3.6.1 Characteristic Tendencies of The Various Stages of Child Life

• 1. Maturing of the sex instincts.
• 2. Rapid limb growth.
• 3. Over-awkwardness.
• 4. Visceral organs develop rapidly (heart, liver, lungs, genital organs.)
• 5. Change in physical proportions; features take on definite characteristics.
• 6. Brain structure has matured.
• 7. Self-awareness.
• 8. Personal pride and desire for social approval.[47]
• 9. Egotism.
• 10. Unstable, “hair-trigger,” conflicting emotions.
• 11. Altruism, sincere interest in the well-being of others.
• 12. Religious and moral awakening.
• 13. New attitude.
• 14. Aesthetic awakening.
• 15. Puzzle to everybody.
• 16. Desire to abandon conventionalities, struggle for self-assertion.
• 17. Career motive.
• 18. Period of “palling” and mating; clique and “gang” spirit.
• 19. Positiveness,—affirmation, denial.
• 20. Inordinate desire for excessive amusement.
• 21. Evidence of hereditary influences.
• 22. “Hero worship,” castle building.
• 23. “Wanderlust.”
• 24. Hyper-suggestibility.
• 25. Ideals; ambitions.
• 27. Yearning for adult responsibility.

Having listed these tendencies we still face the question, “What shall we do with them? What is their significance in teaching?”

It is perfectly clear, in the first place, that we ought not to ignore them. None of them is wholly useless, and few of them can safely be developed just as they first manifest themselves. They call for training and direction.

“Some instincts are to be cherished almost as they are; some rooted out by withholding stimuli, or by making their exercise result in pain or discomfort, or by substituting desirable habits in their place; most of the instincts should be modified and redirected.”—(Thorndike.)

Our concern as teachers ought to be that in our work with boys and girls, men and women, we are aware of these natural tendencies that we may work with them rather than contrary to them—that we may “follow the grain” of human nature.

Since these tendencies are the result of responses to stimuli they may be modified by attention either to the stimuli or to the reaction that attends the stimulation. Four methods call for our consideration:[48]

• 1. The method of disuse.
• 2. The method of rewards and punishments.
• 3. The method of substitution.
• 4. The method of stimulation and sublimation.

No one of these methods can be said always to be best. The nature of the person in question, his previous experience and training, together with the circumstances attending a given situation, all are factors which determine how we should proceed. The vital point is, that both as parents and teachers we should guard against falling into the rut of applying the same treatment to all cases regardless of their nature.

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