(b) Its channels of operation or that through which it acts. The channels through which curiosity reaches out for knowledge and brings back the results of its search are the senses. Every waking moment finds them taking in sensations which are carried to the brain through the nervous system. The more perfect the senses in their working the more correct the message they bring. Failure to learn and inattention are usually caused by some defect in the senses or other part of the body. While an adult can arrive at new ideas through other ideas, the child must receive practically all his ideas through his senses. This guides the teacher as to the method of presenting the lesson. (4) _Fancy._ This is the early form of imagination, unleashed and untrammeled, which transforms objects, gives soul to inanimate things and creates for the child his own beautiful play world. (5) _Self-interest._ The beginner himself is the center of his little world. His thinking and his feeling revolve around his own personality, and his own advantage is the thing he constantly seeks. This is God's order of development. The consideration for others will follow later, but even now the child may be led into loving, unselfish acts through imitation and personal influence. (6) _Faith._ Perhaps the better term in the beginning would be credulity, for faith is confidence which has a basis in knowledge, and knowledge does not necessarily enter into a child's belief. Anything an older person tells him is accepted unquestioningly, no matter of what sort it may be. This means a great responsibility and an unequaled opportunity in the matter of religious instruction. The stories of God's power and the love of Jesus Christ are absorbed into the life, neither proof nor explanation being necessary nor indeed comprehensible. As the stories multiply in the home and the Sunday-school that which was credulity at first becomes genuine faith. The child does not reason that God will do because he has done, but a feeling of the Divine strength and love grips him and out of this feeling grows loving confidence in the One who first loved him. If a child passes through the Beginners department without this response, his teacher has been out of touch with her Lord. Test Questions 1. What are the age limits of the Beginners period? 2. What are the general characteristics of the Beginners Age? 3. What are some of the characteristics of these years of absorption? 4. What is meant by rounded development? 5. Name six special characteristics of the Beginners Age. 6. What is the purpose of a child's abounding activity? 7. What is gained by a child when he imitates an action? 8. What two points about a child's curiosity is it important for a teacher to know? 9. Who is the center of the little child's world? 10. By what means is true faith developed in a child? Lesson 3 Beginners Age (Concluded)