Part 22 (1/2)
(_b_) _Design Consisting of the Filling in of Outlined Figures._ These designs are most important as they const.i.tute ”the preparation for writing.” They do for the colour sense what _free design_ does for the sense of _form_. In other words, they reveal the capacity of the child _in the matter of observation of colours_, as the free design showed us the extent to which he was an observer of form in the objects surrounding him. I shall speak more fully of this work in the chapter on _writing_. The exercises consist in filling in with coloured pencil, certain outlines drawn in black. These outlines present the simple geometric figures and various objects with which the child is familiar in the schoolroom, the home, and the garden. The child must _select_ his colour, and in doing so he shows us whether he has observed the colours of the things surrounding him.
_Free Plastic Work_
These exercises are a.n.a.logous to those in free design and in the filling in of figures with coloured pencils. Here the child makes whatever he wishes with _clay_; that is, he models those objects which he remembers most distinctly and which have impressed him most deeply. We give the child a wooden tray containing a piece of clay, and then we await his work. We possess some very remarkable pieces of clay work done by our little ones. Some of them reproduce, with surprising minuteness of detail, objects which they have seen. And what is most surprising, these models often record not only the form, but even the _dimensions_ of the objects which the child handled in school.
Many little ones model the objects which they have seen at home, especially kitchen furniture, water-jugs, pots, and pans. Sometimes, we are shown a simple cradle containing a baby brother or sister. At first it is necessary to place written descriptions upon these objects, as it is necessary to do with the free design. Later on, however, the models are easily recognisable, and the children learn to reproduce the geometric solids. These clay models are undoubtedly very valuable material for the teacher, and make clear many individual differences, thus helping her to understand her children more fully. In our method they are also valuable as psychological manifestations of development according to age. Such designs are precious guides also for the teacher in the matter of her intervention in the child's education. The children who, in this work reveal themselves as observers, will probably become spontaneous observers of all the world about them, and may be led toward such a goal by the indirect help of exercises tending to fix and to make more exact the various sensations and ideas.
These children will also be those who arrive most quickly at the act of _spontaneous writing_. Those whose clay work remains unformed and indefinite will probably need the direct revelation of the directress, who will need to call their attention in some material manner to the objects around them.
_Geometric a.n.a.lysis of Figures; Sides, Angles, Centre, Base_
The geometric a.n.a.lysis of figures is not adapted to very young children.
I have tried a means for the _introduction_ of such a.n.a.lysis, limiting this work to the _rectangle_ and making use of a game which includes the a.n.a.lysis without fixing the attention of the child upon it. This game presents the concept most clearly.
The _rectangle_ of which I make use is the plane of one of the children's tables, and the game consists in laying the table for a meal.
I have in each of the ”Children's Houses” a collection of toy table-furnis.h.i.+ngs, such as may be found in any toy-store. Among these are dinner-plates, soup-plates, soup-tureen, saltcellars, gla.s.ses, decanters, little knives, forks, spoons, etc. I have them lay the table for six, putting _two places_ on each of the longer sides, and one place on each of the shorter sides. One of the children takes the objects and places them as I indicate. I tell him to place the soup tureen in the _centre_ of the table; this napkin in a _corner_. ”Place this plate in the centre of the short _side_.”
Then I have the child look at the table, and I say, ”Something is lacking in this _corner_. We want another gla.s.s on this _side_. Now let us see if we have everything properly placed on the two longer sides. Is everything ready on the two shorter sides? Is there anything lacking in the four corners?”
I do not believe that we may proceed to any more complex a.n.a.lysis than this before the age of six years, for I believe that the child should one day take up one of the plane insets and _spontaneously_ begin to count the sides and the angles. Certainly, if we taught them such ideas they would be able to learn them, but it would be a mere learning of formulae, and not applied experience.
_Exercises in the Chromatic Sense_
I have already indicated what colour exercises we follow. Here I wish to indicate more definitely the succession of these exercises and to describe them more fully.
_Designs and Pictures._ We have prepared a number of outline drawings which the children are to fill in with coloured pencil, and, later on, with a brush, preparing for themselves the water-colour tints which they will use. The first designs are of flowers, b.u.t.terflies, trees and animals, and we then pa.s.s to simple landscapes containing gra.s.s, sky, houses, and human figures.
These designs help us in our study of the natural development of the child as an observer of his surroundings; that is, in regard to colour.
The children _select the colours_ and are left entirely free in their work. If, for example, they colour a chicken red, or a cow green, this shows that they have not yet become observers. But I have already spoken of this in the general discussion of the method. These designs also reveal the effect of the education of the chromatic sense. As the child selects delicate and harmonious tints, or strong and contrasting ones, we can judge of the progress he has made in the refinement of his colour sense.
The fact that the child must _remember_ the colour of the objects represented in the design encourages him to observe those things which are about him. And then, too, he wishes to be able to fill in more difficult designs. Only those children who know how to keep the colour _within_ the outline and to reproduce the _right colours_ may proceed to the more ambitious work. These designs are very easy, and often very effective, sometimes displaying real artistic work. The directress of the school in Mexico, who studied for a long time with me, sent me two designs; one representing a cliff in which the stones were coloured most harmoniously in light violet and shades of brown, trees in two shades of green, and the sky a soft blue. The other represented a horse with a chestnut coat and black mane and tail.
CHAPTER XVI
METHODS FOR THE TEACHING OF READING AND WRITING
_Spontaneous Development of Graphic Language._ While I was directress of the Orthophrenic School at Rome, I had already began to experiment with various didactic means for the teaching of reading and writing. These experiments were practically original with me.
Itard and Seguin do not present any rational method through which writing may be learned. In the pages above quoted, it may be seen how Itard proceeded in the teaching of the alphabet and I give here what Seguin says concerning the teaching of writing.
”To have a child pa.s.s from design, to writing, which is its most immediate application, the teacher need only call D, a portion of a circle, resting its extremities upon a vertical; A, two obliques reunited at the summit and cut by a horizontal, etc., etc.
”We no longer need worry ourselves as to how the child shall learn to write: he designs, _then_ writes. It need not be said that we should have the child draw the letters according to the laws of contrast and a.n.a.logy. For instance, O beside I; B with P; T opposite L, etc.”
According to Seguin, then, we do not need to _teach_ writing. The child who draws, will write. But writing, for this author, means printed capitals! Nor does he, in any other place, explain whether his pupil shall write in any other way. He instead, gives much s.p.a.ce to the description of _the design which prepares for_, and which _includes_ writing. This method of design is full of difficulties and was only established by the combined attempts of Itard and Seguin.