THE RATIONAL ELEMENT IN GEOGRAPHY 



471 



trated than one who trusts to observation without explanation. 

 Sharp-eyed as the student may be, his outer sight is greatly 

 aided by his insight. Actively as he may traverse his field of 

 work, his path will be determined only by a patient endeavor 

 to see everything, unless it is guided by a well-planned search 

 for critical points. Accurate as his notes may be, they run the 

 danger of being abundant rather than intelligible, if they are 

 empirical without being explanatory. And yet, with all the 

 advantages that come from successful explanation, the conserv- 

 ative teacher may still hesitate to advocate this method of de- 

 scription because of its inherent dangers. How, then, can its 

 dangers be reduced to so moderate a measure that they ma}' be 



DIAGRAM OF WIDENED CANYON 



From Davis and Snyder's Physical Geography, by courtesy of Messrs Gina & Co. 



set aside as of much less import than its advantages? This 

 question opens the whole subject of reform in the teaching of 

 geography. 



A reasonable safety in explanatory description can be attained 

 by well-taught students who are first practised on empirical 

 description in their elementary work, and who are gradually 

 and systematically led forward to an explanatory description 

 based on a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of 

 land forms. They must be under the direction of teachers who 

 have had experience enough in field work to recognize if not to 

 discover the geographical evolution of the home district. Field 

 work must be an essential part of instruction in all grades of 

 study, and an equally essential part must be a general scheme 

 of geographical classification to which the student is gradually 

 introduced and through which he may come to appreciate the 



