Chapter 13 Summary: Sequence of Exercises & General Review of Discipline
Progression in Learning Materials
⢠Systematic sequence builds foundation - Each exercise prepares for the next in logical progression
"In the practical application of the method it is helpful to know the sequence, or the various series, of exercises which must be presented to the child successively."
⢠Cylinders develop attention and judgment - First exercises teach fundamental cognitive skills
"Among these the most useful exercise is that of the cylinders (solid insets). The child here begins to fix his attention. He makes his first comparison, his first selection, in which he exercises judgment. Therefore he exercises his intelligence."
⢠Materials provide natural error control - Children learn to correct themselves
"The didactic material, which contains within itself the control of errors and makes auto-education possible to each child. The teacher has thus become a director of the spontaneous work of the children."
Five Grades of Development
⢠First Grade: Basic attention skills - Moving chairs, lacing, cylinder exercises
"As soon as the child comes to the school he may be given the following exercises: Moving the seats, in silence (practical life). Lacing, buttoning, hooking, etc. The cylinders (sense exercises)."
⢠Second Grade: Complex movements - Long stair, prisms, cubes requiring physical coordination
"The objects are much larger. The differences much more evident than they were in the preceding exercises, but here, only the eye of the child recognises the differences and controls the errors."
⢠Third Grade: Personal care and gradations - Self-care skills and recognition of gradations
"The children wash themselves, dress and undress themselves, dust the tables, learn to handle various objects... We now introduce the child to the recognition of gradations of stimuli."
⢠Fourth Grade: Advanced coordination - Table setting, room organization, metal geometric insets
"The children set and clear the table for luncheon. They learn to put a room in order... The child passes to the plane geometric insets in metal."
⢠Fifth Grade: Creative expression - Water colors, free drawing, spontaneous writing
"We begin more complicated rhythmic exercises. In design we begin: (a) The use of water colours. (b) Free drawing from nature... (a) Spontaneous writing of words and phrases."
The Nature of True Discipline
⢠Discipline emerges through engaged work - Children become disciplined when absorbed in meaningful activity
"The first dawning of real discipline comes through work. At a given moment it happens that a child becomes keenly interested in a piece of work, showing it by the expression of his face, by his intense attention, by his perseverance in the same exercise."
⢠Freedom creates order - Forty children working freely create better discipline than traditional schools
"In our classes of little children, numbering forty and even fifty, the discipline is much better than in ordinary schools... There are forty little beingsâfrom three to seven years old, each one intent on his own work."
⢠Discipline cannot be commanded - True discipline develops indirectly through proper conditions
"Such discipline could never be obtained by commands, by sermonizings, in short, through any of the disciplinary devices universally known... but upon a sort of miracle, occurring in the inner life of each child."
The Spiritual Quality of Children's Work
⢠Children become like contemplatives - Deep absorption in work creates spiritual qualities
"They seem 'little men,' as they were called by some visitors to the 'Children's House'; or, as another suggested, 'judges in deliberation.'"
⢠Joy in others' achievements - No competition or jealousy among children
"If one accomplishes something especially fine, his achievement is a source of admiration and joy to others: no heart suffers from another's wealth, but the triumph of one is a delight to all."
⢠Work continues during interruptions - Internal motivation sustains effort
"While the children were waiting their turn, they were allowed to do just as they pleased. They worked incessantly, and returned to their undertakings as soon as the interruption caused by the examination was over."
Understanding Children's Natural Development
⢠Adults misunderstand children's goals - Children seek self-development, not external objects
"The adult judges them by his own measure: he thinks that the child's wish is to obtain some tangible object, and lovingly helps him to do this: whereas the child as a rule has for his unconscious desire, his own self-development."
⢠Children need time for natural rhythms - Adult haste prevents proper development
"Children, who are undertaking something for the first time are extremely slow. Their life is governed in this respect by laws especially different from ours."
⢠Repetition serves development - Children repeat exercises to develop psychic abilities
"When he has learned the meaning of an exercise, then he begins to enjoy repeating it, and he does repeat it an infinite number of times, with the most evident satisfaction."
Formation of Will and Obedience
⢠Three stages of skill development - Unconscious success, conscious effort, voluntary mastery
"There are, therefore, three periods: a first, subconscious one, when in the confused mind of the child, order produces itself by a mysterious inner impulse... a second, conscious period... and a third period when the will can direct and cause the acts."
⢠Obedience requires ability - Children can only obey commands they can execute
"One of the most interesting observations... relates to the connection between obedience in a child and his 'knowing how.' Obedience appears in the child as a latent instinct as soon as his personality begins to take form."
⢠Will power develops through exercise - Methodical exercises strengthen the will
"Will-power, like all other activities is invigorated and developed through methodical exercises, and all our exercises for will-power are also mental and practical."
The Teacher's New Role
⢠Teacher becomes scientific observer - Watching spontaneous development rather than directing
"The teacher has thus become a director of the spontaneous work of the children. She is not a passive force, a silent presence... the directress, watching them, can make psychological observations."
⢠Laboratory for experimental pedagogy - Each classroom becomes a research environment
"I believe that I have by my method established the conditions necessary to the development of scientific pedagogy; and whoever adopts this method opens, in doing so, a laboratory of experimental pedagogy."
The Spiritual Transformation of Children
⢠Children develop natural virtues - Patience, goodness, and righteousness emerge naturally
"They are virtuous because they exercise patience in repeating their exercises, long-suffering in yielding to the commands and desires of others, good in rejoicing in the well-being of others without jealousy or rivalry."
⢠Education of the soul - Method develops both physical and spiritual nature
"We have been mistaken in thinking that the natural education of children should be purely physical; the soul, too, has its nature, which it was intended to perfect in the spiritual life."
⢠Children touch the souls of visitors - Profound effect on adults who observe them
"The 'Children's House' seems to exert a spiritual influence upon everyone... They are affected by this vision of the human soul growing in its true nature."