a 
ON GEOGRAPHY TEACHING. 325 
geographical instruction in schools, at least up to and including the stage of the 
First Examination, should not show separate schemes of physical geography. 
The groundwork of the physical basis must be covered during the four years 
course, but the treatment should be incidental and the topics arranged according 
to the needs of the regional studies and the age and ability of the pupils. 
The Stages of School Life. 
The success of any scheme of instruction depends largely upon a scientific 
adjustment of teaching and training to the natural movement of mental develop- 
ment. ‘The total school period may be taken to run from the age of six to the 
age of eighteen. In this period there occurs one life-change of the greatest 
importance—the advent of adolescence. The physical, intellectual, and spiritual 
developments of that critical period constitute the division between primary 
and post-primary education. Adolescence cannot be fixed at any particular date 
or year. It is a period or epoch which appears at different times in different 
children, and therefore for administrative purposes it is necessary to fix upon 
some date. The age of 11+ has been generally adopted as the dividing line 
between the two main periods of school life. It is at this age that the scholar- 
ship holders leave the elementary school for the secondary school. Each of the 
main periods 6 to 114+ and 11+ to 18 may be subdivided for the purposes 
of administration. In the first period occurs the transfer from infants’ school 
or kindergarten to the junior or preparatory school. In the second it is possible 
for education to cease at 14+ for the great majority of the pupils of the elemen- 
tary schools. The majority of the pupils in secondary schools remain until the 
end of the ‘four years’ course,’ which covers the period 11+ to 16, and some 
remain for an ‘advanced course’ followed from 16 to 18. This report is con- 
cerned with secondary schools, and principally concerned with the post-primary 
or secondary period from 11 + onwards, the period of the ‘four years’ course,’ 
and the ‘advanced course,’ but many schools have also pupils belonging to 
the later years of the primary stage. This report is not concerned with pupils 
belonging to the earlier years of that period. 
The School Course. 
The principles which should guide the formation of a syllabus of geo- 
graphical instruction in secondary schcols may be stated briefly. 
I. Tue Later Primary StacE—aces 9 To 11+. 
Pupils of this age will, in most cases, have heard stories of the lives of 
children in typical environments. They will also have been introduced through 
nature study to the simple facts of natural phenomena. They are, however, 
still children, and cannot appreciate instruction of too formal a character. 
They love outdoor activities, they are full of imagination and adventure, and 
they revel in the wonderful things of the world in which they live. It is then 
the period for a wide basis of instruction, for the déepening of impressions of the 
homeland and of lands and peoples far away, and for an abundance of work 
having the concreteness and freshness of open-air experience. It is the period in 
which are laid the foundations upon which a consciousness of imperial and 
world citizenship may later be built. 
The Secondary Period. 
II. Tue ‘Four Years’ Course ’—aces 11+ ro 16. 
This stage covers the main part of the secondary school, and includes 
the most important of the years of adolescence. It is a common mistake to 
make the work of the earlier years too formal and bookish, thus neglecting 
the fact that young people passing through the years of early or pre-adolescence 
show, though on a higher level, many of the characteristics usually associated 
with children, e.g. the love of make-believe. Thus while the work gradually 
becomes more formal in character and the pupils are trained to rely more and 
