ARE THE NATIONAL STANDARD. Throughout the United States schools which have attained the highest proficiency in practical writing, without a special teacher, have used and are using the SPENCERIAN SYSTEM, which includes THE TRACING COURSE, THE SHORTER COURSE, COMMON SCHOOL COURSE. Complete for Every Requirement. Send 25 cents for "THEORY OF SPENCERIAN PENMANSHIP." HITE'S INDUSTRIAL DRAWING WHITE'S Aims to Do a Few Things Well. It Teaches: 1, to make WORKING-DRAWINGS, to scale, of any simple object; 2, to execute such drawings so accurately that the article represented may be MADE BY A MECHANIC, following these drawings, with certainty and precision; 3, to make a drawing giving a faithful representation of the appearance of simple objects, either singly or in groups; 4, to compose an original design, suitable for the decoration of any object of general use. White's System provides definite COURSES OF STUDY for all grades. Full Information and Specimen Pages Furnished Free on Application. Elementary Bhysiology and Hygiene. Having special reference to the effects of Stimulants and Narcotics on the Human System. By WILLIAM THAYER SMITH, M. D., Dartmouth Medical College. An original and striking work, as remarkable for its judicious omission of unimportant details as for its masterly treatment of the essentials of the science. "S) far as we can see * * * it is the most complete treatise, in a concise form, yet given to the American reader."-Every Other Saturday, Oct. 11th, 1884. Full cloth. Richly illustrated with colored plates and wood cuts. Over 200 pages. Introduction Price, 50 cts. Copies sent for examination, post-paid, on receipt of Introduction Price. Specimen pages free on application. BRIEF, YET COMPLETE; PRACTICAL, NOT PUZZLING. Thoroughly Inductive in Treatment. Fish's Arithmetic, Number One; Full Cloth; Illustrated; 158 pages. Introductory Fish's Arithmetic, Number Two; Cloth; Leather Back; Price, 30c. 336 pages. Introductory Price, 60c Copies for examination Send for our Descriptive List, mailed free to any address on application, containing title and descriptions of over three hundred and fifty popular school-books, maps, charts, etc. IVISON, BLAKEMAN, TAYLOR & CO., Publishers, 753 and 755 BROADWAY, N. Y. In a recent paper published in the N. E. Journal of Education, Superintendent Tarbell, of Providence, R. I., speaks thus fittingly of the study of Geography: "But we cannot give up geography, for, setting aside reading, which is the queen of the course, and respecting whose importance almost any claim is reasonable, no study of the grammar grades does more to give ability to converse intelligently, to read understandingly, or adds more to the general culture and intelligence of our pupils than geography. No other study does more to broaden and liberalize; none does more to render serviceable the imagination or cultivate the power of generalization, of combining under a general law a great number of particulars, which is the secret of good memory and the essential of mental grasp and scope, than does geography, rightly taught. We must study it sufficiently to gain in good degree these ends, unless we sacrifice thereby some greater good." This is admirable in itself; it is all the more admirable as an introduction to an argument for cutting down the amount of work in geography commonly done in the grades below the High School, and for new methods of instruction. Both of these topics, more especially the second one, will be considered in this paper. The former method of teaching geography was to crowd into the child's mind a vast number of facts-names of capes, rivers and towns, statistics and bits of history-that had, as taught, little or no relation to each other, and that lay there as unorganized and dead as a shovel-full of pebble-stones cast into a basket, that is, until most of them were forgotten, which was very quickly and thoroughly done. This method of teaching has been greatly mitigated but has not been abandoned. Superintendent Tarbell shows that it still exists : "In the West it is a common rule of school boards that teachers shall prepare themselves for their daily work by such a study of the lessons of the day that they can be conducted without the text-book. A brother superintendent told me that one of his teachers, in pleading the hardship of this rule, said, 'I have taught geography from the same book for a dozen years and it is just as hard work to prepare for my classes now as it was when I first began.' I know that similar experiences are numerous. What shall be said of teaching involving such results? If teachers, after several times committing lists of rivers and mountains cannot remember them to any useful degree, what of the poor pupils? Nor does this cultivate any valuable power; not even was the memory designed to bear such a burden. Like the patient camel, when overburdened, it refuses to rise with the load." Disapproval of the stuffing-in process does not imply prejudice against facts and memorizing. Facts are the raw material of science and a good memory is essential to a well-furnished mind. John Locke says, "There are millions of truths that men are not concerned to know;" but there is also a multitude that they are concerned to know. Such a scholar as Scaliger, such a historian as Macaulay, such a natural philosopher as Humboldt, is not more remarkable for his power of generalization than he is for his immense treasure of information. The business of the educator is to choose facts wisely and to teach them according to their own nature and according to the nature of the mind. Nor does it follow that certain facts shall not be taught because part of them are sure to be forgotten. No one can tell in advance which will be retained, which lost. Moreover, the forgotten facts may leave behind them a permanent effect. In current geography-teaching too many facts are taught, many of those taught are not wisely chosen, and the teaching is not according to the nature either of the facts or of the mind. More narrowly, too many special facts and too few general facts are taught. The teacher fails to grasp the idea of geographical units or wholes; or if she does grasp it, her unit is the ultimate fact, as a river or mountain, city or railroad. What I mean is, that this is all true in a measure. No matter how they may dispute whether or no study should proceed from particulars to generals or from generals to particulars, sensible teachers will not differ as to the end to be gained in teaching any large unit, as the United States, New England or Maine. This end is a clear and strong grasp of the outline, filled in with a few well-chosen details; that is, relatively few. The Cleveland course of study directs that the work in formal geography shall begin in the A Primary year with the study of important definitions and of the States in outline. Then the work pro ceeds as follows: the United States as a whole, the States in groups, the States severally. Throughout all these stages two things should be kept constantly in mind: to consider the country, the group of states or the individual state as a unit; to teach general rather than special facts, though not to the exclusion of the latter. Following the order of topics given, enough large facts of the United States. should be taught to give the pupil a general idea of the whole; then enough of the same kind of facts to give him a general idea of the group; lastly, enough of the general and special facts of the State to answer the purpose stated at the close of the last paragraph. In handling the whole country at this stage, it is particularly important to seize the facts that belong to all groups, if any. Similarly, in handling the group of states the facts that belong to all or to most of the states in the group, should be presented. The method to be followed when the State is the unit under consideration may be thus illustrated. The grammar-school geographies now in use contain, in map and text, several hundred items of information about the State of Maine. Under some circumstances a man would need to possess all this information and much more besides; but this is not necessary or advisable in the case of the Ohio school-boy. The following will answer all his purposes: 1. The surrounding units in their relations; 2. The form and comparative size of the state; 3. The surface of the central and northern parts, also of the coast belt; 4. Three or four rivers, two bays, one lake, one mountain, one island; 5. Three or four cities; 6. Two or three agricultural and as many manufacturing industries; 7. Commerce and the fisheries; 8. One or two colleges. To be sure, the general facts can all be broken down into special facts, but the teacher should keep to the general as far as con. sistent. It is believed that not more than twenty-five special facts need be individualized. However, Maine should not be considered finished until all these facts have been organized and unified. When this has been done by an act of synthesis, and the product touched by the imagination, the pupil will have in his mind a picture of a State of a certain form and comparative area-mountains, lakes, small rivers, forests, lumber camps, towns, &c., in the North; an undulating surface, larger rivers, farms, manufacturing cities and towns in the South; a fringed sea coast and numerous seaports, railroads, hundreds of factories, schools, and churches; an intelligent and industrious people; the whole picture in a setting formed by Canada, New Hampshire, and the ocean. Such a picture as this is all that can be left permanently in the mind, and parts of this will become indistinct with time. The other States of the group should be taken in the same way, only in one or two cases the picture will be fuller and in one or two others less full. Later they will all be united in one general picture of New England. And similarly, the other States and groups of States in their order. At last, all the groups will be reduced into one picture or mental map of the United States. However, the teacher must not fail to observe that each unit, as a State, should be taught according to its nature; in one case, ten facts will answer, in another five times that number may be required. No superintendent can tell the teacher how many items of information to teach in given cases; no wise superintendent would do it if he could. Nor need the teacher count them. The teacher should closely scan the perspective of the study; that is, learn to measure the value of the various topics and of the several facts grouped under them. The following remarks will be found useful in the study of geographical perspective: 1. The pupil should pay more attention to his own State than to any other. 2. His own country should have precedence over all other coun tries. 3. Of foreign countries, he will study those with the greatest care with which is own State and country are closely connected by industries, commerce, intellectual, political and moral life. 4. Next may be mentioned the present standing of countries in the scale of civilization-their position in the march of progress. 5. Historical relations will follow; facts of race, descent, emigration, and social and legal institutions. 6. The place of countries in history and literature. 7. Other things being equal, the near will claim more attention than the remote. Much can be said to show that another order would be better than this one. There are exceptions even to the first two rules laid down. if the language is taken in the strictest sense. However, these guides to the study of perspective will answer the present purpose. The last five rules will apply as well in the study of parts of one's own country as in the study of foreign lands. Moreover, several of them will often converge upon a single country. Thus, several reasons can be given for the American child's studying England much more thoroughly than any other foreign country in the world. Perhaps the remark is too obvious to be made, that this scheme |
