MORE BIOLOGY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 205, 22 April 1932, Page 2

MORE BIOLOGY

TO ASSIST CHILDREN IN KNOWLEDGE OF ANIMALS. LONDON, Saturday. That young children should dissect dead animals to learn some biology and man's relation to animals, is the suggestion of Miss Susan Isaacs, child psychologist in her recently published "Intellectual Growth of Young Children." She is convinced that the life-cycle of man should be taught to children from zoological and not botanical examples. "Do we favour the study of plants," she asks, "just because it is more remote from the facts of human relations, and we are afraid to make more than half-concession of our conviction of the child's need for knowledge and understanding? For some years at Malting House School, Cambridge, Miss Isaacs experimented with children from two to just over 10 years of age. She argues that it is no use telling a child to "be kind to the little bird" when a child sees patents killing flies, eating meat and wearing furs. She claims4' that the "loolcuig inside dead animals, and understanding referenees to the shnilarity of organisms of animal and man, do more towards making a child feel responsible for the welfare of animals than all the sentimental talking.