November 28, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



305 



Children as Teachers. 



From olden times it has been thought that adults should be the 

 teachers, and children simply learners; but in this nineteenth cen- 

 tury of civilization the greatest find that they can learn from the 

 little ones. The best educators are those who have learned most 

 from little children, and the most successful primary teachers are 

 those who can see and feel things as children see and feel them. 

 Authors of literature and text-books for children must now know 

 child-nature, or fail. Scientific philologists are beginning to rec- 

 ognize the fact that children just learning to talk can in a few 

 months teach them more about how languages are formed than 

 can be learned by years of study of dead and living languages. 

 Even the philosopher and psychologist are turning to the child for 

 the solution of some of the problems that have so long baffled 

 them, and the practical moralist turns from theories to learn of 

 children how moral ideas are formed and moral action called forth. 



The development of the race is epitomized in the development 

 of the child, and the observer may read it in the unfolding psy- 

 chical activity of the innocent child with more pleasure and profit 

 than in the learned histories of civilization. 



Tiederman, Darwin, Taine, Alcott, Romanes, and other learned 

 men have studied their own children scientifically, and taken 

 notes on their development, while Perez Kussmaul and others have 

 made observations on a number of children. Humphreys, Holden, 

 and Noble have collected and examined the vocabularies of several 

 children two years old, in order to discover the general laws of 

 speech. Emily Talbot has collected observations of mothers on 

 young babes. The most thorough and accurate study has, how- 

 ever, been made by Preyer, who carefully observed and experi- 

 mented upon his boy during the first three years of his life, noting 

 down each day every thing calculated to throw light upon the 

 capacity of children and the order of the development of their 

 powers. Much light has been thrown on many subjects by these 

 investigations, but a sufficient number of carefully verified facts 

 has not yet been collected to enable us with certainty to distinguish 

 characteristics common to all from individual peculiarities. It 

 has been made evident that not only must there be persevering 

 exactness in observing and recording the facts, but that many of 

 them can be acovirately observed and correctly interpreted only by 

 one versed in physiology and psychology. 



Considerable interest has been aroused and many plans pro- 

 posed designed to inci'ease scientific knowledge on the subject, to 

 bring parents into new and pleasanter relations with each other, 

 and to preserve records of interest and value to the family. 

 Probably no more acceptable or more valuable present could be 

 given a child who has just attained his majority than a little book 

 containing a record of his life from babyhood. The data con- 

 tained in such a record would make it possible for him to obey 

 the maxim "Know thyself," and to guide his life by that knowl- 

 edge, while the little incidents of childish life that give so much 

 pleasure when remembered and related by the parents would be 

 preserved and enjoyed by himself and his descendants. .Parents 

 who have engaged in such observations have not only learned to 

 understand their children better, and been drawn into closer re- 

 lations with them, but have also found the task most interesting 

 and delightful. 



It will probably be years before the observations of many scien- 

 tists on children can be collected, but in the mean time a father, 

 mother, or older sister of ordinary intelligence can, by exercising 

 patience and care, observe and record certain facts of child-devel- 

 opment that will be as important and reliable as those furnished 

 by the most learned scientist. These observations, also, are those 

 made at the most interesting age of the child's life, — the period 

 of the development of speech. With a little care, the mother can 

 easily record the development of language in her cunning little 

 prattler, — an evolution as remarkable and full of interest as that 

 traced by the philologist in the languages of the various races in 

 different ages, and throwing as much light on the origin of speech 

 in man and the laws of its development. The mother who will 

 make out a list of all the words now used by her little language- 

 learner, and then carefully note down new words as they are 

 learned, may contribute facts leading to results as important as 

 have been discoyered by scientists after years of investigation. 



There are two principal things to notice in such a study: (11 the 

 development of the power of articulating, and (3) the develop- 

 ment of the intellect: hence it is necessary to keep two lists of 

 words, — one containing all words articulated by the child, with 

 indications as to how they are pronounced ; and the other, all 

 words used understandingly, those used only in direct imitation, 

 only at sight of pictures in a book, or only from memory, as in 

 nursery rhymes, being omitted from this list. The first list 

 would indicate the common difficulties encountered in learning to 

 articulate, and an examination of a sufficient number would make 

 it possible to determine whether there really are any general laws 

 of mispronunciation such as have been proposed. The second 

 list would indicate the intellectnal progress of the child as it learns 

 new words, and learns to use old ones with increasing accuracy, 

 and to put them together into phrases and sentences. Words 

 that are invented by the child, and those used in a sense different 

 from the oi'dinary meaning, are especially interesting, and throw 

 considerable light on the subject of how children classify and 

 generalize. A child who saw and heard a duck on the water 

 called it " quack; " and, this word being thus associated with the 

 bird and with the liquid upon which it rested, he thereafter called 

 all birds and all liquids "quack," and later, seeing the eagle on a 

 coin, he called that and other coins "quack." The observing 

 mother will note many similar peculiar yet natural uses of words 

 by her little one who is getting acquainted with this complex 

 world of ours and learning the strange language of its inhabit- 

 ants. 



After the child's present vocabulary has been obtained as accu- 

 i-ately as pDssible, its further progress can easily be recorded by 

 noting down new words as they are heard (in alphabetical order). 

 It will be found convenient to use separate sheets for each week, 

 or perhaps for each month in the case of the articulating vocabu- 

 lary. No confusion will then result, and on the back of the sheets 

 may be given the peculiar meanings attached to words, the earlier 

 attempts at putting words together, the later sentences of interest, 

 especially those showing the characteristic grammatical errors, 

 and other items of interest. Such lists of words, kept from the 

 time a child begins to talk until he is three years of age, could not ' 

 fail to give interesting and more or less important results; and a 

 comparison of a number of vocabularies of children under three 

 years of age, such as could be obtained by a few months of obser- 

 vation, would have a similar value. How much do the vocabu- 

 laries of children in cities differ from those in the country or in 

 villages ? What is the effect on the vocabulary of associating 

 with other children of nearly the same age ? What influence 

 does ease or difficulty of pronunciation have upon the adoption of 

 words into the vocabulary, and what is the effect of special teach- 

 ing by parents ? These are a few of the many interesting ques- 

 tions that might be answered from such vocabularies, accompa- 

 nied by the necessary information. Notwithstanding these vari- 

 ous influences, many of the same words would probably be found 

 in ail of the vocabularies. I found sixty-four words used in 

 common by four little girls two years of age. 



It is to be hoped that such observations by parents of children 

 who are just learning to talk will soon become common. If those 

 who have begun, or will begin, such observations, will send me 

 the record for several months before the middle of next May (1391), 

 I shall be pleased to compare them, and report the result to the 

 readers of this paper. If any thing of scientific value is obtained, 

 it will be published, and along with it the names of those by 

 whose patient observation it has been obtained. Besides the facts 

 suggested above, the age and sex of the child, and the nationality 

 of the parents, should be sent with the record. 



Those who intelligently and sympathetically study the intellec- 

 tual and emotional development of the child from day to day will 

 find it moi-e interesting than any continued story, and will gain 

 more knowledge of human nature than by reading the most vivid 

 character delineations. E. A. Kxrkpatrick. 



Worcester, Mass., Nov. 95. 



" Odds and Ends," No. 31, from the literary junk-shop of A. 

 S. Clark, 34 Park Row, New York City, is a well-edited catalogua 

 of new and old books. 



