6 PREFACE 
for written work later, because the child must have ideas before 
he can write anything at all. But it is just as easy to write a 
clear-cut paragraph or page describing a carrot the day after — 
or better two days after —the lesson as it is on the day of the 
lesson, and this avoids overfatigue and disgust, besides having 
several distinct advantages. 
Oral and written description are a means, not an end, and 
it is easy to overdo the means and lose sight of the end. The 
teacher who sets too great a premium upon the language side 
of nature lessons creates pupils who want to see only in order to 
say, and their cursory and shallow observations dribble away 
at the ends of their tongues without leaving an idea behind. 
The child’s attention must be held to what he can see, not to 
what he can say, if he is to get a clear-cut mental image. 
Another thing a teacher ought scrupulously to avoid is 
letting the child get the notion that he is making new dis- 
coveries except for himself. This thought may stimulate him 
for the moment, but in the long run it is injurious to his intel- 
lectual development. To-day it is almost beyond the bounds of 
human possibility that a child should discover an unknown fact 
in the sciences, and the thought that he can do so will either 
engender in him an arrogant self-conceit, or it will entail a cruel 
awakening which may convince him that all effort on his part 
is useless. The ideal to hold before the young student is the 
desire to see and learn for himself all that others have seen and 
learned before, and then more if he. can. 
Lessons should be conducted with rapid, energetic work on 
the part of both teacher and pupils and with no unnecessary 
questions or conversation. Some things the child can discover 
without help; others he must be guided to see. The aim of 
