Latest / The Montessori Method / The Montessori Method_Part 2

Transcript

The Montessori Method_Part 2 · The Montessori Method

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Of the series. The form is cut from blue paper
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and mounted upon the card. In the second box of cards,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a contour of the same figures is mounted in the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: same blue paper, forming an outline one centimeter in width.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: On the third set of cards, the contour of the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: geometric form is outlined by a black line. We have
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: then the tray, the collection of small frames with the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: corresponding insets, and the set of the cards in three series.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I also designed a case containing six trays. The front
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of this box may be lowered when the top is raised,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and the trays may be drawn out as one opens
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the drawers of the desk. Each drawer contains six of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the small frames with the respective insets. In the first drawer,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I keep the four plain wooden squares and two frames,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: one containing a rhomboid and the other a trapezoid. In
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the second, I have a serious consisting of a square
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: in five rectangles of the same length but varying in width.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: The third drawer consists six circles which diminish in diameter.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: In the fourth are six triangles, in the fifth five
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: polygons from pentagon to a decagon, and a sixth flower
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: contains six curved figures, an ellipse, an oval, et cetera,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and a flower like finger formed by four crossed arcs.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Exercise with the insects. This exercise consists in presenting to
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the child the large frame or tray in which we
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: arrange the figures as we wish to present them. We
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: proceed to take out the insets, mix them up on
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the table, and invite the child to put them back
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: in place. This game may be played by even the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: younger children and holds attention for a long period, though
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: not for so long time as the exercise with the cylinders. Indeed,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I have never seen a child repeat this exercise more
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: than five or six times. The child, in fact, expends
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: much energy upon this exercise. He must recognize the form
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and must look at it carefully. At first. Many of
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the children only succeed in placing the insets after many attempts, trying,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: for example, to place a triangle in a trapezoid, then
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: in a rectangle, et cetera. Or when they have taken
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: a rectangle recognize where it should go, they will still
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: place it in the longside of the inset across the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: short side of the opening, and will only after many
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: attempts succeed in placing it. After three or four successive lessons,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the child recognizes the geometric figures with extreme facility and
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: places the inserts with a security which has a tinge
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: of noi shells or of slight contempt for an exercise
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: that is too easy. This is the moment in which
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the child may be led to a methodical observation of
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: the forms. We change the forms in the frame and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: pass from contrasted frames to analogous ones. The exercise is
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: easy for the child, who habituates himself to placing the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: pieces in their frames without arrows of false attempts. The
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: first period of these exercises is at the time when
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the child is obliged to make repeated trials with figures
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that are strongly contrasted in form. The recognition is greatly
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: helped by associating with the visual sense the muscular tactile
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: perception of the forms. I have the child touch the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: contour of the piece with the index finger of his
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: right hand, and then have him repeat this with the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: contour of the frame into which the pieces must fit.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: We succeed in making this a habit with the child.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: This is very easily attained since all children loved to
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: touch things. I have already learned through my work with
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: deficient children that among the various forms of sense memory,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that of the muscular sense is the most precautious. Indeed,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: many children who have not arrived at the point of
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: recognizing a figure by looking at it could recognize it
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: by touching it, that is, by computing the movements necessary
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to the following of its contour. The same is true
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: with the great number of normal children. Confuse as to
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: where to place a figure, they turn it awoy, trying
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: in vain to fit it in. Yet as soon as
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: they have touched the two controls of the piece and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: its frame to succeed in placing it perfectly. Undoubtedly, the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: association of the muscular tactile sense with that of vision
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: aids in a most remarkable way the perception of forms
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and fixes them in memory. In such exercises, control is absolute,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: as it was in the solid insects. The figure can
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: only inter the corresponding frame. This makes it possible for
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the child to work by himself and to accomplish a
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: genuine sensory auto education in the visual perception of form
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: exercise with the three series of cards first series, we
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: give the child the wooden forms and the cards upon
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: which the white figure is mounted. Then we mix the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: cards upon the table. The child must arrange them in
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: a line upon this table, which he loves to do,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: and then place the corresponding wooden pieces upon the cards.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Here the control lies in the eyes the childs recognize
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: these figures and place the wooden piece upon it so
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: perfectly that it will cover and hide the paper figure.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: The eye of the child here corresponds to the fame
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: which materially led him at first to bring the two
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: pieces together. In addition to covering the finger, the child
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: is to accustom himself to touching the contour or the
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: mounted figures as a part of the exercise. The child
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: always voluntarily follows those movements, and after his place the
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: wooden instead, he again touches the contour, adjusting with his
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: finger the supreme posed piece until it exactly covers the form.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Beneath second series, we gave a number of cards the child,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: together with corresponding wooden insects. In this second series, the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: figures are repeated by an outline of blue paper. The child,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: through these exercises is passing gradually from the concrete to
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the abstract. At first he handled only solid objects. It
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: then pass to a plane figure, that is, to the
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: plane which in itself does not exist. He is now
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: passing to the line, But this line is not present
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: for him the abstract contour of a plane figure. It
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: is to him the path which he has so often
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: followed with his hindex finger, that this line is the
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: trace of a movement. Falling again the control of the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: figure with his finger, the child receives the impression of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: actually leaving a trace, for the figure is covered by
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: his finger and appears as he moves it. It is
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the eye now which guides the movement. But it must
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: be remembered that this movement was already prepared when the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: child touched up and tools of the solid pieces of wood.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Third series, we now present to the child the cards
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: upon which the figures are drawn in black, giving him,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: as before the corresponding wooden pieces. Here he has actually
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: passed to the line, that is, to an abstraction. Yet
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: here too there is the idea of the result of
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a movement. This cannot be. It is true that tray
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: is left by the finger, but for example, that of
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: a pencil which is guided by the hand in the
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: same movements made before. These geometric figures in simple outline
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: have grown out of a gradual series of representations which
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: were concrete to vision. In touch. These representations returned to
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the mind of a child, and he performs the exercise
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: of superimposing the corresponding wooden figures. Three differential visual perception
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of contours education of the chromatic sense. In many of
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: our lessons on the colors, we make use of pieces
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: of brightly colored stuffs and of walls covered with full
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of different colors. The didactic material for the education of
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: the chromatic sense is the following, which I have established
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: after a long series of tests made upon normal children
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: in the institute for deficients. I use, as said above,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: the geometric inserts. The presentment here consists of small flat
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: tablets which are wound with colored full or silk. The
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: establers have a little wooden border at each end, which
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: prevents the silk covered card from touching the table. The
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: child is also taught to take hold of the piece
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: by these wooden extremities, so that he need not soil
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: the delicate colors. In this way we are able to
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: use this material for a long time without having to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: renew it. Have chosen eight tints, and each one has
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: with it eight gradations of different intensity of color. There
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: are therefore sixty four colored tablets in all. The eight
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: tints selected are black from gay to white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and brown. We have duplicate boxes of these sixty four colors,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: giving us two of each exercise. The entire set therefore
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: consists of one hundred and twenty eight tablets. They contained
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: in two boxes, each divided into equal compartments, so that
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: one box may contain sixty four tables. Exercises with the
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: colored tablets. For the earliest of these exercises, we select
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: three strong colors, for example, red, blue, and yellow, in pairs.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: These six tablets we place upon the table before the child.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Showing him one of the colors, we ask him to
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: find its duplicate among the missed tablets upon the table.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: In this way, we have him arrange the color tablet
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: in a column two by two, bearing them according to color.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: The number of tablets in this game may be increased
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: until the eight colors or sixteen tablets are given at once.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: When the strongest tones have been presented, we will proceed
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: to the presentation of the lighted tones in the same way. Finally,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: we present two or three tablets of the same color
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: but of a different tone, showing the child how to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: arrange these in order of gradation. In this way, the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: eight gradations are finally presented. Following this, we place before
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the child the eight gradations of two different colors, red
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: and blue. He is shown how to separate the groups
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and then arrange each group in gradation. As we proceed,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: we offer groups of more nearly related colors, for example,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: blue and violet, yellow and orange, etc. In one of
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the children's houses, I have seen the following game played
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: with the greatest success in interest and with surprising rapidity.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: The directress places upon a table about which the children
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: are seated as many color groups as there are children,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: for example three. She then calls each eye's attention to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the color each is to select, of which she assigns
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: to him. Then she mixes the three groups of colors
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: on the table. Each child takes rapidly from the mixed
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: heap of tablets all the gradations of his color, and
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: proceeds to arrange tablets, which, when thus placed in a line,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: give the sevans of a strip of shaded ribbon. In
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: another house, I have seen the children take the entire box,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: empty the sixty four colored tablets upon the table, and,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: after carefully mixing them, rapidly collect them into groups and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: arrange them in gradation, constructing a species of little carpet
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: of delicately colored and intermingling tents. The children very quickly
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: acquire an ability before which we stand amazed. Children of
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: three years are able to pull all of the tents
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: into gradation experiments in color memory. Experiments in color memory
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: may be made by showing the child a tend, allowing
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: him to look at it as long as you will,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: and then asking him to go to a distinct table
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: upon which all of the colors are arranged, and to
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: select from among them thin similar to the one at
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: which he has looked. The children succeed in this game remarkably,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: committing all these slight errors. Children of five years enjoy
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: this immensely, taking great pleasure in comparing the two schools
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: and judging as to whether they have chosen correctly. At
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the beginning of my work, I made use of an
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: instrument invented by Pizzoli. This consisted of a small broken
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: disc having a half moon shape opening at the top.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Various colors were made to pass behind this opening by
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: means of a rotary disk, which was composed of strips
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: of various colors. The teacher called the attention of the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: child to a certain color, then turned the disc, asking
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: him to indicate the same disc when it again showed
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: itself in the opening. The exercise rendered the child inactive,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: preventing him from controlling the material. It is not, therefore
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: an instrument which can promote the education of the senses.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Exercise for the discrimination or sounds. It would be desirable
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to have in this connection the didactic material used for
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: the iroicular education in the principal institutions for defutes in
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Germany and America. These exercises are an introduction to the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: exposition of language and serve in a very special way
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: to center the children's discriminative attention upon the modulations of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the sound of human voice. With very young children, linguistic
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: education must occupy a most important place. Another aim of
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: such exercises is to educate the year of the child
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: to noises, so that he shall accustom himself to distinguish
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: every slight noise and compare it with sounds coming to recent,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: hard or disordered noises. Such sense education has a value
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: in that it exercises esthetic taste and may be applied
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: in a most noteworthy way to practical discipline. We all
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: know how the younger children disturbed the order of the
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: room by shouts and by the noise of overturned objects.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: The rigorous scientific education, or the sense of hearing is
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: not practically applicable to the didactic method. This is true,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the child cannot exercise himself through his own activity, as
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: it does for the other senses. Only one child at
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: a time can work with any instrument reducing the gradation
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: of sounds. In other words, absolute silence is necessary for
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: the discrimination of sounds. Signorina Macheroni, Directress, host of the
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Children's House in Milan and later in the one in
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the Franciscan Convent at Rome, has invented and has had
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: manufactured a series of thirteen bells hung upon a wooden frame.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: These bells are to all appearances identical, but the vibrations
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: brought about a blow of a hammer reduced the following
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: thirteen notes. The said consumer of a double series of
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: thirteen bells, and there are four hammers. Having struck one
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of the bears in the first series, the child must
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: find the corresponding sound in the second. This exercise presents
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: grave difficulty, as a child does not know how to
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: strike each time with the same force, and therefore produces
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: sounds which vary in intensity. Even when the teacher strikes
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the bells, the children have difficulty distinguishing between sounds, so
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: we do not feel that this instrument in its present
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: form is entirely practical. For the discrimination of sounds, we
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: use Pizzoli's series of little whistles. For the gradation of noises,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: we use small boxes filled with different substances, more or
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: less fine sand or pebbles. The noises are produced by
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: shaking the boxes. In the lessons for the sense of hearing,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I proceed as follows. I have the teacher's established silence
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: in the usual way, and then I continue the work,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: making the silence more profound. I say still still, in
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: a series of modulations, now sharp and short, now prolonged
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and light as a whisper. Their children, little by little
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: become fascinated by this. Occasionally I say more silent, still
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: more silent. I then begin the sibiliant again, making it
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: always lighter, and repeating more silent, still in a barely
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: audible whisper. Now I hear the clock. Now I can
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: hear the buzzle of a flier's way, Now I can
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: hear the whisper of the trees in the garden. The children,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: ecstatic with joy, sit in such absolute and complete silence
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: that the room seems deserted. When I whisper, let us
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: close our eyes. This exercise repeated so Habit wished the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: children to immobility and absolute silence, that when one of
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: them interrupts, it needs only a syllable a gesture to
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: call him back immediately to perfect order. In the silence,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: he proceeded to the production of sounds and noises, making
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: these at first strongly contrasted, then more nearly alike. Sometimes
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: we present the comparisons between noise and sound. I believe
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that the best results can be obtained with a primitive
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: means employed by the ieart. In eighteen o five he
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: used the drum and the bell. His plan was a
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: graduate series of drums for the noises, or better for
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the heavy harmonic sounds, since these belong to a musical instrument,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: and a series of bells. The dire Pasion the whistles.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: The boxes are not attracted to the child and do
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: not educate the sense of hearing. As to these other instruments,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: there is an interesting suggestion in the fact that two
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: great human institutions, that of hate war and that of
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: love religion, have adopted these two opposities students, the drum
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and the bell. I believe that after establishing silence, it
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: would be educational to ring well toned bells, now calm
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and sweet, now clear and ringing, sending their vibrations to
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the child's whole body. And when besides the education of
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the year, we produced a vibratory education of the year,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: we produced a vibratory education of the whole body. Through
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: these wisely selected sounds of the bells, giving a peace
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: repervades the very fibers of his being. Then I believe
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: these young bodies would be sensitive to cruel noises, and
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the children would come dislike and to cease from making
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: disordered and ugly noises. In this way, one whose ear
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: has been trained by a musical education suffos from strident
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: or discordant notes. I need give no illustration to make
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: clear the importance of such education for the masses in
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: childhood the new generation would be calm, turning our way
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: from the confusion and discordant sounds which strike the year
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to day in one of the wild tnatments, where the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: poor life crowded together, left by us to abandon themselves
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: to the lower, more beauty human listenings. Musical education this
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: must be carefully guided by method. In general, we sealed
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: the children pass by the playing of some great musicians
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: as an animal would pass. They do not perceive the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: delicate complexity of sounds. Tree children gather about the organ grinder,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: crying out as if to hail with joy the noises
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: which will come instead of sounds. For the musical education,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: we must create instruments as well as music. The scope
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: of such an instrument, in addition to the discrimination of sounds,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: is to awaken a sense of rhythm, and so to speak,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: to give the impulse toward calm and coordinate movements to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: those muscles already vibrating in the piece and tranquility of immobility.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I believe the stringed instruments, perhaps some very much simplified harp,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: would be the most convenient. The string instruments, together with
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the drum and the bells, form the trio of the
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: classic instruments of humans. The harp is the instrument of
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: the intimate life of the individual. Legend places it in
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the hands of Orpheus, Folklore puts it into fairy hands,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: and Dromanque gives it to the princess who concurs the
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: heart of a wicked prince. And the teacher who turns
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: her back upon her scholars to play far too often badly,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: will never be the educator or the musical sense. The
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: child needs to be charmed in every way by the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: glance as well as by the poles. The teacher, who,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: bending toward them, gathering them about her and leaving them
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: free to go or to stay, touches the chords in
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: a simple rhythm, puts herself in communication with them, in
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: relation with their very souls. So much the better if
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: this touch can be accompanied by her voice, and the
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: children left free to follow her, no one being obliged
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: to sing. In this way, she can select, as adapted
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: to education, those songs which were followed by all the children.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: So she regulates the complexity of rhythm to various ages.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: For she will see now only the older children following
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the listhm now also the little ones at any rate.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: I believe as simple and primitive instruments are the ones
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: best adapted to the awakening of music in the soul
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: of the little child. I have tried to have the
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: directress of the children's house, Milan, who is a gifted musician,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: make a number of trials and experiments with a view
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: to finding out more about the mascular capacity of young children.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: She has made many trials with the Pianoforte, observing how
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the children are not sensitive to the musical tone, but
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: only to the rhythm. On a basis of rhythm, she
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: arranged simple little dances with the intention of studying the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: influence of the rhythm itself upon the coordination of muscular movements.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: She was greatly surprised to discover the educational disciplinary effect
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: of such music. Her children, who have been led with
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: great wisdom and art through liberty, to a spontaneous ordering
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: of their acts and movements, and nevertheless lived in the
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: streets and coats, and had an almost universal habit of jumping.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Being a faithful follower of the method of liberty, and
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: not considering that jumping was a wrong act, she had
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: never corrected them. She now noticed that as she multiplied
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and repeated the rhythm exercises. The children, little, very little
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: left off their ugly jumping, until finally it was a
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: thing of the past. A directorist when they asked for
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: an explanation of the change of conduct, several little ones
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: looked at her without saying anything. The older children gave
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: various replies whose meaning was the same, it isn't nice
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: to jump. Jumping is ugly, it is rude to jump.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: This was certainly a beautiful triumph for her method. This
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: experience shows that it is possible to educate the child's
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: muscular sense, and it shows how exquisite the refinement of
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: this sense may be as it develops in relation to
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the muscular memory and side by side with the other
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: forms of sensory memory tes for acuteness of hearing. The
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: only entirely successful experiments which we have made so far
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: in the children's houses are those of the clock and
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: of the lowered or whispered voice. The trial is purely
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: empirical and does not lend itself to the measuring of
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the sensation. But it is, however, most useful in that
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: it helps us to an approximate knowledge of the child's
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: auditory acuteness. The exercise consists in calling attention where perfect
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: silence has been established, the ticking of the clock, and
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: to all the little noises not commonly audible to the ear. Finally,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: we call the little ones one by one from an
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: adjoining room, pronouncing each name in a low voice. In
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: preparing for such an exercise, it is necessary to teach
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the children the real meaning of silence. Toward this end,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I have several games of silence, which help in a
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: surprising way to strengthen the remarkable discipline of children. I
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: call the children's attention to myself, telling them to say
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: out silent I can be. I assume different positions, standing, sitting,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and maintain each post silently without movement. A finger moving
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: can produce a noise, even though it be imperceptible. We
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: may breathe so that we may be heard, but I
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: maintain absolute silence, which is not an easy thing to do.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I call a child and ask him to do as
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I am doing. He adjurets his feet to a better position,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: and this makes a noise. He moves an arm, stretching
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: it out upon the arm of his chair. It is
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: a noise. His breathing is not altogether silent, it is
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: not tranquil, absolutely unheard as mine is. During these manuals
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: on the part of the child, And while my brief
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: comments are followed by intervals of immobility and silence, the
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: other children are watching and listening. Many of them are
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: interested in the fact which they have never noticed before,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: namely that we make so many noises of which are
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: not conscious, and there are degrees of silence. There is
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: an absolute silence where nothing, absolutely nothing moves. They watch
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: me in amazement when I stand in the middle of
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the room so quietly that it is really as if
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I were not strive to imitate me, and to do
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: even better, I call attention here and there to a
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: foot that moves almost inadvertently. The attention of the child
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: is called to every part of his body in an
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: anxious eagerness to attain to immobility. When the children are
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: trying in this way, there is established a silence very
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: different from which we carelessly call by that name. It
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: seems as if life gradually vanishes, and the room becomes
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: a little, very little empty, as if there were no
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: longer anyone in it. Then we begin to hear the
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: ticktok of the clock, and this sound seems to grow
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: an intense and the silence becomes absolutely from without, from
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: the court, which before seems silent, they come varied noises,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: A bird shoops, a child passes. The children sit fascinated
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: by a silence, has some conquest of their own. Here,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: says the directress. Here there is no longer anyone. The
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: children have all gone away. Having arrived. At that point,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: we darken the windows and tell the children to close
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: their eyes, resting their heads upon their hands. They assume
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: this position, and in the darkness, the absolute silence remains.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Now Listen, he say, A soft voice is going to
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: call your name. Then, going to a room behind the children,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: as standing within the open door, I call in a
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: low voice, lingering over the syllables, as if I were
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: calling from across the mountains. This voice, almost awkled, seems
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: to reach the heart and to call to the soul
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: of the child. Each one, as he is called, lifts
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: his head, opens his eyes as if altogether happy, and
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: then rises, silently, seeking not to move the chair, and
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: walks on the tips of his tools, so quietly that
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: he is scarcely heard. Nevertheless, his step resounds in the
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: silence and immobility which persists. Having reached the door with
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: the joyous face, he leaps into the room, choking back
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: soft out boosts of love. Another child will come to
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: hide his face against my dress. Another turning will watch
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: his companion sitting like statues, silent and waiting. The one
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: who is called feels that he is privileged, that he
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: has received a gift, a prize. And yet they know
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: that all will be called, beginning with the most silent
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: one in the room. So each one tries to merit
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: by his perfect silence the certain call. I once saw
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: a little one or three years try to suffocate a
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: s neeze and succeed. She held her breath in a
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: little rest and resisted, coming out victorious, a most surprising effort.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: This game delights the little ones beyond measure. Their intent faces,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: their patient immobility revealed the enjoyment of a great pleasure.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: In the beginning, when the soul of the child was
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: unknown to me, I had thought of showing them sweetmeats
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: and little toys, promising to give them to the ones
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: who were called. Supposing that the gifts would be necessary,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: persuaded the child to make the necessary effort, But as
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: soon found that this was unnecessary. The children, after they
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: had made the effort necessary to maintain silence, enjoyed the sensation,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: took pleasure in the silence itself. They were like ships
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: safe in a tranquil harbor, happy in having experienced something
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: new and to have won a victory over themselves. This,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: indeed was their recompense. They forgot the promise of switch,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: and no longer cared to take the toys, which I
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: had supposed would attract them. I therefore abandoned that useless means,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: and saw with surprise that the game became constantly more perfect,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: until even children of three years of age remained immovable
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: in the silence throughout the time required to call the
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: entire forty children out of the room. It was then
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: that I learned the soul of the child as its
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: own reward and its particular spiritual failures. After such exercises,
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: it seems to me that the children became closer to me. Certainly,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: they became more obedient, more gentle and sweet. We had
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: indeed been isolated from the world, and I had passed
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: several minutes during which the communion between us was very close.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: I wishing for them and calling to them and their
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: receiving in the perfect silence the voice which was directed
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: personally toward each one of them, crowning each in turn
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: with happiness. A lesson in silence. I am about to
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: describe a lesson which proved most successful in teaching the
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: perfect silence to which it is possible to attend. One day,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: as I was about to enter one of the children's houses,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: I met in the court a mother who held in
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: her arms her little baby for four months. The little
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: one was swaddled, as is still the custom among the
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: people of Rome, and infant thus in the swaddling bands
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: is called by us a pupa. This tranquil little one
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: seemed the incarnation of peace. I took her in my arms,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: where she lay quiet and good. Still holding her, I
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: went toward the school rowe from which the children now
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: ran to meet me. They always welcomed me, thus throwing
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: their arms about me, clinging to my skirts, and almost
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: tumb me over in their eagerness. I smiled at them,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: showing them the pupa. Then stood and skipped about me,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: looking at me with eyes brilliant with pleasure, but did
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: not touch me. Through respect for the little one that
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: I held in my arms. I went into the schoolroom,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: where the children clustered or about me. He sat down.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: I seating myself in a large chair, stead off as usual,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: in one of the little chairs. In other words, I
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: seated myself solemnly. They looked at my little one with
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: a mixture of tenderness and joy. None of us had
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: yet spoken a word. Finally, I said to them, I
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: have brought you a little teacher. Surprise, glances and laughter,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: A little teacher, yes, because none of you know how
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: to be quiet as she does. At this all the
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: children changed their positions and became quiet. Yet no one
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: holds his limbs and feet as quietly as she. Everyone
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: gave closer attention to the position of limbs and feet.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: I looked at them, smiling, Yes, but they can never
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: be as quiet as holes. You move a little bit,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: but she not at all. None of you can be
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: as quiet as she. The children look serious. The idea
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: of the superiority of the little teachers seemed to have
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: reached them. Some of them smiled and seemed to say
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: with their eyes that the swaddling bands deserved all the merit.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Not one of you can be silent, voiceless as she.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: General silence. It is not possible to be as silent
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: as she, because listen to her breathing, or delicate it is.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Come near to her on your tiptoes. Several children was
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: and came slowly forward on tiptoe, bending toward the baby.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Great silence. None of you can breathe so silently as she.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: The children looked about, amazed. They never thought that, even
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: when sitting quietly, they were making noises. In the silence
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: of a little baby is more profound than the silence
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: of grown people. They almost ceased to beat. I arose,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: go out quietly quietly, I said, Walk on the tape
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: of your toose, and make no noise. Following them, I said,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: and yet I still hear some sounds. Why she, the
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: baby walks with me and makes no sound. She goes
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: out silently. The children smiled. They understood the truth and
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the jest of my words. I went to the open
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: window and placed the baby in the arms of the mother,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: who stood watching us. The little one seemed to have
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: left behind her a subtle charm which enveloped the souls
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: of the children. Indeed, there is in nature nothing more
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: sweet than the silent breathing of a new born babe.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: There is an indescribable majesty about this human life, which,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: in repose its silence, gathers strength and newness of life.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Compared to this, Wordsworth's description of the silent piece of
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: nature seems to lose its force. What calm, what quiet?
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: The one sound, the drip of the suspended ore. The
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: children too felt the poetry and beauty in the peaceful
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: silence of a new born human life. Footnote here and
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: elsewhere throughout the book, the word touch is used not
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: only to express tact between the fingus and an object,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: but the moving of fingers or hand over an object.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Outline end of Chapter thirteen.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: Chapter fourteen, General Notes on the education of the senses.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: I do not claim to have brought to perfection the
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: method of since training is applied to young children. I
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: do believe, however, that it opens a new field for
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: psychological research, promising rich and valuable results. Experimental psychology has
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: so far devoted its attention to perfecting the instruments by
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: which the sensations are measured. No one has attempted the
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: methodical preparation of the individual for the sensations.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: It is my.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: Belief that the development of psychometry will owe more to
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: the attention given to the preparation of the individual than
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: to the perfecting of the instrument. But putting aside this
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: purely scientific side of the question, the education of the
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: senses must be of the greatest pedagogical interest. Our aim
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: in education in general is two fold, biological and social.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: From the biological side, we wish to help the natural
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: development of the individual. From the social standpoint, it is
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: our aim to prepare the individual for the environment. Under
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: this last head, technical education may be considered as having
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: a place, since it teaches the individual to make use
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: of his surroundings. The education of the senses is most
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: important from both these points of view. The development of
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: the senses indeed precedes that of superior intellectual activity, and
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: the child between three and seven years is in the
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: period of formation. We can then help the development of
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: the senses. While they are in this period, we may
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: graduate and adapt the stimuli. Just as for example, it
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: is necessary to help the formation of language before it
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: shall be completely developed. All education of little children must
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: be governed by this principle to help the natural, psychic
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: and physical development of the child. The other aim of education,
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: that of adapting the individual to the environment should be
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: given more attention later on, when the period of intense
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: development is past. These two phases of education are always interlaced,
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: but one or the other has prevalence according to the
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: age of the child. Now, the period of life between
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: the ages of three and seven years covers a period
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: of rapid physical development. It is the time for the
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: formation of the sense activities as related to the intellect.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: The child in this age develops his senses. His attention
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: is further attracted to the environment under the form of
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: passive curiosity. The stimuli and not yet the reasons for things,
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: attract his attention. This is therefore the time when we
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: should methodically direct the sense stimuli in such a way
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: that the sensations which he receives shall develop in a
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: rational way. This sense training will prepare the ordered foundation
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: upon which he may build up a clear and strong mentality.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: It is, besides all this possible with the education of
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: the senses, to discover and eventually to correct defects which
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: today pass unobserved in the school. Now the time comes
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: when the defect manifests itself in an evident and irreparable
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: inability to make use of the forces of life about him,
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: such defects as deafness and near sightedness. This education, therefore
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: is physiological and prepares directly for intellectual education, perfecting the
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: organs of sense and the nerve paths of projection and association.
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: But the other part of education, the adaptation of the
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: individual to his environment, is indirectly touched. We prepare with
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: our method the infancy of the humanity of our time.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: The men of the present civilization are pre eminently observers
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: of their environment, because they must utilize, to the greatest
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: possible extent, all the riches of this environment. The art
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: of today bases itself, as in the days of the Greeks,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: upon observation of the truth. The progress of positive science
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: is based upon its observations, and all its discoveries and
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: their applications, which in the last century have so transformed
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: our civic environment, were made by following the same line,
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: that is, they have come through observation. We must therefore
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: prepare the new generation for this attitude, which has become
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: necessary in our modern civilized life. It is an indispensable means.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: Man must be so armed if he is to continue
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: efficaciously the work of our progress. We have seen the
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: discovery of the rent and rays born of observation to
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: the same methods are due the discovery of Hertzian waves
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: and vibrations of radium, and we await wonderful things from
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: the Marconi telegraph. While there has been no period in
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: which thought has gained so much from positive study as
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: the present century, and this same century promises new light
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: in the field of speculative philosophy and upon spiritual questions.
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: The theories upon the matter have themselves led to most
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: interesting metaphysical concepts. We may say that in preparing the
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: method of observation, we have also prepared the way leading
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: to spiritual discovery. The education of the senses makes men observers,
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: and not only accomplishes the general work of adaptation to
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: the present epic of civilization, but also prepares them directly
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: for practical life. We have had up to the present time,
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: I believe a most imperfect idea of what is necessary
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: in the practical living of life. We have always started
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: from ideas and have proceeded thence to motor activities. Thus,
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: for example, the method of education has always been to
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: teach intellectually and then to have the child follow the
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: principles he has been taught. In general, when we are teaching,
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: we talk about the object which interests us, and then
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: we try to lead the scholar, when he has understood,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: to perform some kind of work with the object itself.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: But often the scholar who has understood the idea finds
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: great difficulty in the execution of the work which we
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: give him, because we have left out of his education
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: a factor of the utmost importance, namely the perfecting of
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: the senses. I may perhaps illustrate this statement with a
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: few examples. We ask the cook to buy only fresh fish.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: She understands the idea and tries to follow it in
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: her marketing. But if the cook has not been trained
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: to recognize through sight and smell the signs which indicate
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: freshness in the fish, she will not know how to
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: follow the order we have given her. Such a lack
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: will show itself much more plainly. In culinary operations. A
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: cook may be trained in book matters, and may know
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: exactly the recipes and the length of time advised in
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: her cook book. She may be able to perform all
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: the manipulations necessary to give the desired appearance to the dishes.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: But when it is a question of deciding from the
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: odor of the dish the exact moment of its being
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: properly cooked, or with the eye or the taste, the
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: time at which she must put in some given condiment.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: Then she will make a mistake if her senses have
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: not been sufficiently prepared. She can only gain such ability
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: through long practice. And such practice on the part of
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: the cook is nothing else than a belated education of
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: the senses, an education which often can never be properly
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: attained by the adult. This is one reason why it
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: is so difficult to find good cooks. Something of the
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: same kind is true of the physician. The student of
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: medicine who studies theoretically the character of the pulse and
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: sits down by the bed of the patient with the
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: best will in the world to read the pulse. But
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: if his fingers do not know how to read the sensations,
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: his studies will have been in vain. Before he had
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: become a doctor. He must gain a capacity for discriminating
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: between sense stimuli. The same may be said for the
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: pulsations of the heart, which the student studies in theory,
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: but which the ear can learn to distinguish only through practice.
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: We may say the same for all the delicate vibrations
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: and movements in the reading of which the hand of
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: the physician is too often deficient. The thermometer is the
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: more indispensable to the physician the more his sense of
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: touch is unadapted and untrained in the gathering of the
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: thermic stimuli. It is well understood that the physician may
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: be learned and most intelligent without being a good practitioner,
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: and that to make a good practitioner, long practice is necessary.
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: In reality, this long practice is nothing else than a
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: tarti and often inefficient exercise of the senses. After he
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: is assimilated the brilliant theories, the physician sees himself forced
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: to the unpleasant labor of the semiography, that is, to
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: making a record of the symptoms revealed by his observation
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: of and experiments with the patients. He must do this
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: if he is to receive from these theories any practical results.
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: Here then we have the beginner proceeding in a stereotyped
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: way to tests of palpation, percussion, and oscultation for the
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: purpose of identifying the throbs, the resonance, the tones, the breathings,
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: and the various sounds which alone can enable him to
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: formulate a diagnosis. Hence the deep and unhappy discouragement of
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: so many young physicians, and above all the loss of time,
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: for it is often a question of lost years. Then
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: there is the immorality of allowing a man to follow
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: a profession of so great recipt responsibility, when, as is
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: often the case, he is so unskilled and inaccurate in
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: the taking of symptoms. The whole art of medicine is
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: based upon an education of the senses. The schools instead
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: prepare physicians through a study of the classics. All very
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: well and good, but the splendid intellectual development of the
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: physician falls impotent before the insufficiency of his senses. One
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: day I heard a surgeon giving to a number of
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: poor mothers a lesson on the recognition of the first
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: deformities noticeable in little children from the disease of rickets.
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: It was his hope to lead these mothers to bring
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: to him their children who were suffering from this disease,
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: while the disease was yet in the earliest stages, and
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: when medical help might still be efficacious. The mothers understood
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: the idea, but they did not know how to recognize
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: these first signs of deformity, because they were lacking in
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: the sensory education through which they might discriminate between signs
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: deviating only slightly from the normal. Therefore, those lessons were useless.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: If we think of it for a minute, we will
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: see that almost all the forms of adulteration in foodstuffs
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: are rendered possible by the torpor of the senses, which
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: exists in the greater number of people. Fraudulent industry feeds
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: upon the lack of sense education in the masses, as
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: any kind of fraud is based upon the ignorance of
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: the victim. We often see the purchaser throwing himself upon
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: the honesty of the merchant, or putting his faith in
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: the company or the label upon the box. This is
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: because purchasers are lacking in the capacity of judging directly
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: for themselves. They do not know how to distinguish with
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: their senses the different qualities of various substances. In fact, act,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: we may say that in many cases intelligence is rendered
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: useless by lack of practice, and this practice is almost
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: always since education. Everyone knows in practical life the fundamental
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: necessity of judging with exactness between various stimuli, but very often.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: Since education is most difficult for the adult, just as
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: it is difficult for him to educate his hand when
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: he wishes to become a pianist, it is necessary to
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: begin the education of the senses in the formative period
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: if we wish to perfect this sense development with the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: education which is to follow. The education of the senses
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: should be begun methodically in infancy and should continue during
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: the entire period of instruction, which is to prepare the
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: individual for life in society. Esthetic and moral education are
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: closely related to this sensory education. Multiply the sensations and
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: develop the capacity of appreciating fine differences in stimuli, and
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: we refine the sensibility and multiply man's pleasures. Beauty lies
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: in harmony, not in contrast, and harmony is refinement. Therefore,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: there must be a fineness of the senses if we
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: are to appreciate harmony. The ascetic harmony of nature is
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: lost upon him who has coarse senses. The world to
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: him is narrow and barren. In life about us there
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: exist inexhaustible fonts of esthetic enjoyment, before which men pass
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: as insensible as the brutes seeking their enjoyment in those
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: sensations which are crude and showy, since they are the
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: only ones accessible to them. Now from the enjoyment of
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: gross pleasures, vicious habits very often spring strong stimuli. Indeed,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: do not render acute, but blunt the senses, so that
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: they require stimuli more and more accentuated, and more and
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: more gross. Onanism so often found among normal children of
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: the lower classes, alcoholism, fondness for watching sensual acts of adults.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: These things represent the enjoyment of those unfortunate ones whose
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: intellectual pleasures are few and whose senses are blunted and dulled.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: Such pleasures kill the man within the individual and call
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: to life the beast. Indeed, from the physiological point of view,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: the importance of the education of the senses is evident
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: from an observation of the scheme of the diagrammatic arc,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: which represents the functions of the nervous system. The external
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: stimulus acts upon the organ of sense, and the impression
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: is transmitted along the centripetal way to the nerve center.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: The corresponding motor impulse is elaborated and is transmitted along
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 2: the centrifugal path to the organ of motion. Provoking a movement.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: Although the arc represents diagrammatically the mechanism of reflex spinal actions,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: it may still be considered as a fundamental key explaining
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: the phenomena of the more complex nervous mechanisms. Man with
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: the peripheral sensory system gathers various stimuli from his environment.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: He puts himself thus in direct communication with his surroundings.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: The psychic life develops therefore in relation to the system
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: of nerve centers and human activity, which is imminently Social
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: activity manifests itself through acts of the individual, manual work, writing,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: spoken language, et cetera, by means of the psychomotor organs.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: Education should guide and perfect the development of the three periods,
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: the two peripheral and the central. Or better still, since
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: the process fundamentally reduces itself to the nerve centers, education
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: should give to psychosensory exercises the same importance which it
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: gives to psychomotor exercises. Otherwise we isolate man from his environment. Indeed,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: when with intellectual culture we believe ourselves to have completed education,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: we have but made thinkers whose tendency will be to
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: live without the world. We have not made practical men. If,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: on the other hand, wishing through education to prepare for
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: practical life, we limit ourselves to exercising the psychomotor phase,
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: we lose sight of the chief end of education, which
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: is to put man in direct communication with the external world.
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: Since professional work almost always requires man to make use
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: of his surroundings, the technical schools are not forced to
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: return to the very beginnings of education, since exercises in
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: order to supply the great and universal lack end of
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: Chapter fourteen.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: Chapter fifteen intellectual education to lead the child from the
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: education of the senses to ideas edoir Segon. The sense
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 3: exercises constitute a species of auto education, which, if these
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 3: exercises be many times repeated, leads to a perfecting of
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: the child's psychosensory processes. The directress must intervene to lead
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: the child from sensations to ideas, from the concrete to
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 3: the abstract, and to the association of ideas. For this
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 3: she should use a method tending to isolate the inner
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: attention of the child and to fix it upon the perceptions.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 3: As in the first lessons, his objective attention was fixed
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 3: through isolation upon single stimuli. The teacher, in other words,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 3: when she gives a lesson, must seek to limit the
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 3: field of the child's consciousness to the object of the lesson,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 3: as for example, during the sense education, she isolated the
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: sense which she wished the child to exercise. For this,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 3: knowledge of a special technique is necessary. The educature must,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: to the greatest possible extent, limit his intervention. Yet he
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 3: must not allow the child to weary himself in an
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: undue effort of auto education. It is here that the
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: facture of individual limitation and differring degrees of perception are
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: most keenly felt in the teacher. In other words, in
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: the quality of this intervention lies the art which makes
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 3: up the individuality of the teacher. A definite and undoubted
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: part of the teacher's work is that of tea. In
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: exact nomenclature, she should, in most cases pronounce the necessary
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: names and adjectives without adding anything further. These words she
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 3: should pronounce distinctly and in a clear, strong voice, so
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 3: that the various sounds composing the word may be distinctly
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 3: and plainly perceived by the child. So, for example, touching
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 3: the smooth and rough cards in the first tactile exercise,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 3: she should say this is smooth, this is rough, repeating
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 3: the words with varying modulations of the voice, always letting
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: the tones be clear, and denunciation very distinct. Smooth, smooth, smooth, rough, rough, rough.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 3: In the same way, when treating of the sensations of
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: heat and cold, she must say this is cold, this
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 3: is hot, this is ice cold, this is tepid. She
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: may then begin to use the generic terms heat, more, heat, less, heat,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 3: et cetera. First, the lessons in nomenclature must consist simply
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: in provoking the association of the name with the object
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: or with the abstract idea which the name represents. Thus,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 3: the object and the name must be united when they
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: are received by the child's mind, and this makes it
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 3: most necessary that no other word besides the name be spoken. Second,
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 3: the teacher must always test whether or not her lesson
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: has attained the end she had in view, and her
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 3: tests must be made to come within the restricted field
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: of consciousness provoked by the lesson on nomenclature. The first
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 3: test will be to find whether the name is still
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 3: associated in the child's mind with the object. She must
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 3: allow the necessary time to elapse, letting a short period
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: of silence intervene between the lesson and the test, Then
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: she may ask the child, pronouncing slowly and very clearly,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: the name or the adjective she has taught, which is smooth,
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 3: which is rough. The child will point to the object
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 3: with his finger, and the teacher will know that he
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 3: has made the desired association. But if he has not
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 3: done this, that is, if he makes a mistake, she
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 3: must not correct him, but must suspend her lesson to
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 3: take it up again another day. Indeed, why correct him
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 3: If the child has not succeeded in associating the name
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 3: with the object. The only way in which to succeed
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 3: would be to repeat both the action of the sense
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 3: stimuli and the name, in other words, to repeat the lesson.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 3: But when the child has failed, we should know that
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 3: he was not at that instant ready for the psychic
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: association which we wish to provoke in him, And we
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: must therefore choose another moment. If we should say, in
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 3: correcting the child, no, you have made a mistake. All
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 3: these words, which being in the form of a reproof,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 3: would strike him more forcibly than others, such as smooth
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 3: or rough, would remain in the mind of the child,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 3: retarding the learning of the names. On the contrary, the
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 3: silence which follows the error leaves the field of consciousness clear,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 3: and the next lesson may successfully follow the first. In fact,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 3: by revealing the error, we may lead the child to
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 3: make an undue effort to remember, or we may discourage him,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 3: and it is our duty to avoid as much as possible,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 3: all unnatural effort and all depression. Third, if the child
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 3: has not committed any error, the teacher may provoke the
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 3: motor activity corresponding to the idea of the object, that is,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 3: to the pronunciation of the name. She may ask him
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: what is this, and the child should respond smooth. The
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 3: teacher may then interrupt, teaching him how to pronounce the
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: word correctly and distinctly, first drawing a deep breath and
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 3: then saying, in a rather loud voice, smooth. When he
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: does this, the teacher may note his particular speech defect
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 3: or the special form of baby talk to which he
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 3: may be addicted. In regard to the generalization of the
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 3: ideas received, and by that I mean the application of
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 3: these ideas to his environment, I do not advise any
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 3: lessons of this sort for a certain length of time,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 3: even for a number of months, There will be children who,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 3: after having touched a few times the stuffs or merely
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 3: the smooth and rough cards, will quite spontaneously touch the
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 3: various surfaces about them, repeating smooth, rough, it is velvet,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 3: et cetera. In dealing with normal children, we must await
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 3: this spontaneous investigation of the surroundings, or, as I like
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 3: to call it, this voluntary explosion of the exploring spirit.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 3: In such cases, the children experience a joy at each
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 3: fresh discovery. They are conscious of a sense of dignity
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: and satisfaction, which encourages them to seek for new sensations
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 3: from their environment and to make themselves spontaneous observers. The
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 3: teacher should watch with the most solicitous care to see
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 3: when and how the child arrives at these generalization of ideas.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 3: For example, one of our little four year olds, while
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 3: running about in the court one day, suddenly stood still
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 3: and cried out, O, the sky is blue, and stood
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 3: for some time looking up into the blue expense of
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: the sky. One day, when I entered one of the
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 3: children's houses, five or six little ones gathered quietly about
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: me and began caressing lightly my hands and my clothing,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 3: saying it is smooth, it is velvet, this is rough.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 3: A number of others came near and began, with serious
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: and intense faces to repeat the same words, touching me
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 3: as they did so. The directress wished to interfere, to
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 3: release me, but I signed to her to be quiet,
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: and I myself did not move, but remained silent, admiring
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 3: the spontaneous intellectual activity of my little ones. The greatest
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 3: triumph of our educational method should always be this, to
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 3: bring about the spontaneous progress of the child. One day,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 3: a little boy, following one of our exercises in design,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 3: had chosen to fill in with colored pencils the outline
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 3: of a tree. To collar the trunk, he laid hold
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 3: upon a red crayon. The teacher wished to interfere, saying
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 3: do you think trees have red trunks? I held her
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 3: back and allowed the child to collar the tree red.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 3: This design was precious to us. It showed that the
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 3: child was not yet an observer of his surroundings. My
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: way of treating this was to encourage the child to
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 3: make use of the games for the chromatic sense. He
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 3: went daily into the garden with the other children and
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 3: could at any time see the tree trunks. When the
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 3: sense exercises should have succeeded in attracting the child's spontaneous
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 3: attention to collars about him, then in some happy moment,
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 3: he would become aware that the tree trunks were not red,
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 3: just as the other child during his play had become
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 3: conscious of the fact that the sky was blue. In fact,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 3: the teacher continued to give the child outlines of trees
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 3: to fill in. He one day chose a brown pencil
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 3: with which to color the trunk and made the branches
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 3: and leaves green. Later he made the branches brown, also
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 3: using green only for the leaves. Thus we have the
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 3: test of the child's intellectual progress. We cannot create observers
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 3: by saying observe, but by giving them the power and
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: the means for this observation, and these means are procured
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 3: through education of the senses. Once we have aroused such activity,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 3: auto education is assured for refined, well trained senses lead
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 3: us to a closer observation of the environment, and this,
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 3: with its infinite variety, attracts the attention and continues the
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 3: psychosensory education. If, on the other hand, in this matter
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 3: of sense education, we single out definite concepts of the
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 3: quality of certain objects. These very objects become associated with
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 3: or a part of the training, which is in this
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: way limited to those concepts taken and recorded. So the
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 3: sense training remains unfruitful. When, for example, a teacher has
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 3: given in the old way a lesson on the names
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 3: of the callers, she has imparted an idea concerning that
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 3: particular quality, but she has not educated the chromatic sense.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: The child will know these callers in a superficial way,
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 3: forgetting them from time to time, and at best his
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 3: appreciation of them will lie within the limits prescribed by
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 3: the teacher. When therefore, the teacher of the old methods
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 3: shall have provoked the generalization of the idea, saying, for example,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 3: what is the color of this flower of this ribbon,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 3: the attention of the child will in all probability remain
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 3: torpidly fixed upon the examples suggested by her. We may
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 3: liken the child to a clock, and may say that
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 3: with the old time way, it is very much as
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 3: if we were to hold the wheels of the clock
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 3: quiet and move the hands above the clock face with
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: our fingers. The hands will continue to circle the dial
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 3: just so long as we apply through our fingers the
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 3: necessary motor force. Even so is it with that sort
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 3: of culture, which is limited to the work which the
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 3: teacher does with the child. The new method instead may
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 3: be compared to the process of winding, which sets the
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 3: entire mechanism in motion. This motion is in direct relation
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 3: with the machine, and not with the work of winding.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 3: So the spontaneous psychic development of the child continues indefinitely,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: and its indirect relation to the psychic potentiality of the
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 3: child himself, and not with the work of the teacher.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 3: The movement, or the spontaneous psychic activity, starts in our
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 3: caades from the education of the senses and is maintained
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 3: by the observing intelligence. Thus, for example, the hunting dog
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 3: receives his ability not from the education given by his master,
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 3: but from the special acuteness of his senses, And as
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 3: soon as his physiological quality is applied to the right
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 3: environment the exercise of hunting, the increasing refinement of the
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 3: sense perceptions gives the dog the pleasure and then the
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 3: passion for the chase. The same is true of the pianist, who,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 3: refining at the same time his musical sense and the
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 3: agility of his hand, comes to love more and more
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 3: to draw new harmonies from the instrument. This double perfection
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 3: proceeds until at last the pianist is launched upon a
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 3: chorus which will be limited only by the personality which
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 3: lies within him. Now, a student of physics may know
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 3: all the laws of harmony which form a part of
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: his scientific culture, and yet he may not know how
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: to follow a most simple musical composition. His culture, however, vast,
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 3: will be bound by the definite limits of his science.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 3: Our educational aim with very young children must be to
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 3: aid the spontaneous development of the mental, spiritual, and physical personality,
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 3: and not to make of the child a cultured individual
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 3: in the commonly accepted sense of the term. So, after
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 3: we have offered to the child such didactic material as
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 3: is adapted to provoke the development of his senses, we
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 3: must wait until the activity known as observation develops. And
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 3: herein lies the art of the educator in knowing how
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 3: to measure the action by which we help the young
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 3: child's personality to develop to one whose attitude is right.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 3: Little children soon reveal profound individual differences which call for
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 3: very different kinds of help from the teacher. Some of
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 3: them require almost no intervention on her part, while others
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 3: demand actual teaching. It is necessary, therefore, that the teaching
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 3: shall be rigorously guided by the principle of limiting to
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 3: the greatest possible point the active intervention of the education.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 3: Here are a number of games and problems which we
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 3: have used effectively in trying to follow this principle. Games
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 3: of the blind. The games of the blind are used
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 3: for the most as exercises in general sensibility. As follows.
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 3: The stuffs. We have in our didatic material a pretty
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 3: little chest composed of drawers, within which are arranged rectangular
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 3: pieces of stuff in great variety. There are velvet, satin, silk, cotton, linen,
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 3: et cetera. We have the child touch each of these pieces,
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 3: teaching the appropriate nomenclature and adding something regarding the quality
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 3: as coarse, fine, soft. Then we call the child and
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 3: seat him at one of the tables where he can
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 3: be seen by his companions, blindfold him, and offer him
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 3: the stuffs one by one. He touches them, smooths them,
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 3: crushes them between his fingers and the sides. It is velvet,
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 3: it is fine, linen, it is rough cloth, et cetera.
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 3: This exercise provokes general interest. When we offer the child
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 3: some unexpected foreign object, as for example, a sheet of
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 3: paper of veal, the little assembly trembles as it awaits
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 3: his response weight. We place the child in the same position,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 3: call his attention to the tablets used for the education
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 3: of the sense of weight, have him notice again the
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 3: already well known differences of weight, and then tell him
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 3: to put all the dark tablets, which are the heavier ones,
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 3: at the right, and all the light ones, which are
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 3: the lighter to the left. We then blindfold him, and
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 3: he proceeds to the game, taking each time two tablets.
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 3: Sometimes he takes two of the same color, sometimes two
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 3: of different colors, but in a position opposite to that
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 3: in which he must arrange them on his desk. These
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 3: exercises are most exciting when, for example, the child has
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 3: in his hands two of the dark tablets and changes
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 3: them from one hand to the other uncertain, and finally
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 3: places them together. On the ride, the children watch in
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 3: a state of intense eagerness, and a great sigh often
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 3: expresses their final relief. The shouts of the audience when
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 3: the entire game is followed without an error, gives the
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 3: impression that their little friend sees with his hands the
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 3: colors of the tablets, dimension and form. We use games
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 3: similar to the preceding one, having the child distinguished between
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 3: different coins, the cubes and bricks of frible and dry
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 3: seeds such as beans and peas. But such games never
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 3: awaken the intense interest aroused by the preceding ones. They are, however,
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 3: useful and serve to associate with the various objects those
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 3: qualities peculiar to them, and also to fix the nomenclature
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 3: application of the education of the visual sense to the
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 3: observation of the environment nomenclature. This is one of the
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 3: most important phases of education. Indeed, nomenclature prepares for an
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 3: exactness in the use of language, which is not always
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: met with in our schools. Many children, for example, use
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 3: interchangeably the words thick and big, long and high. With
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 3: the methods already described, the teacher may easily establish by
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 3: means of the didetic material ideas which are very exact
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 3: and clear, and may associate the proper word with these ideas.
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 3: Method of using the didetic material dimensions the directress, after
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 3: the child has played for a long time with the
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: three sets of solid insets and has acquired a security
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 3: in the performance of the exercise, takes out all the
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 3: cylinders of equal height and places them in a horizontal
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 3: position on the table, one beside the other. Then selects
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 3: the two extremes, saying this is the thickest, this is
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 3: the thinnest. She places them side by side so that
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 3: the comparison may be more marked, and then taking them
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 3: by the little button, she compares the bases, calling attention
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 3: to the great difference. She then places them again beside
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: each other in a vertical position in order to show
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 3: that they are equal in height, and repeats several times
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 3: thick thin. Having done this, she should follow it with
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 3: the test asking give me the thickest, give me the thinnest,
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 3: And finally she should proceed to the test of nomenclature,
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 3: asking what is this. In the lessons which follow this,
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 3: the directress may take away the two extreme pieces, and
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: may repeat the lesson with the two pieces remaining at
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 3: the extremities, and so on, until she has used all
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 3: the pieces. She may then take these up at random, saying,
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 3: give me one a little thicker than this one, or
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 3: give me one a little thinner than this one. With
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 3: the second set of solid insets, she proceeds in the
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 3: same way. Here, she stands the pieces upright, as each
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 3: one has a base sufficiently broad to maintain it in
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 3: this position, saying this is the highest and this is
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 3: the lowest. Then, placing the two extreme pieces side by side,
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 3: she may take them out of the line and compare
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 3: the bases, showing that they are equal. From the extremes,
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 3: she may proceed as before, selecting each time the two
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 3: remaining pieces most strongly contrasted with the third solid inset.
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 3: The directress, when she has arranged the pieces in gradation,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 3: calls the child's attention to the first one, saying this
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 3: is the largest, and to the last one, saying this
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 3: is the smallest. Then she places them side by side
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 3: and observes how they differ both in height and in bays.
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 3: She then proceeds in the same way as in the
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 3: other two exercises. Similar lessons may be given with a
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 3: series of graduated prisms of rods and of cubes. The
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 3: prisms are thick and thin and of equal length. The
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 3: rods are long and short and of equal thickness. The
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 3: cubes are big and little, and differ in size and
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 3: in height. The application of these ideas to environment will
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 3: come most easily. When we measure the children with the anthropometer.
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 3: They will begin among themselves to make comparisons, saying I
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 3: am taller, you are thicker. These comparisons are also made
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 3: when the children hold out their little hands to show
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 3: that they are clean, and the directress stretches hers out
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 3: also to show that she too has clean hands. Often
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 3: the contrast between the dimensions of the hands calls forth laughter.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 3: The children make a perfect game of measuring themselves. They
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 3: stand side by side, they look at each other, they decide.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 3: Often they place themselves beside grown persons and observe with
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 3: curiosity and interest the greatest difference in height form. When
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 3: the child shows that he can, with security distinguish the
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 3: forms of the plain geometric insets, the directress may begin
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 3: the lessons in nomenclature. She should begin with two strongly
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 3: contrasted forms, as the square and the circle, and should
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 3: follow the usual method using the three periods of Sega.
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 3: We do not teach all the names relative to the
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 3: geometric figures, giving only those of the most familiar forms,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 3: such as square, circle, rectangle, triangle, oval. We now call
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 3: attention to the fact that there are rectangles which are
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 3: narrow and long, and others which are broad and short,
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 3: while the squares are equal on all sides and can
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 3: be only big and little. These things are most easily
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 3: shown with the insets. For though we turn the square about,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 3: it still enters its frame, while the rectangle, if placed
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 3: across the opening, will not enter. The child is much
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 3: interested in this exercise, for which we arrange in the
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 3: frame a square and a series of rectangles, having the
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 3: longest side equal to the side of the square, the
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 3: other side gradually decreasing in the five pieces. In the
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 3: same way, we proceed to show the difference between the oval,
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 3: the ellipse, and the circle. The circle enters no matter
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 3: how it is placed or turned about. The ellipse does
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 3: not enter when placed transversely, but if placed lengthwise, will
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 3: enter even if turned upside down. The oval, however, not
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 3: only cannot enter the frame if placed transversely, but not
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 3: even when turned upside down. It must be placed with
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 3: the large curve toward the large part of the opening,
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 3: and with a narrow curve toward the narrow portion of
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 3: the opening. The circles, big and little enter their frames
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 3: no matter how they are turned about. I do not
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 3: reveal the difference between the oval and the ellipse until
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 3: a very late stage of the child's education, and then
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 3: not to all children, but only to those who show
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 3: a special interest in the forms by choosing the game
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 3: often or by asking about the differences. I prefer that
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 3: such differences should be recognized later by the child, spontaneously,
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 3: perhaps in the elementary school. It seems to many persons
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 3: that in teaching these forms, we are teaching geometry, and
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 3: that this is premature in schools for such young children.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 3: Others feel that if we wish to present geometric forms,
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 3: we should use the solids, as being more concrete. I
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 3: feel that I should say a word here to combat
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 3: such prejudices. To observe a geometric form is not to
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 3: analyze it, and in the analysis geometry begins. When, for example,
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 3: we speak to the child of sides and angles and
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 3: explain these to him, even though with objective methods, as
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 3: Rebel advocates, for example, the square has four sides and
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 3: can be constructed with four sticks of equal length, then
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 3: indeed we do enter the field of geometry. And I
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 3: believe that little children are too immature for these steps.
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 3: But the observation of the form cannot be too advanced
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 3: for a child at this age. The plane of the
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 3: table at which the child sits while eating his supper
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 3: is probably a rectangle. The plate which contains his food
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 3: is a circle. And we certainly do not consider that
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 3: the child is too immature to be allowed to look
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 3: at the table in the plate. The insects which we
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 3: present simply call the attention to a given form. As
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 3: to the name, it is analogous to other names by
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 3: which the child learns to call things. Why should we
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 3: consider it premature to teach the child the words circle, square, oval,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 3: When in his home he repeatedly hears the word round
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 3: used in connection with plates, et cetera. He will hear
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 3: his parents speak of the square table, the oval table,
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 3: et cetera, and these words in common use, we remain
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 3: for a long time confused in his mind and in
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 3: his speech. If we do not interpose such help as
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 3: that we give in the teaching of forms, we should
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 3: reflect upon the fact that many times a child, left
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 3: to himself, makes an undue effort to comprehend the language
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 3: of the adults and the meaning of the things about him.
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 3: Opportune and rational instruction prevents such an effort, and therefore
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 3: does not weary, but relieves the child and satisfies his
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 3: desire for knowledge. Indeed, he shows his contentment by various
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 3: expressions of pleasure. At the same time, his attention is
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 3: called to the word, which, if he is allowed to
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 3: pronounce badly, develops in him an imperfect use of language.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 3: This often arises from an effort on his part to
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 3: imitate the careless speech of persons about him, while the teacher,
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 3: by pronouncing clearly the word referring to the object which
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 3: arouses the child's curiosity, prevents such effort and such imperfections.
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 3: Here also we face a widespread prejudice, namely the belief
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 3: that the child, left to himself, gives absolute repose to
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 3: his mind. If this were so, he would remain a
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 3: stranger to the world, and instead we see him, little
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 3: by little, spontaneously conquer various ideas and words. He is
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 3: a traveler through life, who observes the new th things
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 3: among which he journeys, and who tries to understand the
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 3: unknown tongue spoken by those about him. Indeed, he makes
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 3: a great and voluntary effort to understand and to imitate
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 3: the instruction given to little children should be so directed
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 3: as to lessen this expenditure of poorly directed effort, converting
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 3: it instead into the enjoyment of conquest made easy and
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 3: infinitely broadened. We are the guides of these travelers just
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 3: entering the great world of human thought. We should see
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 3: to it that we are intelligent and cultured guides, not
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 3: losing ourselves in vain discourse, but illustrating briefly and concisely
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 3: the work of art in which the traveler shows himself interested,
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 3: and we should then respectfully allow him to observe it
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 3: as long as he wishes to. It is our privilege
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 3: to lead him to observe the most important and the
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 3: most beautiful things of life in such a way that
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 3: he does not lose energy and time in useless things,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 3: but shall find pleasure and satisfaction throughout his pilgrimage. I
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 3: have already referred to the prejudice that it is more
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 3: suitable to present the geometric forms to the child in
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 3: the solid rather than in the plane, giving him, for example,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 3: the cube, the sphere, the prism. Let us put aside
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 3: the physiological side of the question, showing that the visual
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 3: recognition of the solid figure is more complex than that
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 3: of the plane. And let us view the question only
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 3: from the more purely pedagogical standpoint of practical life. The
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 3: greater number of objects which we look upon every day
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 3: present more nearly the aspect of our plane geometric insets.
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 3: In fact, doors, window frames, framed pictures, the wooden or
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 3: marble top of a table are indeed solid objects, but
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 3: with one of the dimensions greatly reduced, and with the
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 3: two dimensions determining the form of the plane's surface made
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 3: most evident. When the plane form prevails, we say that
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 3: the window is rectangular, the picture frame oval, the stable square,
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 3: et cetera. Solids having a determined form prevailing in the
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 3: plane surface are almost the only ones which come to
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 3: our notice, and such solids are clearly represented by our
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 3: plane geometric insets. The child will very often recognize in
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 3: his environment forms which he has learned in this way,
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 3: but he will rarely recognize the solid geometric forms. That
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 3: the table leg is a prism, or a truncated cone
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 3: or an elongated cylinder will come to his knowledge long
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 3: after he has observed that the top of the table
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 3: upon which he places things is rectangular. We do not
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 3: therefore speak of the fact of recognizing that a house
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 3: is a prism or a cue. Indeed, the pure solid
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 3: geometric forms never exist in the ordinary objects about us.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 3: These present instead a combination of forms. So, putting aside
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 3: the difficulty of taking in at a glance the complex
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 3: form of a house, the child recognizes in it not
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 3: an identity of form, but an analogy. He will, however,
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 3: see the plane geometric forms perfectly represented in windows and doors,
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 3: and in the faces of many solid objects in use
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 3: at home. Thus the knowledge of the forms given him
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 3: in the plain geometric insets will be for him a
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 3: species of magic key, opening the external world and making
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 3: him feel that he knows its secrets. I was walking
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 3: one day upon the Pinchon Hill with a boy from
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 3: the elementary school. He had studied geometric design and understood
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 3: the analysis of plane geometric figures. As we reached the
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 3: highest terrace, from which we could see the Piazza del Popolo,
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 3: with the city stretching away behind it, I stretched out
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 3: my hand, saying, look, all the works of men are
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 3: a great mass of geometric figures. And indeed rectangles, ovals,
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 3: triangles and semicircles perforated or ornamented in a hundred different ways.
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 3: The gray rectangular facades of the various buildings. Such uniformity
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 3: in such an expense of buildings seemed to prove the
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 3: limitation of human intelligence. While in an adjoining garden plot,
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 3: the shrubs and flowers spoke eloquently of the infinite variety
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 3: of forms in nature. The boy had never made these observations.
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 3: He had studied the angles, the sides, and the construction
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 3: of outlined geometric figures, but without thinking beyond this, and
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 3: feeling only annoyance at this arid work. At first he
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 3: laughed at the idea of men's messing geometric figures together.
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 3: Then he became interested, looked long at the buildings before him,
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 3: and an expression of lively and thoughtful interest came into
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 3: his face. To the right of the Ponte Margherita was
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 3: a factory building in the process of construction, and its
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 3: steel framework delineated the series of ric tumbles. What tedious work,
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 3: said the boy, alluding to the workmen. And then, as
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 3: we drew near the garden and stood for a moment
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 3: in silence, admiring the grass and the flowers which sprang
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 3: so freely from the earth, it is beautiful, he said,
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 3: But that word beautiful referred to the inner awakening of
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 3: his own soul. This experience made me think that in
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 3: the observation of the plain geometric forms, and in that
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 3: of the plants which they saw growing in their own
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 3: little garden, they are existed for the children precious sources
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 3: of spiritual as well as intellectual education. For this reason,
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 3: I have wished to make my work broad, leading the
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 3: child not only to observe the forms about him, but
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 3: to distinguish the work of men from that of nature,
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 3: and to appreciate the fruits of human labor. A free design,
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 3: I give the child a sheet of white paper and
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 3: a pencil, telling him that he may draw whatever he
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 3: wishes to. Such drawings have long been of interest to
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 3: experimental psychologists. Their importance lies in the fact that they
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 3: reveal the capacity of the child for observing and also
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 3: show his individual tendencies. Generally, the first drawings are unformed
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 3: and confused, and the teachers should ask the child what
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 3: he wished to draw, and should write it underneath the design,
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 3: that it may be a record. Little by little, the
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 3: drawings become more intelligible and verily reveal the progress which
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 3: the child makes in the observation of the forms about him.
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 3: Often the most minute details of an object have been
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 3: observed and recorded in the crewd sketch. And since the
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 3: child draws what he wishes, he reveals to us which
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 3: are the objects that most strongly attract his attention. B
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 3: Design consisting of the filling in of outlined figures. These
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 3: designs are most important as they constitute the preparation for writing.
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 3: They do for the collar sense what free design does
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 3: for the sense of form. In other words, they reveal
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 3: the capacity of the child in the matter of observation
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 3: of callers, as the free design showed us the extent
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 3: to which he was an observer of form in the
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 3: objects surrounding him. I shall speak more fully of this
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 3: work in the chapter on writing. The exercises consist and
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 3: filling in with colored pencil certain outlines drawn in black.
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 3: These outlines present the simple geometric figures and various objects
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 3: with which the child is familiar in the schoolroom, the home,
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 3: and the garden. The child must select his collar, and
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 3: in doing so he shows us whether he has observed
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 3: the colors of the things surrounding him. Free plastic work.
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 3: These exercises are analogous to those in free design and
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 3: in the filling in of figures with colored pencils. Here
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 3: the child makes whatever he wishes with clay. That is,
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 3: he models those objects which he remembers most distinctly and
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 3: which have impressed him most deeply. We give the child
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 3: a wooden tray containing a piece of clay, and then
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 3: we await his work. We both ask some very remarkable
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 3: pieces of clay work done by our little ones. Some
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 3: of them reproduce with surprising minuteness of dese objects which
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 3: they have seen. And what is most surprising, these models
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 3: often record not only the form, but even the dimensions
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 3: of the objects which the child handled in school. Many
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 3: little ones model the objects which they have seen at home,
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 3: especially kitchen furniture, water jugs, pots, and pants. Sometimes we
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 3: are shown a simple cradle containing a baby brother or sister.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 3: At first, it is necessary to place written descriptions upon
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 3: these objects, as it is necessary to do with the
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 3: free design. Later on, however, the models are easily recognizable
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 3: and the children learn to reproduce the geometric solids. These
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 3: clay models are undoubtedly very valuable material for the teacher
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 3: and make clear many individual differences, thus helping her to
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 3: understand her children more fully in our method. They are
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 3: also valuable as psychological manifests sations of development according to age.
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 3: Such designs are precious guides also for the teacher in
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 3: the matter of her intervention in the child's education. The
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 3: children who in this work reveal themselves as observers will
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 3: probably become spontaneous observers of all the world about them,
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 3: and may be led towards such a goal by the
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 3: indirect help of exercises tending to fix and to make
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 3: more exact the various sensations and ideas. These children will
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 3: also be those who arrive most quickly at the act
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 3: of spontaneous writing. Those whose clay work remains unformed and
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 3: indefinite will probably need the direct revelation of the directress,
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 3: who will need to call their attention in some material
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 3: manner to the objects around them. Geometric analysis of figures sides, angles,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 3: center pays. The geometric analysis of figures is not adapted
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 3: to very young children. I have tried a means for
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 3: the introduction of such analysis, limiting this work to the
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 3: rectangle and making use of a game which includes the
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 3: analysis without fixing the attention of the child upon it.
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 3: This game presents the concept most clearly. The rectangle of
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 3: which I make use is the plane of one of
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 3: the children's tables, and the game consists in laying the
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 3: table for a meal. I have in each of the
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 3: children's houses a collection of toy table furnishings, such as
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 3: may be found in any toy store. Among these are
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 3: dinner plates, soup plates, soupterreen salt cellars, glasses, decanters, little knives, forks, spoons,
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 3: et cetera. I have them lay the table for six,
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 3: putting two places on each of the longer sides and
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 3: one place on each of the shorter sides. One of
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 3: the children takes the objects and places them as I indicate.
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 3: I tell him to place the soupterene in the center
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 3: of the table, the snapping in a corner place displayed
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 3: in the center of the short side. Then I have
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 3: the child look at the table, and I say, something
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 3: is lacking in this corner. We want another glass on
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 3: this side. Now, let us see if we have everything
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 3: properly placed on the true longer sides. Is everything ready
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 3: on the true shorter sides? Is there anything lacking in
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 3: the four corners. I do not believe that we may
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 3: proceed to any more complex analysis than this before the
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 3: age of six years. For I believe that the child
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 3: should one day take up one of the plain insects
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 3: and spontaneously begin to count the sides and the angles. Certainly,
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 3: if we taught them such ideas, they would be able
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 3: to learn, but it would be a mere learning of
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 3: formulae and not applied experience exercises in the chromatic sense.
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 3: I have already indicated what color exercises we follow. Here,
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 3: I wish to indicate more definitely the succession of these exercises,
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 3: and to describe them more fully designs and pictures. We
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 3: have prepared a number of outline drawings which the children
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 3: are to fill in with colored pencil and later on
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 3: with a brush, preparing for themselves the water collared tints
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 3: which they will use. The first designs are of flowers, butterflies, trees,
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 3: and animals, and we then pass to simple landscapes containing grass,
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 3: sky houses and human figures. These designs help us in
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 3: our study of the natural development of the child as
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 3: an observer of his surroundings. That is, in regard to collar,
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 3: the children select the collars and are left entirely free
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 3: in their work. If, for example, they collar a chicken
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 3: red or a cow green. This shows that they have
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 3: not yet become observers, but I have already spoken of
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 3: this in the general discussion of the method. These designs
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 3: also reveal the effect of the education of the chromatic sense.
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 3: As the child selects delicate and harmonious tents or strong
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 3: and contrasting ones, we can judge of the progress he
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 3: has made in the refinement of his color sense. The
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 3: fact that the child must remember the color of the
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 3: objects represented in the design encourages him to observe those
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 3: things which are about him, and then too, he wishes
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 3: to be able to fill in more difficult designs. Only
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 3: those children who know how to keep the collar within
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 3: the outline and to reproduce the right collars may proceed
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 3: to more ambitious work. These designs are very easy and
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 3: often very effective, sometimes displaying real artistic work. The directress
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 3: of the school in Mexico, who studied for a long
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 3: time with me, sent me two designs, one representing a
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 3: cliff in which the stones were collared most harmoniously in
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 3: light violet and shades of brown, trees in two shades
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 3: of green, and the sky a soft blue. The other
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 3: represented a horse with a chestnut coat and black mane
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 3: and tail end of Chapter fifteen.
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 4: Chapter sixteen Methods for the Teaching of Reading and Writing,
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 4: Spontaneous development of graphic language. While I was directress of
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 4: the Orthophrenic School at Rome, I had already begun to
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 4: experiment with various didactic means for the teaching of reading
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 4: and writing. These experiments were practically original with me. Etard
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 4: and Siquin do not present any rational method through which
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 4: writing may be learned. In the pages above quoted, it
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 4: may be seen how Etard proceeded in the teaching of
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 4: the alphabet. And I give here what Sequin says concerning
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 4: the teaching of writing. Quote. To have a child pass
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 4: from design to writing, which is its most immediate application,
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 4: the teacher need only call d a portion of a circle,
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 4: resting its extremities upon a vertical, a two obliques reunited
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 4: at the summit and cut by a horizontal et cetera,
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 4: et cetera. We no longer need worry ourselves as to
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 4: how the child shall learn to write. He designs, then writes.
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 4: It need not be said that we should have the
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 4: child draw the letters according to the laws of contrast
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 4: and analogy. For instance, O beside I, B with P
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 4: T opposite L, et cetera unquote. According to Sequin, then
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 4: we do not need to teach writing. The child who
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 4: draws will write. But writing for this author means printed capitals.
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 4: Nor does he, in any other place explain pain whether
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 4: his pupil shall write in any other way. He instead
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 4: gives much space to the description of the design, which
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 4: prepares for and which includes writing. This method of design
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 4: is full of difficulties, and was only established by the
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 4: combined attempts of Etard and Sequin quote Chapter forty design.
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 4: In design, the first idea to be acquired is that
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 4: of the plane destined to receive the design. The second
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 4: is that of the trace or delineation. Within these two
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 4: concepts lies all design, all linear creation. These two concepts
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 4: are correlative. Their relation generates the idea or the capacity
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 4: to produce the lines. In this sense that lines may
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 4: only be called such when they follow a methodical and
• 1:52:51
  Speaker 4: determined direction. The trace without direction is not a line
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 4: produced by chance. It has no name. Sign on the contrary,
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 4: has a name because it has a direction. And since
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 4: all writing or design is nothing other than a composite
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 4: of the diverse directions followed by a line. We must,
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 4: before approaching what is commonly called writing, insist upon these
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 4: notions of plane and line. The ordinary child acquires these
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 4: by instinct, but an insistence upon them is necessary in
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 4: order to render the idiot careful and sensitive in their application.
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 4: Through methodical design, he will come into rational contact with
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 4: all parts of the plane, and will, guided by imitation,
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 4: produce lines, at first simple, but growing more complicated. The
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 4: pupil may be taught first to trace the a verse
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 4: species of lines, second to trace them in various directions
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 4: and in different positions relative to the plane. Third to
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 4: reunite these lines to form figures varying from simple to complex.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 4: We must therefore teach the pupil to distinguish straight lines
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 4: from curves, vertical from horizontal, and from the various oblique lines,
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 4: and must finally make clear the principal points of conjunction
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 4: of two or more lines in forming a figure. This
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 4: rational analysis of design from which writing will spring, is
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 4: so essential in all its parts that a child, who,
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 4: before being confided to my care, already wrote many of
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 4: the letters, has taken six days to learn to draw
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 4: a perpendicular or a horizontal line, he spent fifteen days
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 4: before imitating a curve and an oblique. Indeed, the greater
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 4: number of my pupils are for a long time incapable
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 4: of even imitating the movements of my hand upon the
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 4: paper before attempting to draw a line in a determined direction.
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 4: The most imitative, or the least stupid ones produce a
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 4: sign diametrically opposite to that which I show them, and
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 4: all of them confound the points of conjunction of two lines,
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 4: no matter how evident this is. It is true that
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 4: the thorough knowledge I have given them of lines and
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 4: of configuration helps them to make the connection which must
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 4: be established between the plain and the various marks with
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 4: which they must cover the surface. But in the study
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 4: rendered necessary by the deficiency of my pupils, the progression
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 4: in the matter of the vertical, the horizontal, the oblique,
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 4: and the curve must be determined by the consideration of
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 4: the difficulty of comprehension and of execution, which each offers
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 4: to a torpid intelligence and to a weak, unsteady hand.
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 4: I do not speak here of merely having them perform
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 4: a difficult thing, since I have them surmount a series
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 4: of difficulties. And for this reason I ask myself if
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 4: some of these difficulties are not greater and some less,
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 4: and if they do not grow one from the other.
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 4: Like theorems. Here are the idea is which have guided
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 4: me in this respect. The vertical is a line which
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 4: the eye and the hand follow directly, going up and down.
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 4: The horizontal line is not natural to the eye nor
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 4: to the hand, which lowers itself and follows a curve,
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 4: like the horizon from which it has taken its name,
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 4: starting from the center and going to the lateral extremity
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 4: of the plane. The oblique line presupposes more complex comparative ideas,
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 4: and the curve demands such firmness and so many differences
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 4: in its relation to the plane, that we would only
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 4: lose time in taking up the study of these lines.
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 4: The most simple line, then, is the vertical, and this
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 4: is how I have given my pupils an idea of it.
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 4: The first geometric formula is this, only straight lines may
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 4: be drawn from one given point to another. Starting from
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 4: this axiom, which the hand alone can demonstrate, I have
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 4: fixed two points upon the blackboard, and have connected them
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 4: by means of a vertical. My pupils try to do
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 4: the same between the dots they have upon their paper.
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 4: But with some the vertical descends to the right of
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 4: the point, and with others to the left, to say
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 4: nothing of those whose hand diverges in all directions. To
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 4: arrest these various deviations, which are often far more defects
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 4: of the intelligence and of the vision than of the hand,
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 4: I have thought it wise to restrict the field of
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 4: the plane, drawing two vertical lines to left and right
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 4: of the points which the child is to join, by
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 4: means of a parallel line half way between the two
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 4: enclosing lines. If these two lines are not enough, I
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 4: place two rulers vertically upon the paper, which arrest the
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 4: deviations of the hand absolutely. These material barriers are, not, however,
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 4: useful for very long. We first suppress the rulers and
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 4: return to the two parallel lines between which the idiot
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 4: learns to draw the third line. We then take away
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 4: one of the guiding lines and leave sometimes that on
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 4: the right, sometimes that on the left, finally taking away
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 4: this last line, and at last the dots, beginning by
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 4: erasing the one at the top, which indicates the starting
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 4: point of the line and of the hand. The child
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 4: thus learns to draw a vertical without material control, without
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 4: points of comparison. The same method, the same difficulty, the
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 4: same means of direction are used for the straight horizontal lines.
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 4: If by chance these lines begin well, we must await
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 4: until the child curves them, departing from the center and
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 4: proceeding to the extremity as nature commands him. And, because
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 4: of the reason which I have explained, if the two
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 4: dots do not suffice to sustain the hand, we keep
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 4: it from deviating by means of the parallel lines or
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 4: of the rulers. Finally, have him trace the horizontal line,
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 4: and by uniting with a vertical ruler, we form a
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 4: right angle. The child will begin to understand in this
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 4: way what the vertical and horizontal lines really are, and
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 4: will see the relation of these two ideas as he
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 4: traces a figure. In the sequence of the development of lines,
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 4: it would seem that the study of the oblique should
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 4: immediately follow that of the vertical and the horizontal. But
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 4: this is not so. The oblique, which partakes of the
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 4: vertical in its inclination and of the horizontal in its direction,
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 4: and which partakes of both in its nature, since it
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 4: is a straight line presents, perhaps because of its relation
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 4: to other lines, an idea too complex to be appreciated
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 4: without preparation. Thus, Sequin goes on through many pages to
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 4: speak of the oblique in all directions which he has
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 4: his pupil's trace between two parallels. He then tells of
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 4: the four curves, which he has them draw to right
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 4: and left of a vertical and above and below a horizontal,
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 4: and concludes, quote, so we find the solution of the
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 4: problems for which we sought. The vertical line, the horizontal,
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 4: the oblique, and four curves whose union forms the circle
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 4: contain all possible lines, all writing unquote quote arrived. At
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 4: this point Ethard and I were for a long time
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 4: at a standstill, the lines being known. The next step
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 4: was to have the child trace regular figures, beginning, of course,
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 4: with the simplest according to the general opinion. Ethard had
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 4: advised me to begin with the square, and I had
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 4: followed this advice for three months without being able to
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 4: make the child understand me unquote. After a long series
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 4: of experiments, guided by his ideas of the genesis of
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 4: geometric figures, Siquin became aware that the triangle is the
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 4: figure most easily drawn quote. When three lines meet, thus
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 4: they always form a triangle, while four lines may meet
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 4: in a hundred different directions without remaining parallel, and therefore
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 4: without presenting a perfect square. From these experiments and many others,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 4: I have deduced the first principles of writing and of
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 4: design for the idiot, principles whose application is too simple
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 4: for me to discuss further. Such was the proceeding used
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 4: by my predecessors in the teaching of writing to deficients.
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 4: As for reading, Utard proceeded thus he drove nails into
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 4: the wall and hung upon them geometric figures of woods,
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 4: such as triangles, squares, circles. He then drew the exact
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 4: imprint of these upon the wall, after which he took
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 4: the figures away and had the boy of Aberon replaced
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 4: them upon the proper nails. Guided by the design, from
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 4: this design, Etard conceived the idea of the plain geometric insets.
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 4: He finally had large print letters made of wood, and
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 4: proceeded in the same way as with the geometric figures,
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 4: that is, using the design upon the wall and arranging
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 4: the nails in such a way that the child might
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 4: place the letters upon them and then take them off again. Later,
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 4: Sequin used the horizontal plane instead of the wall, drawing
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 4: the letters on the bottom of a box and having
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 4: the child superimposed solid letters. After twenty years, Sequin had
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 4: not changed his method of practice. A criticism of the
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 4: method used by Itard and Sequin for reading and writing
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 4: seems to me superfluous. The method has two fundamental errors
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 4: which make it inferior to the methods in use for
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 4: normal children, namely writing in printed capitals and the preparation
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 4: for writing through a study of rational geometry, which we
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 4: now expect only from students in the secondary schools. Sequin
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 4: here confuses ideas in a most extraordinary way. He has
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 4: suddenly jumped from the psychological observation of the child, and
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 4: from his relation to his environment, to the study of
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 4: the origin of lines and their relation to the plane.
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 4: He says that the child will readily design a vertical line,
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 4: but that the horizontal will soon become a curve, because
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 4: quote nature commands it unquote, and this command of nature
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 4: is represented by the fact that man sees the horizon
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 4: as a curved line. The example of Saquin serves to
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 4: illustrate the necessity of a special education, which shall fit
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 4: man for observation, and shall direct logical thought. The observation
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 4: must be absolutely objective, in other words, stripped of preconceptions.
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 4: Saquin has in this case the preconception that geometric design
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 4: must prepare for writing, and that hinders him from discovering
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 4: the truly natural proceeding necessary to such preparation. He has, besides,
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 4: the preconception that the deviation of a line, as well
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 4: as the inexactness with the aid which the child traces it,
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 4: are due to quote, the mind and the eye, not
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 4: to the hand unquote. And so he wearies himself for
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 4: weeks and months in explaining the directions of lines, and
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 4: in guiding the vision of the idiot. It seems as
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 4: if Saquin felt that a good method must start from
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 4: a superior point geometry. The intelligence of the child is
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 4: only considered worthy of attention in its relation to abstract things.
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 4: And is not this a common defect. Let us observe
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 4: mediocre men. They pompously assume erudition and disdain simple things.
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 4: Let us study the clear thought of those whom we
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 4: consider men of genius. Newton is seated tranquility in the
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 4: open air. An apple falls from the tree, he observes
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 4: it and asks why phenomena are never insignificant? The fruit
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 4: which falls and universal gravitation may rest side by side
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 4: in the mind of a genius. If Newton had been
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 4: a tear ceature of children, he would have led the
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 4: children to look upon the worlds on a starry night.
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 4: But an erudite person might have felt it necessary first
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 4: to prepare the child to understand the sublime calculus, which
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 4: is the key to astronomy. Galileo Galilei observed the oscillation
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 4: of a lamp swung on high and discovered the laws
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 4: of the pendulum. In the intellectual life, simplicity consists in
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 4: divesting one's mind of every preconception, and this leads to
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 4: the discovery of new things. As in the moral life,
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 4: humility and material poverty guide us toward high spiritual conquests.
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 4: If we study the history of discoveries, we will find
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 4: that they have come from real, objective observation and from
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 4: logical thought. These are simple things, but rarely found in
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 4: one man. Does it not seem strange, for instance, that,
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 4: after the discovery by Laverrine of the malarial parasite which
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 4: invades the red blood corpuscles we did not, in spite
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 4: of the fact that we know the blood system to
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 4: be a system of closed vessels, even so much as
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 4: suspect the possibility that a stinging insect might inoculate us
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 4: with the parasite. Instead, the theory that the evil emanated
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 4: from low ground, that it was carried by the African winds,
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 4: or that it was due to dampness was given credence.
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 4: Yet these were vague ideas, while the parasite was a
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 4: definite biological specimen. When the discovery of the malarial mosquito
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 4: came to complete logically the discovery of labyrine, this seemed marvelous, stupefying.
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 4: Yet we know in biology that the reproduction of molecular
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 4: vegetable bodies is by scision with alternate sporation, and that
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 4: of molecular animals is by scision with alternate conjunction. That is,
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 4: after a certain period in which the primitive cell has
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 4: divided and subdivided into fresh cells equal among themselves, there
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 4: comes the formation of two diverse cells, one male and
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 4: one female, which must unite to form a single cell
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 4: capable of recommencing the cycle of reproduction by division. All
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 4: this being known at the time of Lavarrian and the
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 4: malarial parasite being known to be a protosan, it would
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 4: have seemed logical to consider its segmentation in the stroma
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 4: of the red corpuscle as the phase of scision, and
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 4: to await until the parasite gave place to the sexual forms,
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 4: which must necessarily come in the phase succeeding decision. Instead,
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 4: the division was looked upon as spore formation, and neither
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 4: Lavarriene nor the numerous scientists who followed the research knew
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 4: how to give an explanation of the appearance of the
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 4: sexual forms. Lavaran expressed an idea which was immediately received,
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 4: that these two forms were degenerate forms of the malarial parasite,
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 4: and therefore incapable of producing the changes determining the disease. Indeed,
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 4: the malaria was apparently cured at the appearance of the
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 4: two sexual forms of the parasite, the conjunction of the
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 4: two cells being impossible in the human blood. The theory
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 4: then recent of moral upon human degeneration accompanied by deformity
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 4: and weakness inspired Lavarene in his interpretation, and everybody found
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 4: the idea of the illustrious pathologist a fortunate one, because
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 4: it was inspired by the great concepts of the Morellian theory,
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 4: had anyone instead limited himself to reasoning. Thus, the original
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 4: form of the malarial insect is a protosan. It reproduces
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 4: itself by scision. Under our eyes, when the decision is finished,
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 4: we see two diverse cells, one a half moon, the
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 4: other Threadlike these are the feminine and masculine cells, which must,
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 4: by conjunction alternate the decision. Such a reasoner would have
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 4: opened the way to the discovery, but so simple a
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 4: process of reasoning did not come. We might almost ask ourselves,
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 4: how great would be the world's progress if a special
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 4: form of education prepared men for pure observation and logical thought.
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 4: A great deal of time and intellectual force are lost
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 4: in the world because the false seems great and the
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 4: truth so small and insignificant. I say all this to
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 4: defend the necessity which I feel we face of preparing
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 4: the coming generations by means of more rational methods. It
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 4: is from these generations that the world awaits its progress.
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 4: We have already learned to make use of our surroundings.
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 4: But I believe that we have arrived at a time
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 4: when the necessity presents itself for utilizing human force through
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 4: a scientific education. To return to Saquin's method of writing,
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 4: it illustrates another truth that it is the tortuous path
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 4: we follow in our teaching. This too, is allied to
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 4: an instinct for complicating things, analogous to that which makes
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 4: us so prone to appreciate complicated things. We have sick
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 4: when teaching geometry in order to teach a child to write,
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 4: and making the child's mind exert itself to follow geometrical abstractions,
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 4: only to come down to the simple effort of drawing
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 4: a printed d After all, must the child not have
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 4: to make another effort in order to forget the print
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 4: and learn the script? And even we in these days
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 4: still believe that in order to learn to write, the
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 4: child must first make vertical strokes. This conviction is very general.
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 4: Yet it does not seem natural that to write the
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 4: letters of the alphabet, which are all rounded, it should
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 4: be necessary to begin with straight lines and acute angles.
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 4: In all good faith, we wonder that it should be
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 4: difficult to do away with the angularity and stiffness with
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 4: which the beginner traces the beautiful curve of the O.
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 4: Yet through what effort on our part and on his
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 4: was he forced to fill pages and payde with rigid
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 4: lines and acute angles to whom is due? This time
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 4: honored idea that the first sign to be traced must
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 4: be a straight line? And why do we so avoid
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 4: preparing for curves as well as angles. Let us, for
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 4: a moment divest ourselves of such preconceptions and proceed in
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 4: a more simple way. We may be able to relieve
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 4: future generations of all effort. In the matter of learning
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 4: to write? Is it necessary to begin writing with the
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 4: making of vertical strokes? A moment of clear and logical
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 4: thinking is enough to enable us to answer no, the
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 4: child makes too painful an effort in following such an exercise.
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 4: The first steps should be the easiest, and the up
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 4: and down stroke is, on the contrary, one of the
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 4: most difficult of all the pen movements. Only a professional
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 4: penman could fill a whole page and preserve the regularity
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 4: of such strokes, but a person who writes only moderately
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 4: well would be able to complete a page of presentable writing. Indeed,
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 4: a straight line is unique, expressing the shortest distance between
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 4: two points, while any deviation from that direction signifies a
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 4: line which is not straight. These infinite deviations are therefore
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 4: easier than that one trace, which is perfection. If we
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 4: should give to a number of adults the order to
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 4: draw a straight line upon the blackboard, each person would
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 4: draw a long line, proceeding in a different direction, some
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 4: beginning from one side, some from another, and almost all
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 4: would succeed in making the line straight. Should we then
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 4: ask that the line be drawn in a particular direction,
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 4: starting from a determined point, the ability shown at first
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 4: would greatly diminish, and we would see more irregularities or errors.
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 4: Almost all the lines would be long, for the individual
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 4: must needs gather impetus in order to succeed in making
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 4: his line straight. Should we ask that the lines be
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 4: made short and included within precise limits, the errors would increase,
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 4: for wis we would thus impede the impetus which helps
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 4: to conserve the definite direction. In the methods ordinarily used
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 4: in teaching writing, we add to such limitations the further
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 4: restriction that the instrument of writing must be held in
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 4: a certain way, not as instinct prompts each individual. Thus
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 4: we approach in the most conscious and restricted way the
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 4: first act of writing, which should be voluntary. In this
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 4: first writing, we still demand that the single strokes be
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 4: kept parallel, making the child's task a difficult and barren one,
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 4: since it has no purpose for the child who does
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 4: not understand the meaning of all. This detail I had
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 4: noticed in the note books of the deficient children in France,
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 4: and Voison also mentions this phenomenon that the pages of
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 4: vertical strokes, although they began as such, ended in lines
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 4: of sees. This goes to show that the deficient child,
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 4: whose mind is less resistant than that of the normal child,
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 4: exhausts little by little the initial effort of imitation, and
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 4: the natural movement gradually comes to take the place of
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 4: that which was force or stimulated, so the lines are
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 4: transformed into curves, more and more like the letter C.
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 4: Such a phenomenon does not appear in the copy books
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 4: of normal children, for they resist through effort until the
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 4: end of the page is reached, and thus, as often happens,
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 4: conceal the didactic error. But let us observe the spontaneous
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 4: drawings of normal children, when, for example, picking up a
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 4: fallen twig, they trace figures in the sandy garden path.
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 4: We never see short, straight lines, but long and variously
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 4: interlaced curves. Saquin saw the same phenomenon when the horizontal
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 4: lines he made his pupils draw became curves so quickly instead,
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 4: and he attributed the phenomenon to the imitation of the
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 4: horizontal line. That vertical strokes should prepare for alphabetical writing
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 4: seems incredibly illogical. The alphabet is made up of curves.
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 4: Therefore we must prepare for it by learning to make
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 4: straight lines. But says someone, in many letters of the alphabet,
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 4: the straight line does exist. True, but there is no
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 4: reason why, as a beginning of writing we should select
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 4: one of the details of a complete form. We may
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 4: analyze the alphabetical signs in this way, discovering straight lines
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 4: and curves, as by analyzing discourse we find grammatical rules.
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 4: But we all speak independently of such rules. Why then,
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 4: should we not write independently of such analysis, and without
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 4: the separate execution of the parts constituting the letter. It
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 4: would be sad. Indeed, if we could speak only after
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 4: we had studied grammar, it would be much the same
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 4: as demanding that before we looked at the stars in
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 4: the firmament, we must study infinitesimal calculus. It is much
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 4: the same thing to feel that before teaching an idiot
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 4: to write, we must make him understand the abstract derivation
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 4: of lines and the problems of geometry. No less are
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 4: we to be pitied if in order to write we
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 4: must follow analytically the parts constituting the alphabetical signs. In fact,
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 4: the effort which we believe to be a necessary accompaniment
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 4: to learning to write is purely artificial effort, allied not
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 4: to writing, but to the methods by which it is taught.
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 4: Let us, for a moment cast aside every dogma in
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 4: this connection. Let us take no note of culture or custom.
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 4: We are not here interested in knowing how humanity began
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 4: to write, nor what may have been the origin of
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 4: writing itself. Let us put away the conviction that long
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 4: usage has given us of the necessity of beginning writing
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 4: by making vertical strokes, and let us try to be
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 4: as clear and unprejudiced in spirit as the truth which
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 4: we are seeking.
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 5: Quote.
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 4: Let us observe an individual who is writing, and let
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 4: us seek to analyze the acts he performs in writing unquote,
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 4: that is, the mechanical operations which enter into the execution
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 4: of writing. This would be undertaking the philosophical study of writing,
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 4: and it goes without saying that we should examine the
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 4: individual who writes, not the writing, the subject not the object.
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 4: Many have begun with the object examining the writing, and
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 4: in this way many methods have been constructed. But a
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 4: method starting from the individual would be decidedly original, very
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 4: different from other methods which preceded it. It would indeed
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 4: signify a new era in writing based upon anthropology. In fact,
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 4: when I undertook my experiments with normal children, if I
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 4: had thought of giving a name to this new method
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 4: of writing, I should have called it, without knowing what
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 4: the results would be, the anthropological method. Certainly, my studies
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 4: in anthropology inspired the method, but experience has given me,
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 4: as a surprise another title, which seems to me the
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 4: natural one, the method of spontaneous writing. While teaching deficient children,
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 4: I happened to observe the following fact. An idiot girl
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 4: of eleven years, who was possessed of normal strength and
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 4: motor power in her hands, could not learn to sew,
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 4: or even to take the first step darning, which consists
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 4: in passing the needle first over then under the woof
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 4: now taking up now leaving a number of threads. I
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 4: set the child to weaving with the freuble mats, in
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 4: which a strip of papers threaded transversely in and out
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 4: among vertical strips of paper held fixed at top and bottom.
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 4: I thus came to think of the analogy between the
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 4: two exercises, and became much interested in my observation of
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 4: the girl. When she had become skilled in the freuble weaving,
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 4: I led her back again to the sewing, and saw
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 4: with pleasure that she was now able to follow the darning.
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 4: From that time on, our sewing classes began with the
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 4: regular course in the freuble weaving. I saw that the
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 4: necessary movements of the hand in sewing had been prepared
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 4: without having the child sow, and that we should really
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 4: find the way to teach the child how before making
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 4: him execute a task. I saw especially that preparatory movements
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 4: could be carried on and reduced to a mechanism by
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 4: means of repeated exercises, not in the work itself, but
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 4: in that which prepares for it. Pupils could then come
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 4: to the real work able to perform it, without ever
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 4: having directly set their hands to it. Before. I thought
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 4: that I might in this way prepare for writing, and
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 4: the idea interested me tremendously. I marveled at its simplicity,
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 4: and was annoyed that I had not thought before of
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 4: the method which was suggested to me by my observation
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 4: of the girl who could not sew. In fact, seeing
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 4: that I had already taught the children to touch the
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 4: contours of the plain geometric insets, I had now only
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 4: to teach them to touch with their fingers the forms
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 4: of the letters of the alphabet. I had a beautiful
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 4: alphabet manufactured, the letters being in flowing script, the low
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 4: letters eight centimeters high, and the taller ones in proportion.
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 4: These the letters were in wood one half centimeter in thickness,
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 4: and were painted the consonants in blue enamel, the vowels
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 4: in red. The underside of these letter forms, instead of
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 4: being painted, were covered with bronze that they might be
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 4: more durable. We had only one copy of this wooden alphabet,
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 4: but there were a number of cards upon which the
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 4: letters were painted in the same colors and dimensions as
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 4: the wooden ones. These painted letters were arranged upon the
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 4: cards and groups according to contrast or analogy of form,
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 4: corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. We had a
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 4: picture representing some object, the name of which began with
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 4: the letter. Above this, the letter was painted in large script,
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 4: and near it the same letter, much smaller and in
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 4: its printed form. These pictures served to fix the memory
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 4: of the sound of the letter, and the small printed letter,
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 4: united to the one in script, was to form the
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 4: passage to the reading of books. These pictures do not
• 2:20:55
  Speaker 4: indeed represent a new idea, but they completed an arrangement
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 4: which did not as before. Such an alphabet was undoubtedly
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 4: most expensive, and when made by hand, the cost was
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 4: fifty dollars. The interesting part of my experiment was that,
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 4: after I had shown the children how to place the
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 4: movable wooden letters upon those painted in groups upon the cards,
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 4: I had them touch them repeatedly in the fashion of
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 4: flowing writing. I multiply these exercises in various ways, and
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 4: the children thus learned to make the movements necessary to
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 4: reproduce the form of the graphic signs without writing. I
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 4: was struck by an idea which had never before entered
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 4: my mind, that in writing we make two diverse forms
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 4: of movement. For besides the movement by which the form
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 4: is reproduced, there is also that of manipulating the instrument
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 4: of writing. And indeed, when the deficient children had become
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 4: expert in touching all the letters according to form, they
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 4: did not yet know how to hold a pencil. To
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 4: hold and to manipulate a little stick securely corresponds to
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 4: the acquisition of a special muscular mechanism which is independent
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 4: of the writing movement. It must, in fact go along
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 4: with the motions necessary to produce all of the various
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 4: letter forms. It is then a distinct mechanism which must
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 4: exist together with the motor memory of the single graphic signs.
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 4: When I provoked in the deficients the movement characteristic of
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 4: writing by having them touch the letters with their fingers,
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 4: I exercised mechanically the psychomotor paths and fixed the muscular
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 4: memory of each letter. There remained the preparation of the
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 4: muscular mechanism necessary in holding and managing the instrument of writing,
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 4: and this I provoked by adding two periods to the
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 4: one already described. In the second period, the child touched
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 4: the letter not only with the index finger of his
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 4: right hand, but with two the index and the middle finger.
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 4: In the third period, he touched the letters with the
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 4: little wooden stick held as a pen in writing in substance,
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 4: I was making him repeat the same movements, now with
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 4: and now with them holding the instrument. I have said
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 4: that the child was to follow the visual image of
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 4: the outlined letter. It is true that his finger had
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 4: already been trained through touching the contours of the geometric figures,
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 4: but this was not always a sufficient preparation. Indeed, even
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 4: we grown people, when we trace the design through glass
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 4: or tissue paper, cannot follow perfectly the line which we
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 4: see and along which we should draw our pencil. The
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 4: design should furnish some sort of control, some mechanical guide
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 4: for the pencil, in order to follow with exactness the
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 4: trace sensible in reality only to the eye. The deficients
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 4: therefore did not always follow the design exactly with either
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 4: the finger or the stick. The didactic material did not
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 4: offer any control in the work, or rather, it offered
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 4: only the uncertain control of the child's glance, which could
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 4: to be sure see if the finger continued upon the
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 4: sign or not. I now thought that in order to
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 4: have the pupil follow the movements more exactly, and to
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 4: guide the execution more directly, I should need to prepare
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 4: letter forms so indented as to represent a furrow within
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 4: which the wooden stick might run. I made the designs
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 4: for this material, but the work being too expensive, I
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 4: was not able to carry out my plan. After having
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 4: experimented largely with this method, I spoke of it very
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 4: fully to the teachers in my classes in didactic methods
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 4: at the State Orthophrenic School. These lectures were printed, and
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 4: I give below the words, which, though they were placed
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 4: in the hands of more than two hundred elementary teachers,
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 4: did not draw from them a single helpful IDEA. Professor Ferreri,
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 4: in an article speaks with amazement of this fact. Quote.
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 4: At this point we present the cards bearing the vowels
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 4: painted in red. The child sees irregular figures painted in red.
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 4: We give him the vowels in wood painted red, and
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 4: have him superimpose these upon the letters painted on the card.
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 4: We have him touched the wooden vowels in the fashion
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 4: of writing, and give him the name of each letter.
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 4: The vowels are arranged on the cards according to analogy
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 4: of form. Row one O E A, row two I
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 4: blank you. We then say to the child, for example,
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 4: find oh, put it in its place? Then what letter
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 4: is this We here discover that many children make mistakes
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 4: in the letters if they only look at the letter.
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 4: They could, however, tell the letter by touching it. Most
• 2:25:31
  Speaker 4: interesting observations may be made revealing various individual types. Visual motor.
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 4: We have the child touch the letters drawn upon the cards,
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 4: using first the index finger only, then the index with
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 4: the middle finger, then with a small wooden stick held
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 4: as a pen. The letter must be traced in the
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 4: fashion of writing. The consonants are painted in blue and
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 4: are arranged upon the cards according to analogy of form
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 4: to these cards or annexed movable alphabet in blue wood,
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 4: the letters of which are to be placed upon the
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 4: consonants as they were upon the vowels. In addition to
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 4: these materials, there is another series of cards where, besides
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 4: the consonant, are painted one or two figures, the names
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 4: of which begin with that particular letter. Near the script
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 4: letter is a smaller printed letter painted in the same color.
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 4: The teacher, naming the consonant according to the phonetic method,
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 4: indicates the letter, and then the card, pronouncing the names
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 4: of the objects painted there and emphasizing the first letter,
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 4: as for example, P pear give me the consonant, p
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 4: put it in its place, touch it, et cetera. In
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 4: all this we study the linguistic defects of the child.
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 4: Tracing the letter in the fashion of writing begins the
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 4: muscular education which prepares for writing. One of our little girls,
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 4: taught by this method, has reproduced all the letters with
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 4: the pen, though she does not as yet recognized them all.
• 2:27:02
  Speaker 4: She has made them about eight centimeters high, and with
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 4: surprising regularity. This child altered as well in hand work.
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 4: The child who looks, recognizes and touches the letters in
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 4: this manner of writing prepares himself simultaneously for reading and writing.
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 4: Touching the letters and looking at them at the same
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 4: time fixes the image more quickly through the cooperation of
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 4: the senses. Later the two facts separate. Looking becomes reading,
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 4: touching becomes writing. According to the type of the individual,
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 4: some learn to read first, others to write. I had, thus,
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 4: about the year eighteen ninety nine, initiated my method for
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 4: reading and writing. Upon the fundamental lines it still follows.
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 4: It was with great surprise that I noted the facility
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 4: with which a deficient child to whom I one day
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 4: gave a piece of chalk traced upon the blackboard in
• 2:27:56
  Speaker 4: a firm hand the letters of the entire alphabet, writing
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 4: for the first time. This had arrived much more quickly
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 4: than I had supposed. As I have said, some of
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 4: the children wrote the letters with a pen, and yet
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 4: could not recognize one of them. I have noticed, also
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 4: in normal children that the muscular sense is most easily
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 4: developed in infancy, and this makes writing exceedingly easy for children.
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 4: It is not so with reading, which requires a much
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 4: longer course of instruction, and which calls for a superior
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 4: intellectual development, since it treats of the interpretation of signs
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 4: and of the modulation of accents of the voice in
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 4: order that the word may be understood. And all this
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 4: is a purely mental task. While in writing, the child
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 4: under dictation materially translates sounds into signs and moves a
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 4: thing which is always easy and pleasant for him. Writing
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 4: develops in the little child with facility and spontaneity, analogous
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 4: to the development of spoken language, which is a motor
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 4: translation of audible sounds. Reading, on the con corary, makes
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 4: part of an abstract intellectual culture, which is the interpretation
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 4: of ideas from graphic symbols, and is only acquired later on.
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 4: My first experiments with normal children were begun in the
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 4: first half of the month of November nineteen o seven
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 4: in the two children's houses in San Lorenzo. I had,
• 2:29:20
  Speaker 4: from the date of their respective inaugurations January sixth in
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 4: one and March seventh in the other, used only the
• 2:29:27
  Speaker 4: games of practical life and of the education of the senses.
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 4: I had not presented exercises for writing, because, like everybody else,
• 2:29:35
  Speaker 4: I held the prejudice that it was necessary to begin
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 4: as late as possible the teaching of reading and writing,
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 4: and certainly to avoid it before the age of six.
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 4: But the children seemed to demand some conclusion of the
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 4: exercises which had already developed them intellectually in a most
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 4: surprising way. They knew how to dress and undress, and
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 4: to bathe themselves. They knew how to sweep the floors,
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 4: dust the furniture, put the room in order, to open
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 4: and close boxes, to manage the keys in the various locks.
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 4: They could replace the objects in the cupboards in perfect order,
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 4: could care for the plants. They knew how to observe things,
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 4: and how to see objects with their hands. A number
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 4: of them came to us and frankly demanded to be
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 4: taught to read and write. Even in the face of
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 4: our refusal, several children came to school and proudly showed
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 4: us that they knew how to make an O on
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 4: the blackboard. Finally, many of the mothers came to beg
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 4: us as a favor to teach the children to write, saying,
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 4: here in the children's houses, the children are awakened and
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 4: learn so many things easily, that if you only teach
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 4: reading and writing, they will soon learn and will then
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 4: be spared the great fatigue this always means in the
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 4: elementary school. This faith of the mothers that their little
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 4: ones would from us be able to learn to read
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 4: and write without fatigue made a great impression upon me.
• 2:30:57
  Speaker 4: Thinking upon the results I had obtained in the school
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 4: for defish, I decided during the August vacation to make
• 2:31:03
  Speaker 4: a trial upon the reopening of the school in September.
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 4: Upon second thought, I decided that it would be better
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 4: to take up the interrupted work in September and not
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 4: to approach reading and writing until October, when the elementary
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 4: schools opened. This presented the added advantage of permitting us
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 4: to compare the progress of the children of the first
• 2:31:23
  Speaker 4: Elementary with that made by ours, who would have begun
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 4: the same branch of instruction at the same time in September. Therefore,
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 4: I began a search for someone who could manufacture didactic materials,
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 4: but found no one willing to undertake it. I wished
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 4: to have a splendid alphabet made like the one used
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 4: with the deficients. Giving this up. I was willing to
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 4: content myself with the ordinary enameled letters used upon shop windows,
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 4: but I could find them in script form nowhere. My
• 2:31:52
  Speaker 4: disappointments were many, so passed the whole month of October.
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 4: The children in the first Elementary had already filled pages
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 4: of vertical strokes, and mine were still waiting. I then
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 4: decided to cut out large paper letters, and to have
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 4: one of my teachers colored these roughly on one side
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 4: with a blue tint. As for the touching of the letters,
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 4: I thought of cutting the letters of the alphabet out
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 4: of sand paper, and of gluing them upon smooth cards,
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 4: thus making objects much like those used in the primitive
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 4: exercises for the tactile sense. Only after I had made
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 4: these simple things did I become aware of the superiority
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 4: of this alphabet to that magnificent one I had used
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 4: for my deficients, and in the pursuit of which I
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 4: had wasted two months. If I had been rich, I
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 4: would have had that beautiful, but barren alphabet of the past.
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 4: We wish the old things because we cannot understand the new,
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 4: and we are always seeking after that gorgeousness which belongs
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 4: to things already on the decline, without recognizing in the
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 4: humble simplicity of new ideas the germ which shall develop
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 4: in the future. I finally understood that a paper alphabet
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 4: could easily be multiplied and could be used by many
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 4: children at one time, not only for the recognition of letters,
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 4: but for the composition of words. I saw that in
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 4: the sand paper alphabet I had found the looked for
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 4: guide for the fingers which touched the letter. This was
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 4: furnished in such a way that no longer the sight alone,
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 4: but the touch lent itself directly to teaching the movement
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 4: of writing with exactness of control. In the afternoon, after school,
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 4: the two teachers and I, with great enthusiasm, set about
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 4: cutting out letters from writing paper and others from sand paper.
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 4: The first we painted blue, The second we mounted on
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 4: cards and while we worked there, unfolded before my mind
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 4: a clear vision of the method in all its completeness,
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 4: so simple that it made me smile to think I
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 4: had not seen it before. The story of our first
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 4: attempts is very interesting. One day, one of the teachers
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 4: was ill, and I sent as a substitute a pupil
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 4: of mine Signorina Anna Fideli, a professor of pettigog in
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 4: a normal school. When I went to see her at
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 4: the close of the day, she showed me two modifications
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 4: of the alphabet which she had made. One consisted in
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 4: placing behind each letter a transverse strip of white paper,
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 4: so that the child might recognize the direction of the letter,
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 4: which he often turned about and upside down. The other
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 4: consisted in the making of a cardboard case where each
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 4: letter might be put away in its own compartment, instead
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 4: of being kept in a confused mass as at first.
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 4: I still keep this rude case, made from an old
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 4: pasteboard box, which Signorina Fidelli had found in the court
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 4: and roughly sewed with white thread. She showed it to me,
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 4: laughing and excusing herself for the miserable work. But I
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 4: was most enthusiastic about it, I saw at once that
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 4: the letters in the case were a precious aid to
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 4: the teaching. Indeed, it offered to the eye of the
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 4: child the possibility of comparing all of the letters and
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 4: of selecting those he needed. In this way, the didactic
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 4: material described below had its origin. I need only add
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 4: that at Christmas time, less than a month and a
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 4: half later, while the children in the first Elementary were
• 2:35:07
  Speaker 4: laboriously working to forget their wearisome potouks and to prepare
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 4: for making the curves of O and the other vowels,
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 4: two of my little ones of four years old, wrote
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 4: each one in the name of his companions, a letter
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 4: of good wishes and thanks to Signor Eduardo Talamo. These
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 4: were written upon notepaper without blot or erasure, and the
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 4: writing was adjudged equal to that which is obtained in
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 4: the third Elementary grade. End of Chapter sixteen.
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 6: Chapter seventeen description of the method on didactic material used
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 6: first period exercise tending to develop the muscular mechanism necessary
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 6: in holding and using the instrument in writing design preparatory
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 6: to writing didactic material small wooden tables, mental insight, offline drawings,
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 6: colored pencils. I have among my materials. Two little wooden tables,
• 2:36:06
  Speaker 6: the tops of which form an inclined plane sloping toward
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 6: a narrow cornice which prevents objects placed upon the table
• 2:36:13
  Speaker 6: from slipping off. The top of each table is just
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 6: large enough to hold four of the square frames into
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 6: which the metal plane geometric insets are fitted, and is
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 6: so painted as to represent three of these brown frames,
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 6: each containing a square center of the same dark bluest
• 2:36:28
  Speaker 6: centers of the metal insects. The metal insets are in
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 6: dimension and form a reproduction of the series of plain
• 2:36:35
  Speaker 6: geometric insets in wood already described exercises placed side by
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 6: side upon the teacher's desk or upon one of the
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 6: little tables belonging to the children, These two little tables
• 2:36:48
  Speaker 6: may have the appearance of being one long table containing
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 6: eight figures. The child may select one or more figures,
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 6: taking at the same time the frame of the inset.
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 6: The analogy between these metal insect and the plain geometric
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 6: insets of wood is complete, but in this case the
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 6: child can freely use the pieces where before he arranged
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 6: them in the wooden frame. He first takes the metal frame,
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 6: places it upon a sheet of white paper, and with
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 6: a colored pencil draws around the contour of the empty center.
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 6: Then he takes away the frame, and upon the paper
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 6: there remains a geometric figure. This is the first time
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 6: that the child has reproduced through design a geometric figure.
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 6: Until now he has only placed the geometric insets above
• 2:37:33
  Speaker 6: the figures delineated on the three series of cards. He
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 6: now places upon the figure which he himself has drawn,
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 6: the metal inset, just as he placed the wooden inset
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 6: upon the cards. His necked act is to follow the
• 2:37:45
  Speaker 6: contour of this inset with a pencil of a different color.
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 6: Lifting the metal piece, he sees the figure reproduced upon
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 6: the paper in two colors. Here, for the first time
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 6: is borne the abstract concept of the geometric figure. For
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 6: from two metal pieces so different in form as the
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 6: frame and the inset, there has resulted the same design,
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 6: which is a line expressing a determined figure. This fact
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 6: strikes the attention of the child. He often marvels to
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 6: find the same figure re produced by means of two
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 6: pieces so different, and looks for a long time with
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 6: evident pleasure of the duplicate design, almost as if it
• 2:38:20
  Speaker 6: were actually produced by the objects which serve to guide
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 6: his hand. Besides all this, the child learns to trace
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 6: lines determining figures. There will come a day in which,
• 2:38:30
  Speaker 6: with still greater surprise and pleasure, he will trace graphic
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 6: designs determining words. After this he begins the work which
• 2:38:38
  Speaker 6: directly prepares for the formation of the muscular mechanism relative
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 6: to the holding and manipulation of the instrument of writing.
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 6: With a colored pencil of his own selection. Held as
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 6: the pen is held in writing, he fills in the
• 2:38:51
  Speaker 6: figure which he has outlined. We teach him not to
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 6: pass outside the contour, and in doing so, we attract
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 6: his attention to this contour, and thus fix the idea
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 6: that a line may determine a figure. The exercise of
• 2:39:05
  Speaker 6: filling in one figure alone causes the child to perform
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 6: repeatedly the movement and manipulation which would be necessary to
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 6: fill ten copy book pages with vertical strokes. And yet
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 6: the child feels no weariness, because although he makes exactly
• 2:39:19
  Speaker 6: the muscular coordination which is necessary to the work, he
• 2:39:22
  Speaker 6: does so freely and in any way that he wishes,
• 2:39:25
  Speaker 6: while his eyes are fixed upon a large and brightly
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 6: colored figure. At first, the children fill pages and pages
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 6: of paper with these big squares, triangles, oval strapezoids, coloring
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 6: them red, orange, green, blue, light blue, and pink. Gradually
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 6: they limit themselves to the use of the dark blue
• 2:39:43
  Speaker 6: and brown, both in drawing the figure and in filling
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 6: it in, thus reproducing the appearance of the metal piece itself.
• 2:39:50
  Speaker 6: Many of the children, quite of their own accord, make
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 6: a little orange colored circle in the center of the figure,
• 2:39:56
  Speaker 6: in this way representing the little brass button by which
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 6: the metal piece to be held. They take great pleasure
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 6: in feeling that they have reproduced exactly like true artists,
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 6: the objects which they see before them on the little shelf.
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 6: Observing the successive drawings of a child, there is revealed
• 2:40:13
  Speaker 6: to us a duplicate form of progression. First, little by little,
• 2:40:19
  Speaker 6: the lines tend less and less to go outside the
• 2:40:22
  Speaker 6: enclosing line, until at last they are perfectly contained within it,
• 2:40:27
  Speaker 6: and both the center and the frame are filled in
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 6: with close and uniform strokes. Second, the strokes with which
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 6: the child fills in the figures, from being at first
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 6: short and confused, become gradually longer and more nearly parallel,
• 2:40:43
  Speaker 6: until in many cases the figures are filled in by
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 6: means of perfectly regular up and down strokes extending from
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 6: one side of the figure to the other. In such
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 6: a case, it is evident that the child is master
• 2:40:55
  Speaker 6: of the pencil. The muscular mechanism necessary to the management
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 6: of the instrument of writing is established. We may, therefore,
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 6: by examining such designs, arrive at a clear idea of
• 2:41:07
  Speaker 6: the maturity of the child in the matter of holding
• 2:41:09
  Speaker 6: the pencil or pen in hand. To vary these exercises,
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 6: we use the outlined drawings already described. Through these designs,
• 2:41:16
  Speaker 6: the manipulation of the pencil is perfected, for they oblige
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 6: the child to make lines of various linths and make
• 2:41:23
  Speaker 6: him more and more secure in his use of the pencil.
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 6: If we could count the lines made by a child
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 6: in the filling in of these figures, and could transform
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 6: them into the signs used in writing, they would fill
• 2:41:40
  Speaker 6: many many copy books. Indeed, the security which our children
• 2:41:44
  Speaker 6: attain is likened to that of children in our ordinary
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 6: third elementary grade, when for the first time they take
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 6: a pen or a pencil in hand, they know how
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 6: to manage it almost as well as a person who
• 2:41:56
  Speaker 6: has written for a long time. I do not believe
• 2:41:59
  Speaker 6: that any means can be found which will so successfully
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 6: end in so short a space of time, establish this mastery,
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 6: and with it all the child is happy and diverted.
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 6: My old method for the deficience, that of following with
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 6: a small stick the contours of raised letters, was, when
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 6: compared with this, barren and miserable. Even when the children
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 6: know how to write, they continue these exercises, which furnish
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 6: an unlimited progression. Since the designs may be varied and complicated,
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 6: the children follow in each design essentially the same movements
• 2:42:36
  Speaker 6: and acquire a varied collection of pictures which grow more
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 6: and more perfect, and of which they are very proud.
• 2:42:42
  Speaker 6: For I not only provoke but perfect the writing through
• 2:42:45
  Speaker 6: the exercises which we call preparatory. The control of the
• 2:42:49
  Speaker 6: pen is rendered more and more secure, not by repeated
• 2:42:52
  Speaker 6: exercises in the writing, but my means of these filled
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 6: in designs. In this way, my children perfect themselves in
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 6: writing without actually writing. Second period exercising tending to establish
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 6: the visual and muscular image of the alphabetical signs, and
• 2:43:10
  Speaker 6: to establish the muscular memory of the movements necessary to writing.
• 2:43:15
  Speaker 6: Didactic material cards upon which the single letters of the
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 6: alphabet are mounted in sandpaper. Larger cards containing groups of
• 2:43:22
  Speaker 6: the same letters. The cards upon which the sandpaper letters
• 2:43:26
  Speaker 6: are mounted are adapted in size and shape to each letter.
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 6: The vowels are in light colored sandpaper under mounted upon
• 2:43:33
  Speaker 6: dark cards. The continents and the groups of letters are
• 2:43:35
  Speaker 6: in black sandpaper mounted upon white cards. The grouping is
• 2:43:38
  Speaker 6: so arranged as to call attention to contrast it or
• 2:43:41
  Speaker 6: analogous forms. The letters are cut in clear script form,
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 6: shaded parts being made broader. We have chosen to reproduce
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 6: the vertical script and use in the elementary schools exercises.
• 2:43:56
  Speaker 6: In teaching the letters of the alphabet, we begin with
• 2:43:58
  Speaker 6: the vowels and proceed to the consonants, pronouncing the sound,
• 2:44:03
  Speaker 6: not the name. In the case of the consonants, we
• 2:44:06
  Speaker 6: immediately unite the sound with one of the vowel sounds,
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 6: repeating the syllable according to the usual phonetic method. The
• 2:44:13
  Speaker 6: teaching proceeds according to the three periods already illustrated. First
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 6: association of the visual and muscular tactile sensation with the
• 2:44:23
  Speaker 6: letter sound. The directness presents to the child two of
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 6: the cards upon which vowels are mounted, or two of
• 2:44:30
  Speaker 6: the consonants, as the case may be. Let us suppose
• 2:44:34
  Speaker 6: that we present the letters I and O, saying this
• 2:44:37
  Speaker 6: is I, this is OH. As soon as we have
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 6: given the sound of a letter, we have the child
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 6: trace it, taking care to show him how to trace it, and,
• 2:44:47
  Speaker 6: if necessary, guiding the index finger of his right hand
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 6: over the sandpaper letter. In the sense of writing, knowing
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 6: how to trace will consist in knowing the direction in
• 2:44:56
  Speaker 6: which a given graphic sign must be followed. The child
• 2:45:01
  Speaker 6: learns quickly, and his finger, already expert in the tactile exercise,
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 6: is led by the slight roughness of the fine sand
• 2:45:07
  Speaker 6: paper over the exact track of the letter. He may
• 2:45:11
  Speaker 6: then repeat indefinitely the movements necessary to produce the letters
• 2:45:15
  Speaker 6: of the alphabet, without the fear of the mistakes of
• 2:45:17
  Speaker 6: which a child writing with a pencil for the first
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 6: time is so conscious. If he deviates, the movements of
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 6: the card immediately warns him of his error. The children,
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 6: as soon as they have become at all expert in
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 6: this tracking of the letters, take great pleasure in repeating
• 2:45:31
  Speaker 6: it with closed eyes, letting the sand paper lead them,
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 6: and following the form which they do not see. Thus
• 2:45:38
  Speaker 6: the perception will be established by the direct muscular tactile
• 2:45:41
  Speaker 6: sensation of the letter. In other words, it is no
• 2:45:44
  Speaker 6: longer the visual image of the letter, but the tactile
• 2:45:48
  Speaker 6: sensation which guides the hand of the child in these movements,
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 6: which thus become fixed in the muscular memory. There develop
• 2:45:57
  Speaker 6: contemporaneously three sensations when the the directress shows the letters
• 2:46:01
  Speaker 6: to the child and has him trace it, the visual sensation,
• 2:46:05
  Speaker 6: the tactile sensation, and the muscular sensation. In this way,
• 2:46:09
  Speaker 6: the image of the graphic sign is fixed in a
• 2:46:11
  Speaker 6: much shorter space of time than when it was, according
• 2:46:13
  Speaker 6: to ordinary methods, acquired only through the visual image. It
• 2:46:17
  Speaker 6: will be found that the muscular memories in the young
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 6: child the most tenacious and at the same time the
• 2:46:22
  Speaker 6: most ready. Indeed, he sometimes recognizes the letters by touching
• 2:46:26
  Speaker 6: them when he cannot do so by looking at them.
• 2:46:28
  Speaker 6: These images are, besides all this, contemporaneously associated with alphabetical
• 2:46:33
  Speaker 6: sound second perception. The child should know how to compare
• 2:46:38
  Speaker 6: and to recognize the figures when he hears the sounds
• 2:46:40
  Speaker 6: corresponding to them. The directress asks the child, for example,
• 2:46:45
  Speaker 6: give me, oh, give me I. If the child does
• 2:46:47
  Speaker 6: not recognize the letters by looking at them, she invites
• 2:46:50
  Speaker 6: him to trace them, but if he still does not
• 2:46:52
  Speaker 6: recognize them, the lesson is ended and may be resumed
• 2:46:54
  Speaker 6: another day. I have already spoken of the necessity of
• 2:46:57
  Speaker 6: not revealing the error and of not insisting the teaching
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 6: when the child does not respond readily. Third language, allowing
• 2:47:06
  Speaker 6: the letters to lie, for some instance, upon the table,
• 2:47:08
  Speaker 6: the directress asks the child what is this, and he
• 2:47:11
  Speaker 6: should respond oh ay. In teaching the consonants, the directress
• 2:47:16
  Speaker 6: pronounces only the sound, and as soon as she has
• 2:47:18
  Speaker 6: done so, unites with it a vowel, pronouncing the syllable
• 2:47:21
  Speaker 6: thus formed, and alternating this little exercise by the use
• 2:47:25
  Speaker 6: of different vowels. She must always be careful to emphasize
• 2:47:28
  Speaker 6: the sound of the consonant, repeating it by itself, as
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 6: for example, mun un um ma ma me mi mu mu.
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 6: When the child repeats the sound, he isolates it and
• 2:47:43
  Speaker 6: then accompanies it with the vowel. It is not necessary
• 2:47:48
  Speaker 6: to teach all the vowels before passing to the consonants,
• 2:47:51
  Speaker 6: and as soon as the child knows one consonant, he
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 6: may begin to compose words. Questions of this sort, however,
• 2:47:56
  Speaker 6: are left to the judgment of the educator. I do
• 2:48:01
  Speaker 6: not find it practical to follow a special rule in
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 6: the teaching of the consonants. Often the curiosity of the
• 2:48:06
  Speaker 6: child concerning a letter leads us to teach that desired consonant.
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 6: A name pronounced may awaken in him a desire to
• 2:48:12
  Speaker 6: know what consonants are necessary to compose it, And this
• 2:48:15
  Speaker 6: will or willingness of the people is a much more
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 6: efficacious means than any rule concerning the progression of the letters.
• 2:48:23
  Speaker 6: When the child pronounces the sounds of the consonants, he
• 2:48:26
  Speaker 6: experiences an evident pleasure. It is a great novelty for him,
• 2:48:30
  Speaker 6: this series of sounds, so varied and yet so distinct,
• 2:48:33
  Speaker 6: presenting such enigmatic signs of the as the letters of
• 2:48:36
  Speaker 6: the alphabet. There is mystery about all this which provokes
• 2:48:39
  Speaker 6: most decided interest. One day I was on the terrace
• 2:48:44
  Speaker 6: while the children were having their free games. I had
• 2:48:47
  Speaker 6: with me a little boy of two years and a half,
• 2:48:50
  Speaker 6: left with me for a moment by his mother. Scattered
• 2:48:53
  Speaker 6: about upon a number of chairs where the alphabets which
• 2:48:55
  Speaker 6: we use in the school. These had become mixed, and
• 2:48:58
  Speaker 6: I was putting the letters back in to their respective compartments.
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 6: Having finished my work, I placed the boxes upon two
• 2:49:04
  Speaker 6: of the little chairs near me. Little boy watched me. Finally,
• 2:49:08
  Speaker 6: he drew near to the box and took one of
• 2:49:10
  Speaker 6: the letters in his hand. It chanced to be an F.
• 2:49:14
  Speaker 6: At that moment, the children, who were running in single file,
• 2:49:17
  Speaker 6: passed us, and, seeing the letter, called out in chorus
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 6: the corresponding sound, and passed on. The child paid no
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 6: attention to them, but put back the f and took
• 2:49:25
  Speaker 6: up an r. The children running by again looked at him, laughing,
• 2:49:29
  Speaker 6: and then began to cry out ruh ruh, ruh, ruh,
• 2:49:34
  Speaker 6: ruh ruh. Little by little, the boy understood that when
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 6: he took a letter in hand, the children who were
• 2:49:40
  Speaker 6: passing cried out a sound. This amused him so much
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 6: that I wished to observe how long he would persist
• 2:49:46
  Speaker 6: in the game without becoming tired. He kept it up
• 2:49:49
  Speaker 6: for three quarters of an hour. The children had become
• 2:49:52
  Speaker 6: interested in the child and grouped themselves about him, pronouncing
• 2:49:55
  Speaker 6: the sounds in chorus and laughing at his pleased. Surprised
• 2:50:02
  Speaker 6: he kept it up for three quarters of an hour.
• 2:50:04
  Speaker 6: The children had become interested in the child and group
• 2:50:07
  Speaker 6: themselves about him, pronouncing the sounds in chorus and laughing
• 2:50:09
  Speaker 6: at his pleased surprise. At last, after he had several
• 2:50:13
  Speaker 6: times held up f and had received from his public
• 2:50:16
  Speaker 6: the same sound, he took the letter again, showing it
• 2:50:19
  Speaker 6: to me and saying, pha pha Pha. He had learned
• 2:50:23
  Speaker 6: this from out of the great confusion of sounds which
• 2:50:26
  Speaker 6: he had heard. The long letter, which had first arrested
• 2:50:30
  Speaker 6: the attention of the running children, had made a great
• 2:50:32
  Speaker 6: impression upon him. It is not necessary to show how
• 2:50:37
  Speaker 6: the separate pronunciation of the alphabetical sounds reveals the condition
• 2:50:41
  Speaker 6: of the child's speech. Defects, which are almost all related
• 2:50:45
  Speaker 6: to the incomplete development of the language itself, manifest themselves,
• 2:50:49
  Speaker 6: and the directress may take note of them one by one.
• 2:50:52
  Speaker 6: In this way she will be possessed of a record
• 2:50:54
  Speaker 6: of the child's progress, which will help her in her
• 2:50:57
  Speaker 6: individual teaching, and will reveal much concerning the development of
• 2:50:59
  Speaker 6: Lafe language in this particular child. In the matter of
• 2:51:03
  Speaker 6: correcting linguistic defects, we will find it helpful to follow
• 2:51:06
  Speaker 6: the physiological rules relating to the child's development and to
• 2:51:10
  Speaker 6: modify the difficulties in the presentation of our lesson. When, however,
• 2:51:14
  Speaker 6: the child's speech is sufficiently developed, and when he pronounces
• 2:51:17
  Speaker 6: all the sounds. It does not matter which of the
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 6: letters we select in our lessons. Many of the defects
• 2:51:24
  Speaker 6: which have become permanent in adults are due to functional
• 2:51:26
  Speaker 6: errors and development of the language during the period of infancy.
• 2:51:30
  Speaker 6: If for the attention which we pay to the correction
• 2:51:32
  Speaker 6: of linguistic defects and children in the upper grades, we
• 2:51:35
  Speaker 6: would substitute a direction of the development of the language
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 6: while the child is still young, our results would be
• 2:51:41
  Speaker 6: much more practical and valuable. In fact, many of the
• 2:51:44
  Speaker 6: defects in pronunciation arise from the use of a dialect,
• 2:51:48
  Speaker 6: and these it is almost impossible to correct after the
• 2:51:51
  Speaker 6: period of childhood. They may, however, be most easily removed
• 2:51:54
  Speaker 6: through the use of educational methods, especially adapted to the
• 2:51:57
  Speaker 6: perfecting of the language and little children. We do not
• 2:52:00
  Speaker 6: speak here of actual linguistic defects related to anatomical or
• 2:52:04
  Speaker 6: physiological weaknesses, or to pathological facts which alter the function
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 6: of the nervous system. I speak at present only of
• 2:52:14
  Speaker 6: those irregularities which are due to a repetition of incorrect
• 2:52:17
  Speaker 6: sounds or to the imitation of imperfect pronunciation. Such defects
• 2:52:22
  Speaker 6: may show themselves in the pronunciation of any one of
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 6: the consonant sounds. And I can conceive of no more
• 2:52:27
  Speaker 6: practical means for a methodical correction of speech defects than
• 2:52:32
  Speaker 6: this exercise and pronunciation, which is a necessary part in
• 2:52:35
  Speaker 6: learning the graphic language through my method. But such important
• 2:52:38
  Speaker 6: questions deserve a chapter to themselves. Turning directly to the
• 2:52:46
  Speaker 6: method used in teaching writing, I may call attention to
• 2:52:49
  Speaker 6: the fact that it is contained in the two periods
• 2:52:51
  Speaker 6: already described. Such exercises have made it possible for the
• 2:52:55
  Speaker 6: child to learn and to fix the muscular mechanism necessary
• 2:52:58
  Speaker 6: to the proper holding of the and to the making
• 2:53:01
  Speaker 6: of the graphic signs. If he has exercised himself for
• 2:53:04
  Speaker 6: a sufficiently long time in these exercises, he will be
• 2:53:07
  Speaker 6: potentially ready to write all the letters of the alphabet
• 2:53:10
  Speaker 6: and all of the simple syllables, without ever having taken
• 2:53:13
  Speaker 6: chalk or pencil in his hand. We have, in addition
• 2:53:17
  Speaker 6: to this, begun the teaching of reading at the same
• 2:53:19
  Speaker 6: time that we have been teaching writing. When we present
• 2:53:23
  Speaker 6: a letter to the child and unciated sound, he fixes
• 2:53:27
  Speaker 6: the image of this letter by means of the visual sense,
• 2:53:30
  Speaker 6: and also by means of the muscular tactile sense. He
• 2:53:33
  Speaker 6: associates the sound with its related sign, that is, he
• 2:53:37
  Speaker 6: relates the sound to the graphic sign. But when he
• 2:53:40
  Speaker 6: sees and recognizes, he reads, and when he traces, he writes.
• 2:53:44
  Speaker 6: Thus his mind receives as one two acts, which later on,
• 2:53:48
  Speaker 6: as he develops, will separate, coming to constitute the two
• 2:53:51
  Speaker 6: diverse processes of reading and writing. By teaching these two
• 2:53:56
  Speaker 6: acts contemporaneously, or better by their fusion, we play the
• 2:54:00
  Speaker 6: child before a new form of language without determining which
• 2:54:03
  Speaker 6: of the acts constituting it should be most prevalent. We
• 2:54:09
  Speaker 6: do not travel ourselves as to whether the child, in
• 2:54:11
  Speaker 6: the development of this process first learns to read or
• 2:54:14
  Speaker 6: to write, or if the one or the other will
• 2:54:17
  Speaker 6: be the easier. We must rid ourselves of all preconceptions
• 2:54:21
  Speaker 6: and must await from experience the answer to these questions.
• 2:54:25
  Speaker 6: We may expect that individual differences will show themselves in
• 2:54:27
  Speaker 6: the prevalence of one or the other act in the
• 2:54:29
  Speaker 6: development of different children. This makes possible the most interesting
• 2:54:33
  Speaker 6: psychological study of the individual, and should broaden the work
• 2:54:36
  Speaker 6: of this method, which is based upon the free expansion
• 2:54:39
  Speaker 6: of individuality. Third period exercises for the composition of words
• 2:54:48
  Speaker 6: didactic material. This consists chiefly of alphabets. The letters of
• 2:54:53
  Speaker 6: the alphabet used here are identical in form and dimension
• 2:54:56
  Speaker 6: with the sandpaper ones already described that. These are cut
• 2:54:59
  Speaker 6: out out of cardboard and are not mounted in this way.
• 2:55:03
  Speaker 6: Each letter represents an object which can be easily handled
• 2:55:06
  Speaker 6: by the child and placed wherever he wishes it. There
• 2:55:09
  Speaker 6: are several examples of each letter, and I have designed
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 6: cases in which the alphabets may be kept. These cases
• 2:55:16
  Speaker 6: or boxes are very shallow and are divided and subdivided
• 2:55:19
  Speaker 6: into many compartments, in each one of which I have
• 2:55:22
  Speaker 6: placed a group of four copies of the same letter.
• 2:55:25
  Speaker 6: The compartments are not equal in size, but are measured
• 2:55:28
  Speaker 6: according to the dimensions of the letters themselves. At the
• 2:55:31
  Speaker 6: bottom of each compartment is gluted letter which is not
• 2:55:33
  Speaker 6: to be taken out. This letter made of black cardboard
• 2:55:37
  Speaker 6: and relieves the child of the fatigue of hunting about
• 2:55:40
  Speaker 6: for the right compartment when he is replacing the letters
• 2:55:42
  Speaker 6: in the case after he has used them. The vowels
• 2:55:44
  Speaker 6: are cut from blue cardboard and the consonants from red.
• 2:55:53
  Speaker 6: In addition to these alphabets, we have a set of
• 2:55:56
  Speaker 6: the capital letters mounted in sandpaper upon cardboard, and another
• 2:55:59
  Speaker 6: in which they are cut from cardboard. The numbers are
• 2:56:02
  Speaker 6: treated in the same way exercises. As soon as the
• 2:56:07
  Speaker 6: child knows some of the vowels and the continents, we
• 2:56:09
  Speaker 6: place before him the big box containing all the vowels
• 2:56:11
  Speaker 6: and the continents which he knows. The directress pronounces very
• 2:56:16
  Speaker 6: clearly a word, for example, Mamma, brings out the sound
• 2:56:20
  Speaker 6: of the M very distinctly, repeating the sound a number
• 2:56:24
  Speaker 6: of times, almost always. The little one, with an impulse movement,
• 2:56:29
  Speaker 6: seizes an M and places it upon the table. The
• 2:56:33
  Speaker 6: directress repeats, ma ma. The child selects the A and
• 2:56:38
  Speaker 6: places it near the M. He then composes the other
• 2:56:42
  Speaker 6: syllable very easily, But the reading of the word which
• 2:56:45
  Speaker 6: he has composed is not so easy. Indeed, he generally
• 2:56:49
  Speaker 6: succeeds in reading it only after a certain effort. In
• 2:56:53
  Speaker 6: this case, I help the child, urging him to read
• 2:56:56
  Speaker 6: and read the word with him once or twice, always
• 2:56:59
  Speaker 6: pronouncing very distinctly Mamma, mamma. But once he has understood
• 2:57:04
  Speaker 6: the mechanism of the game, the child goes forward by
• 2:57:06
  Speaker 6: himself and becomes intensely interested. We may pronounce any word,
• 2:57:11
  Speaker 6: taking care only that the child understands separately the letters
• 2:57:14
  Speaker 6: of which it is composed, he composes the new word,
• 2:57:19
  Speaker 6: placing one after the other the signs corresponding.
• 2:57:22
  Speaker 7: To the word.
• 2:57:26
  Speaker 6: It is most interesting, indeed, to watch the child at
• 2:57:29
  Speaker 6: this work. Intensely attentive, he sits watching the box, moving
• 2:57:32
  Speaker 6: his lips almost imperceptibly, and taking one by one the
• 2:57:36
  Speaker 6: necessary letters, rarely committing an error in spelling. The movement
• 2:57:40
  Speaker 6: of the lips reveals the fact that he repeats to
• 2:57:42
  Speaker 6: himself an infinite number of times the words whose sounds
• 2:57:45
  Speaker 6: he is translating into signs. Although the child is able
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 6: to compose any word which is clearly pronounced, we generally
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 6: dictate to him only those words which are well known,
• 2:57:54
  Speaker 6: since we wish his composition to result in an idea.
• 2:57:58
  Speaker 6: When these familiar words are used, he spontaneously rereads many
• 2:58:02
  Speaker 6: times the word he has composed, repeating its sounds in
• 2:58:05
  Speaker 6: a thoughtful, contemplative way. The importance of these exercises is
• 2:58:11
  Speaker 6: very complex. The child analysis perfects fixes his own spoken language,
• 2:58:17
  Speaker 6: placing an object in correspondence to every sound which he utters.
• 2:58:21
  Speaker 6: The composition of the word furnishes him with substantial proof
• 2:58:24
  Speaker 6: of the necessity for clear and forcible denunciation. The exercise
• 2:58:30
  Speaker 6: thus followed associates the sound which is heard with the
• 2:58:33
  Speaker 6: graphic sign which represents it, and lays the most solid
• 2:58:36
  Speaker 6: foundation for accurate and perfect spelling. In addition to this,
• 2:58:43
  Speaker 6: the composition of the words is in itself an exercise
• 2:58:46
  Speaker 6: of intelligence. The word which is pronounced presents to the
• 2:58:49
  Speaker 6: child a problem which he must solve, and he will
• 2:58:52
  Speaker 6: do so by remembering the signs, selecting them from among others,
• 2:58:56
  Speaker 6: and arranging them in the proper order. He will have
• 2:58:59
  Speaker 6: the proof of the excit solution to his problem when
• 2:59:01
  Speaker 6: he re reads the word, this word which he has composed,
• 2:59:04
  Speaker 6: and which represents, for all those who know how to
• 2:59:06
  Speaker 6: read it, an idea. When the child hears others read
• 2:59:13
  Speaker 6: the word he has composed, he wears an expression of
• 2:59:16
  Speaker 6: satisfaction and pride, and is possessed by a species of
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 6: joyous wonder. He is impressed by this correspondence carried on
• 2:59:25
  Speaker 6: between himself and others by means of symbols. The written
• 2:59:28
  Speaker 6: language represents for him the highest attainment reached by his
• 2:59:30
  Speaker 6: own intelligence, and is at the same time the reward
• 2:59:33
  Speaker 6: of a great achievement. When the pupil has finished the
• 2:59:39
  Speaker 6: composition and the reading of the word we gave him,
• 2:59:42
  Speaker 6: according to the habits of order which we try to
• 2:59:44
  Speaker 6: establish in connection with all our work, put away all
• 2:59:47
  Speaker 6: the letters, each one in its own compartment, in composition,
• 2:59:51
  Speaker 6: pure and simple. Therefore the child unites the two exercises
• 2:59:55
  Speaker 6: of comparison enough selection of the graphic signs, the first
• 2:59:59
  Speaker 6: one from the entire letters before him, he takes those necessary,
• 3:00:02
  Speaker 6: the second when he seeks the compartment in which each
• 3:00:05
  Speaker 6: letter must be replaced. There are then three exercises united
• 3:00:09
  Speaker 6: in this one effort, all three uniting to fix the
• 3:00:12
  Speaker 6: image of the graphic sign corresponding to the sounds of
• 3:00:15
  Speaker 6: the word. The work of learning is in this case
• 3:00:29
  Speaker 6: facilitated in three ways, and the ideas are acquired in
• 3:00:33
  Speaker 6: a third of the time which would have been necessary
• 3:00:35
  Speaker 6: with the old methods. We shall soon see that the child,
• 3:00:38
  Speaker 6: on hearing the word, or on thinking of a word
• 3:00:40
  Speaker 6: which he already knows, will see with his mind's eye
• 3:00:43
  Speaker 6: all the letters necessary to compose the word arrange themselves.
• 3:00:48
  Speaker 6: He will reproduce this vision with a facility must surprising
• 3:00:51
  Speaker 6: to us. One day, little boy four years old running
• 3:00:53
  Speaker 6: alone about the terrace, was heard to repeat many times
• 3:00:57
  Speaker 6: to make zerah, I must have said a I R A.
• 3:01:02
  Speaker 6: Another time, Professor di Donato, in a visit to the
• 3:01:05
  Speaker 6: children's house, pronounced his own name for a four year
• 3:01:08
  Speaker 6: old child. The child was composing the name using small
• 3:01:12
  Speaker 6: letters and making it all one word, and had begun
• 3:01:15
  Speaker 6: thus d I t O n diton. The professor at
• 3:01:20
  Speaker 6: once pronounced the word more distinctly, d do nato, whereupon
• 3:01:26
  Speaker 6: the child, without scattering the letters, picked up the syllable
• 3:01:30
  Speaker 6: to and placed it to one side, putting do in
• 3:01:34
  Speaker 6: the empty space. He then placed an a after the n,
• 3:01:38
  Speaker 6: and taking up the toe which he had put aside,
• 3:01:41
  Speaker 6: completed the word with it. This made it evident that
• 3:01:44
  Speaker 6: the child, when the word was pronounced more clearly, understood
• 3:01:48
  Speaker 6: that the syllable to did not belong at that place
• 3:01:50
  Speaker 6: in the word, realized that it belonged at the end
• 3:01:53
  Speaker 6: of the word, and therefore placed it aside until he
• 3:01:55
  Speaker 6: should need it. This was most surprising in a child
• 3:01:59
  Speaker 6: of four years and a man. All of those present.
• 3:02:01
  Speaker 6: It can be explained by the clear and at the
• 3:02:03
  Speaker 6: same time complex vision of the signs what the child
• 3:02:06
  Speaker 6: must have if he is to form a word which
• 3:02:08
  Speaker 6: he here spoken. This extraordinary act was largely due to
• 3:02:12
  Speaker 6: the orderly mentality which the child had acquired through repeated
• 3:02:16
  Speaker 6: spontaneous exercises tending to develop his intelligence. These three periods
• 3:02:24
  Speaker 6: contain the entire method for the acquisition of written language.
• 3:02:27
  Speaker 6: The significance of such a method is clear. The psycho
• 3:02:30
  Speaker 6: physiological acts which unite to establish reading and writing are
• 3:02:33
  Speaker 6: prepared separately and carefully. The muscular movements peculiar to the
• 3:02:37
  Speaker 6: making of the signs or letters are prepared apart, and
• 3:02:39
  Speaker 6: the same history of the manipulation of the instrument of writing.
• 3:02:43
  Speaker 6: The composition of the words also is reduced to a
• 3:02:45
  Speaker 6: psychic mechanism of association between images heard and seen. There
• 3:02:49
  Speaker 6: comes a moment in which the child, without thinking of it,
• 3:02:52
  Speaker 6: fills in the geometric figures with an up and down
• 3:02:54
  Speaker 6: stroke which is free and regular. A moment in which
• 3:02:57
  Speaker 6: he touches the letters with closed eyes and in which
• 3:03:00
  Speaker 6: he reproduces their form, making his finger through the air.
• 3:03:04
  Speaker 6: A moment in which the composition of words has become
• 3:03:07
  Speaker 6: a psychic impulse, which makes the child, even when alone,
• 3:03:10
  Speaker 6: repeat to himself to make zarah, I must have z
• 3:03:14
  Speaker 6: a I r a. Now. This child, it is true,
• 3:03:21
  Speaker 6: has never written, but he has mastered all the acts
• 3:03:24
  Speaker 6: necessary to writing. The child, who, when taking dictation, not
• 3:03:28
  Speaker 6: only knows how to compose the word, but instantly embraces
• 3:03:31
  Speaker 6: in his thought its composition as a whole, will be
• 3:03:34
  Speaker 6: able to write, since he knows how to make, with
• 3:03:36
  Speaker 6: his eyes closed, the movements necessary to produce these letters,
• 3:03:39
  Speaker 6: and since he manages almost unconsciously the instrument of writing.
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 6: More than this, the freedom with which the child has acquired,
• 3:03:48
  Speaker 6: this mechanical dexterity, makes it possible for the impulse or
• 3:03:51
  Speaker 6: spirit to act at any time through the medium of
• 3:03:53
  Speaker 6: his mechanical ability. He should sooner or later come into
• 3:03:57
  Speaker 6: his full power by way of a spontaneous explosion into writing.
• 3:04:01
  Speaker 6: This is indeed the marvelous reaction which has come from
• 3:04:03
  Speaker 6: my experiment of normal children in one of the children's
• 3:04:07
  Speaker 6: houses directed by Signora Bertini. I had been especially careful
• 3:04:11
  Speaker 6: in the way in which writing was taught, and we
• 3:04:13
  Speaker 6: have had from this school most beautiful specimens of rating.
• 3:04:16
  Speaker 6: And for this reason perhaps I cannot do better than
• 3:04:19
  Speaker 6: to describe the development of the work in this school.
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 6: One beautiful December day, when the sun shone, and the
• 3:04:25
  Speaker 6: air was like spring. I went upon the roof of
• 3:04:27
  Speaker 6: the children. They were playing freely about, and a number
• 3:04:31
  Speaker 6: of them were gathered about me. I was sitting near
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 6: a chimney and said to a little five year old
• 3:04:35
  Speaker 6: boy who sat beside me, draw me a picture of
• 3:04:38
  Speaker 6: this chimney. Giving him as I spoke, a piece of chalk.
• 3:04:42
  Speaker 6: He got down obediently and made a rough sketch of
• 3:04:44
  Speaker 6: the chimney on the tiels which formed the floor of
• 3:04:46
  Speaker 6: this roof terrace. As is my custom of the little children,
• 3:04:49
  Speaker 6: I encouraged him, praising his work. Child looked at me, smiled,
• 3:04:54
  Speaker 6: remained for a moment as if on the point of
• 3:04:55
  Speaker 6: bursting to some joyous act, and then cried out, I
• 3:04:58
  Speaker 6: can write. I can write, And kneeling down again, he
• 3:05:02
  Speaker 6: wrote on the pavement the word hand. Then, full of enthusiasm,
• 3:05:06
  Speaker 6: he wrote also chimney rufe. As he wrote, he continued
• 3:05:11
  Speaker 6: to cry out, I can write. I know how to write.
• 3:05:14
  Speaker 6: His cries of joy brought the other children, who formed
• 3:05:16
  Speaker 6: a circle about him, looking down at his work in
• 3:05:19
  Speaker 6: stupefied amazement. Two or three of them said to me,
• 3:05:22
  Speaker 6: trembling with excitement, give me the chalk, I can write too,
• 3:05:25
  Speaker 6: And indeed they began to write various words, Mamma, hand, John, chimney, ada.
• 3:05:32
  Speaker 6: Not one of them had ever taken chalk or any
• 3:05:35
  Speaker 6: other instrument in hand for the purpose of writing. It
• 3:05:38
  Speaker 6: was the first time that they had ever written, and
• 3:05:40
  Speaker 6: they traced an entire word. As a child, when speaking
• 3:05:43
  Speaker 6: for the first time, speaks the entire word. The first
• 3:05:47
  Speaker 6: word spoken by a baby causes the mother ineffable joy.
• 3:05:51
  Speaker 6: The child has chosen, perhaps the word mother, seeming to
• 3:05:54
  Speaker 6: render thus a tribute to maternity. The first word written
• 3:05:57
  Speaker 6: by my little ones aroused within themselves in induscribable emotion
• 3:06:01
  Speaker 6: of joy. Not being able to adjust in their minds
• 3:06:03
  Speaker 6: the connection between the paraparation and the act, they are
• 3:06:07
  Speaker 6: possessed by the illusion that, having now grown to the
• 3:06:10
  Speaker 6: proper size, they knew how to write. In other words,
• 3:06:13
  Speaker 6: writing seemed to them only one among the many gifts
• 3:06:15
  Speaker 6: of nature. They believe that as they grow bigger and stronger,
• 3:06:20
  Speaker 6: there will come some beautiful day when they shall know
• 3:06:23
  Speaker 6: how to write. And indeed, this is what it is.
• 3:06:26
  Speaker 6: In reality. The child who speaks first prepares himself unconsciously
• 3:06:30
  Speaker 6: perfecting the psycho muscular mechanism which leads to the articulation
• 3:06:33
  Speaker 6: of the word. In the case of writing, the child
• 3:06:35
  Speaker 6: does almost the same thing. But the direct pedagogical help
• 3:06:38
  Speaker 6: and the possibility of preparing the movements for writing in
• 3:06:41
  Speaker 6: an almost material way causes the ability to write to
• 3:06:44
  Speaker 6: develop much more rapidly and more perfectly than the ability
• 3:06:47
  Speaker 6: to speak correctly. In spite of the ease with which
• 3:06:51
  Speaker 6: this is accomplished, the preparation is not partial, but complete.
• 3:06:55
  Speaker 6: The child possesses all the movements necessary for writing, and
• 3:06:58
  Speaker 6: written language develops not gradually, but in an explosive way.
• 3:07:02
  Speaker 6: That is, the child can write any word. Such was
• 3:07:05
  Speaker 6: our first experience in the development of the written language
• 3:07:07
  Speaker 6: and our children. Those first days, we were a prey
• 3:07:11
  Speaker 6: to deep emotions. It seemed as if we walked in
• 3:07:13
  Speaker 6: a dream, and as if we assisted at some miraculous achievement.
• 3:07:18
  Speaker 6: The child wrote a word for the first time was
• 3:07:20
  Speaker 6: full of excited joy. He might be compared to the
• 3:07:22
  Speaker 6: hen who has just laid an egg. Indeed, no one
• 3:07:25
  Speaker 6: could escape from the noisy manifestations of the little one.
• 3:07:28
  Speaker 6: He would call everyone to see, and if there were
• 3:07:31
  Speaker 6: some who did not go, he ran to take hold
• 3:07:33
  Speaker 6: of their clothes, forcing them to come and see. We
• 3:07:36
  Speaker 6: all had to go and stand about the written word,
• 3:07:38
  Speaker 6: to admire the marvel and to unite our exclamations of
• 3:07:40
  Speaker 6: surprise with the joyous cries of the fortunate author. Usually
• 3:07:43
  Speaker 6: the first word was written on the floor, and then
• 3:07:46
  Speaker 6: the child knelt down before it in order to be
• 3:07:48
  Speaker 6: nearer to his work and to contemplate it more closely.
• 3:07:51
  Speaker 6: After the first word, the children, with a species of
• 3:07:54
  Speaker 6: frenzied joy, continued to write. Everywhere I saw children crowding
• 3:07:58
  Speaker 6: about one another of the blackboard, and behind the little
• 3:08:00
  Speaker 6: ones who were standing on the floor, another line would form,
• 3:08:03
  Speaker 6: consisting of children mounted upon chairs, so that they might
• 3:08:06
  Speaker 6: write above the heads of the little ones, and a
• 3:08:09
  Speaker 6: fury at being thwarted. Other children, in order to find
• 3:08:12
  Speaker 6: a little place where they might write, overturned the chairs
• 3:08:15
  Speaker 6: upon which their companions were mounted. Others ran toward the
• 3:08:19
  Speaker 6: window shutters or the door, covering them with writing. In
• 3:08:22
  Speaker 6: these first days, we walked upon a carpet of written signs.
• 3:08:25
  Speaker 6: Daily accounts showed us that the same thing was going
• 3:08:28
  Speaker 6: on at home, and some of the mothers, in order
• 3:08:29
  Speaker 6: to save their pavements and even the crust of their loads,
• 3:08:32
  Speaker 6: upon which they found words written, made their children presents
• 3:08:36
  Speaker 6: of paper and pencil. One of these children brought to
• 3:08:39
  Speaker 6: me one day a little note book entirely filled with writing,
• 3:08:42
  Speaker 6: and the mother told me that the child had written
• 3:08:43
  Speaker 6: all day long and all evening, and had gone to
• 3:08:45
  Speaker 6: sleep in his bed with the paper and pencil in
• 3:08:47
  Speaker 6: his hands. This impulsive activity, which we could not in
• 3:08:51
  Speaker 6: those first days control, made me think upon the wisdom
• 3:08:54
  Speaker 6: of nature, who developed the spoken language little by little,
• 3:08:57
  Speaker 6: letting it go hand in hand with the gradual formation
• 3:09:00
  Speaker 6: of ideas. Think of what the result would have been
• 3:09:03
  Speaker 6: had Nature acted imprudently as I had done. Suppose Nature
• 3:09:07
  Speaker 6: had first allowed the human being to gather by means
• 3:09:09
  Speaker 6: of the senses are rich and varied material, and to
• 3:09:11
  Speaker 6: acquire a store of ideas, and had then completely prepared
• 3:09:14
  Speaker 6: in him the means for articulate language, saying finely to
• 3:09:17
  Speaker 6: the child mute until that hour, go speak. The result
• 3:09:22
  Speaker 6: would have been a species of sudden madness, under the
• 3:09:24
  Speaker 6: influence of which the child, feeling no restraints, would have
• 3:09:27
  Speaker 6: burst into an exhausting torrant of the most strange and
• 3:09:29
  Speaker 6: difficult words. I believe, however, that there exists between the
• 3:09:34
  Speaker 6: two extremes, A happy medium, which is the true and
• 3:09:36
  Speaker 6: practical way. We should lead the child more gradually to
• 3:09:39
  Speaker 6: the conquest of written language. Yet we should still have
• 3:09:42
  Speaker 6: it come as a spontaneous fact, and his work should
• 3:09:45
  Speaker 6: from the first be almost perfect. Figure A. It's a
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 6: picture of children blindfolded and touching some material. The note says, A.
• 3:10:01
  Speaker 6: Training the sense of touch, learning the difference between rough
• 3:10:04
  Speaker 6: and smooth by running fingers alternately over sandpaper and smooth cardboard,
• 3:10:09
  Speaker 6: distinguishing different shapes by fitting geometric insects into place, distinguishing textures.
• 3:10:15
  Speaker 6: B learning to write and read by touch. The child
• 3:10:20
  Speaker 6: at the left is tracing sandpaper letters and learning to
• 3:10:23
  Speaker 6: know them by touch. The boy and girl are making
• 3:10:25
  Speaker 6: words out of cardboard letters. A children touching letters. The
• 3:10:30
  Speaker 6: child on the left has acquired lightness and delicacy of
• 3:10:33
  Speaker 6: touch by very thorough preparatory exercises. One on the right
• 3:10:36
  Speaker 6: has not had so much training. B making words with
• 3:10:44
  Speaker 6: cardboard on script. End of Chapter seventeen.
• 3:10:49
  Speaker 8: Chapter seventeen, Part two, description of the method and didactic
• 3:10:54
  Speaker 8: material used. I believe, however, that there exists between the
• 3:11:01
  Speaker 8: two extremes, A happy medium, which is the true and
• 3:11:04
  Speaker 8: practical way, we should lead the child more gradually to
• 3:11:08
  Speaker 8: the conquest of written language. Yet we should still have
• 3:11:11
  Speaker 8: it come as a spontaneous fact, and his work should
• 3:11:14
  Speaker 8: from the first be almost perfect. Experience has shown us
• 3:11:18
  Speaker 8: how to control this phenomenon and how to lead the
• 3:11:21
  Speaker 8: child more calmly to this new power. The fact that
• 3:11:24
  Speaker 8: the children see their companions writing leads them, through imitation,
• 3:11:29
  Speaker 8: to write as soon as they can. In this way,
• 3:11:32
  Speaker 8: when the child writes, he does not have the entire
• 3:11:35
  Speaker 8: alphabet at his disposal, and the number of words which
• 3:11:38
  Speaker 8: he can write is limited. He is not even capable
• 3:11:42
  Speaker 8: of making all of the words possible through a combination
• 3:11:46
  Speaker 8: of the letters which he does know. He still has
• 3:11:49
  Speaker 8: the great joy of the first written word, but this
• 3:11:52
  Speaker 8: is no longer the source of an overwhelming surprise, since
• 3:11:56
  Speaker 8: he sees just such wonderful things happening each day and
• 3:12:01
  Speaker 8: knows that sooner or later the same gift will come
• 3:12:03
  Speaker 8: to all. This tends to create a calm and ordered environment,
• 3:12:08
  Speaker 8: still full of beautiful and wonderful surprises. Making a visit
• 3:12:13
  Speaker 8: to the children's house even during the opening weeks, one
• 3:12:16
  Speaker 8: makes fresh discoveries. Here, for instance, are two little children
• 3:12:21
  Speaker 8: who though they fairly radiate pride and joy, are writing tranquility.
• 3:12:26
  Speaker 8: Yet these children until yesterday had never thought of writing.
• 3:12:31
  Speaker 8: The directress tells me that one of them began to
• 3:12:34
  Speaker 8: write yesterday morning at eleven o'clock, the other at three
• 3:12:39
  Speaker 8: in the afternoon. We have come to accept the phenomenon
• 3:12:42
  Speaker 8: with calmness and tacitly recognize it as a natural form
• 3:12:47
  Speaker 8: of the child's development. The wisdom of the teacher shot
• 3:12:51
  Speaker 8: the side. When it is necessary to encourage a child
• 3:12:54
  Speaker 8: to write, this can only be when he is already
• 3:12:58
  Speaker 8: perfect and the three periods of the preparatory exercise, and
• 3:13:02
  Speaker 8: yet does not write of his own accord. There is
• 3:13:06
  Speaker 8: danger that in retarding the act of writing, the child
• 3:13:09
  Speaker 8: may plunge finally into a tumultuous effort due to the
• 3:13:13
  Speaker 8: fact that he knows the entire alphabet and has no
• 3:13:16
  Speaker 8: natural check. The science by which the teacher may almost
• 3:13:20
  Speaker 8: precisely diagnose the child's maturity in this respect are the
• 3:13:24
  Speaker 8: regularity of the parallel lines which fill in the geometric figures,
• 3:13:29
  Speaker 8: the recognition with closed eyes of the sandpaper letters, the
• 3:13:33
  Speaker 8: scrutiny and readiness shown in the composition of words before
• 3:13:38
  Speaker 8: intervening by means of a direct invitation to write. It
• 3:13:42
  Speaker 8: is best to wait at least a week in the
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 8: hope that the child may write spontaneously. When he has
• 3:13:47
  Speaker 8: begun to write spontaneously, the teacher may intervene to guide
• 3:13:51
  Speaker 8: the process of the writing. The first help which she
• 3:13:54
  Speaker 8: may give is that of ruling the blackboard, so that
• 3:13:58
  Speaker 8: the child may be led to maintain regularity and proper
• 3:14:02
  Speaker 8: dimensions in his writing. The second is that of inducing
• 3:14:06
  Speaker 8: the child, whose writing is not firm, to repeat the
• 3:14:09
  Speaker 8: tracing of the sandpaper letters. She should do this instead
• 3:14:13
  Speaker 8: of directly correcting his actual writing, for the child does
• 3:14:17
  Speaker 8: not perfect himself by repeating the act of writing, but
• 3:14:21
  Speaker 8: by repeating the act's preparatory to writing. I remember a
• 3:14:25
  Speaker 8: little beginner who, wishing to make his blackboard writing perfect,
• 3:14:30
  Speaker 8: brought all of the sandpaper letters with him, and, before writing,
• 3:14:34
  Speaker 8: touched two or three times all of the letters needed
• 3:14:37
  Speaker 8: in the words he wished to write. If a letter
• 3:14:40
  Speaker 8: did not seem to him to be perfect, he erased
• 3:14:43
  Speaker 8: it and retouched the letter upon the card before rewriting.
• 3:14:48
  Speaker 8: Our children, even after they have been writing for a year,
• 3:14:51
  Speaker 8: continued to repeat the three preparatory exercises They thus learned
• 3:14:56
  Speaker 8: both to write and to perfect their writing, without really
• 3:14:59
  Speaker 8: going through the the actual act. With our children, actual
• 3:15:03
  Speaker 8: writing is a test. It springs from an inner impulse
• 3:15:08
  Speaker 8: and from the pleasure of explaining a superior activity. It
• 3:15:11
  Speaker 8: is not an exercise, as the soul of the mystic
• 3:15:14
  Speaker 8: perfects itself through prayer. Even so in our little ones,
• 3:15:18
  Speaker 8: the highest expression of civilization, written language is acquired and
• 3:15:22
  Speaker 8: improved through exercises which are akin to but which are
• 3:15:26
  Speaker 8: not writing. There is educational value in this idea of
• 3:15:31
  Speaker 8: preparing oneself before trying, and of perfecting oneself before going
• 3:15:35
  Speaker 8: on to go forward. Correcting his own mistakes. Boldly attempting
• 3:15:40
  Speaker 8: things which he does imperfectly and of which he is
• 3:15:43
  Speaker 8: as yet unworthy, dulls the sensitiveness of the child's spirit
• 3:15:47
  Speaker 8: toward his own errors. My method of writing contains an
• 3:15:51
  Speaker 8: educative concept, teaching the child the prudence which makes him
• 3:15:55
  Speaker 8: avoid errors, that didity which makes him look ahead and
• 3:15:59
  Speaker 8: which guide him to perfection, and that humility which unites
• 3:16:02
  Speaker 8: him closely to those sources of good through which alone
• 3:16:06
  Speaker 8: he can make a spiritual conquest, putting far from him
• 3:16:09
  Speaker 8: the illusion that the immediate success is ample justification for
• 3:16:14
  Speaker 8: continuing in the way he has chosen. The fact that
• 3:16:19
  Speaker 8: all the children, those who are just beginning the three exercises,
• 3:16:23
  Speaker 8: and those who have been writing for months daily, repeat
• 3:16:26
  Speaker 8: the same exercise unites them and makes it easy for
• 3:16:29
  Speaker 8: them to meet upon an apparently equal plane. Here there
• 3:16:33
  Speaker 8: are no distinctions of beginners and experts. All the children
• 3:16:38
  Speaker 8: fill in the figures with colored pencils, touch the standpaper letters,
• 3:16:42
  Speaker 8: and compose words with the movable alphabets. The little ones
• 3:16:46
  Speaker 8: beside the big ones who help them. He who prepares
• 3:16:49
  Speaker 8: himself and he who perfects himself both follow the same path.
• 3:16:54
  Speaker 8: It is the same way in life, for deeper than
• 3:16:57
  Speaker 8: any social distinction. Their lives equality a common meeting point,
• 3:17:03
  Speaker 8: where all men are brothers, or as in the spiritual life,
• 3:17:07
  Speaker 8: aspirins and saints, again and again pass through the same experiences.
• 3:17:12
  Speaker 8: Writing is very quickly learned, because we begin to teach
• 3:17:15
  Speaker 8: it only to those children who show a desire for it.
• 3:17:18
  Speaker 8: Byaspontanige's attention to the lesson given by the directress to
• 3:17:23
  Speaker 8: other children, or by watching the exercises in which the
• 3:17:26
  Speaker 8: others are occupied, some individuals learn without ever having received
• 3:17:32
  Speaker 8: any lessons solely through listening to the lessons given to others.
• 3:17:37
  Speaker 8: In general, all children of four are intensely interested in writing,
• 3:17:41
  Speaker 8: and some of our children have begun to write at
• 3:17:44
  Speaker 8: the age of three and a half. We find that
• 3:17:47
  Speaker 8: children particularly enthusiastic about tracing the same paper letters. During
• 3:17:53
  Speaker 8: the first period of my experiments, when the children were
• 3:17:56
  Speaker 8: shown the alphabet for the first time, I one day
• 3:17:58
  Speaker 8: asked Signora Bertis to bring out to the terrors where
• 3:18:02
  Speaker 8: the children were at play, all all the various letters
• 3:18:05
  Speaker 8: which she herself had made. As soon as the children
• 3:18:08
  Speaker 8: saw them, they gathered about us, their fingers outstretched in
• 3:18:12
  Speaker 8: their eagerness to touch the letters. Those who secured cards
• 3:18:16
  Speaker 8: were unable to touch them properly because of the other
• 3:18:19
  Speaker 8: children who crowded about trying to reach the cards in
• 3:18:22
  Speaker 8: our laps. I remember, with what an impulsive movement, the
• 3:18:26
  Speaker 8: possessors of the cards held them on high like banners,
• 3:18:30
  Speaker 8: and began to march, followed by all the other children,
• 3:18:32
  Speaker 8: who clapped their hands and cried out joyously. The procession
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 8: passed before us, and all big and little laughed merrily,
• 3:18:41
  Speaker 8: while the mothers, attracted by the noise, leaned from the
• 3:18:44
  Speaker 8: windows to watch the sight. The average time that elapses
• 3:18:48
  Speaker 8: between the first trial of the preparatory exercises and the
• 3:18:52
  Speaker 8: first written word is for children of four years from
• 3:18:55
  Speaker 8: a month to a month and a half. With children
• 3:18:58
  Speaker 8: of five years, the period is much shorter, being about
• 3:19:02
  Speaker 8: a month, but one of our pupils learned to use
• 3:19:05
  Speaker 8: in writing all the letters of the alphabet in twenty days.
• 3:19:09
  Speaker 8: Children of four years, after they have been in school
• 3:19:12
  Speaker 8: for two months and a half, can write any word
• 3:19:14
  Speaker 8: from dictation, and can pass in writing with ink in
• 3:19:18
  Speaker 8: a notebook. Our little ones are generally experts after three
• 3:19:22
  Speaker 8: months time, and those who have written for six months
• 3:19:25
  Speaker 8: may be compared to the children in the third elementary. Indeed,
• 3:19:29
  Speaker 8: writing is one of the easiest and most delightful of
• 3:19:32
  Speaker 8: all the conquests made by the child. If adults learned
• 3:19:35
  Speaker 8: as easily as children under six years of age, it
• 3:19:38
  Speaker 8: would be an easy matter to do away with the literacy.
• 3:19:42
  Speaker 8: We would probably find two grave hindrances to the attainment
• 3:19:46
  Speaker 8: of such a brilliant success, the torpor of the mostly
• 3:19:50
  Speaker 8: other sense and those permanent defects of spoken language, which
• 3:19:54
  Speaker 8: would be sure to translate themselves into the written language.
• 3:19:58
  Speaker 8: I have not made experiments along this line, But I
• 3:20:01
  Speaker 8: believe that one school year would be sufficient to lead
• 3:20:04
  Speaker 8: an illiterate person not only to write, but to express
• 3:20:08
  Speaker 8: his thoughts in written language. So much for the time
• 3:20:11
  Speaker 8: necessary for learning as to the execution, our children write
• 3:20:15
  Speaker 8: well from the moment in which they begin. The form
• 3:20:19
  Speaker 8: of the letters, beautifully rounded and flowing, is surprising in
• 3:20:23
  Speaker 8: similarity to the form of the sandpaper models. The beauty
• 3:20:26
  Speaker 8: of our writing is rarely equaled by any scholars in
• 3:20:29
  Speaker 8: the elementary schools who have not had special exercises in penmanship.
• 3:20:34
  Speaker 8: I have made a close study of penmanship, and I
• 3:20:37
  Speaker 8: know how difficult it would be to teach pupils of
• 3:20:39
  Speaker 8: twelve or thirteen years to write an entire word without
• 3:20:43
  Speaker 8: lifting the pen. Except for the few letters which require this,
• 3:20:47
  Speaker 8: the up and down strokes with which they have filled
• 3:20:50
  Speaker 8: their copy book make flowing writing almost impossible to them.
• 3:20:54
  Speaker 8: Our little pupils, on the other hand, spontaneously and with
• 3:20:58
  Speaker 8: the marvelous security, entire words without lifting the pen, maintaining
• 3:21:03
  Speaker 8: perfectly the slant of the letters, and making the distance
• 3:21:06
  Speaker 8: between each letter equal. This has caused more than one
• 3:21:09
  Speaker 8: visitor to exclaim, if I had not seen it, I
• 3:21:12
  Speaker 8: should never have believed it. Indeed, penmanship is a superior
• 3:21:16
  Speaker 8: form of teaching and is necessary to correct defects already
• 3:21:20
  Speaker 8: acquired and fixed. It is a long work for the
• 3:21:23
  Speaker 8: child seeing the model, must follow the movements necessary to
• 3:21:27
  Speaker 8: reproduce it. While there is no direct correspondence between the
• 3:21:31
  Speaker 8: visual sensation and the movements with which you must make.
• 3:21:35
  Speaker 8: Too often penmanship is taught at an age when all
• 3:21:38
  Speaker 8: the defects have become established, and when the physiological period
• 3:21:42
  Speaker 8: in which the muscular memory is ready has been passed.
• 3:21:46
  Speaker 8: We directly prepare the child not only for writing, but
• 3:21:49
  Speaker 8: also for penmanship, paying great attention to the beauty of form,
• 3:21:53
  Speaker 8: having the chosen touched, the letters in script, and to
• 3:21:56
  Speaker 8: the flowing quality of the letters. The exercises in filming
• 3:22:00
  Speaker 8: in prepare for this reading didactic material. The didactic material
• 3:22:11
  Speaker 8: for the lessons in reading consists in slips of paper
• 3:22:15
  Speaker 8: or cards upon which are written in clear, large script
• 3:22:20
  Speaker 8: words and phrases. In addition to these cards, we have
• 3:22:25
  Speaker 8: a great variety of toys. Experience has taught me to
• 3:22:29
  Speaker 8: distinguish clearly between writing and reading, and has shown me
• 3:22:33
  Speaker 8: that the two acts are not absolutely contemporaneous. Contrary to
• 3:22:37
  Speaker 8: the usually accepted idea. Writing precedes reading. I do not
• 3:22:42
  Speaker 8: consider as reading the test which the child makes when
• 3:22:45
  Speaker 8: he verifies the word that he has written. He is
• 3:22:49
  Speaker 8: translating signs into sounds, as he first translated sounds into signs.
• 3:22:54
  Speaker 8: In this verification, he already knows the word, and has
• 3:22:58
  Speaker 8: repeated it to himself while writing it. What I understand
• 3:23:02
  Speaker 8: by reading is the interpretation of an idea from the
• 3:23:06
  Speaker 8: written signs the child, who has not heard the word pronounced,
• 3:23:11
  Speaker 8: and who recognizes it when he sees it composed upon
• 3:23:13
  Speaker 8: the table with the cardboard letters, and who can tell
• 3:23:17
  Speaker 8: what it means. This child reads, The word which he
• 3:23:20
  Speaker 8: reads has the same relation to written language that the
• 3:23:24
  Speaker 8: word which he hears bears to articulate language. Both serve
• 3:23:28
  Speaker 8: to receive the language transmitted to us by others. So
• 3:23:32
  Speaker 8: until the child reads a transmission of ideas from the
• 3:23:35
  Speaker 8: written word, he does not read. We may say, if
• 3:23:38
  Speaker 8: we like, that writing as described is a fact in
• 3:23:42
  Speaker 8: which the psychomotor mechanism prevails, while in reading there enters
• 3:23:47
  Speaker 8: a work which is purely intellectual. But it is evident
• 3:23:50
  Speaker 8: how our method for writing prepares for reading, making the
• 3:23:54
  Speaker 8: difficulties almost imperceptible. Indeed, writing prepares a child to interpret
• 3:24:00
  Speaker 8: mechanically the union of the letter sounds of which the
• 3:24:04
  Speaker 8: written word is composed. When a child at our school
• 3:24:06
  Speaker 8: knows how to write, he knows how to read the
• 3:24:09
  Speaker 8: sounds of which the word is composed. It should be noticed, however,
• 3:24:14
  Speaker 8: that when the child composes the words with a movable alphabet,
• 3:24:18
  Speaker 8: or when he writes, he has time to think about
• 3:24:21
  Speaker 8: the signs which he must select to form the word.
• 3:24:24
  Speaker 8: The writing of a word requires a great deal more
• 3:24:27
  Speaker 8: time than that necessary for reading the same word. The
• 3:24:30
  Speaker 8: child who knows how to write, when placed before a
• 3:24:33
  Speaker 8: word which he must interpret by reading, is silent for
• 3:24:36
  Speaker 8: a long time, and generally reads the component sounds with
• 3:24:40
  Speaker 8: the same slowness with which he would have written them.
• 3:24:44
  Speaker 8: But the sense of the word becomes evident only when
• 3:24:47
  Speaker 8: it is pronounced clearly and with a phonetic accent. Now,
• 3:24:51
  Speaker 8: in order to place the phonetic accent, the child must
• 3:24:54
  Speaker 8: recognize the word. That is, he must recognize the idea
• 3:24:58
  Speaker 8: which the word represents. The intervention of a superior work
• 3:25:03
  Speaker 8: of the intellect is necessary if he is to read.
• 3:25:06
  Speaker 8: Because of all this, I proceed in the following way
• 3:25:09
  Speaker 8: with the exercises in reading, and as will be evident,
• 3:25:12
  Speaker 8: I do away entirely with the old time primer. I
• 3:25:15
  Speaker 8: prepare a number of little cards, made from ordinary writing paper.
• 3:25:21
  Speaker 8: On each of these I write a large, clear script,
• 3:25:24
  Speaker 8: some well known word, one which has already been pronounced
• 3:25:28
  Speaker 8: many times by the children, and which represents an object
• 3:25:32
  Speaker 8: actually present or well known to them. If the word
• 3:25:35
  Speaker 8: refers to an object which is before them, I place
• 3:25:38
  Speaker 8: this object under the eyes of the child, in order
• 3:25:41
  Speaker 8: to facilitate his interpretation of the word. I will say
• 3:25:45
  Speaker 8: in this connection, the objects used in these writing games are,
• 3:25:49
  Speaker 8: for the most part, toys, of which we have a
• 3:25:52
  Speaker 8: great many in the children's houses. Among these toys, how
• 3:25:55
  Speaker 8: the furnishings of a doll's house, balls, dolls, flocks of
• 3:26:00
  Speaker 8: sheep or various animals, tin soldiers, railways, and an infinite
• 3:26:05
  Speaker 8: variety of simple figures. If writing serves to correct, or
• 3:26:09
  Speaker 8: better to direct and perfect the mechanism of the articulate
• 3:26:13
  Speaker 8: language of the child, reading serves to help the development
• 3:26:16
  Speaker 8: of ideas and relates them to the development of the language. Indeed,
• 3:26:20
  Speaker 8: writing aids the physiological language, and reading aids the social language.
• 3:26:24
  Speaker 8: We begin, then, as I am indicated with the nomenclature,
• 3:26:27
  Speaker 8: that is, with a reading of names of objects which
• 3:26:30
  Speaker 8: are well known or present. There is no question of
• 3:26:32
  Speaker 8: beginning with words that are easy or difficult. For the
• 3:26:35
  Speaker 8: child already knows how to read any word. That is,
• 3:26:38
  Speaker 8: he knows how to read the sounds which compose it.
• 3:26:41
  Speaker 8: I allow the little one to translate the written word
• 3:26:44
  Speaker 8: slowly into sounds, and if the interpretation is exact, I
• 3:26:48
  Speaker 8: limit myself to saying faster. The child reads more quickly
• 3:26:52
  Speaker 8: the second time, but still often without understanding. I then
• 3:26:56
  Speaker 8: repeat faster faster. He reads faster, each time, repeating the
• 3:27:00
  Speaker 8: same accumulation of sounds, and finally the word bursts upon
• 3:27:04
  Speaker 8: his consciousness. Then he looks upon it as if he
• 3:27:07
  Speaker 8: recognized a friend, and assumes the air of satisfaction which
• 3:27:11
  Speaker 8: so often radiates our little ones. This completes the exercise
• 3:27:15
  Speaker 8: for reading. It is a lesson which goes very rapidly,
• 3:27:18
  Speaker 8: since it is only presented to a child who was
• 3:27:21
  Speaker 8: already prepared through writing. Truly, we have buried the tedious
• 3:27:25
  Speaker 8: and stupid A b. C. Primer side by side with
• 3:27:28
  Speaker 8: the useless copy books. When the child has read the word,
• 3:27:31
  Speaker 8: he places the explanatory card under the object whose name
• 3:27:35
  Speaker 8: it bears, and the exercise is finished. One of the
• 3:27:38
  Speaker 8: most interesting discoveries was made in the effort to devise
• 3:27:42
  Speaker 8: a game through which the children might, without effort, learn
• 3:27:45
  Speaker 8: to read words. We spread out upon one of the
• 3:27:48
  Speaker 8: large tables a great variety of toys. Each one of
• 3:27:52
  Speaker 8: them had a corresponding card upon which the name of
• 3:27:55
  Speaker 8: the toy was written. We folded these little cards and
• 3:27:58
  Speaker 8: mix them up in a basket, and the children who
• 3:28:00
  Speaker 8: knew how to read were allowed to take turns in
• 3:28:03
  Speaker 8: drawing these cards to the basket. Each child had to
• 3:28:06
  Speaker 8: carry his card back to his desk unfolded quietly, and
• 3:28:09
  Speaker 8: read it mentally, not showing it to those about him.
• 3:28:12
  Speaker 8: He then had to fold it up again, so that
• 3:28:15
  Speaker 8: the secret which it contained should remain unknown. Taking the
• 3:28:20
  Speaker 8: folded card in his hand, he went to the table.
• 3:28:23
  Speaker 8: He had then to pronounce clearly the name of a
• 3:28:26
  Speaker 8: toy and present the card to the directress in order
• 3:28:29
  Speaker 8: that she might verify the word he had spoken. The
• 3:28:32
  Speaker 8: little card thus became current coin with which he might
• 3:28:35
  Speaker 8: acquire the toy he had named, for if he pronounced
• 3:28:39
  Speaker 8: the word clearly had indicated the correct object. The directress
• 3:28:43
  Speaker 8: allowed him to take the toy and to play with
• 3:28:45
  Speaker 8: it as long as he wished. When each child had
• 3:28:48
  Speaker 8: had a turn, the directress called the first child and
• 3:28:52
  Speaker 8: let him draw a card from another basket. This card
• 3:28:55
  Speaker 8: he read as soon as he had drawn it. It
• 3:28:58
  Speaker 8: contained the name of one of his opinions, who did
• 3:29:01
  Speaker 8: not yet know how to read, and for that reason
• 3:29:03
  Speaker 8: could not have a toy. The child who had read
• 3:29:06
  Speaker 8: the name then offered to his little friend the toy
• 3:29:09
  Speaker 8: with which he had been playing. We taught the children
• 3:29:13
  Speaker 8: to present these toys in a gracious and polite way,
• 3:29:15
  Speaker 8: accompanying the act with a bow. In this way, we
• 3:29:19
  Speaker 8: did away with every idea of class distinction, and inspired
• 3:29:23
  Speaker 8: the sentiment of kindness toward those who did not possess
• 3:29:26
  Speaker 8: the same blessings as ourselves. This reading game proceeded in
• 3:29:31
  Speaker 8: a marvelous way. The contentment of these poor children in possessing,
• 3:29:35
  Speaker 8: even for a little while such beautiful toys can be
• 3:29:39
  Speaker 8: easily imagined. But what was my amazement When the children,
• 3:29:42
  Speaker 8: having learned to understand the written cards, refused to take
• 3:29:45
  Speaker 8: the toys. They explained that they did not wish to
• 3:29:49
  Speaker 8: waste time in playing and with a species of insatiable desire,
• 3:29:54
  Speaker 8: preferred to draw out and read the cards one after another.
• 3:29:57
  Speaker 8: I watched them, seeking to understand the the secret of
• 3:30:00
  Speaker 8: these souls, of whose greatness I had been so ignorant
• 3:30:04
  Speaker 8: as I stood in meditation among the eager children. The
• 3:30:07
  Speaker 8: discovery that it was knowledge they loved and not thessly
• 3:30:10
  Speaker 8: the game filled me with wonder and made me think
• 3:30:12
  Speaker 8: of the greatness of the human soul. We therefore put
• 3:30:15
  Speaker 8: away the toys and set about making hundreds of written
• 3:30:18
  Speaker 8: slips containing names of children, cities, and objects, and also
• 3:30:23
  Speaker 8: of colors and qualities known through the sense exercises. We
• 3:30:27
  Speaker 8: placed these slips in open boxes, which we left where
• 3:30:30
  Speaker 8: the children could make free use of them. I expected
• 3:30:34
  Speaker 8: that childish inconsistency would at least show itself in a
• 3:30:37
  Speaker 8: tendency to pass from one box to another, but no,
• 3:30:41
  Speaker 8: Each child finished emptying the box under his hand before
• 3:30:44
  Speaker 8: passing to another, being very insatiable in the desire to read.
• 3:30:49
  Speaker 8: Coming into the school one day, I found that the
• 3:30:52
  Speaker 8: directress had allowed the children to take the tables and
• 3:30:55
  Speaker 8: chairs out upon the terrace and was having school in
• 3:30:58
  Speaker 8: the open air. A number of little ones were playing
• 3:31:01
  Speaker 8: in the sun, while others were seated in a circle
• 3:31:05
  Speaker 8: about the tables containing the sandpaper letters and the movable alphabet.
• 3:31:09
  Speaker 8: A little apart sat the Directress holding upon her lap
• 3:31:12
  Speaker 8: a long, narrow box full of written slips, and all
• 3:31:15
  Speaker 8: along the edge of her box were little hands fishing
• 3:31:18
  Speaker 8: for the beloved cards. You may not believe me, said
• 3:31:21
  Speaker 8: the directress, but it is more than an hour since
• 3:31:24
  Speaker 8: we began this, and they are not satisfied yet. We
• 3:31:27
  Speaker 8: tried the experiment of bringing balls and dolls to the children,
• 3:31:30
  Speaker 8: but without result. Such futilities had no power beside the
• 3:31:34
  Speaker 8: joys of knowledge. Seeing these surprising results, I had already
• 3:31:38
  Speaker 8: thought of testing the children with print, and had suggested
• 3:31:41
  Speaker 8: that the directress print the word under the written word
• 3:31:45
  Speaker 8: upon a number of slips. But the children forestalled us.
• 3:31:49
  Speaker 8: There was in the hall a calendar upon which many
• 3:31:52
  Speaker 8: of the words were printed in clear type, while others
• 3:31:55
  Speaker 8: weren't done and got the characters in their mania for reading.
• 3:31:59
  Speaker 8: The children began to look at this calendar, and, to
• 3:32:02
  Speaker 8: my inexpressible amazement, read not only the print but the
• 3:32:06
  Speaker 8: Gothic script. There therefore remained nothing but the presentation of
• 3:32:10
  Speaker 8: a book, and I did not feel that any of
• 3:32:13
  Speaker 8: those available were suited to our method. The mothers soon
• 3:32:17
  Speaker 8: had proofs of the progress of their children, finding in
• 3:32:20
  Speaker 8: the pockets of some of them little slips of paper
• 3:32:23
  Speaker 8: upon which were written rough notes of marketing done, bread salts,
• 3:32:26
  Speaker 8: et cetera. Our children were making lists of the marketing
• 3:32:30
  Speaker 8: they did for their mothers. Other mothers told us that
• 3:32:33
  Speaker 8: their children no longer ran through the streets, but stopped
• 3:32:36
  Speaker 8: to read the signs over the shops. A four year
• 3:32:39
  Speaker 8: old boy, educated in a private house by the same
• 3:32:42
  Speaker 8: method surprised us in the following way. The child's father
• 3:32:46
  Speaker 8: was a deputy and received many letters. He knew that
• 3:32:50
  Speaker 8: his son had for two months been taught by means
• 3:32:52
  Speaker 8: of exercises apt to facilitate the learning of reading and writing,
• 3:32:56
  Speaker 8: but he had paid slight attention to it, and indeed
• 3:33:00
  Speaker 8: put little faith in the method. One day, as he
• 3:33:03
  Speaker 8: sat reading with a boy playing near, a servant entered
• 3:33:07
  Speaker 8: and placed upon the table a large number of letters
• 3:33:11
  Speaker 8: that had just arrived. The little boy turned his attention
• 3:33:15
  Speaker 8: to these, and, holding up each letter, read aloud the
• 3:33:17
  Speaker 8: address to his father. This seemed a veritable miracle as
• 3:33:23
  Speaker 8: to the average time required for learning to read and write.
• 3:33:26
  Speaker 8: Experience would seem to show that starting from the moment
• 3:33:29
  Speaker 8: in which the child writes, the passage from such an
• 3:33:32
  Speaker 8: inferior stage of the graphic language to the superior stage
• 3:33:36
  Speaker 8: of reading averages a fortnight. Security in reading is, however,
• 3:33:41
  Speaker 8: arrived at much more slowly than perfection in writing. In
• 3:33:45
  Speaker 8: the greater majority of cases, the child who writes beautifully
• 3:33:48
  Speaker 8: still reads rather poorly. Not all children of the same
• 3:33:52
  Speaker 8: age are at the same point in this matter of
• 3:33:54
  Speaker 8: reading and writing. We not only do not force a child,
• 3:33:57
  Speaker 8: but we do not even invite him, or in any
• 3:34:00
  Speaker 8: way attempt to coax him to do that which he
• 3:34:03
  Speaker 8: does not wish to do. So, it sometimes happens that
• 3:34:06
  Speaker 8: certain children, not having spontaneously presented themselves for these lessons,
• 3:34:11
  Speaker 8: are left in peace and do not know how to
• 3:34:13
  Speaker 8: read or write. If the old time method, which tyrannized
• 3:34:16
  Speaker 8: over the will of the child and destroyed his spontaneity,
• 3:34:20
  Speaker 8: does not believe in making a knowledge of written language
• 3:34:23
  Speaker 8: obligatory before the age of six, much less do we.
• 3:34:27
  Speaker 8: I am not ready to decide without a wider experience,
• 3:34:30
  Speaker 8: whether the period when the spoken language is fully developed
• 3:34:33
  Speaker 8: is in every case the proper time for beginning to
• 3:34:36
  Speaker 8: develop the written language. In any case, almost all of
• 3:34:39
  Speaker 8: the normal children treated with our method began to write
• 3:34:43
  Speaker 8: at four years, and at five know how to read
• 3:34:46
  Speaker 8: and write at least as well as children who have
• 3:34:49
  Speaker 8: finished the first Elementary. They could enter the second Elementary
• 3:34:52
  Speaker 8: a year in advance of the time when they are
• 3:34:55
  Speaker 8: admitted to first games for the reading of phrases. As
• 3:34:58
  Speaker 8: soon as my friends saw that the children could read print,
• 3:35:02
  Speaker 8: they made me gifts of beautifully illustrated books. Looking through
• 3:35:06
  Speaker 8: these books of simple fairy lore, I felt sure that
• 3:35:09
  Speaker 8: the children would not be able to understand them. The teachers,
• 3:35:14
  Speaker 8: feeling entirely satisfied as to the ability of their pupils,
• 3:35:18
  Speaker 8: tried to show me I was wrong, having different children
• 3:35:21
  Speaker 8: read to me, and saying that they read much more
• 3:35:23
  Speaker 8: perfectly than the children who had finished the second Elementary.
• 3:35:28
  Speaker 8: I did not, however, allow myself to be deceived, and
• 3:35:31
  Speaker 8: made two trials. I first had the teacher tell one
• 3:35:34
  Speaker 8: of the stories to the children, while I observed to
• 3:35:36
  Speaker 8: what extent they were spontaneously interested in it. The attention
• 3:35:40
  Speaker 8: of the children wandered after a few words. I had
• 3:35:43
  Speaker 8: forbidden the teacher to recall to order those who did
• 3:35:46
  Speaker 8: not listen, and thus, little by little, a hoam arose
• 3:35:50
  Speaker 8: in the school room due to the fact that each
• 3:35:53
  Speaker 8: child not caring to listen had returned to his usual occupation.
• 3:35:58
  Speaker 8: It was evident that the children whose seemed to read
• 3:36:00
  Speaker 8: these books with such pleasure did not take pleasure in
• 3:36:03
  Speaker 8: the sense, but enjoyed the mechanical ability they had acquired,
• 3:36:08
  Speaker 8: which consisted in translating the graphic signs into the sounds
• 3:36:12
  Speaker 8: of a word they recognized. And indeed, the children did
• 3:36:15
  Speaker 8: not display the same constancy in reading the books which
• 3:36:19
  Speaker 8: they showed toward the written slips, since in the books
• 3:36:22
  Speaker 8: they met with so many unfamiliar words. My second test
• 3:36:25
  Speaker 8: was to have one of the children read the book
• 3:36:27
  Speaker 8: to me. I did not interrupt with any of those
• 3:36:30
  Speaker 8: explanatory remarks by means of which a teacher tries to
• 3:36:34
  Speaker 8: help the child follow the threat of the story he
• 3:36:36
  Speaker 8: is reading, saying, for example, stop a minute, do you
• 3:36:40
  Speaker 8: understand what have you read? You told me how the
• 3:36:43
  Speaker 8: little boy went to drive in a big carriage. Didn't
• 3:36:46
  Speaker 8: you pay attention to what the book says? Et cetera.
• 3:36:51
  Speaker 8: I gave the book to a little boy, sat down
• 3:36:53
  Speaker 8: beside him, in a friendly fashion, and when he had read,
• 3:36:57
  Speaker 8: I asked him, simply and seriously, as one would speak
• 3:37:00
  Speaker 8: to a friend, did you understand what you were reading?
• 3:37:04
  Speaker 8: He replied no, but the expression of his face seemed
• 3:37:08
  Speaker 8: to ask an explanation of my demand. In fact, the
• 3:37:12
  Speaker 8: idea that through the reading a series of words, the
• 3:37:14
  Speaker 8: complex thoughts of others might be communicated to us was
• 3:37:19
  Speaker 8: to be for my children one of the beautiful conquests
• 3:37:22
  Speaker 8: of the future, a new source of surprise and joy.
• 3:37:25
  Speaker 8: The book has recourse to logical language, not to the
• 3:37:28
  Speaker 8: mechanism of the language. Before the child can understand and
• 3:37:31
  Speaker 8: enjoy a book, the logical language must be established in him.
• 3:37:35
  Speaker 8: Between knowing how to read the words and how to
• 3:37:38
  Speaker 8: read the sense a book, there lies the same distance
• 3:37:42
  Speaker 8: that exists between knowing how to pronounce a word and
• 3:37:45
  Speaker 8: how to make a speech. I therefore stopped the reading
• 3:37:48
  Speaker 8: from books and waited. One day, during a free conversation period.
• 3:37:53
  Speaker 8: Four children arose at the same time, and, with expressions
• 3:37:57
  Speaker 8: of joy on their faces, ran to the blackboard and
• 3:38:00
  Speaker 8: wrote phrases upon the order of the following, Oh, how
• 3:38:04
  Speaker 8: glad we are that our garden has begun to bloom.
• 3:38:07
  Speaker 8: It was a great surprise for me, and I was
• 3:38:09
  Speaker 8: deeply moved. These children had arrived spontaneously at the art
• 3:38:13
  Speaker 8: of composition, just as they had spontaneously written their first word.
• 3:38:18
  Speaker 8: The mechanical preparation was the same, and the phenomenon developed logically.
• 3:38:23
  Speaker 8: Logical articulate language had, when the time was ripe, provided
• 3:38:27
  Speaker 8: the corresponding explosion in written language. I understood that the
• 3:38:31
  Speaker 8: time had come when we might proceed to the reading
• 3:38:34
  Speaker 8: of phrases. I had recourse to the means used by
• 3:38:38
  Speaker 8: the children. That is, I wrote upon the blackboards, do
• 3:38:41
  Speaker 8: you love me? The children read it slowly aloud, were
• 3:38:45
  Speaker 8: silent for a moment as if thinking, then cried out yes, yes,
• 3:38:50
  Speaker 8: I continued to write. Then make the silence and watch me.
• 3:38:55
  Speaker 8: They read this aloud, almost shouting. But it had barely
• 3:38:58
  Speaker 8: finished when a psalmn silence began to establish itself, interrupted
• 3:39:03
  Speaker 8: only by the sounds of the chairs as the children
• 3:39:06
  Speaker 8: took positions in which they could sit quietly. Thus began
• 3:39:10
  Speaker 8: between me and them a communication by means of written language,
• 3:39:14
  Speaker 8: a thing which interested the children intensely. Little by little
• 3:39:18
  Speaker 8: they discovered a great quality of writing, that it transmits thought.
• 3:39:23
  Speaker 8: Whenever I began to write, they fairly trembled in their
• 3:39:27
  Speaker 8: eagerness to understand what was my meaning without hearing me
• 3:39:30
  Speaker 8: speak a word. Indeed, graphic language does not need spoken words.
• 3:39:35
  Speaker 8: It can only be understood in all its greatness when
• 3:39:38
  Speaker 8: it is completely isolated from spoken language. This introduction to
• 3:39:42
  Speaker 8: reading was followed by the following game, which is greatly
• 3:39:46
  Speaker 8: enjoyed by the children. Upon a number of cards, I
• 3:39:49
  Speaker 8: wrote long sentences describing certain actions which the children were
• 3:39:54
  Speaker 8: to carry out. For example, close the window lines, open
• 3:39:58
  Speaker 8: the front door. Then wait a moment and arrange things
• 3:40:02
  Speaker 8: as they were at first, very politely, Ask eight of
• 3:40:06
  Speaker 8: your companions to leave their chairs and to form a
• 3:40:09
  Speaker 8: double file in the center of the room. Then have
• 3:40:12
  Speaker 8: them march forward and back upon tip toe, making no noise.
• 3:40:16
  Speaker 8: Ask three of their oldest companions, who sing nicely, if
• 3:40:19
  Speaker 8: they will please come into the center of the room.
• 3:40:21
  Speaker 8: Arrange them in a nice row, and sing with them
• 3:40:24
  Speaker 8: a song you have selected, et cetera, et cetera. As
• 3:40:27
  Speaker 8: soon as I finished writing, the children seized the cards
• 3:40:30
  Speaker 8: and taken them to their seats, read them spontaneously with
• 3:40:34
  Speaker 8: great intensity of attention, and all amid the most complete
• 3:40:37
  Speaker 8: silence I asked, then do you understand. Yes, yes, then
• 3:40:43
  Speaker 8: do what the card tells you, said I, and was
• 3:40:46
  Speaker 8: delaying to see that children rapidly and accurately followed the
• 3:40:50
  Speaker 8: chosen action. A great activity, a movement of a new sort,
• 3:40:54
  Speaker 8: was born in the room. There were those who closed
• 3:40:57
  Speaker 8: the blinds and then reopened them, Others who made their
• 3:41:00
  Speaker 8: companions run on tiptoe or sang. Others wrote upon the blackboard,
• 3:41:05
  Speaker 8: or took certain objects from the cupboards. Surprise and curiosity
• 3:41:10
  Speaker 8: produced a general silence, and the lesson developed amid the
• 3:41:13
  Speaker 8: most intense interest. It seemed as if some magic force
• 3:41:17
  Speaker 8: had gone forth from me, stimulating in activity hitherto unknown.
• 3:41:22
  Speaker 8: This magic was graphic language, the great conquest of civilization,
• 3:41:27
  Speaker 8: and how deeply the children understood the importance of it.
• 3:41:30
  Speaker 8: When I went out, they gathered about me with expressions
• 3:41:33
  Speaker 8: of gratitude and affection, saying thank you, thank you, thank
• 3:41:36
  Speaker 8: you for the lesson. This has become one of the
• 3:41:39
  Speaker 8: favorite games. We first established profound silence, then present a
• 3:41:44
  Speaker 8: basket containing folded slips, upon each one of which is
• 3:41:49
  Speaker 8: written a long phrase describing an action. All those children
• 3:41:53
  Speaker 8: who know how to read may draw a slip and
• 3:41:56
  Speaker 8: read it mentally once or twice until they are certain
• 3:42:00
  Speaker 8: they understand it. They then give a slip back to
• 3:42:03
  Speaker 8: the directress and set about carrying out the action. Since
• 3:42:07
  Speaker 8: many of these actions call for the help of the
• 3:42:09
  Speaker 8: other children who do not know how to read, and
• 3:42:12
  Speaker 8: since many of them call from the handling and use
• 3:42:14
  Speaker 8: of the materials, a general activity develops a mid marvelous order.
• 3:42:19
  Speaker 8: While the silence is only interrupted by the sound of
• 3:42:21
  Speaker 8: little feet running lightly and by the voices of the
• 3:42:24
  Speaker 8: children who sing. This is an unexpected revelation of the
• 3:42:28
  Speaker 8: perfection of spontaneous discipline. Experience has shown us that composition
• 3:42:33
  Speaker 8: must precede logical reading, as writing preceded the reading of
• 3:42:37
  Speaker 8: the word. It has also shown that reading, if it
• 3:42:40
  Speaker 8: is to teach the child to receive an idea, should
• 3:42:43
  Speaker 8: be mental and not vocal. Reading aloud implies the exercise
• 3:42:47
  Speaker 8: of two mechanical forms of the language, articulate and graphic,
• 3:42:51
  Speaker 8: and is therefore a complex task. Who does not know
• 3:42:56
  Speaker 8: that a grown person who is to read a paper
• 3:42:58
  Speaker 8: in public prepares for this by making himself master of
• 3:43:01
  Speaker 8: the content. Reading aloud as one of the most difficult
• 3:43:04
  Speaker 8: intellectual actions. The child, therefore, who begins to read by
• 3:43:08
  Speaker 8: interpreting thought should read mentally. The written language must isolate
• 3:43:13
  Speaker 8: itself from the articulate when it rises to the interpretation
• 3:43:16
  Speaker 8: of logical thought. Indeed, it represents the language which transmits
• 3:43:20
  Speaker 8: thought at a distance, while the senses and the muscular
• 3:43:24
  Speaker 8: mechanism are silent. It is a spiritualized language which puts
• 3:43:28
  Speaker 8: into communication all men who know how to read.
• 3:43:31
  Speaker 3: Education.
• 3:43:32
  Speaker 8: Having reached such a point in the children's houses, the
• 3:43:36
  Speaker 8: entire elementary school must, as a logical consequence, be changed.
• 3:43:40
  Speaker 8: How to reform the lower grades in the elementary schools,
• 3:43:43
  Speaker 8: eventually carrying them on according to our methods is a
• 3:43:46
  Speaker 8: great question which cannot be discussed here. I can only
• 3:43:49
  Speaker 8: say that the first elementary would be completely done away
• 3:43:52
  Speaker 8: with y our infant education which includes it. The elementary
• 3:43:56
  Speaker 8: classes in the future should begin with children such as ours,
• 3:43:59
  Speaker 8: who know how to read and write, Children who know
• 3:44:02
  Speaker 8: how to take care of themselves, how to dress and undress,
• 3:44:05
  Speaker 8: and to wash themselves. Children who are familiar with the
• 3:44:08
  Speaker 8: rules of good conduct and courtesy, and who are thoroughly
• 3:44:12
  Speaker 8: disciplined in the highest sense of the term. Having developed
• 3:44:15
  Speaker 8: and become masters of themselves through liberty, children who possess,
• 3:44:20
  Speaker 8: besides a perfect mastery of the articulate language, the ability
• 3:44:24
  Speaker 8: to read written language in an elementary way, and who
• 3:44:27
  Speaker 8: begin to enter upon the conquest of logical language. These
• 3:44:31
  Speaker 8: children pronounce clearly, write in a firm hand, and are
• 3:44:35
  Speaker 8: full of grace in their movements. They are the earnest
• 3:44:38
  Speaker 8: of a humanity grown in the cult of beauty, the
• 3:44:41
  Speaker 8: infancy of an all conquering humanity, since they are intelligent
• 3:44:45
  Speaker 8: and patient observers of their environment, and possess, in the
• 3:44:48
  Speaker 8: form of intellectual liberty, the power of spontaneous reasoning. For
• 3:44:52
  Speaker 8: such children, we should found an elementary school worthy to
• 3:44:56
  Speaker 8: receive them and to guide them further along the path
• 3:44:59
  Speaker 8: of life and civil and of civilization, a school loyal
• 3:45:02
  Speaker 8: to the same educational principles of respect for the freedom
• 3:45:05
  Speaker 8: of the child and for his spontaneous manifestations, principles which
• 3:45:10
  Speaker 8: shall form the personality of these little men. Vogliamo on
• 3:45:14
  Speaker 8: guare love Buenapascalayan ignore Eduardo balama e a La principessa
• 3:45:21
  Speaker 8: Maria Giramo che conducana qui i loo cuibabina The Sciante
• 3:45:28
  Speaker 8: fair Ami Laura vero Io per Luis four Abril nineteen
• 3:45:34
  Speaker 8: o nine. Examples of writing down with penn by a
• 3:45:37
  Speaker 8: child five years one. Fourth reduction translation. We would like
• 3:45:41
  Speaker 8: to wish a joyous easter to the civil engineer Eduardo
• 3:45:45
  Speaker 8: Talamo and the Princess Maria. We will ask them to
• 3:45:47
  Speaker 8: bring their pretty children here. Leave it to me, I
• 3:45:51
  Speaker 8: will write for all. April seventh, nineteen o nine, end
• 3:45:54
  Speaker 8: of Chapter seventeen.
• 3:45:56
  Speaker 7: Chapter eighteen. Language and Childhood. Graphic language, comprising dictation and reading,
• 3:46:06
  Speaker 7: contains articulate language and its complete mechanism auditory channels, central channels,
• 3:46:13
  Speaker 7: motor channels, and in the manner of development called forth
• 3:46:18
  Speaker 7: by by method, it is based essentially on articulate language.
• 3:46:24
  Speaker 7: Graphic language therefore may be considered from two points of view.
• 3:46:30
  Speaker 7: A that of the conquests of a new language of
• 3:46:34
  Speaker 7: eminent social importance, which adds itself to the articulate language
• 3:46:39
  Speaker 7: of natural man. And this is the cultural significance which
• 3:46:44
  Speaker 7: is commonly given to graphic language, which is therefore taught
• 3:46:47
  Speaker 7: in the schools without any consideration of its relation to
• 3:46:51
  Speaker 7: spoken language, but solely with the intention of offering to
• 3:46:54
  Speaker 7: this social being a necessary instrument in his relations with
• 3:46:59
  Speaker 7: his fellows. B that of the relation between graphic and
• 3:47:04
  Speaker 7: articulate language, and in this relation of an eventual possibility
• 3:47:10
  Speaker 7: of utilizing the written language to perfect the spoken a
• 3:47:14
  Speaker 7: new consideration upon which I wish to insist, and which
• 3:47:18
  Speaker 7: gives to graphic language a physiological importance. Moreover, as spoken
• 3:47:24
  Speaker 7: language is at the same time a natural function of
• 3:47:27
  Speaker 7: man and an instrument which he utilizes for social ends,
• 3:47:31
  Speaker 7: so written language may be considered in itself in its formation,
• 3:47:35
  Speaker 7: as an organic ensemble of new mechanisms which are established
• 3:47:39
  Speaker 7: in the nervous system, and as an instrument which may
• 3:47:43
  Speaker 7: be utilized for social ends. In short, it is a
• 3:47:47
  Speaker 7: question of giving to written language not only a physiological importance,
• 3:47:53
  Speaker 7: but also a period of development independent of the high
• 3:47:56
  Speaker 7: functions which it is destined to perform later. It seems
• 3:48:01
  Speaker 7: to me that graphic language bristles with difficulties in its beginning,
• 3:48:06
  Speaker 7: not only because it has heretofore been taught by irrational methods,
• 3:48:11
  Speaker 7: but because we have tried to make it perform as
• 3:48:13
  Speaker 7: soon as it has been acquired the high function of
• 3:48:16
  Speaker 7: teaching the written language, which has been fixed by centuries
• 3:48:21
  Speaker 7: of perfecting, and a civilized people think, how irrational have
• 3:48:26
  Speaker 7: been the methods we have used. We have analyzed the
• 3:48:30
  Speaker 7: graphic signs rather than the physiological acts necessary to produce
• 3:48:34
  Speaker 7: the alphabetical signs, and this without considering that any graphic
• 3:48:39
  Speaker 7: sign is difficult to achieve because the visual representation of
• 3:48:43
  Speaker 7: the signs have no hereditary connection with the motor representations
• 3:48:48
  Speaker 7: necessary for producing them, as for example, the auditory representations
• 3:48:54
  Speaker 7: of the word have with the motor mechanism of the
• 3:48:57
  Speaker 7: articulate language. It is therefore always a difficult thing to
• 3:49:02
  Speaker 7: provoke a stimulative motor action unless we have already established
• 3:49:07
  Speaker 7: the movement before the visual representation of the sign is made.
• 3:49:12
  Speaker 7: It is a difficult thing to arouse an activity that
• 3:49:16
  Speaker 7: shall produce a motion unless that motion shall have been
• 3:49:20
  Speaker 7: previously established by practice and by the power of habit. Thus,
• 3:49:25
  Speaker 7: for example, the analysis of writing into little straight lines
• 3:49:29
  Speaker 7: and curves has brought us to present to the child
• 3:49:32
  Speaker 7: a sign without significance, which therefore does not interest him,
• 3:49:37
  Speaker 7: and whose representation is incapable of determining a spontaneous motor impulse.
• 3:49:44
  Speaker 7: The artificial act constituted therefore an effort of the will,
• 3:49:50
  Speaker 7: which resulted for the child in rapid exhaustion, exhibited in
• 3:49:54
  Speaker 7: the form of boredom and suffering. To this effort was
• 3:49:58
  Speaker 7: added the effort of constitution sanchronously the muscular associations, coordinating
• 3:50:04
  Speaker 7: the movements necessary to the holding, and manipulating the instrument
• 3:50:08
  Speaker 7: of writing. All sorts of depressing feelings accompanied such efforts
• 3:50:14
  Speaker 7: and conduced to the production of imperfect and erroneous signs,
• 3:50:18
  Speaker 7: which the teachers had to correct, discouraging the child still
• 3:50:21
  Speaker 7: more with the constant criticism of the error and of
• 3:50:25
  Speaker 7: the imperfection of the signs traced. Thus, while the child
• 3:50:30
  Speaker 7: was urged to make an effort, the teacher depressed rather
• 3:50:33
  Speaker 7: than revived his psychical forces. Although such a mistaken course
• 3:50:40
  Speaker 7: was followed, the graphic language, so painfully learned, was nevertheless
• 3:50:45
  Speaker 7: to be immediately utilized for social ends, and still imperfect
• 3:50:50
  Speaker 7: and immature, was made to do service in the syntactical
• 3:50:53
  Speaker 7: construction of the language and in the ideal expression of
• 3:50:57
  Speaker 7: the superior psychic centers. One must remember that in nature,
• 3:51:02
  Speaker 7: the spoken language is formed gradually, and it is already
• 3:51:06
  Speaker 7: established in words when the superior psychic centers use these
• 3:51:11
  Speaker 7: words in what Kusma calls dictorium. In the syntactical grammatical
• 3:51:19
  Speaker 7: formation of language, which is necessary to the expression of
• 3:51:22
  Speaker 7: complex ideas, that is, in the language of the logical mind.
• 3:51:30
  Speaker 7: In short, the mechanism of language is a necessary antecedent
• 3:51:34
  Speaker 7: of the higher psychic activities which are to utilize it.
• 3:51:39
  Speaker 7: There are therefore two periods in the development of language,
• 3:51:42
  Speaker 7: a lower one which prepares the nervous channel and the
• 3:51:46
  Speaker 7: central mechanisms, which are to put the sensory channels in
• 3:51:51
  Speaker 7: relation with motor channels, and a higher one determined by
• 3:51:55
  Speaker 7: the higher psychic activities, which are exteriorized by means of
• 3:52:00
  Speaker 7: the performed mechanisms of language. Thus, for example, in the
• 3:52:05
  Speaker 7: scheme which Cosmal gives on the mechanism of articulate language,
• 3:52:10
  Speaker 7: we must first of all distinguish a sort of cerebral
• 3:52:14
  Speaker 7: diastaltic arc, representing the pure mechanism of the word, which
• 3:52:19
  Speaker 7: is established in the first formation of the spoken language.
• 3:52:23
  Speaker 7: Let E be the ear and t the motor organs
• 3:52:27
  Speaker 7: of speech taken as a whole, and here represented by
• 3:52:30
  Speaker 7: the tongue, A the auditory center of speech, and m
• 3:52:35
  Speaker 7: the motor center. The channels E, A and MT are
• 3:52:39
  Speaker 7: peripheral channels, the former centripetal and the latter centrifugal, and
• 3:52:45
  Speaker 7: the channel AM is the inter central channel of association.
• 3:52:52
  Speaker 7: The center A in which reside the auditive images of
• 3:52:56
  Speaker 7: words may be again subdivided into three, as in the
• 3:53:01
  Speaker 7: following scheme, sounds, so, syllables, sy and words w that
• 3:53:09
  Speaker 7: partial centers for sounds and syllables can really be formed.
• 3:53:13
  Speaker 7: The pathology of language seems to establish. For in some
• 3:53:17
  Speaker 7: forms of centro sensory dysphasia, the patients can pronounce only sounds,
• 3:53:24
  Speaker 7: or at most sounds and syllables. Small children, too, are
• 3:53:29
  Speaker 7: at the beginning particularly sensitive to simple sounds of language,
• 3:53:34
  Speaker 7: with which, indeed and especially with s, their mothers caress
• 3:53:39
  Speaker 7: them and attract their attention, while later the child is
• 3:53:44
  Speaker 7: sensitive to syllables, with which also the mother caresses him,
• 3:53:48
  Speaker 7: saying ba ba punf tough. Finally, it is the simple
• 3:53:55
  Speaker 7: word dysyllabic in most cases which attracts the child attention,
• 3:54:01
  Speaker 7: but for the motor centers also the same thing may
• 3:54:04
  Speaker 7: be repeated. The child utters at the beginning simple or
• 3:54:07
  Speaker 7: double sounds, as for example ble gleh che, an expression
• 3:54:13
  Speaker 7: which the mother greets with joy. Then distinctly syllabic sounds
• 3:54:18
  Speaker 7: begin to manifest themselves in the child ga ba, and
• 3:54:23
  Speaker 7: finally the dysyllabic word, usually labial mama. We say that
• 3:54:29
  Speaker 7: the spoken language begins with the child when the word
• 3:54:32
  Speaker 7: pronounced by him signifies an idea. When, for example, saying
• 3:54:38
  Speaker 7: his mother and recognizing her he says mama, and seeing
• 3:54:42
  Speaker 7: a dog says tette, and wishing to eat says papa. Thus,
• 3:54:50
  Speaker 7: we consider language begun when it is established in relation
• 3:54:53
  Speaker 7: to perception while the language itself is still in its
• 3:54:57
  Speaker 7: psychomotor mechanism perfectly rudimentary. That is, when above the diastoltic arc,
• 3:55:05
  Speaker 7: where the mechanical formation of the language is still unconscious,
• 3:55:10
  Speaker 7: the recognition of the word takes place. That is, the
• 3:55:14
  Speaker 7: word is perceived and associated with the object which it represents.
• 3:55:18
  Speaker 7: A language is considered to have begun on this level. Later,
• 3:55:23
  Speaker 7: language continues the process of perfecting in proportion, as the
• 3:55:27
  Speaker 7: hearing perceives better the component sounds of the words, and
• 3:55:30
  Speaker 7: the psychomotor channels become more permeable to articulation. This is
• 3:55:36
  Speaker 7: the first stage of spoken language, which has its own
• 3:55:39
  Speaker 7: beginning and its own development, leading through the perceptions to
• 3:55:44
  Speaker 7: the perfecting of the primordial mechanism of the language itself,
• 3:55:49
  Speaker 7: and at this stage precisely is established what we call
• 3:55:53
  Speaker 7: articulate language, which will later be the means which the
• 3:55:56
  Speaker 7: adult will have at its disposal to express his own thoughts,
• 3:56:01
  Speaker 7: and which the adult will have great difficulty in perfecting
• 3:56:05
  Speaker 7: or correcting when it has once been established. In fact,
• 3:56:10
  Speaker 7: a high stage of culture sometimes accompanies an imperfect articulate language,
• 3:56:15
  Speaker 7: which prevents the esthetic expression of one's thoughts. The development
• 3:56:21
  Speaker 7: of articulate language takes place in the period between the
• 3:56:24
  Speaker 7: age of two and the age of seven, the age
• 3:56:27
  Speaker 7: of perceptions, in which the attention of the child is
• 3:56:30
  Speaker 7: spontaneously turned towards external objects and the memory is particularly tenacious.
• 3:56:37
  Speaker 7: It is the age also of motility, in which all
• 3:56:40
  Speaker 7: the psychomotor channels are becoming permeable and the muscular mechanisms
• 3:56:45
  Speaker 7: establish themselves. In this period of life, by the mysterious
• 3:56:49
  Speaker 7: bond between the auditory channel and the motor channel of
• 3:56:52
  Speaker 7: the spoken language, it would seem that the auditory perceptions
• 3:56:56
  Speaker 7: have the direct power of provoking the complicated movements of
• 3:56:59
  Speaker 7: articulate speech, which develop instinctively after such stimuli, as if
• 3:57:05
  Speaker 7: awaking from the slumber of heredity. It is well known
• 3:57:09
  Speaker 7: that it is only at this age that it is
• 3:57:12
  Speaker 7: possible to acquire all the characteristic modulations of a language
• 3:57:17
  Speaker 7: which it would be vain to attempt to establish later.
• 3:57:21
  Speaker 7: The mother tongue alone is well pronounced because it was
• 3:57:25
  Speaker 7: established in the period of childhood, and the adult who
• 3:57:29
  Speaker 7: learns to speak a new language must bring to it
• 3:57:31
  Speaker 7: the imperfections characteristic of the foreigner speech. Only children who
• 3:57:36
  Speaker 7: under the age of seven years learned several languages at
• 3:57:39
  Speaker 7: the same time can receive and reproduce all the characteristic
• 3:57:43
  Speaker 7: mannerisms of accent and pronunciation. Thus, also the defects acquired
• 3:57:48
  Speaker 7: in childhood, such as dialectic defects or those established by
• 3:57:53
  Speaker 7: bad habits, become indelible in the adult. What develops later
• 3:57:59
  Speaker 7: the superior language, the dictorium, no longer has its origin
• 3:58:04
  Speaker 7: in the mechanism of language, but in the intellectual development,
• 3:58:08
  Speaker 7: which makes use of the mechanical language. As the articulate
• 3:58:12
  Speaker 7: language develops by the exercise of its mechanism and is
• 3:58:16
  Speaker 7: enriched by perception, the dictorium develops with syntax and is
• 3:58:21
  Speaker 7: enriched by intellectual culture. Going back to the scheme of language,
• 3:58:26
  Speaker 7: we see that above the arc which defines the lower
• 3:58:30
  Speaker 7: language is established. The dictorium d from which now come
• 3:58:37
  Speaker 7: the motor impulses of speech, which is established as spoken
• 3:58:41
  Speaker 7: language fit to manifest the ideation of the intelligent man.
• 3:58:47
  Speaker 7: This language will be enriched little by little by intellectual culture,
• 3:58:52
  Speaker 7: and perfected by the grammatical study of syntax. Hitherto, as
• 3:58:57
  Speaker 7: a result of a preconception it has it has been
• 3:59:00
  Speaker 7: believed that written language should enter only into the development
• 3:59:04
  Speaker 7: of the dictorium, as this suitable means for the acquisition
• 3:59:08
  Speaker 7: of culture and of permitting grammatical analysis and construction of
• 3:59:12
  Speaker 7: the language. Since spoken words have wings, it has been
• 3:59:18
  Speaker 7: admitted that intellectual culture could only proceed by the aid
• 3:59:22
  Speaker 7: of its language which was stable, objective, and capable of
• 3:59:26
  Speaker 7: being analyzed, such as the graphic language. But why when
• 3:59:31
  Speaker 7: we acknowledge the graphic language as a precious, nay indispensable,
• 3:59:36
  Speaker 7: instrument of intellectual education, for the reason that it fixes
• 3:59:40
  Speaker 7: the ideas of men and permits of their analysis and
• 3:59:44
  Speaker 7: other assimilation in books where they remain indelibly written, as
• 3:59:50
  Speaker 7: an ineffaceable memory of words which are therefore always present,
• 3:59:55
  Speaker 7: and by which we can analyze the syntactical structure of
• 3:59:59
  Speaker 7: the language, why shall we not acknowledge that it is
• 4:00:02
  Speaker 7: useful in a more humble task of fixing the words
• 4:00:05
  Speaker 7: which represent perception and of analyzing their component sounds. Compelled
• 4:00:12
  Speaker 7: by a pedagogical prejudice, we are unable to separate the
• 4:00:16
  Speaker 7: idea of a graphic language from that of a function
• 4:00:18
  Speaker 7: which Heretofore we have made it exclusively perform. And it
• 4:00:23
  Speaker 7: seems to us that by teaching such a language to children,
• 4:00:27
  Speaker 7: still in the age of simple perceptions and of motility,
• 4:00:31
  Speaker 7: we are committing a serious psychological and pedagogical error. But
• 4:00:36
  Speaker 7: let us rid ourselves of this prejudice and consider the
• 4:00:39
  Speaker 7: graphic language in itself, reconstructing its psycho physiological mechanism. It
• 4:00:45
  Speaker 7: is far more simple than the psycho physiological mechanism of
• 4:00:49
  Speaker 7: the articulate language, and is far more directly accessible to education.
• 4:00:55
  Speaker 7: Writing especially is surprisingly simple. For let us consider dictator writing.
• 4:01:01
  Speaker 7: We have a perfect parallel with spoken language, since a
• 4:01:04
  Speaker 7: motor action must correspond with herd speech. Here there does
• 4:01:09
  Speaker 7: not exist, to be sure, the mysterious hereditary relations between
• 4:01:13
  Speaker 7: the herd speech and the articulate speech. But the movements
• 4:01:18
  Speaker 7: of writing are far simpler than those necessary to the
• 4:01:21
  Speaker 7: spoken word, and are performed by large muscles. All external
• 4:01:26
  Speaker 7: upon which we can directly act, rendering the motor channels
• 4:01:30
  Speaker 7: permeable and establishing psycho muscular mechanisms. This, indeed, is what
• 4:01:36
  Speaker 7: is done by my method, which prepares the movements directly,
• 4:01:40
  Speaker 7: so that the psychomote impulse of the herd speech finds
• 4:01:44
  Speaker 7: the motor channels already established, and is manifested in the
• 4:01:47
  Speaker 7: act of writing like an explosion. The real difficulty is
• 4:01:52
  Speaker 7: in the interpretation of the graphic signs. But we must
• 4:01:55
  Speaker 7: remember that we are in the age of perceptions, where
• 4:01:58
  Speaker 7: the sensations in the memory as well as the primitive
• 4:02:01
  Speaker 7: associations are involved precisely in the characteristic progress of natural development. Moreover,
• 4:02:08
  Speaker 7: our children are already prepared, by various exercises of the
• 4:02:12
  Speaker 7: senses and by methodical construction of ideas and mental associations,
• 4:02:17
  Speaker 7: to perceive the graphic signs. Something like a pactrimony of
• 4:02:21
  Speaker 7: perceptive ideas offers material to the language in the process
• 4:02:26
  Speaker 7: of development. The child who recognizes a triangle and calls
• 4:02:31
  Speaker 7: it a triangle can recognize a letter S and denominate
• 4:02:36
  Speaker 7: it by the sound S. This is obvious. Let us
• 4:02:41
  Speaker 7: not talk of premature teaching, ridding ourselves of prejudices. Let
• 4:02:46
  Speaker 7: us appeal to experience, which shows that in reality, children
• 4:02:50
  Speaker 7: proceed without effort, nay, rather with evident manifestations of pleasure,
• 4:02:55
  Speaker 7: to the recognition of graphic signs presented as objects. And
• 4:03:01
  Speaker 7: with this premise, let us consider the relations between the
• 4:03:04
  Speaker 7: mechanisms of the two languages. The child of three or
• 4:03:07
  Speaker 7: four has already long begun his articulate language according to
• 4:03:12
  Speaker 7: our scheme, But he finds himself in the period in
• 4:03:15
  Speaker 7: which the mechanism of articulate language is being perfected, a
• 4:03:20
  Speaker 7: period contemporary with that in which he is acquiring a
• 4:03:23
  Speaker 7: content of language, along with the patrimony of perception. The
• 4:03:29
  Speaker 7: child has perhaps not heard perfectly in all their component
• 4:03:32
  Speaker 7: parts the words which he pronounces, and if he has
• 4:03:37
  Speaker 7: heard them perfectly, they may have been pronounced badly and
• 4:03:41
  Speaker 7: consequently have left an erroneous auditory perception. It would be
• 4:03:46
  Speaker 7: well that the child, by exercising the motor channels of
• 4:03:51
  Speaker 7: articulate language, should establish exactly the movements necessary to a
• 4:03:58
  Speaker 7: perfect articulation before the age of easy motor adaptations is passed,
• 4:04:04
  Speaker 7: and by the fixation of erroneous mechanisms, the defects become incorrigible.
• 4:04:11
  Speaker 7: To this end, the analysis of speech is necessary, as
• 4:04:16
  Speaker 7: when we wish to perfect the language, we first start
• 4:04:19
  Speaker 7: children at composition and then pass to grammatical study. And
• 4:04:24
  Speaker 7: when we wish to perfect the style, we first teach
• 4:04:27
  Speaker 7: to write grammatically and then come to the analysis of style.
• 4:04:32
  Speaker 7: So when we wish to perfect the speech, it is
• 4:04:34
  Speaker 7: first necessary that the speech exists, and then it is
• 4:04:37
  Speaker 7: proper to proceed to its analysis when therefore the child speaks,
• 4:04:43
  Speaker 7: but before the completion of the development of speech, which
• 4:04:46
  Speaker 7: renders it fixed in mechanisms already established, the speech should
• 4:04:51
  Speaker 7: be analyzed with a view to perfecting it. Now, as
• 4:04:55
  Speaker 7: grammar and rhetoric are not possible with the spoken language,
• 4:04:58
  Speaker 7: but men recourse to the written language, which keeps ever
• 4:05:02
  Speaker 7: before the eye of the discourse to be analyzed, so
• 4:05:05
  Speaker 7: it is with speech. The analysis of the transient is impossible.
• 4:05:10
  Speaker 7: The language must be materialized and made stable. Hence the
• 4:05:14
  Speaker 7: necessity of the written word or the word represented by
• 4:05:17
  Speaker 7: graphic signs. In the third stage of my method for writing,
• 4:05:22
  Speaker 7: that is, composition of speech is included the analysis of
• 4:05:26
  Speaker 7: the word not only into signs, but into the component sounds,
• 4:05:30
  Speaker 7: the signs representing its translation. The child, that is divides
• 4:05:35
  Speaker 7: the heard word, which he perceives integrally as a word,
• 4:05:39
  Speaker 7: knowing also its meanings into sounds and syllables. Let me
• 4:05:44
  Speaker 7: call attention to the following diagram, which represents the interrelation
• 4:05:48
  Speaker 7: of the two mechanisms for writing and for articulate speech.
• 4:05:52
  Speaker 7: The peripheric channels are indicated by heavy lines, the central
• 4:05:57
  Speaker 7: channels of association by dotted lines, and those referring to
• 4:06:01
  Speaker 7: association in relation to the development of the herd speech
• 4:06:05
  Speaker 7: by light lines. E eer so auditory center of sounds,
• 4:06:14
  Speaker 7: s Y auditory center of syllables, W center of word,
• 4:06:20
  Speaker 7: M motor center of articulate speech, t external organs of
• 4:06:27
  Speaker 7: articulate speech, tongue, h external organs of writing, hand, MC
• 4:06:36
  Speaker 7: motor center of writing, v C visual center of graphic signs,
• 4:06:42
  Speaker 7: and v organ of vision. Whereas in the development of
• 4:06:47
  Speaker 7: spoken language, the sound composing the word might be imperfectly perceived,
• 4:06:53
  Speaker 7: here in the teaching of the graphic sign corresponding to
• 4:06:56
  Speaker 7: the sound, which teaching consists in presenting to the child
• 4:07:00
  Speaker 7: a sandpaper letter, naming it distinctly, and making the child
• 4:07:03
  Speaker 7: see it and touch it. Not only is the perception
• 4:07:06
  Speaker 7: of the herd sound clearly fixed separately and clearly, but
• 4:07:11
  Speaker 7: this perception is associated with two others, the centro motor
• 4:07:15
  Speaker 7: perception and the centro visual perception of the written sign.
• 4:07:20
  Speaker 7: The triangle bc mc SO represents the association of three
• 4:07:25
  Speaker 7: sensations in relation with the analysis of speech. When the
• 4:07:30
  Speaker 7: letter is presented to the child and he is made
• 4:07:33
  Speaker 7: to touch and see it while it is being named,
• 4:07:36
  Speaker 7: the centripetal channels e so H mc SO, v v
• 4:07:43
  Speaker 7: c SO are acting, and when the child is made
• 4:07:47
  Speaker 7: to name the letter alone or accompanied by a vowel,
• 4:07:51
  Speaker 7: the external stimulus acts in v and passes through the
• 4:07:55
  Speaker 7: channels v bc so m T and v c v
• 4:08:03
  Speaker 7: so ci m T. When these channels of association have
• 4:08:08
  Speaker 7: been established, by presenting visual stimuli in the graphic sign,
• 4:08:13
  Speaker 7: the corresponding movements of articulate language can be provoked and
• 4:08:16
  Speaker 7: studied one by one in their defects, while by maintaining
• 4:08:21
  Speaker 7: the visual stimulus of the graphic sign which provokes articulation,
• 4:08:26
  Speaker 7: and accompanying it by the auditory stimulus of the corresponding
• 4:08:30
  Speaker 7: sound uttered by the teacher, their articulation can be perfected.
• 4:08:36
  Speaker 7: This articulation is by innate conditions connected with the herd speech,
• 4:08:42
  Speaker 7: that is, in the course of the pronunciation provoked by
• 4:08:45
  Speaker 7: the visual stimulus and during the repetition of the relative
• 4:08:49
  Speaker 7: movements of the organs of the language. The auditory stimulus,
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 7: which is introduced into the exercise, contributes to the perfecting
• 4:08:57
  Speaker 7: of the pronunciation of the isolated or syllabic sounds composing
• 4:09:03
  Speaker 7: the spoken word. When later the child writes under dictation,
• 4:09:08
  Speaker 7: translating into signs the sounds of speech, he analyzes the
• 4:09:12
  Speaker 7: heard speech into its sounds, translating them into graphic movements
• 4:09:17
  Speaker 7: through channels already rendered permeable by the corresponding muscular sensations.
• 4:09:23
  Speaker 7: Defects of language due to lack of education. Defects and
• 4:09:28
  Speaker 7: imperfections of language are in part due to organic causes
• 4:09:32
  Speaker 7: consisting in malformations or in pathological alterations of the nervous system,
• 4:09:38
  Speaker 7: but in part they are connected with the functional defects
• 4:09:41
  Speaker 7: acquired in the period of the formation of language, and
• 4:09:45
  Speaker 7: consists in an erratic pronunciation of the component sounds of
• 4:09:49
  Speaker 7: the spoken word. Such errors are acquired by the child
• 4:09:53
  Speaker 7: who hears words imperfectly pronounced or hears bad speech. The
• 4:09:59
  Speaker 7: dialect accent enters into this category, but there are also
• 4:10:04
  Speaker 7: vicious habits which make the natural defects of the articulate
• 4:10:08
  Speaker 7: language of childhood persist in the child, or which provoke
• 4:10:13
  Speaker 7: him by imitation. The defects of language be peculiar to
• 4:10:17
  Speaker 7: the persons who surrounded him in his childhood. The normal
• 4:10:22
  Speaker 7: defects of child language are due to the fact that
• 4:10:25
  Speaker 7: the complicated muscular agencies of the organs of articulate language
• 4:10:31
  Speaker 7: do not yet function well, and are consequently incapable of
• 4:10:34
  Speaker 7: reproducing the sound which was the sensory stimulus of a
• 4:10:39
  Speaker 7: certain innate movement. The association of the movements necessary to
• 4:10:44
  Speaker 7: the articulation of the spoken words is established little by little.
• 4:10:50
  Speaker 7: The result is a language made of words with sounds
• 4:10:53
  Speaker 7: which are imperfect and often lacking, whence in complete words.
• 4:10:59
  Speaker 7: Such defects are grouped under the name blossitis, and are
• 4:11:04
  Speaker 7: especially due to the fact that the child is not
• 4:11:07
  Speaker 7: yet capable of directing the movements of his tongue. They
• 4:11:11
  Speaker 7: comprise chiefly sigmatism or imperfect pronunciation of s rotatism or
• 4:11:17
  Speaker 7: imperfect pronunciation of R lamdasism or imperfect pronunciation of L.
• 4:11:27
  Speaker 7: Gammeicism or imperfect pronunciation of g iota sism defective pronunciation
• 4:11:35
  Speaker 7: of the gutturals, mogilalia, imperfect pronunciation of the labials, and,
• 4:11:42
  Speaker 7: according to some authors as prior mogilalia is made to
• 4:11:48
  Speaker 7: include the suppression of the first sound of a word.
• 4:11:53
  Speaker 7: Some defects of pronunciation, which concern the utterance of the
• 4:11:57
  Speaker 7: vowel sound as well as that of the consopt are
• 4:12:01
  Speaker 7: due to the fact that the child reproduces perfectly sounds
• 4:12:05
  Speaker 7: imperfectly heard. In the first case, then it is a
• 4:12:10
  Speaker 7: matter of functional insufficiencies of the peripheral motor organ and
• 4:12:14
  Speaker 7: hents of the nervous channels, and the cause lies in
• 4:12:17
  Speaker 7: the individual, whereas in the second case, the error is
• 4:12:21
  Speaker 7: caused by the auditory stimulus and the cause lies outside.
• 4:12:25
  Speaker 7: These defects often persist, however, attenuated in the boy and
• 4:12:30
  Speaker 7: the adult, and produce finally an erroneous language which will
• 4:12:34
  Speaker 7: later be added in writing orthographical errors, such for example,
• 4:12:39
  Speaker 7: as dialectic orthographical errors. If one considers the charm of
• 4:12:44
  Speaker 7: human speech, one is bound to acknowledge the inferiority of
• 4:12:47
  Speaker 7: one who does not possess a correct spoken language, and
• 4:12:51
  Speaker 7: an esthetic conception of education cannot be imagined unless special
• 4:12:56
  Speaker 7: care be devoted to perfecting articulate language. Although the Greeks
• 4:13:01
  Speaker 7: had transmitted to Rome the art of educating in language,
• 4:13:05
  Speaker 7: this practice was not resumed by humanism, which cared more
• 4:13:09
  Speaker 7: for the esthetics of the environment and the revival of
• 4:13:13
  Speaker 7: artistic works than for the perfecting of the man. Today,
• 4:13:16
  Speaker 7: we are just beginning to introduce the practice of correcting
• 4:13:20
  Speaker 7: by pedagogical methods the serious effects of language, such as stammering,
• 4:13:26
  Speaker 7: But the idea of linguistic gymnastics tending to its perfection
• 4:13:31
  Speaker 7: has not yet penetrated into our schools as a universal
• 4:13:35
  Speaker 7: method and as a detail of the great work of
• 4:13:37
  Speaker 7: the esthetic perfecting of man. Some teachers of deaf mutes
• 4:13:43
  Speaker 7: and intelligent devotees of orthophony are trying, nowadays, with small
• 4:13:49
  Speaker 7: practical success, to introduce into the elementary schools the correction
• 4:13:54
  Speaker 7: of the various forms of blossitas, as a result of
• 4:13:58
  Speaker 7: statistical studies which have demonstrated the wide diffusion of such
• 4:14:02
  Speaker 7: defects among the pupils. The exercises consist essentially in silence
• 4:14:07
  Speaker 7: cures which procure calm and repose for the organs of language,
• 4:14:13
  Speaker 7: and in patient repetition of the separate vowel and consonate sounds.
• 4:14:17
  Speaker 7: To these exercises is added also respiratory gymnastics. This is
• 4:14:23
  Speaker 7: not the place to describe in detail the methods of
• 4:14:25
  Speaker 7: these exercises, which are long and patient and quite out
• 4:14:28
  Speaker 7: of harmony with the teachings of the school, But in
• 4:14:32
  Speaker 7: my methods are to be found all exercises for the
• 4:14:34
  Speaker 7: corrections of language A exercises of silence, which prepare the
• 4:14:40
  Speaker 7: nervous channels of language to receive new stimuli perfectly b
• 4:14:46
  Speaker 7: lessons which consist first of the distinct pronunciation by the
• 4:14:50
  Speaker 7: teacher of few words, especially of nouns, which must be
• 4:14:55
  Speaker 7: associated with a concrete idea. By this means clear and
• 4:15:00
  Speaker 7: perfect auditory stimuli of language are started. Stimuli which are
• 4:15:04
  Speaker 7: repeated by the teacher when the child has conceived the
• 4:15:07
  Speaker 7: idea of the object represented by the word recognition of
• 4:15:11
  Speaker 7: the object. Finally, of the provocation of articulate language on
• 4:15:16
  Speaker 7: the part of the child, who must repeat the word
• 4:15:18
  Speaker 7: alone aloud, pronouncing its separate sounds. C Exercises in graphic
• 4:15:25
  Speaker 7: language which analyze the sounds of speech and cause them
• 4:15:28
  Speaker 7: to be repeated separately in several ways. That is, when
• 4:15:32
  Speaker 7: the child learns the separate letters of the alphabet, and
• 4:15:35
  Speaker 7: when he composes or writes words, repeating their sounds, which
• 4:15:39
  Speaker 7: he translates separately into composed or written speech d gymnastic
• 4:15:45
  Speaker 7: exercises which comprise, as we have seen, both repertory exercises
• 4:15:51
  Speaker 7: and those of articulation. I believe that in the schools
• 4:15:56
  Speaker 7: of the future, the conception will disappear, which is beginning today,
• 4:16:00
  Speaker 7: of correcting in the elementary schools the defects of language,
• 4:16:05
  Speaker 7: and will be replaced by the more rational one of
• 4:16:08
  Speaker 7: avoiding them by caring for the development of language and
• 4:16:12
  Speaker 7: the children's houses. That is, in the very age in
• 4:16:17
  Speaker 7: which language is being established in the child. End of Chapter.
• 4:16:24
  Speaker 9: Eighteen, Chapter nineteen, Teaching of Numeration, Introduction to Arithmetic. Children
• 4:16:34
  Speaker 9: of three years already know how to count as far
• 4:16:37
  Speaker 9: as two or three. When they enter our schools. They
• 4:16:41
  Speaker 9: therefore very easily learn numeration, which consists in counting objects.
• 4:16:47
  Speaker 9: A dozen different ways may serve towards this end, and
• 4:16:51
  Speaker 9: daily life presents many opportunities. When the mother says, for instance,
• 4:16:56
  Speaker 9: there are two buttons missing from your apron or we
• 4:17:00
  Speaker 9: need three more plates at table. One of the first
• 4:17:05
  Speaker 9: means used by me is that of counting with money.
• 4:17:09
  Speaker 9: I obtain new money, and if it were possible, I
• 4:17:13
  Speaker 9: should have good reproductions made in cardboard. I have seen
• 4:17:17
  Speaker 9: such money used in a school for deficients in London.
• 4:17:22
  Speaker 9: The making of change is a form of numeration so
• 4:17:25
  Speaker 9: attractive as to hold the attention of the child. I
• 4:17:30
  Speaker 9: present the one, two, and four senteen pieces, and the
• 4:17:34
  Speaker 9: children in this way learned account to ten. No form
• 4:17:39
  Speaker 9: of instruction is more practical than that tending to make
• 4:17:43
  Speaker 9: children familiar with the coins in common use, and no
• 4:17:47
  Speaker 9: exercise is more useful than that of making change. It
• 4:17:51
  Speaker 9: is so closely related to real life that it interests
• 4:17:55
  Speaker 9: all children immensely. Having taught numeration in this in sympiric mode,
• 4:18:01
  Speaker 9: I pass to more methodical exercises, having as didactic material
• 4:18:07
  Speaker 9: one of the set of blocks already used in the
• 4:18:09
  Speaker 9: education of the senses, namely the series of ten rods,
• 4:18:14
  Speaker 9: heretofore used for the teaching of length. The shortest of
• 4:18:18
  Speaker 9: these rods corresponds to a decimeter, the longest to a meter,
• 4:18:23
  Speaker 9: while the intervening rods are divided into sections a decimeter
• 4:18:27
  Speaker 9: in length. The sections are painted alternately red and blue, someday,
• 4:18:34
  Speaker 9: when a child has arranged the rods, placing them in
• 4:18:37
  Speaker 9: order of length, we have him count the red and
• 4:18:40
  Speaker 9: blue signs, beginning with the smallest piece, that is one, one, two, one, two, three,
• 4:18:50
  Speaker 9: et cetera, always going back to one in the counting
• 4:18:54
  Speaker 9: of each rod, and starting from the side A. We
• 4:18:58
  Speaker 9: then have him named the single rod from the shortest
• 4:19:01
  Speaker 9: to the longest, according to the total number of the
• 4:19:04
  Speaker 9: sections which each contains, touching the rods at the sides
• 4:19:10
  Speaker 9: b on which side the stare ascends. This results in
• 4:19:15
  Speaker 9: the same numeration as when we count it the longest
• 4:19:18
  Speaker 9: rod one two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine ten.
• 4:19:28
  Speaker 9: Wishing to know the number of rods, we count them
• 4:19:31
  Speaker 9: from side A, and the same numeration results one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
• 4:19:41
  Speaker 9: eight nine ten. This correspondence of the three sides of
• 4:19:48
  Speaker 9: the triangle causes the child to verify his knowledge, and
• 4:19:52
  Speaker 9: as the exercise interests him, he repeats it many times.
• 4:19:58
  Speaker 9: We now unite to the extra sizes enumeration the earlier
• 4:20:02
  Speaker 9: sensory exercises in which the child recognized the long and
• 4:20:07
  Speaker 9: short rods. Having mixed the rods upon a carpet, the
• 4:20:12
  Speaker 9: directress selects one, and showing it to the child, has
• 4:20:17
  Speaker 9: him count the sections, for example five. She then asks
• 4:20:22
  Speaker 9: him to give her the next one in length. He
• 4:20:25
  Speaker 9: selects it by his eye, and the directress has him
• 4:20:29
  Speaker 9: verify his choice by placing the two pieces side by
• 4:20:32
  Speaker 9: side and by counting their sections. Such exercises may be
• 4:20:38
  Speaker 9: repeated in great variety, and through them the child learns
• 4:20:42
  Speaker 9: to assign a particular name to each one of the pieces.
• 4:20:46
  Speaker 9: In the long stare, we may now call them piece
• 4:20:50
  Speaker 9: number one, piece number two, et cetera, And finally, for brevity,
• 4:20:56
  Speaker 9: may speak of them in the lessons as one, two, three,
• 4:21:00
  Speaker 9: et cetera. The numbers as represented by the graphic signs.
• 4:21:09
  Speaker 9: At this point, if the child already knows how to write,
• 4:21:13
  Speaker 9: we may present the figures cut in sand paper and
• 4:21:16
  Speaker 9: mounted upon cards. In presenting these, the method is the
• 4:21:20
  Speaker 9: same used in teaching the letters. This is one, this
• 4:21:25
  Speaker 9: is two, Give me one, give me two. What number
• 4:21:31
  Speaker 9: is this? The child traces the number with his fingers,
• 4:21:36
  Speaker 9: as he did with the letters. Exercises with numbers association
• 4:21:45
  Speaker 9: of the graphic sign with the quantity. I have designed
• 4:21:50
  Speaker 9: two trays, each divided into five little compartments. At the
• 4:21:56
  Speaker 9: back of each compartment may be placed a card bearing
• 4:21:59
  Speaker 9: a figure. The figures in the first tray should be zero, one, two, three,
• 4:22:05
  Speaker 9: and four, and in a second five, six, seven, eight nine.
• 4:22:11
  Speaker 9: The exercise is obvious. It consists in placing within the
• 4:22:15
  Speaker 9: compartments a number of objects corresponding to the figure indicated
• 4:22:20
  Speaker 9: upon the card at the back of the compartment. We
• 4:22:25
  Speaker 9: give the children various objects in order to vary the lesson,
• 4:22:29
  Speaker 9: but chiefly make use of large wooden pegs so shaped
• 4:22:32
  Speaker 9: that they will not roll off the desk. We place
• 4:22:37
  Speaker 9: the number of these before the child, whose part is
• 4:22:40
  Speaker 9: to arrange them in their places, one peg corresponding to
• 4:22:44
  Speaker 9: the card marked one, et cetera. When he has finished,
• 4:22:49
  Speaker 9: he takes his tray to the directress that she may
• 4:22:52
  Speaker 9: verify his work. The lesson on zero. We wait until
• 4:22:58
  Speaker 9: the child, pointing to the compartment containing the card marked zero,
• 4:23:02
  Speaker 9: asks and what must I put in here? We then
• 4:23:06
  Speaker 9: reply nothing. Zero is nothing. But often this is not enough.
• 4:23:13
  Speaker 9: It is necessary to make the child feel what we
• 4:23:16
  Speaker 9: mean by nothing. To this end we make use of
• 4:23:20
  Speaker 9: little games, which vastly entertain the children. I stand among them,
• 4:23:25
  Speaker 9: and turning to one of them, who has already used
• 4:23:28
  Speaker 9: this material. I say, come, dear, come to me zero times.
• 4:23:34
  Speaker 9: The child almost always comes to me and then runs
• 4:23:37
  Speaker 9: back to his place. But my boy, you came one
• 4:23:41
  Speaker 9: time and I told you to come zero times. Then
• 4:23:46
  Speaker 9: he begins to wonder, But what must I do then? Nothing?
• 4:23:51
  Speaker 9: Zero is nothing? But how shall I do nothing? Don't
• 4:23:55
  Speaker 9: do don't do anything. You must sit still. You must
• 4:24:00
  Speaker 9: not come at all, not any times, zero times, no
• 4:24:04
  Speaker 9: times at all. I repeat these exercises until the children understand,
• 4:24:11
  Speaker 9: and they are then immensely amused at remaining quiet. When
• 4:24:14
  Speaker 9: I call to them to come to me zero times
• 4:24:17
  Speaker 9: or to throw me zero kisses, they themselves often cry
• 4:24:21
  Speaker 9: out zero is nothing. Zero is nothing. Exercises for the
• 4:24:30
  Speaker 9: memory of numbers. When the children recognize the written figure,
• 4:24:36
  Speaker 9: and when this figure signifies to them the numerical value,
• 4:24:40
  Speaker 9: I give them the following exercise. I cut the figures
• 4:24:45
  Speaker 9: from old calendars and mount them upon slips of paper,
• 4:24:49
  Speaker 9: which are then folded and dropped into a box. The
• 4:24:53
  Speaker 9: children draw out the slips, carry them, still folded, to
• 4:24:56
  Speaker 9: their seats, where they look at them and refold them,
• 4:25:00
  Speaker 9: serving the secret. Then, one by one or in groups,
• 4:25:04
  Speaker 9: these children who are naturally, the oldest ones in the
• 4:25:07
  Speaker 9: class go to the large table of the directress, where
• 4:25:11
  Speaker 9: groups of various small objects have been placed. Each one
• 4:25:16
  Speaker 9: selects the quantity of objects corresponding to the number he
• 4:25:20
  Speaker 9: has drawn. The number, meanwhile, has been left to the
• 4:25:24
  Speaker 9: child's place a slip of paper mysteriously folded. The child
• 4:25:29
  Speaker 9: therefore must remember his number not only during the movements
• 4:25:34
  Speaker 9: which he makes in coming and going, but while he
• 4:25:37
  Speaker 9: collects his pieces, counting them one by one. The directresses
• 4:25:42
  Speaker 9: may here make interesting individual observations upon the number memory.
• 4:25:50
  Speaker 9: When the child has gathered up his objects, he arranges
• 4:25:53
  Speaker 9: them upon his own table in columns of two, and
• 4:25:57
  Speaker 9: if the number is uneven, he places the other odd
• 4:26:00
  Speaker 9: piece at the bottom and between the last two objects.
• 4:26:04
  Speaker 9: The arrangement of the pieces is therefore as follows. The
• 4:26:09
  Speaker 9: crosses represent the objects, while the circle stands for the
• 4:26:12
  Speaker 9: folded slip containing the figure. Having arranged as objects, the
• 4:26:17
  Speaker 9: child awaits the verification. The directress comes, opens the slip,
• 4:26:23
  Speaker 9: reads the number, and counts the pieces. When we first
• 4:26:29
  Speaker 9: played this game, it often happened that the children took
• 4:26:32
  Speaker 9: more objects than were called for upon the card, and
• 4:26:36
  Speaker 9: this was not always because they did not remember the number,
• 4:26:39
  Speaker 9: but arose from a mania for having the greatest number
• 4:26:42
  Speaker 9: of objects, a little of that instinctive greediness which is
• 4:26:48
  Speaker 9: common to primitive and uncultured man. The directress seeks to
• 4:26:52
  Speaker 9: explain to the children that it is useless to have
• 4:26:55
  Speaker 9: all those things upon the desk, and that the point
• 4:26:58
  Speaker 9: of the game lies in taking the exact number of
• 4:27:01
  Speaker 9: objects called for. Little by little they enter into this idea,
• 4:27:06
  Speaker 9: but not so easily as one might suppose. It is
• 4:27:10
  Speaker 9: a real effort of self denial which holds the child
• 4:27:13
  Speaker 9: within the set limit, and makes him take, for example,
• 4:27:17
  Speaker 9: only two of the objects placed at his disposal, while
• 4:27:21
  Speaker 9: he sees others taking more. I therefore consider this game
• 4:27:25
  Speaker 9: more an exercise of will power than of numeration. The
• 4:27:30
  Speaker 9: child who has the zero should not move from his
• 4:27:34
  Speaker 9: place when he sees all his companions rising and taking
• 4:27:37
  Speaker 9: freely of the objects which are inaccessible to him. Many times,
• 4:27:43
  Speaker 9: zero falls to the lot of a child who knows
• 4:27:45
  Speaker 9: how to count perfectly, and who would experience great pleasure
• 4:27:49
  Speaker 9: in accumulating and arranging a fine group of objects in
• 4:27:53
  Speaker 9: the proper order upon his table, and in a waiting
• 4:27:56
  Speaker 9: with security. The teacher's verification. It is most interesting to
• 4:28:03
  Speaker 9: study the expressions upon the faces of those who possess zero.
• 4:28:08
  Speaker 9: The individual differences which result are almost a revelation of
• 4:28:12
  Speaker 9: the character of each one. Some remain impassive, assuming a
• 4:28:18
  Speaker 9: bold front in order to hide the pain of the disappointment.
• 4:28:22
  Speaker 9: Others show this disappointment by involuntary gestures. Still others cannot
• 4:28:28
  Speaker 9: hide the smile which is called forth by the singular
• 4:28:31
  Speaker 9: situation in which they find themselves and which will make
• 4:28:35
  Speaker 9: their friends curious. There are little ones who follow every
• 4:28:39
  Speaker 9: movement of their companions with a look of desire, almost
• 4:28:42
  Speaker 9: of envy, while others show instant acceptance of the situation.
• 4:28:48
  Speaker 9: No less interesting are the expressions with which they confess
• 4:28:52
  Speaker 9: to the holding of the zero when asked during the verification.
• 4:28:56
  Speaker 9: And you you haven't taken anything, I have zero. It
• 4:29:01
  Speaker 9: is zero. These are the usual words, but the expressive
• 4:29:05
  Speaker 9: face the tone of the voice show widely varying sentiments. Rare, indeed,
• 4:29:12
  Speaker 9: are those who seem to give with pleasure the explanation
• 4:29:15
  Speaker 9: of an extraordinary fact. The greater number either look unhappy
• 4:29:20
  Speaker 9: or merely resigned. We therefore give lessons upon the meaning
• 4:29:25
  Speaker 9: of the game, saying it is hard to keep the
• 4:29:28
  Speaker 9: zero secret. Hold the paper tightly and don't let it
• 4:29:31
  Speaker 9: slip away. It is the most difficult of all. Indeed,
• 4:29:36
  Speaker 9: after a while, the very difficulty of remaining quiet appeals
• 4:29:41
  Speaker 9: to the children, and when they open the slip mark zero,
• 4:29:44
  Speaker 9: it can be seen that they are content to keep
• 4:29:47
  Speaker 9: the secret. Addition and subtraction from one to twenty, multiplication
• 4:29:55
  Speaker 9: and division. The didactic material which we use for the
• 4:30:00
  Speaker 9: teaching of the first arithmetical operations is the same already
• 4:30:05
  Speaker 9: used for numeration. That is, the rods graduated as to length,
• 4:30:10
  Speaker 9: which arranged on the scale of the meter, contain the
• 4:30:14
  Speaker 9: first idea of the decimal system. The rods, as I
• 4:30:18
  Speaker 9: have said, have come to be called by the numbers
• 4:30:21
  Speaker 9: which they represent, one, two, three, et cetera. They are
• 4:30:26
  Speaker 9: arranged in order of length, which is also in order
• 4:30:29
  Speaker 9: of numeration. The first exercise consists in trying to put
• 4:30:34
  Speaker 9: the shorter pieces together in such a way as to
• 4:30:37
  Speaker 9: form tens. The most simple way of doing this is
• 4:30:42
  Speaker 9: to take successively the shortest rods from one up and
• 4:30:46
  Speaker 9: place them at the end of the corresponding long rods
• 4:30:49
  Speaker 9: from ten down. This may be accompanied by the commands.
• 4:30:54
  Speaker 9: Take one and add it to nine. Take two and
• 4:30:58
  Speaker 9: add it to eight. Take three and add it to seven.
• 4:31:02
  Speaker 9: Take four and add it to six. In this way
• 4:31:06
  Speaker 9: we make four rods equal to ten. There remains the five,
• 4:31:11
  Speaker 9: But turning this upon its head in the long sense,
• 4:31:14
  Speaker 9: it passes from one end of the ten to the other,
• 4:31:18
  Speaker 9: and thus makes clear the fact that two times five
• 4:31:21
  Speaker 9: makes ten. These exercises are repeated, and little by little
• 4:31:28
  Speaker 9: the child is taught the more technical language. Nine plus
• 4:31:32
  Speaker 9: one equals ten, eight plus two equals ten, seven plus
• 4:31:38
  Speaker 9: three equals ten, six plus four equals ten. And for
• 4:31:43
  Speaker 9: the five, which remains, two times five equals ten. At last,
• 4:31:49
  Speaker 9: if he can write, we teach the science plus and
• 4:31:52
  Speaker 9: equal and times. Then this is what we see in
• 4:31:56
  Speaker 9: the neat notebooks of our little ones. Nine plus one
• 4:32:00
  Speaker 9: on one equals ten, eight plus two equals five, five times
• 4:32:07
  Speaker 9: two equals ten, seven plus three equals ten, six plus
• 4:32:13
  Speaker 9: four equals ten. When this is well learned, and has
• 4:32:19
  Speaker 9: been put upon the paper with great pleasure by the children,
• 4:32:23
  Speaker 9: we call their attention to the work which is done.
• 4:32:25
  Speaker 9: When the piece is grouped together to form tens are
• 4:32:28
  Speaker 9: taken apart and put back in their original positions from
• 4:32:33
  Speaker 9: the ten last formed, we take away four and six
• 4:32:37
  Speaker 9: remains from the next. We take away three and seven
• 4:32:42
  Speaker 9: remains from the next, two and eight remains from the last,
• 4:32:48
  Speaker 9: we take away one and nine remains. Speaking of this properly,
• 4:32:53
  Speaker 9: we say ten less four equals six, ten LUs three
• 4:32:59
  Speaker 9: equals seven, ten plus two equals eight, ten less one
• 4:33:04
  Speaker 9: equals nine. In regard to the remaining five, it is
• 4:33:11
  Speaker 9: the half of ten. And by cutting the long rod
• 4:33:13
  Speaker 9: in two, that is, dividing ten by two, we would
• 4:33:18
  Speaker 9: have five ten divided by two equals five. The written
• 4:33:24
  Speaker 9: record of all this reads ten minus four equals six.
• 4:33:28
  Speaker 9: Ten minus three equals seven. Ten divided by two equals five.
• 4:33:35
  Speaker 9: Ten minus two equals eight, ten minus one equals nine.
• 4:33:42
  Speaker 9: Once the children have mastered this exercise, they multiply it spontaneously.
• 4:33:48
  Speaker 9: Can we make three in two ways? Replace the one
• 4:33:51
  Speaker 9: after the two, and then write, in order that we
• 4:33:54
  Speaker 9: may remember what we have done? Two plus one equals three?
• 4:34:01
  Speaker 9: Can we make two rods equal to number four? Three
• 4:34:05
  Speaker 9: plus one equals four, and four minus three equals one.
• 4:34:10
  Speaker 9: Four minus one equals three. Rod number two in its
• 4:34:15
  Speaker 9: relation to rod number four is treated as was five
• 4:34:19
  Speaker 9: in relation to ten. That is, we turn it over
• 4:34:23
  Speaker 9: and show that it is contained in four exactly two
• 4:34:27
  Speaker 9: times four divided by two equals two. Two times two
• 4:34:32
  Speaker 9: equals four. Another problem. Let us see with how many
• 4:34:37
  Speaker 9: rods we can play this same game. We can do
• 4:34:40
  Speaker 9: it with three and six and with four and eight.
• 4:34:44
  Speaker 9: That is, two times two equals four. Three times two
• 4:34:48
  Speaker 9: equals six, four times two equals eight, five times two
• 4:34:53
  Speaker 9: equals ten, ten divided by two equals five. Eight divided
• 4:34:59
  Speaker 9: by two equals five four, six divided by two equals
• 4:35:03
  Speaker 9: three four divided by two equals two. At this point
• 4:35:08
  Speaker 9: we find that the cubes with which we played the
• 4:35:10
  Speaker 9: number memory games are of help from this arrangement. One
• 4:35:16
  Speaker 9: sees at once which are the numbers which can be
• 4:35:18
  Speaker 9: divided by two, All those which have not an odd
• 4:35:22
  Speaker 9: cube at the bottom. These are the even numbers, because
• 4:35:26
  Speaker 9: they can be arranged in pairs two by two, and
• 4:35:30
  Speaker 9: the division by two is easy. All that is necessary
• 4:35:33
  Speaker 9: being to separate the two lines of twos that stand
• 4:35:37
  Speaker 9: one under the other. Counting the cubes of each file,
• 4:35:41
  Speaker 9: we have the quotient to recompose the primitive number. We
• 4:35:46
  Speaker 9: need only reassemble the two files. Thus two times three
• 4:35:51
  Speaker 9: equals six. All this is not difficult for children of
• 4:35:55
  Speaker 9: five years. The repetition soon becomes monotonous, but the exercises
• 4:36:02
  Speaker 9: may be most easily changed. Taking again the set of
• 4:36:06
  Speaker 9: long rods, and instead of placing rod number one after
• 4:36:09
  Speaker 9: nine placed after ten, in the same way, place two
• 4:36:14
  Speaker 9: after nine and three after eight. In this way we
• 4:36:18
  Speaker 9: make rods of a greater length than ten, lengths which
• 4:36:22
  Speaker 9: we must learn to name eleven, twelve, thirteen, et cetera.
• 4:36:26
  Speaker 9: As far as twenty. The little cubes two may be
• 4:36:30
  Speaker 9: used to fix these higher numbers. Having learned the operations
• 4:36:35
  Speaker 9: through ten, we proceed with no difficulty to twenty. The
• 4:36:40
  Speaker 9: one difficulty lies in the decimal numbers, which require certain
• 4:36:44
  Speaker 9: lessons lessons on decimals arithmetical calculations. Beyond ten. The necessary
• 4:36:54
  Speaker 9: didactic material consists of a number of square cards upon
• 4:36:58
  Speaker 9: which the figure ten is printed in large type, and
• 4:37:02
  Speaker 9: of other rectangular cards half the size of the square,
• 4:37:06
  Speaker 9: and containing the single numbers from one to nine. We
• 4:37:10
  Speaker 9: place the numbers in a line one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Then,
• 4:37:20
  Speaker 9: having no more numbers, we must begin over again and
• 4:37:23
  Speaker 9: take the one again. This one is like that section
• 4:37:27
  Speaker 9: in the set of rods, which in rod number ten
• 4:37:30
  Speaker 9: extends beyond nine, counting along the stair as far as nine.
• 4:37:36
  Speaker 9: There remains this one section, which, as there are no
• 4:37:39
  Speaker 9: more numbers, we again designate as one. But this is
• 4:37:44
  Speaker 9: a higher one than the first, and to distinguish it
• 4:37:47
  Speaker 9: from the first, we put near it a zero, a
• 4:37:50
  Speaker 9: sign which means nothing. Here then is ten. Covering the
• 4:37:56
  Speaker 9: zero with the separate rectangular number cards in the order
• 4:37:59
  Speaker 9: of their six session we see formed eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen,
• 4:38:09
  Speaker 9: eighteen nineteen. These numbers are composed by adding to rod
• 4:38:14
  Speaker 9: number ten first rod number one, then two, then three,
• 4:38:18
  Speaker 9: et cetera, until we finally add rod number nine to
• 4:38:22
  Speaker 9: rod number ten, thus obtaining a very long rod, which,
• 4:38:27
  Speaker 9: when its alternating red and blue sections are counted, gives
• 4:38:30
  Speaker 9: us nineteen. The directress may then show to the child
• 4:38:36
  Speaker 9: the cards giving the number sixteen, and he may place
• 4:38:40
  Speaker 9: Rod six after Rod ten. She then takes away the
• 4:38:45
  Speaker 9: card bearing six and places over the zero the card
• 4:38:48
  Speaker 9: bearing the figure eight, whereupon the child takes away Rod
• 4:38:52
  Speaker 9: six and replaces it with Rod eight, thus making eighteen.
• 4:38:58
  Speaker 9: Each of these acts may be recorded Thus ten plus
• 4:39:02
  Speaker 9: six equals sixteen, ten plus eighteen equals eighteen, et cetera.
• 4:39:07
  Speaker 9: We proceed in the same way to subtraction when the
• 4:39:12
  Speaker 9: number itself begins to have a clear meaning to the child.
• 4:39:15
  Speaker 9: The combinations are made upon one long card, arranging the
• 4:39:19
  Speaker 9: rectangular cards bearing the nine figures upon the two columns
• 4:39:24
  Speaker 9: of numbers shown in the figures A and B. Upon
• 4:39:28
  Speaker 9: the card A, we superimpose upon the zero of the
• 4:39:32
  Speaker 9: second ten the rectangular card bearing the one, and under
• 4:39:36
  Speaker 9: this the one bearing two, et cetera. Thus, while the
• 4:39:41
  Speaker 9: one of the ten remains the same, the numbers to
• 4:39:44
  Speaker 9: the right proceed from zero to nine. Thus, in card
• 4:39:49
  Speaker 9: B the applications are more complex. The cards are superimposed
• 4:39:53
  Speaker 9: in numerical progression by tens. Almost all our children count
• 4:39:58
  Speaker 9: to one hundred, a number which is given to them
• 4:40:01
  Speaker 9: in response to the curiosity they showed in regard to
• 4:40:05
  Speaker 9: learning it. I do not believe that this phase of
• 4:40:09
  Speaker 9: the teaching needs further illustrations. Each teacher may multiply the
• 4:40:13
  Speaker 9: practical exercises in the arithmetical operations using simple objects which
• 4:40:19
  Speaker 9: the children can readily handle and divide. End of Chapter nineteen.
• 4:40:26
  Speaker 3: Chapter twenty sequence of exercises. In the practical application of
• 4:40:33
  Speaker 3: the method, it is helpful to know the sequence or
• 4:40:36
  Speaker 3: the various series of exercises which must be presented to
• 4:40:39
  Speaker 3: the child successively. In the first edition of my book
• 4:40:44
  Speaker 3: there was clearly indicated a progression for each exercise. But
• 4:40:48
  Speaker 3: in the children's houses we began contemporaneously with the most
• 4:40:52
  Speaker 3: varied exercises, and it develops that there exists grades in
• 4:40:56
  Speaker 3: the presentation of the material in its entirety. These grades have,
• 4:41:01
  Speaker 3: since the first publication of the book become clearly defined
• 4:41:05
  Speaker 3: through experience in the children's houses, sequence and grades in
• 4:41:10
  Speaker 3: the presentation of material, and in the exercises first grade.
• 4:41:15
  Speaker 3: As soon as the child comes to the school, he
• 4:41:17
  Speaker 3: may be given the following exercises moving the seats in silence,
• 4:41:23
  Speaker 3: practical life, lacing, buttoning, hooking, et cetera. The cylinders sense exercises.
• 4:41:32
  Speaker 3: Among these, the most useful exercise is that of the
• 4:41:36
  Speaker 3: cylinders solid insects. The child here begins to fix his attention.
• 4:41:42
  Speaker 3: He makes his first comparison, his first selection, in which
• 4:41:45
  Speaker 3: he exercises judgment. Therefore, he exercises his intelligence. Among these
• 4:41:53
  Speaker 3: exercises with the solid insects, there exists the following progression
• 4:41:57
  Speaker 3: from easy to difficult. A the cylinders, in which the
• 4:42:01
  Speaker 3: pieces are of the same height and of decreasing diameter.
• 4:42:05
  Speaker 3: B the cylinders decreasing in all dimensions. C those decreasing
• 4:42:11
  Speaker 3: only in height. Second grade exercises of practical life. To
• 4:42:18
  Speaker 3: rise and be seated in silence, to walk on the
• 4:42:21
  Speaker 3: lion sense exercises material dealing with dimensions the long stare
• 4:42:29
  Speaker 3: the prisms, or big stare the cubes. Here the child
• 4:42:34
  Speaker 3: makes exercises in the recognition of dimensions as he did
• 4:42:38
  Speaker 3: in the cylinders, but under a very different aspect. The
• 4:42:42
  Speaker 3: objects are much larger, the differences much more evident than
• 4:42:46
  Speaker 3: they were in the preceding exercises. But here only the
• 4:42:50
  Speaker 3: eye of the child recognizes the differences and controls the errors.
• 4:42:55
  Speaker 3: In the preceding exercises, the errors were mechanically revealed to
• 4:42:59
  Speaker 3: the child by the didactic material itself. The impossibility of
• 4:43:03
  Speaker 3: placing the objects in order in the block in any
• 4:43:06
  Speaker 3: other than their respective spaces gives this control. Finally, while
• 4:43:11
  Speaker 3: in the preceding exercises, the child makes much more simple movements.
• 4:43:15
  Speaker 3: Being seated, he places little objects in order with his hands.
• 4:43:19
  Speaker 3: In these new exercises. He accomplishes movements which are decidedly
• 4:43:23
  Speaker 3: more complex and difficult, and makes small muscular efforts. He
• 4:43:28
  Speaker 3: does this by moving from the table to the carpet, rises, kneels,
• 4:43:32
  Speaker 3: carries heavy objects. We notice that the child continues to
• 4:43:37
  Speaker 3: be confused between the two last pieces in the growing scale,
• 4:43:41
  Speaker 3: being for a long time unconscious of such an error,
• 4:43:44
  Speaker 3: after he has learned to put the other pieces in
• 4:43:46
  Speaker 3: correct order. Indeed, the difference between these pieces, being through
• 4:43:51
  Speaker 3: the varying dimensions the same for all, the relative difference
• 4:43:55
  Speaker 3: diminishes with the increasing size of the pieces themselves. For example,
• 4:44:00
  Speaker 3: the little cube, which has a base of two centimeters
• 4:44:03
  Speaker 3: is double the size as to base of the smallest cube,
• 4:44:07
  Speaker 3: which has a base of one centimeter, while the largest cube,
• 4:44:11
  Speaker 3: having a base of ten centimeters, differs by barely one
• 4:44:15
  Speaker 3: tenth from the base of the cube next it in
• 4:44:17
  Speaker 3: the series, the one of nine centimeters base. Thus it
• 4:44:22
  Speaker 3: would seem that theoretically, in such exercises we should begin
• 4:44:26
  Speaker 3: with the smallest piece. We can indeed do this with
• 4:44:30
  Speaker 3: the material through which size and length are taught, but
• 4:44:33
  Speaker 3: we cannot do so with the cubes, which must be
• 4:44:36
  Speaker 3: arranged as a little tower. The s column of blocks
• 4:44:39
  Speaker 3: must always have as its base the largest cube. The
• 4:44:43
  Speaker 3: children attracted above all by the tower begin very early
• 4:44:47
  Speaker 3: to play with it. Thus we often see very little
• 4:44:51
  Speaker 3: children playing with the tower, happy in believing that they
• 4:44:54
  Speaker 3: have constructed it, when they have inadvertently used the next
• 4:44:58
  Speaker 3: to the largest cube as the bayse. But when the child,
• 4:45:02
  Speaker 3: repeating the exercise, corrects himself of his own accord in
• 4:45:06
  Speaker 3: a permanent fashion, we may be certain that his eye
• 4:45:09
  Speaker 3: has become trained to perceive even the slightest differences between
• 4:45:13
  Speaker 3: the pieces. In the three systems of blocks through which
• 4:45:17
  Speaker 3: the mansions are taught, that of Lemph has species differing
• 4:45:21
  Speaker 3: from each other by ten centimeters, while in the other
• 4:45:24
  Speaker 3: two sets the pieces differ only one centimeter. Theoretically, it
• 4:45:29
  Speaker 3: would seem that the long rods should be the first
• 4:45:31
  Speaker 3: to attract the attention and to exclude errors. This, however,
• 4:45:36
  Speaker 3: is not the case. The children are attracted by this
• 4:45:40
  Speaker 3: set of blocks, but they commit the greatest number of
• 4:45:43
  Speaker 3: errors in using it, and only after they have for
• 4:45:45
  Speaker 3: a long time eliminated every error in constructing the other
• 4:45:49
  Speaker 3: two sets do they succeed in arranging the long stare perfectly.
• 4:45:54
  Speaker 3: This may then be considered as the most difficult among
• 4:45:57
  Speaker 3: the series through which the mansions are taught. Arrived at
• 4:46:00
  Speaker 3: this point in his education, the child is capable of
• 4:46:04
  Speaker 3: fixing his attention with interest upon the thermic and tactile stimuli.
• 4:46:09
  Speaker 3: The progression in the sense development is not, therefore, in
• 4:46:13
  Speaker 3: actual practice, identical with the theoretical progression which psychometry indicates
• 4:46:19
  Speaker 3: in the study of its subjects, nor does it follow
• 4:46:22
  Speaker 3: the progression which physiology and anatomy indicate in the description
• 4:46:26
  Speaker 3: of the relations of the sense organs. In fact, the
• 4:46:30
  Speaker 3: tactile sense is the primitive sense. The organ of touch
• 4:46:33
  Speaker 3: is the most simple and the most widely diffused. But
• 4:46:37
  Speaker 3: it is easy to explain how the most simple sensations
• 4:46:41
  Speaker 3: the least complex organs, are not the first through which
• 4:46:44
  Speaker 3: to attract the attention in a didactic presentation of sense stimuli. Therefore,
• 4:46:50
  Speaker 3: when the education of the attention has been begun, we
• 4:46:53
  Speaker 3: may present to the child the rough and smooth surfaces,
• 4:46:57
  Speaker 3: following certain thermic exercises described elsewhere in this book. These exercises,
• 4:47:03
  Speaker 3: if presented at the proper time, interests the children immensely.
• 4:47:08
  Speaker 3: It is to be remembered that these games are of
• 4:47:10
  Speaker 3: the greatest importance in the method because upon them, in
• 4:47:14
  Speaker 3: union with the exercises for the movement of the hand,
• 4:47:17
  Speaker 3: which we introduced later, we base the acquisition of writing.
• 4:47:22
  Speaker 3: Together with the two series of sense exercises described above,
• 4:47:26
  Speaker 3: we may begin what we call the pairing of the callers,
• 4:47:29
  Speaker 3: that is, the recognition of the identity of true callers.
• 4:47:33
  Speaker 3: This is the first exercise of the chromatic sense. Here also,
• 4:47:38
  Speaker 3: it is only the eye of the child that intervenes
• 4:47:40
  Speaker 3: in the judgment, As it was with the exercises in dimension.
• 4:47:45
  Speaker 3: This first callor exercise is easy, but the child must
• 4:47:49
  Speaker 3: already have acquired a certain grade of education of the
• 4:47:52
  Speaker 3: attention through preceding exercises if he is to repeat this
• 4:47:56
  Speaker 3: one with interest. Meanwhile, the child has heard music, has
• 4:48:01
  Speaker 3: walked on the line while the directress played a rhythmic march.
• 4:48:05
  Speaker 3: Little by little he has learned to accompany the music
• 4:48:08
  Speaker 3: spontaneously with certain movements. This, of course, necessitates the repetition
• 4:48:13
  Speaker 3: of the same music to acquire the sense of rhythm.
• 4:48:16
  Speaker 3: The repetition of the same exercise is necessary, as in
• 4:48:20
  Speaker 3: all forms of education dealing with spontaneous activity. The exercises
• 4:48:24
  Speaker 3: in silence are also repeated third grade exercises of practical life.
• 4:48:31
  Speaker 3: The children watch themselves dressed and undress themselves. Thus the
• 4:48:35
  Speaker 3: tables learn to handle various objects, etc. Sense exercise. We
• 4:48:41
  Speaker 3: now introduce the child to the recognition of gradations of stimuli,
• 4:48:46
  Speaker 3: tactile gradations, chromatic, etc. Allowing him to exercise himself freely.
• 4:48:52
  Speaker 3: We begin to present the stimuli for the sense of
• 4:48:55
  Speaker 3: hearing sounds, noises, and also the very stimuli the little tablets,
• 4:49:00
  Speaker 3: differing in weight. Contemporaneously with the gradations, we may present
• 4:49:05
  Speaker 3: the plain geometric insets. Here begins the education of the
• 4:49:09
  Speaker 3: movement of the hand in following the contours of the insets,
• 4:49:13
  Speaker 3: an exercise which, together with the other and contemporaneous one
• 4:49:17
  Speaker 3: of the recognition of tactiles, stimuli ingradation, prepares for writing.
• 4:49:23
  Speaker 3: The series of cards bearing the geometric forms we give
• 4:49:26
  Speaker 3: after the child recognizes perfectly the same forms in the
• 4:49:30
  Speaker 3: wooden insets. These cards serve to prepare for the abstract
• 4:49:34
  Speaker 3: science of which writing consists. The child learns to recognize
• 4:49:39
  Speaker 3: a delineated form, and after all the preceding exercises have
• 4:49:43
  Speaker 3: formed within him and ordered an intelligent personality. They may
• 4:49:47
  Speaker 3: be considered the bridge by which he passes from the
• 4:49:50
  Speaker 3: sense exercises to writing, from the preparation to the actual
• 4:49:54
  Speaker 3: entrance into instruction. Fourth grade exercises of pres tactical life.
• 4:50:01
  Speaker 3: The children sat and cleared the table for luncheon. They
• 4:50:04
  Speaker 3: learned to put a room in order. They are now
• 4:50:07
  Speaker 3: taught the most minute care of their persons in the
• 4:50:09
  Speaker 3: making of the toilet, how to brush their teeth, to
• 4:50:12
  Speaker 3: clean their nails, et cetera. They have learned through the
• 4:50:16
  Speaker 3: rhythmic exercises on the line to walk with perfect freedom
• 4:50:20
  Speaker 3: and balance. They know how to control and direct their
• 4:50:23
  Speaker 3: own movements, how to make the silence, how to move
• 4:50:27
  Speaker 3: various objects without dropping or breaking them, and without making
• 4:50:30
  Speaker 3: a noise. Sense exercises in this stage repeat all the
• 4:50:36
  Speaker 3: sense exercises. In addition, we introduce the recognition of musical
• 4:50:41
  Speaker 3: notes by the help of the series of duplicate bells.
• 4:50:46
  Speaker 3: Exercises related to writing design. The child passes to the
• 4:50:51
  Speaker 3: plain geometric insets in metal. He has already coordinated the
• 4:50:55
  Speaker 3: movements necessary to follow the contours. Here, he no longer
• 4:51:00
  Speaker 3: follows them with his finger, but with a pencil, leaving
• 4:51:03
  Speaker 3: the double sign upon a sheet of paper. Then he
• 4:51:07
  Speaker 3: fills in the figures with colored pencils, holding the pencil
• 4:51:10
  Speaker 3: as he will later hold the pen in writing. Contemporaneously,
• 4:51:14
  Speaker 3: the child is thought to recognize and touch some of
• 4:51:17
  Speaker 3: the letters of the alphabet made in sandpaper. Exercises in
• 4:51:22
  Speaker 3: arithmetic at this point, repeating the sense exercises, we present
• 4:51:27
  Speaker 3: the long stare with a different aim from that with
• 4:51:30
  Speaker 3: which it has been used up to the present time.
• 4:51:33
  Speaker 3: We have the child count the different pieces according to
• 4:51:36
  Speaker 3: the blue and red sections, beginning with the rod consisting
• 4:51:40
  Speaker 3: of one section, and continuing through that composed of ten sections.
• 4:51:44
  Speaker 3: We continue such exercises and give other more complicated ones.
• 4:51:49
  Speaker 3: In design, we pass from the outlines of the geometric
• 4:51:53
  Speaker 3: insets to such outlined figures as the practice of four
• 4:51:56
  Speaker 3: years has established, and which will be published as models
• 4:52:00
  Speaker 3: and design. These have an educational importance and represent in
• 4:52:04
  Speaker 3: their content and in their gradations, one of the most
• 4:52:07
  Speaker 3: carefully studied details of the Methan. They serve as a
• 4:52:12
  Speaker 3: means for the continuation of the sense education and help
• 4:52:15
  Speaker 3: the child to observe his surroundings. They thus add to
• 4:52:19
  Speaker 3: his intellectual refinement, and as regards writing, they prepare for
• 4:52:23
  Speaker 3: the high and low strokes. After such practice, it will
• 4:52:27
  Speaker 3: be easy for the child to make high or low letters,
• 4:52:30
  Speaker 3: and this will do away with the rude note books
• 4:52:33
  Speaker 3: such as are used in Italy in the various elementary classes.
• 4:52:37
  Speaker 3: In the acquiring of the use of written language, we
• 4:52:40
  Speaker 3: go as far as the knowledge of the letters of
• 4:52:42
  Speaker 3: the alphabet and of composition with the movable alphabet. In arithmetic,
• 4:52:47
  Speaker 3: as far as a knowledge of the figures. The child
• 4:52:50
  Speaker 3: places the corresponding figures beside the number of blue and
• 4:52:53
  Speaker 3: red sections on each rod of the long stair. The
• 4:52:57
  Speaker 3: children now take the exercise with the wooden also the game,
• 4:53:02
  Speaker 3: which consists in placing under the figures on the table
• 4:53:05
  Speaker 3: a corresponding number of colored counters. These are arranged in
• 4:53:09
  Speaker 3: columns of twos, thus making the question of odd and
• 4:53:12
  Speaker 3: even numbers clear. This arrangement is taken from Sega fifth grade.
• 4:53:19
  Speaker 3: We continue the preceding exercises, we begin more complicated rhythmic exercises.
• 4:53:25
  Speaker 3: In design, we begin A the use of water colors,
• 4:53:30
  Speaker 3: B free drawing from nature flowers, et CETERA. Composition of
• 4:53:35
  Speaker 3: words and phrases with the movable alphabet. A spontaneous writing
• 4:53:39
  Speaker 3: of words and phrases, B Reading from slips, prepared by
• 4:53:43
  Speaker 3: the directress. We continue the arithmetical operations which we begin
• 4:53:48
  Speaker 3: with the long stare. The children at this stage present
• 4:53:52
  Speaker 3: most interesting differences of development. They fairly run toward instruction
• 4:53:57
  Speaker 3: and order their intellectual growth in a way that is remarkable.
• 4:54:02
  Speaker 3: This joyous growth is what we so rejoice in. And
• 4:54:05
  Speaker 3: we watching these children humanity growing in the spirit according
• 4:54:09
  Speaker 3: to its own deep laws. And only he who experiments
• 4:54:13
  Speaker 3: can say how great may be the harvest from the
• 4:54:16
  Speaker 3: sowing of such seed. End of Chapter twenty Sequence of Exercises.
• 4:54:23
  Speaker 10: Chapter twenty one. The accumulated experience we have had since
• 4:54:27
  Speaker 10: the publication of the Italian version has repeatedly proved to
• 4:54:30
  Speaker 10: us that in our classes of little children numbering forty
• 4:54:34
  Speaker 10: and even fifty, the discipline is much better than in
• 4:54:37
  Speaker 10: ordinary schools. For this reason, I have thought that an
• 4:54:40
  Speaker 10: analysis of the discipline obtained by our method, which is
• 4:54:43
  Speaker 10: based upon liberty, would interest my American readers. Whoever visits
• 4:54:48
  Speaker 10: a well kept school, such as, for instance, the one
• 4:54:51
  Speaker 10: in Rome directed by my pupil, Anna Macaroni, is struck
• 4:54:55
  Speaker 10: by the discipline of the children. There are forty little
• 4:54:58
  Speaker 10: beings from three to seven years old, each one intent
• 4:55:01
  Speaker 10: on his own work. One is going through one of
• 4:55:04
  Speaker 10: the exercises for the senses. One is doing an arithmetical exercise.
• 4:55:09
  Speaker 10: One is handling the letters, one is drawing. One is
• 4:55:12
  Speaker 10: fastening and unfastening the pieces of cloth on one of
• 4:55:15
  Speaker 10: our little wooden frames. Still another is dusting. Some are
• 4:55:19
  Speaker 10: seated at the tables, some on rugs on the floor.
• 4:55:23
  Speaker 10: There are muffled sounds of objects, lightly moved about, of
• 4:55:26
  Speaker 10: children tiptoeing. Once in a while comes a cry of joy,
• 4:55:30
  Speaker 10: only partly repressed. Teach her teacher an eager call, Look
• 4:55:34
  Speaker 10: see what I've done. But as a rule, there is
• 4:55:37
  Speaker 10: entire absorption in the work at hand. Teacher moves quietly about,
• 4:55:40
  Speaker 10: goes to any child who calls her, supervising operations in
• 4:55:44
  Speaker 10: such a way that anyone who needs her finds her
• 4:55:46
  Speaker 10: at his elbow, and whoever does not need her is
• 4:55:49
  Speaker 10: not reminded of her existence. Sometimes hours go by without
• 4:55:52
  Speaker 10: a word. They seem little men, as they were called
• 4:55:55
  Speaker 10: by some visitors to the children's house, or as another suggested,
• 4:55:59
  Speaker 10: judges deliberation. In the midst of such intense interest in work,
• 4:56:03
  Speaker 10: it never happens that quarrels arise over the possession of
• 4:56:06
  Speaker 10: an object. If one accomplishes something especially fine, his achievement
• 4:56:10
  Speaker 10: is a source of admiration and joy to others. No
• 4:56:13
  Speaker 10: heart suffers from another's wealth, but the triumph of one
• 4:56:16
  Speaker 10: is a delight to all. Very often he finds ready imitators.
• 4:56:20
  Speaker 10: They all seem happy and satisfied to do what they can,
• 4:56:23
  Speaker 10: without feeling jealous of the deeds of others. The little
• 4:56:27
  Speaker 10: fellow of three works peaceibly beside the boy of seven,
• 4:56:31
  Speaker 10: just as he is satisfied with his own height and
• 4:56:34
  Speaker 10: does not envy the older boy's stature. Everything is growing
• 4:56:38
  Speaker 10: in the most profound peace. If the teacher wishes the
• 4:56:43
  Speaker 10: whole assembly to do something, for instance, leave the work
• 4:56:46
  Speaker 10: which interests them so much, all she needs to do
• 4:56:49
  Speaker 10: is to speak a word in a low tone, or
• 4:56:51
  Speaker 10: make a gesture, and they are all attention. They look
• 4:56:54
  Speaker 10: toward her with eagerness, anxious to know how to obey.
• 4:56:57
  Speaker 10: Many visitors have seen the teacher write orders on the
• 4:57:00
  Speaker 10: blackboard which were obeyed joyously by the children. Not only
• 4:57:03
  Speaker 10: the teachers, but anyone who asks the pupils to do
• 4:57:06
  Speaker 10: something is astonished to see them obey in the minutest
• 4:57:09
  Speaker 10: detail and with obliging cheerfulness. Often a visitor wishes to
• 4:57:13
  Speaker 10: hear how a child now painting can sing. The child
• 4:57:17
  Speaker 10: leaves his painting to be obliging, but the instant his
• 4:57:19
  Speaker 10: courteous action is completed, he returns to his interrupted work.
• 4:57:23
  Speaker 10: Sometimes the smaller children finish their work before they obey.
• 4:57:27
  Speaker 10: A very surprising result of this discipline came to our
• 4:57:30
  Speaker 10: notice during the examinations of the teachers who had followed
• 4:57:33
  Speaker 10: my course of lectures. These examinations were practical, and accordingly,
• 4:57:38
  Speaker 10: groups of children were put at the disposition of the
• 4:57:41
  Speaker 10: teachers being examined, who, according to the subject drawn by lot,
• 4:57:45
  Speaker 10: took the children through a given exercise. While the children
• 4:57:48
  Speaker 10: were waiting their turn, they were allowed to do just
• 4:57:50
  Speaker 10: as they pleased. They worked incessantly and returned to their
• 4:57:54
  Speaker 10: undertakings as soon as the interruption caused by the examination
• 4:57:58
  Speaker 10: was over. Every once in a while one of them
• 4:58:00
  Speaker 10: came to show us a drawing made during the interval.
• 4:58:03
  Speaker 10: Miss George of Chicago was present many times when this happened,
• 4:58:07
  Speaker 10: and Madame Poujols, who founded the first children's house in Paris,
• 4:58:11
  Speaker 10: was astonished at the patience, the perseverance and the inexhaustible
• 4:58:15
  Speaker 10: amiability of the children. One might think that such children
• 4:58:19
  Speaker 10: had been severely repressed, were it not for their lack
• 4:58:22
  Speaker 10: of timidity, for their bright eyes, for their happy, free aspect,
• 4:58:26
  Speaker 10: for the cordiality of their invitations to look at their work,
• 4:58:30
  Speaker 10: for the way in which they take visitors about and
• 4:58:32
  Speaker 10: explain matters to them. These things make us feel that
• 4:58:35
  Speaker 10: we are in the presence of the masters of the house.
• 4:58:37
  Speaker 10: And the fervor with which they throw their arms around
• 4:58:40
  Speaker 10: the teacher's knees, with which they pull her down to
• 4:58:42
  Speaker 10: kiss her face, shows that their little hearts are free
• 4:58:45
  Speaker 10: to expand as they will. Anyone who has watched them
• 4:58:48
  Speaker 10: setting the table must have passed from one surprise to another.
• 4:58:52
  Speaker 10: Little four year old waiters take the knives and forks
• 4:58:54
  Speaker 10: and spoons and distribute them to the different places. They
• 4:58:57
  Speaker 10: carry trays holding as many as five water glasses, and
• 4:59:00
  Speaker 10: finally they go from table to table carrying big tureens
• 4:59:04
  Speaker 10: full of hot soup. Not a mistake is made, not
• 4:59:07
  Speaker 10: a glass is broken, not a drop of soup is filled.
• 4:59:11
  Speaker 10: All during the meal, unobtrusive little waiters watch the table assiduously.
• 4:59:15
  Speaker 10: Not a child empties his soup plate without being offered more.
• 4:59:19
  Speaker 10: If he is ready for the next course, a waiter
• 4:59:21
  Speaker 10: briskly carries off his soup plate. Not a child is
• 4:59:24
  Speaker 10: forced to ask for more soup or to announce that
• 4:59:27
  Speaker 10: he has finished. Remembering the usual condition of four year
• 4:59:31
  Speaker 10: old children who cry, who break whatever they touch, who
• 4:59:34
  Speaker 10: need to be waited on, everyone is deeply moved by
• 4:59:37
  Speaker 10: the sight I have just described, which evidently results from
• 4:59:40
  Speaker 10: the development of energies latent in the depths of the
• 4:59:42
  Speaker 10: human soul. I have often seen the spectators at this
• 4:59:45
  Speaker 10: banquet of little ones move to tears. But such discipline
• 4:59:49
  Speaker 10: could never be obtained by commands, by sermonizings, in short,
• 4:59:54
  Speaker 10: through any of the disciplinary devices universally known. Not only
• 4:59:58
  Speaker 10: were the actions of those children said in an orderly condition,
• 5:00:01
  Speaker 10: but their very lives were deepened and enlarged. In fact,
• 5:00:05
  Speaker 10: such discipline is on the same plane with school exercises
• 5:00:08
  Speaker 10: extraordinary for the age of the children, and it certainly
• 5:00:11
  Speaker 10: does not depend upon the teacher, but upon a sort
• 5:00:14
  Speaker 10: of miracle occurring in the inner life of each child.
• 5:00:17
  Speaker 10: If we try to think of parallels in the life
• 5:00:19
  Speaker 10: of adults, we are reminded of the phenomenon of conversion
• 5:00:23
  Speaker 10: of the superhuman heightening, of the strength of martyrs and apostles,
• 5:00:27
  Speaker 10: of the constancy of missionaries, of the obedience of monks.
• 5:00:31
  Speaker 10: Nothing else in the world except such things is on
• 5:00:34
  Speaker 10: a spiritual height equal to the discipline of the children's houses.
• 5:00:38
  Speaker 10: To obtain such discipline, it is quite useless to count
• 5:00:41
  Speaker 10: on reprimands or spoken exhortations. Such means might, perhaps at
• 5:00:45
  Speaker 10: the beginning, have an appearance of efficacy, but very soon
• 5:00:49
  Speaker 10: the instant that real discipline appears, all of this falls
• 5:00:52
  Speaker 10: miserably to the earth, an illusion confronted with reality. Night
• 5:00:56
  Speaker 10: gives way to day. The first dawning of real discipline
• 5:00:59
  Speaker 10: comes through work. At a given moment, it happens that
• 5:01:02
  Speaker 10: a child becomes keenly interested in a piece of work,
• 5:01:05
  Speaker 10: showing it by the expression of his face, by his
• 5:01:07
  Speaker 10: intense attention, by his perseverance in the same exercise. That
• 5:01:12
  Speaker 10: child has set foot upon the road leading to discipline,
• 5:01:15
  Speaker 10: whatever be his undertaking, an exercise for the senses, an
• 5:01:19
  Speaker 10: exercise in buttoning up or lacing together all washing dishes,
• 5:01:23
  Speaker 10: It is all one and the same. On our side.
• 5:01:26
  Speaker 10: We can have some influence upon the permanence of this
• 5:01:28
  Speaker 10: phenomenon by means of repeated lessons of silence, the perfect immobility,
• 5:01:34
  Speaker 10: the attention alert to catch the sound of the names
• 5:01:36
  Speaker 10: whispered from a distance. Then the carefully coordinated movements executed
• 5:01:41
  Speaker 10: so as not to strike against chair or table, so
• 5:01:44
  Speaker 10: as barely to touch the floor with the feet. All
• 5:01:46
  Speaker 10: this is a most efficacious preparation for the task of
• 5:01:49
  Speaker 10: setting in order the whole personality, the motor forces, and
• 5:01:53
  Speaker 10: the psychical Once the habit of work is formed, we
• 5:01:57
  Speaker 10: must supervise it with scrupulous accuracy, graduating the exercises as
• 5:02:01
  Speaker 10: experience has taught us. In our effort to establish discipline,
• 5:02:05
  Speaker 10: we must rigorously apply the principles of the method. It
• 5:02:08
  Speaker 10: is not to be obtained by words. No man learns
• 5:02:11
  Speaker 10: self discipline through hearing another man speak. The phenomenon of
• 5:02:15
  Speaker 10: discipline needs as preparation a series of complete actions, such
• 5:02:19
  Speaker 10: as are presupposed in the genuine application of a really
• 5:02:22
  Speaker 10: educative method. Discipline is reached always by indirect means. The
• 5:02:27
  Speaker 10: end is obtained not by attacking the mistake and fighting it,
• 5:02:30
  Speaker 10: but by developing activity and spontaneous work. This work cannot
• 5:02:35
  Speaker 10: be arbitrarily offered, and it is precisely here that our
• 5:02:38
  Speaker 10: method enters. It must be work which the human being
• 5:02:41
  Speaker 10: instinctively desires to do, work towards which the latent tendencies
• 5:02:45
  Speaker 10: of life naturally turn, or towards which the individual, step
• 5:02:48
  Speaker 10: by step ascends. Such is the work which sets the
• 5:02:52
  Speaker 10: personality in order and opens wide before it infinite possibilities
• 5:02:56
  Speaker 10: of growth. Take, for instance, the lack of control shown
• 5:02:59
  Speaker 10: by a baby. It is fundamentally a lack of muscular discipline.
• 5:03:03
  Speaker 10: The child is in a constant state of disorderly movement.
• 5:03:06
  Speaker 10: He throws himself down, he makes queer gestures, he cries.
• 5:03:10
  Speaker 10: What underlines all this is a latent tendency to seek
• 5:03:13
  Speaker 10: that co ordination of movement which will be established later.
• 5:03:16
  Speaker 10: The baby is a man, not yet sure of the
• 5:03:18
  Speaker 10: movements of the various muscles of the body, not yet
• 5:03:22
  Speaker 10: master of the organs of speech. He will eventually establish
• 5:03:25
  Speaker 10: these various movements, but for the present he is abandoned
• 5:03:29
  Speaker 10: to a period of experimentation, full of mistakes and of
• 5:03:32
  Speaker 10: fatiguing efforts towards a desirable end. Latent in his instinct,
• 5:03:36
  Speaker 10: but not clear in his consciousness, to say to the baby,
• 5:03:40
  Speaker 10: stand still as I do brings no light into his
• 5:03:43
  Speaker 10: darkness commands cannot aid in the process of bringing order
• 5:03:47
  Speaker 10: into the complex psychomuscular system of an individual and process
• 5:03:50
  Speaker 10: of evolution. We are confused at this point by the
• 5:03:53
  Speaker 10: example of the adult, who, through a wicked impulse, prefers disorder,
• 5:03:57
  Speaker 10: and who may, granted that he can ob bay a
• 5:04:00
  Speaker 10: sharp admonishment which turns his will in another direction towards
• 5:04:03
  Speaker 10: that order which he recognizes, in which it is within
• 5:04:06
  Speaker 10: his capacity to achieve. In the case of the little child,
• 5:04:09
  Speaker 10: it is a question of aiding the natural evolution of
• 5:04:12
  Speaker 10: voluntary action. Hence, it is necessary to teach all the
• 5:04:15
  Speaker 10: coordinated movements, analyzing them as much as possible, and developing
• 5:04:19
  Speaker 10: them bit by bit. Thus, for instance, it is necessary
• 5:04:23
  Speaker 10: to teach the child the various degrees of immobility leading
• 5:04:26
  Speaker 10: to silence, with movements connected with rising from a chair
• 5:04:30
  Speaker 10: and sitting down, with walking, with tiptoeing, with following a
• 5:04:33
  Speaker 10: line drawn on the floor keeping an upright equilibrium. The
• 5:04:37
  Speaker 10: child is taught to move objects about to set them
• 5:04:40
  Speaker 10: down more or less carefully, and finally, the complex movements
• 5:04:43
  Speaker 10: connected with dressing and undressing himself, analyzed on the lacing
• 5:04:47
  Speaker 10: and buttoning frames at school and for even each of
• 5:04:49
  Speaker 10: these exercises, the different parts of the movement must be analyzed.
• 5:04:54
  Speaker 10: Perfect immobility, and the successive perfectioning of action is what
• 5:04:58
  Speaker 10: takes the place of the customary command Be quiet, be still.
• 5:05:02
  Speaker 10: It is not astonishing, but very natural that the child,
• 5:05:04
  Speaker 10: by means of such exercises should acquire self discipline, so
• 5:05:08
  Speaker 10: far as regards the lack of muscular discipline natural to
• 5:05:11
  Speaker 10: his age. In short, he responds to nature because he
• 5:05:14
  Speaker 10: is in action. But these actions, being directed towards an end,
• 5:05:17
  Speaker 10: have no longer the appearance of disorder, but of work.
• 5:05:21
  Speaker 10: This is discipline which represents an end to be attained
• 5:05:23
  Speaker 10: by means of a number of conquests. The child, disciplined
• 5:05:27
  Speaker 10: in this way is no longer the child he was
• 5:05:29
  Speaker 10: at first, who knows how to be good passively. But
• 5:05:32
  Speaker 10: he is an individual who has made himself better, who
• 5:05:35
  Speaker 10: has overcome the usual limits of his age, who has
• 5:05:37
  Speaker 10: made a great step forward, who has conquered his future
• 5:05:41
  Speaker 10: in his present. He has therefore enlarged his dominion. He
• 5:05:46
  Speaker 10: will not need to have some one always at hand
• 5:05:48
  Speaker 10: to tell him vainly confusing two opposing conceptions, Be quiet,
• 5:05:51
  Speaker 10: be good. The goodness he has conquered cannot be summed
• 5:05:54
  Speaker 10: up by inertia. His goodness is now all made up
• 5:05:57
  Speaker 10: of action. As a matter of fact, good people are
• 5:06:00
  Speaker 10: those who advance towards the good, that good which is
• 5:06:02
  Speaker 10: made up of their own self development and of external
• 5:06:05
  Speaker 10: acts of order and usefulness. In our efforts with the child,
• 5:06:09
  Speaker 10: external acts are the means which stimulate internal development, and
• 5:06:12
  Speaker 10: they again appear as its manifestation, the two elements being
• 5:06:15
  Speaker 10: inextricably intertwined. Work develops the child spiritually, but the child,
• 5:06:20
  Speaker 10: with a fuller spiritual development works better, and his improved
• 5:06:24
  Speaker 10: work delights him. Hence he continues to develop spiritually. Discipline
• 5:06:29
  Speaker 10: is therefore not a fact but a path, a path
• 5:06:32
  Speaker 10: following which the child grasps the abstract conception of goodness
• 5:06:36
  Speaker 10: with an exactitude which is fairly scientific. But beyond everything else,
• 5:06:40
  Speaker 10: he savors the supreme delights of that spiritual order, which
• 5:06:44
  Speaker 10: is attained indirectly through conquests directed towards determinate ends. In
• 5:06:49
  Speaker 10: that long preparation, the child experiences joys, spiritual awakenings and
• 5:06:53
  Speaker 10: pleasures which form his inner treasure house, the treasure house
• 5:06:57
  Speaker 10: in which he is steadily storing up the sweetness and strength,
• 5:07:00
  Speaker 10: which will be the sources of righteousness. In short, the
• 5:07:05
  Speaker 10: child has not only learned to move about and to
• 5:07:07
  Speaker 10: perform useful acts, he has acquired a special grace of action,
• 5:07:11
  Speaker 10: which makes his gestures more correct and attractive, and which
• 5:07:14
  Speaker 10: beautifies his hands and indeed his entire body, now so
• 5:07:18
  Speaker 10: balanced and so sure of itself, a grace which refines
• 5:07:21
  Speaker 10: the expression of his face in his serenely brilliant eyes,
• 5:07:24
  Speaker 10: and which shows us that the flame of spiritual life
• 5:07:27
  Speaker 10: has been lighted in another human being. It is obviously
• 5:07:31
  Speaker 10: true that coordinated actions developed spontaneously, little by little, that
• 5:07:36
  Speaker 10: is chosen and carried out in the exercises by the
• 5:07:38
  Speaker 10: child himself must call for less effort than the disorderly
• 5:07:42
  Speaker 10: actions performed by the child, who is left to his
• 5:07:44
  Speaker 10: own devices. True rest for muscles, intended by nature for action,
• 5:07:49
  Speaker 10: is in orderly action, just as true rest for the
• 5:07:52
  Speaker 10: lungs is the normal rhythm of respiration taken in pure air.
• 5:07:56
  Speaker 10: To take action away from the muscles is to force
• 5:07:58
  Speaker 10: them away from their natural miness impulse, and hence, besides
• 5:08:02
  Speaker 10: tiring them, means forcing them into a state of degeneration.
• 5:08:06
  Speaker 10: Just as the lungs forced into immobility would die instantly,
• 5:08:10
  Speaker 10: and the whole organism with them. It is therefore necessary
• 5:08:13
  Speaker 10: to keep clearly in mind the fact that rest, for
• 5:08:16
  Speaker 10: whatever naturally acts, lies in some specified form of action
• 5:08:20
  Speaker 10: corresponding to its nature to act in obedience to the
• 5:08:24
  Speaker 10: hidden precepts of nature, that is rest. And in this
• 5:08:27
  Speaker 10: special case, since man is meant to be an intelligent creature,
• 5:08:30
  Speaker 10: the more intelligent his acts are, the more he finds
• 5:08:32
  Speaker 10: repose in them. When a child acts in it only
• 5:08:36
  Speaker 10: in a disorderly, disconnected manner, his nervous force is under
• 5:08:39
  Speaker 10: a great strain, while on the other hand, his nervous
• 5:08:42
  Speaker 10: energy is positively increased and multiplied by intelligent actions which
• 5:08:46
  Speaker 10: give him real satisfaction and a feeling of pride that
• 5:08:50
  Speaker 10: he has overcome himself, that he finds himself in a
• 5:08:53
  Speaker 10: world beyond the frontiers, formally set up as insurmountable, surrounded
• 5:08:57
  Speaker 10: by the silent respect of the one who has guided
• 5:08:59
  Speaker 10: him out, making his presence spelt. This multiplication of nervous
• 5:09:03
  Speaker 10: energy represents a process which can be physiologically analyzed, and
• 5:09:09
  Speaker 10: which comes from the development of the organs by rational exercise,
• 5:09:13
  Speaker 10: from better circulation of the blood from the quickened activity
• 5:09:16
  Speaker 10: of all the tissues, all factors favorable to the development
• 5:09:20
  Speaker 10: of the body. In guaranteeing physical help, the spirit aids
• 5:09:23
  Speaker 10: the body in its growth. The heart, the nerves, and
• 5:09:25
  Speaker 10: the muscles are helpful in their evolution by the activity
• 5:09:29
  Speaker 10: of the spirit. Since the upward path for soul and
• 5:09:31
  Speaker 10: body is one and the same. By analogy, it can
• 5:09:36
  Speaker 10: be said of the intellectual development of the child, that
• 5:09:39
  Speaker 10: the mind of infancy, although characteristically disorderly, is also a
• 5:09:43
  Speaker 10: means searching for its end, which goes through exhausting experiments,
• 5:09:47
  Speaker 10: left as it frequently is, to its own resources, and
• 5:09:50
  Speaker 10: too often really persecuted. Once in our public park in Rome,
• 5:09:55
  Speaker 10: the Pincine Gardens, I saw a baby of about a
• 5:09:59
  Speaker 10: year and a half, of beautiful, smiling child, who was
• 5:10:01
  Speaker 10: working away trying to fill a little pale by shoveling
• 5:10:04
  Speaker 10: gravel into it. Beside him was a smartly dressed nurse,
• 5:10:07
  Speaker 10: evidently very fond of him, the sort of nurse who
• 5:10:10
  Speaker 10: would consider that she gave the child the most affectionate
• 5:10:13
  Speaker 10: and intelligent care. It was time to go home, and
• 5:10:15
  Speaker 10: the nurse was patiently exhorting the baby to leave his
• 5:10:18
  Speaker 10: work and let her put him into the baby carriage.
• 5:10:21
  Speaker 10: Seeing that her exhortations made no impression on the little
• 5:10:23
  Speaker 10: fellow's firmness, she herself filled the pail with gravel, and
• 5:10:27
  Speaker 10: set pale and baby into the carriage, with the fixed
• 5:10:29
  Speaker 10: convention conviction that she had given him what he wanted.
• 5:10:33
  Speaker 10: I was struck by the loud cries of the child,
• 5:10:36
  Speaker 10: and by the expression of protest against violence and injustice
• 5:10:39
  Speaker 10: which rode itself on his little face. What an accumulation
• 5:10:42
  Speaker 10: of wrongs weighed down that nascent intelligence. The little boy
• 5:10:47
  Speaker 10: did not wish to have the pail full of gravel.
• 5:10:50
  Speaker 10: He wished to go through the motions necessary to fill it,
• 5:10:53
  Speaker 10: thus satisfying a need of his vigorous organism. The child's
• 5:10:58
  Speaker 10: unconscious aim was his own self development, not the external
• 5:11:01
  Speaker 10: fact of a pailful of little stones. The vivid attractions
• 5:11:05
  Speaker 10: of the external world were only empty apparitions. The need
• 5:11:09
  Speaker 10: of his life was a reality. As a matter of fact,
• 5:11:11
  Speaker 10: if he had filled his pale, he would probably have
• 5:11:13
  Speaker 10: emptied it out again in order to keep on filling
• 5:11:15
  Speaker 10: it up until his inner self was satisfied. It was
• 5:11:19
  Speaker 10: the feeling of working towards the satisfaction which a few
• 5:11:21
  Speaker 10: moments before had made his face so rosy and smiling.
• 5:11:25
  Speaker 10: Spiritual joy, exercise, and sunshine were the three rays of
• 5:11:29
  Speaker 10: light ministering to his splendid life. The commonplace episode in
• 5:11:33
  Speaker 10: the life of that child is a detail of what
• 5:11:35
  Speaker 10: happens to all children, even the best and most cherished.
• 5:11:39
  Speaker 10: They are not understood because the adult judges them by
• 5:11:41
  Speaker 10: his own measure. He thinks that the child's wish is
• 5:11:44
  Speaker 10: to obtain some tangible object, and lovingly helps him to
• 5:11:47
  Speaker 10: do this. Whereas the child as a rule, has for
• 5:11:50
  Speaker 10: his unconscious desire his own self development. Hence he despises
• 5:11:54
  Speaker 10: everything already attained and yearns for that which is still
• 5:11:57
  Speaker 10: to be sought.
• 5:11:57
  Speaker 2: For.
• 5:11:58
  Speaker 10: For instance, he prefers the action of dressing himself to
• 5:12:01
  Speaker 10: the state of being dressed, even finely dressed. He prefers
• 5:12:04
  Speaker 10: the act of washing himself to the satisfaction of being clean.
• 5:12:08
  Speaker 10: He prefers to make a little house for himself, rather
• 5:12:10
  Speaker 10: than merely to own it. His own self development is
• 5:12:13
  Speaker 10: his true and almost his only pleasure. The self development
• 5:12:17
  Speaker 10: of the little baby up to the end of his
• 5:12:19
  Speaker 10: first year consists to a large degree in taking in nutrition,
• 5:12:22
  Speaker 10: but afterwards it consists in aiding the orderly establishment of
• 5:12:26
  Speaker 10: the psychophysiological functions of his organism. That beautiful baby in
• 5:12:31
  Speaker 10: the Pincine gardens is the symbol of this. He wished
• 5:12:33
  Speaker 10: to coordinate his voluntary actions to exercise his muscles by lifting,
• 5:12:38
  Speaker 10: to train his eye to estimate distances, to exercise his intelligence,
• 5:12:42
  Speaker 10: and the reasoning connected with his undertaking, to stimulate his
• 5:12:45
  Speaker 10: will power by deciding his own actions. Whilst she who
• 5:12:49
  Speaker 10: loved him, believing that his aim was to possess some pebbles,
• 5:12:52
  Speaker 10: bade him wretched. A similar error is that which we
• 5:12:56
  Speaker 10: repeat so frequently. When we fancy that the desire of
• 5:12:59
  Speaker 10: the student is to possess a piece of information, we
• 5:13:02
  Speaker 10: aid him to grasp intellectually this detached piece of knowledge,
• 5:13:06
  Speaker 10: and preventing by this means his self development, we make
• 5:13:09
  Speaker 10: him wretched. It is generally believed in schools that the
• 5:13:12
  Speaker 10: way to attain satisfaction is to learn something. But by
• 5:13:15
  Speaker 10: leaving the children in our schools in liberty, we have
• 5:13:18
  Speaker 10: been able with great clearness to follow them in their
• 5:13:21
  Speaker 10: natural method of spontaneous self development. To have learned something
• 5:13:25
  Speaker 10: is for the child only a point of departure. When
• 5:13:28
  Speaker 10: he has learned the meaning of an exercise. Then he
• 5:13:31
  Speaker 10: begins to enjoy repeating it, and he does repeat it
• 5:13:34
  Speaker 10: in an infinite number of times with the most evident satisfaction.
• 5:13:39
  Speaker 10: He who enjoys executing that act, because by means of it,
• 5:13:42
  Speaker 10: he is developing his psychic activities their results. From the
• 5:13:48
  Speaker 10: observation of this fact a criticism of what is done
• 5:13:50
  Speaker 10: today in many schools. Often, for instance, when the pupils
• 5:13:55
  Speaker 10: are questioned, the teacher says to someone who is eager
• 5:13:59
  Speaker 10: to answer, no, not you, because you know it, and
• 5:14:02
  Speaker 10: puts her questions specially to the pupils who she thinks
• 5:14:05
  Speaker 10: are uncertain of the answer. Those who do not know
• 5:14:08
  Speaker 10: are made to speak, those who do know to be silent.
• 5:14:11
  Speaker 10: This happens because of the general habit of considering the
• 5:14:14
  Speaker 10: act of knowing something as final. And yet how many
• 5:14:17
  Speaker 10: times it happens to us in ordinary life to repeat
• 5:14:20
  Speaker 10: the very thing we know best, the thing we care
• 5:14:22
  Speaker 10: most for, the thing to which some living force in
• 5:14:25
  Speaker 10: us responds. We love to sing musical phrases very familiar,
• 5:14:29
  Speaker 10: hence enjoyed and become a part of the fabric of
• 5:14:32
  Speaker 10: our lives. We love to repeat stories of things which
• 5:14:35
  Speaker 10: please us, which we know very well, even though we
• 5:14:38
  Speaker 10: are quite aware that we are saying nothing new. No
• 5:14:40
  Speaker 10: matter how many times we repeat the Lord's prayer, it
• 5:14:43
  Speaker 10: is always new. No two persons could be more convinced
• 5:14:46
  Speaker 10: of mutual love than sweethearts, and yet they are the
• 5:14:49
  Speaker 10: very ones who repeat endlessly that they love each other.
• 5:14:52
  Speaker 10: But in order to repeat in this manner, there must
• 5:14:55
  Speaker 10: first exist the idea to be repeated. A mental grasp
• 5:14:59
  Speaker 10: of the idea is indispensable to the beginning of repetition.
• 5:15:02
  Speaker 10: The exercise which develops life consists in the repetition, not
• 5:15:06
  Speaker 10: in the mere grasp of the idea. When a child
• 5:15:08
  Speaker 10: has obtained this stage of repeating an exercise, he is
• 5:15:12
  Speaker 10: on the way to self development, and the external sign
• 5:15:15
  Speaker 10: of this condition is his self discipline. This phenomenon does
• 5:15:19
  Speaker 10: not always occur. The same exercises are not repeated by
• 5:15:22
  Speaker 10: children of all ages. In fact, repetition corresponds to a need.
• 5:15:27
  Speaker 10: Here steps in the experimental method of education, it is
• 5:15:31
  Speaker 10: necessary to offer those exercises which correspond to the need
• 5:15:34
  Speaker 10: of development felt by an organism. And if the child's
• 5:15:37
  Speaker 10: age has carried him past a certain need, it is
• 5:15:40
  Speaker 10: never possible to obtain in its fullness, a development which
• 5:15:44
  Speaker 10: missed its proper moment. Hence, children grow up often fatally
• 5:15:48
  Speaker 10: and in irrevtably imperfectly developed. Another very interesting observation is
• 5:15:55
  Speaker 10: that which is that which relates to the length of
• 5:15:57
  Speaker 10: time needed for the execution of actions. Children who are
• 5:16:01
  Speaker 10: undertaking something for the first time are extremely slow. Their
• 5:16:04
  Speaker 10: life is governed in this respect by laws especially different
• 5:16:07
  Speaker 10: from ours. Little children accomplish slowly and perseveringly various complicated
• 5:16:12
  Speaker 10: operations agreeable to them, such as dressing, undressing, cleaning the room,
• 5:16:16
  Speaker 10: washing themselves, setting a table, eating, et cetera. In all this,
• 5:16:20
  Speaker 10: they are extremely patient, overcoming all the difficulties presented by
• 5:16:23
  Speaker 10: an organism still in process of formation. But we, on
• 5:16:27
  Speaker 10: the other hand, noticing that they are tiring themselves out
• 5:16:30
  Speaker 10: or wasting time in accomplishing something which we would do
• 5:16:33
  Speaker 10: in a moment and without the least effort, put ourselves
• 5:16:35
  Speaker 10: in the child's place and do it ourselves, always with
• 5:16:39
  Speaker 10: the same erroneous idea that the end to be obtained
• 5:16:42
  Speaker 10: is the completion of the action. We dress and wash
• 5:16:44
  Speaker 10: the child, We snatch out of his hands objects which
• 5:16:47
  Speaker 10: he loves to handle. We pour the soup into his bowl,
• 5:16:50
  Speaker 10: we feed him, we set the table for him, and
• 5:16:53
  Speaker 10: after such services we consider him with that injustice always
• 5:16:58
  Speaker 10: practiced by those who domineer over others, even with benevolent intentions,
• 5:17:02
  Speaker 10: to be incapable and annett We often speak of him
• 5:17:05
  Speaker 10: as impatient simply because we are not patient enough to
• 5:17:08
  Speaker 10: allow his actions to follow laws of time differing from
• 5:17:11
  Speaker 10: our own. We call him tyrannical exactly because we employ
• 5:17:14
  Speaker 10: tyranny towards him. This stain, this false imputation, this calumny
• 5:17:19
  Speaker 10: on childhood, has become an integral part of the theories
• 5:17:21
  Speaker 10: concerning childhood. In reality, so patient and gentle thel the child,
• 5:17:29
  Speaker 10: like every strong creature, fighting for the right to live,
• 5:17:32
  Speaker 10: rebels against whatever offends that occult impulse within him, which
• 5:17:36
  Speaker 10: is the voice of nature in which he ought to obey,
• 5:17:39
  Speaker 10: and he shows by violent actions by screaming and weeping,
• 5:17:42
  Speaker 10: that he has been overborn and forced away from his
• 5:17:45
  Speaker 10: mission in life. He shows himself to be a rebel,
• 5:17:48
  Speaker 10: a revolutionist, and a iconoclast against those who do not
• 5:17:51
  Speaker 10: understand him, and who, fancying that they are helping him,
• 5:17:54
  Speaker 10: are really pushing him backward in the high way of life. Thus,
• 5:17:58
  Speaker 10: even the adult who loves him rivets about his neck,
• 5:18:00
  Speaker 10: another calumny, confusing his defense of his molested life with
• 5:18:04
  Speaker 10: a form of innate naughtiness characteristic of little children. What
• 5:18:08
  Speaker 10: would become of us if we fell into the midst
• 5:18:10
  Speaker 10: of a population of jugglers or of lightning change impersonators
• 5:18:14
  Speaker 10: of the variety hall? What should we do if, as
• 5:18:18
  Speaker 10: wet as we continued to act in our usual way,
• 5:18:21
  Speaker 10: we saw ourselves assailed by these sleight of hand performers,
• 5:18:24
  Speaker 10: hustled into our clothes, fed so rapidly that we could
• 5:18:27
  Speaker 10: scarcely swallow. If everything we tried to do is snatched
• 5:18:30
  Speaker 10: from our hands and completed in a twinkling, and we
• 5:18:32
  Speaker 10: ourselves reduced to impotence in a humiliating inertia, not knowing
• 5:18:37
  Speaker 10: how it's to express our confusion, we would defend ourselves
• 5:18:40
  Speaker 10: with blows and yells from these madmen, and they, having
• 5:18:43
  Speaker 10: only the best will in the world to serve us,
• 5:18:45
  Speaker 10: would call us haughty, rebellious, and incapable of doing anything. We,
• 5:18:50
  Speaker 10: who know our own milieu, would say to those people,
• 5:18:53
  Speaker 10: come into our countries, and you will see the splendid
• 5:18:55
  Speaker 10: civilization we have established. You will see our wonderful achievements.
• 5:18:59
  Speaker 10: These jugglers would admire us infinitely, hardly able to believe
• 5:19:03
  Speaker 10: their eyes as they observed our world, so full of
• 5:19:06
  Speaker 10: beauty and activity, so well regulated, so peaceful, so kindly,
• 5:19:10
  Speaker 10: but also much slower than theirs. Something of this sort
• 5:19:14
  Speaker 10: occurs between children and adults. It is exactly in the
• 5:19:18
  Speaker 10: repetition of the exercise that the education of the senses consists.
• 5:19:22
  Speaker 10: Their aim is not that the child shall know colors, forms,
• 5:19:26
  Speaker 10: and the different qualities of objects, but that he refined
• 5:19:28
  Speaker 10: his senses through an exercise of attention, of comparison, of judgment.
• 5:19:33
  Speaker 10: These exercises are true intellectual gymnastics. Such gymnastics, reasonably directed
• 5:19:38
  Speaker 10: by means of various devices, aid in the formation of
• 5:19:42
  Speaker 10: the intellect, just as physical exercises fortify the general help
• 5:19:45
  Speaker 10: and quicken the growth of the body. The child who
• 5:19:48
  Speaker 10: trains his various senses separately by means of external stimuli,
• 5:19:53
  Speaker 10: concentrates his attention and develops piece by piece his mental activities,
• 5:19:58
  Speaker 10: just as with separately paired movements he trains his muscular activities.
• 5:20:03
  Speaker 10: These mental gymnastics are not merely psychosensory, but they prepare
• 5:20:07
  Speaker 10: the way for spontaneous association of ideas for ratiocination developing
• 5:20:14
  Speaker 10: out of definite knowledge for a harmoniously balanced intellect. They
• 5:20:19
  Speaker 10: are the powder trains that bring about those mental explosions
• 5:20:22
  Speaker 10: which delight the child so intensely when he makes discoveries
• 5:20:25
  Speaker 10: in the world about him, when he, at the same
• 5:20:28
  Speaker 10: time ponders over and glories in the new things which
• 5:20:30
  Speaker 10: are revealed to him in the outside world, and in
• 5:20:33
  Speaker 10: the exquisite emotions of his own growing consciousness, and finally,
• 5:20:37
  Speaker 10: when there spring up within him, almost by a process
• 5:20:39
  Speaker 10: of spontaneous ripening, like the internal phenomena of growth, the
• 5:20:43
  Speaker 10: external products of learning, writing, and reading. I happened once
• 5:20:48
  Speaker 10: to see a two year old child, son of a
• 5:20:50
  Speaker 10: medical colleague of mine, who fairly, fleeing away from his mother,
• 5:20:54
  Speaker 10: who had brought him to me, threw himself on the
• 5:20:56
  Speaker 10: litter of things covering his father's desk, the rectangular writing pad,
• 5:21:00
  Speaker 10: the round cover of the ink well. I was touched
• 5:21:02
  Speaker 10: to see the intelligent little creature trying his best to
• 5:21:05
  Speaker 10: go through the exercises which our children repeat, which such
• 5:21:08
  Speaker 10: with such endless pleasure, till they have fully committed them
• 5:21:11
  Speaker 10: to memory. The father and the mother pulled the child
• 5:21:14
  Speaker 10: away reproving him and explaining that there is no use
• 5:21:17
  Speaker 10: trying to keep that child from handling his father's desk furniture.
• 5:21:21
  Speaker 10: The child is restless and naughty. How often we see
• 5:21:24
  Speaker 10: all children reproved, because though they are told not to,
• 5:21:27
  Speaker 10: they will take hold of everything. Now it is precisely
• 5:21:30
  Speaker 10: by means of guiding and developing this natural instinct to
• 5:21:33
  Speaker 10: take hold of everything and to recognize the relations of
• 5:21:36
  Speaker 10: geometrical figures. Though we prepare our little four year old
• 5:21:39
  Speaker 10: men for the joy and triumph they experienced later over
• 5:21:42
  Speaker 10: the phenomenon of spontaneous writing. The child who throws himself
• 5:21:47
  Speaker 10: on the writing pad, the cover, to the ink well
• 5:21:49
  Speaker 10: and such objects, always struggling in vain to attain his desire,
• 5:21:53
  Speaker 10: always hindered and thwarted by people stronger than he, always
• 5:21:56
  Speaker 10: excited and weeping over the failure of his desperate efforts,
• 5:21:59
  Speaker 10: is wasting nervous force. His parents are mistaken if they
• 5:22:04
  Speaker 10: think that such a child ever gets any real rest,
• 5:22:07
  Speaker 10: just as they are mistaken when they call haughty the
• 5:22:09
  Speaker 10: little man logging for the foundations of his intellectual edifice.
• 5:22:13
  Speaker 10: The children in our schools are the ones who are
• 5:22:15
  Speaker 10: really at rest ardently and blessedly free to take out
• 5:22:19
  Speaker 10: and put back in their right places or grooves the
• 5:22:21
  Speaker 10: geometric figures offered to their instinct for higher self development,
• 5:22:25
  Speaker 10: and they, rejoicing in the most entire spiritual calm, have
• 5:22:29
  Speaker 10: no notion that their eyes and hands are initiating them
• 5:22:32
  Speaker 10: into the mysteries of a new language. The majority of
• 5:22:35
  Speaker 10: our children become calm as they go through such exercises,
• 5:22:39
  Speaker 10: because their nervous system is at rest. Then we say
• 5:22:42
  Speaker 10: that such children are quiet, and good external discipline, so
• 5:22:45
  Speaker 10: eagerly sought after in ordinary schools, is more than achieved. However,
• 5:22:51
  Speaker 10: as a calm man and a self disciplined man are
• 5:22:53
  Speaker 10: not one and the same, So here the fact which
• 5:22:55
  Speaker 10: manifests itself externally by the calm of the children is,
• 5:22:59
  Speaker 10: in reality if another domon merely physical and partial, compared
• 5:23:02
  Speaker 10: to the real self discipline which is being developed in them. Often,
• 5:23:07
  Speaker 10: and this is another misconception, we think all we need
• 5:23:10
  Speaker 10: to do to obtain a voluntary action from a child
• 5:23:12
  Speaker 10: is to order him to do it. We pretend that
• 5:23:14
  Speaker 10: this phenomenon of a forced voluntary action exists, and we
• 5:23:18
  Speaker 10: call this pretext the obedience of the child. We find
• 5:23:21
  Speaker 10: little children specially disobedient, or rather, their resistance by the
• 5:23:25
  Speaker 10: time they are four or five years old, has become
• 5:23:27
  Speaker 10: so great that we are in despair and are almost
• 5:23:30
  Speaker 10: tempted to give up trying to make them obey. We
• 5:23:33
  Speaker 10: force ourselves to praise little children the virtue of obedience,
• 5:23:39
  Speaker 10: a virtue which, according to our accepted prejudices, should belong
• 5:23:43
  Speaker 10: specially to infancy, should be the infantile virtue. Yet we
• 5:23:47
  Speaker 10: fail to learn anything from the fact that we are
• 5:23:49
  Speaker 10: led to emphasize it so strongly, because we can only
• 5:23:52
  Speaker 10: with the greatest difficulty, make children practice it. It is
• 5:23:56
  Speaker 10: a very common mistake, this of trying to obtain by
• 5:23:59
  Speaker 10: means of prayers or or order or violence, what is
• 5:24:01
  Speaker 10: difficult or impossible to get best. For instance, we ask
• 5:24:05
  Speaker 10: little children to be obedient, and little children, in their turn,
• 5:24:09
  Speaker 10: ask for the moon. We need only reflect that this obedience,
• 5:24:13
  Speaker 10: which we treat so lightly, occurs later as a natural
• 5:24:16
  Speaker 10: tendency in older children, and then as an instinct in
• 5:24:19
  Speaker 10: the adult. To realize that it springs spontaneously into being,
• 5:24:23
  Speaker 10: and that it is one of the strongest instincts of humanity,
• 5:24:26
  Speaker 10: we find that society rests on a foundation of marvelous obedience,
• 5:24:30
  Speaker 10: and that civilization goes forward on a road made by obedience.
• 5:24:34
  Speaker 10: Human organizations are often founded on an abusive obedience. Associations
• 5:24:38
  Speaker 10: of criminals have obedience as their keystone. How many times
• 5:24:42
  Speaker 10: social problems center about the necessity of rousing man from
• 5:24:45
  Speaker 10: a state of obedience which has led him to be
• 5:24:48
  Speaker 10: exploited and brutalized. Obedience, naturally is sacrifice. We are so
• 5:24:53
  Speaker 10: accustomed to an infinity of obedience in the world, to
• 5:24:58
  Speaker 10: a condition of self sacrifice, to a readiness for renunciation,
• 5:25:01
  Speaker 10: that we call matrimony the blessed condition. Although it is
• 5:25:04
  Speaker 10: made up of obedience and self sacrifice. The soldier whose
• 5:25:08
  Speaker 10: lot in life is to obey if it kills him
• 5:25:10
  Speaker 10: is envied by the common people, while we consider anyone
• 5:25:13
  Speaker 10: who tries to escape from obedience as a malefactor or
• 5:25:16
  Speaker 10: a madman. Besides, how many people have had the deeply
• 5:25:19
  Speaker 10: spiritual experience of an ardent desire to obey something or
• 5:25:23
  Speaker 10: some person leading them along the path of life. More
• 5:25:26
  Speaker 10: than this, a desire to sacrifice something for the sake
• 5:25:28
  Speaker 10: of this obedience. It is therefore entirely natural that, loving
• 5:25:33
  Speaker 10: the child, we should point out to him that Obedience
• 5:25:35
  Speaker 10: is the law of life, and there is nothing surprising
• 5:25:38
  Speaker 10: in the anxiety felt by nearly everyone who is confronted
• 5:25:41
  Speaker 10: with the characteristic disobedience of little children. But obedience can
• 5:25:45
  Speaker 10: only be reached through a complex formation of the psychic personality.
• 5:25:49
  Speaker 10: To obey, it is necessary not only to wish to obey,
• 5:25:53
  Speaker 10: but also to know how to. Since when a command
• 5:25:56
  Speaker 10: to do a certain thing is given, we presuppose a
• 5:25:59
  Speaker 10: corresponding active or inhibitive power of the child, it is
• 5:26:02
  Speaker 10: plain that obedience must follow the formation of the will
• 5:26:05
  Speaker 10: and the mind. To prepare in detail this formation, by
• 5:26:09
  Speaker 10: means of detached exercises is therefore indirectly to urge the
• 5:26:12
  Speaker 10: child towards obedience. The method which is the subject of
• 5:26:16
  Speaker 10: this book contains in every part an exercise for the
• 5:26:18
  Speaker 10: will power. When the child completes co ordinated actions directed
• 5:26:22
  Speaker 10: towards a given end, when he achieves something he set
• 5:26:25
  Speaker 10: out to do, when he repeats patiently his exercises, he
• 5:26:29
  Speaker 10: is training his positive will power. Similarly, in a very
• 5:26:32
  Speaker 10: complicated series of exercises, he is establishing through activity his
• 5:26:36
  Speaker 10: powers of inhibition. For instance, in the lesson of Silence,
• 5:26:40
  Speaker 10: which calls for a long continued inhibition of many actions
• 5:26:44
  Speaker 10: while the child is waiting to be called, and later
• 5:26:46
  Speaker 10: for a rigorous self control when he is called and
• 5:26:49
  Speaker 10: would like to answer joyously and run to his teacher,
• 5:26:52
  Speaker 10: but instead is perfectly silent, moves very carefully, taking the
• 5:26:55
  Speaker 10: greatest pains not to knock against chair or table, or
• 5:26:58
  Speaker 10: to make a noise. Other inhibited exercises are the arithmetical ones,
• 5:27:04
  Speaker 10: when the child, having drawn a number by lot, must
• 5:27:07
  Speaker 10: take from the great massive objects before him, apparently entirely
• 5:27:10
  Speaker 10: at his disposition, only the quantity corresponding to the number
• 5:27:14
  Speaker 10: in his hand, whereas, as experience has proved, he would
• 5:27:17
  Speaker 10: like to take the greatest number possible. Furthermore, if he
• 5:27:21
  Speaker 10: chances to draw the zero, he sits patiently with empty hands.
• 5:27:25
  Speaker 10: Still another training for the inhibitive will power is in
• 5:27:29
  Speaker 10: the lesson of zero, When the child called upon to
• 5:27:32
  Speaker 10: come up zero times and give zero kisses, stands quiet,
• 5:27:35
  Speaker 10: conquering with a visible effort the instinct which would lead
• 5:27:38
  Speaker 10: him to obey the call. The child at our school Dinners,
• 5:27:41
  Speaker 10: who carries the big tureen full of hot soup isolates
• 5:27:44
  Speaker 10: himself from every external stimulant which might disturb him resists
• 5:27:49
  Speaker 10: his childish impulse to run and jump, does not yield
• 5:27:51
  Speaker 10: to the temptation to brush away the fly on his face,
• 5:27:55
  Speaker 10: and is entirely concentrated on the great responsibility of not
• 5:27:58
  Speaker 10: dropping or tipping the terreen, a little thing of four
• 5:28:01
  Speaker 10: and a half. Every time he set the tureen down
• 5:28:03
  Speaker 10: at a table so that the little guests might help themselves,
• 5:28:06
  Speaker 10: gave a hop and a skip, then took up the
• 5:28:08
  Speaker 10: tureen again to carry it to another table, repressing himself
• 5:28:11
  Speaker 10: to a sober walk. In spite of his desire to play,
• 5:28:15
  Speaker 10: he never left his task before he had passed soup
• 5:28:18
  Speaker 10: to the twenty tables, and he never forgot the vigilance
• 5:28:21
  Speaker 10: necessary to control his actions. Will Power, like all other activities,
• 5:28:26
  Speaker 10: is invigorated and developed through methodical exercises, and all our
• 5:28:30
  Speaker 10: exercises for willpower are also mental and practical. To the
• 5:28:34
  Speaker 10: casual onlooker, the child seems to be learning exactitude and
• 5:28:37
  Speaker 10: grace of action, to be refining his senses, to be
• 5:28:40
  Speaker 10: learning how to become his own master, how to be
• 5:28:42
  Speaker 10: a man of prompt and resolute will. We often hear
• 5:28:46
  Speaker 10: it said that a child's will should be broken, that
• 5:28:48
  Speaker 10: the best education for the will of the child is
• 5:28:50
  Speaker 10: to learn to give it up to the will of adults,
• 5:28:53
  Speaker 10: leaving out of the question the injustice which is at
• 5:28:55
  Speaker 10: the root of every act of tyranny. This idea is
• 5:28:57
  Speaker 10: irrational because the child cannot give up what he does
• 5:29:00
  Speaker 10: not possess. We prevent him in this way from forming
• 5:29:04
  Speaker 10: his own will power, and we commit the greatest and
• 5:29:06
  Speaker 10: most blameworthy mistake. He never has time or opportunity to
• 5:29:10
  Speaker 10: test himself, to estimate his own force and his own limitations,
• 5:29:14
  Speaker 10: because he is always interrupted and subjected to our tyranny,
• 5:29:17
  Speaker 10: and languishes an injustice because he is always being bitterly
• 5:29:20
  Speaker 10: reproached for not having what adults are perpetually destroyed. There
• 5:29:25
  Speaker 10: springs up as a consequence of this childish timidity, which
• 5:29:29
  Speaker 10: is a moral malady acquired by a will which could
• 5:29:32
  Speaker 10: not develop, and with which the usual calumny, which with
• 5:29:35
  Speaker 10: the tyrant consciously or not, covers up his own mistakes,
• 5:29:39
  Speaker 10: we consider as an inherent trait of childhood. The children
• 5:29:43
  Speaker 10: in our schools are never timid. One of their most
• 5:29:46
  Speaker 10: fascinating qualities is the frankness with which they treat people,
• 5:29:50
  Speaker 10: with which they go on working in the presence of
• 5:29:52
  Speaker 10: others and showing their work frankly calling for sympathy that
• 5:29:56
  Speaker 10: moral monstrosity or oppressed and timid child who is at
• 5:29:59
  Speaker 10: his ease nowhere except alone with his playmates or with
• 5:30:02
  Speaker 10: street urchins, because his willpower was allowed to grow only
• 5:30:05
  Speaker 10: in the shade disappears in our schools. He presents an
• 5:30:09
  Speaker 10: example of thoughtless barbarism, which resembles the artificial compression of
• 5:30:13
  Speaker 10: the bodies of those children intended for court dwarfs, museum monstrosities,
• 5:30:18
  Speaker 10: or buffoons. Yet this is the treatment under which nearly
• 5:30:21
  Speaker 10: all of the children of our time are growing up spiritually.
• 5:30:25
  Speaker 10: As a matter of fact, in all the pedagogical conferences,
• 5:30:28
  Speaker 10: one hears that the great peril of our time is
• 5:30:30
  Speaker 10: the lack of individual character in the scholars. Yet these
• 5:30:34
  Speaker 10: alarmists do not point out that this condition is due
• 5:30:36
  Speaker 10: to the way in which education is managed to scholarly slavery,
• 5:30:40
  Speaker 10: which has for its specialty the repression of willpower and
• 5:30:43
  Speaker 10: a force of character. The remedy is to enfranchise human development.
• 5:30:49
  Speaker 10: Besides the exercises it offers for developing willpower, the other
• 5:30:53
  Speaker 10: factor in obedience is the capacity to perform the act.
• 5:30:56
  Speaker 10: It becomes necessary to obey. One of the most interesting
• 5:31:00
  Speaker 10: observations bade by my pupil, Anna Maccheroni, at first in
• 5:31:03
  Speaker 10: the school in Milan and then in that in the
• 5:31:06
  Speaker 10: Via Juicti in Rome, relates to the connection between obedience
• 5:31:12
  Speaker 10: and a child and his knowing. How obedience appears in
• 5:31:15
  Speaker 10: the child as a latent instinct as soon as his
• 5:31:17
  Speaker 10: personality begins to take form. For instance, a child begins
• 5:31:21
  Speaker 10: to try a certain exercise and suddenly sometime he goes
• 5:31:24
  Speaker 10: through it perfectly. He's delighted, stares at it, and wishes
• 5:31:27
  Speaker 10: to do it over again. But for some time the
• 5:31:30
  Speaker 10: exercise is not a success. Then comes a time when
• 5:31:33
  Speaker 10: he can do it nearly every time. He tries voluntarily,
• 5:31:36
  Speaker 10: but makes mistakes. If someone else asks him to do it,
• 5:31:39
  Speaker 10: the external command does not as yet produce the voluntary act. When, however,
• 5:31:43
  Speaker 10: the exercise always succeeds with absolute certainty, then in order
• 5:31:47
  Speaker 10: from someone else brings about on the child's part orderly
• 5:31:50
  Speaker 10: adequate action. That is, the child is able each time
• 5:31:53
  Speaker 10: to execute the command received. That these facts, with variations
• 5:31:57
  Speaker 10: in individual cases, are as a psychical development. Is a
• 5:32:02
  Speaker 10: parent from everyone's experience with children in home, in school,
• 5:32:05
  Speaker 10: or at home. One often hears a child say I
• 5:32:10
  Speaker 10: did do such and such a thing, but now I can't.
• 5:32:12
  Speaker 10: And a teacher, disappointed by the incompetence of a pupil,
• 5:32:15
  Speaker 10: will say, yet, that child was doing it all right,
• 5:32:18
  Speaker 10: and now he can't. Finally, there is the period of
• 5:32:21
  Speaker 10: complete development, in which the capacity to perform some operation
• 5:32:25
  Speaker 10: is permanently acquired. There are therefore three periods. A first
• 5:32:29
  Speaker 10: subconscious one, when in the confused mind of the child,
• 5:32:33
  Speaker 10: order produces itself by a mysterious inner impulse from out
• 5:32:37
  Speaker 10: of the midst of disorder, producing as an external result
• 5:32:40
  Speaker 10: a completed act, which, however, being outside the field of consciousness,
• 5:32:44
  Speaker 10: cannot be reproduced at will. A second conscious period, when
• 5:32:48
  Speaker 10: there is some action on the part of the will,
• 5:32:50
  Speaker 10: which is present during the process of the development and
• 5:32:53
  Speaker 10: establishing of the acts. And a third period, when the
• 5:32:56
  Speaker 10: will can direct and cause the acts, thus answering the
• 5:32:59
  Speaker 10: command from someone else. Now obedience follows a similar sequence.
• 5:33:04
  Speaker 10: When in the first period of spiritual disorder, the child
• 5:33:07
  Speaker 10: does not obey, it is exactly as if he were
• 5:33:10
  Speaker 10: physically deaf and out of hearing of commands. In the
• 5:33:14
  Speaker 10: second period, he would like to obey He looks as
• 5:33:16
  Speaker 10: though he understood the command and would like to respond
• 5:33:18
  Speaker 10: to it, but can not, or at least does not
• 5:33:20
  Speaker 10: always succeed in doing it, is not quick to mind,
• 5:33:24
  Speaker 10: and shows no pleasure when he does. In the third period,
• 5:33:27
  Speaker 10: he obeys at once with enthusiasm. As he becomes more
• 5:33:30
  Speaker 10: and more perfect in the exercises, he is proud that
• 5:33:32
  Speaker 10: he knows how to obey. This is the period in
• 5:33:35
  Speaker 10: which he runs joyously to obey, and leaves at the
• 5:33:38
  Speaker 10: most imperceptible request whatever is interesting him, so that he
• 5:33:41
  Speaker 10: may quit the solitude of his own life and enter,
• 5:33:44
  Speaker 10: with the act of obedience, into the spiritual existence of another.
• 5:33:48
  Speaker 10: To this order, established in a consciousness formerly chaotic, are
• 5:33:52
  Speaker 10: due all the phenomena of discipline and of mental development,
• 5:33:56
  Speaker 10: which open out like a new creation from minds thus
• 5:33:59
  Speaker 10: set in order. When night is separated from day, comes
• 5:34:02
  Speaker 10: sudden emotions and mental feats, which recall the biblical story
• 5:34:05
  Speaker 10: of creation. The child has in his mind not only
• 5:34:08
  Speaker 10: what he is laboriously acquired, but the free gifts which
• 5:34:11
  Speaker 10: flow from spiritual life, the first flowers of affection, of gentleness,
• 5:34:16
  Speaker 10: a spontaneous love for righteousness, which perfume the souls of
• 5:34:19
  Speaker 10: such children and give promise to the fruits of the
• 5:34:22
  Speaker 10: spirit of Saint Paul. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
• 5:34:26
  Speaker 10: long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness. They are virtuous because
• 5:34:31
  Speaker 10: they exercise patience in repeating their exercises, long suffering and
• 5:34:36
  Speaker 10: yielding to the commands and desires of others, good and
• 5:34:39
  Speaker 10: rejoicing in the well being of others, without jealousy or rivalry.
• 5:34:42
  Speaker 10: They live doing good and joyousness of heart and in peace.
• 5:34:46
  Speaker 10: And they are eminently marvelously industrious. But they are not
• 5:34:49
  Speaker 10: proud of such righteousness, because they were not conscious of
• 5:34:52
  Speaker 10: acquiring it as the moral superiority. They have set their
• 5:34:55
  Speaker 10: feet in the path leading to righteousness simply because it
• 5:34:58
  Speaker 10: was the only way to attain true sa self development
• 5:35:00
  Speaker 10: and learning. And they enjoy with simple hearts the fruits
• 5:35:03
  Speaker 10: of peace that are to be gathered along that path.
• 5:35:06
  Speaker 10: These are the first outlines of an experiment which shows
• 5:35:09
  Speaker 10: a form of indirect discipline in which there is substituted
• 5:35:12
  Speaker 10: for the critical and sermonizing teacher, a rational organization of
• 5:35:16
  Speaker 10: work and of liberty for the child. It involves the
• 5:35:19
  Speaker 10: conception of life more usual in religious fields than in
• 5:35:23
  Speaker 10: those of academic pedagogy, inasmuch as it has recourse to
• 5:35:27
  Speaker 10: the spiritual energies of mankind. But it is founded on
• 5:35:30
  Speaker 10: work and on liberty, which are the two paths to
• 5:35:33
  Speaker 10: all civic progress. End of Chapter twenty one, General Review
• 5:35:38
  Speaker 10: of Discipline.
• 5:35:41
  Speaker 5: Chapter twenty two of the Montesuri Method. This is a
• 5:35:44
  Speaker 5: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 5:35:49
  Speaker 5: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 5:35:55
  Speaker 5: Recording by Elena The Montessori Method by Maria Montesuri, translated
• 5:36:00
  Speaker 5: by Anne E. George. Chapter twenty two, Conclusions and Impressions
• 5:36:08
  Speaker 5: in the Children's Houses. The old time teacher, who wore
• 5:36:12
  Speaker 5: herself out maintaining discipline of immobility, and who wasted her
• 5:36:16
  Speaker 5: breath in loud and continual discourse, has disappeared. For this teacher,
• 5:36:21
  Speaker 5: we have substituted the didactic material, which contains within itself
• 5:36:26
  Speaker 5: the control of errors, and which makes auto education possible
• 5:36:30
  Speaker 5: to each child. The teacher has thus become a director
• 5:36:34
  Speaker 5: of the spontaneous work for the children. She is not
• 5:36:37
  Speaker 5: a passive force, a silent presence. The children are occupied,
• 5:36:41
  Speaker 5: each one in a different way, and the directress watching
• 5:36:45
  Speaker 5: them can make psychological observations, which, if collected in an
• 5:36:50
  Speaker 5: orderly way and according to scientific standards, should do much
• 5:36:54
  Speaker 5: towards the reconstruction of child psychology and the development of
• 5:36:58
  Speaker 5: experimental psychology. I believe that I have, by my method,
• 5:37:02
  Speaker 5: established the conditions necessary to the development of scientific pedagogy,
• 5:37:07
  Speaker 5: and whoever adopts this method opens, in doing so a
• 5:37:10
  Speaker 5: laboratory of experimental pedagogy. From such work we must await
• 5:37:15
  Speaker 5: the positive solution of all those pedagogical problems of which
• 5:37:19
  Speaker 5: we talk to day. For through such work there has
• 5:37:22
  Speaker 5: already come the solution of some of these very questions,
• 5:37:26
  Speaker 5: that of the liberty of the pupils. Auto education, the
• 5:37:30
  Speaker 5: establishment of harmony between the work and activities of home
• 5:37:33
  Speaker 5: life and school tasks, making both work together for the
• 5:37:37
  Speaker 5: education of the child. The problem of religious education, the
• 5:37:42
  Speaker 5: importance of which we do not fully realize, should also
• 5:37:45
  Speaker 5: be solved by positive pedagogy. If religion is born with civilizations,
• 5:37:50
  Speaker 5: its roots must lie deep in human nature. We have
• 5:37:53
  Speaker 5: had the most beautiful proof of an instinctive love of
• 5:37:56
  Speaker 5: knowledge in the child, who has too often been missed
• 5:38:00
  Speaker 5: judged in that he has been considered addicted to meaningless
• 5:38:03
  Speaker 5: play and gain, devoid of thought. The child who left
• 5:38:08
  Speaker 5: the game, in his eagerness for knowledge, has revealed himself
• 5:38:12
  Speaker 5: as a true son of that humanity which has been
• 5:38:14
  Speaker 5: throughout the centuries the creator of scientific and civil progress.
• 5:38:19
  Speaker 5: We have belittled the son of man by giving him
• 5:38:22
  Speaker 5: foolish and degrading toys, a world of idleness where he
• 5:38:26
  Speaker 5: is suffocated by a badly conceived discipline. Now, in his liberty,
• 5:38:31
  Speaker 5: the child should show us as well where the man is,
• 5:38:35
  Speaker 5: by nature a religious creature. To deny a priori the
• 5:38:40
  Speaker 5: religious sentiment in man, and to deprive humanity of the
• 5:38:44
  Speaker 5: education of this sentiment, is to commit a pedagogical error,
• 5:38:47
  Speaker 5: similar to that of denying a priori to the child
• 5:38:51
  Speaker 5: the love of learning for learning's sake. This ignorant assumption
• 5:38:56
  Speaker 5: led us to dominate the scholar, to subject him to
• 5:38:59
  Speaker 5: a species of slavery, in order to render him apparently disciplined.
• 5:39:05
  Speaker 5: The fact that we assume that religious education is only
• 5:39:09
  Speaker 5: adapted to the adult may be akin to another profound
• 5:39:13
  Speaker 5: error existing in education today, namely that of overlooking the
• 5:39:17
  Speaker 5: education of the senses at the very period when this
• 5:39:21
  Speaker 5: education is possible the life of the adult is practically
• 5:39:24
  Speaker 5: an application of the senses to the gathering of sensations
• 5:39:28
  Speaker 5: from their environment. A lack of preparation for this often
• 5:39:32
  Speaker 5: results in inadequacy in practical life, in that lack of
• 5:39:36
  Speaker 5: poise which causes so many individuals to waste their energies
• 5:39:40
  Speaker 5: in purposeless effort. Not to form a parallel between the
• 5:39:45
  Speaker 5: education of the senses as a guide to practical life
• 5:39:48
  Speaker 5: and religious education as a guide to moral life, but
• 5:39:51
  Speaker 5: for the sake of illustration, let me call attention to
• 5:39:55
  Speaker 5: how often we find in efficiency in stability among other
• 5:40:00
  Speaker 5: religious persons, and how much precocious individual power is miserably wasted.
• 5:40:06
  Speaker 5: How many men have had this experience, and when that
• 5:40:10
  Speaker 5: spiritual awakening comes late, as sometimes it does through the
• 5:40:15
  Speaker 5: softening power of sorrow, the mind is unable to establish
• 5:40:18
  Speaker 5: an equilibrium because he has grown too much accustomed to
• 5:40:22
  Speaker 5: a life deprived of spirituality. We see equally piteous cases
• 5:40:28
  Speaker 5: of religious fanaticism, or we look upon intimate, dramatic struggles
• 5:40:33
  Speaker 5: between the heart, ever seeking its own safe and quiet port,
• 5:40:38
  Speaker 5: and the mind that constantly draws it back to the
• 5:40:40
  Speaker 5: sea of conflicting ideas and emotions, where peace is unknown.
• 5:40:46
  Speaker 5: These are all psychological phenomena of the highest importance. They
• 5:40:51
  Speaker 5: present perhaps the gravest of all our human problems. We
• 5:40:55
  Speaker 5: Europeans are still filled with prejudices and hedged about with
• 5:40:59
  Speaker 5: pre conceptions in regards to these matters. We are slaves
• 5:41:03
  Speaker 5: of thought. We believe that liberty of conscience and of
• 5:41:06
  Speaker 5: thought consists in denying certain sent mental beliefs. Where liberty
• 5:41:11
  Speaker 5: can never exist where one struggles to stifle some other thing,
• 5:41:15
  Speaker 5: but only where unlimited expansion is granted, where life is
• 5:41:19
  Speaker 5: left free and untrammeled. He who really does not believe,
• 5:41:23
  Speaker 5: does not fear that which he does not believe, and
• 5:41:26
  Speaker 5: does not combat that which for him does not exist.
• 5:41:30
  Speaker 5: If he believes and fights, then he becomes an enemy
• 5:41:33
  Speaker 5: to liberty. In America, the great positive scientist, William James,
• 5:41:39
  Speaker 5: who expounds the psychological theory of emotions, is also the
• 5:41:43
  Speaker 5: man who illustrates the psychological importance of religious conscience. We
• 5:41:49
  Speaker 5: cannot know the future of the progress of thought. Here,
• 5:41:52
  Speaker 5: for example, in the children's houses, the triumph of discipline
• 5:41:58
  Speaker 5: through the conquest of liberty and in dependence mark the
• 5:42:01
  Speaker 5: foundation of the progress which the future will see. In
• 5:42:05
  Speaker 5: the matter of pedagogical methods. To me, it offers the
• 5:42:09
  Speaker 5: greatest hope for human redemption through education. Perhaps in the
• 5:42:15
  Speaker 5: same way through the conquest of liberty of thought and
• 5:42:18
  Speaker 5: of conscience, we are making our way towards a great
• 5:42:21
  Speaker 5: religious triumph. Experience will show, and the psychological observations made
• 5:42:27
  Speaker 5: along this line in the children's houses will undoubtedly be
• 5:42:32
  Speaker 5: of the greatest interest. This book of methods, compiled by
• 5:42:36
  Speaker 5: one person alone, must be followed by many others. It
• 5:42:40
  Speaker 5: is my hope that, starting from the individual study of
• 5:42:45
  Speaker 5: the child educated with our method, other educators will set
• 5:42:50
  Speaker 5: forth the results of their experiments. These are the pedagogical
• 5:42:54
  Speaker 5: books which will await us in the future. From the
• 5:42:57
  Speaker 5: practical side of the school, we have with our aid
• 5:43:00
  Speaker 5: the advantage of being able to teach in one room.
• 5:43:03
  Speaker 5: Children's are very different ages. In our children's houses, we
• 5:43:08
  Speaker 5: have little ones of two years and a half who
• 5:43:10
  Speaker 5: cannot as yet make use of even the most simple
• 5:43:14
  Speaker 5: of their sense exercises, and children of five and a half, who,
• 5:43:18
  Speaker 5: because of their development, might easily pass into the third elementary.
• 5:43:22
  Speaker 5: Each one of them perfects himself through his own powers,
• 5:43:26
  Speaker 5: and goes forward guided by that inner force which distinguishes
• 5:43:30
  Speaker 5: him as an individual. One great advantage of such a
• 5:43:34
  Speaker 5: method is that it will make construction in the rural
• 5:43:38
  Speaker 5: schools easier, and will he be of great advantage in
• 5:43:42
  Speaker 5: the schools in the small provincial towns where there are
• 5:43:45
  Speaker 5: few children, yet where all the various grades are represented.
• 5:43:50
  Speaker 5: Such schools are not able to employ more than one teacher.
• 5:43:54
  Speaker 5: Our experience shows that one directress may guide a group
• 5:43:59
  Speaker 5: of children bring in development from little ones of three
• 5:44:02
  Speaker 5: years old to the third elementary. Another great advantage lies
• 5:44:07
  Speaker 5: in the extreme for facility with which written language may
• 5:44:11
  Speaker 5: be taught, making it possible to combat a literacy and
• 5:44:14
  Speaker 5: to cultivate the national tongue. As to the teacher, she
• 5:44:19
  Speaker 5: may remain for the whole day among children in the
• 5:44:22
  Speaker 5: most varying states of development, just as the mother remains
• 5:44:25
  Speaker 5: in the house with children of all ages without becoming tired.
• 5:44:30
  Speaker 5: The children work by themselves, and in doing so make
• 5:44:34
  Speaker 5: a conquest of active discipline and independence in all acts
• 5:44:38
  Speaker 5: of daily life. Just as through daily conquests they progress
• 5:44:42
  Speaker 5: in intellectual development. Directed by an intelligent teacher who watches
• 5:44:47
  Speaker 5: over their physical development as well as their intellectual and
• 5:44:50
  Speaker 5: moral progress. Children are able with our methods to arrive
• 5:44:54
  Speaker 5: at a splendid physical development. And in addition to this,
• 5:44:58
  Speaker 5: there are unfolds within them in all its perfection, the
• 5:45:01
  Speaker 5: soul which distinguishes the human being. We have been mistaken
• 5:45:06
  Speaker 5: in thinking that the natural education of children should be
• 5:45:09
  Speaker 5: purely physical. The soul too has its nature, which it
• 5:45:14
  Speaker 5: was intended to perfect in the spiritual life, the dominating
• 5:45:18
  Speaker 5: power of human existence throughout all time. Our methods take
• 5:45:23
  Speaker 5: into consideration the spontaneous psychic development of the child and
• 5:45:28
  Speaker 5: help this in ways that observation and experience have shown
• 5:45:31
  Speaker 5: us to be wise. If physical care leads the child
• 5:45:35
  Speaker 5: to take pleasure in bodily health, intellectual and moral care
• 5:45:39
  Speaker 5: make possible for him the highest spiritual joy, and send
• 5:45:44
  Speaker 5: him forward into a world where continual surprises and discoveries
• 5:45:47
  Speaker 5: await him, not only the external environment, but in the
• 5:45:51
  Speaker 5: intimate recesses of his own soul. It is through such
• 5:45:56
  Speaker 5: pleasures as these that the ideal man grows, and only
• 5:46:01
  Speaker 5: such pleasures are worthy of a place in the education
• 5:46:04
  Speaker 5: of the infancy of humanity. Our children are noticeably different
• 5:46:09
  Speaker 5: from those who have grown up within the gray walls
• 5:46:12
  Speaker 5: of the common schools. Our little pupils have the serene
• 5:46:16
  Speaker 5: and happy aspect, and the frank and open friendliness of
• 5:46:19
  Speaker 5: the person who feels himself to be master of his
• 5:46:22
  Speaker 5: own actions. When they run together about our visitors, speaking
• 5:46:26
  Speaker 5: to them with sweet frankness, extending their little hands with
• 5:46:30
  Speaker 5: gentle gravity and well bred cordiality. When they thank these
• 5:46:35
  Speaker 5: visitors for the courtesy they have paid us in coming,
• 5:46:37
  Speaker 5: the bright eyes and the happy voices make us feel
• 5:46:40
  Speaker 5: that they are indeed unusual little men. When they display
• 5:46:45
  Speaker 5: their work and their ability in a confidential and simple way,
• 5:46:50
  Speaker 5: it is almost of if they called for a maternal
• 5:46:52
  Speaker 5: approbation from all those who watched them. Often a little
• 5:46:56
  Speaker 5: one will seat himself on the floor beside some visitor,
• 5:46:59
  Speaker 5: silently writing his name, at adding a gentle word of thanks.
• 5:47:04
  Speaker 5: It is as if they wish to make the visitor
• 5:47:06
  Speaker 5: feel the affectionate gratitude which is in their hearts. When
• 5:47:11
  Speaker 5: we see all these things, and when above all, we
• 5:47:14
  Speaker 5: pas with these children from the busy activities of the
• 5:47:17
  Speaker 5: school room at work into the absolute and profound silence
• 5:47:21
  Speaker 5: which they have learned to enjoy so deeply, we are
• 5:47:24
  Speaker 5: moved in spite of ourselves, and feel that we have
• 5:47:27
  Speaker 5: come in touch with the very souls of these little pupils.
• 5:47:32
  Speaker 5: The children's house seems to exert a spiritual influence upon everyone.
• 5:47:38
  Speaker 5: I have seen here men of affairs, great politicians, preoccupied
• 5:47:43
  Speaker 5: with problems of trade and of state, cast off, like
• 5:47:46
  Speaker 5: an uncomfortable gardment, the burdens of the world, and fall
• 5:47:50
  Speaker 5: into a simple forgetfulness of self. They are affected by
• 5:47:54
  Speaker 5: this vision of the human soul growing in its true nature.
• 5:47:58
  Speaker 5: And I believe that this is what they mean when
• 5:48:01
  Speaker 5: they call our little ones wonderful children, happy children. The
• 5:48:05
  Speaker 5: infancy of humanity in a higher stage of evolution than
• 5:48:08
  Speaker 5: our own. I understand how the great English poet Wordsworth,
• 5:48:14
  Speaker 5: enamored as he was, of nature, demanded the secret of
• 5:48:17
  Speaker 5: all her peace and beauty. It was at last revealed
• 5:48:20
  Speaker 5: to him the secret of all nature lies in the
• 5:48:24
  Speaker 5: soul of a little child. He holds there the true
• 5:48:29
  Speaker 5: meaning of that life which exists throughout humanity. But this
• 5:48:33
  Speaker 5: beauty which lies about us in our infancy becomes obscured.
• 5:48:39
  Speaker 5: Shades of the prison house begin to clothe it about
• 5:48:42
  Speaker 5: the growing boy. At last the man perceives it, die
• 5:48:45
  Speaker 5: away and fade into the light of common day. Truly,
• 5:48:51
  Speaker 5: our social life is too often only the darkening and
• 5:48:55
  Speaker 5: the death of the natural life that is in us.
• 5:49:00
  Speaker 5: In his methods tend to guard that spiritual life within man,
• 5:49:03
  Speaker 5: to keep his real nature unspoiled, and to set it
• 5:49:07
  Speaker 5: free from the oppressive and degrading yoke of society. It
• 5:49:11
  Speaker 5: is a pedagogical method informed by the higher concept of
• 5:49:15
  Speaker 5: Immanuel cant perfect art returns to Nature. End of recording,
• 5:49:23
  Speaker 5: end of Chapter twenty two. Conclusions and Impressions, End of
• 5:49:28
  Speaker 5: the Montessori Method by Maria Montessori, translated by Anne E.
• 5:49:34
  Speaker 5: George