The main interest of children must be attracted by what we may call
_real knowledge_ subjects; that is, those treating of people (history
stories, etc.,) and those treating of plants, animals, and other
natural objects (natural science topics). Grammar, arithmetic, and
spelling are chiefly form studies and have less native attraction for
children. Secondly, it may be laid down as a fact of experience that
children will be more touched and stimulated by _particular_ persons
and objects in nature than by any _general_ propositions, or laws, or
classifications. They prefer seeing a particular palm tree to hearing
a general description of palms. A narrative of some special deed of
kindness moves them more than a discourse on kindness. They feel a
natural drawing toward real, definite persons and things, and an
indifference or repulsion toward generalities. They prefer the story
to the moral. Children are little materialists. They dwell in the
sense-world, or in the world of imagination with very clear and
definite pictures.
But while dealing with _things of sense_ and with particulars, it is
necessary in teaching children to keep an eye directed toward general
classes and toward those laws and principles that will be fully
appreciated later.
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