Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-12
CHILD STUDY DISCUSSED
Opening Session of Department Devoted to
That Branch of Work.
Address by Prof. Edgar James Swift
of Stevens Point, Wis.-COm-
ment by Others.

The opening session of the department of
child study attracted quite a good attend
ance at Foundry Church yesterday after
noon, and several interesting and instruct
i've contributions were made to the impor-
tant subject by recognized authorities
Prof. NJ V. O'Shea of Madison. Wis, pre-
sided. and after referring to the progress of
child study and the purposes of the move
ment introduced as the first speaker Mr..
Ossian H. Lang, editor of the School jour
nal, who read q paper on Some Cautions
to be Observed in Child Study" He noted
the tendency to collect unreliable anecdotes
of children's sayings and reporting them as
if they were facts of scientific instead of
merely suggestive value, and to set teach
ers to making investigations which only
specialists are capable of carrying ON sue
cessfully.
The value of child study to psychology
was then indicated. with the limitations
and dangers that should be recognized.
Really profitable educational child studies
can be conducted only by trained teachers.
who possess pedagogic knowledge, skill and,
above all, tact and love of children.
The strongest argument In favor of train
ing il systematic child study is that teach
ers thereby acquire habits of child study,
chief among which is the habit of looking
constantly for the educational effect OF
their teaching upon and in the development
of their pupils
Study of Students Themselves.
The next paper, by Fred w. Atkinson,
principal of the Springfield, Mass, High
School, was the result of years study of
the entering pupils of that school. Mr..
Atkinson said there had been in Springfield
a plan to secure more intelligent considera-
tor, for the individual needs of high school
students. The speaker emphasized the TACT
that the main function of the teacher was
not concerned with text books, courses OF
study or reports to school boards. but with
the flesh and blood, mind and spirit, of the
boys and girls put under his care. He
pointed out the tendency Of organized
schools to become intent upon their own
machinery; the disposition of teachers to
hold their eyes upon text books; while the
great object for which schools are founded
and supported-the student-comes in for
the last consideration, and that an made
quate and often a whimsical one, based on
the most superficial observation.
Purpose of the Plan.
High school teachers need to investigate
intelligently that most interesting period
of life when the physical and mental ma
lures undergo the most singular and mys-
FERROUS changes. The Springfield plan of
pupil study grew out of the necessity of
dealing with the individual pupil when he
enters the high school-of ascertaining his
previous experiences and his natural in
at first, was simply to unity the work of
the high school and the lower grades. 1t
is an attempt, not to discover and correct
defects, but to help peculiar capacities and
to assist teachers in estimating justly what
may be expected of the pupils in deport-
ment scholarship and attendance.
Principal Atkinson stated that the gram
mar school principals had shown cordial
cooperation and that the Information OBJ
tanned from them was reliable and of prac-
teal value. The plan had also tended to
bring parents and teachers into mutually
helpful relation. The alarming prevalence
of headaches among high school girls was
pointed out The effect of our rigid, driv-
ing courses of study upon girls at critical
time in life was deplored. The evil effects
of our system of examination and our fall
ure to consider the needs and capacities or
the individual student were also dwelt
upon.
Interesting Statistics.
He was followed by Prof. Edgar James
Swift of thu Stevens Point, Wis. normal
school, who gave an address showing deep
research into the now absorbing problems
of the effect of heredity and environment.
Recent investigation on the effect of sug-
gestion, he said, has opened new lines OF
thought concerning the relative influence
of heredity and environment. While the
results gotten by the statistical method
can never be regarded as conclusive be-
cause of the complexity of life, they are
nevertheless valuable in correcting or
conclusions arrived at theo-
and in suggesting new lines Of re-
search.
Answers to question from about 200 boys
in the reformatory at Waukesha, Wis,
show that the physical condition of their
ancestors, so far as this may be learned
from the health of the boys themselves,
is not markedly worse than the average.
The mental ability of the boys was con-
below that found in the Elmira
reformatory, but this may be partly &C