The Years from Five to Seven

Abstract

Where should these fast-developing children be ? At home ? At a nursery or kindergarten stressing play? Within the compulsory school system? Obviously each of these arrangements has some advantage. If the children have room to play, a garden, friends to play with, a variety of materials, adequate medical supervision, intelligent parents who have plenty of time to give to them, it may be that they are as well remaining at home, although many people feel that they are ready to set off from their homes to explore the outside world; they are also often ready to meet adults on a less close relationship than that of family ties. But in any case what a very small minority in any country can make such adequate provision! The most important factor is an intelligent and understanding mother with plenty of spare time, and this is indeed a rarity. The area in which the children's community has the greatest disadvantage is that of language. Obviously a child will increase his conversational capacity much faster when shopping or bartering with mother than when talking to his contemporaries who are no more advanced than he is; and, regrettably, in some schools he may not be allowed to talk at all. Evidence from children's Homes in all countries established this knowledge long ago. At the same time he will hear more from shared talk with an educated teacher trained to encourage his efforts and making time to tell stories than from a monosyllabic mother. All over the world different systems are being tried to provide for this particular growing point in a child's life. While most of the world was agricultural, the question of compulsory education did not really arise, because the children were needed to help on the land and could at least live without official schooling; but as each country became industrialized, children's labour in the fields ceased to be essential while literate workers have been greatly needed. In addition industry has caused people to group more densely in their living so that it is easier to gather the children into schools. This familiar feature in the history of Western Europe we can now observe occurring in countries just reaching this stage of social development. Basutoland (and perhaps other countries) has made its own adaptation to economic conditions. The girls begin to attend school at about seven or eight and remain there until twelve or thirteen, but the boys do not enter at this stage. While their fathers are away, probably working in the mines in South Africa, they are the herdsmen in charge of the family's animals, taking their charges to the best available pasture and keeping them away from traffic on the roads. Only when younger brothers are responsible enough to take charge can the boys come to school. Meanwhile the girls, growing old enough to help their mothers efficiently, begin to drop out of class. So the young primary classes are predominantly female and the older classes predominantly male. In Sarawak the children leave the villages with their parents for several months each year. In Peru children are