HILD STUDY, the term applied to the systematic study of children. Child study is of two kinds: one may be termed scientific, requiring delicate instruments and conducted only by trained experts; the other is that which requires no apparatus and may be carried on by every parent and teacher. Laboratories for scientific child study are found in a few teachers' colleges and state normal schools and in most of the large universities. In the article CHILD in these volumes the growth and development of the young child are fully described, and in the article ADOLESCENCE the characteristics of the "teen" age are discussed. This article is devoted to the consideration of that kind of child study which is open to every one interested in children.

Child Study in the Home. All parents are interested in the welfare and the fullest development of their children, but many fathers and mothers feel that child study is something for which they are wholly unprepared. All too often they restrict the meaning of the term to the investigations of experts in the laboratories of normal schools and universities. To these parents we would offer a word of encouragement. While expert training is of great assistance, it is not essential to the successful a wide range of observations. smother inquires, "What can de many things, and in

prosecut

But th
I do**

rest tir:

ry the following sugges

ourself in the child's place. ar as possible to your own

childhood and get the child's point of view. Wrong conclusions are frequently drawn because the adult judges the child's acts from his own viewpoint. "The child is the rightful owner of his own potentiality, which constitutes his individuality and his personality. * * The parent's judgment cannot be infallible, and he must therefore be in the habitual attitude of a learner."

2. Look for the good points. Parents are prone to magnify the faults and overlook the virtues of their children. Many acts which are considered faulty, because they are contrary to the parents' views of what should be, are not faulty at all when looked at from the child's viewpoint. They are the spontaneous expression of the energy with which his system is surcharged. By emphasizing the child's virtues you help him to overcome his faults, while by magnifying his faults you keep them constantly before him. We do not mean by this that the child's faults should be ignored, for if the child is to be helped in his development you must know his elements both of strength and of weakness. What is suggested is that you help him to make his virtues so strong that they will drive out the faults.

3. Watch for tastes and aptitudes. What does your child like to do best? Of what articles of food is he most fond? What members of the family does he prefer, and why? These questions cannot be answered offhand. The right answers will be found only through prolonged study, but the study will lead to a knowledge of the child which can be gained in

no other way. Moreover, this knowledge is necessary to the right directing of the child's energy and interests. Many people are "misfits" in the world because they were led or forced into occupations for which they have no natural aptitude. Because the father is a lawyer is no reason why his son should choose that profession.

4. Discipline. What is your idea of discipline? Do you require obedience because you desire to assert your authority? Do you command the child to be quiet because the noise he makes in his play disturbs your ease and comfort? Do you require him to do this or that because his doing it will merely help you, or do you require obedience for the good of the child? Granting that this latter is the purpose, to what sort of obedience should the child be subjected-that of external authority or that of his own will? In other words, shall it be the discipline of suppression or the discipline of liberty? "Discipline," says Madame Montessori, “must come through liberty”; and, "If discipline is founded upon liberty the discipline itself must necessarily be active." Study, then, to lead the child by suggestion and encouragement into activity along right lines. This is more difficult and requires more time and patience than the old method of command and suppression, but this old method produces an individual suppressed, not disciplined, while the first produces an individual who is master of himself and able to regulate his own conduct.

5. Indulgence. The question of discipline naturally leads to that of indulgence. "If my child is to obtain liberty through discipline shall I allow him to have his way in everything?" It would seem that no fixed rule governing this point can be established, for what might be a harmful indulgence to one Ichild would not be such to another. The child should learn through his daily experiences that he cannot indulge in those practices that are contrary to the welfare of the other members of the family, and he will learn this for himself if proper influences are thrown around him. The new baby should not be allowed to become the tyrant of the household, though within the bounds of the mother's best judgment he should be allowed his freedom.

We usually consider "spoiled" children to be those whose every wish has been granted until they have become intensely selfish and inconsiderate of others. But there are many children who have been spoiled in another

way which is often much more harmful in farreaching in its results. This refers to those children who have had their natural att suppressed and their desires killed borr their tendencies did not harmonize with the preconceived notions of father or mother. In these cases the self-indulgence of the parent may be more injurious than his over-indulgence in gratifying the child's less important desires. Can parents afford to cripple the child's future usefulness and prevent his fullest development merely to gratify their notion of what he should do in life?

6. Play. Study the child at play and teach him simple games. To do this the mother must so enter into the spirit of the games that the child will respond readily to her efforts. In what games does the child seem to take the greatest delight? When he begins to play with other children how does he treat his playfellows? Suggestions for this study are given in the article PLAY.

Child Study in the School. The home and the school should coöperate in the study of the child. The suggestions already given may apply to this work in the school as well as in the home, but there are other lines of work which from the nature of the case can be

carried on more successfully in the school. The teacher should study her pupils for the purpose of discovering—

1. Defective Children. Children are often considered dull when the cause for the apparent dullness is defective sight or hearing. The teacher should try to discover any cases of this kind early in the term so the defect, so far as possible, may be remedied. Children whose sight or hearing is defective are usually very diffident, and they seldom speak of their difficulty. It must be detected by the teacher.

2. Likes and Dislikes. Some children apparently find as much interest in one subject as in another; others show marked differences. Some like arithmetic, but take no interest in language studies. Some prefer language to arithmetic; others prefer history and geography to other subjects. But the teacher's most difficult problem in this line of study is to discover what interests the boy who shows a dislike for all school subjects. When this interest is found, through it he can usually be led to take an interest in related subjects, and his progress in school begins.

3. Temperaments. Children's temperaments and dispositions can be studied to best advantage when they are assembled in groups, as in

the school. He acteristics of each child are strongly brought out in his association with other children and in his attitude towards his work. One child is quick, nervous, very sensitive and easily irritated; another is slow, phlegmatic and apparently not disturbed by anything. Somewhere between these extremes we may classify the other pupils, some leaning towards the nervous type and others towards the phlegmatic. Those pupils in whom these characteristics most nearly balance will do their work with the least fatigue and with the least attention from the teacher. The tendency of the nervous child is to intensity of application and overwork. He needs constant oversight and frequently a caution against overwork. On the other hand, the slow child needs frequent encouragement, but over him the teacher should not become discouraged. His condition is due to physiological causes, and within due time, to use a familiar figure, the tortoise may overtake the hare, with more than a fair prospect of winning the race. Work of the Specialists. Advanced child study must be left to experts who are specially trained for it and who have well-equipped laboratories at their disposal. The work of these specialists is of the greatest value. They have made many discoveries and collected and classified facts upon which others can rely for guidance. Their works will be found help

ful to anyone interested in child study. Many of the theories they have set forth and the questions they have raised form suitable topics for discussion at mothers' meetings and the meetings of parent-teacher associations.

History. Children have been studied, trained and educated in all ages and by all peoples, but it is only within the last century that child study has received the attention of eminent educators and been carried on in a scientific manner. Since 1880 child study has become widely extended and now includes within its scope all subjects pertaining directly to the welfare and the development of the child. In the higher institutions, however, some of these subjects have been classified under psychology and others are considered under experimental pedagogy.

W.F.R.

HILE, che'lay, or CHILI, chil'i, a progressive republic in South America, extending ribbonlike along the Pacific coast for 2,700 miles. Its average width is but eighty-seven miles. If placed on the map of North America, this country (about thirty times as long as it is wide, and therefore sometimes called the shoestring republic) would stretch from Hudson Bay to about 200 miles south of Cuba. It is divided into twenty-three provinces and one territory, and has an area of 292,575 square miles, this being equal to that of Texas and

. It had in 1912 a population whh is about ten times that of

the province of Alberta, Canada, though Chile is but little larger. Among South American countries, Chile ranks fourth in population, fifth in density of population, and seventh in area. On the north is Peru; on the northeast and east are Bolivia and Argentina; the Pacific Ocean washes the western shore; a large part of Tierra del Fuego (the Land of Fire) and the famous Island of Cape Horn constitute the southern extremity of Chile, which is projected a thousand miles farther south than the southern point of Africa.

The name Chile is Indian, but its origin is disputed. It was probably derived from an