WHAT CHILDREN KNOW AND SEE.

Evening Star, Issue 10851, 8 February 1899, Page 4

WHAT CHILDREN KNOW AND SEE.

SOME INTERESTING INVESTIGATIONS. Perhaps the most attractive article in a good number of the 'National Review' for December is Miss Catherine Dodd's curious study of town and country Children* as tested by simple questions in the schools.- She says:"--"In the spring of the present year I made j some simple experiments with town and country children, in order to find out what kinds of things interested them most. I proposed to ask the boys and girls of the upper classes J a large Board school in a northern manufacturing town te deseribe certain eomniOn spring flowerj, but the sfihoOlmaster shook his head, and doubted whether one child in the class had sufficient experience of spring flowers to be able to attempt the exercise. ' THB EXAMINATION. Miss Dodd describes her set of questions 8s " I finally selected a good-sized picture of four spring flowers, containing on one page ibe following! -(a) Yellow daffodil and leaves with-: 6Ut fool m Cluster Of blue Violets and. leaves, (c) Purple crdcus, leaves, bulbs, and rootlets, (d) White narcissus and leaves. The picture was simple, the flowers were beautifully eolored, and perfectly natural and graceful. It Was entitled ' Spring,' flower had the name affixed, the last being termed, somewhat fanpifully, 'Poet's Narcissus. I considered the picture afforded ample scope for testing the children's powers of observation 6f color, number of flowers, grouping, shape of leaves, shape of flowers, the Veins of tho Violet leaves, the white line in the puddle ot the Crocus leaf, the colored centre of the narcissus and other details. The chUdren-s ages va-ied from eleven to thirteen years. They IiVJI m mean and uninteresting—but not sordid— Btreets, of ii large, smoky town, and their acquaintance with flowers Was chiefly limited to the baskets of flower-sellers m tho streets. I ascertained afterwards that none of theW ever remembered to have seen a daffodil or a violet growing. Three had noticed crocuses growing in the park, but did not know that they were of various colors. Four had gathered dandelions, and one-third of the class had been in a field and picked daisies. One child said vaguely: ' Wild flowers are daisies, dandelions, and weeds.' The children formed part :f large classes of from sixty to ninety, and worked uhder conditions where it was impossible for the teachef te give them lndmd-ial attention. They worked in a maSS, and thtir instruction, though excellent for purposes if order and discipbne, was necessarily mecln i> cal They were not trained to see things intelligently and to talk about what they saw; and the knowledge they gained from their own experience was in no way connected with their school studies. They were directed on this occasion to look at the picture carefully for five minutes, and afterwards it was handed round the class. The, picture was then removed, and the children were required to write down all they had seen." RESULTS. The following are some of the answers: "I saw some flowers on the picture. A was colored green, called a Di. B was a flower called poets. C was a crocus colored yellow. D was some tulips colored blue." This was written by a girl of average intelligence, aged thirteen. The following was written by a girl of twelve:—"l saw a picture of some flowers. The flowers were daffodil. There were five flowers. The color of them was yellow and brown." Here is a boys account :—" A. Daffodil, color yellow. B. Poet coronet, color blue. C. Liley, color white. Some of the children's characteristics come out amusingly. Here is a boy who is born to be a teacher and preacher:—" The leaf on the left side is a crocus, and the other is a violet. At the top of these flower there is a bulb. These bulb are full of seeds, and when they burst the flower springs out. The flowers are green, and they want a lot of looking after. If they are neglected they die and wither. Flowers want a lot of water and trees. The flowers that I saw on the picture looked fresh. What was the reason of thatr Why, they had been looked after." COUNTRY CHILDREN. The rural children are not unnaturally better at flowers. Their observation is much more accurate. Here is the exercise of a girl of ten: ~ . A Violet.—A violet is a very pretty flower, and it is all covered with blue. It come?, open in the daytime, and shuts up its leaves at night. The violet grows on banks, or m fields; or on railway bank sides. The leavra are very green, and its got a slender stalk and it comes out in spring. A Daffodil.-A daffodil is a very yellow flower and it is not a wild flower, a daffodil as a very long stalk, and it yellows your nose when you smell it, but it does not smell so much as the violet. A Crocus.—A crocus is a yellow flower, and it is just in bloom now, and I like it better than the daffodil, but I don't like jt better than the violet. It has not a very long stalk and it grows in a garden and it is not a wild floWGl** A Lily—A lily is a very white flower, and it grows in a wood and it suirlls very sweet, and it as a long stalk and there are little white flowers what grows on the stalk. The leaves are green and pointed. There*re tiger li'ics which prows in gardens which do ttot smell very much, there are water lilies which grows in water, which does not smell so much as a wood lily. There are hothouse lilies, A boy contrasts the lily of the valley with the Ariim,, to the disadvantage. He gays:—"Lilies of the valley have a sweet smell, and it is cream in color and very pretty. It grows down the stem. The Harum lily is large, and they put it in church when they want to make it nice. It is cream, and like a big cup; but there is not a nice smell to it." WHAT THEY SAW. Another of Miss Dodd's tests was to make the children write down "what you saw on your way to school this morning." The answers are all both interesting and amusing. Shops are most attractive. All kinds of shops are mentioned, including pawnbrokers' shops and public-houses. Next to the sweet-shop, the grocer's shop receives the most frequentmention. The children appear to be keenly interested in the people they meet going to work. The men they frankly recognise as men, but the etiquette of the mean streets demands that all women should be ladies. Thus:—"l saw a lady setting out a greengrocer's shop." " I met a lady selling flowers." " I see one lady every morning going to clean offices in town." "I saw men and ladies getting into the trams to go to work." Tramcars, buses, c milk carts, bread vans, and wheelbarrows seem to excite considerable interest on the part of the school children, and they frequently give little touches of description. "A milk cart with four boys in it and the little one driving." " A boy wheeling a cart with boxes on it." " A cart and white ponr standing by a brewery which smells of warm beer." " A cart full of mud scraped out of the streets." INCONGRUOUS DETAILS. A little girl with an eye for detail writei: "I met the governess of AH'Saints' Sch)/. and she had a red spotted vale on he- face, and then I saw the steam roller. I met a white cat with two odd eyes, one blue and one green, and I found a dead mouse." She is an observing little person with a taste for the incongruous. A boy with an equal jaste for incongruous details writes: —' When I come to school this morning I saw.some beasts and pigs and I saw a cart and some borses. and I saw a dog and some ducks and some fowls and lambs and I saw some and a cat and robin and sparrow and I saw a haystack and a shop and a garden and I saw some trees and I saw some boys playing at marble* and I saw some snowdrops and horse runing and some flour and corn and I saw a blacicsmith shop and a hedge and a grinding stone and a.wheelbarrow and a wood and a pain; shed and a coal house and a church and a pigstye." • .