METHODS OF TEACHING 489 



the mental attitude. If the reader doubts this statement, it would 

 be well if he tried to think of a truth which has remained religious 

 after having been verified, or of a verified truth which he regards 

 with emotional devotion. 



803. Most religions have, or had, doctrines about the shape of 

 the world. The ancient Christian belief that the world is flat has 

 been abandoned, and, therefore, may furnish a text, the discussion 

 of which, while permitting a measure of freedom, will arouse a 

 minimum of prejudice. This 'fact,' that the earth is flat, may be 

 taught in three distinct ways. First, it may be stated to the pupil, 

 after the manner of much science teaching, as an obvious truth, 

 which he may observe for himself by looking at the horizon all 

 around him ; so that, though he is supplied with material for 

 thought and not forbidden to think, no further attempt is made to 

 awaken thought or to influence its direction or quality. Or, to 

 speak more accurately, while the pupil is supplied with facts 

 which he usually learns to arrange according to their co-existences 

 and resemblances, he is not taught to classify them according to 

 their invariable or necessary sequences. Therefore, since his 

 notions as to what constitutes evidence and what proof are not 

 derived from his teacher, and since much of the thinking, indeed, 

 nearly all the difficult thinking, of human beings is in terms of 

 cause and effect, the main part of his intellectual development is 

 neglected. Examples of this kind of instruction, which is little 

 more than a storing of information, and which is regarded by 

 modern educationalists as a necessary evil that should be 

 reduced to a minimum, are seen when the lengths of rivers, 

 the dates of history, or the facts of systematic zoology and 

 botany are committed to memory. Facts concerning the shape 

 of the world are so impressive and suggestive and tend so to 

 link up with subsequent experiences that, unlike many 'scientific' 

 facts, they are sure to be remembered and thought about ; but 

 the use that is made of them by a pupil taught according to 

 this system is left more or less to chance. The mental 

 attitude created is such that, though the pupil is left free to learn the 

 actual truth from other people, he is not very likely to correct the 

 initial error himself. 



804. Second, not only may the pupil be told that the world is 

 flat, but, as an essential part of the teaching, he may also be 

 made to proceed to a rigorous deductive inference of con- 

 sequences and a comparison of these consequences with reality. 

 In other words, he is taught to classify his facts not only accord- 



