62 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



however, in passing, that the various exercises now laid down in 

 courses of manual training will all have to be examined in the 

 light of the scientific methods already employed in studying the 

 older practices in education, to determine not only what value 

 these exercises have, but also their sequence, and doubtless to cast 

 aside considerable that is at present recommended. Thirty-five 

 years ago object lessons were strongly advocated in this country. 

 They brought new life and spirit into the schools, and became 

 widely adopted. But to-day, without object teaching, all that was 

 then gained by it is secured and much more by Nature study or 

 science work, that which object teaching has led up to. And 

 through a similar process of evolution many of the formal exer- 

 cises of manual training are destined to disappear and to be cor- 

 related with other kinds of work, so that a broader purpose will 

 be subserved through the use of the motor side. 



The reader will recall the statements already made that atten- 

 tion is strongest when the motor side is employed, and that asso- 

 ciation and memory seem more closely related to this side. There 

 is, however, another ingredient entering into all this which we 

 have not yet mentioned. It is that with the proper expenditure 

 of motor energy there arise interest and pleasure an emotional 

 condition which of itself materially strengthens memory and 

 association. 



When we call to mind that the child's mental world is largely 

 an unrelated world, we find another reason for urging a larger 

 recognition of this principle in our teaching. The child is in an 

 unrelated world, because he is in the midst of innumerable ob- 

 jects, manifestations of complex and varied phenomena, the suc- 

 cession of events and their occurrences simultaneously. The 

 stimuli which constantly stream in produce very strong sensa- 

 tions, and innumerable sense judgments are formed more or less 

 unrelated. One of the most difiicult tasks of the teacher is to 

 lead the child to relate these judgments, to reject the unessential 

 and unrelated, and to arrange the ideas growing out of those 

 judgments in series ; in other words, to introduce coherence and 

 unity into the child's mental life. But this mental unity can not 

 be considered apart from the matter of physical growth. The 

 child's brain at birth weighs about one fourth of what it weighs 

 at maturity, and the proportionate increase of other tissue in the 

 body during the period of growth is considerably greater than 

 the proportionate increase in brain weight. That which helps the 

 child to gain nervous control will accordingly help greatly in 

 bringing unity into his mental life, and no other means at the 

 teacher's command will contribute so much toward what Prof. 

 Baldwin has so happily styled nervous and mental unity, as a 

 large employment of motor activity in schoolroom work. 



