Modern Education of Young Children (1933)

Nancy Catty

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781138300385
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351402255
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First published in 1933, experienced teachers describe the transition in a large infant school from formal teaching to project work and illustrate the methods by which children, free to play singly or in groups, gain general education and rapidly acquire skill in the three R's. That similar methods can be used successfully in the teaching of separate subjects is illustrated in the chapters on the teaching of geography, music and nature study, written by teachers of kindergarten and lower forms. Throughout the underlying principles are made clear so that teachers and students will easily be able to apply them to their own branch of work in their own type of school.

Part I
Developments in a Modern Infant School

Chapter I
From Formal Teaching to Natural Learning

1. Class Teaching in an Infants' School Twenty Years Ago

AS I look back over my experiences, I marvel at the change that has taken place in the teaching of young children in the elementary school, for I distinctly remember the conditions under which I worked and the methods I used twenty years ago, when I was an assistant-mistress under a most enlightened head teacher.

In that school there were between 300 and 400 children and eight mistresses, including a head teacher. This gave us a class of about fifty children each—there were seven classes including the babies' class, which even in those days was worked on somewhat different lines from the rest of the school.

There was a large airy central hall with windows down one side of it, through which the sun shone during the greater part of the day. The class-rooms, however, with two exceptions, were on the other side of the building, and these had a north aspect; and as the supply of coal seemed to be much more scanty than it is to-day, children and staff suffered accordingly.

In these rooms the dual desks were arranged in six straight rows, eight children being seated in each of the rows, thus seating exactly forty-eight children; consequently on days when there was a full attendance, and these days were frequent—for, in that neighbourhood, school was a bright spot in a dull world—the additional children had either to sit three in a desk intended for two, or on the floor in front of the class.

The majority of the class-rooms had stepping,¹ to enable all the children to see the mistress during the hours of instruction, and, more important still, the mistress to see all her pupils. This arrangement was a clear indication of the fact that all instruction was to be given to the entire class by the mistress standing in front. Teachers seldom, if ever, sat down, and many a head mistress expressed grave doubts as to an assistant's energy if she was found seated—even when telling a story.

Class or mass teaching was the order of the day and those who thought that children should not work, or indeed even move, except under direction, were looked upon with suspicion as revolutionary spirits.

I still remember each item of the time-table and the weariness of waiting for the bell to ring before we might change lessons. The amount of new matter to be dealt with on a given day or the attitude of the children towards what was presented never received any consideration, when the length of the lesson was decided. The day was divided up into fixed periods of time, devoted to specified subjects and, when once H.M. Inspector had signed the time-table, adherence to it was unfailing.

No matter what else in the school might be right or wrong, two matters were looked upon as essential: the correct marking and closing of registers and rigid obedience to the time-table.

One of the' nightmares of the day ' was the 'conversation lesson'. During this lesson, which lasted for twenty minutes at the end of each morning, the children were expected to sit rigidly still and be interested in the subject for the day. This subject was chosen from a list compiled by the head teacher of objects in which the children were supposed to be interested. In my first school these lessons followed each other in strict rotation, without any regard either to the season of the year or any particular thing in which the children might be interested. The list contained such lessons as 'carrot', 'turnip', 'railway station', etc. The more ingenious the teacher, the more absurd the lesson became, and I well remember a lesson when the chosen subject for the day was 'A potato'. Potatoes were cooked and served in four different ways, boiled, fried, baked and chipped, and, as one can imagine, the children were absorbedly interested in this part of the work. Clearly when the subject lent itself to such gastronomical demonstration the discipline of the class would be good, because each individual member always had high hopes that he would be the one chosen to taste the food and share the spoil, and, for practical reasons, the final distribution never took place until the lesson was over!

But unfortunately (perhaps fortunately, for it was this that led us to seek a new method) all subjects did not lend themselves to such attractive treatment as the potato; yet, if the stereotyped lesson was given, the teacher was faced with the difficulty of keeping these little ones interested for a definite period of time at the end of a wearisome morning, for though the lesson was dubbed 'conversation' no child might speak unless spoken to! But if only things get bad enough, some remedy is found and, after consultation with my colleagues, we decided to ask our head teacher to meet us and discuss this point.

Accordingly in my second school a staff meeting was called and a change of method was suggested, for though here a psychological plan for such lessons was given us, our practice was the same. There was much discussion on this point, but finally it was decided that 'learning by doing' should be the order of the day and conversation lessons as described above should go. To take the place of these lessons an experimental course was suggested and finally substituted, where handwork and intelligent conversation on the same subject should go hand in hand. For example, in a lesson on 'The postman', all possible information should be collected by the children and the mistress, free interchange of ideas should take place and fresh knowledge be supplied as the need arose, while the children were kept busy with handwork throughout the period.

This change was very beneficial; the children gained and remembered much more than they had done previously, for they used what they had learnt and so learnt far more quickly and surely. The question of discipline as such disappeared, for busy children are seldom naughty children.

Thus, gradually, the change came and the formal class teaching, where each child did the same thing or listened to the same point of a lesson went. People began to realize that children develop at different rates, that even if it were possible for rates of development to be the same, circumstances would alter the individual child's interest in a subject and his ability to learn it.

2. The Change to Individual Work

When first our large Board Schools were opened organization seemed perfectly simple, as there were sufficient children in the school to make classes of from fifty to sixty, or even larger numbers, of one age group. There would be sixty children admitted to the school, possibly all on the same day, who were all within a 6 or 12 months age range, and the larger the school, the greater the number of entrants of a given age. A large school would have perhaps ten classes and this would allow for a 6 monthly age group throughout the school. It was then assumed that all the children within this group started at the same stage and proceeded at the same rate. This of course was a false hypothesis. The children might start together, but at the end of a week, possibly a day, each one had reached a different point, due to as many reasons as there were children in the class.

In our school we realized that the initial rate of progress of individual children had but slight relation to later achievements, for often a child who seemed dull and backward in the earlier stages developed wonderfully a year later, and vice versa. Gradually, some people began to see how much effort was wasted in class teaching while others accepted the statement because people in power said it was true.

Children were no different in the days of class teaching than they are now, and it should have been clear to all, as it was to many teachers, that each child began any new piece of work at a different point from his fellows. It was, on the whole, the middle group which derived most benefit; the clever children were kept back and frequently had to spend their day 'marking time', while the other children 'caught up'. The group at the other end were often hopelessly at sea, unable to comprehend much of what was being taught. Once a child was in the lower third of the class it was difficult for him to move, because he had very little chance of clearing up the difficulty that placed him there. Hence absence from school when a certain vital point was taught, a change of school leading to lack of continuity of method, too early an insistence on reading or number might, and in many cases actually did, go far to prevent a successful school career.

(i) The First Type of Individual Work

Accompanying the revolt against class teaching came a great enthusiasm for individual work.

The size of the classes was large, but no amount of work was too much for the devotees of this new method. With classes numbering over fifty children, some of us set to work to make individual apparatus suitable, as we thought, to the stage of development of each individual child. Of course, as we afterwards came to see, this was a practical impossibility, but for a time some of us refused to see this and persevered in spite of our difficulties and disappointments.

The first difficulty was that of knowing at which stage each child was. This was hard enough, but it was harder still to know when and how to introduce a new point and what apparatus to provide which would give the child suitable practice. These two problems were enough to tax the ingenuity of the most ingenious teacher.

The next difficulty was one of an even more practical nature. Provided that the above procedure was right, and we firmly believed that it was, then came the difficulty of the actual making of the apparatus. We gave up a large amount of our own time to achieve this end, but many of us failed to realize in those early days that the apparatus was useless unless durable and distinctive. Unless durable apparatus can be supplied, the method of individual work is impracticable for no one, however keen and enthusiastic, can or should be making apparatus constantly. Hence the apparatus must be made of such material as will stand the wear and tear of daily use.

Also, it must be distinctive. Well I remember after weeks of labour giving out a first set of individual reading apparatus. It had taken weeks and weeks to prepare and a few minutes after it had been given to the children, it was in such a state of muddle and confusion as to be well-nigh useless. Two reasons accounted for this calamity. First, each child was so near to his neighbour that when the boxes were opened and the pieces placed on the desk, they were bound to get mixed; also, pieces of the games did sometimes find their way to the floor and then right of ownership was difficult to decide. Take, for example, reading games with a class of fifty children. We made sufficient games for each child to have one and also sufficient to have a few in the cupboard to allow for interchange. This would necessitate the making of sixty or seventy games. These games were made of pieces of thin white cardboard all printed and cut exactly alike, so that when pieces were lost it was impossible to tell to which box they belonged. Consequently weeks of labour were wasted in a few minutes. This led to a decision amongst us that if individual work had come to stay, then a way must be found which would involve less work and a greater return for the teacher's efforts.

It seems hard to realize now that sixteen or seventeen years ago there was practically no individual apparatus at all on the market. Not only was it almost impossible to buy ready-made apparatus, but the raw material for making it was distressingly raw. Thus it was practically impossible to obtain any ready coloured cardboard, so it all had to be most carefully prepared, i.e. sized and coloured, before it could be used, both processes involving much time and labour. Yet in spite of these added difficulties it became clear that something of this kind must be done, if the materials used were to be distinctive enough to enable the children to keep the apparatus in order for themselves. So cardboard was coloured, either by dyeing with ordinary dyes or with water-colour, in as many shades as possible; after that if a piece found its way on to the next desk or to the floor, the child could himself restore it to the right box and so learn that there is a place for everything and everything has its place.

Slowly, the publishers began to produce apparatus for the individual games most in use, and although much of this was worthless, it was possible to fit some of it into one's scheme of things and so lessen the labour for the class mistress. Also it became possible to buy coloured cardboard and other materials such as size, varnish, etc., in such quantities and qualities as made work with them considerably easier.

(ii) The Storing of the Apparatus

Another difficulty which had to be faced was the actual storing of the apparatus. The need of a wide variety of games was soon apparent, but unfortunately our cupboard accommodation did not grow correspondingly. This was a real difficulty and it took much ingenuity to devise cupboards. Large wooden boxes of all kinds were purchased and carefully lined with paper in the hope of preventing the dust collecting; then a door of some kind had to be made or a curtain hung in the front of the box. Next came the difficulty of obtaining sufficient small boxes to hold the games. For this purpose at first we tried to use cardboard boxes, but we soon found these had to be rejected on account of their frailty, and tin boxes of all kinds were substituted. This was a difficult business, but with the help of the children and our friends it was eventually accomplished. Things now became easier, although all this work made great demands on the teacher's time and purse.

3. The 'New' Group Work

A very serious practical difficulty was how to keep the majority of the class busy and progressively occupied, while the mistress dealt with a new point for a particular child. While it was comparatively easy to keep the elder children interested, at any rate when they could read and to some extent arrange their own work, with the younger children it was almost impossible. It occurred to some of us that if the children at the same stage could be arranged in groups, we should do much to ease the problem by taxing more lightly the mistress's patience and resourcefulness and wasting less of the children's time.

This was the step from entirely individual work to group work. New material was now presented to the group instead of to the individual, e.g. when in number a fresh difficulty was about to be approached, the group of children who were ready for this point were taught together and then allowed to practise individually by means of suitable apparatus, provided for this purpose. Then before going on to the next step careful individual testing had to be made. This method is, of course, that in most common use in the infant school of to-day.

The method that I have always found useful within this group work is summed up in three words, 'teach, practise, test', and, as can be seen, these three words involve an interchange between the individual and group work. The teaching is done with the group, the practice and testing by and with individuals, thus forming a combination of the group and individual methods.

(i) Size of Groups

The number of groups in a class varies with the particular subject and also with the position of the class in the school. Take for example a group of children learning to read in the early stages. The class would all begin together but there would be as many as five or six groups at the end of the first two months, although all the children who were present started at the same point on the same day. This diversity within the class will continue for perhaps a year, then the children usually fall into two or three groups, with, perhaps, one or two children who for special reasons are not able to keep up with the lowest group. The first year of learning to read always shows a great diversity in the powers and progress of the children, and, when the children are examined in detail, the different results are found to be due to a variety of causes, some more powerful with one child, some with another. Holding too closely to one particular way of teaching may account for some cases of retarded progress, because certainly some children learn better by one method, such as the phonic, others by the whole word or the sentence method.

Home circumstances too have a remarkable effect on the results in reading. Children who come from cultured homes, where there are numbers of various kinds of book, usually come to school with a strong interest in the subject and a keen desire to learn to read. To these children reading as a rule presents no difficulty. It is the children from the homes where there are few or no books, who, having less desire to read, consequently acquire the art with the greatest difficulty. Then too, the child may be suffering from some physical defect in sight or hearing and hence be handicapped in a way that it is difficult for anyone to detect. Also the child may have suffered through a large number of absences during his school career. All these causes of backwardness slowly and surely leave their mark. The wise sympathetic teacher will recognize which of the causes have contributed to the backwardness of each individual child and will endeavour to make provision to remove them as soon and as far as possible.

It is in group work that the value of light movable furniture is most easily realized. The best arrangement of the room that I have found is to arrange the desks, or better still the chairs and tables, for groups of children who are at the same stage in their work, and for the children to move freely as the need arises. The economic value to the teacher of this group method can easily be seen. It is altogether far simpler to teach or test a group at the same stage and sitting together than it was to teach or test each child individually.

Another plan is to arrange that children at different stages in their work be seated within the same group, the advantage of this grouping being that the children are free to help each other and the forward child helps the backward to keep up with the rest. I have worked with both these methods and find that the succe...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• INTRODUCTION
• Contents
• PART I DEVELOPMENTS IN A MODERN INFANT SCHOOL
• PART II NEW METHODS IN SELECTED SUBJECTS
• SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS