The Discovery Of The Child

H A P T E R XII

THE TECHNIQUE OF LESSONS

FIRST PERIOD: INITIATIONS

Isolating the Object. The mistress, when she is giving a lesson,
or wants to help the child to use the sense-material, regards it as
being essential that the attention of the child should be isolated
from everything except the object of the lesson; to that end, she will
be careful to clear a table of all else and place upon it only the
material which she wishes to present.

Working exactly. The help which" the mistress has to give
consists in presenting to the child the material so as to show
him how to use it, performing the exercise herself once or
iwice; for example: displacing the cylinders of the solid
insets, mixing them up and putting them back in position by
trial; or mixing up the colour spools to be matched up, then
taking one of them by chance in the proper way without
touching the silk, and placing it alongside the identical spool;
and so on.

Sousing Attention. When the mistress offers the object to the
efeild she must never do it coldly, but must display some vivacious
interest as she calls the attention of the child to it.