THE CONTENTS OF CHILDREN'S MINDS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 3331, 1 June 1885, Page 3

THE CONTENTS OF CHILDREN'S MINDS.

(Pall Mall Gazette.) Some light may be thrown on the question which is being discussed with so much warmth m the Press, as to the value, of the methods employed m the recent inquiry into the existence of overpressure m elementary schools, by a study of some interesting inquiries made into the contents of the minds of children of the same class m Germany and America. The object of the inquiries was to ascertain the nature of the material, m its rough state, on which schoolmasters m elementary schools m 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 teats 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 a mere show of hands m answer to questions as 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 Bent m only about half of them gave trustworthy results. With the experience of the German society before him, Mr Stanley Hall undertook an examination of a similar kind m the elementary schools of Boston, and framing a new set of questions more m 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 two hundred 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, Irish children, American children, and children under training iv 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 show tho amount of ignorance on subjects which should be best known to children, and not those which show the highest percentage of ignorance. The ages 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 alight value of age per se as an index of ripeness for schoDl." Of familiar living objects, 65.5 per cent of the children had never seen an ant, 62 per cent a snail, and 20.5 per cent abu t terfly. Of trees, vegetables, and flowers, 83 per cent did not know the maple tree, 63 percent had never planted a seed, 61 per cent had not Been potatoes grow, 55.5 had never gathered buttercups, and 54 per cent had not seen roses grow ing. Of the parts of their own bodies, 90.5 per cent did not know where their ribs were, and 21.5 per cent did not know their right hand from their left ; 75.5 per cent did not know the seasons of the year, and 65 per cent had never seen a rainbow. With regard to home surroundings, 93.4 per cent did not know that leather things came from animals, 89 percent did not know what 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 m the country. With respect to ' the sexes, boys appear to be more intelligent than girlß 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 m the kindergarten were far ahead of both. Although the tables do not show ifc, Mr Hall asserts that country-bred children rank higher than city children m all the Bubjects of examination, and m many items very much higher. 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's 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 ib from the honeysuckles, kittens grow on the pussy-willow, and even poplin dresses are made of poplar-trees. When a cow lowa 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 putß it to bed, and even takes off its clothes and puts them on m 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 snow, walking loud, breaking something, throwing logs, having coals run m, pounding about with a big hammer, hitting tho clouds, clouds bumping or clapping together or bursting, 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 m America. Everything that is good and imperfectly known to children is located m 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 theso interesting inquiries are, according to Mr Hall, that the knowledge which an average ohild of the laboring clasaes m 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 th<stn ; and to send them to good healthy kindergertens. The table showing the percentage of ignorance indicates the order m whioh education should be effected ; the conditions which immediately eurrouud a child are tnoefc '

easily learned, and those which are more remote with greater difficulty, hence the advantage of objects and the difficulties and dangers of books and word-cram. School inspectors and psychologists may also learn from Mr Hall's experiment how much tact and ingenuity is required to arrive at the contents of children's rainds, 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 m out 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 ia likely to interfere with the Blight efforts which are being made to remove it should be well weighed and accepted only on the clearest scientific proof — a kind of proof which it not attainable from the data we now possess.