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Show Know Your Schools .... Children RJeed Space To Gmvi ... By Arietta Williams Elementary Supervisor "Children need space in which to grow." So said a well known educator. Just what does this mean? Does it mean large rooms and fine play grounds with plenty of space so that children may stretch their bodies? Yes, but it means far more than physical space.. A conversation with two mothers moth-ers from another school district indicates the need for another kind of "space." "I just don't know what I'm going go-ing to do with my boy, David." from the city library by the doz-said doz-said one mother. "He just hates school. I have a difficult time getting get-ting him to go every morning." "What seems to be the reason?" asked the second mother. "My boy really likes school this year. He has a wonderful teacher who seems to know just how to make children happy." "Well, this is the third teacher David has had this year and its just the last month that he seems to hate to go to school. He just loved it last fall and I've never seen a child make so much progress. pro-gress. Why, he was reading books ens, and spell why he could spell words I couldn't. In his arithmetic arithme-tic he was way beyond the rest of the class but it isn't that way now!" "What seems to be the difference differ-ence between the two teachers?" "I just don't know. This new teacher makes the children study hard. She gives them 20 spelling words every week and pages of arithmetic to work and she surely sure-ly makes the children mind. They can't get out of their desks. But David seems to have given up. She told him he was too. far ahead of the class in arithmetic and that he had to go back and work all of the problems with the class. Why, I visited David's room many times last fall and the children chil-dren were always busy. They weren't always in their seats, but they were orderly and seemed to know what they were doing. They went on many excursions and they were always having some of the parents in to 'share' experiences." The conversation between the two mothers indicates that there is something more needed than just physical space. Physical space is just one as-(Continued as-(Continued On Back Page) KNOW YOUR SCHOOLS . . . (Continued from page one) pect of the whole problem of providing room for growth. We have seen many large, well equipped equip-ped classrooms where children are so restricted they hardly dare to breathe. They are not permitted to take advantage of the space that exists. One educator says this: "But what of the 'psychological space' so important if children are to develop? de-velop? Growth takes place within a total organism. If any aspect of space is restricted the full potential poten-tial of the individual cannot be realized." By "psychological space" is meant the total environment in which the child lives. Children need "space" in which to use their own ideas. They need to be able to try out those ideas. A teacher who respects the ideas of children and helps to explore and develop them is providing a most important import-ant kind of "space" "psychological "psycholog-ical space" where children can grow intellectually. Children need "space" they can learn to know and respect themselves. them-selves. They need to feel free to be different. Too many times we stifle children's interests by trying try-ing to force them all into one mold. Children need "space" in which they fell comfortable in making mistakes. They need to have the satisfaction of being successful, but every project cannot possibly work out as planned. Children need "space" in which it is all right to fail. Children need "space" in which to explore their relationships with other children and groups. Democratic Demo-cratic living becomes real to children chil-dren when they have a share in planning their activities with other oth-er children instead of being dictated dictat-ed to by an authority. If children are helped to grow to their maximum, then, they need physical space space in wheh to stretch their active little bodies and more important, they need "psychological space" or we may call it "mental elbow room." |