1921

          A few weeks ago, my first article on the psychology of intelligence was published  in the Journal de Psychologie. Also, at the request of Sir Ed. Claparède and P. Bovet, I accepted the position as director of studies at the J.-J. Rousseau Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. Today I watched children play. I asked them questions and wrote down their answers. I talked to a little girl named Julia today. I asked 5 year old Julia, "What makes the wind?".
The conversation went as follows:

Me: What makes the wind?
Julia: The trees.
Me: How do you know?
Julia: I saw them waving their arms.
Me: How does that make the wind?
Julia (waving her hand in front of her face): Like this. Only they are bigger. And there are lots of trees.
Me: What makes the wind on the ocean?
Julia:  It blows there from the land. No. It’s the waves…

   From this response, I concluded that while the child was not correct by any adult criterion  she wasn't incorrect either. Classifying her belief would only show a lack of respect for her. If a child is told that he or she is wrong then that may cause the child to stop making theories.      
 “Children have real understanding only of that which they invent themselves, and each time that we try to teach them something too quickly, we keep them from reinventing it themselves.”