THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD WITH CHILDREN. 67 



helped children to draw the natural objects which they study to 

 any great extent, but often have hindered them by taking all 

 their drawing time for dogmatic instruction in mechanical draw- 

 ing, historic ornament, geometric solids, and regular, symmet- 

 rical objects generally. No instruction in natural history work 

 can be called scientific that fails to develop the pupil's power to 

 draw what he examines. Darwin said that a great amount of his 

 otherwise valuable manuscripts became useless on account of his 

 lack of ability to draw. 



The part that language takes in the plan should now receive 

 brief consideration. The pupil, being accustomed, from the time 

 he begins to write sentences, to describe in writing what he him- 

 self sees, recognizes the connection between his ideas and their 

 signs on paper ; his facility in expressing his ideas more and more 

 correctly increases ; and when his work is criticised, he is in the 

 proper mental attitude to receive and assimilate the criticism. 

 By examining the pupil's work after his first essay on a new sub- 

 ject the teacher gets at the defects in the pupil's vocabulary at 

 once, and sees just where to help him. In no other way can the 

 teacher reach that point so soon. Since the pupil is left to him- 

 self, he must describe his object in his own words, and he will not 

 use any that he does not understand ; if those are wrong in form, 

 he can remember the corrected form easily ; but if new words, 

 which he does not understand, are given to him, he remembers 

 their correct form with difficulty. 



The teacher helps at the right time when the pupils need help. 

 He examines their papers to discover excellences and errors in 

 regard to matters of fact and forms of expression, gives class in- 

 struction at the blackboard on the prevailing errors, makes illus- 

 trative sketches, rubs out all illustrative work at last, and directs 

 the pupils to redraw and redescribe the objects previously stud- 

 ied, confining their work closely to what they see in their speci- 

 mens. 



Up to this point all information not obvious in the specimens 

 is rigorously excluded. Information must be divorced from ob- 

 servation. No other course can be followed safely by the rank 

 and file of teachers. The pupils, having had the opportunities 

 required for observing, thinking, and recording for themselves, 

 and a substantial basis for information having been thus laid, 

 individual experiences, readings from books, and reasons, causes, 

 and results are considered, and the whole, observation and infor- 

 mation, is incorporated into a composition most carefully written 

 during the time devoted to language work. The power thus de- 

 veloped in the lower grades enables pupils of the higher grades 

 to stop with first drafts. 



Again, Darwin confesses that he was much hampered by his 



