27] Graphic Methods in Teaching. 219 



temperature followed by a slow fall accompanied by low 

 temperature for more than a week with westerly and north- 

 erly winds. On the 2ist and 24th there are south-west 

 winds, and the temperature rises with only a moderate drop 

 for a westerly wind. Here are comparative statements 

 concerning certain great facts in nature. The child learns 

 that as the wind is, so is the temperature; that from the 

 south comes warm air, from the north cold air. At once 

 the child's horizon widens and she learns to look beyond 

 the thermometer and the weather vane to the world, the 

 climate of the continent, and from this to the sun and be- 

 gins to get broader views of the universe. Unobserving, 

 making no records, careless, except for comfort whether 

 it be hot or cold, the child sees (or rather does not see) 

 the grand procession of natural phenomena unheeding and 

 with narrow vision and small interest. Taught to observe 

 and to record in a graphic way so that observations ex- 

 tending over many days are seen at a glance, the child 

 instinctively takes wider views, learns to see, to compare, 

 and to reach results for himself and form his own conclu- 

 sions. His horizon widens and his mental as well as phys- 

 ical vision becomes clearer and sharper. Every picture 

 before the child's eye, like a sensitive plate in the devel- 

 oping bath, gains in definition. Things unheeded before 

 become interesting. Unusual phenomena, a sudden fall 

 in the temperature, a change in the wind become as enter- 

 taining as a story, because observed and recorded and 

 because they lead to new facts and new aspects of the 

 universe. The relation of the wind and the temperature 

 to the clouds becomes, by means of comparative study, 

 full of interest and the record increases in educational 

 value. The diagram explains things. It answers ques- 

 tions and is therefore full of interest. 



It may be asked how it can be known that any such 

 results follow from the making of the records, if the pupils 

 did the work at home and only a very few of the students 



