THE TEACHING OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 473 



all}' and S3'stematically that need is developed for a fact or a principle 

 before it is presented. Children should be led and not driven to the 

 study of geographic controls. To follow such a progressive plan 

 means in the early 3'ears a different method of stud}' from that in the 

 later 3'ears, when the children can work longer at a given task with- 

 out variations, and when they can think more logicall}' and consecu- 

 tively. Whatever is done at any stage should be done in such a wa}" 

 tliat causes and consequences are necessarily related, though it is wise 

 to remember that the consequences that deserve emphasis are not 

 always the ph^^sical, but more often the human consequences follow- 

 ing certain ])hysical causes. In the earlier years pupils may study the 

 consequences and gradually be led to see the fundamental causes of 

 topograph}^, climate, drainage, etc., that exercise a control over life. 

 Such a plan rightfully followed should give good, jn'actical mental 

 training, should keep uppermost the human phases of the subject, 

 and throughout a need ma}^ be created in the children's minds for a 

 more thorough study of the causes in later stages. 



Such a study of the }»hysical facts in a somewhat extensive manner 

 naturall}'- follows, and in turn the elements of ph)^sical geography 

 should be followed by a more full and careful study of the conse- 

 quences of the present and past time, that can only be really appre- 

 ciated as they are seen in the light of their environment. We might 

 ex])ress it in some such way as this: that in the early years the chil- 

 dren should be led to see some causal arrangement in the apparent 

 chaos of physical, industrial, and social conditions with which they 

 are always surrounded, thereb}^ laying the foundations and the need 

 for the study of ])ure science — the causes. After the causes have been 

 elaborated as fully as time and the needs of the pupils allow, the 

 pure science (physical controls) should be made the basis of work, 

 so that the ap])lied science (history, civics, and social conditions) may 

 be taught understandingly. 



It is not intended to imply here that present social conditions are 

 entirely due to the physical environment, but that the physical en- 

 vironment should be given the emphasis due it in each case; that 

 where physical controls are important, for instance, in determining a 

 l)0undary, they be noted, and when politics liave fixed a frontier, that 

 the failure to follow tlie natural l^oundary Ijc also noted and accounted 

 for. 



One advantage of such an inversion of tlie plan of procedure is the 

 variation in method of study as the years go on. Geography in the 



