The nervous system of the child, its growth and health in education

Front matter

JP"^

*£> 0^ <.

*£> 0* • iV

Preface

At the close of the nineteenth century, as we review the progress that has occurred in the conditions of social life and the trend of public opinion and thought, we cannot fail to be impressed with the greater refinement and humanity in the management of children, and the increasing appreciation of the real value of the mental aspects of life. Most of the great achievements of this century have resulted from the increase of exact knowledge and the application of scientific principles to the objects to be obtained. Perhaps in no branch of study has more activity been displayed than in that which concerns mind. Especially has much been accomplished in that part of this study which deals with the evolution of brain action as observed in the child. Recent advances in this direction have made it possible and desirable to adapt those methods to child-study which have been employed in physics, biology, natural history, and medicine ; i.e. methods of observation, description, and inference. I think there are a great number of readers and students who desire to obtain a real grasp of the great problems concerning the relation of mind and body in the child, vi PREFACE

and following scientific principles are willing to work diligently to the attainment of that end. For this purpose they must know what to look at and what to look for in the child, as facts to be studied and aids to sound conclusions. Many students feel the need of knowing more of the character and significance of the phenomena they observe, which are often obscure in their origin, and desire to understand more about what they can see as definite facts. They desire — and rightly desire — to understand something of the mental attitude of their pupil corresponding to some distinct visible act. And, certainly, not to follow the workings of the child's brain, is to risk losing opportunities of rendering assistance in the formation of character, and may lead to grave mistakes in education.

This book is addressed to that large body of earnest workers for the welfare of children which is seeking for knowledge of facts and principles in harmony with the best wisdom attainable as to the mind and body of the child. To you who are engaged in this study scientific methods will afford something permanent in your work ; an inquiry followed out with intelligent purpose will give experience grounded on a sure basis. Dignity and success are added to the duties of caring for children by some employment of scientific methods of gaining knowledge. A mere rule of thumb experience, valuable as the outcome of dealing directly with

PREFACE Vll

individual children, may be rendered doubly useful when directed by a deeper scientific knowledge, such as will place the phenomena of child life in their proper place among the facts of nature, and show how far it is wise to adjust environment to the child.

The study of children, and a knowledge of the nervous system of the child and of the best means of promoting its health and training, concern parents, teachers, and members of the medical profession, each in their several relations. I trust that this work may lead to the harmonious action of all three classes in education, and in scientific study.

Children are here for the most part described in relation to the school and to education rather than to the family. Individual children are described, as well as natural groups and their peculiarities, much stress being laid upon the study of observations. While thus adapting the work to the needs of teachers in dayschools and boarding establishments, it has been necessary to touch upon many considerations of hygiene ; in such matters the advice and assistance of the physician is often necessary. In addressing this book to teachers I have endeavoured to indicate distinctly where help is required from medical science; as the opportunities for useful advice from the medical profession increase, it is necessary that there should be a common understanding as to the terms to be used in the description of the conditions of childhood. For these pur-

Vlll PREFACE

poses we must practise methods of observing children and making scientific inferences from what we see.

Many medical men are now concerned with school work as managers or medical officers, or in other ways intimately associated with the care of children and their education. It appeared convenient to adopt the plan of addressing teachers rather than parents and medical men. Not to* burden the reader with technical matters of purely scientific and medical interest, references are given to reports and papers previously published, some of them statistical in character, which afford further explanation of the diagnosis, as well as methods of treatment, which could not be given in the compass of this volume. '

Mental study, pursued in a scientific spirit, must be founded on observations, and inferences drawn from them, as to the modes of brain action corresponding with those observations. In a former volume I have dealt at length with the methods of observing children ; here the experience gained is put before the reader with ample references to the observations on which it is founded. Still the student should learn to observe and describe what he sees for himself; otherwise he may simply receive dogmatic instruction, and fail to acquire progress in scientific thought and practice. General modes of brain action, indicated by visible movements, may easily be perceived, and their observation recorded in accurate detail. Methods of classi-

PREFACE IX

fying observations will be readily appreciated by the student of natural history ; these classified observations amount to scientific descriptions of children, and we are thus enabled to follow with accuracy the mental conditions produced successively under the influence of education. As we- proceed by the methods employed in science and in clinical medicine, the need of mental as well as physical hygiene in the training of children will become apparent. Passing under consideration the stages of evolution in the child from infancy to adolescence, we shall by employing these means obtain insight into the proper management and training of children.

My thanks are due to Dr. Wm. B. Dove for much assistance in correcting proofs and in preparing the index.

F. W.

Chapter I Page

Introductory i

The child at home and in school. Responsibilities toward children and in learning to understand them. The student of childhood should follow the methods of natural history; brain changes are thus observed, while class management is facilitated. The antecedents and surroundings of children. Growth of brain necessitates feeding and training. Brain the physical basis of mind, its cultivation. Hygiene, circulation, training; the brain reacts on bodily health. Impressions received upon the brain under guidance, stage by stage. School hygiene, mental and physical. School aspect of childhood, constant observation necessary. Child-study leads to descriptions of boys and girls. Delicacy and mental dulness. Accurate observation guides training. Relation of physiognomy to brain and mental ability. Training brain action should precede instruction and bear on the future. Examples. Physical exercises without use of words. Order of sensory impressions retained, their discrimination and comparison. Preparation for other studies. Examples. Means of controlling the child, imitation. Rapid inference from observation of the child. Imitation of the teacher's weariness. Control of the school. Mental hygiene, faults of children studied. Examples. Brain training in infancy and early childhood. Spontaneity trained stage by stage. Impressions associated with words. Mental comparison. Moral training. Previous training employed in teaching. The concrete aim in education.

Chapter II

The Brain and Body in Infancy and Early Childhood . 23 Home life. The infant at birth, spontaneity of movement, strength of muscles, the limbs bent. Photograph of a baby. Sleep, habits, rapid growth of brain. The brain, its parts or nerve

xi

Xll CONTENTS

PAGE

centres. Their separate action and interaction on one another. Action indicated by movements. Brain needs nourishment and stimulation. The infant's head. The fontanelle, its pulsation, brain circulation, growth of head. The chest and lungs. Teething. Child at twelve months, care and training habits. The young child, spontaneity needs guidance, aptitudes of brain. School age, self-control, memory, mental method. Reversion to childishness. Limits of power of the child's brain. Examples. The child should be childlike for his age. All mental action expressed by movement. General character of brain action.

Spontaneity motor and mental, it may be subnormal, deficient, excessive, or repetitive. Examples. Impressionability, its evolution expressed in many ways. Inhibition of movement leading to regulated action, the pause before action. Examples. Attention. Control through the senses. Guidance with partial inhibition of spontaneity. Imitation at sight. Examples. Control through muscle sense, its importance in hands and eye movements. Feeling of muscles in tension, in estimating weights, in number, and in proportion. Examples. Compound brain action. Interaction of nerve centres and final response. Examples. In simple imitation no interaction of the brain centres. Habits evolved by training. Retentiveness shown in acquired habits and memory, it leads to voluntary power, and is due to formation of nerve paths in brain. Coordinated action, movements in a series controlled through the senses. Brain centres become connected by nerve paths in practice. Examples in infant and child. Spontaneity coordinated indicates dawning mental faculty. Spreading area of movement. Examples. A storm of passion, tricks and habits, stammering. Emotion fatigues brain. Response of the brain seen in movement. Pause between sensory stimulus and response, brain action in interval may correspond to thinking, it may be prolonged. General modes of brain action more readily appreciated than detailed signs. Description of a bright and healthy boy.

* CHAPTER III

The Child at School 48

The child entering school. Scientific observation leads the teacher to inferences and experience. Reports on 100,000 chil-

CONTENTS Xlll

PAGE

dren. What to look at and what to look for. Methods of observation. The face and forehead. Nerve signs. Frontal muscles, corrugators, eyelids. The mouth, grinning, smiling. Expression of face. Eye movements. Attitudes and movements of the hand, as an indication of brain state, method of observation. Weak hand balance, seen in sleep. Nervous hand balance. Finger action, its brain significance, finger twitches. The spine, lordosis. Conditions associated with "nerve signs," their varying significance and connection with mental dulness. The basis of physiological psychology. Observation should guide training. Physiognomy and development of body, body and brain co-related. The head of the infant. The features, method of observation. The nose, mouth, eye openings. The palate. Growth and weight. Healthy spontaneity of brain and mental aptitude form a basis for training. Cultivation of impressionability and control through the senses, method of training, impressions before names. Examples. Culture of the senses. Training by muscle sense differs from drilling the muscles. Advantages of drill. Number and proportion felt. Impressions useful in later teaching. Evolution stage by stage. Establishment of nerve paths under training. The physiological law. Memory evolved. Coordination cultivated by exactness in training. Spreading brain action, fatigue, laughter, happiness. Response and expression. Simple imitation and higher forms of response due to interaction among brain centres in mental action. Vocabulary used in expression, response without words. Untruthfulness and epilepsy. Brain training and mental hygiene. Impressions implanted before thought can be arranged in words. Spontaneity and control lead to coordinated action. All teaching should be on a system preparing for the future.

CHAPTER IV Observation, Description, and Classification of Children

in School • 73

Observation of movements in children. Examples. Movements classified without describing their cause. Uniform movements, tricks and habits. Examples. Some replacing spontaneity, others of low type. Increasing area of movements, laughter, emotion. Lessening movement. Attention, subsidence of emotion, sleepiness. Coordinated movements. Examples. Incoordinated

XIV CONTENTS

PAGE

eye movements. Drill. Cricket. Nutrition of the body, signs of health. Testing sight and hearing. A well-made child described. Normal and subnormal characters indicated by signs observed. Child-study requires serious thought, self-training, and devotion to duty. Dr. Stanley Hall on natural history and child-study, their uses. Camper, an artist's description of joyfulness. Sir C. Bell's description of laughter. Mental irritability described. Metaphysical speculations. Subnormal nerve signs. Conditions of body to be observed. Schedule, a child of nervous type.

CHAPTER V Evolution of the Child and his Brain Power ... 94

The brain centres, analogy to soldiers under discipline. Evolution in families and in the child. Laughter and emotion indicate spreading brain action. Mental evolution. Observe and infer for yourselves. Natural history and child-study. Unifort7ily repeated growth. Number of parts growing, increasing or diminishing. Coordinate action. Mimosa. Similar action in brain. Plant grown in poor soil. Reversion to childishness. Brain evolution. Analogy of brain centres and a regiment. Brain action here studied and metaphysics omitted. Mental action is expressed by movement. Time expressed by the hands of a clock. Scientific study of mental action. Nerve mechanism for thoughts. The pause of inhibition. Imitation in speech. Observation and inference. Thought as represented in the brain. Analogy of brain action to an army or a telephone system. Formation of nerve paths corresponds to coordination. Impressionability. Examples. Inhibition. Examples. Coordinated action. Examples. Compound brain action. Examples. Words retained in order. Speech taught. Brain action corresponding to thought, its analogy in army organisation. Method in teaching. The untrained brain is liable to disorder.

CHAPTER VI Physical Care of the Child; Hygiene and Feeding . .117

Health of body and brain. Delicate children need training. Interaction of the organs and the brain, good circulation. Brain regulates the organs of body. The blood, food and digestion.

CONTENTS . XV

PAGE

Interaction of conditions in the body. Weariness, its causes. Care of the body, the child's duties. Unconsciousness of body. Clothing and dress. School time-table. Sleeping rooms. The child in sleep, brain circulation, awakening. Amount of sleep and work. Dormitory cubicles. Toilet and cleanliness. Care of eyes and sight training. Print of books. Light in room. The schoolroom. Oxygen and pure air, its temperature. School desks, method of writing. Dr. Hartwell on physical training. Dietary, superintendence of meals. Lunch in high schools. Dr. C. Dukes on dietary. Economical feeding. The matron's duties. Students at college, exercise and health culture. Health statistics of women students. Health capacity for duties in after life.

Chapter VII

The Training and Teaching of Young Children . . .140 Training differs from teaching. Words do not always convey thoughts, useful words. Impressions associated with names. Physiology of physical exercises, nerve paths formed. Imitation of movements train coordination, but do not make thoughts. Hand exercises, method of procedure. Teacher controls the brain. Eye movements, their use in later teaching. Examples. Brain impressions produced analogous to mental action. Muscle sense employed in training. Muscle action impresses the brain and forms new nerve paths. Accurate exercises produce fatigue. School experience in coordinated exercises, they brighten the children. Dr. Hartwell on physical training. Brain centres adapted to mental processes. Brain impressions produced first and understood later. Teaching colours. Discrimination and choice. Value of fixed impressions and memory. Standard of weights and measurements, comparison of area, volume, size. Order in teaching stage by stage. Agreement and difference, the characters compared, colour, weight, etc.

Chapter VIII

Advancing School Method and Teaching . . . .159 The pupil at school. Teaching numbers by movements. Impressions associated with names. Many kinds of impressions produced simultaneously must afterward be separated. Demonxvi CONTENTS stration before explanation. Principles taught and demonstrated afterward. Classes of impressions formed stage by stage. Teaching the form of a card, the previous training required. Observation and comparison. Coordinated teaching. Impressions and comparison without words. Examples. Learning the clock and sense of time. Names for objects and abstract ideas. Language for expression. Ideas of causation, antecedents, and sequents. Common mistakes. Brain impressions must be separated and classified in making comparison. Some spontaneity of brain must be allowed. "Question time." Geographical distance taught. Enlarging and limiting range of thought. Mental impressions guided in teaching. Teaching natural history. Memory of directions or method. Parsing trains scientific analysis. Coordinated method. Mental analysis trained by observation. Schedule used in studying natural history directs observation. Examples of specimens observed.

Chapter IX

The Nerve Centres in Infancy, School Life, and Adolescence; their Health and Training . . . .174 The infant brain grows rapidly, its pulsations can be felt. Value of play and child society. Preparing for scKool. Impressions better than verbal explanation. Good brain training prevents mental confusion. Spontaneous thinking. Children's criticisms of teacher. Indications of mental aptitude. Spontaneity- the basis of mental power. Infant's brain action described. The school child must pause to think. Cultivating attention through eye and ear, effects of previous training. Mental fatigue, its causes and expression. Means of prevention. Value of work not proportional to the fatigue. Effective training saves brain wear. Lonesome children often tired. Memoranda help memory. Attention is spontaneity controlled. Example. Coordinated cell action in plants. Causes of inattention, spreading action, eye movements, deafness and eye defects, rapid heart action, delayed , expression. Memory mechanical like a phonograph. Too many fixed impressions lessen free mental power. Examples. Impressionability without retentiveness. Reception and reproduction of impressions, verbal memory. Interaction of impressions and adhesiveness. Memory of physical exercises. Rearrangement of

CONTENTS XV11 previous impressions. Systematic classification. Trains of thought. Learning facts, adhesion of ideas. Analysis and analogy. Social memory. Forgetfulness. Mental confusion from want of clear impressions. Reversion to childishness due to lowered brain nutrition. Spontaneous return of trains of thought, dreams, delirium. Replacement of thoughts implies dissolution of nerve paths.

Chapter X

Mental Hygiene and Voluntary Mental Power . . .194 Physiology of mental action inferred from expression. Hygiene, physical and mental. Mental aptitude, each indication to be cultivated individually and collectively. Mental hygiene as a science. Voluntary power, consciousness not admitted as the cause. Analysis of voluntary action, motor and mental. Its connection with antecedents and dependence on the general characters of the brain. Spontaneity. Impressionability. Inhibition, concentrated attention. Dominant ideas. Suppressing outside thoughts fatigues. Control through the senses and muscles must be precise in early training. Previous impressions revive in order under direction or a dominant idea. Directions in teaching, if retained, aid voluntary thinking. Example. Established modes of brain action, methods of procedure. Voluntary action in home lessons. Coordination of brain from previous training aids volition. Spreading brain action may increase thinking, or interfere. Examples. Response may be delayed, but voluntary. Evolution of voluntary power stage by stage. Complex actions in harmony with the environment. Modes of brain action contributory to volition. Choice and comparison. Established modes of action. Examples. Voluntary acts independent of outside stimulus. Coordinated action without control. Intelligence indicated in the order of expressing thoughts. Examples. Voluntary obedience at home and in school. Example. Experience and training. Volition traced in modes of brain action. Well-established mental impressions interact under influence of environment. Examples. Voluntary power to be cultivated systematically. Spreading brain action may interfere. Health and volition. Involuntary movements. Voluntary thought without expression. Experience gained in school life.

CHAPTER I Introductory

The children are the mainspring of life and interest in the home and in the school ; their demands are many and urgent, raising feelings in us of affection, and many thoughts as to their well-being in childhood and in the future ; they awaken a sense of our responsibility towards the individual child, as well as to others, in as far as his future life and action may depend upon the wisdom and acquired experience which we bring to bear on his health and training.

Such responsibilities begin in the family, where others besides the parents have an interest in the child, and duties to perform towards him. The well-trained infant is likely to become an apt infant-school pupil; and so throughout the early years, stage by stage, the child forms a centre of interest and duty in many and varied aspects.

Still, it is a fact that children bring troubles to those around them, and much weariness in labouring for their welfare. ' Such feelings should, in response, awaken your efforts and the desire for further knowledge of child-life, and of understanding the dawn of mental aptitudes, which sometimes appear conflicting as seen in the child's feelings and modes of response towards those around. Such facts, if looked at without understanding, are apt to lead to regrettable mistakes. Why does the infant cry ? What does he want ? Only our observation and experience can give an answer. So in the infant school, "Why will not the children stand still?" We shall see further on that spontaneous movements indicate the most hopeful conditions of the brain for the future. 1

To the question, "Why does not the child understand what I say ? " it may be replied that perhaps your words raise no impressions in his mind because the necessary training has not yet been received.

To trace out the meaning and the origin of our difficulties in dealing with children will give a new pleasure to the work, and enable us to plan in our own minds what to do, adding an intelligent interest to daily duties in the care of children of any age. (See Chapter VII., p. 147.)

The student of childhood has a large field of observation open to him. To know the mind of the child, and to trace out its developing faculties, necessitates much

1 "Mental Faculty," pp. 24 and 68. The Macmillan Company.

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 3

attention to child-study; and this, I think, should commence with observation of the child after the methods of natural history; describing what we see, classifying our observations, and making inferences as tp what is going on in the body and in the brain of the child before us. This power you will attain for yourselves by practice, with some understanding of what is occurring in the brain of the child before you, while you learn to adapt your methods in training to the conditions of the child and your own aims for his welfare.

The class teacher, with his pupils before him, can look at each, and if he knows what to look for, he will be able to follow the changing brain moods of the pupil, watching the impressions the pupil receives from instruction, their interaction, and the final outcome in expressing mental abilities or faults. 1

The principal of the school needs to know each pupil sufficiently for the purpose of classification, and must readily appreciate character and mental abilities or disabilities. Such rapid .observation affords a basis of reasonable knowledge, which, when combined with experience, will suggest the best means of meeting the difficulties that arise with every child.

The training of a child, the management of a class, and the arrangement and control of a school demand knowledge of the individual pupils and the formation of a rapid opinion of each from observation with inferences founded thereon. The conditions of each child, not merely the rules of the school, should help in forming a judgment of conduct. Does the pupil forget the lesson he learnt over night, or bring up a sum very incorrectly worked out, it is necessary and very interesting to analyse and follow out the causes of the success or failure; the faults may be in the child's brain while doing the work, as well as those due to want of accurate impressions received in previous training. (See Chapter X.) If you study brain action as well as the mind, you may observe what goes on in the child while under your guidance, and also when he is alone and self -controlled in his work. Child-study will give an interest to the life of the teacher who trains himself to observe and intelligently traces out what takes place in the pupil. This will add power and dignity to his work.

In caring for the young you should never fail to consider the antecedents and the consequences of the present surroundings of the children ; * the past tells upon the present, and the present controls the future — as is commonly said, the child is the father of the man.

A healthy brain in a healthy body is what we want to cultivate in the child (see Chapter IX.); the brain and the body are mutually dependent on one another,

1 Effects of overcrowding, etc. References 10-12.

BRAIN HEALTH 5

and without the health of each, mental power and activity will run low. The brain is the physical basis, or seat of mental action such as is expressed in gesture, movement, or by spoken or written words ; further, the action of the brain gives vitality to the body, controlling its nutrition as well as the processes of digestion, respiration, and circulation. Thus, a healthy condition of the blood demands proper feeding and digestion, while for its purity it requires oxidation (see Chapter VI., p. 127); exercise with walks and play in the sunshine quickens a healthy circulation, both in the body and the brain, supplying them with the necessary food and oxygen ; light and well-ventilated rooms being necessary for the same reason. (See Chapter VI. p. 122.) Physical exercises, drill, and gymnastics aid development of the chest and lungs; also tending to strengthen the growth of the heart. The brain acts upon the body; its disorderly action may cause dyspepsia, palpitation, and breathlessness ; liability to nervous disorders often results from want of early discipline in well-regulated modes of brain action, and training in those systematic modes of mental procedure which might save the child from too much emotion followed by fatigue and exhaustion. The young person who is allowed to grow up without good and established habits, is liable at adolescence to excitement, emotion, restlessness, and is apt to suffer from consequent palpitation, dyspepsia, and prostration, which early and continuous culture might do much to prevent. 1

The brain receives impressions through the senses, while other activities in it appear to be spontaneous. In training and in teaching we endeavour to produce impressions in the brain ; some directing, guiding, and controlling the natural spontaneous activities, while others are designed to produce the special action which we wish. When showing an object, you may make the child look at it, and feel it, both as to its size and its weight ; thus impressions are produced in his brain. When he asks "What is it?" you couple the name with what he sees ; then as he feels the weight, you name that impression as " heavy." Such training by physical impressions should, I think, precede any attempt in giving descriptions and making comparisons ; impressions must be received accurately in the brain before they can be compared. The child can associate " heavy " with the feeling of an iron weight in his hand, and "light" with the feeling of an empty pill box. Later on, after he has gained experience, he will be able to compare the weight and the box.

These considerations as to the relations between mental action and the brain on the one hand, and the body on the other, lead me to speak of the Hygiene of School Life in its physical and mental aspects; these subjects will be dealt with in later chapters.

SCHOOL HYGIENE 7

School Hygiene is generally understood to describe the means of cultivating bodily health, and avoiding the illnesses and diseases common during the period of childhood, especially those that are preventable, such as diphtheria and the infectious fevers. Mental Hygiene can hardly be said to be established as a science, yet many facts have been accumulated available for the purpose. 1

The school aspect of childhood is naturally that of success in acquiring knowledge, and learning the subjects taught; while the development of brain power and character is also aimed at. Other aspects of childhood may also be kept in view; child-study will throw much light upon educational problems and questions that sometimes arise, as between the home and the school. 2 Teachers see the child in the school in the morning, fresh and active, when he may be quick, eager, and conscientious in work ; the parents see him at night, tired, peevish, and fretful, as well as disinclined for either food or rest. Observation might soon show at what period in the day fatigue signs commence, — when, though mental work continues under the stimulus of school surroundings, the brain nutrition begins to decline. The brain is a sensitive organ, it performs much work in the body ; it is dependent for

1 Reference 9, " Milroy Lectures," and 48.

2 See author's "Study of Children,"* Chapter XIII. The Macmillan Company.

healthy power upon the food it receives through the blood, and becomes fatigued after receiving many impressions continuously through the hours of work ; this will be described further in the next chapter.

A child sometimes looks full under the eyes, with a lack of expression and lassitude on entering the schoolroom, signs which may pass off during a healthy, well-regulated day's work and play, while inquiry shows unhygienic surroundings in the home life. 1 Some physicians have said that all young children are delicate — they speak from experience limited to their patients; some head-mistresses have said that girls can study as hard as boys ; inquiry, founded on observation, demonstrates that delicate or ill-developed girls are more apt to suffer in health from adverse circumstances than boys similarly constituted. 2

Child-study, leading to description of the children as we see them, enables us to make classifications in many groups according to the purpose in view. We may take a group of children all found to be delicate, and study their brain conditions as described, and their mental aptitudes. One hundred children may be selected as dull or below the average in mental ability ; 3 results of observation will show a certain proportion

2 See " The Study of Children and their School Training," p. 245. The Macmillan Company.

CHILD-STUDY 9

who are also delicate, especially among the girls; further, it will be seen that most of these children present irregularities in movement and action, which can be removed by good training with the probability of improvement in mental ability. Many causes of mental dulness are removable. Many varieties of children will be met with, and may be described, either as to their mental abilities, or as to the points observed in their health, physiognomy, development, and the nerve signs seen in the movements, which indicate the action of the brain. When a child is observed and studied in each of these ways, a description is obtained, showing much of the visible indications of the state of the brain and its mental functions. 1