THE INTERESTS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD

THE INTERESTS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD.--The interests of early childhood are
chiefly connected with ministering to the wants of the organism as
expressed in the appetites, and in securing control of the larger
muscles. Activity is the preeminent thing--racing and romping are worth
doing for their own sake alone. Imitation is strong, curiosity is
rising, and imagination is building a new world. Speech is a joy,
language is learned with ease, and rhyme and rhythm become second
nature. The interests of this stage are still very direct and immediate.
A distant end does not attract. The thing must be worth doing for the
sake of the doing. Since the young child"s life is so full of action,
and since it is out of acts that habits grow, it is doubly desirous
during this period that environment, models, and teaching should all
direct his interests and activities into lines that will lead to
permanent values.


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To many of Jenner"s contemporaries the view that vaccinia had

at one time been a disease of human beings seemed unlikely; but
we are now in a far better position to admit its probability
than were those of Jenner"s time
To many of Jenner"s contemporaries the view that vaccinia had
at one time been a disease of human beings seemed unlikely; but
we are now in a far better position to admit its probability
than were those of Jenner"s time. We have since then learned
that man shares many diseases with the lower animals,
tuberculosis, plague, rabies, diphtheria and pleuro-pneumonia,
to mention only a few. We have also learned that certain lower
animals, insects for instance, are intermediary hosts in the
life-cycle of many minute parasites which cause serious
diseases in the human being, amongst which malaria, yellow
fever and the sleeping sickness are the most familiar.


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When the child is a member of the school, what shall be done with him?

He must first be taught to take an interest in the exercises by making
the exercises interesting to him
When the child is a member of the school, what shall be done with him?
He must first be taught to take an interest in the exercises by making
the exercises interesting to him. That the transition from home to the
school may be easy, he should first occupy himself with those topics and
studies that are presented to the eye and to the ear, and may be
mastered, so as to produce the sensation that follows achievement with
only a moderate use of the reasoning and reflective faculties. Among
these are reading, writing, music, and drawing. This is also the time
when object lessons may be given with great advantage. The forms and
names of geometrical solids may be taught. Exercises may be introduced
tending to develop those powers by which we comprehend the qualities of
color, size, density, form, and weight. Important moral truths may be
presented with the aid of suitable illustrations. In every school the
teacher and text-books may be considered a positive quality which should
balance the negative power of the school itself. In primary schools
text-books have but little value, and the chief reliance is, therefore,
upon the teacher. Instruction must be mainly oral; hence the mind of the
teacher should be well furnished, and her capacities chastened by
considerable experience. As the pupils are unable to study, the teacher
must lead in all their exercises, and find profitable employment for the
children, or they will give themselves up to play or to stupid
listlessness. Of these alternatives, the latter is more objectionable
than the former.


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