Chapter IX: A Few Closing Words 283 (6)

Personally, also, I am of Witte’s belief that intellectual training along the lines followed by him in his son’s upbringing is of itself an important adjunct to moral growth. Certainly, by developing the powers of observation, analysis, and inference, it makes it easier for the child to appreciate the force of any arguments advanced by the parent in the way of direct moral instruction. Besides this, by keeping the child’s mind occupied with wholesome and profitable matters, it saves him from the idleness and waste of energy which, in childhood as much as in adult life, favour the formation of bad habits. And assuredly the methods by which his mental education may best be carried on in the first years of existence are such that they may be readily applied by all parents.

It is by no means a difficult thing to begin, as Witte did, by naming to the little one various small objects in and about the home. These should be named over and over to him, slowly, clearly, impressively; and the attempt should next be made to convey to him a notion of their properties, by teaching him, for example, to detect differences in colour and in such qualities as hot and cold, round and square, hard and soft, rough and smooth. This can be done in any one of several ways, but the best method, it seems to me, is that developed within recent years by the noted Italian educator of little children, Maria Montessori.

Her plan with every child whose education is intrusted to her is to start by teaching it to distinguish between various touch sensations; and she does this so successfully that her pupils, aged from three to seven, are able, blindfolded, to state the differences in extremely fine gradations of cloths, papers, coins, and seeds. Any parent can do the same thing, beginning by drilling the child in distinguishing between massive sensations, and gradually developing delicacy of touch.

Two cards, one rough, one smooth, afford an excellent starting-point. The child touches the smooth card. “Smooth,” says the parent, and “Smooth” responds the child. The little fingers are then placed on the card with the rough surface. “Rough,” the child is told, and “Rough” he repeats. Only a few lessons of this sort will be found necessary to enable him to select at request the smooth or the rough card and hand it to the parent. Ideas of shape, size, etc., may be similarly imparted, with the triple advantage that the child will daily, and without mental stress, acquire a more and more retentive muscular memory, a more intimate acquaintance with the facts of the world in which he lives, and greater observational and reasoning ability.

Meanwhile, of course, the fertilisation of the child’s mind should also be continued by other educative measures—as the maintenance of an inspiring environment, ready and intelligent response to the child’s innumerable questions, and skilful guidance of his thoughts to subjects which it is especially desirable for him to study. The system of walks and talks, utilised alike by James Thomson, James Mill, and Pastor Witte, is particularly to be recommended in this connection, as also Witte’s practice of propounding to his son interesting problems, and then taking him to places—factories, mills, etc.—where he could observe for himself different stages in their solution.

Something of the same sort is possible to every parent, who can include in such voyages of discovery, if he be a city dweller, visits to botanical and zoölogical gardens, art and industrial museums, and similar institutions where his child can obtain entertainment, some insight into the workings of natural laws, and elementary instruction in subjects which will inevitably form part of his school curriculum at a later day.

But, it may be objected, does not all this mean that in order to make sure of results the father and mother will have to give the greater part of their time to the child’s education? Not at all. One hour or so a day will be quite enough in the way of direct, personal tuition. And even if the task of instruction were really burdensome, surely, in view of the findings of modern science, parents will do well to keep in mind, and recognize the profound truth of, Rousseau’s stern pronouncement:

“He who cannot fulfil the duties of a father has no right to be a father. Not poverty, nor severe labour, nor human respect can release him from the duty of supporting his children and of educating them himself. Readers, you may believe my words. I prophesy to any one who has natural feeling and neglects these sacred duties—that he will long shed bitter tears over this fault, and that for these tears he will find no consolation.”

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The passages quoted by me from Witte’s book have been made partly from Professor Wiener’s translation, and partly from the original.

[2] It is to the development of some vital interest—whether by parental training or the accident of a favourable environment—that is due the often observed absence of laziness in children that are handicapped by adenoids, eye trouble, etc. This does not mean that the parent should neglect to have such handicaps removed as soon as possible; no matter how “interested” a child may be, the correction of remediable physical defects is of importance to his welfare and progress.

[3] Since these lines were written Doctor Boris Sidis, in his “Psychology of Laughter,” has criticised the Bergson theory in more detail but on somewhat different grounds. Doctor Sidis’s own theory, briefly, is that the laughable is not the “mechanical” but the “stupid.” Or, as he himself expresses it, “Allusion to human stupidity is at the root of all comic.”

[4] The psychology of dreams and their practical significance will be dealt with in some detail in my forthcoming book on “Sleep and Sleeplessness.”

INDEX

Adenoids, and delinquency, 27;
and laziness, 173-174.

Ampère, A., 84.

Baby talk, dangers of, 49-51, 136.

Bain, A., 199.

Balzac, H. de, 99, 166-167.

Berle, A. A., 49-50, 136.

Bidder, G., 84.

Binet, A., 62.

Boccacio, 99.

Brady, J. G., 16-18.

Bruns, Doctor, 241-242.

Burke, A. H., 15-16.

Buxton, J., 84, 85.

Chabaneix, P., 89.

Childhood, impressionability of, 30-35, 41-45, 60-63;
mental activity in, 163-164;
hysteria in, 221-245;
results of fear in, 258-274.

Children’s Aid Society, 13-18.

Cicero, 106.

Colburn, Z., 82-84.

Coleridge, S. T., 78.

Colours, psychology of, 57-59.

Condillac, 79.

Coriat, I. H., 255-256, 266-268.

Coulter, E. K., 11.

Dante, 88, 99.

Darwin, C., 91, 165, 168, 180-183, 186, 201, 203, 250.

Dase, Z., 84.

Davy, H., 166.

Delinquency, chief factors in, 5-19;
physical defects and, 19-27, 162.

Dental defects, and delinquency, 22-27;
and laziness, 174-176.

Diderot, D., 89.

Dreams, and genius, 75-81;
and disease, 260, 265, 267-268, 270-272.

Dubois, P., 28, 285.

Dugdale, R. L., 7, 10.

Education, suggestion in, 39-68;
importance of early, 67-68, 114-117;
instances of early, 119-157;
helps in early, 286-289.

Eliot, C. W., 64-65.

Ellis, H., 57, 106.

Environment, and crime, 5-19;
and ill-health, 52-55;
and mental development, 60, 109, 136-137;
and hysteria, 232-234;
and general welfare, 283-284.

Eugenics, 5-6.

Eye trouble, and delinquency, 21-23;
and laziness, 177-178.

Fear, function of, 250;
abnormal, 251-256;
as cause of nervous diseases, 257-274.

Fénelon, 106.

Fleury., M. de, 179, 183-185.

Franklin, B., 79.

Galileo, 91, 106.

Gauss, K., 84.

Genius, contrasting theories of, 71-75;
and dreams, 75-81;
the subconscious in, 86-94;
and hard work, 95-101;
interest and, 102;
precocity of, 105-107;
longevity of, 107-108.

Goethe, 87-88.

Gourmont, R. de, 89.

Habits, formation of, 42-43.

Hall, G. S., 196, 213.

Hallam, H., 106.

Hecht, D’O., 227-229.

Heine, H., 165.

Henry, P., 166.

Heredity, and delinquency, 5-19;
and genius, 71;
and hysteria, 264.

Heyne, C. G., 142.

Hobbes, T., 105-106, 198-199.

Holmes, A., 24.

Hysteria, in childhood, 221-247;
characteristics of, 231-234;
treatment, 237-243, 261, 269;
prevention, 243-246, 274-278;
as result of fear, 251-274.

Inaudi, J., 84.

Indy, V. d’, 89.

Interest, and intellectual development, 102-105;
and longevity, 108;
as antidote to laziness, 183-189.

Janet, P., 235, 273.

Johnson, S., 166.

Juke family, 6-11.

Keller, H., 32-34.

Kelvin, Lord, education of, 119-126.

King, E., 121.

Kirk, E. C., 23.

Lamartine, A., 88.

Lange, C. G., 197.

Languages, teaching foreign, 138-140.

Laughter, abnormal, 196-197;
Hobbes’s theory, 198-199;
Bain’s theory, 199;
Spencer’s theory, 201;
Mélinaud’s theory, 202;
Bergson’s theory, 203-208;
problem re-stated, 209-210;
in childhood, 210-215;
function of, 212-216;
importance to parents, 217-218.

Laziness, contrasting theories of, 162-168;
a pathological condition, 168-169;
physical defects and, 172-178;
treatment, 179-186;
prevention, 187-189.

Left-handedness, 43-45.

Lightning calculators, 82-86.

Lombroso, C., 8, 71.

Lowell, J. R., 166.

Lyell, C., 165, 168.

Mangiamele, V., 84.

Mélinaud, C., 201-202.

Mill, J. S., education of, 126-132.

Minto, W., 131-132.

Mitchell, J. J., 276-277.

Mondeux, H., 84.

Montessori, M., 287.

Moral training, Witte’s method of, 145-152.

Mosso, A., 278.

Mozart, 89, 100-101.

Myers, F. W. H., 72, 74.

Napoleon, 90, 100, 105.

Newton, I., 90-91, 101.

Parsons, F. A., 53-54.

Perez, B., 43.

Phobias, 251-256, 261-263, 278.

Poltergeist, 223-227, 233-234.

Preyer, W., 214, 230.

Prince, M., 258-261.

Public school system, criticisms of, 64-66.

Ribot, T., 172.

Rousseau, J. J., 289-290.

Safford, T., 84.

Schiller, 88, 101.

Schoff, H. K., 12.

Sidis, B., 115, 208 _n_, 260-261, 269-272.

Shinn, M., 210, 214.

Stevenson, R. L., 79-81, 96-98.

Subconscious, nature of the, 73;
memory, 31-35;
perception, 40-41;
in sleep, 75-81;
in lightning calculation, 84-85;
in genius, 86-94;
in hysteria, 233.

Suggestion, characteristics of, 39, 41;
in child training, 45-51;
experiments in, 40-41, 61-63;
in treatment of laziness, 185;
as cause of hysteria, 231-234;
in treatment of hysteria, 237-242, 261.

Sully, J., 214.

Swift, E. J., 165, 174.

Tartini, G., 78-79.

Thorndike, E. L., 102-104.

Upson, H. S., 26.

Voltaire, 89.

Waldstein, L., 32, 34, 43-44.

Wallace, A. R., 91-94.

Wallin, J. E. W., 175.

Westlake, E., 224-226.

Wickstead, P. H., 154-155.

Wiener, L., 137 and _n_.

Witmer, L., 19-22, 65.

Witte, K., education of, 133-153;
career of, 154-157.

Wordsworth, W., 165.

End of Project Gutenberg's Psychology and parenthood, by H. Addington Bruce