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The opening · free to read
The principles given in books one and two, leading to the development of the child's faculties find their greatest usefulness in school work. They will apply to every part of the child's work and aid in solving any of his problems.
This is the demonstration ground and the time and efforts spent in the preceding games and exercises will manifest themselves in progress in school.
It is best for the child to make his own applications. You can, of course, suggest and aid, but he should make his own picture wherever possible. The one making the effort receives the reward--which is development. The child will recall the idea which he works out for himself more easily than those worked out for him, even though the latter may seem better.
The following pages will be given over to suggestive ideas as to how the principles may be applied to different lessons. Only a certain few concrete illustrations will be given, as the working out of the details would rob the child of the opportunity and development to be gained by doing the work himself.
Children always learn the alphabet by pictures. Alphabetical books and blocks are made this way. This is because the child learns easily and quickly by this method. What is true in the early years is true in the later ones as well. Do not allow him to get away from this principle of learning by pictures. Follow the plan of teaching every thing possible by sight. Go out of your way if necessary to show him the thing he is reading about.
The suggestions under "The Mind's Eye and The Story" in Book Two should be continued. When the child has learned to read have him pause and visually review what he has read, that is, to stop and see a mind's eye picture while the book is closed.
Two of the objects to be gained by time spent in study are a thorough understanding of the subject matter and to so fix the thought in mind that it will be available for future use. It is well to realize that the scanning of the modern newspaper and careless or rapid reading causes many adults to forget what they read. We can so educate the physical eye that it can read an entire paragraph, or page while the brain is dormant and does not accept the impressions intended by the author. Often the physical action of turning the page awakens you to a realization of the fact that you have read the page but have absolutely no knowledge of its contents.
This habit of careless reading must be avoided and for successful study the child should be aided in forming the visualizing habit.
"Thought Leads to Knowledge"
We cannot gain knowledge merely by reading. The value of reading is in the thought that it stimulates in the mind. We exercise muscles to get strength. You must aid the child in exercising his mental muscles by thinking in order to get mental strength. It is not what he reads, but what he thinks concerning what he reads that becomes his, and contributes to his education. Reading which stimulates no thought is a waste of time.
The disappointment felt in the lack of progress after time spent in study is not that we forget, but that we do not really "GET." This lack can be largely avoided in the child's training if you are willing to help in forming right habits.
The principle of visualization, as discussed in the first book, will prove of the greatest aid, because it is the natural method of using the mind.
To visualize the thought of the author will stimulate thinking, will increase the understanding of the subject matter, and at the same time make the strongest impression upon the brain and thus help him to remember.
An excellent illustration of the use and value of visualization in learning and remembering was given by an old captain of a Mississippi River steamer. "Do you know how I learned the river," he asked; "well I just lay in bed nights and made a picture in my mind of the river and the course I had to steer. Then I would go over the picture and see every detail of it and review it several times. I'd sail up and down that river several times each night, I'd see every landmark and every danger point on each trip. That's the way I learned it and I became a captain when I was younger than many men who had sailed the river longer than I had."
When an artist seats himself before a new canvas he knows definitely what he is going to place upon it. He either has a model before him, or in his mind's eye sees a beautiful picture. He will give weeks, months, or even years of effort in order to place upon that canvas a picture equal in perfection and beauty to the one which he sees.
Notice that a mind's eye picture is often the starting point of the artist. He strives to place upon the canvas the reproduction of the idea which he sees in his mind. He finishes and exhibits his work; you look upon the picture with your physical eye and through its agency the result of the artist's effort becomes a picture-impression upon your brain. You see what he saw, and the longer you gaze at the painting and the greater amount of detail you perceive, the more vivid it becomes and the stronger the impression upon your mind, therefore, the more perfect the memory of the picture. This is true of your own mind's eye picture for memory purposes.
=The more detail you see in your memory pictures and the longer you continue to visualize them, the stronger their impression.=
In a similar manner an author sits down with his paper and ink. He sees in his mind a picture which he strives to paint. He endeavors by his mastery of words to induce you to see what he sees. He also is an artist, his canvas is your brain, and if he succeeds it is there he must impress a picture. The words on the printed page and the function of your eye are simply agencies through which he must work.
Words are vehicles of thought and they are the author's colors; their function is to reproduce objects and conditions; by their use the author conveys to your brain the impressions of size, color, form, arrangement and every detail of his thought. A very few words will create a wonderful picture, which would require hours for the artist to paint.
When you look at the artist's painting your brain sees a picture. The writer, however, is using a code requiring translation by the reader. Words do not form pictures, they are merely agencies by the use of which you can guide your mind's eye in the formation of a real mental impression. The author succeeds in his effort just in proportion as you succeed in forming a picture of what he is describing. When you rob the canvas of your brain of the impression the author strives to place there, by letting your eyes pass over the words so rapidly that your mind's eye forms no picture, then the author has failed. The mere reading of words makes no lasting impression upon the mind, but the forming of visual pictures does. You remember best those books which have consciously or unconsciously formed picture impressions on your brain. What you can now recall of what you have read is largely the recollection of these pictures.
Keep this illustration and these facts in mind in helping your children. Urge them to properly use the visual faculties and train their mind's eye to work with the physical eye.
Words are vehicles of thought and are used by the author to convey pictures to the mind, but at first the mind's eye is unable to picture the thought as rapidly as the physical eye can read. The first essential to remembering what you are reading is to read slowly, hesitating occasionally, to be sure that a picture is being formed.
Never read more than a single paragraph without stopping to test your understanding of what you have read. At the end of each paragraph there should be a dead line; in fact there is a dead line and he who reads carelessly and quickly beyond this line need not expect to remember. Put your finger between the pages, close the book, and review the thought of the paragraph. Now make a definite effort to visualize the picture in the author's mind. It is true that some passages make an easier mind's eye picture than others, but all will make one which can be used to help in formulating a definite understanding of the author's thought.
You cannot visualize a thing which you do not understand. The aim of your study is to comprehend the author. To visualize the thought of the paragraph will test your understanding. Making of a definite picture will increase your knowledge of the essentials. Form the habit of visualizing what you read. Do not be handicapped by doubt. Make an effort to formulate the main facts of the paragraph into an expression of your own. If you are by yourself, where you can do so, state your thought audibly, not in the words of the author, but express the thought and the facts accurately in your own words.
=No knowledge is yours until you can tell it to some one else.=
Use this test and tell it to some one, or if no one is handy tell it to yourself, but do it audibly. This forces a definite expression which can only come from a definite understanding. Parents should question their children and encourage them in telling what they are reading and studying about. The audible expression demands definite knowledge.
If the child is reading something which he will wish to review, as in studying a lesson, a good plan to follow is to have a pad of paper by the side of the book. After reading the paragraph write down upon the pad the expressions and thoughts which the paragraph conveys to you. This is an excellent plan in all cases where the audible expression is not practicable. After the lesson has been gone over in this manner, preserve the review sheets containing the synopsis of the paragraph. Then for review, before the examination, a quick reading of these written expressions of thoughts, which the chapter contains, will eliminate the necessity of a further reading of the entire text.
For a test read the following from "Brain and Personality" by W. Hanna Thompson. Follow the idea just suggested. Make a test, read slowly, form a mind's eye picture, think about it, and then tell the thought as nearly as possible to some one. All this may take some time and effort at first but the use of these ideas will quickly form the mental habit. Once reading a lesson in this manner will give better results than many careless repetitions.
"In some fishes, such as the carp, when the ganglia, which corresponds to the cerebral hemispheres (brain) are experimentally removed, they do not seem to mind it at all, for even then there is little, if anything, to distinguish them from perfectly normal animals. They maintain their natural attitude and use their tails and fins in swimming with the same vigor and precision as before. They not only see, but are able to find their food. If worms are thrown into the water where they are swimming they immediately pounce upon them. If a piece of string similar in size to a worm is thrown in, they are able to detect the difference and they drop it after having seized it. They even, to some extent, distinguish colors for when some red and some white wafers are thrown into the water the fish almost invariably select the red in preference to the white.
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