who learns geography as a mass of verbal statements mainly, the most of which he does not comprehend and in which he is not interested, is likely to be injured in all his mental processes. He is apt to acquire a verbal rather than a real and dynamic attitude toward his environment; or in other words, his thinking power will not be properly developed.

It has been the purpose thus far to show that the "power of thought" implies the ability to handle Teaching pupils to oneself aright in a new situabecome self-helpful tion. This requires that one should have facility in organizing his past experiences in respect to any situation, and in using them as a search-light to illumine dark places in the road ahead. A thinker is always a person who can see his way through problems which differ in some respects from those he has previously encountered and solved. Such problems would be inscrutable to the non-thinking type of individual, because he has got his set in the direction of abandoning any new problem, or going to others for help in solving it. One sees such persons in every walk of life; and they are comparatively helpless and ineffective. So it seems reasonable to say that the chief aim of the teacher in the teaching of all subjects must be to make his pupils take the initiative in all they do; to become self-helpful. A child can not be made to

think in the concrete situations in actual life, unless he acquires the habit of working his own way through most of the difficulties presented in the class-room.

The following illustration may indicate the way in which many teachers fail to put into effect the An illustration of fail

ure to observe the principle of self-activity

principle of self-activity in teaching. In a certain school a boy in the fourth

grade was recently asked to spell the word "sirloin". He rendered it in this way: "sir lion". The teacher said, "No, that is not right. You must try once more." The boy again spelled it as he did the first time. The teacher then said: "Now, you must discover your own error. You spell it as though it were 'sir lion' (pronouncing it), but it is not 'sir lion' but 'sir loin' (again pronouncing).

You

have learned that when you have the sound of oi (pronouncing) you must use the letters o, i. Now I want you to try the word again. You need not spell 'sir' since you had that right; simply spell 'loin,' remembering what I have just told you." With this aid the boy did spell "loin" correctly. But was he self-active, in a true sense, in this experience? Did not the teacher do the essential thing in leading him to correct his mistake? In order that the boy should have been self-helpful in correcting his error, he

should have been required to pronounce the word slowly, so that he might apprehend the sound of each element thereof. If after this experience he should still have been confused in regard to the last syllable, the teacher should have asked him to pronounce it very slowly so as to separate it phonetically, when he could not have failed to discover his error. The teacher should not have called up any special thing she had taught him. By means of skilful questions she should have led him to analyze the situation before him, so that he might apply to it what he had been taught that would help him to solve his problem. Then he would have been selfhelpful in a real sense, because he would have learned how to assist himself on similar occasions in the future.

During the recitation period in which "sirloin" was being spelled the expression "all right" came Making it unneces- up for attention. One pupil sary for pupils to use spelled it "alright”. The their experiences teacher said, "You are not correct; try it again." This time the boy said "alwrite". Then followed this comment by the teacher: "When you spelled it the first time the last part, 'right', was correct. You should not have changed that, but it was the first part that was wrong. Now try it and spell 'all'." In this way the pupil was led

to spell the word correctly. This case, like the first, shows a lack of skill in training a pupil to be selfhelpful. The teacher should not have told him that "right" was correct until he himself had discovered from an analysis of the word and its meaning that it was so. She should have required him to state what the word to be spelled meant, and then what "write" meant; and this would have led him to see that it was wrong to use this latter form. He was, of course, confused by the identity of the sound of the two words, and he was not really thinking of what the word to be spelled denoted. He was proceeding more or less automatically in response to the sound, which is apt to become a habit with pupils who are depending upon others to assist them in straightening out their errors. If in all their work children could be held to an analysis of what they were attempting to do, so that they might bring to bear on the thing in hand their past experience with similar things in respect alike to meaning and to form, they would acquire a tendency to do this on every new occasion, which would be the greatest safeguard against the making of errors. This is really what the principle of self-activity demands; and the teacher who can utilize it to the greatest degree will certainly achieve the highest success in his work.

Most teachers feel they ought to assign tasks to be done by their pupils at home. It is expected that

Home study by pupils and training in self-helpfulness

parents will render assistance in the performance of these duties. Indeed, teachers often say it would be impossible for their children to accomplish the necessary work of the school without some help in the home. It is a common thing to hear teachers tell their pupils they should get aid from their fathers and mothers; but at the same time they "must do the work themselves". How many teachers appreciate that a large part of the tasks many pupils do at home with the assistance of their parents is largely mechanical? It is probable that not one parent in fifty knows how to guide his children so that they will take the initiative in their study. Observe a father helping his nine-year-old son in arithmetic, let us say. It is required to solve this simple problem: "A boy in going to school walks for fifteen rods along the street on which he lives. Then he turns to the right on a street that runs at right angles, and walks for twenty-five rods. Then he turns to the left on a street that runs at right angles and walks eighteen rods. He goes to school in the morning and in the afternoon, and comes home for his luncheon. How many rods does he walk in going to and from school each day?"