subjects in the curriculum we are in the state of Watts when he gazed at the tea-
kettle and began to dream of the steam-engine; we are just recognizing a new
power and method destined to reconstruct and increase the efficiency of
education, but only after a long and toilsome period of limited successes.
Mrs. Barnes[19], told a story without date, place, name, or moral and compared
the questions which 1,250 children would like to have answered about it. She
found that the interest of girls in persons, or the number who asked the question
"who," culminated at twelve, when it coincided with that of boys, but that the
latter continued to rise to fifteen. The interest to know "place where" events
occurred culminated at eleven with girls, and at fifteen, and at a far higher point,
with boys. The questions "how" and "why," calling for the method and reason,
both culminated at twelve for girls and fifteen for boys, but were more
infrequent and showed less age differences than the preceding question. Interest
in the results of the action was most pronounced of all, culminating at twelve in
girls and fifteen in boys. Details and time excited far less interest, the former
jointly culminating for both sexes at eleven. Interest in the truth of the narrative
was extremely slight, although it became manifest at fifteen, and was growing at
sixteen. The number of inferences drawn steadily increased with age, although
the increase was very slight after thirteen. Both legitimate and critical inferences
increased after eleven, while imaginative inferences at that age had nearly
reached their maximum. Interest in names was very strong throughout, as in
primitive people. Boys were more curious concerning "who," "where," and
"how"; girls as to "why." In general, the historic curiosity of boys was greater
than that of girls, and culminated later. The inferences drawn from an imagined
finding of a log-house, boat, and arrows on a lonely island indicate that the
power of inference, both legitimate and imaginative, develops strongly at twelve
and thirteen, after which doubt and the critical faculties are apparent; which
coincides with Mr. M.A. Tucker's conclusion, that doubt develops at thirteen and
that personal inference diminishes about that age.
The children were given two accounts of the fall of Fort Sumter, one in the terms
of a school history and the other a despatch of equal length from Major
Anderson, and asked which was best, should be kept, and why. Choice of the
narrative steadily declined after eleven and that of the despatch increased, the
former reaching its lowest, the latter its highest, point at fifteen, indicating a
preference for the first-hand record. The number of those whose choice was
affected by style showed no great change, from twelve to fifteen, but rose very