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THE CHILD

HIS THINKING, FEELING, AND DOING

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THE CHILD

HIS THINKING, FEELING, AND DOING

By
AMY ELIZA TANNER

Professor of Philosophy in Wilson College^ Chamber sburg.

Pennsylvania: formerly Associate in Philosophy

in the University of Chicago

' or T«£

VNIVTKS''^*^ j

RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY

Chicago New York London

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Copifrighty i<fb4
By Amy Buza Tanner

TV"!

Chicago

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THE PREFACE

In working over the mass of material -which has
accumulated on Child-Study, I have been, most
impressed by the fact that even now so few general .
laws can be formulated about child-nature. The
material is still in a chaotic state, and seems destined
to remain so for some time, because the reports from
different authorities are so conflicting. In many cases
the conflict is doubtless due to different conditions of
observation; but in other cases it is due to differences
in children resulting from heredity, nationality, or from
surroundings— homes, food, and education. I therefore
appreciate the fact that some of the observations given
here will be seriously modified by later ones. I do
not necessarily defend the observations which I cite;
I only present the most reliable and leave them for
confirmation or rebuttal.

On this account, I have not attempted to draw many
general conclusions, or to work out any complete
educational theory. I have aimed rather to bring
together under one cover a summary of the impor-
tant work done thus far in Child-Study, so that the
teacher and mother who have little access to libra-
ries may understand something of what the condition
of the subject is, and may, if so disposed, con-
tribute toward filling up its gaps. This side of the
matter is the more prominent in my own mind because
the book is the direct outcome of the difficulties which
I met in teaching the subject to my classes in the Uni-
versity College of the University of Chicago. There

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A THE PREFACE

seemed to be a need for a book which should give
a resume of observations which at that time were to be
obtained only in all sorts of magazines and books, and
which were yet necessary to an understanding of the
subject. Such a book would also, it seemed to me,
furnish something of the perspective which is neces-
sarily lacking in scattered reading, would serve as a
stimulus to more careful study of the children with
whom we deal jevery day, and would aid \n preparing
the soil for abetter educational theory than at present
prevails.

Although lacking in theory, the book should still
serve as a background upon which to sketch in details
of the child whom we know best. In the study of one
child or of a few children, to which we are most of us
limited, we are rather prone to conclude that character-
istics which are in truth peculiar to the little group
known to us belong to all children. A knowledge of
these wider observations will prevent such errors and
will lead to more careful study.

Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made to Dr.
Stuart H. Rowe, Lecturer on Pedagogy at Yale Uni-
versity, who read the manuscript of this book and made
many valuable suggestions; to the Pedagogical Seminary
for permission to reproduce the charts found on pages
331 and 408; to the Elementary School Record for per-
mission to quote from Mrs. May Root Kern's article
on Song Composition, and to the many authors whose
works I have consulted freely.

Amy Eliza Tanner.

Dec^mber^ i^oj.

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THE TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Pagb

The Preface 3

/ The Abbreviations ..... 6

/ / Introduction 9

v// Growth OF THE Body . . .15

/// Abnormal Bodily Conditions . . 32,,
^IV Feelings and Ideas of Sex . . 56

V Sensation and Perception . . . 69^^

VI Memory 96

VII Imagination 120

- VIII Conception and Reasoning . .141

V \i£ ^ Religious Sentiment and Theological

Ideas . . . 173

X Conception of Good and Evil . 193

V XI Feelings and Emotions . . . 212

cXII Interests 231

V^rafiP-. Impulsive, Reflex, and Instinctive
Movements . . . . 252^

XIV Growth in Control of the Body . . 275
XV Imitation and Suggestion ^v . ' . 290
' — XVI Language. . . > '^- . . .311

XVII RHYTHAf AND MuSIC . . . . 339

XVIII Drawing . - 373

-- XIX Play . , . . . .^ . . 393

XX Summary . . . . . .416

The Index . . . . ^ . , 426

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THE ABBREVIATIONS

Alien, and Anthrop Alienist and Anthropologist

Alien, and Neur Alienist and Neurologist

Am. Jour. Folk Lore American Journal of Folk Lore

Am. Jour. Psy American Journal of Psychology

Am. Jour. Soc American Journal of Sociology

Am. Nat American Naturalist

Am. Phys. Ed. Rev American Physical Education Review

Boston Med. & Surg. Jour. Boston Medical and Surgical

Journal

C. S. M Child Study Monthly

Contemp. Rev » Contemporary Review

Educ Education

Ed. Rev Educational Review

Inland Ed Inland Educator

Int. Jour. Ethics International Journal of Ethics

Jour, of Anthrop. Inst, of G. B. & Ireland Journal of the An-
thropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

Jour, of Ed Journal of Education

Jour, of Ped Journal of Pedagogy

Kgn. Mag. Kindergarten Magazine

Kgn. Rev. , Kindergarten Review

Mag. of Art Magazine of Art

Med. Mag Medical Magazine

Med. Rev Medical Review

Mind, N. S Mind, New Series

Montreal Med. Jour Montreal Medical Journal

N. Am. Rev North American Review

N. W. Mo Northwestern Monthly

Ped. Sem Pedagogical Seminary

Phil. Rev Philosophical Review

Pop. Sc. Mo Popular Science Monthly

Proc. Am. Assn. Adv. Sc Proceedings of the American Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science

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THE ABBREVIATIONS y

Proc. Assn. of Phys. Ed Proceedings of the Association of

Physical Education

Proc. N. E. A Proceedings of the National Education Asso-
ciation.

Proc. Intern. Cong. Ed Proceedings of the International Con-
gress of Education*

Psy. Rev. '. Psychological Review

Psy. Rev. Monograph Sup Physical Review Monograph Sup-
plement .

Rept of Com. of Ed Report of the Commissioner of Educa-
tion

Rept. of Supts. of Ed. of N. Y Report of the Superintendents

of Education of New York

Science, N. S Science, New Series

Studies from Yale Psy. Lab Studies from Yale Psychological

Laboratory

Texas Academy of Sc Texas Academy of Science

Trans. Am. Med. Assn Transactions of the American Medical

Association

Trans. Am. Phil. Assn Transactions of the American Philo-
logical Association

Trans. 111. Soc. C. S Transactions of the Illinois Society for

Child Study

U. of Cal. Studies University of California Studies

West. Rev Westminster Review

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^ ^ or THC \

gmVERSlTY )

THE CHILD

HIS THINKING, FEELING AND DOING
CHAPTER I

Introduction

NATURALLY enough, children have always been
objects of the greatest care and solicitude to
society, and have always been observed and studied,
as early educational theories show. Still, ohUd-Btudy
while some systematic observation has lu
been done before, it has been left for our ^■^i^'**^^**-
scientific age to attempt to reduce children, along
with men, to the terms of a general formula.

The importance of ascertaining the laws that govern
the growth of the child's body and mind is apparent
to the most superficial observer. Until we know
how a child grows; whether he is of the average height
and weight or not; whether he has the average control
of his body or not; whether he shows signs of nervous-
ness or not, we can know nothing of what the correct
treatment for that child is. We may hit accident-
ally upon it, but we are just as likely to leave the
child to suffer from improper food or exercise or work.
Similarly, until we know the general characteristics
of each stage of mental development, we are unpre-
pared to say what a child should study and how much
he can do. We can not settle any of the questions
concerning the courses of study, the order of subjects

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lO THE CHILD

and the mode of presenting a subject, except as we
know the child-nature which we expect to develop
by our education.

Now there is a great body of facts about children,
which has been obtained from the casual contact that
we all have with them, and which is in some
respects accurate and in others inaccurate. It is the
object of systematic Child-Study to supplement and
to correct these common ideas by a more careful study
of the facts, and so to give a firmer foundation for
educational theory and practice.

In this study, two methods are possible, each of
which may be pursued in two different ways: (i) We
may study some individual child with great
?MUUStud7 ^^^^ ^"^ detail, or (2) we may collect sta-
tistics from large numbers of children. In
both cases we may get our material simply from
observing children, or experiment upon them by fixing
certain conditions under which they shall act.

(i) Individual study has the decided advantage of
accuracy in details. We become intimately acquainted
with some one child, and learn to see the various fine
shadings of his mind. We discern the gradually
increasing complexity of his mental processes. We
can see the close connection between mind and body
in many details, and trace to their origin numerous
quaint ideas and marked characteristics. In this way
we can learn to deal with this one child so that we
shall make comparatively few mistakes, even though
our theoretical knowledge be not vefy wide.

On the other hand, such a study fails us in many
respects when we come to work with other childrenr.
We can not be certain which of this child's traits are

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INtftOpOCTlOM ^ . ^ ^

peculiar to him or his family and which are common
to all children of his age, nor can we be sure just what
importance to attach to certain traits. We can not tell
whether to ignore them because they will naturally be
outgrown, or to repress them.

(2) Statistical study aims to give just this sort of
information. It collects data from large numbers of
children of all ages, compares them, and finally is able
to make a statement about certain characteristics of
the great majority of children of each age. Such gen-
eral statements, when based upon sufficient data, rest
upon the same kind of foundation that the laws of
any science do, and have the same authority.

It is evident that such statistical study is strong
where individual study is weak and, vice versa, is weak
where individual study is strong. It lacks the detail
and vividness of the individual study, but is more gen-
erally true and is likely to be a safer guide when diffi-
culties come up in treating the average child whom
we have not had the opportunity to study. The two
methods should, therefore, supplement each other.
Each parent or teacher should get a perspective for
himself by a knowledge of the general facts of child-
nature, and then fill in details by a study of the Mary
and Johnnie with whom she lives.

This outline of child-nature is what Child-Study
hopes to accomplish, but as yet the outline is frag-
mentary. More observations have been
made on the physical nature of the child ^JJJ^Jtwiy
than on anything else, but even here there
is great divergence of opinion as to the meaning of
tlje facts observed and as to their practical bearing.
Good work has been done on small groups^of children

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12 THE CHII.D

in observing most of the mental processes and some
of the forms of expression. From this we may get
hints for an educational theory, but it is valuable so
far principally in giving suggestions for further
observations.

If, therefore, few conclusions are reached in the
study given here, it must be remembered that this is
inevitable under present conditions. It is easy to form
a theory if we have studied only a few children, but
the more data we gather from large numbers of child-
ren the more probable it seems that our present edu-
cational theories must be considerably enlarged and
altered before they will be applicable to most children.

The object of this book is not, therefore, so much to
offer conclusions, as to outline what has been done, to
show breaks in the outline, and to point out places for
future work.

In pursuance of this object, the physical nature of
the child, and its relation to his mental development,
will be considered first. The study of his
mental growth, beginning with sensation
and perception, through memory and imagination to
thought, will follow. The treatment here will necessa-
rily be inadequate in some respects. We shall then con-
sider what little we know of the child's feelings and emo-
tions; and finally trace the expression of his thoughts
and feelings in his instinctive actions, in his speech
and imitation, and in his play, drawing, and music.

The teacher or leader of the class should start each
member upon systematic observation of some child or
group of children along one of the lines indicated in
the observations at the beginning of each chapter.
With this in view, it would be well to spend a part of

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INTRODUCTION

the first lesson in the reading and discussion of the
suggestions, and in an apportionment of the subjects
among the members of the class. Of course
no one person will undertake observations JJJJgtud^t^
upon all the subjects, unless he wishes
to Study but one child. In such a case, he would do
well to get Miss Shinn's Biography of a Baby^ or
Preyer's Infant Mind^ for more detailed accounts.
Teachers usually find it better to take some one sub-
ject, frame a syllabus, and get material from all the
children in their room or school.*

Even if such observation is continued only while the
class is continued, it will serve to give point and sug-
gestion to every chapter in the book, and in many
cases it will lead to further study and to more sympa-
thetic treatment of children. By far the most valuable
part of the study is lost if observation is not under-
taken for, after all, a book should but lead us on to
a deeper understanding of life. Th^ following direc-
tions may assist those about to begin making obser-
vations:

/ Any parents or teachers who intend to keep a
systematic record of one child, should get a fair-sized
note-book, and enter in it the nationality Directions
of the child, the sex, and the exact date for
(hour and day) of birth. Where statistics^ observation,
are to be obtained from numbers of children, loose
sheets of paper are more usable. Each sheet should
have on it the nationality, sex and approximate age

*In cases where either a detailed or a general study is taken
up, if a more general use of the results is desired, the author will
appreciate any data that are sent to her, and will give full acknow-
ledgement of any use that she may make of them. She can be
addressed in care of the publishers.

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lA THE CHILD

of the child (within six months) at the time when the
data were obtained. No names are necessary.

2 In keeping the record, date each entry exactly
and give the age of each child at the time of the event.

J Record the event at the time when it occurred, if
possible; if not possible, state how long a time elapsed
before the entry was made. An entry made several
days after the event has little value.

4 Record the event minutely and exactly

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CHAPTER 11

Growth of the Body

ALL weighing should be done on the nude child,
and all measuring without his shoes on.

1. Beginning with birth, keep a record of the
changes in weight and height. For the first month,
weigh and measure the baby every week;

thence, to the end of the first year, every tions^*'
month; thence, every three or six months.
There is very little material at present on changes
between the first and the sixth year, and any parents
who will, keep such a record carefully will help to fill
one of the gaps in the subject of Child-Study.

2. If you do not undertake any systematic record,
at least weigh and measure your children now and see
how they compare with the average weight and height
as shown in the tables.

3. In some schools, it is possible for a teacher to get
statistics as to the height and weight of each child in
her room. Where she can not do so, she can usually
get the height and weight of children who are peculiar,
to see how they compare with the average height and
weight as shown in the tables.

4. In cases where children fall below the average,
begin a little experimenting, if possible under a physi-
cian's advice, with their food and work. Keep a
record of the changes you make in the food and the
work, and of the effect upon the children.

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THfi CHILD

As our knowledge of the mind increases we see
more and more the close inter-relation of mind and
Importance ^^^Y^ ^^^ w^ realize that in trying to
of the understand the condition of either at any

time, we must take into consideration the

subject.

Diagram i. Showing the Relative Proportions of the Body in Child
AND Adult, (Langbr.)

effect of each upon the other. We have no right to
expect the same mental work or the same moral
standards from a child who is sick, or cold, or hungry,
as from the one who is healthy, well-fed, and well-clad.

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6ftoWTri 6i^ thK Bo5V 17

The parent whose child is much below the average in
growth, or in the control of his muscles, should be
warned thereby to be on the watch for various mental
or moral abnormalities. As there is no way of watch-
ing a child's mind except as he reveals it through
his movements, it becomes of great importance that we
should understand at least a little of what his move-
ments signify.

It is not uncommonly assumed that a chfld is simply
a little man or woman. How untrue this is as to his

Diagram z. a. Unfertilized Human Ovum, Magnified 170 Diam. (Nagel.)
b. c. d. Segmentation of the Ovum, Magnified 170
Diam. (After von Beneden.)

body, a glance at Diagram i reveals. vA child who \
grew to manhood preserving his childish proportions 1
would be a monstrosity.) What is so evi- j

dently true of the body as a whole applies ^^* ▼wbub
equally to details. The internal organs,
the bones, blood, fat, marrow and nerves, all differ so
materially from the adult's that when similar chemical
structures are found in him, they are considered
pathological. We can not, therefore, believe that a
child can eat the same food, breathe the same air,
wear the same clothing and take the same exercise as
an adult, and obtain the highest degree of health.

The human body consists at first of but a single cell,
of the general shape and size shown in Diagram 2.

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1 8 ^HE CHILD

When the cell begins to grow, it increases in size and
after a time divides into two. Each of these cells does
the same, and so on, the entire mass of cells
o/thebody^* increasing in number and in size. When
the organs of the body begin to form, the
mode of growth changes. The cells no longer increase
in number, but change their form, size, and relations
to other cells. , In the nervous system, the entire
number of nerve cells is complete by the fifth month
of foetal life. From this it has been hastily concluded
that the effects of education must be very limited,
since all that education can do, at the most, is to
develop cells already existing. The incorrectness of
such a conclusion is seen when we understand that
there are millions of nerve cells undeveloped in even
the most cultured adult. So far education seems to
have developed some hundreds of thousands of cells.
With millions still untouched, we need hardly fear any
curtailment of educational functions for a longtime.

Considering first the increase in weight from birth

^ to adolescence, observations upon hundreds of thou-

\ ^..— .^ sands of children show that at birth the

^-- — -^ average weight of a boy is 7.3 pounds; or

a girl, 7.1 pounds. The boys' weights vary from 3

pounds to 12 pounds, but 87 per cent of them weigh

between 6 and 9 pounds. The weight of the girls

comes within the limits of 4 and 11 pounds, with 85

per cent between 6 and 9 pounds. The limits of

safety, then, for both boys and girls seem to be 6 and 9

pounds.

By the end of the first year, a child's weight should
have trebled. That is, an average boy should weigh
21.9 pounds, and an average girl 21.3 pounds.

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GROWTH OP THE BODY

Effect
of food.

The effect of the child's food upon this first year's
growth is still a much disputed question. Camerer, a
German physician, observed that it seemed to make
little difference whether the food was artificial or
natural. He found that fifty-seven chil-
dren fed upon mother's milk weighed less
at the end of the first year than thirty-one
others, lighter at birth, who had been nourished on
artificial food. Many mothers believe that at any
cost they must nurse their children, but this seems,
in many cases, to work a direct harm to the child.
It the mother is not w^ll, the milk may not contain
all the necessary food-elbtoents in the Tight propor-
tions and the baby may actually starve. The advice
of a good physician should be followed in all cases.

By the sixth year, the average boy weighs 45.2
pounds; the average girl, 43.4 pounds. Thence to the
seventeenth year, the following table shows the weights
in pounds, with ordinary indoor clothing.

Burk's Table Showing Average Weight of 68,000 American
Children in Boston, St. Louis, and Milwaukee

Age

OUllfS f\>0^y^

Average
in lbs.

Annual
Increase

Per Cent

of
Increase

d««6

Ir^^

Average
in lbs.

Annual
Increase

Per Cent

of
Increase

^3'A

is'A
i6A

45.2
49.5
54.5

59-6
65.4
70.7
76.9
84. ^
95-2
107.4
121.0

4.3
5.0

5.1

5-8
5.3
6.2

7.9
10.4
12.2
13.6

9.5
10. 1
9.3
9.7
8.1

8.7.
10.3
12.3
12.8
12.7;

43.4

47.7

^42.5

57.4

62-9

69.5

78.7

8817

98.3

106.7

112. 3

4.3
4.8
4.9

5.5
6.6
9.2

10. o
9.6
8.4

.5.6

9.9
10. o

9.3
9.6
10.5

13.2

12.7
II.9

8.5

5.2

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THE CHILD

(

Examination of this table will show that there is with
boys a period of fairly rapid increase from 7J4 to loj^
years, then a slower rate to 13^^ years, and a still
more rapid rate of growth from i^j4 years on. The
growth of girls is more steady, but still there are
well-defined periods of acceleration from 7J^ to g}4
years'and from I2j4 to 14J4 years. In general, girls\
weigh less than boys from birth on, except from the/
twelfth to the fourteenth years, when they weigh more.

The average newborn boy measures 19.68 inches,
jwith the extreme limits at 15 and 24 inches; the new-
born girl 19.48 inches, with the limits at

^ - * 16 and 23 inches. The most rapid growth

in height, as in weight, is in the first months of life.
In the first month, a child adds something like 2)4
inches to his length and by the end of the first year, has
increased from 7 to 8 inches. At the time of the first
dentition Camerer observed a lessening of the rate of
growth At the age of six years, the average boy
measures 44. 10 inches, the average girl, 43.66 inches.
Thence to the seventeenth year, their average heights
in inches are shown in the following table.*

Years

58.17
5875

61.08
60.32

62.96
61.39

65.58
61.72

Boys

Girls

44-10
4366

46.21
45-94

48.16
48.07

50.09
49'6i

52.21

51.78

54.01
53-79

55-78
57-.16

66.29
61.99

•These measurements were taken without shoes. As only
American children are included in them, the measures are slightly
larger than the average. The American-born child is slightly
taller and heavier than the English, Irish, German or Scandina-
vian child. No comparative measurements exist for other nation-
alities. We should also note here that the periods of most rapid
increase, both in height and in weight, are put from one to two
years earlier by some writers. Doubtless food, nationality, and
cUbiate influence this. This table is taken from Bowditcb.

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GROWTH OF THE BODY ^ 21

Here again we note a rhythm of much the same
nature as that of the increase in weight. The boys, as
a rule, are taller than the girls except between the years
of twelve and fourteen. Their periods of growth are
more sharply defined, and individuals differ from each
other within wider limits The differences between
individuals also increase with age. It is sometimes
said that up to adolescence a child lives the race life;
at adolescence, there is a strong development of
family traits, and thereafter the child becomes more
individual. O

The most marked fluctuations in growth occur^^
between the years of six and nine for both boys and
girls, and again between ejeven and thirteen
for girls, and fourteen and sixteen for ^<JJ^h^^d
boys. The first period is closely connected, other
with the getting of the second teeth, and <^^*^8®«'
with the fact that at this time the brain is rapidly
developing fibers of connection between its various
parts. On account of this brain growth, there is
usually a marked mental change in each child. He has
more interests, he plays more kinds of games, and he
has a wider range of friends than before. The second
change is the accompaniment of puberty and ivill be
considered later. ^

It is most interesting to notice that, taking into con-t
sideration all the observations made, periods of rapid *
growth in height precede periods of rapid Relations \
growth in weight, although this is not between
so marked with girls as with boys. This height and
is true not only of the larger periods in weight,
of which we have spoken, but of shorter ones as
well. %

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2 2 "THE CHILD

R. Malling-Hansen of Copenhagen, made observa-
tions upon seventy boys from seven to fifteen years of
Shorter ^^^' ^^^ ^ period of two years, to find out

rhytimiB what rhythms of growth occur within the
of growth. ^y^,^ Qf ^j^^ y^^j. f^^ ^^^^^ jj^gg^ ^^11

marked both in height and in weight. The period of
most rapid growth in weight is from August to Decem-
ber; of average growth, from December to the end
of April, and of least growth from April to August.
Conversely, the greatest increase in height, is from
April to August, and the least from August to De-
cember.

Within each month he observed rhythmical alterna-
tions, a period of growth of perhaps fifteen days alter-
nating with one of comparative rest. He also found
a similar rhythm within the week; and noticed that
during the day children increase in weight and
. decrease in height, while during the night the converse
is true. Heat and light seem to accelerate increase in
weight. Camerer corroborates Malling-Hansen in
most of his observations; and Vierordt and Fleisch-
mann also corroborate the weekly rhythms.

None of these observers has dealt with large num-
bers of children, and therefore we need further data
before we can be sure that these rhythms are universal;
but the various observers agree as far as they have
gone, and there seems to be no good reason a priori
why the facts should not be generally true

When ^^€ consider the growth of the various organs
of the body/^nd of the skeleton, muscles and nervous
system, the most striking fact is that it is irregular.
At any given time, certain parts will be developing
rapidly, and others slowly. The details of this growth

Digitized by VjOOQIC

GROWTH OP THE BODY

are much too complex to be given here, and their mean-
ing is not yet understood. It need only be stated

that at adolescence the heart and lungs, as _^^

Orowthof
well as the reproductive organs, are grow- different

ing very rapidly, and that between seven P^rtiofttia

and nine the brain is developing numerous

fibers of connection, although it is increasing little if

any in size.

Vierordt's Table, Showing the Relative Growth of Various
Parts of the Body, Counting Size at Birth as 100.

Birth

End OF
21 Mos.

^,^

RS.

Adult

Length of head

Upper part of head

Length of face

From chin to upper end of breastbone

Breastbone

Abdomen

Leg

Height of foot

Upper arm

Forearm

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

150
114
200
500
186
160
200
150
183
182

191. 7

150

250

700

300

240

455

300

328

322

200

157
260
900

314
260

472
450
350
350

Ralation of
size to food.

It goes without saying that a child that is well fed
will be taller and heavier than he would be if he went
hungry, but there is another and erroneous
idea connected with this. We often assume
that any well-fed chitd will be taller and
heavier than any poorly fed one. This is not
Size depends, not only upon good nutrition, but
upon nationality, climate and family. There seems
to be a certain size for each individual, which his body
will strive desperately to reach even under the most
unfavorable conditions, but which it is not likely to
exceed under any circumstances. In this struggle,

t so.^
also!

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE CHILD

disease or insufficient food before the age of six has
the most permanently bad effects. After that time,
any drawbacks will retard growth temporarily, but
will be followed by an unusually rapid growth. A
child who has had good health up to the sixth year
has an excellent start in life. , .

Bowditch's Tenth Report seems to show conclusively
that children of the poorer classes are lighter and
shorter than those of the well-to-do, though the differ-
ences are small. All observers find that the profes-
sional classes are, at any given age, taller and heavier
than the laboring classes. This is true in England,
Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

The rate of growth, however, does not seem to be
markedly different; that is, the poor child grows as
rapidly as the rich, but is shorter and lighter to begin
with. This seems to indicate that the embryonic and
early conditions of nutrition are the most important
for absolute weights and heights.

Exactly what importance' should be assigned in
growth to food, race and climate, is still unsettled.
Americans are taller and heavier than other national-
ities, but this is not due exclusively to race, for an .
Irish-American or German-American recruit is taller
and heavier than his brother in the old country. Food
and climate evidently have considerable influence here.

It is significant that idiots and imbeciles are always
shorter and lighter than normal persons; but on the
Relation of other hand, we must not forget that men of
size to men- talent, if not of genius, are not infrequent-
taiabUity. |y gj^^ll. We can not maintain that men
below a given height and weight are stupid, any more
than we can hold that size has no relation whatever to

Digitized by VjOOQIC

GROWTH OP THE BODY

mental ability. The case should probably be stated
thus: Any child who falls much below the size of other
members of his family at the same age, is also likely
to fall below them in intelligence. A more direct
relation between mind and body is given in bodily
control, which we shall consider later.

In view of the well marked rhythms of growth, the
question at once arises as to their bearing upon educa-
tion. Should the child, while growing rapid- periods of
ly, have more or less school work? Should growth and
we stimulate him or quiet him? The most ^^I'l^^^^^^^^-
diverse answers have been given to these questions.
The chief conflict has raged about the proper treat-
ment of the adolescent boy and girl. We find some
physicians declaring that girls from twelve to fourteen
years old, should be taken out of school entirely and
boys from fourteen to sixteen years old given much
less mental work to do. Many educators, on the other
hand, claim that this is the time when permanent
interests in all subjects must be established. The
child now lives in a new world — one of ideals — and
we must introduce him as speedily as may be to
the best in literature, history, science, art, music,
religion and everything that goes to make up our com-
plex life.

We may perhaps untangle a few of the threads from
this knotted skein by comparing the periods of greatest
susceptibility to disease with those of ado- Relation of
lescence. Dr. E. M. Hartwell of Boston age to
has made tables based on the mortality ^ ■®*"®*
returns of Boston for 1875, 1885 ^"^ 1890. He finds
that specific life-intensity, that is, ability to resist
disease, varies as follows:

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE CHILD

Age

Per Cent of
Increase
IN Weight

Specific Life-
Intensity

Per Cent of
Increase
IN Height

Girls

Boys

Girls

Boys

Girls

Boys

5- 6

4.00
4.08
4.58
3.72
3.98
4.06
4.56
4.08 '
3-11
1.90
.77

5.20
4.58
4.38
4.03
4.04
' 3.12,
3.39
3.78
4.68
4.01
4.36

6008

69.5
103.8
123.2
195.4
191. 2
309. Q
232.0
162.0

171.3
169.3

67.3
74.5
106.8
164.0
134.8
209.3
233.2
290.1
238.7
250.1
188. 1

8.88

9.69

8.83

10.68

9.26

10.24

13.78

13.23

10.94

7.83

5.61

10.24

6-7

8.78

7- 8

9.86

9-79
10.40

7.43

9-74

1031

11.66

8-9

9-10

lO-II

11-12

12-13

1-1-14,

14-15

13.02
12.96

15-16

According to this table, girls from 11 to 12 years old-^
and boys from 12 to 13 years old are better able to
resist disease than at any other time, although the
increase in power of resistance is not so marked with
boys as with girls. The entire period from 9 to 13 for
girls and from 10 to 15 for boys is the time of greatest
resistance to disease, while the period after 13 for girls
and 15 for boys is one of less power of resistance than
the years immediately preceding. To state it in other
terms, the period immediately preceding adolescence
is the healthiest time of life; while adolescence itself
falls short of this period but exceeds the period before
the ninth year.

Other statistics, on the other hand, seem to indicate
that the maximum resistance to disease comes some-
what later, when the boy or girl has practically fin-
ished growing in height and is making great gains in
weight. This would seem to argue that the ado-
lescent can endure a reasonable amount of work with-
out harm.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

6ftOWtH Of the BdDY

We need, however, more statistics which shall cor-
relate in the same children increase in height, weight
and resistance to disease, before we can safely draw
conclusions.

Throughout this account we have given only aver-
ages; we have been able fo say only "between certain
ages/' or "at about this age;" that is, the Necessity of
order of growth is nearly the same for individual
all children, but any particular child may ■^'^^^y*
be more or less advanced than another at the same age.
One child of nine years may be like another of seven,
or like another of eleven. Each parent and each teacher
must find out how much the children for whom he is
responsible vary from the average, and modify his treat-
ment of them accordingly. We should be at least as
careful to fit a child with mental garments as we are
to provide proper clothing for his body. The sys-
tem of grades in school is well calculated to turn out
children all of the same pattern, regardless of their
natural variations, and so each parent should be espe-
cially careful to see that the individual mental needs
of his own children are provided for.

In conclusion: In the newborn child, all the ele-
ments of the future man are present in germ, but edu-
cation decides which factors are to grow and
which are to atrophy. In the first years of ConcluBion.
life growth of all parts of the body is far
more rapid than at any other time, and educational,
that is, environmental influences, are most potent.
There are at least two well-marked periods of growth
in height and in weight with both boys and girls, of
which the first is connected with the second dentition
and the second with the setting in of puberty. In-

Digitized by VjOOQIC

2$ tHfi eklLD

crease in height precedes increase in weight, and
increase in weight is accompanied by increased resist-
ance to disease, and is probably the time when mental
work can be done to the best advantage. Size and
mental ability have, not a direct, but an indirect
relation to each other, varying with the family, climate
and food. Any given child must be studied not only
in comparison with other children of the same age, but
also in comparison especially with others of his own
family. We need not only general laws for all chil-
dren, but also fpr children of this or that family, just as
we have laws for species of flowers in addition to those
for the genera.

REFERENCES

Allen, Mary E. Physical Development of Women and Children.

Proc. Assn. of Phys. Ed., 1890, 9-21.
Bailey, J. How to Teach Babies, L. Hughes, $0.60.
Beebe. Motor and Sensory Children. C. S. M., Ill, 14.
Boyer, H. G. Influence of Exercise on Growth. Am. Phys.
Educ. Rev., Sept. and Dec, 1896.
Normal Growth and Development under Sj^tematized Exer-
cise. Rep. of Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
to Secy of Navy, 1893, 141-160.
Boas, F. On Porter's Investigations. Science, Nov. i, 1895.

On Growth of First-born Children. Science, N. S., I.,402-

404.
Form of Head as Influenced by Growth. Science^ N. S., IV,

50-51.
Growth of Toronto Children. Rep. of Com. of Ed., 1896-7,

1541-1599.
Anthropological Investigations in Schools— Their Importance.

Science, 1891, 225-228.
Growth of Children. Science, N. S., V, 570-573.
Bowditch, H. P. Growth with Reference to Disease. Trans.

Am. Med. Assn., XXXII, 376.
Growth studied by Galton's Percentile Grades. 22d Rep,

Digitized by VjOOQIC

OftOWTil t>t tH& 6dbV

Mass. Board of Health. (Rearrangement of previous

material. )
Growth of Children. Eighth An. Kept, of Mass. State

Board of Health. Also Tenth An. Kept, of Mass. State

Board of Health. (Supplements eighth with reference to

effect of race and mode of life.)
Bryan, W. L. Development of Voluntary Motor Ability. Am.

Jour. Psy., Nov., 1892, 125-204.
Bryan, E. B. Nascent Stages and Their Significance. Fed. Sent.,

i900» 357*396. (Detailed work for different ^es.)
Burk, Frederick. Growth of Children in Height and Weight.

Am. Jour. Psy., IX, 253-326.
From Fundamental to Accessory in Development of Nervous

System of Movement. Ped. Sem., VI, 5-64.
(Excellent articles. Summarize much previous work.)
Burnbam, W. H. Hygiene of Schools. Ped. Sem., 1892, 9-71.

(Very complete.)
Camerer, W. Untersuchungen iiber Massenwachsthum und

Langenwachsthum. J. fur Kinder heitskunde, Bd. 336,

249-293. (Most important contribution on infantile growth,

up to 1898.)
Carven, A. Pain and Strength Measurements of 1507 School

Children. Am. Jour. Psy., 1899, 392-398.
Cushing, F. H. Manual Concepts: Study .of the Influence of

Hand Usage upon Culture Growth. Am. four. Anthrop.,

V, 289-317.
Dawson, G. E. Children's Interest in the Bible. Ped. Sem., V,

43. (Summary of facts of growth.)
Donaldson, H. H. Growth of the Brain. N.Y. Scribner's, $1.50.
Du Bois, Raymond. Phjrsiology of Exercise. Pop. Sc. Mo., XXI,

317-331. 333-433.
Elliot, S. B. Prenatal Culture. Arena, IX, 1893-1894, 417-426;

X, 306-316, 668-676. (Extreme.)
Galton, Francis. Growth. Rep. of Anthropometric Com. of
British Assn., J., 1883.
Height and Weight of Boys of 14 Years. Jour, of Anthrop.

Inst, of G. B. and Ireland, V, 173-180.
Hereditary Stature. Do. above, 488-499. Summary of these

in Rep. Com. of E due, 1895 -1896, 117 5- 11 98.
Hereditary Genius, L. Macmillan, $2.50.

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tH£ CHILD

Natural Inheritance, L. Macmillan, $2.00..
Principles and Methods of Assigning Marks for Bodily
Efl&ciency. Nature, Oct 3, 1889.
Gilbert, J. A. Researches on School Children and College Stu-
dents. U, of Iowa Studies in Psy., I, 1-39.
Greenwood, J. M. Height and Weight of Children. Rep. of Board

of Ed, of Kansas City, 1890-91, 45-56.
Hall, W. S. First 500 days of a Child's Life. C 5. M., Vol.

II. 1897.

Changes in Proportions of Body in Growth, f.of Anthrop,
Inst, of G. B. and Ire., Vol. XXV. 21-46.
Halleck, Reuben Post. Education of the Motor Centers. Trans.

III. 5. C 5., III., 46.

Education of the Central Nervous System. N. Y. Macmillan,

$1.00.
Hancock, J. A. Preliminary Study of Motor Ability. Fed. Sent.,

1894, 9-29. (Good.)
Hawkins, C. Physical Measurements of Public School Boys.

f. of Ed., 1891, 35-41, 187-190.
Holt, L. Emmett. Care and Feeding of Children. N. Y. Apple-
ton, $0.50.
Hrdlicka, A. Anthropological Investigations on 1000 Chil-

dred. White and Colored. N. Y. Wynkoop HoUenbeck

Crawford Co.
Key, Axel. School Life in Relation to Health and Growth,
Kingsley, Charles. Health and Education. N. Y. Appleton,

$1. 75. (Written about 1874 ; not valuable.)
Kirkpatrick, E. A. Development of Voluntary Movement. Psy.

Rev., 1899, 6 pp. (Nativistic theory of perception.)
Krohn, Wro. Habitual Postures of Children. C. S. M., I, 114.
Lander, B. J. Posture audits Indications. Fop. Sc. Mo., XLII,

26-34. (Describes some common characteristic postures of

disease.)
Lindlay, E. H. Some Motor Phenomena of Mental Effort. Am.

Jour. Psy., July, 1896, 491-517.
Mackenzie, R. T. Place of Physical Training in a School System.

Montreal Med. Jour., 1900, 30-36.
MacNamara, N. C. Human Brain in Relation to Education.

West. Rev., 1900, 634-640.
Mosher, Eliza M. Habitual Postures of Children. Educ. Rev.,

IV. (10 pp.).

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-7
GROWTH OF THE BODY x\

Oppenheim, N. Development of the Chtldy N.Y. Macmillan, $1.25.
O'Shea, M. V. Discussion on Children's Physical Development.

Proc. N. E. A., 1897, 598.
Peckham. Growth of Children. Sixth Annual Rep, of State

Board of Health of Wis., 28-73.
Porter, W. S. Physical Basis of Precocity and Dullness. Trans.

Am. Acad. So. at St. Louis, Vol. VI, 161-181. Also Am.

Phys. Ed. Rev., Vol. II, 155-173, same article.
Growth of St. Louis Children, 263-380.
Posse. Nils. Special Kinesiology of Educational Gymnastics.

Boston. Lee, $3.00.
Roberts, C. Manual of Anthropometry. L. Churchill, I1.50.

(Most complete treatment in English of growth measure-
ments.)
Rowe, S. H. Physical Nature of the Child and How to Study

It. N. Y. Macmillan, $1.00. (Simple and accurate.)
Scripture, E. W. Education of Muscular Control and Power.

Studies from Yale Psy. Lab. , II.
Seguin, E. Prenatal and Infantile Culture. Pop. Sc. Mo,, X,

38-43.
Shaw, E. R. Observations on Teaching Children to Write.

C. S. M., I, 226.
Smedley, F. W. Report on Child-Study Investigation. Chicago

Board of Education.
Telford-Smith, T. Scientific Study of Mental and Physical Con-
ditions of Childhood. Pediatrics, 1897, 317-321.
Tucker, M. A. Involuntary Movements. Am. four. Psy.,

* VIII, 394.
Warner, Francis. Physical and Mental Condition Among Fifty

Thousand Children, f. Roy, Stat. Soc, 1896, 125-128.

(The basis of most other work of this sort.) Sum. in Rep.

Com. of Ed., 1895-6, 1175.
Study of Children. Nervous System of the Child. N. Y.

Macmillan. Each, $1.00. (Both works cover much the same

ground; very diffuse.)
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Science, N. S., IV, 156-159.
Wissler, Clark. Correlation of Mental and Physical Feats. Psy.

Rev. Monograph Sup., Vol. Ill, No. 6.

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CHAPTER III

Abnormal Bodily Conditions

SINCE the connection between the sound mind and
the sound body is as close as the last chapters
have shown, it is of great importance for all who have
introduc- charge of children to know some of the
tion. more common symptoms of disease. Exam-

inations, made in recent years, of the eyes and ears
of school children show that to a most appalling
degree parents and teachers have considered children
stupid, obstinate, and bad who are only partially deaf
or blind. In the minds of physicians there can be
little doubt that many other cases of supposed innate
wickedness or laziness are in reality cases of some form
of nervous derangement.

What we shall do, therefore, in this chapter is to
describe some of the symptoms which should put par-
ents on their guard and set them to watching the child
in question more carefully, with a view to consult-
ing with a physician should the doubtful symptoms
persist. It should be well understood that such obser-
vations as the parent and teacher can make are only
preliminary to the physician's examination, and that
it is unsafe for a tyro to adopt on his own responsibility
any course of treatment. The object is not to get rid
of the physician, but to save children from the suffer-
ing due to the neglect of unhealthy conditions which

arise from our inability to know when they exist. We

Digitized by VjOOQIC

ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

wish to sharpen our eyes to see wrong conditions so
that they may be more speedily relieved.

First should be considered the senses of sight and
hearing. The eye and the ear are the principal chan-
nels through which our knowledge comes,
and if either of them is defective, the child ganses!

is seriously hampered in all his work. He
himself is not likely to know whether his eyes and ears
are perfect, unless they pain him, for he is accustomed
to his condition, and naturally supposes it to be like
every one else's. We older people must therefore
watch over him.

For defective eyesight, notice the position of each
child when reading or writing at his seat. His eyes
should be about one foot from his book or paper. If
the distance varies much from this, he should be given
special tests as follows:

Nearsight (myopia). Use Snellen's type test card*
for this, having the child read the various lines of type
at the distances indicated on the card. If he can not
see them at those distances, he is shortsighted and
should be taken to an oculist for more careful tests.
In reading the type, one eye should be used at a
time, the other being left open, but covered by a piece
of cardboard.

Farsight (hyperopia). This may be roughly tested
by holding a dime two feet before the eyes. If the
eyes, in looking at it, turn inwards in a squint, there
is probably farsight. It is sometimes supposed that
a farsighted eye does not need glasses as much as a
nearsighted one, because objects are plainly seen.

♦This can be obtained from any dealer in optical supplies. It
costs from lo to 35 cents.
8

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE CHILD

This is a, mistake. The farsighted eye is under a con-
stant strain in adjusting itself to see any object clearly,
and this strain if neglected causes headache and
nervousness.

Astigmatism may be tested by the radiating lines
shown on Snellen's test card. If these lines look
markedly different, there is some astigmatism.

A B

Diagram 3. Showing Change in Nerve Cells Due to Age: A^ Spinal
Ganglion Cells op a Still-Born Male Chil^ B^ Same op a Man
Dying at Ninety-two; n. Nuclei. Magnified 250 Diam. (Hodge.)

The ordinary test for hearing is given by means of a
watch. First see how far a person whose hearing is
normal can hear the watch that is to be used. Then
test the child wjth his eyes closed, in a quiet room.
We may suspect deafness if a child seems dull or inat-
tentive, and constantly asks to have things repeated.
Not infrequently growths form in the nose, and the
tonsils enlarge, causing a deafness that is easily cured.

In all these cases, the tests are only to ascertain
whether a physician's care is needed. The teacher
can give a child a front seat if he is deaf, or a well-

Digitized by VjOOQIC

ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

lighted seat if his eyesight is poor, but such measures
are of little use unless curative treatment is also given.

When any part of the body is working, pj^tigug. j^g
the cells of which it consists are used up; cause and
their structure is changed and new sub- ■^«^**<5*^<^*-
stances, some of them poisonous in nature, are formed.
The nerve cells decrease in size and some of their
connections with other nerve cells are
temporarily broken. (See Diagrams 3
and 4.)

If work is continued, the change or
tearing down of the cell goes on faster
than material to rebuild it can be fur-
nished by the blood; the waste material
or poison is left in part about the cell,
instead of being carried off to the excre-
tory organs, and in small part is absorbed
by other parts of the body through which
the blood passes. We then have the con-
dition known as fatigue.

It is evident that fatigue must follow
as the result of use of any part of the
body, and as exercise is one of the con-
ditions of growth, it is also evident
that fatigue is not, by itself, an unhealthy
condition. When it sets in, we know
that our expenditure is beginning to
exceed our income, and while we may
borrow and live for a time on our reserve
in the bank of health, it behooves
us to not overdraw. No disease is so
difficult to recover from entirely as ner-
vous exhaustion.

Diagram 4.
Showing Change
IN THE Nucleus of
A Frog's Nerve
Cell During
Seven Hours Con-
tinuous Electri-
cal Stimulation.
(Hodge.)

Digitized by VjOOQIC

^6 THE QHIJ^D

The amount of work which causes fatigue has been
the subject of careful experiment, so far as fatigue of
the muscles is concerned, and" of wide-
of^fiUteue" spread, though not so scientific, observations
on mental fatigue. It has been found that
in the exercise of any muscle fatigue begins to show
after ten or fifteen seconds in a lowering of the rate of
movement. After ten or fifteen minutes, the reduc-
tion is considerable, but is slower afterwards. There
is aho a phenomenon comparable to the second wind
in running. A muscle can be exercised to the point
where the utmost effort of the will is hardly enough to
raise the rate perceptibly. If, nevertheless, one con-
tinues to move it as much as is possible, it will, after a
short time, recover in part its original freshness and
move almost as rapidly and as easily as at first. This
will happen ten or fifteen times before permanent
fatigue ensues.

It is still open to question how far exercise of any
one set of muscles wearies the entire body. It does
so to some extent, doubtless, because the poisons
given off by the muscles in use are taken up by the
blood and partially absorbed by those parts of the
body through which the blood passes. It seems likely
that exercise of the right hand wearies the left hand
to some degree. Many insist that the left side of the
body is more developed than it would be as the^
result of its own exercise, and that this is due to the
reaction upon it of the exercise of the right side.

In mental fatigue, as in physical, the immediate
condition is the tearing down of the nervous structures
more rapidly than they are being built up, but a
great variety of causes may lead to this condition.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

Prominent among them are: Overwork; too long
hours of work and too much to do in those hours;
excessive worry over a reasonable amount oonditiong
of work; wasteful methods of work; not of mental
enough work or not enough variety in it; »**^«f'**'
a nervous system so much below par that it can not
do even a rational amount of work.

There has been of late years a great outcry against
the public schools on the charge of overwork. It is
claimed that they are fast reducing our overwork in
children and youth to nervous wrecks and tue public
that this is true not only of Americans but •*^^®®^"*
of English and Germans as well. The nervousness of
children increases in direct ratio to the number of
years that they are in school. Their weight and appe-
tite diminish from the beginning of the school year to
the end, especially just before examinations. They
have nightmares, grinding of the teeth and tremors
even where they have no well-defined nervous disease.

All these things seem to many physicians the direct
result of too much study. In many schools, children
even as young as nine years are expected to do some
home study, and from that age on the amount of it
increases constantly.

On the other hand, the demand is constantly made
by superintendents and parents that this or that new
study shall be introduced into school. The trades-unions
want manual training; the mothers want music and
drawing; the colleges demand languages and science.
And yet children leave school with the merest smatter-
ing of each subject and without knowing how to write
a letter correctly. Is the rising generation stupid that
it gets nervous exhaustion in learning nothing?

^i^^Digfee^^yLjQPgie

•jS THE CHILD

This leads directly to the claim made by many
observant parents and teachers that the undeniably
Overworry ^^^ nervous condition of many children is
not over- not so much due to the amount that they are
^®'** ^pected to learn as to the conditions under

which they work. These bad conditions may be either
physical or mental. Under mental conditions must be
included such things as Fear — fear of the teacher's
displeasure and of not passing examinations — and
Rivalries — the intense desire for good marks, the con-
sequent worry over inability to prepare a lesson, and
the intense chagrin at failures in recitation or exam-
ination. Such conditions are thoroughly artificial and
the combined efforts of teachers and parents should be
directed towards removing them. Children should feel
that they are in school primarily to learn, not to show
off, and that a confession of ignorance after an honest
attempt to get knowledge is not a disgrace. A give
and take among the pupils in helping each other can^
also be established in any school and family, to replace
the rivalries and fears of the other system and to
remove one of the great sources of worry.

Not uncommonly we find that a child who seems to
be up to the average in brightness takes two or three
Wasteful times as long to prepare a lesson as
methods of another child. This maybe due to bad
study. nervous conditions, which we shall con-

sider soon, or to ignorance of how to study. In the
latter case, we find that the eyes are constantly wan-
dering from the book, and that there are frequent
lapses into day dreams. Even when there is a fair
amount of interest in the subject of study, there seems
to be an inability to think about one thing for more

Digitized by VjOOQIC

ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

than a few minutes. The best thing to do with such a
child is to study with him for a time, showing him how
to look for important points and how to connect them
with other things that he knows. Under our present
school conditions, this is especially the work of the
parents. , Under ideal conditions, it might be the work
of the teacher, but now she has no time in her day
when such work can be done.

Certain patient German observers experimented upon
school children by giving them columns of figures to
add for two hours, or copying to do for the
same length of time. They found such an ?rJork*^
appalling increase in the number of mis-
takes made by the end of the second hour that they
forthwith concluded that our schools should all be
closed or in ten years no children would be left alive.
However, they made the fundapiental mistake of sup-
posing that two hours made up of a variety of subject3
would be as fatiguing as two hours of one subject.
As a matter of fact, variety, while not a complete rest,
is a partial rest, and should be carefully observed in
making out a school program or in planning a day's
work for a child. It is believed that the best hours of
work are from nine to eleven; the next best from three
to four; and the poorest from eleven to twelve. If we
considered this in connection with the requirement of
variety, we should have a day's program in which the
most difficult subjects were put from nine to eleven;
from eleven to twelve an hour should be given to sub-
jects much less taxing, like drawing, which also gives
some of the relief of handwork after the hard mental
work. In the afternoon, the order would be reversed,
the easy subjects first, and the more difficult ones laten

Digitized by VjOOQ tC

THE CHILD

In the demand for variety we find still another argu-
ment for handwork, drawing, and music. If any part
of the body is left unused for any length of time, there
is an irritability, a cry for exercise from the neglected
organ'. If only one or a few parts of the brain are
used, they are over-exercised and other parts are not
exercised enough. The result is excessive weariness
on one side, and an almost uncontrollable desire for
activity on the other. A child brought up jn but one
line of thought and action is nearly sure to go to
extremes in other directions as s6on as the external
repression is removed. To get a balanced, controlled
character, we must cultivate a variety of interests in
thought and in action.

Finally, lack of interest is perhaps the most power-
ful single factor in producing mental fatigue. The
horrible weariness, the indescribable sense
Interest. of imprisonment to which a child is sub-

jected who is forced to a study which he
does not like, is something that we grown-ups will not
ourselves endure at all. While I do not think that
the school should be a caterer to the passing fancies
of its pupils, I do believe that a better arrangement of
our curriculum, and wiser and more individual
methods of teaching would reveal many interests in
children which now we do not suspect them of having.
A closer connection of the school with the life of the
home and the village or city and a stronger appeal
to the children's love of doing would accomplish
much.

It seems probable, then, upon consideration of the
various causes of mental fatigue, that if the conditions
for work were improved by removing causes for worry.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

by inculcating correct habits of study and by arranging
the curriculum so that it should appeal to natural,
permanent, and valuable interests, fatigue would
not be as prevalent among school children as it now
is. This is true in schools where these changes have
been made, and in less time, more work is done with
more lasting effects than under other conditions. The
plea that we should make, therefore, is not for a shorter
school day, but for a different one— one full of inter-
esting work and free from worries.

Besides these bad mental conditions, there are cer-
tain physical causes of fatigue which are easily reme-
died and yet are commonly neglected. The
first of these is bad air both at home and geaof mental
at school. Why is it that the American, fatigue,
even the well-educated American, is so J
insensitive to the need of pure air? Is it because he
breathes badly and has his sense of smell dulled by
catarrh? There must be some other explanation than
that of ignorance, for the air even of most homes is not
pure, and it is rare indeed to go into a schoolroom
where the air is not impure. Many a sensible, well-
educated man and woman goes to bed night after
night with closed doors and windows, and many a
house-keeper, exemplary in other respects, never
feels the need of throwing the house, open to the air
and sun.

The simplest test for pure air is that the air in a
room shall smell fresh upon coming in from outdoors.
Even in winter time this is easy to secure. Have
boards about four inches wide fitted into the bottom of
the window casings, and let the windows rest on them
instead of closing down. This secures a current of air

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE CHILD

at the top, between the two sashes, and ventilates an
ordinary living or sleeping room. There is usually no
reason why a window should not be open an inch or
two in a bed-room at night, even in the coldest weather;
but if that demands too much courage, at least the
door can be open and a window in some other part
of the house opened to lead to a circulation of the air.

In the schoolroom there is usually an inadequate
system of ventilation. Architects do not consider, in
their estimate of the necessary supply of air, the
amount that is befouled by the bodies and clothes of
the pupils. They consider only the nice, clean,
healthy child, who is, in the city at any rate, the
exception. As a result, the air in most schools is
heavy from the first half hour after school opens to the
end of the day. Then the janitor locks in the bad air
to be used again the next morning.

Supplement this defective ventilation by opening
windows at every recess and noon, and see to it that
the room is thoroughly aired at night. If the room is
made too cold for the pupils by this constant airing,
warm them by some vigorous gymnastics, ^and particu-
larly by breathing exercises. The fresh, invigorating
oxygen will soon reconcile them to the slightly lowered
temperature.

The great importance of the air supply lies in the
fact that air that has once been breathed is deficient
in oxygen, which is one of the most important constit-
uents in building up nervous and muscular tissue. A
person who breathes impure air five or six hours a day
soon feels dull all the time. He can not think clearly
or rapidly because the brain-centers are not properly
fed, and his stupidity may become permanent. His

Digitized by VjOOQIC

ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

resistance to disease is lessened and he is subject to
headaches and numerous minor evils. Therefore in
order to ward off fatigue and its consequent nervous
conditions, cultivate in children deep breathing and its
accompanying love of pure air.

Habitual postures are now recognized as the cause
of much fatigue and even of actual disease, particularly
of various forms of curvature of the spine.
Twenty to thirty per cent of high-school
children have curvatures of the spine as the result of
improperly made seats.

The most healthy posture in standing and sitting is,
presumably, the symmetrical one, in which both halves
of the body have the same position, because then the
muscles on the two sides will be used alike, and all
strain will be equally distributed. Variations from such
a position should be compensated by the two sides
alternating in the unsymmetrical position.

The best position in lying is still a matter of dispute.
Some maintain that the symmetrical position here also
is the best, the person lying either on back or abdomen.
Others claim that lying on the back keeps the spinal
cord unduly heated and irritable, while lying on the
abdomen compresses both stomach and lungs. They
therefore advocate a position on either the right or left
side. The truth of the case probably is that the best
position for each individual will depend somewhat upon
his bodily characteristics. There can be no question,
however, but that lying on the back or abdomen allows
the most complete muscular relaxation, and it seems
doubtful whether there is any real harm done to spinal
cord, or stomach, or lungs, provided they were in good
condition at thje start.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THp CHILD

Practically all physicians agree that in order to be
both comfortably and correctly seated, there must be
certain relations between thfe size and shape of the seat
and the person. The height of the seat should be the
same as the length of the leg, measured from the under
side of the bent knee to the sole; the depth from front
to back of the seat should be only enough so that the
entire back can rest against it, and the seat-back should
follow the curves of the spine. If the seat is too jjigh,
there is constant strain in the attempt to keep the feet
on the floor, and a strong tendency to slip forward in
the chair and sit on the end of the spine. This alone
may lead to tenderness of the spinal cord and conse-
quent nervousness. If the seat is too long from front
to back, the same thing occurs.

The desk should be of such a height that when the
elbow rests at the side, bent at right angles, it can lie
on top of the desk. The desk should slope one inch
in six, and should overlap the. seat by at least two
inches. If the desk is higher than this, it raises the
elbow and brings a needless strain upon the back mus-
cles. If it is too far in front of the seat, the child is
obliged to perch on the seat-edge in order to write,
and all the back muscles are severely strained. He
should be able to write while leaning back in the chair.

These requirements are the same for both children
and adults, but are of especial importance for children,
because the body is more plastic, and more easily
changed in shape, and because children become
fatigued more easily than their elders.

Such seats as these here described should be secured
for all schools. If possible, they should be adjustable,
so that each child can be fitted to a seat. Where that

Digitized by VjOOQIC

ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

expense is too .great, each room should have at least a
few adjustable seats, so that the unusually large and
small pupils can be suited. This is better than having
no fitting whatever of the seat to the pupil.

In discussing the causes of fatigue before the signs
by which we may know it, we may seem to have put
the cart before the horse, but the transi-
tion from healthy fatigue to over-fatigue, fi!t?gue!
nervousness, and nervous exhaustion is so
gradual that it seems better to discuss them together.

Any person who lives with children at all knows the
first signs of fatigue. A child becomes inattentive and
fidgety. Ideas not related to the lesson keep coming
into his mind and he can with difficulty give even out-
ward attention, because his muscles are tired and
demand constant movements to ease them. If a five-
minute recess is given at this point, there will be a
noticeable recovery of attention and of control of the
body. On this account, more advantage is gained
from a short recess every hour than from one long
recess midway in the session.

If, on the other hand, work is persisted in without a
rest, a child becomes more inattentive, fidgety, and
irritable, and less sensitive. Careful tests show that a
weary person's skin is not as sensitive to touch, and
that his eye cannot distinguish colors as well as when he
is fresh. The tired person has not as good a hand-grip or
muscular control as the rested one. This shows in the
schoolroom when the tired child is duller in recitation
and more awkward and untidy in moving about the
room, in writing, etc., than at other times. Such a
child is also mare likely to be impertinent and undis-
ciplined than when rested and "fit." A good night's

Digitized by VjOOQIC

.g THE CHILD

rest and plenty of the right sort of food should restore
the normal energy.

* If even now he has no chance to rest, other symptoms
appear. He may have trouble in remembering the
names of familiar persons and objects. He is almost
sure to forget quickly what he has learned. He is
likely to be very irritable and to pass quickly from the
gayest to the most sorrowful mood. He will probably
have bad dreams and sleep uneasily. On the motor
side, he will be even more fidgety than at first. Certain
movements, such as swinging the foot or twitching
the fingers will be kept up incessantly. The facial
expression will become exaggerated — the eyebrows
twitching, the forehead set in a frown, the lips com-
pressed, the nostrils dilated. The whole body will be
in a tense condition even when the child is doing
nothing or is asleep.

Such a child is decidedly nervous, although he may
not as yet have any nervous disease. He must be
carefully watched and. relieved from worry and fear,
but kept pleasantly occupied. Every effort should be
used to build up bone, muscle and fat. Stimulating
foods, and coffee, tea, and chocolate, should be
avoided. Long hours of sleep should be securei^. Such
sensitive children are at once the promise and the
danger of the next generation. They may degenerate
into hysterical wrecks, or become the leaders of society.

When actual disease begins, the symptoms already-
described become still more pronounced. On the
siniB of mental side they are not likely to be evi-

nervous dent unless the parents have the complete

disease. confidence of their child. Groundless fears,

hallucinations, forgetfulness, and all sorts of vague.

Digitized by VjOOv IC

uncomfortable feelings that make him cross without
his knowing why, constitute the sad inner life of the
child who is becoming nervously exhausted. His body
may feel numb and lame, or may be very sensitive and
sore to the touch. In either case there are us^ually
skin eruptions, 'especially on the chest, back and arms.
There will be either excessive perspiration or dryness
of the skin. There will also be twitching of the mus-
cles or even convulsions.

A child who has any of these symptoms well
marked and permanent, should be put under the care
of a physician at once, and parents should carefully
watch a nervous child to prevent such a condition from
arising. It comes on so gradually and insidiously
that neither child nor parents are likely to appreciate
the change. It is, however, of the utmost importance
that treatment be begun early, for if genuine nervous
exhaustion occurs, it is doubtful whether entire recov-
ery is possible.

In the conditions so far discussed, we have consid-
ered only children who, although fatigued, nervous or
nervously exhausted, still might, under p^u^^^r and
proper treatment, be made well-balanced, exceptional
normal members of society. There is, ®^^*'®'*-
however, a large class of children who, owing usually
to some inherent nervous defect, stand on the border-
land between the abnormal and the normal, with cer-
tain tendencies toward the abnormal. It is very diffi-
cult to classify such children, but most of them seem
to tend toward one of three groups: (i) The eccentric
person or crank, who has a marked individuality,
without being original or inventive, and who may
become insane in later life; (2) the idiot or imbecile;

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE CHILD

(3) the criminal. Notice that I say only that the child
seems to tend toward one of these groups. How much
education can do toward correcting such tendencies
is a matter that civilized nations are only just begin-
ning to consider.

Doubtless it seems surprising to place the criminal
with the other two classes. Further investigation may
change the classification, but as our knowledge stands
now, there are certain physical conditions common to
all. Adults of these classes and children who show
such tendencies are, as a «rule, below the average in
height and weight. They are likely to have some
marked Bodily asymmetry or defect, such as a high
palate or a misshapen head. They frequently have
some serious nervous trouble, hallucinations, epileptic
attacks, convulsions, or some other form of disease
showing nervQus instability. They are unlikely to
resemble others of their own family, and they in turn
will have few if any children. They seem to be, in
short, deviations from the normal in most respects,
deviatidns which, by their own defects, will die out in
the course of a few generations.

It is impossible to explain in detail what conditions
produce these exceptional classes. Most physicians
agree that there is some nervous heredity, but beyond
this there is wide divergence of opinion. Whether
such heredity will lead to a genius, an imbecile or a
criminal, no one can foretell. It is not uncommon to
find two of the three types in one family.

We can, however, say certainly that the children of
nervous parents will themselves be nervous, and the
more so if the parents, especially the father, are old.
If such children turn out to be exceptional, parents

Digitized by VjOOQIC

AfiNOftMAL BODILY CONDITIONS ^g

and teacher have one of the most serious problems on
their hands, for as the child contains great possibilities
for good or evil, so does he need especial care.

We need not reiterate the importance of good food,
good air, and exercise for such a child. Just in pro-
portion as he is unusual, does he need more treatment of
care taken of his body. His unstable, theexcep-
easily-overturned nervous system ought to *^®^*i<^^^*-
have all the nutrition possible without stimulation.

For such a child, however, the most troublesome
question is how to treat him at home and at school.
He is always doing unusual or bad things. He does
not get along well with other children. Perhaps he
hates school, and he shows all sorts of traits that make
him the despair of all who have to deal with him.

We can do nothing whatever with such a child until,
with the utmost patience and sympathy, we learn to
put ourselves in his place, to look at things from his
standpoint, and to see how, from that standpoint, his
actions and feelings appear justifiable. This is, of
course, true in dealing with any children, but the diffi-
culty in doing it is not usually so great as with the
peculiar child. To put ourselves in his place, we must
get his confidence, and at the same time do some
unobserved , observing and experimenting, to find out
his real interests and make use of them to bring him
into closer relations with other people. In every way
such a child should be led to feel that he is a valued
and needed member of society and that his greatest
happiness is in serving others. The criminal is avow-
edly anti-social; the genius is too often solitary, if he
is not in open opposition to his time. Children with
such tendencies, need, therefore, not to be marked

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE CHILD

oyt and set apart from their little worlds but rather to
; be bound to it by infinite ties of service and affection.
Nothing will help an unbalanced person to keep his
self-control so much as the knowledge that he has
duties and obligations, provided that the service be
not so strenuous as to become a source of worry.

But there is still a sad remnant of children who,
with our present knowledge, are uneducable, or edu-
cable only to a small degree. They are of all
degen^ate gi"^des from the child who is only stupid,
and can do the regular school work by
having more time than the other children, through the
various classes of the feeble-minded and imbecile, to
the idiot who, a mere animal, can not be taught the
simplest acts in caring for himself. For such children
we feel more and more the need of sfjecial schools
and special methods of instruction. In some of our
public schools, they are now assigned a special room
and teacher, and this should always be done.

Another class of degenerates consists of those whose
criminal tendencies can not be corrected. It is difficult
for the optimist to believe in the existence of heredi-
tary criminals, and it is possible that with more knowl-
edge of the proper conditions for his life, the so-called
hereditary criminal may be made a good member of
society. But under present conditions, it is too true
that certain children conceived in wickedness and born
into sin are beyond our reach by the time they are ten
or eleven years of age,

As the causes of degeneracy are studied, more and
more do we realize how the sin or defect of the par-
ents is "visited upon the children even unto the third
and fourth generation." Like begets, not like, but

Digitized by VjOOQIC

ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

similar. The parent with any form of nervous defect
passes it on, but in tTie child it may assume almost any
Other form. For example, statistics on the
children of parents one or both of whom degeneracy
were congenitally deaf, show that of their
children, a much higher per cent than normal were, not
deaf, but imbecile, epileptic, and criminal. The children
of drunkards may be, not drunkards, but imbeciles,
criminals or epileptics. Between 60 per cent and '80 per
cent of criminals have drunkards for one or both parents. .

It is also the case that mere neurotic temperament
in the parents predisposes the child to some form of
degeneracy. The defect of the parent, whether due to
voluntary causes or not, is visited upon the child, and
if handed down by the children, is at last punished by
utter sterility in that family. jThe criminal, if left
to breed only with his own kind, would die out in a
few generations, but he is constantly recruited from
the borderland of the occasional criminal.^

Can there be a stronger argument for building up
healthy bodies in ourselves and in our children than
the knowledge of the clojse connection between crime
and disease? From this standpoint, it is no slight
' matter to teach a nervous child perfectly regular bodily
habits, and to cultivate in him what might be called a
cosmopolitan appetite for all healthy foods.

While it is not justifiable for any parent or teacher
to be ignorant of the greater perils and temptations
that face the child of nervous temperament
than face the phlegmatic child, neither outiook^^^
must they forget that under proper care
such a child may become a most valuable member of
society. The very instability of the nervous system

•

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE CHILD

that makes him so easily the victim of liquor or vice
in any form, also makes it easy for him to adopt new
lines of action and thought, that is, makes him less
the slave of habit than other people are Such a per-
son, when led by high principles and love of the
service of his fellows, becomes the hero and leader of
his generation. His vagrant, unlawful impulses must
in his childhood be given the balance wheel of a noble
ideal, and then we may expect almost any good of him.

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Educ. Rev., Mar., 1898, 19-24.

Moore. Studies in Fatigue. Studies from Yale Psy. Lab., No. III.

Nordau, Max. Degeneration. N. Y. Appleton, $3.50.

Olson, Mary D. Cigarette Evil and the Schools. C 5. J/., Vol.
Ill, 1-12.

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ABNORMAL BODILY CONDITIONS

Peckham, Grace. Nervousness of Americans. Trans, of III.

Soc. C. S., 1886, 37-49.
Rayner, H. Early Recognition and Treatment of Mental Defects

in Children. Med. Mag., 1899, 451-461, 591-600.
Reynolds, J. R. Influence of Tenement House Life on Nervous

Condition of Children. Trans of III, Soc. C. 5., Vol. II, 33.

(Shows that such children are nervous and precocious, and

stop growing sooner than when under good conditions.)
Royce, Josiah. Mental Defects and Disorders from Teacher's

Point of View. Ed. Rev., June-Dec, 1893, pp. 209, 322, 449.

(Very stimulating.)
Russell, E. H. Exceptional Children in School. Ed. Rev. , VI,

431-442. (Very suggestive.)
Shuttleworth, G. E. Mentally Deficient Children, Phil. Blak-

iston, $1.50.
Starr, M. Allen. Familiar Forms of Nervous Disease. N. Y.

Wood & Co,, $2.50.
Stevens, G. T. Functional Nervous Diseases. N. Y. Apple-
ton, $2. 50.
Suddutb, W. X. Nervous and Backward Children. Trans, of

III. Soc C. 5., Vol. I, 354.
Tuke, Hack. Dictionary of Psychological Medicine. (See

Index, Neurasthenia, etc.) Phil. Blakisjon, $10.00.
Wilmarth, A. E. Examination of Brains of 100 Feeble-Minded

Children. Alienist and Neurologist, Oct., 1890.
Warner, Francis. Study of Children, (See Index.) N. Y. Mac-

millan. $1.00.

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CHAPTER IV
Feelings and Ideas of Sex

(If the class is mixed, or is very immature, the teacher may
find it wisest to omit class discussion of this subject. It is one,
however, which particularly concerns mothers, and a careful con-
sideration and discussion of the points made here is urged upon
them. The evils here described seem to be more widely spread
than many of us think.)

EACH member of the class should write out
reminiscences on the following points and give
them to the teacher, to illustrate the various points
Obierra- mentioned in the chapter. No names need
tionB. be signed to these papers, but the sex

should be indicated.

1. What was your first idea of ** where the baby
came from?*'

(i) From whom did you get it?
(2) If false, when and why did you become suspi-
cious of the truth?

2. Have you any recollection of any person ever
trying to teach you self-abuse? If so, was this person
a servant, another adult, or a child companion? Of
the same or opposite sex?

3. If you were instructed by your mother about the
reproductive functions, what was your feeling about
them when they first appeared?

4. If not,

(i) What was your feeling when they first appeared?
(2) Have you since then come to talk with her
about such subjects?
56

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FEELINGS AND IDEAS OP SEX

(5) Do you feel that she wronged you by leaving
you ignorant?

(4) Did you neglect to care for yourself or
meet harm in any way through your igno-
rance?

5. Have you yourself ever, answered any of the
advertisements on this subject, or do you know any-
one who has?

(i) What was your feeling toward the ''Doctor**?

(2) Were you seriously alarmed about yourself?

(3) How long did you continue treatment?

(4) How much money did you pay for medicine

and advice?

6. If you have from childhood talked over this sub-
ject with your mother, write a brief sketch of your

feelings about it as a child and as an adolescent, and
especially, if you can, compare your feelings with
those of some one who was left ignorant.

Every organ of the body contributes its quota to our
general bodily feeling and affects our state of mind,
although we are not usually able to single vaguenewof
out each constituent and trace it to its thenrataex
source. We can not doubt that the repro- '®®^^*f"*
ductive organs add their mite to this fund of common
feeling, for it is impossible that any healthy organ
should exist without acting and reacting upon the rest
of the body. Still, such feelings are very vague in the
baby and in the child. Children are as ignorant of
the source of such feelings as they are of all the other
vague comforts and discomforts that make them con-
tented or cross. We all know that modesty is not
an instinctive thing, but has to be taught to the little

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THE CHILD

child. On account of this vagueness, we often assume
that children, up to the age of adolescence, are prac-
tically sexless. It is doubtless true that sex character-
istics are much less marked before puberty than they
are later, but nevertheless there are differences which
lead to characteristic reactions for each sex. The
careful observation of these differences is one of the
things that is still to be done in Child-Study.

As puberty approaches, marked changes occur in
the body and in the accompanying feelings.
I. Physical. On the physical side we find:
(i) There is great increase in blood pressure. In the
child, the ratio of the heart to the arteries is
as 25: 20; just before puberty, as 140: 50; and
at maturity, 290:61. That is, in addition to
the rapid growth of heart and arteries at
puberty, there is nearly three times as much
blood preissure.

(2) The number of red corpuscles in the blood is

increased. The boy or girl of this age
should not, therefore, have any tendency to
anemia.

(3) There are usually rapid chemical changes all

over the body, as is shown by a slightly
increased temperature.

(4) There is probably a rapid growth of association

fibers in the brain.

(5) There is the characteristic change of voice for

both boys and girls.

(6) There is a rapid growth of the entire body.

(7) Often there is a decided change of features,

which brings out family resemblances that
before were unnoticed.

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FEELINGS AND IDEAS Ot Sfi^t

(8) The sense of touch becomes more keen, and

probably the other senses do also.

(9) In addition to these changes common to both

boys and girls, there are the changes peculiar.

to each sex as the reproductive organs

approach maturity.
2. Mental. On the mental side, the changes are no
less marked. There is a general mental restlessness
which manifests itself most markedly in a rebellion
against authority. Parental restraints which up to now
have been endured, even though not markedly benefi-
cial, become the occasion of defiance, and if persisted
in, too often result in a sundering of all confidences
between parent and child.

Closely connected with this mental restlessness is
the desire to lead. Ambition arises and manifests itself
in numerous directions — in the organizing of societies,
in extreme devotion to studies, or, on the other hand,
to the social life of the school. Ideals hold strong
sway over the youthful mind. The attempt to reform
the world begins. The social nature, especially the
moral and religious self, awakens to a new activity,
and there is also in many cases the beginning of a
genuine love for nature.

It is hardly too much to say, indeed, that all of the
permanent interests of the man have their origin or
become greatly emphasized at this age. Or, to put it
negatively, if any given interest is lacking at this
age, it is very unlikely to exist in the mature man or
woman.

So far we have discussed this matter from the adult's
standpoint, but now let us put ourselves into the place
oi the child, and see what his uninstructed thoughts

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6o '^"^ CHILD

and feelings about sex matters are. As we have already
seen, the baby and the child have only the vaguest of
sex feelings, and ask no questions about them. Every

child, however, ispractically certain to have
ownfeelUigB ^^^ curiosity aroused as to where the new

brother comes from. He comes to his mother
or to the nearest grown person with questions about
these things just as he goes to her with questions about
everything else, for these wise elders know everything
and are usually willing to enlighten his ignorance. At
the start he does not have anything more than the
healthy curiosity which he has on all subjects, and
whether he keeps a, normal, sane attitude or is forced
into an unhealthy one, depends upon the sort of answer
that he gets to his first questions.

These answers may, most of them, be. put under two
heads. There is (i) the "Hush! Hush!" answer. Not

infrequently a child is told that he ought to
?he*hiiT*^^ ^^ ashamed of asking such questions, for

nice children never talk about such things.
He is made to feel that in some mysterious way he has
done wrong, but his curiosity is left unsatisfied and yet
is stimulated by the appearance of new brothers ^nd
sisters for his playmates or himself, and by the casual
remarks dropped by his elders.

(2) The fairy-tale answer. It may be that, instead
of rebuking the little questioner, the mother receives
him kindly, and tells him elaborate tales of how an
angel brought the new baby down from heaven; or she
may prefer the stork or the cabbage-leaf as her deus-
ex-tnachina. She flatters herself that thus she keeps
the confidence of her child while still not telling him
truths of which she is herself half ashamed.

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PEELINGS AND IDEAS OP SEX 6 I

The final outcome is much the same in both cases.
Both the child who is hushed and the child who is given
the myth, get their knowledge of the
facts from other sources. It is obtained fhechUd^"*
from nurse-girls, servants, or other chil-
dren, and is usually so told and so garbled as to
make, the children still more secret and ashamed.
Obscene pictures, with their meaning obscurely hinted
at by older children, furnish more material for the
imagination, and so, by degrees, an exciting and per-
verted picture of sex differences and the meaning of
those differences is formed

Children thus get the idea that there is something
shameful about the facts of sex. They conceal their
thoughts from their parents and carry them through
life or until they chance to read some rational book
upon the subject. The horrible and grotesque ideas
which children form when thus left to themselves can
not be described. And yet, dreadful as they seem to
the well-informed person, we must remember that they
are the child's attempt to explain a most difficult sub-
ject. Any blame for such ideas should attach to the
parents who leave the child ignorant, and not to the
child.

If children who are thus left uninstructed escape with
only the excitation of thought, many investigators would
consider them fortunate rather than otherwise. Incor-
rect thoughts and excited imaginations are bad enough,
but are not so immediately dangerous as the forming
of bad sexual habits, which may end not only in the loss
of sexual power, but in nervous weakness and imbecility.

At first thought, many people will say that children
who learn such habits must be naturally depraved, but

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62 ' 'i'Hfi CHlLti

a closer examination of the facts shows that this is too
sweeping an assertion. Doubtless some children do
inherit passionate natures and are easily led astray,
but even the best child has a sex-nature and may be
taught to do wrong.

Most physicians will bear witness that the danger
here is not an imaginary one, and Havelock Ellis's
Neceiiityof investigations also show that an alarmingly
guarding large proportion of men and women have
the child. ^^ some time in their lives been given to
self-abuse, and that in most cases they acquired the
habit when children, without any knowledge of its
harmful nature. Vicious servant-girls employ it upon
children, to put them to sleep, and teach the children
to quiet themselves in this way. The habit is thus
sometimes acquired by babies of less than a year, and,
once acquired, is as difficult to break off as the drink
habit. The child can not go to sleep without the
accustomed stimulus, while with it he becomes sickly
and dull.

What is true of the baby is just as true of the little
child. He must be guarded from evil-minded servants
and children, and from his own ignorance. The only
safe way to guard him is to make him feel that his
mother knows more about this matter than any one
else, and will tell him about it.

The same thing holds with far more emphasis for the
adolescent. With all the other changes that occur at
adolescence, there comes also a great increase in the
sexual feelings, for which the rapid growth of the
sexual organs is responsible. It is simply nonsensical
to suppose that the adolescent boy or girl has any
instinctive knowledge of what these feelings mean.

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FEBLINQS AND IDEAS OP SEX 6^

We all grant that, as soon as it is said. It follows then,
that if they are left ignorant, they will either get
information from some one other than their mother, or
that they will not know how to meet the new condi-
tions which confront them. If false explanations are
given, or if they are left to make up explanations for
themselves, they may do themselves serious harm,
besides being very unhappy.

Many adolescent boys and girls imagine that they
have some fatal and shameful disease, and from these
the quack doctors, who publish the lurid Dm^-^y j^om
advertisements about lost manhood and quack
delicate womanhood, make their enormous **®^*®"*
profits. Perfectly healthy boys and girls, who do not
understand the new phenomena of adolescence, read
these advertisements, find that they have most of
the symptoms described — which are normal — become
alarmed about themselves, and write secretly to the
philanthropist who is so desirous of aiding suffering
humanity. The "Doctor" finds that they are in a
dangerous condition but can be cured by his medicine,
which he accordingly sends them, extorting money for
it and his advice until he can get no more.

Mr. Lancaster's investigations show that this evil is
widespread, and put the question of its existence
beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Now, it is easy for each father and mother to say,
**Well, those are dreadful facts, and I have no doubt
that they are true, but I am sure that my
child will never have such experiences.*^ Swtouctton^
How can you be sure if you have never
mentioned such subjects to your child? The very boy
or girl who blushes so painfully if you but skirt the

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THE CHILD

subject, may but be imitating your own attitude toward
him, and may under other conditions inquire into it in
anything but a shame-faced way.

Furthermore, we must remember that most of these
children fall into the danger innocently, and that the
very secrecy with which we surround the matter makes
it impossible for us to know of the danger until it has
actually come upon them.

The only safe way, and the only justifiable way, is
to have openness between parents and children.
Modesty becomes prudishness and is carried to an
inexcusable extreme when it leaves boys and girls to
grow up ignorant of one of the most important facts of
life, and one which has such tremendous bearings,
whether we will or no, upon each individual.

The question then arises what information we shall
give, and when, and how. We can not lay down many
general rules, for the success with which the informa-
tion is given depends upon knowing the particular
child concerned and seizing the right opportunity.
There are, however, some practical suggestions which
may be given.

From the standpoint of morality as well as from that

of health, it is important to keep the sexual organs in

good condition. Any unhealthy ore^an

Sex hygiene. "^ ^ { ^ - -^ J a

causes pam, or at least irritation, and

directs attention to that part of the body. Therefore,
the healthier the reproductive organs, the less will they
obtrude themselves unnecessarily upon the mind, and
this we all know to be highly desirable. It goes with-
out saying, therefore, that if there is any persistent pain
or irritation the advice of a physician should be sought.
Short of disease, there are certain simple rules to

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PEELINGS AND IDEAS OF SEX

follow. Most important and most neglected, is the
observance of perfect cleanliness. There should be a
thorough cleansing of these organs, if not of the entire
body, at least once a day, and Marro urges that it be
still more frequent, for the sake of coolness as well as
cleanliness. These two agencies — coolness and clean-
liness — he places as the two great preventives of irrita-
tion and of consequent sexual- thoughts. As soon as
children are able to bathe themselves, the especial im-
portance of this part of the bath should be impressed
upon them.

Stimulating foods, such as highly seasoned and. rich
deserts, and tea and coffee, should be avoided.

On the mental side, the thoughts should be directed
away from sexual subjects except as one of the matter-
of-course things in life, and this leads again to the
importance of instructing children upon the matter.
Many parents say that children should not think about
such things and therefore should not be told about
them. They should rather say that children should
n^jt_think morbidl y about such things, and so should
be told about them. Children are not naturally evil-
minded, but they are as curious as all the rest of us,
and peer, intently at the things that are left in semi-
darkness, and conjure up all sorts of ideas to explain
them. If now these facts are brought to the light
of day, and are shown to be very general facts after
all, and if the sense of secrecy and shame is replaced
by a knowledge of the importance of the facts, most
children will have little temptation to think of them in
anything but a healthy way, and will have the best
safeguard against indecent speeches and acts from any
source.

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66 THE CHILD

Thf facts told must vary with the child's disposition.
It is always necessary, Ijowever, that the parent should
What infor- ^^^^ ^" accurate knowledge, and should
mationto feel that the subject is essentially a noble
^ ^** one. The parent must feel that in giving

the child such instruction, he is fulfilling one of his
highest duties to society.

Usually the child will himself give some natural
opportunity by asking questions, and the amount of
information can be determined to a large extent by the
questions themselves. At first a little child is generally
satisfied by the amount of explanation that comes in
showing how a flower forms its seeds, from which other
flowers grow; but if his questions go into more details,
they can certainly be answered, if we have but the
wisdom, so as to have only good results. There are
families — and the number is constantly increasing — in
which the most beautiful relations exist between par-
ents and offspring as the result of the mother's confi-
dences to her children.

As adolescence approaches, this general knowledge
needs to be supplemented by practical instruction as to
what changes the boy or girl must expect. Much men-
tal distress and irritability will thus be prevented, and a
natural growth into manhood and womanhood secured.

Finally the young man and the young woman may be
taught with a new emphasis the vast importance and
the sacredness of the relations of man to woman, and
enlisted upon the side of a perfect purity of thought and
action. The final justification of instruction in sexual
knowledge is that it shall secure a higher ideal of the
relation of husband to wife and of both to their chil-
dren. The "social evil" and the great defects in our

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PEELINGS AND IDEAS OP SEX

family life of to-day are directly traceable in part to
ignorance of the laws of sexual health and morality. It
is our duty, therefore, as good citizens as well as good
parents, to train children to right ideas of their sexual
selves.

REFERENCES

SEX PROBLEM AND ADOLESCENCE

Barnes, E. A. Feeling^ and Ideas of Sex in Children. Ped.

Sent., 1892, 199-203.
Bentley, Ella H. Sex Differences Disclosed by Child-Study.

N. W. Mo., 1897, 257-261.
Bumham, W. H. Adolescence. Ped, Sent., 1891, 176-195.
Christopher, W. S. Three Crises in Child Life. C. S. M., Dec.

1897, 324-335.
Ellis, Havelock. Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Phil. F. A.

Davis, $2,00.
Man and Woman. N. Y. Scribner, $1.25. (Discusses sexual

abuses.)
Sexual Inversion. Phil. F. A. Davis, $2.00.
Geddes, P., and Thomson, J. A. Evolution 0/ Sex. L. W.Scott,

fi.50. (Scientific statement. Too difficult for general

reading. )
Groos, Karl. The Play of Man. 252-280. N. Y. Appleton,$i.5o.
Krohn, Wm. Menstrual Disorders in School Girls. C. S. M.,

Vol. Ill, 270.
Lancaster, E. G. Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence.

Ped. Sent., 1897, Vol. V, 61-128.
Morro, A. Puberal Hygiene in Relation to Pedagogy and Sociol

ogfy. Am. Jour, of Soc, 1^0, 224-237. (Practical details

of hygiene.)
La Puberta. (Best on subject. )
Scott, Colin. Psychology of Puberty and Adolescence. Proc.

N. E. A.y 1897, 843.
Sex and Art. Am. Jour, of Psy., Vol. VIL
Tolstoi, Lyoff N. Childhood, Boyhood and Youth. N. Y.

Crowell, $1.50 (Memories of adolescence.)
Voisin, J. Psychoses of Puberty. N. V. Med. Jour:, 1900,

634-636.

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68 THE CHILD

ARTICLES ON WHAT SEX INSTRUCTION SHOULD BE GIVEN
TO CHILDREN AND METHODS OF PRESENTING IT

Allen. Mary Wood. Marvels of Our Bodily Dwelling. 275 pp.
$1.00.
What a Young Girl Ought to Know. 60 pp. $1.00.
Child Confidence Rewarded. 19 pp. loc.
A linos I a Man. 39 pp. 25c.
Almost a Woman. 40 pp. 25c.

Teaching Truth. 24 pp. 25c. (All published by Wood-
Allen Pub. Co., Ann Arbor, Mich. Good.)
Lyttleton, E. Training of the Young in Laws of Sex. N. Y.
V Longmans, |i.oo. (Excellent.)

Instruction of the Young in Sexual Knowledge. Int. Jour.
of Ethics, 1899, 452-66.
Morley, Margaret W. Life and Love. Chicago. McClurg, $1.25.

Song of Life. Chicago. McClurg, $1.25.
Salter, W. M. Children's Questions: How Shall We Ansiver

Them?
Stall, Sylvanus. What a Young Boy Ought to Know. Ann

Arbor. Wood-Allen, $1.00.
Warren. Almost Fourteen. N.Y. Dodd, Mead, $1.00.
Wagner, Chas. Youth. N.Y. Dodd, Mead, $1.25.
Warner, C. D. Being a Boy. Boston. Houghton, Mifl^in, $0.60.

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i^CHAPTER V

Sensation and Perception

Teachers and students who are doing systematic
work in Child-Study should observe the following:

1. Sight Keep a record of these points obseryaN
in the baby's seeing: tions.

(i)When was the blank stare replaced by real
seeing of an object, i.e., by convergence of
the eyes upon the object?

(2) When did his eyes first follow a moving object?

Was the object bright or large? Did he
move head as well as eyes?

(3) When did he first look for an object or try to

see where a sound came from?

(4) When did he first look for something that ne

had dropped?

(5) When did he first show a liking for §ome color?

What was the color? Was it in a bright
light?

(6) When did he first wink at the approach of some

object threatening his eyes?

2. Grasping. When did these acts first occur?

(i) Closing of fingers over object put into the
palm.

(2) Opposition of thumb and fingers in grasping.

(3) Putting hand in mouth.

(4) When did he first grasp for some object he saw?
Notice whether he reached for objects far beyond

his grasp, i. e., whether the hand closed to grasp

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THE CHILD

them. Babies often stretch out their arms for things
that they want — such as the moon — but Baldwin
claims that in such cases there is no reaching and
grasping as there is when they expect to seize a tangi-
ble object. He also claims that a baby does not grasp
at objects far beyond his reach, and very soon learns
to correct his first slight inaccuracies in judging
distances.

Teachers who wish statistics as to the ideas that
children have about objects, should get G. Stanley
Hairs pamphlet, ContCTtts of Children's Minds on Enter-
ing School {E. L. Kellogg & Co., price 25 cents) and
follow the plan outlined there. They may find another
list of words more useful, but the general olan will be
valuable in any case.

In the preceding chapters we have discussed the
physical nature of the child, and have hinted at some
introduc- of the relations between it and education.
Won. We shall now take up his psychical nature

and endeavor to trace the growth from the rudiments
in sensation and perception to the more complex
manifestations in the adolescent's reasoning. Each
mental process, such as memory and imagination, will
be similarly treated, so that when the account is finished
we shall have an accurate picture of the mental growth
of children.

In this part of our subject, far more than in the
description of his physical nature or of his expressions
of thought, observations are lacking entirely, or few
in number, or defective; but nevertheless, individual
observation may still be supplemented to a consider-
able degree.

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

There has been some discussion among psychologists
as to when the first pleasures and pains can be felt.
In the older theories, which held more or
less explicitly to the idea that even the JJlf^fong
newborn child had a fully developed
mind, the question of whether the soul entered the
body before or at birth, was an interesting one; but
for the later psychology this has been changed to the
question of when the new life is sufficiently devel-
oped to have consciousness.

Compayre believes that for at least two months
before birth there is a vague consciousness of pressures
and jars, and perhaps of other Vague comforts and
discomforts. There can be no sensations of taste,
smell, sight, or sound, as embryonic conditions are
such as to preclude the possibility.

Preyer believes that birth itself is a discomfort to
the child, as evidenced by the fact that in two cases
under his observation the child began to cry when
only partly born, the face at the same time expressing
pain; but when a finger or a pencil was put into the
child's mouth, it ceased crying and the look of pain
was replaced by one of pleasure.

While there is probably a vague mass of feeling
before birth, and certainly directly after, there is much
less sensitiveness than there is a little later. This is
because the nerve-endings in the skin are not fully
developed and the connections between various parts
of the brain not yet established. The newborn child
responds more feebly to all kinds of stimuli than does
the child a month old.

We may summarize the condition in Miss Shinn's
words: *'She took in with a vague comfort the gentle

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THE CHILD

light that fell on her eyes, seeing without any sort of
attention or comprehension the moving blurs of dark-
ness that varied it. She felt motions and changes;
she felt the action of her own muscles, and after the
first three or four days disagreeable shocks of sound
now and then broke through the silence or perhaps
through an unnoticed jumble of faint noises. She felr
touches on her body from time to time, but without the
least sense of the place of the touch; and steady, slight
sensations of touch from her clothes, from arms that
held her, from cushions on which she lay, poured in
on her.

"From time to time sensations of hunger and thirst,
and once or twice of pain, made themselves felt
through all the others, and mounted till they became
distressing; from time to time a feeling of heightened
comfort flowed over her as hunger or thirst were satis-
fied; or release from clothes and the effect of the bath
and rubbfng on her circulation increased the net sense
of well-being. . . . For the rest she lay empty-minded,
neither consciously comfortable nor uncomfortable,
yet on the whole pervaded with a dull sense of well-
being. Of the people about her, of her mother's
face, of her own existence, of desire or fear, she
knew nothing. Yet this dim dream was flecked all
through with the beginnings of later comparison and
choice."

To trace the steps of the marvelous transformation
from this animal-like little being to the wide-awake,
fascinating little person of a year later is especially to
trace the development of sensation and perception.
Memory, imagination, and thought also begin here, but
do not develop so rapidly as does perception.

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

It is so difficult to test a baby's sense of smell apart
from taste that. practically no observation of this sense
has been made. Preyer cites some cases
that seem to indicate some sensibility even of snwu^"
at the first, but concludes that smell devel-
ops much less rapidly than any other sense. This is
because it has very little exercise, most of the sur-
roundings of a well-kept child being odorless.

A number of observations have been made on new-
born^ children who have not yet been fed, to see
whether there are 'different instinctive reac-
tions to sour, bitter and sweet tastes, oftas^**^
Dilute solutions of such bitters as quinine
and such sours as acetic acid were used, with varying
results. While some babies made faces and rejected
the substance, others sucked placidly at it. In some
of the latter cases, however, when the solution was
made stronger it was rejected. In all cases sweet
substances were sucked.*

Preyer concludes that while there are considerable
individual differences in sensibility, there is from the
start a dislike for sours and bitters and a liking for
sweets. His own son showed a considerable degree of
discrimination about his milk, objecting vigorously if
it had not quite the usual amount of sugar in it. Most
mothers find that if the baby's milk is changed there
is trouble.

Any new food given to a baby or small child at first
causes contortions and grimaces which we arc likely to
interpret as due to great disgust; but they occur even
with sweet foods which the child eagerly sucks at,

♦The various substances were all of the same warmth, to
exclude the factor of temperature.

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THE CHILD

and seem to be expressions of astonishment rather
than dislike. In many cases an incipient disgust can
be overcome by manifestations of enjoyment from the
child's elders, and thus likings for many hygienic foods
can be formed before the child has a chance to acquire
dislikes, or likings for unhygienic foods.

This ought to be done when a child is first learning
to eat solid foods, for by the time he is four or five
years old he has such decided likes and dislikes that
he can hardly be forced to eat food that he dislikes
without nausea. In such a case, while a child should
not be forced to eat a food for which he has a strong
dislike, we need not go to the other extreme and give
him an unhygienic diet even if he calls for it. To
allow a child to make a meal off meat, cheese and pie,
when he refuses potato, bread, peas, and milk, is the
worst possible thing for him. There are other vege-
tables, grains and fruits that he will eat, and these
should be given him.

Then, too, it not uncommonly happens that a child
takes a dislike to a food from its appearance, without
ever tasting it, and all that is necessary is to exercise
a little diplomacy in getting the first spoonful into his
mouth. Of course sometimes he will not like it, but
even then the alternative is not an unhygienic food,
but another food containing the same chemical
ingredients.

Practically it is a difficult thing to steer one's way
between the over-indulgence of a capricious appetite,
and a wise yielding to insurmountable dislikes, but it
may be confidently asserted that the average American
mother tends to over-indulgence rather than to the
following of too hygienic laws. Little children are

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

given too stimulating and too monotonous a diet as a
rule — too much meat and pastry and too few fruits and
vegetables. This is partly due to the fact that children
usually sit at the same table as their elders and clamor
for the same food. The parents, unwilling to adopt a
simpler diet, or unable to train the children to eat it
contentedly, give them the rich food, which causes
nervousness and dyspepsia. Either of the two possi-
bilities is, however, within the reach of parents who
have the strength of character to adopt it.

We should also note here the fact mentioned by Miss
Shinn that thirst is present from birth and is not satis-
fied entirely by the baby's liquid diet. A baby will
fret sometimes, not for milk, but for water, and a
teaspoonful wijl relieve him more than an extra meal.
Children also crave water more than adults do.

The newborn child is deaf and remains so for a
period varying from half an hour to several days or
even weeks. If loud sounds do not call out
a response by the fourth week, however,
there is reason to fear that the deafness will be perma-
nent. Usually decided starts or tremblings are caused
by a loud sound on the second or third day.

The causes of this first deafness are two: (i) The
middle ear is filled with the amniotic fluid instead of
with air as in the adult; (2) The walls of the auditory
canal either actually adhere or are close together, thus
preventing or impeding the passage of air waves to the
drum of the ear. Afterbirth, the middle ear is cleared
by the fluid running out through the Eustachian tube
to the throat, and air entering by the same channel, as
the child swallows; the walls of the auditory canal
separate, and hearing becomes more distinct.

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THE CHILD

The advantage of having the ear thus cushioned at
first is evident when we consider that the tympanic
membrane is more easily ruptured in children than in
adults, and if it were at first exposed to sounds as it is
later, it would often be broken by the impact of air
waves against it. It is quite possible that children are
more sensitive to sounds than adults because this mem-
brane is more delicate.

The sensitiveness to sounds when once hearing has
been established varies considerably. Compayre
records that about the fourth day such slight sounds
as a sneeze or a whistle caused violent responses. We
should notice, however, that a child's starts or tremors
when a door slams or when a loud voice speaks are
often due to the jar instead of to the noise. This can
easily be tested by making the sounds where none of
the jar from them can reach the baby. Mrs. Hall
observes this great sensitiveness to jars on the first day.

On the seventh day a loud call would not awaken
Preyer's son, but on the third day Miss Shinn*s niece
started when some paper was torn at a distance of
eight feet. By the fifth week, Preyer's boy was so
sensitive that during the day he would not sleep if any-
one was talking or walking in the room. On the other
hand, many babies sleep tranquilly through prolonged
conversations. Habit has much to do with this.

In the eighth week this same boy heard the piano,
and was much pleased with the loud tones, but paid no
attention to the soft ones. The various observations
on sensibility to musical tones we shall consider later
in connection with music.

During teething, the same boy's sensibility to sounds
was increased, and after the first year most new sounds

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

even when very loud, like thunder, caused pleasure
instead of fear.

Mrs. Hall noticed that her child distinguished differ-
ent kinds of sounds before any one sound was recog-
nized. When we consider the adult's inability to
recognize absolute pitch, this is just what we should
expect. Our knowledge and recognition of sounds is
almost entirely a matter of their relations to each
other.

Under the head of dermal senses are included the
various kinds of sensations which arise from the skin.
Here, as in the case of smell, we have no
exact observations as to how much a baby BenseB.
discriminates differences of heat and cold, i- Tempera-
It seems probable that after the first bath,
he feels warmth and cold, and after the first week he ^
shows decided pleasure in a warm bath and Mislike of
one i>^° C. lower.

Taylor warns us that the child of two or three years
has a membrane so much more sensitive than an ,
adult's that it may be blistered by food which to an
adult seems only warm. He evidences the protests ^
of children against food and water which to us seem
only agreeably heated.

Under the head of passive touch we consider only
those pressure sensations in which the skin alone is
involved. When the muscles also are used,
as in exploring a surface or in grasping, we touch^^^^ ^
have active touch. As with all the other
sense organs, the skin of the newborn babe is less
sensitive than it is a few weeks later, because the
nerve terminations are still imperfectly developed.
When respiration begins, the reflexes called out by

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THE CHILD

slapping or pinching are stronger than before, and after
two or three weeks there is a markedly stronger re-
sponse to a slight stimulus than at first.

Preyer found that the lips and tongue of a newborn
child are the most sensitive parts of the body. Tick-
ling the tip of the tongue before the child had ever
been fed caused sucking and swallowing movements,
while tickling the root caused movements of ejection.

Touching the palm of a two hours* old child causes
the fingers to close about the object, and the grasp is so
strong that the babe may hang suspended by his hands
for half a minute — a feat many adults can not dupli-
cate. Touching the soles also causes reflex move-
ments, but they are slower than a week or so later.

In the discussion of this subject, we anticipate what
should come in the chapter on instincts, but it is so
essential to the understanding of perception
touoli*^* that the separation is unavoidable. We
shall take up here the series of movements
which most assist the child in getting a knowledge of
objects as distinct from each other and as holding space
relations to each other.

We have already seen that Preyer found that the lips
and tongue are most sensitive in passive touch, and we
all know that everything goes into a
baby's mouth, there to be sucked and
licked Preyer attributes this to the baby's belief that
all the world is milk, and that to get milk at any time
all fhat is necessary is to put the first handy object
into his mouth and suck it diligently. Miss Shinn
takes issue with Preyer here and maintains that things
go into the mouth on account of the pleasure that
comes from contact with the sensitive lips and tongue,

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

just as an adult gets pleasure from touching smooth^
warm surfaces or from exploring the outlines of an
object with the hand. Both theories are based on
observations of only a few children, but Miss Shinn's
seems more true than Herr Preyer's. We must, of
course, except from consideration the hungry child.
He wants only food. But when he is fed and warm
and happy, he will still mouth eagerly at anything
between his lips, and will continue to do so even though
it is hard and tasteless. He shows no disappointment
when no milk comes frem it, but on the contrary goes
over it again and again with lips and tongue. And his
repeated experiences that milk flows only from the
bottle do not deter him. On the contrary, long after a
baby has shown in other ways that he associates de-
finite experiences with definite objects, he continues
to put things into his mouth. He would not do this if
all that he wanted from them were food.

Miss Shjun also observed in her niece a stage when,
to some extent, she used the mouth for grasping
instead of the hand, putting her head down, like a
dog, to get at the object, and protruding her lips. For
some time, in getting an object into her mouth from
her hand, -she pushed her head down toward her hand
more than she raised her hand to her mouth. For
some time she would mouth over the face and dress of
the person holding her, in preference to using her
hands.

Even children four or five years old put things into
their mouths to suck, although they know that they are
not eatable, and many adults do the same. The habit
of chewing gum, where there is no taste after the first
few minutes, illustrates this.

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8o THE CHILD

In all this, there seem to be traces of the survival of
an ancestral stage when man like other animals, did not
use his hands for grasping, but only his mouth. The
stage is, of course, rudimentary, and is not distinctly
marked off from that of hand grasping, but it does
seem to be present.

For lack of a better name, we call the first move-
ments of a child's hands and arms random. Many of
them are not coordinated and they seem to
nrwinff serve no useful end The child himself has
no control over them. They are due to
overflows of nervous energy, which drain off in this
way.

In the first random movements the arms go help-
lessly here and there, striking against the surrounding
objects, against the baby's own body, his face and his
eyes, and now and then getting into his mouth, Avhere
they are sucked. They are especially likely to get to
his mouth, because in the prenatal posture, the hands
are close to the mouth, and the position is naturally
assumed by a baby for some time after birth. The
great enjoyment obtained from the thumb or fist,
deepens the connections thus accidentally formed
between the hand movement and the sucking move-
ments, so that he soon learns to put his hand to his
mouth when he pleases. By the twelfth week Mrs.
Hall's baby was able to put things into his mouth or
near enough to it so that the lips could feel them and
draw them in. Even in the forty-third week, Preyer's
boy would miss his mouth sometimes when it was open
and waiting for food. In first learning these move-
ments, the left arm often moves symmetrically with
the right.

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION gl

Grasping develops slowly through a number of
stages as follows:

1. Reflex clasping. Tavo hours after birth the fingers

will close over an object put into them, and within a ^
few days a loud sound or bright light may
cause a convulsive throwing up of both ^uwpinR
arms. Mrs. Hall states that at first her
baby seemed unconscious of any object in his hand,
but that on the fift)£»©eventh day the fingers closed
over a small pencil-case. It seems as if her observa-
tion must be defective here, as all other observers
agree that the reflex grasping occurs shortly after
birth.

2. Holding with the thumb opposed to the fingers
when an object chances to be in the way of the moving
hand. Mrs. Hall notes that after the
seventieth day the thumb lay outside the J^g^^."^*
fingers when the hand was closed, while

before -it had been inside. During the first three
months, the thumb becomes opposed to the fingers as in
an adult, so that any objects which come into contact
with the hand are more firmly held. This fact, com-
bined with the ability already gained to put the hands
to the mouth, results in many objects being taken
t6 the mouth, where the variety and pleasure of the
new feelings prompt him to repeat the act.

Thus the thumb and fingers have learned to work
together, though awkwardly, and thus connections
have been established between arm movements and
the pleasures of sucking the hand or the objects held
in the hand. But as yet the eye does not direct the
hand, and therefore the child does not reach for
objects that he sees, and he does not look at objects held

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82 '^HE CHILD

by his hands. These tw6 points and their vast impor-
tance to the child we shall consider shortly, but first
we must trace the development of sight.

Five minutes after birth, when taken to a window
in the twilight, Preyer's son showed some sensitive-
Bight "^^^ *^ ^^^ light. The eyes of a baby will
1. SensitlTe- close if a bright light is brought near
nesBto light, ^y^^j^^ ^j^j ^j.^ partly closed most of the

time at first. Compayre thinks that one reason why
some babies are so wakeful at night is that the darkness
does not fatigue their eyes as daylight does.

This first shrinking soon disappears, however.
Within a few days the baby will turn its head toward
a window or light, and within a few weeks will give
various expressions of pleasure at light. The strabis-
mus or squinting which is so marked in most newborn
babies disappears by the third week, and moderately
bright lights are enjoyed. The great sensitiveness to
light at first is shown also by the fact that a baby's
pupils are more contracted than an adult's.

The importance of shielding a baby's eyes from a
glare of light is thus evident. A little baby should
not lie facing a window or bright light for any length
of time, any more than a child should be allowed to
face them when he reads.

Observation seems to show that babies are generally
shortsighted for a time, and in addition to this, their
inability at first to move their eyeballs or
vMon*^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^"y regularity limits their vision
still more. The lens also does not accom-
modate itself to objects at first, so that any object
outside of the one focal distance must be very indis-
tinct. While a child is not born blind, therefore, his

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION g^

visual world is limited to the fiew feet directly in front
of him, filled with indistinct blurs. By the sixth week
the shortsightedness is less marked and by the eighth,
accommodation of the lenses begins, both greatly
enlarging the child's world.

The first movements of the eyelids are not coordi-
nated either with each other or with the eyeballs.
One eye will be wide open when the other j

is half shut, and both will sometimes close menus of
while the eyes are fixed on some object. ®y«"' The
At first also they seem to be less sensitive
than later, for wetting the eyelids and even the cornea,
which is so sensitive in adults, will not cause the eyelids
to close in some cases until after the third month.
So also at first there is no winking when an object threat-
ens the eyes. The first appearance of winking occurs
sometime between the forty-third and sixtieth days, by
which time the movements of the eyelids are fairly
well coordinated.

Convergence, that is, harmonious movements of the

eyeballs so as to bring the points of clearest vision in

both to focus upon the same object, is in as

r . ^ r ^ 1 • *u • *u- The eyeballs,

imperfect a state at birth as is everything

else. Many children are born cross-eyed and remain

so for months, the defect disappearing as the eyes are

used and accustomed to work together.

In all children different degrees of incoordination

can be observed even from the very first, for while at

some times the eyes are evidently not working

together, at others they appear to be. In the last

case, however, closer watching usually shows that the

movements are not perfectly coordinated. Compayre

traces the development from incoordinate movements

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THE CHILD

to involuntary coordinated, and then to voluntary
coordinated; but while this shows the logical order and
the order in which the relative importance of the
movements progresses, all three are found from the
second week on, if Preyer's observations are correct.
He notes-that on the seventh day his boy's eyes fol-
lowed a candle, and converged, while on the eleventh
day there was unmistakable fixation of the eyes. Mrs.
Hall also notes that from the second week the eyes
began to rest on objects, but places the first unmistak-
able fixation on the twenty-first day. On the fifty-third
day her child gazed at a box of rattling matches ior
six minutes, and on the sixty-second at a purse of
jingling coins for twenty-eight minutes. Even then
he would have continued, though showing great
fatigue.

This prolonged convergence of the eyes is one of
the very important steps in seeing, as until it is ac-
complished there can be no definite marking out of one
object from another. Sully notes that convergence is
well established by the sixth week, and it is followed
almost at once in the eighth week by the accommoda-
tion of the lenses, which makes each object still more
distinct and definite in outline. The first well-defined
seeing of objects probably occurs therefore about the
second month, or between the second and third
months.

Following a movement with the eyes can not occur
until convergence is well established, but we find
that Preyer notes the first following with the first
convergence, on the seventh day. He notes again,
however, on the twenty-third day, that his son followed
a moving candle with his eyes and turned his head to

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

do so. On the thirtieth day Mrs. Hall's child fol-
lowed thie movements of a brush and comb, and on the
thirty-eighth day, that of a gently swinging ball. This
ability remains limited for a long time; thus we find
Prayer's child from the forty-third to the sixty-fourth
weeks just learning to look after an object that falls,
and even when two and one half years old unable to
follow the flight of a bird.

After the baby gets distinct retinal images of objects
through convergence and accommodation, and has
learned to follow a moving object with his booking for
eyes, but one small step is necessary before a bidden
his mental growth proceeds by leaps and ^^^^^^'
bounds; i.e., he must learn to look for an object that
is out of sight. Herein lies the germ of memory and
a clear manifestation of will.

Miss Shinn first observed this at the beginning of the
eighth week, when the baby turned fronf studying her
aunt's face to study her mother's which was entirely
out of sight. Accommodation began at the same
time, and was succeeded b)'^ a period of absorbed
looking at everything that she could by any possibility
twist her head and body to see.

Closely connected with this, from the eighth to
twelfth weeks, is the first recognition of faces.
Naturally, the one who takes the most care of the baby
is noticed first, or, if several persons spend about the
same time with him, the one who most satisfies his
instincts and impulses. Before this, even as early as
the third week, a baby learns to recognize people by
touch, but here we are speaking of sight alone.

With this visual- recognition, the baby has reached
an advanced stage of perception, and we must now

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86 THE CHILD

adopt a different method of describing what goes
on in his mind. So far the development of each sense
Seniation ^^^ been considered separately, as if when
and the baby saw, he did not also touch or hear

perception ^^ taste, while actually the different senses
cooperate almost from the beginning, although imper-
fectly. Connections are established with particu^ar
rapidity between certain sensations and certain reac-
tions. Within two or three weeks after birth, for
instance, the sight or smell of th^milk will call out a
definite response from the baby

Such a sensation has bound up with it certain other
possible experiences that make it more than a mere
sight or sound. The sight of the milk now means also
to' the baby a certain taste and satisfaction. Later on,
the sight of his mother's face means being held and
petted; the sight of his bath means splashing, and so
on through all his various experiences. He is binding
together thus the numerous different experiences that
he gets from each sense and from different senses, and
the result is that each sensation comes to stand for a
great many more possible sensations that he can get if
he chooses to exert himself to do so. When a sensation
has thus acquired meaning, it has become a perception.

The first sensations that are associated are probably
those of the taste and the touch of milk. These very
soon become associated with the sight of the
SUlSh*^*^ bottle, the connections being established
even as early as the third week. A child
will then push toward the bottle and a little later will
cease fretting as soon as preparations for feeding him
are begun.

It is probably the case that various touch sensations

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

are very early combined into one whole, as a baby dis-
tinguishes persons by the way they handle him long
before he knows faces. But we have no Touohand
careful observations on this point. touch.

Sully's Extracts record that in the sixth week the
baby for the first time turned his head toward a sound
to see what made it. Preyer did not see
this until the eleventh week, but then it ,^4"*
became very common and by the sixteenth
week was done so quickly that it seemed reflex. This
connection never becomes close. Adults are rarely
able to locate sounds very accurately.

We have already noted that between the eighth and
twelfth weeks a baby first recognizes faces by sight and
begins to seek for objects that are out of
sight. He has now an immense amount of ^[m "^*
work before him in the way of connecting
the various appearances of objects with each other and
of tracing similarities between objects, and he proceeds
to this work with infinite zest. If we will but consider
a moment, we can see how complex a task this really
is. The slightest change of position changes greatly
the appearance of any object. A table is not at all
the same thing to the baby on the floor that it is when
he is in some one's arms, and both are different from
the table that he sits up to in his chair. We grown
people have learned to allow for these differences; but
to the baby mind the visual world must present a series
of metamorphoses far more startling than any that
the fairy godmother is ever supposed to make. It is,
then, small wonder that he believes in fairy tales two or
three years later if the wonder created in his little mind
by these first miracles leaves any lasting impression.

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88 THE CHILD

Miss Shinn gives such an excellent description of
what takes place in establishing these connections
between the various appearances of an object that we
will take it as typical: "Later the same day (when six
months old) she sat in my lap watching with an intent
and puzzled face the back and side of her grand-
mother's head. Grandma turned and chirruped to her
and the little one's jaw dropped and her eyebrows
went up in an expression of blank surprise. Presently
I began to swing her on my foot, and at every pause
in the swinging she would sit gazing at the puzzling
head till grandma turned or nodded and chirruped;
then she would turn away satisfied and want more
swinging. ... At first, amazed to see the coil of silver
hair and the curve of cheek turn into grandma's front
face, the baby watched for the repetition of the mira-
cle till it came to seem natural, and the two aspects
were firmly knit together in her mind." Preyer tells
also of how Axel in his seventh month gasped with
astonishment when a fan was opened and shut before
him. If we can imagine our own feelings if a table
should suddenly begin to disappear and reappear, we
can faintly understand his surprise.

When we consider that this same process of connect-
ing the various aspects of objects has to be gone
through with each object, we have a vastly increased
respect for the working powers of the baby's brain!

Recognition of visual form grows rapidly, and by the
seventh or eighth month we find some babies identi-
fying pictures, or recognizing the real object from its
representation, as with Mrs. Hall's child, who recog-
nized a real dog from its likeness to a toy one that
stood on the mantelpiece.

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION g^

In all this the baby is getting his world of things
seen well separated from each other and reunited into
distinct wholes, but this process is much facilitated
when he begins to connect sight and touch.

At first the two series seem to run side by side inde-
pendently. The baby's hands grope and fumble with
objects and learn to carry them to his
mouth, but his eyes do not follow his touch *^*^
hands. The connection between the two
is established mechanically at first. The eye chances
to catch sight of the hand that is fumbling some object
and follows its movements as it does those of any
moving thing. Sometimes the empty hand catches
the eye and is carefully studied. Thus by degrees the
eye forms the habit of watching the hand as it seizes,
and later of directing it.

The time when active touch and seeing are thus first
united is given very differently. Sully puts it as early
as the ninth week; Mrs. Hall, the fourteenth; Preyer,
the seventeenth; and Miss Shinn, the twenty-first.
It seems doubtful whether it could occur as early as
the ninth week, for then convergence and accommoda-
tion have only just been established, and the distinct
seeing of objects would be too new a thing for the eye
to control the hand with any success. More observa-
tions are needed on this point.

When the connection is once established, however,
a baby is indefatigable in his efforts to reach and han-
dle everything about him. Here we stumble upon the
question whether a baby reaches for objects more than
a few inches beyond his grasp, or whether he has an
inherited distance sense, an instinct for distance.
Baldwin, in a series of experiments on his child,

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THE CHILD

found that she never grasped at objects more than a
foot beyond her reach, and soon learned to correct
this error. He argues, therefore, for a rudimentary
instinct. Preyer brings forward on the other hand,
numerous illustrations of Axel's grasping for objects
across the room; and finally cites this incident, which
occurred in the ninety-sixth week. Axel was in the
garden'and his father in a second-story window. Axel
held up a piece of paper, asking his father to take it,
and held it up to him for some time, thinking that he
could reach his father's hand.

The various observers record numberless attempts
and failures to grasp, but whether the failure is due to
wrong judgment of the distance or simply to lack of
control of the hand is not evident from the accounts.
As between Baldwin and Preyer, it is impossible to
form an opinion until we have more extended data.
Observations on one child are not sufficient material
for a theory, especially when there is so much dispute
as in this case.

The ability to direct the hand by the eye- increases
very rapidly when once begun, until the child of a
year has fair control of the larger movements; but
how much he lacks in detail is shown by his difficulty
in doing many common things He has to learn to
carry a spoon straight to his mouth, to dress himself,
to button or lace his shoes, to throw a ball — in short,
to do all the acts that with us are so habitual that we
are almost unconscious of them.

In these numberless ways he is getting more and
more definite ideas of the qualities of objects, and of
their relations to each other in space — that is, ideas of
distance. He now has but to continue repeating in
detail what he has already gone over in large.

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S£HSATION AND P£ftCBPTIOK

We shall see in the chapter on Growth in Control of
the Body that from the sixth to the sixteenth year
the child increases steadily, on the whole, in his power
to manage his hands; here we see that mutually this
is accompanied by constantly increasing
knowledge of the qualities of the world om/^SsM.
about him and of his relations to it. We
have as yet no account of the progress made from one
to six years of age in the knowledge of things, but we
know how insatiate the little child is in his desire to
touch, taste, and handle everything about him. He is
getting the knowledge upon which all that follows
depends. His senses are literally the only avenues
through which his mind can be awakened; they furnish
all the material with which memory, thought and ima-
gination will ever have to work. If they are left
unsatisfied, the whole mind is starved.

We need, therefore, from the time when the senses
become more active, that is, from about the second
month, to provide plenty of material for each sense, not
forcing it upon the child, but putting it where the roving
eye and wandering hand can catch it and be satisfied.

Bright, pure colors, and harmonious combinations of
them, beautiful forms and sweet sounds, should be
provided. For the hand, all sorts of objects, hard and
soft, smooth and rough, accompanied by all the other
touch qualities, should be supplied, and they should
be of such a nature that they can go into the mouth
without injury. A child must have objects to handle,
even though we do object to having our nice things
spoiled by hot little hands and wet mouths. If a child
can not handle things, his knowledge of them is
always imperfect, and so he must be provided with
things that he can work over to his heart's content

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THE CHILD

How seriously children who have had little food for
their senses are hampered on entering school is shown
by Dr. Hall's tests. A list was made of the words
most common in primers and first readers;
and two hundred Boston children who were
just beginning first grade work, and six
hundred and seventy-eight Kansas City children who
had had seven months of school, were questioned to
see what they knew about these things. The results
are shown in the following abbreviated table.

Bearings on
school work.

Object

Bee hive

Crow

Bluebird

Ant

Squirrel

Snail

Robin

Sparrow

Sheep

Bee

Frog

Pig

Chicken

Worm

Butterfly

Hen

Cow

Growing wheat

Growing potatoes

Growing dandelions

Growing apples •. . .

Clouds

Stars

Moon

Knew what woods were
Knew what river was . .
Knew what hill was . . . .

Hoe

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SENSATION AND PERCEPTION gi

The original list is much larger, but the ignorance
of such common things as those mentioned here is a
serious handicap to the child who finds them men-
tioned continually in his school work. Of course
country children would appear to better advantage
with this list of words than city children do. The
point, however, remains the same, that it is useless to
try to teach a child about things until he knows the
things themselves. This experience it is especially the
part of the home and the kindergarten to supply, for
they can deal with the child just when he is eager to
exercise his senses.

' REFERENCES

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD

This list includes such books bearing on the child's psychical
processes as discuss a number of subjects. They can be bought
to good advantage to supplement the text-book. In many cases
public libraries contain only a few of the articles referred to
in the various bibliographies, but are willing to buy a limited
number of books, and individual members of the class can do the
same.

Baldwin, J. Mark. Mental Development: Social and Ethical
Interpretations. N. Y. Macmillan, $2.60. (A discussion
of the effect of society upon the development of each person.
It shows how each person makes a part of himself what he
sees in others. )
Chamberlain, A. F. Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought,
N. Y. Macmillan, $3.00. (The most complete and scien-
tific r6sum6 of theories upon child-nature and its parallel-
isms with savage nature.)
Compayre. G. Intellectual and Moral Development of the
Child, N. Y. Appleton, $1.50.
Development of the Child in Later Infancy. N. Y. Apple-
ton, $1.20.
Dewey, John. The School and Society. 125 pp. (A discussion of
the relations which should exist between the school and the

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THE CHILD

Other social organizations. The way in which this theory
was worked out in a school is given in some detail in the
Elementary School Record. Published by the University
of Chicago Press.) Both are excellent

Groos, Karl. The Play of Man. N. Y. Appleton, $1.50. (A
discussion of all forms of activity that can be classed under
play. The best discussion on the subject.)

Peree, B. The First Three Years of Childhood, Syracuse.
Bardeen, I1.50.

Richmond, Ennis. The Mind of a Child. N.Y. Longmans. Ii.oo.

Sully, James. Studies of Childhood. N. Y. Appleton, %'i:^'
(An excellent presentation of the results of Child-Study. It
takes up: The Age of Imagination, Dawn of Reason,
Products of Child Thought, The Little Linguist, Subject to
Fear, The Raw Material of Morality, Under Law, The
Child as Artist, The Young Draughtsman, Extracts from a
Father's Diary, George Sand's Childhood.)

Taylor, A. R. Study of the Child. N. Y. Appleton, J^i.25.

Tracy, F. Psychology of Childhood. Boston. Heath. I0.90.
(An excellent short discussion.)

STUDIES OF INDIVIDUAL CHILDREN

Hall, Mrs. Winfield S. The First Five Hundred Days of a
Child's Life. C S. M., Vol. H, 1897. (An accurate, brief
record. Good to use as a guide for a similar study.)

Hogan, Mrs. Louise. A Study of a Child. N.Y. Harpers, I2.50.

Moore, Mrs. Kathleen Carter. Mental Development of a Child.
Psy. Rev. Monograph Sup. No. 3. (An excellent study,
but rather technical for general reading.)

Preyer, Wilhelm. Development of the Intellect. N. Y. Apple-
ton, 1 1. 50.
The Senses and the Will. N.Y. Appleton, |o. 50.
The Infant Mind. N. Y. Appleton, $1.00.
(The first two books give by far the most detailed study of one
child that has yet been made, and have been the foundation
for all work that has been done since they were published
The appendices to The Senses and the Pf^/// contain summa-
ries of much work done previous to Preyer's. The Infant
Mind is an abbreviation of the two others.)

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SENSATION AND PBftCBPTION ^c

Shinn, Milicent W. The Biography of a Baby, Boston. Hough-
ton, Mifflin. $1.50. (A study of the first year of a child's
life. The story is delightfully told and the records are
carefully made. The book is one that will certainly inspire
any one who cares to go to studying children at once.)

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

Baldwin, J. Mark. Methods and Processes. N. Y. Macmillan,

$1.75.
Compayr^, G. Intellectual and Moral Development, pp.

96-164. N. Y. Appleton, I1.50.
Hall, G. Stanley. Contents of Children's Minds on Entering

School. N. Y. Kellogg, I0.25.
Halleck, Reuben Post. Education of the Central Nervous

System. Chap. VIII. N. Y. Macmillan, $1.00.
McMillan, Margaret. Early Childhood, pp. 9-27. Syracuse.

Bardeen, $1.50.
Preyer, W. Senses and Will. Chapters on the Special Senses

and section on Seizing. N. Y. Appleton, $1. 50.
Shinn, M. W. Biography of a Baby. Chapters VI and VII

especially. Boston. Houghton, Mifflin, I1.50.
Sully, James. Studies of Childhood. Appendix containing

Extracts from a Father's Diary. N. Y. Appleton, I2.50.
Taylor, A. R. Study of the Child, pp. i-6o. N. Y. Appleton,

$£ 25

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CHAPTER VI

Memory

1. In getting data from adults, have them write out
their earliest remembrances. In doing so they should
Observa- state (i) the age as nearly as possible at the
tions. time of the event, and (2) how they know
that it is not a false memory, that is, derived from
others' accounts of the event.

2. To test visual images, have various people (i)
match a color from memory; (2) write out how some
familiar object looks, putting in all the remembered de-
tails. Similar tests can be used for all kinds of images;
see the account of Kirkpatrick's work in this chapter.

3. Keep a record of one child from year to year, to
see what changes occur in his memories of different
school subjects; or, test the pupils in any given room
to see what subject of the previous school year they
remember best. In doing this, you must consider the
teacher and the subject that she likes best, as well as
the pupiTs interests at this age.

4. Make a collection of number or calendar forms,
or of cases of colored words.

When a baby sees or hears or has any other sensa-
tion, however vague it is, there is still some modifica-
tion of his brain, some chemical change in
senTation!^*^ the structure of his nerve cells, and this
change remains when the sensation has
passed away. When two senses are appealed to at
once or in close succession, as in seeing the breast

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MEMORY 07

'" -^^ 97

and nursing, two or more brain centers are affected,
and for some unknown reason fibers of connection are
likely to form between them. When this has hap-
pened a number of times so that the fibers are well
established, the baby begins to show signs of recog-
nition." This happened as early as the twenty-second
day with Preyer's boy.

We also find memory showing itself faintly in another
way when the baby tuj;ns to look for some object that
has just moved out of sight. Here there has hardly
been time for the retinal activity that was roused by
the object itself to 'die out; the memory has persisted
only a short time after the sensation, but still there is
the beginning of memory.

These first traces left by sensations upon the brain
are sometimes called organic memories. They are not
mental pictures of past events, but they
make it possible for a baby to do with ^i^emorieii
greater ease the acts which at first were
very imperfect. For example, the first step in moving
the eyes simultaneously is thus made possible.

Organic memory is what makes the earliest percep-
tions possible. We have seen already that perception
differs from pure sensation, since in it the perception
sensation has become bound up with other and organic
sensations, or rather with the traces of ^^^^^y-
other sensations. The binding is done by organic
memory. The nerve centers receive a stimulus dif-
ferently when they have already been modified by
previous stimuli. They now contain within themselves
the changes caused by previous seeing or hearing, and
so are better prepared to receive again the same sight
or sound or one like it. It is very much like getting

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THE CHILD

acquainted with a person. The first time we meet him,
we are rather formal, and the interchange of thought
is not very free; the second time it is freer, and so on.
So the brain cell does not respond readily at first, but
later is more easily aroused.

The same thing occurs in forming a habit, except that
the process is more complicated. Usually we limit the
Organic term "habit" to series of movements^ but

memory and we also hear the term "habits of thoughty'
habit. ^j^j ^^ seem to form habits of thought much

as we do habits of action. Perception — seeing objects
as solids and as distant, as having characteristic tastes
and touches and sounds — is simply the most inveterate
mental habit formed, and is much the same for all
people. Other associations, such as connecting a cer-
tain dress or- place with a ' certain person, are also
mental habits, but they vary greatly with different per-
sons, and they usually call into play memory images
as well as organic memories.

" In the case of habitual movements, we saw that a
baby soon learns to put his hands to his mouth; he gets
a connection established between the feeling of his
arms when they move in a certain way and the pleasure
from sucking his thumb.* This means, on the physio-
logical side, that fibers of connection between certain
sets of brain cells have come into contact, so that now
an activity in one set is likely to rouse activity in
another set. Any movements that occur simultane
ously or in quick succession, if they are repeated often
enough, and are pleasurable or aid in reaching some
end, will thus become connected and form an habitual
series. Then any movement in the series will call out
the next, this the next, and so on.

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MEMORY

Such a habit is ah organic memory in the baby. He
has few or no distinct images, but certain connections
have been formed between certain nervous centers.
The same is true of the adult, in such cases as learning
to ride a wheel. It would be impossible for us to
descriie the various positions that we must assume in
order to keep our balance, and yet our nerve cells have
learned their lesson so well that we rarely get a tumble.
The education of the spinal cord and brain centers to
perform long series of movements accurately goes on
apace by means of organic memory, that is, by means
of the changes made in the nerve cells and their con-
nections, which persist and modify their future action.
All this, it must be understood, takes place at least
below the level of clear consciousness, and often below
the level of consciousness itself, unless we call reflex
action conscious.

Habits, then, may be formed in the baby or small
child simply by regularity in the conditions about him
— regularity in his meals, in the kinds of food given
him, in his hours of sleep and waking, in everything
in his daily life. The rapid growth of his nerve cells
makes education and the acquirement of habits espe-
cially easy.

With the older child and the adult habits are also
formed voluntarily as well as involuntarily. We
decide that we want to learn carpentry or embroidery,
or that we will learn to tell the truth or to acquire
some other virtue. Here we must in the first place
keep the end that we wish to attain so clearly before
us that old associations can not besiege us or forgetful-
ness overtake us. A desire to reach some end is so
essential that it is of little use to force a child to

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lOO THE CHILD

do daily a thing that he dislikes. The pain which he
constantly connects with the act or the study is so
much stronger than the other connections that are
established that even after years of discipline the
habit falls off within a month or two when external
pressure is removed. We all know that a teacher who
wakes herself at six o'clock for nine months of the year
will sleep until eight through the summer vacation,
after only two or three mornings of wakefulness. So
a child forced to go through certain mental or bodily
movements for which he feels only dislike drops them
as soon as restraint is taken away.

There is one possible exception here when a child
has a prejudice toward a study or act, but finds it
pleasurable when he actually begins it. In such a
case a habit maybe formed, but not unless the original
dislike yields to a later pleasure or to a recognition of
the value of the habit. When a habit has been formed,
the first clear attention which was necessary for its
performance is no longer required. The nerve centers
have learned their lesson.

Just because a habit of thought or action frees the
mind for higher things, it is important that a childt>
« Importance should at an early age acquire the largest
of good possible number of good habits which he

habits. ^jjj ^^^ need to unlearn later. It is un-

pardonable for parents so to neglect a. child that
when he is twelve or fourteen years old he has to
spend his time in learning regular habits of eating,
habits of cleanliness — all those habits which relieve
him from constant thought of his bodily wants and
make social intercourse easy. The boy of this age
has before him the more important task of forming

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MEMORY lOI

habits of moral thought and action. He is shaping his
ideal of character, and he ought not to have to strug-
gle constantly over these little things which a small
child learns so easily.

It is one of the important tasks of parents therefore
to see to it that the little child grows insensibly into
good habits of taking care of his body, and into
the social habit of considering others equally with
himself.

From another standpoint we can see how deep the
traces of our early experiences go when we consider
our earliest recollections. It has always been of
much interest to men to ascertain how far back their
memories go, and it is also of interest to Bariiest
teachers and parents to know whether the recoiieo-
experiences of infancy and early childhood *!<>"•
will be remembered by the adult.

Sometimes we find a person who claims to remember
an event occurring in the first year of life, but few of
us can go back of the fourth year. Even then we are
likely to confuse true memory with descriptions that
have been given to us. Do events previous to the
fourth year, then, have no effect upon later life?
On the contrary, in those important years many i
things have been acquired — notably walking and talking '
—which through constant practice are never forgotten,
and it seems probable that these early experiences
leave traces upon the growing mind and brain that,
determine to a large extent the emotional tempera-
ment of the child — the likes and dislikes, which either
direct him well or must be fought and conquered with
much effort later on. There is not much collected
evidence here, but what there is is suggestive. It

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I02 THE CHILD

is well known that if a little child receives a severe
fright, fear is likely to persist far into adult life,
although the person forgets the occasion that gave rise
I to the fear. The image is lost, but the organic and
emotional effects persist. Dr. G. Stanley Hall tells us
that upon visiting the farm where he lived until one
and one-half years old, the feeling of familiarity was
strong, and at special places a decided emotional tone
arose, without any knowledge of what experience was
connected with that place. We have other records
of adults going to places connected with babyhood or
early childhood of which they had never been told and
having this same emotional tone and feeling of familiar-
ity. Most interesting is the following anecdote told of
Helen Keller. She became deaf and blind when about
one and one-half years old. Before that time her father
used to sing to her, especially two plantation songs of
which she was very fond. One day, when she was a
girl of eighteen and had been taught to speak, and
was at the piano "feeling the music," those songs were
played to her. At first she was bewildered, and
painfully excited; then she repeated some of the
words of one of the songs. There were evidently con-
nections between the touch center and the auditory
and word centers, such that these dispositions, left
from the first year and a half of life, could be revived.
There are other cases also of disease bringing back
memories of very early childhood.

Now if this is generally true, the first four years of
life are as important educationally as any that succeed,
or rather, they are more important. Nothing can be
so important as to start a child out in life with good
health and with a healthy equipment of emotions

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MEMORY

103

and habitual actions. That these can not be supplied
by talk, is evident. Example is the only teacher.
Everything that is given to the child should be of such -
a character that the feelings and actions aroused by it
can be the basis for the finer emotions and actions that
come later. He should live in an atmosphere of trust
and confidence, where there is no fretting and worry,
much less dislike and hate. The music and stories
that are given him should cultivate the positive,
serene, fearless, high-minded attitudes. I have seen
some little children whose confidence and joy were
such as to make one believe almost anything possible
in this direction. We must be sure that our children's
restlessness and whining are not simply the reflection
of our own worry and cowardice before we can assert
the powerlessness of early surroundings to shape the
very little child.

So far memory has been considered principally
as a matter of the changes in nerve centers, but in its
narrower meaning memory includes rather Development
the mental side — the revival in conscious^ ofmemory
ness of some previous experience. How ^*fif*"-
this conscious revival of an experience develops is
what we wish to trace now. Preyer's observations on
this point may be given in full here, as most other
observers agree substantially with him. The first
memory image is one of taste, followed by smell,
touch, sight, and hearing, in the order given. On the
twenty-second day, his boy associated the breast with
nursing, as was shown by his movements. During the
second and third months,"the presence of strange faces
excited wonder, but the absence of familiar ones was
not noticed. The memory iox faces was the first visual

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I04

THE CHILD

memory. In the twenty-fourth week, the baby saw
his father's image in the mirror and at once turned
to look at his father, evidently recognizing the image.
In the twenty-sixth week, he repeated this, and com-
pared the face with the image, turning from one to the
other several times, but he had as yet little distinct
memory. In the seventh month, he did not recognize
his nurse after an absence of four weeks. Not until
the forty-third week did he miss his parents when they
were absent, or miss a favorite toy when it was gone.
Another observer says that one little girl of ten
months recognized her father after four days' absence.
Perez also quotes the case of a child seven or eight
months old who very much wanted a piece of bread
that looked like some favorite cake. When he tasted
it, he threw it away angrily, showing that he had an
image of the taste of the cake, with which the reality
did not agree.

In the fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth weeks, in look-
ing at the image in the mirror and at a picture of him-
self, PreyeY's boy apparently recognized both and
passed his hands to the back of each, much puzzled by
the differences he saw. Evidently the memory was
becoming more distinct and detailed. In the sixtieth
week, he recognized his mother's image as different
from the reality.

In the sixty-first week, he burned his finger in the
candle, after which he never put it in again, though he
would jokingly make movements in that direction.
The memory image of the pain was well developed,
though memories as a rule were not stable! In the
twenty-third month, he recognized the playthings from
which he had been parted nearly three months, which

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MEMORY

105

proves him well started toward the development of
imagination.

In these first experiences the baby's memory is a
very vague one. As James says, his world is a "big,
blooming, buzzing confusion," whose parts preelncof
have to be made distinct from each other memory
and shaped into distinct, unified objects. !»•«••.
One certain experience, like being fed, is repeated
under many conditions — now in light, and now in dark-
ness, now in one room and now in another. The two
constant things, that his mother is always there and
that his hunger is always satisfied, by their constant
repetition and great satisfaction become impressed
upon him, so that he soon recognizes his mother.
Take also his recognition of his mother's face. At
first certainly it is to him only a light patch against a
darker background, moving from one place to another.
But as he sees more distinctly and is able to follow it
with his eyes, he learns that all the different appear-
ances^ side and front and back views, belong to his
mother's face, and the constant repetition of that face
with its accompaniment of increased comfort soon
teaches him to recognize it apart from any one place
or time. In brief, the memory image becomes freed
from memories of any particular time and place by
having the. one constant experience — the mother's
face — in many times and places. This is the usual
experience.

When psychologists use the term "image," they
mean any revival of a former experience in a form
distinct enough for us to look at it me;ntally and
describe it. The revival of the sound of a piano, of
the color of a sunset, of the taste and smell of coffee.

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I06 THE CHILD

of the "feer* of velvet, and of the exertion of run-
ning or stretching, are all equally images. If we
place in these some definite time when we
^ageZ experienced them, we say the image is a
memory image; while if we combine them
in new forms, we approach imagination. Memory
images, that is, reproduce our past life in much the
same form as we lived it; imagination makes new com-
binations.

Images are evidently derived in the first place, there-
fore, from our sense life; that is, we get our materials
of knowledge through the special sense organs — the
eye, ear, skin, nose, tongue and the movements of the
muscles. The feelings aroused in this way directly
by objects, we call sensations or perceptions of sight,
sound, touch, smell, taste and movement; and when,
in the absence of the object, the sensation or percep-
tion is revived or remembered, we have images of
sight, sound, etc., or, to use the Latin terms, visual,
auditory, tactile, olfactory gustatory and motor
images.

If you recall your childhood's ho^e, you will prob-
ably get good examples of most of these. You can
see in your mind's eye the old house, its various
rooms and the people in them (visual) ; you can hear
your mother's voice (auditory); you can taste some
especial food that she excelled in cooking (gustatory);
you can probably smell some characteristic flavor or
garden product or perhaps some medicine that you
had to take (olfactory) ; you can feel your mother's
kiss or, perhaps, some whipping or spanking you
received; and you will probably find that almost all
your memories of the place are bound up with your

Digitized by VjOOQIC

MEMORY 107

feelings of movement about it — climbing trees and
hay-mow, and so on.

In each person some of these classes of images are
much more distinct than others. Usually the visual
images are clearest, and are bound up with
comparatively indistinct motor images. mon\iiw8
The auditory come next, and the others
are still less prominent. About one person in six
has more distinct motor images than visual; and,
rarely, we find a person whose touch or smell images
are the clearest.

When from birth or by accident a child is deprived,
of any sense organ, the corresponding images grow
dim, and usually disappear if the accident
happened before the age of four years. A oases**^

blind person, for instance, blind from three
years on, has no images of color or form except
what he gets from touch. A deaf person has no sound
images. Only with the greatest difficulty can we
imagine what the mental life of a Helen Keller must
be like. In her Autobiography, in all her descrip-
tions, the terms are those of touch, movement and
smell, with one or two visual terms almost certainly
obtained from her teacher. Can you imagine the
enjoyment of music from the jolting of the vibrations
of the instrument? Or how it would seem to have your
appreciation of flowers determined solely by their
perfume and texture? The vast world of pictures and
natural scenery is non-existent for her. Of course
there is some compensation, for the senses that are
left become much more acute, and the images corre-
spondingly so, but still it is difficult for us to imagine
how we should feel under such conditions.

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I08 THE CHILD

And yet the same differences, although to less

degree, exist between ourselves and other persons and

ourselves and the children we teach. You,

eduoa^ion? ^^^ "^ ^^y* ^^^ especially a visualist. If
you can read a good description in visual
terms, or see a diagram or drawing, you can understand
a thing perfectly. But this child is a motile. The
visual terms call up only shadowy, indistinct images to
him, and your diagram is actually confusing. He
never would think of representing the facts in that way,
and he feels more and more like a stranger in a strange
land as he reads on in the book. The audile has much
the same experience. Yet neither is a stupid child;
each only needs a little help to translate the lesson
into his own images. When you remember how much
of our school work is predominantly visual, you can
see in what hard straits these two classes of children
are put. We even invent methods whose whole ten-
dency is to throw all the stress of learning upon the
visual image.

If we consider for a moment, we can see how artifi-
cial any such method is. In his daily experience a
child never uses one sense alone. A boy with a new
marble looks at it, rings it, and tries it in shooting
before He feels really acquainted with it. He gets all
kinds of impressions from it that he can, and many of
them are simultaneous. It is true that some one or
two feelings emerge from the others and stand as sym-
bols for the rest, but the presence of the others gives a
background and richness of meaning whose impor-
tance we do not sufficiently estimate. Take our own
experiences — we never can go to an exhibition without
being greeted on all sides by requests not to touch

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MfeM6RV

109

anything, and how defrauded we all feel by such an
order is evident from the disregard of it.

We say that only a man of the same craft can fully
appreciate a certain piece of work, because he can enter
into its difficulties and delights — that is, he alone has
all the sorts of images that constitute the memory of
its making. A woman who has never done embroidery
grumbles at the price she has to pay for it; the one
who has done it may not like the price either, but she
says the work is worth it — she has the other images
that put into the visual image a deeper meaning than
the first woman can get.

So with the children, let us give them as great a
variety of images as possible, while still appealing to
the form most clear to each. Present a subject in such
various ways that at least one way shall appeal to the
visualist, the audile and the motile, and then bind
the proper motor expression with it strongly and
indissolubly by giving opportunities for expression in
some form of handwork. The importance of expression
has already been emphasized in various places; here
again it comes up as the final test of the clearness of
the image and also as the clarifier of the image.

In 1885 the experiments of Ebbinghaus on memory
were published, in which were stated in an exact and
general form facts which before were only
vaguely recognized. As later experiment o?memory
has confirmed these for children as well
as for adults, an account of them is in order here.

Ebbinghaus took 2,300 meaningless syllables and
shook them together, then, drawing them out haphaz-
ard, he made lists of them, varying in length from six
to sixteen syllables. These lists were then repeated

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I lO THE CHILD

to the subject in a monotonous voice, at regular inter-
vals, until he could reproduce the list correctly. A
very large number of experiments was made thus, and
elaborate precautions were taken to eliminate the
effects of fatigue, of association, of health, etc. As
the outcome, Ebbinghaus was able to formulate certain
laws thus:

1. A long list requires more than a proportionate
number of repetitions 'before it is memorized, e,g,y
a list of seven syllables required but one repetition;
one of twelve, seventeen repetitions; one of sixteen,
thirty repetitions.

2. Poetry, into which enter associations of sense
and rhythm, requires but one-tenth as many repetitions
as the nonsense syllables.

3. There is an unconscious or what we havfe called
an organic memory, for even when a list previously
learned is so forgotten that it is not recognized, it
requires but two-thirds of the original number of repe-
titions to relearn it.

4. Forgetting proceeds thus:

After I hour, more than one-half the original work
must be done in relearning the list.

After 8 hours, two-thirds of the original work.

After 24 hours, about two-thirds of the original
work.

After 6 days, three-fourths of the original work.

After I month, four-fifths of the original work.

That is, forgetting occurs much more rapidly dur-
ing the first eight hours than afterward, and after one
week occurs so slowly that it is hardly perceptible
except over a long lapse of time. This shows the great
value to the teacher of reviewing each day the previous

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MfiMOkV

11!

day*s lesson, in order to find out how much her pupils
are likely to retain permanently.

5. When once learned, a long series is retained better
than a short one.

6. When many repetitions are necessary, distribution
of them over a longer period of time lessens the
number. For instance, a series of twelve syllables
required thirty-eight repetitions when distributed over
four days; but sixty-four when the repetitions were
consecutive.

7. Associations are formed between all the members
of a series, so that even if the order is changed, the
series is more easily learned than at first. The strength
of the association is less when moving backward than
forward; and less for members of the series farther off
than for the nearer ones.

Mr. Jacobs and Mrs. Bryant took up one of the
details of Ebbinghaus's work and experimented with
school children to ascertain how long a series could be
learned with one repetition; how the span of memory
{i.Cy the length of series thus learned) varied with age,
and what relation it bore to the pupil's rank in school.
They used digits, omitting 7, and letters, omitting w,
as more uniform in sound than nonsense syllables.
They give the following table for the span of girls.

Age

No. girls

8
8

6.6
6

9
13

6.7

6.8
6.6

7.2
4.6

12
41

7.4
6.5

13
42

7.3
6.7

14
42

7.3
6.7

15
72

7.7
7.4

16
66

8
7.9

17
50

8
7.3

18
30

8.6
8.2

19
14

No. nos.
No. let'rs

8.6
8.9

This shows that the span increases with age. They
found also that the children with the largest spans
were usually those whom the teachers classed as their

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112 THE CHILD

best Students, although there were some exceptions.
Bolton also found that the highest span is a measure
of the power of attention; but he puts the limit of the
memory span for numbers as six for public school
pupils. The span for girls is also higher than for boys.
All observers find that the girls* memory is better than
the boys'.

Finally, Kirkpatrick experimented upon pupils from
the primary grade through college to find what kind of
memory images were best held. To do this, he first
made three lists, two of ten words each, and one of
common objects^ avoiding associations as much as possi-
ble. One list was read to the pupils; the words of the
second were shown one by one upon the board; and the
objects named in the third list were shown. The pupils
were then asked to write out as many words in each list
as possible. It was found that 6.85 words out of the
ten in the list heard were recalled; 6.92 of the ten in the
list seen; and 8.28 of \,\i^ objects seen; that is, the audi-
tory memory was poorest; the visual memory of the
word next, and the memory of the object itself the
b^st.

The memory of the college students was but two
words better than that of the primary children.

They were then given three more lists of words.
The first consisted of names of sounds, and the pupils
were asked to think of thesound; the second, of names
of colors, or lights and shades, and thdy were asked to
think of them; the third, of names of objects, and they
were asked to recall the object. They were then asked
to write out the lists. The results show that 6.98
names out of the ten in the first list were recalled; 7.91
of the ten in the second; and 7.48 of the ten in the

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M£MORV

113

third. That is, the visual images of colors, or lights
and shades were slightly better than the auditory
images of sounds, or the memories of objects.

After three days, they were asked to write out what
they could recall of the first three lists, with the start-
ling result that .9i»of list two, and 6.29 of list three
were recalled. That is, while the visuaf memory-
average of the words had declined to less than one
word, from the original 6.92, the memory-average of
the object itself was lessened only by two from that
imrnediately after the experience. There could hardly
be a stronger illustration of the superiority of things
to words in early education, and of the activity of the
senses and its effects upon memory.

Kirkpatrick's experiments can hardly be considered
tests of the pure auditory and visual word images, for
any word has numberless associations with it that
modify our image and memory of it. The experiments
where numbers or letters or nonsense syllables were
used to exclude associations, show that with younger
children pure auditory memories are stronger than
pure visual; while with adults the reverse is the case.

As the child grows, characteristic interests arise

and control his memories. The best memory for boys

— 42 per cent — is in the first year of high

school; for girls, the maximum of 47 per Bffectofage

. , ^ . , . , , , , ^^ ^ and interest

cent IS also m nigh school; the poorest on memory.

memories for both boys and girls, 17 and 18

per cent, are in the third grade. Negroes and white

children seem to be. nearl}' equal as to mere memory.

Taking into consideration interest as well as age, it
has been found* that during the period from one to

♦Colegrove.

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114

THE CHILD

five, visual, auditory and motor memories are very
prominent. From the fifth to the ninth year, the motor
memories of girls increase markedly but decrease from
ten on ; in boys, they increase slowly from five on, culmi-
nating at fifteen. In both cases we trace directly the
effect of habits of life. Girls, after the tenth year,
usually exercise much less freely than before, while
boys after that age constantly increase the amount of
exercise.

From ten to eleven both boys' and girls' memories
for near relatives increase; and from twelve to thirteen
decrease, but increase for all acquaintances, marking
the entrance into wider social relationships so charac-
teristic of adolescence. Between fourteen and fifteen,
the visual and auditory memories of both increase
greatly and also memories of places, doubtless mark-
ing the beginning of a wider esthetic sense.

If the above statements are correct, is it not a mis-
take to postpone manual training, sewing and so on,
to the high school age? Should we not
fppucationl. rather put them at the time when the
motor brain regions are so active as this
abundance of memories proves them to be? Again,
what is to be done with the child of the third grade,
when memory is comparatively poor? We saw before
that this is one of the periods of rapid growth. Is it a
time when school work should be lightened? That
the auditory memories are best in children under four-
teen, points to the value of beginning the study of lan-
guages early, and any work that demands memorizing
and has little reasoning connected with it. With adults,
the best way to memorize is to get a system or theory
around which memories can cluster. With the child

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MEMORY

this plan too should be followed, but committing to
memory is much easier than with adults.

Finally, the widening of memories for friends and
esthetic objects between fourteen and fifteen, points to
the importance of widening the child's experience in
both these lines. In all cases, we seem to see the
close connection between interests and memory.

In a former chapter we spoke of the effect of fatigue
and health upon memory, showing that in proportion
as health was poor or fatigue was great, conditions
memory diminished. Health and freshness of good
are, then, two conditions for a good mem- ^^^^^'
ory. On the merttal side, to train a child's memory,
take up a subject when his memory for that class of
things is best and so present it that he shall feel its
close connection with his own life and shall be on the
qui vive to get information about it.. Knowledge so
obtained has many interconnections and holds together
well. No other will endure.

Mothers and teachers not infrequently find certain
mental peculiarities in their children that they do not
know the significance of and are in doubt
how to treat. Among these are **colored ^nditionB
hearing,' ' and number, word and time forms.
Quite a large proportion of people connect certain
colors with certain sounds, or with certain words or
letters. The high notes of a violin may seem pale
blue; the resonant trumpet tone, blood red, and so on.
Each letter of the alphabet may have its characteristic
color, or all the vowels, or only names of persons. It
is practically impossible in many cases to find the origin
of these various associations, but they may go back to
very early memories, or they may be due to unusual

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ii6

THE CHILD

congenital connections between the brain-centers con-
cerned. They do not mark any mental abnormality,

and it is not wise to
ridicule a child who
has them. To him
they are perfectly nat-
ural.

Number, calendar
and alphabet forms
are much more com-
mon. It is estimated

Diagram 5. Number Form of
Mr. Walter Lakden, Form-
erly OF Cheltenham College,
England. The Faint Lines
Are to Show the Perspective.
(Galton.)

that of men one-sixth
to one-fifteenth pos-
sess some kind of
form, and of children
and women a larger
proportion. In all
such cases, the num-
bers, days or letters

««

«vO

«o

fiO

*>.

Diagram 6. An Hereditary Number Form
Common to a Brother and Sister. (Galton.)

are arranged in a definite form in which the person
always sees them. The diagram may be colored of

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MEMORY

117

not. Several forms are shown in Diagrams 5 to 10. This
form is the same for the same person from year to year.
It seems so necessary to the person that he can hardly
imagine howhe could
do without it. It
varies from the sim-
plest arrangement to
exceedingly com-
plex ones of definite
shapes, in which each
number has its place.
Here also the origin

1 2

9 10 11

Diagram 7. Number Form op
Prof. Schuster, an English
Physicist. The Numbers
Are on a Kind op Horse
Shoe Lying on a Slightly
Inclined Plane. (Galton.)

Diagram 8. A Complex Num-
ber Form Made Up op Dots
Running Up to i/xx>. Iir 10,
etc., the Odd Dot RIay Ap-
pear AT Any ofthe Cpjiners
Marked X. (Galton.)

is difficult to trace.
In some casei' it
seems to be heredi-
tary — several successive generations having the same
form. In others, its origin is hidden in obscurity. As
with the colored hearing, it does not mark any abnor-
mality, and the best policy is to leave it alone. On

Diagram 9. An Hereditary Numper Form
Showing Peculiarities which Run through
a WH0L8 Family. (Galton.)

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ii8

THE CHILD

the other hand, one attempt at least has been made to
teach a number form to all children, but the wisdom of
this is questionable.

The material for memories comes through the various
sense organs and takes the form of sight, sound,
smell, taste, touch, and motor images. Of
these, the visual motor and auditory motor
are the most common forms, although we find occa-
sional cases, especially among the deaf and blind,
where touch and smell are the most prominent. Usually,

Summary.

JtO

i«o «/^

1»

^^v^

2Vt U^

15
I*

io«V

rj^i^BAj^h^^^^vf X

>-— ^s& •« •«• ♦» « «7w «v y*

>T^

Diagram io. Number Form of a Gentlemen who Learned to Tell the Time

AT a Very Early Age. The Most Prominent Numbers Are Those Found

IN the Multiplication Table, Especially iz. (Galton.)

there is more or less combination of all the forms
in memory, just as there is combined use of most of
the senses in ordinary experience, and hence it is use-
ful to give a child all sorts of sense experiences. He
thereby gains a valuable background of images upon
which he can depend if any one image is at fault.
Memories of individual experiences do not usually go
back of the fourth year, but experiences previous to
that age leave their mark on temperament and feelings.
The vividness of memories at any age varies with the
condition of health and the interests of that age.

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MEMORY 119

REFERENCES

Alkin, C. Methods of Mind Training. N. Y. Am. Book, |i. 00.
Bolton, T. L. Growth of Memory in School Children. Am. Jour,

Psy., Vol. IV, 362-380.
Bnmham, W. H. Memory. Am. Jour, of Psy. ^ Vol. II, 568-622.
Colegrove, F. W. Individual Memories. Am. Jour. Psy.^ Jan.,

1899, Vol. X, 228-255. (Good.)
Compayr^, G. Intellectual and Moral Development of the

Child. ^ Chapter on Memory. N. Y. Appleton, I1.50.
Ebbinghaus, H. Ueber das Geddchtniss. Summarized in Burn-
ham's article. (See above.) Lpz. Duncker& Humblot, 1885.
Hall, G. S. Early Memories. Ped, Sem., VI, 485-512.
Hartog, M. Interpolation in Memory. Contemp. Rev., 1900,

Vol. LXXVIII. 532-539.
Hawkins, C. J. Experiments in Memory T5rpes. Psy. Rev,, IV.
Herrick, C. L. Propagation of Memories. Psy. Rev., IV, 294.
Kirkpatrick, E. A. An Experimental Study of Memory. Psy.

Rev,, I, 602-609.
Perez, B. First Three Years of Childhood. 121-130. Syracuse.

Bardeen, I1.50.
Preyer, W. Senses and Will. See Index. N. Y. Appleton, $1.50.
Ribot, Th. Diseases of Memory, N. Y. Appleton, $1.50.
Shaw, J. C. Memory of School Children. Ped. Sem., IV, 61-78.
Stetson, G. R. Memory Tests on Whites and Blacks. Psy. Rev.,

IV, 285-289.

Talbot, Ellen B. Attempt to Train Visual Memory. Am. Jour,
Psy., Vol. VIII. (Account of rather artificial training.)

NUMBER FORMS

Colkins, M. W. Am. Jour. Psy., Vol. V, 269-271.

Galton, Francis. Inquiries into Human Faculty. Section on

Number Forms. L. Macmillan, $4.00.
Hornbrook, Adelia R. Pedagogical Value of Number Forms.

Educ. Rev., May, 1893, Vol. V, 467-480.
Krohn, Wm. O. Pseudochronosthesia. Am. Jour, Psy.,Vo\.

V, 20-38. (Historical resum6 and bibliography good.)
Patrick, G. T. W. Number Forms. Pop. Sc. Mo., Feb., 1893.
Phillips, D. E. Genesis of Number Forms. Am. Jour, Psy.,

July, 1897, Vol. VIII, 506-527. (Good.)

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I CHAPTER VII

Imagination

1. Collect instances in which a child's aream nas
created a lasting fear. Be sure that the fear did not exist
Obserra- previous to the dream. Collect instances
tioni. where the dream created pleasure. Are
such cases likely to be as common as the other? Why?

2. Observe in some one child whether this order is
followed in the growth of imagination:

(i) Recalling and telling some experience of his
own.

(2) Listening to stories told him.

(3) Inventing new stories himself.

3. Collect instances of the personification of inani-
mate objects. Did the children believe the object to
be alive or not?

4. If you know of any case of an imagmary play-
mate, describe it fully, noting especially the age of
the child when it began; how long it lasted; sex of
child and of playmate; whether father or mother had
such a playmate.

5. Collect statistics from school children on the fol-
lowing points. Get the age, sex and grade of each
child on his paper. In getting such data, to secure
free utterance, it is a good plan to tell the children not
to put their names on their papers.

(i) If you could be to-day just what you want to

be, what would you choose? Why?
(2) What do you want to be when you are grown
up? Why?

120

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IMAGINATION 121

Various sensations leave their traces on the baby's
brain, and as persons and objects move about him, he
learns by degrees to connect their various
aspects with each other, that is, he learns ^Jlt^i^J
to perceive objects instead of merely receiv-
ing sensations. Next, after he perceives objects as
wholes, or while he is learning so to perceive them,
comes recognition of them, and finally distinct memory
images of them and desires for them when they are
absent. Thus the baby arrives at a consciousness,
though still vague and imperfect, of his past as well
as of his present. He is no longer confined to a now,
but looks backward to a then.

As his memory images become more stable, they
also become freed from definite time and place associ-
ations. His experiences with chairs, tables, father and
mother, and so on, have been so numerous that his
image of a chair or table, is not of his use of it at some
one time and place, but of it in an indefinite time
and place setting. He may have the definite setting,
but he need not. In this way, the memory images
become more flexible and subject to his will, and pres-
ently we find him making alterations, picturing himself
as doing something this morning that he has not done
for a month; making little plans of what he will do
after dinner, an^d in such ways showing his power to
manage his images. Then suddenly he becomes con-
scious of his power, and forthwith launches boldly out
into a riotous sea of imaginings. Sometimes, indeed,
he becomes swamped, or on the other hand he mistakes
his buoyant fancies for the dry land of facts, but by
degrees he learns to control them, and to see their lim-
itations.

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122 THE CHILD

At first, however, his new coriibinations are very
inconspicuous, and more or less accidental. Perez
Spontaneous thinks that they are first formed spontane-
newoom- ously, especially in sleep. Some slight dis-
binations. turbance of the circulation, or change in
the brain, may lead to the establishment of new con-
nections—connections which cause new, grotesque, or
pleasing mental combinations. I think we may safely
say that the growth of the association fibers in the
first months of life would lead to such new combina-
tions, without any effort of will on the child's part.
These spontaneous combinations will be found, though
to less degree, as the child grows older, and doubtless
give suggestions for the voluntary combinations that
the child begins to form between the second and third
years.^ There can be little questioo that such combina-
tions do occur in dreams, and that they seriously affect
the waking life of many children. .Mr. James gives a
dream of his little girl as illustrative. She woke with
a scream saying that a dog had bitten her, and for
months afterward she had spasms of terror at the sight
of a dog, although up to that time she had liked them.
I myself have a little friend who woke crying that an
elephant was in the room and was going to eat her.
Her mother said that for weeks she would not go into
the room alone even in the daytime, and even after six
months she would not sleep there. If such occur-
rences are at all common, we can see how easily a
child can live in a world wholly different from that
known to us, and how, if his images in sleeping life
are vivid enough, he may confuse them with reality.
There seems to be little that one can do with such an
unfortunate dream except as far as possible to make

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iMA6tKAtlOK

123

the child realize that it was only a dream and nothing
to be afraid of.

The systematic forming of new combinations by the
child 6ccurs first in listening to stories, but this does
not come until affer he has learned to
tell little stories of his own life — what he forming of
has seen on his walk, what he did at ^•"^ ®®°^-
grandma's, and so on. He forms vivid
images of these stories, as is shown by his insisting
upon the same words and facts in the story every
time they are told.

Only after this does he begin to invent stories of his
own, but once started, he carries his story-telling to
great lengths. The stories, like all his other fancies,
are improbable and inconsistent to us, but not so to
him, with his narrow experience. There is ndthing
incredible to him about the hole in a stone being the
abode of fairies or about living in the water with the
fish, and so he both accepts and invents fairy tales and
myths with equanimity. As his experience widens
and he learns more of the world about him, his wild
imaginings give way to others that are more in agree-
ment with fact, and so less conspicuous. *\

It may be partly true also that a child's fancies are
so unbridled because his perceptions are indistinct, and
so he can read into them whatever he pleases without
seeing any discrepancy with what is before him. In
this connection it is worth noticing that the same child
who can be so wildly imaginative, finds great difficulty
in framing a clear image from a description. He has
not the power of concentration necessary for this.

There seems to be at times a real illusion in these
fancies. The child will lose himself in them for the

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124

THE CHILD

moment. The fancy is so real and divides from the
object itself so gradually that often he can not say
where one ends and the other begins. He always starts
with some actual object and proceeds to adorn it with
his fancy, usually giving it qualities suggested by its
likeness to other things.

As persons interest children most, they tend to per-
sonify all objects. The number of pretty and pathetic
illustrations of this is infinite. The stupid
tio"*^*^**^*' ^^^^^^s of the alphabet are made into per-
sons, and the child talks to*'dear oldjyV,*'
L is sitting down, and F and '5 are facing each other
and talking.

The most prolonged case of such personification is
given by Miss M. C. Whiting. Each number up to 12
had a distinct personality for her, and the various com-
binations of them in arithmetic made the subject most
fascinating. She began this at the age of eight, and
continued it for four years, taking it for granted
that other people thought in the same way. The
various combinations are made by the numbers acting
in various ways, thus: 8 is so angry that she puts
thoughtless 5 into 13. Here he stays until kind 9
rescues him and helps him into 14. 2 helps 6 and forces
him into 12, a kind of prison. 8 finds 6 here, and puts
him into 14, which is pleasant but beneath his dignity.
7 is already there by the aid of 2, and 8 hurls him
into 15, a dungeon. 5 had already got himself here
by the unintended moves of 3, but he persuades 4 to
pity him and put him into 20, a most desirable station;
and so on to 12x12.

Jean Ingelow tells us that when she was a little girl
she was sure that stones were alive, and she felt very

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IMAQINATIO^t

125

sorry for them because they always had to stay in one
place. When she went walking she' would take a
little basket, fill it with stones and leave them at the
farthest point of the walk, sure that they were grateful
to her for the new view. Another little girl thought
that the leaves were alive, and autumn was a mournful
time to her because the leaves all had to die. Moving
things are likely to be personified, especially if they
are noisy. Machinery, engines and steamers are ter-
rific personalities to the little child. But he also per-
sonifies his moving toys, his ball and his hoop. Even
a sliding cushion was given life by one small boy. It
seems odd to us that children should think of such
things as growings but a goodly number of them do.
Naturally enough, children attribute solidity to all
objects at first, and so we find them trying to pick up
the sunbeams. One little girl wants to wash the smoke
and get it nice and white; and another wants to see the
wind. When the wind was blowing strongly toward a
neighboring town, one little child said he would like
to go too because there must be so much wind there.

Along with this personifying of all objects is the ten-
dency to look upon them all as made for the use of people
or even of the child. One little girl thought that the
flowers opened to please her, and that the sun came out
to light her. It is very difficult in all such cases to
know how far a child is accepting literally the figurative
statements of other pe,ople, and how far he is imagining.

It is equally hard to draw the line between imagina-
tion and reason. Thus, if a child sees a certain object,
his fancy at once forms pictures of how the object
came to be what it is. For example, onfe little child
met a lame tramp on his walk and at once began to

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126 T«^ CMtLD

tell his mother that the tramp had been "riding on
a big high horse, and the horse had jumped and thrown

him off and hurt his leg.'* Another little
andrMLso^^ fellow saw the bumblebee industriously

buzzing in the window, and told his mother
that it was asking for a lump of sugar. Then he
addressed the bumblebee and told him that the sugar
would give him cramps. The transition from fancy to
reason is clear in the case of the tramp. The picture of
the horse is the child's explanation of how it might
come about that the tramp was lame. The induction
dofes not seem to be different in nature from the
working hypothesis of the scientist.

It is^also often difficult to distinguish between the
playfulness of the imagination and lying. A child

will sometimes come home and reel .off
Sdim«**^^ long stories about what he has been doing

and seeing, which have little or no truth
in them. This tendency will last for months at a
time. The thing one should look for in such a case is
the motive. Does the child intend to deceive you or
is he just playing with images, and asking you to play
too? One way to find out is to respond to his story
with some pretended doings of your own, confessing
at the end that it was only play, and asking him if his
story was not also. If in some way like this he is
reminded that his ideas are not like the facts, he will
usually outgrow the tendency. Only the intention to
deceive is dangerous, and this we shall speak of shortly.
Loneliness, distance, and mystery are great stimu-
lants to a child's fancy. Probably most children have
fictitious characters with whom they play at times, but
the imaginary playmate reaches its fullest development

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IMAGINATION 1 27

in the child who plays alone. It is not uncommon
to find that such a child has created for himself an
invisible companion who is with him most
of the time, and who remains in existence SJJ^J^
for two or three years. This companion
has a name and a definite appearance and is a source
of much comfort, as well as, frequently, the alleged
reason for much misconduct. ''Bokman made me do
that, mamma," is the reason sometimes given by one
little girl that I know. Or, "Bokman is wearing her
blue' dress, can't I wear mine?" It is frequently the
case that the tendency to create such companions is
hereditary. Usually when a child begins school, or
gets absorbed in outside things, the companion fades
away, but I know of one case in which it has persisted
up to middle life.

The distant world, the world beyond the hills, or at
the end of the rainbow, or above the clouds, is the
source of many childish wonderings and '
imaginings. I remember that in that ^yg^^**^*
charming story *'The Golden Age," there
is an account of one picture jn a book that was a
source of constant questionings by the children. There
was a hill beyond which church spires could be seen,
and ships were sailing around a bend of the river into
the city. One day in a friend's house they found a
book with pictures of the town. What joy was theirs
really to see what they had wondered over so long!

The degree to which these fancies may be carried,
and the amount of reality necessary to bolster up the
imagination, varies greatly. Sometimes a child may
be urged to greater flights by a little make-believe
on our parts. For instance, in playing store with a
9

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Inyention.

128 '^^^ CHILD

little girl of five, I said I wanted some blue ribbon.

She answered that they were out of it, but I pointed

under a box cover and said, **Why, no,

vividness. ^. . »» t^u u ^' '

there is some. The box cover was green.

"No," she said, "that ribbon is green.'* I persisted that
there was blue ribbon under the cover, and took the
cover away, pointing to the brown couch beneath, and
saying, "See, there is blue ribbon.*' "No," she said,
"that is brown ribbon, don't you see it is brown?" But
presently, as I still persisted, she accepted my view, pre-
tended there was blue ribbon, and taking it up — a purely
• imaginary ribbon — brought it to me. The relation of
invention to imagination here is most interesting.

So far we have been discussing what may be called
fancy, j^hance association and personal feeling control
the mind,_and the child is rriore or less con-
scious of the unreality of his mental rov-
ings. We find a different statfe of affairs, however,
when we turn to invention. The account of this will fol-
low Baldwin. Let us go back, lEor the beginning of the
child's inventions, to his imitations, and study the
method of persistent imitation. In repeating a mover
ment again and again, a child is constantly omitting
some movements, putting in others, and so learning new
ones. Now, just in proportion as a child gets skill in
reproducing the copy that he set out to imitate, his
attention can play about the movements he is making
and introduce untried combinations, which result in
something new or advantageous to himself. These
changes may be accidental at first, but the sense of mas-
tery that they give is a strong incentive to trying others,
and so there is constant experimenting, modifying of
old situations and stories, and intense enjoyment of the

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IMAGINATION

129

results. Baldwin gives as illustrative of the process an
invention of Helen's. She began by copying with
her blocks a church from her picture book. When she
had it partly done, she saw that it could be altered a
little and finished as an animal, which she forthwith/
did. This is typical of the inventive process, and is an
important step in the child's development, because it<
teaches him that he has control over objects — that he
is not limited to the mere imitation, but can make a
new world of his own. From the teacher's standpoint,
the close connection between this creation and imi-
tation is important to note. The most imitative child
may be the most imaginative^

When a child has made such an invention, the next
thing is to show it to an admiring world, to get social
approval, and this also is typical of all minds. If
others will not accept his wonderful creation, if they
criticize or laugh at it, he is forced to modify his
enthusiasm of it — to change it so that it will meet with
general approval and use. The possibility of using his
invention in his relations with others is thus a child's^
final test of his creation, and a spur to new efforts.
The desire to have control of the situation, or to escape
unpleasant surroundings, doubtless underlies this.

Many so-called lies illustrate the same point. Bald-
win gives another example here. Helen was bringing
some packages to him from the hall and
became tired before they were all brought ^^ijim
in. She brought them more and more
slowly and finally stopped before him and said, "No
more." Now, as she became tired, Baldwin says, the
thought of her delight when the task was finished
and of the praise she would receive from her father.

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I30

TH& CHILD

became more and more prominent. With this was the
consciousness that she would tell har father when she
was through. From this consciousness it was a short
step to the thought that by telling him at once that
there were no more she would be praised and relieved.
That is, simply to escape from an unpleasant situa-
tion, she invented a situation which would give her
nhe desired results, without any sense of wrongdoing.
Many of the first lies of children, where they are not
purely imaginative, are of this sort, and should be care-
fully dealt with, because they grow into deliberate lying.
They usually occur like this one, because they are of
use to a child in some way. The best way to deal
with them must vary according to the disposition of

Vthe child. He must in one way or another learn that
social disapproval always follows such an act, because
if people generally lied, social life could not exist.
On the other hand, when he has done any kind of
wrong, the treatment of him should be such as to
induce repentance instead of fear, so that the next
time he does wrong he will not be tempted to lie to
escape punishment. Where there is confidence and
VJkwise government, the lie problem will not be so press-

^ ing a one as where there is fear and too great restric-
tion. To prevent lies, then, there should be cultivated
most carefully in a child the courage to take the con-
sequences of his acts, and the confidence that he will
\always be justly treated and understood.

Finally, we come to the most practical use of imag-
inatibn that any of us make — the planning of our
career. About five thousand children have been ques-
tioned as to what they would like to do when they are
grown up and what part they would like to take in the

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IMAGINATION

131

life about them. The close connection between imagi-
nation and imitation is seen here. The occupations are
necessarily chosen from the lives that the i^^^^ hopes
children know, and out of the whole list andambi-
suggested the boys mention two-thirds to "®'"*'
three-quarters of the entire number. As one girl puts
it, **There are not many things for a girl to be."

The following table shows the occupations mentioned
most frequently. Where two figures are given, they
show the variation between different reports; where
but one, agreement or but one report.*

Occupation

Girls

Teacher

Dressmaker

Milliner

Music teacher

Musician

Artist '. .

Housekeeper.

Nurse

Servant

Wife and mother

Missionary.

Factory hand

Bookkeeper

Typewriter . .'

Clerk or stenographer

Trades (Taylor's estimate, 1490 boys) —

Engineer

Carpenter

Blacksmith

Machinist

Merchant, business man or storekeeper

Farmer

Minister

Doctor

Lawyer

Sailor

Railroad man

38-45%
19-24
19-24
6- 8

o- 3

3
2
6

I
II

.0-

o-
o-
o-
o-

♦The table is based on the figures of Taylor and Monroe, with
SQme data from Chandler and DarraU.

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132

THE CHILD

This table represents the average for all ages, but
we find certain changes in choice between seven and
fifteen that should be noticed. Thus the choice of
teaching varies from 41 per cent at seven years,
and 58 per' cent at nine years to 20 per cent at
eleven years. Milliner and dressmaker choices out-
number those of teaching at thirteen and fourteen
years and only then, pointing to an increased interest
in dress.

With boys, trades seem to be the most popular
between seven and nine and clerkships between ten
and twelve. The choice of a business career appears
at eight, that of a sailor's life at nine, and both
increase slowly, but steadily.

These variations in the choice of profession at
different ages are shown in more detail in Mr. Jegi's
table of two thousand eight hundred poor German
children. The table is given in per cents.

Boys

Years

Total No.

Choosing

Father's

Profession

Carpenter . .
Merchant . .
Bookkeeper

Farmer

Engineer . . .
Machinist . .

Clerk

Fireman

Sailor

Officer

Soldier

21%

3
2

3
9
2

3
10

26%

9
10

22%

8
2

I
i8

9
10

22%
13
15
15

4
6

17%

7
13

4
12

5
8

10%
12

15
10
10
18
12

10
2

6%
15
23
18
10

23
12

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IMAGINATION

133

Girls

Years

Clerk

Teacher

Dressmaker . . .
Housekeeper .
Music teacher .

Milliner

Bookkeeper . .
Typewriter . . .

17%

22%

24%

19%

25%

35%

77-

16%
32

14
II

9
22
II

The reasons for choice may be given as follows:

Like it

Fitness for work

Money

Easy

Philanthropy

Parents* or relations' occupation pleasant .

Demand for this work ,

Pleasant

Opportunity for travel

As Mr. Monroe gives the table it is:

Girls

Like it

Money

Easy

Philanthropy

Parents* or relations* occupation pleasant
Miscellaneous or no answer

44%
24

7
2

Both tables agree in emphasizing the importance of
the child's Hieing and his desire to earn money in
deciding his choice. Indeed, the desire to earn money
is so prominent that we can not but believe that our

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134

THE CHILD

y mercenary age is influencing our children far too much.
It seems dreadful that as many children, not adults

but children, should feel the need of earning
motlire^*^ money, as feel free to follow their own

liking. Indeed, the most marked feature
of all those observations is that so few of the chil;
dren go beyond the range of the commonplace in
their choice of a life work. The shades of the prison-
house have already closed about them. They .do not
feel free and conscious that the world is theirs for the
choosing. Most of them look forward to a life of hard
work — household drudgery or ditch digging. Are they
not loaded with the burdens of adult life too soon?

Money is the strongest motive for choice at every
age from seven up to fourteen, when the adolescent
asserts himself and chooses a profession because he
likes it, or because his father or uncle is so and so.

Mr. Jegi's figures of the German children, however,
show that most of them, while choosing a humble
profession, choose it because they like it, and that the
money motive decreases instead of increasing with age.
J The desire to earn a living appears at the age of
seven, and this motive, growing in definiteness and

determining the occupation, such as teach-
motiyes ^^^' because it gives good pay, increases

until it makes 25 per cent of the choices
at the age of twelve.

There is also a growing appreciation of the disagree-
able side of all work, and of the demand for each sort.
Altruistic motives are not prominent until the
eleventh year, when 10 per cent of the choices are
determined by the desire to help support the family.
At twelve, plans to help the poor, to convert the

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IMAGINATION IjC

heathen, etc., appear, and rise to their highest point
at fourteen.

In observations upon four hundred and fifty chil-
dren from kindergarten through, eighth grade. Misses
Sheldon and Hamburgher found a marked
difference between the character of the Present and
wish for the present, and for the future desires,
when they were grown up. Contrary to
what v/,t should expect, i6 per cent chose the improb-
able for the present, but only one-eightieth of one per
cent chose it for the future. The contrast is very
funny in some cases. Thus one child, if she could have
her wish, would be a rose in a garden to-day; but when
grown, a teacher; another would be a bird now, but a
dressmaker when grown; one boy of ten would be (of
all things!) an angel now, but a doctor by-and-by.

It was also quite noticeable that when asked what
they would choose for themselves and for another, they
chose the more probable thing for self and let their
fancy free on the other — bed-room slippers for self, and
a diamond ring for the mother. Or is it possible that to
the child the two things are on the same plane of values?

Why should a child choose the improbable for
to-day, and become so matter-of-fact over the future?
Is it because the futility of to-day's choic'e appeals to
him so that he lets his fancy roam? It would be worth
while to get returns from more children to see whether
this difference is constant, and whether it is more
marked with the older children than with the younger.

The character of the hopes which control childish acts
is seen from another standpoint in an inquiry into chil-
dren's motives for planting seeds. Among the boys,
materialistic purposes increased from 56 per cent at

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136

THE CHILD

eight to 75 per cent at fourteen, and in the girls from
47 per cent at eight to 57 per cent at fourteen. Between
Bsthetio and ^^S^t and fourteen, the esthetic idea de-
material creased among the boys from 50 per cent
ideas. ^Q 28 per cent and among the girls from

54 per cent to 44 per cent. Altruistic motives fluctuate
in the boys, from 10 per cent at eight, and 25 per
cent at twelve, to 15 per cent at fourteen. In the girls,
on the other hand, they increase steadily, from 18 per
cent at eight to 60 per cent at fourteen.

Considering the ideal person whom the child would
be, we find that with little children his traits are bor-
rowed chiefly from father, mother or friend,
and very seldom from literature or history;
while with sixteen-year-old boys and girls,
historical characters lead, followed by those from liter-
ature, and a very few from among friends or parents.
Washington and Lincoln are the heroes of both boys
and girls, and thegirls'ideals as a rule emphasize quali-
ties essentially masculine.

The following table shows the most common ideal at-
tributes and their influence at different ages, in per cents.

The chUd'8
ideal.

7 Years

12 Years

15 Years

G#odness

Goodness to self or class

Truth and honesty

Appearance

Striking quality

Feminine accomplishments

Intellectual power

Bravery and adventurous qualities

Discoverer of invention

Patriotism

Leadership

Wealth

25%
27

3
12
12

4
10

23^

I
10
19

13
o

22^

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IMAGINATION

137

Notice how the idea of a class goodness and the love
of showy or striking qualities disappear in the older
children. On the other hand the admiration of truth
and honesty has far too small a percentage throughout.

The more general question of what children would
choose to have for self and others, brought out this
result:*

Self

Others

, Concrete things

Knowledge

Health

Companionship

Happiness

Virtue

56|%

7oi%

3
3i

With age there was a slight increase in the choice of
abstract qualities.

Now is it not a pity, that children and young people
should be on the whole so prosy and confined to real
life as these children are? We hear a great ^g^and
deal about the abuse of imagination, the abuse of
danger of day-dreams and castles in Spain, ^aff^**io*^*
and the moral obliquity involved in presenting fairy
tales and myths to children. There is, of course, a real
danger here, lest in playing with ideas, a child forget
realities, but in view of this collection of ideals bor-
rowed so directly from the everyday life of thousands
of children, ^le danger of our becoming a nation of
dreamers does not seem to be nearly as imminent as
that of our becoming a nation of money lovers and
materialists, satisfied with present conditions. Will

♦Misses Mary L. Sheldon and Rae Hamburgher's unpublished
data from four hundred and fifty children in the Chicago schools.
The children were all from the ''poorer districts."

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138

THE CHILD

children with such ideals ever become creators? Will
they turn out to be artists, poets, inventors, or even
signal successes in the conduct of any large enterprise?
Hardly.

Instead of abusing the imagination by exercising it
too much on useless things, we are abusing it by not
employing it to raise and elevate our lives from year
to year. There is no stronger power for good than a
vivid and noble ideal. It is the air and water for the
beautiful character that grows from the soil of prosaic
surroundings. Even putting the question on practical
grounds, no business can be successfully conducted
unless the man at the head can imagine clearly the
consequences of this or that move. He must be able
to picture how his customers will like this new fabric;
how he can best introduce it, and so on. Imagination,
in short, is the pattern of the web of life. It is the
shaping force without which the universe would be a
chaos. We shojtild say then, that abuse of the imag-
ination is possible only when images do not finally turn
back into our life and change it in some way. With
this one limitation, we can not encourage the free use
of images too much.

We have already seen that imagination is based upon
* memory images. In proportion as those are clear and

distinct, will the material of imagination be
Una^Saion. ^^^^ ^^ manipulate. There is, however, no

reason for using this material and so setting
imagination to work, unless a child's curiosity is roused
by something that he does not understand. When he
asks himself a question and sets about finding the
answer, imagination begins to work, and it may end
in an invention like the telephone; a theory like the

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IMAGINATION

139

nebular hypothesis, or a picture like the Sistine
Madonna. The necessary thing in all cases is the
arousing of a keen curiosity or interest, which is per-
manent enough to keep the questioner at it until he
has an answer. To cultivate the imagin.ation, there-
fore, cultivate far-reaching enthusiasms and interests.

REFERENCES

Bames, Earl. Childish Ideals. N. W. Mo., Oct., 1898, 91-93.
Binet, A. Mental Imagery. Fortnightly Rev., July, 1892,

95-104. (Summary of Galton; popular account of images. )
Bryan, W. L. Eye and Ear Mindedness. Proc. Intern. Cong.

Ed., 1893.
Bumham, W. Individual Differences in Imagination of Children.

Ped. Setn., 1892, 204-225.
Canton, Wm. Invisible Playmate. Chicago. Stone, $1.00.
Chalmers, Lillian H. Studies in Imagination. Ped. Sent., 1900,

111-123. (Suggestive.)
Chamberlain, A. F. The Child: A Study in the Evolution of

Man. 83-86, 324-327. L. Scott, $1.50.
Chandler, K. A. Children's Purposes. C. S. M., 1897-98, 136-

139.
Compayre, G. Intellectual and Moral Development of the

Child. Chapter on Imagination. N. Y. Apple ton, $1.50.
Darrah, E. M. Study of Children's Ideals. Pop. Sc. Mo., 1898,

88-98, Vol. LIII. (Good.)
Galton, Francis. Inquiry^into Human Faculties. Section on

Images. L. Macmillan, I4.00.
Hall, G. S. Children's Lies. Ped. Sem., 1891, 211-228.
Hursh, S. B. Children's Hopes. C. S. M., 1895-6, 256-259.
Jastrow, J. Eye Mindedness and Ear Mindedness. Pop. Sc.

Mo„ Vol. XXXII, 597.
Jeg^, J. I. Children's Ambitions. Trans. III. Soc. C. S., 1899,

121-144.
Lay, W. Mental Imagery Psy, Rev. Monograph Supplement,

No. 7. (Discussion of imagery of adults.)
Lewis, H. K. The Child: His Spiritual Nature. 38-42.

Inventions. N. Y. Macmillan, I2.00.

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140

THE CHILD

Monroe, W. S. Vocational Interests. Education, Vol. XVIII,

259-264.
Perez, B. First Three Years of Childhood, 147-157. Syracose.

Bardeen, |i,5o.
Preyer, W. Development of the Intellect, See Index. N. Y.

Appleton, $i.5a
Secor, N. B. Visual Reading. Am. Jour. Psy,, Vol. XI, 225-236.
Sully. James. Studies of Childhood. Chapter on Imagination.

N.Y. Appleton, I2.50.
Taylor, J. P. Preliminary Study of Children's Hopes. Annual

Rept. of Supt. of Ed. of N. K, 1895-6, 992-1012.
Taylor, J. P. Practical Aspects of Interest. Ped, Sem., V, 497.
Thurber, C. H. What Children Want to Do When They Are

Men and Women. Proc, N, E, A,, 1896, 882-887. (Sum-
mary of Taylor. )
Tracy, F. Psychology of Childhood, 72-75. Imagination. Boston.

Heath, $0.90.
Vostrovsky, Clara. Imaginary Companions. Barneses Studies

' in Ed. , 98-101.
Whiting, M. C. Individuality of Numbers. Ped, Sem., 1892.
Willard, Hattie M. Children's Ambitions. Barnes's Studies in

Ed., 243-253.
Wiltse, Sara E. Mental Imagery of Boys. Am. Jour. Psy.,

Vol. Ill, 144-148. (Suggestive.)

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CHAPTER VIII

Conception and Reasoning

1. Notice:

(i) When the baby first connects sensations; e.g.,
the milk with the bottle.

(2) When he first compares objects; ^lomT^*"

^.^.,one face with another.

(3) When he first connects a present with an

absent object; e,g,, the dress with the
absent mother.

(4) When he forms a sequence; eg,, the sight of

his cloak suggests going outdoors.

(5) When he first adapts means to ends; e,g,, pulls

the tablecloth to bring something within
reach.

(6) When he first asks a question. How old is he?

What is it? Does he follow it with others?
How long is it before questioning becomes
common?

2. Question children from three to eight years old
as follows:

(i) What is the length of an hour, day, week,

month, and year?
(2) See whether they know how much longer the

day is than the hour, the week than the day,

etc.
(3 ) How much do they think that they can do

in an hour?

141

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142

THB CHILD

(4) At what age did they learn to tell time?

(5) At what age do they care to know the day of

the month, the names of the months, etc.?
3. Ask school children to tell you what the things
are that are named in Dr. HalTs list in the Chapter on
Perception, or in a similar list. These descriptions
will show the imperfections in the children's sense
experiences and the consequent impierfections in their
concepts.

The nature of reasoning has been a subject which in
the past has been hotly disputed. It has been con-
D6T6iopment sidered the mark of man's divinity, a fac-
of reasoning ulty implanted in him by the Creator, the
power. special power of the soul or logos, Man,

it was considered, has many things in common with
animals, but his reason is the mark which puts him
in a class by himself. It does not exist even in germ
in the brute creation, while, when we reach man, we
find it full-grown even in the child, as is also the moral
sense. A child can therefore be held accountable even
as a grown person is. In reaction against this evi-
dently false theory, we find it assumed, on the other
hand, that a child can not reason at all until he comes
to comparative maturity — in the twelfth or thirteenth
year at least.

With the development of genetic psychology, how-
ever, this has all been changed. It is accepted now
as an unquestionable fact that the mental life is a
gradual and unbroken growth from the cradle to the
grave, as much as is the growth of the body. The
infant mind must contain in the germ the possibilities
of the highest reasoning. True, it needs the sunlight,

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COHCBPTION AND RBASOKiNO

air, and water of favorable surroundings to develop it,
as any germ does, but it is waiting to be developed,
except in the few unfortunates who are born with the
possibility of only a slight development.

Fruitful as this conception of regular growth has
been in the other divisions of Child-Study, it has as yet
been little used in the study of children's reasonings.
Other traits are more characteristicaHy childlike per-
haps, and perhaps even yet the traditional idea of
reason still holds an unconscious sway over us. How-
ever this is, it is certain that but little material is avail-
able on children's conceptions and reasonings.

By imagination the child is freed to a large extent
from time and place limitations in his combinations of
ideas, and so can go on to combinations
not duplicated in his own experience. In ^J^^^^^g'
conception he finally goes beyond the indi-
vidual in so far as he can frame an idea which applies
equally to all individuals with certain similarities. In
psychological terms, in conception for the first time we
deal with universals or generals, while in perception,
memory, and imagination we deal with particulars. In
conception, the image in the mind is but a symbol for
a large number of individual objects or ideas, much
as, on a lower plane, the sensation in perception sym-
^bolizes all the other possible sensations from the
object. When we think,, fo/ instance, of "tables," the
idea that comes to our minds stands for round, square,
oblong, four-legged, three-legged, and no-legged
tables — all kinds of tables of all sizes, shapes and
materials — the only common quality for them all
being, perhaps, that they have flat tops and are used
to put things on.

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144

THE CHILD

But, to turn it about, it is evident that such a class
idea or concept is derived in the first place from sense
experiences. Through our comparisons of percep-
tions or of images — which are derived from perceptions
— we select the common qualities and combine them
into a whole which can then stand for the class.
Sometimes we select one object as a type, but even then
we attend only to those qualities in it which all the
other members of its class also have. It is but a sym-
bol.

In forming a concept, then, certain steps are neces-
sary: (i) perceptions or images of many objects; (2)
comparison of these with each other; (3) selection of
their 'common qualities; and (4) combination of these
qualities into the class idea.

This is the case when the child's mind is sufficiently
developed so that he can compare two objects or ideas;
but even before then there is a kind of consciousness
of classes which does duty for a concept and is very
closely connected with organic memory and habit.
We will begin, accordingly, at this point, and then
see when comparison first appears, and when a clear
class idea or concept.

In discussing perception, it was proved that by the
third week the sight of the breast called out movements
First con- toward it for nursing, and that from the
sclousnesa of third month on, recognition of objects in-
ciasses. creased very rapidly. It was noted thteit

this was to a large extent due to organic memory, and
not to the presence of memory images. At this stage,
therefore, a baby can not compare a present with a
past experience, and only with difficulty two preset
ones.

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CONCl^PtlON AND RBAS6NINO iaC

This first recognition goes into few details. Some
strong impression appeals to the baby's senses, and
any object that gives the same impression calls out the
same reaction. Preyer's son showed a strong liking
for white bottles of any sort, like his milk-bottle.
Babies at first usually treat all men as they do their
father, unless there is some striking peculiarity. If
the mother remains much with the child, she is kept in
a class by herself, but otherwise it is not at all uncom-
mon for the baby to act toward all women as he does
toward his mother.

In such cases, there is a recognition- by means of
organic memory of certain prominent characteristics,
and there is a responsive movement of some sort. The
first concept, is thus, according to Baldwin, a habitual
response to a certain stimulus.

We may say confidently that the possibility of
comparison is not present at birth, for the various
brain centers have then no fibers connect-
ing them. During the first nine months, c^m^rtaons. ^
however, the brain increases more in size
and in connections between its parts than at ahy other
period of life, so that we may expect to find compar-
ison by the ninth month, and in all probability consid-
erably earlier.

When we speak of comparison, we simply mean
noting the relationships between two objects or ideas.
The two things must both be included in one mental
act. Even if two objects are compared, then, it is
evident that there must be at least enough memory to
remember the first object while examining the second.
Miss Shinn records the first memory and the first com-
parison at the same time, in the beginning of the third)

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146

THE CHILD

( month, when her niece studied her and her mother
} alternately, for some time, turning her head from one
to the other and examining them both intently.

Perez gives what is clearly a case of comparison,
although he does not seem to be sure of it, in describ-
ing an eight months* old boy's experiences with two
cats. The boy was playing with one cat when another
cat of the same size and color entered the room. Sud-
denly the child caught sight of it and apparently could
hardly believe his eyes. He stared at it and then at
the first cat, his body tense with attention and aston-
ishment. He examined the two until he became satis-
fied that they really were two different things, though
so much alike.

It seems probable from our knowledge of the growth
of brain fibers and of the rise of memory images, that
.comparison begins in a feeble way in the third month.
As soon as a child begins to speak, we have certain
and numerous evidences of the similarities that he is
constantly seeing between objects. All white animals
of a certain size are *'lammies"; all black ones,
'*doggies.*' The hairless doll is **Grandpa.'* Men
without beards are boys even to the four-year-old, and
the ten-cent piece is a baby dollar.

We see comparison clearly when Mrs. HalTs child,
at eight months, recognizes the real dog from the
image on the mantel; when Preyer's boy, at about one
year, compares his father's face with its reflection in
the mirror; and in the case cited by Ribot, of the child
who compared the ticking of the watch with that of the
clock. We see here, as in the first class-conscious-
ness, that only certain very obvious or interesting qual-
ities strike the child's mind, and so his classification

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CONCEPTION AND REASONING

by those qualities seems to us very funny or very
pretty. We should add, however, that where there is a ^
strong interest, the comparisons of a four-year-old child ^
will average favorably with those of an uninterested^
adult.

We have no data to show when a child first compares /
two ideas with each other.

We may best describe the baby's condition when
comparison has fairly begun by summarizing Baldwin's
account of the origin of the concept.

The child begins with an indefinite and vague whole,
which is both particular and general, percept and con-
cept. Take for instance the pet kitten, the
child's first experience with cats. The co^^J^f *^*
individual and the class are to him the
same at this point. He knows no class but the indi-
vidual. But he meets now a big cat of a new color.
He may not identify it with the first cat at all, but the
chances are that he will. Percept and concept now
begin to divide — the two individuals are alike in some
ways, so that both are called cats, and different in
others, so that one is called Tiger and one Tom. Tiger
scratches, Tom does not; but both are soft and warm
and both purr. So his idea of a cat is a purring, warm,
soft animal, that may or may not scratch. The next
cat he sees may lick his fingers, and so, with every
successive experience some qualities may be left out
and others put in only as possibilities, until there is
but a small nucleus of qualities belonging to all cats,
and a large fringe of other characteristics that may
belong to any particular Tabby or Tom.

The amazing thing is that the baby learns so quickly
to distinguish individuals from each other, and yet, at

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148

THE CHILD

the same time, to put them together into one class, as
things to eat, things to drink, rolling things, and so
on. Experience is his only teacher here, but experi-
ence reinforced by pleasure and pain and by the
natui;al impulses and instincts of the child is very
powerful.

It is important to the baby's safety and comfort
that he should learn thus speedily to distinguish and
associate. Take, for instance, the cats again. He
likes the soft fur and warmth, but he gets scratched
by Tiger. Now for a long time he may be afraid that
all cats scratch, but if he learns that only Tiger
scratches and Tom and Tabby do not, he gets the
pleasure of playing with them and avoids the pain of
Tiger's claws. That is, to state it generally again, a
baby that learns most readily the qualities peculiar
only to an individual and those common to a class, is
the baby that is the most independent and the surest
of safety.

That the child's first concepts are incomplete is a
foregone conclusion from what we have already said.
Incomplete- ^'^ experiences with objects are necessa-
nesa of chUd'a rily limited; he can not tell from the few
concep B. people or houses or rivers that he has seen,
which of their qualities are peculiar to them and which
belong to all objects of their kind. When we add to
this his imperfect observation and his small power of
voluntary attention, we can see that correct concepts
will be a late mental product. A child may have as
wild an imagination as an adult, but an imagination
that attends to universal and real qualities, as concep-
tion does, is obtained only by long experience and
training.

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149

The child's concepts are therefore too general in
some cases and too particular in others. He does not
put into the concept all the qualities that it ought to
have, as in thinking that all white things are milk; ,
or he puts in wrong ones, as in thinking that all
rivers are dirty; or he combines both errors, as in
thinking that blackness marks off dogs from sheep.

We can, by a little adroit questioning of children,
see all these errors in their concepts of common
classes of objects, such as tables and chairs and people,
while with the still more abstract concepts, such as
number, distance, growth, time, and the self, the
errors are all intensified.

The baby's ideas of number are vague in the extreme;
number in the abstract does not, of course, exist for
him. He knows only many things or this
one particular thing. At eighteen months nmnber**'
Ribot says a child can distinguish concepts
of one, two, and several. Dewey also notes that three
children observed by him, varying in age from sixteen
to twenty-eight months, paired off objects. Two could
be counted but not three. At three years, Ribot says,
a child can distinguish i, 2, and 4 or 2X2. The baby's
first vague impressions of quantity and mass are made
more distinct through his own movements in touching
and handling objects, and he is also aided by the regu-
lar alternations and rhythms in his experiences and in
his bodily reactions. We know that in his first count-
ing a little child is very likely to touch or tap as he
counts and that he likes to group the objects or
words in counting by pronounced accents. He enjoys
singing the multiplication tables, for instance. We
must also distinguish, with the little child, between

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I go THE CHILD

repeating number names, and real counting. A child
will often apparently count to a high number, but
when asked to show ten objects or twenty objects, he
will be at a loss. Not infrequently a child takes the
name of the number for the name of the object. If,
for instance, the third object happens to be a willow
rocker, he may think it a **three."

When a child has really learned to count, he delights
in it, both counting the objects about him, and merely
counting, without reference to particular objects. The
boards in the sidewalk, the blades of grass, the stones
in the road, are all enumerated, when he is not occu-
pied in numbering up to hundreds of thousands, or to
millions or billions.

At first, the child's idea of growth is simply that of
increase in size. It does not include the idea of

increasing complexity of the parts. To the
growS*^' childish mind, a stone may grow as readily

as a child. Mr. Sully has some speculations
on childish ideas of growth which are interesting
though, perhaps, not so general in their application as
he believes. A child, he says, can not believe that
things come from nothing or go to nothing; hence the
natural idea of a cycle, babies growing to men, and
men growing back to babies.* Babies, a child is told,
come from various places, heaven among others. He
knows that they get larger by eating and drinking, and
that after a time they stop growing and begin to shrink.
Old people are frequently small, they are spoken of
as childish, and when they die they are carried to
heaven by the angels, hence they must grow still
smaller after they die. I myself have never come
across this idea, and I doubt whether it is a common

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151

one. Most children are satisfied as to the origin of an
object by being told where it comes from, without
questioning further the source of the place.

As in the other cases, the first idea of self is obtained
probably from a child's own feelings as he touches or
sees himself and moves his body involun-
tarily. This touch is different from the ^o^wt<>'
contact with other bodies, because there
are two sensations instead of one, touching and being
touched. By degrees, the child learns that his arms
and legs belong to him, i.e.^ that he gets pleasures
and pains from them, but he does not seem to identify
them as closely with himself asT he does his body.
This is shown in some examples given by Sully — one
child saying that his legs get in the way of himself.
Another thinks that his stained feet are different from
the ones he had in the morning.

The odd ideas that children have about their bodies
and the uses of the various parts are excellent illustra-
tions of their attempts to straighten out all the strange
things that they come across.

At first the child's only sense of self is of his body,
but after a time he begins to distinguish himself from
his body. As far as I know, no extended observations
have been made on how the transition comes about.
We know that in the race history, it is effected through
dreams, shadows and echoes, and we have isolated
cases in children, like George Sand's, where the same
thing occurs. When the child uses **!" and **me"
instead of his name, he seems to have arrived at this
idea.

Of course a baby's first ideas of particular distances
come from his own experiences in grasping and

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THE CHILD

creeping. Distance means the len-gth of his arm, or
the amount of creeping or walking that he does to get

to an object. Feet and miles mean nothing
diSiimje.^^ to him until he is able in some rough way to

reduce them to his own efforts in walk-
ing, reaching, or seeing. He puts together certain
common factors from many experiences and thus gets
a crude concept of a foot or- a yard or a mile. But
accurate concepts are slow to develop, for even grown
people have imperfect ideas of a mile, and when it
comes to five or ten miles, we take to measuring the
distance by time. A place is fifteen minutes' walk, or
half an hour's car ride away.
This, however, probably means as little to a child as
/ the space measurement. We all know how confused

to a small child are the lengths of month
tim^0^^* ^^ ^^^ ye^r, of hour and minute. A child of

three often has great difficulty in under-
standing yesterday and day before yesterday. The
time when his mother was a little girl was many
years ago, at the same time when Caesar and Heracles
lived.

We have no data to show when children first get
time concepts that are at all adequate, and the case is
much the same with regard to other concepts. We
know that, generally speaking, a child has developed
beyond the gross inaccuracies by the time he is four-
teen, but we know nothing of what classes of erroneous
concepts are corrected first and what linger latest.
There is room for much observation here.

If it is true that a child's ideas of a class depend
upon his experience with objects of the class, then it
is evident that the first step toward getting a correct

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153

idea is to give many objects with which to get acquain-
ted. A child who has seen only one dog, can not know
as much about dogs, other things being Forming
equal, as the child who has played with correct
several. A child who has seen but one river concepts,
has a more imperfect idea of rivers than a child who has
seen many. Of course, by far the best way is to show^
the children the actual object, but if this is impossible,;
pictures do a great deal, especially pictures that differ
in minor details but agree in essentials.

It is hardly enough, however, simply to put the vari-
ous objects or pictures or ideas before the child. He
should be led to judge whether the differences are so
great that the objects can not be put into one class.
The degree to which this comparison is carried out
must be decided by the teacher. Kindergarten chil-
dren notice only the more striking likenesses and differ-
ences, but in the ninth year a great awakening occurs.

Such comparison is quite as important as having
many objects because it means, once more, the form-
ing of associations which bind the child's world of
thought into a whole, and it lays the foundation for the
systematic reasoning which occurs in later life.

We have already answered indirectly the question of
whether general ideas can exist before language. It
seems unquestionable, from the way that a conception
child acts toward objects that are alike, andian-
that he- does have some class ideas before ^^s^-
he has learned to speak.

On the other hand, there can be no doubt that lan-
guage facilitates the formation of concepts because it
provides a convenient form in which to keep the idea.
Then, too, when the baby learns to speak, the great

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1^4 THE CHILD

widening in his ability to get what he wants is a pow-
erful stimulus to mental activity, and to the naming of
things.

The first questions are usually about what things are,
and this often means only what their names are. The
fact that this thing is a "dictionary** is itself satisfying
enough to rest in for some time. Some children seem
to have a mania for learning the names of objects;
they seek for the Christian name of every fish and
insect and leaf, and when the wearied mother tells
them that there are no such names for them, the child in
pity christens them himself. Some anthropologists see
in this a survival of the early worship and fear of the
word as a living thing. The Scriptures tell us that the
Israelites dared not pronounce the true name of Jeho-
vah; in the Middle Ages, it was believed that there were
words whose potency was suflScient to summon all the
powers of evil to the aid of the bold man who spoke
them; and so, in the little child's satisfaction with a
name, there is perhaps an implicit belief that it has
a certain force of its own.

For a long time a child is at the mercy of verbal
sounds, mistaking words for others that sound like
them but are spelled differently,- or getting the wrong
word. We all have some choice examples of this.
Here are two: One child sang lustily,

•'Dare to be a spaniel (Daniel),
Dare to stand alone,
Dare to have a purple spine (purpose fine),
And d are to m ake it known!'*

Another one, when asked by her father what she had
learned in Sunday school that morning, told him
earnestly that the minister said that *'he must put his

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155

trousers in heaven, where the moths could not get at
them!"

However, when a child begins to question what
things are like^ the question of what things are begins
to mean what they are like.

The period before nine when all the quaint, childish I
fancies that so delight us control the child, is espe-*
cially the age of imagination. The odd
comparisons between familiar things, the J^JJ^^^a*^
imagining of a situation that may have led
up to present conditions, are fancies, but they are also
attempts to make the world a unified and reasonable
one. We have seen that the child's first class idea is j
the same as his idea of the individual, and is separated J
from it only through varying experience. So his first
reason is an image or a craving, as is also the reason
of many adults, and takes the form of logic only with
a later development. When we ask a child why\i^
did this, it is hard for him to say, because his reason
is probably only a desire, a picture of himself enjoy-
ing a certain thing, and it is hard to put this into
words. ^'Because," or "Because I wanted it," is as
far as he can go.

In reasoning a more developed form of thought
than a conception is reached, for in it the relations
which were taken for granted before are conception
now stated. The concept of table includes and
the ideas of a flat top and of usefulness to '«»»<>^^«-
put things on; but the reasoning about tables, expounds
that this is a table because all tables have the same qual-
ities that this has. We recognize clearly now relations
that before have either been unseen or only obscurely
seen.

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tHfi CHlLl^

Reasoning takes three common forms — the tracing
of a particular cause to a particular effect; the dis-
covery of a law or truth or system from observation of
particular facts; and the classifying under an already
known law the facts afterward observed. We will con»
sider the child's reasoning under these heads.

Throughout all the child's thinking, as in his imag-
ining, he works from a personal world to an imper-
BeaBoninr sonal. His first ideas of cause and effect
from cause are doubtless obtained from his own move-
to effect, ments and their results, and the sense of
power appears to have its rise with the first volitions
or persistent imitations in the period between four and
six months. During this period the child seems to be
experimenting to see what he can do. He repeats and
varies a movement ad infinitum, discovering the possi-
bilities and limitations of his movements, and at every
step connecting a given movement with a certain objec-
tive result. Thus he learns that he can always giet certain
things by doing certain others, and has the feeling of
himself as a power or cause. In all his experiences,
he and others like him are, more than anything else,
the causes, or movers of things. He sees very little
of impersonal natural causes. This strengthens what
seems to be his instinctive tendency to refer all results
to a personal cause. As Sully puts it: "He starts with
the amiable presupposition that all things have been
hand-produced, after the manner of household posses-
sions. The world is a sort of big house where every-
thing has been made by somebody, or at least fetched
from somewhere." "To ask who made the animals, the
babies, the wind, the clouds, etc., is for him merely to
apply the more familiar type of causation as the

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157

normal rule." One three-year-old girl thought that
when the water spurted from the faucet, it was choking i
because it coughed. One child of four years thought
thsit running- water was alive; and another, that wind-
mills were alive because they moved. Most small ,
mothers think that their dolls or pets must like the
same things that they do themselves.

Observations have been made upon kindergarten (
children to ascertain when they first asked "why.** It *
was found that all children had asked *'why" before
the third year, and 75 per cent of the boys asked it
before th# second year. The first real interest in the '
idea of cause, however, is not usually shown by the
firs^, **why'*; but appears between six monTlTs and a
year later in 70 per cent of the children.

The objects which call out this first question vary
considerably in boys and girls, seeming to point to
certain differences in the natural interests of the two.
Thus 75 per cent of the boys' questions relate to natural
causes, while only 30 per cent of the girls* do. Such
questions as, *'Why does it grow dark?'* '*How does
God make it thunder?" fall here. Fifty per cent of
the boys ask questions about movements, such as '*Why
do wheels go?" "Why do horses run?", while only
25 per cent of the girls are first interested in move-
ment. Twenty-five per cent of the boys are curious
about the adaptation of structure to function: "Why
do birds have wings?'* "Why does Towser have four
legs and I only two?" The girls have little interest
in this.

On the other hand, the girls ask more first questions
about God and Christ, and about domestic affairs.
Both boys and girls always show great persistency in

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l^g tHfi CHILD

following up a question with others until a satisfactory
answer is obtained.

Along with this idea of personal cause goes the other

idea, that everything has a purpose behind it, and so

we find children ready to believe that the

purpose ^"" ^^^^^ ^^^ them to get up by, that the

flowers grow for them to pick, that the rain

is trying to plague them, and so on.

We can realize how deep in human nature lies
this tendency to make man the center of all things,
when we find the earliest men, the savage races of
to-day, and even the civilized man himself dfting the
same thing. 1 fancy that there are few of us who have
not at some time been thoroughly angry with some
object or material that we could not control as we
wished. In early times inanimate things and animals
had legal punishment meted out to them as to persons.

In these first experiences, what reasoning there is,
is usually only an association of one thing with
another. Thus the child who learns that
asMcuuon^ ^^^ father gets home and then supper fol-
lows, may reverse the procedure and sup-
pose that getting supper ready is the cause of the
father's arrival.

The assertions that the object of Thanksgiving is so
that we can have turkey, and of Christmas so that we
can have presents, combine both forms. Little by little,
the child is forced to discard a personal agency for a
simjl^e sequence of events, and so he seems to become
less imaginative.

Of cause in the sense of reason, he seems to have
little idea as yet. Sequence and analogy of sequence
govern his thought. Mr. Brown gives numerous

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159

instances of this. Thus one boy would be a minister
so he could have the money from the collection boxes.
One little girl said she was a woman now because she
had a butter plate given her instead of having her
bread spread.

Preyer's boy in the fifth month first connected move-
ments with the following noises: the tearing of paper,
the jingling of keys, the opening and shutting of a
drawer with the accompanying sound. He would strike
a spoon against a plate, listen, and then repeat it as if
trying to see where the sound came from. His delight
in producing such results was at its maximum during
the tenth month, and Preyer believes this indicates the
knowledge that he was an agent or cause. But even
then he had not learned that objects, when dropped,
fall to the ground, and gaped with astonishment to
see them go.

By degrees, however, definite sequences are estab-
lished, and then occurs the reasoning which is so ludi-
crous to us and so sensible to the child.
One child thought that a person with gray Jf gewSw^^
eyes must be old. Another of three years
and three months thought that a card lying on the floor
was the cause of the sewing-machine not going, because
when his mother got up to pull the machine out from
the wall, she first picked up the card from the floor.

Analogy of sequences is seen in such cases as these:
One child of two and a half thought that her baby
sister only needed larger shoes in order to ware;
another, that her eyes were bright because the sun
shone into them as into a room; another of five, that
men are filled with sawdust, like dolls; a boy of five,
that standing in the rain until he got soaked would
11

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l6o ^HE CHILD

make him grow fast, as it does seeds, so that he could
wear "pants!** One girl of six, when told that gum
was. grease and was not good, reasoned thus: *'Lard is
in doughnuts, lard is grease. It's good!'* and contin-
ued chewing. A boy of five reasoned that thunder was
/rnade in heaven in the same way that sounds are made
Mn a sawmill. A girl of seven was afraid to eat apple
seeds, lest they grow up to trees. Another wondered
why, if she were dust, she did not turn to mud when
she drank water. One girl thought her brother pale
because he washed so much. Then, too, there is the
/ little boy who thriftily planted his dime to have it
\ grow, and another who planted bird seed to get more
birds and sardine cans to get more sardines. Again,
one boy thought his mother could round some pieces
of cloth better if she had a poker to use as the motor-
man uses his to get around a corner. The small boy
;who had lost a tooth and thought the new tooth of his
baby sister must be his, is not alone in his reasoning.
' Such examples show us how vague the child's ideas
are. He has to learn that balls will roll away if his
hands let goof them; that he can use his hands to
move things, and so on. When we consider that a
child begins life with no knowledge, we must admit
* that to learn so much in the short space of a year he
reasons much instead of little.

This purely temporal relation of one event to another,
if it be a constant one, gives to the child his first idea
of law and order. In his contact with
an^order^ nature, he experiences certain fixed se-
quences, such as the seasons and day and
night. In his contact with people, and in the ordering
of his daily life he should find the same thing in all

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COKCBPTIOH AND REASOKINQ i6l

cases where his mature mind will later justify the order
by reasons. Just in proportion as we, his elders, arrange
our lives and his according to an order controlled by
laws, shall we help him to untangle the essential from
the unessential.

Plato in discussing the proper education of youth,
makes the point that we can not get citizens who are
obedient to law in later life, unless we have trained
them to a respect for law in childhood. Now, what
Plato says of civil law is equally applicable to law in
its widest sense. The child who is given meals at
irregular hours, who is never trained to habits of
bathing and cleaning the teeth, of sleeping, and so
on, will never have a respect for the laws of his body.
If he is trained to the fallacy that he can eat and drink
just as he pleases, without bad results, that he can
sleep or not and feel just the same, that he can bathe
or not, and still be clean, he can not have the belief in
cause and effect that the child who has been taught to
observe regularity in all such things has. Order or
regularity is the same as law to the little child; and to
primitive peoples also custom, or the usual way, is the
law. The reason upon which this law rests becomes
apparent only later. Hence it is our part to see
that children acquire habits or customs of orderly
acting and thinking, customs which need not be dis-
turbed when reason passes them in review. So shall
respect and obedience to law be a work of love and not
of duty.

To many it will probably seem rather pretentious to
class the modest efforts of children to make their
world into a connected whole under inductive reason-
ing, which is the method of scientists. But precisely

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1 62 THE CHILD

because the two are not usually associated in our
thought, we wish to unite them here. The child mind
Inductive is trying, though spasmodically, to reach
reasoning or to a system of thought. He does not like
system to live in a chaotic world^ and although his

maJcing. efforts to produce order are greatly lim-

ited by his inexperience and by his undeveloped power
of attention, the desire for unity which impels him is
the same as that which impels the scientist.

In discussing the child's thoughts about nature.
Sully says that we can see some crude attempts to form
a system and to get back to the first cause which will
explain all else. In what little we know of the child's
naive thoughts on this subject we are strongly reminded
of the speculations of the early philosophers. The
child, too, wonders who made God; who were the first
people and who took care of them when they were
babies; where the first hen came from, and so on. The
child, like the race, seems first to ask "why** and
only later to become interested in "how" and satis-
fied with it.

When he comes to frame his cosmology, things are
taken for what they seem. The earth is flat and the
sky round; the stars and the moon shine through holes
in the sky and are lamps for God or the angels.
Natural phenomena like thunder and lightning, storms,
wind, etc., are caused by God for some definite pur-
pose of His own.

Most children have some such imperfect system,
which they fill out from time to time in detail. Thus
one boy of six after watching the smoke rising from a
locomotive said he knew now that smoke made the
sky. This was not so bad for a city-dweller.

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CONCEPTION AND REASONING igl

The consistency of these childish reasonings is a
subject on which we have as yet few exact data. Earl
Barnes assures us that it is difficult for a
child to hold a whole subject in his ipind Si^y^lIS.
because his thinking is fragmentary. In
drawing the story of the * Three Bears, " for instance, a
child will often forget the story in his delight in draw-
ing the bears, and will fill the paper with bears and
nothing else. This is doubtless true to a certain
extent. We have already seen that the little child's
interest is an immediate one, and that he does not
clearly distinguish means from ends.

Still, we must not suppose that a child sees no con-
nection between cause and effect, and does no con-
nected thinking. Observations made by Miss Lillian
Clow seem, on the contrary, to show that when chil-
dren have once made an assumption about an object,
they hold to that fairly well in the rest of their think-
ing about that object.

Miss Clow* collected data from 360 children, 40 of
each grade from kindergarten through eighth grade, in
order to see how their reasoning changed as they grew
older. She selected a sea porcupine as an object with
which the children were unfamiliar, so that their
reasoning would not be directly influenced by their
knowledge, but which was yet striking enough to
arouse curiosity and stimulate thought. This was
shown to the children and they were asked these ques-
tions among others:

I. What does it look like?

♦Unpublished data from Chicago school children. The object
was a beautiful specimen of a sea porcupine. The tables are
given in per cents.

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164

THE CHILD

2. What do you think it is ? Why?

3. Where did it come from ? What makes you
think so?

4. If it moved from one place to another, how did
it go?

The following tables show the answers.

Question i

Kg.

Total

Fish

474

52i

85
7
2

524
15

TO
17

^7i

45^

Porcupine

"Porcupine fish"...
Miscellaneous

2
31

Question 2

Kg.

Total

Fish :

Porcupine

52
5

57
20

5
12

87
7
2
2

85
2

10
2

80
12

"Porcupine fish". . .
Miscellaneous

Question 3

Sea or ocean

Lake, river

Geog. place

Miscellaneous. .

Kg.

^1 3

Total

45 \ 631=
18 i Water

I2i
20f

Question 4

Kg.

25
17

Totals

Swam

47
15
12

70
12
10

57
30
12

67
10
10

65
20

Crawled or walked.
Rolled

II
10

One of the interesting things in these tables is to see
how the per cent of miscellaneous answers decreases
from the kindergarten up. Whereas 69 per cent of the
kindergarten children give such different answers that

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CONCEPTION AND REASONING

165

they can not be classified, only 5 per cent of the fifth
grade and a somewhat larger number of the eighth
grade do. This seems to show the effect of the inter-
change of ideas in training all children to similar
habits of thought so that they reason in much the
same way even on new subjects.

In discussing the consistency of the answers, we see
how well the children hold to a standard that they have
chosen. Thus if a child says in the first Deductive
answer that the strange animal looks like a reasoning or
fish and is a fish because it has little fins, byastand-
and that it will live in water, and swim, ^^'
he is thoroughly consistent throughout with his first
assumption that it was like a fish.

The answers to the first three questions were clearly
consistent in 51)^ per cent of the individual papers,
and clearly inconsistent in i6j^ per cent. In the
remaining cases the child's thought seemed confused.
These per cents were distributed as follows:

Kg.

Totals

Consistent

Inconsistent

28
10

26
16

61
20

53
23

74
19

82
13

78
17

51
16

We should hardly seem justified from these figures
in concluding that even the little child's thought is
predominantly fragmentary. It may be true that the
systematic questioning made the children relate their
answers more closely than they would have if left to
themselves, so that the percentage of consistency may
be a little higher than it should be; but even so it
would seem that a child's thought is not so much incon-
sistent as it is incomplete.

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1 66 THE CHILD

The improvement in consistency from 28j4 per cent
in the kindergarten to 78 per cent in eighth grade is
very marked, and is closely paralleled by Mr. Han-
cock's observations on reasoning about numbers. They
show an improvement from 40 per cent of correct
reasonings at the age of seven years to 86 per cent at
fifteen.

Mr. Hancock experimented upon one thousand chil-
dren from seven to fifteen years old, to find the rate of
increase in ability to reason on arithmetical
witharith- problems. He gave problems with such

meticai small numbers that no difficulty could be ex-

problems. 1 • . .1 1 . 1

penenced m using them, makmg the entire

difficulty one of reasoning. He found that the errors de-
creased from 60 per cent with the boys at seven, and 63
per cent with the girls at seven, to 18 per cent with the
boys at fifteen and 21 per cent with the girls. From
the seventh to the eighth year, there is an increase in the
number of errors, for both boys and girls, followed by
a rapid decrease at nine, and a still greater decrease at
thirteen and fifteen; but at fourteen the boys make
almost as many errors as at twelve. The boys * are
slightly better than the girls except between seven
and nine, and at fourteen. The greatest difference is
in the period between eight and nine, when the girls
are 8 per cent to 11 per cent better than boys. From
the eleventh to the twelfth year, the percentages are
nearly equal.

Notice how closely these variations m reasoning fol-
low the variations in growth that we have already
traced, the periods of lessened ability to reason coin-
ciding with those of rapid growth in height; those of
greater, with increase in weight.

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CONCEPTION AND REASONING

167

A simpler form of deductive reasoning is seen in the
adaptation of means to ends, as when the year-old child
pulls the tablecloth over to bring a dish Adapting
within reach, or climbs into a chair for the means to
same purpose. Or when the three-year-old •"**"'
feigns a cough in ordfer to get some cough drops. A
more elaborated form is seen in the boy of four who
wanted to get a bone from a dog. When he found that
he could not catch the dog by chasing him, he got a
stick and brought it to the dog to smell. In smelling,
the dog dropped the bone, and after one unsuccessful
trial the boy got it. Akin to this is the thriftiness of
the boy who, when given some money, bought some
court-plaster "because I might need it some time."
We have also the numberless plans to escape punish-
ment. One little child scrawled the newly papered
wall, and when confronted with a whipping by an
indignant mother, appealed to her affections thus:
*'I just writed a letter to my dear papa. Ain*t my
papa lobely?*'

The various examples brought together in this
chapter show that while reasoning and conception are
imperfect in children, nevertheless they play a promi-
nent part in the child's mental activity. The account
of them has necessarily been imperfect because so few
observations have been made, but we believe, never-
theless, that enough has been said to show that the
subject is well worthy a more careful consideration
than it has yet received.

In considering what use parents and teachers can
make of the facts given above, the problem of the value
of children's questions presents itself first. There is a
certain kind of questioning into which some children

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l68 I'HE CHILD

fall automatically. They do not ask because they do

not hear or because they want to know, but simply

for the sake of saying something. Usu-

bearings. ally, if no answer is given them they wan-

OhUdren'B der on to something else, and from that to
QuestioiiB. ,, . , .? , , ,

something else, frequently they them-
selves know the answer to the question they ask.
Such a bad habit can usually be broken by asking in
turn of the child the question he has asked, thus making
him realize how foolish or how thoughtless he has
been. However, when a child waits for an answer,
and persists in the question, he should be answered in
as true and scientific a way as he can understand, and
should be encouraged to ask more questions, instead
of being repressed.

Wonder, or curiosity in the good sense, is the root
of all love of knowledge, and it is one of the greatest
discredits to our present school system that it is more
likely to crush this tendency than to nurture it into
the scientific spirit. The child who enters school
curious at every- point, overflowing with questions,
and brimful of wonder and reverence at the mysterious
things about him, becomes in a few years passive and
quiet, a receptacle for any information that is poured
into him, and blind to any value or beauty that it has.
The teacher asks all the questions and he has to answer
them. Seldom are the tables turned. Such a condi-
tion is very different from the ideal school, in which
there is a constant give and take in question and
answer between teacher and pupils, and where both
teacher and pupils are learners. Both have doubts
to settle, and can settle them best by a free discus-
sion.

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CONEPTION AND REASONING

169

Again, we often do not know how to answer a child's
. question in a way that he can understand. When he asks
why it thunders, or why the leaves fall off, it is puz-
zling to know what to say. Often, if we can cite
some similar case, it satisfies him. If he has ever
seen • an electric spark, he will probably be contented
to know that the lightning and thunder are just a big
spark and the noise that it makes. Such an answer has
the further advantage of connecting in the child's mind
similar phenomena, and of forming the habit of looking
for such similarities. Certainly it is useless to give
the child superstitions about such well understood sci-
entific facts as these. There is, however, the question
of whether we should answer a child imaginatively or
literally. Mr. Sully is authority for the statement that
when a child is in the imaginative age between four
and eight we can best answer such questions as why
the leaves fall, by saying that they are tired of hang-
ing on the trees. We can say that Jack Frost draws
the pictures on the window-pane, and in various ways
assume, as the child himself does at this time, that all
causes are persons. In this connection we have also
the much mooted question of whether we shall teach
children to believe in Santa Claus and fairies.

There is, I believe, a point to be made here which
sets a standard for the sort of answer to be given. It is
certainly true that the child from four to eight years old
lives in a world that is personal through and through,
and that he delights in Santa Claus and fairies. Now,
the point is' this: Can we not answer his questions
imaginatively, and still in such a way as to present
the scientific truth, though not in a literal form?
There is a certain truth in the statement that the leaves

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170 THE CfiILD

are tired of hanging on to the trees, and that they drop
off because they are old and weak. The child who has
been told this goes on easily when he can to the knowl-
edge of the changes in the leaf that dry it and let it
drop off. The essential thing is to state the truth as
nearly as we can, though in the imaginative form, and
not to give a child the imaginative answer when he is
old enough for the scientific one.
/ Finally, to cultivate a child's reasoning powers,
there is no better way than to start with his own ques-
tion, and answer enough of it to give
reasonto^g* ^'"^ ^^^ necessary information and the
curiosity to think out the rest of the
"^ answer. Constantly suggest the question of how this
fact is related to that: If leaves drop off because they
are tired, why do not the oak and evergreen leaves get
tired? Or do they get tired too? Why do the leaves
come out in the spring? If lightning is an electric
spark, why don't we use it in our houses, as we do
electricity? Lead the child, through imitation and
suggestion, to form the habit of questioning and of
^thinking out the answers to the questions.

Conception and reasoning, like all other mental
processes, are of gradual growth, and are to JDe found,
in germ, even in the baby. The infant's
class ideas differ from those of the adult in
being vague, and in containing, as a rule, but few
qualities instead of many. His ideas are also usually
inaccurate, because based upon an experience with
but few objects of the class, and those objects not
carefully compared.

The first ideas of cause and law are derived from
experience and refer both causes and laws to persons.

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CONCEPTION AND REASONING

171

By degrees the idea is enlarged to include impersonal
forces, and the reason.

In like manner number, space, and time concepts
are applied at first only to particular objects, spaces,
and times.

In all cases, the widening of the ideas is effected by
the widening and comparison of experiences. The
value of questions and of the habit of connecting as
many events as possible is inestimable, therefore, in
the formation of correct concepts and correct reasoning.

REFERENCES

Baldwin, J. Mark. Mental Development: Methods and Proc-
esses, Section on Origin of Conception. N. Y. Mac-
millan, 1 1.7 5.

Brown, H. W. Thoughts and Reasonings of Children. Ped.
Sent,, 1892. Vol. II, 35S-396. (A collection of examples of
reasoning.)

Clapp, H. L. Educative Value of Children's Question. Pop. Sc,
Mo., 1896, Vol. XLIX. 799-809, (Good; stimulating.)

Davis, Anna I. Interest in Causal Idea. C. S, M., Vol. II, 226-232.

Dewey. John. Psychology of Number. Ped. Sent,, Vol. V,

426-434.

Hall, G. S. Contents of Children's Minds on Entering School.
Ped, Sent., 1891, 139-173. Also in pamphlet form. N. Y.
Kellogg, I0.25.

Hancock, J. A. Children's Ability to Reason. Educ. Rev., 1896.
261-268.

James, W. Thought before Language. Phil. Rev., I.

McLellan and Dewey. Psychology of Number. N. Y. Apple-
ton, |i. 50.

Perez, B. D^veloppement des Id6es Abstraites chez 1* Enfant
Rev. Phil., XL, 449-467.

Perez, B. First Three Years of Childhood. 163-223. Elabora-
tion of ide^s. S3n'acuse. Bardeen, $1.50.

Ribot, Th. Evolution of General Ideas, esp. 31-39, 86-137,
180-213. Chicago. Open Court, I1.25.

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i;^

THE CHILD

General ideas of Children and Deaf Mutes. Open Court,

1899, 164-75.
Small, M. H. Instinct for Certainty. Ped, Sent,, 1898, 381-420.
Sully, James, Studies of Childhood, 64-91. N. Y. Appleton.

^2.50. (Good.)
Tracy. F. Physiology of Childhood, 75-82. Thinking. Boston.

Heath, $0.90

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CHAPTER IX

Religious Sentiment and Theolog^ical Ideas

Question the children on the following points:

1. God. Where is He? What does He do? Why
can we not see Him? Obserra-

2. Death. Why do people die? Where ^ohm.

1 ^1 r, -^ r r (BOrTOWad

do they go? • flromBarie

3. Heaven. Where is it? Who go there? Barnei.)
What do they do there? What will children have
there ?

4. Hell. What must a person do to go there? What
is it like?

5. Angels. What do they do?

6. Ghosts. Why are people afraid of them?

7. Witches. What can they do?

8. Prayer. Why do people pray? Why do they not
get what they pray for?

9. Why do people celebrate Christmas? Why do
they go to church?

In entering upon a subject on which there are so
many differing opinions, a word as to the standpoint
taken is necessary. The attempt is made
here, as elsewhere, to state in an unbiased ^on?*^^"
way all the facts so far reached by actual
observation and questioning of children and adults,
and to draw only what conclusions are warranted
by those facts. The fundamental principle that the
teaching of childhood largely determines the adult's
belief is the idea which is here worked out in

173

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174 '^^^ CHILD

detail. The close connection between physical and
mental states also receives further emphasis from the
study of religious phenomena, and- we do not believe
that religion is belittled by the acknowledgment of
this connection, any more than natural science is.
Rather, the necessity of religion is emphasized.

The attempt to sum up religious feelings, conver-
sions, etc., in tables may also seem to some to be, from
the very nature of the case, futile. It must be remem-
bered, however, that these data are obtained from the
hidividuals undergoing the experiences thus tabulated,
just as were the data for imagination, memory, etc.,
and are reliable to the same degree. Doubtless more
data are needed to corroborate those given, but equally
are more needed to discredit them. They are simply
contributions to aid in solving the difficult problem of
religious instruction.

At the outset, it is necessary to differentiate certain
terms that in common consciousness overlap or are
Morality confused. Morality, religion and theology
religion and are not identical, and yet it is difficult to
theology. separate them. The difference may per-
haps be stated concisely thus: They represent three
aspects of human nature— religion is the feeling or
longing for unity, the feeling of sin, the consciousness
of imperfection and the striving for harmony with the
good. It is primarily emotional, not volitional or
intellectual. Theology is the interpretation which the
intellect gives; the formulating, or the explanation of
this feeling of incompleteness and striving for perfec-
tion. Morality, again, is the code of action and the
actual living toward perfection as we conceive it, the
holding of right relations to our fellow-men and tp

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I^eLtGibUS SENtiMENT AND THEOLOGICAL ibEAd ly^

God. Theology gives the mental content to religious
feeling, and morality is religion incarnate. A man
may then be religious, that is, he may have the relig-
ious spirit, without believing in any creed or dogma,
and, indeed, so Mr. Leuba says, without believing in a
God, if he has this active longing for perfection, for a
better than he. His theology may be science or
philosophy, or any kind of knowledge whatever.

If we accept this general statement we can easily see
that theologies and systems of morality will vary from
age to age, according to public opinion and the prog-
ress of knowledge; but that the underlying religious
feeling, the striving of the self toward a better self,
will remain as the source or motive of all our theologiz-
ing and moralizing. Marshall, indeed, maintains that
there is a religious instinct, an inborn desire to reach
beyond one's petty self, and that this is the ro'ot of all
altruism — the emphasis of the race as against the indi-
vidual.

Froebel also maintains that the germ of the relig- ';
ious spirit exists even in the baby, in the feeling of
community and dependence between him- ^n-jo^g
self and the mother; and Baldwin, voicing spirit and
the opinion of many writers of to-day, ^^^^^ spirit,
looks upon the religious sentiment as the highest out-
growth of the ethical and social sentiments. We
can not, he believes, say properly that the little child is
religious except as he is social. His first love, trust,
and dependence, are directed toward the people about
him. Only later, and by slow degrees, does he learn
to transfer these feelings to an invisible God.

In these relations to people, he is developing more
sense (i) of his own personality, and (2) of that of
12

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176

THE CHILD

Others. This latter phase is the important one for us
at present and takes two forms:

(i) Ejective. The child constantly interprets others
by himself.

(2) Projective. A person whom the child does not
fully understand imposes requirements upon him, thus
causing a feeling of dependence in the child.

In the religious sentiment, the first element gives
content; the seconcj, mystery and awe.

Thus we find that children interpret God, heaven,
etc., in terms of their familiar experience, making,
Child's oftentimes, the most grotesque and bizarre

images of combinations. God is a big man and Satan
' a bogie, heaven is a glorified earth, and so

^11 along the line. The little child looks on father or
/mother much as adults do on God, and relying upon
\them for help, learns his first lessons in religious trust
and faith. The constant comparisons of God to a father
may have their root in this underlying relationship.

So, also, the child may look upon any person or thing
that is very strong as a God. Sully quotes the case of a
little boy of four years who, on seeing a group of work-
men, asked his mother if they were gods, "because they
make houses and churches same as God makes moons
and people and ickle dogs.*' The idea of God is, at
first, only that of a person more powerful than others.

As the child's mind develops, he comes to look upon
father and mother, as the all-Wise to whom obedience
must be given and from whom knowledge may be
obtained, but who must also, on occasion, be deceived
or propitiated. God is then the great lawgiver. '

The question of whether a child left without any
religious instruction at all would form an idea of God,

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RELIGIOUS SENTIM&NT AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS

177

is difficult to answer, for all children hear more or less
talk about religious matters. There is, however, a case
of an uninstructed deaf-mute, M. d'Estrella, Effect of no
who formed for himself the idea of a religious
"Strong Man behind the hills, who threw the *~^^«-
sun up into the sky, puffed the clouds from his pipe,
and sent out the wind when he was angry.'* It would
be strange, indeed, if any reflective mind did not
reach some idea of a cause of the world, and the first
tendency is always to make the cause a person.

It seems very probable that children derive their
religious ideas in part from the awe and reverence
inspired by natural phenomena and from the inherent
tendency to read personality into all unexplained
events. This is one of the factors in the development
of religion in the race which the child repeats in his
growth. We have, however, very few data to show
how strong the factor is in the modern child, and we
may question whether his contact with people does not
so overshadow his contact with nature that the social
factor in worship is far stronger than the nature
factor.

We have also one full account* of the theological
ideas of a boy brought up without religious training,
whose parents were opposed to current
religious ideas, but who was accidentally account!
informed of religious matters by neighbors
and occasional attendance at church. It is interesting
as showing the effect of early surroundings in as
marked a way as the other records to be quoted later.

No religious instruction was given this boy and he
was not told his parents* belief until fifteen years of

♦Bergen's.

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178

THB CHILD

age; servants were warned not to speak of religious
matters, no grace was asked at table, and all religious
terms used in his presence were spelled. Naturally
he became very curious to know what the spelled
words meant. He first went to church to an Easter
service when seven years of age, but did not under-
stand at all the symbolism of the spring time resurrec-
tion. Whon ten years old, he went for the second
time to a Catholic vesper service, at which he was
impressed by a large painting of Christ. When twelve
years of age he was encouraged to go to church, but
showed great distaste for it.

He knew something about death even when three
years old, but had no fear of it until eleven, when a
physical shrinking, which he did not outgrow for
several years, manifested itself. He was unable to
conceive of the soul as immaterial at ten years of age,
and hunted for it in all parts of dead animals. At
twelve, he said that the resurrection could not have
happened, for in respect to death people were in the
same condition now that they were two thousand years
ago. He grew very eager to read the Bible, because he
noticed that people spoke differently of it from what
they did of other books; but when a New Testament
was given him, at the age of ten, he soon tired of it.
At eleven, he explained the accounts of miracles as
exaggerations of some real act of Jesus due to the
repeating of it by one person to another.

When about fifteen years old, he admitted that there
must be some force or cause back of the physical
world, but he maintained that we had no reason to say
that this force was a person, and that it was belittling
to worship a thi?ig\ therefore worship was senseless.

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RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS

179

CbUd'i atti-
tude toward
religious
initruction.

In the case of. children who receive the usual relig-
ious training, there is an unquestioning acceptance of
what is told them up to the seventh year.
Between the seventh and the tenth year
there are some questions, and after ten,
attempts to reason things out; this critical
attitude increasing to the thirteenth or fourteenth
year. The spirit of doubt first shows itself in attempts
to place the responsibility for statements: as, **The
Bible says," "My father believes,*' etc. Next come
attempts to make the theological account square with
actual life and with the child's own ideas of kindness
and justice. The life of eternal song has not the
attractions that life with a calliope or drum has. The
injustice of sending the baby sister to hell-fires leads
to rebellion against the entire system. Still, on the
whole, there is little questioning from most children.

Starbuck,* who, with Barnes, has made the widest
observations on children's theological ideas, Prominent
finds the following factors in the child's y^i^Jf
religious life: feeling.

Girls

Boys

Credulity and conformity

3.1%

5
14
17

4
16

9
17
22

5%
5

Doubt

Bargaining with God

God as talisman

God and heaven near

Love and trust in God

Awe and reverence

Fears

Dislike of religious observances

Pleasure in relip^ous observances

Keen sense of nght and wrong

7
ic

^tarbuck's data include 330 children; Barnes's, 1,091.

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I go THE CHILD

We notice here as usual the unquestioning accept-
ance of statements made By parents, teachers, etc.,
noted also by Barnes. This Baldwin would doubtless
refer to the child's feeling of dependence on parents.
Again, the idea of barter, etc., and the feelings of love
c nd reverence and fear amount only to 20 per cent and
14 per cent respectively. This, Hall thinks, seems to
point to parents teaching that God is a sort of servant
for the child. Barnes's papers show essentially the
same thing. God and heaven are most common in
thought; hell and the devil less so. The spiritual
world is in the main pleasant, but is peopled with
strange forms, doing unreal things.

Natural phenomena are hardly mentioned in rela-
tion to God. He seems to the child's consciousness
wholly distinct from the world.

Children as a rule have very vague ideas about what ,
God and Christ do, or what religious observance is
for. One boy says God bosses the world, but usually
they seem to think that the angels do the practical
work. The relation of Christ to God is reversed in
one fourth of the cases where He is mentioned, and in
the majority of cases He is not even mentioned. The
Trinity is spoken of by only two children out of one
thousand and ninety-one.

The virtues which are most commonly considered
necessary in order to get to heaven are: Being vtry\
good, keeping the commandments, believ-
feellngand i^g ^^ God, loving God, praying, etc. — all
moral sense ijx the line of religious observance, and not
In the child. . ,, r • 1 i-

at all of practical morality.

Children' do not name teachers as the source of their
ideas, but parents, church, pictures and the "hired girl."

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RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS igl

If these reports are typical, it would seem that up
to the age of twelve the child's religious consciousness
consists, as a rule, simply of statements made by others
and accepted without doubt; that the religious feeling
is not yet separated from the feeling of dependence
and mystery excited by parents and companions; and
that the moral sense is only the sense of what custom
demands. Shame is the shame of being found out,
rather than of the doing of wrong, and the virtues pos-
sessed by the child are the result of imitation rather
than of moral conviction.

Between the ages of twelve and sixteen, howev^er,
comes the great period of conversion, for this is the
time when by far the majority of profes-
sing Christians join the church. If this Conversion:
does not occur before the age of twenty at *▼«'**?•*«••
most, it is unlikely to take place later.

Starbuck's records show that out of three hundred
and thirty cases in all, the average age of conversion
for girls was between twelve and thirteen and for
boys between fifteen and sixteen. A second period
occurs between the ages of sixteen and eighteen.
These cases are explained by the fact that many of
those converted then had been partially converted
two years before, but for one cause or another had
become indifferent. The first of these periods, you
will notice, is at the age of puberty, and it seems prac-
tically certain that the oncoming of maturity is closely
connected with conversion. It is the time when the
physical nature develops the necessity of another for
its perfection, and this need would naturally be
reflected in the mental and emotional life in every
way. The vague mental longings and questionings

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t82 , THE CHILD

and unrests due to the rapid growth of association
fibers in the nervous centers may be in large part
satisfied by love of the ideal, and the hero-worship of
which religion is one form. This close connection
between mental and physical growth is shown also by
the records of early conversion (71 per cent of women
and 64 per cent of men). Such conversions are often
due to overtraining or strong pressure (84 per cent and
73 per cent) ; but otherwise they seem to accompany
early physical development (43 and 36 per cent).

'Coming now to the meaning of the term, **conver-
sion" properly covers all awakening to the demands

of the higher life and determination to meet
conycKTsion them, whether the change be sudden or

slow. Most writers agree in the following:

1. The sense of sin. This is found in 17 per cent of
revival and 20 per cent of non-revival conversions, with
or without religious training. If we include in this
the fear of God as the Judge, with the resultant fears
of death and hell, we must add 15 per cent and 16 per
cent more to each of the above, making 32 per cent
and 26 per cent respectively. When the early life has
been bad, this sense is, of course, more prominent, but
it appears even when the worst sins are little faults.
Professor Leuba says that fear is often taken for the
conviction of sin, and that many such cases are com-
plicated with bodily disorders — hysteria, etc., which
add to the feeling. This period will be referred to
again later.

2. Self-surrender — the yielding of self to the divine
will. This, appears in 10 per cent of the men and 12
per cent of the women. It is usually preceded by

\much mental depression and meditation. Often there

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RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS i g^

is violent resistance, wrestling with God, argument J
and doubt. This is much more prominent in men-^
than in women — doubt registering with them 36 per
cent as against 6 per cent in women. In a few cases
this is followed by a determination to live a better
life, but as a rule the order after self-surrender is hope,
trust, and love, culminating in

3. Faith^ in 16 per cent of men and 15 per cent of
women. The nature of faith has Keen much discussed
by theologians, and we can not expect to settle what it
should be. In actual practice, it seems, more than any-
thing else, to be the feeling of oneness with God and
good, and the conviction that He is to be trusted. It
is entirely apart from intellectual conviction, and is
not, as a rule, belief in dogmas. It is not reasonable
or reasoned faith, but, rather, an emotional state. It
leads directly to

4. Justification, and the sense of forgiveness, (22 per
cent of men and 14 per cent of women), or the feeling
of divine aid (10 and 6 per cent). Physiologically
this is perhaps due to the inevitable reaction from tlje
great nervous strain. We are speaking here of revival
cases only. Any one who has seen a genuine old-
fashioned revival can not doubt that mere physical
fatigue has in some cases much to do with conversion.
A woman, for example, worked up to the highest
nervous pitch by her emotions, gives way, and an
attack of weeping and laughing with consequent relief
follows, which is interpreted by her as knowledge of
God's forgiveness.

5. As the natural result, there is a feeling of great
joy. The world seems to be newly made. The whole
nature rises to a higher level, and in many cases (14

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184 "r**^ CHILD

and 18 per cent) public confession and testimony to
the power of the divine spirit follow.

6. The will is felt tp be wholly powerless. The sub-
ject is carried on by a power outside himself. **Saved
by the grace of God*' expresses his state of mind. It
seems to be to a large extent a struggle between con-
scious and unconscious factors, between habits which
have passed below the level of attention and ideas which
are as yet so vaguely felt as to be indescribable. It is
again, perhaps, in large part the mental reflection of
the bodily change — the opposition between the life
of the individual and that of the race.

Between the two sets of forces the child's conscious-
ness stands dismayed. He feels himself as clay
moulded by forces far more powerful than he, forces
not only without him, but within him — how can he feel
otherwise than helpless, and what hope is there for
him if not in God?

Let us now take up in more detail the studies of
actual conversions.

In the first place it seems to be true that the nature
of the conversion, for most people, depends to a large
Conyerslon ^^^^^^ upon what is expected. Thus the
and denominations like the Methodist, that

education, ^^^i^y the revival method and teach the
necessity of a sudden and absolute turning from sin,
can show the most remarkable cases of reformation;
while those like the Episcopalian, that look for a
steady development of the religious life, are more,
likely to secure that.

Teaching, imitation, and social pressure in other
ways, influence 42 per cent of revival cases and 37 per
cent of non-revival cases. We do not mean to say

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RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS 185

that they are the sole factors, but only that they are
important ones.

Allowing, however, for preconceived expectations,
we find that many who look for sudden conversion,
and perhaps even desire and strive for it, are conversion
unable to attain it, while others get just and torn-
what they expect. perament.

Professor Coe's cases are not as numerous as is desir-
able, but he seems to have been very careful in collect-
ing his material, so that it can be thoroughly relied on
as far as it goes. He finds that out of sixteen subjects
who expected conversion and were satisfied, twelve
were in an emotional as opposed to an intellectual state
of mind; eight of them had had hallucinations or
motor automatisms of some kind, such as involuntary
laughter or song, and many of them felt assured of
special answer to prayer.

In another group, on the other hand, out of twelve
subjects, who expected conversion and were disap-
pointed, nine were in an intellectual state, only one
had either hallucinations or motor automatisms, and
very few had direct answers to prayer.

Under hypnotic influence, the first group are as a
rule passively suggestible, while the second group,
except in one or two cases, are suggestible, but are
likely to add to or modify the suggestions in someway.

Taking now those who are converted, Starbuck
gives the following:

Circumstances of Conversion

Men

Women

Revival or camp meeting

48%

5
32

4
II

46%
6

At home after revival

At home alone

Regular Church

Circumstances not criven

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1 86

THB CHILD

The motives of conversion have been touched upon
slightly already, in giving social motives or objective
forces, and the sense of sin. Other motives
oo^eriiion. ^^^^ enter in. Egotistic motives, such as to
gain heaven, form 21 per cent of both
revival and non-revival cases. These motives average
highest in the earlier years, diminishing up to the age
of sixteen, then increasing up to eighteen, and thence
declining. Love of God and Christ is mentioned as a
motive in but 2 per cent of the cases, while love of a
moral ideal is given in 15. The latter motive steadily
increases in importance with the age of the conversion.

These motives ought to determine the character of
the new life, and yet the percentages do not seem to
agree in all cases.

Motive

Men

Women

Desire to help others

25%
43
36
48

25%
42
32
47
6

Love for others

Nearness to Nature

Nearness to Giod

Nearness to Christ

If love of God enters so little into conversion, it
seems strange that the feeling of nearness to Him
should be so marked a feature of the new life, unless
the desire for his approval is really more prominent
before conversion than is indicated. Or, again, it may
be that the mere feeling of relaxation, or release after
the strain of expectation is given this meaning.

Notice how small a part is assigned to Christ in
these figures, obtained in nearly all cases, from ortho-
dox church members; and yet Christ is the central fig-
ure in the scheme of justification and redemption.

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RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT AND THEOLOGICAL IDEAS

187

Let us now consider briefly the religious life which
is a gradual growth, without the storm and stress of con-
version. Whether the development shall be
gradual or not is to a large extent a matter ctowS^

of temperament, but gradual growth is facil-
itated by early religious surroundings and by freedom
to raise doubts and wisdom in answering them. In
such cases the belief in God, Christ, and immortality
play a much more important part than in cases of sud-
den conversion. The thought is not centered so
entirely upon self.

In cases where the religious feeling was not aroused
at puberty, some other strong interest takes its place.
Usually this is the moral interest in 33 per cent of
women and 43 per cent of men, but it may be intellec-
tual (21 and 32 per cent), or esthetic (15 and 16 per cent).

What now are the permanent results? In the cases
of gradual growth, doubts are usually settled as they
rise, hence the growth is as a rule a part of permanence
character. ofconver-

In cases of conversion, on the other hand, ■^®^"-
there is frequently a period of reaction and reconstruc-
tion of belief. The tables stand thus:

Men

Result of
Conversion

Revivals

Age

Non-Revi-
vals

Age

Relapsed

48%
15

13.7
17

24%
35

17.5

Permanent

18.7

Women

Result of
Conversion

Revivals

Age

Non-Revi-
vals

Age

Relapsed

41%
14

12
14.3

14%
17

Permanent

15.3

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l8g tHE CHILD

This reconstruction may be, and often is, simply a
new interpretation of religious beliefs, a more vital
realization of the meaning of religion to the individual.
It does not necessarily involve any break with the
church, although the struggle is often a severe one.
Or again, it may lead to rupture. This period usually
covers the period from twenty to thirty, the time
when James tells us that intellectual habits are being
formed.

What, in view of these facts, should be the religious
training of the child? All agree that religion is not a
thing forced upon man from the outside,
tea^tag" ^^^ *^ rather the longing for unity with the
ideal self. It is essentially social — the
highest form of the longing for a friend who can per-
fectly understand us

* * What I could never be,
What men ignored in me.
This was I worth to God."

It is fed and nourished by the same source that
nourishes society. "If a man loves not his brother
whom he has seen, how shall he love God, whom he
has not seen ?" How can one attain to the love of an
ideal personality or to a belief in a Governor, a Judge,'
a Lawgiver, if he does not see the evidences of this
love and law about him in nature and in man?

We shall, therefore, agree emphatically with Dr.
Hall, in his statements regarding the religious educa-
tion of liU/e children. It must begin in the cradle with
the feelings of love and gratitude towards the mother,
who stands then in the place of God. Reverence,
obedience, and the whole list of Christian virtues are

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feBLIOIOUS SENTIMENT AND THEOLbOICAL IDEAd | gg

first exercised towards mother and father, and the less
they are called out in the family life the less moral and
religious capacity will the child have in
later life. If the mother and the father make the reUgioui
themselves slaves to the child's caprice, •duo^tionof
he will naturally look upon God as his
factotum. *'As a fatherj)itieth his children,'* so does
God. How then if the father is unwise, unstable, gov-
erned by moods? How shall he point the child to a
God worthy of worship? Whatever our individual
belief may be, we can not deny that men do and must
think of God as having the attributes of men, after an
anthropomorphic fashion, and as are the men whom
men know, so is their image of God. Here, then, is
one place where both teacher and parent can give
religious instruction by quickening the child's love
for others and for the ideal.

Again, the child is constantly brought into contact
with nature and with material things. If he is to con-
trol them, he must know and follow their
laws. Absolute truth is demanded of him ^wb'**
in his dealings with them, and absolute
obedience to their laws. One must be rather doubtful
of the advantages of unquestioning obedience to
persons^ for even the best of persons is so liable to error
that a child may easily feel that he is compelled by
brute force to submit to caprice. But there can be no
such possibility in following nature's laws. Obedience
{,0 principles can be inculcated there if the teacher will
but grasp his opportunity; and from this it is a short
step to obedience to the moral law and to God.

Here we get the sense of God as the God of law, as
a force infinitely more stable and valuable than the

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petty personality of the child. Awe and reverence
enter fitly to deliver a child from himself, or rather
from human nature as it is. Here also the question
of the legitimacy of punishments finds a solution. If
the father embodies or expresses to the child the law
that he understands, the child never rebels against
punishment. He knows that it is his due. Hence the
value of Spencer's doctrine, that a punishment should
be the natural result of the act, or as nearly so as pos-
sible.

In giving specific religious instruction, we can not, if
we would, prevent a child from forming more or less

definite pictures of God, Christ, heaven.
Directing j ^ r\u c I ^w

^he child's and so on, and so one of the first things is

religious tQ emphasize only the qualities that are
thought. ^ A \u ^u '

permanent and worthy. There is no reason

why a child should picture heaven with streets of gold,
but l^e may picture it as filled with blessed and happy
people.

Then, when the child approaches the age of adoles-
cence and conversion, the parents should take advan-
tage of his new sensitiveness to religious and moral
truths to impress upon him deeply his unity with God
and all good. The details will necessarily vary with
the convictions of the parents, but the important point
is that this aspect of the child's nature shall be given
its opportunity to flower, and yet not be forced into a
premature bloom. The enthusiastic hero-worship of
this age can hardly be more fitly directed than toward
the great religious leaders, provided that the bondage
6i narrow dogmas be not at the same time imposed —
a bondage that is soon thrown off, as the records of
backslidings from orthodox conversion show. The

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R£LtGlOUS SENTIMENT AND THEOLOGICAL iDEAd* IQ]

churches, except the Roman Catholic, do not as yet
appreciate their vast opportunity of making ardent
converts among the youth from twelve to sixteen years
of age, and the comparative difficulty of making con-
verts afterwards.

The religious sentiment is a feeiing of the unity
with a higher good, toward which we strive and upon

which we depend. It is universal, but its

r ^, , . , ^ Summary,

expression in theological systems varies

from century to century and from childhood to matu-
rity. The little child accepts the faith of his parentsi
without question, and modifies it so that he can under-
stand it, thus often forming grotesque combinations.
The older child begins to doubt and question. At
adolescence there is an awakening to the importance
of religion, followed by a sudden conversion or a
gradual adoption of definite beliefs, according to the
temperament and teaching of the person concerned.
In many cases, there is a period of backsliding,
followed by a second and permanent conversion in
two or three years. If the conversion does not
occur before the twentieth year, it is unlikely to occur
at all. \

Religious instruction reflects the character of these
periods. With the little child, who does not yet know
the abstract world of principle, it takes the form of
teaching habits of good living and loving; with the
adolescent, the rousing of responsibility, and some ^
specific form of belief, leading to church membership^
In all cases, the teaching should be such that it seems
reasonable to the child as he grows older and learns to
think for himself. It must not violate his sense of
justice or of love.

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192

THE CHILD

REFERENCES

Allen, J. G. Child Study and Religious Education. C. S. M.,

October. 1896, 289-293. (Plea for good S. S. teaching.)
Baldwin, J. Mark. Mental Development, Social and Ethical

Interpretation, pp. 327-357. N. Y., Macmillan. $2.60.
Barnes, Earl. Theological Life of a California Child. Ped. Sent.,

1892, 442-448.
Punishment as Seen by Children. Ped, Sent., Vol. III., 234-45.
Bergen, F. D. Theological Development of a Child. Arena,

1898, Vol. XIX., 254-266.
Butler, N. M. Religious Instruction in Education. Ed, Rev.,

Dec, 1899, Vol. XVIII., 425-436. (Advocates longer S. S.

sessions and paid teachers.)
Calkins, M. W. Religious Consciousness of Children. New

World, 1896, 705-718.
Chrisman, O. Religious Periods of Child Growth. Educ. Rev..

1898, Vol. XVI., 40-48.
Religious Ideas of a Child. C. S. M,, March, 1898. 516-528.
Coe, G. A. Morbid Conscience of Adolescents. Rept. of III.

Soc.for C. S., October, 1898, 97-108.
Dj^namics of Personal Religion. Psy.Rev., 1899, 484-505.
Studies in Religion, N. Y., Methodist Book Concern. $1.00.
Daniels, A. H. The New Life. Am. Jour, Psy., Oct., 1893, Vol.

VI., 61-106. (Significance o£ pubertj'' with primitive

peoples. Connection between adolescence and conversion.)
Gould, H. M. Child Fetiches. Ped. Sem., 1898, 421-425.
Hugh, D. D. Animism of Children. N. IV. Mo., June and

October, 1899, 450-453. 71-74-
Leuba, J. H. Psychology of Religious Phenomena. Am, Jour,

of Psy., Vol VII, 309-385.
McMurry, Li da B. Children's Moral and Religious Conceptions.

Rept. III. Soc.for C 5., Vol. II., 23, 24.
Marshall, H. R. Religious Instinct. Mind, N. S., 1897, 40-58.
Montgomery, C. Religious Element in Formation of Character.

Proc. N. E. A., 1899, 121-127.
Richter, Jean Paul. Lev ana. See Index. (Religious educa-
tion, commands, punishments, moral education of boys.)
Starbuck, E. D. Study of Conversion. Am. Jour. Psy,, Vol.

VIII., 268-308.
Psychology of Religion. N. Y., Scribner. I1.50.

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CHAPTER X

Conception of Good and Evil

1. Tell the story of Jennie, and the box of paints
(see section on Remedial Agencies in this chapter),
and find what punishment the children obserya-
would give. tions.

2. Ask the children whether it is **fair*' for a teacher
to punish the entire class for something that was done
by a member of the class, but by which one she does
not know.

3. To test the sense of property rights, ask the chil-
dren: "If you found a sum of money oa the school
doorstep, what would you do with it?" The amount
found should be varied in the different grades. It
should not be too large for the child to understand
what he can buy with it, or so small that he does not
think it necessary to seek its owner. The place where
it is found — the school doorstep — shows that probably
the owner can easily be found. A different set of
answers would be obtained if it were found in the
street.

"Are there good and bad children?" asks Beremini,
and his answer is: "No. There are individual san-
guine, choleric, mild, active, quiet, etc.,
temperaments. The leadership of moral edg^^atfirst
conviction, however, is lacking, for it is
the evidence of a gradually developing factor not
yet attained in social life. To the child, then, all

193

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194

THfi CHILD

things are possible, good and bad, and the thousand
and one intervening stages; only dispositions and ten-
dencies are present and the results are whatever comes
of the environment/' The more actual children are
studied, the more evident does it become that the
child's first acts are guided by certain instinctive ten-
dencies and their pleasing or painful results, without
any sense of right or wrong. A little baby is neither
good nor bad, neither selfish nor unselfish. He cries
and draws away from pain; he laughs and leaches out
toward pleasure, with no thought of how others are
affected by his acts, or of any further consequence to
himself. Only through the long training of childhood,
culminating at adolescence in a fuller ripening of the
social sensq^l^s he come to acquire true morality.

Society— 155^9^ or a human companion and judge —
is essential for the growth of the moral sense. In the
Society a actions and reactions between himself and
force In the others, a child learns both his limitations
of the moral and his possibilities, '*thou shalt not," and
sense. **thou shalt."

The morality of a child accordingly reflects, mifror-
like, the society into which he grows, as modified by
his own instincts. The Chinese boy adopts his
national morality as the American boy does his. If
the two were interchanged in the cradle, their moral
standards would also, in large measure, be inter-
changed, and the American child might so outrage his
nationality as to worship his ancestors!

A child's attitude toward social institutions at the
start, then, is one of total ignorance, which soon
changes to puzzled ignorance when he is checked in
doing what he wants; this confusion is followed by a

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CONCEPTION OP GOOD AND EVIL IQC

vague understanding of a superior force of some sort,
with rebellion or obedience, according to his disposi-
tion, and his belief in the beneficence of this force.
To trace the growth of this understanding in certain
respects is the object of this chapter.

There is an English proverb that * 'possession is nine
points of the law,'* and another that "finders are keep-
ers." Little children tend instinctively attitude
to act upon these proverbs. The one who toward
first gets a thing has the right to it against PO"""*®^.
all others; and, with the youngest children, this feeling
of ownership sets aside any previous ownership. The
little child does not make the distinction of thine and
mine. "Mine" is whatever he wants, and when he
does not want it, he may or may not feel a sense of
ownership. With kindergarten children the plea that
they "had it first" seems to override the argument "It's
my turn," especially if the turn is something left over
from the day before. There is a tendency to start
each day with a new account of rights.

The right given by possession is illustrated very well
by the boys on the McDonough Farm, near Baltimore.
This group of boys is to a large extent self-
governing. The first boys considered ©nthe
themselves all equally legatees of Mr. McDonough
McDonough, and therefore having equal
rights. Gradually a system of ownership grew up, own-
ership of squirrels' and birds' nests, and of land which
rabbits and musk-rats frequented, etc. Ownership was
conferred by the discovery of a squirrel's nest, and
the tacking of the discoverer's name on the tree. It
lasted for the season. No other boy had a right
thereafter to touch that nest, and was punished if

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196

THE CHILD

found doing so. In the case of rabbit and musk-rat
land, the ownership was acquired by setting a trap.
The land for a certain distance about the trap then
belonged to the owner for the season. But a bright
boy realized that if he left his trap in the same place
through the year, he would be the first at the opening
of the new season, and hence ownership of rabbit and
musk-rat land became practically permanent. On leav-
ing the school a boy could will or sell his trap to
another boy, and thus inheritance came in— but all
based primarily on the first possession. We find just
the same condition in opening new lands — forcible
possession gives ownership, and only too often gives
it even where there is a native race already in posses-
sion. The baby in clamoring to hold what he has by any
means grasped, is only repeating the history of the race.

When a right is in dispute, or a disagreeable role is
to be taken by some child, the decision may be
Attitude thrown back upon some reason or custom,

toward or if there is no such precedent, upon some

chance. form of chance. The most common illus-

tration of the last is in the counting-out rhymes. The
origin of these survivals of magical incantations
which were designed to bring to light a guilty person
shows even now, in that the person who is "It" usually
has the least desirable part in the game.

In the chapter on Imagination we have already
shown how a child may invent a lie in order to escape
Attitude from an unpleasant situation, just as he

toward invents means of obtaining bread and jam.

the truth. There is in this at first no perception of the
moral wrong, but only the instinctive shrinking from
pain. To cure the child, therefore, we must bring

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CONCEPTION OF GOOD AND EVIL 1 07

about two things: (i) Make him brave enough to take
the consequences of any act of his; and (2) make him
realize the self-contradiction and doubleness involved
in a lie. Sometimes it is said that a child should never
be punished when he confesses any wrongdoing.
Such a course must breed in a child a belief that there
is no natural penalty for wrong, and must end in more
or less contempt of the law that can constantly be over-
ridden if. only the transgression is admitted. Rather,
so high a fearlessness and honor should be cultivated
that a child who has done wrong shall present himself
for punishment.

Plato says somewhere that if man did but know his
highest good, he who had broken the law would hasten
to the judge for condemnation and punishment as a
sick man does to his physician tor medicine. So in
all our dealings with a child, even if pain is needful,
every act and word should declare to him that our
only purpose is to heal his moral sickness, and to
increase his moral health. We all know that children
can be very brave under the physical pain inflicted by
a physician if they understand the necessity for it.
Surely they will be no less brave under the pain result-
ing from their wrongdoing, if there also they see the
need of it.. Lies offer little temptation to a child who
holds this attitude toward pain. But most of us are
too cowardly ourselves to inculcate true courage into
our children. We ourselves prevaricate and falsify
under slight temptation, and we can expect nothing
else from our children.

In all probability there is at first no intention of
inflicting pain in bullying and fighting. Burk believes
that they are survivals of acts useful to an earlier

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198

THE CHILD

civilization. That is, they are instinctive, and have no
consciously defined purpose back of them. Probably
Teasinff curiosity to see how the victim will act also

bullying. enters in, as it does in the case of many
cruelty. apparently cruel acts. In such cases there

is a double remedy. First, the child's sympathy should
be aroused for the victim by leading him to imagine
himself in the other's place, or, if he can not imagine
it, by actually putting him there. A little bullying and
teasing of the bully, accompanied by remarks to show
that the pain he suffers now is only the pain he himself
has inflicted on others, will ofteh cure him. In the sec-
ond place, replace the bullying, teasing and cruelty by
other acts, if possible by kind acts, toward the victim;
but if that is not possible, by constant occupation in
work and games where there is no opportunity to
indulge this propensity. As to fighting, it is doubtful
whether a fair fight leaves any bad moral effects, and
does not rather square up grievances in the most satis-
factory way to the persons concerned. There are, of
course, boys who will brood over a defeat in a fight and
will be induced by it to use underhand means the next
time, but such a disposition is sure to come out in other
directions also, and must be combated all along the line.
The only way of knowing whether a boy has been bene-
fited by a fight is to see how he fegjs toward his oppo-
nent. The parent's action can be safely guided by that.
The moral ideas of children are concerned chiefly
with concrete acts. A good girl or boy is usually one

who minds the mother. At a great dis-
lAdthebad ^^^^^ after obedience comes truthfulness,

29 per cent as against 54 per cent. Is it
not a sad commentary upon us, that we should impress

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CONCEPTION OP GOOD AND EVIL

199

obedience upon children so much more diligently than
truthfulness?

In naming moral qualities that they would prefer in
a chum, however, the order stands thus: kindness and
good nature, justice, truthfulness, constancy, unsel-
fishness, affection, modesty, obedience, courage.

We shall discuss the subject of custom at greater
length under Imitation. Here we wish only to point
out that to the very little child the right Attitudey
thing is the customary thing. He knows towartf/
nothing of why he should or should not do ouBtom.
this; he simply accepts the fact that others do it, and
so he does it. The earliest moral education thus con-
sists in forming good habits through imitation. Such
training is of course incomplete unless it finally
reenforces the habits or custom by reason, guided by
a high moral ideal.

With little children law is a personal thing — the
command of the parent or teacher; but as they grow
older they become conscious that the par-
ents also obey, not the judge or the police- ^^4ard Uw
man, but something back of him, some-
thing that is called the law. So a child develops the
idea of an impersonal principle that applies to all
men, and gives obedience to it th« more readily as
his own life is regulated by reasonable customs.

The development of this sense of law is shown in
the penalties children of different ages would attach
to a wrong act. At seven, 89 per cent of the children
punish regardless of the legal penalties; at twelve
29 per cent give the legal penalty, and at sixteen 74 per
cent. The great \:hange occurring at adolescence marks
pnce more the child's mental and moral awakening.

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2(X) THE CHILD

In taking up the discussion of how to cure children's
faults and failings, we enter upon the most vexed sub-
Remedial ject in education. All sorts of opinions are

agencies: rife, from the theory that all children are

punlsluxieiitt ,

child's always good, to the one that origmal sin

attitude. makes almost the sum total of a child. To
preserve sanity, and to discuss neither the angels nor
the imps, but the children whom we play with every-
day, is the only object here.

It may throw some light upon the subject if we first
see what punishment children would themselves inflict
and consider just.

Miss Schallenberger told two thousand children from
six to sixteen years old this story: '*One afternoon,
six-year-old Jennie's mother went out to call, leaving
Jennie playing with her box of paints. After a while
Jennie went into the parlor, and saw there some nice new
chairs. She exclaimed, 'Oh, I will paint all these chairs,
and mamma will be so pleased !' When her mamma came
homeshe found her chairs all spoiled. If you had been
her mamma, what would you have done to Jennie?''

The punishments assigned fell into three classes.

I. The principle of reprisal. Jennie gave her mother
pain, and so she must suffer pain. The little children
advocated this far more than the older ones, for they
thought only of the act, not of the motive. At six
only 23 children speak of Jennie's ignorance; at
twelve, 322, and at sixteen, 654. So also, none of the
six-year-olds would tell Jennie why she was wrong; at
twelve, 181 do, and at sixteen, 751. The specific pun-
ishment assigned is usually a whipping, but this les-
sens from 1, 102 out of 2,000 at six, to 763 at eleven, and
185 at sixteen.

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CONCEPTION OF GOOD AND EVIL 20I

2. Prevention by fear or terror. None of the six-
year-olds would threaten; 39 at twelve and 85 at fifteen
would. None of the six-year-olds would make her
promise not to do it again; 15 at twelve and 35 at fif-
teen would. Notice how very small this class is both
as to threats and promises; and yet ^here are no more
common methods than these two in dealing with chil-
dren.

3. Reform. As we have already said, explanation
of why Jennie's act was wrong increases steadily up to
the age of sixteen. The idea of reform becomes more
prominent, but even at sixteen it is not as prominent
as the idea of revenge is at six. The older children
are more merciful than the younger.

Now consider in connection with inis the remi-
niscences by young people between seventeen and
twenty-one years old, given by Street, of punishments
that did good or harm

Under punishments that did good we find the follow-
ing list: Sixteen were helped by whippings, of which
they speak with gratitude; eleven by with- j^g^or
drawal of some privilege; six by talks; five unjust pun-
by being left alone a time; four by scolding. *8^"*^«»^-

Harm was done to eight by whippings; to eight by
undeserved punishments; to four by sarcasm; to four
by talks; to three by forced apologies; to two by pub-
lic punishments.

These numbers are small, and must be supplemented
by Barnes, who collected 2,000 papers describing just
and unjust punishments, from children between seven
and sixteen years old. Two and a half per cent of these
2,000 children can not recall any just punishment that
they have received; but we are left ignorant of their

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202 THE CHILD

character and surroundings; 25 per cent can not recall]
an unjust punishment; 42 per cent of those who think
punishment just, can give no reason, and 12 per cent
think that it does them good, although they do not
see how. In such cases, there seems to be an unques-
tioning acceptance of custom. Where reasons are
given, the most common idea is that of atonement, the
expiation of an offense by pain.

Of those who felt some one punishment unjust, 41
per cent gave as a reason that they were innocent of
the offense; 27 per cent that they could not help it,
forgot, did not know better, did not intend to, etc.;
19 per cent admitted the offense, but thought the pun-
ishment too severe, due to prejudice, etc. Eleven per<
cent maintained that the act for which they were pun-
ished was right, and 79 per cent threw, all responsi-
bility on the one who punished them. Injustice is, on
the whole, charged about equally against parents and
teachers, but as children grow older, they talk less
about home matters.

The ideas of what punishments are just and what
are unjust, are very vague, even among th^ older chil-
dren. The forms about which opinions commonly
differ are: scolding, confinement, and whipping. Six
hundred and eighty-one whippings are called just, as
against 493 unjust.

Finally, the results of investigations to determine
whether children admit the justice of making the
innocent suffer with and for the guilty are rather sur-
prising. This case was presented to nearly 2,000 chil-
dren from seven to sixteen years old: "Some children
in a class were bad, but the teacher could not find out
who they were, and so she kept the whole class after

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tONCEPTION 01? 6606 AUD EVIL 26^

school. Was she just?** Out of these 1914 children,
82 per cent considered her justified, and the percentage
was nearly the same for all ages.

The reasons given for this decision were various.
Forty-nine per cent claimed that it was just because
the class would not tell on the guilty ones, evidently
believing that the class as a whole is at least partly
responsible for the good behavior of each member.
Sixteen per cent said that the class was bad; 10
per cent, that the teacher did not know the guilty
ones and must punish some one; 5 per cent, that it
was a sur^ way of punishing the offenders, and 4 per
cent that it would prevent a repetition of the offense.
The feeling that the class should cooperate with the
teacher in keeping order increases to over 50 per cent
after the age of ten.

How then, do children feel towards punishments?

1. Little children are much more prone than older
ones to consider only the act, and not the

motive; to punish for reprisal; to inflict Summary.
physical pain; to give no reasons.

2. At no age do children consider threats and prom-
ises of much importance.

3. Practically all children accept most punishments
as just; but many consider some one or a few unjust.

4. What is just, is very vague and is probably almost
the same as what is customary, especially with the
younger children. Under unjust punishments, for
instance, violation of custom, either by punishing the
innocent or helpless child, or by exacting an unusually
severe penalty, covers nearly all the cases.

5. The most common punishment is whipping or
spanking. Among children of all ages, 681 whippings

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504

tHB CHILD

were considered just, as against 493 unjust. As far
as these records go, children do not seem to feel that
there is any greater indignity in a whipping than in
any other form of punishment.

6. Most children admit the justice, though on
various grounds, of punishing a class for the misbe-
havior of some unknown member.

What conclusions may fairly be drawn, as to the best
forms of punishment? This raises the whole question
of what agencies should and what should
^aixdnff "^^ ^^ employed to secure right feeling and
action, assuming that a child does act and
feel wrongly. Such agencies may be divided into
three classes: (i) the natural results of the child's act;
(2) moral suasion: (3) punishment or fear in some
form.

I. Punishment as a Logical Result, Spencer formu-
^ lated the doctrine that the reasonable punishment of a
\ wrong act is its own logical result, and that the pun-
ishment given by parents or teachers should simulate
this natural one as far as possible. The theory is
excellent as far as it goes, but there are many wrong
acts in which the consequences are so far removed that
the child can not of himself see the connection; and
there are others where the effect for the time being
is slight, and not painful; and there are still others in
which deformity or death would result. As an exam-
ple of the first we may take the habit of lunching three
or four times between meals; of the third, careless
playing with a sharp knife. We can not, in any such
cases, leave the child to learn by the results, and so we
supplement Nature by the second method — moral
suasion.

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CONCEI>tlOK OF aOOD AND fiViL

205

2. Moral Suasion, Under this head falls all discus-
sion of moral questions, whether it is the talking over of
some past offense or the warning against some danger.

Here also there is much difference of opinion as to
the value of discussing moral questions. More than a
few high-school teachers assert that talking does only
harm, because it hardens children and makes them
hypocrites. On the other hand, we have some direct
testimony from boys showing that they were greatly
helped at a critical time by a friendly talk.

It is possible here, as in everything else, to approach
a child in such a way that a discussion will only
harden him, but surely we can not assert that a kindly,
fair, and reasonable presentation of a moral question,
with opportunity on the child's part for reasonable
objections, will either harden him or make him hypo-
critical. He must have had sad experiences with
other adults if this is the effect upon him.

The writer believes, on the other hand, that there is
serious danger in leaving a child to form his own opin-
ions of right and wrong. He has not the ability to
generalize with certainty, or the experience upon
which to base a correct judgment, and it is our duty to
supplement his defects without forcing our opinions
down his throat. This teaching is not best done by
formal instruction, but in the evening or Sunday talks
that every wise mother has with her children. At such
a time, specific examples — this time when John got
angry, and that one when Mary told the fib — will
come up of themselves, and can be seen in their true
light by the children. Such talks show the children
where they must learn self-control and make them feel
that all the family are helping them.

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2o6 *Hfi cllbO

But the importance of kin^ess and gentleness in
doing this, and of not forcing discussion must be
insisted upon. To force children to talk over their
sins, or to listen to moral platitudes, does have the bad
effect which some teachers dread.

3. Punishment or Fear. When, however, the natural
punishment is no deterrent, and when discussion and
argument have been exhausted, is any resource left to
the instructor or parent but an appeal to fear in some
form? Let it be assumed that the action is evidently
a wrong one, like telling a lie, and that the lies are not
told from fear, but to get some supposed advantage.
The child is a persistent liar, let us say. We will admit
at once either that the child is abnormal, or that his
previous training has been seriously wrong; but still,
here he is, a persistent liar, on whom all our reasons
have been employed without effect. Some hopeful
enthusiasts maintain that there are no such children,
but they do not count for much in dealing with prac-
tical questions. What are we to do with this child,
if we do not punish him, and inspire him with a fear of
lying by making him realize vividly its bad results?

Punishment should be the to/ resort, but if all other
measures fail, then it may justly be employed. It is,
as Hyde says, a moral vaccination in such cases, a
slight sickness, to ward off a far more dangerous one.
What the punishment shall be, in cases where there is
no natural penalty, must depend very much upon the
nature of the child, and upon the punishment inflicted
upon his playmates. An unusual punishment is far
more dreadful than a customary one, even if it be in
itself lighter. The evidence obtained from children
themselves seems to show that they do not, as a rule,

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C6KC£PTI6^ OP QObb AND EVIL

^07

look upon corporal punishment with the same horror
that their elders do. This is doubtless due in part to
its being customary, and in part to their feeling of
personal dignity not being so highly developed. Con-
finement may inflict more pain than a whipping, or the
reverse may be the case.

The point is always, that a parent or teacher should
know what form of punishment may best reach the
child; that he should not inflict too severe a penalty,
or, on the other hand, too light a one; and that he
should impose the penalty, not in anger, but in all
fairness of mind.

If a child does not yield to mild punishment, he lays
himself open to more severity, and if he continues
may be classed finally as a subject for a reformatory.

The discussion, so far, seems to have been based on
the assumption that children are naturally bad, and
that punishment is an essential part of edu-
cation. We can not, indeed, deny that there Selwi^el*
are some unfortunates in whom the heredi-
tary tendencies to crime need slight encouragement to
come to a head. But such cases are few as compared
with the great number of children whose slight devia-
tions from right can be easily turned back. The pre-
vention of wrong action is a far more important branch
of practical morality than its correction.

Henry Ward Beecher once said, wittily and wisely,
that if he could but be born right the first time he
would be willing to take his chances on
the Second Birth. Modern Christianity conduio^^^^
marks its sense of the relation between
the physical and moral, by sending medical mission-
aries to the heathen and visiting nurses to the poor of

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2o8 rHK CHILD

the slums. It has been abundantly proved that
the moral tone is somewhat lowered by fatigue and
that the habitual criminal usually has some bodily
defects. The first thing necessary, therefore, for a
healthy moral nature is a healthy body. The moral
education of a child begins even before the marriage
of his parents, in their cultivation of right habits of
living.

Everything that contributes toward making the child
well-born, physically, and toward keeping him so, is
a factor in his moral education. Here, and here alone,
is the justification for the expenditure of the best
thought and energy upon the science of hygiene,
including cooking. Such matters as the healthiest
food for a meal and the healthiest way of cooking it,
the clothing, and the ventilation of the house, assume
from this standpoint the aspect of important moral
duties. The child who is born healthy and kept
healthy by good food, good air, and good clothing has
the basis of a sound morality.

The struggle between right and wrong occurs in most
of us because our feelings are opposed to our duty or
our reason, and it could be in large part
breeding transferred to a wider sphere, if we had '
been properly trained in small matters. I

It is pitiable to find a child of ten or eleven years I
constantly disciplined for slight discourtesies, for
indiscriminate eating at meals and between meals,
and for cruelty to weak things. His moral struggles
at this age should come in the resistance of temptation
to active wrongdoing. Such a condition is usually
the fault of the parent, who neglected these matters
when the child was little. From the very beginning

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CONCEPTION OP GOOD AND EVIL

209

of life, only courteous tones, gestures-, and acts should
surround the child, and be expected of him, as a
matter of course. Good breeding, which includes all
the lesser moralities, should be so habitual as to be
unconscious. Then a child can' turn his attention
entirely to the more serious moral questions that each
of us must some time decide.

In the decision of these questions, a child's greatest
safeguard, especially between ten and eighteen years
of age, lies in a close friendship with some
older person, parent, teacher or friend, ^'^^•^dship.
Such a friendship brings about naturally the free dis-
cussion of serious moral problems and allows a child to
receive with an open mind the opinions of his elders.
Both for the prevention and the correction of evil tend-
encies such a relation is of the greatest value. Parents
should, therefore, make every effort to retain the con-
fidence of their children, and teachers should consider
the securing of that confidence as important as their
class teachings.

The influence of good books, music, and pictures
must not be omitted, although probably they have not
as much influence upon most of us as our friendships.
All these means, it must be understood, are but sub-
sidiary to the great end of developing high ideals and
noble ambitions in the child by precept and example.
A morality that is merely habitual is better than none,
but is only the basis of a morality that is shaped and
modeled by the power of a living, glorious devotion
to the highest aims. The parent or the teacher who can
by any means inspire a child with a love of the good,
the beautiful, and the true, with the ability to see
them in the lives about him, and with a willingness to

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510 THE CHILD

sacrifice himself for their attainment in however
humble a form, has done the utmost that one human
being can do for another.

REFERENCES

Adler, Felix. Moral Instruction of Children, N. Y. , Appleton.

$1.50.
Barnes, Earl. Studies in Education, 26, 71, no, 149, 190, 270,

299. Chicago. University of Chicago Press, .(^^^^^s how

to collect and use material. )
Brown, E. E. Naughty Children. Proc, N. E.A., 1899, 564-570.
Bryant, Sophie. Teachings of Morality in Family and School.

N. Y. Macmillan. $1.25.
Studies in Character. N. Y., Macmillan. I1.50.
Bulkley, J. E. Social Ethics in the Schools. Forum, Jan.,

1899. Vol. XXVI., 615-620.
Burk, F. L. Teasing and Bullying. Fed. Sem., 1897, Vol. IV.
Carus, Paul. Moral Character of Children. Open Court, 1899,

176-184.
Darrah, Estelle M. Children's Attitude towards Law.' Barnes's

Studies in Ed., 213-216, 254-258.
Dewey, J. Chaos in Moral Training. Pop. Sc. Mo. Vol. XLV.,

433-443^
Ethelmer, E. Fear as an Ethic Force. West. Rev., 1899,

300-309.
Frear, Caroline. Class Punishment. Barnes's Studies in Ed.,

'iy^^'hyi' Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Groos, Karl. The Play of Man. N. Y., Appleton. $1.50.
Hall, G. S. Children's Lies. Ped. Sem., 1891, 211-218.

Moral and Religious Training of Children. Ped. Sem., 1891.
Harrison, Elizabeth. Child Nature, Chapter VI. Chicago,

Kgn. Pub. Co. $1.00.
Hyde, Wm. DeWitt. Our Ethical Resources. Andover Rev,,

Vol. XVII., 124-133.
Jordan, D. S. Nature Study and Moral Culture. Science, N. S. ,

1896, Vol. IV.: 149-156.
Luckey, G. W. A. Development of Moral Character. Proc. N.

E. A.f 1899, 126-136.

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CONCEPTION OF GOOD AND EVIL 2 11

Morro, A. Moral Influence of Puberal Development. Am. Jour.

Sociology, September, iSgg.
Mangasarian, M. M. Punishment of Children. Int. Jour.

Ethics, Vol. IV., 493-498.
Oppenheim, N. Why Children Lie. Pop. Sc. Mo., Vol. XLVIL,

1895, 372-387.
Osborn, F. W. Ethical Contents of Children's Minds. Educ.

Rev., Vol. VIII., 143-146.
Palmer. G. H. Can Moral Conduct be Taught in Schools?

Forum, Vol. XIV., 673-685.
Patterson, Alma. Children's Motives. Barnes's Studies in Ed.,

352-355. Chicago. University, of Chicago Press.
Perez, B. First Three Years of Childhood. Moral Sense, 285-

292. Syracuse, Bardeen. $1.50.
Rashdall, Hastings. Theory of Punishment. Int. Jour, of

Ethics, Vol. XI,, 20-31.
Rowe, S. H. Fear in the Discipline of the Child. Outlook, Sept.

24, 1898, 234-235.
Savage, M. J. Rights of Children. Arena, Vol. VI., 8-16.
Schallenberger, M. Children's Rights as Seen by Themselves.

Fed. Sem., 1894-6, Vol. III., 87-96.
Sears, C. H. Home and School Punishments. Fed. Sem., 1899.

159-187.
Sharp, F. C. Aims of Moral Education. Int. Jour. Ethics,

1899, Vol. IX., 214-228.
Sisson, Genevra. Who Has the Best Right? Barnes's Studies

in Ed., 259-263. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Spencer, Anna G. Record of Virtue. Century Mag., Vol.

XIX., 238-245.
Street, I. R. Study in Moral Education. Fed. Sem., Vol. IV.,

5-40.
Van Liew, C. C. Mental and Moral Development of the Kinder-
garten Child. Froc. N. E. A., 1899, 551-559.
Wall, W. A. Deterrent Punishment. Int. Jour. Ethics, Vol.

VIII., 157-158.
Wiggin, Kate D. Rights of Children. Scribner's Mag., Vol.

XII., 242. Also in book form as Children's Rights. Bos-
ton, Houghton, Mifflin. $1.00.
Wintarbum, Florence Hall. Nursery Ethics. N. Y., Baker.

$1.00.

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CHAPTER XI

Feelings and Emotions

1. Trace in some one child the growth of fear, anger,
and love. Note what called out the ^r^/ expression in
Obserya- eaich case, and how the range of objects
tions. widens. Did the child express affection
before he was taught the kiss or the loving pat? Was
he imitating?

2. Ask children of what they are most afraid, and
why?

3. Obtain from adults reminiscences of the persons
whom, as children, they loved best.

(i) At what age did the love exist?

(2) What relation did the person hold to you? How

well did you know the person? Did you see
the person daily or hourly? Was mystery an
element in the love?

(3) Why did you love the person? On account of

substantial services, like feeding and clothing
you? Or for some personal quality? Or
because of kisses and caresses for you? Or for
gifts — candy, picture-books, etc.? (It would
hardly be possible to question children them-
selves, as the knowledge that their papers were
to be read by the teacher would prevent a free
expression of feeling.)

There is probably no one subject in psychology that
has caused as much discussion as that of feeling and

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PBELINGS AND EMOTIONS

213

emotion. How pleasure and pain have originated and
what is their value, what emotion is and into what
classes it is to be divided, are matters on introduo-
which there are nearly as many opinions as ^®"^-
there are writers. We shall not, however, enter into
the discussion of these much disputed points except in
the most incidental way, but rather limit ourselves to
the description of certain definite emotions, as they
appear in children, and thus gain some idea of the
emotional nature as it actually mahTfests itself. This
will show, at least in a general way, what the most
powerful springs of action are, and will lead on to the
subject of interest, and of tendencies to action.

Interest, indeed, can not be eliminated entirely from
this discussion, for interest is feeling directed towards
a definite object, and it is impossible to
consider feeling without taking into account SterSst"*
its objects, more or less. Whatever division
we make must be more or less artificial. We shall,
howevef, take up here those feelings in which the
pleasure or pain aspect is the most marked feature to
the person himself. In interest the attention is con-
cerned more with the object and less with the feel-
ing, but, as we shall notice, either may pass into the
other in any specific case.

Even before birth it is probable that a child feels
pains and pleasures of touch, from pressures and jars,
but these are necessarily vague. After pirgt; pains
birth, for a long time, the most vivid feel- and
ings are those connected with hunger and Pi«"^re8.
its satisfaction, with warmth and cold, and with touch.
Under this last head come the baby's delight in
being relieved from the confinement of clothing, the

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214

THE CHILD

comfortable feeling of water in the bath, and the
pleasure of being rubbed dry and warm. Preyer and
I Compayre agree that in the first months of life the
I greatest pleasure is the negative one of getting rid of
^pain. In the course of a month, moderately bright
lights and slowly moving objects cause pleasure, and
by the second month bright colors and sweet sounds
are sources of delight. Between the fourth and sixth
months, the pleasure of grasping things and the delight
of being able to do things, such as tearing or crumpling
paper, ringing the bell, and so on, come into promi-
nence.

The appearance of the first smile that indicates
pleasure is the occasion of much rejoicing. Of course
a baby may make grimaces that look like smiles vefjr
early, either accidentally or as the reflex of some one
else's expression, but the first smile of delight Dar-
win says did not appear in his son until the forty-fifth
day. The smile is usually accompanied, especially as
the child gets a little older, by crowing and kicking,
and movements of the arms. Perez says that the little
baby is easily fatigued by any unusual experience,
whether pleasurable or painful, and should not be con-
stantly amused by over-fond mothers.

If he is well, the baby is usually content to lie in
his cradle and take in from it the sights and sounds
about him, dropping off to sleep at intervals to recover
from the pressure of the novel world. He gets all the
amusement that his nervous system can stand in this
way.

Prominent among the pleasures that seem to have
no object, is the child's delight in being tickled. A
summary of Dr. G. Stanley Hall's investigation of this

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PBELINGS AND EMOTIONS

215

subject follows. Most children and even adults have a
tendency to fuss with the skin, to rub it or scratch it,
especially if it has any slight bruise, rough-
ness or eruption that causes a feeling of Tickling and

rj., ^ , J , laughing,

uneasiness. There seems to be a demand

on the part of the skin, as of the other sense-organs,
to be stimulated. This need is satisfied by rubbing,
and also especially, by tickling. The sensitiveness
of the parts of the bodj^^j^f^ies more or less, but
this is the ami^t&ir'iSfSer: soles, under arms, neck,
under chin, waist, ribs and cheeks. Many children
can be thrown almost into fits by a little tickling, and
at some we need only point the finger to send them
into gales of laughter. Dr. Hall considers this great
sensitiveness a survival of ancestral experiences in
tropical lands, where the sense of touch must be very
delicate to escape the bite of poisonous insects. Why
the experience now should be so highly pleasurable,
instead of a source of terror, is, to say the least, inex-
plicable, on this theory.

Another source of merriment to children is founa in
the animal world. Children, says Dr. Hall, have a
closer connection with animals than adults do, because
the organs common to men and animals, which in the
adult are atrophied, are relatively larger in the child.
There are over one hundred and forty of such organs,
and they furnish a larger background of common feel-
ing than is possible with the adult. The animals which
are most often the cause of merriment are, in the
order of frequency, the dog, cat, pig, monkey, rooster,
crow, chicken, duck, ape, goose, sheep, cow, and
horse. Children are also prone to laugh at what is for-
bidden or secret. This is due to a relief of tension,

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2l6 THE CHILD

Dr. Hall thinks, and is injurious on every account. It
lessens the restraint upon social decency, and gives
rise to wrong feelings about sexual subjects. It fur-
nishes still another argument in favor of giving a child
knowledge of such matters.

Anger and fear are commonly considered instinctive
emotions, that is, certain objects, upon the first
acquaintance with' them, will call out the
same feelings and expressions from all
^en. Darwin observed that as early as the eighth day
his child wrinkled his forehead and frowned before
'crying, as if angry; and in the second .month Perez
observed that the child showed anger by pushing away
with a frown objects that he did not like. In the
fourth month anger is certainly shown; the face and
head become red, and the cry ^hows irritation. This
' is caused at first by delay in supplying food; but two
! or three months later will be called out by any thwart-
ing of desire, such as the dropping of a toy.

Anger at this early age, it must be noted, is simply
the instinctive rebelling against pain. It is wholly
unreasonable and is best dealt with by diverting the
child's attention if the deprivation is for the child's
good. . As a child gets a little older, especially if it is
a boy, he is likely to vent his anger by beating the
person or thing that offends him, or by throwing
things at them. Here, also, until a child can be
reasoned with, diversion of attention and the final
securing of an expression of affection is the wisest
method of treatment.

At best only a few of the causes of anger can be
enumerated. There is, in the first place, what may be
called an irascible disposition, with which some seem

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PEELINGS AND EMOTIONS

217

to be born. Disappointments and vexations which

others would hardly notice result in violent outbursts

of temper. Personal peculiarities of speech,

gait, dress — almost anythmg, in fact — may anger.

lead to a hate that is almost murderous

in its vindictiveness. When a child is so unfortunate

in disposition, only the most constant, temperate,

kindly training in self-control will help him.

There are, in some cases, physical conditions caus-
ing constant irritation which are reflected in this bad
temper. Hence parents should first of all ascertain
whether the child is healthy. Fatigue is also a com-
mon cause of irritability. With older children as with
younger the thwarting of expectations is one of the
most common causes of anger. A child to whom a
promise has been broken, who has been "fooled,*' who
has been called home before he finishes his game, is
usually an angry child. Anger over a violation of
justice or principle is relatively uncommon in chil-
dren. The_ie£ling-aLpain or the suffering of personal
injur y is usually the underlying cause.

As to the m^tH6a~tD "belised in controlling anger
we find the most conflicting theories. The natural
tendency is to express the anger in some
way — to strike or bite or scratch, or at an«w^^'
least to say sharp words or to slam a door.
Many men find great relief in swearing and others
think vigorously what they dare not say. In all these
cases, there is some vent for the emotion, and usually
it is some kind of reaction against the person who
caused the anger. Dr. Colin Scott has collected
cases of girls who, when angry, would picture them-
selves as dead, and the person who had injured them

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2i8 THE CHILD

as suffering from romorse. He advocates this as
a healthy outlet for an emotion which, if kept in and
allowed no expression, causes more and more resent-
ful brooding over the wrong.

It is true that nothing can be worse than to brood over
an injury, but expression of the anger is not the only
alternative for this. Anything that keeps the mind off
1 the injury and uses up the energy is equally service-
able. A long walk, chopping wood, carpentry work, em-
broidery — anything that is not so habitual as to be auto-
matic, anything that forces one to attend to it, may be
the vent for anger. Then after a time, the first strength
I of the emotion passes away, and we can combat it by
I reason and by the cultivation of love or pity in its place.
It is doubtful if anything but harm comes from allow-
ing ourselves to express any bad emotion. The very
expression. reenforces the feeling and makes it more
lasting. We can do naught but condemn the atti-
tude which is cultivated by picturing one's self as the
injured party, the cause of remorse to others. One
may or may not have been injured when one has been
angered, but whether one has or not, the pose of self-
rightei^sness, of the injured martyr, is the pose of a prig
and has nothing admirable in it. In short, to repress
the expression of anger, and to cultivate the expression
of love, is in large part to repress the anger and increase
the love, and is the best training in self-control.

J ealousy appears very early, even in the nursing child,
who gets angry if another child is given his bottle. It

is caused by any prospect of another

Jealousy. . , ^ r r . • i .

usurpmg one s own pleasures, and is best

treated in much the same way as anger — by the culti-
vation of sympathy and love.

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PEELINGS AND EMOTIONS

21^

None of the emotions of children have been so care-
fully studied as fear; for there is none which gives
more anxiety to parents or is more difficult
to overcome, especially with little children.
Many students of child nature believe that there are
instinctive fears, as well as fears that are the result of
sad experiences. Others maintain that fears cannot
properly be called instinctive because the objects
which call them out vary widely. Thus some children
are always afraid of darkness; others are wholly
unaffected. Perhaps in view of this variation we shall
be nearest the truth if we say that anything which
makes a child feel helpless or insecure, or that startles
him, is very likely to cause fear.

The very first fears, which come at least as early as '
the third month, are due almost entirely to sudden sur- i
prise. Loud or unexpected sounds, therefore, such as ,
thunder or the banging of a door, or the furious bark-
ing of a dog, are the most common causes of these
fears. A little later, strange objects and persons call
out protests and tears from many children, but the fear
is only slight. The recovery from it may be followed
by laughter and delight. This makes it possible to
train a child to face little fears, and afterward larger
ones, bravely.

In Sully's record the first fears of things seen were
called out by a strange place in the fourth month, and
by a strange face in the sixth month. This latter
fear was not overcome for a year. New clothes may
cause terror, and tossing in the arms and learning to
walk alone also cause many fears. In both these cases,
the feeling of insecurity is doubtless the potent factor.
Dolls that have anything unusual about them, such as

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2 20 'THE CHILD

oddness, or ugliness, or broken members, also arouse
fear. In this class also should be put fears of appar-
ently uncaused occurrences, such as a feather floating
in the air, or the shadow of a cloud moving over the
grass. Some observers of animals claim that this is
what makes horses shy at a bit of paper in the road.
The story of the dog who was frightened into a fit by
seeing a bone moved by an invisible thread also
belongs here. Fear of the dark does not occur until
the fourth month or later, as a rule, and is closely
connected with imagination.

All these fears may rise at any time with children
who never had them before, and they may persist
through life, or remain for only a short time. Fear of
black things, black animals, black dresses, black
places, and iears of furs and of teeth, occur also
with some children without any experience to justify
them. Whether they are reverberations of ancestral
or prenatal experience or not, we cannot say.
Preyer records that at ten months, his boy was afraid
of high tones; and at twenty-one months, of the sun.
Doubtless each parent can cite other individual
instances.

Let us consider now the proportions of children who
have and who have not fears, and the numbers and
the causes of the fears. It seems to be the
of fears*** case that deaf children fear more kinds of
things than normal children, and have more
imaginary fears. The sense of helplessness is more
prominent. Imbeciles, on the other hand, have fewer
fears, for they do not know enough to be afraid.
Miss Calkins has investigated the fears of children
with these results:

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PBBLINQS AMD EMOTIONS

All Children

221

Under
3 Years

3 TO 6
Years

6toi6
Years

No fear

39%
6i

115%
88.5

5 %
88.2

Fear

Comparison of Boys and Girls

Under 6 Years

6 TO 16 Years

Boys

Girls

Boys

Girls

No Fear

17.4%
82.6

24.2%
75.8

1.7%
98.3

0%
100

Fear

The girls show less variety in their fears and are
less afraid of imaginary things than the boys.
Under three years, 66 per cent of the fears were of
things seen, and 23 per cent of things heard, an exact
reversal of the fears of the baby. Both of these
diminish somewhat by the sixth year, and the number
of miscellaneous fears increases. The change in the
objects of fear at different ages is also very interesting:

Z
X

CO
H

t/i

si
^1

D
H
<

Under 6 years

9 to 14 years

7.3%

2.2

17.2%
2.4

2.5%
2.2

9.8%
1.3

14-7%
60.6

26.2%
13.7

4%
93

Imaginary fears increase from 27 per cent at the age
of six to 55 per cent at fourteen. Indeed, we may
probably class the enormous increase in the fear of
wild animals as an imaginary fe^ to a large extent, for
few children have any actual experience with wild
animals. The fear of domestia^nimals decreases. All
fears of the other things with which the child deals
constantly, decrease steadily, except fear oi^nature.

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^^^

TH£ CktLO

Here the feeling of helplessness and uncertainty seems
to increase with experience. A comparison of these
observations with the reminiscences collected by Dr.
Hall which are far more numerous than any others,
and by Holbrook, will be of interest.

Objects of Fear Under 23 Years of Age

Hall

Calkins

Holbrook

Thunder

Girls
14%

Boys

Liehtnine

Persons

9
9
9
4
3

7.6%

Reptiles

Darkness

4.4

Death

Domestic animals..
Wild animals

18.4
43.4

Rats and mice

i
3

2i
2

*
31
2
2

Insects

Ghosts

Wind

2.2

End of world

Water

Robbers

Miscellaneous

Monsters

Hill

3
4

Vaeue Fears

Dr. Hall gives an average of 2.21 per cent fears for
each boy, and 3.55 for each girl, while from other
figures he gets an average of 2.58 for each boy, and
5.46 for each girl.

For different ages the averages are:

Under 4

4 TO 7

7 TO II

II TO 15

15 TO 18

18 TO 26

Boys

1.76%
4.89

1.5%
2.44

3.56%
4.34

3.69%
6.22

3.60%
10.67

2.55%
4.31

Girls

This directly contradicts Miss Calkins' observations
for children under the age of six, as she found that

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PBBLINQS AND EMOTIONS 223

girls have fewer fears than the boys; and she does not
find the difference after six so great as Dr. Hall does.

In considering the objects of fear, we find two seri-
ous discrepancies between the three observers: the fear
of darkness varying from 4 per cent to 22 DUcrep-
per cent; and the fear of wild animals vary- anciet.
ing from o to 43 per cent. The other slight variations
would probably disappear with more observations, but
these two points of variation are difficult to explain.
Even if we count reptiles, insects, and rats and mice
as wild animals, the total is but 15 per cent as against
43.4 per cent. Evidently much more careful observa-
tion is necessary here. Dr. Hall says further that the
fear of the world and of kidnapping decreases with
maturity, while fear of thunder and lightning, robbers,
'reptiles, and insects increases. Fear of wind, water,
darkness, domestic animals, ghosts, death, and disease
increases at pubescence and decreases later.

Dr. Hall is very fond of referring fears to ancestral
experiences, that is, he makes them instinctive sur-
vivals of a life under other conditions. We
have already seen, however, that the fears ^^r"**^^
vary so much that this explanation is
hardly tenable. It^e,ems_rnore reasonable to refer
many apparentlyi^useless fears to nervous" shock or to
the feeling of hejplessness and strangeness. UFcourse,
pictures and^ stories are~~^also-comm^c>o-cattses-of fear.

Where fear is purelylherestilYor nervous sFocks it is

difficult to control. Many people who know the harm-

lessness of it, are, nevertheless, stricken

with terror by thunder. The most that can f^ar*'^^^^

1 be done in such cases is to hold the mind

I to the conviction of the harmlessness of the object

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224

TH£ CHILD

feared. In other cases, such as fear of the dark, or of
ghosts, entire control can be attained by this method,
especially if the child's pqde is stimulated so that he
wants to overcome his fear.

It should be needless to say that a child ought never
to be frightened unless fear is the only thing to keep
him out of harm. It is true that **a burnt child dreads
the fire," and fear is potent in many directions, but
the parent or teacher who habitually appeals to it is
. cultivating low motives. It would, perhaps, be going
too far to say that fear should never be employed, but
it should be a last resort and the necessity of using it
declares a deficiency either in teacher or in child.

Bashfulness is an offshoot of fear, the survival in a
lessened form of what was active terror in our ances-
tors. It appears in the little child as an
mstinctive shrinkmg from strange persons
T^jod things. It is not marked enough to be called fear.
However, it may be overcome under proper condi-
tions by imitation, but is succeeded in the second or
third year by a second shyness, which is due to self-
consciousness. The three-year-old hides and yet
looks; he wants to become acquainted, but can not for-
get himself enough to do so. Such bashfulness is
likely to obtrude itself under uippu^ circumstances
until adolescence is passed. \j^^"'

Out of nine hundrecyd||^™ 40 per cent remember

a Christmas or di ^'\viVmaK.s the happiest day of their

lives; and^^per cent remember an excur-

i^lH!^^ sion or a picnic on account of the fun that
sorrows. '^

they had. Anything of a pleasing nature
which introduces novelty into a child's life delights
him.

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PEBLINOd AND EMOTIONS

225

The death of some relative or friend caused the
unhappiest day for 50 per cent of the children, while
sickness, physical punishment or disappointment
caused it for 35 per cent. In general, the greatest joys
and sorrows of a child at any time or age are con-
nected with the satisfaction or thwarting of his strong-
est interest.

The first expression of sympathy is purely imita-
tive. The baby of six months draws down his mouth
when others cry, and laughs in response to
laughter. If James's theory of the emo- SS^ptJy.^
tions be true, this instinctive reaction
creates a corresponding state of mind, at least to a
slight degree, which is the basis of sympathy. As a
child grows older, he learns more_iJid mpre by
experience what states of feeling certain expressrotts
stand for, and is able to put-4^imself into the other
person's place. Preyer records that in the twenty-
seventh month his son cried with pity at seeing paper/
dolls cut in two. This first pity is, as we should
expect, shown in connection with physical things —
hunger and cold, lack of shelter and clothing. On the
other hand, children frequently laugh jt^ deforniity
and sorrow. One of th#-sad olidpTers^ the lives of
feeble-minded chiidren is that they can seldom be
allowed to pIsy^^BBManal children because they are
badly treated. Such i^^^|y|ient i$ not, however, so
much a sign of cruelty i^^i^^^^Ni^f ignorance, and
can usually be cured by sh^P^ the child the real
suffering that he is causing.

In the same way he can be taught kindness to ani-
mals. It is certainly true that very often when children
are hurting animals cruelly and are laughing at their

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226 'THE CHILD

contortions of pain, they dt) not see anything more than
the mere movements, as of a jumping-jack. Their
fondness for practical jokes shows this same charac-
teristic. The only cure for such lack of sympathy is a
wide experience and a constant exercise of the imag-
ination in **putting yourself in his place/' When
Marie Antoinette was told that the starving peasants
of France had no bread to eat she asked in all simplic-
ity, **Then why do they not eat cake?'' She lacked
the experience necessary for sympathy.

It is commonly said that the child's first affection is
/ given to his mother and is based upon his physical
/ dependence on her and his pleasure in the

/ * warmth and comfort he obtains from her.

It is difficult, however, to see how anything but the
feeling of dependence and of personal enjoyment can
rise from this basis. Rather we take the ground that
Dewey does, that sympathy which seeks an outlet in
action is love, and that antipathy which seeks anf out-
let in action is hate. When our liking for a person
depends solely upon his usefulness to us, it is unworthy
of the name of love.

To return to the baby, his first spontaneous caresses,
are, naturally enough, given to the one who tends him
and whom he knows best — his mother. As he grows
older, the love of parents and of friends can show
itself more and more in different ways, and his first
responses; which were to a large extent instinctive and
vague, also become more varied. His love for his
parents deepens and widens to include friends and
God.

Mothers sometimes lament the growth of their chil-
dren to manhood and womanhood, as if the bonds of

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PEELINGS AND EMOTIONS

227

love were lessened thereby. This may happen where
a child is allowed to accept without any return the
greatest sacrifices from his parents. He is
thereby taught selfishness and allowed to ^affecS^
think that his good is distinct from his par-
ents' and superior to it. It is sometimes said that the
most selfish person is the one most tenderly loved.
There is a certain truth in this.

Love is, in its very nature, active and self-sacrific-
ing, and increases in proportion to what it does. If it
is expended upon a selfish person who is believed to
be worthy of it, or if it is called out toward a sick or
helpless person, it finds ample room for growth. So
when a child is little, the parents' love is peculiarly
tender, and it is hard to have this love grow into a
different, though equally strong one, and still harder
to train the child to love by teaching him sympathy
and service.

Love and service are, however, inseparable terms,
and so, even from babyhood, the little one should be
allowed and encouraged to do his best in helping about
the house, in comforting his parents in their worries
and in celebrating their joys.

In every possible case some act expressive of his
love should be suggested, and with it, the loving word
and the caress. Anglo-Saxons are prover-

Cftr68868>

bially reserved; in our fear of hypocrisy,
we go to the other extreme of reticence. Many a
child can remember each individual kiss that he has
received from parents who would give their lives for
him if necessary, and who do sacrifice many pleasures
and luxuries. Such restraint works a harm to the
child in allowing him to believe himself unloved in

Digitized by VjOOQIC

228 THE CHILD

contrast to his more fortunate companions who are
kissed and caressed. He is not of an age to under-
stand the love that gives up comforts to provide him
an education, while leaving him without the loving
word and the kiss for which he longs. Parents do
themselves wrong in their children's eyes, and hurt the
children by such methods. Is it not better to have
both thQ act and the word or caress? We understand
that words without deeds are vain, but why should we
not have words with deeds ?

Finally, there is no better way to cast out hate, jeal-
ousy and all their brood than by service; loving serv-
ice if possible but any sort of service at
MTvict^ first to which we can persuade the child.
A forced kindness later becomes sponta-
neous if persisted in. While it may only breed hypoc-
risy in a child to compel him to treat kindly a child
whom he dislikes, yet we can very often call his
attention to some interesting or lovable or pitiable trait
so that he will of his own accord help the child and
grow to like him.

Richter tells us to teach our children to love, and
they will need no ten commandments, and we have a
higher authority than his for the belief that the Law
and the prophets are summed up in the command-
ments to love God, and to love our neighbor.

REFERENCES

Baldwin, J. Mark. Bashfulness in Children. Eiiuc. Rev.^ Vol.
VIII., 434-441. (Same as in Mental Development.)
Mental Development: Methods and Processes. See Index.
N. Y., Macmillan. $1.75.

Bowles, Mary E. Emotions of Deaf Children Compared with Emo-
tions of Hearing Children. Ped. Sem., October, 1895, 331-334.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS

229

Boyd, A. K. H. Concerning the Sorrows of Childhood. Atlantic^

Mo., Vol. IX.
Carpenter, E. Affection in Education. Int. Jour, of Ethics,

1899, Vol. IX., 482-494
Compayr6, G. Intellectual and Moral Development of the

Child, its-2<A, First Emotions, N. Y., Appleton. $1.50.
Darwin, C. Biography of a Child. Mind, 1877.
Dugas, L. La timiditS. Paris, Alcan.
Falkenthal, K. Emotional Life of Children, Wellesley Coll.

Psy. Studies. Fed. Sem,, Vol. III., 319-330.
Groos, Karl. The Flay of Man, 166-169, 232-237. N. Y., Apple-
ton. $1.50.
Hall, G. S. Anger. Am. four. Fsy., 1899, Vol. X., 516-591.
Education of the Heart, Kgn. Mag., May, 1899, Vol. XI.,

592-595. (Asserts that children need the rod, fighting, etc,

to prevent them from becoming parasites.)
Fears. Am. four. Psy., 1897, Vol. VIII., 147-249.
Hall, G. S., and Allin, A. Psychology of Tickling, Laughing and

the Comic. Am, four. Fsy., Vol. IX., 2-40, 234-240.
Hall, G. S., and Saunders, F. H. Pity. Am. four. Fsy., Vol.

XI., 534-591.

Harrison, M. M. Child's Sense of Fear. Arena, 1896, 960-969.

Holbrook, A. S. Fear in Childhood. Barneses Studies in Educ, -
pp. 18-21. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.

Kitchin, J. M. W. Infantile Grief. Babyhood, June, 1892.

Maitland, Louise. Children's Attitude towards Ghosts. (Fear.)
Barnes's Studies in Ed., t^'(fj,\'jt-\'j'j. Chicago. University
of Chicago Press.

Mosso, A. i^<?ar, Chapter XI. N. Y., Longmans. $1.75.

Perez, B. First Three Years of Childhood, Chapter V. Syra-
cuse, Bardeen. $1.50.

Preyer, W. Senses and Will, 140-176. N. Y., Appleton. I1.50.

Ribot, Th. Psychology of Emotions. See Index. N. Y., Scrib-
ner. I1.25.

Siviter, Anna P. Fear of Childhood. Kgn. Mag., October,
1899, Vol. XII., 82-87.

Stanley, Hiram. Evolutionary Psychology of Feeling. See
Index. N. Y., Macmillan. I2.25.

Stevenson, A. Jealousy in Infants. Science, October, 1892.

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230

THE CHILD

Stryker, Mabel F. Children's Joys and Sorrows. C. S. M.y

October, 1898, 217-225.
Sully, James. Studies of Childhood. Subject of Fear. 190-227.

N. Y., Appleton. $2.50.
Vostrovsky, Clara. Children's Superstitions. Barnes's Studies

in EduCt 123-143. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.

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CHAPTER XII

Interests

The use of the plural number in the title — interests
instead of interest — emphasizes the fact that we do
not wish to concern ourselves with the dis- mtroduc-
cussion of theories so much as with the *^<>"-
presentation of observed facts. We shall touch upon
the various theories of interest — the singular — only
incidentally, and instead shall discuss what children
are interested in and what bearing their interests have
upon our treatment of them.

In discussions of interest, it is usually assumed
that every one knows what interest is and what it
involves; but there is, in reality, no one
mental attitude more difficult to disentangle SStereat*^
from others than this one. So closely is it
connected with our feelings and emotions, our expec-
tations and reasons, our decisions and will, that we
stand amazed at its complexity.

Interest seems to express the whole personality more
completely than any other mental attitude. Show me
a man's interests and I know the man, both his
habits and his ideals. We might say that interest is
the impulse to self-preservation, directed toward a
definite object or idea. It is the impulse of the man
to realize himself in some particular form. The musi-
cian's interests, the business man's interests, the
scholar's interests are, each of them, the man's desire
impelling him to secure the satisfying thing •

231

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232

THE CHILD

Interest is not, then, a passive thing in the begin-
ning. We are interested in so far as we take an inter-
est or Jiave an interest. This first interest, it is true,
may have others derived from it, but we must at the
beginning hold an active attitude toward life rather
than a passive one. The baby's eye longs for light
and so receives it gladly. His hands crave things to
touch as much as his lungs crave air. So we find con-
stant action and reaction between the baby and his
surroundings.

Interest thus includes both feeling and thought and
points toward action, lit is the focusing of the state
of consciousness preliminary to action! It is atten-
tion, but attention with especial rererence to the
feeling which prompts it and ''to the action which
follows.

Concerning the feelings which prompt interest we
may say that they are in the first place instinctive feel-
ings, the reverberations of ancestral expe-

Heredlty riences
and intereit. ^1^"^*^^-

There can be no doubt now that any child

is not simply the child of his parents, but of all his
ancestors. Traits that do not appear in either father or
mother, but that go back to some ancestor of perhaps
a hundred years before, may suddenly crop out in some
feature, some deformity or beauty, some trick of voice
or carriage. When we consider that if we carry direct
inheritance back only eight generations, there are two
hundred and fifty-six direct ancestors, we can see how
immensely complicated a thing inheritance is. Eight
generations are nothing to an individual with an ances-
try going back millions of years, and yet, if the present
view of inheritance be true, all those millions of years

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INTERESTS

233

of inheritance of living and acting are summed up in
each one of us to-day.

Biologists have proved again and again that the
human embryo in its development passes through
well-marked stages representing the great divisions of
animal life, and now anthropologists are teaching us
that from birth to maturity the child also passes
through definite stages representing the progress of
mankind. Neither biologists nor anthropologists claim
that the child repeats all the stages of evolution.
Rather, he goes through only certain of the most im-
portant ones, and skips the rest.

What is true on the side of physical growth seems
also to be true on the side of feeling and acting.
All babies have certain instinctive ways of feeling and
acting toward certain stimuli, and these are what
prompt them to learn more about the object or to get
away from it, that is, to show an interest, either
pleasurable or painful.

Such a feeling is not by itself an interest. An inter-
est comes when the craving receives satisfaction from
some definite object. The baby sees and grasps the
bright soft ball and then has an interest in the ball. The
artist imagines the beautiful form. He has an interest
in it. In all cases, when the obscure craving finds some \
definite object, or idea, which joins to it satisfaction or I
frustration, there is a pleasurable or painful interest. ^

Interests may be either natural or acquired — natural,
when the object or idea is in itself attractive j^cq^ired
or repellent; acquired, when it derives its and natural
interest from something else. interests.

A beautiful color, or a loud sound, are examples of
the first. If, however, we love the color because it is

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234

THE CHILD

a dear friend's favorite, the interest is derived; so also

y if we dislike the sound because it reminds us of a

/ dreadful accident. Acquired interests call into play

y an appreciation of the relation of means to ends and of

N^ffects to causes; natural interests do not.

As interests thus call into play both feeling and
thinking and point toward action, we shall get the
best concrete view of them available with our present
knowledge by presenting a brief summary of what we
have had so far and an outline of the consequent
action. That is, we shall try to draw a picture of the
child at each of the typical stages: (i) Babyhood, up
to the acquisition of speech; (2) early childliood, up to
the second dentition; (3) later childhood, to the advent
of puberty; and (4) adolescence, to the completion of
the bodily growth.

For the first two months of his life, we may fairly
say that the baby's chief interest is in what goes into
- his mouth. Not only are the lips and the
o?babyhood* tongue the parts most sensitive to touch,
but touch is relatively more developed than
other senses. Hearing is imperfect and sight is short
and uncontrolled. The arms and legs are not under
control for grasping and creeping, so that the baby
must perforce wait for what comes his way. Further-
more, he spends a.large part of his day in sleep. What
little display of anger he makes is when he does not
get his food promptly. So the baby is a dimly-see-
ing, dimly-hearing, little creature, sleeping much of
the time and conscious chiefly of the satisfaction of
food.

During the third month, however, with more distinct
seeing and the rise of memory, comes a marked interest

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INTERESTS ^35

in seeing things. Now the baby holds his head up,
twists his head and body to see things, and studies
everything about him, learning it in its various appear-
ances. The interest in suckable objects continues and
is strong, but its prominence is relatively less because
visible objects have now become so interesting.

From the fourth to the sixth month, both of these
interests continue, and are fed and supplemented by
the great interest in graspable objects. Grasping and
sucking, seeing and grasping, seeing, grasping and
sucking are now combined and find their satisfaction
in superlatively interesting, seeable graspable and
suckable objects.

The baby is now gfetting control of his body, and
between the fifth and sixth months the rise of the
instinct of imitation gives him endless desire to exer-
cise this new control. Anything which he can imitate
now becomes interesting and as the movements and
voices of persons are most imitable, they become most
interesting to him. Jhe instinct of speech arises a
little later, and then the baby begins to babble and to
imitate the sounds about him. After some months of
babbling and imitating he succeeds in beginning to
use speech as well as gestures and cries to express his
thought.

Tfee-cravjng of the growing limbs for more exercise
results in creeping and later in walking, with the wide
range of new activities and interests thus made pos-
sible.

So, during the first year and a half, the baby's inter- .
ests are connected with the exercise and control of the j
sense-organs and of the larger muscles of the body. 1
By the end of this time he can usually walk and

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236

THE CHILD

talk, and use his five senses with a fair degree of accu-
racy, though he still is lacking in control in many
respects.

From the acquisition of speech to the .time of the
second dentition, the interests of babyhood are still
interestB strong, but are shown in more attention to
ofeariy the details of the activities. The child

chUdbdod. j^Q^ Ukes to playgames that test the sharp-
ness of the senses; he likes to experiment with new
movements — to walk on tiptoe, to skip and dance,
to play finger-games, to draw, to string beads and
so on.

His interest in imitating persons is greater than
before. His plays at this tinfe are very largely imi-
tative. He imitates persons more than he does any-
( thing else. He personifies all sorts of inanimate
objects, and the only cause he knows is a personal
one. Through his interest in imitating persons he
enters into the race interests which are going on about
him — learns in a crude way how we get our food and
so on. His interest in language persists in various
forms, such as his delight in nonsense rhymes and his
persistent desire to name all the objects he sees. His
love of rhythm is also prominent and is closely
connected with the increasing control of his move-
ments.

During the latter part of this period some new and
strong interests arise. As memory and imagination
develop they introduce the child to another world
which he finds that lie can change to suit himself, while
he can not so alter the world of his senses. The love
of power which in his babyhood was gratified by his
new control of his body, now finds another source of

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mtERBSTd ^xy

gratification in this mental play. We find him, there-
fore, listening to and inventing tales of marvel and i
mystery. ^

The rise of an interest in causes at this time also
leads to wonderings and questionings and to specula-
tions sometimes startling in their shrewdness. With
many children there also seems to be an interest in
enumeration and in quantities, as seen in the love of
counting and in the comparisons of size.

In the little child, then, up to the time of the second
dentition, the interests are to a large extent confined
to his delight in the feeling of his own activities and of
his increasing control of them. On the physical side this
appears in his enjoyment of plays that exercise his
senses, in his practice of all movements that are a little
difllicult for him, and in his use of rhythm and of
nonsense rhymes. On the mental side, it appears in
his love of imagining and inventing, in his counting and
measuring, and in his ceaseless questioning. The union
of the two and also the growth of his social interests
is marked above all by his love of imitation, the most
characteristic interest of this period.

In these early years the interests are immediate ones.
iThe child enjoys the action for its own sake without
much reference to any end. Little childr^ who are
playing *Tom pom pullaway," for instance/^ay for-
get all about the goal in the delight of running, and
end the game in a chase. So also a little fellow begins
to draw the story of the Three Bears, gets interested in
making the bear and covers his paper with bears. The
movement or activity is what he enjoys. He does not
care for making some tking^ so much as he does for
going through the movements of making. On this

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238

THE CHILD

account a little child is usually easily diverted from
one thing to another, if only the new thing allows the
same general movements as the old.

Educationally this is the period when interests can
be given a more definite and permanently valuable form
if the parent or teacher provides the materials for the
child to work with, and surrounds him with a life that
is worth the imitation.

In the period from the second dentition to puberty,
there is a great widening of interests due, on the
Interests physiological side, to the rapid growth of
of later associatipn-jfihers in the brain. The char-

chUdiiood. acter of the interest changes materially.
The little child, as we have just said, is interested prin-
cipally in doing for its own sake, and when he wearies
of one activity, he turns at once to a new one. As he
gets older, he begins to do things for the sake of get-
ting or having something else. He makes the distinc-
; tion between end and means more clearly and the
; means have an acquired interest lent them by the nat-
f ural interest that the end has for him. Where the
little child is well satisfied with the scrawl that he calls
his drawing, the older will erase and draw over, and
perhaps not be satisfied even when he is all through.
The little child wants to put on his pretty dress regard-
less of all else. The older child may want to also, but
when he goes to make mud pies, he realizes the use of
the plain dress. It has an acquired value, while the
pretty dress has a natural value.

Such acquired interests constantly increase in num-
' ber and in remoteness from the end, until we find
I the man or woman working for an end in a drudgery
. that has in itself little that is pleasant.

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tH£ CtllLfi 2 4A

The child of this age has interests outside of his own
narrow circle, although they are still interests in per-
sons. Thus a beginning can be made in
history and science, the idea being to find Jjj^^^*^
out how people under certain conditions
would be obliged to live, how they would be obliged
to get food and clothing and so on.

This interest in the "how'* of things, Dr. Dewey
warns us, however, is of slow growth. It arises in
about this order, he thinks: reading, writing, numbers,
science, history and literature. That is, a child first
sees the advantage of knowing how to read and is inter-
ested in learning words and sentences before he sees
the use of learning how to write. His first interest in
science and in history is the same as the little child*s —
the delight in activity and in a good story, but a little
later he begins to experiment in science and to resfson
from cause to effect in history. The interest in why
has become replaced by a curiosity as to how things
are done. In order to hold this interest in the "how"
a child must also have experiences that make the
**how*' of use to him and he must have some end that
he himself wishes to reach. This point is too often
neglected by teachers. They think that if they them-
selves see the end, it is sufficient. But if the child does
not know what he is working for, how can he be long
interested? Or even if he is curious, how can he work
at the adapting of his material to what he is making?

To find out what children's interests are, a series of
observations was made by Binet, Earl observa-
Barnes and Shaw in this manner: They tions.
made out a list of common words and asked the chil-
dren to tell them what the thing was which was named.

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240

THE CHILD

The children were taken separately so that they could
not imitate each other. They were asked no questions
and given no suggestions, but left to state their
thoughts themselves. Left thus, it was believed that
the children would describe the object according to
their greatest interest in it. The list of words was as
follows:

knife

mamma

earthworm

bread

potatoes

shoes

doll

bottle

finger

water

flour

clock

armchair

snail

horse

,hat

mouth

wolf

garden

lamp

omnibus

All three

observers found that the children were

most interested in what they could cb with a thing, or
I in its use to them. The great majority of them defined
the words from this personal point of view. For ex-
ample: **A mamma is to kiss me good night*'; **A
lamp is to give me light.'*

Next to use, they were interested in things that had
action or movement. They showed very little interest
in the structure or substance of things and less than 2
per cent were interested in form. Only 3 per cent were
interested in color, but the very small per cent in
both these cases may be because the words given do not
call up these ideas. Very few of the objects mentioned
usually have any such coloring or structure as would
Interest attract attention. At the same time, it is true

In color that children have little general esthetic in-

andiife. terest in the color of pictures. It is safe to
say that practically all children prefer colored pictures
to black and white. They also choose pictures which

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INTERESTS

241

they call **cunning," or "sweet" in preference to the
masterpieces. A mother and child is usually preferred
to -a madonna, and pictures of children, kittens and
puppies in playful antics mean much more than other
pictures. Natural and lifelike pictures are preferred
to ideal ones, and those that represent activity of
some sort, to those of quiet scenes. In all this we get
again the same truths: childish interests are in the
personal and active sides of life.

As the children grow older, they define the ternls
less according to the personal use, and more by put-
ting them into .a larger class. Their concepts become
more prominent, and the central idea stronger.
Formerly it was supposed that reason — of which the
idea of cause and effect is a prominent part — did not
develop until the age of fourteen or fifteen at least,
but we understand now that it is of as long and
gradual growth as our other mental powers. Nearly
all children ask "why" before they are four years old,
and this interest is a constant one, although it is by
no means the most prominent one until maturity, if it
is at that time.

Another way in which children's interests have
been observed is to find out what stories from their
Readers they remember best. Nineteen interest
hundred and fifty grade children have been in school
questioned on this point with rather start- Rea<iers.
ling results. It was found to begin with that 44 per
cent of the pieces in four Readers, or nearly half,
were remembered after one term by only 5 per cent
of the children. Almost half of the material in
these Readers was uninteresting, and this was to a
very large extent the instructive and moral parts.

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242

THE CHILD

The first lesson in each Reader was remembered,
and also the long or continued lessons. Those best
remembered are, as we should expect, those which
are especially natural, and which appeal to the child
through experiences similar to his own. We find, e,g,,
that 32 per cent of the children remember stories of life
best, and 12 per cent those of animals. Seven and
one-half per, cent give allegiance to stories with
morals, 56 per cent to stories of heroism, and only 2
per cent to instructive stories. At first the liking for
poetry is simply enjoyment of rhythm, and not until
adolescence does it begin to be enjoyed as literature.
Of course these interests were influenced by the way
the stories were told.

The Readers were, if we remember correctly, those
in the state text-book series of Indiana, and were con-
sidered to be about the average.

Dr. HalTs Contents of Children's Minds is also
interesting here as showing how little many of our
Dr. Hall's Readers appeal to a child's own experience,
test. His list of words was obtained largely from

First Readers, and the children's ignorance is amazing.

Out of 113 .objects,

90% are ignorant of 7 of them;
80 to 90% " " " 14 " "

70 to 80% " " " 10 " "

60 to 70% " " " 21 " "

50 to 60% " " " 17 •' "

making an average of over 60 per cent of the children
who know not of the meanings of over half the words.
With regard to the regular school subjects, observa-
tions have also been made on two thousand chiFdren

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INTERESTS

243

above third grade. Arithmetic, history, geography
and spelling are by far the most popular studies, in the
order named. Drawing, music and nature study can
not compete with them. Probably, however, these do
not show the natural interests of children, but rather
are due to the conditions of this particular school. It
IS stated that drawing, for instance, is not much
emphasized, and again, it is very true that the teach-
er's interest controls the child's more or less. If there
were a good arithmetic teacher and a poor drawing
teacher, the child's interest might be just the reverse
of his natural interests.

Childish interests during this period may then be
summed up thus: the interest in imitation is less^
prominent than before; the interest in imagining andl
wondering has become more clear cut and related to thel
needs of life. It shows itself as a greater interest in
the relation of means to end, in the mechanism of life,
or, in a more abstract form, as a love of classification.
The child at this time therefore begins to enjoy simple
experiments, he likes to make collections, he is think-
ing more in the abstract.

The language interest is smaller dunng the first part
of this period but seems to revive in the latter part in
the secret languages which we shall mention later.
This seems to indicate the advantage of beginning the
study of foreign languages at this time.

The interest in the use of the senses is at least undi-
minished, while the love of movement is much
increased. The games of this period call for a far
greater amount of muscular strength than before.

The interest in persons becomes stronger and now
the child delights in a history that describes heroic

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244

THE CHILD

deeds On the other hand, the moral and religious
interests are not much developed as yet.

In all cases an important difference exists between
this period and the previous one, namely, that the
child more and more, if given the opportunity, plans
ways and means of reaching an end. The little child
does this to a very limited extent. This and the
greater variety of interests of the later period are due
to- the rapid growth of association fibers in the brain.

Therefore the general educational problem of this
period, to which all others are subsidiary, is to train
the power of adapting means to ends, to cultivate
acquired interests or the power of voluntary attention.

The first essential is, of course, an end that to the
child himself seems valuable, and this is supplied by
the natural interests of which we have already spoken,
directed into channels which are valuable for life
to-day.

■ Just in proportion as the end is keenly desired, all
the details of the means are interesting. To the
woman who loves ice-cream all the details of making,
packing, and freezing are of interest. Drudgery goes
back to one of two things — either the act is so simple
that after it has been learned a few times, the mind
finds no food for thought in it, or else the person has
no interest in what he is doing, no end in life which he
is striving to accomplish through the medium of this
act. We need, therefore, to train children to see the
\ bearing of all the little things of life upon the ideal
character which they hope to be, upon the business
which they hope to create, upon the profession which
they intend to follow. Inability to connect ends and
means; that is, lack of training a child to have acquired

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INTERESTS

245

interests, is a great defect in our educational system
to-day. Such a connection between the end that the
child desires and the means which have only an
acquired value preserves the balance between pleasure
and duty, and makes the strong-willed, reflective man.

Finally, with the advent of puberty, and the last
period of rapid brain growth, the child
enters upon the last educational period. Jf^y^^""^
The period is now usually estimated to last
to the time when bodily growth is complete, at aoout
the twenty-fifth year.

On the side of interest this period is not so much,,,,
characterized by the rise of new interests as by thci
broadening and deepening of those already existent.^
The senses become more active and consequently there
is a keener interest in observation of all kinds, in
nature, and in science. The rapid development of the
muscular system in boys results in the athletic craze.
The wider development of reason appears in the doubts
and questionings about the various systems of thought
that the youth finds embodied in the school system,
the political system, the religious system, and all the
other systems.

The most notable development of the period is
doubtless the growth of the interest in persons which
comes as the direct result of the sexual development
of this age. The child now for the first time enters
fully into his social inheritance, feeling the bonds
which connect him with others and desiring the
responsibilities and privileges of all adults. The
moral law now appeals to him as a need of his own /
nature, and the obligation to do good for its own sake j
now becomes binding. In numerous ways his own

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246 THE CHILD

individual self is yielded to his social self, in ways both

I tragic and comic — in the devotion to dress and man-

Iners as well as in the abandonment to religious exalta-

'tion. It is hardly stating it too strongly to say that

the key to the adolescent is his interest in living up to

what he conceives to be the social demands upon him.

Control of him lies to a large extent, therefore, in

controlling his conceptions of what these social

demands are, and this is not a matter that begins only

with adolescence.

We have had occasion to remark many times before
that social habits must be inculcated from the begin-
ning, and we can now see the importance of
ofeariy this. The youth who has now awakened

ftociai to a vivid interest in his relations to others

has his sense of what these relations should
be determined in part by the social habits which he
has already acquired, and in part by. the customs of
the. particular people with whom he is now thrown.
Where the two sets of customs disagree, as is often the
case, the child's consciousness of his own ambiguous
position is very keen, and he brings all his judgment
and reason to bear upon his decisions as to what he
should do. Now he is fortunate if his social habits
and his training in independent judgment aresuch that
he can trust to his habits for all the smaller details of
deportment and devote himself to the question of what
his ideal shall be for the vital questions of life.

In the shaping of this ideal or interest, as we have
already said, we must call into play all the influences
of surroundings — books, pictures, etc. — biit more
important than any of these to the adolescent is the
wise and untiring friendship of some older person,

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INTERESTS

247

teacher or parent. Fortunate is the youth whose father
and mother are his best friends — and sadly lacking in
some respect are the parents who have not kept close
enough to their children to be their best friends.

We hear a great deal of talk about the importance of
keeping children interested. Unless children like a
school duty, a task, a dress, or a certain
kind of food, it is assumed that they ought ^^^ertl"*
not to be bothered with it. It is claimed
they must follow their interests; that is, apparently,
their caprices. What right have we to impose our likes
on them? They surely should be as free as others to
express their whole nature without let or hindrance.

On the other side there are still advocates of the idea
that the natural man is full of evil desires, so that the
very fact that a child wants a thing is one good reason
why he should not have it. Moreover, say these duty-
lovers, life is full of disagreeable things that must be
done. No one can succeed who does not learn to do
cheerfully tasks that he dislikes. All progress is made
only by pain and suffering in giving up our natural
desires and in struggling toward our ideal, which we
see is right but do not yet love. Therefore, say these
stern teachers, the truest kindness consists in training
our children to do work that they do not like. We
should not appeal to their interests, but rather to the
right, and lead them to make their interests agree with
what is right. The happiness of a child is of very
little account if only he is led into the paths of right-
eousness. So hold the two extremes. Probably
the majority of parents and teachers hold a middle
ground, not believing either that the child should
be wholly indulged or thwarted, and indulging or

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248

THE CHILD

thwarting according to their own particular likes. The
mother who likes cabbage and does not like tomatoes,
will usually feed her child the same way. The father
who never lies, but finds it easy to criticise or back-
bite his neighbor, will probably rebuke falsehood but
let backbiting go unscathed. The parent who dislikes
arithmetic and enjoys history finds it easy to condone
his child's stupidity in the first but not in the second.
In all cases we seem to lack any standard by which we
judge whether or not a given trait in our child should
be encouraged, whether or not he should be given free-
dom to develop his own natural self.

Now it is unquestionably a difficult thing to know
what we shall do in any given case. On the one side,
we want our children to grow up good citizens, good
members of the family, and seekers after righteousness.
On the other, we do not want them to be confined, fear-
ful, distrustful of self; we wish them to live abroad, free
life, to feel the swing and delight of power, and to live
with force and vigor. Between the two we stand puzzled.

If what we have said of social recapitulation be true,
a child is at birth a bundle of strong but vague
impulses and instincts that have come to
eBtB*vB*tadi- ^'"^ from numberless ancestors, that press
Yiduai him into constant action in this way and

intereBts. j^^ that, and that cause great unhappiness
and dwarfed development if repressed.

We have had very elaborate theories worked out of
these race-stages or culture-epochs, through which each
child passes, and the proper studies for him at each
stage, but such theorie's can not be said to have scien-
tific value as yet. We can not say that because the
race has gone through a certain stage, therefore the

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INTERESTS

249

child must go through it. We must instead study chil-
dren, both individually and collectively, to see what
race-stages they do repeat in fact, and the longer this
study goes on, the more certain it is that only certain
steps of race-progress are repeated in the individual.

Still further, the fact that a child is in a certain cul-
ture-epoch, does not mean that he must have only
literature of that epoch to nourish his mind. It means
rather that he is interested in the prominent activity
of that period, and wants to go through that activity
himself in the rough.

It would be strange indeed if these impulses were
either entirely good or entirely bad. They are all sur-
vivals of a ruder civilization, and their value can be de-
termined not merely by their antiquity, but by their
adaptability to present-day conditions. The habitual
criminal is looked upon to-day as a person whose
interests belong in the ages when violence was neces-
sary to self-preservation f but these interests are not
suited to civilized life, and so their possessor must
give them up, or go to dwell among barbarians, or be
confined in prison. As a rule, however, these instincts
and impulses are fluent enough to take the usual social
channels. It is the task of the parent and teacher to
provide outlets which will utilize these streams of
energy, instead of damming them.

The training of interests consists, then, primarily in
directing impulse and instinct to a worthy end, by all
means — suggestion, good surroundings. Direction
stimulation of curiosity, and so on. If an better than
impulse can be so employed as to con- represBion.
tribute to the family life, the best possible thing is
done. If conditions do not allow of this, at least the

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2 50

THE CHILD

parents can take a rational attitude toward the chil-
dren, instead of assuming that all the children want is
to make trouble. We find, for instance, that as a rule
parents are decidedly opposed to their boys digging
caves. Under the usual conditions, where the cave is
made a rendezvous for smoking and reading dime
novels, there is good reason for objection. But are
such conditions necessary? Surely not. So again,
little children who run away d6 it usually because their
own yard is so small and their companions are so few
that they can not resist temptation. Instead of for-
bidding them the freedom, we should rather exert our
ingenuity to make the freedom safe, for through such
wanderings a child acquires valuable independence,
gets a sense of direction and distance, and makes his
first venture into the social world outside the home.

In general, then, we may say that we should not
condemn a child's impulses unless they are of such a
definite, fixed, and base nature as to work decided
harm to himself or others. uVe should not try to
r£M£ ^ impulses so much as to ^Sui^tfi-th^iJi-iiitojiseful
channels by suggesting to the children definite and
valuable ends to be accomplished.!

REFERENCES

Allin, A. Social Recapitulation. Educ. Rev., 1899, 344-35a.
Baldwin, J. Mark. Genesis of Social Interests. Monist, 1897,

340-357. (Same as in Mental Development. )
Mental Development, Social and Ethical Interpretations.

See Index. N. Y. Macmillan, I2.60.
Burk, C. F. Collecting Instinct. Ped. Sem., 1900, 179-207.
Burk, F., and Frear, C. Study of Kindergarten Problem. San

Francisco. Whitaker, I0.50.
Dawson. G. E. Children's Interest in the Bible. Ped. Sem.,

1900, 151-178.

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INTERESTS

251

Dewey, J. Interest as Related to Will. First Herbartian Year
Book, 1895. Second Supplement. Chicago. University of
Chicago Press. (Excellent on the theory of Interest. )

Guillet, C. Recapitulation and Education. Ped. Sem., 1900,

39/ -445.
Hall, G. S. Children's Collections. Ped, Sent., 1891, 234-236.
Hancock. Mental Differences of Children. Proc. N. E. A,,

1897, 851-857.
Harris. W. T. Interest and Will. Education, March, 1896.

Psychologic Foundations of Education. See Index. N. Y.

Appleton, I1.50.
Hogan, Louise. Study of a Child. Harper's, June, 1898.
Jones, H. Social and Individual Evolution. New World, 1898,

453-469-
Kline, L. W. Truancy as Related to the Migrating Instinct.

Ped, Sem., Vol. V., 381-420.
Lawrence, Isabel. Children's Interests in Literature. Proc.

N E. A., 1899, 1044-51.
Luckey, G. W. A. Practical Results Obtained from Study of

Children's Interest. Proc. N. E. A., 1897, p. 284.
McMurry, C. Interest. Ed. Rev., February, i8q6.
Monroe, W. J. Social. Consciousness of Children. Proc, N. E,

A„ 1898, 921-928.
Ostermann, W. Interest in Its Relation to Pedagogy. N. Y.

Kellogg, $1.00.
Perkins. F. B. Childhood: A Study. Atlantic Monthly, Vol.

XVIII.
Rein (Van Liew's translation). Outlines of Pedagogics, See

Index. Syracuse. Bardeen. I1.25.
Rooper. T. G. The Child: His Studies and Occupations, N. Y.

Kellogg, I0.15.
St. John, G. E. Children's Interests. C. 5. M.. Vol. III., 284.
Vandewalker, Nina. Culture-Epoch Theory. Educ. Rev.,

January-May, 1898, 374-391. (Very good.)
Van Liew, C. E. Culture-Epoch Theory. First Herbartian Year

Book. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
Wilson, W. E. Doctrine of Interest. Ed. Rev., March, 1896.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

CHAPTER XIII

Impulsive, Reflex and Instinctive Movements

1. Keep a record of the development in some indi-
vidual child of the movements described in this chap-
Obserra- ter. (i) Impulsive movements. Note
tions. especially the posture of the baby in sleep.
When does a child begin to sleep lying straight?
(2) Reflex movements. Note especially whether, in
cases of tickling or of brushing away an object, the baby
uses the right hand or the hand on the same side of
the body. That is, is he right-handed from birth, and
if not, when does right-handedness appear? Note also
the earliest inhibitions of movements. (3) Instinc-
tive movements. Note especially to what degree the
baby is impeded by long clothes. Watch for a climb-
ing instinct. If possible, take instantaneous photo-
graphs of the nude baby's positions in learning these
movements.

2. Gather reminiscences from young people or adults
of any one of the following instincts: migrating
instinct (running away from home) ; hunting instinct;
cave-digging instinct; tent-living instinct; collecting
instinct. In all cases note:

(i) Age when the instinct developed.

(2) Length of time that it lasted.

(3) Circumstances that called it out.

(4) Strength. How much could it withstand in the

252

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND iNSTlNCtlVE MOVEMENTS 2^t

way of inducements to other sports, commands
of parents against indulging in it, etc.?
(5) Is there any tendency to it now, such as hunt-
ing trips, camping, etc After how long a
period is this?

With the discussion of movements we enter upon the
last stage of our subject — the child's doing. Here, as
in other cases, we are not preserving a introduc-
strictly chronological order in our descrip- ^^^'
tion, for as a matter of fact thinking and doing go
hand in hand in mental development, each requiring
the other in order for it to get beyond the rudimentary
stages. So close is this connection that in the chapter
on Perception we were obliged to anticipate this phase
of the subject by discussing grasping in connection with
seeing, and now in considering movements, we shall
be referring constantly to the stimulus to movement
given by the senses.

In thus discussing feeling, thinking, and doing sep-
arately, we have been guided principally by the desire
to show clearly the continuity of the development of
each mental process from birth to maturity, showing,
for instance, how the character of conceptions and of
religious ideas develops as the child matures. In thus
abstracting each mental process from the others in
which it is embedded, we do as does the dissector, who
follows out. before his class the course of but one nerve
or blood-vessel, ignoring for the time the complex of
other nerves, blood-vessels and tissues that enmesh it.
Such a separation is imperative for purposes of study,
but it is only preliminary to the attempt to see as a
whole the living organism in which each nerve and

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^54

tHfi CMiLt)

blood-vessel plays its part. So now that the growth
of the child's body and of his mind has been studied,
as far as the present state of child-study observations
allows, comes at last the consideration of how he, with
his body as a tool, learns to express his thought; for
in this expression the whole childish self is most
clearly revealed.

Precedent to the child's conscious and voluntary
expression of thought, however, is a stage during
which he has little or no control over his movements.
The activities at this stage do indeed express to us the
baby's condition and his traits as a member of the
human race, but he does not intend to express himself
thus, and is unable either to make or prevent his
movements voluntarily.

Impulsive movements are also called spontaneous,
random, or automatic. In the whole discussion of the
subject there is great variety both in the
moyements ^^^^^ used and in the meanings attached to
the terms. Some writers class as instinc-
tive what others call reflex, and others make instinc-
tive movements cover nearly the whole range of human
activities. In a book of this nature it would be useless
and confusing to discuss and weigh such conflicting
claims. We shall therefore imitate Tracy in using
Preyer's classification, making the same reservation
that Tracy does— that the use of Preyer's classification
does not bind us to accept his theory of will.

Impulsive movements are movements resulting from
changes within the motor nerve cell itself. They
seem to require no stimulus from outside, and no sen-
sory elements. Many embryonic movements are
impulsive, and also many of the movements present at

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS 255

birth, although their variety is not great. There are
stretchings and bendings of arms and legs; spreading
and bendings of fingers- and toes; striking with the
arms; stretching after waking; all sorts of grimaces;
movements of the eyeballs before the eyes are opened;
Growings and babblings; and the "accompanying
movements/' such as movements of the arms on hear-
ing music or seeing bright colors or tasting agreeable
food.

The better the health and feeding of the child, the
more numerous and vigorous are the movements likely

to be. Their general use is evidently that

^ . , -^ Direction of

they serve as exercises to prepare the mus- themoye-

cles for later instinctive and voluntary »«»*••
action, and Mumford believes that they are also ves-
tiges of movements that once were useful in the bodily
economy but are no longer so. They are decaying
instincts, so to speak.

Why they take the particular form that they do
seems to depend upon the prenatal posture and the
bodily structure at the time of birth, as Trettien
shows. The arm and leg movements are at first always
in line with the body, that is, forward and back or up
and down, never out and in. In the case of the arms
this seems to be due especially to the shape of the
chest and shoulders. As the back straightens and the
chest expands, side movements become easier. With
both arms and legs, the up and down movement is
also the most natural on account of the habitual pos-
ture of the baby. Trettien shows the habitual posi-
tions of arms and hands at great length thus:*

♦The tables are based on different numbers of children, vary-
ing from 58 to 182. In all cases the tables are given in per cents.

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256

THE CHILD

Position

Male

Female

Average

Fingers—

Clenched

83%
12

69
31

100

66
34

98
2

87%
4
9

65
35

96
4

68
32

Bent

Straight

Wrists —

Bent

Straight

98
2

Elbows —

Bent

Straight

Shoulders —

Bent

67
33

Straight

Arms —

Laid in front

Laid at side

The legs are habitually bent at the hips and knees,
the feet crossed, the soles turned toward the median
line and the toes curled down over the soles. The
whole body tends to assume the curve of the prenatal
position. With such an habitual posture for trunk,
arms and legs, and fingers and toes, what other move-
ments are probable except the stretching of the back,
the unbending of arms and legs, and the spreading of
fingers and toes?

These movements, as we can easily see, foreshadow
the later movements — the arm movements those of
reaching and grasping, the leg movements those of
walking. We cannot so easily explain the extraordi-
nary grimaces which often possess the baby's face at
this time, but they probably mark the first paths of the
facial expression which is to come later. We find that
as voluntary movements increase, impulsive ones
decrease in the normal, person. Numerous connec-
tions between the sensory and the motor centers are
formed by education and experience so that the trend of

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS 25?

development is away from impulsive movements rather
than toward them. Yet Compayre maintains that some
persist even in the adult.

Reflex movements differ from impulsive in that they
require a peripheral stimulus to call them out, but,
like them, no attention or idea is necessary
for the performance. They are inherited, ^^^ move-
but the baby performs them more slowly
and imperfectly at first than later. This is a decided
advantage, for the baby has no power to inhibit move-
ments for some time after birth, and if the reflexes
were easily started, he would be subject to convulsions.

Reflex movements may be called out in the latter
part of the prenatal life by gentle stroking or by
changes of temperature. After birth, they are
numerous. Most important of all is the group of
periodic reflexes, under which come the various actions
necessary to sustain life. To this group belong all the
actions connected with respiration. Breathing is
itself a reflex - act, due to the stimulation of the
air, and the cry of the newborn child is caused by
the spasmodic action of the larynx when the air
reaches it. At first the breathing is very irregular and
rapid, sometimes almost ceasing, and then continuing
with greater force and rapidity. In the seventh week
there are about twenty-eight respirations to the min-
ute; in the twenty-eighth month, aboiit twenty-two,
but even then a stimulus which is insufficient to wake
the sleeping child will cause a rapid increase in the
number of respirations.

Sneezing is possible even at birth, and with some
babies takes the place of the first cry. Preyer pro-
duced it on the thirty-eighth day by pouring warm

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2 eg THE CHILD

water on the baby's forehead; and on the one hundred
and seventieth day by merely blowing in his face. The
baby's eyes are always closed in sneezing.

Swallowing is present even before birth. Coughing
has been observed in the first hour; choking and hic-
coughing on the first day; yawning on the seventh day
wheezing and snoring on the twenty-fourth day; anc
sobbing not until considerably later, about the seventli
month in Preyer's boy.

Other important periodic reflexes are the heart-beat,
the contraction and relaxation of the arteries, th(
movements of the bowels, and so on. Regurgitation,
which occurs as early as the first week, should also hi
mentioned here.

Among reflexes that are not periodic should be men
tioned the group of eye-reflexes. In describing the
development of sight these were discussed, and
need only be mentioned here.

The entire body reacts to get rid of unpleasani
stimuli, even from birth, although it requires a strongei
stimulus then than later. The pain-reflexes are the least
developed of all at birth. A baby can be pricked with
a pin, even until the blood comes in some cases, with
out reacting.

But there is a stronger response to some other
stimuli. Within five minutes of birth the toes will
spread out if tickled, and, like the hands, will clasp
any object laid within them. The reflex hand-clasp is
one of the most remarkable for its perfection and
strength. Robinson examined sixty newborn children
and found that within one hour after birth they could
all hang suspended from a stick by their hands, for a
time varying from two seconds to one* minute. Twelve

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS 259

hun^ for one-half minute and four for one minute
without crying or showing any signs of distress. The
strength of grip increased up to the third week, when
several hung for one and one-half minutes. Here
there seems to be a distinct survival of arboreal life
habits, when the baby had to cling to its climbing
mother in order to preserve its own life. All the arm
reflexes are stronger at first than the leg reflexes, and
the arms are relatively more developed than the legs.

Other reflex movements occur to escape persistent
stimuli. Preyer found that in tickling the temple the
baby usually used the right hand to brush away the
object; while Pfliiger maintains that the hand on the
same side is used as a rule.

At first, as mentioned above, a baby has no control
over its reflex movements; they must follow when the
stimulus is given, whether he wishes them or not.
Preyer dates the first inhibitions between the ninth and
twelfth months when the child begins to show some
slight control over bowel movements; but, although
observations are lacking, one may fairly^ question
whether before this time there are not some inhibitions
of arm and leg reflexes or of those connected with
respiration. In all cases the control is irregular at
first, and fails if the child is tired, inattentive or not
well.

Instinct is differently defined by different writers,
and the distinction between it and reflexes is by no
means hard and fast. Instinctive move-
ments seem to differ from reflex movements movement
principally in being more complex and in
having a less developed mechanism for their perform-
ance than reflexes have,

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260 THE CHILD

Instinctive acts are inherited, that is, there is an
inborn disposition to their performance, but they
require a stimulus to start them, and they may be
greatly modified or even suppressed by training. They
are acts which have been serviceable to the race and
are present to a greater or less degree in every mem^
ber of it, but in man they vary so in their manifesta-
tions that it is alrnost impossible to know what actions
have an instinctive root and what have not. There
are, however, certain acts which are clearly instinc-
tive.

In this list belong sucking, biting, chewing, grinding
the teeth, and licking. Sucking comes the nearest of
Moyements any of these to a reflex act, and is some-
aboiTt'the times classed as one because brainless chil-
mouth. dren perform it as well as normal ones. It

is usually complete at birth, but in some cases has to
be partially taught. It lasts in its full strength until
the first teeth come, but as we have already noted, for
a long time most objects go to the child's mouth to be
sucked and licked before the child feels that he really
knows them, and even the adult likes at times to put
something into his mouth to suck. Licking usually
accompanies sucking, and is present even on the first
day.

Biting and chewing are instinctive acts which may
appear as early as the fourth month, before any teeth
are through. A baby will bite and chew his fingers,
his rattle, the glass he drinks out of, etc. Grinding
the teeth also appears to be a regular occupation. It
may be done when but two teeth are through, but
usually not until about the ninth month, when four
teeth are through.

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS 26 I

At birth the ability of children to lift their heads
varies considerably. In some even on the first
day, there is enough surplus energy to
lift the head from its support; in others, ^©^J^'*^
not until the second or third week. The
neck muscles are very small at birth, and increase in
their growth to nine times their origirfal size at matu-
rity. At first the head, when unsupported, drops on
the chest and rolls to one side. Preyer maintains that
the dropping is not due to muscular weakness, but to
lack of will, because even in the first week the head
can turn to follow a moving light. This does not
prove much, however, for the same muscles are not
used in raising the head as in moving it from side to
side.

Miss Shinn records that at the end of the first month
her niece could hold up her head unsteadily for a few
seconds, and by the end of the second month could
hold it steadily and continuously. Preyer' s records
date the act between the eleventh and sixteenth weeks,
while Demme's observations on one hundred and
fifty children place the event between the third and
fourth months for strong children; at four and one-
half months for moderately strong ones, and in the
fifth or sixth month for weakly ones.

The child has a strong incentive to hold the head up
after the sixth or eighth week, for then convergence
and accommodation of the eyes are established, so
that he can see clearly. The attempts to raise the
head not only strengthen the neck muscles, but those
of the back and chest as well, so that they prepare the
child for erect sitting, which follows almost imme-
diately.

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262 THE CHILD

We have described the development of this instinct
Reachingand ^^ length in the chapter on Sensation and
grasping. Perception.

After the baby can see distinctly and has learned to
hold his head up, he is very likely to resent being laid
down in his crib, although before he was
ereo?* ^^'' .satisfied with that position. Now he

insists upon a sitting position, where he
can see the fascinating world about him. This desire
to sit up comes between the second and fourth months
as a rule, and the baby will make all sorts of efforts to
lift himself by a supporting finger, of by strain of the
abdominal muscles. He is very unlikely to succeed,
however, unless he is somewhat raised to begin with,
for neither back nor abdomen are strong enough alone.

A baby who thus wants to see but cannot sit alone,
should be provided with a cushioned support that will
support and yet yield to movements, so that he can
carry on his education without harm to himself. He will
also get practice in sitting in his bath and in laps, and
by some time between the fifth and eighth months will
be able to sit alone on a hard smooth surface^ By the
eleventh month the baby's seat is firm, although when
reaching for things he sometimes tips over.

Both Preyer and Trettien insist that a baby should
rather be discouraged than encouraged to sit alone,
and that the back should at first be supported by a pil-
low. Preyer says that he should not be allowed to sit
up until he has proved his fitness by raising himself with-
out encouragement from a prone to a sitting position.

The first sitting position is very awkward. Usually
the knees are bent and the soles turned toward each
other like a monkey's.

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS 263

In learning to walk, there are several well-defined

stages. In the first place, long before the babv makes

any attempts to move from the place where
u-i-jui 11 u- 1 Locomotion,

he IS laid, his legs as well as his arms make

various movements. These are, as we have seen,
impulsive at first, but later they become a source of
great pleasure to the baby, and by the third or fourth
month he is kicking up his legs as much as his elabo-
rate clothing will allow. The movements become
rhythmic and alternating, evidently an advance
towards stepping, and by the seventh month, he will
straighten and press his legs against an opposing sur-
face and, if held up, begin to take steps. He also
enjoys standing when supported. He is still, however,
very far from independent walking, and goes through
at least one preliminary stage, and often two or three,
which are useful in strengthening the various muscles
that will later be used in walking.

When'a baby is strong enough, if laid on his back,
he will roll over onto his stomach, sometimes just for
love of the movement, sometimes accident-
ally in reaching for an object. Mrs. HalTs
baby turn/sd from side to back in the ninth week, but
not from side to side until the middle of the seventh
month, and Miss Shinn's niece began her career of
rolling near the end of the sixth month, and con-
tinued it with increasing vigor up to the eighth month,
when creeping began. "She would now roll over and
over in any direction, not to get anywhere in partic-
ular, but just for the fun of the thing. She varied the
exercise with the most lively kicking, the heels raised
in the air and brought down together with astonishing
vigor and zest; or with twisting about and getting on

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264

THE CHILD

hands and knees, or even on hands and feet, prattling
joyously and having a beautiful time all by herself for
as long as the authorities would leave her alone/*

Instead of rolling, some babies stumble upon hitch-
ing. They jerk themselves along from one side to the
other, backwards or forwards, in a most ungainly
fashion. Where there is hitching it may precede creep-
ing, or may take its place. Trettien gives the following
per cents, based on returns from seventy-five boys and
seventy-five girls, to show the usual mode of locomo-
tion: Of the one hundred and fifty children, 60 per
cent of them crept, 30 per cent hitched, 7 per cent
foiled, and 3 per cent crawled, humped, made swim-
ming movements, etc. He does not note in how many
of these children both creeping and some other form
of locomotion preceded walking.

By the sixth or seventh month a baby begins to get
up onto his hands and knees, and now and then to
stretch or scramble for something that he
wants. Some time between the eighth and
eleventh months he begins really to creep. Here also
we find all sorts of odd ways. Of the babies Trettien
watched, 6 per cent crept backward at first. Both
Miss Shinn and Mrs. Hall record this. It is due to
the lact that the baby's arms are stronger than his legs
and are predisposed to push instead of to pull, so that
until he has learned to coordinate his movements, he
pushes himself away from the object he wants, instead
of toward it. Much to his amazement and displeasure
he finds it moving away instead of approaching him.
However, he soon learns better.

The relative movements of hands and knees are
almost as varied as the number of these members will

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS 265

allow. Some babies move with the opposite hand and

knee down at once, but just as many move like pacers,

with the hand and knee of the same side down at once.

A fairly large proportion use arms and hands alone,

dragging the body and legs; and almost as many go

on hands and feet instead of knees. Others crawl like

snakes, with the arms close to the sides and the legs

almost straight; and still others hump like worms,

drawing the legs up and then stretching the arms and

body forward. In all cases there are, of course, many

unnecessary movements made at first that are dropped

by degrees.

We have already seen that even at birth the baby's

clasp is strong enough to support him hanging, and

that the first efforts to sit up are as a rule

. Ollmbing.

preceded by pulling himself up from a lying

to a sitting position. The muscles of arms and hands

are relatively stronger than at any other time of life,

and we should naturally expect from this fact a stage

when the baby's desire to use them would be marked,

that is, a climbing stage. Preyer, careful observer

though he was, does not even refer to such a stage,

although he gives a detailed account of seizing. On the

other hand, all the accounts of learning to stand show

how important a factor is the ability of the child to

pull himself to an erect position, and Miss Shinn and

others have observed and described the climbing stage.

It seems probable that climbing is a genuine instinct,

dating back to the time when men lived chiefly in

trees, when strength of arm and grasp were essential

for life. But in babies the instinct is so promptly

repressed by fearful mothers, and so impeded by

the baby's clothes, as is also his creeping, that the

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266 THE CHILD

discouraged child turns to some substitute instead of
delighting in it as Miss Shinn^s niece did. Such
repression must be a hindrance to the development of
the child's lungs and back, and therefore must work
direct harm to his health. It is doubtless often diffi-
cult for the mother to give the necessary supervision
to the climbing if it is allowed, but it can be done more
frequently than it is, and should be planned for as far
as possible.

When not repressed, climbing begins at about the
same time as creeping, and is shown in the baby's
attempts to climb over the person holding him, to
climb into chairs and onto beds and table, and above
all by his insatiate desire to creep up and down stairs.
In the mounting process there is really little danger,
if the thing he is climbing is solid, for his grasp is very
strong; but in descending, the baby is likely to come
head first like any animal that goes on all fours, and
not being properly proportioned for such a form of
movement, he falls. If a mother can be hard-hearted
enough to let him get a few bumps, he soon learns to
come down backwards, and then most of his dangers
are over.

Although the desire to climb lessens somewhat after
the baby has learned to walk, it is strong all through
childhood, as is seen in the love that all children have
for climbing trees, houses, and so on.

Even before the baby has begun to creep, we have
seen that he is getting exercises preparatory to walk-
ing in his alternate kickings, in the steady
pressure of his feet against opposing
objects, and in the various half-standing positions
that he assumes when held in the lap or supported on

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IMPULSIVE, RBPLBX AKD INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS 267

the floor. He enjoys these exercises, but still he
shows no desire to assume the erect position when left
to himself until he has been creeping for some time.
Mrs. Hall notes that in the thirty-eighth week, her boy
r* pulled himself to his feet by the aid of a finger, and
stood for a minute; in the forty-eighth week, he
pulled himself to a chair and stood for five minutes,
holding on with one hatid and playing with the other,
and two weeks later he stood so' for half an hour.
Preyer^s and Miss Shinn^s records correspond very
closely with this, but all note that the baby does not
feel very secure on his feet as yet. Demme^s records
show that vigorous children usually stand alone
between the fortieth and forty-second weeks; moder-
ately strong ones between the forty-fifth and forty-
eighth weeks; and weakly ones about the twelfth
month. Trettien says that the first standing alone
may come at any time between the seventh and six-
teenth months, and the first walking alone between the
tenth month and the second year.

By the time that the child has become accustomed to
stand alone, he has usually been given some lessons
in walking and has been shown how to push a chair
ahead of him. A baby will at first support himself by
the wall or by the furniture in going for what he
wants, but for a long time will drop down to creep
when he comes to an open space. He can often walk
well when supported by one finger, and alone when he
thinks he is supported, for some time before he will
walk alone if he knows it. There is a fear of falling
with most children that hinders their walking.

Their self-consciousness is shown in very amusing
ways. One little girl who had always held onto her

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268 I^HE CHILD

mother's dress while walking, one day seized the
scallops of her own skirt and walked bravely off,
performing a feat closely analogous to the
sciousness a famous one of raising oneself by one's boot-
factor, straps. Professor HalTs daughter chanced
to walk alone for the first time when she had a pair
of her father's cuffs slipped over her arms, and for
several days she could walk very well with them. on,
but would not stir a step without them. When a
child is not being constantly urged to walk, it is not
infrequent for him to take his first independent steps
without knowing it, in his eagerness to get something
that he wants. But as soon as he realizes that he is
going alone, while he may be very proud of himself,
he promptly falls, and may not try again for some
days or even weeks. Then suddenly he walks alone
again, and each day makes large gains, until in a week
or so walking is preferred to any other mode of loco-
motion.

The date when walking becomes well established
varies greatly. Preyer puts it in the sixty-eighth week

When walk- ^^^ ^^^ ^^"' ^'^^^ ^^^' ^" the sixty-sixth for
ing is hers, and others at various times between the

estabUsiied. twelfth and thirtieth or even thirty-sixth
months. Where there are a number of children in the
family walking will be learned sooner, and of course a
child can be taught to walk sooner than he will if left to
himself. This is not a wise thing, however, unless the
child is three or four years old, for a healthy child
usually wants to walk as soon as his muscles and bones
are strong enough to bear his weight. If he walks too
soon, he is likely to be bow-legged or knock-kneed.
If, on the other hand, a child has not learned to walk

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IMPULSIVE, kEPLfiX AND tNSTlNCtlVE MOVEMENTS 269

by the time he is three and a half or four years old, a
physician should be consulted.

It is interesting to notice that when children first
begin to walk alone, they want some object in their
hands as they walk. Is it partly because they derive
some feeling of support from it, and partly because
they feel the lack of the constant stimulation of the
palms that they had when creeping?

The first walk is very unsteady; not infrequently it
is more a run, a trot or a waddle than a walk, and it is
usually pigeon-toed. Nevertheless, undignified though
it be, it opens to a child a new world both of vision
and of movement. He gets new views of things when
standing — views which are to persist through life; the
freedom of his hands allows his handling and fingering
of objects to go on at the same time that he is walk-
ing; and the exercise of his legs leads to marked
changes in the bodily development. His appetite
increases, his hours of sleep lengthen, and his general
health improves, especially if he is a sickly child.
His disposition is likely to become more amiable.

In describing these stages in locomotion we have
proceeded as if the growth were continuous, but as a
matter of fact it is not. Some movement
will appear, be practised for a day or two ^owtS^*^^
and then be neglected for several weeks or
even months. Then suddenly it will reappear and be
practised diligently until it is learned. Walking is
likely to be interrupted by the beginning of speech,
and vice versa, so that the two processes of learning
to walk and of learning to speak, which stretch over
several months^ have periods of waxing and of waning.
As far as I know, no careful observations have been

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270

THE CHILD

made to see what laws govern this periodicity of
growth, and it is a subject which would repay investi- ^
gation.

The sexual "instinct has already been discussed in a
previous chapter, and hence will only be mentioned
Sexual here. Its first important manifestations

Instinct. come, as we have seen, at adolescence.

Closely connected with the instinct of sex is the
parental instinct, which seems also to be the center of
a large group of acts which are not com-
JJJ^^ monly considered instinctive. We can
hardly question that the care of. the help-
less young is instinctive, but we do not usually look
upon teaching and philanthropy in all its forms as
instinctive. What we know of social evolution, how-
ever, seems to point to the fact that altruistic activities
in general have been the outgrowth of the instinct to
care for helpless children. The original instinct
has become so covered, so varied, and so modified in
its expressions, that it seems a misuse of terms to call
philanthropy instinctive; and yet, within the genuine
philanthropist there is some impelling force that can-
not be turned aside by reasons or difficulties or even
his own willing. He springs to relieve the suffering
even of the most worthless as the mother springs to
snatch her child from danger.

From this standpoint, Mr. Phillips investigations
as to the existence of a teaching instinct do not seem
unreasonable. He found that girls play dolls and
teacher far more than boys do. Out of one hundred
and five teachers, fifty-one had desired from child-
hood to follow that profession; seventeen wanted to
at the age of twenty-three; twenty-four were forced

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS 2 7 I

to teach, but soon grew to love the work; and only
four heartily disliked it. He concludes that teaching
is probably a special form of the parental instinct,
manifesting itself, as that instinct does, more strongly
in women than in men.

Besides the instinctive movements already described,
on <vhich most writers are agreed, there are numerous
other groups of movements which one or a otuerpos-
few writers class as instinctive. Among sibie
these are the migrating instinct, which iMtiacts.
appears in the desire to run away that most children
have; the hunting instinct; the burrowing instinct,
appearing in fondness for cave-making; the swimming
instinct; the tent-living instinct; the collecting instinct
or the instinct for property, etc. Most children show
these tendencies at some time in their development,
and it seems probable that they are genuine survivals
of ancestral traits, but so few observations have been
made that we cannot give a connected account of
them.

Another group of acts is that which centers about

the instinctive emotions — the expressions of fear, anger,

delight, etc. These, as being closely connected with

gesture and language, will be discussed in the chapter

' on Language.

Still other acts that are often classed as instinctive
are language, play and imitation. There is little ques-
tion that there are certain inborn tendencies in these
cases, but the tendencies so seldom take definite chan-
nels, as genuine instincts do, that we may question
somewhat whether it is not confusing to class them
with instincts. There ought to be some term which
should indicate that these acts are neither wholly

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272

THE CHILD

instinctive nor wholly deliberate, but have both fac-
tors intricately woven together.

Finally, we hear such terms as the religious instinct,
the instinct for constructiveness, the instinct for work,
where the feeling seems to be confused with the move-
ments resulting from it. We are considering here only
instinctive movements, not instinctive feelings and
emotions.

In the impulsive, reflex and instinctive movements

so far described, the child has been presented as a

member of a race only, not as an indi-
Oondusion. ., , ai.i 1 .1 • .•

vidual. Although there are variations in

different children, it is still surprising how much alike^
all these movements are in all children, and at how
nearly the same age they appear. ^ They do indeed
display the child's nature, as a social nature; but he is
unconscious that he has a nature to express or that he
is expressing it. On the physical side his energies are
occupied in acquiring control of his senses and of ,the
larger muscles of his body; and on the intellectual
side, in the development of sensation and perception
andthe rudiments of memory, imagination and thought,
in all of which he is repeating race-history. Never-
theless, conscious attempts to reproduce what others
do, and to express his own feelings and thoughts begin
very early in imitation and in language, and manifest
themselves in increasing force in play, drawing, music,
and all the other forms of childish expression.

REFERENCES

Allin, A. Social Recapitulation. Ed, Rev,, 1899, Vol. XVIII.,

344-352.
Bernhardt, W. Natural Impulses. Am. Nat., 1897, Vol. XXXI.,

582-587.

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IMPULSIVE, REFLEX AND INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS

273

Black, J. W. Savagery and Survivals. Pop, Sc. Mo., Vol. XLV.,

388-400.
Brooks, W. K. Study of Inheritance. Pop. Sc. Mo., Vol.

XL VIII., 480-491, 617-625.
Bryan, E. B. Nascent Stages and Their Significance. Ped.

Sent., i()00. Vol. VII., 357-396.
Buckmann, S. S. Babies and Monkeys. Nineteenth Cent., Vol.

XXXVI., 727-743.
Burk, C. F. Collecting Instinct. Ped. Sent., 1900. Vol. VII.,

179-207.
Compayr6, G. Development of the Child in Later Infancy,

Chapter IV. N. Y. Appleton, I1.20.
Darwin, C. Biographical Sketch of an Infant. Pop. Sc. Mo.,

1900, Vol. LVIL, 197-205.
Ellis, Havelock. Analysis of the Sexual Impulse. Alien, and

Neur., 1900, Vol. XXL, 247-262.
Emmons, B. E. Humane Instincts of Children. Jour, of Ped. ,

1900, Vol. XIII. , 110-116.
Groos, K. The Play of Man. See Index. N. Y. Appleton,

|i.5o.
Hall, Mrs. W. S. First Five Hundred Days of a Child's Life.

C. S. M., Vol. II. See Index.
Jordan, F. Character as Seen in Body and Parentage.
Kline, "W". L. Truancy as Related to the Migrating Instinct.

Ped. Sem., 1897-1898, Vol. V., 381-420.
Lindley, E. H. Some Mental Automatisms. Ped. Sent., 1897,

Vol. v.. 41-60.
Marshall, H. R. Instinct and Reason. '^. Y., MacmiWain. I3.50.
McMillan, Margaret. Early Childhood, 27-47. Syracuse. Bar-

deen, $1.50.
Mezes, S. G. Essential Differences between Man and Other

Animals. Texas Acad, of Sc, 1898, 23-27.
Mills, W., and others. Instinct. Science, N. S., 1896, Vols. III.

and IV.
Moore, Mrs. Kathleen Carter. Mental Development of a Child.

Psy. Rev. Monograph Sup. No. 3.
Morgan, C. L. Swimming Instinct. Nature, 1901, Vol. LXIV.,

208.
Oppenheim, N. Mental Growth and Control, Chapter V. N.Y.

Macmillan, $1.25.

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274

TH£ CHILD

Phillips, D. E. Teaching Instinct. Ped. Sem., 1899, Vol. VI.,

188-245.
Preyer, W. Senses and Willy Chapters on Impulsive, Reflex

and Instinctive Movements. N. Y. Appleton, I1.50.
Reid, G. A. Prehensile Power of the Hands of the Human Infant.

Lancet, 1897, p. 1077.
Robinson, L. Primitive Child. N. Am. Rev., Vol. CLIX.,

467-478.
Rowe, S. H. Physical Nature of the Child, Chapters II. and XI.

N. Y. Macmillan, |i.oo.
Scripture, E. W. Arousal of an Instinct by Taste Only. Science,

N. S., 1899. Vol. IX., p. 878.
Shinn, Millicent W. Biography of a Baby. Boston. Houghton,

Mifflin, |i. 50.
Swift, E. J. Criminal Tendencies of Boyhood. Ped. Sem., igoo,

Vol. VIII., 65-91.
Heredity and Environment. Proc. N. E. A., 1898, 910-916;

Am. Phys., Ed. Rev. 1898; N. W. Mo., 1898, 36-41.
Trettien, A. W. Creeping and Walking. Am. Jour, of Psy.,

1900, Vol. XII., 1-57.
Thomas, W. I. Gaming Instinct. Am. Jour, of Soc, 1901,

Vol. VI., 750-763.
Taylor, A. R. Study of the Child, 93-105. N. Y. Appleton,

$1.25.
Tracy, B. Psychology of Childhood, Chapter on Movements.

Boston. Heath, $0.90.
Worthington, S. M. Inheritance of Mutilations, etc. Med. Rev.,

1897.

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CHAPTER XIV

Growth in Control of the Body

1. To observe the increase in control of the muscles,
compare children two, four, eight and fourteen years
old. Note the difference in ability to move obserya-
the fingers separately, either horizontally tions.
or up and down, to stand still on tip-toe, and to thread
a needle.

2. Have children of different ages sort out colors,
and note the differences in accuracy.

3. Have them tap a finger regularly, as long as they
can, and note thfe differences in regularity and in
length of time. In all these the fourteen-year-old
child will probably be little, if at all, superior to the
eight-year-old.

4. Notice whether the brightest children of your
acquaintance are the quickest and the most accurate
in their movements.

.5. Provide your children with simple tools, needles,
etc., of their own, and encourage them to make their
own toys, playhouses, etc., as well as articles for use
about the house. Show them how to use the tools,
and see that they complete whatever they begin.

6. If you are observing one child systematically,
give the tests mentioned in i at regular intervals, and
take pictures if possible.

Leaving now the exclusively physiological side of
the subject, we shall consider how a child learns to use

275

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276 THE CHILD

his body, and how much he improves from babyhood
to youth. In many parts of our country a revival of
Introduo- ^11 sorts of hand work is shown by classes
tion. in lace-making, spinning and weaving, car-

pentry, basketry, and so on. While there maybe more
or less of the fad in this, it is nevertheless very sug-
gestive to the sociologist and to the educator, because
it indicates a feeling of the value of "handiness."

Whether we look at the matter historically or logic-
ally, we can see that in the end our civilization
depends upon our ability to control our bodies, espe-
cially our hands. Without such ability^ neither liter-
ature nor machinery nor any other expression of
thought is possible, and it is still an open question
how much the power of thought itself is dependent for
growth upon an organ that is adaptable, like the lips and
hands, and how far it has created the organ by use. It is
therefore valuable to study how the baby learns to use
that wonderful organ of the mind, his body, and espe-
cially how both child and adult learn to use their hands.

In order to understand why a baby makes move-
ments of one sort and a child movements of another
sort, we must know something about the
conditions nervous system. The connection between
and bodily the nervous system and the rest of the
body is so close that for all practical pur-
poses a mian might as well not have a body as a ner-
vous system that is seriously diseased. We see the
truth of this especially in cases of paralysis, or of
locomotor ataxia, but we do not often realize that the
truth holds also for slighter degrees of disease. Wear-
iness of any group of nerve-cells makes it difficult or
impossible to use the muscles which those cells control.

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GROWTH IN CONTROL OF THE BODY

277

A petson suffering from nervous exhaustion, despite
large, well-developed muscles, cannot walk a block
without extreme fatigue. A tired woman cannot do
fine sewing well; a tired child cannot write as well or
speak as distinctly as when rested.

Diagram ii. Various Human Nbrve-Cblls Drawn to thb Same Scale and
Magnified 300 Diameters.

It is not necessary, and it would not be profitable, to
give a detailed account of the nervous system here.
We shall only notice that it consists of structure of
nerve-cells and nerve-fibers; the structure the nervous
of each is shown in Diagrams ii and 12. system.

In general, the nerve-cells are found in the brain and
spinal cord (the nerve-centers or central nervous sys-
tem), and the nerve-fibers run through all parts of the
body to and from these centers, as well as between the

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278 "TM® CHILD

various centers. One set of nerve-fibers (afferent or
sensory) carries messages to the central cells, and
another set (efferent or motor) takes back the direc-
tion for a movement in response, while a third set
(connective) connects various parts of the spinal cord
and brain with each other.

Each part of the spinal cord has control of certain
muscles of the body, and the movements performed
under its direction are called involuntary or reflex,
because they occur without the interference of the
will. Definite parts of the brain also have control of
definite muscles, but the movements here take place
with the consent of the person and so are called volun-
tary. Most muscles
of the body may be
controlled at one
time by the cord,
and at another time
by the brain. The
arrangement of the

DIAGRAM 12. Longitudinal (B) and Trans- ^erve-fibers which
VBRSB (ji) Section of a Nervb-Fiber. "^* ^\ nuci^ wnicii

permits this double
control is like this: a certain nerve-fiber, say from
the big toe, passes from the toe to the lower part
of the spinal cord. Here it enters a nerve-cell. From
this cell at least two fibers pass out, one going back to
the muscles of the toe, and one up to the brain. The
one that passes up to the brain there also enters a
nerve-cell, which has many connections with other
brain-cells. If the response to the stimulus is sent
back from the spinal cord, as is usually the case in the
ordinary sensations from walking, the act is reflex or
involuntary. But if consciousness and will are aroused

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GROWTH IN CONTROL OF THE BODY

279

by the message passing up to the brain, as when the
toe is bruised, the act is vol unitary.

The importance of well developed cells and numer-
ous connective fibers is apparent from this brief
sketch. They lie at the basis of all our acts. A child
whose nerve-cells do not grow, or in whose brain few
fibers of connection form, will be an idiot or an
imbecile. The work of education is to develop
numerous fibers of connection.

It has been well demonstrated that the nervous sys-
tem develops in each child in approximately the same
way that it did in the race. The lowest i>eveiopment
forms of animal life have no discoverable ofthener-
nervous system; neither has the human ^^'^^ "^"**™'
embryo in its first stages of growth. The simplest
nervous system in animals consists of a little mass of
nerve-cells with a few radiating nerve-fibers, and this
is essentially the first visible nervous system in the
human embryo. By the end of the fifth month of
embryonic life, the number of nerve-cells is complete
(see page 18). Thence growth proceeds in the follow-
ing order:*

1. Connections between neighboring centers in the
cord.

2. Connections between the upper and lower parts
of the cord.

3. Connections between the cord and the medulla
oblongata.

4. Connections between the hemispheres of the
brain and the cord. This occurs just before birth.

5. Development of fibers going to the brain centers
that control stimuli from the arms, legs and trunk.

*Flechsig.

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28o ''""E CHILD

This growth also occurs just before birth, and dur-
fng the first month after birth. The special sense
centers also develop just after birth, smell first and
hearing last. By the end of the first month, these
centers have all reached partial but not complete
maturity.

6. The connections between the various parts of the
brain develop to a very slight extent before birth, but
after birth grow steadily.

The most rapid groWth of the brain in size is from
birth to the ninth month. During this time, one-third
of the total increase in weight after birth occurs; the
second third is added between the ninth and twenty-
seventh months. The remaining third is added much
more slowly, the brain reaching almost its adult
weight by the eighth or ninth year. Practically all
the growth of the brain after this age is in the develop-
ment of connective fibers. How long the growth of
the fibers continues, is still a matter of dispute, but it
seems probable that it lasts up to the age of forty or
even later. In old^ age the fibers deteriorate. In
idiots and imbeciles, the growth ceases at too early an
age, resulting in arrested development.

At birth a child has no power to make voluntary
movements of any sort. When an arm or a leg moves,
The baby's when his eyes close at a bright light, or
control of when he starts at a loud sound, the move-
niBbody. - ment is a total surprise to him. something
that he can neither prevent nor repeat. He gets,
at the most, vague feelings, without any knowledge
of their cause or connection with each other, or
with other feelings, and he does not as yet know the
difference between feelings arising from his own

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GROWTH IN CONTROL OF THE BODY 28 1

movements and those due to outside stimuli, such as
light and sounds.

But these vague feelings become more distinct by
repetition, and as the connective fibers within the
baby's brain grow, the various feelings become asso-
ciated with one another. The eye sees the aimless
movements of the hand, and, after many accidental
successes, is able to guide the hand to the mouth.
The first accidental grasping of the breast in the
aimless groping of the hand, gives a basis of feel-
ing for the intentional reaching when the baby is
hungry.

The wonderful change in a baby that usually occurs
about the sixth month of his life is due very largely to
his discovery that he can move himself this way or
that as he pleases, and can direct his movements by
his eyes. Thenceforward his time is devoted to learn-
ing how to do what he sees others doing. Imitation
seems to be his sole end — imitation of sounds, of facial
expressions, of movements of all sorts. In getting
this control, the larger muscles, those nearest the
trunk, are always the first that obey. The baby kicks
and practises creeping before he undertakes to walk.
Movements of the individual fingers are very few in
babies, and^ even in children finger-control is very
imperfect.

The constant increase in the accuracy of feeling and in
the rapidity and correctness of bodily movement is evi-
dent from numerous tests made upon school ^^^ child's
children. In the discrimination between control of
colors, there is a steady advance, except at ^**^®^y-
adolescence. The newborn child does not distinguish
colors or even forms, but only light and darkness.

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282 THE CHILD

masses and bright places. Colors are probably not
distinguished to any extent before the second year.
Even kindergarten children frequently know only red,
yellow, and blue, and do not even discriminate between
shades of these. After six years of age girls are more
sensitivXto color than boys. Whether they are before
that time, is a matter for future observation.

In other experiments made to test differences in
accuracy at different ages, the object was to find the
changes (i) in the ability to judge slight differences in
weight; (2) in the control over the muscles as shown
by the rapidity in making a* movement like tapping;
(3) in the quickness in responding to a stimulus.
Bofh Gilbert and Bryan found that the ability to judge
accurately of differences in weight increased gradually
from six to twelve years, with the most rapid increase
between six and eight years. From twelve to fourteen
years, the boys were poorer than before, while the
girls were poorer from twelve to thirteen. After these
periods, improvement went on again with both boys
and girls. The boys were slightly more accurate than
the girls except between seven and nine, and eleven
and thirteen years. In all cases, the rate of increase
in precision lessens from year to year.

In the tests for muscular control and for rapidity of
response, the same record was made. There seems
always to be a certain rate of response for a given
muscle with any one person, and the right side is, as
we should expect, superior to the left, except with
left-handed persons. There is found to be less differ-
ence between the two sides of left-handed boys and
girls, than there is between the two sides of right-
handed persons.

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GROWTH m CONTROL OF THE BODY

283

There is an increase in muscular strength, as shown
by the hand-grip, from six years up, with a fluctua-
tion for boys at the fourteenth year, and for girls

at the twelfth year. After this temporary

J 4.U u » .. ^u • Increase In

decrease, the boys strength increases strength:

steadily but slowly. The girls' strength, on results of

the other hand, decreases until about the

sixteenth year, after which there is a slow increase.

In general, as a child gains more control of his
body, he becomes better able to do different things at
the same time with the two hands. Parts like the
fingers, that at first were moved only with other parts,
become more independent. There is also more ability
to combine movements into long sequences, as in mak-
ing mud pies, or building a house, or making a dolTs
dress. F'inally, increase in the economy and accuracy
of movements shows a close adaptation of body to
mind, and a flexibility in the u^e of the body that is
very desirable.

It must be noted again-here that there is certainly
some definite connection between periods of most
rapid increase in muscular control and Relation to
power of discrimination, and those of height and
most rapid growth in height and in weight. ^•*«^*-
The temptation is strong to connect the time of
increase in weight with that of this increase in control
and in discrimination. The evidence given by the fig-
ures at hand is not, however, conclusive on this point.
There is need for more correlated observations.*

* It is interesting also to notice, although no practical use of the
fact is evident now, that at eleven boys and girls and bright
and dull pupils are almost alike in all respects. This age seems
to be a neutral ground, a resting place, where all child-humanity
meets on equal terms.

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284

THB CHILD

In watching over the adolescent, we should not for-
get that the period from the seventh to the ninth year
is also an important one, showing all the fluctuations
that adolescence does, though to a less degree.

In the light of all these facts about development, it

seems probable that our present school gradings are

artificial. The natural divisions would

orowtband seem to fall about the seventh or eighth

•ebool

grading. year, and the twelfth and fourteenth years

for girls and boys respectively. Or, to
state it more exactly, the natural divisions occur at
the beginning of the second dentition, at which time
there is a rapid growth of connective fibers in the
brain; and at the beginning of adolescence, where
there is another period of rapid growth of connective
fibers. Previc^us to the second dentition, kindergarten
methods, on a wider scale than now, seem advisable;
that is, relatively little stress should be laid on book
work, and more on hand work, and work which is not
separated into distinct branches, but is closely cen-
tered about the home and neighborhood life.

The new interests of the period, from the second
dentition to adolescence, can be used for the systematic
beginnings of the various studies of the curriculum.
With adolescence and the awakening to social life that
comes then, school studies, especially "the human-
ities," can be taken up with a new interest.

In speaking of the relation between bodily growth
and mental ability, we said that the testimony was
very divergent. Mental ability seems to bear no rela-
tion to weight and height except as the individual has
been deprived of his chance to grow to his own proper
size. But when we consider bodily control and mental

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GROWTH IN CONTROL OP THE BODY 285

ability, we find all observers agreeing that the brighter

children always have the best control of their muscles.

We should expect this from the close ^ ^^,

, , , , , Bodily oon-

connection between nervous health and troiand

muscular control on one side, and ner- mental
vous health and mental development on
the other. The person with an undeveloped brain has
neither mental power nor bodily control. The idiot
and the imbecile are conspicuously lacking in both
respects. The dropping jaw, the lifeless hand, the
imperfect speech, are as sure indications of mental
defect as the inability to learn. The criminal, who is
perhaps only another sort of imbecile, in like manner
shows a lack of muscular control. In both cases the
most successful treatment to secure both moral refor-
mation and mental growth is to teach bodily control,
first of the larger muscles and then, as soon as possible,
of the finer muscles, through all kinds of hand work.

At this point we touch upon one of the most impor-
tant questions in elementary education. Our prom-
inent educators insist more and more upon
the value of manual training in our schools. JJ^^^^nJ
This includes work in wood, leather and
brass, spinning, weaving and sewing, basketry, draw-
ing, clay modeling, cooking; in short, everything that
can be done by the hand.

From the standpoint of educational theory, not all
objects are of value in the making, but only those that
typify certain permanent human interests and that are at
the same time of such a material that the child's hand
can reproduce them. Within this limitation, the
utmost stress is laid upon the importance of children
doing with their own hands, not for sake of teaching

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286 *H^ CHitt

them trades, but because such training develops them
mentally and morally as no mere book study can.
It is impossible to do justice to this position in a brief
space, but we must state its connection with the various
facts of nervous development that have already been
discussed.

Three things are necessary for a strong character —
sensitiveness, or ability to see all the sides and factors
BsBentlalB ^^ ^ given situation; good judgment, or
of a strong common sense in seeing what should be
character. ^^^^^ ^^^ ability or strength to do the
right thing. The second of these, good judgment, is
the intellectual side, and its development consists par-
ticularly in the cultivation of practical aims and worthy
ideals. The first and the third belong to the province
of feeling and will.

Educationally it is much the easiest thing to get at
a child from the intellectual side. We can easily have
Tbe making ^^^ learn words by heart or do a certain
ofawboie kind of reasoning, entirely apart from any
^^' value to the rest of his life. Our hi|[h

schools and colleges are now turning out every June
mental gymnasts who cannot take any share in social
life at first, and whose motives are too often frankly
selfish. Our present political corruption is far more
closely connected with mr individualistic and intel-
lectual education than w«Bilize. But we are coming
to believe that the most i^raiprtant part of education is
that children shall learn tcKpderstand the society into
which they are born, and v|P"k for its improvement.

To make a whole manJst man who feels deeply and
acts forcibly and well b|sides thinking logically, is
therefore the problem of t!ie new education.

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GROWTH IN CONTROL OF THE BODY 287

Now, we assume that there are certain permanent
and valuable purposes or ends that are found among
all m,en, but take various forms according Development
to the surroundings of a people. Among of interest
them are the desires for food, clothing and i«^ social i^«-
shelter, and the love of music and art, at least in a
crude form. These desires are born in each child and
are the center from which, through his social nature, he
works out to an interest in natural science and in other
people and other times. The instinct of imitation
leads him to play at house, at hunting, at dress-mak-
ing, reproducing in miniature the life about him.
Thence he is led to question what people did for
clothes when they had no needles, how they killed
animals when they had no guns, and so on.

But, and here we connect with hand work again,
when a child thus begins to question how a certain
people lived or how a certain food is obtained or how
a certain machine runs, the best understanding is
obtained by his^ living the life, preparing the food, or
making the machine; and the association fibers of the
brain are most rapidly developed by this activity. A
child has but a small store of memories to fall back
upon and cannot construct in imagination with any
accuracy such a process as weaving, even of the sim-
plest kind. He must, at least in a crude form, go
through the essential parts of the process himself
before he can have the feelings and motor associa-
tions necessary for understanding it. Still more, by
doing it himself, he is able to enter into the feelings
and thoughts of the weaver. By planting and raising
wheat, he not only understands farming better, but
also the farmer. He is broadening his sympathies,
10

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288 'I'HB CHILD

for the basis of all sympathy is ability to put oneself
in another's place, and we cannot do this unless we
have had the same experiences as he. This strong
plea can therefore be made for hand work in our
schools — that it will do away with the foolish notion
that the trades are of less worth than the professions,
and will train children to a genuine sympathy with all
workers, thus leveling the artificial distinctions of our
social life and helping to solve our labor problems.

Finally, on the side of action, only acting will
develop the skill, accuracy and patience
o^acSJm^^* which are essential things in the attainment
of first rank in any profession.

From all sides it seems, therefore, that the expres-
sion in visible form of any valuable thought is neces-
sary for the complete understanding of the thought as
well as for the broadening and strengthening of the feel-
ings and of the will. Accordingly, we would make an
earnest plea to parents and teachers to do their utmost
to give the children in their charge every opportunity
to express their ideas. This does not require the
introduction of expensive outfits in cooking, manual
training, and so on, so much as it does ingenuity in
using the materials at hand. Wonders can be done
with a hammer, saw and jack-knife, with an old stove
and a few tin pans, with a doll and some pieces of
cloth, with weeds, pliable twigs and tough grasses,
with sand, mud and clay. All these things are at hand
for nearly every one. The important thing is that the
children shall become accustomed to expressing their
ideas.

Physically a child gets more and better control of
his body as the association fibers develop to connect

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GROWTH m CONTROL OF THE BODY 289

various parts of the brain and cord with each other,
and, on the other hand, constant attempts to do a cer-
tain act develop the nervous connection

Oonclusion.
necessary for the performance of the act.

A child who never attempted to walk or talk would
never develop the nervous connections necessary for
the complex combinations of muscles used in those
acts. To a large extent, use makes the organ.

We saw that the nervous system consists of fibers
that carry messages to the cord and brain, cells in the
cord and brain that receive these messages, and fibers
that carry back responses to the muscles, the three
divisions corresponding to sensation, thought or idea-
tion, and will. Ideation and feeling were developed
in our savage ancestors in the attempt to maintain
their uncertain existence, and are even in civilized
man relatively incomplete unless carried on into
action. Physiologically, the afferent fiber passes into
a central cell which is connected with an efferent
fiber, so that the tendency is always for a stimulus to
call out a motor response. Both the argument from
evolution and that from brain development, therefore,
unite in emphasizing again the importance of the
expression of ideas.

References. — For Bibliography see the references at the end of
Chapter II.

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CHAPTER XV

Imitation and Suggestion

1. Keep a dated record of some child's imitations
during the first year. Note:

(i) Their character. Compare the move-
tioiT^*' ments with reflex and instinctive move-

ments.
(2) Their relation to walking and talking. Do they
precede these or not ? If not, is there a period of
rest in the walking and talking when they begin ?

2. Keep a similar record of some child between two
and seven years old, or get observations on a number of
children, following Miss Frear's plan as given in this
chapter.

3. Try Mr. SmalTs experiment, or a similar one.
This is very easily done in any room where there is
gas or a coal-stove, by pretending to smell the gas, or
with other materials by pretending that meat is a little
tainted, or milk a little sour, or butter a little strong.

It ofteft happens that the value of a theory lies no
more in its explanation of the class of facts with refer-
ence to which it was first stated, than in its
evoumon?^ application to quite another class. The
theory of evolution, first systematically
propounded as a theory that different species of ani-
mals pass into each other by gradations, has been
widened to the idea that all physical life exhibits a
graded series of forms originating from one or a few

290

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IMITATION AND SUGGESTION

291

simple forms; and is now being applied to mental life
both brute and human.

This gives us, in reality, two theories of evolution —
one of the body, and another of the mind, and it has
been a favorite assumption of both biologists and
psychologists that the two series of facts run parallel,
and have no causal relationships. They would say,
for instance, that when you will to move your hand,
the hand moves, not as the result of the willing, but as
the result of certain changes in nerve and muscle which
are entirely independent of mental processes. The
two series of processes run beside each other, but
never cross.

This theory served for a brief time, as it had the
practical advantage of averting metaphysical and
religious discussions upon the nature of mind, but as
the evolution idea has been worked out in more detail,
it has become constantly more evident that there is
some definite relation between the complexity of the
bodily functions and structure, and the presence of
mental activity. This can not, indeed, be proved in
all its details; ther« are gaps and discrepancies here as
in the theory of evolution itself; and yet, when we
take a view of the course of development as shown by
such writers as Spencer and Romanes, the conclusion
is almost irresistible that the development of the mind
has proceeded with equal steps and by the same laws
as the development of the body. It is a strikingly
simple conception that the mind has obtained its
present modes of activity by responding to the
demands of its environment. The animal that was able
to retain, in memory some painful or pleasurable
experience so as to avoid or secure it again, was the

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THE CHILD

one best adapted to its surroundings and so was the one
that survived and passed down this form of activity to
its descendants. Thus were developed sharpness of
perception, imagination, attention, and thought itself,
and developed only in response to stimuli, as the best
preliminary to action. Mental activity, then, on this
theory, has its origin in some want of the animal, and
its end in some act which is supposed to satisfy that
want.

James says that **all consciousness is motor." To
understand better what this quotation means, let us
••All con- ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ development of the nervous
BciousnesB system. We find here, that, in general, the
is motor." ^^^ ^-^^^ ^y^^ greatest mental activity are
men with the best developed nervous system; and that
this is true all the way down the scale of life. The
animal with little or no nervous system, like the oyster,
or the clam, has little mental activity.-- We find also
that uniformly in the nervous system there is a connec-
tion between those brain cells that receive a stimulus,
and those that send messages out to the muscles of the
body, so that every impression received tends to call
out some muscular response; in other words, **A11 con-
sciousness is motor.'' Every idea, even, is reflected in
the muscular system and so makes some change in the
body. This is shown in a multitude of ways.

I. Professor Mosso, an Italian, has made careful
experiments to find out what is the effect upon the
body of stimulations that arouse emotions, and also to
discover the bodily changes caused by changing ideas.
He found that when various substances were put into
the mouth or when the skin was touched or the eye
stimulated, there was always some corresponding

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IMITATION AND SUQQBSTION

293

change in the circulation and respiration. He also
found that mental work, such as sums in mental arith-
metic, changed the character of the breathing and cir-
culation. These changes were measured by means of
a registering apparatus, so that the matter is proved.
Mr. Gates of Washington, further investigating this
point, has discovered that every emotion causes
changes varying with their character. Thus there is
one kind of perspiration for fear, and another for joy.

2. Such facts as those of muscle-reading prove the
same thing. In muscle-reading, there is always
physical contact between subject and operator. The
operator knows where an object is hidden which he
wishes the subject to find, and he keeps his mind fixed
on the place where the object is. This fixing of atten-
tion leads to involuntary contractions of the muscles
that guide the subject toward the place, if he is sensi-
tive enough to perceive them.

3. The facts of hypnotism are too well-known to
need description here. We mention hypnotism
because its essential characteristic is that the subject is
in some way given an idea which fills his conscious-
ness, and therefore must be carried out into action.
What is called the **contror' of the hypnotist over the
subject depends entirely upon how well he can fill the
subject's mind with the idea§\which he wishes him to
act ^oft.

4. There are many facts in our everyday life that
illustrate the same thing. When there is no conflicting
idea in our minds we act upon any idea that comes
into it. If we see a pencil, we make marks with it; if
a pin is on the floor, we pick it up; if we put on our
hat, we also put on our coat and gloves, and so on.

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THE CHILD

Habitual acts come under this head; the act once
started is finished because we have no opposing idea.

This carrying out into action of an idea that in any

way enters the mind, depends, we have just said, on

the absence of conflicting ideas. This, in
Condition of ^ , , ^u u r

imitatiye- turn, depends upon the number of associa-

neiioriug- tions that one has with an idea, and the

amount of attention fixed upon the idea.

The more the attention is fixed, the more likely is the

idea to be carried out; and the fewer the associations,

the less likely are opposing ideas to rise. Children

have fewer associations than grown people, and hence

believe everything that is told them. Their attention

is also easily attracted. On both accounts, then, the

tendency is for them to carry out into action at once

anything that attracts them, and therefore children

are more imitative than adults.

Imitation means, in its widest sense, the copying of
some idea received from some person or object, in the
form in which it was received. Thus one may imitate
the pose of a statue, the bark of a dog, the movement
or the voice of a friend. One may also imitate
motives as far as one knows them.

The questions immediately before us are these:
When does imitation rise, and when ebb? How strong
is its power over the child? What does he imitate?
And what use can we make educationally of this tend-
ency?

Imitation is now usually classed as a genuine
instinct. It is an inborn tendency common to all
children, but undeveloped at birth. At first, a child's
acts are reflex and involuntary, and not until between
the ages of four and six months does real imitation

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IMITATION AND SUGGESTION 20S

begin. From that time to the age of seven, imitation

is the principal means of education. This is simply

another and more specific statement of the

fact that all consciousness is motor. There f^^^I,

Imitation.

IS some bodily change in answer to any

stimulus, and in imitation, the body only reproduces

in the same form the stimulus that it receives.

Preyer remarks that the very first imitations of the
baby are imitations of movements that he already
knows and does without any such stimuli. In the
case of his son, it was the pursing of the mouth, and
occurred in the latter part of the fourth month. Miss
Shinn notes for the same time some possible imitations
of sounds but is dubious about their being true imita-
tions. Even if there are genuine imitations at this
early age, they are infrequent, and the most patient en-
couragement of the child will not call them out except
to a very limited extent. The connective fibers between
the sensory and motor brain regions, which are essen-
tial before imitation can occur, have not yet developed
to any great extent, and do not until about the ninth
rnonth, at which time imitation becomes much more
frequent. In the sixth or seventh month there are
some clear cases of imitation, but even then they are
relatively few, while from the ninth month on, the
baby imitates all sorts of movements and sounds-
combing his hair, shaving himself, sweeping and other
household tasks. By two and a half years the child is
into everything, imitating his elders and wanting to
help in every way. The great development in the
ninth month certainly has a close connection with the
rise of creeping and language and the growth of per-
ception, but we lack observations which would reveal

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296

THE CHILD

the exact order of development and the causal rela-
tions between these processes.

In these first imitations, the child imitates most
readily the movements that he already performs
reflexly or instinctively. Beckoning or waving the
hand in **bye-bye" is one of the first imitations, and in
the beginning is only a repetition of the natural move-
ments of the arms. But even before such a voluntary
imitation occurs, the child is very likely to reproduce
unconsciously movements or sounds, such as a smile
or a cough. Later he will also do this, but when
asked to do it, either does it very poorly ,or not at all,
and always hesitates for some seconds before he can
get the necessary movements started.

Imitation being well developed by the second year,
the question is of great interest as to what the child
imitates and how he does it, and investiga-
toiutei^^""* tions have been made of which the fol-
lowing is Miss Frear's summary:

3 YEARS

7 YEARS

What the child imitates:

I. Animals

5%
10

35
50
65

15
70

10^
10

2. Children

3. Adults

Kind of imitation :

I. Direct

2. Play

3. Idea

The characteristics imitated

I. Speech

2. Action

3. Action, speech and sound

\ Now it is both interesting and important to notice
that 85 and 80 per cent of the child's imitations at
three and seven years, are of "grown folks,'' and this

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IMITATION AND SUGGESTION

297

is still more important when we add, what is not given
in the table, that most of these are imitations of the
teacher's actions and speech. It seems difficult to
overestimate the influence of the teacher over the child
less than seven years old. After that age, imitation
becomes less prominent because, as a child gets more
ideas, he has more things to choose from and is more
likely to combine them in ways of his own.

We should notice also that by the time the child is
three years old, the direct imitation of movements and
sounds, which is his only mode of imitation at first,
constitutes only 35 per cent, and at seven years only
15 per cent of his imitations, while play, which allows
change and invention, constitutes 50 to 80 per cent at
the two ages; and imitation of ideas, which includes
many plays, is the most important factor. This
change from imitation of movements to imitation of
ideas in play, is coincident with the development of
memory and imagination that we have already
described, and with the beginnings of questioning.

The large proportion of imitations of movements
marks once more the necessity so often mentioned, of
giving children plenty of freedom for activity; while
the numerous Imitations of adult activities strongly
emphasizes both the social na'ture of the child and the
ease with which education can at this time introduce
him to the work of the world in a play form. The
more we study the children themselves the more do we
become impressed by the fact that a grown person who
is unsocial and lazy is one who has been warped from
the natural order of growth. '

Imitation has been classified in various ways. First
there is the division into reflex, and voluntary. In

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298

THE CHILD

reflex imitation one simply x:opies, without reflection,
any movement one happens to see. One child yawns,

and then another; one coughs, then an-^
Station other, etc. Voluntary imitation, on the other

hand, selects and tries to imitate the copy,
as in copying a drawing. This division corresponds,
in the main, to the distinction between simple and
persistent imitation. In simple imitation, a child
repeats some movement without modifying it in any-
respect. Usually he copies it only once, because he
does not get interested in the act and so is not stimu-
lated to repetition. Such imitation has littleeducative
value. In persistent imitation, however, he does find
the copy interesting and is stimulated to repeat the
movement again and again. As a typical case of this
sort, Baldwin gives the illustration of his little daughter
imitating him in taking the rubber of a pencil off and
putting it on again. She would do this for half an hour
at a time.

Here we must note one point which will save much
defective teaching if kept in mind. Are the children

doing the same thing over and over in this
r6^6Mtion. repetition of the act ? To us they appear to

be, because they get the same result, but if
we examine the acts more closely, we shall see that
this is not the case. The first time Helen tries to put _
the rubber on the pencil, she probably does not suc-
ceed, although she tries very hard. She keeps on
experimenting, making different movements with her
fingers and the pencil, until she happens to get it on.
Then she pulls it off and tries again; this time she suc-
ceeds more quickly and easily, because she leaves out
many unnecessary movements. And so each time

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299

some movements are omitted and better control of
the rest is obtained until the child is satisfied and
stops. Each time the act is somewhat different from
what it was before, and each time the child learns
something. The entire process of repetition is the
best method of self-education that could be devised,
and should not be stopped.

The writer has been told many times that there are
usually one or two songs or games which a child
chooses to play ten times, where he chooses others
once. Often we can not see why he should like that
particular song or game so well, but it would seem that
it must exercise certain muscles and develop certain
organs and so give a deep satisfaction to the child
who chooses. His choice may not always be one that
suits the majority of the children, however, and so he
can not always be gratified.

This enjoyment is also due in part to the great
enlargement of a child's range of actions. By far the
largest part of our movements are acquired by imita-
tion, and so when a child sees a new movement and
begins to imitate it, he finds a new self in his body
that he has never dreamed of before. He gets a large
number of new and delightful feelings, and, most
glorious of all, he finds that he can get those feelings
as often as he pleases by simply making a certain
movement. He becomes master of himself through
imitation, and the delight obtained from this beginning
of control is the direct incentive to voluntary effort
and to voluntary attention. Imitation is the developer
of will power. * *'

It is not the thing that is accomplished by the move-
ment, but the feeling of the movement that delights

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30^

TM£ CHILD

the imitative child, and so he repeats It until he
becomes thoroughly familiar with the feeling, and then

discards that copy. So, also, he is satisfied
Batiifaotion with any makeshifts in his imitation if only
netreiuit. they allow the right movements. Thus we

find a little girl of three years washing her
doll's clothes without water; ironing them with a cold
iron; and mending them without holes. Another papers
the wall with imaginary paper and paste, using a clothes
brush for a paste brush to help out his imagination.

Because all the child wants is the new feelings in the
movements, we find also that esthetic motives seem to
have little value in deciding what children shall imi-
tate. Repulsive things are as attractive as beautiful.
Children imitate deformities and disease. There are
numerous cases of children impersonating lame people,
humpbacks, blind people, drunkards, etc., not at all in
a spirit of mockery, but just as they imitate everything,
else. To show how strong this copy may be, we have
in mind a case of a little girl of five years who visited
a sick cousin. For more than a week after coming
home, she played she was sick. She made some bread
pills, which she took regularly, and every little while
she would lie down, cover herself up, and act as her
cousin had acted. It is rather difficult to know what
to do in such cases, for we can not prevent children
seeing such things, and we do not wish to repress
the spirit of imitation. Can we not make the children
realize that the humpback suffers most of the time
because his lungs, heart, etc., are pressed out of place
by his curved spine? And that the drunkard is himself
wretched and the cause of wretchedness to others?
That is, we should replace the superficial knowledge of

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301

the child by a deeper understanding and he will lose
his desire to imitate such things.

This leads us to another important characteristic of
imitation; viz.^ its social nature. We have said that
through imitation a child makes acquaint-
ance with his own body and gets control of 5f tnStaSon*
it; it is equally true that by imitation he
makes acquaintance with objects and persons. When
a child imitates the movements of another person, he
reproduces thereby in himself the same state of mind
in part as that of the person whom he imitates. We
have seen in our study of the emotions, that if we
assume a certain position, the corresponding emotion
is likely to come, and this is also true when the move-
ment is imitated. Our little copyist is able to put
himself in another's place by imitation, and at first
only by imitation. Imitation therefore is the basis of\
sympathy as well as the developer of will and atteny
tion, and the agency for giving us self-control. Truly,
it hardly seems possible to exaggerate its importance
in the mental development of any child.

Therefore let a child imitate freely, and do not fear
that he will become a slave to outside influences.
Rather, he is laying the foundations for future origin-
ality because he is gaining that knowledge of others
and control of himself without which no invention is
possible. Imitation is the germ of the adventurer's
spirit, from which in later life will bloom discovery,
invention and imagination.

The transformation from imitation to originality
comes as his improvement in his imitation increases,
until the original movement serves only as a hint for
starting. The factor of imitation is, no doubt, still

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302

THE CHILD

there, but is covered up more or less. This change
comes, apparently, when the child has imitated until

the act is easy, and hence requires so little
oxMLBiity ^ttcJ^tion that he can expend the mental

energy thus set free in adorning the act, so to
speak. Then imagination comes to the fore, and sug-
gestion is invaluable. The place of imitation, accord-
ingly, would seem to be in getting technique. It is a
great advantage to a child who is drawing to see how
to hold his pencil and how to make 'a clear line, and it
certainly does not interfere with his iiidividuality. The
mistake that we all make lies here rather, — we insist
upon giving him an end to copy that is outside him-
self, whereas the end should be the expression of his
own personality, and should be chosen by himself.
At the same time, it is often true, no doubt, that a
child does not know what he wants to do, or wants
to do a thing that would harm him. In such cases
suggestion must come in.

We are very much afraid nowadays — at least many
of us are — of destroying a child's spontaneity if he imi-
tates much. There can be no doubt that children have
been and are repressed far too much by school for-
malities, book study, and so on, but free imitation has
nothing to do with such repression. Free imitation is
as much a part of "free play" — the watch-word of
educational individualism — as is invention or imagina-
tion. Once more we would emphasize the fact that
the developnient of a child proceeds best when he can
freely choose what he will do^ but we would also
emphasize the other fact of which we sometimes lose
sight, that what a child thus freely chooses to do is
almost invariably something that he sees going on in

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iMltAtlON ANt) SUGQfiStlON

303

the life about him, and that the wisest educator is the
one who so arranges the child's surroundings that the
things to hold his attention for imitation are those
which will best educate him. The child who per-
sistently does not imitate is usually the incipient
criminal. He is the unsocial child.

Since the child of this age is so willing to take up in^-
imitation whatever the teacher may suggest, importance '
the best kinds and modes of suggestion ofsuggos-
come up next for our consideration. ^ '

Suggestion is used here in the sense of any thought
or act that may be acted upon by a person. Sugges-
tion then takes many forms, which may be graded
according to the degree of clearness in the idea sug-
gested.

At the bottom of the list Baldwin puts what he calls
physiological suggestion. Examples of this are put-
ting a baby to sleep by patting it, by sfng- pj^ygjoiogi-
ing to it, by putting out the light, learning cai auggeg-
to lie in bed when asleep, and so on. ****^*

In such cases, an association is formed between a
certain stimulus and a certaio act, but the child has no
clear idea of the act that follows, and it can not prop-
erly be called imitative. The forming of associations
here is; however, a very important matter, and one
that is absolutely under the control of the one who has
charge of the child, if the child is healthy. If a child
is healthy, it is simply folly for its mother to accustom
it to constant attention and coddling in order to keep
it good humored, or to put it to sleep. Most babies at
first will go to sleep as readily if left alone in a quiet,
dark room as if sung to sleep by a bright light. So
with all bodily habits, especially after six months.
20

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304

THE CHILD

By regularly putting the child into certain positions,
associations are formed between them and definite
bodily reactions, and the reaction always follows.
The extent to which this is true is shown in odd exam-
ples. I have heard of one little girl who could not go
to sleep unless she saw a towel with a red border put
under her pillow, and then she would drop off at once.
Another had to embrace a certain book on theology.

Let us now turn our attention to other methods of
offering suggestions and the advantages thus gained,
sussestion That suggestion is strong among school
through children is shown in the experiments made

**•"• by Mr. M. H. Small. He wished to see if

he could not create real illusions by giving the children
the right ideas. Accordingly he tested a school of five,
hundred children of all grades up to High School, in
this way: he took into the room a bottle of perfume
with a spray attached and also a perfumed card; he
had two or three children come to the desk and smell
of each. Then without the children knowing it, he
substituted water for the perfume, and a scentless card
for the perfumed one. He then sprayed the water into
the room with every expression of enjoyment and was
joined in these by practically the entire room.
Seventy-three per cent of the children thought they
could smell the perfume. He tried similar experi-
ments with taste and sight, deceiving respectively 88
per cent and 76 per cent of the children. The decep-
tion was greater among the younger children than
among the older.

This tendency to accept and imitate the attitude of
the teacher is due, as we have said, to the lack of con-
flicting ideas in the child's mind, and therefore the

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305

most essential thing in persuading is to prevent the

rise of these. "A strong will/* says Guyau, "tends

to create a will in the same direction in -..,„ ^.

value of

others. What I see and think with suffi- strong
cient energy, I make everybody else see and ^^onviction.
think. I can do this just in proportion as I believe and
act my belief.'' The first essential for success m teach-
ing, therefore, is enthusiasm and a conviction of the
importance of the work. The next is belief in
one's own power to succeed, for thereby one gains
poise and the power to assert oneself calmly and
authoritatively, both of which are necessary to the
teacher.

Beyond this, the teacher must make herself a model\
fit for imitation by the child. Her position of author-
ity in the school fastens the child's atten-
tion upon her irresistibly for the time that of good
he is with her, and imitation of her is as breeding in
inevitable and unconscious as breathing.
First of all she must "sit up and look pleasant." She
must carry herself well. It goes without saying that
her dress must be neat, but it is equally important that
it should be tasteful. A teacher who wears' ugly colors
or bad combinations of colors, is a stumbling block
to these little ones, in a very real sense, for she is
training them to do the same thing. So also it is inex-
cusable for her to use harsh, shrill tones in speaking or
singing. She must modulate her voice so that it will
be low and sweet.

The degree to which all the physical peculiarities of
one person are imitated by others, is greater than is
commonly appreciated. Coughs, stammering, hys-
terical attacks, carriage, peculiar gestures, and facial

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2o6 "THE CHILD

expression, all are imitated. The teacher who wears a
worried frown soon has a frowning school.

Less observable but more important is the effect
upon the child of the teacher's mental and moral atti-
vaiueof tude. Only from the standpoint oiF the

belief in power of suggestion do we appreciate the

child. £^jj importance of believing that a child is

good, and of letting him know our belief. "Convince
the child that he is capable of good and incapable of
evil, in order to make him actually so.*' A child, and
even an adult, unconsciously to a large extent, imitates
the copy of himself that is held before him. Suppose
a child has misbehaved in some way. With a little
child, the chances- are that his intention was not wholly
bad, and if we assume that he was mistaken in his act
and not willful, we can often change the intention.
Say, "Now see how others would misunderstand you,
though you did not really intend to do wrong," or
"See how you have hurt him, but you did not mean
to,'' and so on. The little recreant will find it harder
not to live up to this copy than to imitate it, as a gen-
eral rule. So generally, when the selfish or narrow
side of a child's nature comes to the front in an act, do
not make it definite and clear cut to his consciousness
by talking to him about it, but rather emphasize first
its unhappy results, and then the good results which
rise from another way of acting. Make the child con-
scious of the good tendencies but not the bad, unless,
he is evidently doing wrong with full consciousness
of it. Then remonstrance and discussion are in place,
as we have already said.

Every movement of the teacher is a suggestion to
the pupil. If she expects bad behavior, she calls it

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IMITATION AND SUQQBSTION

307

out by her attitude of suspicion. Her eyes, head,
hands, all declare her expectation, and give rise to
ideas of mischief that otherwise would. not enter the
child's mind. In the same way, we find that children
usually care most for the subject that the teacher
likes. When she loves nature and the beautiful, every
suggestion is of their attractions, and she can carry the
the pupils over numberless obstacles by reason of
their imitation of her enthusiasm. Her own feelings,
with their concomitant actions, are reflected in her
pupils. Such things are '^catching.'*

We see here also why a negative suggestion is less
valuable than a positive one. If I say '*J^h^"y» don't
put the beans in your nose," why is it less uegatlvo
valuable than to say *'Jo^^^y» P^' ^he suggestion
beans in your pocket"? ^**'

Evidently, in the first case, Johnny's attention is
fastened on the beans and nose, and he is at tHe same
time left inactive. The natural thing is for him to
act on the idea presented. In the second case, his
attention is fastened on a useful idea and he is given
something to do. The different methods of treating a
child who gets hurt are in the same line. Why is it
better to make light of the injury? Evidently because
this gives the child a good copy to imitate. I have
seen a mother work a child into a fever of crying when
she fell down. The child picked herself up quickly
enough, rubbed her head a little and was beginning to
play again, when her mother rushed upon her thus: *'You
poor darling, did you fall and get hurted? Naughty,
wicked ground to hurt my little girl!" Here she
stamped upon and beat the ground. "J^st see what a
horrid, dirty hurt it made on my dearest' s face!" The

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3o8

THE CHILD

child's lips began to quiver and soon she too was angry
and crying. This particular mother is worse than any
one I have eyer known, but all of us are too likely to
give the child something negative or bad to copy
instead of something good.

Another source of much trouble to a child is that we

give him many different things to copy which do not

agree with each other. Says Jean Paul:

^consist- ..j£ ^^^ secret mental fluctuations of a large
ency. ^

class of fathers [and we should add teachers

and mothers] were brought to the light of day, they

would run somewhat after this fashion: In the first

hour the child should be taught morality; in the

second hour, the morality of expediency; in the third

hour, 'Your father doesn't do that'; in the fourth

hour, 'You are little, only grown people do that'; in

the ninth hour, 'Do not make so much noise'; in the

tenth Hour, 'A little boy ought not to sit still doing

nothing.' " Is it surprising that 'with many of us

morality is but unreasoning custom? If we do not

live a consistent life before our children and if they do

not find the same results following the same acts, how

can they ever believe in a truth and justice that are

eternal?

If what we have been saying of the power of imitation

and suggestion is true, we must reach the conclusion

that our children's defects are far more due

to the imperfect copies that we furnish

them than to any original sin in the children, and that

the first and most essential preparation for teaching

and parenthood, is to make our hearts clean and our

spirits pure.

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IMITATION AND SUGGESTION

REFERENCES

309

Baldwin, J. Mark. Mental Development Methods and

Processes. Chapter on Suggestion. N. Y. Macmillan,

I2.60.
Social and Ethical Interpretations. Section on the Imi-
tative Person. N. Y. Macmillan, $1 75.
Bosanquet, B. Social Automatisms and Imitation. Mind, N. S.,

1899, 167-175. (Very good criticism of Baldwin.)
Ellwood, C. A. Theory of Imitation in Social Psychology. Am.

Jour, of Sac. 1901, Vol. VI., 721-741.
Frear. Caroline. Imitation. /*<?<^. 5^w., 1896-7, 381-386. (Works

over into charts Russell's book on Imitation.)
Guyau, J. M. Education and Heredity. Chapter on Suggestion.

N. Y. Scribner, $1.25. (Good.)
Harris, W. T. Psychologic Foundations of Education^ 295-321.

N. Y. Appleton, I1.50.
Haskell, Ellen M. Imitation in Children. Ped. Sem., October,

1894.
Holman, Henry. Imitation in School Children. Paidologist,

April, 1899, 24-37.
Huntington, F. D. Unconscious Tuition. Barnard's statistics.

Anu Jour, of Ed., 1856, No. I., 141-163.
Imitation. Rept. of Com. of Ed., 1896-7, 671. (Summary of

Tarde, Baldwin, Royce, and others. Also article by Anna

T. Smith.) -
LeBon, G. The Crowd. N. Y. Macmillan, I1.50. (Shows

the power of suggestion. )
Ledyard, Mary F. Imitation, Originality and Freedom. Proc.

N. E. A., 1899, 547-51.
Lukens, H. Suggestion in the Cure of Faults. N. W. Mo.,

May, 1898, 592-5.
Newbold. Interpretation of Automatisms. Pop. Sc. Mo., 1897.
Noble, E. Suggestion as a Factor in Social Progress. Int. Jour.

of Ethic Sy 1898, 214-228. (The great necessity of suggestions

of good.)
Preyer, W. Senses and Will. Chapter on Imitative Move-
ments. N. Y. Appleton, I1.50.
Royce, J. Imitative Functions. Century, Vol. XLVIII., and

Psy, Rev., Vol. II.

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3IO

THE CHILD

Sidis, Boris. Psychology of Suggestion, pp. 5-90. N. Y. Apple-
ton, $1.75.

Small, Maurice H. Suggestibility in Children. Ped, Sent., 1896,
Vol. VII., 176-220.

Sudborough. What Children Imitate. N. W. Mo„ Vol. VIII.,
pp. 99, 136, 162, 226, 300, 332.

Tuke, Hack. Dtct of Psy, Med,, Imitation, Vol. VI., 676-78.
Phil. Blakiston, fio.oo.

Urban, W. M. Psychology of Suflficient Reason. Psy, Rev.,
July, 1897, 361-73. (Bases all knowledge upon the feeling
of reality obtained from more or less perfect imitation.)

Van Liew, C. C. Educational Bearings of the Principle of Imita-
tion. N. W. Mo., Vol. VII., 320-7.

Waldo, Bell. Imitation in Children. C. S. M., Vol. II., 75-78.
(Principally examples.)

Waldstein, Louis. Subconscious Self and Its Relation to Educa-
tion and Health, 41-80, 160-2. N. Y. Scribner, $1.25.

Washburn, M. F. Recent Discussions of Imitation. Phil. Rev.,
1899, Vol. VIII., 101-104. (Discussion of Tarde and Bald-
win.)

Wundt, W. Human and Animal Psychology. Chapter on
Hypnotism and Suggestion, pp. 328-339. N. Y. Macmillan,

|2.6(X

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CHAPTER XVI

Language

1. Keep a dated record of the order of development
of vowels a-nd consonants; of clicks, grunts Observa-

etC. tiOXLB.

2. Note when gestures begin to be used to get what
the child wants. What gestures are used? What are
first used? What are most frequently used?

3. Note when the baby begins to understand speech.
Be careful here not to confuse knowledge of the word
with knowledge of the gestures. To be sure that the
baby understands the word, it must be spoken without
gestures or any unusual inflections.

(i) When does he know his name?

(2) The names of the people that he sees most fre-

quently?

(3) The names of any objects?

4. The beginnings of speech. Keep a record of the
first words used with meaning, spelling them as they
are pronounced and classifying them as they are used,
not as classified in a grammar.

Such a record can be made for children of any age.

5. Keep a record of the color vocabulary from the
time when the child first names a color correctly. .

6. Keep a record of the first sentences, noting the
order of the words.

7. Collect accounts of words and languages invented
by children.

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THE CHILD

One of the characteristics of man that has attracted
much attention and been the cause of much discussion
iMtinctlve ^^ ^*^ ability to use language, that is, to
exprauiTe communicate with others. In this, its most
gestuTM. general sense, language is not limited to
words, but also includes gesture, drawing, which
originated in gesture and whence written language was
derived, and any cry that has meaning, whether it be
articulate or merely the cry of rage or pain.

Within a week after his son's birth, Preyer noted the
turning away of the head w h^n the j^ aby had mflScient
food. This is the forerunner ofthe-si^ikg jof the j iead
in denial. In the sixth month, arm movements were
adHed to this, which looked like, pushing away the
object, but they did not clearly have that purpose until
the fifteenth month and then were probably imitated.

In the first turning away of the head, the movement
is expressive of the fact that the baby has had all that
he wants, but of course he has no intention of com-
municating with others by the movement. The move-
ment is as instinctive as suckjngjts^lf, and is important
here only because later it is used as a sign by which to
express thought.

During the first months of life there are a number of
instinctive movements which are also expressive and
which are the basis for later gestures and words.
Among them are the instinctive expressions of pain,
weariness, fear, anger, as tonis hrnentj,4Qy, d^sirp_nnd
pride. These are not all present at birth, but appear
before the end of the first half year.

The first tears, which may express weariness, pain,
fear or anger, appear between the twenty-third day
and the twentieth week. The characteristic transverse

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LANGUAGE

313

wrinkling of the forehead in grief, appears early and
also the peculiar parallelogram-shaped mouth, and put-
ting up the lip.

The first smile sometimes comes even in the second
week, but is likely then to be only an impulsive
grimace and not expressive of satisfaction. By the
end of the first month Preyer found that it was always
associated with comfortable conditions, and in a few
months arm movements regularly accompanied it.
Darwin puts th€ first smile as late as the seventh week ^^
and the first laugh in the seventeenth week^ Preyer
puts the first laugh at nearly the same date as the first
smile. The laugh also is later accompanied by arm
movements. It became much more noticeable in his
son in the eighth month, and then was at times imi-
tative. Laughter passing into tears, he never observed
in children less than four years old.

The characteristic look of a stonishmen t appeared in
Miss Shinn*s niece in the sixth w eek, on tasting some
new food. This also is hereditary, and one of its
important factors, the horizontal wrinkles of th^ fore-
head with wider opening of the eyes, is traced back by
Darwin to the attempt to see better the object causing
the surprise.

Fits of rage or anger, with stiffening of the body,
and striking out and kicking, appeared as early as the
tenth month in Preyer's boy.

Desire is very early shown; in the cry, and to this is
added, about the fourth month, stretching out of the
arms_toUie thing wanted: and still later, the putting
of thehanHs tngeTlTeras if to grasp the object.
Between the eighth and twelfth months, pointing is
gradually developed from this.

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THE CHILD

Expressions of affection, such as kisses, pats and
hugs, are imitated, and do not appear until about the
sixth month, at which time also a real gesture language
is likely to begin.

Qgstiyg, or the sign language, is common to all men
and is used by animals almost as much as the inarticu-
late cry. It seems to be of almost as wide
geatii**'^ application as the cry. The dog's entire
body is unconsciously eloquent of his mood,
and even consciously he makes a limited use of ges-
tures in trying to attract attention or to persuade man
to do his wish. When we come to man, we find that
the natural sign language is strikingly similar in all
parts of the earth. An Indian can make himself
understood anywhere that the sign language is com-
monly used. Deaf mutes, who have not been taught
the conventional sign language, and Indians understand
each other without difficulty.

We can hardly question that gesture, aided by a few
half-articulate cries, was the first language, and for a
long time was more prominent than speech in men's
communications. So we should expect to find, as we
do, that in each baby's development, gestures come to

Y^ significance before words do.

about the same time that imitation begins, sig-
nificant gestures arise. The six-months-old child tugs
at his mother's dress when he is hungry, holds out his
arms to be taken up, and learns to wave **bye-bye" and
go through the various baby tricks. A little later he
begins to invent gestures. All kinds of begging and
coaxing gestures, attempts to attract attention, appear.

The use of nodding to mean yes is not seen until
between the twelfth and fifteenth months, and is

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LANGUAGE

315

probably not hereditary as shaking the head is,
although Miss Lombroso so classes it. It does not
appear until long after shaking the head does, and is
procably imitative.

In this use of gestures, the baby is at one with
primitive man, uncivilized peoples of to-day, deaf
mutes, and aphasic patients. There seem
to be certain common or root gestures OeBturesthe
which all men who have no speech or only language
imperfect speech, use in expressing their
thoughts, and it seems as though reference to this nat-
ural language might settle some of the disputes as to
the appropriate gestures in discourse.

On the other hand, there are variations from these
common roots according to the nationality and ration-
ality of the person, just as there seem to be variations
even in the instinctive expressions of emotion, so that
we can not press too far the theory of a universal sign-
language. Savages and children use many more ges-
tures than a dults of civili zed rac^s, and more pro-
nounced inflections, it is related of some savage tribes
that they can hardly understand each other in the
dark.

Such language is much more closely confined to the
concrete than are words. The gesture is essentially a
reproduction of the object or action, -and does not
lend itself readily to the representation of class-ideas
or trains of reasoning. Uninstructed deaf-mutes, it is
claimed, have no ideas of the supernatural, and only
the lowest abstract ideas. The entire system of ges-
ture, while pleasing and universal, soon reaches its
limit of development and must give way to a system
that has greater mobility and power of adaptation.

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3i6

THE CHILD

It IS supposed that there is some connection between
the s ign-lan guage and the spoken word, but we have
Oonneotion "^ exact knowledge of what it is. The
of gesture brain centers for control of speech and of
wlthworde. ^^^ right hand are cl pse .to earh^ other, and
presumably the exercise of either would stimulate the
other through diffusion of the nervous excitement.

Considering language merely as a means of com-
munication, there would seem to be nothing marvelous
in the fact that the word has come to be its
the cry "^^ chief form. It is simply a case of the sur-
vival of the fittest. Not only are the lips,
tongue, etc., more mobile than other muscles, and so
better adapted for expressing slight differences of
sound and thus for indicating many objects with com-
paratively small effort; but their use leaves the hands
free to do other work at the same time that talk is
going on. It would seem inevitable therefore, that the
word should become the especial means of communi-
cation as the demand for communication grew, though
at first it was carried on merely by inarticulate cries
and gestures.

Cries and gestures seem to be to a large extent com-
mon to all men, and also to men and animals. The
cry of rage is easily distinguished from that of pleas-
ure; the cry of fear from that of attack. When we go
beyond these, however, we approach speech. Buck-
man is authority for the statement that fowls have
twelve or more different cries by which they warn and
guide each other; cats, six; rooks, six, and monkeys
two hundred or more, almost a language itself. We
find also that many animals can learn to understand us,
no gesture or peculiar inflection being used. Romanes

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LANGUAOfi

ii7

quotes the case of a chimpanzee who would follow her
master's directions into minute details about sticking
a straw into the meshes of her cage. Dogs also learn
to follow directions, and even to read words and fig-
ures. It is related of one of Scott's dogs that the
servants used to trick him by saying in his presence
that the master would come home over the hill. The
dog would at once go the route indicated, never by
any chance taking the other path. There seems to be
no intrinsic reason for doubting the possibility of such
things. This does not, of course, mean that animals
can reason.

In all such cases it is difficult to separate tone and
inflection from the mere sound of the word. The
former are the more primitive. Most animals obey
the tone rather than the word. Idiots who can not
learn to speak or understand words, can be taught
some things by tone and gesture. This, perhaps, is
one reason why music — mere tone — has such a univer-
sal hold.

From these rudimentary cries which man possesses
in common with animals, some philologists belieye
that human speech has developed through Development
refinement of the articnlatjop. The reflex of human
cry of emotion, the voluntary cry of warn- ■>***^'^-
ing or threat, and the imitation of some sounds,
thinks LeFevre, furnish the elements of languag;e. i
Of these elements animals possessed the first as welF
as man, but man, with a more developed brain,
distinguished and used more words, through changes
in intonation and in sounds. Other philologists lay
more stress upon the influence of sex in developing
language; while still others believe that man speaks

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3i8

tHfi CHILD

primarily because his lips and tongue are more mobile
than those of animals.

Whichever factor may have been the leading one in
the race-origin of language, we can see that in the
baby's speech they all play some. part.

It is indubitable that man now has a certain instinct
to speak — i,e.^ to communicate by sounds — though
not to speak any given language. It seems that a
French child brought up in an English family or vice
versa, learns the adopted tongue as readily as the
nativ es do . How far the development of language
would^go if children were left entirely alone is an inter-
esting but unsettled point. The cases of shipwrecked
children are unsatisfactory, because such children have
had no companions and so no incentive to invent a
language. Herodotus tells us that King Psammetichus
of Egypt had two newborn children shut up so that
they saw, no men until two years old. At that age
when brought into the presence of others, they said
"beccos,*' which in Phrygian means bread. Psam-
metichus thereupon proclaimed the Phrygians the most
ancient people. Long before a child imitates, however,
he babbles, and the sounds that he thus instinctively
makes are his unconsci ous pre pargtio n^fgrJatei-speech.

The child enters life with a cry, which has been the
subject of much discussion. Some claim that it is a
celestial cry — apparently a reminiscence of
crieB^'^** the angel's song. So noted a man as Kant
asserts that it is a cry of wrath at being
introduced to the hard conditions of this life. But we
will satisfy ourselves with the notion that it is simply
a cry of pain when the cold air rushes into the lungs
and automatically expands them.

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LANQUAQE

319

The first cries are instinctive and to the child's own \
mind are not expressive, although they usually indicate I
bodily conditions, such as hunger or pain or pleasure, y
Preyer notes the wail of hunger, the sharper loud cry /
of anger, the crow of delight, the monotonous cry of \
sleepiness, and the short, high-pitched yell of pain. J
These are instinctive at first and are not intended tcr
tell others what his condition is.

The child cries at a bright light or a bitter taste, and
later at a loud sound, because there are certain arrange-
ments of nerve cells at birth that necessitate this
response. During the first month of life, the sounds
that the child makes are for the most part vowels.
Ay OOy Ay are the favorite ones, and there are varia-
tions of these and others which adults find it difficult
to describe^ These sounds are also frequently given
on an inspiration and expiration, making two-syllabled
combinations like a^^oo.

The .first consonant put with them is an indistinct
guttural or nasal, ^ or n^dy as Miss Shinn gives it.
These syllables are repeated by the baby again and
again, making reduplications, for which he has a fond-
ness for some time after real speech has begun. Sav-
age races show the same fondness.

Wallace and Johnston have also attempted to show
that the order of development in baby speech from
vowels to semi-vowels, nasals and consonants, paral-
lels the development of human speech.

The first consonants that appear are nty /, ^, / and k.
The first sound not a vowel, was heard by Preyer on
the forty-third day; the first may on the sixty-fourth
day. On these facts Buckman has based an ingenious
theory as to the origin of language. The combination
21

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320

THE CHILD

ma-ma-ma is usually the first. Vierordt states that
generally the vowel in the crow of pleasure is a; of
pain, a. The latter very naturally, says
co^gonantB. Buckman, although purely reflex at the
start, is used when the child is hungry or
in pain, and becomes a way of calling for his mother,
who relieves hunger and pain. Hence it becomes her
name, ''mama,'' and this root is found in Sanskrit,
Greek, and Latin, as well as in our modern languages.

So again, /^ or da, resulting in **papa'* or "dada" is
a natural \:ry when the child is not as violently agitated
as by hunger, and becomes attached to the father.
This root also is found in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.
Kahy on the other hand, is used to express strong dis-
gust, as when the child tries to eject disgusting food.
It is made by lifting the lips from the teeth, opening
the mouth and almost coughing, the same instinctive
expressions that animals employ. From it come the
Greek Kaxos (bad), KaKK-q (excrement), Latin, caco, and
similar words.

The la sound, on the other hand, is given in content-
ment, or pleasure, and gives rise to the Greek AaA,cQ>,
to chatter, and the English lullaby.

From these instinctive utterances language first
arose, thinks Buckman, constantly growing in fineness
until the marvelous complexity that we now use was
attained. Taine and Darwin bear out these remarks as
to the first sounds. With Taine*s daughter ^^jyas
first given; krauu to express disgust, and pa a little
later.

Miss Shinn's records agree with these as to **mama."
**Dada'* was also one of the first words, and signified
pointing out, seeing, exulting, admiring. **Nana"

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LANQUAQB

321

was a wail of protest and refusal. Two other words,
"Kraa" and **ng-gng'' or "mgm" were used very early
but were imitations of words given to her to excess
disgust, and disappearance. .

The first exercise of the organs is not expressive of
any meaning. The b aby enjoys exercising his throat, ^
tongue and lips and so keeps it up tor hours at a time.
It is an excellent training for the later speech, for,
although he can as yet imitate no sounds, he makes all
the sounds and gets flexibility and strength of the
vocal organs and lungs. Deaf-mutes, who make few
sounds as compared with normal children, are unusually
subject to throat and lung diseases.

The exact order in which the various sounds appear
must vary, although in the main the same, because the
shape of the mouth and the other vocal order of
organs differs and the child pronounces first sounds and
the easiest vowels and consonants. It is also "yi^*^!®*-
noticeable that Preyer says that during the first year of
life the_ £hild pronou nces all the vj^wels, even those
which later on he has To learn over agairTV We have
here a fact similar to what we have already noticed in
imitation, where the child involuntarily does easily
and well what he does slowly and imperfectly when
the action is voluntary. .

Among the sounds made at this early stage are all
sorts of guttural^ and " clicks ,** which adults find it
diflficult to speak and which correspond closely to
Arabic and Hebrew gutturals and savage "clicks.**

The order for the appearance of the letters, as given
by Tracy, is as follows, beginning with the most diffi-
cult: r, /, th, V, shy y, g, ch, s, e,f, /, n^ q, d, k, o, w, a,
h, w, py b.

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<122 'THE CHILD

Sully puts all mistakes in pronunciation under the
following heads:

1. Simplifications,

(1) A child naturally drops letters and syllables
that are hard for him, especially if they are at the

end of the word, and the inflection and
elation. rhythm are not altered thereby. At first he

seems to understand only the vowel sounds
in what is said to him, and in imitating a sound will
get only the vowel and inflection, with a vague sur-
rounding of indistinct consonants. Preyer's boy would
respond in the same way to **Wie gross?" '*gross/'
and *'o*ss." Again, In trying to say "Putting my arms
over my head," little Ruth would get, "uiia owy i
lead," with hardly a distinct consonant in it, but a ludi-
crously faithful reproduction of my own tones.

In this dropping of syllables dance becomes *'da";
candle, "ka"; handkerchief, "hanky," "hankish," or
"hamfish," and so on.

(2). The accented syllable naturally is always theone
kept, whether it is at the beginning, middle or end of
the word, for we speak it with more stress and voice,
and it must attract the baby's notice more than the
others.

2. Change of letters*

(i) Vowels are not omitted but are often changed.

(2) Consonants are not always dropped, but others
may be substituted for them when they are diflFicult.
In such cases the preceding or succeeding sound deter-
mines what shall be put in, giving a duplication.
Thus "cawkee," coffee; "kork," fork; "hawhy,"
horsie ; "laly," lady. In other cases p and .s are
dropped and others substituted: "feepy," sleepy. Where

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LANQUAQE

323

/ and r arc replaced, almost any substitute may be
used, but ze^ is a favorite.

(3) The consonants may be interchanged: **tsar,"
star; "psoon," spoon; '*hwgohur/* j^^^zr/ *'aks,'* ask;
"lots it/' lost it.

With all these natural difficulties in speaking
correctly, it seems a pity to add further mispronun-
ciations by his elders, in the form of baby-
talk. Baby-talk is one form of endearing
terms, but surely the English language has a vocab-
ulary of such words that is far better than the
usual run of baby words. We hinder the child's
speech by limiting ourselves to him. We should
rather encourage him to use our words, especially
as the vocal organs grow less flexible as they be-
come more used to certain combinations of sounds,
and so an incorrect pronunciation may become habitual.
An older form of baby-talk is found in many school-
books in the names given to flowers, animals, geomet-
rical figures and so on. As a matter of fact children
learn the correct names as easily as they do the silly,
sentimental ones, and do not need to unlearn them
later and get the proper ones.

So far we have discussed only the making of articu-
late sounds. We have not yet reached language. For
language we must have not only a perfect
vocal and auditory app aratus ^ but ideas, speecb.
and desire to express them. During the
first six months,-the ^ild se £nis_t o lack thesea although
Darwin noticed in his boy different cries ^r hunger
and pain at the age of eleven weeks and an incipient
laugh in the sixteenth week. But it may be questioned
whether these were not entirely involuntary and

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324

THE CHILD

reflex. In the second six mo nths, howev er, persistent
imitation of < sound and gestu re ari ses. The child
voluntarily uses different cries and gestures for differ-
ent things, although his vocabulary of spoken words is
very small, or may indeed be nil, as in the case of
Taine's child.

Feldman on comparing children found that the first
word varied as follows:

Month: 14 15 16 17 18 19

No. of children: i 8 19 3 i i
These children first walked alone:

Month: 8-9 10 11-12

No. of children: 3 24 6

From this it appears that children walk before they
talk, and we may add that ^^^y iindg''^^^"i )-i^fr^|-^ tu^y
walk.

When the child is learning to walk he acquires no
more speech and may even go backward, but after that
the learning and understanding of words is
▼ocabSary. verv gapid.^ A child understands many
words before he speaks, even as early as
eight mojiths . StriimpelTs daughter enjoyed little
stories told Tier in her thirteenth month, though her
own speech was very imperfect. Another child of
eight months knew by name all the persons in the
house, the parts of her body, and most of the objects
in the room, and understood simple sentences.

It should be said here that children may differ within
wide limits as to the time when they begin to speak,
and still not be abnormal. Many authorities state that
if a child does not speak by the age of five, he may be
considered abnormal, but not until then. Perez,
indeed, says that "The more intelligent a child is, the

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LANGUAGE

325

less he uses words, and the more necessary it is to him
that words should signify something to him, if he is to
learn them; and this is why he only learns words in
proportion as he gains ideas about objects." By the
end of the third six mo nths he may use not only many
single wordsr^Jtif even s hort sentenc es, and words of
his own invention. This latter fact is interesting the-
oretically from its connection with the possible origin
of language.

The character of the first vocabulary is shown in the
following comparative table, which is given in per cents:

ti
Ph

Dewey.

I girl, 18 mos.
I boy, 19 •'

53
60

28
21

I
II

6
3

144
115

Tracy.
12 children, 19
to 30 mos.

1.7

5400

Salisbury.
I girl, 33 mos.
I '* 5V4yrs.

54.5
57

23
20*

9.6
17*

5
2

.006

.003

.c»6
.0009

642
1528

Wolff.
Boy's Dic-
tionary*

215

Kirkpatrick.

Per cents of

words in

English

language . .

5.5

These lists, as Dewey remarks, classify the words
according to their meaning for adults, an artificial
method for two reasons. At first one word stands for
a sentence in childish speech. *'Water** — / wa?tt

* This dictionary was made by a boy before his seventh year.
It does not, of course, give his entire vocabulary, but only words
that for any reason he wished to define.

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326

THE CHILD

water. "All gone'* — The flower has disappeared, etc.
Furthermore, the child, like the savage, uses one word
for many parts of speech. "The hurt blooded.'* "It
ups its false feet." "Can I be sorried?'' etc. A care-
fully-made vocabulary would classify each .word
according to the child's use of it, and so such classifi-
cations as these given here are but rough and ready
tests. Even so, however, they are suggestive of
characteristic differences between the child and the
man.

The idea of action is very prominent in all the first
language. Even with this artificial classification, the
percentage of verbs is twice as large in childish as in
adult speech, and less than i per cent of the nouns are
abstract. Here again we find the parallel between the
child and the race. The more primitive a language,
the larger the proportion of verbs, and it is very
probable that the first sentences consisted of but one
word. An interesting bit of evidence to show how
recently the different parts of speech have assumed
clearness in man's mind, is the fact that the ancient
Greeks in writing ran all the words of a sentence
together.

Children vary greatly in the age at which they learn
to name colors, as well as in the ability to distinguish
the colors. Preyer's child at twenty months
vocabulary knew no color names; twenty-five others
knew red and green; thirty-four, yellow,
brown, red, violet and black. The colors are named
correctly in the following order: white, black, red,
blue, yellow, green, pink, orange, violet. The girls
show greater ability in this direction, a girl of eight
comparing with a boy of sixteen.

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LANQUAQE

327

The number of different words used by different
children has been very differently estimated. Some of
the differences are due to the fact that some
writers put different forms of one word yoc^Juxary
^'S"^ g^y S^^S ^"^ gon£y as one word, while
others consider them as different words. In the fol-
lowing list, taken from Tracy, and in the preceding
list, inflections of a word are not counted as separate
words.

Sex

Rnvc

OlDTC

^ "

Age in mos....
No. Words......

9
9

15 12
4

19
144

139

285

28
677

30
327

177

22 23 24 24 25 27 28
69 136 36 263 250 171 4SI

Preyer found that nine children (eight girls and one
boy) at two years had vocabularies ranging from 173 to
1 121 words. Thus there seems to be a wide range in
the number of words possible at any given age, and we
do not yet know what connection there is between them
and the child's general development and intelligence.

It happens also that children living under ordinary
conditions sometimes invent words and even lan-
guages. The languages we shall mention
later. The words seem, in some cases, not J^^^^^^ ^'
to be the result of imitation, but strictly
original. Among such cases are "memby,'* food;
"afta," drinking; "gollah,** rolling things ; "tonies/*
children; '*diddle-iddle,'* hole; **wusky,** sea.

One child described by Mr. Hale invented names in
which the vowels denoted the size of the object as they
were higher or lower; e.g., *'lakail,*' an ordinary chair;
"lukull,*' great arm-chair; and "likill^" little doll's
chair; "mem,'* watch or plate; "mum,'' large dish;

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328

THE CHILD

*'mim/* moon; and "mim-mim/* stars. Deaf-mutes
invent a few words usually, and some invent many.
Words for food and drink are the most common.

Besides the invention of words, children usually
form some words through the imitation of sounds or
onomatopoeia, as Miss Shinn's niece imitated the
mewing of a cat and later used the sound for the cat's
name. In this respect as well as in the invention of
words, the natural tendency is repressed by the fact
that children have the adult language before them to
imitate and so are saved the trouble of inventing a
new one. •

Nevertheless^ the tendencies which do crop out are
of great interest to the philologist, because the words
which children form either through invention or imita-
tion show curious resemblances to primitive tongues
and offer suggestions as to the origin and development
of language. For instance, Mr. Hale and various
other authorities who have studied the words and lan-
guages invented by children, believe that in this tend-
ency to invent is seen the cause of the origin of diverse
languages. "Each linguistic stock must have orig-
inated in a single household. There was an Aryan
family-pair, a Semitic family-pair, an Algonkin family-
pair. And further, it is clear that the members of each
family-pair began to speak together in childhood."

The age at which the first sentence is spoken will
vary as much as all other stages of language develop-
ment. To quote Preyer again, his son
sMTtSce. spoke the first sentence near the end of the
twenty-third month. The memorable utter-
ance was "Heim mune,'' whi^, being translated is,
"Home, milk.** StriimpelTs daughter, however, spoke

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LANGUAGE

329

her first word in the te nth month an d used sentences
as early as the sgyi &ntCGnth month .

The first sentences after the sentence-words already
mentioned, commonly consist of a noun and adverb or
adjective, or two noun s^with a ^erh u nderstoo d. "Big
bird," *Tapa, cracker, milk," etc. The verb makes
its appearance, says Sully, as an imperative first. The
order of the words varies, sometimes subject and some-
times predicate being put first. Apparently imitation
has little effect when an English child will utter a
sentence like this: "Out pull baby spectacles." I
suppose that the order depends upon the idea which is
most prominent in the child's mind, that being put
first, as with adults sometimes, for the sake of
emphasis. Children as a rule seem to have trouble in
putting "not" in the right place; and they also bring
out their meaning by making two opposing state-
ments — "This not a nasty wow wow; this a nice wow
wow." This uncertainty of order is also paralleled in
primitive languages.

We all know the wonderful things a child does, when
he tries to use inflections, in his attempt to make the
language consistent with itself. Of course
irregular verbs are made regular, plurals ^SMtions'
are all formed alike and so on, but he caps
the climax in his use of the verb be. As Sully says, it
is asking too much of a child to expect him to say
"Yes, I am,^' when asked, ''Are you good now?" and
we can sympathize with the little girl who, after much
drill from her mother, when asked if she was going
out said, ",lIiiL-ai£u" If a child is asked, "Will you
be good?" why should he not say, "I be good"; or, if
that event occurred yesterday, "I bed good"? "Am*t

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330

THE CHILD

I?" is surely as logical as "Isn't he?'* We find also an
impromptu making of verbs that is delightful. * 'Bet-
tern' t you do it?" says the little fellow.

**r* and "you'* are stumbling blocks also. At first
the child speaks of himself by name, and is likely to
think "r* and "you*^ names like any other. So he
will say, "What am I going to do?" for "What are you
going to do?" The constant change from one to the
other, according to which person is speaking, is most
puzzling, and yet Tracy says the child has learned the
meaning by twenty-four months. Others assign dates
from sixteen to thirty months, a wide variation. This
is, of course, a gradual process. The child will use the
terms correctly, and then drop them for the time, to
resume them later. The free use of them is com-
monly taken to signify more sense of the child's own
personality than before. The development of speech
is effectively summarized in the chart found on the fol-
lowing page.

This first learning of the mother tongue is fairly com-
plete by the fifth year, but between eight and fifteen
years there is usually a revival of interest,
iwgwiges T^^^^ is seen in the secret languages of chil-
dren, which are found wherever children
are together. There are many kinds of secret language,
varying from the easy "hog Latin," which only adds
"gry" to every word, to a very complex and inflected
language. Frequently such a language lasts for fifty
or sixty years, and is passed down from one genera-
tion of children to the next. In other cases the lan-
guage is invented in whole or in parts, and even a
dictionary may be made, to which new words are added
from time to time.

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LANOUAOB

331

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^X2 "^H® CHILD

The length of time such a language is used varies
greatly. In some cases the interest lasts only a few
weeks; in others ten or twelve years. Two children
who invented their tongue used it so constantly that
their parents made every effort to dissuade them from
it, but in vain. After two years, however, they
gradually began to use English. In another case a
man records that he has spoken his secret language to
himself for fifty years. That is, he thinks in it, and
when he speaks or writes translates into English. The
motive for using the language is, as a rule, the desire
for secrecy. The older children begin to employ
it to keep secrets from those not in their clique;
another language is used in another clique, and so
on. The language is used in writing notes in school,
and on all occasions where mystery and secrecy are
desirable.

The hearing and speaking of words comes before
reading; and the brain centers employed in hearing
and speaking are the first developed and
readtag""* the most firmly established. Lukens con-
cludes from this that a child should at first
be allowed to read out loud, and later to himself.
Children learning to read whisper the word to them-
selves.

-•^7\.fter the child by his instinctive babblings and per-
sistent imitation has learned to speak words, he learns
to use them with a significance from con-
and^thought stantly hearing one word used in connec-
tion with a given object. In so far as the
same word is used for different objects or situations, he
is left helplessly struggling for the common meaning
hidden beneath all this diversity; and again when

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LANQOAQE ^^333 ]

different words are used with chei same meaning, as in
the various forms of be^ he is lea a^^ into seeking
differences where none exist.

Hence comes the value of language as ^ aid in the
development of concepts, and as a fHVealer tous'of
their growth in the child's mind. At first he uses
words in altogether too wide a sense. "Mamq(a,"
"bath/* * 'wow-wow/* are applied not only to the par-
ticular objects he knows, but to all that in any degree
resemble them. The child does not se^ differences
distinctly enough to mark off individuals unless there
is some striking characteristic to aid him. He rather
associates the word with the whole situation in which
it is used, and oftentimes with all the details of it.
Thus, Romanes gives the case of a child who saw a
duck on the water, and called it "quack.** After that
he called all birds and insects "quack** and also all
liquids. Still later, he saw an eagle on a piece of
money and called it "quack" again. Lindner's
daughter when asking for an apple, was taught to say
"apple,** and thereafter. used the word as meaning eat.
Another child used the word "ta-ta** to say good-by;
then when anything was taken awa^; then for the
blowing out of a light. Still another used "hat** for
anything put on his head, including a brush and comb.
Dipping bread in gravy is called a "bath.** -"-3!he
palate is the "teeth roof**; the road is the '*go**; the "
star is the "eye**; all metals are "keys,*' etc.

In all such cases we notice that the child is trying
to classify, and must use what he already has in the
way of words to aid him. So also with relations —
a much more difficult thing, and one in which a child
is likely to get confused. A child will have a vague

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J24 "^"^ CHILD

idea of quantity, but can riot at first express or under-
stand too much and too little, too big and too small, etc.
He may get them in one situation, but when the same

object that is too big for one thing is too
reutio^*^ small for another, it is beyond him. Here

is the root of his trouble with **!** and
"you.*' It is not surprising that little George thought
"the Doctor came and shook his (Willie's) head and
gave him nasty physic, too." "Buy" and "sell,'*
"lend" and "borrow," "teach" and "learn," are thus
all pitfalls for him, and at first are confused. Here
again we can trace the race parallel. Many people
use "learn" for "teach" and we apply "pleasant,"
"sore,** etc., both to our feelings and the object that
causes them. Our abstract words also bear unmistak-
able marks of their concrete origin. "Spirit** is
"breath**; "wrong** is "awry,** "twisted,** or "bitter**;
"right** is "straight,** and so on through the list.

In his hasty generalizing the child makes many mis-
takes in his conclusions, and so a process of limiting

or correcting old concepts and of more
mnitation carefully forming new ones begins. A

good example of such limitation is given
by Darwin. His son called food "mum,** sugar
was "shu mum,** and licorice, "black shu mum.** Such
words as "teeth roof** for palate, "eye curtain** for
eyelid, "tell wind** for weather-vane, show both
generalization and limitation. On the other hand, of
course, if the child* s experience of a word is too nar-
row, he will make ludicrous mistakes in over-limita-
tion. Thus one boy said that the good Samaritan
poured paraffin into the wounds of the sick man. Oil
meant only paraffin to him. The child who entreated

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LANGUAGE

335

his mother to "buy him a brother while they were
cheap at the show because children were half-price,"
labored under a similar difficulty. Perhaps also the
strict insistence of little children on exactly the s^me
words in retelling a story shows their Reeling of a
strangeness with words. When Mr. Two-and-a-half-
years is asked, "Shall I read to you out of this book?"
he answers, "No, but something inside of it," because
that is what he wants.

Love of nonsense songs, and of Mother Goose, and
the making up of nonsense rhymes mark this period
also, which may begin as early as three and a half
years. A little child will often sit by himself singing
over' lists of word: mamy pam, tarn, sum, jam, etc.,
taking an immense delight in it. Sometimes he will
rhyme his answers to your questions, or make all his
conversation rhythmical.

With the process of narrowing or limitation well
marked, the child's way is comparatively clear before
him. It is the^iceforth the usual process of the forma-
tion of correct concepts as traced by Baldvvin. Ari^
object is first given which is both percept and concept.
When other objects are presented like this in some
respects, the same word is used for all, until the child
fails to get what he wants by this common word, and
so is forced to make species and varieties to go under
the larger class. In the expression of the ideas, he
uses the words that he knows, making new and quaint
combinations, but little by little imitation teaches
him the conventional signs, and he drops the original
forms.

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-7-76 THE CHILD

REFERENCES

Allen, M. A. Development of Child's Language. Mother* s

Nursery Guide, February, 1893.
Buckman, S. S. Speech of Children. Nineteenth Century,

1897, 792-807.
Canfield, W. B. Development of Speech in Infants. Babyhood,

May, 1897.
Chamberlain, A. F. The Child, 107-17;. L. W. Scott.
Champneys, F. H. Notes on an Infant. Mind, Vol. III., 104.
Chrisman, O. Secret Language. C. S. M., 1896, 202-11. Also

• Century, 1898, 54-58.
Collins, J. Genesis and Dissolution of the Faculty of Speech.

N. Y. Macmillan, $3.50.
Darwin, C. Biography of a Child. Mind, 1877.
Dewey, John. Psychology of Infant Language. Psy. Rev.,

1894, Vol. I., 63-66.
Gale, Harlow T. Vocabularies of Three Children. Gale*s Psycho-
logical Studies, 1900, Vol. I., 70-117.
Greenwood, J. M. Vocabularies of Children. Kept, as Supt. of

Kansas City Schools, 1887-88, pp. 52-65.
Groos, Karl. The Play of Man, 31-48, 294-300. N. Y. Apple-
ton, $1.50.
Hale, H. Origin of Language. Proc. Am. Assoc, Adv. Sc,

Vol. XXXV., 1886. (Account of language invented by

children. Summary in Romanes' Mental Evolution of

Man, 138-144. N. Y. Appleton, I3.00.)
Holden, E. S. Vocabulary of Children under Two Years. Trans.

Am. Philol. Ass'n, 1877, 58-68.
Humphreys, W. Contributions to Infantile Lingfuistics. Trans.

Am. Philol. Ass'n, 1880.
Kirkpatrick, E. A. How Children Learn to Talk. Science, O. S'.

Sept. 25, 1891.
Lamson, Mary Swift. Life and Education of Laura Bridg-

man. Boston. Houghton, Mifflin, |i. 50.
Lukens, Herman. Learning of Language. Ped. Sem., 1894-96,

424-460.
Mach, E. Language: Its Origin, Development and Significance

for Scientific Thought. Open Court, 1900, Vol. XIV.,

171-178.

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LANGUAGE

337

Mallery, G. Sign Language among North American Indians.
ist An. Kept. Bureau of Ethnology, 1881. (Also sum-
marized in Romanes' Mental Evolution in Man. N. Y.
Appleton, $3.00.)

McKendrick, J. G. Experimental Phonetics. Nature, 1901,
182-189.

Noble, E. Child Speech. Education, September and October,
1888.

Perez, B. First Three Years of Childhood, 234-262. S3rracuse.
Bardeen, $1.50.

Pollock, F. Infant's Progress in Language. Mind, Vol. III.

Potter, S. O. Speech and Its Defects, Phil. Blakiston, $1.00.

Preyer, W. Mind of the Child^Senses and Intellect, 99-188.
N. Y. Appleton, $1.00. (Very detailed and accurate account
of speech from birth to three years. See appendix for sum-
mary of Sigismund, Lobish, Taine, Striimpell. Darwin,
Vierordt, Schultze, Lindner, Tiedemann, Feldmann,
Holden, Haldemann, Humphreys.)

Ribot, Th. Abstraction Prior to Speech. Open Court, 1899,
14-20.
Evolution of Speech. Open Court, 1899, 266-278. (Anthro-
pological in nature.)

Romanes, G. J. Mental Evolution in Man, Chapter VI. Also
see Index. N. Y. Appleton, $3.00.

Salisbury, A. A Child's Vocabulary. Educ. Rev., Vol. VII.,
^89-290. (Vocabulary of child at 32 weeks and 5^ years.)

Sanford, E. C. Language of Children. Notes. Ped. Sem.,1%^1,
257-260. (Summary of many men.)

Scripture, E. W. Terminal Verb in Infant Speech. Science, O. S.

Vol. XXIII., 62. (Observation to show that English child

sometimes naturally puts infinitive at end of sentence,

instead of directly after verb. )

Researches in Experimental Phonetics. Studies from Yale

Psy. Lab., 1899, Vol. VII., i-ioi.

Stevenson, A. Speech of Children. Science, O. S. March 3, 1893.

Sully, James. Studies of Childhood— The Little Linguist.

N. Y. Appleton, $2.50.
Taine, H. Acquisition of Language by Children. Mind, i^tj.
Taine, H. On Intelligence, Vol. II., 138-151. N. Y. Holt,
♦2.50.

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338

TH£ CHILD

Tledemann, Theirry. Record of Infant Ufe. S3rraciise.
Bardeen, I0.15. (Interesting as one of the very first care-
ful records of a child's language.)

Tracy F. Psychology of Childhood. Boston. Heath, I0.90.

Wolfe, H. K. Color Vocabulary of Children. Univ, of Neb.
Studies, July, 1890, 205-245.

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CHAPTER XVII

Rhythm and Music

1. Ask adults and children to name the first ten
nursery rhymes that come into their heads. observa-
Note the rhythms. tions.

2. Compare the rhythm and time of tunes in your
head with your heart beat and breathing.

3. Notice what songs your children sing most spon-
taneously.

4. Ask what song they like best and notice whether
the liking is due to

(i) Season, e.g., Christmas songs.

(2) Imitation.

(3) Permanent interest.

5. Try to get song composition from some child or
small group of children uninstructed in music.

Before taking up rhythm as related to music, let us
first notice how general a thing it is and universality
how it underlies all mental activity. of rtmhxn.

Natural phenomena almost , universally take a
rhythmical form. We have first the great swing of the
worlds in their course about the center of the uni-
verse, in a rhythm never yet completed. Then we
have the course of each world about its sun, of each
satellite about its world, and the rotation of the various
worlds upon their axes, making the rhythms of the
year, month and day. In our sun there seem to be
rhythms recurring about every eleven years, causing

339

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340

THE CHILD

our sun spots, and, it is seriously conjectured, affecting
the harvests of our earth and resulting in disturbed
atmospheric and brganic conditions which lead to our
periodical money panics and outbreaks of crime and
suicide. However this may be, it is unquestionable
that the yearly, monthly, and daily rhythms seriously
modify both the vegetable and animal creation. Some
plants have a daily rhythm of growth and rest; most
of them have an annual one; all seek the sun. Even
the moon influences the growth of some plants.

In the animal world there are corresponding rhythms.
Growth is faster in summer than in winter, and we can
each observe annual rhythms in our mental moods
according to the seasons. Certain states of mind and
even trains of thought are likely to recur with each
season. "Spring poetry," so much laughed at, or
something corresponding to it, is, I suspect, written
by many more people than are willing to acknowl-
edge it.

The mpnthly rhythms seem to be especially con-
nected with the reproductive and nervous systems.
The period of gestation in various species of animals is
usually a month, or a number of days which is seven or
some multiple of seven. Disturbances of the nervous
system, recurrent insanities, abnormal cravings for
liquors and other stimulants, are also likely to have
a monthly rhythm.

Weekly rhythms are less clearly marked, but as we
saw in the chapter on growth, there is a weekly rhythm
of growth which was probably the cause of the change
in our manner of living on Sunday. It has led to cer-
tain rhythms of thought and feeling. We sleep later, we
are hungry at different times, and we think differently.

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC ^dl

The daily rhythm of sleep and wafeing is a universal
one and it seems to be accompanied by one of growth.
This is a genuine organic rhythm, caused probably
by the rhythm of day and night, and can not be easily
changed so that we shall sleep in the day and work at
night.

There are many other bodily rhythms, of which we
will mention only a few: the pulse and heart beat,
respiration, walking, and speech. Every gpedai
cell seems to have its own rhythm of alter- bodUy
nate activity and rest; the nervous system rhythms,
sends out rhythmical stimuli, differing in different
parts. Thus the brain can send out only about thirteen
per second, and the cord about thirty-four. Fatigue is
also a rhythmical thing, a period of exhaustion alter-
nating with one of recovery.

Not only is every bodily process a rhythmical one,
but every mental one as well. Any one who watches
himself will observe alternations of waxing and wan-
ing in the distinctness of his ideas and mental images.
If he tries to hold one idea unchanged, he will be able
to see clearly the rhythm of his attention. This is
perhaps best shown in retinal rivalry.

As rhythm is such a fundamental thing in nature, it
is not surprising that when given to us objectively it
finds in us a response. Almost any effect jjogt corn-
can be produced in susceptible people by moniy liked
appropriate rhythms, from putting them to ^^y*^"^"-
sleep to rousing them to a state of frenzy closely akin
to madness. Just what rhythm will have each effect,
is not fully decided upon. Baldwin found that when
he suddenly discovered himself singing a tune, the
rhythm and time might be determined by any one of a

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342

THE CHILD

number of factors — his step, as he walked, his heart
beat, or his breathing. It seems reasonable that
a rhythm which is in accord with and slower than the
rhythmic activities of the body would be soothing; if
faster, exciting, and if of a different kind, unpleasant.

Mr. Bolton found also that in listening to a series of
uniform clicks the most common grouping within the
widest limits was by 2's, when the rate of the clicks
was moderate; when fast, by the heart beats. When
the stimuli were .795 seconds apart, the mind grouped
by 2*s; .460, by 3*s; .407, by 4*s. Usually he found
that the breathing accommodated itself to the rhythm
instead of vice versa.

Whether a grouping is by 2, 4, 8, 16, etc., or 3, 6,
12, etc., seems to depend upon the rapidity of the
stimuli. But why 2 or 3 is chosen is unexplained,
unless it varies with the pulse. Grouping by 5*s is
always very difficult.

These observations have been confirmed in another
way by Triplett and Sanford. They asked large num-
bers of persons to send in lists of ,the first
ten nursery rhymes that came mto their
heads. Of these, they selected the one hundred most
often mentioned and examined their rhythm. They
found that,

1. The most frequent stanza is of four lines, with
four stresses, the lines rhyming in couplets. A com-
mon example is:

**Georgie porgie, pumpkin pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry,** etc.

2. The second in frequency consists of the first and
third lines with four stresses, and the second and

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC ^43

fourth with three, with or without an internal rhyme.

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow," etc.

This rhyme is much less common than the first, in
child poetry.

3. Three three-stress lines and one four-stress, with
the last line a repetition of the first.

"Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.*'

These three rhythms include four-fifths of the one
hundred nursery rhymes, and one-half of the hymns in
a hymnal (the particular hymnal not given). The
remainder of the rhythms differ widely.

Triplett and Sanford find that in the recitation of
these rhythms, there is a general uniformity in the
intervals between stresses except at the end of lines,
where they are longer; and there is a general quicken-
ing of time toward the end of the piece.

The characteristic movement of the common
rhythms depends partly on the distribution of the
pauses and partly on this quickening.

Tests on school children show that they force the
words into a pattern, but also vary the patterns some-
what:

ft t I

"Sing a song of six pence,'*

or,

I / /

"Sing a song of six pence."

Turning now to music, we find all sorts of theories
as to its origin. Darwin advanced the theory that
music originated as a courtship art both in birds and

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344

THE CHILD

in man, but actual observations of the animals near-
est to man and of savages do not seem to confirm
this view. Still we may suppose that at first
music *^^ language and music were not distinct, the
cry being the common root from which
the two have developed 'in different ways. Music
proper, or melody, seems to arise first in connection
with the dance, and the dance in its original form was
the reproduction of the activities of existence or, it may
be, a propitiation of the gods. Uniformly the dance
takes a rhythmic character. At first it is performed
in silence, but as the dancers get aroused they give
vent to their feelings in more violent movements, and in
cries, the cries naturally assuming a rhythmic character
consonant with the movements. Thus the rude song is
born, a song without words, and in almost a monotone.

This theory fits in very well with what we can see of
children's natural musical tastes. The development of
melody and harmony is much later than the apprecia-
tion of rhythmical cries. Gurney says that the former
does not appear until four or five years. We should
expect kindergarten children then not to care so much
about singing the melody as about keeping time.

The child, as we have seen, is boVn deaf, and
remains so for a time varying from a few hours to
several days. When hearing is established,
ofnMses*^^* sound seems to have marked effects, for
small children are more easily terrified by
loud sounds than by almost anything else. Preyer and
Perez note that in the seventh and eighth weeks a child
listened to the singing of lullabies with much pleasure
and showed an appreciation of piano playing by his
vigorous movements and laughter at the loud notes.

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC

345

Children of six months show great enjoyment of music;
at nine months some will reproduce musical tones.
Perez also records the case of a child who sang himself
to sleep, when only nine months old. By the age of a
year some will reproduce tones quite perfectly. Sigis-
mund says that musical tones are imitated before
spoken ones. Noises of all kinds appeal to children,
even unpleasant ones, especially if there is any rhyth-
mic arrangement, and they delight in reproducing them
as far as possible.

Children vary greatly among themselves and at dif-
ferent ages in their ability to distinguish tones. We
find the child who sings the scale in one tone
from c to c ; and another one who can sing nesB^tones
the chromatic scale with ease. Whether any
given child is tone-deaf or simply lacks training, can be
told only by experiment, and, even if not up to the aver-
age, many a child's ability can be improved by practice.

In children from six to nineteen years of age, the
least sensitive age is six, when the least, perceptible
difference of two tones is about one-quarter of a tone.
Thence to nine years there is twice as much gain in
sensitiveness as from nine to nineteen years; and after-
ward a more gradual gain, with a break and retro-
gression at ten and at fifteen years.

The actual tastes of children seem to have been
little observed. Miss Gates* and Mr. Marsh's articles
are the only ones on this subject. Miss songs liked
Gates had answers from two thousand chil- by children,
dren, one hundred boys and one hundred girls for each
year from six to sixteen.

I. She found that 22 per cent of the girls and 12 per
cent of the boys of seven years like best lullabies and

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346

THE CHILD

baby songs, while 14 per cent of the girls and 7 {>er
cent of the boys like home songs the best. "Home
Sweet Home" is the favorite. Of the seven-year-old
boys and girls 43 per cent like school songs the
best; nature songs are the favorites. Twice as many
boys as girls like negro songs. "Swanee River" and
"Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground" are the favorites.

2. Religious songs are best liked by two hundred
and ninety-six girls and six hundred and ninety-six
boys at six years; 23 per cent of the girls and 6 per cent
of the boys at thirteen years; 27 per cent of the girls and
6 per cent of the boys at sixteen years, making an aver-
age of 18 per cent. **Nearer my God" is the favorite.

3. National songs are best liked by 13 per cent of the
girls and 18 per cent of the boys at seven years; 29 per
cent of the girls at twelve years; 40 per cent of the
boys at eight years. /* America* * and the**Star Spangled
Banner" divide the honors here. Marsh gives this
table of "The one song he liked best in all the world."
The returns are from six thousand three hundred and
thirty-eight children. The table is given in per cents.

Boys

Grade

School

Sunday
School

Patriotic

Street

Home

43
39
29
12

7
6
II
9
3
3

10
II

4
10
68

26
20
40
42
30
H
48
60
58
65
25

17
20

9
10
10
12
12
21
10

14
26

25
25

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC

Girls

347

Grade

School

Sunday
School

Patriotic

Strbbt

Home

II.;

43
43
39

9
13
i6

I
o

I
10
29

13
15
25
32
37

47 ,
27

21
2

7
4
o

II
II

24
26

35
38
44

Boys and Girls

Grade

School

Sunday
School

Patriotic

Street

Home

45
42
39
19
9
7

13
3

13
i6

14
13

15
i6

7
26

23
23

31
35
41
43
37
44
59
53

8
8
11
i6
17
17
21

5
9
5
7

J3
i8

24
14
21

33
41

Many reasons are given why the favorite piece is
liked. As children grow older, more say it is because
they like the music or words, and fewer because they
have associations with it, or it is nice, pretty or sweet.
The associations are of all sorts — of home, Christmas
or some holiday, with historical events, or simply with
smell or some other sense. A very small per cent of
the favorites are movement songs, and as a rule major
keys are preferred to mmor ones.

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248 THE CHILD

It is interesting to note the changes in taste with
advancing years. The school songs show these varia-
tions: boys and girls, 43 per cent in ist
tastef**^ grade to 9 per cent and 16 per cent in 8th

grade, and none in nth grade.
S. S. songs, boys, 10% in 1st grade, to 16% in nth grade.

" ;' ^ girls, 15% - " - 29% ;' ^ -

Patriotic songs show remarkable fluctuations in the
liking of the boys and girls, as the table indicates.
Street songs increase in number to 4th grade; decrease
slightly to the 7th, and rapidly to the nth. They
then rise suddenly to 33 per cent in nth grade.

With the girls the curve is of the same nature though
of a smaller per cent, except that at the nth grade it
decreases to o instead of rising.

The per cent of home songs increases to 6th grade,
falls in 7th grade and then increases gradually.

The subject of children's musical composition is one

that is not considered nearly as often as children's

drawings, and yet there would seem to be

oMidren "^ reason in the nature of the case why

children should not create songs as well as

landscapes.

The first musical productions are not distinct from
the beginning of speech. The child cries, howls,
gurgles and babbles, not only when he is hurt or
pleased, but just to see what sounds he can make.

Sometimes one set of sounds takes possession of him
for a time and he will seem unable to keep from
repeating it. Perez gives a case of a little girl who
repeated "tira-tira'' for two weeks. Children a little
older delight in nonsense rhymes, in chain rhymes, in
alliteration, etc., and will make up all sorts of rhymes

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC

349

and tunes for them. Children of all ages experiment
in producing noises not only with the vocal organs
but also with any instruments they can get hold of. At
first their song is monotonous, hardly to be distin-
guished from the speaking voice, but by the age of four
or five years the two are well marked.

There seems to be a genuine impulse to musical
expression in many children which, although modified
by imitation, is still a true originality.

So far as the writer's knowledge goes, the only sys-
tematic work that has been done by school children in
song composition is in the Elementary School of the
University of Chicago. This is so suggestive that the
teacher's account and some of the songs are given.

80NQ COMPOSITION*

That music is an important factor in the growth of
the child's esthetic nature is a fact generally con-
ceded. Is it, however, practically made use of? Is
the nursery, which we now realize must be artistic as
well as wholesome, furnished with the means of pro-
ducing beautiful sounds — failing the human voice, with
the vox humana, or other soft-toned instrument?.

As early as he is shown beauty in color and form
the child should have beauty in tone and melody'
given him. There are no unmusical children. Inter-
est in musical expression is one of the natural resources
of the child, and unconsciously he will awaken to a
melodic conception through repetitions, in pure and
gentle tone, of melodies suited to his understanding.
This process can not be begun too early. Having
understood, he possesses a mental picture which he
seeks to express by humming or singing. This

* By May Root Kern.

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350

TH£ CHILD

expression of an esthetic impulse is as natural to the
child as his expression in color. Needing no utensil,
it is simpler, and would be more readily used were his
early environment as full of tone as of color. The
more he hears of this music, the more he assimilates
and the more he has to express. And not alone
through imitation. If he be given a poetic phrase
which touches his imagination, he can give his own
melodic conception of it; and the awakening of this
creative faculty brings a joy which stimulates the
growth of his whole esthetic nature.

There is nothing more precious to a child than his
own creation, and to preserve his melodic thought he
will wish to acquire a knowledge of the symbols neces-
sary to express it. The basis for a study of the science
of music is formed by his desire to express various
forms of melodic thought. He realizes the necessity
for the controlled use of his fingers to express them
beautifully on the keyboard, and grasps the necessity
of manual drill. His whole study of the technique of
piano-playing is illumined, and the proper relationship
of idea and its servant expression has been preserved.
Problems introduced by the growing intricacy of his
conceptions — key relationships, transposition, har-
mony — are mastered with a natural motive, and, led
by his own impulse, he is ready with open mind and
heart to receive, according to his capacity, the riches
which master-minds are still pouring nto the music
treasuries of the world.

In the school, a problem to be coped with arises
from the diversity of musical attainment in the groups.
Children from non-musical environment are to be
handled with others who are developed musically. To

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1 vNiVE'^^^* ' /

icX. J. A

RHYTHM AND MusicX. ^omjfoh;;;^**^? I

lessen the chasm, much thought is given to creating a
musical atmosphere. The formal side of the work is
made as melodious as possible, and all technical exer-
cises are clothed in harmony. The children have
weekly opportunity of hearing a short program of
music by the best composers, performed by friends of
the school, by teachers, or by pupils prepared through
outside work. The older children have heard short
and simple talks on the lives and work of the great
masters, illustrated by piano and vocal selections. A
large part of each period of work is spent in song-
singing. The school has been divided into two
choruses, one ranging from six to eight and a half
years of age, the other from nine to thirteen. These
choruses have sung melodies learned by rote in their
group work, the older chorus having in its repertoire
songs by Franz Schumann, Wagner, Reinecke, Hum-
perdinck, and some of the best English composers. In
connection with their work in Latin, they have learned
a Latin song of nine stanzas and a shorter Christmas
hymn; in connection with French, several chansons
populaires and two old French rounds. The latter,
being very simple in melody, have furnished a valu-
able exercise in concentration. There being in this
chorus a considerable proportion of children unable to
sing a connected melody correctly, perfection in detail
is impossible. The special aims, other than famili-
arity with good songs and the memorizing of texts,
have been bodily poise, deep breathing, careful enunci-
ation, and a pure quality of tone. A picked chorus of
twenty-five voices is now being arranged which will be
trained to do some model singing for the benefit of the
school.

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352

THE CHILD

Owing to the wide differences in musical develop-
ment, it was difficult to find a common ground for
the work of each group as a whole. The technical
work founded on short, original phrases sometimes
failed to arouse interest in those children who but
imperfectly grasped melodic idea. The proposition,
however, to select a topic and write a complete com-
posite song, which should express the genius of the
group, brought a unity of impulse at once. It was
supposed that the unmusical children would devote
themselves to the text and leave the musical setting
to the rest. But not so; the general enthusiasm
awoke them to an overflow of musical ideas, and a
firm belief in their own phrase as given. Whatever
of novelty the songs possess is owing to the odd inter-
vals offered by these non-musical children. It was
necessary to harmonize them attractively to gain their
acceptance by the musical members of the group,
who,, left to themselves, would have given only the
most obvious phrases and thus produced more com-
monplace results.

After several successful songs had been composed, a
group of children between seven and eight years, below
the average in musical development, but having a
strong feeling for rhythm, wrote the following, which
is saved from monotony l^y the final phrase given by a
boy almost tone-deaf. He offered the phrase, which
was repeated on the piano as nearly as possible as he
had given it. He objected, however, saying what was
played was not what he intended to give. After
repeated attempts, the teacher succeeded in discover-
ing what he had persistently kept in his mind, but
could not express.

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC
CHRISTMAS MORNING

353

1. One win-ter morn Be-fore the dawn, We woke and 'twas

2. I had a doll And she was small, My broth - er

fc«

=tl

Christ-mas
had a

The girls and the boys Quick
The ba - by, too, Had

^PS

ran to their toys, And all
some- thing new — A lit

be - gan to play,
tie dog named Spot.

It was at first thought that the six-year-old children
were too young to carry a thought through the several
periods (occurring but twice a week) required to finish
a song. At their request, however, they were allowed
to undertake the task, and evinced as much continuity
of thought and purpose as the older children.

In writing the texts for songs, the youngest children,
as soon as the idea of rhythm and rhyme is gained,
insist upon making consecutive lines rhyme as in the
"Valentine Song.'' They free themselves gradually
from rhyme limitations, as:

"The children will go

Out in the snow
And have some jolly fun.

They'll make big balls

While the snow falls,
Untila snowman's done.'

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354

Winter ^99.

THB CHILD
VALENTINE SONG

4 r ^ ^^j

^ i i

. I. Val - en - tine's day is near ,- ly ; herjp, We
2. V\\ send ^ my friend a val - en - tine, The

! I I i I c

:^=t5=

1 — i-

1^2

hope the postman will bring us cheer; We'll clap our hands for
pret-tiest one that - I cau find; .My cons -in .>vill send

^= t —r

'^r

^t^

tj-^

tr-r

1 ^— g »-

(I'

joy when be brings Tbe ros-es, and doves, and pretty things,
one to me, And then how hap-py we shall be.

f, ,1 „ ■ ' I -

*t;

-*5^

l::-*^-t

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC ^ ^ S "^^

And finally, able to conceive of the stanza as a
whole, realize that only a minimum of rhyme is neces-
sary.

' The twelve-year-old children completed two lines of
a stanza for a winter s6ng, but the effort was then
abandoned, there being too much self-consciousness in
the group to admit of free expression. Later their
creative impulse triumphed and they produced a song
for Lincoln's birthday:

Winter '99.

LINCOLN

fe^

1. *Twas in a smaU log cab - in, One Feb-ru - a - ry

2. He rose to be a states - man Of ver - y great re-

(^i

lit

■d 1 -I 1 1 —

es=

t9-

-A-

day, A lit - tie Lin-coln ba - by In a

nown, His wis - dom saved the Un - ion, And

sz.

Digitized by CjOOQ IC

356

THE CHILD

ft 1 i

y .1

iff 1 J J

l^^^ jrJ •

■ /^

ttJ - • • ■

ikp • 1W

■H^

• 1

small rude era - die lay;
sla - v'ry he put down;

n 1 1

When at
'Twas in

the age of
the spring of

U 1 1

. , 1 1

jn J 1 J 1

< 1 ^

1 1

fc-.u| 1^ U

•m 1-

m *^

-rrt 1 ^ 1 — -

^ ^S- ^ -S-- ^ '

-5 '

1 ^ . — 1

* ^ at

yrg-i

=1=

^FF

-• — i,— I ^

twelve, By night he stud - ied law, And

six - ty - five That mes - sen - gers rode fast To

- i Jr i Jr

* ■*■ * * If

-^-

-f^— #-

when the morning dawned a-new, A-gain took up his saw.
bring the news of Lincoln *s death, — ^The noble life had passed

* J - ^ '-•i^* 1

rww.

IZt

-s»-

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Winter '99.

RHYTHM AND MUSIC
WASHINGTON

357

:i=

■+-

George Washington went off to war Up - on a no-ble
night he crossed the Del-a-ware When it was bit-ter

-I — ^- 1 — p- 1

fel

zt:

-7Sh

:f:

T-r— r

zt=^

=t=

steed; He fought so well that peo - pie tell That
cold; He beat the £ng-lish eii - e - my With

^^=X

^^=4=

■^

{

fr^

=g=

-9-

--±=*:^

E?^^

:^=t

l^=J=Bi^

13^8

:1=i

1^ *—-

he was brave in-deed. One
\Omii ] his com-pan-ions bold.

^=#:

■^

--X.

>y^

^^=3=

^=?^

rrt::

■si—*

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358 THE CHILD

The eigh-year-old children followed the song- on
Lincoln with the above song on Washington.

Both of these songshave been sung by the younger
chorus at the respective anniversaries, for two years,
and are asked for at other times. It would be difficult
to find songs written by adults which would appeal to
the younger children's minds and hearts as do these, in
spite of their crudities. The simplicity of thought
and expression in the text, the sweetness and vitality
of the melodies, exactly suit their needs. Practical
trial for over a year has shown their preference for
some of these school songs to the best child songs
written by adults that have been presented to them.
This applies to children from six to nine years of age —
a time when they are not ready for involved idea or
melody, and yet resent singing about what little dew-
drop felt or little pussywillow said. The children
seem to recognize the same attractive quality in the
subsequent songs of these two groups, viz., Fourth of
July and Spinning Song.

Spring and Autumn '99.

SPINNING SONG

:=:I5:

=i=:i

1. The spinning wheel goes 'round so fast^It makes a sound like

2. The spinning wheel it hur-ries on, And makes so many

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC

359

jSz:

this,
things,

d \

Br The threads they

Br It goes as

t=<=

f-if-

^^^m

msi

twist and nev - er miss; We'll weave the threads as
with a hun-dred wings; From cot - toii, wool, and

:4t±

1 — t- r

tight as we can, To make the can - vas strong, And
silk worms^ cocoons It makes thread, yarn, and silk, And

Digitized by VjOOQIC

36o

THE CHILD

then we'll shape it in - to tents, With poles just twelve feet
then we dye them brilliant tints, Or bleach them white <

-*i-

milk ( ^ ^P^" ' "^"^ wheel, O spin-ning wheel, How

nf^=^

-#-=-

:^^^^

itznc

pret - ti - ly you go!

O I could spin on

^=*=^

( g^

MJ g gl^

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC

361

^^1

-d •-

you all day Be - cause I like you sol.

{^m

* *:

-^-5_

As Easter approached, the six-year-old children,
filled with anticipation of the day, asked to write a
song about it. One child gave the first line with its
melody; others quickly followed with the second and
third lines. The fourth, however, required persistent
effort before the requirements of rhythm and rhyme
were met. The children showed no diminution of
interest in wrestling with the problem.

EASTER SONG

Winter '99.

S£

— g --— • 9—wr

East - er day is coming soon, The rabbits will be here and lay:

1 1 J , I

±=:t=:t

In the gar-den we shall find Eggs to paint and give a- way.

Attempts made by the youngest classes of this
school year have resulted equally well:

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362

THE CHILD
SANTA CLAUS*

Autumn '99.

San -ta Claus, San- ta Clans is coining, -ting - a - ling! The

1^ ^ !

rein - deer are rac - ing ' and the lit - tie bells ring; He's

=A=q

-H — P — ^

bringing toys for lit- tie boys, And dolls for lit -tie girls, And

ife*

bring-ing for the ba - by A wool -ly lamb with curls.

The group composed entirely of musically developed
children was the last to produce a connected song.
The original- scheme of work — the study of selected
songs with its detail, and the learning of symbols for
their own short melodic phrases — contented them.
Emulation, however, urged them to write, and they
undertook the task as imitators, thus with less exhilara-
tion than the others showed.

Later a second impulse, more genuine than the first,
resulted in one of the best of the school songs:

*To musicians these songs are unusually interesting from
their close resemblance to early folk-songs and narrMive ballads,
especially to the early German and English folk-songs. ** Santa
Claus**, for instance, might be taken intact from an old choral, for
its simplicity, its movement, and the feeling for minor in the
sixth, seventh and eighth bars. A- B. T.

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Spring '99.

RHYTHM AND MUSIC
BOAT SONG

363.

3Z=m

'MZHMl

^ ^ ^

1. The boat is rock - ing, rock - ing, While we're on the

2. The sun sets in the ev - 'iiing,Andglit-terson the

==^

If^ « *^ 9-

' — b' ¥-^^

sea; The wind blow^ the sails gen-tly on, And

sea; Gulls dive un-der the wa - ter, Then

O-

:i=q=

-m ' m w

a-'-^

t=t±.

-fv N f^-

^ • •

=ji

sprrfy dashes up to me.
fly in the air so free,

*rhe lit - tie mermaids are
Swift-ly up to their

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364

THE CHILD

fc^

153

float
nest

lings,

Float - ing far a - way;
Up - on the rocks so high;

=!=t

Deep, deep in the wa - ter, I see the sea-weed sway.
There they stay in the dark-ness,Till morning's glow is nigh.

^H ^^ r"^ n^ ^2w.

Composition work with the children has value in
proportion to its being an untrammeled expression of
their own musical consciousness. The teacher's task
is to encourage through beautifying the child's thought
by harmonic background. A stenographic report of
the process of writing the text for a song by a group
eleven years of age is an illustration of the method of
procedure:

The following three lines had been made the week
before:

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC ^65

The icicles hang from the windows high,
And the wind goes shrieking and howling by;
The bright moonlight shines down on the snow,

Some one wanted an adjective for snow and sug-
gested "glittering,'' which was objected to on account
of rhythm.

And one little rabbit goes jumping below,

was suggested for the last line. Some of the children
objected to having the rabbit, saying that it was such
a cold night, he would not be out, and suggested
instead:

And hunters through the woods do go.

Another child suggested that the hunters would not be
out at night; another insisted that that would be just
the time they would be returning from a deer hunt.
Some one wanted:

And hunters walking about below.

Another suggested substituting "Indians" for "hunt-
ers." Another suggestion was:

No flowers are blooming down below.

From time to time the teacher re-read the lines, so
that they could get the rhythm, and, after a while,
none of the lines suggested after the first being
regarded as equal to the first, they went back to that.
"Little," "lonely," "hopping,*' and "father" were sug-
gested as describing the rabbit. "Lonely" was finally
accepted as best suited to the verse. "Hunting" was
substituted for "jumping," as more suggestive, and the
line as finally accepted read:

And one lonely rabbit goes hunting below.

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366

THE CHILD

The teacher suggested that, as the first verse was
about night, the second be about the day.

Some of the children wanted a chorus. The
teacher suggested that this was not a jolly song, so
that it did not lend itself easily to a chorus; but if one
appropriate could, be thought up, it could be used.
None could be thought of at the time, so the second
verse was begun.

The first line suggested was:

As the day grows near and the night grows far.

"Comes,*' and finally "draws," was suggested in place
of "grows," and "passes" in place of "grows far."
"Passes away" was objected to on account of the
number of syllables.

The teacher suggested that, as they were going
from a night verse to a day verse, it would be well to
put the night idea first. It was then given:

As the night disappears and the day draws near.
The next line was at once suggested:

Again the cheerful birds we hear
The next two lines were suggested as:
Jumping about on the fleecy snow.
Hopping around do the snow birds go.
One of the children suggested that the snow birds are
about a house, and she wanted the song about a lonely
place on the mountains. The last two lines were
objected to on the ground that birds had just been
mentioned. The child who proposed the line said she
was simply telling what the birds did. Then this was
opposed on the ground that in the first verse the rab-
bit had been doing about the same thing.

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RHYTHM AND MUSld

367

The teacher suggested that they refer again to the
rabbit and tell what became of him in the day.

And the same little rabbit goes hopping away,
For he's found something to feed him that day,

was suggested. "Same" was objected to, "little" sug-
gested in its place, and finally "gray" accepted. "For"
objected to, and "because" rejected, and finally "with"
accepted. One of the children wanted to suggest
''manger'' for "to eat," saying that French words were
often used in a song.

The whole song as finally accepted read:

The icicles hang from the windows high,
And the wind goes shrieking and howling by;
The bright moonlight shines down on the snow.
And one lonely rabbit goes hunting below.

As the night disappears and the day draws near,
Again the cheerful birds we hear;
And the little gray rabbit goes hopping away
With something to eat for the rest of the day.

A WINTER SONG

Winter 1900.

»~»

-N-~tr-»

W^^

s^rc

Pgj

1. The i - ci - cles hang from the win-dovvs high, And the

2. As the night dis-ap-pears and the day draws near, A -

^E=

-Jt. — M . M . ' — arij: ;j(.-Jjr

-#- -0- ■0- ' ' -•--•-

3±

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368

THE CHILD

=*=^3=

wind goes shriek-ing and howl - ing by; The
gain the cheer - ful birds we hear; And the

bright moon - light shines down on the snow, And
lit - tie grey rab - bit goes hop-ping '

a - way, With

one lone - ly rab - bit goes hunt - ing be - low.
some- thing to eat for the rest . of the day.

«^:

.it

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC

369

The melody of this song was given without criticism
by the four members of the group present, one musical
phrase from each child in succession, so that' text and
song were completed in two half-hour periods. The
smaller the group, the less confusion arises from
various phrases being given at the same time. To
avoid this confusion it was at first attempted to give
each child in turn an opportunity to offer a phrase,
with the result that none were offered. The work can-
not be done under formal restrictions.

As no record has been kept of rejected phrases in
the process of writing a song, only the method of
procedure can be given here.

After the children have selected their topic and
written their text, a musical setting for the first line is
called for. A quick response usually follows. If
several phrases are given, the children choose their
favorite. The second phrase, suggested by the first,
follows readily. The third usually presents more diffi-
culty. It is unconsciously realized that this in a
four-phrase song gives the character to the whole and
should contain a climax, and it is criticized and labored
over, sometimes during several periods. The final
phrase is usually an obvious one; the readiest child
gives it, and others remark it is just what they were
going to offer. Originality in a final phrase — as in the
Winter Song — is greeted with enthusiasm.

That composition work gives the children a grasp of
rhythm is shown by the way they handle it in making
their songs effective. A seven-year group completed
a Snowman Song in 3-pulse measure rhythm and sang
it to the school. Later they felt that its flowing
rhythm was not suited to the requirements of the

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^yO THE CHILD

words and found by experiment that by using the more
energetic 4-pulse the character of their melody became
what was desired.

The twelve-year-old children after completing their
rollicking Fourth of July song experienced a reaction.
They felt they had not expressed their highest
musical consciousness, and wished at once to begin a
song into which they would put their best effort.
As the Fourth of July song had met with enthusiastic
approval from the school, this impulse showed a nor-
mal growth and as such was encouraged. That it was
genuine was proved by the children's slow and critical
work, lasting through the remainder»of the spring quar-
ter, resumed after the summer vacation, and carried on
through more than one-half of the autumn quarter.
They suggested and directed the piano accompaniment
at important points, and, after the song was completed
and sung to the school, further embellished it by add-
ing a second-voice part.

No claim is made that these are productions of
genius, any more than the average child s drawings are.
The point is that they compare favorably with his draw-
ings, and even with many school songs. Above all, they,
like all constructive work, cultivate the appreciation of
the details and beauties of a piece that can never be
reached simply by singing other people's productions.

When we say that children should hear and be 'taught

only good music, we are saying vain words, for there

is as yet no unanimity as to what good

children^ music for children is. Much is condemned

as unchildlike, as not appealing to children;

while gay jingles that make them jump with glee, are

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RHYTHM AND MUSIC

371

characterized as "rag time." Between this Scylla and
Charybdis the average parent and teacher can not hope
to steer. We can not tell good music from bad, and
we may as well confess it and adopt on faith the
tenets of some one school, without hoping to under-
stand their reasons.

We should not, in any case, neglect the subject,. for
music has undoubtedly an effect upon the emotional
disposition. Plato excluded from his ideal republic
all music except that which stimulates courage and
the nobler emotions. All nations from the earliest
times have employed music at critical periods to
stimulate them to a greater effort than was possible
without. To-day physicians employ it for the bene-
ficial effect upon the insane, idiotic, imbecile, and
neurotic. We can nojt, therefore, afford to neglect it
in education.

REFERENCES

Baldwin, J. Mark. Mental Development y Methods and Processes ^

338-350. N. Y. Macmillan, I3.00.
Bolton, T. S. Rhythm. Am. Jour, of Psy., 1894, 145-234; esp.

145-174. 204-234.
Biicher, Karl. Arbeit und Rythmus. Art. d. Sachs. Ges. d. Wiss.

(Phil. Hist. Kl.). 1896, Vol. XVII., 130.
Chamberlain, A. F. The Child, 174-197, 180-182, 452. L.

W. Scott, I1.50.
Dewey, John. Rhythm, Psychology, 185-7.

M^sic. Elementary School Record, No. 2. Chicago. Univ.

of Chicago Press, $0.17.
Gates, F. B. Musical Interests of Children. Jour, of Ped., 1898,

Vol. II.
Gilbert, J. Allen. Musical Sensitiveness of School Children.

Studies of Yale Psy. Lab., Vol. I., 80-87.
Gilman, B. J. Musical Expressiveness. Am. Jour, oj Psy, 42-73.
Groos, Karl. The Play of Man, 18-48. N. Y. Appleton, $1.75.

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372

THE CHILD

Hofer, Man Ruef. A Child's Song. Proc, N. E. A., 602-604.
Matthews, W. S. B. Music as Discipline and Culture. Music,

Vol. VI., 349-365.
Marsh, Florence. Musical Phases of Child Study. Proc.

N. E. A., 1896, 891-892. (Abstract of Hall and Marsh's

Early Musical Manifestations.)
McDougall, R, , Music Imagery. Psy. Rev., Vol. V., 463-476.

(Account of a personal experience.)
Meyer, Max. How a Musical Education Should Be Acquired.

Ped. Sent., 1900, 124-13 1. (Account of Hooker's method.)
Preyer, W. Senses and Will. See Index. N. Y. Appleton,

I1.50.
Sully, James. Studies of Childhood, 195-308, 409-492. N. Y.

Appleton, $2.50.
Tomlins, W. S. Music, Its Nature and Influence.

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CHAPTER XVIII

Drawing

1. Before reading this chapter, draw the story of
Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Then compare
with the pictures and descriptions given in observa-
the chapter. ^^ons.

2. Make a collection , of drawings of the story of
Goldilocks. Observe these precautions:

(i) Tell the story to the children just before they
draw, so that it will be vividly present to
their ntinds.

(2) Give them as much choice in the material for

drawing as possible — crayon, black and
colored pencil, paints, etc., large and small
sheets of paper.

(3) Give them as much time as they want, but

have the pictures finished at one sitting.

(4) In the case of little children, label at the time

any ambiguous objects.

3. Make a collection of children's spontaneous draw-
ings, especially of the very first ones, made by the
child of eighteen months or so. Note how much
encouragement the child received, and how much
criticism and instruction.

4. Keep a dated record of the child's likes and dis-
likes of colors and bright objects.

As far back as we can penetrate, ancient peoples
always had a love for bright objects, or for rare or

373

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374

THE CHILD

curious things, and always loved to decorate them-
selves. Among savage people of to-day, there are the
Love for same desires. Many motives unite to

beauty strengthen these feelings, such as ithe desire

universal. ^^^ admiration from the opposite sex, and
the instinct of property; but there seems also to be a
spontaneous love for bright and glittering things, that
is the germ of the esthetic sense.

What the origin of artistic creation or expression was
is still much disputed. It is so divorced from prac-
tical values, so apart from everyday life, that many
have considered it a sort of excrescence that can not
be explained by natural laws. It seems most reason-
able, however, to suppose that it was at first the occu-
pation of an idle hour when the primitive man's
supply of food was abundant, when he had rested, and
when his mind recalled in thought the previous expe-
riences of the chase or of war. Then, in the song and
the dance, he reproduced the catching and killing of
the prey; or with a sharp stone drew them upon his
hunting knife.

Both of these interests appear in little children;
they love to hoard up bright things and to deck them-
selves with them; they reproduce in play and some-
times in drawing their own experiences, although
this first drama, song, or drawing is crude, and the
love for it often intermittent. To trace the character
of the growth of these interests is our present object.

The subject of children's artistic sense includes
properly drawing, painting, modeling, music and
story-telling. Only drawing and music can be consid-
ered here, with occasional reference's to the other
branches of art, and it should be understood that, as

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DRAWING

375

in all the subjects with which we have dealt, it is
impossible to free the child entirely from adult influ-
ence. At the very least, his taste is affected
by the pictures in his home, the style of hiiiuence
furniture, clothes, etc., and usually he is
helped in his first attempts to draw by a copy made
by his elders, and his own work is criticized or praised.
For the sake of convenience, the subject of drawing

may be divided into two parts: (i) the

• .• f • ^ 1 / \ XL 1 Love of color,

appreciation of pictures, and (2) the mak-
ing of pictures. Under the first head will also be
included the very few observations that have been
made on children's color sense.

The baby is first attracted by bright objects, regard-
less of their color or form, especially if they are mov- /
ing. Preyer's boy showed delight on the twenty-third
day at the sight of a brightly lighted rose-red curtain,
and when he distinguished colors, at the age of two,
red and yellow were favorites, and blue and green
least acceptable. So also with Miss Shinn's niece.
Baldwin's child, on the contrary, liked blue best, white
and red following closely. Unfortunately no yellow
was used in Baldwin's experiments. Brown was a
nearly neutral color to his child and to Miss Shinn's
niece. As a rule we should probably find that the
bright luminous colors would be chosen; thus a bright
blue would be preferred to a dark red or vice versa,
regardless of the color to a certain extent. But there
is little evidence on this point. Another character-
istic to be noted here is that contrast plays a large part
in a child's appreciation of colors.

Appreciation of form is not, at first, separated from
movement, color, and size. Children as a rule like

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376

THE CHILD

little things, probably because they have the feeling of
power over them, of ability to protect and caress them,
which they cannot have toward a large
object. In form we find also not so much
a love for symmetry, though that is present crudely, as
for the movements of the object, and for those qualities
which are connected with the children's own -lives.

Sully thinks that the love of flowers is the nearest
approach of the child to pure esthetic enjoyment,
although different qualities attract different children.
With some the enjoyment is almost entirely one of
smell; with others, a love of personal adornment. It
seems to be much the same with very small boys and
girls, but later the boys learn to despise their leanings
toward such things.

In all this, the child follows, in the main, the race
development: bright or gaudy colors before delicate
ones, and the utilitarian value of objects before the
esthetic. This appears again in the fact that few
children care about landscape beauty. The sublimity
of mountain or of sea arouses only fear, and the beau-
tiful and lovely are lost in the child's interest in some
detail that appeals to him.

It is said, how truly I do not know, that in Greek
literature there are very few passages that show any
esthetic appreciation of nature. The sea is the barren
sea; the land is much plowed, fertile, wooded, etc.,
the adjectives always pointing to the value to man.

At first the baby acts like an animal with regard to
representation of objects. He thinks the reflection in
Love of ^^^ glass is a real thing, as the animal does

pictures. the well-painted picture, and as the savage
thinks that his reflection in the water is his spirit-double.

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At a very early age, even as early as eight months,
some children learn to recognize pictures, and they
reach to them as to realities. The discrimination in
such cases may be quite fine. Miss Shinn's niece,
when fourteen months old, picked her father out of a
group of nine, although the face was scarcely more
than one-fourth of an inch in diameter. This recogni-
tion, however, is a very different thing from recogniz-
ing the picture as a picture, i. e:, as a^ symbol or copy
only, of no use in itself. Children do not learn this
nearly as readily. Even at four years we sometimes
see them trying to feed the picture. One boy at this
age saw a picture of people going to church. The
next day on seeing it he exclaimed in surprise because
they were not yet there. Miss Shinn's niece, at the
age of three saw a picture of a chamois defending
her kid from an eagle, and put her hand between
them to defend the kid. At the age of two she tried
to lift the painted branch that lay across a lamb in a
picture.

We see the same thing in the tendency to consider
a drama as a reality, in the confusing of the make-
believe Santa Claus with the real one, etc. Only by slow
degrees does tW child learn to take one object as rep-
resenting another, and as having no value in itself.
The use of symbols seems to be an acquired power,
not a natural one, and at first there is confusion of the
symbol with the reality for which it stands, in pro-
portion as the feeling is strong. We see this illus-
trated again and again in adult life, in religious
observances.

Whether children at any given age recognize clearly
the difference between the picture and the object or

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278 THE CHILD

not, their likes are interesting to us from the stand-
point of schoolroom decorations. Mr. O'Shea's obser-
vations, at first glance, are rather discour-
Swference^^ aging. He found that the children, as a
rule, cared nothing for the reproductions of
classics. Colored pictures, even the crudest chromos,
and "cunning" pictures — little children and animals
playing — were always chosen except when Santa Claus
or the Mother ahd Child were present. In many cases
when asked what pictures were in their schoolrooms
the children would be able to name only one or two
out of a large number. The others, apparently, had
made no impression upon them. They were over
their heads figuratively as well as literally. If this is
true of children generally, the problem of schoolroom
decoration is hardly as simple as many people think.

We are wont to assume that, given the money and a
knowledge of classical painting and sculpture, a per-
fectly equipped school will result. I have been in
several schools that to the adult eye are wonderfully
artistic in their decorations, considering the scanty
means at the teacher's disposal. But how much do
the children get out of it? The same question might
be asked about many of our kindergarten rooms.

Now, we are not reduced to nothingness if we do pay
attention to the children's tastes. There are the
Madonnas, and the many beautiful pictures of little
children. In animal life the paintings of Landseer
and Rosa Bonheur make a good beginning, and there
are many others. We need not lower our standards of
the esthetic, but simply change our subjects, accord-
ing to the interests of the children. If this were care-
fully carried out, the pictures in the eighth grade room

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DRAWING

379

would be quite different in subjects from those of the
kindergarten, instead of both only reflecting the teach-
er's tastes.

A more practical aspect of the liking for pictures is
brought out by Mr. Lukens. He says that children
are interested especially in pictures that have stories
connected with them, and frequently are interested in
them only when the story is told. He suggests accord-
ingly, that the pictures in primers should stimulate the
child's curiosity and so rouse a keen desire to learn
how to read.

In considering childish creations or inventions, we
should properly include much more than their draw-
ings, but we can only touch upon these
other things here. All such forms of ofirawinr
activity are very closely related to play, in
so far as they are spontaneous, but in the adult, at
least, they are distinct from it in that they involve a
social aspect not essential to play.

Dewey say^ that the artist differs from the artisan in
that he sees in his work its social value, and sees him-
self as a medium for the expression of social forces.
That is, the shoemaker who appreciates the social pos-
sibilities in shoes would become an artist.

The child at first makes no distinction between the
fine and the useful arts. Only by degrees does he
separate the value to himself from the general value;
the useful from the beautiful. His first activities are
controlled by his own enjoyment of them and not by
any results that are objectively useful to him or to
others. This is play par excellence. So the virtuous
acts of a child are not virtuous to him, but are repeated
because they give him the approval of others. It

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38o

THE CHILD

would be interesting to find out at- what age vanity or
the love of one's own beauty would develop if it were
not forced by the talk of the child's elders. One
would hardly expect it, or the love of pretty clothes as
such, to appear before adolescence, except in the
crudest way, in the love for bright things that we have
already mentioned.

When we consider what children themselves draw,
we have one valuable way of discovering their inter-
,^^^^ ests. Actually they seem to draw almost

ohUdren everything that they have ever seen, but
^*^* certain prominent interests also appear.

The observations that have been made give these
results: Little children, as a rule, do not draw objects
that are before them. Of objects that were absent, 45
per cent drawn between five and six were human figures,
23 per cent animals, 35 per cent plants and flowers, 32
per cent houses, 40 per cent still life, 5 per cent con-
ventional design, 3 per cent ornamental; between
fourteen and seventeen years ornament and design rose
to 8 and 37 per cent; human figures made up 5 per
cent, animals 10 per cent, plants 11 per cent and
houses 4 per cent. • These were drawings made in
school, and the same things appear in 1232 sponta-
neous drawings. If we put together all the pictures
containing human figures, they aggregate nearly three-
fourths of the entire number. Figures in motion are
more commonly drawn than figures at rest, and show
greater ease.

Mr. O'Shea's observations also confirm these as
regards ornament. He found that children under five
never tried to draw the accessories of a figure; 50 per
cent of those eight years old tried and 87 per cent of

,^ized by Google

Kindergarten Pictures*

Character Per cents Character Per cents Character Per cents

Scenes 15 Series I Bears 68

Fragments 81 Houses 75 Girl 69

Interiors I Trees J7 Bears and Girl 46

* About one hundred children from each grade were asked to draw the story of Goldi-
locks and the Three Bears. This series shows the average of each grade.

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DRAWING

381

those sixteen years old. Miss Flander's observations
show the same thing.

Mr. Lukens again presents for our consideration the
practical value of such spontaneous drawing. He
advocates it as a harmless method of inoculation
against real escapades. That is, he appears to think
that the boy who draws vividly the various scenes in
the life of Daredevil Dick of Coyote Range will have
no desire thereafter to run away from home and live
out some of the adventures about which he has read.
Possibly a good drawing of himself smoking, swearing,
etc., will take the place of the reality, and he will
escape the temptations of craps and playing for keeps
by picturing his defeat in them!

However this maybe, there is little doubt that draw-
ing is often a good test of the child's understanding
of the words he uses. Doubtless you are familiar
with the child's pictorial rendering oF "The Old
Oaken Bucket" — a circle for the well; three buckets,
for the old oaken bucket, the iron-bound bucket, and the
moss-covered bucket; and a number of dots representing
the "loved spots that her infancy knew." Again, most,
sketches' of Jack and Jill show them as twin brothers.

In tracing the development of a child's drawing a
very neat parallel has been worked out between it and
speech, thus:

SPEECH DRAWING

1. Automatic cries and reflex i. Automatic and aimless
or impulsive sounds. scribble.

2. Imitation of sounds but 2. Scribbling localizations;
without meaning. imitation of movement of hands.

3. Understanding of words 3. Same, with only simplest
without speaking, except such localization of features by scrib-
words as names. bling.

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382 THE CHILD

SPEECH DRAWING

4. Repetition of words as 4. Copying from others to
mere sounds when said to him see how to get right effect in
(brief stage and of little impor- use of lines.

^°^®)* 5. Picture writing, illustrated

5. Use of words to express stories, etc.

his thoughts. 6. Study of technique of

6. Study of grammar and drawing,
rhetoric.

Baldwin's observations on his daughter have been
confirmed by later observers, and may be given here
as illustrating the development outlined
above. Beginning with the nineteenth and
extending to the twenty-seventh month, he found that
the drawing was only the vaguest imitation of the move-
ment of his hand, no connection being recognized
between the hand work and the lines. Helen could
identify the copy, but not her own drawing unless she
remembered what she had been trying to make. The
same drawing would serve for a man or an animal, as she
pleased. Sometimes also a child will begin scribbling
either aimlessly or with the intention of making some
object, and will accidentally happen upon some unex-
pected form. He will then adopt this and copy it again
and again. For instance, a small boy happened to nrake
curls that looked like smoke, whereupon he exclaimed
in glee, 'Tuff, puff!" and made more. The only,
development here is in the freedom of movement.
The lines change from angular straight lines to curves;
instead of running all oneway, reverse movements with
loops occur, although the lines are almost always hori-
zontal or sloping slightly to the right like ordinary hand-
writing. As would be expected, the entire arm is used
at first and later the wrist and finger movements.

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Kn^-n i f' I-: \iil'. I*] I 1 ri'.l.

Scenes. is Series .

FragrmeiiEs. ,,..,.. ... fj^ Hnysrs,.,.
In terrors,. ,,,, i Tri:;f*s . ...

/^fr.-rt;i tJuiy.utrr Frr.tHts

... I Bcafi ,. , , 69

S4 rjirl . JO

...., ^f Itc-ars atiJ Gfrl . ji

Second Grade Picture

Character Per cents Character

Scenes 88 Series

Fragments 8 Houses . . .

Interiors .

* Trees .

Per cents Character Per cents

o Bears 61

9? Girl 69

t>S Beazs and Girl 39 Plate

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DRAWING

383

In the twenty-seventh month Helen got the idea of
making each part of the figure, and from that time
there was the attempt to make a copy, to
follow an idea or object. She saw the con-
nection between the pencil marks and the thing that
she wanted to make and now directed her attention to
the marks instead of to the movements. This is the
time when drawing or the representation of an object
really begins. " Up to this time the use of the pencil
has been only a form of exercise; now, it is a
new language. It shows one interesting feature in
common with language, and that is, that the first
drawing tends to stand for all things. Thus Helen
first drew a man. Later, in drawing birds she put
into her drawing many of the marks which stood
for a man.

In this early work, the children do not. appear to
copy from the object, even when it is before them.
A child told to copy a man lying down,
draws him as she draws other men, stand- th^know*
ing up. She may notice later the discrep-
ancy, but at the time it does not trouble her at all.
She draws the object as she knows it, not as she sees
it, because the picture is a true language to her. Thus
she shows people through the sides of the houses, and
all the sides of the house, and the legs of the chair,
etc., regardless of the actual appearance.

A child has little or no technique, and so simplifies
many things until the drawing seems to be little more
than a symbol of the object; but that it is not sym-
bolic to him is shown by his putting in striking details
to identify particular persons or things. He has no
sense of proportion or perspective. Men are taller

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384

THE CHILD

than houses, birds and dogs are of the same size, and
all appear in one plane.

Barnes thinks that this lack of unity in the picture is
due to the fact that the child thinks in very small
units, and fails to look at the picture as a whole. He
draws the outside of the house, then, going on with his
story, he shows the people doing various things inside
the house, forgetting about the outside. It comes out
again in the fact that often a child will repeat some
detail in the story again and again without seem-
ing to notice the rest. One child drew twenty-six
Johnnies in "Johnnie Guck in Die Luft" and nothing
else.

Almost without exception the first pictures are out-
lines or diagrams, not mass drawings. Whether they

are symbolic and conventional, or diaefram-
OutUnes. .^ , • ^ r j- ^ c n X' 1

matic is a point of dispute, bully thinks

that they very soon become conventional, that the
child adopts a certain outline for man, another for
trees, etc., and sticks to it regardless of the various
kinds of men and trees that he knows. Lukens, on
the other hand, regards this, when it occurs, as a case
of arrested development and to be deprecated. If the
child is allowed to develop freely, he thinks that there
will be a progress in the production of natural effects.
I am inclined to agree with Mr. Lukens on this, and I
feel sure that what Mr. Sully says is true, that many
children are really led into this conventionalism by our
very methods of teaching. One mass appearance repre-
sents apple-trees, another pines; and we teachers fre-
quently do not know enough to appreciate an individual
apple-tree when the budding Corot gives us one, but
condemn him to draw apple-trees in general.

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character Per cents

Scenes 84

Fragments 007

Interiors iz

Fourth Grade Picture

Character Per cents

Series 3

Houses 86

Trees 83

Character Per cents

Bears 34

Girl 77

Bears and Girl 23

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DRAWING

385

We have already seen that the object most often
chosen by the children is the human figure. In draw-
ing this, they begin with the full view of
the head. At first only eyes and mouth o/J^^
are put into it, and the body is a mere jum-
ble of lines. Later, arms and legs are added to the
head, and after a time a body appears, but even then
the arms may come out of the head for some time.
Barnes found that full faces predominated until the
age of nine, and then profiles. In the transition
stage, the profile may be drawn with two eyes and
ears. As we should expect, with right-handed children
the profiles and animals face to the left, and the child
draws the animal from the head back.

In the drawing of horses, the observations of Miss
Caroline Flanders* show these percentages: For first
grade children, six to seven ^^

years old, 30 per cent turn to f^* )

the right, 65 per cent to the left, ^^ // /(

and I2y3 per cent to the front; p,^^^^„ ,^ ,^ ^^^^^^^ ^
58 per cent are profile; 12)^ horse twenty -five per

J. r 1 1 r ^ - J. Cent of the Children be-

per cent full face; 25 per cent ^^^^ s,^ ^^„ s,,^„ p,„.
are ambiguous' creatures. (See duce ambiguous creatures
Diagram 14.) 73 percent have like this.
eyes; 51^ per cent nose; 60 per cent mouth; 58 per
cent ears; 85 per cent tail; 16^ per cent mane; 31^
per cent hair; 96 per cent legs, varying in number from
one to four.

Goldilocks was drawn by the kindergarten children,
22 per cent of the drawings facing left; 13 per cent
front; 36 per cent right; 7 per cent back. In the

* Unpublished data on 1,000 Chicago school children from kin-
dergarten through eighth grade.

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386

THE CHILD

second grade fewer faced front, and more sideways;
and in the seventh and eighth grades most faced to
the left. ' Joints were first drawn by fourth grade
children.

In the illustrating of stories, Earl Barnes found that

freedom in drawing, as shown by the number of scenes,

increases up to the age of thirteen, and

Drawing then decreases to sixteen. All the chil-
of storl68.

dren who dechned to draw were over thir-
teen. Here again we find the self-consciousness of
adolescence, the feeling of inability in the presence of
new ideals.

In all cases, the children prefer large, distinct fig-
ures, especially for the hero. In the story of Johnnie,
the little boy is often made much larger than the men
who rescue him. We have a nice analogy here in the
Greek custom of representing heroes and gods as
larger than ordinary men.

We find a similar case in the exaggerations given to
details which are prominent in the child's mind. A
pair of glasses will dominate the entire picture; a
watch chain will spread over the whole front; vest
buttons of heroic proportions will appear, or some
characteristic attitude will be represented in its
extreme. The child is an unconscious caricaturist.
One curious fact here is that the catastrophe is not
drawn nearly as often as the scenes just preceding and
following it. Mr. Barnes lays this to a sense in the
children like that in adults, which leads them to enjoy
most the suspense, and afterwards the pleasure of
rescuing the lucky hero. It seems that one may fairly
question this explanation, though it is difficult to offer
a satisfactory one in its place. We can hardly think

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f.hntiti^ier Pit- £r tits Chitrmtry Pfr ienti llhaviicifr Pry teali

Scenei... ..,, ^4 Series , .,..,. ., q Bears ..,....,.. h .t,^ < . l8

FfagotcEite, , , . . o Hoyses . , , , 8| ( 'w\t\y ... 64

Jalerion. ..... 15 Trees 77 iJcars and f.lirl.... ^

: V ' J^...

~^m

Ij^

Character
Scenes . . .
Fragments ,
Interiors . . .

Per cents
61

Sixth Gkade Picture

Character Per cents

Series , . . o

Houses 58

Trees 59

Character Per cents

Bears 36

Girl 58

Bears and Girl 22

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Flat4

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DRAWING 287

the children would consider the catastrophe too diflR-
cult. Perhaps it may seem too complicated to attract
them.

The observations made by Miss Flanders upon one
thousand children from four to fifteen years old, who
drew the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears,
confirm Professor Barnes', and add some further inter-
esting details. Many of the drawings were

with colored' chalks, which the children BxperUnent

- , , , . 1 • , with story of

preferred when given a choice, and with aoidUocks.

which they drew better than with black and

white. In the kindergarten, most of the children use

lines instead of mass; a few mass, and a few both. In

the first grade, where instruction in drawing begins,

the figures are almost equally divided between the

two; and beyond the first grade, mass is used nearly

always, showing the effect of instruction. This again

leads to the conclusion that children naturally draw in

line, even when given a medium like crayon, that

lends itself to mass; but that they can soon be taught

to see and draw in mass.

The effect of the teacher upon the children also
comes out very distinctly in these papers. Where the
teachers like drawing the children are freer in expres-
sion, improve more rapidly, and enjoy the work better.

The gradual changes in the pictures from kindergar-
ten through eighth grade drawings are shown in the
series running through this chapter. The fig-
ures with each picture show the percentage 2^J*g^^e^g^^
of children in that grade who drew essen-
tially the same picture, and also the variations from
it. The remarkable thing about these pictures is their
uniformity of scene. Why do the children choose a

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388

THE CHILD

scene which is really so little connected with the story?
Why do they take a landscape instead of an interior?

In the second grade, sky and ground are shown as
meeting; before that, with a space between. There
were very few series of drawings, probably because the
children have not been shown how to draw in that
way. In the higher grades more detail appears in the
drawings. Throughout, the details are copied from
what the children see about them — a peculiar style of
window; high stair in front of the house; family por-
traits on the walls. The totals of Miss Flander's work
are seen in the following summary.

All the pictures have houses: lo per cent in mass;
80 per cent in line; 9 per cent in both; 14 per cent
transparent; 5 per cent with doors; 12 per cent with
knobs; 2 per cent with door panels; 69 per cent with
windows; 6 per cent with curtains; 65 per cent with
chimneys; 41 per cent with smoke.

Sixty-eight per cent have trees: 9 per cent in line,
73 per cent in mass, and 16 per cent in both; 34 per
cent have forests, and i per cent flowers.

Sky and ground are shown by 65 per cent, ground
alone by 15 per cent, and sky alone by less than i per
cent.

Bears are shown by 47 per cent; with bear shapes 2^
per cent, human shape 20 per cent, animal shape 21
per cent. Their faces are: profile 55 per cent, full 23
per cent, double 21 per cent. Of features, 20 per cent
have eyes, 45 per cent tails, 9 per cent arms.

Goldilocks is drawn by 66 per cent. She is allowed
head, neck, body, skirt and feet by 3^ per cent; head,
body and feet by 5^/ per cent; head, skirt and feet by
io>J per cent; head, body, skirt and feet by 685^ per

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SlLVEMH GtiADE PlCTC l^lv

tharaair

Per tfnti

Character

Per ttrtn

Strtita .,.

Series. .. . .

t'ragrrtcnu. . ,

Houecs

interiors

Trees , . .

-- 70

Vfiiii-iiittr Pf,r iffitt

Bean 61

Girl ,, 71

Beits and CirE 46

Eighth Grade Picture

Character
Scenes ....
Fragments.
Interiors ..

Per cents Character Per cents

52 Series 9

, 18 Houses 68

, ao Trees 64

Character Per cents

Bears ZJ

Giri 56

Bears and Girl 14 Flal

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DRAWING

389

cent; head and skirt only by 25< per cent; full face in
22^J per cent; doubtful outlines in 415/ per cent.

As to features, she is allowed eyes by 235/ per cent;
nose by 2i/^ per cent; mouth by 19/^ per cent; ears by
I per cent, and hair by ^7% per cent; feet by 76 per
cent; shoes by 33 per cent; arms by 50 per cent; hands
by 9^ per cent; fingers by 5/^ per cent.

Certain conclusions are easily reached on the basis
of these facts. It is evident that drawing should begin
with the human figure as a whole and not Y%x\awY%.
with conventional designs, and should only oonyentional
by degrees work up to the analysis involved *®"^*f^**'
in the latter. The method of using drawing, to illus-
trate stories, scenes from child life, etc., is to be com-
mended instead of a conventional course in drawing.

Ruskin laments the devotion of the school to geo-
metrical forms. He says: **A great draughtsman can,
so far as I have observed, draw every line but a straight
one. When the child longs to turn out men, dogs,
cars, horses, heroes, etc., he is showing his freedom;
but he is bidden to draw a straight line, a curve ,or the
like. When nature intended him to be as yet a
player, an artist only, the school seeks to make him a
geometrician; when he desires to make many lines, he
is confined to one; when he endeavors to -produce a
whole, it seeks to make him produce parts only.
Neither the child nor primitive- man begins with a
geometric line — it is in a scribble that the history of
graphic art lies hid.'*

These facts would also lead us to conclude that chil-
dren draw naturally in outline instead of in mass, and
that shadow, etc., should be introduced by degrees as
the child learns to separate knowledge from sight. It

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390

THB CHILD

can hardly be said that all these children would use
outline naturally if there were not some reason for it.
Technique should be introduced slowly. Probably by
the age of nine most children will appreciate some
help in this direction.

Too often children are simply taught certain tech-
nical tricks, but are not taught to observe, with the
result that high school boys and girls draw no better v
than those in the third grade. Back of all drill in
technique must be the observant and interested mind
striving to express an idea. So above all things we
must take care not to destroy a child's spontaneous
love for drawing by making him self-conscious and
distrustful. The ideal thing would be for us all to
draw as easily as we write, when it will serve our turn,
and there is no reason why we should not if given the
proper training.

REFERENCES

Amberg, J. D. R. Drawing in General Education. Education,
Vol. XIV., 268.
" Bally. H. T. A First Year in Drawing. Report on Drawing
(Industrial) \xi.j8ih Ann. Rept. of Mass, Board of Educa-
. Won (1893 and 1894).

A Baldwin, J. Mark. Mental Development, Methods and Proc-
esses, 50-57, 81-96. N. Y. Macmillan, $3.00.
"^Balfour, H. Evolution of Decorative Art.
(^ > Barnes E. Studies in Education. See Index. Chicago. Uni- •
^^ versity of Chicago Press.

■*" •• Study of Children's Drawings. Ped. Sent., 1892, 455-463.
Barrett, H. V. Drawing in Elementary Schools. Mag. of Art,
Vol. VIII., pp. 326, 425. .

Brown, E. E. Art in Education. Proc. N. E. A., 1899, 112-121.''
(Pictures, tragic and comic, for the schools. General.)
Notes on Children's Drawings. U. of Cat. Studies, Vol. II.
(Good.)

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DRAWING

391

Clark, A. B. Child's Attitude toward Perspective Problem.

Barnes's Studies in Ed., pp. 283-2^. Chicago. University

of Chicago Press.
Clark, J. S. Children's Drawing. Educ. Rev., 1897, Vol. Xlll.y

76-82.
Cooke, E. Art Teaching and Child Nature. Jour, of Educ,

December, 1885, and January, 1886.
Coole, E. The A. B. C. of Drawing. Special Kept, of Educ.

Dept. of Gr. Britain. London, 1897.
'^Dewey, John. Imagination and Expression — the Psychology

of Drawing. Chicago. Kgn. Lib. Co., $0.15.
Elementary School Record. Number on Art. Chicago.

Univ. of Chicago Press, I0.17.
Fitz, H. G. Freehand Drawing in Education. Pop. Sc. Mo,,

October, 1897, 755-765.
Gallagher, Margaret. Children's Spontaneous Drawings. N. W,

Mo., 1897, 130-134.
^Herrick, Mary A. Children's Drawings. Ped, Sem., 1894-6,

338-339.
Hicks, Mary Dana. Color in Public Schools. Proc, N. E. A.,^

1894, 906-915.
^Art in Early Education. Ped. Sem., 1892, 463-466.
Hogan, Louise. Study of a Child. Harper's Mo.,^\xrs&, 1898.
Locker, J. C. With What Should Drawing Begin ? Proc, Intern,

Cong. Ed., p. 491, N. Y., 1894.
Lukens, H. T. Drawing. Proc. N. E. A., 1899, 945-51. V

Children's Drawings in Early Years. Ped. Sem,, 1896-7, / Q

79-110. (Gives pictures. Good.)
Maitland, M. L. What Children Draw to Please Themselves.

Inland Ed. Vol. I.
Eskimo Drawings. N. W. Mo., June, 1899, 443-450.
^ason, W. A. Psychology of the Object. 'Education, Vol. XV.
O'Shea, M. V. Children's Expression through Drawing. Proc. ^

N. E. A., 1897, 1015-23. (Good.)
Some Aspects of Drawing. Ed. Rev., October, 1897, Vol. ^

XIV., 263-284. (General.)
^Parker, F. W. Talks on Pedagogics. Chapter X. Chicago.

Flanagan, $1.50.
Pedagogical Seminary, 1891, 445-447. Notes on Children's

Drawings.

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392

THE CHILD

Perez, B. Vart et lapoisie chez V enfant. Chapter on Drawing.

Paris. Alcan, fi.oo.
Plessy. Typical Children's Drawings and Some Conclusions.
^ Applied Art Book, October, 1901, Vol. I., 12-19.

^ Ricci, C. Summary of His Work. Ped, Sent., 1894-6, pp. 302-7.
Rooper, T. G. Drawing in Infant Schools. N. Y. Kellogg,

I0.15.
Runcinan, J. Drawing in London Board Schools. Mag. of Art,
I Vol. VIII., 218.

^ Schnieder, H. G. Drawing in the New York City Public
Schools. Education, Vol. XVII., 304.
Shinn, Milicent. Notes on the Development of a Child. U. of
. Cal. Studies, Vol. I., p. 96.

*• Spencer, Herbert. Education. N. Y. Appleton, $1.25.

Asully.

James. Studies of Childhood. Chapter on Art. N. Y.
Appleton, $2.50.
* Warren, S. E. Industrial Drawing as an Element of Industrial
Education. Education, Vol. IV. , 367.
Woolner, T. Value of Drawing. Mag. of Art, Vol. XV.

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CHAPTER XIX

Play

1. Get data from children of all grades in fall, win-
ter, spring ancj summer, as to the play that obserra-
they like the best of all. *^o"^8-

2. Get data about clubs and societies that are formed
and managed without adult encouragement and aid.

3. Keep records as to the plays of little children.

4. Collect accounts of plays and games used in formal
education, stating the purpose for which they are used
and how far they accomplish the purpose.

In taking up the subject of play, we shall find many
connections with the topics previously discussed. Play
seems to be to a large extent the form in
which childish ideas express themselves. ufpiay^^^
It is to the child what his life-work is to
the man, and shows therefore most clearly what his
nature is when left to himself. On this account obser-
vation of the free play of children is of great assistance
to a teacher in learning their true characteristics.

Even from the earliest times there have been edu-
cators who differed from the Hinterschlag professor.
This worthy man knew of the soul only "that it had a
faculty called memory and could be acted upon
through the muscular integument by the application of
birch rodsV' On the other hand, 2300 years ago Plato
said: ^'The plays of children have the mightiest
influience on the maintenance of laws — from the first

393

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394

THE CHILD

years of childhood, their plays ought to be subject to
laws, for if they are arbitrary and lawless, how can
children ever become virtuous men, abiding by law?"
Aristotle advised that the children before five years of
age ''should be taught nothing lest it hinder growth,
but should be accustomed to use much motion — and
this can be acquired by various means, among others
by play, which ought to be neither too illiberal nor too
laborious nor lazy." Luther tells us that **Solomon
did not prohibit scholars from play at the proper time.
A young man shut up (without recreation) is like a
young tree which ought to bear fruit but is planted in
a pot/'

Locke asserts that "the gamesome humor of child-
hood which is wisely adapted by nature to its age and
temper, should be encouraged, to keep up their spirits
and improve their health and strength. The chief art
is to make all that children have to do, sport and
play." He invented games for teaching reading, and
suggested others. Richter in his Levana says that
"activity alone can bring and hold serenity and hap-
piness. Unlike our games, the plays of children are
the expressions of serious activity, although in light,
airy dress. Play is the first poetical (creative) utter-
ance of man.** Schiller says, "Man is man only when
he plays.**

Finally Froebel, in the Education of Man, says:
"Play is the highest phase of the child development —
for it is self-attentive representation of the
piay^^^^^ inrter life from inner necessity and impulse.
Play is the purest, most spiritual activity of
man, at this stage, and at the same time typical of
human life as a whole, — of the iriner, hidden, natural life

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^^^^ ^ 395

in man and all things. It gives joy, freedom, content-
ment, inner and outer rest, peace with the world. It
holds the sources of all that is good. A child that
plays thoroughly, with self-active determination, will
surely be a thorough, determined man, capable of self-
sacrifice for the promotion of the welfare of himself
and others. The spontaneous play of the child dis-
closes the future inner life of the man. 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.''

More recent study and observation have served only
to emphasize these utterances and to show in detail
their truth. Spencer tells us that all education, so far
as it is true, tends to revert to play, and Preyer com-
pares the child's play, in its value to him, to the work
of the learned man.

The distinction between play and work is a difficult
one to draw. It is evidently not merely in the acts,
nor in their result; to Tom Sawyer, white-
washing the fence was the hardest sort wotk^"^^
of drudgery, but he made it into play for his
boy friends and made them pay him for the privilege
of playing at it. Again, if a boy has to play marbles
when he wants to go to a fire, the play becomes work.
We often say that if we had to do as work what we
play at — campiilg out, making century runs, etc., we
should jconsider ourselves much abused. It is not
alone the amount of effort, therefore, or the fact of
having a definite end, that makes an activity work
instead of play. It seems to be rather that the activity
is pleasurable and spontaneous; that there is no

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396

tHE CHILD

external or internal compulsion laid upon the player.
Play in this sense includes all truly artistic work. It
is not the opposite of work but the best way of doing
work. It is working in the spirit of love, instead of in
the spirit of duty. And yet we distinguish such work
from play in that it does, after all, go beyond itself in
the artist's appreciation of the ethical and social value
of his art.

Shut out play from work, and we get weariness and
stupidity, we exclude growth, physical, intellectual
and moral. The child who does not like play is
abnormal. He is sick or stupid. He ought not to
prefer to sit in his seat when the others are romping.
Such a child is very likely to exhibit some of the signs
of nervousness described in the first chapter, or signs
of poor nutrition — either not enough food or else not
the right kind. A distinction should also be made
between games and play. All games are play, but not
all plays are games. Games are organized; system-
atized play, and involve more than one child.

Groos in his theory of play, considers the physi-
Theoryof ological, biological and psychological fac-
piay* tors, in order to get a complete theory.

There are two principles to which we must refer for
a physiological theory of play, viz,^ the discharge of
1 Thephys- surplus energy and the recreation of ex-
ioiogicai hausted powers. The first is likely to
standpoint, occur when, through rest or disuse, any set
of organs has stored up more force than it needs, which
force, therefore, tends to find an outlet in any con-
venient direction. The second happens when we are
tired of mental or physical labor, but still do not need
rest, and so turn to the change and recreation given by

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PLAY

397

play. In both cases, a play so begun may be carried
to the point of exhaustion, because any movement set
up in the body tends to repeat itself and to produce a
trance-like condition which is irresistible.

The first overflow of energy is illustrated in the
activity of a little child in the morning, when he jumps,
skips, etc., from good spirits; the recreation, in* his
later conduct, when he turns from one play to another.
In both cases, he may continue until he is tired out.

Such a theory is satisfactory for certain forms of
play, but it leaves untouched the question of why the
surplus energy and recreation take the particular
forms that they do, and must therefore be supple-
mented from the biological standpoint.

We do not find the play instinct in animals that have
to support themselves from bfrth. It develops in
proportion as the animal is freed from the ^ Thebio-
serious duties^ pf life. The highly-devel- logical
oped animals are the most unfit to provide 8^^»^<iPo^**
for themselves at birth, are the most plastic or educa-
ble, aild require the longest period of infancy or care-
taking. These animals are also the most playful. We
do not think of an oyster, and hardly of a chick as
playing. But colts, puppies, kittens, are all playful,
while the child is the player par excellence, and play
is a large part of his training for life.

The superfluous energy and the desire tor recreation
find the easiest outlets through the channels of instincts,
and thus not only recapitulate race experience, but
serve the useful function of being an important form
of organic exercise. It seems to be true that the
spontaneous actions of play are the same as those
which the child will need later to use seriously. We

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398

THE CHILD

find plays varying in different species of animals,
according to their instincts. Thus a puppy plays
vigorously at biting, fighting, etc., in his way, and so is
trained for actual fighting later. A kitten plays very
differently from a puppy, but its play serves equally
well to prepare it for its life. Children in like man-
ner play according to the way their ancestors have
acted. The channels worn by ages of use are the
easiest ones through which superfluous energy can
escape, and so both the spontaneous and the imitative
tendencies tend to the reproduction of racial activities,
hunting of animals, sham fights, and so on. The
believers in the culture-epoch theory put here also the
plays of tent life, cave life, pastoral life, which most
children go through at some time. Some of the games
based on the hunting instinct are games of chase, like
tag; games of searching, like hide-and-seek; games of
hurling, like quoits. Based on the fighting instinct are
games of contest, like football; and all that bring out
emulation, like racing.

The element of imitation doubtless enters into all
these plays, but unless they appealed to some natural
tendencies they would not be imitated. In the various
kindergarten plays we find an attempt to make this
tendency regularly serviceable in education.

Now all these plays which thus reproduce race activi-
ties are of value also because they provide a large
amount of exercise for the child, and so aid greatly in
bodily control. As they reproduce adult activities,
however crudely, they train the muscles for those
activities. The girl in her playhouse is learning how
to handle the household utensils carefully. The boy
in his baseball and running games gains a fieetness and

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PLAV

399

readiness that are serviceable in all but the most
sedentary occupations. There is no part of the body
left undeveloped by the plays of children. Ordinatrily
also, this exercise can be secured in no other way.
Gymnastics are not comparable with free play, for they
exercise only certain sets of muscles and the same sets
for all children, whereas free play allows each child to
exercise the least used muscles, and also relieves the
strain of attention. Further, because children do not
enjoy gymnastics especially, they do them only under
direction, and do not get as much exercise as from free
play. Gymnastics are, of course, valuable when chil-
dren do not get plays that exercise all the muscles, or
when they are deformed or developed unsymmetri-
cally; but, says one writer, the finest type of physical
man is not produced by the gymnasia or the palaestra,
but by games — rowing and running, football and base-
ball, golf, tennis, etc. The movement for playgrounds
in the city thus assumes as great an importance as the
securing of gymnasia, especially because the children
do not get any of the natural opportunities for exercise
either in work or in play that the country and village
children get.

When we approach the question of the mental state
of the playing child, one of the most prominent factors
is his acceptance of an illusion, his playing g The psy-
of a part. The girl who makes a doll out choiogicai
of a sofa-pillow and the boy who plays sol- 8t«^dP<>i^^-
dier, know that they are "making believe," and yet
accept the pretense with delight. Lange calls it a
conscious self-deception, in which a period of illusion
follows a moment of readjustment. The combination
of the two is seen in laughing boys in a sham fight.

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400

THE CHILD

Groos believes that the delight in the illusion is due
to the feeling of freedom in accepting the illusion and
joy in being the cause of it. The child is guarded
from error by the subconsciousness that he himself
created the thing, and so plays joyously with it as if it
were a reality. Such plays pass by slow transitions
into artistic creation and invention, in which the sense
of unreality is replaced by belief in their truth and
their social value.

Much of what is called play in babies ana little
children is rathier an experimenting with the senses
First play an ^^^ motor apparatus for the sake of the
experiment- new feelings thus produced. Such plays
^*' are based directly upon the instinctive

demand of these organs for activity, and are lacking in
the factor of illusion which we have just mentioned.
They serve the biological purpose already mentioned.
Numerous illustrations of this might be given from
every sense.

1. Touch. Very early in life a baby enjoys stroking,
and seeks to put everything into his mouth. The lat-
ter is done not only when the child is hungry but when
he has just been fed, and is enjoyed for the contact
with the lips, tongue, etc. In the bath, he gets
various sensations by splashing. The baby explores
his body, handles all he can reach, and in every way
plays with the touch sensations.

2. Temperature. The seeking of a stinging air, a
cool breeze, a hot sun, not so much to relieve any
discomfort as to enjoy them, are instances of play
here.

3. Taste. -'The love of having something in the
mouth — candy, gum, a clove, an olive stone, tobacco-
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PLAV

401

testifies to the playful use we all make of touch.
Even a stone or a tasteless bit of beeswax satisfies
some people when they can get nothing better. The
intention in such cases is not, of course, to satisfy
hunger, but simply to get new sensations.

4. Smell. We do not find play so much in evidence
here, although sometimes children do play games that
call into use the sense of smell.

5. Hearing, We spoke at some length of hearing,
under the head of music. Here we have only to note
that these first sounds that are heard and produced
with so much pleasure, are to the child a form of play.
He listens and reproduces, makes up rhymes, and
repeats his chain rhymes. Mother Goose, and so on, in
a spontaneous enjoyment that asks for nothing more.
He is not limited to his own voice, but rattles and
shakes and tears anything that he can get hold of, to
satisfy his insatiable ear.

6. Light. The same is true of sight. Whether it
is merely the enjoyment of brightness and color, or
the m'ore complex delight in forms and in objects,
a child is constantly seeking to produce a new expe-
rience or to repeat a pleasurable old one.

7. Playful movements of the bodily organs. All this
play with the senses involves movement, but we find
the child also experimenting in all sorts of ways with
his hands and legs and head, putting them into all
sorts of positions and enjoying himself immensely. In
course of time he learns to rurt and walk, and then we
can see plainly his play in jumping, stamping, rowing,
taking difficult steps, climbing and giv^ing himself a
thousand tests of skill. He docs not limit himself to
his own body, either, but takes possession of anything

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402

THE CHILD

upon which he can exercise his muscles. He tears
paper, shakes keys and all noisy objects, splashes
water, and so on

Considerable observation has been made of chil-
dren's free play with a view to seeing just what they
do when left alone. Many nationalities

ZfI2« ^ and classes have been observed with the
plays.

interesting result that children of the same
age, whatever their nationality, or social class, play
essentially the same games and plays. The names
may differ, but certain characteristics are common to
all. Ks we should expect, the plays of little children
of the kindergarten ajge are much more imitative than
those of older children. Playing family and store are
by far the most popular both with girls and boys, and
in these plays the home life is reproduced, often with
startling fidelity. Playing church comes next to
these, but it is played only about one-third as much as
the others.

In observations made on twenty-nine kindergarten
children, five to six years old, it was found that in their
plays they divided spontaneously into four groups.
The first group consisted of the older boys. Their
plays contained much action, ajuL_iniagination. In
three months thirty-one dramatic plays were observed,
such as policeman, fireman, store.

The second group was made up of the older girls.
Their plays were also dramatic, but quieter than the
boys. Playing house and school were the great
favorites.

The third consisted of the smaller children and
older bashful girls. They played simple games, but
spent most of their time in rushing from one to the

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PLAY

403

other of the other groups as they were attracted by the
games going on.

The fourth group consisted of the left-overs, list-
less children, who did not seem to care for any game,
and spent most of their time in the swing.

All these plays are imitative rather than inventive.
It is interesting to notice that usually the same play is
played on consecutive days, the interest shifting only
by degrees. Thus, if house is played on one day, it is
likely to be played for a while the next day. That
day another game may be introduced also, and this
will be likely to survive the next day and so on. Some
plays are played almost every day, but what shifting
there is, is of this gradual nature.

The particular play chosen seemed to be selected
either because the children liked it very much, or
because some child of strong personality forced his
liking upon the others even if they did not care for the
play. The latter was not at all an uncommon occur-
rence.

Children below seven years of age rarely play games
unless stimulated by older children or by adults.
Their plays are individualistic and non-
competitive. The question has been raised Oharacterof
>— ^ 1 .u c u ^u *u 1 • J plays of little

seriously, therefore, whether the kmdergar- children.

ten should force cooperation upon its chil-
dren; whether it is not urging them into a stage which
they are not yet ready for. Froebel himself, it is
urged, says that boyhood, rather than childhood, is
the time when the unity with others comes to con-
sciousness, and that childhood is the time for learn-
ing to perceive things as distinct. The feeling of
unity is vague and the tendency is toward defining

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404

THE CHILD

percepts and ideas, making them distinct rather than
related.

The kindergarten period dp to the second dentition
is especially the toy period. The plays usually center

about some object upon which numerous
toys^"^ imaginings can be based, the doll, the

engine, etc. But it is not at all essential
that the toy should be an elaborate one. It is better
for a child to be supplied with plenty of material, such
as blocks and sand, from which he can make many
things, and with some simple toys, than to have
expensive mechanisms which he can not shape to his
will. He ought to be able to take any toy to pieces
and put it together again without injury to it.

Almost anything will serve a child for a toy, when
he is left to his own inventions — flowers and leaves,
twigs, berries, grass, bits of glass and china, iron,
cloth, etc. — anything that will serve as a peg for his
fancy.

It is noticeable, however, that when children make
toys, they usually only copy — making sleds, hammers,
axes, etc.

The universal toy is, of course, the doll, upon which
both the invention and imitation of the child expend

themselves to the utmost. We find from

Dr. HalTs article that children prefer dolls
of certain materials, thus: wax, 22 per cent; paper, 19
per cent; china, 18 per cent; rag, 17 per cent; bisque,
12 per cent; china and cloth, g% per cent; rubber, 8
per cent. But lacking these, they substitute: pillows,
4j^ per cent; sticks, 3 per cent; bottles, 2% per cent;
dogs, 2 per cent; cats or kittens, lyi per cent; shawls,
2yi per cent; flowers, i per cent; clothes-pins, i per

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PLAY

405

cent, to say nothing of such things as toy washboards
or wringers in isolated cases.

Any size from 4 to 12 inches suits, but blondes with
curly hair and eyes that open and shut are preferred.
Babies are liked best before five years, and children
after that time.

The mental qualities that are attributed to these first
children are as varied as the human nature that the
child knows. It is an interesting question how far a
child really believes that the doll can feel, be good,
jealous, and so on, and how far he is conscious of its
lifelessness. In feeding a doll, for instance, 1% per
cent maintain that the doll really is hungry and the
same number are in doubt; 2 per cent declare that the
doll never is hungry while the great majority either
feed the doll or touch the food to her mouth and then
eat it themselves. In such cases there is a conscious-
ness of the play, although a child may be really dis-
tressed over the doll's cold or sickness.

Among the qualities ascribed to dolls the most com-
mon are: goodness, 27 per cent; cold, 24 per cent;
inability to love, 22 per cent; weariness, 21 per cent;
hunger, 21 per cent; badness, 16 per cent; jealousy, 83^
per cent; hatred, 7 per cent; ability to sleep, 37 per cent.

The love of dolls appears to reach its height in
the ninth year although strong from the third year
to the twelfth. Many girls play with dolls until they
go into long dresses and are ridiculed for their love of
it; and not a few ladles confess to the existence of the
passion. Dr. Hall questions whether this love is as
closely connected with the maternal instinct as we
commonly suppose, citing in proof of his statement the
fact that many girls who were very fond of dolls, do

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4o6

THE CHILD

not, as women, care much for children, and vice versa.
This may be true in isolated cases, but still play is so
evidently an imitation of the mother, prompted by
instinct, that we must have more than a few contrary
instances to invalidate this belief.

During the second dentition, when the association-
fibers of the brain are developing rapidly, the plays of
Plays of children undergo as marked a change as

older chii- their other activities do. There is first a
^^^^' period of dramatic play, which serves to

connect the toy period with the next, and then the
plays involve much violent exercise and become highly
competitive in character and much more varied. Hide-
and-seek, is played by only 8 per cent of boys seven
years old and by 55 per cent of boys ten years old.

The interest in traditional games — hide-and-seek,
tag, prisoner's base, fox and hounds, etc. — most of
which involve violent exercise and competition, reaches
its height in the tenth year. This is also the period
when the love of animals and the desire to possess
them are most prominent. If it is feasible, this desire
should be gratified and the child taught to take the
responsibility of feeding them. Such a care is a valu-
able training in kindness and unselfishness, and teaches
a child to estimate more correctly the kindness of his
parents in taking care of him.

Certain differences between boys and girls appear in
the ten thousand children observed. As a rule, the
girls' games are quieter than the boys',
girts* plays. ^^^^ P^^^ ^ greater variety of games, and
they do not organize as the boys do. Foot-
ball and baseball are overwhelmingly the favor-
ites with boys, while with girls no one game has

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PLAY

407

anything like that popularity. Again, no girls took
part in the play with the sandpile, except occasion-
ally, and they do not organize societies as boys do.

The following tables show the relative prominence
of games and of clubs at different ages. The names at
the top indicate the authority for the figures given.
Percentages are given in all cases. The two figures
indicate the per cents at the two age limits.

T. R. Croswell.
1000 boys,
1000 girls.

Kindergarten-
High school

Boys Girls Both

Z. McGhee.

4566 children.

6-18 years

Boys Girls Both

W. S. Monroe.

2000 children.

7-16 years

Boys Girls Both

Playing House

Playing School

Playing Horse

Playing War

Play with dolls. . .
With doll furniture

With teaset

With doll carriage

With leaves

With flowers. . .
Books and reading

Music

Cards

Checkers

Dominoes

Hide-and-seek. . j

Ball

Baseball

Running games. . .

Fox - hounds, foot-
ball, tag, etc

Games of rivalry. .

Games with coop-
eration

Croquet

Rhythm and mo-
tion

6-5

7-iJi
16-2

5i-ft

■H
A
o

i
7H

8-A
2-*
16-3

27-8
18-4
8 at
55 at
12-28

36i-

25-3

4^^^

26-23

24-7

23-8
ii-l

11-2
6-1

15-5
18-3
13-2

7y.

10 y.

5-4

12-3

31-1

2-9

31-21

42.65
25-41

3-45

20.70

65
70

Foot-
ball
32

20
27

Tag
50

44
73

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4o8

THE CHILD

Anglo-Saxon Boys' Plays
(NemrO'Musculari)

BIR9H

Kicking.
Whole arm, body
and hand movements.
Dropping things. Blocks.
Sand Plays, digging, piling, etc.
Running, throwing, catting and fold-
ing. Swinging.

Shooting, gnns, bows, slings, etc.
Knife worki Tools of increasing
complexity.

Machinery.
Sailing.
Rowing.
Swimming.

Ball
games.
One old cat.
Throwing,
Duck on Pongo.
a rock. Rounders,
Leap frog. ®*^'

Tag,
Cross tag.
Word tag.
Prisoner's

base.

Hide and

seek.

Black man.

Gymnastics.
Indian Clubs,
etc.

Track and Marble games, •'Stunts,'
Field Sports, ^a^* cin^8» hole, etc.
Foot-ball games. Care of

land and animals. ^^^ Baseball.
Hunting, fishing. ^^^ Basket-ball.
War, Wrestling.
Boxing, fencing. X Hockey.

Predatory. / Gangs.

Billiards. i Houses in woods.

Bowling. / Pals,

Predatory gangs,
service.

Diagram 15. Luther Gulick's Table Showing the Aspects of Group Games
IN Boys From Seven to Eighteen Years of Age.

(Used by permission of the Pedagogical Seminary.)

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PLAY
Clubs*

409

8yrs.

II yrs.

12 yrs.

13 yrs.

17 yrs.

Total
Number.

Secret Societies:
Girls

4
4

I
7

18
3

I
2

15
4

Boys

Predatory:
THE Girls

GANG Poys

Social Clubs:
Girls

III

54
II

104

Boys

Industrial :
Girls

187

Boys

Philanthropic :
Girls

Boys

Lit, Art:
Girls

Musical:

Boys

Athletic:

Girls

15
78

Bovs

406

j^ ^

The psychological value of play has already been
touched upon in the theory of play, and so we will
emphasize here only its especial importance pgychoioRi-
for nervous children. Wisely directed play cai value of
can often be made a* cure for hysteria, ^ *^'
chorea, stuttering, and other such nervous diseases,
where development of the muscular control, such as
can be gained in play, is a desideratum. ^

In the cities also, where children do not naturally get
the exercise that a country or a village child gets, it is
imperative that the exercise should be obtained
through play, not only because the body is so devel-
oped, but especially because, as we have already seen,

♦The table is given in per cents ; the totals in absolute numbers.

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4IO

THE CHILD

the highest mental and moral virtues can not easily
flourish where the body is dwarfed.

Play is an important method of realizing the social

instincts and at this point we run across imitation

again. Animals in their play imitate the

ofplay^*^"* older ones in their hunting and fighting,

carrying it to great lengths at times.

Children in their play with each other have a most

important aid to social development.

1. They gain flexibility of mind and self-control.
Plays quicken the various mental processes. Some
cultivate perception, close observation; others, imagi-
nation; others require quick and accurate judgment,
and so on. Many cultivate all of these to a marked
extent. Self-control is given by all games to a certain
extent, for a child learns to meet failure with equanim-
ity, but competitive games especially cultivate this.
In all cases where the play is not too intense, the
whole emotional nature is gladdened and made
buoyant. "Play is the recruiting office and drill
sergeant of all the powers of the child.'*

2. They have endless opportunities for imitation
and invention.

The children in any group always divide into two
classes — the leaders and the led, the relatively inven-
tive and the relatively imitative, but there is more or
less changing of parts here. The imitative child may
come to school with a new or taking trick, and thus
become the leader temporarily. In both cases, each
child learns his own powers and those of the others as
compared with him. He gets a certain place in the
group, which he can change if he can develop the
necessary qualities. He finds the value of cooperation

Digitized by VjOOQIC

in all the games where sides are taken, and at the same
time the value of individuality and originality if one
has ambitions to be a leader. Baldwin says: "To
exhibit what I can do alone is to exhibit my impor-
tance as an ally. The sense of my weakness in
myself is a revelation to me of my need of you as
an ally. The presence of a stronger than either
is a direct incitement to quick alliance between
you and me against him. And the victory gained
by the alliance is both a confirmation to us of the
utility of social cooperation and a convincing proof
to him that society is stronger than the individual.
The spirit of union, the sense of social depend-
ence as set over against the spirit of private intoler-
ance; the habit of suspension of private utilities for
the larger social good; the willingness to recognize
and respond to the leadership of the more competent
— all this grows grandly on the play-ground of every
school."

The classical example of the social value of play at
its best is given in the "Story of a Sandpile. " The
story began when two boys, three and five
years old, had a pile of sand to play in, and aSandpiiJ'^^
extended over nine years, the play being
resumed each summer. The first two summers the
play was of a desultory character, digging, making
things that were soon destroyed, and so on; but by
degrees it assumed an organized character, children of
the neighborhood were drawn in, and a miniature vil-
lage was made. The village was laid out in streets;
houses, barns, and other buildings were whittled out,
as were also people and animals. Gradually a govern-
ment was evolved, each boy expressing the opinions

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412

THE CHILD

and doing the work of the doll-men who occupied his
section of the village. Courts were established, town
meetings were held, and all the business of a town
transacted, although, of course, crudely. The village
became an excellent training school in good citizen-
ship.

The play was carried on only in the summer, but
while in their city homes through the winter, the boys
would make new men and implements and get all the
mechanism of the town ready for the next summer.
They had set forms for their men, houses, etc., from
which they rarely deviated, although as they grew
older they saw the crudity of them. As the boys
reached adolescence, they began to lose interest in the
village, they became conscious of the observation of
their play, and gradually the village became once
more only a sand pile, having served fully its educa-
tional function.

It seems hardly possible, in view of all these facts,
to overestimate the value of play, and here, as in so
many other cases, we see again the importance of
education following the leading of the child.

In conclusion, then, we may say that from the very
earliest time, play has been recognized as a valuable
means of education, and that to-day it is used sys-
tematically in many schools to develop the child when
the appliances of formal education fail.

Theoretically, play includes at least three factors —

the physiological, the biological, and the psychological.

To the first we may refer those plays result-
conclusion. . r ^ r

\ng from an overflow of nervous energy or

from a turning of the energy into a new channel for

recreation; to the second we refer for the explanation

Digitized by VjOOQIC

PLAY

413

of the hereditary form which play so commonly
assumes; and to the third for the understanding of the
factor of voluntary self deception which appears in
many games and plays.

When we consider the character of the plays, we see
that in babyhood, the so-called plays are in truth only
experimenting with the sense-organs and the muscles.
Children between three and seven years, play dramatic
plays, but all are imitative and, as a rule, non-competi-
tive. They rarely play games. This period is the one
when toys, especially the doll, are loved.

Between nine and fourteen years, a great variety of
plays appears; the interest in traditional games is \y^
strong; all games become highly competitive and
involve violent exercise. At . adolescence, a strong
interest in clubs appears, which endures to a consider-
able extent. At all ages after babyhood, the social
value of play is great, because by it each child is made
to see his dependence upon others and his own use to
them. Through it he is educated for good citizenship
in the world of work.

REFERENCES
Atkins, T. B. Out of the Cradle into the World,
Blow, Susan E. Symbolic Education, \i\'i\^. N. Y. Appleton,

^1.50.
Bolin, Jakob. Group Contests. Am. Phys. Educ, Rev., Vol.

LI v., 288-294. (Plea for making all-round athletes instead

of specialists.)
Bolton, H. C. Counting'Out Rhymes of Children. L. Stock,

$1.75. (An account of the origin of counting-out rhymes,

and a list of them.)
Bradley, J. E. Relation of Play to Character. Educ, March,

1899.
Brown, T. Y. Boy's Games. Association Outlook (Springfield,

Mass.), February, 1899, 96-107.

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414

THE CHILD

Chamberlain, A. F. The Child, pp. 10-27. W. Scott.

Champlin, J. D. , and Bostwick, A. E. Young People'* s Encyclo-
pedia of Games and Sports. N. Y. Holt, $2.50.

Compayr6, G. Intellectual and Moral Development of the
Child. Chapter on Play. N. Y. Appleton, I1.50.

Croswell, T. R. Amusements of Two Thousand Worcester
School Children. Ped. Sem., 1898-99, 314-371. (Very full
account.)

Culin. Street Games of Brooklyn. Am. four. Folk Lore, July
to September, 1891, 221-237.

Felker, Allie M. Play as a Means of Idealizing. Proc. N. E. A.,
1898, 624-630.

Forbush, W. B. Social Pedagogy of Babyhood. Ped. Sem.,
1900, 307-235. (Inspiring.)
The Boy Problem. Boston. Pilgrim Press, $0.75.

Froebel, F. Education of Man. See Analytical Index on Play.
N. Y. Appleton, I1.50.

Gomme, Alice B. Children's Singing Games. N. Y. Macmillan,
$1.50. (Pictures, directions and music for the games.)

Groos, Karl. The Play of Man. N. Y. Appleton, $1.50.
The Play of Animals. N. Y. Appleton, $1.75.

Gulick, Luther. Psychological, Pedagogical and Religious
Aspect of Group Games. Ped. Sem., 1899, 1 35-1 51. (Sug-
gestive.)
Psychical Aspects of Muscular Exercise. Pop. Sc. Mo., Octo-
ber, 1898, Vol. LIII., 705-793.

Hall, G. S. Dolls. Ped. Sem., 1896, 129-175.

Story of a Sandpile. - Scribner's Mag., June, 1888.

Howells, W. D. A Boy's Town. N. Y. Harper, $1.25.

Johnson, G. E. Play in Physical Education. Proc. N. E. A.,
1898, 948-954. (Good.)

Johnson, G. E. Education by Plays and Games. Ped. Sem.,
1894. (Review of games of children over six years, with
qualities developed by each. Good. )

Johnson, John. Rudimentary Society among Boys, fohn Hop-
kins U. Studies, 2d Series, Vol. II. Also in Overland^
Mo., October, 1883.

McGhee, Zach. Play Life of Some South Carolina Children.
Ped. Sem., December, 1900. (Children all ages. Good.)

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Mckee, j. H. Developmental Influences of Play. Pediatrics,

1899.
Monroe, W. S. Play Interests of Children. Proc, N. E. A.,

1899, 1084-1090. (Good, but limited to summer plays.)
Newell, W. W. Games and Songs of American Children.
Pollock, Susan P. Ideal Play in the Kindergarten. Proc. N. E.

A,y 1898, 604-608.
Poulsson, Emilie. From Play to Earnest. Kgn, Rev,, Vol. IX.,

p. 687.
Preyer, W. Senses and Intellect, See Index. N. Y. Appleton,

$1.50.
Richter, Jean Paul. Levana. N. Y. Macmillan, $1.00.
Sheldon, H. D. Institutional Activities of American Children,

Am. Jour, of Psy., Vol. IX., 425-448.
Sisson, Genevra. Children's Plays. Barnes's Studies in Edu-
cation. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. (Study of
\29_kindergarten children. Good.)
Stanley, H. M. Evolutionary Psychology of Feeling. See

Index. N. Y. Macmillan, $2.25.
Stevenson, R. L. Virginibus Puerisque. (Child's Play.) N. Y.

Scribner, $1.25.
Stoneroad, Rebecca. Gymnastic Stories and Plays for Primary

Schools, Boston. Heath, $0.75.
Sully, James. Studies of Childhood. (Imagination in Play.)
N. Y. Appleton, $2.50.

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CHAPTER XX

Summary

We are now in a position to estimate in a rough way
how much has been accomplished by Child-Study up
to the present time. In the study of the child's body
far more has been done than in any other branch of
the subject. The results, however, are not, on the
whole, very satisfactory, for while the rhythms of
growth in height and in weight are well established,
both for the whole period of childhood and for the
shorter periods of the year, season, month and day,
their causes and their connection with mental develop-
ment are not yet clearly understood. The most that
we are able to say with certainty is that there seems
to be a certain average height for each member of a -
family at a given age, which his body will endeavor to
attain even under the most unfavorable conditions, but
which it will not much exceed under the most favor-
able conditions. If growth is stunted by any cailse
whatever, it has some effect on mental growth, but
what effect is not definitely known, although it is prob-
ably true that periods of the most rapid increase in
weight are the periods when the mind is best able to
work. Growth of all parts of the body is far more
rapid during the first year of life than at any other
time, and is in general more rapid during the early
years than the later ones. Babyhood and childhood
are therefore the periods when education has the most
effect.

416

Digitized by VjOOQIC

SUMMAkV

417

When the child's health is poor or his bodily condi-
tion abnormal in any way, he is in so far hindered in ^ :
his mental development. Fatigue means poor atten-
tion, poor memory, poor reasoning powers, and less-
ened moral sense, as well as lessened powers of
observation. It may be brought about by a number of
causes other than overwork. Bad air, bad lighting,
and uncomfortable seats in the schoolroom are potent
factors on the physical side; while on the mental side
must be considered overworry, fear, and bad habits of
study. These factors are probably more important in
producing fatigue under our present school conditions
than is the one factor, overwork.

There are, however, exceptional children, who are
not able to do the normal amount of work on account
of some nervous defect. Such children need, more
than others, to be properly fed and to have all the sur-
roundings hygienic. They, more than others, need
careful individual study in order that we may enter
into their mental condition and save them from the
loneliness, and from the social uselessness or the
criminality into which they may drift if left to develop
their abnormal tendencies. In this connection we can
not afford to ignore the dangers to which we expose
children by leaving them ignorant of the questions of
sex. We know that oftentimes children get perverted
ideas and learn immorality, when they might have
been saved by a little timely instruction.

In considering the growth of the child's mind we
first took up sensation and perception. At birth a
baby's senses are very undeveloped. He does not dis-
tinguish even taste with any accuracy; he is deaf at
first and learns to distinguish sounds only after some

Digitized by VjOOQIC

4i8

THE CHILD

months; he can not control the eyes so as to converge
them upon one object, and accommodation is not
established, so that he sees very indistinctly.

About the second month, however, sight becomes
distinct, and thenceforward the baby begins to study
the world about him. At first it is principally a visual
world, and he exercises himself in connecting with
each other the various things that he sees, so as to
recognize an object in its different appearances.
After the first half year he is greatly helped in this by
his hands, and he is aided from the beginning by the
touch sensations obtained from putting things into his
mouth. * Through the combination of touch and sight
he thus learns the world of objects and his own body.

His acquisitions here are made permanent as mem-
ory arises, and, with the acquisition of memory, come
habits. Fleeting at first, enduring hardly for an hour
in the second month, memory persists for weeks or
months before the end of the first year, and certain
memories may endure for life after the third or fourth
year. Each age appears to have its characteristic kind
of memory, according to the prominent interest of
that age, and even where no interest enters, as in
learning nonsense lists, there are certain definite laws
under which the mind works and which maybe used to
advantage in teaching.

When a child has become somewhat familiar with
the world about him and has stored up some expe-
riences in memory, we find that he begins to play with
these experiences and memories, to make new combi-
nations of them in thought; that is, to ija^ine. This
becomes prominent about the third year. At first the
play is carried on with very little regard to the actual

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SUMMARY

419

occurrences in the outside world. The child's great
ignorance of the world, of what is possible and what
is impossible, and his enjoyment of his power to do
what he will with his images, combine to produce all
sorts of grotesque fancies which he is not always able
to distinguish from realities.

But as perception becomes more accurate, and as he
meets with unbelief and distrust from those to whom
he tells his fancies, he learns to^reate and to invent in
a manner that is more in accordanc e with ngtural law
and with social needs. He confines himself more to
changes that he may make in himself and his sur-
roundings, and so we commonly say that he Becomes
less imaginative. This is not strictly true. He is not
less imaginative, but he orders his imagination better.
Finally, in most children, imagination becomes so
subordinated to the necessities of life that it does little
more than enable them to earn their living in the way
that those around them do. Thought, playing freely with
its images in artistic creation, is put into a strait-jacket
by the customs and prejudices which refuse to accept
new ideas and starve the man who dares to have them.

As imagination becomes more subject to_thg_laws of
things, it becomes closely conn ected \yitlL__reason.
The child's memories of similar experiences connect
themselves together, and he thus gets crude ideas of
classes, of law, and of number and time. The process
in such cases seems to consist simply in this, that one
factor becomes disengaged from the others because it
is repeated more constantly or because the attention is
directed to it especially. The recognition of cause
and effect appears in the beginning to be only a mem-
ory of time sequences, especially of the sequences in

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420

THE CHILD

the movements of the child's own body and the effects
of those movements. As images become more firmly
established, the child learns to manipulate them so as
to satisfy certain desires; that is, he learns to plan and
to form purposes. He adapts means to ends : that is,
he reasons. His first adaptations are as crude as his
first imaginings, and go through the same process of
snubbing and alteration, until, with maturity, he learns
to reason, as we say, correctly.

The child employs his imaginatipn and his reason."
ing powers upon all the subjects which come into his
life, as we have seen, but there are two especially
important groups which we shall now consider:
namely, his rdi&icais and his ni^raLidjeas. His first
religious ideas, like all others, are derived from what
he sees going on about him, and he accepts the views
of his little world without question, modifying them
unconsciously by his own imaginings and by his own
interpretations of words, filling out the gaps by his
own fancies, until he oftentimes has a new system.
From the age of nine, however, doubts begin to
appear, and at adolescence are likely to culminate in
a thorough gnestigpjng of the entire system of relig-
ious belief and to end in conversion. The sudden
awakening at this time to the im portance n f rpligmn is
due to the profound b odily chang es going on, changes
which are reflected in the child's r nental cond ition.
The character of the conversion varies with the tem-
perament of the child and with what he desires and
expects. In many cases it is followed in a year or so
by a reaction, a backsliding, which may end either in
open rupture with the church or in an in tellect ual
reajjjustment of belief within the church itself.

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SUMMARY

421

The knowledge of good and evil follows the same
general course of development as do religious ideas.
At first it is simply the acc eptance of custo m. Ohe-
dience to sec ure plea sures and' to avoid pains is the
highest mora|jt:y of the little child. But by degrees
he acquires the conception of a law that is beyond any
person; and at adolescence the obligation to obey this
law becomes an impelling power.

If now we consider the general development of the
processes of perception, memory, imagination and
thought, we may fancy it as an ever-swelling wave.
There is at first but the feeble power of sensation,
which is presently reenforced by sense-perceptions.
When memory is added, these become far more numer-
ous and distinct. As the memory wave approaches its
crest, it bears upon its bosom fancies which, rapidly
increasing in volume, swell the already strong torrent
of perceptions and memories. And finally comes the
wave of conceptions, reaching its culmination at
adolescence. After this time the four sweep on
together in an ever-swelling tide, each one inextri-
cably mingled with the rest, and the whole made ever
more resistless, as reading and travel carry the tide of
consciousness on to still greater heights. At last
comes the time when flood-tide is reached, when the
man, in the full maturity of his powers, does with a
mighty strength his chosen work; and then follows the
ebb, when little by little the tide sets back, as there
pass away first reason and imagination, then memory;
and at last even clear perception, leaving once more
the old man in the mental state of the baby.

In the discussion of feeling and emotion we saw that
there is a great need of further study. With the

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422

THE CHILD

exception of anger and fear, practically none of the
child's emotional states have been carefully described.
Anger and fear appear to be instinctive emotions, but
are roused by different objects in different children.
Anger is the reaction, at first, against pain, deprivation
or disappointment, and seems to be best controlled J^y
d iverting thf> f^nprgy into other channels instead of by
allowing the child to brood over hjs injury or to .dis-
cuss it. Fear seems to be caused by anything that
makes the child f ^el \\\^ help ley^ fines f;, whether the
object is known to be dangerous, or is simply strange
or mysterious, or startling. The number of fears
increases steadily, but the character changes. Imagin-
ary fears and the fear of nature increase as the child
grows older.

We know so little of the other emotions that we can
make no general statements regarding them.

In discussing the child's doing, we must first note
the great division into involuntary and voluntary acts.
Involuntary movements are important because they
furnish the child with the material for the later volun-
tary movements. They include all impulsive, reflex,
and instinctive movements. At birth the child is able
to carry out all the movements necessary to maintain
life, but none of them appear to be as perfect as later,
after a little exercise in their performance. Other
movements, such as movements of the eyes, head,
hands, and legs, occur only as the result of stimula-
tion, or as the overflow of nervous energy, and are not
under the child's control at first. When they do
occur, however, their general character is the same as
later when they become voluntary, and they serve
thus as. involuntary exercises for the child. For

Digitized by VjOOQIC

SUMMARY

423

example, the involuntary movements of the hand
foreshadow reaching and grasping; those of the legs,
walking; the babblings which exercise lips and tongue,
talking. The child is thus prepared for the time when
the instinct of imitation shall rise to serve as his

teacher. This occurs between the fourth and sixth

months. Thenceforward the acquisition of voluntary
ipovements of all sorts is very rapid. The order of
control of these movements begins with the larger and
less complex ones, like the movements of the legs and
arms, and proceeds to the finer ones, such as control of
the individual fingers, and the rate of increase in control
decreases from year to year. As it is often stated, the
growth is from control of the fundamental to control
of the accessory movements.

When we undertake to trace the changes in any one
series of voluntary movements, we find the task much
complicated by the constant alterations in the move-
ments due to the developments and changes in the
child's interests. Imitation, for example, while it is a
true instinct, and is at first largely a mechanical repro-
duction of what holds the child's eye, is, even as early
as the end of the first year, greatly modified by the
child's individual interests and surroundings. Any
child imitates those forms of the race activities which
he sees going on about him — talking, walking, and
such bodily activities, as well as all the activities of
the household and of the village or town — and is
incalculably aided in his individual growth thereby; but
such imitation soon becomes but a tool. As soon as
he has become somewhat familiar with the movements,
he begins to vary th em, to make new combinations, in
short, to i nven t. In all this he is repeating on the side

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424

THE CHILD

of movement the same growth that we noticed in
passing from memory to imagination and reasoning.

The child's drawing shows still more markedly his
mental growth. At first a mere scrawl, meaningless
to others and to himself as soon as he forgets his
intention, it gradually becomes a conscious imitation
of something, and . then the attempt to reproduce a
story or situation, an attempt modified more or less
consciously by the child's own imagination. At first a
drawing without detail, with many of the most impor-
tant factors omitted, it by degrees introduces the
important things — such as all the parts of the body —
and passes on to ornamentations and decorations in
which the child's own taste appears. At first a thing
which the child enjoys on account of the movements,
*it becomes a thing which he enjoys for what it means
to him, for the sake of the product of which he can
criticise the technique. Of the subjects which the
child would choose to draw at different ages, we can
at present say little, but we can predict with confi-
dence that they would reflect the child's strongest
in^rest at each age. He naturally produces figures
in action better than figures at rest, showing here also
his strong love of movement, and his tastes would
doubtless declare themselves in all the details of his
work.

Play, more than any other form of childish activity,
shows child-nature, declaring both its pdst and its pos-
sibilities. It is not saying too much to assert that the
playfulness of the young of any species is greater
the higher the species stands in the scale of life, for the
longer the playtime of the young, the more will they
be educated and the more will they learn new methods

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SUMMARY

425

of protecting themselves and of securing advantages.
A long playtime, that is, a long period of preparation
for the duties of adult life, is the necessity of progress.
The child begins to play almost at birth or as soon
as he begins to delight in the feelings obtained from
the exercise of his senses and his muscles. Later on,
when through imitative play he has obtained control
of his body, he plays with his fancies and ideas, and
by means of toys makes for himself a world mingled
of facts and fancies, a little cosmos compact of truth
and legend, in which he moves freely, glorying in his
-creative power. But about the ninth year, a new
aspect of growth becomes prominent. His rapidly-
growing body calls now for more violent exercise, and ty
his developing mind demands more variety and more
difficulty. Games that call for physical strength, and
in which the element of rivalry is strong, become far
more prominent. At this time the old, traditional
games have thfeir strongest hold. Latest of all, with
adolescence comes the manifestation of the social | ^-^
spirit in the organization of teams and clubs, in which
the play is carried on in a systematized way, with a
conscious purpose.

Here we must conclude this study of the wonderful
child-nature to which we look for the regeneration of
the race. So complex is it, so rich and so varied in
its forms, that not even the completest study could fully
describe it. This resume has done its part if it has
now and then given us a new glimpse of the little
child who stands wondering and innocent at the thresh-
old of life, or if it has made clearer to us the truth that
to love children wisely we must know them well..

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE INDEX

Abnormal children, 47-52.

Abuse, sexual, 62-63.

Accomodation of lens in baby, 83.

Action, imitation of, 296-297.

Adjustable seats, 43-45.
^ Adolescence, changes at, 58-59 ; and
conversion, 181-182.

Adults, imitation of, 296.

Affection, 227.

Age and disease, 25-26 ; and memory,

US-
Air, and fatigue, 41 ; test of, 41 ; to
secure pure, 41 ; importance, 42-43.

Ambitions of children, 130-137.

Anger, 216-218.

Animals, and expressive cries, 316-
317; imitation of, 296; interest in,
242.

Arithmetic, interest in, 243.

Associations, earliest, 85; and reason-
ing, 158-159 ; and puberty, 59.

Automatic movements, 254-257.

Baby-talk, 323.

Bad, ideas of good and, 198-199.

Baldwin, J. Mark, on color, 375 ;
drawing, 382-383 ; imitation, 298 ;
instinct of distance, 89-90; inven-
tion, 128-129 ; concept, 147 ; rhythm,
341-342 ; suggestion, 303.

Barnes, Earle, on drawing, 384-386;
interests, 239-240; punishments, 201-
203 ; theological ideas, 180-181.

Bashfulness, 224.

Beauty, love of, 374.

Bergen, on religrious education, 177-
178.

Binet, on interests, 239-240.

Blood, changes at puberty in, 58.

Body, control of, 275-288 ; importance,
9; child's vs. man's, 17; rhythms

«fi 340-341-
Bolton, on rhythms, 342.
Brain, control of movements, 278;

growth of, 280.

Bryan, on control of movements, 282.
Bryant, on memory, 111-112.
Buckman, origin of speech, 319^20.
Bullying and teasing, 198.

Calendar forms, 115-118.

Calkins, on fears, 220-221.

Caresses, 227.

Causes, interest in, 237, 239, 245
reasoning on, 156, 160.

Cell, growth of, 17-18.

Chance, idea of, 196.

Chandler, on hopes, 131.

Children, imitation of, 296.

Child-study, 9-12.

Classes, idea of, 144.

Classification and language, 332-335.

Climbing, 265-266.

Clow, on reasoning, 163-166.

Clubs, 409.

Coe, on conversion, 185.

Color, discrimination of, 281-282;
interest in, 240, 375; vocabulary,
326.

Comparison, 145-146.

Compayre, on impulsive movements,
257 ; pains and pleasures, 214 ; sen-
sations, 71 ; sound, 76.

Concept, of good and evil, 193-211;
and language, 332-335 ; and reason-
ing, 141-172-.

Consonants, order of appearance in
speech, 319-321.

Control of body, 275-288.

Convergence of eyes, 83.

Conversion, 182 188, 190. V

Creeping, 264-265.

Cries, expressive, ^16-317, 319.

Criminals, bodily condition of, 48;
treatment of, 49.

Cruelty, 198.

Culture epochs, 248-249.

Curiosity, 168.

Custom, idea of, 199.

426

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE INDEX

427

Dance, and origin of music, 344.

Darrah, on hopes, 131.

Darwin, on anger, 216; origin of

music, 344 ; sounds, 320.
Deafness at birth, 75-76.
Deductive reasoning, 165.
Degenerate, the, 50-51.
Demme, on head movements, 261.
Dermal senses, 77-80.
Dewey, on affection, 226 ; concept of

number, 149-150; first vocabulary,

325.
Diet of children, 74-75.
Disease, and age, 25-26 ; and posture,

43-
Distance, concept of, 151-152 ; and

imagination, 127 ; instinct of, 89-90.
Dolls, 404-406.

Drawing, 373-392 ; interestjn, 243.
Dreams and imagination, 122.

Ebbinghaus, on memory, 109-111.

Education and conversion, 184; and
nerve cells, 18; and rhythms of
growth, 25 ; by play, 393-395.

Ellis, Havelock, on sexual abuse, 62.

Emotion, feeling and, 212-230 ; early,
212.

Ends and means, 167.

Esthetic feeling and imitation, 300.

Evil, concept of good and, 193-21 1.

Evolution, 290-292.

Fatigue, 35-46; and memory, 115;
and play, 396-397.

Fear, 219-224; and fatigue, 38; per-
sistence of, 102.

Feelings and emotions, 212-230.

PeldmaUviW first words, 324.

Flanders, on drawing, 385, 387-389.

Food, effect on weight, 19, 23 ; natu-
ral vs. artificial, 19.

Form, interest in, 240, 375-376.

Frea^ on imitation, 296.

Friendship and moral education, 209.

Games, interest in, 236 ; at different
ages, 403, 406, 407-409 ; and play, 396.
Gates, on favorite songs, 345-348.
Geography, interest in, 243.

Gestures, instinctive, 312-314 ; volun-
tary, 314 ; and words, 316.

Gilbert, on control of movements,
282.

Good and evil, concept of, 193-211;
198-199.

Good breeding and morality, 208-209.

Grasping, 80-82 ; observations on, 69 ;
interest in, 235.

Growth, 15-25; in control of body;
275-288; and school grading, 284,
concept of^^i^b^ rhythms of, 269.

Guyau, on^uggestion, 305.

Gymn^gfics and play, 399.

Habit, 293-294, 98-101.

Hale, on children's inventions of
■words, 327-328.

Hall, G. S., on contents of children's
minds, 92-93, 242 ; early memories,
102 ; dolls, 404-406 ; fear, 222-223 >
i'eligious training, 188-189 ; tickling
and laughing, 215-216.

Hall, Mrs. W. S., on rolling, 263;
creeping, 264; walking, 267-268;
sound sensations, 76 77 ; grasping,
80-81; eye movements, 84-85; per-
ception, 88-89.

Hamburgher, on hopes, 135-137.

Hancock, reasoning on number, 166.

Handwork, 276, 285-288.

Health and play, 396-397 ; and mem-
ory, 115 ; and idiocy, 48 ; and crim-
inality, 48 ; and morality, 207-208.

Hearing, colored, 115 ; tests for, 34-35.

Height, and weight, 283, 21 ; increase
in, 20.

Heredity, and interest, 232-233 ; and
plays, 397-398.

History, interest in, 243.

Holbrook, on fear, 222.

Hopes of children, 130-137.

Hygiene of sex, 64-65.

Hypnotism, 293.

Ideals of children, 130-137.
Ideas and suggestion, 304.
Idiot, bodily condition, 48 ; treat-
ment of, 49.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

428

THE lUDk^

Illusions and imagination, 123-124.

Images, 105-109; and memory, 103-
107 ; and concepts, 143 ; and relig-
ion, 176, 190.

Imagination, 120-140; and play, 399-
400; and reason, 155.

Imbecile, bodily condition, 48 ; treat-
ment of, 49.

Imitation, interest in, 235-236 ; and
play, 402 ; and suggestion, 290-310.

Impulsive movements, 254-257.

Inattention and fatigue, 45.

Individual and race, 248-249; method,

lO.

Inductive reasoning, 161-162.

Inflections, children's, 329-330.

Insensitiveness and fatigue, 45.

Instinct, and gesture, 312-314 ; of imi-
tation, 294-295 ; and play, 397-398 ;
and movement, 259-272.

Interests, 231-251; and fatigue, 40;
and feeling, 2 13 ; and memory, 113-
114.

Invention and imitation, 301-302 ; and
imagination, 128.

Involuntary movement, 252-372. .

Jacobs, on memory, 111-112.

Jealousy, 218.

Jegi, on hopes, 132-133 ; on money

motive, 134.
Joys and sorrows, 224-225.

Keller, Helen, early memories, 102 ;

prominent images, 107.
Kirkpatrick, on memory, 112- 113.

Lancaster, on sexual dangers, 63.
Language, 311-338; secret, 330-332;

and conception, 153-154 ; interest in.

235. 236, 243.
Laughing, tickling and, 215.
Law, idea of, 160-161, 199.
Lies, 196-197; and imagination, 126,

129-130.
Lips, sensitiveness of, 78.
Locomotion, 263-269.
Love, 226-228.

Marsh, on songs, 345-348.
Mass, drawing in, 384, 387.

McDonough farm, 195-196.

Means and ends, 67.

Melody, love of, 344-345^ 349-350.

Memory, 96-1191 earliest, 85 ; and im-
agination, 121. •

Mental, development and physical,
16, 32, 59 ; fatigue, 37-45.

Methods of Child-Study, 10.

Monotony and fatigrue, 39.

Monroe, on hopes, 131, 133.

Morality, religion, and theology, 174-
175; of child, 193-211; and health,
16, 32, 45, 48, 207-208; and good breed-
ing, 208-209 ; and friendship, 209.

Moral training, 204-209.

Mosso, on emotions and movements,
292-293.

Mouthing, 78 80, 260.

Movements, 252-274; and conscioufi-
ness, 292-294 ; random, 80 ; of hands,
81 ; of eyes, 83-85 ; interest in, 236,
240, 243, 245 ; imitation of, 296-297 ;
expressive, 312-314 ; control of, and
mental ability, 285 ; control of, and
height and weight, 283.

Muscles, fatigue of, 36, 45-46; read-
ing, 293.

Music, rhythm and, 339 ; in Elemen-
tary School of University of Chi-
cago* 349-370 ; interest in, 243.

Mystery and imagination, 127.

Names, love of, 154.
Nature, interest in study of, 243, 245;
and religion, 177, 189-190 ; rhythms

of» 339-

Nerve cells, 277 ; connections be-
tween, 279-280; and movements,
276-277; and education, 18; and
fatigue, 18.

Nerve fibers, 277-280; and associa-
tion and Comparison, 145 ; and
imagination, 122; and memory,
96.97.

Nervousness, 46-47.

Noises, love of, 344.

Number, concept of, 149-150 ; reason-
ing on, 166; forms, 115-118.

Nursery rhymes, 342-343.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

THE INDEX

429

Observation of children, importance
of, 13 ; general directions for, 13-14 ;
for concepts, 141 ; for drawing, 373 ;
for feeling and emotion, 212 ; for
control of body, 275 ; for imitation
and suggestion, 290; for move-
ments, 252; for language, 311; for
memory, 96 j for imagination, 120 ;
for moral sense, 193 ; for music and
rhythm, 339; for play, 393; for
religious sentiment, 173.

Order, law and, 160-161.

Originality and imitation, 301-302.

Ornamentation, 380-381.

O'Shea, on love of pictures, 378 ; or-
namentation, 380-381. "

Outline, drawing in, 384, 387.

Overwork, 37.

Overworry, 38.

Ownership, idea of, 195-196.

Pains and pleasures, first, 213-214.

Parental instinct, 270.

Perception, and conception, 144; and
imagination, 123 ; and memory, 97 ;
and movement, 253 ; and sensation,
69-95.

Perez, on fatigue, 214; on compar-
ison, 146 ; spontaneous imagina-
tion, 122 ; the first vocabulary, 324-
325-

Personification, 124-125, 156-157.

Persons, interest in, 236, 239, 243, 245-
246.

Phillips, on teaching instinct, 270.

Physiological suggestion, 303.

Pictures, love of, 376-379.

Pity, 225-226.

PlaX^ 393-415-

Playmates, imaginary, 126-127.

Pleasures, pains and, 213-214.

Possession, idea of, 195-196.

Postures, and disease, 43.

Preyer, on class ideas, 145 ; fear, 220 ;
imitation, 295; gestures; 312-314;
memories, 103-104; movements, 84,
85, 258-259, 261, 262, 267, 268 ; pains
and pleasures, 214: sensations, 71,
73, 76, 78, 80; perceptions, 88, 89;
instinct of distance, 97 ; language,
319, 326, 327, 328.

Programs, school, and fatigue, 39.

Pronunciation, 322-323.

Puberty, 58-59; and conversion, 181-

182.
Punishment, 200-209.
Purpose, idea of, 158.

Questions, children's, 168-169.

Race and individual, 248-249.
Random movements, 254-257.
Reasoning, and conception, 141-172;

and imagination, 125-126.
Recdgaition, 85.
Recollections, loi.
Reflex movements, 257-259.
Religious sentiment and theological

ideas, 173-192.
Repetition, in imitation, 298-299.
Reproductive organs, 57.
Rhythm and music, 339-372 ; interest

in, 236, 242.
Ribot, on number, 149.
Richter, on suggestion, 308.
Rivalry and fatigue, 38.
Rolling, 263-264.

Salisbury, on vocabulary, 325.
Sandpile, story of a, 411-412.
Sanford and Triplett, on rhythms,

342.
Schallenberger, on punishment, 200.
Scott, C, on anger, 217-218.
Seats, 43-45.
Seeing, interest in, 235.
Self, concept of, 151.
Selfishness in affection, 227.
Sensation, and perception, 69-95 > t^©

first, 71 ; cultivation of, 91 ; effect of

defective, 92-93 ; and concepts, 144 ;

and puberty, 59 ; and memory, 96-

97 ; play with, 400-402.
Sentences, first, 328-329.
Sequences, in reasoning, 159-160.
Sex, feelings and ideas of, 56-68;

instruction on, 66 ; abuse, 62-63.
Shaw, on interests, 239-240.
Sheldon, on hopes, 135-137.

Digitized by VjOOQIC

436

tHB lNDE3t

Shinn, on color, 375; cries, 319-320 ^
comparisons, 145-146; imitation, 295;
movements of head, 261 ; locomo-
tion, 263-267 ; pictures, 377 ; sensa-
tions, 71-72 ; sounds, 76 ; sucking
and mouthing, 78-79 ; memory, 85 ;
perception, 88-89.

Sight, observations, 69; develop-
ment, 82-85 ; defective, 33 ; and per-
ception, 87-90.

Sigrn language, 3i4-3i5-

Sitting erect, 262.

Skin, sensitiveness of, 77.

Small, on suggestion, 304.

Smell, 71, 73.

Smile, the first, 214.

Societies, 409.

Society, and imitation, 301; and relig-
ious spirit, 175 ; and moral sense,

194-
Songs, 345-348; composition of, 350-

370-

Sorrows, joys and, 224-225.

Sound, sensations, 75-77; a°^ Per-
ception, 87.

Speech, 311-338; and drawing, 381-
382 ; imitation of, 296-297.

Spelling, interest in, 243.

Spencer, on punishment, 204.

Spontaneous movements, 254-257.

Starbuck, on religious ideas, 179, 181-
182, 185x88.

Statistical method, 11.

Stimulus, response to, 282.

Stories and imagination, 123.

Street, on punishment, 201.

"•^ructure, interest in, 240.

btudy, and fatigue, 38.

Suasion, moral, 205.

Substance, interest in, 240.

Sucking, 234-235.

Suggestion, imitation and, 290-310.

Sully, on concept of growth, X50;
cosmology, 162 ; fear, 2x9-220 ; love
of flowers, 376 ; pronunciation, 322-
323 ; questions, 169.

Surroundings, early, 103.

Sympathy, 225-^26.

Taine, on first cries, 320.

Tapping, rapidity of, 282.

Taste, sensations of, 71, 73-75 » ^^^

perception, 86.
Taylor, on hopes, 131 ; on sensations

of temperature, 77.
Teacher, and suggestion, 305-308.
Teaching instinct, 270.
Teasing and bullying, 198.
Temperament and conversion, 185.
Temperature, sensations of, 77.
Theological ideas, 173-192.
Thought, 141 172 ; and language, 332-

333-
Tickling and laughing, 215.
Time, concept of, 152.
Tones, sensitiveness to, 345.
Tongue, sensitiveness of, 78. -^|:
Touch, sensations of, 77-78 ; and per-
ception, 86-90.
Toys, 404.
Tracy, on-first cries, 321 ; vocabulary,

325* 327.
Trettien, on movements, 255-256;

locomotion, 264; sitting, 262.
Triplett and Sanford, on rhythms.

342.
Truth, idea of, 196-197.

Variety and fatigue, 39-4o-
Ventilation, 41-43.
Vocabulary, 324-328.
Voice and puberty, 58.

Walking, 266-269.

Weight, increase in, 18-20 ; and food,
19 ; and height, 21 ; and muscular
control, 283; discriminations of,
282.

Whiting, on personification of num-
bers, 124-X25.

Will and imitation, 299.

Winking, 83.

WolflE, Boy's dictionary, 325.

Wonder, 168.

Words, first, 324 ; invention of, 327 ;
and gesture, 316.

Word forms, 115-118.

Work and play, 395-396.

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