The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-10

The teaching body has many serious
problems before it, needing to be solved
before really efficient work can be done
in our school rooms. but back of each
problem, and the core of each, is the
child, standing in our midst as he mas
always done, and only now, after cen
turtles of effort to educate him, are We
beginning TO understand him. It is the
glory of this end of the century that we
really desire to know him as he is and
that we have abandoned the thought of
making him fit for our DreconceiVed
notions and are willing to go down 10
his level and really make him the sub
ject of earnest study. We have all been
flooded with syllabi, asking questions
on every Imaginable subject that touch
es child life; we have heard the discus
sions of the doctors about who is capa-
BILE of carrying on child study. Men
there are like Professor Baldwin, who
say that no one who is not a trained
psychologist and a father can do any
work of any value; men like Professor
Barnes and DR.. Hall, who try to enlist
every teacher and parent in the work.
When the doctors disagree, we poor
teachers can hardly decide what we
can do, or how it may be done. Both
sides are right. The unframed teacher,
psychologically, cannot formulate laws,
and the countless syllabi do seem to be
rather barren of results at present.
They have done their duty, however, in
awakening in our adult minds a more
sympathetic attitude towards the child;
they have served to revivify our past
thoughts. hopes and experiences, ana
have shown us that the children are, in
a sense. living our lives over. We can,
therefore, understand them better,
make more allowances for apparent
i 4 "a
are beginning to know the child as we
never have done before; to know. also,
what we want for him, though we are
often quite hopeless about how We are
to get it
The fact that is pressed home to US,
by even a casual reading of the litera-
ture of the subject. is that we must
know the individual child, not our
children; we need definite formulated
knowledge about the child's life. inter
ests. pastimes, enjoymeEts-theire effect
on his school life We must know and
recognize physical conditions that are
inimical to his health or effective school
work; whether we are presenting condi-
tons that will help or hinder physical,
mental or spiritual growth. We need a
more sympathetic insight into his re-
quirements-an insight based on knowl-
edge, not on sentiment. Our part is
more TO prove true or false she psyche
logical or pedagogical principles laid
down by the trained scientist
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
What. then. are some of the things
that can be done by the average busy
teacher in her school room? l am forced
to acknowledge that there are. some
things which we can do, some that We
cannot. and some that we can work
towards, but which need recasting of
public sentiment before they can be
successfully carried out in our present
conditions. None the less, we can recog-
nize the necessity for the changes in
our work and, perhaps. do much TO
modify the existing situation.
/ say that there are many things we
cannot do. because, While there is vast
array of tentative results on such sub
jects as children's fears, lies, hopes,
dolls, playthings and the like, most
teachers need more practical Informal
ton than has often been given about
how to use these results. What we need
more than anything else, 1t seems 10
me, is definite directions from some one
in an authoritative position. Otherwise,
our work viii be scattering and lily
carried out, and viii lack the effective
ness and order necessary to profitable
work. 1t should be SO planned as TO
touch the child on all sides of his three
from the beginning, and not pursue the
ordinary aimless method of now taking
up one phase OF child life, now another,
and none with any definite outcome.
One of the things which parents,
school boards and teachers have not
yet fully recognized, and yet which has
been proven by child students, is that
the child is not a little man; we cannot
behold him by viewing ourselves
throug the large end of the glass. In nc
way. physical, mental or moral, is he
like the adult. And yet we go ca!.nlv
on. expecting him TO be the thing We
have set up for him. Man is static. the
child-is dynamic Man has attained his
growth in most lines his habits are
more or less fixed. while the child is
attaining his growth in every fibre OF
his being. There is no bone, muscle
or cell, that is not changing either il
itself or in its relations, SO that it j,
not only unlike itself from year to year
but also more unlike the adult for mann
years of his life. What folly then, t.
expect the child to come up to on
grown-up standards. But this Grim,
against his being il daily committed
We expect him to have the same sens,
of honor, fair dealing, generosity anC
truthfulness as we set fer ourselves az
an ultimate standard, and TO which
alas! we do not always attain We for
get that he is forming his ideals: tina
they are a matter of growth, and no