THE CONTENTS OF CHILDREN'S MINDS.

Press, Volume XLI, Issue 6153, 9 June 1885, Page 3

THE CONTENTS OF CHILDREN'S MINDS.

Some light may be thrown on the question which is being discussed as to the. value of the methods employed- in the recent inquiry into the existence of overpressure in elementary schools by a study of [Borne interesting inquiries made into the contents of the minds of children of the same class in Germany and America. The object of the inquiries was to ascertain the nature of the material, in its rough state, on which schoelmasters in elementary schools in towns like Berlin and Boston had to work before the Government Inspector appeared on the scene. The inquiries were instituted by the Pedagogical Society of Berlin and by Mr Stanley Hall, of Boston, and, although the tests employed were of a very simple kind, they were found to be of very difficult application, as neither the society nor Mr Hall were willing to accept the results of »mere show of hands in answer to questions aa satisfactory. The chief problem to be solved was," What may city children be assumed to know and have seen by their teachers when they enter school?" "In the case of Berlin the results were far from being satisfactory, and out of about 2000 returns sent in only about half of them gave trustworthy results. With the experience of the German society before him, Mr Stanley undertook an examination of a «iT"Vfflr kind in the elementary schools of Boston, and framing a new set of questions more in accordance with the surroundings of American children, he employed four of the best trained and experienced kindergarten teachers to carry out the examinations by questioning three children at a time. On account of the strictness of the conditions, Mr Hall was only able to accept the records 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 boye, girls, Irish children, American children, and children under training in the kindergarten. The results as shown by these tables will, we think, be a great surprise to most people, and we regret that we can only give a few examples, choosing those: which chow the amount cf ignorance on subjects should be best known to children, I and not those which show the highest : percentage of ignorance. The ages I of the children ranged from four to eight years, and they were chiefly of Irish and American parentage, a small number being German. The returns were carefully tabulated to determine the influence of age, "which seemed surprisingly unpronounced, indicating a slight value of age per « as an index of [ripeness far school." Of fcmjK»T living objects, 65:5 per cent, of the children had '"■ never seen an ant, 62 per cent, a enait, and 20.5 per cent, a butterfly. Of txe?e, vegetables, and flowers. 83 per cent, did not know the maple tree, 63 per cent, had never planted a seed, 61 per cent, tad not seen potatoes grow, -55.5 had never

gathered buttereupe, ud 6i per cent, had not seen rosea growing. Of the paste of their own bodies 90.5 per cent, did, not kwm -» where the ribs were, and 21.5 per cent, did not know their right hand fr >m their left; 75.5 per cent, did not know the, wrnmn of the year, and 65 per cent/had never seen a rainbow. With regard io home eurroundings 93.4 per cent, did net know that leather things, came from 89 per cent, did not knowwhat flour was made of, 88 per cent, were unable to .knit, 64.5 per cent, had never bathed, 36 per cent, had never saved cents at home, and 35.5 per cent, had never been in the country. With respect to the sexes, boys appear to be more intelligent than girls oa 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 kindergarten were far ahead of both, •; Although the tables do not show it, Mr Hall asserts that country-bred children rank higher thai},, ci£y children in all the subjects of examination, and in many items very-much higher. <. h> ■. Besides the tabular results. Mr Hall gives examples of many curious answers which were elicited during the examinations, and which show the ease with which a child 8 imagination is led astray, often by the mere jingle of rhyme, alliteration, and cadence of words and sentences. Thus, butterflies make butter or eat it, grasshoppers give grass, bees give beads and beans, all honey is from the honeysuckles, kittens grow on the pussy-willow, and even poplin dresses are mad! of poplartreea. 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 np higher out of sight. He takes it into ieaven, and perhaps puts it to bed, and 'even takes off its clothes and pute them on in the morning. The moon comes around when it is a bright night and people ;want to walk, or forget to light some lamps. ; Thunder is God groaning, or kicking,, or turning a big handle, or grinding: enow, walking loud, breaking . something, throwing logs, having coals run in, pounding about with a big hammer, hitting the. clouds, clouds bumping or clapping together or bunting, are samples of" a number of curious answers 'which' show-that-inquiring into the contents of children's minds must be an exceedingly entertaining, if not a very profitable occupation. It would seem that the 'idea of Paradise is not the same with children as with their parents in America. Everything that is good and imperfectly known to children is located in the country, and when good children die they do not go to Paradise but to the country—" even here from Boston," adds Mr Hall. The lessons for parents, schoolmasters, and examiners which are to be learned from these interesting inquiries are, according to Mr Hall, that the knowledge which an average child of the laboring classes in towns possesses at the outset of school life "is next to nothing of pedagogic value/ and the best preparation parents can give their children for good school training is to make them acquainted with natural objects, especially with the sights and sounds of the country, and talk about them j ■ and to send them to good healthy kindergartens. The table showing the percentage of ignorance indicates the order in which education should be effected; the conditions which immediately surround a child are most, easily learned, and those which are more remote with greater difficulty, hence the advantage' of objects, and the difficulty and dangers of booke and word-cram. School inspectorsyand psychologists may also learn from Mr Hall's experiment how much tact and ingenuity is required to arrive at the contents of children s minds, and how careful they should be of accepting the results of questioning large bodies of them. The astounding ignorance displayed by the poor children of Berlin and Boston, and which no doubt is equalled, if not surpassed, by the same class in our own country, is but; the reflex of the ignorance of their parents and the population among whom they are bred, and any cry like that of over-pressure which is likely to interfere with the slight efforts being made to remove it, should be well weighed and accepted only on the clearest scientific proof —a kind of proof which is not attainable from the data we now poseesß— '< Pall Mall •Budget."""' '•"•" - : ■--/■■'ly-.. ...•...- ....,