Part 6 (1/2)

This is his opinion of experi the ed upon Thought and Iination I , though I agree that it is necessary to know soy there is nothing at all adequate to the subject of ourat a tree, and noting the most obvious of its external forreat gravity and using very precise language (perhaps believing that this constitutes science), but often confusing the function of _definition_ with that of _description_

In this s are reduced to arid definitions, in order to be clothed in their science, and thus are rendered powerless to inspire thought They never es which no raes differ ae is always the saress, and instead of training their pupils to observe for themselves without prejudice, they instil their own prejudices into thetheest and most a for themselves

But within the tree there is the fundah the revelation of this would explain all the external data The details would dile root ht be classified in the simplest manner This ”science” reminds me of that antiquated lore which dealt with the constellations, when the laws of planetary motion were not yet known, and the so-called science confined itself to descriptions of the ”Great Bear,” the ”Crab,” the ”Goat,”

etc

I detest those dryasdusts who, unaware of their own ignorance, write enorreat e, books that lie heavy on thethem dry as their teachers But the students see their exae; and the professors ”serve” them to this end Thus we are all in a state of servitude due to a mistaken system of education, which calls loudly for reform

III

MY CONTRIBUTION TO EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE

=The organization of psychical life begins with the characteristic phenomenon of attention=--My experimental ith little children from three to six years old has been, in fact, a practical contribution to research which has for its aim the discovery of the treatous to that which hygiene prescribes for its body

I think, therefore, that it is essential to record the fundamental fact which ledthe principles and part of the material I had used for many years previously in the education of deficient children, to the normal children of the San Lorenzo quarter in Roirl of about three years old deeply absorbed in a set of solid insets, re the wooden cylinders fro them The expression on the child's face was one of such concentrated attention that it seemed to me an extraordinary manifestation; up to this time none of the children had ever shown such fixity of interest in an object; and my belief in the characteristic instability of attention in young children, who flit incessantly fro to another, made me peculiarly alive to the pheno her at first, and began to count howthat she was continuing for a long time, I picked up the little armchair in which she was seated, and placed chair and child upon the table; the little creature hastily caught up her case of insets, laid it across the ar the cylinders into her lap, set to work again Then I called upon all the children to sing; they sang, but the little girl continued undisturbed, repeating her exercise even after the short song had come to an end I counted forty-four repetitions; when at last she ceased, it was quite independently of any surrounding stiht have distracted her, and she looked round with a satisfied air, al nap

I think otten impression was that experienced by one who has radually beca the children: itin connection with certain external conditions, which may be determined And each time that such a polarisation of attention took place, the child began to be coent, and more expansive; it showed extraordinary spiritual qualities, recalling the phenoher consciousness, such as those of conversion

It was as if in a saturated solution, a point of crystallization had fora crystal of wonderful forms Thus, when the phenomenon of the polarisation of attention had taken place, all that was disorderly and fluctuating in the consciousness of the child see itself into a spiritual creation, the surprising characteristics of which are reproduced in every individual

It made one think of the _life of s, in an inferior state of chaos, until so attracts it intensely and fixes it; and then un to live

This spiritual phenomenon which may co-involve the entire consciousness of the adult, is therefore only one of the constant elements of the phenoinning of the inner life of children, and accompanies its development in such a manner as to become accessible to research, as an experiave its revelations, and under their guidance aspiritual liberty was evolved

The story of this initiatory episode soon spread throughout the world, and at first it seerees, as experi the most diverse races, the simple and evident principles of this spiritual ”treatanized by the aid of external stimuli, which may be determined experimentally=--The contribution I havechildren tends, in fact, to _specify_ by means of the revelations due to experiment, the form of liberty in internal development

It would not be possible to conceive liberty of development, if by its very nature the child were not capable of a spontaneous organic developies (expansion of latent powers), the conquest of the means necessary to a harmonious innate development, did not already exist In order to expand, the child, left at liberty to exercise his activities, ought to find in his surroundings soanization which is developing itself by natural laws, just as the free insect finds in the form and qualities of flowers a direct correspondence between for the nectar which nourishes it, it is in reality helping the reproduction of the plant There is nothing more ans of these two orders of beings destined to such a providential cooperation

The secret of the free develop for him the means necessary for his internal nourish to a primitive impulse of the child, comparable to that whichmilk from the breast, which by its external form and elaborated sustenance, corresponds perfectly to the requirements of the infant

It is in the satisfaction of this prier, that the child's personality begins to organize itself and reveal its characteristics; just as the new-born infant, in nourishi+ng itself, organizes its body and its natural movements

We must not therefore set ourselves the educational probleanize the internal personality of the child and develop his characteristics; the sole proble the child the necessary nourishanized and complex activity which, while it responds to a prience and develops qualities we consider lofty, and which we supposed were foreign to the nature of the young child, such as patience and perseverance in work, and in the entleness, affection, politeness, serenity; qualities we are accustoories, and as to which, hitherto, we have cherished the illusion that it was our task to develop theh in practise we have never known by what means to do so successfully

In order that the phenomenon should come to pass it is _necessary_ that the spontaneous development of the child should be accorded _perfect liberty_; that is to say, that its calm and peaceful expansion should not be disturbed by the intervention of an unti influence; just as the body of the new-born infant should be left in peace to assirow properly