EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 685 



be said also, witliout repeating arguments here, of the psycho- 

 mannal or industrial subjects : they, too, must be concerned with 

 the expression, and hence with the deepening and intensifying of 

 thought gained from the pursuit of history, literature, and sci- 

 ence. Thus when the pupil studies about the industries in his 

 environment and gains an impression of the activities of the me- 

 chanic, farmer, seamstress, and so on, he makes his ideas effective 

 and lasting by imitating these activities himself. But to require 

 him to learn the rules and mechanism of these industries before 

 having an opportunity to perform them is to create an indiffer- 

 ence or distaste for them all because of the formality and empti- 

 ness of such work. In drawing, too, the object should be to have 

 the pupil express what has been gained from the study of some 

 real object, or to illustrate some scene from history or literature ; 

 and when the mere grammar of drawing is learned before put- 

 ting it to any use, not only interest but effectiveness in the work 

 is lost. 



Other matters should be considered in a complete and thorough 

 analysis of educational values in elementary education ; but from 

 what it has been possible to say here it may be concluded that in 

 the arrangement of the elementary school curriculum the central 

 place should be given to the real or content studies literature, 

 history, geography, and science and all other subjects must fol- 

 low and depend upon them in the acquisition and expression of 

 thought gained from their pursuit. As to whether the literary or 

 the scientific subjects should receive greater emphasis there 

 seems not to be so great agreement among psychologists and edu- 

 cators ; although the ideal of the development of moral character 

 in our schools, so frequently spoken of nowadays by teachers, 

 would seem to argue the superiority of those studies that have 

 a moral content that is, those that deal with moral matters. 

 Educational psychology points out a danger people are liable 

 to fall into in thinking that because the material of instruc- 

 tion used treats of moral questions the result upon the char- 

 acter of the pupil must of necessity be moral. If this were true 

 it would follow that the learning of moral subject-matter, as 

 literature and history, would constitute adequate means for the 

 training of exemplary men and women. In somewhat the same 

 way it was once thought by religious teachers, and may be yet in 

 some places, that the study of the catechism would cause an indi- 

 vidual to become religious. But a little observation of types in 

 one's environment will show that these theories do not hold abso- 

 lutely, at any rate. If it necessarily follows that the study of his- 

 tory produces an estimable moral character, then we should find 

 historians to be exemplary above all other men, and statesmen to 

 be infinitely more than politicians. Taking things literally, we 



