Mower County transcript., 1897-04-21
CHILD i. i STUDY. y ]

CHILD STUDY.
An Important Congress of Teach
| ers at Chicago This Month.
Prominent educators from all parts
OF the United States will attend the
fourth annual congress OF the Illinois
Society for Child Study, which will
be held in Chicago, April q, %, %, 80
and May !, the week OF the spring
vacation. The meetings OF the
Illinois society are more than state
affair, its preeminence in the work Of
child study being so marked that its
congresses are, in effect, national
conferences. s..s - -,.,.S.- -, ..... -
An effort will be made to make this
meeting one OF the largest and most
profita bic ever held in the world.
Speakers win be present from all
parts Of the country. They win re-
present all forms Of educational in
terests, from the kindergarten
through the. college and normal
schools to the university. Among
those who take part viii be DIR. G.
Stanley Hall, president OF Clark
university. the leading exponent of
child study in this country. and many
other prominent workers. T.
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The science OF child study is new in
America Following the lead OF the
Germans. at the time OF the worlds
fair national Organization was form
ed for the study of children. The
Illinois society, formed at the same
time. is the most active branch. Its
meetings attract world wide atten-
tion, a result for which its president,
Col. Francis ", Parker, has been
chiefly responsible. The Illinois
society naw has 300. members, not
all OF whom are residents OF Illinois
In fact, nearly every state furnishes.
its quota, and there are other mem
bers in England, Scotland. Sodth
Africa, Japan and India. -. IS
These educational workers. who in
clude in their ranks all grades of
teachers, from the elementary school
teachers to the university professor,
have make it their task to study.
psychological. phenomena in children.
and to study them With the view to-.
wards furnishing the world with re-
quired facts for:sthe better training
and teaching Of the young. Ibs is
believed tnat by thus considering the
actual condition OF the. child that is
to be educated much has been done
to aid pedagogues, while moshers,
who are also trainers of children,
have been helped in their work.
Some idea of the Ii nes along which
this study is underta ken may be had
by review of the work accomplished.
In the first place. the ignorance Of
children has been studied, and their
lack of information On common
subjects. Thus. in Sioux City, child
ren on their first admission to the
public schools were asked simple
questions and the answers carefully
noted. It was found that only IS per
cent of them knew what was a book.
only II per cent knew which was
their right hand. IS per cent knew
the colors red, blue and green, IS per
cent knew where milk comes from.
Other results were: What is dew:
Fifteen per cent; what season is this?
4s per cent; what are the stars9 s6 per
cent; what is tree? s6 per cent:
what is frog? 81 per cent; what is
SCHOOL, 3 per cent The idea was to
draw out the child's knowledge of
number and color and ascertain his
intelligence and power of observation
and how we'll he had stored his mind
with general ideas Of things seen
every day.
By measuring children it has been
found that children grow tall in
spring and stocky in fall, and
further, that different parts of the
body have different periods of growth.
Times of physical growth are found
to be times of ready mental acQuisi-
tion, but not for systematization.
Another idea is the study of bright
children as we'll as stupid children.
The boyhood of distinguished men
has been subjected to close analysis
and it has been found by experiment.
that methods adopted for bright
children would enable boys of average
intelligence to complete a usual six
years course in three years, although
NO extra time was given. Thus it is
proposed to work twice as fast with
the brighter scholars. :..<.
Health is another subject of study,
on the principle that it is better for
the child to grow up in ignorance
than to injure it's health. Some
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