An introduction to child-study / by W.B. Drummond.

  • Drummond, W. B. (William Blackley), 1868-1937
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to child-study / by W.B. Drummond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the child the mischief she had done, so that the treatment they advised was intended to prevent further mischief. Should we postpone subjective appeal until children reach this age? Professor Barnes seems to suggest that we should. It is evident that there is room for considerable caution in determining the application of studies of this kind. 5. In avoiding Injury to the Children.—Perhaps the most serious charge which is brought against child-study is that it is a kind of mental vivisection wherein the interests of the child are apt to be sacrificed to the interests of science. There is truth in the assertion that the attitude of the scientific investigator is different from that of the parent or teacher as parent or teacher. The investigator must collect and examine his facts by the cold dry light of science. The moment he allows any intru- sion of emotion or sentiment to colour his results his observations cease to have any value for science. But while we must not allow our sentiments to dim our vision, or our prejudices to disturb our regard for truth, it is equally certain that we must undertake no investiga- tions which our sympathies would not approve. The student would do well, therefore, to bear in mind the caution which Sir James Crichton-Browne addressed to parents and teachers a few years ago. ‘Perhaps,’ he said, ‘parents and teachers would be gentler in their manipulations of the brain if they realized that it is of blood, of the consistence of firm jelly; that it is like a sponge full to the dripping-point; that it is made up of a starry firmament of cells, arranged in millions of constellations, and of a silvery filigree of fibres beside which the threads of the gossamer are coarse and clumsy cables. And perhaps, again, parents and teachers would be less exacting than they are in their demands on the
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