{"product_id":"2940013469242","title":"Children And Their Books","description":"CHILDREN AND THEIR BOOKS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe most vital educational problem will always be how to make the best\u003cbr\u003euse of the child's earlier years, not only for the reason that in them\u003cbr\u003emany receive their entire school training, but also because, while the\u003cbr\u003epower of the child to learn increases with age, his susceptibility to\u003cbr\u003eformative influences diminishes, and so rapid is the working of this\u003cbr\u003elaw that President Eliot thinks that\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    \"the temperament, physical constitution, mental\u003cbr\u003e    aptitudes, and moral quality of a boy are all well\u003cbr\u003e    determined by the time he is 18 years old.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGreat waste of the child's time and mental energy in the precious\u003cbr\u003eearly years is caused by disregard of the way in which his mind\u003cbr\u003eunfolds. Not only are children set at work for which they are not yet\u003cbr\u003efitted, but frequently they are kept at occupations which are far\u003cbr\u003ebelow what they might profitably engage in. The child should be\u003cbr\u003eguided, not driven; to force his mind is an educational crime. Long\u003cbr\u003econtinued attention and concentration are injurious, but by using tact\u003cbr\u003ea great deal may be accomplished without strain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt first the aim should be not so much to fill the mind with knowledge\u003cbr\u003eas to develop the powers as they are ready for it, and to cultivate\u003cbr\u003ethe ability to use them. The plasticity of the child's mind is such\u003cbr\u003ethat a new impression may be erased quickly by a newer one; his\u003cbr\u003echaracter receives a decided bent only through repeated impressions of\u003cbr\u003ethe same kind. The imaginative faculty is one of the earliest to\u003cbr\u003eappear, and a weakness of our educational systems is the failure to\u003cbr\u003erealize its importance and to pay sufficient attention to its\u003cbr\u003edevelopment. It is well known that imagination is the creative power\u003cbr\u003eof the mind which gives life to all work, so that without it Newton\u003cbr\u003ewould never have found the law of gravitation, nor Columbus have\u003cbr\u003ediscovered America. The world of make-believe is filled with delight\u003cbr\u003efor the small child. He loves stories of imaginary adventure that he\u003cbr\u003ecan act out in his play,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e        \"Now with my little gun I crawl\u003cbr\u003e        All in the dark along the wall,\u003cbr\u003e        And follow round the forest track\u003cbr\u003e        Away behind the sofa back.\u003cbr\u003e        I see the others far away,\u003cbr\u003e        As if in fire-lit camp they lay;\u003cbr\u003e        And I, like to an Indian scout,\u003cbr\u003e        Around their party prowled about.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCultivate his imagination by helping the child to image what he has\u003cbr\u003eread. Let us play that we are sailing with Columbus in a little ship\u003cbr\u003eover the great green ocean. When we look far off from the top of a\u003cbr\u003ewave we see nothing but sky and white-capped water; all around us are\u003cbr\u003eangry faces and angry waves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is easy to work on the emotions of a little child and thoughtless\u003cbr\u003epersons may find it amusing but it is a serious matter, for it has an\u003cbr\u003einjurious effect upon his nerves. Ghost stories and books which\u003cbr\u003einspire fear of the supernatural often do much harm to imaginative\u003cbr\u003echildren.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe boundless curiosity of the child may be aroused and stimulated so\u003cbr\u003ethat he gets to know himself and the world about him in a way that\u003cbr\u003efurnishes him with constant and delightful employment. The growth of\u003cbr\u003ehis mind is rapid and healthful, because he is reaching out to\u003cbr\u003ecomprehend and verify and apply to his own purposes the knowledge that\u003cbr\u003ehe derives from books and that which he obtains from observation. It\u003cbr\u003eis not easy to realize the ignorance of children. Dr. G. Stanley Hall\u003cbr\u003efound by experiments with a large number of six-year-olds in Boston,\u003cbr\u003ethat 55 percent did not know that wooden things are made from trees.\u003cbr\u003eThe world is strange to them; they must grope their way, they are\u003cbr\u003eattracted by the bright, the flashy, the sensational, and their tastes\u003cbr\u003ewill develop in these directions unless they are taught better.\u003cbr\u003eGrown-ups estimate in terms of previous experience; the child has had\u003cbr\u003elittle previous experience to which to refer. Edward Thring says:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The emptiness of a young boy's mind is often not taken into account,\u003cbr\u003eat least emptiness so far as all knowledge in it being of a\u003cbr\u003efragmentary and piecemeal description, nothing complete. It may well\u003cbr\u003ehappen that an intelligent boy shall be unable to understand a\u003cbr\u003eseemingly simple thing, because some bit of knowledge which his\u003cbr\u003einstructor takes it for granted he possesses, and probably thinks\u003cbr\u003einstinctive, is wanting to fill up the whole.\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145685418224,"sku":"2940013469242","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013469242_p0.jpg?v=1763581276","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013469242","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}