This is nature's way of teaching, and by it children learn the
properties and structures of things. They thereby learn what things do
and what can be done with them. Teachers and parents should foster these
manipulative tendencies and use them for the child's good. These
tendencies are an aspect of curiosity. We want to know. We are unhappy
as long as a thing is before us which we do not understand, which has
some mystery about it. Nature has developed these tendencies in us, for
without a knowledge of our surroundings we could not live. The child
therefore has in his nature the basis of his education. We have but to
know this nature and wisely use and manipulate it to achieve the child's
education.

SUMMARY. Instincts are inherited tendencies to specific actions.
They fall under the heads: individualistic, socialistic,
environmental, adaptive, sexual or mating instincts. These inherited
tendencies are to a large extent the foundation on which we build
education. The educational problem is to control and guide them,
suppressing some, fostering others. In everything we undertake for a
child we must take into account these instincts.


CLASS EXERCISES

1. Make a study of the instincts of several animals, such as dogs, cats,
chickens. Make a list showing the stimuli and the inherited responses.

2. Make a study of the instincts of a baby. See how many inherited
responses you can observe. The simpler inherited responses are known as
_reflexes_. The closing of the eyelids mentioned in the text is an
example. How many such reflexes can you find in a child?