APPENDIX 193 



may not be of the least value to a child in itself, but the 

 way in which he looks at it and the way in which he 

 relates it to other facts is supremely important. 



Facts as facts are worth very little, they may be so 

 much dead weight. A teacher who simply imparts 

 facts wastes her time, and what is more important, she 

 wastes her pupils' minds. The facts are forgotten and 

 the mind is unawakened. The great thing, the child's 

 mental growth and development, is unaccomplished. 



There has been much unprofitable discussion over the 

 educative value of different subjects, and mathematics 

 and the classics have warred with each other for the 

 first place. But every subject has educative value. 

 Every subject can be made to appeal to the reasoning 

 power if it is properly handled, and children like to 

 reason. They like the sensation of using their own 

 minds, when the privilege is accorded them. They are 

 always wondering about things and they are always 

 asking questions if their curiosity has not been stifled 

 by inconsiderate grown people and they have not found 

 their asking unprofitable. 



One thing that a teacher should do for a child in 

 her care is to preserve his legitimate curiosity and 

 foster his reasoning faculty. No subject is better fitted 

 for this than physiology, for it is closely related to other 

 subjects, and is full of causal relations. A good teacher 

 who knows her subject, and a few other things, can not 

 help correlating it with everything in the universe that 

 has come within her ken that will help her pupils to 

 grasp an idea or follow a chain of reasoning. 



The first thing, then, is know your subject, not simply 



