GENERAL RULES
To attract the attention of defective children strong sensory stimulants are necessary. The lessons, therefore, should be eminently practical. Every lesson should begin with the presentation of the object to be illustrated by the teacher in a few words distinctly pronounced with continual modulations of the voice and accompanied by vivid imitative expression. The lessons should be made as attractive as possible and, as far as practicable, presented under the form of games, so as to arouse the curiosity of the child: guessing games, blindman's buff, store-keeping, the sleep walker, the blind store-keeper, etc. But however amusing the game may be, the lesson should always be stopped while the child is still willing to continue. His attention, which is easily fatigued, should never be exhausted. To fix ideas, lessons should be repeated many times. Each time, however, the same objects should be presented under different forms and in a different environment, so that it will always be interesting by appearing as something new: story-telling, living tableaux, large illustrations; colored pictures; stereopticon views, etc. In case individual teaching is necessary, as happens in the most elementary classes, care should be exercised to keep all the other children busy with different toys: insets, lacing-and-buttoning-frames, hooks and eyes, etc. When children refuse to take part in their lessons it is better not to use coercion, but to aim at obtaining obedience indirectly through the child's imitation of his schoolmates. Glowing praise of the pupils who are showing good will in their work almost always brings the recalcitrants to time. When a child shows he has understood the point under discussion, it is better not to ask for a repetition. His attention is easily fatigued, and the second time he may say badly what at first he gave successfully; and the failure may discourage him. It is well to be satisfied with the first good answer, bestow such praise as will afford the child a pleasant memory of what he has been doing; and go back to the subject on the following day, or, at the earliest, several hours later.
In manual training, however, the situation is different. The lesson in this subject can be a whole hour long and should take the form of serious work and not of play. The child should be set early at some useful task, even if a little hard work, not unattended with risk, be involved (wood-cutting, boring, etc.). From the outset, thus, the child will become familiar with the difficulties of bread-winning effort and will learn to overcome them.
Interest in work may be stimulated by appropriate rewards. The child may earn during work-hours the money for his purchases at the store, for his tickets to the theater and the stereopticon lecture. The child who does not work may be kept away from the more attractive lessons, such as dancing and music, which come immediately after the work hour. As a matter of fact, these children take to manual training very readily, provided the tasks assigned are adapted to the natural inclinations of the individual child in such a way that he may take in his work the greatest possible satisfaction and thus by natural bent attain a skill useful to himself and society.
MORAL EDUCATION
By the expression "moral education" we mean an education which tends to make a social being of an individual who is by nature extra- or anti-social. It presents two aspects which may be paralleled with the education thus far treated and which we call "intellectual education."
In this latter training of the mind, we began by an appropriate hygienic cure of all those physical defects which could stand in the way of successful mental education. In moral education, likewise, we try to eliminate such defects as arise from some passing physical ailment. We should carefully consider the apparently causeless "naughtiness" of children, to see whether it may not be due to some intestinal disturbance, or to the early stages of some infectious disease. The symptoms of such diseases should be known to the teacher. I have been told that English mothers use the empirical method of administering purgatives or cold shower baths to "naughty children," often with good correctional effect. I suggest that such empiricism is hardly prudent where science is able to prescribe much safer and more efficacious methods. Child hygiene must be well known to the educator and should be the pivotal point of every educational system.
In mental education, we began by reducing the child to tonic quiescence; here we must begin by reducing the child to obedience.
In mental education, to give the child his first notions of his physical person (personal imitation: touching of the parts of the body) and of his relations to environment (personal imitation: moving of objects, etc.) we had recourse to imitation; here, to instil in the child elementary notions of his duties, we must throw around the child an atmosphere morally correct, an environment in which, after attaining obedience, he can imitate persons who act properly.
In mental education we went on to the training of the senses; here we pass to the education of feelings. Our next step, in the one case, was to the education proper of the mind; here it is to the training of the will.
The parallel is perfect:
hygienic training: hygiene;
tonic quiescence: obedience;
imitation: imitation (environment);
sensory education: education of the feelings (sensibilities);
mental education proper: education of the will.
OBEDIENCE
In a command the will of the teacher is imposed upon the defective child who is lacking in will. The will of the teacher is substituted for the child's will in impelling to action or inhibiting the child's impulses. From the very first the child must feel this will, which is imposed upon him and is irrevocably destined to overcome him. The child must understand that against this will he cannot offer any resistance. The teacher's command must be obeyed at whatever cost, even if coercive measures must be resorted to. No consideration should ever lead the teacher to desist from enforcing her command. The child must submit and obey. The teacher accordingly, should be careful at first to command the child to move; since, if necessary she can force him to move. She may command the child to stand motionless because, if necessary, she can tie him or put him in a straight-jacket. She should never, on the other hand, command the child to "beg pardon," because the child may refuse, and in the face of this refusal the teacher may find herself helpless and lose her authority. To acquire authority in command, the teacher must possess a considerable power of suggestion; and this she can partially acquire. The teacher should be physically attractive, of an "imposing personality." She should have a clear musical voice, and some power of facial expression and gesture. These things may be in large part acquired by actual study of declamation and imitation, subjects in which the perfect teacher should be proficient. The artistic study of command, which the teacher may undertake, presents itself under three aspects: voice study, gesture, facial expression.
Voice and speech: The voice should be clear and musical, word articulation perfect. Any defect in pronunciation should effectually bar a teacher from the education of defective children. On days when the teacher has a cold and her voice is likely to assume false or ridiculous intonations, she should not think of correcting or commanding a defective child. The teacher's voice must be impressive and suggestive to the child. If shouting and declamatory tirades have gone out of fashion in the education of normal children, they may serve very well in the education of defectives. Whereas, in the mental education of these unfortunates, we are to pronounce a few words, but very distinctly, here there is no objection to a veritable flood of speech, provided such lectures be free from monotony, the voice passing from tones of reproof to tones of sorrow, pathos, tenderness, etc. A few words are to receive special emphasis—those which we intend shall convey to the child what we wish him to understand. The rest of all we say will constitute for the child merely modulated, musical or painful sound. It is in the music of the human voice that the elements of the education of the feelings reside; whether in the prohibition against doing something wrong, we introduce the corrective command, or, in the order to perform some action, we include encouragement, menace, or promise of reward.
Often the command is very simple. When the child is told to do something, he does not refuse. Nevertheless he is not easily persuaded. He must try to understand, first of all, what we want of him. The technique of such a simple command falls into two parts. We may call the first incitement, and the second explanation. The whole command should be repeated several times with varied intonations and with stress on different words until each word in its order has been emphasized. "James, put that book on the table." In the first instance the command will be incitive in character, calling the attention of the child to the action and urging him to perform it. Here the accent should fall on the name of the child and on the imperative. The tone should be that of absolute command. "James, put that book on the table." As we pass from the command to the explanation, the tone should be changed and somewhat softened. The first word should be clear and impelling, followed by slow, insistent words—"James, put that book on the table": "James, put that book on the table": "James, put that book on the table." Thus the voice both in commanding and in describing what was commanded, while urging the child to perform the required action and guiding him to do it, was also affording us help in its suggestive power and by explanation.
Gesture: The teacher must study particularly expressive gesture. She must always accompany what she says with gestures serving both to impel the child to actions and which suggest imitation and explain the command. Gestures should be expressive enough to be readily intelligible even without words; for example, if it is desirable to bring the child to perfect quiescence, as the command is given, the teacher should stop, become almost rigid, looking sharply at the child in such a way that he may be impressed by that rigid fixity which he sees before him and be brought by suggesting to imitate it. Then to keep the child motionless, the teacher may attract his attention by a slight almost continuous hypnotizing sort of whistle. To excite an apathetic child to movement the teacher should herself move, accompanying the stress of her voice with motion in her whole body.
In the simple command, arm gesture only should be used and as follows:
For Incitement: rapid movement in straight line.
For Explanation: slow movement in curve.
Command of quiescence: gesture up and down, from without toward the body.
Command of movement: gesture from down, up, from within, out from the body.
Facial expression and gaze: The gaze has a powerful effect on the child. It is the same gaze which impressed the child and brought him to the first steps in his education (see our chapter on the Education of the Gaze). All the expressions of the eye are useful provided the teacher employs them properly. It is not a question of scowling at the child to frighten him, as might be supposed; but rather of bringing the eye as well as the whole face to express all those emotions which the teacher must herself actually feel in the presence of an obedient or rebellious, a patient or angry child; and of giving to this expression such clearness that the child cannot possibly be mistaken as to its meaning (Séguin, page 679). The teacher's face must be expressive, mobile, hence in harmonious relationship with what is to be expressed (calmness, gaiety, effort). The expression must never vary momentarily on account of any extraneous diversion which may occur; otherwise the children will soon learn to provoke such distractions of the teacher's attention. Such commands, which demand on the teacher's part so much artistic study, will, of course, not be necessary during the whole period of the child's education.
THE END
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Varied hyphenation was retained.