Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/494

488 children are being educated chiefly with reference to adult life, it is known that methods suited to adults are far less efficient than those that recognize the peculiarities of child nature. It is now found that the old, analytic, logical methods are not only not the best for young children, but they are the worst possible—far worse than haphazard teaching which leaves the child's mind free to work and develop in its own natural way.

Details can not be given in the space of a single article, but those who know best, believe that if a Utopian social life is ever to be developed it will be largely through the application of the results of researches into child nature. Such research is being carried on in many places and all up-to-date departments of education, normal schools and universities include some instruction regarding the results of such research, while enlightened parents and all progressive workers in institutions dealing with the welfare of children are seeking and using such information. It is to be hoped that the time is not far distant when public appropriations and private benevolence will provide for more extensive prosecutions of research in this difficult, complex And most important of all sciences.