l84 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE are made by rhythmic alternation of attack, as it moves from point to point creating diversions and recurrence.
The other study, although quite independent, ' is in part a special application and illustration of the same principle.
At the age of four or five, when they can do little more than scribble, children's chief interest in pictures is as finished prod- ucts; but in the second period, which Lange calls that of artistic illusion, the child sees in his own work not merely what it represents, but an image of fancy back of it. This, then, is the golden period for the development of power to create artis- tically. The child loves to draw everything with the pleasure chiefly in the act, and he cares little for the finished picture. He draws out of his own head, and not from copy before his eye. Anything and everything is attempted in bold lines in this golden age of drawing. If he followed the teacher, looked carefully and drew what he saw, he would be abashed at his production. Indians, conflagrations, games, brownies, trains, pageants, battles, everything is graphically portrayed, but only the little artist himself sees the full meaning of his lines. Criticism or drawing strictly after nature breaks this charm, since it gives place to mechanical reproduction in which the child has little interest. This awakens him from his dream to a realization that he can not draw, and from ten to fifteen his power of perceiving things steadily increases and he makes almost no progress in drawing. Adolescence arouses the cre- ative faculty and the desire and ability to draw are checked and decline after thirteen or fourteen. The curve is the plateau which Barnes has described. The child has measured his own productions upon the object they reproduced and found them wanting, is discouraged and dislikes drawing. From twelve on, Barnes found drawing more and more distasteful, and this, too, Lukens found to be the opinion of our art teachers. The pupils may draw very properly and improve in technique, but the interest is gone. This is the condition in which most men re- main all their lives. Their power to appreciate steadily in- creases. Only a few gifted adolescents about this age begin to develop a new zest in production, rivaling that of the period from five to ten, when their satisfaction is again chiefly in creation. These are the artists whose active powers domi- nate.
GROWTH OF MOTOR POWER AND FUNCTION Lukens ^ finds in his studies of drawing, that in what he calls his fourth period of artistic development, there are those " w^ho during adolescence experience a rebirth of creative power." Zest in creation then often becomes a stronger in- centive to work than any pleasure or profit to be derived from the finished product, so that in this the propitious conditions of the first golden age of childhood are repeated and the deepest satisfaction is again found in the work itself. At about four- teen or fifteen, which is the transition period, nascent faculties sometimes develop very rapidly. Lukens ^ draws the following interesting curve.
las The reciprocity between the power to produce and that to appreciate, roughly represented in the above curve, very likely is also true in the domain of music, and may be, perhaps, a general law of development. Certain it is that the adolescent power to apperceive and appreciate never so far outstrips his power to produce or reproduce as about midway in the teens. Now impressions sink deepest. The greatest artists are usually those who paint later, when the expressive powers are de- veloped, what they have felt deepest and known best at this a.o-e, and not those who in the late twenties, or still later, have ^ A Study of Children's Drawings in the Early Years. Ped. Sem., October, 1896. See also Das Kind als Kunstler, von C. Gotze. Hamburg, 1896. Draw- ing in the Early Years. Proceedings of the Nat'l Educ. Assoc, 1899. The Gene- tic vs. the Logical Order in Drawing, by F. Burk. Ped. Sem., September, 1902.
^ Pie Entwickelungsstufen beim Zeichnen. Die Kinderfehler, vol. ii, p. 166.
1 86 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE gone to new environments and sought to depict them. All young people draw best those objects they love most, and their proficiency should be some test of the contents of their minds. They must put their own consciousness into a picture. At the dawn of this stage of appreciation the esthetic tastes should be stimulated by exposure to, and instructed in feeling for, the subject-matter of masterpieces and instruction in technique, de- tail, criticism, and learned discrimination of schools of painting should be given intermittently. Art should not now be for art's sake, but for the sake of feeling and character, life, and conduct; it should be adjunct to morals, history, and literature; and in all, edification should be the goal, and personal interest, and not that of the teacher, should be the guide. Insistence on produc- tion should be eased, and the receptive imagination, now so hun- gry, be fed and reenforced by story and all other accessories. By such a curriculum, potential creativeness, if it exists, will surely be evoked in its own good time. It will, at first, attempt no commonplace drawing-master themes, but will essay the highest that the imagination can bode forth; it may be crude and lame in execution, but it will be lofty, perhaps grand, and if it is original in consciousness it will be in effect. Most creative painters before twenty have grappled with the greatest scenes in litera- ture or turning points in history, representations of the loftiest truths, embodiments of the most inspiring ideals. None who deserve the name of artist copy anything now, and least of all with objective fidelity to nature, and the teacher that represses or criticizes this first point of genius, or who can not pardon the grave faults of technique inevitable at this age when ambition ought to be too great for power, is not an educator but a repressor, a pedagogic philistine committing, like so many of his calling in other fields, the unpardonable sin against bud- ding promise, always at this age so easily blighted. Just as the child of six or seven should be encouraged in his strong in- stinct to draw the most complex scenes of his daily life, so now the inner life should find graphic utterance in all its in- tricacy up to the full limit of unrepressed courage. For the great majority, on the other hand, who only appreciate and will never create, the mind, if it have its rights, will be stored with the best images and sentiments of art, for at this time they are best remembered and sink deepest into heart and life; now, al- GROWTH OF MOTOR POWER AND FUNCTION 187 though the hand may refuse, the fancy paints the world in brightest hues and fairest forms, and such an opportunity for infecting the soul with vaccine of ideality, hope, optimism, and courage in adversity, will never come again. I believe that in few departments are current educational theories and prac- tises so hard on youth of superior gifts, just at the age when all become geniuses for a season, very brief for most, prolonged for some, and permanent for the best. We do not know how to teach to see, hear, and feel when the sense centers are most indelibly impressible, and to give relative rest to the hand dur- ing the years when its power of accuracy is abated and when all that is good is idealized farthest, and confidence in ability to produce is at its lowest ebb.
Finally, our divorce between industrial and manual training is abnormal, and higher technical education is the chief sufferer. Professor Thurston, of Cornell, who lately returned from a tour of inspection abroad, reported that to equal Germany we now need: " i. Twenty technical universities, having in their schools of engineering 50 instructors and 500 students each. 2. Two thousand technical high schools or manual-training schools, each having not less than 2CX) students and 10 instruct- ors." If we have elementary trade-schools, this would mean technical high schools enough to accommodate 700,000 stu- dents, served by 20,000 teachers. With the strong economic arguments in this direction we are not here concerned; but that there are tendencies to unfit youth for life by educational method and matter shown in strong relief from this standpoint, we shall point out in a later chapter.
III. Under the term gymnastics, literally naked exercises, we here include those denuded of all utilities or ulterior ends save those of physical culture. This is essentially modern and was unknown in antiquity, where training was for games, for war, etc. Several ideals underlie this movement, which al- though closely related are distinct and as yet by no means en- tirely harmonized. These may be described as follows: A. One aim of Jahn, more developed by Spiess, and their successors, was to do everything physically possible for the body as a mechanism. Many postures and attitudes are as- sumed and many movements made that are never called for in 1 88 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE life. Some of these are so novel that a great variety of new apparatus had to be devised to bring them out, and Jahn in- vented many new names, some of them without etymologies, to designate the repertory of his discoveries and inventions that extended the range of motor life. Common movements, in- dustry, and even games, train only a limited number of muscles, activities, and coordinations, and leave more or less unused groups and combinations, so that many latent possibilities slumber, and powers slowly lapse through disuse. Not only must these be rescued, but modern progressive man has new nascent possibilities that must be addressed and developed. Even the common things that the average untrained youth can not do are legion, and each of these should be a new incentive to the trainer as he realizes how very far below their motor possibilities most men live. The man of the future may, and even must, do things impossible in the past and acquire new motor variations not given by heredity. Our somatic frame and its powers must therefore be carefully studied, inventoried, and assessed afresh, and a kind and amount of exercise re- quired that is exactly proportioned, not perhaps to the size but to the capability of each voluntary muscle; thus only can we have a truly humanistic physical development, analogous to the training of all the powers of the mind in a broad, truly liberal, and non-professional or non-vocational educational curriculum. The body will thus have its rightful share in the pedagogic traditions and inspirations of the renaissance. Thus only can we have a true scale of standardized culture values for efferent processes, and from this we can measure the degrees of de- parture, both in the direction of excess and defect, of each form of work, motor habit, and even play. Many modern Epigoni in the wake of this great ideal, where its momentum was nearly spent, feeling that new activities might be discovered with virtues hitherto undreamed of, have almost made fetiches of special disciplines, both developmental and corrective, that are pictured and lauded in scores of manuals. Others have had expectations no less excessive in the opposite direction and have argued that the greatest possible variety of movements best developed the greatest total of motor energy. Jahn especially thus made gymnastics a special art, and inspired great enthusiasm of humanity, and the songs of his pupils were of a GROWTH OF MOTOR POWER AND FUNCTION 189 better race of man and a greater and united fatherland. It was this feature that made his work unique in the world, and his disciples are fond of reminding us of the fact that it was just about one generation of men after the acme of influence of his system that, in 1870, Germany showed herself the greatest mili- tary power since ancient Rome, and took the acknowledged leadership of the world both in education and science.
These theorizations even in their extreme forms have been not only highly suggestive but have brought great and new enthusiasms and ideals into the educational world that admi- rably fit adolescence. The motive of bringing out latent, de- caying, or even new powers, skills, knacks, and feats, is full of inspiration. Patriotism is aroused, for thus the country can be better served; thus the German Fatherland was to be restored and unified after the dark days that followed the hu- miliation of Jena. Now the ideals of religion are invoked that the soul may have a better and regenerated somatic organism with which to serve Jesus and the Church. Exercise is made a form of praise to God and of service to man, and these mo- tives are reenforced by those of the new hygiene which strives for a new wholeness-holiness, and would purify the body as the temple of the Holy Ghost. Thus in Young Men's Christian Association training schools and gymnasiums the gospel of Christianity is preached anew and seeks to bring salvation to man's physical frame, which the still lingering effects of asceti- cism have caused to be too long neglected in its progressive de- generation. As the Greek games were in honor of the gods, so now the body is trained to better glorify God, and regimen, chastity, and temperance are given a new momentum. The physical salvation thus wrought will be, when adequately writ- ten,- one of the most splendid chapters in the modern history of Christianity. Military ideals have been revived in cult and song to hearten the warfare against evil within and without. Strength is prayed for as well as worked for, and consecrated to the highest uses. Last but not least, power thus developed over a large surface may be applied to athletic contests in the field, and victories here are valuable as foregleams of how sweet the glory of achievements in higher moral and spiritual tasks will taste later.
The dangers and sources of error in this ideal of all- I9<^ THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE sided training are, alas, only too obvious, although they only qualify its paramount good. First, it is impossible to thus measure the quanta of training needed so as to rightly as- sign to each its modicum and best modality of training. In- deed no method of doing this has ever been attempted, but the assessments have been arbitrary and conjectural, probably right in some and wrong in other respects, with no adequate criterion or test for either save only empirical experience. Secondly, heredity, which lays its heavy ictus upon some neglected forms of activity and fails of all support for others, has been ignored. As we shall' see later, one of the best norms here is phyletic emphasis, and what lacks this must at best be feeble, and if new powers are unfolding, their growth must be very slow and they must be nurtured as tender buds for generations. Thirdly, too little regard is had for the vast differences in individuals, most of whom need much personal prescription.
B. In practise the above ideal is never isolated from others. Perhaps the most closely associated with it is that of increased volitional control. Man is largely a creature of habit, and many of his activities are more or less automatic reflexes from the stimuli of his environment. Every new power of con- trolling these by the will frees man from slavery and widens the field of freedom. To acquire the power of doing all with consciousness and volition mentalizes the body, gives control over to higher brain levels, and develops them by rescuing activities from the dominance of lower centers. Thus mens agitat molem. This end is favored by the Swedish commando exercises, which require great alertness of attention to translate instantly a verbal order into an act and also, although in some- what less degree, by quick imitation of a leader. The stimulus of music and rhythm are excluded because thought to interfere with this end. A somewhat sophisticated form of this goal is sought by several Delsartian schemes of relaxation, decomposi- tion, and recomposition of movements. To do all things w^ith consciousness and to encroach on the field of instinct involves new and more vivid sense impressions, the range of which is increased directly as that of motion, the more closely it approaches the focus of attention. By thus analyzing settled and established coordinations, their elements are set free and may be organized into new combinations, so that the former is the first GROWTH OF MOTOR POWER AND FUNCTION 19 1 stage toward becoming a virtuoso with new special skills. This is the road to inner secrets or intellectual rules of professional and expert successes, such as older athletes often rely on when their strength begins to wane. Every untrained automatism must be domesticated, and every striated muscle capable of direct muscular control must be dominated by volition. Thus tensions and incipient contractures that drain off energy can be relaxed by fiat. Sandow's " muscle dance," the differentia- tion of movements of the right and left hand, one, e. g., writing a French madrigal while the other is drawing a picture of a country dance, or each playing tunes of disparate rhythm and character simultaneously on the piano, controlling heart rate, moving the ears, crying, laughing, blushing, moving the bowels, etc., at will, feats of inhibition of reflexes, stunts of all kinds, proficiency with many tools, deftness in sports — these alto- gether would mark the extremes in this direction.
This, too, has its inspiration for youth. To be an univer- sal adept like Hippias suggests Diderot and the encyclopedists in the intellectual realm. To do all with consciousness is a means to both remedial and expert ends. Motor life often needs to be made over to a greater or less extent, and that possi- bilities of vastly greater accomplishments exist than are at pres- ent realized, is undoubted, even in manners and morals, which are both at root only motor habits. Indeed consciousness it- self is largely and perhaps wholly corrective in its very raison d'etre. Thus life is adjusted to new environments, and if the Platonic postulate be correct, that untaught virtues that come by nature and instinct are no virtues, but must be made products of reflection and reason, the sphere and need of this principle is great indeed. But this implies a distrust of physical human nature as deep-seated and radical as that of Calvinism for the unregenerate heart, against w^hich modern common sense, so often the best muse of both psycho-physics and pedagogy, pro- tests. Individual prescription is here as imperative as it is difficult. Wonders that now seem to be most incredible, both of hurt and help, can undoubtedly be wrought, but analysis should always be for the sake of synthesis and never be beyond its need and assured completion. No thoughtful student fully informed of the facts and tentatives in this field can doubt that here lies one of the most promising fields of future develop- I92t THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE ment, full of far-reaching and rich results for those as yet far too few experts in physical training, who have philosophic minds, command the facts of modern psychology, and whom the world awaits now as never before.
C. Another yet closely correlated ideal is that of economic postures and movements. The system of Ling is less ortho- pedic than orthogenic, although he sought primarily to correct bad attitudes and perverted growth. Starting from the respir- atory and proceeding to the muscular system, he and his imme- diate pupils were content to refer to ill-shapen bodies of most men about them. One of their important aims was to relax the flexor and tone up the extensor muscles and to open the human form into postures as opposite as possible to those of the embryo, which it tends so persistently to approximate in sitting, and in fatigue and collapse attitudes generally. The head must balance on the cervical vertebrae and not call upon the muscles of the neck to keep it from rolling off; the weight of the shoulders must be thrown back off the thorax; the spine be erect to allow the abdomen free action; the joints of the thigh extended; the hand and arm supinated, etc. Bones must relieve muscles and nerves. Thus an erect, self-respecting car- riage must be given, and the unfortunate association, so diffi- cult to overcome, between effort and an involuted posture must be broken up. This means economy and a great saving of vital energy. Extensor action goes with expansive, flexor with depressive states of mind; 'hence courage, buoyancy, hope, are favored and handicaps removed. All that is done with great effort causes wide irradiation of tensions to the other half of the body and also sympathetic activities in those not in- volved; the law of maximal ease and minimal expenditure of energy must be always striven for, and the interests of the viscera are never lost sight of. This involves educating weak and neglected muscles, and like the next ideal, often shades over by almost imperceptible gradation into the passive movements by the Zander machines. Realizing that certain activities are sufficiently or too much emphasized in ordinary life, stress is laid upon those which are complemental to them, so that there is. no pretense of taking charge of the totality of motor processes, but the intention is principally to supplement deficien- cies, to insure men against being warped, distorted, or deformed GROWTH OF MOTOR POWER AND FUNCTION 193 by their work in life, to compensate specialties and perform more exactly what recreation to some extent aims at.
This wholesome but less inspiring endeavor, which combats one of the greatest evils that under modern civilization threatens man's physical weal, is in some respects as easy and practical as it is useful. The great majority of city bred men, as well as all students, are prone to deleterious effects from too much sitting, and indeed there is anatomical evidence in the structure of the tissues, and especially the blood-vessels of the groins, that at his best man is not yet entirely adjusted to the upright posi- tion. So a method that straightens knees, hips, spine, and shoulders, or combats the school-desk attitude, is a most salu- tary contribution to a great and growing need. In the very act of stretching, and perhaps yawning, for which much is to be said, nature itself suggests such correctives and preventives. To save men from being victims of their occupations is often to add a better and larger half to their motor development. The danger of the system, which now best represents this ideal, is inflexibility and overscholastic treatment. It needs a great range of individual variations if it would do more than increase circulation, respiration, and health, or the normal functions of internal organs and fundamental physiological activities. To clothe the frame with honest muscles that are faithful servants of the will adds not only strength, more active habits and effi- ciency, but health, and in its material installation this system is financially economic. Personal faults and shortcomings are constantly pointed out where this work is best represented, and it has a distinct advantage in inciting an acquaintance with physiology and inviting the larger fields of medical knowledge.
D. The fourth gymnastic aim is symmetry and correct pro- portions. Anthropometry and average girths and dimensions, strength, etc., of the parts of the body are first charted in per- centile grades and each individual is referred to the apparatus and exercises best fitted to correct weaknesses and subnormali- ties. The norms here followed are not the canons of Greek art, but those established by the measurement of the largest numbers properly grouped by age, weight, height, etc. Young men are found to differ very widely. Some can lift i,odo pounds, and some not lOO; some can lift their weight between twenty and forty times, and some not once; some are most de- U 194 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE ficient in legs, others in shoulders, arms, backs, chests. By photography, tape, and scales, each is interested in his own bod- ily condition and incited to overcome his greatest defects, and those best endowed by nature to attain ideal dimensions and make new records are encouraged along these lines. Thus this ideal is also largely though not exclusively remedial.