90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wliotlier one place lies to the north or south of another. They know 

 that iu i^assing between them you go to the right or left, as the case 

 may be, but there their power of localization ends. What is needed 

 is greater quickness and precision in orientation, and this ought to be 

 acquired from early training at school. 



When some progress has been made in elementary geographical 

 conceptions, the blackboard should be brought into increasing use. 

 After the school-room, for example, has been paced, and its dimen- 

 sions and proportions have been thus ascertained, its plan should be 

 drawn on the board by the teacher, with the relative positions of door, 

 windows, and fireplace. From this beginning, gradual steps may be 

 taken until the pupils can themselves draw on the board and on their 

 slates rough plans of the school and of the play-ground. At first it 

 will be sui^cient to aim only at a general resemblance of proportion. 

 The great object is to teach the young minds to realize the relations 

 between the actual boundaries and the artificial representations of 

 them. To succeed in this is by no means so easy as might be thought ; 

 but success in it is absolutely necessary, and must be attained no 

 matter at what expenditure of time and labor. When it has been 

 achieved, effoi'ts should next be made to depict the plan to scale, and 

 with a nearer approach to correctness. 



It is desirable to ascertain and arrange the conceptions that children 

 already possess as to time. They know that day and night follow 

 each other in unbroken succession. They further know that each day 

 has a morning, a noon, and an evening. These and their other notions 

 should be drav/n from them by questioning, and the answers, corrected 

 by the class (or by the master if no member of the class has the 

 requisite information), should be methodically summarized and re- 

 peated in the simplest language, as the basis of actual experience 

 from which the pupils are to advance to further acquisitions of 

 knowledge. 



In taking the school surroundings as the basis of instruction, the 

 teacher will readily recognize that, while the principle of his method 

 remains the same, its details must necessarily vary according to the cir- 

 cumstances of the locality. The two most obvious distinctions are 

 those of town and country. In a town, illustrations of the political 

 side of geography are most prominent ; in the country, it is the physi- 

 cal side that especially invites attention. The teacher should from the 

 first realize that some of the most valuable parts of the training his 

 pupils can receive are not attainable within the walls of the class-room. 

 Where practicable, he should himself take walks with bis pupils, and 

 direct their attention to the objects to be seen as they go. There are, 

 no doubt, practical difficulties in the way of carrying out this method, 

 but these are generally not insurmountable. 



In all these lessons, the system of question and answer must be 

 scrupulously followed. Anything approaching to a style of lecturing 



