THE MIND AND THE HAND

So intimate is the relation between the hand and the brain that one reflects the power of the other. The hand of the intelligent man reflects that intelligence in its every movement. It looks intelligent and its touch gives the impression of intelligence. The fact is that there is the same intimate connection between the muscles of the hand and the nerve cells of the brain that exists between the muscles of the face and these nerve cells, and the intelligence of a person is indicated in the movement of his hands just as accurately as it is in the expression of his face. The muscles of the hand are directly connected with the brain, and when the mind develops, this development manifests itself in the movements and expression of the hand. The hand of the idiot is as expressionless as his face; it is listless and lacks the power of accurate movement. It lacks intelligence in its touch; when you take hold of it, it feels clammy and lacks the warmth and vitality of the intelligent hand. In fact, one of the most common methods of testing mentality is through the movements of the hand-its ability to thread a needle, to lace a shoe, to button clothes, and to do many other things for which accuracy of movement is required. Sequin, the great French-American physician, did more than any other man to improve the method of training the feeble-minded, and the secret of his success was due to the emphasis he placed on manual activity as a means of development. He saw the intimate relationship between the mind and the hand and sought. to reach the mind through the hand. He believed that for the feeble-minded child the hand was the best organ of perception, and since his time others have been of the opinion that it is the best organ of perception, not only for the feeble-minded, but for the normal-minded

as well. It is believed to be more directly connected with the brain than the other sense organs; at least through it the mind is more easily aroused. Montessori at first saw the importance of manual activity as a mindawakener when dealing with the feeble-minded children, and she reasoned that what will do so much for a feebleminded child is also good for the normal child. This led to the establishment of the Children's Home that has aroused so much interest in educational circles the world over. There are two important ideas in Montessori's educational philosophy-freedom and manual activity. The latter is the more important of the two, for it is extremely doubtful whether there could be freedom until the child's interest has been aroused in his work through manual activity.

The hand is a better revealer of character than the face. The face can be made to express what it does not feel, but not so the hand. It is always frank, open, honest, for man has not yet learned to control its expression so as to deceive. Helen Keller says: "Not only is the hand as easy to recognize as the face, but it reveals its secrets more openly and unconsciously. People control their countenances, but the hand is under no such restraint. It relaxes and becomes listless when the spirit is low and depressed; the muscles tighten when the mind is excited or the heart is glad, and permanent qualities stand written on it at all times."

This all goes to show that there is an intimate relationship existing between the hand and the mind, and that whatever affects one affects the other. The hand not only reflects the states of the mind, but it has much to do in making these states what they are. The nerves of the hand tie it to the brain in a most intimate relationship and it is this relationship which makes the hand an

important factor in education. Angelo Mosso, the celebrated Italian specialist, says: "The mutual relation of intelligence and movement is a most constant factor in nature." It was his opinion that the intellectuality of the Greeks was due to the emphasis placed on exercise. He thought that the more facile an animal was in the movement of its limbs, the more intelligent it was; that the elephant is more intelligent than most other animals because he uses not only his legs, but also his snout, as organs of movement. He held that man shows his superiority over the lower animals as much in the facility of his movements as in the power of his mind.

RELATION OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TRAINING

President G. Stanley Hall says:

The cortical centers of the voluntary muscles extend over most of the lateral psychic zones of the brain, so that their culture is brain building. Every change of attention, and of psychic states generally, plays upon them unconsciously, modifying their tension in subtle ways, so that they may be called the organs of thought and feeling as well as of the will. Habit even determines the deeper strata of belief; thought is repressed action; and deeds, not words, are the language of complete men. The motor areas are closely related and largely identical with the psychic, and muscle culture develops brain centers as nothing else yet demonstrably does. Muscles are the vehicles of habituation, initiation, obedience, character, and even of manners and customs. For the young, motor education is cardinal; and, for all, education is incomplete without a motor side.1

Educators and psychologists are virtually agreed on these basic truths. Ex-President Eliot of Harvard University says: "Accurate work with carpenter's tools, lathe, or hammer and anvil, or violin, or piano, or pencil, or crayon, or camel's hair brush (and we might add the scissors, the needle, and the rolling pin) trains well the 1 Youth, pp. 7, 8, 9.

same nerves and ganglia with which we do what is ordinarily called thinking." Professor F. W. Parker says: "It is impossible to do all-sided, educative work without training in hand work. Manual training is the most important factor in primary education, and it remains a prominent factor in all education." Again, he says: 'Making has done more for the human race than the exercise of any, if not all, of the other modes of expression. It is absolutely indispensable to normal physical development; it has a mighty influence upon brain building." Professor John Dewey says: "The child who employs his hands intelligently in the schoolroom, in due proportion is satisfying one of the most powerful interests within him. He is cheerful, he is a picture of health, and his best emotions and impulses are easily kept active." Again, he says: "The greatest mistake in education consists in shutting children away from nature, and in trying to teach them almost entirely from books."

It is strange that we have been so long finding out these important truths, and stranger still that after we have discovered them, and have them proved to us beyond a shadow of a doubt, we do not make use of them. We go on in the same old way and pay but little attention to what we have learned. Although we know that it takes the motor side of education to make it complete, that "deeds, not words, are the language of complete men," we go on with our work as though we did not know it.

THOUGHT AND ACTION

One of the cardinal truths in education is that the hand and the mind are parts of the same system; one cannot be developed without at the same time developing the other, and when we act on one, we influence the other. Heretofore we have been working with the brain,

and have made no conscious effort until recently to reach the mind through the hand. We have just half completed the cycle; and, instead of developing "complete men," we have made knowing the end of our work, and have failed to establish the proper relation between thought and action. The products of our schools have been accused of being one-sided, theoretical, visionary, out of touch with real things, and, if President Hall is correct in saying that "deeds, not words, are the language of complete men," the accusation is just. We have been too much under the influence of the Ciceronian philosophy, that "to live is to think," not realizing that "thought is repressed action" and incomplete unless it becomes action. The man who thinks is but half a man; to be complete, he must execute his thoughts and give them concrete form. Indeed, a man cannot do normal thinking without stopping to execute his thoughts and to test their accuracy by applying them to actual conditions. Thought arises from things, and, to be kept accurate, it must be constantly referred back to them. Thought is impossible without words, and it is equally impossible without the things from which it arises. As there is no sound without the ear, no light without the eye, so there is no complete thought without the object to which it belongs.

Francis Bacon, the founder of modern philosophy, is also the founder of modern education. When he laid aside the old deductive philosophy of Aristotle and the schoolmen, and based his philosophy on induction, he knocked the props from under the system of the abstract word "education" of the Greeks. In saying that we must base our reasoning on things, he also said that we must base our education on things. He saw that, as the system of deductive philosophy of the Greeks had led them far from the truth, so had their educational system