Suggestions and Course of Study 149 



discrimination between the finer shades of meanings 

 of terms used can hardly be overestimated. It is 

 the final product of a well-ordered mind, and has not 

 only a scientific but also an ethical value. It is well 

 for the teacher in the grades to realize that his pupils 

 are to become men and women, and that even in the 

 sixth, seventh, and eighth grades they are by no means 

 mere babies. 



X. READING. 



Step Ten may be omitted occasionally when classes 

 are so large as to render repetition monotonous. It 

 should not be omitted in the lower grades where intelli- 

 gent reading is one of the principal aims of the work. 

 If the writing is worth while, the reading should be. 

 The intellectual and physical processes involved in 

 writing and in reading are opposites and supplement 

 each other. Thus in writing, the pupil puts his own 

 ideas into symbols, while in reading he converts 

 those same symbols into ideas resembling his original 

 ones. In the latter process he naturally acquires 

 the power of gaining ideas from the printed page. 

 Having previously expressed the same ideas, he should 

 be able to read intelligently from the beginning. 



Supplementary reading in natural history is very 

 interesting to pupils of most grades, and may often 

 be introduced as reading exercises instead of the 

 pupil's own compositions. Then, too, the best com- 

 positions may be preserved, and variety secured, by 

 having them read at the end of a certain division of 

 the subject. 



In the primary grades number work may be intro- 

 duced in connection with the object studied, thus 

 making the object the central thing in all the pupil's 

 school-work. 



