Page:Preparation of the Child for Science.djvu/59

Rh fixed wage feels bound to teach; he is sometimes tempted to treat pupils as if the business on hand were learning a lesson; to give them the right kind of wood to make each object of, cut ready into the right-shaped block to begin upon; to tell them in what order to do the various portions of the work, and which tool to use for each operation and how to handle each. It is desirable that children should sometimes be free to experiment under varied and accidental conditions, to use the wrong kind of wood and the tool which is not quite the best for the purpose, and hurt their fingers a little, and learn by making mistakes, with some one about who will protect them from seriously wounding themselves, will quietly prevent their making overmuch use of tools too heavy for their small hands and therefore likely to injure the flexibility of their muscles, and to whom they can apply when puzzled or discouraged.

There is some connexion between the due feeding of the unconscious brain and the process of going wrong; by which I mean going at first some way which is not the ultimately right way. The nature of this connexion is as yet obscure, but it evidently exists, and we have to deal with it. Parents are given to children in order to prevent their going wrong in ways