NATURE STUDY IN SCHOOLS. 15 



SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY FOR TEACHERS 



BY 



C. J, Maynard. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



It is a self-evident fact that children have to be taught to think. 

 That is, aside from inherited thought, all the thoughts which children 

 acquire, are derived from some source outside of their own minds. 



Mind may be considered as potential or stored thought, which is 

 the result of active thought. To make this matter, plain, we may say 

 that any decided impression which we receive through any of the 

 senses, causes cellular action in a portion of the brain. By this action 

 the thought becomes fixed, that is, the arrangement of cellular matter 

 thus accomplished becomes permanent. This building up of various 

 cellular tissue s, storing thought, is what we mean by the acquisition 

 of knowledge. 



How is this acquisition accomplished? . 



Beginning with an infant we find that, aside from inherited 

 thought or knowledge, to be spoken of hereafter, a very young child 

 has no knowledge, and does not think. It must be taught to think. 

 At first its eyes pass blankly over all objects, sounds make no im- 

 pression on its brain, neither does it perceive odors; in fact no action 

 of the senses produces any effect upon the brain. 



In order to understand the beginning of the acquisition of know- 

 ledge in infants, it becomes necessary for me to explain what we mean 

 by inherited thought, or instincts, as we term them. Inherited thoughts 

 are the results of certain strong emotions transmitted from parent to 

 child, that is, these transmitted emotions produce effects upon the 

 brain of the infant which are similar to those pictured upon its brain 

 by impressions derived through the senses. This is as true and as 

 readily perceived, as is the inheritance of peculiarities of features, 

 which characterize certain families. When these mental peculiarities 

 are very pronounced, we call them mental traits and tastes, or family- 

 traits of character, or family tastes, and they often may be traced 

 through many generations. All children may not possess strong fam- 

 ily traits, but all do possess certain strong ancestral emotions which 



