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


/ be. In infancy the control of the arm.
for example, is very. imperfect, and it is
moved mainly from the shoulder as a
whole. AS muscular control depends
upon all development, we would expect
that the centers controlling these mus
cles would develop first. In like man
ner the cells controlling the movements
of the other joints of the arm down to
| the fingers, would be developed in the
! order of the movements. This appears
| to be the case. Arguing from this we
| should expect that the control of the
hand would be the last attained, and
| this appears to be also proven The
easiest time to assist natural processes
| by means of exercise is during this
growing period. 1t is comparatively a
! limited one, and exercises may come too
! early or too late, and thus produce far
less complete and desirable results.
! There is good reason to believe that the
J growth changes are from cells giving
| general control to those giving special
control. If this be true it would follow
! that the easiest access to centers of spe-
cial movements would be by way of
centers earliest developed. If any of
these general centers fail to become
| properly developed they are imperfect
pathways for the impulses destined to
| control the extremities of the limb, Civ
! ing rise to imperfect control and ire
mediable awkwardness. On the other
| hand, the cells controlling the acces-
sorry movements, developing later, as
they do, should not be put prematurely
| into action, but the child should be
| brought slowly into the co-ordinating
process.
I have used the arm and hand as an
illustration, but the eye comes under
the same law, and DR.. Dewey says it
| should also be carried into the pro-
| faac Nf tl,o, %T,1f tn inc NV
minute work. as starting with too
much analysis, with parts rather than
wholes, presenting objects and ideas
apart from their purpose and function,
or what they will do is "a radical
error"
ERROR TO BE AVOIDED.
For these reasons any plans requiring
| fine work of hand or eye are to be depre
Gated with the young child. The kinder
! garten has made the same mistake as the
| school. but, being in the main freer and
not so dominated by courses of study, has
abandoned much of its former materials,
| and such things as pricking, sewing, in
| terlacing and the like are rapidly becom-
| ing things of the past and in their places
! have come larger, freer work with wood,
mostly the fundamental movements of
| hand and eye, with Very little of the ac-
cessory movements. We find the primary
| school criticised for this very thing. Pro-
fessor Patrick. in the Popular Science
| Monthly, bases an article on the time at
which children should be taught to read
and write on this very law. They are
taught too early, because they both re-
| Cuire too much of the accessory muscles
| and the immature cells controlling them.
| | believe that he is right about it, and if
we cannot defer it until 10, as he desires,
| it might at least be put off until or s.
| There is steadily increasing class of
mothers who are making the same de-
! mand. not because they understand the
| physiology of the question: but because
they see their children being made ner-
vous and unhappy over their school work.
! l believe that the children should be in
| school, where, with constructive work,
science and nature work, the teaching of
| literature by reading to the child. of his
tory by story of language by the Child S
| relating, the time would be too short to
! acquire all that might be given of the
content of learning, while the symbols of
| knowledge could well wait for the child 5
| ripper development. Instead of this being
an added expense to the state. it would be
a saving of money and of time and health
| to the child, for with a mind filled with
! enthusiasm for the content of learning.
! the symbolic or technical side would be
quickly grasped and the loss of interest,
| which is often so apparent in the later
| school life. would be largely obviated, for
| the child would not have time to become
bored with so much reading and number
! from the side of the technical.
We do not yet really grasp the power
! for us underlying the fact that all sem
sorry or ideatiOnal Impressions tend to
] HOW Out III motor dCllOn. i o De really VI
tai to the child, an idea or sensation must
! have a motor expression. 1t is what he
| does. makes. acts out, feels in the mus
| cles that he underStand We are so in
! the habit of suppTessing the motor side
that we do not realize our own responses
| in these lines.
DIR. Dewey says that the motor is an in
tegraI part of all imagining, and whatever
may be the especial type by which we do
! the most of our thinking, there is still the
! motor addition, so we have visual motor
to
sound for example. by beating time with
foot, rhythmic motion of body. head, etc.
The child IN the main, is under the do
main of the sensori-motOr and must re-
! act in a motor way. When the brain
areas become more fully developed and
! connected, there comes a. chance for
! choice of action, and he is under the TO-
/ main of ideo- motor action. During the
| acquiring period it is indispensable that
! ideas have muscular and constructive
as well as an intellectual development. Do
| we give the child a sufficient number of
| images on any given subject, or are we
content with the visual? The small child
if left to himself will not only look at,
! but handle, smell, test with the tongue
and often try to sound, any object given
to him. 1t seems necessary to reinforce
one image with as many others pos
sible, and we should give chance always
for plenty of motor expression. The child
will naturally do this if he has an OPP
| portunity.
We have a great lever here to help in
the easy acquiring of knowledge and the
| fixing of clear, definite impressions. Let
/ me quote from Professor James on this
motor question:
MANUAL TRAINING.
Manual training will give different
intellectual fibre. from mere book learn
ing. While we do not expect it to turn
out the perfect craftsman, it can do other
things, perhaps more vital on the intel
lectual and ethical plane. In engenders a
| habit of observation, shows the child the
difference between accuracy and vague
ness; confers precision, because in doing
one must do a thing right or wrong; de-
velops honesty. because by making and
not by using words to embody an idea, it
is impossible to conceal vagueness or ig-
norance with ambiguity. Self-reliance
comes because the interest and attention
are kept cheerfully engaged, and the
child gets the habit of doing and accom-
plishing.
Up to or 10 the child does little else
than explore with his hands, handle OBJ
jects; he spends his time in doing anu I'M
doing, in setting up and knocking down,
putting together and pulling apart. Con-
Struction and destruction are two names
for the same manual activity. Result is
familiarity with physical environment,
acquaintance with the properties of ma
terial things which is the foundation of
human consciousness. To the very last,
our conceptions of objects, their proper
ties, are limited by what we can do with
them, or what they are good for. Bread
is something to eat; a bed, to rest on; a
stick, to lean on. The more different kinds
of things Il child knows, by treating and
handling them. the more confident grows
his sense of kinshiD with the world in
which he lives. occupy the child in way
most cOngruouS with the spontaneous in
terests of his age, those that absorb him.
and we can leave impressions durable and
profound.
The period from to 10 years is one of
great interest to the child-student. Dur
ing these years the child cuts ten teeth.
in itself a great physical drain on the
system. At there is sudden increase in
aisrinf 1NfatTt
in the size of the heart muscle. Children,
consequently, at this age fatigue easily.