Page 345 - The Story of My Lif

At first I did not attempt to confine my pupil to any system. I always tried to find
out what interested her most, and made that the starting-point for the new lesson,
whether it had any bearing on the lesson I had planned to teach or not. During

the first two years of her intellectual life, I required Helen to write very little. In
order to write one must have something to write about, and having something to
write about requires some mental preparation. The memory must be stored with
ideas and the mind must be enriched with knowledge before writing becomes a
natural and pleasurable effort. Too often, I think, children are required to write
before they have anything to say. Teach them to think and read and talk without
self-repression, and they will write because they cannot help it.

Helen acquired language by practice and habit rather than by study of rules and
definitions. Grammar with its puzzling array of classifications, nomenclatures,
and paradigms, was wholly discarded in her education. She learned language by
being brought in contact with the LIVING language itself; she was made to deal
with it in everyday conversation, and in her books, and to turn it over in a variety
of ways until she was able to use it correctly. No doubt I talked much more with
my fingers, and more constantly than I should have done with my mouth; for had
she possessed the use of sight and hearing, she would have been less dependent
on me for entertainment and instruction.

I believe every child has hidden away somewhere in his being noble capacities
which may be quickened and developed if we go about it in the right way; but
we shall never properly develop the higher natures of our little ones while we
continue to fill their minds with the so-called rudiments. Mathematics will never
make them loving, nor will the accurate knowledge of the size and shape of the
world help them to appreciate its beauties. Let us lead them during the first years
to find their greatest pleasure in Nature. Let them run in the fields, learn about
animals, and observe real things. Children will educate themselves under right
conditions. They require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction.

I think much of the fluency with which Helen uses language is due to the fact