James Sully, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The question touches something I have thought about at considerable length, and the answer turns on a distinction that is easily missed: there is a difference between watching children and truly observing them. The modern world has come to see — rightly, I think — that any intelligent attempt to work beneficially upon the child's nature must be preceded by a clear insight into that nature and its spontaneous movements.1
The teacher, more particularly the beginner in the work of training, has learned to seek from the psychologist a better understanding of the native tendencies and governing laws of the unformed child-mind.2 This is the foundation of what we now call observation in early childhood education: not the casual glance of a fond parent, but a disciplined, purposeful attending to the child as it actually is.
Yet the discipline required is considerable, and it is easy to underestimate it. We are all prone, until special training has corrected the inclination, to read far too much of our older thought and sentiment into children.3 There is also a subtler hazard: the child is quick to spy whether he is being observed, and once he suspects a special interest in his talk or behaviour, he is apt to perform rather than simply be.4
The record gathered under such conditions loses much of its value. The remedy I have long urged is quiet, patient, undisturbing attention. The child does not naturally hide himself; he is frank and open, and will reveal himself spontaneously and generously to one whom he trusts.5 The best observation, then, is not the experimenter's artificial measure but something closer to a watchful stillness — sitting patiently while the child, in his prattle, his play, his crude drawings, discloses his thoughts and fancies of his own accord.6
In this way the educator learns to follow the natural order of mental growth rather than to impose upon it. One further caution belongs here. Even where objective observation of the child's mind has rendered real service — as in the study of how visual perception of space develops, aided by watching the crude perceptions of infants — it remains a precarious and inferential business.7
What the simplest mental experiences of very young children are really like, it is in truth impossible for us ever to say with certainty, so inextricably are even the simplest feelings interwoven with the products of experience.8 Observation in early education is therefore always an art of inference and interpretation, not a direct reading of another mind; and the educator who forgets this will mistake his own projections for the child's reality.
professional teachers, more particularly the beginners in the work of training, whose work is in some respects the most difficult and the most honourable, have come to see that a clear insight into child-nature and its spontaneous movements must precede any intelligent attempt to work beneficially upon this nature.Studies of Childhood
More particularly he has betaken him to the psychologist in order to discover more of the native tendencies and the governing laws of that unformed child-mind which it is his in a special manner to form.Studies of Childhood
we are all prone, till by special training we have learned to check the inclination, to read far too much of our older thought and sentiment into children.Studies of Childhood
A child is very quick in spying whether he is being observed, and as soon as he suspects that you are specially interested in his talk he is apt to try to produce an effect.Studies of Childhood
The child does not naturally hide himself but is frank and open. He will reveal himself spontaneously and generously to one whom he trusts and loves.The Teachers Handbook of Psychology
Our best and surest way of reaching his real self is to sit patiently and watch him with undisturbing eye, as in his prattle, his play, his crude drawings and other modes of self-expression, he spontaneously discloses his thoughts, fancies and wishes.The Teachers Handbook of Psychology
the study of the origin and mode of composition of our visual perception of space has been materially aided by observation of the crude perceptions of infants, and still more of children born blind and afterwards coming into possession of the sense.The Human Mind Vol 1
So inextricably are our simplest feelings interwoven with products of experience, that in trying to read the first mental experiences of infants we find ourselves unable to separate the two so as to conceive of pure sensations of sound and colour absolutely free from all associations or suggestions.The Human Mind Vol 1