The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-08-19

ground in such a shape as TO form in
the child'S imagination the hammock.
and the reaction caused the child to
swing the chain as he had seen the
hammock swung; that was the first
Idea which presented itself TO the
child'S mind. and the reaction came at
once. He was just beginning to come
into the period of imagination when
he could see other objects which. re-
verted him back to some other object,
and in the form of some literal reac-
ton. There comes a period in the life
of every child about two or two and a
half years old when they perceive this
analogy in practically all objects and
a practical reaction to them in that
way. A child saw a finger crooked
into just such a shape, that the child
said 1t was a typewriter; there was
merely in the way the finger was held
which the child had seen in the act of
manipulating typewriter and this po-
Sltion of the finger had only the one
idea to the child-the idea of type
writer. On the one hand there is no
principle in this development; it is
merely activity; what characteriZes 1t
is simply that the idea is freer in
imagery, more flexible and more plas-
tic than other suggestions would be.
1t is the thing or the something which
suggests itself to the child's mind. ra-
ther than the literal presence present
ed by it. If a child sees an act of
pouring something into a cup, it is for
him simply to react by doing the same
| thing; he sees a leaf which suggests
to him the cup, and his imagination
runs to play in this matter and pro-
ceeds to fill the leaf. The act in itself is
very commonplace, were it not for the
fact that it is the aptitude of the child
to make something big out of the mat
ter, although oftentimes fantastic, un-
real.
What characteriZes the imagina-
ton is that it affects the unreal and
not the real. In the child, it is not a
thing which is fantastic, but, to the
contrary, it extends tremendously the
mental side of the child'S development
and brings out the many ways in
which the child reacts upon sugges-
tiOnS to it's mind, and if it WAS not for
this play and imagination, it is safe to
say the child would come to very
abrupt end. Every child presents a
case of arrested development if the
play and imagination are removed. 1t
is the bridge by which he passes over
| from this almost psychological devel-
l.
ed, the use of things which he sees
about him would not extend beyond his
range Of powers of seeings things. The
adult has a world of activity, occupa-
tiOns, professions, vocatiOns and the
like; the world of activity in the child
lies in his powers of imagination to do
things which he sees in the adult to
perform, and if it were not for the Oc-
cupations and vocations' of the adult,
these little baby forms of activity it
can readily be seen what bad outlet
for play and imagination there would
be for the child. The Imagination
comes in the child in a vicariOus way
and does for it what the occupations
of the adult do for him--extend his
mental development. The child, in his
play of imagination, is father, or a
mother, or soldier; he entertainS the
idea in vicarious way from what he
has seen, and reacts all these things,
and in this way gets a tremendous pre-
deny that the purely fantastical and
absolutely make-believe imagination
does not form an important part of the
child'S development. Some children
have a good deal of it, but, after all,
that is not the main thing for us to
bear in mind and that through these
mediums the child gets acquainted
with the realities of things, and SO
builds up for himself a mimic world,
and to him it stands for the whole
world.
"One of the chief representatives of
children and child-study in the United
States has made collection of the
acts and development Of children in
this regard, wherein the clouds, rain,
thunder, lightning form an important
part in suggestibility; these objects
have been of considerable force in the
childs knowledge of making up myths
through the natural forms and forces
which present themselves. He person
ateS the clouds and thunder and makes
up stories about them; most children
do so who have a stimulus of activity,
but the average, or normal, child is
not altogether taken up with these
spontaneous myths and their making.
It is through these more average, COM
monplace things that the great devel-
opment of the child comes. Froebel
was the first one % absolutely recog-
nize the play-fOrm in child as an i'm
portant element of the child's devel-
opment, for it is at this period of the
child's life that the natural and normal
means Of development, not only of
knowledge, but of character, begin to
make themselves felt.
after all the main thing from the
first two or three years of the child's
life is that he should not be surfeited