SEQUENCE OF EXERCISES
In the practical application of the method it is helpful to know the
sequence, or the various series, of exercises which must be presented to
the child successively.
In the first edition of my book there was clearly indicated a
progression for each exercise; but in the "Children's Houses" we began
contemporaneously with the most varied exercises; and it develops that
there exist _grades_ in the presentation of the material in its
entirety. These grades have, since the first publication of the book,
become clearly defined through experience in the "Children's Houses."
SEQUENCE AND GRADES IN THE PRESENTATION OF MATERIAL AND IN THE EXERCISES
_First Grade_
As soon as the child comes to the school he may be given the following
exercises:
Moving the seats, in silence (practical life).
Lacing, buttoning, hooking, etc.
The cylinders (sense exercises).
Among these the most useful exercise is that of the cylinders (solid
insets). The child here begins to _fix his attention_. He makes his
first comparison, his first selection, in which he exercises judgment.
Therefore he exercises his intelligence.
Among these exercises with the solid insets, there exists the following
progression from easy to difficult:
(a) The cylinders in which the pieces are of the same height and of
decreasing diameter.
(b) The cylinders decreasing in all dimensions.
(c) Those decreasing only in height.
_Second Grade_
_Exercises of Practical Life._ To rise and be seated in silence. To walk
on the line.
_Sense Exercises._ Material dealing with dimensions. The Long Stair. The
prisms, or Big Stair. The cubes. Here the child makes exercises in the
recognition of dimensions as he did in the cylinders but under a very
different aspect. The objects are much larger. The differences much more
evident than they were in the preceding exercises, but here, _only the
eye of the child_ recognises the differences and controls the errors. In
the preceding exercises, the errors were mechanically revealed to the
child by the didactic material itself. The impossibility of placing the
objects in order in the block in any other than their respective spaces
gives this control. Finally, while in the preceding exercises the child
makes much more simple movements (being seated he places little objects
in order with his hands), in these new exercises he accomplishes
movements which are decidedly more complex and difficult and makes small
muscular efforts. He does this by moving from the table to the carpet,
rises, kneels, carries heavy objects.
We notice that the child continues to be confused between the two last
pieces in the growing scale, being for a long time unconscious of such
an error after he has learned to put the other pieces in correct order.
Indeed the difference between these pieces being throughout the varying
dimensions the same for all, the relative difference diminishes with the
increasing size of the pieces themselves. For example, the little cube
which has a base of 2 centimetres is double the size, as to base, of the
smallest cube which has a base of 1 centimetre, while the largest cube
having a base of 10 centimetres, differs by barely 1/10 from the base of
the cube next it in the series (the one of 9 centimetres base).
Thus it would seem that, theoretically, in such exercises we should
begin with the smallest piece. We can, indeed, do this with the material
through which size and length are taught. But we cannot do so with the
cubes, which must be arranged as a little "tower." This column of blocks
must always have as its base the largest cube.
The children, attracted above all by the tower, begin very early to play
with it. Thus we often see very little children playing with the tower,
happy in believing that they have constructed it, when they have
inadvertently used the next to the largest cube as the base. But when
the child, repeating the exercise, _corrects himself of his own accord_,
in a permanent fashion, we may be certain that _his eye_ has become
trained to perceive even the slightest differences between the pieces.
In the three systems of blocks through which dimensions are taught that
of length has pieces differing from each other by 10 centimetres,
while in the other two sets, the pieces differ only 1 centimetre.
Theoretically it would seem that the long rods _should be the first to
attract the attention_ and to exclude errors. This, however, is not the
case. The children are attracted by this set of blocks, but they commit
the greatest number of errors in using it, and only after they have for
a long time eliminated every error in constructing the other two sets,
do they succeed in arranging the Long Stair perfectly. This may then be
considered as the most difficult among the series through which
dimensions are taught.
Arrived at this point in his education, the child is capable of fixing
his attention, with interest, upon the thermic and tactile stimuli.
The progression in the sense development is not, therefore, in actual
practice identical with the theoretical progression which psychometry
indicates in the study of its subjects. Nor does it follow the
progression which physiology and anatomy indicate in the description of
the relations of the sense organs.
In fact, the tactile sense is the _primitive_ sense; the organ of touch
is the most _simple_ and the most widely diffused. But it is easy to
explain how the most simple sensations, the least complex organs, are
not the first through which to attract the _attention_ in a didactic
presentation of sense stimuli.
Therefore, when the _education of the attention has been begun_, we may
present to the child the rough and smooth surfaces (following certain
thermic exercises described elsewhere in the book).
These exercises, if presented at the proper time, _interest_ the
children _immensely_. It is to be remembered that these games are of the
_greatest importance_ in the method, because upon them, in union with
the exercises for the movement of the hand, which we introduce later, we
base the acquisition of writing.
Together with the two series of sense exercises described above, we may
begin what we call the "pairing of the colours," that is, the
recognition of the identity of two colours. This is the first exercise
of the chromatic sense.
Here, also, it is only the _eye_ of the child that intervenes in the
judgment, as it was with the exercises in dimension. This first colour
exercise is easy, but the child must already have acquired a certain
grade of education of the attention through preceding exercises, if he
is to repeat this one with interest.
Meanwhile, the child has heard music; has walked on the line, while the
directress played a rhythmic march. Little by little he has learned to
accompany the music spontaneously with certain movements. This of course
necessitates the repetition of the same music. (To acquire the sense of
rhythm _the repetition of the same exercise is necessary_, as in all
forms of education dealing with spontaneous activity.)
The exercises in silence are also repeated.
_Third Grade_
_Exercises of Practical Life._ The children wash themselves, dress and
undress themselves, dust the tables, learn to handle various objects,
etc.
_Sense Exercises._ We now introduce the child to the recognition of
gradations of stimuli (tactile gradations, chromatic, etc.), allowing
him to exercise himself freely.
We begin to present the stimuli for the sense of hearing (sounds,
noises), and also the baric stimuli (the little tablets differing in
weight).
Contemporaneously with the gradations we may present the _plane
geometric insets_. Here begins the education of the movement of the hand
in following the contours of the insets, an exercise which, together
with the other and contemporaneous one of the recognition of tactile
stimuli in gradation, _prepares for writing_.
The series of cards bearing the geometric forms, we give after the child
recognises perfectly the same forms in the wooden insets. These cards
serve to prepare for the _abstract signs_ of which writing consists. The
child learns to recognise a delineated form, and after all the preceding
exercises have formed within him an ordered and intelligent personality,
they may be considered the bridge by which he passes from the sense
exercises to writing, from the _preparation_, to the actual _entrance
into instruction_.
_Fourth Grade_
_Exercises of Practical Life._ The children set and clear the table for
luncheon. They learn to put a room in order. They are now taught the
most minute care of their persons in the making of the toilet. (How to
brush their teeth, to clean their nails, etc.)
They have learned, through the rhythmic exercises on the line, to walk
with perfect freedom and balance.
They know how to control and direct their own movements (how to make the
silence,--how to move various objects without dropping or breaking them
and without making a noise).
_Sense Exercises._ In this stage we repeat all the sense exercises. In
addition we introduce the recognition of musical notes by the help of
the series of duplicate bells.
_Exercises Related to Writing_ / _Design_ / The child passes to the
_plane geometric insets in metal_. He has already co-ordinated the
movements necessary to follow the contours. Here he no longer _follows
them with his finger_, but with a pencil, leaving the double sign upon a
sheet of paper. Then he fills in the figures with coloured pencils,
holding the pencil as he will later hold the pen in writing.
Contemporaneously the child is taught to _recognise_ and _touch_ some of
the letters of the alphabet made in sandpaper.
_Exercises in Arithmetic._ At this point, repeating the sense exercises,
we present the Long Stair with a different aim from that with which it
has been used up to the present time. We have the child _count_ the
different pieces, according to the blue and red sections, beginning with
the rod consisting of one section and continuing through that composed
of ten sections. We continue such exercises and give other more
complicated ones.
In Design we pass from the outlines of the geometric insets to such
outlined figures as the practice of four years has established and which
will be published as models in design.
These have an educational importance, and represent in their content and
in their gradations one of the most carefully studied details of the
method.
They serve as a means for the continuation of the sense education and
help the child to observe his surroundings. They thus add to his
intellectual refinement, and, as regards writing, they prepare for the
high and low strokes. After such practice it will be _easy for the child
to make high or low letters_, and this will do away with the _ruled
note-books_ such as are used in Italy in the various elementary classes.
In the _acquiring_ of the use of _written language_ we go as far as the
knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, and of composition with the
movable alphabet.
In Arithmetic, as far as a knowledge of the figures. The child places
the corresponding figures beside the number of blue and red sections on
each rod of the Long Stair.
The children now take the exercise with the wooden pegs.
Also the games which consist in placing under the figures, on the table,
a corresponding number of coloured counters. These are arranged in
columns of twos, thus making the question of odd and even numbers clear.
(This arrangement is taken from Seguin.)
_Fifth Grade_
We continue the preceding exercises. We begin more complicated rhythmic
exercises.
In design we begin:
(_a_) The use of water colours.
(_b_) Free drawing from nature (flowers, etc.).
Composition of words and phrases with the movable alphabet.
(_a_) Spontaneous writing of words and phrases.
(_b_) Reading from slips prepared by the directress.
We continue the arithmetical operations which we began with the Long
Stair.
The children at this stage present most interesting differences of
development. They fairly _run_ toward instruction, and order their
_intellectual growth_ in a way that is remarkable.
This joyous growth is what we so rejoice in, as we watch in these
children, humanity, growing in the spirit according to its own deep
laws. And only he who experiments can say how great may be the harvest
from the sowing of such seed.