Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/125

Rh lies much of the actual school work on the other. It is quite evident that there are many instincts and interests of children already revealed by these investigations which are not taken account of and utilized by the school programme of to-day.

The following investigation of children's spontaneous constructions and primitive activities is made in the hope that something of value may be added to the large mass of data already collected on this subject and that a clearer, saner insight into the child's nature and needs may follow.

The minute details of the investigation are given so that the picture of the children's activities may be as complete as possible. No effort is made to interpret all these facts, a statement of the facts being thought worth while.

Some attention is also given to the analogy between the children's activities and constructions and those of primitive man with the view of throwing some light on the possible origin of these activities and constructions of children. It is very improbable that the child begins life with a clean slate, so to speak, and that imitation and experience account solely for his early activities. Even the idea of Groos that children are somehow preparing for their later life work seems hardly tenable, except in so far as it is incidentally the case. Investigators are coming to recognize a psychic evolution as well as a physical one. From this point of view the mental life of man cannot be adequately understood except by a consideration of its phylogenetic origin. The child's mental and physical life according to this view, is largely a budding forth of the early, vital, racial experiences. That is, in the evolution of the race its reactions towards its environment became a part of the vital inheritance of the generations following. The part which the unconscious psychic influence played in this evolution is now thought to be far greater than was ever heretofore thought to be the case. How far this is true and what part is played by imitation and the experience of the individual cannot of course be stated. But when children seize upon a certain line of activity with enthusiasm, and delight and persist in it for more or less extended periods of time, there is certainly more at the basis of this phenomenon than mere imitation. For frequently they give expression to unique and original ideas. Again, when these activities are very similar to those which the race very probably experienced in its early history, we are certainly justified in giving some consideration to their phylogenetic origin.

The significance of this view, if true, for purposes of education can hardly be overestimated. It thus becomes the imperative duty of educators to follow this course of development and work with the current of psychic evolution and not against it as is so often the case at present.