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"To realise his aims, man, and more particularly the child, requires
material, though it be only a bit of wood or a pebble, with which he
makes something or which he makes into something. In order to lead the
child to the handling of material we give him the ball, the cube and
other bodies, the Kindergarten gifts. Eac... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"And then that sense of _Smell_, which got so little exercise and
attention that it went to sleep altogether, so that millions get no
warning and no joy through it. We met the need for its education in the
Baby Camp by having a Herb Garden. Back from the shelters and open
ground, in a shady place, we have planted fenn... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The low wall blackboard is there ready for use. Bright pictures are on
the walls, well drawn and well coloured, some from nursery rhymes, some
of Caldecott's, a frieze of hen and chickens, etc. Boxes for houses and
shops are not in evidence, but their place is taken by bricks of such
size and quantity that houses, sho... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 16: See p. 55.]
In another Kindergarten we find the walls enlivened with Cecil Aldin's
fascinating friezes: here is Noah with all the animals walking in
cheerful procession, and in the next room is an attractive procession of
children with push-carts, hoops and toy motor cars. When we make our
visit the day ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In the garden of this Free Kindergarten there is a large sand-pit,
surrounded by a low wooden framework, and having a pole across the
middle so that it resembles a cucumber frame and a cover can be thrown
over the sand to keep it clean when not in use.
Froebel's own list of playthings contains, besides balls and build... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
For representations of real life the children require dolls and the
simplest of furniture--a bed, which need only be a box, some means of
carrying out the doll's washing, her personal requirements as well as
her clothes; some little tea-things and pots and pans. A doll's house is
not necessary, and can only be used by... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In one of Miss McMillan's early books she wrote: "Very early the child
begins more or less consciously to exercise the basal sense--the sense
of touch. On waking from sleep he puts his tiny hands to grasp
something, or turns his head on the firm soft pillow. He _touches_
rather than looks, at first (for his hands and ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is of course not at all either necessary or even desirable for any
one school to have everything, and children should not have too much
within the range of their attention at one time. Individual teachers
will make their own selections, but in all cases there must be
sufficient variety of material for each child to... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 18: Or that delightful "Play Town" in _The Play Way_.]
We thirst for experiences, even for those which are unpleasant; we
wonder "how it feels" to be up in an aeroplane or down in a submarine.
We are far indeed from desiring air-raids, but if such things must be,
there is a curious satisfaction in being "in ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Kindergarten practice was far ahead of this, for here the teacher was
expected to choose her material according to (1) Time of Year; (2) Local
Conditions, such as the pursuits of the people; (3) Social Customs. When
it was possible the children went to see the real blacksmith or the real
cow, and to let game or handwo... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Every one has heard something of the new teaching--which, by the way,
sheds clearer light over Froebel's warning against arbitrary
interference--viz. that a great part of the nervous instability which
affects our generation is due to the thwarting and checking of the
natural impulses of early years. But this new schoo... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is in this connection that he says the Kindergarten teacher has the
opportunity to foster that most important "sense of continuity." In
simple reproduction of the home life while there is abundant variety,
since daily life may bring us into contact with all the life of the city
or of the country, yet, because the w... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
To show how under the inspiration of a thoroughly capable teacher this
continuity may be secured and prolonged for quite a long period, an
example may be taken from the work of Miss Janet Payne, who is
remarkably successful in meeting and stimulating, without in any way
forcing the "striving for utterance" mentioned b... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
When these children moved to an upper class, Mr. Bird was laid away, but
the children requested his presence. So he entered the new room and
became a farmer. He had now to write letters, to arrange rents, etc.,
and the money had to be made and counted. The letters served for writing
and reading lessons, and Miss Payne... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The following accounts taken from the notes of Miss Hilda Beer, while a
student in training, show another kind of play where the children
themselves act the drama. The notes only cover a short period, but they
show how the play may arise quite incidentally.
_Mon., June 18._--As the ground is too damp for out-of-doors ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
_June 19._--After sweeping, dusting, and washing and dressing the dolls,
I read to the children "How the House was built." Then we all pretended
to bake, making rolls and cakes as next day was to be the doll Winnie's
birthday. We baked our cakes on a piece of wood on the empty fireplace.
The other children were invite... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
After rest, we went to the Hall to see the chickens. To-day they were
much bigger, and Sylvia said had "bigger wings." We were able to watch
them drinking, how they hold up their heads to let the water run down.
The rest of the morning we made curtains, and the children loved it.
There was much discussion and at first... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
'Tis solace making baubles, ay, and sport.
Tasteth, himself, no finer good i' the world
Than trying what to do with wit and strength--
What does a child gain from his ceaseless attempts at making? Froebel's
answer was that intellectually, through making he gains ideas, which,
received in words, remain mere words... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Another kind of drawing which children seem to find for themselves is
what they call making patterns. Out of this came the old-fashioned
chequer drawing, now condemned as injurious to eyesight and of little
value.
When children see anything rich in colour the general cry is "Let's
paint it," which is their way of taki... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Before any other construction is possible to him, a child can _make_
with sand, and this is a constant joy, from the endless puddings that
are turned out of patty pans, up to such models as that of the whole
"Isle of Wight" with its tunnelled cliffs and system of railways, made
by an ex-Kindergarten boy as yet innocen... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Any kind of cooking that can be done is a most important kind of making;
even the very little ones can help, and they thoroughly enjoy watching.
"Her hands were in the dough from three years old," said a north-country
mother, "so I taught her how to bake, and now (at seven) she can bake as
well as I can."
Children del... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
I'd like to cut, and cut, and cut,
And over the bare floor
To strew my papers all about,
And then to cut some more.
I'd sweep them up so neatly, too,
But mother says, "Oh no!
There is no time, it's seven o'clock;
To bed you quickly go!"
In school, I'd just begun to make
A pretty little shi... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is easy for us to find reasons why we should tell stories. We can
brush aside minor aims such as increasing the child's vocabulary.
Undoubtedly his vocabulary does increase enormously from listening to
stories, but it is difficult to imagine that any one could rise to real
heights in story-telling with this as an a... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Another way of stating our aim in telling stories to children is that a
story presents morality in the concrete. Virtues and vices _per se_
neither attract nor repel, they simply mean nothing to a child, until
they are presented as the deeds of man or woman, boy or girl, living and
acting in a world recognised as real... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Man cannot be master of his surroundings till he investigates and so
gathers knowledge. But he has to adapt himself not only to the physical
but to the human environment in which he lives. In stories of all
kinds, children study human life in all kinds of circumstances, nay, if
the story is sufficiently graphic they a... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"Once upon a time there was a little piggy and he was right in a big
green and white fire and he didn't hurt hisself, and (told as a
tremendous secret) he touched a fire with his handie. 'What a naughty
piggy,' said Auntie, 'and what next?' He jumped right out of a fire.
Auntie, can you smile? (For aunties cannot smil... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"Both child and man," says Froebel, "desire to know the significance of
what happens around them; this is the foundation of Greek choruses,
especially in tragedy, and of many productions in the realm of legends
and fairy-tales. It is the result of the deep-rooted consciousness, the
slumbering premonition of being surr... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
As a valuable addition to the best-known fairy-tales, we may mention one
or two others: _Grannie's Wonderful Chair_ is a delightful set of
stories, full of charming pictures, though the writer, Frances Brown,
was born blind. Mrs. Ewing's stories for children, _The Brownies_, with
_Amelia and the Dwarfs_ and _Timothy's... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Illustrations are not always necessary, but if well chosen they are
always a help. Warne has published some delightfully illustrated stories
for little children, "The Three Pigs," "Hop o' my Thumb," "Beauty and
the Beast," etc. They are illustrated by H.M. Brock and by Leslie
Brooke, and they really are illustrated. T... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Lastly, if the story is to make the children feel, let us see that the
feeling is on the right side, that they shrink from all that is mean,
selfish, cruel and cowardly, and sympathise with whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report.
CHAPTER IX
IN GRASSY PLACES
... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Lift up your hearts
Art and Blue Heaven
April and God's Larks
Green reeds and sky scattering river
A Stately Music
Enter God.
And Browning? "If you get simple beauty and nought else, you get about
the best thing God invents."
To let children get that beauty should be our aim, and they must get it
in th... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 22: G. Hansen, pub. Elder, Morgan & Shepherd, San Francisco,
1891.]
In addition to the flowers chosen for beauty of colour, this lover of
children and of gardens wants Canterbury Bells to ring, Forget-me-nots
because they can stand so much watering, and "flowers with faces,"
pansies, sweet-peas, lupins, snap... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"There is in every human being the passionate desire for this
self-forgetfulness--to which it attains when it is aware of beauty--and
a passionate delight in it when it comes. The child feels that delight
among spring flowers; we can all remember how we felt it in the first
apprehension of some new beauty of the unive... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In the days when teachers argued about the differences between
Object-lessons and Nature-lessons, one point insisted upon was that the
Nature-lesson far surpassed the Object-lesson because it dealt with
life.
We have learned now that we should as much as we can surround our
children with life and growth. Even indoors ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"I want the children to do some group work, and I thought we might make
a village with shops and houses under the trees in the garden and have
little men and women to represent ourselves. The suggestion will
probably have to come from the teacher, but the children will probably
have the desire when it is suggested, an... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Here are some notes showing children's numerous activities in a suburban
garden where they were allowed to visit a hen and chickens.
"_Monday_[24]--To-day the children took up their mustard and cress, dug
and raked the ground ready for transplanting the lettuces. After their
rest we went to see the chickens at the Hal... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"We rested outside to-day under an almond tree. I pointed out how pretty
the sky looked when you only saw it peeping through the leaves. After
rest the children noticed feathery grasses, and spent the rest of the
morning gathering them. I suggested that they should see how many kinds
they could find. They found three,... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Perhaps teachers with a fair amount of experience might have felt like
the beginner who frankly says, "I didn't say anything more because I
didn't know what to say," when Dorothy discovered the wonderfulness of
glass. Perhaps we are silent because the child has gone ahead of us. It
is wonderful, but we have never thou... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
can aspire
From earth's level where blindly creep
Things perfected more or less
To the heaven's height far and steep.
But we begin at earth's level, and a child's religion must be largely a
natural religion.
How to introduce a child to religion is a problem which must have many
solutions. In Froebel'... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
These suggestions are taken for the most part from the _Mother Songs_,
some from _The Education of Man_. Each parent or teacher must use what
seems to her or to him most valuable. Some may from the beginning desire
to teach the child a baby prayer, or at least to let him hear "God bless
you." Others may prefer to wait... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"From every point, from every object of nature and life there is a way
to God.... The things of nature form a more beautiful ladder between
heaven and earth than that seen by Jacob.... It is decked with flowers,
and angels with children's eyes beckon us toward it." This is true, but
it does not mean that we are always... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
[Footnote 26: "The Fairy-Tale in Education," by Greville Macdonald, M.D.,
_Child Life_, Dec. 1918.]
Fairies, like angels, may be God's messengers. A child who had heard of
St. Cuthbert as a shepherd boy being carried home from the hillside when
hurt, by a man on a white horse, repeated the story in her own words,
"and... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is to the genius of M. Jacques Dalcroze that the world of to-day owes
some idea of what may be effected by rhythmic training, and M. Dalcroze
started his work with the same aim that Froebel set before the mother,
that of making the child capable of appreciation, capable of being made
"richer by the lives of others.... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
We can supply good verses for all these if we take pains to search, and
if we eschew ignorant and unpoetic modern doggerel as we eschew poison.
Besides the nursery rhymes, we have Stevenson, with his "Wind,"
"Shadow," and "Swing," Christina Rossetti's "Wrens and Robins," her
"Rainbow Verses" and "Brownie, Brownie, let... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
All children enjoy singing, but here, as in everything, we must keep
pace with development, or the older ones, especially the boys, may get
bored by what suits the less adventurous. In all cases the music should
be good and tuneful, modelled not on the modern drawing-room inanity,
but on the healthy and vigorous nurse... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
CHAPTER XII
FROM FANCY TO FACT
Creeps ever on from fancy to the fact.
Fairy tales suit little children because their knowledge is so limited,
that "the fairies must have done it" is regarded as a satisfactory
answer to early problems, just as it satisfied childlike Man. Things
that to us are wonderful, children... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
But the narration of stories is not the only way in which we can treat
history. Our present Minister of Education says that history teaching
ought to give "discipline in practical reasoning" and "help in forming
judgements," not merely in remembering facts. Indeed he went so far as
to say "eliminate dates and facts" b... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The romance of "long ago" ought to be taken advantage of to deepen
respect for the dignity of labour. Our lives are so very short that we
are apt to get out of perspective in the ages. Reading and writing are
so new--it is only about four hundred years since the first book was
printed in England, the Roman occupation ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Coming now to practical details, in our own work we have followed fairly
closely the suggestions made by Professor Dewey, but everything must
vary from year to year according to the suggestions of the children or
their apparent needs. One extra step we have found necessary, and that
is to spend some time over a desert... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The idea of throwing stones starts the examination of different kinds,
which have to be provided for the purpose. Flint is invariably selected,
and for months the children keep bringing "lovely sharp flints," but
there is much careful observation, observation which has a motive. "I
would put a stone in a stick and chu... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Children are apt of course to make startling remarks, but it is only the
teacher who is startled by: "Was all this before God's birthday?" "I
don't think God had learned to be very clever then." It is a curious
fact, but orthodox opinion has only twice in the course of many years
brought up Adam and Eve. Probably this... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
What made these long-ago people think of using their fire to cook food?
Our children have suggested that a bit of raw meat fell into the fire by
accident, and we have also worked it out in this way. We were pretending
to warm ourselves by the fire, and I said my frozen meat was so cold
that it hurt my teeth. "Hold it ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Experiments depend upon circumstances and upon the age of the children.
A thick and tiny basin put into a hot part of an ordinary fire does
harden and hold water to a certain extent even without glazing. But
elaborate baking may also be done.
I have found it convenient to take weaving as a bridge to history
stories, b... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Between these two comes what Froebel called the Transition or Connecting
Class, in which the child learns the meaning of the signs which stand
for speech, and those which make calculation less arduous for weak
memories.
Much has been written as to when and how children are to be taught to
read. Some great authorities ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The Froebelian who believes in learning by action will, of course,
expect the children to make or write from the beginning as a method of
learning, whether she begins with words or with sounds. But in English,
unless simplified spelling is introduced, the time must soon come when
reproduction must lag behind recogniti... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Stanley Hall holds that it is best to combine methods, and probably most
of us do this. "The growing agreement" is, he says, "that there is no
one and only orthodox way of teaching and learning this greatest and
hardest of all the arts, in which ear, mouth, eye and hand must each in
turn train the others to automatic ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is not only how children learn to read that is important: even more
so is what they read. Much unintelligent reading in later life is due to
the reading primer in which there was nothing to understand. Children
should read books, as adults do, to get something out of them. The time
often wasted in teaching reading ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
There are but few true number games, but dominoes and card games
introduce the number groups. In "Old maid" the children pair the groups
and so learn to recognise them; in dominoes they use this knowledge,
while "Snap" involves quick recognition. Any one can make up a game in
which scoring is necessary. Ninepins or sk... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The decimal notation is a great thing to learn, how great any one will
discover who will take the trouble to work a simple addition sum,
involving hundreds, in Roman figures. Children are always taught the
number of the house they live in, which makes a starting-point. If, for
instance, 35 is compared with XXXV a mean... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
PART II
THE CHILD IN THE STATE SCHOOL
I. THINGS AS THEY ARE
CHAPTER XIV
CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWTH
Early in the nineteenth century two men, moved by very different
impulses, founded what might be considered the beginnings of the Infant
School. For nearly fifty years their work grew separately, but now they
... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Very soon the experiment became known: persons with the stamp of
authority came to see it, and even official hearts were moved by the
reality of the children's happiness and their consequent development.
The visitors felt, rather than knew, that the thing was right.
Arrangements were made to establish similar institut... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is a curious coincidence that in 1816, the year of Owen's experiment,
a humble educational experiment was begun by Frederick Froebel in a very
small village in the heart of the Thuringian forest. Like Owen, his aim
was education solely for its own sake, and he had a simple faith in the
human goodness of the older G... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is perhaps not altogether to be wondered at that teachers at first
seized the apparatus rather than the spirit of the Kindergarten when we
remember that we have not accepted in anything like its fulness the
teaching of Froebel. Formalism and materialism always die slowly: play
in the Board School was interpreted as... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Perhaps the most significant and most important of these was the effect
of the child-study movement on the formal and external side of
Kindergarten work. It is first of all to America that we owe this, to
the pioneer Stanley Hall, and more especially here to Mr. Earl Barnes.
Very slowly, but surely, it was evident to ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
A second interesting phase of the transition period was the method
adopted for the training of the senses. From the days of Comenius till
now the importance of this has held its place firmly, but the means have
greatly changed. Pestalozzi's object-lesson was adopted by Wilderspin
and thoroughly sterilised; many teache... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Underneath it all the truth was growing, namely, the need of making
associations and so unifying the children's lines. But the process of
finding the truth was slow and cumbersome.
A fourth phase of the early Infant School was the strong belief of both
teachers and inspectors in uniformity of work and of results. It i... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Perhaps the chief cause of stumbling lay in the fact that there was no
clearly realised aim or policy except that of material results. There
were many fine-sounding principles in the air, but they were unrelated
to each other; and the conditions of teaching were likely to crush the
finest endeavours, and to make impos... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In country schools of the older type the accommodation is not so good,
but the newer ones are often very attractive in appearance, and have
both space and light. The school garden is a common feature in the
country, and it is to be regretted so few even of the plot description
are to be found in town schools.
Of late ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The curriculum which has been given is varied in character, and
sometimes includes a "free period." Except in the Babies' Class the
three R's occupy a prominent place, and children under six spend
relatively a great deal of time in formal subjects, while children
between six and seven, if they are still in the Infant ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The same transitional character holds in the case of discipline: while
what is known as "military" discipline still prevails in many schools,
there are a very fair number with whom the grip has relaxed; but it is a
courageous teacher that will admit the term "free discipline" which has
nearly as bad a reputation as "f... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
CHAPTER XVI
SOME VITAL PRINCIPLES
If it be true that the Infant School of to-day suffers from lack of a
clear basis for its general policy, it will be profitable to have
clearly before us such principles as great educators have found to be
most vital to the education of young children.
We all believe that we have an... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
_The second principle is therefore that the method of gaining experience
lies through Play, and that by this road we can best reach work_.
The third principle is the nature of the experience that a child seeks
to gain--the life he desires to live. How can we he sure that the
surroundings we provide and the activities ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
He is interested in reproducing the doings of other people so that he
may experience them more fully, and this involves minute observation,
careful and intelligent imitation, and vivid imagination. His own word
for it is pretence.
There are other things that he grasps at more vaguely and later; he is
dimly aware that ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The next consideration is the atmosphere in which a child can best
develop character by means of these experiences. A young child is a
stranger in an unknown, untried country: he has many strange promptings
that seek for satisfaction; he has strong emotions arising from his
instincts, he feels crudely and fiercely and... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Where passion and excitement are instantly arrested, where appreciation
for strong colours, fierce punishments, loud noises, is killed, where
fear is ridiculed, where primitive likes and dislikes are interpreted as
coarseness, there is no emotional freedom. A child must have these
experiences if he is to come to his o... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
These four vital principles will be applied to practical work in the
following chapters.
II. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF VITAL PRINCIPLES
Before applying these principles it is necessary for practical
considerations to set out clearly the various stages of this period.
During the first eight years of life, development ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The practical translation of this in the words of the teacher of to-day
is, "I must choose furniture, and requisition apparatus." The teacher of
to-morrow will say to her children, "I will bring the world into the
school for you to learn." The Local Education Authority of to-day says,
"We must build a school for instr... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The world of inanimate things includes most of the toys that stimulate
activity and give ideas. The chief that should be found in the
cupboards, round the walls, or scattered about the room, are bricks of
all sizes and shapes, skittles, balls and bats or rackets, hoops, reins,
spades and other garden tools; pails and ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In the school-room there should either be tablecloths, or the tables
should be capable of being scrubbed by the children after each meal.
Their almost inevitable lack of manners at table gives an invaluable
opportunity for training, and again in such a case there should be no
question of haste. The meals should be lai... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The pictures on the walls should be hung at the right eye-level, and the
windows low enough for looking at the outside world--whatever it may be.
The teacher's desk should be in a corner, not in the central part of the
room, for she must remember that the children are still in the main
seeking experience, not listenin... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is into this chaotic method of gaining experience that the teacher
comes with her interpretive power--she sees in it the beginnings of all
the big things of life--and like a bigger child she joins, and like a
bigger child she improves. She sees in the apparent chaos an attempt to
get experience of the different asp... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is quite safe to let experience take its chance through play, but
there are certain things that must be dealt with quite definitely, when
the teacher is not there as a playmate, but as something more in the
capacity of a mother. It is impossible to train all the habits necessary
at this time, through the spontaneou... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Thus we summarise the chief business of the Nursery School teacher when
we say that it is concerned chiefly with habits and play and right
surroundings.
Play in the Transition Class is less informal. After the age of six
certain ambitions grow and must be satisfied. The aspects of life are
more separated, and concentr... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Granting this arrangement we must be clear how play as a method can
still hold.
It does not hold in the informal incidental sense of the Nursery School:
there are periods in the Transition Class when the children know that
they are working for a definite purpose which is not direct play--as in
reading; and there are t... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
In handwork, too, at this stage, practice takes an important place: a
child is willing to hem, to try certain brush strokes, to cut evenly,
and later on to use his cardboard knife to effect for the sake of a
future result if he has already experimented freely. This is in full
harmony with the spirit of play, when we t... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
To summarise: play in the Nursery School stage is unorganised, informal,
and pursued with no motive but pleasure in the activity itself; it is
mainly individual. Play in the Transition Class is more definitely in
the form of games, _i.e._ organised play, efforts of skill, mental or
physical; it becomes social. Play in... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
How then can we secure for him that the new experiences presented to him
in school will be in line with the old? We will take three typical cases
of children to illustrate the real nature of this problem.
The first is the case of a child living in a very poor district of
London or of any large town. The school is pres... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
What store of experiences does a child from such a neighbourhood bring
to school, to be assimilated with the new experiences provided there?
What do such terms as home, dinner, bed, bath, birth, death, country,
mean to him? They mean _something_.[34]
[Footnote 34: See _Child Life_, October 1916.]
Not a mile away we ma... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
A suburb of this type is described by Beresford in _Housemates_:--"In
such districts (as Gospel Oak) I am depressed by the flatness of an
awful monotony. The slums vex me far less. There I find adventure and
jest whatever the squalor; the marks of the primitive struggle through
dirt and darkness towards release. Those... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The home intellectual background may vary, but on the whole cannot be
reckoned on very much; though in some ways it is more narrow than the
suburban one, it is often less superficial. In a different way from the
slum child, but none the less definitely, the country child comes face
to face with the realities of life, ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The suburban child's economic experience may be based on his
pocket-money, money in the bank, and the normal shopping of ordinary
life.
The country child is frequently very ignorant of money values; probably
it will be necessary to take the country general shop as the basis. He
could also begin to estimate the produce... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
"All appeared new and strange at first, inexpressibly rare and
delightful and beautiful. I was a little stranger which at my entrance
into the world was saluted and surrounded with innumerable joys.... I
knew by intuition those things which since my apostasy I collected again
by the highest reason.... All things were ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
_Language Training._--I have I realised this was a failure,
discovered that they love to for I asked the children to use
imitate sounds, so we will play their boards and chalks for a
at this. They could draw a cat definite drawing, and they should
and say "miauw," and a duck and ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
THE TRANSITION AND THE JUNIOR SCHOOL PROGRAMME
Even after the Nursery School period much of the curriculum and subject
matter is in the hands of the children themselves, though the relative
proportions will vary according to the children's experiences. It is
pretty evident to the honest-minded teacher that the subjec... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is very much easier to give the general curriculum than to deal with
the choice of actual material, because that is involved largely with the
principle of the unity of experience, and, as we know, experiences vary.
The normal town and country child, and the abnormal child of poverty
have all certain human cravings ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
It is profitable sometimes to group the subjects of experience in order
to preserve balance. All getting of experience is active, but some kinds
more obviously than others. Undoubtedly in hearing stories and poetry,
in watching a snail or a bee, in listening to music, the activity is
mental rather than physical and as... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
The Nursery School is a collection of individuals presumably from 2-1/2
to 5-1/2 years of age. They know no social life beyond the family life,
and family experience is relative to the size of the family. In any case
they have not yet measured themselves against their peers, with the
exception of the occasional twin. ... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
After five months there is a marked difference in spirit. The noise is
modified because the children found other absorbing interests, though at
times nature still demands voice production. During lunch time and
sleeping time there is quiet, but the teacher has never _asked_ for
silence unless there was some such evide... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
* * * * *
Freedom in the transition and the junior school must be differently
applied: individual life begins to merge into community life, and the
children begin to learn that things right for individuals may be wrong
for the community. But the problem of freedom is not as easy as the
p... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 | |
Such children will inevitably become intellectually independent and
morally self-controlled. Most of the order should be taken in hand by
children in office, and they should be distinguished by a badge: most
questions of punishment should be referred to them. This means a
constant appeal to the law that is behind both... | The Child Under Eight | Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach) | 1861 | 1932 | ['en'] | 21 | {'Child psychology', 'Child development', 'Education'} | PG10042 |
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