The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-08-20

The morning opened very pleasantly.
The assembly room and the adjoining
music room were filed to overfiowing.
The department of education was un-
usually well represented. All were
eager to hear DR.. Dresslar on child
study" 1t is impossible to give an
idea of this in a small space. The
first thing of Importance in child study
is sympathy Not sympathy in general
but sympathy for y0ur children. This
was what made FroebeI and PestaIozzi
great. Parents need it too. Need to
study your children. Mothers, do you
leave your child to get its ideas, it's
training from a nurse? Fathers. do
you think more of your business than
your children? Do you give it more
time? When you do give time TO your
children, do you plan it's use? It is
better to give training than money
Health is a great necessity. America
is developing a nervous disease which
has been called Americanitis. Glad
stone has been so great because he has
taken care of himself, and because he
has rested his mind by studying things
outside his chief matter of thought.
Don't demand too much from the
child. Don't compel the child to keep
its body still. 1t keeps the mind still
at the same time.
Child study has taught us much al
ready. For instance, children grow in
spurts Now the lower limbs, now the
upper, now the chest. We care more
for our horses than for our children.
Leland Stanford spent $4,000 in find
ing out, by photographs. ETC., how a
horse trots.
To teach children we must under
stand them and know what is in their
minds and how they think. You all
have heard of Laura Bridgeman, the
girl who was born deaf, blind, without
taste and without the sent of smell,
but who nevertheless became an intel
Iigent cultivated lady. DR.. Howe, her
teacher, b1indfolded himself and went
for weeks without seeing that he might
understand how to teach her.
liar girl, was once blind herself, but
amer maturity gained her sight by a
surgical operation. she understood
the girl and how to teach her. Helen
was about thirteen when | saw her.
She felt of me to see what kind OF
man | was. She would know me again
if she were to meet me-better than we
know those whom we have met but
once There was a gentleman in our
party whom Helen had met once
year before. His presence in the party
was concealed from her till he took her
hand. Then she cried out at once DR..
Burnham. She has been taught through
this one sense, feeling, not to speak
but to write and she sometimes writes
for the magazines. l felt ashamed
before her. She had learned so much
through one sense, and l so little
through so many. Her teacher under
stood ner better than mine did me-"
DR.. DressIar recommended sending
to .Jr c. c. Van Lew, Normal, ILL.,,
for the minutes of the Illinois Associ-
alton for child study as the best direc-
tions. He also advised study on the
following lines: Find out, not neces-
sarily by questioning, better by OBJ
servation if possible, the child's idea of
% punishment, what for, etc; (2) hon
or; Cd honesty; (D truth; 90 home;
90 teacher, what for, ETC.: CD the child's
ideals.
1.-The main purpose of this IVORY is
not a scientific compilation, but an in
sight into the minds of your individual
pupils so that you may the better aid
them
After the lecture, which held the at
tention of the two hundred and more
present for an hour and a quarter, Mr..
Dumas spoke for moment of the HO-
noIulu Child Study Association, and
offered the teachers blanks to fill out.
Mr.. Townsend then asked the teachers
to watch out for consumption. OF the
boys who have. been in Lahanaluua, he
said. four have died and the fifth is now
dying, and every one from cOnsump-
ton. See if your pupils have good
lungs. If not, see if you can help them.
Have they good eyes?
Mrs. Dillingham;, speaking of the
study of punishments, said that story
had been told to the pupils at PunahOu
somewhat as follows: A little girl was
given box of paints by her mother.
One day when her mother was away she
took the paints and painted a number
of the parlor chairs. She did not mean
evil She only wished to surprise her
mother with what seemed to her beauty.
How should she be punished?
1t was noticeable that the younger
the pupils the severer the punishment
advocated. The story had scarcely
been told in one of the lower rooms
when a sweet little girl came up TO the
teachers desk and asked in a stage
whisper: How do you spell spank?'
A boy in another grade advocated four
punishments. OF which three were, put
to bed supperless, not allowed to play
in the yard for a week, and made to
feed the animals"