CHAPTER VI 



CORRELATION 



'Twould be endless to tell you the things that he knew. 

 All separate facts, undeniably true, 

 But with him or each other they'd nothing to do, 

 No power of combining, arranging, discerning. 

 Digested the masses he learned into learning. 



— Fable for Critics, Lowell. 



A FACT in history may be studied in an isolated way. 

 But when the student sees how it is related to others, 

 how it had important historical bearings and consequences, 

 then it is better understood than when simply studied by 

 itself. The study of a fact in association with other facts 

 leads to a better knowledge of the fact itself and to the dis- 

 covery of a wider truth. The more associations we can 

 connect with a fact to be acquired, the better it will be 

 fixed in the memory. This may be done by looking at it 

 from different points of view, or approaching it along differ- 

 ent lines of thought. For example, coal may be studied in 

 the nature lesson as to formation and composition. If the 

 State of Pennsylvania were studied at the same time, it would 

 greatly enhance the nature lesson if the coal mines and the 

 coal industry of that state were also studied. On the other 

 hand, the geography lesson would not lose anything in in- 

 terest or effectiveness because of the nature lesson on coal. 



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