THE MOTOR ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING. 65 



tliis to the teacher for her approval. If it seems necessary to have 

 the child write the same sentence several times, the mere matter of 

 directing him to write the sentence on one board, then to go to 

 the next board and write it, and then back to the first to write 

 it a third time, gives him pleasure, enhances his interest, and 

 strengthens his power to make effort. And thus much orderly- 

 activity is combined with all reading exercises. I may remark in 

 passing that during the child's first year at school he is kept in 

 his seat less than one fourth of the time. The desk, if the matter 

 is not closely watched, proves a fatal obstacle to the employment 

 of the child's motor energy, not only in the first year but in the 

 succeeding years. 



Arithmetic is a subject which presents large opportunities for 

 the employment of the motor activities in teaching it, and the 

 advocates of manual training ought to have shown us long ago 

 how nearly the whole of arithmetic can be taught through man- 

 ual-training exercises. Such a correlation is possible. But those 

 schools which have stood for manual training from the first, and 

 which possess to-day magnificent equipments, seem not to have 

 apprehended that these two subjects of their curriculum can be 

 made to go hand in hand. Because of their opportunities they 

 should have worked out for the benefit of the educational world 

 a method of teaching arithmetic and at the same time manual 

 training in wood and metals. 



But more convenient materials than wood or metal are at our 

 command for the ordinary schoolroom. Paper and cardboard 

 admit of tridimensional constructions in great variety, and by the 

 folding and cutting of paper -all necessary space- forms of two 

 dimensions are easily made. Then, too, the floor, and even the 

 conventional blackboard, can be brought into much larger requi- 

 sition for the drawing of plans and diagrams. Scales and weights, 

 measures of capacity, and other concrete objects and appliances 

 can be brought into service. Moreover, buying, measuring, and 

 selling should have a place. By the use of all these accessories, 

 in graded exercises throughout the whole course of arithmetic 

 from the class of beginners to the class completing the study, 

 large employment can be given to the motor activities. Such 

 procedure would render the instruction in arithmetic less formal 

 and more informing, and would incite a greater degree of interest 

 in pupils. 



Inventional geometry is a subject which is regarded by all 

 who have had experience in teaching it as a most interesting and 

 educative study.* 



The series of problems devised by William George Spencer 



* See Popular Science Monthly, January, 1889. 



