66

66

be done profitably in very large cities during these first years, but in smaller places, and especially in rural districts, 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. During 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 expressive 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

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 supplementary readers are frequently worse than useless. They lie 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 acquired 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

veloped at all. Soap is an acquired taste, as is civilization 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 knowledge 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 apperceiving center.

The work of the first three years in geography should be largely incidental, should seek to enlarge the apperceiving 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 governments 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 factories,' ""Birmingham has extensive iron foundries."

The great defect of most elementary geographies is

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 phenomena and conditions as rapidly as they can grasp them. Detailed Study of Types. This should be accomplished mainly through the somewhat detailed study of a few typical instances, which may lead to a comprehension 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