The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-03-24


of helping children it does harm. 1t weakcns in
tiativc. 1t restraints originality. 1t tends to make
tho children more or less alike turning them out
like fabrics from factory. II fails to take into
account the laws operating in the nature OF the
children. And yet these laws plain enough
ANY ono who knows children can see them work
ing in the questions the children ask in their in
stinctive outrcaching toward their environment
in their eagcrncss to investigate.
Children supposed to hate school. Liter
| aturc abounds in expressions OF their feeling
And vet the school is the place organized for the
purpose OF developing their natural faculties. OF
satisfying their appctitcs in their questions and
in their reaching out. The truth is, however. that
the school has not worked harnoniously with the
children. Often it has worked against them. In
stead of inviting them, ii has rcsOrted to COM
mandS. Instead of giving them the OF graft
hcatiou, OF freedom, it has made them feel like
little prisoners with aIpctcs in restraint. In re-
cent years many educators have realized this OPP
position. They have been trying to reconcile the
school and the scholars. On this subject Tolstoy
has written some OF his most suggestive essays
His own experience as teacher made him see
the importance of sympathy between teacher
and scholar II he were alive today, he would be
in sympathy with the method that just now is
attracting the interest of educators known as the
MontcsSori system.
/ This system is founded sympathy with the
instincts OF the child 1t knows that the child is
by nature active creature. Its activities must
have play. The environment must provide oppor-
tunities for expression The wider the opportu.
mites the better for -hc child IN children, in
grown people, happiness is reached through cx-
preston. Just as a man who loves his work
loses himself and gains freedom in tho pursuit oil
an absorbing interest, it is with the child. As
| all people know who have been much with chill
drcn there is a great deal of suffering during
| childhood from sheer boredom. 1t sometimes
seems as if, when the world made. insufficient
provision given to children. Often they seem
! to have no place They arc in the way. We al
know how, in the building of cities, they arc for
gotten And yet, OF all beings, they most need the
practice of activity. Their little faculties clamor
for exercise. If the exercise is denied the fac
ultics grow weak And with exercise the facu
| tics constantly take on greater life.
| Among grown-ups there many who are
lacking in interests. We see them all around us
1t is sometimes said that they have a weak hold
on life. or that they have place in the world
The trouble is that they are not related to thciI
|
environment. The faculties that ought to make
them related have not been developed. If we
could get at the of the trouble should
often find that it lies in their early education
They doubtless had the instincts that clamor fol
| expression and that develop efficiency; but
through some misfortune, their faculties have MOI
been helped toward natural growth. They ex
press one of the many tragedies of imperfect ed
vocational methods.
| Under present system of training there
| is vast amount of physical and mental and mora
energy lost to the world. With it go mmens,
possibilities in the way Of happiness. 1t is &c
prevent such waste that the educators Of today
are striving. 1t looks as if they had reached
down to the root Of the matter. They surely mus
be on the right track when they recognize the alb
surdity of making school a trial to children in
stead OF joy, eaaslof repression instead o.
| expression.
| The Sick Man of Europe.