Hadow (1931)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Analysis, Preface, Introduction
Chapter 1 The history of the development of the conception of primary education
Chapter 2 The physical development of children between the ages of 7 and 11
Chapter 3 The mental development of children between the ages of 7 and 11
Chapter 4 The age limits for the upper stage of primary education
Chapter 5 The internal organisation of primary schools
Chapter 6 Retarded children in the primary school
Chapter 7 The curriculum of the primary school
Chapter 8 The staffing of primary schools and the training of teachers
Chapter 9 The premises and equipment of primary schools
Chapter 10 Examinations in primary schools
Chapter 11 Summary of principal conclusions and recommendations
Chapter 12 Suggestions on the curriculum of primary schools
Appendix I List of witnesses
Appendix II Physical development of 7-11 year olds (Harris)
Appendix III Mental development of 7-11 year olds (Burt)
Index

London: HM Stationery Office

Chapter 3 The mental development of children between the ages of 7 and 11
[pages 33 - 58]

34. The data for a comprehensive psychological description of the period between the ages of seven and eleven are at present very imperfect. The mental characteristics of puberty and adolescence have been exhaustively investigated by Stanley Hall and his followers; and much work has been recently done on the periods of early and later infancy by Gesell, Piaget, and others; but no psychologist has hitherto concentrated specifically on the characteristics of the growing boy or girl from the age of seven to the onset of puberty. Seven of our witnesses pointed out that the full significance of the period between the ages of seven and eleven in the intellectual and emotional development of the child had hitherto not been adequately understood in the primary school. Many teachers had expected of children at this age what they cannot give, and had not afforded them adequate scope to give what they could. In fact, this stage had commonly been regarded as preparatory to some other stage rather than as constituting a definite stage of mental development. Current textbooks on children either still envisage this period as a colourless transitional stage, with no marked features of its own, or else profess to find it in certain distinctive traits deduced from some theory about the general character of mental growth. The two most notable hypotheses of this character which, partly owing to their acceptance by Stanley Hall, have been reproduced in many educational textbooks, and have exercised a wide influence on the views of teachers, may be described as (i) the Stratification theory, and (ii) the Recapitulation theory.

According to the former hypothesis, mental development, like physical growth, proceeds by steps or starts. Certain faculties, assumed to be almost non-existent up to a certain age, are supposed then to emerge suddenly, and to develop rapidly to a maximum. Thus, the first year of life is described as a period of sense-perception. Later infancy is regarded as the stage of motor activity and of muscular development; and the succeeding period up to the age of about eleven is supposed to be characterised by a marked development of memory, first mechanical and then logical. The faculty of reasoning is supposed not to emerge clearly until the beginning of the pubertal period. The Recapitulation theory, which, to judge from our evidence, is widely held by many teachers, may be briefly described as the doctrine that the development of the individual tends to reproduce in rapid and abbreviated form the evolution of the race. This view represents an attempt to deduce the course of psychological development from a theory based (a) on the supposed facts of embryological growth, and (b) on the argument from the biological transmission of acquired characteristics. The individual child is assumed to inherit the capacities, memories and habits of a long line of ancestors, prehistoric and civilised, and to exhibit them stage by stage in much the same order as that in which they were originally acquired.

In view of the extent to which these theories are accepted by many teachers, it is important to point out that the general results of recent psychological research tend largely to undermine such plausible generalisations. The main outlines of mental development as disclosed up to the present by the direct application of mental tests or of controlled statistical observation, are briefly described in the following sections.

35. The mental capacity which is of most importance for intellectual progress, is 'intelligence.' (1) The available data indicate that the growth of 'intelligence' is fairly uniform up to the age of twelve, but that further development virtually comes to an end about the age of sixteen. One of the most significant facts revealed by intelligence tests is the wide range of individual differences between children and its steady expansion from year to year. For instance, at the age of five children are spread out between the mental ages of about three and seven or eight, a total range of four to five years. By the age of ten this range has doubled, and it probably continues to enlarge till the end of puberty. (2) Older children accordingly differ more widely in intellectual capacity than do younger children. During the infant period pupils may be grouped together without much regard to varying degrees of mental endowment, but by the age of ten children in a single age group should, if possible, be organised for teaching purposes in at least three distinct sections, and at the age of eleven the range has become so wide that a still more radical classification is required. (3)

Standardised psychological tests have been devised for many of the more important special abilities, and the results of such tests show that such special abilities rarely reveal themselves in any noticeable degree before the age of eleven. The general result of recent investigations is that all intellectual activities seem to be closely correlated with one another in children between the ages of seven and eleven, though towards puberty these inter-correlations tend to diminish. Thus, during the period between the ages of seven and eleven, one central underlying factor tends to determine the general level of the child's ability. While, therefore, there is need that older pupils should be educated in large schools where they may be freely classified according to their differing qualifications and special abilities, there is not, in the opinion of our witnesses, the same need for elaborately graded schools before the age of eleven, except for definitely defective children.

36. We received also from psychological and medical witnesses some evidence bearing on the sensory capacities of children. Up to the age of eleven the essential characteristics of sense-perception show little change. These activities mature earliest, and during the stage up to the age of eleven probably change less than any other intellectual process. Nevertheless, the age norms recently obtained by the application of standardised tests indicate that the power of fine discrimination exhibits a distinct improvement in sight and hearing, the two senses which are most important for the traditional work of the primary school.

Vision. The young child's eye is an imperfect organ, naturally under-focussed and ill-adapted for close work. As the child grows up the degree of normal sight steadily improves, and, as a rule, there is a gradual improvement in the acuity of vision. However, among a limited number of children, there is a noticeable deterioration due no doubt primarily to pathological causes, but in some instances aggravated by the conditions of work in school. In the infant school, the commonest defect is longsightedness, but in the primary school myopia becomes increasingly frequent. Defects of visual acuity are rather commoner among girls at this stage, but their colour discrimination is superior to that of boys, and colour blindness, which is comparatively frequent among boys, is very rare in girls.

Hearing. Auditory acuity is practically mature by the age of seven. In spite of increased medical attention paid to such conditions as adenoids and catarrh of the middle ear, much deafness still prevails among young children that is definitely preventable. The detection of such defects largely depends not merely on the results of necessarily brief medical examinations, but on the alertness of the teacher in watching for intermittent symptoms. Undetected visual defects in the infant school and undetected auditory defects in the primary school are responsible for much educational backwardness at a later stage. (4)

Young children up to the age of about eleven show distinct progress in the discrimination of musical pitch. The data obtained from tests of auditory discrimination suggest that inaccuracy in singing among children after the age of about seven is due more to imperfect muscular control of the voice and lack of training than to auditory incapacity. It may accordingly be concluded that pupils entering a primary school at the age of seven are fully capable of the tasks ordinarily required of them in musical instruction. It would seem that during the greater part of the primary school period, harmony does not appeal to children so much as melody, nor melody so much as rhythm.

Muscle-sense. The most recent investigations indicate that there is a steady improvement in the muscle-sense from the age of seven up to that of about twelve. All investigators have found boys superior to girls between the ages of eight and eleven. The refinement of muscle-sense is so essential a factor in the improvement of manual dexterity, that far more should be done to cultivate it at this period.

Touch. The sense of touch is one of the few capacities in which children are definitely superior to adults. In general the sense of touch degenerates after the age of seven though less in the case of girls than boys.

Movement. Sheer strength increases far more rapidly towards the end of the school period than at the beginning, the difference in this respect between boys and girls being small compared to that obtaining in later years. The sex difference in muscular endurance also becomes evident at this period. Though in the classrooms the sexes may be educated together at this age, in games and physical feats, sex differences cannot be ignored. (5)

The steady improvement in speed of movement from the age of six to that of eighteen with which we are familiar is most noticeable between the ages of nine and eleven. (6)

There is a noticeable improvement in dexterity from the age of five to that of nine but thereafter the rate of improvement diminishes. There is no clear or consistent sex difference in dexterity at this stage. During the infant stage the child is learning to control the larger muscles of the trunks and limbs, but during the stage with which we are concerned he is learning to control the finer muscles, those of the eye, tongue and fingers. At this stage the aim of the curriculum should largely be the use of the eye in active observation, of the tongue in clear and expressive speech, and of the fingers in simple arts and crafts of different kinds.

37. Standardised tests in respect of the higher intellectual capacities have not as yet been applied on an extensive scale. The data at present available must be used with caution.

Attention. The scope of attention in young children appears to be very limited; this is probably the main intellectual difference between children aged seven and fourteen. The young child is strikingly lacking in the power of mental organisation. Probably few teachers realise how narrow are the limits of a child's apprehension. The evidence of standardised tests indicates clearly that, if a child is to grasp a group of ideas as forming a single whole, and to understand it as conveying a systematised meaning, the number of such ideas must be very small, and the scheme according to which they are combined, extremely simple. The child's power of sustaining voluntary attention increases rapidly between the ages of seven and eleven, though in the lower classes of many schools this power tends to be overestimated in the work still traditionally considered appropriate. If, however, the efforts of concentration be made brief but intense, it will be found that a child's intellectual penetration is far more acute than is ordinarily assumed. In the opinion of our witnesses, the matter presented to the child under the age of ten should be limited to a small number of simple facts, or to two or three short steps in reasoning, e.g. in arithmetic. If during the course of a lesson there was plenty of change and the child were allowed ample freedom to use his hands, to move about the room, if need be, and to talk, his attention would be sustained. When, however, the child reached the age of ten, he might well be practised in the power of maintaining attention by a continuous effort of will, even when interest was waning and the pleasure of novelty had worn off.

Fatigue and weariness. The young child is comparatively free from mental fatigue up to the age of eleven; often what the teacher assumes to be mental fatigue is only boredom. The child's interest, but not necessarily the child's capacity, is rapidly exhausted at this stage. The lessons in which fatigue will become most quickly manifest are arithmetic and prolonged reading and writing, in which the fine muscles of the fingers and eye are most likely to become overstrained; but this is due to physical fatigue. Our psychological witnesses accordingly urged that long sums, lengthy compositions and dictations, and prolonged memory drill on tables and spelling, should not be set as tasks to children. At the same time it is true that the harm resulting from excessive intellectual activity is likely to be physical in origin, rather than mental, and to be due to lack of exercise and fresh air and to the maintenance of an unnatural sedentary posture. (7) Towards puberty mental and emotional factors play a more prominent part in cases of overstrain.

Memory. There is a widespread popular idea, to which earlier psychologists, such as Binet and Stanley Hall, lent the weight of their authority, that the salient characteristic of young children up to the age of eleven is their excellent mechanical memory. This view is not corroborated by the data obtained from the application of memory tests. A child's memory stands out in high relief at this period only because his higher intellectual capacities are comparatively undeveloped, or unused. The memory of a child of nine or ten years is inferior to that of the older child, especially as regards 'long distance' or delayed memory. His performance in tests of 'short distance' memory depends largely on his power of attention. The view held by teachers that young children delight in memory work was in the opinion of the psychologists only partially true. It is true that in the earlier stages up to the age of eight or nine, the child exhibits a singular fondness for mechanical repetition and, in the lower classes of the primary school, the teacher may legitimately take full advantage of this characteristic. But by the age of nine the mechanical method of memorising is being superseded by a more intelligent process in the childish mind. The pupil then begins to discover his powers of logical memory and is naturally anxious to exercise them to the full. The teacher should take account of this change. The older methods of instruction, which were apt to regard memory work as specially appropriate for the lower standards of the public elementary school, were partly based on an erroneous assumption. The essential thing is that proper incentives should be provided and that adequate interests should be stimulated. (8)

On the whole, the actual experience of teachers confirmed these generalisations, even though their terminology might be different and their conclusions sometimes based on erroneous assumptions. Many teacher witnesses spoke of the development of memory, when presumably they should have spoken, not of developing the memory, but of developing the habit of attention, which is necessary to the exercise of memory. The opinion, however, seemed to be general that the primary school period affords special opportunities for training the child in the use of memory. Many teachers, like the earlier psychologists to whom we have referred, spoke of the 'excellent memory' of children between the ages of seven and eleven, and in this presumably they were wrong, since memory does not specially excel at this period. They were, however, in substantial agreement with later psychologists, since they obviously regarded it only as relatively precocious. Hence many routine processes were less irksome than at a later stage, and much might be taught through the aid of mechanical memory. Reliance should be placed at this stage not only on mechanical memory, but also on that aspect of memory which is assisted by reasoning and understanding.

It is of course true that the primary school is the place where the child should acquire the mechanical elements of reading, writing and arithmetic. It would be a grave misfortune, however, were the attention of the teachers concentrated merely or even mainly on helping him to master these necessary attainments. It is essential at this, as at later ages, to give meaning and content to the child's studies by relating them to living interests; to appeal to and cultivate his imagination; and to encourage him to develop, in his small way, habits of independent thought and action. While, in short, some degree of what may be called 'mechanical aptitude' is necessary, it is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It will be most valuable if it takes its place in an education designed to develop all sides of a child's personality, including his emotions, his imagination, his reasoning faculties. (9)

38. Reproductive imagination. With very young children it is difficult to investigate imagery in any great detail; but certainly from the age of eight or nine, if not, indeed, at earlier ages, most children possess excellent visual memories, and visual imagery now dominates over all other forms. It would seem therefore that concrete pictorial and visible forms should be presented or suggested by teachers to children up to the age of eleven. Towards adolescence the power, or at any rate the habit, of visualisation tends to diminish, and the more intelligent children, partly perhaps on account of the verbal and literary character of much current instruction, are apt to think in terms of words rather than of concrete images. Our psychological witness accordingly urged that up to the age of eleven the school subjects and their presentation should be kept closely related to the children's concrete knowledge and immediate experience. Every effort should be made to use the imagination, but at this stage understanding should still be based directly upon what the pupil can perceive or recollect at first-hand, usually in visual form, and not upon abstract generalisations or theoretical principles.

Constructive imagination. In scientific as well as in literary and artistic work, the young child's imagination is fully capable of taking considerable nights provided only that what is to be imagined can be pictured in concrete form. Our witnesses were of opinion that during this age period the exercise of creative as distinct from reproductive imagination should be cultivated; but that when children pass from the infant school into the upper part of the primary school they should gradually be taught to bring to bear on the world of experience the constructive imagination which has been, and is being cultivated in the world of 'make-believe'. If at this stage contact with reality is firmly established, then the risks of morbid daydreaming, and of over stimulated imagination, to which the adolescent is so often prone, would be largely reduced. The young child's pleasure in imagination, judiciously disciplined, should provide an inexhaustible reservoir of educational motive.

39. The results of recent investigations indicate that the working contents of the average child's mind on entering the primary school are likely to be far more limited than most teachers assume. (10) During the earlier years up to the age of eleven, the greater part of the imagery with which children do their thinking has been acquired not in school, but out of it; and, however varied or instructive the child's environment may be, many things may pass before his eyes day after day and still remain unnoticed. Evidently, therefore, at this stage it will not be sufficient to use names of common everyday things and assume that the child at once calls up a clear and concrete picture of the things for which the name stand. 'The fact that children see an object a hundred times a day without acquiring consciousness of it suggests that the teacher needs to converse with children about the most obvious aspects of their day to day life before he proceeds to erect a super-structure of more intellectual knowledge.' (11)

40. At the primary stage the child's power of classifying the chaotic objects of his experience is rapidly improving. He no longer classifies them merely from the personal or subjective standard of their use, but tries to arrange them as elements in a universe which is at bottom orderly. Secondly, names are not at this stage clearly distinguished from the things which they designate. Before the age of eleven formal definitions are more likely to confuse than to help the pupil, and at this stage it is far better to begin a lesson or subject with a concrete problem than with an abstract definition of words and concepts.

41. Perception of relations. It is often assumed, even among teachers, that reasoning is a power which only emerges towards the period of adolescence. (12) Recent researches have thrown some light on the process of reasoning. (13) Reasoning depends essentially upon the perception of relations, and both memory and reasoning work through associations. In memory the association between the facts is not itself made conscious or explicit; in reasoning the child not only associates two things, but also clearly perceives the relation between them. Children under the age of seven can grasp in their commonest and simplest forms relations such as those of space, quantity, similarity, contrast, and the like, provided that the material be made sufficiently simple and familiar, and adapted to their limited powers of observation. It is not, however, until a somewhat later age that the child begins to observe these relations spontaneously. His progress in this respect is easily tested by what are technically known as tests of observation and testimony.

Deductive reasoning. Reasoning, however, depends not merely upon the perceptions of relations, but also upon the perception of relations between relations. This involves the power to analyse out what is to the child a complex presentation, and to grasp its organisation as a system of logically related ideas. Recent experiments show clearly that, contrary to earlier views, all the elementary mental mechanisms required for formal reasoning are present before the child leaves the infant department. Development consists primarily in an increase in the extent and variety of the subject matter to which these mental mechanisms can be applied, and in a development of the precision and elaboration with which they can operate.

On the whole, it is probable that with the exception of casual reasoning, most forms of deductive inference are within the range of the child between seven and eleven. Our psychological witnesses were, therefore, of opinion that from the age of seven onwards the average child could and should be taught to think scientifically, and to argue logically subject only to the qualification that the logical steps should be extremely few, and that the scientific conceptions put before the child should be such as he could clearly grasp. At the age of seven the child was already capable of reasoning about numerical relations so long as the numbers were small and the problems simple. Problems in time seemed more difficult for pupils than equivalent problems expressed in terms of space. It was accordingly suggested that more use might with advantage be made of simple geometrical reasoning with children of the age of nine and upwards. The principle of cause and effect had, until recently, been much neglected in elementary instruction. It could be introduced first in connection with nature study and the elementary physical science of everyday life rather than in connection with geography or history. (14)

Inductive reasoning. Inasmuch as induction is usually a more concrete form of reasoning, it is in some respects easier for the child than deduction. It seems therefore desirable that more use should be made of inductive reasoning in the earlier stages of education and that the child should be taught to apply it in everyday life.

Logical criticism. What may be called constructive reasoning develops earlier in the child than destructive or critical reasoning, and up to the age of eleven the average child seems to remain almost blind to the more subtle forms of fallacious reasoning.

Suggestibility. A noticeable feature of the period between the ages of seven and eleven is the child's extreme susceptibility to 'suggestion'. This characteristic, which is commonly attributed to lack of reasoning power, certainly indicates that the habit of logical criticism has not yet been acquired. The ordinary child is willing to accept facts, views and methods on trust. In fact, most of his habits of life and his ideas about the world are really acquired in this way, chiefly through what is inaccurately described as 'imitation'. The susceptibility of the young child to suggestion is due, not so much to lack of reasoning power as to lack of organised knowledge. It is also generally a quality of his character as much as of his intellect, since he is still overawed by the prestige of those who are older and bigger than himself and who speak to him with authority. Susceptibility to suggestion is a very important factor in the education of young children; but they are certainly capable of reasoning at this age, and the development of their critical powers should be encouraged, so that, as time goes on, the child should be taught to rely more upon his independent initiative and enterprise. The evidence of inspectors and teachers as regards a child's 'suggestibility' was in general agreement with the views of the psychologists. Suggestibility, they held, had a moral foundation in the ready confidence that children had in their parents and teachers. Though it could not be attributed to want of rational capacity rather than to want of organised knowledge, there was certainly in children a comparative lack of interest in reasoning, and a lack of power in logical analysis. Their thought remained concrete and particular. They were full of curiosity and enthusiasm, but their interests were active and practical. It was therefore important that the school subjects should not be isolated and labelled in separate compartments of the time-table, (15) but should be treated in close relation to the child's concrete experience.

42. The capacity of genuine aesthetic appreciation is but little developed in the majority of children at this stage, but it is steadily growing as they approach the age of eleven. During the earliest years of childhood the nascent sense of beauty consists of little more than pleasurable thrills over simple sensations and perceptions, such as brightness, noise, sheer colour, rich sound, definable shape, well-marked rhythm. The advance towards the appreciation of the formal element seems to come largely through bodily activities - games, dancing, drawing, craftwork, and anything that leads to an active interest in visible or audible pattern. From his earliest years the child loves to reproduce sounds and noises, over and over again, so that they fall into a rhythmical scheme. His first active enjoyment of formal arrangement through the eye comes when he arranges toys or other light objects in a pattern. This appreciation of formal schemes may be actively encouraged when the child is half-aimlessly setting things out, or tidying up his small possessions on his dressing table or a cupboard shelf. For the child the realisation of decorative order comes most easily when the decorative objects are movable and can be shifted at will. And in general it is chiefly through his own efforts that the child first gains an elementary insight into the artistic achievements of others. During the age of curiosity, intellectual processes begin to enter into the child's appreciation: he demands clearness, simplification, and even a vigorous and idealised statement of what his eye can grasp or recognise. This leads quickly to a critical or discriminating stage. Later, in the appreciation of music, poetry, and art of every kind, visual and auditory imagery plays an increasing part. Owing to the bookish trend of modern instruction, mental images, so concrete and so vivid in the younger child, tend to atrophy from disuse. By encouraging the child to visualise his stories, to listen for word-music as he silently reads a poem, to set down on paper with his pencil or brush the pattern-like images that rise before his mind's eye, (16) the teacher undoubtedly assists his aesthetic appreciation.

Definite experiments on aesthetic development in children have been mainly limited to studies of their drawings and their appreciation of pictures. Children of the mental age of five or six tend to draw by means of symbols; for instance, they represent the human figure by circles and other signs. This is partly, no doubt, because their vision is not yet completely focused, but also because their technique is undeveloped. What is important from the aesthetic point of view is the sense of pattern often shown in these symbolic drawings. This persists into the second stage, when the symbol is filled out with greater detail. More facts are noted, but there is still little attempt to reproduce actual appearances. A face in profile, for example, is shown with two eyes, because a man has two eyes though only one may be visible. But there is often aesthetic value in the way these facts are set down and arranged. By the age of nine or ten the child's drawings become more realistic; photographs, illustrations and picture papers have their influence, but while he gains in technique, he may lose, in his desire for photographic accuracy, the feeling for rhythm and design which is the basis of all art.

Investigations of children's preferences for pictures reveal a development in a similar direction. In the earliest years the child is mainly attracted by brightness of colour or quaintness of form. Pattern is early appreciated, e.g. the simple alternation of white and black, blue and red; but no experiments have hitherto been undertaken to discover how far the child is capable of preferring more suitable forms of balance or proportion. The appeal of subject matter soon becomes predominant; and the child shows strong preferences for what arouse his own instinctive interests or remind him of his own pleasurable experiences. A picture of a lion, a soldier, a locomotive, or a flower, and later on a sketch that vividly tells a story he can understand - these are the things that he likes best, regardless of any photographic accuracy in the representation, or of any truly formal beauty. Efforts to get the child to appreciate artistic qualities will best succeed if these qualities are embodied in pictures or songs referring to the child's own most intimate experiences (e.g. mother, other children, animals), and to the simple sentiments or feelings connected therewith (e.g. a mother's tenderness for her child).

In both directions the child at the earliest stages is not critical of realistic representation. This indifference to realism, together with the child's natural pleasure in vitality of representation, produces a paradoxical result: the drawings of the young child and his aesthetic preferences seem to modern artists to be often in advance of the preferences of the adult public, including at times those of his own teachers. The child's practical success, however, must not be attributed so much to conscious preference: it is the outcome of his own limitations. He is bound to simplify, and finds it easier to arrange his lines in formal contours than to turn his pencil into a substitute for a camera. At this early stage, therefore, the teacher should beware of applying wrong criteria, and of forcing the child to criticise his lack of photographic realism instead of permitting him to revel to the full in his power to arrange his own impressions in artistic schemes or patterns. The children's own efforts through their productions in the various media should be the most potent influence in the development of a sense of beauty; they are more potent than formal talks on beauty, or attempts to arouse prematurely the kind of appreciation which is appropriate only at a later stage. The effect of seeing and hearing beautiful things must not be depreciated. (17)

As regards the child's interest in musical form, and in the beauties of poetry and prose, less work has been done. The few studies that have hitherto been made both of children's own productions, and of their appreciation of the productions of others, indicate once again that the beginnings of aesthetic appreciation depend upon opportunities for expression in relation to the child's own instinctive interests, and that a genuine enjoyment of formal beauty in any complicated form is only possible towards the end of the primary stage.

Artistic ability and appreciation appear to depend upon capacities of two kinds. They depend to some extent upon the level of intelligence, though they are less closely correlated with it than any other subject of the school curriculum. They depend also on special aptitudes or talents. It appears that many are peculiarly lacking in such special abilities, and that in any case their interests do not show any remarkable development until the emotional stage of puberty. In particular, aesthetic appreciation through the ear comes much earlier than aesthetic appreciation through the eye.

43. Psychologists and teachers are now beginning to realise that psychological theories and educational practice have in the past tended to place undue emphasis on the purely intellectual processes, which in point of fact will never function fully unless some emotional incentive be present. A child never works so well as when he is enthusiastically interested. It is accordingly most important that the teacher should take into account the children's own natural interests. The following are some of the problems which arise in this context and on which some light has been thrown by recent psychological investigations: (i) How do children's interests differ from age to age? (ii) Are there any predominant interests that are specially characteristic of the period between seven and eleven? (iii) Are there other interests which in children of this age period have either died out or have not yet emerged, and to which therefore an appeal will be made in vain? (iv) How can children's spontaneous interests be made the basis and motive for those higher interests which the pupils would not achieve without the teacher's aid?

The simplest psychological theory regarding the character and emergence of these spontaneous interests is that of human instincts. The evolutionary psychologists assume that man has received from his primitive ancestors instinctive tendencies similar to those inherited by all the higher mammals and adapted primarily for wild life in a pre-civilised state. Thus the interests that appear spontaneously in the child are regarded as the result of maturing of certain inborn nervous mechanisms within the brain, not unlike those which subserve the simple reflex actions, but fuller and more complicated. In their simpler forms a large number of these instincts, together with their correlated emotions, emerge soon after birth, for example, feeding and crying out; others, like the sex instinct, do not mature till a much later date.

Many investigations have been undertaken to discover the natural stimuli for these supposed primitive instincts, and the mode and time of their manifestation. The result of these inquiries, owing largely to the inherent difficulty of the subject, are not very conclusive; but one fact which emerges clearly is the continuity of mental development. On the emotional side, as on the intellectual, there appear to be no sudden breaks and no abrupt transitions. Attempts have been made to ascertain approximately the order in which the different instinctive tendencies usually appear, and a fairly definite sequence seems to be discernible in many of the commoner characteristics exhibited by children, as they advance from babyhood to maturity. One school of psychologists, following the Herbartian hypothesis of 'culture epochs', has attempted to institute a parallel between the order in which such interests develop in the individual and that in which they have emerged in the evolution of the race. 'Education', writes Herbert Spencer, 'should reproduce in little the history of man's civilisation'. This hypothesis is merely an extension of the 'recapitulation theory' described above (section 34) and is open to the same objections.

Some of the salient features of the infant stage often persist into the upper section of the primary stage in children whose intellectual or emotional development is retarded. At this stage children's interests are at once general and subjective. Their activities show little specialisation, their interests in the outside world are personal rather than impersonal. Curiosity is perhaps the most salient characteristic of children at this stage. In games there is little genuine cooperation before the age of seven. (See also section 44). They play in the company of others but seldom with others and as Piaget (18) has shown, their conversation among themselves evinces little real exchange of thought.

During the period of childhood from the age of seven to that of thirteen, interests become increasingly objective and specialised. Children become less absorbed in their personal sensations and movements and their attention is attracted more and more by definite objects, by particular occupations, and by specific branches of knowledge and problems of activity increasingly restricted and defined. During the transition from the infant stage to childhood, games of making houses, hiding, and playing with dolls appear to reach a climax, and by the age of eight are already beginning to decline. At this stage one widely spreading interest emerges rapidly into prominence and remains one of the most characteristic features of the whole period. This is the interest in making things, which displays all the characteristics of an instinctive urge. Unless ousted or crushed, this interest persists in children over the age of eleven, but assumes varying forms of different periods, though from year to year other interests emerge side by side with it and threaten ultimately to overwhelm it. It has long been recognised as an instinct of great educational significance, but our psychological witnesses suggested that even further advantage might be taken of it by teachers than heretofore and that as a method of instruction it should not be limited merely to the specific lessons in handwork. (19)

44. Much light is thrown on the interests of children between seven and eleven by play. If the infant period may be described as the stage of 'solitary' play, and the adolescent stage as the period of gregarious play, the intervening epoch between the ages of seven and eleven may with justice be called the period of individualistic play. But in the upper section of the primary stage the child does not so much play with others as against them. Boys are particularly fond of games of chase at this period, and any contrivances that increase speed are especially welcome. A little later competitive games are much in favour, and the spirit of rivalry and emulation emerges. Towards the age of ten the pugnacious impulses grow stronger and stronger. In girls these instincts are less noticeable and the maternal instincts remains prominent. Towards the age of nine, healthy children take more and more to outdoor life. They are still restless and active, but owing to their increasing strength and independence they demand a wider range of movement. At this age the child seeks to explore his immediate environment further afield, and enjoys expeditions to places of interest. (20)

These new interests are largely reflected in special constructive activities. It is probable that such activities spring largely from the interest in making things, which emerges first of all as a result of the development of finer muscular control. The child is now able to handle small tools, a pocket knife or hammer and nails, and later the needle. An emotional zest accompanies such manual activities. The child's interest is not yet centred in the acquirement or the display of delicate skill. His present satisfaction springs definitely from being a maker and creator of something new, something which is his own. This basic interest in spontaneous handwork of different kinds can find an appropriate outlet in the practical activities of the primary school. (21) The evidence of practical teachers is of interest in this connection. Most children of this age, they observed, took intense delight in achievement which was visible, tangible, and above all, immediate. This desire could be satisfied by non-literary activities such as singing, drawing, acting, games and dancing, but it might find expression also in the recitation of prose and verse.

Junior children, they said, were little workmen, looking out for jobs to do, and largely incapable of finding them for themselves. They had not much prejudice or choice regarding any particular job, provided they could do it. They required tools, and whether such tools were figures, letters, ideas, balls, paintbrushes, muscles, or words, they were prepared to take endless pains to acquire deftness and skill in the use of them, provided always that they were connected with specific jobs. They were also actors and artists taking intense pleasure in dramatic work, and keenly interested in shape, form and colour. This type of activity was probably the natural complement of the fact that they were keen observers. Reproduction in some form, whether in speech or imitative action, or colour and line, was the natural stimulus of their power of observation.

This general view that pupils between the ages of seven and eleven were matter-of-fact and practical persons was supported by the National Union of Women Teachers. After the age of seven, they were less unquestioning, more disposed to be incredulous, from wonder tales their interest tended to pass on to true narrative history. Other witnesses were equally emphatic as to the 'curiosity' of children of this age, describing it as a 'ruling principle'. Their matter-of-fact attitude of mind produced a spirit of inquiry into the causes of the many phenomena by which they found themselves surrounded. Curiosity, constructiveness, the love of acquisition and self-assertion, with its opposite self-submission, these were therefore the powerful instincts which had to be judiciously satisfied.

45. The spontaneous drawing of young children may justly be regarded as one of the most significant manifestations of their love of constructive work. An examination of children's drawings from year to year generally shows that from the age of eight to eleven there is a remarkable improvement in skill. After the age of eleven and during adolescence appreciation becomes more marked than execution, criticism than construction. The child then, as a rule, grows shy about his own creative efforts and is content to remain more of a learner than a maker. Children's spontaneous drawings reveal vividly what appeals to them most in the world of their experience. Among English children in early years the human figure is a favourite subject. Country children are fond of drawing animals, and children in urban areas of drawing mechanical vehicles. Flowers, household furniture, and at a later stage designs for dresses are favourite subjects with girls. Colour has a fascination for young children and at an early stage they will amuse themselves by inventing complicated colour patterns that grow under their hands. The evidence indicates that up to the age of nine the child is impelled to draw, not for the purpose of representing what he sees, but for the purpose of expressing his knowledge and his feelings.

46. The spontaneous reading of young children also throws some light on their interests. As a rule, tiny children are fond of simple poetry, beginning with nursery rhymes and advancing to poems that are short and easy but less childish. Professor Burt found that all through the upper stage of primary education girls displayed a keener interest in poetry than did boys. By the age of nine the boys' interests in reading, as in other directions, became more and more realistic. As a rule, boys at this period care little for style, and sentiment has less attraction for them than for the girls.

It seems clear that young children exhibit distinctive and developing interests throughout the period from seven to eleven, which are different in many ways both from those emerging at the preceding stage of infancy and the later stage of adolescence, and further that these interests are to a great extent the outcome of the growing strength of certain specific instincts and emotions. Unless these emerging instincts and interests find opportunities for exercise at the time of their normal appearance and so become trained and fixed, they often atrophy from disuse and disappear. In some instances they emerge again violently at a later stage and may cause considerable trouble.

47. Sex differences in educable capacity up to the age of eleven appear to be negligible. In the infant school sex differences in reasoning powers are almost imperceptible, but about the age of six or seven, owing to a slight precocity in ability to read and use words, girls seem to be slightly in advance of boys. Towards the age of ten, however, boys tend to outstrip girls, but with the onset of puberty girls again develop more rapidly, though the boys subsequently overtake the girls in power of reasoning. On the emotional side, however, the interests of the boy and of the girl are moving further and further apart between the ages of seven and eleven. This difference is doubtless largely due to a difference in the degree to which common instincts are inherited by boys and girls respectively. Both sexes alike inherit instincts but in different degrees of intensity. For instance, the maternal, affectionate and submissive instincts are stronger in girls; the hunting, fighting, and assertive instincts are more marked in boys. But this slight bias is, in many instances, much increased by the effects of tradition and convention. (24)

Certain differences in detail, both emotional and intellectual, had however been observed by teacher witnesses. The evidence of teachers in mixed primary schools indicated that up to the age of eleven boys showed rather more independence of thought and greater facility in oral expression than girls. Girls at this age frequently exhibited greater facility of expression in writing; they were capable of rather more sustained effort and often produced more painstaking work than boys. They excelled in patient and persevering attention to details, in jumping by rapid processes of intuition to presumptive conclusions. Boys, on the other hand, were inclined to be more plodding and methodical in their processes of thought, and perhaps more critical of their own conclusions; they were less diffuse and less verbose. They appeared to be more alive to the exact content of phrases and forms of statement. Many witnesses had observed that girls showed a keen desire for neatness and beauty in their work. Both boys and girls were unable at this stage of development to concentrate for long periods on set tasks, though they might concentrate on some voluntary effort. Both sexes, for some years from about the age of ten, seemed to desire to express themselves through drawing, handicraft, and other practical activities, rather than through speech. Boys, however, often appeared to be readier than girls to work with their hands, and displayed more interest in mechanical matters. In general, boys were described by several witnesses as being more unconventional and irresponsible than girls at this stage, though other teachers had observed that boys seemed to have more respect for rules and regulations than girls. Girls were said to be more ready to pass moral judgement, usually of blame, than boys.

Most of our witnesses did not attempt to dogmatise on the question of coeducation. They were disposed to think that at this stage the question whether the sexes should be taught together or in separate departments should depend on the size of the school and on local conditions. In rural schools it was impracticable to separate the sexes, but in many urban areas the division into boys' and girls' schools worked very well and was an administrative convenience. (25) The New Education Fellowship and a number of head teachers thought that in the primary school there was little need for any noticeable differentiation of curricula as between boys and girls. A slight difference in the types of handwork done might be introduced during the later years of the primary course, the girls ordinarily taking needlework and very elementary domestic science, while the boys did woodwork, etc.

The physiological evidence, however, points to the desirability even at this early stage for different games and physical exercises for the girls, as we have already mentioned in sections 33 and 36.

48. Influence of poverty and its concomitants. Surveys carried put by means of psychological and scholastic tests reveal a marked correspondence between the distribution of poverty and the distribution of educational retardation. (26) In London, for example, the number of retarded children amounts on an average to 10 per cent of the school population; in poor and overcrowded districts, however, like Lambeth, Southwark and Rotherhithe, the number rises to nearly 20 per cent; while in more prosperous districts like Dulwich, Lewisham and Hampstead, it sinks to barely 1 per cent. In a large representative group of retarded children, it was found that 31 per cent came from 'poor' homes, and 17 per cent from 'very poor' homes (using the terms as defined by Charles Booth); in a similar investigation carried out for the City of Birmingham Education Committee, Dr Lloyd and Professor Burt found that among the retarded children 14 per cent came from 'poor' homes, and a further 12 per cent from 'neglected' or 'very poor' homes. (27)

Our psychological witnesses told us that it is, however, not easy to separate the direct effect of bad home conditions from the results of family inheritance. Often the child's dullness is attributed to bad environment, when in point of fact it is inherited from dull parents who have drifted into that environment, and have often contributed to make it what it is. On the other hand, cases of family resemblance are often taken as examples of heredity, when the similarity is really due to the fact that brothers and sisters have been brought up under similar conditions. In the past, eugenic and biometric investigators have rightly emphasised the effects of heredity; but there is now an increasing tendency to believe that they have underestimated the effects of environment. (28)

Physical effects. It is commonplace that unhealthy and insanitary conditions in the home react adversely on the child's physique, and that this in turn reduces his mental energy and alertness. Recent statutory provisions have greatly reduced the number of instances of actual hunger, and of excessive physical fatigue due to work out of school. But, although the paid employment of children is now seldom sufficient to impair their intellectual vigour, the heavy domestic duties, especially those carried out by young girls in the home, often make for listlessness and fatigue. And, it may be added, lack of sleep is far more common and even more serious than lack of food. Nor is the country child always exempt. In rural areas the conditions inside the cottage are often as close, insanitary, and unwholesome as conditions inside the tenement of an industrial town.

Much of the damage is done during early childhood before the infant comes to school. The consequences of malnutrition and the lack of sunshine and fresh air in infancy are now well recognised. The child grows up stunted and pale; his ill-shaped features, often mistaken for stigmata of mental deficiency, show the effects of past rickets, which in addition have often left him with a curved spine, a narrow chest, and undeveloped nasal bones; as a result he falls an easy prey to chronic catarrhal troubles, swollen glands, and the numerous infections which spread rapidly in an overcrowded home. These, in turn, are precisely the conditions which produce a general mental dullness. Of this lack of mental vitality, one of the most obvious signs is an incapacity for sustained attention, leading inevitably to poor memory, and the chronic condition of mental fatigue. The subjects of the curriculum that are chiefly penalised as a result are the more formal subjects. Much so-called laziness is really the outcome of a defence mechanism arising out of genuine physical weakness. Often dullness can be improved by improving the child's general health - excising tonsils and adenoids, bettering the quality of his diet, and sending him to an open-air school or class in the playground or park. The special senses are often at times impaired. Short sight is common among weak and undeveloped children; and partial deafness among those who have suffered from measles, scarlet fever, and other infectious diseases, particularly where convalescence has been neglected.

Intellectual effects. In the poor home it is the linguistic and literary side of the child's mental equipment that suffers most. His vocabulary is limited; his general knowledge is narrow; he has little opportunity for reading, and his power of expressing himself in good English is inadequate. In the household where the family is small and means are adequate the child usually enters school with the foundations of education already well laid. Before he comes to the infant department, he has been encouraged to teach himself to read; and at an early stage he is expected to write little letters to his relatives. As he grows older, he will acquire almost as much general knowledge in the home as he does in the school, and gleans almost as much information about the world and its way during leisure hours as he does from the formal lessons in the classroom. For many young children from the poorest homes all this is reversed. Their parents know very little of any life except their own, and have neither the time nor the leisure to impart what little they know. The vocabulary that the child picks up is restricted to a few hundred words, most of them inaccurate, uncouth, and mispronounced, and a good many unfit for reproduction in the classroom. There is no literature that deserves the title, and the pictures are equally unworthy of their name. His universe is closed in and circumscribed by walls of brick and a pall of smoke. From one end of the year to the other he may go no further than the nearest shops or the neighbouring recreation ground. The country or the seaside are merely words to him, dimly suggesting some place to which cripples are sent after an accident.

The meagreness of the child's general information at the age of seven is often difficult to credit. To illustrate the very limited range of general knowledge possessed by young children living in congested urban areas it may be of interest to summarise the general results of a detailed inquiry made in 1924 among pupils of about the age of eight in the lowest standards of three elementary schools in poorer parts of London; 46 per cent had never to their knowledge seen any other animal than a horse, a cat, and a dog; 16 per cent thought that a sheep was larger than a cow; 23 per cent had never seen a field of grass, even in a London park; 64 per cent had never been in a train; and 98 per cent had never seen the sea. With such a mental background it is obvious that many of the statements conveyed to them by teachers or by reading books must remain meaningless formulae with no mental picture to correspond. In the home of the prosperous artisan conditions of course are different. The income is sufficient to allow of reasonable recreation and visits to places of amusement or holiday resorts. The literary and cultural atmosphere may not be of the highest; but, with the piano, the gramophone, the wireless, and the illustrated magazine and paper, there are opportunities for arousing the child's aesthetic interests, in however crude a form. Often, too, the father will encourage the children to take an interest in his trade, or at least to have manual and mechanical hobbies of their own. The rural child also often displays a surprising ignorance of flowers and animals.

Emotional effects. The moral tone and the emotional atmosphere of the family life may react profoundly upon the child's work in school. If there is an attitude of slackness or irregularity within the home, the child is likely to become slack and irregular at school. The worries and even the gaieties of his parents may upset his own stability; and, as every teacher can testify, the highly-strung child will often return to school after a long holiday, and even after a short weekend, unsettled and even over-fatigued. The key to much inattentiveness in the classroom may be found in the events of the child's daily life at home.

Outside the home, the influence of the environment may vary greatly from district to district. Some neighbourhoods are as dull and dreary as others are stimulating. If a child's ramblings be limited to those suburban areas, where nothing is to be seen but row after row of brick-red villas, or block after block of tenement buildings, there can be little to stir his imagination or to kindle his childish interest. In the country there is generally less occasion for hurry or bustle, and the orderly procession of the seasons has an effect which is perhaps too tranquillising. On the other hand, the sights of the town, both by day and night, together with the innumerable opportunities for excitement in the street, are at times over-stimulating, and the urban child is occasionally apt to show a resulting instability in the classroom. The effect of the stimulation may appear sometimes to react favourably on composition, which may become more imaginative and even sensational; but it tends to react unfavourably upon lessons that demand sustained application, such as arithmetic. The influence of the cinema upon school children is too wide and complex a subject to be examined here. We may note, however, that it is towards this stage that the child as a rule first starts regular 'going to the pictures', and it is during this period that the cinema, with its appeal to a primitive interest in vision and in movement, impresses the mind most strongly. Briefly, we may say that the evidence before us shows that though the direct imitation of what is witnessed on the screen is much rarer than is commonly supposed, yet the moral atmosphere evoked by the popular film, with its emphasis on what is frivolous or sensational, may undoubtedly distort the young child's view of social life. The cinema provides models and materials for all-engrossing daydreams, and often puts forward an undesirable type of hero or heroine which the young boy or girl may choose as an ideal. Nevertheless, the poor child, cramped in a town environment, may find in the better type of film a concrete representation of facts and natural processes which cannot but enlarge his experience and give him a background of general information which will supplement his work in history, geography and literature. Efforts, however, for the improvement of the cinema call for deliberate and persistent attention.

Footnotes

(1) For a discussion of the various hypotheses regarding the nature of general intelligence see Report of the Consultative Committee on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity pages 68-71.

(2) Cf. Chapter 6, section 68.

(3) See also Chapter 5, section 62.

(4) See also Chapter 6, section 70.

(5) See also Chapter 2, section 25; Chapter 5, section 66; Chapter 12, Physical Training and Games.

(6) Cf. this chapter, section 44.

(7) On the general question of the physical powers of children from seven to eleven, the experience of teachers showed that the child was relatively stronger than at any other period of school life. He had left behind him much of the liability to epidemic sickness which interfered so much with the work of the infant school, and had developed an untiring activity. The physical changes preceding the onset of adolescence were still in the future.

(8) See Chapter 7, section 75.

(9) See Chapter 7.

(10) See also this chapter, section 48 Intellectual effects

(11) Stanley Hall: 'The Contents of Children's Minds' Aspects of Child Life and Education (1907) page 1, et seq.)

(12) This view was adopted by Professor Stanley Hall in his work Adolescence (1904).

(13) The important work of Professor Spearman and his school, lately published in his book on Intelligence and the Principles of Cognition, brings together the more important facts, and the theories that emerge from them.

(14) See Chapter 12.

(15) See also Chapter 8, section 83.

(16) Experiments, recently made during the drawing lesson, suggest that the mental image is often for children the best way of arriving at simplification and at original design.

(17) See also Chapter 12, Drawing and Elementary Art.

(18) J Piaget Le Langage et la Pensee chez I'Enfant (1923) pp. 68-101.

(19) See Chapter 12, Handicraft.

(20) See Chapter 9, section 100.

(21) See Chapter 12, Handicraft and Drawing and Elementary Art.

(22) See also Chapter 12, Drawing and Elementary Art.

(23) See also Chapter 12, English.

(24) Cf. Consultative Committee's Report on Differentiation of Curricula between the Sexes (1923), pp. 97-8.

(25) See also Chapter 4, section 65.

(26) The main causes of educational retardation are briefly described in Chapter 6, section 69.

(27) See Report of an Investigation on Backward Children in Birmingham (City of Birmingham Stationery Department, 1921).

(28) See Isserlis and Frances Wood Effect of Environment on Physique and Mentality of School Children (Reports of Medical Research Council).