302 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



and cities) on maps, innumerable dates relating to 

 kings and perhaps their mistresses and to unintelli- 

 gible wars, many a line of poetry, half apprehended, 

 many a rule of arithmetic or algebra, not at all 

 understood. I will not say that arbitrary acts of 

 memory are not necessary to the training of the 

 scholar. No one can hope to acquire the multiplica- 

 tion table by an entirely rational and experimental 

 process, or correct English without some pure grind 

 of memory. But it is fair to say that there is far 

 too much abuse of the powers of memory in child- 

 hood for the purpose of inculcating unrelated and ill- 

 assorted facts. This abuse means pedantry, the 

 nature of which, expressed in the terms of psychology, 

 is the accumulation of mental impressions with 

 deficient associations. The reason for this educa- 

 tional practice is plain. It is much easier to secure 

 the sort of pedagogic talent that can teach from a 

 book where everything is put down in black and 

 white than to teach from objects. To teach from 

 objects calls for ingenuity and adaptability on the 

 part of the teacher, and these qualities are not easy 

 to secure. Sooner or later the parents of children 

 will demand these qualities, and the managers of 

 schools will see the necessity for supplying them. 

 Some arbitrary memorizing cannot be excluded, but 

 its extent can be greatly curtailed. The change to 

 more rational objective methods will be welcomed by 

 pupils ; and the teacher will find many supposedly dull 

 scholars more apt than he had thought them. 



