682 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



will be of service to him outside the schoolroom, for these also 

 will create habits of attention, reflection, and industry equally 

 well. Thus, in the study of history, literature, or science, habits 

 of careful observation and reflection may be formed with as great 

 readiness and surety as in the study of algebra, English grammar, 

 Latin, or Greek. And, moreover, the conditions for accurate ob- 

 servation and reasoning in science or in the conduct of society 

 are somewhat different, as every one will admit, from what they 

 are in Greek, Latin, or arithmetic ; and if the purpose is to lead 

 the pupil ultimately to observe keenly and accurately and inter- 

 pret readily and serviceably facts of Nature or the phenomena of 

 social intercourse, then the more he has to do of this in the school 

 the more will he become familiar with right methods for future 

 activity. On the other hand, if the object is to make the pupil 

 keen in the appreciation of linguistic matters, then, pf course, he 

 must study language ; and we might speak in a similar way of 

 any special subject. 



We have, therefore, this broad conception, that study along 

 special lines does not create general but only special power. 

 There follows a second principle of equal importance in deter- 

 mining the relative value of materials of instruction ; but this, 

 like the one just considered, has not yet received universal recog- 

 nition among teachers. It has been maintained from aforetime 

 that arithmetic, grammar, spelling, and the mechanical side of 

 reading, writing, and the art subjects should receive particular 

 attention because of the paramount necessity that the pupil 

 should be master of these things before he leaves the school, in 

 order to be able to make any progress in his learning thereafter ; 

 and there has always accompanied this first argument another, 

 close of kin, that these branches afford opportunity for excellent 

 discipline of the mind. Enough has already been said perhaps to 

 indicate that the idea of pure discipline (or, as Prof. Hinsdale 

 calls it, "the dogma of formal discipline"*) is not founded upon 

 good philosophy ; it remains to examine briefly this second posi- 

 tion which many teachers, with their faces always turned toward 

 the setting sun, declare with fervor to be impregnable. A survey 

 of the subjects in the elementary school curriculum will show 

 that they fall naturally into three great classes, usually styled 

 (1) the real or content subjects, including history, literature, ge- 

 ography, and Nature-study or science ; (2) the form or symbolic 

 subjects, including language, grammar, arithmetic, and the me- 

 chanical side of reading, writing, music, and art ; (3) the indus- 

 trial or "psycho-manual" subjects, including manual training, 

 sewing, and cookery. It has been held hitherto that the elemen- 



* Educational Review, September, 1894. 



