The mothercraft manual

by Mary L. Read

Learning the Fundamental Facts. The teacher of the very little child must first know what are the fundamental facts in science. Too often the traditional school training has given an intensive acquaintance with one or two sciences, so detailed that the fundamental foundations are obscured. The teacher of the very little child needs, instead, a comprehensive knowledge of many sciences, in their broad basic outlines,—especially physics, chemistry, nature-study, biology, physical geography, geology, astronomy, industrial geography and industrial processes, the story of primitive life and industries.

Nature Study That is Worth While. Moreover, her knowledge should not be purely impersonal; it must be human, poetic, related to industry and religion. The sense of wonder and of nurture is strong in the little child. He is more interested in feeding and caring for his rabbits or goldfish or flowers than in analyzing them, or describing their form or color; the latter are merely incidental in his interest, and they should be in his teaching. On the other hand, his knowledge of form, color, and such abstract qualities may well come quite naturally and incidentally through nature-study and handwork rather than through special apparatus, separated from real objects and life.

Geography. This comes naturally through his personal experiences. Maps, diagrams, globes, are complex and abstract and symbolic; they belong somewhere after six years, with most children not before nine years. The child must have arrived at the stage when he can think in terms of symbols, before he can really interpret them. It will do no harm to have a globe where he may see it, but it would be a fallacy to consider that he can really interpret it, and a mistake to attempt using it until he has grasped the idea of the bigness of the earth on which he lives. Maps will not be interpretable until later. He may point to places on the map, but without appreciation of their meaning. Somewhere between six and ten years of age he may begin making a “map” of the imaginary country he has built in the sand box, with rivers, lakes, cities; or of the room, locating the articles of furniture; or of the street, locating the houses, sidewalks, telegraph poles, first drawing freehand, and when more advanced, drawing to scale. At three or four years, with his sand pile, he can reproduce forms he has seen—hills, valleys, rivers, lakes. He will want to use real water for rivers. It is well to let him experiment with this until he is dissatisfied because of its disappearance, and then look for play substitutes,—gray, blue, or green yarn, paper or cloth, mica. It is more important that it should be representative to him than to his elders.

Real geography comes through seeing places and people. The little child under five or six belongs naturally in the country, where he has the opportunity for acquaintance with physical geography in many forms. Great variety of natural objects and experiences should be provided. On the other hand, intensive acquaintance with only a few people or nationalities is better. After four or five years of age, he is able to stand the excitement of traveling, and the risk of dust and crowds, and he is ready to profit by seeing other people, cities, customs, ways of traveling, industries. The least journey to a new environment is valuable, to enlarge his perspective and his sympathies. Even at three or four he likes to see pictures of other children in other countries, and how they live,—their houses, clothes, food, toys, pets. Especially is he attracted by stories of primitive, outdoor life. The story of Hiawatha, in Longfellow’s original, is well adapted to the sixth year, and some children love it and enjoy it earlier.

Dolls may be dressed to represent children of different lands. The sand box may be used to represent tropical, arctic, mountainous, agricultural, fishing, mining countries and scenes. Scrapbooks can be made for each country, with pictures from magazines, railroad or steamship folders, post cards. Foreign magazines may be obtained, in the east, through Brentano’s (New York). Correspondence could easily be arranged with a child in some foreign country if not through personal acquaintances, at least through some foreign school, mission, society, or consul. Early acquaintance with the children of other countries cultivates a feeling of sympathy that is the foundation of world fellowship and international peace. If there is opportunity to learn a few colloquial sentences in some of these languages, this will still further deepen the child’s sympathy. After six years, when his interest in collecting is strong, foreign stamps, flags, emblems, flowers, pictures, will be as keenly interesting to him as cigar labels or other inconsequential but glittering objects.

Industries. Let him see as many as possible of the forms of industry, especially the primitive simple forms, such as gardening, farming, care of animals, horse-shoeing, baking, sewing. He should go often to the grocery store (not during the busy hours) to see the different kinds of foods. Better yet, he should see some of these vegetables and fruits growing, the wheat and corn standing in the fields. He should see the ploughing, planting, weeding, harvesting; the feeding and the milking of the cow; the hauling and preparation of fuels. Little comment is necessary beyond remarking how everything that we eat or wear has come to us because other people have worked hard to make it grow, or to bring it or prepare it for us, and therefore we owe our thanks to all who have worked for our comfort. Thus from his own experience he may know and appreciate the postman who brings the letters, the fireman who hurries to put out the fire, the policeman who helps us across the crowded street and watches night and day to keep us protected from harm and danger, the street-sweeper and sprinkler who keep the streets clean, the man who brings the coal or wood or groceries, the street-car conductor and motorman, the engineer and fireman on the train that takes us about the country or brings the freight.

Through gratitude for the hard work that others do for him he will also learn to respect all labor, even though it does cause dirty hands and faces and clothes, and he will naturally infer that it is his duty to do his share and to work also for others.

History. Children, like savages, are historically nearsighted; they have not yet the experience to appreciate historic time; every event is located near the present, and their interest in history is more or less fictitious and artificial. This is the period for the great myths, for imagination now exceeds experience, and any adventure is credible.

There comes a time, about six years of age, when children begin to ask for a “true” story, meaning a realistic story, historically true. Then is the opportunity to recount the experiences of mothers and children, as well as of brothers and fathers, in other times. Nor need these be limited to his own country or modern times. “Once upon a time” or “A long, long time ago” is somewhere back in a vague sometime; yesterday or a million years ago are not yet spaced in his mind. This sense of time-duration may be developed by calling attention to it in his experience, for the two-year-old, day and night; in the fourth year, morning and afternoon, yesterday, to-day and to-morrow, seasons; in the fifth year, the days of the week and the months of the year will begin to have significance and sequence; in the sixth year, “last Christmas”, “next Fourth of July”, the date of this year, and the marking of duration, under various circumstances, of a minute, an hour, a day.

Of course, the little child will not be able to distinguish between different nations or races of the past; it is all one to him. This fact is easily overlooked by the eager teacher, who has so long since classified historic data in her own mind. This historical appreciation does not develop until the early teens.