Mr. Rose's Address 201 



was to prepare for examination, definition was of 

 the greatest service to the anxious teacher. 



It did not matter that the child who could upon 

 occasion produce lucid definitions to any extent 

 would probably be unable to recognize any of the 

 things he so glibly defined; for he was never called 

 upon in school to deal with realities. 



Those days witnessed the ascendency of those magic 

 science handbooks which were guaranteed to give 

 the docile scholar — by means of a shrewd blend of 

 mnemonic and definition — such a complete examina- 

 tion outfit as would enable him most certainly to earn 

 the specific-subject grant. 



Under such conditions the whole tendency of school- 

 work was too long in the direction of artificiality. 



Children were made to talk and write, often with 

 seeming excellence, upon a variety of subjects which 

 were, in reality, only assemblages of words. 



The grotesque character of such results was better 

 known to the teachers who produced them than to 

 any others; and it was due, more, perhaps, to their 

 denunciations of the system than to any other cause, 

 that more enlightened work became possible. 



Perhaps the first operative attempt to improve was 

 in the teaching of geography, which has now pretty 

 generally become real. 



Clay models of physical features and pictures of 

 actual places bring into the school-room something of 

 reality. 



But better than the clay model is the real hill, with 

 the real spring issuing from it; and so well understood 

 and generally accepted by all teachers is this truism, 

 that only the limitations of courage and convenience 



