YHILD STUDY AND PROFESSIONAL TRIANING OF TEACHERS. 449 
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well as, if not better than, real living, thinking children. This, of 
course, indicates something wrong, and this something is probably ignor- 
ance on the part of the teacher regarding the nature of the work in which 
he is engaged. A reform in teaching is certainly necessary, and this 
reform is only to be secared by first gaining a knowledge of the child as 
ne is when actuated by that which is within himself rather than by exter- 
nal influences. In the class-room the child is usually so enveloped with 
the teacher’s personality that there is no possible opportunity for an origi- 
anal manifestation. 
Before the teacher in training attempts formal instruction, and even 
before he attempts formal observation in the class-room, he will find it 
very profitable to occupy himself with indiviaual children. He may 
watch them with a view to discovering what influences tend to arouse a 
lesire to know ; and, this desire being active, how they inform themselves 
oy their own unaided, undirected effort. At such a time as this the real 
child is to be seen. The teacher may watch the child in the family, when 
he is one of several, and in the playground, where he is one of many. 
There he will have an opportunity to observe the tendencies that show 
one child to be an originator and a leader, and another to be an imitator 
and a follower. 
He may frequent the haunts of the street urchin, and note how one lad 
succeeds in conveying an idea to another ; note the way in which a motive 
mpels an action ; the effort spent to achieve a purpose. He may mark 
the argument which carries conviction ; in brief, he may discover the way 
in which a live, natural boy perceives, reproduces, apperceives. cognizes, 
recognizes, interprets, creates. 
When these things have been discovered, we shall be better able, no 
doubt, to adjust our schools to the real needs of children. We shall be 
able to bring the child in contact with the subjects of instruction in 
such a way as to induce him to bring to bear upon them as much earnest- 
ness and energy as he manifests in a game of ‘“shinny,” or in the construc- 
ston of a water-wheel. 
Making such observations as have been indicated, the teacher in training 
will become more attentive to the manifestations of child-life in the class- 
roony, and will be better able to turn his observations to account in the 
processes of instruction. 
The knowledge of the child, which is the fundamental knowledge of 
human nature, and I had almost said of Divine nature as well, must be 
ocained by every teacher for himself. It cannot be acquired at second 
hand. The book will never give information that will apply to all cases. 
Hearsay evidence is not sufficiently reliable to base action upon. The 
teacher in training must himself work and watch and wait for results. 
Eternal vigilance is the price of knowledge in regard to the management 
of human beings.