ADOZ£SOENCE 10 ADOLBBOEKOE
children. Infancy, childhood, boyhood and youth, to gain in both respects. The brain has reached
should not then be thought of independently of very nearly its full size and weight. The logical
one another; each period is the outcome of what powers are fast increasing; they crave exercise
preceded it and the preparation for what will and the boy often argues quite as much from the
follow it. The child in swaddling-clothes is the love of debate as from the desire to attain truth,
product of pre-natal life and a long line of ances- It is doubtful whether the memory is either as
tors; if it is true to state that youth begins around quick or as retentive as in earlier years. Boy and
the fifteenth year it can be no less true to say that girl are led more by their impulses and feelings
it is rooted in infancy and is prepared by child- than by the dictates of cold judgment. Authority
hood and boyhood. no longer has the same hold on them as in earlier
The chief business of infancy and early childhood years, put they are very loyal and generous to
is pure growth; what the child needs most at their friends. Their conception of the realities of
this stage is freedom of movement, plenty of fre^ life, of the meaning and value of time, are rather
air, sunlight, pure digestible food, and careful safe- hazy; they see the future in roseate colors and
guarding against any imtoward influence which ideahze human nature. This is the period of the
might disturb the natural growth and development hero, of romance and fiction, but it is also the
of this young and as yet very tender organism, period of genuine religious growth, of religious voca-
During these early years of its life, the child is tions.
Quieter than at any of the subsequent periods; Thb Pedaoogt of Adolescence. — ^The treatment the power of locomotion is not acquired perfectly of the pedagogy of adolescence within the limits until long after the faculties of sense perception of this article is of necessity restricted to a brief have reached maturity; imagination soon becomes consideration of a f eW principles which are nothing very active, but draws little or no distinction else than logical deductions from the facts, so far between fact and fancy. The next six years, cor- brought out, interpreted in the light of the goal responding to the primanr and early grammar to be reached, viz., strong, healthy. Christian man- grades, might appropriately be called a motor hood and womanhood. Youth is a period of period. In the preceding period the ever recurring rapid growth in every direction; plenty of food, question was: What is this? now it is: What sleep, simshine, fresh air, freedom of muscular is this for?" The child is very anxious to do some- movement are no less needed in these years than thin^, to use his hands at all kinds of little tasks, heretofore. The hard bed with light covering in but 18 still very clumsv, because the motor centers the cool or cold room should be the rule for the are as yet far from being completely developed, healthv boy. Personal cleanliness should by this This superabundance of activity, coupled with the time have become a fixed habit. Vigorous exer- fact that much of the latent energy is still needed tion in the form of play, gymnastics and work, for growth, explains why the child is so easily not only on physical grounds but on intellectual tired before reaching his teens. His senses are and moral grounds as well, is also greatly needed, alert and keen, his imaginations and memory are It will not only prepare the youth to meet efli- craving for exercise, but logical thought is still ciently the test of real life, but will fortify him very weak. It is also during this period that some against the diseases which cause the rise of the of the fundamental instinctive tendencies ripen into death rate at nineteen and later. Gymnastics can maturitv; chief among these tendencies is imitation, do much to develop the finer muscles, the higher which for Kood or evil plays such a large part in motor centers and to correct the defects that nave the upbuilding of character. outlasted or come in with puberty. Play is just
.Youth or adolescence is ushered in by puberty, as useful now as it was in ouldhood, but it takes the importance of which has been reco^ized in all on the form of contest and competition, team- ages, and among savages and semi-civilized peoples work, which not only affords useful physical exer- has been celebrated by strange, curious customs, cise but develops habits of self-control, obedience It is a period of deep physical and mental changes to rule, swiftness of decision as well as consideration leading to the metamorphosis of the child of the for others.
lower grades into the boy or girl of the upper Most essential, however, is the discipline of gen- grades and high school. The process does not uine hard work, requiring close attention, diligence, begin exactly at the same time m all individuals, application, the putting forth of all one's energy. It varies according to the racial stock, clime, sex, the conscious strenuous effort of the will, bent on temperament, environment and occupation. It completing the task once undertaken, no matter begins earlier among the peoples of the Semitic how difficult it may seem at the time, nor how race than among thcNse of the Indo-European group, disinclined one may feel to perform it. The time earlier in the tropics than in the temperate or was when there seemed to be general agreement frigid zone, earlier in the girl than in the boy. as to the soundness of this principle, but in the last A warm, sanguine temperament is likely to accel- hundred years it has been challenged by a "new erate it and a phlegmatic one to retard it. It is school" of educators, the so-called school of inter- more tardy among those who have been accus- est. According to their tenets, the chief function tomed from childhood to plain living and hard of the teacher is to arouse the interest of the work, than among those who have been brought pupil in the subject to be taught, or the task up in luxury and idleness. On the North American to be performed; he should study the native ten- continent the process takes place in the majority dencies and the acquired interests of the child of cases between the eleventh and fifteenth year, and take these tendencies and interests as his Adolescence in this country may thus be said to starting point in every school activity, because this begin around the sixteenth year, perhaps a little is the surest way of securing attention which alone earlier in the southern states and a little later on guarantees apprehension; compulsion io to be the^ northern border, but whatever may be the avoided as much as possible, not only because variations in time, the characteristics of the period it weakens the child's activity but because his are the same everywhere. It is a time of great right to happiness is sacred and his personality physical and mental expansion. The girl by the should be respected. It cannot be gainsaid that eighteenth year has practically attained her full the discussion of the value of interest in school height and weight, but the boy still has somewhat life 1ms done much to soften the harshness, at
