TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 811 



school and slavishly adhered to by the teachers when they go back to their own 

 schools. 



In the kindergarten, of all places in the school, psychology plays an important 

 part, and in the summer school this is kept constantly in mind. A daily lecture 

 is given, after which the various forms of manual expression, such as brush- 

 drawing, claywork, raffia, paper cutting, folding, and mounting, are discussed 

 from the standpoint of child psychology. 



In clay-modelling the objects which are of interest to children and the 

 methods they would adopt in the making of such at different ages are taken into 

 consideration in working out the course. The psychology of touch is appealed 

 to in discussing the methods of handling the material. 



In working out a brushwork course the statistics with regard to children's 

 ability to discriminate colours are appealed to ; samples of children's own spon- 

 taneous work are examined, and the students are trained to analyse them, esti- 

 mate their worth, and take hints for future guidance from them. Similarly in 

 drawing and paper-cutting the problem of the perception of distance and of the 

 third dimension in objects is worked out, and the children's powers in these 

 directions at kindergarten age discussed; the value and limitations of the different 

 forms of colour and form are worked out and criticised from that basis. In 

 sewing and weaving the mechanism of visual adjustments is reviewed and made 

 the basis for criticism of the use of such material as are utilised in mat-plaiting 

 and calico for sewing for young children, so that the students are given definite 

 reasons why sewing should be on coarse materials and with coarse thread, and 

 why wool and raffia are superior as weaving materials to mat-plaiting. 



The teachers are shown that the school occupations may easily be made exten 

 sions of the child's natural and instructive home occupations ; he loves to build 

 thread beads, make marks with chalk or pencil, to splash about with colours, 

 and in these directions his play may readily be developed and enriched by the 

 proper use of such in school. 



The first essential in the kindergarten work is to get rid of the idea of courses 

 in different materials, the aim being rather to give the child ample opportunity 

 to use a variety of materials in the expression of central-group experiences. 



The first principle in dealing with kindergarten teachers is to train them to 

 develop in the child the power of self-expression, and next to familiarise them 

 with a variety of materials, so that they can constantly appeal to his powers of 

 expression in these materials, and so strengthen his powers of selection and 

 adjustment. 



In the various sfhemes of work on exhibition it will be noted that the funda- 

 mental principles governing kindergarten methods are arranged and elaborated 

 to suit the more mature development of the children as they pass through the 

 different stages of school life. As the child grows physically and mentally the 

 mode of approach varies somewhat, and the dsvelopment of mind through the 

 activities becomes an ever-increasing and more highly complex problem, but 

 through the medium of clay, card, wood, and metal there is afforded an infinite 

 variety of experiences that can be utilised to harmoniously develop the child 

 both physically and mentally. 



3. Handwork in relation to Science Teaching : the Manipulative Skill of the 

 Teacher. By G. H. Woollatt, Ph.D., F.I.C. 



Science teaching in most schools is now dominated by the research idea, and it 

 is therefore an essential that the lessons given and the experiments performed 

 shall follow lines determined by the students themselves rather than a course 

 definitely set out in a given syllabus beforehand. 



One of the chief difficulties of a teacher in this respect is that of procuring 

 suitable apparatus. Usually he is bound to apparatus which is catalogued by the 

 various apparatus dealers, and his course of lessons is to seme extent hung upon 

 the pegs of purchasable apparatus units, instead of the apparatus being made to fit 

 the experiments. In elementary schools this is even more the case than in 

 secondary and technical schools, for the allowance for science apparatus is smaller, 

 and the stock of it therefore still more limited. To stock a quantity of apparatus 



