Social development and education

Preface

In Part I of this volume, I have attempted first to describe the typical attitudes which the child tends to assume toward the persons with whom he comes into contact in the ordinary situations of daily life, and to explain these attitudes in view of certain fundamental principles of mental development. To this end I have presented the results of observations of children's reactions under a variety of social conditions, the aim being to detect if possible the " natural" or impulsive tendencies in their responses. Then, in the second place, it has been my purpose to trace the changes in the child's adjustments to people which seem normally to occur in the process of development. This has required a mode of procedure in which the individual is followed from infancy to maturity along the several routes which lead to efficiency in social adaptation ; and the ever-present question has been whether the child woidd on his own initiative foUow these routes, or whether if left to himself he would stop on the way, or turn off in other directions. It has been my constant effort to note the actual tendencies of the child at different stages in his evolution, without regard to prevailing popular or theoretical conceptions of what he is or what he ought to be or to do.

I have undertaken in Part II certain phases of the difficult and interminable task of outlining a plan and method of education designed to make the individual socially efficient. My point of view might properly, I think, be said to be that of the naturalist rather than that of the logician or philosopher, or even the moralist or idealist. The problem before me constantly has been, — what can we do in social training, considering the nature of the individual and his social needs, rather than what ouglit we to do viewing the vi PREFACE

matter from an ideal standpoint. What I have written is founded mainly upon data gained from experiments and methods which I have been able to study at first hand, or which have been furnished me by persons who have made observations for me, or who have given me an account of their experiences in the training of their own children. But while the purpose of this volume is for the most part to present the conclusions reached by one observer and adventurer in the training of children, still I have at most points compared the principles herein set forth with those advocated by the representative students of child-life and education from Plato down to our own times. In some cases I have called attention to the opinions of these writers without foot-note citations of book and page of their works, thinking it not necessary or desirable so to do. I have hoped that this volume might prove more or less tolerable to parents and teachers, as well as to students of mental development ; and with this in mind I have avoided methods of treatment which would give it the appearance of being unduly technical or " learned." However, at the close of the book I have suggested a list of references for reading, which includes, I think, those books and articles which best present typical views since Plato's day of the social nature of the individual, and the most effective method of training him for social adjustment.

In its original form the volume contained a number of chapters treating of the relation between the social development of the individual and the evolution of social attitudes and institutions in the race. But these portions have finally been entirely eliminated ; partly because with their inclusion the volume seemed to be too bulky, but mainly because upon reflection it has seemed best to omit from these pages all purely speculative and theoretical discussion. The author is very much interested in the general problem of recapitulation in human development, but he is bound to confess that at present it seems impossible to discuss the question in any

PREFACE vii

definite and positive manner, on account of the limitations of our knowledge in this field. It has seemed advisable, therefore, to confine the treatment to principles, the data for which could be observed at first hand and investigated experimentally.

With a view to clarifying the discussion throughout, and to economizing the time and energy of the general reader as well as the student, a marginal analysis and a detailed analytical index of the entire material have been made. Also the more important principles developed in the text have been summarized at the end of each chapter.

Special attention is called to the Exercises and Problems given in the last two chapters. These relate to the various ^ subjects considered in the book ; and they are designed to stimulate the student to test the principles developed, and to extend their application in every direction. They are intended further to suggest many phases of social development and education which have hardly been even touched upon in this volume. The lists given on each chapter have been chosen from a large number which have arisen in discussing the different topics with organizations of parents and teachers, and classes of university students. Only those exercises and problems have been selected which upon trial have proven to incite observation and effective reflection on the part of students, as well as those interested in the practical care and culture of childhood and youth. The author >^' has found them to be of considerable service in arousing the interest of the reader, and in making real and vital the conclusions reached in the text.

M. V. O'Shea.

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

PART I The Genesis and Developmental Course of Typical Social Attitudes

I. Sociability „ 3

Instinctive manifestations. The passion for personal intercourse. The feeling of dependence as one source of sociable expression. The appearance of the highest form of sociable feeling. Favorites and aliens among children. The influence upon the child of adult social stratification. Sociability on the basis of dress distinction. On the basis of intellectual attainments. The influence of adolescent development upon sociability. Social stratification on the basis of economic status. Charitable tendencies in sociability. R^sumd.

II. Communication . 29

The need of communication. The beginnings of restraint in the communizing activity. Developmental changes in the character of the communications. The tendencies at adolescence. The reticent type. Social value of the communizing activity. Influence of the individual in establishing community sentiment. The influence of the community on the individual's expressions. Social opposition. Consciousness is a stage ; who are the players ? The development of responsiveness to community sentiment. Rdsumd.

III. Duty 55

Absence of the sentiment of obligation in infancy. Origin of the idea of persons as distinguished from things. The genesis of the alter sense. Essential experiences in acquiring the alter sense. Development and enrichment of the conception of the alter. Interpretation of the alter^s expressions. Popular notions respecting the relation of the self and the alter. Are the interests of the ego and the alter identical ? Neutral attitudes in childhood. Genesis of the sense of duty. The role of religion in the development of conscience. The realistic character of the child's religious conceptions. Edsumd.

X CONTENTS

IV. Justice 86

Basal experience in the development of the sentiment of justice. Equality of rights and responsibilities limited to members of a class. The role of conflict in the child's early social adjustment. The method of the first lessons in justice. Appearance of the sense of property rights. Development of appreciation of the right of possession. Developmental changes in respect to principles of ownership. The role of positive instruction in developing the sentiment of justice. Purposeful educative training by the group. Instinctive elements in the sentiment of justice. The reflex character of the sentiment of justice in the beginning. Development of an appreciation of extenuating circumstances. Development of an appreciation of motive in the alter's actions. Appearance of the sense of responsibility. The effect of adolescent development upon the feeling of responsibility. R^sumd.

V. Respect . 115

Characteristics of respect as a social phenomenon. Respect is a restrained, appreciative attitude. Respect for institutions and superiors. Respect vs. observance of conventional proprieties. Respect vs. admiration. The meaning of "self-respect." Origin of the attitude of self-respect. Appearance of the attitudes of shame, humiliation, remorse, self-esteem, etc. The child's reaction to reproof. The child's indifference to his " reputation." The attitude of respect is taken in view primarily of the motives of action. The influence of adolescent development upon the attitude of self-respect. The effect upon the individual of loss of self-respect. The effect upon the attitude of self-respect of the development of sex appreciation. Rdsumd.

VI. Docility 135

The child as a learner. His attitude toward most of the culture and conventions of society. Convention as a load on feeling, inoperative in childhood. The change at adolescence. The process of assimilating social conventions. The child's reactions upon conventions forced on him. The learner turned teacher. Is the child docile toward the wise ? The child's attitude is predominantly dynamic rather than assimilative. Indocility with respect to ethical instruction. The inevitable conflict between the child and the adult. Docility in the school. Docility as affected by broadening experience. Imitation as a method of learning. The dramatic tendency. Rdsumd,

CONTENTS xi

VII. Resentment 157

The infant's attitude is a non-resistant one. The earliest expression of anger. The typical year-old child is angry much of the time. The development of resentment as a personal emotion. Methods of expressing rage. Situations which stimulate the attitude of anger. The function of anger in social relations. Conditions which favor the development of irritability among the members of a group. Appearanceof the attitude of hatred. Appearance of the attitude of indignation. Appearance of the attitude of jealousy. Situations which incite the attitude of jealousy. Conditions favoring the development of jealousy. Schoolroom jealousies. Jealousy during the adolescent period. R^sumd.

VIII. Aggression 184

The combative impulse. Methods and bases of retaliation. Retaliation on the basis of injury done to one's " reputation." Early methods of preserving group stability. Genesis of the judicial attitude. Illustrations of the judicial attitude in typical self-governing groups. The sanguinary tendencies of boys. These tendencies are revealed in verbal as well as in fistic encounters. Girls are less sanguinary. The attitudes of the sexes toward each other. The influence of adolescent development upon these attitudes. Teasing. Teasing by inciting fear. By "calling names." By arousing shame. Teasing among primitive children. R^sum^.

IX. Social Types 209

The principle of social types. Individual variability recognized in popular philosophy. Are there types in childhood and youth ? The adaptable type. The " weak " type. The tactful type. The unadaptable type. The impertinent and impudent types. The attitude of scorn. The frank, " open " type. The deceitful type. The communicative type. The self-conscious type. The dramatic type. The hectoring type. The meek type. Developmental transformation in types. R^sumd

PART II Social Education

^. From a National Standpoint 229

Our American problem viewed in the light of the experience of older civilizations. The point of view. The crucial period xii CONTENTS

in the life of a nation. The chief problem in education. Development of aesthetic interests. Development of intellectual interests. Tendencies in our own country. Development of sound altruistic interests. Development of industrial interests. Development of individual initiative and efficiency. Conformity to established law. Rdsumd.

XI. Educative Social Experience 248

Education for social efficiency. Educative social experience the first requisite. The social training of the "only child." Hard knocks are essential to effective learning. Present-day tendencies. The situation in the public schools. The typical school is modeled on the static plan. The principle partially realized in the kindergarten. The question of moral instruction. The method of teaching moral principles. The pupil must be led to see the social necessity for every moral attitude urged upon him. Moral instruction during adolescence. R^sumd.

XII. The Critical Period ; ... 274

The infant's reactions upon his social environment. The child as an expert in coercing his care-takers. Misinterpretation of childish expression. How the child is encouraged in his coercive tendencies. Individual differences in the non-conforming disposition. The child's winsomeness often a disadvantage. ' Conformity essential to individual as well as social well-being. New times bring new problems in social training. Dispersed authority renders good social training impossible. The home and the school. True sympathy for childhood. jLeadership is what is needed in home and school. Rdsumd.

XIII. Cooperation in Group Education 295

Children's self-discipline in the group. The adult as an outsider. The teacher as a member of the group. Conflict between fathers and sons. The first forms of group activity in childhood. The development of group consciousness. How the sense of group unity is acquired. Opportunity for play the chief requirement. A lesson from European civilization. The chief count against the city. The need of playgrounds.

A sound mind in a sound body. Playgrounds lessen crime. The testimony of playground experts. The playground and school discipline. Rivalry in group activity. The value of competitive activity in the schoolroom and on the playground. The survival of the fittest in competitive activity. R^sum^.

CONTENTS xiii

XIV. Problems of Training 321

A typical instance of conflict iu the training of children. Differing points of view. Personal traits that incite resistance. The futility of much verbal correction. How commands are made effective. Commands that do not reach the child's focus of attention. How indifference to commands is developed in children. Qualities essential in a successful trainer. Mother love. Hamlet as a type of trainer. Relation between the child and his trainer. Can leadership and companionship be combined in the same individual ? A danger in American life. The evil of early sophistication. Concerning dancing. Folk dances in the schools. Rdsum^.

XV. Methods of Correction 346

The rod as a means of correction. The tendency in our own country. The tendency in older countries. The results of experiments in European countries. Is the pendulum swinging too far in our country ? Methods must be varied to meet individual peculiarities. Control by "natural" consequences. Some defects iu the plan. The responses to the child's advances of the representatives of law and order are properly " natural consequences." R^sumd.

XVI. Suggestion 370

The general character of suggestion. The natural history of an act of suggestion. The principle of suggestion stated. The influence for good or ill of the personality of the trainer. The suggestion of evil. The view of modern psychology. The treatment of timidity as a typical undesirable attitude. Negation as a method of training. Positive suggestion as a method of training. Present-day tendencies. Special problems of village life. Home influence in the village. Boy life in the villages of a Western state. The opportunity of the school in the village. Practical methods of improvement. Rdsum^.

XVII. Imitation 396

Group homogeneity. Familiar illustrations of imitative activity. Conditions governing the child's imitations. Personation in childhood. Plato on the moral effects of dramatization. The value of personating activity. Dramatizing work in the school. Theatrical " properties " are not essential. Personation is a sort of vicarious adjustment. Dominant personalities in any community. Are masculine or feminine personalities dominant with the young ? Imitation of abnormal xiv CONTENTS

traits. The quarantine of nervous and moral disorders. The situation in our country. Shallow sentimentalism in dealing with sub-normal children in the schools. Does a copy presented to the young for imitation sometimes arouse antithetic action ? Resume.

Exercises and Problems, Part I 434

Exercises and Problems, Part H 486

Index 551

PART I

THE GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENTAL COURSE OP TYPICAL SOCIAL ATTITUDES

Chapter I Sociability

Students of infancy Lave observed that during the first two months of life the chUd responds in only a vague, general, indefinite way to most of what exists and instinctive happens about him. He seems at this period maniiestations hardly to have become awakened from the unconsciousness of the pre-natal epoch, when there was no stimulating environment impinging upon him and exciting him to adjustment of some sort. For several weeks in the beginning of his career, he shows little if any appreciation of the meaning and values of things surrounding him, except such as are brought into direct contact with his skin or his tongue. The expression of his features during this early period indicates that he does not discriminate objects on the basis of their power for good or ill in his life ; he manifests no inclination to possess himself of certain ones, and to rid himself of others. The world plays on him incessantly, but he does not react upon it except in a very few instinctive ways. The infant is in reality static with reference to much that in due course will incite him to constant activity, in the effort to use it in some way to advance his interests.

It will, perhaps, seem to the reader simple enough that the child should not be dynamic in situations with which he has not had vital experience ; for why should he be active when he has not learned that his activity will yield pleasure of some kind, or save him from discomfort ? But it is worth while to make the point stand out clearly, that there is a period in the life of the individual when the environing world is practically undifferentiated in respect to values. Now, if we could describe in detail the course of the child in evaluating his environments, social and physical ; and if we could discover his method of determining values, noting the grounds upon which he estimates them, and the attitudes he assumes toward objects when their worth is revealed, we should have a complete account of his mental development. Our present task is, however, much simpler than this ; it is merely to attempt to state the more important of the child's processes and attitudes in his efforts to evaluate his social environments, and to become most effectively adjusted thereto.

It is probable that the infant's earliest appreciation of values concerns persons as contrasted with inanimate objects. One who observes a three-months-old child smiling in response to the greetings of its caretaker can hardly fail to conclude that it is pleased, in its naive and largely instinctive way, with personal association. The mother is overjoyed when she detects the first smile, ^ faint and fleeting though it may be, for she feels that this is a token of her child's recognition of people as distinct from things, and his pleasure in social relations. As the poet and idealist see it, — " With the first dawning smile upon the infant's face, the instinct of love awakes." ^

By the beginning of the third month, the babe seems to realize, in a very general and obscure manner, of course, that the mother is an object with which it may hold communion, which is not the case with the nursing bottle or

1 " To laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity." — Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book vii, chap, i, Holland's translation.

An observer reports the following, in illustration of the point in question : " A little girl three months old watches her father whenever he comes •within her range of vision. If he speaks to her or pays any attention to her she smiles and manifests her pleasure by various contortions and wiggles. Her father has always played with her every day, so she ought to know him ■well, but until he speaks she does not smile. In fact, she has a wondering, curious look in her eyes, which has sometimes made us question if she were trying to locate him in her experience, and was unable to accomplish it until his voice or action helped her to do so."

2 Harrison, The Study of Child-Nature from the Kindergarten Standpoint, p. 75.

INSTINCTIVE SOCIABILITY 5

the rattle ; these latter are to be used merely, not communed with. The child of four months, making efforts at " cooing " in response to its mother's salutations, taken together with its accompanying demonstrations of a really remarkable character, such as holding and forcibly expelling the breath, the heightened activity of all the bodily members, the significant expressiveness of the features, — these suggest strongly its awareness of personal presence^ which cannot be detected when it is reacting upon other situations. Thus early does the child, in just a dim, glimmering way it must be, distinguish between things to be tested, experimented with, put to some service, and persons to be enjoyed, to be depended upon for protection, to be appealed to in moments of distress. To a certain extent, doubtless, persons are differentiated from objects by the child as his days increase, because they can be used to so much greater advantage : they can aid him in attaining goods which he lacks strength and skill to secure ; they can serve as colleagues or competitors in his games ; they can guard him against harm and the like, of which much will be said presently. But when one sees an infant reciprocating the loving expressions of his mother, and later pleading with her to remain near by merely that he may enjoy her presence, it seems beyond question that he has brought with him the rudiments of genuine sociable feeling,^ which causes him to ascribe a special value to persons, and to desire to have friendly intercourse with them. Whether this feeling remains pure and unadulterated, or becomes organized with other feelings of an egotistic character, is not in question ; we will turn to this later. Nor does it matter in

^ Cooley {Human Nature and the Social Order, p. 47) holds that the early manifestations of sociability indicate less fellow-feeling than the adult imagines. They are, according to this author, largely expressions of a pleasure which persons excite, chiefly because they oifer such a variety of stimuli to sight, hearing, and touch. He says (p. 50), " I take it that the child has by heredity a generous capacity and need for social feeling. ... It is not so much any particular personal emotion or sentiment as the undifferentiated material of many : perhaps sociability is as good a -word for it as any."

this connection to say that the young child will appraise his

dog and his kitten in the same way as he does his father

and mother and nurse ; to him they probably belong for a

time to this class of objects which may be communed with,

and which we have called persons. In due course, we shall

see through what experiences they become differentiated so

that they cannot be communed with in the same way as

can persons, or to the same extent, or with reference to

the same interests.

It is not too much to say that there is a kind of hunger

for personal intercourse which the child experiences before

he has completed even six months among us. As early as

the fifth month, the mere proximity of mother or Passion -n c • 1 • 1 1 •

for personal father Will otten give him peace, when otherwise

tercouise j^^ ^^^^ ^^ restless, discontented, unhappy. Sully,* touching upon this point, says that " children are instinctively attachable and sociable in so far as they show in the first weeks that they get used to and dependent on the human presence, and are miserable when this is taken from them. ... In this instinct of companionship there is involved a vague inarticulate sympathy. Just as the attached dog may be said to have in a dim fashion a feeling of oneness with its master, so the child." Some children from the sixth month on cannot endure to be "left to themselves" at all during their waking hours. It is not merely fanciful to say that the child brings with him a kind of generalization of long ages of ancestral experience, to the effect that it is well for a person to be with people because of the advantages to be derived from social unity and cooperation. Kirkpatrick,^ speaking from the evolutionary standpoint, declares that " desire for companionship is the natural inheritance of an ancestry that must have sought it in order to survive. . . . Most children manifest a desire for the presence of adults before they can walk." It is maintained

1 Studies of Childhood, pp. 242, 243.

2 Fundamentals of Child-Study, p. 119.

THE FEELING OF DEPENDENCE 7

by evolutionists generally that the passion for social intercourse, and even the institution of society itself, had their origin in service of a physical sort which men could render to one another.

But however this may be, service of the sort indicated is not the only nor the chief source of pleasure which the young child derives from personal relations. It is true that at the outset the parents, and most if not all the other persons about the child, minister to his physical needs in some way ; but it is significant that his display of pure sociability does not occur principally when his physical wants are being attended to, but rather when the mother's beaming face is bendiug over his, and she is calling to him in gentle lovetones. After the first year, the child will show marked pleasure in responding to the father's salutations, even though the latter has not been of service to him physically. If we may infer anything respecting a child's conscious processes from his intonations, featural expressions, and the like, we are entitled to hold that he is pleasurably affected in the presence of his mother, say, because in his dawning consciousness he feels her to be a friend, in all that this implies of service and good-will and protection and confidence, — a feeling which has slowly developed through long periods of social experience. Possibly the evolution in phylogenesis of the attitude denoted by " friend " was dependent at every step upon cooperation and protection in the struggle for existence ; but the child seems to come into possession of the attitude without having first to experience consciously the factors out of which it has developed.

It is not intended here to imply that the child's eagerness to be in the presence of persons, and to enter into active relations with them, is due wholly of dependto the feeling of pure sociability, into which no source^of^'

" selfish " factor enters. As he develops and the 5°°'^^ °^'

. . , piesslon

range of his contact with the world increases, he

often, no doubt, wishes to be with people so that he can make use of them to accomplisli feats of skill and daring which unaided he cannot himself achieve. It is probable that after the second year, at any rate, the feeling of sociability is always bound up with other feelings arising out of the child's tendency to experiment with his personal environment, in the effort to learn people, and to master and use them in the realization of his needs. In "mastering his environments " the individual must, of course, become skiUful in those activities which will be required of him for later adjustments; and since a large proportion of these activities are directly social in intent and outcome, it is imperative that he should have associates to practice upon. So that his eagerness to be with companions in his play is based in part, though he is not aware of it, upon this great need in learning to handle himself effectively in social situations. From the third year on, the child strives unceasingly to perform his feats, and thus to display all his powers and commendable qualities, in the presence of people, and in cooperation with them. In any undertaking he will always do his best according to prevailing ideals, as he appreciates them, if there are spectators at hand, or if he has a competitor or an antagonist ; and what at first glance may appear to be sociability, without admixture of anything else, may often be an outgrowth to some extent of these other interests.

The principle is that when the child begins to move about in the world, thus establishing needs beyond his own ability to gratify^ he manifests strong sociable attachment, partly, doubtless, so that he may have the aid of competent persons to accomplish his desires. Even when he pleads to be allowed to accompany his father and mother in their trips from home, he has it in the depths of his mind to make use of them to protect him, and to show him sights which otherwise he could not see.* But these experiences

1 Cooley (op. cit. p. 48) maintains that " the delight in companionship so evident in children may be ascribed partly to specific social emotion or sen-

THE FEELING OF DEPENDENCE 9

seem often to enrich sociable expression. When the child leaves his home with his parents, he usually becomes more expressive of social feeling than when he is in his nursery. He " takes hold of hands," his voice becomes soft and appealing, he grows confidential in his communications, and he assumes a deferential attitude toward his elders, who are now in a very real way felt to be his guides and his protectors. He shows this same tendency, in effect, when he goes into strange regions with his brother or sister. Within the walls of his own house, where nothing is unfamiliar to him, and he has no sense of danger, he may be quarrelsome and spiteful, refusing to cooperate with any one or to share his possessions ; but on the street he is likely to have a quite different attitude, being docile, gentle, and dependent. This transformation is less marked with older children, though it may usually be observed until the advent of youth at any rate. Later we shall see that the child is on occasion combative, aggressive, resentful, as well as sociable, in a positive sense ; and that his anti-social impulses tend to be expressed when he is competing with others under such conditions that he does not feel the need of keeping their good-will and securing their protection, as in the average home where he is shielded from the aggression of strange people.