CHILDREN OF MY TRAIL SCHOOL 177 



large, day by day, of statements which have no 

 foundation and of arguments the premises of which 

 are not facts or events, but only hopes and guesses. 



"In most American schools there has been a 

 lack of systematic training of the senses . . . 

 to record, remember, and describe accurately ob- 

 servations made by his own senses. Little system- 

 atic training has been given day by day in the 

 processes of determining facts and weighing evi- 

 dence. . . . Worst of all, most American 

 schools have neglected to enlist and cultivate as- 

 siduously the interest of each pupil in his daily 

 work, in spite of the obvious fact that no human 

 being — child, adolescent, or adult — can do his best 

 work unless he is taking an interest in that work. 



"Remedies are the substitution of teaching by 

 observation and experiment for much of the book 

 work now almost exclusively relied on; the cultiva- 

 tion in the pupils of activity of body and mind 

 during all school time — an activity which finds 

 delight in the exercise of the senses and of the 

 powers of expression in speech and writing; the 

 insistence on the acquisition of personal skill of 

 some sort; the stimulation in every pupil of interest 

 in his work by making the object of it intelligible 

 to him." 



The Trail School methods appear to have de- 

 veloped the constant habit of accurate observa- 

 tion; of learning to see; looking with eager, inter- 

 ested eyes and seeing things as they are. Of an 



