THE MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING. 63 



If, then, we go into our schools with this idea in mind and ex- 

 amine the methods of teaching we can not fail to discern what a 

 disregard there is of this important principle. Better results 

 would be obtained incomparably better could there be a change 

 in this regard in the methods of the schoolroom. 



I do not ask for license, but for orderly activity educative ac- 

 tivity. It was in 1797 that Johann Heinrich Gotlieb Heusinger, 

 Docent in Philosophy and Pedagogics at the University of Jena, 

 apprehended this important principle, and expressed his surprise 

 that teachers had not heretofore recognized this impulse of chil- 

 dren to activity and taken advantage of it in the work of instruc- 

 tion. It is not the first instance in which the truth of an idea has 

 been recognized a century after its expression. And it is a source 

 of much pleasure to me to offer some of my pedagogical worship 

 at the shrine of Heusinger. 



In the different branches of study, then, which pupils pursue 

 in our schools, and which they try to master in order to acquire 

 a fair education, there are numerous places and many topics that 

 admit of the employment of the motor side, if teachers had but 

 the versatility and inventive talent to make the application. Time 

 would be economized, broader mental development would be given 

 to the child, and discipline would take care of itself, for it is un- 

 directed motor energy that produces so much trouble in the mat- 

 ter of discipline, and unused motor energy that produces so much 

 fatigue in pupils during school hours. 



In order that this article may not seem to be too largely theo- 

 retical, and also to show, if possible, more clearly what has al- 

 ready been set forth, I shall endeavor to point out some appli- 

 cations of the employment of the motor side in actual school 

 work. A moment's thought will lead one to see that there are 

 some studies where the employment of the motor activities is 

 much more diificult than in others. Perhaps the most difficult of 

 all subjects is in teaching reading to a class of beginners. In this 

 particular I got my first suggestion from a visit to a little Dorf 

 school in Germany. What I saw appealed to me as a simple and 

 at the same time a remarkable application of the principle I have 

 tried to give exposition to here. I doubt whether the kind, genial 

 schoolmaster had ever read Heusinger's essay or had ever heard 

 his name. I do not think he himself appreciated how scientific, 

 how in accord with the best knowledge of to-day, the lesson he 

 gave in reading to the lowest class really was. The spirit of that 

 little village school, the work and the relations between teacher and 

 pupils, were most beautiful and ideal. In three visits to Germany 

 I never saw any other school comparable with it. Instruction by 

 means of orderly activity, and much of it, were the aim. Activity 

 was not suppressed ; it was directed and controlled and made to 



