It becomes a matter of importance to select those studies
and parts of studies for children at their changing periods of growth,
which are adapted to awaken and stimulate their minds. We shall be
saved then from doing what the best of educators have so frequently
condemned, namely, when the child asks for bread give him a stone, or
when he asks for fish give him a serpent.
The neglect to take proper cognizance of this principle of _interest_
in laying out courses of study and in the manner of presenting subjects
is certainly one of the gravest charges that ever can be brought
against the schools. It is a sure sign that teachers do not know what
it means "to put yourself in his place," to sympathize with children
and feel their needs. The educational reformers who have had deepest
insight into child-life, have given us clear and profound warnings.
Rousseau says: "Study children, for be sure you do not understand them.
Let childhood ripen in children. The wisest apply themselves to what
it is important to _men_ to know, without considering what _children_
are in a condition to learn. They are always seeking the man in the
child, without reflecting what he is before he can be a man.
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