. The third aim is to utilise the
play-activity of the child in the acquisition of new experiences and in
their outward concrete expression. The fourth is to engage the child in
the production of something socially useful, something which engages his
genuine work-activity. In short, what Froebel clearly realised was that
the mere taking in of new experiences by the child mind in any order was
not sufficient. Experiences to be useful for efficient action must be
assimilated--must be organised into a system--and in order that this may
be possible the experiences must be presented in such a manner as will
render them capable of being organised. Moreover, this mere taking in of
new experiences is not enough. There must be a giving out or expression
of the knowledge acquired, for it is only in so far as we can turn to
use new experiences that we can be sure that they are really ours. Now,
since the forms of expression natural to the young child are those which
evoke his practical constructive efforts, all outward expression in its
earlier stages must assume a concrete form. The aim of the so-called
"Gifts" in Froebel's scheme is to build up an organised system of
sense-knowledge; the aim of the "Occupations" of the Kindergarten is to
develop the power of concrete expression of the child. The "Gifts" and
the "Occupations" are correlative methods,--the one concerned with the
taking in, the other with the outward expression of the same
experience,--and throughout either aspect of the process the
reason-activity of the child must be evoked both in the acquisition and
in the expression of the new experience. Physiologically, this twofold
process implies that during the Kindergarten period the sensory areas of
the brain are being exercised and organised and that the associative
activity evoked is concerned with the co-ordination of the impressions
derived through these areas. Psychologically, it implies that during
this period we are mainly concerned with the formation of perceptual
systems of knowledge composed of data derived through the special senses
and through the active movements of the hands and limbs. Such a process,
moreover, is a necessary preliminary for the full after-development of
the higher association centres of the brain and for the formation by the
mind of conceptual systems of knowledge.

For if we attempt prematurely to exercise the higher centres before the
lower have reached a certain measure of development,