Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-09-07
RATIONAL TRAINING.
The Proper Way OF Developing the In
teliects Of school Children.

The Proper Way OF Developing the In
teliects OF school Children.
The development OF the mind OF the
child must be determined. In some,
the reflective faculties develop quite
early; in others. quite late. Some are
very imaginative and love poetry;
others are not at all imaginative and
can not bear to read poetry. Some
children develop a mathematical fac
ulty and delight in arithmetic, and can
very soon study the elements Of geom-
etry and algebra Others are almost
ounces in mathematics. In older times
it was supposed that a child should be
made to study that which he most dis
liked, in order to promote his equable
development. For example, if his
memory was poor, his memory should
be trained directly. This is wrong.
The mind must proceed along the lines
Of greatest activities, not along the
lines of the least activities. Let us see
what this means II child delights to
read and write, but has poor technical
memory, let that child read and write
to her hearts content. Let the memory
alone, but give exercises in reproduc-
ing what is written or read, also in
comparison and association. Tho
memory will be thus trained without
giving words or dates to be committed
to memory. Much is said now concern
ing the training of the retentive facul-
ty, and the best conclusion OF those who
have studied the matter is that memory
is strong in proportion as the observa-
ton, association and Imagination are
strong. Careful habits Of observation
and the forming OF habits Of associating
similar things will always strengthen
the memory. In no other way can
this work be accomplished.
Then wisdom shows US that we
should give such children as have poor
memories a great deal OF observation
work and association work, and it will
be seen very soon that the memory will
assert its power For example, If q
child disIiles to memorize dates in his.
tory, at first, give no dates in history
for the child to remember But what
shall we doP Take this course: Tell a
story to-day, tomorrow tell another
one; let it follow in the order of time
after the preceding one; the next day
tell another one-let this follow in tho
order of time. Now, after several sto-
ries are told and reproduced, ask which
one came first, which second, which
third. Now, what relation has the sec.
ond to the third and so on. After the
order of relationship has been estab
lished then the date can come in; bu
not until this order OF relationship ha:
been established should the date bt
given. If this course be pursued, the
children will have no difficulty in re
membering dates and names also.
The reason that some children Dc
not like numbers is because the faculty
of relation is not developed; the chile
puzzles over his examples in arithmetic
because he does not sec the relation
between their parts. He reads; "A
man bought piece OF ground for $500
and sold one-half it for $500. and one
fourth Of the remainder for 5000. Wha
did he make by the transaction?
Many are entirely unable to solve sucf
an example as this-not because it il
difficult, but because the relations be
tween the parts are not clearly seen
Do not urge children on in mathemat
les faster than they can understand
urge them on as fast as possible in tn,
direction they like to go, and ever!
month reclassify the school in refer
ence to attainments. Very much NOR
could be said under this head, bu
enough has been written to show il
what directions children should receiv
impulses, and in what directions the.
should not. jerome Allen, in Schoo
Journal