of the body is growing and every power of the
soul. While development is not perfectly symmetrical and balanced, as
for example, feeling developing strength before reason, imagination
before self-control, it is nevertheless all-sided and requires in
consequence nourishment and activity in every part.

Conditions change as maturity approaches and development becomes more
and more narrowed to a special line. The muscles of the blacksmith's
arm increase in strength, the fingers of the violinist grow more
flexible, the imagination of the poet more beautiful, the analytic
power of the lawyer more keen, until physical and mental power begin
to break; but, outside of the specialty, growth and development
practically cease because of the cessation of nourishment and activity
on other sides.

#6. Special Characteristics#

(1) _Restlessness_. This is the most restless period of all the
Sunday-school life. A surplus of activity is generated in the body,
and it must be expended if the child is to be in a healthy condition,
as well as in a normal, happy mental state.

But the outgo of this activity should do more than merely reduce
pressure, as the escape of steam from a safety valve. It is a law of
life that we both understand and retain most thoroughly the thing we
do. This abounding activity is God's great provision for enabling the
child to make his own that which he is receiving through his senses.
It is handling and eating the apple that makes him understand what it
is. It is playing that he is the father or the Sunday-school teacher,
performing the act of helpfulness and love that enables him to enter
into the meaning of these relations and duties of life.

The problem of the Sunday-school teacher then is not "How can I keep
the child still," but "How can I make this activity teach the child;"
for, re-emphasizing the thought, "The child understands and remembers
the action far better than the admonition."

(2) _Imitation._ The activity of this period is distinctly imitative.
Just as the child must learn to form letters by copying them before he
can develop an individual style of writing, so he must learn right
action by imitating it before he can be independent and original.
Every time a child imitates an action he understands its meaning
better, he fixes it more securely in memory and he also makes its
repetition so much the easier.

It is important, therefore, to note what he naturally imitates. In
this period i