The nursery school / by Margaret McMillan.

  • Margaret McMillan
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The nursery school / by Margaret McMillan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the teachings of physiology in the bath-room and dressing-room and look upon these as what they are—great class-rooms, full, offering, not mere apparatus but something better, that is opportunity. There are twenty-six movements involved in the common task of washing, and another twenty or so in dressing, and our children of five on entrance cannot make five, in some cases, out of the forty- six ! Yet they should make them all at the age of three, and be as expert at five in them as in walking, moving or jumping. And they would be glad to learn. At first one has to take hold of the neglected hand as Seguin took hold of an imbecile’s hand or arm, to flatten the palm, to place the wash- rag, to rub the soap on and show the child that he must not then (as he nearly always does on entrance) allow it to slip into the warm water. He begins of course with the face. (Left to himself he may start with the feet.) And in patiently trying to get him to wash, one is struck by the beauty and variety of the movements we have to make. The arch of the eye, the curve of the ear, the backward movement behind the ear, and the strong circular movement round the neck. We do all on the blackboard in drawing and call it a lesson. We do it in the bath-room and call it getting clean. We swing circles on the black¬ board ; now we swing them on the chest with soap and then with water, and draw hard rubbing lines
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