The special importance of the sense of hearing comes from the fact
that it is the sense organ connected with speech. Therefore, to train
the child's attention to follow sounds and noises which are produced
in the environment, to recognize them and to discriminate between
them, is to prepare his attention to follow more accurately the sounds
of articulate language. The teacher must be careful to pronounce
clearly and completely the sounds of the word when she speaks to a
child, even though she may be speaking in a low voice, almost as if
telling him a secret. The children's songs are also a good means for
obtaining exact pronunciation. The teacher, when she teaches them,
pronounces slowly, separating the component sounds of the word
pronounced.
But a special opportunity for training in clear and exact speech
occurs when the lessons are given in the nomenclature relating to the
sensory exercises. In every exercise, when the child has _recognized_
the differences between the qualities of the objects, the teacher
fixes the idea of this quality with a word. Thus, when the child has
many times built and rebuilt the tower of the pink cubes, at an
opportune moment the teacher draws near him, and taking the two
extreme cubes, the largest and the smallest, and showing them to him,
says, "This is large"; "This is small." The two words only, _large_
and _small_, are pronounced several times in succession with strong
emphasis and with a very clear pronunciation, "This is _large_, large,
large"; after which there is a moment's pause. Then the teacher, to
see if the child has understood, verifies with the following tests:
"Give me the large one. Give me the _small_ one." Again, "The large
one." "Now the small one." "Give me the large one." Then there is
another pause. Finally, the teacher, pointing to the objects in turn
asks, "What is this?" The child, if he has learned, replies rightly,
"Large," "Small." The teacher then urges the child to repeat the words
always more clearly and as accurately as possible. "What is it?"
"Large." "What?" "Large." "Tell me nicely, what is it?" "Large."
_Large_ and _small_ objects are those which differ only in size and
not in form; that is, all three dimensions change more or less
proportionally. We should say that a house is "large" and a hut is
"small." When two pictures represent the same objects in different
dimensions one can be said to be an enlargement of the other.
When, however, only the dimensions referring to the section of the
object change, while the length remains the same, the objects are
respectively "thick" and "thin." We should say of two posts of equal
height, but different cross-section, that one is "thick" and the other
is "thin." The teacher, therefore, gives a lesson on the brown prisms
similar to that with the cubes in the three "periods" which I have
described:
_Period 1. Naming._ "This is thick. This is thin."
_Period 2. Recognition._ "Give me the _thick_. Give me the _thin_."
_Period 3. The Pronunciation of the Word._ "What is this?"
There is a way of helping the child to recognize differences in
dimension and to place the objects in correct gradation. After the
lesson which I have described, the teacher scatters the brown prisms,
for instance, on a carpet, says to the child, "Give me the thickest of
all," and lays the object on a table. Then, again, she invites the
child to look for _the thickest_ piece among those scattered on the
floor, and every time the piece chosen is laid in its order on the
table next to the piece previously chosen. In this way the child
accustoms himself always to look either for the _thickest_ or the
_thinnest_ among the rest, and so has a guide to help him to lay the
pieces in gradation.
When there is one dimension only which varies, as in the case of the
rods, the objects are said to be "long" and "short," the varying
dimension being length. When the varying dimension is height, the
objects are said to be "tall" and "short"; when the breadth varies,
they are "broad" and "narrow."
Of these three varieties we offer the child as a fundamental lesson
only that in which the _length_ varies, and we teach the differences
by means of the usual "three periods," and by asking him to select
from the pile at one time always the "longest," at another always the
"shortest."
The child in this way acquires great accuracy in the use of words. One
day the teacher had ruled the blackboard with very fine lines. A child
said, "What small lines!" "They are not small," corrected another;
"they are _thin_."
When the names to be taught are those of colors or of forms, so that
it is not necessary to emphasize contrast between extremes, the
teacher can give more than two names at the same time, as, for
instance, "This is red." "This is blue." "This is yellow." Or, again,
"This is a square." "This is a triangle." "This is a circle." In the
case of a _gradation_, however, the teacher will select (if she is
teaching the colors) the two extremes "dark" and "light," then making
choice always of the "darkest" and the "lightest."
Many of the lessons here described can be seen in the cinematograph
pictures; lessons on touching the plane insets and the surfaces, in
walking on the line, in color memory, in the nomenclature relating to
the cubes and the long rods, in the composition of words, reading,
writing, etc.
By means of these lessons the child comes to know many words very
thoroughly--large, small; thick, thin; long, short; dark, light;
rough, smooth; heavy, light; hot, cold; and the names of many colors
and geometrical forms. Such words do not relate to any particular
_object_, but to a psychic acquisition on the part of the child. In
fact, the name is given _after a long exercise_, in which the child,
concentrating his attention on different qualities of objects, has
made comparisons, reasoned, and formed judgments, until he has
acquired a power of discrimination which he did not possess before. In
a word, he has _refined his senses_; his observation of things has
been thorough and fundamental; he has _changed himself_.
He finds himself, therefore, facing the world with _psychic_ qualities
refined and quickened. His powers of observation and of recognition
have greatly increased. Further, the mental images which he has
succeeded in establishing are not a confused medley; they are all
classified--forms are distinct from dimensions, and dimensions are
classed according to the qualities which result from the combinations
of varying dimensions.
All these are quite distinct from _gradations_. Colors are divided
according to tint and to richness of tone, silence is distinct from
non-silence, noises from sounds, and everything has its own exact and
appropriate name. The child then has not only developed in himself
special qualities of observation and of judgment, but the objects
which he observes may be said to go into their place, according to the
order established in his mind, and they are placed under their
appropriate name in an exact classification.
Does not the student of the experimental sciences prepare himself in
the same way to observe the outside world? He may find himself like
the uneducated man in the midst of the most diverse natural objects,
but he differs from the uneducated man in that he has _special
qualities_ for observation. If he is a worker with the microscope, his
eyes are trained to see in the range of the microscope certain minute
details which the ordinary man cannot distinguish. If he is an
astronomer, he will look through the same telescope as the curious
visitor or _dilettante_, but he will see much more clearly. The same
plants surround the botanist and the ordinary wayfarer, but the
botanist sees in every plant those qualities which are classified in
his mind, and assigns to each plant its own place in the natural
orders, giving it its exact name. It is this capacity for recognizing
a plant in a complex order of classification which distinguishes the
botanist from the ordinary gardener, and it is _exact_ and scientific
language which characterizes the trained observer.
Now, the scientist who has developed special qualities of observation
and who "possesses" an order in which to classify external objects
will be the man to make scientific _discoveries_. It will never be he
who, without preparation and order, wanders dreaming among plants or
beneath the starlit sky.
In fact, our little ones have the impression of continually "making
discoveries" in the world about them; and in this they find the
greatest joy. They take from the world a knowledge which is ordered
and inspires them with enthusiasm. Into their minds there enters "the
Creation" instead of "the Chaos"; and it seems that their souls find
therein a divine exultation.