OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 105 



began to teach himself reading time in minutes and expressing it in 

 phrases used by adults. 



At the age of six he taught himself to read the thermometer. 



At the age of six and a half he was given a few music lessons, 

 which were soon discontinued. A year later he received as a 

 gift music b-ocks. For several days they absorbed him entirely, 

 but he played with them in one exclusive way; he practised on thein 

 tlie different ways of making a measure of 4-4 out of notes of 

 different values. 



x\t six years four months he became interested in geometric 

 figures and for about three months was studying the circle, the 

 triangle, the square, the rectangle in the same intense way, in 

 which he studies everything that interests him. 



The arithmetical facts in his possession led him to much 

 independent thinking of philosophical nature. Thus, he became 

 greatly interested in the zero at the first acquaintance with it, 

 at the age of four and a half, and, beginning with the age of five, 

 amiused himself often with jokes of his own invention about the 

 zcTi). At five years, five months he wrote — 



plus equals 0, 

 a "joke" of his own making. 



At six years, eight and one half months he came to the con- 

 clusion, that eight from two leaves "six below zero." 



Yet, with all these abilities and interests, he is not brilliant in 

 arithmetic at school — there always have been others of far better 

 standing. His strength lies in reasoning and in contemplative think- 

 ing, and he, therefore, grasps every new stage in arithmetic with 

 surprising ease and clearness. But he is not a natural computer, 

 and his accuracy comes only after some practice, and his speed is 

 hardly ever above the average. Perhaps this is due to lack of 

 practice, for school arithmetic never avi^akens in him the interest 

 and the inspiration that his own self-taught arithmetic arouses. 



The above facts shed some light on the question of systematic 

 versus inspirational work; on the difficulties and importance of 

 proper balance between emphasis on nature and nurture; on the 

 lockstep method of class teaching; on the reasoning powers of 

 children ; on the role of intuition in discoveries. 



