well that they should not always work in the same groups. In doing work from the black-board, short-sighted child- Short ren should be placed where they can see properly. sight. Children often differ greatly as to their receptiveness through eye and ear; I have been assured that some children may take down dictation correctly from a passage read aloud who cannot copy from a book without mistakes; such facts may suggest arrangement of class work. The lighting of school-rooms is not always convenient, some children may be seen constantly frowning from the effects of too strong a light. The form is sometimes so close to the desk that the child cannot stand up in his place without bending the lower part of the back unduly (lordosis).

It is usual to see children when Lordosis. standing in class and answering questions hold up one hand as a sign of readiness; in the case of children with nerve-weakness this holding out of one arm produces lateral bending of the spine.

CHAPTER VIII.

A perfect child.

THE SCHOOL.

CLASSIFICATION OF CHILDREN. SCHOOL

REPORTS.

THE perfect child, from the physiologist's point of view, must have a good inheritance through both parents, a body not only sound in all its organs and structures, but this must also be accompanied by mental functions appropriate to his age. The body must be well proportioned and of the normal height and weight, the features well shapen, distinctly cut and symmetrical, such as experience shows them to be in the best made individuals; the colour must be good and the signs of nutrition evident. The healthful signs of the condition of the nerve-system are seen in its spontaneous action and in its impressionability, and also in response to external stimulation such as is appropriate to the age of the child. The rhythm of sleep, waking, appetite for food, aptitude for play and work, being such as are found in the best average of our children at large of the same age. FurSymmetry ther, observation will show symmetry of action in those of action. movements which are ordinarily symmetrical, as in facial expression and walking, the individual movements being correct in time; and in quantity.

Nerve system.

There may of course be many types of perfect childhood, and of good development of the body, just as there are innumerable types of good mental faculty.

in action.

The perfect child can then only be known as we see him The child in action; and his mental faculty is demonstrated only by mental tests. The average of children are not perfect in their organisation or their condition; those that approach the nearest to perfection of type still require education for their further development, and to fit them for social life.

interests.

Education, properly conducted, commences with the Education. earliest days of infancy, after a year or more the child becomes a member of the family circle, and the home community. As the special individuality of the child developes he usually requires, and demands, enlarged surroundings, more companions and a choice of associates, thus raising the necessity that he should become a member of some small school community. With increasing years the small circle again becomes irksome, Enlarging because the probabilities are that the further development of the child meets with too little response among the limited number of associates. The boy then gladly passes to the larger school--and the young man to the University where he may meet the most varied minds, and mix in the society of men of high culture in special lines of thought and work. In entering on practical social life the man gradually forms his own surroundings till the circles of friends, acquaintances and social connections, are formed by the action of his fully developed character and habits.

The Rev. A. R. Vardy, Head Master of King Edward's School, Birmingham, in a recent address to Teachers', said:

"Mr J. G. Fitch lays it down that every true teacher 'wants Dr Fitch. to help his pupil to live a fuller, a richer, a more interesting and

1 See paper read before the National Union of Elementary Teachers at Birmingham, 1889.

The

ideal.

a more useful life. He wants so to train the scholar, that no one teacher's of his intellectual or moral resources shall be wasted. He looks on the complex organisation of a young child, and he seeks to bring all his faculties, not merely his memory and his capacity for obedience, but also his intelligence, his acquisitiveness, his imagination, his taste, his love of action, his love of truth, into the fullest vitality;

'That mind and soul according well,

May make one music.'

No meaner ideal than this ought to satisfy even the humblest who enters the teacher's profession.'

Observe that in all these descriptions of the teacher's ideal our attention is directed to the whole nature of our scholars, not to the intellect only, but to the physical and moral faculties also. The whole child is to be cared for, trained, fitted for life. No thoughtful and loving parent would be content to see his children growing up selfish, untruthful, dishonest, however vigorous their bodily health might be, however disciplined and stored their minds. He would not be content to see them incapable of mental exertion, unobservant, without judgment or reflection, even though their health was good and their moral character blameless. Nor would he be content to see them feeble in body, unable to use their physical powers, though the other parts of their nature were duly developed. What our ideal is for our own children must also be our ideal for the children of others whose education we undertake. Such an ideal may not, indeed, always be consciously present with us. As I have said before, there is much in our daily work to draw us down to lower levels, and other standards are constantly being set up for our guidance; but even amid the dull prose of actual school work there must be beating in our hearts the rhythm of this noble strain. The ideal must have taken possession of our souls, it must unconsciously leaven all our thoughts and actions; and when in the children before us we see tendencies, actions, and habits that contradict and thwart the ideal, we must feel that here is a call for our thought and work. How different this conception of the teacher's duty is from some conceptions which currently obtain I need hardly stay to point out. Some of these current opinions are little better than grotesque absurdities; that, for instance, which regards it as the aim of education to turn out in as short a time as possible a clever machine for making money.

But leaving these, it may be worth while to note some legitimate deductions from the nature of our ideal; deductions warning us against mistakes only too commonly made.

The importance of the physical well-being of our scholars is a subject which happily is now attracting much popular attention, and we may indulge the hope that the tide which has at last turned in that direction will continue to flow."

In this ideal of the teacher's work we have before us much to aim at, the difficulty is how to accomplish the ideal. I propose for your help the scientific study of children, especially as to their development and brainpower. Dr Fitch says the teacher should look upon the complex organisation of a child and seek to bring out all his faculties; to do this in a scientific manner we must observe children, know what to look for and how to describe accurately and exactly what we see, searching for the cause of every phenomenon noted.

on one

Children exert much influence upon one another, Influence usually for good, but it is not always so-the advantage of children of this interaction of the pupils is one reason why they another. should be encouraged to play in games, and seek each other's society out of school hours. Examples may be given where such influence is not for good, take an excitable child, whose excess of movement almost amounts to that seen in the condition termed Chorea. A second child, who has inherited the tendency to over- Excitable children. mobility of the nerve-system, is very likely to imitate the first and be influenced unfavourably by him. This specially applies to children of one family, who often tend to similar defects in action, owing to similar inheritance; a child who is over-mobile, one who stammers, or is hysterical, should not be in daily contact with its brothers and sisters only, but is benefited by mixing with other children differently constituted, whose action he then tends to imitate.