Social organization : $b A study of the larger mindCooley, Charles Horton
Science
Social organization : $b A study of the larger mind
Cooley, Charles Horton
Social psychology; Sociology
“This morning,” writes her teacher, “while she was washing, she wanted
to know the name for water.... I spelled w-a-t-e-r and thought no
more about it until after breakfast. Then it occurred to me that with
the help of this new word I might succeed in straightening out the
mug-milk difficulty [a confusion of ideas previously discussed]. We
went out into the pump-house and I made Helen hold her mug under the
pump while I pumped. As the cold water gushed forth filling the mug I
spelled w-a-t-e-r in Helen’s free hand. The word coming so close upon
the sensation of cold water rushing over her hand seemed to startle
her. She dropped the mug and stood as one transfixed. A new light came
into her face. She spelled water several times. Then she dropped on
the ground and asked for its name, and pointed to the pump and the
trellis, and suddenly turning round she asked for my name. I spelled
‘teacher.’ Just then the nurse brought Helen’s little sister into the
pump-house, and Helen spelled ‘baby’ and pointed to the nurse. All the
way back to the house she was highly excited, and learned the name of
every object she touched, so that in a few hours she had added thirty
new words to her vocabulary.”
The following day Miss Sullivan writes, “Helen got up this morning
like a radiant fairy. She has flitted from object to object, asking
the name of everything and kissing me for very gladness.” And four
days later, “Everything must have a name now.... She drops the signs
and pantomime she used before, so soon as she has words to supply
their place, and the acquirement of a new word affords her the
liveliest pleasure. And we notice that her face grows more expressive
each day.”[22]
This experience is a type of what happens more gradually to all of us:
it is through communication that we get our higher development. The
faces and conversation of our associates; books, letters, travel, arts,
and the like, by awakening thought and feeling and guiding them in
certain channels, supply the stimulus and framework for all our growth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account