If dramatization could be based more largely on the scenes and incidents of daily life idealized; if the purpose, motive, movement could be drawn from such instead of being based so largely on the expression of others, there would be a stronger stimulus for the imagination and less of a stimulus for the fancy.

I am in full accord with the speaker in the thought that the spirit of dramatization may well enter the Sunday school. If the Sunday school is to become organic with the life of the child; if it is to be really forceful, effective, inspiring, it must bring the spirit of Sunday to the spirit of the child instead of continuing to force the adult conception of Sunday and of religious influences upon the spirit of the child, regardless.

The story and the poem.-The story and the poem are vital factors in determining what the language and the expression will be. The quality of the thinking will determine the quality of the language and the quality of the expression will be determined by the intensity of the feeling. The child will feel and think and express in direct ratio to the intensity of the cause of his feeling and thinking and expressing.

The child learns language by hearing language long before he enters upon the formal study of language for its own sake. Indeed when one contemplates the rapidity with which a child acquires his vocabulary and masters its use before he begins his formal study and also contemplates his snail-like pace after he begins one feels justified in inferring that when he begins he quits!

The story and the poem owe their vitality to the fact that they couch themselves in more elegant diction than do the facts of ordinary conversation. In them the art of expression is at its best. Here the learner finds no weak modifiers, no slovenly verbs. All are clear, concise, definite, elegant. The learner who really lives in and loves the story and the poem is idealized by them. He lives intensely. His language becomes tense, terse, clear-cut, elegant. He unconsciously uses the fitting word and phrase to designate the situation in which he finds himself, thus the fitting word and phrase, the well-chosen modifier and forcible verb become part of the warp and woof of his speech.

However important they are as factors in the process, we must not lose sight of the fact that the story and the poem are expressions of ideas, the means by which objective reality is given to ideas. There is need for the teacher to look back of the expression to the idea which gave it birth and being. There is need to seek to know what gave rise to the story, the poem, the fact from which they took their tone, color, meaning. The child must be led from the expression of the ideas of others to the expression of the ideas of the world that around him lies.

In conclusion I cannot refrain from making a general statement in terms of the various phases of this most important subject. The value of any factor that makes for vigorous feeling, thinking, expressing, lies in the quality of the feeling and thinking, the value of the thing expressed. What does it avail any or all to have the power to think and feel and express unless the thinking is worthy, the expression commendable; unless the thought is noble, unless into the construction there enters something of permanent and intrinsic worth?

When the story, the poem, dramatization, handwork, and every phase and form of school life shall operate and co-operate to make children realize that beauty is more than ugliness; that goodness is more than evil; that truth is more than error; that right and justice are more than wrong and injustice, every child will come into possession of himself; he will square himself with truth, with goodness, with beauty, with right and justice, with high thinking all worthily expressed thru right living; then will all manners and means that make for thoughts to express and the expression of thoughts justify themselves; then will the work of the teacher take on new dignity and worth; then will school seek to find and to make the most of the individual instead of seeking to suppress the individual, to make him one with the crowd.

J. F. REIGART, Public School No. 2, New York City, gave an account of effective work in dramatizing in a foreign school on the East Side in New York City.

L. E. WOLFE, superintendent of schools, San Antonio, Texas-Mr. Suzzallo, Miss Davis, and Mr. Blaisdell, have, in their papers and discussions, given us a contribution of the highest value on teaching oral reading and language. But the practical question that will present itself to most of us is how shall our teachers be trained to do this work efficiently. Upon this point may I detail what we have done in San Antonio. For several years we have held a school of methods during the first two weeks in June. We have secured the best practical educators to be found in the country. Dr. Charles A. McMurry was with us two summers on the correlation of history and geography. Miss Georgia Alexander of Indianapolis gave us some excellent work in composition. Richard Wyche not only gave the teachers instruction in story-telling, but told stories in all our schools to the pupils.

It seems to me that there is great danger of loss of time in introducing new and improved things unless a systematic effort is made to prepare the teachers efficiently to handle the improved subject-matter and method. Certain principals have been selected to make a careful study of each branch for the respective grades in order that our teachers may get the best work in their monthly institutes and grade meetings.

In answer to a question, DR. SUZZALLO spoke upon the fairy story as giving play to the fancy which precedes the period of constructive imagination and as an antidote to pirate and Indian stories.

GEOGRAPHY IN THE LIFE OF THE PUPIL

JAMES FRANKLIN CHAMBERLAIN, DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, LOS ANGELES, CAL.

That our schools do not prepare those who attend them for the opportunities, the responsibilities, the problems of adult life is a statement frequently heard. If this charge be true, then our schools are failing to perform their essential function, for the great aim of education is to prepare for life in the highest sense. Its purpose is so to surround each child by the best influences and conditions, so to direct its physical, mental, and moral growth, that it shall, as a present and future member of society, live the highest life, of which it is capable.

No one will question the statement that pupils should study those phases of human knowledge and human activity which will, in later years, enable them to be of the greatest service to themselves and to humanity. In fact, it may be said that the public school has no right to teach anything else. That these subjects should be so presented as to enter into the life interests of the learners is evident. Neither of these conditions is fully realized in practice, and hence the schools are not doing their full duty in training pupils for their lifework.

Geography, as one of the fundamental subjects in the elementary school, should receive, as it has been receiving during recent years, the most careful consideration. Both subject-matter and methods of presentation are being examined in order to secure more valuable results.

Until quite recently a knowledge of geography was not regarded as an essential part of one's education. Indeed, it seems that it is not generally so regarded today, for our high-school and college graduates know much more of Latin, French, and German than of geography. For the former, the average citizen

has comparatively little use, while a knowledge of the latter is constantly demanded in conversation, reading, travel, and business.

The study of geography can and should make our pupils closer observers, clearer thinkers, better reasoners. It should furnish them with information which will be helpful in almost any occupation. It should make them broad and sympathetic in their views. It should remove superstition. It should make traveling, reading, and conversation more pleasurable and more profitable.

In spite of this, and in spite of the fact that geography treats of those things in which both children and adults are deeply interested, and with which they are vitally concerned, the subject is said to be poorly taught. It is said that as a rule it is dry and uninteresting to pupils. It is not long since Dr. Hall characterized it as the "sick man of the curriculum." That there is some force in these criticisms every teacher realizes. I wish to point out a few fundamental weaknesses in our work, and to suggest a few improvements.

The failure of geography to enter fully into the lives of the pupils in the elementary school is not a matter of failing to provide for instruction in the subject, but is rather a matter of unwise selection and presentation of subject

matter.

Altho geography has made a remarkable advance during the last two decades it is still too largely a memory subject. Mere exercise of the memory is not necessarily interesting or educative. Unless geography is training our pupils to put together the links in the chain of cause and consequence it is being poorly taught. More important than this is the fact that it is not developing the habit of reasoning without which our pupils will, as adults, be drifted by the currents of popular opinion, now this way and now that.

The great problem in geography is how to make the subject enter into the conscious experience of the child, for only as it is to him a living reality, as it interests him, appeals to him, and influences his life in ways which are to him apparent will he enter consciously and purposefully into its study. The subject must do more than offer information thru the medium of the printed page; it should encourage the pupil to experience geography, and to contribute these experiences. Such opportunity as geography offers for the exercise of the constructive faculty should be used to the fullest extent. This can be carried out in the making of maps, charts, sketches, graphs, and models of various kinds. Where these conditions are not realized the results must always be meager, superficial, unsatisfactory.

The textbook still holds, and must always hold, an important place in the study of geography. The weaknesses of the book are therefore likely to be reflected in the work of pupil and teacher.

Our geographies are too incomplete. The material is too fragmentary, too statistical. This is a necessary condition where the plan of treating all or a large part of the world in one book is followed. If each book dealt with the work of a single grade the topics taken up could be more fully and more

interestingly presented. This would also make possible a larger number of maps and illustrations.

In order to make good this deficiency in the text supplementary readers should be very freely used. These bring out the human side of geography, which always appeals to children. It is a mistake to use these books simply as readers. The topics should be fully discussed by the pupils and maps employed whenever they would be of service.

Under present conditions the questions in the text constitute an important factor in the work of the pupil. His preparation for the recitation is in large measure based upon these questions, and therefore very much depends upon their character. As a matter of fact the majority of the questions ignore the casual notion. Their study is dry and deadening to the pupil. In our very best texts about one-half of the questions tend to create thought.

Questions pertaining to position, dimensions, area, population are legitimate, and many such should be asked, but they should not dominate the work. The function of questioning is to develop thought, not simply to secure answers. We can increase the interest in and the value of the work by supplying questions. of the right sort.

The following, which are simply suggestive, indicate how this might be applied to the British Isles:

Using your map, find the latitude of the British Isles. Compare this with the latitude of your state, and with that of Labrador. Using the scale, find the length and the average width of Great Britain. Compare with the dimensions of your state. What is the nature of the coast line? Is such a coast line an advantage or a disadvantage? Make a list of the seaports. Make a list of those on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Has the English Channel helped or hindered the development of the British Isles? Give reason for your answer. What part of the British Isles is best watered? Explain. If the mountains extended east and west how would they influence rainfall? Examine an isothermal chart of the British Isles and compare the temperatures with those in New England. Account for the difference. Is there snow in London during the winter? Do people sleigh-ride? Do they skate? Compare with winter conditions in Boston.

What part of England is best adapted to agriculture? Comparing the population with the area, do you think that England's agricultural products supply her demand? If not, where might she purchase wheat, flour, cotton, sugar, fruit, etc.?

Locate the coal and iron producing sections. Locate the manufacturing areas. How are the two related? What is the meaning of the expression, "Carrying coals to Newcastle ?" What advantages has Great Britain for shipping her manufactured products? What articles have you seen that were made in the British Isles? Why do people come to America from the British Isles? Why do people go from the United States to that country?

These questions are by no means exhaustive. Similar lists pertaining to other areas can be worked up and placed upon the board to be used by the pupils during the periods devoted to the study of geography.

Special investigation, as well as the experience of the teacher, has shown that the geographical interests of children center in peoples, products, and industries. Hence work involving these topics should be made the basis of introductory geography, and should receive attention thruout the grades.

Our texts give very scanty attention to the industrial and social phases of geography as constituting the basis of the subject. One of the best devotes 107 pages to home geography and of this number the first 79 pages treat of rivers, plains, mountains, the ocean, the air, etc. The remaining 28 pages, or about 25 per cent. of the whole, deal with the human side. Another recent text devotes 45 pages to home geography, 17 of which, or about 40 per cent., treat of the industrial and the social. In other texts introductory geography is almost entirely physical and astronomical.

The child has a more active interest in a snow-white cotton field, in the picking and the ginning of the crop, in its transportation to the mills and its transformation into wearing-apparel, than he has in the conditions of soil, temperature, and moisture, which make the crop possible. Not only this but he sees a closer connection between the industrial and social conditions and himself, than he does between the physical and his individual life.

The story of the necessities of life runs back and forth on bands of steel or over ocean wave, connecting the most distant lands and peoples with the community, with the pupil himself. This is home geography in the largest sense, for the home cannot be understood unless its relation to remote areas is seen. The people of a community and of the world are held together by the chains of mutual industrial, and social interdependence, slowly forged thru centuries of development in the habits and demands of daily life.

This study of the industrial and social does not ignore the facts of surface, climate, and location. These are of necessity taken up and given more meaning than they would otherwise have.

Among the lessons taught by this phase of geography is the great truth that physical labor is absolutely necessary and honorable. If the pupil sits beside a cheery coal fire while the snow is drifting out of doors, it is because deep beneath the earth's surface men with hands and faces blackened by contact with coal, with bodies weary from labor, toil day after day altho constantly exposed to the most terrible dangers. This general truth of the necessity for co-operation and the dignity of labor is presented in different forms as each industry is studied.

While geography deals with the realities of life-human beings, streams, forests, mountains, mines-these are for the most part studied through the use of symbols. Here we have another reason for the difficulty experienced in placing geography among the life interests of the child. The great value of the excursion is now generally recognized, altho it is still much more largely a matter of theory than of practice. Nothing else can give such life and value to geography. With the great inspiring picture spread out before us; the wonderful works of nature, and the marvelous works of man, we ask the pupil to step in doors, and read about these things.

That practical difficulties confront us when we attempt to do field-work is well known, yet if all teachers, school authorities, and parents realized fully the importance of this method of study, these obstacles would, in large measure, be removed. The taking of an occasional half-day or entire day for excursions.