SIGHT-SEEING IN SCHOOL 



497 



All these wonders can now become a 

 part of every child's life through pictures. 



FOR THE OLDER BOYS AND GIRLS 



But it is among the older boys and 

 girls that the picture comes into its own. 

 When the boisterous, noisy boy begins to 

 be thoughtful, and the romping girl to 

 appreciate and love the beautiful for its 

 own sake, then the picture acquires a 

 newer and deeper meaning. To the 

 teaching of such practical things as the 

 uses of water-power and the laws of va- 

 por formation must be added the poetry 

 of cloudland. Shelley's poem is a delight 

 when illustrated by pictures : 



"I sift the snow on the mountains below, 

 And their great pines groan aghast; 

 And all the night 'tis my pillow white, 

 While I sleep in the arms of the blast." 



How much more of meaning is added 

 to the words when the children see the 

 "rent in the wind-built tent," and the 

 "calm river, lakes, and seas." 



As Browning so aptly puts it, 



"We're made so that we love 

 First when we see them painted, things we 



have passed 

 Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see." 



So the picture, — giving, as it does, one 

 definite, interesting idea, and shutting out 

 all the distracting details, which always 

 wait just outside a real landscape — shows 

 to the student exactly the best. To the 

 many children who have not been taught 

 to see, as well as to the myriads who can 

 never travel to the snow-clad peaks, the 

 pictures bring world treasures. 



THE BEST GIFT OF THE PICTURES 



Realizing all that tlae introduction of 

 pictures has meant in taking the horror 

 from the definition, in bringing the map 

 to life, in showing, as in a magic mirror, 

 all the industries of our earth, we finally 

 come to the best gift that pictures bring 

 to the school — the friendly feeling toward 

 all mankind which the children can get in 

 no other way. 



Our boys and girls can now know that 

 children in every land, though wearing 

 different kinds of clothing and eating 

 strange food, like themselves work and 

 play — often at the same games — listen 

 eagerly to almost the same stories, and, 



best of all, enjoy a joke just as they do. 

 Our boys and girls need no longer feel : 



"Little Turk or Japanee, 

 O! don't you wish that you were me? 



"You have curious things to eat, 

 I am fed on proper meat; 

 You must dwell beyond the foam, 

 But I am safe and live at home." 



The pictures make them want to taste 

 the "curious things to eat," anxious to 

 climb the coconut trees of the tropics, 

 and to explore the far-distant Antarctic. 

 Though the pictures of our own America 

 make their hearts beat high with pride 

 of country, they do not feel that they, 

 as American boys, are different from 

 French or Russian or Australian. They 

 feel that they are a part of a great world 

 family. 



PROMOTING WORLD PEACE THROUGH 

 GEOGRAPHY 



Such a feeling of friendliness is abso- 

 lutely necessary among our children if 

 we are to lay a broad foundation for fu- 

 ture world unity. Permanent world peace 

 can only be promoted through a sympa- 

 thetic understanding of world peoples. 



If we are to stand shoulder to shoulder 

 with a new Russia ; if we are to succor a 

 war-torn Europe in its recovery; if we 

 are to help an awakened Asia to full 

 realization of the joy of citizenship; if 

 we are to cement our friendship with 

 South America — to take, in short, our 

 place as the great teacher of democracy 

 to all the world — our boys and girls must 

 acquire a wide acquaintance with world 

 peoples, which is the only possible foun- 

 dation for true appreciation and friendli- 

 ness. 



And to the National Geographic So- 

 ciety has been given the opportunity of 

 leading our schools into the sane, happy, 

 efficient picture way of teaching. Liter- 

 ally hundreds • of thousands of school 

 children look eagerly for the National 

 Geographic Magazine each month. 

 Through its wealth of illustrations it 

 brings the whole world within the hori- 

 zon of every child in all the vast school 

 army. 



A recent striking illustration of how 

 thoroughly National Geographic pic- 

 tures, the universal language, have be- 

 come a part of many varied educational 



