EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 681 



intellectual activity, no matter what it be, tends to create habits 

 that may be carried into all kinds of study or business. One who 

 has patiently, day after day and year after year, solved arith- 

 metical or algebraic problems in the school, has by such exercise 

 acquired habits of careful reflection and weighing of evidence 

 that will lead him to dwell with somewhat the same care upon all 

 matters that are brought to his attention ; but unless he has suffi- 

 cient data upon these new matters his reflections, of course, will 

 come to but little. The practical conclusion is, and the one of im- 

 portance in education, that study along any line limits excellence 

 in perceiving, remembering, imagining, or reasoning to matters 

 along this same line. 



Applying this principle to the work of the schoolroom, we see 

 that no subject should be studied merely for the discipline it may 

 be supposed to give. The old theory that the school should culti- 

 vate the senses, the memory, and the reasoning powers of pupils, 

 means nothing as a matter of pure discipline; in the light of 

 modern psychology we must understand that the only way to 

 secure this cultivation is in special directions determined by the 

 peculiar nature of the material upon which the mind is exercised. 

 Assuming, then (for it will not be deemed necessary to argue the 

 matter here), that one ideal of our civilization is to have an indi- 

 vidual understand himself in relation to his natural environment, 

 so that he may be able to adapt himself to natural laws and turn 

 them to the promotion of his own happiness and welfare, it follows 

 that the study of natural law, the method of adapting one's self to 

 it, and the industries that are based upon an adequate comprehen- 

 sion of it, should form an important part of school work ; and it 

 is some such argument that has introduced Nature-study into 

 many elementary schools, giving it a prominent place there. In 

 like manner, if it is desirable for one to be able to adjust himself 

 in the best way possible to his social environment, he should study 

 the organization of society, and the ethical and material conditions 

 upon which his own and others' welfare and advancement depend. 

 These considerations have been at the bottom of changes in the 

 school curriculum, and are now at work in the endeavor to intro- 

 duce still further improvements, as many educators think. 



At all events, the old idea of formal discipline is gradually 

 losing the breath of life, and we can think no better of it than 

 that the sooner it releases its hold upon those who make school 

 curricula, the sooner will the material of instruction be more 

 nearly adapted to prepare the individual for his needs in after 

 life. Whatever may be said in favor of the study of any branch 

 for its disciplinary value, because of the good habits which are 

 formed in its pursuit, may be said with equal force of those sub- 

 jects which have direct worth in giving the pupil knowledge that 



