PSYCHOLOGICAL ORDER OF STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SCIENTIFIC TEACHING.
By Dorothea Beale.
As Rosencranz expresses it, there may be distinguished three epochs:—
I. The intuitive—I use the word with the German meaning of sense-perception.
II. The imaginative, during which the developing mind is more accustomed to dwell on mental images, is less passive to impressions, more active in calling them up, in fashioning them anew.
III. The logical, during which the impulse is to harmonise the world without and the world within, to fit all things into a scheme of space and time, of order and law.
Regarding these, we may ask what is the thought-material in which the developing mind may best work successively—or if we take the same material, in what varying way shall we deal with it? The near objects which the children can touch and taste and see objectively, these are the first things which call forth the attention, that self-activity by which the mind fastens on its prey, and converts percepts into concepts; as the jelly fish catches the floating prey in its tentacles, and absorbs it into its substance, so the child stores up experiences and memories which enrich all future percepts.
Botany.What subject of systematic study can be better suited to the child then, than that which calls out its sense of wonder and beauty, and which in harmony with its own restless nature is ever changing; in which is found endless variety with underlying order? Surely the world of flowers is specially suited for teaching the little ones. How the colours and forms delight them—has not the first sight of a flower remained with many of us through life, “a joy for ever”? It is for us to teach how to observe, so that the memories shall be not mere vague impressions, but clear-cut, accurate, lasting: all the senses must combine to give unity and completeness to the sense-concept, so that the child may feel the beauty, enter into loving sympathy with Nature, and perfect that “inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude”. Children should be led to form collections, by which the first observations may be repeated and fulfilled; they should also learn to draw, so that not merely the individual, but the essential, the typical may be brought into clearness; we should, too, encourage in them the desire to co-operate with Nature in making the earth beautiful, and call out the affections towards the Unseen Giver of all good things.
These are a few of the reasons why botany in its simplest forms is fit nourishment for the child. The hard names, the intricate divisions into classes and orders, the physiology of growing plants can be touched on only lightly; but the power of observation can be greatly developed, and the main facts of classificatory botany can be taught, and teaching full of interest given as regards structure, growth, seed distribution and relations to the insect world. Mrs. Bell’s Science Ladders form a good introduction. When we have exhausted our material, so far as the little child is capable of understanding, it is better to turn to some fresh subject; we may later, when the mind is ripe for these things, take the subject up again. Children whose eyes have been opened, will be able to go into the country, and note down the things they have seen. Diaries I have seen quite beautifully kept by poor children taught at the House of Education at Ambleside. The children knew the different buds as they came out on the trees, and watched the delicate and deepening tints, saw the leaf-buds develop into leaves, and the opening of the flowers.
Zoology.Elementary botany should, I think, be followed by a year of zoology (say at ten years old), treated in a simple way; the teacher should dwell not upon the internal structure, but on what presents itself to the eye, beginning with living creatures that the children are familiar with, or can get to know—domestic animals, “beasties” from garden and pond, caterpillars and birds, tadpoles and dragon-flies—they should have their menageries, and watch the creatures’ habits. Especially suited to women is the work of observing insect life, and there are worlds for us to discover, if we, as we walk round our garden, have eyes to see.