CHAPTER IIICHILD PSYCHOLOGY

A SYSTEMATIC knowledge of the powers and limitations of the human mind and soul before maturity and the characteristic changes which they undergo at puberty will throw a flood of light on the boy-problem. Juvenile psychology may be divided into child psychology, covering the period from birth to puberty, and adolescent psychology, covering the period from puberty to maturity. Boyhood is the interval between birth and physical maturity, the latter being reached at the age of twenty-four or twenty-five, when the bones, muscles, and organs of the body have attained their complete development. Legal maturity,or majority, comes at the end of the twenty-first year, when the disabilities of infancy are removed and the boy is presumed by law to have acquired sufficient intelligence, judgment, and moral discernment to take his place in the community as a citizen, and is then vested with all the rights, duties, and obligations of an adult, even though mental maturity (reckoned at the time the brain cells cease to grow and judgment and reason have fully ripened) is deferred until he is approximately fifty years of age. We may roughly divide the boy’s life into four periods of psychic unfolding in accordance with the table on page 32.

During the imaginative period covering infancy, from birth to eight years, the child lives in a land of air castles, daydreams and mental inventions, interspersed with periodic pangs of hunger which assail him at intervals of great frequency. His world is peopled with fairies, gnomes, nymphs, dryads, goblins, and hobgoblins. Elfin images are his daily playmates. Imagination runs riot and dominates his viewpoint. It is theperiod in which make-believe is as real as reality, and this furnishes the explanation of many of the so-called falsehoods of this age. But the development of the imagination should be guarded, not suppressed. Through imagination we visualize the future and effect world progress. All the great inventions which have advanced civilization, the political reforms which have contributed to our liberties and happiness, and the monumental works of literature, music, art, and science, would have been impossible without the exercise of the imaginative faculty.

Imagination is not only of great value in educating the intellect and morals, but it is a desirable mental attribute which promotes sympathy, discloses latent possibilities of things and situations, and broadens one’s appreciation of life. It is needed by the laborer, ditch-digger and sewer-cleaneras well as by the musician, artist, and author.

In this period the child learns more than in all his subsequent life. He learns to talk, to walk, to feed himself and to play; he learns the rudiments of written and printed language, and the names and uses of the various objects he sees about him; he comprehends form, color, perspective, and harmony; his imagination, so useful in later life, blossoms forth; his moral sense buds and the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong unfolds; the intense desire to learn and to know is born—evidenced by his rapid-fire and continuous questions; he is possessed by a voracious appetite for knowledge which must be fed by a harvest of information; and the habit of obedience and the recognition of parental authority become fixed. His horizon is bounded by physical growth and the acquisition of knowledge. All subsequent knowledge iseither a variant of or a supplement to the basic knowledge acquired during infancy.

The ascendant trait of the imaginative period is the faculty of make-believe. It is the ability of the mind to create mental images of objects previously perceived by the senses. It involves the power to reconstruct and recombine materials, already known, into others of like symbolic purport. It is exhibited when Johnny mounts a broomstick, shouting, “Get up, horsie!” and “Whoa!” The imagination builds up a mental image of a real horse, which he has seen, out of the stick-and-string substitute. Through fancy, he endows the counterfeit with all the attributes of the original and for the time being the broomstick is a real, living, bucking horse. Such make-believe is an important factor in the development and coördination of ideas and the acquisition ofknowledge. And so in the innumerable instances of make-believe plays, whether he pretends in fancy to be papa, a ravenous bear, a soldier, a policeman, or what not, he temporarily lives the part he is playing and merges his personality into the assumed character with an abandon which should excite the envy of an actor.

Witness also the imagination displayed by Mary when she builds a house with a line of chairs, and peoples it with imaginary friends with whom she carries on extended conversations, and takes the several parts in the dialogue when the absence of playmates renders such expedient necessary. Impersonation is grounded in imagination. Every little girl impersonates her mother, with a doll as her make-believe self, and spends many hours in pretending to care for its physical needs, teaching it mentally, and even correcting its morals with some formof punishment with which she herself is acquainted, whether corporal or otherwise.

The stolid, dull child exhibits less of fancy and imagination than his keen bright companion and therefore is less frequently engaged in the numberless activities prompted by imagination, which require supervision. His very stolidity keeps him out of many acts termed “mischief” and therefore he is more easily “managed” in the sense that he does not require such continuous oversight and direction. The stolid one must be set going by being told how, what, and when to play, while the imaginative one, without aid, conjures up many fanciful dramas in which he plays the leading rôle and thus occupies the years of infancy. These figments of the brain give rise to stories and fanciful tales which are called “lies” by adults who fail to understand their psychology. These are of sufficient importance to warrant their discussionin a separate chapter of this volume.

It is during this period that the mother, with her Heaven-sent gift of love, sympathy, tenderness, and insight into the soul of childhood, is the effective teacher. Coming home one evening, I found a neighbor’s son of six years sitting on his front steps awaiting his mother’s return. He was sobbing to himself. I approached him and inquired, “Well, Robbie! What’s the matter?”

He replied, through a mist of tears, “I fell down and bumped my head.”

“Does it hurt you?” I continued, in my helpless way, unable to fathom the soul-depths of his disaster. “No,” was the response, “it don’t hurt, but I want muvver so I can cry in her arms, an’ it will be well.”

He needed first aid to his feelings—not to his body—and only mother with her infinite love, sympathy, and understanding couldapply it. With a deep consciousness of the limitations of his sex, the author withdrew to await the balm of mother-love—that unfailing remedy for the physical and mental hurts of childhood.

Blest hour of childhood! then, and then alone,Dance we the revels close round pleasure’s throne,Quaff the bright nectar from her fountain-springs,And laugh beneath the rainbow of her wings.Oh! time of promise, hope and innocence,Of trust, and love, and happy ignorance!Whose every dream is heaven, in whose fair joy,Experience has thrown no black alloy.—Thoughts of a Recluse.

Blest hour of childhood! then, and then alone,

Dance we the revels close round pleasure’s throne,

Quaff the bright nectar from her fountain-springs,

And laugh beneath the rainbow of her wings.

Oh! time of promise, hope and innocence,

Of trust, and love, and happy ignorance!

Whose every dream is heaven, in whose fair joy,

Experience has thrown no black alloy.

—Thoughts of a Recluse.

At the age of eight or nine, when the child emerges from infancy into early boyhood, he begins gradually and imperfectly to leave behind the characteristics of childhood and, with the development of his mental and physical processes, he acquires the distinguishing traits of the individualistic period.

It should be borne in mind that the characteristic changes from one period to another are not abrupt transitions, but easy gradations; a gradual dropping of the distinctive features of the period left behind for the essentials of the period just attained. The progression is by easy, continuous stages, effected unconsciously and unobtrusively. This growth may be compared to the four periods of the development of a plant; first, the bursting of the seed into life and the tender stalk forcing its way upward into the light—the infantile period; then the formation of branches and leaves and the growth of stalk—the early boyhood period; then the putting forth of the bud which is the precursor of the flower, and the formation and development of petals, stamen, pistils, and pollen—the adolescent period; and finally the blossoming forth of the full-blown flower, the fertilization of the pistilby the pollen of the anther, the whole marvelous process of reproduction culminating in the formation of the embryonic plant contained in the seed—the period of maturity. All of these stages are characterized by an evolution which is as gradual as it is silent.

In like manner it should be understood that the ages delimiting the four periods of boyhood are somewhat arbitrary and are subject to the controlling factors of race, climate, health, and individual temperament. The Latin races mature earlier than the Anglo-Saxon; the boy in the tropics reaches puberty more quickly than one in a colder zone; certain abnormalities of physical condition, as well as environment and heredity, conduce to early maturity; and temperamental characteristics contribute, in some degree, to a difference in the time required to traverse the various periods of boyhood.I have known boys of ten who were still infants, and I have in mind a boy friend of sixteen years, with the normal mental development of one of that age, in whom adolescence has not begun. Physically and psychologically he is eleven years old, although chronologically he is sixteen. He is, therefore, in the individualistic period of his existence and, in a large degree, he should be judged, governed, and trained by the rules applicable to that period. In so far as his moral concepts are influenced by mentality, his responsibility for deflection is that of one of his chronological age; but in that class of cases in which his moral viewpoint is controlled by his undeveloped physical or psychic state, his responsibility belongs to the individualistic period to which these qualities are attributable.

The individualistic period between eight and twelve is the era in which the boy regardshimself as an individual not correlated to other individuals of society. He is essentially selfish, and individualism is his dominant characteristic. He has an excessive and exclusive regard for his personal interests. The great world of men forming society is beyond his perceptions. His thoughts chiefly concern himself and seldom embrace others, except when they cause him pleasure, annoyance, or pain. He recognizes them only as they contribute to his emotions. This tendency manifests itself in the selfishness exhibited in play and his unwillingness to perform the trifling services required of him by his elders, if they in any way interfere with his present enjoyment. Sociological consciousness, with its recognition of the duties and obligations of the individual toward the mass of individuals termed society, is still dormant. Its first awakening is seen in his recognition of dutytoward his family, and later toward his playmates and friends, and last of all toward society—which is reached in the reflective period. His mental horizon is bounded entirely by his own activities and interests in which he is the central figure.

Carelessness, forgetfulness, and thoughtlessness of others are incidents common to childhood which gradually wane and disappear at the age when he enters the reflective period. As he lives in the immediate present, he does not plan for the future—not even for the morrow. Johnny comes home to supper from the playground, whirling through the house with cyclonic energy and leaving a trail of gloves, hat, overcoat, and superfluous garments in his wake, intent on the only thing which is of absorbing interest to him at that moment—his immediate presence at table to alleviate the excruciating pangs of hunger which are gnawing at hisvitals. Everything else is forgotten in his efforts to satisfy the desires of the present. The next morning, when preparations for school are begun, all remembrance of the places where his wearing apparel was deposited is forgotten. Then ensues the daily hunt for the missing garments, interspersed with vociferous requests to all members of the household for assistance. The interrogatory, “Where’s my hat?” is as common as oatmeal for breakfast. Order and system have little place in a routine which is regulated by present necessity.

A strong sense of proprietorship in personal possessions is now manifest, and is closely allied to the acquisitive faculty. About the ninth year he begins to make collections of various sorts of junk. This is the beginning of the collection craze which lasts throughout the individualistic period. Its initial manifestation is usually the collectionof foreign and domestic postage stamps, which lasts from three to five years and furnishes one of the best methods for elementary scientific training. The term science implies knowledge systematized and reduced to an orderly and logical arrangement, with classification as its basis. Such collections teach him to group and classify their component parts according to some definite plan. The intellectual training afforded by the grouping and classifying necessary to preserve his collection possesses educational value of the highest quality. Geography now has a new and personal meaning as “the places where his stamps came from.” Other phases of this tendency may be seen in collections of marbles, agates, tops, buttons, bird eggs, leaves, minerals, monograms, crest impressions, cigarette pictures, and cigar bands.

One boy proved his industry and trendtoward personal acquisition by collecting and classifying several hundred tin cans which were formerly receptacles for fruit, beans, and meats, and the odors emanating from the mass in no wise diminished his pride in the collection, which he regarded in the same light as the connoisseur views his art treasures.

A wise provision of nature has made the acquisition of knowledge pleasant and agreeable. It prompts the boy to fire continuous volleys of questions and has caused him to be described as the human interrogation mark. He looks on every adult as a wellspring of knowledge whose stream of information can be started flowing by tapping it with a question. The knowledge received and digested from the answers to his questions supplies him with food by which he grows intellectually. This inquisitiveness exhibits itself, before puberty, in frank,naïve questions—even of the most personal nature. On one occasion the author appeared in evening dress at a meeting of his troop of Boy Scouts preparatory to a later attendance upon a social function. He was immediately surrounded by that part of the troop of preadolescent age who subjected his wearing apparel to minute examination, during which they felt the cloth, inquired its cost, and commented freely, frankly, and unreservedly on matters pertaining to material, cut, style, price, and workmanship, with never a thought of giving offense. While one who is the object of such attention would ordinarily feel a degree of embarrassment at such familiarity, the author recognized it as a manifestation of the curiosity inherent in the preadolescent age, as well as evidence of a complete confidence andrapportwhich could be possible only toward one with whom they were on termsof sympathetic and understandable companionship.

The sages say, Dame Truth delights to dwell,Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well.Questions are, then, the windlass and the ropeThat pull the grave old gentlewoman up.—Dr. Walcot’sPeter Pindar.

The sages say, Dame Truth delights to dwell,Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well.Questions are, then, the windlass and the ropeThat pull the grave old gentlewoman up.

The sages say, Dame Truth delights to dwell,

Strange mansion! in the bottom of a well.

Questions are, then, the windlass and the rope

That pull the grave old gentlewoman up.

—Dr. Walcot’sPeter Pindar.

During this age the imitative faculty is born, reaches its development, and is carried over into the heroic period. He follows companions in the kind of games and the seasons when they are played. If a playmate is the possessor of a sled, a bicycle, or a pair of skates, he must needs have their duplicates. He begins to follow closely the opinions, pastimes, games, and even the style of dress affected by others of his own class. If it is the fashion of his set, he will, with a persistency worthy of a better cause, wear the brim of his hat turned down and decorated with a multicolored hat band.He revels in a riot of color because æsthetics is an unexplored and unsuspected world. His proximity to the savage state is reflected in his love of the garish colors which are affected by savage peoples.

His faculty for imitation renders him highly susceptible to the influences of his environment. He imitates what he sees and hears. Therefore the influence of companions for good or evil, as well as the persuasive control of his parents by example, is potent. To a somewhat lesser degree is he affected by the class of literature which he reads. In the absence of stories suited to his psychological needs, he acquires a taste for the dime novel, nickel library, and other blood-and-thunder stories, the reading of which, if continued through the heroic period, frequently results in truancy and leaving home to “see the world.”

Concurrent with all the psychic developmentof this period he shows himself to be a human dynamo of physical energy which manifests itself in ceaseless action. This period of motor activity should find its outlet, as well as its control, in play, athletics, and manual training. He is a bundle of twist, squirm, and wiggle which only time can convert into useful and productive activity.

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