The new era., 1910-02-10

advantage
is. however distinct hndrance in appreciation of cu
ture and art If wish train our children to think
accurately and absractly We train them as the
schools evidently training them in the drec-
ton Of verbal imagery. IT, however we wish to de-
velop artists. poets letters inventors and those
with technical skill in various professions we must
see to 1t that this concrete imagery lost for
this loss takes place it will tremendous waste and
disaster for many.
The experiments further showed that children
who thought in visual terms best able to men,
orze material with content and that those who
thought in auditory motor best able to
learn material with auditory or motor content This
of course, far the application results to
school work is concerned that the material which
child learns must be in adapted to his idea
tiona type If the best results to be accomplished
This. perhaps, is vital with the average
child who has many ways, it may be- in which he
imagine his experience but there always every
schoolroom numbers of exceptional children who are
slow to get in certain fields and who, neverthe
less are far from being mental detectives To take
concrete illustration there children who have
difficulty in learning to read and yet who often
bright in other school subjects is probable that such
children have not developed the type OF verbal-visual
imagery. The printed word fails carry its proper
significance. Such child obviously must be treated
differently from the Individual In the first
place. he may be helped in his reading by being in
structed to spell and pronounce words The method
Of showing him words and having him grasp them
visual signs will be hopeless method procedure
his Further, the child may be aided by a sys-
ematic attempt to strengthen his verbalvsua imagery
There Is ample evidence that children be trained
in type of imagery and is the business of educa
ton to see that those who defective in essential
type trained to overcome this defect.
We cannot think for a moment demanding the
sort Of thing from the child whose eyesght is
that demand from the child Of normal visual acuity
1t is Just foolish to expect the child who is defective
in certain deationa type to do the work Of normal
child 1t is to expect the child who is defective in his
visual sensbiy to accomplish the results under
conditions child of normal sensbility
accomplishes.
Another important problem which has been under
taken by the psychological laboratory the university
discover the advantageous conditions besides
those relating the ideatonal type. under which
tain kinds of school material may be memorized. At
the outset of such investigation the psychologist is
confronted with the difficulty of selecting the sort Of
material for memorizng which will be sufficiently uni
to be tried many children and the child
various times is quite evident that II the
ordinary materials of the schooroom such the child
has had In his reading. geography and history room
that this material will not be of the uniformity desired
1t to avoid this difficulty that the psychologist Eb
bnghaus, nearly 25 years ago, tried memory expert
ment in which he used for material sylablas
s certain syllables which could pronounced
which yet had significance; sylabes, for example,
like necdoz-hux. Here we have relatively uniform
material that has for the most little sgnih-
Using this kind of material several thousand school