THE AIM OF THE INFANT SCHOOL
It is needless to point out that the method of educating the infant mind
is the method of all education--viz., the regulation of the process by
which experiences are acquired and organised so as to render the
performance of future action more efficient. This, as we shall see
later, is the fundamental truth at the foundation of the Kindergarten
method of Froebel, and it must guide and control our conduct not only
during the earlier stages but throughout the whole process of education.
Moreover, since the early acquisitions of the child are the bases upon
which all further knowledge and practice are founded, we must realise
how important these first experiences are for the whole future
development of the child. Further, we have seen that all education--all
acquiring and organising of experience in early life--must be motived by
the felt desire to satisfy some instinctive need of the child's nature,
and that it is these instinctive needs which determine the nature and
scope of his early activities.
Later, indeed, acquired interests may be grafted upon the innate and
instinctive needs, but at the beginning and during his first years the
child's whole life is determined by the primitive desires of human
nature.
Now, the first instinctive need which requires the aid of education is
the need felt by the child to acquire some measure of control over his
bodily movements and over the things in his immediate physical
environment. Hence the first stage in education is the regulation of the
process by which the child acquires and organises those experiences
which shall give him this control. Nature herself indeed provides the
means for the attainment of this end, but education can do much to aid
in the attainment and to shorten the period of incomplete attainment. By
means of the assistance given, the control exercised and the direction
afforded, we enable the child to organise the lower centres of the
nervous system which have to do with the control of the larger bodily
movements, and thus establish organised systems of means for the
attainment of certain definite ends.
The second stage supervenes when the need is felt by the child for some
measure of control over his social environment. For the young child soon
realises that it is only in so far as he can exert some influence over
the persons intimately connected with his welfare that he can make his
wants known and find means for the satisfaction of his desires. Hence
arises the need for some method of communication with his fellows, and
from this springs the desire for some system of signs and for a language
to enable him to make his wants known. Chiefly by means of the educative
process of imitating the experiences of others, he gradually acquires a
language and finds himself at home in his social world.
During this period the centres called into activity, developed, and
organised are mainly those connected with the lip and speech centres,
and a certain stage of organisation having been attained, the
opportunity is now afforded for the fuller functional development of the
higher centres entrusted with the duty of receiving, discriminating, and
co-ordinating the data of the special organs of sense.
The period during which the child is gradually acquiring control over
his immediate physical and social environments may roughly be said to
extend to the end of his third year.
From that time onwards the worlds of nature and of society for their own
sake become objects of curiosity to the child. Every new object presents
him with a variety of fresh sensations. He feels, tastes, and bites
everything that comes within his reach, and so acquires a world of new
experiences. Hence for "the first six years of his life a child has
quite enough to do in learning its place in the universe and the nature
of its surroundings, and to compel it during any part of that period to
give its attention to mere words and symbols is to stint it of the best
part of its education for that which is only of secondary importance,
and to weaken the foundations of its whole mental fabric."[33]
If, then, during this period the child is left wholly to gather his
experiences as he may, he no doubt acquires by his own self-activity a
world of new ideas, but the result of this unregulated process will be
that the knowledge gained will be largely unsystematised, and much of
the experience acquired may be of a nature which may give a false
direction to his whole after-development. Hence arise three needs. In
the first place, we must endeavour to see that new experiences are
presented to the child in some systematic manner, in order that the
knowledge may be so organised that it may serve as means to the
attainment of ends, and so render future activity more accurate and more
efficient. In the second place, we must endeavour to prevent the
acquisition of experiences which if allowed to be organised would give
an immoral direction to conduct; and in the third place, we must
endeavour to establish early in the mind of the child organised systems
of means which may hereafter result in the prevalence of activities
socially useful to the community.
Now, these three aims are or should be the aims of the Kindergarten
School, and we shall now inquire into the ends which the Kindergarten
School sets before it, and for this purpose we shall state the
fundamental principles which Froebel himself laid down as the guiding
principles of this stage of education.
On its intellectual side the Kindergarten as conceived by Froebel has
four distinct aims in view. The first aim is by means of comparing and
contrasting a series of objects presented in some regular and systematic
manner to lead the child to note the likenesses and differences between
the things, and so through and by means of his own self-activity to
build up coherent and connected systems of ideas. By this method the
teacher builds up in the mind of the young child systems of ideas
regarding the colours, forms, and other sense qualities of the more
common objects of his environment. The second aim is by means of some
form of concrete construction to give expression to the knowledge so
gained, to make this knowledge more accurate and definite, and thus by a
dialectical return to make the experiences of the child definite and
accurate, so as to render future action more efficient, and thus pave
the way for further progress. The third aim is to utilise the
play-activity of the child in the acquisition of new experiences and in
their outward concrete expression. The fourth is to engage the child in
the production of something socially useful, something which engages his
genuine work-activity. In short, what Froebel clearly realised was that
the mere taking in of new experiences by the child mind in any order was
not sufficient. Experiences to be useful for efficient action must be
assimilated--must be organised into a system--and in order that this may
be possible the experiences must be presented in such a manner as will
render them capable of being organised. Moreover, this mere taking in of
new experiences is not enough. There must be a giving out or expression
of the knowledge acquired, for it is only in so far as we can turn to
use new experiences that we can be sure that they are really ours. Now,
since the forms of expression natural to the young child are those which
evoke his practical constructive efforts, all outward expression in its
earlier stages must assume a concrete form. The aim of the so-called
"Gifts" in Froebel's scheme is to build up an organised system of
sense-knowledge; the aim of the "Occupations" of the Kindergarten is to
develop the power of concrete expression of the child. The "Gifts" and
the "Occupations" are correlative methods,--the one concerned with the
taking in, the other with the outward expression of the same
experience,--and throughout either aspect of the process the
reason-activity of the child must be evoked both in the acquisition and
in the expression of the new experience. Physiologically, this twofold
process implies that during the Kindergarten period the sensory areas of
the brain are being exercised and organised and that the associative
activity evoked is concerned with the co-ordination of the impressions
derived through these areas. Psychologically, it implies that during
this period we are mainly concerned with the formation of perceptual
systems of knowledge composed of data derived through the special senses
and through the active movements of the hands and limbs. Such a process,
moreover, is a necessary preliminary for the full after-development of
the higher association centres of the brain and for the formation by the
mind of conceptual systems of knowledge.
For if we attempt prematurely to exercise the higher centres before the
lower have reached a certain measure of development, if we attempt to
form conceptual systems of knowledge, such as all language and number
systems are, without first laying a sound perceptual basis, then we may
do much to hinder future mental growth, if we do not even inflict a
positive injury to the child. For the education of the senses neglected,
"all after-education partakes of a drowsiness, a haziness, and an
insufficiency which it is impossible to cure."[34]
On its moral and social side the aims of the Kindergarten School are no
less important. If left to follow the naive instinctive needs of his
nature and to gather experiences where and how he may, the child is
likely to make acquisitions which later may issue in wrong conduct.
Hence one aim of the Kindergarten is to present experiences which may
eventually issue in right conduct, and to prevent the acquisition of
experiences of an immoral kind. Hence also its insistence upon the need
of carefully selecting the environment of the young child, so that as
far as possible its early experiences--its first acquisitions--shall be
of a healthy nature. Moreover, by means of the organised activities of
the school, and by utilising the play-instinct of the child, it seeks to
form and establish certain habits of future social worth to the
community and to the individual. For, by means of the games and
occupations of the Kindergarten School, the child may first of all learn
what it means to co-operate with his fellows for a common end or
purpose; may learn to submit to authority which he dimly and
imperfectly, it may be, perceives to be reasonable; may be trained to
habits of accuracy, of order, and of obedience. Above all, the
Kindergarten system may rouse and foster in the mind of the child that
sense of a corporate life and of a common social spirit the prevalence
of which in after-life is the only secure foundation of society.
In England the extreme importance of the education of the infant mind
has been, in recent years, clearly acknowledged. The new regulations of
the Board of Education no longer allow children under five years of age
to be included as "an integral part of a three-R grant-earning
Elementary School." A special curriculum has been set forth for their
education. They are to have opportunities provided "for the free
development of their bodies and minds and for the formation of habits of
obedience and attention."[35] What are known as "Kindergarten
Occupations are not merely pleasant pastimes for children: if so
regarded, they are not intelligently used by the teacher. Their purpose
is to stimulate intelligent individual effort, to furnish training of
the senses of sight and touch, to promote accurate co-ordination of hand
movements with sense impressions, and, not least important, to implant a
habit of obedience."
"Formal teaching, even by means of Kindergarten Occupations, is
undesirable for children under five. At this stage it is sufficient to
give the child opportunity to use his senses freely. To attempt formal
teaching will almost inevitably mean, with some of the children, either
restraint or over-stimulation, with constant danger to mental growth and
health."[36]
From these extracts from the _Suggestions for the Consideration of
Teachers_ of the Head of the English Board of Education, it will be
evident that the spirit of the "Kindergarten" now largely enters into
the curriculum of the infant classes. In the future we may hope to see
it carried further and that no formal teaching of the child will be
undertaken during the first six years of his life. Further, we may hope
to see in the future the infant departments of our schools more
thoroughly organised than they are at present on the Kindergarten
principle, and the curriculum of the Infant School so devised that it
shall fit into and pave the way for the curriculum of the Elementary
School. For at the earlier stage much may be done by the methods of the
Kindergarten to lay the basis for the teaching of the arts of reading,
writing, and arithmetic which it is the main business of the Primary
School to lead the child to acquire. _E.g._, at the earlier stage, by
the breaking up and reconstructing of concrete groups of things, the
child can be initiated into the meaning of a number system. By means of
pictures and of concrete forms he can be made gradually acquainted with
alphabetic forms, and this teaching lays the basis for the future
acquisition of the abstract symbols of printed and written words.
But while much has been done in England to recognise the importance of
the early education of the child for the after moral and social good
both of the individual and of the community, and to place the
instruction of the infant classes in the Public Elementary Schools upon
a rational basis, little attention has been paid in Scotland to this
subject. As a rule, children in that country do not enter school before
the age of five, and there is no separate provision made for the
teaching of children under that age; in fact, all scholars under seven
years of age are classified together and form the Junior Division of the
school.
Such a state of matters reflects but little credit on the educational
leaders of Scotland, and indicates an imperfect conception of the real
nature of the educative process. For if education is the process of
acquiring and organising experiences in order to render future action
more efficient, it is surely the height of folly to allow the young
child to gather his early experiences as he may. Moreover, in the case
of the children of the slums, to allow them during their early years to
gather into their brain without any correcting agency "all the sights
and scenes of a slum is sheer social madness." "The child must be
removed, or partially removed, from such an atmosphere, since it has
reached the imitative stage, and is nearing the selective stage of life.
For the moment he imitates anything; presently he will imitate what
pleases him, what gives him momentary pleasure. Before the unmoral
selective stage is reached, the stage which inevitably precedes the
moral and immoral selective stage, it is essential that children should
receive definite and deliberate guidance, that the imitative faculty
should be controlled."[37] In the case of the children of the poorer
districts this can be done only through the agency of the Infant School.
Much may be done by making the instruction of the school attractive, to
counteract the evil influences of the home and social environment, and
to lead the child to acquire and organise experiences which will issue
in moral and not in immoral conduct.
Hence what we need in the poorer districts of our large towns is Free
Kindergarten Schools from which all formal teaching of the three R's is
abolished, where for several hours in each day the child may be trained
to use his senses in the accurate discrimination and accurate
systematisation of sense knowledge; where he may have his constructive
activities evoked by the expression in concrete form of what he has been
led to perceive through the medium of the senses; where he may be
trained to habits of order, of cleanliness, of submission to authority;
and where for a time, at least, he may be accustomed to live in a purer
and healthier atmosphere than he can find at home or in the street, and
where for a brief space he may have that feeling of home which he cannot
find at home.[38]
The establishment in the poorer districts of our great towns of schools
whose education follows the method of the Kindergarten if accompanied by
some system of feeding the child would do much to secure the after
social efficiency of the rising generation, and would by its reaction on
the home-life tend gradually to raise the ideals of the very poor.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] _The Nervous System and Education_, by Sir James Crichton Browne,
_ibid._ p. 345.
[34] _The Nervous System and Education_, by Sir James Crichton Browne,
_ibid._ p. 345.
[35] Cf. on this subject the chapter on "School Nurseries" in _National
Education and National Life_, ibid.
[36] _Suggestions for the Consideration of Teachers_, chap. iii. (issued
by the English Board of Education).
[37] Montmorency's _National Education and National Life_, ibid. p. 143.
The chapter on "School Nurseries" should be read by everyone, and
especially by every Scotsman interested in the education of young
children.
[38] Cf. Charles Lamb's Essay on _Popular Fallacies_.