lo— THE PSYCHOLOGY 



The study of nature is evidently all important here It supplies all the materials, 

 which, by adaptation to human needs, have been the basis of progress. In con- 

 nection with these materials, g-eography becomes an important study. Arithmetic 

 must be studied in relation to adaptation of materials to suit man's increasing 

 needs. Present complex society can be understood only by the stud)' of former 

 simpler modes of living--history. Imag-inative literature finds a responsive chord 

 in the child's mental state. The foundations of tlie sciences should be laid in this 

 period by making the child acquainted througfh his own activities with the 

 fundamental facts. 



The Tertiary Stage, 



In the third stag-e, the child should become more independent of objects and 

 their representations and more proficient in the use of symbolic modes of expres- 

 ion. If the education up to the age of twelve or thirteen years of age has pro- 

 vided the pupil with a g-ood stock of fundamental facts, learned by his own 

 sense activity, and in connection with his constructive activity, he will be in a 

 position to use language extensively and to learn new facts through the medium 

 of languag-e. Then he should be occupied chiefly in discovering relations be- 

 tween facts rather than facts themselves ; at least his motive in discovering 

 facts is now for the sake of their relations. Reason becomes the arbiter of 

 what is and what is not. All experiences must be subject to rigid examination 

 in order to discover the true relations. Instead of comparing objects and their 

 features, which is of course, a relating, ideal process he must now compare 

 ideas, a still higher relating and more ideal mental process. He must classify, 

 judge, and reason. 



The most important feature of this period, the age oi puberty, is the develop- 

 ment of the idea of social relationship. The child becomes conscious of self, as a 

 unit in a larger whole, just as he formerly became conscious of himself as an 

 individual, distinct from the whole. He also becomes conscious of the distinction 

 of sex and interest in the opposite sex occupies a large part of the mental field. 



The ideas aroused are more abstract than in any preceding stage. Their 

 content is more ideal, less limited by time and space conditions. The relations 

 ot cause and effect become predominant. Hitherto this relation has been apt to 

 be determined by post hoc ergo propter hoc, but now such relations are seen to be 

 unimportant. He discovers the essential conditions of phenomena by a process of 

 abstraction and diagnosis by exclusion. Why becomes the all important question, 

 as how, what, and where have been important heretofore. The search for the 

 underlying principles of things has now begun. 



The mode oi expression must accordingly b - more ideal than formerly and that 

 is by the use of arbitrary symbols, oral or written. Spoken and written language 

 should now become the thought medium in the final count. It is, in fact, impossible 

 to express the higher ideal relations of the higher mental state by those modes 

 which are sufficient in the lower. An ideal relation may be exemplified by a 

 model, drawing, or diagram, but cannot be fully expressed so. As language 

 is developed there will be less and less need of drawing and modelling, though 

 for purposes of communication it may be necessary to convert the symbolic ex- 

 pression into picture language, or the language of the model, in order to adapt it 



