +make rainbows for themselves, to tell the story of Iris, and to use any +colour material, Milton Bradley spectrum papers, Montessori silks, +colour top, and anything else so long as the children keep up their +interest. The interest in colour need never die out; it will probably +show itself now in finer discrimination, and more careful reproduction +of the colours of flowers and leaves, and the sympathy given will +heighten interest and increase enjoyment. + +Here are some notes showing children's numerous activities in a suburban +garden where they were allowed to visit a hen and chickens. + +"_Monday_[24]--To-day the children took up their mustard and cress, dug +and raked the ground ready for transplanting the lettuces. After their +rest we went to see the chickens at the Hall (the Students' Hostel), and +the Hall garden seemed to them a wonderful place. They watched the +trains go in and out of the station at the foot of the garden, and +explored all the side doors, going up and down all the steps and into +the cycle shed. They helped Miss S. to stir the soot water, then they +went to the grassy bank and ran down it, slid down it, and rolled down +it. They peeped over the wall into the next garden, they peeped through +holes in the fences and finished up with a swing in the hammock. Each +child had twenty swings, and they enjoyed counting in time with the +swaying of the hammock, and swayed their own bodies as they pushed. + +[Footnote 24: These notes are part of those already given on pp. 68-71.] + +"Another example of love and rhythm was when they went to say good-bye +to the hen and chickens, and kept on repeating 'Good-bye, good-bye' all +together, nodding their heads at the same time. + +"I did not know if I should have let them do so much, but I was not sure +that we should be allowed to come back and I wanted them to enjoy the +garden. + +"_Wednesday_.--First we watered the lettuces we had transplanted, and +transplanted more. Then, as we had permission to come again, we took +some of our lettuces to the chickens. We saw the mother hen with one +wing spread right out, and the children were much surprised to see how +large it was. We looked at the roses, and saw how the bud of yesterday +was full blown to-day. The children again ran down and rolled down the +bank, and had turns in the hammock, this time to the rhythm of "Margery +Daw" sung twice through, and then counting up to twenty. Very often +they went to watch the trains. Cecil is particularly interested in them, +and wanted to know how long was the time between. He said three minutes, +I guessed nine, but we found they were irregular. In the intervals while +waiting for a train to pass, we played a 'listening' game, listening to +what sounds we could hear. A thrush came and sang right over our heads, +so the listening was concentrated on his song, and we tried to say what +we thought he meant to say. One child said, 'He says, "Come here, come +here,"' but they found this too difficult. We also watched a boy +cleaning the station windows, and Dorothy said, 'Miss Beer, isn't it +wonderful that you can see through glass?' I agreed, but made no other +remark because I did not know what to say. + +"We rested outside to-day under an almond tree. I pointed out how pretty +the sky looked when you only saw it peeping through the leaves. After +rest the children noticed feathery grasses, and spent the rest of the +morning gathering them. I suggested that they should see how many kinds +they could find. They found three, but were not enthusiastic about it, +being content just to pluck, but they were delighted when they found +specially long and beautiful grasses hidden deep under a leafy bush. +They also found clover leaves, and I told them its name and sang to them +the verse from 'The Bee,' with 'The sweet-smelling clover, he, humming, +hangs over.' + +"_Thursday._--Brushed and dusted the room, gave fresh water to the +flowers, and then went to gardening. The children were delighted to find +ladybirds on the lettuces they were transplanting, and we also noticed +how the cherries were ripening. + +"They joined the Transition Class for games. Later, while playing with +the sand, Cecil made a discovery. He said, 'Miss Beer, do you know, I +know what sand is, it's little tiny tiny stones.'" + +It may be worth while to notice some things in these notes. First the +pleasure in exploring the new surroundings and then the variety of +delights. Our landscape gardener mentions that "any slope to our grounds +should be welcomed.... For as we leave the level land and flee to the +mountains to spend our vacation, so will a child avoid the street and +seek the gutter and the bank on the unimproved lot to enjoy its +pastime." Our own children have been fortunate enough to have a bank for +their play, and though, unfortunately, extension of buildings has taken +away much of this, we have had abundant opportunity to see the value of +sloping ground. Then there are the discoveries, the feathery grasses, +especially those which were hidden, the ladybirds, that sand is really +"tiny tiny stones"--has every adult noticed that, or is sand "just +sand"?--and the "wonder" that we can see through glass, a wonder +realised by a little girl of four years old. Also we can notice what the +children did not desire. They liked listening to the thrush, but to make +out what the thrush was "saying" was beyond them. They liked gathering +feathery grasses, but to sort these into different kinds gave no +pleasure, though older children would have enjoyed trying to find many +varieties. + +Perhaps teachers with a fair amount of experience might have felt like +the beginner who frankly says, "I didn't say anything more because I +didn't know what to say," when Dorothy discovered the wonderfulness of +glass. Perhaps we are silent because the child has gone ahead of us. It +is wonderful, but we have never thought about it. In such cases we must, +as Froebel says, "become a learner with the child" and humbly, with real +sympathy and earnestness, ask, "Is it wonderful, I suppose it is, but I +never thought about it, why do _you_ call it wonderful?" If the child +answers, it is well, if not the teacher can go on thinking aloud, +thinking with the child. "Let's think what other things we can see +through." We can never understand it, we can only reach the fact of +"transparency" as a wonderful property of certain substances and +consider which possess this magic quality. There is water of course, and +there is jelly or gelatine, but these are not hard, they are not stones +as glass seems to be. The child will be pleased too to see a crystal or +a bit of mica, but the main thing is that we should not imagine we have +disposed of the wonder by a mere name with a glib, "Oh, that's just +because it's transparent," but that we realise, and reinforce and +deepen the child's sense of wonderfulness. So teacher and child enter +into the thoughts of Him + + Who endlessly was teaching + Above my spirits utmost reaching, + What love can do in the leaf or stone, + So that to master this alone, + This done in the stone or leaf for me, + I must go on learning endlessly. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A WAY TO GOD + + + Wonders chiefly at himself + Who can tell him what he is + Or how meet in human elf + Coming and past eternities. + + EMERSON. + +It is of set purpose that this short chapter, referring to what we +specially call religion, is placed immediately after that on the child's +attitude to Nature. The actual word religion, which, to him, expressed +being bound, did not appeal to Froebel so much as one which expressed +One-ness with God. + +As a son can share the aspirations of his father, so man "a thought of +God" + + can aspire + From earth's level where blindly creep + Things perfected more or less + To the heaven's height far and steep. + +But we begin at earth's level, and a child's religion must be largely a +natural religion. + +How to introduce a child to religion is a problem which must have many +solutions. In Froebel's original training course, his Kindergarten +teachers were to be "trained to the observation and care of the earliest +germs of the religious instinct in man." These earliest beginnings he +found in different sources. First come the relations between the child +and the family, beginning with the mother; fatherhood and motherhood +must be realised before the child can reach up to the Father of all. +Then there is the atmosphere of the home, the real reverence for higher +things, if it exists, affects even a little child more than is usually +supposed, but children are quick to distinguish reality from mere +conventionality though the distinction is only half conscious. Reality +impresses, while conventionality is apt to bore. Even to quite young +children Froebel's ideal mother would begin to show God in nature. Some +one put into the flowers the scent and colour that delight the +child--some one whom he cannot see. The sun, moon and stars give light +and beauty, and "love is what they mean to show." This mother teaches +her little one some sort of prayer, and the gesture of reverence, the +folded hands, affects the child even if the words mean little or +nothing. Akin to the "feeling of community" between the child and his +family is the joining in religious worship in church, "the entrance in a +common life," and the emotional effect of the deep tones of the organ. +Then there is the interdependence of the universe: the baby is to thank +Jenny for his bread and milk, Peter for mowing the grass for the cow, +"until you come to the last ring of all, God's father love for all." +Next to this comes the child's service; others work for him and he also +must serve. "Every age has its duties, and duties are not burdens," and +it is necessary that feeling should have expression, "for even a child's +love unfostered (by action in form of service) droops and dies away." +There is also the desire for approbation. The child "must be roused to +good by inclination, love, and respect, through the opinion of others +about him," and this should be guided until he learns to care chiefly +for the approval of the God within. Right ideals must be provided: +religion is "a continually advancing endeavour," and its reward must +not be a material reward. We ought to lift and strengthen human nature, +but we degrade and weaken it when we seek to lead it to good conduct by +a bait, even if this bait beckons to a future world. The consciousness +of having lived worthily should be our highest reward. Froebel goes so +far as to say that instead of teaching "the good will be happy," and +leaving children to imagine that this means an outer or material +happiness, we ought rather to teach that in seeking the highest we may +lose the lower. "Renunciation, the abandonment of the outer for the sake +of securing the inner, is the condition for attaining highest +development. Dogmatic religious instruction should rather show that +whoever truly and earnestly seeks the good, must needs expose himself to +a life of outer oppression, pain and want, anxiety and care." Even a +child, though not a baby, can be led to see that to do good for outer +reward is but enlightened selfishness. + +These suggestions are taken for the most part from the _Mother Songs_, +some from _The Education of Man_. Each parent or teacher must use what +seems to her or to him most valuable. Some may from the beginning desire +to teach the child a baby prayer, or at least to let him hear "God bless +you." Others may prefer to wait for a more intelligent stage, perhaps +when the child begins to ask the invariable questions--who made the +flowers, the animals; who made me? If so, we must remember that children +see, and hear, and think, that often in thoughtless ejaculations, or in +those of heartfelt thankfulness, children may hear the name of God; that +a simple story may have something that stirs thought; that churches are +much in evidence; and that the conversation of little playfellows may +take an unexpected turn. + +To me it seems a great mistake to put before young children ideas which +are really beyond the conception of an adult. There are many stories +told of how children receive teaching about the Omniscience or +Omnipotence of God. The stories sound irreverent, and are often repeated +as highly amusing, but they are really more pathetic. Miss Shinn tells +of one poor mite who resented being constantly watched and said, "I will +not be so tagged," and another said, "Then I think He's a very rude +man," when, in reply to her puzzled questions, she was told that God +could see her even in her bath. And the boy who said, "If I had done a +thing, could God make it that I hadn't?" must have made his instructor +feel somewhat foolish. + +It never does harm for us honestly to confess our own limitations and +our ignorance, and that is better than weak materialistic explanations, +which after all explain nothing. To tell a child that the Great Father +is always grieved when we are unkind or cowardly, always ready to help +us and to put kindness and bravery into our hearts, that we know He has +power to do that if we will let Him, but that His power is beyond our +understanding: to say that He is able to keep us in all danger, and that +even if we are killed we are safe in His keeping, surely that is enough. +He who blessed the children uttered strong words against him who caused +the little ones to stumble. + +"From every point, from every object of nature and life there is a way +to God.... The things of nature form a more beautiful ladder between +heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob.... It is decked with flowers, +and angels with children's eyes beckon us toward it." This is true, but +it does not mean that we are always to be trying to make things sacred, +but that we are to realise that all beauty and all knowledge and all +sympathy are already sacred, and that to love such things is to love +something whereby the Creator makes Himself known to us, that to enjoy +them is to enjoy God. + +Religion is not always explained as implying the idea of being bound, +but sometimes as being set free from the bonds of the lower or animal +nature. In this sense Mr. Clutton Brock may well call it "a sacred +experience" for the child, when he forgets himself in the beauty of the +world. If we could all rise to a wider conception of the meaning of the +word religion, we should know that it comes into all the work of the +day, that it does not depend alone upon that special Scripture lesson +which may become mere routine. + +The greatest Teacher of all taught by stories, and when any story +deepens our feelings for human nature and our recognition of the heights +to which it can rise, when it makes us long for faith, courage, and love +to go and do likewise, who shall say that this is not religious +teaching, teaching which helps to deliver us from the bonds that hamper +spiritual ascent. + +Many of us will feel with Froebel that the fairy-tale, with its +slumbering premonition of being surrounded by that which is higher and +more "conscious than ourselves,"[25] has its place, and an important +place, in religious development. + +[Footnote 25: P. 85.] + +The "fairy sense," says Dr. Greville Macdonald, "is innate as the +religious sense itself ... the fairy stories best beloved are those +steeped in meaning--the unfathomable meaning of life ... such stories +teach--even though no lesson was intended--the wisdom of the Book of +Job: wisdom that by this time surely should have made religious teaching +saner, and therefore more acceptable."[26] + +[Footnote 26: "The Fairy-Tale in Education," by Greville Macdonald, M.D., +_Child Life_, Dec. 1918.] + +Fairies, like angels, may be God's messengers. A child who had heard of +St. Cuthbert as a shepherd boy being carried home from the hillside when +hurt, by a man on a white horse, repeated the story in her own words, +"and he thought it was a fairy of God's sent to help him." + +There is, however, nothing the children love more than the Bible story, +the story which shows, so simply, humanity struggling as the children +struggle, failing as the children fail, and believing and trusting as +the children believe, and as we at least strive to do, in the ultimate +victory of Right over Wrong, of Good over Evil. But just because the +stories are often so beautiful and so inspiring, the teacher should have +freedom to deal with them as the spirit moves her. + +What experience has taught me in this way has already been passed on to +younger teachers in _Education by Life_, and there seems little more to +add. + + Wonders chiefly at himself + Who can tell him what he is. + +It is for us to tell the child what he is, that he, too, like all the +things he loves, is a manifestation of God. "I am a being alive and +conscious upon this earth; a descendant of ancestors who rose by gradual +processes from lower forms of animal life, and with struggle and +suffering became man."[27] + +[Footnote 27: _The Substance of Faith Allied with Science_, Sir Oliver +Lodge (Methuen).] + +"The colossal remains of shattered mountain chains speak of the greatness +of God; and man is encouraged and lifts himself up by them, feeling +within himself the same spirit and power."[28] + +[Footnote 28: _The Education of Man_.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +RHYTHM + + + Lo with the ancient roots of Man's nature + Twines the eternal passion of song. + +The very existence of lullabies, not to mention their abundance in all +countries, the very rockers on the cradles testify to the rhythmic +nature of man in infancy. + +In his _Mother Songs_, Froebel couples rhythm with harmony of all kinds, +not only musical harmony but harmony of proportion and colour, and in +urging the very early training of "the germs of all this," he gives +perhaps the chief reason for training. "If these germs do not develop +and take shape as independent formations in each individual, they at +least teach how to understand and to recognise those of other people. +This is life-gain enough, it makes one's life richer, richer by the +lives of others." + +It is to the genius of M. Jacques Dalcroze that the world of to-day owes +some idea of what may be effected by rhythmic training, and M. Dalcroze +started his work with the same aim that Froebel set before the mother, +that of making the child capable of appreciation, capable of being made +"richer by the lives of others." But Froebel prophesied that far more +than appreciation would come from proper rhythmic training, and this M. +Dalcroze has amply proved. + +"Through movement the mother tries to lead the child to consciousness +of his own life. By regular rhythmic movement--this is of special +importance--she brings this power within the child's own conscious +control when she dandles him in her arms in rhythmic movements and to +rhythmic sounds, cautiously following the slowly developing life in the +child, arousing it to greater activity, and so developing it. Those who +regard the child as empty, who wish to fill his mind from without, +neglect the means of cultivation in word and tone which should lead to a +sense of rhythm and obedience to law in all human expression. But an +early development of rhythmic movement would prove most wholesome, and +would remove much wilfulness, impropriety and coarseness from his life, +movements, and action, and would secure for him harmony and moderation, +and, later on, a higher appreciation of nature, music, poetry, and art" +_(Education of Man_). + +Here, then, is an aim most plainly stated, "higher appreciation of +nature, music, poetry and art," and if we adopt it, we must make sure +that we start on a road leading to that end. + +To Kindergarten children, apart from movement, rhythm comes first in +nursery rhymes, and if we honestly follow the methods of the mother we +shall not teach these, but say or sing them over and over again, letting +the children select their favourites and join in when and where they +like. This is the true _Babies' Opera_, as Walter Crane justly names an +illustrated collection. Froebel's _Mother Songs_, though containing a +deal of sound wisdom in its mottoes and explanations, is an annotated, +expurgated, and decidedly pedantic version of the nursery rhymes of his +own country. That these should ever have been introduced to our children +arose from the fact that the first Kindergarten teachers, being +foreigners, did not know our own home-grown productions. Long since we +have shaken off the foreign product, in favour of our own "Sing a Song +of Sixpence," "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and their refreshingly cheerful +compeers. Froebel's book suggests songs to suit all subjects and all +frames of mind--the wind, the moon, and stars, the farm with its cows +and sheep, its hens and chickens, the baker and carpenter, fish in the +brook and birds in nests, the garden and the Christmas fair. + +We can supply good verses for all these if we take pains to search, and +if we eschew ignorant and unpoetic modern doggerel as we eschew poison. +Besides the nursery rhymes, we have Stevenson, with his "Wind," +"Shadow," and "Swing," Christina Rossetti's "Wrens and Robins," her +"Rainbow Verses" and "Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk, White as +swansdown, smooth as silk." There are many others, and a recent charming +addition to our stock is "Chimneys and Fairies," by Rose Fyleman. One +thing we should not neglect, and that is the child's sense of humour. +For the very young this is probably satisfied by the cow that jumps over +the moon, the dish that runs after the spoon, Jill tumbling after Jack, +and Miss Muffet running away from the spider. But older children much +enjoy nonsense verses by Lewis Carroll or by Lear, and "John Gilpin" is +another favourite. + +It is a mistake to keep strictly within the limits of a child's +understanding of the words. What we want here, as in the realm of +Nature, is joy and delight, the delight that comes from musical words +and rhythm, as well as from the pictures that may be called up. Even a +child of four can enjoy the poetry of the Psalms without asking for much +understanding. + +The mother repeats her rhymes and verses solely to give pleasure, and if +our aim is the deepening of appreciation, there is no reason for leaving +the green and grassy path that Nature has showed to the mother for the +hard and beaten track of "recitation." In our own Kindergarten there +has never been either rote learning or recitation. The older children +learn the words of their songs, but not to a word-perfect stage, because +words and music suggest each other. Except for that we just enjoy our +verses, the children asking for their favourites and getting new ones +sometimes by request sometimes not. Anything not enjoyed is laid aside. +We need variety, but everything must be good of its kind, and verses +about children are seldom for children. Because children love babies, +they love "Where did you come from, baby dear?" but nothing like +Tennyson's "Baby, wait a little longer," and especially nothing of the +"Toddlekins" type has any place in the collection of a self-respecting +child. It is doubtful if Eugene Field's verses are really good enough +for children. + +All children enjoy singing, but here, as in everything, we must keep +pace with development, or the older ones, especially the boys, may get +bored by what suits the less adventurous. In all cases the music should +be good and tuneful, modelled not on the modern drawing-room inanity, +but on the healthy and vigorous nursery rhyme or folk song. + +Children also enjoy instrumental music, and will listen to piano or +violin while quietly occupied, for example if they are drawing. One +Nursery School teacher plays soft music to get her babies to sleep, and +our little ones fidget less if some one sings softly during their +compulsory rest. + +"The Kindergarten Band" is another way in which children can join in +rhythm. It came to us from Miss Bishop and is probably the music +referred to in the description of the Pestalozzi-Froebel House. The +children are provided with drums, cymbals, tambourines, and triangles, +and keep time to music played on the piano. They can do some analysis in +choosing which instruments are most suitable to accompany different +melodies or changes from grave to gay, etc. A full account was given in +_Child Life_ for May 1917. + +Several years ago, knowing nothing of M. Dalcroze, Miss Marie Salt +began an experiment, the results of which are likely to be far-spreading +and of great benefit. Desiring to help children to appreciation of good +music, Miss Salt experimented deliberately with the Froebelian "learn +through action," and her success has been remarkable. Because of its +freedom from any kind of formality, this system is perhaps better suited +to little children than the Dalcroze work, unless that is in the hands +of an exceptionally gifted teacher. M. Dalcroze himself is delightfully +sympathetic with little ones. + +Miss Salt tells her own story in an appendix to Mr. Stewart Macpherson's +_Aural Culture based on Musical Appreciation._ + +Good music is played and the children listen and move freely in time to +it, sometimes marching or dancing in circles, sometimes quite freely +"expressing" whatever feeling the music calls forth in them. The stress +is laid on listening; if you see a picture you reproduce it, if the +music makes you think of trees or wind, thunder or goblins, you become +what you think of. It is astonishing to see how little children learn in +this way to care for music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Dvorák, +Brahms, Chopin, and Beethoven. The music is of course selected with +skill, and care is taken that the "expression" shall not make the +children foolishly self-conscious. Emphasis is always placed on +listening, and the children's appreciation is apparent. Such +appreciation must enrich their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FROM FANCY TO FACT + + + Creeps ever on from fancy to the fact. + +Fairy tales suit little children because their knowledge is so limited, +that "the fairies must have done it" is regarded as a satisfactory +answer to early problems, just as it satisfied childlike Man. Things +that to us are wonderful, children accept as commonplace, while others +commonplace to us are marvels to the child. But fairy tales do not +continue to satisfy all needs. As knowledge grows the child begins to +distinguish between what may and what may not happen, though there will +always be individual differences, and the more poetic souls are apt to +suffer when the outrush of their imagination is checked by a barbed wire +of fact. The question "Is it true?" and the desire for true stories +arise in the average child of seven to eight years, and at that age +history stories are enjoyed. Real history is of course impossible to +young children, whose idea of time is still very vague, and whose +understanding of the motives and actions of those immediately around +them is but embryonic. They still crave for adventure and romance, and +they thrill to deeds of bravery. Bravery in the fight appeals to all +boys and to most girls, and it is a question for serious consideration +how this admiration is to be guided, it certainly cannot be ignored. It +is legitimate to admire knights who ride about "redressing human +wrongs," fighting dragons and rescuing fair ladies from wicked giants, +and at this stage there is no need to draw a hard and fast line between +history and legendary literature. It is good to introduce children, +especially boys, to some of the Arthurian legends if only to impress the +ideal, "Live pure, speak true, right wrong, else wherefore born?" +Stories should always help children to understand human beings, men and +women with desires and feelings like our own. But in history and +geography stories we deal particularly with people who are different +from ourselves, and we should help children to understand, and to +sympathise with those whose surroundings and customs are not ours. They +may have lived centuries ago, or they may be living now but afar off, +they may be far from us in time or space, but our stories should show +the reasons for their customs and actions, and should tend to lessen the +natural tendency to feel superior to those who have fewer advantages, +and gradually to substitute for that a sense of responsibility. + +But the narration of stories is not the only way in which we can treat +history. Our present Minister of Education says that history teaching +ought to give "discipline in practical reasoning" and "help in forming +judgements," not merely in remembering facts. Indeed he went so far as +to say "eliminate dates and facts" by which, of course, he only meant +that the power of reasoning, the power of forming judgements is of far +more consequence than the mere possession of any quantity of facts and +dates. Training in reasoning, however, must involve training in +verification of facts before pronouncing judgement. + +Training in practical reasoning takes a prominent place in that form of +history teaching introduced by Professor Dewey. According to him, +history is worth nothing unless it is "an indirect sociology," an +account of how human beings have learned, so far as the world has yet +learned the lesson, to co-operate with one another, a study of the +growth of society and what helps and hinders. So he finds his +beginnings in primitive life, and although there is much in this that +will appeal to any age, there is no doubt that children of seven to ten +or eleven revel in this material. + +If used at all it should be used as thinking material--here is man +without tools, without knowledge, everything must be thought out. It +does not do much good to hand over the material as a story, as some +teachers use the Dopp series of books. These books do all the children's +thinking for them. Every set of children must work things out for +themselves, using their own environments and their own advantages. The +teacher must read to be ready with help if the children fail, and also +to be ready with the actual problems. It is astonishing how keen the +children are, and how often they suggest just what has really happened. +Where there is space out-of-doors and the children can find branches for +huts, clay for pots, etc., the work is much easier for the teacher and +more satisfactory. But even where that is impossible and where one has +sometimes to be content with miniature reproductions, the interest is +most keen. Children under eight cannot really produce fire from flints +or rubbing sticks, nor can they make useable woollen threads with which +to do much weaving. But even they can get sparks from flint, make a +little thread from wool, invent looms and weave enough to get the ideas. + +The romance of "long ago" ought to be taken advantage of to deepen +respect for the dignity of labour. Our lives are so very short that we +are apt to get out of perspective in the ages. Reading and writing are +so new--it is only about four hundred years since the first book was +printed in England, the Roman occupation lasted as long, and who thinks +of that as a long period? Perhaps it is because we are in the reading +and writing age that our boys and girls must become "braw, braw clerks," +instead of living on and by the land. History, particularly primitive +history, should help us all to be "grateful to those unknown pioneers +of the human race to whose struggles and suffering, discoveries and +energies our present favoured mode of existence on the planet is due. +The more people realise the effort that has preceded them and made them +possible, the more are they likely to endeavour to be worthy of it: the +more pitiful also will they feel when they see individuals failing in +the struggle upward and falling back toward a brute condition; and the +more hopeful they will ultimately become for the brilliant future of a +race which from such lowly and unpromising beginnings has produced the +material vehicle necessary for those great men who flourished in the +recent period which we speak of as antiquity."[29] + +[Footnote 29: _The Substance of Faith_, p. 18.] + +Professor Dewey urges that "the industrial history of man is not a +materialistic or merely utilitarian affair," but a matter of +intelligence, a record of how men learned to think, and also an ethical +record, "the account of the conditions which men have patiently wrought +out to serve their ends." + +This interest in how human beings have created themselves and their +surroundings ought to be deeply interesting to any and every age. Young +children can reach so little that one hopes the interest aroused will be +lasting and lead to fruitful work later. But it certainly makes a good +foundation for the study of history and geography, if history is treated +as sociology and if geography is recognised as the study of man in his +environment. + +Coming now to practical details, in our own work we have followed fairly +closely the suggestions made by Professor Dewey, but everything must +vary from year to year according to the suggestions of the children or +their apparent needs. One extra step we have found necessary, and that +is to spend some time over a desert island or Robinson Crusoe stage. +Some children can do without it, but all enjoy it, and the duller +children find it difficult to imagine a time when "you could buy it in +a shop" does not fit all difficulties. They can easily grasp the idea of +sailing away to a land "where no man had ever been before," and playing +at desert island has always been a joy. + +The starting-points for primitive life have been various; sometimes the +work has found its beginning in chance conversation, as when a child +asked, "Are men animals?" and the class took to the suggestion that man +meant thinking animal, and began to consider what he had thought. Often +after Robinson Crusoe there has been a direct question, "How did +Robinson Crusoe know how to make his things; had any one taught him? Who +made the things he had seen; who made the very first and how did he +know?" One answer invariably comes, "God taught them," which can be met +by saying this is true, but that God "teaches" by putting things into +the world and giving men power to think. This leads to a discussion +about things natural, "what God makes" and what man makes, which is +sometimes illuminating on the limited conceptions of town children. +Years ago we named primitive man "the Long-Ago People," and the title +has seemed to give satisfaction, though once we had the suggestion of +"Old-Time Men." + +We always start with the need for food, and the children suggest all the +wild fruits they know, often leaving out nuts till asked if there is +anything that can be stored for winter. Roots are not always given, but +buds of trees is a frequent answer. Children in the country ought to +explore and to dig, and in our own playground we find at least wild +barley, blackberries of a sort, cherries, hard pears, almonds and cherry +gum. Killing animals for food is suggested, and the children have to be +told that the animals were fierce and to realise that in these times man +was hunted, not hunter. Little heads are quite ready to tackle the +problem of defence and attack. They could throw stones, use sticks that +the wind blew down, pull up a young tree, or "a lot of people could +hang on to a branch and get it down." When one child suggested finding a +dead animal and using it for food, some were disgusted, but a little +girl said, "I don't suppose they would mind, they wouldn't be very +particular." + +The idea of throwing stones starts the examination of different kinds, +which have to be provided for the purpose. Flint is invariably selected, +and for months the children keep bringing "lovely sharp flints," but +there is much careful observation, observation which has a motive. "I +would put a stone in a stick and chuck it at them" is followed by much +experiment at fixing. String is of course taboo, but bass is allowed +because it grows, also strips of skin. We very often get the suggestion +"they might find a stone with a hole in it," which leads to renewed +searching and to the endeavour to make holes. To make a hole in flint is +beyond us, but in a softer stone it can be done. + +Then may come the question of safety and tree-climbing, and how to +manage with the babies. Children generally know that tiny babies can +hold very tight, and have various ideas for the mother. How to keep the +baby from falling brings the idea of twisting in extra branches, which +is recognised as a cradle in the tree, and the children delight in this +as a meaning for "Rock-a-bye, baby, in the tree-top." The possibility of +tree-shelters comes in, and various experiments are made, sometimes in +miniature, sometimes in the garden. Out of this comes the discussion of +clothes. Animals' skins is an invariable suggestion, though all children +do not realise that what they call "fur" means skin. + +Skin is provided, and much time is taken in experimenting to see if it +can be cut with bits of flint. How could the long-ago people fasten on +the skins, brings the answers "by thorns," "tie with narrow pieces," and +the children are pleased to see that their own leather belts are strips +or straps. Sometimes much time is taken up in cutting out "skins to +wear" from paper or cheap calico, the children working in pairs, one +kneeling down while the other fits on the calico to see where the head +and legs come. The skins are painted or chalked, and pictures are +consulted to see whether the chosen animals are striped or spotted. + +It may be stated here that we are not very rigid about periods or +climates, and that our long-ago people are of a generalised type. Our +business is not to supply correct information on anthropological +questions, but to call forth thought and originality, to present +opportunities for closer observation than was ever evoked by observation +lessons, and for experiments full of meaning and full of zest. Naturally +we do not despise correct information, but these children are very young +and all this work is tentative. We are never dogmatic, it is all "Do you +think they might have ..." or "Well, I know what I should have done; I +should have ..." and the teacher's reply is usually "Suppose we try." + +Children are apt of course to make startling remarks, but it is only the +teacher who is startled by: "Was all this before God's birthday?" "I +don't think God had learned to be very clever then." It is a curious +fact, but orthodox opinion has only twice in the course of many years +brought up Adam and Eve. Probably this is because we never talk about +the first man, but about how things were discovered. The first time the +question did come up Miss Payne was taking the subject, and she +suggested that Adam and Eve were never in this country, which disposed +of difficulties so well that I gave the same answer the only time I ever +had to deal with the question. + +When we come to the problem of fire, we always use parts of Miss Dopp's +story of _The Tree-Dwellers_. If the children are asked if they ever +heard of fire that comes by itself, or of things being burned by fire +that no human being had anything to do with, one or two are sure to +suggest lightning. They will tell that lightning sometimes sets trees on +fire, that thunderstorms generally come after hot dry weather, and that +if lightning struck a tree with dry stuff about the fire would spread, +and the long-ago people would run away. A question from the teacher as +to what these people might think about it may bring the suggestion of a +monster; if not, one only has to say that it must have seemed as if it +was eating the trees to get "They would think it was a dreadful animal." +Then the story can be told of how the boy called Bodo stopped to look +and saw the monster grow smaller, so he went closer, fed it on wood, and +liked to feel its warm breath after the heavy rain that follows +thunder--why had the monster grown smaller?--found that no animal would +come near it and so on. We never tell of the "fire country," though +sometimes the children read the book for themselves a little later. + +We have never succeeded in making flames, but it is thrilling to get +sparks from flint. Once a child brought an old tinder box with steel and +flint, but even then we were not skilful enough to get up a flame. Still +it is something to have tried, and we are left with a respectful +admiration for those who could so easily do without matches. + +What made these long-ago people think of using their fire to cook food? +Our children have suggested that a bit of raw meat fell into the fire by +accident, and we have also worked it out in this way. We were pretending +to warm ourselves by the fire, and I said my frozen meat was so cold +that it hurt my teeth. "Hold it to the fire then." We burned our +fingers, and sticks were suggested, but we sucked the burnt fingers, and +I said, "it tastes good," and the children shouted with glee "Because +the meat's roasted really." Then something was supposed to drop, and the +cry was "Gravy! catch it in a shell, dip your finger in and let your +baby suck it." A small shell was suggested, and the boy who said "And +put a stick in for a handle" was dubbed "the spoon-maker." At that time +we were earning names for ourselves by suggestions; we started with Fair +Hair, Curly Hair, Big Teeth, Long Legs, and arrived at Quick Runner, +Climber, and even Thinker. + +We have got at pottery in a similar way. The meat was supposed to be +tough. "Soak it" came at once, and "Could you get hot water?" Then came +suggestions: a stone saucepan, scoop out a stone and put it on the fire, +build a stone pan and fix the stones with cherry gum, dig a hole in the +ground and put fire under; "_that_ would be a kind of oven." When asked +if water would stay in the hole, and if any kind of earth would hold +water, the answer may be, "No, nothing but clay, and you'd have to make +that." "No! you get clay round a well. My cousin has a well, and there's +clay round it." "Why, there's clay in the playground." "You could put +the meat into a skin bag or a basket." Asked if the skin or basket could +be set on the fire, or if anything could be done to keep the basket from +catching fire, the answer comes, "Yes, dab clay round it. Then," +joyfully, "it would hold water and you _could_ boil." "What would happen +to the clay when it was put on the fire?" This has to be discovered by a +quick experiment, but the children readily guess that when the hot water +is taken off the fire there would be "a sort of clay basin. Then they +could make more! and plates and cups!" + +Experiments depend upon circumstances and upon the age of the children. +A thick and tiny basin put into a hot part of an ordinary fire does +harden and hold water to a certain extent even without glazing. But +elaborate baking may also be done. + +I have found it convenient to take weaving as a bridge to history +stories, by using Sir Frederick Leighton's picture of the Phoenicians +bartering cloth for skins with the early Britons. The children are told +that the people dressed in cloth come from near the Bible-story country, +and those dressed in skins are the long-ago people of this very country. +What would these people think of the cloth? "They would think it was +animals' skins." And what would they do? "They'd feel it and look at +it." So cloth is produced and we pull it to pieces, first into threads +and then into hairs, and the children say the hairs are like "fur." Then +sheep's wool is produced and we try to make thread. Attempts at +thread-making and then at weaving last a long time, and along with this +come some history stories, probably arising out of the question, "How +did people know about all this?" The children are told about the +writings of Julius Caesar, and pictures of Roman ships and houses are +shown, beside pictures of coracles and bee-hive dwellings, etc. Old +coins, a flint battle-axe, some Roman pottery are also shown, along with +descriptions and pictures of the Roman villa at Brading and other Roman +remains. The children are thus helped to realise that other countries +exist where the people were far ahead of those in this country, and they +can begin to understand how social conditions vary, and how nations act +upon each other. + +The work varies considerably from year to year, according to how it +takes hold upon the children's interest. But children of eight to nine +are usually considered ready for broad ideas of the world as a whole, +and the inquiry into where Julius Caesar came from, and why he came, +gives a fair start. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +NEW NEEDS AND NEW HELPS + + + I am old, so old, I can write a letter. + +Writing and reading have no place in the actual Kindergarten, much less +arithmetic. The stories are told to the child; drawing, modelling and +such-like will express all he wants to express in any permanent form, +and speech, as Froebel says, is "the element in which he lives." His +counting is of the simplest, and the main thing is to see that he does +not merely repeat a series while he handles material, but that the +series corresponds with the objects. Even this can be left alone if it +seems to annoy the little one. In the school he is on a very different +level, he has attained to the abstract, he can use signs: he can express +thoughts which he could not draw, and can communicate with those who are +absent. He can read any letter received and he is no longer dependent on +grown-ups for stories. He can count his own money and can get correct +change in small transactions, and he can probably do a variety of sums +which are of no use to him at all. + +Between these two comes what Froebel called the Transition or Connecting +Class, in which the child learns the meaning of the signs which stand +for speech, and those which make calculation less arduous for weak +memories. + +Much has been written as to when and how children are to be taught to +read. Some great authorities would put it off till eight or even ten. +Stanley Hall says between six and eight, while Dr. Montessori teaches +children of five and even of four. Froebel would have supported Stanley +Hall and would wait till the age of six. The strongest reason for +keeping children back from books is a physiological one. In the +_Psychology and Physiology of Reading_[30] strong arguments are adduced +against early reading as very injurious to eyesight, so it is surprising +that Dr. Montessori begins so soon. It has been said that her children +only learn to write, not to read, but it is to be supposed that they can +read what they write, and therefore can read other material. + +[Footnote 30: Macmillan.] + +If we agree not to begin until six years old, the next question is the +method. The alphabetic, whereby children were taught the letter names +and then memorised the spelling of each single word, has no supporters. +But controversy still goes on as to whether children shall begin with +word wholes or with the phonic sounds. It is not a matter of vital +importance, for the children who begin with words come to phonics later, +and so far as English is concerned, the children who begin with phonics +cannot go far without meeting irregularities, unless indeed they are +limited to books like those of Miss Dale. + +In other languages which are phonic the difficulties are minimised. +Children in the ordinary Elementary Schools in Italy, though taught in +large classes, can write long sentences to dictation in four or five +months.[31] But in Italian each letter has its definite sound and every +letter is sounded. It is true that these children appear to spend most +of their time in formal work. + +[Footnote 31: A class of children who began in the middle of October +wrote correctly to dictation on March 28, "Patria e lavoro siamo, miei +cari bambini, parole sante per voi. Amate la nostra cara e bella Italia, +crescete onesti e laboriosi e sarete degni di lei."] + +The Froebelian who believes in learning by action will, of course, +expect the children to make or write from the beginning as a method of +learning, whether she begins with words or with sounds. But in English, +unless simplified spelling is introduced, the time must soon come when +reproduction must lag behind recognition. One child said with pathos one +day, "May we spell as we like to-day, for I've got such a lot to say?" + +The phonic method dates back to about 1530. The variety used in the +Pestalozzi-Froebel House is said to have originated with Jacotot +(1780-1840). It is called the "Observing-Speaking-Writing and Reading +Method." Froebel's own adaptation was simpler; it was his principle to +begin with a desire on the part of the child, and he gives his method in +story form, "How Lina learned to write and read." Lina is six, she has +left the Kindergarten and is presently to attend the Primary School. She +notices with what pleasure her father, perhaps a somewhat exceptional +parent, receives and answers letters. She desires to write and her +mother makes her say her own name carefully, noticing first the "open" +or vowel sounds and then by noting the position of her tongue she finds +the closed sounds. As she hears the sound she is shown how to make it. +Her father leaves home at the right moment, Lina writes to him, receives +and is able to read his answer, printed like her own in Roman capitals. +He sends her a picture book and she is helped to see how the letters +resemble those she has learned and the reading is accomplished. + +In England the phonic method best known is probably Miss Dale's. It is +very ingenious, the analysis is thorough and the books are prettily got +up, but to those who feel that reading, though a most valuable tool, +still is but a tool and one not needed for children under seven, the +method seems over-elaborate. Much depends upon the teacher but to see +fifty children sitting still while one child places the letters in their +places on the board suggests a great deal of lost time. The system is +also so rigidly phonic that it is a long time before a child can pick up +an ordinary book with any profit. + +Stanley Hall holds that it is best to combine methods, and probably most +of us do this. "The growing agreement" is, he says, "that there is no +one and only orthodox way of teaching and learning this greatest and +hardest of all the arts, in which ear, mouth, eye and hand must each in +turn train the others to automatic perfection, in ways hard and easy, by +devices old and new, mechanically and consciously, actively and +passively ... this is a great gain and seems now secure. While a good +pedagogic method is one of the most economic--both of labour and of +money--of all inventions, we should never forget that the brightest +children, and indeed most children, if taught individually or at home, +need but very few refinements of method. Idiots, as Mr. Seguin first +showed, need and profit greatly by very elaborated methods in learning +how to walk, feed and dress themselves, which would only retard a normal +child. Above all it should be borne in mind that the stated use of any +method does not preclude the incidental use of any and perhaps of _all_ +others." + +An adaptation of phonic combined with the word method can be found in +_Education by Life_. It is simpler than Miss Dale's, and being combined +with the word method, children get much more quickly to real stories. +Stanley Hall advocates the individual teaching of reading, and since Dr. +Montessori called every one's attention to this we have used it much +more freely, and have found that once the children know some sounds, +there is a great advantage in a certain amount of individual learning, +but class teaching has its own advantages and it seems best to have a +combination. Long since we taught a boy who was mentally deficient and +incapable of intelligent analysis, by whole words and corresponding +pictures. Miss Payne has developed this to a great extent. It is +practically an appeal to the interest in solving puzzles. The children +choose their own pictures and are supplied with envelopes containing +either single sounds, or whole words corresponding with the picture. +They lay _h_ on the house, _g_ on the girl, _p_ on the pond, and later +do the same with words. They certainly enjoy it, and no one is ever kept +waiting. Sometimes the puzzle is to set in order the words of a nursery +rhyme which they already know, sometimes it is to read and draw +everything mentioned. + +It is not only how children learn to read that is important: even more +so is what they read. Much unintelligent reading in later life is due to +the reading primer in which there was nothing to understand. Children +should read books, as adults do, to get something out of them. The time +often wasted in teaching reading too soon would be far better employed +in cultivating a taste for good reading by telling or reading to the +children good stories and verses.[32] + +[Footnote 32: It is difficult to find easy material that is worth giving +to intelligent children, and we have been glad to find Brown's _Young +Artists' Readers_, Series A.] + +A revolution is going on just now in the method of teaching writing. It +is now generally recognised that much time and effort have been wasted +in teaching children to join letters which are easier to read unjoined. + +A very interesting article appeared in the Fielden School Demonstration +Record No. II., and Mr. Graily Hewitt has brought the subject of writing +as it was done before copperplate was invented very much to the fore. +The Child Study Society has published a little monograph on the subject +giving the experience of different teachers and specimens of the +writing. + +Little Marjorie Fleming was a voracious reader with a remarkable +capacity for writing. Her spelling was unconventional at times, but +there was never any doubt about her meaning. She expressed herself +strongly on many subjects, and one of these was arithmetic. "I am now +going to tell you the horrible and wretched plaege (plague) that my +multiplication gives me you cant conceive it the most Devilish thing is +8 times 8 and 7 times 7 it is what nature itself cant endure." Yet "if +you speak with the tongues of men and angels and make not mention of +arithmetic it profiteth you nothing," says Miss Wiggin. + +There are a few little children who are really fond of number work. +There are not many of them, and they would probably learn more if they +were left to themselves. There are even a few mathematical geniuses who +hardly want teaching, but who are worthy of being taught by a Professor +of Mathematics, always supposing that he is worthy of them. But the +majority of children would probably be farther advanced at ten or twelve +if they had no teaching till they were seven. They ought to learn +through actual number games, through keeping score for other games, and +through any kind of calculation that is needed for construction or in +real life. + +There are but few true number games, but dominoes and card games +introduce the number groups. In "Old maid" the children pair the groups +and so learn to recognise them; in dominoes they use this knowledge, +while "Snap" involves quick recognition. Any one can make up a game in +which scoring is necessary. Ninepins or skittles is a number game, and +one can score by using number groups, or by fetching counters, shells, +beads, etc., as reminders. The number groups are important; they form +what Miss Punnett calls "a scheme" for those who have no great +visualising power, and they combine the smallest groups into large ones. +It ought to be remembered that the repetition of a group is an easier +thing to deal with than the combination of two groups, that is, six is +a name for two threes and eight for two fours, but five and seven have +not so definite a meaning.[33] + +[Footnote 33: This very morning a child cutting out brown paper pennies +for a shop said, 'Look! there are two sixes; that _would_ be a big +number!'] + +The Tillich bricks are good playthings, and so is cardboard +money--shillings, sixpences, threepences, pence and halfpence. + +When the names have a meaning the children will want signs, i.e. +figures. Clock figures (Roman) can be used first as simplest, showing +the closed fingers and the thumb for V; the only difficulty is IX. The +Arabic figures can be made by drawing round the number groups, or by +laying out their shapes in little sticks. 5 and 8 show very plainly how +to arrange five and eight sticks; for two and three they are placed +horizontally, the curves merely joining the lines. + +In teaching children to count, the decimal system should be kept well in +mind, and the teacher should see that thirteen means three-ten, and that +the children can touch the three and the ten as they speak the word. +Eleven and twelve ought to be called oneteen and twoteen, half in joke. +The idea of grouping should never be lost sight of, and larger numbers +should at first be names for so many threes, fours, fives, etc. In order +to keep the meaning clear the children should say threety, fourty and +fivety, but there should be no need to write these numbers. The +Kindergarten sticks tied in bundles of ten are quite convenient counting +material when any counting is necessary. Tram tickets and cigarette +pictures can be used in the same way. + +The decimal notation is a great thing to learn, how great any one will +discover who will take the trouble to work a simple addition sum, +involving hundreds, in Roman figures. Children are always taught the +number of the house they live in, which makes a starting-point. If, for +instance, 35 is compared with XXXV a meaning is given to the 3. + +Many teachers make formal sums of numbers which could quite well be +added without any writing at all. By using any kind of material by which +ten can be made plain as a higher unit--bundles of sticks or tickets, +Sonnenschein's apparatus, Miss Punnett's number scheme, or the new +Montessori apparatus with its chains of beads: the material used is of +no great consequence--children should be able to deal as easily with +tens as with ones, and there is no need for little formal sums which +have no meaning. + +Everything in daily life should be used before formal work is attempted. +"Measure, reckon, weigh, compare," said Rousseau. Children love to +measure, whether by lineal or liquid measure, or by learning to tell the +time or to use a pair of scales. + +There are a few occasions when interest is in actual number relations, +as when a child for himself discovers that two sixes is six twos. One +boy on his own account compared a shilling and an hour, and said that he +could set out a shilling in five parts by the clock. He looked at the +clock and chose out a sixpence, a threepence, and 3 pennies. But usually +what is abstract belongs to a stage farther on. + +So we can end where we began, by letting Froebel once more define the +Kindergarten. + +"Crèches and Infant Schools must be raised into Kindergartens wherein +the child is treated and trained according to his whole nature, so that +the claims of his body, his heart and his head, his active, moral and +intellectual powers, are all satisfied and developed. + +"Not the training of the memory, not learning by rote, not familiarity +with the appearances of things, but culture by means of action, +realities and life itself, bring a blessing upon the individual, and +thereby a blessing upon the whole community; since each one, be he the +highest or the humblest, is a member of the community." + + + + + + +PART II + +THE CHILD IN THE STATE SCHOOL + + +I. THINGS AS THEY ARE + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWTH + + +Early in the nineteenth century two men, moved by very different +impulses, founded what might be considered the beginnings of the Infant +School. For nearly fifty years their work grew separately, but now they +are merged together into something that seems to be permanent. + +In a bleak Lanarkshire factory village in the south of Scotland, Robert +Owen, millowner, socialist and Welshman, found that unless he could +provide for the education of the children of his factory hands, no +parents would consent to settle in the district and he would be without +workers in his mill. As a consequence Owen found himself in the position +of education authority, privy purse and organiser, and he did not flinch +from the situation; he imposed no cheap makeshift, because he believed +in education as an end and not as an economic means; a twofold +institution was therefore established by him in 1816, one part for the +children of recognised school age, presumably over six, and one for +those under school age, whose only entrance test was their ability to +walk. It is with the latter that we are concerned. + +The instructions given by Owen to the man and the women he chose for +his Infant School may serve to show his general aim; the babies under +their care were above all to be happy, to lead a natural life, outdoor +or indoor as weather permitted; learning their surroundings, playing, +singing, dancing, "not annoyed with books," not shadowed by the needs of +the upper school, but living the life their age demanded. In the light +of the 1918 Education Bill this seems almost prophetic. + +Their guardians were selected solely on the grounds of personality, and +expected to work in the spirit in which Owen conceived the school. They +were gentle, without personal ambition, fond of children, caring only +for their welfare; but the sole guiding principle was Owen, and this was +at once the success and doom of the school, for the personality of Owen +was thus made the pivot round which the school revolved; without him +there was nothing to take hold of. + +Very soon the experiment became known: persons with the stamp of +authority came to see it, and even official hearts were moved by the +reality of the children's happiness and their consequent development. +The visitors felt, rather than knew, that the thing was right. +Arrangements were made to establish similar institutions in London, and +after one or two experiments, a permanent one was founded which was +under the control of a man named Wilderspin. + +Wilderspin's contribution to education is difficult to estimate; +certainly he never caught Owen's spirit, or realised his simple purpose: +he had ambitions reaching beyond the happiness of the children; and far +from trying to make their education suit their stage of growth, he +sought to produce the "Infant Prodigy," just as a contemporary of his +sought to produce the "Infant Saint." From what we can see, his aim was +what he honestly believed to be right, as far as his light went; but he +sought for no light beyond his own; and his outlook was not so narrow +as his application was unintelligent. Owen was still in Lanarkshire to +be consulted; Rousseau had already written _Émile_, Pestalozzi's work +was by this time fairly well known in England, the children were there +to be studied, but Wilderspin pursued his limited and unenlightened +work, until the Infant School was almost a dead thing in his hands and +in the hands of those who followed. The following is Birchenough's +account: + +"The school was in charge of a master and a female assistant, presumably +his wife. Much attention was given to training children in good personal +habits, cleanliness, tidiness, punctuality, etc., and to moral training. +Great stress was laid on information.... The curriculum included +reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry, lessons on common objects, +geography, singing and religion, and an effort was made to make the work +interesting and 'concrete.' To this end much importance was attached to +object-lessons, to the use of illustrations, to questioning and +exposition, while the memory was aided by means of didactic verse.... +The real teaching devolved upon the master and mistress. This was of two +kinds: class teaching to a section of the children of approximately +equal attainments either on the floor or in the class-room, and +collective teaching to the whole school, regardless of age, on the +gallery." + +It is a curious coincidence that in 1816, the year of Owen's experiment, +a humble educational experiment was begun by Frederick Froebel in a very +small village in the heart of the Thuringian forest. Like Owen, his aim +was education solely for its own sake, and he had a simple faith in the +human goodness of the older Germany. But he came to education as a +philosopher rather than a social reformer, with a strong belief in its +power to improve humanity. This belief remained with him; it is embodied +in his aim, and leavened all his work. + +The first twenty years of his experience convinced Froebel that the +neglect or mismanagement of the earliest years of a child's life +rendered useless all that was done later. What came to Owen as an +inspiration grew in Froebel to be a reasoned truth, and like Owen he put +it into practice. In 1837 the little Kindergarten at Blankenburg was +begun, with the village children as pupils; the beautiful surroundings +of forest-covered hills and green slopes made a very different +background from the bleak little Lanarkshire village, overshadowed by +the factory, where Owen's school stood, but the spirit was the same; the +children were in surroundings suitable for their growth, and the very +name of Kindergarten does more to make Froebel's aim clear than any +explanation. He lived to see other Kindergartens established in +different parts of Thuringia, and about the middle of the nineteenth +century some of his teachers came to England, and did similar work in +London, Croydon and Manchester. The private Kindergarten became an +established thing, and educationalists came to understand something of +its meaning. + +In 1870 the London School Board suggested that the Kindergarten system +should be introduced into their Infant Schools, and in doing so they +were unconsciously the factors in bringing together the work initiated +by Owen and by Froebel. The Infant School of Wilderspin, already briefly +described, was almost a dead thing, with its galleries and its +mechanical prodigies, its object-lessons and its theology; now it was +breathed upon by the spirit of the man who said: "Play is the highest +phase of child development, of human development at this period: for it +is the spontaneous representation of the inner, from inner necessity and +impulse." "Play is the purest, most spiritual activity of man." "The +plays of childhood are the germinal leaves of all later life." "If the +child is injured at this period, if the germinal leaves of the future +tree of his life are marred at this time, he will only with the +greatest difficulty and the utmost effort grow into strong manhood." + +It is perhaps not altogether to be wondered at that teachers at first +seized the apparatus rather than the spirit of the Kindergarten when we +remember that we have not accepted in anything like its fulness the +teaching of Froebel. Formalism and materialism always die slowly: play +in the Board School was interpreted as something that had to be dictated +and taught: the gifts, occupations and games were organised, and +appeared on the time-table as subjects side by side with Wilderspin's +theology and object-lessons. The combination must have been curious, but +even with its formalism the change was welcome to the children: at least +they could use their hands and do something; at least they could leave +their back-breaking galleries and dance and skip, even though the doing +and the dancing were according to strict rule. + +The change was not welcome to all teachers. As late as 1907 a +headmistress who was a product of the training of that time remarked: +"We have Kindergarten on Wednesday afternoons and then it is over for +the week." But there were teachers who saw beneath the bricks and sticks +and pretty movements, who felt the spiritual side and kept themselves +alive till greater opportunities came. What was imperishable has +remained; the system of prescribed activities is nearly dead, but the +spirit of the true Kindergarten is more alive than ever. + +The change from the early 'eighties till now is difficult to describe, +because it is a growth of spirit, a gradual change of values, rather +than a change in outward form; there has been no definite throwing off, +and no definite adoption, of any one system or theory; but the +difference between the best Infant Schools of 1880 and the best Infant +Schools of to-day is chiefly a difference in outlook. The older schools +aimed at copying a method, while the schools of to-day are more +concerned with realising the spirit. + +At present we are trying to reconstruct education for the new world +after the war, and so it is convenient to regard the intervening period +of nearly half a century as a transition period: during that time the +education of the child under eight has changed much more than the +education of older children, at least in the elementary school; and +there have been certain marked phases that, though apparently +insignificant in themselves, have marked stages of progress in thought. + +Perhaps the most significant and most important of these was the effect +of the child-study movement on the formal and external side of +Kindergarten work. It is first of all to America that we owe this, to +the pioneer Stanley Hall, and more especially here to Mr. Earl Barnes. +Very slowly, but surely, it was evident to the more enlightened teachers +that children had their own way of learning and doing, and the +adult-imposed system meant working against nature. For the logical +method of presenting material from the simple to the complex, from the +known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract, was substituted +the psychological method of watching the children's way of learning and +developing. Teachers found that what they considered to be "the simple" +was not the simple to children; what they took to be "the known" was the +unfamiliar to children. For instance, the "simple" in geography, in the +adult sense, was the definition of an island, with which most of us +began that study, and in geometry it was the point. To children of the +ordinary type, both are far-away ideas, and not related to everyday +experiences; "the known" in arithmetic, for example, was to teachers the +previous lesson, quite regardless of the fact that arithmetic enters +into many problems of life outside school. The life in school and the +life outside school were, in these early days of infant teaching, two +separate things, and only occasionally did a teacher stoop to take an +example from everyday life. A little girl in one of the poorest schools +brought her baby to show her teacher, and proudly displayed the baby's +powers of speech--"Say a pint of 'alf-an-'alf for teacher," said the +little girl to the baby by way of encouragement to both. This is the +kind of rude awakening teachers get, from time to time, when they +realise how much of the real child eludes them. Psychology has made it +clear that life is a unity and must be so regarded. + +Part of this child-study movement has resulted in the slow but sure +death of formalism: large classes, material results, and a lack of +psychology made formalism the path of least resistance. Painting became +"blobbing," constructive work was interpreted as "courses" of paper +folding, cutting, tearing; books of these courses were published with +minute directions for a graduated sequence. The aim was obedient +imitation on the part of the child, and the imagined virtues accruing to +him in consequence were good habits, patience, accuracy and technical +skill. Self-expression and creativeness were still only theories. + +A second interesting phase of the transition period was the method +adopted for the training of the senses. From the days of Comenius till +now the importance of this has held its place firmly, but the means have +greatly changed. Pestalozzi's object-lesson was adopted by Wilderspin +and thoroughly sterilised; many teachers still remember the lessons on +the orange, leather, camphor, paper, sugar, in which the teacher's +senses were trained, for only she came in contact with the object, and +the children from their galleries answered questions on an object remote +from most of their senses, and only dimly visible to their eyes. Similar +lessons were given after 1870 on Froebel's gift II. in which the ball, +cylinder and cube were treated in the same manner: progress was slow, +but sometimes the children followed nature's promptings and played with +their specimens; this was followed by books of "gift-plays," where +organised play took the place of organised observation. + +About 1890 or thereabouts the Nature Study movement swept over the +schools, and "nature specimens" then became the material for sense +training: as far as possible each child had a specimen, and by the +minute examination of these, stimulated their senses and stifled their +appreciation of all that was beautiful. + +Question and answer still dominated the activity; the poor little +withered snowdrop took the place of the dead camphor or leather. But +underlying all the paralysing organisation the truth was slowly growing, +and the children were being brought nearer to real things. + +A third phase in this transition period is that known as "correlation"; +most teachers remember the elaborate programmes of work that drove them +to extremes in finding "connections." The following, taken from a +reputable book of the time, will exemplify the principle: + + A WEEK'S PROGRAMME + + Object Lesson The Horse. + Phonetics The Foal, _oa_ sound. + Number Problems on the work of horses. + Story The Bell of Atri [story of a horse ringing a bell]. + Song Busy Blacksmith [shoeing a horse]. + Game The Blacksmith's Shop. + Reading On the Horse. + Poetry Kindness to Animals. + Paper Cutting The Bell of Atri. + Paper Folding A Trough. + Free-arm Drawing A Horseshoe. + Clay Modelling A Carrot for the Horse. + Brushwork A Turnip for the Horse. + Brown Paper Drawing A Stable. + +Underneath it all the truth was growing, namely, the need of making +associations and so unifying the children's lines. But the process of +finding the truth was slow and cumbersome. + +A fourth phase of the early Infant School was the strong belief of both +teachers and inspectors in uniformity of work and of results. It is +difficult to disentangle this from the paralysing influences of payment +by results and large classes: it was probably the teachers' unconscious +expression of the instinct of self-preservation, when working against +the heaviest odds. But it was constantly evident to the teacher that any +attempt on a child's part to be an individual, either in work or in +conduct, had to be arrested: and the theory of individual development +was regarded as so Utopian that the idea itself was lost. Goodness was +synonymous with uniform obedience and silence; naughtiness with +individuality, spontaneity and desire to investigate. A frequently-heard +admonition on the part of the teacher was, "Teacher didn't tell you to +do it that way--that's a naughty way"; but such an attitude of mind was +doubtless generated by the report of the inspector when he commended a +class by saying: "The work of the class showed a satisfactory +uniformity." + +To obtain uniform results practice had to come before actual +performance, and many weary hours were spent over drill in reading, +drill in number, drill in handwork, drill in needlework. The extreme +point was reached when babies of three had thimble and needle drill long +before they began needlework. There were also conduct drills; Miss +Grant, of Devons Road School, remembers a school where the babies +"practised" their conduct before the visit of the "spectre," as they +called him, he being represented as a stick set up on a chair. There is +a curious symbolism in the whole occasion. + +It is difficult to see the good underlying this phase, but it was +there. There is undoubtedly a place for practice, though not before +performance, and uniformity was undoubtedly the germ of an ideal. + +All these phases stand for both progress and arrest. The average person +is readier to accept methods than investigate principles; but we must +recognise that all struggles and searchings after truth have made the +road of progress shorter for us by many a mile. + +Perhaps the chief cause of stumbling lay in the fact that there was no +clearly realised aim or policy except that of material results. There +were many fine-sounding principles in the air, but they were unrelated +to each other; and the conditions of teaching were likely to crush the +finest endeavours, and to make impossible a teaching that could be +called educative. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE INFANT SCHOOL OF TO-DAY + + +Taking neither the best nor the worst, but the average school of to-day, +it will be profitable to review shortly where it stands, to consider how +far it has learnt the lessons of experience, and what kind of ideal it +has set before itself. + +In externals there have been many improvements. Modern buildings are +better in many ways; there is more space and light, and the surroundings +are more attractive. Most of the galleries have disappeared, but the +furniture consists chiefly of dual desks, fixed and heavy, so that the +arrangement of the room cannot be changed. The impression given to a +visitor is that it is planned for listening and answering, except in the +Baby Room, where there are generally light tables and chairs, and +consequently no monotonous rows of children, unless a teacher arranges +them thus from sheer habit. In each room is a high narrow cupboard about +one quarter of the necessary size for all that education demands; most +education authorities provide some good pictures, but the best are +usually hung on the class-room wall behind the children, and all are +above the children's eye level. "Oh, teacher, my neck do ache!" was the +only appreciative remark made by a child after a tour made of the school +pictures, which were really beautiful. + +As a rule the windows are too high for the children to see from, and +the lower part is generally frosted. In a new school which had a view up +one of the loveliest valleys in Great Britain, the windows were of this +description; the head of the school explained that it was a precaution +in case the children might see what was outside; in other words, they +might make the mistake of seeing a real river valley instead of +listening to a description of it. + +In country schools of the older type the accommodation is not so good, +but the newer ones are often very attractive in appearance, and have +both space and light. The school garden is a common feature in the +country, and it is to be regretted so few even of the plot description +are to be found in town schools. + +Of late years the apparatus has improved, though there is still much to +be done in this direction. Instead of the original tiny boxes of gifts +we have frequently real nursery bricks of a larger and more varied +character, and many other nursery toys. One of the best signs of a +progressive policy is that large numbers of _little_ toys have taken the +place of the big expensive ones that only an occasional child could use. +It is a pity that the use of toys comes to so sudden an end, and that +learning by this method does not follow the babies after they have +officially ceased to be babies, as is the custom in real life. + +One of the most striking changes for the better is the evidence of care +of the children's health, of which some of the external signs are +doctor, nurse and care committee. A sense of responsibility in this +respect is gradually growing in the schools; a fair number provide for +sleep, a few try to train the children to eat lunch slowly and +carefully, and some try to arrange for milk or cod-liver oil in the case +of very delicate children. Though these instances are very much in the +minority, they represent a change of spirit. This is one of the striking +characteristics of the new Education Bill. A legacy from the old +formalism lies in the fact that every room has a highly organised +time-table, except perhaps in the Babies' Room, where the children's +actual needs are sometimes considered first. The morning in most classes +is occupied with Scripture, Reading, Arithmetic, Writing, and some less +formal work, such as Nature lesson or Recitation; some form of Physical +Exercise is always taken. The afternoons are mostly devoted to Games, +Stories, Handwork and Singing: this order is not universal, but the +general principle holds, of taking the more difficult and formal +subjects in the morning. In the Babies' Room some preparation for +reading is still too frequent. The lessons are short and the order +varied, but in one single morning or afternoon there is a bewildering +number of changes. Some years ago the unfortunate principle was laid +down in the Code, that fifteen minutes was sufficient time for a lesson +in an Infant School, and though this is not strictly followed the +lessons are short and numerous, giving an unsettled character to the +work; children appear to be swung at a moment's notice from topic to +topic without an apparent link or reason: for example, the day's work +may begin with the story of a little boy sent by train to the country, +settled at a farm and taken out to see the _cow_ and the _sow_: soon +this is found to be a reading lesson on words ending in "ow," but after +a short time the whole class is told quite suddenly, that one shilling +is to be spent at a shop in town, and while they are still interested in +calculating the change, paints are distributed, and the children are +painting the bluebell. The whole day is apt to be of this broken +character, which certainly does not make for training in mental +concentration, or for a realisation of the unity of life. Some teachers +still aim at correlation, but in a rather half-hearted way: others have +entirely discarded it because of its strained applications, but nothing +very definite has taken its place. + +The curriculum which has been given is varied in character, and +sometimes includes a "free period." Except in the Babies' Class the +three R's occupy a prominent place, and children under six spend +relatively a great deal of time in formal subjects, while children +between six and seven, if they are still in the Infant School, are +taught to put down sums on paper, which they could nearly always +calculate without such help. As soon as a child can read well, and work +a fair number of sums on paper, he is considered fit for promotion, and +the question of whether he understands the method of working such sums, +is not considered so important as accuracy and quickness. The test of +so-called intelligence for promotion is reading and number, but it is +really the test of convenience, so that large numbers of children may be +taught together and brought, against the laws of nature, to a uniform +standard. + +This poison of the promotion and uniformity test works down through the +Infant School: it can be seen when the babies are diverted from their +natural activities to learn reading, or when they are "examined": it can +be seen when a teacher yields up her "bright" children to fill a few +empty desks, it can be seen in the grind at reading and formal +arithmetic of the children under six, when weary and useless hours are +spent in working against nature, and precious time is wasted that will +never come back. Yet we _say_ we believe that "Children have their youth +that they may play," and that "Play is the purest, most spiritual +activity of man at this stage" [childhood]. + +The lack of any clear aim shows itself in the fluid nature of the term +"results"; to some teachers it signifies readiness for promotion, or a +piece of work that presents a satisfactory external appearance, such as +good writing, neat handwork, an orderly game, fluent reading. To others +it means something deeper, which they discover in some chance remark of +a child's that marks the growth of the spirit, or the awakening of the +interest of a child whose development is late, or the quickened power of +a child to express; or evidence of independent thought and the power to +use it, in some piece of handwork, or appreciation of music or +literature. According to the meaning attached to the term "results" so +the method of the teacher must vary; but one gets the general impression +that in this respect matters are in a transitional state; the first kind +of teacher is always a little uncertain of her ground and a little +fearful that she is not quite "up-to-date," while the second class of +teacher is sometimes a little timid, and not quite sure that she is +prepared to account for the rather subtle and intangible outcome of her +work. + +The same transitional character holds in the case of discipline: while +what is known as "military" discipline still prevails in many schools, +there are a very fair number with whom the grip has relaxed; but it is a +courageous teacher that will admit the term "free discipline" which has +nearly as bad a reputation as "free thought" used to have, and few are +prepared to go all the way. Probably the reason lies in the vagueness of +the meaning of the term, and the fact that its value is not clearly +realised because it is not clearly understood. Teachers have not faced +the question squarely: "What am I aiming at in promoting free +discipline." + +Taking a general view of the present school, one gets the impression of +a constant change of activity on the part of the children, but very +little change of position, a good deal of provision for general class +interest, but little for individual interest; of less demand than +formerly for uniformity of results, but the existence of a good deal of +uniformity of method, arresting the teacher's own initiative; of very +constant teaching on the part of the teacher and a good deal of +listening and oral expression on the part of the children, of many +lessons and little independent individual work. Below all this there is +evident a very friendly relationship between the teacher and the +children, a good deal of personal knowledge of the children on the part +of the teacher, and a good deal of affection on both sides. There is +less fear and more love than in the earlier days, less government and +more training, less restraint and more freedom. And the children are +greatly attached to their school. + +From consideration of the foregoing summary it will be seen that +education in the Infant School is a thing of curious patches, of +strength and weakness, of light and shade; perhaps the greatest weakness +is its lack of cohesion, of unification: on the one hand we find much +provision for the children's real needs, much singleness of purpose in +the teacher's work, such a genuine spirit of whole-hearted desire for +their education: on the other hand, an unreasoning sense of haste, of +pushing on, of introducing prematurely work for which the children +admittedly are unready; an acceptance of new things on popular report, +without scientific basis, and a lack of courage to maintain the truth +for its own sake, in the face of so-called authority, and a craving to +be modern. At the root of all this inconsistency and possibly its cause, +is the lack of a guiding policy or aim, the lack of belief in the +scientific or psychological basis of education, and consequently the +want of that strong belief in absolute truth which helps the teacher to +pass all barriers. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SOME VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +If it be true that the Infant School of to-day suffers from lack of a +clear basis for its general policy, it will be profitable to have +clearly before us such principles as great educators have found to be +most vital to the education of young children. + +We all believe that we have an aim and a high aim before us: it has been +variously expressed by past educationalists, but in the main they all +agree that the aim of education is conduct. + +In actual practice, however, we act too often as if we only cared for +economic values. If we are to live up to our educational profession, we +must look our aim in the face and honestly practise what we believe. + +While training of character and conduct is the accepted aim for +education in general, to make this useful and practical each teacher +must fix her attention on how this ultimate aim affects her own special +part of the whole work. By watching the free child she will discover how +best she can help him: he knows his own business, and when unfettered by +advice or command shows plainly that he is chiefly concerned with +_gaining experience_. He finds himself in what is to him a new and +complex world of people and things; actual experience is the foundation +for complete living, and the stronger the foundation the better the +result of later building. _The first vital principle then is that the +teacher of young children must provide life in miniature; that is, she +must provide abundant raw material and opportunities for experience_. + +The next question is that of the best method of gaining this actual +experience. The child is unaware that he is laying foundations, he is +only vaguely conscious that he finds great pleasure in certain +activities, and that something impels him in certain directions. He +realises no definite future, he is content with the present; he cannot +work for a purpose other than the pleasure of the moment; without this +stimulus concentration is impossible. In the activities of this stage he +probably assimilates more actual matter than at any other period of his +life, and it is the same with his acquirements of skill. In happy +unconsciousness he gains knowledge of his own body and of its power, of +the external world, of his mother tongue and of his relations to other +people: he makes mistakes and commits faults, but these do not +necessarily cripple or incriminate him. He is not considered a social +outcast because he once kicked or bit, or because he threw his milk over +the table; he learns to balance and adjust his muscles on a seesaw, when +a fall on soft grass is a matter of little importance, and this is +better than waiting till he is compelled hastily to cross a river on a +narrow plank. It is all a kind of joyous rehearsal of life which we call +Play. We can force a child to passivity, to formal repetitions of +second-hand knowledge, to the acquisition of that for which he has no +apparent need, but we can never _educate_ him by these things. "Children +do not play because they are young, they have their youth that they may +play," as surely as they have their legs that they may walk. + +_The second principle is therefore that the method of gaining experience +lies through Play, and that by this road we can best reach work_. + +The third principle is the nature of the experience that a child seeks +to gain--the life he desires to live. How can we he sure that the +surroundings we provide and the activities we encourage are in accord +with children's needs? + +Let us imagine a child of about five to six years of age, one of a +family, living in a small house to which a garden is attached; inside he +has the run of the house, but keeps his own toys, picture books and +collections of treasures. We will suppose that not being at school he is +free to arrange his own day, sometimes alone, and sometimes with other +children, or with his parents. What does he do? + +He is interested in inanimate things, especially in using them, and so +he plays with his toys. He builds bricks, runs engines, solves simple +puzzle pictures, asks to work with his father's gardening tools, or his +mother's cooking utensils. He is interested in the life of the garden, +in the growing things, in the snail or spider he finds, in the cat, dog +or rabbit of the family; he wants to dig, water and feed these various +things, but he declines regular responsibility; his interest is in +spurts. + +He is interested in sounds, both in those he can produce and in those +produced by others: soon he is interested in music, he will listen to it +for considerable periods, and may join in it: at first more especially +on the rhythmical side. So, too, he likes the rhythm of poetry and the +melody sounds of words. He is interested in making things; on a wet day +he will ask for scissors and paste, or bring out his paint box or +chalks; on a fine day he mixes sand or mud with water, or builds a +shelter with poles and shawls; at any time when he has an opportunity he +shuts himself into the bathroom and experiments with the taps, sails +boats, colours water, blows bubbles, tries to mix things, wet and dry. + +He is interested in the doings of other people, in their conduct and in +his own; he is more interested in their badness than in their goodness: +"Tell me more of the bad things your children do," said a little boy to +his teacher aunt, and the request is significant and general; we learn +so little by mere uncontrasted goodness. He is interested in the words +that clothe narrations and in their style, he is impatient of a change +in form of an accepted piece of prose or poetry. He is hungry for the +sounds of telling words and phrases. + +He is interested in reproducing the doings of other people so that he +may experience them more fully, and this involves minute observation, +careful and intelligent imitation, and vivid imagination. His own word +for it is pretence. + +There are other things that he grasps at more vaguely and later; he is +dimly aware that people have lived before, and he is less dimly aware +that people live in places different from his own surroundings. He +realises that some of the stories, such as the fairy stories, are true +in one sense, a sense that responds to something within himself; that +some are true in another more material, and external sense, one +concerned with things that really happen. He hears of "black men," and +of "ships that carry people across the sea," and of "things that come +back in those ships." + +He is interested in the immaterial world suggested by the mysteries of +woods and gardens, he has a dim conception that there is some life +beyond the visible, he feels a power behind life and he reveals this in +his early questions. He is keenly interested in questions of birth and +death, and sometimes comes into close contact with them. He feels that +other wonders must be accounted for--the snow, thunder and lightning, +the colours of summer, the changeful sea. At first the world of fairy +lore may satisfy him, later comes the life of the undying spirit, but +the two are continuous. He may attend "religious observances," and these +may help or they may hinder. + +He is keenly interested in games, whether they are games of physical +skill, of mental skill, or games of pretence. Here most especially he +comes into contact with other people, and here he realises some of the +experiences of social life. + +Such are the most usual sides of life sought by the ordinary child, and +on such must we base the surroundings we provide for our children in +school, and the aspects of life to which we introduce them, commonly +called subjects of the curriculum. + +_Our third principle is therefore, evident: we find, in the child's +spontaneous choice, the nature of the surroundings and of the activities +that he craves for; in other words, he makes his own curriculum and +selects his own subject matter_. + +The next consideration is the atmosphere in which a child can best +develop character by means of these experiences. A young child is a +stranger in an unknown, untried country: he has many strange promptings +that seek for satisfaction; he has strong emotions arising from his +instincts, he feels crudely and fiercely and he must act without delay, +as a result of these emotions. He is like a tourist in a new strange +country, fresh and eager, and with a similar holiday spirit of +adventure: the stimulation of the new arouses a desire to interpret, to +investigate and to ask questions: it arouses strong emotions to like or +dislike, to fear, to be curious; it leads to certain modes of conduct, +as a result of these emotions. Picture such a young tourist buttonholed +by a blasé guide, who had forgotten what first impressions meant, who +insisted on accompanying him wherever he went, regulating his procedure +by telling him just what should be observed and how to do so, pouring +out information so premature as to be obnoxious, correcting his taste, +subduing his enthusiasm, and modifying even his behaviour. The tourist +would presumably pay off the unwelcome guide, but the children cannot +pay off the teacher: they can and do rebel, but docility and +adaptability seem to play a large part in self-preservation. For the +young child freedom must precede docility, because the only reasonable +and profitable docility is one that comes after initiative and +experiment have been satisfied, and when the child feels that he needs +help. + +The world that the free child chooses represents every side of life that +he is ready to assimilate, and his freedom must be intellectual, +emotional and moral freedom. In the school with the rigidly organised +time-table, where the remarks of the children provoke the constantly +repeated reproach: "We are not talking of that just now," where the +apparatus is formal and the method of using it prescribed, where home +life and street life are ignored, where there are neither garden nor +picture books, where childish questions are passed over or hastily +answered, where the room is full of desks and the normal attitude is +sitting, where the teacher is teaching more often than the children are +doing, there is no intellectual freedom. + +Where passion and excitement are instantly arrested, where appreciation +for strong colours, fierce punishments, loud noises, is killed, where +fear is ridiculed, where primitive likes and dislikes are interpreted as +coarseness, there is no emotional freedom. A child must have these +experiences if he is to come to his own later: this is not the time to +stamp out but only to deflect and guide; otherwise he becomes a weak and +pale reflection of his elders, with little resource or enthusiasm. + +Where it is almost impossible to be openly naughty, where there is no +opportunity for choice or for making mistakes, where control is all from +the teacher and self-control has no place, there is no moral freedom. +The school is not for the righteous but for the so-called sinner, who is +only a child learning self-control by experience. + +Self-control is a habit gained through habits; a child must acquire the +habit of arresting desire, of holding the physical side in check, the +habit of reflection, of choice, and most of all the habit of either +acting or holding back, as a result of all this. If in the earliest +years his will is in the hands of others, and he has the habit of +obedience to the exclusion of all other habits, then his development as +a self-reliant individual is arrested, and may be permanently weakened. +There is no other way to learn life, and build up an ideal from the raw +material he has gained in other ways. In the rehearsal of life at school +he can do this without serious harm; but every time a mode of conduct is +imposed upon him when he might have chosen, every time he is externally +controlled when he might have controlled himself, every time he is +balked in making a mistake that would have been experience to him, he +will be proportionally less fit to choose, to exercise self-control, to +learn by experience, and these are the chief lessons at this +impressionable period. + +_The fourth principle therefore is that the atmosphere of freedom is the +only atmosphere in which a child can gain experiences that will help to +develop character and control conduct._ + +These four vital principles will be applied to practical work in the +following chapters. + + + + +II. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +Before applying these principles it is necessary for practical +considerations to set out clearly the various stages of this period. +During the first eight years of life, development is very rapid and not +always relatively continuous. Sometimes it takes leaps, and sometimes +appears for a time to be quiescent. But roughly the first stage, of a +child's developing life ends when he can walk, eat more or less ordinary +food, and is independent of his mother. At this point the Nursery School +stage begins: the child is learning for himself his world by experience, +and through play he chooses his raw material in an atmosphere of +freedom. When the period of play pure and simple begins to grow into a +desire to do things better, to learn and practise for a more remote +end--in other words, when the child begins to be willing to be taught, +the transitional period from play to work begins. It can never be said +to end, but the relative amount of play to work gradually defines the +life of the school: and so the transitional period merges into the +school period. Thus we are concerned first with the Nursery School +period which corresponds to what Froebel meant by his Kindergarten and +Owen by his Infant School; secondly, with the transitional period which +has been far too long neglected or rushed over, and which roughly +corresponds to the Standard I. of the Elementary School; and thirdly, we +have the beginnings of the Junior School where work is the predominant +factor. In spite of Shakespeare's assertion, there is much in a name, +and if these names were definitely adopted, teachers would realise +better the nature of their business. + +The following chapters seek to apply practically the four vital +principles to these periods of a child's life, but in many cases the +Transition Classes and the Junior School are considered together. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE NEED FOR EXPERIENCE + + + "The first vital principle is that the teacher of young + children must provide for them life in miniature, i.e. she + must provide abundant raw material and opportunities for + acquiring experience." + +The practical translation of this in the words of the teacher of to-day +is, "I must choose furniture, and requisition apparatus." The teacher of +to-morrow will say to her children, "I will bring the world into the +school for you to learn." The Local Education Authority of to-day says, +"We must build a school for instruction." The Local Education Authority +of to-morrow will say, "We must make a miniature world for our +children." + +The world of the Nursery School child probably requires the most careful +thought in this respect: a large room with sunlight and air, low clear +windows, a door leading to a garden and playground, low cupboards full +of toys, low-hung pictures, light chairs and tables that can be pushed +into a corner, stretcher beds equally disposable, a dresser with pretty +utensils for food; these are the chief requirements for satisfying +physical needs, apparent in the actual room. Physical habits will be +considered later, under another heading. + +Outside, in the playground, there should be opportunities for physical +development, for its own sake: swings, giant strides, ladders laid +flat, slightly sloping planks, and a seesaw should all be available for +constant use; if the children are not warned or given constant advice +about their own safety, there is little fear of accidents. + +Thus the purely physical side of the children is provided for, the side +that they are, if healthy, quite unconscious of; what else does +experience demand at this stage? + +Roughly classified, the raw experience of this stage may be divided into +the experience of the natural world of living things, the world of +inanimate things, and the social world. For the natural world there +should be the garden outside, with its trees, grass and flower beds; +with its dovecot and rabbit hutch, and possibly a cat sunning herself on +its paths; inside there will be plants and flowers to care for; the +elements, especially water, earth and air, are very dear to a young +child, and it is quite possible to satisfy his cravings with a large +sand-heap of _dry_ and _wet_ sand; a large flat bath for sailing boats +and testing the theory of sinking and floating; a bin of clay; a pair of +bellows and several fans to set the air in motion. There is always the +fire to gaze at on the right side of the fire-guard, and appreciation of +the beauty of this element should be encouraged. + +The world of inanimate things includes most of the toys that stimulate +activity and give ideas. The chief that should be found in the +cupboards, round the walls, or scattered about the room, are bricks of +all sizes and shapes, skittles, balls and bats or rackets, hoops, reins, +spades and other garden tools; pails and patty pans for the sand-heap; +pipes for bubbles, shells, fir-cones, buttons, acorns, and any +collection of small articles for handling; all kinds of vehicles that +can be pushed, such as carts, barrows, prams, engines; drums and other +musical instruments; materials for construction and expression, such as +chalks, boards, paints and paper. + +For experiences of the social world, which is not very real at this +individualistic period, come the dolls and doll's house, horses and +stables, tea-things, cooking utensils, Noah's ark, scales for a shop, +boats, soldiers and forts: a very important item in this connection is +the collection of picture-books: they must be chosen with the greatest +care, and only pictures of such merit as those of Caldecott, Leslie +Brooke and Jessie Wilcox Smith should be selected. Pictures form one of +the richest sources of experience at this stage, as indeed at any stage +of life, and truth, beauty and suggestiveness must be their chief +factors. + +The toys should be above all things durable, and if possible washable. +Broken and dirty toys make immoral children. + +Besides the material surroundings there are opportunities, the seizing +of which gives valuable experiences. These belong to the social world, +and lie chiefly in the training in life's social observances and the +development of good habits. This side of life is one of the most +important in the Nursery School, and needs material help. The lavatories +and cloakrooms should be constructed so that there is every chance for a +child to become self-reliant and fastidious. The cloakrooms should be +provided with low pegs, boot holes, clothes brushes and shoe brushes: +there should be low basins with hot and cold water, enamel mugs and +tooth brushes _for each child,_ nail brushes, plenty of towels, and +where the district needs it, baths. The type provided by the Middlesex +Education Authority at Greenford Avenue School, Hanwell, gives a shower +bath to a whole group of children at once, thus making a more frequent +bath possible. Perhaps for very small children of the Nursery School age +separate baths are more suitable. This is a question for future +experience on the part of teachers. There should be plenty of time for +the children to learn to wash and dress themselves. + +In the school-room there should either be tablecloths, or the tables +should be capable of being scrubbed by the children after each meal. +Their almost inevitable lack of manners at table gives an invaluable +opportunity for training, and again in such a case there should be no +question of haste. The meals should be laid, waited on and cleared away, +and the dishes washed by the children themselves, and they should be +responsible for the general tidiness of the room. This involves +tea-cloths, mops, dusters, washing bowls, brushes and dustpans. + +In the Transition Classes and Junior School the furniture and apparatus +can be to a great extent very much the same, their difference lying +chiefly in degree. It is a pity to bring the age of toys to an abrupt +conclusion; in real life the older children still borrow the toys of the +younger ones while there are some definitely their own: such are, jigsaw +and other puzzles, dominoes, articles for dramatic representation, +playing cards, toys for games of physical skill, such as tops, kites, +skipping ropes, etc. Such prepared constructive materials as +meccano--and a great mass of raw material for construction, generally +termed "waste." There should be a series of boxes or shelves where such +waste products of the home, or of the woods, or of the seashore, or of +the shop, might be stored in some classified order: the collective +instinct is stronger than the more civilised habit of orderliness: here +is an opportunity for developing a habit from an instinct. There should +also be materials for expression, such as clay, paper, chalk, pencil, +paints, weaving materials, cardboard, and scenery materials; and such +tools as scissors, cardboard knives, needlework tools, paste brushes, +and others that may be necessary and suitable. The rooms should be large +and suitable for much moving about: the most usual conditions should be +a scattered class and not a seated listening class. This means light +chairs and tables or benches where handwork can be done; low cupboards +and lockers so that each child can get at his own things; broad +window-sills for plants and flowers and a bookcase for reading and +picture books. Here again good picture-books are as essential as, even +more essential than, readers in the Transition Class. They will be a +little more advanced than in the Nursery School, and will be of the type +of the Pied Piper illustrated, or pictures of children of other lands +and times. Some of Rackham's, of Harold Copping's, of the publications +by Black in _Peeps at Many Lands_, are suitable for this stage. Readers +should be chosen for their literary value from the recognised children's +classics, such as the Peter Rabbit type, _Alice in Wonderland, +Water-Babies,_ and not made up for the sake of reading practice. + +The pictures on the walls should be hung at the right eye-level, and the +windows low enough for looking at the outside world--whatever it may be. +The teacher's desk should be in a corner, not in the central part of the +room, for she must remember that the children are still in the main +seeking experience, not listening to the experience of another. They +should have access to the garden and playground, and all the incitements +to activity should be there--similar to those of the Nursery School, or +those provided by the London County Council in parks. The bare +wilderness of playground now so familiar, where there is neither time +nor opportunity for children to be other than primitive savages, does +not represent the outside world of beauty and of adventure. + +The lower classes of Junior School should differ very little in their +miniature world. Life is still activity to the child of eight, and +consequently should contain no immovable furniture. There will be more +books, and the children may be in their seats for longer periods; the +atmosphere of guided but still spontaneous work is more definite, but +the aim in choice of both furniture and apparatus is still the gaining +of experience of life, by direct contact in the main. Such is the +Requisition Sheet to be presented to the Stores Superintendent of the +Local Education Authority in the future, with an explanatory note +stating that in a general way what is actually required is the world in +miniature! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +GAINING EXPERIENCE BY PLAY + + + "The Second Principle is that the method of gaining + experience lies through Play and that by this road we can + best reach work." + +Play is marked off from work chiefly by the absence of any outside +pressure, and pleasure in the activity is the characteristic of play +pure and simple: if a child has forced upon him a hint of any ulterior +motive that may be in the mind of his teacher, the pleasure is spoilt +for him and the intrinsic value of the play is lost. In bringing +children into school during their play period, probably the most +important formative period of their lives, and in utilising their play +consciously, we are interfering with one of their most precious +possessions when they are still too helpless to resent it directly. Too +many of us make play a means of concealing the wholesome but unwelcome +morsel of information in jam, and we try to force it on the children +prematurely and surreptitiously, but Nature generally defeats us. The +only sound thing to do is to _play the game_ for all it is worth, and +recognise that in doing so education will look after itself. To +understand the nature of play, and to have the courage to follow it, is +the business of every teacher of young children. The Nursery School, +especially if it consists chiefly of children under five, presents at +first very hard problems to the teacher; however strong her belief in +play may be, it receives severe tests. So much of the play at first +seems to be aimless running and shouting, or throwing about of toys and +breaking them if possible, so much quarrelling and fighting and weeping +seem involved with any attempts at social life on the part of the +children; there seems very little desire to co-operate, and very little +desire to construct; as a rule, a child roams from one thing to another +with apparently only a fleeting attempt to play with it; yet on the +other hand, to make the problem more baffling, a child will spend a +whole morning at one thing: quite lately one child announced that he +meant to play with water all day, and he did; another never left the +sand-heap, and apparently repeated the same kind of activity during a +complete morning; visitors said in a rather disappointed tone, "they +just play all the time by themselves." One teacher brought out an +attractive picture and when a group of children gathered round it she +proceeded to tell the story; they listened politely for a few minutes, +and then the group gradually melted away; they were not ready for +concentrated effort. If those children had been in the ordinary Baby +Room of a school they would have been quite docile, sitting in their +places apparently listening to the story, amiably "using" their bricks +or other materials according to the teacher's directions, but they would +not, in the real sense, have been playing. This is an example of the +need for both principle and courage. + +It is into this chaotic method of gaining experience that the teacher +comes with her interpretive power--she sees in it the beginnings of all +the big things of life--and like a bigger child she joins, and like a +bigger child she improves. She sees in the apparent chaos an attempt to +get experience of the different aspects of life, in the apparently +aimless activity an attempt to realise and develop the bodily powers, in +the fighting and quarrelling an attempt to establish a place in social +life. It is all unconscious on the part of a child, but a necessary +phase of real development. + +Gradually the little primitive man begins to yield to civilisation. He +is interested in things for longer and asks for stories, music and +rhymes, and what does this mean? + +As he develops a child learns much about life in his care of the garden, +about language in his games, about human conduct from stories; but he +does these things because he wants to do them, and because there is a +play need behind it all, which for him is a life need; in order to build +a straight wall he must classify his bricks, in order to be a real +shopman he must know his weights, in order to be a good workman he must +measure his paper; all the ideas gained from these things come to him +_along with sense activity_; they are associated with the needs and +interests of daily life; and because of this he puts into the activity +all the effort of which he is capable, or as Dewey has expressed it, +"the maximum of consciousness" into the experience which is his play. +This is real sense training, differing in this respect from the training +given by the Montessori material, which has no appeal to life interest, +aims at exercising the senses separately, and discourages _play_ with +the apparatus. It is activity without a body, practice without an end, +and nothing develops from it of a constructive or expressive nature. + +In the nursery class therefore our curriculum is life, our apparatus all +that a child's world includes, and our method the one of joyful +investigation, by means of which ideas and skill are being acquired. The +teacher is player in chief, ready to suggest, co-operate, supply +information, lead or follow as circumstances demand: responsibility must +still belong to the children, for while most of them know quite +naturally how to play, there are many who will never get beyond a rather +narrow limit, through lack of experience or of initiative. + +It is quite safe to let experience take its chance through play, but +there are certain things that must be dealt with quite definitely, when +the teacher is not there as a playmate, but as something more in the +capacity of a mother. It is impossible to train all the habits necessary +at this time, through the spontaneous play, although incidentally many +will be greatly helped and made significant by it. If the children come +from poor homes where speech is imperfect, probably mere imitation of +the teacher, which is the chief factor in ordinary language training, +will be insufficient. It will be necessary to invent ways, chiefly +games, by which the vocal organs may be used; this may be considered +play, but it is more artificial and less spontaneous than the informal +activity already described. It is well to be clear as to the kind of +exercises best suited to make the vocal organs supple, and then to make +these the basis of a game: for example, little children constantly +imitate the cries of ordinary life; town children could dramatise a +railway station where the sounds produced by engines and by porters give +a valuable training; they could imitate street cries, the sound of the +wind, of motor hooters, sirens, or of church bells. Country children +could use the sounds of the farm-yard, the birds, or the wind. In the +recognition of sound, which is as necessary as its production, such a +guessing game could be taught as "I sent my son to be a grocer and the +first thing he sold began with _s_ and ended with _p_," using the +_sounds_, not names of the letters. For the acquisition of a vocabulary, +such a game as the Family Coach might be played and turned into many +other vehicles or objects about which many stories could be told. All +the time the game must be played with the same fidelity to the spirit of +play as previously, but the introduction must be recognised as more +artificial and forced, and this can be justified because so many +children are not normal with regard to speech, and only where this is +the case should language training be forced upon them. Habits of +courtesy, of behaviour at table, of position, of dressing and +undressing, of washing hands and brushing teeth, and many others, must +all be _taught_, but taught at the time when the need comes. Occasions +will certainly occur during play, but the chances of repetition are not +sufficient to count on. + +Thus we summarise the chief business of the Nursery School teacher when +we say that it is concerned chiefly with habits and play and right +surroundings. + +Play in the Transition Class is less informal. After the age of six +certain ambitions grow and must be satisfied. The aspects of life are +more separated, and concentration on individual ones is commoner; this +means more separation into subjects, and thus a child is more willing to +be organised, and to have his day to _some_ extent arranged for him. +While in the nursery class only what was absolutely necessary was fixed, +in the Transition Class it is convenient to fix rather more, for the +sake of establishing certain regular habits, and because it is necessary +to give the freshest hours to the work that requires most concentration. +We must remember, however, that it _is_ a transition class, and not set +up a completely fashioned time-table for the whole day. Reading and +arithmetic must be acquired both as knowledge and skill, the mother +tongue requires definite practice, there must be a time for physical +activity, and living things must not be attended to spasmodically. +Therefore it seems best that these things be taken in the morning hours, +while the afternoon is still a time for free choice of activity. + +The following is a plan for the Transition Class, showing the bridge +between absolute freedom and a fully organised time-table-- + + MORNING. AFTERNOON. + + Monday |Nature |Reading |Stories from |Organised games and + |work. |and Number.|Scripture or other |handwork. + ---------|Care |-----------|literature, and |----------------------- + Tuesday |of the |Reading |stories of social |Music and handwork. + |room. |and Number.|life; music and | + ---------|Nature |-----------|singing; industrial|----------------------- + Wednesday|chart |Reading |activities such as |Excursion or handwork. + |and |and Number.|solving puzzles, | + ---------|General|-----------|playing games of |----------------------- + Thursday |talk. |Reading |skill, looking at |Dramatic representation + | |and Number.|pictures, arranging|including preparations. + ---------| |-----------|collections. |----------------------- + Friday | |Reading | |Gardening or handwork. + | |and Number.| | + +Granting this arrangement we must be clear how play as a method can +still hold. + +It does not hold in the informal incidental sense of the Nursery School: +there are periods in the Transition Class when the children know that +they are working for a definite purpose which is not direct play--as in +reading; and there are times when they are dissatisfied with their +performances of skill and ask to be shown a better way, and voluntarily +practise to secure the end, as in handwork, arithmetic and some kinds of +physical games. The remainder is probably still pursued for its own +sake. How then can this play spirit be maintained side by side with +work? + +First of all, the children should not be required to do anything without +having behind it a purpose that appeals to them; it may not be the +ultimate purpose of "their good," but a secondary reason may be given to +which they will respond readily, generally the pretence reason. +Arithmetic to the ordinary person is a thing of real life; we count +chiefly in connection with money, with making things, with distributing +things, or with arranging things, and we count carefully when we keep +scores in games; in adult life we seldom or never count or perform +arithmetical operations for sheer pleasure in the activity, but there +are many children who do so in the same spirit as we play patience or +chess. And all this is our basis. The arithmetical activities in the +Transition Class should therefore be based on such everyday experiences +as have been mentioned, else there will be no associations made between +the experiences of school and those of life outside. The two must merge. +There is no such thing as arithmetic pure and simple for children unless +they seek it; they must play at real life, and the real life that they +are now capable of appreciating. + +Skill in calculation, accuracy and quickness can be acquired by a kind +of practice that children are quite ready for, if it comes when they +realise the need; most children feel that their power to score for games +is often too slow and inaccurate; as store clerks they are uncertain in +their calculations; they will be willing to practise quick additions, +subtractions, multiplications and divisions, in pure arithmetical form, +if the pretence purpose is clearly in view, which to them is a real +purpose; the same thing occurs in writing which should be considered a +side issue of reading; meaningless words or sentences are written +wearily and without pains, but to write the name of a picture you have +painted, at the bottom of it, or to write something that Cinderella's +Godmother said, or bit by bit to write a letter, will be having a +purpose that gives life to an apparently meaningless act, and +thoroughness to the effort. + +In handwork, too, at this stage, practice takes an important place: a +child is willing to hem, to try certain brush strokes, to cut evenly, +and later on to use his cardboard knife to effect for the sake of a +future result if he has already experimented freely. This is in full +harmony with the spirit of play, when we think of the practiced +"strokes" and "throws" of the later games, but it is a more advanced +quality of play, because there is the beginning of a purpose which is +separated from immediate pleasure in the activity, there is the hint of +an end in view though it is a child's end, and not the adult or economic +one. + +The training of the mother tongue can be made very effective by means +of games: in the days when children's parties were simple, and family +life was united, language games in the long dark evenings gave to many a +grip of words and expressions. Children learnt to describe accurately, +to be very fastidious in choice of words, to ask direct questions, to +give verbal form to thought, all through the stress of such games--Man +and his Shadow, Clumps, Subject and Object, Russian Scandal, the +Minister's Cat, I see a Light, Charades, and acting of all kinds. No +number of picture talks, oral compositions, or observations can compete +in real value with these games, because behind them was a purpose or +need for language that compelled the greatest efforts. + +Physical development and its adjustment to mental control owes its +greatest stimulus to games. When physical strength, speed, or nimble +adjustability is the pivot upon which the game depends, special muscles +are made subservient to will: behind the game there is the stimulus of +strong emotion, and here is the greatest factor in establishing +permanent associations between body and mind; psychologists see in many +of these games of physical activity the evolution of the race: drill +pure and simple has its place partly in the same sense as "practice" in +number or handwork, and partly as a corrective to our fallacious system +of education by listening, instead of by activity: and we cannot in a +lifetime acquire the powers of the race except by concentrated practice. +But no amount of drill can give the all-round experience necessary for +physical readiness for an emergency, physical and mental power to +endure, active co-operation, where self-control holds in check ambitious +personal impulses: and no drill seems to give grace and beauty of motion +that the natural activity of dancing can give. It is through the games +that British children inherit, and by means of which they have +unconsciously rehearsed many of the situations of life, that they have +been able to take their place readily in the life of the nation and even +to help to save it. Again, as in other directions, children must be made +to play the game in its thoroughness, for a well-played game gives the +right balance to the activities: drill is more specialised, and has +specialisation for its end: a game calls on the whole of an individual: +he must be alert mentally and physically; and at the same time the sense +of fairness cannot be too strongly insisted on; no game can be tolerated +as part of education where there is looseness in this direction, from +the skittles of the nursery class to the cricket and hockey of the +seventh standard, and nothing will so entirely outrage the children's +feelings as a teacher's careless arbitration. In physical games, too, +the social side is strongly developed: leadership, self-effacement and +co-operation are more valuable lessons of experience than fluent reading +or neat writing or accurate additions: but they have not counted as such +in our economic system of education; they have taken their chance: few +inspectors ask to see whether children know how to "play the game," and +yet they are so soon to play the independent game of life. But the +individual output of reading and sums of a sneaking and cowardly, or +assertive and selfish child, is as good probably as that of a child that +has the makings of a hero in him. And then we wonder at the propensities +of the "lower classes." It is because we have never made sure that they +can play the game. + +To summarise: play in the Nursery School stage is unorganised, informal, +and pursued with no motive but pleasure in the activity itself; it is +mainly individual. Play in the Transition Class is more definitely in +the form of games, _i.e._ organised play, efforts of skill, mental or +physical; it becomes social. Play in the Junior School is almost an +occasional method, because the work motive is by this time getting +stronger. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE UNITY OF EXPERIENCE + + + "We find in the child's spontaneous choice the nature of the + surroundings and of the activities he craves for; in other + words, he makes his own curriculum, and selects his own + subject matter." + +The next problem we have to solve is how to unify the bewildering +variety of ideas and activities that a child seeks contact with during a +day. We found that the curriculum of the Infant School of to-day +presented a rather confusing variety of ideas, not necessarily arranged +as the children would have chosen; they would certainly not have chosen +to break off some intense interest, because an arbitrary timetable +hurried them to something else, and they would have been right. If we +asked the children their reasons for choosing, we would find no clue +except that they chose what they wanted to, neither could they tell us +why they spent so much more time over one thing than another. If a +similar study were to be made of a child from a slum also free to +arrange his day, we should find that while certain general features were +the same others would be different: he would ask for different stories, +probably play different games, or the same games in a different way, his +back-yard would present different aspects, the things he made would be +different. + +It is evident that the old correlation method has little or nothing to +do with the matter; a child may or may not draw the rabbit he feeds, he +certainly does not play a rabbit game because of the rabbit he has fed, +nor does he build a rabbit-hutch with his bricks. He might try to make a +real one if the rabbit really needed it, but that arises out of an +obvious necessity. If he could put his unconscious promptings into +words, he would say he did the things because he wanted to, because +somebody else did them, or because of something he saw yesterday, and so +on; but he would always refer back to _himself_. The central link in +each case is in the child, with his special store of experiences derived +from his own particular surroundings; he brings to new experiences his +store of present experiences, his interests not always satisfied, his +powers variously used, he interprets the new by these, and seeks for +more in the line of the old. It is life he has experienced, and he seeks +for more life. + +How then can we secure for him that the new experiences presented to him +in school will be in line with the old? We will take three typical cases +of children to illustrate the real nature of this problem. + +The first is the case of a child living in a very poor district of +London or of any large town. The school is presumably situated in a +narrow street running off the High Street of the district, the street +where all the shopping is done; at the corner is a hide factory with an +evil smell. Most of the dwelling-houses abut on the pavement, some with +a very small yard behind, some without any. Several families live in one +house, and often one room is all a family can afford; as that has to be +paid for in advance the family address may change frequently. The father +may be a dock labourer with uncertain pay, a coster, a rag and bone +merchant, or he may follow some unskilled occupation of a similarly +precarious nature; in consequence the mother has frequently to do daily +work, the home is locked up till evening, and she often leaves before +the children start for morning school. It is a curious but very common +fact that, free though these children are, they know only a very small +radius around their own homes. They are accustomed to be sent shopping +into High Street, where household stores are bought in pennyworths or +twopennyworths, owing to uncertain finance and no storage accommodation. +Generally there is one tap and one sink in the basement for the needs of +all the families in the house. There is usually a park somewhere within +reach, but it may be a mile away; in it would, at least, be trees, a +pond, grass, flowers. But an excursion there, unless it is undertaken by +the school, can only be hoped for on a fine Bank Holiday; there is +neither time nor money to go on a Saturday, and Sunday cannot be said to +begin till dinner-time, about 3 P.M., when the public-houses close, and +the father comes home to dinner. + +It is difficult to imagine the conversation of such a household; family +life exists only on Sunday at dinner-time; the child's background of +family life is a room which is at once a bedroom, living room and +laundry. There is nearly always some part of a meal on the table, and +some washing hanging up. Outside there are the dingy street, the crowded +shops, the pavement to play on, and both outside and in, the bleaker and +more sordid aspects of life, sometimes miserable, sometimes exciting. On +Saturday night the lights are brilliant and life is at least intense. +Bed is a very crowded affair, in which many half-undressed children +sleep covered with the remainder of the day's wardrobe. + +What store of experiences does a child from such a neighbourhood bring +to school, to be assimilated with the new experiences provided there? +What do such terms as home, dinner, bed, bath, birth, death, country, +mean to him? They mean _something_.[34] + +[Footnote 34: See _Child Life_, October 1916.] + +Not a mile away we may come to a very respectable suburb of the average +type; and what is said of it may apply in some degree to a provincial +or country town or, at least, the application can easily be made. The +school probably stands at the top corner of a road of houses rented, at +£25 to £35 per annum, with gardens in front and behind. The road +generally runs into a main road with shops and traffic. Here and there +in the residential road are little oases of shops, patronised by the +neighbourhood, and some of the children may live over these. The home +life is more ordinary and needs less descriptive detail, but there are +some features that must be considered. The decencies, not to say +refinements of eating, sleeping and washing are taken for granted: there +is often a bath-room and always a kitchen. The father's occupation may +be local, but a good many fathers will go to town; there is generally a +family holiday to the sea, or less often to the country. In the house +the degree of refinement varies; there are nearly always pictures of a +sort, books of a sort, and the children are supplied with toys of a +sort. They visit each other's houses, and the observances of social life +are kept variously. Often the horizon is very narrow; the mother's +interest is very local and timid; the father's business life may be +absolutely apart from his home life and never mentioned there. The +family conversation while quite amiable and agreeable may be round very +few topics, and the vocabulary, while quite respectable, may be most +limited. Children's questions may be put aside as either trivial or +unsuitable. In one sense the slum child may be said to have a broader +background, the realities of life are bare to him on their most sordid +side, there is neither mystery nor beauty around life, or death, or the +natural affections. The suburban child may on the contrary be balked and +restricted so that unnecessary mystery gives an unwholesome interest to +these things and conventionality a dishonest reserve. + +A suburb of this type is described by Beresford in _Housemates_:--"In +such districts (as Gospel Oak) I am depressed by the flatness of an +awful monotony. The slums vex me far less. There I find adventure and +jest whatever the squalor; the marks of the primitive struggle through +dirt and darkness towards release. Those horrible lines of moody, +complacent streets represent not struggle, but the achievement of a +worthless aspiration. The houses, with their deadly similarity, their +smug, false exteriors, their conformity to an ideal which is typified by +their poor imitative decoration, could only be inhabited by people who +have no thought or desire for expression.... The dwellers in such +districts are cramped into the vice of their environment. Their homes +represent the dull concession to a state rule; and their lives take tone +from the grey, smoke-grimed repetition of one endlessly repeated design. +The same foolish ornamentation on every house reiterates the same +suggestion. Their places of worship, the blank chapels and pseudo-Gothic +churches rear themselves head and shoulders above the dull level, only +to repeat the same threat of obedience to a gloomy law.... The thought +of Gospel Oak and its like is the thought of imitation, of imitation +falling back and becoming stereotyped, until the meaning of the thing so +persistently copied has been lost and forgotten." + +A third case is that of the country child, the child who attends the +village school. Many villages lie several miles from a railway station, +so that the younger children may not see a railway train more than once +or twice a year. The fathers may be engaged in village trades, such as a +shoemaker, carpenter, gardener, general shop merchant, farm labourer, or +farmer. The village houses are often cramped and small, but there is +wholesome space outside, and generally a good garden which supplies some +of the family food; milk and eggs are easily obtainable, and conditions +of living are seldom as crowded as in a town. The country children see +more of life in complete miniature than the slum or the suburban child +can do, for the whole life of the village lies before him. The school +is generally in the centre, with a good playground, and of late years a +good school garden is frequent. The village church, generally old, is +another centre of life, and there is at least the vicarage to give a +type of life under different social conditions. + +The home intellectual background may vary, but on the whole cannot be +reckoned on very much; though in some ways it is more narrow than the +suburban one, it is often less superficial. In a different way from the +slum child, but none the less definitely, the country child comes face +to face with the realities of life, in a more natural and desirable way +than either of the others. It is difficult to estimate some of the +effects of living in the midst of real nature on children; +unconsciously, they acquire much deep knowledge impossible to learn +through nature study, however good, a kind of knowledge that is part of +their being; but how far it affects them emotionally or enters into +their scheme of life, is hard to say. As they grow up much of it is +merely economic acquirement: if they are to work on the land, or rear +cattle, or drive a van through the country, it is all to the good; but +one thing is noticeable, that they take very quickly to such allurements +of town life as a cinema, or a picture paper or gramophone, and this +points to unsatisfied cravings of some sort, not necessarily so unworthy +or superficial as the means sought to satisfy them. + +From these rather extreme cases we get near the solution of the problem; +it is quite evident that each of these children brings to school very +different contributions of experience on which to build, though their +general needs and interests are similar. Therefore the curriculum of the +school will depend on the general surroundings and circumstances of the +children, and all programmes of work and many questions of organisation +will be built on this. The model programme so dear to some teachers must +be banished, as a doctor would banish a general prescription; no honest +teacher can allow this part of her work to be done for her by any one +else. + +Therefore the central point is the child's previous experience, and on +this the experience provided by school, _i.e._ curriculum and subject +matter, depends. One or two examples of the working out of this might +make the application clearer. Probably the realities of life in relation +to money differ greatly. The kind of problem presented to the poor town +child will deal with shopping in pennyworths or ounces, with getting +coals in pound bagfuls. Clothes are generally second-hand, and so +ordinary standard prices are out of the question. Bread is bought stale +and therefore cheaper, early in the morning. Preserved milk only is +bought, and that in halfpenny quantities. Only problems based on these +will be real to this child at first. + +The suburban child's economic experience may be based on his +pocket-money, money in the bank, and the normal shopping of ordinary +life. + +The country child is frequently very ignorant of money values; probably +it will be necessary to take the country general shop as the basis. He +could also begin to estimate the produce of the school garden. + + + + +THE NURSERY SCHOOL PROGRAMME + +It is quite obvious from the nature of play at this stage that a +time-table is out of the question and in fact an outrage against nature. +Only for social convenience and for the establishment of certain +physical habits can there be fixed hours. There must be approximate +limits as to the times of arrival and departure, but nothing of the +nature of marking registers to record exact minutes. Little children +sometimes sleep late, or, on the other hand, the mothers may have to +leave home very early; all this must be allowed for. There should be +fixed times for meals and for sleep, and these should be rigidly +observed, and there should be regular times for the children to go to +the lavatories; all these establish regularity and self-control, as well +as improving general health. But anything in the nature of story +periods, games periods, handwork periods, only impedes the variously +developing children in their hunger for experiences. + +Their curriculum is life as the teacher has spread it out before them; +there are no subjects at this stage; the various aspects ought to be of +the nature of a glorious feast to these young children. Traherne says in +the seventeenth century:-- + +"Will you see the infancy of this sublime and celestial greatness? Those +pure and virgin apprehensions I had in my infancy, and that divine light +wherewith I was born, are the best unto this day wherein I can see the +Universe.... Verily they form the greatest gift His wisdom can bestow, +for without them all other gifts had been dead and vain. They are +unattainable by books and therefore will I teach them by experience.... +Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions +of the world than I when I was a child. + +"All appeared new and strange at first, inexpressibly rare and +delightful and beautiful. I was a little stranger which at my entrance +into the world was saluted and surrounded with innumerable joys.... I +knew by intuition those things which since my apostasy I collected again +by the highest reason.... All things were spotless and pure and +glorious; yea, and infinitely mine, and joyful and precious.... I saw in +all the peace of Eden.... Is it not that an infant should be heir of the +whole world, and see those mysteries which the books of the learned +never unfold? + +"The corn was orient and immortal wheat which never should be reaped, +nor was ever sown. I thought it stood from everlasting to everlasting. +The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold: the gates +were at first the end of the world. The green trees when I saw them +first through one of the gates transported and ravished me: ... the +skies were mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the +world was mine: and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it.... So that +with much ado I was corrupted and made to learn the dirty devices of +this world, which I now unlearn, and become, as it were, a little child +again that I may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." + +If this is what life means to the young child, and Traherne only records +what many of us have forgotten there is little need for interference: we +can only spread the feast and stand aside to watch for opportunities. + +The following extract is given from a teacher's note-book: it shows how +many possibilities open out to a teacher, and how impossible it is to +keep to a time-table, or even to try to name the activities. The +children concerned were about five years old, newly admitted to a poor +school in S.E. London. The records are selected from a continuous +period, and do not apply to one day:-- + + +PLANS FOR THE DAY WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED + +_Number Occupations._--This will The children played, freely +be entirely free and the children chalking most of the time; those +will choose their own toys and threading beads were most +put them away. interested. Again I noticed the + lack of idea of colour; I found + one new boy placing his sticks + according to colour, without + knowing the names of the colours. + The boys thought the soldiers + belonged to them, and laughed at + a little girl for choosing them. + +_Language Training._--I have I realised this was a failure, +discovered that they love to for I asked the children to use +imitate sounds, so we will play their boards and chalks for a +at this. They could draw a cat definite drawing, and they should +and say "miauw," and a duck and have had the time to use them +say "quack." They could also freely and discover their use. I +imitate the wind. got very little information about + their vocabulary. + +_Language Training_ (_another I found that many children +day_).--I shall try to induce the pronounced words so strangely +children to speak to me about their that I could only with difficulty +homes, in order to discover any recognise them. One said she +difficulties of pronunciation and had a "bresser" with "clates" +to make them more fluent. on it and "knies" Others spoke + of "manckle," "firebrace," "forts." + One child speaking of curly hair + called it "killeyer." We had no + time for the story. + +_Playing with Toys._--The Noah's arks, dolls, and bricks +children will choose their own toys, were used, and I found that the +and as far as possible I will put girls who had no dolls at home +a child who knows how to use them were delighted to be able to dress +next to one who desires to sit and undress them and put them +still. to bed. One little girl walked + backwards and forwards before + the class getting her doll to + sleep; the boys were making a + noise with their arks and she + remarked on this, so we induced + them to be silent while the dolls + were put to sleep. The boys + arranged their animals in long + lines. The bricks were much more + carefully put away to-day. + + +THE TRANSITION AND THE JUNIOR SCHOOL PROGRAMME + +Even after the Nursery School period much of the curriculum and subject +matter is in the hands of the children themselves, though the relative +proportions will vary according to the children's experiences. It is +pretty evident to the honest-minded teacher that the subjects are, in +school terms, nature work and elementary science, mathematics, +constructive and expressive work, literature, music, language, physical +exercise and religion. The business of the younger child is with real +things and activity, not with symbols and passivity, therefore he is not +really in need of reading, writing, or arithmetic. We hear arguments +from ambitious teachers that children are fond of reading lessons +because they enjoy the fantasies in which these lessons are wrapped, or +the efforts made by the teacher to create interest; we hear that +children ask to be taught to read; they also ask to be taught to drive a +tram or to cook a dinner; but it is all part of the pretence game of +playing at being grown up. They do not need to read while stories and +poetry can be told or read to them; they are not ready to make the +effort of working for a remote economic end, where there is no real +pleasure in the activity, and no opportunity of putting their powers to +use. No child under six wants to sit down and read, and it would be very +harmful if he did; his business is with real things and with his +vocabulary, which is not nearly ready to put into symbols yet. If +reading is delayed, hours of weary drudgery will be saved and energy +stored for more precious attainments. + +Therefore in the transition class (_i.e._ children over six at lowest) +the only addition to the curriculum already set out for the nursery +class, would be arithmetic and reading, including writing. The other +differences would be in degree only. In the junior class (with children +over seven at lowest) a desire to know something of the doings of people +in other countries, to hear about other parts of our own land, will lead +to the beginnings of geography; while with this less imaginative and +more literal period comes the request for stories that are more verbally +true, and questions about origins, leading to the beginnings of history. + +It is very much easier to give the general curriculum than to deal with +the choice of actual material, because that is involved largely with the +principle of the unity of experience, and, as we know, experiences vary. +The normal town and country child, and the abnormal child of poverty +have all certain human cravings in common, and these are provided for in +the aspects of life or subjects that have been named--but this is far +too general an application to be the end of the matter; each subject has +many sides to offer. There may be for example the pottery town, the +weaving town, the country town, the fishing town, the colliery town: in +the country there is the district of the dairy farmer, of the sheep +farmer, of the grain grower and miller, of the fruit farmer, of the hop +grower, and many districts may partake of more than one characteristic. +Perhaps the most curious anomaly of experience is that of the child of +the London slums who goes "hopping" into some of the loveliest parts of +Kent, in early autumn. And so in a general way at least the concentrated +experience of school must fill gaps and supply experiences that life has +not provided for. + +One of the pottery towns in Staffordshire is built on very unfertile +clay; there are several potteries in the town belching out smoke, and, +in addition, rows of monotonous smoke-blackened houses; almost always a +yellow pall of smoke hangs over the whole district, and even where the +edge of the country might begin, the grass and trees are poor and +blackened, and distant views are seen through a haze. There are almost +no gardens in the town, and very little attempt has been made to +beautify it, because the results are so disappointing. Beauty, +therefore, in various forms must be a large part of the curriculum: +already design is a common interest in the pottery museums of the +district, and this could be made a motive for the older children; but in +the Junior and Nursery School pictures of natural beauty, wild flowers +if it is possible to get them, music, painting and drawing, and +literature should bulk largely enough to make a permanent impression on +the children. In a very remote country village where life seems to go +slowly, and days are long, children should be encouraged, by means of +the school influence, to make things that absorb thought and interest, +to tell and hear stories. Storytelling in the evening round the fire is +a habit of the past, and might well supply some of the cravings that +have to be satisfied by the "pictures." Most of us have to keep +ourselves well in hand when we listen to a recitation in much the same +way as when a slate pencil used to creak; it would be very much better +if the art of storytelling were cultivated at school, encouraged at +home, and applied to entertainments. Indeed the entertainments of a +village school, instead of being the unnatural and feverish production +of hours of overtime, might well be the ordinary outcome of work both at +school and at home--and thus a motive for leisure is naturally supplied +and probably a hobby initiated. + +It is profitable sometimes to group the subjects of experience in order +to preserve balance. All getting of experience is active, but some kinds +more obviously than others. Undoubtedly in hearing stories and poetry, +in watching a snail or a bee, in listening to music, the activity is +mental rather than physical and assimilation of ideas is more direct; in +discovering experiences by means of construction, expression, experiment +or imitation, assimilation is less direct but often more permanent and +secure. Froebel discriminates between impression and expression, or +taking in and giving out, and although he constantly emphasised that the +child takes in by giving, it is convenient to recognise this +distinction. Another helpful grouping is the more objective one. Some +subjects refer more particularly to human conduct, the enlargement of +experiences of human beings, and the building up of the ideal: these are +literature, music, history and geography; others refer to life other +than that of human beings, commonly known as nature study and science; +others to the properties of inanimate things, and to questions +throughout all life of measurement, size and force--this is known as +mathematics; others of the life behind the material and the spiritual +world--this is known as religion. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +GAINING EXPERIENCE THROUGH FREEDOM + + + "The atmosphere of freedom is the only atmosphere in which a + child can gain experiences that will help to develop + character." + +The principle of Freedom underlies all the activities of the school and +does not refer to conduct simply; intellectual and emotional aspects of +discipline are too often ignored and we have as a product the +commonplace, narrow, imitative person, too timid or too indolent to +think a new thought, or to feel strongly enough to stand for a cause. +Self-control is the goal of discipline, but independent thinking, +enthusiasm and initiative are all included in the term. + +It will be well to discriminate between the occasions, both in the +Nursery School and in the transition and junior classes, when a child +should be free to learn by experience and when he should be controlled +from without. We shall probably find occasions which partake of the +nature of each. + +The Nursery School is a collection of individuals presumably from 2-1/2 +to 5-1/2 years of age. They know no social life beyond the family life, +and family experience is relative to the size of the family. In any case +they have not yet measured themselves against their peers, with the +exception of the occasional twin. A few months ago about twenty children +of this description formed the nucleus of a new Nursery School where, as +far as possible, the world in miniature was spread out before them, and +they were guided in their entrance to it by an experienced teacher and +a young helper. For the first few weeks the chief characteristic was +noise; the children rushed up and down the large room, shouting, and +pushing any portable toys they could find. One little boy of 2-1/2 +employed himself in what can only be called "punching" the other +children, snatching their possessions away from them and responding to +the teacher by the law of contra-suggestion. He was the most intelligent +child in the school. He generally left a line of weeping children behind +him, and several began to imitate him. The pugnacious instinct requires +little encouragement. Lunch was a period of snatching, spilling, and +making plans to get the best. Many of the toys provided were carelessly +trampled upon and broken: requests to put away things at the end of the +day were almost unavailing. + +When the time for sleeping came in the afternoon many of the children +refused to lie down: some consented but only to sing and talk as they +lay. Only one, a child of 2-1/2, slept, because he cried himself to +sleep from sheer strangeness. This apparently unbeautiful picture is +only the first battle of the individual on his entrance to the life of +the community. + +On the other hand, there were intervals of keen joy: water, sand and +clay chiefly absorbed the younger children: the older ones wanted to +wash up and scrub, and many spent a good deal of time looking at +picture-books. This was the raw material for the teacher to begin with: +the children came from comfortable suburban homes: none were really +poor, and many had known no privation. They were keen for experiences +and disposed to be very friendly to her. + +After five months there is a marked difference in spirit. The noise is +modified because the children found other absorbing interests, though at +times nature still demands voice production. During lunch time and +sleeping time there is quiet, but the teacher has never _asked_ for +silence unless there was some such evident reason. There is no silence +game. The difference has come from within the children. All now lie down +in the afternoon quietly, and the greater number sleep; but there has +been no command or any kind of general plan: again the desire has +gradually come to individuals from suggestion and imitation. Lunch is +quite orderly, but not yet without an occasional accident or struggle. +There is much less fighting, but primitive man is still there. The most +marked development is in the growth of the idea of "taking turns"; the +children have begun to master this all-important lesson of life. The +strong pugnacious habit in the little punching boy reached a point that +showed he was unable to conquer it from within: about two months after +his arrival the teacher consulted his mother, who confirmed all that the +teacher had experienced: her prescription was smacking. After a good +deal of thought and many ineffectual talks and experiments with the boy, +the teacher came to the conclusion that the mother was right: she took +him to the cloakroom after the next outbreak and smacked his hands: he +was surprised and a little hurt, but very soon forgot and continued his +practices: on the next occasion the teacher repeated the punishment and +it was never again necessary. For a few days he was at a loss for an +occupation because punching had become a confirmed habit, but soon other +interests appealed to him: he has never changed in his trust in his +teacher of whom he is noticeably very fond, and he has now realised that +he must control a bad habit. This example has been given at length to +illustrate the relation of government to freedom. + +If these children had been in the ordinary Baby Room, subject to a +time-table, to constant plans by the teacher for their activities, few +or none of these occasions would have occurred: the incipient so-called +naughtiness would have been displayed only outside, in the playground or +at home: there would have been little chance of chaos, of fighting, of +punching, of trying to get the best thing and foremost place, there +would have been little opportunity for choice and less real absorption, +because of the time-table. The children would have been happy enough, +but they would not have been trained to live as individuals. Outward +docility is a fatal trait and very common in young children; probably it +is a form of self-preservation. But the real child only lies in wait to +make opportunities out of school. The school is therefore not preparing +him for life. + + * * * * * + +Freedom in the transition and the junior school must be differently +applied: individual life begins to merge into community life, and the +children begin to learn that things right for individuals may be wrong +for the community. But the problem of freedom is not as easy as the +problem of authority: standards must be greatly altered and outward +docility no longer mistaken for training in self-control. Individual +training cannot suddenly become class discipline, neither can children +be switched from the Nursery School to a full-blown class system. + +The idea of class teaching must be postponed, for out of it come most of +the difficulties of discipline, and it is not the natural arrangement at +this transitional period. A teacher is imposing on a number of very +different individuals a system that says their difficulties are alike, +that they must all work at one rate and in one way: and so we have the +weary "reading round" class, when the slow ones struggle and the quick +ones find other and unlawful occupation: we have the number lessons +broken by the teacher's breathless attempts to see that all the class +follows: we have the handwork that imposes an average standard of work +that fits nobody exactly. Intellectual freedom can only come by +individual or group work, while class teaching is only for such +occasions as a literature or a singing lesson, or the presentation of an +occasional new idea in number. Individual and group work need much +organisation, but while classes consist of over forty children there is +no other way to permit intellectual and moral freedom. Of course the +furniture of the room will greatly help to make this more possible, and +it is hoped that an enlightened authority will not continue to supply +heavy iron-framed desks for the junior school, those described as "desks +for listening." + +The prevailing atmosphere should be a busy noise and not silence--it +should be the noise of children working, oftener than of the teacher +teaching, _i.e._ teaching the whole class. The teacher should be more +frequently among the children than at her desk, and the children's +voices should be heard more often than hers. + +Such children will inevitably become intellectually independent and +morally self-controlled. Most of the order should be taken in hand by +children in office, and they should be distinguished by a badge: most +questions of punishment should be referred to them. This means a +constant appeal to the law that is behind both teacher and children and +which they learn to reach apart from the teacher's control. + +"Where 'thou shalt' of the law becomes 'I will' of the doer, then we are +free." + + + + +III. CONSIDERATION OF THE ASPECTS OF EXPERIENCE + + +The aim of the following chapters is to show how principles may be +applied to what are usually known as subjects of the curriculum, and +what place these subjects take in the acquisition of experience. An +exhaustive or detailed treatment of method is not intended, but merely +the establishment of a point of view and method of application. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +EXPERIENCES OF HUMAN CONDUCT + + +It is always difficult to see the beginnings of things: we know that +stories form the raw material of morality, it is not easy to trace +morality in _Little Black Sambo, The Three Bears, Alice in Wonderland,_ +or _The Sleeping Beauty,_ but nevertheless morality is there if we +recognise morality in everyday things. It is not too much to say that +everybody should have an ideal, even a burglar: his ideal is to be a +good and thorough burglar, and probably if he is a burglar of the finer +sort, it is to play fair to the whole gang. It is better to be a burglar +with an ideal than a blameless person with very little soul or +personality, who just slides through life accepting things: it is better +to have a coster's ideal of a holiday than to be too indifferent or +stupid to care or to know what you want. + +Now ideals are supposed to be the essence of morality and morality comes +to us through experience, and only experience tests its truth. The +story with a moral is generally neither literature nor morality, except +such unique examples as _The Pilgrim's Progress _or _Everyman_. The kind +of experience with which morality is concerned is experience of human +life in various circumstances, and the way people behave under those +circumstances. The beginning of such experience is our own behaviour and +the behaviour of other people we know, but this is too limited an +experience to produce a satisfactory ideal; so we crave for something +wider. It is curious how strong is the craving for this kind of +experience in all normal children, in whom one would suppose sense +experiences and especially muscular experiences to be enough. The need +to know about people other than ourselves, and yet not too unlike, in +circumstances other than our own, and yet not too strange, seems to be a +necessary part of our education, and we interpret it in the light of our +own personal conduct. Out of this, as well as out of our direct +experience, we build our ideal. When one realises how an ideal may +colour the whole outlook of a person, one begins to realise what +literature means to a child. The early ideal is crude; it may be Jack +the Giant-Killer, or an engine-driver, Cinderella, or the step-cleaner; +this may grow into Hiawatha or Robinson Crusoe, for boys, and a fairy +tale Princess or one of the "Little Women" for girls. In every hero a +child half-unconsciously sees himself, and the ideal stimulates all that +hidden life which is probably the most important part of his growth. As +indirect experiences grow, or in other words as he hears or reads more +stories, his ideal widens, and his knowledge of the problems of life is +enlarged. This is the raw material of morality, for out of his answers +to these problems he builds up standards of conduct and of judgement. He +projects himself into his own ideal, and he projects himself into the +experiences of other people: he lives in both: this is imagination of +the highest kind, it is often called sympathy, but the term is too +limited, it is rather imaginative understanding. + +There is another side of life grasped by means of this new world of +experience, and that is, the spiritual side that lies between conduct +and ideals; children have always accepted the supernatural quite readily +and it is not to be wondered at, for all the world is new and therefore +supernatural to them. Magic is done daily in children's eyes, and there +is no line between what is understandable and what is not, until adults +try to interpret it for them. + +They are curious about birth and death and all origins: thunder is +terrifying, the sea is enthralling, the wind is mysterious, the sky is +immense, and all suggest a power beyond: in this the children are +reproducing the race experience as expressed in myths, when power was +embodied in a god or goddess. Therefore the fairy world or the giant +world, or the wood full of dwarfs and witches' houses, is as real to +them, and as acceptable, as any part of life. It is their recognition of +a world of spirits which later on mingles itself with the spiritual life +of religion. That life is behind all matter, is the main truth they +hold, and while it is difficult here to disentangle morality from +religion, it is supremely evident that a very great and significant side +of a child's education is before us. + +It is by means of the divine gift of imagination, probably the most +spiritual of a child's gifts, that he can lay hold of all that the world +of literature has to offer him. Because of imagination he is independent +of poverty, monotony, and the indifference of other people; he has a +world of his own in which nothing is impossible. Edwin Pugh says of a +child of the slums who was passionately fond of reading cheap +literature:--"It was by means of this penny passport to Heaven that she +escaped from the Hell of her surroundings. It was in the maudlin fancies +of some poor besotted literary hack maybe, that she found surcease from +the pains of weariness, the carks and cares of her miserable estate." + +A teacher realising this, should feel an almost unspeakable sense of +responsibility in having to select and present matter: but the problem +should be solved on the one hand by her own high standard of story +material, and on the other by her knowledge of the child's needs. +According to his experiences of life the interpretation of the story +will differ: for example, it was found that the children of a low slum +neighbourhood translated _Jack the Giant-killer_ into terms of a street +fight: to children living by a river or the sea, the _Water-Babies_ would +mean very much, while _Jan of the Windmill_ would be more familiar +ground for country children. Fairy stories of the best kind have a +universal appeal. + +In choosing a story a teacher should be aware of the imperishable part +of it, the truth around which it grew; sometimes the truth may seem a +very commonplace one, sometimes a curious one. For example, very young +children generally prefer stories of home life because round the family +their experience gathers: the subject seems homely, but it is really one +of the fundamental things of life and the teacher should realise this in +such a way that the telling or reading of the story makes the kernel its +central point. To some children the ideal home life comes only through +literature: daily experiences rather contradict it. Humour is an +important factor in morality; unless a person is capable of seeing the +humor of a situation he is likely to be wanting in a sense of balance; +the humor of a situation is often caused by the wrong proportion or +wrong balance of things: for example the humour of _The Mad Tea-Party_ +lies, partly at least, in the absurd gravity with which the animals +regarded the whole situation, the extreme literal-mindedness of Alice, +and the exaggerated imitation of human beings: a really moral person +must have balance as well as sympathy, else he sees things out of +proportion. These examples make evident that we are not to seek for +anything very patently high-flown in the stories for children; it is +life in all its phases that gives the material, but it must be true +life: not false or sentimental or trivial life: this will rule out the +"pretty" stories for children written by trivial people in teachers' +papers, or the pseudo-nature story, or the artificial myth of the "How +did" type, or the would-be childish story where the language is rather +that of the grown-up imitating children than that of real children. Of +late years, with the discovery of children, children's literature has +grown, and there is a good deal to choose from past and present writers. + +There is no recognised or stereotyped method of telling a story to +children: it is something much deeper than merely an acquired art, it is +the teacher giving something of her personality to the children, +something that is most precious. One of the finest of our English +Kindergarten teachers once said, "I feel almost as if I ought to prepare +my soul before telling a story to young children," and this is the sense +in which the story should be chosen and told. There are, of course, +certain external qualifications which must be so fully acquired as to be +used unconsciously, such as a good vocabulary, power over one's voice, a +recognition of certain literary phases in a story, such as the working +up to the dramatic crisis, the working down to the end so that it shall +not fall flat, and the dramatic touches that give life; these are +certainly most necessary, and should be studied and cultivated; but a +teacher should not be hampered in her telling by being too conscious of +them. Rather she should feel such respect and even reverence for this +side of a child's education that the framework and setting can only be +of the best, always remembering at the same time what is framework and +setting, and what is essence. + +Much that has been said about the method and aim of stories might apply +to those taken from the Bible, but they need certain additional +considerations. Here religion and morality come very closely together: +the recognition of a definite personality behind all circumstances of +life, to whom our conduct matters, gives a soul to morality. The Old +Testament is a record of the growth of a nation more fully conscious of +God than is the record of any other nation, and because of this children +can understand God in human life when they read such stories as the +childhood of Moses and of Samuel. Children resemble the young Jewish +nation in this respect: they accept the direct intervention of God in +the life of every day. Their primitive sense of justice, which is an eye +for an eye, will make them welcome joyfully the plagues of Egypt and the +crossing of the Red Sea. It would be premature to force on them the more +mature idea of mercy, which would probably lead to confusion of +judgement: they must be clear about the balance of things before they +readjust it for themselves. + +Much of the material in the Old Testament is hardly suitable for very +young children, but the most should be made of what there is: the lives +of Eastern people are interesting to children and help to make the +phraseology of the Psalms and even of the narratives clear to them. +Wonder stories such as the Creation, the Flood, the Burning Bush, +Elijah's experiences, appeal to them on another side, the side that is +eager to wonder: the accounts of the childhood of Ishmael, Isaac, +Joseph, Moses, David and Samuel, and the little Syrian maid, come very +close to them. Such stories should be given to young children so that +they form part of the enchanted memory of childhood--which is permanent. + +With the New Testament the problem is more difficult: one hesitates to +bring the life of Christ before children until they are ready to +understand, even in some degree, its significance; the subject is apt to +be dealt with either too familiarly, and made too commonplace and +everyday a matter, or as something so far removed from human affairs as +to be mysterious and remote to a child. To mix Old and New Testament +indiscriminately, as, for example, by taking them on alternate days, is +unforgivable, and no teacher who has studied the Bible seriously could +do so, if she cared about the religious training of her children, and +understood the Bible. + +If the children can realise something of the sense in which Christ +helped human beings, then some of the incidents in His life might be +given, such as His birth, His work of healing, feeding and helping the +poor, and some of His stories, such as the lost sheep, the lost son, the +sower, the good Samaritan. It is difficult to speak strongly enough of +the mistreatment of Scripture, under the name of religion: it has been +spoilt more than any other subject in the curriculum, chiefly by being +taken too often and too slightly, by teachers who may be in themselves +deeply religious, but who have not applied intelligence to this matter. +The religious life of a young child is very direct: there is only a +little in the religious experiences of the Jews that can help him, and +much that can puzzle and hinder him; their interpretation of God as +revengeful, cruel and one-sided in His dealings with their enemies must +greatly puzzle him, when he hears on the other hand that God is the +Father of all the nations on the earth. What is suitable should be taken +and taken well, but there is no virtue in the Bible misunderstood. + +Poetry is a form of literature which appeals to children _if they are +not made to learn it by rote_. Unconsciously they learn it very quickly +and easily, if they understand in a general way the meaning, and if they +like the sound of the words. Rhythm is an early inheritance and can be +encouraged by poetry, music and movement. The sound of words appeals +strongly to young children, and rhyming is almost a game. The kind of +poetry preferred varies a good deal but on the whole narrative or +nonsense verses seem most popular; few children are ready for sentiment +or reflection even about themselves, and this is why some of Stevenson's +most charming poems about children are not appreciated by them as much +as by grown-up people. And for the same reason only a few nature poems +are really liked. + +Without doubt, the only aim in giving poetry to children is to help them +to appreciate it, and the only method to secure this is to read it to +them appreciatively and often. + +Besides such anthologies as _The Golden Staircase,_ E.V. Lucas's _Book +of Verses for Children,_ and others, we must go to the Bible for poems +like the Song of Miriam, or of Deborah, and the Psalms; to Shakespeare +for such songs as "Where the Bee Sucks," "I know a Bank," "Ye Spotted +Snakes," either with or without music; to Longfellow's _Hiawatha_ for +descriptive pieces, and to Scott and Tennyson for ballads and songs, and +to many other simple classic sources outside the ordinary collections. + +In both prose and poetry, probably the ultimate aim is appreciation of +beauty in human conduct. Clutton Brock says, "The value of art is the +value of the aesthetic activity of the spirit, and we must all value +that before we can value works of art rightly: and ultimately we must +value this glory of the universe, to which we give the name of beauty +when we apprehend it." Again he says, "Parents, nurses and teachers +ought to be aware that the child when he forgets himself in the beauty +of the world is passing through a sacred experience which will enrich +and glorify the whole of his life." + +If all this is what literature means in a child's experiences of life, +then it must be given a worthy place in the time-table and curriculum +and in the serious preparation by the teacher for her work. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EXPERIENCES OF THE NATURAL WORLD + + +The first experiences the child gains from the world of nature are those +of beauty, of sound, colour and smell. Flowers at first are just lovely +and sweet-smelling; the keen senses of a child are more deeply satisfied +with colour and scent than we have any idea of, unless some faint memory +of what it meant remains with us. But he begins to grasp real scientific +truth from his experiences with the elements which have for him such a +mysterious attraction; by the very contact with water something in the +child responds to its stimulus. Mud and sand have their charms, quite +intangible, but universal, from prince to coster; a bonfire is something +that arouses a kind of primeval joy. Again, race experience reproducing +itself may account for all this, and it must be satisfied. The demand +for contact with the rest of nature is a strong and fierce part of human +nature, and it means the growth of something in life that we cannot do +without. We induce children to come into our schools when this hunger is +at its fiercest, and very often we do nothing to satisfy it, but set +them in rooms to look at things inanimate when their very being is +crying out for life. "I want something and I don't know what to want" is +the expression of a state very frequent in children, and not infrequent +in grown-up people, because they have been balked of something. + +How, then, can we provide for their experience of this side of life? We +have tried to do so in the past by object and nature lessons, but we +must admit that they are not the means by which young children seek to +know life, or by which they appreciate its beauty. We have been trying +to kill too many birds with one stone in our economic way; "to train the +powers of observation," "to teach a child to express himself," "to help +a child to gain useful knowledge about living things," have been the +most usual aims. And the method has been that of minute examination of a +specimen from the plant or animal world, utterly detached from its +surroundings, considered by the docile child in parts, such as leaves, +stem, roots, petals, and uses; or head, wings, legs, tail, and habits. +The innocent listener might frequently think with reason that a number +lesson rather than a nature lesson was being given. The day of the +object lesson is past, and to young children the nature lesson must +become nature work. + +It is in the term "nature lesson" that the root of the mischief lies: +nature is not a lesson to the young child, it is an interest from which +he seeks to gain more pleasure, by means of his own activity: plants +encourage him to garden, animals stir his desire to watch, feed and +protect; water, earth and fire arouse his craving to investigate and +experiment: there is no motive for passive study at this juncture, and +without a motive or purpose all study leads to nothing. Adults compare, +and count the various parts of a living thing for purposes of +classification connected with the subdivisions of life which we call +botany and zoology; but such things are far removed from the young +child's world--only gradually does it begin to dawn on him that there +are interesting likenesses, and that in this world, as in his own, there +are relationships; when he realises this, the time for a nature lesson +has come. But much direct experience must come first. + +In setting out the furnishing of the school the need for this activity +is implied. No school worthy of the name can do without a garden, any +more than it can do without reading books, or blackboards, indeed the +former need is greater: if it is possible, and possibilities gradually +merge into acceptances, a pond should be in the middle of the garden, +and trees should also be considered as part of the whole. It is not +difficult for the ordinary person to make a pond, or even to begin a +garden. + +In a school situated in S.E. London in the midst of rows of monotonous +little houses, and close to a busy railway junction, a miracle was +performed: the playground was not very large, and of the usual +uncompromising concrete. The children, most of whose fathers worked on +the railway, lived in the surrounding streets, and most of them had a +back-yard of sorts; they had little or no idea of a garden. One of the +teachers had, however, a vision which became a reality. She asked her +children to help to make a garden, and for weeks every child brought +from his back-yard his little paper bag of soil which was deposited over +some clinkers that were spread out in a narrow border against the +outside wall; in a few months there was a border of two yards in which +flowers were planted: the caretaker, inspired by the sight, did his +share of fixing a wooden strip as a kind of supporting border to the +whole: in two years the garden had spread all round the outside wall of +the playground, and belonged to several classes. + +An even greater miracle was performed in a dock-side school, where to +most of the children a back-yard was a luxury beyond all possibility. +The school playground was very small, and evening classes made a school +garden quite impossible. But the head mistress was one who saw life full +of possibilities, and so she saw a garden even in the sordidness. Round +the parish church was a graveyard long disused, and near one of the +gates a small piece of ground that had never been used for any +graveyard purpose: it was near enough to the school to be possible, and +in a short time the miracle happened--the entrance to the graveyard +became a children's flowering garden. + +Inside the school where plants and flowers in pots are numerous, a part +of the morning should be spent in the care of these: few people know how +to arrange flowers, and fewer how to feed and wash them; if there are an +aquarium or chrysalis boxes, they have to be attended to: all this +should be a regular duty with a strong sense of responsibility attached +to it; it is curious how many people are content to live in an +atmosphere of decaying matter. + +If the children enjoy so intensely the colour of the leaves and flowers +they will be glad to have the opportunity of painting them; this is as +much a part of nature work as any other, and it should be used as such, +because it emphasises so strongly the side of appreciation of beauty, a +side very often neglected. It is here that the individual paint box is +so important. If children are to have any sense of colour they must +learn to match very truthfully; there is a great difference between the +blue of the forget-me-not and of the bluebell, but only by experiment +can children discover that the difference lies in the amount of red in +the latter. By means of discoveries of this kind they will see new +colours in life around them, and a new depth of meaning will come to +their everyday observations. This is true observation, not the "look and +say" of the oral lesson, which has no purpose in it, and leads to no +natural activity, or to appreciation. + +It is difficult to satisfy the interest in animals. In connection with +the Nursery School the most suitable have been mentioned. The transition +and junior school children may see others when they go for excursions. +At this stage, too, children have a great desire to learn about wild +animals, and the need often arises out of their literature: the camel +that brought Rebecca to Isaac, the wolf that adopted Mowgli, the +reindeer that carried Kay and Gerda, the fox that tried to eat the seven +little kids, Androcles' lion, and Black Sambo's tiger, might form an +interesting series, helped by pictures of the creature _in its own +home_. It is difficult to say whether this may be termed literature, +geography, or nature study. The difficulty serves to show the unity of +life at this period. Books such as Seton Thompson's, Long's, and +Kearton's, and many others, supply living experiences of animal life +impossible to get from less direct sources. + +As children get older, and have the power to look back, they will feel +the necessity of keeping records; and thus the Nature Calendar, +forerunner of geography, will be adopted naturally. + +Another important feature in nature experiences is the excursion. +Froebel says: "Not only children and boys, but indeed many adults, fare +with nature and her character as ordinary men fare with the air. They +live in it and yet scarcely know it as something distinct ... therefore +these children and boys who spend all their time in the fields and +forests see and feel nothing of the beauties of nature and their +influence on the human heart. They are like people who have grown up in +a very beautiful country and who have no idea of its beauty and its +spirit ... therefore it is so important that boys and adults should go +into the fields and forests, together striving to receive into their +hearts and minds the life and spirit of nature." It is evident from this +that excursions are as necessary in the country as in the town, where +instead of the "fields and forests" perhaps only a park is possible, but +there is no virtue in an excursion taken without preparation. The +teacher must first of all visit the place and see what it is likely to +give the children. She must tell them something of it, give them some +aim in going there, such as collecting leaves or fruits, or recording +different shapes of bare trees, or collecting things that grow in the +grass. These are examples of what a town park might yield. Within one +group of children there might be many with different aims. During the +days following the excursion time should be spent in using these +experiences, either by means of painting and modelling, or making +classified collections of things found, or compiling records, oral or +written. Otherwise the excursion degenerates into a school treat without +its natural enjoyment. + +With regard to the inevitable gaps in the children's minds in connection +with the world of living things, such pictures as the following should +be in every town school: a pine wood, a rabbit warren, a natural pond, a +ditch and hedge, a hayfield in June, a wild daffodil patch, a sheet of +bluebells, a cornfield at different stages, an orchard in spring and in +autumn, and many others. These must be constantly used when they are +needed, and not misused in the artificial method known as "picture +talks." + +There is another side to nature work. Froebel says: "The things of +nature form a more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that +seen by Jacob; not a one-sided ladder leading in one direction, but an +all-sided one leading in all directions. Not in dreams is it seen; it is +permanent, it surrounds us on all sides." + +Froebel believed that contact with nature helps a child's realisation of +God, and any one who believes in early religious experience must agree; +a child's early questions and difficulties, as well as his early awe and +fear show it--he is probably nearer to God in his nature work than in +many of the _daily_ Scripture lessons. All his education should be +permeated by spiritual feeling, but there are some aspects in which the +realisation is clearer, and possibly his contact with nature stands out +as the highest in this respect. There is no conscious method or art in +bringing this about; the teacher must feel it and be convinced of it. + +Thus we come to the conclusion that the Nursery School nature work can +be safely left to look after itself, provided the surroundings are +satisfying and the children are free. + +In the transition and the junior school there should be no nature +lessons of the object lesson type, but plenty of nature work, leading to +talks, handwork, and poetry. The aim is not economic or informational at +this stage, but the development of pure appreciation and interest. There +can hardly be a regular place on the time-table for such irregular work, +comprising excursions, gardening, handwork, and literature at least, and +depending on the weather and the seasons. There should always be a +regular morning time for attending to plants and animals and for the +Nature Calendar, but no "living" teacher will be a slave to mere +time-table thraldom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +EXPERIENCES OF MATHEMATICAL TRUTHS + + +By means of toys, handwork and games, as well as various private +individual experiments, a child touches on most sides of mathematics in +the nursery class. In experimenting with bricks he must of necessity +have considered relative size, balance and adjustment, form and +symmetry; in fitting them back into their boxes some of the most +difficult problems of cubic content; in weighing out "pretence" sugar +and butter by means of sand and clay new problems are there for +consideration; in making a paper-house questions of measurement evolve. +This is all in the incidental play of the Nursery School, and yet we +might say that a child thus occupied is learning mathematics more than +anything else. Here, if he remained till six, he did a certain amount of +necessary counting, and he may have acquired skill in recognising +groups, he may have unconsciously and incidentally performed +achievements in the four rules, but never, of course, in any shortened +or technical form. Probably he knows some figures. It is best to give +these to a child when he asks for or needs them, as in the case of +records of games. On the other hand he may be content with strokes. +Various mathematical relationships are made clear in his games or trials +of strength, such as distance in relation to time or strength, weight in +relation to power and to balance, length and breadth in relation to +materials, value of material in relation to money or work. By means of +many of his toys the properties of solids have become working knowledge +to him. Here, then, is our starting-point for the transition period. + + +AFTER THE NURSERY STAGE + +Undoubtedly the aim of the transition class is partly to continue by +means of games and dramatic play the kind of knowledge gained in the +Nursery School; but it has also the task of beginning to organise such +knowledge, as the grouping into tens and hundreds. This organisation of +raw material and the presenting of shortened processes, as occur in the +first four rules, forms the work also of the junior school. To give to a +child shortened processes which he would be very unlikely to discover in +less than a lifetime, is simply giving him the experience of the race, +as primitive man did to his son. But the important point is to decide +when a child's discovery should end and the teacher's demonstration +begin. + +This is the period when we are accustomed to speak of beginning +"abstract" work; it is well to be clear what it means, and how it stands +related to a child's need for experience. When we leave the problems of +life, such as shopping, keeping records of games and making measurements +for construction; and when we begin to work with pure number, we are +said to be dealing with the abstract. Formerly dealing with pure number +was called "simple," and dealing with actual things, such as money and +measures, "compound," and they were taken in this order. But experience +has reversed the process, and a child comes to see the need of abstract +practice when he finds he is not quick enough or accurate enough, or his +setting out seems clumsy, in actual problems. This was discussed at +greater length in the chapter on Play. + +For instance, he might set down the points of a game by strokes, each +line representing a different opponent: + +John |||||||||||||||| + +Henry ||||||||||| + +Tom ||| + +He will see how difficult it is to estimate at a glance the exact score, +and how easy it is to be inaccurate. It seems the moment to show him +that the idea of grouping or enclosing a certain number, and always +keeping to the same grouping, is helpful: + +John |||||||||| |||||| = 1 ten and 6 singles. + +Henry |||||||||| | = 1 ten and 1 single. + +Tom ||| = 3 singles. + +After doing this a good many times he could be told that this is a +universal method, and he would doubtless enjoy the purely puzzle +pleasure in working long sums to perfect practice. This pleasure is very +common in children at this stage, but too often it comes to them merely +through being shown the "trick" of carrying tens. They have reached a +purely abstract point, but they cannot get through it without some more +material help. The following is an example of the kind of help that can +be given in getting clear the concept of the ten grouping and the +processes it involves: + +[Illustration: Board with hooks, in ranks of nine, and rings] + +The whole apparatus is a rectangular piece of wood about 3/4 of an inch +thick, and about 3x1-1/2 feet of surface. It is painted white, and the +horizontal bars are green, so that the divisions may be apparent at a +distance; it has perpendicular divisions breaking it up into three +columns, each of which contains rows of nine small dresser hooks. It can +be hung on an easel or supported by its own hinge on a table. Each of +the divisions represents a numerical grouping, the one on the right is +for singles or units, the central one for tens, and the left side one +for hundreds: the counters used are button moulds, dipped in red ink, +with small loops of string to hang on the hooks: it is easily seen by a +child that, after nine is reached, the units can no longer remain in +their division or "house," but must be gathered together into a bunch +(fastened by a safety pin) and fixed on one of the hooks of the middle +division. + +Sums of two or three lines can thus be set out on the horizontal bars, +and in processes of addition the answer can be on the bottom line. It is +very easy, by this concrete means, to see the process in subtraction, +and indeed the whole difficulty of dealing with ten is made concrete. +The whole of a sum can be gone through on this board with the +button-moulds, and on boards and chalk with figures, side by side, thus +interpreting symbol by material; but the whole process is abstract. + +The piece of apparatus is less abstract only in degree than the figures +on the blackboard, because neither represents real life or its problems: +in abstract working we are merely going off at a side issue for the sake +of practice, to make us more competent to deal with the economic affairs +of life. There is a place for sticks and counters, and there is a place +for money and measures, but they are not the same: the former represents +the abstract and the latter the concrete problem if used as in real +life: the bridge between the abstract and the concrete is largely the +work of the transition class and junior school, in respect of the +foundations of arithmetic known as the first four rules. + +Games of skill, very thorough shopping or keeping a bankbook, or selling +tickets for tram or train, represent the kind of everyday problem that +should be the centre of the arithmetic work at this transition stage; +and out of the necessities of these problems the abstract and +semi-abstract work should come, but it should _never_ precede the real +work. A real purpose should underlie it all, a purpose that is apparent +and stimulating enough to produce willing practice. A child will do much +to be a good shopkeeper, a good tram conductor, a good banker; he will +always play the game for all it is worth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +EXPERIENCES BY MEANS OF DOING + + +In the Nursery School activity is the chief characteristic: one of its +most usual forms is experimenting with tools and materials, such as +chalk, paints, scissors, paper, sand, clay and other things. The desire +to experiment, to change the material in some way, to gratify the +senses, especially the muscular one, may be stronger than the desire to +construct. The handwork play of the Nursery School is therefore chiefly +by means of imitation and experiment, and direct help is usually quite +unwelcome to the child under six. There is little more to be said in the +way of direction than, "Provide suitable material, give freedom, and +help, if the child wants it." But the case is rather different in the +transitional stage. As the race learnt to think by doing, so children +seem to approach thought in that way; they have a natural inclination to +do in the first case; they try, do wrongly, consider, examine, observe, +and do again: for example, a girl wants to make a doll's bonnet like the +baby's; she begins impulsively to cut out the stuff, finds it too small, +tries to visualise the right size, examines the real bonnet, and makes +another attempt. At some apparently odd moment she stumbles on a truth, +perhaps the relation of one form to another in the mazes of +bonnet-making; it is at these odd moments that we learn. Or a boy may be +painting a Christmas card, and in another odd moment he may _feel_ +something of the beauty of colour, if, for example, he is copying +holly-berries. No purposeless looking at them would have stirred +appreciation. Whether the end is doing, or whether it is thinking, the +two are inextricably connected; in the earlier stages the way to know +and feel is very often by action, and here is the basis of the maxim +that handwork is a method. + +This idea has often been only half digested, and consequently it has led +to a very trivial kind of application; a nature lesson of the "look and +say" description has been followed by a painting lesson; a geography +lesson, by the making of a model. If the method of learning by doing was +the accepted aim of the teacher then it was not carried out, for this is +learning and then doing, not learning for the purpose of doing, but +doing for the purpose of testing the learning, which is quite another +matter, and not a very natural procedure with young children. Many +people have tried to make things from printed directions, a woman may +try to make a blouse and a man to make a knife-box; their procedure is +not to separate the doing and the learning process; probably they have +first tried to do, found need for help, and gone to the printed +directions, which they followed side by side with the doing; and in the +light of former failures or in the course of looking or of +experimenting, they stumbled upon knowledge: this is learning by doing. + +Therefore the making of a box may be arithmetic, the painting of a +buttercup may be nature study, the construction of a model, or of +dramatic properties may be geography or history, not by any means the +only way of learning, but one of the earlier ways and a very sound way; +there is a purpose to serve behind it all, that will lead to very +careful discrimination in selection of knowledge, and to pains taken to +retain it. If this is fully understood by a teacher and she is content +to take nature's way, and abide for nature's time to see results, then +her methods will be appropriately applied: she will see that she is not +training a race of box-makers, but that she is guiding children to +discover things that they need to know in a natural way, and ensuring +that as these facts are discovered they shall be used. Consequently +neither haste nor perfection of finish must cloud the aim; it is not the +output that matters but the method by which the children arrive at the +finished object, not forty good boxes, but forty good thinkers. Dewey +has put it most clearly when he says that the right test of an +occupation consists "in putting the maximum of consciousness into +whatever is done." Froebel says, "What man tries to represent or do he +begins to understand." + +This is what we should mean by saying that handwork is a method of +learning. + +But handwork has its own absolute place as well. A child wants to +acquire skill in this direction even more consciously than he wants to +learn: if he has been free, in the nursery class, to experiment with +materials, and if he knows some of his limitations, he is now, in the +transition class, ready for help, and he should get it as he needs it. +This may run side by side with the more didactic side of handwork which +has been described, but it is more likely that in practice the two are +inextricably mixed up; and this does not matter if the two ends are +clear in the teacher's mind; both sides have to be reckoned with. + +The important thing to know is the kind of help that should be given, +and when and how it is needed. It is well to remember that in this +connection a child's limitations are not final, but only mark stages: +for example, in his early attempts to use thick cardboard he cannot +discover the neat hinge that is made by the process known as a +"half-cut"; he tries in vain to bend the cardboard, so as to secure the +same result. There are two ways of helping him: either he can be quite +definitely shown and made to imitate, or he can be set to think about +it; he is given a cardboard knife and allowed to experiment: if he +fails, it may be suggested that a clean edge can only be got by some +form of cutting; probably he will find out the rest of the process. The +second method is the better one, because it promotes thinking, while the +first only promotes pure imitation and the habit of reckoning on this +easy solution of difficulties. A dull child may have to be shown, but +there are few such children, unless they have been trained to dulness. + +Imitation is not, however, always a medicine for dulness, nor does it +always produce dulness. There is a time for imitation and there is a +kind of imitation that is very intelligent. For example, a child may +come across a toy aeroplane and wish to make one; he will examine it +carefully, think over the uses of parts and proceed to make one as like +it as possible: here again is the maximum of consciousness, the essence +of thinking. Or the imitation may consist in following verbal +directions: this is far from easy if the teacher is at all vague, and +promotes valuable effort if she is clear but not diffuse: the putting of +words into action necessitates a considerable amount of imagining, and +the establishment of very important associations in brain centres. Such +cases might occur in connection with weaving, cardboard and paper work, +or the more technical processes of drawing and painting, where race +experience is actually _given_ to a child, by means of which he leaps +over the experiences of centuries. This is progress. + +If a teacher is to take handwork seriously, and not as a pretty +recreation with pleasing results, she should be fully conscious of all +that it means, and apply this definitely in her work: it is so easy to +be trivial while appearing to be thorough by having well-finished work +produced, which has necessitated little hard thinking on the child's +part. Construction gives a sense of power, a strengthening of the will, +ability to concentrate on a purpose in learning, a social sense of +serviceableness, a deepened individuality: but this can only be looked +for if a child is allowed to approach it in the right way, first as an +experimenter and investigator, or as an artist, and afterwards as a +learner, who is also an individual, and learns in his own way and at his +own rate: but if the teacher's ambition is external and economic then +the child is a tool in her hands, and will remain a tool. We cannot +expect the fruits of the spirit if our goal is a material one. + +One of the lessons of the war is economy. In handwork this has come to +us through the quest for materials, but it has been a blessing, if now +and then in disguise. In the more formal period of handwork only +prepared, almost patented material was used; everything was +"requisitioned" and eager manufacturers supplied very highly finished +stuff. Not very many years ago, the keeper of a "Kindergarten" stall at +an exhibition said, while pointing to cards cut and printed with +outlines for sewing and pricking, "We have so many orders for these that +we can afford to lay down considerable plant for their production." An +example in another direction is that of a little girl who attended one +of the best so-called Kindergartens of the time: she was afflicted, +while at home, with the "don't know what to do" malady; her mother +suggested that she might make some of the things she made at school, but +she negatived that at once with the remark, "I couldn't do that, you +see, because we have none of the right kind of stuff to make them of +here." + +It is quite unnecessary to give more direct details as to the kind of +work suitable and the method of doing it; more than enough books of help +have been published on every kind of material, and it might perhaps be +well if we made less use of such terms as "clay-modelling," +"cardboard-work," "raffia," and took handwork more in the sense of +constructive or expressive work, letting the children select one or +several media for their purpose; they ought to have access to a variety +of material; and except when they waste, they should use it freely. It +is limiting and unenlightened to put down a special time for the use of +special material, if the end might be better answered by something else: +if modelling is at 11.30 on Monday and children are anxious to make +Christmas presents, what law in heaven or earth are we obeying if we +stick to modelling except the law of Red Tape. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +EXPERIENCES OF THE LIFE OF MAN + + +This aspect of experience comes in two forms, the life of man in the +past, with the memorials and legacies he has left, and the life of man +in the present under the varying conditions of climate and all that it +involves. In other words these experiences are commonly known as history +and geography, though in the earlier stages of their appearance in +school it is perhaps better to call the work--preparation for history +and geography. They would naturally appear in the transition or the +junior class, preferably in the latter, but they need not be wholly new +subjects to a child; his literature has prepared him for both; to some +extent his experiments in handwork have prepared him for history, while +his nature work, especially his excursions and records, have prepared +him for geography. That he needs this extension of experience can be +seen in his growing demands for true stories, true in the more literal +sense which he is coming fast to appreciate; undoubtedly most children +pass through a stage of extreme literalism between early childhood and +what is generally recognised as boyhood and girlhood. They begin to ask +questions regarding the past, they are interested in things from +"abroad," however vague that term may be to them. + +Perhaps it will be best to treat the two subjects separately, though +like all the child's curriculum at this stage they are inextricably +confused and mingled both with each other, and with literature, as +experiences of man's life and conduct. + +The beginnings of geography lie in the child's foundations of +experience. Probably the first real contact, unconscious though it may +be, that any child has in this connection is through the production of +food and clothing. A country child sees some of the beginnings of both, +but it is doubtful how much of it is really interpreted by him; the +village shop with its inexhaustible stores probably means much more in +the way of origins, and he may never go behind its contents in his +speculations. It is true he sees milking, harvesting, sheep-shearing, +and many other operations, but he often misses the stage between the +actual beginning and the finished product--between the wool on the +sheep's back and his Sunday clothes, between the wheat in the field and +his loaf of bread. The town child has many links if he can use them: the +goods train, the docks, the grocer's, green-grocer's or draper's shop, +foreigners in the street, the vans that come through the silent streets +in the early morning; in big towns, such markets as Covent Garden or +Leadenhall or Smithfield; such a river as the Thames, Humber or +Mersey--from any one of these beginnings he can reach out from his own +small environment to the world. A town child has very confused notions +of what a farm really means to national life, and a country child of +what a big railway station or dock involves. All children need to know +what other parts of their own land look like, and what is produced; they +ought to trace the products within reach to their origin, and this will +involve descriptions of such things as fisheries at Hull or Aberdeen, +the coal mines of Wales or Lanarkshire, pottery districts of Stafford, +woollen and cotton factories of Yorkshire and Lancashire, mills driven +by steam, wind and water, lighthouses, the sheep-rearing districts of +Cumberland and Midlothian, the flax-growing of northern Ireland, and +much else, and the means of transit and communication between all these. +The children will gradually realise that many of the things they are +familiar with, such as tea, oranges, silk and sugar, have not been +accounted for, and this will take them to the lives of people in other +countries, the means of getting there, the time taken and mode of +travelling. They will also come to see that we do not produce enough of +the things that are possible to grow, such as wheat, apples, wool and +many other common necessaries, and that we can spare much that is +manufactured to countries that do not make them, such as boots, clothes, +china and cutlery. There will come a time when the need for a map is +apparent: that is the time to branch off from the main theme and make +one; it will have to be of the very immediate surroundings first, but it +is not difficult to make the leap soon to countries beyond. Previous to +the need for it, map-making is useless. + +This working outwards from actual experiences, from the home country to +the foreign, from actual contact with real things to things of +travellers' tales, is the only way to bring geography to the very door +of the school, to make it part of the actual life. + +The beginning of history, as of geography, lies in the child's +foundations of experience. In the country village he sees the church, +possibly some old cottages, or an Elizabethan or Jacobean house near; in +the churchyard or in the church the tombstones have quaint inscriptions +with reference possibly to past wars or to early colonisation. The slum +child on the other hand sees much that is worn out, but little that is +antiquated, unless the slum happen to be in such places as Edinburgh or +Deptford, situated among the remains of really fine houses: but he +realises more of the technicalities and officialism of a social system +than does the country child; the suburban child has probably the +scantiest store of all; his district is presumably made up of rows of +respectable but monotonous houses, and the social life is similarly +respectable and monotonous. + +There are certain cravings, interests and needs, common to all children, +which come regardless of surroundings. All children want to know certain +things about people who lived before them, not so much their great +doings as their smaller ones; they want to know what these people were +like, what they worked at, and learnt, how they travelled, what they +bought and sold: and there is undoubtedly a primitive strain in all +children that comes out in their love of building shelters, playing at +savages, and making things out of natural material. One of the most +intense moments in _Peter Pan_ to many children is the building of the +little house in the wood, and later on, of the other on the top of the +trees: that is the little house of their dreams. They are not interested +in constitutions or the making of laws; wars and invasions have much the +same kind of interest for them as the adventures of Una and the Red +Cross Knight. + +How are these cravings usually satisfied in the early stages of history +teaching of to-day? As a rule a series of biographies of notable people +is given, regardless of chronology, or the children's previous +experiences, and equally careless of the history lessons of the future; +Joan of Arc, Alfred and the Cakes, Gordon of Khartoum, Boadicea, +Christopher Columbus, Julius Caesar, form a list which is not at all +uncommon; there is no leading thread, no developing idea, and the old +test, "the children like it," excuses indolent thinking. On the other +hand, the desire to know more of the Robinson Crusoe mode of life has +been apparent to many teachers for some time, but the material at their +disposal has been scanty and uncertain. It is to Prof. Dewey that we owe +the right organisation of this part of history. He has shown that it is +on the side of industry, the early modes of weaving, cooking, lighting +and heating, making implements for war and for hunting, and making of +shelters, that prehistoric man has a real contribution to give: but for +the beginnings of social life, for realisation of such imperishable +virtues as courage, patriotism and self-sacrifice, children must go to +the lives of real people and gradually acquire the idea that certain +things are, so to speak, from "everlasting to everlasting," while others +change with changing and growing circumstances. + +The prehistoric history should be largely concerned with doing and +experimenting, with making weapons, or firing clay, or weaving rushes, +or with visits to such museums as Horniman's at Forest Hill. The early +social history may well take the form best suited to the child, and not +appeal merely to surface interest. And the spirit in which the lives of +other people are presented to children must not be the narrow, +prejudiced, insular one, so long associated with the people of Great +Britain, which calls other customs, dress, modes of: living, "funny" or +"absurd" or "extraordinary," but rather the scientific spirit that +interprets life according to its conditions and so builds up one of its +greatest laws, the law of environment. + +The geography syllabus, even more than the history one, depends for its +beginnings at least on the surroundings of the school--out of the mass +of possible materials a very rich and comprehensive syllabus can be +made, beginning with any one of the central points already suggested. +Above all there should be plenty of pictures, not as amplification, but +as material, by means of which a child may interpret more fully; a +picture should be of the nature of a problem or of a map--and picture +reading should be in the junior school what map reading is in the upper +school. + +In both history and geography the method is partly that of discovery; +especially is this the case in that part of history which deals with +primitive industries, and in almost the whole of the geography of this +period. The teacher is the guide or leader in discovery, not the +story-teller merely, though this may be part of his function. + +The following is a small part of a syllabus to show how geography and +history material may grow naturally out of the children's experiences. +It is meant in this case for children in a London suburb, with no +particular characteristics:-- + + +GEOGRAPHY + +It grows out of the shops of the neighbourhood and the adjoining railway +system. + + _Home-produced Goods_-- + + A. The green-grocer's shop. + Tracing of fruit to its own home source, or to a foreign country. + Home-grown fruit. The fruit farm, garden, orchard, and wood. + The packing and sending of fruit.--Railway lines. + Covent Garden; the docks; fruit stalls; jam factories. + + B. A grocer's or corn-chandler's shop. + Flour and oatmeal traced to their sources. + The farm. A wheat and grain farm at different seasons. A dairy farm + and a sheep farm. + A mill and its processes. + Woollen factories. + A dairy. Making of butter and cheese + Distribution of these goods. + + C. A china shop, leading to the pottery district and making of pottery. + + _Foreign Goods_-- + + Furs--Red Indians and Canada. + Dates--The Arabs and the Sahara. + Cotton--The Negroes and equatorial regions. + Cocoa--The West Indies. + The transit of these, their arrival and distribution. + +[The need for a map will come early in the first part of the course, and +the need for a globe in the second.] + + +HISTORY + +This grows naturally out of the geography syllabus and might be taken +side by side or afterwards. + + The development of industries. + The growth of spinning and weaving from the simplest processes, bringing + in the distaff, spinning-wheel, and loom. + The making of garments from the joining together of furs. + The growth of pottery and the development of cooking. + The growth of roads and means of transit. + +[This will involve a good deal of experimental and constructive handwork.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +EXPERIENCES RECORDED AND PASSED ON + + +Reading and writing are held to have lifted man above the brute; they +are the means by which we can discover and record human experience and +progress, and as such their value is incalculable. But in themselves +they are artificial conventions, symbols invented for the convenience of +mankind, and to acquire them we need exercise no great mental power. A +good eye and ear memory, and a certain superficial quickness to +recognise and apply previous knowledge, is all that is needed for +reading and spelling; while for writing, the development of a +specialised muscular skill is all that is necessary. In themselves they +do not as a rule hold any great interest for a child: sometimes they +have the same puzzle interest as a long addition sum, and to children of +a certain type, mechanical work such as writing gives relief; one of the +most docile and uninteresting of little boys said that writing was his +favourite subject, and it was easy to understand: he did not want to be +stirred out of his commonplaceness; unconsciously he had assimilated the +atmosphere and adopted the standards of his surroundings, which were +monotonous and commonplace in the extreme, and so he desired no more +adventurous method of expression than the process of writing, which he +could do well. Imitation is often a strong incentive to reading, it is +part of the craving for grown-upness to many children; they desire to +do what their brothers and sisters can do. But _during the first stage +of childhood, roughly up to the age of six or even later, no child needs +to learn to read or write, taking "need" in the psychological sense:_ +that period is concerned with laying the foundation of real things and +with learning surroundings;--any records of experience that come to a +child can come as they did to his earliest forefathers--by word of +mouth. When he wants to read stories for himself, or write his own +letters, then he is impelled by a sufficiently strong aim or incentive +to make concentration possible, without resorting to any of the +fantastic devices and apparatus so dear to so many teachers. Indeed it +is safe to say of many of these devices that they prove the fact that +children are not ready for reading. + +When a child is ready to read and write the process need not be a long +one: by wise delay many tedious hours are saved, tedious to both teacher +and children; they have already learnt to talk in those precious hours, +to discriminate sounds as part of language training, but without any +resort to symbols--merely as something natural. It has been amply proved +that if a child is not prematurely forced into reading he can do as much +in one year as he would have done in three, under more strained +conditions. + +With regard to methods a great deal has been written on the subject; it +is pretty safe to leave a teacher to choose her own--for much of the +elaboration is unnecessary if reading is rightly delayed, and if a child +can read reasonably well at seven and a half there can be no grounds for +complaint. If his phonetic training has been good in the earlier stages +of language, then this may be combined with the "look and say" method, +or method of reading by whole words. The "cat on the mat" type of book +is disappearing, and its place is being taken by books where the subject +matter is interesting and suitable to the child's age; but as in other +subjects the book chosen should be considered in reference to the +child's surroundings, either to amplify or to extend. + +Writing is, in the first instance, a part of reading: when words are +being learnt they must be written, or in the earliest stages printed, +but only those interesting to the children and written for some definite +purpose should be selected: a great aid to spelling is transcription, +and children are always willing to copy something they like, such as a +verse of poetry, or their name and address. As in arithmetic and in +handwork, they will come to recognise the need for practice, and be +willing to undergo such exercise for the sake of improvement, as well as +for the pleasure in the activity--which actual writing gives to some +children. + +We must be quite clear about relative values. Reading and writing are +necessities, and the means of opening up to us things of great value; +but the art of acquiring them is of little intrinsic value, and the +recognition of the need is not an early one; nothing is gained by +beginning too early, and much valuable time is taken from other +activities, notably language. The incentive should be the need that the +child feels, and when this is evident time and pains should be given to +the subject so that it maybe quickly acquired. But the art of reading is +no test of intelligence, and the art of writing is no test of original +skill. _The claims of the upper departments must be resisted._ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER + + +The _first_ thing that matters is what is commonly called the +personality of the teacher; she must be a person, unmistakable from +other persons, and not a type; what she has as an individual, of gifts +or goodness, she should give freely, and give in her own way; that she +should be trained is, of course, as indisputable as the training of a +doctor, but her training should have deepened her personality. +Pestalozzi's curriculum and organisation left much to be desired; what +he has handed down to us came from himself and his own experience, not +from anything superimposed: records of his pupils constantly emphasise +this: it was his goodness assimilated with his outlook on life and +readiness to learn by experience, that mattered, and it was this that +remained with his pupils. The teacher's own personality must dominate +her choice of principles else she is a dead method, a machine, and not a +living teacher. She must not keep her interests and gifts for +out-of-school use; if she has a sense of humour she must use it, if she +is fond of pretty clothes she must wear them in school, if she +appreciates music she must help her class to do the same, if she has +dramatic gifts she must act to them. Her standard of goodness must be +high, and she must be strong enough to adopt it practically, so that she +is unconscious of it: goodness and righteousness are as essential as +health to a teacher: for something intangible passes from the teacher +to her children, however young and unconscious they may be, and nothing +can awaken goodness but goodness. + +Part of her personality is her attitude towards religion. It is +difficult to think of a teacher of young children who is not religious, +_i.e._ whose conduct is not definitely permeated by her spiritual life: +young children are essentially religious, and the life of the spirit +must find a response in the same kind of intangible assumption of its +existence as goodness. No form of creed or dogma is meant, only the life +of the spirit common to all. But of course there may be people who +refuse to admit this as a necessity. + +The _next_ thing that matters is that all children must be regarded as +individuals: there has been much more talk of this lately, but practical +difficulties are often raised as a bar. If teachers and parents continue +to accept the conditions which make it difficult, such as large classes, +and a need to hasten, there will always be a bar: if individuality is +held as one of the greatest things in education, authorities cannot +continue to economise so as to make it impossible. It is the individual +part of each child that is his most precious possession, his immortal +side: Froebel calls it his "divine essence," and makes the cultivation +of it the aim of education; he is right, and any more general aim will +lead only to half-developed human beings. If we accept the principle +that only goodness is fundamental and evil a distortion of nature, we +need have no fear about cultivating individuals. Every doctor assures us +that all normal babies are naturally healthy; they are also naturally +good, but evil is easily aroused by arbitrary interference or by +mismanagement. + +The _third_ thing that matters belongs more especially to the +intellectual life; it might be described as the making of right +associations. More than any other side of training, the making of +associations means the making of the intelligent person. To see life in +patches is to see pieces of a great picture by the square inch, and +never to see the relationship of these to each other--never to see the +whole. + +The _fourth_ thing that matters is the making of good and serviceable +habits: much has been said on this, in connection with the nursery +class, and it is at that stage that the process is most important, but +it should never cease. If a child is to have time and opportunity to +develop his individuality he must not be hampered by having to be +conscious of things that belong to the subconscious region. To start a +child with a foundation of good habits is better than riches. + +The _fifth_ thing that matters is the realisation by teachers that +_opportunities_ matter more than results; opportunities to discover, to +learn, to comprehend all sides of life, to be an individual, to +appreciate beauty, to go at one's own rate; some are material in their +nature, such as the actual surroundings of the child in school; others +are rather in the atmosphere, such as refraining from interference, +encouragement, suggestion, spirituality. The teacher has the making of +opportunities largely in her own hands. + +The _sixth_ thing, that matters is the cultivation of the divine gift of +imagination; both morality and spirituality spring from this; meanness, +cowardice, lack of sympathy, sensuality, materialism, quickly grow where +there is no imagination. It refines and intensifies personality, it +opens a door to things beyond the senses. It makes possible appreciation +of the things of the spirit, and appreciation is a thousand times more +important than knowledge. + +The _last_ thing that matters is the need for freedom from bondage, of +the body and of the soul. Only from a free atmosphere can come the best +things--personality, imagination and opportunity; and all are great +needs, but the greatest of all is freedom. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +FROEBEL. The Education of Man. (Appleton.) +MACDOUGALL. Social Psychology. (Methuen.) +GROOS. The Play of Man. (Heinemann.) +DRUMMOND. An Introduction to Child Study. (Arnold.) +KIRKPATRICK. Fundamentals of Child Study. (Macmillan.) +DEWEY. The School and the Child. (Blackie.) +The Dewey School. (The Froebel Society.) +STANLEY HALL. Aspects of Education. +FINDLAY. School and Life. (G. Philip & Son.) +SULLY. Children's Ways. (Longmans.) +CALDWELL COOK. The Play Way. (Heinemann.) +E.R. MURRAY. Froebel as a Pioneer in Modern Psychology. (G. Philip & Son.) +Edited by H. BROWN SMITH. Education by Life. (G. Philip & Son.) +MARGARET DRUMMOND. The Dawn of Mind. (Arnold.) +BOYD. From Locke to Montessori. (Harrap.) +KILPATRICK. Montessori Examined. (Constable.) +WIGGIN. Children's Rights. (Gay & Hancock.) +BIRCHENOUGH. History of Elementary Education. (Univ. Tutorial Press.) +MACMILLAN. The Camp School. (Allen & Unwin.) +HARDY. The Diary of a Free Kindergarten. (Gay & Hancock.) +SCOTT. Social Education. (Ginn.) +TYLOR. Anthropology. (Macmillan.) +KINGSTON QUIGGIN. Primeval Man. (Macdonald & Evans.) +SOLOMON. An Infant School. (The Froebel Society.) +FELIX KLEIN. Mon Filleul au Jardin d'Enfants. I. Comment il s'élève. + II. Comment il s'instruit. (Armand Colin, Paris.) +E. NESBIT. Wings and the Child. (Hodder and Stoughton.) +WELLS. Floor Games. (Palmer.) +RUSKIN. The Two Paths. +DOPP. The Place of Industries in Industrial Education. (Univ. of Chicago + Press.) +PRITCHARD AND ASHFORD. An English Primary School. (Harrap.) +HALL. Days before History. (Harrap.) +HALL. The Threshold of History. (Harrap.) +SPALDING. Piers Plowman Histories. Junior. Bk. II. (G. Philip & Son.) +SHEDLOCK. The Art of Story-telling. +BRYANT. How to Tell Stories. (Harrap.) +KLEIN. De ce qu'il faut raconter aux petits. (Blond et Gay.) +The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze. (Constable.) +FINDLAY. Eurhythmics. (Dalcroze Society.) +WHITE. A Course in Music. (Camb. Univ. Press.) +STANLEY HALL. How to Teach Reading. (Heath.) +BENCHARA BRANFORD. A Study of Mathematical Education. +Fielden Demonstration School Record II. (Manchester Univ. Press.) +PUNNETT. The Groundwork of Arithmetic. (Longmans.) +ASHFORD. Sense Plays and Number Plays. (Longmans.) + + + + +INDEX + + +Abrahall, Miss H., +Adam and Eve question, +Adler, Dr. Felix, +Aim of education and of human life, +America, Kindergartens in, +Anderson, Professor A., +Animals and nature study, +Apparatus. _See_ Equipment +Arithmetic, + transition class, +Arnswald, Colonel von, +Art training, drawing, etc., + _See also_ Colour, Rhythm, etc., +Assistance, warning, + +"Baby Camp", +Barnard, Dr. H., +Barnes, Prof. Earl, +Beauty, + conduct, appreciation of beauty in, + _See also_ Colour, Rhythm, etc. +Beer, Miss H., notes of, +Beresford's _Housemates_, description of a suburb, +Bergson, +Bermondsey Settlement Free Kindergarten, +Biological view of education, +Birchenough, +Bird, Mr., and his family, +Birmingham Kindergartens, +Bishop, Miss Caroline, +Blankenberg Kindergarten, +Blow, Miss, +Bradford Joint Conference, +Brock, Mr. Clutton, quotations, etc., +Brooke, Stopford, +Brown, Frances, _Grannie's Wonderful Chair_, +Browning, +Brown's _Young Artists' Headers_, +Buckton, Miss, +Buildings. _See_ Equipment and Surroundings +Caldecott Nursery School, +Camp School, +Child study, +Class discipline, +Cleanliness and order, +Clough, A.H., +Clouston, Dr., +Colour, +Comenius, +Conduct-- + aim of education, + experiences of--_See also_ Moral Teaching +Connectedness, continuity. _See_ Unity +Constructive play, + varieties of _making_--_See also_ Handwork +Cook, Mr. Caldwell, _The Play Way_, etc., +Cooke, Mr. E., +Cooking, +Co-operation in play, +Correlation, + Infant School programme in Transition period, + present-day Infant Schools, +Country child, +Country life for the child, +Crane, Walter, +Creation. _See_ Constructive Play +Crèche. _See_ Nursery School +Curriculum-- + principle guiding selection, + transition class, + +Daleroze, M. Jacques, rhythmic training, +Dale, Miss, phonic reading books, +Decimal system, +Definition of education, +Desert island play, +Dewey, Prof., quotations, etc., +Dickens on "Infant Gardens," +Discipline, +Docility _v_. self-control, +Dopp Series, +Dramatic play, +Drawing, +Drill _v_. games, +Drummond, Dr., + +Ebers, +Edinburgh, Free Kindergartens, +Education Act of 1870, + of 1919, +_Education by Life,_ +_Education of Man,_ +Environment-- + school equipment, etc. _See_ Equipment + source of child's experience, +Equipment and surroundings, + miniature world, + Montessori didactic apparatus, + transition classes and Junior School, +Ewing, Mrs., stories of, +Experience, education by means of, + child's desires and needs, + grouping subjects of experience, + material and opportunities, + morality and indirect experiences, + passing on experience, + +Fairy tales, +Field, Eugene, verses of, +Findlay, Miss, +Fisher, Mr., +Fleming, Marjorie, +_Floor Games_, +Flowers and plants, 93, 201. _See also_ Garden, Nature Work +Folsung, +Formalism, +Freedom-- + apparent result at first, + definition, + Froebel on, + Montessori, Dr., work of, + vital principle, + warning against interference, +Freud, +Froebel and Froebelian principles-- + aim of education, + beauty, + biologist educator and Froebel, + definitions of Kindergarten, + excursions, + impression and expression, + Montessori and Froebelian systems, + society, +Furniture, _See also_ Equipment +Fyleman, Rose, _Chimney sand Fairies,_ + +Games, +Garden, + activities in a suburban garden, + best use of ground, + possibilities in difficult places, +Geography, + illustrative syllabus, +Glasgow, Phoenix Park Kindergarten, +Glenconner, Lady, +Grant, Miss, +Greenford Avenue School, Hanwell, +Groos, + +Habits, training in, + physical habits and fixed hours, +Hall, Stanley, references to, +Handwork, +Hansen, G., +Hardy, Miss L., +Heerwart, Miss, +Herb garden and sense training, +Herbartian "correlation", +Hewit, Mr. Graily, +High Schools for Girls, Kindergartens in, +History, + discipline in practical reasoning, + illustrative syllabus, + indirect sociology, + industrial, + practical details, + prehistoric, + stories, +Hodsman, Miss, +Hoffman, Mr., +Home surroundings, + reproduction in school, + source of child's experience, +Howden, Miss, +Humour, factor in morality, +_Hygiene of Mind_, + +Imagination and literature, +Imitative play, +Individual, child as, + _See also_ Freedom +Infant Schools, + early Infant Schools, + formalism, causes, etc., + Kindergarten system, perversion of, + present-day schools, + buildings, furniture, etc., + change in spirit since the 'eighties, effect of child study + movement, etc., + curriculum, lack of clear aim and continuity, + discipline, + formalism, promotion and uniformity, + health, care of, + teachers, training of, + transition period, +Instinct, +Interests of a child, +Interference, warning, +International Educational Exposition and Congress of 1854, +Investigation impulse, + +Junior School. _See_ Transition Classes and Junior School + +Keilhau, +Kindergarten Band, +Kindergartens, America, + first English, + Froebelian principles _See_ Froebel, + Germany, + _Kids' Guards_, + London School Board Infant Schools, proposed introduction, + perversion of system in Infant Schools, + Schrader, Henrietta, work of, +Klein, Abbé, +Krause, + +Language training, + games for, +Lawrence, Miss Esther, +_Levana_, +Literature _See also_ Stories and Poetry +Lodge, Sir O., + +Macdonald, George, stories of, +Macdonald, Dr. Greville, +M'Millan, Miss Margaret, +Macpherson, Mr. Stewart, +_Magic Cities_, +Marenholz, Madame von, +Mathematics, + transition class, +Maufe, Miss, +Medical view of education, Dr. Montessori, +Meum and tuum training, +Miall, Mrs., +Michaelis, Madame, +Michaelis Nursery School, Notting Dale, +Middendorf, +Mission Kindergarten, +Moltke, von, +Montessori, Dr. Maria-- + Froebelian views of, + medical view of education, + play activities, failure to understand, +Moral teaching-- + humour as factor in morality, + _See also_ Religion, Service for the Community, Stories +Morgan, Lloyd, +_Mother Songs_, +Music, + Kindergarten Band, + +Name of school for little children and its importance, +Nature work, experiences of the natural world, + activities in a suburban garden, + aim of, + animals, + excursions, + movement _c._ 1890, + nature calendar, + object lesson and nature lesson, + pictures, use of, + plants and flowers, + religion and nature work, +Necessities of the Nursery School, + _See also_ Equipment and Principles +Nesbit, Mrs., _Magic Cities_, +Net beds, +Number work. _See_ Mathematics +Nursery rhymes and nonsense verses, +Nursery School-- + name question, + requirements of, + +Obedience _v._ self-control, +Oberlin schools, +Object lessons, +Observation of children, +Odds and ends, use of, +Open-air question, +Owen, Robert, "Rational Infant School", + +Paper-folding, +Parents' evenings, +Payne, Miss Janet, +Peabody, Miss, +Periods of a young child's life, +Pestalozzi, +Pestalozzi-Froebel House, +Phillips, Miss K., +Phonic method of teaching reading, +Physical requirements, +Picture books, +Pictures, +Play-- + biologist educator's view, + constructive, + co-operation in, + courage in the teacher, + definitions, + distinction from work, + Froebel's theory of, + practice at Keilhau, + imitative, + material, + Froebel's "Gifts," etc., + self-expression in, + theories of, + transition class, +_Play Way, The_, +Playground, equipment, etc., + garden essential, + transition class, +Poetry, +Poor and well-to-do children, different requirements, +Possession, child's need of, + meum and tuum training, +Preparation theory of play, +Priestman, Miss, +Principles, vital principles, +Pugh, Edwin, +Punnett, Miss, + +Reading and writing, + age for, + matter and methods, phonic method, etc., +Recapitulation theory of play, +Recreation theory of play, +Reed, Miss, +Religion, + age for first teaching, _See also_ Stories +Reproducing, _See_ Imitative Play +Results, payment by, +Rhythm and rhythmic training, +Robinson Crusoe stage of history teaching, +Ronge, Madame, +Rossetti, Christina, verses for children, +Rousseau, +Rowland, Miss, +Royee, Prof., + +St. Cuthbert, story of, +Salt, Miss Marie, +_Sayings of the Children_, +Schepel, Miss, +Schiller, _Letters on Aesthetic Education_, +Schiller-Spencer theory of play, +_School and Life_, +_Schools of To-morrow_, +Schrader, Henrietta, +Séguin, +Self-consciousness, +Self-control and external control, +Sense-training, + herb garden, +Service for the community, training to-- + Froebel and Montessori system, + games, social side, + idea of unity, + religion, part of, +Sesame House for Home-Life Training, +Sharpley, Miss F., +Shinn, Miss, +Sleep, provision for, +Slum child's experience, +Somers Town Nursery School, +Speech and vocabulary, +Spiritual life and stories, +Spontaneity in play, +Staff question, training, etc., + _See also_ Teachers +Stevenson, + nursery songs, +Stokes, Miss, +Stories and story-telling, + fairy tales, + how to tell, + illustrations, + made by children, + moral teaching, + religious teaching, + repetition or "accumulation" stories, + selection, + "true" stories--history, legend, geography, +_Story of a Sand Pile_, +Suburban child's experience, +Supernatural, the child's acceptance of, +Surroundings. _See_ Equipment and Surroundings + +Table manners, +Teacher-- + function, + personality question, + religion, + training, +Thornton-le-Dale Kindergarten, +Time-table thraldom, + instance from a teacher's note-book, +Tools, +Touch, sense of, +Toys, + transition classes and Junior School, + Wells, Mr., on, +Traherne, +Transition classes and Junior School, + bridge between freedom and timetable, + curriculum, + discipline, + equipment, etc., + freedom and class teaching, + handwork, + help, methods of, + imitation, + nature work, + play spirit, + +_Ultimate Belief_, +Uniformity in Infant Schools, +Unity of aim and unity in experience, + cases illustrating problem, + previous experience of the child, basing curriculum on, + +War, effect on Nursery School movement, +Warne, illustrated stories for children, +Water, attraction of, +_Water-Babies_, +Wells, Mr., +_What is a Kindergarten?_, +"When can I make my little Ship?", +Wiggin, Miss K.D., +Wilderspin's Infant School, +Windows, +Wordsworth, +Wragge, Miss Adelaide, +Writing. _See_ Reading and Writing + + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child Under Eight +by E.R. 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Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith + +Release Date: November 11, 2003 [EBook #10042] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD UNDER EIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by Brendan Lane, Anne Folland and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +THE MODERN EDUCATOR'S LIBRARY +_General Editor_.--Prof. A.A. COCK. + + + + +THE CHILD UNDER EIGHT + + + + +By + +E.R. Murray + +Vice-Principal Maria Grey Training College +Author Of "Froebel As A Pioneer In Modern Psychology," Etc. + + +AND + + +Henrietta Brown Smith + +Lecturer In Education, University Of London, Goldsmiths' College +Editor Of "Education By Life" + + + "Is it not marvellous that an infant should be the heir of + the whole world, and see those mysteries which the books of + the learned never unfold? I knew by intuition those things + which since my apostasy I collected again by highest + reason." + + THOMAS TRAHERNE. + + +1920 + + + + +THE MODERN EDUCATOR'S LIBRARY + + +_The following volumes are now ready, and others are in preparation_:-- + +Education: Its Data and First Principles. By T.P. NUNN, M.A., +D.Sc., Professor of Education in the University of London. + +Moral and Religious Education. By SOPHIE BRYANT, D.Sc., Litt.D., +late Headmistress, North London Collegiate School for Girls. + +The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in School and University. +By H.G. ATKINS, Professor of German in King's College, London; and H.L. +HUTTON, Senior Modern Language Master at Merchant Taylors' School. + +The Child under Eight. By E.R. MURRAY, Vice-Principal, Maria Grey +Training College, Brondesbury; and HENRIETTA BROWN SMITH, L.L.A., +Lecturer in Education, Goldsmiths' College, University of London. + +The Organisation and Curricula of Schools. By W.G. SLEIGHT, M.A., +D.Lit, Lecturer at Greystoke Place Training College, London. + + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + + +The _Modern Educator's Library_ has been designed to give considered +expositions of the best theory and practice in English education of +to-day. It is planned to cover the principal problems of educational +theory in general, of curriculum and organisation, of some unexhausted +aspects of the history of education, and of special branches of applied +education. + +The Editor and his colleagues have had in view the needs of young +teachers and of those training to be teachers, but since the school and +the schoolmaster are not the sole factors in the educative process, it +is hoped that educators in general (and which of us is not in some sense +or other an educator?) as well as the professional schoolmaster may find +in the series some help in understanding precept and practice in +education of to-day and to-morrow. For we have borne in mind not only +what is but what ought to be. To exhibit the educator's work as a +vocation requiring the best possible preparation is the spirit in which +these volumes have been written. + +No artificial uniformity has been sought or imposed, and while the +Editor is responsible for the series in general, the responsibility for +the opinions expressed in each volume rests solely with its author. + +ALBERT A. COOK. + +UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, KING'S COLLEGE. + + + + +AUTHORS' PREFACE + + +We have made this book between us, but we have not collaborated. We know +that we agree in all essentials, though our experience has differed. We +both desire to see the best conditions for development provided for all +children, irrespective of class. We both look forward to the time when +the conditions of the Public Elementary School, from the Nursery School +up, will be such--in point of numbers, in freedom from pressure, in +situation of building, in space both within and without, and in beauty +of surroundings--that parents of any class will gladly let their +children attend it. + +We are teachers and we have dealt mainly with the mental or, as we +prefer to call it, the spiritual requirements of children. It is from +the medical profession that we must all accept facts about food values, +hours of sleep, etc., and the importance of cleanliness and fresh air +are now fully recognised. We do, however, feel that there is room for +fresh discussion of ultimate aims and of daily procedure. Mr. Clutton +Brock has said that the great weakness of English education is the want +of a definite aim to put before our children, the want of a philosophy +for ourselves. Without some understanding of life and its purpose or +meaning, the teacher is at the mercy of every fad and is apt to exalt +method above principle. This book is an attempt to gather together +certain recognised principles, and to show in the light of actual +experience how these may be applied to existing circumstances. + +The day is coming when all teachers will seek to understand the true +value of Play, of spontaneous activity in all directions. Its importance +is emphasised in nearly all the educational writings of the day, as well +in the Senior as in the Junior departments of the school, but we need a +full and deep understanding of the saying, "Man is Man only when he +plays." It is easy to say we believe it, but it needs strong faith, +courage, and wide intelligence to weave such belief into the warp of +daily life in school. + +E.R. MURRAY. +H. BROWN SMITH. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I + +THE CHILD IN THE NURSERY AND KINDERGARTEN + +BY E. R. MURRAY + + +CHAP. + +I. "WHAT'S IN A NAME?" +II. THE BIOLOGIST EDUCATOR +III. LEARNING BORN OF PLAY +IV. FROM 1816 TO 1919 +V. "THE WORLD'S MINE OYSTER" +VI. "ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE" +VII. JOY IN MAKING +VIII. STORIES +IX. IN GRASSY PLACES +X. A WAY TO GOD +XI. RHYTHM +XII. FROM FANCY TO FACT +XIII. NEW NEEDS AND NEW HELPS + + +PART II + +THE CHILD IN THE STATE SCHOOL + +BY H. BROWN SMITH + + +I. THINGS AS THEY ARE + + XIV. CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWTH + XV. THE INFANT SCHOOL OF TO-DAY + XVI. SOME VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +II. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF VITAL PRINCIPLES + + XVII. THE NEED FOR EXPERIENCE + XVIII. GAINING EXPERIENCE BY PLAY + XIX. THE UNITY OF EXPERIENCE + XX. GAINING EXPERIENCE THROUGH FREEDOM + + +III. CONSIDERATION OF THE ASPECTS OF EXPERIENCE + + XXI. EXPERIENCES OF HUMAN CONDUCT. + XXII. EXPERIENCES OF THE NATURAL WORLD + XXIII. EXPERIENCES OF MATHEMATICAL TRUTHS + XXIV. EXPERIENCES BY MEANS OF DOING. + XXV. EXPERIENCES OF THE LIFE OF MAN + XXVI. EXPERIENCES RECORDED AND PASSED ON + XXVII. THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +INDEX + + + + +PART I + +THE CHILD IN THE NURSERY AND KINDERGARTEN + + + + +CHAPTER I + +"WHAT'S IN A NAME?" + + +It is an appropriate time to produce a book on English schools for +little children, now that Nursery Schools have been specially selected +for notice and encouragement by an enlightened Minister for Education. +It was Madame Michaelis, who in 1890 originally and most appropriately +used the term Nursery School as the English equivalent of a title +suggested by Froebel[1] for his new institution, before he invented the +word Kindergarten, a title which, literally translated, ran "Institution +for the Care of Little Children." + +[Footnote 1: Froebel's _Letters_, trans. Michaelis and Moore, p. 30.] + +In England the word Nursery, which implies the idea of nurture, belongs +properly to children, though it has been borrowed by the gardener for +his young plants. In Germany it was the other way round; Froebel had to +invent the term _child garden_ to express his idea of the nurture, as +opposed to the repression, of the essential nature of the child. +Unfortunately the word Kindergarten while being naturalised in England +had two distinct meanings attached to it. Well-to-do people began to +send their children to a new institution, a child garden or play school. +The children of the people, however, already attended Infant Schools, +of which the chief feature was what Mr. Caldwell Cook calls +"sit-stillery," and here the word Kindergarten, really equivalent to +Nursery School, became identified with certain occupations, childlike in +origin it is true, but formalised out of all recognition. How a real +Kindergarten strikes a child is illustrated by the recent remark from a +little new boy who had been with us for perhaps three mornings. "Shall I +go up to the nursery now?" he asked. + +The first attempt at a Kindergarten was made in 1837, and by 1848 +Germany possessed sixteen. In that eventful year came the revolution in +Berlin, which created such high hopes, doomed, alas! to disappointment. +"Instead of the rosy dawn of freedom," writes Ebers,[2] himself an old +Keilhau boy, "in the State the exercise of a boundless arbitrary power, +in the Church dark intolerance." It must have been an easy matter to +bring charges of revolutionary doctrines against the man who said so +innocently, "But I,--I only wanted to train up free-thinking, +independent men." + +[Footnote 2: Author of _An Egyptian Princess_, etc.] + +It was from "stony Berlin," as Froebel calls it, that the edict went +forth in the name of the Minister of Education entirely prohibiting +Kindergartens in Prussia, and the prohibition soon spread. At the +present time it seems to us quite fitting that the bitter attack upon +Kindergartens should have been launched by Folsung, a schoolmaster, "who +began life as an artilleryman." Nor is it less interesting to read that +it was under the protection of Von Moltke himself that Oberlin schools +were opened to counteract the attractions of the "godless" Kindergarten. + +Little wonder that the same man who in 1813 had so gladly taken up arms +to resist the invasion of Napoleon, and who had rejoiced with such +enthusiasm in the prospect of a free and united Fatherland, should write +in 1851: + +"Wherefore I have made a firm resolve that if the conditions of German +life will not allow room for the development of honest efforts for the +good of humanity; if this indifference to all higher things +continues--then it is my purpose next spring to seek in the land of +union and independence a soil where my idea of education may strike deep +root." + +And to America he might have gone had he lived, but he died three months +later, his end hastened by grief at the edict which closed the +Kindergartens. The Prussian Minister announced, in this edict, that "it +is evident that Kindergartens form a part of the Froebelian socialistic +system, the aim of which is to teach the children atheism," and the +suggestion that he was anti-Christian cut the old man to the heart. +There had been some confusion between Froebel and one of his nephews, +who had democratic leanings, and no doubt anything at all democratic did +mean atheism to "stony Berlin" and its intolerant autocracy. + +For a time, at least in Bavaria, a curious compromise was allowed. If +the teacher were a member of the Orthodox Church, she might have her +Kindergarten, but if she belonged to one of the Free Churches, it was +permissible to open an Infant School, but she must not use the term +Kindergarten. + +Froebel was by no means of the opinion that, if only the teacher had the +right spirit, the name did not matter. Rather did he hold with +Confucius, whose answer to the question of a disciple, "How shall I +convert the world?" was, "Call things by their right names." He refused +to use the word school, because "little children, especially those under +six, do not need to be schooled and taught, what they need is +opportunity for development." He had great difficulty in selecting a +name. Those originally suggested were somewhat cumbrous, e.g. +_Institution for the Promotion of Spontaneous Activity in Children_; +another was _Self-Teaching Institution_, and there was also the one +which Madame Michaelis translated "_Nursery School for Little +Children_." + +But the name Kindergarten expressed just what he Wanted: "As in a +garden, under God's favour, and by the care of a skilled intelligent +gardener, growing plants are cultivated in accordance with Nature's +laws, so here in our child garden shall the noblest of all growing +things, men (that is, children), be cultivated in accordance with the +laws of their own being, of God and of Nature." + +To one of his students he writes: "You remember well enough how hard we +worked and how we had to fight that we might elevate the Darmstadt +creche, or rather Infant School, by improved methods and organisation +until it became a true Kindergarten.... Now what was the outcome of all +this, even during my own stay at Darmstadt? Why, the fetters which +always cripple a creche or an Infant School, and which seem to cling +round its very name--these fetters were allowed to remain unbroken. +Every one was pleased with so faithful a mistress as yourself,... yet +they withheld from you the main condition of unimpeded development, that +of the freedom necessary to every young healthy and vigorous plant.... +Is there really such importance underlying the mere name of a +system?--some one might ask. Yes, there is.... It is true that any one +watching your teaching would observe _a new spirit_ infused into it, +_expressing and fulfilling the child's own wants and desires._ You would +strike him as personally capable, but you would fail to strike him as +priestess of the idea which God has now called to life within man's +bosom, and of the struggle towards the realisation of that +idea--_education by development--the destined means of raising the whole +human race...._ No man can acquire fresh knowledge, even at a school, +beyond the measure which his own stage of development fits him to +receive.... Infant Schools are nothing but a contradiction of +child-nature. Little children especially those under school age, ought +not to be schooled and taught, what they need is opportunity for +development. This idea lies in the very name of a Kindergarten.... And +the name is absolutely necessary to describe the first education of +children." + +For an actual definition of what Froebel meant by his Nursery School for +Little Children or Kindergarten, it is only fair to go to the founder +himself. He has left us two definitions or descriptions, one announced +shortly before the first Kindergarten was opened, which runs: + +"An institution for the fostering of human life, through the cultivation +of the human instincts of activity, of investigation and of construction +in the child, as a member of the family, of the nation and of humanity; +an institution for the self-instruction, self-education and +self-cultivation of mankind, as well as for all-sided development of the +individual through play, through creative self-activity and spontaneous +self-instruction." + +A second definition is given in Froebel's reply to a proposal that he +should establish "my system of education--education by development"--in +London, Paris or the United States: + +"We also need establishments for training quite young children in their +first stage of educational development, where their training and +instruction shall be based upon their own free action or spontaneity +acting under proper rules, these rules not being arbitrarily decreed, +but such as must arise by logical necessity from the child's mental and +bodily nature, regarding him as a member of the great human family; such +rules as are, in fact, discovered by the actual observation of children +when associated together in companies. These establishments bear the +name of Kindergartens." + +Unfortunately there are but few pictures of Froebel's own Kindergarten, +but there seems to have been little formality in its earliest +development. An oft-told story is that of Madame von Marenholz in 1847 +going to watch the proceedings of "an old fool," as the villagers called +him, who played games with the village children. A less well-known +account is given by Col. von Arnswald, again a Keilhau boy, who visited +Blankenberg in 1839, when Froebel had just opened his first +Kindergarten. + +"Arriving at the place, I found my Middendorf[3] seated by the pump in +the market-place, surrounded by a crowd of little children. Going near +them I saw that he was engaged in mending the jacket of a boy. By his +side sat a little girl busy with thread and needle upon another piece of +clothing; one boy had his feet in a bucket of water washing them +carefully; other girls and boys were standing round attentively looking +upon the strange pictures of real life before them, and waiting for +something to turn up to interest them personally. Our meeting was of the +most cordial kind, but Middendorf did not interrupt the business in +which he was engaged. 'Come, children,' he cried, 'let us go into the +garden!' and with loud cries of joy the little folk with willing feet +followed the splendid-looking, tall man, running all round him. + +[Footnote 3: One of Froebel's most devoted helpers.] + +"The garden was not a garden, however, but a barn, with a small room and +an entrance hall. In the entrance Middendorf welcomed the children and +played a round game with them, ending with the flight of the little ones +into the room, where each of them sat down in his place on the bench and +took his box of building blocks. For half an hour they were all busy +with their blocks, and then came 'Come, children, let us play "spring +and spring."' And when the game was finished they went away full of joy +and life, every one giving his little hand for a grateful good-bye." + +Here in this earliest of Free Kindergartens are certain essentials. +Washing and mending, the alternation of constructive play with active +exercise, rhythmic game and song, and last but not least human +kindliness and courtesy. The shelter was but a barn, but there are +things more important than premises. + +Froebel died too soon to see his ideals realised, but he had sown the +seed in the heart of at least one woman with brain to grasp and will to +execute. As early as 1873 the Froebelians had established something more +than the equivalent of the Montessori Children's Houses under the name +of Free Kindergartens or People's Kindergartens. It will bring this out +more clearly if, without referring here to any modern experiments in +America, in England and Scotland, or in the Dominions, we quote the +description of an actual People's Kindergarten or Nursery School as it +was established nearly fifty years ago. + +The moving spirit of this institution was Henrietta Schroder, Froebel's +own grand-niece, trained by him, and of whom he said that she, more than +any other, had most truly understood his views. + +The whole institution was called the Pestalozzi-Froebel House. The +Prussian edict, which abolished the Kindergarten almost before it had +started, was now rescinded, and our own Princess Royal[4] gave warm +support to this new institution. The description here quoted was +actually written in 1887, when the institution had been in existence for +fourteen years: + +[Footnote 4: The Crown Princess of Prussia, afterwards the Empress +Frederick.] + +"The purpose of the National Kindergarten is to provide the necessary +and natural help which poor mothers require, who have to leave their +children to themselves. + +"The establishment contains:-- + +"(1) The Kindergarten proper, a National Kindergarten with four classes +for children from 2-1/2 to 6 years old. + +"(2) The Transition Class, only held in the morning for children about 6 +or 6-1/2 years old. + +"(3) The Preparatory School, for children from 6 to 7 or 7-1/2 years +old. + +"(4) The School of Handwork, for children from 6 to 10 or older. + +"Dinners are provided for those children whose parents work all day away +from home at a trifling charge of a halfpenny and a penny. Also, for a +trifle, poor children may receive assistance of various kinds in +illness, or may have milk or baths through the kindness of the kindred +'Association for the Promotion of Health in the Household.' + +"In the institution we are describing there is a complete and +well-furnished kitchen, a bathroom, a courtyard with sand for digging, +with pebbles and pine-cones, moss, shells and straw, etc., a garden, and +a series of rooms and halls suitably furnished and arranged for games, +occupations, handwork and instruction. + +"The occupations pursued in the Kindergarten are the following: free +play of a child by itself; free play of several children by themselves; +associated play under the guidance of a teacher; gymnastic exercises; +several sorts of handwork suited to little children; going for walks; +learning music, both instrumental (on the method of Madame Wiseneder[5]) +and vocal; learning and repetition of poetry; story-telling; looking at +really good pictures; aiding in domestic occupations; gardening; and the +usual systematic ordered occupations of Froebel. Madame Schrader is +steadfastly opposed to that conception of the Kindergarten which insists +upon mathematically shaped materials for the Froebelian occupations. Her +own words are: 'The children find in our institution every encouragement +to develop their capabilities and powers by use; not by their selfish +use to their own personal advantage, but by their use in the loving +service of others. The longing to help people and to accomplish little +pieces of work proportioned to their feeble powers is constant in +children; and lies alongside of their need for that free and +unrestrained play which is the business of their life." + +[Footnote 5: From certain old photographs, I suppose this to have been +what we now call a Kindergarten Band.] + +"The elder children are expected to employ themselves in cleaning, +taking care of, arranging, keeping in order, and using the many various +things belonging to the housekeeping department of the Kindergarten; for +example, they set out and clear away the materials required for the +games and handicrafts; they help in cleaning the rooms, furniture and +utensils; they keep all things in order and cleanliness; they paste +together torn wallpapers or pictures, they cover books, and they help in +the cooking and in preparations for it; in laying the tables, in washing +up the plates and dishes, etc. The children gain in this manner the +simple but most important foundations of their later duties as +housekeepers and householders, and at the same time learn to regard +these duties as things done in the service of others." + +It is worth while to notice the order in which the necessities of this +place are described. First comes a kitchen and next a bathroom, then an +out-of-doors playground with abundant material for gaining ideas through +action--sand, pebbles, pine-cones, moss, shells and straw. Then comes +the garden, and only after all these, the rooms and halls for indoors +games, handwork and instruction. It is worth while also to note the +prominence given to play, music, poetry and story-telling pictures, +domestic occupations and gardening, all preceding the "systematic and +ordered occupations" which to some have seemed so all-important. + +If we compare this with the current ideas about Nursery Schools, we do +not find that it falls much below the present ideal. There has been a +time when some of us feared that only the bodily needs of the little +child were to be considered, but the "Regulations for Nursery Schools" +have banished such fear. In these the child is regarded as a human +being, with spiritual as well as bodily requirements. + +To put it shortly, the physical requirements of a child are food, fresh +air and exercise, cleanliness and rest. It is not so easy to sum up the +requirements of a human soul. The first is sympathy, and though this may +spring from parental instinct, it should be nourished by true +understanding. Next perhaps comes the need for material, material for +investigation, for admiration, for imitation and for construction or +creation. Power of sense-discrimination is important enough, but in this +case if we take care of the pounds of admiration and investigation, the +pence of sense-discrimination will take care of themselves. + +Besides these the child has the essentially human need for social +intercourse, for speech, for games, for songs and stories, for pictures +and poetry. He must have opportunity both to imitate and to share in the +work and life around him; he must be an individual among other +individuals, a necessary part of a whole, allowed to give as well as to +receive service. In the National Kindergarten of 1873 no one of these +requirements is overlooked except the provision for sleep, and from old +photographs we know that this, too, was considered. + +Nursery Schools are needed for children of all classes. It is not only +the children of the poor who require sympathy and guidance from those +specially qualified by real grasp of the facts of child-development. +Well-to-do mothers, too, often leave their children to ignorant and +untrained servants, or to the equally untrained and hardly less ignorant +nursery governess. + +Mothers in small houses have much to do; making beds and washing dishes, +sweeping and dusting, baking and cooking, making and mending, not to +mention tending an infant or tending the sick, leave little leisure for +sympathy with the adventuring and investigating propensities natural +and desirable in a healthy child between three and five. There are +innumerable Kindergartens open only in the morning for the children of +those who can afford to pay, and these could well be multiplied and +assisted just as far as is necessary. In towns, at least, mothers with +but small incomes would gladly pay a moderate fee to have their little +ones, especially their sturdy little boys, guarded from danger and +trained to good habits, yet allowed freedom for happy activity. + +Kindergartens and Nursery Schools ought to be as much as possible +fresh-air schools. They should never be large or the home atmosphere +must disappear. They should always have grassy spaces and common +flowers, and they ought to be within easy reach of the children's homes. + +There must for the present be certain differences between the Free +Kindergarten or Nursery School for the poor and for those whose parents +are fairly well-to-do. In both cases we must supply what the children +need. If the mother must go out to work, the child requires a home for +the day, and the Nursery School must make arrangements for feeding the +children. All little children are the better for rest and if possible +for sleep during the day; but for those who live in overcrowded rooms, +where quiet and restful sleep in good air is impossible, the need for +daily sleep is very great. All Free Kindergartens arrange for this. + +Most important also is the training to cleanliness. This is not +invariably the lot even of those who come from apparently comfortable +homes to attend fee-paying Kindergartens, and among the poor, +differences in respect of cleanliness are very great. But soap and hot +water do cost money and washing takes time, and the modern habit of +brushing teeth has not yet been acquired by all classes of the +community. The Free Kindergartens provide for necessary washing, each +child is provided with its own tooth-brush; and tooth-brush drill is a +daily practice, somewhat amusing to witness. The best baby rooms in our +Infant Schools carry out the same practices, and these are likely to be +turned into Nursery Schools. + +It cannot yet be accepted as conclusively proved that a completely +open-air life is the best in our climate. We have not yet sufficient +statistics. No doubt children do improve enormously in open-air camps, +but so they do in ordinary Nursery Schools, where they are clean, happy +and well fed, and where they live a regular life with daily sleep. +Housing conditions complicate the problem, and all children must suffer +who sleep in crowded, noisy, unventilated rooms. + +Up to the present time Nursery Schools have been provided by voluntary +effort entirely, and far too little encouragement has been given to +those enlightened headmistresses of Infant Schools who have tried to +give to their lowest classes Nursery School conditions. Since the +passing of Mr. Fisher's Education Bill, however, we are entitled to hope +that soon, for all children in the land, there may be the opportunity of +a fair start under the care of "a person with breadth of outlook and +imagination," the equivalent of Froebel's "skilled intelligent +gardener." + +In the following chapter an attempt is made to explain how it is that so +many years ago Froebel reached his vision of what a child is, and of +what a child needs, and the considerations on which he based his +"Nursery School for Little Children" or "Self-Teaching Institution." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BIOLOGIST EDUCATOR + + + Progress, man's distinctive mark alone, + Not God's, and not the beasts': God is, they are, + Man partly is and wholly hopes to be. + +"A large bright room, ... a sandheap in one corner, a low tub or bath of +water in another, a rope ladder, a swing, steps to run up and down and +such like, a line of black or green board low down round the wall, +little rough carts and trolleys, boxes which can be turned into houses, +or shops, or pretence ships, etc., a cooking stove of a very simple +nature, dolls of all kinds, wooden animals, growing plants in boxes, an +aquarium." + +Any Froebelian would recognise this as the description of a more or less +ideal Kindergarten or Nursery School, and yet the writer had probably +never read a page that Froebel wrote. On the contrary, she shows her +entire ignorance of the real Kindergarten by calling it "pretty +employments devised by adults and imposed at set times by authority." + +The description is taken from a very able address on "Child Nature and +Education" delivered some years ago by Miss Hoskyns Abrahall. It is +quoted here, because, for her conception of right surroundings for young +children, the speaker has gone to the very source from which Froebel +took his ideas--she has gone to what Froebel indeed called "the only +true source, life itself," and she writes from the point of view of the +biologist. + +There exists at present, in certain quarters, a belief that the +Kindergarten is old-fashioned, out of date, more especially that it has +no scientific basis. It is partly on this account that the ideas of Dr. +Maria Montessori, who has approached the question of the education of +young children from the point of view of medical science, have been +warmly welcomed by so large a circle. But neither in England nor in +America does that circle include the Froebelians, and this for several +reasons. For one thing, much that the general public has accepted as +new--and in this general public must be included weighty names, men of +science, educational authorities, and others who have never troubled to +inquire into the meaning of the Kindergarten--are already matters of +everyday life to the Froebelian. Among these comes the idea of training +to service for the community, and the provision of suitable furniture, +little chairs and tables, which the children can move about, and low +cupboards for materials, all of which tend to independence and +self-control. + +It is a more serious stumbling-block to the Froebelian that Dr. +Montessori, while advocating freedom in words, has really set strict +limits to the natural activities of children by laying so much stress on +her "didactic apparatus," the intention of which is formal training in +sense-discrimination. This material, which is an adaptation and +enlargement of that provided by Seguin for his mentally deficient +children, is certainly open to the reproach of having been "devised by +adults." It is formal, and the child is not permitted to use it for his +own purposes. + +Before everything else, however, comes the fact that in no place has Dr. +Montessori shown that she has made any study of play, or that she +attaches special importance to the play activities, or natural +activities of childhood, on which the Kindergarten is founded. This is +probably accounted for in that her first observations were made on +deficient children who are notably wanting in initiative. + +Among these "play activities" we should include the child's perpetual +imitation or pretence, a matter which Dr. Montessori entirely fails to +understand, as shown in her more recent book, where she treats of +imagination. Here she maintains that only the children of the +comparatively poor ride upon their fathers' walking-sticks or construct +coaches of chairs, that this "is not a proof of imagination but of an +unsatisfied desire," and that rich children who own ponies and who drive +out in motor-cars "would be astonished to see the delight of children +who imagine themselves to be drawn along by stationary armchairs." +Imitative play has, of course, nothing to do with poverty or riches, but +is, as Froebel said long since, the outcome of an initiative impulse, +sadly wanting in deficient children, an impulse which prompts the child +of all lands, of all time and of all classes to imitate or dramatise, +and so to gain some understanding of everything and of every person he +sees around. + +The work of Dr. Montessori has helped enormously in the movement, begun +long since, for greater freedom in our Infant Schools; freedom, not from +judicious guidance and authority, but from rigid time-tables and formal +lessons, and from arbitrary restrictions, as well as freedom for the +individual as apart from the class. The best Kindergartens and Infant +Schools had already discarded time-tables, and Kindergarten classes have +always been small enough to give the individual a fair chance. Froebel +himself constantly urged that the child should become familiar with "both +the strongly opposed elements of his life, the individual determining +and directing side, and the general ordered and subordinated side." He +urged the early development of the social consciousness as well as +insisting on expansion of individuality, but it is always difficult to +combine the two, and most Kindergarten teachers will benefit by learning +from Dr. Montessori to apply the method of individual learning to a +greater extent. + +We are, however, fully prepared to maintain that Froebel; even in 1840, +had a wider and a deeper realisation of the needs of the child than has +as yet been attained by the Dottoressa.[6] In order to make this clear, +it is proposed to compare the theories of Froebel with the conclusions +of a biologist. For biology has a wider and a saner outlook than medical +science; it does not start from the abnormal, but with life under normal +conditions. + +[Footnote 6: Her latest publication regarding the instruction--for it is +not education--of older children makes this even more plain. For here is +no discussion of what children at this stage require, but a mere plunge +into "subjects" in which formal grammar takes a foremost place.] + +In the address, from which the opening words of this chapter are quoted, +it is suggested that a capable biologist be set to deal with education, +but he is to be freed "from all preconceived ideas derived from accepted +tradition." After such fundamentals as food and warmth, light, air and +sleep, the first problems considered by this Biologist Educator are +stages of growth, their appropriate activities, and the stimuli +necessary to evoke them. Always he bears in mind that "interference with +a growing creature is a hazardous business," and takes as his motto +"When in doubt, refrain." + +To discover the natural activities of the child, the biologist relies +upon, first, observation of the child himself, secondly, upon his +knowledge of the nervous system, and thirdly, upon his knowledge of the +past history of the race. From these he comes to a very pertinent +conclusion, viz. "The general outcome of this is that the safe way of +educating children is by means of Play," play being defined as "the +natural manifestation of the child's activities; systematic in that it +follows the lines of physiological development, but without the hard +and fast routine of the time-table."[7] + +[Footnote 7: It is in this connection that the Kindergarten is +stigmatised as "pretty employments devised by adults and imposed at set +times by authority," an opinion evidently gained from the way in which +the term has been misused in a type of Infant School now fast +disappearing.] + +It is easy to show that although Froebel was pre-Darwinian, he had been +in close touch with scientists who were working at theories of +development, and that he was largely influenced by Krause, who applied +the idea of organic development to all departments of social science. It +was because Froebel was himself, even in 1826, the Biologist Educator +desiring to break with preconceived ideas and traditions that he wished +one of his pupils had been able to "call your work by its proper name, +and so make evident the real nature of the new spirit you have +introduced."[8] + +[Footnote 8: See p. 4.] + +But Froebel was more than a biologist, he was a philosopher and an +idealist. Such words have sometimes been used as terms of reproach, but +wisdom can only be justified of her children. + +At the back of all Froebel has to say about "The Education of the Human +Being" lies his conception of what the human being is. And it is +impossible fully to understand why Froebel laid so much stress on +spontaneous play unless we go deeper than the province of the biologist +without in the least minimising the importance of biological knowledge +to educational theory. As the biologist defines play as "the natural +manifestation of the child's activities," so Froedel says "play at first +is just natural life." But to him the true inwardness of spontaneous +play lies in the fact that it is spontaneous--so far as anything in the +universe can be spontaneous. For spontaneous response to environment is +self-expression, and out of self-expression comes selfhood, +consciousness of self. If we are to understand Froebel at all, we must +begin with the answer he found, or accepted, from Krause and others for +his first question, What is that self? + +Before reaching the question of how to educate, it seemed to him +necessary to consider not only the purpose or aim of education, but the +purpose or aim of human existence, the purpose of all and any existence, +even whether there is any purpose in anything; and that brings us to +what he calls "the groundwork of all," of which a summary is given in +the following paragraphs. + +In the universe we can perceive plan, purpose or law, and behind this +there must be some great Mind, "a living, all-pervading, energising, +self-conscious and hence eternal Unity" whom we call God. Nature and all +existing things are a revelation of God. + +As Bergson speaks of the _elan vital_ which expresses itself from +infinity to infinity, so Froebel says that behind everything there is +force, and that we cannot conceive of force without matter on which it +can exercise itself. Neither can we think of matter without any force to +work upon it, so that "force and matter mutually condition one another," +we cannot think one without the other. + +This force expresses itself in all ways, the whole universe is the +expression of the Divine, but "man is the highest and most perfect +earthly being in whom the primordial force is spiritualised so that man +feels, understands and knows his own power." Conscious development of +one's own power is the triumph of spirit over matter, therefore human +development is spiritual development. So while man is the most perfect +earthly being, yet, with regard to spiritual development he has returned +to a first stage and "must raise himself through ascending degrees of +consciousness" to heights as yet unknown, "for who has measured the +limits of God-born mankind?" + +Self-consciousness is the special characteristic of man. No other animal +has the power to become conscious of himself because man alone has the +chance of failure. The lower animals have definite instincts and cannot +fail, _i.e._ cannot learn.[9] Man wants to do much, but his instincts +are less definite and most actions have to be learned; it is by striving +and failing that he learns to know not only his limitations but the +power that is within him--his self. + +[Footnote 9: This would nowadays be considered too sweeping an +assertion.] + +According to Froebel, "the aim of education is the steady progressive +development of mankind, there is and can be no other"; and, except as +regards physiological knowledge inaccessible in his day, he is at one +with the biologist as to how we are to find out the course of this +development. First, by looking into our own past; secondly, by the +observation of children as individuals as well as when associated +together, and by comparison of the results of observation; thirdly, by +comparison of these with race history and race development. + +Froebel makes much of observation of children. He writes to a cousin +begging her to "record in writing the most important facts about each +separate child," and adds that it seems to him "most necessary for the +comprehension of child-nature that such observations should be made +public,... of the greatest importance that we should interchange the +observations we make so that little by little we may come to know the +grounds and conditions of what we observe, that we may formulate their +laws." He protests that even in his day "the observation, development +and guidance of children in the first years of life up to the proper age +of school" is not up to the existing level of "the stage of human +knowledge or the advance of science and art"; and he states that it is +"an essential part" of his undertaking "to call into life _an +institution for the preparation of teachers trained for the care of +children through observation of their life_." + +In speaking of the stages of development of the individual, Froebel +says that "there is no order of importance in the stages of human +development except the order of succession, in which the earlier is +always the more important," and from that point of view we ought "to +consider childhood as the most important stage, ... a stage in the +development of the Godlike in the earthly and human." He also emphasises +that "the vigorous and complete development and cultivation of each +successive stage depends on the vigorous, complete and characteristic +development of each and all preceding stages." + +So the duty of the parent is to "look as deeply as possible into the +life of the child to see what he requires for his present stage of +development," and then to "scrutinise the environment to see what it +offers ... to utilise all possibilities of meeting normal needs," to +remove what is hurtful, or at least to "admit its defects" if they +cannot give the child what his nature requires. "If parents offer what +the child does not need," he says, "they will destroy the child's faith +in their sympathetic understanding." The educator is to "bring the child +into relations and surroundings in all respects adapted to him" but +affording a minimum of opportunity of injury, "guarding and protecting" +but not interfering, unless he is certain that healthy development has +already been interrupted. It is somewhat remarkable that Froebel +anticipated even the conclusions of modern psycho-analysis in his views +about childish faults. "The sources of these," he says, are "neglect to +develop certain sides of human life and, secondly, early distortion of +originally good human powers by arbitrary interference with the orderly +course of human development ... a suppressed or perverted good +quality--a good tendency, only repressed, misunderstood or +misguided--lies at the bottom of every shortcoming." Hence the only +remedy even for wickedness is to find and foster, build up and guide +what has been repressed. It may be necessary to interfere and even to +use severity, but only when the educator is sure of unhealthy growth. +The motto of the biologist on the subject of interference--"When in +doubt, refrain"--exactly expresses Froebel's doctrine of "passive or +following" education, following, that is, the nature of the child, and +"passive" as opposed to arbitrary interference. + +Free from this, the child will follow his natural impulses, which are to +be trusted as much as those of any other young animal; in other words, +he will play, he will manifest his natural activities. "The young human +being--still, as it were, in process of creation--would seek, though +unconsciously yet decidedly and surely, as a product of nature that +which is in itself best, and in a form adapted to his condition, his +disposition, his powers and his means. Thus the duckling hastens to the +pond and into the water, while the chicken scratches the ground and the +young swallow catches its food upon the wing. We grant space and time to +young plants and animals because we know that, in accordance with the +laws that live in them, they will develop properly and grow well; +arbitrary interference with their growth is avoided because it would +hinder their development; but the young human being is looked upon as a +piece of wax, a lump of clay, which man can mould into what he pleases. +O man, who roamest through garden and field, through meadow and grove, +why dost thou close thy mind to the silent teaching of nature? Behold +the weed; grown among hindrances and constraint, how it scarcely yields +an indication of inner law; behold it in nature, in field or garden, how +perfectly it conforms to law--a beautiful sun, a radiant star, it has +burst from the earth! Thus, O parents, could your children, on whom you +force in tender years forms and aims against their nature, and who, +therefore, walk with you in morbid and unnatural deformity--thus could +your children, too, unfold in beauty and develop in harmony." + +At first play is activity for the sake of activity, not for the sake of +results, "of which the child has as yet no idea." Very soon, however, +having man's special capacity of learning through experience, the child +does gather ideas. By this time he has passed through the stage of +infancy, and now his play becomes to the philosopher the highest stage +of human development at this stage, because now it is self-expression. + +When Froebel wrote in 1826, there had been but little thought expended +on the subject of play, and probably none on human instincts, which were +supposed to be nonexistent. The hope he expressed that some philosopher +would take up these subjects has now been fulfilled, and we ought now to +turn to what has been said on a subject all-important to those who +desire to help in the education of young children. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +LEARNING BORN OF PLAY + + + Play, which is the business of their lives. + +There may be nothing new under the sun, but it does seem to be a fair +claim to make for Froebel that no one before or since his time has more +fully realised the value to humanity of what in childhood goes by the +name of play. Froebel had distinct theories about play, and he put his +theories into actual practice, not only when he founded the +Kindergarten, but in his original school for older children at Keilhau. + +Before going into its full meaning, it may be well first to meet the +most common misconception about play. It is not surprising that those +who have given the subject no special consideration should regard play +from the ordinary adult standpoint, and think of it as entirely opposed +to work, as relaxation of effort. But the play of a child covers so much +that it is startling to find a real psychologist writing that "education +through play" is "a pernicious proposition."[10] Statements of this kind +spring from the mistaken idea, certainly not derived from observation, +that play involves no effort, that it runs in the line of least +resistance, and that education through play means therefore education +without effort, without training in self-control, education without +moral training. The case for the Kindergarten is the opposite of this. +Education through play is advocated just because of the effort it calls +forth, just because of the way in which the child, and later the boy or +girl, throws his whole energy into it. What Froebel admired, what he +called "the most beautiful expression of childlife," was "the child that +plays thoroughly, with spontaneous determination, perseveringly, until +physical fatigue forbids--a child wholly absorbed in his play--a child +that has fallen asleep while so absorbed." That child, he said, would be +"a thorough determined man, capable of self-sacrifice for the promotion +of the welfare of himself and others." It is because "play is not +trivial, but highly serious and of deep significance," that he appeals +to mothers to cultivate and foster it, and to fathers to protect and +guard it. + +[Footnote 10: _The Educative Process_, p. 255 (Bagley).] + +The Kindergarten position can be summed up in a sentence from Dr. +Clouston's _Hygiene of Mind_: "Play is the real work of children." +Froebel calls activity of sense and limb "the first germ," and +"play-building and modelling the tender blossoms of the constructive +impulse"; and this, he says, is "the moment when man is to be prepared +for future industry, diligence and productive activity." He points out, +too, the importance of noticing the habits which come from spontaneous +self-employment, which may be habits of indolent ease if the child is +not allowed to be as active as his nature requires. + +There were no theories of play in Froebel's day, but he had certainly +read _Levana_, and in all probability he knew what Schiller had said in +his _Letters on Aesthetic Education_. The play theories are now too well +known to require more than a brief recapitulation. + +It will generally be allowed that the distinctive feature of play as +opposed to work is that of spontaneity. The action itself is of no +consequence, one man's play is another man's work. Nor does it seem to +matter whence comes the feeling of compulsion in work, whether from +pressure of outer necessity, or from an inner necessity like the +compelling force of duty. Where there is joy in creation or in discovery +the work and play of the genius approach the standpoint of the child, + + Indulging every instinct of the soul, + There, where law, life, joy, impulse are one thing. + +In the play of early childhood there may be freedom, not only from adult +authority, but even from the restrictions of nature or of circumstances +since "let's pretend" annihilates time and space and all material +considerations. + +Among theories of play first comes what is known as the Schiller-Spencer +theory, in which play is attributed to the accumulation of surplus +energy. When the human being has more energy than he requires in order +to supply the bodily needs of himself and his family, then he feels +impelled to use it. As the activities of his daily life are the only +ones known to him, he fights his battles over again, he simulates the +serious business of life, and transfers, for instance, the incidents of +the chase into a dance. In this Way he reaches artistic creation, so +that "play is the first poetry of the human being." + +As an opposite of this we get a Re-creation theory, where play, if not +too strenuous, understood as a change of occupation, rests and +re-creates. + +Another theory is that of recapitulation, which has been emphasised by +Stanley Hall, according to which children play hunting and chasing +games, or find a fascination in making tents, because they are passing +through that stage of development in which their primitive ancestors +lived by hunting or dwelt in tents. + +Lastly, a most interesting theory is that which is associated with the +name of Groos, and which is best expressed in the sentence: "Animals do +not play because they are young, but they have their youth because they +must play," play being regarded as the preparation for future life +activities. The kitten therefore practises chasing a cork, the puppy +worries boots and gloves, the kid practises jumping, and so on. + +A full account of play will probably embrace all these theories, and +though they were not formulated in his day, Froebel overlooked none, +though he may have laid special stress on the preparation side. Yet +another value of play emphasised by Professor Royce, viz. its enormous +importance from the point of view of mental initiative, is strongly +urged by Froebel. Professor Royce argues that "in the mere persistence +of the playful child one has a factor whose value for mental initiative +it is hard to overestimate." Without this "passionately persistent +repetition," and without also the constant varying of apparently useless +activities, the organism, says Professor Royce, "would remain the prey +of the environment." + +To Froebel, as we have seen, the human being is the climax of animal +evolution and the starting-point of psychical development. The lower +animal, he maintained, as all will now agree, is hindered by his +definite instincts, but the instincts or instinctive tendencies of the +human being are so undefined that there is room for spontaneity, for new +forms of conduct. + +Professor Royce says that "a general view of the place which beings with +minds occupy in the physical world strongly suggests that their +organisms may especially have significance as places for the initiation +of more or less novel types of activity." And to Froebel the chief +significance of play lies in this spontaneity. + +"Play is the highest phase of human development at this stage, because +it is spontaneous expression of what is within produced by an inner +necessity and impulse. Play is the most characteristic, most spiritual +manifestation of man at this stage, and, at the same time, is typical +of human life as a whole." + +These various theories seem to reinforce rather than to contradict each +other, and it is more important to avoid running any to an extreme than +to differentiate between them. In the case of recapitulation, we must +certainly bear in mind Froebel's warning that the child "should be +treated as having in himself the present, past and future." So, as Dr. +Drummond says: "If we feel constrained to present him with a tent +because Abraham lived in one, he no doubt enters into the spirit of the +thing and accepts it joyfully. But he also annexes the ball of string +and the coffee canister to fit up telephonic communication with the +nursery." He may play robbers and hide and seek because he has reached a +"hunting and capture" stage, but the physiologist points out that +violent exercise is a necessity for his circulation and nutrition, and +to practise swift flight to safety is useful even in modern times.[11] +Gardening may take us back to an agricultural stage, but digging is most +useful as a muscular exercise, and "watering" is scientific experiment +and adds to the feeling of power, while the flowers themselves appeal to +the aesthetic side of the sense-play, which is not limited to any age, +though conspicuous so soon. + +[Footnote 11: An up-to-date riddle asks the difference between the quick +and the dead, and answers, "The quick are those who get out of the way +of a motor-bus and the dead are those who do not."] + +Froebel recognised many kinds of play. He realised that much of the play +of boyhood is exercise of physical power, and that it must be of a +competitive nature because the boy wants to measure his power. Even in +1826 he urges the importance not only of town playgrounds but of play +leaders, that the play may be full of life. Among games for boys he +noted some still involving sense-play, as hiding games, colour games and +shooting at a mark, which need quick hearing and sight, intellectual +plays exercising thought and judgement, _e.g._ draughts and dramatic +games. One form of play which seemed to him most important was +constructive play, where there is expression of ideas as well as +expression of power. This side of play covers a great deal, and will be +dealt with later; its importance in Froebel's eyes lies in the fact that +through construction, however simple, the child gains knowledge of his +own power and learns "to master himself." Froebel wanted particularly to +deepen this feeling of power, and says that the little one who has +already made some experiments takes pleasure in the use of sand and +clay, "impelled by the previously acquired sense of power he seeks to +master the material." + +In order to gain real knowledge of himself, of his power, a child needs +to compare his power with that of others. This is one reason for the +child's ready imitation of all he sees done by others. Another reason +for this is that only through real experience or action can a child gain +the ideas which he will express later, therefore he must reproduce all +he sees or hears. + +"In the family the child sees parents and others at work, producing, +doing something; consequently he, at this stage, would like to represent +what he sees. Be cautious, parents. You can at one blow destroy, at +least for a long time, the impulse to activity and to formation if you +repel their help as childish, useless or even as a hindrance.... +Strengthen and develop this instinct; give to your child the highest he +now needs, let him add his power to your work, that he may gain the +consciousness of his power and also learn to appreciate its +limitations." + +As the child's sense of power and his self-consciousness deepen he +requires possessions of his "very own." Says Froebel: "The feeling of +his own power implies and demands also the possession of his own space +and his own material belonging exclusively to him. Be his realm, his +province, a corner of the house or courtyard, be it the space of a box +or of a closet, be it a grotto, a hut or a garden, the boy at this age +needs an external point, chosen and prepared by himself, to which he +refers all his activity." + +As ideas widen the child's purposes enlarge, and he finds the need for +that co-operation which binds human beings together. And so by play +enjoyed in common, the feeling of community which is present in the +little child is raised to recognition of the rights of others; not only +is a sense of justice developed, but also forbearance, consideration and +sympathy. + +"When the room to be filled is extensive, when the realm to be +controlled is large, when the whole to be produced is complex, then +brotherly union of similar-minded persons is in place." And we are +invited to enter an "education room," where boys of seven to ten are +using building blocks, sand, sawdust and green moss brought in from the +forest. "Each one has finished his work and he examines it and that of +others, and in each rises the desire to unite all in one whole," so +roads are made from the village of one boy to the castle of another: the +boy who has made a cardboard house unites with another who has made +miniature ships from nut-shells, the house as a castle crowns the hill, +and the ships float in the lake below, while the youngest brings his +shepherd and sheep to graze between the mountain and the lake, and all +stand and behold with pleasure and satisfaction the result of their +hands. + +The educative value of such play has been brought forward in modern +times in _Floor Games_ by Mr. Wells, _Magic Cities_ by Mrs. Nesbit, and +notably in Mr. Caldwell Cook's Play City in _The Play Way_. + +Joining together for a common purpose does not only belong to younger +boys. "What busy tumult among those older boys at the brook! They have +built canals, sluices, bridges, etc.... at each step one trespasses on +the limits of another realm. Each one claims his right as lord and +maker, while he recognises the claims of others, and like States, they +bind themselves by strict treaties." + +"Every town should have its own common playground for the boys. Glorious +results would come from this for the entire community. For, at this +period, games, whenever possible, are in common, and develop the feeling +and desire for community, and the laws and requirements of community. +The boy tries to see himself in his companions, to weigh and measure +himself by them, to know and find himself by their help." + +"It is the sense of sure and reliable power, the sense of its increase, +both as an individual and as a member of the group, that fills the boy +with joy during these games.... Justice, self-control, loyalty, +impartiality, who could fail to catch their fragrance and that of still +more delicate blossoms, forbearance, consideration, sympathy and +encouragement for the weaker.... Thus the games educate the boy for +life and awaken and cultivate many social and moral virtues." + +In England we have always had respect for boys' games and more and more, +especially in America, people are realising the need for play places and +play leaders. But all this was written in 1826, when for ten years +Froebel had been experimenting with boys of all ages. At Keilhau play of +all kinds had an honoured place. We read of excursions for all kinds of +purposes, of Indian games out of Fenimore Cooper, and of "Homeric +battles." It was "part of Froebel's plan to have us work with spade and +pick-axe," and every boy had his own piece of ground where he might do +what he pleased. Ebers, being literary, constructed in his plot a bed of +heather on which he lay and read or made verses. The boys built their +own stage, painted their own scenery, and in winter once a week they +acted classic dramas. Besides this, there was a large and complete +puppet theatre belonging to the school. Bookbinding and carpentry were +taught, and at Christmas "the embryo cabinet-maker made boxes with locks +and hinges, finished, veneered and polished." + +In England in 1917 we have given to us _The Play Way_, in which one who +has tried it gives the results of his own experiments in education +through play. Mr. Caldwell Cook was not satisfied with the condition of +affairs when "school above the Kindergarten is a nuisance because there +is no play." His dream is that of a Play School Commonwealth, where +education, which is the training of youth, shall be filled with the +spirit of youth, namely, "freshness, zeal, happiness, enthusiasm." + +The next chapter will show that it has taken us exactly a hundred years +to reach as far as public recognition of the Nursery School where play +is the only possible motive. It is for the coming generation of teachers +to act so that the dream of the Play School Commonwealth shall be +realised more quickly. It is a significant fact that the lines quoted as +heading for the next chapter are written by a modern schoolmaster. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FROM 1816 TO 1919 + + + Poor mites; you stiffen on a bench + And stoop your curls to dusty laws; + Your petal fingers curve and clench + In slavery to parchment saws; + You suit your hearts to sallow faces + In sullen places: + But no pen + Nor pedantry can make you men. + Yours are the morning and the day: + You should be taught of wind and light; + Your learning should be born of play. + + (_Caged:_ GEORGE WINTHROP YOUNG.) + +Had England but honoured her own prophets, we should have had Nursery +Schools a hundred years ago. In 1816, the year in which Froebel founded +his school for older boys at Keilhau, Robert Owen, the Socialist, +"following the plan prescribed by Nature," opened a school where +children, from two to six, were to dance and sing, to be out-of-doors as +much as possible, to learn "when their curiosity induced them to ask +questions," and not to be "annoyed with books." They were to be +prevented from acquiring bad habits, to be taught what they could +understand, and their dispositions were to be trained "to mutual +kindness and a sincere desire to contribute all in their power to +benefit each other." They "were trained and educated without punishment +or the fear of it.... A child who acted improperly was not considered an +object of blame but of pity, and no unnecessary restraint was imposed on +the children." + +But the world was not ready. Owen's "Rational Infant School" attracted +much notice, and an Infant School Society was founded. But even the +enlightened were incapable of understanding that any education was +possible without books, and the promoters rightly, though quite +unconsciously, condemned themselves when they kept the title Infant +School but dropped the qualifying "Rational." Still, Infant Schools had +been started and interest had been aroused. When the edict abolishing +Kindergartens was promulgated in Germany, some of Froebel's disciples +passed to other lands, and Madame von Marenholz came to England in 1854. +Already one Kindergarten had been opened by a Madame Ronge, to which +Rowland Hill sent his children, and to which Dickens paid frequent +visits. In the same year there was held in London an "International +Educational Exposition and Congress," and to this Madame von Marenholz +sent an exhibit, which was explained by Madame Ronge, and by a Mr. +Hoffmann. Dickens, who had watched the actual working of a Kindergarten, +gave warm support to the new ideas, and wrote an excellent article on +"Infant Gardens" for _Household Words_, urging "that since children are +by Infinite Wisdom so created as to find happiness in the active +exercise and development of all their faculties, we, who have children +round about us, shall no longer repress their energies, tie up their +bodies, shut their mouths.... The frolic of childhood is not pure +exuberance and waste. 'There is often a high meaning in childish play,' +said Froebel. Let us study it, and act upon the hints--or more than +hints--that Nature gives." + +Dr. Henry Barnard represented Connecticut at this Congress, and he took +the Kindergarten to America, in whose virgin soil the seed took root, +and quickly brought forth abundantly. But the soil was virgin and the +fields were ready for planting, for America in these days had nothing +corresponding to our Infant Schools. The Kindergarten was welcomed by +people of influence. Dr. Barnard found his first ally in Miss Peabody, +one of whose sisters was married to Nathaniel Hawthorne, while another +was the wife of Horace Mann. Miss Peabody began to teach in 1860, but +eight years later, after a visit to Europe, she gave up teaching for +propaganda work. Owing to her efforts the first Free Kindergarten was +opened in Boston in 1870. Philanthropists soon recognised its importance +as a social agency, and by 1883 one lady alone supported thirty-one such +institutions in Boston and its surroundings. In New York, Dr. Felix +Adler established a Free Kindergarten in 1878, and Teachers' College was +influential in helping to form an association which supports several. +Another name well known in this country is that of Miss Kate Douglas +Wiggin,[12] who was a Kindergarten teacher for many years before she +became known as a novelist. It is Miss Wiggin who tells of a quaint +translation of Kindergarten heard by a San Francisco teacher making +friendly visits to the mothers of her children. While she stood on a +door-step sympathising with one poor woman she heard a "loud, but not +unfriendly" voice from an upper window. "Clear things from under foot!" +it pealed in stentorian accents. "The teacher o' the _Kids' Guards_ is +comin' down the street." + +[Footnote 12: Writer of _Penelope in England_, etc., and of a capital +collection of essays entitled _Children's Rights_.] + +In England things were very different, because of the Infant Schools +which had already been established, but which had fallen far below the +ideal set up by Robert Owen. As every one knows, the education given in +those days to teachers of Elementary Schools was but meagre, and the +results were often so bad that, to justify the expenditure of public +money, "payment by results" was introduced. In 1870 came the Education +Act, and the year 1874 saw a good deal of movement. Miss Caroline Bishop +was appointed to lecture to the Infants' teachers under the London +School Board; Miss Heerwart took charge of a training college for +Kindergarten teachers in connection with the British and Foreign School +Society; the Froehel Society was founded, and Madame Michaelis took the +Kindergarten into the newly established High Schools for Girls. For the +children of the well-to-do Kindergartens spread rapidly, but for the +children of the poor there was no such happiness; the Infant School was +too firmly established as a place where children learned to read, write +and count, and above all to sit still. Infants' teachers received no +special training for their work; their course of study, in which +professional training played but a small part, was the same as that +prescribed for the teachers of older children. Some colleges, notably +The Home and Colonial, Stockwell, and Saffron Walden, did try to give +their students some special training, but it was not of much avail, and +the word Kindergarten came to mean not Nursery School, as was the idea +of its founder, but dictated exercises with Kindergarten material, a +kind of manual drill supposed to give "hand and eye training," and with +this meaning it made its appearance on the time-table. + +Visitors from America were shocked to find no Kindergartens in England, +but only large classes of poor little automatons sitting erect with +"hands behind" or worse still "hands on heads," and moving only to the +word of command. One lady who ultimately found her way to our own +Kindergarten told me that she had been informed at the L.C.C. offices +that there were no Kindergartens in London. + +It was partly the scandalised expressions of these American teachers +that stimulated Miss Adelaide Wragge to take her courage into her hands, +and in the year 1900 to open the first Mission Kindergarten in England. +She called it a Mission, not a Free Kindergarten, partly because the +parents paid the trifling fee of one penny per week, and partly because +it was connected with the parish work of Holy Trinity, Woolwich, of +which her brother was vicar. The first report says: "The neighbourhood +was suitable for the experiment; little children, needing just the kind +of training we proposed to give them, abounded everywhere.... The +Woolwich children were typical slum babies, varying in ages from three +to six years; very poor, very dirty, totally untrained in good habits. +At first we only admitted a few, and when these began to improve, +gradually increased the numbers to thirty-five. They needed great +patience and care, but they responded wonderfully to the love given +them, and before long they were real Kindergarten children, full of +vigour, merriment and self-activity." + +As is done in connection with all Free Kindergartens, Parents' Evenings +were instituted from the first, and the mothers were helped to +understand their children by simple talks. + +Sesame House for Home Life Training had been opened six months before +this Mission Kindergarten. It was founded by the Sesame Club, and at its +head was Miss Schepel, who for twenty years had been at the head of the +Pestalozzi Froebel House. The idea of Home Life Training attracted +students who were not obliged by stern necessity to earn their daily +bread. Though the methods were not quite in line with progressive +thought, the atmosphere created by Miss Schepel, warmly seconded by Miss +Buckton,[13] was one of enthusiasm in the service of children. The +second Nursery School in London had its origin in this enthusiasm. Miss +Maufe left Sesame House early in 1903, and started a free Child Garden +in West London. Four years later she moved to Westminster to a block of +workmen's dwellings erected on the site of the old Millbank Prison. This +"child garden" has a special interest from the fact that it was carried +on actually in a block of workmen's dwellings like The Children's +Houses of a later date. The effort was voluntary and the rooms were +small, but, if the experiment had been supported by the authorities, it +would have been easy to take down dividing walls to get sufficient +space. Miss Maufe gave herself and her income for about twelve years, +but difficulties created by the war, the impossibility of finding +efficient help and consequent drain upon her own strength have forced +her to close her little school, to the grief of the mothers in 48 Ruskin +Buildings. Another Sesame House student, Miss L. Hardy, in her charming +_Diary of a Free Kindergarten_, takes us from London to Edinburgh, but +the first Free Kindergarten in Edinburgh began in 1903 and had a +different origin. Miss Howden was an Infants' Mistress in one of the +slums, and knew well the needs of little children in that wide street, +once decked with lordly mansions, which leads from the Castle to +Holyrood Palace. Some of the fine houses are left, but the inhabitants +are of the poorest, and Miss Howden left her savings to start a Free +Kindergarten in the Canongate. The sum was not large, but it was seed +sown in faith, and its harvest has been abundant, for Edinburgh with its +population of under 400,000 has five Free Kindergartens, in all of which +the children are washed and fed and given restful sleep, as well as +taught and trained with intelligence and love. London with its +population of 6,000,000 had but eight up to the time of the outbreak of +the war. + +[Footnote 13: Author of the beautiful mystery play of _Eager Heart_.] + +In 1904 the Froebel Society took part in a Joint Conference at Bradford, +where one sitting was devoted to "The Need for Nursery Schools for +Children from three to five years at present attending the Public +Elementary Schools." The speakers were Mrs. Miall of Leeds, and Miss K. +Phillips, who had wide opportunities for knowledge of the unsuitable +conditions generally provided for these little children. Among those who +joined in this discussion was Miss Margaret M'Millan, so well known for +her pioneer work in connection with School Clinics, and more recently +for her now famous Camp School. Miss M'Millan had already done yeoman +service on the Bradford Education Committee, but was now resident in +London, and she had been warmly welcomed on the Council of the Froebel +Society. It was from the date of this Conference that the name Nursery +School became general, though it had been used by Madame Michaelis as +early as 1891. In the following year, 1905, the Board of Education +published its "Reports on Children under Five Years of Age," with its +prefatory memorandum stating that "a new form of school is necessary for +poor children," and that parents who must send their little ones to +school "should send them to nursery schools rather than to schools of +instruction," to schools where there should be "more play, more sleep, +more free conversation, story-telling and observation." It would seem +that the recommendations of 1905 may begin to be carried out in 1919, a +consummation devoutly to be wished. + +In the meantime voluntary effort has done what it could. Birmingham had +good reason to be in the forefront, since many of its public-spirited +citizens had in their own childhood the benefit of the excellent works +of Miss Caroline Bishop, a disciple of Frau Schrader. The Birmingham +People's Kindergarten Association opened its first People's Kindergarten +at Greet, in 1904, and a second, the Settlement Kindergarten, in 1907. +Sir Oliver Lodge spoke strongly in favour of these institutions, calling +them a protest against the idea of the comparative unimportance of +childhood. + +Miss Hardy opened her Child Garden in 1906, and that work has grown so +that the children are now kept till they are eight years old. The +Edinburgh Provincial Council for the Training of Teachers opened another +Free Kindergarten as a demonstration school for Froebelian methods, a +practising school for students, and also as an experimental school, +where attempts might be made to solve problems as to the education of +neglected children under school age. It was the Headmistress of this +school, Miss Hodsman, who invented the net beds now in general use. She +wanted something hygienic and light enough to be carried easily into the +garden, that in fine weather the children might sleep out of doors. + +Another Sesame House student, Miss Priestman, opened a Free Kindergarten +in the pretty village of Thornton-le-Dale, where the children have a +sand-heap in a little enclosure allowed them by the blacksmith, and sail +their boats at a quiet place by the side of the beck that runs through +the village. + +It was in 1908 that Miss Esther Lawrence of the Froebel Institute +inspired her old students to help her to open The Michaelis Free +Kindergarten. Since the war, the name has been altered to The Michaelis +Nursery School, which is in Netting Dale, on the edge of a very poor +neighbourhood, where large families often occupy a single room. As in +the Edinburgh Free Kindergartens, dinner is provided, for which the +parents pay one penny. The first report tells how necessary are Nursery +Schools in such surroundings. "The little child who was formerly tied to +the leg of the bed, and left all day while his mother was out at work, +is now enjoying the happy freedom of the Kindergarten. The child whose +clothes were formerly sewn on to him, to save his mother the periodical +labour of sewing on buttons, is now undressed and bathed regularly. The +attacks on children by drunken parents are less frequent. When the +Kindergarten was first opened, many of the children were quite listless, +they did not know how to play, did not care to play. Now they play with +pleasure and with vigour, and one can hardly believe they are the +listless, spiritless children of a year ago." + +In 1910 Miss Lawrence succeeded in opening what was called from the +first the "Somers Town Nursery School," where the same kind of work is +done. One of the reports says: "It is interesting to see the children +sweeping or dusting a room, washing their dusters and dolls' clothes, +polishing the furniture, their shoes, and anything which needs +polishing. On Friday morning the 'silver' is cleaned, and the brilliant +results give great pleasure and satisfaction to the little polishers. +'Have you done your work?' was the question addressed to a visitor by a +three-year-old child, and the visitor beat a hasty retreat, ashamed +perhaps of being the only drone in the busy hive. At dinner time four +children wait on the rest, and very well and quickly the food is handed +round and the plates removed." + +There are other Free Kindergartens at work. One is in charge of Miss +Rowland, and is in connection with the Bermondsey Settlement. It is Miss +Rowland who tells of the "candid mother" she met one Saturday who +remarked, "I told the children to wash their faces in case they met +you." + +The Phoenix Park Kindergarten in Glasgow is interesting because the site +was granted by an enlightened Corporation and the Parks Committee laid +out the garden, while the real start came from the pupils of a school +for girls of well-to-do families. By this time other social agencies +have been grouped round the Kindergarten as a centre. + +The Caldecott Nursery School was opened in 1911 and has grown into the +Caldecott Community, which has now taken its children to live altogether +in the country. This Nursery School was never intended to be a +Kindergarten; it was started as an interesting experiment, "chiefly +perhaps in the hope that the children might enjoy that instruction which +is usually absorbed by the children of the wealthy in their own +nurseries by virtue of their happier surroundings." + +And in the very year in which we were plunged into war Miss Margaret +M'Millan put into actual shape what she had long thought of, and opened +her "Baby Camp" and Nursery School, with a place for "toddlers" in +between, the full story of which is told in _The, Camp School_. In the +Camp itself the things which impress the visitor most are first the +space and the fresh air, the sky above and the brown earth below, and +next the family feeling which is so plain in spite of the numbers. The +Camp existed long before it was a Baby Camp and Nursery School, for Miss +M'Millan began with a School Clinic and went on to Open-Air Camps for +girls and for boys, before going to the "preventive and constructive" +work of the Baby Camp. Clean and healthy bodies come first, but to Miss +M'Millan's enthusiasm everything in life is educative. + +The war has increased the supply of Nursery Schools, because the need +for them has become glaringly apparent. Many experiments are going on +now, and it seems as if experimental work would be encouraged, not +hampered by unyielding regulations. The Nursery School should cover the +ages for which the Kindergarten was instituted, roughly from three to +six years old. Already there are excellent baby rooms in some parts of +London, and no doubt in other towns, and the only reason for disturbing +these is to provide the children with more space and more fresh air, or +with something resembling a garden rather than a bare yard. + +One school in London has a creche or day nursery, not exactly a part of +it, but in closest touch, established owing to the efforts of an +enthusiastic Headmistress working along with the Norland Place nurses. +Its space is at present insufficient, but the neighbouring buildings are +condemned, and will come down after the war. They need not go up again. +Then the space could be used in the same way as in the Camp School. That +would be to the benefit of the whole neighbourhood, and there could be +at least one experiment where from creche to Standard VII. might be in +close connection. + +Miss M'Millan's ideal is to have a large space in the centre of a +district with covered passages radiating from it so that mothers from a +large area could bring their little ones and leave them in safety. It +would be safety, it would be salvation. But, as the Scots proverb has +it, "It is a far cry to Loch Awe." + +Another question much debated is, who is to be in charge of these +children. The day nursery or creche must undoubtedly be staffed with +nurses, but with nurses trained to care for children, not merely sick +nurses. There are, however, certain people who believe that the "trained +nurse" is the right person to be in charge of children up to five, while +others think that young girls or uneducated women will suffice. We are +thankful that the Board of Education takes up the position that a +well-educated and specially trained teacher is to be the person +responsible. + +We certainly want the help both of the trained nurse and of the motherly +woman. The trained nurse will be far more use in detecting and attending +to the ailments of children than the teacher can be, and the motherly +woman can give far more efficient help in training children to decent +habits than any young probationer, useful though these may be. But there +is always the fear that the nurses may think that good food and +cleanliness are all a child requires, and, as Miss M'Millan says, "The +sight of the toddlers' empty hands and mute lips does not trouble them +at all." + +But every man to his trade, and though the teacher in charge must know +something about ailing children, it is very doubtful if a few months in +a hospital will advantage her much. Here she trenches on the province of +the real nurse, whose training is thorough, and the little knowledge, +as every one knows, is sometimes dangerous. One Nursery School teacher, +with years of experience, says that what she learned in hospital has +been of no use to her, and it is probable that attendance at a clinic +for children would be really more useful. Certainly the main concern of +the Nursery School teacher is sympathetic understanding of children. +There must be no more of _Punch's_ "Go and see what Tommy is doing in +the next room and tell him not to," but "Go and see what Tommy is trying +to accomplish, and make it possible for him to carry on his +self-education through that 'fostering of the human instincts of +activity, investigation and construction' which constitutes a +Kindergarten." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"THE WORLD'S MINE OYSTER" + + + A box of counters and a red-veined stone, + A piece of glass abraded by the beach, + And six or seven shells. + +If early education, consist in fostering natural activities, there can +be no doubt that Froebel hit upon the activity most prominent of all in +the case of young children, viz. the impulse to investigate. For his +crest, the little child should share in the "motto given to the mongoose +family, in Kipling's _Rikki-Tikki_, 'Run and find out.'" + +Most writers on the education of young children have emphasised the +importance of what is most inadequately called sense training, and it is +here that Dr. Montessori takes her stand with her "didactic apparatus." +Froebel's ideas seem wider; he realises that the sword with which the +child opens his oyster is a two-edged sword, that he uses not only his +sense organs as tools for investigation, but his whole body. His pathway +to knowledge, and to power over himself and his surroundings, is action, +and action of all kinds is as necessary to him as the use of his senses. + +"The child's first utterance is force," says Froebel, and his first +discovery is the resistance of matter, when he "pushes with his feet +against what resists them." His first experiments are with his body, +"his first toys are his own limbs," and his first play is the use of +"body, senses and limbs" for the sake of use, not for result. One use +of his body is the imitation of any moving object, and Froebel tells the +mother: + + If your child's to understand + Action in the world without, + You must let his tiny hand + Imitative move about. + This is the reason why + Baby will, never still, + Imitate whatever's by. + +At this stage the child is "to move freely, and be active, to grasp and +hold with his own hands." He is to stand "when he can sit erect and draw +himself up," not to walk till he "can creep, rise freely, maintain his +balance and proceed by his own effort." He is _not_ to be hindered by +swaddling bands--such as are in use in Continental countries--nor, later +on, to be "_spoiled by too much assistance_," words which every mother +and teacher should write upon her phylacteries. But as soon as he can +move himself the surroundings speak to the child, "outer objects +_invite_ him to seize and grasp them, and if they are distant, they +invite him who would bring them nearer to move towards them." + +This use of the word "invite" is worthy of notice, and calls to mind a +sentence used by a writer on Freud,[14] that "the activity of a human +being is a constant function of his environment." We adults, who are so +ready with our "Don't touch," must endeavour to remember how everything +is shouting to a child: "Look at me, listen to me, come and fetch me, +and find out all you can about me by every means in your power." + +[Footnote 14: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +If we have anything to do with little children, we must face the fact +that the child is, if not quite a Robinson Crusoe on his island, at +least an explorer in a strange country, and a scientist in his +laboratory. But there is nothing narrow in his outlook: the name of this +chapter is deliberately chosen, the whole world is the child's oyster, +his interests are all-embracing. + +From his first walk he is the geographer. "Each little walk is a tour +of discovery; each object--the chair, the wall--is an America, a new +world, which he either goes around to see if it be an island, or whose +coast he follows to discover if it be a continent. Each new phenomenon +is a discovery in the child's small and yet rich world, _e.g._ one may +go round the chair; one may stand before it, behind it, but one cannot +go behind the bench or the wall." + +Then comes an inquiry into the physical properties of surrounding +objects. "The effort to reach a particular object may have its source in +the child's desire to hold himself firm and upright by it, but we also +observe that it gives him pleasure to touch, to feel, to grasp, and +perhaps also--which is a new phase of activity--to be able to move +it.... The chair is hard or soft; the seat is smooth; the corner is +pointed; the edge is sharp." The business of the adult, Froebel goes on +to say, is to supply these names, "not primarily to develop the child's +power of speech," but "to define his sense impressions." + +Next, the scientist must stock his laboratory with material for +experiment. + +"The child is attracted by the bright round smooth pebble, by the gaily +fluttering bit of paper, by the smooth bit of board, by the rectangular +block, by the brilliant quaint leaf. Look at the child that can scarcely +keep himself erect, that can walk only with the greatest care--he sees a +twig, a bit of straw; painfully he secures it, and like the bird carries +it to his nest. See him again, laboriously stooping and slowly going +forward on the ground, under the eaves of the roof (the deep eaves of +the Thuringian peasant house). The force of the rain has washed out of +the sand smooth bright pebbles, and the ever-observing child gathers +them as building stones as it were, as material for future building. And +is he wrong? Is he not in truth collecting material for his future life +building?" + +The "box of counters, and the red-veined stone," the brilliant quaint +leaf, the twig, the bit of straw, all the child's treasures--these are +the stimuli which, according to the biologist educator, must be supplied +if the activities appropriate to each stage are to be called forth. +Every one knows for how long a period a child can occupy himself +examining, comparing and experimenting. + +"Like things," says Froebel, "must be ranged together, unlike things +separated.... The child loves all things that enter his small horizon +and extend his little world. To him the least thing is a new discovery, +but it must not come dead into the little world, nor lie dead therein, +lest it obscure the small horizon and crush the little world. Therefore +the child would know why he loves this thing, he would know all its +properties. For this reason he examines the object on all sides; for +this reason he tears and breaks it; for this reason he puts it in his +mouth and bites it. We reprove the child for naughtiness and +foolishness; and yet he is wiser than we who reprove him." + +This experimenting is one side of a child's play, and the things with +which he thus experiments are his toys, or, as Froebel puts it, "play +material." Much of this is and ought to be self found, and where the +child can find his own toys he asks for little more. The seaside +supplies him with sand and water, stones, shells, rock pools, seaweed, +and he asks us for nothing but a spade, which digs deeper than his naked +hands, and a pail to carry water, which hands alone cannot convey. + + The vista of the sand + is the child's free land; + where the grown-ups seem half afraid; + even nurse forgets to sniff + and to call "come here" + as she sits very near + to the far up cliff + and you venture alone with your spade.... + +Even indoors, a child could probably find for himself all the material +for investigation, all the stimuli he requires, if it were not that his +investigations interfere with adult purposes. Even in very primitive +times the child probably experimented upon the revolving qualities of +his mother's spindle till she found it more convenient to let him have +one for himself, and it became a toy or top. + +Froebel, who made so much of play, to whom it was spontaneous education +and self realisation, was bound to see that toys were important. "The +man advanced in insight," he said, "even when he gives his child a +plaything, must make clear to himself its purpose and the purpose of +playthings and occupation material in general. This purpose is to aid +the child freely to express what lies within him, and to bring the outer +world nearer to him, and thus to serve as mediator between the mind and +the world." Froebel's "Gifts" were an attempt to supply right play +material. True to his faith in natural impulse, Froebel watched children +to see what playthings they found for themselves, or which, among those +presented by adults, were most appreciated. Soft little coloured balls +seemed right material for a baby's tender hand, and it was clear that +when the child could crawl about he was ready for something which he +could roll on the floor and pursue on all fours. As early as two years +old he loves to take things out of boxes and to move objects about, so +boxes of bricks were supplied, graded in number and in variety of form. +Not for a moment did Froebel suggest that the child was to be limited to +these selected playthings, he expressly stated the contrary, and he +frequently said that spontaneity was not to be checked. But from what +has followed, from the way in which these little toys have been misused, +we are tempted to speculate on whether these "Gifts" supplied that +definite foundation without which, in these days, no notice would have +been taken of the new ideas, or whether they have proved the sunken +rock on which much that was valuable has perished. The world was not +ready to believe in the educational value of play, just pure play. Nor +is it yet. For the new system in its "didactic" apparatus out-Froebels +Froebel in his mistake of trying to systematise the material for +spontaneous education. Carefully planned, as were Froebel's own "gifts," +the new apparatus presents a series of exercises in sense +discrimination, satisfying no doubt while unfamiliar, but suffering from +the defect of the "too finished and complex plaything," in which Froebel +saw a danger "which slumbers like a viper under the roses." The danger +is that "the child can begin no new thing with it, cannot produce enough +variety by its means; his power of creative imagination, his power of +giving outward form to his own ideas are thus actually deadened." + +"To realise his aims, man, and more particularly the child, requires +material, though it be only a bit of wood or a pebble, with which he +makes something or which he makes into something. In order to lead the +child to the handling of material we give him the ball, the cube and +other bodies, the Kindergarten gifts. Each of these gifts incites the +child to free spontaneous activity, to independent movement." + +Froebel would have sympathised deeply with the views of Peter as +expressed by Mr. Wells in regard to Ideals, which he, however, called +toys: + +"The theory of Ideals played almost as important a part in the early +philosophy of Peter as it did in the philosophy of Plato. But Peter did +not call them Ideals, he called them 'toys.' Toys were the simplified +essences of things, pure, perfect and manageable. Real things were +troublesome, uncontrollable, over-complicated and largely irrelevant. A +Real Train, for example, was a poor, big, clumsy, limited thing that was +obliged to go to Redhill, or Croydon, or London, that was full of +unnecessary strangers, usually sitting firmly in the window seats, that +you could do nothing with at all. A Toy Train was your very own; it +took you wherever you wanted, to Fairyland, or Russia, or anywhere, at +whatever pace you chose."[15] + +[Footnote 15: _Joan and Peter_, p. 77.] + +Froebel asks what presents are most prized by the child and by mankind +in general, and answers, "Those which afford him a means of developing +his mind, of giving it freest activity, of expressing it clearly." For +her ideas as to educative material Dr. Montessori went, not to normal +life, not even to children, but to what may he called curative +appliances, to the material invented by Seguin to develop the dormant +powers of defective children. She herself came to the study of education +from the medical side, the curative. Froebel, with his belief in human +instinct, naturally went to what he called the mother's room, which we +should call the nursery, and to the garden where the child finds his +"bright round smooth pebble" and his "brilliant quaint leaf." No one +would seek to under-value the importance of sense discrimination, but it +can be exercised without formalism, and it need not be mere +discrimination. It is in connection with the Taste and Smell games that +Froebel tells the mother that "the higher is rooted in the lower, +morality in instinct, the spiritual in the material." The baby enjoys +the scent, thanks the kind spirit that put it there, and must let mother +smell it too, so from the beginning there is a touch of aesthetic +pleasure and a recognition of "what the dear God is saying outside." As +to how sense discrimination may be exercised without formality, there is +a charming picture in _The Camp School_: + +"And then that sense of _Smell_, which got so little exercise and +attention that it went to sleep altogether, so that millions get no +warning and no joy through it. We met the need for its education in the +Baby Camp by having a Herb Garden. Back from the shelters and open +ground, in a shady place, we have planted fennel, mint, lavender, sage, +marjoram, thyme, rosemary, herb gerrard and rue. And over and above +these pungently smelling things there are little fields of mignonette. +We have balm, indeed, everywhere in our garden. The toddlers go round +the beds of herbs, pinching the leaves with their tiny fingers and then +putting their fingers to their noses. There are two little couples going +the rounds just now. One is a pair of new comers, very much astonished, +the other couple old inhabitants, delighted to show the wonders of the +place! Coming back with odorous hands, they perhaps want to tell us +about the journey. Their eyes are bright, their mouths open." + +In Chapter II. we quoted the biologist educator's ideal conception of +the surroundings best suited to bring about right development. Let us +now visit one or two actual Kindergartens and see if these conditions +are in any way realised by the followers of Froebel. + +The first one we enter is certainly a large bright room, for one side is +open to light, with two large windows, and between them glass doors +opening into the playground. There is no heap of sand in a corner, nor +is there a tub of water; for the practical teacher knows how little +hands, if not little feet, with their vigorous but as yet uncontrolled +movements would splash the water and scatter the sand with dire effects +as to the floor, which the theorist fondly imagines would always be +clean enough to sit upon. But there is a sand-tray big enough and deep +enough for six to eight children to use individually or together. As +spontaneous activity, with its ceaseless efforts at experimenting, +ceaselessly spills the sand, within easy reach are little brushes and +dustpans to remedy such mishaps. The sand-tray is lined with zinc so +that the sand can be replaced by water for boats and ducks, etc., when +desired. + +The low wall blackboard is there ready for use. Bright pictures are on +the walls, well drawn and well coloured, some from nursery rhymes, some +of Caldecott's, a frieze of hen and chickens, etc. Boxes for houses and +shops are not in evidence, but their place is taken by bricks of such +size and quantity that houses, shops, motors, engines and anything else +may be built large enough for the children themselves to be shopkeepers +or drivers, and there are also pieces of wood to use for various +purposes of construction. There is no cooking stove, but simple cooking +can be carried out on an open fire, and when a baking oven is required, +an eager procession makes its way to the kitchen, where a kindly +housekeeper permits the use of her oven. There is a doll's cot with a +few dolls of various sizes. There are flowers and growing bulbs. There +are light low tables and chairs, a family of guinea pigs in a large +cage, and there is a cupboard which the children can reach. + +Water is to be found in a passage room, between the Kindergarten and the +rooms for children above that stage, and here, so placed that the +children themselves can find and reach everything, are the sawdust, bran +and oats for the guinea pigs, with a few carrots and a knife to cut +them, some tiny scrubbing-brushes and a wiping-up cloth. Here also are +stored the empty boxes, corrugated paper and odds and ends in constant +demand for constructions. + +In the cupboard there are certain shelves from which anything may be +taken, and some from which nothing may be taken without leave. For the +teacher here is of opinion that children of even three and four are not +too young to begin to learn the lesson of _meum_ and _tuum_, and she +also thinks it is good to have some treasures which do not come out +every day, and which may require more delicate handling than the +ordinary toy ought to need. For this ought to be strong enough to bear +unskilled handling and vigorous movements, for a broken toy ought to be +a tragedy. At the same time it is part of a child's training to learn to +use dainty objects with delicate handling, and such things form the +children's art gems, showing beauty of construction and of colour. +Children as well as grown-ups have their bad days, when something out of +the usual is very welcome. "Do you know there's nothing in this world +that I'm not tired of?" was said one day by a boy of six usually quite +contented. "Give me something out of the cupboard that I've never seen +before," said another whose digestion was troublesome. The open shelves +contain pencils and paper, crayons, paint-boxes, boxes of building +blocks, interlocking blocks, wooden animals, jigsaw and other puzzles, +coloured tablets for pattern laying, toy scales, beads to thread, +dominoes, etc., the only rule being that what is taken out must be +tidily replaced. This Kindergarten is part of a large institution, and +the playground, to which it has direct access, is of considerable +extent. There is a big stretch of grass and another of asphalt, so that +in suitable weather the tables and chairs, the sand-tray, the bricks and +anything else that is wanted can be carried outside so that the children +can live in the open, which of course is better than any room. In the +playground there is a bank where the children can run up and down, and +there are a few planks and a builder's trestle,[16] on which they can be +poised for seesaws or slides, and these are a constant source of +pleasure. + +[Footnote 16: See p. 55.] + +In another Kindergarten we find the walls enlivened with Cecil Aldin's +fascinating friezes: here is Noah with all the animals walking in +cheerful procession, and in the next room is an attractive procession of +children with push-carts, hoops and toy motor cars. When we make our +visit the day is fine and the room is empty, the children are all +outside. The garden is not large, but there is some space, and under the +shade of two big trees we find rugs spread, on which the children are +sitting, standing, kneeling and lying, according to their occupation. +One is building with large blocks, and must stand up to complete her +erection; another is lying flat putting together a jigsaw; another, a +boy, is threading beads; while another has built railway arches, and +with much whistling and the greatest carefulness is guiding his train +through the tunnels. The play is almost entirely individual, but very +often you hear, "O Miss X, _do_ come and see what I've done!" After +about an hour, during which a few of the children have changed their +occupations, those who wish to do so join some older children who are +playing games involving movement. This may be a traditional game like +Looby Loo, or Round and round the Village, or it may be one of the best +of the old Kindergarten games. After lunch the washing up is to be done +in a beautiful new white sink which is displayed with pride. + +Our next visit is to a Free Kindergarten. The rooms are quite as +attractive, as rich in charming friezes as in the others, and the +furnishing in some ways is much the same. But here we see what we have +not seen before, for here is a large room filled with tiny hammock beds. +The windows are wide open, but the blinds are down, for the children are +having their afternoon sleep. + +Here, as in all Free Kindergartens, the children are provided with +simple but pretty overalls which the parents are pleased to wash. House +shoes are also provided, partly to minimise the noise from active little +feet, but principally because the poor little boots are often a +painfully inadequate protection from wet pavements. The children are +trained to tidy ways and to independence. They cannot read, but by +picture cards they recognise their own beds, pegs and other properties. +They take out and put away their own things, and give all reasonable +help in laying tables and serving food, in washing, dusting and sweeping +up crumbs, as is done in any true Kindergarten. + +In the garden of this Free Kindergarten there is a large sand-pit, +surrounded by a low wooden framework, and having a pole across the +middle so that it resembles a cucumber frame and a cover can be thrown +over the sand to keep it clean when not in use. + +Froebel's own list of playthings contains, besides balls and building +blocks, coloured beads, coloured tablets for laying patterns, coloured +papers for cutting, folding and plaiting; pencils, paints and brushes; +modelling clay and sand; coloured wool for sewing patterns and pictures; +and such little sticks and laths as children living in a forest region +find for themselves. Considered in themselves, apart from the traditions +of formality, these are quite good play material or stimuli, and Froebel +meant the time to come "when we shall speak of the doll and the hobby +horse as the first plays of the awakening life of the girl and the boy," +but he died before he had done so. In the _Mother Songs_, too, we find +quite a good list of toys which are now to be found in most +Kindergartens. + +Toys for the playground should be provided--a sand-heap, a seesaw, a +substantial wheel-barrow, hoops, balls, reins and perhaps +skipping-ropes. Something on which the child can balance, logs or planks +which they can move about, and a trestle on which these can be +supported, are invaluable. It was while an addition was being made to +our place that we realised the importance of such things, and, as in +Froebel's case, "our teachers were the children themselves." They were +so supremely happy running up and down the plank roads laid by the +builders for their wheel-barrows, seesawing or balancing and sliding on +others, that we could not face the desolation of emptiness which would +come when the workmen removed their things. So, for a few pounds, all +that the children needed was secured, ordinary planks for seesawing, +narrower for balancing and a couple of trestles. One exercise the +children had specially enjoyed was jumping up and down on yielding +planks, and this the workmen had forbidden because the planks might +crack. But a sympathetic foreman told us what was needed: two planks of +special springy wood were fastened together by cross pieces at each end, +and besides making excellent slides, these made most exciting +springboards. + +For representations of real life the children require dolls and the +simplest of furniture--a bed, which need only be a box, some means of +carrying out the doll's washing, her personal requirements as well as +her clothes; some little tea-things and pots and pans. A doll's house is +not necessary, and can only be used by two or three children, but will +be welcomed if provided, and its appointments give practice in dainty +handling. Trains and signals of some kind, home-made or otherwise; +animals for farm or Zoo; a pair of scales for a shop, and some sort of +delivery van, which, of course, may be home-made. + +There must also be provision for increase of skill and possibility of +creation. If the Kindergarten can afford it, some of the Montessori +material may be provided; there is no reason, except expense, why it +should not be used if the children like it, and if it does not take up +too much room. But it has no creative possibilities, and even at three +years old this is required. Scissors are an important tool, and an old +book of sample wall-papers is most useful; old match-boxes and used +matches, paste and brushes and some old magazines to cut. Blackboard +chalks and crayons, paint-boxes with four to six important colours, some +Kindergarten folding papers, all these supply colour. Certain toys seem +specially suited to give hand control, _e.g._ a Noah's Ark, where the +small animals are to be set out carefully, tops or teetotums and +tiddlywinks, at which some little children become proficient. The puzzle +interest must not be forgotten, and simple jigsaw pictures give great +pleasure. It is interesting to note here that the youngest children fit +these puzzles not by the picture but by form, though they know they are +making a picture and are pleased when it is finished. The puzzle with +six pictures on the sides of cubes is much more difficult than a simple +jigsaw. + +All sorts of odds and ends come in useful, and especially for the poorer +children these should be provided. Any one who remembers the pleasure +derived from coloured envelope bands, from transparent paper from +crackers, and from certain advertisements, will save these for children +to whose homes such treasures never come. A box containing scraps of +soft cloth, possibly a bit of velvet, some bits of smooth and shining +coloured silk give the pleasure of sense discrimination without the +formality of the Montessori graded boxes, and are easier to replace. +Some substitute for "mother's button box," a box of shells or coloured +seeds, a box of feathers, all these things will be played with, which +means observation and discrimination, comparison and contrast, and in +addition, where colour is involved, there is aesthetic pleasure, and +this also enters into the touching of smooth or soft surfaces. Softness +is a joy to children, as is shown in the woolly lambs, etc., provided +for babies. A little one of my acquaintance had a bit of blanket which +comforted many woes, and when once I offered her a feather boa as a +substitute she sobbed out: "It isn't so soft as the blanket!" + +In one of Miss McMillan's early books she wrote: "Very early the child +begins more or less consciously to exercise the basal sense--the sense +of touch. On waking from sleep he puts his tiny hands to grasp +something, or turns his head on the firm soft pillow. He _touches_ +rather than looks, at first (for his hands and fingers perform a great +many movements long before he learns to turn his eyeballs in various +directions or follow the passage even of a light), and through touching +many things he begins his education. If he is the nursling of wealthy +parents, it is possible that his first exercises are rather restricted. +He touches silk, ivory, muslin and fine linen. That is all, and that is +not much. But the child of the cottager is often better off, for his +mother gives him a great variety of objects to keep him quiet. The +ridiculous command, 'Do not touch,' cannot be imposed on him while he is +screaming in his cradle or protesting in his dinner chair; and so all +manner of things--reels, rings, boxes, tins, that is to say a variety of +surfaces--is offered to him, to his great delight and advantage. And +lest he should not get the full benefit of such privilege he carries +everything to his mouth, where the sense of touch is very keen."[17] + +[Footnote 17: _Early Childhood_: Swan Sonnenschein, published 1900.] + +Among the treasures kept for special occasions there may be pipes for +soap-bubbles, a prism of some kind with which to make rainbows, a tiny +mirror to make "light-birds" on the wall and ceiling, and a magnet with +the time-honoured ducks and fish, if these are still to be bought, along +with other articles, delicately made or coloured, which require care. + +Pictures and picture-books should also be considered; some being in +constant use, some only brought out occasionally. For the very smallest +children some may be rag books, but always children should be taught to +treat books carefully. The pictures on the walls ought to be changed, +sometimes with the children's help, sometimes as a surprise and +discovery. For that purpose it is convenient to have series of pictures +in frames with movable backs, but brown-paper frames will do quite well. +The pictures belonging to the stories which have been told to the +children ought to have a prominent place, and if the little ones desire +to have one retold they will ask for it. + +It is of course not at all either necessary or even desirable for any +one school to have everything, and children should not have too much +within the range of their attention at one time. Individual teachers +will make their own selections, but in all cases there must be +sufficient variety of material for each child to carry out his natural +desire for observation, experiment and construction. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE" + + + A wedding or a festival, a mourning or a funeral... + As if his whole vocation were endless imitation. + +In every country and in every age those who have eyes to see have +watched the same little dramas. What Wordsworth saw was seen nineteen +hundred years ago in the Syrian market-place, where the children +complained of their unresponsive companions: "We have piped the glad +chaunt of the marriage, but ye have not danced, we have wailed our +lamentation, but ye have not joined our mourning procession." + +Since the very name Kindergarten is to imply a teaching which fulfils +the child's own wants and desires, it must supply abundant provision for +the dramatic representation of life. Adults have always been ready to +use for their own purposes the strong tendency to imitate, which is a +characteristic of all normal children, but few even now realise to what +extent a child profits by his imitative play. The explanation that +Froebel found for this will now be generally accepted, viz. that only by +acting it out can a child fully grasp an idea, "For what he tries to +represent or do, he begins to understand." He thinks in action, or as +one writer put it, he "apperceives with his muscles." This explanation +seems to cover imitative play, from the little child's imitative wave of +the hand up to such elaborate imitations as are described in Stanley +Hall's _Story of a Sand Pile,_[18] or in Dewey's _Schools of +To-morrow._ But when we think of the joy of such imaginative play as +that of Red Indians, shipwrecks and desert islands, we feel that these +show a craving for experience, for life, such a craving as causes the +adult to lose himself in a book of travels or in a dramatic performance, +and which explains the phenomenal success of the cinema, poor stuff as +it is. + +[Footnote 18: Or that delightful "Play Town" in _The Play Way_.] + +We thirst for experiences, even for those which are unpleasant; we +wonder "how it feels" to be up in an aeroplane or down in a submarine. +We are far indeed from desiring air-raids, but if such things must be, +there is a curious satisfaction in being "in it." And though the +experiences they desire may be matters of everyday occurrence to us, +children probably feel the craving even more keenly. "You may write what +you like," said a teacher, and a somewhat inarticulate child wrote, "I +was out last night, it was late." "Why, Jack," said another, "you've +painted your cow green; did you ever see a green cow?" "No," said Jack, +"but I'd like to." + +In early Kindergarten days this imitative and dramatic tendency was +chiefly met in games, and the children were by turns butterflies and +bees, bakers and carpenters, clocks and windmills. The programme was +suggested by Froebel's _Mother Songs_, in which he deals with the +child's nearest environment. Too often, indeed, the realities to which +Froebel referred were not realities to English children, but that was +recognised as a defect, and the ideas themselves were suitable. +Chickens, pigeons and farmyard animals; the homely pussy cat or canary +bird; the workers to whom the child is indebted, farmer, baker, miner, +builder or carpenter; the sun, the rain, the rainbow and the +"light-bird"--such ideas were chosen as suitable centres, and stories +and songs, games and handwork clustered round. + +What was the reason for this binding of things together? Why did +Froebel constantly plead for "unity" even for the tiny child, and tell +us to link together his baby finger-games or his first weak efforts at +building with his blocks chairs, tables, beds, walls and ladders? + +Looking back over the years, it seems as if this idea of joining +together has been trying to assert itself under various forms, each of +which has reigned for its day, has been carried to extremes and been +discarded, only to come up again in a somewhat different form. It has +always seemed to aim at extending and ordering the mind content of +children. For the Froebelian it was expressed in such words as "unity," +"connectedness" and "continuity," while the Herbartians called it +"correlation." Under these terms much work has been, and is still being, +carried out, some very good and some very foolish. Ideas catch on, +however, because of the truth that is in them, not because of the error +which is likely to be mixed with it, and even the weakest effort after +connection embodies an important truth. When we smile over absurd +stories of forced "correlation," we seldom stop to think of what went on +before the Kindergarten existed, for instance the still more absurd and +totally disconnected lists of object lessons. One actual list for +children of four years old ran: Soda, Elephant, Tea, Pig, Wax, Cow, +Sugar, Spider, Potatoes, Sheep, Salt, Mouse, Bread, Camel. + +Kindergarten practice was far ahead of this, for here the teacher was +expected to choose her material according to (1) Time of Year; (2) Local +Conditions, such as the pursuits of the people; (3) Social Customs. When +it was possible the children went to see the real blacksmith or the real +cow, and to let game or handwork be an expression, and a re-ordering of +ideas gained was natural and right. Connectedness, however, meant more +than this, it meant that the material itself was to be treated so that +the children would be helped to that real understanding which comes +from seeing things in their relations to each other. As Lloyd Morgan +puts it, "We are mainly at work upon the mental background. It is our +object to make this background as rich and full and orderly as possible, +so that whatever is brought to the focus of consciousness shall be set +in a relational background, which shall give it meaning; and so that our +pupils may be able to feel the truth which Browning puts into the mouth +of Fra Lippo Lippi: + + This world's no blot for us + Nor blank; it means intensely and means good: + To find its meaning is my meat and drink." + +According to Professor Dewey, some such linking or joining is necessary +"to foster that sense which is at the basis of attention and of all +intellectual growth, the sense of continuity." The Herbartian +correlation was designed to further that well-connected circle of +thought out of which would come the firm will, guided by right insight, +inspired by true feeling, which is their aim in education. + +Froebelian unity and connectedness have, like the others, an +intellectual and a moral aspect. Intellectually "the essential +characteristic of instruction is the treatment of individual things in +their relationships"; morally, the idea of unity is that we are all +members one of another. The child who, through unhindered activity, has +reached the stage of self-consciousness is to go on to feel himself a +part, a member of an ever-increasing whole--family, school, township, +country, humanity--the All; to be "one with Nature, man and God." + +Every one has heard something of the new teaching--which, by the way, +sheds clearer light over Froebel's warning against arbitrary +interference--viz. that a great part of the nervous instability which +affects our generation is due to the thwarting and checking of the +natural impulses of early years. But this new school also gives us +something positive, and reinforces older doctrines by telling us to +integrate behaviour. "This matter of the unthwarted lifelong progress +of behaviour integration is of profound importance, for it is the +transition from behaviour to conduct. The more integrated behaviour is +harmonious and consistent behaviour toward a larger and more +comprehensive situation, toward a bigger section of the universe; it is +lucidity and breadth of purpose. The child playing with fire is only +wrong conduct because it is behaviour that does not take into account +consequences; it is not adjusted to enough of the environment; it will +be made right by an enlargement of its scope and reach."[19] + +All selfish conduct, all rudeness and roughness come from ignorance; we +are all more or less self-centred, and the child's consciousness of self +has to be widened, his scope has to be enlarged to sympathy with the +thoughts, feelings and desires of other selves. "The sane man is the man +who (however limited the scope of his behaviour) has no such suppression +incorporated in him. The wise man must be sane and must have scope as +well."[20] + +[Footnote 19: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +[Footnote 20: _The Freudian Wish_, Edwin Holt.] + +Professor Earl Barnes always used to describe the child mind as +"scrappy." How can we best aid development into the wholeness or +healthiness and the scope of sanity and wisdom? For it may well be that +this widening and ordering of experience, of consciousness, of behaviour +into moral behaviour is our most important task as teachers. Froebel +emphasised the "crying need" for connection of school and life, pointing +out how the little child desires to imitate and the older to share in +all that, as Professor Dewey puts it, is "surcharged with a sense of the +mysterious values that attach to whatever their elders are concerned +with." This is one of the points to which Professor Dewey called +attention in his summing up of Froebel's educational principles, this +letting the child reproduce on his own plane the typical doings and +occupations of the larger, maturer society into which he is finally to +go forth. + +It is in this connection that he says the Kindergarten teacher has the +opportunity to foster that most important "sense of continuity." In +simple reproduction of the home life while there is abundant variety, +since daily life may bring us into contact with all the life of the city +or of the country, yet, because the work is within a whole, "there is +opportunity to foster that sense which is at the basis of attention and +of all intellectual growth, a sense of continuity." + +Since Professor Dewey gave to the world the results of his experimental +school, all the Kindergartens and most of the Infant Schools in England +have tried to carry out their accustomed reproduction of home +surroundings, more or less on the lines of the Primary Department of his +experimental school. They have extended their scope, and in addition to +the material already taken from workman and shop, from garden and farm, +have also with much profit to older children used his suggestions about +primitive industries. + +Reproduction of home surroundings can be done in many ways, one of which +is to help the children to furnish and to play with a doll's house. But +the play must be play. It is not enough to use the drama as merely +offering suggestions for handwork, and one small doll's house does not +allow of real play for more than one or two children. + +Our own children used to settle this by taking out the furniture, etc., +and arranging different homes around the room. I can remember the +never-ending pleasure given by similar play in my own nursery days, when +the actors were the men and boys supplied by tailors' advertisements. +Many and varied were the experiences of these paper families, families, +it may be noted, none of whom demeaned themselves so far as to possess +any womankind. For that nursery party of five had lost its mother sadly +early and was ruled by two boys, who evidently thought little of the +other sex. + +Professor Dewey tells us that "nothing is more absurd than to suppose +that there is no middle term between leaving a child to his unguided +fancies, or controlling his activities by a formal succession of +dictated directions." It is the teacher's business to know what is +striving for utterance and to supply the needed stimulus and materials. + +To show how under the inspiration of a thoroughly capable teacher this +continuity may be secured and prolonged for quite a long period, an +example may be taken from the work of Miss Janet Payne, who is +remarkably successful in meeting and stimulating, without in any way +forcing the "striving for utterance" mentioned by Dewey. On this +occasion Miss Payne produced a doll about ten inches high, dressed to +resemble the children's fathers, and suggested that a home should be +made for him. The children adopted him with zeal, named him Mr. Bird, +and his career lasted for two years. + +Mr. Bird required a family, so Mrs. Bird had to be produced with her +little girl Winnie, and later a baby was added to the family. Beds, +tables and chairs, including a high chair for Winnie, were made of +scraps from the wood box, and for a long time Mr. Bird was most +domesticated. Miss Payne had used ordinary dolls' heads, but had +constructed the bodies herself in such a way that the dolls could sit +and stand, and use their arms to wield a broom or hold the baby. After +some time, one child said, "Mr. Bird ought to go to business," and after +much deliberation he became a grocer. His shop was made and stocked, and +he attended it every day, going home to dinner regularly. One day he +appeared to be having a meal on the shop counter, and it was explained +that he had been "rather in a hurry" in the morning, so Mrs. Bird had +given him his breakfast to take with him. The Bird family had various +adventures, they had spring cleanings, removals, visited the Zoo and +went to the seaside. One morning a little fellow sat in a trolley with +the Bird family beside him for three-quarters of an hour evidently +"imagining." I did inquire in passing if it was a drive or a picnic, but +the answer was so brief, that I knew I was an interruption and retired. +But a younger and bolder inquirer, who wanted to conduct an experiment +in modelling, ventured to ask if Mr. Bird wanted anything that could be +made "at clay modelling." "Yes, he wants some ink-pots for his +post-office shop," was the answer, with the slightly irate addition, +"but I _wish_ you'd call it the china factory." + +When these children moved to an upper class, Mr. Bird was laid away, but +the children requested his presence. So he entered the new room and +became a farmer. He had now to write letters, to arrange rents, etc., +and the money had to be made and counted. The letters served for writing +and reading lessons, and Miss Payne was careful to send the answers +through the real post, properly addressed to Mr. Bird with the name of +class and school. Mr. Bird hired labourers, the children grew corn, and +thrashed it and sent it to the mill. A miller had to be produced, and +the children, now his assistants, ground the wheat, and Mr. Bird came in +his cart to fetch the sacks of flour, which ultimately became the Birds' +Christmas pudding and was eaten by the labourers, now guests at the +feast. In spring, after careful provision for their comfort, Mr. Bird +went to the cattle market and bought cows. Though the milking had to be +pretence, the butter and cheese were really made. + +The first question of the summer term was, "What's Mr. Bird going to do +this term?" Like other teachers inspired by Professor Dewey, we have +found our children most responsive to the suggestion of playing out +primitive man. But with some, not of course with the brightest, it is +too great a stretch to go at one step from the present to the most +primitive times, and we often spend a term over something of the nature +of Robinson Crusoe, where the situation presents characters accustomed +to modern civilisation and deprived of all its conveniences. Miss Payne +is careful to give the children full opportunity for suggestions--one +dull little boy puzzled his mother by telling her "I made a very good +'gestion' to-day"--so though she had not contemplated the renewed +appearance of Mr. Bird she said, "What do you want him to do?" "Let him +go out and shoot bears," cried an embryo sportsman. Somewhat taken +aback, Miss Payne temporised with, "He wouldn't find them in this +country." "Then let him go to India," cried one child, but another +called out, "No, no, let him go to a desert island!" and that was +carried with acclamation. Mr. Bird's various homes were on a miniature +scale, and were contained in a series of zinc trays, which we have had +made to fit the available tables and cupboard tops. We find these trays +convenient, as a new one can be added when more scope is required to +carry out new ideas. + +The following accounts taken from the notes of Miss Hilda Beer, while a +student in training, show another kind of play where the children +themselves act the drama. The notes only cover a short period, but they +show how the play may arise quite incidentally. + +_Mon., June 18._--As the ground is too damp for out-of-doors work, if +the children were not ready with plans, I meant to suggest building a +railway station, tunnel, etc., and later, I thought perhaps we might +paint advertisements of seaside resorts for our station. + +But the children brought several things with them, and Dorothy brought +her own doll. Marie had left the baby doll from the other room in the +cot, so Dorothy and Sylvia said they must look after the babies. So +Cecil, Josie and I swept and dusted. + +Then we began to play house. Cecil and Dorothy were Mr. and Mrs. Harry, +Sylvia was Mrs. Loo (husband at the war). Josie was Nurse and I was +Aunt Lizzie. The dolls were Winnie Harry, and Jack and Doreen Loo. Mr. +and Mrs. Harry built themselves a house and so did we. Cecil said, "But +what is the name of the road?" Mrs. Harry chose 25 Brookfield Avenue, +and Mr. Harry 7 Victoria Street, but he gave in and Mrs. Loo took his +name for her house. We had to put numbers on the houses; Sylvia could +make 7, but the others could not make 25, so I put it on the board and +they copied it. Josie having also made a 7 wanted to use it, but Mrs. +Loo objected, and said, "The mother is more important than the nurse," +so Josie fixed her 7 on the house opposite. + +After lunch we bathed the babies and put them to sleep, and as it was +time for the children's own rest, we all went to bed. When rest was +over, we washed and dressed, and then Mrs. Harry asked for clay to make +a water-tap for her house. That made all the children want to make +things in clay, so we made cups and saucers, plates, and a baby's +bottle, then scones and sponge-cakes, bread and a bread-board, and one +of the children said we must put a B on that. + +Then Mrs. Loo said, "But we haven't any shelves." I had to leave my +class in Miss Payne's charge, and they spent the rest of the time +fitting in shelves, water-taps, and sinks. + +_June 19._--After sweeping, dusting, and washing and dressing the dolls, +I read to the children "How the House was built." Then we all pretended +to bake, making rolls and cakes as next day was to be the doll Winnie's +birthday. We baked our cakes on a piece of wood on the empty fireplace. + +The other children were invited to Winnie's party, so we went out to +shop. The children wanted lettuces from their own garden, but the grass +was too wet, so we pretended. The shop was on the edge of the grass and +we talked to imaginary shopmen, Cecil often exclaiming, "Eightpence! +why, it's not worth it!" + +As neither of the houses would hold all the guests invited to the party, +we had to have a picnic instead. + +_June_ 20.--I must see that Sylvia and Dorothy do the sweeping +to-morrow, and let Josie bath the doll; she is very good-natured, and I +see that they give her the less attractive occupation. I think too that +the food question has played too large a part, so if the children +suggest more cooking I shall look in the larder and say that really we +must not buy or bake as food goes bad in hot weather, and we must not +waste in war time. + +The children have suggested making cushions, painting pictures, and +making knives and forks, but we have not had time. + +_Report_.--Dorothy and Sylvia swept, Cecil mended the wall of the house, +Josie took the children down to the beach (the sand tray), and I dusted. +We looked into the larder and found that yesterday's greens were going +bad, so decided not to buy more. Then we took the babies for a walk. We +noticed how many nasturtiums were out, how the blackberry bushes were in +flower and in bud, and the runner-bean was in flower, and the red +flowers looked so pretty in the green leaves. We looked at the +hollyhocks, because I have told the children that they will grow taller +than I am, and they are always wondering how soon this will be. The +children found some cherries which had fallen, and Dorothy said how +pretty they were on the tree. I called attention to one branch that was +laden with fruit, and looked particularly pretty with the sun shining on +it. We also looked at the pear tree and the almond. Everything has come +on so fast, and the children were ready to say it was because of the +rain. + +After rest, we went to the Hall to see the chickens. To-day they were +much bigger, and Sylvia said had "bigger wings." We were able to watch +them drinking, how they hold up their heads to let the water run down. +The rest of the morning we made curtains, and the children loved it. +There was much discussion and at first the children suggested making +them all different, but they agreed that curtains at windows were +usually alike. Mr. and Mrs. Harry nearly quarrelled, as one wanted green +and the other pink. I suggested trimming the green with a strip of pink, +and they were quite pleased. Mrs. Loo and Nurse chose green which was to +be sewn with red silk. Sylvia said, "A pattern," and I said, "You saw +something red and green to-day," and she called out, "Oh! cherries." She +cut out a round of paper and tried to sew round it, holding it in place +with her other hand. I suggested putting in a stitch to hold the paper. +Cecil was absorbed in sewing, and it seemed quieting for such an +excitable boy and good for his weak hands. One child said, "Fancy a boy +sewing," so I told how soldiers and sailors sewed. They sewed just as +they liked. + +These notes are continued in Chapter IX., where they are used to show +children's attitude towards Nature. Though separated here for a special +purpose it is clear that there neither is nor ought to be any real +separation in the lives of the children. Their lives are wholes and they +continually pass from one "subject" to another, because life and its +circumstances are making new demands. If it rains and you cannot gather +the lettuces you have grown from seed, you take refuge in happy +pretence; if it clears and the sun calls you out of doors, you take your +doll-babies for their walk. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JOY IN MAKING + + + I, too, will something make, and joy in the making. + + ROBERT BRIDGES. + + Built by that only Law, that Use be suggester of Beauty. + + ARTHUR CLOUGH. + +There has always been _making_ in the Kindergarten, since to Froebel the +impulse to create was a characteristic of self-conscious humanity. +Stopford Brooke points out that Browning's Caliban, though almost brute, +shows himself human, in that, besides thinking out his natural religion, +he also dramatises and creates, "falls to make something." + + 'Tis solace making baubles, ay, and sport. + Tasteth, himself, no finer good i' the world + Than trying what to do with wit and strength-- + +What does a child gain from his ceaseless attempts at making? Froebel's +answer was that intellectually, through making he gains ideas, which, +received in words, remain mere words. "To learn through life and action +is more developing than to learn through words: expression in plastic +material, united with thought and speech, is far more developing than +mere repetition of words." Morally, it is through impressing himself on +his surroundings, that the child reaches the human attributes of +self-consciousness and self-control. One of the most important passages +Froebel ever wrote is this: + +"The deepest craving of the child's life is to see itself mirrored in +some external object. Through such reflection, he learns to know his own +activity, its essence, direction and aim, and learns to determine his +activity in accordance with outer things. Such mirroring of the inner +life is essential, for through it the child comes to self-consciousness, +and learns to order, determine and master himself." + +It is from the point of view of expression alone that Froebel regards +Art, and drawing, he takes to be "the first revelation of the creative +power within the child." The very earliest drawing to which he refers is +what he calls "sketching the object on itself," that is, the tracing +round the outlines of things, whereby the child learns form by +co-ordinating sight and motor perceptions, a stage on which Dr. +Montessori has also laid much stress. Besides noting how children draw +"round scissors and boxes, leaves and twigs, their own hands, and even +shadows," he sees that from experimentation with any pointed stick or +scrap of red stone or chalk, may come what Mr. E. Cooke called a +language of line, and now "the horse of lines, the man of lines" will +give much pleasure. After this it is true that "whatever a child knows +he will put into his drawing," and the teacher's business is to see that +he has abundant perceptions and images to express. + +Another kind of drawing which children seem to find for themselves is +what they call making patterns. Out of this came the old-fashioned +chequer drawing, now condemned as injurious to eyesight and of little +value. + +When children see anything rich in colour the general cry is "Let's +paint it," which is their way of taking in the beauty. We should not, +says Froebel, give them paints and brushes inconsiderately, to throw +about, but give them the help they need, and he describes quite a +sensible lesson given to boys "whose own painting did not seem to paint +them long." + +Teachers who want real help in the art training of children should read +the excellent papers by Miss Findlay in _School and Life_, where we are +told that we must rescue the term "design" from the limited uses to +which it is often condemned in the drawing class, viz. the construction +of pleasing arrangements of colour and form for surface decoration. "We +shall use it in its full popular significance in constructive work.... +The term will cover building houses, making kettles, laying out streets, +planning rooms, dressing hair, as well as making patterns for cushion +covers and cathedral windows.... In thus widening our art studies, we +shall be harking back in a slight degree to the kind of training that in +past ages produced the great masters.... Giotto designed his Campanile +primarily for the bells that were to summon the Florentines to their +cathedral; the Venetians wanted facades for their palaces, and made +facades to delight their eyes; the Japanese have wanted small furniture +for their small rooms, and have developed wonderful skill and taste in +designing it. Neither art nor science can remain long afloat in high +abstract regions above the needs and interests of human life. To quote +A.H. Clough: + + 'A Cathedral Pure and Perfect. + Built by that only Law, that Use be suggester of Beauty; + Nothing concealed that is, done, but all things done to adornment; + Meanest utilities seized as occasions to grace and embellish.'" + +If this is true of the interests of the professional artist, much more +must it be true of the art training of the child. We must not then +despise the rough and ready productions of a child, nor force upon him a +standard for which he is not ready. + +Before any other construction is possible to him, a child can _make_ +with sand, and this is a constant joy, from the endless puddings that +are turned out of patty pans, up to such models as that of the whole +"Isle of Wight" with its tunnelled cliffs and system of railways, made +by an ex-Kindergarten boy as yet innocent of geography lessons. + +The child then who is making, especially making for use, is to a certain +extent developing himself as an artist. + +The little boys at Keilhau were well provided with sand, moss, etc., to +use with their building blocks, and it was a former Keilhau boy who +suggested to his old master that some kind of sand-box would make a good +plaything for the children in his new Kindergarten. Miss Wiggin tells us +that indirectly we owe the children's sand-heaps in the public parks to +Froebel, since these were the result of a suggestion made by Frau +Schrader to the Empress Frederick, and the idea was carried out during +her husband's too brief reign. + +Another very early "making" is the arranging of furniture for shops, +carriages, trains, and the "ships upon the stairs," which made bright +pictures in Stevenson's memory. + +Building blocks are truly, as Froebel puts it, "the finest and most +variable material that can be offered a boy for purposes of +representation." The little boxes associated with the Kindergarten were +originally planned for the use of nursery children two to three years of +age, and in most if not in all Kindergartens these have been replaced by +larger bricks. It is many years now since, at Miss Payne's suggestion, +we bought some hundreds of road paving blocks, and these are such a +source of pleasure that the children often dream about them. Living out +the life around presents much opportunity for making, which may be done +with blocks, but which even in the Kindergarten can be done with tools. +Care must be exercised, but children have quite a strong instinct for +self-preservation, and if shown how real workmen handle their tools, +they are often more careful than at a much later stage. To make a +workable railway signal is more interesting and much more educative than +to use one that came from a shop. The teacher may make illuminating +discoveries in the process, as when one set of children desired to make +a counter for a shop, and arranged their piece of wood vertically so +that the counter had no top. It was found that to these very little +people the most important part was the high front against which they +were accustomed to stand, not the flat top which they seldom saw. +Another set of children made a cart on which the farmer was to carry his +corn, and exemplified Dewey's "concrete logic of action." At first they +only wanted a board on wheels, but the corn fell off, so they nailed on +sides, but the cart never had either back or front and resembled some +seen in Early English pictures. + +Any kind of cooking that can be done is a most important kind of making; +even the very little ones can help, and they thoroughly enjoy watching. +"Her hands were in the dough from three years old," said a north-country +mother, "so I taught her how to bake, and now (at seven) she can bake as +well as I can." + +Children delight in carrying out the processes involved in the making of +flour, and they can easily thrash a little wheat, then winnow, grind +between stones and sift it. Their best efforts produce but a tiny +quantity of flour, but the experience is real, interest is great, and a +new significance attaches to the shop flour from which bread is +ultimately produced. + +Butter and cheese can easily be made, also jam, and even a Christmas +pudding. In very early Kindergartens we read of the growing, digging and +cooking of potatoes, and of the extraction of starch to be used as +paste. + +Special anniversaries require special making. We possess a doll of 1794 +to whom her old mother bequeathed her birthday. The doll's birthday is +a great event, and on the previous day each class in turn bakes tiny +loaves, or cakes or pastry for the party. + +Christmas creates a need for decorations, Christmas cards and presents, +and Empire Day and Trafalgar Day for flags, while in many places there +is an annual sale on behalf of a charity. + +It does not do to be too modern and to despise all the old-fashioned +"makings," which gave such pleasure some years ago. Kindergarten +Paper-folding has fallen into an undeserved oblivion. The making of +boats or cocked-hats from old newspaper is a great achievement for a +child, and to make pigs and purses, corner cupboards and chairs for +paper dolls is still a delight, and calls forth real concentration and +effort. + +Making in connection with some whole, such as the continuous +representation of life around us, and, at a later stage, the +re-inventing of primitive industries, or making which arises out of some +special interest may have a higher educational value, but apart from +this, children want to make for making's sake. "Can't I make something +in wood like Boy does?" asked a little girl. There is joy in the making, +joy in being a cause, and for this the children need opportunity, space +and time. There is a lesson to many of us in some verses by Miss F. +Sharpley, lately published (_Educational Handwork_), which should be +entitled, "When can I make my little Ship?" + + I'd like to cut, and cut, and cut, + And over the bare floor + To strew my papers all about, + And then to cut some more. + + I'd sweep them up so neatly, too, + But mother says, "Oh no! + There is no time, it's seven o'clock; + To bed you quickly go!" + + In school, I'd just begun to make + A pretty little ship, + But I was slow, and all the rest + Stood up to dance and skip. + + When shall I make my little ship? + At home there is no gloy, + And father builds it by himself + Or goes to buy a toy. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +STORIES + + + Let me tell the stories and I care not who makes the textbooks. + + STANLEY HALL. + +"Is it Bible story to-day or any _kind_ of a story?" was the greeting of +an eager child one morning. "Usually they were persuading him to tell +stories," writes Ebers, from his recollections of Froebel as an old man +at Keilhau. "He was never seen crossing the courtyard without a group of +the younger pupils hanging to his coat tails and clasping his arms. +Usually they were persuading him to tell stories, and when he +condescended to do so, the older ones flocked around him, too, and they +were never disappointed. What fire, what animation the old man had +retained!" + +So Froebel could write with feeling of "the joyful faces, the sparkling +eyes, the merry shouts that welcome the genuine story-teller"; he had a +right to pronounce that "the child's desire and craving for tales, for +legends, for all kinds of stories, and later on for historical accounts, +is very intense." + +Surely there was never a little one who did not crave for stories, +though here and there may be found an older child, who got none at the +right time, and who, therefore, lost that most healthy of appetites. +Most of us will agree that there is something wrong with the child who +does not like stories, but it may be that the something wrong belonged +to the mother. One such said to the Abbe Klein one day, "My children +have never asked for stories." "But, madame," was the reply, "neither +would they ask for cake if they had never eaten it, or even seen it." + +It is easy for us to find reasons why we should tell stories. We can +brush aside minor aims such as increasing the child's vocabulary. +Undoubtedly his vocabulary does increase enormously from listening to +stories, but it is difficult to imagine that any one could rise to real +heights in story-telling with this as an aim or end. That the narrator +should clothe his living story in words expressive of its atmosphere, +and that the listener should in this way gain such power over language, +that he, too, can fitly express himself is quite another matter. + +First, then, we tell stories because we love to tell them and because +the children love to listen. We choose stories that appeal to our +audience. It is something beautiful, humorous, heroic or witty that we +have found, and being social animals we want to share it. As educators +with an aim before us, we deliberately tell stories in order to place +before our children ideals of unselfishness, courage and truth. We know +from our own experience, not only in childhood, but all through life how +the story reaches our feelings as no sermon or moralising ever does, and +we have learned that "out of the heart are the issues of life." Unguided +feelings may be a danger, but the story does more than rouse +feelings--it gives opportunity for the exercise of moral judgement, for +the exercise of judgement upon questions of right and wrong. Feeling is +aroused, but it is not usually a personal feeling, so judgement is +likely to be unbiassed. It may, however, be biassed by the tone absorbed +from the environment even in childhood, as when the mother makes more of +table etiquette than of kindness, and the child, instead of condemning +Jacob's refusal to feed his hungry brother with the red pottage, as all +natural children do condemn, says: "No, Esau shouldn't have got it, +'cause he asked for it." + +As a rule, the children's standard is correct enough, and approval or +condemnation is justly bestowed, provided that the story has been chosen +to suit the child's stage of development. One little girl objected +strongly to Macaulay's ideal Roman, who "in Rome's quarrel, spared +neither land nor gold, nor son nor wife." "That wasn't right," she said +stoutly, "he ought to think of his own wife and children first." She was +satisfied, however, when it was explained to her that Horatius might be +able to save many fathers to many wives and children. In my earliest +teaching days, having found certain history stories successful with +children of seven, I tried the same with children of six, but only once. +Edmund of East Anglia dying for his faith fell very flat. "What was the +good of that?" said one little fellow, "'cause if you're dead you can't +do anything! But if you're alive, you can get more soldiers and win a +victory." The majority of the class, however, seemed to feel with +another who asked, "Why didn't he promise while the Danes were there? He +needn't have kept it when they went away." + +Another way of stating our aim in telling stories to children is that a +story presents morality in the concrete. Virtues and vices _per se_ +neither attract nor repel, they simply mean nothing to a child, until +they are presented as the deeds of man or woman, boy or girl, living and +acting in a world recognised as real. One telling story is that of the +boy who got hold of Miss Edgeworth's _Parent's Assistant_ and who said +to his mother, "Mother, I've been reading 'The Little Merchants' and I +know now how horrid it is to cheat and tell lies." "I have been telling +you that ever since you could speak," said his mother, to which the boy +answered, "Yes, I know, but that didn't interest me." Our children had +been told the story of how the Countess of Buchan crowned the Bruce, a +duty which should have been performed by her brother the Earl of Fife, +who, however, was too much afraid of the wrath of English Edward. A few +days after, an argument arose and one little girl was heard to say, "I +don't want to be brave," and a boy rejoined, "Girls don't need to be +brave." I said, "Which would you rather be, the Countess who put the +crown on the King's head, or the brother who ran away?" And quickly came +the answer, "Oh! the brave Countess," from the very child who didn't +want to be brave! + +Froebel sums up the teacher's aim in the words: "The telling of stories +is a truly strengthening spirit-bath, it gives opportunity for the +exercise of all mental powers, opportunity for testing individual +judgement and individual feelings." + +But why is it that children crave for stories? "Education," says Miss +Blow, a veteran Froebelian, "is a series of responses to indicated +needs," and undoubtedly the need for stories is as pressing as the need +to explore, to experiment and to construct. What is the unconscious need +that is expressed in this craving, why is this desire so deeply +implanted by Nature? So far, no one seems to have given a better answer +than Froebel has done, when he says that the desire for stories comes +out of the need to understand life, that it is in fact rooted in the +instinct of investigation. "Only the study of the life of others can +furnish points of comparison with the life the boy himself has +experienced. The story concerns other men, other circumstances, other +times and places, yet the hearer seeks his own image, he beholds it and +no one knows that he sees it." + +Man cannot be master of his surroundings till he investigates and so +gathers knowledge. But he has to adapt himself not only to the physical +but to the human environment in which he lives. In stories of all +kinds, children study human life in all kinds of circumstances, nay, if +the story is sufficiently graphic they almost go through the experiences +narrated, almost live the new life. + +With very young children the most popular of all stories is the "The +Three Bears" and it is worth a little analysis. A little girl runs away, +and running away is a great temptation to little girls and boys, as +great an adventure as running off to sea will be at a later stage. She +goes into a wood and meets bears: what else could you expect! The story +then deals with really interesting things, porridge, basins, chairs and +beds. The strong contrast of the bears' voices fascinates children, and +just when retribution might descend upon her, the heroine escapes and +gets safe home. Children revel in the familiar details, but these alone +would not suffice, there must be adventure, excitement, romance. One +feels that Southey had the assistance of a child in making his story so +complete, and we can hear the questions: "How did the big bear know that +the little girl had tasted his porridge? Oh, because she had left the +spoon. How did he know that she had sat in his chair? Because she left +the cushion untidy, and as for the little bear's chair, why, she sat +that right out." + +That quite little children desire fresh experiences or adventures and +really exciting ones, is shown by the following stories made by +children. The first two are by a little girl of two-and-a-half, the +third is taken from Lady Glenconner's recently published _The Sayings of +the Children_. + +"Once upon a time there was a giant and a little girl, and he told a +little girl not to kiss a bear acos he would bite her, and the little +girl climbed right on his back and she jumped right down the stairs and +the bear came walking after the little girl and kissing her, and she +called it a little bear and it was a big bear! (immense amusement). + +"Once upon a time there was a little piggy and he was right in a big +green and white fire and he didn't hurt hisself, and (told as a +tremendous secret) he touched a fire with his handie. 'What a naughty +piggy,' said Auntie, 'and what next?' He jumped right out of a fire. +Auntie, can you smile? (For aunties cannot smile when people are +naughty.)" + +The third story is said to have been filled with pauses due to a certain +slowness of speech, but the pauses are "lit by the lightning flash of a +flying eyebrow, and the impressive nodding of a silken head." + +"Once, you know, there was a fight between a little pony and a lion, and +the lion sprang against the pony and the pony put his back against a +stack and bited towards the lion, and the lion rolled over and the pony +jumped up, and he ran up ... and the pony turned round and the lion ..." + +His mother felt she had lost the thread. "Which won?" she asked. "Which +won!" he repeated and after a moment's pause he said, "Oh! the little +bear." + +This surprising conclusion points to a stage when it is difficult for a +child to hold the thread of a narrative, and at this stage, along with +simple stories of little ones like themselves, repetition or +"accumulation" stories seem to give most pleasure. "Henny Penny" and +"Billy Bobtail"--told by Jacobs as "How Jack went to seek his +Fortune"--are prime favourites. Repetition of rhythmic phrases has a +great attraction, as in "Three Little Pigs," with its delightful +repetition of "Little pig, little pig, let me come in," "No, no, by the +hair of my chinny chin chin," "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll +blow your house in." + +Very soon, however, the children are ready for the time-honoured +fairy-tale or folk-tale. + +The orthodox beginning, "Once upon a time, in a certain country there +lived ...," fits the stage when neither time nor place is of any +consequence. Animals speak, well why not, we can! The fairies +accomplish wonders, again why not? Wonderful things do happen and they +must have a wonderful cause, and, as one child said, if there never had +been any fairies, how could people have written stories about them? +Goodness is rewarded and wickedness is punished, as is only right in the +child's eyes, and goodness usually means kindness, the virtue best +understood of children. Obedience is no doubt the nursery virtue in the +eyes of authority, but kindness is much more human and attractive. + +"Both child and man," says Froebel, "desire to know the significance of +what happens around them; this is the foundation of Greek choruses, +especially in tragedy, and of many productions in the realm of legends +and fairy-tales. It is the result of the deep-rooted consciousness, the +slumbering premonition of being surrounded by that which is higher and +more conscious than ourselves." The fairy tale is the child's mystery +land, his recognition that there are more things in heaven and earth +than are dreamt of in our philosophy or in our science. Dr. Montessori +protests against the idea that fairy-tales have anything to do with the +religious sense, saying that "faith and fable are as the poles apart." +She does not understand that it is for their truth that we value +fairy-tales. The truths they teach are such as that courage and +intelligence can conquer brute strength, that love can brave and can +overcome all dangers and always finds the lost, that kindness begets +kindness and always wins in the end. The good and the faithful marries +the princess--or the prince--and lives happy ever after. And assuredly +if he does not marry his princess, he will not live happy, and if she +does not marry the prince, she will live in no beautiful palace. And +there is more. Take for instance, the story of "Toads and Diamonds." The +courteous maiden who goes down the well, who gives help where it is +needed, and who works faithfully for Mother Holle,[21] comes home again +dropping gold and diamonds when she speaks. Her silence may be silver, +but her speech is golden, and her words give light in dark places. The +selfish and lazy girl, who refuses help and whose work is unfaithful and +only done for reward, has her reward. Henceforth, when she speaks, down +fall toads and snakes her words are cold as she is, they may glitter but +they sting. + +[Footnote 21: This version is probably a mixture of the versions of +Perrault and Grimm but Mother Holle shaking her feathers is worth +bringing in.] + +Fairy- and folk-tales give wholesome food to the desire for adventure, +whereas in what we may call realistic stories, adventure is chiefly +confined to the naughty child, who is therefore more attractive than the +good and stodgy. Even among fairy-tales we may select. "Beauty and the +Beast" and "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Snow-white and Rose-red" are +distinctly preferable to "Jack the Giant Killer" or "Puss in Boots," +while "Bluebeard" cannot be told. It seems to me that children can often +safely read for themselves stories the adult cannot well tell. The +child's notion of justice is crude, bad is bad, and whether embodied in +an ogre or in Pharaoh of Egypt, it must be got rid of, put out of the +story. No child is sorry for the giant when Jack's axe cleaves the +beanstalk, and as for Pharaoh, "Well, it's a good thing he's drowned, +for he was a bad man, wasn't he?" Death means nothing to children, as a +rule, except disappearance. When children can read for themselves, they +will take from their stories what suits their stage of development, +their standard of judgement, and we need not interfere, even though they +regard with perfect calm what seems gruesome to the adult. + +As a valuable addition to the best-known fairy-tales, we may mention one +or two others: _Grannie's Wonderful Chair_ is a delightful set of +stories, full of charming pictures, though the writer, Frances Brown, +was born blind. Mrs. Ewing's stories for children, _The Brownies_, with +_Amelia and the Dwarfs_ and _Timothy's Shoes_, are inimitable, and her +_Old-Fashioned Fairy Tales_ are very good, but not for very young +children. Her other stories are certainly about children, but are, as a +rule, written for adults. + +George Macdonald's stories are all too well known and too universally +beloved to need recommendation. But in telling them, _e.g._ "The +Princess and the Goblins" or "At the Back of the North Wind," the young +teacher must remember that they are beautiful allegories. Before she +ventures to tell them, the beginner should ponder well what the +poet--for these are prose poems--means, and who is represented by the +beautiful Great-great-grandmother always old and always young, or "North +Wind" who must sink the ship but is able to bear the cry from it, +because of the sound of a far-off song, which seems to swallow up all +fear and pain and to set the suffering "singing it with the rest." + +_Water-Babies_ is a bridge between the fairy-tale of a child and equally +wonderful and beautiful fairy-tales of Nature, and it, too, is full of +meaning. If the teacher has gained this, the children will not lag +behind. It was a child of backward development, who, when she heard of +Mother Carey, "who made things make themselves," said, "Oh! I know who +that was, that was God." + +Such stories must be spread out over many days of telling, but they gain +rather than lose from that, though for quite young children the stories +do require to be short and simple, and often repeated. If children get +plenty of these, the stage for longer stories is reached wonderfully +soon. + +Pseudo-scientific stories, in which, for example, a drop of water +discusses evaporation and condensation, are not stories at all, but a +kind of mental meat lozenge, most unsatisfying and probably not even +fulfilling their task of supplying nourishment in form of facts. Fables +usually deal with the faults and failings of grown-ups, and may be left +for children to read for themselves, to extract what suits them. + +Illustrations are not always necessary, but if well chosen they are +always a help. Warne has published some delightfully illustrated stories +for little children, "The Three Pigs," "Hop o' my Thumb," "Beauty and +the Beast," etc. They are illustrated by H.M. Brock and by Leslie +Brooke, and they really are illustrated. The artists have enjoyed the +stories and children equally enjoy the pictures. + +The teacher must consider what ideas she is presenting and whether words +alone can convey them properly. We must remember that most children +visualise and that they can only do so from what they have seen. So, +without illustrations, a castle may be a suburban house with Nottingham +lace curtains and an aspidistra, while Perseus or Moses may differ +little from the child's own father or brothers. Again, town children +cannot visualise hill and valley, forest and moor, brook and river, not +to mention jungles and snowfields and the trackless ocean. It is not +easy to find pictures to give any idea of such scenes, but it is worth +while to look for them, and it is also worth while for the teacher to +visualise, and to practise vivid describing of what she sees. Children, +of course, only want description when it is really a part of the story, +as when Tom crosses the moor, descends Lewthwaite Crag, or travels from +brook to river and from river to sea. + +As to how a story should be told, opinions differ. It must be well told +with a well-modulated voice and with slight but effective gesture. But +the model should be the story as told in the home, not the story told +from a platform. The children need not be spellbound all the time, but +should be free to ask sensible questions and to make childlike comments +in moderation. The language should fit the subject; beautiful thoughts +need beauty of expression, high and noble deeds must be told in noble +language. A teacher who wishes to be a really good teller of stories +must herself read good literature, and she will do well not only to +prepare her stories with care, but to consider the language she uses in +daily life. There is a happy medium between pedantry and the latest +variety of slang, and if daily speech is careless and slipshod, it is +difficult to change it for special occasions. Our stories should not +only prepare for literature, they should be literature, and those who +realise what the story may do for children will not grudge time spent in +preparation. If the story is to present an ideal, let us see that we +present a worthy one; if it is to lead the children to judge of right +and wrong, let us see that we give them time and opportunity to judge +and that we do not force their judgement. + +Lastly, if the story is to make the children feel, let us see that the +feeling is on the right side, that they shrink from all that is mean, +selfish, cruel and cowardly, and sympathise with whatsoever things are +true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good +report. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +IN GRASSY PLACES + + + My heart leaps up when I behold + A rainbow in the sky, + So was it when my life began + So be it when I shall grow old, + Or let me die. + +What is the real aim of what we call Nature-lessons, Nature-teaching, +Nature-work? It is surely to foster delight in beauty, so that our +hearts shall leap up at sight of the rainbow until we die. For, indeed, +if we lose that uplift of the heart, some part of us has died already. +Yet even Wordsworth mourns that nothing can bring back the hour of +splendour in the grass and glory in the flower! + +In its answer to the question "What is the chief end of man?" the old +Shorter Catechism has a grand beginning: "Man's chief end is to glorify +God and to enjoy Him for ever." Do we lose the vision because we are not +bold enough to take that enjoyment as our chief end? To enjoy good is to +enjoy God. + +Our ends or aims are our desires, and Mr. Clutton Brock, in his +_Ultimate Belief_, urges teachers to recognise that the spirit of man +has three desires, three ends, and that it cannot be satisfied till it +attains all three. Man desires to do right, so far as he sees it, for +the sake of doing right; he desires to gain knowledge or to know for the +sake of knowing, for the sake of truth; and he desires beauty. + +"We do not value that which we call beautiful because it is true, or +because it is good, but because it is beautiful. There is a glory of the +universe which we call truth which we discover and apprehend, and a +glory of the universe which we call beauty and which we discover or +apprehend." + +Froebel begins his _Education of Man_ by an inquiry into the reason for +our existence and his answer is that _all_ things exist to make manifest +the spirit, the _elan vital_, which brought them into being. "_Sursum +corda_," says Stevenson, + + Lift up your hearts + Art and Blue Heaven + April and God's Larks + Green reeds and sky scattering river + A Stately Music + Enter God. + +And Browning? "If you get simple beauty and nought else, you get about +the best thing God invents." + +To let children get that beauty should be our aim, and they must get it +in their own way. "Life in and with Nature and with the fair silent +things of Nature, should be fostered by parents and others," Froebel +tells us, "as a chief fulcrum of child-life, and this is accomplished +chiefly in play, which is at first simply natural life." + +Let us surmount the ruts of our teaching experience and climb high +enough to look back upon our own childhood, to see where beauty called +to us, where we attained to beauty. + +Among my own earliest recollections come a first view of the starry sky +and the discovery of Heaven. No one called attention to the stars, they +spoke themselves to a child of four or five and declared "the glory of +God." Heaven was not on high among these glorious stars, however. It was +a grassy place with flowers and sunshine. It had to be Heaven because +you went through the cemetery to reach it, and because it was so bright +and flowery and there were no graves in it. I never found it again, +because I had forgotten how to get there. + +Another very early memory is one of grief, to see from the window how +the gardener was mowing down all the daisies, and there were so many, in +the grass; and yet another is of a high, grassy, sunny field with a +little stream running far down below. It was not really far and there +was nothing particularly beautiful in the place to grown-up eyes, but +the beholder was very small and loved it dearly. To his Art and Blue +Heaven Stevenson might have added Sun and Green Grass. For he knew what +grassy places are to the child, and that "happy play in grassy places" +might well be Heaven to the little one. + +A most interesting little book called _What is a Kindergarten?_[22] was +published some years ago in America. It is written by a landscape +gardener, and contains most valuable suggestions as to how best to use +for a Kindergarten or Nursery School plots of ground which may be +secured for that purpose. Naturally the writer has much to say on the +laying out and stocking the available space to the best advantage, +choosing the most suitable positions for the house, where the teacher +must live, he says, to supply the atmosphere of a home; for animal +hutches, for sand-heaps and seesaws; for the necessary shelter, for the +children's gardens, and for the lawn, for even on his smallest plan, a +"twenty-five-foot lot," we find "room for a spot of green." Later he +explains that for this green one must use what will grow, and if grass +will not perhaps clover will. The way in which the trees and plants are +chosen is most suggestive. Beauty and suitability are always considered, +but he remembers his own youth, and also considers the special joys of +childhood. For it is not Nature lessons that come into his calculations +but "the mere association of plants and children." So the birch tree is +chosen, partly for its grace and beauty, but also because of its bark, +for one can scribble on its papery surface; the hazel, because children +delight in the catkins with their showers of golden dust, and the nut +"hidden in its cap of frills and tucks." And he adds: "How much more +alluring than the naked fruit from the grocer's sack are these nuts, +especially when dots for eyes and mouth are added, and a whole little +face is tucked within this natural bonnet." + +[Footnote 22: G. Hansen, pub. Elder, Morgan & Shepherd, San Francisco, +1891.] + +In addition to the flowers chosen for beauty of colour, this lover of +children and of gardens wants Canterbury Bells to ring, Forget-me-nots +because they can stand so much watering, and "flowers with faces," +pansies, sweet-peas, lupins, snapdragons, monkey flowers, red and white +dead nettles, and red clover to bring the bees. Some of these are chosen +because the child can do something with them, can find their own uses +for them, can play with them. And, speaking generally, playing with them +is the child's way of appreciating both plant and animal. Picking +feathery grasses, red-tipped daisies, sweet-smelling clover and golden +dandelions; feeding snapdragons with fallen petals, finding what's +o'clock by blowing dandelion fruits, paying for dock tea out of a fairy +purse, shading poppy dolls with woodruff parasols, that is how a child +enjoys the beauty of colour, scent and form. He gets not more but less +beauty when he must sit in a class and answer formal questions. "Must we +talk about them before we take the flowers home?" asked a child one day; +"they are so pretty." Clearly, the "talk" was going to lessen, not to +deepen the beauty. And animals? The child plays with cat and dog, he +feeds the chickens, the horse and the donkey, he watches with the utmost +interest caterpillar, snail and spider, but he does not want to be asked +questions about them--he does want to talk and perhaps to ask the +questions himself--nor does he always want even to draw, paint or model +them. Mostly he wants to watch, and perhaps just to stir them up a +little if they do not perform to his satisfaction. He does not +necessarily mean to tease, only why should he watch an animal that does +nothing? "The animals haven't any habits when I watch them," a little +girl once said to Professor Arthur Thomson. + +All children should live in the country at least for part of the year. +They should know fields and gardens, and have intercourse with hens and +chickens, cows and calves, sheep and lambs; should make hay and see the +corn cut. They would still want the wisely sympathetic teacher, not to +arouse interest--that is not necessary, but to keep it alive by keeping +pace with the child's natural development. It is not merely living in +the country that develops the little child's interest in shape and +colour and scent into something deeper. People still "spend all their +time in the fields and forests and see and feel nothing of the beauties +of Nature, and of their influence on the human heart"; and this, said +Froebel--and it is just what Mr. Clutton Brock is saying now--is because +the child "fails to find the same feelings among adults." Two effects +follow: the child feels the want of sympathy and loses some respect for +the elder, and also he loses his original joy in Nature. + +"There is in every human being the passionate desire for this +self-forgetfulness--to which it attains when it is aware of beauty--and +a passionate delight in it when it comes. The child feels that delight +among spring flowers; we can all remember how we felt it in the first +apprehension of some new beauty of the universe, when we ceased to be +little animals and became aware that there was this beauty outside us to +be loved. And most of us must remember, too, the strange indifference of +our elders. They were not considering the lilies of the field; they did +not want us to get our feet wet among them. We might be forgetting +ourselves, but they were remembering us; and we became suddenly aware of +the bitterness of life and the tyranny of facts. Now parents and nurses +(and teachers) have, of course, to remember children when they forget +themselves. But they ought to be aware that the child, when he forgets +himself in the beauty of the world, is passing through a sacred +experience which will enrich and glorify the whole of his life. +Children, because they are not engaged in the struggle for life, are +more capable of this aesthetic self-forgetfulness than they will +afterwards be; and they need all of it that they can get, so that they +may remember it and prize it in later years. In these heaven-sent +moments they know what disinterestedness is. They have a test by which +they can value all future experience and know the dullness and staleness +of worldly success. Therefore it is a sin to check, more than need be, +their aesthetic delight" (_The Ultimate Belief_). + +We cannot all give to our children the experiences we should like to +supply, but if we are clear that we are aiming at enjoyment of Nature, +and not at supplying information, we shall come nearer to what is +desirable. For years, almost since it opened in 1908, Miss Reed of the +Michaelis Free Kindergarten has taken her children to the country. It +means a great deal of work and responsibility, it means collecting funds +and giving up one's scanty leisure, it means devoted service, but it has +been done, and it has been kept up even during war time, though with +great difficulty as to funds, because of the inestimable benefit to the +children. Miss Stokes of the Somers Town Nursery School secured a +country holiday for her little ones in various ways, partly through the +Children's Country Holiday Fund, but since the war she has been unable +to secure help of that kind, and has managed to take the children away +to a country cottage. A paragraph in the report says: "The children in +the country had a delightful time, and what was seen and done during +their holiday is still talked about continually. These joys entered into +all the work of the nursery school and helped the children for months +to retain a breath of the country in their London surroundings. They +realised much from that visit. Cows now have horns, wasps have wings and +fly--alas they sting also. Hens sit on eggs, an almost unbelievable +thing. Fishes, newts, tadpoles, were all met with and greeted as +friends. Children and helpers alike returned home full of health and +vigour and longing for the next time. One little maid wept bitterly, and +there seemed no joy in life at home until she came across the school +rabbit, which was tenderly caressed, and consoled her with memories of +the country and hopes for future visits." + +In the days when teachers argued about the differences between +Object-lessons and Nature-lessons, one point insisted upon was that the +Nature-lesson far surpassed the Object-lesson because it dealt with +life. + +We have learned now that we should as much as we can surround our +children with life and growth. Even indoors it is easy to give the joy +of growing seeds and bulbs and of opening chestnut branches: without any +cruelty we can let them enjoy watching snails and worms and we can keep +caterpillars or silkworms and so let them drink their fill of the +miracle of development. But beauty comes to children in very different +ways, and always it is Nature, though it may not be life. + +Children revel in colour, colour for its own sake, and should be allowed +to create it. In a modern novel there is a description of a mother doing +her washing in the open air and "at her feet sat a baby intent upon the +assimilation of a gingerbread elephant, but now and then tugging at her +skirts and holding up a fat hand. Each time he was rewarded by a dab of +soapsuds, which she deposited good-naturedly in his palm. He received it +with solemn delight; watching the roseate play of colour as the bubbles +shrank and broke, and the lovely iridescent treasure vanished in a smear +of dirty wetness while he looked. Then he would beat his fists +delightedly against his mother's dress and presently demand another +handful." + +The following notes from another student's report show how this may +spring naturally out of the children's life:[23] + +[Footnote 23: Miss Edith Jones.] + +"We were spinning the teetotum yesterday and it did not spin well so we +made new ones. While the children were painting their tops, Oliver grew +very eager when he found he could fill in all the spaces in different +colours, but Betty made her colours very insipid. I want them to get the +feeling of beautiful colour, so I shall show them a book with the +colours graded in it, and we shall each have a paper and paint on it all +the rich colours we can think of. The colours will probably run into +each other, and so the children will get ideas about the blending of +colours, but I will watch to see that they do not get the colour too +wet. If they are not tired of painting I want to show them a painted +circle to turn on a string and they can make these for themselves, using +the colours they have already used. + +"I want the children to do some group work, and I thought we might make +a village with shops and houses under the trees in the garden and have +little men and women to represent ourselves. The suggestion will +probably have to come from the teacher, but the children will probably +have the desire when it is suggested, and I hope we shall be able to go +on enlarging our town on the pattern of the towns the children know. If +they want bricks for their houses they can dig clay in the garden. + +"_Report_.--The children wanted to make a tea-set, so we carried our +clay outside. They began discussing why their china would not be so fine +as the china at home, and I said the clay might be different. Then +Bernard asked what sort of china we should get from the clay in the +garden, and I told him that kind of clay was generally made into +bricks, and suggested making bricks. From that we went on to the use of +bricks, and to-morrow we are going to dig, and make bricks to build a +town. Bernard is anxious to know how we shall make mortar. Just then it +started to rain, and Bernard said that if the sun kept shining and it +rained hard enough we should have a rainbow, and he wished it would come +so as to see the beautiful colours. I thought this rather a coincidence, +and told him I had a book with all the rainbow colours in it. They asked +to see it, so I showed it and suggested painting the colours ourselves. +Those who had finished their dishes started, and we talked about the +richness of the colours. One or two children started with very watery +colour, so I showed them the book and began to paint myself. They all +enjoyed it very much, especially the different colours made where the +colours ran into each other. The results pleased them and they are to be +used as wall-papers to sell in our town, but Sybil wants to have a toy +shop, and she is going to make a painted circle for it like the one I +showed." + +This is clearly the time to show a glass prism and to let these children +make rainbows for themselves, to tell the story of Iris, and to use any +colour material, Milton Bradley spectrum papers, Montessori silks, +colour top, and anything else so long as the children keep up their +interest. The interest in colour need never die out; it will probably +show itself now in finer discrimination, and more careful reproduction +of the colours of flowers and leaves, and the sympathy given will +heighten interest and increase enjoyment. + +Here are some notes showing children's numerous activities in a suburban +garden where they were allowed to visit a hen and chickens. + +"_Monday_[24]--To-day the children took up their mustard and cress, dug +and raked the ground ready for transplanting the lettuces. After their +rest we went to see the chickens at the Hall (the Students' Hostel), and +the Hall garden seemed to them a wonderful place. They watched the +trains go in and out of the station at the foot of the garden, and +explored all the side doors, going up and down all the steps and into +the cycle shed. They helped Miss S. to stir the soot water, then they +went to the grassy bank and ran down it, slid down it, and rolled down +it. They peeped over the wall into the next garden, they peeped through +holes in the fences and finished up with a swing in the hammock. Each +child had twenty swings, and they enjoyed counting in time with the +swaying of the hammock, and swayed their own bodies as they pushed. + +[Footnote 24: These notes are part of those already given on pp. 68-71.] + +"Another example of love and rhythm was when they went to say good-bye +to the hen and chickens, and kept on repeating 'Good-bye, good-bye' all +together, nodding their heads at the same time. + +"I did not know if I should have let them do so much, but I was not sure +that we should be allowed to come back and I wanted them to enjoy the +garden. + +"_Wednesday_.--First we watered the lettuces we had transplanted, and +transplanted more. Then, as we had permission to come again, we took +some of our lettuces to the chickens. We saw the mother hen with one +wing spread right out, and the children were much surprised to see how +large it was. We looked at the roses, and saw how the bud of yesterday +was full blown to-day. The children again ran down and rolled down the +bank, and had turns in the hammock, this time to the rhythm of "Margery +Daw" sung twice through, and then counting up to twenty. Very often +they went to watch the trains. Cecil is particularly interested in them, +and wanted to know how long was the time between. He said three minutes, +I guessed nine, but we found they were irregular. In the intervals while +waiting for a train to pass, we played a 'listening' game, listening to +what sounds we could hear. A thrush came and sang right over our heads, +so the listening was concentrated on his song, and we tried to say what +we thought he meant to say. One child said, 'He says, "Come here, come +here,"' but they found this too difficult. We also watched a boy +cleaning the station windows, and Dorothy said, 'Miss Beer, isn't it +wonderful that you can see through glass?' I agreed, but made no other +remark because I did not know what to say. + +"We rested outside to-day under an almond tree. I pointed out how pretty +the sky looked when you only saw it peeping through the leaves. After +rest the children noticed feathery grasses, and spent the rest of the +morning gathering them. I suggested that they should see how many kinds +they could find. They found three, but were not enthusiastic about it, +being content just to pluck, but they were delighted when they found +specially long and beautiful grasses hidden deep under a leafy bush. +They also found clover leaves, and I told them its name and sang to them +the verse from 'The Bee,' with 'The sweet-smelling clover, he, humming, +hangs over.' + +"_Thursday._--Brushed and dusted the room, gave fresh water to the +flowers, and then went to gardening. The children were delighted to find +ladybirds on the lettuces they were transplanting, and we also noticed +how the cherries were ripening. + +"They joined the Transition Class for games. Later, while playing with +the sand, Cecil made a discovery. He said, 'Miss Beer, do you know, I +know what sand is, it's little tiny tiny stones.'" + +It may be worth while to notice some things in these notes. First the +pleasure in exploring the new surroundings and then the variety of +delights. Our landscape gardener mentions that "any slope to our grounds +should be welcomed.... For as we leave the level land and flee to the +mountains to spend our vacation, so will a child avoid the street and +seek the gutter and the bank on the unimproved lot to enjoy its +pastime." Our own children have been fortunate enough to have a bank for +their play, and though, unfortunately, extension of buildings has taken +away much of this, we have had abundant opportunity to see the value of +sloping ground. Then there are the discoveries, the feathery grasses, +especially those which were hidden, the ladybirds, that sand is really +"tiny tiny stones"--has every adult noticed that, or is sand "just +sand"?--and the "wonder" that we can see through glass, a wonder +realised by a little girl of four years old. Also we can notice what the +children did not desire. They liked listening to the thrush, but to make +out what the thrush was "saying" was beyond them. They liked gathering +feathery grasses, but to sort these into different kinds gave no +pleasure, though older children would have enjoyed trying to find many +varieties. + +Perhaps teachers with a fair amount of experience might have felt like +the beginner who frankly says, "I didn't say anything more because I +didn't know what to say," when Dorothy discovered the wonderfulness of +glass. Perhaps we are silent because the child has gone ahead of us. It +is wonderful, but we have never thought about it. In such cases we must, +as Froebel says, "become a learner with the child" and humbly, with real +sympathy and earnestness, ask, "Is it wonderful, I suppose it is, but I +never thought about it, why do _you_ call it wonderful?" If the child +answers, it is well, if not the teacher can go on thinking aloud, +thinking with the child. "Let's think what other things we can see +through." We can never understand it, we can only reach the fact of +"transparency" as a wonderful property of certain substances and +consider which possess this magic quality. There is water of course, and +there is jelly or gelatine, but these are not hard, they are not stones +as glass seems to be. The child will be pleased too to see a crystal or +a bit of mica, but the main thing is that we should not imagine we have +disposed of the wonder by a mere name with a glib, "Oh, that's just +because it's transparent," but that we realise, and reinforce and +deepen the child's sense of wonderfulness. So teacher and child enter +into the thoughts of Him + + Who endlessly was teaching + Above my spirits utmost reaching, + What love can do in the leaf or stone, + So that to master this alone, + This done in the stone or leaf for me, + I must go on learning endlessly. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A WAY TO GOD + + + Wonders chiefly at himself + Who can tell him what he is + Or how meet in human elf + Coming and past eternities. + + EMERSON. + +It is of set purpose that this short chapter, referring to what we +specially call religion, is placed immediately after that on the child's +attitude to Nature. The actual word religion, which, to him, expressed +being bound, did not appeal to Froebel so much as one which expressed +One-ness with God. + +As a son can share the aspirations of his father, so man "a thought of +God" + + can aspire + From earth's level where blindly creep + Things perfected more or less + To the heaven's height far and steep. + +But we begin at earth's level, and a child's religion must be largely a +natural religion. + +How to introduce a child to religion is a problem which must have many +solutions. In Froebel's original training course, his Kindergarten +teachers were to be "trained to the observation and care of the earliest +germs of the religious instinct in man." These earliest beginnings he +found in different sources. First come the relations between the child +and the family, beginning with the mother; fatherhood and motherhood +must be realised before the child can reach up to the Father of all. +Then there is the atmosphere of the home, the real reverence for higher +things, if it exists, affects even a little child more than is usually +supposed, but children are quick to distinguish reality from mere +conventionality though the distinction is only half conscious. Reality +impresses, while conventionality is apt to bore. Even to quite young +children Froebel's ideal mother would begin to show God in nature. Some +one put into the flowers the scent and colour that delight the +child--some one whom he cannot see. The sun, moon and stars give light +and beauty, and "love is what they mean to show." This mother teaches +her little one some sort of prayer, and the gesture of reverence, the +folded hands, affects the child even if the words mean little or +nothing. Akin to the "feeling of community" between the child and his +family is the joining in religious worship in church, "the entrance in a +common life," and the emotional effect of the deep tones of the organ. +Then there is the interdependence of the universe: the baby is to thank +Jenny for his bread and milk, Peter for mowing the grass for the cow, +"until you come to the last ring of all, God's father love for all." +Next to this comes the child's service; others work for him and he also +must serve. "Every age has its duties, and duties are not burdens," and +it is necessary that feeling should have expression, "for even a child's +love unfostered (by action in form of service) droops and dies away." +There is also the desire for approbation. The child "must be roused to +good by inclination, love, and respect, through the opinion of others +about him," and this should be guided until he learns to care chiefly +for the approval of the God within. Right ideals must be provided: +religion is "a continually advancing endeavour," and its reward must +not be a material reward. We ought to lift and strengthen human nature, +but we degrade and weaken it when we seek to lead it to good conduct by +a bait, even if this bait beckons to a future world. The consciousness +of having lived worthily should be our highest reward. Froebel goes so +far as to say that instead of teaching "the good will be happy," and +leaving children to imagine that this means an outer or material +happiness, we ought rather to teach that in seeking the highest we may +lose the lower. "Renunciation, the abandonment of the outer for the sake +of securing the inner, is the condition for attaining highest +development. Dogmatic religious instruction should rather show that +whoever truly and earnestly seeks the good, must needs expose himself to +a life of outer oppression, pain and want, anxiety and care." Even a +child, though not a baby, can be led to see that to do good for outer +reward is but enlightened selfishness. + +These suggestions are taken for the most part from the _Mother Songs_, +some from _The Education of Man_. Each parent or teacher must use what +seems to her or to him most valuable. Some may from the beginning desire +to teach the child a baby prayer, or at least to let him hear "God bless +you." Others may prefer to wait for a more intelligent stage, perhaps +when the child begins to ask the invariable questions--who made the +flowers, the animals; who made me? If so, we must remember that children +see, and hear, and think, that often in thoughtless ejaculations, or in +those of heartfelt thankfulness, children may hear the name of God; that +a simple story may have something that stirs thought; that churches are +much in evidence; and that the conversation of little playfellows may +take an unexpected turn. + +To me it seems a great mistake to put before young children ideas which +are really beyond the conception of an adult. There are many stories +told of how children receive teaching about the Omniscience or +Omnipotence of God. The stories sound irreverent, and are often repeated +as highly amusing, but they are really more pathetic. Miss Shinn tells +of one poor mite who resented being constantly watched and said, "I will +not be so tagged," and another said, "Then I think He's a very rude +man," when, in reply to her puzzled questions, she was told that God +could see her even in her bath. And the boy who said, "If I had done a +thing, could God make it that I hadn't?" must have made his instructor +feel somewhat foolish. + +It never does harm for us honestly to confess our own limitations and +our ignorance, and that is better than weak materialistic explanations, +which after all explain nothing. To tell a child that the Great Father +is always grieved when we are unkind or cowardly, always ready to help +us and to put kindness and bravery into our hearts, that we know He has +power to do that if we will let Him, but that His power is beyond our +understanding: to say that He is able to keep us in all danger, and that +even if we are killed we are safe in His keeping, surely that is enough. +He who blessed the children uttered strong words against him who caused +the little ones to stumble. + +"From every point, from every object of nature and life there is a way +to God.... The things of nature form a more beautiful ladder between +heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob.... It is decked with flowers, +and angels with children's eyes beckon us toward it." This is true, but +it does not mean that we are always to be trying to make things sacred, +but that we are to realise that all beauty and all knowledge and all +sympathy are already sacred, and that to love such things is to love +something whereby the Creator makes Himself known to us, that to enjoy +them is to enjoy God. + +Religion is not always explained as implying the idea of being bound, +but sometimes as being set free from the bonds of the lower or animal +nature. In this sense Mr. Clutton Brock may well call it "a sacred +experience" for the child, when he forgets himself in the beauty of the +world. If we could all rise to a wider conception of the meaning of the +word religion, we should know that it comes into all the work of the +day, that it does not depend alone upon that special Scripture lesson +which may become mere routine. + +The greatest Teacher of all taught by stories, and when any story +deepens our feelings for human nature and our recognition of the heights +to which it can rise, when it makes us long for faith, courage, and love +to go and do likewise, who shall say that this is not religious +teaching, teaching which helps to deliver us from the bonds that hamper +spiritual ascent. + +Many of us will feel with Froebel that the fairy-tale, with its +slumbering premonition of being surrounded by that which is higher and +more "conscious than ourselves,"[25] has its place, and an important +place, in religious development. + +[Footnote 25: P. 85.] + +The "fairy sense," says Dr. Greville Macdonald, "is innate as the +religious sense itself ... the fairy stories best beloved are those +steeped in meaning--the unfathomable meaning of life ... such stories +teach--even though no lesson was intended--the wisdom of the Book of +Job: wisdom that by this time surely should have made religious teaching +saner, and therefore more acceptable."[26] + +[Footnote 26: "The Fairy-Tale in Education," by Greville Macdonald, M.D., +_Child Life_, Dec. 1918.] + +Fairies, like angels, may be God's messengers. A child who had heard of +St. Cuthbert as a shepherd boy being carried home from the hillside when +hurt, by a man on a white horse, repeated the story in her own words, +"and he thought it was a fairy of God's sent to help him." + +There is, however, nothing the children love more than the Bible story, +the story which shows, so simply, humanity struggling as the children +struggle, failing as the children fail, and believing and trusting as +the children believe, and as we at least strive to do, in the ultimate +victory of Right over Wrong, of Good over Evil. But just because the +stories are often so beautiful and so inspiring, the teacher should have +freedom to deal with them as the spirit moves her. + +What experience has taught me in this way has already been passed on to +younger teachers in _Education by Life_, and there seems little more to +add. + + Wonders chiefly at himself + Who can tell him what he is. + +It is for us to tell the child what he is, that he, too, like all the +things he loves, is a manifestation of God. "I am a being alive and +conscious upon this earth; a descendant of ancestors who rose by gradual +processes from lower forms of animal life, and with struggle and +suffering became man."[27] + +[Footnote 27: _The Substance of Faith Allied with Science_, Sir Oliver +Lodge (Methuen).] + +"The colossal remains of shattered mountain chains speak of the greatness +of God; and man is encouraged and lifts himself up by them, feeling +within himself the same spirit and power."[28] + +[Footnote 28: _The Education of Man_.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +RHYTHM + + + Lo with the ancient roots of Man's nature + Twines the eternal passion of song. + +The very existence of lullabies, not to mention their abundance in all +countries, the very rockers on the cradles testify to the rhythmic +nature of man in infancy. + +In his _Mother Songs_, Froebel couples rhythm with harmony of all kinds, +not only musical harmony but harmony of proportion and colour, and in +urging the very early training of "the germs of all this," he gives +perhaps the chief reason for training. "If these germs do not develop +and take shape as independent formations in each individual, they at +least teach how to understand and to recognise those of other people. +This is life-gain enough, it makes one's life richer, richer by the +lives of others." + +It is to the genius of M. Jacques Dalcroze that the world of to-day owes +some idea of what may be effected by rhythmic training, and M. Dalcroze +started his work with the same aim that Froebel set before the mother, +that of making the child capable of appreciation, capable of being made +"richer by the lives of others." But Froebel prophesied that far more +than appreciation would come from proper rhythmic training, and this M. +Dalcroze has amply proved. + +"Through movement the mother tries to lead the child to consciousness +of his own life. By regular rhythmic movement--this is of special +importance--she brings this power within the child's own conscious +control when she dandles him in her arms in rhythmic movements and to +rhythmic sounds, cautiously following the slowly developing life in the +child, arousing it to greater activity, and so developing it. Those who +regard the child as empty, who wish to fill his mind from without, +neglect the means of cultivation in word and tone which should lead to a +sense of rhythm and obedience to law in all human expression. But an +early development of rhythmic movement would prove most wholesome, and +would remove much wilfulness, impropriety and coarseness from his life, +movements, and action, and would secure for him harmony and moderation, +and, later on, a higher appreciation of nature, music, poetry, and art" +_(Education of Man_). + +Here, then, is an aim most plainly stated, "higher appreciation of +nature, music, poetry and art," and if we adopt it, we must make sure +that we start on a road leading to that end. + +To Kindergarten children, apart from movement, rhythm comes first in +nursery rhymes, and if we honestly follow the methods of the mother we +shall not teach these, but say or sing them over and over again, letting +the children select their favourites and join in when and where they +like. This is the true _Babies' Opera_, as Walter Crane justly names an +illustrated collection. Froebel's _Mother Songs_, though containing a +deal of sound wisdom in its mottoes and explanations, is an annotated, +expurgated, and decidedly pedantic version of the nursery rhymes of his +own country. That these should ever have been introduced to our children +arose from the fact that the first Kindergarten teachers, being +foreigners, did not know our own home-grown productions. Long since we +have shaken off the foreign product, in favour of our own "Sing a Song +of Sixpence," "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" and their refreshingly cheerful +compeers. Froebel's book suggests songs to suit all subjects and all +frames of mind--the wind, the moon, and stars, the farm with its cows +and sheep, its hens and chickens, the baker and carpenter, fish in the +brook and birds in nests, the garden and the Christmas fair. + +We can supply good verses for all these if we take pains to search, and +if we eschew ignorant and unpoetic modern doggerel as we eschew poison. +Besides the nursery rhymes, we have Stevenson, with his "Wind," +"Shadow," and "Swing," Christina Rossetti's "Wrens and Robins," her +"Rainbow Verses" and "Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk, White as +swansdown, smooth as silk." There are many others, and a recent charming +addition to our stock is "Chimneys and Fairies," by Rose Fyleman. One +thing we should not neglect, and that is the child's sense of humour. +For the very young this is probably satisfied by the cow that jumps over +the moon, the dish that runs after the spoon, Jill tumbling after Jack, +and Miss Muffet running away from the spider. But older children much +enjoy nonsense verses by Lewis Carroll or by Lear, and "John Gilpin" is +another favourite. + +It is a mistake to keep strictly within the limits of a child's +understanding of the words. What we want here, as in the realm of +Nature, is joy and delight, the delight that comes from musical words +and rhythm, as well as from the pictures that may be called up. Even a +child of four can enjoy the poetry of the Psalms without asking for much +understanding. + +The mother repeats her rhymes and verses solely to give pleasure, and if +our aim is the deepening of appreciation, there is no reason for leaving +the green and grassy path that Nature has showed to the mother for the +hard and beaten track of "recitation." In our own Kindergarten there +has never been either rote learning or recitation. The older children +learn the words of their songs, but not to a word-perfect stage, because +words and music suggest each other. Except for that we just enjoy our +verses, the children asking for their favourites and getting new ones +sometimes by request sometimes not. Anything not enjoyed is laid aside. +We need variety, but everything must be good of its kind, and verses +about children are seldom for children. Because children love babies, +they love "Where did you come from, baby dear?" but nothing like +Tennyson's "Baby, wait a little longer," and especially nothing of the +"Toddlekins" type has any place in the collection of a self-respecting +child. It is doubtful if Eugene Field's verses are really good enough +for children. + +All children enjoy singing, but here, as in everything, we must keep +pace with development, or the older ones, especially the boys, may get +bored by what suits the less adventurous. In all cases the music should +be good and tuneful, modelled not on the modern drawing-room inanity, +but on the healthy and vigorous nursery rhyme or folk song. + +Children also enjoy instrumental music, and will listen to piano or +violin while quietly occupied, for example if they are drawing. One +Nursery School teacher plays soft music to get her babies to sleep, and +our little ones fidget less if some one sings softly during their +compulsory rest. + +"The Kindergarten Band" is another way in which children can join in +rhythm. It came to us from Miss Bishop and is probably the music +referred to in the description of the Pestalozzi-Froebel House. The +children are provided with drums, cymbals, tambourines, and triangles, +and keep time to music played on the piano. They can do some analysis in +choosing which instruments are most suitable to accompany different +melodies or changes from grave to gay, etc. A full account was given in +_Child Life_ for May 1917. + +Several years ago, knowing nothing of M. Dalcroze, Miss Marie Salt +began an experiment, the results of which are likely to be far-spreading +and of great benefit. Desiring to help children to appreciation of good +music, Miss Salt experimented deliberately with the Froebelian "learn +through action," and her success has been remarkable. Because of its +freedom from any kind of formality, this system is perhaps better suited +to little children than the Dalcroze work, unless that is in the hands +of an exceptionally gifted teacher. M. Dalcroze himself is delightfully +sympathetic with little ones. + +Miss Salt tells her own story in an appendix to Mr. Stewart Macpherson's +_Aural Culture based on Musical Appreciation._ + +Good music is played and the children listen and move freely in time to +it, sometimes marching or dancing in circles, sometimes quite freely +"expressing" whatever feeling the music calls forth in them. The stress +is laid on listening; if you see a picture you reproduce it, if the +music makes you think of trees or wind, thunder or goblins, you become +what you think of. It is astonishing to see how little children learn in +this way to care for music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Dvorak, +Brahms, Chopin, and Beethoven. The music is of course selected with +skill, and care is taken that the "expression" shall not make the +children foolishly self-conscious. Emphasis is always placed on +listening, and the children's appreciation is apparent. Such +appreciation must enrich their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FROM FANCY TO FACT + + + Creeps ever on from fancy to the fact. + +Fairy tales suit little children because their knowledge is so limited, +that "the fairies must have done it" is regarded as a satisfactory +answer to early problems, just as it satisfied childlike Man. Things +that to us are wonderful, children accept as commonplace, while others +commonplace to us are marvels to the child. But fairy tales do not +continue to satisfy all needs. As knowledge grows the child begins to +distinguish between what may and what may not happen, though there will +always be individual differences, and the more poetic souls are apt to +suffer when the outrush of their imagination is checked by a barbed wire +of fact. The question "Is it true?" and the desire for true stories +arise in the average child of seven to eight years, and at that age +history stories are enjoyed. Real history is of course impossible to +young children, whose idea of time is still very vague, and whose +understanding of the motives and actions of those immediately around +them is but embryonic. They still crave for adventure and romance, and +they thrill to deeds of bravery. Bravery in the fight appeals to all +boys and to most girls, and it is a question for serious consideration +how this admiration is to be guided, it certainly cannot be ignored. It +is legitimate to admire knights who ride about "redressing human +wrongs," fighting dragons and rescuing fair ladies from wicked giants, +and at this stage there is no need to draw a hard and fast line between +history and legendary literature. It is good to introduce children, +especially boys, to some of the Arthurian legends if only to impress the +ideal, "Live pure, speak true, right wrong, else wherefore born?" +Stories should always help children to understand human beings, men and +women with desires and feelings like our own. But in history and +geography stories we deal particularly with people who are different +from ourselves, and we should help children to understand, and to +sympathise with those whose surroundings and customs are not ours. They +may have lived centuries ago, or they may be living now but afar off, +they may be far from us in time or space, but our stories should show +the reasons for their customs and actions, and should tend to lessen the +natural tendency to feel superior to those who have fewer advantages, +and gradually to substitute for that a sense of responsibility. + +But the narration of stories is not the only way in which we can treat +history. Our present Minister of Education says that history teaching +ought to give "discipline in practical reasoning" and "help in forming +judgements," not merely in remembering facts. Indeed he went so far as +to say "eliminate dates and facts" by which, of course, he only meant +that the power of reasoning, the power of forming judgements is of far +more consequence than the mere possession of any quantity of facts and +dates. Training in reasoning, however, must involve training in +verification of facts before pronouncing judgement. + +Training in practical reasoning takes a prominent place in that form of +history teaching introduced by Professor Dewey. According to him, +history is worth nothing unless it is "an indirect sociology," an +account of how human beings have learned, so far as the world has yet +learned the lesson, to co-operate with one another, a study of the +growth of society and what helps and hinders. So he finds his +beginnings in primitive life, and although there is much in this that +will appeal to any age, there is no doubt that children of seven to ten +or eleven revel in this material. + +If used at all it should be used as thinking material--here is man +without tools, without knowledge, everything must be thought out. It +does not do much good to hand over the material as a story, as some +teachers use the Dopp series of books. These books do all the children's +thinking for them. Every set of children must work things out for +themselves, using their own environments and their own advantages. The +teacher must read to be ready with help if the children fail, and also +to be ready with the actual problems. It is astonishing how keen the +children are, and how often they suggest just what has really happened. +Where there is space out-of-doors and the children can find branches for +huts, clay for pots, etc., the work is much easier for the teacher and +more satisfactory. But even where that is impossible and where one has +sometimes to be content with miniature reproductions, the interest is +most keen. Children under eight cannot really produce fire from flints +or rubbing sticks, nor can they make useable woollen threads with which +to do much weaving. But even they can get sparks from flint, make a +little thread from wool, invent looms and weave enough to get the ideas. + +The romance of "long ago" ought to be taken advantage of to deepen +respect for the dignity of labour. Our lives are so very short that we +are apt to get out of perspective in the ages. Reading and writing are +so new--it is only about four hundred years since the first book was +printed in England, the Roman occupation lasted as long, and who thinks +of that as a long period? Perhaps it is because we are in the reading +and writing age that our boys and girls must become "braw, braw clerks," +instead of living on and by the land. History, particularly primitive +history, should help us all to be "grateful to those unknown pioneers +of the human race to whose struggles and suffering, discoveries and +energies our present favoured mode of existence on the planet is due. +The more people realise the effort that has preceded them and made them +possible, the more are they likely to endeavour to be worthy of it: the +more pitiful also will they feel when they see individuals failing in +the struggle upward and falling back toward a brute condition; and the +more hopeful they will ultimately become for the brilliant future of a +race which from such lowly and unpromising beginnings has produced the +material vehicle necessary for those great men who flourished in the +recent period which we speak of as antiquity."[29] + +[Footnote 29: _The Substance of Faith_, p. 18.] + +Professor Dewey urges that "the industrial history of man is not a +materialistic or merely utilitarian affair," but a matter of +intelligence, a record of how men learned to think, and also an ethical +record, "the account of the conditions which men have patiently wrought +out to serve their ends." + +This interest in how human beings have created themselves and their +surroundings ought to be deeply interesting to any and every age. Young +children can reach so little that one hopes the interest aroused will be +lasting and lead to fruitful work later. But it certainly makes a good +foundation for the study of history and geography, if history is treated +as sociology and if geography is recognised as the study of man in his +environment. + +Coming now to practical details, in our own work we have followed fairly +closely the suggestions made by Professor Dewey, but everything must +vary from year to year according to the suggestions of the children or +their apparent needs. One extra step we have found necessary, and that +is to spend some time over a desert island or Robinson Crusoe stage. +Some children can do without it, but all enjoy it, and the duller +children find it difficult to imagine a time when "you could buy it in +a shop" does not fit all difficulties. They can easily grasp the idea of +sailing away to a land "where no man had ever been before," and playing +at desert island has always been a joy. + +The starting-points for primitive life have been various; sometimes the +work has found its beginning in chance conversation, as when a child +asked, "Are men animals?" and the class took to the suggestion that man +meant thinking animal, and began to consider what he had thought. Often +after Robinson Crusoe there has been a direct question, "How did +Robinson Crusoe know how to make his things; had any one taught him? Who +made the things he had seen; who made the very first and how did he +know?" One answer invariably comes, "God taught them," which can be met +by saying this is true, but that God "teaches" by putting things into +the world and giving men power to think. This leads to a discussion +about things natural, "what God makes" and what man makes, which is +sometimes illuminating on the limited conceptions of town children. +Years ago we named primitive man "the Long-Ago People," and the title +has seemed to give satisfaction, though once we had the suggestion of +"Old-Time Men." + +We always start with the need for food, and the children suggest all the +wild fruits they know, often leaving out nuts till asked if there is +anything that can be stored for winter. Roots are not always given, but +buds of trees is a frequent answer. Children in the country ought to +explore and to dig, and in our own playground we find at least wild +barley, blackberries of a sort, cherries, hard pears, almonds and cherry +gum. Killing animals for food is suggested, and the children have to be +told that the animals were fierce and to realise that in these times man +was hunted, not hunter. Little heads are quite ready to tackle the +problem of defence and attack. They could throw stones, use sticks that +the wind blew down, pull up a young tree, or "a lot of people could +hang on to a branch and get it down." When one child suggested finding a +dead animal and using it for food, some were disgusted, but a little +girl said, "I don't suppose they would mind, they wouldn't be very +particular." + +The idea of throwing stones starts the examination of different kinds, +which have to be provided for the purpose. Flint is invariably selected, +and for months the children keep bringing "lovely sharp flints," but +there is much careful observation, observation which has a motive. "I +would put a stone in a stick and chuck it at them" is followed by much +experiment at fixing. String is of course taboo, but bass is allowed +because it grows, also strips of skin. We very often get the suggestion +"they might find a stone with a hole in it," which leads to renewed +searching and to the endeavour to make holes. To make a hole in flint is +beyond us, but in a softer stone it can be done. + +Then may come the question of safety and tree-climbing, and how to +manage with the babies. Children generally know that tiny babies can +hold very tight, and have various ideas for the mother. How to keep the +baby from falling brings the idea of twisting in extra branches, which +is recognised as a cradle in the tree, and the children delight in this +as a meaning for "Rock-a-bye, baby, in the tree-top." The possibility of +tree-shelters comes in, and various experiments are made, sometimes in +miniature, sometimes in the garden. Out of this comes the discussion of +clothes. Animals' skins is an invariable suggestion, though all children +do not realise that what they call "fur" means skin. + +Skin is provided, and much time is taken in experimenting to see if it +can be cut with bits of flint. How could the long-ago people fasten on +the skins, brings the answers "by thorns," "tie with narrow pieces," and +the children are pleased to see that their own leather belts are strips +or straps. Sometimes much time is taken up in cutting out "skins to +wear" from paper or cheap calico, the children working in pairs, one +kneeling down while the other fits on the calico to see where the head +and legs come. The skins are painted or chalked, and pictures are +consulted to see whether the chosen animals are striped or spotted. + +It may be stated here that we are not very rigid about periods or +climates, and that our long-ago people are of a generalised type. Our +business is not to supply correct information on anthropological +questions, but to call forth thought and originality, to present +opportunities for closer observation than was ever evoked by observation +lessons, and for experiments full of meaning and full of zest. Naturally +we do not despise correct information, but these children are very young +and all this work is tentative. We are never dogmatic, it is all "Do you +think they might have ..." or "Well, I know what I should have done; I +should have ..." and the teacher's reply is usually "Suppose we try." + +Children are apt of course to make startling remarks, but it is only the +teacher who is startled by: "Was all this before God's birthday?" "I +don't think God had learned to be very clever then." It is a curious +fact, but orthodox opinion has only twice in the course of many years +brought up Adam and Eve. Probably this is because we never talk about +the first man, but about how things were discovered. The first time the +question did come up Miss Payne was taking the subject, and she +suggested that Adam and Eve were never in this country, which disposed +of difficulties so well that I gave the same answer the only time I ever +had to deal with the question. + +When we come to the problem of fire, we always use parts of Miss Dopp's +story of _The Tree-Dwellers_. If the children are asked if they ever +heard of fire that comes by itself, or of things being burned by fire +that no human being had anything to do with, one or two are sure to +suggest lightning. They will tell that lightning sometimes sets trees on +fire, that thunderstorms generally come after hot dry weather, and that +if lightning struck a tree with dry stuff about the fire would spread, +and the long-ago people would run away. A question from the teacher as +to what these people might think about it may bring the suggestion of a +monster; if not, one only has to say that it must have seemed as if it +was eating the trees to get "They would think it was a dreadful animal." +Then the story can be told of how the boy called Bodo stopped to look +and saw the monster grow smaller, so he went closer, fed it on wood, and +liked to feel its warm breath after the heavy rain that follows +thunder--why had the monster grown smaller?--found that no animal would +come near it and so on. We never tell of the "fire country," though +sometimes the children read the book for themselves a little later. + +We have never succeeded in making flames, but it is thrilling to get +sparks from flint. Once a child brought an old tinder box with steel and +flint, but even then we were not skilful enough to get up a flame. Still +it is something to have tried, and we are left with a respectful +admiration for those who could so easily do without matches. + +What made these long-ago people think of using their fire to cook food? +Our children have suggested that a bit of raw meat fell into the fire by +accident, and we have also worked it out in this way. We were pretending +to warm ourselves by the fire, and I said my frozen meat was so cold +that it hurt my teeth. "Hold it to the fire then." We burned our +fingers, and sticks were suggested, but we sucked the burnt fingers, and +I said, "it tastes good," and the children shouted with glee "Because +the meat's roasted really." Then something was supposed to drop, and the +cry was "Gravy! catch it in a shell, dip your finger in and let your +baby suck it." A small shell was suggested, and the boy who said "And +put a stick in for a handle" was dubbed "the spoon-maker." At that time +we were earning names for ourselves by suggestions; we started with Fair +Hair, Curly Hair, Big Teeth, Long Legs, and arrived at Quick Runner, +Climber, and even Thinker. + +We have got at pottery in a similar way. The meat was supposed to be +tough. "Soak it" came at once, and "Could you get hot water?" Then came +suggestions: a stone saucepan, scoop out a stone and put it on the fire, +build a stone pan and fix the stones with cherry gum, dig a hole in the +ground and put fire under; "_that_ would be a kind of oven." When asked +if water would stay in the hole, and if any kind of earth would hold +water, the answer may be, "No, nothing but clay, and you'd have to make +that." "No! you get clay round a well. My cousin has a well, and there's +clay round it." "Why, there's clay in the playground." "You could put +the meat into a skin bag or a basket." Asked if the skin or basket could +be set on the fire, or if anything could be done to keep the basket from +catching fire, the answer comes, "Yes, dab clay round it. Then," +joyfully, "it would hold water and you _could_ boil." "What would happen +to the clay when it was put on the fire?" This has to be discovered by a +quick experiment, but the children readily guess that when the hot water +is taken off the fire there would be "a sort of clay basin. Then they +could make more! and plates and cups!" + +Experiments depend upon circumstances and upon the age of the children. +A thick and tiny basin put into a hot part of an ordinary fire does +harden and hold water to a certain extent even without glazing. But +elaborate baking may also be done. + +I have found it convenient to take weaving as a bridge to history +stories, by using Sir Frederick Leighton's picture of the Phoenicians +bartering cloth for skins with the early Britons. The children are told +that the people dressed in cloth come from near the Bible-story country, +and those dressed in skins are the long-ago people of this very country. +What would these people think of the cloth? "They would think it was +animals' skins." And what would they do? "They'd feel it and look at +it." So cloth is produced and we pull it to pieces, first into threads +and then into hairs, and the children say the hairs are like "fur." Then +sheep's wool is produced and we try to make thread. Attempts at +thread-making and then at weaving last a long time, and along with this +come some history stories, probably arising out of the question, "How +did people know about all this?" The children are told about the +writings of Julius Caesar, and pictures of Roman ships and houses are +shown, beside pictures of coracles and bee-hive dwellings, etc. Old +coins, a flint battle-axe, some Roman pottery are also shown, along with +descriptions and pictures of the Roman villa at Brading and other Roman +remains. The children are thus helped to realise that other countries +exist where the people were far ahead of those in this country, and they +can begin to understand how social conditions vary, and how nations act +upon each other. + +The work varies considerably from year to year, according to how it +takes hold upon the children's interest. But children of eight to nine +are usually considered ready for broad ideas of the world as a whole, +and the inquiry into where Julius Caesar came from, and why he came, +gives a fair start. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +NEW NEEDS AND NEW HELPS + + + I am old, so old, I can write a letter. + +Writing and reading have no place in the actual Kindergarten, much less +arithmetic. The stories are told to the child; drawing, modelling and +such-like will express all he wants to express in any permanent form, +and speech, as Froebel says, is "the element in which he lives." His +counting is of the simplest, and the main thing is to see that he does +not merely repeat a series while he handles material, but that the +series corresponds with the objects. Even this can be left alone if it +seems to annoy the little one. In the school he is on a very different +level, he has attained to the abstract, he can use signs: he can express +thoughts which he could not draw, and can communicate with those who are +absent. He can read any letter received and he is no longer dependent on +grown-ups for stories. He can count his own money and can get correct +change in small transactions, and he can probably do a variety of sums +which are of no use to him at all. + +Between these two comes what Froebel called the Transition or Connecting +Class, in which the child learns the meaning of the signs which stand +for speech, and those which make calculation less arduous for weak +memories. + +Much has been written as to when and how children are to be taught to +read. Some great authorities would put it off till eight or even ten. +Stanley Hall says between six and eight, while Dr. Montessori teaches +children of five and even of four. Froebel would have supported Stanley +Hall and would wait till the age of six. The strongest reason for +keeping children back from books is a physiological one. In the +_Psychology and Physiology of Reading_[30] strong arguments are adduced +against early reading as very injurious to eyesight, so it is surprising +that Dr. Montessori begins so soon. It has been said that her children +only learn to write, not to read, but it is to be supposed that they can +read what they write, and therefore can read other material. + +[Footnote 30: Macmillan.] + +If we agree not to begin until six years old, the next question is the +method. The alphabetic, whereby children were taught the letter names +and then memorised the spelling of each single word, has no supporters. +But controversy still goes on as to whether children shall begin with +word wholes or with the phonic sounds. It is not a matter of vital +importance, for the children who begin with words come to phonics later, +and so far as English is concerned, the children who begin with phonics +cannot go far without meeting irregularities, unless indeed they are +limited to books like those of Miss Dale. + +In other languages which are phonic the difficulties are minimised. +Children in the ordinary Elementary Schools in Italy, though taught in +large classes, can write long sentences to dictation in four or five +months.[31] But in Italian each letter has its definite sound and every +letter is sounded. It is true that these children appear to spend most +of their time in formal work. + +[Footnote 31: A class of children who began in the middle of October +wrote correctly to dictation on March 28, "Patria e lavoro siamo, miei +cari bambini, parole sante per voi. Amate la nostra cara e bella Italia, +crescete onesti e laboriosi e sarete degni di lei."] + +The Froebelian who believes in learning by action will, of course, +expect the children to make or write from the beginning as a method of +learning, whether she begins with words or with sounds. But in English, +unless simplified spelling is introduced, the time must soon come when +reproduction must lag behind recognition. One child said with pathos one +day, "May we spell as we like to-day, for I've got such a lot to say?" + +The phonic method dates back to about 1530. The variety used in the +Pestalozzi-Froebel House is said to have originated with Jacotot +(1780-1840). It is called the "Observing-Speaking-Writing and Reading +Method." Froebel's own adaptation was simpler; it was his principle to +begin with a desire on the part of the child, and he gives his method in +story form, "How Lina learned to write and read." Lina is six, she has +left the Kindergarten and is presently to attend the Primary School. She +notices with what pleasure her father, perhaps a somewhat exceptional +parent, receives and answers letters. She desires to write and her +mother makes her say her own name carefully, noticing first the "open" +or vowel sounds and then by noting the position of her tongue she finds +the closed sounds. As she hears the sound she is shown how to make it. +Her father leaves home at the right moment, Lina writes to him, receives +and is able to read his answer, printed like her own in Roman capitals. +He sends her a picture book and she is helped to see how the letters +resemble those she has learned and the reading is accomplished. + +In England the phonic method best known is probably Miss Dale's. It is +very ingenious, the analysis is thorough and the books are prettily got +up, but to those who feel that reading, though a most valuable tool, +still is but a tool and one not needed for children under seven, the +method seems over-elaborate. Much depends upon the teacher but to see +fifty children sitting still while one child places the letters in their +places on the board suggests a great deal of lost time. The system is +also so rigidly phonic that it is a long time before a child can pick up +an ordinary book with any profit. + +Stanley Hall holds that it is best to combine methods, and probably most +of us do this. "The growing agreement" is, he says, "that there is no +one and only orthodox way of teaching and learning this greatest and +hardest of all the arts, in which ear, mouth, eye and hand must each in +turn train the others to automatic perfection, in ways hard and easy, by +devices old and new, mechanically and consciously, actively and +passively ... this is a great gain and seems now secure. While a good +pedagogic method is one of the most economic--both of labour and of +money--of all inventions, we should never forget that the brightest +children, and indeed most children, if taught individually or at home, +need but very few refinements of method. Idiots, as Mr. Seguin first +showed, need and profit greatly by very elaborated methods in learning +how to walk, feed and dress themselves, which would only retard a normal +child. Above all it should be borne in mind that the stated use of any +method does not preclude the incidental use of any and perhaps of _all_ +others." + +An adaptation of phonic combined with the word method can be found in +_Education by Life_. It is simpler than Miss Dale's, and being combined +with the word method, children get much more quickly to real stories. +Stanley Hall advocates the individual teaching of reading, and since Dr. +Montessori called every one's attention to this we have used it much +more freely, and have found that once the children know some sounds, +there is a great advantage in a certain amount of individual learning, +but class teaching has its own advantages and it seems best to have a +combination. Long since we taught a boy who was mentally deficient and +incapable of intelligent analysis, by whole words and corresponding +pictures. Miss Payne has developed this to a great extent. It is +practically an appeal to the interest in solving puzzles. The children +choose their own pictures and are supplied with envelopes containing +either single sounds, or whole words corresponding with the picture. +They lay _h_ on the house, _g_ on the girl, _p_ on the pond, and later +do the same with words. They certainly enjoy it, and no one is ever kept +waiting. Sometimes the puzzle is to set in order the words of a nursery +rhyme which they already know, sometimes it is to read and draw +everything mentioned. + +It is not only how children learn to read that is important: even more +so is what they read. Much unintelligent reading in later life is due to +the reading primer in which there was nothing to understand. Children +should read books, as adults do, to get something out of them. The time +often wasted in teaching reading too soon would be far better employed +in cultivating a taste for good reading by telling or reading to the +children good stories and verses.[32] + +[Footnote 32: It is difficult to find easy material that is worth giving +to intelligent children, and we have been glad to find Brown's _Young +Artists' Readers_, Series A.] + +A revolution is going on just now in the method of teaching writing. It +is now generally recognised that much time and effort have been wasted +in teaching children to join letters which are easier to read unjoined. + +A very interesting article appeared in the Fielden School Demonstration +Record No. II., and Mr. Graily Hewitt has brought the subject of writing +as it was done before copperplate was invented very much to the fore. +The Child Study Society has published a little monograph on the subject +giving the experience of different teachers and specimens of the +writing. + +Little Marjorie Fleming was a voracious reader with a remarkable +capacity for writing. Her spelling was unconventional at times, but +there was never any doubt about her meaning. She expressed herself +strongly on many subjects, and one of these was arithmetic. "I am now +going to tell you the horrible and wretched plaege (plague) that my +multiplication gives me you cant conceive it the most Devilish thing is +8 times 8 and 7 times 7 it is what nature itself cant endure." Yet "if +you speak with the tongues of men and angels and make not mention of +arithmetic it profiteth you nothing," says Miss Wiggin. + +There are a few little children who are really fond of number work. +There are not many of them, and they would probably learn more if they +were left to themselves. There are even a few mathematical geniuses who +hardly want teaching, but who are worthy of being taught by a Professor +of Mathematics, always supposing that he is worthy of them. But the +majority of children would probably be farther advanced at ten or twelve +if they had no teaching till they were seven. They ought to learn +through actual number games, through keeping score for other games, and +through any kind of calculation that is needed for construction or in +real life. + +There are but few true number games, but dominoes and card games +introduce the number groups. In "Old maid" the children pair the groups +and so learn to recognise them; in dominoes they use this knowledge, +while "Snap" involves quick recognition. Any one can make up a game in +which scoring is necessary. Ninepins or skittles is a number game, and +one can score by using number groups, or by fetching counters, shells, +beads, etc., as reminders. The number groups are important; they form +what Miss Punnett calls "a scheme" for those who have no great +visualising power, and they combine the smallest groups into large ones. +It ought to be remembered that the repetition of a group is an easier +thing to deal with than the combination of two groups, that is, six is +a name for two threes and eight for two fours, but five and seven have +not so definite a meaning.[33] + +[Footnote 33: This very morning a child cutting out brown paper pennies +for a shop said, 'Look! there are two sixes; that _would_ be a big +number!'] + +The Tillich bricks are good playthings, and so is cardboard +money--shillings, sixpences, threepences, pence and halfpence. + +When the names have a meaning the children will want signs, i.e. +figures. Clock figures (Roman) can be used first as simplest, showing +the closed fingers and the thumb for V; the only difficulty is IX. The +Arabic figures can be made by drawing round the number groups, or by +laying out their shapes in little sticks. 5 and 8 show very plainly how +to arrange five and eight sticks; for two and three they are placed +horizontally, the curves merely joining the lines. + +In teaching children to count, the decimal system should be kept well in +mind, and the teacher should see that thirteen means three-ten, and that +the children can touch the three and the ten as they speak the word. +Eleven and twelve ought to be called oneteen and twoteen, half in joke. +The idea of grouping should never be lost sight of, and larger numbers +should at first be names for so many threes, fours, fives, etc. In order +to keep the meaning clear the children should say threety, fourty and +fivety, but there should be no need to write these numbers. The +Kindergarten sticks tied in bundles of ten are quite convenient counting +material when any counting is necessary. Tram tickets and cigarette +pictures can be used in the same way. + +The decimal notation is a great thing to learn, how great any one will +discover who will take the trouble to work a simple addition sum, +involving hundreds, in Roman figures. Children are always taught the +number of the house they live in, which makes a starting-point. If, for +instance, 35 is compared with XXXV a meaning is given to the 3. + +Many teachers make formal sums of numbers which could quite well be +added without any writing at all. By using any kind of material by which +ten can be made plain as a higher unit--bundles of sticks or tickets, +Sonnenschein's apparatus, Miss Punnett's number scheme, or the new +Montessori apparatus with its chains of beads: the material used is of +no great consequence--children should be able to deal as easily with +tens as with ones, and there is no need for little formal sums which +have no meaning. + +Everything in daily life should be used before formal work is attempted. +"Measure, reckon, weigh, compare," said Rousseau. Children love to +measure, whether by lineal or liquid measure, or by learning to tell the +time or to use a pair of scales. + +There are a few occasions when interest is in actual number relations, +as when a child for himself discovers that two sixes is six twos. One +boy on his own account compared a shilling and an hour, and said that he +could set out a shilling in five parts by the clock. He looked at the +clock and chose out a sixpence, a threepence, and 3 pennies. But usually +what is abstract belongs to a stage farther on. + +So we can end where we began, by letting Froebel once more define the +Kindergarten. + +"Creches and Infant Schools must be raised into Kindergartens wherein +the child is treated and trained according to his whole nature, so that +the claims of his body, his heart and his head, his active, moral and +intellectual powers, are all satisfied and developed. + +"Not the training of the memory, not learning by rote, not familiarity +with the appearances of things, but culture by means of action, +realities and life itself, bring a blessing upon the individual, and +thereby a blessing upon the whole community; since each one, be he the +highest or the humblest, is a member of the community." + + + + + + +PART II + +THE CHILD IN THE STATE SCHOOL + + +I. THINGS AS THEY ARE + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWTH + + +Early in the nineteenth century two men, moved by very different +impulses, founded what might be considered the beginnings of the Infant +School. For nearly fifty years their work grew separately, but now they +are merged together into something that seems to be permanent. + +In a bleak Lanarkshire factory village in the south of Scotland, Robert +Owen, millowner, socialist and Welshman, found that unless he could +provide for the education of the children of his factory hands, no +parents would consent to settle in the district and he would be without +workers in his mill. As a consequence Owen found himself in the position +of education authority, privy purse and organiser, and he did not flinch +from the situation; he imposed no cheap makeshift, because he believed +in education as an end and not as an economic means; a twofold +institution was therefore established by him in 1816, one part for the +children of recognised school age, presumably over six, and one for +those under school age, whose only entrance test was their ability to +walk. It is with the latter that we are concerned. + +The instructions given by Owen to the man and the women he chose for +his Infant School may serve to show his general aim; the babies under +their care were above all to be happy, to lead a natural life, outdoor +or indoor as weather permitted; learning their surroundings, playing, +singing, dancing, "not annoyed with books," not shadowed by the needs of +the upper school, but living the life their age demanded. In the light +of the 1918 Education Bill this seems almost prophetic. + +Their guardians were selected solely on the grounds of personality, and +expected to work in the spirit in which Owen conceived the school. They +were gentle, without personal ambition, fond of children, caring only +for their welfare; but the sole guiding principle was Owen, and this was +at once the success and doom of the school, for the personality of Owen +was thus made the pivot round which the school revolved; without him +there was nothing to take hold of. + +Very soon the experiment became known: persons with the stamp of +authority came to see it, and even official hearts were moved by the +reality of the children's happiness and their consequent development. +The visitors felt, rather than knew, that the thing was right. +Arrangements were made to establish similar institutions in London, and +after one or two experiments, a permanent one was founded which was +under the control of a man named Wilderspin. + +Wilderspin's contribution to education is difficult to estimate; +certainly he never caught Owen's spirit, or realised his simple purpose: +he had ambitions reaching beyond the happiness of the children; and far +from trying to make their education suit their stage of growth, he +sought to produce the "Infant Prodigy," just as a contemporary of his +sought to produce the "Infant Saint." From what we can see, his aim was +what he honestly believed to be right, as far as his light went; but he +sought for no light beyond his own; and his outlook was not so narrow +as his application was unintelligent. Owen was still in Lanarkshire to +be consulted; Rousseau had already written _Emile_, Pestalozzi's work +was by this time fairly well known in England, the children were there +to be studied, but Wilderspin pursued his limited and unenlightened +work, until the Infant School was almost a dead thing in his hands and +in the hands of those who followed. The following is Birchenough's +account: + +"The school was in charge of a master and a female assistant, presumably +his wife. Much attention was given to training children in good personal +habits, cleanliness, tidiness, punctuality, etc., and to moral training. +Great stress was laid on information.... The curriculum included +reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry, lessons on common objects, +geography, singing and religion, and an effort was made to make the work +interesting and 'concrete.' To this end much importance was attached to +object-lessons, to the use of illustrations, to questioning and +exposition, while the memory was aided by means of didactic verse.... +The real teaching devolved upon the master and mistress. This was of two +kinds: class teaching to a section of the children of approximately +equal attainments either on the floor or in the class-room, and +collective teaching to the whole school, regardless of age, on the +gallery." + +It is a curious coincidence that in 1816, the year of Owen's experiment, +a humble educational experiment was begun by Frederick Froebel in a very +small village in the heart of the Thuringian forest. Like Owen, his aim +was education solely for its own sake, and he had a simple faith in the +human goodness of the older Germany. But he came to education as a +philosopher rather than a social reformer, with a strong belief in its +power to improve humanity. This belief remained with him; it is embodied +in his aim, and leavened all his work. + +The first twenty years of his experience convinced Froebel that the +neglect or mismanagement of the earliest years of a child's life +rendered useless all that was done later. What came to Owen as an +inspiration grew in Froebel to be a reasoned truth, and like Owen he put +it into practice. In 1837 the little Kindergarten at Blankenburg was +begun, with the village children as pupils; the beautiful surroundings +of forest-covered hills and green slopes made a very different +background from the bleak little Lanarkshire village, overshadowed by +the factory, where Owen's school stood, but the spirit was the same; the +children were in surroundings suitable for their growth, and the very +name of Kindergarten does more to make Froebel's aim clear than any +explanation. He lived to see other Kindergartens established in +different parts of Thuringia, and about the middle of the nineteenth +century some of his teachers came to England, and did similar work in +London, Croydon and Manchester. The private Kindergarten became an +established thing, and educationalists came to understand something of +its meaning. + +In 1870 the London School Board suggested that the Kindergarten system +should be introduced into their Infant Schools, and in doing so they +were unconsciously the factors in bringing together the work initiated +by Owen and by Froebel. The Infant School of Wilderspin, already briefly +described, was almost a dead thing, with its galleries and its +mechanical prodigies, its object-lessons and its theology; now it was +breathed upon by the spirit of the man who said: "Play is the highest +phase of child development, of human development at this period: for it +is the spontaneous representation of the inner, from inner necessity and +impulse." "Play is the purest, most spiritual activity of man." "The +plays of childhood are the germinal leaves of all later life." "If the +child is injured at this period, if the germinal leaves of the future +tree of his life are marred at this time, he will only with the +greatest difficulty and the utmost effort grow into strong manhood." + +It is perhaps not altogether to be wondered at that teachers at first +seized the apparatus rather than the spirit of the Kindergarten when we +remember that we have not accepted in anything like its fulness the +teaching of Froebel. Formalism and materialism always die slowly: play +in the Board School was interpreted as something that had to be dictated +and taught: the gifts, occupations and games were organised, and +appeared on the time-table as subjects side by side with Wilderspin's +theology and object-lessons. The combination must have been curious, but +even with its formalism the change was welcome to the children: at least +they could use their hands and do something; at least they could leave +their back-breaking galleries and dance and skip, even though the doing +and the dancing were according to strict rule. + +The change was not welcome to all teachers. As late as 1907 a +headmistress who was a product of the training of that time remarked: +"We have Kindergarten on Wednesday afternoons and then it is over for +the week." But there were teachers who saw beneath the bricks and sticks +and pretty movements, who felt the spiritual side and kept themselves +alive till greater opportunities came. What was imperishable has +remained; the system of prescribed activities is nearly dead, but the +spirit of the true Kindergarten is more alive than ever. + +The change from the early 'eighties till now is difficult to describe, +because it is a growth of spirit, a gradual change of values, rather +than a change in outward form; there has been no definite throwing off, +and no definite adoption, of any one system or theory; but the +difference between the best Infant Schools of 1880 and the best Infant +Schools of to-day is chiefly a difference in outlook. The older schools +aimed at copying a method, while the schools of to-day are more +concerned with realising the spirit. + +At present we are trying to reconstruct education for the new world +after the war, and so it is convenient to regard the intervening period +of nearly half a century as a transition period: during that time the +education of the child under eight has changed much more than the +education of older children, at least in the elementary school; and +there have been certain marked phases that, though apparently +insignificant in themselves, have marked stages of progress in thought. + +Perhaps the most significant and most important of these was the effect +of the child-study movement on the formal and external side of +Kindergarten work. It is first of all to America that we owe this, to +the pioneer Stanley Hall, and more especially here to Mr. Earl Barnes. +Very slowly, but surely, it was evident to the more enlightened teachers +that children had their own way of learning and doing, and the +adult-imposed system meant working against nature. For the logical +method of presenting material from the simple to the complex, from the +known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract, was substituted +the psychological method of watching the children's way of learning and +developing. Teachers found that what they considered to be "the simple" +was not the simple to children; what they took to be "the known" was the +unfamiliar to children. For instance, the "simple" in geography, in the +adult sense, was the definition of an island, with which most of us +began that study, and in geometry it was the point. To children of the +ordinary type, both are far-away ideas, and not related to everyday +experiences; "the known" in arithmetic, for example, was to teachers the +previous lesson, quite regardless of the fact that arithmetic enters +into many problems of life outside school. The life in school and the +life outside school were, in these early days of infant teaching, two +separate things, and only occasionally did a teacher stoop to take an +example from everyday life. A little girl in one of the poorest schools +brought her baby to show her teacher, and proudly displayed the baby's +powers of speech--"Say a pint of 'alf-an-'alf for teacher," said the +little girl to the baby by way of encouragement to both. This is the +kind of rude awakening teachers get, from time to time, when they +realise how much of the real child eludes them. Psychology has made it +clear that life is a unity and must be so regarded. + +Part of this child-study movement has resulted in the slow but sure +death of formalism: large classes, material results, and a lack of +psychology made formalism the path of least resistance. Painting became +"blobbing," constructive work was interpreted as "courses" of paper +folding, cutting, tearing; books of these courses were published with +minute directions for a graduated sequence. The aim was obedient +imitation on the part of the child, and the imagined virtues accruing to +him in consequence were good habits, patience, accuracy and technical +skill. Self-expression and creativeness were still only theories. + +A second interesting phase of the transition period was the method +adopted for the training of the senses. From the days of Comenius till +now the importance of this has held its place firmly, but the means have +greatly changed. Pestalozzi's object-lesson was adopted by Wilderspin +and thoroughly sterilised; many teachers still remember the lessons on +the orange, leather, camphor, paper, sugar, in which the teacher's +senses were trained, for only she came in contact with the object, and +the children from their galleries answered questions on an object remote +from most of their senses, and only dimly visible to their eyes. Similar +lessons were given after 1870 on Froebel's gift II. in which the ball, +cylinder and cube were treated in the same manner: progress was slow, +but sometimes the children followed nature's promptings and played with +their specimens; this was followed by books of "gift-plays," where +organised play took the place of organised observation. + +About 1890 or thereabouts the Nature Study movement swept over the +schools, and "nature specimens" then became the material for sense +training: as far as possible each child had a specimen, and by the +minute examination of these, stimulated their senses and stifled their +appreciation of all that was beautiful. + +Question and answer still dominated the activity; the poor little +withered snowdrop took the place of the dead camphor or leather. But +underlying all the paralysing organisation the truth was slowly growing, +and the children were being brought nearer to real things. + +A third phase in this transition period is that known as "correlation"; +most teachers remember the elaborate programmes of work that drove them +to extremes in finding "connections." The following, taken from a +reputable book of the time, will exemplify the principle: + + A WEEK'S PROGRAMME + + Object Lesson The Horse. + Phonetics The Foal, _oa_ sound. + Number Problems on the work of horses. + Story The Bell of Atri [story of a horse ringing a bell]. + Song Busy Blacksmith [shoeing a horse]. + Game The Blacksmith's Shop. + Reading On the Horse. + Poetry Kindness to Animals. + Paper Cutting The Bell of Atri. + Paper Folding A Trough. + Free-arm Drawing A Horseshoe. + Clay Modelling A Carrot for the Horse. + Brushwork A Turnip for the Horse. + Brown Paper Drawing A Stable. + +Underneath it all the truth was growing, namely, the need of making +associations and so unifying the children's lines. But the process of +finding the truth was slow and cumbersome. + +A fourth phase of the early Infant School was the strong belief of both +teachers and inspectors in uniformity of work and of results. It is +difficult to disentangle this from the paralysing influences of payment +by results and large classes: it was probably the teachers' unconscious +expression of the instinct of self-preservation, when working against +the heaviest odds. But it was constantly evident to the teacher that any +attempt on a child's part to be an individual, either in work or in +conduct, had to be arrested: and the theory of individual development +was regarded as so Utopian that the idea itself was lost. Goodness was +synonymous with uniform obedience and silence; naughtiness with +individuality, spontaneity and desire to investigate. A frequently-heard +admonition on the part of the teacher was, "Teacher didn't tell you to +do it that way--that's a naughty way"; but such an attitude of mind was +doubtless generated by the report of the inspector when he commended a +class by saying: "The work of the class showed a satisfactory +uniformity." + +To obtain uniform results practice had to come before actual +performance, and many weary hours were spent over drill in reading, +drill in number, drill in handwork, drill in needlework. The extreme +point was reached when babies of three had thimble and needle drill long +before they began needlework. There were also conduct drills; Miss +Grant, of Devons Road School, remembers a school where the babies +"practised" their conduct before the visit of the "spectre," as they +called him, he being represented as a stick set up on a chair. There is +a curious symbolism in the whole occasion. + +It is difficult to see the good underlying this phase, but it was +there. There is undoubtedly a place for practice, though not before +performance, and uniformity was undoubtedly the germ of an ideal. + +All these phases stand for both progress and arrest. The average person +is readier to accept methods than investigate principles; but we must +recognise that all struggles and searchings after truth have made the +road of progress shorter for us by many a mile. + +Perhaps the chief cause of stumbling lay in the fact that there was no +clearly realised aim or policy except that of material results. There +were many fine-sounding principles in the air, but they were unrelated +to each other; and the conditions of teaching were likely to crush the +finest endeavours, and to make impossible a teaching that could be +called educative. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE INFANT SCHOOL OF TO-DAY + + +Taking neither the best nor the worst, but the average school of to-day, +it will be profitable to review shortly where it stands, to consider how +far it has learnt the lessons of experience, and what kind of ideal it +has set before itself. + +In externals there have been many improvements. Modern buildings are +better in many ways; there is more space and light, and the surroundings +are more attractive. Most of the galleries have disappeared, but the +furniture consists chiefly of dual desks, fixed and heavy, so that the +arrangement of the room cannot be changed. The impression given to a +visitor is that it is planned for listening and answering, except in the +Baby Room, where there are generally light tables and chairs, and +consequently no monotonous rows of children, unless a teacher arranges +them thus from sheer habit. In each room is a high narrow cupboard about +one quarter of the necessary size for all that education demands; most +education authorities provide some good pictures, but the best are +usually hung on the class-room wall behind the children, and all are +above the children's eye level. "Oh, teacher, my neck do ache!" was the +only appreciative remark made by a child after a tour made of the school +pictures, which were really beautiful. + +As a rule the windows are too high for the children to see from, and +the lower part is generally frosted. In a new school which had a view up +one of the loveliest valleys in Great Britain, the windows were of this +description; the head of the school explained that it was a precaution +in case the children might see what was outside; in other words, they +might make the mistake of seeing a real river valley instead of +listening to a description of it. + +In country schools of the older type the accommodation is not so good, +but the newer ones are often very attractive in appearance, and have +both space and light. The school garden is a common feature in the +country, and it is to be regretted so few even of the plot description +are to be found in town schools. + +Of late years the apparatus has improved, though there is still much to +be done in this direction. Instead of the original tiny boxes of gifts +we have frequently real nursery bricks of a larger and more varied +character, and many other nursery toys. One of the best signs of a +progressive policy is that large numbers of _little_ toys have taken the +place of the big expensive ones that only an occasional child could use. +It is a pity that the use of toys comes to so sudden an end, and that +learning by this method does not follow the babies after they have +officially ceased to be babies, as is the custom in real life. + +One of the most striking changes for the better is the evidence of care +of the children's health, of which some of the external signs are +doctor, nurse and care committee. A sense of responsibility in this +respect is gradually growing in the schools; a fair number provide for +sleep, a few try to train the children to eat lunch slowly and +carefully, and some try to arrange for milk or cod-liver oil in the case +of very delicate children. Though these instances are very much in the +minority, they represent a change of spirit. This is one of the striking +characteristics of the new Education Bill. A legacy from the old +formalism lies in the fact that every room has a highly organised +time-table, except perhaps in the Babies' Room, where the children's +actual needs are sometimes considered first. The morning in most classes +is occupied with Scripture, Reading, Arithmetic, Writing, and some less +formal work, such as Nature lesson or Recitation; some form of Physical +Exercise is always taken. The afternoons are mostly devoted to Games, +Stories, Handwork and Singing: this order is not universal, but the +general principle holds, of taking the more difficult and formal +subjects in the morning. In the Babies' Room some preparation for +reading is still too frequent. The lessons are short and the order +varied, but in one single morning or afternoon there is a bewildering +number of changes. Some years ago the unfortunate principle was laid +down in the Code, that fifteen minutes was sufficient time for a lesson +in an Infant School, and though this is not strictly followed the +lessons are short and numerous, giving an unsettled character to the +work; children appear to be swung at a moment's notice from topic to +topic without an apparent link or reason: for example, the day's work +may begin with the story of a little boy sent by train to the country, +settled at a farm and taken out to see the _cow_ and the _sow_: soon +this is found to be a reading lesson on words ending in "ow," but after +a short time the whole class is told quite suddenly, that one shilling +is to be spent at a shop in town, and while they are still interested in +calculating the change, paints are distributed, and the children are +painting the bluebell. The whole day is apt to be of this broken +character, which certainly does not make for training in mental +concentration, or for a realisation of the unity of life. Some teachers +still aim at correlation, but in a rather half-hearted way: others have +entirely discarded it because of its strained applications, but nothing +very definite has taken its place. + +The curriculum which has been given is varied in character, and +sometimes includes a "free period." Except in the Babies' Class the +three R's occupy a prominent place, and children under six spend +relatively a great deal of time in formal subjects, while children +between six and seven, if they are still in the Infant School, are +taught to put down sums on paper, which they could nearly always +calculate without such help. As soon as a child can read well, and work +a fair number of sums on paper, he is considered fit for promotion, and +the question of whether he understands the method of working such sums, +is not considered so important as accuracy and quickness. The test of +so-called intelligence for promotion is reading and number, but it is +really the test of convenience, so that large numbers of children may be +taught together and brought, against the laws of nature, to a uniform +standard. + +This poison of the promotion and uniformity test works down through the +Infant School: it can be seen when the babies are diverted from their +natural activities to learn reading, or when they are "examined": it can +be seen when a teacher yields up her "bright" children to fill a few +empty desks, it can be seen in the grind at reading and formal +arithmetic of the children under six, when weary and useless hours are +spent in working against nature, and precious time is wasted that will +never come back. Yet we _say_ we believe that "Children have their youth +that they may play," and that "Play is the purest, most spiritual +activity of man at this stage" [childhood]. + +The lack of any clear aim shows itself in the fluid nature of the term +"results"; to some teachers it signifies readiness for promotion, or a +piece of work that presents a satisfactory external appearance, such as +good writing, neat handwork, an orderly game, fluent reading. To others +it means something deeper, which they discover in some chance remark of +a child's that marks the growth of the spirit, or the awakening of the +interest of a child whose development is late, or the quickened power of +a child to express; or evidence of independent thought and the power to +use it, in some piece of handwork, or appreciation of music or +literature. According to the meaning attached to the term "results" so +the method of the teacher must vary; but one gets the general impression +that in this respect matters are in a transitional state; the first kind +of teacher is always a little uncertain of her ground and a little +fearful that she is not quite "up-to-date," while the second class of +teacher is sometimes a little timid, and not quite sure that she is +prepared to account for the rather subtle and intangible outcome of her +work. + +The same transitional character holds in the case of discipline: while +what is known as "military" discipline still prevails in many schools, +there are a very fair number with whom the grip has relaxed; but it is a +courageous teacher that will admit the term "free discipline" which has +nearly as bad a reputation as "free thought" used to have, and few are +prepared to go all the way. Probably the reason lies in the vagueness of +the meaning of the term, and the fact that its value is not clearly +realised because it is not clearly understood. Teachers have not faced +the question squarely: "What am I aiming at in promoting free +discipline." + +Taking a general view of the present school, one gets the impression of +a constant change of activity on the part of the children, but very +little change of position, a good deal of provision for general class +interest, but little for individual interest; of less demand than +formerly for uniformity of results, but the existence of a good deal of +uniformity of method, arresting the teacher's own initiative; of very +constant teaching on the part of the teacher and a good deal of +listening and oral expression on the part of the children, of many +lessons and little independent individual work. Below all this there is +evident a very friendly relationship between the teacher and the +children, a good deal of personal knowledge of the children on the part +of the teacher, and a good deal of affection on both sides. There is +less fear and more love than in the earlier days, less government and +more training, less restraint and more freedom. And the children are +greatly attached to their school. + +From consideration of the foregoing summary it will be seen that +education in the Infant School is a thing of curious patches, of +strength and weakness, of light and shade; perhaps the greatest weakness +is its lack of cohesion, of unification: on the one hand we find much +provision for the children's real needs, much singleness of purpose in +the teacher's work, such a genuine spirit of whole-hearted desire for +their education: on the other hand, an unreasoning sense of haste, of +pushing on, of introducing prematurely work for which the children +admittedly are unready; an acceptance of new things on popular report, +without scientific basis, and a lack of courage to maintain the truth +for its own sake, in the face of so-called authority, and a craving to +be modern. At the root of all this inconsistency and possibly its cause, +is the lack of a guiding policy or aim, the lack of belief in the +scientific or psychological basis of education, and consequently the +want of that strong belief in absolute truth which helps the teacher to +pass all barriers. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SOME VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +If it be true that the Infant School of to-day suffers from lack of a +clear basis for its general policy, it will be profitable to have +clearly before us such principles as great educators have found to be +most vital to the education of young children. + +We all believe that we have an aim and a high aim before us: it has been +variously expressed by past educationalists, but in the main they all +agree that the aim of education is conduct. + +In actual practice, however, we act too often as if we only cared for +economic values. If we are to live up to our educational profession, we +must look our aim in the face and honestly practise what we believe. + +While training of character and conduct is the accepted aim for +education in general, to make this useful and practical each teacher +must fix her attention on how this ultimate aim affects her own special +part of the whole work. By watching the free child she will discover how +best she can help him: he knows his own business, and when unfettered by +advice or command shows plainly that he is chiefly concerned with +_gaining experience_. He finds himself in what is to him a new and +complex world of people and things; actual experience is the foundation +for complete living, and the stronger the foundation the better the +result of later building. _The first vital principle then is that the +teacher of young children must provide life in miniature; that is, she +must provide abundant raw material and opportunities for experience_. + +The next question is that of the best method of gaining this actual +experience. The child is unaware that he is laying foundations, he is +only vaguely conscious that he finds great pleasure in certain +activities, and that something impels him in certain directions. He +realises no definite future, he is content with the present; he cannot +work for a purpose other than the pleasure of the moment; without this +stimulus concentration is impossible. In the activities of this stage he +probably assimilates more actual matter than at any other period of his +life, and it is the same with his acquirements of skill. In happy +unconsciousness he gains knowledge of his own body and of its power, of +the external world, of his mother tongue and of his relations to other +people: he makes mistakes and commits faults, but these do not +necessarily cripple or incriminate him. He is not considered a social +outcast because he once kicked or bit, or because he threw his milk over +the table; he learns to balance and adjust his muscles on a seesaw, when +a fall on soft grass is a matter of little importance, and this is +better than waiting till he is compelled hastily to cross a river on a +narrow plank. It is all a kind of joyous rehearsal of life which we call +Play. We can force a child to passivity, to formal repetitions of +second-hand knowledge, to the acquisition of that for which he has no +apparent need, but we can never _educate_ him by these things. "Children +do not play because they are young, they have their youth that they may +play," as surely as they have their legs that they may walk. + +_The second principle is therefore that the method of gaining experience +lies through Play, and that by this road we can best reach work_. + +The third principle is the nature of the experience that a child seeks +to gain--the life he desires to live. How can we he sure that the +surroundings we provide and the activities we encourage are in accord +with children's needs? + +Let us imagine a child of about five to six years of age, one of a +family, living in a small house to which a garden is attached; inside he +has the run of the house, but keeps his own toys, picture books and +collections of treasures. We will suppose that not being at school he is +free to arrange his own day, sometimes alone, and sometimes with other +children, or with his parents. What does he do? + +He is interested in inanimate things, especially in using them, and so +he plays with his toys. He builds bricks, runs engines, solves simple +puzzle pictures, asks to work with his father's gardening tools, or his +mother's cooking utensils. He is interested in the life of the garden, +in the growing things, in the snail or spider he finds, in the cat, dog +or rabbit of the family; he wants to dig, water and feed these various +things, but he declines regular responsibility; his interest is in +spurts. + +He is interested in sounds, both in those he can produce and in those +produced by others: soon he is interested in music, he will listen to it +for considerable periods, and may join in it: at first more especially +on the rhythmical side. So, too, he likes the rhythm of poetry and the +melody sounds of words. He is interested in making things; on a wet day +he will ask for scissors and paste, or bring out his paint box or +chalks; on a fine day he mixes sand or mud with water, or builds a +shelter with poles and shawls; at any time when he has an opportunity he +shuts himself into the bathroom and experiments with the taps, sails +boats, colours water, blows bubbles, tries to mix things, wet and dry. + +He is interested in the doings of other people, in their conduct and in +his own; he is more interested in their badness than in their goodness: +"Tell me more of the bad things your children do," said a little boy to +his teacher aunt, and the request is significant and general; we learn +so little by mere uncontrasted goodness. He is interested in the words +that clothe narrations and in their style, he is impatient of a change +in form of an accepted piece of prose or poetry. He is hungry for the +sounds of telling words and phrases. + +He is interested in reproducing the doings of other people so that he +may experience them more fully, and this involves minute observation, +careful and intelligent imitation, and vivid imagination. His own word +for it is pretence. + +There are other things that he grasps at more vaguely and later; he is +dimly aware that people have lived before, and he is less dimly aware +that people live in places different from his own surroundings. He +realises that some of the stories, such as the fairy stories, are true +in one sense, a sense that responds to something within himself; that +some are true in another more material, and external sense, one +concerned with things that really happen. He hears of "black men," and +of "ships that carry people across the sea," and of "things that come +back in those ships." + +He is interested in the immaterial world suggested by the mysteries of +woods and gardens, he has a dim conception that there is some life +beyond the visible, he feels a power behind life and he reveals this in +his early questions. He is keenly interested in questions of birth and +death, and sometimes comes into close contact with them. He feels that +other wonders must be accounted for--the snow, thunder and lightning, +the colours of summer, the changeful sea. At first the world of fairy +lore may satisfy him, later comes the life of the undying spirit, but +the two are continuous. He may attend "religious observances," and these +may help or they may hinder. + +He is keenly interested in games, whether they are games of physical +skill, of mental skill, or games of pretence. Here most especially he +comes into contact with other people, and here he realises some of the +experiences of social life. + +Such are the most usual sides of life sought by the ordinary child, and +on such must we base the surroundings we provide for our children in +school, and the aspects of life to which we introduce them, commonly +called subjects of the curriculum. + +_Our third principle is therefore, evident: we find, in the child's +spontaneous choice, the nature of the surroundings and of the activities +that he craves for; in other words, he makes his own curriculum and +selects his own subject matter_. + +The next consideration is the atmosphere in which a child can best +develop character by means of these experiences. A young child is a +stranger in an unknown, untried country: he has many strange promptings +that seek for satisfaction; he has strong emotions arising from his +instincts, he feels crudely and fiercely and he must act without delay, +as a result of these emotions. He is like a tourist in a new strange +country, fresh and eager, and with a similar holiday spirit of +adventure: the stimulation of the new arouses a desire to interpret, to +investigate and to ask questions: it arouses strong emotions to like or +dislike, to fear, to be curious; it leads to certain modes of conduct, +as a result of these emotions. Picture such a young tourist buttonholed +by a blase guide, who had forgotten what first impressions meant, who +insisted on accompanying him wherever he went, regulating his procedure +by telling him just what should be observed and how to do so, pouring +out information so premature as to be obnoxious, correcting his taste, +subduing his enthusiasm, and modifying even his behaviour. The tourist +would presumably pay off the unwelcome guide, but the children cannot +pay off the teacher: they can and do rebel, but docility and +adaptability seem to play a large part in self-preservation. For the +young child freedom must precede docility, because the only reasonable +and profitable docility is one that comes after initiative and +experiment have been satisfied, and when the child feels that he needs +help. + +The world that the free child chooses represents every side of life that +he is ready to assimilate, and his freedom must be intellectual, +emotional and moral freedom. In the school with the rigidly organised +time-table, where the remarks of the children provoke the constantly +repeated reproach: "We are not talking of that just now," where the +apparatus is formal and the method of using it prescribed, where home +life and street life are ignored, where there are neither garden nor +picture books, where childish questions are passed over or hastily +answered, where the room is full of desks and the normal attitude is +sitting, where the teacher is teaching more often than the children are +doing, there is no intellectual freedom. + +Where passion and excitement are instantly arrested, where appreciation +for strong colours, fierce punishments, loud noises, is killed, where +fear is ridiculed, where primitive likes and dislikes are interpreted as +coarseness, there is no emotional freedom. A child must have these +experiences if he is to come to his own later: this is not the time to +stamp out but only to deflect and guide; otherwise he becomes a weak and +pale reflection of his elders, with little resource or enthusiasm. + +Where it is almost impossible to be openly naughty, where there is no +opportunity for choice or for making mistakes, where control is all from +the teacher and self-control has no place, there is no moral freedom. +The school is not for the righteous but for the so-called sinner, who is +only a child learning self-control by experience. + +Self-control is a habit gained through habits; a child must acquire the +habit of arresting desire, of holding the physical side in check, the +habit of reflection, of choice, and most of all the habit of either +acting or holding back, as a result of all this. If in the earliest +years his will is in the hands of others, and he has the habit of +obedience to the exclusion of all other habits, then his development as +a self-reliant individual is arrested, and may be permanently weakened. +There is no other way to learn life, and build up an ideal from the raw +material he has gained in other ways. In the rehearsal of life at school +he can do this without serious harm; but every time a mode of conduct is +imposed upon him when he might have chosen, every time he is externally +controlled when he might have controlled himself, every time he is +balked in making a mistake that would have been experience to him, he +will be proportionally less fit to choose, to exercise self-control, to +learn by experience, and these are the chief lessons at this +impressionable period. + +_The fourth principle therefore is that the atmosphere of freedom is the +only atmosphere in which a child can gain experiences that will help to +develop character and control conduct._ + +These four vital principles will be applied to practical work in the +following chapters. + + + + +II. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF VITAL PRINCIPLES + + +Before applying these principles it is necessary for practical +considerations to set out clearly the various stages of this period. +During the first eight years of life, development is very rapid and not +always relatively continuous. Sometimes it takes leaps, and sometimes +appears for a time to be quiescent. But roughly the first stage, of a +child's developing life ends when he can walk, eat more or less ordinary +food, and is independent of his mother. At this point the Nursery School +stage begins: the child is learning for himself his world by experience, +and through play he chooses his raw material in an atmosphere of +freedom. When the period of play pure and simple begins to grow into a +desire to do things better, to learn and practise for a more remote +end--in other words, when the child begins to be willing to be taught, +the transitional period from play to work begins. It can never be said +to end, but the relative amount of play to work gradually defines the +life of the school: and so the transitional period merges into the +school period. Thus we are concerned first with the Nursery School +period which corresponds to what Froebel meant by his Kindergarten and +Owen by his Infant School; secondly, with the transitional period which +has been far too long neglected or rushed over, and which roughly +corresponds to the Standard I. of the Elementary School; and thirdly, we +have the beginnings of the Junior School where work is the predominant +factor. In spite of Shakespeare's assertion, there is much in a name, +and if these names were definitely adopted, teachers would realise +better the nature of their business. + +The following chapters seek to apply practically the four vital +principles to these periods of a child's life, but in many cases the +Transition Classes and the Junior School are considered together. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE NEED FOR EXPERIENCE + + + "The first vital principle is that the teacher of young + children must provide for them life in miniature, i.e. she + must provide abundant raw material and opportunities for + acquiring experience." + +The practical translation of this in the words of the teacher of to-day +is, "I must choose furniture, and requisition apparatus." The teacher of +to-morrow will say to her children, "I will bring the world into the +school for you to learn." The Local Education Authority of to-day says, +"We must build a school for instruction." The Local Education Authority +of to-morrow will say, "We must make a miniature world for our +children." + +The world of the Nursery School child probably requires the most careful +thought in this respect: a large room with sunlight and air, low clear +windows, a door leading to a garden and playground, low cupboards full +of toys, low-hung pictures, light chairs and tables that can be pushed +into a corner, stretcher beds equally disposable, a dresser with pretty +utensils for food; these are the chief requirements for satisfying +physical needs, apparent in the actual room. Physical habits will be +considered later, under another heading. + +Outside, in the playground, there should be opportunities for physical +development, for its own sake: swings, giant strides, ladders laid +flat, slightly sloping planks, and a seesaw should all be available for +constant use; if the children are not warned or given constant advice +about their own safety, there is little fear of accidents. + +Thus the purely physical side of the children is provided for, the side +that they are, if healthy, quite unconscious of; what else does +experience demand at this stage? + +Roughly classified, the raw experience of this stage may be divided into +the experience of the natural world of living things, the world of +inanimate things, and the social world. For the natural world there +should be the garden outside, with its trees, grass and flower beds; +with its dovecot and rabbit hutch, and possibly a cat sunning herself on +its paths; inside there will be plants and flowers to care for; the +elements, especially water, earth and air, are very dear to a young +child, and it is quite possible to satisfy his cravings with a large +sand-heap of _dry_ and _wet_ sand; a large flat bath for sailing boats +and testing the theory of sinking and floating; a bin of clay; a pair of +bellows and several fans to set the air in motion. There is always the +fire to gaze at on the right side of the fire-guard, and appreciation of +the beauty of this element should be encouraged. + +The world of inanimate things includes most of the toys that stimulate +activity and give ideas. The chief that should be found in the +cupboards, round the walls, or scattered about the room, are bricks of +all sizes and shapes, skittles, balls and bats or rackets, hoops, reins, +spades and other garden tools; pails and patty pans for the sand-heap; +pipes for bubbles, shells, fir-cones, buttons, acorns, and any +collection of small articles for handling; all kinds of vehicles that +can be pushed, such as carts, barrows, prams, engines; drums and other +musical instruments; materials for construction and expression, such as +chalks, boards, paints and paper. + +For experiences of the social world, which is not very real at this +individualistic period, come the dolls and doll's house, horses and +stables, tea-things, cooking utensils, Noah's ark, scales for a shop, +boats, soldiers and forts: a very important item in this connection is +the collection of picture-books: they must be chosen with the greatest +care, and only pictures of such merit as those of Caldecott, Leslie +Brooke and Jessie Wilcox Smith should be selected. Pictures form one of +the richest sources of experience at this stage, as indeed at any stage +of life, and truth, beauty and suggestiveness must be their chief +factors. + +The toys should be above all things durable, and if possible washable. +Broken and dirty toys make immoral children. + +Besides the material surroundings there are opportunities, the seizing +of which gives valuable experiences. These belong to the social world, +and lie chiefly in the training in life's social observances and the +development of good habits. This side of life is one of the most +important in the Nursery School, and needs material help. The lavatories +and cloakrooms should be constructed so that there is every chance for a +child to become self-reliant and fastidious. The cloakrooms should be +provided with low pegs, boot holes, clothes brushes and shoe brushes: +there should be low basins with hot and cold water, enamel mugs and +tooth brushes _for each child,_ nail brushes, plenty of towels, and +where the district needs it, baths. The type provided by the Middlesex +Education Authority at Greenford Avenue School, Hanwell, gives a shower +bath to a whole group of children at once, thus making a more frequent +bath possible. Perhaps for very small children of the Nursery School age +separate baths are more suitable. This is a question for future +experience on the part of teachers. There should be plenty of time for +the children to learn to wash and dress themselves. + +In the school-room there should either be tablecloths, or the tables +should be capable of being scrubbed by the children after each meal. +Their almost inevitable lack of manners at table gives an invaluable +opportunity for training, and again in such a case there should be no +question of haste. The meals should be laid, waited on and cleared away, +and the dishes washed by the children themselves, and they should be +responsible for the general tidiness of the room. This involves +tea-cloths, mops, dusters, washing bowls, brushes and dustpans. + +In the Transition Classes and Junior School the furniture and apparatus +can be to a great extent very much the same, their difference lying +chiefly in degree. It is a pity to bring the age of toys to an abrupt +conclusion; in real life the older children still borrow the toys of the +younger ones while there are some definitely their own: such are, jigsaw +and other puzzles, dominoes, articles for dramatic representation, +playing cards, toys for games of physical skill, such as tops, kites, +skipping ropes, etc. Such prepared constructive materials as +meccano--and a great mass of raw material for construction, generally +termed "waste." There should be a series of boxes or shelves where such +waste products of the home, or of the woods, or of the seashore, or of +the shop, might be stored in some classified order: the collective +instinct is stronger than the more civilised habit of orderliness: here +is an opportunity for developing a habit from an instinct. There should +also be materials for expression, such as clay, paper, chalk, pencil, +paints, weaving materials, cardboard, and scenery materials; and such +tools as scissors, cardboard knives, needlework tools, paste brushes, +and others that may be necessary and suitable. The rooms should be large +and suitable for much moving about: the most usual conditions should be +a scattered class and not a seated listening class. This means light +chairs and tables or benches where handwork can be done; low cupboards +and lockers so that each child can get at his own things; broad +window-sills for plants and flowers and a bookcase for reading and +picture books. Here again good picture-books are as essential as, even +more essential than, readers in the Transition Class. They will be a +little more advanced than in the Nursery School, and will be of the type +of the Pied Piper illustrated, or pictures of children of other lands +and times. Some of Rackham's, of Harold Copping's, of the publications +by Black in _Peeps at Many Lands_, are suitable for this stage. Readers +should be chosen for their literary value from the recognised children's +classics, such as the Peter Rabbit type, _Alice in Wonderland, +Water-Babies,_ and not made up for the sake of reading practice. + +The pictures on the walls should be hung at the right eye-level, and the +windows low enough for looking at the outside world--whatever it may be. +The teacher's desk should be in a corner, not in the central part of the +room, for she must remember that the children are still in the main +seeking experience, not listening to the experience of another. They +should have access to the garden and playground, and all the incitements +to activity should be there--similar to those of the Nursery School, or +those provided by the London County Council in parks. The bare +wilderness of playground now so familiar, where there is neither time +nor opportunity for children to be other than primitive savages, does +not represent the outside world of beauty and of adventure. + +The lower classes of Junior School should differ very little in their +miniature world. Life is still activity to the child of eight, and +consequently should contain no immovable furniture. There will be more +books, and the children may be in their seats for longer periods; the +atmosphere of guided but still spontaneous work is more definite, but +the aim in choice of both furniture and apparatus is still the gaining +of experience of life, by direct contact in the main. Such is the +Requisition Sheet to be presented to the Stores Superintendent of the +Local Education Authority in the future, with an explanatory note +stating that in a general way what is actually required is the world in +miniature! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +GAINING EXPERIENCE BY PLAY + + + "The Second Principle is that the method of gaining + experience lies through Play and that by this road we can + best reach work." + +Play is marked off from work chiefly by the absence of any outside +pressure, and pleasure in the activity is the characteristic of play +pure and simple: if a child has forced upon him a hint of any ulterior +motive that may be in the mind of his teacher, the pleasure is spoilt +for him and the intrinsic value of the play is lost. In bringing +children into school during their play period, probably the most +important formative period of their lives, and in utilising their play +consciously, we are interfering with one of their most precious +possessions when they are still too helpless to resent it directly. Too +many of us make play a means of concealing the wholesome but unwelcome +morsel of information in jam, and we try to force it on the children +prematurely and surreptitiously, but Nature generally defeats us. The +only sound thing to do is to _play the game_ for all it is worth, and +recognise that in doing so education will look after itself. To +understand the nature of play, and to have the courage to follow it, is +the business of every teacher of young children. The Nursery School, +especially if it consists chiefly of children under five, presents at +first very hard problems to the teacher; however strong her belief in +play may be, it receives severe tests. So much of the play at first +seems to be aimless running and shouting, or throwing about of toys and +breaking them if possible, so much quarrelling and fighting and weeping +seem involved with any attempts at social life on the part of the +children; there seems very little desire to co-operate, and very little +desire to construct; as a rule, a child roams from one thing to another +with apparently only a fleeting attempt to play with it; yet on the +other hand, to make the problem more baffling, a child will spend a +whole morning at one thing: quite lately one child announced that he +meant to play with water all day, and he did; another never left the +sand-heap, and apparently repeated the same kind of activity during a +complete morning; visitors said in a rather disappointed tone, "they +just play all the time by themselves." One teacher brought out an +attractive picture and when a group of children gathered round it she +proceeded to tell the story; they listened politely for a few minutes, +and then the group gradually melted away; they were not ready for +concentrated effort. If those children had been in the ordinary Baby +Room of a school they would have been quite docile, sitting in their +places apparently listening to the story, amiably "using" their bricks +or other materials according to the teacher's directions, but they would +not, in the real sense, have been playing. This is an example of the +need for both principle and courage. + +It is into this chaotic method of gaining experience that the teacher +comes with her interpretive power--she sees in it the beginnings of all +the big things of life--and like a bigger child she joins, and like a +bigger child she improves. She sees in the apparent chaos an attempt to +get experience of the different aspects of life, in the apparently +aimless activity an attempt to realise and develop the bodily powers, in +the fighting and quarrelling an attempt to establish a place in social +life. It is all unconscious on the part of a child, but a necessary +phase of real development. + +Gradually the little primitive man begins to yield to civilisation. He +is interested in things for longer and asks for stories, music and +rhymes, and what does this mean? + +As he develops a child learns much about life in his care of the garden, +about language in his games, about human conduct from stories; but he +does these things because he wants to do them, and because there is a +play need behind it all, which for him is a life need; in order to build +a straight wall he must classify his bricks, in order to be a real +shopman he must know his weights, in order to be a good workman he must +measure his paper; all the ideas gained from these things come to him +_along with sense activity_; they are associated with the needs and +interests of daily life; and because of this he puts into the activity +all the effort of which he is capable, or as Dewey has expressed it, +"the maximum of consciousness" into the experience which is his play. +This is real sense training, differing in this respect from the training +given by the Montessori material, which has no appeal to life interest, +aims at exercising the senses separately, and discourages _play_ with +the apparatus. It is activity without a body, practice without an end, +and nothing develops from it of a constructive or expressive nature. + +In the nursery class therefore our curriculum is life, our apparatus all +that a child's world includes, and our method the one of joyful +investigation, by means of which ideas and skill are being acquired. The +teacher is player in chief, ready to suggest, co-operate, supply +information, lead or follow as circumstances demand: responsibility must +still belong to the children, for while most of them know quite +naturally how to play, there are many who will never get beyond a rather +narrow limit, through lack of experience or of initiative. + +It is quite safe to let experience take its chance through play, but +there are certain things that must be dealt with quite definitely, when +the teacher is not there as a playmate, but as something more in the +capacity of a mother. It is impossible to train all the habits necessary +at this time, through the spontaneous play, although incidentally many +will be greatly helped and made significant by it. If the children come +from poor homes where speech is imperfect, probably mere imitation of +the teacher, which is the chief factor in ordinary language training, +will be insufficient. It will be necessary to invent ways, chiefly +games, by which the vocal organs may be used; this may be considered +play, but it is more artificial and less spontaneous than the informal +activity already described. It is well to be clear as to the kind of +exercises best suited to make the vocal organs supple, and then to make +these the basis of a game: for example, little children constantly +imitate the cries of ordinary life; town children could dramatise a +railway station where the sounds produced by engines and by porters give +a valuable training; they could imitate street cries, the sound of the +wind, of motor hooters, sirens, or of church bells. Country children +could use the sounds of the farm-yard, the birds, or the wind. In the +recognition of sound, which is as necessary as its production, such a +guessing game could be taught as "I sent my son to be a grocer and the +first thing he sold began with _s_ and ended with _p_," using the +_sounds_, not names of the letters. For the acquisition of a vocabulary, +such a game as the Family Coach might be played and turned into many +other vehicles or objects about which many stories could be told. All +the time the game must be played with the same fidelity to the spirit of +play as previously, but the introduction must be recognised as more +artificial and forced, and this can be justified because so many +children are not normal with regard to speech, and only where this is +the case should language training be forced upon them. Habits of +courtesy, of behaviour at table, of position, of dressing and +undressing, of washing hands and brushing teeth, and many others, must +all be _taught_, but taught at the time when the need comes. Occasions +will certainly occur during play, but the chances of repetition are not +sufficient to count on. + +Thus we summarise the chief business of the Nursery School teacher when +we say that it is concerned chiefly with habits and play and right +surroundings. + +Play in the Transition Class is less informal. After the age of six +certain ambitions grow and must be satisfied. The aspects of life are +more separated, and concentration on individual ones is commoner; this +means more separation into subjects, and thus a child is more willing to +be organised, and to have his day to _some_ extent arranged for him. +While in the nursery class only what was absolutely necessary was fixed, +in the Transition Class it is convenient to fix rather more, for the +sake of establishing certain regular habits, and because it is necessary +to give the freshest hours to the work that requires most concentration. +We must remember, however, that it _is_ a transition class, and not set +up a completely fashioned time-table for the whole day. Reading and +arithmetic must be acquired both as knowledge and skill, the mother +tongue requires definite practice, there must be a time for physical +activity, and living things must not be attended to spasmodically. +Therefore it seems best that these things be taken in the morning hours, +while the afternoon is still a time for free choice of activity. + +The following is a plan for the Transition Class, showing the bridge +between absolute freedom and a fully organised time-table-- + + MORNING. AFTERNOON. + + Monday |Nature |Reading |Stories from |Organised games and + |work. |and Number.|Scripture or other |handwork. + ---------|Care |-----------|literature, and |----------------------- + Tuesday |of the |Reading |stories of social |Music and handwork. + |room. |and Number.|life; music and | + ---------|Nature |-----------|singing; industrial|----------------------- + Wednesday|chart |Reading |activities such as |Excursion or handwork. + |and |and Number.|solving puzzles, | + ---------|General|-----------|playing games of |----------------------- + Thursday |talk. |Reading |skill, looking at |Dramatic representation + | |and Number.|pictures, arranging|including preparations. + ---------| |-----------|collections. |----------------------- + Friday | |Reading | |Gardening or handwork. + | |and Number.| | + +Granting this arrangement we must be clear how play as a method can +still hold. + +It does not hold in the informal incidental sense of the Nursery School: +there are periods in the Transition Class when the children know that +they are working for a definite purpose which is not direct play--as in +reading; and there are times when they are dissatisfied with their +performances of skill and ask to be shown a better way, and voluntarily +practise to secure the end, as in handwork, arithmetic and some kinds of +physical games. The remainder is probably still pursued for its own +sake. How then can this play spirit be maintained side by side with +work? + +First of all, the children should not be required to do anything without +having behind it a purpose that appeals to them; it may not be the +ultimate purpose of "their good," but a secondary reason may be given to +which they will respond readily, generally the pretence reason. +Arithmetic to the ordinary person is a thing of real life; we count +chiefly in connection with money, with making things, with distributing +things, or with arranging things, and we count carefully when we keep +scores in games; in adult life we seldom or never count or perform +arithmetical operations for sheer pleasure in the activity, but there +are many children who do so in the same spirit as we play patience or +chess. And all this is our basis. The arithmetical activities in the +Transition Class should therefore be based on such everyday experiences +as have been mentioned, else there will be no associations made between +the experiences of school and those of life outside. The two must merge. +There is no such thing as arithmetic pure and simple for children unless +they seek it; they must play at real life, and the real life that they +are now capable of appreciating. + +Skill in calculation, accuracy and quickness can be acquired by a kind +of practice that children are quite ready for, if it comes when they +realise the need; most children feel that their power to score for games +is often too slow and inaccurate; as store clerks they are uncertain in +their calculations; they will be willing to practise quick additions, +subtractions, multiplications and divisions, in pure arithmetical form, +if the pretence purpose is clearly in view, which to them is a real +purpose; the same thing occurs in writing which should be considered a +side issue of reading; meaningless words or sentences are written +wearily and without pains, but to write the name of a picture you have +painted, at the bottom of it, or to write something that Cinderella's +Godmother said, or bit by bit to write a letter, will be having a +purpose that gives life to an apparently meaningless act, and +thoroughness to the effort. + +In handwork, too, at this stage, practice takes an important place: a +child is willing to hem, to try certain brush strokes, to cut evenly, +and later on to use his cardboard knife to effect for the sake of a +future result if he has already experimented freely. This is in full +harmony with the spirit of play, when we think of the practiced +"strokes" and "throws" of the later games, but it is a more advanced +quality of play, because there is the beginning of a purpose which is +separated from immediate pleasure in the activity, there is the hint of +an end in view though it is a child's end, and not the adult or economic +one. + +The training of the mother tongue can be made very effective by means +of games: in the days when children's parties were simple, and family +life was united, language games in the long dark evenings gave to many a +grip of words and expressions. Children learnt to describe accurately, +to be very fastidious in choice of words, to ask direct questions, to +give verbal form to thought, all through the stress of such games--Man +and his Shadow, Clumps, Subject and Object, Russian Scandal, the +Minister's Cat, I see a Light, Charades, and acting of all kinds. No +number of picture talks, oral compositions, or observations can compete +in real value with these games, because behind them was a purpose or +need for language that compelled the greatest efforts. + +Physical development and its adjustment to mental control owes its +greatest stimulus to games. When physical strength, speed, or nimble +adjustability is the pivot upon which the game depends, special muscles +are made subservient to will: behind the game there is the stimulus of +strong emotion, and here is the greatest factor in establishing +permanent associations between body and mind; psychologists see in many +of these games of physical activity the evolution of the race: drill +pure and simple has its place partly in the same sense as "practice" in +number or handwork, and partly as a corrective to our fallacious system +of education by listening, instead of by activity: and we cannot in a +lifetime acquire the powers of the race except by concentrated practice. +But no amount of drill can give the all-round experience necessary for +physical readiness for an emergency, physical and mental power to +endure, active co-operation, where self-control holds in check ambitious +personal impulses: and no drill seems to give grace and beauty of motion +that the natural activity of dancing can give. It is through the games +that British children inherit, and by means of which they have +unconsciously rehearsed many of the situations of life, that they have +been able to take their place readily in the life of the nation and even +to help to save it. Again, as in other directions, children must be made +to play the game in its thoroughness, for a well-played game gives the +right balance to the activities: drill is more specialised, and has +specialisation for its end: a game calls on the whole of an individual: +he must be alert mentally and physically; and at the same time the sense +of fairness cannot be too strongly insisted on; no game can be tolerated +as part of education where there is looseness in this direction, from +the skittles of the nursery class to the cricket and hockey of the +seventh standard, and nothing will so entirely outrage the children's +feelings as a teacher's careless arbitration. In physical games, too, +the social side is strongly developed: leadership, self-effacement and +co-operation are more valuable lessons of experience than fluent reading +or neat writing or accurate additions: but they have not counted as such +in our economic system of education; they have taken their chance: few +inspectors ask to see whether children know how to "play the game," and +yet they are so soon to play the independent game of life. But the +individual output of reading and sums of a sneaking and cowardly, or +assertive and selfish child, is as good probably as that of a child that +has the makings of a hero in him. And then we wonder at the propensities +of the "lower classes." It is because we have never made sure that they +can play the game. + +To summarise: play in the Nursery School stage is unorganised, informal, +and pursued with no motive but pleasure in the activity itself; it is +mainly individual. Play in the Transition Class is more definitely in +the form of games, _i.e._ organised play, efforts of skill, mental or +physical; it becomes social. Play in the Junior School is almost an +occasional method, because the work motive is by this time getting +stronger. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE UNITY OF EXPERIENCE + + + "We find in the child's spontaneous choice the nature of the + surroundings and of the activities he craves for; in other + words, he makes his own curriculum, and selects his own + subject matter." + +The next problem we have to solve is how to unify the bewildering +variety of ideas and activities that a child seeks contact with during a +day. We found that the curriculum of the Infant School of to-day +presented a rather confusing variety of ideas, not necessarily arranged +as the children would have chosen; they would certainly not have chosen +to break off some intense interest, because an arbitrary timetable +hurried them to something else, and they would have been right. If we +asked the children their reasons for choosing, we would find no clue +except that they chose what they wanted to, neither could they tell us +why they spent so much more time over one thing than another. If a +similar study were to be made of a child from a slum also free to +arrange his day, we should find that while certain general features were +the same others would be different: he would ask for different stories, +probably play different games, or the same games in a different way, his +back-yard would present different aspects, the things he made would be +different. + +It is evident that the old correlation method has little or nothing to +do with the matter; a child may or may not draw the rabbit he feeds, he +certainly does not play a rabbit game because of the rabbit he has fed, +nor does he build a rabbit-hutch with his bricks. He might try to make a +real one if the rabbit really needed it, but that arises out of an +obvious necessity. If he could put his unconscious promptings into +words, he would say he did the things because he wanted to, because +somebody else did them, or because of something he saw yesterday, and so +on; but he would always refer back to _himself_. The central link in +each case is in the child, with his special store of experiences derived +from his own particular surroundings; he brings to new experiences his +store of present experiences, his interests not always satisfied, his +powers variously used, he interprets the new by these, and seeks for +more in the line of the old. It is life he has experienced, and he seeks +for more life. + +How then can we secure for him that the new experiences presented to him +in school will be in line with the old? We will take three typical cases +of children to illustrate the real nature of this problem. + +The first is the case of a child living in a very poor district of +London or of any large town. The school is presumably situated in a +narrow street running off the High Street of the district, the street +where all the shopping is done; at the corner is a hide factory with an +evil smell. Most of the dwelling-houses abut on the pavement, some with +a very small yard behind, some without any. Several families live in one +house, and often one room is all a family can afford; as that has to be +paid for in advance the family address may change frequently. The father +may be a dock labourer with uncertain pay, a coster, a rag and bone +merchant, or he may follow some unskilled occupation of a similarly +precarious nature; in consequence the mother has frequently to do daily +work, the home is locked up till evening, and she often leaves before +the children start for morning school. It is a curious but very common +fact that, free though these children are, they know only a very small +radius around their own homes. They are accustomed to be sent shopping +into High Street, where household stores are bought in pennyworths or +twopennyworths, owing to uncertain finance and no storage accommodation. +Generally there is one tap and one sink in the basement for the needs of +all the families in the house. There is usually a park somewhere within +reach, but it may be a mile away; in it would, at least, be trees, a +pond, grass, flowers. But an excursion there, unless it is undertaken by +the school, can only be hoped for on a fine Bank Holiday; there is +neither time nor money to go on a Saturday, and Sunday cannot be said to +begin till dinner-time, about 3 P.M., when the public-houses close, and +the father comes home to dinner. + +It is difficult to imagine the conversation of such a household; family +life exists only on Sunday at dinner-time; the child's background of +family life is a room which is at once a bedroom, living room and +laundry. There is nearly always some part of a meal on the table, and +some washing hanging up. Outside there are the dingy street, the crowded +shops, the pavement to play on, and both outside and in, the bleaker and +more sordid aspects of life, sometimes miserable, sometimes exciting. On +Saturday night the lights are brilliant and life is at least intense. +Bed is a very crowded affair, in which many half-undressed children +sleep covered with the remainder of the day's wardrobe. + +What store of experiences does a child from such a neighbourhood bring +to school, to be assimilated with the new experiences provided there? +What do such terms as home, dinner, bed, bath, birth, death, country, +mean to him? They mean _something_.[34] + +[Footnote 34: See _Child Life_, October 1916.] + +Not a mile away we may come to a very respectable suburb of the average +type; and what is said of it may apply in some degree to a provincial +or country town or, at least, the application can easily be made. The +school probably stands at the top corner of a road of houses rented, at +L25 to L35 per annum, with gardens in front and behind. The road +generally runs into a main road with shops and traffic. Here and there +in the residential road are little oases of shops, patronised by the +neighbourhood, and some of the children may live over these. The home +life is more ordinary and needs less descriptive detail, but there are +some features that must be considered. The decencies, not to say +refinements of eating, sleeping and washing are taken for granted: there +is often a bath-room and always a kitchen. The father's occupation may +be local, but a good many fathers will go to town; there is generally a +family holiday to the sea, or less often to the country. In the house +the degree of refinement varies; there are nearly always pictures of a +sort, books of a sort, and the children are supplied with toys of a +sort. They visit each other's houses, and the observances of social life +are kept variously. Often the horizon is very narrow; the mother's +interest is very local and timid; the father's business life may be +absolutely apart from his home life and never mentioned there. The +family conversation while quite amiable and agreeable may be round very +few topics, and the vocabulary, while quite respectable, may be most +limited. Children's questions may be put aside as either trivial or +unsuitable. In one sense the slum child may be said to have a broader +background, the realities of life are bare to him on their most sordid +side, there is neither mystery nor beauty around life, or death, or the +natural affections. The suburban child may on the contrary be balked and +restricted so that unnecessary mystery gives an unwholesome interest to +these things and conventionality a dishonest reserve. + +A suburb of this type is described by Beresford in _Housemates_:--"In +such districts (as Gospel Oak) I am depressed by the flatness of an +awful monotony. The slums vex me far less. There I find adventure and +jest whatever the squalor; the marks of the primitive struggle through +dirt and darkness towards release. Those horrible lines of moody, +complacent streets represent not struggle, but the achievement of a +worthless aspiration. The houses, with their deadly similarity, their +smug, false exteriors, their conformity to an ideal which is typified by +their poor imitative decoration, could only be inhabited by people who +have no thought or desire for expression.... The dwellers in such +districts are cramped into the vice of their environment. Their homes +represent the dull concession to a state rule; and their lives take tone +from the grey, smoke-grimed repetition of one endlessly repeated design. +The same foolish ornamentation on every house reiterates the same +suggestion. Their places of worship, the blank chapels and pseudo-Gothic +churches rear themselves head and shoulders above the dull level, only +to repeat the same threat of obedience to a gloomy law.... The thought +of Gospel Oak and its like is the thought of imitation, of imitation +falling back and becoming stereotyped, until the meaning of the thing so +persistently copied has been lost and forgotten." + +A third case is that of the country child, the child who attends the +village school. Many villages lie several miles from a railway station, +so that the younger children may not see a railway train more than once +or twice a year. The fathers may be engaged in village trades, such as a +shoemaker, carpenter, gardener, general shop merchant, farm labourer, or +farmer. The village houses are often cramped and small, but there is +wholesome space outside, and generally a good garden which supplies some +of the family food; milk and eggs are easily obtainable, and conditions +of living are seldom as crowded as in a town. The country children see +more of life in complete miniature than the slum or the suburban child +can do, for the whole life of the village lies before him. The school +is generally in the centre, with a good playground, and of late years a +good school garden is frequent. The village church, generally old, is +another centre of life, and there is at least the vicarage to give a +type of life under different social conditions. + +The home intellectual background may vary, but on the whole cannot be +reckoned on very much; though in some ways it is more narrow than the +suburban one, it is often less superficial. In a different way from the +slum child, but none the less definitely, the country child comes face +to face with the realities of life, in a more natural and desirable way +than either of the others. It is difficult to estimate some of the +effects of living in the midst of real nature on children; +unconsciously, they acquire much deep knowledge impossible to learn +through nature study, however good, a kind of knowledge that is part of +their being; but how far it affects them emotionally or enters into +their scheme of life, is hard to say. As they grow up much of it is +merely economic acquirement: if they are to work on the land, or rear +cattle, or drive a van through the country, it is all to the good; but +one thing is noticeable, that they take very quickly to such allurements +of town life as a cinema, or a picture paper or gramophone, and this +points to unsatisfied cravings of some sort, not necessarily so unworthy +or superficial as the means sought to satisfy them. + +From these rather extreme cases we get near the solution of the problem; +it is quite evident that each of these children brings to school very +different contributions of experience on which to build, though their +general needs and interests are similar. Therefore the curriculum of the +school will depend on the general surroundings and circumstances of the +children, and all programmes of work and many questions of organisation +will be built on this. The model programme so dear to some teachers must +be banished, as a doctor would banish a general prescription; no honest +teacher can allow this part of her work to be done for her by any one +else. + +Therefore the central point is the child's previous experience, and on +this the experience provided by school, _i.e._ curriculum and subject +matter, depends. One or two examples of the working out of this might +make the application clearer. Probably the realities of life in relation +to money differ greatly. The kind of problem presented to the poor town +child will deal with shopping in pennyworths or ounces, with getting +coals in pound bagfuls. Clothes are generally second-hand, and so +ordinary standard prices are out of the question. Bread is bought stale +and therefore cheaper, early in the morning. Preserved milk only is +bought, and that in halfpenny quantities. Only problems based on these +will be real to this child at first. + +The suburban child's economic experience may be based on his +pocket-money, money in the bank, and the normal shopping of ordinary +life. + +The country child is frequently very ignorant of money values; probably +it will be necessary to take the country general shop as the basis. He +could also begin to estimate the produce of the school garden. + + + + +THE NURSERY SCHOOL PROGRAMME + +It is quite obvious from the nature of play at this stage that a +time-table is out of the question and in fact an outrage against nature. +Only for social convenience and for the establishment of certain +physical habits can there be fixed hours. There must be approximate +limits as to the times of arrival and departure, but nothing of the +nature of marking registers to record exact minutes. Little children +sometimes sleep late, or, on the other hand, the mothers may have to +leave home very early; all this must be allowed for. There should be +fixed times for meals and for sleep, and these should be rigidly +observed, and there should be regular times for the children to go to +the lavatories; all these establish regularity and self-control, as well +as improving general health. But anything in the nature of story +periods, games periods, handwork periods, only impedes the variously +developing children in their hunger for experiences. + +Their curriculum is life as the teacher has spread it out before them; +there are no subjects at this stage; the various aspects ought to be of +the nature of a glorious feast to these young children. Traherne says in +the seventeenth century:-- + +"Will you see the infancy of this sublime and celestial greatness? Those +pure and virgin apprehensions I had in my infancy, and that divine light +wherewith I was born, are the best unto this day wherein I can see the +Universe.... Verily they form the greatest gift His wisdom can bestow, +for without them all other gifts had been dead and vain. They are +unattainable by books and therefore will I teach them by experience.... +Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions +of the world than I when I was a child. + +"All appeared new and strange at first, inexpressibly rare and +delightful and beautiful. I was a little stranger which at my entrance +into the world was saluted and surrounded with innumerable joys.... I +knew by intuition those things which since my apostasy I collected again +by the highest reason.... All things were spotless and pure and +glorious; yea, and infinitely mine, and joyful and precious.... I saw in +all the peace of Eden.... Is it not that an infant should be heir of the +whole world, and see those mysteries which the books of the learned +never unfold? + +"The corn was orient and immortal wheat which never should be reaped, +nor was ever sown. I thought it stood from everlasting to everlasting. +The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold: the gates +were at first the end of the world. The green trees when I saw them +first through one of the gates transported and ravished me: ... the +skies were mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the +world was mine: and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it.... So that +with much ado I was corrupted and made to learn the dirty devices of +this world, which I now unlearn, and become, as it were, a little child +again that I may enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." + +If this is what life means to the young child, and Traherne only records +what many of us have forgotten there is little need for interference: we +can only spread the feast and stand aside to watch for opportunities. + +The following extract is given from a teacher's note-book: it shows how +many possibilities open out to a teacher, and how impossible it is to +keep to a time-table, or even to try to name the activities. The +children concerned were about five years old, newly admitted to a poor +school in S.E. London. The records are selected from a continuous +period, and do not apply to one day:-- + + +PLANS FOR THE DAY WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED + +_Number Occupations._--This will The children played, freely +be entirely free and the children chalking most of the time; those +will choose their own toys and threading beads were most +put them away. interested. Again I noticed the + lack of idea of colour; I found + one new boy placing his sticks + according to colour, without + knowing the names of the colours. + The boys thought the soldiers + belonged to them, and laughed at + a little girl for choosing them. + +_Language Training._--I have I realised this was a failure, +discovered that they love to for I asked the children to use +imitate sounds, so we will play their boards and chalks for a +at this. They could draw a cat definite drawing, and they should +and say "miauw," and a duck and have had the time to use them +say "quack." They could also freely and discover their use. I +imitate the wind. got very little information about + their vocabulary. + +_Language Training_ (_another I found that many children +day_).--I shall try to induce the pronounced words so strangely +children to speak to me about their that I could only with difficulty +homes, in order to discover any recognise them. One said she +difficulties of pronunciation and had a "bresser" with "clates" +to make them more fluent. on it and "knies" Others spoke + of "manckle," "firebrace," "forts." + One child speaking of curly hair + called it "killeyer." We had no + time for the story. + +_Playing with Toys._--The Noah's arks, dolls, and bricks +children will choose their own toys, were used, and I found that the +and as far as possible I will put girls who had no dolls at home +a child who knows how to use them were delighted to be able to dress +next to one who desires to sit and undress them and put them +still. to bed. One little girl walked + backwards and forwards before + the class getting her doll to + sleep; the boys were making a + noise with their arks and she + remarked on this, so we induced + them to be silent while the dolls + were put to sleep. The boys + arranged their animals in long + lines. The bricks were much more + carefully put away to-day. + + +THE TRANSITION AND THE JUNIOR SCHOOL PROGRAMME + +Even after the Nursery School period much of the curriculum and subject +matter is in the hands of the children themselves, though the relative +proportions will vary according to the children's experiences. It is +pretty evident to the honest-minded teacher that the subjects are, in +school terms, nature work and elementary science, mathematics, +constructive and expressive work, literature, music, language, physical +exercise and religion. The business of the younger child is with real +things and activity, not with symbols and passivity, therefore he is not +really in need of reading, writing, or arithmetic. We hear arguments +from ambitious teachers that children are fond of reading lessons +because they enjoy the fantasies in which these lessons are wrapped, or +the efforts made by the teacher to create interest; we hear that +children ask to be taught to read; they also ask to be taught to drive a +tram or to cook a dinner; but it is all part of the pretence game of +playing at being grown up. They do not need to read while stories and +poetry can be told or read to them; they are not ready to make the +effort of working for a remote economic end, where there is no real +pleasure in the activity, and no opportunity of putting their powers to +use. No child under six wants to sit down and read, and it would be very +harmful if he did; his business is with real things and with his +vocabulary, which is not nearly ready to put into symbols yet. If +reading is delayed, hours of weary drudgery will be saved and energy +stored for more precious attainments. + +Therefore in the transition class (_i.e._ children over six at lowest) +the only addition to the curriculum already set out for the nursery +class, would be arithmetic and reading, including writing. The other +differences would be in degree only. In the junior class (with children +over seven at lowest) a desire to know something of the doings of people +in other countries, to hear about other parts of our own land, will lead +to the beginnings of geography; while with this less imaginative and +more literal period comes the request for stories that are more verbally +true, and questions about origins, leading to the beginnings of history. + +It is very much easier to give the general curriculum than to deal with +the choice of actual material, because that is involved largely with the +principle of the unity of experience, and, as we know, experiences vary. +The normal town and country child, and the abnormal child of poverty +have all certain human cravings in common, and these are provided for in +the aspects of life or subjects that have been named--but this is far +too general an application to be the end of the matter; each subject has +many sides to offer. There may be for example the pottery town, the +weaving town, the country town, the fishing town, the colliery town: in +the country there is the district of the dairy farmer, of the sheep +farmer, of the grain grower and miller, of the fruit farmer, of the hop +grower, and many districts may partake of more than one characteristic. +Perhaps the most curious anomaly of experience is that of the child of +the London slums who goes "hopping" into some of the loveliest parts of +Kent, in early autumn. And so in a general way at least the concentrated +experience of school must fill gaps and supply experiences that life has +not provided for. + +One of the pottery towns in Staffordshire is built on very unfertile +clay; there are several potteries in the town belching out smoke, and, +in addition, rows of monotonous smoke-blackened houses; almost always a +yellow pall of smoke hangs over the whole district, and even where the +edge of the country might begin, the grass and trees are poor and +blackened, and distant views are seen through a haze. There are almost +no gardens in the town, and very little attempt has been made to +beautify it, because the results are so disappointing. Beauty, +therefore, in various forms must be a large part of the curriculum: +already design is a common interest in the pottery museums of the +district, and this could be made a motive for the older children; but in +the Junior and Nursery School pictures of natural beauty, wild flowers +if it is possible to get them, music, painting and drawing, and +literature should bulk largely enough to make a permanent impression on +the children. In a very remote country village where life seems to go +slowly, and days are long, children should be encouraged, by means of +the school influence, to make things that absorb thought and interest, +to tell and hear stories. Storytelling in the evening round the fire is +a habit of the past, and might well supply some of the cravings that +have to be satisfied by the "pictures." Most of us have to keep +ourselves well in hand when we listen to a recitation in much the same +way as when a slate pencil used to creak; it would be very much better +if the art of storytelling were cultivated at school, encouraged at +home, and applied to entertainments. Indeed the entertainments of a +village school, instead of being the unnatural and feverish production +of hours of overtime, might well be the ordinary outcome of work both at +school and at home--and thus a motive for leisure is naturally supplied +and probably a hobby initiated. + +It is profitable sometimes to group the subjects of experience in order +to preserve balance. All getting of experience is active, but some kinds +more obviously than others. Undoubtedly in hearing stories and poetry, +in watching a snail or a bee, in listening to music, the activity is +mental rather than physical and assimilation of ideas is more direct; in +discovering experiences by means of construction, expression, experiment +or imitation, assimilation is less direct but often more permanent and +secure. Froebel discriminates between impression and expression, or +taking in and giving out, and although he constantly emphasised that the +child takes in by giving, it is convenient to recognise this +distinction. Another helpful grouping is the more objective one. Some +subjects refer more particularly to human conduct, the enlargement of +experiences of human beings, and the building up of the ideal: these are +literature, music, history and geography; others refer to life other +than that of human beings, commonly known as nature study and science; +others to the properties of inanimate things, and to questions +throughout all life of measurement, size and force--this is known as +mathematics; others of the life behind the material and the spiritual +world--this is known as religion. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +GAINING EXPERIENCE THROUGH FREEDOM + + + "The atmosphere of freedom is the only atmosphere in which a + child can gain experiences that will help to develop + character." + +The principle of Freedom underlies all the activities of the school and +does not refer to conduct simply; intellectual and emotional aspects of +discipline are too often ignored and we have as a product the +commonplace, narrow, imitative person, too timid or too indolent to +think a new thought, or to feel strongly enough to stand for a cause. +Self-control is the goal of discipline, but independent thinking, +enthusiasm and initiative are all included in the term. + +It will be well to discriminate between the occasions, both in the +Nursery School and in the transition and junior classes, when a child +should be free to learn by experience and when he should be controlled +from without. We shall probably find occasions which partake of the +nature of each. + +The Nursery School is a collection of individuals presumably from 2-1/2 +to 5-1/2 years of age. They know no social life beyond the family life, +and family experience is relative to the size of the family. In any case +they have not yet measured themselves against their peers, with the +exception of the occasional twin. A few months ago about twenty children +of this description formed the nucleus of a new Nursery School where, as +far as possible, the world in miniature was spread out before them, and +they were guided in their entrance to it by an experienced teacher and +a young helper. For the first few weeks the chief characteristic was +noise; the children rushed up and down the large room, shouting, and +pushing any portable toys they could find. One little boy of 2-1/2 +employed himself in what can only be called "punching" the other +children, snatching their possessions away from them and responding to +the teacher by the law of contra-suggestion. He was the most intelligent +child in the school. He generally left a line of weeping children behind +him, and several began to imitate him. The pugnacious instinct requires +little encouragement. Lunch was a period of snatching, spilling, and +making plans to get the best. Many of the toys provided were carelessly +trampled upon and broken: requests to put away things at the end of the +day were almost unavailing. + +When the time for sleeping came in the afternoon many of the children +refused to lie down: some consented but only to sing and talk as they +lay. Only one, a child of 2-1/2, slept, because he cried himself to +sleep from sheer strangeness. This apparently unbeautiful picture is +only the first battle of the individual on his entrance to the life of +the community. + +On the other hand, there were intervals of keen joy: water, sand and +clay chiefly absorbed the younger children: the older ones wanted to +wash up and scrub, and many spent a good deal of time looking at +picture-books. This was the raw material for the teacher to begin with: +the children came from comfortable suburban homes: none were really +poor, and many had known no privation. They were keen for experiences +and disposed to be very friendly to her. + +After five months there is a marked difference in spirit. The noise is +modified because the children found other absorbing interests, though at +times nature still demands voice production. During lunch time and +sleeping time there is quiet, but the teacher has never _asked_ for +silence unless there was some such evident reason. There is no silence +game. The difference has come from within the children. All now lie down +in the afternoon quietly, and the greater number sleep; but there has +been no command or any kind of general plan: again the desire has +gradually come to individuals from suggestion and imitation. Lunch is +quite orderly, but not yet without an occasional accident or struggle. +There is much less fighting, but primitive man is still there. The most +marked development is in the growth of the idea of "taking turns"; the +children have begun to master this all-important lesson of life. The +strong pugnacious habit in the little punching boy reached a point that +showed he was unable to conquer it from within: about two months after +his arrival the teacher consulted his mother, who confirmed all that the +teacher had experienced: her prescription was smacking. After a good +deal of thought and many ineffectual talks and experiments with the boy, +the teacher came to the conclusion that the mother was right: she took +him to the cloakroom after the next outbreak and smacked his hands: he +was surprised and a little hurt, but very soon forgot and continued his +practices: on the next occasion the teacher repeated the punishment and +it was never again necessary. For a few days he was at a loss for an +occupation because punching had become a confirmed habit, but soon other +interests appealed to him: he has never changed in his trust in his +teacher of whom he is noticeably very fond, and he has now realised that +he must control a bad habit. This example has been given at length to +illustrate the relation of government to freedom. + +If these children had been in the ordinary Baby Room, subject to a +time-table, to constant plans by the teacher for their activities, few +or none of these occasions would have occurred: the incipient so-called +naughtiness would have been displayed only outside, in the playground or +at home: there would have been little chance of chaos, of fighting, of +punching, of trying to get the best thing and foremost place, there +would have been little opportunity for choice and less real absorption, +because of the time-table. The children would have been happy enough, +but they would not have been trained to live as individuals. Outward +docility is a fatal trait and very common in young children; probably it +is a form of self-preservation. But the real child only lies in wait to +make opportunities out of school. The school is therefore not preparing +him for life. + + * * * * * + +Freedom in the transition and the junior school must be differently +applied: individual life begins to merge into community life, and the +children begin to learn that things right for individuals may be wrong +for the community. But the problem of freedom is not as easy as the +problem of authority: standards must be greatly altered and outward +docility no longer mistaken for training in self-control. Individual +training cannot suddenly become class discipline, neither can children +be switched from the Nursery School to a full-blown class system. + +The idea of class teaching must be postponed, for out of it come most of +the difficulties of discipline, and it is not the natural arrangement at +this transitional period. A teacher is imposing on a number of very +different individuals a system that says their difficulties are alike, +that they must all work at one rate and in one way: and so we have the +weary "reading round" class, when the slow ones struggle and the quick +ones find other and unlawful occupation: we have the number lessons +broken by the teacher's breathless attempts to see that all the class +follows: we have the handwork that imposes an average standard of work +that fits nobody exactly. Intellectual freedom can only come by +individual or group work, while class teaching is only for such +occasions as a literature or a singing lesson, or the presentation of an +occasional new idea in number. Individual and group work need much +organisation, but while classes consist of over forty children there is +no other way to permit intellectual and moral freedom. Of course the +furniture of the room will greatly help to make this more possible, and +it is hoped that an enlightened authority will not continue to supply +heavy iron-framed desks for the junior school, those described as "desks +for listening." + +The prevailing atmosphere should be a busy noise and not silence--it +should be the noise of children working, oftener than of the teacher +teaching, _i.e._ teaching the whole class. The teacher should be more +frequently among the children than at her desk, and the children's +voices should be heard more often than hers. + +Such children will inevitably become intellectually independent and +morally self-controlled. Most of the order should be taken in hand by +children in office, and they should be distinguished by a badge: most +questions of punishment should be referred to them. This means a +constant appeal to the law that is behind both teacher and children and +which they learn to reach apart from the teacher's control. + +"Where 'thou shalt' of the law becomes 'I will' of the doer, then we are +free." + + + + +III. CONSIDERATION OF THE ASPECTS OF EXPERIENCE + + +The aim of the following chapters is to show how principles may be +applied to what are usually known as subjects of the curriculum, and +what place these subjects take in the acquisition of experience. An +exhaustive or detailed treatment of method is not intended, but merely +the establishment of a point of view and method of application. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +EXPERIENCES OF HUMAN CONDUCT + + +It is always difficult to see the beginnings of things: we know that +stories form the raw material of morality, it is not easy to trace +morality in _Little Black Sambo, The Three Bears, Alice in Wonderland,_ +or _The Sleeping Beauty,_ but nevertheless morality is there if we +recognise morality in everyday things. It is not too much to say that +everybody should have an ideal, even a burglar: his ideal is to be a +good and thorough burglar, and probably if he is a burglar of the finer +sort, it is to play fair to the whole gang. It is better to be a burglar +with an ideal than a blameless person with very little soul or +personality, who just slides through life accepting things: it is better +to have a coster's ideal of a holiday than to be too indifferent or +stupid to care or to know what you want. + +Now ideals are supposed to be the essence of morality and morality comes +to us through experience, and only experience tests its truth. The +story with a moral is generally neither literature nor morality, except +such unique examples as _The Pilgrim's Progress _or _Everyman_. The kind +of experience with which morality is concerned is experience of human +life in various circumstances, and the way people behave under those +circumstances. The beginning of such experience is our own behaviour and +the behaviour of other people we know, but this is too limited an +experience to produce a satisfactory ideal; so we crave for something +wider. It is curious how strong is the craving for this kind of +experience in all normal children, in whom one would suppose sense +experiences and especially muscular experiences to be enough. The need +to know about people other than ourselves, and yet not too unlike, in +circumstances other than our own, and yet not too strange, seems to be a +necessary part of our education, and we interpret it in the light of our +own personal conduct. Out of this, as well as out of our direct +experience, we build our ideal. When one realises how an ideal may +colour the whole outlook of a person, one begins to realise what +literature means to a child. The early ideal is crude; it may be Jack +the Giant-Killer, or an engine-driver, Cinderella, or the step-cleaner; +this may grow into Hiawatha or Robinson Crusoe, for boys, and a fairy +tale Princess or one of the "Little Women" for girls. In every hero a +child half-unconsciously sees himself, and the ideal stimulates all that +hidden life which is probably the most important part of his growth. As +indirect experiences grow, or in other words as he hears or reads more +stories, his ideal widens, and his knowledge of the problems of life is +enlarged. This is the raw material of morality, for out of his answers +to these problems he builds up standards of conduct and of judgement. He +projects himself into his own ideal, and he projects himself into the +experiences of other people: he lives in both: this is imagination of +the highest kind, it is often called sympathy, but the term is too +limited, it is rather imaginative understanding. + +There is another side of life grasped by means of this new world of +experience, and that is, the spiritual side that lies between conduct +and ideals; children have always accepted the supernatural quite readily +and it is not to be wondered at, for all the world is new and therefore +supernatural to them. Magic is done daily in children's eyes, and there +is no line between what is understandable and what is not, until adults +try to interpret it for them. + +They are curious about birth and death and all origins: thunder is +terrifying, the sea is enthralling, the wind is mysterious, the sky is +immense, and all suggest a power beyond: in this the children are +reproducing the race experience as expressed in myths, when power was +embodied in a god or goddess. Therefore the fairy world or the giant +world, or the wood full of dwarfs and witches' houses, is as real to +them, and as acceptable, as any part of life. It is their recognition of +a world of spirits which later on mingles itself with the spiritual life +of religion. That life is behind all matter, is the main truth they +hold, and while it is difficult here to disentangle morality from +religion, it is supremely evident that a very great and significant side +of a child's education is before us. + +It is by means of the divine gift of imagination, probably the most +spiritual of a child's gifts, that he can lay hold of all that the world +of literature has to offer him. Because of imagination he is independent +of poverty, monotony, and the indifference of other people; he has a +world of his own in which nothing is impossible. Edwin Pugh says of a +child of the slums who was passionately fond of reading cheap +literature:--"It was by means of this penny passport to Heaven that she +escaped from the Hell of her surroundings. It was in the maudlin fancies +of some poor besotted literary hack maybe, that she found surcease from +the pains of weariness, the carks and cares of her miserable estate." + +A teacher realising this, should feel an almost unspeakable sense of +responsibility in having to select and present matter: but the problem +should be solved on the one hand by her own high standard of story +material, and on the other by her knowledge of the child's needs. +According to his experiences of life the interpretation of the story +will differ: for example, it was found that the children of a low slum +neighbourhood translated _Jack the Giant-killer_ into terms of a street +fight: to children living by a river or the sea, the _Water-Babies_ would +mean very much, while _Jan of the Windmill_ would be more familiar +ground for country children. Fairy stories of the best kind have a +universal appeal. + +In choosing a story a teacher should be aware of the imperishable part +of it, the truth around which it grew; sometimes the truth may seem a +very commonplace one, sometimes a curious one. For example, very young +children generally prefer stories of home life because round the family +their experience gathers: the subject seems homely, but it is really one +of the fundamental things of life and the teacher should realise this in +such a way that the telling or reading of the story makes the kernel its +central point. To some children the ideal home life comes only through +literature: daily experiences rather contradict it. Humour is an +important factor in morality; unless a person is capable of seeing the +humor of a situation he is likely to be wanting in a sense of balance; +the humor of a situation is often caused by the wrong proportion or +wrong balance of things: for example the humour of _The Mad Tea-Party_ +lies, partly at least, in the absurd gravity with which the animals +regarded the whole situation, the extreme literal-mindedness of Alice, +and the exaggerated imitation of human beings: a really moral person +must have balance as well as sympathy, else he sees things out of +proportion. These examples make evident that we are not to seek for +anything very patently high-flown in the stories for children; it is +life in all its phases that gives the material, but it must be true +life: not false or sentimental or trivial life: this will rule out the +"pretty" stories for children written by trivial people in teachers' +papers, or the pseudo-nature story, or the artificial myth of the "How +did" type, or the would-be childish story where the language is rather +that of the grown-up imitating children than that of real children. Of +late years, with the discovery of children, children's literature has +grown, and there is a good deal to choose from past and present writers. + +There is no recognised or stereotyped method of telling a story to +children: it is something much deeper than merely an acquired art, it is +the teacher giving something of her personality to the children, +something that is most precious. One of the finest of our English +Kindergarten teachers once said, "I feel almost as if I ought to prepare +my soul before telling a story to young children," and this is the sense +in which the story should be chosen and told. There are, of course, +certain external qualifications which must be so fully acquired as to be +used unconsciously, such as a good vocabulary, power over one's voice, a +recognition of certain literary phases in a story, such as the working +up to the dramatic crisis, the working down to the end so that it shall +not fall flat, and the dramatic touches that give life; these are +certainly most necessary, and should be studied and cultivated; but a +teacher should not be hampered in her telling by being too conscious of +them. Rather she should feel such respect and even reverence for this +side of a child's education that the framework and setting can only be +of the best, always remembering at the same time what is framework and +setting, and what is essence. + +Much that has been said about the method and aim of stories might apply +to those taken from the Bible, but they need certain additional +considerations. Here religion and morality come very closely together: +the recognition of a definite personality behind all circumstances of +life, to whom our conduct matters, gives a soul to morality. The Old +Testament is a record of the growth of a nation more fully conscious of +God than is the record of any other nation, and because of this children +can understand God in human life when they read such stories as the +childhood of Moses and of Samuel. Children resemble the young Jewish +nation in this respect: they accept the direct intervention of God in +the life of every day. Their primitive sense of justice, which is an eye +for an eye, will make them welcome joyfully the plagues of Egypt and the +crossing of the Red Sea. It would be premature to force on them the more +mature idea of mercy, which would probably lead to confusion of +judgement: they must be clear about the balance of things before they +readjust it for themselves. + +Much of the material in the Old Testament is hardly suitable for very +young children, but the most should be made of what there is: the lives +of Eastern people are interesting to children and help to make the +phraseology of the Psalms and even of the narratives clear to them. +Wonder stories such as the Creation, the Flood, the Burning Bush, +Elijah's experiences, appeal to them on another side, the side that is +eager to wonder: the accounts of the childhood of Ishmael, Isaac, +Joseph, Moses, David and Samuel, and the little Syrian maid, come very +close to them. Such stories should be given to young children so that +they form part of the enchanted memory of childhood--which is permanent. + +With the New Testament the problem is more difficult: one hesitates to +bring the life of Christ before children until they are ready to +understand, even in some degree, its significance; the subject is apt to +be dealt with either too familiarly, and made too commonplace and +everyday a matter, or as something so far removed from human affairs as +to be mysterious and remote to a child. To mix Old and New Testament +indiscriminately, as, for example, by taking them on alternate days, is +unforgivable, and no teacher who has studied the Bible seriously could +do so, if she cared about the religious training of her children, and +understood the Bible. + +If the children can realise something of the sense in which Christ +helped human beings, then some of the incidents in His life might be +given, such as His birth, His work of healing, feeding and helping the +poor, and some of His stories, such as the lost sheep, the lost son, the +sower, the good Samaritan. It is difficult to speak strongly enough of +the mistreatment of Scripture, under the name of religion: it has been +spoilt more than any other subject in the curriculum, chiefly by being +taken too often and too slightly, by teachers who may be in themselves +deeply religious, but who have not applied intelligence to this matter. +The religious life of a young child is very direct: there is only a +little in the religious experiences of the Jews that can help him, and +much that can puzzle and hinder him; their interpretation of God as +revengeful, cruel and one-sided in His dealings with their enemies must +greatly puzzle him, when he hears on the other hand that God is the +Father of all the nations on the earth. What is suitable should be taken +and taken well, but there is no virtue in the Bible misunderstood. + +Poetry is a form of literature which appeals to children _if they are +not made to learn it by rote_. Unconsciously they learn it very quickly +and easily, if they understand in a general way the meaning, and if they +like the sound of the words. Rhythm is an early inheritance and can be +encouraged by poetry, music and movement. The sound of words appeals +strongly to young children, and rhyming is almost a game. The kind of +poetry preferred varies a good deal but on the whole narrative or +nonsense verses seem most popular; few children are ready for sentiment +or reflection even about themselves, and this is why some of Stevenson's +most charming poems about children are not appreciated by them as much +as by grown-up people. And for the same reason only a few nature poems +are really liked. + +Without doubt, the only aim in giving poetry to children is to help them +to appreciate it, and the only method to secure this is to read it to +them appreciatively and often. + +Besides such anthologies as _The Golden Staircase,_ E.V. Lucas's _Book +of Verses for Children,_ and others, we must go to the Bible for poems +like the Song of Miriam, or of Deborah, and the Psalms; to Shakespeare +for such songs as "Where the Bee Sucks," "I know a Bank," "Ye Spotted +Snakes," either with or without music; to Longfellow's _Hiawatha_ for +descriptive pieces, and to Scott and Tennyson for ballads and songs, and +to many other simple classic sources outside the ordinary collections. + +In both prose and poetry, probably the ultimate aim is appreciation of +beauty in human conduct. Clutton Brock says, "The value of art is the +value of the aesthetic activity of the spirit, and we must all value +that before we can value works of art rightly: and ultimately we must +value this glory of the universe, to which we give the name of beauty +when we apprehend it." Again he says, "Parents, nurses and teachers +ought to be aware that the child when he forgets himself in the beauty +of the world is passing through a sacred experience which will enrich +and glorify the whole of his life." + +If all this is what literature means in a child's experiences of life, +then it must be given a worthy place in the time-table and curriculum +and in the serious preparation by the teacher for her work. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +EXPERIENCES OF THE NATURAL WORLD + + +The first experiences the child gains from the world of nature are those +of beauty, of sound, colour and smell. Flowers at first are just lovely +and sweet-smelling; the keen senses of a child are more deeply satisfied +with colour and scent than we have any idea of, unless some faint memory +of what it meant remains with us. But he begins to grasp real scientific +truth from his experiences with the elements which have for him such a +mysterious attraction; by the very contact with water something in the +child responds to its stimulus. Mud and sand have their charms, quite +intangible, but universal, from prince to coster; a bonfire is something +that arouses a kind of primeval joy. Again, race experience reproducing +itself may account for all this, and it must be satisfied. The demand +for contact with the rest of nature is a strong and fierce part of human +nature, and it means the growth of something in life that we cannot do +without. We induce children to come into our schools when this hunger is +at its fiercest, and very often we do nothing to satisfy it, but set +them in rooms to look at things inanimate when their very being is +crying out for life. "I want something and I don't know what to want" is +the expression of a state very frequent in children, and not infrequent +in grown-up people, because they have been balked of something. + +How, then, can we provide for their experience of this side of life? We +have tried to do so in the past by object and nature lessons, but we +must admit that they are not the means by which young children seek to +know life, or by which they appreciate its beauty. We have been trying +to kill too many birds with one stone in our economic way; "to train the +powers of observation," "to teach a child to express himself," "to help +a child to gain useful knowledge about living things," have been the +most usual aims. And the method has been that of minute examination of a +specimen from the plant or animal world, utterly detached from its +surroundings, considered by the docile child in parts, such as leaves, +stem, roots, petals, and uses; or head, wings, legs, tail, and habits. +The innocent listener might frequently think with reason that a number +lesson rather than a nature lesson was being given. The day of the +object lesson is past, and to young children the nature lesson must +become nature work. + +It is in the term "nature lesson" that the root of the mischief lies: +nature is not a lesson to the young child, it is an interest from which +he seeks to gain more pleasure, by means of his own activity: plants +encourage him to garden, animals stir his desire to watch, feed and +protect; water, earth and fire arouse his craving to investigate and +experiment: there is no motive for passive study at this juncture, and +without a motive or purpose all study leads to nothing. Adults compare, +and count the various parts of a living thing for purposes of +classification connected with the subdivisions of life which we call +botany and zoology; but such things are far removed from the young +child's world--only gradually does it begin to dawn on him that there +are interesting likenesses, and that in this world, as in his own, there +are relationships; when he realises this, the time for a nature lesson +has come. But much direct experience must come first. + +In setting out the furnishing of the school the need for this activity +is implied. No school worthy of the name can do without a garden, any +more than it can do without reading books, or blackboards, indeed the +former need is greater: if it is possible, and possibilities gradually +merge into acceptances, a pond should be in the middle of the garden, +and trees should also be considered as part of the whole. It is not +difficult for the ordinary person to make a pond, or even to begin a +garden. + +In a school situated in S.E. London in the midst of rows of monotonous +little houses, and close to a busy railway junction, a miracle was +performed: the playground was not very large, and of the usual +uncompromising concrete. The children, most of whose fathers worked on +the railway, lived in the surrounding streets, and most of them had a +back-yard of sorts; they had little or no idea of a garden. One of the +teachers had, however, a vision which became a reality. She asked her +children to help to make a garden, and for weeks every child brought +from his back-yard his little paper bag of soil which was deposited over +some clinkers that were spread out in a narrow border against the +outside wall; in a few months there was a border of two yards in which +flowers were planted: the caretaker, inspired by the sight, did his +share of fixing a wooden strip as a kind of supporting border to the +whole: in two years the garden had spread all round the outside wall of +the playground, and belonged to several classes. + +An even greater miracle was performed in a dock-side school, where to +most of the children a back-yard was a luxury beyond all possibility. +The school playground was very small, and evening classes made a school +garden quite impossible. But the head mistress was one who saw life full +of possibilities, and so she saw a garden even in the sordidness. Round +the parish church was a graveyard long disused, and near one of the +gates a small piece of ground that had never been used for any +graveyard purpose: it was near enough to the school to be possible, and +in a short time the miracle happened--the entrance to the graveyard +became a children's flowering garden. + +Inside the school where plants and flowers in pots are numerous, a part +of the morning should be spent in the care of these: few people know how +to arrange flowers, and fewer how to feed and wash them; if there are an +aquarium or chrysalis boxes, they have to be attended to: all this +should be a regular duty with a strong sense of responsibility attached +to it; it is curious how many people are content to live in an +atmosphere of decaying matter. + +If the children enjoy so intensely the colour of the leaves and flowers +they will be glad to have the opportunity of painting them; this is as +much a part of nature work as any other, and it should be used as such, +because it emphasises so strongly the side of appreciation of beauty, a +side very often neglected. It is here that the individual paint box is +so important. If children are to have any sense of colour they must +learn to match very truthfully; there is a great difference between the +blue of the forget-me-not and of the bluebell, but only by experiment +can children discover that the difference lies in the amount of red in +the latter. By means of discoveries of this kind they will see new +colours in life around them, and a new depth of meaning will come to +their everyday observations. This is true observation, not the "look and +say" of the oral lesson, which has no purpose in it, and leads to no +natural activity, or to appreciation. + +It is difficult to satisfy the interest in animals. In connection with +the Nursery School the most suitable have been mentioned. The transition +and junior school children may see others when they go for excursions. +At this stage, too, children have a great desire to learn about wild +animals, and the need often arises out of their literature: the camel +that brought Rebecca to Isaac, the wolf that adopted Mowgli, the +reindeer that carried Kay and Gerda, the fox that tried to eat the seven +little kids, Androcles' lion, and Black Sambo's tiger, might form an +interesting series, helped by pictures of the creature _in its own +home_. It is difficult to say whether this may be termed literature, +geography, or nature study. The difficulty serves to show the unity of +life at this period. Books such as Seton Thompson's, Long's, and +Kearton's, and many others, supply living experiences of animal life +impossible to get from less direct sources. + +As children get older, and have the power to look back, they will feel +the necessity of keeping records; and thus the Nature Calendar, +forerunner of geography, will be adopted naturally. + +Another important feature in nature experiences is the excursion. +Froebel says: "Not only children and boys, but indeed many adults, fare +with nature and her character as ordinary men fare with the air. They +live in it and yet scarcely know it as something distinct ... therefore +these children and boys who spend all their time in the fields and +forests see and feel nothing of the beauties of nature and their +influence on the human heart. They are like people who have grown up in +a very beautiful country and who have no idea of its beauty and its +spirit ... therefore it is so important that boys and adults should go +into the fields and forests, together striving to receive into their +hearts and minds the life and spirit of nature." It is evident from this +that excursions are as necessary in the country as in the town, where +instead of the "fields and forests" perhaps only a park is possible, but +there is no virtue in an excursion taken without preparation. The +teacher must first of all visit the place and see what it is likely to +give the children. She must tell them something of it, give them some +aim in going there, such as collecting leaves or fruits, or recording +different shapes of bare trees, or collecting things that grow in the +grass. These are examples of what a town park might yield. Within one +group of children there might be many with different aims. During the +days following the excursion time should be spent in using these +experiences, either by means of painting and modelling, or making +classified collections of things found, or compiling records, oral or +written. Otherwise the excursion degenerates into a school treat without +its natural enjoyment. + +With regard to the inevitable gaps in the children's minds in connection +with the world of living things, such pictures as the following should +be in every town school: a pine wood, a rabbit warren, a natural pond, a +ditch and hedge, a hayfield in June, a wild daffodil patch, a sheet of +bluebells, a cornfield at different stages, an orchard in spring and in +autumn, and many others. These must be constantly used when they are +needed, and not misused in the artificial method known as "picture +talks." + +There is another side to nature work. Froebel says: "The things of +nature form a more beautiful ladder between heaven and earth than that +seen by Jacob; not a one-sided ladder leading in one direction, but an +all-sided one leading in all directions. Not in dreams is it seen; it is +permanent, it surrounds us on all sides." + +Froebel believed that contact with nature helps a child's realisation of +God, and any one who believes in early religious experience must agree; +a child's early questions and difficulties, as well as his early awe and +fear show it--he is probably nearer to God in his nature work than in +many of the _daily_ Scripture lessons. All his education should be +permeated by spiritual feeling, but there are some aspects in which the +realisation is clearer, and possibly his contact with nature stands out +as the highest in this respect. There is no conscious method or art in +bringing this about; the teacher must feel it and be convinced of it. + +Thus we come to the conclusion that the Nursery School nature work can +be safely left to look after itself, provided the surroundings are +satisfying and the children are free. + +In the transition and the junior school there should be no nature +lessons of the object lesson type, but plenty of nature work, leading to +talks, handwork, and poetry. The aim is not economic or informational at +this stage, but the development of pure appreciation and interest. There +can hardly be a regular place on the time-table for such irregular work, +comprising excursions, gardening, handwork, and literature at least, and +depending on the weather and the seasons. There should always be a +regular morning time for attending to plants and animals and for the +Nature Calendar, but no "living" teacher will be a slave to mere +time-table thraldom. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +EXPERIENCES OF MATHEMATICAL TRUTHS + + +By means of toys, handwork and games, as well as various private +individual experiments, a child touches on most sides of mathematics in +the nursery class. In experimenting with bricks he must of necessity +have considered relative size, balance and adjustment, form and +symmetry; in fitting them back into their boxes some of the most +difficult problems of cubic content; in weighing out "pretence" sugar +and butter by means of sand and clay new problems are there for +consideration; in making a paper-house questions of measurement evolve. +This is all in the incidental play of the Nursery School, and yet we +might say that a child thus occupied is learning mathematics more than +anything else. Here, if he remained till six, he did a certain amount of +necessary counting, and he may have acquired skill in recognising +groups, he may have unconsciously and incidentally performed +achievements in the four rules, but never, of course, in any shortened +or technical form. Probably he knows some figures. It is best to give +these to a child when he asks for or needs them, as in the case of +records of games. On the other hand he may be content with strokes. +Various mathematical relationships are made clear in his games or trials +of strength, such as distance in relation to time or strength, weight in +relation to power and to balance, length and breadth in relation to +materials, value of material in relation to money or work. By means of +many of his toys the properties of solids have become working knowledge +to him. Here, then, is our starting-point for the transition period. + + +AFTER THE NURSERY STAGE + +Undoubtedly the aim of the transition class is partly to continue by +means of games and dramatic play the kind of knowledge gained in the +Nursery School; but it has also the task of beginning to organise such +knowledge, as the grouping into tens and hundreds. This organisation of +raw material and the presenting of shortened processes, as occur in the +first four rules, forms the work also of the junior school. To give to a +child shortened processes which he would be very unlikely to discover in +less than a lifetime, is simply giving him the experience of the race, +as primitive man did to his son. But the important point is to decide +when a child's discovery should end and the teacher's demonstration +begin. + +This is the period when we are accustomed to speak of beginning +"abstract" work; it is well to be clear what it means, and how it stands +related to a child's need for experience. When we leave the problems of +life, such as shopping, keeping records of games and making measurements +for construction; and when we begin to work with pure number, we are +said to be dealing with the abstract. Formerly dealing with pure number +was called "simple," and dealing with actual things, such as money and +measures, "compound," and they were taken in this order. But experience +has reversed the process, and a child comes to see the need of abstract +practice when he finds he is not quick enough or accurate enough, or his +setting out seems clumsy, in actual problems. This was discussed at +greater length in the chapter on Play. + +For instance, he might set down the points of a game by strokes, each +line representing a different opponent: + +John |||||||||||||||| + +Henry ||||||||||| + +Tom ||| + +He will see how difficult it is to estimate at a glance the exact score, +and how easy it is to be inaccurate. It seems the moment to show him +that the idea of grouping or enclosing a certain number, and always +keeping to the same grouping, is helpful: + +John |||||||||| |||||| = 1 ten and 6 singles. + +Henry |||||||||| | = 1 ten and 1 single. + +Tom ||| = 3 singles. + +After doing this a good many times he could be told that this is a +universal method, and he would doubtless enjoy the purely puzzle +pleasure in working long sums to perfect practice. This pleasure is very +common in children at this stage, but too often it comes to them merely +through being shown the "trick" of carrying tens. They have reached a +purely abstract point, but they cannot get through it without some more +material help. The following is an example of the kind of help that can +be given in getting clear the concept of the ten grouping and the +processes it involves: + +[Illustration: Board with hooks, in ranks of nine, and rings] + +The whole apparatus is a rectangular piece of wood about 3/4 of an inch +thick, and about 3x1-1/2 feet of surface. It is painted white, and the +horizontal bars are green, so that the divisions may be apparent at a +distance; it has perpendicular divisions breaking it up into three +columns, each of which contains rows of nine small dresser hooks. It can +be hung on an easel or supported by its own hinge on a table. Each of +the divisions represents a numerical grouping, the one on the right is +for singles or units, the central one for tens, and the left side one +for hundreds: the counters used are button moulds, dipped in red ink, +with small loops of string to hang on the hooks: it is easily seen by a +child that, after nine is reached, the units can no longer remain in +their division or "house," but must be gathered together into a bunch +(fastened by a safety pin) and fixed on one of the hooks of the middle +division. + +Sums of two or three lines can thus be set out on the horizontal bars, +and in processes of addition the answer can be on the bottom line. It is +very easy, by this concrete means, to see the process in subtraction, +and indeed the whole difficulty of dealing with ten is made concrete. +The whole of a sum can be gone through on this board with the +button-moulds, and on boards and chalk with figures, side by side, thus +interpreting symbol by material; but the whole process is abstract. + +The piece of apparatus is less abstract only in degree than the figures +on the blackboard, because neither represents real life or its problems: +in abstract working we are merely going off at a side issue for the sake +of practice, to make us more competent to deal with the economic affairs +of life. There is a place for sticks and counters, and there is a place +for money and measures, but they are not the same: the former represents +the abstract and the latter the concrete problem if used as in real +life: the bridge between the abstract and the concrete is largely the +work of the transition class and junior school, in respect of the +foundations of arithmetic known as the first four rules. + +Games of skill, very thorough shopping or keeping a bankbook, or selling +tickets for tram or train, represent the kind of everyday problem that +should be the centre of the arithmetic work at this transition stage; +and out of the necessities of these problems the abstract and +semi-abstract work should come, but it should _never_ precede the real +work. A real purpose should underlie it all, a purpose that is apparent +and stimulating enough to produce willing practice. A child will do much +to be a good shopkeeper, a good tram conductor, a good banker; he will +always play the game for all it is worth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +EXPERIENCES BY MEANS OF DOING + + +In the Nursery School activity is the chief characteristic: one of its +most usual forms is experimenting with tools and materials, such as +chalk, paints, scissors, paper, sand, clay and other things. The desire +to experiment, to change the material in some way, to gratify the +senses, especially the muscular one, may be stronger than the desire to +construct. The handwork play of the Nursery School is therefore chiefly +by means of imitation and experiment, and direct help is usually quite +unwelcome to the child under six. There is little more to be said in the +way of direction than, "Provide suitable material, give freedom, and +help, if the child wants it." But the case is rather different in the +transitional stage. As the race learnt to think by doing, so children +seem to approach thought in that way; they have a natural inclination to +do in the first case; they try, do wrongly, consider, examine, observe, +and do again: for example, a girl wants to make a doll's bonnet like the +baby's; she begins impulsively to cut out the stuff, finds it too small, +tries to visualise the right size, examines the real bonnet, and makes +another attempt. At some apparently odd moment she stumbles on a truth, +perhaps the relation of one form to another in the mazes of +bonnet-making; it is at these odd moments that we learn. Or a boy may be +painting a Christmas card, and in another odd moment he may _feel_ +something of the beauty of colour, if, for example, he is copying +holly-berries. No purposeless looking at them would have stirred +appreciation. Whether the end is doing, or whether it is thinking, the +two are inextricably connected; in the earlier stages the way to know +and feel is very often by action, and here is the basis of the maxim +that handwork is a method. + +This idea has often been only half digested, and consequently it has led +to a very trivial kind of application; a nature lesson of the "look and +say" description has been followed by a painting lesson; a geography +lesson, by the making of a model. If the method of learning by doing was +the accepted aim of the teacher then it was not carried out, for this is +learning and then doing, not learning for the purpose of doing, but +doing for the purpose of testing the learning, which is quite another +matter, and not a very natural procedure with young children. Many +people have tried to make things from printed directions, a woman may +try to make a blouse and a man to make a knife-box; their procedure is +not to separate the doing and the learning process; probably they have +first tried to do, found need for help, and gone to the printed +directions, which they followed side by side with the doing; and in the +light of former failures or in the course of looking or of +experimenting, they stumbled upon knowledge: this is learning by doing. + +Therefore the making of a box may be arithmetic, the painting of a +buttercup may be nature study, the construction of a model, or of +dramatic properties may be geography or history, not by any means the +only way of learning, but one of the earlier ways and a very sound way; +there is a purpose to serve behind it all, that will lead to very +careful discrimination in selection of knowledge, and to pains taken to +retain it. If this is fully understood by a teacher and she is content +to take nature's way, and abide for nature's time to see results, then +her methods will be appropriately applied: she will see that she is not +training a race of box-makers, but that she is guiding children to +discover things that they need to know in a natural way, and ensuring +that as these facts are discovered they shall be used. Consequently +neither haste nor perfection of finish must cloud the aim; it is not the +output that matters but the method by which the children arrive at the +finished object, not forty good boxes, but forty good thinkers. Dewey +has put it most clearly when he says that the right test of an +occupation consists "in putting the maximum of consciousness into +whatever is done." Froebel says, "What man tries to represent or do he +begins to understand." + +This is what we should mean by saying that handwork is a method of +learning. + +But handwork has its own absolute place as well. A child wants to +acquire skill in this direction even more consciously than he wants to +learn: if he has been free, in the nursery class, to experiment with +materials, and if he knows some of his limitations, he is now, in the +transition class, ready for help, and he should get it as he needs it. +This may run side by side with the more didactic side of handwork which +has been described, but it is more likely that in practice the two are +inextricably mixed up; and this does not matter if the two ends are +clear in the teacher's mind; both sides have to be reckoned with. + +The important thing to know is the kind of help that should be given, +and when and how it is needed. It is well to remember that in this +connection a child's limitations are not final, but only mark stages: +for example, in his early attempts to use thick cardboard he cannot +discover the neat hinge that is made by the process known as a +"half-cut"; he tries in vain to bend the cardboard, so as to secure the +same result. There are two ways of helping him: either he can be quite +definitely shown and made to imitate, or he can be set to think about +it; he is given a cardboard knife and allowed to experiment: if he +fails, it may be suggested that a clean edge can only be got by some +form of cutting; probably he will find out the rest of the process. The +second method is the better one, because it promotes thinking, while the +first only promotes pure imitation and the habit of reckoning on this +easy solution of difficulties. A dull child may have to be shown, but +there are few such children, unless they have been trained to dulness. + +Imitation is not, however, always a medicine for dulness, nor does it +always produce dulness. There is a time for imitation and there is a +kind of imitation that is very intelligent. For example, a child may +come across a toy aeroplane and wish to make one; he will examine it +carefully, think over the uses of parts and proceed to make one as like +it as possible: here again is the maximum of consciousness, the essence +of thinking. Or the imitation may consist in following verbal +directions: this is far from easy if the teacher is at all vague, and +promotes valuable effort if she is clear but not diffuse: the putting of +words into action necessitates a considerable amount of imagining, and +the establishment of very important associations in brain centres. Such +cases might occur in connection with weaving, cardboard and paper work, +or the more technical processes of drawing and painting, where race +experience is actually _given_ to a child, by means of which he leaps +over the experiences of centuries. This is progress. + +If a teacher is to take handwork seriously, and not as a pretty +recreation with pleasing results, she should be fully conscious of all +that it means, and apply this definitely in her work: it is so easy to +be trivial while appearing to be thorough by having well-finished work +produced, which has necessitated little hard thinking on the child's +part. Construction gives a sense of power, a strengthening of the will, +ability to concentrate on a purpose in learning, a social sense of +serviceableness, a deepened individuality: but this can only be looked +for if a child is allowed to approach it in the right way, first as an +experimenter and investigator, or as an artist, and afterwards as a +learner, who is also an individual, and learns in his own way and at his +own rate: but if the teacher's ambition is external and economic then +the child is a tool in her hands, and will remain a tool. We cannot +expect the fruits of the spirit if our goal is a material one. + +One of the lessons of the war is economy. In handwork this has come to +us through the quest for materials, but it has been a blessing, if now +and then in disguise. In the more formal period of handwork only +prepared, almost patented material was used; everything was +"requisitioned" and eager manufacturers supplied very highly finished +stuff. Not very many years ago, the keeper of a "Kindergarten" stall at +an exhibition said, while pointing to cards cut and printed with +outlines for sewing and pricking, "We have so many orders for these that +we can afford to lay down considerable plant for their production." An +example in another direction is that of a little girl who attended one +of the best so-called Kindergartens of the time: she was afflicted, +while at home, with the "don't know what to do" malady; her mother +suggested that she might make some of the things she made at school, but +she negatived that at once with the remark, "I couldn't do that, you +see, because we have none of the right kind of stuff to make them of +here." + +It is quite unnecessary to give more direct details as to the kind of +work suitable and the method of doing it; more than enough books of help +have been published on every kind of material, and it might perhaps be +well if we made less use of such terms as "clay-modelling," +"cardboard-work," "raffia," and took handwork more in the sense of +constructive or expressive work, letting the children select one or +several media for their purpose; they ought to have access to a variety +of material; and except when they waste, they should use it freely. It +is limiting and unenlightened to put down a special time for the use of +special material, if the end might be better answered by something else: +if modelling is at 11.30 on Monday and children are anxious to make +Christmas presents, what law in heaven or earth are we obeying if we +stick to modelling except the law of Red Tape. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +EXPERIENCES OF THE LIFE OF MAN + + +This aspect of experience comes in two forms, the life of man in the +past, with the memorials and legacies he has left, and the life of man +in the present under the varying conditions of climate and all that it +involves. In other words these experiences are commonly known as history +and geography, though in the earlier stages of their appearance in +school it is perhaps better to call the work--preparation for history +and geography. They would naturally appear in the transition or the +junior class, preferably in the latter, but they need not be wholly new +subjects to a child; his literature has prepared him for both; to some +extent his experiments in handwork have prepared him for history, while +his nature work, especially his excursions and records, have prepared +him for geography. That he needs this extension of experience can be +seen in his growing demands for true stories, true in the more literal +sense which he is coming fast to appreciate; undoubtedly most children +pass through a stage of extreme literalism between early childhood and +what is generally recognised as boyhood and girlhood. They begin to ask +questions regarding the past, they are interested in things from +"abroad," however vague that term may be to them. + +Perhaps it will be best to treat the two subjects separately, though +like all the child's curriculum at this stage they are inextricably +confused and mingled both with each other, and with literature, as +experiences of man's life and conduct. + +The beginnings of geography lie in the child's foundations of +experience. Probably the first real contact, unconscious though it may +be, that any child has in this connection is through the production of +food and clothing. A country child sees some of the beginnings of both, +but it is doubtful how much of it is really interpreted by him; the +village shop with its inexhaustible stores probably means much more in +the way of origins, and he may never go behind its contents in his +speculations. It is true he sees milking, harvesting, sheep-shearing, +and many other operations, but he often misses the stage between the +actual beginning and the finished product--between the wool on the +sheep's back and his Sunday clothes, between the wheat in the field and +his loaf of bread. The town child has many links if he can use them: the +goods train, the docks, the grocer's, green-grocer's or draper's shop, +foreigners in the street, the vans that come through the silent streets +in the early morning; in big towns, such markets as Covent Garden or +Leadenhall or Smithfield; such a river as the Thames, Humber or +Mersey--from any one of these beginnings he can reach out from his own +small environment to the world. A town child has very confused notions +of what a farm really means to national life, and a country child of +what a big railway station or dock involves. All children need to know +what other parts of their own land look like, and what is produced; they +ought to trace the products within reach to their origin, and this will +involve descriptions of such things as fisheries at Hull or Aberdeen, +the coal mines of Wales or Lanarkshire, pottery districts of Stafford, +woollen and cotton factories of Yorkshire and Lancashire, mills driven +by steam, wind and water, lighthouses, the sheep-rearing districts of +Cumberland and Midlothian, the flax-growing of northern Ireland, and +much else, and the means of transit and communication between all these. +The children will gradually realise that many of the things they are +familiar with, such as tea, oranges, silk and sugar, have not been +accounted for, and this will take them to the lives of people in other +countries, the means of getting there, the time taken and mode of +travelling. They will also come to see that we do not produce enough of +the things that are possible to grow, such as wheat, apples, wool and +many other common necessaries, and that we can spare much that is +manufactured to countries that do not make them, such as boots, clothes, +china and cutlery. There will come a time when the need for a map is +apparent: that is the time to branch off from the main theme and make +one; it will have to be of the very immediate surroundings first, but it +is not difficult to make the leap soon to countries beyond. Previous to +the need for it, map-making is useless. + +This working outwards from actual experiences, from the home country to +the foreign, from actual contact with real things to things of +travellers' tales, is the only way to bring geography to the very door +of the school, to make it part of the actual life. + +The beginning of history, as of geography, lies in the child's +foundations of experience. In the country village he sees the church, +possibly some old cottages, or an Elizabethan or Jacobean house near; in +the churchyard or in the church the tombstones have quaint inscriptions +with reference possibly to past wars or to early colonisation. The slum +child on the other hand sees much that is worn out, but little that is +antiquated, unless the slum happen to be in such places as Edinburgh or +Deptford, situated among the remains of really fine houses: but he +realises more of the technicalities and officialism of a social system +than does the country child; the suburban child has probably the +scantiest store of all; his district is presumably made up of rows of +respectable but monotonous houses, and the social life is similarly +respectable and monotonous. + +There are certain cravings, interests and needs, common to all children, +which come regardless of surroundings. All children want to know certain +things about people who lived before them, not so much their great +doings as their smaller ones; they want to know what these people were +like, what they worked at, and learnt, how they travelled, what they +bought and sold: and there is undoubtedly a primitive strain in all +children that comes out in their love of building shelters, playing at +savages, and making things out of natural material. One of the most +intense moments in _Peter Pan_ to many children is the building of the +little house in the wood, and later on, of the other on the top of the +trees: that is the little house of their dreams. They are not interested +in constitutions or the making of laws; wars and invasions have much the +same kind of interest for them as the adventures of Una and the Red +Cross Knight. + +How are these cravings usually satisfied in the early stages of history +teaching of to-day? As a rule a series of biographies of notable people +is given, regardless of chronology, or the children's previous +experiences, and equally careless of the history lessons of the future; +Joan of Arc, Alfred and the Cakes, Gordon of Khartoum, Boadicea, +Christopher Columbus, Julius Caesar, form a list which is not at all +uncommon; there is no leading thread, no developing idea, and the old +test, "the children like it," excuses indolent thinking. On the other +hand, the desire to know more of the Robinson Crusoe mode of life has +been apparent to many teachers for some time, but the material at their +disposal has been scanty and uncertain. It is to Prof. Dewey that we owe +the right organisation of this part of history. He has shown that it is +on the side of industry, the early modes of weaving, cooking, lighting +and heating, making implements for war and for hunting, and making of +shelters, that prehistoric man has a real contribution to give: but for +the beginnings of social life, for realisation of such imperishable +virtues as courage, patriotism and self-sacrifice, children must go to +the lives of real people and gradually acquire the idea that certain +things are, so to speak, from "everlasting to everlasting," while others +change with changing and growing circumstances. + +The prehistoric history should be largely concerned with doing and +experimenting, with making weapons, or firing clay, or weaving rushes, +or with visits to such museums as Horniman's at Forest Hill. The early +social history may well take the form best suited to the child, and not +appeal merely to surface interest. And the spirit in which the lives of +other people are presented to children must not be the narrow, +prejudiced, insular one, so long associated with the people of Great +Britain, which calls other customs, dress, modes of: living, "funny" or +"absurd" or "extraordinary," but rather the scientific spirit that +interprets life according to its conditions and so builds up one of its +greatest laws, the law of environment. + +The geography syllabus, even more than the history one, depends for its +beginnings at least on the surroundings of the school--out of the mass +of possible materials a very rich and comprehensive syllabus can be +made, beginning with any one of the central points already suggested. +Above all there should be plenty of pictures, not as amplification, but +as material, by means of which a child may interpret more fully; a +picture should be of the nature of a problem or of a map--and picture +reading should be in the junior school what map reading is in the upper +school. + +In both history and geography the method is partly that of discovery; +especially is this the case in that part of history which deals with +primitive industries, and in almost the whole of the geography of this +period. The teacher is the guide or leader in discovery, not the +story-teller merely, though this may be part of his function. + +The following is a small part of a syllabus to show how geography and +history material may grow naturally out of the children's experiences. +It is meant in this case for children in a London suburb, with no +particular characteristics:-- + + +GEOGRAPHY + +It grows out of the shops of the neighbourhood and the adjoining railway +system. + + _Home-produced Goods_-- + + A. The green-grocer's shop. + Tracing of fruit to its own home source, or to a foreign country. + Home-grown fruit. The fruit farm, garden, orchard, and wood. + The packing and sending of fruit.--Railway lines. + Covent Garden; the docks; fruit stalls; jam factories. + + B. A grocer's or corn-chandler's shop. + Flour and oatmeal traced to their sources. + The farm. A wheat and grain farm at different seasons. A dairy farm + and a sheep farm. + A mill and its processes. + Woollen factories. + A dairy. Making of butter and cheese + Distribution of these goods. + + C. A china shop, leading to the pottery district and making of pottery. + + _Foreign Goods_-- + + Furs--Red Indians and Canada. + Dates--The Arabs and the Sahara. + Cotton--The Negroes and equatorial regions. + Cocoa--The West Indies. + The transit of these, their arrival and distribution. + +[The need for a map will come early in the first part of the course, and +the need for a globe in the second.] + + +HISTORY + +This grows naturally out of the geography syllabus and might be taken +side by side or afterwards. + + The development of industries. + The growth of spinning and weaving from the simplest processes, bringing + in the distaff, spinning-wheel, and loom. + The making of garments from the joining together of furs. + The growth of pottery and the development of cooking. + The growth of roads and means of transit. + +[This will involve a good deal of experimental and constructive handwork.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +EXPERIENCES RECORDED AND PASSED ON + + +Reading and writing are held to have lifted man above the brute; they +are the means by which we can discover and record human experience and +progress, and as such their value is incalculable. But in themselves +they are artificial conventions, symbols invented for the convenience of +mankind, and to acquire them we need exercise no great mental power. A +good eye and ear memory, and a certain superficial quickness to +recognise and apply previous knowledge, is all that is needed for +reading and spelling; while for writing, the development of a +specialised muscular skill is all that is necessary. In themselves they +do not as a rule hold any great interest for a child: sometimes they +have the same puzzle interest as a long addition sum, and to children of +a certain type, mechanical work such as writing gives relief; one of the +most docile and uninteresting of little boys said that writing was his +favourite subject, and it was easy to understand: he did not want to be +stirred out of his commonplaceness; unconsciously he had assimilated the +atmosphere and adopted the standards of his surroundings, which were +monotonous and commonplace in the extreme, and so he desired no more +adventurous method of expression than the process of writing, which he +could do well. Imitation is often a strong incentive to reading, it is +part of the craving for grown-upness to many children; they desire to +do what their brothers and sisters can do. But _during the first stage +of childhood, roughly up to the age of six or even later, no child needs +to learn to read or write, taking "need" in the psychological sense:_ +that period is concerned with laying the foundation of real things and +with learning surroundings;--any records of experience that come to a +child can come as they did to his earliest forefathers--by word of +mouth. When he wants to read stories for himself, or write his own +letters, then he is impelled by a sufficiently strong aim or incentive +to make concentration possible, without resorting to any of the +fantastic devices and apparatus so dear to so many teachers. Indeed it +is safe to say of many of these devices that they prove the fact that +children are not ready for reading. + +When a child is ready to read and write the process need not be a long +one: by wise delay many tedious hours are saved, tedious to both teacher +and children; they have already learnt to talk in those precious hours, +to discriminate sounds as part of language training, but without any +resort to symbols--merely as something natural. It has been amply proved +that if a child is not prematurely forced into reading he can do as much +in one year as he would have done in three, under more strained +conditions. + +With regard to methods a great deal has been written on the subject; it +is pretty safe to leave a teacher to choose her own--for much of the +elaboration is unnecessary if reading is rightly delayed, and if a child +can read reasonably well at seven and a half there can be no grounds for +complaint. If his phonetic training has been good in the earlier stages +of language, then this may be combined with the "look and say" method, +or method of reading by whole words. The "cat on the mat" type of book +is disappearing, and its place is being taken by books where the subject +matter is interesting and suitable to the child's age; but as in other +subjects the book chosen should be considered in reference to the +child's surroundings, either to amplify or to extend. + +Writing is, in the first instance, a part of reading: when words are +being learnt they must be written, or in the earliest stages printed, +but only those interesting to the children and written for some definite +purpose should be selected: a great aid to spelling is transcription, +and children are always willing to copy something they like, such as a +verse of poetry, or their name and address. As in arithmetic and in +handwork, they will come to recognise the need for practice, and be +willing to undergo such exercise for the sake of improvement, as well as +for the pleasure in the activity--which actual writing gives to some +children. + +We must be quite clear about relative values. Reading and writing are +necessities, and the means of opening up to us things of great value; +but the art of acquiring them is of little intrinsic value, and the +recognition of the need is not an early one; nothing is gained by +beginning too early, and much valuable time is taken from other +activities, notably language. The incentive should be the need that the +child feels, and when this is evident time and pains should be given to +the subject so that it maybe quickly acquired. But the art of reading is +no test of intelligence, and the art of writing is no test of original +skill. _The claims of the upper departments must be resisted._ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER + + +The _first_ thing that matters is what is commonly called the +personality of the teacher; she must be a person, unmistakable from +other persons, and not a type; what she has as an individual, of gifts +or goodness, she should give freely, and give in her own way; that she +should be trained is, of course, as indisputable as the training of a +doctor, but her training should have deepened her personality. +Pestalozzi's curriculum and organisation left much to be desired; what +he has handed down to us came from himself and his own experience, not +from anything superimposed: records of his pupils constantly emphasise +this: it was his goodness assimilated with his outlook on life and +readiness to learn by experience, that mattered, and it was this that +remained with his pupils. The teacher's own personality must dominate +her choice of principles else she is a dead method, a machine, and not a +living teacher. She must not keep her interests and gifts for +out-of-school use; if she has a sense of humour she must use it, if she +is fond of pretty clothes she must wear them in school, if she +appreciates music she must help her class to do the same, if she has +dramatic gifts she must act to them. Her standard of goodness must be +high, and she must be strong enough to adopt it practically, so that she +is unconscious of it: goodness and righteousness are as essential as +health to a teacher: for something intangible passes from the teacher +to her children, however young and unconscious they may be, and nothing +can awaken goodness but goodness. + +Part of her personality is her attitude towards religion. It is +difficult to think of a teacher of young children who is not religious, +_i.e._ whose conduct is not definitely permeated by her spiritual life: +young children are essentially religious, and the life of the spirit +must find a response in the same kind of intangible assumption of its +existence as goodness. No form of creed or dogma is meant, only the life +of the spirit common to all. But of course there may be people who +refuse to admit this as a necessity. + +The _next_ thing that matters is that all children must be regarded as +individuals: there has been much more talk of this lately, but practical +difficulties are often raised as a bar. If teachers and parents continue +to accept the conditions which make it difficult, such as large classes, +and a need to hasten, there will always be a bar: if individuality is +held as one of the greatest things in education, authorities cannot +continue to economise so as to make it impossible. It is the individual +part of each child that is his most precious possession, his immortal +side: Froebel calls it his "divine essence," and makes the cultivation +of it the aim of education; he is right, and any more general aim will +lead only to half-developed human beings. If we accept the principle +that only goodness is fundamental and evil a distortion of nature, we +need have no fear about cultivating individuals. Every doctor assures us +that all normal babies are naturally healthy; they are also naturally +good, but evil is easily aroused by arbitrary interference or by +mismanagement. + +The _third_ thing that matters belongs more especially to the +intellectual life; it might be described as the making of right +associations. More than any other side of training, the making of +associations means the making of the intelligent person. To see life in +patches is to see pieces of a great picture by the square inch, and +never to see the relationship of these to each other--never to see the +whole. + +The _fourth_ thing that matters is the making of good and serviceable +habits: much has been said on this, in connection with the nursery +class, and it is at that stage that the process is most important, but +it should never cease. If a child is to have time and opportunity to +develop his individuality he must not be hampered by having to be +conscious of things that belong to the subconscious region. To start a +child with a foundation of good habits is better than riches. + +The _fifth_ thing that matters is the realisation by teachers that +_opportunities_ matter more than results; opportunities to discover, to +learn, to comprehend all sides of life, to be an individual, to +appreciate beauty, to go at one's own rate; some are material in their +nature, such as the actual surroundings of the child in school; others +are rather in the atmosphere, such as refraining from interference, +encouragement, suggestion, spirituality. The teacher has the making of +opportunities largely in her own hands. + +The _sixth_ thing, that matters is the cultivation of the divine gift of +imagination; both morality and spirituality spring from this; meanness, +cowardice, lack of sympathy, sensuality, materialism, quickly grow where +there is no imagination. It refines and intensifies personality, it +opens a door to things beyond the senses. It makes possible appreciation +of the things of the spirit, and appreciation is a thousand times more +important than knowledge. + +The _last_ thing that matters is the need for freedom from bondage, of +the body and of the soul. Only from a free atmosphere can come the best +things--personality, imagination and opportunity; and all are great +needs, but the greatest of all is freedom. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +FROEBEL. The Education of Man. (Appleton.) +MACDOUGALL. Social Psychology. (Methuen.) +GROOS. The Play of Man. (Heinemann.) +DRUMMOND. An Introduction to Child Study. (Arnold.) +KIRKPATRICK. Fundamentals of Child Study. (Macmillan.) +DEWEY. The School and the Child. (Blackie.) +The Dewey School. (The Froebel Society.) +STANLEY HALL. Aspects of Education. +FINDLAY. School and Life. (G. Philip & Son.) +SULLY. Children's Ways. (Longmans.) +CALDWELL COOK. The Play Way. (Heinemann.) +E.R. MURRAY. Froebel as a Pioneer in Modern Psychology. (G. Philip & Son.) +Edited by H. BROWN SMITH. Education by Life. (G. Philip & Son.) +MARGARET DRUMMOND. The Dawn of Mind. (Arnold.) +BOYD. From Locke to Montessori. (Harrap.) +KILPATRICK. Montessori Examined. (Constable.) +WIGGIN. Children's Rights. (Gay & Hancock.) +BIRCHENOUGH. History of Elementary Education. (Univ. Tutorial Press.) +MACMILLAN. The Camp School. (Allen & Unwin.) +HARDY. The Diary of a Free Kindergarten. (Gay & Hancock.) +SCOTT. Social Education. (Ginn.) +TYLOR. Anthropology. (Macmillan.) +KINGSTON QUIGGIN. Primeval Man. (Macdonald & Evans.) +SOLOMON. An Infant School. (The Froebel Society.) +FELIX KLEIN. Mon Filleul au Jardin d'Enfants. I. Comment il s'eleve. + II. Comment il s'instruit. (Armand Colin, Paris.) +E. NESBIT. Wings and the Child. (Hodder and Stoughton.) +WELLS. Floor Games. (Palmer.) +RUSKIN. The Two Paths. +DOPP. The Place of Industries in Industrial Education. (Univ. of Chicago + Press.) +PRITCHARD AND ASHFORD. An English Primary School. (Harrap.) +HALL. Days before History. (Harrap.) +HALL. The Threshold of History. (Harrap.) +SPALDING. Piers Plowman Histories. Junior. Bk. II. (G. Philip & Son.) +SHEDLOCK. The Art of Story-telling. +BRYANT. How to Tell Stories. (Harrap.) +KLEIN. De ce qu'il faut raconter aux petits. (Blond et Gay.) +The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze. (Constable.) +FINDLAY. Eurhythmics. (Dalcroze Society.) +WHITE. A Course in Music. (Camb. Univ. Press.) +STANLEY HALL. How to Teach Reading. (Heath.) +BENCHARA BRANFORD. A Study of Mathematical Education. +Fielden Demonstration School Record II. (Manchester Univ. Press.) +PUNNETT. The Groundwork of Arithmetic. (Longmans.) +ASHFORD. Sense Plays and Number Plays. (Longmans.) + + + + +INDEX + + +Abrahall, Miss H., +Adam and Eve question, +Adler, Dr. Felix, +Aim of education and of human life, +America, Kindergartens in, +Anderson, Professor A., +Animals and nature study, +Apparatus. _See_ Equipment +Arithmetic, + transition class, +Arnswald, Colonel von, +Art training, drawing, etc., + _See also_ Colour, Rhythm, etc., +Assistance, warning, + +"Baby Camp", +Barnard, Dr. H., +Barnes, Prof. Earl, +Beauty, + conduct, appreciation of beauty in, + _See also_ Colour, Rhythm, etc. +Beer, Miss H., notes of, +Beresford's _Housemates_, description of a suburb, +Bergson, +Bermondsey Settlement Free Kindergarten, +Biological view of education, +Birchenough, +Bird, Mr., and his family, +Birmingham Kindergartens, +Bishop, Miss Caroline, +Blankenberg Kindergarten, +Blow, Miss, +Bradford Joint Conference, +Brock, Mr. Clutton, quotations, etc., +Brooke, Stopford, +Brown, Frances, _Grannie's Wonderful Chair_, +Browning, +Brown's _Young Artists' Headers_, +Buckton, Miss, +Buildings. _See_ Equipment and Surroundings +Caldecott Nursery School, +Camp School, +Child study, +Class discipline, +Cleanliness and order, +Clough, A.H., +Clouston, Dr., +Colour, +Comenius, +Conduct-- + aim of education, + experiences of--_See also_ Moral Teaching +Connectedness, continuity. _See_ Unity +Constructive play, + varieties of _making_--_See also_ Handwork +Cook, Mr. Caldwell, _The Play Way_, etc., +Cooke, Mr. E., +Cooking, +Co-operation in play, +Correlation, + Infant School programme in Transition period, + present-day Infant Schools, +Country child, +Country life for the child, +Crane, Walter, +Creation. _See_ Constructive Play +Creche. _See_ Nursery School +Curriculum-- + principle guiding selection, + transition class, + +Daleroze, M. Jacques, rhythmic training, +Dale, Miss, phonic reading books, +Decimal system, +Definition of education, +Desert island play, +Dewey, Prof., quotations, etc., +Dickens on "Infant Gardens," +Discipline, +Docility _v_. self-control, +Dopp Series, +Dramatic play, +Drawing, +Drill _v_. games, +Drummond, Dr., + +Ebers, +Edinburgh, Free Kindergartens, +Education Act of 1870, + of 1919, +_Education by Life,_ +_Education of Man,_ +Environment-- + school equipment, etc. _See_ Equipment + source of child's experience, +Equipment and surroundings, + miniature world, + Montessori didactic apparatus, + transition classes and Junior School, +Ewing, Mrs., stories of, +Experience, education by means of, + child's desires and needs, + grouping subjects of experience, + material and opportunities, + morality and indirect experiences, + passing on experience, + +Fairy tales, +Field, Eugene, verses of, +Findlay, Miss, +Fisher, Mr., +Fleming, Marjorie, +_Floor Games_, +Flowers and plants, 93, 201. _See also_ Garden, Nature Work +Folsung, +Formalism, +Freedom-- + apparent result at first, + definition, + Froebel on, + Montessori, Dr., work of, + vital principle, + warning against interference, +Freud, +Froebel and Froebelian principles-- + aim of education, + beauty, + biologist educator and Froebel, + definitions of Kindergarten, + excursions, + impression and expression, + Montessori and Froebelian systems, + society, +Furniture, _See also_ Equipment +Fyleman, Rose, _Chimney sand Fairies,_ + +Games, +Garden, + activities in a suburban garden, + best use of ground, + possibilities in difficult places, +Geography, + illustrative syllabus, +Glasgow, Phoenix Park Kindergarten, +Glenconner, Lady, +Grant, Miss, +Greenford Avenue School, Hanwell, +Groos, + +Habits, training in, + physical habits and fixed hours, +Hall, Stanley, references to, +Handwork, +Hansen, G., +Hardy, Miss L., +Heerwart, Miss, +Herb garden and sense training, +Herbartian "correlation", +Hewit, Mr. Graily, +High Schools for Girls, Kindergartens in, +History, + discipline in practical reasoning, + illustrative syllabus, + indirect sociology, + industrial, + practical details, + prehistoric, + stories, +Hodsman, Miss, +Hoffman, Mr., +Home surroundings, + reproduction in school, + source of child's experience, +Howden, Miss, +Humour, factor in morality, +_Hygiene of Mind_, + +Imagination and literature, +Imitative play, +Individual, child as, + _See also_ Freedom +Infant Schools, + early Infant Schools, + formalism, causes, etc., + Kindergarten system, perversion of, + present-day schools, + buildings, furniture, etc., + change in spirit since the 'eighties, effect of child study + movement, etc., + curriculum, lack of clear aim and continuity, + discipline, + formalism, promotion and uniformity, + health, care of, + teachers, training of, + transition period, +Instinct, +Interests of a child, +Interference, warning, +International Educational Exposition and Congress of 1854, +Investigation impulse, + +Junior School. _See_ Transition Classes and Junior School + +Keilhau, +Kindergarten Band, +Kindergartens, America, + first English, + Froebelian principles _See_ Froebel, + Germany, + _Kids' Guards_, + London School Board Infant Schools, proposed introduction, + perversion of system in Infant Schools, + Schrader, Henrietta, work of, +Klein, Abbe, +Krause, + +Language training, + games for, +Lawrence, Miss Esther, +_Levana_, +Literature _See also_ Stories and Poetry +Lodge, Sir O., + +Macdonald, George, stories of, +Macdonald, Dr. Greville, +M'Millan, Miss Margaret, +Macpherson, Mr. Stewart, +_Magic Cities_, +Marenholz, Madame von, +Mathematics, + transition class, +Maufe, Miss, +Medical view of education, Dr. Montessori, +Meum and tuum training, +Miall, Mrs., +Michaelis, Madame, +Michaelis Nursery School, Notting Dale, +Middendorf, +Mission Kindergarten, +Moltke, von, +Montessori, Dr. Maria-- + Froebelian views of, + medical view of education, + play activities, failure to understand, +Moral teaching-- + humour as factor in morality, + _See also_ Religion, Service for the Community, Stories +Morgan, Lloyd, +_Mother Songs_, +Music, + Kindergarten Band, + +Name of school for little children and its importance, +Nature work, experiences of the natural world, + activities in a suburban garden, + aim of, + animals, + excursions, + movement _c._ 1890, + nature calendar, + object lesson and nature lesson, + pictures, use of, + plants and flowers, + religion and nature work, +Necessities of the Nursery School, + _See also_ Equipment and Principles +Nesbit, Mrs., _Magic Cities_, +Net beds, +Number work. _See_ Mathematics +Nursery rhymes and nonsense verses, +Nursery School-- + name question, + requirements of, + +Obedience _v._ self-control, +Oberlin schools, +Object lessons, +Observation of children, +Odds and ends, use of, +Open-air question, +Owen, Robert, "Rational Infant School", + +Paper-folding, +Parents' evenings, +Payne, Miss Janet, +Peabody, Miss, +Periods of a young child's life, +Pestalozzi, +Pestalozzi-Froebel House, +Phillips, Miss K., +Phonic method of teaching reading, +Physical requirements, +Picture books, +Pictures, +Play-- + biologist educator's view, + constructive, + co-operation in, + courage in the teacher, + definitions, + distinction from work, + Froebel's theory of, + practice at Keilhau, + imitative, + material, + Froebel's "Gifts," etc., + self-expression in, + theories of, + transition class, +_Play Way, The_, +Playground, equipment, etc., + garden essential, + transition class, +Poetry, +Poor and well-to-do children, different requirements, +Possession, child's need of, + meum and tuum training, +Preparation theory of play, +Priestman, Miss, +Principles, vital principles, +Pugh, Edwin, +Punnett, Miss, + +Reading and writing, + age for, + matter and methods, phonic method, etc., +Recapitulation theory of play, +Recreation theory of play, +Reed, Miss, +Religion, + age for first teaching, _See also_ Stories +Reproducing, _See_ Imitative Play +Results, payment by, +Rhythm and rhythmic training, +Robinson Crusoe stage of history teaching, +Ronge, Madame, +Rossetti, Christina, verses for children, +Rousseau, +Rowland, Miss, +Royee, Prof., + +St. Cuthbert, story of, +Salt, Miss Marie, +_Sayings of the Children_, +Schepel, Miss, +Schiller, _Letters on Aesthetic Education_, +Schiller-Spencer theory of play, +_School and Life_, +_Schools of To-morrow_, +Schrader, Henrietta, +Seguin, +Self-consciousness, +Self-control and external control, +Sense-training, + herb garden, +Service for the community, training to-- + Froebel and Montessori system, + games, social side, + idea of unity, + religion, part of, +Sesame House for Home-Life Training, +Sharpley, Miss F., +Shinn, Miss, +Sleep, provision for, +Slum child's experience, +Somers Town Nursery School, +Speech and vocabulary, +Spiritual life and stories, +Spontaneity in play, +Staff question, training, etc., + _See also_ Teachers +Stevenson, + nursery songs, +Stokes, Miss, +Stories and story-telling, + fairy tales, + how to tell, + illustrations, + made by children, + moral teaching, + religious teaching, + repetition or "accumulation" stories, + selection, + "true" stories--history, legend, geography, +_Story of a Sand Pile_, +Suburban child's experience, +Supernatural, the child's acceptance of, +Surroundings. _See_ Equipment and Surroundings + +Table manners, +Teacher-- + function, + personality question, + religion, + training, +Thornton-le-Dale Kindergarten, +Time-table thraldom, + instance from a teacher's note-book, +Tools, +Touch, sense of, +Toys, + transition classes and Junior School, + Wells, Mr., on, +Traherne, +Transition classes and Junior School, + bridge between freedom and timetable, + curriculum, + discipline, + equipment, etc., + freedom and class teaching, + handwork, + help, methods of, + imitation, + nature work, + play spirit, + +_Ultimate Belief_, +Uniformity in Infant Schools, +Unity of aim and unity in experience, + cases illustrating problem, + previous experience of the child, basing curriculum on, + +War, effect on Nursery School movement, +Warne, illustrated stories for children, +Water, attraction of, +_Water-Babies_, +Wells, Mr., +_What is a Kindergarten?_, +"When can I make my little Ship?", +Wiggin, Miss K.D., +Wilderspin's Infant School, +Windows, +Wordsworth, +Wragge, Miss Adelaide, +Writing. _See_ Reading and Writing + + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Child Under Eight +by E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD UNDER EIGHT *** + +***** This file should be named 10042.txt or 10042.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/4/10042/ + +Produced by Brendan Lane, Anne Folland and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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