CHAPTER IV
MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND MOTOR TRAINING
Education was long looked upon as affecting the mind only; the body was either
left out of account or neglected. Later science has shown, however, that the mind
cannot be trained except as the nervous system is trained and developed. For not
sensation and the simpler mental processes alone, but memory, imagination,
judgment, reasoning and every other act of the mind are dependent on the
nervous system finally for their efficiency. The little child gets its first mental
experiences in connection with certain movements or acts set up reflexly by the
pre-organized nervous system. From this time on movement and idea are so
inextricably bound together that they cannot be separated. The mind and the
brain are so vitally related that it is impossible to educate one without
performing a like office for the other; and it is likewise impossible to neglect the
one without causing the other to suffer in its development.
1. FACTORS DETERMINING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE NERVOUS
SYSTEM
Development and Nutrition.—Ignoring the native differences in nervous
systems through the influence of heredity, the efficiency of a nervous system is
largely dependent on two factors: (1) The development of the cells and fibers of
which it is composed, and (2) its general tone of health and vigor. The actual
number of cells in the nervous system increases but little if at all after birth.
Indeed, it is doubtful whether Edison's brain and nervous system has a greater
number of cells in it than yours or mine. The difference between the brain of a
genius and that of an ordinary man is not in the number of cells which it
contains, but rather in the development of the cells and fibers which are present,
potentially, at least, in every nervous system. The histologist tells us that in the
nervous system of every child there are tens of thousands of cells which are so
immature and undeveloped that they are useless; indeed, this is the case to some
degree in every adult person's nervous system as well. Thus each individual has
inherent in his nervous system potentialities of which he has never taken