that the nurse takes in her own case, and will even stoop down
anxiously to peer at the dial, just as she has seen her mother and
nurse do on the weekly weighing night. But at a very early age
children appreciate the difference between the real and the
make-believe. They desire above all things to do acts of real service.
At the age of two a child should know where every article for the
nursery table is kept. He will fetch the tablecloth and help to put it
in place, spoons and cups and saucers will be carried carefully to the
table, and when the meal is over he will want to help to clear it all
away. All this is to him a great delight, and the good nurse will
encourage it in the children, because she sees that in doing so they
gain quickness and dexterity and poise of body. The first purposive
movements of the child should be welcomed and encouraged. It is
foolish and wrong to repress them, as many nurses do, because the
child in his attempts gets in the way, and no doubt for a time delays
rather than expedites preparations. The child who is made to sit
immobile in his chair while everything is done for him is losing
precious hours of learning and of practice. It is useless, and to my
mind a little distasteful, to substitute for all this wonderful child
activity the artificial symbolism of the kindergarten school in which
children are taught to sing songs or go through certain semi-dramatic
activities which savour too much of a performance acquired by precise
instruction. If such accomplishments are desired, they may be added
to, but they must not replace, the more workaday activities of the
little child. The child whose impulses towards purposive action are
encouraged is generally a happy child, with a mind at rest. When those
impulses are restrained, mental unrest and irritability are apt to
appear, and toys and picture books and kindergarten games will not be
sufficient to restore his natural peace of mind.
_(b)_ THE SUGGESTIBILITY OF THE CHILD
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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