CHILDREN LEARNING TO READ AND WRITE. 385 



whole range of . natural history which science will ever have to 

 attempt, it is not difficult to understand that scientific knowledge of it 

 with its pedagogical implications has not belonged, at any rate, to 

 the past. It will belong to the future, having, perhaps, its beginnings 

 in the present. An educational system which has not reckoned 

 with an accurate knowledge of the brain of the child may by acci- 

 dent be a correct one, but until such reckoning is made we can not 

 be sure. 



Our increasing knowledge of the child's mind, his muscular and 

 nervous system, and his special senses, points indubitably to the con- 

 clusion that reading and writing are subjects which do not belong 

 to the early years of school life, but to a later period, and that other 

 subjects now studied later are better adapted to this early stage of de- 

 velopment. What is thus indicated of reading and writing may be 

 affirmed also of drawing and arithmetic. The reasons leading to this 

 conclusion can be only very briefly summarized here. 



As regards reading, writing, and drawing, they involve, in the first 

 place, a high degree of motor specialization, which is not only un- 

 natural but dangerous for young children. Studies in motor ability 

 have shown that the order of muscular development is from the larger 

 and coarser to the finer and more delicate muscles. The movements 

 of the child are the large, free movements of the body, legs, and arms, 

 such as he exhibits in spontaneous play. The movements requiring 

 fine co-ordination, such as those of the fingers and the eyes, are the 

 movements of maturer life. If we reverse this order and compel the 

 child to hold his body, legs, and arms still, while he engages the deli- 

 cate muscles of the eyes and fingers with minute written or printed 

 symbols, we induce a nervous overtension, and incur the evils inci- 

 dent to all violation of natural order. The increasing frequency of 

 nervous disorders among school children, particularly in the older 

 countries, is probably due in part to these circumstances. If we con- 

 sider the brain of the child of seven or eight years, our conclusions 

 are strengthened that he should not be engaged in reading and writ- 

 ing. At this age the brain has attained almost its full weight, and 

 is therefore large in proportion to the body. Its development is, 

 however, very incomplete, particularly as regards its associative ele- 

 ments — that is, the so-called association fibers and apperception cen- 

 ters. Such a brain constantly produces and must expend a large 

 amount of nervous energy, which can not be used centrally — that is, 

 psychologically speaking — in comparison, analysis, thought, reflec- 

 tion. It must flow out through the motor channels, becoming mus- 

 cular movement. The healthy child is therefore incessantly active in 

 waking hours, the action being of the vigorous kind involving the 

 larger members. Hence we can understand that, of all the ways in 



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