At the same time I gladly allow that other modes of observation are
possible and in their way useful. This applies to older children who
pass into the collective existence of the school-class. Here something
like collective or statistical inquiry may be begun, as that into the
contents of children's minds, their ignorances and misapprehensions
about common objects. Some part of this inquiry into the minds of school
children may very well be undertaken by an intelligent teacher. Thus it
would be valuable to have careful records of children's progress carried
out by pre-arranged tests, so as to get collections of examples of
mental activity at different ages. More special lines of inquiry having
a truly experimental character might be carried out by experts, as those
already begun with reference to children's "span of apprehension,"
_i.e._, the number of digits or nonsense syllables that can be
reproduced after a single hearing, investigations into the effects of
fatigue on mental processes, into the effect of number of repetitions on
the certainty of reproduction, into musical sensitiveness and so forth.
Valuable as such statistical investigation undoubtedly is, it is no
substitute for the careful methodical study of the individual child.
This seems to me the greatest desideratum just now. Since the teacher
needs for practical reasons to make a careful study of individuals he
might well assist here. In these days of literary collaboration it might
not be amiss for a kindergarten teacher to write an account of a child's
mind in co-operation with the mother. Such a record if well done would
be of the greatest value. The co-operation of the mother seems to me
quite indispensable, since even where there is out-of-class intercourse
between teacher and pupil the knowledge acquired by the former never
equals that of the mother.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The great advantage which the female observer of the infant's mind
has over her male competitor is clearly illustrated in some recent
studies of childhood by American women. I would especially call
attention to a study by Miss M. W. Shinn, (University of California
series) _Notes on the Development of a Child_ (the writer's niece),
where the minute and painstaking record (e.g. of the child's
colour-discrimination and visual space exploration) points to the ample
opportunity of observation which comes more readily to women.
[2] "Mental Development in the Child and the Race," chap. III.
TWINS, THEIR HISTORY AS A CRITERION OF THE RELATIVE POWERS OF NATURE AND
NURTURE
FRANCIS GALTON
[Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, has won eminence
by bringing problems of human development to the test of
statistical inquiry. Among his works are "Hereditary Genius,"
"English Men of Science, Their Nature and Nurture," "Human
Faculty," and "Natural Inheritance." The study of Twins here
presented is taken from "Human Faculty," published by
Macmillan & Co., London, 1883.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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