!?24 liEPORT— 1903. 



df the whole globe, especially outside Europe. It might include more accurate 

 astronomical ideas {cf. Stage 1), for which the pupils would have become fitted by 

 reason of their mathematical studies ; also the leading facts conditioning plant- 

 lii'e. Both of these contributions would be pertinent to the treatment of climates- 

 The history of discovery (cf. Stage 1) would be utilised in explaining the 

 chief place-names. The pupils would by this time have accumulated a consider- 

 able background of knowledge which would be appealed to. The increasing 

 wealth and variety of the data would necessitate firm grip on principles and a 

 logical method. Therefore a specialist teacher would be advisable in order to 

 obtain mental discipline, just as a classical sixth form requires a composition 

 master. 



Stage 6 (university and college). — Here we should naturally find both 

 deeper intension and wider extension. By the adoption in part of the general 

 classification — i.e., by the study of the distribution of particular types of pheno- 

 mena — the student would become critical and be prepared for original research. 

 On the other hand, by the complementary eftbrt to construct an harmonious 

 regional geography out of a great series of varied data he would be inspired with 

 a broad and philosophical outlook. 



Nowhere is the contrast between the general and the regional method more 

 conspicuous than in the treatment of the wind system. The temptation is great 

 to commence deductively from an imaginary landless globe. But this is essen- 

 tially unsound because it implants wrong and unscientific habits of thought. 

 The trade winds, for instance, should first be learnt of and realised fw a great fact 

 in the description of the North Atlantic, the complementary wind being added in 

 tht description of the South Atlantic. The double system would then be found 

 again in the Pacific and a generalisation demanded by the pupil which would 

 presently be limited by the facts of the Indian Ocean. The Sahara Desert would 

 carry the generalisation a step further and into apparently different phenomena. 

 Only in the end would deduction from ideal zones or belts of climate be per- 

 mitted by way of mental stocktaking. 



The criticism of the practical teacher for such a scheme as is here outlined 

 would probably be grounded on limitations of time. It is submitted that with 

 the pupils in geographical sets, specialist teachers, and agreement as to examina- 

 tion bases, very much might be accomplished even with the hours now usually 

 available. xVt the risk, however, of appearing visionary it is further submitted 

 that those hours should be extended on the ground that geography is one of 

 six elements needed in any liberal as opposed to technical education. These 

 elements are : — 



(1) Language, with reading and writing as its implements^ and the mother, 

 the foreign, and the dead tongues as its varieties. 



(2) Mathematics, or training in abstract thought. 



(3) Experimental science, or training in thought about concrete things, 



(4) History, or outlook through the time covered by human records. 



(5) Geography, or outlook through the space accessible to men. 



(6) Religion and philosophy. 



It is submitted that the inclusion of these six elements in a general education is 

 more essential than the study of several varieties of any one, e.y., several languages 

 or several sciences. 



Apart, however, from any such theoretical argument, it is claimed that 

 geographical teaching, if it deals with real conceptions and not merely names, 

 trains in the mind a distinct power, that of thinking in terms of the' map, of 

 visualising intricate correlations, of ordering complex masses of fact — a power of 

 the utmost value in the practical affairs of after-life. Geography rightly taught 

 should tend to correct the academic bias of linguistic and mathematical study, 

 the specialist bias of scientific study, and the archaic or sentimental bias of 

 historical study. Its danger lies obviously in superficial knowledge and uncritical 

 thought. Taught in the past too uften by those who knew little of it, geography 

 lias no doubt deserved its inferior position among educational disciplines^ 



