Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-10-08
~ --.ae .--4 II 49,
RATIONAL TRAINING.



The Proper Way Of Developing the In.
teiiects 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 lore poetry;
others are not at all imaginative and
can not bear TO read poetry. Some
children develop a. mathematical fac
ulty and delight in ithmetic. and can
very soon study the ements OF geom-
etry and algebra. Others are almost
ounces In mathematics Ia older times
1t was supposed that child should be
made to study that which he most dis
liked. In order TO promote his equable
development For example. II his
memory was poor. his memory should
be trained directly This 10 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 10 reproduc-
ing what ID written or read. also in
comparison and association. The
memory will be thus trained without
J giving words or dates TO be committed
to memory. Much is said now concern
ty. and the best conclusion Df those who
have studied the matter Is that memory
IL strong in proportion as the observa-
I 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 great deal OF obsery alton
work and association work. and 1t will
be seen very soon that the memory will
assert its power. For example. If a
child dislikes to memorize dates in his
tory, at first. give no dates in history
for the child to remember But what
shall we doa 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 the
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; but
not until this order OF relationship ha.
been established should the date b.
given. II this course be pursued, the
children will have no difficulty in re
Numbering dates and names also
The reason that some children d,
not like numbers is because the faculty
: Of relation is not developed; the chilt
puzzles over his examples in arithmeti,
because he does not see the relation
between their parts He reads; -
man bought piece of ground for 800
and sold one-half it for 1900 and one
| fourth of the remainder for 5000. VIVA
did he make by the transaction
J Many are entirely unable to solve sucf
an example as this-not because it i.
. 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
! enee to attainments Very much NOR
, could be said under this head, bu
enough has been written to show il
: what directions children should receiv
t impulses. aud in what directions the
: should not jerome Allen, in Schoo
: Journal