Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/71

Rh known elements in their development, and turning so persistently to imaginary and fictitious causes. We are practically denying the principle of causation.

One may not be willing to say that the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile; but whatever theory of the origin and nature of the human spirit we may entertain, it must be admitted that the brain is its tool, and to have a wholesome manifestation requires a wholesome instrument. One need not be frightened—this is not materialism. I do not want the child to be merely a wholesome kitten—a beautiful, soulless Antinous. Let us think of him as a unit. When we say food, we have in mind ideas as well as oatmeal. When we say growth, we have in mind increasing perception as well as increasing stature. When we say reproduction, we have in mind the creative activities of the artist spirit, as well as the function of parenthood. But these things go together. It is neither an animal nor a spirit which presents itself at our door and submits to be educated. It is a monistic child.

We shall never have a scientific system of education so long as we persist in considering only a part of the child's day, and only the exterior aspect of his life. It is useless to argue that these matters belong to the province of parents, and not of teachers, for we all know that they are sadly neglected. The day school can not succeed without the co-operation of the home. It is rarely forthcoming. The average American parent will make heroic sacrifices to give his children what he is pleased to call an education. To him, this means sending them to school—five hours out of twenty-four, five days out of seven. In this he only illustrates his supreme faith in machinery. Under what influences do the children come? With what other children do they associate? What happens to them for the rest of the time?

Who asks these questions?

Nobody.

Who knows the answers?

Nobody.

We fail, then, so lamentably as teachers, not because we are altogether unwise, or because our methods are altogether bad, but very largely because we have deficient organisms to work upon. We are stupidly trying to make bricks without straw. We are trying to educate without employing the means by which alone education can be accomplished.

A curious case has recently come to my notice of a little English girl who suddenly developed a propensity for stealing. Her parents were naturally much mortified. The child herself was very unhappy, for she felt keenly the withdrawal of affection on all sides. In despair she was taken up to London, to a child specialist. He examined her carefully, inquired into her manner of