The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-31
CHILD STUDY AND EDUCATION.

There is for man, as contrasted with
lower animals. long period of helpless
infancy. Prof. John Fiske has shown
the importance of this fact to the theory
OF evolution as applied to man. Basing
his theory on some hints OF Wallace and
Spencer. he has explained how the diff
ferentiation of the primitive savage man
from the animal groups must have been
accomplished. Where psychical life is
complex there is not time for all capaci
ties to become organized before birth.
The proloDgatlon of helpless infancy is
required for the development of mans
adaptations to the spiritual environment
implied in the habits and hearts and
modes OF behavior of the social commu.
nifty into which man is born. He is
born first as an infant body he must
be born second as an ethical soul or else
he cannot become human. The condi-
tions are of extreme complexity. This
is the most important contribution of
the doctrine of evolution to education.
Doctor Nicholas Murray Butler has
pointed out that the Greek philoso.
pher Anaximander more than two
thousand years ago spoke of the pro-
longed period of infancy as reason for
believing that, in the beginning, man
had an origin from animals of different
species from himself. The Greek did
not perceive the relation of this pro.
longed infancy to the adjustment of the
complex physical and spiritual activities
OF the child to his environment.
In the light of this discovery, we may
see what an important bearing the re.
suits Of ch,ld study and physiological
psychology will have on education. For
is it not evident that if the child is at any
epoch OF his long period OF help,sssness
Injured into any habit or fixed form of &C.
tivity belonging to lower stage of de-
velopment the tendency will be to ar
rest growth at that standpoint and make
it difficult or next to impossible to con-
tinue the growth of the child into high
or and more civilized forms of soul-ac-
tivity? Especially on the second plane
OF thought, that which follows sense
perception and the mechanical stage of
thinking. namely the stage of noticing
mere relations and of classifying by
mere likeness or difference, or even
the search for causal relations, there is
most danger Of this arrested develop
ment. The absorption of the gaze upon
adjustments within the machine pre-.
vents us from seeing the machine as a
whole. The attention to details of color
ing and drawing may prevent one from
seeing the Significance of the great work
Of art.
The habit OF parsing every sentence
that one sees may prevent one from en-
joying sonnet of Wordsworth. Too
much counting and calculating may at
tender age set the mind in mechanical
habit OF looking for mere numerical re-
lations in whatever it sees. Certainly
the young savage who is taught to see
in nature only the traces tina t mark the
passage of wild animal or perhaps OF
warrior foe, has stopped his growth of
observation at point not very much
above that of the hound that hunts by
scent. And yet all these mechanical
studies are necessary in the course OF
study; they cannot be replaced except by
others equally Objectionable in the same
aspect. The question is then where to
stop and change to other and higher
branches in time to preserve the full
momentum of progress that the child
has made. To keep the intellect out of
the abyss of habit and to make the ethi-
cal behavior more and more matter Of
unquestioning habit seem to be the de.
sideratum.-Dr. It. w. Harris, in the
Public School Journal