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Mental
Education
Of
all lines of education, mental education is the most widely
known and practised, yet except in a few rare cases there
are gaps which make it something very incomplete and in
the end quite insufficient.
Generally
speaking, schooling is considered to be all the mental education
that is necessary. And when a child has been made to undergo,
for a number of years, a methodical training which is more
like cramming than true schooling, it is considered that
whatever is necessary for his mental development has been
done. Nothing of the kind. Even conceding that the training
is given with due measure and discrimination and does not
permanently damage the brain, it cannot impart to the human
mind the faculties it needs to become a good and useful
instrument. The schooling that is usually given can, at
the most, serve as a system of gymnastics to increase the
suppleness of the brain. From this standpoint, each branch
of human learning represents a special kind of mental gymnastics,
and the verbal formulations given to these various branches
each constitute a special and well-defined language.
A
true mental education, which will prepare man for a higher
life, has five principal phases. Normally these phases follow
one after another, but in exceptional individuals they may
alternate or even proceed simultaneously. These five phases,
in brief, are:
(1) Development of the power of concentration, the capacity
of attention.
(2) Development of the capacities of expansion, widening,
complexity and richness.
(3) Organisation of one's ideas around a central idea, a
higher ideal or a supremely
luminous idea that will serve as a guide in life.
(4) Thought-control, rejection of undesirable thoughts,
to become able to think only
what one wants and when one wants.
(5) Development of mental silence, perfect calm and a more
and more total receptivity
to inspirations coming from the higher regions of the
being.
It
is not possible to give her all the details concerning the
methods to be employed in the application of these five
phases of education to different individuals. Still, a few
explanations on points of detail can be given.
Undeniably,
what most impedes mental progress in children is the constant
dispersion of their thoughts. Their thoughts flutter hither
and thither like butterflies and they have to make a great
effort to fix them. Yet this capacity is latent in them,
for when you succeed in arousing their interest, they are
capable of a good deal of attention. By his ingenuity, therefore,
the educator will gradually help the child to become capable
of a sustained effort of attention and a faculty of more
and more complete absorption in the work in hand. All methods
that can develop this faculty of attention from games to
rewards are good and can all be utilised according to the
need and the circumstances. But it is the psychological
action that is most important and the sovereign method is
to arouse in the child an interest in what you want to teach
him, a liking for work, a will to progress. To love to learn
is the most precious gift that one can give to a child:
to love to learn always and
everywhere, so that all circumstances, all happenings in
life may be constantly renewed opportunities for learning
more and always more.
For
that, to attention and concentration should be added observation,
precise recording and faithfulness of memory. This faculty
of observation can be developed by varied and spontaneous
exercises, making use of every opportunity that presents
itself to keep the child's thought wakeful, alert and prompt.
The growth of the understanding should be stressed much
more than that of memory. One knows well only what one has
understood. Things learnt by heart, mechanically, fade away
little by little and finally disappear; what is understood
is never forgotten. Moreover, you must never refuse to explain
to a child the how and the why of things. If you cannot
do it yourself, you must direct the child to those who are
qualified to answer or point out to him some books that
deal with the question. In this way you will progressively
awaken in the child the taste for true study and the habit
of making a persistent effort to know.
You
will gradually show the child that everything can become
an interesting subject for study if it is approached in
the right way. The life of every day, of every movement,
is the best school of all, varied, complex, full of unexpected
experiences, problems to be solved, clear and striking examples
and obvious consequences. It is so easy to arouse healthy
curiosity in children, if you answer with intelligence and
clarity the numerous questions they ask. An interesting
reply to one readily brings others in its train and so the
attentive child learns without effort much more than he
usually does in the classroom. By a choice made with care
and insight, you should also teach him to enjoy good reading-matter
which is both instructive and attractive. Do not be afraid
of anything that awakens and pleases his imagination; imagination
develops the creative mental faculty and through it study
becomes living and the mind develops in joy.
November
1951
- The Mother
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