The child's mind : its growth and training being a short study of some processes of learning and teaching / by W.E. Urwick.

  • Urwick, W. E. (William Eddowes)
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The child's mind : its growth and training being a short study of some processes of learning and teaching / by W.E. Urwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    trust that the young mind will find in the good and the beautiful something akin to itself, and leave them to do their own work in the formation of the ideal standard. Our inherited wealth of beauty provides an ample store of things simple enough for the childish liking, and yet good enough for a high ideal standard. There is, indeed, every variety, every grade of choice, from what is well within the scope of a little child to what is quite beyond the average schoolboy. The one essential thing is to keep those periods set apart for the growing of aesthetic values as times when teacher and pupil enjoy them- selves together. Final values with conscious and purposive learning and teaching are out of place there. Spelling, grammar, and derivations have no business to trespass on the time set apart for literature. Questions of technique do not arise, except in artists’ minds, in understanding and enjoy- ing a picture. The pleasure of singing a good song together or listening to good music of any kind is incompatible with practice in intervals or talks about keys and scales. Success in fostering aesthetic values depends partly on a suitable selection of material, but much more on the teacher’s sympathy and influence. During the first school period—i.e., from six to twelve years of age—acquisition and technique and opportunity for appreciation are better kept quite separate. In the later period technique ought gradually to aid appreciation. When the pupil has got far enough to attempt to imitate the