CHILD PSYCHOLOGY.

Grey River Argus, 31 December 1927, Page 8

CHILD PSYCHOLOGY.

Fantasies of the Young. CAUSES AND REMEDIES. To ’the Wanganui Branch of the Teachers’ Institute, Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., delivered a very interesting lecture on ..Some Aspects of Child Psychology.” Mr. Barton commenced by defining the work, of the teachers a.s preparing the rising generation to face the realities of life. As coming citizens, each generation of scholars had to receive an equipment of general knowledge to qualify them to be self-supporting, and moral and ethical teaching to help them to recognize and respect the rights of others. The mind of the ordinary child received this instruction and related it io the tasks and duties of life, but theie were many children who, for various reasons, did not react normally. Until recently it seemed to be an assumption of educationists that every normally equipped child would naturally and as a matter of course adopt normal mental processes, co-or-dinate the various organs and faculties by which sense impressions are received and translated into actions, and regulate his conduct accordingly. If he failed to do so he was deemed to be either mentally deficient or vicious. It was well recognised, in training him for school sports, that constant practice and instruction was necessary before he could co-ordinate eye, brain, and hands in such a way as would enable him to hit a ball with certainty and skill; but it was assumed that, without any special guidance or care, he would naturally co-ordinate the far more delicate organs and adjustments that control thinking and translate it into habits of thought and life. It was now equally well recognised that this assumption was not well founded and that there were boys that were neither stupid or vicious who failed to react normally to ordinary instruction or who wholly failed to relate the things taught, to the realities of life. The speaker referred by way of illustration to the boy who was said to be “self-conscious” or “shy.” Such a boy might have never learned to forget himself and his mental poise when in communication with another mind, with the result that when in company the canvas of his mind was fully occupied by a picture of himself. So much of his mind was given consciously to the task of seeking to maintain his poise, and perhaps defensively, to combat imaginary hostile feelings on the part of the teacher, that there was no room for the lesson which the teacher sought to impart. The normal child should have found his mental poise and balance, about the time that he had mastered the trick of standing erect on his hind legs without consciously addresseing his mind to the maintenance of his balance. Thereafter both forms of physical and psychical should be relegated to the sub-con-scious mind, leaving the eonsicious mind free to pay undivided attention to the tasks of the moment. If, however, this stage of physical and mental development were not reached, the task of the teacher was made much more difficult, if not impossible. It would b 6 no use trying to explain certain rules of

syntax, for instance, to two boys, one of whom was standing on a precarious footing and had to give direct attention to the maintenance of his physical balance, whilst the other was wholly occupied in a miserable estimate of what the teacher and the other boy were thinking of him. Mr Barton referred to the boy who lived in a fantasy. This type of boy offered one of the most difficult problems to teachers, parents, and probably, later on, to magistrates and child welfare officers. The speaker had no doubt that most of the teachers knew the dreamy boy —the boy whom it seemed an impossibility to get to concentrate on his work. They also knew the boy who, to the great surprise of everyone, was later detected in crime. His schoolmaster and those who knew him best would express the greatest surprise and say he was the last boy they would have expected such a thing of, as he had a good home and plenty of discipline. Such a boy would often absorb and be able to express the highest moral and theoretical teaching and would probably write the nioset beautiful essays on these subjects, only to later on shock everyone with actions wholly at variance with those ideals. The speaker also pointed out that they would find historical instances of men who showed the same power of assimilating and expressing beautiful moral, ethical, and religious teachings, only to shock everyone and show that their high moral precepts did not govern their conduct. They failed to put into practice what they had learned of the realities and requirements of life. Perhaps the largest class were those who, for some reason or other, while apparently mixing with and being a part of the life of those around them in reality were living in a dream world of their own creation.

The boy referred to previously, who had shocked and surprised his .friends by being “bowled out” in crime, would almost invariably be found to be a victim of this vicious mental habit. Sometimes it was simply an arrest Of development. The fantasy, the fairy story was simply part of the normal equipment of the child’s mind and ft served a useful purpose. It eased the first shock of contact with the realities o< life, and made an easy way of introducing those realities to the child mind.

But indulgence in those fantasies should ordinarily eease with childhood, except of course, for occasional diversion. There were, however, some lazy or inert, minds that clung to the fantasy much as a foolishly indulged child might cling to his mother’s skirts, rather than take his place in a rough and tumble with other children. Such a boy, when he went to school, might be a mere dreamer, and when he fell behind others in class and sport, and was made a joke of, he wrapped his delusions more closely round him and retreated more deeply into the phase of fantasy.

Then there was the boy who would not normally have taken this course, but by unwise treatment at home and had been driven to it. They could take the boy whose father was not prepared

to he disturbed by childish questions, by noise or boisterousness. All the normal outlets of self-expression for the boy were stopped. His ambitions were scoffed at, and he was made to feel that there was no place for him. He •was almost certain to take refuge in the world of fantasy, and do his best to lose touch with the world of reality around him. Such a boy would live in an imaginary world of his own creation.

In that world lie would be a great personage and in it he would find compensation for all his troubles in the real world around him. With such a boy it was not to be wondered at that, in seeking a form of self-expression, he stole, assaulted, and committed arson, having no desire for the things stolen, no animus against the person assaulted, and no real criminality directing the burning. To wholly understand his actions it was necessary to know and ■enter into the particular fantasy that had occupied his life. Such a boy was bound to make .111 unsatisfactory scholar, and even if, as was quite probable, he might be. quick to assimilate and able to express correctly what had been taught him, he would wholly fail to relate it to the tests of life and his relationships with other persons- and their rights.

What was the remedy? What could the teacher do to deal with such eases? It was quite understandable at the present time, when teachers were called upon to deal with large classes of children, that they could not do much.

If the greater part of a boy’s life was spent in home dominated by- a somewhat tyrannical father, th“ teach'oi who knew the boy every .lay in common with fifty other boys, could not do much in tho way of correction.

There were however, certain things which .the. speaker urged. Firstly, they should be scrupulously fair and just at all times in any dealings with the children. Nothing weakened a boy’s respect for a. teacher more than a tinge .of injustice ar.d nothing was more likely to drive a boy back to himself, and out of louch with the-real wbrld. A sense of perspective and proportion was also necessary in regard to reprimand and punishment. It was .an <x< pioded idea that wrongdoing would be crushed out of existence by overwhelm ing punishment. The theologian invented hell and the jurist Botany Bay, only to 1 find in each case that the policy failed to achieve its object. The human mind refused to take the proposition into ‘icccunt.

Again, the teacher should use every means and seize every opportunity to get into sympathetic touch with ‘the childrenl One of the best means to this end was to encourage and assist them in healthy outdoor sports. It was very seldom that a boy who took part in outdoor sports was found to be vicious or untrustworthy. What a fantasy was to the small child, the elements of out door sports should be to the youth. They brought him into touch with the habits of self-control and self-reliance and taught him recognition of the rights of others, and team work in a pleasant form. The normal boy would transfer these qualities to his dealings in other relations to life.