A Child should Execute Perfectly. No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly, and then perfection should be required from him as a matter of course. For instance, he is set to do a copy of strokes, and is allowed to show a slateful at all sorts of slopes and all sorts of intervals; his moral sense is vitiated, his eye is injured. Set him six strokes to copy; let him, not bring a slateful, but six perfect strokes, at regular distances and at regular slopes. If he produces a faulty pair, get him to point out the fault, and persevere until he has produced his task; if he does not do it to-day, let him go on to-morrow and the next day, and when the six perfect strokes appear, let it be an occasion of triumph. So with the little tasks of painting, drawing, or construction he sets himself––let everything he does be well done. An unsteady house of cards is a thing to be ashamed of. Closely connected with this habit of ‘perfect work’ is that of finishing whatever is taken in hand. The child should rarely be allowed to set his hand to a new undertaking until the last is finished.
1 Comment »
1164
Comment by Jenni
January 28, 2007 @ 1:29 am
There is some point to doing things perfect but how do you balance creative writing with this outlook. Coping well written stories is fine for a while but what if the child is proud of a story written in his own way. If you point out each mistake he will never risk again. Someone had told me that if it is something you have taught, tell the child there is a mistake in this line and you are sure he can find it otherwise let it go.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI