learn its verbal description. Our deepest impulses lead to creation rather than
simple mental appropriation of facts and descriptions.
The Collecting Instinct.—The words my and mine enter the child's vocabulary
at a very early age. The sense of property ownership and the impulse to make
collections of various kinds go hand in hand. Probably there are few of us who
have not at one time or another made collections of autographs, postage stamps,
coins, bugs, or some other thing of as little intrinsic value. And most of us, if we
have left youth behind, are busy even now in seeking to collect fortunes, works
of art, rare volumes or other objects on which we have set our hearts.
The collecting instinct and the impulse to ownership can be made important
agents in the school. The child who, in nature study, geography or agriculture, is
making a collection of the leaves, plants, soils, fruits, or insects used in the
lessons has an incentive to observation and investigation impossible from book
instruction alone. One who, in manual training or domestic science, is allowed to
own the article made will give more effort and skill to its construction than if the
work be done as a mere school task.
The Dramatic Instinct.—Every person is, at one stage of his development,
something of an actor. All children like to "dress up" and impersonate someone
else—in proof of which, witness the many play scenes in which the character of
nurse, doctor, pirate, teacher, merchant or explorer is taken by children who,
under the stimulus of their spontaneous imagery and as yet untrammeled by self-
consciousness, freely enter into the character they portray. The dramatic impulse
never wholly dies out. When we no longer aspire to do the acting ourselves we
have others do it for us in the theaters or the movies.
Education finds in the dramatic instinct a valuable aid. Progressive teachers are
using it freely, especially in the teaching of literature and history. Its application
to these fields may be greatly increased, and also extended more generally to
include religion, morals, and art.
The Impulse to Form Gangs and Clubs.—Few boys and girls grow up without
belonging at some time to a secret gang, club or society. Usually this impulse
grows out of two different instincts, the social and the adventurous. It is
fundamental in our natures to wish to be with our kind—not only our human
kind, but those of the same age, interests and ambitions. The love of secrecy and
adventure is also deep seated in us. So we are clannish; and we love to do the
unusual, to break away from the commonplace and routine of our lives. There is