Thus they learn colors, forms, smoothness, roughness, etc. She teaches
them how to dress and undress and how to take their baths. She lets them
go about the schoolroom instead of compelling them to sit still at their
desks in cramped positions. In this way they get knowledge that they
never forget. They learn to read and write and figure in playful ways
through the proper direction of their curiosity. Little tots of four, or
even younger, are often able to read, and there has been no forcing. All
has come about through utilizing the child's curiosity.
If children are delicate, they should not be put into a schoolroom with
thirty or forty other children. Keep such children outdoors when the
weather permits and allow them to become strong. The education will take
care of itself later. There is nothing to be gained by overtaxing a
delicate child in the schoolroom, which too often is poorly ventilated,
and having a funeral a little later.
Children should be taught the few simple fundamental rules of nutrition
until they are second nature. A thorough knowledge of the fact that it
is very injurious to eat when there is bodily or mental discomfort is
worth ten thousand times as much to a child as the ability to extract
cube root or glibly recite, "Arma virumque cano Trojae," etc.
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