FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 



It has become the fashion in modern pedagogy to teach by 

 the so-called " Problem Method," that is, to attempt to make the 

 child solve problems from the very beginning of his work in the 

 elementary school. But it is one thing to say to the child, " Here 

 is your problem, solve it," and quite another thing to lead him 

 through the several thought processes necessary to the solution 

 of the problem. A child of six may be taught to think, and 

 think clearly, if he is guided so that he makes a generalization 

 after comparison with what his senses tell him he knows. The 

 mistaken notion of our educational system has been that drill 

 and drill alone, pure memory work, is only fitted for the mental 

 life of our young children. Nothing is further from the actual 

 truth. The mental growth of the child is an evolutionary growth, 

 but it is a development based more upon his reaction to the 

 world than upon the mechanism within his body. The nervous 

 system and its connectives develop early. Our education of the 

 nervous system, based on the theory that the nervous system is 

 not well developed, makes simply for the formation of concepts. 



Concept forming and concept enlargement are a necessary part 

 in any scheme of education, but the method and the form of straight 

 thinking are of even greater importance. Problems in life are not 

 solved by knowing dates or facts, no matter how important or 

 interesting these may be. The methods of reaching a conclusion, 

 of weighing evidence, of making decisions upon the merits of the 

 facts in a case, of thinking straight from evidence gained from 

 given data, — these are the habits of mind which are worth far 

 more to a child than the actual impact with the subject matter 

 in a textbook. Hence pure science, the handmaiden of clear 



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