The Sand-Board. 141 



teresting phenomena is going on, the child is being trained in 

 some of the simpler steps of the study of position. He comes 

 by this means into the possession of a vocabulary that is neces- 

 sary for future use in the study of geography. He learns many 

 terms used in showing the relative positions of objects, as ud, 

 down, above, beloiv, farther, nearer, beyond, this side, that side. He 

 studies the dimensions of definite areas, as the teacher's desk, 

 the school-room in which he works. He learns to represent 

 things on paper with the pencil, and, placing articles in various 

 positions on the desk, he learns to represent them, not in per- 

 spective, but as objects on a flat surface. Thus he is led from 

 the things to the symbols of things, and thus does he gain 

 power to see things in symbols. The school block or the park 

 in front of the school or in some other part of the city is viewed, 

 examined and talked about. It must be remembered that the 

 talking about this block at this early stage of the work is most 

 essential. By repeated viewing, repeated examinations and re- 

 peated conversations, representing in oral symbols what has 

 been seen and the relations of the things that have been seen, 

 the mind is caused to grow continuouily and with a truly geo- 

 graphic bent. 



An intermediate step is now thrown in, that is, a new symbol 

 is introduced — a symbol between the oral symbol and that of 

 the map,— representation by the sand-board. The block or lot 

 or other portion of ground viewed and examined is represented 

 on the sand-board in miniature in plastic material. This is 

 most profitable work in the development of judgment. Having 

 thus made a miniature block or park on the sand-board in the 

 school-room, the child is led to represent the same on paper with 

 the pencil, and is led to invent the mechanical means by which 

 the elevations and depressions may be represented, giving fur- 

 ther and valuable cultivation to the productive imagination on 

 determinative lines. 



Next comes effort to read corresponding, correct maps of parts 

 of the city, as blocks or parks, which work at first must be very 

 simple. The measurable product of such reading is the con- 

 versation of the child in oral description, and also the repre- 

 sentation of what he sees on a little sand-board at his desk in 

 plastic material. The product of such work of greatest value 

 Avhich is not measurable is the growth of the child's mind in 

 learning to reacl facts from symbols, for the world of geography, 



