Synthesized answer
McMillan uses the term "projecting" to mean extending or outward expression, particularly in relation to using one's body or senses externally. She observes that a child "cannot project his hand, but he uses it" [1]. This suggests that while the child actively employs their hand, they do not yet extend its capabilities or express themselves *through* it in a more developed way, such as creating tools. Similarly, the child "does not project his sense organs in instruments" [1], meaning they don't use external devices to amplify or extend their senses.
The child's way of interacting, characterized by active use rather than projection, contributes to their learning by allowing them to experiment and discover in a hundred different ways [1, 2]. This "self-activity" and experimentation with muscles, joints, and even painful sensations [1] leads to an acquaintance with their own anatomy through movement [1]. This process is described as a preparation for later abilities [2]. The passages suggest that this impulse to project the hand in tools, and even create language through the hand, stems from a "higher order of energy" preparing for future potential [5]. However, the passages do not…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
← Defects and their Consequences Labour and Childhood by Margaret McMillan Art as a Preparation The Projection of Hands → 3674258 Labour and Childhood — Art as a Preparation Margaret McMillan CHAPTER III ART AS A PREPARATION FOR WORK AND TOOL-MAKING THE YOUNG ARTIST AND HIS MODEL T HE key to the problems of human progress appears to lie in the realm of the unconscious . It is the new understanding of that dark realm that leads people no longer to look upon natural impulses as evil or meaningless. The young child cannot project his hand, but he uses it, and invents, or discovers rather, a…
destroy it. It is found in the defective, but not always. It is always manifested by the healthy and normal individual. Thus it is, for the educators of the normal at least, the central factor and pivot of all training. Yet it does not show itself at birth or in infancy. It is evolved gradually, and declares itself only when early childhood is fairly past. The child under seven uses his hand in a hundred different ways, but he does not, as a rule, project it. But what, then, we may ask at this point, does his activity mean—his almost feverish restlessness, the restlessness that makes even the…
eholder does not know all this perhaps, any more than the infant musician knows that he selects the octave or the fifth. It is only because the law was illustrated a thousand times by thousands of unconscious workers and artists that it was at last appreciated and received its formula. It can be traced in the proportions of a horse's head, limbs, hindquarters. But the higher forms of life give, of course, a fuller illustration of it than do any of the lower. And the impulse of the child is, to begin with the form that illustrates it most completely—the adult human. Strange to say, this adult…
nces of the abnormal. The fact that they are known would act it is hoped much as a conscience acts in the normal person. It is pleasant to turn from these markings and finger prints that betray , to the tools and hand-work that reveals! Pleasanter to know that it is the revelation, not the betrayal, that is common. The betrayal is comparatively very rare. It is a promise and a prophecy, not a betrayal, that is in the work of the average man. Of course it is not always fairly offered. It may be hindered or withheld for good reasons. Still, it should be there, and one day every educator will …
wo very distinct ideals in education, yet there is certainly no ground for this separation from the physical standpoint. Language is not only a projection, but it is a very early and simple one, and was almost certainly at first entirely one with that of the hand. Before words there were sounds, and before sounds gestures. And these gestures were already a preparation for activities whose real meaning was far above their mere immediate end. In short, the impulse that made the human project his hand in tools, and create even language at first through the hand, was no mere development of…
More questions about this book
- McMillan states, "The key to the problems of human progress appears to lie in the realm of the unconscious." How would you explain her argument for this statement, connecting it to children's natural impulses and the idea that these impulses are not "evil or meaningless"?
- Chapter III is titled "Art as a Preparation for Work and Tool-Making." How does McMillan bridge the conceptual gap between a child "drawing a cat" or "experimenting with muscles" and the complex adult skills of "work and tool-making"?
- McMillan emphasizes children's universal preference for drawing living models (animals and men) despite their difficulty. What underlying psychological or developmental principles might McMillan be suggesting explain this preference, and how does this observation inform her view of childhood learning?
- Considering the book's overall title, "Labour and Childhood," how might McMillan's insights into children's unconscious impulses and artistic exploration be seen as a commentary on or an alternative to prevalent ideas about child rearing, education, or labor during her time?