AN EXPERIMENT IN PRIMARY EDUCATION 615 



to make parallel lines of plane and solid figures with a corresponding 

 number of sides or angles, then to abstract the Greek numerals tri, 

 tetra, penta, hexa, etc., found to belong to both columns, and set this 

 in the center, with the syllable gon on one side, and hedron on the 

 other. An hour was required to complete the setting out of these 

 figures, and arranging these titles with movable letters, which for 

 the first time the child learned to use for spelling. The exercise was, 

 of course, repeated again and again, until every step was perfectly 

 familiar. From the beginning the child had no difficulty in connect- 

 ing the plane and solid figures, nor in learning the numerals appropri- 

 ate to each. The new effort at abstraction and classification was at 

 first somewhat hard, but soon became easy. The facility with which 

 the impression of forms may be made upon a child's mind, when this 

 is as yet uncrowded by notions on the other qualities of objects, was 

 shown by a little incident at this period. A few weeks after having 

 made her first acquaintance with the oblate, she saw at dinner for the 

 first time some small stewed onions. " Oh ! " she exclaimed, " they 

 have brought us some oblates for dinner." Another day, when she 

 accidentally pulled the cord of a window-shade in a certain position 

 she observed that she had thus made "two scalene triangles." Look- 

 ing at the ceiling above a lamp, she called to me to notice how the 

 light made three " beautiful concentric circles." 



One other study during the year was made upon the intrinsic 

 meaning of words. In the course of some observations on plants 

 the child had learned to recognize the ovary and ovule, and to her- 

 self dissect them out of a flower. When this had been done, the 

 analogy between the vegetable ovule and chicken-egg or ovum was 

 easily pointed out, and the relation of the latter to the geometric 

 ovoid. The four objects were then placed in a row on the table, the 

 names of each spelled with movable letters, and then the common root 

 ov described and taken out. The important and fundamental idea 

 was thus grasped that there was an intrinsic meaning to at least some 

 words, and also that objects associated by a common name, whose 

 specific variations were of subordinate importance, must be classed 

 together as deeply related, notwithstanding superficial difference of 

 aspect. But this idea, once distinctly enunciated and understood, was 

 then set aside for a season. That the idea was understood, I tested in 

 the following way : At table the child remarked that a particular 

 potato was "shaped like an egg." "What shall we then call it?" I 

 asked. "An ovoid," was the reply. "Very good. Do you know 

 what I thought you might call it ? " " An ovum," she answered, with 

 an air of mischievous triumph. " And why did you not ? " " Because 

 it is not an egg, but only shaped like an egg" I tempted the child 

 with the suggestion that she should tease the waiter by asking him to 

 bring us some ovules instead of eggs ; but the instinctive modesty of 

 childhood recoiled from the pedantic proposition. 



