The Children: Some Educational Problems

by Alexander Darroch

If the reader will look back to an [earlier chapter],[26] he will find that education was defined as the process by which experiences are acquired and organised in order that they may render the performance of future action more efficient, or alternatively it is the process by which systems of means are formed, organised, and established for the attainment of various ends of felt value. The establishment of these systems of means is only possible because in the human infant the nervous system is relatively unformed at birth, is relatively plastic, and so is capable of being organised in such and such a definite manner. On the other hand, in many animals the nervous system of each is definitely formed at birth; it is so organised that experience does little to add to or aid in its further development. Now, while the nervous system of the child at birth is not so definitely organised as that of many animals, yet on the other hand it is not wholly plastic, wholly unformed, so that, as many psychologists and educationalists once believed, it can be moulded into any shape we please.

Rather, we have to conceive of the nervous system of the human infant as made up of a series of systems at different degrees of development and with varying degrees of organisation.[27] Some centres, as e.g. those which have to do with the regulation of certain reflex and automatic actions, start at once into full functional activity; others, as e.g. those which have to do with purely intellectual functions, are relatively unformed and unorganised at birth, and become organised as the result of conscious effort, as the result of an educational process, as the result of acquiring, organising, and establishing experiences for the attainment of ends of acquired value.

Between the systems at the lowest level and those at the highest we have centres of varying degrees of organisation at birth. Moreover, these centres of the middle level reach their full maturity at different rates. The centres, e.g., which have to do with the co-ordination of hand and eye and with the attainment of control over the limbs of the body reach their full functional activity before, e.g., the centres having control of the lips and speech. The centres, again, which have to do with the co-ordination of the sensory material derived through the particular senses are still longer in reaching their full functional activity, while the higher intellectual centres may not reach their highest power until well on in life. Hence, since education is the process of acquiring experiences that shall modify future activity, it can do little positively to aid the development of the lowest centres; it can do more to modify the development of the middle centres; while the highest centres of all are in great part organised as the result of direct individual experience.

As regards the systems of the lowest level, what we have then to aim at is to allow them free room for growth, and to correct as far as possible faults due either to the imperfections of nature or to the unnatural conditions under which the child lives. So long as these systems are provided with nutrition and allowed freedom in performing their functions, we are unaware of their existence. We, e.g., only become aware that we possess a circulatory system or a respiratory or a digestive system when the functional activity of these organs is impeded. The opinion, therefore, that physical exercise has for its chief aim the sustaining and improving of the bodily health is no doubt true and correct, but it is not the only aim. On this view we are considering only the lowest system of centres, and devising means by which we may maintain and improve their functional activity. Moreover, it is necessary to endeavour to secure the free development of these centres and their unimpeded functional activity, because otherwise the development of the higher centres is hindered, and the whole nervous system rendered unstable and insecure.

But a wise system of physical education must take into account the fact that a carefully selected and organised system of exercises can do much for the development of the centres of the middle level which have to do with the proper co-ordination of various bodily movements. These are only partly organised at birth, and education—the acquiring and organising of experiences—is necessary for their due organisation and their adaptation as systems of means for the attainment of definite ends. It is for this reason that the beginning of the formal education of the child at too early an age is physiologically and psychologically erroneous. In doing this we are neglecting the lower centres at the time when by nature they are reaching their full functional activity, and exercising the higher which are at an unripe stage of development. Moreover, lower centres not exercised during the period when they are attaining their full development never attain the same functional development if exercised later. Hence the difficulty of acquiring a manual dexterity later in life. Again, it is on this theory of lower and higher centres maturing at different rates and attaining their full functional activity at different times that we now base our education of the mentally defective. We must organise the lower centres; we must educate the mentally defective child to get control over these already partially organised centres, before we begin to educate the higher and less organised centres. Moreover, it is only in so far as we can secure this end that we can stably build up and organise the higher centres of the nervous system. Hence also such qualities as alertness in receiving orders and promptness and accuracy in carrying them out are, at first, best learned through the organising and training of the centres of the middle level. What we really endeavour to do here is to organise and establish systems of means for the attainment of definite ends, which through their systematic organisation can be brought into action when required promptly and quickly, and once aroused work themselves out with a minimum of effort and with a low degree of attention, so that their performance involves the least possible physiological cost.

From this the reader will understand that the aim of physical education is the aim of all education, viz., to acquire and organise experiences that will render future action more efficient.

Moreover, the early training of the centres of the middle level is important for the after technical training of our workmen. The boy or girl who has never been educated in early life to co-ordinate and carry out bodily movements promptly and accurately is not likely to succeed in after-life in any employment which requires the ready and exact co-ordination of many movements for the attainment of a definite end. The proper physical education of the child is therefore necessary for the securing of the after economic efficiency of the individual, and it can also by the development of certain mental and moral qualities be made instrumental in the development of the ethically efficient person.

We must now briefly note two other educational agencies which may be employed in the securing of the physical and mental efficiency of the child—play and games. Psychologically, games stand midway between play and work. In play we have an inherited system of means evoked into activity and carried out to an end for the pure pleasure derived from the activity itself. Such systems at first are imperfectly organised, but through the experience derived the systems become more and better adapted for the attainment of the ends which they are intended to realise. In games, on the other hand, the activity is undertaken for an end only partially connected with the means by which it is attained, whilst in work the means may have no intrinsic connection with the end desired. Hence the effort of a disagreeable nature which work often evokes.

In animals fully equipped at birth by means of instinct for the performance of actions the play-activity is altogether absent. Their lives are wholly business-like. On the other hand, in the higher animals, whose young have a period of infancy, play is nature's instrument of education. By means of it the systems of the middle level which form the larger part of the brain equipment of the higher animals are gradually organised and fitted for the attainment of the ends which in mature life they are intended to realise. Play is their education—is the means by which nature works in order that experiences may be acquired and organised that shall render future action more efficient. Without this power, "the higher animals could not reach their full development; the stimulus necessary for the growth of their bodies and minds would be lacking."[28]