The Unseen SIde of Child Life

Front matter

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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Introduction

It is an acknowledged fact among the leaders in the educational world that there are three mighty forces upon which civilization depends. They are inherited ability,* right kind of environment,} and the developing will-power in man, which latter may be so strengthened and trained that it recognizes whatever is best in the disposition or talent inherited and will make use of the environing conditions which aid in the development of these best inherited characteristics. But the will-power of the individual cannot develop alone but must receive from the social whole, and in return give to the social whole or community of which it isa

*In my “Study of Child Nature” I have endeavored to show how to encourage the better inherited instincts.

¢In my “Two Children of the Foot Hills” I have related how I made use of environment in helping two little children to realize themselves as part of a social whole. 2

10 Unseen Nide of Child Life part the best it has to give. This will-power, therefore, in man is the most important of these three great forces. It is called by various names: “ self-activity,” ‘“ self-making,” “auto education,” “character building,’ “ideal end,” “freedom,” and so on. Last, but not least, by those whose faith has increased to insight, it is designated as the . “ divine element in humanity,” which transforms men from mere animal life into sons of God.

The purpose of this book is to show that much may be done to free children from many of the limitations of inherited traits and too confined an environment, and to give to each young life some of the joy of the inner growth of will-power, as well as the muscular control of the body, both of which rightly belong to the realm of childhood.

I once heard a superintendent of the public schools of a large city say to an assembly of six or seven hundred teachers, “Of course, we do not expect a little child in the kindergarten to obey any law but his own caprice, and we do not expect much voluntary obedience in the first grade. But somewhere, somehow, between the end of the first grade and the end of the high school, every boy and girl’should have learned how to submit his or her will to the law of the school and the law of the land, else he or she will be sent out into the world an undesirable citizen.”

This is foolishness, unless he meant coercion when he said obedience, and yet coercion, if necessary, should begin in the nursery. In fact, it has to begin there. What I hope to show is how it may begin so early that the child in arms may learn that there are certain things which he must not do. For upon this matter-of-course obedience to necessary laws, depends the foundation of health, of family harmony, of business honesty, of patriotic citizenship and of a reasonable religion.

Just across the way from my home, is a large open space, near the center of which stands an old oak tree. Its twisted and gnarled branches tell of the many storms through which it has passed, and its straight, sturdy trunk tells of how it has mastered the tempest and has gone on growing. Now, in its old age, it reveals an inspiring story of oak-tree life, for we all know that deep down under the ground are the roots which gave to it the strength and nourishment it needed to make it a noble specimen of the oak-tree race.

We know that the trunk and the branches, the twigs and the leaves and Shining acorns could not have grown and matured without the help of these unseen, often unthought of, tiny root fibers below the ground. They have continuously received nourishment from the mysterious power which Mother Earth gives. We know not how, but we do know that the thousands of forms of tree-life are dependent upon this same invisible power for growth, each after its own kind. Tree surgeons tell us that any injury done to these unseen rootlets and any lack of proper soil for these same rootlets to absorb and transform into tree-life, lessens and mars the beauty and symmetry of the tree which we see above ground.

This is only an analogy, it is true. Yet is it not through the visible world and the laws which govern it that we get glimpses of the invisible spiritual world and its laws? Every insight into the ethical as well as into the religious world we receive or we communicate through the analogies of language. We speak of a “straight” man when we mean an honest man; of a “ warm heart” when we mean a sympathetic nature. We speak of the “bent twig” when we tell of the warped life of a misunderstood child. So, too, we have been taught by the Great Teacher to say “Our Father” when we speak of the Infinite Creative Power that awakens reverence and quickens prayer and praise. Comfort and consolation come to the sorrowing heart when the spirit of some loved one has laid aside its earthly body and there come to the mind these words: “ In my Father’s house are many mansions: If it were not so, I would have told you.”

Let, us, therefore, return to the unspeakably great and significant lesson given us by this marvelous analogy between the life of man and the life of the tree; yet how blindly we stumble on in the greater work of caring for and nurturing the unseen side of child-life!

Do we not all know parents who seem to think healthy bodies, fairly comfortable surroundings and as much freedom as is compatible with adult comfort aré all that a child needs? Do we not all know that in thousands of homes too little thought is given to the guiding of the affections and emotions towards a sympathetic love for the best and most beautiful in this wonderful world of created things?

Do we not all know mothers and fathers who have failed to discern the tiny, embryonic efforts of the will in an infant struggling to express himself? Were it not SO, we would have in our nurseries more balls to roll or toss, more blocks with which to build, more rag dolls which the child could dress and undress, more low-hung blackboards on which the tiny hands could learn to scrawl, rather than expensive ready-made, mechanical toys or flimsy, cheap ones that are destroyed in a few days. In our back yards or on our side porches, we would have a swing or a climbing ladder, or a trapeze, or a sand box, or a jar of modeling clay instead of formal gardens that the child must not disturb, for we would realize that will-power strengthens and develops aright when allowed to master, transform and create with the materials by which it ~ is surrounded.

Do we not all know guardians of child-life who do not realize that one of the chief duties of the guardianship of the spiritual life of a child is to help him to change the chaos of sensations which greet him at birth into clear-cut, mental images such, as life’s problems multiply, will reveal to his reasoning power a well ordered, law-abiding universe? Distinct speech aids this intellectual grasp of life and a willing obedience to its demands more than any other factor. We all rebel unless we have some comprehension of why we must obey the laws of health, of time, of home routine, of community life, and these greater laws of the growth of the soul. The sooner the child understands the meaning of words, the

sooner he can begin to understand the explanation of these laws. We shall consider this important subject more fully later on. As we consider the “ embryonic impulses ” in very young children we realize more and more the suggestive and picturesque name “root fibers of the soul,” which Froebel has given to the feeling, willing and thinking powers of the young child, faculties which distinguish him from the lower orders of animal life. We know that in animals there is a reaction of motor-nerves to Sensory-impressions and we are by no means sure that there is not some dim foreshadowing of the same in plant life. Froebel, with his training as a forester, speaking to the village peasant mothers about him, who were familiar with the care of plant life, was wise in calling these “embryonic impulses” of the child the “root fibers of the soul.” He thus, by analogy, emphasizes the spiritual significance of these early impulses. I know of no other leader recognized in the pedagogical world who does this. I think it is the frequent use of analogy in interpreting the spiritual life of man that has caused the kindergarten world to take a religious tone, which Dr. Stanley Hall has wittily called “ Froebelolatry.”

Processional 5 ig

Kindergartners have learned to discern the infinite in the Seemingly trivial matter of every-day life of the young child who has not yet learned to conceal his emotions and desires, or to cover up the struggle which goes on between the higher and the lower impulses. It is the same insight which has caused many a thoughtless young mother to fall upon her knees and pray for strength and wisdom to realize the greatness and sacredness of motherhood. JI have had many and many a mother come to me with beaming face and say, in substance, “Oh! I am learning so much patience and wisdom from the new meaning that I see in my child’s play.” A splendidly trained woman once said to me “ My college training has to retire into the background. My nursery with my two children in it is now giving me a university course.” I laughingly assured her that the two courses would soon cooperate. Almost any other kindergartner could tell you of the same enthusiastic interest awakened in the mothers of her Mothers’ Classes. For the true meaning of insight is that it sees through the seen thing into the unseen. It brings the invisible side of life so close that little or no doubt remains as to its divine, immortal significance.

It seems strange to methat with the recent widespread and important interest in the physical development of children that there hag been shown so little reference to the growth of the spiritual life of the child, or, to use a pedagogical term, “ the psychological dawn of his emotional life.” For upon the wise understanding of this depends much of his sympathy with humanity, his desire for harmony and his love of true beauty as well as his reverence for God.

It is equally incomprehensible to me why the will-power in the infinitesimal manifestations of babyhood is not better understood when the development of character depends almost entirely upon the growth of a strong will-power which is ready, nevertheless, to submit to just laws even though they demand subordination of one’s personal preferences, and to demand of one’s self the performance of a duty no matter how taxing it may be. This, as we all know, is the essence of strong personal character.

A more definite idea of what are the essentials of education is much needed. I have told elsewhere of the man who advertised that he had three daughters to be educated and that he would pay a thousand dollars a year or more, if need be, for each if he could get the right kind of school for them. He added that he required but three things: namely, that they should leave school with well bodies, with a consciousness of their own ignorance, and with a desire to learn. This sounds very fine and up-to-date, but how pitifully inadequate it is when we think of the many demands of life for which education should prepare the child.

What is it that develops the higher life of the individual? What is it that suffering humanity most needs as it blunders along from one mistake to another? To bring the thought closer home, what are the characteristics you and I love most in our friends? Are they not the loving, sympathetic understanding of little children and the tender care of the aged? Is it not their generous and ready appreciation of excellence in others? Are they not the friends who are unfailing in their demands upon themselves as to sincerity and loyalty to duty? How lenient they are to our limitations! Yet, in some subtle way, are they not continually holding us up to our best selves? Are such friends as these educated merely to care for their health and to have a desire for more intellectual growth?

How the trappings of mere wealth or learning fall away and the true worth of the individual shines forth when we contemplate such characters! Not but that wealth, learning, social rank, buoyant health and personal charm add much to the possessor’s influence and for a while may attract more than the higher, more sterling virtues. But in time, the soul seeks the true man or woman and history accords the highest places to these possessors of the eternal verities.

There is no other explanation of homage paid by succeeding generations to Moses, the leader of a wandering and apparently insignificant tribe of escaped slaves; to Homer, the blind beggar, journeying about from city to city, in ancient Greece, singing his songs of the ways of gods and men; to the humble fisherman and the obscure tentmaker, under whose teaching proud and profligate Rome forgot her glut of gold and her lust for power, and, as the centuries rolled by learned to seek the successors of

Peter and the writings of Paul for spiritual guidance and help. Again, we see the immortal Dante, a poverty-stricken exile, rejected by his own city and despised by his contemporaries. The highest Christian authorities and the keenest theological intellects have learned to turn to him now for the marvelous pictures of the human soul making for itself a Heaven or Hell here and now, as well as hereafter. We see the same recognition of true worth on down through the ages to Huss and Wycklif, to Luther and Savonarola, to Wesley and John Knox and, nearer and nearer to our own time to Washington and Pitt, Lincoln and Gladstone, and to hundreds of scientists and doctors, to teachers and preachers, each of whom has tried to help mankind to know the laws of the eternal God and to obey them.

Need I speak of the great Christ Jesus, son of an obscure Nazarene carpenter, who in the brief period of thirty-three years so manifested the meaning of the divine in human life that he taught the everlasting truths concerning God, eternity, and man’s immortality, truths which caused the religions and gods that had been handed down for five thousand or more years, from Egyptian despots, through Greek intellectuals and Roman empire-makers, to be swept out of European civilization and which caused the Christ-life and Christ-teaching to become the foundation of all that is best in what the world calls civilization? This is not the place to argue concerning my dogma or your theology. I am speaking now of the influence which Christ has had upon the life of the world, whether we look upon Him as incarnate God or a human life that had the vision of the Divine ideal.

Does not the old orthodox catechism begin with the words: “ The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”? What do we mean by “to glorify God” or “enjoy Him forever”? Right here is the difficulty. Here is where the mother’s most important work comes in. She should feel herself to be God’s assistant in leading her children to enjoy Him.

This is not a mysterious something that she may not understand. We have been given a well-defined statement of what she is to teach in every way she can, by personal example and by gentle suggestion. Saint Paul has described the “ fruits of the spirit ”

as “love, peace, joy, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.” This attitude toward life brings the joy of obeying and serving. Is not this the meaning of the formal statement of the old catechism?

It is because we do not realize that the beginning of all these love-engendering, peace-producing virtues are in the nursery that we chill young hearts or warp young wills by our “lust for power.” We dull their ability to think by doing their thinking for them; we neglect to give them opportunity to grow strong. We do not let them, whenever it is possible, make their own choice as to what is right; and then, when they have grown into manhood and womanhood, we wonder why they are not truer, stronger men and women and why religion plays no vital part in their lives.

I

Out of the warm, dark silence of his mother’s womb the child comes into a world of countless sensations or attacks upon the Sense organ of sight, of sound, of touch, of taste, of smell. No wonder that his first manifestations in response to this new world are a struggle and a cry, — the first faint dawn of the bodily activity and of language. “ But all animals have these same manifestations,” says the skeptic. “Yes”; and yet to the believer in the divine nature of man and in the immortality of his spirit they mean more. Froebel calls them “hints from Heaven unto the mother given.”

The thoughtful mother can easily trace the steady growth from mere animal cry to fretful tones of impatience, to wrathful tones of anger, to pitiful tones of injury, to purring tones of pleasure and cooing tones of delight, as her child develops his human nature as distinct from his animal 24 .

nature. All these manifestations show the existence of an emotional life in the child which is beyond the mere sensation of comfort or discomfort, although in the beginning they are closely related to these agreeable or disagreeable physical conditions. It is this God-given instinct in the mother that makes her coddle her infant in a tender embrace and speak to him in loving tones and smile coaxingly when she looks down into his eyes until she wins an answering smile.

But it may be said this is simply “ mother instinct.” The cow licks her new-born calf; the hen clucks to her baby chicks. True; and some human mothers do little more. If, however, the mere “ mother instinct” is illuminated by the thought of the divine des- _ tiny of man, it becomes insight, and she sees through the inarticulate cry and restless tossing of her infant’s limbs the call for help to master his body and to learn to articulate in order that he may begin to live his human life and not merely that of an animal. These physical manifestations common to all babies are the summons to the mother to come and assist her child in creating a world of order out of the chaos of sensations awakened by things around him and to lead him into human speech as soon as possible. It is through the senses that the right use of the body and of human language must rouse the child’s inner life. There is nothing great accomplished in this world without faith in its greatness.

Even if her mind has not yet reached this clear definite insight into the meaning of true motherhood, let the mother hold on to her faith that her child has an immortal destiny and that she is here to nurture his higher instincts for that destiny.

This holding of an ideal or standard of life begins with the faintly conscious will-activity of infancy. It is these “ root fibers of the soul,” so often unnoticed, so seldom understood and yet so important in the nourishing of the right attitude toward life which by and by will develop genuine religion in the heart — that religion which recognizes in its deeds as well as in its emotions the brotherhood of,man and the fatherhood of God. But it must begin in the heart. It can begin nowhere else, and thus aroused, it must be allowed Sincerity of expression. This is why it is best to keep the infant in a calm, happy mood in general, but to let him learn also that there are laws that even he can understand and must obey.

The first time that a child becomes conscious that his mother or any one whom he has trusted has lied to him, the seeds of doubt of God are sown in his soul, and in a dim way, he becomes conscious that speech may be false. This is long before he can express himself in words. Have you not seen some adult tell an untruth to a young child, and then noticed how quickly he turns his questioning eyes to his mother’s face?

I was present one day when a young mother was feeding candy to her baby. I modestly remonstrated on the amount she was giving him. She hid it behind her on the chair in which she was sitting. The child reached out for more. The mother said, “All gone. The candy is all gone.” The child, who could not yet talk, demanded by gesture that he wanted more of the sweet sensation. The mother held up her hands, shook her dress and continued to say “All gone.” In the meantime, she motioned to her husband to put the box farther away. The child, not yet a year old, evidently suspected something. He sat up on the bed, reached over and, catching her arm, began searching her blouse and skirt. If a child cannot trust those who are nearest to him, how hard it will be to lead him to trust an all-wise, all-loving, all-truthful but invisible God!

This is not the place in which to discuss lying to children or deceiving them in any way. It is too large a subject for discussion here. The above is given to show how important it is that all sense-impressions should be as clear and definite as possible, as these lead to distinct mental images.

II

Accurate mental images are formed through the right exercise of the Senses ; even the very young child begins to note form, color, motion and the various other properties of objects about him. ‘This is easily proved by the baby’s trying to stop a moving object and trying to move an object at rest, by reaching out for a red or yellow or other gaily colored ball and ignoring the blue and purple ones. Of course, the time of the baby’s beginning to connect the pleasant or unpleasant sensations with the objects varies with different children, but it comes much earlier than most people are aware.

The child begins as the race began, first by accidental discovery of the properties of matter, which leads gradually to learning the laws by which he can use materials about him; from these he creates new forms and finds new ways of utilizing nature’s forces. Man accidentally discovered how glass could be made of melted sand; later he learned to shape the glass into telescopes and microscopes. These reveal the inconceivable magnitude of the starry heavens and the undreamed-of conformity to geographical shapes found in the microscopic atoms at the bottom of the sea. Merely to mention what changes physics, mechanics, chemistry, and a score of other scientific studies have made in the life of man, even in our lifetime, would take us too far afield for the purpose of this book.

The important point, just now, is how easily the child through his creative work may begin to distinguish between himself as a feeling, willing, thinking being and the unresting waves of the sea, the immovable rocks of the shore, the silent plants and trees of the hillside, the inarticulate beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, which in thousands and thousands of years have not changed voluntarily their habits of life or the kinds of homes in which they live, while the child may change his activities a dozen times within an hour if he so wills.

We shall speak more fully of what connection this has with the religious life when we come to “creative play” in our study of the value of understanding the deeper meaning of play. Just now, I wish to call attention to the way a mother helps or hinders the process which is going on within her child, by means of which, having seen the objects often enough, he learns to recognize, i. e., to have a mental image of objects and to note resemblances and then to disguish differences between these familiar or unfamiliar objects. This is as near as we have, as yet, traced the awakening of that spiritual process through which man selects the materials he wishes to use and rejects those that will not help him give form to the impressions within him that are urging to be uttered or “ outered.”

Have you not had some idea come into your conscious mind that left you eager and impatient until you could communicate it to your most congenial friend? It is the same impulse that causes baby’s delight in holding up some toy for his mother to express surprise or pleasure concerning it. Why does he at less than a year of age wave his hand “by-by ” with pleasure, or play “pat-a-cake” when his mother begins to sing it, unless he is beginning to feel the delight of communicating, even when he does not understand the full meaning of these simple gestures?

The father’s or mother’s part is to manifest pleasure at this uttering of the inner self, which sensations have awakened, and to add new sensations that will enrich this inner world of his, not too many and not too complex sensations, but enough to keep that dim dawning mind active and at work taking in and giving out, with quiet periods of rest between times.

There are many means by which a baby may begin to compare sensations. The child less than two years of age would do much more of it if he were not thoughtlessly checked by his mother or nurse. Let me illustrate an instance of this self-education by means of which the child carries forward this inner power of contrasting and judging the world about him.

One day, I chanced to be seated in a suburban train opposite two young women who were evidently much occupied by their conversation. Between them stood a little girl about fourteen or fifteen months of age, looking out of the window. Ina short time, she turned and gazed, in child fashion, at her mother’s friend; then she reached out her little hand and softly caressed the sealskin of the lady’s coat. The sensation evidently pleased her and she repeated it several times, stroking the velvet-like fur. Her mother drew the little girl’s hand away rather impatiently and said: “Don’t do that. It isn’t nice.” The temptation, however, to repeat this new and delightful sensation of touch was too much for the child and in a few moments her hand was trayeling slowly and caressingly over the sleeve of the sealskin coat. Again the mother pulled the hand down to her side and went on talking to her friend, still holding the little one’s hand. Ag her own grasp relaxed, the child again reached out and felt of the soft, pretty fur. It was done so quietly and gently, with such a pleased expression of the face, that it seemed to me that anyone ought to have understood the situation,— but in polite society it is not considered proper, I realized, for a child to indulge the sense of touch by actual experience. Therefore, to the mother it evidently became a duty to take the child’s hand away from the attractive fur. This time somewhat emphatically, with a rather sharp word of rebuke at the “ naughtiness ” of disobedience she slapped the child’s hand.

For a short time, the little one, whose consciousness of a pleasing touch-sensation had been awakened, ran her fingers back and forth over the woven willow of the seatback, then it returned to the warm, soft fur of the lady’s coat. Again the mother slapped the disobedient hand quite severely. ~The child’s face instantly showed resentment at what, to her, was an unjust and unnecessary pain inflicted upon her, and she raised her hand to strike back at her mother. Accidentally, it touched the plush of her own little bonnet, and instantly the wounded feelings vanished and an expression of intense astonishment and awakened interest appeared in the child’s face. She eagerly smoothed down the soft, silk plush for a moment or two and then by way of verifying this wonderful new discovery that two sensations in different localities could be the same, she was impelled to identify it with the former experience. She did the most normal and natural thing possible; she reached out and felt the fur. Her expression and manner were those of an investigator with no thought whatever of disobedience.

The mother, however, did not see it from the child’s standpoint. To her the child seemed troublesome and was annoying her friend. She took her down from the seat and placed her on the other side of her, at the same time reproaching her by the use of several unpleasant adjectives. The child at first looked perplexed, then sulky and finally moved away from her mother as far as the space would allow. She had been investigating an amazing, interesting, new world and her mental powers had received the stimulation of suddenly recognizing identical sense-impressions of soft furriness in different localities, and by means of different material. It was a real discovery in the outside world and this revelation was followed by an intense desire to verify thoroughly the discovery; but the mother saw none of this and went on talking with her friend about some trivial matter. It was but one illustration of the thousand mistakes and obstacles that daily hinder the young child’s growth,—in acuteness of sense-perception and in development of mental images of judgment and of power to discriminate.