258 NATURE STUDY. 



times does not express their ideas. If you insist on 

 their telling in your language, you deaden their power 

 of expression and discourage them. Overlook little 

 errors. 



Remember, too, that language, and particularly writ- 

 ten language, is a somewhat " grown-up " method of 

 expression. Other methods are often more natural. 

 Many a child full of ideas appears dull merely because 

 he cannot express in words. Let him use gestures, or 

 tell it with hand or chalk or pencil, and the ideas come 

 out. 



Develop individuality in expression. See in how 

 many ways the children can tell about what they have 

 seen. If a fact is told in a certain way, and this is re- 

 peated once or twice, most of the children will tell it in 

 about the same words, and the language work will show 

 that stereotyped sameness which proves that it is not 

 genuine expression. Have the pupils draw objects in 

 different positions or from different sides. This lessens 

 the tendency to copy or imitate the drawings of others ; 

 and copying is not expression. 



The great essential, then, in expression is individ- 

 uality. If it is not individual, it is not genuine ex- 

 pression, but largely imitation. 



Next in importance to individuality is truthfulness, 

 telling the truth; the whole truth, so far as it is seen, 

 and nothing but the truth. Considering the moral de- 

 velopment of the child, too much emphasis cannot be 

 placed on careful seeing and truthful telling. 



The cultivation of the habit of careful personal inves- 



