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Title: The Montessori Method

Author: Maria Montessori

Author of introduction, etc.: Henry W. Holmes

Translator: Anne E. George

Release date: May 31, 2012 [eBook #39863]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Alicia Williams, Brenda Lewis and the Online

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MONTESSORI METHOD ***
DR. MONTESSORI GIVING A LESSON IN TOUCHING GEOMETRICAL
 INSETS

THE
MONTESSORI METHOD
SCIENTIFIC PEDAGOGY AS APPLIED TO CHILD
EDUCATION IN "THE CHILDREN'S HOUSES"
WITH ADDITIONS AND REVISIONS
BY THE AUTHOR

BY

MARIA MONTESSORI
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY
ANNE E. GEORGE

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
PROFESSOR HENRY W. HOLMES
OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY

WITH THIRTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
MCMXII

Copyright, 1912, by
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
languages, including the Scandinavian
 [Pg iv]

I place at the beginning of this volume, now appearing in the United States, her
fatherland, the dear name of
ALICE HALLGARTEN
of New York, who by her marriage to Baron Leopold Franchetti became by choice
our compatriot.
Ever a firm believer in the principles underlying the Case dei Bambini, she, with
her husband, forwarded the publication of this book in Italy, and, throughout the last
years of her short life, greatly desired the English translation which should introduce
to the land of her birth the work so near her heart.
To her memory I dedicate this book, whose pages, like an ever-living flower,
perpetuate the recollection of her beneficence.

[Pg v]

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Mrs. Guy Baring, of London, for the loan of
her manuscript translation of "Pedagogia Scientifica"; to Mrs. John R. Fisher (Dorothy
Canfield) for translating a large part of the new work written by Dr. Montessori for
the American Edition; and to The House of Childhood, Inc., New York, for use of the
illustrations of the didactic apparatus. Dr. Montessori's patent rights in the apparatus
are controlled, for the United States and Canada, by The House of Childhood, Inc.
THE PUBLISHERS.
 [Pg vi]

[Pg vii]

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION

In February, 1911, Professor Henry W. Holmes, of the Division of Education of
Harvard University, did me the honour to suggest that an English translation be made
of my Italian volume, "Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica applicato all'
educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini." This suggestion represented one of the
greatest events in the history of my educational work. To-day, that to which I then
looked forward as an unusual privilege has become an accomplished fact.
The Italian edition of "Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica" had no preface,
because the book itself I consider nothing more than the preface to a more
comprehensive work, the aim and extent of which it only indicates. For the
educational method for children of from three to six years set forth here is but the
earnest of a work that, developing the same principle and method, shall cover in a like
manner the successive stages of education. Moreover, the method which obtains in
the Case dei Bambini offers, it seems to me, an experimental field for the study of
man, and promises, perhaps, the development of a science that shall disclose other
secrets of nature.
In the period that has elapsed between the publication of the Italian and American
editions, I have had, with my pupils, the opportunity to simplify and render more
exact certain practical details of the method, and to gather additional observations
concerning discipline. The results attest the vitality of the method and the necessity
for an [Pg viii]extended scientific collaboration in the near future, and are embodied in
two new chapters written for the American edition. I know that my method has been
widely spoken of in America, thanks to Mr. S. S. McClure, who has presented it
through the pages of his well-known magazine. Indeed, many Americans have already
come to Rome for the purpose of observing personally the practical application of the
method in my little schools. If, encouraged by this movement, I may express a hope
for the future, it is that my work in Rome shall become the centre of an efficient and
helpful collaboration.
To the Harvard professors who have made my work known in America and
to McClure's Magazine, a mere acknowledgment of what I owe them is a barren
 response; but it is my hope that the method itself, in its effect upon the children of
America, may prove an adequate expression of my gratitude.
MARIA MONTESSORI.
ROME, 1912.

[Pg ix]

CONTENTS
PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS V
THE AMERICAN EDITION VII
INTRODUCTION XVII
CHAPTER I
A CRITICAL CONSIDERATION OF THE NEW PEDAGOGY IN ITS RELATION TO MODERN SCIENCE
Influence of Modern Science upon Pedagogy 1
Italy's part in the development of Scientific Pedagogy 4
Difference between scientific technique and the scientific spirit 7
Direction of the preparation should be toward the spirit rather than toward the mechanism 9
The master to study man in the awakening of his intellectual life 12
Attitude of the teacher in the light of another example 13
The school must permit the free natural manifestations of the child if in the school Scientific Pedagogy is
15
to be born
Stationary desks and chairs proof that the principle of slavery still informs the school 16
Conquest of liberty, what the school needs 19
What may happen to the spirit 20
Prizes and punishments, the bench of the soul 21
All human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner force 24
CHAPTER II
HISTORY OF METHODS
Necessity of establishing the method peculiar to Scientific Pedagogy 28
Origin of educational system in use in the "Children's Houses" 31
Practical application of the methods of Itard and Séguin in the Orthophrenic School at Rome 32
Origin of the methods for the education of deficients 33
Application of the methods in Germany and France 35
Séguin's first didactic material was spiritual 37
Methods for deficients applied to the education of normal children 42
Social and pedagogic importance of the "Children's Houses"[Pg x] 44
CHAPTER III
INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF ONE OF THE
"CHILDREN'S HOUSES"
The Quarter of San Lorenzo before and since the establishment of the "Children's Houses" 48
Evil of subletting the most cruel form of usury 50
The problem of life more profound than that of the intellectual elevation of the poor 52
Isolation of the masses of the poor, unknown to past centuries 53
Work of the Roman Association of Good Building and the moral importance of their reforms 56
The "Children's House" earned by the parents through their care of the building 60
Pedagogical organization of the "Children's House" 62
The "Children's House" the first step toward the socialisation of the house 65
The communised house in its relation to the home and to the spiritual evolution of women 66
Rules and regulations of the "Children's Houses" 70
CHAPTER IV
PEDAGOGICAL METHODS USED IN THE "CHILDREN'S HOUSES"
Child psychology can be established only through the method of external observation 72
Anthropological consideration 73
Anthropological notes 77
Environment and schoolroom furnishings 80
CHAPTER V
DISCIPLINE
Discipline through liberty 86
Independence 95
Abolition of prizes and external forms of punishment 101
Biological concept of liberty in pedagogy 104
CHAPTER VI
 HOW THE LESSON SHOULD BE GIVEN
Characteristics of the individual lessons 107
Method of observation the fundamental guide 108
Difference between the scientific and unscientific methods illustrated 109
First task of educators to stimulate life, leaving it then free to develop[Pg xi] 115
CHAPTER VII
EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE
Suggested schedule for the "Children's Houses" 119
The child must be prepared for the forms of social life and his attention attracted to these forms 121
Cleanliness, order, poise, conversation 122
CHAPTER VIII
REFECTION—THE CHILD'S DIET
Diet must be adapted to the child's physical nature 125
Foods and their preparation 126
Drinks 132
Distribution of meals 133
CHAPTER IX
MUSCULAR EDUCATION—GYMNASTICS
Generally accepted idea of gymnastics is inadequate 137
The special gymnastics necessary for little children 138
Other pieces of gymnastic apparatus 141
Free gymnastics 144
Educational gymnastics 144
Respiratory gymnastics, and labial, dental, and lingual gymnastics 147
CHAPTER X
NATURE IN EDUCATION—AGRICULTURAL LABOUR: CULTURE OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS
The savage of the Aveyron 149
Itard's educative drama repented in the education of little children 153
Gardening and horticulture basis of a method for education of children 155
The child initiated into observation of the phenomena of life and into foresight by way of auto-education 156
Children are initiated into the virtue of patience and into confident expectation, and are inspired with a
159
feeling for nature
The child follows the natural way of development of the human race[Pg xii] 160
 CHAPTER XI
MANUAL LABOUR—THE POTTER'S ART, AND BUILDING
Difference between manual labour and manual gymnastics 162
The School of Educative Art 163
Archæological, historical, and artistic importance of the vase 164
Manufacture of diminutive bricks and construction of diminutive walls and houses 165
CHAPTER XII
EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
Aim of education to develop the energies 168
Difference in the reaction between deficient and normal children in the presentation of didactic material
169
made up of graded stimuli
Education of the senses has as its aim the refinement of the differential perception of stimuli by means of
173
repeated exercises
Three Periods of Séguin 177
CHAPTER XIII
EDUCATION OF THE SENSES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DIDACTIC MATERIAL: GENERAL
SENSIBILITY: THE TACTILE, THERMIC, BARIC AND STEREOGNOSTIC SENSES
Education of the tactile, thermic and baric senses 185
Education of the stereognostic sense 188
Education of the senses of taste and smell 190
Education of the sense of vision 191
Exercises with the three series of cards 199
Education of the chromatic sense 200
Exercise for the discrimination of sounds 203
Musical education 206
Tests for acuteness of hearing 209
A lesson in silence 212
CHAPTER XIV
GENERAL NOTES ON THE EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
Aim in education biological and social 215
Education of the senses makes men observers and prepares them directly for practical life [Pg xiii] 218
CHAPTER XV
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
Sense exercises a species of auto-education 224
Importance of an exact nomenclature, and how to teach it 225
Spontaneous progress of the child the greatest triumph of Scientific Pedagogy 228
Games of the blind 231
Application of the visual sense to the observation of environment 232
Method of using didactic material: dimensions, form, design 233
Free plastic work 241
Geometric analysis of figures 243
Exercises in the chromatic sense 244
CHAPTER XVI
METHOD FOR THE TEACHING OF READING AND WRITING
Spontaneous development of graphic language: Séguin and Itard 246
Necessity of a special education that shall fit man for objective observation and direct logical thought 252
Results of objective observation and logical thought 253
Not necessary to begin teaching writing with vertical strokes 257
Spontaneous drawing of normal children 258
Use of Froebel mats in teaching children sewing 260
Children should be taught how before they are made to execute a task 261
Two diverse forms of movement made in writing 262
Experiments with normal children 267
Origin of alphabets in present use 269
CHAPTER XVII
DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD AND DIDACTIC MATERIAL USED
Exercise tending to develop the muscular mechanism necessary in holding and using the instrument in
271
writing
Didactic material for writing 271
Exercise tending to establish the visual-muscular image of the alphabetical signs, and to establish the
275
muscular memory of the movements necessary to writing
Exercises for the composition of words 281
Reading, the interpretation of an idea from written signs 296
Games for the reading of words 299
Games for the reading of phrases 303
Point education has reached in the "Children's Houses"[Pg xiv] 307
 CHAPTER XVIII
LANGUAGE OF CHILDHOOD
Physiological importance of graphic language 310
Two periods in the development of language 312
Analysis of speech necessary 319
Defects of language due to education 322
CHAPTER XIX
TEACHING OF NUMERATION: INTRODUCTION TO ARITHMETIC
Numbers as represented by graphic signs 328
Exercises for the memory of numbers 330
Addition and subtraction from one to twenty: multiplication and division 332
Lessons on decimals: arithmetical calculations beyond ten 335
CHAPTER XX
SEQUENCE OF EXERCISES
Sequence and grades in the presentation of material and in the exercises 338
First grade 338
Second grade 339
Third grade 342
Fourth grade 343
Fifth grade 345
CHAPTER XXI
GENERAL REVIEW OF DISCIPLINE
Discipline better than in ordinary schools 346
First dawning of discipline comes through work 350
Orderly action is the true rest for muscles intended by nature for action 354
The exercise that develops life consists in the repetition, not in the mere grasp of the idea 358
Aim of repetition that the child shall refine his senses through the exercise of attention, of comparison, of
360
judgment
Obedience is naturally sacrifice 363
Obedience develops will-power and the capacity to perform the act it becomes necessary to obey 367
CHAPTER XXII
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
The teacher has become the director of spontaneous work in the "Children's Houses" 371
The problems of religious education should be solved by positive pedagogy 372
Spiritual influence of the "Children's Houses" 376

[Pg xv]

ILLUSTRATIONS
Dr. Montessori giving a lesson in touching geometrical insets Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Dr. Montessori in the garden of the school at Via Giusti 144
Children learning to button and lace. Ribbon and button frames 145
Children playing a game with tablets of coloured silk 186
Girl touching a letter and boy telling objects by weight 187
Pupils arranging colours in chromatic order 187
Didactic apparatus to teach differentiation of objects 190
Blocks by which children are taught thickness, length and size 191
Geometric insets to teach form 194
Geometric insets and cabinet 195
Cards used in teaching form and contour 196
Frames illustrating lacing; shoe buttoning; buttoning of other garments; hooks
200
and eyes
Tablets with silk, for educating the chromatic sense 201
Didactic apparatus for training the sense of touch, and for teaching writing 282
Children touching letters and making words with cardboard script 283
Montessori children eating dinner 348
School at Tarrytown, N. Y. 349

[Pg xvi]

[Pg xvii]

INTRODUCTION
 An audience already thoroughly interested awaits this translation of a remarkable
book. For years no educational document has been so eagerly expected by so large a
public, and not many have better merited general anticipation. That this widespread
interest exists is due to the enthusiastic and ingenious articles in McClure's
Magazine for May and December, 1911, and January, 1912; but before the first of
these articles appeared a number of English and American teachers had given careful
study to Dr. Montessori's work, and had found it novel and important. The astonishing
welcome accorded to the first popular expositions of the Montessori system may mean
much or little for its future in England and America; it is rather the earlier approval of
a few trained teachers and professional students that commends it to the educational
workers who must ultimately decide upon its value, interpret its technicalities to the
country at large, and adapt it to English and American conditions. To them as well as
to the general public this brief critical Introduction is addressed.
It is wholly within the bounds of safe judgment to call Dr. Montessori's work
remarkable, novel, and important. It is remarkable, if for no other reason, because it
represents the constructive effort of a woman. We have no other example of an
educational system—original at least in its systematic wholeness and in its practical
application—worked out and inaugurated by the feminine mind and [Pg xviii] hand. It
is remarkable, also, because it springs from a combination of womanly sympathy and
intuition, broad social outlook, scientific training, intensive and long-continued study
of educational problems, and, to crown all, varied and unusual experience as a teacher
and educational leader. No other woman who has dealt with Dr. Montessori's problem
—the education of young children—has brought to it personal resources so richly
diverse as hers. These resources, furthermore, she has devoted to her work with an
enthusiasm, an absolute abandon, like that of Pestalozzi and Froebel, and she presents
her convictions with an apostolic ardour which commands attention. A system which
embodies such a capital of human effort could not be unimportant. Then, too, certain
aspects of the system are in themselves striking and significant: it adapts to the
education of normal children methods and apparatus originally used for deficients; it
is based on a radical conception of liberty for the pupil; it entails a highly formal
training of separate sensory, motor, and mental capacities; and it leads to rapid, easy,
and substantial mastery of the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. All this
will be apparent to the most casual reader of this book.
None of these things, to be sure, is absolutely new in the educational world. All
have been proposed in theory; some have been put more or less completely into
practice. It is not unjust, for instance, to point out that much of the material used by
Dr. Walter S. Fernald, Superintendent of the Massachusetts Institution for the Feeble-
Minded at Waverley, is almost identical with the Montessori material, and that Dr.
Fernald has long maintained that it could be used to good effect in the education of
normal children. (It may interest American readers to know that Séguin, [Pg xix] on
whose work that of Dr. Montessori is based, was once head of the school at
Waverley.) So, too, formal training in various psycho-physical processes has been
much urged of late by a good many workers in experimental pedagogy, especially by
Meumann. But before Montessori, no one had produced a system in which the
elements named above were combined. She conceived it, elaborated it in practice, and
established it in schools. It is indeed the final result, as Dr. Montessori proudly asserts,
of years of experimental effort both on her own part and on the part of her great
predecessors; but the crystallisation of these experiments in a programme of education
for normal children is due to Dr. Montessori alone. The incidental features which she
has frankly taken over from other modern educators she has chosen because they fit
into the fundamental form of her own scheme, and she has unified them all in her
general conception of method. The system is not original in the sense in which
Froebel's system was original; but as a system it is the novel product of a single
woman's creative genius.
As such, no student of elementary education ought to ignore it. The system
doubtless fails to solve all the problems in the education of young children; possibly
some of the solutions it proposes are partly or completely mistaken; some are
probably unavailable in English and American schools; but a system of education
does not have to attain perfection in order to merit study, investigation, and
experimental use. Dr. Montessori is too large-minded to claim infallibility, and too
thoroughly scientific in her attitude to object to careful scrutiny of her scheme and the
thorough testing of its results. She expressly states that it is not yet complete.
Practically, it is highly probable that the system ultimately adopted in our schools will
combine[Pg xx] elements of the Montessori programme with elements of the
kindergarten programme, both "liberal" and "conservative." In its actual procedure
school work must always be thus eclectic. An all-or-nothing policy for a single system
inevitably courts defeat; for the public is not interested in systems as systems, and
refuses in the end to believe that any one system contains every good thing. Nor can
we doubt that this attitude is essentially sound. If we continue, despite the pragmatists,
to believe in absolute principles, we may yet remain skeptical about the logic of their
reduction to practice—at least in any fixed programme of education. We are not yet
justified, at any rate, in adopting one programme to the exclusion of every other
simply because it is based on the most intelligible or the most inspiring philosophy.
The pragmatic test must also be applied, and rigorously. We must try out several
combinations, watch and record the results, compare them, and proceed cautiously to
new experiments. This procedure is desirable for every stage and grade of education,
but especially for the earliest stage, because there it has been least attempted and is
most difficult. Certainly a system so radical, so clearly defined, and so well developed
as that of Dr. Montessori offers for the thoroughgoing comparative study of methods
in early education new material of exceptional importance. Without accepting every
detail of the system, without even accepting unqualifiedly its fundamental principles,
one may welcome it, thus, as of great and immediate value. If early education is worth
studying at all, the educator who devotes his attention to it will find it necessary to
define the differences in principle between the Montessori programme and other
programmes, and to carry out careful tests of the results obtainable from the various
systems and their feasible combinations.[Pg xxi]
One such combination this Introduction will suggest, and it will discuss also the
possible uses of the Montessori apparatus in the home; but it may be helpful first to
present the outstanding characteristics of the Montessori system as compared with the
modern kindergarten in its two main forms.
Certain similarities in principle are soon apparent. Dr. Montessori's views of
childhood are in some respects identical with those of Froebel, although in general
decidedly more radical. Both defend the child's right to be active, to explore his
environment and develop his own inner resources through every form of investigation
and creative effort. Education is to guide activity, not repress it. Environment cannot
create human power, but only give it scope and material, direct it, or at most but call it
forth; and the teacher's task is first to nourish and assist, to watch, encourage, guide,
induce, rather than to interfere, prescribe, or restrict. To most American teachers and
to all kindergartners this principle has long been familiar; they will but welcome now
a new and eloquent statement of it from a modern viewpoint. In the practical
interpretation of the principle, however, there is decided divergence between the
Montessori school and the kindergarten. The Montessori "directress" does not teach
children in groups, with the practical requirement, no matter how well "mediated,"
that each member of the group shall join in the exercise. The Montessori pupil does
about as he pleases, so long as he does not do any harm.
Montessori and Froebel stand in agreement also on the need for training of the
senses; but Montessori's scheme for this training is at once more elaborate and more
direct than Froebel's. She has devised out of Séguin's apparatus a comprehensive and
scientific scheme for formal gymnastic[Pg xxii] of the senses; Froebel originated a
series of objects designed for a much broader and more creative use by the children,
but by no means so closely adapted to the training of sensory discrimination. The
Montessori material carries out the fundamental principle of Pestalozzi, which he tried
in vain to embody in a successful system of his own: it "develops piece by piece the
pupil's mental capacities" by training separately, through repeated exercises, his
several senses and his ability to distinguish, compare, and handle typical objects. In
the kindergarten system, and particularly in the "liberal" modifications of it, sense
training is incidental to constructive and imaginative activity in which the children are
pursuing larger ends than the mere arrangement of forms or colours. Even in the most
formal work in kindergarten design the children are "making a picture," and are
encouraged to tell what it looks like—"a star," "a kite," "a flower."
 As to physical education, the two systems agree in much the same way: both affirm
the need for free bodily activity, for rhythmic exercises, and for the development of
muscular control; but whereas the kindergarten seeks much of all this through group
games with an imaginative or social content, the Montessori scheme places the
emphasis on special exercises designed to give formal training in separate physical
functions.
In another general aspect, however, the agreement between the two systems, strong
in principle, leaves the Montessori system less formal rather than more formal in
practice. The principle in this case consists of the affirmation of the child's need for
social training. In the conservative kindergarten this training is sought once more,
largely in group games. These are usually imaginative, and sometimes decidedly
symbolic: that is, the children [Pg xxiii] play at being farmers, millers, shoemakers,
mothers and fathers, birds, animals, knights, or soldiers; they sing songs, go through
certain semi-dramatic activities—such as "opening the pigeon house," "mowing the
grass," "showing the good child to the knights," and the like; and each takes his part in
the representation of some typical social situation. The social training involved in
these games is formal only in the sense that the children are not engaged, as the
Montessori children often are, in a real social enterprise, such as that of serving
dinner, cleaning the room, caring for animals, building a toy house, or making a
garden. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that even the most conservative
kindergarten does not, on principle, exclude "real" enterprises of this latter sort; but in
a three-hour session it does rather little with them. Liberal kindergartens do more,
particularly in Europe, where the session is often longer. Nor does the Montessori
system wholly exclude imaginative group games. But Dr. Montessori, despite an
evidently profound interest not only in social training, but also in æsthetic, idealistic,
and even religious development, speaks of "games and foolish stories" in a casual and
derogatory way, which shows that she is as yet unfamiliar with the American
kindergartner's remarkable skill and power in the use of these resources. (Of course
the American kindergartner does not use "foolish" stories; but stories she does use,
and to good effect.) The Montessori programme involves much direct social
experience, both in the general life of the school and in the manual work done by the
pupils; the kindergarten extends the range of the child's social consciousness through
the imagination. The groupings of the Montessori children are largely free and
unregulated; the groupings of kindergarten children are more often formal and
prescribed.[Pg xxiv]
On one point the Montessori system agrees with the conservative kindergarten, but
not with the liberal: it prepares directly for the mastery of the school arts. There can
be no doubt that Dr. Montessori has devised a peculiarly successful scheme for
teaching children to write, an effective method for the introduction of reading, and
good material for early number work. Both types of kindergarten increase, to be sure,
the child's general capacity for expression: kindergarten activity adds to his stock of
ideas, awakens and guides his imagination, increases his vocabulary, and trains him in
the effective use of it. Children in a good kindergarten hear stories and tell them,
recount their own experiences, sing songs, and recite verses, all in a company of
friendly but fairly critical listeners, which does even more to stimulate and guide
expression than does the circle at home. But even the conservative kindergarten does
not teach children to write and to read. It does teach them a good deal about number;
and it may fairly be questioned whether it does not do more fundamental work in this
field than the Montessori system itself. The Froebelian gifts offer exceptional
opportunity for concrete illustration of the conceptions of whole and part, through the
creation of wholes from parts, and the breaking up of wholes into parts. This aspect of
number is at least as important as the series aspect, which children get in counting and
for which the Montessori "Long Stair" provides such good material. The Froebelian
material may be used very readily for counting, however, and the Montessori material
gives some slight opportunity for uniting and dividing. So far as preparation for
arithmetic is concerned, a combination of the two bodies of material is both feasible
and desirable. The liberal kindergarten, meanwhile, abandoning the use of the [Pg
xxv] gifts and occupations for mathematical purposes, makes no attempt to prepare its
pupils directly for the school arts.
Compared with the kindergarten, then, the Montessori system presents these main
points of interest: it carries out far more radically the principle of unrestricted liberty;
its materials are intended for the direct and formal training of the senses; it includes
apparatus designed to aid in the purely physical development of the children; its social
training is carried out mainly by means of present and actual social activities; and it
affords direct preparation for the school arts. The kindergarten, on the other hand,
involves a certain amount of group-teaching, in which children are held—not
necessarily by the enforcement of authority, yet by authority, confessedly, when other
means fail—to definite activities; its materials are intended primarily for creative use
by the children and offer opportunity for mathematical analysis and the teaching of
design; and its procedure is rich in resources for the imagination. One thing should be
made entirely clear and emphatic: in none of these characteristics are the two systems
rigidly antagonistic. Much kindergarten activity is free, and the principle of
prescription is not wholly given over by the "Houses of Childhood"—witness
their Rules and Regulations; the kindergarten involves direct sense training, and the
Montessori system admits some of the Froebel blocks for building and design; there
are many purely muscular activities in the kindergarten, and some of the usual
kindergarten games are used by Montessori; the kindergarten conducts some
gardening, care of animals, construction-work, and domestic business, and the
Montessori system admits a few imaginative social plays; both systems (but not the
liberal form of the kindergarten)[Pg xxvi] work directly toward the school arts. Since
the difference between the two programmes is one of arrangement, emphasis, and
degree, there is no fundamental reason why a combination especially adapted to
English and American schools cannot be worked out.
The broad contrast between a Montessori school and a kindergarten appears on
actual observation to be this: whereas the Montessori children spend almost all their
time handling things, largely according to their individual inclination and under
individual guidance, kindergarten children are generally engaged in group work and
games with an imaginative background and appeal. A possible principle of adjustment
between the two systems might be stated thus: work with objects designed for formal
sensory, motor, and intellectual training should be done individually or in purely
voluntary groups; imaginative and social activity should be carried on in regulated
groups. This principle is suggested only as a possible basis for education during the
kindergarten age; for as children grow older they must be taught in classes, and they
naturally learn how to carry out imaginative and social enterprises in free groups, and
the former often alone. Nor should it be supposed that the principle is suggested as a
rule to which there can be no exception. It is suggested simply as a general working
hypothesis, the value of which must be tested in experience. Although it has long been
observed by kindergartners themselves that group-work with the Froebelian materials,
especially such work as involves geometrical analysis and formal design, soon tires
the children, it has been held that the kindergartner could safeguard her pupils from
loss of interest or real fatigue by watching carefully for the first signs of weariness
and stopping the work promptly on their appearance. For [Pg xxvii] small groups of the
older children, who can do work of this sort with ease and enjoyment, no doubt the
inevitable restraint of group teaching is a negligible factor, the fatiguing effects of
which any good kindergartner can forestall. But for younger children a régime of
complete freedom would seem to promise better results—at least so far as work with
objects is concerned. In games, on the other hand, group teaching means very little
restraint and the whole process is less tiring any way. To differentiate in method
between these two kinds of activity may be the best way to keep them both in an
effective educational programme.
To speak of an effective educational programme leads at once, however, to an
important aspect of the Montessori system, quite aside from its relation to the
kindergarten, with which this Introduction must now deal. This is the social aspect,
which finds its explanation in Dr. Montessori's own story of her first school. In any
discussion of the availability of the Montessori system in English and American
schools—particularly in American public schools and English "Board" schools—two
general conditions under which Dr. Montessori did her early work in Rome should be
borne in mind. She had her pupils almost all day long, practically controlling their
lives in their waking hours; and her pupils came for the most part from families of the
laboring class. We cannot expect to achieve the results Dr. Montessori has achieved if
we have our pupils under our guidance only two or three hours in the morning, nor
can we expect exactly similar results from children whose heredity and experience
make them at once more sensitive, more active, and less amenable to suggestion than
hers. If we are to make practical application of the Montessori scheme we must not
neglect to consider the[Pg xxviii] modifications of it which differing social conditions
may render necessary.
The conditions under which Dr. Montessori started her original school in Rome do
not, indeed, lack counterpart in large cities the world over. When one reads her
eloquent "Inaugural Address" it is impossible not to wish that a "School within the
Home" might stand as a centre of hopeful child life in the midst of every close-built
city block. Better, of course, if there were no hive-like city tenements at all, and if
every family could give to its own children on its own premises enough of "happy
play in grassy places." Better if every mother and father were in certain ways an
expert in child psychology and hygiene. But while so many unfortunate thousands still
live in the hateful cliff-dwellings of our modern cities, we must welcome Dr.
Montessori's large conception of the social function of her "Houses of Childhood" as a
new gospel for the schools which serve the city poor. No matter what didactic
apparatus such schools may use, they should learn of Dr. Montessori the need of
longer hours, complete care of the children, closer co-operation with the home, and
larger aims. In such schools, too, it is probable that the two fundamental features of
Dr. Montessori's work—her principle of liberty and her scheme for sense training—
will find their completest and most fruitful application.
It is just these fundamental features, however, which will be most bitterly attacked
whenever the social status of the original Casa dei Bambini is forgotten.
Anthropometric measurements, baths, training in personal self-care, the serving of
meals, gardening, and the care of animals we may hear sweepingly recommended for
all schools, even for those with a three-hour session and a socially favored class of
pupils; but the need for individual[Pg xxix] liberty and for the training of the senses
will be denied even in the work of schools where the conditions correspond closely to
those at San Lorenzo. Of course no practical educator will actually propose bathtubs
for all schools, and no doubt there will be plenty of wise conservatism about
transferring to a given school any function now well discharged by the homes that
support it. The problems raised by the proposal to apply in all schools the Montessori
conception of discipline and the Montessori sense-training are really more difficult to
solve. Is individual liberty a universal educational principle, or a principle which must
be modified in the case of a school with no such social status as that of the original
"House of Childhood"? Do all children need sense training, or only those of
unfavorable inheritance and home environment? No serious discussion of the
Montessori system can avoid these questions. What is said in answer to them here is
written in the hope that subsequent discussion may be somewhat influenced to keep in
view the really deciding factor in each case—the actual situation in the school.
 There is occasion enough in these questions, to be sure, for philosophical and
scientific argument. The first question involves an ethical issue, the second a
psychological issue, and both may be followed through to purely metaphysical issues.
Dr. Montessori believes in liberty for the pupil because she thinks of life "as a superb
goddess, ever advancing to new conquests." Submission, loyalty, self-sacrifice seem
to her, apparently, only incidental necessities of life, not essential elements of its
eternal form. There is obvious opportunity here for profound difference of philosophic
theory and belief. She seems to hold, too, that sense perception forms the sole basis
for the mental and hence for the moral life; that "sense training will pre [Pg xxx]pare
the ordered foundation upon which the child may build up a clear and strong
mentality," including, apparently, his moral ideals; and that the cultivation of purpose
and of the imaginative and creative capacities of children is far less important than the
development of the power to learn from the environment by means of the senses.
These views seem to agree rather closely with those of Herbart and to some extent
with those of Locke. Certainly they offer material for both psychological and ethical
debate. Possibly, however, Dr. Montessori would not accept the views here ascribed
to her on the evidence of this book; and in any case these are matters for the
philosopher and the psychologist. A pedagogical issue is never wholly an issue of
high principle.
Can it reasonably be maintained, then, that an actual situation like that in the first
"House of Childhood" at Rome is the only situation in which the Montessori principle
of liberty can justifiably find full application? Evidently the Roman school is a true
Republic of Childhood, in which nothing need take precedence of the child's claim to
pursue an active purpose of his own. Social restraints are here reduced to a minimum;
the children must, to be sure, subordinate individual caprice to the demands of the
common good, they are not allowed to quarrel or to interfere with each other, and they
have duties to perform at stated times; but each child is a citizen in a community
governed wholly in the interests of the equally privileged members thereof, his liberty
is rarely interfered with, he is free to carry out his own purposes, and he has as much
influence in the affairs of the commonwealth as the average member of an adult
democracy. This situation is never duplicated in the home, for a child is not only a
member of the family, whose interests are to be considered with [Pg xxxi] the rest, but
literally a subordinate member, whose interests must often be frankly set aside for
those of an adult member or for those of the household itself. Children must come to
dinner at dinner time, even if continued digging in the sand would be more to their
liking or better for their general development of muscle, mind, or will. It is possible,
of course, to refine on the theory of the child's membership in the family community
and of the right of elders to command, but practically it remains true that the common
conditions of family life prohibit any such freedom as is exercised in a Montessori
school. In the same way a school of large enrollment that elects to cover in a given
time so much work that individual initiative cannot be trusted to compass it, is forced
to teach certain things at nine o'clock and others at ten, and to teach in groups; and the
individual whose life is thus cabined and confined must get what he can. For a given
school the obvious question is, Considering the work to be done in the time allowed,
can we give up the safeguards of a fixed programme and group teaching? The deeper
question lies here: Is the work to be done in itself so important that it is worth while to
have the children go through it under compulsion or on interest induced by the
teacher? Or to put it another way: May not the work be so much less important than
the child's freedom that we had better trust to native curiosity and cleverly devised
materials anyway and run the risk of his losing part of the work, or even the whole of
it?
For schools beyond the primary grade there will be no doubt as to the answer to this
question. There are many ways in which school work may safely be kept from being
the deadening and depressing process it so often is, but the giving up of all fixed and
limited schedules and the[Pg xxxii] prescriptions of class teaching is not one of them.
Even if complete liberty of individual action were possible in schools of higher grade,
it is not certain that it would be desirable: for we must learn to take up many of our
purposes in life under social imperative. But with young children the question
becomes more difficult. What work do we wish to make sure that each child does? If
our schools can keep but half a day, is there time enough for every child to cover this
work without group teaching at stated times? Is the prescription and restraint involved
in such group teaching really enough to do the children any harm or to make our
teaching less effective? Can we not give up prescription altogether for parts of the
work and minimise it for others? The general question of individual liberty is thus
reduced to a series of practical problems of adjustment. It is no longer a question of
total liberty or no liberty at all, but a question of the practical mediation of these
extremes. When we consider, furthermore, that the teacher's skill and the
attractiveness of her personality, the alluring power of the didactic apparatus and the
ease with which it enables children to learn, to say nothing of a cheerful and pleasant
room and the absence of set desks and seats, may all work together to prevent
scheduled teaching in groups from becoming in the least an occasion for restraint, it is
plain that in any given school there may be ample justification for abating the rigour
of Dr. Montessori's principle of freedom. Every school must work out its own solution
of the problem in the face of its particular conditions.
The adoption of sense-training would seem to be much less a matter for variable
decision. Some children may need less than others, but for all children between the
ages of three and five the Montessori material will prove fas [Pg xxxiii]cinating as well
as profitable. A good deal of modern educational theory has been based on the belief
that children are interested only in what has social value, social content, or "real use";
yet a day with any normal child will give ample evidence of the delight that children
take in purely formal exercises. The sheer fascination of tucking cards under the edge
of a rug will keep a baby happy until any ordinary supply of cards is exhausted; and
the wholly sensory appeal of throwing stones into the water gives satisfaction enough
to absorb for a long time the attention of older children—to say nothing of grown-ups.
The Montessori apparatus satisfies sense hunger when it is keen for new material, and
it has besides a puzzle-interest which children eagerly respond to. Dr. Montessori
subordinates the value of the concrete mental content her material supplies to its value
in rendering the senses more acute; yet it is by no means certain that this content—
purely formal as it is—does not also give the material much of its importance. Indeed,
the refinement of sensory discrimination may not in itself be particularly valuable.
What Professor G. M. Whipple says on this point in his Manual of Menial and
Physical Tests (p. 130) has much weight:
The use of sensory tests in correlation work is particularly interesting. In general, some writers are convinced that
keen discrimination is a prerequisite to keen intelligence, while others are equally convinced that intelligence is
essentially conditioned by "higher" processes, and only remotely by sensory capacity—barring, of course, such
diminution of capacity as to interfere seriously with the experiencing of sensations, as in partial deafness or partial
loss of vision. While it is scarcely the place here to discuss the evolutionary significance of discriminative
sensitivity, it may be pointed out that the normal capacity is many times in excess of the actual demands of life, and
that it is consequently difficult to understand why nature has been so prolific and generous; to [Pg xxxiv] understand, in
other words, what is the sanction for the seemingly hypertrophied discriminative capacity of the human sense
organs. The usual "teleological explanations" of our sensory life fail to account for this discrepancy. Again, the very
fact of the existence of this surplus capacity seems to negative at the outset the notion that sensory capacity can be a
conditioning factor in intelligence—with the qualification already noted.

It is quite possible that the real pedagogical value of the Montessori apparatus is due
to the fact that it keeps children happily engaged in the exercise of their senses and
their fingers when they crave such exercise most and to the further fact that it teaches
them without the least strain a good deal about forms and materials. These values are
not likely to be much affected by differing school conditions.
In the use of the material for sense-training, English and American teachers may
find profit in two general warnings. First, it should not be supposed that sense training
alone will accomplish all that Dr. Montessori accomplishes through the whole range
of her school activities. To fill up most of a morning with sense-training is to give it
(except perhaps in the case of the youngest pupils) undue importance. It is not even
certain that the general use of the senses will be much affected by it, to say nothing of
the loss of opportunity for larger physical and social activity. Second, the isolation of
the senses should be used with some care. To shut off sight is to take one step toward
sleep, and the requirement that a child concentrate his attention, in this situation, on
the sense perceptions he gets by other means than vision must not be maintained too
long. No small strain is involved in mental action without the usual means of
information and control.
The proposal, mentioned above, of a feasible combina [Pg xxxv]tion of the
Montessori system and the kindergarten may now be set forth. If it is put very briefly
and without defense or prophecy, it is because it is made without dogmatism, simply
in the hope that it will prove suggestive to some open-minded teacher who is willing
to try out any scheme that promises well for her pupils. The conditions supposed are
those of the ordinary American public-school kindergarten, with a two-year
programme beginning with children three and a half or four years old, a kindergarten
with not too many pupils, with a competent kindergartner and assistant kindergartner,
and with some help from training-school students.
The first proposal is for the use of the Montessori material during the better part of
the first year instead of the regular Froebelian material. To the use of the Montessori
devices—including the gymnastic apparatus—some of the time now devoted to
pictures and stories should also be applied. It is not suggested that no Froebelian
material should be used, but that the two systems be woven into each other, with a
gradual transition from the free, individual use of the Montessori objects to the same
sort of use of the large sizes of the Froebel gifts, especially the second, third, and
fourth. When the children seem to be ready for it, a certain amount of more formal
work with the gifts should be begun. In the second year the Froebelian gift work
should predominate, without absolute exclusion of the Montessori exercises. In the
latter part of the second year the Montessori exercises preparatory to writing should
be introduced. Throughout the second year the full time for stories and picture work
should be given to them, and in both years the morning circle and the games should be
carried on as usual. The luncheon period should of course remain the same. One part
of Dr. Mon[Pg xxxvi]tessori's programme the kindergartner and her assistant should
use every effort to incorporate in their work—the valuable training in self-help and
independent action afforded in the care of the materials and equipment by the children
themselves. This need not be confined to the Montessori apparatus. Children who
have been trained to take out, use, and put away the Montessori objects until they are
ready for the far richer variety of material in the Froebelian system, should be able to
care for it also. Of course if there are children who can return in the afternoon, it
would be very interesting to attempt the gardening, which both Froebel and
Montessori recommend, and the Montessori vase-work.
For the possible scorn of those to whom all compromise is distasteful, the author of
this Introduction seeks but one compensation—that any kindergartner who may
happen to adopt his suggestion will let him study the results.
As to the use of the Montessori system in the home, one or two remarks must
suffice. In the first place, parents should not expect that the mere presence of the
material in the nursery will be enough to work an educational miracle. A Montessori
directress does no common "teaching," but she is called upon for very skillful and
very tiring effort. She must watch, assist, inspire, suggest, guide, explain, correct,
inhibit. She is supposed, in addition, to contribute by her work to the upbuilding of a
new science of pedagogy; but her educational efforts—and education is not an
investigative and experimental effort, but a practical and constructive one—are
enough to exhaust all her time, strength, and ingenuity. It will do no harm—except
perhaps to the material itself—to have the Montessori material at hand in the home,
but it must be used[Pg xxxvii] under proper guidance if it is to be educationally
effective. And besides, it must not be forgotten that the material is by no means the
most important feature of the Montessori programme. The best use of the Montessori
system in the home will come through the reading of this book. If parents shall learn
from Dr. Montessori something of the value of child life, of its need for activity, of its
characteristic modes of expression, and of its possibilities, and shall apply this
knowledge wisely, the work of the great Italian educator will be successful enough.
This Introduction cannot close without some discussion, however limited, of the
important problems suggested by the Montessori method of teaching children to write
and to read. We have in American schools admirable methods for the teaching of
reading; by the Aldine method, for instance, children of fair ability read without
difficulty ten or more readers in the first school year, and advance rapidly toward
independent power. Our instruction in writing, however, has never been particularly
noteworthy. We have been trying recently to teach children to write a flowing hand by
the "arm movement," without much formation of separate letters by the fingers, and
our results seem to prove that the effort with children before the age of ten is not
worth while. Sensible school officers are content to let children in the first four grades
write largely by drawing the letters, and there has been, a fairly general conviction
that writing is not in any case especially important before the age of eight or nine. In
view of Dr. Montessori's success in teaching children of four and five to write with
ease and skill, must we not revise our estimate of the value of writing and our
procedure in teaching it? What changes may we profitably introduce in our teaching
of reading?[Pg xxxviii]
Here again our theory and our practice have suffered from the headstrong advocacy
of general principles. Because by clumsy methods children used to be kept at the task
of learning the school arts to the undoubted detriment of their minds and bodies,
certain writers have advocated the total exclusion of reading and writing from the
early grades. Many parents refuse to send their children to school until they are eight,
preferring to let them "run wild." This attitude is well justified by school conditions in
some places; but where the schools are good, it ignores not only the obvious
advantages of school life quite aside from instruction in written language, but also the
almost complete absence of strain afforded by modern methods. Now that the
Montessori system adds a new and promising method to our resources, it is the more
unreasonable: for as a fact normal children are eager to read and write at six, and have
plenty of use for these accomplishments.
 This does not mean, however, that reading and writing are so important for young
children that they should be unduly emphasised. If we can teach them without strain,
let us do so, and the more effectively the better; but let us remember, as Dr.
Montessori does, that reading and writing should form but a subordinate part of the
experience of a child and should minister in general to his other needs. With the best
of methods the value of reading and writing before six is questionable. Our conscious
life is bookish enough as it is, and it would seem on general grounds a safer policy to
defer written language until the age of normal interest in it, and even then not to
devote to it more time than an easy and gradual mastery demands.
Of the technical advantages of the Montessori scheme [Pg xxxix] for writing there
can be little doubt. The child gains ready control over his pencil through exercises
which have their own simple but absorbing interest; and if he does not learn to write
with an "arm movement," we may be quite content with his ability to draw a legible
and handsome script. Then he learns the letters—their forms, their names, and how to
make them—through exercises which have the very important technical characteristic
of involving a thorough sensory analysis of the material to be mastered. Meumann has
taught us of late the great value in all memory work of complete impression through
prolonged and intensive analytical study. In the teaching of spelling, for instance, it is
comparatively useless to devise schemes for remembering unless the original
impressions are made strong and elaborate; and it is only by careful, varied, and
detailed sense impression that such material as the alphabet can be thus impressed. So
effective is the Montessori scheme for impressing the letters—especially because of
its novel use of the sense of touch—that the children learn how to make the whole
alphabet before the abstract and formal character of the material leads to any
diminution of interest or enthusiasm. Their initial curiosity over the characters they
see their elders use is enough to carry them through.
In Italian the next step is easy. The letters once learned, it is a simple matter to
combine them into words, for Italian spelling is so nearly phonetic that it presents
very little difficulty to any one who knows how to pronounce. It is at just this point
that the teaching of English reading by the Montessori method will find its greatest
obstacle. Indeed, it is the unphonetic character of English spelling that has largely
influenced us to give up the alphabet method of teaching children to read. Other
reasons,[Pg xl] to be sure, have also induced us to teach by the word and the sentence
method; but this one has been and will continue to be the deciding factor. We have
found it more effective to teach children whole words, sentences, or rhymes by sight,
adding to sense impressions the interest aroused by a wide range of associations, and
then analysing the words thus acquired into their phonetic elements to give the
children independent power in the acquisition of new words. Our marked success with
this method makes it by no means certain that it is "in the characteristic process of
natural development" for children to build up written words from their elements—
sounds and syllables. It would seem, on the contrary, as James concluded, that the
mind works quite as naturally in the opposite direction—grasping wholes first,
especially such as have a practical interest, and then working down to their formal
elements. In the teaching of spelling, of course, the wholes (words) are already known
at sight—that is, the pupil recognises them easily in reading—and the process aims at
impressing upon the child's mind the exact order of their constituent elements. It is
because reading and spelling are in English such completely separate processes that
we can teach a child to read admirably without making him a "good speller" and are
forced to bring him to the latter glorious state by new endeavours. We gain by this
separation both in reading and in spelling, as experience and comparative tests—
popular superstition to the contrary notwithstanding—have conclusively proved. The
mastery of the alphabet by the Montessori method will be of great assistance in
teaching our children to write, but of only incidental assistance in teaching them to
read and to spell.
Once more, then, this Introduction attempts to suggest [Pg xli] a compromise. In the
school arts the programme used to such good effect in the Italian schools and the
programme which has been so well worked out in English and American schools may
be profitably combined. We can learn much about writing and reading from Dr.
Montessori—especially from the freedom her children have in the process of learning
to write and in the use of their newly acquired power, as well as from her device for
teaching them to read connected prose. We can use her materials for sense training
and lead as she does to easy mastery of the alphabetic symbols. Our own schemes for
teaching reading we can retain, and doubtless the phonetic analysis they involve we
shall find easier and more effective because of our adoption of the Montessori scheme
for teaching the letters. The exact adjustment of the two methods is of course a task
for teachers in practice and for educational leaders.
To all educators this book should prove most interesting. Not many of them will
expect that the Montessori method will regenerate humanity. Not many will wish to
see it—or any method—produce a generation of prodigies such as those who have
been heralded recently in America. Not many will approve the very early acquisition
by children of the arts of reading and writing. But all who are fair-minded will admit
the genius that shines from the pages which follow, and the remarkable
suggestiveness of Dr. Montessori's labors. It is the task of the professional student of
education to-day to submit all systems to careful comparative study, and since Dr.
Montessori's inventive power has sought its tests in practical experience rather than in
comparative investigation, this duller task remains to be done. But however he may
scrutinise the results of her work, the educator who reads of it here will honour [Pg
xlii] in the Dottoressa Maria Montessori the enthusiasm, the patience, and the
constructive insight of the scientist and the friend of humanity.
 HENRY W. HOLMES.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
February 22, 1912.

THE MONTESSORI METHOD

[Pg 1]

CHAPTER I
A CRITICAL CONSIDERATION OF THE NEW PEDAGOGY IN ITS
RELATION TO MODERN SCIENCE
It is not my intention to present a treatise on Scientific Pedagogy. The modest
design of these incomplete notes is to give the results of an experiment that apparently
opens the way for putting into practice those new principles of science which in these
last years are tending to revolutionise the work of education.
Much has been said in the past decade concerning the tendency of pedagogy,
following in the footsteps of medicine, to pass beyond the purely speculative stage
and base its conclusions on the positive results of experimentation. Physiological or
experimental psychology which, from Weber and Fechner to Wundt, has become
organised into a new science, seems destined to furnish to the new pedagogy that
fundamental preparation which the old-time metaphysical psychology furnished to
philosophical pedagogy. Morphological anthropology applied to the physical study of
children, is also a strong element in the growth of the new pedagogy.
But in spite of all these tendencies, Scientific Pedagogy has never yet been
definitely constructed nor defined. It is something vague of which we speak, but
which does not,[Pg 2] in reality, exist. We might say that it has been, up to the present
time, the mere intuition or suggestion of a science which, by the aid of the positive
and experimental sciences that have renewed the thought of the nineteenth century,
must emerge from the mist and clouds that have surrounded it. For man, who has
formed a new world through scientific progress, must himself be prepared and
developed through a new pedagogy. But I will not attempt to speak of this more fully
here.
Several years ago, a well-known physician established in Italy a School of Scientific
Pedagogy, the object of which was to prepare teachers to follow the new movement
which had begun to be felt in the pedagogical world. This school had, for two or three
years, a great success, so great, indeed, that teachers from all over Italy flocked to it,
and it was endowed by the City of Milan with a splendid equipment of scientific
material. Indeed, its beginnings were most propitious, and liberal help was afforded it
in the hope that it might be possible to establish, through the experiments carried on
there, "the science of forming man."
The enthusiasm which welcomed this school was, in a large measure, due to the
warm support given it by the distinguished anthropologist, Giuseppe Sergi, who for
more than thirty years had earnestly laboured to spread among the teachers of Italy the
principles of a new civilisation based upon education. "To-day in the social world,"
said Sergi, "an imperative need makes itself felt—the reconstruction of educational
methods; and he who fights for this cause, fights for human regeneration." In his
pedagogical writings collected in a volume under the title of "Educazione ed
Istruzione" (Pensieri),[1] he gives a[Pg 3] résumé of the lectures in which he encouraged
this new movement, and says that he believes the way to this desired regeneration lies
in a methodical study of the one to be educated, carried on under the guidance of
pedagogical anthropology and of experimental psychology.
"For several years I have done battle for an idea concerning the instruction and
education of man, which appeared the more just and useful the more deeply I thought
upon it. My idea was that in order to establish natural, rational methods, it was
essential that we make numerous, exact, and rational observations of man as an
individual, principally during infancy, which is the age at which the foundations of
education and culture must be laid.
"To measure the head, the height, etc., does not indeed mean that we are
establishing a system of pedagogy, but it indicates the road which we may follow to
arrive at such a system, since if we are to educate an individual, we must have a
definite and direct knowledge of him."
The authority of Sergi was enough to convince many that, given such a knowledge
of the individual, the art of educating him would develop naturally. This, as often
happens, led to a confusion of ideas among his followers, arising now from a too
literal interpretation, now from an exaggeration, of the master's ideas. The chief
trouble lay in confusing the experimental study of the pupil, with his education. And
since the one was the road leading to the other, which should have grown from it
naturally and rationally, they straightway gave the name of Scientific Pedagogy to
what was in truth pedagogical anthropology. These new converts carried as their
banner, the "Biographical Chart," believing that once this ensign [Pg 4] was firmly
planted upon the battle-field of the school, the victory would be won.
The so-called School of Scientific Pedagogy, therefore, instructed the teachers in
the taking of anthropometric measurements, in the use of esthesiometric instruments,
in the gathering of Psychological Data—and the army of new scientific teachers was
formed.
It should be said that in this movement Italy showed herself to be abreast of the
times. In France, in England, and especially in America, experiments have been made
in the elementary schools, based upon a study of anthropology and psychological
pedagogy, in the hope of finding in anthropometry and psychometry, the regeneration
of the school. In these attempts it has rarely been the teachers who have carried on the
research; the experiments have been, in most cases, in the hands of physicians who
have taken more interest in their especial science than in education. They have usually
sought to get from their experiments some contribution to psychology, or
anthropology, rather than to attempt to organise their work and their results toward the
formation of the long-sought Scientific Pedagogy. To sum up the situation briefly,
anthropology and psychology have never devoted themselves to the question of
educating children in the schools, nor have the scientifically trained teachers ever
measured up to the standards of genuine scientists.
The truth is that the practical progress of the school demands a genuine fusion of
these modern tendencies, in practice and thought; such a fusion as shall bring
scientists directly into the important field of the school and at the same time raise
teachers from the inferior intellectual level to which they are limited to-day. Toward
this eminently practical ideal the University School of Peda [Pg 5]gogy, founded in
Italy by Credaro, is definitely working. It is the intention of this school to raise
Pedagogy from the inferior position it has occupied as a secondary branch of
philosophy, to the dignity of a definite science, which shall, as does Medicine, cover a
broad and varied field of comparative study.
And among the branches affiliated with it will most certainly be found Pedagogical
Hygiene, Pedagogical Anthropology, and Experimental Psychology.
Truly, Italy, the country of Lombroso, of De-Giovanni, and of Sergi, may claim the
honour of being pre-eminent in the organisation of such a movement. In fact, these
three scientists may be called the founders of the new tendency in Anthropology: the
first leading the way in criminal anthropology, the second in medical anthropology,
and the third in pedagogical anthropology. For the good fortune of science, all three of
them have been the recognised leaders of their special lines of thought, and have been
so prominent in the scientific world that they have not only made courageous and
valuable disciples, but have also prepared the minds of the masses to receive the
scientific regeneration which they have encouraged. (For reference, see my treatise
"Pedagogical Anthropology.")[2]
Surely all this is something of which our country may be justly proud.

To-day, however, those things which occupy us in the field of education are the
interests of humanity at large, and of civilisation, and before such great forces we can
recognise only one country—the entire world. And in a cause of such great
importance, all those who have given [Pg 6]any contribution, even though it be only an
attempt not crowned with success, are worthy of the respect of humanity throughout
the civilised world. So, in Italy, the schools of Scientific Pedagogy and the
Anthropological Laboratories, which have sprung up in the various cities through the
efforts of elementary teachers and scholarly inspectors, and which have been
abandoned almost before they became definitely organised, have nevertheless a great
value by reason of the faith which inspired them, and because of the doors they have
opened to thinking people.
It is needless to say that such attempts were premature and sprang from too slight a
comprehension of new sciences still in the process of development. Every great cause
is born from repeated failures and from imperfect achievements. When St. Francis of
Assisi saw his Lord in a vision, and received from the Divine lips the command
—"Francis, rebuild my Church!"—he believed that the Master spoke of the little
church within which he knelt at that moment. And he immediately set about the task,
carrying upon his shoulders the stones with which he meant to rebuild the fallen walls.
It was not until later that he became aware of the fact that his mission was to renew
the Catholic Church through the spirit of poverty. But the St. Francis who so
ingenuously carried the stones, and the great reformer who so miraculously led the
people to a triumph of the spirit, are one and the same person in different stages of
development. So we, who work toward one great end, are members of one and the
same body; and those who come after us will reach the goal only because there were
those who believed and laboured before them. And, like St. Francis, we have believed
that by carrying the hard and barren stones of the experimental [Pg 7] laboratory to the
old and crumbling walls of the school, we might rebuild it. We have looked upon the
aids offered by the materialistic and mechanical sciences with the same hopefulness
with which St. Francis looked upon the squares of granite, which he must carry upon
his shoulders.
 Thus we have been drawn into a false and narrow way, from which we must free
ourselves, if we are to establish true and living methods for the training of future
generations.

To prepare teachers in the method of the experimental sciences is not an easy

matter. When we shall have instructed them in anthropometry and psychometry in the
most minute manner possible, we shall have only created machines, whose usefulness
will be most doubtful. Indeed, if it is after this fashion that we are to initiate our
teachers into experiment, we shall remain forever in the field of theory. The teachers
of the old school, prepared according to the principles of metaphysical philosophy,
understood the ideas of certain men regarded as authorities, and moved the muscles of
speech in talking of them, and the muscles of the eye in reading their theories. Our
scientific teachers, instead, are familiar with certain instruments and know how to
move the muscles of the hand and arm in order to use these instruments; besides this,
they have an intellectual preparation which consists of a series of typical tests, which
they have, in a barren and mechanical way, learned how to apply.
The difference is not substantial, for profound differences cannot exist in exterior
technique alone, but lie rather within the inner man. Not with all our initiation into
scientific experiment have we prepared new masters,[Pg 8] for, after all, we have left
them standing without the door of real experimental science; we have not admitted
them to the noblest and most profound phase of such study,—to that experience which
makes real scientists.
And, indeed, what is a scientist? Not, certainly, he who knows how to manipulate
all the instruments in the physical laboratory, or who in the laboratory of the chemist
handles the various reactives with deftness and security, or who in biology knows how
to make ready the specimens for the microscope. Indeed, it is often the case that an
assistant has a greater dexterity in experimental technique than the master scientist
himself. We give the name scientist to the type of man who has felt experiment to be a
means guiding him to search out the deep truth of life, to lift a veil from its fascinating
secrets, and who, in this pursuit, has felt arising within him a love for the mysteries of
nature, so passionate as to annihilate the thought of himself. The scientist is not the
clever manipulator of instruments, he is the worshipper of nature and he bears the
external symbols of his passion as does the follower of some religious order. To this
body of real scientists belong those who, forgetting, like the Trappists of the Middle
Ages, the world about them, live only in the laboratory, careless often in matters of
food and dress because they no longer think of themselves; those who, through years
of unwearied use of the microscope, become blind; those who in their scientific ardour
inoculate themselves with tuberculosis germs; those who handle the excrement of
cholera patients in their eagerness to learn the vehicle through which the diseases are
transmitted; and those who, knowing that a certain chemical preparation may be an
explosive, still persist in testing their theories at the risk of their lives. This [Pg 9] is the
spirit of the men of science, to whom nature freely reveals her secrets, crowning their
labours with the glory of discovery.
There exists, then, the "spirit" of the scientist, a thing far above his mere
"mechanical skill," and the scientist is at the height of his achievement when the spirit
has triumphed over the mechanism. When he has reached this point, science will
receive from him not only new revelations of nature, but philosophic syntheses of
pure thought.
It is my belief that the thing which we should cultivate in our teachers is more
the spirit than the mechanical skill of the scientist; that is, the direction of
the preparation should be toward the spirit rather than toward the mechanism. For
example, when we considered the scientific preparation of teachers to be simply the
acquiring of the technique of science, we did not attempt to make these elementary
teachers perfect anthropologists, expert experimental psychologists, or masters of
infant hygiene; we wished only to direct them toward the field of experimental
science, teaching them to manage the various instruments with a certain degree of
skill. So now, we wish to direct the teacher, trying to awaken in him, in connection
with his own particular field, the school, that scientific spirit which opens the door for
him to broader and bigger possibilities. In other words, we wish to awaken in the
mind and heart of the educator an interest in natural phenomena to such an extent
that, loving nature, he shall understand the anxious and expectant attitude of one who
has prepared an experiment and who awaits a revelation from it.[3]
[Pg 10]

The instruments are like the alphabet, and we must know how to manage them if we
are to read nature; but as the book, which contains the revelation of the greatest
thoughts of an author, uses in the alphabet the means of composing the external
symbols or words, so nature, through the mechanism of the experiment, gives us an
infinite series of revelations, unfolding for us her secrets.
Now one who has learned to spell mechanically all the words in his spelling-book,
would be able to read in the same mechanical way the words in one of Shakespeare's
plays, provided the print were sufficiently clear. He who is initiated solely into the
making of the bare experiment, is like one who spells out the literal sense of the words
in the spelling-book; it is on such a level that we leave the teachers if we limit their
preparation to technique alone.
We must, instead, make of them worshippers and interpreters of the spirit of nature.
They must be like him who, having learned to spell, finds himself, one day, able to
read behind the written symbols the thought of Shakespeare, or Goethe, or Dante. As
may be seen, the difference is great, and the road long. Our first error was, however, a
natural one. The child who has mastered the spelling-book gives the impression of
knowing how to read. Indeed, he does read the signs over the shop doors, the names
of newspapers, and every word that comes under his eyes. It would be very natural if,
entering a library, this child should be deluded into thinking that he knew how to read
the sense of all the books he saw there. But attempting to do this, he would soon feel
that "to know how to read mechanically" is nothing, and that he needs to go back to
school. So it is with the teachers whom we have [Pg 11] thought to prepare for
scientific pedagogy by teaching them anthropometry and psychometry.

But let us put aside the difficulty of preparing scientific masters in the accepted
sense of the word. We will not even attempt to outline a programme of such
preparation, since this would lead us into a discussion which has no place here. Let us
suppose, instead, that we have already prepared teachers through long and patient
exercises for the observation of nature, and that we have led them, for example, to the
point attained by those students of natural sciences who rise at night and go into the
woods and fields that they may surprise the awakening and the early activities of some
family of insects in which they are interested. Here we have the scientist who, though
he may be sleepy and tired with walking, is full of watchfulness, who is not aware that
he is muddy or dusty, that the mist wets him, or the sun burns him; but is intent only
upon not revealing in the least degree his presence, in order that the insects may, hour
after hour, carry on peacefully those natural functions which he wishes to observe. Let
us suppose these teachers to have reached the standpoint of the scientist who, half
blind, still watches through his microscope the spontaneous movements of some
particular infusory animalcule. These creatures seem to this scientific watcher, in their
manner of avoiding each other and in their way of selecting their food, to possess a
dim intelligence. He then disturbs this sluggish life by an electric stimulus, observing
how some group themselves about the positive pole, and others about the negative.
Experimenting further, with a luminous stimulus, he notices how some run toward the
light, while[Pg 12] others fly from it. He investigates these and like phenomena;
having always in mind this question: whether the fleeing from or running to the
stimulus be of the same character as the avoidance of one another or the selection of
food—that is, whether such differences are the result of choice and are due to that dim
consciousness, rather than to physical attraction or repulsion similar to that of the
magnet. And let us suppose that this scientist, finding it to be four o'clock in the
afternoon, and that he has not yet lunched, is conscious, with a feeling of pleasure, of
the fact that he has been at work in his laboratory instead of in his own home, where
they would have called him hours ago, interrupting his interesting observation, in
order that he might eat.
 Let us imagine, I say, that the teacher has arrived, independently of his scientific
training, at such an attitude of interest in the observation of natural phenomena. Very
well, but such a preparation is not enough. The master, indeed, is destined in his
particular mission not to the observation of insects or of bacteria, but of man. He is
not to make a study of man in the manifestations of his daily physical habits as one
studies some family of insects, following their movements from the hour of their
morning awakening. The master is to study man in the awakening of his intellectual
life.
The interest in humanity to which we wish to educate the teacher must be
characterised by the intimate relationship between the observer and the individual to
be observed; a relationship which does not exist between the student of zoology or
botany and that form of nature which he studies. Man cannot love the insect or the
chemical reaction which he studies, without sacrificing a part of himself. This self-
sacrifice seems to one who looks at it [Pg 13] from the standpoint of the world, a
veritable renunciation of life itself, almost a martyrdom.
But the love of man for man in a far more tender thing, and so simple that it is
universal. To love in this way is not the privilege of any especially prepared
intellectual class, but lies within the reach of all men.
To give an idea of this second form of preparation, that of the spirit, let us try to
enter into the minds and hearts of those first followers of Christ Jesus as they heard
Him speak of a Kingdom not of this world, greater far than any earthly kingdom, no
matter how royally conceived. In their simplicity they asked of Him, "Master, tell us
who shall be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven!" To which Christ, caressing the head
of a little child who, with reverent, wondering eyes, looked into His face, replied,
"Whosoever shall become as one of these little ones, he shall be greatest in the
Kingdom of Heaven." Now let us picture among those to whom these words were
spoken, an ardent, worshipping soul, who takes them into his heart. With a mixture of
respect and love, of sacred curiosity and of a desire to achieve this spiritual greatness,
he sets himself to observe every manifestation of this little child. Even such an
observer placed in a classroom filled with little children will not be the new educator
whom we wish to form. But let us seek to implant in the soul the self-sacrificing spirit
of the scientist with the reverent love of the disciple of Christ, and we shall have
prepared the spirit of the teacher. From the child itself he will learn how to perfect
himself as an educator.

Let us consider the attitude of the teacher in the light of another example. Picture to
yourself one of our bota[Pg 14]nists or zoologists experienced in the technique of
observation and experimentation; one who has travelled in order to study "certain
fungi" in their native environment. This scientist has made his observations in open
country and, then, by the aid of his microscope and of all his laboratory appliances,
has carried on the later research work in the most minute way possible. He is, in fact,
a scientist who understands what it is to study nature, and who is conversant with all
the means which modern experimental science offers for this study.

Now let us imagine such a man appointed, by reason of the original work he has
done, to a chair of science in some university, with the task before him of doing
further original research work with hymenoptera. Let us suppose that, arrived at his
post, he is shown a glass-covered case containing a number of beautiful butterflies,
mounted by means of pins, their outspread wings motionless. The student will say that
this is some child's play, not material for scientific study, that these specimens in the
box are more fitly a part of the game which the little boys play, chasing butterflies and
catching them in a net. With such material as this the experimental scientist can do
nothing.
The situation would be very much the same if we should place a teacher who,
according to our conception of the term, is scientifically prepared, in one of the public
schools where the children are repressed in the spontaneous expression of their
personality till they are almost like dead beings. In such a school the children, like
butterflies mounted on pins, are fastened each to his place, the desk, spreading the
useless wings of barren and meaningless knowledge which they have acquired.[Pg 15]
It is not enough, then, to prepare in our Masters the scientific spirit. We must also
make ready the school for their observation. The school must permit the free, natural
manifestations of the child if in the school scientific pedagogy is to be born. This is
the essential reform.
No one may affirm that such a principle already exists in pedagogy and in the
school. It is true that some pedagogues, led by Rousseau, have given voice to
impracticable principles and vague aspirations for the liberty of the child, but the true
concept of liberty is practically unknown to educators. They often have the same
concept of liberty which animates a people in the hour of rebellion from slavery, or
perhaps, the conception of social liberty, which although it is a more elevated idea is
still invariably restricted. "Social liberty" signifies always one more round of Jacob's
ladder. In other words it signifies a partial liberation, the liberation of a country, of a
class, or of thought.
That concept of liberty which must inspire pedagogy is, instead, universal. The
biological sciences of the nineteenth century have shown it to us when they have
offered us the means for studying life. If, therefore, the old-time pedagogy foresaw or
vaguely expressed the principle of studying the pupil before educating him, and of
leaving him free in his spontaneous manifestations, such an intuition, indefinite and
barely expressed, was made possible of practical attainment only after the contribution
of the experimental sciences during the last century. This is not a case for sophistry or
discussion, it is enough that we state our point. He who would say that the principle of
liberty informs the pedagogy of to-day, would make us smile as at a child who, before
the box of mounted butterflies, should insist that they were alive and could fly. The [Pg
16] principle of slavery still pervades pedagogy, and, therefore, the same principle
pervades the school. I need only give one proof—the stationary desks and chairs. Here
we have, for example, a striking evidence of the errors of the early materialistic
scientific pedagogy which, with mistaken zeal and energy, carried the barren stones of
science to the rebuilding of the crumbling walls of the school. The schools were at
first furnished with the long, narrow benches upon which the children were crowded
together. Then came science and perfected the bench. In this work much attention was
paid to the recent contributions of anthropology. The age of the child and the length of
his limbs were considered in placing the seat at the right height. The distance between
the seat and the desk was calculated with infinite care, in order that the child's back
should not become deformed, and, finally, the seats were separated and the width so
closely calculated that the child could barely seat himself upon it, while to stretch
himself by making any lateral movements was impossible. This was done in order that
he might be separated from his neighbour. These desks are constructed in such a way
as to render the child visible in all his immobility. One of the ends sought through this
separation is the prevention of immoral acts in the schoolroom. What shall we say of
such prudence in a state of society where it would be considered scandalous to give
voice to principles of sex morality in education, for fear we might thus contaminate
innocence? And, yet, here we have science lending itself to this hypocrisy, fabricating
machines! Not only this; obliging science goes farther still, perfecting the benches in
such a way as to permit to the greatest possible extent the immobility of the child, or,
if you wish, to repress every movement of the child.[Pg 17]
It is all so arranged that, when the child is well-fitted into his place, the desk and
chair themselves force him to assume the position considered to be hygienically
comfortable. The seat, the foot-rest, the desks are arranged in such a way that the child
can never stand at his work. He is allotted only sufficient space for sitting in an erect
position. It is in such ways that schoolroom desks and benches have advanced toward
perfection. Every cult of the so-called scientific pedagogy has designed a model
scientific desk. Not a few nations have become proud of their "national desk,"—and in
the struggle of competition these various machines have been patented.
Undoubtedly there is much that is scientific underlying the construction of these
benches. Anthropology has been drawn upon in the measuring of the body and the
diagnosis of the age; physiology, in the study of muscular movements; psychology, in
regard to perversion of instincts; and, above all, hygiene, in the effort to prevent
curvature of the spine. These desks were indeed scientific, following in their
construction the anthropological study of the child. We have here, as I have said, an
example of the literal application of science to the schools.
I believe that before very long we shall all be struck with great surprise by this
attitude. It will seem incomprehensible that the fundamental error of the desk should
not have been revealed earlier through the attention given to the study of infant
hygiene, anthropology, and sociology, and through the general progress of thought.
The marvel is greater when we consider that during the past years there has been
stirring in almost every nation a movement toward the protection of the child.
I believe that it will not be many years before the public, scarcely believing the
descriptions of these scien[Pg 18]tific benches, will come to touch with wondering
bands the amazing seats that were constructed for the purpose of preventing among
our school children curvature of the spine!
The development of these scientific benches means that the pupils were subjected to
a régime, which, even though they were born strong and straight, made it possible for
them to become humpbacked! The vertebral column, biologically the most primitive,
fundamental, and oldest part of the skeleton, the most fixed portion, of our body, since
the skeleton is the most solid portion of the organism—the vertebral column, which
resisted and was strong through the desperate struggles of primitive man when he
fought against the desert-lion, when he conquered the mammoth, when he quarried the
solid rock and shaped the iron to his uses, bends, and cannot resist, under the yoke of
the school.
It is incomprehensible that so-called science should have worked to perfect an
instrument of slavery in the school without being enlightened by one ray from the
movement of social liberation, growing and developing throughout the world. For the
age of scientific benches was also the age of the redemption of the working classes
from the yoke of unjust labor.
The tendency toward social liberty is most evident, and manifests itself on every
hand. The leaders of the people make it their slogan, the labouring masses repeat the
cry, scientific and socialistic publications voice the same movement, our journals are
full of it. The underfed workman does not ask for a tonic, but for better economic
conditions which shall prevent malnutrition. The miner who, through the stooping
position maintained during many hours of the day, is subject to inguinal rupture,
does[Pg 19] not ask for an abdominal support, but demands shorter hours and bettor
working conditions, in order that he may be able to lead a healthy life like other men.
And when, during this same social epoch, we find that the children in our
schoolrooms are working amid unhygienic conditions, so poorly adapted to normal
development that even the skeleton becomes deformed, our response to this terrible
revelation is an orthopedic bench. It is much as if we offered to the miner the
abdominal brace, or arsenic to the underfed workman.
Some time ago a woman, believing me to be in sympathy with all scientific
innovations concerning the school, showed me with evident satisfaction a corset or
brace for pupils. She had invented this and felt that it would complete the work of the
bench.
Surgery has still other means for the treatment of spinal curvature. I might mention
orthopedic instruments, braces, and a method of periodically suspending the child, by
the head or shoulders, in such a fashion that the weight of the body stretches and thus
straightens the vertebral column. In the school, the orthopedic instrument in the shape
of the desk is in great favour to-day; someone proposes the brace—one step farther
and it will be suggested that we give the scholars a systematic course in the
suspension method!
All this is the logical consequence of a material application of the methods of
science to the decadent school. Evidently the rational method of combating spinal
curvature in the pupils, is to change the form of their work—so that they shall no
longer be obliged to remain for so many hours a day in a harmful position. It is a
conquest of liberty which the school needs, not the mechanism of a bench.[Pg 20]
Even were the stationary seat helpful to the child's body, it would still be a
dangerous and unhygienic feature of the environment, through the difficulty of
cleaning the room perfectly when the furniture cannot be moved. The foot-rests,
which cannot be removed, accumulate the dirt carried in daily from the street by the
many little feet. To-day there is a general transformation in the matter of house
furnishings. They are made lighter and simpler so that they may be easily moved,
dusted, and even washed. But the school seems blind to the transformation of the
social environment.

It behooves us to think of what may happen to the spirit of the child who is
condemned to grow in conditions so artificial that his very bones may become
deformed. When we speak of the redemption of the workingman, it is always
understood that beneath the most apparent form of suffering, such as poverty of the
blood, or ruptures, there exists that other wound from which the soul of the man who
is subjected to any form of slavery must suffer. It is at this deeper wrong that we aim
when we say that the workman must be redeemed through liberty. We know only too
well that when a man's very blood has been consumed or his intestines wasted away
through his work, his soul must have lain oppressed in darkness, rendered insensible,
or, it may be, killed within him. The moral degradation of the slave is, above all
things, the weight that opposes the progress of humanity—humanity striving to rise
and held back by this great burden. The cry of redemption speaks far more clearly for
the souls of men than for their bodies.
What shall we say then, when the question before us is that of educating children?
[Pg 21]

We know only too well the sorry spectacle of the teacher who, in the ordinary
schoolroom, must pour certain cut and dried facts into the heads of the scholars. In
order to succeed in this barren task, she finds it necessary to discipline her pupils into
immobility and to force their attention. Prizes and punishments are every-ready and
efficient aids to the master who must force into a given attitude of mind and body
those who are condemned to be his listeners.
It is true that to-day it is deemed expedient to abolish official whippings and
habitual blows, just as the awarding of prizes has become less ceremonious. These
partial reforms are another prop approved of by science, and offered to the support of
the decadent school. Such prizes and punishments are, if I may be allowed the
expression, the bench of the soul, the instrument of slavery for the spirit. Here,
however, these are not applied to lessen deformities, but to provoke them. The prize
and the punishment are incentives toward unnatural or forced effort, and, therefore we
certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with
them. The jockey offers a piece of sugar to his horse before jumping into the saddle,
the coachman beats his horse that he may respond to the signs given by the reins; and,
yet, neither of these runs so superbly as the free horse of the plains.
And here, in the case of education, shall man place the yoke upon man?
True, we say that social man is natural man yoked to society. But if we give a
comprehensive glance to the moral progress of society, we shall see that little by little,
the yoke is being made easier, in other words, we shall see that nature, or life, moves
gradually toward triumph. The yoke of the slave yields to that of the servant, [Pg
22] and the yoke of the servant to that of the workman.

All forms of slavery tend little by little to weaken and disappear, even the sexual
slavery of woman. The history of civilisation is a history of conquest and of liberation.
We should ask in what stage of civilisation we find ourselves and if, in truth, the good
of prizes and of punishments be necessary to our advancement. If we have indeed
gone beyond this point, then to apply such a form of education would be to draw the
new generation back to a lower level, not to lead them into their true heritage of
progress.
Something very like this condition of the school exists in society, in the relation
between the government and the great numbers of the men employed in its
administrative departments. These clerks work day after day for the general national
good, yet they do not feel or see the advantage of their work in any immediate reward.
That is, they do not realise that the state carries on its great business through their
daily tasks, and that the whole nation is benefited by their work. For them the
immediate good is promotion, as passing to a higher class is for the child in school.
The man who loses sight of the really big aim of his work is like a child who has been
placed in a class below his real standing: like a slave, he is cheated of something
which is his right. His dignity as a man is reduced to the limits of the dignity of a
machine which must be oiled if it is to be kept going, because it does not have within
itself the impulse of life. All those petty things such as the desire for decorations or
medals, are but artificial stimuli, lightening for the moment the dark, barren path in
which he treads.
In the same way we give prizes to school children. And [Pg 23] the fear of not
achieving promotion, withholds the clerk from running away, and binds him to his
monotonous work, even as the fear of not passing into the next class drives the pupil
to his book. The reproof of the superior is in every way similar to the scolding of the
teacher. The correction of badly executed clerical work is equivalent to the bad mark
placed by the teacher upon the scholar's poor composition. The parallel is almost
perfect.
But if the administrative departments are not carried on in a way which would seem
suitable to a nation's greatness; if corruption too easily finds a place; it is the result of
having extinguished the true greatness of man in the mind of the employee, and of
having restricted his vision to those petty, immediate facts, which he has come to look
upon as prizes and punishments. The country stands, because the rectitude of the
greater number of its employees is such that they resist the corruption of the prizes
and punishments, and follow an irresistible current of honesty. Even as life in the
social environment triumphs against every cause of poverty and death, and proceeds
to new conquests, so the instinct of liberty conquers all obstacles, going from victory
to victory.
It is this personal and yet universal force of life, a force often latent within the soul,
that sends the world forward.

But he who accomplishes a truly human work, he who does something really great
and victorious, is never spurred to his task by those trifling attractions called by the
name of "prizes," nor by the fear of those petty ills which we call "punishments." If in
a war a great army of giants should fight with no inspiration beyond the desire to win
promotion, epaulets, or medals, or through fear of [Pg 24] being shot, if these men were
to oppose a handful of pygmies who were inflamed by love of country, the victory
would go to the latter. When real heroism has died within an army, prizes and
punishments cannot do more than finish the work of deterioration, bringing in
corruption and cowardice.
All human victories, all human progress, stand upon the inner force.
Thus a young student may become a great doctor if he is spurred to his study by an
interest which makes medicine his real vocation. But if he works in the hope of an
inheritance, or of making a desirable marriage, or if indeed he is inspired by any
material advantage, he will never become a true master or a great doctor, and the
world will never make one step forward because of his work. He to whom such
stimuli are necessary, had far better never become a physician. Everyone has a special
tendency, a special vocation, modest, perhaps, but certainly useful. The system of
prizes may turn an individual aside from this vocation, may make him choose a false
road, for him a vain one, and forced to follow it, the natural activity of a human being
may be warped, lessened, even annihilated.
We repeat always that the world progresses and that we must urge men forward to
obtain progress. But progress comes from the new things that are born, and these, not
being foreseen, are not rewarded with prizes: rather, they often carry the leader to
martyrdom. God forbid that poems should ever be born of the desire to be crowned in
the Capitol! Such a vision need only come into the heart of the poet and the muse will
vanish. The poem must spring from the soul of the poet, when he thinks neither of
himself nor of the prize. And if he does win [Pg 25] the laurel, he will feel the vanity of
such a prize. The true reward lies in the revelation through the poem of his own
triumphant inner force.
There does exist, however, an external prize for man; when, for example, the orator
sees the faces of his listeners change with the emotions he has awakened, he
experiences something so great that it can only be likened to the intense joy with
which one discovers that he is loved. Our joy is to touch, and conquer souls, and this
is the one prize which can bring us a true compensation.
Sometimes there is given to us a moment when we fancy ourselves to be among the
great ones of the world. These are moments of happiness given to man that he may
continue his existence in peace. It may be through love attained or because of the gift
of a son, through a glorious discovery or the publication of a book; in some such
moment we feel that there exists no man who is above us. If, in such a moment,
someone vested with authority comes forward to offer us a medal or a prize, he is the
important destroyer of our real reward—"And who are you?" our vanished illusion
shall cry, "Who are you that recalls me to the fact that I am not the first among men?
Who stands so far above me that he may give me a prize?" The prize of such a man in
such a moment can only be Divine.
 As for punishments, the soul of the normal man grows perfect through expanding,
and punishment as commonly understood is always a form of repression. It may bring
results with those inferior natures who grow in evil, but these are very few, and social
progress is not affected by them. The penal code threatens us with punishment if we
are dishonest within the limits indicated by the laws. But we are not honest through
fear of the laws; if we [Pg 26] do not rob, if we do not kill, it is because we love peace,
because the natural trend of our lives leads us forward, leading us ever farther and
more definitely away from the peril of low and evil acts.
Without going into the ethical or metaphysical aspects of the question, we may
safely affirm that the delinquent before he transgresses the law, has, if he knows of the
existence of a punishment, felt the threatening weight of the criminal code upon him.
He has defined it, or he has been lured into the crime, deluding himself with the idea
that he would be able to avoid the punishment of the law. But there has occurred
within his mind, a struggle between the crime and the punishment. Whether it be
efficacious in hindering crime or not, this penal code is undoubtedly made for a very
limited class of individuals; namely, criminals. The enormous majority of citizens are
honest without any regard whatever to the threats of the law.
The real punishment of normal man is the loss of the consciousness of that
individual power and greatness which are the sources of his inner life. Such a
punishment often falls upon men in the fullness of success. A man whom we would
consider crowned by happiness and fortune may be suffering from this form of
punishment. Far too often man does not see the real punishment which threatens him.

And it is just here that education may help.

To-day we hold the pupils in school, restricted by those instruments so degrading to
body and spirit, the desk—and material prizes and punishments. Our aim in all this is
to reduce them to the discipline of immobility and silence,—to lead them,—where?
Far too often toward no definite end.[Pg 27]
Often the education of children consists in pouring into their intelligence the
intellectual contents of school programmes. And often these programmes have been
compiled in the official department of education, and their use is imposed by law
upon the teacher and the child.
Ah, before such dense and wilful disregard of the life which is growing within these
children, we should hide our heads in shame and cover our guilty faces with our
hands!
 Sergi says truly: "To-day an urgent need imposes itself upon society: the
reconstruction of methods in education and instruction, and he who fights for this
cause, fights for human regeneration."
[1]Trevisini, 1892.
[2]Montessori: "L'Antropologia Pedagogica." Vallardi.
[3]See in my treatise on Pedagogical Anthropology the chapter on "The Method Used In Experimental
Sciences."

[Pg 28]

CHAPTER II
HISTORY OF METHODS
If we are to develop a system of scientific pedagogy, we must, then, proceed along
lines very different from those which have been followed up to the present time. The
transformation of the school must be contemporaneous with the preparation of the
teacher. For if we make of the teacher an observer, familiar with the experimental
methods, then we must make it possible for her to observe and to experiment in the
school. The fundamental principle of scientific pedagogy must be, indeed, the liberty
of the pupil;—such liberty as shall permit a development of individual, spontaneous
manifestations of the child's nature. If a new and scientific pedagogy is to arise from
the study of the individual, such study must occupy itself with the observation
of free children. In vain should we await a practical renewing of pedagogical methods
from methodical examinations of pupils made under the guidance offered to-day by
pedagogy, anthropology, and experimental psychology.
Every branch of experimental science has grown out of the application of a method
peculiar to itself. Bacteriology owes its scientific content to the method of isolation
and culture of microbes. Criminal, medical, and pedagogical anthropology owe their
progress to the application of anthropological methods to individuals of various
classes, such as criminals, the insane, the sick of the clinics, [Pg 29] scholars. So
experimental psychology needs as its starting point an exact definition of the
technique to be used in making the experiment.
To put it broadly, it is important to define the method, the technique, and from its
application to await the definite result, which must be gathered entirely from actual
experience. One of the characteristics of experimental sciences is to proceed to the
making of an experiment without preconceptions of any sort as to the final result of
the experiment itself. For example, should we wish to make scientific observations
concerning the development of the head as related to varying degrees of intelligence,
one of the conditions of such an experiment would be to ignore, in the taking of the
measurements, which were the most intelligent and which the most backward among
the scholars examined. And this because the preconceived idea that the most
intelligent should have the head more fully developed will inevitably alter the results
of the research.
He who experiments must, while doing so, divest himself of every preconception. It
is clear then that if we wish to make use of a method of experimental psychology, the
first thing necessary is to renounce all former creeds and to proceed by means of
the method in the search for truth.
We must not start, for example, from any dogmatic ideas which we may happen to
have held upon the subject of child psychology. Instead, we must proceed by a
method which shall tend to make possible to the child complete liberty. This we must
do if we are to draw from the observation of his spontaneous manifestations
conclusions which shall lead to the establishment of a truly scientific child
psychology. It may be that such a[Pg 30] method holds for us great surprises,
unexpected possibilities.
Child psychology and pedagogy must establish their content by successive
conquests arrived at through the method of experimentation.

Our problem then, is this: to establish the method peculiar to experimental

pedagogy. It cannot be that used in other experimental sciences. It is true that
scientific pedagogy is rounded out by hygiene, anthropology, and psychology, and
adopts in part the technical method characteristic of all three, although limiting itself
to a special study of the individual to be educated. But in pedagogy this study of the
individual, though it must accompany the very different work of education, is a
limited and secondary part of the science as a whole.
This present study deals in part with the method used in experimental pedagogy,
and is the result of my experiences during two years in the "Children's Houses." I
offer only a beginning of the method, which I have applied to children between the
ages of three and six. But I believe that these tentative experiments, because of the
surprising results which they have given, will be the means of inspiring a continuation
of the work thus undertaken.
 Indeed, although our educational system, which experience has demonstrated to be
excellent, is not yet entirely completed, it nevertheless constitutes a system well
enough established to be practical in all institutions where young children are cared
for, and in the first elementary classes.
Perhaps I am not exact when I say that the present work springs from two years of
experience. I do not believe that these later attempts of mine could alone have
rendered possible all that I set forth in this book. The [Pg 31] origin of the educational
system in use in the "Children's Houses" is much more remote, and if this experience
with normal children seems indeed rather brief, it should be remembered that it sprang
from preceding pedagogical experiences with abnormal children, and that considered
in this way, it represents a long and thoughtful endeavour.
About fifteen years ago, being assistant doctor at the Psychiatric Clinic of the
University of Rome, I had occasion to frequent the insane asylums to study the sick
and to select subjects for the clinics. In this way I became interested in the idiot
children who were at that time housed in the general insane asylums. In those days
thyroid organotherapy was in full development, and this drew the attention of
physicians to deficient children. I myself, having completed my regular hospital
services, had already turned my attention to the study of children's diseases.
It was thus that, being interested in the idiot children, I became conversant with the
special method of education devised for these unhappy little ones by Edward Séguin,
and was led to study thoroughly the idea, then beginning to be prevalent among the
physicians, of the efficacy of "pedagogical treatment" for various morbid forms of
disease such as deafness, paralysis, idiocy, rickets, etc. The fact that pedagogy must
join with medicine in the treatment of disease was the practical outcome of the
thought of the time. And because of this tendency the method of treating disease by
gymnastics became widely popular. I, however, differed from my colleagues in that I
felt that mental deficiency presented chiefly a pedagogical, rather than mainly a
medical, problem. Much was said in the medical congresses of the medico-pedagogic
method for the treatment and education of the feeble [Pg 32] minded, and I expressed
my differing opinion in an address on Moral Education at the Pedagogical Congress
of Turin in 1898. I believe that I touched a chord already vibrant, because the idea,
making its way among the physicians and elementary teachers, spread in a flash as
presenting a question of lively interest to the school.
In fact I was called upon by my master, Guido Baccelli, the great Minister of
Education, to deliver to the teachers of Rome a course of lectures on the education of
feeble-minded children. This course soon developed into the State Orthophrenic
School, which I directed for more than two years.
 In this school we had an all-day class of children composed of those who in the
elementary schools were considered hopelessly deficient. Later on, through the help
of a philanthropic organisation, there was founded a Medical Pedagogic Institute
where, besides the children from the public schools, we brought together all of the
idiot children from the insane asylums in Rome.
I spent these two years with the help of my colleagues in preparing the teachers of
Rome for a special method of observation and education of feeble-minded children.
Not only did I train teachers, but what was much more important, after I had been in
London and Paris for the purpose of studying in a practical way the education of
deficients, I gave myself over completely to the actual teaching of the children,
directing at the same time the work of the other teachers in our institute.
I was more than an elementary teacher, for I was present, or directly taught the
children, from eight in the morning to seven in the evening without interruption.
These two years of practice are my first and indeed my true degree in pedagogy. From
the very beginning of[Pg 33] my work with deficient children (1898 to 1900) I felt that
the methods which I used had in them nothing peculiarly limited to the instruction of
idiots. I believed that they contained educational principles more rational than those
in use, so much more so, indeed, that through their means an inferior mentality would
be able to grow and develop. This feeling, so deep as to be in the nature of an
intuition, became my controlling idea after I had left the school for deficients, and,
little by little, I became convinced that similar methods applied to normal children
would develop or set free their personality in a marvellous and surprising way.
It was then that I began a genuine and thorough study of what is known as remedial
pedagogy, and, then, wishing to undertake the study of normal pedagogy and of the
principles upon which it is based, I registered as a student of philosophy at the
University. A great faith animated me, and although I did not know that I should ever
be able to test the truth of my idea, I gave up every other occupation to deepen and
broaden its conception. It was almost as if I prepared myself for an unknown mission.
The methods for the education of deficients had their origin at the time of the
French Revolution in the work of a physician whose achievements occupy a
prominent place in the history of medicine, as he was the founder of that branch of
medical science which to-day is known as Otiatria (diseases of the ear).
He was the first to attempt a methodical education of the sense of hearing. He made
these experiments in the institute for deaf mutes founded in Paris by Pereire, and
actually succeeded in making the semi-deaf hear clearly. Later on, having in charge
for eight years the idiot boy[Pg 34] known as "the wild boy of Aveyron," he extended
to the treatment of all the senses those educational methods which had already given
such excellent results in the treatment of the sense of hearing. A student of Pinel,
Itard, was the first educator to practise the observation of the pupil in the way in
which the sick are observed in the hospitals, especially those suffering from diseases
of the nervous system.
The pedagogic writings of Itard are most interesting and minute descriptions of
educational efforts and experiences, and anyone reading them to-day must admit that
they were practically the first attempts at experimental psychology. But the merit of
having completed a genuine educational system for deficient children was due to
Edward Séguin, first a teacher and then a physician. He took the experiences of Itard
as his starting point, applying these methods, modifying and completing them during a
period of ten years' experience with children taken from the insane asylums and
placed in, a little school in Rue Pigalle in Paris. This method was described for the
first time in a volume of more than six hundred pages, published in Paris in 1846, with
the title: "Traitement Moral, Hygiène et Education des Idiots." Later Séguin emigrated
to the United States of America where he founded many institutions for deficients,
and where, after another twenty years of experience, he published the second edition
of his method, under a very different title: "Idiocy and its Treatment by the
Physiological Method." This volume was published in New York in 1886, and in it
Séguin had carefully defined his method of education, calling it the physiological
method. He no longer referred in the title to a method for the "education of idiots" as
if the method were special to them, but spoke [Pg 35] now of idiocy treated by a
physiological method. If we consider that pedagogy always had psychology as its
base, and that Wundt defines a "physiological psychology," the coincidence of these
ideas must strike us, and lead us to suspect in the physiological method some
connection with physiological psychology.
While I was assistant at the Psychiatric Clinic, I had read Edward Séguin's French
book, with great interest. But the English book which was published in New York
twenty years later, although it was quoted in the works about special education by
Bourneville, was not to be found in any library. I made a vain quest for it, going from
house to house of nearly all the English physicians, who were known to be specially
interested in deficient children, or who were superintendents of special schools. The
fact that this book was unknown in England, although it had been published in the
English language, made me think that the Séguin system had never been understood.
In fact, although Séguin was constantly quoted in all the publications dealing with
institutions for deficients, the educational applications described, were quite different
from the applications of Séguin's system.
Almost everywhere the methods applied to deficients are more or less the same as
those in use for normal children. In Germany, especially, a friend who had gone there
in order to help me in my researches, noticed that although special materials existed
here and there in the pedagogical museums of the schools for deficients, these
materials were rarely used. Indeed, the German educators hold the principle that it is
well to adapt to the teaching of backward children, the same method used for normal
ones; but these methods are much more objective in Germany than with us.[Pg 36]
At the Bicêtre, where I spent some time, I saw that it was the didactic apparatus of
Séguin far more than his method which was being used, although, the French text was
in the hands of the educators. The teaching there was purely mechanical, each teacher
following the rules according to the letter. I found, however, wherever I went, in
London as well as in Paris, a desire for fresh counsel and for new experiences, since
far too often Séguin's claim that with his methods the education of idiots was actually
possible, had proved only a delusion.
After this study of the methods in use throughout Europe I concluded my
experiments upon the deficients of Rome, and taught them throughout two years. I
followed Séguin's book, and also derived much help from the remarkable experiments
of Itard.
Guided by the work of these two men, I had manufactured a great variety of
didactic material. These materials, which I have never seen complete in any
institution, became in the hands of those who knew how to apply them, a most
remarkable and efficient means, but unless rightly presented, they failed to attract the
attention of the deficients.
I felt that I understood the discouragement of those working with feeble-minded
children, and could see why they had, in so many cases, abandoned the method. The
prejudice that the educator must place himself on a level with the one to be educated,
sinks the teacher of deficients into a species of apathy. He accepts the fact that he is
educating an inferior personality, and for that very reason he does not succeed. Even
so those who teach little children too often have the idea that they are educating
babies and seek to place themselves on the child's level by approaching him with
games, and often with foolish[Pg 37] stories. Instead of all this, we must know how to
call to the man which lies dormant within the soul of the child. I felt this, intuitively,
and believed that not the didactic material, but my voice which called to
them, awakened the children, and encouraged them to use the didactic material, and
through it, to educate themselves. I was guided in my work by the deep respect which
I felt for their misfortune, and by the love which these unhappy children know how to
awaken in those who are near them.
Séguin, too, expressed himself in the same way on this subject. Reading his patient
attempts, I understand clearly that the first didactic material used by him
was spiritual. Indeed, at the close of the French volume, the author, giving a résumé
of his work, concludes by saying rather sadly, that all he has established will be lost or
useless, if the teachers are not prepared for their work. He holds rather original views
concerning the preparation of teachers of deficients. He would have them good to look
upon, pleasant-voiced, careful in every detail of their personal appearance, doing
everything possible to make themselves attractive. They must, he says, render
themselves attractive in voice and manner, since it is their task to awaken souls which
are frail and weary, and to lead them forth to lay hold upon the beauty and strength of
life.
This belief that we must act upon the spirit, served as a sort of secret key, opening
to me the long series of didactic experiments so wonderfully analysed by Edward
Séguin,—experiments which, properly understood, are really most efficacious in the
education of idiots. I myself obtained most surprising results through their application,
but I must confess that, while my efforts showed themselves in the intellectual
progress of my pupils, a[Pg 38] peculiar form of exhaustion prostrated me. It was as if
I gave to them some vital force from within me. Those things which we call
encouragement, comfort, love, respect, are drawn from the soul of man, and the more
freely we give of them, the more do we renew and reinvigorate the life about us.
Without such inspiration the most perfect external stimulus may pass unobserved.
Thus the blind Saul, before the glory of the sun, exclaimed, "This?—It is the dense
fog!"
Thus prepared, I was able to proceed to new experiments on my own account. This
is not the place for a report of these experiments, and I will only note that at this time I
attempted an original method for the teaching of reading and writing, a part of the
education of the child which was most imperfectly treated in the works of both Itard
and Séguin.
I succeeded in teaching a number of the idiots from the asylums both to read and to
write so well that I was able to present them at a public school for an examination
together with normal children. And they passed the examination successfully.
These results seemed almost miraculous to those who saw them. To me, however,
the boys from the asylums had been able to compete with the normal children only
because they had been taught in a different way. They had been helped in their
psychic development, and the normal children had, instead, been suffocated, held
back. I found myself thinking that if, some day, the special education which had
developed these idiot children in such a marvellous fashion, could be applied to the
development of normal children, the "miracle" of which my friends talked would no
longer be possible. The abyss[Pg 39] between the inferior mentality of the idiot and
that of the normal brain can never be bridged if the normal child has reached his full
development.
While everyone was admiring the progress of my idiots, I was searching for the
reasons which could keep the happy healthy children of the common schools on so
low a plane that they could be equalled in tests of intelligence by my unfortunate
pupils!
One day, a directress in the Institute for Deficients, asked me to read one of the
prophecies of Ezekiel which had made a profound impression upon her, as it seemed
to prophesy the education of deficients.
"The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord,
and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.
"And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in
the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
"And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord
God, thou knowest.
"Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry
hones, hear the word of the Lord.
"Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into
you, and ye shall live:
"And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you
with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the
Lord.
"So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and
behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
"And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came [Pg 40] up upon them, and the
skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
"Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to
the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe
upon these slain, that they may live.
"So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they
lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
"Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel:
behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our
parts."
In fact, the words—"I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live," seem to
me to refer to the direct individual work of the master who encourages, calls to, and
helps his pupil, preparing him for education. And the remainder—"I will lay sinews
upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you," recalled the fundamental phrase which
sums up Séguin's whole method,—"to lead the child, as it were, by the hand, from the
education of the muscular system, to that of the nervous system, and of the senses." It
was thus that Séguin taught the idiots how to walk, how to maintain their equilibrium
in the most difficult movements of the body—such as going up stairs, jumping, etc.,
and finally, to feel, beginning the education of the muscular sensations by touching,
and reading the difference of temperature, and ending with the education of the
particular senses.
But if the training goes no further than this, we have only led these children to adapt
themselves to a low order of life (almost a vegetable existence). "Call to the Spirit,"
says the prophecy, and the spirit shall enter into them, and they shall have life. Séguin,
indeed, led the[Pg 41] idiot from the vegetative to the intellectual life, "from the
education, of the senses to general notions, from general notions to abstract thought,
from abstract thought to morality." But when this wonderful work is accomplished,
and by means of a minute physiological analysis and of a gradual progression in
method, the idiot has become a man, he is still an inferior in the midst of his fellow
men, an individual who will never be able fully to adapt himself to the social
environment: "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts."
This gives us another reason why the tedious method of Séguin was so often
abandoned; the tremendous difficulty of the means, did not justify the end. Everyone
felt this, and many said, "There is still so much to be done for normal children!"

Having through actual experience justified my faith in Séguin's method, I withdrew

from active work among deficients, and began a more thorough study of the works of
Itard and Séguin. I felt the need of meditation. I did a thing which I had not done
before, and which perhaps few students have been willing to do,—I translated into
Italian and copied out with my own hand, the writings of these men, from beginning
to end, making for myself books as the old Benedictines used to do before the
diffusion of printing.
I chose to do this by hand, in order that I might have time to weigh the sense of each
word, and to read, in truth, the spirit of the author. I had just finished copying the 600
pages of Séguin's French volume when I received from New York a copy of the
English book published in 1866. This old volume had been found among the books
discarded from the private library of a New York physi [Pg 42]cian. I translated it with
the help of an English friend. This volume did not add much in the way of new
pedagogical experiments, but dealt with the philosophy of the experiences described
in the first volume. The man who had studied abnormal children for thirty years
expressed the idea that the physiological method, which has as its base the individual
study of the pupil and which forms its educative methods upon the analysis of
physiological and psychological phenomena, must come also to be applied to normal
children. This step, he believed, would show the way to a complete human
regeneration.
The voice of Séguin seemed to be like the voice of the forerunner crying in the
wilderness, and my thoughts were filled with the immensity and importance of a work
which should be able to reform the school and education.
At this time I was registered at the University as a student of philosophy, and
followed the courses in experimental psychology, which had only recently been
established in Italian universities, namely, at Turin, Rome and Naples. At the same
time I made researches in Pedagogic Anthropology in the elementary schools,
studying in this way the methods in organisation used for the education of normal
children. This work led to the teaching of Pedagogic Anthropology in the University
of Rome.

I had long wished to experiment with the methods for deficients in a first
elementary class of normal children, but I had never thought of making use of the
homes or institutions where very young children were cared for. It was pure chance
that brought this new idea to my mind.
It was near the end of the year 1906, and I had just returned from Milan, where I
had been one of a committee at the International Exhibition for the assignment of [Pg
43] prizes in the subjects of Scientific Pedagogy and Experimental Psychology. A
great opportunity came to me, for I was invited by Edoardo Talamo, the Director
General of the Roman Association for Good Building, to undertake the organisation
of infant schools in its model tenements. It was Signor Talamo's happy idea to gather
together in a large room all the little ones between the ages of three and seven
belonging to the families living in the tenement. The play and work of these children
was to be carried on under the guidance of a teacher who should have her own
apartment in the tenement house. It was intended that every house should have its
school, and as the Association for Good Building already owned more than 400
tenements in Rome the work seemed to offer tremendous possibilities of development.
The first school was to be established in January, 1907, in a large tenement house in
the Quarter of San Lorenzo. In the same Quarter the Association already owned fifty-
eight buildings, and according to Signor Talamo's plans we should soon be able to
open sixteen of these "schools within the house."
This new kind of school was christened by Signora Olga Lodi, a mutual friend of
Signor Talamo and myself, under the fortunate title of Casa dei Bambini or "The
Children's House." Under this name the first of our schools was opened on the sixth of
January, 1907, at 58 Via dei Masi. It was confided to the care of Candida Nuccitelli
and was under my guidance and direction.
From the very first I perceived, in all its immensity, the social and pedagogical
importance of such institutions, and while at that time my visions of a triumphant
future seemed exaggerated, to-day many are beginning to understand that what I saw
before was indeed the truth.
On the seventh of April of the same year, 1907, a sec [Pg 44]ond "Children's House"
was opened in the Quarter of San Lorenzo; and on the eighteenth of October, 1908,
another was inaugurated by the Humanitarian Society in Milan in the Quarter
inhabited by workingmen. The workshops of this same society undertook the
manufacture of the materials which we used.
On the fourth of November following, a third "Children's House" was opened in
Rome, this time not in the people's Quarter, but in a modern building for the middle
classes, situated in Via Famagosta, in that part of the city known as the Prati di
Castello; and in January, 1909, Italian Switzerland began to transform its orphan
asylums and children's homes in which the Froebel system had been used, into
"Children's Houses" adopting our methods and materials.
The "Children's House" has a twofold importance: the social importance which it
assumes through its peculiarity of being a school within the house, and its purely
pedagogic importance gained through its methods for the education of very young
children, of which I now made a trial.
As I have said, Signor Talamo's invitation gave me a wonderful opportunity for
applying the methods used with deficients to normal children, not of the elementary
school age, but of the age usual in infant asylums.
If a parallel between the deficient and the normal child is possible, this will be
during the period of early infancy when the child who has not the force to
develop and he who is not yet developed are in some ways alike.
The very young child has not yet acquired a secure co-ordination of muscular
movements, and, therefore, walks imperfectly, and is not able to perform the ordinary
acts of life, such as fastening and unfastening its garments. [Pg 45] The sense organs,
such as the power of accommodation of the eye, are not yet completely developed; the
language is primordial and shows those defects common to the speech of the very
young child. The difficulty of fixing the attention, the general instability, etc., are
characteristics which the normal infant and the deficient child have in common.
Preyer, also, in his psychological study of children has turned aside to illustrate the
parallel between pathological linguistic defects, and those of normal children in the
process of developing.
 Methods which made growth possible to the mental personality of the idiot ought,
therefore, to aid the development of young children, and should be so adapted as to
constitute a hygienic education of the entire personality of a normal human being.
Many defects which become permanent, such as speech defects, the child acquires
through being neglected during the most important period of his age, the period
between three and six, at which time he forms and establishes his principal functions.
Here lies the significance of my pedagogical experiment in the "Children's Houses."
It represents the results of a series of trials made by me, in the education of young
children, with methods already used with deficients. My work has not been in any
way an application, pure and simple, of the methods of Séguin to young children, as
anyone who will consult the works of the author will readily see. But it is none the
less true that, underlying these two years of trial, there is a basis of experiment which
goes back to the days of the French Revolution, and which represents the earnest work
of the lives of Itard and Séguin.
As for me, thirty years after the publication of Séguin's second book, I took up
again the ideas and, I may even[Pg 46] say, the work of this great man, with the same
freshness of spirit with which he received the inheritance of the work and ideas of his
master Itard. For ten years I not only made practical experiments according to their
methods, but through reverent meditation absorbed the works of these noble and
consecrated men, who have left to humanity most vital proof of their obscure heroism.
Thus my ten years of work may in a sense be considered as a summing up of the
forty years of work done by Itard and Séguin. Viewed in this light, fifty years of
active work preceded and prepared for this apparently brief trial of only two years,
and I feel that I am not wrong in saying that these experiments represent the
successive work of three physicians, who from Itard to me show in a greater or less
degree the first steps along the path of psychiatry.
As definite factors in the civilisation of the people, the "Children's Houses" deserve
a separate volume. They have, in fact, solved so many of the social and pedagogic
problems in ways which have seemed to be Utopian, that they are a part of that
modern transformation of the home which must most surely be realised before many
years have passed. In this way they touch directly the most important side of the social
question—that which deals with the intimate or home life of the people.
It is enough here to reproduce the inaugural discourse delivered by me on the
occasion of the opening of the second "Children's House" in Rome, and to present the
rules and regulations[4] which I arranged in accordance with the wishes of Signor
Talamo.
It will be noticed that the club to which I refer, and the dispensary which is also an
out-patients' institution for medical and surgical treatment (all such institutions be [Pg
47]ing free to the inhabitants) have already been established. In the modern tenement
—Casa Moderna in the Prati di Castello, opened November 4, 1908, through the
philanthropy of Signor Talamo—they are also planning to annex a "communal
kitchen."
[4]See page 70.

[Pg 48]

CHAPTER III
INAGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION OF THE
OPENING OF ONE OF THE "CHILDREN'S HOUSES"
It may be that the life lived by the very poor is a thing which some of you here to-
day have never actually looked upon in all its degradation. You may have only felt the
misery of deep human poverty through the medium of some great book, or some
gifted actor may have made your soul vibrato with its horror.

Let us suppose that in some such moment a voice should cry to you, "Go look upon
these homes of misery and blackest poverty. For there have sprung up amid the terror
and the suffering, cases of happiness, of cleanliness, of peace. The poor are to have an
ideal house which shall be their own. In Quarters where poverty and vice ruled, a
work of moral redemption is going on. The soul of the people is being set free from
the torpor of vice, from the shadows of ignorance. The little children too have a
'House' of their own. The new generation goes forward to meet the new era, the time
when misery shall no longer be deplored but destroyed. They go to meet the time
when the dark dens of vice and wretchedness shall have become things of the past,
and when no trace of them shall be found among the living." What a change of
emotions we should experience! and how we should hasten [Pg 49] here, as the wise
men guided by a dream and a star hastened to Bethlehem!
I have spoken thus in order that you may understand the great significance, the real
beauty, of this humble room, which seems like a bit of the house itself set apart by a
mother's hand for the use and happiness of the children of the Quarter. This is the
second "Children's House"[5] which has been established within the ill-favoured
Quarter of San Lorenzo.
 The Quarter of San Lorenzo is celebrated, for every newspaper in the city is filled
with almost daily accounts of its wretched happenings. Yet there are many who are
not familiar with the origin of this portion of our city.
It was never intended to build up here a tenement district for the people. And indeed
San Lorenzo is not the People's Quarter, it is the Quarter of the poor. It is the Quarter
where lives the underpaid, often unemployed workingman, a common type in a city
which has no factory industries. It is the home of him who undergoes the period of
surveillance to which he is condemned after his prison sentence is ended. They are all
here, mingled, huddled together.
The district of San Lorenzo sprang into being between 1884 and 1888 at the time of
the great building fever. No standards either social or hygienic guided these new
constructions. The aim in building was simply to cover with walls square foot after
square foot of ground. The more space covered, the greater the gain of the interested
Banks and Companies. All this with a complete disregard of the disastrous future
which they were preparing. It was natural that no one should concern himself with [Pg
50] the stability of the building he was creating, since in no case would the property
remain in the possession of him who built it.
When the storm burst, in the shape of the inevitable building panic of 1888 to 1890,
these unfortunate houses remained for a long time untenanted. Then, little by little, the
need of dwelling-places began to make itself felt, and these great houses began to fill.
Now, those speculators who had been so unfortunate as to remain possessors of these
buildings could not, and did not wish to, add fresh capital to that already lost, so the
houses constructed in the first place in utter disregard of all laws of hygiene, and
rendered still worse by having been used as temporary habitations, came to be
occupied by the poorest class in the city.
The apartments not being prepared for the working class, were too large, consisting
of five, six, or seven rooms. These were rented at a price which, while exceedingly
low in relation to the size, was yet too high for any one family of very poor people.
This led to the evil of subletting. The tenant who has taken a six room apartment at
eight dollars a month sublets rooms at one dollar and a half or two dollars a month to
those who can pay so much, and a corner of a room, or a corridor, to a poorer tenant,
thus making an income of fifteen dollars or more, over and above the cost of his own
rent.

This means that the problem of existence is in great part solved for him, and that in
every case he adds to his income through usury. The one who holds the lease traffics
in the misery of his fellow tenants, lending small sums at a rate which generally
corresponds to twenty cents a[Pg 51] week for the loan of two dollars, equivalent to an
annual rate of 500 per cent.
Thus we have in the evil of subletting the most cruel form of usury: that which only
the poor know how to practise upon the poor.
To this we must add the evils of crowded living, promiscuousness, immorality,
crime. Every little while the newspapers uncover for us one of these intérieurs: a large
family, growing boys and girls, sleep in one room; while one corner of the room is
occupied by an outsider, a woman who receives the nightly visits of men. This is seen
by the girls and the boys; evil passions are kindled that lead to the crime and
bloodshed which unveil for a brief instant before our eyes, in some lurid paragraph,
this little detail of the mass of misery.
Whoever enters, for the first time, one of these apartments is astonished and
horrified. For this spectacle of genuine misery is not at all like the garish scene he has
imagined. We enter here a world of shadows, and that which strikes us first is the
darkness which, even though it be midday, makes it impossible to distinguish any of
the details of the room.
When the eye has grown accustomed to the gloom, we perceive, within, the outlines
of a bed upon which lies huddled a figure—someone ill and suffering. If we have
come to bring money from some society for mutual aid, a candle must be lighted
before the sum can be counted and the receipt signed. Oh, when we talk of social
problems, how often we speak vaguely, drawing upon our fancy for details instead of
preparing ourselves to judge intelligently through a personal investigation of facts and
conditions.
We discuss earnestly the question of home study for [Pg 52] school children, when
for many of them home means a straw pallet thrown down in the corner of some dark
hovel. We wish to establish circulating libraries that the poor may read at home. We
plan to send among these people books which shall form their domestic literature—
books through whose influence they shall come to higher standards of living. We hope
through the printed page to educate these poor people in matters of hygiene, of
morality, of culture, and in this we show ourselves profoundly ignorant of their most
crying needs. For many of them have no light by which to read!
There lies before the social crusader of the present day a problem more profound
than that of the intellectual elevation of the poor; the problem, indeed, of life.
In speaking of the children born in these places, even the conventional expressions
must be changed, for they do not "first see the light of day"; they come into a world of
gloom. They grow among the poisonous shadows which envelope over-crowded
humanity. These children cannot be other than filthy in body, since the water supply
in an apartment originally intended to be occupied by three or four persons, when
distributed among twenty or thirty is scarcely enough for drinking purposes!
We Italians have elevated our word "casa" to the almost sacred significance of the
English word "home," the enclosed temple of domestic affection, accessible only to
dear ones.
Far removed from this conception is the condition of the many who have no "casa,"
but only ghastly walls within which the most intimate acts of life are exposed upon
the pillory. Here, there can be no privacy, no modesty, no gentleness; here, there is
often not even light, nor air, nor water! It seems a cruel mockery to introduce [Pg
53] here our idea of the home as essential to the education of the masses, and as
furnishing, along with the family, the only solid basis for the social structure. In doing
this we would be not practical reformers but visionary poets.
Conditions such as I have described make it more decorous, more hygienic, for
these people to take refuge in the street and to let their children live there. But how
often these streets are the scene of bloodshed, of quarrel, of sights so vile as to be
almost inconceivable. The papers tell us of women pursued and killed by drunken
husbands! Of young girls with the fear of worse than death, stoned by low men.
Again, we see untellable things—a wretched woman thrown, by the drunken men who
have preyed upon her, forth into the gutter. There, when day has come, the children of
the neighbourhood crowd about her like scavengers about their dead prey, shouting
and laughing at the sight of this wreck of womanhood, kicking her bruised and filthy
body as it lies in the mud of the gutter!
Such spectacles of extreme brutality are possible here at the very gate of a
cosmopolitan city, the mother of civilisation and queen of the fine arts, because of a
new fact which was unknown to past centuries, namely, the isolation of the masses of
the poor.
In the Middle Ages, leprosy was isolated: the Catholics isolated the Hebrews in the
Ghetto; but poverty was never considered a peril and an infamy so great that it must
be isolated. The homes of the poor were scattered among those of the rich and the
contrast between these was a commonplace in literature up to our own times. Indeed,
when I was a child in school, teachers, for the purpose of moral education, frequently
resorted to the illustration of the kind princess who sends help to the poor cottage
next[Pg 54] door, or of the good children from the great house who carry food to the
sick woman in the neighbouring attic.
To-day all this would be as unreal and artificial as a fairy tale. The poor may no
longer learn from their more fortunate neighbours lessons in courtesy and good
breeding, they no longer have the hope of help from them in cases of extreme need.
We have herded them together far from us, without the walls, leaving them to learn of
each other, in the abandon of desperation, the cruel lessons of brutality and vice.
Anyone in whom the social conscience is awake must see that we have thus created
infected regions that threaten with deadly peril the city which, wishing to make all
beautiful and shining according to an æsthetic and aristocratic ideal, has thrust without
its walls whatever is ugly or diseased.
When I passed for the first time through these streets, it was as if I found myself in
a city upon which some great disaster had fallen. It seemed to me that the shadow of
some recent struggle still oppressed the unhappy people who, with something very
like terror in their pale faces, passed me in these silent streets. The very silence
seemed to signify the life of a community interrupted, broken. Not a carriage, not
even the cheerful voice of the ever-present street vender, nor the sound of the hand-
organ playing in the hope of a few pennies, not even these things, so characteristic of
poor quarters, enter here to lighten this sad and heavy silence.
Observing these streets with their deep holes, the doorsteps broken and tumbling,
we might almost suppose that this disaster had been in the nature of a great inundation
which had carried the very earth away; but looking about us at the houses stripped of
all decorations, the walls broken and scarred, we are inclined to think that it was [Pg
55] perhaps an earthquake which has afflicted this quarter. Then, looking still more
closely, we see that in all this thickly settled neighbourhood there is not a shop to be
found. So poor is the community that it has not been possible to establish even one of
those popular bazars where necessary articles are sold at so low a price as to put them
within the reach of anyone. The only shops of any sort are the low wine shops which
open their evil-smelling doors to the passer-by. As we look upon all this, it is borne
upon us that the disaster which has placed its weight of suffering upon these people is
not a convulsion of nature, but poverty—poverty with its inseparable companion,
vice.
This unhappy and dangerous state of things, to which our attention is called at
intervals by newspaper accounts of violent and immoral crime, stirs the hearts and
consciences of many who come to undertake among these people some work of
generous benevolence. One might almost say that every form of misery inspires a
special remedy and that all have been tried here, from the attempt to introduce
hygienic principles into each house, to the establishment of crêches, "Children's
Houses," and dispensaries.
But what indeed is benevolence? Little more than an expression of sorrow; it is pity
translated into action. The benefits of such a form of charity cannot be great, and
through the absence of any continued income and the lack of organisation it is
restricted to a small number of persons. The great and widespread peril of evil
demands, on the other hand, a broad and comprehensive work directed toward the
redemption of the entire community. Only such an organisation, as, working for the
good of others, shall itself grow and prosper through the general prosperity which it
has made possible, can make a place[Pg 56] for itself in this quarter and accomplish a
permanent good work.
It is to meet this dire necessity that the great and kindly work of the Roman
Association of Good Building has been undertaken. The advanced and highly modern
way in which this work is being carried on is due to Edoardo Talamo, Director
General of the Association. His plans, so original, so comprehensive, yet so practical,
are without counterpart in Italy or elsewhere.
This Association was incorporated three years ago in Rome, its plan being to
acquire city tenements, remodel them, put them into a productive condition, and
administer them as a good father of a family would.
The first property acquired comprised a large portion of the Quarter of San Lorenzo,
where to-day the Association possesses fifty-eight houses, occupying a ground space
of about 30,000 square metres, and containing, independent of the ground floor, 1,600
small apartments. Thousands of people will in this way receive the beneficent
influence of the protective reforms of the Good Building Association. Following its
beneficent programme, the Association set about transforming these old houses,
according to the most modern standards, paying as much attention to questions related
to hygiene and morals as to those relating to buildings. The constructional changes
would make the property of real and lasting value, while the hygienic and moral
transformation, would, through the improved condition of the inmates, make the rent
from these apartments a more definite asset.
The Association of Good Building therefore decided upon a programme which
would permit of a gradual attainment of their ideal. It is necessary to proceed slowly
because it is not easy to empty a tenement house at a time [Pg 57] when houses are
scarce, and the humanitarian principles which govern the entire movement make it
impossible to proceed more rapidly in this work of regeneration. So it is, that the
Association has up to the present time transformed only three houses in the Quarter of
San Lorenzo. The plan followed in this transformation is as follows:
A: To demolish in every building all portions of the structure not originally
constructed with the idea of making homes, but, from a purely commercial standpoint,
of making the rental roll larger. In other words, the new management tore down those
parts of the building which encumbered the central court, thus doing away with dark,
ill-ventilated apartments, and giving air and light to the remaining portion of the
tenement. Broad airy courts take the place of the inadequate air and light shafts,
rendering the remaining apartments more valuable and infinitely more desirable.
 B: To increase the number of stairways, and to divide the room space in a more
practical way. The large six or seven room suites are reduced to small apartments of
one, two, or three rooms, and a kitchen.
The importance of such changes may be recognised from the economic point of
view of the proprietor as well as from the standpoint of the moral and material welfare
of the tenant. Increasing the number of stairways diminishes that abuse of walls and
stairs inevitable where so many persons must pass up and down. The tenants more
readily learn to respect the building and acquire habits of cleanliness and order. Not
only this, but in reducing the chances of contact among the inhabitants of the house,
especially late at night, a great advance has been made in the matter of moral hygiene.
The division of the house into small apartments has done [Pg 58] much toward this
moral regeneration. Each family is thus set apart, homes are made possible, while the
menacing evil of subletting together with all its disastrous consequences of
overcrowding and immorality is checked in the most radical way.
On one side this arrangement lessens the burden of the individual lease holders, and
on the other increases the income of the proprietor, who now receives those earnings
which were the unlawful gain of the system of subletting. When the proprietor who
originally rented an apartment of six rooms for a monthly rental of eight dollars,
makes such an apartment over into three small, sunny, and airy suites consisting of
one room and a kitchen, it is evident that he increases his income.
The moral importance of this reform as it stands to-day is tremendous, for it has
done away with those evil influences and low opportunities which arise from
crowding and from promiscuous contact, and has brought to life among these people,
for the first time, the gentle sentiment of feeling themselves free within their own
homes, in the intimacy of the family.
But the project of the Association goes beyond even this. The house which it offers
to its tenants is not only sunny and airy, but in perfect order and repair, almost
shining, and as if perfumed with purity and freshness. These good things, however,
carry with them a responsibility which the tenant must assume if he wishes to enjoy
them. He must pay an actual tax of care and good will. The tenant who receives a
clean house must keep it so, must respect the walls from the big general entrance to
the interior of his own little apartment. He who keeps his house in good condition
receives the recognition and consideration due such a tenant. Thus all the tenants unite
in an ennobling[Pg 59] warfare for practical hygiene, an end made possible by the
simple task of conserving the already perfect conditions.
Here indeed is something new! So far only our great national buildings have had a
continued maintenance fund. Here, in these houses offered to the people, the
maintenance is confided to a hundred or so workingmen, that is, to all the occupants
of the building. This care is almost perfect. The people keep the house in perfect
condition, without a single spot. The building in which we find ourselves to-day has
been for two years under the sole protection of the tenants, and the work of
maintenance has been left entirely to them. Yet few of our houses can compare in
cleanliness and freshness with this home of the poor.
The experiment has been tried and the result is remarkable. The people acquire
together with the lore of home-making, that of cleanliness. They come, moreover, to
wish to beautify their homes. The Association helps this by placing growing plants
and trees in the courts and about the halls.
Out of this honest rivalry in matters so productive of good, grows a species of pride
new to this quarter; this is the pride which the entire body of tenants takes in having
the best-cared-for building and in having risen to a higher and more civilised plane of
living. They not only live in a house, but they know how to live, they know how to
respect the house in which they live.
This first impulse has led to other reforms. From the clean home will come personal
cleanliness. Dirty furniture cannot be tolerated in a clean house, and those persons
living in a permanently clean house will come to desire personal cleanliness.
One of the most important hygienic reforms of the As [Pg 60]sociation is that of the
baths. Each remodeled tenement has a place set apart for bathrooms, furnished with
tubs or shower, and having hot and cold water. All the tenants in regular turn may use
these baths, as, for example, in various tenements the occupants go according to turn,
to wash their clothes in the fountain in the court. This is a great convenience which
invites the people to be clean. These hot and cold baths within the house are a great
improvement upon the general public baths. In this way we make possible to these
people, at one and the same time, health and refinement, opening not only to the sun,
but to progress, those dark habitations once the vile caves of misery.
But in striving to realise its ideal of a semi-gratuitous maintenance of its buildings,
the Association met with a difficulty in regard to those children under school age, who
must often be left alone during the entire day while their parents went out to work.
These little ones, not being able to understand the educative motives which taught
their parents to respect the house, became ignorant little vandals, defacing the walls
and stairs. And here we have another reform the expense of which may be considered
as indirectly assumed by the tenants as was the care of the building. This reform may
be considered as the most brilliant transformation of a tax which progress and
civilisation have as yet devised. The "Children's House" is earned by the parents
through the care of the building. Its expenses are met by the sum that the Association
would have otherwise been forced to spend upon repairs. A wonderful climax, this, of
moral benefits received! Within the "Children's House," which belongs exclusively to
those children under school age, working mothers may safely leave their little ones,
and may proceed with a feeling of great[Pg 61] relief and freedom to their own work.
But this benefit, like that of the care of the house, is not conferred without a tax of
care and of good will. [6]The Regulations posted on the walls announce it thus:
"The mothers are obliged to send their children to the 'Children's House' clean, and
to co-operate with the Directress in the educational work."
Two obligations: namely, the physical and moral care of their own children. If the
child shows through its conversation that the educational work of the school is being
undermined by the attitude taken in his home, he will be sent back to his parents, to
teach them thus how to take advantage of their good opportunities. Those who give
themselves over to low-living, to fighting, and to brutality, shall feel upon them the
weight of those little lives, so needing care. They shall feel that they themselves have
once more cast into the darkness of neglect those little creatures who are the dearest
part of the family. In other words, the parents must learn to deserve the benefit of
having within the house the great advantage of a school for their little ones.
"Good will," a willingness to meet the demands of the Association is enough, for
the directress is ready and willing to teach them how. The regulations say that the
mother must go at least once a week, to confer with the directress, giving an account
of her child, and accepting any helpful advice which the directress may be able to
give. The advice thus given will undoubtedly prove most illuminating in regard to the
child's health and education, since to each of the "Children's Houses" is assigned a
physician as well as a directress.
The directress is always at the disposition of the [Pg 62] mothers, and her life, as a
cultured and educated person, is a constant example to the inhabitants of the house,
for she is obliged to live in the tenement and to be therefore a co-habitant with the
families of all her little pupils. This is a fact of immense importance. Among these
almost savage people, into these houses where at night no one dared go about
unarmed, there has come not only to teach, but to live the very life they live, a
gentlewoman of culture, an educator by profession, who dedicates her time and her
life to helping those about her! A true missionary, a moral queen among the people,
she may, if she be possessed of sufficient tact and heart, reap an unheard-of harvest of
good from her social work.
This house is verily new; it would seem a dream impossible of realisation, but it has
been tried. It is true that there have been before this attempts made by generous
persons to go and live among the poor to civilise them. But such work is not practical,
unless the house of the poor is hygienic, making it possible for people of better
standards to live there. Nor can such work succeed in its purpose unless some
common advantage or interest unites all of the tenants in an effort toward better
things.
This tenement is new also because of the pedagogical organisation of the
"Children's House." This is not simply a place where the children are kept, not just
an asylum, but a true school for their education, and its methods are inspired by the
rational principles of scientific pedagogy.
The physical development of the children is followed, each child being studied from
the anthropological standpoint. Linguistic exercises, a systematic sense-training, and
exercises which directly fit the child for the duties of practical life, form the basis of
the work done. The teach[Pg 63]ing is decidedly objective, and presents an unusual
richness of didactic material.
It is not possible to speak of all this in detail. I must, however, mention that there
already exists in connection with the school a bathroom, where the children may be
given hot or cold baths and where they may learn to take a partial bath, hands, face,
neck, ears. Wherever possible the Association has provided a piece of ground in
which the children may learn to cultivate the vegetables in common use.
It is important that I speak here of the pedagogical progress attained by the
"Children's House" as an institution. Those who are conversant with the chief
problems of the school know that to-day much attention is given to a great principle,
one that is ideal and almost beyond realisation,—the union of the family and the
school in the matter of educational aims. But the family is always something far away
from the school, and is almost always regarded as rebelling against its ideals. It is a
species of phantom upon which the school can never lay its hands. The home is closed
not only to pedagogical progress, but often to social progress. We see here for the first
time the possibility of realising the long-talked-of pedagogical ideal. We have put the
school within the house; and this is not all. We have placed it within the house as
the property of the collectivity, leaving under the eyes of the parents the whole life of
the teacher in the accomplishment of her high mission.
This idea of the collective ownership of the school is new and very beautiful and
profoundly educational.
The parents know that the "Children's House" is their property, and is maintained by
a portion of the rent they pay. The mothers may go at any hour of the day to watch, [Pg
64] to admire, or to meditate upon the life there. It is in every way a continual stimulus
to reflection, and a fount of evident blessing and help to their own children. We may
say that the mothers adore the "Children's House," and the directress. How many
delicate and thoughtful attentions these good mothers show the teacher of their little
ones! They often leave sweets or flowers upon the sill of the schoolroom window, as a
silent token, reverently, almost religiously, given.
 And when after three years of such a novitiate, the mothers send their children to
the common schools, they will be excellently prepared to co-operate in the work of
education, and will have acquired a sentiment, rarely found even among the best
classes; namely, the idea that they must merit through their own conduct and with
their own virtue, the possession of an educated son.
Another advance made by the "Children's Houses" as an institution is related to
scientific pedagogy. This branch of pedagogy, heretofore, being based upon the
anthropological study of the pupil whom it is to educate, has touched only a few of the
positive questions which tend to transform education. For a man is not only a
biological but a social product, and the social environment of individuals in the
process of education, is the home. Scientific pedagogy will seek in vain to better the
new generation if it does not succeed in influencing also the environment within
which this new generation grows! I believe, therefore, that in opening the house to the
light of new truths, and to the progress of civilisation we have solved the problem of
being able to modify directly, the environment of the new generation, and have thus
made it possible to apply, in a practical way, the fundamental principles of scientific
pedagogy.[Pg 65]
The "Children's House" marks still another triumph; it is the first step toward
the socialisation of the house. The inmates find under their own roof the convenience
of being able to leave their little ones in a place, not only safe, but where they have
every advantage.
And let it be remembered that all the mothers in the tenement may enjoy this
privilege, going away to their work with easy minds. Until the present time only one
class in society might have this advantage. Rich women were able to go about their
various occupations and amusements, leaving their children in the hands of a nurse or
a governess. To-day the women of the people who live in these remodeled houses,
may say, like the great lady, "I have left my son with the governess and the nurse."
More than this, they may add, like the princess of the blood, "And the house physician
watches over them and directs their sane and sturdy growth." These women, like the
most advanced class of English and American mothers, possess a "Biographical
Chart," which, filled for the mother by the directress and the doctor, gives her the
most practical knowledge of her child's growth and condition.
We are all familiar with the ordinary advantages of the communistic transformation
of the general environment. For example, the collective use of railway carriages, of
street lights, of the telephone, all these are great advantages. The enormous production
of useful articles, brought about by industrial progress, makes possible to all, clean
clothes, carpets, curtains, table-delicacies, better tableware, etc. The making of such
benefits generally tends to level social caste. All this we have seen in its reality. But
the communising of persons is new. That the collectivity shall benefit from the
services of the servant, the nurse, the teacher—this is a modern ideal.[Pg 66]
We have in the "Children's Houses" a demonstration of this ideal which is unique in
Italy or elsewhere. Its significance is most profound, for it corresponds to a need of
the times. We can no longer say that the convenience of leaving their children takes
away from the mother a natural social duty of first importance; namely, that of caring
for and educating her tender offspring. No, for to-day the social and economic
evolution calls the working-woman to take her place among wage-earners, and takes
away from her by force those duties which would be most dear to her! The mother
must, in any event, leave her child, and often with the pain of knowing him to be
abandoned. The advantages furnished by such institutions are not limited to the
labouring classes, but extend also to the general middle-class, many of whom work
with the brain. Teachers, professors, often obliged to give private lessons after school
hours, frequently leave their children to the care, of some rough and ignorant maid-of-
all-work. Indeed, the first announcement of the "Children's House" was followed by a
deluge of letters from persons of the better class demanding that these helpful reforms
be extended to their dwellings.
We are, then, communising a "maternal function," a feminine duty, within the
house. We may see here in this practical act the solving of many of woman's problems
which have seemed to many impossible of solution. What then will become of the
home, one asks, if the woman goes away from it? The home will be transformed and
will assume the functions of the woman.
I believe that in the future of society other forms of communistic life will come.
Take, for example, the infirmary; woman is the natural nurse for the dear ones of
her household. But who does[Pg 67] not know how often in these days she is obliged
to tear herself unwillingly from the bedside of her sick to go to her work? Competition
is great, and her absence from her post threatens the tenure of the position from which
she draws the means of support. To be able to leave the sick one in a "house-
infirmary," to which she may have access any free moments she may have, and where
she is at liberty to watch during the night, would be an evident advantage to such a
woman.
And how great would be the progress made in the matter of family hygiene, in all
that relates to isolation and disinfection! Who does not know the difficulties of a poor
family when one child is ill of some contagions disease, and should be isolated from
the others? Often such a family may have no kindred or friends in the city to whom
the other children may be sent.
Much more distant, but not impossible, is the communal kitchen, where the dinner
ordered in the morning is sent at the proper time, by means of a dumb-waiter, to the
family dining-room. Indeed, this has been successfully tried in America. Such a
reform would be of the greatest advantage to those families of the middle-class who
must confide their health and the pleasures of the table to the hands of an ignorant
servant who ruins the food. At present, the only alternative in such cases is to go
outside the home to some café where a cheap table d'hôte may be had.
Indeed, the transformation of the house must compensate for the loss in the family
of the presence of the woman who has become a social wage-earner.
In this way the house will become a centre, drawing into itself all those good things
which have hitherto been lacking: schools, public baths, hospitals, etc.[Pg 68]
Thus the tendency will be to change the tenement houses, which have been places
of vice and peril, into centres of education, of refinement, of comfort. This will be
helped if, besides the schools for the children, there may grow up also clubs and
reading-rooms for the inhabitants, especially for the men, who will find there a way to
pass the evening pleasantly and decently. The tenement-club, as possible and as useful
in all social classes as is the "Children's House," will do much toward closing the
gambling-houses and saloons to the great moral advantage of the people. And I
believe that the Association of Good Building will before long establish such clubs in
its reformed tenements here in the Quarter of San Lorenzo; clubs where the tenants
may find newspapers and books, and where they may hear simple and helpful
lectures.
We are, then, very far from the dreaded dissolution of the home and of the family,
through the fact that woman has been forced by changed social and economic
conditions to give her time and strength to remunerative work. The home itself
assumes the gentle feminine attributes of the domestic housewife. The day may come
when the tenant, having given to the proprietor of the house a certain sum, shall
receive in exchange whatever is necessary to the comfort of life; in other words, the
administration shall become the steward of the family.
The house, thus considered, tends to assume in its evolution a significance more
exalted than even the English word "home" expresses. It does not consist of walls
alone, though these walls be the pure and shining guardians of that intimacy which is
the sacred symbol of the family. The home shall become more than this. It lives! It has
a soul. It may be said to embrace its inmates with the [Pg 69] tender, consoling arms of
woman. It is the giver of moral life, of blessings; it cares for, it educates and feeds the
little ones. Within it, the tired workman shall find rest and newness of life. He shall
find there the intimate life of the family, and its happiness.
The new woman, like the butterfly come forth from the chrysalis, shall be liberated
from all those attributes which once made her desirable to man only as the source of
the material blessings of existence. She shall be, like man, an individual, a free human
being, a social worker; and, like man, she shall seek blessing and repose within the
house, the house which has been reformed and communised.
She shall wish to be loved for herself and not as a giver of comfort and repose. She
shall wish a love free from every form of servile labour. The goal of human love is not
the egotistical end of assuring its own satisfaction—it is the sublime goal of
multiplying the forces of the free spirit, making it almost Divine, and, within such
beauty and light, perpetuating the species.
This ideal love is made incarnate by Frederick Nietzsche, in the woman of
Zarathustra, who conscientiously wished her son to be better than she. "Why do you
desire me?" she asks the man. "Perhaps because of the perils of a solitary life?
"In that case go far from me. I wish the man who has conquered himself, who has
made his soul great. I wish the man who has conserved a clean and robust body. I
wish the man who desires to unite with me, body and soul, to create a son! A son
better, more perfect, stronger, than any created heretofore!"
To better the species consciously, cultivating his own health, his own virtue, this
should be the goal of man's married life. It is a sublime concept of which, as yet, [Pg
70] few think. And the socialised home of the future, living, provident, kindly;
educator and comforter; is the true and worthy home of those human mates who wish
to better the species, and to send the race forward triumphant into the eternity of life!

RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE "CHILDREN'S HOUSES"

The Roman Association of Good Building hereby establishes within its tenement
house number, a "Children's House," in which may be gathered together all children
under common school age, belonging to the families of the tenants.
The chief aim of the "Children's House" is to offer, free of charge, to the children of
those parents who are obliged to absent themselves for their work, the personal care
which the parents are not able to give.
In the "Children's House" attention is given to the education, the health, the physical
and moral development of the children. This work is carried on in a way suited to
the age of the children.
There shall be connected with the "Children's House" a Directress, a Physician, and a
Caretaker.
The programme and hours of the "Children's House" shall be fixed by the Directress.
There may be admitted to the "Children's House" all the children in the tenement
between the ages of three and seven.
The parents who wish to avail themselves of the advantages of the "Children's House"
pay nothing. They must, however, assume these binding obligations:
(a) To send their children to the "Children's House" at the appointed time, clean in
body and clothing, and provided with a suitable apron.
[Pg 71]

(b) To show the greatest respect and deference toward the Directress and toward
all persons connected with the "Children's House," and to co-operate with the
Directress herself in the education of the children. Once a week, at least, the
mothers may talk with the Directress, giving her information concerning the
home life of the child, and receiving helpful advice from her.
There shall be expelled from the "Children's House":
(a) Those children who present themselves unwashed, or in soiled clothing.
(b) Those who show themselves to be incorrigible.
(c) Those whose parents fail in respect to the persons connected with the
"Children's House," or who destroy through bad conduct the educational work
of the institution.
[5]Dr. Montessori no longer directs the work in the Casa dei Bambini in the Quarter of San Lorenzo.
[6]See page 70.

[Pg 72]

CHAPTER IV
PEDAGOGICAL METHODS USED IN THE "CHILDREN'S
HOUSES"
As soon as I knew that I had at my disposal a class of little children, it was my wish
to make of this school a field for scientific experimental pedagogy and child
psychology. I started with a view in which Wundt concurs; namely, that child
psychology does not exist. Indeed, experimental researches in regard to childhood, as,
for example, those of Preyer and Baldwin, have been made upon not more than two or
three subjects, children of the investigators. Moreover, the instruments of
psychometry must be greatly modified and simplified before they can be used with
children, who do not lend themselves passively as subjects for experimentation. Child
psychology can be established only through the method of external observation. We
must renounce all idea of making any record of internal states, which can be revealed
only by the introspection of the subject himself. The instruments of psychometric
research, as applied to pedagogy, have up to the present time been limited to the
esthesiometric phase of the study.
My intention was to keep in touch with the researches of others, but to make myself
independent of them, proceeding to my work without preconceptions of any kind. I
retained as the only essential, the affirmation, or, rather, the definition of Wundt, that
"all methods of experimental [Pg 73]psychology may be reduced to one; namely,
carefully recorded observation of the subject."
Treating of children, another factor must necessarily intervene: the study of the
development. Here too, I retained the same general criterion, but without clinging to
any dogma about the activity of the child according to age.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONSIDERATION

In regard to physical development, my first thought was given to the regulating of

anthropometric observations, and to the selection of the most important observations
to be made.
I designed an anthropometer provided with the metric scale, varying between .50
metre and 1.50 metres. A small stool, 30 centimetres high, could be placed upon the
floor of the anthropometer for measurements taken in a sitting position. I now advise
making the anthropometer with a platform on either side of the pole bearing the scale,
so that on one side the total stature can be measured, and on the other the height of the
body when seated. In the second case, the zero is indicated at 30 centimetres; that is, it
corresponds to the seat of the stool, which is fixed. The indicators on the vertical post
are independent one of the other and this makes it possible to measure two children at
the same time. In this way the inconvenience and waste of time caused by having to
move the seat about, is obviated, and also the trouble of having to calculate the
difference in the metric scale.
Having thus facilitated the technique of the researches, I decided to take the
measurements of the children's stature, seated and standing, every month, and in order
to have these regulated as exactly as possible in their re [Pg 74]lation to development,
and also to give greater regularity to the research work of the teacher, I made a rule
that the measurements should be taken on the day on which the child completed each
month of his age. For this purpose I designed a register arranged on the following
plan:—
 The spaces opposite each number are used to register the name of the child born on
that day of the month. Thus the teacher knows which scholars she must measure on
the days which are marked on the calendar, and she fills in his measurements to
correspond with the month in which he was born. In this way a most exact registration
can be arrived at without having the teacher feel that she is overburdened, or fatigued.
With regard to the weight of the child, I have arranged that it shall be taken every
week on a pair of scales which I have placed in the dressing-room where the children
are given their bath. According to the day on which the child is born, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., we have him weighed when he is ready to take a bath.
Thus the children's baths (no small matter when we consider [Pg 75] a class of fifty) are
sub-divided into seven days, and from three to five children go to the bath every day.
Certainly, theoretically, a daily bath would be desirable, but in order to manage this a
large bath or a number of small ones would be necessary, so that a good many
children could be bathed at once. Even a weekly bath entails many difficulties, and
sometimes has to be given up. In any case, I have distributed the taking of the weight
in the order stated with the intention of thus arranging for and making sure of
periodical baths.[7]
The form here given shows the register which we use in recording the weight of the
children. Every page of the register corresponds to a month.
It seems to me that the anthropological measurements, the taking and recording of
which I have just described, should be the only ones with which the schoolmistress
need occupy herself; and, therefore, the only ones which should be taken actually
within the school. It is my plan that other measurements should be taken by a
physician, who either is, or is preparing to be, a specialist in infant anthropology. In
the meantime, I take these special measurements myself.
[Pg 76]
 The examination made by the physician must necessarily be complex, and to
facilitate and regulate the taking of these measurements I have designed and had
printed biological charts, of which I here give an example.[Pg 77]
 [Pg 78]

As will be seen, these charts are very simple. I made them so because I wished the
doctor and the schoolmistress to be able to use them freely and independently.
By this method the anthropometrical records are arranged in an orderly way, while
the simplicity of the mechanism, and the clearness of the charts, guarantee the making
of such observations as I have considered fundamental. Referring to the physician's
biographical chart, I advise that once a year the following measurements be taken:
Circumference of the head; the two greater diameters of the head; the circumference
of the chest; and the cephalic, ponderal, and stature indices. Further information
concerning the selection of these measurements may be found in my treatise,
"Antropologia Pedagogica." The physician is asked to take these measurements during
the week, or at least within the month, in which the child completes a year of his age,
and, if it is possible, on the birthday itself. In this way the task of the physician will
also be made easier, because of its regularity. We have, at the most, fifty children in
each of our schools, and the birthdays of these scattered over the 365 days of the year
make it possible for the physician to take his measurements from time to time, so that
the burden of his work is not heavy. It is the duty of the teacher to inform the doctor
of the birthdays of the children.
The taking of these anthropometrical measurements has also an educational side to
it, for the pupils, when they leave the "Children's House," know how to answer with
clearness and certainty the following questions:—
On what day of the week were you born?
On what day of the month?
When does your birthday come?[Pg 79]
And with all this they will have acquired habits of order, and, above all, they will
have formed the habit of observing themselves. Indeed, I may say here, that the
children take a great pleasure in being measured; at the first glance of the teacher and
at the word stature, the child begins instantly to take off his shoes, laughing and
running to place himself upon the platform of the anthropometer; placing himself of
his own accord in the normal position so perfectly that the teacher needs only to
arrange the indicator and read the result.
Aside from the measurements which the physician takes with the ordinary
instruments (calipers and metal yard measure), he makes observations upon the
children's colouring, condition of their muscles, state of their lymphatic glands, the
condition of the blood, etc. He notices any malformations; describes any pathological
conditions with care (any tendency to rickets, infant paralysis, defective sight, etc.).
This objective study of the child will guide the doctor when he finds it advisable to
talk with the parents concerning its condition. Following this, when the doctor has
found it desirable, he makes a thorough, sanitary inspection of the home of the child,
prescribing necessary treatment and eventually doing away with such troubles as
eczema, inflammation of the ear, feverish conditions, intestinal disturbances, etc. This
careful following of the case in hand is greatly assisted by the existence of
the dispensary within the house, which makes feasible direct treatment and continual
observation.
I have found that the usual question asked patients who present themselves at the
clinics, are not adapted for use in our schools, as the members of the families living in
these tenements are for the greater part perfectly normal.
I therefore encourage the directress of the school to [Pg 80] gather from her
conversations with the mothers information of a more practical sort. She informs
herself as to the education of the parents, their habits, the wages earned, the money
spent for household purposes, etc., and from all this she outlines a history of each
family, much on the order of those used by Le-Play. This method is, of course,
practical only where the directress lives among the families of her scholars.
In every case, however, the physician's advice to the mothers concerning the
hygienic care of each particular child, as well as his directions concerning hygiene in
general, will prove most helpful. The directress should act as the go-between in these
matters, since she is in the confidence of the mothers, and since from her, such advice
comes naturally.

ENVIRONMENT: SCHOOLROOM FURNISHINGS

The method of observation must undoubtedly include the methodical observation of

the morphological growth of the pupils. But let me repeat that, while this element
necessarily enters, it is not upon this particular kind of observation that the method is
established.
The method of observation is established upon one fundamental base—the liberty
of the pupils in their spontaneous manifestations.
With this in view, I first turned my attention to the question of environment, and
this, of course, included the furnishing of the schoolroom. In considering an ample
playground with space for a garden as an important part of this school environment, I
am not suggesting anything new.
The novelty lies, perhaps, in my idea for the use of this open-air space, which is to
be in direct communication[Pg 81] with the schoolroom, so that the children may be
free to go and come as they like, throughout the entire day. I shall speak of this more
fully later on.
 The principal modification in the matter of school furnishings is the abolition of
desks, and benches or stationary chairs. I have had tables made with wide, solid,
octagonal legs, spreading in such a way that the tables are at the same time solidly
firm and very light, so light, indeed, that two four-year-old children can easily carry
them about. These tables are rectangular and sufficiently large to accommodate two
children on the long side, there being room for three if they sit rather close together.
There are smaller tables at which one child may work alone.
I also designed and had manufactured little chairs. My first plan for these was to
have them cane seated, but experience has shown the wear on these to be so great, that
I now have chairs made entirely of wood. These are very light and of an attractive
shape. In addition to these, I have in each schoolroom a number of comfortable little
armchairs, some of wood and some of wicker.
Another piece of our school furniture consists of a little washstand, so low that it
can be used by even a three-year-old child. This is painted with a white waterproof
enamel and, besides the broad, upper and lower shelves which hold the little white
enameled basins and pitchers, there are small side shelves for the soap-dishes, nail-
brushes, towels, etc. There is also a receptacle into which the basins may be emptied.
Wherever possible, a small cupboard provides each child with a space where he may
keep his own soap, nail-brush, tooth-brush, etc.
In each of our schoolrooms we have provided a series of long low cupboards,
especially designed for the reception [Pg 82] of the didactic materials. The doors of
these cupboards open easily, and the care of the materials is confided to the children.
The tops of these cases furnish room for potted plants, small aquariums, or for the
various toys with which the children are allowed to play freely. We have ample
blackboard space, and these boards are so hung as to be easily used by the smallest
child. Each blackboard is provided with a small case in which are kept the chalk, and
the white cloths which we use instead of the ordinary erasers.
Above the blackboards are hung attractive pictures, chosen carefully, representing
simple scenes in which children would naturally be interested. Among the pictures in
our "Children's Houses" in Rome we have hung a copy of Raphael's "Madonna della
Seggiola," and this picture we have chosen as the emblem of the "Children's Houses."
For indeed, these "Children's Houses" represent not only social progress, but universal
human progress, and are closely related to the elevation of the idea of motherhood, to
the progress of woman and to the protection of her offspring. In this beautiful
conception, Raphael has not only shown us the Madonna as a Divine Mother holding
in her arms the babe who is greater than she, but by the side of this symbol of all
motherhood, he has placed the figure of St. John, who represents humanity. So in
Raphael's picture we see humanity rendering homage to maternity,—maternity, the
sublime fact in the definite triumph of humanity. In addition to this beautiful
symbolism, the picture has a value as being one of the greatest works of art of Italy's
greatest artist. And if the day shall come when the "Children's Houses" shall be
established throughout the world, it is our wish that this picture of Raphael's shall
have its place in each of the schools, [Pg 83] speaking eloquently of the country in
which they originated.
The children, of course, cannot comprehend the symbolic significance of the
"Madonna of the Chair," but they will see something more beautiful than that which
they feel in more ordinary pictures, in which they see mother, father, and children.
And the constant companionship with this picture will awaken in their heart a
religious impression.
This, then, is the environment which I have selected for the children we wish to
educate.

I know the first objection which will present itself to the minds of persons
accustomed to the old-time methods of discipline;—the children in these schools,
moving about, will overturn the little tables and chairs, producing noise and disorder;
but this is a prejudice which has long existed in the minds of those dealing with little
children, and for which there is no real foundation.
Swaddling clothes have for many centuries been considered necessary to the new-
born babe, walking-chairs to the child who is learning to walk. So in the school, we
still believe it necessary to have heavy desks and chairs fastened to the floor. All these
things are based upon the idea that the child should grow in immobility, and upon the
strange prejudice that, in order to execute any educational movement, we must
maintain a special position of the body;—as we believe that we must assume a special
position when we are about to pray.
Our little tables and our various types of chairs are all light and easily transported,
and we permit the child to select the position which he finds most comfortable. He
can make himself comfortable as well as seat himself[Pg 84] in his own place. And this
freedom is not only an external sign of liberty, but a means of education. If by an
awkward movement a child upsets a chair, which falls noisily to the floor, he will
have an evident proof of his own incapacity; the same movement had it taken place
amid stationary benches would have passed unnoticed by him. Thus the child has
some means by which he can correct himself, and having done so he will have before
him the actual proof of the power he has gained: the little tables and chairs remain
firm and silent each in its own place. It is plainly seen that the child has learned to
command his movements.
 In the old method, the proof of discipline attained lay in a fact entirely contrary to
this; that is, in the immobility and silence of the child himself. Immobility and silence
which hindered the child from learning to move with grace and with discernment, and
left him so untrained, that, when he found himself in an environment where the
benches and chairs were not nailed to the floor, he was not able to move about without
overturning the lighter pieces of furniture. In the "Children's Houses" the child will
not only learn to move gracefully and properly, but will come to understand the
reason for such deportment. The ability to move which he acquires here will be of use
to him all his life. While he is still a child, he becomes capable of conducting himself
correctly, and yet, with perfect freedom.
The Directress of the Casa dei Bambini at Milan constructed under one of the
windows a long, narrow shelf upon which she placed the little tables containing the
metal geometric forms used in the first lessons in design. But the shelf was too
narrow, and it often happened that the children in selecting the pieces which they
wished to[Pg 85] use would allow one of the little tables to fall to the floor, thus
upsetting with great noise all the metal pieces which it held. The directress intended to
have the shelf changed, but the carpenter was slow in coming, and while waiting for
him she discovered that the children had learned to handle these materials so carefully
that in spite of the narrow and sloping shelf, the little tables no longer fell to the floor.
The children, by carefully directing their movements, had overcome the defect in
this piece of furniture. The simplicity or imperfection of external objects often serves
to develop the activity and the dexterity of the pupils. This has been one of the
surprises of our method as applied in the "Children's Houses."
It all seems very logical, and now that it has been actually tried and put into words,
it will no doubt seem to everyone as simple as the egg of Christopher Columbus.
[7]Incidentally, I may say, that I have invented a means of bathing children contemporaneously,
without having a large bath. In order to manage this, I thought of having a long trough with supports at
the bottom, on which small, separate tubs could rest, with rather large holes in the bottom. The little tubs
are filled from the large trough, into which the water runs and then goes into all the little tubs together, by
the law of the levelling of liquids, going through the holes in the bottom. When the water is settled, it
does not pass from tub to tub, and the children will each have their own bath. The emptying of the trough
brings with it the simultaneous emptying of the little tubs, which being of light metal, will be easily
moved from the bottom of the big tub, in order to clean it. It is not difficult to imagine arranging a cork
for the hole at the bottom. These are only projects for the future!

[Pg 86]
 CHAPTER V.
DISCIPLINE
The pedagogical method of observation has for its base the liberty of the child;
and liberty is activity.
Discipline must come through liberty. Here is a great principle which is difficult for
followers of common-school methods to understand. How shall one
obtain discipline in a class of free children? Certainly in our system, we have a
concept of discipline very different from that commonly accepted. If discipline is
founded upon liberty, the discipline itself must necessarily be active. We do not
consider an individual disciplined only when he has been rendered as artificially silent
as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated,
not disciplined.
We call an individual disciplined when he is master of himself, and can, therefore,
regulate his own conduct when it shall be necessary to follow some rule of life. Such a
concept of active discipline is not easy either to comprehend or to apply. But certainly
it contains a great educational principle, very different from the old-time absolute and
undiscussed coercion to immobility.
A special technique is necessary to the teacher who is to lead the child along such a
path of discipline, if she is to make it possible for him to continue in this way all his
life, advancing indefinitely toward perfect self-mastery. Since the child now learns
to move rather than[Pg 87] to sit still, he prepares himself not for the school, but for
life; for he becomes able, through habit and through practice, to perform easily and
correctly the simple acts of social or community life. The discipline to which the child
habituates himself here is, in its character, not limited to the school environment but
extends to society.
The liberty of the child should have as its limit the collective interest; as its form,
what we universally consider good breeding. We must, therefore, check in the child
whatever offends or annoys others, or whatever tends toward rough or ill-bred acts.
But all the rest,—every manifestation having a useful scope,—whatever it be, and
under whatever form it expresses itself, must not only be permitted, but must
be observed by the teacher. Here lies the essential point; from her scientific
preparation, the teacher must bring not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe
natural phenomena. In our system, she must become a passive, much more than an
active, influence, and her passivity shall be composed of anxious scientific curiosity,
and of absolute respect for the phenomenon which she wishes to observe. The teacher
must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in
the phenomenon.
Such principles assuredly have a place in schools for little children who are
exhibiting the first psychic manifestations of their lives. We cannot know the
consequences of suffocating a spontaneous action at the time when the child is just
beginning to be active: perhaps we suffocate life itself. Humanity shows itself in all its
intellectual splendour during this tender age as the sun shows itself at the dawn, and
the flower in the first unfolding of the petals; and we must respect religiously,
reverently, these first indications of individuality. If any [Pg 88] educational act is to be
efficacious, it will be only that which tends to help toward the complete unfolding of
this life. To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to avoid
the arrest of spontaneous movements and the imposition of arbitrary tasks. It is of
course understood, that here we do not speak of useless or dangerous acts, for these
must be suppressed, destroyed.

Actual training and practice are necessary to fit for this method teachers who have
not been prepared for scientific observation, and such training is especially necessary
to those who have been accustomed to the old domineering methods of the common
school. My experiences in training teachers for the work in my schools did much to
convince me of the great distance between these methods and those. Even an
intelligent teacher, who understands the principle, finds much difficulty in putting it
into practice. She can not understand that her new task is apparently passive, like that
of the astronomer who sits immovable before the telescope while the worlds whirl
through space. This idea, that life acts of itself, and that in order to study it, to divine
its secrets or to direct its activity, it is necessary to observe it and to understand it
without intervening—this idea, I say, is very difficult for anyone to assimilate and to
put into practice.
The teacher has too thoroughly learned to be the one free activity of the school; it
has for too long been virtually her duty to suffocate the activity of her pupils. When in
the first days in one of the "Children's Houses" she does not obtain order and silence,
she looks about her embarrassed as if asking the public to excuse her, and calling
upon those present to testify to her innocence. In [Pg 89] vain do we repeat to her that
the disorder of the first moment is necessary. And finally, when we oblige her to do
nothing but watch, she asks if she had not better resign, since she is no longer a
teacher.
But when she begins to find it her duty to discern which are the acts to hinder and
which are those to observe, the teacher of the old school feels a great void within
herself and begins to ask if she will not be inferior to her new task. In fact, she who is
not prepared finds herself for a long time abashed and impotent; whereas the broader
the teacher's scientific culture and practice in experimental psychology, the sooner
will come for her the marvel of unfolding life, and her interest in it.
Notari, in his novel, "My Millionaire Uncle," which is a criticism of modern
customs, gives with that quality of vividness which is peculiar to him, a most eloquent
example of the old-time methods of discipline. The "uncle" when a child was guilty of
such a number of disorderly acts that he practically upset the whole town, and in
desperation he was confined in a school. Here "Fufu," as he was called, experiences
his first wish to be kind, and feels the first moving of his soul when he is near to the
pretty little Fufetta, and learns that she is hungry and has no luncheon.
"He glanced around, looked at Fufetta, rose, took his little lunch basket, and without
saying a word placed it in her lap.
"Then he ran away from her, and, without knowing why he did so, hung his head
and burst into tears.
"My uncle did not know how to explain to himself the reason for this sudden
outburst.
"He had seen for the first time two kind eyes full of sad tears, and he had felt moved
within himself, and at[Pg 90] the same time a great shame had rushed over him; the
shame of eating near to one who had nothing to eat.
"Not knowing how to express the impulse of his heart, nor what to say in asking her
to accept the offer of his little basket, nor how to invent an excuse to justify his
offering it to her, he remained the victim of this first deep movement of his little soul.
"Fufetta, all confused, ran to him quickly. With great gentleness she drew away the
arm in which he had hidden his face.
"'Do not cry, Fufu,' she said to him softly, almost as if pleading with him. She might
have been speaking to her beloved rag doll, so motherly and intent was her little face,
and so full of gentle authority, her manner.
"Then the little girl kissed him, and my uncle yielding to the influence which had
filled his heart, put his arms around her neck, and, still silent and sobbing, kissed her
in return. At last, sighing deeply, he wiped from his face and eyes the damp traces of
his emotion, and smiled again.
"A strident voice called out from the other end of the courtyard:
"'Here, here, you two down there—be quick with you; inside, both of you!'
 "It was the teacher, the guardian. She crushed that first gentle stirring in the soul of
a rebel with the same blind brutality that she would have used toward two children
engaged in a fight.
"It was the time for all to go back into the school—and everybody had to obey the
rule."
Thus I saw my teachers act in the first days of my practice school in the "Children's
Houses." They almost involuntarily recalled the children to immobility without [Pg
91] observing and distinguishing the nature of the movements they repressed. There
was, for example, a little girl who gathered her companions about her and then, in the
midst of them, began to talk and gesticulate. The teacher at once ran to her, took hold
of her arms, and told her to be still; but I, observing the child, saw that she was
playing at being teacher or mother to the others, and teaching them the morning
prayer, the invocation to the saints, and the sign of the cross: she already showed
herself as a director. Another child, who continually made disorganised and
misdirected movements, and who was considered abnormal, one day, with an
expression of intense attention, set about moving the tables. Instantly they were upon
him to make him stand still because he made too much noise. Yet this was one of
the first manifestations, in this child, of movements that were co-
ordinated and directed toward a useful end, and it was therefore an action that should
have been respected. In fact, after this the child began to be quiet and happy like the
others whenever he had any small objects to move about and to arrange upon his desk.
It often happened that while the directress replaced in the boxes various materials
that had been used, a child would draw near, picking up the objects, with the evident
desire of imitating the teacher. The first impulse was to send the child back to her
place with the remark, "Let it alone; go to your seat." Yet the child expressed by this
act a desire to be useful; the time, with her, was ripe for a lesson in order.
One day, the children had gathered themselves, laughing and talking, into a circle
about a basin of water containing some floating toys. We had in the school a little boy
barely two and a half years old. He had been left[Pg 92] outside the circle, alone, and it
was easy to see that he was filled with intense curiosity. I watched him from a
distance with great interest; he first drew near to the other children and tried to force
his way among them, but he was not strong enough to do this, and he then stood
looking about him. The expression of thought on his little face was intensely
interesting. I wish that I had had a camera so that I might have photographed him. His
eye lighted upon a little chair, and evidently he made up his mind to place it behind
the group of children and then to climb up on it. He began to move toward the chair,
his face illuminated with hope, but at that moment the teacher seized him brutally (or,
perhaps, she would have said, gently) in her arms, and lifting him up above the heads
of the other children showed him the basin of water, saying, "Come, poor little one,
you shall see too!"
Undoubtedly the child, seeing the floating toys, did not experience the joy that he
was about to feel through conquering the obstacle with his own force. The sight of
those objects could be of no advantage to him, while his intelligent efforts would have
developed his inner powers.
The teacher hindered the child, in this case, from educating himself, without giving
him any compensating good in return. The little fellow had been about to feel himself
a conqueror, and he found himself held within two imprisoning arms, impotent. The
expression of joy, anxiety, and hope, which had interested me so much faded from his
face and left on it the stupid expression of the child who knows that others will act for
him.
When the teachers were weary of my observations, they began to allow the children
to do whatever they pleased. I saw children with their feet on the tables, or with
their[Pg 93] fingers in their noses, and no intervention was made to correct them. I saw
others push their companions, and I saw dawn in the faces of these an expression of
violence; and not the slightest attention on the part of the teacher. Then I had to
intervene to show with what absolute rigour it is necessary to hinder, and little by little
suppress, all those things which we must not do, so that the child may come to discern
clearly between good and evil.
If discipline is to be lasting, its foundations must be laid in this way and these first
days are the most difficult for the directress. The first idea that the child must acquire,
in order to be actively disciplined, is that of the difference between good and evil; and
the task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not
confound good with immobility, and evil with activity, as often happens in the case of
the old-time discipline. And all this because our aim is to discipline for activity, for
work, for good; not for immobility, not for passivity, not for obedience.
A room in which all the children move about usefully, intelligently, and voluntarily,
without committing any rough or rude act, would seem to me a classroom very well
disciplined indeed.

To seat the children in rows, as in the common schools, to assign to each little one a
place, and to propose that they shall sit thus quietly observant of the order of the
whole class as an assemblage—this can be attained later, as the starting
place of collective education. For also, in life, it sometimes happens that we must all
remain seated and quiet; when, for example, we attend a concert or a lecture. And we
know that even to us, as grown people, this costs no little sacrifice.[Pg 94]
 If we can, when we have established individual discipline, arrange the children,
sending each one to his own place, in order, trying to make them understand the idea
that thus placed they look well, and that it is a good thing to be thus placed in order,
that it is a good and pleasing arrangement in the room, this ordered and tranquil
adjustment of theirs—then their remaining in their places, quiet and silent, is the result
of a species of lesson, not an imposition. To make them understand the idea, without
calling their attention too forcibly to the practice, to have them assimilate a principle
of collective order—that is the important thing.
If, after they have understood this idea, they rise, speak, change to another place,
they no longer do this without knowing and without thinking, but they do it because
they wish to rise, to speak, etc.; that is, from that state of repose and order, well
understood, they depart in order to undertake some voluntary action; and knowing that
there are actions which are prohibited, this will give them a new impulse to remember
to discriminate between good and evil.
The movements of the children from the state of order become always more co-
ordinated and perfect with the passing of the days; in fact, they learn to reflect upon
their own acts. Now (with the idea of order understood by the children) the
observation of the way in which the children pass from the first disordered
movements to those which are spontaneous and ordered—this is the book of the
teacher; this is the book which must inspire her actions; it is the only one in which she
must read and study if she is to become a real educator.
For the child with such exercises makes, to a certain extent, a selection of his
own tendencies, which were at[Pg 95] first confused in the unconscious disorder of his
movements. It is remarkable how clearly individual differences show themselves, if
we proceed in this way; the child, conscious and free, reveals himself.
There are those who remain quietly in their seats, apathetic, or drowsy; others who
leave their places to quarrel, to fight, or to overturn the various blocks and toys, and
then there are those others who set out to fulfil a definite and determined act—moving
a chair to some particular spot and sitting down in it, moving one of the unused tables
and arranging upon it the game they wish to play.
Our idea of liberty for the child cannot be the simple concept of liberty we use in
the observation of plants, insects, etc.
The child, because of the peculiar characteristics of helplessness with which he is
born, and because of his qualities as a social individual is circumscribed
by bonds which limit his activity.
An educational method that shall have liberty as its basis must intervene to help the
child to a conquest of these various obstacles. In other words, his training must be
such as shall help him to diminish, in a rational manner, the social bonds, which limit
his activity.
Little by little, as the child grows in such an atmosphere, his spontaneous
manifestations will become more clear, with the clearness of truth, revealing his
nature. For all these reasons, the first form of educational intervention must tend to
lead the child toward independence.

INDEPENDENCE

No one can be free unless he is independent: therefore, the first, active

manifestations of the child's individual liberty must be so guided that through this
activity he[Pg 96] may arrive at independence. Little children, from the moment in
which they are weaned, are making their way toward independence.
What is a weaned child? In reality it is a child that has become independent of the
mother's breast. Instead of this one source of nourishment he will find various kinds of
food; for him the means of existence are multiplied, and he can to some extent make a
selection of his food, whereas he was at first limited absolutely to one form of
nourishment.
Nevertheless, he is still dependent, since he is not yet able to walk, and cannot wash
and dress himself, and since he is not yet able to ask for things in a language which is
clear and easily understood. He is still in this period to a great extent the slave of
everyone. By the age of three, however, the child should have been able to render
himself to a great extent independent and free.
That we have not yet thoroughly assimilated the highest concept of the
term independence, is due to the fact that the social form in which we live is
still servile. In an age of civilisation where servants exist, the concept of that form of
life which is independence cannot take root or develop freely. Even so in the time of
slavery, the concept of liberty was distorted and darkened.
Our servants are not our dependents, rather it is we who are dependent upon them.
It is not possible to accept universally as a part of our social structure such a deep
human error without feeling the general effects of it in the form of moral inferiority.
We often believe ourselves to be independent simply because no one commands us,
and because we command others; but the nobleman who needs to call a servant to his
aid is really a dependent through his own inferiority. [Pg 97] The paralytic who cannot
take off his boots because of a pathological fact, and the prince who dare not take
them off because of a social fact, are in reality reduced to the same condition.
 Any nation that accepts the idea of servitude and believes that it is an advantage for
man to be served by man, admits servility as an instinct, and indeed we all too easily
lend ourselves to obsequious service, giving to it such complimentary names
as courtesy, politeness, charity.
In reality, he who is served is limited in his independence. This concept will be the
foundation of the dignity of the man of the future; "I do not wish to be
served, because I am not an impotent." And this idea must be gained before men can
feel themselves to be really free.
Any pedagogical action, if it is to be efficacious in the training of little children,
must tend to help the children to advance upon this road of independence. We must
help them to learn to walk without assistance, to run, to go up and down stairs, to lift
up fallen objects, to dress and undress themselves, to bathe themselves, to speak
distinctly, and to express their own needs clearly. We must give such help as shall
make it possible for children to achieve the satisfaction of their own individual aims
and desires. All this is a part of education for independence.
We habitually serve children; and this is not only an act of servility toward them,
but it is dangerous, since it tends to suffocate their useful, spontaneous activity. We
are inclined to believe that children are like puppets, and we wash them and feed them
as if they were dolls. We do not stop to think that the child who does not do, does not
know how to do. He must, nevertheless, do[Pg 98] these things, and nature has
furnished him with the physical means for carrying on these various activities, and
with the intellectual means for learning how to do them. And our duty toward him is,
in every case, that of helping him to make a conquest of such useful acts as nature
intended he should perform for himself. The mother who feeds her child without
making the least effort to teach him to hold the spoon for himself and to try to find his
mouth with it, and who does not at least eat herself, inviting the child to look and see
how she does it, is not a good mother. She offends the fundamental human dignity of
her son,—she treats him as if he were a doll, when he is, instead, a man confided by
nature to her care.
Who does not know that to teach a child to feed himself, to wash and dress himself,
is a much more tedious and difficult work, calling for infinitely greater patience, than
feeding, washing and dressing the child one's self? But the former is the work of an
educator, the latter is the easy and inferior work of a servant. Not only is it easier for
the mother, but it is very dangerous for the child, since it doses the way and puts
obstacles in the path of the life which is developing.
The ultimate consequences of such an attitude on the part of the parent may be very
serious indeed. The grand gentleman who has too many servants not only grows
constantly more and more dependent upon them, until he is, finally, actually their
slave, but his muscles grow weak through inactivity and finally lose their natural
capacity for action. The mind of one who does not work for that which he needs, but
commands it from others, grows heavy and sluggish. If such a man should some day
awaken to the fact of his inferior position and should wish to re [Pg 99]gain once more
his own independence, he would find that he had no longer the force to do so. These
dangers should be presented to the parents of the privileged social classes, if their
children are to use independently and for right the special power which is theirs.
Needless help is an actual hindrance to the development of natural forces.
Oriental women wear trousers, it is true, and European women, petticoats; but the
former, even more than the latter, are taught as a part of their education the art of not
moving. Such an attitude toward woman leads to the fact that man works not only for
himself, but for woman. And the woman wastes her natural strength and activity and
languishes in slavery. She is not only maintained and served, she is, besides,
diminished, belittled, in that individuality which is hers by right of her existence as a
human being. As an individual member of society, she is a cypher. She is rendered
deficient in all those powers and resources which tend to the preservation of life. Let
me illustrate this:
A carriage containing a father, mother, and child, is going along a country road. An
armed brigand stops the carriage with the well-known phrase, "Your money or your
life." Placed in this situation, the three persons in the carriage act in very different
ways. The man, who is a trained marksman, and who is armed with a revolver,
promptly draws, and confronts the assassin. The boy, armed only with the freedom
and lightness of his own legs, cries out and betakes himself to flight. The woman, who
is not armed in any way whatever, neither artificially nor naturally (since her limbs,
not trained for activity, are hampered by her skirts), gives a frightened gasp, and sinks
down unconscious.
These three diverse reactions are in close relation to [Pg 100] the state of liberty and
independence of each of the three individuals. The swooning woman is she whose
cloak is carried for her by attentive cavaliers, who are quick to pick up any fallen
object that she may be spared all exertion.
The peril of servilism and dependence lies not only in that "useless consuming of
life," which leads to helplessness, but in the development of individual traits which
indicate all too plainly a regrettable perversion and degeneration of the normal man. I
refer to the domineering and tyrannical behaviour with examples of which we are all
only too familiar. The domineering habit develops side by side with helplessness. It is
the outward sign of the state of feeling of him who conquers through the work of
others. Thus it often happens that the master is a tyrant toward his servant. It is the
spirit of the task-master toward the slave.
 Let us picture to ourselves a clever and proficient workman, capable, not only of
producing much and perfect work, but of giving advice in his workshop, because of
his ability to control and direct the general activity of the environment in which he
works. The man who is thus master of his environment will be able to smile before the
anger of others, showing that great mastery of himself which comes from
consciousness of his ability to do things. We should not, however, be in the least
surprised to know that in his home this capable workman scolded his wife if the soup
was not to his taste, or not ready at the appointed time. In his home, he is no longer
the capable workman; the skilled workman here is the wife, who serves him and
prepares his food for him. He is a serene and pleasant man where he is powerful
through being efficient, but is domineering where he is served. Per [Pg 101]haps if he
should learn how to prepare his soup he might become a perfect man! The man who,
through his own efforts, is able to perform all the actions necessary for his comfort
and development in life, conquers himself, and in doing so multiplies his abilities and
perfects himself as an individual.
We must make of the future generation, powerful men, and by that we mean men
who are independent and free.

ABOLITION OF PRIZES AND OF EXTERNAL FORMS OF PUNISHMENT

Once we have accepted and established such principles, the abolition of prizes and
external forms of punishment will follow naturally. Man, disciplined through liberty,
begins to desire the true and only prize which will never belittle or disappoint him,—
the birth of human power and liberty within that inner life of his from which his
activities must spring.
In my own experience I have often marvelled to see how true this is. During our
first months in the "Children's Houses," the teachers had not yet learned to put into
practice the pedagogical principles of liberty and discipline. One of them, especially,
busied herself, when I was absent, in remedying my ideas by introducing a few of
those methods to which she had been accustomed. So, one day when I came in
unexpectedly, I found one of the most intelligent of the children wearing a large
Greek cross of silver, hung from his neck by a fine piece of white ribbon, while
another child was seated in an armchair which had been conspicuously placed in the
middle of the room.
The first child had been rewarded, the second was being punished. The teacher, at
least while I was present,[Pg 102] did not interfere in any way, and the situation
remained as I had found it. I held my peace, and placed myself where I might observe
quietly.
 The child with the cross was moving back and forth, carrying the objects with
which he had been working, from his table to that of the teacher, and bringing others
in their place. He was busy and happy. As he went back and forth he passed by the
armchair of the child who was being punished. The silver cross slipped from his neck
and fell to the floor, and the child in the armchair picked it up, dangled it on its white
ribbon, looking at it from all sides, and then said to his companion: "Do you see what
you have dropped?" The child turned and looked at the trinket with an air of
indifference; his expression seemed to say; "Don't interrupt me," his voice replied "I
don't care." "Don't you care, really?" said the punished one calmly. "Then I will put it
on myself." And the other replied, "Oh, yes, put it on," in a tone that seemed to add,
"and leave me in peace!"
The boy in the armchair carefully arranged the ribbon so that the cross lay upon the
front of his pink apron where he could admire its brightness and its pretty form, then
he settled himself more comfortably in his little chair and rested his arms with evident
pleasure upon the arms of the chair. The affair remained thus, and was quite just. The
dangling cross could satisfy the child who was being punished, but not the active
child, content and happy with his work.
One day I took with me on a visit to another of the "Children's Houses" a lady who
praised the children highly and who, opening a box she had brought, showed them a
number of shining medals, each tied with a bright red ribbon. "The mistress," she said
"will put these on[Pg 103] the breasts of those children who are the cleverest and the
best."
As I was under no obligation to instruct this visitor in my methods, I kept silence,
and the teacher took the box. At that moment, a most intelligent little boy of four, who
was seated quietly at one of the little tables, wrinkled his forehead in an act of protest
and cried out over and over again;—"Not to the boys, though, not to the boys!"
What a revelation! This little fellow already knew that he stood among the best and
strongest of his class, although no one had ever revealed this fact to him, and he did
not wish to be offended by this prize. Not knowing how to defend his dignity, he
invoked the superior quality of his masculinity!
As to punishments, we have many times come in contact with children who
disturbed the others without paying any attention to our corrections. Such children
were at once examined by the physician. When the case proved to be that of a normal
child, we placed one of the little tables in a corner of the room, and in this way
isolated the child; having him sit in a comfortable little armchair, so placed that he
might see his companions at work, and giving him those games and toys to which he
was most attracted. This isolation almost always succeeded in calming the child; from
his position he could see the entire assembly of his companions, and the way in which
they carried on their work was an object lesson much more efficacious than any words
of the teacher could possibly have been. Little by little, he would come to see the
advantages of being one of the company working so busily before his eyes, and he
would really wish to go back and do as the others did. We have in this way led back
again[Pg 104] to discipline all the children who at first seemed to rebel against it. The
isolated child was always made the object of special care, almost as if he were ill. I
myself, when I entered the room, went first of all directly to him, caressing him, as if
he were a very little child. Then I turned my attention to the others, interesting myself
in their work, asking questions about it as if they had been little men. I do not know
what happened in the soul of these children whom we found it necessary to discipline,
but certainly the conversion was always very complete and lasting. They showed great
pride in learning how to work and how to conduct themselves, and always showed a
very tender affection for the teacher and for me.

THE BIOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF LIBERTY IN PEDAGOGY

From a biological point of view, the concept of liberty in the education of the child
in his earliest years must be understood as demanding those conditions adapted to the
most favourable development of his entire individuality. So, from the physiological
side as well as from the mental side, this includes the free development of the brain.
The educator must be as one inspired by a deep worship of life, and must, through this
reverence, respect, while he observes with human interest, the development of the
child life. Now, child life is not an abstraction; it is the life of individual children.
There exists only one real biological manifestation: the living individual; and toward
single individuals, one by one observed, education must direct itself. By education
must be understood the active help given to the normal expansion of the life of the
child. The child is a body which grows, and a soul which develops,—these two forms,
physiological and psychic, have one eternal font, life itself. We must neither mar [Pg
105] nor stifle the mysterious powers which lie within these two forms of growth, but
we must await from them the manifestations which we know will succeed one
another.
Environment is undoubtedly a secondary factor in the phenomena of life; it can
modify in that it can help or hinder, but it can never create. The modern theories of
evolution, from Naegeli to De Vries, consider throughout the development of the two
biological branches, animal and vegetable, this interior factor as the essential force in
the transformation of the species and in the transformation of the individual. The
origins of the development, both in the species and in the individual, lie within. The
child does not grow because he is nourished, because he breathes, because he is
placed in conditions of temperature to which he is adapted; he grows because the
potential life within him develops, making itself visible; because the fruitful germ
from which his life has come develops itself according to the biological destiny which
was fixed for it by heredity. Adolescence does not come because the child laughs, or
dances, or does gymnastic exercises, or is well nourished; but because he has arrived
at that particular physiological state. Life makes itself manifest,—life creates, life
gives:—and is in its turn held within certain limits and bound by certain laws which
are insuperable. The fixed characteristics of the species do not change,—they can only
vary.
This concept, so brilliantly set forth by De Vries in his Mutation Theory, illustrates
also the limits of education. We can act on the variations which are in relation to the
environment, and whose limits vary slightly in the species and in the individual, but
we cannot act upon the mutations. The mutations are bound by some mysterious tie[Pg
106] to the very font of life itself, and their power rises superior to the modifying
elements of the environment.
A species, for example, cannot mutate or change into another species through any
phenomenon of adaptation, as, on the other hand, a great human genius cannot be
suffocated by any limitation, nor by any false form of education.
The environment acts more strongly upon the individual life the less fixed and
strong this individual life may be. But environment can act in two opposite senses,
favouring life, and stifling it. Many species of palm, for example, are splendid in the
tropical regions, because the climatic conditions are favourable to their development,
but many species of both animals and plants have become extinct in regions to which
they were not able to adapt themselves.
Life is a superb goddess, always advancing, overthrowing the obstacles which
environment places in the way of her triumph. This is the basic or fundamental truth,
—whether it be a question of species or of individuals, there persists always the
forward march of those victorious ones in whom this mysterious life-force is strong
and vital.
It is evident that in the case of humanity, and especially in the case of our civil
humanity, which we call society, the important and imperative question is that of
the care, or perhaps we might say, the culture of human life.

[Pg 107]

CHAPTER VI
 HOW THE LESSONS SHOULD BE GIVEN
"Let all thy words be counted."
Dante, Inf., canto X.
Given the fact that, through the régime of liberty the pupils can manifest their
natural tendencies in the school, and that with this in view we have prepared the
environment and the materials (the objects with which the child is to work), the
teacher must not limit her action to observation, but must proceed to experiment.
In this method the lesson corresponds to an experiment. The more fully the teacher
is acquainted with the methods of experimental psychology, the better will she
understand how to give the lesson. Indeed, a special technique is necessary if the
method is to be properly applied. The teacher must at least have attended the training
classes in the "Children's Houses," in order to acquire a knowledge of the fundamental
principles of the method and to understand their application. The most difficult
portion of this training is that which refers to the method for discipline.
In the first days of the school the children do not learn the idea of collective order;
this idea follows and comes as a result of those disciplinary exercises through which
the child learns to discern between good and evil. This being the case, it is evident
that, at the outset the teacher cannot give collective lessons. Such lessons, indeed, will
always be very rare, since the children being free are not [Pg 108] obliged to remain in
their places quiet and ready to listen to the teacher, or to watch what she is doing. The
collective lessons, in fact, are of very secondary importance, and have been almost
abolished by us.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDIVIDUAL LESSONS:—CONCISENESS,

SIMPLICITY, OBJECTIVITY

The lessons, then, are individual, and brevity must be one of their chief
characteristics. Dante gives excellent advice to teachers when he says, "Let thy words
be counted." The more carefully we cut away useless words, the more perfect will
become the lesson. And in preparing the lessons which she is to give, the teacher must
pay special attention to this point, counting and weighing the value of the words
which she is to speak.
Another characteristic quality of the lesson in the "Children's Houses" is
its simplicity. It must be stripped of all that is not absolute truth. That the teacher must
not lose herself in vain words, is included in the first quality of conciseness; this
second, then, is closely related to the first: that is, the carefully chosen words must be
the most simple it is possible to find, and must refer to the truth.
 The third quality of the lesson is its objectivity. The lesson must be presented in
such a way that the personality of the teacher shall disappear. There shall remain in
evidence only the object to which she wishes to call the attention of the child. This
brief and simple lesson must be considered by the teacher as an explanation of the
object and of the use which the child can make of it.
In the giving of such lessons the fundamental guide must be the method of
observation, in which is included and understood the liberty of the child. So the
teacher shall observe whether the child interests himself in the[Pg 109] object, how he
is interested in it, for how long, etc., even noticing the expression of his face. And she
must take great care not to offend the principles of liberty. For, if she provokes the
child to make an unnatural effort, she will no longer know what is
the spontaneous activity of the child. If, therefore, the lesson rigorously prepared in
this brevity, simplicity and truth is not understood by the child, is not accepted by him
as an explanation of the object,—the teacher must be warned of two things:—first, not
to insist by repeating the lesson; and second, not to make the child feel that he has
made a mistake, or that he is not understood, because in doing so she will cause him
to make an effort to understand, and will thus alter the natural state which must be
used by her in making her psychological observation. A few examples may serve to
illustrate this point.
Let us suppose, for example, that the teacher wishes to teach to a child the two
colours, red and blue. She desires to attract the attention of the child to the object. She
says, therefore, "Look at this." Then, in order to teach the colours, she says, showing
him the red, "This is red," raising her voice a little and pronouncing the word "red"
slowly and clearly; then showing him the other colour, "This is blue." In order to
make sure that the child has understood, she says to him, "Give me the red,"—"Give
me the blue." Let us suppose that the child in following this last direction makes a
mistake. The teacher does not repeat and does not insist; she smiles, gives the child a
friendly caress and takes away the colours.
Teachers ordinarily are greatly surprised at such simplicity. They often say, "But
everybody knows how to do that!" Indeed, this again is a little like the egg of [Pg
110] Christopher Columbus, but the truth is that not everyone knows how to do this
simple thing (to give a lesson with such simplicity). To measure one's own activity, to
make it conform to these standards of clearness, brevity and truth, is practically a very
difficult matter. Especially is this true of teachers prepared by the old-time methods,
who have learned to labour to deluge the child with useless, and often, false words.
For example, a teacher who had taught in the public schools often reverted to
collectivity. Now in giving a collective lesson much importance is necessarily given
to the simple thing which is to be taught, and it is necessary to oblige all the children
to follow the teacher's explanation, when perhaps not all of them are disposed to give
their attention to the particular lesson in hand. The teacher has perhaps commenced
her lesson in this way:—"Children, see if you can guess what I have in my hand!" She
knows that the children cannot guess, and she therefore attracts their attention by
means of a falsehood. Then she probably says,—"Children, look out at the sky. Have
you ever looked at it before? Have you never noticed it at night when it is all shining
with stars? No! Look at my apron. Do you know what colour it is? Doesn't it seem to
you the same colour as the sky? Very well then, look at this colour I have in my hand.
It is the same colour as the sky and my apron. It is blue. Now look around you a little
and see if you can find something in the room which is blue. And do you know what
colour cherries are, and the colour of the burning coals in the fireplace, etc., etc."
Now in the mind of the child after he has made the useless effort of trying to guess
there revolves a confused mass of ideas,—the sky, the apron, the cherries, etc. It will
be difficult for him to extract from all this confusion the [Pg 111] idea which it was the
scope of the lesson to make clear to him; namely, the recognition of the two colours,
blue and red. Such a work of selection is almost impossible for the mind of a child
who is not yet able to follow a long discourse.
I remember being present at an arithmetic lesson where the children were being
taught that two and three make five. To this end, the teacher made use of a counting
board having coloured beads strung on its thin wires. She arranged, for example, two
beads on the top line, then on a lower line three, and at the bottom five beads. I do not
remember very clearly the development of this lesson, but I do know that the teacher
found it necessary to place beside the two beads on the upper wire a little cardboard
dancer with a blue skirt, which she christened on the spot the name of one of the
children in the class, saying, "This is Mariettina." And then beside the other three
beads she placed a little dancer dressed in a different colour, which she called
"Gigina." I do not know exactly how the teacher arrived at the demonstration of the
same, but certainly she talked for a long time with these little dancers, moving them
about, etc. If I remember the dancers more clearly than I do the arithmetic process,
how must it have been with the children? If by such a method they were able to learn
that two and three make five, they must have made a tremendous mental effort, and
the teacher must have found it necessary to talk with the little dancers for a long time.
In another lesson a teacher wished to demonstrate to the children the difference
between noise and sound. She began by telling a long story to the children. Then
suddenly someone in league with her knocked noisily at the door. The teacher stopped
and cried out—"What is it![Pg 112] What's happened! What is the matter! Children, do
you know what this person at the door has done? I can no longer go on with my story,
I cannot remember it any more. I will have to leave it unfinished. Do you know what
has happened? Did you hear! Have you understood? That was a noise, that is a noise.
Oh! I would much rather play with this little baby (taking up a mandolin which she
had dressed up in a table cover). Yes, dear baby, I had rather play with you. Do you
see this baby that I am holding in my arms?" Several children replied, "It isn't a baby."
Others said, "It's a mandolin." The teacher went on—"No, no, it is a baby, really a
baby. I love this little baby. Do you want me to show you that it is a baby? Keep very,
very quiet then. It seems to me that the baby is crying. Or, perhaps it is talking, or
perhaps it is going to say papa or mamma." Putting her hand under the cover, she
touched the strings of the mandolin. "There! did you hear the baby cry! Did you hear
it call out?" The children cried out—"It's a mandolin, you touched the strings, you
made it play." The teacher then replied, "Be quiet, be quiet, children. Listen to what I
am going to do." Then she uncovered the mandolin and began to play on it, saying,
"This is sound."
To suppose that the child from such a lesson as this shall come to understand the
difference between noise and sound is ridiculous. The child will probably get the
impression that the teacher wished to play a joke, and that she is rather foolish,
because she lost the thread of her discourse when she was interrupted by noise, and
because she mistook a mandolin for a baby. Most certainly, it is the figure of the
teacher herself that is impressed upon the [Pg 113] child's mind through such a lesson,
and not the object for which the lesson was given.
To obtain a simple lesson from a teacher who has been prepared according to the
ordinary methods, is a very difficult task. I remember that, after having explained the
material fully and in detail, I called upon one of my teachers to teach, by means of the
geometric insets, the difference between a square and a triangle. The task of the
teacher was simply to fit a square and a triangle of wood into the empty spaces made
to receive them. She should then have shown the child how to follow with his finger
the contours of the wooden pieces and of the frames into which they fit, saying,
meanwhile, "This is a square—this is a triangle." The teacher whom I had called upon
began by having the child touch the square, saying, "This is a line,—another,—
another,—and another. There are four lines: count them with your little finger and tell
me how many there are. And the corners,—count the corners, feel them with your
little finger. See, there are four corners too. Look at this piece well. It is a square." I
corrected the teacher, telling her that in this way she was not teaching the child to
recognise a form, but was giving him an idea of sides, of angles, of number, and that
this was a very different thing from that which she was to teach in this lesson. "But,"
she said, trying to justify herself, "it is the same thing." It is not, however, the same
thing. It is the geometric analysis and the mathematics of the thing. It would be
possible to have an idea of the form of the quadrilateral without knowing how to
count to four, and, therefore, without appreciating the number of sides and angles. The
sides and the angles are abstractions which in themselves do not ex [Pg 114]ist; that
which does exist is this piece of wood of a determined form. The elaborate
explanations of the teacher not only confused the child's mind, but bridged over the
distance that lies between the concrete and the abstract, between the form of an object
and the mathematics of the form.
Let as suppose, I said to the teacher, that an architect shows you a dome, the form of
which interests you. He can follow one of two methods in showing you his work: he
can call attention to the beauty of line, the harmony of the proportions, and may then
take you inside the building and up into the cupola itself, in order that you may
appreciate the relative proportion of the parts in such a way that your impression of
the cupola as a whole shall be founded on general knowledge of its parts, or he can
have you count the windows, the wide or narrow cornices, and can, in fact, make you
a design showing the construction; he can illustrate for you the static laws and write
out the algebraic formulæ necessary in the calculation of such laws. In the first place,
you will be able to retain in your mind the form of the cupola; in the second, you will
have understood nothing, and will come away with the impression that the architect
fancied himself speaking to a fellow engineer, instead of to a traveller whose object
was to become familiar with the beautiful things about him. Very much the same
thing happens if we, instead of saying to the child, "This is a square," and by simply
having him touch the contour establish materially the idea of the form, proceed rather
to a geometrical analysis of the contour.
Indeed, we should feel that we are making the child precocious if we taught him the
geometric forms in the plane, presenting at the same time the mathematical con [Pg
115]cept, but we do not believe that the child is too immature to appreciate the
simple form; on the contrary, it is no effort for a child to look at a square window or
table,—he sees all these forms about him in his daily life. To call his attention to a
determined form is to clarify the impression he has already received of it, and to fix
the idea of it. It is very much as if, while we are looking absent-mindedly at the shore
of a lake, an artist should suddenly say to us—"How beautiful the curve is that the
shore makes there under the shade of that cliff." At his words, the view which we
have been observing almost unconsciously, is impressed upon our minds as if it had
been illuminated by a sudden ray of sunshine, and we experience the joy of having
crystallised an impression which we had before only imperfectly felt.
And such is our duty toward the child: to give a ray of light and to go on our way.
I may liken the effects of these first lessons to the impressions of one who walks
quietly, happily, through a wood, alone, and thoughtful, letting his inner life unfold
freely. Suddenly, the chime of a distant bell recalls him to himself, and in that
awakening he feels more strongly than before the peace and beauty of which he has
been but dimly conscious.
To stimulate life,—leaving it then free to develop, to unfold,—herein lies the first
task of the educator. In such a delicate task, a great art must suggest the moment, and
limit the intervention, in order that we shall arouse no perturbation, cause no
deviation, but rather that we shall help the soul which is coming into the fulness of
life, and which shall live from its own forces. This art must accompany the scientific
method.[Pg 116]
When the teacher shall have touched, in this way, soul for soul, each one of her
pupils, awakening and inspiring the life within them as if she were an invisible spirit,
she will then possess each soul, and a sign, a single word from her shall suffice; for
each one will feel her in a living and vital way, will recognise her and will listen to
her. There will come a day when the directress herself shall be filled with wonder to
see that all the children obey her with gentleness and affection, not only ready, but
intent, at a sign from her. They will look toward her who has made them live, and will
hope and desire to receive from her, new life.
Experience has revealed all this, and it is something which forms the chief source of
wonder for those who visit the "Children's Houses." Collective discipline is obtained
as if by magic force. Fifty or sixty children from two and a half years to six years of
age, all together, and at a single time know how to hold their peace so perfectly that
the absolute silence seems that of a desert. And, if the teacher, speaking in a low
voice, says to the children, "Rise, pass several times around the room on the tips of
your toes and then come back to your place in silence" all together, as a single person,
the children rise, and follow the order with the least possible noise. The teacher with
that one voice has spoken to each one; and each child hopes from her intervention to
receive some light and inner happiness. And feeling so, he goes forth intent and
obedient like an anxious explorer, following the order in his own way.

In this matter of discipline we have again something of the egg of Christopher

Columbus. A concert-master must[Pg 117] prepare his scholars one by one in order to
draw from their collective work great and beautiful harmony; and each artist must
perfect himself as an individual before he can be ready to follow the voiceless
commands of the master's baton.
How different is the method which we follow in the public schools! It is as if a
concert-master taught the same monotonous and sometimes discordant rhythm
contemporaneously to the most diverse instruments and voices.
Thus we find that the most disciplined members of society are the men who are best
trained, who have most thoroughly perfected themselves, but this is the training or the
perfection acquired through contact with other people. The perfection of the
collectivity cannot be that material and brutal solidarity which comes from
mechanical organisation alone.
 In regard to infant psychology, we are more richly endowed with prejudices than
with actual knowledge bearing upon the subject. We have, until the present day,
wished to dominate the child through force, by the imposition of external laws,
instead of making an interior conquest of the child, in order to direct him as a human
soul. In this way, the children have lived beside us without being able to make us
know them. But if we cut away the artificiality with which we have enwrapped them,
and the violence through which we have foolishly thought to discipline them, they
will reveal themselves to us in all the truth of child nature.
Their gentleness is so absolute, so sweet, that we recognise in it the infancy of that
humility which can remain oppressed by every form of yoke, by every injustice; and
child love and knowledge is such that it surpasses every[Pg 118] other love and makes
us think that in very truth humanity must carry within it that passion which pushes the
minds of men to the successive conquest of thought, making easier from century to
century the yokes of every form of slavery.

[Pg 119]

CHAPTER VII
EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE
PROPOSED WINTER SCHEDULE OF HOURS IN THE "CHILDREN'S HOUSES"

Opening at Nine O'clock—Closing at Four O'clock

9-10. Entrance. Greeting. Inspection as to personal cleanliness. Exercises of practical

life; helping one another to take off and put on the aprons. Going over the room to
see that everything is dusted and in order. Language: Conversation period: Children
give an account of the events of the day before. Religious exercises.
10-11. Intellectual exercises. Objective lessons interrupted by short rest periods.
Nomenclature, Sense exercises.
11-11:30. Simple gymnastics: Ordinary movements done gracefully, normal position
of the body, walking, marching in line, salutations, movements for attention,
placing of objects gracefully.
11:30-12. Luncheon: Short prayer.
12-1. Free games.
1-2. Directed games, if possible, in the open air. During this period the older children
in turn go through with the exercises of practical life, cleaning the room, dusting,
putting the material in order. General inspection for cleanliness: Conversation.
[Pg 120]

2-3. Manual work. Clay modelling, design, etc.

3-4. Collective gymnastics and songs, if possible in the open air. Exercises to develop
forethought: Visiting, and caring for, the plants and animals.
As soon as a school is established, the question of schedule arises. This must be
considered from two points of view; the length of the school-day and the distribution
of study and of the activities of life.
I shall begin by affirming that in the "Children's Houses," as in the school for
deficients, the hours may be very long, occupying the entire day. For poor children,
and especially for the "Children's Houses" annexed to workingmen's tenements, I
should advise that the school-day should be from nine in the morning to five in the
evening in winter, and from eight to six in summer. These long hours are necessary, if
we are to follow a directed line of action which shall be helpful to the growth of the
child. It goes without saying, that in the case of little children such a long school-day
should be interrupted by at least an hour's rest in bed. And here lies the great practical
difficulty. At present we must allow our little ones to sleep in their seats in a wretched
position, but I foresee a time, not distant, when we shall be able to have a quiet,
darkened room where the children may sleep in low-swung hammocks. I should like
still better to have this nap taken in the open air.
In the "Children's Houses" in Rome we send the little ones to their own apartments
for the nap, as this can be done without their having to go out into the streets.
It must be observed that these long hours include not only the nap, but the luncheon.
This must be considered in such schools as the "Children's Houses," whose aim is [Pg
121]to help and to direct the growth of children in such an important period of
development as that from three to six years of age.
The "Children's House" is a garden of child culture, and we most certainly do not
keep the children for so many hours in school with the idea of making students of
them!
The first step which we must take in our method is to call to the pupil. We call now
to his attention, now to his interior life, now to the life he leads with others. Making a
comparison which must not be taken in a literal sense,—it is necessary to proceed as
in experimental psychology or anthropology when one makes an experiment,—that is,
after having prepared the instrument (to which in this case the environment may
correspond) we prepare the subject. Considering the method as a whole, we must
begin our work by preparing the child for the forms of social life, and we must attract
his attention to these forms.
In the schedule which we outlined when we established the first "Children's House,"
but which we have never followed entirely, (a sign that a schedule in which the
material is distributed in arbitrary fashion is not adapted to the régime of liberty) we
begin the day with a series of exercises of practical life, and I must confess that these
exercises were the only part of the programme which proved thoroughly stationary.
These exercises were such a success that they formed the beginning of the day in all
of the "Children's Houses." First:
Cleanliness.
Order.
Poise.
Conversation.
[Pg 122]

As soon as the children arrive at school we make an inspection for cleanliness. If

possible, this should be carried on in the presence of the mothers, but their attention
should not be called to it directly. We examine the hands, the nails, the neck, the ears,
the face, the teeth; and care is given to the tidiness of the hair. If any of the garments
are torn or soiled or ripped, if the buttons are lacking, or if the shoes are not clean, we
call the attention of the child to this. In this way, the children become accustomed to
observing themselves and take an interest in their own appearance.
The children in our "Children's Houses" are given a bath in turn, but this, of course,
can not be done daily. In the class, however, the teacher, by using a little washstand
with small pitchers and basins, teaches the children to take a partial bath: for example,
they learn how to wash their hands and clean their nails. Indeed, sometimes we teach
them how to take a foot-bath. They are shown especially how to wash their ears and
eyes with great care. They are taught to brush their teeth and rinse their mouths
carefully. In all of this, we call their attention to the different parts of the body which
they are washing, and to the different means which we use in order to cleanse them:
clear water for the eyes, soap and water for the hands, the brush for the teeth, etc. We
teach the big ones to help the little ones, and, so, encourage the younger children to
learn quickly to take care of themselves.
 After this care of their persons, we put on the little aprons. The children are able to
put these on themselves, or, with the help of each other. Then we begin our visit about
the schoolroom. We notice if all of the various materials are in order and if they are
clean. The[Pg 123] teacher shows the children how to clean out the little corners where
dust has accumulated, and shows them how to use the various objects necessary in
cleaning a room,—dust-cloths, dust-brushes, little brooms, etc. All of this, when the
children are allowed to do it by themselves, is very quickly accomplished. Then the
children go each to his own place. The teacher explains to them that the normal
position is for each child to be seated in his own place, in silence, with his feet
together on the floor, his hands resting on the table, and his head erect. In this way she
teaches them poise and equilibrium. Then she has them rise on their feet in order to
sing the hymn, teaching them that in rising and sitting down it is not necessary to be
noisy. In this way the children learn to move about the furniture with poise and with
care. After this we have a series of exercises in which the children learn to move
gracefully, to go and come, to salute each other, to lift objects carefully, to receive
various objects from each other politely. The teacher calls attention with little
exclamations to a child who is clean, a room which is well ordered, a class seated
quietly, a graceful movement, etc.
From such a starting point we proceed to the free teaching. That is, the teacher will
no longer make comments to the children, directing them how to move from their
seats, etc., she will limit herself to correcting the disordered movements.
After the directress has talked in this way about the attitude of the children and the
arrangement of the room, she invites the children to talk with her. She questions them
concerning what they have done the day before, regulating her inquiries in such a way
that the children need not report the intimate happenings of the family but their [Pg
124] individual behaviour, their games, attitude to parents, etc. She will ask if they
have been able to go up the stairs without getting them muddy, if they have spoken
politely to their friends who passed, if they have helped their mothers, if they have
shown in their family what they have learned at school, if they have played in the
street, etc. The conversations are longer on Monday after the vacation, and on that day
the children are invited to tell what they have done with the family; if they have gone
away from home, whether they have eaten things not usual for children to eat, and if
this is the case we urge them not to eat these things and try to teach them that they are
bad for them. Such conversations as these encourage the unfolding or development of
language and are of great educational value, since the directress can prevent the
children from recounting happenings in the house or in the neighbourhood, and can
select, instead, topics which are adapted to pleasant conversation, and in this way can
teach the children those things which it is desirable to talk about; that is, things with
which we occupy ourselves in life, public events, or things which have happened in
the different houses, perhaps, to the children themselves—as baptism, birthday
parties, any of which may serve for occasional conversation. Things of this sort will
encourage children to describe, themselves. After this morning talk we pass to the
various lessons.

[Pg 125]

CHAPTER VIII
REFECTION—THE CHILD'S DIET
In connection with the exercises of practical life, it may be fitting to consider the
matter of refection.
In order to protect the child's development, especially in neighbourhoods where
standards of child hygiene are not yet prevalent in the home, it would be well if a
large part at least of the child's diet could be entrusted to the school. It is well known
to-day that the diet must be adapted to the physical nature of the child; and as the
medicine of children is not the medicine of adults in reduced doses, so the diet must
not be that of the adult in lesser quantitative proportions. For this reason I should
prefer that even in the "Children's Houses" which are situated in tenements and from
which little ones, being at home, can go up to eat with the family, school refection
should be instituted. Moreover, even in the case of rich children, school refection
would always be advisable until a scientific course in cooking shall have introduced
into the wealthier families the habit of specialising in children's food.
The diet of little children must be rich in fats and sugar: the first for reserve matter
and the second for plastic tissue. In fact, sugar is a stimulant to tissues in the process
of formation.
As for the form of preparation, it is well that the alimentary substances should
always be minced, because[Pg 126] the child has not yet the capacity for completely
masticating the food, and his stomach is still incapable of fulfilling the function of
mincing food matter.
Consequently, soups, purées, and meat balls, should constitute the ordinary form of
dish for the child's table.
The nitrogenous diet for a child from two or three years of age ought to be
constituted chiefly of milk and eggs, but after the second year broths are also to be
recommended. After three years and a half meat can be given; or, in the case of poor
children, vegetables. Fruits are also to be recommended for children.
Perhaps a detailed summary on child diet may be useful, especially for mothers.
Method of Preparing Broth for Little Children. (Age three to six; after that the child
may use the common broth of the family.) The quantity of meat should correspond to
1 gramme for every cubic centimetre of broth and should be put in cold water. No
aromatic herbs should be used, the only wholesome condiment being salt. The meat
should be left to boil for two hours. Instead of removing the grease from the broth it is
well to add butter to it, or, in the case of the poor, a spoonful of olive oil; but
substitutes for butter, such as margerine, etc., should never be used. The broth must be
prepared fresh; it would be well, therefore, to put the meat on the fire two hours
before the meal, because as soon as broth is cool there begins to take place a
separation of chemical substances, which are injurious to the child and may easily
cause diarrhea.
Soups. A very simple soup, and one to be highly recommended for children, is
bread boiled in salt water or in broth and abundantly seasoned with oil. This is the
classic soup of poor children and an excellent means of [Pg 127] nutrition. Very like
this, is the soup which consists of little cubes of bread toasted in butter and allowed to
soak in the broth which is itself fat with butter. Soups of grated bread also belong in
this class.
Pastine,[10] especially the glutinous pastine, which are of the same nature, are
undoubtedly superior to the others for digestibility, but are accessible only to the
privileged social classes.
The poor should know how much more wholesome is a broth made from remnants
of stale bread, than soups of coarse spaghetti—often dry and seasoned with meat
juice. Such soups are most indigestible for little children.
Excellent soups are those consisting of purées of vegetables (beans, peas, lentils).
To-day one may find in the shops dried vegetables especially adapted for this sort of
soups. Boiled in salt water, the vegetables are peeled, put to cool and passed through a
sieve (or simply compressed, if they are already peeled). Butter is then added, and the
paste is stirred slowly into the boiling water, care being taken that it dissolves and
leaves no lumps.
Vegetable soups can also be seasoned with pork. Instead of broth, sugared milk may
be the base of vegetable purées.
I strongly recommend for children a soup of rice boiled in broth or milk; also
cornmeal broth, provided it be seasoned with abundant butter, but not with cheese.
(The porridge form—polenta, really cornmeal mush, is to be highly recommended on
account of the long cooking.)
The poorer classes who have no meat-broth can feed [Pg 128]their children equally
well with soups of boiled bread and porridge seasoned with oil.
Milk and Eggs. These are foods which not only contain nitrogenous substances in
an eminently digestible form, but they have the so-called enzymes which facilitate
assimilation into the tissues, and, hence, in a particular way, favour the growth of the
child. And they answer so much the better this last most important condition if they
are fresh and intact, keeping in themselves, one may say, the life of the animals which
produced them.
Milk fresh from the cow, and the egg while it is still warm, are assimilable to the
highest degree. Cooking, on the other hand, makes the milk and eggs lose their special
conditions of assimilability and reduces the nutritive power in them to the simple
power of any nitrogenous substance.
To-day, consequently, there are being founded special dairies for children where
the milk produced is sterile; the rigorous cleanliness of the surroundings in which the
milk-producing animals live, the sterilisation of the udder before milking, of the hands
of the milker, and of the vessels which are to contain the milk, the hermetic sealing of
these last, and the refrigerating bath immediately after the milking, if the milk is to be
carried far,—otherwise it is well to drink it warm, procure a milk free from bacteria
which, therefore, has no need of being sterilised by boiling, and which preserves intact
its natural nutritive powers.
As much may be said of eggs; the best way of feeding them to a child is to take
them still warm from the hen and have him eat them just as they are, and then digest
them in the open air. But where this is not prac [Pg 129]ticable, eggs must be chosen
fresh, and barely heated in water, that is to say, prepared à la coque.
All other forms of preparation, milk-soup, omelettes, and so forth, do, to be sure,
make of milk and eggs an excellent food, more to be recommended than others; but
they take away the specific properties of assimilation which characterise them.
Meat. All meats are not adapted to children, and even their preparation must differ
according to the age of the child. Thus, for example, children from three to five years
of age ought to eat only more or less finely-ground meats, whereas at the age of five
children are capable of grinding meat completely by mastication; at that time it is well
to teach the child accurately how to masticate because he has a tendency to swallow
food quickly, which may produce indigestion and diarrhea.
 This is another reason why school-refection in the "Children's Houses" would be a
very serviceable as well as convenient institution, as the whole diet of the child could
then be rationally cared for in connection with the educative system of the Houses.
The meats most adapted to children are so-called white meats, that is, in the first
place, chicken, then veal; also the light flesh of fish, (sole, pike, cod).
After the age of four, filet of beef may also be introduced into the diet, but never
heavy and fat meats like that of the pig, the capon, the eel, the tunny, etc., which are to
be absolutely excluded along with mollusks and crustaceans, (oysters, lobsters), from
the child's diet.
Croquettes made of finely ground meat, grated bread, milk, and beaten eggs, and
fried in butter, are the most wholesome preparation. Another excellent preparation [Pg
130] is to mould into balls the grated meat, with sweet fruit-preserve, and eggs beaten
up with sugar.
At the age of five, the child may be given breast of roast fowl, and occasionally veal
cutlet or filet of beef.
Boiled meat must never be given to the child, because meat is deprived of many
stimulating and even nutritive properties by boiling and rendered less digestible.
Nerve Feeding Substances. Besides meat a child who has reached the age of four
may be given fried brains and sweetbreads, to be combined, for example, with chicken
croquettes.
Milk Foods. All cheeses are to be excluded from the child's diet.
The only milk product suitable to children from three to six years of age is fresh
butter.
Custard. Custard is also to be recommended provided it be freshly prepared, that is
immediately before being eaten, and with very fresh milk and eggs: if such conditions
cannot be rigorously fulfilled, it is preferable to do without custard, which is not a
necessity.
Bread. From what we have said about soups, it may be inferred that bread is
an excellent food for the child. It should be well selected; the crumb is not very
digestible, but it can be utilised, when it is dry, to make a bread broth; but if one is to
give the child simply a piece of bread to eat, it is well to offer him the crust, the end of
the loaf. Bread sticks are excellent for those who can afford them.
Bread contains many nitrogenous substances and is very rich in starches, but is
lacking in fats; and as the fundamental substances of diet are, as is well known, three
in number, namely, proteids, (nitrogenous substances), starches, and fats, bread is not
a complete food;[Pg 131] it is necessary therefore to offer the child buttered bread,
which constitutes a complete food and may be considered as a sufficient and complete
breakfast.
Green Vegetables. Children must never eat raw vegetables, such as salads and
greens, but only cooked ones; indeed they are not to be highly recommended either
cooked or raw, with the exception of spinach which may enter with moderation into
the diet of children.
Potatoes prepared in a purée with much butter form, however, an excellent
complement of nutrition for children.
Fruits. Among fruits there are excellent foods for children. They too, like milk and
eggs, if freshly gathered, retain a living quality which aids assimilation.
As this condition, however, is not easily attainable in cities, it is necessary to
consider also the diet of fruits which are not perfectly fresh and which, therefore,
should be prepared and cooked in various ways. All fruits are not to be advised for
children; the chief properties to be considered are the degree of ripeness,
the tenderness and sweetness of the pulp, and its acidity. Peaches, apricots, grapes,
currants, oranges, and mandarins, in their natural state, can be given to little children
with great advantage. Other fruits, such as pears, apples, plums, should be cooked or
prepared in syrup.
Figs, pineapples, dates, melons, cherries, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and
chestnuts, are excluded for various reasons from the diet of early childhood.
The preparation of fruit must consist in removing from it all indigestible parts, such
as the peel, and also such parts as the child inadvertently may absorb to his detriment,
as, for example, the seed.
Children of four or five should be taught early how[Pg 132] carefully the seeds must
be thrown away and how the fruits are peeled. Afterwards, the child so educated may
be promoted to the honour of receiving a fine fruit intact, and he will know how to eat
it properly.
The culinary preparation of fruits consists essentially in two processes: cooking, and
seasoning with sugar.
Besides simple cooking, fruits may be prepared as marmalades and jellies, which
are excellent but are naturally within the reach of the wealthier classes only. While
jellies and marmalades may be allowed, candied fruits,—on the other hand,—marrons
glacés, and the like, are absolutely excluded from the child's diet.
 Seasonings. An important phase of the hygiene of child diet concerns seasonings—
with a view to their rigorous limitation. As I have already indicated, sugar and some
fat substances along with kitchen salt (sodium chloride) should constitute the principal
part of the seasonings.
To these may be added organic acids (acetic acid, citric acid) that is, vinegar and
lemon juice; this latter can be advantageously used on fish, on croquettes, on spinach,
etc.
Other condiments suitable to little children are some aromatic vegetables like garlic
and rue which disinfect the intestines and the lungs, and also have a direct
anthelminthic action.
Spices, on the other hand, such as pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and especially
mustard, are to be absolutely abolished.
Drinks. The growing organism of the child is very rich in water, and, hence, needs a
constant supply of moisture. Among the beverages, the best, and indeed the only one,
to be unreservedly advised is pure fresh spring[Pg 133] water. To rich children might
be allowed the so-called table waters which are slightly alkaline, such as those of San
Gemini, Acqua Claudia, etc., mixed with syrups, as, for example, syrup of black
cherry.
It is now a matter of general knowledge that all fermented beverages, and those
exciting to the nervous system, are injurious to children; hence, all alcoholic and
caffeic beverages are absolutely eliminated from child diet. Not only liquors, but wine
and beer, ought to be unknown to the child's taste, and coffee and tea should be
inaccessible to childhood.
The deleterious action of alcohol on the child organism needs no illustration, but in
a matter of such vital importance insistent repetition is never superfluous. Alcohol is a
poison especially fatal to organisms in the process of formation. Not only does it
arrest their total development (whence infantilism, idiocy), but also predisposes the
child to nervous maladies (epilepsy, meningitis), and to maladies of the digestive
organs, and metabolism (cirrhosis of the liver, dyspepsia, anæmia).
If the "Children's Houses" were to succeed in enlightening the people on such
truths, they would be accomplishing a very lofty hygienic work for the new
generations.
Instead of coffee, children may be given roasted and boiled barley, malt, and
especially chocolate which is an excellent child food, particularly when mixed with
milk.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE MEALS

 Another chapter of child diet concerns the distribution of the meals. Here, one
principle must dominate, and must be diffused, among mothers, namely, that the
children shall be kept to rigorous meal hours in order that [Pg 134] they may enjoy
good health and have excellent digestion. It is true that there prevails among the
people (and it is one of the forms of maternal ignorance most fatal to children) the
prejudice that children in order to grow well must be eating almost continuously,
without regularity, nibbling almost habitually a crust of bread. On the contrary, the
child, in view of the special delicacy of his digestive system, has more need of regular
meals than the adult has. It seems to me that the "Children's Houses" with very
prolonged programmes are, for this reason, suitable places for child culture, as they
can direct the child's diet. Outside of their regular meal hours, children should not
eat.
In a "Children's House" with a long programme there ought to be two meals, a
hearty one about noon, and a light one about four in the afternoon.
At the hearty meal, there should be soup, a meat dish, and bread, and, in the case of
rich children, also fruits or custard, and butter on the bread.
At the four o'clock meal there should be prepared a light lunch, which from a simple
piece of bread can range to buttered bread, and to bread accompanied by a fruit
marmalade, chocolate, honey, custard, etc. Crisp crackers, biscuits, and cooked fruits,
etc., might also be usefully employed. Very suitably the lunch might consist of bread
soaked in milk or an egg à la coque with bread sticks, or else of a simple cup of milk
in which is dissolved a spoonful of Mellin's Food. I recommend Mellin's Food very
highly, not only in infancy, but also much later on account of its properties of
digestibility and nutrition, and on account of its flavour, which is so pleasing to
children.
Mellin's Food is a powder prepared from barley and wheat, and containing in a
concentrated and pure state the[Pg 135] nutritive substances proper to those cereals; the
powder is slowly dissolved in hot water in the bottom of the same cup which is to be
used for drinking the mixture, and very fresh milk is then poured on top.
The child would take the other two meals in his own home, that is, the morning
breakfast and the supper, which latter must be very light for children so that shortly
after they may be ready to go to bed. On these meals it would be well to give advice to
mothers, urging them to help complete the hygienic work of the "Children's Houses,"
to the profit of their children.
The morning breakfast for the rich might be milk and chocolate, or milk and extract
of malt, with crackers, or, better, with toasted bread spread with butter or honey; for
the poor, a cup of fresh milk, with bread.
 For the evening meal, a soup is to be advised (children should eat soups twice a
day), and an egg à la coque or a cup of milk; or rice soup with a base of milk, and
buttered bread, with cooked fruits, etc.
As for the alimentary rations to be calculated, I refer the reader to the special
treatises on hygiene: although practically such calculations are of no great utility.

In the "Children's Houses," especially in the case of the poor, I should make
extensive use of the vegetable soups and I should have cultivated in the garden plots
vegetables which can be used in the diet, in order to have them plucked in their
freshness, cooked, and enjoyed. I should try, possibly, to do the same for the fruits,
and, by the raising of animals, to have fresh eggs and pure milk. The milking of the
goats could be done directly by the larger children, after they had scrupulously
washed their hands. Another important educative application [Pg 136] which school-
refection in the "Children's Houses" has to offer, and which concerns "practical life,"
consists in the preparing of the table, arranging the table linen, learning its
nomenclature, etc. Later, I shall show how this exercise can gradually increase in
difficulty and constitute a most important didactic instrument.
It is sufficient to intimate here that it is very important to teach the children to eat
with cleanliness, both with respect to themselves and with respect to their
surroundings (not to soil the napkins, etc.), and to use the table implements (which, at
least, for the little ones, are limited to the spoon, and for the larger children extended
to the fork and knife).
[10]Those very fine forms of vermicelli used in soups.

[Pg 137]

CHAPTER IX
MUSCULAR EDUCATION—GYMNASTICS
The generally accepted idea of gymnastics is, I consider, very inadequate. In the
common schools we are accustomed to describe as gymnastics a species of collective
muscular discipline which has as its aim that children shall learn to follow definite
ordered movements given in the form of commands. The guiding spirit in such
gymnastics is coercion, and I feel that such exercises repress spontaneous movements
and impose others in their place. I do not know what the psychological authority for
the selection of these imposed movements is. Similar movements are used in medical
gymnastics in order to restore a normal movement to a torpid muscle or to give back a
normal movement to a paralysed muscle. A number of chest movements which are
given in the school are advised, for example, in medicine for those who suffer from
intestinal torpidity, but truly I do not well understand what office such exercises can
fulfil when they are followed by squadrons of normal children. In addition to these
formal gymnastics we have those which are carried on in a gymnasium, and which are
very like the first steps in the training of an acrobat. However, this is not the place for
criticism of the gymnastics used in our common schools. Certainly in our case we are
not considering such gymnastics. Indeed, many who hear me speak of gymnastics for
infant schools very plainly show disap[Pg 138]probation and they will disapprove
more heartily when they hear me speak of a gymnasium for little children. Indeed, if
the gymnastic exercises and the gymnasium were those of the common schools, no
one would agree more heartily than I in the disapproval expressed by these critics.
We must understand by gymnastics and in general by muscular education a series of
exercises tending to aid the normal development of physiological movements (such as
walking, breathing, speech), to protect this development, when the child shows
himself backward or abnormal in any way, and to encourage in the children those
movements which are useful in the achievement of the most ordinary acts of life; such
as dressing, undressing, buttoning their clothes and lacing their shoes, carrying such
objects as balls, cubes, etc. If there exists an age in which it is necessary to protect a
child by means of a series of gymnastic exercises, between three and six years is
undoubtedly the age. The special gymnastics necessary, or, better still, hygienic, in
this period of life, refer chiefly to walking. A child in the general morphological
growth of his body is characterised by having a torso greatly developed in comparison
with the lower limbs. In the new-born child the length of the torso, from the top of the
head to the curve of the groin, is equal to 68 per cent of the total length of the body.
The limbs then are barely 32 per cent of the stature. During growth these relative
proportions change in a most noticeable way; thus, for example, in the adult the torso
is fully half of the entire stature and, according to the individual, corresponds to 51 or
52 per cent of it.
This morphological difference between the new-born child and the adult is bridged
so slowly during growth[Pg 139] that in the first years of the child's life the torso still
remains tremendously developed as compared with the limbs. In one year the height
of the torso corresponds to 65 per cent of the total stature, in two years to 63, in three
years to 62.
 At the age when a child enters the infant school his limbs are still very short as
compared with his torso; that is, the length of his limbs barely corresponds to 38 per
cent of the stature. Between the years of six and seven the proportion of the torso to
the stature is from 57 to 56 per cent In such a period therefore the child not only
makes a noticeable growth in height, (he measures indeed at the age of three years
about 0.85 metre and at six years 1.05 metres) but, changing so greatly the relative
proportions between the torso and the limbs, the latter make a most decided growth.
This growth is related to the layers of cartilage which still exist at the extremity of the
long bones and is related in general to the still incomplete ossification of the entire
skeleton. The tender bones of the limbs must therefore sustain the weight of the torso
which is then disproportionately large. We cannot, if we consider all these things,
judge the manner of walking in little children by the standard set for our own
equilibrium. If a child is not strong, the erect posture and walking are really sources of
fatigue for him, and the long bones of the lower limbs, yielding to the weight of the
body, easily become deformed and usually bowed. This is particularly the case among
the badly nourished children of the poor, or among those in whom the skeleton
structure, while not actually showing the presence of rickets, still seems to be slow in
attaining normal ossification.
We are wrong then if we consider little children from [Pg 140] this physical point of
view as little men. They have, instead, characteristics and proportions that are entirely
special to their age. The tendency of the child to stretch out on his back and kick his
legs in the air is an expression of physical needs related to the proportions of his body.
The baby loves to walk on all fours just because, like the quadruped animals, his
limbs are short in comparison with his body. Instead of this, we divert these natural
manifestations by foolish habits which we impose on the child. We hinder him from
throwing himself on the earth, from stretching, etc., and we oblige him to walk with
grown people and to keep up with them; and excuse ourselves by saying that we don't
want him to become capricious and think he can do as he pleases! It is indeed a fatal
error and one which has made bow-legs common among little children. It is well to
enlighten the mothers on these important particulars of infant hygiene. Now we, with
the gymnastics, can, and, indeed, should, help the child in his development by making
our exercises correspond to the movement which he needs to make, and in this way
save his limbs from fatigue.
One very simple means for helping the child in his activity was suggested to me by
my observation of the children themselves. The teacher was having the children
march, leading them about the courtyard between the walls of the house and the
central garden. This garden was protected by a little fence made of strong wires which
were stretched in parallel lines, and were supported at intervals by wooden palings
driven into the ground. Along the fence, ran a little ledge on which the children were
in the habit of sitting down when they were tired of marching. In addition to this, I
always brought out little chairs, which I placed against the wall. [Pg 141] Every now
and then, the little ones of two and one half and three years would drop out from the
marching line, evidently being tired; but instead of sitting down on the ground or on
the chairs, they would run to the little fence and catching hold of the upper line of
wire they would walk along sideways, resting their feet on the wire which was nearest
the ground. That this gave them a great deal of pleasure, was evident from the way in
which they laughed as, with bright eyes, they watched their larger companions who
were marching about. The truth was that these little ones had solved one of my
problems in a very practical way. They moved themselves along on the wires, pulling
their bodies sideways. In this way, they moved their limbs without throwing upon
them the weight of the body. Such an apparatus placed in the gymnasium for little
children, will enable them to fulfil the need which they feel of throwing themselves on
the floor and kicking their legs in the air; for the movements they make on the little
fence correspond even more correctly to the same physical needs. Therefore, I advise
the manufacture of this little fence for use in children's playrooms. It can be
constructed of parallel bars supported by upright poles firmly fixed on to the heavy
base. The children, while playing upon this little fence, will be able to look out and
see with, great pleasure what the other children are doing in the room.
Other pieces of gymnasium apparatus can be constructed upon the same plan, that
is, having as their aim the furnishing of the child with a proper outlet for his
individual activities. One of the things invented by Séguin to develop the lower limbs,
and especially to strengthen the articulation of the knee in weak children, is the
trampolino.[Pg 142]
This is a kind of swing, having a very wide seat, so wide, indeed, that the limbs of
the child stretched out in front of him are entirely supported by this broad seat. This
little chair is hung from strong cords and is left swinging. The wall in front of it is
reinforced by a strong smooth board against which the children press their feet in
pushing themselves back and forth in the swing. The child seated in this swing
exercises his limbs, pressing his feet against the board each time that he swings
toward the wall. The board against which he swings may be erected at some distance
from the wall, and may be so low that the child can see over the top of it. As he
swings in this chair, he strengthens his limbs through the species of gymnastics
limited to the lower limbs, and this he does without resting the weight of his body
upon his legs. Other pieces of gymnastic apparatus, less important from the hygienic
standpoint, but very amusing to the children, may be described briefly. "The
Pendulum," a game which may be played by one child or by several, consists of
rubber balls hung on a cord. The children seated in their little armchairs strike the ball,
sending it from one to another. It is an exercise for the arms and for the spinal column,
and is at the same time an exercise in which the eye gauges the distance of bodies in
motion. Another game, called "The Cord," consists of a line, drawn on the earth with
chalk, along which the children walk. This helps to order and to direct their free
movements in a given direction. A game like this is very pretty, indeed, after a
snowfall, when the little path made by the children shows the regularity of the line
they have traced, and encourages a pleasant war among them in which each one tries
to make his line in the snow the most regular.[Pg 143]
The little round stair is another game, in which a little wooden stairway, built on the
plan of the spiral, is used. This little stair is enclosed on one side by a balustrade on
which the children can rest their hands. The other side is open and circular. This
serves to habituate the children to climbing and descending stairs without holding on
to the balustrade, and teaches them to move up and down with movements that are
poised and self-controlled. The steps must be very low and very shallow. Going up
and down on this little stair, the very smallest children can learn movements which
they cannot follow properly in climbing ordinary stairways in their homes, in which
the proportions are arranged for adults.
Another piece of gymnasium apparatus, adapted for the broad-jump, consists of a
low wooden platform painted with various lines, by means of which the distance
jumped may be gauged. There is a small flight of stairs which may be used in
connection with this plane, making it possible to practise and to measure the high-
jump.
I also believe that rope-ladders may be so adapted as to be suitable for use in
schools for little children. Used in pairs, these would, it seems to me, help to perfect a
great variety of movements, such as kneeling, rising, bending forward and backward,
etc.; movements which the child, without the help of the ladder, could not make
without losing his equilibrium. All of these movements are useful in that they help the
child to acquire, first, equilibrium, then that co-ordination of the muscular movements
necessary to him. They are, moreover, helpful in that they increase the chest
expansion. Besides all this, such movements as I have described, reinforce the hand in
its most primitive and essential action, prehension;—the movement which necessarily
precedes all the finer move[Pg 144]ments of the hand itself. Such apparatus was
successfully used by Séguin to develop the general strength and the movement of
prehension in his idiotic children.
The gymnasium, therefore, offers a field for the most varied exercises, tending to
establish the co-ordination of the movements common in life, such as walking,
throwing objects, going up and down stairs, kneeling, rising, jumping, etc.

FREE GYMNASTICS

By free gymnastics I mean those which are given without any apparatus. Such
gymnastics are divided into two classes: directed and required exercises, and free
games. In the first class, I recommend the march, the object of which should be not
rhythm, but poise only. When the march is introduced, it is well to accompany it with
the singing of little songs, because this furnishes a breathing exercise very helpful in
strengthening the lungs. Besides the march, many of the games of Froebel which are
accompanied by songs, very similar to those which the children constantly play
among themselves, may be used. In the free games, we furnish the children with balls,
hoops, bean bags and kites. The trees readily offer themselves to the game of "Pussy
wants a corner," and many simple games of tag.
 DR. MONTESSORI IN THE GARDEN OF THE SCHOOL AT VIA GIUSTI

EDUCATIONAL GYMNASTICS

Under the name of educational gymnastics, we include two series of exercises

which really form a part of other school work, as, for instance, the cultivation of the
earth, the care of plants and animals (watering and pruning the plants, carrying the
grain to the chickens, etc.). These activities call for various co-ordinated movements,
as, for [Pg 145]example, in hoeing, in getting down to plant things, and in rising; the
trips which children make in carrying objects to some definite place, and in making a
definite practical use of these objects, offer a field for very valuable gymnastic
exercises. The scattering of minute objects, such as corn and oats, is valuable, and also
the exercise of opening and closing the gates to the garden and to the chicken yard.
All of these exercises are the more valuable in that they are carried on in the open air.
Among our educational gymnastics we have exercises to develop co-ordinated
movements of the fingers, and these prepare the children for the exercises of practical
life, such as dressing and undressing themselves. The didactic material which forms
the basis of these last named gymnastics is very simple, consisting of wooden frames,
each mounted with two pieces of cloth, or leather, to be fastened and unfastened by
means of the buttons and buttonholes, hooks and eyes, eyelets and lacings, or
automatic fastenings.
 (A) CHILDREN THREE AND ONE-HALF AND FOUR YEARS OLD
LEARNING TO BUTTON AND LACE. (B) RIBBON AND BUTTON
FRAMES. These are among the earliest exercises.
In our "Children's Houses" we use ten of these frames, so constructed that each one
of them illustrates a different process in dressing or undressing.
One: mounted with heavy pieces of wool which are to be fastened by means of
large bone buttons—corresponds to children's dresses.
Two: mounted with pieces of linen to be fastened with pearl buttons—corresponds
to a child's underwear.
Three: leather pieces mounted with shoe buttons—in fastening these leather pieces
the children make use of the button-hook—corresponds to a child's shoes.
Four: pieces of leather which are laced together by means of eyelets and shoe laces.
Five: two pieces of cloth to be laced together. (These [Pg 146] pieces are boned and
therefore correspond to the little bodices worn by the peasants in Italy.)
Six: two pieces of stuff to be fastened by means of large hooks and eyes.
Seven: two pieces of linen, to be fastened by means of small hooks and worked
eyelets.
Eight: two pieces of cloth to be fastened by means of broad coloured ribbon, which
is to be tied into bows.
Nine: pieces of cloth laced together with round cord, on the same order as the
fastenings on many of the children's underclothes.
Ten: two pieces to be fastened together by means of the modern automatic
fasteners.
Through the use of such toys, the children can practically analyse the movements
necessary in dressing and undressing themselves, and can prepare themselves
separately for these movements by means of repeated exercises. We succeed in
teaching the child to dress himself without his really being aware of it, that is, without
any direct or arbitrary command we have led him to this mastery. As soon as he
knows how to do it, he begins to wish to make a practical application of his ability,
and very soon he will be proud of being sufficient unto himself, and will take delight
in an ability which makes his body free from the hands of others, and which leads him
the sooner to that modesty and activity which develops far too late in those children of
to-day who are deprived of this most practical form of education. The fastening games
are very pleasing to the little ones, and often when ten of them are using the frames at
the same time, seated around the little tables, quiet and serious, they give the
impression of a workroom filled with tiny workers.
[Pg 147]

RESPIRATORY GYMNASTICS

The purpose of these gymnastics is to regulate the respiratory movements: in other

words, to teach the art of breathing. They also help greatly the correct formation of
the child's speech habits. The exercises which we use were introduced into school
literature by Professor Sala. We have chosen the simple exercises described by him in
his treatise, "Cura della Balbuzie." [11] These include a number of respiratory gymnastic
exercises with which are co-ordinated muscular exercises. I give here an example:
Mouth wide open, tongue held flat, hands on hips.
Breathe deeply, lift the shoulders rapidly, lowering the diaphragm.
Expel breath slowly, lowering shoulders slowly, returning to normal position.
The directress should select or devise simple breathing exercises, to be
accompanied with arm movements, etc.
Exercises for proper use of lips, tongue, and teeth. These exercises teach the
movements of the lips and tongue in the pronunciation of certain fundamental
consonant sounds, reinforcing the muscles, and making them ready for these
movements. These gymnastics prepare the organs used in the formation of language.
In presenting such exercises we begin with the entire class, but finish by testing the
children individually. We ask the child to pronounce, aloud and with force, the first
syllable of a word. When all are intent upon putting the greatest possible force into
this, we call each child separately, and have him repeat the word. If he pronounces [Pg
148] it correctly, we send him to the right, if badly, to the left. Those who have
difficulty with the word, are then encouraged to repeat it several times. The teacher
takes note of the age of the child, and of the particular defects in the movements of the
muscles used in articulating. She may then touch the muscles which should be used,
tapping, for example, the curve of the lips, or even taking hold of the child's tongue
and placing it against the dental arch, or showing him clearly the movements which
she herself makes when pronouncing the syllable. She must seek in every way to aid
the normal development of the movements necessary to the exact articulation of the
word.
As the basis for these gymnastics we have the children pronounce the words: pane
—fame—tana—zina—stella—rana—gatto.
 In the pronunciation of pane, the child should repeat with much force, pa, pa, pa,
thus exercising the muscles producing orbicular contraction of the lips.
In fame repeating fa, fa, fa, the child exercises the movements of the lower lip
against the upper dental arch.
In tana, having him repeat ta, ta, ta, we cause him to exercise the movement of the
tongue against the upper dental arch.
In zina, we provoke the contact of the upper and lower dental arches.
With stella we have him repeat the whole word, bringing the teeth together, and
holding the tongue (which has a tendency to protrude) close against the upper teeth.
In rana we have him repeat r, r, r, thus exercising the tongue in the vibratory
movements. In gatto we hold the voice upon the guttural g.
[11]"Cura della Balbuzie e del Difetti di Pronunzia." Sala. Ulrico Hoepli, publisher, Milan, Italy.

[Pg 149]

CHAPTER X
NATURE IN EDUCATION—AGRICULTURAL LABOUR:
CULTURE OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS
Itard, in a remarkable pedagogical treatise: "Des premiers développements du jeune
sauvage de l'Aveyron," expounds in detail the drama of a curious, gigantic education
which attempted to overcome the psychical darkness of an idiot and at the same time
to snatch a man from primitive nature.
The savage of the Aveyron was a child who had grown up in the natural state:
criminally abandoned in a forest where his assassins thought they had killed him, he
was cured by natural means, and had survived for many years free and naked in the
wilderness, until, captured by hunters, he entered into the civilised life of Paris,
showing by the scars with which his miserable body was furrowed the story of the
struggles with wild beasts, and of lacerations caused by falling from heights.
The child was, and always remained, mute; his mentality, diagnosed by Pinel as
idiotic, remained forever almost inaccessible to intellectual education.
 To this child are due the first steps of positive pedagogy. Itard, a physician of deaf-
mutes and a student of philosophy, undertook his education with methods which he
had already partially tried for treating defective hearing—believing at the beginning
that the savage showed char[Pg 150]acteristics of inferiority, not because he was a
degraded organism, but for want of education. He was a follower of the principles of
Helvetius: "Man is nothing without the work of man"; that is, he believed in the
omnipotence of education, and was opposed to the pedagogical principle which
Rousseau had promulgated before the Revolution: "Tout est bien sortant des mains de
l'Auteur des choses, tout dégénère dans les mains de l'homme,"—that is, the work of
education is deleterious and spoils the man.
The savage, according to the erroneous first impression of Itard, demonstrated
experimentally by his characteristics the truth of the former assertion. When, however,
he perceived, with the help of Pinel, that he had to do with an idiot, his philosophical
theories gave place to the most admirable, tentative, experimental pedagogy.
Itard divides the education of the savage into two parts. In the first, he endeavours
to lead the child from natural life to social life; and in the second, he attempts the
intellectual education of the idiot. The child in his life of frightful abandonment had
found one happiness; he had, so to speak, immersed himself in, and unified himself
with, nature, taking delight in it—rains, snow, tempests, boundless space, had been his
sources of entertainment, his companions, his love. Civil life is a renunciation of all
this: but it is an acquisition beneficent to human progress. In Itard's pages we find
vividly described the moral work which led the savage to civilisation, multiplying the
needs of the child and surrounding him with loving care. Here is a sample of the
admirably patient work of Itard as observer of the spontaneous expressions of his
pupil: it can most truly give teachers, who are to prepare for the experimental method,
an idea of the patience and the self-ab[Pg 151]negation necessary in dealing with a
phenomenon which is to be observed:
"When, for example, he was observed within his room, he was seen to be lounging
with oppressive monotony, continually directing his eyes toward the window, with his
gaze wandering in the void. If on such occasions a sudden storm blew up, if the sun,
hidden behind the clouds, peeped out of a sudden, lighting the atmosphere brilliantly,
there were loud bursts of laughter and almost convulsive joy. Sometimes, instead of
these expressions of joy, there was a sort of frenzied rage: he would twist his arms,
put his clenched fists upon his eyes, gnashing his teeth and becoming dangerous to
those about him.
"One morning, when the snow fell abundantly while he was still in bed, he uttered a
cry of joy upon awaking, leaped from his bed, ran to the window and then to the door;
went and came impatiently from one to the other; then ran out undressed as he was
into the garden. There, giving vent to his joy with the shrillest of cries, he ran, rolled
in the snow, gathered it up in handfuls, and swallowed it with incredible avidity.
"But his sensations at sight of the great spectacles of nature did not always manifest
themselves in such a vivid and noisy manner. It is worthy of note that in certain cases
they were expressed by a quiet regret and melancholy. Thus, it was when the rigour of
the weather drove everybody from the garden that the savage of the Aveyron chose to
go there. He would walk around it several times and finally sit down upon the edge of
the fountain.
"I have often stopped for whole hours, and with indescribable pleasure, to watch
him as he sat thus—to see how his face, inexpressive or contracted by grimaces,
gradually assumed an expression of sadness, and of melancholy [Pg 152] reminiscence,
while his eyes were fixed upon the surface of the water into which from time to time
he would throw a few dead leaves.
"If when there was a full moon, a sheaf of mild beams penetrated into his room, he
rarely failed to wake and to take his place at the window. He would remain there for a
large part of the night, erect, motionless, with his head thrust forward, his eyes fixed
on the countryside lighted by the moon, plunged in a sort of contemplative ecstasy,
the immobility and silence of which were only interrupted at long intervals by a breath
as deep as a sigh, which died away in a plaintive sound of lamentation."
Elsewhere, Itard relates that the boy did not know the walking gait which we use in
civilised life, but only the running gait, and tells how he, Itard, ran after him at the
beginning, when he took him out into the streets of Paris, rather than violently check
the boy's running.
The gradual and gentle leading of the savage through all the manifestations of social
life, the early adaptation of the teacher to the pupil rather than of the pupil to the
teacher, the successive attraction to a new life which was to win over the child by its
charms, and not be imposed upon him violently so that the pupil should feel it as a
burden and a torture, are as many precious educative expressions which may be
generalised and applied to the education of children.
I believe that there exists no document which offers so poignant and so eloquent a
contrast between the life of nature and the life of society, and which so graphically
shows that society is made up solely of renunciations and restraints. Let it suffice to
recall the run, checked to a walk, and the loud-voiced cry, checked to the modulations
of the ordinary speaking voice.[Pg 153]
And, yet, without any violence, leaving to social life the task of charming the child
little by little, Itard's education triumphs. It is true that civilised life is made by
renunciation of the life of nature; it is almost the snatching of a man from the lap of
earth; it is like snatching the new-born child from its mother's breast; but it is also a
new life.
In Itard's pages we see the final triumph of the love of man over the love of nature:
the savage of the Aveyron ends by feeling and preferring the affection of Itard, the
caresses, the tears shed over him, to the joy of immersing himself voluptuously in the
snow, and of contemplating the infinite expanse of the sky on a starry night: one day
after an attempted escape into the country, he returns of his own accord, humble and
repentant, to find his good soup and his warm bed.
It is true that man has created enjoyments in social life and has brought about a
vigorous human love in community life. But nevertheless he still belongs to nature,
and, especially when he is a child, he must needs draw from it the forces necessary to
the development of the body and of the spirit. We have intimate communications with
nature which have an influence, even a material influence, on the growth of the body.
(For example, a physiologist, isolating young guinea pigs from terrestrial magnetism
by means of insulators, found that they grew up with rickets.)
In the education of little children Itard's educative drama is repeated: we must
prepare man, who is one among the living creatures and therefore belongs to nature,
for social life, because social life being his own peculiar work, must also correspond
to the manifestation of his natural activity.[Pg 154]
But the advantages which we prepare for him in this social life, in a great measure
escape the little child, who at the beginning of his life is a predominantly vegetative
creature.
To soften this transition in education, by giving a large part of the educative work to
nature itself, is as necessary as it is not to snatch the little child suddenly and violently
from its mother and to take him to school; and precisely this is done in the "Children's
Houses," which are situated within the tenements where the parents live, where the
cry of the child reaches the mother and the mother's voice answers it.
Nowadays, under the form of child hygiene, this part of education is much
cultivated: children are allowed to grow up in the open air, in the public gardens, or
are left for many hours half naked on the seashore, exposed to the rays of the sun. It
has been understood, through the diffusion of marine and Apennine colonies, that the
best means of invigorating the child is to immerse him in nature.
Short and comfortable clothing for children, sandals for the feet, nudity of the lower
extremities, are so many liberations from the oppressive shackles of civilisation.
It is an obvious principle that we should sacrifice to natural liberties in education
only as much as is necessary for the acquisition of the greater pleasures which are
offered by civilisation without useless sacrifices.
 But in all this progress of modern child education, we have not freed ourselves from
the prejudice which denies children spiritual expression and spiritual needs, and
makes us consider them only as amiable vegetating bodies to be cared for, kissed, and
set in motion. The education which a good mother or a good modern teacher gives to-
[Pg 155]day to the child who, for example, is running about in a flower garden is the
counsel not to touch the flowers, not to tread on the grass; as if it were sufficient for
the child to satisfy the physiological needs of his body by moving his legs and
breathing fresh air.
But if for the physical life it is necessary to have the child exposed to the vivifying
forces of nature, it is also necessary for his psychical life to place the soul of the child
in contact with creation, in order that he may lay up for himself treasure from the
directly educating forces of living nature. The method for arriving at this end is to set
the child at agricultural labour, guiding him to the cultivation of plants and animals,
and so to the intelligent contemplation of nature.
Already, in England Mrs. Latter has devised the basis for a method of child
education by means of gardening and horticulture. She sees in the contemplation of
developing life the bases of religion, since the soul of the child may go from the
creature to the Creator. She sees in it also the point of departure for intellectual
education, which she limits to drawing from life as a step toward art, to the ideas
about plants, insects, and seasons, which spring from agriculture, and to the first
notions of household life, which spring from the cultivation and the culinary
preparation of certain alimentary products that children later serve upon the table,
providing afterwards also for the washing of the utensils and tableware.
Mrs. Latter's conception is too one-sided; but her institutions, which continue to
spread in England, undoubtedly complete the natural education which, up to this time
limited to the physical side, has already been so efficacious in invigorating the bodies
of English children. Moreover, her experience offers a positive corroboration of the [Pg
156] practicability of agricultural teaching in the case of little children.

As for deficients, I have seen agriculture applied on a large scale to their education
at Paris by the means which the kindly spirit of Baccelli tried to introduce into the
elementary schools when he attempted to institute the "little educative gardens." In
every little garden are sown different agricultural products, demonstrating practically
the proper method and the proper time for seeding and for crop gathering, and the
period of development of the various products; the manner of preparing the soil, of
enriching it with natural or chemical manures, etc. The same is done for ornamental
plants and for gardening, which is the work yielding the best income for deficients,
when they are of an age to practise a profession.
 But this side of education, though it contains, in the first place, an objective method
of intellectual culture, and, in addition, a professional preparation, is not, in my
opinion, to be taken into serious consideration for child education. The educational
conception of this age must be solely that of aiding the psycho-physical development
of the individual; and, this being the case, agriculture and animal culture contain in
themselves precious means of moral education which can be analysed far more than is
done by Mrs. Latter, who sees in them essentially a method of conducting the child's
soul to religious feeling. Indeed, in this method, which is a progressive ascent, several
gradations can be distinguished: I mention here the principal ones:
First. The child is initiated into observation of the phenomena of life. He stands
with respect to the plants and animals in relations analogous to those in which
the observing teacher stands towards him. Little by little, [Pg 157] as interest and
observation grow, his zealous care for the living creatures grows also, and in this way,
the child can logically be brought to appreciate the care which the mother and the
teacher take of him.
Second. The child is initiated into foresight by way of auto-education; when he
knows that the life of the plants that have been sown depends upon his care in
watering them, and that of the animals, upon his diligence in feeding them, without
which the little plant dries up and the animals suffer hunger, the child becomes
vigilant, as one who is beginning to feel a mission in life. Moreover, a voice quite
different from that of his mother and his teacher calling him to his duties, is speaking
here, exhorting him never to forget the task he has undertaken. It is the plaintive voice
of the needy life which lives by his care. Between the child and the living creatures
which he cultivates there is born a mysterious correspondence which induces the child
to fulfil certain determinate acts without the intervention of the teacher, that is, leads
him to an auto-education.
The rewards which the child reaps also remain between him and nature: one fine
day after long patient care in carrying food and straw to the brooding pigeons, behold
the little ones! behold a number of chickens peeping about the setting hen which
yesterday sat motionless in her brooding place! behold one day the tender little rabbits
in the hutch where formerly dwelt in solitude the pair of big rabbits to which he had
not a few times lovingly carried the green vegetables left over in his mother's kitchen!
I have not yet been able to institute in Rome the breeding of animals, but in the
"Children's Houses" at Milan there are several animals, among them a pair of pretty
little white American fowl that live in a diminutive and [Pg 158] elegant chalet, similar
in construction to a Chinese pagoda: in front of it, a little piece of ground inclosed by
a rampart is reserved for the pair. The little door of the chalet is locked at evening,
and the children take care of it in turn. With what delight they go in the morning to
unlock the door, to fetch water and straw, and with what care they watch during the
day, and at evening lock the door after having made sure that the fowl lack nothing!
The teacher informs me that among all the educative exercises this is the most
welcome, and seems also the most important of all. Many a time when the children
are tranquilly occupied in tasks, each at the work he prefers, one, two, or three, get up
silently, and go out to cast a glance at the animals to see if they need care. Often it
happens that a child absents himself for a long time and the teacher surprises him
watching enchantedly the fish gliding ruddy and resplendent in the sunlight in the
waters of the fountain.
One day I received from the teacher in Milan a letter in which she spoke to me with
great enthusiasm of a truly wonderful piece of news. The little pigeons were hatched.
For the children it was a great festival. They felt themselves to some extent the parents
of these little ones, and no artificial reward which had flattered their vanity would
ever have provoked such a truly fine emotion. Not less great are the joys which
vegetable nature provides. In one of the "Children's Houses" at Rome, where there
was no soil that could be cultivated, there have been arranged, through the efforts of
Signora Talamo, flower-pots all around the large terrace, and climbing plants near the
walls. The children never forget to water the plants with their little watering-pots.
One day I found them seated on the ground, all in a[Pg 159] circle, around a splendid
red rose which had bloomed in the night; silent and calm, literally immersed in mute
contemplation.
Third. The children are initiated into the virtue of patience and into confident
expectation, which is a form of faith and of philosophy of life.
When the children put a seed into the ground, and wait until it fructifies, and see the
first appearance of the shapeless plant, and wait for the growth and the
transformations into flower and fruit, and see how some plants sprout sooner and
some later, and how the deciduous plants have a rapid life, and the fruit-trees a slower
growth, they end by acquiring a peaceful equilibrium of conscience, and absorb the
first germs of that wisdom which so characterised the tillers of the soil in the time
when they still kept their primitive simplicity.
Fourth. The children are inspired with a feeling for nature, which is maintained by
the marvels of creation—that creation which rewards with a generosity not measured
by the labour of those who help it to evolve the life of its creatures.
Even while at the work, a sort of correspondence arises between the child's soul and
the lives which are developed under his care. The child loves naturally the
manifestations of life: Mrs. Latter tells us how easily little ones are interested even in
earthworms and in the movement of the larvæ of insects in manure, without feeling
that horror which we, who have grown up isolated from nature, experience towards
certain animals. It is well then, to develop this feeling of trust and confidence in living
creatures, which is, moreover, a form of love, and of union with the universe.
But what most develops a feeling of nature is the cul[Pg 160]tivation of
the living things, because they by their natural development give back far more than
they receive, and show something like infinity in their beauty and variety. When the
child has cultivated the iris or the pansy, the rose or the hyacinth, has placed in the
soil a seed or a bulb and periodically watered it, or has planted a fruit-bearing shrub,
and the blossomed flower and the ripened fruit offer themselves as a generous gift of
nature, a rich reward for a small effort; it seems almost as if nature were answering
with her gifts to the feeling of desire, to the vigilant love of the cultivator, rather than
striking a balance with his material efforts.
It will be quite different when the child has to gather the material fruits of his
labour: motionless, uniform objects, which are consumed and dispersed rather than
increased and multiplied.
The difference between the products of nature and those of industry, between divine
products and human products—it is this that must be born spontaneously in the child's
conscience, like the determination of a fact.
But at the same time, as the plant must give its fruit, so man must give his labour.
Fifth. The child follows the natural way of development of the human race. In short,
such education makes the evolution of the individual harmonise with that of
humanity. Man passed from the natural to the artificial state through agriculture: when
he discovered the secret of intensifying the production of the soil, he obtained the
reward of civilisation.
The same path must be traversed by the child who is destined to become a civilised
man.
The action of educative nature so understood is very practically accessible.
Because, even if the vast stretch[Pg 161] of ground and the large courtyard necessary
for physical education are lacking, it will always be possible to find a few square
yards of land that may be cultivated, or a little place where pigeons can make their
nest, things sufficient for spiritual education. Even a pot of flowers at the window can,
if necessary, fulfil the purpose.
In the first "Children's House" in Rome we have a vast courtyard, cultivated as a
garden, where the children are free to run in the open air—and, besides, a long stretch
of ground, which is planted on one side with trees, has a branching path in the middle,
and on the opposite side, has broken ground for the cultivation of plants. This last, we
have divided into so many portions, reserving one for each child.
 While the smaller children run freely up and down the paths, or rest in the shade of
the trees, the possessors of the earth (children from four years of age up), are sowing,
or hoeing, watering or examining, the surface of the soil watching for the sprouting of
plants. It is interesting to note the following fact: the little reservations of the children
are placed along the wall of the tenement, in a spot formerly neglected because it
leads to a blind road; the inhabitants of the house, therefore, had the habit of throwing
from those windows every kind of offal, and at the beginning our garden was thus
contaminated.
But, little by little, without any exhortation on our part, solely through the respect
born in the people's mind for the children's labour, nothing more fell from the
windows, except the loving glances and smiles of the mothers upon the soil which
was the beloved possession of their little children.

[Pg 162]

CHAPTER XI
MANUAL LABOUR—THE POTTER'S ART AND BUILDING
Manual labour is distinguished from manual gymnastics by the fact that the object
of the latter is to exercise the hand, and the former, to accomplish a determinate work,
being, or simulating, a socially useful object. The one perfects the individual, the
other enriches the world; the two things are, however, connected because, in general,
only one who has perfected his own hand can produce a useful product.
I have thought wise, after a short trial, to exclude completely Froebel's exercises,
because weaving and sewing on cardboard are ill adapted to the physiological state of
the child's visual organs where the powers of the accommodation of the eye have not
yet reached complete development; hence, these exercises cause an effort of the organ
which may have a fatal influence on the development of the sight. The other little
exercises of Froebel, such as the folding of paper, are exercises of the hand, not work.
There is still left plastic work,—the most rational among all the exercises of
Froebel,—which consists in making the child reproduce determinate objects in clay.
In consideration, however, of the system of liberty which I proposed, I did not like
to make the children copy anything, and, in giving them clay to fashion in their own
manner, I did not direct the children to produce useful things; nor was I accomplishing
an educative result, inas[Pg 163]much as plastic work, as I shall show later, serves for
the study of the psychic individuality of the child in his spontaneous manifestations,
but not for his education.
I decided therefore to try in the "Children's Houses" some very interesting exercises
which I had seen accomplished by an artist, Professor Randone, in the "School of
Educative Art" founded by him. This school had its origin along with the society for
young people, called Giovinezza Gentile, both school and society having the object of
educating youth in gentleness towards their surroundings—that is, in respect for
objects, buildings, monuments: a really important part of civil education, and one
which interested me particularly on account of the "Children's Houses," since that
institution has, as its fundamental aim, to teach precisely this respect for the walls, for
the house, for the surroundings.
Very suitably, Professor Randone had decided that the society of Giovinezza
Gentile could not be based upon sterile theoretical preachings of the principles of
citizenship, or upon moral pledges taken by the children; but that it must proceed from
an artistic education which should lead the youth to appreciate and love, and
consequently respect, objects and especially monuments and historic buildings. Thus
the "School of Educative Art" was inspired by a broad artistic conception including
the reproduction of objects which are commonly met in the surroundings; the history
and pre-history of their production, and the illustration of the principal civic
monuments which, in Rome, are in large measure composed of archæological
monuments. In order the more directly to accomplish his object, Professor Randone
founded his admirable school in an opening in one of the most artistic parts of the
walls of Rome, namely, the wall of Belisarius, [Pg 164] overlooking the Villa Umberto
Primo—a wall which has been entirely neglected by the authorities and by no means
respected by the citizens, and upon which Randone lavished care, decorating it with
graceful hanging gardens on the outside, and locating within it the School of Art
which was to shape the Giovinezza Gentile.
Here Randone has tried, very fittingly, to rebuild and revive a form of art which was
once the glory of Italy and of Florence—the potter's art, that is, the art of constructing
vases.
The archæological, historical, and artistic importance of the vase is very great, and
may be compared with the numismatic art. In fact the first object of which humanity
felt the need was the vase, which came into being with the utilisation of fire, and
before the discovery of the production of fire. Indeed the first food of mankind was
cooked in a vase.
One of the things most important, ethnically, in judging the civilisation of a
primitive people is the grade of perfection attained in pottery; in fact, the vase for
domestic life and the axe for social life are the first sacred symbols which we find in
the prehistoric epoch, and are the religious symbols connected with the temples of the
gods and with the cult of the dead. Even to-day, religious cults have sacred vases in
their Sancta Sanctorum.
People who have progressed in civilisation show their feeling for art and their
æsthetic feeling also in vases which are multiplied in almost infinite form, as we see
in Egyptian, Etruscan, and Greek art.
The vase then comes into being, attains perfection, and is multiplied in its uses and
its forms, in the course of human civilisation; and the history of the vase follows the
history of humanity itself. Besides the civil [Pg 165] and moral importance of the vase,
we have another and practical one, its literal adaptability to every modification of
form, and its susceptibility to the most diverse ornamentation; in this, it gives free
scope to the individual genius of the artist.
Thus, when once the handicraft leading to the construction of vases has been
learned (and this is the part of the progress in the work, learned from the direct and
graduated instruction of the teacher), anyone can modify it according to the
inspiration of his own æsthetic taste and this is the artistic, individual part of the work.
Besides this, in Randone's school the use of the potter's wheel is taught, and also the
composition of the mixture for the bath of majolica ware, and baking the pieces in the
furnace, stages of manual labour which contain an industrial culture.
Another work in the School of Educative Art is the manufacture of diminutive
bricks, and their baking in the furnace, and the construction of diminutive walls built
by the same processes which the masons use in the construction of houses, the bricks
being joined by means of mortar handled with a trowel. After the simple construction
of the wall,—which is very amusing for the children who build it, placing brick on
brick, superimposing row on row,—the children pass to the construction of
real houses,—first, resting on the ground, and, then, really constructed with
foundations, after a previous excavation of large holes in the ground by means of little
hoes and shovels. These little houses have openings corresponding to windows and
doors, and are variously ornamented in their façades by little tiles of bright and multi-
coloured majolica: the tiles themselves being manufactured by the children.[Pg 166]
Thus the children learn to appreciate the objects and constructions which surround
them, while a real manual and artistic labour gives them profitable exercise.
Such is the manual training which I have adopted in the "Children's Houses"; after
two or three lessons the little pupils are already enthusiastic about the construction of
vases, and they preserve very carefully their own products, in which they take pride.
With their plastic art they then model little objects, eggs or fruits, with which they
themselves fill the vases. One of the first undertakings is the simple vase of red clay
filled with eggs of white clay; then comes the modelling of the vase with one or more
spouts, of the narrow-mouthed vase, of the vase with a handle, of that with two or
three handles, of the tripod, of the amphora.
For children of the age of five or six, the work of the potter's wheel begins. But
what most delights the children is the work of building a wall with little bricks, and
seeing a little house, the fruit of their own hands, rise in the vicinity of the ground in
which are growing plants, also cultivated by them. Thus the age of childhood
epitomises the principal primitive labours of humanity, when the human race,
changing from the nomadic to the stable condition, demanded of the earth its fruit,
built itself shelter, and devised vases to cook the foods yielded by the fertile earth.

[Pg 167]

CHAPTER XII
EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
In a pedagogical method which is experimental the education of the senses must
undoubtedly assume the greatest importance. Experimental psychology also takes note
of movements by means of sense measurements.
Pedagogy, however, although it may profit by psychometry is not designed
to measure the sensations, but educate the senses. This is a point easily understood,
yet one which is often confused. While the proceedings of esthesiometry are not to
any great extent applicable to little children, the education of the senses is entirely
possible.
We do not start from the conclusions of experimental psychology. That is, it is not
the knowledge of the average sense conditions according to the age of the child which
leads us to determine the educational applications we shall make. We start essentially
from a method, and it is probable that psychology will be able to draw its conclusions
from pedagogy so understood, and not vice versa.
The method used by me is that of making a pedagogical experiment with a didactic
object and awaiting the spontaneous reaction of the child. This is a method in every
way analogous to that of experimental psychology.
 I make use of a material which, at first glance, may be confused with psychometric
material. Teachers from[Pg 168] Milan who had followed the course in the Milan
school of experimental psychology, seeing my material exposed, would recognise
among it, measures of the perception of colour, hardness, and weight, and would
conclude that, in truth, I brought no new contribution to pedagogy since these
instruments were already known to them.
But the great difference between the two materials lies in this: The esthesiometer
carries within itself the possibility of measuring; my objects on the contrary, often do
not permit a measure, but are adapted to cause the child to exercise the senses.
In order that an instrument shall attain such a pedagogical end, it is necessary that it
shall not weary but shall divert the child. Here lies the difficulty in the selection of
didactic material. It is known that the psychometric instruments are great consumers
of energy—for this reason, when Pizzoli wished to apply them to the education of the
senses, he did not succeed because the child was annoyed by them, and became tired.
Instead, the aim of education is to develop the energies.
Psychometric instruments, or better, the instruments of esthesiometry, are prepared
in their differential gradations upon the laws of Weber, which were in truth drawn
from experiments made upon adults.
With little children, we must proceed to the making of trials, and must select the
didactic materials in which they show themselves to be interested.
This I did in the first year of the "Children's Houses" adopting a great variety of
stimuli, with a number of which I had already experimented in the school for
deficients.
Much of the material used for deficients is abandoned in the education of the
normal child—and much that is[Pg 169] used has been greatly modified. I believe,
however, that I have arrived at a selection of objects (which I do not here wish to
speak of in the technical language of psychology as stimuli) representing the
minimum necessary to a practical sense education.
These objects constitute the didactic system (or set of didactic materials) used by
me. They are manufactured by the House of Labour of the Humanitarian Society at
Milan.
A description of the objects will be given as the educational scope of each is
explained. Here I shall limit myself to the setting forth of a few general
considerations.
First. The difference in the reaction between deficient and normal children, in the
presentation of didactic material made up of graded stimuli. This difference is plainly
seen from the fact that the same didactic material used with deficients makes
education possible, while with normal children it provokes auto-education.
This fact is one of the most interesting I have met with in all my experience, and it
inspired and rendered possible the method of observation and liberty.
Let us suppose that we use our first object,—a block in which solid geometric forms
are set. Into corresponding holes in the block are set ten little wooden cylinders, the
bases diminishing gradually about the millimetres. The game consists in taking the
cylinders out of their places, putting them on the table, mixing them, and then putting
each one back in its own place. The aim is to educate the eye to the differential
perception of dimensions.
With the deficient child, it would be necessary to begin with exercises in which the
stimuli were much more[Pg 170] strongly contrasted, and to arrive at this exercise only
after many others had preceded it.
With normal children, this is, on the other hand, the first object which we may
present, and out of all the didactic material this is the game preferred by the very little
children of two and a half and three years. Once we arrived at this exercise with a
deficient child, it was necessary continually and actively to recall his attention,
inviting him to look at the block and showing him the various pieces. And if the child
once succeeded in placing all the cylinders properly, he stopped, and the game was
finished. Whenever the deficient child committed an error, it was necessary to correct
it, or to urge him to correct it himself, and when he was able to correct an error he was
usually quite indifferent.
Now the normal child, instead, takes spontaneously a lively interest in this game.
He pushes away all who would interfere, or offer to help him, and wishes to be alone
before his problem.
It had already been noted that little ones of two or three years take the greatest
pleasure in arranging small objects, and this experiment in the "Children's Houses"
demonstrates the truth of this assertion.
Now, and here is the important point, the normal child attentively observes the
relation between the size of the opening and that of the object which he is to place in
the mould, and is greatly interested in the game, as is clearly shown by the expression
of attention on the little face.
If he mistakes, placing one of the objects in an opening that is small for it, he takes
it away, and proceeds to make various trials, seeking the proper opening. If he makes
a contrary error, letting the cylinder fall into [Pg 171] an opening that is a little too large
for it, and then collects all the successive cylinders in openings just a little too large,
he will find himself at the last with the big cylinder in his hand while only the smallest
opening is empty. The didactic material controls every error. The child proceeds to
correct himself, doing this in various ways. Most often he feels the cylinders or shakes
them, in order to recognise which are the largest. Sometimes, he sees at a glance
where his error lies, pulls the cylinders from the places where they should not be, and
puts those left out where they belong, then replaces all the others. The normal child
always repeats the exercise with growing interest.
Indeed, it is precisely in these errors that the educational importance of the didactic
material lies, and when the child with evident security places each piece in its proper
place, he has outgrown the exercise, and this piece of material becomes useless to
him.
This self-correction leads the child to concentrate his attention upon the differences
of dimensions, and to compare the various pieces. It is in just this comparison that
the psycho-sensory exercise lies.
There is, therefore, no question here of teaching the child the knowledge of the
dimensions, through the medium of these pieces. Neither is it our aim that the child
shall know how to use, without an error, the material presented to him thus
performing the exercises well.
That would place our material on the same basis as many others, for example that of
Froebel, and would require again the active work of the teacher, who busies herself
furnishing knowledge, and making haste to correct every error in order that the child
may learn the use of the objects.[Pg 172]
Here instead it is the work of the child, the auto-correction, the auto-education
which acts, for the teacher must not interfere in the slightest way. No teacher can
furnish the child with the agility which he acquires through gymnastic exercises: it is
necessary that the pupil perfect himself through his own efforts. It is very much the
same with the education of the senses.
It might be said that the same thing is true of every form of education; a man is not
what he is because of the teachers he has had, but because of what he has done.
One of the difficulties of putting this method into practice with teachers of the old
school, lies in the difficulty of preventing them from intervening when the little child
remains for some time puzzled before some error, and with his eyebrows drawn
together and his lips puckered, makes repeated efforts to correct himself. When they
see this, the old-time teachers are seized with pity, and long, with an almost
irresistible force, to help the child. When we prevent this intervention, they burst into
words of compassion for the little scholar, but he soon shows in his smiling face the
joy of having surmounted an obstacle.
 Normal children repeat such exercises many times. This repetition varies according
to the individual. Some children after having completed the exercise five or six times
are tired of it. Others will remove and replace the pieces at least twenty times, with an
expression of evident interest. Once, after I had watched a little one of four years
repeat this exercise sixteen times, I had the other children sing in order to distract her,
but she continued unmoved to take out the cylinders, mix them up and put them back
in their places.
An intelligent teacher ought to be able to make most interesting individual
psychological observations, and, to[Pg 173] a certain point, should be able to measure
the length of time for which the various stimuli held the attention.
In fact, when the child educates himself, and when the control and correction of
errors is yielded to the didactic material, there remains for the teacher nothing but to
observe. She must then be more of a psychologist than a teacher, and this shows the
importance of a scientific preparation on the part of the teacher.
Indeed, with my methods, the teacher teaches little and observes much, and, above
all, it is her function to direct the psychic activity of the children and their
physiological development. For this reason I have changed the name of teacher into
that of directress.
At first this name provoked many smiles, for everyone asked whom there was for
this teacher to direct, since she had no assistants, and since she must leave her little
scholars in liberty. But her direction is much more profound and important than that
which is commonly understood, for this teacher directs the life and the soul.
Second. The education of the senses has, as its aim, the refinement of the
differential perception of stimuli by means of repeated exercises.
There exists a sensory culture, which is not generally taken into consideration, but
which is a factor in esthesiometry.
For example, in the mental tests which are used in France, or in a series of tests
which De Sanctis has established for the diagnosis of the intellectual status, I have
often seen used cubes of different sizes placed at varying distances. The child was to
select the smallest and the largest, while the chronometer measured the time of
reaction between the command and the execution of the act. Account was also taken
of the errors. I repeat that[Pg 174] in such experiments the factor of culture is forgotten
and by this I mean sensory culture.
Our children have, for example, among the didactic material for the education of the
senses, a series of ten cubes. The first has a base of ten centimetres, and the others
decrease, successively, one centimetre as to base, the smallest cube having a base of
one centimetre. The exercise consists in throwing the blocks, which are pink in colour,
down upon a green carpet, and then building them up into a little tower, placing the
largest cube as the base, and then placing the others in order of size until the little
cube of one centimetre is placed at the top.
The little one must each time select, from the blocks scattered upon the green
carpet, "the largest" block. This game is most entertaining to the little ones of two
years and a half, who, as soon as they have constructed the little tower, tumble it
down with little blows of the hand, admiring the pink cubes as they lie scattered upon
the green carpet. Then, they begin again the construction, building and destroying a
definite number of times.
If we were to place before these tests one of my children from three to four years,
and one of the children from the first elementary (six or seven years old), my pupil
would undoubtedly manifest a shorter period of reaction, and would not commit
errors. The same may be said for the tests of the chromatic sense, etc.
This educational method should therefore prove interesting to students of
experimental psychology as well as to teachers.
In conclusion, let me summarize briefly: Our didactic material renders auto-
education possible, permits a methodical education of the senses. Not upon the ability
of the teacher does such education rest, but upon the [Pg 175] didactic system. This
presents objects which, first, attract the spontaneous attention of the child, and,
second, contain a rational gradation of stimuli.
We must not confuse the education of the senses, with the concrete ideas which
may be gathered from our environment by means of the senses. Nor must this
education of the senses be identical in our minds with the language through which is
given the nomenclature corresponding to the concrete idea, nor with the acquisition of
the abstract idea of the exercises.
Let us consider what the music master does in giving instruction in piano playing.
He teaches the pupil the correct position of the body, gives him the idea of the notes,
shows him the correspondence between the written notes and the touch and the
position of the fingers, and then he leaves the child to perform the exercise by himself.
If a pianist is to be made of this child, there must, between the ideas given by the
teacher and the musical exercises, intervene long and patient application to those
exercises which serve to give agility to the articulation of the fingers and of the
tendons, in order that the co-ordination of special muscular movements shall become
automatic, and that the muscles of the hand shall become strong through their repeated
use.
The pianist must, therefore, act for himself, and the more his natural tendencies lead
him to persist in these exercises the greater will be his success. However, without the
direction of the master the exercise will not suffice to develop the scholar into a true
pianist.
The directress of the "Children's House" must have a clear idea of the two factors
which enter into her work—the guidance of the child, and the individual exercise.
Only after she has this concept clearly fixed in her[Pg 176] mind, may she proceed to
the application of a method to guide the spontaneous education of the child and to
impart necessary notions to him.
In the opportune quality and in the manner of this intervention lies the personal
art of the educator.
For example, in the "Children's House" in the Prati di Castello, where the pupils
belong to the middle-class, I found, a month after the opening of the school, a child of
five years who already knew how to compose any word, as he knew the alphabet
perfectly—he had learned it in two weeks. He knew how to write on the blackboard,
and in the exercises in free design he showed himself not only to be an observer, but
to have some intuitive idea of perspective, drawing a house and chair very cleverly.
As for the exercises of the chromatic sense, he could mix together the eight gradations
of the eight colours which we use, and from this mass of sixty-four tablets, each
wound with silk of a different colour or shade, he could rapidly separate the eight
groups. Having done this, he would proceed with ease to arrange each colour series in
perfect gradation. In this game the child would almost cover one of the little tables
with a carpet of finely-shaded colours. I made the experiment, taking him to the
window and showing him in full daylight one of the coloured tablets, telling him to
look at it well, so that he might be able to remember it. I then sent him to the table on
which all the gradations were spread out, and asked him to find the tablet like the one
at which he had looked. He committed only very slight errors, often choosing the
exact shade but more often the one next it, rarely a tint two grades removed from the
right one. This boy had then a power of discrimination and a colour memory which
were almost prodigious. Like all the other children, he[Pg 177] was exceedingly fond
of the colour exercises. But when I asked the name of the white colour spool, he
hesitated for a long time before replying uncertainly "white." Now a child of such
intelligence should have been able, even without the special intervention of the
teacher, to learn the name of each colour.
The directress told me that having noticed that the child had great difficulty in
retaining the nomenclature of the colours, she had up until that time left him to
exercise himself freely with the games for the colour sense. At the same time he had
developed rapidly a power over written language, which in my method as presented
through a series of problems to be solved. These problems are presented as sense
exercises. This child was, therefore, most intelligent. In him the discriminative
sensory perceptions kept pace with great intellectual activities—attention and
judgment. But his memory for names was inferior.
The directress had thought best not to interfere, as yet, in the teaching of the child.
Certainly, the education of the child was a little disordered, and the directress had left
the spontaneous explanation of his mental activities excessively free. However
desirable it may be to furnish a sense education as a basis for intellectual ideas, it is
nevertheless advisable at the same time to associate the language with
these perceptions.
In this connection I have found excellent for use with normal children the three
periods of which the lesson according to Séguin consists:
First Period. The association of the sensory perception with the name.
For example, we present to the child, two colours, red and blue. Presenting the red,
we say simply, "This is[Pg 178] red," and presenting the blue, "This is blue." Then, we
lay the spools upon the table under the eyes of the child.
Second Period. Recognition of the object corresponding to the name. We Say to the
child, "Give me the red," and then, "Give me the blue."
Third Period. The remembering of the name corresponding to the object. We ask
the child, showing him the object, "What is this?" and he should respond, "Red."
Séguin insists strongly upon these three periods, and urges that the colours be left
for several instants under the eyes of the child. He also advises us never to present the
colour singly, but always two at a time, since the contrast helps the chromatic
memory. Indeed, I have proved that there cannot be a better method for teaching
colour to the deficients, who, with this method were able to learn the colours much
more perfectly than normal children in the ordinary schools who have had a
haphazard sense education. For normal children however there exists a period
preceding the Three Periods of Séguin—a period which contains the real sense
education. This is the acquisition of a fineness of differential perception, which can be
obtained only through auto-education.
This, then, is an example of the great superiority of the normal child, and of the
greater effect of education which such pedagogical methods may exercise upon the
mental development of normal as compared with deficient children.
The association of the name with the stimulus is a source of great pleasure to the
normal child. I remember, one day, I had taught a little girl, who was not yet three
years old, and who was a little tardy in the development of language, the names of
three colours. I had the children place one of their little tables near a window, and [Pg
179] seating myself in one of the little chairs, I seated the little girl in a similar chair at
my right.
I had, on the table, six of the colour spools in pairs, that is two reds, two blues, two
yellows. In the First Period, I placed one of the spools before the child, asking her to
find the one like it. This I repeated for all three of the colours, showing her how to
arrange them carefully in pairs. After this I passed to the Three Periods of Séguin. The
little girl learned to recognise the three colours and to pronounce the name of each.
She was so happy that she looked at me for a long time, and then began to jump up
and down. I, seeing her pleasure, said to her, laughing, "Do you know the colours?"
and she replied, still jumping up and down, "Yes! YES!" Her delight was
inexhaustible; she danced about me, waiting joyously for me to ask her the same
question, that she might reply with the same enthusiasm, "Yes! Yes!"
Another important particular in the technique of sense education lies in isolating the
sense, whenever this is possible. So, for example, the exercises on the sense of hearing
can be given more successfully in an environment not only of silence, but even of
darkness.
For the education of the senses in general, such as in the tactile, thermic, baric, and
stereognostic exercises, we blindfold the child. The reasons for this particular
technique have been fully set forth by psychology. Here, it is enough to note that in
the case of normal children the blindfold greatly increases their interest, without
making the exercises degenerate into noisy fun, and without having the child's
attention attracted more to the bandage than to the sense-stimuli upon which we wish
to focus the attention.[Pg 180]
For example, in order to test the acuteness of the child's sense of hearing (a most
important thing for the teacher to know), I use an empiric test which is coming to be
used almost universally by physicians in the making of medical examinations. This
test is made by modulating the voice, reducing it to a whisper. The child is
blindfolded, or the teacher may stand behind him, speaking his name, in a
whisper and from varying distances. I establish a solemn silence in the schoolroom,
darken the windows, have the children bow their heads upon their hands which they
hold in front of their eyes. Then I call the children by name, one by one, in a whisper,
lighter for those who are nearer me, and more clearly for those farther away. Each
child awaits, in the darkness, the faint voice which calls him, listening intently, ready
to run with keenest joy toward the mysterious and much, desired call.
The normal child may be blindfolded in the games where, for example, he is to
recognise various weights, for this does help him to intensify and concentrate his
attention upon the baric stimuli which he is to test. The blindfold adds to his pleasure,
since he is proud of having been able to guess.
 The effect of these games upon deficient children is very different. When placed in
darkness, they often go to sleep, or give themselves up to disordered acts. When the
blindfold is used, they fix their attention upon the bandage itself, and change the
exercise into a game, which does not fulfil the end we have in view with the exercise.
We speak, it is true, of games in education, but it must be made clear that we
understand by this term a free activity, ordered to a definite end; not disorderly noise,
which distracts the attention.[Pg 181]
The following pages of Itard give an idea of the patient experiments made by this
pioneer in pedagogy. Their lack of success was due largely to errors which successive
experiments have made it possible to correct, and in part to the mentality of his
subject.
"IV: In this last experiment it was not necessary, as in the one preceding, to demand
that the pupil repeat the sounds which he perceived. This double work, distributing his
attention, was outside the plane of my purpose, which was to educate each organ
separately. I, therefore, limited myself to following the simple perception of sounds.
To be certain of this result, I placed my pupil in front of me with his eyes blinded, his
fists closed, and had him extend a finger every time that I made a sound. He
understood this arrangement, and as soon as the sound reached his ear, the finger was
raised, with a species of impetuosity, and often, with demonstrations of joy which left
no doubt as to the pleasure the pupil took in these bizarre lessons. Indeed, whether it
be that he found a real pleasure in the sound of the human voice, or that he had at last
conquered the annoyance he at first felt on being deprived of the light for so long a
time, the fact remains that more than once, during the intervals of rest, he came to me
with his blindfold in his hand, holding it over his eyes, and jumping with joy when he
felt my hands tying it about his head.
"V: Having thoroughly assured myself, through such experiments as the one
described above, that all sounds of the voice, whatever their intensity, were perceived
by Vittorio, I proceeded to the attempt of making him compare these sounds. It was
no longer a case of simply noting the sounds of the voice, but of perceiving the
differences and of appreciating all these modifications and [Pg 182] varieties of tone
which go to make up the music of the word. Between this task and the preceding there
stretched a prodigious difference, especially for a being whose development was
dependent upon gradual effort, and who advanced toward civilisation only because I
led thitherward so gently that he was unconscious of the progress. Facing the
difficulty now presented, I had need to arm myself more strongly than ever with
patience and gentleness, encouraged by the hope that once I had surmounted this
obstacle all would have been done for the sense of hearing.
 "We began with the comparison of the vowel sounds, and here, too, made use of the
hand to assure ourselves as to the result of our experiments. Each one of the fingers
was made the sign of one of the five vowels. Thus the thumb represented A and was
to be raised whenever this vowel was pronounced; the index finger was the sign for E;
the middle finger for I; and so on.
"VI: Not without fatigue, and not for a long time, was I able to give a distinct idea
of the vowels. The first to be clearly distinguished was O, and then followed A. The
three others presented much greater difficulty, and were for a long time confused. At
last, however, the ear began to perceive distinctly, and, then, there returned in all their
vivacity, those demonstrations of joy of which I have spoken. This continued until the
pleasure taken in the lessons began to be boisterous, the sounds became confused, and
the finger was raised indiscriminately. The outbursts of laughter became indeed so
excessive that I lost patience! As soon as I placed the blindfold over his eyes the
shouts of laughter began."
Itard, finding it impossible to continue his educational [Pg 183] work, decided to do
away with the blindfold, and, indeed, the shouts ceased, but now the child's attention
was distracted by the slightest movement about him. The blindfold was necessary, but
the boy had to be made to understand that he must not laugh so much and that he was
having a lesson. The corrective means of Itard and their touching results are worth
reporting here!
"I wished to intimidate him with my manner, not being able to do so with my
glance. I armed myself with a tambourine and struck it lightly whenever he made a
mistake. But he mistook this correction for a joke, and his joy became more noisy
than ever. I then felt that I must make the correction a little more severe. It was
understood, and I saw, with a mixture of pain and pleasure, revealed in the darkened
face of this boy the fact that the feeling of injury surpassed the unhappiness of the
blow. Tears came from beneath the blindfold, he urged me to take it off, but, whether
from embarrassment or fear, or from some inner preoccupation, when freed from the
bandage he still kept his eyes tightly closed. I could not laugh at the doleful
expression of his face, the closed eyelids from between which trickled an occasional
tear! Oh, in this moment, as in many others, ready to renounce my task, and feeling
that the time I had consecrated to it was lost, how I regretted ever having known this
boy, and bow severely I condemned the barren and inhuman curiosity of the men who
in order to make scientific advancement had torn him away from a life, at least
innocent and happy!"
Here also is demonstrated the great educative superiority of scientific pedagogy for
normal children.
 Finally, one particular of the technique consists in the [Pg 184] distribution of the
stimuli. This will be treated more fully in the description of the didactic system
(materials) and of the sense education. Here it is enough to say that one should
proceed from few stimuli strongly contrasting, to many stimuli in gradual
differentiation always more fine and imperceptible. So, for example, we first present,
together, red and blue; the shortest rod beside the longest; the thinnest beside the
thickest, etc., passing from these to the delicately differing tints, and to the
discrimination of very slight differences in length and size.

[Pg 185]

CHAPTER XIII
EDUCATION OF THE SENSES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE
DIDACTIC MATERIAL: GENERAL SENSIBILITY; THE TACTILE,
THERMIC, BARIC, AND STEREOGNOSTIC SENSES
The education of the tactile and the thermic senses go together, since the warm bath,
and heat in general, render the tactile sense more acute. Since to exercise the tactile
sense it is necessary to touch, bathing the hands in warm water has the additional
advantage of teaching the child a principle of cleanliness—that of not touching objects
with hands that are not clean. I therefore apply the general notions of practical life,
regarding the washing of the hands, care of the nails, to the exercises preparatory to
the discrimination of tactile stimuli.
The limitation of the exercises of the tactile sense to the cushioned tips of the
fingers, is rendered necessary by practical life. It must be made a necessary phase
of education because it prepares for a life in which man exercises and uses the tactile
sense through the medium of these finger tips. Hence, I have the child wash his hands
carefully with soap, in a little basin; and in another basin I have him rinse them in a
bath of tepid water. Then I show him how to dry and rub his hands gently, in this way
preparing for the regular bath. I next teach the child how to touch, that is, the manner
in which he should touch surfaces. For this it is necessary to take [Pg 186] the finger of
the child and to draw it very, very lightly over the surface.
Another particular of the technique is to teach the child to hold his eyes closed
while he touches, encouraging him to do this by telling him that he will be able to feel
the differences better, and so leading him to distinguish, without the help of sight, the
change of contact. He will quickly learn, and will show that he enjoys the exercise.
Often after the introduction of such exercises, it is a common thing to have a child
come to you, and, closing his eyes, touch with great delicacy the palm of your hand or
the cloth of your dress, especially any silken or velvet trimmings. They do
verily exercise the tactile sense. They enjoy keenly touching any soft pleasant surface,
and become exceedingly keen in discriminating between the differences in the
sandpaper cards.
The Didactic Material consists of; a—a rectangular wooden board divided into two
equal rectangles, one covered with very smooth paper, or having the wood polished
until a smooth surface is obtained; the other covered with sandpaper, b—a tablet like
the preceding covered with alternating strips of smooth paper and sandpaper.
I also make use of a collection of paper slips, varying through many grades from
smooth, fine cardboard to coarsest sandpaper. The stuffs described elsewhere are also
used in these lessons.

As to the Thermic Sense, I use a set of little metal bowls, which are filled with
water at different degrees of temperature. These I try to measure with a thermometer,
so that there may be two containing water of the same temperature.
 THE CLOISTER SCHOOL OF THE FRANCISCAN NUNS IN ROME
Children playing a game with tablets of coloured silk

[Pg 187]
(
 A) GIRL TOUCHING A LETTER AND BOY TELLING OBJECTS BY
WEIGHT. (B) ARRANGING TABLETS OF SILK IN THEIR CHROMATIC
ORDER. There are eight colours, and eight shades of each colour, making sixty-
four gradations in all.
I have designed a set of utensils which are to be made of very light metal, and filled
with water. These have covers, and to each is attached a thermometer. The bowl
touched from the outside gives the desired impression of heat.
I also have the children put their hands into cold, tepid, and warm water, an exercise
which they find most diverting. I should like to repeat this exercise with the feet, but I
have not bad an opportunity to make the trial.
For the education of the baric sense (sense of weight), I use with great success little
wooden tablets, six by eight centimetres, having a thickness of 1/2 centimetre. These
tablets are in three different qualities of wood, wistaria, walnut, and pine. They weigh
respectively, 24, 18, and 12 grammes, making them differ in weight by 6 grammes.
These tablets should be very smooth; if possible, varnished in such a way that every
roughness shall be eliminated, but so that the natural colour of the wood shall remain.
The child, observing the colour, knows that they are of differing weights, and this
offers a means of controlling the exercise. He takes two of the tablets in his hands,
letting them rest upon the palm at the base of his outstretched fingers. Then he moves
his hands up and down in order to gauge the weight. This movement should come to
be, little by little, almost insensible. We lead the child to make his distinction purely
through the difference in weight, leaving out the guide of the different colours, and
closing his eyes. He learns to do this of himself, and takes great interest in "guessing."
The game attracts the attention of those near, who gather in a circle about the one
who has the tablets, and who take turns in guessing. Sometimes the children[Pg
188] spontaneously make use of the blindfold, taking turns, and interspersing the work
with peals of joyful laughter.

EDUCATION OF THE STEREOGNOSTIC SENSE

The education of this sense leads to the recognition of objects through feeling, that
is, through the simultaneous help of the tactile and muscular senses.
Taking this union as a basis, we have made experiments which have given
marvellously successful educational results. I feel that for the help of teachers these
exercises should be described.
The first didactic material used by us is made up of the bricks and cubes of Froebel.
We call the attention of the child to the form of the two solids, have him feel them
carefully and accurately, with his eyes open, repeating some phrase serving to fix his
attention upon the particulars of the forms presented. After this the child is told to
place the cubes to the right, the bricks to the left, always feeling them, and without
looking at them. Finally the exercise is repeated, by the child blindfolded. Almost all
the children succeed in the exercise, and after two or three times, are able to eliminate
every error. There are twenty-four of the bricks and cubes in all, so that the attention
may be held for some time through this "game"—but undoubtedly the child's pleasure
is greatly increased by the fact of his being watched by a group of his companions, all
interested and eager.
One day a directress called my attention to a little girl of three years, one of our
very youngest pupils, who had repeated this exercise perfectly. We seated the little
girl comfortably in an armchair, close to the table. Then, placing the twenty-four
objects before her upon the table,[Pg 189] we mixed them, and calling the child's
attention to the difference in form, told her to place the cubes to the right and the
bricks to the left. When she was blindfolded she began the exercise as taught by us,
taking an object in each hand, feeling each and putting it in its right place. Sometimes
she took two cubes, or two bricks, sometimes she found a brick in the right hand, a
cube in the left. The child had to recognise the form, and to remember throughout the
exercise the proper placing of the different objects. This seemed to me very difficult
for a child of three years.
But observing her I saw that she not only performed the exercise easily, but that the
movements with which we had taught her to feel the form were superfluous. Indeed
the instant she had taken the two objects in her hands, if it so happened that she had
taken a cube with the left hand and a brick in the right,
she exchanged them immediately, and then began the laborious feeling the form which
we had taught and which she perhaps, believed to be obligatory. But the objects had
been recognised by her through the first light touch, that is,
the recognition was contemporaneous to the taking.
Continuing my study of the subject, I found that this little girl was possessed of a
remarkable functional ambidexterity—I should be very glad to make a wider study of
this phenomenon having in view the desirability of a simultaneous education of both
hands.
I repeated the exercise with other children and found that they recognise the objects
before feeling their contours. This was particularly true of the little ones. Our
educational methods in this respect furnished a remarkable exercise in associative
gymnastics, leading to a rapidity of judgment which was truly surprising and had
the[Pg 190] advantage of being perfectly adapted to very young children.
These exercises of the stereognostic sense may be multiplied in many ways—they
amuse the children who find delight in the recognition of a stimulus, as in the thermic
exercises; for example—they may raise any small objects, toy soldiers, little balls,
and, above all, the various coins in common use. They come to discriminate between
small forms varying very slightly, such as corn, wheat, and rice.
They are very proud of seeing without eyes, holding out their hands and crying,
"Here are my eyes!" "I can see with my hands!" Indeed, our little ones walking in the
ways we have planned, make us marvel over their unforeseen progress, surprising us
daily. Often, while they are wild with delight over some new conquest,—we watch, in
deepest wonder and meditation.

EDUCATION OF THE SENSES OF TASTE AND SMELL

This phase of sense education is most difficult, and I have not as yet had any
satisfactory results to record. I can only say that the exercises ordinarily used in the
tests of psychometry do not seem to me to be practical for use with young children.
The olfactory sense in children is not developed to any great extent, and this makes
it difficult to attract their attention by means of this sense. We have made use of one
test which has not been repeated often enough to form the basis of a method. We have
the child smell fresh violets, and jessamine flowers. We then blindfold him, saying,
"Now we are going to present you with flowers." A little friend then holds a bunch of
violets under the child's nose, that he may guess the name of the flower. For greater or
less intensify we present fewer flowers, or even one single blossom.
Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir
(
 A) DRAWING TABLE AND INSET. (B) WOODEN TABLETS. These are
partly covered with sandpaper to give rough and smooth surfaces. (C) SOLID
INSETS. With these the child, working by himself, learns to differentiate objects
according to thickness, height, and size.

[Pg 191]
Copyright, 1912 by Carl R. Byoir

(A) BROAD STAIR. (B) LONG STAIR. (C) TOWER.

Blocks by which children are taught thickness, length, size.
 But this part of education, like that of the sense of taste, can be obtained by the
child during the luncheon hour;—when he can learn to recognise various odours.
As to taste, the method of touching the tongue with various solutions, bitter or acid,
sweet, salty, is perfectly applicable. Children of four years readily lend themselves to
such games, which serve as a reason for showing them how to rinse their mouths
perfectly. The children enjoy recognising various flavours, and learn, after each test,
to fill a glass with tepid water, and carefully rinse their months. In this way the
exercise for the sense of taste is also an exercise in hygiene.

EDUCATION OF THE SENSE OF VISION

I. Differential Visual Perception of Dimensions

First. Solid Insets: This material consists of three solid blocks of wood each 55
centimetres long, 6 centimetres high and 8 centimetres wide. Each block contains ten
wooden pieces, set into corresponding holes. These pieces are cylindrical in shape and
are to be handled by means of a little wooden or brass button which is fixed in the
centre of the top. The cases of cylinders are in appearance much like the cases of
weights used by chemists. In the first set of the series, the cylinders are all of equal
height (55 millimetres) but differ in diameter. The smallest cylinder has a diameter of
1 centimetre, and the others increase in diameter at the rate of 1/2 centimetre. In the
second set, the cylinders are all of equal diameter, corresponding to half the diameter
of the largest cylinder in the preceding series—(27 millimetres). The cylin [Pg 192]ders
in this set differ in height, the first being merely a little disk only a centimetre high,
the others increase 5 millimetres each, the tenth one being 55 millimetres high. In the
third set, the cylinders differ both in height and diameter, the first being 1 centimetre
high and 1 centimetre in diameter and each succeeding one increasing 1/2 centimetre
in height and diameter. With these insets, the child, working by himself, learns to
differentiate objects according to thickness, according to height, and according to size.
In the schoolroom, these three sets may be played with by three children gathered
about a table, an exchange of games adding variety. The child takes the cylinders out
of the moulds, mixes them upon the table, and then puts each back into its
corresponding opening. These objects are made of hard pine, polished and varnished.
Second. Large pieces in graded dimensions:—There are three sets of blocks which
come under this head, and it is desirable to have two of each of these sets in every
school.
(a) Thickness: this set consists of objects which vary from thick to thin. There are
ten quadrilateral prisms, the largest of which has a base of 10 centimetres, the others
decreasing by 1 centimetre. The pieces are of equal length, 20 centimetres. These
prisms are stained a dark brown. The child mixes them, scattering them over the little
carpet, and then puts them in order, placing one against the other according to the
graduations of thickness, observing that the length shall correspond exactly. These
blocks, taken from the first to the last, form a species of stair, the steps of which grow
broader toward the top. The child may begin with the thinnest piece or with the
thickest, as suits his pleasure. The control of the exer [Pg 193]cise is not certain, as it
was in the solid cylindrical insets. There, the large cylinders could not enter the small
opening, the taller ones would project beyond the top of the block, etc. In this game of
the Big Stair, the eye of the child can easily recognise an error, since if he mistakes,
the stair is irregular, that is, there will be a high step, behind which, the step which
should have ascended, decreases.
(b) Length: Long and Short Objects:—This set consists of ten rods. These are four-
sided, each face being 3 centimetres. The first rod is a metre long, and the last a
decimetre. The intervening rods decrease, from first to last, 1 decimetre each. Each
space of 1 decimetre is painted alternately red or blue. The rods, when placed close to
each other, must be so arranged that the colours correspond, forming so many
transverse stripes—the whole set when arranged has the appearance of a rectangular
triangle made up of organ pipes, which decrease on the side of the hypothenuse.
The child arranges the rods which have first been scattered and mixed. He puts
them together according to the graduation of length, and observes the correspondence
of colours. This exercise also offers a very evident control of error, for the regularity
of the decreasing length of the stairs along the hypothenuse will be altered if the rods
are not properly placed.
This most important set of blocks will have its principal application in arithmetic, as
we shall see. With it, one may count from one to ten and may construct the addition
and other tables, and it may constitute the first steps in the study of the decimal and
metric system.
(c) Size: Objects, Larger and Smaller:—This set is made up of ten wooden cubes
painted in rose-coloured[Pg 194] enamel. The largest cube has a base of 10
centimetres, the smallest, of 1 centimetre, the intervening ones decrease 1 centimetre
each. A little green cloth carpet goes with these blocks. This may be of oilcloth or
cardboard. The game consists of building the cubes up, one upon another, in the order
of their dimensions, constructing a little tower of which the largest cube forms the
base and the smallest the apex. The carpet is placed on the floor, and the cubes are
scattered upon it. As the tower is built upon the carpet, the child goes through the
exercise of kneeling, rising, etc. The control is given by the irregularity of the tower as
it decreases toward the apex. A cube misplaced reveals itself, because it breaks the
line. The most common error made by the children in playing with these blocks at
first, is that of placing the second cube as the base and placing the first cube upon it,
thus confusing the two largest blocks. I have noted that the same error was made by
deficient children in the repeated trials I made with the tests of De Sanctis. At the
question, "Which is the largest?" the child would take, not the largest, but that nearest
it in size.
Any of these three sets of blocks may be used by the children in a slightly different
game. The pieces may be mixed upon a carpet or table, and then put in order upon
another table at some distance. As he carries each piece, the child must walk without
letting his attention wander, since he must remember the dimensions of the piece for
which he is to look among the mixed blocks.
Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir
A FEW OF THE MANY GEOMETRIC INSETS OF WOOD USED TO TEACH
FORM
The games played in this way are excellent for children of four or five years; while
the simple work of arranging the pieces in order upon the same carpet where they
have been mixed is more adapted to the little ones between three and four years of
age. The construction of the tower [Pg 195]with the pink cubes is very attractive to
little ones of less than three years, who knock it down and build it up time after time.
Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir
(A) GEOMETRIC INSETS OF WOOD, AND FRAME. The frame furnishes the
control necessary for exactness of work. (B) CABINET. (For storing geometric
inset frames.)

II. Differential Visual Perception of Form and Visual-tactile-muscular Perception

Didactic Material. Plane geometric insets of wood: The idea of these insets goes
back to Itard and was also applied by Séguin.
In the school for deficients I had made and applied these insets in the same form
used by my illustrious predecessors. In these there were two large tablets of wood
placed one above the other and fastened together. The lower board was left solid,
while the upper one was perforated by various geometric figures. The game consisted
in placing in these openings the corresponding wooden figures which, in order that
they might be easily handled, were furnished with a little brass knob.
In my school for deficients, I had multiplied the games calling for these insets, and
distinguished between those used to teach colour and those used to teach form. The
insets for teaching colour were all circles, those used for teaching form were all
painted blue. I had great numbers of these insets made in graduations of colour and in
an infinite variety of form. This material was most expensive and exceedingly
cumbersome.
In many later experiments with normal children, I have, after many trials,
completely excluded the plane geometric insets as an aid to the teaching of colour,
since this material offers no control of errors, the child's task being that
of covering the forms before him.
I have kept the geometric insets, but have given them a new and original aspect.
The form in which they are[Pg 196] now made was suggested to me by a visit to the
splendid manual training school in the Reformatory of St. Michael in Rome. I saw
there wooden models of geometric figures, which could be set into corresponding
frames or placed above corresponding forms. The scope of these materials was to lead
to exactness in the making of the geometric pieces in regard to control of dimension
and form; the frame furnishing the control necessary for the exactness of the work.
This led me to think of making modifications in my geometric insets, making use of
the frame as well as of the inset I therefore made a rectangular tray, which measured
30x20 centimetres. This tray was painted a dark blue and was surrounded by a dark
frame. It was furnished with a cover so arranged that it would contain six of the
square frames with their insets. The advantage of this tray is that the forms may be
changed, thus allowing us to present any combination we choose. I have a number of
blank wooden squares which make it possible to present as few as two or three
geometric forms at a time, the other spaces being filled in by the blanks. To this
material I have added a set of white cards, 10 centimetres square. These cards form a
series presenting the geometric forms in other aspects. In the first of the series, the
form is cut from blue paper and mounted upon the card. In the second box of cards,
the contour of the same figures is mounted in the same blue paper, forming an outline
one centimetre in width. On the third set of cards the contour of the geometric form
is outlined by a blank line. We have then the tray, the collection of small frames with
their corresponding insets, and the set of the cards in three series.
Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir
 Some of the Card Forms used in the exercises with the three series of cards.
[Pg 197]

I also designed a case containing six trays. The front of this box may be lowered
when the top is raised and the trays may be drawn out as one opens the drawers of a
desk. Each drawer contains six of the small frames with their respective insets. In the
first drawer I keep the four plain wooden squares and two frames, one containing a
rhomboid, and the other a trapezoid. In the second, I have a series consisting of a
square, and five rectangles of the same length, but varying in width. The third drawer
contains six circles which diminish in diameter. In the fourth are six triangles, in the
fifth, five polygons from a pentagon to a decagon. The sixth drawer contains six
curved figures (an ellipse, an oval, etc., and a flower-like figure formed by four
crossed arcs).
Exercise with the Insets. This exercise consists in presenting to the child the large
frame or tray in which we may arrange the figures as we wish to present them. We
proceed to take out the insets, mix them upon the table, and then invite the child to put
them back in place. This game may be played by even the younger children and holds
the attention for a long period, though not for so long a time as the exercise with the
cylinders. Indeed, I have never seen a child repeat this exercise more than five or six
times. The child, in fact, expends much energy upon this exercise. He
must recognise the form and must look at it carefully.
At first many of the children only succeed in placing the insets after many attempts,
trying for example to place a triangle in a trapezoid, then in a rectangle, etc. Or when
they have taken a rectangle, and recognise where it should go, they will still place it
with the long side of the inset across the short side of the opening, and will only after
many attempts, succeed in placing it. After three or four successive lessons, the child
recognises the geomet[Pg 198]ric figures with extreme facility and places the insets
with a security which has a tinge of nonchalance, or of slight contempt for an exercise
that is too easy. This is the moment in which the child may be led to a methodical
observation of the forms. We change the forms in the frame and pass from contrasted
frames to analogous ones. The exercise is easy for the child, who habituates himself to
placing the pieces in their frames without errors or false attempts.
The first period of these exercises is at the time when the child is obliged to make
repeated trials with figures that are strongly contrasted in form. The recognition is
greatly helped by associating with the visual sense the muscular-tactile perception of
the forms. I have the child touch[12] the contour of the piece with the index finger of his
right hand, and then have him repeat this with the contour of the frame into which the
pieces must fit. We succeed in making this a habit with the child. This is very easily
attained, since all children love to touch things. I have already learned, through my
work with deficient children, that among the various forms of sense memory that of
the muscular sense is the most precocious. Indeed, many children who have not
arrived at the point of recognising a figure by looking at it, could recognise it
by touching it, that is, by computing the movements necessary to the following of its
contour. The same is true of the greater number of normal children;—confused as to
where to place a figure, they turn it about trying in vain to fit it in, yet as soon as they
have touched the two contours of the piece and its frame, they succeed in placing it
perfectly. [Pg 199]Undoubtedly, the association of the muscular-tactile sense with that
of vision, aids in a most remarkable way the perception of forms and fixes them in
memory.
In such exercises, the control is absolute, as it was in the solid insets. The figure can
only enter the corresponding frame. This makes it possible for the child to work by
himself, and to accomplish a genuine sensory auto-education, in the visual perception
of form.
Exercise with the three series of cards. First series. We give the child the wooden
forms and the cards upon which the white figure is mounted. Then we mix the cards
upon the table; the child must arrange them in a line upon his table (which he loves to
do), and then place the corresponding wooden pieces upon the cards. Here the control
lies in the eyes. The child must recognise this figure, and place the wooden piece
upon it so perfectly that it will cover and hide the paper figure. The eye of the child
here corresponds to the frame, which materially led him at first to bring the two pieces
together. In addition to covering the figure, the child is to accustom himself
to touching the contour of the mounted figures as a part of the exercise (the child
always voluntarily follows those movements); and after he has placed the wooden
inset he again touches the contour, adjusting with his finger the superimposed piece
until it exactly covers the form beneath.
Second Series. We give a number of cards to the child together with the
corresponding wooden insets. In this second series, the figures are repeated by an
outline of blue paper. The child through these exercises is passing gradually from
the concrete to the abstract. At first, he handled only solid objects. He then passed to
a plane figure, that is, to the plane which in itself does not exist. [Pg 200] He is now
passing to the line, but this line does not represent for him the abstract contour of a
plane figure. It is to him the path which he has so often followed with his index finger;
this line is the trace of a movement. Following again the contour of the figure with his
finger, the child receives the impression of actually leaving a trace, for the figure is
covered by his finger and appears as he moves it. It is the eye now which guides the
movement, but it must be remembered that this movement was already prepared for
when the child touched the contours of the solid pieces of wood.
 Third Series. We now present to the child the cards upon which the figures are
drawn in black, giving him, as before, the corresponding wooden pieces. Here, he has
actually passed to the line; that is, to an abstraction, yet here, too, there is the idea of
the result of a movement.
This cannot be, it is true, the trace left by the finger, but, for example, that of a
pencil which is guided by the hand in the same movements made before. These
geometric figures in simple outline have grown out of a gradual series of
representations which were concrete to vision and touch. These representations return
to the mind of the child when he performs the exercise of superimposing the
corresponding wooden figures.
Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir
(
 A) LACING. (B) SHOE BUTTONING. (C) BUTTONING OF OTHER
GARMENTS. (D) HOOKS AND EYES. Frames illustrating the different
processes of dressing and undressing.

III. Differential Visual Perception of Colours:—Education of the Chromatic Sense

In many of our lessons on the colours, we make use of pieces of brightly-coloured

stuffs, and of balls covered with wool of different colours. The didactic material for
the education of the chromatic sense is the following, which I have established after a
long series of tests made upon normal children, (in the institute for deficients, I used
as I [Pg 201]have said above, the geometric insets). The present material consists of
small flat tablets, which are wound with coloured wool or silk. These tablets have a
little wooden border at each end which prevents the silk-covered card from touching
the table. The child is also taught to take hold of the piece by these wooden
extremities, so that he need not soil the delicate colours. In this way, we are able to
use this material for a long time without having to renew it.
Copyright, 1912, by Carl R. Byoir
T
 ABLETS WOUND WITH COLOURED SILK
Used for educating the chromatic sense. The tablets are shown in the boxes in
which they are kept.
I have chosen eight tints, and each one has with it eight gradations of different
intensity of colour. There are, therefore, sixty-four colour-tablets in all. The eight tints
selected are black (from grey to
white), red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and brown. We have duplicate boxes of
these sixty-four colours, giving us two of each exercise. The entire set, therefore,
consists of one hundred twenty-eight tablets. They are contained in two boxes, each
divided into eight equal compartments so that one box may contain sixty-four tablets.
Exercises with the Colour-tablets. For the earliest of these exercises, we select three
strong colours: for example, red, blue, and yellow, in pairs. These six tablets we place
upon the table before the child. Showing him one of the colours, we ask him to find its
duplicate among the mixed tablets upon the table. In this way, we have him arrange
the colour-tablets in a column, two by two, pairing them according to colour.
The number of tablets in this game may be increased until the eight colours, or
sixteen tablets, are given at once. When the strongest tones have been presented, we
may proceed to the presentation of lighter tones, in the same way. Finally, we present
two or three tablets of the same colour, but of different tone, showing the child how
to[Pg 202] arrange these in order of gradation. In this way, the eight gradations are
finally presented.
Following this, we place before the child the eight gradations of two different
colours (red and blue); he is shown how to separate the groups and then arrange each
group in gradation. As we proceed we offer groups of more nearly related colours; for
example, blue and violet, yellow and orange, etc.
In one of the "Children's Houses," I have seen the following game played with the
greatest success and interest, and with surprising rapidity. The directress places upon
a table, about which the children are seated, as many colour groups as there are
children, for example, three. She then calls each child's attention to the colour each is
to select, or which she assigns to him. Then, she mixes the three groups of colours
upon the table. Each child takes rapidly from the mixed heap of tablets all the
gradations of his colour, and proceeds to arrange the tablets, which, when thus placed
in a line, give the appearance of a strip of shaded ribbon.
In another "House," I have seen the children take the entire box, empty the sixty-
four colour-tablets upon the table and after carefully mixing them, rapidly collect
them into groups and arrange them in gradation, constructing a species of little carpet
of delicately coloured and intermingling tints. The children very quickly acquire an
ability before which we stand amazed. Children of three years are able to put all of the
tints into gradation.
Experiments in Colour-memory. Experiments in colour-memory may be made by
showing the child a tint, allowing him to look at it as long as he will, and then asking
him to go to a distant table upon which all of the colours are arranged and to select
from among them the tint simi[Pg 203]lar to the one at which he has looked. The
children succeed in this game remarkably, committing only slight errors. Children of
five years enjoy this immensely, taking great pleasure in comparing the two spools
and judging as to whether they have chosen correctly.
At the beginning of my work, I made use of an instrument invented by Pizzoli. This
consisted of a small brown disk having a half-moon shape opening at the top. Various
colours were made to pass behind this opening, by means of a rotary disk which was
composed of strips of various colours. The teacher called the attention of the child to a
certain colour, then turned the disk, asking him to indicate the same disk when it again
showed itself in the opening. This exercise rendered the child inactive, preventing him
from controlling the material. It is not, therefore, an instrument which can promote
the education of the senses.

EXERCISE FOR THE DISCRIMINATION OF SOUNDS

It would be desirable to have in this connection the didactic material used for the
"auricular education" in the principal institutions for deaf mutes in Germany and
America. These exercises are an introduction to the acquisition of language, and serve
in a very special way to centre the children's discriminative attention upon the
"modulations of the sound of the human voice."
With very young children linguistic education must occupy a most important place.
Another aim of such exercises is to educate the ear of the child to noises so that he
shall accustom himself to distinguish every slight noise and compare it with sounds,
coming to resent harsh or disordered noises. Such sense education has a value in that
it exercises æsthetic taste, and may be applied in a most [Pg 204] noteworthy way to
practical discipline. We all know how the younger children disturb the order of the
room by shouts, and by the noise of over-turned objects.
The rigorous scientific education of the sense of hearing is not practically applicable
to the didactic method. This is true because the child cannot exercise himself through
his own activity as he does for the other senses. Only one child at a time can work
with any instrument producing the gradation of sounds. In other words, absolute
silence is necessary for the discrimination of sounds.
 Signorina Maccheroni, Directress, first of the "Children's House" in Milan and later
in the one in Franciscan Convent at Rome, has invented and has had manufactured a
series of thirteen bells hung upon a wooden frame. These bells are to all appearances,
identical, but the vibrations brought about by a blow of a hammer produce the
following thirteen notes:

The set consists of a double series of thirteen bells and there are four hammers.
Having struck one of the bells in the first series, the child must find the corresponding
sound in the second. This exercise presents grave difficulty, as the child does not
know how to strike each time with the same force, and therefore produces sounds
which vary in intensity. Even when the teacher strikes the bells, the children have
difficulty in distinguishing between sounds. So we do not feel that this instrument in
its present form is entirely practical.
For the discrimination of sounds, we use Pizzoli's series of little whistles. For the
gradation of noises, we use[Pg 205] small boxes filled with different substances, more
or less fine (sand or pebbles). The noises are produced by shaking the boxes.
In the lessons for the sense of hearing I proceed as follows: I have the teachers
establish silence in the usual way and then I continue the work, making the silence
more profound. I say, "St! St!" in a series of modulations, now sharp and short, now
prolonged and light as a whisper. The children, little by little, become fascinated by
this. Occasionally I say, "More silent still—more silent."
I then begin the sibilant St! St! again, making it always lighter and repeating "More
silent still," in a barely audible voice. Then I say still in a low whisper, "Now, I hear
the clock, now I can hear the buzzing of a fly's wings, now I can hear the whisper of
the trees in the garden."
The children, ecstatic with joy, sit in such absolute and complete silence that the
room seems deserted; then I whisper, "Let us close our eyes." This exercise repeated,
so habituates the children to immobility and to absolute silence that, when one of
them interrupts, it needs only a syllable, a gesture to call him back immediately to
perfect order.
In the silence, we proceeded to the production of sounds and noises, making these at
first strongly contrasted, then, more nearly alike. Sometimes we present the
comparisons between noise and sound. I believe that the best results can be obtained
with the primitive means employed by Itard in 1805. He used the drum and the bell.
His plan was a graduated series of drums for the noises,—or, better, for the heavy
harmonic sounds, since these belong to a musical instrument,—and a series of bells.
The diapason, the whistles, the boxes, are not attractive to the child, and do not
educate the sense of hearing as do these other instru [Pg 206]ments. There is an
interesting suggestion in the fact that the two great human institutions, that of hate
(war), and that of love (religion), have adopted these two opposite instruments, the
drum and the bell.
I believe that after establishing silence it would be educational to ring well-toned
bells, now calm and sweet, now clear and ringing, sending their vibrations through the
child's whole body. And when, besides the education of the ear, we have produced
a vibratory education of the whole body, through these wisely selected sounds of the
bells, giving a peace that pervades the very fibres of his being, then I believe these
young bodies would be sensitive to crude noises, and the children would come to
dislike, and to cease from making, disordered and ugly noises.
In this way one whose ear has been trained by a musical education suffers from
strident or discordant notes. I need give no illustration to make clear the importance of
such education for the masses in childhood. The new generation would be more calm,
turning away from the confusion and the discordant sounds, which strike the ear to-
day in one of the vile tenements where the poor live, crowded together, left by us to
abandon themselves to the lower, more brutal human instincts.
Musical Education
This must be carefully guided by method. In general, we see little children pass by
the playing of some great musicians as an animal would pass. They do not perceive
the delicate complexity of sounds. The street children gather about the organ grinder,
crying out as if to hail with joy the noises which will come instead of sounds.
For the musical education we must create instruments as well as music. The scope
of such an instrument in[Pg 207] addition to the discrimination of sounds, is to awaken
a sense of rhythm, and, so to speak, to give the impulse toward calm and co-ordinate
movements to those muscles already vibrating in the peace and tranquillity of
immobility.
I believe that stringed instruments (perhaps some very much simplified harp) would
be the most convenient. The stringed instruments together with the drum and the bells
form the trio of the classic instruments of humanity. The harp is the instrument of "the
intimate life of the individual." Legend places it in the hand of Orpheus, folk-lore puts
it into fairy hands, and romance gives it to the princess who conquers the heart of a
wicked prince.
 The teacher who turns her back upon her scholars to play, (far too often badly), will
never be the educator of their musical sense.
The child needs to be charmed in every way, by the glance as well as by the pose.
The teacher who, bending toward them, gathering them about her, and leaving them
free to stay or go, touches the chords, in a simple rhythm, puts herself in
communication with them, in relation with their very souls. So much the better if this
touch can be accompanied by her voice, and the children left free to follow her, no one
being obliged to sing. In this way she can select as "adapted to education," those songs
which were followed by all the children. So she may regulate the complexity of
rhythm to various ages, for she will see now only the older children following the
rhythm, now, also the little ones. At any rate, I believe that simple and primitive
instruments are the ones best adapted to the awakening of music in the soul of the
little child.
I have tried to have the Directress of the "Children's House" in Milan, who is a
gifted musician, make a num[Pg 208]ber of trials, and experiments, with a view to
finding out more about the muscular capacity of young children. She has made many
trials with the pianoforte, observing how the children are not sensitive to the
musical tone, but only to the rhythm. On a basis of rhythm she arranged simple little
dances, with the intention of studying the influence of the rhythm itself upon the co-
ordination of muscular movements. She was greatly surprised to discover
the educational disciplinary effect of such music. Her children, who had been led with
great wisdom and art through liberty to a spontaneous ordering of their acts and
movements, had nevertheless lived in the streets and courts, and had an almost
universal habit of jumping.
Being a faithful follower of the method of liberty, and not considering
that jumping was a wrong act, she had never corrected them.
She now noticed that as she multiplied and repeated the rhythm exercises, the
children little by little left off their ugly jumping, until finally it was a thing of the
past. The directress one day asked for an explanation of this change of conduct.
Several little ones looked at her without saying anything. The older children gave
various replies, whose meaning was the same.
"It isn't nice to jump."
"Jumping is ugly."
"It's rude to jump."
This was certainly a beautiful triumph for our method!
 This experience shows that it is possible to educate the child's muscular sense, and
it shows how exquisite the refinement of this sense may be as it develops in relation to
the muscular memory, and side by side with the other forms of sensory memory.
[Pg 209]

Tests for Acuteness of Hearing

The only entirely successful experiments which we have made so far in the
"Children's Houses" are those of the clock, and of the lowered or whispered voice. The
trial is purely empirical, and does not lend itself to the measuring of the sensation, but
it is, however, most useful in that it helps us to an approximate knowledge of the
child's auditory acuteness.
The exercise consists in calling attention, when perfect silence has been established,
to the ticking of the clock, and to all the little noises not commonly audible to the ear.
Finally we call the little ones, one by one from an adjoining room, pronouncing each
name in a low voice. In preparing for such an exercise it is necessary to teach the
children the real meaning of silence.
Toward this end I have several games of silence, which help in a surprising way to
strengthen the remarkable discipline of our children.
I call the children's attention to myself, telling them to see how silent I can be. I
assume different positions; standing, sitting, and maintain each pose silently, without
movement. A finger moving can produce a noise, even though it be imperceptible. We
may breathe so that we may be heard. But I maintain absolute silence, which is not an
easy thing to do. I call a child, and ask him to do as I am doing. He adjusts his feet to
a better position, and this makes a noise! He moves an arm, stretching it out upon the
arm of his chair; it is a noise. His breathing is not altogether silent, it is not tranquil,
absolutely unheard as mine is.
During these manœuvres on the part of the child, and [Pg 210] while my brief
comments are followed by intervals of immobility and silence, the other children are
watching and listening. Many of them are interested in the fact, which they have never
noticed before; namely, that we make so many noises of which we are not conscious,
and that there are degrees of silence. There is an absolute silence where
nothing, absolutely nothing moves. They watch me in amazement when I stand in the
middle of the room, so quietly that it is really as if "I were not." Then they strive to
imitate me, and to do even better. I call attention here and there to a foot that moves,
almost inadvertently. The attention of the child is called to every part of his body in an
anxious eagerness to attain to immobility.
When the children are trying in this way, there is established a silence very different
from that which we carelessly call by that name.
 It seems as if life gradually vanishes, and that the room becomes, little by little,
empty, as if there were no longer anyone in it. Then we begin to hear the tick-tock of
the clock, and this sound seems to grow in intensity as the silence becomes absolute.
From without, from the court which before seemed silent, there come varied noises, a
bird chirps, a child passes. The children sit fascinated by that silence as if by some
conquest of their own. "Here," says the directress, "here there is no longer anyone; the
children have all gone away."
Having arrived at that point, we darken the windows, and tell the children to close
their eyes, resting their heads upon their hands. They assume this position, and in the
darkness the absolute silence returns.
"Now listen," we say. "A soft voice is going to call your name." Then going to a
room behind the children, and standing within the open door, I call in a low voice, [Pg
211] lingering over the syllables as if I were calling from across the mountains. This
voice, almost occult, seems to reach the heart and to call to the soul of the child. Each
one as he is called, lifts his head, opens his eyes as if altogether happy, then rises,
silently seeking not to move the chair, and walks on the tips of his toes, so quietly that
he is scarcely heard. Nevertheless his step resounds in the silence, and amid the
immobility which persists.
Having reached the door, with a joyous face, he leaps into the room, choking back
soft outbursts of laughter. Another child may come to hide his face against my dress,
another, turning, will watch his companions sitting like statues silent and waiting. The
one who is called feels that he is privileged, that he has received a gift, a prize. And
yet they know that all will be called, "beginning with the most silent one in all the
room." So each one tries to merit by his perfect silence the certain call. I once saw a
little one of three years try to suffocate a sneeze, and succeed! She held her breath in
her little breast, and resisted, coming out victorious. A most surprising effort!
This game delights the little ones beyond measure. Their intent faces, their patient
immobility, reveal the enjoyment of a great pleasure. In the beginning, when the soul
of the child was unknown to me, I had thought of showing them sweetmeats and little
toys, promising to give them to the ones who were called, supposing that the gifts
would be necessary to persuade the child to make the necessary effort. But I soon
found that this was unnecessary.
The children, after they had made the effort necessary to maintain silence, enjoyed
the sensation, took pleasure in the silence itself. They were like ships safe in a tranquil
harbour, happy in having experienced something new, [Pg 212] and to have won a
victory over themselves. This, indeed, was their recompense. They forgot the promise
of sweets, and no longer cared to take the toys, which I had supposed would attract
them. I therefore abandoned that useless means, and saw, with surprise, that the game
became constantly more perfect, until even children of three years of age remained
immovable in the silence throughout the time required to call the entire forty children
out of the room! It was then that I learned that the soul of the child has its own reward,
and its peculiar spiritual pleasures. After such exercises it seemed to me that the
children came closer to me, certainly they became more obedient, more gentle and
sweet. We had, indeed, been isolated from the world, and had passed several minutes
during which the communion between us was very close, I wishing for them and
calling to them, and they receiving in the perfect silence the voice which was directed
personally toward each one of them, crowning each in turn with happiness.
A Lesson in Silence
I am about to describe a lesson which proved most successful in teaching the perfect
silence to which it is possible to attain. One day as I was about to enter one of the
"Children's Houses," I met in the court a mother who held in her arms her little baby
of four months. The little one was swaddled, as is still the custom among the people of
Rome—an infant thus in the swaddling bands is called by us a pupa. This tranquil
little one seemed the incarnation of peace. I took her in my arms, where she lay quiet
and good. Still holding her I went toward the schoolroom, from which the children
now ran to meet me. They always welcomed me thus, throwing their arms about me,
clinging to my skirts, and almost tumbling me over in [Pg 213] their eagerness. I smiled
at them, showing them the "pupa." They understood and skipped about me looking at
me with eyes brilliant with pleasure, but did not touch me through respect for the little
one that I held in my arms.
I went into the schoolroom with the children clustered about me. We sat down, I
seating myself in a large chair instead of, as usual, in one of their little chairs. In other
words, I seated myself solemnly. They looked at my little one with a mixture of
tenderness and joy. None of us had yet spoken a word. Finally I said to them, "I have
brought you a little teacher." Surprised glances and laughter. "A little teacher, yes,
because none of you know how to be quiet as she does." At this all the children
changed their positions and became quiet. "Yet no one holds his limbs and feet as
quietly as she." Everyone gave closer attention to the position of limbs and feet. I
looked at them smiling, "Yes, but they can never be as quiet as hers. You move a little
bit, but she, not at all; none of you can be as quiet as she." The children looked
serious. The idea of the superiority of the little teacher seemed to have reached them.
Some of them smiled, and seemed to say with their eyes that the swaddling bands
deserved all the merit. "Not one of you can be silent, voiceless as she." General
silence. "It is not possible to be as silent as she, because,—listen to her breathing—
how delicate it is; come near to her on your tiptoes."
Several children rose, and came slowly forward on tiptoe, bending toward the baby.
Great silence. "None of you can breathe so silently as she." The children looked about
amazed, they had never thought that even when sitting quietly they were making
noises, and that the silence of a little babe is more profound than the silence of [Pg
214] grown people. They almost ceased to breathe. I rose. "Go out quietly, quietly," I
said, "walk on the tips of your toes and make no noise." Following them I said, "And
yet I still hear some sounds, but she, the baby, walks with me and makes no sound.
She goes out silently!" The children smiled. They understood the truth and the jest of
my words. I went to the open window, and placed the baby in the arms of the mother
who stood watching us.
The little one seemed to have left behind her a subtle charm which enveloped the
souls of the children. Indeed, there is in nature nothing more sweet than the silent
breathing of a new-born babe. There is an indescribable majesty about this human life
which in repose and silence gathers strength and newness of life. Compared to this,
Wordsworth's description of the silent peace of nature seems to lose its force. "What
calm, what quiet! The one sound the drip of the suspended oar." The children, too, felt
the poetry and beauty in the peaceful silence of a new-born human life.
[12]Here and elsewhere throughout the book the word "touch" is used not only to express contact
between the fingers and an object, but the moving of fingers or hand over an object or its outline.

[Pg 215]

CHAPTER XIV
GENERAL NOTES ON THE EDUCATION OF THE SENSES
I do not claim to have brought to perfection the method of sense training as applied
to young children. I do believe, however, that it opens a new field for psychological
research, promising rich and valuable results.
Experimental psychology has so far devoted its attention to perfecting the
instruments by which the sensations are measured. No one has attempted
the methodical preparation of the individual for the sensations. It is my belief that the
development of psychometry will owe more to the attention given to the preparation
of the individual than to the perfecting of the instrument.
But putting aside this purely scientific side of the question, the education of the
senses must be of the greatest pedagogical interest.
 Our aim in education in general is two-fold, biological and social. From the
biological side we wish to help the natural development of the individual, from the
social standpoint it is our aim to prepare the individual for the environment. Under
this last head technical education may be considered as having a place, since it teaches
the individual to make use of his surroundings. The education of the senses is most
important from both these points of view. The development of the senses indeed
precedes that of superior intellectual activity and the child between three and seven
years is in the period of formation.[Pg 216]
We can, then, help the development of the senses while they are in this period. We
may graduate and adapt the stimuli just as, for example, it is necessary to help the
formation of language before it shall be completely developed.
All education of little children must be governed by this principle—to help the
natural psychic and physical development of the child.
The other aim of education (that of adapting the individual to the environment)
should be given more attention later on when the period of intense development is
past.
These two phases of education are always interlaced, but one or the other has
prevalence according to the age of the child. Now, the period of life between the ages
of three and seven years covers a period of rapid physical development. It is the time
for the formation of the sense activities as related to the intellect The child in this age
develops his senses. His attention is further attracted to the environment under the
form of passive curiosity.
The stimuli, and not yet the reasons for things, attract his attention. This is,
therefore, the time when we should methodically direct the sense stimuli, in such a
way that the sensations which he receives shall develop in a rational way. This sense
training will prepare the ordered foundation upon which he may build up a clear and
strong mentality.
It is, besides all this, possible with the education of the senses to discover and
eventually to correct defects which to-day pass unobserved in the school. Now the
time comes when the defect manifests itself in an evident and irreparable inability to
make use of the forces of[Pg 217] life about him. (Such defects as deafness and near-
sightedness.) This education, therefore, is physiological and prepares directly for
intellectual education, perfecting the organs of sense, and the nerve-paths of
projection and association.
But the other part of education, the adaptation of the individual to his environment,
is indirectly touched. We prepare with our method the infancy of the humanity of our
time. The men of the present civilisation are preeminently observers of their
environment because they must utilise to the greatest possible extent all the riches of
this environment.
The art of to-day bases itself, as in the days of the Greeks, upon observation of the
truth.
The progress of positive science is based upon its observations and all its
discoveries and their applications, which in the last century have so transformed our
civic environment, were made by following the same line—that is, they have come
through observation. We must therefore prepare the new generation for this attitude,
which has become necessary in our modern civilised life. It is an indispensable means
—man must be so armed if he is to continue efficaciously the work of our progress.
We have seen the discovery of the Roentgen Rays born of observation. To the same
methods are due the discovery of Hertzian waves, and vibrations of radium, and we
await wonderful things from the Marconi telegraph. While there has been no period in
which thought has gained so much from positive study as the present century, and this
same century promises new light in the field of speculative philosophy and upon
spiritual questions, the theories upon the matter have themselves led to most
interesting metaphysical concepts. We may say [Pg 218] that in preparing the method
of observation, we have also prepared the way leading to spiritual discovery.

The education of the senses makes men observers, and not only accomplishes the
general work of adaptation to the present epoch of civilisation, but also prepares them
directly for practical life. We have had up to the present time, I believe, a most
imperfect idea of what is necessary in the practical living of life. We have always
started from ideas, and have proceeded thence to motor activities; thus, for example,
the method of education has always been to teach intellectually, and then to have the
child follow the principles he has been taught. In general, when we are teaching, we
talk about the object which interests us, and then we try to lead the scholar, when he
has understood, to perform some kind of work with the object itself; but often the
scholar who has understood the idea finds great difficulty in the execution of the work
which we give him, because we have left out of his education a factor of the utmost
importance, namely, the perfecting of the senses. I may, perhaps, illustrate this
statement with a few examples. We ask the cook to buy only 'fresh fish.' She
understands the idea, and tries to follow it in her marketing, but, if the cook has not
been trained to recognise through sight and smell the signs which indicate freshness in
the fish, she will not know how to follow the order we have given her.
Such a lack will show itself much more plainly in culinary operations. A cook may
be trained in book matters, and may know exactly the recipes and the length of time
advised in her cook book; she may be able to perform all the manipulations necessary
to give the desired appearance to the dishes, but when it is a question [Pg 219] of
deciding from the odor of the dish the exact moment of its being properly cooked, or
with the eye, or the taste, the time at which she must put in some given condiment,
then she will make a mistake if her senses have not been sufficiently prepared.
She can only gain such ability through long practice, and such practice on the part
of the cook is nothing else than a belated education of the senses—an education
which often can never be properly attained by the adult. Thia is one reason why it is
so difficult to find good cooks.
Something of the same kind is true of the physician, the student of medicine who
studies theoretically the character of the pulse, and sits down by the bed of the patient
with the best will in the world to read the pulse, but, if his fingers do not know how to
read the sensations his studies will have been in vain. Before he can become a doctor,
he must gain a capacity for discriminating between sense stimuli.
The same may be said for the pulsations of the heart, which the student studies in
theory, but which the ear can learn to distinguish only through practice.
We may say the same for all the delicate vibrations and movements, in the reading
of which the hand of the physician is too often deficient. The thermometer is the more
indispensable to the physician the more his sense of touch is unadapted and untrained
in the gathering of the thermic stimuli. It is well understood that the physician may be
learned, and most intelligent, without being a good practitioner, and that to make a
good practitioner long practice is necessary. In reality, this long practice is nothing
else than a tardy, and often inefficient, exercise of the senses. After he has assimilated
the brilliant theories, the physician sees himself forced to the unpleas [Pg 220]ant labor
of the semiography, that is to making a record of the symptoms revealed by his
observation of and experiments with the patients. He must do this if he is to receive
from these theories any practical results.
Here, then, we have the beginner proceeding in a stereotyped way to tests
of palpation, percussion, and auscultation, for the purpose of identifying the throbs,
the resonance, the tones, the breathings, and the various sounds which alone can
enable him to formulate a diagnosis. Hence the deep and unhappy discouragement of
so many young physicians, and, above all, the loss of time; for it is often a question of
lost years. Then, there is the immorality of allowing a man to follow a profession of so
great responsibility, when, as is often the case, he is so unskilled and inaccurate in the
taking of symptoms. The whole art of medicine is based upon an education of the
senses; the schools, instead, prepare physicians through a study of the classics. All
very well and good, but the splendid intellectual development of the physician falls,
impotent, before the insufficiency of his senses.
 One day, I heard a surgeon giving, to a number of poor mothers, a lesson on the
recognition of the first deformities noticeable in little children from the disease of
rickets. It was his hope to lead these mothers to bring to him their children who were
suffering from this disease, while the disease was yet in the earliest stages, and when
medical help might still be efficacious. The mothers understood the idea, but they did
not know how to recognise these first signs of deformity, because they were lacking in
the sensory education through which they might discriminate between signs deviating
only slightly from the normal.
Therefore those lessons were useless. If we think of it [Pg 221] for a minute, we will
see that almost all the forms of adulteration in food stuffs are rendered possible by the
torpor of the senses, which exists in the greater number of people. Fraudulent industry
feeds upon the lack of sense education in the masses, as any kind of fraud is based
upon the ignorance of the victim. We often see the purchaser throwing himself upon
the honesty of the merchant, or putting his faith in the company, or the label upon the
box. This is because purchasers are lacking in the capacity of judging directly for
themselves. They do not know how to distinguish with their senses the different
qualities of various substances. In fact, we may say that in many cases intelligence is
rendered useless by lack of practice, and this practice is almost always sense
education. Everyone knows in practical life the fundamental necessity of judging with
exactness between various stimuli.
But very often sense education is most difficult for the adult, just as it is difficult for
him to educate his hand when he wishes to become a pianist. It is necessary to begin
the education of the senses in the formative period, if we wish to perfect this sense
development with the education which is to follow. The education of the senses
should be begun methodically in infancy, and should continue during the entire period
of instruction which is to prepare the individual for life in society.
Æsthetic and moral education are closely related to this sensory education. Multiply
the sensations, and develop the capacity of appreciating fine differences in stimuli,
and we refine the sensibility and multiply man's pleasures.
Beauty lies in harmony, not in contrast; and harmony is refinement; therefore, there
must be a fineness of the[Pg 222] senses if we are to appreciate harmony. The æsthetic
harmony of nature is lost upon him who has coarse senses. The world to him is
narrow and barren. In life about us, there exist inexhaustible fonts of æsthetic
enjoyment, before which men pass as insensible as the brutes seeking their enjoyment
in those sensations which are crude and showy, since they are the only ones accessible
to them.
 Now, from the enjoyment of gross pleasures, vicious habits very often spring.
Strong stimuli, indeed, do not render acute, but blunt the senses, so that they require
stimuli more and more accentuated and more and more gross.
Onanism, so often found among normal children of the lower classes, alcoholism,
fondness for watching sensual acts of adults—these things represent the enjoyment of
those unfortunate ones whose intellectual pleasures are few, and whose senses are
blunted and dulled. Such pleasures kill the man within the individual, and call to life
the beast.

S—Sense, C—Nerve centre, M—

Motor.
Indeed from the physiological point of view, the importance of the education of the
senses is evident from an observation of the scheme of the diagrammatic arc which
represents the functions of the nervous system. The external stimulus acts upon the
organ of sense, and the impression is transmitted along the centripetal way to the
nerve centre—the corresponding motor impulse is elaborated, and is transmitted along
the centrifugal path to the organ of motion, provoking a movement. Although the arc
represents diagrammatically the mechanism of reflex spinal [Pg 223] actions, it may
still be considered as a fundamental key explaining the phenomena of the more
complex nervous mechanisms. Man, with the peripheral sensory system, gathers
various stimuli from his environment. He puts himself thus in direct communication
with his surroundings. The psychic life develops, therefore, in relation to the system
of nerve centres; and human activity which is eminently social activity, manifests
itself through acts of the individual—manual work, writing, spoken language, etc.—
by means of the psychomotor organs.
 Education should guide and perfect the development of the three periods, the two
peripheral and the central; or, better still, since the process fundamentally reduces
itself to the nerve centres, education should give to psychosensory exercises the same
importance which it gives to psychomotor exercises.
Otherwise, we isolate man from his environment. Indeed, when with intellectual
culture we believe ourselves to have completed education, we have but made thinkers,
whose tendency will be to live without the world. We have not made practical men. If,
on the other hand, wishing through education to prepare for practical life; we limit
ourselves to exercising the psychomotor phase, we lose sight of the chief end of
education, which is to put man in direct communication with the external world.
Since professional work almost always requires man to make use of his
surroundings, the technical schools are not forced to return to the very beginnings of
education, sense exercises, in order to supply the great and universal lack.

[Pg 224]

CHAPTER XV
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
"... To lead the child from the education of the senses to
ideas."
Edward Séguin.
The sense exercises constitute a species of auto-education, which, if these exercises
be many times repeated, leads to a perfecting of the child's psychosensory processes.
The directress must intervene to lead the child from sensations to ideas—from the
concrete to the abstract, and to the association of ideas. For this, she should use a
method tending to isolate the inner attention of the child and to fix it upon the
perceptions—as in the first lessons his objective attention was fixed, through
isolation, upon single stimuli.
The teacher, in other words, when she gives a lesson must seek to limit the field of
the child's consciousness to the object of the lesson, as, for example, during sense
education she isolated the sense which she wished the child to exercise.
 For this, knowledge of a special technique is necessary. The educator must, "to the
greatest possible extent, limit his intervention; yet he must not allow the child to
weary himself in an undue effort of auto-education."
It is here, that the factor of individual limitation and differing degrees of perception
are most keenly felt in the teacher. In other words, in the quality of this inter [Pg
225]vention lies the art which makes up the individuality of the teacher.

A definite and undoubted part of the teacher's work is that of teaching an exact
nomenclature.
She should, in most cases, pronounce the necessary names and adjectives without
adding anything further. These words she should pronounce distinctly, and in a clear
strong voice, so that the various sounds composing the word may be distinctly and
plainly perceived by the child.
So, for example, touching the smooth and rough cards in the first tactile exercise,
she should say, "This is smooth. This is rough," repeating the words with varying
modulations of the voice, always letting the tones be clear and the enunciation very
distinct. "Smooth, smooth, smooth. Rough, rough, rough."
In the same way, when treating of the sensations of heat and cold, she must say,
"This is cold." "This is hot." "This is ice-cold." "This is tepid." She may then begin to
use the generic terms, "heat," "more heat," "less heat," etc.
First. "The lessons in nomenclature must consist simply in provoking the
association of the name with the object, or with the abstract idea which the name
represents." Thus the object and the name must be united when they are received by
the child's mind, and this makes it most necessary that no other word besides the name
be spoken.
Second. The teacher must always test whether or not her lesson has attained the end
she had in view, and her tests must be made to come within the restricted field of
consciousness, provoked by the lesson on nomenclature.
The first test will be to find whether the name is still [Pg 226] associated in the child's
mind with the object. She must allow the necessary time to elapse, letting a short
period of silence intervene between the lesson and the test. Then she may ask the
child, pronouncing slowly and very clearly the name or the adjective she has taught:
"Which is smooth? Which is rough?"
The child will point to the object with his finger, and the teacher will know that he
has made the desired association. But if he has not done this, that is, if he makes a
mistake, she must not correct him, but must suspend her lesson, to take it up again
another day. Indeed, why correct him? If the child has not succeeded in associating
the name with the object, the only way in which to succeed would be to repeat both
the action of the sense stimuli and the name; in other words, to repeat the lesson. But
when the child has failed, we should know that he was not at that instant ready for the
psychic association which we wished to provoke in him, and we must therefore
choose another moment.
If we should say, in correcting the child, "No, you have made a mistake," all these
words, which, being in the form of a reproof, would strike him more forcibly than
others (such as smooth or rough), would remain in the mind of the child, retarding the
learning of the names. On the contrary, the silence which follows the error leaves the
field of consciousness clear, and the next lesson may successfully follow the first. In
fact, by revealing the error we may lead the child to make an undue effort to
remember, or we may discourage him, and it is our duty to avoid as much as possible
all unnatural effort and all depression.
Third. If the child has not committed any error, the teacher may provoke the motor
activity corresponding to[Pg 227] the idea of the object: that is, to the pronunciation of
the name. She may ask him, "What is this?" and the child should respond, "Smooth."
The teacher may then interrupt, teaching him how to pronounce the word correctly
and distinctly, first, drawing a deep breath and, then, saying in a rather loud voice,
"Smooth." When he does this the teacher may note his particular speech defect, or the
special form of baby talk to which he may be addicted.
In regard to the generalisation of the ideas received, and by that I mean the
application of these ideas to his environment, I do not advise any lessons of this sort
for a certain length of time, even for a number of months. There will be children who,
after having touched a few times the stuffs, or merely the smooth and rough
cards, will quite spontaneously touch the various surfaces about them, repeating
"Smooth! Rough! It is velvet! etc." In dealing with normal children, we
must await this spontaneous investigation of the surroundings, or, as I like to call it,
this voluntary explosion of the exploring spirit. In such cases, the children experience
a joy at each fresh discovery. They are conscious of a sense of dignity and satisfaction
which encourages them to seek for new sensations from their environment and to
make themselves spontaneous observers.
The teacher should watch with the most solicitous care to see when and how the
child arrives at this generalisation of ideas. For example, one of our little four-year-
olds while running about in the court one day suddenly stood still and cried out, "Oh!
the sky is blue!" and stood for some time looking up into the blue expanse of the sky.
One day, when I entered one of the "Children's Houses," five or six little ones
gathered quietly about me[Pg 228] and began caressing, lightly, my hands, and my
clothing, saying, "It is smooth." "It is velvet." "This is rough." A number of others
came near and began with serious and intent faces to repeat the same words, touching
me as they did so. The directress wished to interfere to release me, but I signed to her
to be quiet, and I myself did not move, but remained silent, admiring this spontaneous
intellectual activity of my little ones. The greatest triumph of our educational method
should always be this: to bring about the spontaneous progress of the child.
One day, a little boy, following one of our exercises in design, had chosen to fill in
with coloured pencils the outline of a tree. To colour the trunk he laid hold upon a red
crayon. The teacher wished to interfere, saying, "Do you think trees have red trunks?"
I held her back and allowed the child to colour the tree red. This design was precious
to us; it showed that the child was not yet an observer of his surroundings. My way of
treating this was to encourage the child to make use of the games for the chromatic
sense. He went daily into the garden with the other children, and could at any time see
the tree trunks. When the sense exercises should have succeeded in attracting the
child's spontaneous attention to colours about him, then, in some happy moment he
would become aware that the tree trunks were not red, just as the other child during
his play had become conscious of the fact that the sky was blue. In fact, the teacher
continued to give the child outlines of trees to fill in. He one day chose a brown pencil
with which to colour the trunk, and made the branches and leaves green. Later, he
made the branches brown, also, using green only for the leaves.
Thus we have the test of the child's intellectual progress. We can not create
observers by saying, "observe,"[Pg 229] but by giving them the power and the means
for this observation, and these means are procured through education of the senses.
Once we have aroused such activity, auto-education is assured, for refined well-
trained senses lead us to a closer observation of the environment, and this, with its
infinite variety, attracts the attention and continues the psychosensory education.
If, on the other hand, in this matter of sense education we single out definite
concepts of the quality of certain objects, these very objects become associated with,
or a part of, the training, which is in this way limited to those concepts taken and
recorded. So the sense training remains unfruitful. When, for example, a teacher has
given in the old way a lesson on the names of the colours, she has imparted an idea
concerning that particular quality, but she has not educated the chromatic sense. The
child will know these colours in a superficial way, forgetting them from time to time;
and at best his appreciation of them will lie within the limits prescribed by the teacher.
When, therefore, the teacher of the old methods shall have provoked the
generalisation of the idea, saying, for example, "What is the colour of this flower!" "of
this ribbon?" the attention of the child will in all probability remain torpidly fixed
upon the examples suggested by her.
We may liken the child to a clock, and may say that with the old-time way it is very
much as if we were to hold the wheels of the clock quiet and move the hands about
the clock face with our fingers. The hands will continue to circle the dial just so long
as we apply, through our fingers, the necessary motor force. Even so is it with that
sort of culture which is limited to the work which the teacher does with the child. The
new method,[Pg 230] instead, may be compared to the process of winding, which sets
the entire mechanism in motion.
This motion is in direct relation with the machine, and not with the work of
winding. So the spontaneous psychic development of the child continues indefinitely
and is in direct relation to the psychic potentiality of the child himself, and not with
the work of the teacher. The movement, or the spontaneous psychic activity starts in
our case from the education of the senses and is maintained by the observing
intelligence. Thus, for example, the hunting dog receives his ability, not from the
education given by his master, but from the special acuteness of his senses; and as
soon as this physiological quality is applied to the right environment, the exercise of
hunting, the increasing refinement of the sense perceptions, gives the dog the pleasure
and then the passion for the chase. The same is true of the pianist who, refining at the
same time his musical sense and the agility of his hand, comes to love more and more
to draw new harmonies from the instrument. Thia double perfection proceeds until at
last the pianist is launched upon a course which will be limited only by the personality
which lies within him. Now a student of physics may know all the laws of harmony
which form a part of his scientific culture, and yet he may not know how to follow a
most simple musical composition. His culture, however vast, will be bound by the
definite limits of his science. Our educational aim with very young children must be
to aid the spontaneous development of the mental, spiritual, and physical personality,
and not to make of the child a cultured individual in the commonly accepted sense of
the term. So, after we have offered to the child such didactic material as is adapted to
provoke the development of his senses, we must wait [Pg 231] until the activity known
as observation develops. And herein lies the art of the educator; in knowing how to
measure the action by which we help the young child's personality to develop. To one
whose attitude is right, little children soon reveal profound individual
differences which call for very different kinds of help from the teacher. Some of them
require almost no intervention on her part, while others demand actual teaching. It is
necessary, therefore, that the teaching shall be rigorously guided by the principle of
limiting to the greatest possible point the active intervention of the educator.
Here are a number of games and problems which we have used effectively in trying
to follow this principle.

GAMES OF THE BLIND

The Games of the Blind are used for the most part as exercises in general sensibility
as follows:
 The Stuffs. We have in our didactic material a pretty little chest composed of
drawers within which are arranged rectangular pieces of stuff in great variety. There
are velvet, satin, silk, cotton, linen, etc. We have the child touch each of these pieces,
teaching the appropriate nomenclature and adding something regarding the quality, as
coarse, fine, soft. Then, we call the child and seat him at one of the tables where he
can be seen by his companions, blindfold him, and offer him the stuffs one by one. He
touches them, smooths them, crushes them between his fingers and decides, "It is
velvet,—It is fine linen,—It is rough cloth," etc. This exercise provokes general
interest. When we offer the child some unexpected foreign object, as, for example, a
sheet of paper, a veil, the little assembly trembles as it awaits his response.
Weight. We place the child in the same position, call [Pg 232] his attention to the
tablets used for the education of the sense of weight, have him notice again the
already well-known differences of weight, and then tell him to put all the dark tablets,
which are the heavier ones, at the right, and all the light ones, which are the lighter, to
the left. We then blindfold him and he proceeds to the game, taking each time two
tablets. Sometimes he takes two of the same colour, sometimes two of different
colours, but in a position opposite to that in which he must arrange them on his desk.
These exercises are most exciting; when, for example, the child has in his hands two
of the dark tablets and changes them from one hand to the other uncertain, and finally
places them together on the right, the children watch in a state of intense eagerness,
and a great sigh often expresses their final relief. The shouts of the audience when the
entire game is followed without an error, gives the impression that their little
friend sees with his hands the colours of the tablets.
Dimension and Form. We use games similar to the preceding one, having the child
distinguish between different coins, the cubes and bricks of Froebel, and dry seeds,
such as beans and peas. But such games never awaken the intense interest aroused by
the preceding ones. They are, however, useful and serve to associate with the various
objects those qualities peculiar to them, and also to fix the nomenclature.

APPLICATION OF THE EDUCATION OF THE VISUAL SENSE TO

THE OBSERVATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Nomenclature. This is one of the most important phases of education. Indeed,

nomenclature prepares for an exactness in the use of language which is not always
met with in our schools. Many children, for example, [Pg 233] use interchangeably the
words thick and big, long and high. With the methods already described, the teacher
may easily establish, by means of the didactic material, ideas which are very exact and
clear, and may associate the proper word with these ideas.
Method of Using the Didactic Material
 Dimensions. The directress, after the child has played for a long time with the three
sets of solid insets and has acquired a security in the performance of the exercise,
takes out all the cylinders of equal height and places them in a horizontal position on
the table, one beside the other. Then she selects the two extremes, saying, "This is
the thickest—This is the thinnest." She places them side by side so that the
comparison may be more marked, and then taking them by the little button, she
compares the bases, calling attention to the great difference. She then places them
again beside each other in a vertical position in order to show that they are equal in
height, and repeats several times, "thick—thin." Having done this, she should follow it
with the test, asking, "Give me the thickest—Give me the thinnest," and finally she
should proceed to the test of nomenclature, asking, "What is this?" In the lessons
which follow this, the directress may take away the two extreme pieces and may
repeat the lesson with the two pieces remaining at the extremities, and so on until she
has used all the pieces. She may then take these up at random, saying, "Give me one a
little thicker than this one," or "Give me one a little thinner than this one." With the
second set of solid insets she proceeds in the same way. Here she stands the pieces
upright, as each one has a base sufficiently broad to maintain it in this position,
saying, "This is the highest" and "This is the[Pg 234] lowest." Then placing the two
extreme pieces side by side she may take them out of the line and compare the bases,
showing that they are equal. From the extremes she may proceed as before, selecting
each time the two remaining pieces most strongly contrasted.
With the third solid inset, the directress, when she has arranged the pieces in
gradation, calls the child's attention to the first one, saying, "This is the largest," and
to the last one, saying, "This is the smallest." Then she places them side by side and
observes how they differ both in height and in base. She then proceeds in the same
way as in the other two exercises.
Similar lessons may be given with the series of graduated prisms, of rods, and of
cubes. The prisms are thick and thin and of equal length. The rods
are long and short and of equal thickness. The cubes are big and little and differ in
size and in height.
The application of these ideas to environment will come most easily when we
measure the children with the anthropometer. They will begin among themselves to
make comparisons, saying, "I am taller,—you are thicker." These comparisons are
also made when the children hold out their little hands to show that they are clean, and
the directress stretches hers out also, to show that she, too, has clean hands. Often the
contrast between the dimensions of the hands calls forth laughter. The children make a
perfect game of measuring themselves. They stand side by side; they look at each
other; they decide. Often they place themselves beside grown persons, and observe
with curiosity and interest the great difference in height.
 Form. When the child shows that he can with security distinguish between the
forms of the plane geometric in[Pg 235]sets, the directress may begin the lessons in
nomenclature. She should begin with two strongly-contrasted forms, as the square and
the circle, and should follow the usual method, using the three periods of Séguin. We
do not teach all the names relative to the geometric figures, giving only those of the
most familiar forms, such as square, circle, rectangle, triangle, oval. We now call
attention to the fact that there are rectangles which are narrow and long, and others
which are broad and short, while the squares are equal on all sides and can be only
big and little. These things are most easily shown with the insets, for, though we turn
the square about, it still enters its frame, while the rectangle, if placed across the
opening, will not enter. The child is much interested in this exercise, for which we
arrange in the frame a square and a series of rectangles, having the longest side equal
to the side of the square, the other side gradually decreasing in the five pieces.
In the same way we proceed to show the difference between the oval, the ellipse,
and the circle. The circle enters no matter how it is placed, or turned about; the ellipse
does not enter when placed transversely, but if placed lengthwise will enter even if
turned upside down. The oval, however, not only cannot enter the frame if placed
transversely, but not even when turned upside down; it must be placed with
the large curve toward the large part of the opening, and with the narrow curve
toward the narrow portion of the opening.
The circles, big and little, enter their frames no matter how they are turned about. I
do not reveal the difference between the oval and the ellipse until a very late stage of
the child's education, and then not to all children, but only to those who show a
special interest in the forms by[Pg 236] choosing the game often, or by asking about
the differences. I prefer that such differences should be recognised later by the child,
spontaneously, perhaps in the elementary school.
It seems to many persons that in teaching these forms we are teaching geometry,
and that this is premature in schools for such young children. Others feel that, if we
wish to present geometric forms, we should use the solids, as being more concrete.
I feel that I should say a word here to combat such prejudices. To observe a
geometric form is not to analyse it, and in the analysis geometry begins. When, for
example, we speak to the child of sides and angles and explain these to him, even
though with objective methods, as Froebel advocates (for example, the square has four
sides and can be constructed with four sticks of equal length), then indeed we do enter
the field of geometry, and I believe that little children are too immature for these
steps. But the observation of the form cannot be too advanced for a child at this age.
The plane of the table at which the child sits while eating his supper is probably a
rectangle; the plate which contains his food is a circle, and we certainly do not
consider that the child is too immature to be allowed to look at the table and the plate.
 The insets which we present simply call the attention to a given form. As to the
name, it is analogous to other names by which the child learns to call things. Why
should we consider it premature to teach the child the words circle, square, oval,
when in his home he repeatedly hears the word round used in connection with plates,
etc. He will hear his parents speak of the square table, the oval table, etc., and these
words in common use will[Pg 237] remain for a long time confused in his mind and in
his speech, if we do not interpose such help as that we give in the teaching of forms.
We should reflect upon the fact that many times a child, left to himself, makes an
undue effort to comprehend the language of the adults and the meaning of the things
about him. Opportune and rational instruction prevents such an effort, and therefore
does not weary, but relieves, the child and satisfies his desire for knowledge. Indeed,
he shows his contentment by various expressions of pleasure. At the same time, his
attention is called to the word which, if he is allowed to pronounce badly, develops in
him an imperfect use of the language.
This often arises from an effort on his part to imitate the careless speech of persons
about him, while the teacher, by pronouncing clearly the word referring to the object
which arouses the child's curiosity, prevents such effort and such imperfections.
Here, also, we face a widespread prejudice; namely, the belief that the child left to
himself gives absolute repose to his mind. If this were so he would remain a stranger
to the world, and, instead, we see him, little by little, spontaneously conquer various
ideas and words. He is a traveller through life, who observes the new things among
which he journeys, and who tries to understand the unknown tongue spoken by those
about him. Indeed, he makes a great and voluntary effort to understand and to imitate.
The instruction given to little children should be so directed as to lessen this
expenditure of poorly directed effort, converting it instead into the enjoyment of
conquest made easy and infinitely broadened. We are the guides of these travellers
just entering the great world of human thought. We should see to it that we are in [Pg
238]telligent and cultured guides, not losing ourselves in vain discourse, but
illustrating briefly and concisely the work of art in which the traveller shows himself
interested, and we should then respectfully allow him to observe it as long as he
wishes to. It is our privilege to lead him to observe the most important and the most
beautiful things of life in such a way that he does not lose energy and time in useless
things, but shall find pleasure and satisfaction throughout his pilgrimage.
I have already referred to the prejudice that it is more suitable to present the
geometric forms to the child in the solid rather than in the plane, giving him, for
example, the cube, the sphere, the prism. Let us put aside the physiological side of the
question showing that the visual recognition of the solid figure is more complex than
that of the plane, and let us view the question only from the more purely pedagogical
standpoint of practical life.
 The greater number of objects which we look upon every day present more nearly
the aspect of our plane geometric insets. In fact, doors, window-frames, framed
pictures, the wooden or marble top of a table, are indeed solid objects, but with one of
the dimensions greatly reduced, and with the two dimensions determining the form of
the plane surface made most evident.
When the plane form prevails, we say that the window is rectangular, the picture
frame oval, this table square, etc. Solids having a determined form prevailing in the
plane surface are almost the only ones which come to our notice. And such solids are
clearly represented by our plane geometric insets.
The child will very often recognise in his environment forms which he has learned
in this way, but he will rarely recognise the solid geometric forms.[Pg 239]
That the table leg is a prism, or a truncated cone, or an elongated cylinder, will
come to his knowledge long after he has observed that the top of the table upon which
he places things is rectangular. We do not, therefore, speak of the fact of recognising
that a house is a prism or a cube. Indeed, the pure solid geometric forms never exist in
the ordinary objects about us; these present, instead, a combination of forms. So,
putting aside the difficulty of taking in at a glance the complex form of a house, the
child recognises in it, not an identity of form, but an analogy.
He will, however, see the plane geometric forms perfectly represented in windows
and doors, and in the faces of many solid objects in use at home. Thus the knowledge
of the forms given him in the plane geometric insets will be for him a species of
magic key, opening the external world, and making him feel that he knows its secrets.
I was walking one day upon the Pincian Hill with a boy from the elementary school.
He had studied geometric design and understood the analysis of plane geometric
figures. As we reached the highest terrace from which we could see the Piazza del
Popolo with the city stretching away behind it, I stretched out my hand saying, "Look,
all the works of man are a great mass of geometric figures;" and, indeed, rectangles,
ovals, triangles, and semicircles, perforated, or ornamented, in a hundred different
ways the grey rectangular façades of the various buildings. Such uniformity in such an
expanse of buildings seemed to prove the limitation of human intelligence, while in an
adjoining garden plot the shrubs and flowers spoke eloquently of the infinite variety
of forms in nature.[Pg 240]
The boy had never made these observations; he had studied the angles, the sides and
the construction of outlined geometric figures, but without thinking beyond this, and
feeling only annoyance at this arid work. At first he laughed at the idea of man's
massing geometric figures together, then he became interested, looked long at the
buildings before him, and an expression of lively and thoughtful interest came into his
face. To the right of the Ponte Margherita was a factory building in the process of
construction, and its steel framework delineated a series of rectangles. "What tedious
work!" said the boy, alluding to the workmen. And, then, as we drew near the garden,
and stood for a moment in silence admiring the grass and the flowers which sprang so
freely from the earth, "It is beautiful!" he said. But that word "beautiful" referred to
the inner awakening of his own soul.
This experience made me think that in the observation of the plane geometric forms,
and in that of the plants which they saw growing in their own little gardens, there
existed for the children precious sources of spiritual as well as intellectual education.
For this reason, I have wished to make my work broad, leading the child, not only to
observe the forms about him, but to distinguish the work of man from that of nature,
and to appreciate the fruits of human labour.
(a) Free Design. I give the child a sheet of white paper and a pencil, telling him that
he may draw whatever he wishes to. Such drawings have long been of interest to
experimental psychologists. Their importance lies in the fact that they reveal
the capacity of the child for observing, and also show his individual tendencies.
Generally, the first drawings are unformed and confused, and the [Pg 241] teacher
should ask the child what he wished to draw, and should write it underneath the
design that it may be a record. Little by little, the drawings become more intelligible,
and verily reveal the progress which the child makes in the observation of the forms
about him. Often the most minute details of an object have been observed and
recorded in the crude sketch. And, since the child draws what he wishes, he reveals to
us which are the objects that most strongly attract his attention.
(b) Design Consisting of the Filling in of Outlined Figures. These designs are most
important as they constitute "the preparation for writing." They do for the colour sense
what free design does for the sense of form. In other words, they reveal the capacity of
the child in the matter of observation of colours, as the free design showed us the
extent to which he was an observer of form in the objects surrounding him. I shall
speak more fully of this work in the chapter on writing. The exercises consist in filling
in with coloured pencil, certain outlines drawn in black. These outlines present the
simple geometric figures and various objects with which the child is familiar in the
schoolroom, the home, and the garden. The child must select his colour, and in doing
so he shows us whether he has observed the colours of the things surrounding him.
Free Plastic Work
These exercises are analogous to those in free design and in the filling in of figures
with coloured pencils. Here the child makes whatever he wishes with clay; that is, he
models those objects which he remembers most distinctly and which have impressed
him most deeply. We give the child a wooden tray containing a piece of clay, [Pg
242] and then we await his work. We possess some very remarkable pieces of clay
work done by our little ones. Some of them reproduce, with surprising minuteness of
detail, objects which they have seen. And what is most surprising, these models often
record not only the form, but even the dimensions of the objects which the child
handled in school.
Many little ones model the objects which they have seen at home, especially kitchen
furniture, water-jugs, pots, and pans. Sometimes, we are shown a simple cradle
containing a baby brother or sister. At first it is necessary to place written descriptions
upon these objects, as it is necessary to do with the free design. Later on, however, the
models are easily recognisable, and the children learn to reproduce the geometric
solids. These clay models are undoubtedly very valuable material for the teacher, and
make clear many individual differences, thus helping her to understand her children
more fully. In our method they are also valuable as psychological manifestations of
development according to age. Such designs are precious guides also for the teacher in
the matter of her intervention in the child's education. The children who, in this work
reveal themselves as observers, will probably become spontaneous observers of all the
world about them, and may be led toward such a goal by the indirect help of exercises
tending to fix and to make more exact the various sensations and ideas.
These children will also be those who arrive most quickly at the act of spontaneous
writing. Those whose clay work remains unformed and indefinite will probably need
the direct revelation of the directress, who will need to call their attention in some
material manner to the objects around them.
[Pg 243]

Geometric Analysis of Figures; Sides, Angles, Centre, Base

The geometric analysis of figures is not adapted to very young children. I have tried
a means for the introduction of such analysis, limiting this work to the rectangle and
making use of a game which includes the analysis without fixing the attention of the
child upon it. This game presents the concept most clearly.
The rectangle of which I make use is the plane of one of the children's tables, and
the game consists in laying the table for a meal. I have in each of the "Children's
Houses" a collection of toy table-furnishings, such as may be found in any toy-store.
Among these are dinner-plates, soup-plates, soup-tureen, saltcellars, glasses,
decanters, little knives, forks, spoons, etc. I have them lay the table for six,
putting two places on each of the longer sides, and one place on each of the shorter
sides. One of the children takes the objects and places them as I indicate. I tell him to
place the soup tureen in the centre of the table; this napkin in a corner. "Place this
plate in the centre of the short side."
 Then I have the child look at the table, and I say, "Something is lacking in
this corner. We want another glass on this side. Now let us see if we have everything
properly placed on the two longer sides. Is everything ready on the two shorter sides?
Is there anything lacking in the four corners?"
I do not believe that we may proceed to any more complex analysis than this before
the age of six years, for I believe that the child should one day take up one of the
plane insets and spontaneously begin to count the sides and the angles. Certainly, if
we taught them such ideas[Pg 244] they would be able to learn them, but it would be a
mere learning of formulæ, and not applied experience.
Exercises in the Chromatic Sense
I have already indicated what colour exercises we follow. Here I wish to indicate
more definitely the succession of these exercises and to describe them more fully.
Designs and Pictures. We have prepared a number of outline drawings which the
children are to fill in with coloured pencil, and, later on, with a brush, preparing for
themselves the water-colour tints which they will use. The first designs are of flowers,
butterflies, trees and animals, and we then pass to simple landscapes containing grass,
sky, houses, and human figures.
These designs help us in our study of the natural development of the child as an
observer of his surroundings; that is, in regard to colour. The children select the
colours and are left entirely free in their work. If, for example, they colour a chicken
red, or a cow green, this shows that they have not yet become observers. But I have
already spoken of this in the general discussion of the method. These designs also
reveal the effect of the education of the chromatic sense. As the child selects delicate
and harmonious tints, or strong and contrasting ones, we can judge of the progress he
has made in the refinement of his colour sense.
The fact that the child must remember the colour of the objects represented in the
design encourages him to observe those things which are about him. And then, too, he
wishes to be able to fill in more difficult designs. Only those children who know how
to keep the colour within the outline and to reproduce the right colours may proceed
to the more ambitious work. These designs are [Pg 245] very easy, and often very
effective, sometimes displaying real artistic work. The directress of the school in
Mexico, who studied for a long time with me, sent me two designs; one representing a
cliff in which the stones were coloured most harmoniously in light violet and shades
of brown, trees in two shades of green, and the sky a soft blue. The other represented a
horse with a chestnut coat and black mane and tail.
 [Pg 246]

CHAPTER XVI
METHODS FOR THE TEACHING OF READING AND WRITING
Spontaneous Development of Graphic Language. While I was directress of the
Orthophrenic School at Rome, I had already began to experiment with various
didactic means for the teaching of reading and writing. These experiments were
practically original with me.
Itard and Séguin do not present any rational method through which writing may be
learned. In the pages above quoted, it may be seen how Itard proceeded in the
teaching of the alphabet and I give here what Séguin says concerning the teaching of
writing.
"To have a child pass from design, to writing, which is its most immediate
application, the teacher need only call D, a portion of a circle, resting its extremities
upon a vertical; A, two obliques reunited at the summit and cut by a horizontal, etc.,
etc.
"We no longer need worry ourselves as to how the child shall learn to write: he
designs, then writes. It need not be said that we should have the child draw the letters
according to the laws of contrast and analogy. For instance, O beside I; B with P; T
opposite L, etc."
According to Séguin, then, we do not need to teach writing. The child who draws,
will write. But writing, for this author, means printed capitals! Nor does he, in any
other place, explain whether his pupil shall write in any other way. He instead, gives
much space[Pg 247] to the description of the design which prepares for, and
which includes writing. This method of design is full of difficulties and was only
established by the combined attempts of Itard and Séguin.
"Chapter XL: DESIGN. In design the first idea to be acquired is that of the plane
destined to receive the design. The second is that of the trace or delineation. Within
these two concepts lies all design, all linear creation.
"These two concepts are correlative, their relation generates the idea, or the capacity
to produce the lines in this sense; that lines may only be called such when they follow
a methodical and determined direction: the trace without direction is not a line;
produced by chance, it has no name.
"The rational sign, on the contrary, has a name because it has a direction and since
all writing or design is nothing other than a composite of the diverse directions
followed by a line, we must, before approaching what is commonly called
writing, insist upon these notions of plane and line. The ordinary child acquires these
by instinct, but an insistence upon them is necessary in order to render the idiot
careful and sensitive in their application. Through methodical design he will come
into rational contact with all parts of the plane and will, guided by imitation, produce
lines at first simple, but growing more complicated.
"The pupil may be taught: First, to trace the diverse species of lines. Second, to
trace them in various directions and in different positions relative to the plane. Third,
to reunite these lines to form figures varying from simple to complex. We must
therefore, teach the pupil to distinguish straight lines from curves, vertical from [Pg
248] horizontal, and from the various oblique lines; and must finally make clear the
principal points of conjunction of two or more lines in forming a figure.
"This rational analysis of design, from which writing will spring, is so essential in
all its parts, that a child who, before being confided to my care, already wrote many of
the letters, has taken six days to learn to draw a perpendicular or a horizontal line; he
spent fifteen days before imitating a curve and an oblique. Indeed the greater number
of my pupils, are for a long time incapable of even imitating the movements of my
hand upon the paper, before attempting to draw a line in a determined direction. The
most imitative, or the least stupid ones, produce a sign diametrically opposite to that
which I show them and all of them confound the points of conjunction of two lines no
matter how evident this is. It is true that the thorough knowledge I have given them of
lines and of configuration helps them to make the connection which must be
established between the plane and the various marks with which they must cover the
surface, but in the study rendered necessary by the deficiency of my pupils, the
progression in the matter of the vertical, the horizontal, the oblique, and the curve
must be determined by the consideration of the difficulty of comprehension and of
execution which each offers to a torpid intelligence and to a weak unsteady hand.
"I do not speak here of merely having them perform a difficult thing, since I have
them surmount a series of difficulties and for this reason I ask myself if some of these
difficulties are not greater and some less, and if they do not grow one from the other,
like theorems. Here are the ideas which have guided me in this respect.[Pg 249]
"The vertical is a line which the eye and the hand follow directly, going up and
down. The horizontal line is not natural to the eye, nor to the hand, which lowers itself
and follows a curve (like the horizon from which it has taken its name), starting from
the centre and going to the lateral extremity of the plane.
"The oblique line presupposes more complex comparative ideas, and the curve
demands such firmness and so many differences in its relation to the plane that we
would only lose time in taking up the study of these lines. The most simple line then,
is the vertical, and this is how I have given my pupils an idea of it.
"The first geometric formula is this: only straight lines may be drawn from one
given point to another.
"Starting from this axiom, which the hand alone can demonstrate, I have fixed two
points upon the blackboard and have connected them by means of a vertical. My
pupils try to do the same between the dots they have upon their paper, but with some
the vertical descends to the right of the point and with others, to the left, to say
nothing of those whose hand diverges in all directions. To arrest these various
deviations which are often far more defects of the intelligence and of the vision, than
of the hand, I have thought it wise to restrict the field of the plane, drawing two
vertical lines to left and right of the points which the child is to join by means of a
parallel line half way between the two enclosing lines. If these two lines are not
enough, I place two rulers vertically upon the paper, which arrest the deviations of the
hand absolutely. These material barriers are not, however, useful for very long. We
first suppress the rulers and return to the two parallel lines, between which the idiot
learns to draw the third line. We then take away [Pg 250] one of the guiding lines, and
leave, sometimes that on the right, sometimes that on the left, finally taking away this
last line and at last, the dots, beginning by erasing the one at the top which indicates
the starting point of the line and of the hand. The child thus learns to draw a vertical
without material control, without points of comparison.
"The same method, the same difficulty, the same means of direction are used for the
straight horizontal lines. If, by chance, these lines begin well, we must await until the
child curves them, departing from the centre and proceeding to the extremity as
nature commands him, and because of the reason which I have explained. If the two
dots do not suffice to sustain the hand, we keep it from deviating by means of the
parallel lines or of the rulers.
"Finally, have him trace a horizontal line, and by uniting with it a vertical ruler we
form a right angles. The child will begin to understand, in this way, what the vertical
and horizontal lines really are, and will see the relation of these two ideas as he traces
a figure.
"In the sequence of the development of lines, it would seem that the study of the
oblique should immediately follow that of the vertical and the horizontal, but this is
not so! The oblique which partakes of the vertical in its inclination, and of the
horizontal in its direction, and which partakes of both in its nature (since it is a
straight line), presents perhaps, because of its relation to other lines, an idea too
complex to be appreciated without preparation."
 Thus Séguin goes on through many pages, to speak of the oblique in all directions,
which he has his pupils trace between two parallels. He then tells of the four curves [Pg
251] which he has them draw to right and left of a vertical and above and below a
horizontal, and concludes: "So we find the solution of the problems for which we
sought—the vertical line, the horizontal, the oblique, and the four curves, whose union
forms the circle, contain all possible lines, all writing.
"Arrived at this point, Itard and I were for a long time at a standstill. The lines being
known, the next step was to have the child trace regular figures, beginning of course,
with the simplest. According to the general opinion, Itard had advised me to begin
with the square and I had followed this advice for three months, without being able to
make the child understand me."
After a long series of experiments, guided by his ideas of the genesis of geometric
figures, Séguin became aware that the triangle is the figure most easily drawn.
"When three lines meet thus, they always form a triangle, while four lines may meet
in a hundred different directions without remaining parallel and therefore without
presenting a perfect square.
"From these experiments and many others, I have deduced the first principles of
writing and of design for the idiot; principles whose application is too simple for me
to discuss further."
Such was the proceeding used by my predecessors in the teaching of writing to
deficients. As for reading, Itard proceeded thus: he drove nails into the wall and hung
upon them, geometric figures of wood, such as triangles, squares, circles. He then
drew the exact imprint of these upon the wall, after which he took the figures away
and had the "boy of Aveyron" replace them upon the proper nails, guided by the
design. From this design Itard conceived the idea of the plane geometric [Pg
252] insets. He finally had large print letters made of wood and proceeded in the same
way as with the geometric figures, that is, using the design upon the wall and
arranging the nails in such a way that the child might place the letters upon them and
then take them off again. Later, Séguin used the horizontal plane instead of the wall,
drawing the letters on the bottom of a box and having the child superimpose solid
letters. After twenty years, Séguin had not changed his method of procedure.
A criticism of the method used by Itard and Séguin for reading and writing seems to
me superfluous. The method has two fundamental errors which make it inferior to the
methods in use for normal children, namely: writing in printed capitals, and the
preparation for writing through a study of rational geometry, which we now expect
only from students in the secondary schools.
 Séguin here confuses ideas in a most extraordinary way. He has suddenly jumped
from the psychological observation of the child and from his relation to his
environment, to the study of the origin of lines and their relation to the plane.
He says that the child will readily design a vertical line, but that the horizontal will
soon become a curve, because "nature commands it" and this command of nature is
represented by the fact that man sees the horizon as a curved line!
The example of Séguin serves to illustrate the necessity of a special
education which shall fit man for observation, and shall direct logical thought.
The observation must be absolutely objective, in other words, stripped of
preconceptions. Séguin has in this case the preconception that geometric design must
prepare for writing, and that hinders him from discovering[Pg 253] the truly natural
proceeding necessary to such preparation. He has, besides, the preconception that the
deviation of a line, as well as the inexactness with which the child traces it, are due to
"the mind and the eye, not to the hand," and so he wearies himself for weeks and
months in explaining the direction of lines and in guiding the vision of the idiot.
It seems as if Séguin felt that a good method must start from a superior point,
geometry; the intelligence of the child is only considered worthy of attention in its
relation to abstract things. And is not this a common defect?
Let us observe mediocre men; they pompously assume erudition and disdain simple
things. Let us study the clear thought of those whom we consider men of genius.
Newton is seated tranquilly in the open air; an apple falls from the tree, he observes it
and asks, "Why?" Phenomena are never insignificant; the fruit which falls and
universal gravitation may rest side by side in the mind of a genius.
If Newton had been a teacher of children he would have led the child to look upon
the worlds on a starry night, but an erudite person might have felt it necessary first to
prepare the child to understand the sublime calculus which is the key to astronomy—
Galileo Galilei observed the oscillation of a lamp swung on high, and discovered the
laws of the pendulum.
In the intellectual life simplicity consists in divesting one's mind of every
preconception, and this leads to the discovery of new things, as, in the moral life,
humility and material poverty guide us toward high spiritual conquests.
If we study the history of discoveries, we will find that [Pg 254] they have come
from real objective observation and from logical thought. These are simple things, but
rarely found in one man.
Does it not seem strange, for instance, that after the discovery by Laveran of the
malarial parasite which invades the red blood-corpuscles, we did not, in spite of the
fact that we know the blood system to be a system of closed vessels, even so much
as suspect the possibility that a stinging insect might inoculate us with the parasite?
Instead, the theory that the evil emanated from low ground, that it was carried by the
African winds, or that it was due to dampness, was given credence. Yet these were
vague ideas, while the parasite was a definite biological specimen.
When the discovery of the malarial mosquito came to complete logically the
discovery of Laveran, this seemed marvellous, stupefying. Yet we know in biology
that the reproduction of molecular vegetable bodies is by scission with alternate
sporation, and that of molecular animals is by scission with alternate conjunction.
That is, after a certain period in which the primitive cell has divided and sub-divided
into fresh cells, equal among themselves, there comes the formation of two diverse
cells, one male and one female, which must unite to form a single cell capable of
recommencing the cycle of reproduction by division. All this being known at the time
of Laveran, and the malarial parasite being known to be a protozoon, it would have
seemed logical to consider its segmentation in the stroma of the red corpuscle as the
phase of scission and to await until the parasite gave place to the sexual forms, which
must necessarily come in the phase succeeding scission. Instead, the division was
looked upon as spore-formation, and neither Laveran, nor the numer [Pg 255]ous
scientists who followed the research, knew how to give an explanation of the
appearance of the sexual forms. Laveran expressed an idea, which was immediately
received, that these two forms were degenerate forms of the malarial parasite, and
therefore incapable of producing the changes determining the disease. Indeed, the
malaria was apparently cured at the appearance of the two sexual forms of the
parasite, the conjunction of the two cells being impossible in the human blood. The
theory—then recent—of Morel upon human degeneration accompanied by deformity
and weakness, inspired Laveran in his interpretation, and everybody found the idea of
the illustrious pathologist a fortunate one, because it was inspired by the great
concepts of the Morellian theory.
Had anyone, instead, limited himself to reasoning thus: the original form of the
malarial insect is a protozoon; it reproduces itself by scission, under our eyes; when
the scission is finished, we see two diverse cells, one a half-moon, the other
threadlike. These are the feminine and masculine cells which must, by conjunction,
alternate the scission,—such a reasoner would have opened the way to the discovery.
But so simple a process of reasoning did not come. We might almost ask ourselves
how great would be the world's progress if a special form of education prepared men
for pure observation and logical thought.
A great deal of time and intellectual force are lost in the world, because the false
seems great and the truth so small and insignificant.
 I say all this to defend the necessity, which I feel we face, of preparing the coming
generations by means of more rational methods. It is from these generations that [Pg
256] the world awaits its progress. We have already learned to make use of our
surroundings, but I believe that we have arrived at a time when the necessity presents
itself for utilising human force, through a scientific education.
To return to Séguin's method of writing, it illustrates another truth, and that is the
tortuous path we follow in our teaching. This, too, is allied to an instinct for
complicating things, analogous to that which makes us so prone to appreciate
complicated things. We have Séguin teaching geometry in order to teach a child to
write; and making the child's mind exert itself to follow geometrical abstractions only
to come down to the simple effort of drawing a printed D. After all, must the child not
have to make another effort in order to forget the print, and learn the script!
And even we in these days still believe that in order to learn to write the child must
first make vertical strokes. This conviction is very general. Yet it does not seem
natural that to write the letters of the alphabet, which are all rounded, it should be
necessary to begin with straight lines and acute angles.
In all good faith, we wonder that it should be difficult to do away with the
angularity and stiffness with which the beginner traces the beautiful curve of the O.
[13]
Yet, through what effort on our part, and on his, was he forced to fill pages and
pages with rigid lines and acute angles! To whom is due this time-honoured idea that
the first sign to be traced must be a straight line? And why do we so avoid preparing
for curves as well as angles?
Let us, for a moment, divest ourselves of such preconceptions and proceed in a
more simple way. We may be [Pg 257]able to relieve future generations of all effort in
the matter of learning to write.
Is it necessary to begin writing with the making of vertical strokes? A moment of
clear and logical thinking is enough to enable us to answer, no. The child makes too
painful an effort in following such an exercise. The first steps should be the easiest,
and the up and down stroke, is, on the contrary, one of the most difficult of all the pen
movements. Only a professional penman could fill a whole page and preserve the
regularity of such strokes, but a person who writes only moderately well would be
able to complete a page of presentable writing. Indeed, the straight line is unique,
expressing the shortest distance between two points, while any deviation from that
direction signifies a line which is not straight. These infinite deviations are therefore
easier than that one trace which is perfection.
If we should give to a number of adults the order to draw a straight line upon the
blackboard, each person would draw a long line proceeding in a different direction,
some beginning from one side, some from another, and almost all would succeed in
making the line straight. Should we then ask that the line be drawn in a particular
direction, starting from a determined point, the ability shown at first would greatly
diminish, and we would see many more irregularities, or errors. Almost all the lines
would be long—for the individual must needs gather impetus in order to succeed in
making his line straight.
Should we ask that the lines be made short, and included within precise limits, the
errors would increase, for we would thus impede the impetus which helps to conserve
the definite direction. In the methods ordinarily used in teaching writing, we add, to
such limita[Pg 258]tions, the further restriction that the instrument of writing must be
held in a certain way, not as instinct prompts each individual.
Thus we approach in the most conscious and restricted way the first act of writing,
which should be voluntary. In this first writing we still demand that the single strokes
be kept parallel, making the child's task a difficult and barren one, since it has no
purpose for the child, who does not understand the meaning of all this detail.
I had noticed in the note-books of the deficient children in France (and Voisin also
mentions this phenomenon) that the pages of vertical strokes, although they began as
such, ended in lines of C's. This goes to show that the deficient child, whose mind is
less resistant than that of the normal child, exhausts, little by little, the initial effort of
imitation, and the natural movement gradually comes to take the place of that which
was forced or stimulated. So the straight lines are transformed into curves, more and
more like the letter C. Such a phenomenon does not appear in the copy-books of
normal children, for they resist, through effort, until the end of the page is reached,
and, thus, as often happens, conceal the didactic error.
But let us observe the spontaneous drawings of normal children. When, for
example, picking up a fallen twig, they trace figures in the sandy garden path, we
never see short straight lines, but long and variously interlaced curves.
Séguin saw the same phenomenon when the horizontal lines he made his pupils
draw became curves so quickly instead. And he attributed the phenomenon to the
imitation of the horizon line!
That vertical strokes should prepare for alphabetical [Pg 259] writing, seems
incredibly illogical. The alphabet is made up of curves, therefore we must prepare for
it by learning to make straight lines.
"But," says someone, "in many letters of the alphabet, the straight line does exist,"
True, but there is no reason why as a beginning of writing, we should select one of the
details of a complete form. We may analyse the alphabetical signs in this way,
discovering straight lines and curves, as by analysing discourse, we find grammatical
rules. But we all speak independently of such rules, why then should we not write
independently of such analysis, and without the separate execution of the parts
constituting the letter?
It would be sad indeed if we could speak only after we had studied grammar! It
would be much the same as demanding that before we looked at the stars in the
firmament, we must study infinitesimal calculus; it is much the same thing to feel that
before teaching an idiot to write, we must make him understand the abstract derivation
of lines and the problems of geometry!
No less are we to be pitied if, in order to write, we must follow analytically the parts
constituting the alphabetical signs. In fact the effort which we believe to be a
necessary accompaniment to learning to write is a purely artificial effort, allied, not to
writing, but to the methods by which it is taught.
Let us for a moment cast aside every dogma in this connection. Let us take no note
of culture, or custom. We are not, here, interested in knowing how humanity began to
write, nor what may have been the origin of writing itself. Let us put away the
conviction, that long usage has given us, of the necessity of beginning writing by
making vertical strokes; and let us try to be as clear [Pg 260] and unprejudiced in spirit
as the truth which, we are seeking.
"Let us observe an individual who is writing, and let us seek to analyse the acts he
performs in writing," that is, the mechanical operations which enter into the execution
of writing. This would be undertaking the philosophical study of writing, and it goes
without saying that we should examine the individual who writes, not the writing;
the subject, not the object. Many have begun with the object, examining the writing,
and in this way many methods have been constructed.
But a method starting from the individual would be decidedly original—very
different from other methods which preceded it. It would indeed signify a new era in
writing, based upon anthropology.
In fact, when I undertook my experiments with normal children, if I had thought of
giving a name to this new method of writing, I should have called it without knowing
what the results would be, the anthropological method. Certainly, my studies in
anthropology inspired the method, but experience has given me, as a surprise, another
title which seems to me the natural one, "the method of spontaneous writing."
While teaching deficient children I happened to observe the following fact: An idiot
girl of eleven years, who was possessed of normal strength and motor power in her
hands, could not learn to sew, or even to take the first step, darning, which consists in
passing the needle first over, then under the woof, now taking up, now leaving, a
number of threads.
 I set the child to weaving with the Froebel mats, in which a strip of paper is
threaded transversely in and out among vertical strips of paper held fixed at top and
bot[Pg 261]tom. I thus came to think of the analogy between the two exercises, and
became much interested in my observation of the girl. When she had become skilled
in the Froebel weaving, I led her back again to the sewing, and saw with pleasure that
she was now able to follow the darning. From that time on, our sewing classes began
with a regular course in the Froebel weaving.
I saw that the necessary movements of the hand in sewing had been prepared
without having the child sew, and that we should really find the way to teach the
child how, before making him execute a task. I saw especially that preparatory
movements could be carried on, and reduced to a mechanism, by means of repeated
exercises not in the work itself but in that which prepares for it. Pupils could then
come to the real work, able to perform it without ever having directly set their hands
to it before.
I thought that I might in this way prepare for writing, and the idea interested me
tremendously. I marvelled at its simplicity, and was annoyed that I had not thought
before of the method which was suggested to me by my observation of the girl who
could not sew.
In fact, seeing that I had already taught the children to touch the contours of the
plane geometric insets, I had now only to teach them to touch with their fingers
the forms of the letters of the alphabet.
I had a beautiful alphabet manufactured, the letters being in flowing script, the low
letters 8 centimetres high, and the taller ones in proportion. These letters were in
wood, 1/2 centimetre in thickness, and were painted, the consonants in blue enamel,
the vowels in red. The under side of these letter-forms, instead of being painted, were
covered with bronze that they might be more dur [Pg 262]able. We had only one copy
of this wooden alphabet; but there were a number of cards upon which the letters were
painted in the same colours and dimensions as the wooden ones. These painted letters
were arranged upon the cards in groups, according to contrast, or analogy of form.
Corresponding to each letter of the alphabet, we had a picture representing some
object the name of which began, with the letter. Above this, the letter was painted in
large script, and near it, the same letter, much smaller and in its printed form. These
pictures served to fix the memory of the sound of the letter, and the small printed
letter united to the one in script, was to form the passage to the reading of books.
These pictures do not, indeed, represent a new idea, but they completed an
arrangement which did not exist before. Such an alphabet was undoubtedly most
expensive and when made by hand the cost was fifty dollars.
 The interesting part of my experiment was, that after I had shown the children how
to place the movable wooden letters upon those painted in groups upon the cards, I
had them touch them repeatedly in the fashion of flowing writing.
I multiplied these exercises in various ways, and the children thus learned to
make the movements necessary to reproduce the form of the graphic signs without
writing.
I was struck by an idea which had never before entered my mind—that in writing
we make two diverse forms of movement, for, besides the movement by which the
form is reproduced, there is also that of manipulating the instrument of writing. And,
indeed, when the deficient children had become expert in touching all the letters [Pg
263] according to form, they did not yet know how to hold a pencil. To hold and to
manipulate a little stick securely, corresponds to the acquisition of a special muscular
mechanism which is independent of the writing movement; it must in fact go along
with the motions necessary to produce all of the various letter forms. It is, then, a
distinct mechanism, which must exist together with the motor memory of the single
graphic signs. When I provoked in the deficients the movements characteristic of
writing by having them touch the letters with their fingers, I exercised mechanically
the psycho-motor paths, and fixed the muscular memory of each letter. There
remained the preparation of the muscular mechanism necessary in holding and
managing the instrument of writing, and this I provoked by adding two periods to the
one already described. In the second period, the child touched the letter, not only with
the index finger of his right hand, but with two, the index and the middle finger. In the
third period, he touched the letters with a little wooden stick, held as a pen in writing.
In substance I was making him repeat the same movements, now with, and now
without, holding the instrument.
I have said that the child was to follow the visual image of the outlined letter. It is
true that his finger had already been trained through touching the contours of the
geometric figures, but this was not always a sufficient preparation. Indeed, even we
grown people, when we trace a design through glass or tissue paper, cannot follow
perfectly the line which we see and along which we should draw our pencil. The
design should furnish some sort of control, some mechanical guide, for the pencil, in
order to follow with exactness the trace, sensible in reality only to the eye.[Pg 264]
The deficients, therefore, did not always follow the design exactly with either the
finger or the stick. The didactic material did not offer any control in the work, or
rather it offered only the uncertain control of the child's glance, which could, to be
sure, see if the finger continued upon the sign, or not. I now thought that in order to
have the pupil follow the movements more exactly, and to guide the execution more
directly, I should need to prepare letter forms so indented, as to represent
a furrow within which the wooden stick might run. I made the designs for this
material, but the work being too expensive I was not able to carry out my plan.
After having experimented largely with this method, I spoke of it very fully to the
teachers in my classes in didactic methods at the State Orthophrenic School. These
lectures were printed, and I give below the words which, though they were placed in
the hands of more than 200 elementary teachers, did not draw from them a single
helpful idea. Professor Ferreri[14] in an article speaks with amazement of this fact.[15]
"At this point we present the cards bearing the vowels painted in red. The child sees
irregular figures painted in red. We give him the vowels in wood, painted red, and
have him superimpose these upon the letters painted on the card. We have him touch
the wooden vowels in the fashion of writing, and give him the name of each [Pg
265]letter. The vowels are arranged on the cards according to analogy of form:

oea
i u
"We then say to the child, for example, 'Find o. Fat it in its place.' Then, 'What letter
is this?' We here discover that many children make mistakes in the letters if they only
look at the letter.
"They could however tell the letter by touching it. Most interesting observations
may be made, revealing various individual types: visual, motor.
"We have the child touch the letters drawn upon the cards,—using first the index
finger only, then the index with the middle finger,—then with a small wooden stick
held as a pen. The letter must be traced in the fashion of writing.
"The consonants are painted in blue, and are arranged upon the cards according to
analogy of form. To these cards are annexed a movable alphabet in blue wood, the
letters of which are to be placed upon the consonants as they were upon the vowels. In
addition to these materials there is another series of cards, where, besides the
consonant, are painted one or two figures the names of which begin with that
particular letter. Near the script letter, is a smaller printed letter painted in the same
colour.
"The teacher, naming the consonant according to the phonetic method, indicates the
letter, and then the card, pronouncing the names of the objects painted there, and
emphasizing the first letter, as, for example, 'p-pear: give me the consonant p—put it
in its place, touch it,' etc. In all this we study the linguistic defects of the child.[Pg 266]
"Tracing the letter, in the fashion of writing, begins the muscular education which
prepares for writing. One of our little girls taught by this method has reproduced all
the letters with the pen, though she does not as yet recognise them all. She has made
them about eight centimetres high, and with surprising regularity. This child also does
well in hand work. The child who looks, recognises, and touches the letters in the
manner of writing, prepares himself simultaneously for reading and writing.
"Touching the letters and looking at them at the same time, fixes the image more
quickly through the co-operation of the senses. Later, the two facts separate; looking
becomes reading; touching becomes writing. According to the type of the individual,
some learn to read first, others to write."
I had thus, about the year 1899, initiated my method for reading and writing upon
the fundamental lines it still follows. It was with great surprise that I noted
the facility with which a deficient child, to whom I one day gave a piece of chalk,
traced upon the blackboard, in a firm hand, the letters of the entire alphabet, writing
for the first time.
This had arrived much more quickly than I had supposed. As I have said, some of
the children wrote the letters with a pen and yet could not recognise one of them. I
have noticed, also, in normal children, that the muscular sense is most easily
developed in infancy, and this makes writing exceedingly easy for children. It is not
so with reading, which requires a much longer course of instruction, and which calls
for a superior intellectual development, since it treats of the interpretation of signs,
and of the modulation of accents of the voice, in order[Pg 267] that the word may be
understood. And all this is a purely mental task, while in writing, the child, under
dictation, materially translates sounds into signs, and moves, a thing which is always
easy and pleasant for him. Writing develops in the little child
with facility and spontaneity, analogous to the development of spoken language—
which is a motor translation of audible sounds. Reading, on the contrary, makes part
of an abstract intellectual culture, which is the interpretation of ideas from graphic
symbols, and is only acquired later on.
My first experiments with normal children were begun in the first half of the month
of November, 1907.
In the two "Children's Houses" in San Lorenzo, I had, from the date of their
respective inaugurations (January 6 in one and March 7 in the other), used only the
games of practical life, and of the education of the senses. I had not presented
exercises for writing, because, like everybody else, I held the prejudice that it was
necessary to begin as late as possible the teaching of reading and writing, and
certainly to avoid it before the age of six.
But the children seemed to demand some conclusion of the exercises, which had
already developed them intellectually in a most surprising way. They knew how to
dress and undress, and to bathe, themselves; they knew how to sweep the floors, dust
the furniture, put the room in order, to open and close boxes, to manage the keys in
the various locks; they could replace the objects in the cupboards in perfect order,
could care for the plants; they knew how to observe things, and how to see objects
with their hands. A number of them came to us and frankly demanded to be taught to
read and write. Even in the face of our refusal several children came to school and [Pg
268] proudly showed us that they knew how to make an O on the blackboard.

Finally, many of the mothers came to beg us as a favour to teach the children to
write, saying, "Here in the 'Children's Houses' the children are awakened, and learn so
many things easily that if you only teach reading and writing they will soon learn, and
will then be spared the great fatigue this always means in the elementary school." This
faith of the mothers, that their little ones would, from us, be able to learn to read and
write without fatigue, made a great impression upon me. Thinking upon the results I
had obtained in the school for deficients, I decided during the August vacation to
make a trial upon the reopening of the school in September. Upon second thought I
decided that it would be better to take up the interrupted work in September, and not
to approach reading and writing until October, when the elementary schools opened.
This presented the added advantage of permitting us to compare the progress of the
children of the first elementary with that made by ours, who would have begun the
same branch of instruction at the same time.
In September, therefore, I began a search for someone who could manufacture
didactic materials, but found no one willing to undertake it. I wished to have a
splendid alphabet made, like the one used with the deficients. Giving this up, I was
willing to content myself with the ordinary enamelled letters used upon shop
windows, but I could find them in script form nowhere. My disappointments were
many.
So passed the whole mouth of October. The children in the first elementary had
already filled pages of vertical strokes, and mine were still waiting. I then decided
to[Pg 269] cut out large paper letters, and to have one of my teachers colour these
roughly on one side with a blue tint. As for the touching of the letters, I thought of
cutting the letters of the alphabet out of sandpaper, and of gluing them upon smooth
cards, thus making objects much like those used in the primitive exercises for the
tactile sense.
Only after I had made these simple things, did I become aware of the superiority of
this alphabet to that magnificent one I had used for my deficients, and in the pursuit of
which I had wasted two months! If I had been rich, I would have had that beautiful but
barren alphabet of the past! We wish the old things because we cannot understand the
new, and we are always seeking after that gorgeousness which belongs to things
already on the decline, without recognising in the humble simplicity of new ideas the
germ which shall develop in the future.
 I finally understood that a paper alphabet could easily be multiplied, and could be
used by many children at one time, not only for the recognition of letters, but for the
composition of words. I saw that in the sandpaper alphabet I had found the looked-for
guide for the fingers which touched the letter. This was furnished in such a way that
no longer the sight alone, but the touch, lent itself directly to teaching the movement
of writing with exactness of control.
In the afternoon after school, the two teachers and I, with great enthusiasm, set
about cutting out letters from writing-paper, and others from sandpaper. The first, we
painted blue, the second, we mounted on cards, and, while we worked, there unfolded
before my mind a clear vision of the method in all its completeness, so simple that it
made me smile to think I had not seen it before.
The story of our first attempts is very interesting. One [Pg 270] day one of the
teachers was ill, and I sent as a substitute a pupil of mine, Signorina Anna Fedeli, a
professor of pedagogy in a Normal school. When I went to see her at the close of the
day, she showed me two modifications of the alphabet which she had made. One
consisted in placing behind each letter, a transverse strip of white paper, so that the
child might recognise the direction of the letter, which he often turned about and
upside down. The other consisted in the making of a cardboard case where each letter
might be put away in its own compartment, instead of being kept in a confused mass
as at first. I still keep this rude case made from an old pasteboard box, which
Signorina Fedeli had found in the court and roughly sewed with white thread.
She showed it to me laughing, and excusing herself for the miserable work, but I
was most enthusiastic about it. I saw at once that the letters in the case were a precious
aid to the teaching. Indeed, it offered to the eye of the child the possibility of
comparing all of the letters, and of selecting those he needed. In this way the didactic
material described below had its origin.
I need only add that at Christmas time, less than a month and a half later, while the
children in the first elementary were laboriously working to forget their wearisome
pothooks and to prepare for making the curves of O and the other vowels, two of my
little ones of four years old, wrote, each one in the name of his companions, a letter of
good wishes and thanks to Signor Edoardo Talamo. These were written upon note
paper without blot or erasure and the writing was adjudged equal to that which is
obtained in the third elementary grade.
[13]It will, of course, be understood that this is a criticism of the system in use in Italian schools. A. E.
G.
[14]G. Ferreri—Per l'insegnamento della scrittura (Sistema della Dott M. Montessori) Bollettino dell'
Associazione Romana per la cura medico—pedigogica dei fanciulli anormali e deficienti poveri, anno 1,
n. 4, ottobre 1907. Roma Tipografia delle Terme Diocleziane.
 [15]Riassunto delle lezion di didattica, della dott. Montessori anno 1900, Stab. lit. Romano, via
Frattina 62, Disp. 6a, pag. 46: "Lettura e Scrittura simultanee."

[Pg 271]

CHAPTER XVII
DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD AND DIDACTIC MATERIAL
USED
FIRST PERIOD: EXERCISE TENDING TO DEVELOP THE MUSCULAR
MECHANISM NECESSARY IN HOLDING AND USING THE INSTRUMENT IN
WRITING

Design Preparatory to Writing.—Didactic Material. Small wooden tables; metal

insets, outline drawings, coloured pencils. I have among my materials two little
wooden tables, the tops of which form an inclined plane sloping toward a narrow
cornice, which prevents objects placed upon the table from slipping off. The top of
each table is just large enough to hold four of the square frames, into which the metal
plane geometric insets are fitted, and is so painted as to represent three of these brown
frames, each containing a square centre of the same dark blue as the centres of the
metal insets.
The metal insets are in dimension and form a reproduction of the series of plane
geometric insets in wood already described.
Exercises. Placed side by side upon the teacher's desk, or upon one of the little
tables belonging to the children, these two little tables may have the appearance of
being one long table containing eight figures. The child may select one or more
figures, taking at the same time the frame of the inset. The analogy between these
metal insets and the plane geometric insets of wood is complete. [Pg 272] But in this
case, the child can freely use the pieces, where before, he arranged them in the
wooden frame. He first takes the metal frame, places it upon a sheet of white paper,
and with a coloured pencil draws around the contour of the empty centre. Then, he
takes away the frame, and upon the paper there remains a geometric figure.
This is the first time that the child has reproduced through design, a geometric
figure. Until now, he has only placed the geometric insets above the figures delineated
on the three series of cards. He now places upon the figure, which he himself has
drawn, the metal inset, just as he placed the wooden inset upon the cards. His next act
is to follow the contour of this inset with a pencil of a different colour. Lifting the
metal piece, he sees the figure reproduced upon the paper, in two colours.
Here, for the first time is born the abstract concept of the geometric figure, for, from
two metal pieces so different in form as the frame and the inset, there has resulted the
same design, which is a line expressing a determined figure. This fact strikes the
attention of the child. He often marvels to find the same figure reproduced by means
of two pieces so different, and looks for a long time with evident pleasure at the
duplicate design—almost as if it were actually produced by the objects which serve to
guide his hand.
Besides all this, the child learns to trace lines determining figures. There will come
a day in which, with still greater surprise and pleasure, he will trace graphic signs
determining words.
After this, he begins the work which directly prepares for the formation of the
muscular mechanism relative to the holding and manipulation of the instrument of
writing. With a coloured pencil of his own selection, held as [Pg 273] the pen is held in
writing, he fills in the figure which he has outlined. We teach him not to pass outside
the contour, and in doing so we attract his attention to this contour, and thus fix the
idea that a line may determine a figure.
The exercise of filling in one figure alone, causes the child to perform repeatedly
the movement of manipulation which would be necessary to fill ten copy-book pages
with vertical strokes. And yet, the child feels no weariness, because, although he
makes exactly the muscular co-ordination which is necessary to the work, he does so
freely and in any way that he wishes, while his eyes are fixed upon a large and
brightly coloured figure. At first, the children fill pages and pages of paper with these
big squares, triangles, ovals, trapezoids; colouring them red, orange, green, blue, light
blue, and pink.
Gradually they limit themselves to the use of the dark blue and brown, both in
drawing the figure and in filling it in, thus reproducing the appearance of the metal
piece itself. Many of the children, quite of their own accord, make a little orange-
coloured circle in the centre of the figure, in this way representing the little brass
button by which the metal piece is to be held. They take great pleasure in feeling that
they have reproduced exactly, like true artists, the objects which they see before them
on the little shelf.
Observing the successive drawings of a child, there is revealed to us a duplicate
form of progression:
 First. Little by little, the lines tend less and less to go outside the enclosing line
until, at last, they are perfectly contained within it, and both the centre and the frame
are filled in with close and uniform strokes.
Second. The strokes with which the child fills in the [Pg 274] figures, from being at
first short and confused, become gradually longer, and more nearly parallel, until in
many cases the figures are filled in by means of perfectly regular up and down
strokes, extending from one side of the figure to the other. In such a case, it is evident
that the child is master of the pencil. The muscular mechanism, necessary to the
management of the instrument of writing, is established. We may, therefore, by
examining such designs, arrive at a clear idea of the maturity of the child in the matter
of holding the pencil or pen in hand. To vary these exercises, we use the outline
drawings already described. Through these designs, the manipulation of the pencil is
perfected, for they oblige the child to make lines of various lengths, and make him
more and more secure in his use of the pencil.
If we could count the lines made by a child in the filling in of these figures, and
could transform them into the signs used in writing, they would fill many, many copy-
books! Indeed, the security which our children attain is likened to that of children in
our ordinary third elementary grade. When for the first time they take a pen or a
pencil in hand, they know how to manage it almost as well as a person who has
written for a long time.
I do not believe that any means can be found which will so successfully and, in so
short a space of time, establish this mastery. And with it all, the child is happy and
diverted. My old method for the deficients, that of following with a small stick the
contours of raised letters, was, when compared with this, barren and miserable!
Even when the children know how to write they continue these exercises, which
furnish an unlimited progression, since the designs may be varied and complicated.
The children follow in each design essentially the same [Pg 275] movements, and
acquire a varied collection of pictures which grow more and more perfect, and of
which they are very proud. For I not only provoke, but perfect, the writing through the
exercises which we call preparatory. The control of the pen is rendered more and
more secure, not by repeated exercises in the writing, but by means of these filled-in
designs. In this way, my children perfect themselves in writing, without actually
writing.

SECOND PERIOD: EXERCISES TENDING TO ESTABLISH THE VISUAL-

MUSCULAR IMAGE OF THE ALPHABETICAL SIGNS, AND TO ESTABLISH
THE MUSCULAR MEMORY OF THE MOVEMENTS NECESSARY TO
WRITING
 Didactic Material. Cards upon which the single letters of the alphabet are mounted
in sandpaper; larger cards containing groups of the same letters.
The cards upon which the sandpaper letters are mounted are adapted in size and
shape to each letter. The vowels are in light-coloured sandpaper and are mounted
upon dark cards, the consonants and the groups of letters are in black sandpaper
mounted upon white cards. The grouping is so arranged as to call attention to
contrasted, or analogous forms.
The letters are cut in clear script form, the shaded parts being made broader. We
have chosen to reproduce the vertical script in use in the elementary schools.
Exercises. In teaching the letters of the alphabet, we begin with the vowels and
proceed to the consonants, pronouncing the sound, not the name. In the case of the
consonants, we immediately unite the sound with one of the vowel sounds, repeating
the syllable according to the usual phonetic method.[Pg 276]
The teaching proceeds according to the three periods already illustrated.
First. Association of the visual and muscular-tactile sensation with the letter sound.
The directress presents to the child two of the cards upon which vowels are
mounted (or two of the consonants, as the case may be). Let us suppose that we
present the letters i and o, saying, "This is i! This is o!" As soon as we have given the
sound of a letter, we have the child trace it, taking care to show him how to trace it,
and if necessary guiding the index finger of his right hand over the sandpaper letter in
the sense of writing.
"Knowing how to trace" will consist in knowing the direction in which a given
graphic sign must be followed.
The child learns quickly, and his finger, already expert in the tactile exercise, is led,
by the slight roughness of the fine sandpaper, over the exact track of the letter. He
may then repeat indefinitely the movements necessary to produce the letters of the
alphabet, without the fear of the mistakes of which a child writing with a pencil for
the first time is so conscious. If he deviates, the smoothness of the card immediately
warns him of his error.
The children, as soon as they have become at all expert in this tracing of the letters,
take great pleasure in repeating it with closed eyes, letting the sandpaper lead them in
following the form which they do not see. Thus the perception will be established by
the direct muscular-tactile sensation of the letter. In other words, it is no longer the
visual image of the letter, but the tactile sensation, which guides the hand of the child
in these movements, which thus become fixed in the muscular memory.
 There develop, contemporaneously, three sensations when the directress shows the
letter to the child and has[Pg 277] him trace it; the visual sensation, the tactile
sensation, and the muscular sensation. In this way the image of the graphic sign is
fixed in a much shorter space of time than when it was, according to ordinary
methods, acquired only through the visual image. It will be found that the muscular
memory is in the young child the most tenacious and, at the same time, the most
ready. Indeed, he sometimes recognises the letters by touching them, when he cannot
do so by looking at them. These images are, besides all this, contemporaneously
associated with the alphabetical sound.
Second. Perception. The child should know how to compare and to recognise the
figures, when he hears the sounds corresponding to them.
The directress asks the child, for example, "Give me o!—Give me i!" If the child
does not recognise the letters by looking at them, she invites him to trace them, but if
he still does not recognise them, the lesson is ended, and may be resumed another day.
I have already spoken of the necessity of not revealing the error, and of not insisting
in the teaching when the child does not respond readily.
Third. Language. Allowing the letters to lie for some instants upon the table, the
directress asks the child, "What is this?" and he should respond, o, i.
In teaching the consonants, the directress pronounces only the sound, and as soon as
she has done so unites with it a vowel, pronouncing the syllable thus formed and
alternating this little exercise by the use of different vowels. She must always be
careful to emphasize the sound of the consonant, repeating it by itself, as, for
example, m, m, m, ma, me, mi, m, m. When the child repeats the sound he isolates it,
and then accompanies it with the vowel.[Pg 278]
It is not necessary to teach all the vowels before passing to the consonants, and as
soon as the child knows one consonant he may begin to compose words. Questions of
this sort, however, are left to the judgment of the educator.
I do not find it practical to follow a special rule in the teaching of the consonants.
Often the curiosity of the child concerning a letter leads us to teach that desired
consonant; a name pronounced may awaken in him a desire to know what consonants
are necessary to compose it, and this will, or willingness, of the pupil is a much
more efficacious means than any rule concerning the progression of the letters.
When the child pronounces the sounds of the consonants, he experiences an evident
pleasure. It is a great novelty for him, this series of sounds, so varied and yet so
distinct, presenting such enigmatic signs as the letters of the alphabet. There is
mystery about all this, which provokes most decided interest. One day I was on the
terrace while the children were having their free games; I had with me a little boy of
two years and a half left with me, for a moment, by his mother. Scattered about upon a
number of chairs, were the alphabets which we use in the school. These had become
mixed, and I was putting the letters back into their respective compartments. Having
finished my work, I placed the boxes upon two of the little chairs near me. The little
boy watched me. Finally, he drew near to the box, and took one of the letters in his
hand. It chanced to be an f. At that moment the children, who were running in single
file, passed us, and, seeing the letter, called out in chorus the corresponding sound and
passed on. The child paid no attention to them, but put back the f and took up an r.
The children running by again, looked at him laughing, and [Pg 279] then began to cry
out "r, r, r! r, r, r!" Little by little the baby understood that, when he took a letter in
hand, the children, who were passing, cried out a sound. This amused him so much
that I wished to observe how long he would persist in this game without becoming
tired. He kept it up for three-quarters of an hour! The children had become interested
in the child, and grouped themselves about him, pronouncing the sounds in chorus,
and laughing at his pleased surprise. At last, after he had several times held up f, and
had received from his public the same sound, he took the letter again, showing it to
me, and saying, "f, f, f!" He had learned this from out the great confusion of sounds
which he had heard; the long letter which had first arrested the attention of the
running children, had made a great impression upon him.
It is not necessary to show how the separate pronunciation of the alphabetical
sounds reveals the condition of the child's speech. Defects, which are almost all
related to the incomplete development of the language itself, manifest themselves, and
the directress may take note of them one by one. In this way she will be possessed of a
record of the child's progress, which will help her in her individual teaching, and will
reveal much concerning the development of the language in this particular child.
In the matter of correcting linguistic defects, we will find it helpful to follow the
physiological rules relating to the child's development, and to modify the difficulties
in the presentation of our lesson. When, however, the child's speech is sufficiently
developed, and when he pronounces all the sounds, it does not matter which of the
letters we select in our lessons.
Many of the defects which have become permanent in [Pg 280] adults are due
to functional errors in the development of the language during the period of infancy.
If, for the attention which we pay to the correction of linguistic defects in children in
the upper grades, we would substitute a direction of the development of the
language while the child is still young, our results would be much more practical and
valuable. In fact, many of the defects in pronunciation arise from the use of a dialect,
and these it is almost impossible to correct after the period of childhood. They may,
however, be most easily removed through the use of educational methods especially
adapted to the perfecting of the language in little children.
 We do not speak here of actual linguistic defects related to anatomical or
physiological weaknesses, or to pathological facts which alter the function of the
nervous system. I speak at present only of those irregularities which are due to a
repetition of incorrect sounds, or to the imitation of imperfect pronunciation. Such
defects may show themselves in the pronunciation of any one of the consonant
sounds, and I can conceive of no more practical means for a methodical correction of
speech defects than this exercise in pronunciation, which is a necessary part in
learning the graphic language through my method. But such important questions
deserve a chapter to themselves.
Turning directly to the method used in teaching writing, I may call attention to the
fact that it is contained in the two periods already described. Such exercises have
made it possible for the child to learn, and to fix, the muscular mechanism necessary
to the proper holding of the pen, and to the making of the graphic signs. If he has
exercised himself for a sufficiently long time in these exercises, he will
be potentially ready to write all the[Pg 281] letters of the alphabet and all of the simple
syllables, without ever having taken chalk or pencil in his hand.
We have, in addition to this, begun the teaching of reading at the same time that we
have been teaching writing. When we present a letter to the child and enunciate its
sound, he fixes the image of this letter by means of the visual sense, and also by
means of the muscular-tactile sense. He associates the sound with its relative sign; that
is, he relates the sound to the graphic sign. But when he sees and recognises, he
reads; and when he traces, he writes. Thus his mind receives as one, two acts, which,
later on, as he develops, will separate, coming to constitute the two diverse processes
of reading and writing. By teaching these two acts contemporaneously, or, better, by
their fusion, we place the child before a new form of language without determining
which of the acts constituting it should be most prevalent.
We do not trouble ourselves as to whether the child in the development of this
process, first learns to read or to write, or if the one or the other will be the easier. We
must rid ourselves of all preconceptions, and must await from experience the answer
to these questions. We may expect that individual differences will show themselves in
the prevalence of one or the other act in the development of different children. This
makes possible the most interesting psychological study of the individual, and should
broaden the work of this method, which is based upon the free expansion of
individuality.

THIRD PERIOD: EXERCISES FOR THE COMPOSITION OF WORDS

Didactic Material. This consists chiefly of alphabets. The letters of the alphabet
used here are identical in form [Pg 282] and dimension with the sandpaper ones already
described, but these are cut out of cardboard and are not mounted. In this way each
letter represents an object which can be easily handled by the child and placed
wherever he wishes it. There are several examples of each letter, and I have designed
cases in which the alphabets may be kept. These cases or boxes are very shallow, and
are divided and subdivided into many compartments, in each one of which I have
placed a group of four copies of the same letter. The compartments are not equal in
size, but are measured according to the dimensions of the letters themselves. At the
bottom of each compartment is glued a letter which is not to be taken out. This letter
is made of black cardboard and relieves the child of the fatigue of hunting about for
the right compartment when he is replacing the letters in the case after he has used
them. The vowels are cut from blue cardboard, and the consonants from red.
In addition to these alphabets we have a set of the capital letters mounted in
sandpaper upon cardboard, and another, in which they are cut from cardboard. The
numbers are treated in the same way.
(A
) TRAINING THE SENSE OF TOUCH. Learning the difference between rough
and smooth by running fingers alternately over sandpaper and smooth
cardboard; distinguishing different shapes by fitting geometric insets into place;
distinguishing textures. (B) LEARNING TO WRITE AND READ BY TOUCH.
The child at the left is tracing sandpaper letters and learning to know them by
touch. The boy and girl are making words out of cardboard letters.
Exercises. As soon as the child knows some of the vowels and the consonants we
place before him the big box containing all the vowels and the consonants which he
knows. The directress pronounces very clearly a word; for example, "mama," brings
out the sound of the m very distinctly, repeating the sounds a number of times. Almost
always the little one with an impulsive movement seizes an m and places it upon the
table. The directress repeats "ma—ma." The child selects the a and places it near the
m. He then composes the other syllable very easily. But the reading of the word which
he has composed [Pg 283]is not so easy. Indeed, he generally succeeds in reading it
only after a certain effort. In this case I help the child, urging him to read, and reading
the word with him once or twice, always pronouncing very distinctly, mama, mama.
But once he has understood the mechanism of the game, the child goes forward by
himself, and becomes intensely interested. We may pronounce any word, taking care
only that the child understands separately the letters of which it is composed. He
composes the new word, placing, one after the other, the signs corresponding to the
sounds.
 (A) CHILDREN TOUCHING LETTERS. The child on the left has acquired
lightness and delicacy of touch by very thorough preparatory exercises. The one
on the right has not had so much training. (B) MAKING WORDS WITH
CARDBOARD SCRIPT.
It is most interesting indeed to watch the child at this work. Intensely attentive, he
sits watching the box, moving his lips almost imperceptibly, and taking one by one the
necessary letters, rarely committing an error in spelling. The movement of the lips
reveals the fact that he repeats to himself an infinite number of times the words whose
sounds he is translating into signs. Although the child is able to compose any word
which is clearly pronounced, we generally dictate to him only those words which are
well-known, since we wish his composition to result in an idea. When these familiar
words are used, he spontaneously rereads many times the word he has composed,
repeating its sounds in a thoughtful, contemplative way.
The importance of these exercises is very complex. The child analyses, perfects,
fixes his own spoken language,—placing an object in correspondence to every sound
which he utters. The composition of the word furnishes him with substantial proof of
the necessity for clear and forceful enunciation.
The exercise, thus followed, associates the sound which is heard with the graphic
sign which represents it, and[Pg 284] lays a most solid foundation for accurate and
perfect spelling.
In addition to this, the composition of the words is in itself an exercise of
intelligence. The word which is pronounced presents to the child a problem which he
must solve, and he will do so by remembering the signs, selecting them from among
others, and arranging them in the proper order. He will have the proof of the exact
solution of his problem when he rereads the word—this word which he has
composed, and which represents for all those who know how to read it, an idea.
When the child hears others read the word he has composed, he wears an expression
of satisfaction and pride, and is possessed by a species of joyous wonder. He is
impressed by this correspondence, carried on between himself and others by means of
symbols. The written language represents for him the highest attainment reached by
his own intelligence, and is at the same time, the reward of a great achievement.
When the pupil has finished the composition and the reading of the word we have
him, according to the habits of order which we try to establish in connection with all
our work, "put away" all the letters, each one in its own compartment. In composition,
pure and simple, therefore, the child unites the two exercises of comparison and of
selection of the graphic signs; the first, when from the entire box of letters before him
he takes those necessary; the second, when he seeks the compartment in which each
letter must be replaced. There are, then, three exercises united in this one effort, all
three uniting to fix the image of the graphic sign corresponding to the sounds of the
word. The work of learning is in this case facilitated in three ways, and the ideas are
acquired in a third[Pg 285] of the time which would have been necessary with the old
methods. We shall soon see that the child, on hearing the word, or on thinking of a
word which he already knows, will see, with his mind's eye, all the letters, necessary
to compose the word, arrange themselves. He will reproduce this vision with a facility
most surprising to us. One day a little boy four years old, running alone about the
terrace, was heard to repeat many times, "To make Zaira, I must have z-a-i-r-a."
Another time, Professor Di Donato, in a visit to the "Children's House," pronounced
his own name for a four-year-old child. The child was composing the name, using
small letters and making it all one word, and had begun, thus—diton. The professor at
once pronounced the word more distinctly; di do nato, whereupon the child, without
scattering the letters, picked up the syllable to and placed it to one side, putting do in
the empty space. He then placed an a after the n, and, taking up the to which he had
put aside, completed the word with it. This made it evident that the child, when the
word was pronounced more clearly, understood that the syllable to did not belong at
that place in the word, realised that it belonged at the end of the word, and therefore
placed it aside until he should need it. This was most surprising in a child of four
years, and amazed all of those present. It can be explained by the clear and, at the
same time, complex vision of the signs which the child must have, if he is to form a
word which he hears spoken. This extraordinary act was largely due to the orderly
mentality which the child had acquired through repeated spontaneous exercises
tending to develop his intelligence.
These three periods contain the entire method for the acquisition of written
language. The significance of such[Pg 286] a method is clear. The psycho-
physiological acts which unite to establish reading and writing are prepared separately
and carefully. The muscular movements peculiar to the making of the signs or letters
are prepared apart, and the same is true of the manipulation of the instrument of
writing. The composition of the words, also, is reduced to a psychic mechanism of
association between images heard and seen. There comes a moment in which the
child, without thinking of it, fills in the geometric figures with an up and down stroke,
which is free and regular; a moment in which he touches the letters with closed eyes,
and in which he reproduces their form, moving his finger through the air; a moment in
which the composition of words has become a psychic impulse, which makes the
child, even when alone, repeat to himself "To make Zaira I must have z-a-i-r-a."
Now this child, it is true, has never written, but he has mastered all the acts
necessary to writing. The child who, when taking dictation, not only knows how to
compose the word, but instantly embraces in his thought its composition as a whole,
will be able to write, since he knows how to make, with his eyes closed, the
movements necessary to produce these letters, and since he manages almost
unconsciously the instrument of writing.
More than this, the freedom with which the child has acquired this mechanical
dexterity makes it possible for the impulse or spirit to act at any time through the
medium of his mechanical ability. He should, sooner or later, come into his full power
by way of a spontaneous explosion into writing. This is, indeed, the marvellous
reaction which has come from my experiment with normal children. In one of the
"Children's Houses," directed by Signorina Bettini, I had been especially careful in
the[Pg 287] way in which writing was taught, and we have had from this school most
beautiful specimens of writing, and for this reason, perhaps I cannot do better than to
describe the development of the work in this school.
One beautiful December day when the sun shone and the air was like spring, I went
up on the roof with the children. They were playing freely about, and a number of
them were gathered about me. I was sitting near a chimney, and said to a little five-
year-old boy who sat beside me, "Draw me a picture of this chimney," giving him as I
spoke a piece of chalk. He got down obediently and made a rough sketch of the
chimney on the tiles which formed the floor of this roof terrace. As is my custom with
little children, I encouraged him, praising his work. The child looked at me, smiled,
remained for a moment as if on the point of bursting into some joyous act, and then
cried out, "I can write! I can write!" and kneeling down again he wrote on the
pavement the word "hand." Then, full of enthusiasm, he wrote also "chimney," "roof."
As he wrote, he continued to cry out, "I can write! I know how to write!" His cries of
joy brought the other children, who formed a circle about him, looking down at his
work in stupefied amazement. Two or three of them said to me, trembling with
excitement, "Give me the chalk. I can write too." And indeed they began to write
various words: mama, hand, John, chimney, Ada.
Not one of them had ever taken chalk or any other instrument in hand for the
purpose of writing. It was the first time that they had ever written, and they traced an
entire word, as a child, when speaking for the first time, speaks the entire word.
The first word spoken by a baby causes the mother [Pg 288] ineffable joy. The child
has chosen perhaps the word "mother," seeming to render thus a tribute to maternity.
The first word written by my little ones aroused within themselves an indescribable
emotion of joy. Not being able to adjust in their minds the connection between the
preparation and the act, they were possessed by the illusion that, having now grown to
the proper size, they knew how to write. In other words, writing seemed to them only
one among the many gifts of nature.
They believe that, as they grow bigger and stronger, there will come some beautiful
day when they shall know how to write. And, indeed, this is what it is in reality. The
child who speaks, first prepares himself unconsciously, perfecting the psycho-
muscular mechanism which leads to the articulation of the word. In the case of
writing, the child does almost the same thing, but the direct pedagogical help and the
possibility of preparing the movements for writing in an almost material way, causes
the ability to write to develop much more rapidly and more perfectly than the ability
to speak correctly.
In spite of the ease with which this is accomplished, the preparation is not partial,
but complete. The child possesses all the movements necessary for writing. And
written language develops not gradually, but in an explosive way; that is, the child can
write any word. Such was our first experience in the development of the written
language in our children. Those first days we were a prey to deep emotions. It seemed
as if we walked in a dream, and as if we assisted at some miraculous achievement.
The child who wrote a word for the first time was full of excited joy. He might be
compared to the hen who has just laid an egg. Indeed, no one could escape from [Pg
289] the noisy manifestations of the little one. He would call everyone to see, and if
there were some who did not go, he ran to take hold of their clothes forcing them to
come and see. We all had to go and stand about the written word to admire the
marvel, and to unite our exclamations of surprise with the joyous cries of the fortunate
author. Usually, this first word was written on the floor, and, then, the child knelt
down before it in order to be nearer to his work and to contemplate it more closely.
After the first word, the children, with a species of frenzied joy, continued to write
everywhere. I saw children crowding about one another at the blackboard, and behind
the little ones who were standing on the floor another line would form consisting of
children mounted upon chairs, so that they might write above the heads of the little
ones. In a fury at being thwarted, other children, in order to find a little place where
they might write, overturned the chairs upon which their companions were mounted.
Others ran toward the window shutters or the door, covering them with writing. In
these first days we walked upon a carpet of written signs. Daily accounts showed us
that the same thing was going on at home, and some of the mothers, in order to save
their pavements, and even the crust of their loaves upon which they found words
written, made their children presents of paper and pencil. One of these children
brought to me one day a little note-book entirely filled with writing, and the mother
told me that the child had written all day long and all evening, and had gone to sleep
in his bed with the paper and pencil in his hand.
This impulsive activity which we could not, in those first days control, made me
think upon the wisdom of Nature, who develops the spoken language little by little, [Pg
290] letting it go hand in hand with the gradual formation of ideas. Think of what the
result would have been had Nature acted imprudently as I had done! Suppose Nature
had first allowed the human being to gather, by means of the senses, a rich and varied
material, and to acquire a store of ideas, and had then completely prepared in him the
means for articulate language, saying finally to the child, mute until that hour, "Go—
Speak!" The result would have been a species of sudden madness, under the influence
of which the child, feeling no restraints, would have burst into an exhausting torrent of
the most strange and difficult words.
I believe, however, that there exists between the two extremes a happy medium
which is the true and practical way. We should lead the child more gradually to the
conquest of written language, yet we should still have it come as a spontaneous fact,
and his work should from the first be almost perfect.
Experience has shown us how to control this phenomenon, and how to lead the
child more calmly to this new power. The fact that the children see their companions
writing, leads them, through imitation, to write as soon as they can. In this way, when
the child writes he does not have the entire alphabet at his disposal, and the number of
words which he can write is limited. He is not even capable of making all of the words
possible through a combination of the letters which he does know. He still has the
great joy of the first written word, but this is no longer the source of an overwhelming
surprise, since he sees just such wonderful things happening each day, and knows that
sooner or later the same gift will come to all. This tends to create a calm and ordered
environment, still full of beautiful and wonderful surprises.[Pg 291]
Making a visit to the "Children's House," even during the opening weeks, one
makes fresh discoveries. Here, for instance, are two little children, who, though they
fairly radiate pride and joy, are writing tranquilly. Yet, these children, until yesterday,
had never thought of writing!
The directress tells me that one of them began to write yesterday morning at eleven
o'clock, the other, at three in the afternoon. We have come to accept the phenomenon
with calmness, and tacitly recognise it as a natural form of the child's development.
The wisdom of the teacher shall decide when it is necessary to encourage a child to
write. This can only be when he is already perfect in the three periods of the
preparatory exercise, and yet does not write of his own accord. There is danger that in
retarding the act of writing, the child may plunge finally into a tumultuous effort, due
to the fact that he knows the entire alphabet and has no natural check.
The signs by which the teacher may almost precisely diagnose the child's maturity
in this respect are: the regularity of the parallel lines which fill in the geometric
figures; the recognition with closed eyes of the sandpaper letters; the security and
readiness shown in the composition of words. Before intervening by means of a direct
invitation to write, it is best to wait at least a week in the hope that the child may write
spontaneously. When he has begun to write spontaneously the teacher may intervene
to guide the progress of the writing. The first help which she may give is that
of ruling the blackboard, so that the child may be led to maintain regularity and proper
dimensions in his writing.
The second, is that of inducing the child, whose writing is not firm, to repeat the
tracing of the sandpaper letters.[Pg 292] She should do this instead
of directly correcting his actual writing, for the child does not perfect himself by
repeating the act of writing, but by repeating the acts preparatory to writing. I
remember a little beginner who, wishing to make his blackboard writing perfect,
brought all of the sandpaper letters with him, and before writing touched two or three
times all of the letters needed in the words he wished to write. If a letter did not seem
to him to be perfect he erased it and retouched the letter upon the card before
rewriting.
Our children, even after they have been writing for a year, continue to repeat the
three preparatory exercises. They thus learn both to write, and to perfect their writing,
without really going through the actual act. With our children, actual writing is a test;
it springs from an inner impulse, and from the pleasure of explaining a superior
activity; it is not an exercise. As the soul of the mystic perfects itself through prayer,
even so in our little ones, that highest expression of civilisation, written language, is
acquired and improved through exercises which are akin to, but which are not,
writing.
There is educational value in this idea of preparing oneself before trying, and of
perfecting oneself before going on. To go forward correcting his own mistakes, boldly
attempting things which he does imperfectly, and of which he is as yet unworthy dulls
the sensitiveness of the child's spirit toward his own errors. My method of writing
contains an educative concept; teaching the child that prudence which makes him
avoid errors, that dignity which makes him look ahead, and which guides him to
perfection, and that humility which unites him closely to those sources of good
through which alone he can make a spiritual conquest, putting far from him the
illusion that[Pg 293] the immediate success is ample justification for continuing in the
way he has chosen.
The fact that all the children, those who are just beginning the three exercises and
those who have been writing for months, daily repeat the same exercise, unites them
and makes it easy for them to meet upon an apparently equal plane. Here there are
no distinctions of beginners, and experts. All of the children fill in the figures with
coloured pencils, touch the sandpaper letters and compose words with the movable
alphabets; the little ones beside the big ones who help them. He who prepares himself,
and he who perfects himself, both follow the same path. It is the same way in life, for,
deeper than any social distinction, there lies an equality, a common meeting point,
where all men are brothers, or, as in the spiritual life, aspirants and saints again and
again pass through the same experiences.
 Writing is very quickly learned, because we begin to teach it only to those children
who show a desire for it by spontaneous attention to the lesson given by the directress
to other children, or by watching the exercises in which the others are occupied. Some
individuals learn without ever having received any lessons, solely through listening to
the lessons given to others.
In general, all children of four are intensely interested in writing, and some of our
children have begun to write at the age of three and a half. We find the children
particularly enthusiastic about tracing the sandpaper letters.
During the first period of my experiments, when the children were shown the
alphabet for the first time, I one day asked Signorina Bettini to bring out to the terrace
where the children were at play, all of the various letters which she herself had made.
As soon as the children saw[Pg 294] them they gathered about us, their fingers
outstretched in their eagerness to touch the letters. Those who secured cards were
unable to touch them properly because of the other children, who crowded about
trying to reach the cards in our laps. I remember with what an impulsive movement
the possessors of the cards held them on high like banners, and began to march,
followed by all the other children who clapped their hands and cried out joyously. The
procession passed before us, and all, big and little, laughed merrily, while the mothers,
attracted by the noise, leaned from the windows to watch the sight.
The average time that elapses between the first trial of the preparatory exercises and
the first written word is, for children of four years, from a month to a month and a
half. With children of five years, the period is much shorter, being about a month. But
one of our pupils learned to use in writing all the letters of the alphabet in twenty
days. Children of four years, after they have been in school for two months and a half,
can write any word from dictation, and can pass to writing with ink in a note-book.
Our little ones are generally experts after three months' time, and those who have
written for six months may be compared to the children in the third elementary.
Indeed, writing is one of the easiest and most delightful of all the conquests made by
the child.
If adults learned as easily as children under six years of age, it would be an easy
matter to do away with illiteracy. We would probably find two grave hinderances to
the attainment of such a brilliant success: the torpor of the muscular sense, and those
permanent defects of spoken language, which would be sure to translate themselves
into the written language. I have not made experiments along this line, but I believe
that one school year would be suffi[Pg 295]cient to lead an illiterate person, not only to
write, but to express his thoughts in written language.
So much for the time necessary for learning. As to the execution, our children write
well from the moment in which they begin. The form of the letters, beautifully
rounded and flowing, is surprising in its similarity to the form of the sandpaper
models. The beauty of our writing is rarely equalled by any scholars in the elementary
schools, who have not had special exercises in penmanship. I have made a close study
of penmanship, and I know how difficult it would be to teach pupils of twelve or
thirteen years to write an entire word without lifting the pen, except for the few letters
which require this. The up and down strokes with which they have filled their copy-
book make flowing writing almost impossible to them.
Our little pupils, on the other hand, spontaneously, and with a marvellous security,
write entire words without lifting the pen, maintaining perfectly the slant of the letters,
and making the distance between each letter equal. This has caused more than one
visitor to exclaim, "If I had not seen it I should never have believed it." Indeed,
penmanship is a superior form of teaching and is necessary to correct defects already
acquired and fixed. It is a long work, for the child, seeing the model, must follow
the movements necessary to reproduce it, while there is no direct correspondence
between the visual sensation and the movements which he must make. Too often,
penmanship is taught at an age when all the defects have become established, and
when the physiological period in which the muscular memory is ready, has been
passed.
We directly prepare the child, not only for writing, but also for penmanship, paying
great attention to the beauty of form (having the children touch the letters in script [Pg
296] form) and to the flowing quality of the letters. (The exercises in filling-in prepare
for this.)

READING

Didactic Material. The Didactic Material for the lessons in reading consists in slips
of paper or cards upon which are written in clear, large script, words and phrases. In
addition to these cards we have a great variety of toys.
Experience has taught me to distinguish clearly between writing and reading, and
has shown me that the two acts are not absolutely contemporaneous. Contrary to the
usually accepted idea, writing precedes reading. I do not consider as reading the test
which the child makes when he verifies the word that he has written. He is translating
signs into sounds, as he first translated sounds into signs. In this verification he
already knows the word and has repeated it to himself while writing it. What I
understand by reading is the interpretation of an idea from the written signs. The child
who has not heard the word pronounced, and who recognises it when he sees it
composed upon the table with the cardboard letters, and who can tell what it means;
this child reads. The word which he reads has the same relation to written language
that the word which he hears bears to articulate language. Both serve to receive the
language transmitted to us by others. So, until the child reads a transmission of ideas
from the written word, he does not read.
We may say, if we like, that writing as described is a fact in which the psycho-
motor mechanism prevails, while in reading, there enters a work which is purely
intellectual. But it is evident how our method for writing prepares for reading, making
the difficulties almost imperceptible. Indeed, writing prepares the child to interpret [Pg
297] mechanically the union of the letter sounds of which the written word is
composed. When a child in our school knows how to write, he knows how to read the
sounds of which the word is composed. It should be noticed, however, that when the
child composes the words with the movable alphabet, or when he writes, he has time
to think about the signs which he must select to form the word. The writing of a word
requires a great deal more time than that necessary for reading the same word.
The child who knows how to write, when placed before a word which he must
interpret by reading, is silent for a long time, and generally reads the component
sounds with the same slowness with which he would have written them. But the sense
of the word becomes evident only when it is pronounced clearly and with the phonetic
accent. Now, in order to place the phonetic accent the child must recognise the word;
that is, he must recognise the idea which the word represents. The intervention of a
superior work of the intellect is necessary if he is to read. Because of all this, I
proceed in the following way with the exercises in reading, and, as will be evident, I
do away entirely with the old-time primer.
I prepare a number of little cards made from ordinary writing-paper. On each of
these I write in large clear script some well-known word, one which has already been
pronounced many times by the children, and which represents an object actually
present or well known to them. If the word refers to an object which is before them, I
place this object under the eyes of the child, in order to facilitate his interpretation of
the word. I will say, in this connection, the objects used in these writing games are for
the most part toys of which we have a great many in the "Children's Houses." Among
these toys, are the[Pg 298] furnishings of a doll's house, balls, dolls, trees, flocks of
sheep, or various animals, tin soldiers, railways, and an infinite variety of simple
figures.
If writing serves to correct, or better, to direct and perfect the mechanism of the
articulate language of the child, reading serves to help the development of ideas, and
relates them to the development of the language. Indeed, writing aids the
physiological language and reading aids the social language.
We begin, then, as I have indicated, with the nomenclature, that is, with the reading
of names of objects which are well known or present.
 There is no question of beginning with words that are easy or difficult, for the child
already knows how to read any word; that is, he knows how to read the sounds which
compose it. I allow the little one to translate the written word slowly into sounds, and
if the interpretation is exact, I limit myself to saying, "Faster." The child reads more
quickly the second time, but still often without understanding. I then repeat, "Faster,
faster." He reads faster each time, repeating the same accumulation of sounds, and
finally the word bursts upon his consciousness. Then he looks upon it as if he
recognised a friend, and assumes that air of satisfaction which so often radiates our
little ones. This completes the exercise for reading. It is a lesson which goes very
rapidly, since it is only presented to a child who is already prepared through writing.
Truly, we have buried the tedious and stupid A B C primer side by side with the
useless copy-books!
When the child has read the word, he places the explanatory card under the object
whose name it bears, and the exercise is finished.[Pg 299]
One of our most interesting discoveries was made in the effort to devise a game
through which the children might, without effort, learn to read words. We spread out
upon one of the large tables a great variety of toys. Each one of them had a
corresponding card upon which the name of the toy was written. We folded these little
cards and mixed them up in a basket, and the children who knew how to read were
allowed to take turns in drawing these cards from the basket. Each child had to carry
his card back to his desk, unfold it quietly, and read it mentally, not showing it to
those about him. He then had to fold it up again, so that the secret which it contained
should remain unknown. Taking the folded card in his hand, he went to the table. He
had then to pronounce clearly the name of a toy and present the card to the directress
in order that she might verify the word he had spoken. The little card thus became
current coin with which he might acquire the toy he had named. For, if he pronounced
the word clearly and indicated the correct object, the directress allowed him to take
the toy, and to play with it as long as he wished.
When each child had had a turn, the directress called the first child and let him draw
a card from another basket. This card he read as soon as he had drawn it. It contained
the name of one of his companions who did not yet know how to read, and for that
reason could not have a toy. The child who had read the name then offered to his little
friend the toy with which he had been playing. We taught the children to present these
toys in a gracious and polite way, accompanying the act with a bow. In this way we
did away with every idea of class distinction, and inspired the sentiment of kindness
toward those who did not possess the same blessings as ourselves. [Pg 300] This
reading game proceeded in a marvellous way. The contentment of these poor children
in possessing even for a little while such beautiful toys can be easily imagined.
 But what was my amazement, when the children, having learned to understand the
written cards, refused to take the toys! They explained that they did not wish to waste
time in playing, and, with a species of insatiable desire, preferred to draw out and read
the cards one after another!
I watched them, seeking to understand the secret of these souls, of whose greatness
I had been so ignorant! As I stood in meditation among the eager children, the
discovery that it was knowledge they loved, and not the silly game, filled me with
wonder and made me think of the greatness of the human soul!
We therefore put away the toys, and set about making hundreds of written slips,
containing names of children, cities, and objects; and also of colours and qualities
known through the sense exercises. We placed these slips in open boxes, which we
left where the children could make free use of them. I expected that childish
inconstancy would at least show itself in a tendency to pass from one box to another;
but no, each child finished emptying the box under his hand before passing to another,
being verily insatiable in the desire to read.
Coming into the school one day, I found that the directress had allowed the children
to take the tables and chairs out upon the terrace, and was having school in the open
air. A number of little ones were playing in the sun, while others were seated in a
circle about the tables containing the sandpaper letters and the movable alphabet.
A little apart sat the directress, holding upon her lap [Pg 301] a long narrow box full
of written slips, and all along the edge of her box were little hands, fishing for the
beloved cards. "You may not believe me," said the directress, "but it is more than an
hour since we began this, and they are not satisfied yet!" We tried the experiment of
bringing balls, and dolls to the children, but without result; such futilities had no
power beside the joys of knowledge.
Seeing these surprising results, I had already thought of testing the children with
print, and had suggested that the directress print the word under the written word upon
a number of slips. But the children forestalled us! There was in the hall a calendar
upon which many of the words were printed in clear type, while others were done in
Gothic characters. In their mania for reading the children began to look at this
calendar, and, to my inexpressible amazement, read not only the print, but the Gothic
script.
There therefore remained nothing but the presentation of a book, and I did not feel
that any of those available were suited to our method.
The mothers soon had proofs of the progress of their children; finding in the pockets
of some of them little slips of paper upon which were written rough notes of
marketing done; bread, salt, etc. Our children were making lists of the marketing they
did for their mothers! Other mothers told us that their children no longer ran through
the streets, but stopped to read the signs over the shops.
A four-year-old boy, educated in a private house by the same method, surprised us
in the following way. The child's father was a Deputy, and received many letters. He
knew that his son had for two months been taught by means of exercises apt to
facilitate the learning of read[Pg 302]ing and writing, but he had paid slight attention to
it, and, indeed, put little faith in the method. One day, as he sat reading, with the boy
playing near, a servant entered, and placed upon the table a large number of letters
that had just arrived. The little boy turned his attention to these, and holding up each
letter read aloud the address. To his father this seemed a veritable miracle.
As to the average time required for learning to read and write, experience would
seem to show that, starting from the moment in which the child writes, the passage
from such an inferior stage of the graphic language to the superior state of reading
averages a fortnight. Security in reading is, however, arrived at much more slowly
than perfection in writing. In the greater majority of cases the child who writes
beautifully, still reads rather poorly.
Not all children of the same age are at the same point in this matter of reading and
writing. We not only do not force a child, but we do not even invite him, or in any
way attempt to coax him to do that which he does not wish to do. So it sometimes
happens that certain children, not having spontaneously presented themselves for
these lessons, are left in peace, and do not know how to read or write.
If the old-time method, which tyrannized over the will of the child and destroyed
his spontaneity, does not believe in making a knowledge of written
language obligatory before the age of six, much less do we!
I am not ready to decide, without a wider experience, whether the period when the
spoken language is fully developed is, in every case, the proper time for beginning to
develop the written language.
In any case, almost all of the normal children treated [Pg 303] with our method begin
to write at four years, and at five know how to read and write, at least as well as
children who have finished the first elementary. They could enter the second
elementary a year in advance of the time when they are admitted to first.
Games for the Reading of Phrases. As soon as my friends saw that the children
could read print, they made me gifts of beautifully illustrated books. Looking through
these books of simple fairy lore, I felt sure that the children would not be able to
understand them. The teachers, feeling entirely satisfied as to the ability of their
pupils, tried to show me I was wrong, having different children read to me, and saying
that they read much more perfectly than the children who had finished the second
elementary.
I did not, however, allow myself to be deceived, and made two trials. I first had the
teacher tell one of the stories to the children while I observed to what extent they were
spontaneously interested in it. The attention of the children wandered after a few
words. I had forbidden the teacher to recall to order those who did not listen, and thus,
little by little, a hum arose in the schoolroom, due to the fact that each child, not
caring to listen had returned to his usual occupation.
It was evident that the children, who seemed to read these books with such
pleasure, did not take pleasure in the sense, but enjoyed the mechanical ability they
had acquired, which consisted in translating the graphic signs into the sounds of a
word they recognised. And, indeed, the children did not display the same constancy in
the reading of books which they showed toward the written slips, since in the books
they met with so many unfamiliar words.[Pg 304]
My second test, was to have one of the children read the book to me. I did not
interrupt with any of those explanatory remarks by means of which a teacher tries to
help the child follow the thread of the story he is reading, saying for example: "Stop a
minute. Do you understand? What have you read? You told me how the little boy
went to drive in a big carriage, didn't you? Pay attention to what the book says, etc."
I gave the book to a little boy, sat down beside him in a friendly fashion, and when
he had read I asked him simply and seriously as one would speak to a friend, "Did you
understand what you were reading?" He replied: "No." But the expression of his face
seemed to ask an explanation of my demand. In fact, the idea that through the reading
of a series of words the complex thoughts of others might be communicated to us, was
to be for my children one of the beautiful conquests of the future, a new source of
surprise and joy.
The book has recourse to logical language, not to the mechanism of the language.
Before the child can understand and enjoy a book, the logical language must be
established in him. Between knowing how to read the words, and how to read
the sense, of a book there lies the same distance that exists between knowing how to
pronounce a word and how to make a speech. I, therefore, stopped the reading from
books and waited.
One day, during a free conversation period, four children arose at the same time and
with expressions of joy on their faces ran to the blackboard and wrote phrases upon
the order of the following:
 "Oh, how glad we are that our garden has begun to bloom." It was a great surprise
for me, and I was deeply moved. These children had arrived spontaneously at the [Pg
305] art of composition, just as they had spontaneously written their first word.

The mechanical preparation was the same, and the phenomenon developed
logically. Logical articulate language had, when the time was ripe, provoked the
corresponding explosion in written language.
I understood that the time had come when we might proceed to the reading of
phrases. I had recourse to the means used by the children; that is, I wrote upon the
blackboard, "Do you love me?" The children read it slowly aloud, were silent for a
moment as if thinking, then cried out, "Yes! Yes!" I continued to write; "Then make
the silence, and watch me." They read this aloud, almost shouting, but had barely
finished when a solemn silence began to establish itself, interrupted only by the
sounds of the chairs as the children took positions in which they could sit quietly.
Thus began between me and them a communication by means of written language, a
thing which interested the children intensely. Little by little, they discovered the great
quality of writing—that it transmits thought. Whenever I began to write, they
fairly trembled in their eagerness to understand what was my meaning without hearing
me speak a word.
Indeed, graphic language does not need spoken words. It can only be understood in
all its greatness when it is completely isolated from spoken language.
This introduction to reading was followed by the following game, which is greatly
enjoyed by the children. Upon a number of cards I wrote long sentences describing
certain actions which the children were to carry out; for example, "Close the window
blinds; open the front door; then wait a moment, and arrange things as they were at
first." "Very politely ask eight of your com [Pg 306]panions to leave their chairs, and to
form in double file in the centre of the room, then have them march forward and back
on tiptoe, making no noise." "Ask three of your oldest companions who sing nicely, if
they will please come into the centre of the room. Arrange them in a nice row, and
sing with them a song that you have selected," etc., etc. As soon as I finished writing,
the children seized the cards, and taking them to their seats read them spontaneously
with great intensity of attention, and all amid the most complete silence.
I asked then, "Do you understand?" "Yes! Yes!" "Then do what the card tells you,"
said I, and was delighted to see the children rapidly and accurately follow the chosen
action. A great activity, a movement of a new sort, was born in the room. There were
those who closed the blinds, and then reopened them; others who made their
companions run on tiptoe, or sing; others wrote upon the blackboard, or took certain
objects from the cupboards. Surprise and curiosity produced a general silence, and the
lesson developed amid the most intense interest. It seemed as if some magic force had
gone forth from me stimulating an activity hitherto unknown. This magic was graphic
language, the greatest conquest of civilisation.
And how deeply the children understood the importance of it! When I went out,
they gathered about me with expressions of gratitude and affection, saying, "Thank
you! Thank you! Thank you for the lesson!"
This has become one of the favourite games: We first establish profound silence,
then present a basket containing folded slips, upon each one of which is written a long
phrase describing an action. All those children who know how to read may draw a
slip, and read it mentally[Pg 307] once or twice until they are certain they understand
it. They then give the slip back to the directress and set about carrying out the action.
Since many of these actions call for the help of the other children who do not know
how to read, and since many of them call for the handling and use of the materials, a
general activity develops amid marvellous order, while the silence is only interrupted
by the sound of little feet running lightly, and by the voices of the children who sing.
This is an unexpected revelation of the perfection of spontaneous discipline.
Experience has shown us that composition must precede logical reading, as writing
preceded the reading of the word. It has also shown that reading, if it is to teach the
child to receive an idea, should be mental and not vocal.
Reading aloud implies the exercise of two mechanical forms of the language—
articulate and graphic—and is, therefore, a complex task. Who does not know that a
grown person who is to read a paper in public prepares for this by making himself
master of the content? Reading aloud is one of the most difficult intellectual actions.
The child, therefore, who begins to read by interpreting thought should read mentally.
The written language must isolate itself from the articulate, when it rises to the
interpretation of logical thought. Indeed, it represents the language which transmits
thought at a distance, while the senses and the muscular mechanism are silent. It is a
spiritualised language, which puts into communication all men who know how to
read.

Education having reached such a point in the "Children's Houses," the entire
elementary school must, as a logical consequence, be changed. How to reform the
lower grades in the elementary schools, eventually carrying [Pg 308] them on according
to our methods, is a great question which cannot be discussed here. I can only say that
the first elementary would be completely done away with by our infant education,
which includes it.
The elementary classes in the future should begin with children such as ours who
know how to read and write; children who know how to take care of themselves; how
to dress and undress, and to wash themselves; children who are familiar with the rules
of good conduct and courtesy, and who are thoroughly disciplined in the highest sense
of the term, having developed, and become masters of themselves, through liberty;
children who possess, besides a perfect mastery of the articulate language, the ability
to read written language in an elementary way, and who begin to enter upon the
conquest of logical language.
These children pronounce clearly, write in a firm hand, and are full of grace in their
movements. They are the earnest of a humanity grown in the cult of beauty—the
infancy of an all-conquering humanity, since they are intelligent and patient observers
of their environment, and possess in the form of intellectual liberty the power of
spontaneous reasoning.
For such children, we should found an elementary school worthy to receive them
and to guide them further along the path of life and of civilisation, a school loyal to
the same educational principles of respect for the freedom of the child and for his
spontaneous manifestations—principles which shall form the personality of these little
men.[Pg 309]
 Example of
writing done with pen, by a child five years. One-fourth reduction.
Translation: "We would like to wish a joyous Easter to the civil engineer Edoardo
Talamo and the Princess Maria. We will ask them to bring their pretty children here.
Leave it to me: I will write for all. April 7, 1909."

[Pg 310]

CHAPTER XVIII
 LANGUAGE IN CHILDHOOD
Graphic language, comprising dictation and reading, contains articulate language in
its complete mechanism (auditory channels, central channels, motor channels), and, in
the manner of development called forth by my method, is based essentially on
articulate language.
Graphic language, therefore, may be considered from two points of view:
(a) That of the conquest of a new language of eminent social importance which
adds itself to the articulate language of natural man; and this is the cultural
significance which is commonly given to graphic language, which is therefore taught
in the schools without any consideration of its relation to spoken language, but solely
with the intention of offering to the social being a necessary instrument in his relations
with his fellows.
(b) That of the relation between graphic and articulate language and, in this relation,
of an eventual possibility of utilising the written language to perfect the spoken: a new
consideration upon which I wish to insist and which gives to graphic language
a physiological importance.
Moreover, as spoken language is at the same time a natural function of man and an
instrument which he utilises for social ends, so written language may be considered in
itself, in its formation, as an organic ensemble[Pg 311] of new mechanisms which are
established in the nervous system, and as an instrument which may be utilised for
social ends.
In short, it is a question of giving to written language not only a physiological
importance, but also a period of development independent of the high functions which
it is destined to perform later.
It seems to me that graphic language bristles with difficulties in its beginning, not
only because it has heretofore been taught by irrational methods, but because we have
tried to make it perform, as soon as it has been acquired, the high function of
teaching the written language which has been fixed by centuries of perfecting in a
civilised people.
Think how irrational have been the methods we have used! We have analysed the
graphic signs rather than the physiological acts necessary to produce the alphabetical
signs; and this without considering that any graphic sign is difficult to achieve,
because the visual representation of the signs have no hereditary connection with the
motor representations necessary for producing them; as, for example, the auditory
representations of the word have with the motor mechanism of the articulate language.
It is, therefore, always a difficult thing to provoke a stimulative motor action unless
we have already established the movement before the visual representation of the sign
is made. It is a difficult thing to arouse an activity that shall produce a motion unless
that motion shall have been previously established by practice and by the power of
habit.
Thus, for example, the analysis of writing into little straight lines and curves has
brought us to present to the child a sign without significance, which therefore does [Pg
312] not interest him, and whose representation is incapable of determining a
spontaneous motor impulse. The artificial act constituted, therefore, an effort of the
will which resulted for the child in rapid exhaustion exhibited in the form of boredom
and suffering. To this effort was added the effort of constituting synchronously the
muscular associations co-ordinating the movements necessary to the holding and
manipulating the instrument of writing.
All sorts of depressing feelings accompanied such efforts and conduced to the
production of imperfect and erroneous signs which the teachers had to correct,
discouraging the child still more with the constant criticism of the error and of the
imperfection of the signs traced. Thus, while the child was urged to make an effort,
the teacher depressed rather than revived his psychical forces.
Although such a mistaken course was followed, the graphic language, so painfully
learned, was nevertheless to be immediately utilised for social ends; and, still
imperfect and immature, was made to do service in the syntactical construction of the
language, and in the ideal expression of the superior psychic centres. One must
remember that in nature the spoken language is formed gradually; and it is already
established in words when the superior psychic centres use these words in what
Kussmaul calls dictorium, in the syntactical grammatical formation of language which
is necessary to the expression of complex ideas; that is, in the language of the logical
mind.
In short the mechanism of language is a necessary antecedent of the higher psychic
activities which are to utilise it.

There are, therefore, two periods in the development of language: a lower one
which prepares the nervous[Pg 313] channel and the central mechanisms which are to
put the sensory channels in relation with the motor channels; and a higher one
determined by the higher psychic activities which are exteriorized by means of the
preformed mechanisms of language.

Thus for example in the scheme which Kussmaul gives on the mechanism of
articulate language we must first of all distinguish a sort of cerebral diastaltic arc
(representing the pure mechanism of the word), which is established in the first
formation of the spoken language. Let E be the ear, and T the motor organs of speech,
taken as a whole and here represented by the tongue, A the auditory centre of speech,
and M the motor centre. The channels EA and MT are peripheral channels, the former
centripetal and the latter centrifugal, and the channel AM is the inter-central channel
of association.
The centre A in which reside the auditive images of words may be again subdivided
into three, as in the following scheme, viz.: Sound (So), syllables (Sy), and words
(W).
That partial centres for sounds and syllables can really be formed, the pathology of
language seems to establish, for in some forms of centro-sensory dysphasia, the
patients can pronounce only sounds, or at most sounds and syllables.
Small children, too, are, at the beginning, particularly sensitive to simple sounds of
language, with which indeed, and especially with s, their mothers caress them and
attract their attention; while later the child is sensitive to [Pg 314] syllables, with which
also the mother caresses him, saying: "ba, ba, punf, tuf!"
 Finally it is the simple word, dissyllabic in most cases, which attracts the child's
attention.
But for the motor centres also the same thing may be repeated; the child utters at the
beginning simple or double sounds, as for example bl, gl, ch, an expression which the
mother greets with joy; then distinctly syllabic sounds begin to manifest themselves in
the child: ga, ba; and, finally, the dissyllabic word, usually labial: mama.

We say that the spoken language begins with the child when the word pronounced
by him signifies an idea; when for example, seeing his mother and recognising her he
says "mamma;" and seeing a dog says, "tettè;" and wishing to eat says: "pappa."
Thus we consider language begun when it is established in relation to perception;
while the language itself is still, in its psycho-motor mechanism, perfectly
rudimentary.
 That is, when above the diastaltic arc where the mechanical formation of the
language is still unconscious, the recognition of the word takes place, that is, the word
is perceived and associated with the object which it represents, language is considered
to have begun.
On this level, later, language continues the process of perfecting in proportion as
the hearing perceives better the component sounds of the words and the psycho-motor
channels become more permeable to articulation.[Pg 315]
This is the first stage of spoken language, which has its own beginning and its own
development, leading, through the perceptions, to the perfecting of the primordial
mechanism of the language itself; and at this stage precisely is established what we
call articulate language, which will later be the means which the adult will have at his
disposal to express his own thoughts, and which the adult will have great difficulty in
perfecting or correcting when it has once been established: in fact a high stage of
culture sometimes accompanies an imperfect articulate language which prevents the
æsthetic expression of one's thought.
The development of articulate language takes place in the period between the age of
two and the age of seven: the age of perceptions in which the attention of the child is
spontaneously turned towards external objects, and the memory is particularly
tenacious. It is the age also of motility in which all the psycho-motor channels are
becoming permeable and the muscular mechanisms establish themselves. In this
period of life by the mysterious bond between the auditory channel and the motor
channel of the spoken language it would seem that the auditory perceptions have the
direct power of provoking the complicated movements of articulate speech which
develop instinctively after such stimuli as if awaking from the slumber of heredity. It
is well known that it is only at this age that it is possible to acquire all the
characteristic modulations of a language which it would be vain to attempt to establish
later. The mother tongue alone is well pronounced because it was established in the
period of childhood; and the adult who learns to speak a new language must bring to it
the imperfections characteristic of the foreigner's speech: only children who under
the[Pg 316] age of seven years learn several languages at the same time can receive
and reproduce all the characteristic mannerisms of accent and pronunciation.
Thus also the defects acquired in childhood such as dialectic defects or those
established by bad habits, become indelible in the adult.
What develops later, the superior language, the dictorium, no longer has its origin
in the mechanism of language but in the intellectual development which makes use of
the mechanical language. As the articulate language develops by the exercise of its
mechanism and is enriched by perception, the dictorium develops with syntax and is
enriched by intellectual culture. Going back to the scheme of language we see that
above the arc which defines the lower language, is established the dictorium, D,—
from which now come the motor impulses of speech—which is established as spoken
language fit to manifest the ideation of the intelligent man; this language will be
enriched little by little by intellectual culture and perfected by the grammatical study
of syntax.

Hitherto, as a result of a preconception, it has been believed that written language

should enter only into the development of the dictorium, as the suitable means for the
acquisition of culture and of permitting grammatical analysis and construction of the
language. Since "spoken words have wings" it has been admitted that intellectual
culture could only proceed by the aid of a language which was stable, objective, and
capable of being analysed, such as the graphic language.[Pg 317]
But why, when we acknowledge the graphic language as a precious, nay
indispensable, instrument of intellectual education, for the reason that it fixes the
ideas of men and permits of their analysis and of their assimilation in books, where
they remain indelibly written as an ineffaceable memory of words which are therefore
always present and by which we can analyse the syntactical structure of the language,
why shall we not acknowledge that it is useful in the more humble task
of fixing the words which represent perception and of analysing their component
sounds?
Compelled by a pedagogical prejudice we are unable to separate the idea of a
graphic language from that of a function which heretofore we have made it
exclusively perform; and it seems to us that by teaching such a language to children
still in the age of simple perceptions and of motility we are committing a serious
psychological and pedagogical error.
But let us rid ourselves of this prejudice and consider the graphic language in itself,
reconstructing its psycho-physiological mechanism. It is far more simple than the
psycho-physiological mechanism of the articulate language, and is far more directly
accessible to education.
Writing especially is surprisingly simple. For let us consider dictated writing: we
have a perfect parallel with spoken language since a motor action must correspond
with heard speech. Here there does not exist, to be sure, the mysterious hereditary
relations between the heard speech and the articulate speech; but the movements of
writing are far simpler than those necessary to the spoken word, and are performed by
large muscles, all external,[Pg 318] upon which we can directly act, rendering the
motor channels permeable, and establishing psycho-muscular mechanisms.
This indeed is what is done by my method, which prepares the movements directly;
so that the psycho-motor impulse of the heard speech finds the motor channels
already established, and is manifested in the act of writing, like an explosion.
The real difficulty is in the interpretation of the graphic signs; but we must
remember that we are in the age of perceptions, where the sensations and the memory
as well as the primitive associations are involved precisely in the characteristic
progress of natural development. Moreover our children are already prepared by
various exercises of the senses, and by methodical construction of ideas and mental
associations to perceive the graphic signs; something like a patrimony of perceptive
ideas offers material to the language in the process of development. The child who
recognises a triangle and calls it a triangle can recognise a letter s and denominate it
by the sound s. This is obvious.
Let us not talk of premature teaching; ridding ourselves of prejudices, let us appeal
to experience which shows that in reality children proceed without effort, nay rather
with evident manifestations of pleasure to the recognition of graphic signs presented
as objects.

And with this premise let us consider the relations between the mechanisms of the
two languages.
The child of three or four has already long begun his articulate language according
to our scheme. But he finds himself in the period in which the mechanism of[Pg
319] articulate language is being perfected; a period contemporary with that in which
he is acquiring a content of language along with the patrimony of perception.
The child has perhaps not heard perfectly in all their component parts the words
which he pronounces, and, if he has heard them perfectly, they may have been
pronounced badly, and consequently have left an erroneous auditory perception. It
would be well that the child, by exercising the motor channels of articulate language
should establish exactly the movements necessary to a perfect articulation, before the
age of easy motor adaptations is passed, and, by the fixation of erroneous
mechanisms, the defects become incorrigible.

To this end the analysis of speech is necessary. As when we wish to perfect the
language we first start children at composition and then pass to grammatical study;
and when we wish to perfect the style we first teach to write grammatically and then
come to the analysis of style—so when we wish to perfect the speech it is first
necessary that the speech exist, and then it is proper to proceed to its analysis. When,
therefore, the child speaks, but before the completion of the development of speech
which renders it fixed in mechanisms already established, the speech should be
analysed with a view to perfecting it.
Now, as grammar and rhetoric are not possible with the spoken language but
demand recourse to the written language which keeps ever before the eye the
discourse to be analysed, so it is with speech.
The analysis of the transient is impossible.
The language must be materialised and made stable. Hence the necessity of the
written word or the word represented by graphic signs.[Pg 320]
 In the third stage of my method for writing, that is, composition of speech, is
included the analysis of the word not only into signs, but into the component sounds;
the signs representing its translation. The child, that is, divides the heard word which
he perceives integrally as a word, knowing also its meanings, into sounds and
syllables.
Let me call attention to the following diagram which represents the interrelation of
the two mechanisms for writing and for articulate speech.

The peripheric channels are indicated by heavy lines; the central channels of
association by dotted lines; and those referring to association in relation to the
development of the heard speech by light lines.
E ear; So auditory centre of sounds; Sy auditory centre of syllables; W auditory
centre of word; M motor centre of the articulate speech; T external organs of articulate
speech (tongue); H external organs of writing (hand); MC motor centre of
writing; VC visual centre of graphic signs; V organ of vision.
Whereas in the development of spoken language the sound composing the word
might be imperfectly perceived, here in the teaching of the graphic sign corresponding
to the sound (which teaching consists in presenting to the child a sandpaper letter,
naming it distinctly and making[Pg 321] the child see it and touch it), not only is the
perception of the heard sound clearly fixed—separately and clearly—but this
perception is associated with two others: the centro-motor perception and the centro-
visual perception of the written sign.
The triangle VC, MC, So represents the association of three sensations in relation
with the analysis of speech.
 When the letter is presented to the child and he is made to touch and see it, while it
is being named, the centripetal channels ESo; H, MC, So; V, VC, So are acting and
when the child is made to name the letter, alone or accompanied by a vowel, the
external stimulus acts in V and passes through the channels V, VC, So, M, T;
and V, CV, So, Sy, M, T.
When these channels of association have been established by presenting visual
stimuli in the graphic sign, the corresponding movements of articulate language can
be provoked and studied one by one in their defects; while, by maintaining the visual
stimulus of the graphic sign which provokes articulation and accompanying it by the
auditory stimulus of the corresponding sound uttered by the teacher, their articulation
can be perfected; this articulation is by innate conditions connected with the heard
speech; that is, in the course of the pronunciation provoked by the visual stimulus, and
during the repetition of the relative movements of the organs of language, the auditory
stimulus which is introduced into the exercise contributes to the perfecting of the
pronunciation of the isolated or syllabic sounds composing the spoken word.
When later the child writes under dictation, translating into signs the sounds of
speech, he analyses the heard speech into its sounds, translating them into graphic
move[Pg 322]ments through channels already rendered permeable by the
corresponding muscular sensations.

DEFECTS OF LANGUAGE DUE TO LACK OF EDUCATION

Defects and imperfections of language are in part due to organic causes, consisting
in malformations or in pathological alterations of the nervous system; but in part they
are connected with functional defects acquired in the period of the formation of
language and consist in an erratic pronunciation of the component sounds of the
spoken word. Such errors are acquired by the child who hears words imperfectly
pronounced, or hears bad speech, The dialectic accent enters into this category; but
there also enter vicious habits which make the natural defects of the articulate
language of childhood persist in the child, or which provoke in him by imitation the
defects of language peculiar to the persons who surrounded him in his childhood.
The normal defects of child language are due to the fact that the complicated
muscular agencies of the organs of articulate language do not yet function well and
are consequently incapable of reproducing the sound which was the sensory stimulus
of a certain innate movement. The association of the movements necessary to the
articulation of the spoken words is established little by little. The result is a language
made of words with sounds which are imperfect and often lacking (whence
incomplete words). Such defects are grouped under the name blæsitas and are
especially due to the fact that the child is not yet capable of directing the movements
of his tongue. They comprise chiefly: sigmatism or imperfect pronunciation
of s; rhotacism or imperfect pronunciation of r; lambdacism or imperfect
pronunciation of l; gam[Pg 323]macism or imperfect pronunciation, of g; iotacism,
defective pronunciation of the gutturals; mogilalia, imperfect pronunciation of the
labials, and according to some authors, as Preyer, mogilalia is made to include also
the suppression of the first sound of a word.
Some defects of pronunciation which concern the utterance of the vowel sound as
well as that of the consonant are due to the fact that the child reproduces
perfectly sounds imperfectly heard.
In the first case, then, it is a matter of functional insufficiencies of the peripheral
motor organ and hence of the nervous channels, and the cause lies in the individual;
whereas in the second case the error is caused by the auditory stimulus and the cause
lies outside.
These defects often persist, however attenuated, in the boy and the adult: and
produce finally an erroneous language to which will later be added in writing
orthographical errors, such for example as dialectic orthographical errors.
If one considers the charm of human speech one is bound to acknowledge the
inferiority of one who does not possess a correct spoken language; and an æsthetic
conception in education cannot be imagined unless special care be devoted to
perfecting articulate language. Although the Greeks had transmitted to Rome the art
of educating in language, this practice was not resumed by Humanism which cared
more for the æsthetics of the environment and the revival of artistic works than for the
perfecting of the man.
To-day we are just beginning to introduce the practice of correcting by pedagogical
methods the serious defects of language, such as stammering; but the idea
of linguistic gymnastics tending to its perfection has not yet penetrated [Pg 324] into
our schools as a universal method, and as a detail of the great work of the æsthetic
perfecting of man.
Some teachers of deaf mutes and intelligent devotees of orthophony are trying
nowadays with small practical success to introduce into the elementary schools the
correction of the various forms of blæsitas, as a result of statistical studies which have
demonstrated the wide diffusion of such defects among the pupils. The exercises
consist essentially in silence cures which procure calm and repose for the organs of
language, and in patient repetition of the separate vowel and consonant sounds; to
these exercises is added also respiratory gymnastics. This is not the place to describe
in detail the methods of these exercises which are long and patient and quite out of
harmony with the teachings of the school. But in my methods are to be found all
exercises for the corrections of language:
 (a) Exercises of Silence, which prepare the nervous channels of language to receive
new stimuli perfectly;
(b) Lessons which consist first of the distinct pronunciation by the teacher of few
words (especially of nouns which must be associated with a concrete idea); by this
means clear and perfect auditory stimuli of language are started, stimuli which
are repeated by the teacher when the child has conceived the idea of the object
represented by the word (recognition of the object); finally of the provocation of
articulate language on the part of the child who must repeat that word alone aloud,
pronouncing its separate sounds;
(c) Exercises in Graphic Language, which analyse the sounds of speech and cause
them to be repeated separately in several ways: that is, when the child learns the
separate letters of the alphabet and when he composes or [Pg 325] writes words,
repeating their sounds which he translates separately into composed or written speech;
(d) Gymnastic Exercises, which comprise, as we have seen, both respiratory
exercises and those of articulation.
I believe that in the schools of the future the conception will disappear which is
beginning to-day of "correcting in the elementary schools" the defects of language;
and will be replaced by the more rational one of avoiding them by caring for the
development of language in the "Children's Houses"; that is, in the very age in which
language is being established in the child.

[Pg 326]

CHAPTER XIX
TEACHING OF NUMERATION; INTRODUCTION TO
ARITHMETIC
Children of three years already know how to count as far as two or three when they
enter our schools. They therefore very easily learn numeration, which consists in
counting objects. A dozen different ways may serve toward this end, and daily life
presents many opportunities; when the mother says, for instance, "There are two
buttons missing from your apron," or "We need three more plates at table."
 One of the first means used by me, is that of counting with money. I
obtain new money, and if it were possible I should have good reproductions made in
cardboard. I have seen such money used in a school for deficients in London.
The making of change is a form of numeration so attractive as to hold the attention
of the child. I present the one, two, and four centime pieces and the children, in this
way learn to count to ten.
No form of instruction is more practical than that tending to make children familiar
with the coins in common use, and no exercise is more useful than that of making
change. It is so closely related to daily life that it interests all children intensely.
Having taught numeration in this empiric mode, I pass to more methodical
exercises, having as didactic material [Pg 327] one of the sets of blocks already used in
the education of the senses; namely, the series of ten rods heretofore used for the
teaching of length. The shortest of these rods corresponds to a decimetre, the longest
to a metre, while the intervening rods are divided into sections a decimetre in length.
The sections are painted alternately red and blue.
 Some day, when a child has arranged the rods, placing them in order of length, we
have him count the red and blue signs, beginning with the smallest piece; that is, one;
one, two; one, two, three, etc., always going back to one in the counting of each rod,
and starting from the side A. We then have him name the single rods from the shortest
to the longest, according to the total number of the sections which each contains,
touching the rods at the sides[Pg 328] B, on which side the stair ascends. This results in
the same numeration as when we counted the longest rod—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Wishing to know the number of rods, we count them from the side A and the same
numeration results; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. This correspondence of the three sides
of the triangle causes the child to verify his knowledge and as the exercise interests
him he repeats it many times.
We now unite to the exercises in numeration the earlier, sensory exercises in which
the child recognised the long and short rods. Having mixed the rods upon a carpet, the
directress selects one, and showing it to the child, has him count the sections; for
example, 5. She then asks him to give her the one next in length. He selects it by his
eye, and the directress has him verify his choice by placing the two pieces side by side
and by counting their sections. Such exercises may be repeated in great variety and
through them the child learns to assign a particular name to each one of the pieces in
the long stair. We may now call them piece number one; piece number two, etc., and
finally, for brevity, may speak of them in the lessons as one, two, three, etc.

THE NUMBERS AS REPRESENTED BY THE GRAPHIC SIGNS

At this point, if the child already knows how to write, we may present the figures
cut in sandpaper and mounted upon cards. In presenting these, the method is the same
used in teaching the letters. "This is one." "This is two." "Give me one." "Give me
two." "What number is this?" The child traces the number with his finger as he did the
letters.
Exercises with Numbers. Association of the graphic sign with the quantity.[Pg 329]
I have designed two trays each divided into five little compartments. At the back of
each compartment may be placed a card bearing a figure. The figures in the first tray
should be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and in the second, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
The exercise is obvious; it consists in placing within the compartments a number of
objects corresponding to the figure indicated upon the card at the back of the
compartment. We give the children various objects in order to vary the lesson, but
chiefly make use of large wooden pegs so shaped that they will not roll off the desk.
We place a number of these before the child whose part is to arrange them in their
places, one peg corresponding to the card marked one, etc. When he has finished he
takes his tray to the directress that she may verify his work.
 The Lesson on Zero. We wait until the child, pointing to the compartment
containing the card marked zero, asks, "And what must I put in here?" We then reply,
"Nothing; zero is nothing." But often this is not enough. It is necessary to make the
child feel what we mean by nothing. To this end we make use of little games which
vastly entertain the children. I stand among them, and turning to one of them who has
already used this material, I say, "Come, dear, come to me zero times." The child
almost always comes to me, and then runs back to his place. "But, my boy, you
came one time, and I told you to come zero times." Then he begins to wonder. "But
what must I do, then?" "Nothing; zero is nothing." "But how shall I do nothing?"
"Don't do anything. You must sit still. You must not come at all, not any times. Zero
times. No times at all." I repeat these exercises until the children understand, and they
are then, immensely amused at remaining quiet when I call to them to come to me
zero times, or to throw me zero kisses. [Pg 330] They themselves often cry out, "Zero is
nothing! Zero is nothing!"

EXERCISES FOR THE MEMORY OF NUMBERS

When the children recognise the written figure, and when this figure signifies to
them the numerical value, I give them the following exercise:
I cut the figures from old calendars and mount them upon slips of paper which are
then folded and dropped into a box. The children draw out the slips, carry them still
folded, to their seats, where they look at them and refold them, conserving the secret.
Then, one by one, or in groups, these children (who are naturally the oldest ones in the
class) go to the large table of the directress where groups of various small objects
have been placed. Each one selects the quantity of objects corresponding to the
number he has drawn. The number, meanwhile, has been left at the child's place, a
slip of paper mysteriously folded. The child, therefore, must remember his number not
only during the movements which he makes in coming and going, but while he
collects his pieces, counting them one by one. The directress may here make
interesting individual observations upon the number memory.
When the child has gathered up his objects he arranges them upon his own table, in
columns of two, and if the number is uneven, he places the odd piece at the bottom
and between the last two objects. The arrangement of the pieces is therefore as
follows:—
 [Pg 331]

The crosses represent the objects, while the circle stands for the folded slip
containing the figure. Having arranged his objects, the child awaits the verification.
The directress comes, opens the slip, reads the number, and counts the pieces.
When we first played this game it often happened that the children took more
objects than were called for upon the card, and this was not always because they did
not remember the number, but arose from a mania for the having the greatest number
of objects. A little of that instinctive greediness, which is common to primitive and
uncultured man. The directress seeks to explain to the children that it is useless to
have all those things upon the desk, and that the point of the game lies in taking the
exact number of objects called for.
Little by little they enter into this idea, but not so easily as one might suppose. It is a
real effort of self-denial which holds the child within the set limit, and makes him
take, for example, only two of the objects placed at his disposal, while he sees others
taking more. I therefore consider this game more an exercise of will power than of
numeration. The child who has the zero, should not move from his place when he sees
all his companions rising and taking freely of the objects which are inaccessible to
him. Many times zero falls to the lot of a child who knows how to count perfectly, and
who would experience great pleasure in accumulating and arranging a fine group of
objects in the proper order upon his table, and in awaiting with security the teacher's
verification.
It is most interesting to study the expressions upon the faces of those who possess
zero. The individual differences which result are almost a revelation of the "character"
of each one. Some remain impassive, assuming a [Pg 332] bold front in order to hide
the pain of the disappointment; others show this disappointment by involuntary
gestures. Still others cannot hide the smile which is called forth by the singular
situation in which they find themselves, and which will make their friends curious.
There are little ones who follow every movement of their companions with a look of
desire, almost of envy, while others show instant acceptance of the situation. No less
interesting are the expressions with which they confess to the holding of the zero,
when asked during the verification, "and you, you haven't taken anything?" "I have
zero." "It is zero." These are the usual words, but the expressive face, the tone of the
voice, show widely varying sentiments. Rare, indeed, are those who seem to give with
pleasure the explanation of an extraordinary fact. The greater number either look
unhappy or merely resigned.
We therefore give lessons upon the meaning of the game, saying, "It is hard to keep
the zero secret. Fold the paper tightly and don't let it slip away. It is the most difficult
of all." Indeed, after awhile, the very difficulty of remaining quiet appeals to the
children, and when they open the slip marked zero it can be seen that they are content
to keep the secret.

ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION FROM ONE TO TWENTY:

MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION

The didactic material which we use for the teaching of the first arithmetical
operations is the same already used for numeration; that is, the rods graduated as to
length which, arranged on the scale of the metre, contain the first idea of the decimal
system.
The rods, as I have said, have come to be called by the numbers which they
represent; one, two, three, etc. They[Pg 333] are arranged in order of length, which is
also in order of numeration.
The first exercise consists in trying to put the shorter pieces together in such a way
as to form tens. The most simple way of doing this is to take successively the shortest
rods, from one up, and place them at the end of the corresponding long rods from nine
down. This may be accompanied by the commands, "Take one and add it to nine; take
two and add it to eight; take three and add it to seven; take four and add it to six." In
this way we make four rods equal to ten. There remains the five, but, turning this upon
its head (in the long sense), it passes from one end of the ten to the other, and thus
makes clear the fact that two times five makes ten.
These exercises are repeated and little by little the child is taught the more technical
language; nine plus one equals ten, eight plus two equals ten, seven plus three equals
ten, six plus four equals ten, and for the five, which remains, two times five equals
ten. At last, if he can write, we teach the signs plus and equals and times. Then this is
what we see in the neat note-books of our little ones:
9 + 1 = 10
8 + 2 = 10
5 × 2 = 10
7 + 3 = 10
6 + 4 = 10
 When all this is well learned and has been put upon the paper with great pleasure by
the children, we call their attention to the work which is done when the pieces
grouped together to form tens are taken apart, and put back in their original positions.
From the ten last formed we take away four and six remains; from the next we take
away three and seven remains; from the next, two and eight remains; from the last, we
take away one and nine[Pg 334] remains. Speaking of this properly we say, ten less
four equals six; ten less three equals seven; ten less two equals eight; ten less one
equals nine.
In regard to the remaining five, it is the half of ten, and by cutting the long rod in
two, that is dividing ten by two, we would have five; ten divided by two equals five.
The written record of all this reads:
10 − 4 = 6
10 − 3 = 7
10 ÷ 2 = 5
10 − 2 = 8
10 − 1 = 9

Once the children have mastered this exercise they multiply it spontaneously. Can
we make three in two ways? We place the one after the two and then write, in order
that we may remember what we have done, 2 + 1 = 3. Can we make two rods equal to
number four? 3 + 1 = 4, and 4 - 3 = 1; 4 - 1 = 3. Rod number two in its relation to rod
number four is treated as was five in relation to ten; that is, we turn it over and show
that it is contained in four exactly two times: 4 ÷ 2 = 2; 2 × 2 = 4. Another problem:
let us see with how many rods we can play this same game. We can do it with three
and six; and with four and eight; that is,
2×2=4 3×2=6 4×2=8 5 × 2 = 10
10 ÷ 2 = 5 8÷2=4 6÷2=3 4÷2= 2

At this point we find that the cubes with which we played the number memory games
are of help:

[Pg 335]
 From this arrangement, one sees at once which are the numbers which can be
divided by two—all those which have not an odd cube at the bottom. These are the
even numbers, because they can be arranged in pairs, two by two; and the division by
two is easy, all that is necessary being to separate the two lines of twos that stand one
under the other. Counting the cubes of each file we have the quotient. To recompose
the primitive number we need only reassemble the two files thus 2 × 3 = 6. All this is
not difficult for children of five years.
The repetition soon becomes monotonous, but the exercises may be most easily
changed, taking again the set of long rods, and instead of placing rod number one after
nine, place it after ten. In the same way, place two after nine, and three after eight. In
this way we make rods of a greater length than ten; lengths which we must learn to
name eleven, twelve, thirteen, etc., as far as twenty. The little cubes, too, may be used
to fix these higher numbers.
Having learned the operations through ten, we proceed with no difficulty to twenty.
The one difficulty lies in the decimal numbers which require certain lessons.

LESSONS ON DECIMALS: ARITHMETICAL CALCULATIONS

BEYOND TEN

The necessary didactic material consists of a number of square cards upon which
the figure ten is printed in large type, and of other rectangular cards, half the size of
the square, and containing the single numbers from one to nine. We place the numbers
in a line; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Then, having no more numbers, we must begin
over again and take the 1 again. This 1 is like that section in the set of rods which, in
rod number 10, extends[Pg 336] beyond nine. Counting along the stair as far as nine,
there remains this one section which, as there are no more numbers, we again
designate as 1; but this is a higher 1 than the first, and to distinguish it from the first
we put near it a zero, a sign which means nothing. Here then is 10. Covering the zero
with the separate rectangular number cards in the order of their succession we see
formed: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. These numbers are composed by adding to
rod number 10, first rod number 1, then 2, then 3, etc., until we finally add rod
number 9 to rod number 10, thus obtaining a very long rod, which, when its
alternating red and blue sections are counted, gives us nineteen.

The directress may then show to the child the cards, giving the number 16, and he
may place rod 6 after rod 10. She then takes away the card bearing 6, and places over
the zero the card bearing the figure 8, whereupon the child takes away rod 6 and
replaces it with rod 8, thus making 18. Each of these acts may be recorded thus: 10 +
6 = 16; 10 + 8 = 18, etc. We proceed in the same way to subtraction.
When the number itself begins to have a clear meaning to the child, the
combinations are made upon one long card, arranging the rectangular cards bearing
the nine figures upon the two columns of numbers shown in the figures A and B.
Upon the card A we superimpose upon the zero of the second 10, the rectangular
card bearing the 1: and under this the one bearing two, etc. Thus while the one of
the[Pg 337] ten remains the same the numbers to the right proceed from zero to nine,
thus:
 In card B the applications are more complex. The cards are superimposed in
numerical progression by tens.
Almost all our children count to 100, a number which was given to them in
response to the curiosity they showed in regard to learning it.
I do not believe that this phase of the teaching needs further illustrations. Each
teacher may multiply the practical exercises in the arithmetical operations, using
simple objects which the children can readily handle and divide.

[Pg 338]

CHAPTER XX
SEQUENCE OF EXERCISES
In the practical application of the method it is helpful to know the sequence, or the
various series, of exercises which must be presented to the child successively.
In the first edition of my book there was clearly indicated a progression for each
exercise; but in the "Children's Houses" we began contemporaneously with the most
varied exercises; and it develops that there exist grades in the presentation of the
material in its entirety. These grades have, since the first publication of the book,
become clearly defined through experience in the "Children's Houses."

SEQUENCE AND GRADES IN THE PRESENTATION OF MATERIAL

AND IN THE EXERCISES

First Grade

As soon as the child comes to the school he may be given the following exercises:
Moving the seats, in silence (practical life).
Lacing, buttoning, hooking, etc.
The cylinders (sense exercises).
 Among these the most useful exercise is that of the cylinders (solid insets). The
child here begins to fix his attention. He makes his first comparison, his first selection,
in which he exercises judgment. Therefore he exercises his intelligence.[Pg 339]
Among these exercises with the solid insets, there exists the following progression
from easy to difficult:
(a) The cylinders in which the pieces are of the same height and of decreasing
diameter.
(b) The cylinders decreasing in all dimensions.
(c) Those decreasing only in height.

Second Grade

Exercises of Practical Life. To rise and be seated in silence. To walk on the line.
Sense Exercises. Material dealing with dimensions. The Long Stair. The prisms, or
Big Stair. The cubes. Here the child makes exercises in the recognition of dimensions
as he did in the cylinders but under a very different aspect. The objects are much
larger. The differences much more evident than they were in the preceding exercises,
but here, only the eye of the child recognises the differences and controls the errors. In
the preceding exercises, the errors were mechanically revealed to the child by the
didactic material itself. The impossibility of placing the objects in order in the block
in any other than their respective spaces gives this control. Finally, while in the
preceding exercises the child makes much more simple movements (being seated he
places little objects in order with his hands), in these new exercises he accomplishes
movements which are decidedly more complex and difficult and makes small
muscular efforts. He does this by moving from the table to the carpet, rises, kneels,
carries heavy objects.
We notice that the child continues to be confused between the two last pieces in the
growing scale, being for a long time unconscious of such an error after he has learned
to put the other pieces in correct order. Indeed [Pg 340] the difference between these
pieces being throughout the varying dimensions the same for all, the relative
difference diminishes with the increasing size of the pieces themselves. For example,
the little cube which has a base of 2 centimetres is double the size, as to base, of the
smallest cube which has a base of 1 centimetre, while the largest cube having a base
of 10 centimetres, differs by barely 1/10 from the base of the cube next it in the series
(the one of 9 centimetres base).
Thus it would seem that, theoretically, in such exercises we should begin with the
smallest piece. We can, indeed, do this with the material through which size and
length are taught. But we cannot do so with the cubes, which must be arranged as a
little "tower." This column of blocks must always have as its base the largest cube.
The children, attracted above all by the tower, begin very early to play with it. Thus
we often see very little children playing with the tower, happy in believing that they
have constructed it, when they have inadvertently used the next to the largest cube as
the base. But when the child, repeating the exercise, corrects himself of his own
accord, in a permanent fashion, we may be certain that his eye has become trained to
perceive even the slightest differences between the pieces.
In the three systems of blocks through which dimensions are taught that of length
has pieces differing from each other by 10 centimetres, while in the other two sets, the
pieces differ only 1 centimetre. Theoretically it would seem that the long rods should
be the first to attract the attention and to exclude errors. This, however, is not the
case. The children are attracted by this set of blocks, but they commit the greatest
number of errors in using it,[Pg 341] and only after they have for a long time
eliminated every error in constructing the other two sets, do they succeed in arranging
the Long Stair perfectly. This may then be considered as the most difficult among the
series through which dimensions are taught.
Arrived at this point in his education, the child is capable of fixing his attention,
with interest, upon the thermic and tactile stimuli.
The progression in the sense development is not, therefore, in actual practice
identical with the theoretical progression which psychometry indicates in the study of
its subjects. Nor does it follow the progression which physiology and anatomy
indicate in the description of the relations of the sense organs.
In fact, the tactile sense is the primitive sense; the organ of touch is the
most simple and the most widely diffused. But it is easy to explain how the most
simple sensations, the least complex organs, are not the first through which to attract
the attention in a didactic presentation of sense stimuli.
Therefore, when the education of the attention has been begun, we may present to
the child the rough and smooth surfaces (following certain thermic exercises
described elsewhere in the book).
These exercises, if presented at the proper time, interest the children immensely. It
is to be remembered that these games are of the greatest importance in the method,
because upon them, in union with the exercises for the movement of the hand, which
we introduce later, we base the acquisition of writing.
Together with the two series of sense exercises described above, we may begin
what we call the "pairing[Pg 342] of the colours," that is, the recognition of the identity
of two colours. This is the first exercise of the chromatic sense.
 Here, also, it is only the eye of the child that intervenes in the judgment, as it was
with the exercises in dimension. This first colour exercise is easy, but the child must
already have acquired a certain grade of education of the attention through preceding
exercises, if he is to repeat this one with interest.
Meanwhile, the child has heard music; has walked on the line, while the directress
played a rhythmic march. Little by little he has learned to accompany the music
spontaneously with certain movements. This of course necessitates the repetition of
the same music. (To acquire the sense of rhythm the repetition of the same exercise is
necessary, as in all forms of education dealing with spontaneous activity.)
The exercises in silence are also repeated.

Third Grade

Exercises of Practical Life. The children wash themselves, dress and undress
themselves, dust the tables, learn to handle various objects, etc.
Sense Exercises. We now introduce the child to the recognition of gradations of
stimuli (tactile gradations, chromatic, etc.), allowing him to exercise himself freely.
We begin to present the stimuli for the sense of hearing (sounds, noises), and also
the baric stimuli (the little tablets differing in weight).
Contemporaneously with the gradations we may present the plane geometric insets.
Here begins the education of the movement of the hand in following the contours of
the insets, an exercise which, together with the other and con [Pg 343]temporaneous
one of the recognition of tactile stimuli in gradation, prepares for writing.
The series of cards bearing the geometric forms, we give after the child recognises
perfectly the same forms in the wooden insets. These cards serve to prepare for
the abstract signs of which writing consists. The child learns to recognise a delineated
form, and after all the preceding exercises have formed within him an ordered and
intelligent personality, they may be considered the bridge by which he passes from the
sense exercises to writing, from the preparation, to the actual entrance into
instruction.

Fourth Grade

Exercises of Practical Life. The children set and clear the table for luncheon. They
learn to put a room in order. They are now taught the most minute care of their
persons in the making of the toilet. (How to brush their teeth, to clean their nails, etc.)
They have learned, through the rhythmic exercises on the line, to walk with perfect
freedom and balance.
 They know how to control and direct their own movements (how to make the
silence,—how to move various objects without dropping or breaking them and
without making a noise).
Sense Exercises. In this stage we repeat all the sense exercises. In addition we
introduce the recognition of musical notes by the help of the series of duplicate bells.
Exercises Related to Writing / Design / The child passes to the plane geometric
insets in metal. He has already co-ordinated the movements necessary to follow the
contours. Here he no longer follows them with his finger, but with a pencil, leaving the
double sign upon a sheet of[Pg 344] paper. Then he fills in the figures with coloured
pencils, holding the pencil as he will later hold the pen in writing.
Contemporaneously the child is taught to recognise and touch some of the letters of
the alphabet made in sandpaper.
Exercises in Arithmetic. At this point, repeating the sense exercises, we present the
Long Stair with a different aim from that with which it has been used up to the present
time. We have the child count the different pieces, according to the blue and red
sections, beginning with the rod consisting of one section and continuing through that
composed of ten sections. We continue such exercises and give other more
complicated ones.
In Design we pass from the outlines of the geometric insets to such outlined figures
as the practice of four years has established and which will be published as models in
design.
These have an educational importance, and represent in their content and in their
gradations one of the most carefully studied details of the method.
They serve as a means for the continuation of the sense education and help the child
to observe his surroundings. They thus add to his intellectual refinement, and, as
regards writing, they prepare for the high and low strokes. After such practice it will
be easy for the child to make high or low letters, and this will do away with the ruled
note-books such as are used in Italy in the various elementary classes.
In the acquiring of the use of written language we go as far as the knowledge of the
letters of the alphabet, and of composition with the movable alphabet.
In Arithmetic, as far as a knowledge of the figures. The child places the
corresponding figures beside the[Pg 345] number of blue and red sections on each rod
of the Long Stair.
The children now take the exercise with the wooden pegs.
 Also the games which consist in placing under the figures, on the table, a
corresponding number of coloured counters. These are arranged in columns of twos,
thus making the question of odd and even numbers clear. (This arrangement is taken
from Séguin.)

Fifth Grade

We continue the preceding exercises. We begin more complicated rhythmic

exercises.
In design we begin:
(a) The use of water colours.
(b) Free drawing from nature (flowers, etc.).
Composition of words and phrases with the movable alphabet.
(a) Spontaneous writing of words and phrases.
(b) Reading from slips prepared by the directress.
We continue the arithmetical operations which we began with the Long Stair.
The children at this stage present most interesting differences of development. They
fairly run toward instruction, and order their intellectual growth in a way that is
remarkable.
This joyous growth is what we so rejoice in, as we watch in these children,
humanity, growing in the spirit according to its own deep laws. And only he who
experiments can say how great may be the harvest from the sowing of such seed.

[Pg 346]

CHAPTER XXI
GENERAL REVIEW OF DISCIPLINE
The accumulated experience we have had since the publication of the Italian version
has repeatedly proved to us that in our classes of little children, numbering forty and
even fifty, the discipline is much better than in ordinary schools. For this reason I
have thought that an analysis of the discipline obtained by our method—which is
based upon liberty,—would interest my American readers.
Whoever visits a well kept school (such as, for instance, the one in Rome directed
by my pupil Anna Maccheroni) is struck by the discipline of the children. There are
forty little beings—from three to seven years old, each one intent on his own work;
one is going through one of the exercises for the senses, one is doing an arithmetical
exercise; one is handling the letters, one is drawing, one is fastening and unfastening
the pieces of cloth on one of our little wooden frames, still another is dusting. Some
are seated at the tables, some on rugs on the floor. There are muffled sounds of objects
lightly moved about, of children tiptoeing. Once in a while comes a cry of joy only
partly repressed, "Teacher! Teacher!" an eager call, "Look! see what I've done." But
as a rule, there is entire absorption in the work in hand.
The teacher moves quietly about, goes to any child who calls her, supervising
operations in such a way that any[Pg 347]one who needs her finds her at his elbow,
and whoever does not need her is not reminded of her existence. Sometimes, hours go
by without a word. They seem "little men," as they were called by some visitors to the
"Children's House"; or, as another suggested, "judges in deliberation."
In the midst of such intense interest in work it never happens that quarrels arise over
the possession of an object. If one accomplishes something especially fine, his
achievement is a source of admiration and joy to others: no heart suffers from
another's wealth, but the triumph of one is a delight to all. Very often he finds ready
imitators. They all seem happy and satisfied to do what they can, without feeling
jealous of the deeds of others. The little fellow of three works peaceably beside the
boy of seven, just as he is satisfied with his own height and does not envy the older
boy's stature. Everything is growing in the most profound peace.
If the teacher wishes the whole assembly to do something, for instance, leave the
work which interests them so much, all she needs to do is to speak a word in a low
tone, or make a gesture, and they are all attention, they look toward her with
eagerness, anxious to know how to obey. Many visitors have seen the teacher write
orders on the blackboard, which were obeyed joyously by the children. Not only the
teachers, but anyone who asks the pupils to do something is astonished to see them
obey in the minutest detail and with obliging cheerfulness. Often a visitor wishes to
hear how a child, now painting, can sing. The child leaves his painting to be obliging,
but the instant his courteous action is completed, he returns to his interrupted work.
Sometimes the smaller children finish their work before they obey.[Pg 348]
A very surprising result of this discipline came to our notice during the
examinations of the teachers who had followed my course of lectures. These
examinations were practical, and, accordingly, groups of children were put at the
disposition of the teachers being examined, who, according to the subject drawn by
lot, took the children through a given exercise. While the children were waiting their
turn, they were allowed to do just as they pleased. They worked incessantly, and
returned to their undertakings as soon as the interruption caused by the examination
was over. Every once in a while, one of them came to show us a drawing made during
the interval. Miss George of Chicago was present many times when this happened,
and Madame Pujols, who founded the first "Children's House" in Paris, was
astonished at the patience, the perseverance, and the inexhaustible amiability of the
children.
One might think that such children had been severely repressed were it not for their
lack of timidity, for their bright eyes, for their happy, free aspect, for the cordiality of
their invitations to look at their work, for the way in which they take visitors about
and explain matters to them. These things make us feel that we are in the presence of
the masters of the house; and the fervour with which they throw their arms around the
teacher's knees, with which they pull her down to kiss her face, shows that their little
hearts are free to expand as they will.
 MONTESSORI CHILDREN AT DINNER
The tables are set in the grounds of the school of the Franciscan Nuns, in Rome.
Anyone who has watched them setting the table must have passed from one surprise
to another. Little four-year-old waiters take the knives and forks and spoons and
distribute them to the different places; they carry trays holding as many as five water-
glasses, and finally they go from table to table, carrying big tureens full of hot
soup. [Pg 349]Not a mistake is made, not a glass is broken, not a drop of soup is
spilled. All during the meal unobtrusive little waiters watch the table assiduously; not
a child empties his soup-plate without being offered more; if he is ready for the next
course a waiter briskly carries off his soup-plate. Not a child is forced to ask for more
soup, or to announce that he has finished.

SCHOOL AT TARRYTOWN, N. Y.
The two girls at the left are constructing the big stair and the tower. The boy in
the center has constructed the long stair, and is placing the figures beside the
corresponding rods. The child to the right is tracing sandpaper letters.
Remembering the usual condition of four-year-old children, who cry, who break
whatever they touch, who need to be waited on, everyone is deeply moved by the
sight I have just described, which evidently results from the development of energies
latent in the depths of the human soul. I have often seen the spectators at this banquet
of little ones, moved to tears.
But such discipline could never be obtained by commands, by sermonizings, in
short, through any of the disciplinary devices universally known. Not only were the
actions of those children set in an orderly condition, but their very lives were
deepened and enlarged. In fact, such discipline is on the same plane with school-
exercises extraordinary for the age of the children; and it certainly does not depend
upon the teacher but upon a sort of miracle, occurring in the inner life of each child.
If we try to think of parallels in the life of adults, we are reminded of the
phenomenon of conversion, of the superhuman heightening of the strength of martyrs
and apostles, of the constancy of missionaries, of the obedience of monks. Nothing
else in the world, except such things, is on a spiritual height equal to the discipline of
the "Children's Houses."
To obtain such discipline it is quite useless to count on reprimands or spoken
exhortations. Such means might perhaps at the beginning have an appearance of
efficacy:[Pg 350] but very soon, the instant that real discipline appears, all of this falls
miserably to the earth, an illusion confronted with reality—"night gives way to day."
The first dawning of real discipline comes through work. At a given moment it
happens that a child becomes keenly interested in a piece of work, showing it by the
expression of his face, by his intense attention, by his perseverance in the same
exercise. That child has set foot upon the road leading to discipline. Whatever be his
undertaking—an exercise for the senses, an exercise in buttoning up or lacing
together, or washing dishes—it is all one and the same.
On our side, we can have some influence upon the permanence of this phenomenon,
by means of repeated "Lessons of Silence." The perfect immobility, the attention alert
to catch the sound of the names whispered from a distance, then the carefully co-
ordinated movements executed so as not to strike against chair or table, so as barely to
touch the floor with the feet—all this is a most efficacious preparation for the task of
setting in order the whole personality, the motor forces and the psychical.
Once the habit of work is formed, we must supervise it with scrupulous accuracy,
graduating the exercises as experience has taught us. In our effort to establish
discipline, we must rigorously apply the principles of the method. It is not to be
obtained by words; no man learns self-discipline "through hearing another man
speak." The phenomenon of discipline needs as preparation a series of complete
actions, such as are presupposed in the genuine application of a really educative
method. Discipline is reached always by indirect means. The end is obtained, not by
attacking the mistake and fighting it, but by developing activity in spontaneous work.
[Pg 351]
 This work cannot be arbitrarily offered, and it is precisely here that our method
enters; it must be work which the human being instinctively desires to do, work
towards which the latent tendencies of life naturally turn, or towards which the
individual step by step ascends.
Such is the work which sets the personality in order and opens wide before it
infinite possibilities of growth. Take, for instance, the lack of control shown by a
baby; it is fundamentally a lack of muscular discipline. The child is in a constant state
of disorderly movement: he throws himself down, he makes queer gestures, he cries.
What underlies all this is a latent tendency to seek that co-ordination of movement
which will be established later. The baby is a man not yet sure of the movements of
the various muscles of the body; not yet master of the organs of speech. He will
eventually establish these various movements, but for the present he is abandoned to a
period of experimentation full of mistakes, and of fatiguing efforts towards a desirable
end latent in his instinct, but not clear in his consciousness. To say to the baby, "Stand
still as I do," brings no light into his darkness; commands cannot aid in the process of
bringing order into the complex psycho-muscular system of an individual in process
of evolution. We are confused at this point by the example of the adult who through a
wicked impulse prefers disorder, and who may (granted that he can) obey a sharp
admonishment which turns his will in another direction, towards that order which he
recognises and which it is within his capacity to achieve. In the case of the little child
it is a question of aiding the natural evolution of voluntary action. Hence it is
necessary to teach all the co-ordinated movements, analysing them as much as
possible and developing them bit by bit.[Pg 352]
Thus, for instance, it is necessary to teach the child the various degrees of
immobility leading to silence; the movements connected with rising from a chair and
sitting down, with walking, with tiptoeing, with following a line drawn on the floor
keeping an upright equilibrium. The child is taught to move objects about, to set them
down more or less carefully, and finally the complex movements connected with
dressing and undressing himself (analysed on the lacing and buttoning frames at
school), and for even each of these exercises, the different parts of the movement must
be analysed. Perfect immobility and the successive perfectioning of action, is what
takes the place of the customary command, "Be quiet! Be still!" It is not astonishing
but very natural that the child by means of such exercises should acquire self-
discipline, so far as regards the lack of muscular discipline natural to his age. In short,
he responds to nature because he is in action; but these actions being directed towards
an end, have no longer the appearance of disorder but of work. This is discipline
which represents an end to be attained by means of a number of conquests. The child
disciplined in this way, is no longer the child he was at first, who knows how
to be good passively; but he is an individual who has made himself better, who has
overcome the usual limits of his age, who has made a great step forward, who has
conquered his future in his present.
He has therefore enlarged his dominion. He will not need to have someone always
at hand, to tell him vainly (confusing two opposing conceptions), "Be quiet! Be
good!" The goodness he has conquered cannot be summed up by inertia: his goodness
is now all made up of action. As a matter of fact, good people are those who advance
towards the good—that good which is made up[Pg 353] of their own self-development
and of external acts of order and usefulness.
In our efforts with the child, external acts are the means which stimulate internal
development, and they again appear as its manifestation, the two elements being
inextricably intertwined. Work develops the child spiritually; but the child with a
fuller spiritual development works better, and his improved work delights him,—
hence he continues to develop spiritually. Discipline is, therefore, not a fact but a path,
a path in following which the child grasps the abstract conception of goodness with an
exactitude which is fairly scientific.
But beyond everything else he savours the supreme delights of that
spiritual order which is attained indirectly through conquests directed towards
determinate ends. In that long preparation, the child experiences joys, spiritual
awakenings and pleasures which form his inner treasure-house—the treasure-house in
which he is steadily storing up the sweetness and strength which will be the sources of
righteousness.
In short, the child has not only learned to move about and to perform useful acts; he
has acquired a special grace of action which makes his gestures more correct and
attractive, and which beautifies his hands and indeed his entire body now so balanced
and so sure of itself; a grace which refines the expression of his face and of his
serenely brilliant eyes, and which shows us that the flame of spiritual life has been
lighted in another human being.

It is obviously true that co-ordinated actions, developed spontaneously little by little

(that is, chosen and carried out in the exercises by the child himself), must call for less
effort than the disorderly actions performed by the [Pg 354] child who is left to his own
devices. True rest for muscles, intended by nature for action, is in orderly action; just
as true rest for the lungs is the normal rhythm of respiration taken in pure air. To take
action away from the muscles is to force them away from their natural motor impulse,
and hence, besides tiring them, means forcing them into a state of degeneration; just
as the lungs forced into immobility, would die instantly and the whole organism with
them.
 It is therefore necessary to keep clearly in mind the fact that rest for whatever
naturally acts, lies in some specified form of action, corresponding to its nature.
To act in obedience to the hidden precepts of nature—that is rest; and in this special
case, since man is meant to be an intelligent creature, the more intelligent his acts are
the more he finds repose in them. When a child acts only in a disorderly, disconnected
manner, his nervous force is under a great strain; while on the other hand his nervous
energy is positively increased and multiplied by intelligent actions which give him
real satisfaction, and a feeling of pride that he has overcome himself, that he finds
himself in a world beyond the frontiers formerly set up as insurmountable, surrounded
by the silent respect of the one who has guided him without making his presence felt.
This "multiplication of nervous energy" represents a process which can be
physiologically analysed, and which comes from the development of the organs by
rational exercise, from better circulation of the blood, from the quickened activity of
all the tissues—all factors favourable to the development of the body and
guaranteeing physical health. The spirit aids the body in its growth; the heart, the
nerves and the muscles are helpful[Pg 355] in their evolution by the activity of the
spirit, since the upward path for soul and body is one and the same.
By analogy, it can be said of the intellectual development of the child, that the mind
of infancy, although characteristically disorderly, is also "a means searching for its
end," which goes through exhausting experiments, left, as it frequently is, to its own
resources, and too often really persecuted. Once in our public park in Rome, the
Pincian Gardens, I saw a baby of about a year and a half, a beautiful smiling child,
who was working away trying to fill a little pail by shoveling gravel into it. Beside
him was a smartly dressed nurse evidently very fond of him, the sort of nurse who
would consider that she gave the child the most affectionate and intelligent care. It
was time to go home and the nurse was patiently exhorting the baby to leave his work
and let her put him into the baby-carriage. Seeing that her exhortations made no
impression on the little fellow's firmness, she herself filled the pail with gravel and set
pail and baby into the carriage with the fixed conviction that she had given him what
he wanted.
I was struck by the loud cries of the child and by the expression of protest against
violence and injustice which wrote itself on his little face. What an accumulation of
wrongs weighed down that nascent intelligence! The little boy did not wish to have
the pail full of gravel; he wished to go through the motions necessary to fill it, thus
satisfying a need of his vigorous organism. The child's unconscious aim was his own
self-development; not the external fact of a pail full of little stones. The vivid
attractions of the external world were only empty apparitions; the need of his life was
a reality. As a matter of fact, if he had filled his pail he would probably have [Pg
356] emptied it out again in order to keep on filling it up until his inner self was
satisfied. It was the feeling of working towards this satisfaction which, a few moments
before, had made his face so rosy and smiling; spiritual joy, exercise, and sunshine,
were the three rays of light ministering to his splendid life.
This commonplace episode in the life of that child, is a detail of what happens to all
children, even the best and most cherished. They are not understood, because the adult
judges them by his own measure: he thinks that the child's wish is to obtain some
tangible object, and lovingly helps him to do this: whereas the child as a rule has for
his unconscious desire, his own self-development. Hence he despises everything
already attained, and yearns for that which is still to be sought for. For instance, he
prefers the action of dressing himself to the state of being dressed, even finely
dressed. He prefers the act of washing himself to the satisfaction of being clean: he
prefers to make a little house for himself, rather than merely to own it. His own self-
development is his true and almost his only pleasure. The self-development of the
little baby up to the end of his first year consists to a large degree in taking in
nutrition; but afterwards it consists in aiding the orderly establishment of the psycho-
physiological functions of his organism.
That beautiful baby in the Pincian Gardens is the symbol of this: he wished to co-
ordinate his voluntary actions; to exercise his muscles by lifting; to train his eye to
estimate distances; to exercise his intelligence in the reasoning connected with his
undertaking; to stimulate his will-power by deciding his own actions; whilst she who
loved him, believing that his aim was to possess some pebbles, made him wretched.
[Pg 357]

A similar error is that which we repeat so frequently when we fancy that the desire
of the student is to possess a piece of information. We aid him to grasp intellectually
this detached piece of knowledge, and, preventing by this means his self-development,
we make him wretched. It is generally believed in schools that the way to attain,
satisfaction is "to learn something." But by leaving the children in our schools in
liberty we have been able with great clearness to follow them in their natural method
of spontaneous self-development.
To have learned something is for the child only a point of departure. When he has
learned the meaning of an exercise, then he begins to enjoy repeating it, and he does
repeat it an infinite number of times, with the most evident satisfaction. He enjoys
executing that act because by means of it he is developing his psychic activities.
There results from the observation of this fact a criticism of what is done to-day in
many schools. Often, for instance when the pupils are questioned, the teacher says to
someone who is eager to answer, "No, not you, because you know it" and puts her
question specially to the pupils who she thinks are uncertain of the answer. Those who
do not know are made to speak, those who do know to be silent. This happens because
of the general habit of considering the act of knowing something as final.
And yet how many times it happens to us in ordinary life to repeat the very thing
we know best, the thing we care most for, the thing to which some living force in us
responds. We love to sing musical phrases very familiar, hence enjoyed and become a
part of the fabric of our lives. We love to repeat stories of things which please us,
which we know very well, even though we are quite [Pg 358] aware that we are saying
nothing new. No matter how many times we repeat the Lord's Prayer, it is always
new. No two persons could be more convinced of mutual love than sweethearts and
yet they are the very ones who repeat endlessly that they love each other.
But in order to repeat in this manner, there must first exist the idea to be repeated. A
mental grasp of the idea, is indispensable to the beginning of repetition. The exercise
which develops life, consists in the repetition, not in the mere grasp of the idea. When
a child has attained this stage, of repeating an exercise, he is on the way to self-
development, and the external sign of this condition is his self-discipline.
This phenomenon does not always occur. The same exercises are not repeated by
children of all ages. In fact, repetition corresponds to a need. Here steps in the
experimental method of education. It is necessary to offer those exercises which
correspond to the need of development felt by an organism, and if the child's age has
carried him past a certain need, it is never possible to obtain, in its fulness, a
development which missed its proper moment. Hence children grow up, often fatally
and irrevocably, imperfectly developed.
Another very interesting observation is that which relates to the length of time
needed for the execution of actions. Children, who are undertaking something for the
first time are extremely slow. Their life is governed in this respect by laws especially
different from ours. Little children accomplish slowly and perseveringly, various
complicated operations agreeable to them, such as dressing, undressing, cleaning the
room, washing themselves, setting the table, eating, etc. In all this they are extremely
patient, overcoming all the difficulties pre [Pg 359]sented by an organism still in
process of formation. But we, on the other hand, noticing that they are "tiring
themselves out" or "wasting time" in accomplishing something which we would do in
a moment and without the least effort, put ourselves in the child's place and do it
ourselves. Always with the same erroneous idea, that the end to be obtained is the
completion of the action, we dress and wash the child, we snatch out of his hands
objects which he loves to handle, we pour the soup into his bowl, we feed him, we set
the table for him. And after such services, we consider him with that injustice always
practised by those who domineer over others even with benevolent intentions, to be
incapable and inept. We often speak of him as "impatient" simply because we are not
patient enough to allow his actions to follow laws of time differing from our own; we
call him "tyrannical" exactly because we employ tyranny towards him. This stain, this
false imputation, this calumny on childhood has become an integral part of the
theories concerning childhood, in reality so patient and gentle.
The child, like every strong creature fighting for the right to live, rebels against
whatever offends that occult impulse within him which is the voice of nature, and
which he ought to obey; and he shows by violent actions, by screaming and weeping
that he has been overborne and forced away from his mission in life. He shows
himself to be a rebel, a revolutionist, an iconoclast, against those who do not
understand him and who, fancying that they are helping him, are really pushing him
backward in the highway of life. Thus even the adult who loves him, rivets about his
neck another calumny, confusing his defence of his molested life with a form of
innate naughtiness characteristic of little children.[Pg 360]
What would become of us if we fell into the midst of a population of jugglers, or of
lightning-change impersonators of the variety-hall? What should we do if, as we
continued to act in our usual way, we saw ourselves assailed by these sleight-of-hand
performers, hustled into our clothes, fed so rapidly that we could scarcely swallow, if
everything we tried to do was snatched from our hands and completed in a twinkling
and we ourselves reduced to impotence and to a humiliating inertia? Not knowing
how else to express our confusion we would defend ourselves with blows and yells
from these madmen, and they having only the best will in the world to serve us, would
call us haughty, rebellious, and incapable of doing anything. We, who know our
own milieu, would say to those people, "Come into our countries and you will see the
splendid civilisation we have established, you will see our wonderful achievements."
These jugglers would admire us infinitely, hardly able to believe their eyes, as they
observed our world, so full of beauty and activity, so well regulated, so peaceful, so
kindly, but all so much slower than theirs.
Something of this sort occurs between children and adults.

It is exactly in the repetition of the exercises that the education of the senses
consists; their aim is not that the child shall know colours, forms and the different
qualities of objects, but that he refine his senses through an exercise of attention, of
comparison, of judgment. These exercises are true intellectual gymnastics. Such
gymnastics, reasonably directed by means of various devices, aid in the formation of
the intellect, just as physical exercises fortify the general health and quicken the
growth[Pg 361] of the body. The child who trains his various senses separately, by
means of external stimuli, concentrates his attention and develops, piece by piece, his
mental activities, just as with separately prepared movements he trains his muscular
activities. These mental gymnastics are not merely psycho-sensory, but they prepare
the way for spontaneous association of ideas, for ratiocination developing out of
definite knowledge, for a harmoniously balanced intellect. They are the powder-trains
that bring about those mental explosions which delight the child so intensely when he
makes discoveries in the world about him, when he, at the same time, ponders over
and glories in the new things which are revealed to him in the outside world, and in
the exquisite emotions of his own growing consciousness; and finally when there
spring up within him, almost by a process of spontaneous ripening, like the internal
phenomena of growth, the external products of learning—writing and reading.
I happened once to see a two-year-old child, son of a medical colleague of mine,
who, fairly fleeing away from his mother who had brought him to me, threw himself
on the litter of things covering his father's desk, the rectangular writing-pad, the round
cover of the ink-well. I was touched to see the intelligent little creature trying his best
to go through the exercises which our children repeat with such endless pleasure till
they have fully committed them to memory. The father and the mother pulled the
child away, reproving him, and explaining that there was no use trying to keep that
child from handling his father's desk-furniture, "The child is restless and naughty."
How often we see all children reproved because, though they are told not to, they will
"take hold of everything." Now, it is precisely by means of guiding and developing [Pg
362] this natural instinct "to take hold of everything," and to recognise the relations of
geometrical figures, that we prepare our little four-year-old men for the joy and
triumph they experience later over the phenomenon of spontaneous writing.
The child who throws himself on the writing-pad, the cover to the ink-well, and
such objects, always struggling in vain to attain his desire, always hindered and
thwarted by people stronger than he, always excited and weeping over the failure of
his desperate efforts, is wasting nervous force. His parents are mistaken if they think
that such a child ever gets any real rest, just as they are mistaken when they call
"naughty" the little man longing for the foundations of his intellectual edifice. The
children in our schools are the ones who are really at rest, ardently and blessedly free
to take out and put back in their right places or grooves, the geometric figures offered
to their instinct for higher self-development; and they, rejoicing in the most entire
spiritual calm, have no notion that their eyes and hands are initiating them into the
mysteries of a new language.
The majority of our children become calm as they go through such exercises,
because their nervous system is at rest. Then we say that such children are quiet and
good; external discipline, so eagerly sought after in ordinary schools is more than
achieved.
However, as a calm man and a self-disciplined man are not one and the same, so
here the fact which manifests itself externally by the calm of the children is in reality a
phenomenon merely physical and partial compared to the real self-discipline which is
being developed in them.
Often (and this is another misconception) we think all we need to do, to obtain a
voluntary action from a child,[Pg 363] is to order him to do it. We pretend that this
phenomenon of a forced voluntary action exists, and we call this pretext, "the
obedience of the child." We find little children specially disobedient, or rather their
resistance, by the time they are four or five years old, has become so great that we are
in despair and are almost tempted to give up trying to make them obey. We force
ourselves to praise to little children "the virtue of obedience" a virtue which,
according to our accepted prejudices, should belong specially to infancy, should be
the "infantile virtue" yet we fail to learn anything from the fact that we are led to
emphasize it so strongly because we can only with the greatest difficulty make
children practise it.
It is a very common mistake, this of trying to obtain by means of prayers, or orders,
or violence, what is difficult, or impossible to get. Thus, for instance, we ask little
children to be obedient, and little children in their turn ask for the moon.
We need only reflect that this "obedience" which we treat so lightly, occurs later, as
a natural tendency in older children, and then as an instinct in the adult to realise that
it springs spontaneously into being, and that it is one of the strongest instincts of
humanity. We find that society rests on a foundation of marvellous obedience, and
that civilisation goes forward on a road made by obedience. Human organisations are
often founded on an abuse of obedience, associations of criminals have obedience as
their key-stone.
How many times social problems centre about the necessity of rousing man from a
state of "obedience" which has led him to be exploited and brutalised!
Obedience naturally is sacrifice. We are so accustomed to an infinity of obedience
in the world, to a condi[Pg 364]tion of self-sacrifice, to a readiness for renunciation,
that we call matrimony the "blessed condition," although it is made up of obedience
and self-sacrifice. The soldier, whose lot in life is to obey if it kills him is envied by
the common people, while we consider anyone who tries to escape from obedience as
a malefactor or a madman. Besides, how many people have had the deeply spiritual
experience of an ardent desire to obey something or some person leading them along
the path of life—more than this, a desire to sacrifice something for the sake of this
obedience.
It is therefore entirely natural that, loving the child, we should point out to him that
obedience is the law of life, and there is nothing surprising in the anxiety felt by
nearly everyone who is confronted with the characteristic disobedience of little
children. But obedience can only be reached through a complex formation of the
psychic personality. To obey, it is necessary not only to wish to obey, but also to
know how to. Since, when a command to do a certain thing is given, we presuppose a
corresponding active or inhibitive power of the child, it is plain that obedience must
follow the formation of the will and of the mind. To prepare, in detail, this formation
by means of detached exercises is therefore indirectly, to urge the child towards
obedience. The method which is the subject of this book contains in every part an
exercise for the will-power, when the child completes co-ordinated actions directed
towards a given end, when he achieves something he set out to do, when he repeats
patiently his exercises, he is training his positive will-power. Similarly, in a very
complicated series of exercises he is establishing through activity his powers of
inhibition; for instance in the "lesson of silence," which calls for a long con [Pg
365]tinued inhibition of many actions, while the child is waiting to be called and later
for a rigorous self-control when he is called and would like to answer joyously and
run to his teacher, but instead is perfectly silent, moves very carefully, taking the
greatest pains not to knock against chair or table or to make a noise.
Other inhibitive exercises are the arithmetical ones, when the child having drawn a
number by lot, must take from the great mass of objects before him, apparently
entirely at his disposition, only the quantity corresponding to the number in his hand,
whereas (as experience has proved) he would like to take the greatest number
possible. Furthermore if he chances to draw the zero he sits patiently with empty
hands. Still another training for the inhibitive will-power is in "the lesson of zero"
when the child, called upon to come up zero times and give zero kisses, stands quiet,
conquering with a visible effort the instinct which would lead him to "obey" the call.
The child at our school dinners who carries the big tureen full of hot soup, isolates
himself from every external stimulant which might disturb him, resists his childish
impulse to run and jump, does not yield to the temptation to brush away the fly on his
face, and is entirely concentrated on the great responsibility of not dropping or tipping
the tureen. A little thing of four and a half, every time he set the tureen down on a
table so that the little guests might help themselves, gave a hop and a skip, then took
up the tureen again to carry it to another table, repressing himself to a sober walk. In
spite of his desire to play he never left his task before he had passed soup to the
twenty tables, and he never forgot the vigilance necessary to control his actions.
Will-power, like all other activities is invigorated and [Pg 366] developed through
methodical exercises, and all our exercises for will-power are also mental and
practical. To the casual onlooker the child seems to be learning exactitude and grace
of action, to be refining his senses, to be learning how to read and write; but much
more profoundly he is learning how to become his own master, how to be a man of
prompt and resolute will.
 We often hear it said that a child's will should be "broken" that the best education
for the will of the child is to learn to give it up to the will of adults. Leaving out of the
question the injustice which is at the root of every act of tyranny, this idea is irrational
because the child cannot give up what he does not possess. We prevent him in this
way from forming his own will-power, and we commit the greatest and most
blameworthy mistake. He never has time or opportunity to test himself, to estimate his
own force and his own limitations because he is always interrupted and subjected to
our tyranny, and languishes in injustice because he is always being bitterly reproached
for not having what adults are perpetually destroying.
There springs up as a consequence of this, childish timidity, which is a moral
malady acquired by a will which could not develop; and which with the usual
calumny with which the tyrant consciously or not, covers up his own mistakes, we
consider as an inherent trait of childhood. The children in our schools are never timid.
One of their most fascinating qualities is the frankness with which they treat people,
with which they go on working in the presence of others, and showing their work
frankly, calling for sympathy. That moral monstrosity, a repressed and timid child,
who is at his ease nowhere except alone with his playmates, or with street urchins, [Pg
367] because his will-power was allowed to grow only in the shade, disappears in our
schools. He presents an example of thoughtless barbarism, which resembles the
artificial compression of the bodies of those children intended for "court dwarfs,"
museum monstrosities or buffoons. Yet this is the treatment under which nearly all the
children of our time are growing up spiritually.
As a matter of fact in all the pedagogical congresses one hears that the great peril of
our time is the lack of individual character in the scholars; yet these alarmists do not
point out that this condition is due to the way in which education is managed, to
scholastic slavery, which has for its specialty the repression of will-power and of force
of character. The remedy is simply to enfranchise human development.
Besides the exercises it offers for developing will-power, the other factor in
obedience is the capacity to perform the act it becomes necessary to obey. One of the
most interesting observations made by my pupil Anna Maccheroni (at first in the
school in Milan and then in that in the Via Guisti in Rome), relates to the connection
between obedience in a child and his "knowing how." Obedience appears in the child
as a latent instinct as soon as his personality begins to take form. For instance, a child
begins to try a certain exercise and suddenly some time he goes through it perfectly;
he is delighted, stares at it, and wishes to do it over again, but for some time the
exercise is not a success. Then comes a time when he can do it nearly every time he
tries voluntarily but makes mistakes if someone else asks him to do it. The external
command does not as yet produce the voluntary act. When, however, the exercise
always succeeds, with absolute certainty, then an order from someone else brings [Pg
368] about on the child's part, orderly adequate action; that is, the child is able each
time to execute the command received. That these facts (with variations in individual
cases) are laws of psychical development is apparent from everyone's experience with
children in school or at home.
One often hears a child say, "I did do such and such a thing but now I can't!" and a
teacher disappointed by the incompetence of a pupil will say, "Yet that child was
doing it all right—and now he can't!"
Finally there is the period of complete development in which the capacity to
perform some operation is permanently acquired. There are, therefore, three periods: a
first, subconscious one, when in the confused mind of the child, order produces itself
by a mysterious inner impulse from out the midst of disorder, producing as an external
result a completed act, which, however, being outside the field of consciousness,
cannot be reproduced at will; a second, conscious period, when there is some action
on the part of the will which is present during the process of the development and
establishing of the acts; and a third period when the will can direct and cause the acts,
thus answering the command from someone else.
Now, obedience follows a similar sequence. When in the first period of spiritual
disorder, the child does not obey it is exactly as if he were psychically deaf, and out of
hearing of commands. In the second period he would like to obey, he looks as though
he understood the command and would like to respond to it, but cannot,—or at least
does not always succeed in doing it, is not "quick to mind" and shows no pleasure
when he does. In the third period he obeys at once, with enthusiasm, and as he
becomes more and more perfect in the exercises he is [Pg 369] proud that he knows
how to obey. This is the period in which he runs joyously to obey, and leaves at the
most imperceptible request whatever is interesting him so that he may quit the
solitude of his own life and enter, with the act of obedience into the spiritual existence
of another.
To this order, established in a consciousness formerly chaotic, are due all the
phenomena of discipline and of mental development, which open out like a new
Creation. From minds thus set in order, when "night is separated from day" come
sudden emotions and mental feats which recall the Biblical story of Creation. The
child has in his mind not only what he has laboriously acquired, but the free gifts
which flow from spiritual life, the first flowers of affection, of gentleness, of
spontaneous love for righteousness which perfume the souls of such children and give
promise of the "fruits of the spirit" of St. Paul—"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, long-suffering gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness."
They are virtuous because they exercise patience in repeating their exercises, long-
suffering in yielding to the commands and desires of others, good in rejoicing in the
well-being of others without jealousy or rivalry; they live, doing good in joyousness
of heart and in peace, and they are eminently, marvellously industrious. But they are
not proud of such righteousness because they were not conscious of acquiring it as a
moral superiority. They have set their feet in the path leading to righteousness, simply
because it was the only way to attain true self-development and learning; and they
enjoy with simple hearts the fruits of peace that are to be gathered along that path. [Pg
370]

These are the first outlines of an experiment which shows a form of indirect
discipline in which there is substituted for the critical and sermonizing teacher a
rational organisation of work and of liberty for the child. It involves a conception of
life more usual in religious fields than in those of academic pedagogy, inasmuch as it
has recourse to the spiritual energies of mankind, but it is founded on work and on
liberty which are the two paths to all civic progress.

[Pg 371]

CHAPTER XXII
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
In the "Children's Houses," the old-time teacher, who wore herself out maintaining
discipline of immobility, and who wasted her breath in loud and continual discourse,
has disappeared.
For this teacher we have substituted the didactic material, which contains within
itself the control of errors and which makes auto-education possible to each child. The
teacher has thus become a director of the spontaneous work of the children. She is not
a passive force, a silent presence.
The children are occupied each one in a different way, and the directress, watching
them, can make psychological observations which, if collected in an orderly way and
according to scientific standards, should do much toward the reconstruction of child
psychology and the development of experimental psychology. I believe that I have by
my method established the conditions necessary to the development of scientific
pedagogy; and whoever adopts this method opens, in doing so, a laboratory of
experimental pedagogy.
 From such work, we must await the positive solution of all those pedagogical
problems of which we talk to-day. For through such work there has already come the
solution of some of these very questions: that of the liberty of the pupils; auto-
education; the establishment of har[Pg 372]mony between the work and activities of
home life and school tasks, making both work together for the education of the child.
The problem of religious education, the importance of which we do not fully
realise, should also be solved by positive pedagogy. If religion is born with
civilisation, its roots must lie deep in human nature. We have had most beautiful proof
of an instinctive love of knowledge in the child, who has too often been misjudged in
that he has been considered addicted to meaningless play, and games void of thought.
The child who left the game in his eagerness for knowledge, has revealed himself as a
true son of that humanity which has been throughout centuries the creator of scientific
and civil progress. We have belittled the son of man by giving him foolish and
degrading toys, a world of idleness where he is suffocated by a badly conceived
discipline. Now, in his liberty, the child should show us, as well, whether man is by
nature a religious creature.
To deny, a priori, the religions sentiment in man, and to deprive humanity of the
education of this sentiment, is to commit a pedagogical error similar to that of
denying, a priori, to the child, the love of learning for learning's sake. This ignorant
assumption led us to dominate the scholar, to subject him to a species of slavery, in
order to render him apparently disciplined.
The fact that we assume that religions education is only adapted to the adult, may be
akin to another profound error existing in education to-day, namely, that of
overlooking the education of the senses at the very period when this education is
possible. The life of the adult is practically an application of the senses to the
gathering of sensations from the environment. A lack of preparation [Pg 373] for this,
often results in inadequacy in practical life, in that lack of poise which causes so many
individuals to waste their energies in purposeless effort. Not to form a parallel
between the education of the senses as a guide to practical life, and religious
education as a guide to the moral life, but for the sake of illustration, let me call
attention to how often we find inefficiency, instability, among irreligious persons, and
how much precious individual power is miserably wasted.
How many men have had this experience! And when that spiritual awakening
comes late, as it sometimes does, through the softening power of sorrow, the mind is
unable to establish an equilibrium, because it has grown too much accustomed to a
life deprived of spirituality. We see equally piteous cases of religious fanaticism, or
we look upon intimate dramatic struggles between the heart, ever seeking its own safe
and quiet port, and the mind that constantly draws it back to the sea of conflicting
ideas and emotions, where peace is unknown. These are all psychological phenomena
of the highest importance; they present, perhaps, the gravest of all our human
problems. We Europeans are still filled with prejudices and hedged about with
preconceptions in regard to these matters. We are very slaves of thought. We believe
that liberty of conscience and of thought consists in denying certain sentimental
beliefs, while liberty never can exist where one struggles to stifle some other thing,
but only where unlimited expansion is granted; where life is left free and
untrammelled. He who really does not believe, does not fear that which he does not
believe, and does not combat that which for him does not exist. If he believes and
fights, he then becomes an enemy to liberty.
In America, the great positive scientist, William James, [Pg 374] who expounds the
physiological theory of emotions, is also the man who illustrates the psychological
importance of religious "conscience." We cannot know the future of the progress of
thought: here, for example, in the "Children's Houses" the triumph
of discipline through the conquest of liberty and independence marks the foundation
of the progress which the future will see in the matter of pedagogical methods. To me
it offers the greatest hope for human redemption through education.
Perhaps, in the same way, through the conquest of liberty of thought and of
conscience, we are making our way toward a great religious triumph. Experience will
show, and the psychological observations made along this line in the "Children's
Houses" will undoubtedly be of the greatest interest.
This book of methods compiled by one person alone, must be followed by many
others. It is my hope that, starting from the individual study of the child educated with
our method, other educators will set forth the results of their experiments. These are
the pedagogical books which await us in the future.
From the practical side of the school, we have with our methods the advantage of
being able to teach in one room, children of very different ages. In our "Children's
Houses" we have little ones of two years and a half, who cannot as yet make use of
the most simple of the sense exercises, and children of five and a half who because of
their development might easily pass into the third elementary. Each one of them
perfects himself through his own powers, and goes forward guided by that inner force
which distinguishes him as an individual.
One great advantage of such a method is that it will make instruction in the rural
schools easier, and will be[Pg 375] of great advantage in the schools in the small
provincial towns where there are few children, yet where all the various grades are
represented. Such schools are not able to employ more than one teacher. Our
experience shows that one directress may guide a group of children varying in
development from little ones of three years old to the third elementary. Another great
advantage lies in the extreme facility with which written language may be taught,
making it possible to combat illiteracy and to cultivate the national tongue.
As to the teacher, she may remain for a whole day among children in the most
varying stages of development, just as the mother remains in the house with children
of all ages, without becoming tired.
The children work by themselves, and, in doing so, make a conquest of active
discipline, and independence in all the acts of daily life, just as through daily
conquests they progress in intellectual development. Directed by an intelligent
teacher, who watches over their physical development as well as over their intellectual
and moral progress, children are able with our methods to arrive at a splendid physical
development, and, in addition to this, there unfolds within them, in all its perfection,
the soul, which distinguishes the human being.
We have been mistaken in thinking that the natural education of children should be
purely physical; the soul, too, has its nature, which it was intended to perfect in the
spiritual life,—the dominating power of human existence throughout all time. Our
methods take into consideration the spontaneous psychic development of the child,
and help this in ways that observation and experience have shown us to be wise.
If physical care leads the child to take pleasure in [Pg 376] bodily health, intellectual
and moral care make possible for him the highest spiritual joy, and send him forward
into a world where continual surprises and discoveries await him; not only in the
external environment, but in the intimate recesses of his own soul.
It is through such pleasures as these that the ideal man grows, and only such
pleasures are worthy of a place in the education of the infancy of humanity.
Our children are noticeably different from those others who have grown up within
the grey walls of the common schools. Our little pupils have the serene and happy
aspect and the frank and open friendliness of the person who feels himself to be
master of his own actions. When they run to gather about our visitors, speaking to
them with sweet frankness, extending their little hands with gentle gravity and well-
bred cordiality, when they thank these visitors for the courtesy they have paid us in
coming, the bright eyes and the happy voices make us feel that they are, indeed,
unusual little men. When they display their work and their ability, in a confidential
and simple way, it is almost as if they called for a maternal approbation from all those
who watch them. Often, a little one will seat himself on the floor beside some visitor
silently writing his name, and adding a gentle word of thanks. It is as if they wished to
make the visitor feel the affectionate gratitude which is in their hearts.
When we see all these things and when, above all, we pass with these children from
the busy activity of the schoolroom at work, into the absolute and profound silence
which they have learned to enjoy so deeply, we are moved in spite of ourselves and
feel that we have come in touch with the very souls of these little pupils.
The "Children's House" seems to exert a spiritual in [Pg 377]fluence upon everyone. I
have seen here, men of affairs, great politicians preoccupied with problems of trade
and of state, cast off like an uncomfortable garment the burden of the world, and fall
into a simple forgetfulness of self. They are affected by this vision of the human soul
growing in its true nature, and I believe that this is what they mean when they call our
little ones, wonderful children, happy children—the infancy of humanity in a higher
stage of evolution than our own. I understand how the great English poet Wordsworth,
enamoured as he was of nature, demanded the secret of all her peace and beauty. It
was at last revealed to him—the secret of all nature lies in the soul of a little child. He
holds there the true meaning of that life which exists throughout humanity. But this
beauty which "lies about us in our infancy" becomes obscured; "shades of the prison
house, begin to close about the growing boy ... at last the man perceives it die away,
and fade into the light of common day."
Truly our social life is too often only the darkening and the death of the natural life
that is in us. These methods tend to guard that spiritual fire within man, to keep his
real nature unspoiled and to set it free from the oppressive and degrading yoke of
society. It is a pedagogical method informed by the high concept of Immanuel Kant:
"Perfect art returns to nature."

THE END

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