Child Study
No teacher, then, should consider himself educated or prepared to teach who has not given himself some preparation through child study, this greatest of all school subjects, which is simply genetic psychology practically applied. This subject is new, and at best, the teacher who has carefully studied it will know too little. Still there is no excuse for the teacher who does not know something about the following phases of the psychology of children: the child’s soul or mind, acting as memory, imagination and reason; the chief facts concerning the child’s affections, ambitions, motives and ideals; adolescence—physical, mental and moral phases; relations to other children and elders; his sense of humor and responsibility; his moral obligations; his views concerning himself, society, and the local community; his views of Nature; the principles of child growth; the normal height and weight of children; the common defects of children as weak eyes, defective hearing, adenoids, spinal curvature and other ailments that attack childhood; the child’s likes and dislikes and all the activities that most interest him.
No sensible teacher will undertake to teach the child a new subject until he understands just what the child can do. Then it is an evident conclusion that the process of teaching can be elevated above the plane of a haphazard undertaking to that of a systematic science by the teacher who has studied the child in his manifold complexities. It follows then that a teacher’s preparation at its best is not complete until he has a workable knowledge of child psychology.