Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and HygieneHall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Science
Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene
Hall, G. Stanley (Granville Stanley)
Adolescence; Children -- Health and hygiene; Educational psychology
Mrs. Barnes[19], told a story without date, place, name, or moral and
compared the questions which 1,250 children would like to have
answered about it. She found that the interest of girls in persons, or
the number who asked the question "who," culminated at twelve, when it
coincided with that of boys, but that the latter continued to rise to
fifteen. The interest to know "place where" events occurred culminated
at eleven with girls, and at fifteen, and at a far higher point, with
boys. The questions "how" and "why," calling for the method and
reason, both culminated at twelve for girls and fifteen for boys, but
were more infrequent and showed less age differences than the
preceding question. Interest in the results of the action was most
pronounced of all, culminating at twelve in girls and fifteen in boys.
Details and time excited far less interest, the former jointly
culminating for both sexes at eleven. Interest in the truth of the
narrative was extremely slight, although it became manifest at
fifteen, and was growing at sixteen. The number of inferences drawn
steadily increased with age, although the increase was very slight
after thirteen. Both legitimate and critical inferences increased
after eleven, while imaginative inferences at that age had nearly
reached their maximum. Interest in names was very strong throughout,
as in primitive people. Boys were more curious concerning "who,"
"where," and "how"; girls as to "why." In general, the historic
curiosity of boys was greater than that of girls, and culminated
later. The inferences drawn from an imagined finding of a log-house,
boat, and arrows on a lonely island indicate that the power of
inference, both legitimate and imaginative, develops strongly at
twelve and thirteen, after which doubt and the critical faculties are
apparent; which coincides with Mr. M.A. Tucker's conclusion, that
doubt develops at thirteen and that personal inference diminishes
about that age.
The children were given two accounts of the fall of Fort Sumter, one
in the terms of a school history and the other a despatch of equal
length from Major Anderson, and asked which was best, should be kept,
and why. Choice of the narrative steadily declined after eleven and
that of the despatch increased, the former reaching its lowest, the
latter its highest, point at fifteen, indicating a preference for the
first-hand record. The number of those whose choice was affected by
style showed no great change, from twelve to fifteen, but rose very
rapidly for the nest two years. Those who chose the despatch because
it was true, signed, etc., increased rapidly in girls and boys
throughout the teens, and the preference for the telegram as a more
direct source increased very rapidly from thirteen to seventeen.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account