July 12, 1933 in The Nursery World
There are many ways of learning
“Learning for children is not confined to formal lessons in reading and writing and number”
“Quatuor” writes: “I read in a French ‘Livre de Puericulture’ that until seven year of age, a child should not learn anything at all, but should learn to learn – that is, have his interest kept lively for all things, be independent as much as possible for dressing, washing etc. If this is so, then the children will be very late at school. My children are longing to learn their letters now. Supposing they always wish to learn, will it be too much of a strain for them or is it only a game for now, and will they drop the idea in within a few months? For instance, my eldest child (three years and nine months) whenever told a letter picks it up anywhere else, even if it is written in a fancy way. I never force her, but always answer to her. And now she wants to count. When she says six for ten (in French they sound very much alike) thinking she is right, should I correct her or leave her alone? She wants to write, but makes an awful mess, then shows the paper to me. Must I say, ‘It is quite nice,’ or ‘I will show you,’ or ‘This does not mean anything. I told you you were still a little too young to hold a pencil and write nicely. You’d better wait and instead of writing, go and get things ready for your bath.’ The last is what I say, and she is such a sweet kid she forgets all her learning and does go to the bathroom. She has quite enough work in the house; I have slowly trained her to help me, and she really is splendid according to her age. Every day she’ll be too pleased to do the same work, and she really helps to look after her three brothers (2 years 8 months, 20 months, 5 months). For instance, she always washes her frock when coming home, washes number three, feeds him, tucks the beds, wheels the pram, takes shoes to be cleaned, tidies up. I have never stopped her from thumb sucking because it was the only way she fell off quickly to sleep. Even now she sucks it, so do number two and four, but the advantage I find is that when they have a cold they still breathe through the nose, which is excellent.
“When they bite each other, I say, ‘You have hurt your brother, he is crying hard. You will just kiss him and then I will bite you so as to show you that it hurts very much and you should not do it again.’ Do you think this may spoil the love and confidence they give me? Really sometimes explanations mean nothing to them, and I have always managed to keep very quiet and understanding (not so long ago was I a child myself). They have a routine always kept to and are, quite luckily, healthy.”
It seems to me that you have given a very special meaning to the notion of “learning.” You are confining it to lessons in formal reading and writing and number. Actually your little girl is learning a great deal, much more in certain directions than most children of her age do learn. If, at three years and nine months, she washes the baby and feeds him, tucks up the bed, tidies up, and so on, she has obviously gained a very great deal of real skill and an unusual sense of responsibility. You speak of her having, “quite enough work in the house.” I wonder whether the child plays at all, or has an opportunity for doing so. It is all to the good that she has the chance of doing these useful things in the house, since children of that age do enjoy it, but it rather sounds to me as if you were not giving the child quite enough opportunity for the joys of free activities and for genuine play. Moreover, I think you are making a very serious mistake in depriving your little girl of the chance to interest herself in letters and in counting, in telling her that her first attempts at writing “don’t mean anything,” and in taking away the pencil ad telling her to “go and get things ready for the bath.” You run the risk of permanently inhibiting the child’s interest in things of the mind altogether, and her joy in scholastic activities.
I don’t know the French educational book you speak of, but all serious educationalists would agree with me that it is very wrong to prevent a child from learning, even “learning” in the narrow sense, when the child shows the spontaneous wish to do so. We should all agree that three years none months is much too early to compel a child to learn to read and write, but then we should also feel that it was much too early to put quite such stress on domestic responsibilities also. Don’t you think that you are, in fact, compelling your little girl to learn, and to learn very hard? It would do her no more harm to have the opportunity of learning to read and write and count than to wash and tidy the baby. Let her do both with the joy that children’s spontaneous interests always bring them. Let her do both with the sense that you are willing to co-operate I her natural development. Most intelligent children of her age want to learn to count, and the majority in cultivated homes become interested in letters and writing. Every child of her age wants to use a pencil to scribble with, and scribbling is an essential step in learning to control the pencil. Moreover, the scribbling does mean something to the child herself, even though we don’t see anything in it. she has achieved something, and it is only by this first step that she will be able to make her first attempts at reading, writing and drawing. I would urge you very much to provide the child with writing and drawing materials – preferably a thick pencil and large sheet of paper, but better still, coloured chalks and brown paper or a blackboard – and let her scribble away to her heart’s content. You will find that she will soon begin to draw in a way that will appear to have some meaning even to your eyes.
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with first reading books for French children, so that I cannot make any useful suggestion as regards the first reading material for her. But I would very much like to urge you to make some effort to get hold of good picture books and first readers and play materials designed to lead on to reading for your little girl. It is probable that is you wrote to Pour L’ere Nouvelle, 41, rue Gay-Lussac, Paris V, the editor would be able to suggest some publisher of such helps to the first steps in reading French. Or if you wrote to the Institut de Rousseau in Geneva you would be able to get information for suitable material both for the beginnings of reading and writing and for the first steps in number. The Maison des Petits in Geneva has, in fact, devised and perfected a very excellent set of number apparatus, the Asen number material, parts of which you might be able to get. Details of this I am sure you could obtain from the Institut de Rousseau.
Meanwhile, when your little girl confuses six with dix, I should certainly “correct” her, but not in a didactic way or dictatorial way. I should repeat the words very clearly for her so that she could hear the difference between the “s” and the “d,” at the same time showing her the right number of objects, for example, six and ten spoons or plates. When she shows you her first attempts at writing and drawing, I should certainly say, “Yes, very nice, isn’t it fun doing it?” and in this direction I should leave her quite free unless she asks you to show her particular letters, and then I should make the letter for her and give her its name, helping her, too, to pick out the letter she has just learnt in other places, such as advertisements, etc., in the way the child wants to do. You are quite right in answering her questions about these. You are very fortunate in having such a teachable child, and I do hope you will begin to take as much pleasure and to give as much satisfaction in her interest in learning to read and count as in her domestic skills.
I certainly think it is very unwise actually to bite a child because he has bitten another. One obviously has to do something about the biting. It is a mode of aggression that has to be stopped as soon as possible because of the effect upon the little victim. But it is very important that we should try to stop its happening in such a way as will not itself do harm to the aggressive child’s own further development. With most children it is quite sufficient to be very firm in the request that they should not bite, and to separate the children for a time if it has happened. As a rule, biting is a sudden impulse, and regretted by the child himself once it is over. It is quite common with children under three, and disappears soon after this age in most cases of children who are not themselves cruelly treated. If you feel that you must punish for it, then there is no doubt that a sharp smack will do far less harm than biting him back in turn. That action is, I think, most undesirable. No experience can be much more frightening to a little child than to be actually bitten by one’s own mother or father. The principle of talion punishment is not a good one on which to base moral education. If you bite the child, it seems to him you are no further advanced than he is in moral values. You may prevent his doing it again, but the effects on his feelings are bound to be undesirable. Such treatment will not help to develop his affection and trust, but will simply make him fear severe punishment.
(My correspondent’s letter also included the problem of smacking children, but I don’t think I need add anything further to what I have recently said on the question.)
No comments:
Post a Comment