Dynamic factors in education

Front matter

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Preface

One does not have to go back very far in order to reach the time when such terms as "motor activity," "dynamic education," "fatigue," and the like were quite strange to educational literature. It was not then thought that teachers should concern themselves with the matters denoted by these terms. It was their business to "train the mind," to "fashion character," to "develop thought," and to "awaken and nourish ethical feeling." The active side of child nature was little heeded, except to repress it, because it was not regarded as a vital or important phase of the "spiritual self." Similarly, while it was more or less generally appreciated that a sound body aided in preserving a sound mind, still it was believed that the spirit could if it would resist the ill effects of a depleted nervous system. Sufficiently aroused, it could overcome all unfavorable material influences, and keep the mind keen and ready and the heart pure and well-disposed even if the flesh were weak.

But we are entering upon a new era for educational theory. Some among us are saying that the dynamic side of human nature is the really important thing to

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be looked after in the schoolroom, and outside, too, for that matter. I find myself in sympathy with the view that the motor and physical factors in teaching should receive more attention than they now do in most places, and this will account for the appearance of the present volume. I have aimed to show herein, in the first part, that in the early years, at any rate, motor expression is essential to all learning; and I have endeavored to indicate, in outline mainly, how the requirements of dynamic education can be provided for in all departments of school work. I have sought to point out further that there is a definite order in which the motor powers develop, and that in our instruction we will achieve the highest success only as we conform quite closely to this order. In the second part of the book the relation between fatigue and activity is considered. On the one side the nature and causes of fatigue are discussed, and then the effects upon mind and body are traced. I have gone into considerable detail in pointing out ways and means of carrying forward the work of education without overtaxing the pupil.

Many, perhaps most, of the principles presented in this volume are, I think, becoming familiar to students of mental development, but they are still very hazy, to say the least, in the minds of the majority of those who are charged with the immediate care and culture of the young. So in the preparation of this volume I have kept in mind these latter persons, and have aimed to

PREFACE VU

avoid technicalities and all purely theoretical discussion. I have endeavored to show concretely the changes which take place with development in respect of various activities, and so it has seemed to me best to start back at the beginning in most cases. To get any just notion of the power of motor coordination, for instance, of a child of five or older, we must see what he can do at the outset when everything is comparatively simple; and then we must give an account of what happens as he moves on in his course.

It has been my purpose, in the first place, to summarize the investigations that have been made upon the different topics discussed. I have, of course, and often without special mention of the fact, constantly consulted the more important writers on Mental Development and Fatigue, — Preyer, Baldwin, Sully, Hall, Shinn, Moore, Perez, Mosso, Binet et Henri, and many others. Then it has been my aim further to give the results of my own observations in the schools and upon several children whose development from the beginning I have followed in detail for a number of years. These children have furnished me the largest number of my illustrations, which, I may say, I have tried to keep within reasonable bounds, contenting myself with one or two typical illustrations of a principle.

At the close of each chapter I have indicated a number of topics for investigation and discussion, which are designed to encourage the reader to make practical test

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and application of the principles developed. It has been my thought that these topics would prove serviceable in study classes, and to the student working alone. For this reason I have sought to make every question and suggestion relate to concrete matters within the experience of most students and teachers, and with which they are concerned in their everyday work.

In the Bibliography I have indicated the general character of each reference, and where it has been referred to in the text, I have also suggested the classes of readers for whom it is best adapted. Throughout the text I have referred to the most important book and periodical Hterature treating of each topic considered, and it will be apparent in most cases, I think, what is the general point of view of any reference. It has seemed to me this would enable the student to choose his readings with greater definiteness than if lists of books had been given at the close of each chapter.

The substance of some of the paragraphs in the second part of the book appeared originally in a Bulletin published in the Science Series of the University of Wisconsin, but the matter is here presented from a new

point of view.

M. V. O'SHEA.

Madison, Wisconsin, October, 1905.

Part I The Motor Factor In Education Chapter I

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The Development of Inhibition i

Children's lack of inhibition — The effect of motor restraint on mental activity — Restraint comes with development — The neurological view of inhibition — Suggestions gained from the phenomena of degeneration — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter II

The passing of the static ideal of education — The need of exercising cerebral motor areas — What is implied in understanding a thing ? — Motor activity in the traditional schoolroom — Reform has begun in the kindergarten — The kindergarten is not yet wholly free, though — The teaching of verbal patriotism as a typical abstract conception — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter III

Arithmetic as an instance — The dynamic principle applies to all studies — Reading in an older day — The high school as the last in the procession — Can language be taught in a dynamic way? — The teaching of science in the high school — Topics for investigation and discussion.

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X CONTENTS

Chapter IV

Some current views of manual activities — The real value of manual activities — The child's first absorbing interest — Manual activities viewed from psychological and neurological standpoints — Suggestions gained from the training of defective and delinquent children — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter V

Manual Activities in Education (continued) .... 65 Manual training must follow the lead of the child's interests — The logical vs. the psychological order — The individual must follow the racial course — What does it mean to go from the simple to the complex in manual activities ? — Crude work first, aesthetic work last — The doctrine of formal discipline through manual activities — The principle illustrated in athletics — Physical virtues applied to social situations — With development manual must give way to mental activities — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter VI

The Method of acquiring Adaptive Activities ... 81 The helplessness of the infant — The first step in gaining adaptive activities — A concrete instance of acquiring adaptive movements — Learning involves excessive activity — The integration of simple acts into more complex adjustments — Nothing is learned de novo — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter VII

The Method of acquiring Imitative Activities ... 99 The phenomena of mimicry — When does imitation begin ? — Apperception in imitation — The principle illustrated in adult imitation — The psychology of imitation — The course of development with respect to imitativeness — Topics for investigation and discussion.

CONTENTS XI

Chapter VIII Pagb

The Teaching of School-room Arts no

The scribble stage in acquiring school-room arts — How does the child become copy-minded ? — The principle in writing is the same as in any adaptive activity — The principle seen in a child's correcting wrong habits — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter IX

The incoordinated condition of the infant — Inherited coordinations — Central or fundamental movements predominate iu the beginning — The first stages in acquiring manual dexterity

— The wave of development is toward the extremities — Force rather than delicate or precise manipulation — The development of pedal dexterity — The development of coordination in speech

— The principle illustrated in the child's use of sentences — Preyer's observations on speech development — The order of losing coordinations in degeneration — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter X

From Fundamental to Accessory in Education . . . 146 The traditional view of fine coordinations in early education — The natural order is from fundamental to accessory — The doctrine of nascent periods — The appropriate time to develop any power — The danger of arrest in development — The evil of either tardiness or precocity in education — Judd on the development of peripheral activities — The doctrine summarized

— Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter XI Resume 163 Pack

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Chapter XII

ActivitV as requiring the Expenditure of Energy . .170 The mind as the body's guest — Mind as matter — The energic relation of mind and body — Familiar evidence that all activity expends nervous energy — Some physiological evidence

— The theory of fatigue — Methods of investigation — Topics for investigation and discussion.

CHAPTER XIII The Influence of Fatigue on the Efficiency of Mind and

Body 188

The nervous system as a storage battery — The effect of fatigue on muscular action — The effect of fatigue on motor coordination

— Fatigue produces tension — Leaky nervous systems — The thrifty type — A simple method of testing individual differences

— The effect of fatigue on attention — One cause of dullness in the school-room and outside — The effect of fatigue on the emotions — The benumbing of the highest faculties in fatigue — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter XIV

Economy in the Expenditure of Energy • . . . .210 The loss of energy in a machine — Loss in the human machine from muscular tensions — Mental tension begets muscular tension — The hypochondriac — Americanitis — Adjusting effort to needs — James on " unclamping" — The reflex effect of bodily attitudes — Play as a restorative — Exercise should not require voluntary effort — Exercise for brain wforkers — The importance of nutrition — Dullness and irritability due to underfeeding — The nutrition of school children — Topics for investigation and discussion.

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Chapter XV Page

The Effect of ^Esthetic Influences upon Mental Tension . 230 The fatigued teacher — Music hath charms — The pain and pleasure effects of every experience — How different forms affect us — The influence of color — The first consideration in schoolroom decoration — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter XVI

Waste from excessively fine work — Waste in unhygienic writing — Concerning writing pens — Postures that lead to waste of energy — Danger of overstimulation — The teased child — The effect of noise — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter XVII

The work of ocular muscles — Maladjustment of ocular muscles — Maladjustment of the lens — Dr. Gould on the effects of eye strain — The prevalence of eye defects — The wastefulness of reading excessively fine print — Defective vision as a cause of dullness and irritability — Topics for investigation and discussion.

Chapter XVIII

The Daily Programme in Relation to Nervous Waste . . 276 Concerning overpressure in the schools — Less time in the schoolroom — Concentration for brief periods the requirement — Relaxation — Short exposure wdth strong stimulation — The sequence of studies — The result of studies by Lombard and Smedley — French regulations — Topics for investigation and discussion.