THE CONTENTS OF CHILDREN'S MINDS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2020, 18 June 1885, Page 4

THE CONTENTS OF CHILDREN'S MINDS.

Some light may he tinown on the question which is being discussed as to the value of the methods employed in the le cent inquiry into the existence of ovei pressure in the elementary schools by a study of some interesting inquiries made into the contents of the minds of cliildM'ii of the same class in Gumany and America The object of the enquiucs was to as.cii tain the nature of the mate rial, in its tough state, on which school mastcis in elemental y schools in towns like Boilm and Boston lnd to work be fore the Government Inspector appealed on the scene. The inquiiies were insti tnted by the Pedagogical Society of Berlin, and by Mi Stanley Hall, of Boston, and, although the tests em ployed weie of a \ery simple kind, they were found to be of very difficult appli cation, as neither the society nor Mi Hill weie willing to accept the icsults of n mere show of hands in answer to questions as satisf.ietoiy. The chief problem to be solved was, " What may city chil dren be assumed to know and ha\e seen by their teichcis when they enter Bcliool ?" In the case of Berlin the re suits were far from being satistactory, and out of about 2000 icturns sent in only about half of them ua\c trustworthy results. With the experience of the Gei man society before him, Mr Stanley Hall nndeitooU an examination of a similar kind in the elementary schools of Boston, and fi .lining a new set of questions more in accordance with the surroundings of American children, he employed four of the best trained and experienced kindergai ten teachers to cai ry out the examinations by questioning three children at a time. On account of the strictness of the condition*, Mr Hall wns only able to accept the recoids of about 200 examinations, and these he has tabulated according to the percentage of ignorance of the whole number of children, and also comparatively as to that of boys, girls, liish children, Americin children, and children under training in the kinder gaiten. The results as shown ky these tables will, we think, be a great surprise to mo"t people, and we regret that we can only give a few examples, choosing those winch show the amount of ignorance on subjects which should be bust known to children, and not those which show the highest peicentage of ignorance. The aijes of the chddien ranged fiom four to eight yeais, and they were chiefly ef liish and American parentage, a small number being Gei man. The returns were caiefully tabulated to determine the in fluenteof age, " which seemed surprisingly unpionounced, indicating a slight value of age ]><-> s <- as an index of ripe ness for school." Of familiar living objects, 6.").,} per cent, of the children had never seen an ant, 62 per cent a snail, and '20 5 per cent, a buttei fly. Of trees, vegetables, and flowers, 83 per cent, did not know the maple tree, 63 per cent, had never planted a seed, 61 per cent, had not seen potatoes grow, 55.."> had never gatheied bntteicups, and ,">4 per cent, had not seen roses grow. Of the parts of their own bodies 00 5 per ccn f . did not know where their ribs weie, and 21,5 per cent, did not know their right hand from their left ; 75.5 pel cent, did not know the seasons of the year, and 65 per cent, had ne\ei seen .i rainbow. With regard to home surroundings 9,5,4 per cent, did not know that leather things came from animals, 89 per cent, were unable to knit, 64.5 pui cent, had nu\er bathed, 36 percent, had never saved cents at home, and 3") 5 pet cent, had nevei been in the country. With respect to the sexes, boys appear to be more intelligent than girls on all subjects except the parts of the body. The American children were more intelligent than the Irish, and as might be expected from the nature of the questions, those trained in the kindeigarten were far ahead of both. Although the tables do not show it, Mr Hall asserts that country-bred chilceen rank higher than city children in all the subjects of examination, and in many items very much higher. Bt tides the tabular results Mr Hall gives examples of many curious answeis which were elicited during the examinations, and which show the ease with which a child's imagination is led astrny, often by the mere jingle of rhyme, alliteration, and cadence of wotds and sentences. Thus, buttei flies make butter or cat it, giass • lioppeis give gra&s, bees Rive beads and beans, all honey is fiom the honej suckles, kittens grow on the pii'sy-vullow, and poplin dieses are made of poplar tices. When a cow lows it blows its own horn ; at night the sun goes or rolls or flies, is blown or walks, or God pulls it up higher out of sight. He takes it into heaven, and perhaps puts it tv lied, and even takes of its clothes and puts them on in the morning. The moon comes around when it is a blight night and people want to walk, or forget to light Home lamps. Thunder is God groaning, or kicking, or turning a big handle, oi grinding snow, walking loud, bi caking something, throwing lo<,s, having coals run in, pounding about w ith a big hammer, hitting the clouds, clouds bumping or clai'ping together or bursting, aie samples of a iiumbti of (unions ansueis which show that inquiring into the contents of clnldien's minds must he an exceedingly c nttitaining, if not a very piofitable occupation. It would seem that the idea oi Paradise is not the same •with children as with their parents in America. Everything that is good and imptifectly known to children is locittd in the country, and when good children die they do not go toPaiadibe but to the country — " even here fiom Boston," adds Mr Hall. The lessons for parents, sirhuolmasters rond examiners which auto bo learned from these interesting inquiries are, according to Mr Hall, that the knowledge which an aveiage child of laboring classes in towns poshesses at the outset of school life " is next to nothing of pedagogic value," and the best pieparatiou patents can giie theirchildrcn for good school training is to make them acquainted with natural objects, especially with the sights and sounds of the countiy, and talk about them; and to send them to good healthy kindergartens. The table showing the percentage of ignoiance indicates the order in which education should be effected ; the conditions which immediately sun omul a child arc most easily framed, and those which are more lemole with qi cater difficulty, nonet the advantage of objects and the dilfieulty and dangeis of books and woid-crain. School inspectors and psychologists may alio leain firnn Mr Hall's experiment how much tact and ingenuity is required to airive at the contents of childien's mi.ids, and how caieful they should be of accepting the results of quest. oning huge bodies of them. The astounding ignoiance displayed by the poor chihhen of Berlin and Boston, and which no doubt is equalled, if not surpassed, by the same class id our own countiy, is but the leflex of the ig noranee of their patents and the popula tion among wlioin they aicbrul, and any cry like that of over picssuie which is likely to interfere with the slight eflbits being made to remove it, should be well weighed and accepted only on the eh aiest scientific proof — a kind of proof which is not attainable fiom the data we now possess, — Pall Mall Hudgat

Sun a lather frivolous New York lady to a fi lend, 'It inny l»e yenra and yeais and y«ars before I find my ideal man. 'And what aio you going to do in the meantime? 'I'll get married, I suppose.' There is an old proverb which says, ' You cannot get moie out of a lmttle than wa* put in it.' That is a mistake, A man can get all that Jie put in, and in addition to this can got 5s or seven days. •An, George, you did propose to Vivian?' 'No; she made the proposal before I had a chance to say anything.' 'She dul? What'did she say ? fllie pioposed that T lea\ et'ie house immediately, and I accepted.'