115 



ing of the United States in general, it must never be forgotten 

 that tliere is a distance of nearly half a centurj^ between the 

 countr}^ school, properly so-called, and the town or city school. 



One of the happiest symptoms that strike the attention at the 

 slightest examination is that geographical study now almost 

 always begins where it ought to begin — hy making the child 

 acquainted with the neighborhood^ hy a plan of the class room^ the 

 school-house^ the street^ the village ; in a word, a knowledge of the 

 points of the compass, not merely on the map and as a matter 

 of definition, but in nature, in a given locality. This very fact 

 is an indication justifying the belief that geographical reform 

 has penetrated deeply into educational practice, for it is gener- 

 ally by such beginnings that this reform ends. It is more 

 difficult to bring about a rectification in the manner of teaching 

 these rudiments than it is to perfect subsequent instruction. 

 And that this progress has been made in the United States is 

 manifest in every way, — by the text-books, the courses of study, 

 and the numberless specimens of work done by the scholars. 

 The strong point in all this new geographical training is that it 

 is really a series of object lessons, that it begins with the child's 

 own stock of knowledge instead of overwhelming him with 

 abstractions and definitions. ' 



Without overlooking the progress already made, we received 

 the general impression that the new methods have not yet pen- 

 etrated into the heart of primary teaching ; they are known 

 and applied sometimes in an admirable manner in the larger 

 cities and in elite schools, but they are still unknown in most 

 country schools, and between these two extremes are thou- 

 sands of schools which as yet have hardly begun to feel the 

 influence of the new ideas, and thousands that have the letter 

 without the spirit thereof. The following features of Ameri- 

 can geographical teaching are recommended as w^orthy of imi- 

 tation : — 



I. To hegin with the synthetic method^ which^ starting luith local 

 ; geography^ progressively enlarges the horizon of siudy^ hut not to 



, ■ dwell too long on local geography ; to give pupils notions of general 

 geography and cosmography as soon as they are ahle to receive them. 



II. To practice pupils early in map drawing from memory and 

 in reproducing on the hlachhoards the proximate forms of countries. 



