Part 8 (1/2)

Miss Dufresne says: ”After the Christe in the class It see itself, without any effort on my part The children appeared to be too e in any of the disorderly actions which hadThey went spontaneously to the cupboards to choose the objects which had bored theraduated cylinders, and began to touch the outlines of the wooden forer children showed a preference for the buttoning and lacing fraue, and seehted with the new objects An atmosphere of industry pervaded the schoolroom The children who had hitherto chosen objects on the impulse of the moment, henceforth manifested a desire for some sort of rule, a personal and internal rule; they concentrated their efforts on their task, working accurately anddifficulties This precision in work produced an immediate effect on their characters They beca their nerves”

The instance which struck Miss Dufresne most was that of a little boy of four and a half, who at first had seemed very nervous and excitable and had disturbed the whole class: ”The iination of this child had been developed in an extraordinary iven to him, he took no notice of the actual form of the object, but personified it, and further personified hi to be so his attention upon the objects While his mind was in this chaotic state he was unable to perform any precise action; he could not, for instance, button a single button All at once a reat change in him with astonishment He took one of the exercises as his favorite task, then went on to choose all the others in succession, and thus calmed his nerves”

I will choose from various individual studies made by two mistresses of a Children's House at Rome for well-to-do children, those of two children of very different characters One of these children came to the school too late, when he was too old, and had already developed in another environe for entrance to the Children's Houses The older child (a boy of five) had already been to a Froebelian Kindergarten, where he was considered very troublesome because of his restlessness ”For the first few days he was a torment to us, because he wanted to work, but could not settle to any occupation He said of everything: 'This is a game,' and ran about the class-rooan to take an interest in drawing” Although nor comes _after_ the sensory exercises, he was left at liberty to do what he wished; the teachers rightly thought that it would be useless to insist that the child should apply hi passed the age when the primary materials answer to the psychical needs of childhood, was for the first ti ”Whereas at first the child had passed from one occupation to another, and had even taken up the letters of the alphabet, but had never settled to ith any one of the objects, now suddenly discipline was established We do not know exactly at what e took place, but discipline was her level in proportion to the growing interest of the child in every kind of occupation Interest having been pri, the child spontaneously went on to the rods used in the teaching of length, then to placing the plane geoh all the earlier sensory stimuli which the teacher had passed over” Thus we see that the older child chooses the objects in inverse order, proceeding almost methodically from the most difficult to the elementary

The other child of three was also quite undisciplined The teachers were beginning to despair of producing order in this case, when the child began to take an interest in the solid insets and in one of the frames Thereupon he worked steadily and ceased to disturb his companions

In our ”Children's Houses” for poor children in Ronorina Maccheroni, it was possible to make more rams, in order to demonstrate the course of the phenomena more clearly

The transverse line A B represents the quiescent state; the phenomena of order (work) are represented above; those of disorder below When a child has beco attraction to a task, a pere the conditions most favorable to work may be studied

PRIMITIVE CURVE OF ORDERED WORK

This is theof disciplined work

[Illustration: Primitive Curve of Ordered Work]

The child keeps still for a while, and then chooses soradation; he continues working at this for a ti; he passes on to so words with theti, walks about the room, and appears less calns of fatigue But after a few minutes he undertakes some much more difficult work, and becomes so deeply absorbed in this, that he shows us he has reached the ac down the results) When this work is finished, his activity comes to an end in all serenity; he conte tiins to confide in her

The appearance of the child is that of a person who is rested, satisfied, and uplifted

The apparent fatigue of the child between the first and second period of work is interesting; at that moment the aspect of the child is not calns of agitation, moves about, and walks, but does not disturb the others It may be said that he is in search of thefor his ”great work”

But, on the other hand, when _the cycle is completed_, the child detaches himself from his internal concentration; refreshed and satisfied, he experiences the higher social i to make confidences and to hold intimate communion with other souls

A sieneral process in a class of disciplined children Signorina Maccheroni sums up this complex phenomenon as follows:

[Illustration: Whole Class at Work]

In the first period of the enerally an easy and fareat coo in quest of ets an impression of a _tired_ class, about to becons once ain; they have chosen new and more difficult occupations

When this work ceases, the children are gentle, calue” at 10 a the pheno work as disorder, intervenes, calling the children to her, andthem rest, etc, their restlessness persists, and the subsequent work is not undertaken The children do not become calm: they remain in an abnormal state In other words, if they are interrupted in their cycle, they lose all the characteristics connected with _an internal process regularly and cole curve of individual orderly work is not general, nor strictly constant in the type described But it e type of work in the level of order achieved It will be interesting, first of all, to consider the curve of children in whom _order has not yet been established_ Poor children hardly ever show themselves to be in such a state of utter confusion as rich ones; they are _always_ more or less attracted by the objects, and respond to them with a certain interest from the very first moment Such interest, however, is at first superficial They are attracted s” They ale objects, changing and selecting the any deep interest The characteristic of this period, whichin a class of well-to-do children, is that of _alternations of disorder_

The following diagram represents this period

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

STAGE PRECEDING THE EVOLUTION OF ORDER

[Illustration: _Individual curve of a poor child_]

The various curves of work are to be found below the line of quiescence, in state of disorder It was only when the children were called to order collectively that this child was still, unless it was rising towards work; in this case, however, it did not persevere, and the curve drops suddenly below It should be noted that in the irregular course of this diagra a period of difficult work (frame, plane insets) and between these two the maximum decline into disorder