The Washington herald., 1915-12-11

Not until recent years have par
ents, as a rule, taken much thought
about training the special senses OF
their children. Somehow We expected
them 10 form correct judgments Tor
themselves about thc things presented
TO them through the eye. the car. or
the sense Of touch. Those physical
impressions. we reasoned. they could
interpret for themselves, and SO most
of us left the youngsters TO gropc in
tie dark, mistaking in their expert
ence. rerchance. every candle beam
for ray of purest sunlight. Ii was
not until ! read Herbert Spenccrs
Psychology" when my Oldest child
was perhaps 10 years old, that my
eyes were opened to the possibility
that our senses may not always
translate the material world to us
correctly.
In the copy of that work that fell
into ny hands there was an illustra-
tion OF the rays OF light falling on
cylinder and DETECTED from it to the
human eye in a Qucerly distorted
image, quite different from the real
: object in view. As l looked ct the
picture / saw beyond the writer's as
sertion that none OF us is sure that
what We see is correct presentment
of reality into the deeper truth that
If we cannot be sure of our surround
ings with oyr mature judgment how
Immensely greater must the difficulty
be for our children-for a child must
always be getting false impressions
unless he is aided by those who trav-
eled the road before him. And so
was led to try to train the senses OF
my two little girls as well as L could
see now that l had blindiy struck
the path that the celebrated Italian
teacher. Montessori, has lately opened
TO the world-the one that the de-
yelopmental schools springinE up the
world over are now attempting to FOL
low, the training of the soul, L mean,
through the exercise of the bodily
senses. ] talked with several young
mothers of my acquaintance and got
them interested in the formation of a
little club for the study of this SUBJ
ject. 1 dare say We did our work
crudely and in a very elementary way.
and yet do feel that our children got
some benefit from it after all.
One of our own Mothers Club moth
ers has done so much better with her
children than we did in that first lit
tie attempt that / am going to give
you part of letter she wrote me about
1t. She has had the benefit, you see,
of all the late thought contributed by
the wonderful teachers of today. and
SO she is farther advanced than We
were.
Dear Aunt Chatty." she wrote. 81
.have been SO interested in the Mon
tessori method since your talk on the
subject that l have read everything /
have been able to get hold of on the
subject. I have begun to try the sys-
tenn in my own poor way with my ow?
two children. and i must say the re-
suits are already astonishing. Both of
them are developing a power of OBJ
servation that 1 never supposed chill
dren capable of having. / began my
teaching with eye training principally.
although j intend to take up each
sense in time and train them all as
well as can. Just now ] am interest
ed in colors; We have a set of disks of
/. different shades and they put them to-
gcther in graduated order. from light
er to darker. or arrange them accord
ing to the Complementary coIors. and
they are really quite wonderful about
It
Then. when we are out walking, for
Instance, and pass a shop window,
ask them to note everything they can
as we go by and tell me the names of
as many of the articles as they can re-
member. Presently we go back past
the same window to verify the report.
1t Is good game and amuses the
children more than anything We have
ever tried before. Out in the country
1t Is the same way. call their attention
to the different kinds of trees and ask
them to see how many different ones
there are If we do not know what
kind any one is We try to get a leaf to
take home with US to study.
Il intend to begin on sounds next. but
We are all interested in the sight game.
As We call 1t. my husband more than
any CT u.s. I believe Life seems SO
rauch more. worth while than It used
20 when we were only concerned about
teaching the children good table manners
and good morals. Indeed. I do not have
% much difficulty about such things
Aew that their minds are taken up