474 THE TEACHING OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY 



upper grades thus taught is not merely a duplication of the work of 

 the earlier years, with more details to create work for |)upils ; it be- 

 comes more rich and more full of significance, and the method may 

 be made so different that pupils hardly realize they are covering the 

 same ground. Instead of the circle outside a circle, or concentric 

 method, it may be said that a circle is drawn in the early 3' ears ; that 

 then the circle is turned inside out, like a glove, and that the later 

 work is built around it. 



Furthermore, such a plan allows the human conditions to be em- 

 phasized in the earlier j^ears, when the children are as a rule inter- 

 ested in what people are doing. It should be noted, however, that 

 the}'' are also interested in why people do certain things, which is one 

 of the reasons for leading from consequences out to causes. As soon 

 as we can get a %ohy, there is a logical reason for giving the causes, 

 and our children are thinking ahead and creating a need for more 

 and richer food. Tiiey cannot become parrots or mere absorbing 

 sponges. Children do not ask lohy, however, until they have seen 

 the fact to be explained, which suggests that the study of conse- 

 quences should precede the study of causes in the early years. 



The method briefly suggested as pertinent to the more advanced 

 years, when properly put in operation, demands a use of physical 

 geography that renders it unnecessary to have a special course in 

 physical geography in the earlier high-school years. Many facts 

 must, of course, be omitted that might be included in a first-year 

 high-school course ; but all the necessary physical controls of life 

 may be studied scientifically and thoroughly, and made permanently 

 of value through being applied and used in everyday school work, 

 so that the scientific study of physical geography as such may be 

 deferred until the later years of the secondary schools. Such a plan, 

 furthermore, allows the best ideas of all leading schools of geography 

 teachers to be woven together in such a way as to prevent one-sided- 

 ness, while ensuring good, thought-provoking work tiiat is of practical, 

 ever3nlay value, and, further, that lays the foundation for later, better 

 work. With such a plan, neither the })hysical geographer, the com- 

 mercial geographer, nor the sociologist can rightfull}^ claim that the 

 pertinent facts of his field have been neglected until the children 

 are dulled to their beaut}^ and importance. 



The working out of a course of study so that the attention given 

 physical geography shall gradually be increased in amount and in 

 significance as the years advance is not an easy task. From the 



