ACTIVITY IN CHILD EDUCATION*

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 July 1937, Page 8

ACTIVITY IN CHILD EDUCATION*

THE WAY THE YOUNG- TACKLE THEIR PROBLEMS

“Whether we are discussing the infant, the child or adolescent we find that the best method of education and development is achieved by encouraging the efforts of the child himself. What we help a child to do for himself is of far more intellectual value to-him. than those things that he learns from others, for only through an activity of this sort can he hope to deal with tho numerous problems which, unknown to adults, arise out of his own life,” said Dr. Susan Isaacs in the course of a lecture on “The Principles of Activity m General Education” given to membersof the New Educational Fellowship at the Technical College Hall in Auckland,, states the Star.

“It is true,” continued Dr. Isaacs, “that a child can make use of an older person’s experience, but in their instruction he cannot find a solution to his own immediate problems. ’ ’ Dr. Isaacs went on to explain that there was no difference between the problems of theadult and of the child, .for in each the main factor of solving the question was essentially ■ the same. It was interesting, she said, to study the different modes by which the child tackled a problem. The most common method used by very small children wasthat of manipulating, a method in which they solved the problem by actually doing it themselves. The second mode,, that of imagination, did not take theplace of the first, but added greatly to its usefulness. Imagination played a big part in a child’s intellectual development long before most people were even aware of its existence —in fact, it developed in a child’s intellect before it was capable of speech. The third 1 method was that of verbal solution. As soon as the mastery of speech wasattained a child began to use this method of solving the problems of life and despite the inefficiency of his. vocabulary was able to find solutions to quite difficult questions. The three main types of activity described by Dr/Isaacs were the passion for bodily skills, the creation of makebelieve and the absorbing interest .in the actions of the outside world.