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WHAT CHILDREN STUDY 
 AND WHY 
 
 A Discussion of Educational Values 
 in the Elementary Course of Study 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES B. GILBERT 
 
 ii 
 
 Formerly Superintendent of Schools of St. Paul, Minn., Newark, 
 
 N. J., and Rochester, N. Y. Author of " The School and 
 
 Its Life," " Stepping Stones to Literature," 
 
 "Guide Books to English," etc. 
 
 SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 

 : 
 
 V 
 
 V G? 
 
 Copyright, 1913 
 By Silver, Bukdett and Company 
 
 // 
 
 ;i.A33247 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Why is the course of study in use in our elementary 
 schools constituted as it is ? Why are reading, spelling, 
 arithmetic, grammar, and history taught the children, 
 rather than knitting and shooting and guiding auto- 
 mobiles ? 
 
 What particular gift has each of the conventional 
 school studies to bestow upon the children, and hence 
 upon society, as justification for its place in the curric- 
 ulum and as compensation for the labor, the tears, 
 the time of the students, and the care, the effort, and 
 the financial expenditures of the community ? 
 
 These are questions that should be answered by 
 teachers, parents, and public officials, if the best results 
 are to be obtained from the schools. But most teachers 
 take the course of study handed to them from above 
 and teach it perfunctorily, without much serious con- 
 sideration of its reason for being or for its motive. 
 Most parents accept the courses forced upon their chil- 
 dren, more or less willingly, but with the vaguest 
 notions of their meaning or motive. Most school 
 officials' accept the conventional curriculum inherited 
 from the past and used by their neighbors and pass it 
 on to their own schools, taking for granted that it is 
 right. 
 
 In this book no attempt is made to trace the history 
 of the curriculum. That I willingly leave to more 
 
IV 
 
 Preface 
 
 learned writers. But I have endeavored to give in 
 plain, untechnical terms a few of the practical psycho- 
 logical and sociological reasons for teaching the subjects 
 found in most of our elementary school curricula, and 
 to state what should result, from their study, to the 
 benefit of the children and of society. 
 
 In some cases, also, I have intimated methods that 
 seem likely to aid in securing the desired results, but I 
 have not attempted to discuss methods of teaching in 
 detail. That has been well done by several writers al- 
 ready. However, I have it in mind, in the near future, 
 to offer a book discussing methods more fully than the 
 limits of the present work allow, basing such discussion 
 upon the specific psychological and social functions of 
 the various subjects studied, as outlined in this book. 
 
 C. B. GILBERT. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. The Course of Study as a Whole 
 
 II. Reading — Function of the Reading Lesson 
 
 III. Reading — Methods of Instruction 
 
 IV. English Language Instruction 
 V. Language Instruction Methods 
 
 VI. English Grammar 
 
 VII. English Grammar — Instruction Methods 
 
 VIII. Spelling 
 
 IX. Spelling — Methods of Instruction 
 
 X. Arithmetic 
 
 XL Arithmetic — Methods of Instruction . 
 
 XII. Arithmetic — Methods of Instruction {Con 
 tinned) . . . . . 
 
 XIII. History 
 
 XIV. History (Continued) 
 
 XV. Geography . . . . 
 
 XVI. Geography for Primary Grades 
 
 XVII. Geography for Grammar Grades . 
 
 XVIII. Nature Study 
 
 XIX. Nature Study — Methods of Instruction 
 
 XX. Physiology 
 
 XXI. Writing 
 
 XXII. Motor Activities in Expression . 
 
 XXIII. Industrial Training .... 
 
 PAGE 
 
 iii 
 
 i 
 
 13 
 
 34 
 
 56 
 
 66 
 
 82 
 
 88 
 
 100 
 
 103 
 
 108 
 
 127 
 
 135 
 146 
 
 159 
 171 
 
 183 
 188 
 196 
 201 
 206 
 223 
 226 
 247 
 
VI 
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 The Fine Arts — Singing 
 The Plastic and Graphic Arts . 
 The Development of Taste . 
 The Correlation of Studies 
 Efficiency of the Course of Study 
 Moral Training .... 
 
 PAGE 
 26o 
 
 266 
 
 271 
 
 275 
 283 
 291 
 
WHAT CHILDREN STUDY 
 AND WHY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Course of Study as a Whole 
 
 It is the purpose of this book to discuss the Course of 
 Study of our elementary schools, treating its different 
 subjects and departments seriatim and in some detail. 
 But as a preliminary to such particular discussion, it 
 seems necessary to consider briefly the curriculum as a 
 whole, as to its aim and general character. 
 
 The course of study in a system of schools, whether 
 of a state, a county, or a municipality, serves a two- 
 fold purpose : one economic, the other educational. Its 
 economic function is the unifying of the schools. It is 
 the cohesive force that makes of an aggregation of schools 
 a system. The educational function of the course is to 
 serve as a guide to the teachers in their work ; for, unlike 
 the ordinary college curriculum, it is not made by those 
 who are to use it, and hence may not be departed from 
 at will. These two main functions call for special charac- 
 teristics. 
 
 I. THE ECONOMIC FUNCTION 
 
 First, the economic function: what sort of unity is 
 desirable in a school system, and how may a course of 
 study promote such unity? 
 
2 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Naturally, if the pupils in the schools are uniformly 
 and exactly graded and daily tasks are prescribed for all 
 the grades, the result will be uniformity, and uniformity 
 is a kind of unity. 
 
 Is it possible to give due recognition to a desirable 
 freedom for the teachers and to the varying needs of 
 children coming from many kinds of homes, and at the 
 same time to preserve necessary unity ? 
 
 In any one of our larger cities, with its heterogeneous 
 population, with the widely differing needs of black and 
 white, foreign-born and native, children of millionaire 
 and of ditch digger, those from homes of luxury and 
 culture, where all the influences supplement the work 
 of the school, and those from the abodes of poverty, vice, 
 and ignorance, who are kept in school only through the 
 force of law, — is it possible under such varying con- 
 ditions to frame a single course of study that will prop- 
 erly regard the needs of all and do violence to none? 
 Is there any wide field of knowledge, any single line of 
 intellectual activities, of such universal adaptation that 
 all may profitably spend time in their cultivation and 
 pursuit? Even if such subjects of study can be found, 
 is it well to attempt to require the same attainments in 
 them of all children of all sorts? In other words, is 
 it possible to frame a prescriptive course of study for 
 New York or Chicago or Philadelphia, or even for a small 
 city, that will not do violence to the needs, not only of 
 many individuals, but of some whole classes of children, 
 some entire schools? If it were possible to frame a 
 course having this negative adaptation, is it desirable, 
 or is it necessary to the preservation of proper unity in 
 a system? 
 
The Course of Study as a Whole 3 
 
 What Uniformity is Desirable. — What degree of 
 uniformity in a school system is desirable or necessary 
 to the preservation of unity? 
 
 1. It should be possible for every child to pass through 
 all the grades of a system, from the lowest to the highest, 
 without serious hindrance because of differences of sub- 
 ject matter taught, or of administration. 
 
 2. It should be possible for children changing their 
 residences to go from one school to another without 
 loss of grade or other embarrassment arising from dif- 
 ferences in instruction. The good of the individual 
 children requires this degree of uniformity. 
 
 3. It should be possible for supervising officials to judge 
 of the efficiency of teachers according to some standard of 
 attainment on the part of the pupils. It is not necessary, 
 however, for this standard to be strictly uniform. 
 
 4. It is desirable, but not essential, that instructions 
 given to teachers and aids furnished them for their 
 work be of general service. This is more important in 
 smaller communities than in very large cities, in which 
 division of the supervising force and differentiation of 
 function among its members are possible. These needs 
 seem to indicate the natural limits of necessary uniformity 
 in a course of study in a school system. 
 
 Differences in Administration Desirable. — It seems 
 to me beyond question that there should be great differ- 
 ences in the course as administered in different schools, 
 especially in large cities. The children of the poor 
 foreigner, who hear no English in the home, who them- 
 selves are accustomed to speak a foreign tongue, whose 
 knowledge of the English language is limited to a few 
 incorrect or slang phrases picked up on the street, and 
 
4 What Children Study and Why 
 
 whose schooling is almost sure to be limited to the mini- 
 mum required by law, certainly must have instruction 
 different from that needed by children who have been 
 accustomed from infancy to good English only, and who 
 are reasonably sure to continue in school at least to the 
 end of the public school course. With the same course 
 of study, the knowledge acquired by these children is 
 sure to differ greatly ; and the desired end of intellectual 
 growth by all, as nearly equal as possible, would be 
 greatly facilitated by treatment adapted to their indi- 
 vidual conditions. 
 
 Unity of Aim and Purpose. — The unity to be sought 
 is one of aim and purpose, the development of each 
 child into the best possible for him. Individual growth, 
 rather than the knowledge of the same facts by all, is 
 the end to be desired. 
 
 A Necessary Minimum. — A minimum must be fixed, 
 necessarily, and this is not difficult. There are certain 
 subjects so nearly universal in their adaptation that all 
 children should pursue them. The differences should be 
 mainly in the details of these subjects and in the methods 
 of presentation. 
 
 The subjects a knowledge of which the experience of 
 mankind has singled out as essential to such an educa- 
 tion as the good citizen needs, are : Reading with its 
 corollary, good literature ; writing ; the use of the pre- 
 vailing language, with us, English; arithmetic; and 
 history, especially of the student's own country ; and of 
 minor, though great, importance to all, the laws and 
 phenomena of nature, and various manual and industrial 
 arts, such as drawing and the use of tools. These should 
 be in all elementary courses of study. But it by no 
 
The Course of Study as a Whole 5 
 
 means follows that all students should be taught all 
 these subjects to the same extent, or in the same manner. 
 Their presence in a course of study insures unity. Free- 
 dom in their treatment, in the emphasis placed upon 
 them, and in their correlations with one another, as sug- 
 gested by the mental and social status of the pupils, 
 gives the variety in unity which is to be desired. 
 
 Correlation Necessary. — A proper correlation of 
 subjects, allowing the placing of stress upon this phase 
 or that, is one key to the problem. For example, the 
 children of very many immigrant families need, for a 
 time at least, to recognize the fact that all other subjects 
 must be subordinated to the study of the English lan- 
 guage. That does not mean, however, that no other 
 subject should be studied. The same subjects may be 
 pursued by them as by other children, but with a change 
 of emphasis. Language cannot be taught alone. It 
 is the medium for the expression of thought. Hence 
 " content-" subjects must accompany the study of lan- 
 guage and furnish thought for expression, else the in- 
 struction in language will be barren. Such " content " 
 subjects are the great fundamental interests of humanity, 
 the laws and phenomena of nature, the ideals, the occupa- 
 tions, and the achievements of men — that is, " nature 
 study," history, literature, and the industries. But 
 while all children should study these subjects, the em- 
 phasis and the portion of time given to each should vary 
 as widely as do the children themselves. 
 
 Stress should be Varied. — In some cases the chief 
 stress should be upon the " content" study itself, and 
 this should be chosen with reference to the needs of 
 the children. To those from poor and sordid homes, 
 
6 What Children Study and Why 
 
 literature and history, imparting ideals, should be made 
 much of. To the children of well-to-do parents with 
 aristocratic tendencies, human industries as exempli- 
 fied in manual training exercises should be prominent 
 as content studies. With other children, as indi- 
 cated above, the form of expression itself should re- 
 ceive the chief attention. The need of each must be 
 considered. It will not do to give brimstone and treacle 
 to all because it may be good for some. A mechanical 
 uniformity, regardless of local or individual conditions, 
 not only wastes the time and energies of pupils, but 
 prevents even reasonable equality of result in spiritual 
 growth and in attainment throughout the system. 
 
 Course Adaptable. — A course of study, then, to secure 
 unity to the system, need not be rigidly prescriptive. It 
 should require that fundamental subjects be taught 
 thoroughly in all schools, but should allow details of sub- 
 ject matter, the choice of material for elaboration and 
 illustration and, in the main, methods of instruction, 
 to be determined by local and individual needs. 
 
 Results Required. — The absolute requirement should 
 be " results," as shown in the knowledge and power of the 
 children, and these results should be determined, not 
 by any narrow tests, but by standards of growth wisely 
 and personally applied. These necessarily include steady 
 progress by the children in fitness for life as it comes to 
 them, and the acquisition of sufficient intellectual power 
 and knowledge to enable them to meet the demands of 
 what comes next, whether in school or out. 
 
 All children should acquire at least a reasonable 
 minimum of knowledge of the accepted fundamentals, 
 but not necessarily all the knowledge, or the same knowl- 
 
The Course of Study as a Whole 7 
 
 edge, of those subjects that other children in the same 
 or in other schools may possess, but merely that which 
 is essential to progression. A pupil who cannot perform 
 reasonably difficult problems in addition and multipli- 
 cation is not qualified to work in interest, and if this 
 power has not been acquired at the proper time, some- 
 thing has been wrong, because these subjects are fun- 
 damental in mathematics. But a knowledge of duo- 
 decimals is not essential to work in percentage, even 
 if it comes before it in the book. 
 
 Course should be Rich in Suggestion. — In addition 
 to stating in broad general terms the prescribed funda- 
 mental subjects, with their requirements for each grade, 
 the unity of the system requires that the course of study 
 be rich in suggestion as to detail, as to additional material, 
 and as to the development of the different subjects. 
 While mandatory instruction as to details of matter and 
 of method are dangerous, not only to the freedom of the 
 teacher, but also to the real spiritual unity of the system 
 itself, suggestions as to these matters are promotive of 
 both these desirable ends. 
 
 If the unity of the system is to be one of spirit and of 
 aim, all means that tend to make clear the aim and to 
 cultivate the proper spirit are helpful. The highest 
 and best unity can be secured through freedom stimu- 
 lated by suggestion and inspiration, never through force 
 or prescription. 
 
 2. THE EDUCATIONAL FUNCTION 
 
 The educational function of a course of study is to 
 serve as a guide to the teacher in his daily work. The 
 characteristics that are required for the preservation 
 
8 What Children Study and Why 
 
 of the unity of the system are equally essential to this 
 second function. There must be prescription as to funda- 
 mentals, freedom as to details and methods. The teacher 
 needs to have requirements stated positively and clearly 
 so that he may be sure of his ground and may qualify his 
 children for progress without check or setback. The 
 general phases of the subjects upon which his efforts are 
 to be expended, and the results expected of his class, 
 must be stated in unmistakable language, but in broad 
 terms, the terms of unity rather than of uniformity. 
 
 Daily Programs Harmful. — The course of study should 
 not give daily programs to the teachers of the different 
 grades, even approximately. While these programs 
 are of much importance, they are matters of detail to 
 be worked out in every school by the teacher and the 
 principal, according to local conditions. For example, 
 among certain classes of children in our cities the power 
 to compute seems to be almost hereditary, and the desired 
 results can be secured with comparatively little effort, 
 while the study of the English language and of history 
 and civics needs a large share of the time. In other 
 quarters the reverse of this condition is found. 
 
 Initiative to be Encouraged. — Moreover, prescription 
 as to details of subject matter and of method and as to 
 the daily program is injurious to the teacher and de- 
 structive of good teaching. Teachers who are fit for 
 their places can attend to these matters better than the 
 maker of the course of study, and they should not 
 merely be allowed, they should be compelled, to do so 
 for their own growth. 
 
 A cast-iron course of study is as destructive of teach- 
 ers as the shoes worn by Chinese ladies are of their feet. 
 
The Course of Study as a Whole 9 
 
 The school machine at its best constantly endangers the 
 teacher's power of initiative, his most valuable mental 
 possession. Hence every effort should be made to reduce 
 this danger to the minimum. A premium, rather than the 
 threat of disapproval, should be set upon originality that 
 secures results in fresh ways. I have seen scores, hun- 
 dreds, of potentially good teachers robbed of interest and 
 of teaching power by the rigid requirements, in minor 
 matters, of the course of study. These teachers, when de- 
 prived of this corselet and compelled to stand erect alone, 
 to breathe freely and to act unstayed, have been dismayed 
 and helpless, and have begged to be told again just what 
 to do for each period of the day ; and I have seen many 
 forced into activity and made in the end strong, original, 
 and enthusiastic teachers through being compelled to 
 do their own thinking and planning. 
 
 Thus, for the good of the teacher, as well as for the 
 unity of the system, a course of study should be rigid 
 in its requirements as to results in the fundamentals, 
 but should leave to the teachers its application and ad- 
 ministration in particular fields. 
 
 It should, however, supply a great amount of material 
 for choice and should suggest method, illustration, and 
 correlations, all in the spirit of the system. It should 
 abound in explanation, suggestion, and inspiration — 
 in all sorts of genuine helps ; but they should be stimuli 
 to independent effort, not predigested food to take its 
 place. 
 
 Course not too Easy to Comprehend. — A course of 
 study should not be too easy of comprehension. It 
 should require the teachers to study the course itself, in 
 order to comprehend it, and to study outside the course 
 
IO What Children Study and Why 
 
 for help in administering it. A course that a teacher can 
 keep in his desk and follow satisfactorily by occasional 
 references to it is a feeble course indeed. 
 
 A good course necessarily rests upon science and phi- 
 losophy, both psychological and sociological, and should 
 continually refer the teachers to these sources for an ex- 
 planation of its principles, and should require of them 
 professional research and study, — for such study is the 
 teacher's vital breath. 
 
 A course of study should also demand for its administra- 
 tion a fair amount of general culture, and should make 
 necessary constant excursions by the teacher into the 
 fields of science, history, and literature, for these ex- 
 cursions mean personal growth. 
 
 Body of Knowledge and Range of Activities. — As 
 education consists in growth, through nutrition and 
 exercise, that is, through the acquisition of knowledge 
 and through expression — receiving and producing, 
 import and export — the course should make provision 
 for both these processes. It should provide or suggest 
 a body of knowledge and a range of activities. The former 
 calls for knowledge on the part of the teacher, the latter 
 for the free exercise of judgment and initiative. 
 
 The field of prescription is mainly limited to the body 
 of knowledge and indeed to the main and fundamental 
 facts within it. 
 
 The field of suggestion and inspiration is largely in 
 the expressive work of the school. As expression makes 
 knowledge vital, the range of activities is the vitalizing 
 part of the course of study. It is not enough that a course 
 state that the work in history for the fifth grade shall 
 cover so many pages of such and such books, or that it 
 
The Course of Study as a Whole II 
 
 shall include certain named topics ; it should both suggest 
 more topics than can be pursued, and should throw as 
 many side lights as possible upon the subjects; should 
 indicate sources of information, and should point out 
 possible correlations with other branches of study; it 
 should suggest methods of approach and various means 
 of illustration. Especially should it show how impres- 
 sions may be deepened and clarified by the employment 
 of the various arts of expression, as the writing of stories 
 and representation with pencil or brush and by con- 
 struction. In short, it should not only indicate the 
 subject matter to be taught, properly classified, but 
 should also open the eyes of the teacher to all possible 
 means for making the teaching effective, that, his imagi- 
 nation being stimulated, he may choose or originate the 
 best available instruments and methods. If, however, 
 these things are prescribed, that very fact makes them 
 mechanical and impairs or destroys their efficiency. 
 
 Here is the opportunity of the superintendent, in making 
 the course, to do his highest work, and for the teacher, 
 while following it, to do his highest work. 
 
 Resume. — A course of study has two main purposes : 
 to preserve the unity of the school system, and to serve 
 as a guide to the individual teacher. For both these 
 ends it should be mandatory and prescriptive as to 
 fundamentals, but broad, free, suggestive, and stimulat- 
 ing as to details and methods. 
 
 The course should require the teacher to study, both 
 for a comprehension of its principles, and for culture. 
 
 It should be based upon a body of knowledge, and 
 should indicate a range of activities. Prescription be- 
 longs chiefly to the former, freedom to the latter. 
 
12 What Children Study and Why 
 
 But throughout the course, the spirit and aim must be 
 manifest. If the aim is to perfect the machine, to enable 
 the children to obtain " promotion " by passing a formal 
 examination, that should be made evident at every step, 
 so that the teacher may direct his efforts successfully 
 and waste none on iridescent dreams. But if the 
 aim is really the growth of children individually into 
 knowledge, power, and civic righteousness, the course 
 of study should make that truth plain at every step, 
 that the teacher may be inspired by the high aim, and 
 may take account of the individual status and needs of 
 the children. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Reading 
 
 i. function of the reading lesson 
 
 The Value of Reading. — Doubtless arithmetic in its 
 simpler processes satisfies a more elemental human need 
 than does reading. The illiterate often can perform 
 accurately the operations upon numbers required for the 
 commoner business transactions. Indeed they must do 
 so if they are to enter into even the simple economic 
 relations necessary to making a living. Whereas read- 
 ing, though vastly useful, is not essential to such relations. 
 This is further shown by the fact that not so many years 
 ago the great majority of successful men, even the very 
 rich and powerful, could not read at all. But mani- 
 festly they could and did compute. 
 
 Notwithstanding this fact, it is still true that reading 
 makes possible the satisfaction, certainly of higher 
 human needs, and probably of a larger number, than does 
 arithmetic. Consider the limitations of him who can- 
 not read. How small is his field, how narrow his horizon, 
 how restricted his outlook. The limits of his vision and 
 the length and strength of his legs bound his world. 
 He knows what his senses tell him immediately, and the 
 only supplement to his knowledge derived from the actual 
 contact with things comes through the spoken word, 
 the uncertainties of oral recital. Without the art 
 
 13 
 
14 What Children Study and Why 
 
 of recording thoughts in symbols and the twin art of 
 translating the symbols again into thoughts, man has 
 no past but a vague and brief shadow, and no present 
 beyond the encircling horizon observed from the near-by 
 hilltop. 
 
 But teach him to read, and lo ! his horizon is lost in 
 infinity. All the past is his, and all the present. He may 
 enter at once the glorious democracy of letters. The 
 great of all ages, poets, sages, seers, may be his friends 
 and associates. He may pace the academe with Plato, 
 may listen to the inescapable questions of Socrates. 
 The verses of Hafiz, the gentle speech of Buddha, the 
 laws of Moses, the songs of Homer, of Dante, of Goethe, 
 and the dramas of Shakespeare, — all are his. He 
 may live over again the wanderings and sacrifice of 
 Abraham, the conquests and defeats of Cyrus and of 
 Cassar, of Charlemagne and of Bonaparte, of Nelson and 
 of Washington, may enter into the struggles and tri- 
 umphs of Galileo, of Newton, and of Humboldt, of 
 Columbus, of Magellan, and of Cortez, — and all because 
 he can read. 
 
 Truly, not even gold, that magical key, can open the 
 doors to so many treasure houses, so many gardens of 
 delight, such a paradise of choice spirits, as this common 
 art of reading, the chief of all arts; and this wonder- 
 ful key is offered to every boy and every girl at the price 
 of a little toil. 
 
 Unfortunately, many who are given the key never use 
 it to possess themselves of the treasures within their 
 reach. Why is this ? What can the schools do to bring 
 a larger number of children into full and conscious 
 possession of their noble heritage? How shall reading 
 
Reading 15 
 
 be taught so as to secure its higher as well as its lower 
 ends? 
 
 Aims of the Reading Lesson. — What are the ends to 
 be aimed at in the reading lesson ? They are : (1) Ability 
 to get the thought conveyed by the symbols found on 
 the printed page, accurately and speedily. (2) Ability 
 to judge the values of what is read, a discriminating 
 taste, and a genuine love for good literature. This in- 
 volves a considerable knowledge by the children of 
 such literature as properly falls within the field of their 
 interest and comprehension. (3) Ability to read aloud 
 agreeably and effectively. (4) The power to think should 
 be cultivated by the process of learning to read. 
 
 2. LEARNING TO READ 
 
 Let us consider learning to read, what it is, and some 
 of the commoner methods of teaching the art, and also 
 how to make accurate and rapid readers. 
 
 Nature of Reading. — Reading is interpreting sym- 
 bols, imaging the ideas and thinking the thoughts 
 symbolized. The complexity of the symbolism em- 
 ployed sometimes causes confusion in the minds of 
 teachers, and is responsible for over emphasis upon the 
 less important features, producing faulty methods and 
 poor results. A single letter stands not for a thought 
 or an idea, but for a sound, sometimes for any one of 
 several different sounds, according to the relations in 
 which it occurs. 
 
 Meaning of Letters. — The written word has two dis- 
 tinct phases : it stands for a synthesis of the various 
 sounds represented by the different letters and it is the 
 symbol of an idea. For example, the letters r, u, n 
 
16 What Children Study and Why 
 
 represent not ideas, but different sounds, effects pro- 
 duced upon the auditory nerve by waves of air, set in 
 motion by certain muscular movements of the vocal 
 organs. But these sounds heard in quick succession 
 produce in the mind an idea or image of an action — 
 running, having naturally no relation whatever to the 
 sounds. 
 
 Moreover, the sight of the letters that represent the 
 sounds produces in the mind the same image that hear- 
 ing the sounds causes. The written word run becomes 
 the representative of the spoken word run, but upon 
 observing the written word the trained mind forms an 
 immediate image of the idea run, without, at least con- 
 sciously, thinking of the spoken word through which it 
 has come to symbolize the idea. So we say justly that 
 the written word is the symbol of an idea, although in 
 its origin it is a step removed from the idea. 
 
 Spoken and Written Words. — This relation of the 
 written symbol of an idea to the spoken word that rep- 
 resents the same idea is comparatively modern. The 
 spoken word necessarily preceded the written word. 
 But the first graphic symbols employed had no relation 
 whatever to the sounds of the spoken words that stood 
 for the same ideas. The origin of the oral names of ideas 
 is enveloped in mystery and told only in myth. The 
 first graphic symbols were pictures, rough representa- 
 tions of objects or of actions, made with chisel or impro- 
 vised brush; and the earliest typical characters having 
 a general significance, such as the cuneiform, were 
 merely conventionalized pictures and bore no relation 
 to the sound of the word as spoken. 
 
 The earliest alphabet, on the other hand, was an at- 
 
Reading 17 
 
 tempt to represent graphically the uttered sounds and 
 so to bring into harmony the oral representations of 
 ideas and their written symbols. 
 
 The Alphabet. — Naturally, in order to make an 
 alphabet, a list of arbitrary characters which should 
 represent the sound elements of words, it was necessary 
 first to analyze the spoken word into its sounds. For 
 not only did the spoken word precede the written word, 
 it preceded any conscious consideration of its sound 
 elements. To the makers of the first alphabet the word 
 existed already made and the first step was the analysis 
 of its sounds. Characters were invented to represent 
 these and then names were given to these characters. 
 Then characters were put together in the order in which 
 they were sounded in the spoken word, to make the 
 written word. 
 
 I have treated this phase of the subject so fully, not 
 for the sake of elaborating upon the obvious, but, if 
 possible, to throw a little light upon the various methods 
 of introducing children to the greatest of the arts, ad- 
 vocated, often with so much warmth, as nostrums or 
 panaceas. 
 
 Learning to Read. — Learning to read, then, is learn- 
 ing to translate the symbols found upon the printed 
 page into images representing ideas. To the ready 
 reader the sight of the printed word gives the idea ; this 
 step is immediate, the spoken word not entering into 
 the process. The beginner may make the step either 
 directly, or with the assistance of the spoken word 
 (either heard or imaged), according to the quality of his 
 mind and sometimes according to the method by which 
 he is taught. 
 
1 8 What Children Study and Why 
 
 The notably ear-minded child, in most cases, will prob- 
 ably image the sound, and the sound heard will usually 
 aid his visualization of the word; while the markedly eye- 
 minded child will go more readily from the symbol to the 
 idea directly, and the introduction of the sound element 
 at an early stage is to him confusing rather than help- 
 ful. Necessarily, stress put upon " phonics " or upon 
 " thought " by the teacher at the outset of a child's 
 reading career will affect his method of grasping the 
 thought from the symbol. 
 
 Analysis and Synthesis. — Whatever the method of 
 first initiating a child into the mysteries of reading, sooner 
 or later he must master the entire process and all the 
 relations. He must be able to transmute sight into 
 sound ; upon seeing the symbol he must in imagination 
 hear the word spoken and he must be able to dissolve it 
 into its sonant elements. Again, he must be able at the 
 sight of letters, standing for known sonant elements, to 
 unite in imagination these known elements in new rela- 
 tions forming other words. That is, from an analysis 
 of run he must get the sounds r-u-n as represented by 
 the letters r, u, and n, and from this knowledge he must 
 be able to read at sight u-r-n, urn. And always finally 
 he must be able to pass at sight from the symbol to the 
 idea without the mediation of the imaged sound. 
 
 This elaborate analysis, however, need not be intro- 
 duced at the beginning of a child's learning to read. 
 Indeed, its very complexity is one of the arguments 
 against such early introduction. This will be more fully 
 discussed later under the head of method. 
 
 One other phase of this subject needs elucidation at 
 this point. 
 
Reading 19 
 
 The Eye-minded and the Ear-minded. — The late 
 Dr. William T. Harris, that profound educational logi- 
 cian, used to say that, in learning to read, a child from 
 being ear-minded becomes eye-minded. I cannot but 
 think that is an extreme statement. A child before he 
 learns to read is by no means solely, nor even chiefly, 
 an ear-minded being. Nor is the only effect of learning 
 to read an increase of eye-mindedness. The eye feeds 
 the mind of a normal child from early infancy beyond 
 all possible calculation. Moreover, learning to read, 
 while it opens a whole new field to the mind through the 
 eye, at the same time greatly enlarges the ear's contri- 
 bution to the mental content. 
 
 The constant overlapping of the senses, the borrowing 
 by one sense from another, by which all are enriched 
 through common contributions, is exceedingly in- 
 fluential here. The sight, while itself gaining new power, 
 also stimulates and enriches the hearing. The constant 
 necessary interchange by the two senses in the process 
 of reading brings to each a gift from the other. 
 
 So while Homer's contemporaries heard Homer's 
 poems, we, reading them, by this transfer of intelligence 
 enjoy a similar pleasure, because the written word carries 
 us back to its source, the spoken word, and in mind we 
 hear the " sounding sea " and " the twang of the silver 
 bow." Indeed, without this subconscious influence of 
 hearing upon sight, rhythm and rhyme would have no 
 meaning to the silent reader. Poe's " Bells " would be 
 silly and all poetry would be absurd, except when 
 read aloud. 
 
 Dr. Harris doubtless had in mind the field of language. 
 Before learning to read a child is ear-minded as to words. 
 
20 What Children Study and Why 
 
 He knows them only as he hears them. After learning 
 to read he knows them also as he sees them. But his 
 ear-mindedness is not thereby diminished, or should not 
 be. Eye-mindedness is added to it, not substituted for 
 it. And as the world's valuable treasures of knowledge 
 are locked up in books and open to the eye alone, this is 
 the addition of a whole world. 
 
 3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF TASTE 
 
 The Thought Element in Reading. — Obviously the 
 primary purpose of the reading lesson is to teach the child 
 to get the thought from the printed page, and all other 
 elements, as the study of sounds or the names of letters, 
 that enter into the instruction are at most but acces- 
 sories and aids to the single purpose of the lesson. And 
 they may be ignored for the present, while we consider 
 a more important element. 
 
 Since reading is thinking the thoughts expressed by 
 the symbols, even in the very earliest beginnings of 
 learning the art, it stands to reason that the thought 
 to be read should be worth the child's thinking. I do 
 not need to say that to think unworthy or idle thoughts 
 is degrading, and that when this is done under strong 
 impulse, as in learning to read, with the mind intensely 
 active and working at its best, the effect is thoroughly 
 bad, and the habitual attitude of mind toward the act 
 of reading thus produced is unfortunate. 
 
 Of course, school readers do not contain evil thoughts, 
 but many of them do contain silly, idle thoughts of no 
 value to the children. This is particularly true of many 
 of the " primers " and " first readers" in common use, 
 and especially, and almost of necessity, of those made to 
 
Reading 2 1 
 
 exploit some favorite " method." The much-derided 
 " See the ox go up " primer has given place to the 
 primer of " I see an ox." 
 
 If every reading lesson is to be a thought lesson, every- 
 thing read should of course contain worthy thought. It 
 is not necessary to fill primers with history or geography 
 or philosophy, but they should contain statements that 
 mean something to the children and something worth 
 while, — facts or fancies that belong to their world, — 
 and they should contain nothing else. There is abun- 
 dance of available material in the natural activities of 
 children and in the delightful field of children's lore to 
 equip any primer builder. Reading books, from the 
 highest to the lowest, should satisfy the two main desires 
 behind all voluntary reading, getting information and 
 finding enjoyment and inspiration. The latter is really 
 of more importance than the former. The habit of 
 reading for information is much more likely to be stim- 
 ulated out of school than that of reading for pleasure, 
 especially elevated and elevating pleasure. Children 
 should come to look upon a book as a treasure house, to 
 be approached with glad anticipation. This mental 
 attitude can be cultivated only by presenting books that 
 both gratify and develop literary taste. 
 
 The school reading book gives to the majority of 
 children their only introduction to genuine literature. 
 Literary taste, ability to enjoy the best in this treasure 
 house, if not cultivated through the reading lesson, will 
 never be cultivated. Hence it is little less than criminal 
 to waste this precious opportunity on any material but 
 the best that the children can appreciate. 
 
 If the children of a school are found to be reading 
 
22 What Children Study and Why 
 
 " Battered Bill, the Bloody Broncho-Buster," or " The 
 Poisoned Gum Drop, or the Candy Woman's Revenge," 
 it is an indication that the teaching of reading has not 
 filled its full measure of possibility; a taste for better 
 literature has not been developed. The reading matter 
 may have been merely combinations of words to illustrate 
 a " method." It may have been serious literature 
 beyond the present capacity of the children, or it may 
 have been fragmentary and dissociated excerpts from 
 good literature, insufficient to create a standard or to 
 develop a desire to read more of like character. Even 
 if the books contain good selections in the form of 
 literary wholes, they may have been treated merely as 
 reading lessons to the exclusion of their higher ends, 
 — for all these are causes of lack of love for good litera- 
 ture. 
 
 The Reading Lesson a Study of Literature. — The 
 reading lesson especially, of all the lessons in the day's 
 program, should be not a task but a pleasure. It should 
 always be reading literature to get at the thought and the 
 spirit of what is read, — in manner as nearly like reading 
 out of school as possible, only more thorough and more 
 appreciative. It should always be a careful and sym- 
 pathetic study of the selection. Moreover, the children 
 while being introduced to the delights of the author 
 whose production is read should be tempted by suggestion 
 to read more from the same author at home. The teacher 
 of reading should be in close alliance with the public 
 library, if such an institution exists. The establishment 
 of libraries in schools is fortunately a rapidly growing 
 custom. Such a library of well-selected books of general 
 literature, adapted to the needs and capacities of chil- 
 
Reading 23 
 
 dren, makes possible the development of the reading 
 lesson into a literary feast. 
 
 Reading Poetry. — It is especially important that 
 poetry be carefully, persistently, and sympathetically 
 read and studied in school. Teachers sometimes skip 
 the poetic selections in the reading book because either 
 they or the children " do not like poetry." Poetry is 
 the highest form of literature, and for that reason is 
 " caviare to the vulgar." More than any other form 
 it needs to be interpreted to the children. They need 
 to be led to see that poetic expression is not only 
 the most beautiful, but is also the most effective and 
 forceful, of all forms of literary art. Much emphasis 
 should be laid upon the study of figures of speech, 
 of rhyme and rhythm. The teacher, if a good reader 
 (and the teacher should always be a good reader), 
 should read aloud to the school choice poetry, that the 
 children may catch from the modulated voice that unde- 
 finable, subtle musical quality which is the spirit of true 
 poetry. 
 
 The Mechanics of Reading Necessary. — Of course the 
 elemental object of teaching reading must not be lost sight 
 of. The children are, first of all, to learn to read, to 
 acquire power in the interpretation of the printed symbols 
 of thought. Especially in the lower grades, the mechanics 
 of the subject, the recognition of words and the art of 
 naming new words by analyzing them into their sonant 
 elements, must be rigorously taught, to make possible 
 the study of the literature read. But the two processes 
 should go on side by side. They are reciprocal. If the 
 literature read appeals to the children, they are easily 
 induced to perform the mechanical drudgery necessary 
 
24 What Children Study and Why 
 
 to its mastery. If it does not appeal to them, their learn- 
 ing to read becomes an arduous task and they look else- 
 where for their pleasurable reading. 
 
 Reading in Higher Grades. — In most schools reading 
 is taught throughout the primary grades rigorously, even 
 if not wisely, but too often in the higher grades it is 
 neglected. It is not uncommon to find daily programs in 
 grammar schools with no place for reading. Here is 
 obviously the very best place for developing taste, be- 
 cause the children are more mature and better capable of 
 appreciating good literature. Here, especially, the read- 
 ing should be of literary wholes, unmodified by the over 
 anxious editor. The grammar school pupil does not 
 need to have his mental food predigested. 
 
 Grading Reading. — The principle of grading employed 
 in making too many readers is wrong. Readers above 
 the second or third should be graded according to thought 
 rather than words. If the subject matter is comprehen- 
 sible and interesting to the children, they will master the 
 words even if they are " hard." But easy words do not 
 make easy reading of selections whose thought is beyond 
 the children. 
 
 This points to two opposing errors found in some pres- 
 ent-day reading books. In those of one kind, good litera- 
 ture is "written down" to the capacities of the unhappy 
 children. I have even known such delightful and childlike 
 selections as Irving's " Rip Van Winkle " and " Legend 
 of Sleepy Hollow " to be made over for the children. 
 This is little less than literary murder ; nor is it necessary, 
 for the reason given above. The other error is in giving 
 profound writings to children because the words are 
 simple. Gray's " Elegy in a Country Churchyard " I 
 
Reading 25 
 
 have seen in a reader for intermediate grades, where it 
 is manifestly out of place. The whole thought and spirit 
 of the poem require mature minds for their appreciation. 
 The elegy, from its very nature, is unfit for young 
 children, and Gray's is no exception. One might as well 
 give them " In Memoriam," " Lycidas," or " Adonais." 
 The study that is put upon such selections by the very 
 young simply spoils them for later enjoyment, and drives 
 the pupils to the Nickel Horror. On the other hand, 
 many of Shakespeare's plays make admirable reading 
 matter for the grammar school. The vital interest in the 
 story and the dramatic action carry the pupils over the 
 difficulties of the vocabulary. 
 
 The principle is plain. Give children the very choicest 
 literature that they can appreciate and enjoy, but don't 
 force them, and above all don't spoil choice literature 
 by making it over for reading lessons ahead of its turn. 
 Wait till the children are ready for it as the author 
 made it. 
 
 The worst instance of this sort of desecration is re- 
 writing in simple prose the story of a choice poem. 
 The story is but one element of the poem and usually is 
 the least important, except as a skeleton. But it is 
 necessary to the poem as a whole. There are good stories 
 enough for children of all grades, written in suitable 
 language, without niching the hearts out of choice poems. 
 Even great authors cannot write over great poems suc- 
 cessfully. Though children in the grammar grades love 
 to read Shakespeare, as a rule they do not care for Lamb's 
 " Tales from Shakespeare." 
 
 Give children an abundance of good literature as it 
 came from the pens of genius, in wholes and unspoiled. 
 
26 What Children Study and Why 
 
 4. READING ALOUD 
 
 The third of the functions of the reading lesson is to 
 give the ability to read aloud to the edification and en- 
 joyment of listeners, to reproduce orally, with exact- 
 ness in word and in spirit, the thought expressed on the 
 page. 
 
 In the school reading lesson, especially in the earlier 
 years, reading aloud is a necessary part of the exercise, 
 the proof that the pupil can read. In later years it is a 
 fine art too often ignored. 
 
 The Nature of Reading Aloud. — Reading, it will be 
 recalled, is getting the thought from the symbol, either 
 immediately upon observation, or mediately through 
 imaging the sounds of the spoken word. Reading aloud 
 is going a step farther and uttering the words after the 
 thought has been grasped. The distinction needs to be 
 made between merely calling the words phonically and 
 reading them. To utter the sounds r-u-n in quick suc- 
 cession as the word run while thinking merely of the 
 sonant elements is not to read run. Reading involves 
 conceiving the idea run, and oral reading means speaking 
 the word run as expressive of the idea. This is important 
 as having a distinct bearing upon the method of teaching 
 the art, as will be evident later. 
 
 Elements of Oral Reading. — Oral reading involves, on 
 its mechanical side, breathing, vocalization, enunciation, 
 and pronunciation. In the primary classes breathing 
 and vocalization may be taken for granted. Correct 
 breathing and the production of pure tones are of course 
 important, but there is little time for their consideration 
 in the ordinary primary school. As a rule, too, the 
 
Reading 27 
 
 breathing and the voices of children are more natural 
 and hence better than those of adults. 
 
 Enunciation and Pronunciation. — But enunciation 
 and pronunciation must receive stress from the first. 
 By good enunciation is meant the distinct utterance of 
 the various vowel and consonant sounds involved in 
 speaking a word. By good pronunciation is meant the 
 utterance of the word as a whole correctly, with proper 
 accent, as determined by standard authorities. To 
 " slur " letters, to give incorrect or indistinct sounds 
 to letters, to run them together, — to say bein J for being; 
 or pWaps for -perhaps; genilemun for gentleman; New 
 Yawk for New York; woild for world; histry for history; 
 jogerphy for geography, — these are common instances 
 of bad enunciation. 
 
 " Watchuthinknqf? " looks Slavic, but it is quite com- 
 mon American. 
 
 To say Euro'pean for Europe' an, haow for how, noo for 
 new, threw for through, colyum for column, hor'izon for 
 horiz'on, interested for in'terested, is to pronounce in- 
 correctly. 
 
 These two classes of errors are sure to show their heads 
 continually in school, and must be hit whenever they 
 appear; but the reading lesson affords the best op- 
 portunity for dealing with them systematically. They 
 arise from various causes, chief among which is habit 
 acquired in the home and on the street. 
 
 Faulty enunciation is often due to some defect of the 
 vocal organs, and faulty pronunciation to ignorance pure 
 and simple. To correct these errors should be a princi- 
 pal object of the reading lesson, because they are serious 
 defects, not merely in reading, but in all utterance, and 
 
28 What Children Study and Why 
 
 are likely materially to affect future success among men. 
 The world over, the method of utterance is one of the 
 accepted standards of cultivation. 
 
 Correcting Faulty Enunciation. — How may faults of 
 enunciation be removed? In most cases, only by per- 
 sistent efforts to secure correct utterance, and the sub- 
 stitution of good habits for bad. In case of physical 
 defects the assistance of a surgeon may be required, 
 though often a simple course of exercises will furnish all 
 the remedy needed. Stuttering, for example, is usually 
 due to a diseased or overstimulated nervous system, and 
 except in extreme cases can be helped or even cured by 
 enforced deliberation of utterance, regularly persisted in. 
 Difficulty in uttering distinctly particular letters, as s 
 or /, can usually be overcome by steady, deliberate practice 
 in uttering them. Some instruction at first may be 
 needed as to the proper disposition of tongue, teeth, or 
 lips to produce the correct sound. 
 
 Of the bad habits, the most common, and the most 
 disastrous as well, is that of slurring letters, both vowels 
 and consonants. Few adults, even of liberal education, 
 utter their words clearly, through to the finish. We have 
 no time to enounce. We telegraph our message, omitting 
 every sound not absolutely required to give its meaning. 
 Such exercises as reading or reciting words, verses, or 
 sentences with great deliberation and with over emphasis 
 upon all sounds are helpful. Drill upon the utterance 
 of such words as in-di-vis-i-bi-li-ty, giving the short 
 sound to i in each syllable, is valuable, as is the use of 
 the old enunciation puzzles, as " A big black bear bit a 
 big black bug," " Round the rugged rock the ragged 
 rascal ran," " Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pep- 
 
Reading 29 
 
 pers," with the good old " Theophilus Thistle, the cele- 
 brated thistle sifter, while sifting a sieve full of unsifted 
 thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick 
 of his thumb," repeated in various forms. The reading 
 or reciting of poems or prose selections markedly onomat- 
 opoetic makes good drill in enunciation; for example, Poe's 
 " Bells," Montgomery's " Arnold von Winkelried," 
 Byron's " Destruction of Sennacherib," Southey's " How 
 the Waters Come Down at Lodore," Tennyson's "The 
 Splendor Falls," Dryden's "Ode to St. Cecilia," Dickens's 
 description of the locksmith in " Barnaby Rudge," Chap. 
 XLI. 
 
 The selections for practice should be made with ref- 
 erence to the particular defects or habits to be remedied. 
 It is well to begin with the younger children by reading 
 to them short selections that bring out prominently 
 certain sounds asking them to indicate those sounds 
 and to reproduce them. For the ear is frequently the 
 cause of bad enunciation. It does not always distin- 
 guish sounds and must be trained to hear accurately. 
 
 I recall an argument with a lady, whose whole life 
 had been spent in New York City, over the sound of the 
 letter r. She had the local habit of slurring it or of 
 dropping it altogether. But she insisted that she did 
 pronounce it. Finally I discovered that apparently her 
 ear could not perceive the ordinary sound of r at all. 
 She could not, for instance, distinguish between are and 
 ah, when spoken. Only over emphasis and a prolonged 
 trilling of the sound enabled her to perceive it. 
 
 A distinguished bishop tells of visiting an English 
 laborer's family at dinner time. 
 
 The principal article of food was some delicious York- 
 
30 What Children Study and Why 
 
 shire ham. The laborer's son, after consuming a gener- 
 ous portion, asked for more, and this conversation 
 ensued: 
 
 Boy — " Dad, HTd like some more 'am." 
 
 Father — " You mean 'am, my son." 
 
 Boy — " That's wot I said : I said 'am." 
 
 Father — " No, you said, 'am." 
 
 Mother (aside to Bishop) — " 'Ear 'em. They both 
 think they said 'aw." 
 
 Although a thoroughly bad enunciation is perhaps 
 seldom wholly corrected, careful instruction, much 
 practice, and never ceasing insistence, especially in the 
 reading lesson, can accomplish much. 
 
 Correcting Faulty Pronunciation. — Faulty pronuncia- 
 tion, especially if taken early, can be remedied much 
 more easily. As has been said, in many cases it is due 
 to ignorance. This requires merely acquaintance with 
 the correct standard. In other cases it is habrt, which 
 calls for attention and insistence. Usually, too, faulty 
 pronunciation is limited to a comparatively few words. 
 
 The greatest difficulty is likely to be provincial pro- 
 nunciation, due to customs prevailing in localities and 
 sometimes in whole regions. Such are the New England 
 yew for you, hev for have, stupenjus for stupendous, goom 
 for gum. The Pennsylvania caaow for cow, ma for ma, 
 the Southern ah for /, the Irish character. 
 
 The difficulty with this class of errors is not merely 
 fixed habit, but inability to distinguish the sounds by 
 the ear. Even teachers, working in the locality where 
 they have been brought up, cannot detect the familiar 
 errors of pronunciation committed by the children, but 
 are guilty of them themselves. It is only by a careful 
 
Reading 3 1 
 
 training of the ear and a constant study of standards 
 that errors of pronunciation, either provincial or per- 
 sonal, can be eradicated. One of the best means of 
 correcting our own faults of sound-perception and of 
 sound-production is to listen closely to cultivated public 
 speakers, and especially to good actors, people whose 
 business it is to be right in these respects. In case of 
 doubt always consult a dictionary. 
 
 The two faults of speech above mentioned as common 
 in oral reading are all that can be attended to profitably 
 in the earlier primary grades while the children are 
 mastering the symbols. But false modes of breathing 
 and bad qualities of voice must be remedied before 
 reading aloud as an art and as a source of pleasure is 
 possible. : 
 
 These two subjects belong so largely to the specialist 
 that I shall not attempt to treat them at length, but 
 shall only give a few suggestions as to exercises that may 
 be employed in the schoolroom in connection with the 
 reading lesson. These can be introduced into the inter- 
 mediate grades with advantage. 
 
 The breathing should be full and deep. Breathing 
 exercises, filling the lungs to the bottom, just before read- 
 ing, are helpful. To begin a sentence with the lungs 
 nearly empty necessitates an early break in the reading. 
 The breath should be taken in through the nostrils. 
 Practice in deep breathing through the nose and giving 
 out the breath very slowly through the mouth, clearly 
 vocalized, allowing no breath to escape without produc- 
 ing tone, if repeated regularly, will greatly improve the 
 breathing of a class while reading. 
 
 The production of good tone is really easier to secure 
 
32 What Children Study and Why 
 
 than good breathing. The common faults of tone in 
 school reading are, among the boys, a hard and un- 
 natural tone and excessive nasality, and among the 
 girls, high pitch and an ear-splitting, shrill quality. Both 
 boys and girls talk, if they do not read, too loudly and 
 noisily. This fault continued to adult years and in- 
 tensified has made the " American voice " justly an 
 object of unpleasant comment. 
 
 How can we get soft, tuneful, clear voices? Only 
 through much practice and continued insistence. In the 
 first place the teacher's voice should possess these quali- 
 ties, a condition, alas! seldom fulfilled. Children un- 
 consciously imitate. A noisy teacher makes a noisy 
 school. 
 
 It is essential to avoid shouting in all exercises. Make 
 plain the difference between force and noise. Practice 
 whispering to a distance. Especially have much read- 
 ing and reciting of literature, calling for the quality the 
 opposite of the one to be corrected, as, for a harsh voice, 
 lullabies, such as " Sweet and Low," " O, hush thee, my 
 Baby " ; for a high-pitched, shrill voice, " By Nebo's 
 lonely mountain," or "Not a drum was heard"; for a 
 nasal voice, Byron's " Apostrophe to the Ocean," " Roll 
 on thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll," or Carthon's 
 "Apostrophe to the Sun," "O thou that rollest above, 
 round as the shield of my fathers." In all cases try to 
 have the voice reflect the sentiment. These are merely 
 suggestive exercises for correcting glaring errors of vocal- 
 ization. 
 
 The Art of Reading Aloud. — The art of reading aloud, 
 now so nearly obsolete, is one of the most generally 
 attractive of all the arts. It is especially effective for 
 
Reading 33 
 
 poetry, oratory, fiction, and dramatic writings. Pure 
 literature, interpreted by a genuine and sympathetic 
 artist, shares with song, "Music married to immortal 
 verse," the honor of being the most human and the most 
 divine of arts. 
 
 " And lend to the rhyme of the poet 
 The beauty of thy voice." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Reading 
 
 methods of instruction 
 
 It is not the aim of this book to discuss methods very 
 much in detail. Indeed, the term " method " as used 
 in teaching has fallen into a certain disrepute, because 
 it has been badly misused, and mere devices, which usu- 
 ally should be left to the ingenuity of the teachers, have 
 been heralded as " methods." In this book the term 
 "methods" always means simply a way of doing things, 
 based upon principles. 
 
 There is a Best Way. — Necessarily there is a best way 
 of doing everything that is to be done, but not a univer- 
 sally best way. The best way for me may not be the 
 best way for you, and the best way for me to-day or 
 with Johnny Jones may not be the best way to-morrow 
 or with Maggie Brown. 
 
 Yet there are principles underlying all methods which 
 may not be violated with impunity. Variation is 
 possible in the application, but not in the principle. 
 
 The first thing to consider in determining the method 
 of teaching any subject is the purpose of teaching it, — 
 its place in the economy of education. That, settled, 
 determines the standard by which all methods may be 
 measured. 
 
 The Proper Bases. — The next things to consider are 
 the nature of the subject, — its meaning and its logic, — 
 and the laws of growth of the minds of the individual 
 
 34 
 
Methods of Instruction . 35 
 
 learners, especially as related to the subject under con- 
 sideration; for an example, how can the pupil best 
 attain the end aimed at through the study of language, 
 considering the nature of language and his mental state 
 regarding it ? 
 
 Psychology or Logic. — Here we come upon the old 
 question : Shall psychology or logic determine the method 
 of teaching a subject ? Shall the nature of the subject 
 or the nature of the child be the dominant influence? 
 Shall the method of nature study, for example, be for the 
 development of the child's powers of observation, dis- 
 covery, and reasoning, or shall it be for verifying the 
 classifications of science? 
 
 I once heard a schoolman say, while we were watching 
 a class of children studying beetles, " To begin the study 
 of the beetle at the wrong end is a pedagogical crime." 
 I should say that to try to make the child see the beetle 
 in any other than the natural way of seeing is a peda- 
 gogical crime. The order of procedure is determined 
 by his mental state and his opportunities for observation 
 and not by the shape of the bug. This principle applies 
 in all teaching, whatever the topic. The child must 
 learn as he can. Any attempt to force or to change the 
 processes of his mental action results in waste or disaster. 
 
 Must vary .with Age. — Naturally, methods must vary 
 as children advance in age and in mental power. 
 " Nature study " progresses toward science, " number 
 work " toward arithmetic, and " language study " to- 
 ward grammar and rhetoric. The casual observation 
 becomes orderly, the unconsidered expression becomes 
 definite, but solely because the child's mental state is 
 different. In most cases, though not in all, the methods 
 
36 What Children Study and Why 
 
 here considered will be those applicable to the beginning 
 of a particular study. 
 
 With this understanding of " method," we will proceed 
 to its application to the subject of reading. 
 
 METHODS OF TEACHING READING 
 
 There are many methods of teaching reading to begin- 
 ners, all of which, however, fall into a few classes deter- 
 mined by the unit of study, whether the letter, the sound, 
 or the sentence. 
 
 The Alphabetical Method. — The alphabetical or 
 spelling method was in universal use until comparatively 
 recent times. This is hardly worthy of being classed as 
 a method. It is merely the unconsidered way in which 
 reading was taught before scientific method had received 
 serious thought. Its unit was the letter as named, and 
 as combined on the printed page with other letters into 
 words. The oral significance of letters was scarcely 
 even thought of. As the first step in learning to read, 
 the children " learned their letters " by name and ap- 
 pearance. Next they learned simple combinations as 
 a-b ab, b-a ba, always arbitrarily and without conscious 
 recognition of the sonant value of the letters. It is 
 probable that there was, at least in some cases, a sub- 
 conscious recognition of sound values, especially of 
 vowels ; but if such recognition existed, it never advanced 
 into consciousness. The child never became aware of 
 a synthesis of sounds in bat differing at all from the names 
 be-a-te. Yet though the process was necessarily slow 
 and painful, children learned to read by it, relying on 
 memory and sight. Its great defect was not its awk- 
 wardness and slowness, but what is still the great defect 
 
Methods of Instruction 37 
 
 of all its direct and collateral descendants, namely, that 
 reading in its earlier stages was not reading at all, but 
 merely calling syllables and words. 
 
 Two Classes of Methods. — With the development 
 of educational science in the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century, reading naturally received early attention. 
 The faults of the old way were manifest to even shallow 
 observers. Hence many teachers set about devising 
 new methods. These efforts fall into one or other of the 
 two classes into which all modern methods of teaching 
 reading fall — the one logical, the other psychological. 
 The former takes as its unit the sound of the letter; 
 the other, the whole word or sentence as expressing an 
 idea or a thought. There are several so-called methods 
 for which their authors claim great merit, in both these 
 classes. Some indeed claim the merits of both classes. 
 
 It is necessary, therefore, to bear in mind the funda- 
 mental determining difference, which is the door of ap- 
 proach, whether the sounds of the letters or the ideas or 
 thoughts represented by the symbols. 
 
 Phonic Methods. — The various phonic methods, by 
 whatever special name they are called, are the direct 
 development of the original alphabetical method. The 
 sound of the letter has taken the place of the name, 
 and the synthesis of the sounds that make the spoken 
 word has become conscious and purposeful. The aim is 
 simple, to secure the recognition, in the graphic symbol, 
 of the word already familiar as spoken. The method 
 is logical rather than psychological. That is, it follows 
 the orderly development of the word considered as a 
 mechanical structure, and not the laws of growth of the 
 mind of the child or his natural way of learning. A 
 
38 What Children Study and Why 
 
 The earliest of these methods to gain general recogni- 
 tion was called correctly " the synthetic method." It 
 was more radical than any of its successors. The first 
 step was the recognition of the sounds of the letters. 
 To secure this, much drill was given upon single letters. 
 Then these were combined by sounds into pronounceable 
 groups, which were sometimes words, sometimes recogniz- 
 able syllables, and sometimes mere meaningless aggre- 
 gations, usually representing " families," as the at family, 
 the op family, and the like. The children were drilled 
 upon such lists as, 
 
 at 
 bat 
 cat 
 dat 
 lat 
 In order to make possible the study of all the sounds 
 of the letters, an intricate system of diacritical marking 
 was employed, creating practically a new alphabet, in 
 which every sonant element of English words was sup- 
 posed to be represented by a character. Later these 
 phonic groups, or " phonograms," were used in the build- 
 ing of words, after which children began to read. 
 
 This was a carefully thought out and logical system. 
 Within certain very manifest limits it produced notable 
 results. Undeniably children acquired extraordinary 
 facility in using the marked letters to build the family — 
 the combination of sounds — unhampered by any con- 
 sideration of purpose. They worked for synthesized 
 sounds, and they got them. Moreover, the facility ac- 
 quired was of real service in the detection of new words 
 as they occurred in the reading lesson. For a time 
 
Methods of Instruction 39 
 
 the apparent progress of the children was truly aston- 
 ishing. 
 
 The defects of the system, however, were no less notable. 
 One of them has already been mentioned as the greatest 
 defect of the alphabetical method, namely, that " read- 
 ing " was, at first, not reading at all, but merely calling 
 words, the meaningless repetition of synthesized sounds ; 
 and all the evil characteristics of the old methods were 
 present, — the hard voice, the uniform modulation, the 
 pause between words, the unvarying stress upon all 
 words important and unimportant. 
 
 Then, when introduced to words without diacritical 
 marks, the children were somewhat like cripples whose 
 crutches had been taken away. It took time and effort 
 to reduce the alphabet to the conventional twenty-six 
 letters. So, even in the matter of time, the apparent 
 saving at the beginning was often lost in the later delays 
 incident to really learning to read. Moreover, the desir- 
 able influence upon all the later reading of the first im- 
 pression that reading is getting thought was, of course, 
 forever lost. 
 
 Phonics and Spelling. — Perhaps the most peculiar 
 effect of this phonic method was that upon spelling. It 
 seemed practically impossible for children accustomed to 
 the luxury of a complete phonetic alphabet ever to adjust 
 themselves to the peculiarities of English orthography. 
 The truly " phonetized " children continued to spell, 
 years after, in a manner that would have rejoiced the 
 heart of the laird of Skibo. 
 
 The purely synthetic method, though heralded as the 
 great emancipator from the bondage of the primer, did 
 not long survive, but it left a healthy family of de- 
 
40 What Children Study and Why 
 
 scendants more or less resembling it, which we still have 
 with us. 
 
 Later Phonic Systems. — In general these have uni- 
 form characteristics. They are mainly analytico-syn- 
 thetic. The sounds, instead of being stated arbitrarily 
 as belonging to certain letters, are " developed " from 
 words and then recombined : rat becomes r-d-t, the 
 sounds only being given. The " family " relation is 
 still maintained, but the combinations made are strictly 
 of words, the meaningless aggregations of sounds such 
 as dat and lat being no longer allowed. 
 
 This change indicates a tendency on the part of the ad- 
 vocates of phonetic teaching toward sounder educational 
 principles. The presentation of a whole word is at least 
 a partial recognition of the way a child naturally learns 
 things. It is to be feared, however, that even yet in too 
 many instances the word is presented as a combination 
 of sounds rather than as the symbol of an idea. The 
 word rat does not stand so much for the interesting, if 
 unpopular, little rodent whose name it is, as for the 
 synthesis of the three sounds represented by the letters 
 r-d-t. 
 
 There are so many further modifications of so-called 
 phonic reading that it is impossible to follow them. 
 Surely even Mrs. Pollard would be unable to recognize 
 some of the descendants of her scheme. But these 
 modifications are all in more or less full recognition of a 
 psychological basis of teaching. Some go so far as to 
 present entire sentences and even whole verses for in- 
 spection by the children — a sort of by-guess reading — 
 and to encourage the recognition of some words as words 
 before taking up the phonic analysis. Every step to- 
 
Methods of Instruction 41 
 
 ward making " reading " always reading, the getting of 
 thought, and using all mechanical devices merely as aids, 
 is encouraging. 
 
 Danger in Secondary Ends. — Of course it is claimed 
 that this is the purpose of all phonic systems. Doubtless 
 in the mind of the teacher it is, but in the mind of the 
 young child the manifest aim is the real aim, and untold 
 harm is done in our schools by presenting continually 
 secondary ends rather than primary. This error is 
 common not merely in the reading lesson, but in other 
 subjects as well, and especially in creating motives for 
 study and even for conduct. The eye of the child 
 should whenever possible be kept upon the real end in 
 view. This has an immediate bearing upon the creation 
 of ideals and the development of character. In many 
 instances it may be impossible to do this ; the real end 
 may be too remote and abstruse for the child to grasp, 
 but usually it is possible — certainly in many more in- 
 stances than our school practice would indicate. In 
 teaching reading it is not only possible but easy. " Read- 
 ing " can as easily be reading as the mere calling of words. 
 
 English not Phonetic. — Even with this higher con- 
 sideration aside, there are fundamental linguistic reasons 
 why " phonics " can never be the real basis of instruction 
 in reading. Our language is not a phonetic language. 
 Because of its history, of the many elements that have 
 entered into its composition, and especially of the dis- 
 tortions that it has suffered at the hands of ignorant early 
 printers and of many pseudo-philologists, a very large 
 part of its syllables are purely arbitrary combinations 
 of letters which must be committed to memory, without 
 aid from logic, or science. So large a part of the words 
 
42 What Children Study and Why 
 
 in common use are thus irregular that attempts to form 
 scientific classifications, instead of aiding the memory, 
 merely cause confusion. 
 
 Take, for instance, one of the most reliable of the rules, 
 that a final e, silent after a single consonant, lengthens 
 the short vowel preceding the consonant. This is usually 
 given to children very early, as one of the laws suitable 
 for infant minds, and it is one of the guideposts to the 
 foreigner trying to thread his way among the crossroads 
 of our language. The start is nimble : tap, tape; rip, 
 ripe; cap, cape; and so forth. But soon come tare, 
 hare, bare, and perhaps thirty more. Well, we will 
 classify these as an exception and go on. We have not 
 gone far when we run upon dove, love, above, and a long 
 list — another exception. And so with halve, salve, and 
 the like, and then live, give, are, were, and the rest, until 
 the exceptional instances seem to outnumber the regulars. 
 And yet, as I have said, this is one of the most reliable 
 of the rules ; indeed, it is almost the only one of sufficient 
 embrace to be of much consequence. From this com- 
 parative regularity all the way to ough with its eight 
 different pronunciations is a road strewn with " troubles." 
 The diacritical markings are merely danger signs, useful 
 so long as they remain, but leaving panic when removed. 
 
 Is it not vastly better to teach reading as reading and 
 get such assistance from phonics as we can, than to 
 overwork this valuable aid, misrepresent values, and 
 fail at least of the higher results ? 
 
 Psychological Methods. — Of the psychological meth- 
 ods of teaching reading to beginners there are two 
 general classes, one taking for its unit the word, repre- 
 senting an idea, the other taking the sentence, repre- 
 
Methods of Instruction 43 
 
 senting a complete thought. In both, the meaning of 
 the word rather than its phonetic composition receives 
 the first consideration. 
 
 The Word Method. — The word method in operation is 
 simplicity itself. A familiar object is presented before 
 the children and named by them. The name is then 
 written on the blackboard. Thus the written and 
 visible symbol of the name of a familiar object becomes 
 associated with the same name as known to the ear. 
 The child becomes, as to the word, eye-minded. After 
 the names of several objects have been learned in this 
 way, a few necessary connecting and descriptive words, 
 as verbs and adjectives, are taught. Thus the child 
 becomes possessed of a small working vocabulary. Next, 
 sentences are constructed of these words and read by the 
 children. So far the process is one of simple word 
 memory. The words are treated first as wholes by them- 
 selves and then as parts of a sentence. Here lie both the 
 strength and the weakness of the method. 
 
 Tests of the Word Method. — The real tests are two: 
 1. Are the pupils to go on indefinitely memorizing new 
 words as wholes, Chinese fashion? 2. Can the words 
 treated thus independently be united smoothly into sen- 
 tences, so that reading shall be repeating thoughts and 
 not merely calling words? 
 
 Necessity of Spelling. — As to the first test, naturally 
 the words must ultimately be broken up into their sonant 
 elements and these elements must be used in building 
 other words ; that is, children must learn to spell and to 
 recognize new words by spelling before rapid progress 
 can be made in learning to read. Here comes the claim 
 of the phonic teacher. By phonics the children learn 
 
44 What Children Study and Why 
 
 these sonant elements of words and are made independent 
 in reading new words. This would be true enough if our 
 language were a phonetically regular language, but it is 
 not, as has been stated above, and attempts to teach by 
 a phonetic system, when such a system includes so little, 
 results in artificiality and teaching much that " isn't so." 
 Children who learn to read by the word method must 
 early learn to spell. But this spelling must be in the 
 old-fashioned way of memory, aided here and there by 
 those few phonic facts that are of general significance. 
 Some of these may be taught by rule, though the many 
 exceptions are likely to make most of the rules confusing 
 rather than illumining. Most of the phonic facts will be 
 grasped by the children by a sort of unconscious generali- 
 zation. Colonel Parker, who was an advocate of the 
 word method, used to insist that this unconscious generali- 
 zation was sufficient and that the children needed no 
 special drill in phonics. 
 
 How Children Learn. — Of the two, a purely phonic 
 system and a word method with its spelling unaided by 
 formal phonics, the latter unquestionably rests on a 
 sounder psychological basis; it is more nearly like the 
 way in which children acquire their first knowledge of 
 the world in many phases. The most familiar objects 
 are learned first singly by memory alone. Then the 
 mind unaided forms a simple generalization. Acquaint- 
 ance is first made with Towser, the family dog. Then 
 every dog is Towser. Later Towser and all the rest 
 become dogs. But the generalization was first made un- 
 aided and unconsciously, when the neighbor's dog was 
 called Towser. 
 
 Whatever may be its other faults or merits, the word 
 
Methods of Instruction 45 
 
 method at least employs the same unit and order that 
 the child uses in learning to talk. The baby first recog- 
 nizes objects through their action upon some one or 
 more of the senses. Then he learns to associate with 
 these sensations certain regular impressions made upon 
 his auditory nerve, until at length he knows the word 
 heard as belonging to the object. Later, after much 
 effort, he learns to utter the word himself, and this with- 
 out any conscious analysis of it into its sonant elements, 
 without any instruction as to the character and mode 
 of action of his vocal organs. 
 
 Word Method Natural. — This method, using the 
 whole word as the unit of instruction, is the purely 
 natural method ; most other methods, called natural, 
 are really artificial attempts to substitute the laws of 
 logic for those of infant development. 
 
 Place of Analysis. — The word method, however, may 
 be greatly aided by an analysis of the words, after a suffi- 
 cient vocabulary has been acquired, and reading has so 
 far advanced, as reading, that the children may with 
 profit turn aside to consider analytically the material 
 with which they are dealing. There should be much 
 spelling of words, both oral and written, both by letters 
 and by sounds. Words, too, should be grouped for spell- 
 ing according to their phonic elements, as bar, car, far, 
 mar, to be followed by bare, care, fare, mare — but this 
 without the formal rule which requires an explanation 
 of the troublesome exceptions. All that is valuable in the 
 analogies will be grasped unconsciously through the as- 
 sociation. 
 
 Other useful exercises are writing and observing words 
 first with and then without suffixes and plural forms, as 
 
46 What Children Study and Why 
 
 bird, birds, think, thinking, and especially words divided 
 into syllables. Uncertainty as to syllabication is 
 perhaps the greatest danger from the word method, and 
 needs to be carefully guarded against both in enunciation 
 and in writing. Rules, however, for all of these facts 
 may well be left for the language lesson. Indeed, they 
 are of much greater consequence in the complementary 
 art of writing than in reading itself. 
 
 Marking Silent Letters. — There is one so-called aid to 
 reading that is especially vicious. I refer to the writing or 
 printing of words with the " silent letters " crossed out. 
 Such a device may be resorted to by the teacher, occa- 
 sionally, when writing on the blackboard, merely to save 
 time. But the presentation to children, in the first 
 stages of learning to read, of a printed page containing 
 words having some of the letters crossed off gives false 
 impressions of the looks of the words at the outset and 
 prepares the way for future trouble. Because, whatever 
 may be the value of " phonics " as an aid to reading, 
 reading itself, as practiced, consists in instant and rapid 
 recognition of words as wholes, and it is of the utmost 
 importance that children get correct impressions of words 
 as they look on the page. The sole value of phonic analysis 
 at its best is in aiding children to call correctly new words; 
 but when this aid perverts the appearance of the word, 
 it becomes a hindrance to ready reading. 
 
 The Sentence Method. — A third class of methods for 
 teaching beginners to read is based upon using as the 
 unit the sentence, representing a complete thought. 
 This is like the word method in that it is pyschological 
 rather than logical. It differs from it in treating the 
 child as having advanced beyond the stage where knowl- 
 
Methods of Instruction 47 
 
 edge comes in single unconnected words to that where 
 he both comprehends and uses the complete sentence — 
 the statement, the question, the command. The step 
 from doll, milk to " This is my doll," " Give rne some 
 milk," is psychologically a very long one, but it is taken 
 long before the child comes to school. 
 
 The sentence method recognizes this fact and presents 
 to the children as the first reading lesson a complete 
 expression of a thought. The thought is naturally a very 
 simple one and the sentences at first are very short. But 
 they are sentences, and the first reading of them is genuine 
 reading and not merely calling words. Whether the first 
 lesson is " This is Helen " or the command " Run," 
 speaking it as a whole is reading. The very first im- 
 pression of the act of reading is the true one. There is 
 nothing to be undone afterward. The painful effort to 
 make real word£ of the synthesized meaningless sounds, 
 or to group the words into sentences, is spared. This is 
 certainly a great gain. 
 
 Different Plans. — Some teachers of the sentence 
 method would use first sentences made by the children 
 and written upon the blackboard, so that the children 
 may recognize the symbols of their own spoken thoughts. 
 This plan is sure to produce vivid impressions and to give 
 a vital interest to the reading lesson. 
 
 Others would have the first lesson descriptive of an act 
 performed by or before the children, as / walk, we jump, 
 or of a command to do something, as Run, Jump, Open 
 the door. This also makes reading vital and insures 
 interest. It makes it possible, moreover, to make the 
 first sentence very short ; even one word will suffice for 
 a command. 
 
48 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Of course these first sentences must be followed by 
 many more in which the same words are used in many 
 different relations. Some teachers would develop the 
 words first. This is almost a reversion to the word 
 method. Others would merely see to it that the words 
 are recognized wherever they occur. These are matters 
 of detail. 
 
 The reading of sentences must be followed, however, 
 later by the study of words and the various spelling and 
 phonic exercises suggested to go with the word method. 
 
 Sentence the Best Unit. — On the whole I incline to 
 the opinion that the sentence is the best unit in teaching 
 reading; that it makes reading more natural and more 
 interesting; that children taught in this way are more 
 likely later to grasp whole phrases and sentences at a 
 glance, which is the secret of economical and appre- 
 ciative reading. 
 
 Use of Larger Units. — Indeed, some radical teachers 
 favor presenting first entire paragraphs or rhymes for 
 indefinite recognition, that the impression of wholeness 
 may be made very strong. While a very able teacher 
 may succeed with such a method, it is to be feared that 
 in the ordinary school it would result in vague, unprofit- 
 able guessing at words. 
 
 Special Methods. — There are certain patent methods 
 of teaching reading which cannot easily be classed as 
 either psychological or philological. They belong by 
 themselves and had best perhaps be called unpsychologi- 
 cal. One consists in taking some selections of children's 
 literature, chopping them up into words, presenting 
 these words in new relations, often without sense, with 
 the hope that thus the children will learn them and ulti- 
 
Methods of Instruction 49 
 
 mately will come back to the literature. Sometimes 
 a single word taken from a children's jingle is used in 
 forty or fifty consecutive sentences, most of them having 
 the slightest meaning. 
 
 This system has for its advocates many unthinking 
 people to whom the word " literary " bears a charmed 
 meaning, and they think that they are teaching by a 
 literary method if they use this. As a matter of fact, 
 the method might be properly called an anti-literary 
 method. The child who has had these fifty sentences, 
 all with one key word, when he comes back to the original 
 story is sure to be affected with nausea. It is hard to 
 conceive a method of teaching reading more sure to 
 produce distaste for the whole subject than this. To 
 make matters worse, this and some other special methods 
 are so unnatural that they require special manuals, thus 
 adding greatly to the burden of overworked teachers. 
 
 Teaching reading is not such a difficult matter that 
 it requires all this fuss. In most cases the special method 
 is teaching reading by indirection, by something that is 
 not reading. Its advocates point to marvelous results, 
 but it should be remembered that children, like animals, 
 can be taught any trick, if care enough is given to it. 
 But to teach a number of things only loosely associated 
 with reading does not necessarily lead to reading at all; 
 quite frequently it leads away from it. The test comes 
 in the higher grades, and after many years of observation. 
 I have never seen pupils in the higher grades of schools 
 who have been taught by any patent method whose 
 reading was superior to that of those who had been 
 taught by simple and natural methods, and in most 
 cases I have found it to be inferior, in spite of all the 
 
50 What Children Study and Why 
 
 extra time and effort and the agony of teacher and child 
 in mastering an awkward scheme. 
 
 Whatever the method, the first reading should always 
 be of words familiar to the children. The earliest lesson 
 should not attempt to add to the pupil's vocabulary; 
 that comes later. 
 
 So much for method in the first lessons in reading. 
 Is nothing to be said as to the conduct of the reading 
 lesson beyond the primer and first reader stage ? 
 
 Reading in Intermediate Grades. — The intermediate 
 grades really offer very interesting problems. As a rule 
 they are the weakest spots in our schools. The lower and 
 the higher grades have received much more thought, much 
 more scientific study. Yet in these intermediate grades 
 the future tastes and inclinations of the great majority of 
 the children are determined, in so far as the school deter- 
 mines them. If the ability to read rapidly, with compre- 
 hension and with appreciation, and also with taste for good 
 reading, are not secured in these grades, by far the larger 
 part of the children in our schools will never secure them. 
 
 Rapid Reading. — First, children should learn to read 
 rapidly, " to themselves." By this I mean that they 
 should be trained to grasp quickly the sense of sentences 
 and even paragraphs without dwelling upon each word. 
 This ability is of especial value in reading newspapers 
 and other current reading matter of an ephemeral 
 character, as well as much literature of a better sort, 
 especially fiction. Of course I do not mean to say that 
 there are not books that must be read word for word, 
 with the utmost care and deliberation, but such books 
 are few and constitute a very small percentage of the 
 reading of most people. Most of what we read perforce 
 
Methods of Instruction 51 
 
 does not justify careful and slow perusal, and there is 
 great waste in reading it one word at a time. One some- 
 times sees people of apparent intelligence reading news- 
 papers, the moving lips showing that each word is being 
 mentally pronounced. Such people have not really 
 learned to read. 
 
 The first essential to comprehensive reading is the 
 ability to pick quickly the salient words, those that 
 hold the key to the thought. This ability can be secured 
 only through much practice. A good exercise to this 
 end is to give the members of a class each a different 
 paragraph or brief passage and allow a short fixed period 
 for reading, and then to require them to give the sub- 
 stance of the passages read in the fewest words possible. 
 If any child has failed to grasp the thought, ask sugges- 
 tive questions and let him try again. Such an exercise 
 frequently repeated tends to develop comprehensive and 
 rapid reading. 
 
 Naturally such a method cannot be applied to poetry 
 or to the best oratory, nor indeed with equal profit to the 
 finest literature of any sort. A true literary artist makes 
 every word tell, and if the art is applied to a worthy 
 subject, every word should be carefully read. The reader 
 who attempts to " skip " in reading Emerson or Brown- 
 ing or Tennyson is likely to lose the best things. 
 
 Reading with Appreciation. — This leads to the second 
 point to be emphasized in reading in the higher grades, 
 namely, reading with appreciation. This is a very dif- 
 ferent process from the hasty reading of the daily news 
 or the best selling novel. It involves a sympathetic 
 spirit, catching the author's feeling as well as compre- 
 hending his thought. 
 
52 What Children Study and Why 
 
 To take an instance from well-known literature, see 
 Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech. The beauty, the literary 
 finish, the power of this great work of art must be felt ; 
 it is quite beyond mere intellectual comprehension. 
 Hence, in the reading class, before attempting to read it, 
 the setting should be made plain, the momentous struggle, 
 the sad significance of the occasion, the heavy weight 
 upon the great heart of Lincoln. Then the class is ready 
 to read with subdued solemnity the noble words. Then 
 each sentence and each word may be studied to see how 
 in so few words such great thoughts were uttered. 
 
 Moore's fines furnish another illustration : 
 
 " When day with farewell beams delays 
 
 Among the golden clouds of even, 
 And we can almost think we gaze 
 
 Through opening vistas into Heaven, 
 Those hues that mark the sun's decline 
 So grand, so beauteous, Lord, are thine." 
 
 The solemnity and the beauty of this passage should be 
 felt by the reader while reading. 
 
 " Paul Revere's Ride," on the other hand, requires a 
 quite different spirit on the part of the reader ; and " The 
 Wonderful One Hoss Shay," a very different feeling 
 indeed. 
 
 Not to illustrate further, in the reading of choice 
 literature, such as fortunately constitutes the greater 
 part of the material found in most higher school readers, 
 the aim should be to secure appreciative as well as com- 
 prehensive reading. 
 
 Reading Aloud. — One of the best means to this end 
 is reading aloud. This is especially true of poetry. 
 
Methods of Instruction 53 
 
 This should include reading aloud by the teacher to the 
 children, as was said in the preceding chapter. 
 
 The older pupils can easily be trained to use their 
 voices to express lightness and mirth, serious earnestness, 
 beauty, awe. 
 
 Preliminary Practice. — It is well, before reading a 
 long selection of a certain dramatic character, to prac- 
 tice upon short passages illustrating a similar phase of 
 sentiment. For example, for practice in light and 
 cheerful sentiment, not humorous, the first lines of 
 Whittier's " To a Barefoot Boy " are excellent; with 
 the element of humor added, Cowper's " John Gilpin's 
 Ride." For more serious thought, the earlier stanzas 
 of Gray's " Elegy " are fine reading for older pupils; 
 for more tender feelings, comprehensible to children, 
 lullabies are good, such as Tennyson's " Sweet and 
 Low." For developing appreciation of the awe-inspir- 
 ing there is nothing better than Moore's lines quoted 
 above. The point is, the children before reading good 
 emotional literature should be put into the proper 
 frame of mind and by practice should have their voices 
 and their manner of reading adjusted to the spirit of 
 the selection. 
 
 Grasp of Thought. Emphasis. — For reading aloud 
 effectively it is necessary not only to be in the proper 
 psychic state and to have voice and manner properly 
 adjusted, but there must also be an especially good grasp 
 of the thought of the matter read. The salient words 
 must be picked out for emphasis. Given the proper 
 feeling, emphasis is the key to good oral reading. 
 
 A good exercise is to select passages and have the class 
 decide by discussion and experiment what words should 
 
54 What Children Study and Why 
 
 receive first emphasis and what ones secondary. For ex- 
 ample, in Macbeth's lines : 
 
 "If it were done when 'tis done, 
 Then 'twere well it were done quickly." 
 
 should the first emphasis be on were or on done? 
 Should secondary emphasis be on then or on quickly or 
 both ? A little such practice will make the pupils keen 
 to " see the point " of what they are to read. 
 
 But not merely words are salient; sometimes whole 
 phrases or sentences even, in which no particular word 
 needs to be emphasized, convey so much of the author's 
 thought that they should receive especial emphasis. 
 For example, the sentence : 
 
 "She looked down to blush and she looked up to sigh, 
 With a smile on her lip and a tear in her eye." — 
 
 is divisible into four parts, each one of which is important, 
 but no single word stands out enough from the others 
 to require particular stress. It should be read evenly. 
 
 Resume. — For reading aloud the needs are first to 
 get into the spirit of the piece, second to grasp its whole 
 thought, third to select the proper words and phrases 
 for emphasis. As a preparation for all of these there 
 should be drill in reading similar short sentences and care- 
 ful study of the piece itself. 
 
 Final Result. — The great final result of the reading 
 lesson should be a love for good books. By every possible 
 means appreciative taste should be developed. Then 
 the children should be led from the reading book to the 
 world of books. The single selection should create the 
 desire to read the book from which it was taken. The 
 
Methods of Instruction 55 
 
 public library should be the chief ally of the teacher of 
 reading. " Reading " should always be reading. It 
 should always be getting thought. Even with begin- 
 ners such methods should be employed as will focus 
 attention on the thought. 
 
 The reading lesson should be the key to unlock to the 
 children a treasure. It should always be a joy, never 
 a task. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 English Language Instruction 
 
 Language is the fundamental, the universal art. It 
 is not only necessary for the efficient communication of 
 ideas among men, it is essential to thought itself in all 
 its higher or human phases. Without it, apparently, 
 we could do no thinking except such crude and rudi- 
 mentary thinking as is possible to beasts. This is the 
 state of deaf mutes before they have been taught to 
 recognize and use words through some other medium 
 than speech. 
 
 Language used 'effectively by Illiterate. — Yet practi- 
 cal instruction in the use of language, until late, had no 
 definite place in the curricula of elementary schools. 
 One reason for this condition is doubtless to be found 
 in the very universality of the art. In spite of Dogberry, 
 reading and writing are necessarily school subjects. 
 They are to be taught by special organized effort and 
 with the use of books. Whereas language everybody 
 uses. It is acquired in infancy, and without any special 
 instruction, from association and by imitation. When a 
 child first comes to school he has a vocabulary adequate to 
 his needs and can use it effectively ; and all through life, 
 whether literate or illiterate, his use of language, de- 
 veloped from practical experience, is quite sure to be 
 adequate to his practical, fundamental needs. 
 
 So that, apparently, language instruction, instead of 
 
 56 
 
English Language Instruction 57 
 
 complaining at its long exclusion from the elementary 
 school, must justify its plea for admission. The history 
 of language instruction in elementary schools is sug- 
 gestive and explains many things. 
 
 Growth of the Curriculum. — Like the medieval school, 
 the early American school had its trivium and its quad- 
 rivium. The former comprised the " three R's, " 
 regarded as the fundamental arts, and constituted the 
 entire curriculum for the younger pupil. The quadrivium 
 for the older pupils at first merely added, to the trivium, 
 grammar. 
 
 The Dominance of Grammar. — Grammar was the 
 characteristic and conspicuous study of the higher 
 schools. It gave its name to them, and this name is still 
 retained for the higher grades of the common school. It 
 dominated the schools, not only in subject matter, but 
 in method. For in the "good old days" grammar was 
 Grammar, the scientific study of desiccated language. 
 At first it was chiefly Latin grammar ; and the English 
 grammars which followed, and indeed many of those 
 that still persist, were modeled after the Latin grammar, 
 in spite of the differences of the two languages in spirit, 
 in genius, and in the order of presenting thought. 
 
 Grammar a Barren Subject. — But never, in either 
 Latin or English, did it descend to so frivolous a con- 
 sideration as either the practical art of effective expression 
 or the true comprehension of literature. The medieval 
 trivium was richer, barren as it was to serve as the sole 
 subject of study, for it included with grammar both logic 
 and rhetoric, the science of thought and the art of expres- 
 sion. But our grammar stood sole and lonely. Not until 
 late in the last century did even the colleges treat rhetoric 
 
58 What Children Study and Why 
 
 as worthy of serious consideration, while in many ele- 
 mentary schools even now language instruction consists 
 of a course of predigested grammar. For grammar 
 rapidly forced itself into the elementary curriculum. It 
 was the only answer suggested to the demand for in- 
 struction in the mother tongue. The mistake was 
 natural enough. It is the same mistake that was made 
 at first in regard to the study of the phenomena and 
 laws of nature. It was basing the instruction of young 
 children upon logic rather than upon psychology, upon 
 the nature of the subject studied more than upon the 
 nature of the children. 
 
 Language and Grammar Differentiated. — Therefore, 
 in our discussion of instruction in the English language, 
 it is necessary to differentiate carefully its two chief 
 phases, what we commonly call " language lessons " 
 and " grammar." Both are important subjects, essential 
 to anything approaching a " good education." But 
 they are not the same subject, and their confusion has 
 vitiated much of the instruction in language given in the 
 elementary schools. 
 
 The two subjects differ both in nature and in aim. 
 In its nature, language is an art, the art of expressing 
 thoughts in words. Grammar is a science, a statement 
 of the laws according to which speech is organized. In 
 aim, the language lesson seeks to give the student posses- 
 sion of the art, to enable him to express his thoughts in 
 words, effectively and elegantly. The aim of the gram- 
 mar lesson, on the contrary, is not to cultivate effective 
 expression, but to acquaint the student with the laws 
 of speech; to make him critical of his own speech and 
 that of others. 
 
English Language Instruction 59 
 
 However, though the two subjects differ so widely, 
 they have very intimate relations. Grammar includes 
 the body of classified knowledge pertaining to the laws 
 of speech. Obviously, the possession of this knowledge 
 will furnish a criterion of exact and correct expression. 
 A genuine art of speech must rest back upon known laws. 
 In other words, grammar, the science, is the basis of 
 rhetoric, the art. But a knowledge of the science does 
 not convey skill in the art. There is a vast difference 
 between the establishment of an art on the sure founda- 
 tions of laws, or even the use of such laws by a mature 
 and competent artist, and its practice in elementary 
 forms. A child does not need to understand the physi- 
 cal laws of sound and harmony before he can be taught 
 to sing in time and in harmony. Neither does he need 
 to know the laws of grammar before he can be taught to 
 speak correctly. 
 
 Justification of Language Lesson. — This leads us 
 to the consideration of the " language lesson," its 
 justification, its purpose, and its method. Why are lan- 
 guage lessons justifiable in elementary schools ? If every- 
 body without being taught uses language with reasonable 
 effectiveness, why take time in school to teach it? 
 
 Social Values. — First. There are certain conventions 
 of literary art which cannot be acquired without instruc- 
 tion. While conformity to these conventions is not 
 absolutely necessary to the effective communication of 
 thought upon the simple and more practical relations 
 of life, failure to conform stamps one as uncultivated 
 and injuriously affects one's standing among his fel- 
 lows. This may not seem the highest reason, but it is 
 certainly sufiicient to justify instruction in the art. 
 
60 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Conventionally correct speech and conventionally cor- 
 rect manners, while not so important as unmistakable 
 clearness of expression and genuine kindliness of spirit, 
 are still the proper media for these higher qualities. 
 More than any other superficial arts they smooth the 
 way through the world. The excellent Maine sea captain 
 who wrote of himself and his companion, " Me and 
 William's gittin' along fine," expressed himself with 
 perfect clearness and adequacy, yet his form of expres- 
 sion left something to be desired as a qualification for 
 admission to a salon. 
 
 Letter Writing. — Second. This phase of the subject 
 has a very " practical " aspect. Letter writing, one of 
 the most important branches of literary art, is very 
 dependent upon conventional forms and the use of words 
 with exact nicety. Modern business communications 
 are, more often than not, in the form of letters. The 
 ability to write letters in correct form, in "good English," 
 saying exactly what one wants to say, is an absolutely in- 
 dispensable part of the modern business man's equipment. 
 
 Necessary to High Thinking. — Third. The higher 
 thoughts and the finer phases of thought cannot be ex- 
 pressed at all through the crude homespun language of 
 the unlettered. Paucity of language prevents the think- 
 ing of high thoughts or of making those delicate analyses 
 of thought that add incalculably to the joy and the 
 fullness of life. 
 
 Aids the Comprehension of Literature. — Fourth. Lan- 
 guage training not only makes possible the expression, 
 and hence the thinking, of high thoughts, it also makes 
 possible the comprehension and appreciation of the best 
 in literature, which is unseen by the untrained eye. 
 
English Language Instruction 6l 
 
 Acquisition of Good Habits. — Fifth. The great 
 argument for instruction in the art of language is the 
 early acquisition of habit and its fixity when once ac- 
 quired. The correct use of language is the result, not of 
 knowledge, but of habit. A teacher who was overheard 
 saying to her class, " Ain't that all the further we took? " 
 when called to account, said, amid her tears, " Why, 
 I knew better." I replied, " Yes, doubtless you could 
 have parsed your own blunder." And she could. It 
 was the result, not of ignorance, but of habit, sheer habit, 
 acquired in the uncultivated home. The greater number 
 of homes are uncultivated. If the schools are to remedy 
 the defects of the home, and equip the children with 
 correct habits of speech, they cannot catch them too early. 
 Instruction must be definite and thorough and of the 
 right sort, from the earliest primary grades. 
 
 Objects of Instruction. — Let us consider now the 
 aims of the language lesson. The first great aim of 
 language instruction in the earlier years of school is to 
 train the children to facility, accuracy, forcefulness, and 
 elegance in their habitual use of English, both when 
 speaking and when writing. 
 
 Doubtless most teachers will accept this statement, at 
 least in theory. But, unfortunately, when they come 
 to actual teaching, too often the chief effort is bent upon 
 another aim altogether, namely, the teaching of the 
 facts and principles of grammar. The homeopathic dose 
 of calomel is a dose of calomel still, though disguised 
 and diluted. The grammar notion is so firmly fixed 
 in the minds of teachers, that it is well-nigh impossible 
 to eradicate it, even from teaching that is ostensibly 
 for a wholly different purpose. And the authorities 
 
62 What Children Study and Why- 
 
 giving tests, no matter how earnestly they may have 
 urged upon the teachers practical work in language, are 
 almost sure to put the brunt of the examination upon 
 grammar. 
 
 Moreover, the authors of " language books," while in 
 their prefaces insisting upon the paramountcy of practical 
 language lessons, in the books themselves too frequently 
 place the emphasis upon grammar, and to such an extent 
 that the teachers are sure to feel the necessity of doing 
 likewise. For example, several of these books define the 
 sentence respectively on pages 7, 3, 2, 3, 5. This is done 
 manifestly under the notion that before using an instru- 
 ment of communication, or calling its name, it is necessary 
 to be able to define it in words ; which is as sensible as 
 not to allow a child to name or play with a doll until 
 he can define it in " good set terms," or to ride on or 
 mention a horse until, like Bitzer, he can give a definition 
 of it. Some authors, in a vain endeavor to " temper 
 the wind to the shorn lamb," resort to simplified defi- 
 nitions which are inaccurate and misleading — Bowd- 
 lerized grammar. Witness, from one modern book: 
 " A group of words which (sic) tells one's thoughts is 
 called a sentence." 
 
 Essential Evils of Grammar Dominance. — These are 
 but illustrations of the foes that lie in wait to deceive 
 and mislead the teachers who would teach language really 
 and vitally. They are to be criticized, not chiefly be- 
 cause of the futility or even the misleading nature of the 
 instruction resulting, but because of the influence of this 
 early technical teaching on the spirit and method of all 
 the work. " The trail of the serpent is over it all." 
 The efforts of teacher and class alike are inevitably 
 
English Language Instruction 63 
 
 diverted from the real object of the instruction to a 
 secondary function. Like the rudimentary tail, the 
 notion persists that to be able to recite the rules and 
 definitions of grammar is a prerequisite to the utterance 
 of correct speech. The battle of psychology against 
 logic in the teaching of children is a long and hard one, 
 and the favorite battle ground is the field of language. 
 
 Place of Grammar. — The time comes, of course, 
 when the teaching of grammar is a legitimate aim. 
 Even in the elementary grades, when the function of a 
 word as such is spoken of, the correct name of the word 
 is better than a nickname. A name is a handle, and when 
 it can be used with reasonable accuracy, it is preferable 
 to a substitute. It is well enough for a child to call 
 a dog bowwow until the function has become associated 
 in the infant mind with its source. Then the bowwow 
 should become the dog. So " name-word " very early 
 gives place to " noun." But this is at most incidental. 
 Grammar is properly a high school study, though, as 
 many never reach the high school, it may without injury, 
 in a simple form, enter into the higher grades of the ele- 
 mentary school. Yet even then it must not be allowed 
 to interfere with the constructive work of the language 
 lesson. 
 
 Necessity of Vital Interest. — The fundamental general 
 aim of all class exercises is to arouse and maintain a vital 
 interest in the subject pursued. Such interest on the 
 part of young children demands the free, glad exercise 
 of natural powers, aching for exercise. Free and joyful 
 expression of himself is the manifest first necessary aim 
 in a child's education, an aim that precedes and makes 
 possible higher disciplinary aims. For young children 
 
64 What Children Study and Why 
 
 in a language class, formal grammar, even in the shape 
 of mere definitions before they can possibly be developed 
 intelligently out of experience, dams the stream of interest 
 and perverts the aim of instruction. 
 
 Training to Think. — A second aim of the language 
 lesson is to train children to think. Thinking is organiz- 
 ing ideas into definite comprehensible wholes, technically 
 known as sentences. The relations of thinking and ex- 
 pressing thoughts are reciprocal. No clear expression is 
 possible unless the thought to be expressed is clear. On 
 the other hand, the effort to organize ideas for expression 
 clarifies them in the mind. Hence a good language 
 lesson is training in thinking. 
 
 Appreciation of Literature. — A third specific aim of the 
 language lesson is the appreciation of literary art. This 
 aim is not chiefly critical, in the offensive sense. In- 
 deed, with young children such critical study should be 
 wholly obscured. But, through the language lesson, as 
 well as through the reading lesson, children should learn 
 to see the beauties of good literature. In the lowest 
 grades, this can be little more than " I like " or " I don't 
 like," but gradually the reasons may be brought out. 
 And in the grammar grades a considerable degree of well- 
 founded taste may be developed. 
 
 It must be remembered that the vast majority of pupils 
 never go beyond the grammar school ; and whatever of 
 taste they acquire must be developed early. Especially 
 by correlating language study with the reading lesson, 
 enough may be accomplished to direct in great measure 
 the reading of children after leaving school. 
 
 Enriching Vocabulary. — A fourth aim of the language 
 lesson, which is really a corollary of the other two, is to 
 
English Language Instruction 65 
 
 enrich the pupils' vocabulary and to enable them to 
 use words in their exact meanings. The average vocabu- 
 lary is pitifully small. By large numbers of fairly 
 intelligent people two or three adjectives are used to 
 indicate nearly all qualities. " Lovely " and " horrid " 
 cover a multitude of characteristics. Punch has a picture 
 of a French boy asking an English boy what the three r's 
 are. After some hesitation the answer is given, " rum, 
 rippin', and rotten," adjectives that are supposed to 
 describe all things worthy of description by an English 
 schoolboy. 
 
 I was visiting the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in 
 Arizona. A lady, after gazing long at the stupendous, 
 awe-inspiring panorama, turned to a companion and said, 
 " Isn't it just the cutest thing you ever saw in your life ? " 
 
 To remove this poverty of words to express varying 
 ideas should be one aim of the language lesson. Both 
 through the appreciative study of literature and through 
 much attention to the choice of suitable words by the 
 children in expressing their own ideas, it should be im- 
 pressed upon them that the right word tells the truth, the 
 wrong word does not. 
 
 If all teachers of the subject would differentiate be- 
 tween the " language lesson " and the " grammar lesson," 
 and would expend their efforts in the former toward se- 
 curing correct habits of speech, rather than verbal 
 statements of laws uncomprehended by the children, it 
 would mark a great advance over prevailing conditions. 
 But before this may be hoped for those in authority must 
 fix, as the criterion of the teacher's work in language, 
 correct speech, oral and written, by the children, rather 
 than statements about it. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Language Instruction Methods 
 
 How Children learn Language. — How does a child 
 naturally learn to use language ? At first altogether, and 
 always chiefly, by sheer imitation. There is no other way 
 for him. One's vocabulary depends upon memory. 
 The art of language consists in using the remembered 
 vocabulary in effective combinations, and such combina- 
 tions are for the most part imitations. Only at rare 
 intervals is an original form of expression produced. 
 In teaching language the two inseparable and essential 
 elements are the language of others — conversation and 
 literature — to supply vocabulary and model forms in 
 great variety, and much practice in the use of language, 
 to reduce conscious imitation to unconscious imitation 
 or habit, to make the vocabulary learned a permanent 
 possession through use, and to give facility and personal 
 character, — style, — 'to the form of expression employed. 
 
 Coincidently with observation and expression, and as 
 a further aid in the acquirement of language power and 
 of the art of expression, comes a knowledge of certain 
 fixed conventions of general acceptance. These are the 
 " rules " of grammar and of rhetoric. 
 
 In the earlier stages of a child's learning language, rules 
 are of little consequence. With advancing maturity and 
 logical power they become increasingly important, 
 clinching and putting into convenient and condensed 
 
 66 
 
Language Instruction Methods 67 
 
 form the principles and language customs that have 
 already been demonstrated to the learner and imitated 
 by him. Only when they record experience are these 
 rules of value — a fact that bears directly on the 
 method of teaching. 
 
 Good Models Essential. — The first essentials, then, 
 in teaching language to children are good models to 
 imitate and good thought to express, with the desire to 
 express it. 
 
 Before a child comes to school, his models are chiefly 
 the oral speech of family and of playmates. In some 
 cases to these have been added stories told to the children 
 and learned by them, which have greatly enlarged their 
 vocabulary. It follows that among the members of any 
 class entering school there are wide differences of vocabu- 
 lary, both in extent and in character, and also in habits 
 of speech. 
 
 During the first two or three years of the school life 
 the teaching of language is mainly incidental, and, per- 
 haps for this very reason, especially effective. The sources 
 of new vocabulary are vast, all the new subjects of the 
 school course and the conversation of teachers and fellow 
 pupils about these subjects, — nature study, number, 
 writing, and especially reading, through which the chil- 
 dren receive their conscious introduction to the vocabu- 
 lary and style of literature. Besides, the modern primary 
 school offers and encourages an abundance of oral ex- 
 pression on many subjects, and this expression is free, 
 with the mind fixed on the thought and on the expression 
 merely as to its adequacy, unvexed by the disturbing 
 suggestion that " language " is being studied and un- 
 hampered by fear of interrupting correction. Such 
 
68 What Children Study and Why 
 
 experiences develop language power amazingly, so as 
 often to give rise to questions as to the reason. We 
 are apt to forget that power in language, as in all else, 
 is a by-product. 
 
 Decline in Language Power. — In the third or fourth 
 grade, usually, the formal language lesson is introduced, 
 commonly with a book. Then too often begins the de- 
 cline. Language power seems to be palsied. In spite 
 of liberal doses of grammar, both raw and predigested, 
 free and effective speech gradually disappears from the 
 schoolroom, being relegated to the home, the playground, 
 and the street, where freedom is not always tempered with 
 continence, or adorned with art. Why is it? Let me 
 risk wearying the reader with a brief criticism of the usual 
 formal language lesson, drawn from the average language 
 book. 
 
 Bad Lessons. — First comes a definition, frequently 
 badly expressed, and sometimes incorrect, in a vain 
 attempt to make plain to children what is beyond them, 
 by expressing it in inferior English — a very common 
 error, whether " baby talk " or grammar. For example, 
 — "A tongue sound used to indicate an object or an idea 
 is called a word," or this, — "Mental pictures are for 
 short called ideas." 
 
 The words of the definition having been committed to 
 memory, then comes a copying exercise " to fix them." 
 Then follows an exercise in filling blanks, as (from one 
 
 book) " The song is sweeter than the " ; or (from 
 
 another book) " A pin a head but no hair." 
 
 Even worse than these are the formal grammar lessons in 
 primary grades. 
 
 Thought, freedom, fluency, appropriateness, those un- 
 
Language Instruction Methods 69 
 
 failing characteristics of untrammeled expression, are 
 all absent. Language has become a mere task, — to 
 " illustrate " something, to explain a rule or a definition. 
 Hence it is no wonder that power is lost, for power comes 
 only through exercise, and power in language is the result 
 of the effective expression of thought. 
 
 Training to Think. — Since teaching language is teach- 
 ing thinking, — organizing ideas and indicating their rela- 
 tions, — the necessary order of instruction is somewhat as 
 follows : First, the presentation of good models. Second, 
 stimulating thought that demands expression. Third, 
 clarifying and organizing the thought. Fourth, securing 
 free and abundant expression which, largely uncon- 
 sciously, follows the models in vocabulary and style. 
 Fifth, giving such definite instruction in regard to the 
 conventions of speech — the rules of grammar and of 
 rhetoric — as will enable the learner to judge of the 
 correctness of his expression, putting his practical knowl- 
 edge, his observed facts, into technical form convenient 
 for memorizing. Sixth, developing and enlarging the 
 child's vocabulary. Let us briefly consider these six 
 essentials of method. 
 
 Sources of Models. — First. The models that the 
 teacher can use are his own speech and that of the other 
 pupils in school in so far as he can control it, and good 
 literature. 
 
 As to the first, the teacher cannot be too careful. 
 Children are so sure to imitate both consciously and un- 
 consciously that a single incorrect expression used before 
 a class is likely to form a part of the vocabulary of all 
 the children and to spread even into the homes. 
 
 The chief reliance for models of form and of vocabu- 
 
70 What Children Study and Why 
 
 lary is literature, found either in books read by the chil- 
 dren or in stories told to them ; and it must be inter- 
 esting literature. It is not enough to give children 
 disconnected sentences illustrating a "point," or to require 
 them to repeat correct forms many times. Mere forced 
 reiteration does not produce habit. There must be 
 interest in the thing repeated, to give effect to the repeti- 
 tion. An interesting story in which a form that it is 
 desired to teach occurs repeatedly is vastly more effective 
 in impressing the form than the mere recital of the form 
 itself an indefinite number of times. The child who 
 first listens wide-eyed to the story of the " Three Goats 
 Bruit," and then tells it, using repeatedly, as he will, 
 the form " It is I," builds a barrier against " It is me" 
 many times more effective than if he were to recite or to 
 write, "It is I," without interesting association any 
 number of times. Hence, model passages, drawn from 
 literature and illustrating the correct use of the forms 
 that must be employed, should be studied in connection 
 with the free expression, preferably beforehand, to lay 
 a metaphysical foundation, and to suggest vocabulary 
 and style. 
 
 Caution. — A caution is needed here. The written 
 reproduction of choice literature, excepting very rarely 
 for the sake of impressing some specified form, is vicious, 
 and its most vicious phase is the paraphrasing of poems. 
 
 Material for Thought. — Second. The language lesson 
 should present to the children a large amount of appro- 
 priate thought-compelling material of such a nature that 
 they will be moved to think and will desire to express 
 their thoughts. The subject matter must appeal to the 
 children as of consequence. The larger interest in the 
 
Language Instruction Methods 71 
 
 thought will carry the smaller interest in the form. The 
 material that should be drawn upon for the language 
 lesson includes the best in the child's world, and the most 
 natural; his home life, his games and occupations, his 
 school life, especially the content subjects of his daily 
 work — literature, history, nature. These are natural and 
 valuable subjects of thought upon which children can 
 easily be induced to express themselves freely, if not too 
 much hampered by fear of interrupting corrections. 
 
 Continued Discourse. — Excepting occasionally and 
 for very specific purposes, the language expression should 
 be in full and continuous discourse and not in mere 
 illustrative sentences ; that is, it should be natural, like 
 expression when not in the language class. 
 
 Oral Expression. — The first expression usually should 
 be oral. It is easier to correct and it is of more conse- 
 quence to the average person. 
 
 Clear Thinking. — Third. Before thought can be 
 expressed effectively, it must be conceived clearly. 
 Teachers sometimes wonder at their failure to secure 
 good English expression, and pound away on the forms 
 and the rules and definitions, or even encourage much 
 talking without securing the desired results, because they 
 have ignored the essential thing, the thought itself. In 
 many instances much time must be given to clarifying 
 and organizing thought before good expression is pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Sentence and Paragraph. — The sentence and the 
 paragraph are the elementary bases of the expression of 
 organized thought, — the sentence of the single thought 
 and the paragraph of the group of closely related thoughts. 
 Hence in the earlier stages, and indeed in all stages of 
 
72 What Children Study and Why 
 
 language instruction, much attention should be given 
 to the construction of clear-cut sentences and para- 
 graphs. 
 
 The Sentence. — What is a sentence? An idea is the 
 primary unit of thought. A thought is the union of at 
 least two ideas in an assertion, a question or a command. 
 Its essential feature is predication. A sentence is cor- 
 rectly denned as " the expression of a thought in words." 
 But this definition is not for young children. Besides its 
 logical definition, the sentence has also its functional 
 or " working " definition. The first knowledge of any- 
 thing that comes to a child is always a working knowl- 
 edge and comes through observation and experience. 
 The logical definition arrives very late, if at all. Most 
 of us have a competent working knowledge of many things 
 that we cannot define. What we first observe are ap- 
 pearance and function. 
 
 Children learn sentences in just this way. They ob- 
 serve the appearance. Each sentence stands by itself 
 on a printed page, clearly separated from every other 
 sentence. Its beginning and its end are clearly shown, 
 the beginning by a capital letter and the end by an easily 
 recognized mark. With a very little drill the children 
 can quickly learn to divide a page into sentences from 
 appearance alone. 
 
 Then each sentence does something, it has a function. 
 It asserts, it asks, or it commands. This is a more 
 reliable criterion than appearance. Together they are 
 nearly infallible. At least they are sufficiently exact for 
 the uses of any child in a primary school. 
 
 To tell a child of the third or fourth grade that a sen- 
 tence is the complete expression of a thought does not 
 
Language Instruction Methods 73 
 
 add to his knowledge of a sentence. It rather tends to 
 confuse him, because he is too immature to grasp the 
 metaphysical nature of a thought. And even if he were 
 to grasp it, the knowledge would scarcely aid him in 
 comprehending what he reads or in expressing his own 
 thoughts. What he needs is a working knowledge, 
 knowledge of appearance and function. So there should 
 be much drill in recognizing sentences from these evi- 
 dences. Many sentences of each of the three functional 
 classes should be presented for selection on both grounds. 
 Then the child should make many sentences of all three 
 kinds. His first formal written work should be in ex- 
 pression of his own thought on some topic of interest to 
 him, the technical requirement being that he make his 
 sentences complete. 
 
 The Paragraph. — The study of the paragraph natu- 
 rally follows that of the sentence. The paragraph is the 
 secondary unit of organized language. The sentence is 
 a union of ideas ; the paragraph, of thoughts. 
 
 The first step is the observation of some selection 
 divided into paragraphs, accompanied by a discussion 
 of the reasons for such division. 
 
 This should be followed by a grouping of sentences into 
 paragraphs. For example: The class talk about some 
 interesting topic quite freely, while the teacher writes on 
 the blackboard the sentences given by different pupils. 
 Then the class discuss the sentences and decide how they 
 should be grouped. 
 
 Much practice both in observation and in production 
 will make a class quite expert in the use of both para- 
 graphs and sentences without any metaphysical defini- 
 tions whatever, and in the primary grades no attempt 
 
74 What Children Study and Why 
 
 at definition should be made, except by appearance 
 and function. 
 
 Need of Progression. — Necessarily with growing 
 power the treatment of these units becomes more and 
 more systematic and logical. One of the serious defects 
 of many language books is the lack of progression. 
 The last part is on the same plane of difficulty as the first. 
 The only progress clearly sought for is in the knowledge 
 of the merely mechanical or technical requirements of 
 written composition. Progressive power to think clearly 
 and to organize thought is not developed. And yet this 
 is one of the most important functions of the language 
 lesson. 
 
 Complete Discourse. — From the paragraph easy steps 
 should lead to the larger unit, the whole discourse. First 
 should come the study of the literary model, the analysis 
 and representation in outline of some selection readily 
 grasped by the pupils. After considerable practice 
 in this exercise the construction of a story or a descrip- 
 tion from an outline given on a topic similar to the one 
 studied follows naturally. This should be followed by 
 the making of original outlines and the writing of stories 
 or other literary forms from them. With the younger 
 children it is well to make the first studies in cooperation 
 with the teacher, upon the blackboard. Later, individ- 
 ual productions should be made. 
 
 Clarifying Thought. — Many devices might be men- 
 tioned as helpful in clarifying thought for writing. The 
 observation of nature and the making of notes from time 
 to time, followed by a careful coordination and arrange- 
 ment of parts, and finally a full written account of what 
 was observed, is an excellent exercise. Another is the 
 
Language Instruction Methods 75 
 
 collection, by the class in cooperation, of facts about some 
 topic in geography or history or literature, combining 
 these into a series of carefully edited chapters, making 
 a cooperative book. " ..." 
 
 Motor Activities. — One of the very best means avail- 
 able to all for clarifying thought is through some form 
 of manual expression, utilizing the motor activities. This 
 truth is universally recognized in schools for the feeble- 
 minded, where the main reliance for awakening dormant 
 minds is the employment of the muscular sense. It is 
 also especially valuable with foreigners, to whom fre- 
 quently the thing made by hand gives the first dawning 
 of comprehension. Modeling in clay, picturing with 
 pencil or brush, representing by cutting from paper with 
 scissors, constructing with carpenters' tools, so clarify im- 
 pression that clear expression follows readily. When a 
 child has made a thing, he knows it. When he knows it 
 thoroughly, he can usually tell about it. The so-called 
 " sand table," a long table on which may be represented 
 in various media continued stories, or entire histori- 
 cal and geographical scenes, has cleared the minds and 
 loosened the tongues of hundreds of children. 
 
 There are many other devices, but it is not my purpose 
 to treat of devices. Those I have given are merely 
 typical and suggestive of the necessity of developing 
 good thinking through the language lesson. 
 
 Free Expression. — Fourth. Some ways of stimulat- 
 ing free expression have already been indicated. When 
 interest has been aroused and a desire for expression 
 created, let the expression come. Guide it. See that it 
 is profitable, but do not check it. The art is never 
 learned but by use. The flow should be directed into 
 
j6 What Children Study and Why 
 
 the proper channel, but if there is no flow, of what use 
 is the channel? In all grades much oral speech should 
 be encouraged, both because of its own supreme impor- 
 tance and as a preparation for the written work. 
 
 Place of Rules. — Fifth. Instruction in technic and in 
 conventional forms should be given as needed, after free 
 expression has been secured and after some literary in- 
 terest and appreciation have been developed, not before. 
 Throughout the elementary grades such instruction 
 should be given only as it is of manifest service in express- 
 ing thought or in appreciating thought as expressed by 
 others. It should be incidental, not, however, accidental. 
 It should be systematic and thorough. It should include 
 all the mechanical rules of correct form, — punctuation, 
 the use of capitals, the correct use of many word forms, 
 regular and irregular, often misused, the meanings of 
 words, and especially the conventional forms of letter 
 writing. To the average citizen letter writing is the 
 only literary exercise that is at all practical. Most 
 people use no other. Hence it should be very carefully 
 and well taught, not in a few lessons " bunched " in a 
 single chapter of a language book, but continually, 
 through practice under instruction. The instruction 
 should include, not only the correct forms of opening, 
 closing, and the like, but should suggest what to say in 
 various kinds of letters. 
 
 Developing Vocabulary. — Sixth. Making a child's 
 vocabulary fuller and more exact is a somewhat difficult 
 task. 
 
 First, the children should be interested in words. They 
 should be led to see the varying shades of truthfulness 
 in words used to convey ideas. That is not difficult, for 
 
Language Instruction Methods 77 
 
 a word is a very vital thing, and if presented rightly, is 
 as interesting as a bird or a pebble. The chief source 
 of a vocabulary that marks the user as cultivated is 
 literature. Much reading of good literature necessarily 
 gives the knowledge of a choice and varied vocabulary. 
 
 Professor Percival Chubb, in his excellent book, " The 
 Teaching of English," observes that through the use of 
 standard folk lore and of rhymes such as those of "Mother 
 Goose " even little children are made familiar with 
 literary language. Hence children's minds should be 
 steeped in these old tales and verses, that they may start 
 with more than the common colloquial vocabulary. 
 
 Telling good standard stories to children, to be retold 
 by them, is one of the best exercises for developing a good 
 vocabulary. This is especially valuable for young chil- 
 dren whose reading is necessarily very limited. In tell- 
 ing such stories great care should be taken to use the 
 literary language in which they are dressed. Children 
 in retelling are sure to repeat these literary words. 
 
 With young children, and with foreigners especially, 
 a very good plan is to write the unusual words on the 
 blackboard, that they may appeal to the eye and thus 
 aid the memory. Children will unconsciously employ 
 them in the right places. The teacher telling the story, 
 without interrupting the narrative or saying anything 
 about the words, writes on the board a few such words, 
 as she uses them. As the story is told repeatedly more 
 words may be added. It will be found that the chil- 
 dren will use this visible vocabulary with surprising 
 accuracy. 
 
 For example, suppose the story to be the following 
 old Arabian fable : 
 
78 What Children Study and Why 
 
 A thoughtful fisherman who had caught a very little 
 fish was putting it into his basket. 
 
 " Oh, fisherman," said the little fish, " I entreat you 
 to restore me to my house in the water ; I am so little 
 that I shall scarcely be a bite for you. When I grow 
 larger, I shall make you a feast." 
 
 " True," said the wise fisherman, " but where shall I 
 find you when you have grown larger? " 
 
 The teacher in telling this story for the first time might 
 write on the blackboard such words as thoughtful, fisher- 
 man, entreat, home, scarcely. At a second telling she 
 might add feast, wise, grown, restore, larger. These words 
 would be sure to be used by the children, not only in 
 retelling the story, but also as a part of their permanent 
 vocabulary. 
 
 In the higher grades especially, it is well to call atten- 
 tion to the careful and exact use of words by some skill- 
 ful author. How does he produce the effect that they 
 admire? What would be the effect of substituting 
 other words ? Let them try it. For example, take this 
 selection from Henry W. Grady : \ 
 
 " Let me picture to you the footsore Confederate 
 soldier, as buttoning in his faded gray jacket, the parole 
 which was to bear testimony of his fidelity and faith, 
 he turned his face southward from Appomattox in April, 
 1865. Think of him as, ragged, half -starved, heavy- 
 hearted, enfeebled by want and wounds, having fought to 
 exhaustion, he surrenders his gun, wrings the hands of 
 his comrades in silence, and, lifting his tear-stained and 
 pallid face for the last time to the graves that dot old 
 Virginia's hills, pulls his gray cap over his brow, and 
 begins the slow and painful journey." 
 
Language Instruction Methods 79 
 
 Have the children study the following words to see 
 just what each adds to the picture : 
 
 footsore 
 
 faded 
 
 fidelity 
 
 southward 
 
 ragged 
 
 half-starved 
 
 enfeebled 
 
 exhaustion 
 
 surrenders 
 
 wrings 
 
 tear-stained 
 
 graves 
 
 old 
 
 pulls 
 
 slow 
 
 painful 
 
 Then let them try to substitute some other word for 
 each of these and judge the effect. 
 
 The older pupils also may profitably spend considerable 
 time in the study of synonyms. The spelling book fre- 
 quently gives lists. Especially should the children in 
 all grades be stimulated to give particular care to the 
 choice of the best word in each case to express exactly 
 what is meant. It should become a matter of rivalry 
 and pride. It may even be developed into a game. 
 " Who can find the largest number of words that express 
 the idea of strength? What are their differences of 
 meaning? Show these by use in sentences." 
 
 Neglect in Higher Grades. — When formal grammar 
 is taken up in the higher grades, it is quite too common to 
 allow constructive language work to take a minor place. 
 This is a sad mistake. Even in the higher grades it is 
 of vastly greater consequence that the children acquire 
 increasing power to use language well than that they 
 learn the rules of grammar. Especial care should be 
 exercised here to see that the grammar does not crowd 
 out the language lesson. New and interesting exercises 
 should be introduced, suited to sustain the attention of 
 older children, who should be encouraged to write in 
 various styles, in imitation of admired authors, and upon 
 various topics. 
 
80 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Correlations Needed. — The language exercise should 
 be closely correlated with history, geography, nature 
 study, and especially literature. Much of this correla- 
 tion necessarily will be incidental, particularly in oral 
 recitations. 
 
 All Written Work the Best Possible. — All written 
 lessons should be in the best English that the students 
 can command. This should be a rigid requirement. 
 The pupils should understand that a paper sloven in 
 style, careless or incorrect in vocabulary, will not be 
 accepted. This requirement strictly enforced will do 
 more to develop the habit of using good English than 
 any number of formal compositions. These may not be 
 neglected, however. They are very necessary, but in 
 life out of school one's English is judged by his use of 
 language in expressing his thoughts upon all subjects in 
 conversation and in letters. Very few indeed ever have 
 occasion to attempt strictly literary composition. This 
 fact should be a guide to the teacher. 
 
 Every Lesson a Language Lesson. — All teachers are 
 of necessity teachers of language and all lessons should 
 be language lessons. Indeed, every lesson is a lesson in 
 language, good or bad, for it is by expressing, not certain 
 selected thoughts, but all thoughts, that habits of speech 
 are formed. 
 
 Caution. — A caution, however, is needed here. Lan- 
 guage is used in expressing thought. In our eagerness 
 to secure correct expression, we must not ignore the 
 thought; clear thinking must precede clear, fluent ex- 
 pression. In their anxiety to correct error, teachers 
 sometimes so annoy and interrupt children as to stop 
 the thinking and thus cut off the means of instruction. 
 
Language Instruction Methods 8 1 
 
 The correction, if needed, should not break into the 
 current of thought, but should come after the statement 
 has been completed. 
 
 Resume. — By the employment of good models of oral 
 speech and literary composition, by stimulating thought 
 that demands expression, by training to lucid and logi- 
 cal thinking as the basis of lucid and logical expression, 
 by securing abundant and free expression, both oral and 
 written, and by teaching inductively the necessary prin- 
 ciples and laws of correct expression, it is possible to 
 secure for most children a fair degree of the inestimable 
 power, fluently, clearly, effectively, and even elegantly 
 to express their thoughts. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 English Grammar 
 
 Grammar treats of the science of language. It con- 
 sists in a properly classified statement of the rules that 
 govern correct speech and of the facts and principles 
 underlying these rules. 
 
 The Laws of Speech. — The "laws of speech" in their 
 origin differ wholly from the " laws of nature," which are 
 a statement of the mode of action of natural forces and are 
 inherent in nature, and hence inviolable and unchange- 
 able. They differ also from statute laws, which are 
 enactments made by legally constituted authorities for 
 the control of the conduct of those lawfully subject to 
 them, and hence are arbitrary rather than natural, are not 
 inviolable, but may be changed by the proper authorities. 
 
 The laws of grammar are arbitrary rather than natural, 
 but they are not enacted by any legally constituted au- 
 thority. They are the result of convention and are 
 drawn from the usage of " standard writers," which has 
 been generally accepted as correct. Hence they are not 
 only violable, but are in many instances attended with 
 a degree of uncertainty, giving rise to differences of 
 opinion as to what is correct usage. Moreover, they are 
 subject to material change from time to time. For 
 example, Shakespeare and the Bible present many in- 
 stances of the double negative, in modern grammars 
 universally pronounced incorrect. 
 
 82 
 
English Grammar 83 
 
 It is sometimes said that we have no English grammar. 
 This, though an extreme statement, has a certain basis 
 of fact. Along the old lines our grammar has been re- 
 duced pretty nearly to the minimum. The bulk of 
 our modern grammar is to a considerable degree tradi- 
 tional and artificial. It is made up of more or less vain 
 attempts to make it appear that the simpler present-day 
 forms are to be treated like the complex forms they have 
 displaced. The great modern changes in our language 
 are in the line of simplicity and economy. Inflections 
 have well nigh disappeared and easier means of express- 
 ing variations of relation have succeeded them. 
 
 For the six cases of the Latin and the five of the Greek, 
 to show the relations of nouns, we have two forms only. 
 Instead of the three inflectional voices of the Greek verb, 
 ours has none, the relations formerly so indicated being 
 expressed wholly by the use of additional words. Of the 
 six modes with inflectional forms of the Greek we have 
 two, and when the fast-disappearing subjunctive sleeps 
 with its fathers, we shall have none. 
 
 Whether the verbal expressions made up of the stem 
 word with prepositions or auxiliaries will permanently be 
 classified under the old inflectional names, remains to be 
 seen. Probably, as the present tendency is decidedly 
 toward simplicity, they will gradually be dropped. In- 
 deed this is to be hoped. I believe that such elimination 
 would mean no loss whatever to the English language, 
 or to the student, but on the contrary would set free an 
 immense amount of energy now wasted in trying to fit ob- 
 solete or obsolescent names to new and more virile forms. 
 
 As a matter of curiosity let us see what inflectional 
 forms remain to us. Of the regular verb there are these: 
 
84 What Children Study and Why 
 
 love, loves, loved, loving, — four. Of the irregular 
 verb be : be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been, — 
 eight, the largest number. 
 
 Of the noun : boy, boy's, boys, boys', — four. 
 
 Of the adjectives and adverbs, comparison only. 
 What slight material is this for the building of a gram- 
 mar of the proportions of a Greek grammar, with its five 
 cases of nouns in each of the three numbers, these multi- 
 plied by three genders for adjectives ; its three voices of 
 verbs, each with its six moods consisting of six tenses of 
 three numbers each and three persons to each number. 
 Of course there were many repetitions among these forms, 
 otherwise even the Greek mind would have staggered 
 underneath the load. Theoretically it was necessary to 
 have nine hundred and seventy-two inflectional forms of 
 a regular Greek verb. 
 
 Truly the power of tradition is mighty among us that 
 we still keep above ground the ghosts of so many of these 
 forms. Still for the present we must teach, and children 
 must learn, the conventional forms and be thankful that 
 they are no more numerous. 
 
 Functions of Grammar. — To the trained adult mind 
 the study of grammar has certain higher uses which may 
 only be referred to here. Grammar bears a close rela- 
 tion to both history and philosophy. The grammar of a 
 people is an index to the mode of mental activity peculiar 
 to that people, which is, naturally, largely responsible 
 for its ideals, its philosophy, and its achievements. For 
 example, the German retains many inflections that have 
 been discarded by his livelier neighbors, the French and 
 the English speaking races. This is in harmony with his 
 natural conservatism. He indulges in long involved sen- 
 
English Grammar 85 
 
 tences with the key word left for the end, so that when, 
 after a comfortable ambling through the intermediate 
 words and phrases he at last utters it, he has the thought 
 complete, well rounded, guarded before and after. His 
 sentence is like himself, comfortable, leisurely, but logical 
 and complete. 
 
 The Frenchman, on the contrary, rushes headlong to 
 his verbal fate. Not seeing the end from the beginning, 
 he utters the words that come to him, as fast as possible. 
 When he reaches the end, he has said it all, it is true, 
 but without the substantial, sure, and rounded com- 
 fortableness of the German. For that very reason he is 
 more brilliant, more surprising. He has no time in his 
 verbal " joy-riding " for inflections, so he has cast them 
 nearly all away, and as he rushes on to an undetermined 
 end he drops epigrams like fireworks to dazzle and delight 
 us. His work and his sentence are expressions of himself. 
 These are merely patent illustrations of the association 
 of a people's grammar with its psychology. 
 
 Training in Logic. — But grammar has its own direct 
 uses to the student advanced enough properly to pursue 
 the subject. Chief among these is his training in logic. 
 When properly studied, it leads to the analysis of thought 
 itself. In this it goes far beyond the language lesson as 
 described in the preceding chapter. In grammar, the 
 sentence, which in the language lesson was recognized 
 as a whole, by appearance and manifest function, is 
 recognized by structure as well. The fallible judgment 
 of the language lesson becomes infallible. The thought 
 also, of which the sentence is the complete expression, 
 is evidenced by structure. The beautiful and complete 
 wedding of two ideas into a new unit, a thought, is a 
 
86 What Children Study and Why 
 
 revelation of perfect logic, of the greatest value to a matur- 
 ing mind. This once grasped, his own speech rests upon 
 a new and firm foundation of law. The vague gives place 
 to the exact, and his growth in language power keeps pace 
 with his natural growth of body and soul. 
 
 " Consider for a moment what grammar is. It is the 
 most elementary part of logic. It is the beginning of the 
 analysis of the thinking process. The principles and 
 rules of grammar are the means by which the forms of 
 language are made to correspond with the universal 
 forms of thought. The distinctions between the various 
 parts of speech, between the cases of nouns, the moods 
 and tenses of verbs, the functions of participles, are dis- 
 tinctions in thought, not merely in words. Single nouns 
 and verbs express objects and events, many of which 
 can be cognized by the senses ; but the modes of putting 
 nouns and verbs together express the relations of objects 
 and events, which can be cognized only by the intellect ; 
 and each different mode corresponds to a different re- 
 lation. The structure of every sentence is a lesson in 
 logic." — John Stuart Mill. 
 
 Training in Appreciation. — The study of grammar 
 also opens the eyes of the student to many of the excel- 
 lencies of admired authors. Through his knowledge 
 of the structure of language and of its laws he is able to 
 see to what extent and how the art of literary expression 
 is based upon science. For example, style is often de- 
 pendent upon an author's habitual use of certain gram- 
 matical forms. To Irving's use of the long, loose, com- 
 pound sentence is due, in part at least, the charming 
 ease of his narrative; while Victor Hugo produced his 
 peculiar, forceful staccato effect by employing succes- 
 
English Grammar 87 
 
 sively short, almost sharp, simple sentences. Studying 
 grammar from this point of view quickens the student's 
 literary appreciation and makes him a more intelligent 
 reader. 
 
 The teaching of grammar should make manifest these 
 various functions of the subject, higher as well as lower, 
 and should thus make it a broadening and enriching 
 study, and not merely a series of exercises upon arbitrary 
 or traditional conventionalities. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 English Grammar 
 methods of instruction 
 
 Grammar for Children. — In discussing method in 
 teaching grammar it is important to distinguish between 
 methods profitable for adult minds and those suitable 
 for the young and immature. Abstruse discussions of 
 grammatical theory and the making of fine distinctions, 
 especially of definition and nomenclature, are utterly 
 futile in teaching children. Whether the word " when " 
 used to join a dependent clause to its principal clause is 
 a conjunctive adverb or an adverbial conjunction is of 
 no moment to a child. The important thing for him to 
 know is function. " When " thus used performs the 
 office of a conjunction in that it joins clauses. It also 
 imparts an adverbial sense to the dependent clause. 
 The duality of function is all a child needs to know. 
 
 Treats of Function. — A grammar for children, that 
 is, for the grammar school, at first should treat chiefly 
 of function. As children advance in maturity the study 
 of structure should follow as explaining both the func- 
 tions of words and of their various combinations and 
 also the laws of grammar. 
 
 Grammar is of necessity an abstract study. The 
 thing studied, the word as a part of a sentence, is at 
 least twice removed from the object or the idea that it 
 
English Grammar 89 
 
 represents and which alone appeals naturally to a child. 
 In the sentence, " Reading maketh a full man," reading 
 is to be studied grammatically as a verbal noun derived 
 from the verb read, and as the subject of the sentence. 
 To the child reading is an act. The word reading 
 as the name of the act is once removed, from the act. 
 Reading as a noun is twice removed while reading as 
 the subject of the sentence is still further removed. 
 It is not easy for an adult always to grasp the diffi- 
 culty that this abstraction presents to a mind still 
 wholly busied with enlarging its knowledge of the mate- 
 rial world. Hence grammars for children should advance 
 very slowly into this unknown world of metaphysics. 
 The function of a word in expressing an idea is the 
 phase of its metaphysics first comprehensible to a child. 
 In elementary grammars this should always be kept to 
 the fore. 
 
 Definitions. — From this point of view many grammars 
 begin at the wrong end. The definition, which com- 
 monly is the starting-point in each topic, should be 
 the end. In pure science the definition is the conclusion 
 of observation and generalization. It is the sum of the 
 essential knowledge of a subject stated in the most 
 succinct form. A full, complete definition is the end of 
 knowledge. It can be comprehended only by those who 
 know exactly the meanings of all the terms used in it. 
 The scientific definition of the Chambered Nautilus, 
 Tett -abranchiate Cephalopod, to the scientist is full of 
 meaning. It places the animal exactly among all the 
 animals of the world. But to the child who knows the 
 meaning of neither tetr abranchiate nor cephalopod, it 
 is sheer nonsense. Yet a child can know many inter- 
 
90 What Children Study and Why 
 
 esting facts about the creature and can even enjoy 
 Dr. Holmes' beautiful poem. 
 
 Definitions Difficult. — Moreover, in grammar the 
 definitions present unusual difficulties to the immature 
 mind. The fact that grammar is not an exact science, 
 but is based upon opinion and usage, increases the diffi- 
 culty. It makes it necessary to define largely by func- 
 tion, and yet as some words have many functions, a 
 brief but comprehensive statement even of functions 
 becomes in such cases practically impossible. 
 
 This difficulty is made evident by attempts to define 
 even the most common terms, such as verb, adjective, 
 transitive verb, sentence. The only possible complete 
 definition of a verb is beyond the comprehension of most 
 children in grammar schools. Following the Century 
 Dictionary, " A verb is a word whose function is pred- 
 ication." It is difficult to put this into any form com- 
 prehensible to children. Hence the authors of most 
 grammars content themselves with stating a single func- 
 tion and leave the others to the imagination, or to the 
 teacher. Of course, such a statement is not a definition 
 at all. For example, the most common definition of 
 a verb is " a word that states," which, of course, excludes 
 the question and the command, and hence is inexact. 
 
 " Transitive verb " is practically indefinable to a 
 child. 
 
 Indeed, the noun is almost the only part of speech that 
 can be exactly defined in terms that children can readily 
 understand. 
 
 I have dwelt upon this matter of definition because 
 it is the bugbear of children, and when taught at the 
 beginning of a topic, as is the usual way, presents to the 
 
English Grammar 91 
 
 young student no adequate compensation for his toil. 
 Even the child who has laboriously memorized it is placed 
 in possession of no knowledge that is either exact or 
 useful. But the junctions of words and of groups of 
 words may be so taught in the grammar school as to give 
 knowledge that is not only exact but also useful. 
 
 Teaching should be Inductive. — It is evident from 
 the above that the method of teaching definitions and 
 principles, when the time has arrived for teaching them, 
 should be scientific, that is, inductive. Every fact that 
 may enter into a subsequent definition or statement of 
 principle should first be observed in good literature, so 
 that the final statement may be induced from the results 
 of observation. 
 
 Definitions stated baldly to children, if learned at 
 all, are memorized as words merely, without thought. 
 They become meaningless rigmarole. This truth has 
 long been accepted for all the physical sciences, but in 
 teaching grammar we have been very slow in coming 
 to it. 
 
 Logic of Old Grammars. — In the older grammars the 
 treatment was indeed logical, in a poor sense, but without 
 regard either to the interest or to the capabilities of the 
 learner. Hence the blackness of darkness that comes 
 over the imagination when memory transports us to the 
 grammar class of our school days. 
 
 The plan pursued was in the main synthetic, until 
 I parsing " and " sentential analysis " were reached. 
 The books were divided into four parts, orthography, 
 etymology, syntax, and prosody. A fifth, sometimes 
 introduced after orthography, was orthoepy, more often 
 treated as a branch of the former subject. We began 
 
92 What Children Study and Why 
 
 with, letters, then we built them into words, then we 
 learned to pronounce the words, then we studied the 
 inflections and derivations of words. Finally, we made 
 sentences of them. Then we turned about and tore down 
 the sentences that we or other authors had built up, and 
 studied the parts — analyzed the sentences, and parsed 
 the words. 
 
 Through it all, thought was kept in the background. 
 The words and combinations of words were studied with 
 reference, not to the thought they expressed, but to their 
 mechanical arrangement. It was the study of a pur- 
 poseless puzzle with the play element left out. 
 
 The Use of the Diagram. — Then some bright genius 
 discovered that the solution of this mechanical puzzle 
 could be assisted by the use of a mechanical device, — 
 this is the age of machinery, — and the " diagram " came 
 into being. From the point of view held, it was a useful 
 device. The " hanging of the words on hooks," as 
 Colonel Parker used to call it, furnished something of the 
 play element before lacking in the mechanical manipu- 
 lation of sentences. But it took the child little nearer 
 to the thought expressed by the words. Indeed, too 
 often it served as a further diversion and rendered it 
 well nigh impossible ever to get back to the thought. 
 
 Many and many a literary gem has been forever spoiled 
 to the student by these mechanical processes of parsing, 
 analyzing, and diagraming. It would be an interesting 
 investigation to inquire by how many " Paradise Lost 1 
 has been all their lives regarded with dread, because of 
 its use as a subject for parsing. Analysis, as has been 
 said, too often was analysis not of the thought, but of 
 the mechanical arrangement of words. Parsing was not 
 
English Grammar 93 
 
 ascertaining just what part the individual words served 
 in expressing the thought of the sentence, but was the 
 arranging of a purely mechanical schedule of relations 
 for the words themselves. 
 
 Analysis of an author's sentences, to get at his meaning 
 and to see how he has utilized his verbal materials in 
 expressing his meaning, is dealing with a living subject, 
 ^iot a dead one. 
 
 Method in teaching Grammar. — How, then, should 
 grammar be taught to secure to children its real values, 
 — ability better to understand literature, ability to judge 
 of the correctness of their own language, and ability to 
 think clearly? y 
 
 Begin with the Sentence. — The approach should be 
 by way of the sentence rather than of the letter or the 
 word. Fortunately this approach has been adopted by 
 most modern grammars. It is a step toward the sane 
 teaching of the subject. The sentence expresses the 
 thought, and hence makes an immediate appeal to the 
 children, whereas the minor elements, — the words or let- 
 ters, — expressing single ideas or fragments of thought 
 when used out of association, make no such appeal. The 
 letter b alone means little. As an element in the word 
 blue it has acquired some meaning, but still very little 
 for a child. Blue, as the name of an abstract color, 
 means a little more than b. Blue sky begins to convey 
 a positive impression. But in " The sky is blue," we 
 first come to a holding thought, and here, too, the words 
 first get their real force. 
 
 An adult possessing all the elementary knowledge can 
 turn again upon the elements of expression and find an 
 interest in the abstract study of them. Not so the child. 
 
94 What Children Study and Why 
 
 He must have the larger interest to carry the smaller. 
 Interest him in the thought, and he will with profit study 
 the tools of expression. But without that interest, his 
 study of the tools is futile. Even if he is able to acquire 
 some knowledge of the way they work, his time spent 
 in the acquisition is wasted. There are more important 
 things for him to do than to study a telescope that he 
 cannot look through. In these days of complaint of 
 overcrowded curricula, economy of time is a serious de- 
 mand. We have no right, to spend the time of children 
 upon purely disciplinary studies, without valuable con- 
 tent, while there are so many subjects offering equal dis- 
 cipline that include real knowledge. Grammar may be 
 given a valuable content even to children by approach- 
 ing it through sentences that express thoughts interest- 
 ing to them. 
 
 Subject and Predicate. — A sentence is a union of 
 subject and predicate to express a thought. Hence 
 these two main elements of a sentence must be studied. 
 The union and separation of many subjects and predi- 
 cates, simple and complex, long and short, should make 
 clear to the children, not merely the formal and mechani- 
 cal construction of the sentence, but the essential ele- 
 ments of thought itself. They should see that not 
 merely is a sentence made up of subject and predicate, 
 but that a thought is made up of these two elements; 
 that they do not think clearly unless they can state 
 their thoughts in terms of subject and predicate. 
 
 This exercise may well be followed by a reversal of the 
 process, a synthesis of sentences from the elements. 
 This can easily be made into an interesting game. The 
 sentences should be chosen from well-known proverbs 
 
English Grammar 95 
 
 or verses, so that the difficulty may not be too great. 
 Then the subjects and predicates should be written sep- 
 arately, but not in the same order. The exercise con- 
 sists in putting the parts together properly. Thus such 
 proverbs as : 
 
 Birds of a feather flock together. 
 A rolling stone gathers no moss. 
 The race is not always to the swift. 
 Wisdom is better than rubies. 
 
 and many more may be written in two columns. 
 
 Birds of a feather is not always to the swift. 
 
 Wisdom gathers no moss. 
 
 The race flocks together. 
 
 A rolling stone is better than rubies. 
 
 The children should then make the correct connections 
 and write out the sentences. The exercises should 
 include complex sentences as well as simple ones. 
 
 After the component parts of a full thought, as mani- 
 fested in the sentence, have been impressed upon the 
 children beyond the possibility of loss, then is the time 
 to separate the simple subject and predicate from their 
 modifiers. This should be done at first without dwelling 
 upon any other fact than that the various modifiers add 
 to or change the meanings of subject or predicate. 
 Thus, " The slothful man saith, ' there is a lion without,' " 
 can be readily reduced to man saith. A class will see the 
 incompleteness of this as an expression of thought, and 
 will readily grasp the meaning that the and slothful add 
 a meaning to man, and that " there is a lion without " 
 is necessary to complete the thought — to tell what the 
 
96 What Children Study and Why 
 
 slothful man saith. Similar synthetic exercises to those 
 proposed in connection with the first analysis may be 
 used here also with profit. 
 
 When these fundamental ideas of subject, predicate, 
 and modifiers have been taught fully, then is the proper 
 time to study the parts of speech. To postpone this 
 study until the sentence has received final treatment is 
 in violation of both logic and psychology. 
 
 Parts of Speech. — What do we mean by a " part 
 of speech " ? Why are words classified as " parts of 
 speech " ? Simply because in grammar they have no 
 meaning save as parts of speech. Speech stands for 
 expression of thought in words. The unit of expression 
 is the sentence. So when you speak of a " part of 
 speech " you mean necessarily a part of a sentence. 
 That is, a word considered grammatically is merely the 
 expression of a part of a thought. With the exceptions 
 of the noun used in address, and the interjection, which 
 is not properly a part of speech at all, but is merely an 
 explosive and thoughtless expression of feeling, a word 
 cannot be used sensibly except as a part of a sentence 
 expressed or implied. Hence, naturally, with the excep- 
 tion of the noun, the part of speech cannot be intelli- 
 gently studied until after the nature of a sentence has 
 been made plain. 
 
 Study of Relation. — The parts of speech should be 
 studied as to their functions in the sentence, and as these 
 functions are modified by the relations indicated, these 
 relations must be studied at the same time, in order 
 to make plain the functions, and hence the meanings, 
 of the parts of speech themselves. As the relations of 
 words are in many instances shown by inflections, it 
 
English Grammar 97 
 
 follows that inflections must be taught as incidental 
 to the study of relations. 
 
 For example, in the sentence, "Longfellow's home was 
 in Cambridge," it is not enough to know that Longfellow 
 is a name. That indicates only a part of the function of 
 the word. Its relation to another noun, home, must be 
 made clear. As this relation is indicated by the pos- 
 sessive ending 's, naturally inflection must be taught 
 as related to function. That is, we cannot understand 
 all the functions of words until we know how they are 
 modified in form to express relation. 
 
 It is manifest then that both logic and psychology re- 
 quire that grammar be studied by beginners in this order 
 — first, the sentence analyzed into subject and predicate, 
 and, second, a brief consideration of modifiers ; then, 
 third, the parts of speech, as parts of the sentence, 
 their relations and inflections. 
 
 Beyond this the order is of less consequence, as the 
 students will have such a fundamental knowledge as will 
 enable them to take up more difficult phases of the sub- 
 ject in the order of natural interest. Usually there will 
 be a return to the sentence and a more minute analysis 
 of it. In particular there should be a thorough study 
 of complex and compound sentences and of clauses and 
 phrases, which fill the functions of parts of speech. 
 
 This includes all of technical grammar that is profitable 
 for the pupils of the grammar school, and this is not 
 profitable if studied with any other purpose than that 
 of making function manifest. Thought must always 
 be to the fore. The instruction in the forms and the 
 relations of words must never degenerate into a study 
 of mere verbal mechanics. 
 
98 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Thought-compelling Material. — To that end it is of 
 the utmost importance that the material used be thought- 
 compelling material, so that the pupil cannot escape the 
 feeling that he is studying the expression of thought. Of 
 course, if the study is to be merely the study of mechan- 
 ical relations, it is little less than sacrilege to use good 
 literature for that end. If, however, the study is always 
 of thought, the better the thought, the more valuable 
 the study. 
 
 It is disheartening to think of boys and girls spending 
 their time in school learning that " the big bulldog in Mr. 
 Smith's yard barked," or that " donkeys bray," especially 
 when we must believe that while they are learning those 
 startling truths they are learning other facts no less useless. 
 
 Along with the technical study should go studies in 
 literature showing how closely the structure of sentences 
 is related to the character of the thought expressed, 
 how a literary artist of necessity bases his art upon the 
 science of grammar. This gives the study of grammar 
 a motive that appeals to the children as no mere formal 
 study of structure can do. 
 
 Whenever it will serve the purpose of clear illustration, 
 connected discourse, such as a complete story or de- 
 scription, should be used instead of isolated sentences. 
 The greater interest carries the less. This is a great 
 psychological principle too often ignored. If a study of 
 grammar is a study of the laws of thought in expres- 
 sion, and if the aim is to train children, both to com- 
 prehend the expressed thought of others and to think 
 logically themselves, then it is worth while to study 
 these laws as shown in the works of thinkers who were 
 also artists in expression. 
 
English Grammar 99 
 
 It is of vastly greater value to a class to search a de- 
 scription by Hawthorne that has interested and charmed 
 them, and find the grammatical forms that have made the 
 description possible and given it its clearness and beauty, 
 than to find these same forms in disconnected sentences 
 containing little thought and no interest. Moreover, 
 the memory of the description or story will hold that of 
 the grammatical forms, which otherwise would soon be 
 forgotten. 
 
 The method of teaching grammar to older students 
 is omitted from this book as not germane to its purpose. 
 Naturally it would differ in many respects from that out- 
 lined above. 
 
 Resume. — Grammar is the science of language. The 
 chief aims of teaching this science are to develop critical 
 power, to furnish a corrective of speech, and to train to 
 logical and clear thinking. 
 
 All principles and definitions should be developed by 
 induction and never baldly stated. The more abstruse 
 topics and the finer distinctions should be omitted from 
 an elementary grammar. 
 
 The method of instruction should require the analysis 
 of thought rather than the discovery of conventional rela- 
 tions of words, and of structure as related to thought. 
 To this end the material used should be drawn from good 
 literature and should be thought-compelling, since the 
 greater interest carries the less. This literature should be 
 treated respectfully with a view to a better understand- 
 ing of it through a knowledge of grammar. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Spelling 
 
 English spelling is " peculiar." It obeys no laws, fol- 
 lows few principles. It is a strange medley of the labors 
 of philologists, pseudo-philologists, ignorant printers, and 
 equally ignorant writers who have attempted to follow 
 some real or imaginary auditory analogy. It is a mass 
 of conventions resting upon no rhyme or reason. 
 
 Learning to spell is one of the immutable requirements 
 of the school. By success in teaching spelling the school 
 is judged, to a very large degree. Yet the educational 
 value of learning to spell is so slight as to be negligible. 
 Spelling according to convention satisfies no psycho- 
 logical need, no spiritual craving, no aspiration. The 
 economic value of spelling is arbitrary and artificial. 
 It adds not a cent's worth to the world's wealth. Yet, 
 teach it we must. Spelling well is much like wearing 
 modish garments; it has much to do with fixing one's 
 place in the world of educated people. At least a lack 
 of it at once places one among the ignorant. I 
 
 These facts are so patent and so widely recognized that 
 we have the Reformed Spelling Board maintained by the 
 benefaction of a great "gift giver." The aim of this 
 Board is to simplify spelling by removing some of its 
 worst absurdities, but unfortunately their efforts thus 
 far do not offer much hope of a scientific solution of 
 the problem. The changes suggested by them are so 
 
Spelling I or 
 
 scattered that in the eyes of a disinterested observer they 
 seem to add to the complications by giving new forms 
 to learn, without such an exact classification as to enable 
 us to use them, except by a sheer act of unaided memory 
 in the case of each change suggested. The best that can 
 be said of their efforts thus far is that they show good 
 intentions. 
 
 So, for the present at least, and doubtless for a long 
 time to come, the children in school must go on learning 
 to spell the old forms, and the question for the teacher 
 still is how to teach this conventional art most effectively 
 in the shortest time. 
 
 There is little to aid in this. There are almost no 
 rules of spelling that are even moderately reliable. 
 Attempts to teach spelling by rule simply add to the 
 child's troubles. A few analogies may be followed, but 
 with timid steps for fear of the many pitfalls. The sole 
 reliance is memory, and the sole aid is found in obeying 
 the general laws of memory, such as association of ideas, 
 interest, vividness of impression, repetition, recency. 
 
 Words that have no meaning to the children, and taught 
 without relation, are sure to be forgotten, except by those 
 rare persons who have a " gift " for spelling. And it is 
 often the case that this peculiar gift is possessed by those 
 having little intellectual power of any other sort. 
 
 The late Superintendent B.C. Gregory, as the result of 
 a series of very interesting observations, 1 showed clearly 
 that children most frequently misspell the common 
 words which they have first learned by ear. This is nat- 
 ural enough, in view of the irregularities of our spelling, 
 and the lack of agreement between the written form and 
 
 x " Better Schools," page 169 ff. 
 
102 What Children Study and Why 
 
 its phonic equivalent. When the word is learned first 
 from the printed page, it is much more likely to be spelled 
 correctly. The reason is obvious. Hence especial em- 
 phasis should be placed upon the spelling of colloquial 
 words. 
 
 Spelling is altogether a writing exercise. From this a 
 natural inference would be that spelling should be learned 
 by writing only. But this is not the fact. Although the 
 English language is by no means phonic in its written 
 structure, still there is a close association between oral 
 and written spelling, so that the oral exercise supple- 
 ments the written, often with very great advantage. 
 
 There are, however, wide differences among people 
 in this regard. The familiar terms " ear-minded " 
 and " eye-minded " indicate this. Some are particularly 
 sensitive to auditory impressions, others to visual. 
 This has, however, nothing to do with phonics. It 
 simply means that some children will remember the com- 
 ponent letters of a word more surely, and hence will be 
 able to write the word more accurately, if they have first 
 spelled it aloud. Some, before writing a doubtful word, 
 will fortify themselves by repeating the letters " to them- 
 selves." With others the visual impression is sufficient 
 and the oral spelling seems only to confuse them. 
 
 This effect of speaking the letters, either aloud or 
 silently, is probably due more to muscular memory than 
 to sounds. This same muscular memory extends to the 
 hands and arms and other muscles used in writing and 
 results in a form of muscular habit which enables the 
 educated adult to write words correctly, without thinking 
 of the spelling and even without consciously seeing it. 
 These facts must be borne in mind in teaching spelling. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Spelling 
 
 methods of instruction 
 
 How then may children be so taught as to make the 
 correct spelling of ordinary well-known words automatic, 
 without wasting time that is needed for more important 
 matters ? 
 
 There is no royal road. The ordinary person learns to 
 spell through a sheer act of memory. Hence the effective 
 teaching of spelling must be secured through obedience 
 to the laws of memory. The first and most important 
 of these is the law of " The Association of Ideas." The 
 spelling of words is more easily remembered if the words 
 themselves are so used in relation to ideas that they leave 
 a distinct impression. It is easier to remember the spell- 
 ing of words used in interesting sentences and paragraphs 
 than of words learned in " lists " without relation. 
 
 Next to the association of ideas, the most important 
 of the laws of memory for the teaching of spelling is 
 vividness of impression. The sequence of letters in a 
 word to be spelled should be burned into the mind. 
 Various means and devices may be used to effect this. 
 
 Hard words, words likely to be misspelled, should be 
 spelled both orally and in writing: orally, to secure the 
 right habit of feeling of the muscles used in speaking, 
 — this is especially important for those children who speak 
 the letters to themselves while spelling; in writing, 
 
 103 
 
104 What Children Study and Why 
 
 because it is in writing that the final test comes. If we 
 used speech orally only, we should have no spelling at all. 
 
 But before spelling in any way, care should be exercised 
 to secure close attention to the word as correctly spelled. 
 Most people misspell words because they have not looked 
 at them sharply enough to make sure of the letters used 
 or of their order. 
 
 If the word in itself is interesting and conveys some 
 idea that holds the attention, it is easier to secure correct 
 spelling, especially if it is a word not known colloquially. 
 But even in such a case, it is frequently necessary to make 
 an especial effort to focus undivided attention upon the 
 spelling itself. 
 
 Among the many possible devices that may be used 
 to this end, I will mention but one, which has been used 
 in different places with much success. It is a black- 
 board exercise, the entire class being at the board. 
 It may, however, be modified, if the blackboards have 
 not room enough for all, by having some pupils work at 
 their desks. 
 
 The teacher writes a word on the board. The class all 
 look at it for a brief space of time. Then the teacher 
 erases the word. The class turn and write it. The 
 teacher inspects the work. If any are in error, the error 
 is not pointed out, but all are told to erase. The teacher 
 again writes the word and erases. All spell it. This is 
 continued until all have spelled correctly. This secures 
 close attention and confidence, as the children are not 
 told whether they have erred or not ; and it also results in 
 permanence of impression. It is an excellent device for 
 correcting carelessness of observation, which is at the 
 bottom of most bad spelling. 
 
Spelling 105 
 
 Should spelling books be used, and if so, how ? 
 
 If all teachers had plenty of time and the necessary 
 judgment properly to select and arrange words taken from 
 the other school subjects, these words would furnish 
 nearly all the spelling lessons needed. The written les- 
 sons themselves supply the best spelling exercises, espe- 
 cially if followed by rigid drill upon words misspelled. 
 But unfortunately the average teacher has neither the 
 time nor the training necessary to the preparation of 
 adequate lists of words to be spelled. 
 
 Some years ago the spelling book became unpopular 
 and bade fair to fall into desuetude. In many places 
 it disappeared altogether and the sole reliance was placed 
 upon the spelling required for the written work of the 
 school. Here and there an exceptional teacher succeeded 
 remarkably well. But, generally, the effort was not 
 successful. Lists were neglected or carelessly prepared. 
 In written work upon other subjects, the attention was 
 so taken with other matters that spelling was often over- 
 looked. Even in the best schools it was found that many 
 important words did not occur in the regular written 
 work. Hence there has been a general return to the 
 spelling book, and of necessity ; not, however, to take the 
 place of the careful attention to spelling in all written 
 exercises, but to supplement it, and emphasize it. It is 
 found that intensive study is necessary; therefore the 
 spelling book is bound still to be the symbol of the 
 elementary school. 
 
 But there are spelling books and spelling books, books 
 with all conceivable plans of association, and books with 
 no plan at all. In general, those books are the most 
 helpful in which words are grouped according to some 
 
106 What Children Study and Why 
 
 manifest relation of ideas. Phonic relations, of all, are 
 of the least consequence because of the irregularity of the 
 phonic elements of our language. 
 
 Words may be grouped more profitably according to 
 similarity of meaning or function ; as, for example, words 
 expressing time, days of the week, months, seasons; 
 words descriptive of color, or sound, or landscapes, or 
 farm life, or city life. Good groups may be made of 
 synonyms, of the various inflectional forms of verbs, of 
 certain classes of derivatives. Except for review exer- 
 cises and for occasional drill, sentences, paragraphs, or 
 short literary selections having an interesting content 
 make the best spelling lessons. 
 
 But teachers have to use spelling books, not make them, 
 and they must make the best of those furnished, supple- 
 menting them by exercises drawn from the other school 
 work, or better, supplementing careful attention to the 
 spelling in ordinary written exercises by a discriminating 
 use of the spelling book. 
 
 Dr. J. M. Rice, in a series of articles in The Forum, 
 gave the results of tests in spelling made in many schools 
 upon thousands of children. While these experiments did 
 not solve many of the mooted questions, they did throw 
 interesting light upon the problem as a whole. Perhaps 
 the most important contribution of Dr. Rice to the sub- 
 ject was the evidence that in teaching spelling method 
 made very little difference, and that beyond a small 
 minimum the amount of time spent had very little to do 
 with the results. Children who spelled ten minutes a 
 day showed as great efficiency as those who spelled forty. 
 The most important factor appeared to be the qual- 
 ity of the teaching. The reasons why time is so 
 
Spelling 107 
 
 negligible a factor were psychological, and cannot be 
 entered into here. As a whole this experiment forced 
 the conclusion that intensity of attention and systematic 
 organization were the most important elements in the 
 teaching of spelling. 
 
 Whatever the devices or methods used, we cannot get 
 away from the fact that spelling rests upon memory, 
 unaided except by the laws of memory. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 Meaning of Arithmetic. — Arithmetic is the key to an 
 
 exact knowledge of the physical universe and to many of 
 the relations of man to man. It is commonly defined as 
 " The Science of Numbers." Considering the subject 
 abstractly as an exact science, this definition is of course 
 correct. 
 
 Arithmetic as taught in schools is a somewhat promis- 
 cuous aggregation of topics all treating more or less 
 fully of number in the abstract, or of some one or more 
 of its applications, either to the physical world or to the 
 affairs of life. In general its function is to acquaint the 
 young student with the more prominent characteristics 
 of abstract number and of number relations, with the 
 prevailing system of numeration, and with a few of the 
 most important practical applications of number to hu- 
 man needs. It also seeks to make clear, to a very limited 
 degree, the numerical basis of the physical world. 
 
 The treatment of abstract number and number rela- 
 tions in our school system is found in such elementary 
 work as counting and the study of the four fundamental 
 principles, in the consideration of the nature of factors 
 and multipliers and of fractions and of powers and roots. 
 The prevailing system of numeration is learned abstractly, 
 first as applied to whole numbers and decimals, and 
 afterward through its use in expressing all numerical 
 
 108 
 
Arithmetic 109 
 
 characteristics and relations. The application of num- 
 ber to the affairs of men is taught by means of various 
 problems, following the treatment of each phase of ab- 
 stract number, and especially in those parts of the text- 
 book devoted to imaginary business transactions. The 
 consideration of number as the key to the physical uni- 
 verse is found in the study of form and dimension, espe- 
 cially under such headings as, "Denominate Numbers," 
 and " Mensuration." 
 
 Numeration the Basis of Thinking. Fundamental 
 Principles. — (1) Numeration lies at the foundation of 
 thinking. The absolute basis of thought is compari- 
 son of ideas. Such comparison is impossible without 
 at least a rudimentary conception of number. I can- 
 not think an absolutely solitary unit. To the idea in 
 contemplation my own personality is added, and almost 
 invariably at least one other object enters into the 
 comparison. If all objects, ourselves included, were 
 spherical, we could have no conception of a sphere. It 
 is only by contrasting that particular form with other 
 forms that we can know it. So we must know more 
 than one, as more than one, in order to think at all. 
 
 Probably the maximum number that can be compre- 
 hended from the direct contemplation of objects does not 
 exceed five. Three seems to be the limit among most 
 savage peoples. 
 
 As the comparison of objects necessary for thinking 
 gives the first notion of number, this notion grows uncon- 
 sciously with the extension of the field of thought. But 
 because of the limited power of the mind to grasp at 
 once several objects presented through the senses, unless 
 this vague number conception be aided and enlarged by 
 
HO What Children Study and Why- 
 
 means of a system of numeration, the power of thought 
 itself is limited and we have the reasoning power of the 
 infant continued through life, as in the savage. 
 
 But with a system there is no limit to computation, not 
 even the hypothetical limit to the number of existing 
 countable objects. Both the infinitely large and the in- 
 finitely small become the commonplaces of mathematics. 
 
 Counting the First Step. — (2) It follows that the first 
 step in the development of a systematic knowledge of 
 number must necessarily be counting : that is, the as- 
 sembling under a definite numerical system and nomen- 
 clature of several objects on no other ground than that 
 of some qualitative likeness. Exact measurement, the 
 recognition of the quantitative likeness of the objects 
 compared, comes later. In other words, we first teach 
 pupils to count things ; as, for example, the children 
 present, — it matters not how widely they differ in 
 height or weight. 
 
 The notion of numerical progression through a con- 
 siderable field having been established by counting, the 
 next step is to exact calculation or measuring ; quanti- 
 tative relations take the place of qualitative ; how many 
 yields to how much, and ratio takes the place of counting. 
 Frequently, perhaps in most cases, this stage will have 
 been passed before the children come to school. This 
 is especially true of those who have enjoyed the advan- 
 tage of good kindergarten training. 
 
 In the chapters dealing with Method, I shall take it 
 for granted that the counting stage has been passed by 
 the children before the formal work of teaching arith- 
 metic is undertaken in school, and that they are ready 
 for the second step. 
 
Arithmetic III 
 
 Number a Mental Product. — (3) Number is a mental 
 product, not a physical condition. Things, but not num- 
 bers, exist outside the mind. Numerical facts are not 
 the facts of physics. To quote Professor William James 
 (" Psychology," Vol. II, p. 655) : " The same real things 
 are countable in numberless ways, and pass from one 
 numerical form, not only to its equivalent (as Mill 
 implies), but to its other, as the sport of physical acci- 
 dents, or of our mode of attending, may decide. How 
 could our notion that one and one are eternally and 
 necessarily two ever maintain itself in a world where 
 every time we add one drop of water to another we get, 
 not two, but one again? In a world where every time 
 we add a drop to a crumb of quicklime we get a dozen 
 or more? Had it no better warrant than such expe- 
 riences, at most we could then say that one and one are 
 usually two. Our arithmetical propositions would never 
 have the confident tone which they now possess. That 
 confident tone is due to the fact that they deal with ab- 
 stract and ideal numbers exclusively." 
 
 Counting and reckoning consist in the grouping of 
 objects by the mind to any quantitative extent and in 
 any numerical arrangement in such ways as to satisfy 
 some need — to make possible the definite consideration 
 of objects for higher uses. 
 
 Need of System. — (4) It is of comparatively little use 
 to me to be able to think numerical relations even with 
 perfect clearness, unless I can communicate my thoughts 
 to others and establish with them relations on a numeri- 
 cal basis. 
 
 Hence a system of numeration establishes a common 
 ground, a clearing house, of number concepts, so that the 
 
112 What Children Study and Why- 
 
 number element may enter definitely and effectively 
 into human relations. 
 
 Upon number systems (arithmetic in the larger sense), 
 then, depend not only all higher forms and systems of 
 knowledge, all extended thought, but also very many so- 
 cial relations, including all forms of exchange, whether 
 of labor or commodities, whereby our wants are sup- 
 plied. 
 
 The importance of these fundamental principles, simple 
 as they are, will appear when we come to discuss methods 
 of instruction. 
 
 Why teach arithmetic in school? 
 
 The Utilitarian End. — The ends of teaching arithme- 
 tic are two : one utilitarian, the other educational. The 
 former is the end that appeals to most people and is 
 the one usually put forward as the basis for a demand 
 for more time and attention to this one of the three R's. 
 Doubtless more criticism is passed upon the modern 
 school because of the alleged failures of young people to 
 meet the arithmetical requirements of business than for 
 any other reason, not excepting bad spelling. 
 
 That there is some ground for this faultfinding is 
 doubtless true. However, the value of full courses in 
 arithmetic to the business man is greatly overestimated, 
 and in many cases perverted; that is, portions of the 
 arithmetic that are supposed to have great utilitarian 
 value have little or none. 
 
 If arithmetic were to be limited solely to its " bread 
 and butter " values, a very small book indeed would be 
 required ; and while much drill and much practice would 
 be devoted to this irreducible minimum, still the time 
 given to the subject would be greatly lessened. 
 
Arithmetic 
 
 113 
 
 But arithmetic has a further use — the educational 
 — and the question as to quantity and method for this 
 use is not easily disposed of. This will be treated later. 
 
 Minimum Practical Need. — What knowledge of arith- 
 metic does the average business man need, and how can 
 the school best supply it? He should be able to add, 
 subtract, multiply, and divide integers, simple common 
 fractions, and decimals extended to include the prin- 
 ciples of percentage and simple interest, with a very 
 few tables of denominate numbers. Ordinary business 
 requires no more than this. Special lines of business 
 have special requirements, as that of the broker or the 
 banker or the surveyor. But to meet such special de- 
 mands is not the function of the elementary school. 
 Indeed, such particular equipment can be obtained best 
 and most economically in the business itself ; and most 
 business men prefer it so. 
 
 Should we then omit all else from our arithmetic, 
 considered on a purely utilitarian basis ? Let us see what 
 would be dropped. 
 
 I have before me two of the very latest and most 
 radical grammar school arithmetics. One of them con- 
 tains 378 pages of material for pupils' use. Of these, 
 205 are given to subjects not included in our list of util- 
 itarian necessities, leaving a book of essentials containing 
 but 173 pages. The additional pages are taken up with 
 matter largely modern, but educational rather than util- 
 itarian in purpose. 
 
 This matter is distributed as follows : 
 
 Pages 
 Introductory problems — covering almost the entire field of 
 calculations . . . . . . . . .28 
 
 Tests of divisibility -3 
 
114 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Pages 
 
 Cancellation 4 
 
 Algebra 31 
 
 Geometry . . -37 
 
 Bookkeeping 15 
 
 Measurements 21 
 
 Proportion 5 
 
 Complex Fractions . . 3 
 
 " Applications of Percentage " n 
 
 " Problems of Interest " . . . . . . .3 
 
 Partial Payments 2 
 
 Transportation 6 
 
 Astronomy 7 
 
 Longitude and Time . . . . . . . . 5 
 
 Mensuration ~. . . * . 10 
 
 Squares and Square Roots 5 
 
 Cubes and Cube Roots 3 
 
 Metric System 6 
 
 In addition to this are given these tables — English 
 Money, Money Units of different nations, Troy Weight, 
 Apothecaries' Weight, Surveyors' Measures. 
 
 The other book contains 487 pages of matter for the 
 pupils, including besides the essentials : 
 
 ,.-... Pages 
 
 Introductory Problems . .14 
 
 Form Study and Measurements (Geometry) . . . .83 
 Powers and Roots . . } . ' . ... .10 
 
 Ratio and Average 24 
 
 Approximations • 3 
 
 "Applications" 38 
 
 Divisibility 1 
 
 Algebra 28 
 
 Applications of Interest 13 
 
 Foreign Money . . .6 
 
 Metric System 9 
 
 Total. , . 229 
 
Arithmetic 1 1 5 
 
 This book also gives tables for Troy Weight, Apothe- 
 caries' Weight, and Surveyors' Measure. 
 
 Both books, in addition to the many pages devoted to 
 enriching the subject beyond the utilitarian essentials, 
 furnish much valuable information on many subjects, 
 by means of problems illustrating the different funda- 
 mental principles. 
 
 It is evident that the authors added this large amount 
 of matter because of its supposed educational value. 
 
 The two books analyzed are exceptional in that they 
 omit much traditional matter found in older arithmetics, 
 originally placed there for the same reasons that other 
 more modern foreign matter has been put into the 
 newer books. 
 
 Following are the most common of these traditional 
 subjects, found in nearly all arithmetics, excepting the 
 most recent : 
 
 Equation of Payments, Alligation, Compound Propor- 
 tion, Partnership, Series, Annual Interest, Duodecimals, 
 Exchange. Besides these are the following, which are also 
 still retained by the most modern books: " Applica- 
 tions " of Percentage and Interest, including Insurance, 
 Profit and Loss (fictitious largely) ; True Discount ; 
 Commission ; and Brokerage (obsolete in method) ; 
 Stocks ; Partial Payments ; Addition, Subtraction, Mul- 
 tiplication, and Division of Compound Numbers, and 
 also certain obsolete and special tables of Denominate 
 Numbers. 
 
 Truly this is an array that in these days of curricula 
 crowded with cultural studies needs justification. 
 
 It is not necessary to discuss the utilitarian value of 
 the fundamental processes, or of those simpler branches 
 
Il6 What Children Study and Why 
 
 of arithmetical knowledge that I have mentioned as 
 necessary for the business man. Some may, however, 
 question the possibility of omitting the subjects men- 
 tioned as unnecessary for the business man. 
 
 Let us see. Obsolete methods of conducting business 
 surely are not practically useful. This will leave out 
 the greater part of the " applications of percentage " 
 as given in the books, including Partial Payments, 
 Commission, Brokerage, Profit and Loss, True Discount, 
 and operations in compound numbers with obsolete or 
 unusual tables and terms, such as Troy Weight, gill, 
 stone, square, and the various barrels ; also Equation of 
 Payments, Alligation, Duodecimals, Compound Propor- 
 tion and Partnership. 
 
 Equation of payments has not even a modern equiva- 
 lent. The same is true of duodecimals, except for purely 
 theoretical discussion, or in fields uncommon. No one 
 outside of schools adds 6 lb. 5 oz. of butter to 2 cwt. 
 17 lb. and 3 oz. No one multiplies 2 mi. 3 roods, 2 rd. 
 n yd. 2 ft. 9 in., by 7§. In the cases requiring reckon- 
 ing upon compound numbers, decimals or common 
 fractions are used. 
 
 Not even the surveyor extracts square root or the 
 lumberman cube root. I question whether any one who 
 may read this article has ever had occasion to use either 
 except in school. They are blessings for the learning mind 
 alone, too precious for the coarser uses of the business 
 man. Hence on utilitarian grounds these subjects all 
 should go. 
 
 The teaching of the terms and processes used in only 
 single specific lines of business cannot but be regarded 
 as wasteful for the average child on " practical " grounds. 
 
Arithmetic 117 
 
 This eliminates such subjects as mensuration, surveying, 
 and astronomical reckoning, including longitude and time. 
 
 What shall we say of algebra and geometry? And 
 should such subjects as stocks, profit and loss, and 
 brokerage be retained with modern methods substituted 
 for the obsolete? 
 
 As to algebra and geometry, it is enough to say that 
 the average business man is wholly ignorant of them, and 
 that they could not be applied to the solution of the 
 simple and manifest problems which constitute almost 
 the whole mathematical demand of ordinary business. 
 Their educational value is another story. 
 
 As to the practical importance of teaching modern 
 methods of certain lines of business in substitution for 
 the obsolete methods of the older textbooks, this may 
 be said : Much may profitably be taught incidentally 
 as to business principles and methods, through problems 
 given to illustrate the fundamental principles. This 
 is not only unobjectionable, but is very desirable. It 
 is one of the ways of imparting a sense of reality to 
 school work for the child. Indeed, the choice of prob- 
 lems, vital in character, is one of the admirable char- 
 acteristics of the newer books. But to introduce into 
 arithmetic on utilitarian grounds a subject that is 
 chiefly cultural is objectionable, unless it be a subject 
 of very general usefulness. Are any of the above-named 
 subjects of sufficient value even in their most modern 
 form to justify their retention in a " practical " arith- 
 metic ? 
 
 Of the " applications of percentage," insurance is 
 possibly of sufficient general interest to justify a 
 reasonably full treatment. 
 
Il8 What Children Study and Why 
 
 The number of people engaged in business requiring 
 the payment of commissions is so small comparatively 
 that any considerable amount of space for this subject 
 is not justified on a bread-and-butter basis. 
 
 Exchange is too vague and too limited in use to deserve 
 a large place. Brokerage is merely simple percentage. 
 Of stocks it may be well to teach just enough to enable 
 a pupil to understand quotations. Taxes and duties 
 affect all and should be taught thoroughly. 
 
 As compound interest is reckoned in savings banks, 
 the banks of the many and the ignorant, it is doubtless 
 well to teach enough of it to enable depositors to figure 
 their interest. All methods of computing simple interest 
 but one, the one employed in banks, may be omitted. 
 
 The use of the metric system among us is still, and is 
 likely to be for long years to come, limited to technical 
 treatises on scientific subjects. The prospect offers no 
 justification for teaching it in elementary schools, on 
 economic grounds. 
 
 Hence we are forced to the doctrine that on utilitarian 
 grounds alone the only portions of arithmetic that 
 should be retained are the fundamental " principles," 
 simple fractions with denominators that can be reduced 
 to a common denominator by factoring at sight; deci- 
 mals; percentage, and interest, including just enough 
 of the " applications " to furnish the necessary drill and 
 practice ; one method of computing interest ; taxes and 
 duties ; enough of compound interest to enable the sav- 
 ings bank depositor to understand his bank book. To 
 these should be added the more important tables of 
 denominate numbers. 
 
 This would make a small book and save time, while 
 
Arithmetic 1 19 
 
 it would undoubtedly encourage more persistent drill 
 upon the subjects taught and, probably, would secure 
 greater accuracy. 
 
 Cultural Value. — Let us consider now the cultural 
 value of arithmetic and determine, if possible, how 
 many and what subjects should be retained in it on 
 this ground. 
 
 How may arithmetic serve the general education, 
 the culture, of the child? In two ways: one by 
 " training his mind," securing accurate and reliable 
 processes of mental activity, — in brief, by teaching 
 him to think; the other by enriching his mental 
 content, that is by giving him knowledge not merely 
 for immediate utility but for broadening his out- 
 look, extending his sympathies and supplying apper- 
 ceiving centers. 
 
 We must bear in mind that in order to justify the 
 attempts to secure these ends through the study of 
 arithmetic it is necessary to show that this subject 
 furnishes the best and most economical means for 
 securing them. Otherwise they should be cut down or 
 omitted and more efficient cultural agencies substituted. 
 
 Arithmetic is the logic of the child. It is almost the 
 only means available for teaching him the certainties of 
 logical processes, the reliability of the syllogism. It is 
 the only field of absolute truth where determinable 
 effect always follows determined cause. Dr. David 
 Eugene Smith in " The Teaching of Elementary Mathe- 
 matics," p. 25, says: 
 
 " The fact that the child finds a positive truth an 
 immutable law at the time in his development when he is 
 naturally filled with doubt, with the desire to investi- 
 
120 What Children Study and Why- 
 
 gate, and with the feeling that he must put away childish 
 things, has a value difficult properly to appreciate. He 
 is not sure that every flower has petals, that every animal 
 needs oxygen, that ' most unkindest ' is bad grammar, 
 or that Columbus was the real discoverer of America ; 
 but he is sure, and no argument can shake his faith, that 
 whatever may happen to the universe in which he lives 
 (ab) 2 will always equal a 2 + 2 ab + b 2 ." 
 
 But this particular mental power is best obtained through 
 dealing with numbers as abstract rather than through 
 the solution of difficult business problems. It is the 
 exact result of the action of known causes that gives the 
 training in deductive or mathematical reasoning. There 
 may be, however, some mental gain from the solution 
 of even individual problems. Upon this point I again 
 quote Dr. Smith : 
 
 " So Arithmetic may, even by obsolete problems, train 
 the mind of the child logically to attack the everyday 
 problems of life. If he has been taught to think in solv- 
 ing his school problems, he will think in solving the 
 broader ones which he must hereafter meet. The same 
 forms of logic, the same attention to detail, the same 
 patience, and the same care in checking results exercised 
 in solving a problem in greatest common divisor, may 
 show itself years later in commerce, in banking, or in 
 one of the learned professions. Hence, Arithmetic, 
 when taught with this in mind, gives to the pupil not 
 knowledge of facts alone, but that which transcends such 
 knowledge, namely, power. 
 
 " It must not, however, be thought from its name that 
 this culture phase of the subject is of value only as a 
 luxury, like the ability to dabble in music or painting. 
 
Arithmetic 1 21 
 
 Just because it is the child of the man in poor or modest 
 circumstances who must make his own way in the world, 
 it is for the common people that this culture phase is 
 most valuable." 
 
 Still, it seems to me evident that the solution of com- 
 plicated problems tends to divert the attention from the 
 deductive processes to the practical aspects of the ques- 
 tions, the assembling and assorting of the causal facts. 
 . Algebra. — Unquestionably the most valuable part of 
 arithmetic for the cultivation of reasoning power is (if I 
 may be allowed), not arithmetic at all, but algebra. 
 
 The tendency of modern books to introduce, early, 
 algebraic terms and methods, the unknown quantity and 
 the equation, cannot be too highly commended from the 
 cultural viewpoint, because the former deals with 
 specific instances, the latter with generalizations. De- 
 spite all the general statements appearing in the form of 
 rules, an arithmetical statement of fact stands for itself 
 alone; 2+3 = 5 remains that and nothing more, while 
 a+b = c stands for an infinite number of possible terms, 
 for all of which it is equally true. 
 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the " Autocrat," tells 
 us: 
 
 " I was just going to say, when I was interrupted, 
 that one of the many ways of classifying minds is under 
 the heads of arithmetical and algebraical intellects. All 
 economical and practical wisdom is an extension or vari- 
 ation of the following arithmetical formula: 2+2=4. 
 Every philosophical proposition has the more general 
 character of the expression a-\-b=c. We are mere 
 operatives, empirics, and egotists, until we learn to think 
 in letters instead of figures." 
 
122 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Some of the subjects rejected as not of " practical " 
 value belong properly in algebra. Such subjects as pro- 
 portion and series, awkward in arithmetic because of 
 lack of suitable terms, are simple in algebra. Indeed, 
 if these and other such subjects are to be retained in 
 arithmetic for their cultural value, it is quite important 
 that the algebraic method of teaching them be used in 
 order that they may furnish the desired training in logic. 
 
 Truly the argument in favor of the retention of sub- 
 jects that cultivate the power to think is strong. This 
 is the highest power of the intellect and it is none too 
 common, while no subject can be introduced into the 
 elementary curriculum so well calculated to train it as 
 the " back part " of the arithmetic. 
 
 In the higher grammar grades a definite course in 
 elementary algebra is of great value, especially to the 
 many students whose schooling ends with the grammar 
 school. 
 
 Geometry. — The study of the elements of geometry, 
 usually introduced as " form study " and mensuration, 
 may be classed with that of algebra. Its chief value 
 rests upon the importance of a knowledge of form and 
 dimension to a comprehension of the physical universe. 
 
 Constructive geometry and mensuration, as usually 
 found in the arithmetics, appeal not so much to the 
 reason as to the imagination. They tend also to sub- 
 stitute an exact knowledge of the environing world for a 
 vague and comparatively useless knowledge, while de- 
 ductive geometry, even as introduced in arithmetic in 
 the application of formulae and other generalizations to 
 the solution of problems in mensuration, shows a plain 
 path to abstract reasoning. Problems in geometry, 
 
Arithmetic 1 23 
 
 moreover, can be offered that will be " practical " with- 
 out detracting from their value in training to think. 
 
 So much for the " unpractical " subjects that cultivate 
 the reasoning power. The test question, " Could the 
 same result be secured more effectively and economically 
 by any other means? " must be answered in the nega- 
 tive. These are the subjects, par excellence, for teach- 
 ing children to think, and on that ground their presence 
 in our arithmetics is justified. 
 
 Enrichment of Content. — The second of the cultural 
 values to be obtained through the study of arithmetic 
 is the enrichment of the mental content, the enlarge- 
 ment of the field of knowledge. What subjects not 
 required on economic ground should find a place in 
 arithmetic because they represent valuable knowledge 
 of the world and of human affairs that can be given 
 best in connection with the study of number relations? 
 This offers a wide field of investigation, upon which we 
 can only touch here, limiting ourselves to the tradi- 
 tional subjects referred to above. 
 
 01 these, the applications of arithmetic to certain 
 special lines of business are the most numerous. There 
 is indeed strong reason for acquainting children with 
 the general outlines of some of those business operations 
 which are of universal interest, even though compara- 
 tively few people are directly engaged in them. An ex- 
 ample is the corporation with its issues of stocks and 
 bonds. Although few of the children are likely to have 
 any active connection with such corporations, all citizens 
 should know about them. They are now common sub- 
 jects of discussion in the press, and of legislation, upon 
 which universal intelligence is demanded. Besides, they 
 
124 What Children Study and Why 
 
 are the most common form of property for the invest- 
 ment of savings, and they are explained more naturally 
 in connection with arithmetic than elsewhere. 
 
 In connection with these, brokerage and commission 
 may be taught with almost no additional effort. The 
 essential features of banking, including the function of 
 the clearing house, are of such universal interest that 
 they should be included in the grammar school arith- 
 metic. 
 
 Taxes and duties have also an economic value and 
 belong in arithmetic on all grounds. On the other hand, 
 such topics as partial payments, duodecimals, equation 
 of payments, and compound proportion have no such 
 universal application and should be omitted from the 
 common school arithmetic altogether. 
 
 Among the topics relating to the physical world the 
 same distinction may be made. 
 
 " Longitude and time " is of universal interest, and 
 although one may be able to tell time by the clock with- 
 out understanding the reason, still knowledge of the laws 
 that determine time for us is rich and pregnant knowl- 
 edge. The only question is whether arithmetic or 
 geography is the proper place for it in the school. In 
 the present unsatisfactory state of geography teaching 
 I believe that it is safer to trust it to arithmetic. Geog- 
 raphy is even more crowded with poor relations than is 
 arithmetic. Besides, the mathematical element is so 
 evident in longitude and time, that it is a good subject 
 through which to show the mathematical basis of the 
 physical universe, one of the very large truths that 
 children should acquire from the study of arithmetic. 
 
 The various topics included under " Mensuration " 
 
Arithmetic 125 
 
 have been discussed in relation to training the reason. 
 They have no place in arithmetic on the ground of en- 
 larging the field of general knowledge, except incidentally. 
 
 Cube root has no place on any ground and square 
 root is doubtful. They are very hard in arithmetic 
 and very easy in algebra and geometry. 
 
 The metric system raises a difficult question. As it 
 is the system in general use among the Latin nations, 
 and is frequently used in scientific treatises written in 
 English, knowledge of it is very desirable, and, of course, 
 if it is to be studied in school, arithmetic is the place for 
 it. It is not difficult to learn and the pupil of the higher 
 grades, with a very little effort, can master it sufficiently 
 to be able to read books using it and to image dimen- 
 sions expressed in it, by a rough comparison with our 
 own system. 
 
 It is not necessary to discuss other topics specifically. 
 The general principle applies to them all. If they are 
 subjects of sufficient cultural value to demand a place 
 in the course of study and if arithmetic is the most 
 natural place in the course for them, there they should 
 remain; otherwise, not. 
 
 Resume. — A conception of number is fundamental 
 to even the most elementary thinking. A system of 
 numbers is essential to all the higher realms of thought, 
 and also to effective communication among thinking 
 beings. 
 
 Arithmetic has both a utilitarian and a cultural value. 
 
 For the former, more than half of the ordinary arith- 
 metic is nearly or wholly worthless. The essential sub- 
 jects to this end are the fundamental processes. 
 
 For the latter, the subject as a whole is very valuable, 
 
126 What Children Study and Why 
 
 especially in cultivating the power to reason. The most 
 important subjects for this end are the fundamental 
 processes and the methods of algebra and geometry. 
 
 Of the subjects falling under the head of " general 
 information," the principles of special lines of business 
 of nearly universal interest may properly be included 
 in arithmetic, as may longitude and time and possibly 
 the metric system. 
 
 Subjects should not be introduced to children through 
 arithmetic for their cultural effects, unless arithmetic is 
 the best avenue for securing those effects. Many of the 
 subjects whose avowed aim is to acquaint the child 
 with the sciences or with business usage should be omitted 
 as foreign to the subject. But problems throwing light 
 upon those subjects may be used profitably for illustra- 
 tion and for practice under the essential subjects, and thus 
 incidentally may supply cultural elements. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 methods of instruction 
 
 Ends to be Secured. — In considering methods of in- 
 struction in arithmetic, we must bear in mind the gen- 
 eral results to be secured, (i) Facility and accuracy in 
 the use of numbers, as applied to the simple operations 
 which constitute the great part of ordinary business 
 calculations; (2) such culture as can best be obtained 
 in connection with the study of numbers, this culture 
 falling into two classes : (a) the power to reason 
 justly, a result of the logic of mathematical reasoning, 
 inexorable, although limited in application ; and (b) such 
 knowledge of the physical world and of human relations 
 as is expressed chiefly in numerical terms. 
 
 The classroom teacher usually has little to say as to 
 what topics in arithmetic he shall teach. They are 
 fixed in the course of study. He may, however, at least 
 to a degree, so present even unnecessary topics as to 
 determine the character of the results. 
 
 It will be manifestly impossible in a single article to 
 treat other than typical subjects for the different grades. 
 
 The Time Element. — Time is a very important ele- 
 ment in acquiring accuracy and facility in the manipu- 
 lation of numbers, especially in the primary grades. 
 The chief end of arithmetic teaching in the primary 
 school is the mastery of the fundamental combinations 
 
 127 
 
128 What Children Study and Why 
 
 of addition and of the multiplication table. The accu- 
 rate use of these should become automatic, so that it will 
 be practically impossible for a child to make a mistake. 
 Most arithmetics and most courses of study hurry 
 this process. They crowd the tables together, without 
 allowing time enough for each one to " soak in." 
 
 The development should be very, gradual. Each 
 combination and each table should be taught by itself 
 and should be emphasized by such a variety of exer- 
 cises that it can never be forgotten. The study of the 
 multiplication table should be slowly and consistently 
 cumulative. Fractions should be taught correctly at 
 the same time, thus laying a foundation for their more 
 intensive study later. It takes little additional effort, 
 while learning that four times four equals sixteen, to 
 learn that four is one fourth of sixteen. 
 
 The Utilitarian Ends. — First, then, how shall a child 
 secure facility and accuracy in calculation? 
 
 Drill. — The teacher's one invariable means to this 
 end has always been drill, by which is meant iteration, 
 repeating number combinations over and over again 
 until the brain paths become fixed and the action 
 automatic. Unquestionably drill of this sort will be 
 always an important means to this end. If the only 
 elements of this so-called practical aim of arithmetic 
 were rapid and exact addition, subtraction, multi- 
 plication, and division of integers, such drill might 
 possibly suffice, although even then the psychological 
 difficulty of loss of interest and consequent limitation of 
 progress would of necessity manifest itself. Automatic 
 processes are naturally self-limiting. 
 
 But even the most fact-loving of Gradgrinds is not 
 
Arithmetic 1 29 
 
 satisfied with the mere ability to combine and separate 
 integers under the four " fundamental principles." It 
 must be possible to use them in business problems, also 
 with facility and accuracy. It must, too, be possible 
 to deal accurately and swiftly with fractions, common 
 and decimal. These requirements demand more than 
 mere calculating machines. They demand the power 
 to think, which drill alone cannot furnish. Here the 
 first aim touches the second, and it becomes apparent 
 that no mere mechanical drill is sufficient for even its 
 own ends. So we must include some of the suggestions 
 for the second end in our treatment of the first. 
 
 Method must vary with Age. — There is no uniform 
 method of teaching arithmetic. The method must vary 
 with the age of the children studying and with their 
 differing powers to think in abstract terms. 
 
 In arithmetic, as in morals and in all the common 
 affairs of life, there is a place for authority, as well as 
 for reasoning. The power of self-direction is itself a 
 growth. The young child must be told many things 
 outright long before he can comprehend them. He 
 must also do many things in obedience to authority until 
 he is able to " reason out " a course of action. The 
 fault of the old teaching lay, not in its use of authority, 
 but in its abuse of it. Children were compelled to rely 
 wholly upon it and hence lost the opportunity to acquire 
 power to reason and to direct their own courses. 
 
 In teaching arithmetic, the transition from authority 
 to reason must be gradual. At first only very simple 
 things can be comprehended, even with the aid of con- 
 crete illustration and of motor activity. Counting is of 
 necessity learned from authoritative statement, so 
 
130 What Children Study and Why 
 
 must be many of the facts of notation. Names are 
 largely arbitrary. But the names of numbers once 
 learned, the simple combinations may be made plain by 
 concrete illustration. A child must learn to count two, 
 three, and five through being told the names of the 
 combinations. But he can and should learn that two 
 and three are five in quite a different way. This com- 
 bination he must see for himself if his knowledge is to 
 be real. 
 
 With progress in power to reason, the value of au- 
 thority gradually disappears and reason becomes more 
 and more important. The child in the fifth grade may 
 properly be told to divide one third by one half by in- 
 verting the divisor and multiplying. In the grammar 
 grades he should know why this method will avail. 
 
 In general the inductive method is the ideal method 
 for teaching arithmetic, but it must be used with dis- 
 cretion. With young children, induction in mathe- 
 matics requires, not merely observations, but muscular 
 effort and reaction. 
 
 Concrete Presentation. — Take, for example, the al- 
 ways difficult problem of " carrying " in addition and 
 " borrowing " in subtraction. It can be taught by rule, 
 by illustration, or by use of the objects, but with 
 23 very different results. Add 23 and 19. By rule 
 jg we say 9+3 = 12, 1 ten and 2 units. Set down 
 4~2~ the 2 under units column, add the 1 to the tens 
 in tens column =4. Some few children may 
 comprehend this if tens and units have previously 
 been taught concretely, not otherwise. But to most 
 it is simply an order to be obeyed unquestioningly. 
 This is the method of the older books and of many of 
 
Arithmetic 
 
 131 
 
 those in use to-day, and I venture to say that there are 
 many teachers in the schools who, until in their maturity 
 they began to teach, did not really comprehend the 
 simple reason for " carrying." 
 
 Another method is by illustration, rows of pictured 
 objects in tens and units : 
 
 **********' 
 
 ********** 
 
 * * * 
 
 + 
 
 
 2 tens, 
 + 1 ten, 
 
 3 units 
 9 units 
 
 
 ** 
 
 4 tens, 2 units 
 
 3 tens, 12 units 
 
 This unquestionably aids the comprehension, and more 
 children will grasp the principle from this method than 
 from the mere rule. But it is not the simplest or the 
 most effective way. A very simple and easily procured 
 material for concrete illustration is a box of sticks, such 
 as are used in the kindergarten and in many primary 
 schools. Wood toothpicks will do as well. Let the 
 children tie up a hundred or more of the sticks in bundles 
 of ten each (don't do it for them), leaving a considerable 
 number single. 
 
 Then let them actually lay out the sticks, 2 bundles 
 of 10 and 3 single sticks, and lay beside them one bundle 
 of 10 and 9 singles, making in all 3 bundles of 10 and 
 12 single sticks. Have children tie up 10 of the singles 
 into a new bundle and place it with the others, giving 
 4 tens and leaving 2 ones. The operations with figures 
 should be carried on simultaneously on the blackboard 
 and by the children on paper. Simple as this may seem, 
 it.is psychologically and physiologically sound. The em- 
 
132 What Children Study and Why 
 
 ployment of the motor activities and of the muscular sense 
 strengthens and deepens the impression and aids in pro- 
 ducing knowledge of the fact as distinguished from words. 
 
 For subtraction reverse the process. This, too, must 
 be accompanied by a demonstration of the operation 
 with symbols. 
 
 Possibly even a better material for the study of the 
 periodic values of figures is real or imitation coins, cents 
 and dimes and dollars, used in the making of change, to 
 illustrate reduction of lower to higher, and the reverse. 
 
 This foundation, once laid by the development of 
 " carrying " and " borrowing " in addition and subtrac- 
 tion, followed by sufficient practice to confirm the knowl- 
 edge beyond the possibility of loss, serves for the entire 
 structure of notation, including decimals, and for all the 
 manipulations necessary under the four " fundamental 
 principles." 
 
 This preparatory work, whose purpose is to secure 
 actual comprehension of the relations indicated by the 
 positions of figures in numbers, must be followed, not 
 preceded, by drill. 
 
 Order of Presentation. — The order of presentation is 
 this : First, a problem whose solution is carefully de- 
 veloped by every means necessary to its full comprehen- 
 sion. Then more problems of a similar sort, to be worked 
 by the pupils, enough to clinch the instruction given 
 and make it a factor in all future similar operations; 
 then drill upon the abstract numbers used, to secure the 
 desired automatic action. 
 
 Drill Abstract. — Drill should be bare drill, unem- 
 barrassed by terms or conditions or names not abso- 
 lutely necessary to the statement of the problem in its 
 
Arithmetic 133 
 
 simplest form; that is, for drill, do not give problems 
 upon so-called concrete numbers, but rather upon ab- 
 stract, for instance, not such questions as : 
 
 2 apples -f- 4 apples = ? apples. 
 3 marbles — 2 marbles = ? marbles. 
 6X3 boys = ? boys. 
 10 girls -f- 2 = ? girls, 
 but rather: 
 
 2+4 = ? 
 
 3 - 2 = ? 
 
 6X3 = ? 
 
 10 -J- 2 = ? 
 
 The addition of a name to a number does not really 
 make it concrete, but it does embarrass the solution by 
 introducing an element foreign and unnecessary. 
 
 The application of these principles to fractions; to 
 the study of lines, surfaces, and solids; to denominate 
 numbers, and to monetary transactions, is evident. 
 First develop the relations involved, and then drill 
 until the memory will act mechanically. 
 
 Care must be exercised not to go beyond the point of 
 interest even in the later drill. The moment interest 
 ceases, the drill becomes dead and is likely to do more 
 harm than good. Minds interested and alert are the 
 requisite of valuable drill. 
 
 Limitations of the Concrete. — A caution is needed as 
 to the limitations of the use of the concrete. Teachers 
 sometimes develop subjects by means of sticks and 
 squares and cubes and other schoolroom paraphernalia 
 so continuously as not only to retard progress, but 
 even to cause arrested mental development. The chil- 
 dren have become so used to handling things to get 
 
134 What Children Study and Why 
 
 knowledge that their power to reason abstractly has 
 been actually impaired. 
 
 The object should be used to give a clear image, and as 
 soon as this has been accomplished, should be discarded. 
 Its only use is to lead to clear thinking. When the chil- 
 dren are able to image the combinations and to think 
 the processes without the material aid, its use should 
 be discontinued at once. Some children can dispense 
 with these aids sooner than others. The teacher must 
 judge. For instance, in teaching the relations of terms in 
 numeration, units to tens, tens to hundreds, etc., by the 
 use of objects as outlined above for " carrying " and 
 " borrowing," it will seldom be necessary to carry the 
 method beyond tens. If the tenfold increase from units 
 to tens is made perfectly clear, the corresponding in- 
 creases to higher places will be comprehended by most 
 children without the concrete illustration. A few may 
 need to have hundreds developed. The ability to reason 
 should be the reliance whenever possible. The material 
 aid should be used only when needed. 
 
 The above are merely typical instances, but the prin- 
 ciples are of general application. If drill in all the 
 simpler operations upon numbers were preceded by a 
 thorough comprehension of the principles involved, and 
 then were so abundant and of such character as to make 
 those operations automatic and yet intelligent, we should 
 have fewer complaints from business men that children 
 nowadays cannot add. 
 
 The important numbers in most operations are the 
 small numbers, and the important combinations are the 
 simpler ones. These are easily learned when once they 
 are comprehended. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Arithmetic 
 methods of instruction (Continued) 
 
 In mathematics the child finds for the first time cer- 
 tainty. Indeed, for the adult, mathematical fact is almost 
 the only certainty, and mathematical reasoning is quite 
 the only reasoning without an ." if." Its scope is com- 
 paratively narrow, it is true, but its lines never vary. 
 
 The school has no higher office toward the intellects 
 of pupils than to teach them to " reason justly." How 
 may arithmetic aid in this work? Mainly through two 
 agencies: (i) the inductive method of approaching all 
 new subjects, leading pupils to make their own generali- 
 zations in the forms of definitions and rules of pro- 
 cedure ; and (2) the application of principles taught to 
 the solution of vital problems, and, especially in the 
 higher grades, through the use of the equation and of 
 the literal symbol to represent the unknown quantity. 
 
 In the older books the rule and the definition almost 
 always were given at the beginning of all new topics. 
 They rested on authority wholly. The reasoning power 
 of the children was ignored and memory was the sole 
 reliance, excepting in the application of the principle to 
 the solution of problems, and even here the reasoning 
 was only partial, the application to stated conditions of 
 an uncomprehended rule or formula of procedure. To 
 relieve this condition, Warren Colburn put forth his 
 famous " Mental Arithmetic," which, with its imitators 
 
 13s 
 
136 What Children Study and Why 
 
 and successors, accomplished great good, notwithstand- 
 ing its excessive formalism. 
 
 The Inductive Approach. — Illustrations of the induc- 
 tive approach have already been given on pages 130, 
 131 to show its use in developing facility and accuracy in 
 the manipulation of numbers. Further illustrations are 
 the following : 
 
 Denominate numbers should be taught at first with 
 the measure in hand. 
 
 Fractions always present serious difficulties to chil- 
 dren, which may easily be avoided by employing 
 inductive instead of authoritative methods, while at 
 the same time the pupils are being trained to think. 
 If the three basal ideas of fractions are comprehended 
 early by the pupils, all the later operations are com- 
 paratively easy, and the work becomes training in 
 thinking instead of the mere following of rules. I re- 
 fer to the facts (1) that every fraction is an aliquot part 
 of an indicated unit, either integral or fractional; 
 
 (2) that every fraction is a statement of a ratio, 
 the quotient of one number divided by another, and 
 
 (3) that for purposes of calculation each fraction is 
 itself a unit, or a stated number of units, according to 
 its use. 
 
 Some will doubtless say, " Of course, we always teach 
 these things." Possibly, but the arithmetic books do 
 not, at least, in such a way that the children grasp 
 them, for to state them as they are stated here is not to 
 teach them. On the contrary, to the ordinary child in 
 school, fractions are a mystery not to be comprehended, 
 and the only path through them is that of blind 
 obedience to rule. 
 
Arithmetic 137 
 
 The first of the principles is more commonly well 
 taught than the others. Through handling objects, 
 counting by 2's, 3's, etc., "wholing and parting," dividing 
 groups into smaller groups called halves, thirds, fourths, 
 and the like, children in a modern primary school un- 
 consciously acquire the notion that an aliquot part of 
 any unit is a fraction. 
 
 Still the fixed-unit absurdity is impressed upon the 
 pupil when the book is reached, and ^ becomes the myste- 
 rious symbol of the unknowable. This is partly en- 
 couraged by such falsities as " compound fractions," in 
 which \ of I, the simplest statement of relation, as simple 
 as \ of 4, or \ of 6 inches, is misstated in its very name 
 " compound." The remedy is of course to drop such mis- 
 leading terms and return to the fact of relation, if neces- 
 sary, using concrete objects, for example, slicing an apple 
 into fractions of fractions. But whatever the means, the 
 pupils should always be forced to keep in view the fact 
 that a fraction is an aliquot part of the indicated unit, 
 which may be any number, fractional or integral, and not 
 merely one. The fact that a short method of finding 
 |, of § is to multiply numerator by numerator and 
 denominator by denominator should not be allowed 
 to blind the children to the fact that the " compound 
 fraction " is a mere statement, one half of two thirds, 
 which is one third. They should comprehend the rela- 
 tion. 
 
 The second principle is that a fraction is a statement 
 of ratio. That is, § means not only two of the three 
 parts into which 1 is divided (f of a fixed unit), but 
 one of the three parts into which 2 is divided (f of 
 the unit 2, — 2 divided by 3). 
 
138 What Children Study and Why 
 
 This can be made clear by much " wholing and part- 
 ing " ; first, of groups of objects, or of exactly measured 
 dimensions, as inches, then of abstract numbers. It may 
 be best to begin with easily divisible wholes, as 4's or 6's. 
 
 Further practice will develop the truth that the ratios 
 of numbers are not affected by the introduction of equal 
 factors into both or by their removal from both, as : 
 
 4 = 4X 3 _ 2 . i2_ i2-^3 _^ 
 2 2X3 ' 6 6-r-3 
 
 Much drill, both concrete and abstract, upon such 
 combinations will lead the pupil first to see the relations 
 and then to comprehend the process. 
 
 This imaging of the fundamental processes prepares 
 the way for those more puzzling operations required for 
 the addition, subtraction, and division of fractions. It 
 makes possible the comprehension of the function of the 
 common denominator, which usually is not compre- 
 hended at all by the pupil who performs the operation 
 by rule. 
 
 As a further preparation for such operations, however, 
 the third principle should be comprehended, namely, 
 that each fraction is itself a unit, which can as readily 
 be manipulated, increased, or diminished as an integer. 
 
 In arithmetical calculation, § is as definite an entity 
 as 1 . This principle grows out of the second one, namely, 
 that every fraction is a statement of ratio. It is most 
 easily seen in improper fractions. Thus f equal 2. 
 The fraction is simply another way of expressing 2, 
 and hence all the operations that may be performed 
 upon 2 may likewise be performed upon f . Children 
 can easily be led to see that in its nature \ is similar to 
 
Arithmetic 1 39 
 
 f , although it has no integral equivalent. With these 
 principles firmly in mind the difficulties of treating 
 fractions disappear. 
 
 For example, division of fractions is puzzling to most 
 children. Even teachers sometimes are unable to see the 
 reason for inverting the divisor and multiplying the frac- 
 tions. Yet it is really as simple as addition to classes 
 that have had the preliminary training outlined above. 
 At least grammar school classes that have reached the 
 formal study of fractions can easily image the process. 
 For example : 
 
 This by rule. The process is really as follows : 
 
 3 X 3 . 2 X 4 = 3 X3 . 2x4 ^ 
 4 3*3 4 4X3*3x4' 
 
 3x4 both being the common denominator and showing 
 by its structure how common denominators are made. 
 Dividing the numerator of the dividend by that of the 
 divisor, we have 
 
 3X3 _9 ! 
 
 2X4~8 ¥ " 
 
 In other words, the rule merely indicates a short 
 method of dividing, the common denominator being 
 " understood," that is, eliminated from the actual work, 
 though constructively present. 
 
 Teaching to make Generalizations. — A process com- 
 prehended is vastly more interesting to the pupil than 
 one performed by rule merely, and what is more im- 
 portant, it trains him to think for himself. There should, 
 however, be both rules and definitions, but they should 
 
140 What Children Study and Why- 
 
 be formulated by the pupils themselves after observa- 
 tion and manipulation. This cultivates that most im- 
 portant of all reasoning powers, the power to generalize ; 
 for definitions and rules are generalizations, having the 
 especial advantage for beginners in the art of reasoning 
 that they are certainties, not probabilities. 
 
 After the children have done their best at construct- 
 ing definitions and rules, it is well to compare the results 
 of their efforts with the statements in the book, to make 
 sure of accuracy, and to insure the best and most eco- 
 nomical form of statement. 
 
 If the work according to the inductive method at 
 first seems slow, as compared with that under the rule, 
 there need be no anxiety. Facility in later operations, 
 due to a thorough understanding of the reasons for 
 them, will much more than compensate for the earlier 
 loss of time. 
 
 The generalized truth is a great time-saver. When 
 once comprehended, its use avoids the necessity of re- 
 peating each time the process by which it has been 
 reached. A child who has learned by observation the 
 meaning of the word " triangle " is saved the necessity 
 of describing it as a three-sided figure each time he 
 would refer to it. 
 
 Of course, it is important that the development of a 
 principle should not be continued after the idea is once 
 firmly grasped. The power to think should be utilized 
 as rapidly as it is manifested. Otherwise there will be 
 loss of time and interest, if not actual arrest of growth. 
 
 Use of Unknown Quantity and Equation. — In order 
 to save time and to insure the understanding of the 
 processes, it is important that the unknown quantity 
 
Arithmetic 141 
 
 and the equation be introduced into the arithmetic 
 quite early. The use of x for the unknown result is not 
 difficult for grammar school pupils, and it opens the way 
 to the time-saving processes which constitute one of the 
 advantages of algebra over arithmetic. This, of course, 
 both makes possible and requires the use of the equation. 
 
 f of 6 = f of what number ? 
 
 2 e , 4 r 12 4a: , 
 
 - of 6 = - of .# : — = — ; 60 = i2x ; x=K. 
 
 3 5 3 5 
 
 This particular problem could more easily be solved 
 by inspection and analysis; it merely illustrates the 
 method which may be employed with more difficult 
 problems. The x makes it possible to use the unknown 
 result as if it were a known number in the equation. 
 Thus the whole problem is clearly pictured and the 
 process becomes visible to the mind's eye. 
 
 The preparation for the use of the equation should be 
 made first by means of tangible objects, as a balance with 
 weights, or a scale of inches and feet, showing that the 
 two members may be increased or decreased by addition, 
 subtraction, multiplication, or division to any extent, 
 provided both be equally affected, for this is the entire 
 secret of the manipulation of equations. But once 
 really grasped, it makes easy the solution of many 
 arithmetical problems, and best of all, it requires and 
 develops the power to think, by establishing rational 
 principles through rational processes. 
 
 This phase of the cultural aim of arithmetic might be 
 developed indefinitely, in application to the various 
 topics. Especially might much be said of the orderly 
 development of problems, stating them clearly and think- 
 ing them through ; but surely enough has been said to 
 
142 What Children Study and Why 
 
 make plain the contention that work in arithmetic 
 should be work in thinking, and not merely the per- 
 forming of operations according to rule. 
 
 Enriching the Content. — The second phase of the 
 cultural aim of the teaching of arithmetic is enriching 
 the mental content, giving such knowledge of the 
 physical and social world as may properly be given 
 through this study. This was treated quite fully in 
 Chapter X and need not be elaborated here. Suffice 
 it to say: arithmetic must be taught as applied, 
 to give both interest and practical value, and the 
 choice of problems to illustrate principles supplies the 
 opportunity for enriching the subject. Here is the weak- 
 ness of most of the older textbooks. The problems are 
 superannuated, disconnected, and unreal. 
 
 Problems for Cultural Value. — A few simple prin- 
 ciples may be stated as to the character of the problems 
 to be used. m 
 
 (i) They should be vital. They should have a mean- 
 ing to the children. They may be drawn from their im- 
 mediate environment: from the home life, the school 
 life, the games played, from the other subjects studied, 
 as history, or geography, or manual training ; from cur- 
 rent events, — from any source of real and present interest. 
 There are enough such problems available without re- 
 sorting to the absurdities of the old books : " When will 
 the hound overtake the hare?" In addition to the 
 problems in the book, children should be required to 
 gather material and make many problems of their own 
 from actual conditions : the cost of a dinner, the build- 
 ing of a house or barn or rabbit hutch, the grading of a 
 street, the profits of a newsboy. Their world is full of 
 
Arithmetic 1 43 
 
 vital material for calculations of nearly all the sorts 
 found in a good arithmetic. 
 
 (2) There should be many connected problems, show- 
 ing various relations. A series of real problems involv- 
 ing many arithmetical processes is much more interest- 
 ing and requires more consecutive thought than many 
 separate problems employing the same operations, and 
 it imparts a more realistic view of life. Its content is 
 richer. 
 
 For example, imagine a contractor figuring on the 
 building of a house. Let the class draw the plans for 
 the house to scale, doing their own measuring and cal- 
 culating. Then let them take up the cost in detail: 
 the excavation, walling, and flooring of the cellar, the 
 building of the foundation, the lumber for the frame 
 and covering, the flooring, plastering, and finishing of 
 the interior, doors, and windows. Such a problem can 
 be extended indefinitely, to include furnishing, for in- 
 stance. The children should themselves make all the 
 measurements and drawings, ascertain the current prices 
 of all material, and estimate the total cost, including 
 labor. The cost of the lot, and of such improvements 
 as sewer P paving, and sidewalks may be added; also 
 rental value. Or, the property may be sold for a partial 
 cash payment and notes bearing interest. A fire may 
 occur and damage be estimated and insurance con- 
 sidered. 
 
 The possibilities of such a series of problems are in- 
 finite. Practically the whole field of arithmetic could 
 be covered. The limits are to be fixed by the degree 
 of advancement of the children and by interest. As 
 soon as interest wanes, a new topic should be taken. 
 
144 What Children Study and Why 
 
 For pupils unequal to such tasks simpler problems along 
 similar lines may be used, as the laying out and planning 
 of a school garden, the building of a trellis for vines, the 
 making of kites and other toys. 
 
 In the study of the really practical branches of the 
 applications of percentage many interesting series of 
 problems can be made that will give knowledge of civic 
 conditions and of business methods. Under taxation, for 
 example, local conditions should be found out by the 
 children: the valuation, what percentage of actual 
 value; the expenses of the various departments of the 
 government as the basis for taxation ; the fixing of the 
 rate upon the assessed valuation; the taxes paid upon 
 personal and real property; the amount paid by indi- 
 viduals. (This last would better be imaginary.) 
 
 While studying interest, it may be well to organize a 
 bank in the school with toy money and go through with 
 the operations, the children finding out by inquiry out- 
 side how the business is carried on. 
 
 Interesting and valuable problems may be taken from 
 geography, using census reports and other available 
 means of information ; comparisons of cities and states 
 in population, property valuation, business done in 
 various lines, figured in ratios and percentages; length 
 of journeys, miles of railroad and steamship lines; 
 manufactures, agricultural products, especially local in- 
 dustries, — all may be made to yield problems innumer- 
 able, while acquainting pupils with the world they live 
 on and in. The alert teacher will find in the bustling, 
 environing world an abundance of vital material for 
 calculation. 
 
 A few of the newer textbooks contain such problems 
 
Arithmetic 1 45 
 
 and suggestions for more. These should be supple- 
 mented by similar problems drawn from the immediate 
 environment and experience of the school. 
 
 The older books contain few such problems, if any. 
 The teachers compelled to use these books should sub- 
 stitute for their problems, in so far as possible, others 
 drawn from present available sources. These sources 
 include the school and home life of the children, current 
 events in the larger world, and practically all the other 
 subjects in the school curriculum. Care must be taken, 
 however, always to keep within the limits of natural 
 interest. Many dry statistical problems found in some 
 of the newer arithmetics are as truly a weariness of the 
 flesh as the worst of the senseless ones of the older books. 
 
 Resume. — I have endeavored to make plain how the 
 teaching of arithmetic may be directed toward its three 
 aims : (1) giving facility and accuracy in the use of 
 numbers, (2) training the children to " reason justly," 
 and (3) imparting such knowledge of the world and its 
 life as is expressed largely in numerical terms. 
 
 The first end is to be secured by developing in the 
 natural order of thought the various processes and then 
 drilling on the operations until the simpler ones become 
 automatic. The second end is to be secured by seeing 
 to it that all processes are thought through, substituting 
 the inductive for the authoritative method of approach, 
 and in the higher grades by the use of the symbol for 
 the unknown quantity, and of the equation. The third 
 end is to be secured incidentally, through choosing for 
 illustration and practice such problems as are real, vital, 
 and drawn largely from the field of the children's 
 knowledge and experience. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 History 
 
 The First " Fad." — History was the first of the 
 " fads " to find a lodgment in our common school 
 courses of study. Until the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century the younger pupils in the elementary school 
 studied reading, spelling, and arithmetic, and acquired 
 the art of writing. In addition the older pupils studied 
 grammar, and, later, geography was introduced. 
 
 These subjects were justified from one or both of two 
 motives, the " practical " and the " disciplinary." 
 None of them were so taught as to be cultural in the 
 broad sense. It is true, reading opened the door to the 
 broadest culture and geography might have been used 
 to bestow upon the children a wider horizon. But in 
 fact, the practical and disciplinary uses of these subjects 
 rather than their cultural possibilities constituted their 
 justification and generally determined the method of 
 instruction. It was not the province of the common 
 school to busy itself with those finer phases of thought 
 and feeling, that enlargement of view, that we call 
 culture. 
 
 Scant Culture. — Indeed, throughout the entire course 
 of schooling, including the college, culture received scant 
 courtesy. In the higher institutions discipline was the 
 aim. Even the practical was not considered. The 
 secondary schools were given over to Latin, Greek, and 
 
 146 
 
History 1 47 
 
 mathematics. And even these two ancient languages, 
 which at the time of the Renaissance had brought to 
 light an ancient culture and had established the new, 
 had fallen from their high estate and had become mere 
 disciplinary agents. The " Iliad " and the "iEneid " were 
 simply proofs of the rules of accent and prosody set 
 forth in the grammars. The " Anabasis " illustrated ad- 
 mirably the adverbial accusative. " Caesar's Commen- 
 taries " were perfect models of indirect discourse. 
 
 The colleges continued these disciplinary studies and 
 added metaphysics in the subjects of logic, psychology, 
 philosophy, and ethics with a theological squint. But 
 in the latter part of the century came a great awakening, 
 and history, the natural sciences, English literature, 
 modern languages, the arts, entered with a rush until 
 the curriculum became an overcrowded jumble, an un- 
 arranged syncope of human learning, out of which 
 gradually, by correlation, by excision, by selection, an 
 orderly educational course of study is coming, which 
 will be practical, disciplinary, and rich. 
 
 In the common elementary schools history was the 
 first innovation, a study not practical in the Gradgrind 
 sense, and, as taught, not possessing great disciplinary 
 value. It was informing and had a decided ethical pur- 
 pose. Indeed it is to this latter function that its rapid 
 extension in our schools was doubtless due. 
 
 History and the Civil War. — The sudden popularity 
 of history was coincidental with the close of our great 
 Civil War. Naturally and properly the history taught 
 was the history of the United States. The intensity of 
 feeling roused over our great conflict created a strong 
 desire to train the youth to patriotism. Those who had 
 
148 What Children Study and Why 
 
 borne a part in the struggle naturally desired that 
 their descendants be familiar with it in all its details of 
 cause and execution. Naturally, too, the importance 
 of a knowledge of the other great events of our national 
 life was realized, and so it very quickly became a law in 
 most States that the schools should teach the history 
 of the United States. 
 
 A New Motive. — Thus the principle was established 
 that public schools were directly concerned with citizen- 
 ship as such. From this the step to the introduction of 
 other subjects that are highly educational, and that 
 tend to produce citizens richly furnished with all that 
 makes for larger life, was logical and easily taken. 
 
 War in Earlier Histories. — The earlier histories for 
 schools were little more than chronicles of dates and rec- 
 ords of wars. The Civil War was the most conspicuous 
 event and was treated in minute detail. Infants were 
 set to judging of military campaigns. Sectional par- 
 tisanship was everywhere manifest. In the North the 
 southern contestants were wicked " Rebels." In the 
 South the northern contestants were unprincipled, in- 
 vading " Yanks." 
 
 Next to the Civil War the War of the Revolution filled 
 the most space. Here, too, an exaggerated patriotism 
 ruled; the wicked red-coated British were everywhere 
 whipped by the brave, virtuous patriots. Right was all 
 on one side, wrong all on the other. 
 
 Marking an Epoch. — However defective the books 
 and however biased the teaching, the introduction of 
 history into our elementary schools marked an epoch. 
 It was a definite admission by the taxpayer and voter, 
 the financial supporter of public schools, that these 
 
History 149 
 
 schools could properly provide instruction in subjects 
 on other grounds than their economic value or their 
 disciplinary effect. It was the first distinct admission 
 by the public school authorities of the duty or even the 
 right of these schools to take cognizance of the demands 
 of the higher natures of children. Compared with this 
 great step, inferior method and doubtful results are of 
 little consequence. Indeed most of the broadening and 
 enriching subjects have come into the curriculum limp- 
 ing, to be cured afterward. '- 
 
 Better Books and Methods. — Both textbooks on 
 history and methods of teaching it have greatly improved. 
 Some of the more recent textbooks have the genuine mer- 
 its of accuracy and of a readable, interesting style. The 
 methods used depend, of course, upon the skill and wis- 
 dom of the teacher. Most of the textbooks offer little 
 help in this regard. In addition to the textbooks there 
 are several history books for children, some of which 
 are used to supplement the textbooks, that are worthy 
 of commendation. 
 
 Limits of the Course. — At the present time, in most 
 elementary schools, the history of the United States is 
 taught from a two-book series, frequently supplemented 
 by " stories " of men and events. It is the exception 
 to find any other history in these schools. In the high 
 schools " general history " is taught in chunks from a 
 compendium ; in the better schools it is expanded and 
 supplemented by reading. History of the United States 
 is here too often either hastily reviewed or entirely 
 ignored. In the college, history is largely a matter of 
 specialization. So that it is quite possible for a graduate 
 from a first-class college to have received no instruction 
 
150 What Children Study and Why 
 
 in the history of his own country except the very small 
 amount of predigested information given in the grammar 
 school. This is no mere guess. Any community and any 
 school system can produce college graduates who have the 
 vaguest notions, if they have any at all, of the differences 
 between Hamilton and Jefferson, or just why the war 
 with Mexico was fought. This truly is an unhappy state. 
 
 Reasonable Demands. — Is it unreasonable to ask 
 that children who have completed a grammar school 
 course should be very familiar with the leading facts 
 of our national development, territorial, industrial, 
 political, and social, with, as a background, a little 
 knowledge of the other great nations of the past and 
 present, especially of the world-renowned names that are 
 significant of the evolution of civilization; that high 
 school graduates should have a fairly definite knowledge 
 of the great men and great nations of history and a pretty 
 thorough acquaintance with the manifest noteworthy 
 events of American history, and also some knowledge 
 of the metaphysical, commercial, social, or ethical motives 
 that caused them ; that college graduates should have 
 a quite clear view of the philosophy of history with a 
 thorough knowledge of at least one epoch or phase or 
 nation besides our own, and also a definite and philo- 
 sophical familiarity with the doctrines and the passions 
 that have made American history ? 
 
 Why Results are Poor. — If this is not an extreme 
 demand, it is one of which the present state offers little 
 even of promise. For the average student who passes 
 through our school system from kindergarten to college, 
 not one of these conditions is met. Why? In the ele- 
 mentary schools, because of a method, imposed by au- 
 
History 151 
 
 thorities and textbooks, compounded of ignorance and 
 tradition. In the secondary schools, because of a shilly- 
 shally vibration between devotion to a compendious 
 textbook on the one hand and an aping of university 
 specialization on the other. In the colleges, because 
 of extreme specialization under an elective system and 
 of sheer poor teaching, — the great defect of all our col- 
 leges, — in this instance, a taking for granted knowledge 
 that does not exist and a foolish rushing into " original 
 investigation," before laying a foundation in knowledge 
 of the broad facts of history and of the great world move- 
 ments. 
 
 What to Do. — What can be done about it? As this 
 book is concerned chiefly with the elementary schools, 
 I shall not attempt now to discuss the teaching of history 
 in higher schools, except in the briefest suggestions. 
 
 What should the elementary school attempt in history, 
 and how? 
 
 Need of General History. — Unquestionably the history 
 of our own country should be paramount here. But 
 this does not mean that the history of other nations 
 should be ignored. A knowledge of some phases of 
 world history is necessary to a comprehension of our 
 own national life. Even children need a background 
 for their pictures. There is no knowledge without com- 
 parison. If a basis for comparison is not supplied in 
 facts, the children will of necessity create one from the 
 imagination. We need patriotism, yet a patriotism not 
 narrow and ignorant, but broad and intelligent. This 
 is stimulated by a knowledge of our country's struggles, 
 of its heroes and of its triumphs, not viewed alone, how- 
 ever, but rather in comparison with the heroes, the strug- 
 
152 What Children Study and Why 
 
 gles, the triumphs, and defeats of other peoples. The 
 older pupils, as they begin to grasp the philosophical 
 causes that he back of all our history, need more and 
 more this comparison with the history of other times and 
 nations. Hence in all grades there should be presented 
 judicious selections of universal history as well as the his- 
 tory of our own nation, particularly of those phases and 
 events of universal history that were both the prelude 
 and the cause of our own national origin and develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Aims of Teaching History. — What are the aims of 
 instruction in history? 
 
 First, the development of intelligent patriotism. 
 
 Second, to furnish a basis for ethical judgment obtained 
 from a study of the efforts of men to realize their ideals, 
 the obstacles they have met, and the success or failure 
 attending these efforts, with reasons for such success or 
 failure. 
 
 Third, the broadening of the mind and the widening 
 of the horizon that necessarily follow a knowledge of 
 human activities on a large field and under many vary- 
 ing conditions. 
 
 Fourth, a sense of the uniformity of human motives, 
 of the solidarity of the race, of the dependence of the 
 present upon the past, — the evolution of civilization 
 through the action of universal, constant forces, — and 
 a belief in the brotherhood of man. 
 
 Naturally the possible appreciation of these motives 
 will vary with the age and intellectual capacities of the 
 children. But even the higher aims should be in the 
 minds of teachers of all grades, and some impressions 
 regarding them can be made upon even the quite young 
 
History 153 
 
 and immature. Of necessity the paramount aim for the 
 younger children will be patriotism, as broadly intelli- 
 gent as their mental states allow. This requires, as has 
 been said, some knowledge of those great names and 
 important events of world history that serve as a back- 
 ground for our own history. 
 
 To secure the ends outlined, what material should be 
 used and how should it be treated, first with the quite 
 young children, second with those older ? 
 
 As preliminary to this discussion it is necessary to 
 consider two debatable questions. 
 
 Place of Chronology. — The first concerns the chrono- 
 logical order of events. Is it best to follow this order 
 in teaching history to young children ? 
 
 The importance of the chronological order is, of course, 
 the relation of cause to effect. It is impossible to have a 
 comprehensive or philosophical view of an epoch or even 
 an event without a knowledge of what has gone before. 
 For instance, the French Revolution as a tale of un- 
 governed passions and mob violence may be sufficient to 
 itself, but its real significance is lost unless it is prefaced 
 by a view of the previous history, not only of France, but 
 of Europe. The wider the knowledge of what went be- 
 fore, the more significant is the story of this era of blood 
 and fury, and knowledge of both the revolution and its 
 causes is necessary to a comprehension of the Napoleonic 
 era. 
 
 Our own Revolution is almost meaningless without 
 acquaintance, not only with the earlier colonial history, 
 but with European conditions as well. 
 
 This consideration determines the importance of the 
 chronological order in teaching history in high school and 
 
154 What Children Study and Why 
 
 college, in the latter especially as a necessary condition 
 to specialization. But we cannot hope to give young 
 children a philosophical or comprehensive view of even 
 those occurrences that they may study with interest and 
 profit. At first we can give them only simple and in- 
 dividual impressions'. The only causes that they can 
 comprehend are present and manifest causes. Chronol- 
 ogy means little to a child. To him "Once upon a time " 
 is as definite as "In the eighteenth century," and "Long, 
 long ago " as " Fifty years ago." He has no compre- 
 hension of long periods of time. The child in the primary 
 grades can understand that once his grandfather's grand- 
 father, and other people who lived in this country at that 
 time, thought they were not fairly treated and were not 
 willing to be ruled by people across the ocean, who made 
 them pay taxes without giving them an opportunity to 
 say anything about it, and so they made Washington 
 their general, fought these rulers, drove them out and 
 elected their own rulers. He can understand that La- 
 fayette and other Frenchmen came over and helped them. 
 But he cannot understand the deep significance of this 
 rebellion or the political condition of Europe which made 
 success possible. 
 
 For the very young children, history should be re- 
 duced to stories of heroes without much regard for the 
 order of events. 
 
 The Psychological Order. — Moreover, there is a 
 psychological relation of conditions and events, often 
 quite remote from their chronological order. There is 
 doubtless a certain amount of truth in the " development 
 epoch " theory, which is, briefly, that each child during 
 his mental growth passes through the various stages that 
 
History 155 
 
 the race has passed through in the process of its evolu- 
 tion ; that, for example, he becomes in turn a savage, a 
 nomad, and the rest. At least there is proof enough in 
 this theory to justify the presentation at the same time 
 of phases of history that are similar to one another and 
 correspond somewhat to the present state of the child, 
 without regard to their chronological order. 
 
 " The childhood of the race " is not merely a distant 
 state to be studied in monuments and ancient heroic 
 poems ; it is an ever present fact. As far back as history 
 goes there were living, side by side, nations in a state of 
 advanced civilization sloping toward decay, and savages, 
 as well as people just emerging into a semi-civilization. 
 The racial childhood portrayed in Homer existed at the 
 same time with the old and mature civilization of Egypt 
 and nations farther east. When Rome was declining 
 toward her fall, the Germanic peoples were just begin- 
 ning to look forward to their toga virilis. 
 
 And it is so to-day. We have all stages, from ancient 
 and decadent Persia, through the declining Latin races, 
 the vigorous adult Saxon peoples, the young, unde- 
 veloped, but advancing Russian nation, the childish 
 Filipino, to the African savage, yet in swaddling clothes. 
 
 Hence stories of peoples in a state of racial childhood 
 may be obtained from any age, and for the purposes for 
 which such stories are profitable, the era makes little 
 difference. A group of stories of primitive heroes taken 
 from many nations in as many ages is quite as good for 
 ethical ends as one taken from a single age. And one 
 order of arrangement is practically as good as another. 
 
 The best way to inculcate patriotism is not always to 
 tell of our own heroes alone, and of their successful ex- 
 
156 What Children Study and Why 
 
 ploits against their foes, but to give stories of brave men 
 who did brave deeds in war or peace, who made sacrifices, 
 who lived good lives for their country, whatever that 
 country was. Buddha, Aristides, Horatius, Gustavus, 
 Tell, Winkelried, Garibaldi, Toussaint, Gladstone, plus 
 Washington, Lincoln, and our other national heroes, 
 make a better list for this purpose than our heroes alone, 
 and in such a list for such a purpose chronology cuts no 
 figure. 
 
 Chronology subordinated in Primary Schools. — In 
 the primary schools the orderly teaching of history may 
 easily be overdone, and the very end we seek be lost by 
 an attempt to force chronology upon the children before 
 they are ready for it. In the primary schools, then, 
 where history is taught almost wholly for its ethical 
 value, chronology should receive the slightest attention, 
 and that should be confined wholly to the history of the 
 United States. In the general history stories used in the 
 grades no regard should be paid to the time order. 
 
 Relations that Primary Children can Grasp. — Chil- 
 dren, such as are found in the average primary school, can 
 have slight conception of the relations of effects to re- 
 mote causes. The effects must be immediate and glar- 
 ing for them. Moreover, psychological relations are 
 much more easily grasped than geographical or political 
 relations. 
 
 Injustice calls for immediate resistance, or poetic 
 justice. Sudden danger calls for bravery. Moral emer- 
 gencies demand moral courage. Suffering is cause for 
 pity and help. " Freedom to worship God " is reason 
 enough for the coming of the Pilgrims. The long, com- 
 plex struggle of creeds and the contests of clerical and 
 
History 1 57 
 
 civil powers which were the remote causes of the pil- 
 grimage are meaningless to children. The noble triumph 
 of Joseph teaches its own lesson and satisfies the instinct 
 for poetic justice, whereas the ceaseless struggle of a 
 commercial race against both the agricultural and the 
 military, which the history of the Jews in Egypt really 
 typifies, is for adults only. General Putnam riding down 
 the perilous steps is picturesque and inspiring to children, 
 and requires neither time relations nor philosophy to give 
 it force. So the immortal story of Sir Philip is worth 
 more to primary children than the list of England's 
 sovereigns " in order duly set." 
 
 All of these historical tales rest for their interest upon 
 a psychological motive. The relation of effect to cause is 
 direct, immediate, and manifest. Hence, they are good 
 stories to serve as an introduction to history. Groups 
 of such stories, selected and arranged with regard to the 
 natural development of children's interests, with an 
 ethical rather than a political or an informing purpose, 
 and giving especial attention to the history of our own 
 national life, constitute the best material for history 
 teaching in the primary grades. 
 
 In the Grammar Grades. — In the grammar grades, 
 naturally, increasing attention should be paid to the 
 sequential order. The history of the United States may 
 here be presented chronologically. But even in these 
 grades, care must be taken not to overwork chronology. 
 The earlier ethical motive has not been outlived. Nor 
 have the children suddenly become able to appre- 
 ciate the historical succession of events as explained by 
 social philosophy. 
 
 In general history the psychological order still is better 
 
158 What Children Study and Why 
 
 than the time order. An orderly knowledge of world 
 history is as yet beyond the children. 
 
 In the higher grammar grades, then, while the study of 
 the history of our country may be pursued strictly in the 
 order of events, general history should still be taught 
 chiefly in selected incidents or series of incidents. Bi- 
 ography may give way to a considerable degree to the 
 stories of great epochs, treated in an orderly manner so as 
 to emphasize increasingly the relations of these events to 
 consequences less immediate than those formerly con- 
 sidered. Geographical motives, such, for example, as the 
 effect of mountain barriers between nations, and certain 
 political motives, such as desire of conquest, may be in- 
 troduced. The history of England and of certain other 
 European nations as related to the settlement of America 
 should be given with some fullness. Especially should 
 the history of England as it bears upon the struggle for 
 independence receive quite full and orderly treatment. 
 Without such a background it is impossible to under- 
 stand the birth and childhood of the American nation. 
 
 In the High Schools. — In the high school the chrono- 
 logical order should rule, to make plain the dependence 
 of the development of each age upon the preceding, and 
 to give that enlargement of vision which constitutes one 
 of the chief values of the study of history. 
 
 In the Colleges. — In the college the study should be, 
 of course, chronological, but it should be more. It 
 should be philosophical and should give the student an 
 insight into the deeper human motives of action, out of 
 which grow ideals, moral judgment, and an appreciation 
 of the relations of both to individual conduct and to the 
 progress of humanity. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 History {Continued) 
 
 The second of the preliminary questions to be discussed 
 is the place of biography in the teaching of history. 
 Should history be taught to children as a series of great 
 events, the evolution of an ever changing society, or 
 as centering about the lives of significant men? Shall 
 we follow Freeman or Carlyle in our teaching? 
 
 Nature of History. — Naturally this inquiry raises 
 the larger question of what history is. Is it a narrative 
 of evolution due to countless unconscious forces, geo- 
 graphical, psychological, social, or is it the record of 
 master minds controlling their fellows and consciously 
 leading to determined ends? This is too great a ques- 
 tion for discussion here, except as it touches the teach- 
 ing of history to the young. Indeed, it can be answered 
 only by a compromise statement. History is doubtless 
 the result of both conscious and unconscious forces. 
 Geographical conditions, the forces of earth, air, and sky, 
 affecting man's physical wants and their gratification; 
 psychological conditions — the aspirations of men and 
 the consequent struggles to satisfy them; social condi- 
 tions — the relations of men with men, governed by love 
 or hate, need or greed, the never ceasing battle between 
 those who would enslave and those who would be free, 
 — these are great forces, and without doubt they largely 
 determine the activities of individuals, and hence of 
 nations and of races. 
 
 159 
 
160 What Children Study and Why 
 
 On the other hand, great and significant movements 
 must have leaders. And not only so, these movements 
 sometimes are personified in the leaders, without whom 
 they never would have occurred, because the masses 
 would not even have known their needs or have had the 
 desire to change. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive the Jewish exodus and long 
 wandering without Moses. In an unusual sense Gari- 
 baldi was Free Italy, and Mohammed was the fanatical, 
 bloody, conquering Moslem host. 
 
 In the college, the teaching of history should treat 
 fully both these sources of historic movements, and also 
 should train the student to discriminate causes. The 
 philosophic view, which is the proper college view of the 
 subject, includes of necessity both conscious or personal 
 forces and those greater unconscious motives which may 
 be called cosmic ; and this view is necessary to the ma- 
 ture student. 
 
 History for the Child. — How is it with the child ? 
 What is the relation of these broad views of the 
 subject to the ends of teaching history to him, as 
 enumerated in the preceding chapter: ethical training, 
 — especially in patriotism, — moral judgment, and cul- 
 ture? 
 
 Moral Judgment Personal. — To the immature mind 
 all moral states and judgments are strictly personal. 
 Indeed, this is true of most older people. Few of us can 
 conceive abstract moral conditions as applied to national 
 life or even corporate life. When we do try to picture 
 the moral characteristics of the action of a mass, we unify 
 the mass and make a single magnified individual. With 
 children this is especially true. 
 
History l6l 
 
 The Culture Element. — The element that we call 
 culture is not confined to mature minds, of course, but in 
 immature minds necessarily it is immature, — the " ever 
 flowing." It is an intangible, almost volatile, product 
 of experiences that to the individual are rich. If the 
 individual be a child, the experiences must be childish, 
 and the resulting culture childish. Any system of educa- 
 tion that tends to secure mature views and the expression 
 of mature judgments from children is distorting, shallow, 
 and harmful. It makes prigs, and fattens that conceit 
 that is necessarily a bar to growth. 
 
 Danger of Generalizations. — The most common form 
 of this particular evil in our schools is thrusting into the 
 mouths of children those sweeping generalizations that 
 of necessity they must take entire or not at all. This 
 is most manifest in the ordinary way of teaching morals, 
 giving children those half truths that are commonly stated 
 in proverbs, and expecting them to base moral judgments 
 upon them. Moral precepts given in the ordinary 
 allopathic doses are responsible for much real immorality. 
 
 The bearing of all this upon the subject in hand is this. 
 Generalization is the last product of thought upon a series 
 of phenomena. Along the route from the first observa- 
 tion to the generalization are thousands of pitfalls. 
 Even trained minds often fall into one or more of these. 
 Witness all the strange, discarded theories of science, 
 from that of the earth resting on a turtle's back to that 
 of the hot polar sea. 
 
 In history it is especially difficult to form clear con- 
 ceptions of the motives and causes of great movements 
 as such. The crusades and the world-wide emancipation 
 movement were due to so many mixed motives that 
 
1 62 What Children Study and Why- 
 
 generalization with the eyes shut is far easier than scien- 
 tific analysis. 
 
 When such master minds as Hegel and Lecky go astray 
 in attempts to synthesize movements involving the heart- 
 beats, the appetites, the prejudices, the passions, of 
 millions of individuals, and to treat of their combined 
 activities as a single force, what can be expected of the 
 ordinary mind, and especially of a child's mind ? 
 
 In physics, the resultant of many forces may be ac- 
 curately measured ; not so in metaphysics. But this is 
 what history, considering great national or racial move- 
 ments, assumes to do. This is the philosophy of history, 
 and hard as it is, it is proper effort for the human mind 
 to study man, not merely in the individual, but in the 
 mass composed of individuals. I pursue a certain course 
 each day from mixed motives. My ninety million 
 neighbors do likewise. The resultant of these ninety 
 million and one courses of action constitutes the history 
 of the United States at the present time. It shapes all 
 policies, fixes all compromises, is responsible for all good 
 and all evil that come into our national life, and from it 
 into each individual life. But to determine what this 
 resultant is and to state it clearly is not so easy. Few 
 succeed in doing it. Only the historian long removed 
 from its passions, with the perspective of distance, can 
 hope to approximate a true conception of it. But this 
 is history, and the mind trying to grasp it receives a 
 training, a culture, that few studies can supply. The 
 young child, however, who thinks as a child, under- 
 stands as a child, cannot touch it. If we force it upon 
 him, he gets mere words. For him, motive is individual, 
 actions and results are individual, history is individual. 
 
History 1 63 
 
 Carlyle rather than Freeman. — It follows that in order 
 to secure the ends aimed at in teaching history to children, 
 the doctrine of Carlyle, rather than that of Freeman, 
 should rule in the main. The study of history by chil- 
 dren should be largely the study of heroes, individuals 
 who loom large, who appeal to the imagination, who may 
 become ideals. In time Lincoln and Lee will come to 
 personify all that was greatest and best in the contrasting 
 ideals that fought to a finish in our Civil War; and to 
 children it is much better that they should be so pre- 
 sented and studied, than that time should be consumed in 
 learning the details of military campaigns, now of im- 
 portance only to the professional soldier. 
 
 Other Centers of Study. — This general statement may 
 be modified to a certain extent. Sometimes a single great 
 and picturesque event, such as the battle of Bunker Hill 
 or the signing of the Declaration of Independence, may 
 make a better central study than the name of any indi- 
 vidual. The important truth is that individual narrative, 
 with all the definiteness, positiveness, and picturesque 
 detail of a novel, is better history for children than either 
 the chronicle or the philosophical generalization of the 
 " sweep of events." 
 
 Subjects must be Vital. — In the primary schools it 
 makes little difference in what ages the scenes of the 
 narrative are laid, so long as they are " once upon a time." 
 But the subjects must be vital, and must have a direct 
 bearing upon one or more of the ends for which history 
 is taught, and the story must be vivid and convincing. 
 
 In the grammar schools, along with a somewhat more 
 orderly treatment of the subject, events as such may re- 
 ceive fuller consideration. Not only may causal time 
 
164 What Children Study and Why 
 
 sequences begin to appear in the course, but to a degree 
 the hero may give place to the group, the " Black Knight, 
 with his single lance," to the army following its leader. 
 But the general method may not be changed. The time 
 has not come for much generalization, nor for the syn- 
 thesizing of individual acts into the acts of masses. The 
 fields studied must still be small and easily scanned. The 
 individual must still be paramount. 
 
 The Local Center. — There must always be a local 
 center of interest of major significance, about which events 
 and personalities of minor consequence naturally group 
 themselves. Such centers may be the names of great 
 leaders, as Richard of the Lion Heart, the names of places, 
 as Runnymede, or single important events like the Dred 
 Scott decision, or even wider movements, provided 
 they are definite and picturesque, like the " Children's 
 Crusade." But they must be real centers, significant and 
 suggestive, and they must be so selected that they will 
 surely find apperceiving centers in the children's minds to 
 welcome them, and then will create new centers. In the 
 choice of such events the rules as to chronology laid down 
 in the preceding chapter should be heeded. Remember 
 that in the grammar school the chronological order of 
 American history may be followed with some closeness, 
 but in general history it is still of slight consequence. 
 In these grades the advance in logical thinking and in 
 the comprehension of causal relations should receive 
 recognition rather in the selection of central subjects and 
 in the grouping of related events and persons about these, 
 than in the chronological order. 
 
 Take, for example, the characters and the events that 
 center about the name of Queen Elizabeth. Many events 
 
History 165 
 
 of sufficient significance in themselves to serve as topics 
 for volumes of history find in the unique personality of 
 the " Virgin Queen " a center at once unifying and pic- 
 turesque. For the young student just opening his eyes 
 to the relations of history, better than the chronological 
 order, better than the logical sequence of events, is this 
 single striking individual. Bacon and the birth of 
 modern science, Raleigh and the early settlements of 
 the New World, Shakespeare and the literary flood, 
 Queen Mary and the Spanish Armada, with all the con- 
 fused struggles of churches and states, — a morass in 
 which the youth is so easily lost, — all these seem to solve 
 themselves in the person of the queen. At least the 
 young student who is taught to group them all about her 
 gets a clear picture of events and their relations that 
 is quite sufficient for his needs, and vastly more satis- 
 factory than any other possible view. 
 
 In all grades, at least below the college, the choice of 
 centers of historical interest is of the utmost importance, 
 greatly transcending that of chronological sequence. 
 Grouping occurrences about a logical center avoids both 
 the scrappiness of disconnected stories and the tedium 
 of chronology. It secures perspective and balance, 
 which both the other methods lack. 
 
 Need of Discrimination. — A most important corollary 
 to the above advocacy of the use of centers of interest 
 in teaching history is the need of discrimination in re- 
 gard to what to teach. Perhaps the chief objection 
 to the chronological sequence is the deadly monot- 
 ony due to the lack of discriminating emphasis. This is 
 especially noticeable in those compendiums of histor- 
 ical facts that commonly serve as " school histories." 
 
1 66 Wnat Children Study and Why 
 
 Nothing stands out. All events are reduced to the dead 
 level of the chronicle. The date is " the thing," and each 
 date must receive its appropriate tag, all of equal size 
 and of the same color. This is historical impartiality 
 with a vengeance. If any one thinks this stricture ex- 
 aggerated, let him select any six school histories and try 
 to read them. If this does not result in a loss of historical 
 perspective, it will be because the soporific qualities of 
 the books save him. 
 
 The Good Story. — Few historians, even the great 
 ones, can tell a good story, and those who do succeed in 
 this are likely to be accused by their rivals of being 
 " literary rather than scientific," — Macaulay, for ex- 
 ample. Be this as it may, I have no doubt that the 
 historian who can tell a good story, still keeping within 
 the metaphysical bounds of truth, is the one who will 
 find the readers and will exert the widest and most 
 beneficial influence. Herodotus and Xenophon were 
 good story tellers. So were Livy and Caesar and Tacitus. 
 So in later times have been Froude, Macaulay, Pres- 
 cott, Parkman, and John Fiske, not to mention other 
 conspicuous examples. 
 
 At any rate, and especially for children, history must 
 be story, and the writers of history for schools should tell 
 stories, instead of being, as they are in the main, the 
 dullest of chroniclers. Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather," 
 not to mention his novels, the much-derided Dickens' 
 " Child's History of England," Hawthorne's " Grand- 
 father's Chair," and — yes, don't gasp — J. S. C. 
 Abbott's once widely read histories have done more to 
 arouse interest in the study of history and to stimulate 
 ideals among the young than all the " school histories " 
 
History 167 
 
 ever written. Call them by your pet opprobrious epi- 
 thet if you will ; they have been undisguised blessings, 
 and I doubt not that an honest confession would dis- 
 close the fact that most of the readers of this article who 
 are really interested in history got their earliest enthu- 
 siasm from one or more of these books. 
 
 Importance of Selection. — These books, and others 
 that have the secret of story telling, discriminate between 
 the important and the unimportant. With unerring 
 judgment they choose the single significant and pictur- 
 esque persons, events, times, places, or objects, and ar- 
 range dramatic plots about them; and this is what the 
 teacher must do who would make his work vital and 
 lasting. 
 
 Don't try to teach everything. Have the courage of 
 your convictions and spend your time in developing a 
 few central ideas with considerable fullness, so as to give 
 the historical sense and raise the subject out of the plane 
 of mere memory. 
 
 Choose the Inspiring. — Not only must discrimination 
 be practiced regarding the political importance and pic- 
 turesqueness of events, but choice, in so far as possible, 
 should favor those occurrences that are likely to prove 
 helpful toward the higher moral ends of teaching his- 
 tory. Civilization, properly presented, is more inspiring 
 than barbarism, peaceful achievements than war, free- 
 dom than tyranny. 
 
 Greatness of Peace. — Especially should strong efforts 
 be made to arouse interest in the arts of peace rather 
 than those of war. This will not always be easy. 
 History, as written, is too much a record of wars 
 and too little of the achievements of peace. From 
 
1 68 What Children Study and Why 
 
 one point of view this is not unnatural. War is 
 picturesque, and appeals to the admiration for the 
 heroic always present in the minds of the young. 
 These elements are often lacking in the records of 
 peace. Hence it is more difficult to write a history 
 that shall record the progress of civilization in times of 
 peace and at the same time supply the elements of in- 
 terest, picturesqueness, and heroic conduct essential to 
 a history for the young. Such a history requires greater 
 skill in both the writer and the teacher. But this fact 
 should not deprive the children in the schools of the ad- 
 vantages to be gained from acquaintance with the higher 
 ideals. 
 
 War may not be Ignored. — It is not to be inferred from 
 this, however, that war is to be either ignored or slightly 
 treated in school histories. That would be an error 
 perhaps even more serious than the prevailing one. War 
 is unfortunately a great and conspicuous fact in history, 
 whose influence on the world's progress has been beyond 
 calculation. It has produced the highest heroism as 
 well as the grossest brutality. It shows men at their 
 best and at their worst. No history would be even ap- 
 proximately complete which failed to give due prominence 
 to the great struggles for liberty or even to the wars of 
 conquest, or which failed to make much of great military 
 heroes. In a general way the great wars of the world's 
 history show the great aims for which men were strug- 
 gling ; they show the climaxes of historic epochs. 
 
 My contention is for a better balancing of values. The 
 great movements, conquests, and heroes of peace should 
 receive their due share of attention. Not merely the 
 military leaders, but the leaders of thought, of ideals, of 
 
History 169 
 
 the arts, of commerce, of manufacture, of finance, should 
 be accorded the distinction that their greatness deserves. 
 
 In this country we have had four great wars and 
 several minor ones. They have developed heroes, and 
 two of them especially have been fundamental to our 
 development as a nation. But they have occupied in all 
 but a few years of time. All the other years of our cen- 
 tury and a quarter have been filled with the struggles 
 and the conquests of peace. They, too, have developed 
 heroes, and through them our greatness has been attained. 
 So they should receive by far the larger share of space 
 in our histories. That this is not the case, even the 
 most casual examination of current school histories will 
 show. 
 
 Need of Grouping. — What is needed is to bring out 
 the greatness of these conquests of peace by a careful, 
 logical, and picturesque grouping of their records about 
 suitable centers of interest, either persons or events. 
 The growth of a great city like New York or Chicago 
 may well serve as such a center, for the great cities are 
 ganglia of nerves that reach to every part of the land, 
 and in their growth and its causes is bound up the 
 growth of the country. Such inventions as the cotton 
 gin, the telegraph, the steam engine, and other means 
 of communication, may also well serve as centers for 
 great groups of attendant and dependent facts. 
 
 It should be always kept in mind that peaceful growth 
 is the ultimate hope of history, that all men, even soldiers, 
 look forward to the time when " nation shall not lift up 
 sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
 more." 
 
 The movement toward permanent peace among the 
 
170 What Children Study and Why 
 
 nations, though still in its beginning, is yet the most 
 significant fact of the present era. The " federation of 
 the world " should be kept before all minds as the highest 
 ideal of history. To this noble end the schools can con- 
 tribute by making the events and the heroes of peace 
 appear to the children in their true light, as even greater 
 than those of war. 
 
 Summary. — 1. History in our schools should be 
 mainly biography. 
 
 2. It should include both American and " general " 
 history. 
 
 3. In the primary schools, chronology should be dis- 
 regarded. In the grammar schools the American history 
 taught should follow chronology moderately. General 
 history should give little attention to it. In the higher 
 schools chronological relations assume increasing im- 
 portance. 
 
 4. History, whether chronological or not, should be 
 taught about carefully chosen, picturesque centers of 
 interest — persons, places, significant events or objects. 
 
 5. Discrimination should be exercised in choosing what 
 to teach. The dead level of the chronicle should be 
 avoided. 
 
 6. The highest ideals should be kept to the fore. 
 Peace should appear as greater than war. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Geography 
 
 Geography a Conglomerate. — Geography, "as she is 
 taught," is a strange composite of subjects, including, 
 besides the sciences, a little history, a little philosophy, 
 politics, sociology, anthropology, religion, and literature, 
 which with more or less reason from time to time have 
 been grouped about the name. As a " Description of the 
 Earth," it is made to include all that is in it, on it, or 
 about it. The earth may be studied as a member of the 
 solar system ; as a geological product ; as a sphere hav- 
 ing an irregular surface, partly land, partly water, in 
 various forms and presenting various appearances; as 
 the abode and support of life, both vegetable and animal, 
 varying according to the above-mentioned conditions ; 
 as the home of man, supplying him with his support and 
 partly, at least, determining his character and his pur- 
 suits ; and as the scene of human history and the present 
 ground of human effort, divided among the nations of the 
 world, according to race, intelligence, power, and other 
 conditions. Each one of these subjects is a vast one. 
 Yet they all have been first amplified and then squeezed 
 into the compass of a school textbook for the consumption 
 of children. 
 
 In its present state geography is an almost hopeless 
 subject. The doctors disagree. No two authors of text- 
 books take the same view as to what should be taught. 
 
 171 
 
172 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Naturally enough the teachers are at sea, and the result 
 in school is too often altogether barren. 
 
 Selection Needed. — What is most needed is a wise 
 and workable plan of selection and coordination. But 
 unfortunately most of the experts who have thus far 
 written for us either textbooks or discussions on the 
 teaching of the subject have been too eager to give their 
 views as to the incomparable importance of their pet 
 fields of knowledge to present us with a sane and 
 judicial treatment. 
 
 It is necessary to determine first the ability of chil- 
 dren, at varying stages of growth, to learn geography in 
 order to ascertain what and how much might be taught 
 profitably, given unlimited time. It is necessary, in the 
 second place, to take up the question of time and 
 determine how much and what of this possible maximum 
 may properly be attempted within the time limits of a 
 school course of study. 
 
 It is from this point of view almost of greater manifest 
 importance to determine what should not be attempted 
 than to tell what should be taught. The importance of 
 the undertaking can hardly be overstated, because I am 
 inclined to think that over geography and its allied sub- 
 jects more time is wasted in school than over any other 
 subject, not excepting arithmetic. 
 
 I can merely speak as a layman, and I very modestly 
 offer the following suggestions : 
 
 Fundamental Defects. — The fundamental defects of 
 most teaching of geography are first the attempt to give 
 a knowledge of facts physically and psychologically re- 
 mote from the children, before the necessary geographic 
 concepts have been created, and, second, the continual 
 
Geography 173 
 
 presentation of verbal statements beyond the apper- 
 ceptive range of the children learning them, which con- 
 sequently are to them merely idle words. 
 
 Geographic Concepts of a Child. — Let us consider the 
 possible geographic concepts of a child of ten or eleven 
 years, the age at which most children take a textbook 
 in geography. If he has not been taught in school, he 
 knows direction ; something of distance ; the location of 
 the buildings and other notable objects of his neighbor- 
 hood; such physical features as he has seen, probably 
 hills and valleys, possibly lakes, rivers, brooks, and an 
 ocean, — varying with the locality. He knows some- 
 thing of the vegetation growing immediately about 
 him, and will have a few surmises as to other kinds 
 which he finds at the grocery. In like manner he 
 knows a limited number of animals. He also knows 
 weather. He is familiar with industries in a general 
 way, with one or two quite intimately. He knows a 
 few types of people, generally so modified as to have 
 more resemblances than differences. If he lives in 
 one of the very large cities, his knowledge of types of 
 people and of industries will be much greater, and of 
 plants, animals, and physical phenomena correspondingly 
 less. If he lives in the country, the reverse will be true. 
 If he fives in a village or a small city, his apperceiving 
 centers will vary toward one extreme or the other. But 
 this knowledge is all purely local, and when extended by 
 the imagination into remoter fields goes out unmodified. 
 That is, the children imagine the farmers and the mer- 
 chants and the manufacturers of foreign countries, of 
 whom they learn in their geography books, as like the 
 farmers and merchants and manufacturers that they see 
 
174 What Children Study and Why 
 
 about them, and they cannot conceive them to be dif- 
 ferent excepting as the result of new experiences or of 
 good teaching. Such differences as they do imagine 
 belong in the same class as fairy stories. The geography 
 of Sindbad the Sailor's voyages is much more real to 
 many children than that of Europe, the difference be- 
 ing solely in vividness of impression and not at all in 
 accuracy. 
 
 Depends on Imagination. — This suggests the funda- 
 mental difficulty in teaching geography. It depends 
 so completely on the imagination. The children must 
 project themselves into a purely imaginary world. In 
 no other subject is this so completely true, not even in 
 history. It is necessary to establish a point of contact 
 between the real and the imaginary so that the former 
 may be carried over into the latter, making the pictures 
 of the unknown true. If the steps are too long, the 
 children's feet are lifted off the ground entirely. 
 
 What is here described may be called the natural 
 state of the average child as to geographical concepts. 
 They are really all individual. He generalizes, of course, 
 but his generalizations are merely the extensions of his 
 limited experiences to unlimited and absurd lengths. 
 The city child imagines all milk coming in bottles. A 
 little boy said, " Mamma, who puts the bottle of milk 
 at our door every night while we are asleep? " " What 
 a foolish question," said the foolish mother ; " Why do 
 you ask that? " " Well," answered the child, " I s'pose 
 God does, but I wanted to be sure." A child in the 
 mountains for the first time, where the milk came 
 from the local dairy, said to her mother, " I don't like 
 cow's milk; I like Borden's better." To one imagi- 
 
Geography 175 
 
 native child Olympus is as remote as heaven and as 
 unreal. To a second as described in " Snowbound," 
 it is the local Huckleberry Hill magnified and peopled 
 with strange beings. To a third, whose imagination 
 has not been stirred, it is merely a word. Mani- 
 festly, the second state is the only one that leads to 
 geography. 
 
 As to astronomical geography, the child's concepts 
 are even more vague. He has almost nothing to go on. 
 He sees the heavenly bodies, it is true, but he cannot 
 imagine the earth one of them. Such grotesque pic- 
 tures as appear from time to time in the comic journals 
 are more likely to convey to him some clear ideas of the 
 earth as a heavenly body than do all the geography books. 
 However, in childhood it is of little consequence whether 
 the earth is a globe or a platter, so long as the sun and 
 the moon and the stars rise in the east and set in the west, 
 and season succeeds season, though of course it is well 
 to tell children that the earth is round and let them grow 
 into the knowledge. 
 
 To recapitulate, the average child beginning to use 
 a primary geography, if previously untaught, has a 
 meager knowledge of the people he has seen, their char- 
 acteristics and employments. He also knows the topog- 
 raphy of his home town more or less completely and of 
 such places as he may have visited. That is his equip- 
 ment for the study of geography, except an unlimited 
 imagination which tends to make a supernatural product 
 of everything partially known, of everything described 
 in words outside his experience. This statement covers 
 fairly well the range of knowledge, hence of apperceiving 
 centers, of the average child not specially taught. 
 
176 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Acquired Concepts. — But children in the average 
 modern school when taking a textbook in geography 
 are not in " the natural state." They have been given 
 a great number of elementary geographic concepts in 
 school, through oral instruction and through sup- 
 plementary readers. It is important to consider this 
 possible enlargement of the apperceiving possibilities. 
 What does it commonly give? What should it give? 
 How does it affect the first use of the textbook ? 
 
 We must assume that instruction in any subject, at any 
 time, is for the training of the minds and the enrichment 
 of the lives of the children at the time, and not merely 
 to prepare them for the use of a textbook later. 
 
 The Imagination. — The first three years of school, 
 before a textbook is used in geography, cover the period 
 of the most vivid imagination of the whole school life. 
 They are the days when fairy tales and nature myths ap- 
 peal most strongly, when the mind can see in the unknown 
 likeness to the known, but when differences readily run 
 into grotesque images. Little boys and little girls and 
 their fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and 
 pet animals are the same the world over, but unfamiliar 
 creatures, unknown powers, readily become hideous 
 monsters or kindly, absurd beasts. 
 
 It is the childhood of the race over again. Gods and 
 goddesses, fairies, nymphs, ogres, dragons, dwarfs, 
 giants, valkyrs, angels, represent flights of the imagina- 
 tion attempting to compass that which has no prototype 
 or parallel in experience. 
 
 So the early geographies made the unknown parts of 
 the world totally unlike the known parts. The imagi- 
 nation, unchecked by knowledge, ran riot in two-headed 
 
Geography 177 
 
 giants, one-footed men, serpents coiled about the earth, 
 turtles and fish as its supports, the heavens above, the 
 earth beneath, and the waters under the earth. Scylla 
 and Charybdis, Niflheim and Valhalla, Olympus and 
 Hades, were mere attempts at geography, unguided by 
 a sane apperception. The voyages of Ulysses, the travels 
 of Sir John Mandeville, the wanderings of Sindbad, all 
 belong to the same class ; and children, given geographic 
 terms beyond their apperceptive powers, but appealing to 
 their imaginations, are likely to make just such journey- 
 ings. Truly, however, this is better than the deadly 
 instruction whose words are drugs stupefying even the 
 imagination. 
 
 Important Concepts. — What concepts of the world 
 should teachers seek to implant during the first three 
 years of school ? Naturally, such as grow out of the 
 most vivid knowledge that the children have. That is, 
 people, — the family, the playmates, the neighbors ; 
 the home environment, — food, bed, fireside, play, work ; 
 animals and plants, — all the concerns of child life. 
 
 Which of these can be extended most readily into the 
 world beyond the immediate ken ? That may vary with 
 the circumstances. But I should say, first, child life 
 in its most material aspects, — food, clothing, games, 
 parental care, cold, heat, school, also the employments 
 of others within the daily observation. How can this 
 be done? I must repeat, all geographic knowledge 
 except that obtained by direct observation comes through 
 the imagination. Hence, facts taught to children, to 
 be of value, must be extensive, that is, they must prepare 
 the minds for the production of correct images of the 
 remote and unseen when described in words. It is the 
 
178 What Children Study and Why 
 
 failure to consider this that has often reduced to ab- 
 surdity so-called " home geography," making it merely 
 a statement of the obvious. The bare fact, like a 
 smooth round pebble, has little educational worth. 
 A fact must be covered with hooks to give it value. 
 
 Hence, the geographic ideas to be given during these 
 primary school years are to be estimated by their pos- 
 sible relations, the strength and tenacity of their tentacles, 
 rather than by their manifest substance. They must 
 produce the sort of intelligence that prepares the way 
 for further intelligence. This is rather vague, I admit. 
 It does not tell what to teach. And, indeed, it is im- 
 possible to dogmatize about that. 
 
 Influence of Environment. — So much depends upon 
 what the children of any school are likely to have seen 
 and heard before coming to school. The first lessons 
 for a class in Louisiana should be different in many 
 respects from those for a class in Maine, because the 
 " known " differs. To a child in southern California 
 grass is an exotic raised on lawns with great difficulty. 
 To a child in Minnesota bananas and oranges occur only 
 on fruit stands and at the grocer's. 
 
 The first steps from the known cannot be very long, 
 especially because of the psychological fact above noted, 
 that children readily see likenesses but can make little edu- 
 cational use of differences. Almost the only differences to 
 be noted with profit at first are those of degree, the adding 
 to the known, or substracting from it some other known. 
 A child never having seen a cow cannot imagine one 
 except as like a dog, or a mouse, or some other known 
 animal. (See " Contents of a Child's Mind," Stanley 
 Hall.) But the same child has no difficulty whatever 
 
Geography 179 
 
 with a two-headed giant or an animal with the power of 
 speech, or a bodiless head. Children in a temperate 
 zone can understand Agoonack, because they can imagine 
 a very long winter ; but to children in southern Florida, 
 or in Cuba, Agoonack's home belongs with the land at 
 the top of Jack's beanstalk. To Anna Josefsky, of 
 Baxter Street, New York, a rolling prairie is a wheel on 
 a cart or perhaps a barrel rolling along the sidewalk, or 
 possibly a roller skate. And there is no way of correct- 
 ing these images at the time. All attempts to give 
 knowledge of conditions widely different from those 
 familiar should be abandoned with young children. 
 Contrasts may be used, but only contrasts both of whose 
 elements are known. Differences in climate as to heat 
 and cold may be explained because children know both. 
 Contrasts used must be of degree or quality of known 
 elements. 
 
 The first steps should be to likenesses with slightly 
 differing aspects, and these should be made easy by 
 graphic and constructive illustrations. For instance, 
 the dress and food of children in other lands can easily 
 be made clear by illustration. Games, if known, are 
 good beginnings. Homes and the modes of sleeping and 
 eating are not difficult to teach and are very suggestive. 
 When the children can read quite readily, such books as 
 " Seven Little Sisters " are very helpful. As Dr. Taylor 
 clearly shows in his valuable articles in " Educational 
 Foundations," stories with geographic settings are among 
 the best means of imparting concepts. 
 
 The Study of Physical Features. — The question of 
 studying physical features is sure to arise. The answer 
 must depend very largely upon the locality. Little can 
 
180 What Children Study and Why 
 
 be done profitably in very large cities during these first 
 years, but in smaller places, and especially in rural dis- 
 tricts, a beginning may be made. This, of course, must 
 be a mere extension of " nature study," just a touch of 
 " cause and effect " applied to observations. " Brooks 
 and Brook-basins " is suggestive of a good model. If 
 children are familiar with hills but not with mountains, 
 they can be told that a mountain is a big hill with no 
 harm — and little good effect. 
 
 I was born among hills with no mountains near. Dur- 
 ing all my childhood a mountain was a mysterious object, 
 conical and with a sharp-pointed peak, like the pictures 
 in the book. I had an idea that it was big, but that 
 meant little. This is to be said, however. My curiosity 
 to see a mountain was in inverse ratio to my conception 
 of one, and that was doubtless valuable. But it does not 
 take much formal teaching to rouse in children curiosity 
 about mountains or oceans or foreign lands that can be 
 satisfied only in later years and by travel. 
 
 Make it Picturesque. — As to method, I suggest only 
 that all possible means be used to make the instruction 
 picturesque and vivid. Sand table construction, stories, 
 and pictures are the chief reliance in the primary grades. 
 Construction is the most effective means of straightening 
 out twisted imaginations. Word pictures developed into 
 sand pictures or construction pictures are excellent. 
 Children at this age especially need the reaction of ex- 
 pressive activities. 
 
 Use of Pictures. — A caution is perhaps needed as to 
 the use of pictures. It is by no means certain that 
 looking at a picture will produce an accurate impression 
 of the object portrayed. I have seen in geography books 
 
Geography 181 
 
 and in other books, too, on the same page, pictures of 
 unfamiliar objects of varying sizes, in different scales, 
 so that a bird was as large as an elephant and a zebra 
 as large as a Hindoo temple. The effect is inevitable. 
 Children, ignorant of them all, will conceive them like 
 the pictures. The bird, in their minds, is as large as the 
 elephant, and the zebra as the temple. Pictures of 
 whole scenes with several objects in proper relations are 
 better for children than pictures of single objects, because 
 relative values are then given. I am aware that some 
 art teachers may differ with me, but I am not talking art. 
 I am talking psychology and geography. 
 
 A picture of Agoonack suitably dressed is satisfactory, 
 because the children, knowing her to be a child, fix the 
 environment and the size accordingly. But a picture 
 of a strange animal appeals to no such apperceiving mass. 
 So, generally, large pictures, sufficiently composite to give 
 relative values, are the best for teaching geography to 
 young children. The tiny pictures tucked in the corners 
 of pages or grouped artistically in geographies or sup- 
 plementary readers are frequently worse than useless. 
 They he to the children. 
 
 Another chapter of knowledge that may be opened to 
 the children is the industrial, — what people about them 
 do to provide food and clothing and homes for their 
 families. This is valuable in itself and furnishes very 
 excellent hooks to hang other things on. As is evident 
 from Miss Young's studies, quoted by Dr. Taylor, in the 
 articles above named, interest in industries is an ac- 
 quired taste, but it is none the less desirable. Indeed, 
 one of the aims of early oral instruction is to develop 
 geographic concepts that would otherwise not be de- 
 
1 82 What Children Study and Why 
 
 veloped at all. Soap is an acquired taste, as is civili- 
 zation itself. 
 
 Caution. — But here, too, caution is necessary. Avoid 
 giving instruction in the obvious. In a rural community, 
 where nearly every one makes a living by farming, little 
 attention should be paid to that industry at this stage, 
 except to lead to others. If dairy farming is the chief 
 industry, follow the milk until it goes beyond the knowl- 
 edge of the children, adding a step, to the condensing 
 factory, the sterilizing plant, the cheese or butter factory, 
 or to the city in bottles, — some point of new knowledge. 
 But especially study the industries of the few, those which 
 most children will not know without instruction, but 
 which may, however, be studied by observation; as 
 the blacksmith, the merchant. If a cow has been sold 
 to the butcher, what must happen before the skin is 
 brought back as shoes? 
 
 In the city, more industries may be observed and some 
 objects in common use may be traced to sources. But it 
 must all be very simple and very clear. The knowledge 
 must be fresh and of immediate interest. Moreover, 
 these very characteristics make it better as an apper- 
 ceiving center. 
 
 The work of the first three years in geography should 
 be largely incidental, should seek to enlarge the apper- 
 ceiving powers, and should give a few clear concepts 
 that will enable the imaginations of children to grasp 
 the new and larger facts concerning the world, which may 
 properly be presented in the higher grades. 
 
 All this knowledge should be vital and of interest and 
 worth at the time, for only such vital knowledge can be 
 the basis of apperception. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Geography for Primary Grades 
 
 Assuming that the children have received the training 
 outlined in the preceding chapter, that they possess a few 
 elementary general geographic concepts, that they have 
 acquired the ability to extend through the imagination 
 their acquaintance of their immediate environment 
 enough to comprehend like conditions at a distance, what 
 should the primary geography do for them, and how? 
 
 The World not the Earth. — Primary geography, to 
 meet the apperceptive possibilities of even the brightest 
 children, should deal with the world more than with 
 the earth. The earth is a " heavenly body," a member 
 of the solar system. The world is this globe we live on, 
 with all its oceans, mountains, and plains, all its plants, 
 all its creatures, all its people with their races, relations, 
 commerce, likenesses, and differences, and their govern- 
 ments and political divisions. 
 
 Should give Few Facts. — It should not seek to teach 
 a large number of facts, especially the facts of political 
 geography, such as names of cities, boundaries, items of 
 production and commerce in lists, such as " Indiana 
 produces corn, wheat, and hogs." 
 
 It should have no one or two or three-line sentences 
 giving isolated facts, as : " Lynn has many shoe facto- 
 ries," " Birmingham has extensive iron foundries." 
 
 The great defect of most elementary geographies is 
 
 183 
 
1 84 What Children Study and Why 
 
 excess of zeal in giving all the facts the author knows. 
 These facts, not apperceived, not related to any interest 
 in the child's mind, merely clog his memory, or pass swiftly 
 into the useful waste basket of forgetfulness. There are 
 very few primary geography books that do not err in 
 this regard, though some are greater sinners than others, 
 of course. 
 
 Should extend Knowledge. — The primary geography 
 should extend the childish knowledge, acquired before 
 taking the book, through the imagination. It should 
 give more and more definite geographic concepts. It 
 should make the remote parts of the world seem real and 
 should explain to the children a limited number of phe- 
 nomena and conditions as rapidly as they can grasp them. 
 
 Detailed Study of Types. — This should be accom- 
 plished mainly through the somewhat detailed study of 
 a few typical instances, which may lead to a compre- 
 hension of a few general truths of wide application. 
 What children need is possession, not of many facts, but 
 of pregnant facts. All school instruction should aim 
 first to develop, and then to fix, general truths applicable 
 to many instances. Against this fundamental law of 
 education, no subject is a greater transgressor than 
 geography. The subject is so comprehensive, there are 
 so many facts of so many kinds in its field, that writers 
 of textbooks on the subject have, with few exceptions, 
 abandoned the effort and fallen back weakly upon the 
 old plan of crowding all the facts possible within the 
 pages of the books, trusting to Providence to save the 
 children. 
 
 Develop Generalizations from Instances. — Not only 
 should a primary geography give a few broad but defi- 
 
Geography for Primary Grades 185 
 
 nite generalizations of wide application, but it should 
 develop these from instances, not merely state them. 
 The larger the truth, the more important does it become 
 to arrive at it in the right way, the way of real as distin- 
 guished from " verbal " knowledge. The truth stated 
 may mean something or it may mean nothing to the 
 hearer. The truth that grows upon the vision, slowly, 
 from cause to effect, from what is already known to 
 a new truth, becomes a part of the mind itself. This is 
 real knowledge. 
 
 It is worth more to a primary class to know that there 
 are many waterfalls along the Genesee River, that water- 
 falls may be used to drive machinery, and that hence one 
 might expect to find manufactories in the Genesee Valley, 
 and then to know that Rochester and other manufactur- 
 ing places are found here, than to have a list of all the 
 cities of central New York with a statement that each 
 produces this or that article. 
 
 Elimination and Selection. — Evidently, then, before 
 the teaching of geography becomes even reasonably 
 satisfactory, two things are necessary, elimination and 
 selection of material and the introduction of the labora- 
 tory method. 
 
 For the former courage is needed. Elementary 
 geography must cease to attempt to give universal 
 knowledge, and must confine itself to a few types, em- 
 bodying generalizations. The greater part of the small 
 items relating to political geography, which fill most of 
 our primary textbooks, must be cut out entirely. Those 
 that are to remain must be carefully selected as typical, 
 so that children may have the wherewithal to assimilate 
 new facts as they present themselves. 
 
1 86 What Children Study and Why 
 
 The full, detailed study of a single city or mountain 
 range or river valley is worth more to a primary school 
 child than the naming of all with an item or two about 
 each. 
 
 By detailed study, I mean study as nearly at first 
 hand as possible; at any rate, the study of essential 
 characteristics, one by one, in such a way that they are 
 comprehended. This means the use of the laboratory 
 method in so far as it can be used. 
 
 The Laboratory Method. — By the laboratory method 
 I mean the use of direct observation of typical forms and 
 drawing conclusions from these observations. 
 
 If in the neighborhood of a river or a mountain, or in 
 a large city, the immediate environment should be studied 
 to master the type. The book is merely incidental. 
 
 When studying forms not to be found in the immediate 
 environment, some typical instance easily comprehended 
 through description and story should be selected and 
 studied in much picturesque detail until a clear, pregnant 
 image is secured. Suppose the subject is a river, and 
 there is none near. Select the river in which the children 
 are most likely to be interested, for instance, if in the 
 Middle West, the Mississippi or the Ohio, if in New 
 England, the Connecticut, or if on the western coast, 
 the Columbia. 
 
 Spend time enough upon it to make it loom large in the 
 imaginations of children. See that a vivid picture of 
 the river, from source to mouth, is in the mind of every 
 child, — its banks, the country it flows through, the towns 
 along it, its traffic, if any, its influence upon the life in 
 its vicinity — all the facts that an investigating traveler 
 of the age of the children would acquire. A single such 
 
Geography for Primary Grades 187 
 
 study is worth more than the naming all the rivers on 
 the continent. 
 
 Follow Natural Interests. — One more thing should be 
 said. A primary geography should follow the natural 
 interest of children, which proceeds from themselves 
 outward. This is chiefly in marked resemblances and in 
 marked contrasts, that they can understand. It is in 
 people more than in things. It passes from people to the 
 things that affect them. It weighs all values by effects 
 upon people. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Geography for Grammar Grades 
 
 Establish Apperceiving Centers. — The principal aim 
 of the teaching of geography in the grammar school is 
 the same as in the primary school, namely, the establish- 
 ment of apperceiving centers. In both, geography is 
 mainly an informational subject of the most general 
 character. The amount of actual knowledge that can 
 be acquired by a child in school at the most is, however, 
 so pitifully small that it is of the slightest value, unless 
 it is strongly cohesive and carefully organized. It must 
 be of such a sort that new knowledge resulting from read- 
 ing and travel will readily find its place around the ap- 
 perceiving centers established by the study of geography 
 in school and will get its explanation from them. I have 
 asked children in school, who were living near the foot- 
 hills of the Appalachian range, while studying geogra- 
 phy, if they had ever seen a mountain, and have 
 received the answer, " No." 
 
 No one will question that the older geographies gave 
 little heed to this need. They supplied for the most 
 part condensed and desiccated statements of fact, both 
 uninteresting to children and conveying little, if any, 
 meaning to them. Of what use, for example, to a gram- 
 mar school child is the statement, quoted from a ge- 
 ography, quite modern too, that " On the slopes of the 
 Himalayas are the independent states Nepal and Bhutan 
 
 18S 
 
Geography for Grammar Grades 189 
 
 and the native principality of Kashmir." This is unex- 
 plained and unamplified except by a single sentence about 
 Kashmir. It is taken from a page filled with just such 
 isolated statements. If memorized is not such informa- 
 tion given in such a way worse than useless ? Is it not 
 sure to result in merely verbal knowledge, attic refuse, 
 which is not knowledge at all? Is it not likely to in- 
 terrupt the natural process of learning, to impair the 
 assimilative power of the child, and to make the subject 
 itself disastef ul ? The example quoted is by no means an 
 isolated or an extreme instance. It is a type of the state- 
 ments that pervade all the older geographies and several 
 of the newer ones. 
 
 Wherein are its defects? It ignores apperception. 
 It takes for granted that comprehensive general knowl- 
 edge of the world which it should be the function of a 
 geography to give. Geographies like the one quoted 
 lack detail and yet have too much detail. That which 
 they have is of the wrong sort and in the wrong places. 
 It consists in a vast number of isolated and, to a child, 
 meaningless facts. The detail needed, as in the pri- 
 mary grades, is the amplification of single typical subjects, 
 with abundant illustration and many associated and in- 
 teresting facts, which may serve as a basis for inducing 
 principles. Better ten pages devoted to the complete 
 exposition of a single river valley than the same space 
 filled with a hundred isolated statements about as many 
 river valleys. 
 
 The former may serve to establish certain general 
 truths regarding valleys and their relations to the in- 
 dustrial and social life in them, which will create justi- 
 fiable expectations as to other valleys that may be studied, 
 
190 What Children Study and Why 
 
 that is, it will establish principles which may be applied 
 in all future study of similar conditions. The latter 
 produces nothing but verbal congestion. The trouble is 
 that in our zeal to teach everything we teach nothing 
 well. 
 
 For a child in New York studying the geography of 
 Minnesota it is important to know of St. Paul and 
 Minneapolis at the head of navigation of the Mississippi 
 River, and to know enough about them to estab- 
 lish interest and some appreciation of their relations to 
 his breakfast. The fact that " Mankato has flour mills, 
 stone and cement industries, and iron foundries" (quoted 
 from a recently published geography), had better be 
 omitted. It obscures the main proposition and will 
 speedily be forgotten, as it ought to be. For a child in 
 Minnesota this should be given and amplified. The 
 book above quoted gives seven lines to North Dakota, 
 as a whole, and fifteen to six of its tiny cities. The whole 
 twenty- two lines are worthless to a New England child. 
 Two or three paragraphs giving the place of North 
 Dakota in the industrial world, or describing its prairies, 
 might be of value. 
 
 Principles must grow from Instances. — Here, again, 
 as in the elementary grades, we come upon an error 
 which may be said to dominate some of the newer text- 
 books. They give much space to the comprehensive 
 statement of principles, for example, those of physi- 
 ography, in general terms, instead of developing them out 
 of observed or localized conditions. And, to make the 
 matter worse, these unsupported generalizations are 
 usually given in the earlier parts of the book, to be con- 
 sumed by children just out of the primary school. 
 
Geography for Grammar Grades 191 
 
 It is impossible to say which violates the more fla- 
 grantly universally accepted principles of education, the 
 generalization stated, not induced from abundant con- 
 crete detail, or the mass of unorganized facts presented 
 to be " learned by heart," when no principles have been 
 established to explain and clarify them. 
 
 Grammar School Children still Children. — They both 
 ignore the truths that grammar school children are still 
 cliildren, with children's limitations, and that knowl- 
 edge is the result of growth. The normal child begin- 
 ning to use the "big" geography is twelve years old. 
 He has a twelve-year-old child's limited vocabulary 
 and very limited knowledge of the world. Yet he has 
 thrust into his childish hands a textbook stating in 
 broad general terms the great truths or supposed truths 
 of the earth's formation and present conditions as to 
 climate, surface, and relations to the solar system, not 
 developed from observation or present knowledge, but 
 generalized and stated in words that require a dictionary 
 with each sentence, and this information his childish 
 mind is supposed to take, assimilate, and use in future 
 study. Truly the cry of the children against the igno- 
 rant, well-meant assaults of their older well-wishers never 
 ceases. 
 
 The advanced geography, like its primary predecessor, 
 should appeal to the interests of children as children, 
 should present to them a great number of interesting 
 and illuminating detail about a comparatively few topics, 
 and should develop from these a few important funda- 
 mental principles which will serve as an apperceiving 
 basis for all future geographic knowledge. It should be 
 first extensive, very, and should gradually become in- 
 
192 What Children Study and Why 
 
 tensive as the children gain power to see and apply 
 principles. 
 
 The first duty, then, of the writer of a geography for 
 grammar schools, as for primary schools, is selection 
 and elimination. The second is the presentation of 
 the selected matter in simple language and with 
 abundant interesting detail, so as to arouse and hold 
 interest and, by degrees, in the natural way of growth, 
 to establish the few fundamental principles. 
 
 What interests Children. — What geographic matters 
 interest children in the grammar schools ? The same as 
 in the primary, first, people, always people, how they 
 look, how they dress, how they act, how they work, and 
 how they play, — how they live. Second, nature, that 
 which is all about them, rocks, trees, flowers, animals, 
 rivers, oceans, hills, mountains, weather, and the relations 
 of all this to themselves and to other people. Third, how 
 man has modified and utilized nature, as shown in cities, 
 industries, and institutions. This is geography, of course. 
 The important thing is to begin right and to proceed 
 from existing interest to ever new and widening interest. 
 
 City and Country. — Children, like ourselves, divide 
 the world into cities and " the country." This is a 
 fundamental division, — places where men live close 
 together with comparatively little of nature as an element 
 in their lives, and places where they live apart, with 
 nature as the principal environment. Some features, 
 such as the weather and the sun, moon, and stars, day 
 and night, and the seasons, and perhaps hills, a river 
 and an ocean, also government and other social institu- 
 tions, are common to both. But the differences are 
 greater than the likenesses. 
 
Geography for Grammar Grades 193 
 
 For the city child it is easier to develop from his 
 environment a knowledge of human institutions, such 
 as government and commerce, than for the country child. 
 But for the country child natural phenomena and earth 
 forms — the facts of physiography — are more easily 
 developed. But both may be utilized for all children 
 as the starting points for the establishment of the funda- 
 mental facts of the two great interlocking divisions of 
 geography, natural conditions and human institutions. 
 The study of the relations of these two follows naturally. 
 
 What can the Teacher Do? — The teacher may 
 naturally say here: "That is all very true, but what 
 are we to do about it? We have to use the textbooks 
 supplied." 
 
 That is true, of course. Hence it is all the more im- 
 portant for the teacher to have a very clear conception 
 of the aim of teaching geography in order that, even if 
 compelled to use poor books, he may make the best use 
 of the material furnished by the books, may organize it 
 properly, and may supplement it by all the means in his 
 power. 
 
 Duty of the Superintendent. — The first duty rests 
 upon the superintendent who makes the local course of 
 study. He should lay out the work in proper groupings, 
 selecting the significant central features, and should 
 show how to use the material furnished by the textbook 
 and how to supplement it from other sources, by means 
 of pictures, lantern slides, and concurrent reading. He 
 should supply carefully prepared lists of available 
 material, which teachers may secure. 
 
 If possible, every school should have a good lantern, 
 with an abundance of well-chosen slides suited to the 
 
194 What Children Study and Why 
 
 work of different grades. Some one room can easily 
 be supplied with dark curtains to be used on occasion by 
 different classes. 
 
 Besides this, each school should have a collection of 
 photographs illustrating various phases of geography. 
 These can be used by the different classes. And, of 
 course, each school should have sets of the best geographi- 
 cal readers for the work of each grade. This supple- 
 mentary reading matter should be carefully classified to 
 fit the course of study, so as to make the study of geog- 
 raphy vital, and to keep the teachers from the deadly 
 routine of the textbook. 
 
 In small towns a single lantern and set of slides, a single 
 collection of photographs, and a central library of sup- 
 plementary reading may be made to serve all the 
 schools by a little care in arranging the time schedules. 
 
 What one Teacher Did. — If the authorities do not 
 organize the work in this way, then it is for each 
 teacher to do the best possible in this direction. I 
 have known an individual teacher to carry out a 
 scheme of geography teaching so successfully as to 
 furnish a model to an entire school system. Among the 
 devices that she employed was one of having geography 
 days set apart devoted to some particular geographic 
 feature, usually a race or people, for example, a Japan 
 day, when everything characteristic of the Japanese that 
 the children could obtain appeared in the room. Japanese 
 pictures and draperies and costumes and products were 
 all represented. Children appeared in Japanese tableaux, 
 showing some striking characteristic of the national life. 
 Japanese stories were told. Naturally all available 
 sources of knowledge and of material for representation 
 
Geography for Grammar Grades 195 
 
 were drawn upon. Great enthusiasm prevailed; the 
 facts found out and told or written by the children, you 
 may be sure, were the facts that interest children. It 
 was a good study of what to teach in geography. 
 
 On other days, as called for by the course of study, 
 other themes were treated with a like appropriateness. 
 But, whatever the topic, whether Japan or South Africa, 
 or Germany or England, or coal mining, or dairying, or 
 making cotton cloth, a very real and very vivid impres- 
 sion was left with the children. They really knew what 
 they had studied. They could never again be wholly 
 indifferent to any one of these subjects. Moreover, the 
 knowledge was organized. It was all properly grouped 
 about a suitable nucleus. Through it the children were 
 supplied with apperceptive centers for the placing of new 
 facts and with geographic principles to explain new 
 phenomena. 
 
 I This was accomplished by a single teacher with many 
 successive classes, without much help from her superior 
 officers. It should be encouraging to teachers who know 
 how geography should be taught but are compelled still 
 to use inferior textbooks or to follow antiquated or 
 insufficient courses of study. Unless teachers grasp 
 these principles, not even ideal books and courses of study 
 will secure the best results. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Nature Study 
 
 " Nature Study " has meanings almost as numerous 
 as the schools pursuing it. It came in late as one of the 
 forms of protest against the game of logomachy into 
 which school studies had degenerated in the third quarter 
 of the nineteenth century. From its name it is evident 
 that it was intended to indicate a " return to nature," 
 a reestablishment of the connection between the educa- 
 tion of children and the physical environment in which 
 their lives must be spent. 
 
 Aim of Nature Study. — At its best it is the study of 
 the phenomena of the physical world with the more 
 or less definite aim of discovering some of the laws 
 that cause them, and their significance to human 
 beings. It differs from the study of natural science 
 much as the " language lessons " of the elementary 
 school differ from grammar. Its chief purposes are 
 to open the eyes to the wonders and beauties of 
 the environing world, to create sympathetic interest 
 in all animate creatures, and to restore the sense of 
 reality in a system of education quite given over to 
 verbal statements about things. It was a product or 
 corollary of the interest in scientific study which fol- 
 lowed the promulgation of Darwin's theories. The aim 
 is most worthy, and there was, and still is, abundant 
 need for such an equilibrant. 
 
 196 
 
Nature Study 1 97 
 
 Still Chaotic. — However, nature study in elementary 
 schools still is in a chaotic, unorganized, possibly a forma- 
 tive, state. It began with the " object lessons " which 
 some of us remember, a loose, unsystematic exercise con- 
 sisting mainly of reciting stated facts about the common 
 phenomena of physics, accompanied by a little individual 
 observation. This gave way to a more orderly study of 
 elementary science. In some schools, quite elaborate 
 systems were developed, with full courses in the elements 
 of botany and zoology, and even with special super- 
 visors to direct the instruction. These attempts rather 
 overshot the mark and contributed much to the over- 
 crowding of the curriculum. At present the study seems 
 to be settling into the place of adjutant, supplying 
 topics and material for correlation with language and 
 with geography, varying with the interest and knowl- 
 edge of the teacher. Its best present-day manifesta- 
 tions are school gardens, terraria and aquaria in the 
 schoolroom, and " field lessons." Manifestly nature 
 study must vary, more widely than any other study, with 
 the environment. 
 
 Early Blunders. — The greatest mistake of the earlier 
 teaching of this subject in schools was the attempt to 
 observe natural objects out of their natural relations. A 
 bug, a frog, a crayfish, were brought in to the school, dis- 
 sected, discussed, and scientifically classified. This had 
 little value, very little, in cultivating close observation. It 
 did nothing to acquaint children with environing nature, 
 to open their eyes to the beauties of sky and meadow, 
 brook and plowed field, to make them love the voice of 
 the bird, wonder at the marvelous adaptations of plant 
 and animal life. The objects chosen were difficult to 
 
198 What Children Study and Why 
 
 obtain and, when observed away from their habitats, 
 not very interesting to the children. The anatomy of 
 the animal or the plant was treated as of more conse- 
 quence than its life. 
 
 The Near rather than the Remote. — Nature study 
 for children should be the study of the near rather 
 than of the remote. The geological history of a grain 
 of sand from the road is vastly more worth while 
 than that of a fragment of gneiss from the museum. 
 Nature study should be out of doors as far as possible, 
 the study of what is immediate and common. 
 
 Professor L. H. Bailey says in " The Outlook to 
 Nature " : " The first consideration of special study 
 should be the inhabitants of your yard and garden ; they 
 are yours, or if they are not, you are not living a right 
 life." 
 
 Even in the most crowded parts of a big city, the paving 
 stones and the gutters and the ever present sparrows 
 present interesting problems for nature study. Besides, 
 there are the parks, with their birds and trees and flowers. 
 
 In the small town and especially in the country, nature 
 is everywhere asking to be understood. If children could 
 only be put into sympathetic touch with her " in her 
 various moods," it would go far toward restoring a more 
 beautiful and a saner life. 
 
 In the language of Walt Whitman (quoted by Profes- 
 sor Bailey), 
 
 " There was a child went forth every day, 
 And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became, 
 And that object became part of him for the day or a certain 
 
 part of the day, 
 Or for many years or stretching cycles of years. 
 
Nature Study 199 
 
 " The early lilacs became part of this child, 
 And grass and white and red moming-glories, and white and red 
 
 clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird, 
 And the third-month lambs and the sow's pink-faint litter, and 
 
 the mare's foal and the cow's calf, 
 And the noisy brood of the barnyard or by the mire of the 
 
 pond-side, 
 And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below here, and 
 
 the beautiful curious liquid, 
 And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads, all became 
 v part of him." 
 
 Lord Avebury, in a fine passage on the same subject, 
 remarks : " If Spring came but once in a lifetime ; if the 
 sun rose and set once in a year instead of once in a day ; 
 if a rainbow appeared once in a century ; if flowers were 
 as rare as rubies and dewdrops as diamonds, how wonder- 
 ful would they seem, how they would astonish and 
 delight us. We undervalue them because they are 
 lavished on us. The very word ' common ' most im- 
 properly implies some disparagement. If we trained 
 our minds properly in the appreciation of beauty, we 
 should, on the contrary, wonder at and admire them all 
 the more." 
 
 In a still finer passage, Emerson says : "If the stars 
 should appear one night in a thousand years, how would 
 men believe and adore, and preserve for many genera- 
 tions the remembrance of the city of God which had been 
 shown ! But every night come out these envoys of 
 beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing 
 smile." 
 
 But the sort of harmony with nature suggested by 
 Whitman and of appreciation indicated by Avebury and 
 Emerson are not to be brought about by observing and 
 
200 What Children Study and Why 
 
 drawing a dead bug, even though observed " right end 
 first." 
 
 Beauty of Life. — There is one aim of nature study in 
 particular that should be emphasized, the beauty and 
 worth of the living thing, and its right to live unless it 
 works harm to man or its body is needed for his 
 legitimate use. 
 
 That relic of the barbaric days of the race, the silly 
 desire to kill by trap or gun harmless animals for " sport," 
 should disappear before interest in the lives of animals. 
 The glory of the hunter who bravely hides in ambush 
 and shoots a harmless unsuspecting bird or deer for mere 
 pleasure should be turned to shame. If the children 
 desire to hunt, the camera is a much better implement 
 than the shotgun and secures vastly more interesting 
 results. 
 
 This change is bound to come as we become more en- 
 lightened. Since the introduction of nature study into 
 schools, within my recollection, cruelty to animals by 
 both children and adults has been greatly lessened. 
 Our entire nation has become more humane. The next 
 step is the elimination of the " sportsman " who sneaks 
 behind a tree to shoot an inoffensive beast or bird, giving 
 him no chance even for a fair fight for his life. 
 
 Nature study should leave the children richer in ap- 
 preciation of the wonders and beauties of the world about 
 them, with eyes keener, spirits fresher, sympathies 
 broader for all creatures, and themselves in the way of 
 becoming larger and simpler men and women. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Nature Study 
 methods of instruction 
 
 T*he method of nature study in the elementary school 
 has been too often a feeble copying of the method of the 
 scientific laboratory of the university or of the investigat- 
 ing specialist, whereas it should be almost its antipode. 
 
 Natural Setting. — Wherever possible, as was clearly 
 indicated in the preceding chapter, it should consist 
 mainly of the study of objects in their natural setting 
 and of phenomena as and where they occur, the teacher 
 always having in mind that the aim is chiefly, not to 
 give scientific knowledge, but rather to arouse interest, 
 even enthusiasm, regarding that which is all about us. 
 
 Study out of Doors. — Whenever possible also, and it 
 is always possible in the country and in small towns, it 
 should be at first out-of-door study and of common 
 everyday objects and phenomena. A garden cultivated 
 on the school grounds is the best laboratory for the 
 study of plants and of some animals. The growth of 
 flowers or common herbs from bud or bulb to maturity 
 is a never-failing source of pleasure and interest, and 
 makes possible the consideration of soils and of the 
 various friends and enemies of the plants. It is not 
 necessary to elaborate upon school gardens. There are 
 several books that treat this subject fully and satis- 
 factorily. 
 
202 What Children Study and Why- 
 
 Field Excursions. — The field excursion is another 
 excellent means for developing interest and acuteness 
 of observation, and provides opportunity to gather 
 material for indoor study. 
 
 The groups going on such an excursion should be small 
 for each teacher. While the children should be en- 
 couraged to observe all the phenomena, excursions should 
 have some definite aim, as the action of a brook, the 
 growth of some particular crop, the study of certain nest- 
 ing birds, the observation of the habits of some animal 
 in its native habitat. If possible a good field glass and 
 a camera should be taken, the former to enable the ob- 
 server to watch the actions of animals without disturb- 
 ing them, and the latter to obtain accurate and per- 
 manent reports of especially interesting and illuminating 
 appearances. 
 
 It is well for the children to take notes of what they 
 observe, to be discussed later in the schoolroom, and 
 possibly written about for language exercises. 
 
 Out of doors the large and plainly visible aspects of 
 nature should be studied, such as cannot be observed 
 in the schoolroom : in the physical realm, such things as 
 the effects of winds and of rain, of clouds, and of running 
 water ; in the realm of living things, the grouping of trees 
 and plants in pastures and in woods, the habits of 
 birds in pairs and in flocks, and of groups of animals at 
 pasture. 
 
 Nature Study in Cities. — The city presents its own 
 problems. But in most of even the larger cities 
 occasional excursions to the fields or to the parks are 
 possible, and in some cases room for gardens is 
 obtainable in the school yard or upon the roof. 
 
Nature Study 203 
 
 Window boxes, also, in which carefully chosen seeds ger- 
 minate and grow to maturity, are always possible and 
 offer opportunity for much interesting observation and 
 discussion. 
 
 In the Schoolroom. — Nature study in the school- 
 room naturally requires a method quite different from 
 that out of doors. Here, in the main, individual objects 
 must be studied, removed from their natural setting. 
 These objects should be such as naturally interest chil- 
 dren, and are readily obtained. The domestic cat, dogs, 
 rabbits, chickens, are better than the amoeba or even 
 the crayfish. 
 
 Study Function. — The study of these objects should 
 be the study of function or of anatomy as related to 
 function and never of mere anatomy. Dissection 
 should be always taboo. An excellent study is that 
 of the comparison of the different functions of similar 
 organs of different animals, as the fore limbs of 
 fishes, birds, quadrupeds, and man. The questions 
 that always call for an answer are : What is this 
 organ for? What does the animal do with it? How 
 does it contribute to his needs as a living being? 
 Suppose noses are the subject. What kind of nose has 
 the rabbit, the cat, the dog, the pig, the child ? For what 
 does each one use his nose? How does its particular 
 form administer to its usefulness? 
 
 The degree of intelligence displayed by different ani- 
 mals is an interesting topic. What does each one do 
 through sheer instinct? What actions are dictated by 
 intelligence and some degree of reason? 
 
 Relation of Man to Nature. — Then always the 
 relations to man of the objects or animals observed 
 
204 What Children Study and Why 
 
 should receive careful consideration. What does each 
 contribute to our well-being, and how? 
 
 This study should lead to a consideration of the treat- 
 ment of living nature, both plants and, especially, animals. 
 What is due each one, from us ? How far are the lives of 
 lower creatures sacred? Under what circumstances 
 may they rightly be taken? When and to what degree 
 should they be unmolested ? To what degree of freedom 
 are these creatures entitled? What right have we to 
 deprive them of freedom, to cage them, to utilize them ? 
 With older children, even the use and abuse of " vivi- 
 section " may be discussed with profit. 
 
 Correlation. — As has been intimated, nature study 
 is readily correlated with other subjects, notably with 
 language study. But, for this purpose, the study 
 should be of nature as it is, the sky, the weather, the 
 brooks, the hills, the birds and beasts, all in natural 
 setting. Nature studied in this way is the best intro- 
 duction to geography. Nature study should also be 
 closely allied with physiology, as indicated in chapter 
 XXI. Of all the possible correlations, that of the great- 
 est importance is with literature. Mere informational 
 books about nature are dangerous in the school. They 
 are apt to be substituted for first-hand observation. At 
 the most they should be used only to supplement and 
 explain what has been observed. But the study of the 
 poets of nature and of such prose writers as Thoreau 
 and Burroughs is most useful in connection with direct 
 observation. These are they who see the hidden spir- 
 itual significance of the phenomena of nature. They 
 point out the rich analogies between the wonders and 
 beauties of the physical world and the spirit of man. 
 
Nature Study 205 
 
 It is well to observe the weather, the marvelous changes 
 of cloud and sky wrought by wind and rain and sunshine, 
 and while doing this to read and memorize Shelley's 
 " Cloud," or Moore's lines beginning : 
 
 " O God, thou art the life and light 
 Of all this wondrous world we see." 
 
 or Shakespeare's sonnet 
 
 " Full many a glorious morning have I seen 
 Flatter the mountain tops with sovran eye, 
 Kissing with golden face the meadows green, 
 Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy." 
 
 The highest function of literature is to illumine the 
 common things of life and to point out the ever present 
 analogy between the things we see with our eyes and our 
 own spiritual aspirations and experiences, and this can 
 be made plain to children in correlation with nature study 
 more readily perhaps than in any other way. 
 
 Resume. — The aims of all method in nature study 
 should be : (1) to acquaint the children with nature as it 
 is, as God made it ; (2) to show them its relations to men, 
 how they have modified it, for what purpose and with 
 what rights, to the end that children may become lovers 
 of nature and wise in its use ; and (3) to show the spirit- 
 ual significance of the natural world, its laws, its phe- 
 nomena, its modes of life. 
 
 " To him who in the love of Nature holds 
 
 Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
 
 A various language ; for his gayer hours 
 
 She has a voice of gladness and a smile 
 
 And eloquence of beauty, and she glides 
 
 Into his darker musings, with a mild 
 
 And healing sympathy, that steals away 
 
 Their sharpness, ere he is aware." — Bryant. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 Physiology 
 
 The subject of physiology in a course of study for 
 public schools should properly be considered among the 
 natural sciences. But its position in our schools is so 
 peculiar, because of an anomalous and to a degree arti- 
 ficial correlation with ethics and politics, that it seems 
 necessary to treat it as constituting a class by itself. 
 
 Analysis of the Subject. — Human physiology is the 
 science of the human body considered as a living organism. 
 It deals with the functions of the various organs and rests 
 upon anatomy, which treats of the structure of the body 
 as a whole and of its different parts. Anatomy may be 
 learned directly and completely from the study of dead 
 bodies. As physiology deals with life, it can be studied 
 properly only in living organisms. 
 
 Hygiene is a corollary of physiology. Its function is 
 to show how the various organs of the body may be made 
 to perform their functions in a normal manner. Its 
 province is the laws of health. The order of importance 
 of these subjects, to children especially, is (i) Hygiene, 
 (2) Physiology, (3) Anatomy. The educational order 
 is the same. 
 
 Even quite young children can be taught profitably 
 such simple laws of health as the importance of cleanli- 
 ness and the danger of eating certain things, such as un- 
 ripe fruit. Later, with the growth of curiosity, not only 
 
 206 
 
Physiology 207 
 
 may the list of laws be extended, but reasons for some 
 of them may be given, thus leading naturally to some of 
 the facts of physiology. Later yet, even some anatomi- 
 cal facts can be made to serve a definite hygienic purpose, 
 and thus anatomy may come in at the right time and by 
 the right door. 
 
 Errors in Treatment. — This inductive treatment of 
 the subject, in obedience to the laws of mental growth, 
 1 seems so simple that one might expect to find it in 
 our schools. But, strangely enough, the psychological 
 laws obeyed in treating other sciences are ignored 
 when the subject is the human body. In the primary 
 grades the instruction, as indicated by the text- 
 books, consists in giving information about the body, 
 chiefly anatomical, almost always uninteresting, and 
 often misleading, interspersed with perfunctory advice 
 in regard to hygiene and alcohol. The scientific method 
 of the nature study lesson upon bird, beast, bug, or plant 
 appears nowhere. 
 
 In the higher grades, especially the high school, again 
 anatomy is to the fore with scalpel, microscope, and acid 
 bottle. In very few schools is the wonderful and beauti- 
 > ful human body, a living organism manifesting in every 
 part adaptability, symmetry, and usefulness, so studied 
 as to inspire respect and to suggest powerfully to the 
 children normal health and beauty, and to secure obedi- 
 ence to the laws of health because of the innate dignity 
 and worth of the body, the home of the soul. 
 
 Legislative Meddling. — How far this perversion of 
 the subject, this retention of a method of instruction long 
 since discarded in nearly every other subject, is due to 
 legislative meddling it is impossible to say. Unques- 
 
208 What Children Study and Why 
 
 tionably, however, to a considerable degree the well- 
 intended efforts of good people to secure a certain amount 
 and kind of catechetical instruction in a subject of great 
 ethical importance, by force of law inserted into the 
 physiology books, has led both authors and teachers 
 away from a sane and well-balanced view of the subject. 
 The necessary artificiality and cumbersomeness of a part 
 of the book has naturally affected the remaining parts. 
 
 Two Points of View. — There are two points of view 
 from which the subject may be considered, and in plan- 
 ning a course of instruction both must be used. One is 
 scientific, the other practical. The former considers 
 the human body as in itself a proper object of study 
 from the biological point of view like any other body. 
 The other, regarding chiefly hygiene, has to do with 
 the care of the body so that it may continue in a healthy 
 state and may perform its functions normally. 
 
 The acceptance of two points of view, while broaden- 
 ing, is at the same time confusing. The question really is 
 where to place the stress. If hygiene is kept in prominent 
 relief before the eyes of the children, with science as a 
 mere incident, getting its value from its relations to 
 hygiene, we have one sort of results. If science is the 
 manifest chief aim, with hygiene as a somewhat incidental 
 though important corollary, we secure a quite different 
 result. Which shall it be? Surely no thoughtful 
 teacher can be in doubt. 
 
 Dangers from Wrong Emphasis. — I am not sure but 
 complete neglect of the subject would be better than a 
 constant authoritative iteration of so-called laws of 
 health. In the first place the " laws " whose efficacy 
 is unquestioned are very few and can be taught simply, 
 
Physiology 209 
 
 without spending much time and without the cumbersome- 
 ness and the wastefulness incident to the usual teaching 
 of " physiology " in the common school. To do more 
 than this, with the stress on hygiene, is to center the 
 thoughts of children altogether too much upon their 
 own bodies, by the influence of suggestion, and to cause 
 the very evils it is desired to prevent. Excessive bodily 
 self-consciousness is dangerous at any age. The un- 
 happy hypochondriacs and the innumerable victims of 
 all sorts of quackeries are largely men and women who 
 have acquired the habit of giving constant attention to 
 the " laws of health." The thoroughly healthy person 
 thinks little of either health or of possible disease. With 
 children, excessive bodily self-consciousness produces 
 even worse results. It arouses a morbid curiosity as to 
 vital and sexual facts before they come normally into 
 consciousness, and tends very definitely and surely to 
 indecent and immoral practices. 
 
 Untimely Knowledge. — I have considerable sympathy 
 with the good woman who wrote to a teacher: " Please 
 excuse Jennie from physiology. I don't think it is nice 
 for her to learn about her insides." Even important 
 truths learned at the wrong time and without proper 
 setting may be very mischievous. To this class belongs 
 much of the information given to young children under 
 the guise of " hygiene," relating to adult life and adult 
 conditions, and not comprehensible by young children 
 without distortion. This is the real ground for objection 
 to the extreme requirements of the laws in some States 
 regarding the teaching of " temperance hygiene." They 
 overdo their office, so that children are supplied with 
 facts, not only unnecessary to temperance or even total 
 
2IO What Children Study and Why 
 
 abstinence, but likely to create morbid curiosity and pro- 
 duce the evil they aim to remove. 
 
 I recall one textbook, at one time at least highly 
 approved and widely used, which distinctly, in so many 
 words, advised teachers to bring to school samples of 
 various alcoholic liquors and have children taste them, 
 so that they might be able to distinguish them. One 
 mother, the wife of a prominent minister and an ardent 
 temperance advocate, said to me one day : " My little 
 girl (aged eight) came home from school to-day and told 
 me about more kinds of liquors than I had ever heard 
 of." Another little girl said to her mother, " I hate 
 physiology, but I just love the rum part." 
 
 Is it not evident that children so taught have a quite 
 unnecessary and untimely knowledge of matters out of 
 their natural ken, and that such knowledge is likely to 
 do more harm than good? These excesses and dis- 
 tortions follow inevitably a treatment of physiology 
 directed mainly and manifestly from the practical or 
 hygienic point of view. Such instruction tends to 
 produce morbid bodily consciousness and unnatural 
 curiosity. It leads directly to various forms of per- 
 sonal immorality, and, besides, makes infants arbitrary 
 and cocksure judges of adult actions. If has nothing 
 to defend it, either educationally or ethically, except such 
 good intentions as form the proverbial pavement of a 
 certain unhappy region. 
 
 What is the natural effect of teaching physiology from 
 the scientific point of view with hygiene and ethics as 
 inevitable and most important corollaries ? 
 
 Basis of Character. — Let it be remembered that moral 
 character results from experience more than from mere 
 
Physiology 21 1 
 
 preachment, that verbal knowledge as to right and wrong, 
 with most people and on vital questions, is one of the least 
 influential forces in securing good conduct. The springs 
 of conduct lie deeper than mere words. One of the great 
 evils of all times is the substitution of external acquies- 
 cence in verbal righteousness for deep-seated and high- 
 principled morality. The too familiar bank defaulter 
 who " stood high in religious circles " is doubtless the 
 result of this, unconscious substitution and his subse- 
 quent lack of defense against real temptation. A sane 
 view of life in its entirety is surely better than the exag- 
 gerated prominence of some single " important fact." 
 Hence hygiene and " bodily ethics " should result natu- 
 rally from a sane and suitable knowledge of the body. 
 
 Without doubt the human body, the most highly 
 organized form of animal life, is quite as worthy of study 
 as the clam or the beetle. Moreover, it is always present 
 for first-hand observation, the basis of all scientific 
 study. 
 
 What to Study. — The study, for the younger children 
 especially, should always be of visible form as related 
 to function. Hence the external parts should be the 
 first parts studied, and for a long time they should be 
 almost the only parts considered. The slightest in- 
 formation about internal structure, as a basis for some 
 necessary hygienic lesson, will suffice. For example, 
 the importance of saliva in preparing food for use in 
 body-building may wisely be explained as an argument 
 against chewing gum and against the vile habit of pro- 
 miscuous spitting, so likely to be affected by boys at a 
 certain age. Even in the grammar grades any attempt 
 at an elaborate study of internal organs is to be depre- 
 
212 What Children Study and Why 
 
 cated. The study by observation of the corresponding 
 organs of lower animals dissected in class is often of- 
 fensive to sensitive children and can result in little good. 
 In the primary grades the study of internal parts should 
 be merely the most general and of vital organs, — suffi- 
 cient to give support to what must be taught about the 
 action of the circulatory system and its relation to ex- 
 ercise, breathing, clothing, and fresh air. The digestive 
 system and the nervous system should receive in school 
 but the briefest attention, enough merely to point to 
 certain very simple hygienic principles. The study of 
 most of the visible external organs, however, is both 
 easy and profitable. The hand, the foot, the skin, the 
 eyes, ears, and teeth may all be studied so as to lead to 
 proper respect and proper care. 
 
 Scientific Method. — The method, it is needless to say, 
 should be at first altogether scientific ; that is, gather- 
 ing facts by observation and inducing conclusions. A 
 further characteristic of method should be the com- 
 parison of the human organ studied with the correspond- 
 ing organs of other animals. This not only makes the 
 knowledge more definite and accurate, it gives the chil- 
 dren a clear notion of the superiority of the human body 
 and tends to enhance their respect for it, a necessary 
 basis for hygiene and bodily morality. 1 
 
 Study of the Hand. — Suppose you begin with the 
 organ most easily studied, the hand: let the children 
 observe their own hands, note all their parts and what 
 they can do. Function explains and justifies structure. 
 
 1 Mrs. E. B. Hallock, in her book, " Some Living Things," has 
 developed this method for children perhaps more fully than any other 
 writer. 
 
Physiology 213 
 
 A number of lessons may well be spent in this study 
 of the parts, possible positions, and functions of hands. 
 How many joints are there, and what are they for? 
 What uses do the nails serve ? What can the fingers do, 
 especially the thumb? Countless similar questions will 
 stimulate curiosity and observation and lead directly 
 to rules for the proper care of these wonderfully useful 
 and beautiful organs. 
 
 s The interest in the study and the value of it may be 
 greatly increased by a comparison with the parts of other 
 animals corresponding to the hand, as the fins of fish, 
 the wings of birds, the hoofs of horses and cattle, the 
 paws of cats and dogs. The children can see readily the 
 comparative inflexibility of the " hands " of these ani- 
 mals and their consequent limitation, each to a single 
 function or a comparatively few functions. The fin of 
 the fish is for swimming only, the wing of the bird for 
 flying. The adaptation in each case is perfect, but al- 
 most absolutely confined to the single function. The 
 hoofs of animals also have each a single adaptation, 
 and a further partial usefulness in fighting. The paws 
 of cat and dog have several uses. The hand of the mon- 
 key has many, but not till we get to the hand of man, 
 with its prehensile and supposable thumb, do we find 
 universal adaptability. The advance from adaptation 
 to adaptability, which includes pretty nearly the entire 
 history of evolution, is easily shown in the study of the 
 hand. Especial attention should be given to the thumb. 
 The proverbial prominence of the " sore thumb " speaks 
 volumes for man's place in the cosmos. A history of 
 thumbs and chins would be a history of later animal 
 evolution. 
 
214 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Study of the Skin. — Another excellent study is the 
 skin, — its uses, its delicacy and beauty, its relation to 
 health, and its proper care. Here, too, comparative 
 study is most helpful. The unprotected sensitive skin 
 of man shows a great advance over the coarse, hair- 
 covered skins of lower animals. It enables man by add- 
 ing or removing artificial covering to live in all climates, 
 whereas the lower animal is limited to a comparatively 
 narrow sphere. The polar bear, being unable to remove 
 his overcoat, must live where overcoats are " comfort- 
 able " the year around. Instruction in the care of the 
 skin and in the avoidance of " cosmetics " follows easily. 
 
 These are suggested as typical methods of studying 
 the parts of the body, so as to give genuine and useful 
 knowledge as distinguished from verbal and useless 
 memorization. They may be extended to cover all that 
 it is wise to teach children about their bodies, and may 
 lead easily to instruction in such laws of health and bodily 
 morals as it is important to teach. 
 
 " Scientific Temperance." — Where the law interferes 
 and requires not merely more instruction but that of 
 a wholly different kind, the teacher should try, in so far 
 as possible, to make the instruction sensible and to avoid 
 the evils so easily flowing from perfunctory ethical in- 
 struction, especially when applied to disputed facts. 
 
 As far as the laws allow, keep within the bounds of 
 certainty. This offers a field wide enough for such in- 
 struction as will tend to persuade children to let narcot- 
 ics and stimulants alone. Keep in the background de- 
 tailed instruction as to the constituents and qualities 
 of " rum." Keep in the foreground the beauty and 
 utility of a normally healthy body and the dangers of 
 
Physiology 215 
 
 stimulation, especially in youth. Avoid general state- 
 ments likely to lead children to criticize their elders and 
 bring disrespect into families, and dwell instead upon 
 the evils to which children in childhood are subject. 
 
 Correlations of Hygiene. — Much of the necessary 
 instruction in hygiene can be given in connection with 
 other exercises, such as domestic science and gymnastic 
 drill. With the former much can be taught in regard to 
 food values, wholesome and unwholesome food, the 
 proper manner of eating, and kindred topics. But the 
 great field for correlation is the athletic or the gymnastic. 
 In sports, physical vigor becomes an appreciable de- 
 sideratum, not a mere abstraction, or a detestable school 
 topic. If boys and girls are training for the basket-ball 
 team or a foot race, or for any other contest requiring 
 strength and endurance, it is not difficult to persuade them 
 to bathe, to eat carefully, to sleep with their windows 
 open, and to let chewing gum and cigarettes alone. The 
 instructor in gymnastics, if such there be, is the best 
 teacher of hygiene. He deals with the present, not the 
 remote, with the child's own ambitions and desires, not 
 those of teacher and parent merely. The important laws 
 of health are simple and easily followed, and if they are 
 taught in connection with some appealing end in view, 
 obedience to them can be made a habit, without danger 
 of that morbidity which so frequently follows prolonged 
 contemplation of our " inward states." Older children 
 may be taught a few simple facts about the hygiene 
 of the home, such as the importance of abundant fresh 
 air and of sunshine, the necessity of cleanliness and the 
 reasons for segregating those ill with infectious diseases. 
 
 In all these respects the school itself should be a model, 
 
2l6 What Children Study and Why 
 
 a condition, alas, too seldom fulfilled. Both school 
 officials and teachers are quite too frequently ignorant 
 of the simplest laws of ventilation. Some have no 
 " noses for foul air," a serious defect in a teacher. 
 " Second hand " air, with a certain peculiar nauseating 
 odor, is one of the recognizable characteristics of the 
 average schoolroom in many of our cities. In some cases 
 patent systems of ventilation that work beautifully in 
 theory are responsible for the lack of fresh air in school- 
 rooms. In others where there are really effective sys- 
 tems with forced draughts, teachers, ignorant of the 
 possible difference between fresh air and cold air, apply 
 the wrong remedy. 
 
 Whatever the cause of foul air in a schoolroom, it should 
 be remedied effectively and permanently. What greater 
 absurdity is there than for children in the physiology 
 class to be studying about the respiratory system and the 
 purification of the blood, while themselves contaminating 
 their own blood by breathing a choice mixture of carbon 
 dioxide thrown off once or twice or thrice from the lungs 
 of their neighbors, exudations from the unwashed bodies 
 of the children about them, and disease germs " too nu- 
 merous to mention " ? 
 
 The air in the schoolroom should illustrate the prin- 
 ciples laid down in the textbook not only for the sake 
 of the children while in school, but also for the sake of 
 its influences on the home. Children in the school should 
 be made so sensitive to foul air that they will rebel against 
 it in the home. 
 
 Resume. — In general, let hygiene be hygiene, and not 
 therapeutics. Treat the body as worthy of study and 
 worthy of respect and of the best care. Let the instruc- 
 
Physiology 217 
 
 tion be positive and suggestive, rather than negative 
 and prohibitory. 
 
 This " house beautiful," the home of the human soul, 
 is the highest of visible creations. When God, having 
 made man's body of the dust of the earth, breathed into 
 it the breath of life, this body received a new dignity, 
 unknown before. It should hence be kept pure and sweet 
 and beautiful. Surely this is basis enough for instruc- 
 tion in bodily morality. 
 
 . SEX HYGIENE 
 
 In connection with the study of physiology it is per- 
 haps well to devote a little space to a group of subjects 
 which have been discussed of late vigorously, though 
 somewhat vaguely, under the general heading, " Sex 
 Hygiene." A number of moralists, and especially ad- 
 vocates of the new so-called science of eugenics, urge that 
 children in schools should be made acquainted with the 
 principles of life reproduction, especially as applied to 
 human beings, and that such instruction should be ex- 
 tended to include the physiology and hygiene of the sex 
 organs, to the end that children and youth may be taught 
 how to keep these organs in good health, how to protect 
 themselves against sex vices, and how to become in the 
 end the right sort of parents. It will be seen that while 
 these subjects are closely related, they are after all 
 different subjects. The writers who are urging their 
 introduction into common school curricula seem, however, 
 to suppose that they are all one subject, and that in- 
 struction in the fundamental facts of life reproduction 
 will lead so naturally to the more intensive knowledge 
 of sex as to constitute a sure safeguard against prevalent 
 
21 8 What Children Study and Why 
 
 vicious habits, and against the social dangers that are 
 related to sex. 
 
 Importance of the Subject. — Beyond doubt, it would 
 be well if discussion of sex relationship could be 
 more general and easy than it is, provided that such 
 discussion could be always hedged about with the 
 proper restrictions and safeguards. If children could 
 be made aware of the mode of propagating individual 
 life in animals, as well as in plants, and be led to 
 apply this knowledge to human beings, it would no 
 doubt be valuable, and would save the growing genera- 
 tion from many of the evils that are due to ignorance, to 
 partial knowledge acquired in the wrong way, and to 
 pruriency generally. Further, when children become 
 older, particularly at the dawn of adolescence, if they 
 could be made aware of certain well-known social dangers 
 dependent upon sex, such knowledge probably would 
 prove a valuable protection, again provided, as always, 
 that it be imparted in the right way and by the right 
 people, so as to create scientific interest and moral fear, 
 but not to rouse prurient curiosity, or excite imagination 
 and desire in young people at an age when such feelings 
 are very near the surface. 
 
 The Crux of the Question. — Here is the crux of 
 the question as to the relation of the common school 
 to such knowledge. One may admit without reserva- 
 tion the value of knowledge of the sort indicated to 
 the developing youth, and yet see in the introduction 
 of these subjects into a common school course practical 
 dangers and difficulties quite sufficient to outweigh 
 the possible advantages. Indeed* I personally am 
 quite strongly of the opinion that for the present at 
 
Physiology 219 
 
 least instruction in this whole group of subjects must, 
 in the public school, be limited to the very simplest 
 and broadest facts of life-reproduction as shown in plants 
 and in oviparous animals. The application to mammals 
 of the principles so found out certainly cannot be carried 
 very far at the present time in schools. These are my 
 reasons : — 
 
 Mixed Classes. — Most public schools have both boys 
 and girls in the same classes. While this would not in- 
 terfere with instruction based upon the study of plants 
 and oviparous animals, as indicated above, such in- 
 struction being naturally and properly given in the pri- 
 mary grades, it would stop any further application to 
 higher mammals, because such instruction to be of value 
 would have to be given to the older pupils ; that is, to 
 the adolescents. Unhappily, in every school of advanced 
 grade, a very considerable number of pupils already have 
 considerable knowledge of sex relationship, for the most 
 part obtained surreptitiously, and of the wrong sort. 
 And such knowledge in case of definite instruction in sex 
 hygiene would lead to unfortunate self-consciousness, and 
 in many cases mutual consciousness, which would tend 
 to inflame the imagination, and in addition would render 
 the instruction very embarrassing to both teacher and 
 pupils. The condition is very different from the im- 
 aginary ideal condition, in which children from infancy 
 are cprefully guarded and given the right instruction at 
 just the right moment, step by step, so that there is no 
 evil imagination at any time. It is impossible to plan a 
 scheme without taking account of the actual mental 
 states of children, which involves much of the sort of 
 knowledge of which I have already spoken. In those high 
 
220 What Children Study and Why 
 
 schools in which the sexes are separate, and in boarding 
 schools of the same sort, it is possible that more definite 
 instruction can profitably be given. Whether this is 
 true in any particular case will depend upon local con- 
 ditions, which do not admit of generalization. In small 
 schools for pupils of but one sex, where the relations be- 
 tween teachers and children are sound and wholesome, 
 unquestionably some instruction of a healthful nature, 
 on even the most intimate subjects, may be given. In 
 larger schools the difficulty is greatly increased. It is 
 almost safe to say it increases in geometrical ratio to the 
 number of students, because of the moral influence of the 
 transference of thought due to the presence of numbers, 
 containing always some abnormally self-conscious as to 
 sex, some morbid, and some vicious. 
 
 Unfitness of Teachers. — The great danger from any 
 general introduction of this important topic into com- 
 mon schools, however, is in the teachers themselves. 
 That does not mean that teachers are not moral. 
 I believe that they are so beyond the members 
 of most other professions. Not only are they con- 
 ventionally moral, but they have high ideals and ex- 
 alted standards of right and wrong, and are extremely 
 conscientious. They undertake all imposed tasks, and 
 would undertake, this one, with the keenest sense of 
 responsibility and the utmost desire to do good and not 
 harm. But how many of them are qualified ? We must 
 take conditions as they are and not as we might desire 
 them to be. A very large majority of the teachers of 
 this country are very young women of little experience, 
 and very meager knowledge outside the narrow field of 
 the common school course of study. Many of them have 
 
Physiology 221 
 
 slight pedagogical skill and no pedagogical training. 
 Many of them, probably a majority, are themselves very 
 ignorant of those things that a eugenist would have 
 them teach. Many of them are still adolescent and 
 sexually self-conscious. Attempts on their part to give 
 instruction on these matters, even in the simplest and 
 broadest way, if they have in mind the relation of their 
 instruction to the sex question, would greatly embarrass 
 them. 
 
 Grave Dangers. — It is to be feared that any general 
 course of study in sex hygiene, to be administered 
 through the usual channels and taught by the ordinary 
 teachers of our common schools, instead of doing 
 good would greatly magnify the evils aimed at, instead 
 of decreasing them. Without imparting much pro- 
 tective knowledge, it would do that very dangerous 
 thing, make young people prematurely conscious of 
 sex. The instruction to be given, needful as it is, 
 should be given only by those thoroughly familiar 
 with the subject, and also wise, strong, and mature 
 enough to impress young people without exciting 
 them, or arousing undue curiosity. Such instructors, 
 unhappily, in any system of schools, public or private, 
 are very few. 
 
 Regretfully, I have been convinced that for the present 
 at least the necessary instruction beyond the very broadest 
 facts of life reproduction must be given through some 
 other agency than the common school. One thing, how- 
 ever, might be done and should be done, — in normal 
 schools and in all schools and colleges for the training of 
 teachers, there should be very full and careful instruction 
 in the subject of sex hygiene, sex relationship, and all 
 
222 What Children Study and Why 
 
 that has to do with the reproduction of life, by thoroughly 
 qualified specialists, to the members of the sexes sepa- 
 rately, so that the students going out to teach may have 
 knowledge enough to guide them in whatever efforts they 
 may find it possible to make toward leading their pupils 
 to a wise and wholesome sex life. This is entirely possible, 
 and would be the opening wedge. If we could in this 
 way get each year a large body of well-equipped teachers 
 qualified for this special phase of the work, possibly some 
 of the other difficulties might be disposed of, because the 
 one great difficulty in the way of the early introduction 
 of sex hygiene into common schools is the lack of fitness 
 of the teachers to do the work. 
 
 School Physicians. — At the present day many school 
 systems, especially in the larger cities, employ physi- 
 cians to visit the schools, chiefly to discover the 
 presence of contagious and infectious diseases. It is 
 possible that in the high schools at least, and perhaps 
 in the grammar schools, these physicians might add 
 to their usefulness by talking to the boys and girls 
 separately now and then upon certain solitary vices, 
 and that such talks, in addition to checking these vices, 
 might have a tendency to create wholesome thinking 
 and feeling on the part of the boys and girls. 
 
 What I have here outlined seems to me the limit of 
 possibility within the near future in regard to teaching 
 the facts and principles of sex hygiene. If the time 
 ever comes when the fundamental crucial facts of the 
 reproduction of life can be taught to the young in such 
 a way as to do more good than harm, it will be indeed a 
 happy time. But I fear it will not arrive before the 
 millennial days. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 Writing 
 
 Writing is the most purely mechanical of all the arts 
 taught in school. It has no aesthetic value worth con- 
 sidering and no intellectual value. Its sole function is 
 to enable one to record his thoughts so that others may 
 read them with the least effort. Because of its limited 
 value in education, the time in learning to make this 
 record should be reduced to the minimum. 
 
 Children learn to write by writing, and most of the 
 writing necessary for learning to write can be obtained 
 in connection with the other school subjects. A little 
 time spent upon the form and quality of the penmanship 
 in ordinary written exercises in arithmetic, language, and 
 other topics will obviate the necessity of devoting very 
 much time to barren writing lessons. 
 
 Too much " Fuss." — There is altogether too much 
 "fuss" made over learning to write. There are but 
 two essentials of good writing, legibility and speed. 
 Beauty of form is of so little consequence to the 
 ordinary person as to be negligible in education. 
 Unquestionably that method of writing is the best 
 that enables a child to learn to write legibly and 
 rapidly, with the least possible expenditure of time and 
 effort. It is doubtful if there is any such single method. 
 
 There was much to be said in favor of vertical writing, 
 now fallen into general disfavor. Children certainly 
 
 223 
 
224 What Children Study and Why 
 
 learned to use it with little effort and to write legibly. 
 Second grade children could write their short sentences 
 in vertical script, so that any one could read them easily, 
 something that was unknown before its introduction. 
 Whether the same good results will follow the general 
 return to a modified slant remains to be seen. 
 
 The question of speed was never settled to the satis- 
 faction of all, particularly of those who had writing books 
 to sell. Many rapid writers use the vertical form, many 
 use some other. It would seem to be chiefly a matter 
 of the personal equation. 
 
 Without doubt the chief criticism came from bankers 
 and other men of the bookkeeper class, and was sheer 
 prejudice in favor of the accustomed appearance of their 
 account books. But be that as it may, any system that 
 requires a great amount of time and attention to learn 
 must justify its expenditure by better arguments than 
 the " looks " of a ledger. 
 
 Writing is necessarily copying. In teaching it, there is 
 no possibility of induction, and but little of development, 
 the only approach to it being the analysis of the letters 
 into their constituent lines, and this analysis can be 
 greatly overdone. 
 
 Analysis of Letters. — Writing should begin with the 
 copying of whole words, the same words that the child 
 is learning to read. For a considerable time there should 
 be no attempt at analysis, except the unconscious anal- 
 ysis made by the child himself. Later, as difficulties 
 manifest themselves, they should be met by some simple 
 analysis and by drill on the troublesome forms. These 
 will vary with the children. Hence the futility of any 
 early general analysis of letters for whole classes. 
 
Writing 225 
 
 First Writing Large. — The first writing should be 
 large, in full arm movements. The smaller muscles 
 which control finger movements are developed rather 
 late and they should not be forced. Blackboard 
 writing is best at the start, in letters as large as 
 the children please to make, the larger the better. 
 This should be followed by writing with pencils on 
 soft, paper without rules, also in large letters. The 
 pencils should be not less than one half inch in diameter 
 and of good length, that the children may grasp them 
 with their hands readily, and be compelled to use their 
 arms to write with them. This should be followed by 
 writing between rules not less than an inch apart. 
 Gradually the size of the letters should be reduced to 
 the normal, still with pencils on soft paper. 
 
 The first pens used should be blunt, not sharp-pointed, 
 to retain the free, large movements. By the third year 
 children should be ready for ordinary pens on ruled or 
 unruled paper. 
 
 The cry about lack of individuality in penmanship 
 after using any particular style, as the vertical, for ex- 
 ample, is sheer nonsense. Individuality comes later, 
 if it is in the individual. Any style learned in school is 
 sure to be modified later by the user. 
 
 Children can learn to write by almost any method, but 
 loss of time in acquiring a " bookkeeper's hand " in 
 school is serious and there are things more worth while. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Motor Activities in Expression 
 
 General Literacy Modern. — Time was when illiteracy 
 was no bar against admission to good society. Not 
 only so, but literacy was regarded as a possession of 
 doubtful value except as the key to a trade, something on 
 a par with that of the smith. The average knight and 
 lord of medieval days could scarcely read, if at all. Often 
 he could not even write his name. He could fight, he 
 could ride, he could dance, but reading and writing he 
 cheerfully and somewhat contemptuously turned over to 
 his menials. It was no more necessary for him to read 
 his songs or write his letters than to shoe his horses or 
 polish his armor. Indeed, he was much more likely to 
 do the latter than the former. 
 
 Have we gone too far in the opposite direction? In 
 these days when the descendants of these same knights 
 seek glory not on the gory field, vi et armis, but Uteris et 
 stylis, in the field of letters despised of their fathers, when 
 the public library as well as the schoolmaster is abroad, 
 when everybody reads to his good will or ill, when the 
 blacksmith writes verses and the chambermaid novels, 
 when the limerick contests appeal to the infant in arms — 
 do we place too high a rating upon the use of words, 
 in comparison with the other languages of the soul ? 
 
 Whatever may be the answer to this question, it can 
 hardly be doubted that in our training of the young we 
 
 226 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 227 
 
 have let our enthusiasm for those wonderful twin arts, 
 which form the necessary mechanical basis for literature, 
 close our eyes to the value of the other arts through which 
 man expresses himself. We are word mad, and are so 
 anxious that our youth be able to take to themselves the 
 treasures of knowledge and thought and inspiration stored 
 up in the world's literature that we forget to open their 
 eyes to those other treasures, contained in the buildings, 
 the sculpture, the paintings, the music, the machinery of 
 the world. 
 
 On what principle of common sense can we justify this 
 exaltation of speech, " the art of concealing thought," 
 so far above all other forms of expression ? 
 
 Value of the Doer. — In the great busy world, we value 
 the doer, the man who expresses himself in a machine, 
 a house, a temple, a painting, a statue, a mill, a railroad, 
 a bank, an asylum, a lighthouse. They are the honored 
 of all ages. But in our definition of what we call edu- 
 cation we set up and smugly defend the little two by four 
 image of clay which we call literacy. Then we fall down 
 and worship it and call upon all people to bow before our 
 little god or be sent to social perdition. A man may 
 build factories, cities, nations, but unless he is "up" on 
 Ibsen he is uneducated. 
 
 I am not ignorant of the many attempts to remedy this 
 defect that have struggled for recognition for thirty years 
 past with varying success. The " object lessons " the 
 " manual training," the occasional attention to appre- 
 ciative study of the fine arts, — all are indications of a 
 real, if vague, sense of lack in our curricula. But these 
 efforts as yet have been sporadic and undigested and too 
 often ephemeral. 
 
228 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Courses out of Balance. — We still must ask ourselves 
 whether our courses of study are not out of balance, 
 whether having secured the irreducible minimum of liter- 
 acy, — ability to read or write effectively, — the remaining 
 time should not be distributed more nearly in accordance 
 with the values of the other matters that may be taught. 
 We have greatly extended the average of school at- 
 tendance, but the extension of work has been nearly all 
 along one line. Do we need a reform ? 
 
 Two Phases of Every Course. — As stated in Chapter 
 I, every course of study necessarily represents two phases 
 of education : a body of knowledge to be learned, and a 
 range of activities, to secure through expression the re- 
 actions necessary, not only to learning itself, but what 
 is even more important, to the growth of the mind. 
 
 These two phases are naturally complementary, and 
 hence, although the specific topic of this chapter is the 
 latter phase, that of expression, and a single aspect of 
 that, this brief consideration of the other phase seems to 
 me necessary as an introduction. 
 
 All Arts Necessary. — In the economy of life all the 
 arts have their place. He who can read the " sermons 
 in stones " and the rest of it ; he to whom Nature " speaks 
 a various language " ; he who looks with eye of apprecia- 
 tion upon the Taj Mahal; he who can feast his mind 
 upon the beauties of a Venus de Melos or a Transfigura- 
 tion ; he who is intelligently and deeply moved by "con- 
 cord of sweet sounds," surely he has a valuable education, 
 even though his knowledge of literature be meager. 
 And more, he who can read comprehendingly and with 
 pleasure a locomotive, a turbine steamer, an electric 
 lamp, a telephone, a wireless outfit, or even a compli- 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 229 
 
 cated tool, a piece of furniture, a boot, a suit of clothes, 
 has his compensations for lack of literary training. He 
 can put himself as really into communication with the 
 efforts of some fellow-man to express the best that is in 
 him as by reading a poem. Truly then, when we have 
 passed the irreducible minimum of literacy, we need to 
 consider well whether the children should not be led to 
 the contemplation of more varied and richer knowledges 
 than are contained in any merely verbal record. 
 
 Range of Activities. — This leads directly to the range 
 of activities suggested for the course of study. Of what 
 expressive arts should the child be put in possession, and 
 why? 
 
 Why teach Arts of Expression. — Why teach any 
 arts of expression? The first reason is really sub- 
 conscious. It is of the nature of instinct that children 
 should be instructed into the modes of being and doing 
 of the race. Hence training in expressive activities al- 
 ways and naturally precedes the imparting of formal 
 knowledge and the earliest knowledge imparted is that 
 which bears upon and illumines the activities. The 
 educative business of the infant is to kick, to creep, to 
 walk and talk, to cry and make up faces. Knowledge is 
 incidental and auxiliary. For a long time he cares to 
 know only or chiefly that which will help him directly 
 to do something. He learns to do many things, in imita- 
 tion of his elders and to gratify his desires, while his 
 knowledge, except as directly related to his activities, is 
 practically nil. That is, he falls without effort into the 
 life of the race, and begins to do his part as a member 
 of it ; for the great business of the race is to do things. 
 Records, talk about it, are subsidiary or supplementary. 
 
230 What Children' Study arid Why 
 
 So the instinct of the savage in training his child to do 
 the things that he does, in putting him in possession of 
 the arts, the expressive activities of his people, and the 
 instinct of the young mother, alike innocent of psy- 
 chology and pedagogy, who dances her baby and, as soon 
 as possible, encourages him to do his utmost to make 
 himself known and felt and heard, are alike sound, alike 
 in consonance with the evolution of man and the highest 
 achievements of the race. 
 
 Caution to Teachers. — And we teachers need to be 
 very sure of our ground before we switch the child off 
 abruptly from this normal, natural, time-honored train- 
 ing into an empirical, unnatural searching for mere 
 knowledge without the accompanying and vivifying ac- 
 tivity. To take a child of six who has been educating 
 himself in active games, using, abusing, breaking toys, 
 making mud pies, constructing trains of cars, building 
 block houses, living a real life, and plant him in a desk 
 made for sitting still, and stuff him with words, repress- 
 ing his natural activities, is admittedly a crime against 
 nature. But it does not cease to be a crime when he is 
 twelve years old in a grammar school or sixteen in a high 
 school. To such unwise, unnatural, artificial attempts 
 to violate the eternal laws of development are due much 
 of the " badness," the uneasiness, and the stupidity of 
 children in school, which move teachers to exasperation, 
 parents to despair, and the children themselves to law- 
 lessness, hatred of school, and truancy. So this first 
 reason why we should teach expressive activities may be 
 called racial. 
 
 Reaction Necessary. — The second reason is to pro- 
 vide the reaction necessary to learning. It may be 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 231 
 
 called the psychological reason. It is a truism that there 
 is no learning without reaction. The impression that 
 neither is accompanied by vivifying expression nor rests 
 upon previous expression is either wholly barren or 
 hopelessly and often ludicrously erroneous. 
 
 The Rigmarole. — Disregard of this great fact in 
 teaching is responsible for the rigmarole, that most 
 wasteful and deadening of school methods, — though 
 quite Common, — the learning and reciting of words in 
 an established order, without thought. We little ap- 
 preciate the absurd interpretations often put upon 
 wordy rigmaroles memorized and so glibly reeled off 
 by the children as to delude us into the belief that 
 they comprehend what they say. Doubtless we can all 
 recall from our own childhood these absurd notions 
 drawn from words that we used in our school recitations 
 and perhaps especially in prayers and other religious 
 exercises. The well-worn "consecrated cross-eyed bear" 
 story is no exaggeration. 
 
 Knowledge without expression is no knowledge. 
 Reciting words about an idea is not necessarily ex- 
 pressing the idea at all and may not indicate the 
 slightest conception of the idea. In the use of no 
 other form of possible expression is deception so easy 
 or so common. This is one reason why it is so 
 necessary to employ many kinds of expression in the 
 training of children. 
 
 Dr. John Dewey's experience in getting desks for the 
 children in his experimental school shows how sadly 
 devoted we are to apply the analogy of the tub to the 
 child mind. " Every child is a tub, whose function is 
 to sit still while the teacher pours into it a stream of 
 
232 What Children Study and Why 
 
 l 
 
 useful knowledge, and a good tub does not leak. More- 
 over, wisdom is like to good wine. Its perfection comes 
 through resting long in quiet places. To cause it to 
 move about prevents the settling of the lees." Upon 
 such philosophy is a large part of our educational struc- 
 ture founded. 
 
 Why do Children learn slowly in School? — The in- 
 fant creeps, kicks, dances, screams, strikes, plays, 
 imitates, goes through millions of antic activities 
 that would tire an adult to death, and through 
 it all grows and learns with a rapidity almost mi- 
 raculous. When this baby comes to school why does 
 he learn so slowly? If a teacher could keep the in- 
 tellectual growth of the children in school at even ap- 
 proximately its rate before coming to school, he would 
 be exhibited as a freak. 
 
 The best in our best schools is natural baby activity 
 utilized and extended. This is found in the kindergarten 
 and in the rare but occasional primary school. Its secret 
 is expression, natural, free, varied, and abundant expres- 
 sion — as the antecedent, the consequent, the accom- 
 paniment, the vitalizing force of impression. It is with 
 knowledge as it is with life ; the more we put into it^ of 
 effort, of vital force, the richer we are in possession, in 
 power. 
 
 The Practical Reason. — The third reason for treat- 
 ing expressive activities as fundamental in the training 
 of children is the practical one. The more numerous 
 the means of expression open to a human being, the 
 greater the possibility of his rendering efficient service 
 in life, the less the likelihood of his being " a square peg 
 in a round hole." We teach children that the doer is 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 233 
 
 greater than the recorder, the warrior than the minstrel 
 who sang his deeds, but we train children only in the 
 lesser art. Each child is entitled to a training in the 
 particular art of expression through which he can best 
 express his best. For all the arts are but avenues of 
 expression, through which men send the output of their 
 souls to their fellow-men. Everything we do expresses 
 ourselves in some degree. But the expression is often 
 inadequate and unconvincing because we have not 
 mastered the art that is best for us. We need a recasting 
 of values and a study of adaptation. The great successes 
 of the world are attained when men of rich natures have 
 discovered the means, best for them, of distributing their 
 riches. Indeed, individual success is almost wholly de- 
 pendent upon finding means of expression, adequate and 
 personally suitable. 
 
 If Sir Christopher Wren had tried to express himself 
 in poetry instead of in stone, probably the world would 
 have had some more poor verses and certainly no St. 
 Paul's cathedral. 
 
 Do we not owe it to the children to give them such 
 familiarity with the various expressive arts that each 
 may both find the one that is best for him and besides 
 may have at his command as auxiliary other arts for the 
 enrichment of life and the widening of opportunity ? Is 
 our modern education in danger of dwindling, like Echo, 
 to a mere voice ? 
 
 Why Motor Activities. — Why should the expressive 
 activities that are to receive emphasis in schools be motor 
 activities ? First, perhaps, because of a sort of necessary 
 elimination. Practically all expressive activities ex- 
 cepting those involved in verbal expression are motor 
 
234 What Children Study and Why 
 
 activities. So if we are to increase the number, we must 
 perforce include the motor activities. But this of itself 
 speaks volumes. It seems as if Nature had sought to 
 make it impossible to avoid any neglect of these agencies 
 in education. If that was her intent, she did not take 
 sufficient account of the ingenuity of the schoolmaster. 
 Give us half a chance and we will beat Nature every time, 
 both vitiating her method and defeating her purposes. 
 
 But there are special reasons in the nature of the mind 
 itself why the motor activities are all-important for the 
 very act of learning and consequently for all mental 
 growth. The exercise of the motor activities com- 
 bines in a most remarkable manner the fulfillment of 
 its manifest function, — that of expressing thought, 
 — with the development of mental power in the in- 
 dividual. The reasons for this are both scientific and 
 practical. 
 
 Brain Areas. — The physiological psychologist will 
 tell you of extensive brain areas in which the termini of 
 the afferent and efferent nerves affecting motor action, 
 observation, reasoning, and verbal expression are so 
 closely related as to produce the utmost harmony of ac- 
 tion. Whether as the result of some transference of 
 power similar to electrical induction, or because of an 
 actual physiological union, there seems to be an inter- 
 change of stimulation, so that one cannot act without 
 rousing the others to activity. 
 
 Herein is the explanation of many common phe- 
 nomena. Natural gesture, which necessarily preceded 
 speech as a means of expression, and almost always ac- 
 companies it unless artificially restrained, is due merely 
 to these transferred currents. 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 235 
 
 Thinking is always naturally, and almost always prac- 
 tically, accompanied by an attempt at expression, both 
 in words and in motor activity. This, too, is due to the 
 constitution of the brain, which imperatively demands 
 motor expression, especially in the young, as a condition 
 to thinking itself, and hence to all brain development. 
 
 Moreover, in this federation of nerve termini the motor 
 nerves seem to dominate. If they are or become inert, 
 the brain loses its other activities and dies. The child 
 born without motor power is always an idiot. His 
 earliest means of expressing himself being lacking, he 
 never arrives at the later ones. He never has any con- 
 scious self to express. 
 
 Motor Activity and the Defective. — On the other 
 hand, a child almost idiotic, but with enough motor power 
 to utilize for educational purposes, by a carefully ordered 
 system of motor expressive activities, may be raised 
 from the plane of the hopelessly defective into that of the 
 fairly intelligent and intellectually capable. Indeed, the 
 training of the motor activities is the main reliance of all 
 those institutions for the feeble-minded that have rescued 
 from mental darkness and economic helplessness so 
 many thousands of the " Born Shorts." And this is all 
 made possible by that marvelous clearing house of nerve 
 activities in the brain. Truly a force so mighty for good 
 should not be ignored in the training of the normal child. 
 Nature utilizes it first and chiefly in her development of 
 the infant. All people everywhere in all ages have put 
 their reliance upon it for the development of the young, 
 — all but the schoolmaster. We, the professional 
 teachers of youth, in all ages and peoples, have inclined 
 to limit our training of the young to that which can 
 
236 What Children Study and Why 
 
 be obtained, through some form of logomachy, the ut- 
 terance and arrangement of words. But fortunately, 
 Nature has kept right on working in spite of us. 
 
 Of recent years there has been much evidence of a re- 
 turn to the ways of Nature. It is manifested in manual 
 training courses, manual training schools, trade and in- 
 dustrial schools of various sorts, systematic physical 
 culture, and occasionally a rational and scientific co- 
 ordination of developmental motor activities with other 
 means of rousing and expressing thought, as a funda- 
 mental part of the educational scheme. But such co- 
 ordination is as yet sporadic and unusual. 
 
 Lack of Coordination. — In most schools the motor 
 exercises constitute an uncoordinated and seldom un- 
 derstood addendum to an already crowded curriculum. 
 While few teachers nowadays have the courage to say 
 that they do not believe in manual training, few have a 
 really clear notion of what it is for. The most vibrate 
 between its industrial and occupational values and what 
 they call its " educational " usefulness, insisting, however, 
 with the blind certainty of instinct, that the educational 
 use is the real one. These values, however, are put for- 
 ward as excuses rather than as imperative reasons. 
 
 The industrial reason is valid and powerful and does 
 not need to be advanced apologetically. That manual 
 training exercises make it easier for the average child to 
 find himself and his place and to make a better living, 
 because he does something worth more to the world than 
 would be possible without such training, is a perfectly 
 proper argument which does not need to blush for its own 
 existence, and is in itself a quite sufficient ground for 
 all the manual training now in the schools and more. 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 237 
 
 Meaning of " Educational." — But the educational value 
 is not so easily understood. The very term educational 
 is conveniently indefinable. Hence it is a handy cover- 
 ing for a multitude of sins and idiosyncrasies in teach- 
 ing. It is the universal shield of the ignorant and hard- 
 pressed. When the father says, " I don't want John to 
 study music. It ain't practical," all the teacher has to 
 do is to look wise and say, " Of course, Mr. Smith, it 
 may not be very practical, but it's very educational," 
 and she has Mr. Smith down and out. " Educational " 
 is a great word. To the teacher it is both shibboleth 
 and conjure word. It is as effective as Sydney Smith's 
 " rectangular parallelopipedon " with which he silenced 
 the old woman calling him names. 
 
 Now, of course, all motor activities that deserve a place 
 in school are educational and that is the chief reason for 
 having them there. They are educational as all the 
 natural activities of life, especially those with a definite 
 motive, are educational. They enable the developing 
 soul to express itself and by that act to grow. This is 
 simple, psychological, and plain. We grow through 
 expression. Impression, learning, gives us the ma- 
 terial, but it's expression, putting forth, exercise, — call 
 it what you will, — that works the external fact into 
 knowledge, an internal condition of growth, and also 
 makes room and creates the demand for more and 
 more material. We might as well try to make flour by 
 pouring wheat into a motionless hopper as to make 
 mind by pouring facts into an expressionless child. 
 
 Hence if we are to get the real value of motor activities, 
 they must not be tacked on the week's work in school as 
 an extra, placed there by sufferance, but they must be a 
 
238 What Children Study and Why 
 
 coordinated and fundamental part of the regular work, 
 as really so as is language expression. 
 
 To make for real comprehension of the content sub- 
 jects of the curriculum, such as history, geography, arith- 
 metic, and to secure the highest and most permanent 
 results from them, expression through motor activities 
 must be secured regularly and systematically. 
 
 If you doubt this and have never tried it, do so as an 
 experiment. Be honest with yourself and open minded 
 about it. First think why it is so or may be so. The 
 thing you have made you understand. The muddy 
 notions too often left by words are all made clear when 
 with brush or pencil, or other tools, you have realized 
 your idea. With a child this is doubly true. The thing 
 he has made even crudely is the thing he knows. This 
 is the philosophy of all the constructive work of the kin- 
 dergarten and primary school. It is not necessary even 
 that the thing made resemble very closely, to another's 
 eye, the object supposed to be represented. To the child 
 it is the thing. He sees it. His hands have made it. 
 It may be a house, or a bridge, or a rainbow, made with 
 kindergarten blocks ; to the maker it stands for an idea, 
 and the making of it has made that idea clear to him as 
 words could not do. By that mysterious process of the 
 conservation of energy through interchange, his ex- 
 penditure of motor energy in construction has brought 
 about a more active and efficient exercise of his brain, 
 and while the world may not have benefited directly by 
 his action, his own mind has been strengthened and 
 enriched by the reaction. The child has learned, not 
 by listening to a description in words, but by expressing 
 through motor activities his embryonic idea. Through 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 239 
 
 this attempt at expression, his glimmering of an impres- 
 sion has become clear comprehension. 
 
 School Possibilities. — Is it possible to have in the 
 ordinary school such a coordination of motor activities 
 with the existing course of study as shall not add to the 
 crowding, but rather shall furnish relief by supplying an 
 essential connecting element that is clarifying, stimu- 
 lating, developing, and harmonizing? Can we in our 
 teaching of language, history, and geography and the 
 other topics, make use of that marvelous unifying agency 
 in the brain of which we have spoken ? 
 
 My answer is, not only can it be done, but it is easy ; 
 it would simplify many now troublesome problems, and 
 it requires no new machinery. Indeed, it makes it 
 possible to lessen the amount of machinery in use. It 
 requires simply a certain freedom from convention, the 
 courage of our convictions, and common sense, the 
 bringing into the schoolroom of some of the practical 
 wisdom of the home and the playground. 
 
 The Language Lesson. — Language is perhaps more 
 nearly than any other a central subject, and serves best 
 as an illustration. The teaching of language has a lower 
 and a higher function, indeed several of them. The 
 lower function is to acquaint the children with the rules 
 of conventionally correct speech. The higher include 
 truthfulness, clearness, and fluency of speech, and, what 
 is even greater, the same qualities' of thought. The lower 
 function is the one most in the minds of teachers. The 
 method is by rule and example. That the method 
 usually fails to secure the result aimed at is not my 
 present point; I am more concerned with the higher 
 aims of the subject. 
 
240 What Children Study and Why 
 
 If the higher ends of language instruction are looked 
 after, — the stimulation of good thinking and its clear, 
 forceful, accurate, and fluent expression, — the habit of 
 conventionally correct speech may be formed easily 
 through such expression. 
 
 If the lower end only is looked after in the usual way, 
 not only will the higher ends perforce suffer neglect, but 
 the lower end itself, the habit of conventionally correct 
 speech, will fail of attainment. 
 
 It is evident that clear thinking is necessary to efficient 
 expression. Aside from a merely verbal knowledge of 
 the conventions of speech, it is absolutely impossible to se- 
 cure good language results without at the same time se- 
 curing good thinking. The two are inseparable. Here 
 is the occasion for a rational use of the motor activities. 
 Here the teachers may utilize their extraordinary power 
 to clarify thought and may make manual training a real 
 educational force in daily school work. Suppose you 
 are a primary teacher and are to have an oral lesson in 
 which you want the children to talk fluently and well, 
 thus acquiring correct language habits. You choose 
 the story of Joseph. You first try to give the pupils 
 the proper stock of knowledge, the necessary mental 
 picture. You talk to them, you tell them the story, you 
 describe the life of the nomad in the wilderness, and later 
 the life at the Egyptian court. You paint word pictures 
 of Asiatic and Egyptian scenery. Perhaps if the children 
 are old enough, you have them read in books about it 
 all. You carry on the study through a series of lessons. 
 But you never know what the words used mean to the 
 children. Your description of Oriental life may produce 
 such responses as that of the boy who, after learning a 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 241 
 
 definition of the equator, described it as a " menagerie 
 lion, running around the middle of the world." How can 
 you make sure? Use the motor activities. Let the 
 children represent Joseph in his various environments 
 in some tangible material. It makes little difference how 
 crude and simple the material is. A long table in each 
 primary schoolroom is almost essential to clear mental 
 pictures and good language. It is better that the table 
 be what is usually called a " sand table," and it should 
 contain slightly moistened sand for manipulation. 
 
 The children will supply gladly all the articles necessary, 
 such as dolls and other toys, or better, objects made di- 
 rectly by hand from clay or wood or paper, — and working 
 as you tell the story, from day to day, they will at the end 
 have a panorama marvelous in its inclusiveness, but a 
 source of very great pleasure to them and a stimulant to 
 thought and its expression. They will then have no vague 
 ideas about the story. The mental picture will be clean- 
 cut and definite, and they will talk both fluently and well. 
 Their brains will have received great stimulation. The 
 language founts will be very near. The words used by 
 the teacher in telling the story will be ineffaceably im- 
 pressed upon the mind and will be used by the children. 
 
 I have seen third-grade children of foreign extraction 
 talk from a sand table on the story of Beowulf a half hour 
 at a stretch each, in good English and with absorbing in- 
 terest, and the use of the motor activities made it pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The same principle applies to history, to geography, 
 to arithmetic, to all subjects capable of illustration by 
 the pupils. 
 
 It is perhaps easier to employ such illustrative ex- 
 
242 What Children Study and Why 
 
 ercises in the primary grades, where there is compara- 
 tively little differentiation of subject, but a little care 
 will find means for the use of this great principle in all 
 grades. 
 
 Arithmetic. — In arithmetic the opportunities are 
 many. Practically all the work in denominate numbers, 
 and especially in mensuration, can be greatly simplified 
 and strengthened by suitable motor exercises. 
 
 I recall a visit to the School of Education of the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago when Colonel Parker was its head. 
 That great teacher understood and utilized the place 
 of motor expression in clarifying thought. The arith- 
 metic classes were building a playhouse on the school 
 ground. All the operations were carried on by the chil- 
 dren. They bought the lumber and other material, 
 at least theoretically, cut, sawed, fitted the parts, and 
 literally built the house. The work called also for a very 
 considerable practical knowledge of financial transac- 
 tions, and it is safe to say that that knowledge was real 
 rather than verbal. Those facts of mensuration and 
 finance were sawed, hammered, and planed into the 
 children's minds by their own activities, and could not 
 be forgotten. 
 
 Geometry. — As I recall, my attention was first 
 directed to this principle years ago in one of the earliest 
 and best of the now numerous manual training high 
 schools. Because of its newness the progress of its pupils 
 was carefully watched in comparison with that of pupils 
 in the old high school pursuing the same subjects. It 
 was found that in mathematics they easily far out- 
 stripped the academic pupils. This was especially true 
 in geometry. The reason was manifest. They were 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 243 
 
 dealing with geometric problems in the concrete, em- 
 ploying motor activities. So that it required no effort 
 on their part to see the relations of geometrical magni- 
 tudes, because they had not only felt them, they had 
 worked them out and produced them with their hands. 
 
 Physical Culture. — There is another form of motor 
 expression possessing great possibilities which have been 
 thus far quite generally overlooked. I refer to what is 
 popularly called " physical culture." It has been com- 
 mon for years for pupils in schools to be put through 
 various calisthenic exercises, to relieve the tedium of 
 long sitting, to discharge overcrowded nerve centers, and 
 in general to accord with the dictum that exercise is 
 " good for " the children. These are sound reasons, 
 and the exercises have served, no doubt, a very useful 
 purpose. But they have fallen very far short of their 
 legitimate function of giving effective and graceful ex- 
 pression to thought and feeling. Like manual training, 
 physical culture has been tacked on the course of study 
 as an extra instead of being coordinated with it as both 
 a stimulant and a means of expressing thought. In a 
 few progressive schools and systems of schools attempts 
 have been made at a proper coordination of physical 
 culture with the other studies, with remarkable results. 
 The work done in the Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
 versity, that by Miss Belle R. Parsons in Los Angeles, 
 and that by Miss M. B. Newton in Rochester, N.Y., 
 show what may be accomplished with little extra effort. 
 
 Gesture, the Earliest Language. — And why not ? 
 Gesture is the earliest of languages. There are few 
 emotions or thoughts that may not be expressed in 
 gesture. Few people can talk at all without gesture. 
 
244 What Children Study and Why 
 
 The natural gestures of the baby are accurate as well as 
 graceful. Anger, love, hunger, joy, content, are all 
 plainly manifested without the utterance of a word. 
 
 Pantomime and Drama. — Under proper instruction, 
 this use of the body to express thought has received 
 a very high development among specialists. The pan- 
 tomime is merely organized gesture. We have the high- 
 est development of gesture in the drama, where it is co- 
 ordinated with expression in words, and in the opera, 
 where it is allied with vocal and instrumental music to 
 express the deepest and the loftiest emotions. 
 
 All these phases of motor expression in simplified 
 form may be used with propriety in the schools. Dances 
 representing national customs in connection with history, 
 games of all sorts dear to the young, movements repre- 
 senting in rhythmic pantomime the various industries 
 of men, tableaux vivants, showing modes of motion in 
 nature, as the undulatory movements of the sea and the 
 air, the flowing of water, the waving of trees and of fields 
 of grain, the locomotion of beasts, the flight of birds, and 
 many more, introduced into school, will illumine the 
 various subjects of the curriculum and afford a useful 
 outlet for the child's natural love of self-expression, be- 
 sides furnishing good exercise. 
 
 The Drama in School. — One of the best exercises in 
 connection with the study of history, of language, and 
 of literature is the drama. Plays made and acted by 
 the pupils, representing the stories they read, the events 
 of history, the activities that they describe in words, so 
 clarify impression as to render the facts learned unforget- 
 able, while giving the children the advantage of express- 
 ing themselves in the most complete manner possible. 
 
Motor Activities in Expression 245 
 
 Instances could be multiplied without number, show- 
 ing how the motor activities may be employed in school, 
 not as extra exercises, burdening both teacher and pupils 
 with a new subject, but rather, illumining and reenforc- 
 ing the standard subjects now in the curriculum and at 
 the same time bringing joy and freedom into the daily 
 tasks and changing drudgery into alluring and fasci- 
 nating employment. 
 
 Reform Needed. — Our entire scheme of manual train- 
 ing and physical culture must be recast along the lines 
 of the expression of thought and feeling. Manual train- 
 ing has made long strides in that direction already. 
 The meaningless exercise of the early day is rapidly dis- 
 appearing, and pupils make things for a purpose, to 
 express some thought or feeling. But this thought or 
 feeling is too often artificial, worked up for the occasion, 
 to give excuse for the exercise, instead of being a vital 
 idea forcibly demanding utterance. 
 
 Physical culture has not yet moved clearly in the direc- 
 tion of common sense, except in here and there a school. 
 The exercises are still exercises merely, sawing the unresist- 
 ing air or contorting the body into ungraceful shapes 
 with no manifest motive beyond that of mere exercise. 
 
 But the time is coming when manual training will be 
 a regular part of the thought-developing and thought- 
 expressing machinery of the common school, when every 
 exercise will be an aid to the solution of a pressing school 
 problem, when the children will express their ideas as 
 naturally with saw or plane or hammer, or pencil, or 
 brush, or chisel, operating on solid material, as with the 
 glib tongue uttering articulated breath or with the pen 
 making symbols on a white plane. 
 
246 What Children Study and Why 
 
 And physical culture will be the expression in graceful, 
 symbolic movements of genuine thought and feeling, the 
 gesture developed to include countless expressive move- 
 ments, the dance representing in graceful symbolism 
 the rhythmical movements of nature, — air, ocean, trees, 
 and streams, — and of the animals, and also the activities 
 and industries of man; and last and highest of all, the 
 drama, and these not treated as separate exercises but 
 as drawn from and related to the life and education of 
 the child, clarifying and illumining the dark places of 
 the school. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Industrial Training 
 
 Motor activities as applied to the work of the school 
 fall naturally into two classes, the educational and the 
 industrial. These names are, however, inexact and to 
 a degree misleading, inasmuch as all activity, especially 
 all school activity, is educational. Moreover, there is no 
 fundamental reason why training for manual industry 
 should not be educational in the broadest sense. 
 
 Industrial Training also Cultural. — The old type of 
 training, supposed to be to the fullest degree cultural, — 
 that obtained through the study of the humanities, — had 
 for its aim one of a very small number of definite gainful 
 occupations, law, theology, or medicine. True, they 
 were not manual activities, but that does not affect the 
 principle. For training for a manual occupation prop- 
 erly conducted is mind training and to be most effective 
 must include a very wide culture. Manual dexterity 
 is only a minor result of the best manual training, even 
 when directed toward a specific occupation. The trained 
 mind is as necessary to the highest success in wood work- 
 ing or iron working as in surgery. So industrial train- 
 ing to be highly effective must be chiefly cultural. 
 Indeed, one of the strongest arguments for the right 
 kind of industrial training, though one frequently 
 overlooked, is that it lifts the hand worker from the 
 
 247 
 
248 What Children Study and Why 
 
 plane of the mere mechanic to that of the thinker, using 
 his trained mind, to get better mechanical results, it is 
 true, but also able to use it to meet the broader de- 
 mands of life. It produces not merely better mechanics, 
 but better men. In a free state the man before the ma- 
 chine is as important as in war the man behind the gun. 
 
 Distinction Inevitable. — Still in our planning for 
 training the motor activities in school, we do necessarily 
 make a distinction as to the aim. There is a marked 
 difference between what in school parlance we call 
 " manual training " and what we call " industrial train- 
 ing." 
 
 The former aims definitely at broad general culture, 
 the hand work being merely one of the means employed 
 to that end, and the relation of the training to specific 
 gainful occupations being merely incidental. Whereas 
 in industrial training the specific calling is definitely 
 to the fore, any cultural effect being the incident. In the 
 former, hand training is to give the pupil new modes of 
 self-expression, to enlarge his acquaintance with life, 
 and to develop those areas of the brain that lie fallow 
 unless stimulated into productivity through motor 
 activity, and thus to make it easier for him to know his 
 own aptitudes. It opens to him a larger world of possible 
 work. In the latter the aim is specifically to train car- 
 penters or blacksmiths or cooks or what not. 
 
 Industrial Training in America Late. — In America 
 recognition of the importance of industrial training in 
 schools arrived late, growing out of pressing industrial 
 and social conditions, real or imaginary, such as the 
 restrictions placed upon apprenticeship by the labor 
 unions so that few native-born children can enter the 
 
Industrial Training 249 
 
 ranks of skilled manual labor, and the real or supposed 
 filling of the ranks of the unemployed with boys and girls 
 from the schools. 
 
 At first such training by the state was regarded with 
 almost universal suspicion. Those of us who were 
 active in introducing manual training into school 
 twenty years or more ago were compelled to explain 
 very carefully that it was not intended to fit children 
 for trades, 'but that the aim was purely educational. 
 We had to point out over and over again that we 
 were merely giving the children a broader culture 
 and to show that they did better in their other studies 
 because of the stimulus received from work at the bench. 
 Much was said of the dormant brain areas, to be 
 awakened only through muscular activity. This was 
 especially necessary when we tried to introduce manual 
 training into the grade schools. 
 
 Sewing and Cooking first " Industrial " Subjects. — 
 It was the introduction of sewing and cooking for girls 
 that really paved the way for industrial training as such. 
 Here it was necessary to lay greater stress upon the 
 " practical " value of the instruction given, — how it 
 made better housekeepers and better homes. Thus the 
 minds of intelligent people, including boards of education, 
 were prepared to accept the practical arguments in 
 favor of teaching trades to boys. 
 
 The general value of teaching the various manual arts 
 has perhaps already been sufficiently stated. It now 
 remains to discuss industrial training specifically. And 
 truly some things need to be said very plainly indeed. 
 
 Danger of Extremes. — We are so prone to rush to 
 extremes. Sometimes I am tempted to think that we are 
 
250 What Children Study and Why 
 
 in danger of losing our sense of proportion, our sanity, 
 over this question of industrial training. There are 
 those among us who apparently would turn all our schools 
 into shops, who would put the hand before the brain and 
 would sacrifice all the results of the devoted labors of 
 those who have built up our magnificent system of high 
 schools offering to all boys and girls the blessing of a 
 liberal culture. 
 
 The Age of Choice. — One of the chief dangers of 
 this extreme course is that of forcing young boys and 
 girls into the choice of their life work long before they 
 are competent to make such choice. Even many college 
 graduates have not yet found themselves and are un- 
 certain as to what work they should choose. We can 
 all recall the various stages that we passed through be- 
 fore arriving at our destination, and some of us doubt- 
 less are not now sure that that destination is the proper 
 one. 
 
 Compelling children in the grammer school to make 
 such choices is sure to increase the number of square 
 pegs in round holes. It is not a variation of broad 
 manual training, it is its antipode. Instead of helping 
 the young to a knowledge of their aptitudes it closes 
 the door of such opportunity to them. 
 
 Of course these extreme views are not held by the 
 better thinkers, the real leaders of the movement ; but 
 there is enough of such talk abroad, some of it uttered 
 by those high in educational authority, to demand 
 caution and clear statement of purpose. No one must 
 be allowed to think that the leaders of educational 
 thought desire to substitute farm schools, or cooking 
 schools, or millinery schools, or shops of any sort, for 
 
Industrial Training 25 1 
 
 high schools and colleges, even those of the most purely 
 intellectual and scholarly type. 
 
 Danger to Democracy. — Above all, no one must be- 
 lieve that we aim to drive into private schools the children 
 of the well-to-do or those who desire " book learning," 
 leaving the public school for those who must learn trades. 
 To do this would create those permanent class dis- 
 tinctions that would spell the death of democracy. 
 And this is undoubtedly the goal to which some of the 
 extreme advocates of industrial education would drive 
 us. 
 
 Arguments not wholly Convincing. — Frankly, it must 
 be said that the most urgent advocates of extensive in- 
 dustrial training as a coordinate branch of the common 
 school curriculum have not made out as yet a completely 
 convincing case. The assumptions are stronger than the 
 proof. Indeed, thus far the plea rests almost wholly 
 upon assumption. The latest official report upon the 
 subject is a very able, careful, and on the whole con- 
 servative, document. I refer to the report for the year 
 1908 of the New York Department of Labor, prepared 
 by Director Charles H. Richards, of Cooper Union. 
 This shows that in a very large minority of the industries 
 studied, there is difficulty in obtaining skilled labor, and 
 that in the opinions of many, still a minority, courses of 
 industrial training would help to remove this difficulty. 
 This does not seem to be a very strong argument for 
 making such courses a coordinate part of the work of the 
 common schools, especially in view of other considera- 
 tions naturally not included in the reports, but essential 
 to a solution of the problem. 
 
 A recent national convention on industrial training 
 
252 What Children Study and Why 
 
 was practically a manufacturers' convention. With very 
 slight exceptions the sole question discussed was the 
 supply of skilled labor to the factories and shops. The 
 question of the education of youth seemed scarcely to 
 have occurred to the speakers. 
 
 The truths that there are more important things 
 in life than skill in handicraft, that a skilled workman 
 is not necessarily a good citizen, that the broadening 
 and enriching of the mind is in itself so to be desired 
 that official interference with it in the interest of 
 mere manual efficiency would be deplorable, seem 
 to have been overlooked. The speakers seemed to 
 have considered but one side of the question. It is in- 
 teresting that the chief advocate of liberal training for 
 the pupils of the schools as contrasted with teaching 
 trades was the representative of organized labor. He 
 and those he represents are justly afraid of the enslaving 
 effect of pushing children into trade guilds early, thus 
 fixing permanently their social status. 
 
 All this means that there are two sides to the question. 
 The efficiency to be obtained through careful training 
 in one's chosen occupation is of course desirable. But 
 to press this so far as to sacrifice breadth of mind and 
 general intelligence would be disastrous. The man must 
 always be larger than the workman. Some of the ques- 
 tions yet to be answered are the following : 
 
 How great, really, is the need of skilled labor beyond 
 the present supply? Are the ranks of unskilled labor 
 filled to any considerable degree with American boys and 
 girls who would be in the ranks of the skilled if the com- 
 mon schools taught trades? Are clerical positions and 
 those of salesmen and others, requiring sense and in- 
 
Industrial Training 253 
 
 telligence but not manual skill, overcrowded with boys 
 and girls who would be better off as skilled manual 
 laborers ? 
 
 Is it possible to introduce trades into our schools with- 
 out sacrificing other subjects? If not, what must go? 
 Can it be shown that, in the long run, considering the 
 pupils as future men and women and citizens, the stu- 
 dents will be compensated for the loss of these studies 
 by the knowledge of a trade ? Just what is the place of 
 the trade school in our system, as to the age of pupils, the 
 length of the course, and the character of the instruc- 
 tion ? What trades and how many should be offered ? 
 What is to be done for the girls? 
 
 I cannot of course assume to answer these questions. 
 I am a mere layman, a somewhat old-fashioned teacher. 
 But I shall venture a few suggestions. 
 
 The Proper Place. — What, then, is the proper place 
 of industrial training in our public school system? At 
 most it is that of an adjunct. Not one iota of the study 
 of literature or history, or trite fine arts, or any other 
 purely cultural subject, must be sacrificed for it. To a 
 certain extent it may be correlated with these studies, 
 furnishing new activities, illustrations, and means of self- 
 expression. Thus used, it may give point and direction 
 to studies which before were somewhat vague and point- 
 less. This is manifestly true of manual training. It is 
 also true of nature study, mathematics, and history, 
 and to a considerable degree of language study. 
 
 Suppose a boy is looking forward to the carpenter's 
 trade; it is evident at once that his manual training ex- 
 ercises acquire a new meaning, his work with tools has 
 a new and very potent motive. His nature study also, 
 
254 What Children Study and Why 
 
 while being no less cultural, acquires a new interest. 
 The more he can learn about the woods and metals that 
 enter into the work of a carpenter, the better his equip- 
 ment for his future trade. Even his history, if properly 
 studied as to its industrial phases, throws light both upon 
 his work, and, especially, upon the social and economic 
 life of the carpenter. Then, abundant material for 
 language expression is to be found in descriptions of the 
 tools and materials used by the carpenter, in exact ac- 
 counts of processes, and in descriptions of articles made. 
 This is incidental indeed, but it shows how the study of 
 a trade may be given a cultural value. 
 
 But it cannot be repeated too often that the trade 
 school proper must be an adjunct to the public school 
 for general education, not a substitute for it or for any 
 part of it. If trades are to be taught to pupils still in 
 the common schools, it must be in additional classes, in 
 the evenings, on Saturdays, or during the long vacations. 
 
 Continuation School. — But the ideal trade school is 
 the " continuation school " for boys and girls who have 
 fulfilled the legal requirements as to school attendance, 
 and desire or are compelled to learn a trade. Such 
 schools should be of two sorts ; those employing the full 
 time of the students who are able to postpone gainful 
 work until they have first learned their chosen trades, 
 and schools employing a part of the time of those already 
 working for wages in shops. 
 
 The Full Time Schools. — The former require only 
 the action of boards of education. They should, 
 however, be not merely schools for teaching the details 
 of trade, but should be as broadly cultural as possible. 
 The cultural studies should be chosen because of their 
 
Industrial Training 255 
 
 manifest relations to the trade taught, and should be 
 grouped around it as a center. They should shed all 
 possible light upon its higher phases, and especially 
 upon its social bearings; for example, nature study 
 should be the study of those natural objects that enter 
 directly or indirectly into the work of the craft, — their 
 qualities, origin, production, and uses. The history 
 should be largely centered about industrial and economic 
 conditions. 
 
 The study of these subjects differs from the study of 
 the same subjects for their cultural value in that it is 
 the incident, while the trade itself is the ever evident 
 aim. But it is none the less important and valuable. 
 The pupils themselves should be led to see that such 
 study will insure them higher success in their chosen 
 work, that it will give them a wider outlook upon the 
 conditions essential to the highest attainments, that it 
 will make them more intelligent, larger, and wiser men 
 and women, and hence better and more efficient carpen- 
 ters, or blacksmiths, or cooks, or milliners. 
 
 The range of activities of a trade school should be as 
 wide as possible. As many trades should be taught 
 as can be taught effectively. Otherwise there will be 
 danger of unhappy economic disturbances due to the 
 overcrowding of certain fields of work. The tendency 
 seems to be to limit the work offered to a few trades. 
 This will have to be corrected, or we shall have a large 
 army of the unemployed in certain lines, and a consequent 
 shortage in others. 
 
 Avoid the Guild Notion. — But above all, every effort 
 must be put forth to avoid the guild notion, for there is 
 very real danger that trade schools, if generally organized 
 
256 What Children Study and Why 
 
 and largely attended, will have a tendency to increase the 
 social differences of our citizens, and to fix them, produc- 
 ing permanent classes and castes. 
 
 One remedy for this is to intensify the cultural work 
 of the trade schools. The larger the man or woman, the 
 broader the outlook, the wider the sweep of purely in- 
 tellectual attainments among manual workers, the less 
 the danger of caste and social fixity. The great safe- 
 guard of a democracy is the social fluidity of its citizen- 
 ship. The easy transition from one phase of life to 
 another, the widest variation of occupation among mem- 
 bers of the same families, particularly the choice of work 
 by the children different from that pursued by the parent, 
 save a nation from the prejudices which are the basis 
 of all caste and class distinctions. This the demo- 
 cratic trade school must accentuate and develop to the 
 fullest degree possible. 
 
 In this respect the problem before America is quite 
 different from that in most European countries. Hence 
 we must be careful in borrowing ideas from Germany, 
 for example, where not only are permanent class dis- 
 tinctions prevalent, but where they are considered desir- 
 able by the ruling powers, and where their perpetuation 
 is a distinct aim in public education. 
 
 Another caution that we must keep in mind is to avoid 
 such training as will permanently limit the pupils' powers 
 of expansion. They must be saved from the narrowing 
 effect of doing one small thing day after day. 
 
 In this respect the trade school should have a distinct 
 advantage over the apprentice system of learning trades. 
 For the good trade schools teach all phases of a trade, 
 and not merely a single one, while the tendency of the 
 
Industrial Training 257 
 
 employer is to keep the employee engaged upon a single 
 operation easily learned. This makes men small, though 
 perhaps very expert in the narrow range of activity open 
 to them. 
 
 The Part Time School. — But not all boys and girls 
 who are ready to choose a trade can stay in school long 
 enough to learn one. Economic conditions compel 
 them to go to work to earn money. Are these un- 
 fortunates to be compelled to forego all training for 
 their chosen work except the narrow round of a single 
 movement given in the shop by the employer eager to 
 turn the young brain and hand into ready money ? 
 
 For these youths special schools should be provided, 
 giving them, for an hour or more a day, high-grade 
 broad technical instruction in their chosen crafts, and 
 these should be daylight schools, not evening schools, 
 and employers of boys and girls of limited education 
 should be compelled not only to grant the necessary 
 time, but to see to it that their employees of suitable 
 age go to these schools. 
 
 Some of the more enlightened manufacturers of the 
 country maintain such schools at their own expense, 
 notably the General Electric Company, under the 
 now famous leadership of Mr. Alexander at Lynn, Mass. 
 They find that the gain in power, in better compre- 
 hension of the principles underlying the craft, and hence 
 the better work done, more than compensate for the 
 cost of the school. 
 
 But this is properly the work of the public, quite as 
 much as maintaining schools for the more fortunate 
 youth who can give their entire time to education. 
 Moreover, the single hour a day would do wonders, 
 
258 What Children Study and Why 
 
 because every problem would have a meaning, and its 
 solution would be applied immediately to the work of 
 the shop. Besides, it would affect the social life of the 
 pupils only for the better. As they would have made 
 their choice of work already, the schools would qualify 
 them for the higher ranks in this work. 
 
 Training Farmers. — There is one phase of industrial 
 training that is receiving much attention at the present 
 time, which needs special consideration ; that is train- 
 ing for farming. The importance of such training 
 cannot be questioned. It has two motives, — to keep 
 the boys and girls on the farms, and to secure better 
 farming than is commonly found in this country. It is 
 hoped, by showing the independence and the many other 
 advantages of country life, to stem the tide of country 
 youth toward the cities, and also to educate those who 
 are to be farmers to a more scientific and profitable 
 cultivation of the land. 
 
 To this end, in many states, instruction in the rural 
 schools in the principles of agriculture is required by 
 law. Also in some states township and county farm 
 schools have been established, and elaborate colleges for 
 teaching scientific farming have been appended to the 
 state universities or created into separate institutions. 
 
 Rural Schools. — The farm schools and the agri- 
 cultural colleges are undoubtedly admirable in purpose, 
 and very useful. Teaching farming in the country dis- 
 trict schools is of more doubtful value. The teachers 
 in most of these schools are very young women. It is 
 to be feared that the instruction given by them to 
 farmer boys, even with the aid of good textbooks, will 
 be either grotesque or humorous. 
 
Industrial Training 259 
 
 Proper Limitations. — Might it not be better to con- 
 fine the work in the common rural schools to reading 
 matter showing the charms of rural life, and the com- 
 parative independence of the farmer, and to nature study 
 bearing especially upon farming, perhaps utilizing the 
 school gardens, and by these means to persuade the boys 
 and girls to attend agricultural schools ? Is it not as true 
 of training for farming as for the other industries that 
 the trade school should be a continuation school, and that 
 the elementary school should be devoted to giving a 
 general education, with only such incidental reference 
 to industries as will tend to create taste and enable the 
 pupils to discover their aptitudes ? 
 
 Industrial training seems destined to become a part 
 of our public educational system. On the whole, it is 
 to be regarded as desirable, but like all innovations it is 
 in danger from its friends, and needs caution and wisdom 
 to keep it in its proper place. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 The Fine Arts 
 
 SINGING 
 
 Are not the fine arts too fine for the common schools ? 
 Do they not belong to that army of fads that have been 
 so vigorously and wittily and frequently denounced as 
 corrupting our youth, turning the course of education 
 into useless channels where it can turn no mill wheels 
 of arithmetic or grammar? 
 
 Value of Fads. — Yes, truly they are fads; to the 
 "practical " materialist, anathema, to all the Gradgrinds, 
 maranatha. But how about the boy and girl who are 
 to be the dominating forces in the free nation of the 
 morrow? One is almost tempted to paraphrase and 
 say, " Let me teach the fads to the rising generation 
 and I care not who teaches them the ' essentials.' " 
 
 Let us remember that boys and girls in school are just 
 people, not unlike those out of school. " If you prick 
 us, do we not bleed? " They stand in the same need of 
 ideals, of cultivated feelings, of illumination and in- 
 spiration, as their elders ; and more, for they are more 
 sensitive to influences, more easily turned toward ma- 
 terialism or idealism. 
 
 The fine arts are among the chief means of combating 
 the much-preached-against tendency to low material 
 aims. They are the principal reliance of the wise teacher 
 
 260 
 
The Fine Arts 26 1 
 
 in training the feelings, cultivating that neglected area 
 of the mind. 
 
 The feelings are the key to character, furnishing the 
 solvent for the hard intellectuality of mere learning, and 
 supplying the motive to the will. " Keep thine heart 
 (feeling) with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of 
 life." 
 
 If good character, showing itself in self-control for 
 good ends and in a wise altruism, is the chief end of 
 education, the feelings must be trained. Knowledge of 
 good and evil is not enough. Adam and Eve acquired 
 that through sinning — a marvelous parable. It is 
 necessary to add to knowledge taste, a love for the good, 
 the true, and the beautiful. No effort is wasted that 
 brings into the lives of boys and girls a desire to taste 
 the joys that come from the appreciative contemplation 
 of this trinity of emotional appeal. Therefore let us 
 have in the schools all the fads that may lift the eyes 
 of the children " to the hills from whence cometh our 
 help," even if arithmetic and formal grammar must move 
 up a bit to make room for them. 
 
 Functions of Fine Arts. — The function of the fine 
 arts in school is to open the minds of children to the 
 higher meanings of life, to spread before them a feast 
 of beauty and of joy that will keep their senses from 
 noting with pleasure the vulgar, the coarse, the selfish, 
 the evil of any sort, and will stimulate them to strive 
 for attainment in the world of worthy ideals. 
 
 The fine arts that have found a place in our schools 
 are literature, music, drawing, and painting ; to a very 
 limited degree, modeling and the finer aspects of the 
 constructive crafts. Happily they have gained such 
 
262 What Children Study and Why 
 
 a foothold that we may safely assert that they have 
 come to stay. Of these arts the one which, with the 
 possible exception of literature, makes the widest ap- 
 peal, is music. It would be supererogatory to descant 
 on the influence of music in general. But its function 
 in school and how that is to be fulfilled need discussion. 
 
 Two Aspects. — The two aspects of music that belong 
 to education are producing music and appreciating 
 music produced by others. Thus far in schools we 
 have limited our efforts almost wholly to the former. 
 We have undertaken to teach children to sing, it must 
 be confessed with somewhat meager success. What may 
 be accomplished in the other phase of music remains to 
 be seen. 
 
 School not a Studio. — The very modest success of 
 our efforts to teach children in school to sing must be 
 attributed mainly to faulty method, itself due to a 
 failure to grasp the difference between the schoolroom 
 and the studio. Until quite recently the methods were 
 wholly those of the music studio, and these methods 
 still prevail to a very large extent. 
 
 In the studio a specially trained teacher of music 
 teaches specially gifted pupils an art in which they al- 
 ready have particular interest. These pupils are willing 
 to undergo the drudgery of thorough training in the ele- 
 ments of musical science, for ability to sing well is already 
 a desideratum to them. Presumably they are already 
 musical. They know something of music and they love 
 it. Moreover, here, teaching music is the one aim, un- 
 embarrassed by other claims upon the time and attention. 
 Even if there is any lack of interest on the part of the 
 pupils, the zeal of the teacher and his cultivated skill 
 
The Fine Arts 263 
 
 in teaching this particular art, to a very considerable 
 degree, atone for this lack. 
 
 In the school the conditions are quite different. The 
 teachers for the most part are untrained in this art, and 
 few of them are in any true sense musical. They are 
 compelled merely to follow the instruction of the super- 
 visor, or the course of study, without much interest, and 
 frequently without skill. Many of them are much more 
 interested in arithmetic or grammar than in music. 
 
 The children too are of all sorts, children with no in- 
 terest in music, those with a little interest, and those 
 with great interest, all in one class to be taught together. 
 They do not come to school to study music chiefly, or 
 even as a very important matter. They would find no 
 fault if not taught it at all. Some have considerable 
 musical ability, some little, some are monotones. Under 
 these conditions, De Retzke with Farrar as a pupil will 
 not serve as a model. The approach must be psycho- 
 logical, rather than scientific. The limitations of the 
 teacher, of the pupils, and of the curriculum, all re- 
 quire this. 
 
 Wherein have the prevailing methods been faulty? 
 In two respects in particular, and these relate to the two 
 especial aims in the teaching of music in school. 
 
 Appeal to iEsthetic Nature. — In order to realize 
 through the teaching of singing the higher ends of 
 education to which they are supposed to contribute, it 
 is necessary, through a wholesome cultivation of the 
 feelings, that children should come to love singing, 
 to love music, and to know and love good music. The 
 appeal should be made from the very first to the 
 aesthetic nature. Hence the beginning should be song, 
 
264 What Children Study and Why 
 
 real song, such as the children can appreciate, but not 
 vulgar or commonplace. The rhythm, the melody, the 
 lilt, the echo of the heart beat, which are the physical 
 basis of both poetry and music, should be strongly present 
 in the first musical instruction, and they should never 
 disappear. The mechanics of music, its scientific struc- 
 ture, should be kept in the background and should be 
 brought forward only when the children are ready for 
 it as explanation of that which already has given them 
 pleasure and as a means to fuller joy in singing. 
 
 The familiar method of teaching singing to children 
 by beginning with the scale is comparable to teaching 
 reading by beginning with the alphabet or teaching draw- 
 ing by beginning with a study of type forms, the sphere, 
 the cube, and the cylinder, methods which all the older 
 teachers will readily recall. To a degree they are all 
 logical. They start with principles, and what method 
 of teaching a principle is so simple as to state it "in 
 good set terms " ? But they are to even a greater degree 
 unpsy etiological. They ignore the interest of the 
 learner. They forget that children learn by contact 
 with things, embodied principles, first, and later may 
 come to understand and even to state the principles. 
 
 Begin with Songs. — Hence teaching singing in 
 schools must begin with singing, singing real songs, 
 enjoyable to the children in both sense and rhythm, 
 appealing even to the unmusical children. It must 
 first be rote singing, singing "by ear," until the songs 
 are learned. Gradually a study of principles and even 
 of technic may be introduced, after the children have 
 been made ready by much enjoyable singing. 
 
 It is not* the aim of this discussion to treat of method 
 
The Fine Arts 265 
 
 in detail, but to indicate the principles on which all method 
 must be based, if children are really to learn to sing. 
 
 It must be remembered that teaching singing in school 
 is not merely or chiefly to give children a knowledge of 
 the principles of the art. It is rather to introduce into 
 the school life, and thence into the after life, a new element 
 of joy. This involves cultivating not only a love for 
 music, but a love for good music, appreciation, musical 
 taste. This is the principal reason why the music used 
 in instruction should be good music. Mere exercises, 
 musical phrases composed to illustrate some principle of 
 technic, will not do. 
 
 It is as great a sin to keep children, in the earlier period 
 of learning to sing, drilling on meaningless mechanical 
 phrases and scales, as it is to make the early reading les- 
 sons of meaningless combinations of letters or of words. 
 The "do re me do " first lessons in singing are on the 
 same plane with the " See the ox go up " first lessons in 
 reading, or those even worse, in which sounds are put 
 before sense. 
 
 In the one, as in the other, the emphasis should be 
 upon the content from the very start. The cultivation 
 of taste should move with equal step with learning the 
 principles of the art. The earliest music used should 
 appeal to the feelings, both for the joy it yields in the 
 present, and for the fuller joy it may be expected to 
 yield with growing taste. Music enriches chiefly the 
 aesthetic side of life. Hence to the aesthetic nature it 
 should appeal during the process of learning. 
 
 Moreover, the pupil should learn through his music 
 lesson to appreciate the music of others. But this will 
 be treated in a later chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 The Plastic and Graphic Arts 
 
 The same principles that apply to singing apply with 
 equal force to drawing and painting and modeling. 
 There are the same limitations of environment, of un- 
 trained or meagerly trained teachers, of pupils without 
 previous preparation, without taste, without desire. 
 
 As with singing, the methods must be adapted to these 
 conditions. The first efforts must be to represent truth- 
 fully real things which the children desire to represent. 
 They must see from the first that they are getting posses- 
 sion of a new language, through which they may express 
 the results of their observations and their feelings. 
 
 Create Appreciation. — Furthermore the lessons in 
 drawing and painting and modeling must open their 
 eyes to the meanings and the beauties of what others 
 have done with these arts. The child who has not 
 learned through his drawing lessons to enjoy the fine 
 drawing of a great artist has missed one of the chief 
 possible values of his lesson. 
 
 To this end good models of drawings of subjects 
 similar to those he is to draw should be presented to 
 the children. I am aware that this is heretical. We 
 are told continually that the child must see for himself. 
 Of course he must. But he must learn to see with the 
 eyes of the artist, to distinguish the essential from the 
 
 266 
 
The Plastic and Graphic Arts 267 
 
 unessential, and in particular to see the beauty of what 
 he is trying to represent. Studying the work of a real 
 artist will open the eyes of the student so that he can 
 see more for himself. 
 
 Value of Copying. — There is much to be said for the 
 old custom of requiring students of drawing and paint- 
 ing to copy the works of masters. I am aware that a 
 suggestion of copying in school would meet with ex- 
 treme disfavor in the eyes of drawing teachers and 
 supervisors. Still I am rash enough to suggest it as 
 a very valuable exercise. The great masters of English 
 have generally acquired facility and style through copy- 
 ing the styles of admired masters. Stevenson, for exam- 
 ple, confesses himself a copyist in his earlier attempts, 
 changing his master repeatedly. The great painters 
 have all either begun in that way or have supple- 
 mented their earlier attempts at self-expression by sed- 
 ulous copying. How else is a style to be acquired? 
 A student who carefully copies the works of a master 
 learns to see as the master saw, and thus has his eyes 
 opened to beauties before concealed. I am convinced 
 that it would be an excellent exercise to introduce into 
 the elementary drawing lessons as well as into those 
 more advanced. 
 
 Copying Not All. — Of course, this is by no means 
 the whole story. Constant copying would weaken origi- 
 nality. The pupil must learn to see with his own eyes 
 the beauties of what he is to draw, and to select the 
 salient features and group his objects so as to bring out 
 these features. Therefore, after the close study, line 
 by line, of some master's drawing or painting, such as 
 is required for copying, he should attempt to draw simi- 
 
268 What Children Study and Why 
 
 lar objects and groups of objects, using what he has 
 learned in his copying. 
 
 Drawing a Language. — The drawing lesson has an- 
 other function also. It should not only feed the aesthetic 
 nature of the child, but it also should give him a new 
 language, a fresh medium through which he may express 
 his thoughts. This he will acquire mainly through use, 
 but also through studying the successful attempts of 
 others to express their thoughts. 
 
 The young child begins crudely to represent what he 
 sees, and these crude drawings are often very interesting. 
 But the interest is mainly psychological rather than ar- 
 tistic. Through these untutored efforts we get insight 
 into the workings of a child's mind. But if this kind of 
 drawing is continued too long, there results retardation 
 and a clogging of the mental machinery, — arrested de- 
 velopment, — and here is where the child's drawing often 
 breaks down. His work in the intermediate grades loses 
 the freedom that it had in the primary school. He be- 
 comes self-conscious, ashamed of the crudity of his efforts, 
 and, lacking the help that an elementary knowledge of 
 technic would give him, loses his interest in drawing. 
 Correct graphic expression can no more be evolved from 
 his inner consciousness than correct language or music. 
 Before he can use the art effectively, he must know some- 
 thing of its laws. These he should be led to discover in 
 the work of one who has obeyed them. In other words, 
 freedom may be carried so far as to destroy itself. There 
 is first the freedom of infancy, untrammeled by any 
 limitations except those of the child's own power. But 
 very soon this must be succeeded by the freedom of law, 
 the conscious power of one who knows how. 
 
The Plastic and Graphic Arts 269 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the great aim of teaching 
 any of the fine arts is to develop power to see and to 
 reproduce beauty, and to this end it is necessary to 
 understand, to a limited extent at least, the laws of 
 beauty. 
 
 Too much of the drawing in schools is barren and me- 
 chanical, resulting either in a vain self-satisfaction or 
 in a lack of interest. 
 
 Begin with Pictures. — The principles suggested for 
 the teaching of music apply with equal force to drawing. 
 As the former should begin with music, so this should 
 begin with pictures, many pictures, good pictures. Nat- 
 urally these pictures should be of a sort interesting to 
 children. If possible they should be in color. It is 
 much more important to have in a primary school a 
 stock of good pictures than a set of drawing books or 
 of type-form models. Photographs, copies in black and 
 white and in sepia tints, and reproductions well done in 
 color, are easily obtained and inexpensive. Among 
 the best of the various classes of pictures available 
 for schoolroom use are the large colored posters now 
 offered by all school art dealers. 
 
 Must fit Children. — It is most important that the 
 pictures used be of subjects adapted to children. Much 
 good art, especially classic art, fails to excite interest 
 in children. Well-meaning committees often err in this 
 regard. Even classical madonnas generally do not ap- 
 peal to children. Pictures of animals, of other children, 
 of domestic scenes, preferably modern, are the most 
 suitable for use in primary schools. Large pictures 
 with only a few details are the best. These should be 
 changed from time to time and should be studied, that 
 
2JO What Children Study and Why- 
 
 is, carefully observed, and the interesting features and 
 such of the points of beauty as children can appreciate 
 should be talked about. All this is preparing for the 
 more technical study later. It is creating taste. It is 
 the natural way of approaching the subject. 
 
 Much Drawing. — Along with this, of course, should 
 be much drawing and painting by the children., At first 
 this will be necessarily of the crude, psychological sort. 
 But quite early a few principles may be taught by ob- 
 servation. Color work is best, — at first, — with large, 
 generous effects, concealing the unsteadiness of little 
 hands, and requiring chiefly arm movements. The sky 
 line and a little of perspective may be easily taught. 
 
 The children's observations, at first undirected, be- 
 come gradually more definite. Their reproductions grow 
 accurate, truthful, and artistic through a gradual ac- 
 quaintance with some of the essential laws of the art, 
 obtained by studying pictures with constantly increas- 
 ing closeness, and by drawing and painting what they 
 themselves see. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 The Development of Taste 
 
 How is it possible in the ordinary public school to 
 inculcate taste in the fine arts? As to literature, the 
 question is a simple one, and has been sufficiently an- 
 swered in the chapters on Reading and Nature Study. 
 But how is it with music and the graphic and plastic arts ? 
 
 The natural way of cultivating a taste for good music 
 is to enable the learner to hear good music sung or pro- 
 duced by orchestras, or by performers upon single in- 
 struments. It is evident that it is possible only in rare 
 instances to present in schools for the benefit of pupils 
 either skilled singers or trained performers upon musical 
 instruments, either single or in bands. Now and then 
 in the larger cities in a very few cases this may be done, 
 but these cases are so exceptional as to be negligible in 
 any general consideration of the musical needs of chil- 
 dren. Public concerts in parks sometimes offer real 
 training in musical taste, and fortunately the custom 
 of giving such concerts is growing. But the schools have 
 no control over these offerings, and can have none. 
 Moreover, they reach a comparatively small number. 
 Can the schools do anything for the many children 
 attending them? 
 
 Canned Music. — There seems to be but one way 
 at present, and that is through the increased use of 
 
 271 
 
272 What Children Study and Why 
 
 " canned music." Phonographs and mechanical piano 
 players have already attained a considerable popularity 
 in schools, and it is to be hoped' their use may be 
 greatly extended. These instruments of various sorts 
 have been so greatly improved that they really offer 
 very excellent substitutes for the personal performer. 
 In many cases they present good music in a very much 
 better style than the best local talent, even if this could 
 be secured. If every school owned a first-class phono- 
 graph, or a good piano-player, or both, children could 
 hear enough good music really to develop musical taste. 
 
 In some instances, school boards are wise enough to 
 provide such instruments, but in most cases, where they 
 have been obtained for schools, it has been done through 
 the efforts of teachers and pupils, aided occasionally by 
 parents' clubs and other auxiliary organizations. It is 
 an excellent thing to work for. 
 
 Good Music to Sing. — Aside from this device, al- 
 most the only reliance of those who would elevate the 
 people's children through the aid of music is in the kind 
 of music presented for their singing exercises. As was 
 said in the preceding chapter, this should always be 
 good music. Mere exercises, scales, runs, and all pseudo- 
 music, should take a subordinate place, merely to train 
 the ear and the voice and to give the ability to read 
 music, after the children, through singing real music, 
 have acquired some taste and a desire to know more of 
 the art which already gives them pleasure. They should 
 never precede such pleasurable singing, and should never 
 supersede it. They should merely accompany it when 
 necessary, in order to make it more pleasurable. 
 
 The "music books" filled with "made up" strains of 
 
The Development of Taste 273 
 
 inferior grade, so common in our schools, should go to 
 the scrap heap, and in their place should be books con- 
 taining music, real music. For we must never forget 
 that the real aim of teaching music in schools is the ele- 
 vation of the feelings and the consequent enrichment of 
 the moral nature, and the one essential to this end is 
 music itself, fine music, in abundance, developing taste 
 and an unquenchable appetite for more music. 
 
 As to drawing and painting and modeling, the situa- 
 tion is much more encouraging, or rather the facilities 
 for cultivating taste are much more easily obtained. 
 
 Reproductions of good paintings and drawings and 
 statues are abundant and inexpensive. A very small 
 sum of money will equip a school with a portfolio of 
 thoroughly satisfactory reproductions of the best of 
 the world's paintings, and with a few plaster casts, for 
 all instructional purposes as good as the originals. It 
 should be the aim of every school to own such a treasury. 
 
 It is not enough to have a few good pictures hanging 
 on the walls, though of course these should be present. 
 There should also be the portfolio. And all these pic- 
 tures should be studied sympathetically, not merely to 
 get a story from them for the language lesson, but to find 
 out why they are beautiful. This study should be a 
 regular and necessary part of the drawing lesson. In 
 some cases it might profitably precede an attempt *to 
 draw some similar subject, but in most it should be 
 simply a study to find the beauty — a training in taste. 
 
 Feed the Soul through the Eyes. — When a child has 
 completed a common school course, it is not enough for 
 him to be able to draw simple objects fairly well. He 
 should be able to tell a good picture from a bad one, 
 
274 What Children Study and Why 
 
 and why it is better, and he should love the good picture 
 and despise the bad one. The Sunday comic supple- 
 ment should excite his horror and detestation, as should 
 some of the illustrations that do not illustrate, found 
 in popular novels and magazines. 
 
 We do not pay enough attention to the feeding of 
 children's souls through the eyes. We cannot wholly 
 prevent the presentation to them of the base, the com- 
 monplace, the vulgar, even the indecent, in books and 
 papers, and on public walls. But we might to a degree 
 at least render them immune to these degrading sights 
 by cultivating a distaste for bad art, through its antipode, 
 a love for good art. Here is where stress should be laid 
 in the art departments of our schools. 
 
 It is possible, if the schools should seriously undertake 
 to cultivate taste in the children, that, in time, our civili- 
 zation would be so far removed from barbarism that 
 popular sentiment would demand the entire abolishment 
 of bill boards. But that may be an iridescent dream. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 The Correlation of Studies 
 
 Thus far we have discussed the values of the different 
 subjects of the school curriculum considered separately, 
 and have endeavored to intimate distinctly some ways 
 by which these values might be secured to the students. 
 But this is by no means the whole story of education 
 through study. In a higher sense no subject can be 
 considered independently. 
 
 The Mind One. — The mind is one. It does not 
 consist even of separate " faculties," as taught in the 
 older psychology. These so-called faculties are but vari- 
 ous activities of the mind. Even memory is composite 
 and contains elements of reason, of feeling, and even of 
 willing. It cannot be cultivated at all without calling 
 into service these elements. If this is true of the mind 
 itself, it is especially true of the various means and ma- 
 terials that are employed in education. 
 
 Knowledge of Relation. — Nothing can be known 
 alone. All knowledge is of relations. As the various 
 foods are taken into the body and there cease to be meat, 
 potatoes, bread, and become " one body," essentially 
 different from any one of them, so all knowledge is a 
 fusion of many elements, which have lost to a consider- 
 able degree their original characteristics. 
 
 What we choose to call arithmetic, grammar, and read- 
 
 275 
 
276 What Children Study and Why 
 
 ing, when used in education, are but foods of the mind, 
 which lose their identity when absorbed, and become 
 simply undistinguishable elements of mind stuff. The 
 only knowledge, again, is correlated knowledge. How- 
 ever diligently we may teach disparate subjects, when 
 they become subjective knowledge, they have been by 
 some mysterious process of mental alchemy fused into 
 the mind itself, so that they are all present in the ac- 
 tivities of any one. 
 
 We talk of abstract number, which means merely 
 number not applied to a particular object. But num- 
 bering, a mental act, cannot be abstracted from reason, 
 from memory, from symbolizing, from a hundred other 
 mental actvities. The Hegelians have much to say of 
 their categories, and do not recognize a truth until it is 
 categoried. This is a rather technical and materialistic 
 way of stating a fundamental truth. Knowledge does 
 not exist, as such, until it has found its place among the 
 previously possessed knowledges and has become a dis- 
 tinct part of them, almost or quite unrecognizable under 
 its own name. 
 
 Knowledge Individual. — To put it, possibly, in a 
 more plain and practical way, both the thing learned and 
 the learning mind are modified by the act of learning. 
 This is apperception. No two people can know exactly 
 the same thing. The mind can know only what it is 
 fitted to know by reason of its previous content and 
 mode of action. Dr. Holmes wittily expresses this in 
 the " Autocrat of the Breakfast Table " thus : " It is 
 not easy, at the best, for two persons talking together 
 to make the most of each other's thoughts, there are 
 so many of them. When John and Thomas, for in- 
 
Three Johns. 
 
 The Correlation of Studies 277 
 
 stance, are talking together, it is natural enough that 
 among the six there should be more or less confusion 
 and misapprehension. 
 
 "As I said, I think I can make it plain to Benjamin 
 Franklin here, that there are at least six personalities 
 distinctly to be recognized as taking part in that dia- 
 logue between John and Thomas. 
 
 1. The real John ; known only to his Maker. 
 
 2. John's ideal John ; never the real one, and 
 often very unlike him. 
 
 3. Thomas's ideal John; never the real John, 
 nor John's John, but often very unlike 
 either. 
 
 {1. The real Thomas. 
 2. Thomas's ideal Thomas. 
 3. John's ideal Thomas. 
 
 " Only one of the three Johns is taxed ; only one can be 
 weighed on a platform balance ; but the other two are 
 just as important in the conversation. Let us suppose 
 the real John to be old, dull, and ill-looking. But as the 
 Higher Powers have not conferred on men the gift of 
 seeing themselves in the true light, John very possibly 
 conceives himself to be youthful, witty, and fascinating, 
 and talks from the point of view of this ideal. Thomas, 
 again, believes him to be an artful rogue, we will say; 
 therefore he is, so far as Thomas's attitude in the con- 
 versation is concerned, an artful rogue, though really 
 simple and stupid. The same conditions apply to the 
 three Thomases. It follows that, until a man can be 
 found who knows himself as his Maker knows him, or 
 who sees himself as others see him, there must be at 
 least six persons engaged in every dialogue between two. 
 
278 What Children Study and Why 
 
 Of these, the least important, philosophically speaking, 
 is the one that we have called the real person. No won- 
 der two disputants often get angry, when there are six 
 of them talking and listening all at the same time." 
 
 To a child riding on a locomotive with his father, a red 
 light is only a red light, while to the father it is a signal 
 of danger or even of death. 
 
 To Wordsworth's Matthew, 
 
 '' A primrose by the river's brim, 
 A simple primrose was to him, 
 And it was nothing more." 
 
 While to the poet himself, 
 
 " The meanest flower that grows can give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 
 
 In more practical fields, — A general term such as a 
 trapezoid to the mathematician brings at once a perfect 
 image of the geometric figure, while to a child in a pri- 
 mary school, studying an old-fashioned arithmetic, it 
 means — nothing. 
 
 Topics Composite. — The various topics named in a 
 course of study are all composite. No one represents 
 a single line of mental activity, or a single exactly segre- 
 gated body of knowledge. Each is merely a convenient 
 conventional grouping of more or less closely related 
 bodies of facts. Some subjects, such as geography, are 
 confessedly agglomerations of many sciences, very loosely 
 coordinated. Others, as arithmetic, are assemblages of 
 knowledge associated by a single common factor, as 
 number, — like buttons on a string. A few, like spelling, 
 represent more nearly a single field, but a very narrow 
 
The Correlation of Studies 279 
 
 one. History and the fine arts stand for a more sub- 
 stantial, because a more philosophical, unity. But to 
 treat any topic of the curriculum as if it stood alone in 
 the field of facts as a plainly distinct entity, is to per- 
 vert the truth and to place obstacles in the way of the 
 natural correlation which goes on in the mind whenever 
 anything is learned. 
 
 The Practical Aspect. — The practical aspect of these 
 truths to the teacher is this : Since all facts learned must 
 be fused in the mind with other facts known, that is, 
 with the mind itself, it behooves the teacher to present 
 them to pupils so that they may be fused readily. There 
 is enormous waste in the ordinary way of teaching sub- 
 jects without special regard to their relations. Text- 
 books too frequently have an eye single to the topic 
 named in the title, and endeavor to separate it from 
 all other topics however naturally related, and to treat 
 it as an abstract, unrelated entity, so that the child and 
 even the teacher have little notion of the essential one- 
 ness of the curriculum. 
 
 It is true that in the intensive study appropriate for 
 university specialists such abstraction is desirable and 
 even necessary. The subject being already well known 
 in its larger aspects and in its broad relations, becomes 
 the proper subject for minute investigation as to its own 
 essential qualities. But the children in elementary 
 schools have no such general knowledge. Even the 
 simplest relations have yet to be made plain to them. 
 They are quite too willing to treat learning as a task for 
 the memory. So they learn the rule and the definition 
 and the isolated fact, in order that they may recite them 
 glibly to the teacher, with never a dream that they con- 
 
280 What Children Study and Why 
 
 ceal vital truths which would help to explain the in- 
 finite complexity of environing life. 
 
 Unless arithmetic makes clear to some degree the 
 numerical and dimensional characteristics of the world, 
 the time devoted to it is largely wasted. It would be 
 wholly so, if it were not for the truth that the mind it- 
 self, in spite of the textbook and the teacher, does a 
 vast amount of coordinating and finds meanings in state- 
 ments in themselves meaningless, as set forth in the 
 lesson. 
 
 The language lesson is too often the study of rules 
 and forms arbitrarily given, which have no more effect 
 upon the speech of the child than the wind that blows. 
 This is particularly true of those elementary language 
 lessons that feed the children desiccated grammar, the 
 husks and chaff of language. 
 
 Geography perhaps more commonly than any other 
 school topic to the children is a meaningless and lifeless 
 study, " the study of dots and lines on colored pieces of 
 paper," as Colonel Parker used to call it. 
 
 Though of late years much more has been done to 
 vitalize teaching and learning, still our schools are very 
 far from making knowledge real to the children by placing 
 it in its proper and natural relations, and thus rendering 
 the process of fusion easy. 
 
 It is no uncommon thing for children to be studying 
 the history of England, the geography of Africa, the 
 natural phenomena of Minnesota, all on the same day, 
 while at the same time memorizing the rules of grammar 
 applied to nothing, and talking ungrammatically of the 
 subjects named, and learning to write " Honesty is the 
 best policy," and to spell hautboy, pneumatics, and in- 
 
The Correlation of Studies 281 
 
 compatibility, the last-named word having indeed a 
 general application to the various ingredients of the 
 educational hodgepodge. While in its absurdity this 
 picture may be extreme, a glance at almost any course 
 of study will discover fairly close approximations to it. 
 
 Waste. — Perhaps the worst feature of the prevailing 
 plan is its awful waste of time and energy. The cry 
 that we try to teach too many things in school is certainly 
 true if they are taught as so many irreconcilable lists of 
 things to be " stored away " in the mind. 
 
 The Remedy. — The remedy for the overcrowded 
 curriculum is to be sought, at least partially, in a closer 
 coordination of the now heterogeneous topics. History 
 and geography need to be joined in wedlock. Nature 
 study should be adopted into the family. Language 
 should be taught as one means of expressing ideas on 
 the other subjects studied, drawing as another. Perhaps 
 language study comes nearer to being a universal sol- 
 vent than any other single topic, because of its manifest 
 function as the universal means of expression. 
 
 No Topic Dominant. — But no single topic can be 
 made the center of a course of study, for no one is 
 dominant or naturally central. The various attempts 
 of a few years back to " concentrate " the course of 
 study about a single topic, or two or three topics, met 
 with foredoomed failure, and brought the whole subject 
 of the correlation of studies into disrepute. 
 
 There is no mechanical device of arrangement that will 
 meet all cases, because learning is a vital process; the 
 necessary fusion goes on in and with the mind. The 
 learning child is the necessary center of all correlation. 
 About him and his individual needs and aptitudes the 
 
282 What Children Study and Why 
 
 subjects must be grouped so that he may fuse them un- 
 consciously, much as he digests his food. But still he 
 may be greatly aided by a careful selection and arrange- 
 ment of the topics in the course of study and especially 
 in the daily program. 
 
 It is for the officials who make the course of study and 
 for the teachers who administer it to watch continually 
 for points of contact, to illumine each topic presented by 
 reference to allied topics, to see, in short, that truths, 
 and not mere isolated facts, are presented as food to the 
 growing minds of children. 
 
 An Important Distinction. — One distinction is im- 
 portant, and, if carefully observed, will do much toward 
 making knowledge real, and consequently toward the pre- 
 vention of scattering and the elimination of waste, — and 
 that is the distinction between content and form, between 
 fundamental vital knowledge and the various minor arts 
 by which such knowledge is acquired and expressed. 
 
 If language is always treated as the study of thought ; 
 if reading is always taught as a means of getting ideas ; 
 if arithmetic is always made to explain some important 
 truth in the physical universe, or in the relations of man 
 to man ; if through these arts the children are given in- 
 sight into physics, commerce, history, literature, human 
 society, then the arts become worth while, and then also 
 the distracting number of disparate topics in the school 
 program will be found to dwindle naturally. 
 
 The nearer we can approach in our teaching to a 
 realization of the unity of knowledge, without running 
 into artificial absurdities of correlation, the more time we 
 shall find to " teach the essentials," and the essentials 
 will then be truly essential, because they will be vital. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 Efficiency of the Course of Study 
 
 Not only by correlation is it possible to make room 
 for the many desirable subjects that, it is claimed, now 
 overcrowd the course of study. Equally essential is 
 higher efficiency of administration, through a better ad- 
 justment of studies to the pupil's mental status, and 
 through the avoidance of useless repetition. This ques- 
 tion has not been sufficiently discussed by students of 
 education. 
 
 Supposing the prevalent course of study in our ele- 
 mentary schools to rest upon sound bases, psychological, 
 social, and philosophical, the question remains : Is it 
 efficient? Is it so adjusted to the psychological and 
 social needs of the individual pupils as to render ade- 
 quate returns for the efforts expended? 
 
 This is too large a question to be discussed in a simple 
 brief chapter. Indeed, it can be answered fully only by 
 such a searching investigation as no one has yet under- 
 taken. It is to be hoped that at some time such an 
 examination will be undertaken either by one of the 
 various endowed institutions of research, or better, by 
 the United States Bureau of Education. 
 
 A Source of Waste. — I must, however, though briefly, 
 call attention to one manifest and serious source of waste 
 in the general administration of the course of study, to 
 
 283 
 
284 What Children Study and Why 
 
 which I have already referred, the prodigal waste of time 
 through useless repetition. 
 
 Several subjects, whose function is chiefly informa- 
 tional, are taken up in the primary schools in simple form 
 and then repeated in the intermediate and grammar 
 schools in somewhat fuller detail and in different 
 language. In some cases even these modifications either 
 are lacking or are very slight. Some subjects, such as 
 reading and the correct use of language, are so naturally 
 progressive that no such repetition is possible. But with 
 the other subjects this is not the case. 
 
 Geography. — Geography, for example, is usually 
 taught from a "two-book series." In the primary book 
 information is given in more or less simple language 
 about the earth as a whole, about geographic phenom- 
 ena, such as day and night, the planetary system, the 
 succession of months and of seasons ; geographic forms, 
 as hills, valleys, continents, oceans, plains, and the rest ; 
 geographic causes, such as erosion, winds, glaciers ; and 
 about the political divisions of the earth as shown on 
 maps. Beginning with about the fifth grade the higher 
 book is taken, in which these facts are repeated in some- 
 what different language and in greater detail, but with- 
 out great difference or improvement. Much of the in- 
 formation given in the primary book is of no great 
 interest or value to the children pursuing it. The facts 
 are memorized, — or not, as may be, — but not in any 
 true sense comprehended. The subject is usually dis- 
 liked, and hence a distaste for it is created which is sure 
 to militate against the best results in the higher grades. 
 
 There is no special reason why a child should attempt 
 to learn or, still less, to comprehend the greater part of 
 
Efficiency of the Course of Study 285 
 
 the facts given in the ordinary primary geography at the 
 time they are studied. The time and effort expended 
 upon them are largely wasted or worse. They might 
 much better be devoted to the direct study of environ- 
 ment, such as nature and human industries, to manual 
 training, and to other " fads." 
 
 Geography is now commonly studied during five or six 
 consecutive years, with no better results at the end than 
 would follow two years' study at the right time, when the 
 minds of the children are mature enough to grasp its 
 principles. 
 
 A one-book geography, taken up say at the beginning 
 of the sixth year, would find the students ready. They 
 would have sufficient knowledge of manifest environing 
 geographic conditions to stimulate curiosity, and maturity 
 of mind enough to pursue the subject intelligently and 
 swiftly. All the increment of power that comes with 
 the development of the subject, with interest, and with 
 ability to think consecutively, — the natural and proper 
 results of a wise primary training, — would make it pos- 
 sible to learn more in one or two years than is now 
 learned in six. Any one who has listened to the parrot- 
 like repetition by primary children of " Montpelier on 
 the Onion," of " The principal industries are manufac- 
 turing, agriculture, grazing, and mining," must have 
 been first amused and then saddened at the thought of 
 the precious years frittered away. 
 
 It is simply traditional that, geography being a useful 
 study, its facts must be crammed into infant minds. 
 If in its formal presentation it could be entirely cut out 
 of our primary schools, think of the time and energy 
 that would be set free for the really essential things, and 
 
286 What Children Study and Why 
 
 there would be, not loss, but actual gain, for geography 
 itself. 
 
 This does not mean that there should be no considera- 
 tion in primary schools of any of the facts that enter 
 into that assemblage of miscellanies called geography, 
 but merely that there should be no formal textbook 
 study of it, and that the study should be Limited to such 
 phenomena as come naturally within the observation 
 of the children. It should be, in other words, nature 
 study, and at first hand. Through " nature study les- 
 sons," used, it may be, as subject matter for language 
 lessons, enough knowledge could be obtained both to 
 satisfy the present need and to provide the necessary 
 apperception centers for the later serious study of the 
 geography textbook. 
 
 Beyond question much of the slow progress of children 
 in primary schools, especially noticeable as contrasted 
 with their rapid growth before coming to school, is due 
 to the maladaptation to infant digestion of the pabulum 
 offered. We are unwilling to wait for minds to grow, 
 but must stuff them, as geese are stuffed to produce the 
 diseased livers desired of epicures. 
 
 Nor does geography stand alone in this indictment. 
 Grammar is almost as great a sinner against childhood 
 and its proper education. The grammar taught to in- 
 fant minds, even if predigested in a pseudo " language 
 book," is even more worthless to the children than the 
 contents of a primary geography. It has nothing to do 
 with their speech or with their writing of English at this 
 stage. It is a mere intruder and time waster. If all 
 the time devoted to it below the seventh grade, — I had 
 almost said below the high school, — could be given to 
 
Efficiency of the Course of Study 287 
 
 securing habits of correct speech and to constructive 
 English, including the gathering and assorting of material 
 to write about, and if then the student could come to it, 
 when mature enough, fresh and eager for the reasons for 
 what he had learned to do, a single year would suffice 
 to cover all the ground necessary for any intelligent 
 man or woman, not professionally a scholar, or "lit- 
 erary person." 
 
 The slow progress, the discouragement, the dislike, — 
 almost universal as they are, — are due to the attempt 
 to teach a metaphysical subject during the time when the 
 child's whole interest is in the material and social worlds. 
 
 Knowledge of the metaphysical nature of a sentence is 
 not an imperative demand of either the mind or society 
 that needs to be thrust upon the infant in formulae, 
 whether understood or not. To teach it in the third 
 grade and again in the eighth is not merely to waste 
 the time of child and teacher, it tends to deaden the 
 child's mind, destroy his interest, and pervert his view 
 of school. 
 
 Arithmetic. — But possibly the greatest waste of time 
 through useless repetition is in arithmetic, — Arith- 
 metic ! the " solid " American's Bible, the foundation 
 of our fortunes, our virtues, our civilization, without 
 which we should have neither financier nor embezzler — 
 can it be possible to have too much of it ? Let us see. 
 
 In most schools a textbook in Arithmetic is taken up 
 in the third grade, — in some, even earlier. From that 
 time it is pursued unremittingly, relentlessly, till the 
 bitter end. Six continuous years at the least, and during 
 all of that time it is the major subject. Does it pay? 
 
 If children had no textbook in arithmetic before the 
 
288 What Children Study and Why 
 
 fifth year and then studied it, for no longer time each day 
 than is now given to it, for two years, at the end of that 
 time they would know as much of the subject as they do 
 now at the end of the elementary school course. Neces- 
 sarily a certain study of number would come into the 
 school life in all its years as it does into the life outside 
 of school, but the formal study of arithmetical princi- 
 ples does not necessarily come into either life at this age. 
 
 Every good kindergarten teaches number, every con- 
 tact with the world teaches number. Counting, and 
 making the simple additions and subtractions that life, 
 in school and out, require, are acquired naturally and 
 almost unconsciously. A young child has no use for 
 elaborate notation or for large numbers. To try to 
 teach him the reasons for " carrying " and " borrowing " 
 in addition and subtraction is to dull his perception with 
 words, and this is true in most cases even when simple 
 and logical methods are employed. The only possible 
 way of giving him even a glimmering of the truth is by 
 some form of muscular effort such as is mentioned in 
 Chapter XI of this book. But even that had better be 
 deferred for several years, until the pupil is mentally 
 ready for it and curious about it. 
 
 If all the number work in the primary school were in- 
 formal and incidental, — " not accidental " ; that is, 
 the grasping of the very few number facts that are needed 
 to secure the child's adjustment to his environment, 
 not only would he actually know more arithmetic at the 
 end of the primary school than he does now, but his 
 further progress in the grammar school would be un- 
 impeded by baleful memories of earlier discouragements 
 and agonies. 
 
Efficiency of the Course of Study 289 
 
 It is not necessary to elaborate upon other subjects. 
 One of the most popular physiology texts for elementary 
 schools, a two-book series, repeats the greater part of the 
 first book in the second, verbatim et literatim. Imagine 
 the enthusiasm of a child coming upon the familiar 
 matter in his grammar-school text. 
 
 Books but Interpret Life. — Let us not forget that 
 " book-learning " at best is but the interpretation of 
 life, in words, and often is not even that, but is a mere 
 memorizing of words divorced from ideas; that a knowl- 
 edge of life must therefore precede a study of books, 
 and that the wider this knowledge the larger the value 
 of the books; that children are first naturally inter- 
 ested in the environing world ; and we shall then begin 
 to see the proper order of elementary studies. 
 
 While Rousseau's doctrine had many absurdities, it 
 had also a foundation of truth. Nature, social and ma- 
 terial, is the child's first school. Let him attend it and 
 get all he can from it. Let us reserve adult studies and 
 adult processes for adult minds. Let us not force them 
 upon infant minds even in predigested form, but let us 
 give the little ones what they need, and thus prepare 
 them for the more difficult problems which will be pre- 
 sented in due time. 
 
 If our course of study could be adjusted so that during 
 the earlier years the children were occupied chiefly with 
 activities, observations, and adjustments; acquiring a 
 practical, though fragmentary, knowledge of the world 
 and its arts; gaining power by exercise, physical, in- 
 tellectual, moral ; learning to read and acquiring love for 
 good reading, learning to use good English in oral and 
 written speech, learning to think about things as they 
 
290 What Children Study and Why 
 
 occur, learning to do things that should be done, learning 
 to make useful articles, learning, in short, to live satis- 
 factory children's lives, and then, when a little older 
 and more mature, could take up seriously the subjects 
 that must be studied from books, — if this revolution 
 could be wrought in our educational adjustment, it would 
 work a revolution equally startling in the effectiveness 
 of our schools, in training wise, well equipped, well in- 
 formed, skillful, intelligent, and competent citizens, with 
 a zealous desire for further education throughout life. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Moral Training 
 
 The Need Recognized. — There is a very general 
 demand that the schools do more than they have done 
 for the moral training of pupils. The demand is as 
 vague as it is general. The one hopeful feature is the 
 evidence that people appreciate the need. However un- 
 willingly, they are compelled to admit that the agencies 
 heretofore depended upon to train the young in the 
 principles and practice of good conduct are not suffi- 
 cient for present-day conditions. The chief of those 
 agencies are the home and the church. 
 
 One of the unhappy social tendencies of this age 
 of quick changes appears to be away from the old- 
 fashioned home, as the center and source of ideals and 
 inspiration. Many of those who in former times would 
 have been homemakers have other more absorbing aims. 
 The conditions of life in large cities, especially among 
 the poor, in many instances render the secluded, self- 
 centered home impossible. Very large numbers of future 
 citizens necessarily spend their childhood and youth 
 without the sheltering care, the blood-group inspirations 
 of that best of all institutions, the American home, as 
 we of the older generation understand it. Even in the 
 better homes there is little of the old-time definite moral 
 training. Father is too busy; mother is too much 
 
 291 
 
292 What Children Study and Why 
 
 "cumbered with many cares," bridge, suffrage, mis- 
 sionaries, to attend to it. 
 
 Even the church does not and under present condi- 
 tions cannot cover the field. It is sufficient to note the 
 vast numbers of families that never go to church. Cer- 
 tain large and populous organizations regard the church 
 as in the main hostile to their interests. Unjust as this 
 attitude is, it yet excludes the members of these organi- 
 zations and their families from the moral training offered 
 by the church, — which is our only point here. 
 
 The school, on the other hand, is universal in its 
 reach. Practically all children come under its influence. 
 Hence those who see the great gaps left by the older 
 agencies more and more look to the school to fill 
 them. 
 
 Certainly, if we have not some agency, to train the 
 youth to lives of virtue, we are in a parlous state. Mat- 
 thew Arnold's oft-quoted remark that " conduct is three- 
 fourths of life " seems rather an understatement than an 
 overstatement. Conduct really is practically all of life, 
 the sum and the flower of all attainments, all growth, all 
 experience, and if, after years of training in school, in 
 the home, and in society at large, boys and girls in large 
 numbers are immoral, or even unmoral, in their conduct, 
 something is altogether wrong. If the old agencies 
 fail in this respect, some new agency must be found, or 
 civilization is doomed. All this, however, merely states 
 the problem and helps very little in its solution. 
 
 Fundamental Questions. — Certain fundamental ques- 
 tions must be answered unless we are to blunder along 
 in the familiar American way : 
 
 First, what do we mean by morality? 
 
Moral Training 293 
 
 Second, how far and by what measures can youth be 
 trained to morality? 
 
 Third, what is the function of the school in giving such 
 training ? How far may it go, safely and legitimately ? 
 
 Fourth, the above questions being determined, how 
 are our schools, as at present manned and organized, to 
 go about the task ? 
 
 In a single chapter, naturally, it is impossible to give 
 more than brief answers to these questions. 
 
 Distinction between Morals and Morality. — The 
 first question involves a fundamental distinction too 
 commonly ignored by those people who call for courses 
 in moral training, with the calm assurance that they are 
 sufficient to make children upright. I refer to the dis- 
 tinction between the principles of conduct resting upon 
 a foundation of character and a superficial conformity to 
 conventional moral standards. This distinction, which 
 may be called that between morality and morals, is not 
 imaginary. It is real. Many a person is conventionally 
 moral, even " pious," who yet lacks moral principle or 
 true morality. The occasional lapses into open dis- 
 honesty of people of this type simply show that although 
 there was outward conformity to convention, there was 
 no real morality, no real antagonism to wrongdoing, 
 and when temptation arrived, moral disaster followed. 
 
 This is quite different from hypocrisy, or the conscious 
 doing of wrong while professing right. It goes far deeper 
 than that. These people have believed themselves good, 
 just as others have believed them good, because they con- 
 formed to the prevailing code of morals. They did not 
 themselves know that they were bad at heart. A part 
 of the trouble at least was in their alleged moral training. 
 
294 What Children Study and Why 
 
 They had been trained to believe that goodness con- 
 sisted in obeying rules. 
 
 On the other hand, some of the greatest and best have 
 openly and purposely defied the moral conventions of 
 their times. Jesus shocked the conventionally good 
 people of his time by breaking the Sabbath laws and 
 in many other ways. Perhaps his greatest battle was 
 against the confusion of morality with conventional 
 morals. The Pharisees, who received his keenest 
 shafts, were not worse than other people. They were 
 simply the conventionally good, who cared only for the 
 " outside of the cup and platter." The bearing of this 
 distinction upon the subject in hand is simply this, that 
 most of the moral training suggested for schools has to 
 do solely with externals. It looks toward conventional 
 morals and not toward fundamental morality. Let me 
 say here that I am not attacking conventional morals. 
 For the average person there is no safe course open other 
 than to follow them. It is only for the prophet or the 
 wise independent thinker to modify them. But they are 
 not to be confused with the real thing, which is sound 
 character. 
 
 Essentials of Morality. — The essentials of morality 
 are properly cultivated feelings, leading to wise choices, 
 a will trained to make such choices in obedience to right 
 feeling, and sound moral judgment as a guide to action, 
 the balance wheel of conduct; in other words, a well 
 trained controlling conscience approved by moral judg- 
 ment. If moral training is really to accomplish the desired 
 results, it must aim at this higher goal. Otherwise the 
 training, however elaborate and extensive, will do more 
 harm than good, because, while it may develop a certain 
 
Moral Training 295 
 
 superficial conscience, it will surely pervert the judg- 
 ment and cultivate pharisaism. 
 
 Possibility of Moral Training. — Second, to what 
 extent can youth be trained to right conduct, and by 
 what agencies available to the teacher ? Certainly not 
 by any mere catechetical method or by any system of 
 instruction in the conventions of society. This does 
 not mean that such instruction is not of value. It is 
 more than that. It is absolutely necessary, but it is 
 insufficient for the securing of good conduct. As con- 
 duct is practically all of life, it is the outgrowth of life, 
 and the only adequate training for it is a good life. 
 That is, the subject is all-inclusive. 
 
 In answer to our question, then : No doubt, if we could 
 entirely control the environment of a child from infancy, 
 could see that just the right forces worked upon him, 
 that he put forth his activities in just the proper directions 
 and degrees, we could train him to good conduct with 
 almost certain assurance. Such a training, however, 
 would require not merely omnipotence, but omniscience 
 as well. Still, in spite of the inevitable limitations of 
 school life and environment, much may be done toward 
 the right kind of moral training. It can be done in any 
 school and with any children, even the worst, provided 
 the teachers rid themselves of the notion that knowl- 
 edge is sufficient, especially knowledge couched in 
 general terms, such as proverbs, wise sayings, command- 
 ments. 
 
 Ten Commandments Negative. — It is interesting to 
 observe in this connection that the ten commandments 
 of the ancient Jewish law, invaluable as they have been 
 in the history of the moral evolution of the race, are, with 
 
296 What Children Study and Why 
 
 a single exception, negative; all but two begin with 
 " Thou Shalt Not," and one of these two, the one relating 
 to the Sabbath, is almost wholly prohibitive in character ; 
 the sole exception is the commandment in relation to the 
 treatment of parents. Hence, it will be seen that the 
 ten commandments give little impulse to the higher 
 moral nature. They are useful in the childhood of 
 the race or of the individual, but their usefulness dis- 
 appears before the rising of the true moral sense. This 
 weakness was recognized by Jesus, who supplemented 
 the ten commandments by the two positive commands 
 so full of meaning, — " Thou Shalt Love the Lord Thy 
 God " and " Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor," which ' 
 express briefly the spirit of the higher modern civiliza- 
 tion and the hope and ultimate end of moral development. 
 They are commands to be obeyed, not in specific acts 
 leaving a sense of virtue, but in the whole of life. 
 They are of the essence of morality, and not its mere 
 outward manifestations. As they take hold upon the 
 moral nature the need for prohibitions disappears. 
 
 Need and Dangers of Prohibitions. — In training youth, 
 undoubtedly prohibitions are necessary. The earlier 
 stages of moral development require restraint from with- 
 out, but to stop with these is to arrest the development 
 of the character, and arrested moral development, which 
 is much more serious than arrested intellectual develop- 
 ment, is also more common. It is shown in devotion 
 to forms and to ceremonies of all kinds, from which the 
 individual gets the feeling of self-complacency from virtue 
 achieved, of superiority over his less virtuous neighbors, 
 and of safety from the infliction of punishment, and all 
 without doing any really virtuous act. 
 
Moral Training 297 
 
 Still, as has been said, inhibition must come into the 
 moral training of children, especially in its earlier stages. 
 They must be told not to do a great many things, but 
 this only until they can be led to appreciate positive 
 motives. The ultimate effort always must be to lead 
 them into a virtuous habit of thought and feeling, so 
 that good conduct will flow naturally and habitually 
 from the fountains of the moral life itself. 
 
 Order of Procedure in Conduct. — At this point it is 
 necessary to consider briefly what may be called the order 
 of procedure in all conduct, and it is to be feared that we 
 must abandon at least the extreme views of the transcen- 
 dental will as advocated by Hegel and his followers, notably 
 the late William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of 
 Education. While we no longer regard the faculties 
 of the mind as existing in separate forms, — the intellect, 
 the feelings, and the will, — still this old division rep- 
 resents well enough the mental processes that lead to 
 conduct, and these as outlined by Mark Hopkins still 
 hold, even with the newer psychology. 
 
 In the normal mind, and under ordinary circumstances, 
 conduct begins with knowledge, which leads to feeling, 
 which leads to choice. The feeling necessarily follows 
 some action of the intellect. There must be some knowl- 
 edge before there can be feeling. The action of the 
 will, the choice, inevitably follows the feelings; the 
 feelings supply the motive to all conduct. The will 
 cannot act without motive; we cannot help choosing 
 the action the motive for which is strongest with us. 
 Willie is left at home alone. His mother said to him 
 before departing, " Willie, don't you touch that jam 
 on the pantry shelf." Willie likes jam. He also likes 
 
298 What Children Study and Why 
 
 to do what he has been told not to do. Will he take the 
 jam or will he not ? It is purely a question of strength 
 of motive. On the one side is his love for his mother, his 
 fear of punishment if he disobeys, and whatever of con- 
 science has been developed in him; on the other is 
 his love for jam, and his bravado. If the former set 
 of motives is the stronger with him, he will let the jam 
 alone. If the latter is the stronger, then it follows that 
 he must take it. He cannot do otherwise than obey the 
 stronger motive. This is an epitome of the process in all 
 moral acts, — Caesar at the Rubicon, Judas before the 
 Elders, John at Runnymede, Father Damien looking to 
 the isle of lepers, Aaron Burr at West Point. All these 
 made choices, and in every case obeyed the motives that 
 were strongest with them, and they could do nothing 
 else. 
 
 Harmonizes with the Bible. — While, as has been said, 
 this does not harmonize with the extreme view of the 
 transcendental will, it does harmonize with the teachings 
 of the Bible. " As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." 
 To think in the heart is to feel. " Keep thine heart with 
 all diligence for out of it are the issues of life." So, we 
 see, the doctrine is in full accord with the best that we 
 know as to moral training, and it furnishes a key for the 
 teacher who would lead children to habitual right con- 
 duct. It is the basis, in other words, of morality rather 
 than of conventional morals. How then can its principles 
 be inculcated. 
 
 How to Inculcate Principles. — Take the order of 
 procedure of conduct as above given. Knowledge must 
 come first, and here is the first great danger of slipping 
 into the easy rut of formality. The knowledge must be 
 
Moral Training 299 
 
 vital and not merely verbal or formal. It must be of 
 such a sort as to rouse the right kind of feelings. 
 
 Authority Insufficient. — It is not enough that the 
 child know that some one has said, " This is right, 
 that is wrong." That is the old deceptive way of au- 
 thority, the basis of tyranny, ecclesiasticism, persecution, 
 superstition. "I am authority. It is my function to 
 tell you what to do* It is your duty to obey. Obey and 
 you go to Heaven. Disobey and you go — elsewhere." 
 This is the religion of all tyrants, whether ecclesiastic, 
 monarch, political boss, parent, or teacher. It mistakes 
 obedience, the necessary but temporary support of the 
 morally immature, the crutch of the morally lame, for 
 the rock on which character rests. Still more feeble 
 and deceptive is the apparent knowledge given in prov- 
 erbs and moral sayings, which are at most but partial 
 truths and sometimes not truths at all. Mark Twain 
 once said, " Even a proverb may be true." One at 
 times is almost ready to think that Mark Twain exag- 
 gerated. The smug satisfaction of the small mind con- 
 tinually quoting " Honesty is the best policy," " Early 
 to bed, early to rise," " Spare the rod and spoil the child," 
 and the rest, not only is ludicrous, but it stands in the way 
 of true moral growth, and yet many advocates of in- 
 troducing moral training into schools in their suggested 
 plans rise little above SanCho Panza, the greatest of all 
 authorities on pregnant sayings. 
 
 There is a special danger in proverb-fed opinions, the 
 danger that exists in all half truths. The child who 
 is told that honesty is the best policy, and then finds that 
 it is not, — that is, that as a business policy it fails in at 
 least a large number of cases, that many of those who 
 
300 What Children Study and Why- 
 
 make the largest fortunes make them in violation of 
 honesty, or at least in suppression of it, — this child is 
 quite likely to believe that his whole moral code is wrong. 
 He is like the child who, discovering that he has been 
 deceived in regard to Santa Claus, questions the exist- 
 ence of a God. 
 
 Knowledge of conventions of whatever sort, whether 
 based upon authority or upon accepted sayings, is a 
 feeble reliance for character. It is true that a certain 
 amount of conventional knowledge must be given. Chil- 
 dren must know what they should not do in the ordinary 
 relations of life and what they should do, as viewed by 
 their associates and elders ; that is, they need those of 
 the ten commandments that apply to modern times. 
 But this knowledge is merely for convenience, or to 
 help over the stage of moral helplessness. 
 
 Knowledge of Principles Needed. — The knowledge 
 that is needed is, first, a knowledge of fundamental 
 principles, because every law of right must go back to 
 these. Morality is altogether social. The validity of 
 its laws rests entirely upon the relations of man to 
 man, and every moral maxim must be referred back to 
 its social motive. It is contended that children cannot 
 understand the reasons for conduct and hence must be 
 guided wholly by authority. This is true doubtless with 
 very young children and to a certain extent with older 
 ones, but to a far less extent than most believe. The 
 fundamental principles of ordinary human conduct are 
 so simple that children can understand them. It is 
 not enough to say to a child, " Thou Shalt Not Steal." 
 It is necessary and very easy in addition to this to show 
 him why it is wrong to steal. The relation of parent to 
 
Moral Training 301 
 
 child is one that is often puzzling, and merely saying to 
 the son of a drunken profligate or brute, — " Honor Thy 
 Father," is not likely to prove very impressive. But 
 it is possible to make the child, even of such a parent, 
 understand the sort of obligations due. The plan of 
 those who would teach in school abstinence from the use 
 of liquors is the correct one. It aims to acquaint chil- 
 dren with the effect of the use of alcoholic stimulants 
 upon life, and claims to be scientific. The validity of 
 the principle is not affected by the fact that in too many 
 cases the method is badly applied and exaggerations are 
 indulged in which lead children later to reject all the 
 teaching on the subject. 
 
 Knowledge must Rouse Feelings. — The kind of 
 knowledge given for moral purposes must be the kind 
 that rouses good feelings, because feelings, as we have 
 seen, are the key to conduct. Bare statements of moral 
 obligations do not necessarily appeal to the feelings, and 
 consequently slide off the well-oiled conscience of a child 
 without resulting in conduct. This applies not merely 
 to the character of the knowledge given, but to the 
 method of imparting it. The aim of all instruction in 
 morals must be to stimulate love for right doing and 
 hatred of wrong doing, and to make such feelings habit- 
 ual ; that is, to develop the right kind of conscience, for 
 conscience is merely a habit of feeling. 
 
 What is meant by vital knowledge and knowledge 
 that stimulates feelings will be discussed more fully a 
 little later when considering the specific work of the 
 school. 
 
 Knowledge Insufficient. — Knowledge alone, whether 
 of maxims or of principles, is an insufficient reliance for 
 
302 What Children Study and Why 
 
 those who would train the young to right conduct. There 
 are really very few who do not know what is right and 
 what is wrong under ordinary circumstances, and some 
 of the worst offenders against moral law are to be found 
 among the most highly intelligent, even as to moral 
 principles and the results of courses of conduct. 
 
 Influence of Environment. — Vastly more important 
 than all instruction is environment, the moral atmos- 
 phere in which a child lives, the motives that are 
 regularly presented for conduct in the ordinary com- 
 monplace affairs of life, for it is not upon the unusual, 
 the extraordinary, experiences that for the most part 
 character is founded. Especially important is the pre- 
 vailing sentiment toward people and toward conduct 
 that rules in the life around the child. An atmos- 
 phere of sordidness and selfishness in the home is pretty 
 sure to make the child as he grows up sordid and selfish, 
 while habitual altruism, consideration for others, pride 
 in integrity, if found in the home and the other daily 
 associations of children, furnish the strongest reliance 
 possible for the development of good character along 
 these lines. 
 
 What is frequently assumed to be inheritance can 
 readily enough be traced to the controlling influence of 
 environment from infancy. If we' could make sure that 
 a child lived in the midst of the best influences steadily, 
 we should have the best assurance also that he would 
 grow up good, provided however he had sufficient op- 
 portunity for self-development — and for battle ; for 
 good environment alone, involving complete protection 
 from evil, is pretty sure to lead to moral breakdown 
 later. Rasselas was so protected. But in real life such 
 
Moral Training 303 
 
 complete protection is impossible, and perhaps fortu- 
 nately. A good home, however, is not impossible, to 
 serve as a refuge after the battle, and, before it, to supply 
 the child with the armor of self-confidence, right feeling, 
 good motives, and strong determination. This is the 
 ordinary reliable moral training. 
 
 The Great Exceptions. — There is one class of excep- 
 tions so important that they must be considered. Life 
 does not always run along smoothly and regularly. Un- 
 usual experiences come to most people, and in many lives 
 such experiences seem to be controlling. There is a force 
 mightier than habit due to regular environment, which 
 often upsets the well-laid " plans of mice and " parents. 
 It is due to the psychological truth which we have ex- 
 plained, that the motive of conduct is in the feeling. 
 Strong, sudden feelings, roused by some wholly unex- 
 pected influence, may throw to the winds apparently 
 all the effect of good or bad environment. A violent 
 appeal to the passions, a tremendous and dazzling and 
 overwhelming temptation, exhibiting as the reward of 
 wrongdoing " all the kingdoms of the world and the glory 
 of them," may rush to sudden ruin the man or woman who 
 has lived a normal and orderly life without any suspicion 
 of such possibilities. On the other hand, inspiration, 
 a sudden appeal to the better feelings, may completely 
 reverse an evil course and redeem the wrongdoer. Such 
 extraordinary changes are not uncommon. We see the 
 drunkard reformed at a temperance meeting where his 
 feelings have been greatly roused. We see the thoroughly 
 bad man repentant and revolutionizing his life at a re- 
 ligious revival. 
 
 Religious feeling is doubtless the strongest of the 
 
304 What Children Study and Why 
 
 motives that can be used for reform or for setting young 
 people on the right course. The McCauley Mission in 
 New York is complete evidence of the power of such 
 appeals. The work of the revivalist of the past genera- 
 tion, while often futile and misleading, rested upon the 
 sound foundation of the value of inspiration. 
 
 Still these extreme cases of sudden turning to good or 
 evil are rare for the ordinary boy and girl. The develop- 
 ment of moral character is usually continuous and due 
 to environment, the regular daily habit of life, and is in- 
 fluenced mainly by society, the society of elders, the 
 society of those of like age, and the society of books. 
 
 Function of the School. — Third, having before us the 
 above outlines of what constitutes moral character and 
 what moral training is, and what are the main influences 
 to be relied upon in the development of character in the 
 young, we must consider briefly the school and its pos- 
 sibilities in this direction. 
 
 The school is just a part of life. It is an institution, 
 with well defined rules of conduct and schemes of work. 
 The influences that affect the moral development of the 
 boys and girls in school are not different in kind from 
 those that affect it outside the school. The variations 
 are merely those of a particular institution. In school 
 children live a normal institutional life for a limited 
 number of hours daily, in personal contact with at least 
 one mature mind and with a larger number of equal 
 age. The character of this life is determined partly by 
 the character of these associates, partly by the work to 
 be done, and partly by the motives of conduct appealed 
 to. The school is an institution whose chief manifest 
 aim is instruction; consequently it would seem natural 
 
Moral Training 3 05 
 
 that here instruction in moral principles and maxims 
 should be given. But, as has been said, the school is 
 not merely an institution for instruction. It is a large 
 part of the life of the child, and hence it is a place where, 
 in addition to instruction, feelings should be cultivated, 
 motives developed, and conduct regulated in obedience 
 to the best motives, thus evolving conscience, or a cor- 
 rect habit of feeling, and also moral judgment, — the 
 two sources and regulators of conduct. 
 
 What then can the school do ? It can first, and chiefly, 
 give the child a wholesome environment, a normally 
 good and morally stimulating atmosphere, good society, 
 — in short, a good life. There is a certain danger in ex- 
 cessive moral instruction, the danger of causing the child 
 to separate morality from life. Unhappily a very large 
 portion of the religious instruction given children tends 
 toward this danger. They get the notion that the ex- 
 periences that count for goodness, especially in what 
 is known as salvation, are quite apart from the daily 
 life, and that by performing certain rites they secure to 
 themselves immunity for unsocial, and hence immoral, 
 conduct. The counteracting influence for this is a life 
 and an environment wholly moral. 
 
 The Teacher. — The first element having moral bear- 
 ing in the life of the school is the teacher. It certainly is 
 not extreme to say that with a teacher fundamentally im- 
 moral, that is, with wrong social ideals and with wrong no- 
 tions as to the relation between convention and morality, 
 that with such a teacher a school cannot be other than 
 an immoral place. But on the other hand, association 
 by children with a pure-minded, high-minded man or 
 woman, who directs the occupations, sets the standard, 
 
306 What Children Study and Why 
 
 and becomes the ideal of the children, cannot but be 
 moral. The best teachers in the moral sense might be 
 quite incompetent to give in detail much moral instruc- 
 tion, and those competent to give such instruction might 
 be, as moral influences for the children, among the worst. 
 The teacher who bosses, who scolds, who stirs the evil 
 passions of children, even though securing " perfect 
 order," and teaching the facts of the curriculum un- 
 erringly, is necessarily a bad moral influence. The 
 teacher who radiates love,' whose life in the school 
 shows devotion to principle, to work, and above all to 
 the children themselves, even though defective in many 
 ways, cannot, from the moral standpoint, help being a 
 good teacher. 
 
 Moral Atmosphere. — It is to the teacher that the 
 school owes what we know as its atmosphere. On one 
 occasion some teachers were gathered on invitation in a 
 house near a school to view a pyrotechnic display. Two 
 little children, attendants upon the kindergarten, were 
 quietly playing about the room and watching the gor- 
 geous play of colors. Suddenly in the silence the teachers 
 were startled to hear a childish voice say, " Oh, thank 
 you, thank you, for making the world so beautiful." 
 The principal endeavored to find the source of such 
 general gratitude, and discovered that it was in the kin- 
 dergarten, at whose head was a woman of the loveliest 
 character, radiating gratitude and consideration for 
 others continually. In other words, they had breathed 
 the moral atmosphere of a school whose motive was love, 
 and whose teacher was its ideal. 
 
 Work and Motives for Work. — Next to the teacher 
 the most potent influence in determining the moral in- 
 
Moral Training 307 
 
 fluence of school is the work done, with the motives pre- 
 sented for it. Work with most people is the key to life 
 and conduct. Our moral status is determined very 
 largely by the work we are engaged in, and especially 
 by the motives that we set before ourselves for doing 
 work. The complaint is very common that our people 
 have low aims, — to make money for money's sake, or 
 to get power for power's sake, — that the effect of the life 
 work of the average man or woman is to develop, in- 
 creasingly, selfishness. Is it not true that the beginning 
 of such degrading tendencies is made in too many cases 
 in school ? The child who is led to study for marks or 
 prizes, or to avoid punishment, is on the road to a low 
 standard of living. The child who works to please the 
 teacher, or father or mother, is working from a much 
 higher motive, and is getting a much better habit of life. 
 The child who studies that he may use his acquired knowl- 
 edge in some half-realized ideal life is working from the 
 highest motives and is on the road to altruistic living. 
 Children should work with an ever increasing sense of 
 power and with determination to do their best, but not 
 with any feeling of petty rivalry or hope to secure ad- 
 vantage over other pupils. They should " work for 
 excellence rather than to excel." 
 
 Cooperation, not Solitude. — The method of con- 
 ducting the school work should be such as to develop 
 a spirit of cooperation. The artificial and unnatural 
 solitude of each child in the average schoolroom is im- 
 moral. The children should all feel that the recitation 
 is a cooperative exercise in which they are not trying 
 to show off what they individually have learned from a 
 book, but are each contributing his best to the general 
 
308 What Children Study and Why 
 
 store from which all draw, so that at the end of a recita- 
 tion every child will have done something for the common 
 good, and will be richer himself for having performed 
 a social duty. 
 
 Discipline. — The third moral influence of the school 
 is what is known commonly as " school discipline," 
 meaning the preservation of order, of silence, and the 
 conserving of the institutional life of the school. To 
 many it may seem that this should come first. But it 
 seems to me that the order of the school should first 
 grow out of the teacher's personality, and second, out 
 of the work done. The chief moral value of formally 
 kept order in the school is in training the child to give 
 proper heed to the conventions of any institution to which 
 he may belong. 
 
 Importance of Conventional Conduct. — From what I 
 have said I do not wish at all to be understood as oppos- 
 ing the value of conventional conduct. Good manners 
 are good morals to a degree. The rules of social life 
 are in the main for the preservation of individual rights 
 and for making easier the common happiness. This gives 
 them high moral value. Every institution has its con- 
 ventions, which are at least supposed to be important to 
 the institution and to those connected with it. There 
 is a certain kind of conduct suitable for the church, an- 
 other for the theater, another for the home, and still 
 another for the school. These conventions may have 
 only a temporary validity and may not extend beyond the 
 bounds of the institution itself. Still, to obey them while 
 in the institution tends to cultivate the habit of con- 
 sideration for others, on which they are based. 
 
 The school has many conventions, some of them un- 
 
Moral Training 309 
 
 fortunately not even useful to the school itself, and most 
 of them having no application to life outside the school. 
 Manifestly the number of such conventions should be 
 reduced to the actual necessities of the school, and obe- 
 dience to them should be based upon the fact that they 
 are good for that particular institution, and therefore 
 for the pupils, who both belong to and own the school, 
 and hence that such obedience is moral. The mistake of 
 many advocates of moral instruction in school is that 
 they have confused the conventional conduct of the school 
 with morality itself, and fail to see that the sole moral 
 value of such conduct is in establishing the mental con- 
 dition required by institutional life in general. 
 
 School Virtues. — Even certain great leaders, notably 
 Dr. William T. Harris and Dr. E. E. White, used to 
 claim that the schools were great moral agencies because 
 they taught the school virtues, chief among which were 
 silence, obedience, punctuality, and neatness. Now these 
 are, to a degree, no doubt, school virtues, but their ap- 
 plication to life outside of the school is extremely lim- 
 ited, and their chief, if not their sole, value rests upon 
 that fact that they are good for the school, and that 
 children should do what is good for any institution to 
 which they belong. 
 
 Let us consider them briefly : 
 
 Silence. — There are doubtless occasions when silence 
 is a real virtue. Many a man afflicted with a talkative 
 bore realizes that. But certainly there are many occa- 
 sions when it would be a cowardly vice, and even in 
 school it has been pushed to harmful extremes. Still- 
 ness usually indicates not industry, but the opposite. 
 The corpse observes absolute silence, ^o make much 
 
310 What Children Study and Why 
 
 of silence as a virtue inculcated by the school is to show 
 a lack of sense of moral values. 
 
 Obedience. — Consider obedience. It has a wider 
 application than silence, and is in many cases a genuine 
 virtue, but in modern life and in democracy obedience to 
 the inner moral law is vastly more important than obedi- 
 ence to the outer law of convention. Authority has lost 
 its power in the world to a very large extent. The per- 
 son who obeys unquestioningly may be doing right, he 
 may be doing wrong. No adult capable of reasoning 
 upon moral questions should obey unquestioningly 
 except in minor matters of conventional routine. The 
 boss, whether political or pedagogical, demands un- 
 questioning obedience, not because of its moral value, 
 but because it is personally convenient to him and his 
 purposes. The training of the school should develop 
 questioning obedience rather than unquestioning obedi- 
 ence. Moral questions occurring for the first time should 
 be submitted to a trained, broad, moral judgment. 
 When that has rendered its decision, it should so appeal 
 to the properly cultivated feelings that the will will 
 obey without hesitation and as from habit. 
 
 There is a moral law within to which obedience must 
 always be rendered. There is a conventional law with- 
 out to which obedience should be rendered when it does 
 not conflict with the law within, but not otherwise. 
 
 There is another condition that has an important bear- 
 ing on the value of obedience as a virtue. Continual 
 reliance upon the will of another is weakening. The boy 
 or girl who has been simply obeying the behests of a 
 superior unthinkingly, although his conduct may have 
 been perfectly regular and proper, is likely to lack moral 
 
Moral Training 31 1 
 
 judgment and strength of purpose. His life has done 
 nothing to give him the power to discriminate. Hence 
 the exaltation of obedience as the great school virtue 
 may develop moral weakness. It certainly furnishes 
 slight basis for confidence in the future welfare of demo- 
 cratic society. Respect for law, as representing the 
 composite will of the community looking toward general 
 good, is something to be cultivated with the utmost care. 
 It is a little different from respect for laws. It is very 
 different from obedience to arbitrary commands, such as 
 the pedagogical boss expects from his school. 
 
 Order there must be in school, but an order that springs 
 from an appreciation by the pupils of the fact that the 
 school is a social institution belonging to them, that it is 
 for the common good, that they are responsible to their 
 own consciences as well as to the board of education for 
 maintaining the institution upon a plane consistent with 
 its high purpose. The degree of order required to ac- 
 complish best the work of the school, to enable each in- 
 dividual to do his business efficiently, can easily be main- 
 tained if the students are led to realize its importance to 
 themselves as well as to others. There is always dan- 
 ger that enforced order will come to be worshiped as an 
 idol, and this, like all substitution of lower ends for higher, 
 is morally debasing. 
 
 Briefly, the order of the school should grow out of 
 obedience to the commonly recognized needs of the school 
 as voiced by the teacher, in whom the pupils have con- 
 fidence, and as understood by themselves. 
 
 Punctuality. — The third of the vaunted school virtues 
 is punctuality. Little need be said upon this. It is evi- 
 dent that it is an economic rather than a moral virtue. 
 
312 What Children Study and Why- 
 
 It has certain relations to what is called success in life and 
 at times has a moral value because of its effect upon other 
 people. It is desirable, of aourse, and to a large degree 
 necessary to the well-being of the school as an institution. 
 But it can easily be over-emphasized. Children not in- 
 frequently will stay away from school altogether rather 
 than come tardy and face the angry teacher. They will 
 come to school without proper food and without proper 
 care of the body rather than be late. One may say that 
 all that is needed here is common sense. But common 
 sense is not so very common, and the exaltation of an 
 act of minor economic importance into a moral virtue pro- 
 duces distortion of vision and lack of sense. 
 
 Neatness. — The fourth standard virtue to be urged 
 by the old-time moralist was neatness, — neatness of 
 person and neatness of work. Neatness is of great value. 
 It is a hygienic virtue, and it is also an economic virtue. 
 Indirectly too it has a moral value. Still it belongs in 
 the field of petty accomplishments with which the small 
 mind satisfies itself of its own greatness. When urged 
 in school, as it must be, it should be for reasons clearly 
 expressed relating to the general good. 
 
 Evidently these four school virtues, which our elders 
 thought were the great moral contribution of the school 
 to the development of the child and of society, are hardly 
 big enough under democratic conditions to deserve all 
 this praise. Admitting their very considerable value, 
 the school must develop virtues of a much higher sort, or 
 it will not be the safe reliance that it is supposed to be. 
 
 School a Life. — This brings us then clearly to the heart 
 of the matter. School to a child is a phase of life, a very 
 important and often a controlling phase. It is an epitome 
 
Moral Training 313 
 
 of life itself. That which gives it moral quality is that 
 which gives moral quality to the life of the child's parents ; 
 namely, motive following sound judgment and leading 
 to conduct. The controlling influences are the same, 
 which are chiefly society and literature as sources of 
 ideals, and occupation, modifying, directing, and con- 
 trolling, to a very large extent, the ideals, and hence the 
 motives and* the conduct. Besides its general char- 
 acter, school life is also life in an institution, which 
 makes it an even more complete epitome of the larger 
 life. 
 
 Occupation. — In order that this school life may have 
 the highest moral value, the occupation must be rec- 
 ognized as worth while ; it must be pursued for worthy 
 motives, and the conduct of the child must be regulated 
 so as to further the pursuit of the occupation. 
 
 Society. — The society must be such that the child 
 receives from the teacher the best model possible for him- 
 self ; from his fellow pupils, help, encouragement, and 
 stimulation toward right doing. 
 
 Pupil a Contributor. — Most important of all, his 
 life in this society must be not that of a mere recipient, 
 but also that of a contributor. The one lesson of over- 
 whelming importance for every child in school is that 
 the school is a society, not only to which he belongs, but 
 which belongs to him, and that it is an important factor 
 in his life, that his business is not merely to learn his 
 lessons and get the most possible from school, but to 
 contribute both in personal conduct and in influence the 
 best that he can toward making the school a good place 
 for all. It is the world in little, and there is no better 
 place to be found, unless it be the ideal family, for de- 
 
314 What Children Study and Why 
 
 veloping the sense of responsibility for the common wel- 
 fare than a good school. 
 
 Altruistic Schools Possible. — Unhappily too many 
 schools fail wholly to cultivate this highest virtue of 
 altruism and devotion. The teacher controls. The mo- 
 tives presented to the children are selfish; at the worst, to 
 win prizes or marks, or to avoid punishment; at the best, 
 to get knowledge. But schools upon the higher plane 
 are not unknown. If the personality of the teacher is 
 right and he understands his business, they are not hard 
 to get. And besides, in such schools, along with the higher 
 ideals and the better training, through the marvelous 
 law of compensation, the children learn more and acquire 
 more power. 
 
 Illustrations. — There is not space here to give in 
 detail a scheme for developing moral responsibility in 
 school, but every teacher who grasps the spirit can work 
 out his own scheme. Illustrations worthy of notice are 
 such institutions as the George Junior Republic, where 
 even social delinquents are made socially responsible 
 by being forced to carry responsibility. Another good 
 illustration is found in the self-governing school, fre- 
 quently in the form of a school city, by which large num- 
 bers of children, many of them of foreign birth, are 
 trained to that standard of good citizenship that makes 
 more of duty than of privilege. For the basis of good 
 citizenship is, not chiefly obedience to the external law, 
 but rather obedience to the internal law, the law of love, 
 whose motto is " It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive," and this can be inculcated in school. 
 
 As has been said, the above constitutes the most im- 
 portant possible contribution of the school to the moral 
 
Moral Training 315 
 
 education of its pupils, — living a good life for worthy ends 
 earnestly pursued in good society, actuated by the spirit 
 of the true citizen, feeling the responsibility for the general 
 good, and contributing their best to it. This, more than 
 instruction, develops moral judgment, rouses right feel- 
 ing, stimulates worthy motives, and leads to right action, 
 and hence it is the great function of the school from the 
 moral point of view. 
 
 Moral Instruction. — How to give wisely definite in- 
 struction in morals is a very hard question. To give 
 instruction that shall be directly applicable to life, that 
 shall not seem to make a separation between morals and 
 conduct, that shall not tend to make prigs and pharisees, 
 is no easy matter. 
 
 Attempts at Courses. — Various attempts have been 
 made and courses outlined, but none that I have seen 
 have been more than partially satisfactory. Perhaps the 
 best is that used at the Ethical Culture School in New 
 York City. This contains many excellent features, and 
 teachers interested would do well to obtain a copy. In 
 my judgment the course 'is as yet too mechanical, too 
 catechetical, and falls short of the kind of knowledge 
 that rouses feeling and develops motive. The best that 
 it does, it seems to me, is to help in the training of moral 
 judgment, and that is excellent. It is good as far as it 
 goes. 
 
 A course has recently been issued by Professor Sharp 
 of the University of Wisconsin and Professor Neuman of 
 the Ethical Culture School of New York, for use in high 
 schools. This is an easier undertaking than to provide 
 a course for elementary schools, because the pupils are 
 older, more capable of reasoning, and are at the period 
 
316 What Children Study and Why 
 
 of second birth, when they are reaching out eagerly for 
 ideals. This course has many excellent features, and is 
 certainly worth study by any teacher planning to give in- 
 struction in morals. The first-year work is perhaps the 
 best, in that it aims to stimulate motives and create ideals. 
 The courses for the later years, though having many 
 excellencies, fall short in this respect and seem rather 
 mechanical. Their chief aim apparently is to develop 
 the moral judgment, and that, as said above, is good as 
 far as it goes. 
 
 General Course Impossible. — I am not sure that a 
 general course for the use of teachers in elementary 
 schools is possible. At least none has yet been offered 
 that is satisfactory. 
 
 Possibilities of the School. — What can the school as 
 at present organized and manned do ? The first difficulty 
 is in the limitations of the teacher herself. Our teachers 
 as a class are of the highest quality morally. I doubt if 
 any other body of people in the world have as high moral 
 ideals as the teachers. But in this country a very large 
 majority of them are young girls of immature minds and 
 limited experience, hardly capable of grasping the great 
 moral questions of life so completely as to fit them to im- 
 part them again. The most that can be expected of 
 these young people is that they shall teach the children 
 in a simple way the plain conventional moralities, and 
 with the little children that is perhaps enough. They can 
 teach them the school virtues of promptness, obedience, 
 neatness, and silence. They can tell them to keep their 
 hands and faces clean, not to use bad language, to be 
 polite, and all the other common and necessary forms of 
 virtuous conduct for children. But even this cannot well 
 
Moral Training 317 
 
 be done systematically. It must be done upon occasion. 
 The time to teach a child to be clean is when he is dis- 
 posed to be dirty, to teach him to obey is when he is 
 inclined to be disobedient, to emphasize punctuality is 
 when there arises a tendency to tardiness, and to teach 
 the importance of silence is when he is disposed to talk 
 too much. The watchful teacher will take advantage of 
 the opportunities that rise continually in school to im- 
 press these simple virtues, and by so doing will impress 
 them much more effectively than if she takes a book and 
 on Monday teaches silence, on Tuesday punctuality, on 
 Wednesday obedience, on Thursday neatness, reviews 
 on Friday and repeats next week. 
 
 Value of Discussion. — The wise teacher will not only 
 teach these things as occasion arises, but she will not rely 
 wholly upon authority for inculcating them. She will 
 talk over with the pupils instances, real or imaginary, 
 which illustrate what she would teach, will encourage 
 them to discuss among themselves why children should 
 be on time and should be clean and should obey the 
 rules, and should not talk when others are talking or 
 when it will disturb those who want to study. In this 
 way she will cultivate their moral judgment; and also by 
 putting emphasis upon the rights of others, upon the 
 harm that the tardy pupil and the disobedient pupil 
 and the dirty pupil and the noisy pupil do to others, 
 she will develop the social sense and the sense of obliga- 
 tion for the general good. Any good, bright girl fit to 
 be a teacher can do these things. But if you put into 
 her hands a catechism and instruct her to teach funda- 
 mental morals from a book she is likely to break down. 
 The difficulty increases as the pupils advance in age, are 
 
318 What Children Study and Why 
 
 better able to reason, and need more and more to under- 
 stand the underlying principles. Very few teachers are 
 competent to do this work as it should be done. 
 
 Lack of Material. — Here begins the need for books 
 and other means of instruction, and here again we are up 
 against a blank wall. There are no books and there are 
 no means of instruction, excepting such as are furnished 
 by occasion or may be adapted from other uses, and as 
 I have said, there are no courses of study that more than 
 approximately cover the field. The Bible, which would 
 be altogether the best textbook under present conditions, 
 cannot be used, strangely enough, not because of opposi- 
 tion from atheists or agnostics, but from the very people 
 who are clamoring for religious instruction, — apparently 
 because they fear that some church not their own will 
 catch the product, and it is better to let children grow up 
 in ignorance of the Bible than to have them join any other 
 church than " ours." 
 
 Religious Instruction Impossible. — Religious instruc- 
 tion is out of the question. It is not necessary to dis- 
 cuss its value here, because under the constitutions of 
 our nation and states, and especially in view of prevail- 
 ing sentiment, it cannot be given in public schools. 
 Doubtless, too, that is wise, because the teachers are very 
 few who could teach religion divorced from sectarianism. 
 (It is much easier, and hence much more common, to 
 teach it divorced from conduct.) . 
 
 Conduct, Individual. — Further, it is by no means cer- 
 tain that a general course in morals, even if ideal, would 
 accomplish the good hoped for. Conduct is so largely 
 an individual matter, environment creates such par- 
 ticular needs, that it is not certain that the instruction 
 
Moral Training 319 
 
 given should not be specially and locally adapted. The 
 great foundation principles of love, of the duties that we 
 owe to others, of devotion, of self sacrifice, of democracy 
 of spirit, naturally should underlie all instruction, but 
 these cannot be imparted by instruction. They must 
 appear in life, and in so far as they appear in instruc- 
 tion, they must be simply the spirit and the inspiration. 
 
 Use of Stories and Poems. — Perhaps the easiest way 
 to produce the desired moral impressions is through 
 literature, — poems and stories, both fictional and real, 
 adapted to the children's needs, with the moral not stated, 
 but implied. Stories of heroism, stories of sacrifice, 
 stories of nobility of conduct, stories of the struggle of 
 great men to achieve places of usefulness, tend to rouse 
 and foster ideals. Such stories in the first place should 
 not tell of virtue rewarded and vice punished. We have 
 had altogether too much of " Honesty is the best policy," 
 "Be good and you will be happy," and " Murder will 
 out," — time-worn lies that vitiate the moral sense. 
 Moral training must rest upon other grounds than the 
 hope of reward or the fear of punishment. It must grow 
 out of ideals and feelings leading to conduct itself and not 
 considering either the price paid or the reward sought. 
 
 Models should be Great Servants. — The men whose 
 names are used as models should be those who have con- 
 tributed rather than those who have simply got rich, — ■ 
 Moses who gave up life at court to help his people and 
 was great, not because he was their general, but because 
 of his sacrifice for them; Jesus, whose whole life was 
 sacrifice; the apostles and missionaries to the western 
 world ; among the explorers of this country, not Cortez 
 and the others who sought riches, but the priests who 
 
320 What Children Study and Why 
 
 came to redeem the savages; among Englishmen, not 
 Wellington and Nelson, but Howard, John Bright, and 
 Gladstone ; among our own people, not our successful 
 multimillionaires, but Washington, Lincoln, Lee, John 
 Eliot, Dr. Lazur, and Dr. Blue. 
 
 In the field of fiction we should have optimistic stories 
 showing the same spirit. For young children, the 
 Fairy Stories of Grimm are mostly objectionable, be- 
 cause they are immoral, while those of Andersen are 
 excellent. 
 
 Principal should Prepare Local Course. — But, as is 
 evident, this is all indirect instruction. How can we 
 make it direct? Chiefly by discussion with the class. 
 My suggestion is that for the present at least each school 
 principal interested in the subject prepare a course suited 
 to the children of his locality, talk it over with the teachers, 
 select suitable literature to illustrate the virtues that he 
 thinks the children most lack ; and if necessary prepare 
 outlines for the grades, simply to be used as guides by 
 the teachers in talking over the stories with the children. 
 The stories in all cases should be such as to rouse a feel- 
 ing of admiration for the one possessing the virtue, which 
 should be transferred into a love for the virtue itself, 
 the latter by discussion. All such discussion should be 
 free, though carefully guided by the teacher, and under 
 this guidance the thought of the children should be 
 taken back constantly to the underlying principle of all 
 morality, love for others, and a desire to lend a hand on all 
 possible occasions. 
 
 In this way in the towns and cities a great deal of 
 valuable material would be gathered, and at least the 
 beginnings made, of a course of instruction in morals. 
 
Moral Training 321 
 
 Naturally those who were working out such a course would 
 want to confer with others doing the same thing, and the 
 result would be a consensus of opinion and in time a cer- 
 tain degree of harmony in material and method, which 
 would take the moral training of the children in schools 
 out of the haphazard class and make it definite and pur- 
 poseful, though not fixed and mechanical. 
 
 Rural Schools. — In the rural schools and the near 
 rural schools, where generally there is little supervision, 
 each teacher will have to do what she can, and here is 
 where a good textbook, if a good textbook is possible, 
 would do the most good. But even the rural schools 
 have a certain amount of supervision in most cases from 
 the county superintendent, who could outline a course 
 affecting rural conditions which the teachers could use. 
 
 Necessity for Empiricism. — It is true that this is all 
 empirical, but it is only by such empirical work that we 
 can hope to arrive at results at all satisfactory or even 
 permanent. The committee that starts out now to make 
 a course of study for formal instruction in morals can do 
 nothing more than follow precedent, and is very sure to 
 be at the end far away from the lives of the children, but 
 a local course growing out of an appreciation of the needs 
 of the pupils will be vital, and in the hands of a wise 
 teacher very useful, and from many such courses some 
 results may be obtained that will be of general value. 
 
 Conclusion and Resume. — In conclusion, it must be 
 apparent to any who have had the patience to read this 
 chapter that it is the author's belief that the main busi- 
 ness of the school in regard to the morals of children is to 
 supply them with a good life, consisting of good occupa- 
 tion, engaged in for good motives, and pursued under 
 
322 What Children Study and Why 
 
 the stimulation of proper incentives ; that the atmosphere 
 must be pure and sweet and inspiring, the teacher "good 
 society " for the children, and the social life of the school 
 cooperative, unselfish, and for the common good ; that 
 through this life children may be trained to democracy, 
 which in its last analysis is not a form of government, 
 but is a state of mind. 
 
 The author further believes that formal instruction, 
 while of secondary importance, is important, but under 
 present conditions it is not possible to say just how it 
 should be given. Religious dogma cannot be used. The 
 catechetical form of instruction long ago ceased to exert 
 much influence. There is little already prepared material 
 for direct instruction available. There are no textbooks 
 that are satisfactory, and it is doubtful if any can be 
 made that will be of general use. The best course for 
 the present seems to be for local centers to provide their 
 own courses, relying much on literature and biography 
 and upon class discussions of the stories and poems, 
 with the hope that out of many such local courses, in 
 time something of more general usefulness may be 
 evolved. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Activities, motor, in expres- 
 sion, 226. 
 range of, 229. 
 
 Adaptable course, 6. 
 
 Administration of curriculum, 
 differences desirable, 
 
 3- 
 ^Esthetic nature, appeal of fine 
 
 arts to, 263. 
 Age of choice of industry, 250. 
 Aim, unity of, 4. 
 Algebra in arithmetic, 121, 140. 
 Alphabet, the, 17. 
 Alphabetical method of teaching 
 
 reading, 36. 
 Altruistic schools, 314. 
 Analysis and synthesis of words, 
 18. 
 
 of letters in writing, 224. 
 
 place of, in word method, 45. 
 Apperceiving centers in geog- 
 raphy, 188. 
 Appreciation of Literature, 64. 
 
 grammar, training in, 86. 
 
 reading with, 51. 
 Areas, brain, 234. 
 Arithmetic, 108. 
 
 and efficiency, 287. 
 
 algebra in, 121, 140. 
 
 concrete presentation of, 130. 
 
 cultural value of, 119, 142. 
 
 drill, 128, 132. 
 
 enrichment of content in, 
 123, 142. 
 
 equation introduced in, 141. 
 
 fixed unit in fractions, 137. 
 
 fundamental principles, 109. 
 
 geometry in, 122. 
 
 inductive approach, 136. 
 
 limitation of concrete pres- 
 entation, 130. 
 
 method, concrete presenta- 
 tion, 130. 
 varies with age, 129. 
 
 methods of instruction, 127, 
 
 135. 
 time element in, 127. 
 minimum required for prac- 
 tical need, 113. 
 motor activities in, 242. 
 order of presentation, 132. 
 unknown quantity and equa- 
 tion, 140. 
 utilitarian end of, 112, 128. 
 Arts, all necessary, 228. 
 
 of expression, why teach,229. 
 fine, 260. 
 
 appeal to aesthetic nature, 
 
 263. 
 development of taste, 271. 
 feed the soul through the 
 
 eyes, 273. 
 plastic and graphic, 266. 
 singing, begin with songs, 
 
 264. 
 two aspects of, 262. 
 Atmosphere, moral, 306. 
 Authority in moral training, 299. 
 Avebury, Lord, quotations from, 
 199. 
 
 Baily, L. H., quotations from, 
 
 198. 
 Barren subject, grammar a, 57. 
 Basis of method in teaching 
 
 reading, 34. 
 Beauty of Life, 200. 
 Best way of teaching, a, 34. 
 
 323 
 
324 
 
 Index 
 
 Bible, the, and conduct, 298. 
 Body of knowledge in course, 10. 
 Books interpret life, 289. 
 Brain areas, 234. 
 Bryant, W. C, quotations from, 
 205. 
 
 Carlyle vs. Freeman, 163. 
 Center, local, in teaching history, 
 
 164. 
 Character, basis of, 210. 
 Child, history for the, 160. 
 Children, — how learn, 44. 
 
 how learn language, 66. 
 
 interest of, in geography, 
 192. 
 Chronology in history, 153, 156. 
 Chubb, Percival, opinion quoted, 
 
 77- 
 City and country in geography, 
 
 192. 
 Clarifying thought, devices for, 
 
 74- 
 Colleges, history in, 158. 
 Complete discourse important, 
 
 74- 
 
 Comprehension of literature 
 aided by language in- 
 struction, 60. 
 
 Concepts, geographic, of a child 
 untaught, 173. 
 geographic, of a child taught, 
 
 176. 
 geographic, important, 177. 
 
 Conduct, individual, 318. 
 order of procedure in, 297. 
 
 Content in arithmetic, enrich- 
 ment of, 123, 142. 
 
 Continuation school for indus- 
 trial training, 254. 
 
 Continued discourse important, 
 
 7i- 
 
 Cooking and sewing, first indus- 
 trial subjects, 249. 
 
 Coordination, need of, in motor 
 activities, 236. 
 
 Copying in drawing, 267. 
 Correlation of studies, 275. 
 of hygiene in physiology, 215. 
 in nature study, 204. 
 necessary, 51. 
 with language needed, 80. 
 Counting, the first step in num- 
 bers, no. 
 Country and city in geography, 
 
 192. 
 Course of study adaptable, 6. 
 functions, 1. 
 
 includes body of knowledge 
 and range of activities, 
 10. 
 not too easy to comprehend, 9. 
 suggestive, 7. 
 
 two phases of, 228. 
 Courses in moral instruction, 
 
 for moral instruction, local, 
 320. 
 Cultural value of arithmetic, 
 
 119, 142. 
 Culture element in history, the, 
 
 161. 
 Curriculum, growth of, 57. 
 content and form, 282. 
 topics none dominant, 281. 
 topics composite, 278. 
 
 Daily programs, should be made 
 
 by teachers, 8. 
 Decline in language power, 68. 
 Defectives and motor activities, 
 
 235- 
 
 Definitions in grammar, 89. 
 difficult, 90. 
 
 Development epoch theory in 
 history, 154. 
 
 Diagram in grammar, 92. 
 
 "Discipline" and moral train- 
 ing, 308. 
 
 Discourse, importance of, con- 
 tinued, 71. 
 complete, 74. 
 
Index 
 
 325 
 
 Doer, value of the, 227. 
 Dominance, the, of grammar, 57. 
 
 evils of, 62. 
 Drama in school, 244. 
 Drawing, 266. 
 
 a language, 268. 
 
 begin with pictures, 269. 
 
 copying in, 267. 
 
 must fit children, 269. 
 
 Ear minded, 19. 
 
 Economic function of course of 
 
 study, 1. 
 Educational function of course 
 
 of study, 7. 
 "Educational," meaning of, 
 
 237- 
 Efficiency in curriculum, 283. 
 in teaching arithmetic, 287. 
 in teaching geography, 284. 
 Elimination of topics in geog- 
 raphy, 185. 
 Emerson, R. W., quotation 
 
 from, 199. 
 Emphasis in reading aloud, 53. 
 Empiricism in moral instruc- 
 tion, 321. 
 English language instruction, 56. 
 English not phonetic, 41. 
 Enunciation, 27. 
 
 correction of, 28. 
 Environment, influence of, 302. 
 
 in geography, 178. 
 Expression, why teach arts of, 
 229. 
 free, 75. 
 
 motor activities in, 226, 233. 
 Eye minded, 19. 
 
 Fads, value of, 260. 
 
 Farmers, training, 258. 
 
 Field excursions for nature study, 
 
 202. 
 Fine arts, 260. 
 
 appeal to aesthetic nature, 
 
 263. 
 
 development of taste, 271. 
 
 feed the soul through the 
 eyes, 273. 
 
 functions of, 261. 
 
 plastic and graphic, 266. 
 appreciation, 266. 
 
 two aspects of, 262. 
 Form and content, 282. 
 Fractions, 136. 
 Free expression, 75. 
 Freeman vs. Carlyle, 163. 
 Functions of course of study, 1. 
 
 economic, 1. 
 
 educational, 7. 
 Function, grammar should treat 
 of, 88. 
 
 General history needed, 151. 
 Generalizations, danger of, 161. 
 Geography, 171. 
 
 apperceiving centers in, 188. 
 city and country in, 192. 
 concepts by a child untaught, 
 
 173, 176. 
 concepts, important, 177. 
 conglomerate, 171. 
 depends on imagination, 174. 
 duty of superintendent, 193. 
 duty of teacher, 193. 
 efficiency, 284. 
 for grammar grades, 188. 
 for primary grades, 183. 
 elimination and selection 
 
 of topics, 185. 
 follow natural interests in, 
 
 187. 
 laboratory method in 
 
 teaching, the, 186. 
 should extend knowledge, 
 
 184. 
 should give few facts, 183. 
 study of types, 184. 
 fundamental defects in teach- 
 ing, 172. 
 influence of environment, 1 78. 
 one book, 285. 
 
326 
 
 Index 
 
 Geography, 
 
 physical features, study of, 
 179. 
 
 pictures in, 180. 
 
 school children still children, 
 191. 
 
 selection of topics in, 172. 
 
 should be picturesque, 180. 
 
 what interestschildren in, 192. 
 Geometry in arithmetic, 122. 
 
 motor activities in, 242. 
 Gestures, the earliest language, 
 
 243- 
 Grades, higher, neglect of lan- 
 guage in, 79. 
 Grady, Henry W., quotation 
 
 from, 78. 
 Grammar, English, 82. 
 a barren subject, 57. 
 a science, 58. 
 and language differentiated, 
 
 58. 
 definitions, 89. 
 dominance of, 57, 62. 
 for children, 88. 
 higher functions of, 84. 
 methods of instruction in, 88. 
 notion, 61. 
 place of, 63. 
 relation, study of, 96. 
 should treat of functions, 88. 
 teaching should be inductive, 
 91. 
 Grammar grades, history in, 157. 
 Grasp of thought in reading 
 
 aloud, 51. 
 Gregory, B. C, opinion quoted, 
 
 101. 
 Grouping, need of, in history, 
 
 169. 
 Growth of curriculum, 57. 
 Guild notion in industrial schools, 
 255. 
 
 Habits acquired by language 
 instruction, 61. 
 
 Hallock, Mrs. E. B., 212. 
 Hand, study of, 212. 
 Harris, Dr. W. T., 19, 309. 
 History, 146. 
 
 aims of teaching, 152. 
 
 and the Civil War, 147. 
 
 danger of generalizations in, 
 161. 
 
 development epoch theory, 
 
 154- 
 
 discrimination in choosing 
 topics, 165. 
 
 first fad, the, 146. 
 
 for the child, 160. 
 
 general, need of, 151. 
 
 greatness of peace to be em- 
 phasized in, 167. 
 
 in colleges, 158. 
 
 in grammar grades, 157. 
 
 in high schools, 158. 
 
 in primary grades, 156. 
 
 limits of school course, 149. 
 
 local center in teaching, 164. 
 
 need of grouping in, 169. 
 
 place of chronology in, 153, 
 156. 
 
 psychological order, 154, 156. 
 
 reasonable demands, 150. 
 
 should be a good story, 166. 
 
 teaching, an epoch in educa- 
 tion, 148. 
 
 textbooks, 149. 
 
 war in, 148, 168. 
 
 why poor results in, 150. 
 Holmes, O. W., quotation from, 
 
 121, 276. 
 How children learn, 44. 
 Hygiene, correlations with phys- 
 iology, 215. 
 
 sex, 217. 
 
 dangers of, 221. 
 importance of, 218. 
 unfitness of teachers, 220. 
 
 Industrial training, 247. 
 age of choice, 250. 
 
Index 
 
 327 
 
 arguments for, 251. 
 
 continuation school for, 254. 
 
 danger of extremes in, 249. 
 
 full time schools for, 254. 
 
 guild notion in, 255. 
 
 late in American school, 248. 
 
 part time school for, 257. 
 
 proper place of, 253. 
 
 rural schools, 258. 
 
 sewing and cooking, 249. 
 
 training farmers, 258. 
 Initiative to be encouraged, 8. 
 Inspiration and moral develop- 
 ment, 303. 
 Interest, necessity of vital, 63. 
 
 Justification of the language 
 lesson, 59. 
 
 Knowledge, individual, 276. 
 insufficient, 301. 
 must rouse feelings, 301. 
 of principles in moral train- 
 ing, 300. 
 relation, 275. 
 
 Laboratory method in teaching 
 
 geography, 186. 
 Language, decline in power, 68. 
 and grammar differentiated, 
 
 58- 
 every lesson a lesson in, 80. 
 how children learn, 66. 
 instruction, 56. 
 methods, 66. 
 lessons, bad, 68. 
 
 justification of, 59. 
 
 social values of, 59. 
 
 motor activities in, 239. 
 neglect of, in higher grades, 
 
 79- 
 objects of instruction in, 61. 
 used effectively by the illit- 
 erate, 56. 
 Laws of speech, 82. 
 Learning to read, 17. 
 Letter writing, 60. 
 
 Letters, analysis of, in writing, 
 
 224. 
 Life, beauty of, 200. 
 Literature, appreciation of, 64. 
 comprehension and language 
 
 instruction, 60. 
 nature study correlated with, 
 
 204. 
 reading lessons a study of, 22. 
 Logic of old grammars, 91. 
 training in, 85. 
 vs. psychology, 35. 
 
 Marking silent letters, 46. 
 Material for thought, 70. 
 Mechanics of reading, 23. 
 Methods in teaching grammar, 
 88, 93- 
 of instruction in arithmetic, 
 
 127. 
 of instruction in spelling, 103. 
 of teaching reading, 34. 
 alphabetical, 36. 
 must vary with age, 35. 
 sentence method, 46. 
 two classes of, 37. 
 word method, 43. 
 tests of, 43. 
 Minimum, necessary, 4. 
 Models of good form essential, 
 67. 
 in moral instruction, 319. 
 in rural schools, 321. 
 local, 320. 
 
 necessity for empiricism, 321. 
 sources of, 69. 
 Moore, T., quotation from, 205. 
 Moral atmosphere, 306. 
 Moral instruction, 315. 
 courses in, 315. 
 discussion in, 317. 
 general course impossible, 
 
 316. 
 models, 319. 
 religious, 318. 
 stories and poems in, 319. 
 
328 
 
 Index 
 
 Moral judgment personal, 160. 
 Moral training, 291. 
 
 and school discipline, 308. 
 and school virtues, 309. 
 
 silence, 309. 
 function of, in school, 304. 
 influence of environment on, 
 
 302. 
 inspiration and character of, 
 
 3°3- 
 knowledge of principles of, 
 300. 
 insufficient, 301. 
 neatness, 312. 
 obedience, 310. 
 occupation, 313. 
 place of authority, 299. 
 possibility of, 295. 
 prohibition, 296. 
 punctuality, 311. 
 pupil a contributor, 313. 
 the teacher in, 305. 
 work and its motives, 306. 
 Morality, essentials of, 294. 
 Morals and morality distin- 
 guished, 293. 
 Motor activities, and the de- 
 fective, 235. 
 brain areas affected by, 234. 
 in arithmetic, 242. 
 in expression, 226, 233. 
 in geometry, 242. 
 in language instruction, 75, 
 
 239- 
 lack of coordination, 236. 
 pantomime and drama, 244. 
 physical culture, 243. 
 reform is needed, 245. 
 value of doer, 227. 
 Music, canned, 271. 
 
 development of taste, 271. 
 good to sing, 272. 
 
 Nature study, 196. 
 aim of, 196. 
 basis of character, 210. 
 
 chaotic, 197. 
 
 correlation in, 204. 
 
 dangers from wrong empha- 
 sis, 208. 
 
 early blunders in, 197. 
 
 field excursions for, 202. 
 
 in cities, 202. 
 
 methods of instruction in, 
 201. 
 
 natural setting in, 201. 
 
 near rather than remote in, 
 198. 
 
 out of doors, 201. 
 
 relation of men to nature in, 
 203. 
 
 two points of view in, 208. 
 
 untimely knowledge, 209. 
 Neatness, 312. 
 Neglect of language in higher 
 
 grades, 79. 
 Newton, MB., work of, 243. 
 Number a mental product, in. 
 
 need of system in, in. 
 
 utilitarian end of, 112. 
 Numeration, the basis of 
 thought, 109. 
 
 Obedience, 310. 
 
 Occupation and moral training, 
 
 3i3- 
 Oral expression, 71. 
 
 Pantomime and drama, 244. 
 Paragraph, the, 71. 
 Parsons, Belle R., 243. 
 Parts of speech, 96. 
 Peace, greatness of, 167. 
 Phonetic, English language not, 
 
 41. 
 Phonic methods of teaching 
 
 reading, 37. 
 Phonic systems, 40. 
 Phonics and spelling, 39. 
 Physical culture and motor 
 
 activities, 243. 
 Physical features of geography, 
 
 study of, 179. 
 
Index 
 
 329 
 
 Physicians, school, 222. 
 Physiological methods of teach- 
 ing reading, 42. 
 Physiology, 206. 
 analysis of, 206. 
 correlations of hygiene, 215. 
 dangers of, 221. 
 errors in treatment of, 207. 
 legislative meddling with, 
 
 207. 
 sex hygiene, 217. 
 importance of, 218. 
 mixed classes, 219. 
 school physicians, 222. 
 unfitness of teachers of, 
 220. 
 scientific method, 212. 
 
 temperance, 214. 
 study of hand in, 212. 
 study of skin in, 214. 
 what to study, 211. 
 Pictures in geography, 180. 
 Picturesque, geography should 
 
 be, 180. 
 Poems and stories in moral in- 
 struction, 319. 
 Predicate, subject and, 94. 
 Preliminary practice for reading 
 
 aloud, 53. 
 Primary grades, geography for, 
 183. 
 history in, 1 56. 
 Principal and courses, in morals, 
 
 320. 
 Principles, knowledge of , in moral 
 
 training, 300. 
 Programs, daily, should be made 
 
 by teacher, 8. 
 Progression, need of, in language 
 
 lessons, 74. 
 Prohibitions, needs and dangers 
 
 of, 296. 
 Pronunciation, 27. 
 
 correction of, 30. 
 Psychological order in history, 
 154, 156. 
 
 Psychology vs. logic, 35. 
 
 Punctuality, 311. 
 
 Pupil and school society, 313. 
 
 Range of activities in course, 10. 
 Rapid reading, 50. 
 Reaction necessary, 230. 
 Reading, aims of, 15. 
 aloud, 26. 
 art of, 32. 
 elements of, 26. 
 enunciation, 27. 
 pronunciation, 27. 
 the nature of, 26. 
 appreciation, 51. 
 grading of, 24. 
 higher grades, 24. 
 intermediate grades, 50. 
 learning to, 17. 
 lesson a study of literature, 
 
 22. 
 mechanics necessary, 23. 
 methods of instruction, 34. 
 alphabetical, 36. 
 two classes, 37. 
 nature of, 15. 
 poetry, 23. 
 rapid, 50. 
 
 thought element in, 20. 
 value of, 13. 
 Relation, study of, in grammar, 
 
 96. 
 Religion in moral training, 303. 
 Religious instruction, 318. 
 Results required, 6. 
 Rice, J. M., 106. 
 Rigmarole, the, 231. 
 Rules, place of, 76. 
 Rural schools and industrial 
 training, 258. 
 moral instruction in, 321. 
 
 School, function of, in moral 
 
 training, 304. 
 School a life, 312. 
 
 society, 313. 
 
 virtues, 309. 
 
330 
 
 Index 
 
 Schools, altruistic, 314. 
 Science, grammar a, 58. 
 Selection of topics, in geography, 
 172. 
 in history, 167. 
 Sentence, the, 72. 
 
 begin with, in teaching gram- 
 mar, 93. 
 method of teaching reading, 
 
 46. 
 the best unit in teaching 
 reading, 46. 
 Sewing and cooking, first indus- 
 trial subjects, 249. 
 Shakespeare, quotation from, 
 
 205. 
 Silence, 309. 
 
 Silent letters, marking, 45, 46. 
 Singing, 260, 264. 
 Skin, study of, 214. 
 Social values of language lessons, 
 
 59- 
 
 Sources of models of good Eng- 
 lish, 69. 
 
 Special methods of teaching read- 
 ing, 48. 
 
 Speech, laws of, 82. 
 
 Spelling, 100. 
 
 methods of instruction, 103. 
 
 Stories and poems in moral in- 
 struction, 319. 
 
 Story,, good, importance in his- 
 tory books, 166. 
 
 Stress varied, 5. 
 
 Subject and predicate, 94. 
 
 Superintendent, duty of, toward 
 geography, 193. 
 
 Synthesis, analysis and, of words, 
 18. 
 
 System, need of, in number, in. 
 
 Taste in reading, development 
 
 of, 20. 
 Teacher, duty of, in teaching 
 
 geography, 193. 
 in moral training, 305. 
 
 what one did in geography, 
 194. 
 Teachers, unfitness for teaching 
 
 sex hygiene, 220. 
 Temperance, scientific, 214. 
 Tests of word method of teach- 
 ing reading, 43. 
 Think, training to, 64, 69. 
 Thinking, clear, essential to good 
 expression, 71. 
 high, language instruction 
 necessary to, 60. 
 Thought compelling material in 
 grammar, 98. 
 devices for clarifying, 74. 
 element in reading, 20. 
 grasp of, in reading aloud, 53. 
 material for, 70. 
 Time element in teaching arith- 
 metic, 127. 
 Topics of curriculum composite, 
 278. 
 none dominant in correla- 
 tion, 281. 
 Training to think, 64, 69. 
 Types, study of, in geography, 
 
 Uniformity, what degree desir- 
 able, 3. 
 
 Unit, fixed in arithmetic, 137. 
 
 Units in teaching reading, 36. 
 larger, 48. 
 
 Unity of aim and purpose, 4. 
 
 Unknown quantity in arithmetic, 
 140. 
 
 Utilitarian end of teaching num- 
 ber, 112, 128. 
 
 Varied stress, 5. 
 Vocabulary enriching, 64. 
 developing, 76. 
 
 War in history, 148, 168. 
 Waste in teaching, 281. 
 a source of, 283. 
 
Index 
 
 331 
 
 White, E. E., 309. 
 
 Whitman, Walt, quotation from, 
 
 198. 
 Word method of teaching read- 
 ing, 43- 
 natural, 45. 
 tests of, 43. 
 
 Words spoken and written, 
 analysis and synthesis 
 of, 16, 17. 
 
 Work and its motives in moral 
 training, 306. 
 
 Writing, 223. 
 
 analysis of letters, 224. 
 
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