andling. If we hope to have the child attain his right
to be an intelligent cooeperating agent in promoting life in society,
then no price is too great to pay for the expert teaching which will
nurture the sort of life in him that will make him effective.
=The child's native tendencies.=--Then, again, the child has a right to
the exercise of the native tendencies with which he is endowed. In fact,
these tendencies should be the working capital of the teacher, the
starting points in her teaching. There was a time when the teacher
punished the child who was caught drawing pictures on his slate. Happily
that sort of barbarity disappeared, in the main, along with the slate.
The vitalized teacher rejoices in the pictures that the child draws and
turns this tendency to good account. Through this inclination to draw
she finds the real child and so, as the psychologists direct, she begins
where the child is and sets about attaching to this native tendency the
work in nature study, geography, or history. When she discovers a
constructive tendency in the child, she at once uses this in shifting
from analytic to synthetic exercises in the school order. If he enjoys
making things, he will be glad of an opportunity to make devices, or
problems, or maps.
=The play instinct.=--She makes large use, also, of the play instinct
that is one of his native tendencies. This instinct is constantly
reaching out for objects of play. The teacher is quick to note the
child's quest for objects and deftly substitutes some phase of school
work for marbles, balls, or dolls, and his playing proceeds apace
without abatement of zest. The vitalized teacher knows how to attach the
arithmetic to this play instinct and make it a fascinating game. During
the games of arithmetic, geography, history, or spelling, life is at
high tide in her school and the work is thorough in consequence. Work is
relieved of the onus of drudgery whenever it appears in the guise of a
game, and the teacher who has skill in attaching school studies to the
play instinct of the child will make her school effective as well as a
delight to herself and her pupils. In such a plan there is neither place
nor occasion for coercion.
=Self-expression.=--Another right of the child is the right to express
himself. The desire for self-expression is fundamental in the human
mind, as the study of archaeology abundantly proves. Since this is true,
every school should be a school of expression
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