The Monroe journal., 1919-06-03

Baltimore Sun
The mother who euddles and
kisses her child when he cries should
be punishable by law.
Yes. mother-loye is the most
beautiful thing in the world: but Il
always add under my BREATH is at
the same time most harmful"
Such were the assertions of DR..
John B. Watson. professor of psy-
eholosy. at Johns Hopkins University.
in his address 10 the members of the
International Kindergarten Union on
the results of his laboratory studies.
He spoke on The kindergarten
Age"
Dr. Watson has been engaged in
making experiments concerning the
natural emotions and instincts of the
child. and in giving an account OF the
results of his work. disproyed some
Of the most cherished and traditional
theories concerning infants.
The emotions of a child are very
simple and Straightforward" he said.
and the overdevelopment and under
DEVELOPMENT of the emotions in chill
dren with whom we come in contact
are due almost entirely to the charac-
Ter of their training and surround
mgS."
to this. girls instructive fear of
strong advocate of the theory that
children should be allowed entire
freedom of development. in their
emotions especially. during the early
period of their life. but that II was of
the utmost Importance TO have this
development guided TO systematic
aud definite lines.
Or. Watson sal dthat he had expe-
rimented on three children from the
Harriet Lane Hospital. who had beea
carefully reared and who had experi-
enced practically no stimulation of
their emotions. In each instance an
imals of various sorts were brought
10 them and they displayed no fear of
them. but instinctively reached for
them.
No fear of dark. light or any OBJ
ject was evinced. not even when a
white rat was put near them. though
they were all little girls. According
children don't know what they are
rats, etc. would be unfounded. Even
the animals at Druid Hill Park.
shown them for the first time at the
ages of 165 days and 1I2. brought
forth no more than temporary emo
tion.
As for instincts. DR.. Watson de-
elared that lengthy lists have been
collected without foundation.
The lovely theories about right
handed children and left-handed chill
dren, the traditional story that all
children are left-handed at birth and
become right-handed afterwards. the
stories of the beautiful swimming
movements of the infant are wrong.
Nor has child natural instinct for
cleanliness"
He then related how a child will
reach for anything. be ii clean or
dirty. as an infants instinct is always
positive. All negative reaction is the
result of training. A child. he said.
has an instinct for some kind OF To-
comoton, but not necessarily for
crawling. He works out system of
his own by which he can move
around
Crawling as pattern instinct
does not exist" he said. though, II
once acquired by habit it does retard
an infant in walking. A man at birth
is supplied with certain defensive
movements which become cultivated
by slight effort.
"Manipulative instincts require but
slight stimulation before manipula-
tion is made habit suited to the sur
roundings. But by the time all the
original manipulative tendencies are
cultivated out. child by our modern
system of education in the schools and
colleges, it's no wonder that the poor
children don't know what they are
fitted for, or what they want when
they are grown" concluded DR.. Wat
son.