GEIKIE ON THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY. 89 



gives a chance of distinction to boys and girls whose capabilities are 

 not well tested by the ordinary lessons of school. 



But, while laying bis foundations broadly in this way and widen- 

 ing the knowledge of his pupils, the teacher will do well to keep 

 clearly before him some definite goal toward which the discipline of 

 the elementar}^ stage is to lead up. Probably no object can be sug- 

 gested more fitting for this purpose than the thorough comprehension 

 of a map. The power of understanding a map, and getting from it 

 all the information it can afford, is an acquisition which lies at the 

 base of all sound geographical progress. Yet how large a proportion, 

 even of the educated part of the community, have only a limited and 

 imperfect conception of the full meaning and uses of a map ! 



There is happily now a growing recognition of the principle that 

 adequate geographical conceptions are best gained by observations 

 made at the home locality. The school and its surroundings form 

 the natural basis from which all subsequent geographical acquirement 

 proceeds. Upon a groundwork of actual observation and measure- 

 ment the 3'oung mind is led forward in a firm and steady progress. 

 The school-room and play-ground serve as units from which an esti- 

 mate is gradually formed of the relative proportions of more distant 

 objects and places. 



During infancy we learn that things differ in size and in distance 

 from us. How much they differ in these respects is found out more 

 slowly, if indeed discovered at all. Among the peasantry many 

 adults may be met with who have hardly advanced a step beyond the 

 infantile stage of perception. And even among those who consider 

 themselves educated, it is sometimes ludicrous to see how absolutely 

 untrained they are to judge with even an approach to accuracy of the 

 relative sizes and distances of things. One of the most useful lessons, 

 therefore, in the elementary part of geographical instruction, is to 

 accustom the pupils to appreciate differences of size and proportion 

 by actual measurement. The most convenient unit of measure to 

 start with is the length of a pace, while the school-room is the most 

 convenient place to try the first experiments in mensuration. By 

 multiplying the measurements they have taken at school, the pupils 

 will appreciate how far it is from school to their homes, what distance 

 separates their village or town from the next, what is the size of their 

 parish or county, and so on to the country as a whole, and eventually 

 to the dimensions of the earth itself, and of planetary space. 



If want of accuracy in judging of the dimensions of things is a 

 common failing, not less prevalent is want of accuracy in judging of 

 their relative positions, or what is called orientation. We begin in 

 infancy with the difference between our right and left hands, and 

 recognize things and places as lying to the right or left of us. But 

 many of us hardly get beyond this rudimentary stage. It is almost 

 incredible how helpless even educated people often are if asked to tell 



