Part 7 (2/2)
During the first days when a new school is opened, we may consider a certain initial disorder as characteristic, especially if the teacher isher first experiuine expectations The immediate response of the child to the material does not take place; the teacher is perhaps discomfited by the fact that the children do not throw the the to their individual taste
If, indeed, the pupils are very poor children, this phenomenon does nearly always happen at once; but if they are well-to-do children, already sated by the variety of their possessions, and by the most costly toys, they are very rarely attracted at first by the stimuli presented to them This naturally leads to disorder when the mistress makes a kind of chain of that ”liberty” she is to respect, and a dog between the stimulus and the childish soul Experienced teachers, on the other hand, understand better that _liberty_ begins when the _life_ that must be developed in the child is initiated, and they possess a tact which greatly facilitates orientation in the initial period
However, an experience under theher first experiment, and a class of wealthy children, is ives us a clearer picture of the fundamental psychical phenos up out of chaos
I quote, in this connection, various descriptions, soiven by Miss George, of her first school in the United States, and that of Mlle Dufresne in England
The initial disorder is eloquently set forth by Miss George: ”They (the children) at first snatched the objects out of each other's hands; if I tried to show an object to any particular pupil, the others dropped what they theathered ai the nature of an object, all the children snatched at it and quarreled for its possession The children showed no interest in the material: they passed fro in the use of any One of the children was so incapable of keeping still that he could not reers round one of the little circular objects we give the children In many cases, the movements of the children were quite aimless, they ran round the roo these movements, they made no attempt to respect the objects about theainst the table, upset the chairs and stepped upon the an an occupation at one spot, and then ran off in another direction; they took up the objects and cast them aside capriciously”
Miss Dufresne describes the initial disorder of her first attempt as follows: ”I ; the children could not settle to a task for more than a few moments; they showed no perseverance, no initiative; at times they followed one another like a flock of lambs; when one child took up an object, all the others wanted to imitate him, sometimes they rolled on the floor and overturned the chairs”
Froet the following laconic description: ”The greatest difficulty was the question of discipline The children showed a complete lack of attraction to their work, and seein upon it”
These persons, ere all working independently, are all agreed later in their accounts of the initiation of order: the phenoins to show an intense interest in one of the exercises It is by noto the object determined as the first series; it may be any other object that fixes the attention of the child so deeply; the important factor is not the external object, but the internal action of the soul, responding to a stimulus, and arrested by it
Nohen a child once shows this deep interest in any one of the objects we present to hioes on to show a like interest in all the objects, and begins to develop activities as by a natural phenomenon When once the initiation has taken place, it leads to progression which goes on steadily, and develops of its own accord Moreover, the phenoht be produced by a measured and systematic external action; rather it has the ”explosive” character of unsuspected facts that establish theical life, so characteristic in the period of growth Thus it is from one day to another that the baby cuts a tooth, from one day to another that he utters his first word, from one day to another that he takes his first step; and when the first tooth has been cut, the whole set of teeth will coe will be developed; when the first step has been taken, the power of walking has been established once for all
Similar crises occur in the first achieveressive evolution in the inner life
I quote the following sentences froe's description of the advent of discipline:
”In a few days that nebulous an to take definite forin to find their oay; in many of the objects they had at first despised as silly playthings, they began to discover a novel interest, and, as a result of this new interest, they began to act as independent individuals” Miss George's subsequent expression is: ”They became extremely individual” ”Thus it ca interest to one child had not the slightest attraction for another; the children were strongly differentiated in their manifestations of attention” ”The battle is only definitively hen the child discovers soreat interest in him Sometimes this enthusiasm awakens unexpectedly, or with curious rapidity”
”On one occasion I had tried a child with nearly all the objects of the series without exciting the smallest spark of interest; then I casually showed him the two tablets of red and blue colors, and called his attention to the difference of tint He seized them at once with a kind of thirstiness, and learned five different colors in a single lesson; during the following days he took nearly all the objects of the series which he had at first despised, and little by little mastered them all
”A child who at first had very little power of concentrating his attention, found an outlet from this state of chaos by means of one of the th-rods; he played with these continually for a whole week and learned to count and an to turn to the cylinders and the insets, the simpler objects, and showed interest in every part of the syste, their disorderliness disappears at once; their mental restlessness is at an end, and they amuse themselves with the blocks, the colors, etc”
It is very interesting to follow Miss George again in her description of the special qualities that develop after such a phenomenon She illustrates the birth of individuality by a pretty anecdote:
”There were two sisters, one of three years old, the other of five The child of three could hardly be said to exist as an individual, so minutely did she imitate her elder sister; for example, the elder child had a blue pencil and the little one was not happy till she too had a blue pencil; when the elder sister ate bread and butter, whatever the little one had of a different kind, she would touch nothing but bread and butter, and so on This child took no interest in anything in the school, butshe did One day the little one became interested in the pink cubes, built up the toith the liveliest interest, repeated the exercise several tiirl was so astonished at this, that she called her little sister and said to her: 'How is it that while I a the tower?' Froan to develop independently, and was no longer merely the shadow or reflection of her sister”
These interesting facts concerning the spontaneous development of qualities which hitherto were non-existent in the individual, and which exploded _after_ the fundaed interest in a task--had manifested itself, have been confirreat variety of places made by persons who had had no sort of communication one with another
Thus, for instance, Miss Dufresne speaks of a little girl of four years old, who seelass of water even only half full, without spilling it; soshe could not accomplish it One day she became absorbed in ith one or other of the objects, and after this, she began to carry glasses of water with the greatest ease; and as so ater-colors, it becaht to carry water to thenificant fact is related by Miss Barton, an Australian teacher Airl who had not yet developed articulate speech, and only gave utterance to inarticulate sounds; her parents had had her examined by a doctor to find out if she were normal; the doctor declared the child to be perfectly norh she had not as yet developed speech, she would do so in time This child became interested in the solid insets, and a the cylinders out of the cavities and putting the the ith intense interest, she ran to the teacher, saying: ”Come and see!”
A phenoin to be interested in the work and to develop themselves is the lively joy which seeists would say, it is the ”senti to the intellectual acquisition; a physiologist, ht affirrowth, just as an increase in weight is the indication of bodily growth
The children therowth, a consciousness of the acquisitions they aretheir own personalities; they deinning within thee, ”show that pride we ourselves experience e have really produced so novel They skip round me, and throw their arms about , saying: 'I did it all alone, you did not think I could have done that; I did it better to-day than yesterday,'”
It is after these manifestations that a true discipline is established, the most obvious results of which are closely related to ill call ”respect for the work of others and consideration for the rights of others” Henceforward a child no longer attempts to take away another's work; even if he covet it, he waits patiently until the object is free; and very often a child beco a companion at work on some object he would like to use himself Afterwards, when discipline has been established by these internal processes, it will happen all at once that a child ork quite independently of the others, almost as if to develop his own personality; but no ”moral isolation” results from such work; on the contrary, there is a mutual respect and affection between the children, a senti; and hence is born that complex discipline which, moreover, contains within itself the sentiment that must accompany the order of a community