The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-07-14
CHILD TRAINING
IN THE HOME
IMPROVISATION
BY Prof. M. v. o'shea

Nature commands the normal child
to be ceaselessly occupied during
waking life in using all things at
his command to reproduce what he
sees going on around him. The child
who gallops off on his broomstick, i'm
itating his father on a horse, is get
ting valuable experience of a simple
sort in doing what he may need to do
later in life. In this simple action he
is using his senses to get information,
and then, most important of all, he is
making this information his own by
actually doing the act. This is the
only way he can learn 1t. He cannot
even perceive accurately until he is
under the necessity of reproducing
Nhe thing he is perceiving, or adapt
ing himself to it in some way. Nature
will not develop any faculty unless
there is need for it. If the child
could get all he wants without be-
coming sharp in sight, hearing, taste,
touch and smell, he never would ac-
quire any keenness through any of
his senses.
The child who has large sand pile
in which he may make pies, build
houses. and so on, has q better chance
to develope his intelligence than a
child who is not so favored. AS
rule, the better the child's opportuni-
ties for imitation, and the wider the
range of his limitations, the more rapid
and normal progress he will make IN
the development of his mind.
Often parents think that doll play
is simply amusement; but it may be
the means of developing intelligence
in a high degree. The child of four
or five who cares for her doll. watch
full of its needs, nursing it when in
trouble. dressing it, putting it to bed,
instructing it, is getting forward faster
than she ever could without such ex-
perience. These activities all require
keen observation, and intelligence IN
execution. Doll play brings most of
the factors of intellect which are re-
quired in caring for little child in
real life. OF course, the more the
child has to do for her doll, the better
it will be for her intellectual develop
ment. A doll which the child does
nothing but look at, rock to sleep, or
carry in her arms, is of slight value
compared with the one that must be
dressed and undressed, have her hair
combed. her nails polished, for whom
clothes must be made and so on.
AS the child's range of observation
increases. doll play ought to become
more varied and educative. A child who
is given a suggestion now and again
a soI, -
imaginative feeling with regard to
dolls, all of which may be vastly i'm
portant for intellectual development.
Suppose a child has five or six dolls
of different sizes and appearance.
Each one may be made to personity
a memeber Of the family or some per-
son in the neighborhood: or charac-
ter in history or in some story which
she has heard. Then these characters
may be made to act their parts in a
little drama. There is nc experience
in human life which is more absorb
ing than these play dramatics in early
childhood: and it must be impressed
that in this play the child is simply
taking mental possession of the world
around him. If he did not dramatize |
life, he would not learn it.
An observing parent must have
noted his child's passion to play a |
part. Every living thing he sees furn |
ishes a model for personification. Now |
he is cat, now dog, now one Of his
and so on ad libitum. DO /
you see what this means for develop |
ment2 Suppose, for instance that a /
child five years OF age visits black
smith. When he comes home you /
may find him shoeing horses all the