ii HI! 
 
LEARNING BY DOING 
 
LEARNING BY 
 DOING 
 
 By 
 EDGAR JAMES SWIFT 
 
 Professor of Psychology and Education in Washington University, St. Loui* 
 Author of "Mind in the Making" and "Youth and the Race" 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY M. V. O'SHEA 
 
 Professor of Education, The University of Wisconsin 
 Editor Childhood and Youth Series 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
COPYRIGHT 1914 ^ \ 
 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 BRAUNWORTH & CO. 
 
 BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 
 
 BROOKLYN, N. Y* 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 The chief business of the child and of the youth 
 in American life to-day is to master some portion 
 of the knowledge and the skill which our ancestors 
 have found of service in their experiences in the art 
 of living ; and it follows that the chief problems of 
 the parent and the teacher have to do with helping 
 the young to acquire this knowledge and skill in an 
 economical and effective manner. No one in our 
 time, who is at all familiar with the matter, can 
 doubt that both the child and his instructor, whether 
 he be parent or teacher, have to deal with a very 
 complicated situation in the present-day home and 
 school. There is a constantly increasing body of 
 material to be learned, and the period for learning 
 it is not being extended, so that it is becoming ever 
 more imperative for those who instruct the young 
 to adopt methods of procedure which will enable the 
 novice to master what he must learn without waste 
 of time or energy. This is, of course, an ideal 
 which has not yet been attained in any of our edu- 
 cational work, as every student of education and 
 every intelligent parent and teacher knows very 
 well. But we are certainly making progress. We 
 are discovering from time to time how to guide the 
 child so that he will appropriate the more readily 
 and competently what we believe we ought to teach 
 him. Doubtless most of those who will read these 
 lines have witnessed marked changes in the teach- 
 ing of practically every subject in the curriculum of 
 the elementary and the high school; and probably 
 these changes have all been in the direction of at- 
 taining greater economy and efficiency in educa- 
 tional work. 
 
 418774 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 But the end is not yet ; it is probable, indeed, that 
 the principal work of improvement in teaching proc- 
 esses is still ahead of us. Surely there has never 
 been a time, in any age or place, when educational 
 curricula and methods have been studied by such 
 precise methods as are being employed right now, 
 both at home and abroad. It is becoming clearer 
 every day that the whole business of teaching is so 
 complex that the practical teacher can not solve the 
 problems of the schoolroom, because his time and 
 energy must be expended in doing the best he can 
 according to the prevailing and generally accepted 
 views of instruction. The practitioner needs the 
 assistance of the investigator, who will delve deeply 
 into one or another of the problems arising out of 
 the necessity of leading the young to master a great 
 many things in such a way that they can make use 
 of them in bettering their adjustment to the world 
 of people and of things environing them. 
 
 For a number of years Professor Edgar James 
 Swift has been conducting experiments for the pur- 
 pose of gaining some accurate data pertaining to 
 the more subtle phases of the processes of acquiring 
 certain kinds of knowledge, and mastering certain 
 manual activities. In this work he has had a prac- 
 tical end in view, so that his researches have related 
 more or less directly to the problems which the 
 teacher encounters in giving her pupils instruction 
 in any school subject. As a result of his investiga- 
 tions, Professor Swift has apparently shown that a 
 pupil does not pursue a regular, unbroken and uni- 
 form course in the mastery of any study, but in- 
 stead he seems to proceed rapidly at one period of 
 his learning, and slowly or not at all at another 
 period. In the present volume, Professor Swift 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 describes his own experiments and those of other 
 investigators, and he points out how the results of 
 these inquiries may explain some of the phenomena 
 of the class room that are often perplexing to the 
 teacher. He also makes suggestions respecting the 
 teaching of the various school studies which should 
 be of assistance to all who instruct the young, in 
 enabling them particularly to help pupils over the 
 periods of retardation in their learning, the "pla- 
 teau periods," as they are coming to be styled in 
 present-day psychological literature. 
 
 Professor Swift's book is wholly constructive. 
 It is also appreciative. He gives evidence in every 
 chapter of his volume that he is aware of the dif- 
 ficulties under which the parent and teacher work, 
 and his purpose is, first, to assist them to under- 
 stand the child whom they must instruct, in respect 
 to certain of his interests and tendencies and intel- 
 lectual traits, and, second, to show what relation 
 the learner must assume toward the things he is 
 required to learn in order that he may gain them 
 with as little resistance and as great efficiency as 
 possible. All the matters treated are presented in a 
 simple and direct, but lively style, and in non- 
 technical language; and it may be hoped that the 
 book will find its way into the hands of many par- 
 ents and teachers, who can hardly fail to be inter- 
 ested in and profited by reading it. 
 
 M. V. O'SHEA. 
 
 Madison, Wisconsin. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The industrial and commercial changes which 
 have followed one another in rapid succession dur- 
 ing the last three or four decades have brought in 
 their wake new educational problems. As a direct 
 outgrowth of these changes comes the insistent de- 
 mand for a reorganization of our public schools 
 that they may better fit children to meet the new 
 conditions. 
 
 Superintendents and boards of education have 
 tried to satisfy the new requirements by enlarging 
 the curriculum and, in some cases, by introducing 
 vocational guidance and training. The writer is in 
 hearty agreement with the spirit of these changes, 
 but he also believes that the manner of conducting 
 the work of the school may be improved, and it is 
 with this question, together with progress and econ- 
 omy in learning, that the present book is chiefly con- 
 cerned. Why should the school program be sepa- 
 rated into the subjects which the children learn by 
 doing and those which they learn from the teacher's 
 instruction and from books? Why could not both 
 methods be combined? The writer is of the opin- 
 ion that the principle of "learning by doing" is 
 applicable to all the studies of the school and that it 
 should cease to be merely an attachment to school 
 methods, to be used in certain subjects, such as man- 
 ual training, and in a few others on "laboratory 
 days." The instruction from teacher and books 
 should accompany or follow the achievements of the 
 pupils in the things they are trying to do. In this 
 way instruction assumes its proper role, that of 
 putting meaning into the work in which the pupils 
 
PREFACE 
 
 are Engaged, ancl of making it more intelligible. 
 The writer has tried to show by illustrations of or- 
 ganized group-work how this may be done. 
 
 Another consequence of the new industrial era is 
 the attempt to shorten the educational period pre- 
 ceding self-support. This early entrance into indus- 
 try is likely to end by depriving children of much 
 of their childhood, and the question is therefore 
 pertinent whether the two aims to conserve child- 
 hood and to prepare for the serious problems of 
 adult life may not be combined in an educational 
 program that preserves the advantage of each. 
 
 The writer gratefully acknowledges his indebted- 
 ness to Miss Caroline G. Soule, of Brookline, Mas- 
 sachusetts, who kindly read the manuscript and 
 made many valuable suggestions. E T S 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 1 
 
 The romantic spirit of youth An error of 
 judgment Demand for early self-support Pur- 
 pose of this chapter The discord between play 
 and industry Children unaffected by derived 
 adult interests Why adults read books of ad- 
 venture The perennial zest for sports Its sci- 
 entific explanation Other illustrations of adult 
 obedience to instinct An attempt to get adult 
 recall of child's view-point Opinion of a young 
 teacher Another reminiscence A different type 
 of experience The experience of a country-bred 
 teacher The desire for adventure among girls 
 Simple methods of reformation Further proof 
 of revolt from monotony Connection between 
 monotony and popular amusements Need of 
 real action in schools Contrasting school meth- 
 ods; their results View of a reformed bandit 
 Necessity of control of racial instincts Sugges- 
 tions concerning teaching of natural sciences 
 Memorizing versus thinking How to prevent 
 imitative thinking Prerequisites of thinking 
 The source of interest Activity a constant fac- 
 tor in mental growth Inactivity a state of insta- 
 bility Reports of recreation surveys A guide to 
 utilizing instincts Reasons for successful truant 
 schools Transference of enthusiasm Difference 
 in mind content of children and adults Instincts 
 as starting-point for interest Importance of ac- 
 tion for healthy emotions Unlimited opportunity 
 for teachers Experience in terms of adventure 
 Conclusion. 
 
 II EFFICIENT TEACHING 36 
 
 Difficulty of defining human efficiency Differ- 
 ence between human and animal educability 
 First essential of efficient teaching Two meth- 
 ods of approach to task Faults of first method 
 A paradox and an explanation An illustration 
 of good judgment An example of wise adapt- 
 ability Application of principle of teacher adapt- 
 ability Another illustration from a school 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER ?AQ 
 
 Flexibility of method is not caprice Two guid- 
 ing principles in efficient teaching Connection 
 between adaptation and economy of effort Con- 
 nection between unconscious adaptation and bad 
 habits Teachers' responsibility in formation of 
 habits Danger from sentimentality The impor- 
 tance of beginnings The importance of few- 
 rules A test of habits of thinking More 
 about training in thinking A test which shows 
 children are not taught to think An investiga- 
 tion and its conclusions Another investigation 
 A gage of good teaching The use of a 
 study program An experiment in suggestion 
 Results of an investigation of home work Need 
 of more pupil initiative Reports of school sur- 
 veys on initiative Conclusions from these exper- 
 iments Another view of teacher efficiency the 
 art of questioning An investigation of this art 
 The resulting data Lack of questions from 
 pupils found by school surveys The danger of 
 rapid questioning Concerning the form of ques- 
 tions Concerning the monopoly of time by 
 teachers Kernel of efficient teaching train chil- 
 dren to think. 
 
 Ill GETTING RESULTS . . . . T . . . 66 
 
 Progress through trial and error method Suc- 
 cessful experiments dependent upon mental atti- 
 tudeExperience that counts Education as inter- 
 pretation- of life Contentment fatal Exhilara- 
 tion of real experiments Learning to know 
 one's self through experiments Illustration An 
 experiment in composition Response of children 
 Some details of plan A result Another 
 "chapter" Effect of experiment on teacher and 
 children An incident about a physics class 
 Cause of their enthusiasm Town-meeting 
 method of teaching history Similar plan of 
 organization How the plan was carried out 
 Absentees dealt with by the class Work di- 
 rected by pupils Concerning discipline Results 
 of plan Growth in power to think Improve- 
 ment in manners A result of responsibility An- 
 other experiment in pupil-government Plan of 
 work for senior class Plan of organization of 
 junior class Spirit of their work Moral effect 
 of pupil-government An experiment in Greek 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 history Outline of plan Order of business 
 The value of resolutions An experiment in 
 teaching Latin Plan of organization Value of 
 inscriptions Platforms of parties Effect on 
 regular work A significant fact A proof of 
 interest Facts about this experiment eight years 
 later The common factor of success in these 
 experiments Their constructive importance. 
 
 IV PROGRESS IN LEARNING 100 
 
 Logical arrangement not always the pedagog- 
 ical Failure of logical method in teaching gram- 
 marLaws of learning a recent discovery Gen- 
 eral laws of learning and variations Illustra- 
 tions of irregularity of learning process Pla- 
 teaus in learning process These plateaus inev- 
 itable Description of curve of learning from a 
 psychology class Explanation of the curve for 
 embryology Form of curve dependent on nature 
 of task and fitness of learner An experiment in 
 learning Russian Similarity in results of two 
 experiments Relation of high score to learner's 
 rate of progress Variations in maximum effort 
 Some instances of variations "Warming up" 
 period A study of the learning process in a busi- 
 ness house-pDescription of methods of the firm 
 Characteristics of curves of learning in class 
 room and in business concern Monotony a fac- 
 tor in retardation Uneven progress of the men- 
 tal processes Unconscious element in learning 
 Progress through elimination of the useless 
 Higher and lower orders of habits Tendency to 
 return to lower ^ order of habits Plateaus as 
 periods of assimilation Views of other experi- 
 menters A different explanation Time neces- 
 sary for fixing associations A memory experi- 
 ment Explanation of memory curves Compari- 
 son of original experiment and memory test. 
 
 V ECONOMY IN LEARNING 132 
 
 Advantage to teacher of study of learning proc- 
 ess Relation of teacher and pupil in economy 
 of learning Concerning new ideas in education 
 Two methods of getting results A third 
 method An alliance between teacher and child 
 Effect of mental attitude Importance of group 
 entiment Importance of winning leader of the 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 gang Comparison of boys and girls The spirit 
 of the school Progress dependent on bodily and 
 mental condition of learner Physical unfitness 
 a cause of reversion to lower order of habits 
 Economy in learning A plea for more efficient 
 use of time, with a physiological explanation A 
 suggestion for getting results Utilization of en- 
 thusiasm Other hindrances to learning An ex- 
 periment Importance of encouraging discrim- 
 ination The unconscious factor in the learning 
 process The right moment to help the learner 
 Illustrations Overlapping of higher and lower 
 orders of habits Encouragement of individuality 
 ^ Cause of interfering associations Importance 
 of nascent habits The plateau as a protest against 
 cramming Curve of learning for a pupil in Eng- 
 lish grammar Description of curve Confusion 
 of ideas The use of tests at this time Plateaus 
 a signal for special drill Effect of monotony on 
 plateaus Suggestions to offset monotony Time 
 a factor in growth of experience. 
 
 VI HABIT IN LEARNING AND ACHIEVEMENT . . . 166 
 
 Our inherited view-point Futility of classifica- 
 tion Inadequacy of settled ideas Conservatism 
 and habit Conservatism illustrated by history 
 Difference between nervous system of man and 
 lower animals Discrimination a test of mental 
 development An illustration Experience as in- 
 terpretation of events Intelligence means varia- 
 bility in habits Notable failures of conventional 
 judgment Their explanation Business men as 
 well as teachers habit-bound The difficulty of 
 changing habits Walter Bagehot on conservatism 
 The release of mental forces Warning against 
 automatic habits How teachers may prevent 
 fixed habits of thought Habits of behavior 
 Program suggested by Boy Scouts movement 
 Explanation of its influence A power worth util- 
 izing Use of pupil-government A misconcep- 
 tion about pupil-government Fascination of or- 
 ganizing Reasons for success of various forms 
 of pupil-government Habit and school environ- 
 ment Similarity between task of a teacher and 
 . of a general Importance of right school atmos- 
 phere Laxness of discipline The basis of good 
 school habits. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 VII NEW DEMANDS ON THE SCHOOLS . . .195 
 
 Two types of books on education Timorous 
 thinking The utilitarian and the philosophic 
 ideals of education Harmonizing the two views 
 Animal education defined by adaptation Limi- 
 tations of animal adaptation Difference in mean- 
 ing of animal and human adaptation The advan- 
 tage of human imagination Imitation and ineffi- 
 ciency Adaptation directed by intelligence The 
 school and community Change, a characteristic 
 of the age Success dependent on rapid read- 
 aptation Instances Significance for schools of 
 social and industrial changes Difficulty of mod- 
 ern home in training for life Task of schools 
 to supplement failure of home-y-The home in edu- 
 cation fifty years ago Education through action 
 The farm as a workshop and a laboratory 
 Failure of modern substitutes for farm Facts 
 about business failures Imagination and busi- 
 ness Rapid adjustment essential Other types of 
 failure Mental flexibility and success Problems 
 of big business concerns Changes in wholesale 
 grocery business Changes in woodenware busi- 
 ness How scientific management works, out 
 Further details A result of inefficient method 
 A result of scientific management Education 
 for efficiency Successful methods Originality 
 and efficiency Conclusion. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING ..... 229 
 INDEX ..: >j >; .*, .., * *: . > . . 241 
 
LEARNING BY DOING 
 
LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 
 
 THAT was a fine appreciation of boyhood 
 dreams and thrills which Robert Louis Ste- 
 venson showed in his Gossip on Romance: "Give 
 The romantic Hie a highwayman," he said, "and 
 
 spirit of youth I was full to the brim ; a Jacobite 
 would do, but the highwayman was my favorite 
 dish. I can still hear that merry clatter of the 
 hoofs along the moonlit lane; night and the com- 
 ing of day are still related in my mind with the 
 doings of John Rann or Jerry Abershaw; and the 
 words 'postchaise/ the 'great North road/ 'ostler/ 
 and 'nag/ still sound in my ears like poetry. One 
 and all, at least, and each with his particular fancy, 
 we read story-books in childhood, not for eloquence 
 or character or thought, but for some quality of 
 the brute incident. . . . Certain dank gardens cry 
 aloud for a murder; certain old houses demand to 
 
 1 
 
2 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 be haunted ; certain coasts are set apart for ship- 
 wreck." 
 
 One need only look into any city back yard on 
 almost any fine day to realize the perennial per* 
 sistence of this quest for adventure. For country 
 children life is fairly aquiver with vivid experience. 
 Only a few weeks ago while in the country I came 
 across a group of boys and girls the oldest, a boy, 
 was just past ten decked out with feathers and 
 carrying wooden knives for scalping the long-haired 
 girls, and toy guns with which they were shooting 
 two innocent little puppies who indiscreetly insisted 
 on coming back to life. The camp-fire was a more 
 ingenious invention than I had yet seen. It was a 
 pile of dry brush with red flowers for fire, because 
 the children had no matches. Such is the imagina- 
 tion of childhood. 
 
 Conscience and convention, often synonymous 
 terms, will have many sins to explain away on 
 An error of the day f judgment, but not 
 
 of judgment t h e ir least offense is unthinking 
 
 condemnation of feelings and thoughts and acts 
 which surge up in children from the stormy life 
 of the far distant past when war and slaughter 
 made up the usual daily routine, and pillage was 
 but a vacation's rest from the more strenuous ex- 
 ertions of man's customary business engagements. 
 Children suffer most from this assumed austerity 
 because their lives, when passed in normal sur- 
 roundings, are but day-dreams of camp-fires, forays 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 3 
 
 and scouting, with occasional tomahawking and 
 scalping excursions thrown in for coloring. 
 
 Of course the conventional view does not refuse 
 such sports to children when conditions are favor- 
 Demand for early abl e, but games are not regarded 
 self-support as an essential element of normal 
 
 growth and so are not included in the plan of edu- 
 cation. All educators agree on the importance of 
 childhood's freedom, so as to give the nerve cen- 
 ters time to mature before the strains of business 
 life are put upon them, but the demand is insistent 
 for rapid preparation of children for self-support. 
 One evidence for this demand is the loud call for 
 vocational training. Since the apprentice system 
 passed away in the industrial reconstruction no ad- 
 equate plan for combining study and work has 
 been found to take its place. The result is increas- 
 ing dissatisfaction with the length of time needed 
 after finishing school to prepare for profitable em- 
 ployment.* It is not the present purpose of the 
 writer to argue the wisdom of this view. Changed 
 conditions often put requirements upon us which it 
 is useless to oppose. Vain resistance to new social 
 and industrial demands loses time which could bet- 
 ter be used in planning to meet the change intelli- 
 gently instead of drifting. Whether we believe 
 the claims of industry wise or not, vocational train- 
 ing is now a factor to be reckoned with. 
 
 *The writer is, of course, aware of the combination of 
 shop and school work in certain towns and cities. But the 
 plan has not become general enough to quiet the clamor. 
 
4 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 . ' * ^ , . x 
 
 . ;. / ' * ^ 
 
 If, therefore, the opinion still prevails that child- 
 hood has its rights to freedom of thought and 
 Purpose of this action, the coming of vocational 
 chapter training gives us a new problem 
 
 for solution. How may childhood be conserved in 
 the shorter cut to self-support? This is a problem 
 for teachers, and one of the purposes of the present 
 chapter is to reexamine the claims of childhood 
 to see whether a deeper knowledge of its needs 
 may not enable us to secure aid for our work in 
 education from the very instincts which are often 
 thought to be in opposition to the school. If we 
 succeed in finding such assistance we shall gain a 
 double advantage through increasing the output of 
 education and, at the same time, satisfying the in- 
 stinctive needs of childhood. 
 
 A certain amount of leisure is needed that play 
 may have its place, but the severe industrial life 
 
 The discord be- f tO " da y is nOt favorable to com - 
 tween industry plete relaxation. Among men 
 
 *" d P la y W ho labor by the day, if their 
 
 children's help is not required to make ends meet 
 they needs must work when school is over; and 
 even with the well-to-do few plans are made beyond 
 giving children the freedom of the streets. Were 
 it necessary to argue the lack of interest in activ- 
 ities that make for normal growth the difficulty 
 of securing parks and playgrounds might be men- 
 tioned. Schoolhouses, also, are built within enclo* 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 5 
 
 Sures hardly large enough in which to pack the 
 children. 
 
 Children have not yet acquired the derived inter- 
 ests which in later life will dominate thought and 
 
 action. There are few men even 
 Children unaf- . . . 
 
 fccted by derived who do not at times begin their 
 adult interests day , g WQrk with rcgret what 
 
 keeps them at their tasks is desire for reputation 
 among thinkers in their field, or standing in the 
 business world, or habit, which will not loose its 
 hold, if not the lower wish for money. Such de- 
 rived interests as these which keep men regretfully 
 at their work have not yet taken possession of chil- 
 dren in school. Their thoughts and interests are 
 those that give pleasure at the moment and to 
 these they yield undisputed power. Their estimate 
 of the things in which adults engage is pictured 
 by Kenneth Grahame's rollicking youngsters: "On 
 the whole, the existence of these Olympians 
 [adults] seemed to be entirely void of interests, 
 even as their movements were confined and slow, 
 and their habits stereotyped and senseless. . . . They 
 never set foot within fir-wood or hazel-copse, nor 
 dreamt of the marvels hid therein. . . . They were 
 unaware of Indians, nor recked they anything of 
 bisons or of pirates (with pistols!), though the 
 whole place swarmed with such portents. They 
 cared not about exploring for robbers' caves, nor 
 for hidden treasure/' 
 
6 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Despite their sober exterior and seemingly "ster- 
 eotyped and senseless habits," most of these Olym- 
 pians are as ready to slip away 
 Why adults read f , i o 
 
 books of ad- into the enchanted land as Ste- 
 
 vcnture venson has so entertainingly ad- 
 
 mitted for himself. Not many adults, however, 
 acknowledge as boldly as he does the absorbing 
 fascination of adventures but, if one observes 
 groups of men and women "off duty" for a week 
 or two, books of this type, 'when they can be found, 
 are working overhours. It has been the writer's 
 privilege to pass several summers in a company of 
 over fifty, largely college graduates, among whom 
 were a generous proportion of college professors 
 and secondary school-teachers. The conspicuous 
 fact observed concerning their reading was this pre- 
 dominance of books of adventure. Their excuse 
 was that these stories gave most complete rest. 
 Doubtless this was true, but there were many other 
 books at hand which did not put a greater strain 
 on thought. Why does this class of books excel 
 the others in affording rest? The popular assump- 
 tion that relaxation is directly proportional to for- 
 getfulness of all else except the story is probably 
 not far wrong. If this is true we are again reduced 
 to our original question: why do stories of ad- 
 venture hold us closer than other sorts of books? 
 To be specific even at the risk of seeming ungrate- 
 ful to a writer who has been a solace in many 
 a weary hour: why is Sherlock Holmes who re- 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 7 
 
 peats his two or three stock phrases until they have 
 become popular newspaper jokes and who is as 
 innocent of originality as a desert is of grass 
 presented to us almost yearly by a new publisher? 
 Why, again, did Mr. Doyle, after murdering 
 Holmes, no doubt in a fit of anger at the detective's 
 lack of originality, and after writing his memoirs, 
 resurrect him in a third volume? There can be 
 but one answer. The public would not let him 
 stay dead. It looks as though Stevenson were not 
 far wrong when he continues in his Gossip on 
 Romance: "Conduct is three parts of life, they say; 
 but I think they put it high. There is a vast deal 
 in life and letters both which is not immoral, but 
 simply a-moral; . . . where the interest turns, not 
 upon what a man shall choose to do, but on how 
 he manages to do it ; not on the passionate slips and 
 hesitations of the conscience, but on the problems of 
 the body and of the practical intelligence, in clean, 
 open-air adventure, the shock of arms or the diplo- 
 macy of life." 
 
 But the case for the hold which adventures have 
 on us is not closed with the books that we read. 
 The perennial Why are certain games perennial ? 
 zest for sports Recreation is the usual reason of- 
 fered for the enjoyment of sports, but this does not 
 explain the striking partiality for certain kinds of 
 games. Upward of forty thousand persons regularly 
 attend the Yale-Princeton, Harvard- Yale and An- 
 napolis-West Point football contests, and there 
 
S LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 have been records of nearly twice that number. A 
 writer in the Nineteenth Century* speaking of this 
 game, says: "Thrice during the last season the 
 writer witnessed matches in violent snow-storms; 
 and on one of these occasions, with snow and slush 
 ankle deep on the ground, the downfall was so 
 severe that a layer of more than an inch of snow 
 accumulated on the shoulders and hats of the enthu- 
 siasts, who were packed so closely together that 
 they could not move to disencumber themselves." 
 Why this uninterrupted popularity for a game 
 which has been played in England since the thir- 
 teenth century? The exciting spectacles of the 
 Roman Circus Maximus, again, drew, at times, as 
 many as four hundred eighty-five thousand spec- 
 tators. 
 
 Recent investigationsf seem to help us in under- 
 standing the partiality for certain types of games. 
 Its scientific Practically all of those that re- 
 
 explanation turn as inevitably as the seasons 
 
 had their counterpart among the aborigines. Hand- 
 ball, basketball, football, tennis, shinny and many 
 others were played in some form by those who pre- 
 ceded us on this continent. There can be but one 
 explanation of these endless games. It is the call 
 of the race. 
 
 Let us, however, look a little further. Men will 
 
 *Vol. 32, p. 622. 
 
 t Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Amer- 
 jctn Ethnology. 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 9 
 
 eschew comfortable homes and hotels equipped with 
 
 modern conveniences to go into 
 Other illustra- . 
 
 tions of adult obe- the woods and live in log cabins, 
 dicnce to instinct sleep ; ng on shelves made from 
 
 branches of trees placed close enough together to 
 prevent the occupant from falling through, without 
 sheets, and covered with blankets that have been 
 used, unwashed, by many an illustrious hunter ; and 
 with it all they must daub their faces with greasy 
 tar as protection against ravenous black flies until 
 the painted savage of darkest Africa would wel- 
 come them as friends; and this they do that they 
 may hunt. The writer, to give another instance, 
 has seen men fishing in the lakes of Northern Wis- 
 consin with the mosquitoes so thick and blood- 
 thirsty on their faces that they could only be re- 
 moved by scraping with the hand. But the sport 
 of fishing was worth it. If men will go through 
 such torture and call it fun there must be something 
 deep down in their nature that makes it worth the 
 game. And that "something" seems to be the prim- 
 itive instincts which civilization has been unable 
 wholly to eradicate. 
 
 We have been speaking of men with business or 
 professional interests to occupy their minds. What, 
 then, is the situation with children who, as we know, 
 have not yet acquired the derived interests that 
 look to the future and whose thoughts and feelings 
 are concerned with activities similar to those of 
 early man? 
 
io LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 In order to ascertain the opinions of adults on 
 the intensity of their thoughts and feelings about 
 
 adventures during their child- 
 An attempt to get 
 
 adult recall of the hood, the author wrote to several 
 Child's viewpoint men an( j women to learn their 
 
 present views. All of those from whom we quote 
 are, or have been, teachers, and their experiences of 
 childhood, analyzed in the light of maturer thought, 
 with help from the observation of the pupils in their 
 schools, are especially instructive. 
 
 The following is from an unusually successful 
 teacher who graduated from college only four or 
 five years ago. So it can not be said, in denial of 
 some of his strong statements, that "those times 
 have passed." 
 
 "I sought adventures as a reaction against the 
 monotony of boyhood. Many of my 'adventures' 
 Opinion of a were mischievous acts in rebellion 
 
 young teacher against too strict school discipline. 
 Now that I have become a teacher I am interested 
 to find that many men take especial pride in the 
 trouble which they caused in school. I myself have 
 never felt the slightest remorse for my conduct at 
 that time. Why does this feeling exist? Is it not 
 because, as adults, we see through the pretense that 
 such acts are bad and realize that they should have 
 been directed and utilized rather than suppressed? 
 I had no teacher who was in the slightest degree 
 thoughtful of the needs of boys and their wish to 
 do things. The only person who took any interest^ 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY II 
 
 in boy nature as it was, and appreciated our desire 
 for adventure, was a Y. M. C. A. secretary with 
 whom I spent two years. We boys would have died 
 for him. All of my teachers seemed to have the 
 idea that a boy was a sort of wild creature and the 
 sooner he were tamed the better. And the figure 
 may be applied further they used many of the 
 methods on us that are used in taming wild animals. 
 I must admit that we boys were often mischievous 
 under the leadership of the secretary, but the great 
 contrast is that afterward we were genuinely sorry 
 for what we did, while we boasted loudly of what 
 we had done at school. 
 
 "The first and most important relation of a teach- 
 er to his pupils is that of mutual respect. A pupil 
 very quickly learns whether a teacher really has an 
 interest in him or whether he is simply standing as 
 a bulwark of the law. Hearing the racial call of 
 children for adventure has not caused all 'troubles' 
 to disappear from my class room, but the different 
 atmosphere creates a different spirit, and the 'rebel- 
 lious' feeling does not arise. The work of the pu- 
 pils has certainly improved both in quantity and 
 quality. Boys have an irresistible desire for activ- 
 ity. They want to be doing something. If this 
 desire is suppressed they are likely to break loose. 
 Lack of sympathy for the things they want to do 
 draws them within themselves for satisfaction. At 
 least it was so with me, and I think that I observe 
 the same tendency in school children to-day." 
 
I * , LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 letter given below is so complete in its inter- 
 pretations of school and village conditions that it 
 Another requires no comment. The writer 
 
 reminiscence o f it had charge of a country 
 
 school before entering a normal school, and after 
 graduation, he taught for a year in a small town; 
 then he became principal of his home school the 
 one with which his letter deals concerning a time 
 when he was a pupil in it. Here he remained three 
 years. Finally, after graduating from college he 
 taught for several years in one of the high schools 
 of a large city, resigning a short time ago to take 
 charge of the sales department of a large manufac- 
 turing business. This brief biographical sketch is 
 given to show that he has had the experiences 
 needed to give worth to his interpretations and 
 opinions. 
 
 "Childhood is more monotonous than adults are 
 inclined to think because boys are usually "doing 
 something/ but the things which they do are done 
 in an attempt to escape from monotony. The prin- 
 cipal of the school which I attended was wise 
 enough to see the necessity of giving us boys some- 
 thing to do to satisfy our demand for excitement 
 and adventure. He put up a long ladder in the 
 school yard, copied, of course, from a gymnasium. 
 On another part of the ground, hanging from a 
 tree, was a rope on which we practised climbing, 
 hand over hand. We had wrestling matches, foot 
 races and, of course, a baseball team. 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY ij 
 
 "One winter a young woman came as assistant 
 in the high school. She was different from the type 
 of teacher we were used to, since, as we soon 
 learned, it had been her custom to take walking 
 trips during the summer vacations. We boys were, 
 naturally, pretty skeptical about a woman doing 
 much walking and one day several of us joked her 
 about it in the presence of the principal. He imme- 
 diately proposed that as many of the boys and girls 
 as desired should challenge her to walk to some lum- 
 ber camps, ten or fifteen miles distant, on the fol- 
 lowing Saturday. He quietly told us to have my 
 horse and cutter ready, with one of the smaller 
 boys to drive it, so that if necessary we could give 
 the teacher a ride. This pleased us so much and 
 made us so excited that we hardly slept until Satur- 
 day came. We started out early in the morning 
 through the snow, and the teacher made good, 
 walking the entire distance. Some of us boys would 
 have been glad to get into the cutter had it not been 
 for our pride, and I think that the principal him- 
 self would not have objected to a ride. It is need- 
 less to say that the teacher had us on her side from 
 that time. The question of discipline never arose 
 while this principal was connected with the school. 
 There was no need for discipline. We did not 
 know what it meant. The school simply went on 
 with no trouble and we all worked. Few high-school 
 boys were seen loafing on the streets and there was 
 no drinking or smoking among ua. The activities 
 
14 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 in which we engaged under the leadership of this 
 principal, with the encouragement of parents who 
 understood what he was doing, took up our time so 
 completely that there was little desire for mischief. 
 The principal suggested many sports in which he 
 could not participate, but he took part with us in 
 enough of them to show that he meant what he 
 said. My own experience, both as a pupil under 
 him and later as teacher and principal, has taught 
 me that this last is very important. Talking, alone, 
 does not go very far. Boys soon get a feeling that 
 it is done to 'work' them. That trip which the 
 principal took with us to the lumber camps and his 
 activity on the school grounds did more to make 
 us feel that he was really one of us and interested 
 in us than any amount of talking could possibly 
 have done. The town was considered a hard one, 
 and plenty of toughs had been produced in the 
 school. The principals preceding the one of whom 
 I have been speaking were complete failures in mat- 
 ters of discipline and one or two had been literally 
 thrown out of the building by the boys." 
 
 The following is from a successful teacher now 
 the principal of a grammar school who, since his 
 A different type father taught before him, 
 of experience was brought close to the educa- 
 
 tional ideal, "brought up by hand" one might al- 
 most say, judging from the beatings he received. 
 For these reasons his opinion of his school-days, 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 15 
 
 revised and analyzed in the light of his later experi- 
 ences as a teacher, are particularly instructive. The 
 contrast, in method and results, with the boys and 
 principal of whom we have just read, is decidedly 
 suggestive. 
 
 "Like most of my schoolmates, I was a healthy 
 vigorous boy with a persistent desire for activity 
 which was not furnished by the school or home. So 
 we drifted into all sorts of scrapes. Many of the 
 things we did were all right, but there was no one 
 to encourage and guide us. On this account even 
 the valuable activities became a source of trouble 
 to our teachers and ourselves. For example, one 
 of our favorite midday games was 'fox and geese/ 
 and as that, like 'hare and hounds/ took us quite 
 a distance from the school we were frequently 
 tardy, and, boylike, when caught in something 
 wrong we 'invented' excuses. Had our teachers 
 taken an interest in our game and sometimes played 
 it with us, I am certain we would have been saved 
 from most of our tardiness and from all of our 
 falsehoods. But they condemned us and looked on 
 us as bad to the core at least this was the opinion 
 which we formed though we were just normal 
 healthy boys giving vent to our youthful spirits. 
 
 "Another game, harmless when helped along by 
 a little sympathy and guidance, was 'Indian/ which 
 was played on Saturday afternoons. We had our 
 chief and we terrorized, the small boys of the com- 
 
16 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 munity, even taking them to our den a cave a mile 
 or more out in the woods and there making them 
 dance for us. One little chap who had 'tattled' on 
 us several times and here is shown another bad 
 method of my school we shut up in our den for 
 the night. When he did not return to supper a 
 search was instituted and he was found. Of course 
 that put an end to our innocent game of 'Indian/ 
 Our parents and teachers were now more than ever 
 convinced that we were 'bad/ 
 
 "During the time of which I am speaking I was 
 between twelve and fourteen years of age and the 
 desire for activity was intense. Every pond for 
 miles around was studied by us boys and the par- 
 ticular qualities of each investigated, commented 
 upon and compared with reference to their good 
 points, and many were the whippings which I re- 
 ceived for my clandestine enjoyment of them. 
 
 "The chief cause of our 'adventures' was un- 
 questionably, as I view it to-day, the failure of 
 those over us to furnish an outlet for the desires 
 created by the ponds, fields and woods. Our sports 
 were generally harmless and often educative in the 
 beginning, but they usually ended in trouble be- 
 cause we were compelled to engage in them secretly 
 on account of the disapproval of parents and teach- 
 
 ers. 
 
 A teacher who grew up on a farm writes : 
 "On looking backward it seems to me that the 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 17 
 
 greatest desire of my boyhood was for adventure. 
 
 This longing, which appeared 
 The experience of rr f 
 
 a country-bred shortly after ten years of age, 
 
 was curbed only by natural timid- 
 ity. Later, when one of Oliver Optic's stories fell 
 into my hands, farm and school life seemed more 
 and more monotonous. This spirit of discontent 
 with the slowness of life increased as I grew older. 
 
 "Since this desire for something unusual to break 
 the monotony was unappreciated by those over us, 
 who, apparently, had forgot their own youth, I 
 and my associates tried to find our own ways of 
 relieving the depression. Sometimes these acts 
 were harmless and at other times almost criminal, 
 but they were always unguided and, in fact, con- 
 demned. On one occasion we nearly burned a boy 
 at the stake and probably would have done so be- 
 fore we were aware of the danger had not a neigh- 
 bor come upon us just as we were applying the 
 match to a pile of hay and dry twigs in the midst 
 of which our captive was tied. 
 
 "Drawn together by the common bond of loneli- 
 ness we put into execution all of our venturesome 
 plans. The worst series of acts was incited by a 
 book of the adventures of robbers. We read it to- 
 gether and straightway resolved to become truly 
 great in that line. That winter everything went 
 wrong at the school. There were many offenses, 
 all directed against school property, and finally, 
 
i8 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 when the outhouses were burned, the school di- 
 rectors were in a frenzy. 
 
 "As I look back over it all, with a wider knowl- 
 edge of boys from my experience as a teacher, I am 
 convinced that we could have been controlled and 
 our farm and school work could have. had real inter- 
 est had our teachers, appreciating what was going 
 on within us, furnished vigorous, healthy outlets 
 for our boyish spirits and directed them by joining 
 in enough of our sports to show that they were 
 more interested in us personally than in school 
 studies and discipline, the importance of which we 
 did not, and at our age could not, understand." 
 
 But this desire for adventure is not limited to 
 boys; the principals of a girls' boarding school have 
 
 informed the writer tha * * is 
 
 The desire for ad- 
 
 venture among of the things which they must 
 
 keep in mind. Girls, they say, are 
 like boys in being depressed by unbroken routine. 
 "Monotony bores children and a bored child is not 
 efficient." They add, however, that although noth- 
 ing sensational is required to relieve the monotony, 
 if they do not relieve it something sensational is cer- 
 tain to happen. An outing in the woods, when the 
 weather permits, an occasional supper at a hotel, 
 and other equally simple devices meet the needs. 
 "One great value of dramatic performances in 
 school," according to these teachers, "is the relief 
 of the children from their own stale and limited 
 habits of thought and feeling." 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 19 
 
 As evidence that startling adventures are de- 
 manded by boys quite as little as by girls, a high- 
 Simple methods school principal recently told the 
 of reformation writer that two of his most trou- 
 blesome boys were "reformed" by a very simple 
 method. One was a good musician, and it was sug- 
 gested to him to organize a mandolin club ; the other 
 was advised to try for the football team, which he 
 succeeded in making. Both were told a little later 
 that they must show themselves worthy of the re- 
 sponsibility, and they did. 
 
 The superintendent of a hospital and training 
 school for nurses says that this same longing for 
 
 .. f r occasional "adventures" must be 
 
 .rurtner proof of 
 
 revolt from reckoned with in her apprentices, 
 
 monotony 
 
 those of whom we have been speaking. Certain 
 things are overlooked and charged to the account 
 of this desire to break the dead level of routine. In 
 the hospital, however, the superintendent adds, the 
 patients often furnish enough excitement to meet 
 the needs. 
 
 A woman who has had a varied experience with 
 girls writes : "Among the grammar and high-school 
 
 girls whom I have known, per- 
 Connection be- i f , , 
 
 tween monotony ha P s nme out of ten hav ^ given 
 
 and popular unmistakable evidence of a feel- 
 
 amusements 
 
 ing of monotony m their lives, 
 
 and especially of being bored by the educational 
 process." This monotony, in the opinion of this 
 
so LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 woman, furnishes the explanation for the popular- 
 ity of moving-picture shows, sensational novels and, 
 among certain classes, the public dance-halls. "All 
 of these manias come directly or indirectly from the 
 instinct for action and experience. . . . There is 
 a time when every girl longs for free, wild, daring 
 physical action, a time when every girl wishes in 
 the bitterness of her soul that she were a boy, but 
 not in disloyalty to her sex. Consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, it is her nature crying out for freedom 
 and action. 
 
 "The schools should include activities demanding 
 action, responsibility and originality. Otherwise the 
 Need of real ac- ra * e a ^ which commercialism is 
 tion in schools multiplying the passive sensations 
 is, for girls especially, most alarming." The pro- 
 prietors of five and ten cent theaters and moving- 
 picture shows have discovered that there is a de- 
 mand for "passive sensations" and for what this 
 correspondent calls "action-by-proxy." "The sen- 
 sational novel mania is also at bottom a desire to 
 escape from the sameness of environment. If girls 
 are denied opportunity to be themselves the actors 
 they are bound to seek substitutes, and the more 
 realistic these substitutes are the better they fill the 
 vacancy. It is the law of compensation." 
 
 These are only a few of the many instances which 
 
 could be given did space permit. They are more 
 
 than individual cases, for in one 
 
 fchoof me&ods; f these letters we have seen a 
 their results school transformed by a prin- 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 21 
 
 cipal who understood the function of adven- 
 tures in the economy of children's growth. It 
 is no small matter to take charge of a school 
 in which the large boys boast of putting the 
 teacher out-of-doors and win them to one's sup- 
 port. Still more significant is it when, in addition, 
 one reorganizes the community, changes the 
 thoughts and feelings of the children and trans- 
 forms disorder into interest in study and in the 
 school. This kind of a school has been placed by 
 the side of another in which the same sort of "ad- 
 ventures" led to trouble because they were done se- 
 cretly to escape the disapproval of parents and 
 teachers who had forgot the thoughts and impulses 
 of their own childhood. In the one school the na- 
 tive instinct for excitement, for contest of muscle 
 and brain in "the shock of arms" and in the "di- 
 plomacy of life," in short, for adventure, was util- 
 ized for mental and moral growth ; and in the other, 
 the same impulses were left to function in the old 
 anti-social way, to set up resistances to discipline 
 and study which the teacher must overcome and, 
 perhaps in the end, to lead to the reform school and 
 prison. And here let us say in passing that there is 
 no separate criminal class. As William Pinkerton 
 has said, "Criminals are just like other folks."* 
 Since Mr. Pinkerton has spent more than fifty 
 years in constant association with crime and crim- 
 inals, he can not be accused of visionary ideas. 
 
 * The Hampton Magazine, Vol. 28, p. 267. 
 
22 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Al Jennings, the reformed leader of the once fa- 
 mous "Jennings Gang" of train robbers and bandits, 
 View of a re- ^ as e x P resse d the same opinion 
 
 formed bandit regarding criminals and, inci- 
 dentally, has shown the part that love for adven- 
 ture may play in crime. "It is my firm conviction 
 now that heredity counts little and environment 
 much in making a criminal. Before I go on with 
 the rest I had better tell just how I felt about my 
 old trade (of robbery). My bitter hatred of the 
 world had dwindled a little and a love for the ex- 
 citement and adventure in the game had grown up. 
 I liked the plotting, the taste of danger, the thrill 
 of escapes. I liked the half-savage outdoor life. 
 And I wove imaginations about myself, pictured 
 myself as a romantic figure/'* 
 
 The most fertile environment for making crim- 
 inals is a town or school where primitive instincts 
 
 Necessity of con- are allowed to run their course 
 trol of racial unguided. Repression is almost 
 
 as bad as allowing these instincts 
 full freedom, for then they are put in opposition to 
 the work that growth requires, and craftiness is 
 developed to outwit those who seek to still the im- 
 pulses of the race, so dominant in youth. Exciting 
 adventures, as adults understand the word, are not 
 needed. Children are imaginative and they think 
 excitement into simple matters if they but have the 
 chance to exercise freely their native instinct to 
 * Saturday Evening Post, Sept. 20, 1913. 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 23 
 
 execute their own plans in competition with one 
 another. 
 
 Besides athletics and games of various sorts, cer- 
 tain studies of the school easily lend themselves to 
 this active treatment. Geogra- 
 P h 7> nature study, zoology and 
 
 of natural sci- botany are instances in point. 
 ences * 
 
 These subjects have been made 
 
 too bookish. Geography still consists largely in 
 locating, bounding, describing and defining, always 
 from the book, instead of using the streams and 
 swamps and other outdoor sources of geographical 
 knowledge which often lie at the school-yard gate. 
 The report of the committee in charge of the 
 survey of School District No. i, City of Portland 
 Memorizing ver- (Oregon), says, with reference to 
 sus thinking geography in the schools under 
 
 investigation: "No connection was made or sug- 
 gested between the book statements and the pupils' 
 own immediate observations of geographic phe- 
 nomena ; not the slightest stimulus was given to ob- 
 serve, to think about, and to interpret the geographic 
 phenomena in which Portland and vicinity surpass- 
 ingly abound ; even an exercise in 'home' geography 
 was conducted entirely from the book. . . ." In 
 Vermont much the same condition was noted by 
 the investigators for the Carnegie Foundation: 
 "History and geography are not made to appeal 
 to the children by connecting these subjects with 
 their experiences. The lessons that were observed 
 
*4 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 in these subjects were confined largely to a repeti- 
 tion of the contents of some text-book, and there 
 was seldom any effort to relate the statements of 
 the book with what the child might be expected 
 to know about his own environment." Unfortu- 
 nately, this method is too common. The most 
 recent of the many instances of which the writer 
 has learned was reported to him as this book was 
 going through the press. The sister of a boy in 
 the fifth grade of a Missouri school was helping 
 him in geography. The child defined erosion cor- 
 rectly. Since there were excellent examples visible 
 from the house, as it was raining hard, his sister 
 asked him to point out an illustration. The boy 
 looked blankly through the window for a few min- 
 utes and then said, "I can't do that, but I can tell 
 you of one in Colorado." 
 
 For zoology and kindred subjects nature has been 
 catalogued and dried, and the schoolmaster vainly 
 strives to squeeze some interest from the desic- 
 cated remains, though Huxley, long ago, showed 
 how green scum from the nearest gutter, a handful 
 of weeds from a pond, a frog and a pigeon, instead 
 of books, may be made the final authority. Mean- 
 while, also, the birds that have not yet reached the 
 museum stage of ghostly unreality are calling the 
 children to their woodland homes to study their 
 lives and habits. It can not be said that material 
 is lacking for this out-of-door work since, in ad- 
 dition to the animals themselves, state agricultural 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 25 
 
 stations and several bureaus in Washington are 
 ready to supply a wealth of interesting information 
 about the habits of the denizens of the woods. 
 
 Out-of-door work in nature's laboratory would 
 give the children live problems for solution instead 
 How to prevent of dead ones. The pupils would 
 imitative thinking learn to investigate to put ques- 
 tions to themselves and to find the answers. Readi- 
 ness to see problems in what confronts one, to 
 state conditions clearly, with emphasis on the es- 
 sentials, to see the questions involved in these con- 
 ditions, underlie thinking; and this power is not 
 gained by sitting in one's seat and reading what 
 others have said about these things. Books in the 
 schoolroom should be used to verify answers which 
 have been obtained by observation and investigation, 
 and if differences of opinion among authorities are 
 found the enthusiasm of the children for personal 
 investigation is greatly enhanced. Studying what 
 writers say, with laboratory work to establish its 
 correctness, is the imitative method. It does not 
 train in thinking; and failure to learn to think ii 
 failure in education. An illustration of the disas- 
 trous effect of imitation through slavishness to 
 books has just been reported to the writer by a high- 
 school teacher. The children in his first year Ger- 
 man class can accurately define each tense, but they 
 can neither give examples nor recognize any tense 
 beyond the present. 
 
 In what does thinking consist ? Without attempt- 
 
2(5 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 ing to answer this fully at the present time, because 
 Prerequisites to ft will be discussed later, the pre- 
 thinking requisite of thinking is ability to 
 
 see a problem to state it clearly. With this, of 
 course, if results are to be obtained, there must be 
 a continuously aggressive desire to grapple with the 
 solution of such problems as arise in the course of 
 one's work. Both of these mental characteristics 
 are largely matters of habit. Every one is capable 
 of much clearer thinking than he actually does. 
 Therefore, to the extent to which the brain of indi- 
 vidual children permits progress, the teacher's prob- 
 lem is to train them in habits of thought, and in 
 doing this, as in the case of all habits that are in 
 opposition to racial indolence, the emotional atti- 
 tude of the pupils is of incalculable importance. For 
 this reason desirable habits should grow out of those 
 instincts which clamor for action, since they have 
 the firmest hold on youth. 
 
 A good deal has been written about awakening 
 the interest of pupils, but the method is usually 
 The source of so transparent that the children 
 interest are disillusioned by seeing the 
 
 wheels go around. That which is to be taught is 
 considered as something apart from the pupils, for 
 which their interest must be aroused by entertain- 
 ing devices of various kinds. Interest, however, is 
 in the children and can only be awakened by making 
 their instincts the starting-point. The facts to be 
 learned and the problems to be solved are then 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 27 
 
 reached in the natural course of their efforts to ac- 
 complish what they have set before themselves and 
 which they have undertaken because it appealed to 
 their instinct of mental or manual workmanship. 
 Interest is the emotional condition that arises in an 
 individual through gratification of nascent tenden- 
 cies. In adults these tendencies may be of the de- 
 rived sort the outgrowth of reading or of business 
 or professional needs but in children they are of 
 racial origin. 
 
 Life is always accompanied by activity and it is 
 for the teacher to discover the object or purpose of 
 
 A . . this activity in his pupils so that 
 Activity a con- * f , 
 
 stant factor in the ways and means of the school 
 
 mental growth may not do it violence. Children 
 
 are never inert, physically or mentally. They are 
 in a constant state of suppressed or expressed action, 
 and when these spontaneous impulses are repressed 
 explosions are imminent. No absolute value can be 
 ascribed to method and means of education. Their 
 worth is relative to the thoughts and feelings of the 
 pupils. Interest is exasperatingly fastidious; it se- 
 lects that which makes an appeal to the thoughts 
 and feeling from which it springs. The hopeful 
 thing about children is that they always want to do 
 something, and the successful teacher ascertains 
 what they want and helps them to do it in an educa- 
 tive way. This is not yielding to their whims. It 
 is building on the content of their minds, a method 
 long accepted, theoretically, as good pedagogical 
 
flS LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 doctrine. The teacher's skill, then, reveals itself, 
 among other ways, in discovering the thoughts and 
 feelings of his pupils and in satisfying them with- 
 out sacrificing the purpose of education. 
 
 When children are inactive they are in a con- 
 dition of unstable equilibrium, ready to fall into 
 Inactivity a state the first constructive or destruc- 
 of instability tive adventure that is suggested. 
 
 "Let's play," cried one of the youngsters in a 
 group observed by the investigators of the Kansas 
 City recreation survey. "Well, what shall we play?" 
 was the reply of the others, and the injury to prop- 
 erty in town and village, and the police and juvenile 
 court records of cities give the answer to this ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Now the one impressive, overwhelming fact men- 
 tioned by all of the recent recreation surveys is the 
 Reports of recrea- Ia rge number of children who 
 tion surveys were doing nothing at the time 
 
 when the "flash-light" observation was taken. They 
 were like a crowd awaiting the call to deeds of 
 heroism or destruction. In Milwaukee the num- 
 ber of idlers was one and one-half times those 
 playing ; in Detroit, Cleveland, Providence and Kan- 
 sas City upward of fifty per cent, or more. In 
 all of the cities surveyed a large proportion of 
 those reported as playing were engaged in fighting, 
 teasing, shooting craps, pitching pennies, or in some 
 other more or less demoralizing sport. "The need 
 is outlet outlet for individual energy and for group 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 39 
 
 activity," is the way in which the report of the 
 New York People's Institute diagnoses the condi- 
 tion; "outlet for the adventurous interests of boys 
 other than a destructive outlet/' "Mischief/ 1 
 says the Milwaukee report, "which is technically 
 called in the courts 'juvenile delinquency/ and lack 
 of initiative, which is called in the schools 'dull 
 stupidity/ are the sure results of doing nothing." 
 And, again, according to the Providence report, 
 "Doing nothing almost inevitably leads to the wrong 
 kind of outlet for the spirit of youth." In speak- 
 ing of crimes incidental to the games of the 
 New York City children, the report of the People's 
 Institute says : "The elements the boys are striving 
 for are the dramatic adventures in obtaining stolen 
 goods, the excitement of gambling, which to them 
 is no crime, and the physical joys of soda-water, 
 cigarettes, moving-picture shows, etc., which follow 
 the game. These boys start out to seek adventure, 
 excitement and a 'treat/ " 
 
 When we ask how instincts may be utilized for 
 education the method is plainly indicated by their 
 A guide to utiliz- ceaseless employment in manip- 
 ing instincts ulating the little world in which 
 
 the children live. Knowledge of instinctive tenden- 
 cies will enable a teacher to suggest situations of 
 action in the course of which educative problems 
 arise. After all, what is desired in teaching is that 
 the pupils study and think and acquire habits of 
 industry. The method that best accomplishes this 
 
30 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 is the one to follow. If children work vigorously 
 when organized to carry out plans that appeal to 
 their native instincts the result in acquisition of 
 knowledge and in training is not less valuable be- 
 cause the children study willingly and find pleasure 
 in what they are doing. It is obvious that adven- 
 tures in the real sense of the word may sometimes 
 be freighted with educational problems, but all ac- 
 tivities which the pupils manage, share in the spirit 
 of adventure and to that extent break the monotony 
 of routine work and satisfy their need for action. 
 
 In an investigation of the truant schools of Bos- 
 ton the writer found boys who had run away from 
 
 _ other schools waiting at the door 
 
 Reasons for sue- . , .., * 
 
 cessful truant a full half-hour before the teacher 
 
 came. When asked the reason, 
 the teacher smiled and said she thought it was be- 
 cause they were allowed to think and act instead 
 of imitating the thoughts and actions of those who 
 believed they knew a better way. The same ques- 
 tion has recently been put by Philip Davis, director 
 of the Boston Civic Service House, and he finds 
 the answer to be that the ideal truant school "pays 
 closer attention to the interests, activities, feelings 
 and emotions of the child because, in short, it has 
 organized a school-life, the keynote of which is ac- 
 tion rather than studies."* This does not mean 
 that studies are to be neglected. They are not neg- 
 lected in the Boston Truant Schools. The differ- 
 * Boston Transcript, Aug. 16, 1913. 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 31 
 
 ence lies in the way in which they are studied, 
 whether in a manner that gives the children free- 
 dom to think, originate, investigate and act, or in 
 the imitative way of "learning lessons." 
 
 We have found that this same spontaneity on the 
 part of children is aroused by heeding racial calls 
 Transference of f various sorts. At bottom, 
 enthusiasm though, these instincts are the 
 
 same the tendency to contrive with mind or hand 
 and then to do what one has thought. If it is the 
 instincts usually associated with primitive man that 
 receive attention, as in sports and handicrafts, the 
 enthusiasm awakened may be transferred to other 
 work, to the studies of the school, because the chil- 
 dren then have fellowship with the teacher. He has 
 met their needs and they respond. 
 
 It is not in quantity of knowledge that children 
 chiefly differ from adults. The stuff from which their 
 
 , thoughts and feelings are made is 
 Difference in mind ,.. 
 
 content of chil- different Widely varying expe- 
 dren and adults r j ence cuts away tfae common 
 
 ground of understanding. Men of different nation- 
 alities can not get one another's points of view. It 
 is no wonder, then, that children, having had none 
 of the experiences of adults, regard them as a pe- 
 culiar people with strange ideas who are always 
 urging conduct and habits and studies in which the 
 youngsters see no value. "To them (the children) 
 the inhabited world is composed of the two main 
 divisions: children and upgrown people; the latter 
 
32 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 in no way superior to the former only hopelessly 
 different"* 
 
 Why should children be expected to understand 
 the importance of knowledge when the need for it 
 has not yet arisen? One of the problems of the 
 teacher is to produce situations in which this need 
 will be a recurring factor, and the conditions that 
 meet this educational requirement are those in which 
 the children are the planners and the workers. In 
 short, they are situations of action. 
 
 Before this cooperative planning can be effective, 
 however, it is necessary to bridge the chasm that 
 
 separates the thoughts and feel- 
 Instmcts as start- . J 
 
 ing-point for mgs of children from those of 
 
 interest ^ teac h en When one looks over 
 
 the field for teachers in schools and social organiza- 
 tions who have won the interest of their children, 
 one invariably finds that the method used took ac- 
 count of racial instincts. The "adventures/' as we 
 have called these activities for want of a better 
 name, have supplied a motive for situations out of 
 which a consciously felt need for knowledge grew. 
 The children took an interest in the problems be- 
 cause they arose in the progress of what they were 
 trying to do; and they wanted to do the things be- 
 cause they gave opportunity for action, for plan- 
 ning and for managing. There is no artifice about 
 this. It is simply starting from the racial heritage 
 which children have in common. 
 * Kenneth Grahame's Golden Age. 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 33 
 
 This open relationship between teacher and pupil, 
 besides connecting with the studies of the school, 
 
 prevents the feelings and emo- 
 Importance of ac- . ... . 
 
 tion for healthy tions from striking in and mak- 
 cmotions ; ng the children w i t hdraw within 
 
 themselves. Emotions to be healthy must be ex- 
 pressed in action. They are certain to find some 
 exit, and when free action is suppressed they are 
 likely to find their satisfaction in secret ways that 
 develop unhealthy motives for thought and will. 
 
 When once this frank agreement on mutual inter- 
 ests has been reached, the skilful teacher may lead 
 Unlimited oppor- his pupils where he wishes. The 
 tunity for teachers gu if between mature and imma- 
 ture thoughts and feelings has been spanned, and 
 now the interests of the pupils can be broadened. 
 Perhaps it was knowledge of this fact that led Pad- 
 dy Byrne to regale Oliver Goldsmith with stories 
 of adventures, smugglers, robbers and pirates as a 
 preliminary to something else. At any rate he suc- 
 ceeded after Dame Delap had called Oliver the dull- 
 est boy she had ever tried to teach. 
 
 "Adventures," however, have a value beyond 
 their service in arousing enthusiasm for the studies 
 
 _, of the school. They afford an 
 
 Experience in J 
 
 terms of ad- understanding of human actions 
 
 which can not be learned in books, 
 and those who have not had them in their boyhood 
 are later at a disadvantage in dealing with men. "I 
 had a boy's love for adventure/' writes a young busi- 
 
34 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 ness man, "but the spirit to do things was so sup- 
 pressed that it had to satisfy itself with visionary 
 dreams rather than in those natural activities to 
 which it should have been directed. My parents 
 fitted up a fine workshop, which I never used ex- 
 cept under protest, and bought squirrels, dogs and, 
 finally, a saddle pony. These gave me pleasure, but 
 they did not make up for the experiences which 
 every boy craves and should have. My teachers 
 were entirely unconscious of my boyish thoughts 
 and enthusiasm. They gave me no encouragement 
 to engage in even school athletics. Any summary 
 of my boyhood experiences can only be a confes- 
 sion of a life of continued monotony, and I believe 
 that in consequence of this lack of adventures my 
 initiative, resourcefulness, self-reliance and the abil- 
 ity to be a good 'mixer' and judge of men have been 
 permanently impaired." Compare this last state- 
 ment with that of another business man who writes : 
 "Some of the things which I did in the spirit of 
 adventure are of more advantage to me to-day in 
 business than anything I learned in school." 
 
 Education is more than schooling. It calls for 
 the development of all the latent powers of child- 
 c . . hood, and the primitive instincts 
 
 are among the resources at the 
 disposal of the teacher. By utilizing them they be- 
 come allies for promoting growth, instead of ob- 
 stacles to be overcome, and the enthusiasm created 
 by their recognition as springs of action in the young 
 
THE REVOLT FROM MONOTONY 35 
 
 f 
 
 gives a zest to work that makes it pleasant, though 
 not easy. We shall endeavor to indicate some of 
 the ways in which teachers have combined the spirit 
 of adventure with the work of the school, but first 
 it is important to consider certain characteristics of 
 efficient teaching. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 EFFICIENT TEACHING 
 
 WE have been told that the education of a 
 child should begin with his grandparents. 
 Yes, that is true, only it is with the grandparents of 
 
 the future children that we must 
 Difficulty of de- 
 
 fining human start with the children who are 
 
 efficiency j n schoo j now> The difficulty in 
 
 falling back on heredity is not our ignorance of its 
 laws. Investigations are daily making those clearer. 
 The trouble is in deciding what makes an efficient 
 man or woman. Of course certain things are clear 
 enough. We know, for example, that honesty, in- 
 dustry and perseverance are essential, but many 
 men possess all these and yet lack efficiency. Hu- 
 man efficiency is too complex to be defined in such 
 limited terms. 
 
 Educating men is an altogether different propo- 
 sition from training animals. In the case of dogs, 
 
 for instance, we know exactly 
 Difference be- . . 
 
 tween human and what we want. If it IS a certain 
 
 animal educability kind of hunting dog which we are 
 after, we obtain an animal whose ancestors through 
 many generations have been accustomed to do what 
 
 36 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 37 
 
 we want done and train him vigorously in the acts 
 required for success. Police dogs are another illus- 
 tration. Their new work differs only moderately 
 from the things in which their ancestors were pro- 
 ficient. But if this principle had been followed 
 would Robert Browning have been selected in ad- 
 vance for the work in which he so splendidly ex- 
 celled? Browning is not an isolated case. Read 
 the lives of the ancestors of men and women who 
 have achieved fame, and see how many of these 
 eminent persons you would have selected in their 
 childhood for success in their later work. Some of 
 these ancestors will not stand investigation. Then, 
 too, the children of eminent men and women are 
 often disappointingly inefficient. 
 
 It is not the purpose of this chapter to oppose the 
 principle of eugenics. Mutations, however, are 
 First essential of probably no less common in hu- 
 efficient teaching man beings than among the lower 
 animals, and "sports," which are only isolated cases 
 of mutations, are sufficiently numerous among geni- 
 uses to attract attention. Perhaps the frequency of 
 sports is the cause of much which has been writ- 
 ten about genius and insanity. We know now, as 
 the result of Burbank's work, that the first condi- 
 tion of variability is the breaking up of specific hab- 
 its. When this state of instability has been attained 
 new variations may be expected and then if condi- 
 tions are favorable for a definite kind of variation 
 that particular change is likely to occur. Encourag- 
 
38 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 ing variations and recognizing them when they occur 
 is, in the opinion of the writer, the first essential of 
 efficient teaching. Let us inquire a little more def- 
 initely into the meaning of this. 
 
 It is, of course, admitted that we must take chil- 
 dren as they are. Complaint that they were not 
 Two methods of born right avails nothing. They 
 approach to task are t he raw material which must 
 be worked up by the schools. Now there are at 
 least two widely different ways of approaching our 
 task. We may decide just what sort of men and 
 women we would like to make out of them and then 
 regulate their "going and coming" by assignments 
 of work, by rules and prohibitions with a view to 
 developing our ideal type of adults. Or, again, in- 
 stead of settling at the start the kind of men and 
 women we will make our pupils into, we may sup- 
 ply incentives for the development of various sorts 
 of ability. To illustrate our point somewhat rough- 
 ly, if we were to rear a strange animal with whose 
 habits of eating we were unacquainted, we should 
 scatter various kinds of food before it to learn 
 which it would select. This, indeed, is exactly our 
 method when we read aloud to children from differ- 
 ent books, taking care to stop each time at some 
 interesting place to see which book is sufficiently 
 absorbing for them to wish to continue it by them- 
 selves. 
 
 I am aware that one rarely adopts the first meth* 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 39 
 
 od as consciously as 'did Austin Feverel for his son 
 Faults of first Richard. Our ideals are usually 
 method acquired unconsciously and our 
 
 actions are made to fit them with quite as little de- 
 liberate intention. The instruction which we have 
 received in preparation for our work, the ideas of 
 discipline acquired, the pressure of the community, 
 or, still more often, perhaps, the line of least resist- 
 ance, draw us unconsciously to the adoption of the 
 first method as a plan of action. But, besides the 
 fact that there are many ways of being efficient, this 
 method ignores the individual traits of children, and 
 it does not draw out their abilities because it makes 
 no appeal to their inherited and acquired character- 
 istics. 
 
 Children must, of course, be held to certain re- 
 quirements. They should be punctual, studious and 
 A paradox and orderly. There are, however, 
 an explanation many ways in which these quali- 
 ties may be taught. To command that they be ob- 
 served, with punishment for failure, is the sim- 
 plest and the most primitive plan of action. 
 Whether its results be good or bad depends upon 
 the natures of the children to whom it is applied. 
 The best that can be said for this method is that it 
 is successful for those who are suited to it. As far 
 as this statement has any meaning at all, it repeats 
 what has already been said: i. e., that the efficient 
 method is the one adapted to the individual traits 
 
40 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 of children. I admit that this view throws aside 
 all rules of action in the schoolroom, and leaves the 
 solution of the problem to the teacher's interpreta- 
 tion of the individual peculiarities of his different 
 pupils. But this is as it should be. The only rule 
 that can be given is to follow no rule. To be even 
 more paradoxical, probably the safest way to attain 
 this state of freedom is through rules. This is true 
 at least for those who are versatile enough to pre- 
 vent a method from becoming habitual, for it is a 
 great advantage to have experienced the failure of 
 the rule-of-thumb plan of "teaching school." One 
 is then prepared to appreciate the difference be- 
 tween the output of mechanically directed study and 
 spontaneous diligence. It is the same with the 
 method of the recitation. The first thing to do is 
 to get a method and the second is to discard it. A 
 teacher, for example, is unfortunate not to have 
 been caught by some of the many systems of teach- 
 ing arithmetic, but it would be fatal to his own 
 progress and that of his pupils to be held by them. 
 
 Rules are intended for the preliminary stage 
 when one is learning to judge situations. As a 
 An illustration of matter of fact, no two situations 
 good judgment are exac tly alike and intelligence 
 is displayed in distinguishing essential differences 
 from the non-essential and in modifying one's acts 
 accordingly. An illustration from an actual school 
 occurrence will make this clear. A teacher in a 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 41 
 
 country school was accustomed to keep her red 
 sweater in the cloak-room of the building for use 
 on cold days. One morning on arriving at the 
 building she found that it had been hung from the 
 middle of the ceiling of the schoolroom. In addi- 
 tion to this ornamentation the top of the clock was 
 decorated with a pair of shoes kept at the school 
 by one of the girls who was obliged to travel a 
 wet, muddy road. The teacher paid no attention 
 to either and everything went on as usual. At 
 recess the janitor asked her in the presence of sev- 
 eral boys if he should take them down. "Oh, no," 
 was the reply, "the children like to have them there 
 and they do no harm." 
 
 A classical example of this same adaptation to 
 the situation is found in an anecdote of Frederick 
 An example of the Great. After his exhaustive 
 wise adaptability wars h e felt obliged to introduce 
 a severe and unpopular system of collecting taxes. 
 His tax-gatherers searched private houses so dili- 
 gently that the people called them cellar-rats. One 
 day, while riding through Berlin, Frederick came 
 upon a crowd of people looking at a picture high 
 up on a wall. As he came near, he saw that it 
 was a caricature of himself, as a miser, grinding 
 coffee. "Hang it lower," he cried to his groom, "so 
 that the people need not break their necks looking 
 at it." Immediately a cheer burst from the crowd 
 and the picture was torn into a thousand pieces. 
 
4 2 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 The illustrations which we have given show 
 the response may be made to fit a situation and 
 
 the desired result be thereby at- 
 priSeto tained - The Principle, however, 
 teacher adapta- applies also to the varying ways 
 
 in which different pupils should 
 be dealt with to obtain the best of which they are 
 capable. This may be shown by an instance re- 
 ported to the writer the not infrequent case of a 
 solitary boy in the senior class of a high school. 
 He became discouraged because the girls made bet- 
 ter grades than he. By observing him, and through 
 conversation, his teacher found that he had no con- 
 fidence in his ability. Finally, he decided to with- 
 draw from school, and then his teacher, having in- 
 duced him to stay a little longer, decided to try a dif- 
 ferent method with him from the one she thought 
 advantageous to the other members of the class. She 
 had discovered that he was fond of writing poetry, 
 so she asked the entire class to write sonnets for 
 the following day. As she had expected, Frank's 
 poem was much better than any of the others and 
 he became quite a hero in the class. This increased 
 his self-respect so much that he began to study with 
 renewed vigor. He had found that he could do 
 at least one thing better than his classmates. In 
 a few days the other members of the class returned 
 to the work which seemed more profitable for them 
 and Frank became the poet. He studied the various 
 kinds of verse and read about authors until finally, 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 43 
 
 as usually happens under skilful guidance, his in- 
 terest spread to prose literature as well and, as 
 his teacher puts it in her letter, "he became a live 
 wire in the literature class/' 
 
 Another instance, illustrating the same principle 
 in a different way, was shown in the treatment of 
 Another illustra- a b 7 * n the first year class of 
 tion from a school a h j g h school. He saw "no 
 
 good" in any of his studies. He was going to be 
 a farmer, he said, and what was the good of all 
 "those things"? His teacher discovered one sub- 
 ject which he did not exactly "hate" and that was 
 the composition part of English grammar, and he 
 also wrote fairly well. So she suggested that he 
 be appointed "reporter" for the school. It was his 
 duty to go around to the different rooms each week 
 and gather items which he arranged and edited 
 for the town paper. This constituted a part of 
 his class work. He soon found that a knowledge 
 of the technical parts of grammar was of advantage 
 in his writing and so his narrow interest widened. 
 Before long he saw that information about other 
 things than grammar was needed for an "editor." 
 Interesting experiments in the laboratories, facts 
 about earlier investigators and their work, and 
 many other bits of knowledge came to his attention 
 and aroused his curiosity beyond their use for the 
 items in the village paper. As a result his interest 
 spread to all the studies of the school, because, at 
 last, he saw their use. To return, now, for a 
 
44 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 moment to the paradoxical statement above that the 
 best rule for the teacher to follow is to have no 
 rule, the writer ventures to ask what rule could 
 have been given for guidance in these instances 
 beyond saying that the individual peculiarities of 
 each child should determine the plan to follow? 
 This, of course, makes every pupil a special "case" 
 requiring a different rule of action. 
 
 It would be a mistake, however, to assume that 
 this view reduces education to the vagaries of law- 
 Flexibility of kss caprice. The practice of 
 method is not medicine did not become a science 
 until physicians saw that the same 
 outward manifestation might be caused by widely 
 different organic or functional disorders. As long 
 as fever, for example, was regarded as a specific 
 disease requiring one definite sort of treatment, little 
 progress in medicine could be made. To-day, when 
 different prescriptions are given for "fever," we 
 do not say that the practice of medicine is governed 
 by no law. The recognition of various causes for 
 this symptom of internal disorders marked the be- 
 ginning of law in the treatment of diseases; and 
 it is the same in education. If the teacher is not 
 always treating a mind diseased he is, at any rate, 
 dealing with minds affected by bodily and mental 
 conditions which cause the "peculiarities" that make 
 the trouble. Constant suspicion of kindly acts, for 
 example, may be caused by the treatment received 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 45 
 
 at home or by a misunderstanding of the teacher's 
 motives, and persistent annoyance by a pupil may 
 be due to either of these or many other causes. 
 Indolence, again, is often traced to bodily condi- 
 tion, such as eye-strain, but quite as frequently to 
 interests of which the school takes no account. 
 These are a few of the many examples which might 
 be given to illustrate what is meant. It is obvious 
 that always to apply the same treatment to "indo- 
 lence" would be a professional blunder quite com- 
 parable with the "criminal carelessness" which 
 sometimes brings physicians before a court of jus- 
 tice. 
 
 We have been trying to show the need of dis- 
 covering the causes of failure to respond to oppor- 
 
 _, tunities for learning: and for do- 
 
 Two guiding prin- 
 ciples in efficient ing, as well as to urge the right 
 teaching of eyery child tQ haye h j s type 
 
 of mind considered in his teaching. It was the 
 latter that prompted Voltaire to exclaim, with his 
 characteristic vividness, "Everybody must jump 
 after his own fashion." These guiding principles 
 to find the cause of failure and to deal with 
 individual personalities, instead of with the abstract 
 child are the beginning of efficient teaching. As 
 for the rest, the method followed should be directed 
 toward fixing habits of behavior and of clear think- 
 ing; and here we come upon a significant educa- 
 tional fact. 
 
46 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Children are the most adaptive creatures in the 
 world. They are more clever at adaptation than 
 
 any of the lower animals because 
 Connection be- Xl 1 . , t1 . TJ - 
 
 tween adaptation the 7 have more intelligence. 
 and economy a teacher varies his requirements 
 
 for the same children in different 
 classes, being lax in one and adhering rigorously 
 to his demands in the other, the children will adapt 
 themselves quite contentedly to the contradictory 
 situations. It is a common experience, for example, 
 to have the same pupils careful of their spelling 
 in papers for the spelling class and neat as well 
 as thoughtful of the English in their compositions 
 but careless of all three in arithmetic and geogra- 
 phy. Adaptation is fitting into requirements, and 
 the "fitting" is usually done with the most econom- 
 ical expenditure of energy. Economy of effort re- 
 quires intelligence and that is the reason why chil- 
 dren are so proficient in it. One of the advantages 
 that goes with being man instead of dog is ability 
 to economize effort ; and we can not blame children 
 for enjoying one of the prerogatives of their genus. 
 Pupils do not usually make these adaptations 
 consciously. It is the line of least resistance that 
 
 is followed. For, as Rousseau 
 
 uncons e c"ious lon g a S remarked, not even chil- 
 adaptation and dren wish to take unnecessary 
 bad habits f , _ , . . e 
 
 trouble. On this account, if more 
 
 effort is needed to evade tasks than to do them 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 47 
 
 the worlc will be done. And so penalties are im- 
 posed in the effort to increase the difficulties of 
 escaping work. Unfortunately, however, by the 
 time the teacher has decided to inflict the penalty 
 the children have already made their adaptation 
 to a lower degree of efficiency. As a result of this 
 delay the situation is greatly complicated. It is 
 now not merely a question of promoting adaptation 
 but of breaking up bad habits and forcing readapta- 
 tions to a new requirement. And that is much 
 harder to accomplish. 
 
 The cause of much of the difficulty in securing 
 good habits of work in school is that the require- 
 
 _ ments are irregularly and inter- 
 
 Teacher's respon- * 
 
 sibility in forma- mittently enforced. To-day they 
 are kindly but severely insisted on 
 and to-morrow the demand is relaxed. So the chil- 
 dren are kept in uncertainty about what is ex- 
 pected. They do not know to what they should 
 adapt themselves, and desiring, as we have said, 
 to go to no unnecessary trouble, they do not adapt 
 themselves to any definite requirement. In other 
 words, they drift into indolence. The statement 
 that children do not wish to go to unnecessary 
 trouble seems to imply deliberate action. This fru- 
 gality of effort, however, is largely physiological. 
 It is economy in organic action. Nature is rarely 
 extravagant in her expenditure of energy. 
 
 Sentimentality, again, has replaced the stern dis- 
 
48 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 cipline of former days and in the attempt to make 
 Danger from work pleasant it is often made 
 
 sentimentality too easy, though the two terms 
 
 are by no means synonymous. Consequently, the 
 children adapt themselves to a comfortable, effort- 
 less mode of study which brings, at best, only a 
 confused conglomeration of facts. But suddenly 
 the teacher awakens to the fact that his pupils are 
 merely committing their lessons to memory and 
 doing even that indifferently. Therefore, being a 
 conscientious teacher*, he tries to enforce a little 
 real thinking. But now the tables are turned. For 
 the difficulties in the way of reversing the children's 
 habits of work are almost insurmountable and, after 
 days of fruitless effort, the teacher yields to the 
 inevitable and adapts himself to their requirements 
 instead of making them meet his. 
 
 The trouble lies in not starting right. Adapta- 
 tion is an unvarying law of nature. It is certain 
 The importance to occur. The question then is 
 of beginnings to w h a t conditions shall the 
 adaptation be made? If teachers begin their year's 
 work with certain requirements, kindly but firmly 
 enforced, the pupils will adapt themselves to the 
 demands; but there must be no relaxation in the 
 requirements until the adaptation becomes a habit. 
 For this reason it is of the greatest importance 
 that the program of action be carefully thought 
 out. Only requirements essential to success in the 
 daily work should be made. The children are in 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 49 
 
 school to study and to think, and certain conditions 
 are necessary. Rules not vital to the work in hand 
 are sometimes given. They were made in a mo- 
 ment of irritation at interruption and were never 
 intended for serious enforcement. An illustration 
 will make this clear. A teacher is busy with a class 
 and one of the children at study crosses the room 
 to get a ruler. The teacher is disturbed and says 
 at once that no one may leave his seat without per- 
 mission. He does not mean it, or would not did 
 he but think, for he does not wish pupils to sit 
 idle for want of a ruler or a pencil which might 
 be obtained easily and quickly, nor does he desire 
 many requests for permission to do what might 
 be done with less disturbance by saying nothing. 
 Therefore he does not enforce the rule. 
 
 The fewer rules laid down the better, but those 
 which are made should be vital to the work and 
 The importance no exception should ever be per- 
 of few rules mitted. Then the children will 
 
 adapt themselves to the requirements. It is an old 
 story that a colt which has run away once is rarely 
 altogether safe. Adaptation to bit and rein has 
 been disturbed and an opposing habit started. And 
 so it is with children, though here resistance to the 
 adaptation, when once a break occurs, is even 
 greater because they are more conscious of their 
 possibilities. 
 
 All habits are adaptations, and the habit of dis- 
 criminative thinking is no exception. Children will 
 
50 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 A test of habits use rt^ 1 " knowledge to verify or 
 of thinking deny new statements if they have 
 
 been trained to do so from the beginning. Other- 
 wise they will not, because selective thinking re- 
 quires effort which they will not needlessly expend. 
 Accepting each statement, even those contradictory 
 to facts already learned or meaningless, is much 
 easier. The principal of a large public school told 
 the writer that he became convinced that the chil- 
 dren were not paying attention to what the teacher 
 said, or taking interest enough in it to understand 
 the instruction. So he planned a test, first warning 
 the teachers lest their faces betray him. He went 
 into each room of the eight grades, except the first, 
 and gave a short talk ending with: "Now I want 
 each one of you to promise to sagitate your consti- 
 tution every week." 
 
 As he expected, not a hand was raised for per- 
 mission to ask a question, until he reached the sev- 
 enth grade, when one boy's hand flew up. The prin- 
 cipal thought that he was caught this time, but when 
 he gave permission to speak, the boy, with the air 
 of consciousness that he always did the right thing, 
 said: "I did mine yesterday." When the writer 
 repeated this to a class of teachers riot long ago, 
 one of the members doubted whether his pupils 
 could be deceived so easily. They were taught to 
 think, he said. He consented, however, to make 
 the test, and the following week admitted with some 
 chagrin that "it worked." 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING '51 
 
 Children can be trained to think provided the 
 conditions to which adaptation is enforced require 
 More about train- thinking. Miss Earhart* put sev- 
 ing m thinking era j c i as ses under special training 
 to test this possibility and found, as a result of 
 the experiment, that "pupils in the elementary 
 schools in grades including the fourth, as well 
 as higher classes, are able not only to employ the 
 factors of logical study but also that By means qf 
 systematic effort they can be made to improve in 
 their employment of them/' These tests showed 
 quite conclusively that children can gather data 
 from outside sources and use the material intelli- 
 gently. They can also "be trained to see the impor- 
 tant points in a lesson and to group the related ideas 
 about these centers." 
 
 Miss Earhart then proceeded to find out whether 
 children are taught to think in school. She tested 
 A test which more than a thousand pupils in 
 
 shows children are the sixth and seventh grades, and 
 
 not taught to think ,, ,. , . . , , - ,, 
 
 the questions which she used dealt 
 
 with geography. These tests failed to "reveal any 
 power the children in these classes may possess of 
 seeing discrepancies between what they read and 
 what they know." They did not show any power 
 in the children to doubt on the basis of known facts. 
 The children were usually unable to discover what 
 the lesson was about; but her experiment proved 
 that they are capable of thinking and that they will 
 
 * Teaching Children to Study. 
 
S* LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 do so if 'daily they are held to the requirement. 
 "If enough pupils use the various factons of proper 
 study to show that it is possible for children of their 
 age to employ them, the questions arise," continues 
 Miss Earhart, "why do not more of the pupils use 
 them? .Why are they not in common use?" 
 To answer these questions she visited some seventy 
 classes in various parts of the United States and 
 sent a questionnaire to one hundred and sixty-five 
 teachers to learn their ideas regarding study and 
 to ascertain what they try to have their pupils do 
 when they teach them to study. Another question- 
 naire was sent to principals of schools to be filled 
 out after certain recitations had been observed. 
 "Careful examination of the results of the observa- 
 tions and of both questionnaires compelled the con- 
 clusion that, although pupils possess ability to 
 employ the various factors of proper study, the 
 teachers lack a clear conception of what such study 
 is." They "tend to exact memorizing." 
 
 That children study words rather than thoughts 
 was the conclusion of an investigation made by 
 An investigation Miss Martha Baldwin.* They 
 and its conclusions stu( j y j n a mec hanical way which 
 
 enables them to say that they have studied the 
 lesson the required length of time. "They read the 
 words over and over, and doubtless got more con- 
 fused the more they read." The investigation shows 
 loss of time, the acquisition of bad habits of study 
 * Archives of Psychology, No. 12, March, 1909. 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 53 
 
 by mind-wandering, memorizing of words without 
 understanding the thought, and lack of concentra- 
 tion. 
 
 Reavis,* in his study of pupils in the grades, 
 found that children do not know how to acquire 
 Another efficient habits of work. They do 
 
 investigation not ^now what habits are efficient. 
 
 Well intentioned children often go blundering along, 
 adopting finally, perhaps, a lazy, loose habit of 
 work, or they acquire no habit except that of mind- 
 wandering, catching an idea now and then during 
 the lucid intervals between the flight of pleasanter 
 ideas. Pupils' habits of study, Reavis says, may 
 be analyzed, the individual weaknesses discovered, 
 and the teacher will then know when and how con- 
 sciously to plan to strengthen or inhibit certain 
 habits. But this, of course, implies that the teacher 
 first learn how to study. 
 
 This problem of producing a body of pupil work- 
 ers is, of course, fundamental to good teaching. 
 A gage of The reason for the emphasis on 
 
 good teaching recognition of individual traits 
 of children, in the early part of this chapter, was 
 that such recognition tends to promote study. It 
 matters not how well a subject may be presented, 
 the result will be unimportant unless the pupils 
 react, and the measure of their reaction is the 
 strength of their desire to find out something more 
 
 * Elementary School Teacher, Vol. 12, p. 71 ; School Re- 
 view, Vol. 19, p. 398. 
 
54 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 about the matter for themselves. If this desire 
 is so irresistible that it drives them to reference 
 books for further information, the recitation has 
 been a success. Moreover, they should be able to 
 distinguish between confused and clear knowledge, 
 and they do not make this distinction when they 
 are satisfied with merely "learning" the lesson. Un- 
 less their study starts questions that will not remain 
 unanswered the success of the work with them 
 may be doubted. 
 
 Grappling with a puzzling question may be made 
 quite as exciting for a boy as an involved "play" 
 The use of a ^ football. Children are over- 
 
 study program flowing with curiosity for ex- 
 planations and if the demand for answers to their 
 torrent of queries ends at the entrance to the 
 schoolroom the teacher may well examine himself 
 and his method for the cause. And yet a super- 
 intendent, who has evidently given a good deal of 
 attention to the conditions prevailing in the schools, 
 says that "every term a great number of pupils are 
 passed from the grammar schools into the high 
 schools, and many of them are absolutely ignorant 
 as to what it means to grapple with an intellectual 
 problem. Unless some high-school teacher is wise 
 and sympathetic enough to help them find out how 
 to study, they flounder around helplessly for a 
 few months, or at most a year or two, finally to 
 drop out, disgusted with school, books, teacher and 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 55 
 
 education, because they never really learned how 
 to work."* As an illustration of how weak a 
 hold questions and problems often have on children, 
 this superintendent goes on* to say that on one 
 occasion he observed that a large proportion of the 
 pupils in his school studied three or four lessons 
 during one hour. "These pupils thought they had 
 prepared their lessons for the entire day in one 
 study period. The rest of their time that was not 
 spent in recitation was wasted in looking around, 
 talking, writing notes and in other kinds of idle- 
 ness. ... A few tests brought out the fact that 
 many of our pupils did not know how to study. 
 They worked well while tasks were easy, but when 
 difficulties were encountered in the work on which 
 they were engaged it was dropped at once and a 
 new task was sought." Surely no one will maintain 
 that this pen sketch of a schoolroom exaggerates the 
 conditions. 
 
 An attempt has recently been made to ascertain 
 the extent to which high-school children understand 
 An experiment and act on suggestions. The ex- 
 in suggestion periment was made on a first year 
 
 mathematics class, t The suggestions were given one 
 morning with unusual care. "The pupils were then 
 told that the next fifteen minutes would be given to 
 studying the lesson, and that they should begin 
 
 * The Importance of a Study-Program 'for High School 
 Pupils, by W. C. Reavis. School Review, Vol. 19, p. 398. 
 
 t Teaching High School Pupils How to Study, by Ernest 
 R. Breslich, School Review, Vol. 20, p. 505. 
 
56 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 the assigned work immediately. The experiment 
 showed at once that the pupils did not appreciate 
 the value of limited time, for all were slow in begin- 
 ning. It took some of them the whole fifteen min- 
 utes to go through the technique of getting started. 
 Several evidently were not in the habit of working 
 alone, for they looked about helplessly and simply 
 imitated the others. However, these same pupils 
 had come to the class room daily with their lessons 
 well prepared. Very little was accomplished in the 
 fifteen minutes, indicating that the pupils very prob- 
 ably wasted much time in studying their assign- 
 ments of home work. Although the class had been 
 in the high school only a short time, the teacher had 
 been presupposing a habit of study which did not 
 exist." The pupils who were helpless in their work 
 and simply imitated the others, yet daily came with 
 lessons apparently well prepared, probably received 
 injudicious help at home. 
 
 The results of home work were investigated by 
 the writer from whom we have been quoting. Two 
 
 Results of an in- dasses > One a Iittle . weaker than 
 vestigation of the other but taking the same 
 home work wor ^ were gelected f or the ex _ 
 
 periment. The weaker class, without home work 
 assignment, studied under supervision in the school 
 and the stronger class was given home work accord- 
 ing to the usual custom of the school. The subse- 
 quent tests showed that the weaker class under su- 
 pervised study excelled the stronger class without 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 57 
 
 supervised study but with daily home worE Sev- 
 eral of the lowest in the weaker division brought 
 their standing up to a creditable grade. "Both 
 classes accomplished the same work within the reg- 
 ulation time although the weaker section did no 
 home work and the stronger spent (or was sup- 
 posed to spend) an hour and fifteen minutes daily 
 on the assigned lesson." 
 
 Under the usual system of instruction the teacher 
 is likely to use most of the time in testing the pupils' 
 Need of more knowledge and in imparting new 
 pupil initiative knowledge. The pupils follow his 
 questions and explanations and, having good mem- 
 ories, they are able to give back in a more or less 
 disjointed, if not distorted, form much of what they 
 hear and learn; but all observations of the ways in 
 which children study seem to indicate that there is 
 little personal reaction. They do not learn by do- 
 ing. Frank McMurry found that they have little, 
 if any, initiative. "It was their custom (in the 
 classes under observation) to wait for assistance 
 and direction even to sit down and it was a cus- 
 tom so well established that five weeks of daily 
 work with them in history and geography, with the 
 avowed object of breaking it up, only barely began 
 a reform. . . . Who will assert that such lack 
 of initiative is natural?"* Adaptation to the school 
 habit of awaiting help had evidently become too 
 firmly fixed to be cured by five weeks of treatment. 
 
 *Hvw to Study and Teaching How to Study. 
 
58 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 The absence of all incentives to even the simplest 
 kind of originality is one of the common criticisms 
 
 of the recent educational surveys. 
 Reports of school . J 
 
 surveys on The pupils are doing too little 
 
 initiative studying and thinking and too 
 
 much getting of lessons and reciting," according 
 to the report on the East Orange (New Jersey) 
 schools ; in the high schools of Vermont, the inves- 
 tigators of the Carnegie Foundation noticed that 
 the responses were "slow and furtive"; answers 
 had to be "pumped or suggested." There was no 
 spontaneous reaction to the content of the lesson; 
 and, again, in Ohio, the State School Survey Com- 
 mission says that "insufficient attention is p^id in 
 all types of schools to developing the pupil's power 
 of initiative, the capacity for team work, and of 
 habits of study and cooperation." In summarizing, 
 the report adds that "the most common fault of 
 teaching observed in thirteen hundred eighty-five 
 complete exercises were, teaching from the book 
 exclusively, leading questions, and unnecessary tell- 
 ing" by the teacher, all of which, of course, pre- 
 vents the growth of initiative because the method 
 offers no stimulation to original effort. 
 
 The evidence from these various experiments and 
 investigations indicates that pupils do not know how 
 Conclusions from to study and that some of the time 
 these experiments spent j n "hearing lessons" might 
 be better employed in helping them learn this art. 
 The reform, however, should begin with the first 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 59 
 
 day of school when the teacher is new and, for that 
 reason, an object of some anxiety. With the appear- 
 ance of "the new teacher" the children are in a state 
 of what may be called expectant equilibrium. They 
 anticipate changes and are more or less prepared to 
 adapt themselves to them. Their habits are in solu- 
 tion, as it were, ready to crystallize into new forms. 
 This is the time when a vigorous personality molds 
 new types of thought and action. 
 
 We have been considering efficiency in teaching 
 from the point of view of the work the pupils do 
 when at their studies. There is, 
 however, another vantage-ground 
 
 the art of from which this same subject may 
 
 questioning . . . 
 
 be observed, and that is the kind 
 
 and number of questions which teachers ask. Obvi- 
 ously, the sort of questions which experience leads 
 children to expect will largely determine their meth- 
 od of study. It is another case of adaptation. As 
 far as possible children fit their study to the ques- 
 tions they expect. If the running-fire method is 
 used, answers of a single word or two will be given 
 and thinking will yield to memory. 
 
 A valuable investigation of the art of question- 
 ing, as it is practised in the schools, has recently 
 An investigation been made by Miss Romiett St- 
 of this art yens.* The investigation covered 
 
 a period of four years and included grades from the 
 
 * The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction, 
 by Romiett Stevens, Columbia University. 
 
60 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 > 
 
 seventfi grammar through the last year of the higK 
 school. Twenty lessons were stenographically re- 
 ported. These reports were afterward submitted; 
 to the teachers of the several classes for correction. 
 In addition to this set of shorthand reports, in each! 
 of which everything said by the teacher and pupils 
 was taken down, two different studies in observa- 
 tion were made. First, a series of one hundred 
 random observations in various subjects of the cur- 
 riculum was made for the purpose of counting and 
 noting the number and nature of the questions 
 asked; and second, a series of observations of ten 
 selected classes, each class being followed through 
 an entire school-day to study the "question-and- 
 answer stimulus in the aggregate as it is adminis- 
 tered to school children daily." On going to a 
 school for the purpose of observing and obtaining 
 stenographic reports the classes of the best teachers 
 were always selected. This detailed statement is 
 given to show that the conclusions are drawn from 
 teaching far above the average of even our best city 
 schools. 
 
 The most profitable questions are, of course, those 
 that come as the result of reflection and which are 
 
 put to obtain information needed 
 The resulting data f ' . , . , < 
 
 in thinking out some problem. 
 
 Naturally, the greater part of these must come from 
 the pupils, and one of the tests of good teaching is 
 the number of such questions. If they are not asked, 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 61 
 
 it is pretty good evidence that there is no think- 
 ing. Now Miss Stevens' stenographic reports show 
 thirty questions of this sort out of a total of two 
 thousand, and some of these thirty were asked by 
 the teachers to ascertain whether note-books were 
 ready. Further, Miss Stevens estimates that among 
 these same two thousand questions there were at 
 most only two or three hundred which might be 
 said to stimulate reflection. But a large proportion 
 of even these questions, she adds, were of the kind 
 represented by "What do you think?" and others 
 of a similar nature. 
 
 Almost total lack of natural questions questions 
 asked because of desire for information needed in 
 Lack of questions thinking was a common fault 
 from pupils found observed by the Ohio State School 
 by school surveys ^ . . rn, -n 
 
 Survey Commission. The Port- 
 land (Oregon) School Survey Committee also found 
 entire absence of originality. "Except in one ex- 
 ercise, in all my visits to grammar-grade rooms," 
 says the investigator, "I heard not a single ques- 
 tion asked by a pupil, not a single remark or com- 
 ment made to indicate that the pupil had any really 
 vital interest in the subject-matter of the exercise; 
 on not a single occasion was there interested dis- 
 agreement and active discussion over any point to 
 show that the pupils were thinking independently." 
 
 Closely connected with the small number of 
 thought-provoking questions which these investiga- 
 
62 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 The danger of tions reveal is the rapidity with 
 rapid questioning w hich Miss Stevens heard ques- 
 tions asked. From two to four a minute was the av- 
 erage during the forty minute periods. Obviously, 
 children will not learn to think when questions are 
 shot at them by this rapid-fire process. There is no 
 inducement to think because the method appeals to 
 verbal memory even associative memory plays lit- 
 tle part and children are very quick to adapt their 
 mode of study to the plan that brings the best im- 
 mediate results. When under fire of questions the 
 best protection is to have the bit of information on 
 the end of the tongue ready to be dropped out, pref- 
 erably in a single word, without the delay of a mo- 
 ment's reflection. 
 
 Even with history, especially suited for training 
 in discriminative judgment, "in the hundreds of 
 Concerning the class rooms where I have made 
 form of questions observations of the questioning," 
 says Miss Stevens, "I have found very few ques- 
 tions so framed by the teachers that they called for 
 any individual judgments. . . . Analysis of the 
 six stenographic reports on history reveals the fact 
 that by classifying, as a judgment question every 
 one that could possibly involve the element of judg- 
 ment the highest attainment is twenty-eight in a 
 total of one hundred and twenty-five, and twenty- 
 nine in a total of one hundred and five, while the 
 lowest record was three in sixty." But Miss Ste- 
 vens further observes, in this connection, "that the 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 63 
 
 judgments were largely upon choice of words with 
 reference to historical interpretation. Removing 
 many of the quoted questions from their history 
 setting, one might as easily believe that they were 
 taken from an English lesson." The Ohio State 
 Survey Commission also found that in the teaching 
 of history "there was little sign of real activity on 
 the part of the pupils, questions of any kind by 
 pupils being extremely rare." 
 
 The amount of time monopolized by teachers was 
 another striking defect in teaching revealed by Miss 
 
 Stevens' investigation. The aver- 
 Concernmg the . . 
 
 monopoly of time age percentage of teacher activity 
 by teachers j n twentv stenographic reports, as 
 
 measured by the number of words spoken, was six- 
 ty-four against thirty-six collective pupil activity. 
 A city superintendent, stirred by the report, in- 
 spected his own schools to see whether it could 
 be possible that his teachers were doing so 
 much of the class work and he estimated the teach- 
 er activity in his schools at from eighty-five to 
 ninety-five per cent, when the teachers were not 
 lecturing. Even in classes in which the number 
 of questions was reduced from four to two or less 
 per minute, the collective pupil activity was only 
 about thirty-seven per cent The children's part in 
 the recitation consisted chiefly in occasionally punc- 
 tuating the teacher's answers and remarks with a 
 word or two. Evidently teachers "carry the ball" 
 too much as a boy once said. Thinking does not 
 
64 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 differ greatly from football in the manner of acquir- 
 ing the art. There is but one way of learning 
 either, and that is by "playing the game" and "play- 
 ing hard." In neither case is skill acquired by sit- 
 ting in the bleachers and watching others. What- 
 ever the occupation the only way to gain proficiency 
 is by actually doing it. Children rarely work harder 
 than the conditions require and if teachers prefer to 
 do the work for them the pupils will not deprive 
 them of the pleasure. 
 
 The problem of efficient teaching is how to force 
 children to think. Work will then take care of it- 
 
 _. self. The desire for answers to 
 Kernel of efficient 
 
 teaching train questions that seem to contradict 
 
 children to think knowledge and experience and 
 
 which will not down until the apparent contradiction 
 has been removed, is what is wanted in the school. 
 When this attitude is produced and responsibility 
 put upon the pupils they develop the power to start 
 things and carry them through. Following a leader, 
 even though that leader be the teacher, tends to take 
 from children whatever latent ability for initiative 
 they may have. This effect has often been observed 
 on adults. A man kept for a number of years in a 
 subordinate position with all his work laid out loses 
 the power to think and act independently. Though 
 pupils adapt themselves to predigested mental nutri- 
 ment yet, in their more serious moments, they rebel. 
 "We don't need to think," said a boy of fourteen, 
 recently, to the writer. "We just follow the book." 
 
EFFICIENT TEACHING 65 
 
 Miss Stevens found this criticism true. "It is the 
 book first and always," she says. Knowledge and 
 experience are not necessarily used just because one 
 has them. Their use must be learned like the han- 
 dling of any other tool ; and skill can be gained only 
 by those who do the things themselves. 
 
 When responsibility is put upon the pupils, when 
 their own thoughts and investigations at home and 
 in the library rank above the text-book and even 
 above the teacher's statements, they will adapt them- 
 selves to thinking, which after all is a pleasant pas- 
 time, and so many questions will arise that the hour 
 will be too short. Then teaching will be efficient, 
 for children will be taught to do their own work 
 "as if you taught them not." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 GETTING RESULTS 
 
 YOU have, I am sure, read the story of Alice in 
 Wonderland, and you will recall that when 
 Alice had lost her way in the maze of wonderful 
 sights she met the Cheshire cat. 
 
 " 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought 
 to go from here ?' said Alice. 
 
 " That depends a good deal on where you want 
 to get to/ said the Cat. 
 
 " 'I don't much care where * said Alice. 
 
 " Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said 
 the Cat. 
 
 " ' so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added 
 as an explanation. 
 
 " 'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if 
 you only walk long enough.' ' 
 
 The Cheshire cat understood the philosophy of 
 good teaching as well as of walking. Fear is often 
 
 Progress through ex P ressed for the welfare of chil - 
 trial and error dren under teachers who are 
 
 trying to "get somewhere" by 
 experiments, but the ones who really need our sym- 
 pathy are those in schools where the same method 
 
 66 
 
GETTING RESULTS 67 
 
 is followed day after day. The teacher who tries 
 new ways may make mistakes, but trial and error 
 are the method of progress. They are also the 
 method of good teaching. 
 
 A few days ago the writer attended a teachers' 
 meeting in which new plans of work were being 
 discussed. 
 
 "I have gone through the whole series of fads/' 
 one teacher said. "I tried them all as fast as they 
 
 Successful experi- came out > and the y a11 failed We 
 ments dependent had better hold to what has stood 
 on mental attitude tfae test Qf time Suppose Ehr . 
 
 lich had said that after trying six hundred and five 
 experiments. He would have missed by a single 
 experiment one of the greatest medical discoveries 
 of the age. After all, success is relative. Were 
 Ehrlich's six hundred and five experiments failures? 
 If they were he would never have attained his goal. 
 For it were folly to think that his discovery was an 
 accident. He learned something from each experi- 
 ment, gradually eliminating one error after another, 
 always mindful of his purpose. And right here we 
 see the reason for the failure of the experiments that 
 the teacher tried. He went through the list as many 
 travelers to Europe "study" art. They visit the 
 galleries, view the paintings starred in Baedecker 
 and pass on. The dividends of experience are al- 
 ways in proportion to what we ourselves invest in 
 the enterprise. Experiments are planned experi- 
 ence and their success requires confidence in the 
 
(58 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 method and enthusiasm for results. One rarely 
 succeeds in doing what one believes will fail. In 
 such cases the mental attitude is in opposition to 
 success. 
 
 Experience that counts is not gained by merely 
 living. Rousseau was right when he said that a man 
 Experience that ma y be buried at the age of a 
 counts hundred years, who really had 
 
 been dead from the hour of his birth. Experience 
 involves interpretation of conditions and situations. 
 Data gathered for the purpose of discovering new 
 meaning becomes, for the thoughtful, data with 
 meaning. But events may come and go and leave 
 no impress. This was the case with a teacher of 
 fifteen years 5 "experience" who recently said to a 
 beginner, "You will not be so enthusiastic about 
 your work when you have taught longer." 
 
 The life of an infant is a "big, blooming, buzzing 
 confusion," William James once remarked. That 
 Education as in- * s what life always is, and educa- 
 terpretation of life t ; on> j n t h e highest sense, is only 
 
 an attempt to bring a little order into this confusion 
 and to clarify it as far as available knowledge per- 
 mits. This involves interpretation, and interpreta- 
 tion requires the accumulation of data for compari- 
 son in order that the essential may be separated from 
 the accidental. Only through the elimination of the 
 unessential factors can we discover cause and effect, 
 and if we do not do this we are only living through 
 the events which would give us experience if rightly 
 
GETTING RESULTS 69 
 
 interpreted. We are not getting experience. Inter- 
 pretation necessitates thinking, which has never 
 been popular because of its difficulty. "I am in- 
 clined to hold that man really thinks very little and 
 very seldom/' said Wundt, not long ago, when com- 
 paring man with the lower animals, and Josh Bill- 
 ings expressed the same conviction in his quaint 
 way when he said, "'Tain't what men don't know 
 that makes trouble in the world, it's what they know 
 for certain that ain't so." 
 
 Teaching is much the same as other occupations. 
 We shall find in a later chapter that business men 
 
 who are satisfied with the old 
 Contentment fatal . , , . , , . . ., , , 
 
 ways of doing things inevitably 
 
 give way to the more progressive. In science no 
 one lasts long who does not seek to add to knowl- 
 edge by investigation and experiments. Content- 
 ment is death. "It is a signe his wits grow short, 
 when he is pleased ; or a signe of wearinesse," said 
 that keen critic of human nature, Montaigne. 
 
 I know that teachers are overworked. They are 
 burdened with classes and teachers' meetings and 
 Exhilaration of reports which are of no use ex- 
 real experiments cept to fill the superintendent's 
 annual report with figures that are never read. A 
 real experiment, however, gives zest to class work 
 and the teacher who is enthusiastic over the results 
 is amazed to find his "wearinesse" gone. Fatigue 
 is quite as often the effect of monotony as of ex- 
 cessive work. In an experiment the children catch 
 
70 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 the enthusiasm of the teacher. Besides, a well 
 planned experiment grows out of the needs of the 
 pupils. Each child then becomes a problem for 
 study instead of a disturbance to be suppressed ; and 
 the solution of every child-problem contributes to 
 the interpretation of the experiment. New plans 
 of conducting classes plans arranged to circum- 
 vent school indolence keep the teacher and pupils 
 active because of the unexpected situations which 
 continually arise under the experimental method. 
 Constant effort to fit the plan to the instinct of 
 children to work out their present salvation their 
 tendency to construct, to direct, to manage, and 
 in their management to reconstruct and improve 
 keeps the teacher alert and the appeal to their 
 native impulses stirs the enthusiasm of the pupils. 
 "The attitude of the teacher as she teaches, of the 
 pupil as he learns," says the Portland report, "is 
 unquestionably of far more importance than is the 
 subject with which they deal ; when passive, neither 
 teachers nor pupils are putting themselves into their 
 work." 
 
 The experiments which follow are not theoretical. 
 They are real. They have been actually tried in 
 
 T schools. In most instances the 
 
 Learning to know 
 
 one's self through writer has corresponded with the 
 teacher in charge to learn some- 
 thing more than mere details. They are offered as 
 examples of how some teachers have tried to vital- 
 ize their work. Every one can not use them. The 
 
GETTING RESULTS 71 
 
 first requirement for success in repeating an experi- 
 ment is like conditions, and adults are not alike. 
 Personality must always enter into the reckoning 
 in computing the reaction of children. I mean the 
 personality of teachers. For the response of groups 
 of children under the same conditions may be fore- 
 told. The unknown quantities, whose values are to 
 be determined, are adults. And, in this human equa- 
 tion these values must be computed in terms of the 
 known quantities children. Such experiments, 
 therefore, perform the further service of helping 
 teachers to know themselves, since one success is 
 all that is needed to justify an experiment. Inabil- 
 ity to repeat what others have done successfully 
 gives occasion to study one's own personality in the 
 light of the facts which the experiment and failure 
 disclose. As an illustration of this method of check- 
 ing up one's idiosyncrasies, the following may be 
 quoted from a letter of a teacher who had tried the 
 same experiment with two classes of about one hun- 
 dred each : 
 
 "What puzzled me was that the two classes re- 
 acted in quite different ways. I am inclined to 
 
 think, however, that the cause lay 
 
 Illustration . , T . / 
 
 m myself; because I think that in 
 
 the second year I unintentionally assumed more au- 
 thority than when trying the plan for the first time. 
 Perhaps, too, the fact that I was quite evidently 
 feeling my way the first year caused the children to 
 take more responsibility on themselves so as to help 
 
72 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 the work along. I shall certainly try it another 
 year." 
 
 Let us now pass to the first of our series of ex- 
 periments. The following is a plan tried in teach- 
 An experiment in ing first year composition in the 
 composition high school.* The early part of 
 
 the work was given to practice in sentence structure, 
 variety of expression, punctuation, capitalization, 
 paragraphing, etc. The material was always taken 
 from the every-day life of the children. In this way 
 straightforward narrative without plot was taught. 
 The experiment itself began with the second term. 
 "In beginning this subject," the teacher continues, 
 "I usually take some narrative of a simple incident, 
 a buggy-ride, for instance. I ask the pupils to in- 
 troduce 'something' that will interfere with the ride. 
 Immediately various obstacles are suggested a 
 piece of paper or an automobile, at which the horse 
 is frightened and before we know it a simple plot 
 is formed of the resulting runaway." 
 
 The teacher then announced to the class that they 
 might write a book on "The Adventures of John- 
 Response of n y>" "Johnny to be a mischievous 
 children sma u b oy and the adventures to be 
 taken from various stages of his career. Each 
 composition one a week that we wrote in this 
 term was to constitute a chapter of the story. . . . 
 There were a few dubious, some superior and many 
 
 * An Experiment in Teaching First-Year Composition, by 
 Margery Gordon,_5V/K?o/ Review, Vol. 14, p. 671. 
 
GETTING RESULTS 73 
 
 apathetic members, but before we reached the end 
 of the 'Johnny' series, out of a class of over a hun- 
 dred there were not more than four or five who 
 were unresponsive. Their delight in creating some- 
 thing in the thought that they were 'authors' 1 
 removed the idea of drudgery which the word com- 
 position is wont to suggest, and gave them an acute 
 interest in the proceedings. 
 
 "In the first of the series, 'Johnny's First Battle/ 
 I gave the circumstances of the story, introduc- 
 Some details ' ln g Johnny as a boy of four 
 
 * plan years who had been given a 
 
 soldier's suit and equipment with which he goes 
 forth to conquer. The 'something' that occasions 
 the plot presents itself in the shape of a turkey gob- 
 bler. A battle ensues. Its issue, and the consequent 
 story, the pupils were to recount according to their 
 ( own ideas." The following is one of the chapters 
 which was written by a pupil : 
 
 JOHNNY'S FIRST BATTLE 
 
 There was never a happier little boy than Johnny, 
 ion his fourth birthday, for Uncle Harry sent 
 A result *" m a so ^ier suit and his papa 
 
 I gave him a gun which would 
 
 really shoot a rubber ball. The tenth of May, 
 Johnny's birthday, was rainy and cool, so Johnny 
 was made to stay in the house. Before the 
 ( day was over he had broken two panes of glass 
 and hurt every one in the house from grandma 
 down to Baby Ruth, with "the horrid gun," as 
 grandma called it. 
 
74 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 That evening, Johnny's big brother was reading 
 a book which had on the cover a picture of a 
 soldier. Johnny asked what the man was doing, 
 and when he was told that the man had started out 
 to conquer the world, it set his little mind to think- 
 ing. When his mamma tucked him into bed, he 
 said, "Mamma, how big is the world?" On being 
 told it was many, many miles around he gave a 
 little sigh but soon fell asleep. 
 
 When Johnny awoke, he asked his mamma to 
 dress him in his soldier's suit. After having his 
 breakfast, he started out to conquer the world. He 
 succeeded in subduing the world as far as the barn- 
 yard gate, when he met an old turkey gobbler who 
 refused to be subdued. Discovering that he had 
 left the rubber ball at home, Johnny hit the turkey 
 with his gun. At this the turkey commenced peck- 
 ing and flapping his wings in Johnny's face. Johnny 
 fought bravely, but a great turkey gobbler was too 
 much for a four-year-old boy. Mamma heard the 
 screams, ran to the door, and seeing what was hap- 
 pening ran to Johnny's assistance with a broom. 
 Johnny was brought into the house, a very much 
 bruised, but very happy, little boy, for he thought 
 he had conquered at least half the world and could 
 do the rest to-morrow. 
 
 After titles and suggestions for the plots of chap- 
 ters, "Johnny Runs Away" and "Johnny's First 
 Day at School," had been given, the children asked 
 permission to choose their own subjects and to be 
 allowed to work them up as each desired without 
 suggestions from the teacher. The following is one 
 of these chapters : 
 
GETTING RESULTS 75 
 
 JOHNNY'S PIGEON-BOXES 
 
 At the age of ten Johnny had a great 'deal of 
 
 work to do, at least he thought so, and often 
 
 , grew very angry because his 
 
 Another "chapter' ^ ^ grayed by his be- 
 
 ing called into the house to do some work. One 
 day Johnny was sent out to watch his small brother 
 while his mother ran to one of the neighbors. 
 The carpenters had been reshingling the summer 
 kitchen and had left their ladder leaning against 
 the house. Johnny saw a fine opportunity to put 
 in operation a long-cherished plan. After fastening 
 the baby into the chair, he went to the wood-shed 
 after some pigeon-boxes that he had built long be- 
 fore. He mounted the ladder for the purpose of 
 putting these boxes on the roof and as he was 
 drawing his knife from his pocket, it slipped from 
 his fingers and landed with a loud whack on the 
 head of the baby, who at once set up a howl that 
 brought his mother in double-quick order. Johnny 
 crawled down the ladder a very frightened boy. 
 His fear increased as his mother appeared with 
 a large switch and he was led into the house. What 
 happened in the house is known only to Johnny, 
 his mother and the switch. 
 
 These little chapters are a decided relief from the 
 spiritless compositions usually offered. The teacher 
 
 _- r made this discovery when she 
 
 Effect of expen- J 
 
 ment on teacher read her hundred themes each 
 week. She opened every paper 
 with the interest that attaches to a story, and the 
 amazing and beguiling complications that were 
 woven into plots gave a continuous succession of 
 
76 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 pleasant surprises. The effect upon the children 
 was no less striking. While some papers were very; 
 faulty and many needed revision and rewriting, an 
 exceptionally large number of the class, according 
 to the teacher, learned to write in a free, easy and 
 natural manner. The reason for their success is 
 that the children felt that the work was theirs. They 
 were authors. Young adolescents are always inter- 
 ested in doing things when responsibility accom- 
 panies the work. The source of this enthusiasm is 
 the desire to control, to manage, to create, and when 
 the work is done, to feel that it is their production. 
 This is the spirit of youth. 
 
 Another experiment was called to the writer's at- 
 An incident about tention a few months ago by the 
 a physics class following item, which appeared in 
 one of the New York papers :* 
 
 Every boy of the twenty-five hundred who at- 
 tended the public school at Broome and Willett 
 Streets was fired with admiration and interest when 
 two diminutive Edisons from their ranks set up a 
 telegraphic system, operated by wet batteries of their 
 own construction and stretching four hundred feet 
 through the school building from one room to 
 another. For weeks the two boys had been reading 
 the life of Morse and studying the scientific prin- 
 ciple behind this use of electricity. 
 
 Yesterday they were ready for a demonstration, 
 and the principal stood beside the transmitter and 
 
 * New York Times, April 2, 1913. Unessential statements 
 have been omitted for brevity. The report names two boyi 
 hut the principal mentions only one. 
 
GETTING RESULTS 77; 
 
 dictated tHe first message sent to the receiving oper- 
 ator in the distant room. 
 
 Since a recent report* of the United States Com- 
 missioner of Education has shown that physics and 
 other high-school sciences have been rapidly losing 
 pupils, the writer thought the evidence of enthusi- 
 asm indicated by this newspaper item worth a letter 
 of inquiry. The following explanation of the cause 
 of the interest has been taken from letters received 
 from the principal of the school and the teacher of 
 physics. 
 
 "The problem of arousing and maintaining inter* 
 est in the study of elementary science is largely 
 Cause of their solved when boys can be induced 
 enthusiasm to ma k e something of their own. 
 
 The home work is often crudely executed, but it 
 delights the boys because it works. They become 
 very enthusiastic when they fashion something use- 
 ful. The study of pitch, for example, is not essen- 
 tially interesting of itself, but it acquires an interest 
 when boys can play melodies on violins of their own 
 making." A number of boys in this school con- 
 structed violins out of cigar boxes upon which sim- 
 ple tunes could be played. Indeed, a "Cigar Box 
 Orchestra" was organized. Equilibrium toys, pith 
 ball electroscopes, various kinds of batteries, a 
 model of a steam-engine, induction coils and parts 
 of wireless outfits were also made. Four boys in- 
 
 * Report of the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
 tion, 1910, Vol. II, p. 1139. 
 
78 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 stalled home-made wireless apparatus in their homes. 
 "In a word, boys make things for the fun of mak- 
 ing them." 
 
 The writer has elsewhere* described the "town- 
 meeting method" of teaching history. The class 
 Town-meeting was organized into a New Eng- 
 method of teach- land town-meeting, with chair- 
 man and secretary, and the reci- 
 tations were conducted and the lessons assigned by 
 the chairman. The following experiment, which 
 was suggested by the success of this town-meeting 
 plan, has been carried on in the English classes of 
 the Somerville (Massachusetts) high school. The 
 writer is indebted to the teacher, Miss Elizabeth H. 
 Hunt, for the interesting description: 
 
 "First of all," she says, "I let my classes decide 
 whether they wish to be governed by a chairman. 
 Similar plan of If they do not, I continue to act 
 organization as t h e i r head." The correspond- 
 
 ence shows that they usually decide to elect their own 
 chairman. They also have a sort of Supreme Court, 
 or legislative body, selected by ballot from their 
 numbers. This court decides questions which con- 
 cern the success of the class work and has the power 
 to initiate "legislation." Miss Hunt then con- 
 tinues : "I am always the referee to decide all cases 
 which the judiciary can not settle. In other words, 
 I am the Court of Appeals. When the pupils find 
 a lazy boy or girl they bring him up standing by 
 
 * Youth and the Race, pp. 238-240. 
 
GETTING RESULTS 79 
 
 means of a law which they pass in their executive 
 board meetings or sometimes in the class, but usual- 
 ly in the former to sav.e time. The board meets at 
 the close of the recitation. I attend when they re- 
 quest my presence, but they usually meet by them- 
 selves and report their decisions to the class at the 
 next meeting. We have the 'recall' in operation. 
 If they do not like the decision of the board, they 
 do not accept it, but a two-thirds vote is needed to 
 overrule. Then a pupil has the right to appeal to 
 me from any decision, and if I think the decision 
 unjust I do not sustain it, but give another penalty. 
 I rarely fail, however, to sustain the decision of the 
 lower court, for I find, as a rule, that those whom 
 the class elect to act as the judiciary branch of their 
 organization are wise enough to meet conditions 
 which arise. They usually lean a bit toward sever- 
 ity and sometimes I feel it necessary to ask for 
 clemency. 
 
 "As an instance of how the class manages a situ- 
 ation, a few weeks ago my class of boys was study- 
 How the plan was in g Quentin Durward. We often 
 earned out have parts of a chapter read in 
 
 dialogue form, leaving out the explanatory matter. 
 Suddenly the lesson began to drop into just the 
 readings, no one saying anything on any subject 
 which he had looked up outside to throw light on 
 the lesson. The chairman of the judiciary board 
 arose and said very energetically : 'I think that we 
 are just giving our members a chance to bluff 
 
8o LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 through the lessons. Many give no proof that they 
 have done any preparatory work ahead. Any fel- 
 low can get up here and do what we are doing 
 without any preparation and we don't get any vari- 
 ety out of it. The judiciary committee suggests 
 that in the future only two scenes be allowed at a 
 meeting and those by fellows who have offered oth- 
 er work.' This was at once put to a vote and car- 
 ried, a good-natured grin being noticeable on the 
 faces of some of the boys. I had been waiting to 
 see how they would meet this without my saying 
 anything. Had this been a class where all depends 
 on the teacher for support no one would have said 
 a word. The chairman of that week had gone to 
 the judiciary board and asked it to act. He felt 
 the responsibility. I had said nothing. 
 
 "The other day the same class took up another 
 matter that I knew must be handled. The debates 
 Absentees dealt come once a week, four boys at 
 with by the class a t ; me< Twice lately members of 
 the team had been absent on that day, thus throw- 
 ing out the others. As the class was expected to 
 study the question there was no other lesson ready. 
 The second time this happened the boys were indig- 
 nant and the class passed a law that unless those 
 having parts could prove to the satisfaction of the 
 judiciary board that the absence was unavoidable, 
 'and that means that you can't get up,' those failing 
 should prepare two debates, and in any case where 
 it is possible they should let the others know in time 
 
GETTING RESULTS 81 
 
 to notify the class to prepare a lesson from the 
 book. 'We can't afford, fellows/ said the mover of 
 the motion, 'to waste lessons like this/ No one 
 laughs at the others for such zeal. It is their work 
 and they know that we have just so much to do each 
 day to cover the work in eight weeks. 
 
 "The chairman plans the work for the following 
 day, then calls for volunteers, those who have pre- 
 Work directed pared related topics outside the 
 by pupils lesson. After this he asks ques- 
 
 tions, selects passages to be read or takes up words 
 needing explanation. At the close of the hour I 
 may comment on topics, correct the mistakes in pro- 
 nunciation which they have overlooked and, in fact, 
 act as guide or helper. But it often happens that 
 there is no need for me to speak a word during the 
 entire recitation. 
 
 "If there is disorder they handle it themselves, 
 either at once or by calling the offending member 
 Concerning before the judiciary board. I 
 
 discipline always tell them that, like any gov- 
 
 ernor, I must step in and declare martial law if they 
 can't keep order, for I am the responsible head of 
 the school. Once I stepped in too soon, and, at the 
 close of school, the chairman said very politely, 
 'Miss Hunt, I think I ought to have had a little 
 more time to meet that. I could have done it.' I 
 apologized to him and admitted that I had made a 
 mistake. It is hard to down the old pedagogical 
 training, but I have found that it pays. It requires 
 
82 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 tact, infinite self-control and wisdom to hold in 
 abeyance the instinct of a teacher to jump in and 
 rob the children of the experience of untangling 
 their own snares, but if the teacher can only learn 
 to let them work out their problems, even if they 
 get into very complicated ones, it is a great gain for 
 these young citizens and they always profit from it. 
 
 "When they waste time in unprofitable discussion 
 some one will suddenly say, 'Let's get down to 
 work.' If the work which must be done each day 
 is not finished they know that it means an extra 
 hour somewhere, so they take their medicine with- 
 out a murmur and come together at the close of 
 school. I do not compel them to come. They know 
 that it is necessary and the chairman calls them to- 
 gether. Had I been to blame, they would have 
 grumbled. But they feel the responsibility and act 
 accordingly. I purposely let them learn the price 
 of time. 
 
 "As to the work accomplished, I know that we 
 never did so much outside reading in the old way. 
 
 For example, one of my best 
 
 Results of plan t ,. . . . , . 
 
 classes, a college division, wished 
 
 to dramatize A Tale of Two Cities. I left the plan- 
 ning of the entire work to them. We went into a 
 committee of the whole, broke up into groups and 
 I passed from one group to another as they beck- 
 oned to me. L We finally evolved the plan of appoint- 
 ing four leaders who should choose those who were 
 to divide the story into acts, those who were to write 
 
GETTING RESULTS 83 
 
 the scenes, select the actors, stage managers, etc. 
 We had eight weeks in which to do it and they kept 
 their forces at work 'day and night.' When they 
 found a lazy boy who refused to take the work 
 assigned, or who did not keep at it, they dealt sum- 
 marily with him, and before it was necessary for 
 me to take a hand he was at work. Had I given 
 them such an ambitious task the groans would have 
 been deep and loud. I was, in part, responsible for 
 the suggestion, because I wanted them to have that 
 practice, but I should never have required it of them. 
 They did it wonderfully well. Each day a scene 
 was ready. The writers read their parts and the 
 class, viewing it as a play, detected faults, gave ad- 
 vice, told where it was not clear, where it dragged, 
 where it must be given more situation, etc. All of 
 the principles upon which we had drilled in the 
 study of the drama during the early part of the 
 year were hunted up and brought forward with a 
 great display of wisdom. A year of study in the 
 usual way would not have accomplished what they 
 did in that short time. 
 
 "They also gained a much better appreciation of 
 the whole work than has ever been the case in any 
 Growth in power of m 7 classes conducted on the 
 to think traditional plan. One boy said to 
 
 me: 'Miss Hunt, I never knew before the differ- 
 ence between the work of a novelist and that of a 
 dramatist. I did not understand the drama when 
 we studied it the first part of the year, but now I 
 
84 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 do/ This is only one of manjr instances whidi 
 might be cited. 
 
 "The other day in a debate one of the boys criti- 
 cized a speaker for having his hands in his pockets 
 Improvement while speaking. There are no 
 
 in manners gi r ] s present/ said another. The 
 
 fellows at college are easy, why can't we be ?' One 
 of the others reminded the speaker that Miss Hunt 
 was present and might object. I at once said that 
 I wished them to act in the matter independently of 
 the question of sex. I then suggested that they 
 take it to the higher standard of what the best 
 speakers do in public. They observed for a week 
 and then unanimously decided to keep their hands 
 out of their pockets while speaking. 
 
 "The following is another instance of the way 
 in which a social attitude develops through their 
 A result of feeling of responsibility. One of 
 
 responsibility t h e b oys was below in English. 
 
 He was very popular and was one of the candidates 
 for the chairman of the following week. We had 
 made no rule about grades. The boy, however, 
 rose and said, seriously: 'I am down in English 
 and until I get square I don't want to be your 
 leader/ This established a good precedent and 
 brought forward another question which I was hop- 
 ing would come up. Why should not the honor of 
 being elected chairman be a spur to better work? 
 They discussed the question and decided that the 
 chairman should so conduct the lesson as to show 
 
GETTING RESULTS 85 
 
 that he was studying and thus get his credits. This 
 point having been settled they then decided to leave 
 it to a member's choice whether he would accept the 
 honor, if down." 
 
 Another experiment this time in American his- 
 tory and government which has come to the writ- 
 
 Another cxperi- er>s atten ^ on > differs somewhat 
 ment in pupil- from, the one just described be- 
 cause it was not intended to give 
 the children any unusual authority and control. 
 After the work had started, however, the teacher, 
 on account of alarming symptoms, was suddenly 
 forbidden to use her eyes. Since a substitute in the 
 middle of the year was undesirable, she was given 
 permission to follow any plan that seemed wise. 
 Her helplessness necessitated giving the children 
 much more authority than had originally been 
 planned, and the children responded with the frank- 
 ness that they always show when responsibility is 
 put upon them. It makes an interesting comment 
 on the efficiency of pupil-government that in the 
 following year, when the teacher recovered !her 
 health and again assumed the authority which, dur- 
 ing the previous year, she had been obliged to dele- 
 gate to her pupils, the plan failed. With loss of 
 responsibility in managing their work the interest 
 of the children dropped to the level of that in the 
 ordinary recitation.* 
 
 * The writer is indebted to Miss Nellie Hammond, of 
 Woburn, Massachusetts, for the following description of the 
 experiment. 
 
86 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Having spoken of the trouble with her eyes 
 which threatened to force her temporary withdrawal 
 from the school, Miss Hammond says: "After 
 thinking the matter over carefully, I decided to take 
 the children into my confidence. I explained the 
 situation to them and told them that they must de- 
 cide whether I should put in a substitute. All the 
 classes voted that if I would stay they would carry 
 on the work as well as they could for themselves. 
 
 "The recently elected school committee of Wo- 
 burnia, our school city, took charge of the senior 
 Plan of work for class." This school committee of 
 senior class eight pupils had been elected some 
 
 weeks before by the senior class from its members 
 for the ptirpose of assisting the teacher in promot- 
 ing the interests of the class. The divisions were 
 large and one of the problems was to have each pu- 
 pil take part in the discussion often enough to as- 
 sure daily preparation. This committee had already 
 responded with zeal to requests for assistance. It 
 had made many suggestions and had relieved the 
 teacher of much of the routine work. Now, of 
 course, Miss Hammond being unable to use her 
 eyes, the responsibility increased. "I gave the com- 
 mittee outlines, reading lists and plans of work 
 used in previous years from which they assigned 
 lessons, topics and readings. On the whole I think 
 the work went on much as if I had planned it. They 
 showed considerable originality in the study of local 
 government. The seriousness with which they dis- 
 
GETTING RESULTS 87 
 
 cussed existing evils and the weight of responsibil- 
 ity which they seemed to feel was surprising. I 
 think that each boy felt that the salvation of Wo- 
 burn rested upon his shoulders." 
 
 The mayor of Woburnia, the school city, pre- 
 pared an inaugural address which he delivered be- 
 fore the school. His address, which the writer has 
 before him, is a very creditable discussion of the 
 financial condition of Woburn, the assessment of 
 property, insurance, the fire department, water de- 
 partment and schools. 
 
 "The junior class," Miss Hammond continues, 
 "had no organization with which to begin their 
 
 . work of self -instruction, so they 
 
 Plan of organi- 
 zation of junior drafted a constitution. As this 
 
 class was studying modern and 
 current history, the constitution, after stating the 
 object, which was to increase the interest and effi- 
 ciency in the work, made provision for various com- 
 mittees. Among others there were the Topic Com- 
 mittee, to prepare outlines, the Library Committee, 
 to find references for outside reading, the Far East 
 Committee, the Near East Committee, the Commit- 
 tee on European Affairs, the Committee on United 
 States Affairs, the Committee on State Affairs and 
 the Committee on Woburn Affairs. These com- 
 mittees were to report on historical and current 
 topics within their jurisdiction. 
 
 "There was no hesitation on the part of any one 
 in undertaking his share of the work. I was im- 
 
88 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Spirit of pressed with the business spirit 
 
 their work manifested. There seemed to be 
 
 no supersensitiveness or affectation. The work had 
 to be done and they were to do it, so each did his 
 share to the best of his or her ability. 
 
 "One incident showed the moral feeling that de- 
 velops under pupil-government. The pupils had 
 Moral effect of voted to take a secret ballot at 
 pupil-government t h e recitation following an ex- 
 amination. A ballot marked 'yes' indicated that 
 the one who cast it neither knew nor suspected any 
 one of cheating while a ballot* marked 'no' meant 
 that the voter did know or suspect some irregu- 
 larity that should be cleared up. At the first ballot 
 there were twenty 'yeses' and ten 'noes.' A dis- 
 cussion of the duty of the ten voters followed. 
 There was a strong disinclination to tell on any 
 one, but at the same time they felt that the public 
 welfare should be protected. Finally, it was de- 
 cided that each one of the ten should come to me 
 privately and explain the reason for his or her 
 vote, and I was instructed to use my discretion 
 about accepting or rejecting the examination. I 
 took no part in the discussion, telling them that 
 they should work out a line of action for them- 
 selves. At the close of school, a boy came and 
 confessed that he had cheated. He said that he 
 wanted to make sure of getting on the football 
 team. When I asked him why he confessed he 
 
GETTING RESULTS 89 
 
 said that the others would not tell on him and he 
 did not want them to lose the test." 
 
 For a class in Grecian history, the Athenian As- 
 sembly is perhaps the most natural form of organi- 
 An experiment in zation and it was in the Barringer 
 Greek history High School at Newark (New Jer- 
 sey) that the following experiment was tried.* 
 
 The duties of the officers were modeled, as nearly 
 as possible, after the functions of the corresponding 
 Outline officials in the ancient Athenian 
 
 of P lan Assembly. The epistates (chair- 
 
 man) was elected and in each case the best student 
 was chosen by his fellows for this office. But 
 "the offices of keryx ( herald ) and toxotes (ser- 
 geant-at-armsy were bestowed, in at least two in- 
 stances, upon students who were better known for 
 their pleasing address than for their intellectuality." 
 
 A committee of the boule (council) acting with 
 the teacher submitted a set of resolutions to the 
 agora\ assembly, i. e., the classj each day. These 
 resolutions were so worded as to include, in their 
 discussion, the most important facts of the day's 
 lesson. 
 
 The order of business of the 
 Order of business / -v r n 
 
 agora (class) was as follows: 
 
 i. A solemn curse on traitors, pronounced by 
 the keryx (herald) ; 
 
 * An Athenian Assembly; An Experiment in History 
 Teaching, by D. C. Knowlton. School Review, Vol. 18, p. 
 481. 
 
90 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 2. Declaration by the epistates that the gods 1 
 
 were propitious; 
 
 3. Reading of the day's resolutions by the keryx; 
 
 4. Inquiry by the epistates as to whether the 
 
 agora wished to discuss the resolutions or 
 to put them immediately to a vote; 
 
 5. Discussion of the resolutions (this constituted 
 
 the recitation proper) ; 
 
 6. Voting on the resolutions; 
 
 7. Adjournment 
 
 From the point of view of the purpose of the 
 school the resolutions were, of course, the most 
 The value of important part of the program, 
 
 resolutions ^ey dealt with the subject-mat- 
 
 ter of the day's lesson. Resolutions skilfully worded 
 may be made to include statements and inquiries 
 involving cause and effect to an extent that rarely 
 enters into the study of high-school pupils. This 
 is a distinct intellectual gain, since children in the 
 school are prone to confine themselves to learning 
 facts/ How far such resolutions actually do pro- 
 mote thought will depend upon the committee in 
 charge and the tactful suggestions of the teacher. 
 
 The most ambitious experiment in class organi- 
 zation of which the writer has learned is "The 
 An experiment in Roman State" of the classical de- 
 teaching Latin partment of the East High School 
 in Rochester, New York. The organization as de- 
 scribed below is altogether too complex to be under- 
 taken at once in high-school classes. The "State" 
 to which we are referring was of three years' 
 
GETTING RESULTS 91 
 
 growth; "consequently, since it was not all put 
 into operation at once it did not require so much 
 work and explanation as would appear. Each year 
 the pupils were given the additional instruction 
 needed for understanding what was to be developed 
 during the year."* 
 
 The Roman State of the school was organized 
 with the creation of collegia opificum (trade guilds) 
 Plan of eac h with it&pfincepS (president), 
 
 organization magistri (master-workmen) and 
 
 discentes (apprentices). The pupils now learn much 
 to their amazement in view of the fact that, next 
 to forms and declensions, war and speeches are the 
 chief subjects of study during the first two years 
 that laboring men organized into trades unions 
 were an important part of the Roman population. 
 "And when they learn that the fabri (guild of 
 carpenters) and the cornicines (musicians' guild) 
 and others outdate the Roman Republic and even 
 history, they gain a new idea of the antiquity of 
 these institutions and their accompanying problems/' 
 as well as of the Roman Republic itself. 
 
 After the formation of the collegia each pupil 
 receives a Latin name and is enrolled in the curia, 
 tribus, classis and centuria on the basis, respectively, 
 of birth, geography, wealth and age. "Birth is 
 represented by scholarship and on that basis each 
 pupil is made a patrician or plebeian." 
 
 * A Modern Roman State, by Mason D. Gray. School 
 Review, Vol. 14, pp. 296, 357. 
 
92 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Naturally, the campaigns, elections and the 
 activities of the "State" and its officials aroused 
 great interest in the school. As it was desirable 
 to build the "State" on the interests of the pupils, 
 the ambitio (quiet canvassing) and the professio 
 (public declaration of candidacy) came early in the 
 organization. The youngsters learned that the can- 
 didates never took the initiative, at least in theory. 
 They never announced their own candidacy, never 
 spoke in their own behalf. This was done by their 
 neighbors, friends and relatives. These facts the 
 pupils find have been learned from inscriptions 
 the Roman newspaper. In imitation of the inscrip- 
 tions found on the walls of houses and shops in 
 Pompeii, the pupils painted some excellent inscrip- 
 tions and the "variety of Latin employed would 
 rival some of our prose books. A favorite mode 
 of advertising (candidates) was to parody well- 
 known passages of Caesar, Cicero and Vergil." 
 The following is a portion of a Popularis adapta- 
 tion. 
 
 Schola est omnis divisa in partes tres; quarum 
 una Populares, alia Equestres, tertia Optimates ap- 
 pellatur. Hae omnes sensu, animo, opinione inter 
 se differunt. Harum omnium honestissimi sunt 
 Populares, propterea quod a facinore et stultitia 
 Equestrium et Optimatium longissime absunt. 
 Populares credunt et pueros et puellas in guber- 
 naculo aequam partem habere debere. Itaque omnes 
 boni cives, et pueri et guellae, ferte suffragia ad 
 
GETTING RESULTS 93 
 
 Populares et create Lowenthalum et Coddingtonam 
 consules. 
 
 "The value of these inscriptions (written by the 
 pupils) can not be overestimated. To express natu- 
 Value of ra l thought arising from one's 
 
 inscriptions personal experience, to further a 
 
 real purpose, by the composition of a Latin sen- 
 tence, is to most of our high-school pupils a rare 
 experience and, when once felt, gives them a new 
 feeling for the language. The question of Latin 
 prose is always with us." 
 
 Meanwhile the parties had been preparing their 
 platforms and the following are those of the Popu- 
 Platforms of lares and Equestres parties. They 
 
 P arties were composed by fourth year 
 
 pupils, the teacher says, and stand as they were 
 written. They are interesting specimens of what 
 high-school children can do with Latin and they 
 show how intimate a part of the school life it may 
 be made. 
 
 Nos Equestres haec, Quirites vobis pollicemur! 
 
 Primum Summam in consulibus fore diligen- 
 tiam, summam in senatu auctoritatem, summam in 
 equitibus Romanis virtutem, summam in omnibus 
 bonis consensionem. 
 
 Deinde Consules nee tempus ad festos dies cele- 
 brandos, nee tempus ad luxuriam nee pilam et alias 
 voluptates, nee denique ad quietem animi et corporis 
 sument sed videbunt ne quid civitas detrimenti 
 capiat, et omnes cives diligenter ad summam rem 
 publicam se incumbant. 
 
94 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Maxime Consulibus Boydo et McMatho crean- 
 dis omnia vetera mala rei publicae oppressa et vin- 
 dicata esse et secundas res et pacem, appropinquare, 
 templum Jani intercludi et aedificia pulcherrima in 
 Forum ventura et doctrinam et litteras vigentes 
 videbitis. 
 
 Deniqtie Atque omnia haec sic administrata 
 erunt ut Jovis Optimi Maximi nutu gesta esse visura 
 sint et consules sicut aliquos non ex hac urbe dilectos 
 sed de caelo delapsos ; et vos Quirites semper vivere 
 velitis. 
 
 PARS POPULARIS 
 
 Haec est pars una in re publica qtiae est populi 
 et populo ; pars sola quae aequam justitiam omnibus 
 det. Aequitati et justitiae omnibus temporibus 
 stetit. Huius partis fuerunt multi clarissimi viri, 
 quo numero maximi fuerunt Gracchi et Drusus et 
 Marius. Hanc partem Caius Julius Caesar ad vic- 
 toriam duxit. 
 
 Si candidati popularum creabuntur, tota res pub- 
 lica pace et serenitate fruetur, et omnes cives beati 
 erunt. 
 
 Nostri consules et censores nulla mala patientur, 
 et potestatem Romae extendent. 
 
 Si summum bonum Romae vultis, suffragia ad 
 hanc partem f ertote. 
 
 "Even if the most important period in the life 
 of the 'State/ which will always center about the 
 Effect on campaigns and elections, did for 
 
 regular work a mon th cause a marked loss in 
 
 the amount covered in the text-book/' continues 
 the teacher, "I should maintain that the exchange 
 were a profitable one, and that, furthermore, the 
 
GETTING RESULTS 95 
 
 amount of text read, if that be made a criterion 
 of progress, would ultimately be greatly increased 
 by the greater interest, and, consequently, more 
 rapid advance. As a matter of fact, the work of 
 my own classes was not interrupted at all, while 
 the other Latin instructors estimated the cost at 
 from one to three chapters of Caesar, one or two 
 chapters of Cicero and two lessons in the beginning 
 class." As an offset to this the pupils had the 
 deeper knowledge of the life and times of the Ro- 
 man people which they gleaned from the activity 
 of the "State." 
 
 "Two or three individual pupils were found who 
 permitted their interest to interfere with their other 
 
 work, but ... it was, to me, 
 A significant fact yery refreshing that> amid the 
 
 multitudinous and wholly extraneous interests by 
 which pupils are ten-day distracted, one could arise 
 with equal spontaneity, awakening and absorbing 
 their interest to the same degree, while at the same 
 time forming an integral part of their classical 
 studies. 
 
 "It was incidentally a proof of the interest taken 
 by the pupils, that in the very midst of the football 
 A proof of season, in a school famous for its 
 
 interest football enthusiasm, with a team 
 
 not yet beaten, the display of party colors for the 
 three weeks preceding the election quite eclipsed 
 those of the school. One afternoon all the parties 
 held mass-meetings simultaneously, and over half 
 
96 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 of the pupils were in attendance at one or another. 
 That anything in their study of Latin should so 
 arouse their interest that such a proportion should 
 voluntarily remain after school hours to further its 
 success" is a striking fact in school life. 
 
 The article from which these quotations were 
 made was written in 1906. A short time ago I 
 
 wrote to Mr. Gray to inquire 
 Faots about this . , , _ ^ , 
 
 experiment eight whether the Roman State had 
 
 years later survived the eight-year interval. 
 
 In a certain way, its power to survive would meas- 
 ure its educational value. What follows is taken 
 from his letter: 
 
 "To give you an idea of the activities of the 
 'Roman State' at the present time, I will mention 
 a few of the things that are now in progress. 
 
 "i. The regular monthly issue of the Vox Pop- 
 uli, the organ of the 'State/ The contents are 
 wholly the work of the pupils. No instructor cor- 
 rects or supervises it.* 
 
 "2. The presentation of a little Latin play called 
 Troia Capta. About five hundred pupils attended. 
 So interested were they in trying to follow the Latin 
 that they asked that it be repeated immediately, 
 which was done. The actors were chosen from a 
 number of volunteer sight-reading clubs, conducted 
 under the auspices of the 'State/ to which only 
 
 *The copy which was sent to the writer is dated the Ides 
 of March and is number five of volumen IV. It contains six 
 pages of Latin prose and poetry written by the pupils. 
 
GETTING RESULTS 97 
 
 tfiose of superior scholarship are eligible. Two 
 other clubs are preparing similar plays. 
 
 "3. Initiation of freshmen. This ceremony was 
 conducted a few months ago. The pontifex maxi- 
 mus and one of the censores went to the classes, 
 accepted each pupil as a member of the 'State,' 
 gave him his Latin name and tied his bulla around 
 his neck. Everything is said in Latin, at first with 
 translation and then without. 
 
 "4. The monthly meeting of the concilium. This 
 is a governing body in the 'State' and consists 
 of the Consules, Censores, Pontifex Maximus, 
 Praetor urbcmus, Tribunus plebis, the three party 
 campaign managers and others chosen by the con- 
 suls. At the last meeting, besides the routine busi- 
 ness incident to the regular activities, a plan to 
 start a Latin museum was presented by the chair- 
 man of a committee to which that duty had been 
 assigned at a previous meeting. The Praetor ur- 
 banus was directed to present for discussion at the 
 next meeting a revision of the laws and statutes 
 and to prepare them for presentation to the Comitia 
 tributa, a general Latin assembly. All of the form- 
 alities of the meeting are conducted in Latin, but 
 no attempt has been made to use the language in 
 the general discussion. I have, however, thought 
 of making the experiment. 
 
 "5. The patrician pins. In two or three weeks 
 all of the pupils and instructors will vote for the 
 
98 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 pupils who, in each class, are deserving of the 
 patrician pin, the emblem of scholarship in Latin. 
 If the pin is held continuously it is given perma- 
 nently at graduation. 
 
 "As to the effect of the 'Roman State* on the 
 interest of the pupils there is no question. That 
 this interest secures a longer pursuit of the sub- 
 ject is equally undeniable. I am also strongly of 
 the opinion that this interest produces greater ap- 
 plication or I should not continue the 'State' another 
 year. Last winter several members of the class 
 got into a discussion in the Clarion, the school paper, 
 as to the relative merits of Cicero and Catiline. 
 The charges, answers and counter-charges, involving 
 the whole history of the populates party and the 
 reforms of the Gracchi, continued for several weeks, 
 indicating clearly that real independent thought had 
 resulted. One pupil wrote a most interesting and 
 unexpected comparison of the political proposals of 
 63 B. C. and 1912 A. D., comparing the parties 
 and platforms." 
 
 These are a few of the experiments that are 
 being tried for the purpose of applying in the 
 
 schools the much advocated but 
 The common fac- .. - - - . . 
 
 tor of success in ttic practised pedagogical max- 
 these experiments j m> one i eams ty, doing/' The 
 
 several plans which have been described differ 
 somewhat in details but they agree in the principle 
 of having the pupils, instead of the teacher, do 
 the work. The success of the projects is due to 
 
GETTING RESULTS 99 
 
 the motives to which appeal is made to the racial 
 impulse to contrive, to plan, in short to the instinct 
 of workmanship in its broadest sense. 
 
 These plans of organization for doing the work 
 of the school serve several purposes; they furnish 
 Their construct- activities that satisfy the desire 
 ive importance f or adventure of which we spoke 
 in the first chapter. It will be remembered that 
 one of them successfully competed even with foot- 
 ball for enthusiastic support of the pupils. While 
 meeting this need they also further the purposes 
 of the school. The children work harder in their 
 studies and, in their simple way, they originate and 
 investigate by reading more widely so as to make 
 their personal contribution to the knowledge of the 
 group. The pupils cease to imitate books and teacher. 
 They move under their own power. Finally, these 
 experiments keep the teachers alive at the growing 
 point. They can not settle down into the ruts of 
 monotony because each day presents new problems 
 which the activity of the children has stirred up. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 PROGRESS IN LEARNING 
 
 MANY books have been written on methods 
 of teaching, but comparatively little has been 
 said about methods of learning. While this was 
 
 quite natural in view of our scant 
 Logical arrange- H 
 
 ment not always knowledge of child psychology, it 
 the pedagogical has had the unfortunate effec t of 
 
 overemphasizing the arrangement and form of les- 
 son plans. The method of lesson-presentation has 
 been settled chiefly by reference to the subject-mat- 
 ter, and too often with inadequate comprehension 
 by the teacher of the wider meaning of the facts 
 which it contained. The logical arrangement of 
 the parts of the topic for study and the importance 
 from the teacher's view-point, of each portion of 
 the whole, have determined the lesson's plan. But 
 in acquiring knowledge, the logical arrangement is 
 not always the pedagogical. The mind often ap- 
 prehends ideas and things as wholes and analysis 
 C9mes later. The discovery that children acquire 
 words and sentences without the preliminary logical 
 step of learning letters illustrates this principle. No 
 amount of logical analysis would have ever planned 
 a lesson in that way. 
 
 English grammar is another case in point. Prob- 
 ably there is no subject in the curriculum about 
 
 100 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 
 
 which there is more confusion and 
 Failure of logical ._ . , - - 
 
 method in teach- less agreement. It is doubtful, 
 ing grammar a j so> w h e ther any subject receives 
 
 more time with worse results. The reason is that 
 the logical method has been used. Grammar con- 
 tains the syntax, conjugations and principles of the 
 language; therefore it is a prerequisite of the writ- 
 ten use of that language. Those who reason in this 
 way, however, forget that language was spoken and 
 written long before its grammar was put down in 
 books. Some day an enterprising schoolmaster will 
 teach children to write stories before they have 
 studied grammar and then we shall find that young- 
 sters can use forms of expression without prelimi- 
 nary rules just as we now know they read words and 
 sentences before they have studied the letters which 
 compose them. 
 
 We have been illustrating the two points of view 
 in determining the method of the recitation. In 
 Laws of learning teaching reading, the child him- 
 a recent discovery self the way in which he apper- 
 ceives and assimilates knowledge is the test of 
 method, while in English grammar the logical anal- 
 ysis of the language continues to determine the prac- 
 tice of the schools. But belief that the value of 
 a method is measured by the results obtained has 
 been spreading among teachers lately and with its 
 growth have arisen the related questions: How is 
 knowledge acquired? Are there laws of learning? 
 If there are they must surely enter into the dis- 
 cussion of method, since in rules for imparting 
 
102 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 knowledge we can not ignore the ways in which 
 the mind of the learner acts when receiving it. 
 These questions have been answered by recent in- 
 vestigations. There are laws of learning. Thus 
 far only a few of the more evident ones have been 
 discovered, but these few when understood and ap- 
 plied must work great changes in schoolroom prac- 
 tice. 
 
 First of all there are general laws laws which 
 are true of all learning whatever may be the sub- 
 General laws of J ect studied or the a ge of the 
 learning and learner and, second, investiga- 
 
 variations ,. , . , . .^ . ,, 
 
 tions show variations within these 
 
 general laws. An illustration will make this clear. 
 
 The progress of learning is always irregular. At 
 
 times the learner advances steadily for several days, 
 
 T11 perhaps even for a week. Then 
 
 Illustrations of , 
 
 irregularity of the quality of his work drops 
 
 learning process sudden i y> but it may rise again 
 
 quite as unexpectedly as it fell. This irregularity 
 of progress advance alternating with inability to 
 do the work is one of the general laws of learn- 
 ing. It is true of every person and of every sub- 
 ject of study. But the length of the period of 
 advance and the level to which the learner may 
 drop, as well as the length of time during which 
 he stays at the lower stage of efficiency, are all 
 variations within the general law. In other words, 
 if one hundred per cent, is perfect work, the be- 
 ginner may make fifty per cent, for the first three 
 days and then drop to thirty-five per cent. After 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 
 
 103 
 
 showing grades to the value of thirty-five per cent, 
 for three days he suddenly rises to seventy-five per 
 cent, and then drops again to fifty. Again, another 
 child in the same class may receive the following 
 grades in the tests which we have supposed were 
 taken by the first boy : seventy-five per cent., ninety, 
 ninety, fifty, fifty, forty, seventy-five and sixty. 
 Let us now represent the progress of these two boys 
 during the eight days by curves, as the lines which 
 show the daily progress are called. If we connect 
 the points that represent each day's grades by 
 straight lines, we have the following graphic repre- 
 sentation of the progress of the two boys during 
 the eight days. 
 
 u 
 
 80 
 TO 
 
 60 
 13 
 
 IK 
 
 e 
 
 ^40 
 
 2 
 
 30 
 80 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 F 
 
 r IR 
 
 SI 
 
 B 
 
 Ctt 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 DAYS1 
 
104 
 
 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Vtnn 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 90 
 80 
 70 
 
 g 60 
 o 
 
 B 
 <. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 s 
 
 EC 
 
 OIN 
 
 D 
 
 BC 
 
 Y 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
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 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 \ 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 I 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
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 \ 
 
 
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 \ 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 20 
 10 
 
 AYS ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 83 i 5 6 T 8 " " 
 
 The grades for the boys on each of the eight 
 days are given at the left of the curves and the 
 Plateaus in learn- days beneath. It will be observed 
 ing process t h at both curves, though they have 
 
 their individual characteristics, agree in being ir- 
 regular, i. e., progress is never continuous, and they 
 agree also in showing short periods when the learner 
 remains stationary. These stationary periods con- 
 secutive days during which the learner neither ad- 
 vances nor retrogrades noticeably are called pla- 
 teaus in the curve of learning. 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 105 
 
 So far, of course, we have said nothing that is 
 new to teachers. Every one knows that the prog- 
 These plateaus ress f children in their studies 
 inevitable j s no t continuous. They do bet- 
 
 ter on some days than on others. But the inter- 
 esting fact in this connection is that these boys 
 may have worked just as hard during each of the 
 days on which they made such different grades and 
 the lessons may have been equally difficult. The 
 significance of these plateaus for the teacher, and 
 the work that should be assigned while the learner 
 is on them, will be discussed in the following chap- 
 ter. Here we are concerned chiefly with the fact 
 that plateaus inevitably occur in studying subjects 
 in which the earlier work is essential for under- 
 standing what comes later. This is the case with 
 such subjects as English grammar, arithmetic and 
 all foreign languages. 
 
 Let us now examine the curves of progress which 
 have been traced from the daily record of persons 
 
 actually engaged in pursuing a 
 Description of / f s JT 
 
 curve of learning subject of study. For several 
 
 the writer has ^ the 
 
 daily records for the first three 
 months of members of his class in psychology. 
 From these records a typical curve of the progress 
 of beginners in that subject may be drawn. This 
 curve is on the following page. 
 
io6 
 
 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 8 
 
 QL 
 
 I 
 
 S 8 i 
 
 9NIQNV18 A1IVQ 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 107 
 
 The curve shows that during the first ten days 
 namely, for the first five or six recitations prog- 
 ress is pretty continuous and rapid. The reason 
 for this is that the work consists in learning a 
 few terms and definitions and in applying them. This 
 is easy to do because at the beginning the complex- 
 ities of the subject are carefully avoided. After about 
 ten days, however, the work becomes more involved. 
 It is now necessary to exercise nice discrimination 
 in the use of terms and those students who have 
 not thoroughly mastered the preliminary work be- 
 come more or less confused. For this reason their 
 marks go down quite steadily. The level that they 
 reach will depend upon the accuracy of their knowl- 
 edge of the preliminary statements of the book and 
 lectures. Some do not go so low as the line in 
 this curve while others continue their descent until 
 they find themselves submerged and unable to re- 
 main in the class. A few drop hardly at all. Their 
 progress is irregular, they go up and down accord- 
 ing to their physical condition and the amount of 
 study given to a day's assignment, but at no time 
 do they go very low. 
 
 In embryology, the introductory concepts are not 
 difficult but, owing to the simultaneous differentia- 
 Explanation of tion of different s y stems of or - 
 
 the curve for gans, so many new facts must be 
 embryology mast ered that it is difficult to keep 
 
 all of the details in mind and to hold them in their 
 proper relation. Significant and secondary points 
 
io8 
 
 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 v. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 s 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ff 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 UJ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^*v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 S. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 **** 
 
 
 8O .""" O T' *v o -^Q o C 
 9 ' 4? C^ v 
 
 DNIONV19 A1M33M 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 109 
 
 are not easily organized and appreciated. The stu- 
 dent can not see the woods for the trees. Further, 
 in his microscopic work the pupil must usually 
 acquire a new mental habit that of thinking things 
 in three dimensions while seeing them in two di- 
 mensions under the microscope. Consequently, for 
 several weeks everything is confused and this con- 
 fusion is likely to continue until repetition renders 
 certain phenomena familiar. After a period of 
 mental digestion, which can not be hurried, the 
 student who works persistently succeeds in detach- 
 ing himself from his subject and in viewing it at 
 arm's length, so to speak. Then ideas that pre- 
 viously were difficult to correlate fall into place 
 and difficulties disappear. This is the time when 
 the visible advance begins.* 
 
 It seems evident that the rate of progress, the 
 number and length of plateaus, indeed whether there 
 Form of curve de- will be any retardation at all, de- 
 
 USSfmttS P 61 " 3 on the nature of the task 
 of learner and fitness of the learner for the 
 
 work. This, of course, presupposes continuous and 
 persistent effort, a condition that occurs only oc- 
 casionally in children. 
 
 The curve which follows shows the progress of 
 the writer in learning to translate sentences from 
 An experiment in the Russian language, with which 
 learning Russian fa was wholly unacquainted. The 
 
 * The writer is indebted to his colleague, Professor J. F. 
 Abbott, for the curve in embryology and for the explanation 
 of its peculiarities. 
 
no 
 
 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 preparation for this experiment consisted in two 
 hours' work on the Russian alphabet. The experi- 
 ment was then begun. This consisted of thirty min- 
 utes' daily study followed immediately by a fifteen 
 minutes' test of reading ability. The Russian sen- 
 tences in each lesson were the test material for the 
 day's reading. The preliminary study of thirty min- 
 utes was carried on in the manner customary with 
 a foreign language. The time was divided between 
 the vocabulary, conjugations, declensions and prac- 
 tice, in reading review exercises. 
 
 DAYS 5 
 
 * This curve is taken from the author's Mind in the Mak- 
 ing, by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING in 
 
 A part of the amazing irregularity of this curve 
 is probably due to the fact that, since the work 
 was done without a teacher, there was no one to 
 assist the learner to find a puzzling word or to 
 straighten out a perplexing construction. The oc- 
 currence of difficulties of this sort caused the curve 
 to drop suddenly and it rose quite as quickly when 
 the solution was found. Evidently we have here 
 an explanation of the startling variation in scholar- 
 ship of individual pupils which so often puzzles 
 teachers. Assistance was not at hand when it was 
 needed and an unnecessary drop occurred in the 
 curve of progress. We shall discuss profitable and 
 unprofitable help in the following chapter. It is 
 sufficient here to observe the effect on progress of 
 groping one's way through a maze of unfamiliar 
 facts and statements. This is a condition not un- 
 known in the schools. 
 
 Aside from the striking daily variation in the 
 curve for Russian, these three curves have the same 
 
 general peculiarities as the imag- 
 Similanty in re- 
 sults of two ex- ined cases shown on an earlier 
 
 page. Progress is never continu- 
 ous, but always by jumps. There are days when the 
 learner seems to make no gain and then, perhaps, he 
 leaps forward. He may now hold his own or he may 
 drop back again. But if he loses his hold it is 
 not long before he regains it and then he makes 
 this higher level the starting-point for further ad- 
 vance. This irregularity of the learning process, 
 plateaus stationary; periods alternating with 
 
ii2 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 progress or retrogression, has been found by all 
 investigators. 
 
 What is the relation of the highest and lowest 
 mark attained on a given day to the actual ability of 
 
 the learner in the subject at which 
 Relation of high . J 
 
 score to learner's he IS working? Clearly neither 
 rate of progress Qne represents his stage o f prog . 
 
 ress. Nor, again, is the pupil's grade half-way be- 
 tween the two "scores." If we bar out chance, 
 which, of course, occasionally influences grades, the 
 highest score or grade, while always above the 
 learner's ability at the moment, shows the di- 
 rection in which he is moving and bears some 
 relation to his rate of progress. The learner may 
 not permanently reach the level of his best grade 
 on the following day, but, if he works persistently, 
 he will shortly approximate it and make it his own 
 very soon. 
 
 Ability to maintain a grade once attained is, of 
 course, closely connected with the power to sustain 
 Variations in a maximum, degree of effort, and 
 
 maximum effort t h e wr iter's investigations have 
 shown that this is impossible. The work may go 
 so easily as to cause the learner to drop, perhaps 
 unconsciously, into a state of relaxation and, again, 
 the difficulty or monotony of the task may have the 
 same effect.* Maximum effort, indeed, is a variable 
 quantity in a given individual. The writer's ex- 
 
 * Acquisition of Skill in Typewriting, by Edgar James 
 Swift, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 1, p. 299. 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 113 
 
 periments show frequent variation in "fitness" for 
 the work in hand. Fatigue from any cause, bad 
 air or high temperature in the room and emotional 
 disturbance, such as excitement, lower the result 
 of maximum effort if not the effort itself. Indeed, 
 one's "feelings" regarding one's fitness are not al- 
 ways reliable. The writer, to his great surprise, 
 made an exceptionally low score in typewriting on 
 a day when he felt unusually fit. A most interest- 
 ing illustration of this was the case of one of the 
 participants in the feat of tossing three balls into 
 the air, catching each in turn as it descended, and 
 tossing it up again before the others reached the 
 hands. He had made seven hundred thirty catches 
 on his fifth day and on the sixth he felt confident 
 that he would reach his thousand mark. But, after 
 starting, he was unable to control his muscles and, 
 instead of gaining he fell to four hundred thirty- 
 one. "What had been easy the day before was 
 now done only with the greatest effort, and at the 
 conclusion of the afternoon's work, he was in an 
 uncontrollable tremble."* 
 
 The effect of physical condition on progress was 
 also observed by Miss Munn.f She found in her 
 Some instances investigation that "one little girl 
 of variations W j t j 1 a h ar( j co i(j required as long 
 
 to finish three trials as she had previously required 
 
 * Studies in the Psychology and Physiology of Learning, by 
 Edgar James Swift, American Journal of Psychology, VoL 
 14, p. 215. 
 
 t Archives of Psychology, No. 12, March, 1909, p. 36. 
 
H4 . LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 to complete ten." The most noticeable disturbance 
 caused by the physical condition, she says, was in 
 the nervousness which followed inability to do the 
 work in quick time. Then, too, if the room was 
 warm progress was much slower than usual ; if too 
 cold the same effect was observed. Fatigue, Miss 
 Munn adds, had the same result. "After an after- 
 noon spent almost entirely in drawing, the tests 
 were taken and the weariness of the children in- 
 fluenced the rate of progress greatly. Their interest 
 in the doing of the tests was much less than it 
 previously had been and the gains they made inter- 
 ested them little. It was only with much coaxing 
 and encouragement that they were able to be kept 
 long enough to finish the tests." In addition to 
 times of more or less serious physical disability, 
 there are also "off days" when one is not at his 
 best. Without doubt this condition has its physio- 
 logical basis but the causes can not always be de- 
 tected. 
 
 A "warming up" period is frequently necessary. 
 A little introspection will convince adults of this 
 "Warming up" in their own physical exercise and 
 P enod mental work. A tennis player 
 
 rarely does his best at the beginning of the game. It 
 is true, the first ball may be well placed, but the rec- 
 ord is not maintained until he has been playing a 
 short time. A writer of much experience once said 
 that he always "lost time" in beginning his work. 
 This "warming uf>" when once accomplished may 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 115 
 
 sometimes be carried over at least a brief period of 
 inactivity. Indeed, an intermission is sometimes 
 of assistance, though, as we shall find in the follow- 
 ing chapter, intervening mental work of a different 
 sort may be a disturbance. 
 
 The question may be raised, however, whether 
 the peculiarities in the learning curve, which we 
 
 A tud f th ^ ave f un d> characterize all learn- 
 learning process in ing. Perhaps school learning is 
 a business house j n a dags by j teelt j ndeedj Qne 
 
 sometimes hears remarks to that effect. In order, 
 therefore, to ascertain whether learners under other 
 conditions exhibit the same irregularity the writer 
 obtained the records of a price clerk and a copy 
 clerk from a large wholesale hardware company. 
 These records were taken at random and represent 
 the rate of progress when the work was being 
 learned. A brief description of the nature of this 
 work is, perhaps, desirable. 
 
 The price clerk receives an order sheet, checks 
 the selling price which the salesman has put down 
 
 Description of f r the artides S Id > lo ks U ? the 
 
 methods of cost and enters the extension of 
 
 the cost price. As an example of 
 the number of a single article he may be obliged 
 to look through before he becomes familiar with 
 the price list, this hardware company lists over four 
 hundred fifty hinges. Then, again, the customer 
 may ask for a brass hinge which, with this company, 
 is listed under "butts." A beginner must, also, do 
 
n6 
 
 LEARNING BY DOING . 
 
 considerable mental or written reckoning. For ex- 
 ample, one-twelfth of a dozen at nine dollars is sev- 
 enty-five cents. As the clerk gains proficiency these 
 fractional prices gradually become matters of mem- 
 ory. Skill in finding the items in the price book is 
 also to be acquired and the difficulty of this may be 
 appreciated from the fact that the price book of 
 the company from which the records were secured 
 
 220 
 
 210 
 200 
 190 
 .180 
 170 
 
 aeo 
 
 150 
 i AH 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Rl( 
 
 :E 
 
 CL 
 
 EF 
 
 ?K 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 fl ion 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 | 120 
 
 5 110 
 2 100 
 
 90 
 80 
 70 
 60 
 50 
 40 
 30 
 
 go 
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 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 DAYS 
 
 15 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 
 
 280 
 220 
 210 
 200 
 190 
 180 
 170 
 160 
 150 
 
 130 
 8 120 
 
 5 110 
 I 100 
 
 90 
 80 
 70 
 60 
 50 
 40 
 30 
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 NW 
 
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 DAYS 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 ^0 
 
 contains one thousand thirty-eight pages in which 
 are listed approximately seventy-five thousand items. 
 
 The copy clerks copy invoices from order sheets 
 which have been checked by the price clerks. They 
 must gain sufficient familiarity with the items to 
 be able to recognize them in all sorts of handwriting 
 and abbreviations. 
 
 It will be noticed at once that these curves have 
 
n8 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 t 
 
 the same general characteristics as the curves which 
 
 Characteristics of were shown before - ^regularity 
 
 curves of learning and one or more plateaus mark 
 
 in class room and , -XT , ,1 
 
 in business their course. Yet those from 
 
 concern whom these records were taken 
 
 had all of the incentives to acquire skill rapidly 
 which desire for success in a new position can 
 bring to bear. Increase of salary and promotion 
 are effective spurs to effort. 
 
 Besides the causes of irregularity and retardation, 
 to which reference has been made, monotony is 
 Monotony a fac- always one of the resistances to 
 tor in retardation be overcome in learning. In be- 
 ginning a new study or new work of any sort the 
 novelty awakens interest. At this stage, also, prog- 
 ress is relatively rapid because the learner begins 
 at the zero stage of knowledge in the subject and 
 the preliminary information accumulates quickly. 
 Very soon, however, this mass of loosely organized 
 facts becomes a source of confusion and discour- 
 agement and then the feeling of monotony is likely 
 to dominate. All investigators of the learning proc- 
 ess agree that success and pleasure accompany each 
 other. It is improbable that one of these two 
 always precedes and causes the other. Either one 
 may come first ; but there is always interaction be- 
 tween them, each tending to increase the other. The 
 writer found in his experiments on adults that the 
 desire to excel one's own record as well as that 
 of one's coworkers, was often an incentive to better) 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 119 
 
 work arid that monotony was relieved at the same 
 time. Similar observations have been made by 
 Thorndike and Miss Munn in experiments with 
 children. "The children were very anxious to know 
 the progress they were making and how it com- 
 pared with that of their friends." "Encouragement," 
 Miss Munn says, "did much in raising the record 
 and the trying to outdo their friends held the inter- 
 est of the children and proved the best incentive 
 to doing the work."* Thorndike, in speaking of 
 this, says that "the amount of improvement in this 
 experiment" (which he had just made) "may also 
 add to our confidence that the method of the prac- 
 tice experiment wherein one works at one's limit 
 and competes with one's own past record, may well 
 be made a feature in many school drills."! 
 
 The factors which enter into the learning process 
 do not keep pace with one another. Progress is 
 
 by sections. In all of the experi- 
 Uneven progress 
 of the mental ments which the writer has made, 
 
 errors of one sort persisted after 
 those of another kind had been largely eliminated. 
 In other words, certain factors essential to success 
 became fairly automatic in advance of others. 
 Then, perhaps, no progress would be noticed in the 
 first for a time and the backward ones would de- 
 velop. Evidently, children should not be expected 
 to make even progress in all of the mental processes 
 
 * Archives of Psychology, No. 12, March, 1909, p. 36. 
 t American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 21, p. 482. 
 
120 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 that make for proficiency in a given school sub- 
 ject. In grammar, for example, the pupils may gain 
 considerable skill in the use of adjective phrases 
 and clauses while making no apparent progress in 
 the more complex adverbial expressions. 
 
 In all of the investigations which the writer has 
 made the learners improved by coming upon better 
 Unconscious ele~ Wa 7 s f working without any 
 ment in learning further conscious selection, at 
 first, than the general effort to succeed. "The proc- 
 ess is subconscious. The learner suddenly finds 
 himself doing something of which he has not be- 
 fore been aware. The new acquisition is well along, 
 however, before it is discovered."* This uncon- 
 scious improvement has since been verified by sev- 
 eral investigators. On account of the importance 
 of this factor in the learning process it may be 
 well to quote from some of the later investigations. 
 "A second significant fact about learning is that 
 all adaptations and short-cuts in method were un- 
 consciously made, that is, fallen into by the learners 
 quite unconsciously on the good days while prac- 
 tising under strain. The learners suddenly noticed 
 that they were doing certain parts of the work in 
 a new and better way, then purposely adopted it 
 in the future/'t Again, "a large percentage of the 
 
 * Psychological Bulletin, Vol. I, p. 305. See also Studies 
 in the Psychology and Physiology of Learning (Swift), Amer- 
 ican Journal of Psychology, Vol. 14, pp. 218-219. 
 
 t The Psychology of Skill, by W. F. Book, Bulletin No. 
 53, University of Montana, p. 95. 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 1121 
 
 fortunate variations came altogether unpremedi- 
 tatedly," is the way in which Ruger phrases it in 
 his Psychology of Efficiency* Finally, Louise Elli- 
 son Ordahl found, .in her study of Consciousness 
 in Relation to Learning y \ that methods changed and 
 improvement appeared without conscious control. 
 Unconscious modifications were continually crop- 
 ping out. As consciousness was more and more 
 freed from details these modifications were noticed, 
 practised and improved upon. "Practice results in 
 a standing out of the common features of the proc- 
 ess; these are focalized and generalized into rules 
 for new and better procedure, which immediately 
 takes place." 
 
 Learning always involves the acquisition of cer- 
 tain habits which vary with the nature of the thing 
 
 Progress through that is bein S learned - In manual 
 elimination of the feats of skill, for example, the 
 
 habits are muscular, chiefly arm 
 and finger movements, while in such work as short- 
 hand writing and typewriting, both muscular and 
 mental habits are involved. In the latter instances 
 the mental habits vary from the simple ones of be- 
 ginners of focalizing the parts of each symbol, in 
 the one case, and each letter, in the other, to the 
 more economical habits of the expert who writes 
 each symbol or letter automatically without focal- 
 izing the elemental parts that enter into the sign. 
 
 * Archives of Psychology, No. 15, June, 1910, p. 1. 
 t American Journal of Psychology f Vol. 22, p. 158. 
 
122 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 The learning process at the beginning includes 
 much that is useless and its gradual growth toward 
 economy of effort consists in eliminating these acces- 
 sories. In learning to write, for example, nervous 
 currents go out through many muscles which have 
 no place in writing. The child thrusts out his 
 tongue, jerks his head and legs and, indeed, squirms 
 with his whole body. This is not only uneconom- 
 ical from the standpoint of securing results, it is 
 also fatiguing. Learning aims at economy of effort 
 This is the explanation of the unconscious adoption 
 of new and better ways of doing the thing one 
 is practising, to which we have just referred. There 
 is always a tendency to shorten the process to 
 eliminate what is unnecessary. The boy who is 
 learning to write finally reaches the stage where he 
 is not conscious of letters or even words. These 
 have been cut out in the short-cut process, and the 
 idea expressed by the sentence is sufficient to pro- 
 duce all of the movements necessary to write the 
 letters. 
 
 In learning a new language the 'declensions and 
 conjugations are finally cut out from the act of 
 Higher and lower translating and the learner comes 
 orders of habits f- o use nouns an cl verbs correctly 
 without thinking of their endings or forms. Bryan 
 and Harter have introduced the terms higher and 
 lower orders of habits to describe these elemental 
 and perfected ways of working, and the distinction 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 123 
 
 is a good one. The lower-order habits are those 
 of attention to details and these must become auto- 
 matic before the attention is free to deal with the 
 higher-order which efficiency requires. As long as 
 a learner is obliged to give attention to the form and 
 endings of words he will find it difficult to remem- 
 ber what he has read or even to understand its 
 meaning. This is the reason why we read a for- 
 eign language slowly. Until we have become as 
 proficient in the language as we are in our own 
 we are obliged to give attention to forms of words 
 and construction of sentences. 
 
 Investigations have shown that there is always 
 a tendency in beginners to drop back into the lower- 
 
 _, - order habits even after some 
 
 Tendency to re- . . 
 
 turn to lower facility has been gained in the use 
 
 of the higher habits. The value 
 of speed in preventing this and placing the learner 
 permanently on the higher level is in some dispute. 
 Book believes in pushing one's self to the limit but 
 Miss Munn* and Bairf found more errors with 
 great effort at speed. There is no question, of 
 course, that the learner should work vigorously, but 
 this is quite different from straining to attain the 
 greatest possible speed. With children, at any rate, 
 it is doubtful whether continuous strain is wise on 
 account of the nervousness that accompanies it. 
 
 * Loc. dt. t 
 
 t Psychological Review, Monograph Supplement, Vol. 5, 
 p. 5. 
 
124 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Nervousness is not usually attended with accuracy, 
 and accuracy is vital to the attainment of efficient 
 higher-order habits. 
 
 Let us now pass to another phase of the psychol- 
 ogy of learning. In commencing a new subject, 
 Plateaus as peri- as English grammar or Latin, be- 
 ods of assimilation ginners, during the first few 
 weeks, acquire a mass of information which must be 
 so completely assimilated that its use becomes as 
 automatic as the movements of balancing the body 
 in walking. Now this requires time and, as a 
 matter of fact, the information accumulates faster 
 than it can be assimilated. During the time when 
 this information is being organized into usable 
 knowledge and when definitions, rules, principles 
 and, in languages, declensions and conjugations are 
 becoming automatic, the learner seems to make no 
 advance. The cause of these stationary periods in 
 visible progress, which are called plateaus, in the 
 opinion of the writer, is the need of time for assimi- 
 lation and automatization.* They are periods when 
 marks tell only a part of the truth. Though there 
 is no visible advance, real progress, nevertheless, is 
 going on in organizing the chaotic mass of facts 
 and bits of disconnected information which the 
 
 * See Studies in the Psychology and Physiology of Learn- 
 ing. Loc. cit.; The Acquisition of Skill in Typewriting, Psy- 
 chological Bulletin, Vol. I, p. 295. Beginning a Language, 
 (in Studies in Philosophy and Psychology, Carman Commem- 
 orative Volume), and Mind in the Making (Swift), Chapter 
 VI. 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 125 
 
 learner has acquired so that they may be used quickly 
 and accurately. 
 
 Miss Munn,* in her study of the learning proc- 
 ess, came to this same conclusion. "But this period 
 Views of other of standstill is not truly one 
 experimenters o f no gain," she says in sum- 
 
 ming up, "for after these resting periods, as 
 we may call them, great gains are frequently 
 made and also kept. It seems as though we might 
 call them periods of assimilation, for the accelera- 
 tion which follows shows that some learning must 
 have been going on or otherwise the sudden gains 
 would not have ensued." Cleveland, also, seems to 
 have the same thought in mind when he says, in 
 his study of the Psychology of Chess and of Learn- 
 ing to Play It, that "the most important psychologi- 
 cal feature in the learning of chess (and it seems 
 equally true of all learning), is the progressive or- 
 ganisation of knowledge, making possible the direc- 
 tion of the player's attention to the relations of 
 larger and more complex units. The organization 
 involves generalization . . . and the multiplica- 
 tion of associations; it insures prompter recall 
 and increased potential meaning in the general 
 concepts; it releases attention from details and 
 favors consequent mental automatisms and short- 
 circuit processes. Thus alone is progress possible. 
 Mental automatisms are usually perfected, one may 
 
 *Loc. cit. 
 
126 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 conjecture, after advance to the next higher stage 
 of learning."* 
 
 Book, on the other hand, believes that plateaus 
 in the learning process "represent either a failure 
 A different * n attention and effort ... or 
 
 explanation a period during which attention 
 
 and effort are wrongly applied, where mistakes are 
 multiplied and where subsequently the evil effects 
 of practice in error are slowly overcome and right 
 habits of attention and execution regained." f 
 
 Miss Munn has proved the inadequacy of this 
 explanation by showing that after these periods of 
 no apparent progress "great gains are frequently 
 made and also kept." Why should the attention 
 almost invariably select the moment for lapsing 
 when the learner is on the point of making de- 
 cided improvement? And, again, why should the 
 attention on suddenly returning to its duty impart 
 a skill greater than it gave during its former period 
 of full activity before the cessation of progress? 
 The improvement that follows the retardation must 
 be accounted for, and the rapid rise of the curves 
 after these plateaus indicates that some sort of 
 mental organization and automatization has been 
 going on during the interval of retardation in visi- 
 ble progress.! 
 
 Finally, time is an important factor in the learn- 
 
 * American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 18, p. 269. 
 t Loc. cit., p. 157. 
 
 T See also the writer's Learning to Telegraph, Psycholog- 
 ical Bulletin, Vol. 7, p. 149. 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 127 
 
 ing process. This is only another phase of the peri- 
 Time necessary ? ds f retardation which we ha y e 
 for fixing just considered. Plateaus in 
 
 associations learning are the mind's protest 
 
 against further cramming. Time is needed for the 
 associations and the nervous currents underlying 
 them to become fixed. We have the same fact 
 illustrated in another way. Muller and Pilzecker 
 found* that if those who had learned a given as- 
 signment turned their attention to something else 
 immediately after committing the assignment to 
 memory, the result was by no means so good as 
 when they rested quietly for five or six minutes 
 without thinking of anything in particular. It 
 should be emphasized, however, that, during this 
 brief intermission, the learners did not think about 
 what they had just studied. Further, the closer 
 one applies one's self to a new task immediately 
 after finishing a piece of work, the less of what 
 one has learned will be remembered. The explan- 
 ation, these investigators believe, may be something 
 like the following. After studying a given assign- 
 ment certain nervous processes which tend to 
 strengthen the associations started by the act of 
 learning, continue in force for a time, but with 
 'decreasing strength. In the opinion of the present 
 writer, turning immediately to new work disturbs 
 these nervous processes both by starting interfering 
 currents and by draining off those which, if given 
 
 *Exper\menielle Beitrage zur Lehre vom Geddchtnis. 
 
128 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 time, would establish the associations produced in 
 learning the assignment. 
 
 That nervous processes once associated through 
 an act of learning do actually become "set" during 
 A memory cessation of practice has been 
 
 experiment demonstrated by experiments of 
 
 the writer on memory.* These memory tests were 
 made in typewriting and ball-tossing. The first 
 occurred two years and thirty-five days after the 
 regular practice on the typewriter had ended. Dur- 
 ing the interval the writer had not touched any 
 style of typewriter until one week before the test 
 of which we are now speaking, when he wrote a 
 letter of about fifty words. The memory test in 
 ball-tossing was taken six years and seventeen days 
 after the conclusion of a series of experiments by 
 which the skill was first acquired. 
 
 In order that the significance of the memory 
 curves may be clearer the original curves showing 
 Explanation of the progress in the regular learn- 
 memory curves i n g practice in typewriting and in 
 ball-tossing the one more than two years and the 
 other a little over six years earlier are also given. 
 In both cases curve I is the regular learning curve 
 and 2 is the memory curve. As before, the days 
 of practice are indicated under the base line and 
 the rate of progress at the left of the curves. 
 
 * These experiments verify earlier ones made by B. Bour- 
 don. See L'Annee Psychologique, Vol. 8, p. 327. 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 
 
 129 
 
 A 
 
 OF TYPE- 
 
 WRITING 
 
 DAYS 
 
 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 ^5 90 
 
 *The curves for typewriting and ball-tossing are taken 
 from Mind in the Making, by permission of Charles Scrib- 
 
 l^f'o Q/-VMO 
 
 ner's Sons. 
 
130 
 
 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 CL500 
 
 1400 
 
 1200 
 0100 
 
 aooo 
 
 900 
 
 o 
 
 I 800 
 
 til 
 
 cc 
 
 > 
 
 ^ 700 
 
 600 
 
 I 
 600 
 
 400 
 800 
 
 soo 
 
 MEMORY OF 
 
 BALL-TOSSIN 
 
 \/ 
 
 DAYS 
 
PROGRESS IN LEARNING 131 
 
 As will be seen from the curves in typewriting, 
 
 the original investigation covered a period of fifty 
 
 days, while in the memory test 
 
 oriS iS expe ri- only eleven days were required to 
 
 mcnt and mem- reach the degree of proficiency 
 ory test ... , . , * . . f 
 
 with which the original investiga- 
 tion closed. Practice was omitted, however, on 
 five of the original practice days and once during 
 the memory test. The actual number of days of 
 work was, therefore, forty-five in the former and 
 ten in the latter. 
 
 In ball-tossing, eleven days were needed to re- 
 gain the skill which, in the earlier work, had re- 
 quired forty-two days of practice. At the conclu- 
 sion of this memory test the experimenter had 
 attained a skill of sixteen hundred catches in ten 
 misses, against ten hundred and fifty-one in the 
 earlier work. That he actually had more skill than 
 at the end of the practice of the first investigation 
 was also indicated by the feeling of greater ease 
 in making the score.* 
 
 The facts in the psychology of learning which 
 we have been considering have pedagogical signifi- 
 cance to which we now turn. 
 
 *For the details of these experiments see the Psycholog- 
 ical Bulletin, Vol. 1, p. 295, and the American Journal of Psy- 
 chology, Vol. 16, p. 131. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ECONOMY IN LEARNING 
 
 ONE of the advantages of studying the learn* 
 ing process we have found to be the shifting 
 of the teacher's attention from the subjects of study 
 
 to the pupils. For example, the 
 Advantage to 
 
 teacher of study of usual method of determining the 
 learning process amount of work to be taken each 
 
 day is to divide, as equitably as possible, what must 
 be finished in the term. Studies in learning have 
 shown, however, that there are days when children 
 can accomplish many times as much as on other 
 days. Sometimes this is caused by the physical 
 condition of the children, but, again, it may be 
 the result of the excitement of the day. So the 
 teacher now makes the children his starting-point 
 in determining the amount to be taEen in the lesson 
 and frequently, indeed, in deciding whether any 
 studying at all may profitably be attempted. An 
 illustration of the latter case is seen on days of 
 football matches or when some other great excite- 
 ment stirs the school. The children may, of course, 
 be compelled to mark time in their books but it is 
 often a question whether more progress would not 
 ultimately be made if, at such a time, some other 
 
 132 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 133 
 
 sort of work were done witH sufficient interest in 
 it to hold the pupils. 
 
 This does not mean to change the order of the 
 day for every childish whim, but economy in learn- 
 ing which means securing the 
 
 pupil best results in the course of the 
 in economy of year can not ignore the attitude 
 
 of hostility or friendliness of pu- 
 pils toward their teachers and their work ; and this 
 attitude is determined by the feeling of the teacher 
 toward the things which the children prize so highly, 
 or, rather, by the feeling which the children think 
 their teachers have. The latter is quite different 
 from the former, as every teacher knows from his 
 efforts to be understood. How, then, are the chil- 
 dren to be convinced of the teacher's friendliness? 
 By giving the things which children take so seri- 
 ously a place among the valued activities of the 
 school. 
 
 Standing in the court of educational method is 
 granted rather grudgingly to children. A writer 
 
 Concerning new in * recent number f the At ~ 
 ideas in education lantic Monthly* has said that 
 
 "The firm old belief that the task is a valu- 
 able asset in education, that the making of a 
 good job out of a given piece of work is about 
 the highest thing on earth, has lost its hold upon 
 the world. . . . All knowledge, we are told, can 
 be made so attractive if only we have a very up- 
 
 *Our Loss of Nerve, by Agnes Repplier, Sept. 1913. 
 
i 3 4 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 todate teacher that children will absorb it with 
 delight." This way of arguing is strikingly sug- 
 gestive of the Indian device for frightening an 
 enemy. Before going on the war-path, they painted 
 themselves in hideous colors so as to look as fierce 
 as possible. To-day, those who would oppose a 
 new idea paint it in gloomy tints and do not hesi- 
 tate to distort its meaning if by so doing they can 
 create alarm and produce a literary effect. 
 
 There are only two possible courses according 
 to the tacit assumption of writers such as we have 
 Two methods of quoted. If children are to make 
 getting results a good job out of a given piece 
 of work they must be told to do it and then be 
 held at the task until it is done. The other alter- 
 native is to cajole the youthful tyrants into doing 
 as much as possible and, when beguilement fails, 
 to give them other work in the hope of finding 
 something that will satisfy their royal pleasure. 
 The latter plan, as we are led to think, is the 
 method of the "very up-to-date teacher" and with 
 it comes "our loss of nerve." 
 
 Now the present writer ventures to assert tfiat 
 a third way is open. First of all it should be re- 
 membered that work may be pleas- 
 A third method . t t . T . - 
 
 ant without being easy. It is, of 
 
 course, supremely important in educating children 
 to train them to keep at a task until it is finished. 
 There is no disagreement about this, but the prob- 
 lem is how to accomplish it. The primitive way 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 135 
 
 was to order things done and to punish failure and 
 disobedience. Teachers early adopted this method 
 because it was approved by tradition and because 
 at that time knowledge of child psychology was 
 lacking. Now, however, we have learned that chil- 
 dren can be made to want to do what we wish 
 provided we know their ways of responding to given 
 conditions. There is no special virtue in creating 
 unnecessary friction merely to make children work 
 against it. Habits of ethical, social conduct and of 
 industry are what are wanted and when once these 
 habits are established children are better prepared 
 than before to resist temptations and to overcome 
 obstacles. In practice we accept this principle by 
 establishing public playgrounds to shield children 
 from the temptations of the streets. If, however, 
 we apply here the criticism of such writers as we 
 have quoted we are causing "loss of nerve" by 
 shielding these children from these moral perils 
 instead of compelling them to conquer the dangers. 
 The purpose in establishing public playgrounds 
 is to create situations which shall save children from 
 
 temptations for which they are 
 The alliance be- 
 tween teacher not ready and, meanwhile, to 
 and child tmin them j n hab;ts of se if. con . 
 
 trol. Now if we interpret this for the schools it 
 means that we ought to plan situations which shall 
 protect pupils from the allurements of things and 
 actions more seductive to them than study, while 
 at the same time we are training them in habits 
 
136 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 of attention and industry. In this way they are gain- 
 ing the self-control that, later, will enable them to 
 hold their own against persuasive attractions. This 
 is done by applying the psychology of the group 
 the gang and by utilizing the willingness of 
 children to accept responsibility when it is put upon 
 them. To get children into the habit of doing a 
 given piece of work is what is wanted and if 
 this habit can be produced by creating in them a 
 feeling of friendliness to the school through recog- 
 nition of their own activities and by helping them 
 organize into groups to bring the spirit of the gang 
 to the teacher's side, the training in self-control and 
 in industry has been well started. There is infinitely 
 more moral and industrial value to the child in 
 eagerness to undertake a difficult piece of work 
 than in "unwilling study," and the teacher who can 
 produce this eagerness has succeeded far ahead of 
 him who commands and drives. Would any one 
 maintain that the school in which the teacher holds 
 the children to their tasks by fear of penalties is 
 superior to the one in which the pupils study from 
 the joy of contributing something to a common 
 cause, or that the habits gained in unwilling study 
 are a more valuable asset than those acquired 
 through joy in work? Is not one of the problems 
 of the school to teach children to want to study, 
 to enjoy history, literature and science so that they 
 may wish to pursue each further when they have 
 left the school? 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 137 
 
 We have been trying to show that the coopera- 
 tion of children in furthering their education should 
 be the aim and that the value of their training 
 is greatly enhanced and its permanency better se- 
 cured by entering into an alliance with their racial 
 instincts and native interests. This includes not 
 merely the instinct of workmanship, powerfully en- 
 trenched as it is in the life of the race, but also 
 the instinct of play, the moments of intense enthusi- 
 asm for the free, wild life of action in other things 
 than studies. Recognition of these interests on the 
 occasional days when events of temporarily supreme 
 importance bring them to the front unites the in- 
 terests of teachers and pupils and, in the course 
 of the year, greatly increases the efficiency of the 
 work. 
 
 Undivided attention to the work in hand is what 
 counts and there are days when children can not 
 Effect of mental give it. To attempt at such a 
 attitude t } me to hold them to their books 
 
 is but to break the incipient habits of study which 
 have been weeks in starting. One of the rules for 
 breaking bad habits is not to permit a single fall 
 from grace. This is, of course, impossible with 
 children, and teachers, in their enthusiasm, may 
 place the pupils in such conditions that failure is 
 practically certain. By recognizing these facts and 
 studying the needs of the pupils one may, on the 
 other hand, not only promote habits of study but 
 also create the feeling of good will which is essential 
 
138 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 *t6 progress in the work. For all investigations 
 have shown that the attitude of the learner toward 
 his task is vital to success. This attitude influences 
 the height of the curve. Children who are not 
 .well disposed toward their teacher and the school 
 will never do their best. They will have their ups 
 and downs, just as do the others, but the highest 
 point attained will not be commensurate with their 
 abilities. 
 
 The experiments given in the third chapter are 
 some of the plans which have been tried for cre- 
 Importance of at * n g this feeling of good will, 
 group sentiment Their success was due to their 
 appeal to the children's point of view. They offered 
 new activities which the children themselves could 
 manage and so this organized pupil-work set 
 up rival interests, interests quite as absorbing in 
 certain respects as the outdoor sports and which, 
 at the same time, stimulated progress in the studies. 
 In addition, these methods of enlisting the help of 
 the pupils appeal to the instinct of group action 
 I the gregariousness of lower animals and it is 
 (always easier to guide the interests of groups of 
 Children than to manage individuals. This is an 
 ^important fact in school management. The teacher 
 should plan to produce a group sentiment of indus- 
 try and loyalty and mutual helpfulness. But the 
 .less he uses these words the better. Boys abom- 
 inate cant and sentimentality, and the repetition of 
 platitudes is more likely to cause mirth than serious 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 139 
 
 thought. Whether they do or do not will depend 
 on whether the feeling, of which we have been 
 speaking, pervades the school ; and 1 so, at all events, 
 the development of a feeling of good will through 
 action instead of words is the first requirement. 
 Everything that various writers have said about 
 the "gang" applies here.* The leader of the boys 
 
 is, of course, to be discovered and 
 Importance of __ . 
 
 winning leader of won. He is the one through 
 
 the gang whom suggestions may be spread 
 
 quickly among the pupils. He is proud of his 
 position of influence among his fellows and this 
 feeling of superiority is his vulnerable point. What 
 method is to be employed in winning him? Human 
 nature is too variable for specific rules, but such 
 boys always like to have their opinion asked, and 
 if the teacher can get them to do him a favor 
 they are usually his allies in the future. It is 
 difficult for any one who has helped you once to 
 turn against you. But the teacher must always 
 be frank and open in dealing with the leader, as 
 indeed with all of his pupils. Everything "on the 
 square" is essential to success in the schoolroom 
 as everywhere else. It is amazing how the leader, 
 and through him the others, respond to friendly 
 criticism when once the , "gang spirit" has been run 
 into channels for turning the wheels of the school 
 activities. The feeling of group solidarity is per- 
 haps the strongest force in boys, and its utilization 
 
 * See also, the writer's Youth and the Race, Chap. VII. 
 
140 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 in creating the good feeling which promotes work 
 is proof of teaching ability. 
 
 We have been speaking of boys because the prob- 
 lems of discipline and efficient work usually center 
 Comparison of * n them. Girls are less aggressive 
 boys and girls an( j more imitative. If the boys 
 are won the girls quite readily adapt themselves to 
 the situation. The only exception is a girl who 
 stands out conspicuously as a leader. In such a 
 case her support must, of course, be gained. The 
 motives put before her will frequently differ from 
 those which are effective with boys. Probably the 
 incentives to action should be more personal. With 
 both boys and girls recognition of the racial crav- 
 ing for activities which the children themselves con- 
 trol, observance of their desire to participate at 
 times in something tinged with the zest of adven- 
 ture, and thought fulness of the danger of monoto- 
 ny, will do much toward diffusing a stimulating 
 emotional atmosphere throughout the room. 
 
 This general attitude is disclosed in what may 
 be called the spirit of the school and the thought- 
 The spirit of ^ teacher now studies his chil- 
 
 thc school dren to discover the effect of 
 
 each environmental factor, and this includes con- 
 ditions of the home as well as circumstances and 
 events in school. The progress of learners in their 
 studies has been found unexpectedly sensitive to 
 external conditions as well as to the physiological 
 and mental condition of the children. Every teacher 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING r 4 i 
 
 is trying, of course, to get results to pro'duce such 
 conditions as will help his pupils to make the best 
 progress and the study of the learning process, 
 together with all of the conditions which affect it, 
 aids him in this endeavor. 
 
 We have been speaking of the general attitude 
 of pupils, which affects the learning curve of the 
 entire school. It remains to show the influence of 
 temporary states of mind or body on individuals. 
 
 The writer, throughout his experiments, found 
 the feelings and physical condition of the learners 
 to be essential to progress. They 
 were the fundamental require- 
 
 and mental condi- ment of efficiency. Book* says, 
 tion of learner . , . . - . . 
 
 concerning this, that in his inves- 
 
 tigations the "correlation between the learner's gen- 
 eral affective tone or attitude and the fluctuations 
 in attention and effort was so close that if one had 
 a complete and accurate record of the changes that 
 occurred in the former, one would have an accurate 
 criterion of (the learner's) progress and efficiency. 
 The learner's mental attitude and general tone of 
 feeling was a true index of his progress and ability 
 to do." "The feelings and the failure of attention," 
 again, "were clearly joint effects of certain health 
 conditions" and "the influence of the learner's gen- 
 eral physiological condition on (feeling and suc- 
 cess) can hardly be overemphasized." When in 
 good physical condition and working vigorously, 
 
 * Loc. tit., p. 149. 
 
142 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 the writer's experiments, as we have seen, show 
 that the learner adopts new ways and modifies his 
 mode of procedure without knowing that he is 
 doing it. After the change is made he finds that 
 he is following a better method and then he con- 
 sciously approves and continues it. But this un- 
 conscious utilization of better ways occurs only 
 when the learner has zeal for his work; and zeal, 
 though it may not always accompany emotional 
 and physical good feeling, rarely exists without it. 
 These observations about adults apply equally 
 well to the schoolroom. If a child is not physi- 
 cally "fit," keeping him at his work 'does little 
 more than strengthen habits of inattention and 
 nullify previous training by multiplying errors. 
 The child actually loses ground on account of the 
 occurrence of numberless errors which, as incipient 
 habits, start interfering movements or ideas on fol- 
 lowing days. These errors are so many new re- 
 sistances to be overcome when the child is in better 
 trim. Every wrong association sets up an inter- 
 ference with the one that is right, and the more 
 numerous the errors the greater the odds against 
 the right ideas being brought into the mind through 
 associative processes. The working of association 
 is, after all, not very different from that of mechan- 
 ical forces. Like the latter the various nervous cur- 
 rents which underlie the association of ideas follow 
 paths of least resistance and it frequently requires 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 143 
 
 but little to divert the course of a gently flowing 
 stream. To be more specific, we know how difficult 
 it often is for even adults to spell a word correctly 
 after hearing several incorrect suggestions. 
 
 But there is still another way in which emo- 
 tional and physical unfitness make execution bad. 
 If the beginner has acquired 
 some facility in habits of a higher 
 
 sion to lower or- order he now drops back into ele- 
 der of habits t r i o 
 
 mental modes of work. Suppose, 
 
 for example, a pupil in Latin has acquired some 
 little skill in sight translation. This, of course, 
 involves the beginnings of complex habits which, 
 at their best, give evidence of a high degree of 
 efficiency. The learner now sees the meaning of 
 entire sentences without analyzing their parts or 
 thinking in terms of case endings. On days of 
 physical indisposition he will be reduced to the word 
 method of the earlier stage. Or, again, if a child 
 has learned to work in mental arithmetic he will 
 be compelled at such a time to write out the solu- 
 tion of his problems because he can not hold the 
 figures in his mind; and with it all mistakes will 
 be common. 
 
 Economy in learning, as in all production, in- 
 volves the quality, quantity and cost of the output, 
 Economy in an d physical or mental unfitness 
 
 learning gives a limited quantity of infe- 
 
 rior goods at a high cost. The increased expense 
 
144 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 of production is caused by the bad condition of the 
 machinery that does the work. The problem of 
 the teacher here is much the same as that of a 
 manager of a business house. When a leakage is 
 discovered find the cause and stop it. In the pres- 
 ent instance the state of the body and mind pro- 
 duces inattention, multiplies errors and reduces the 
 pupils to elemental stages of learning. This reduces 
 the output for the day. In addition, it injures the 
 mental machinery by strengthening habits of inat- 
 tention, by starting interfering nervous currents, on 
 account of the errors made, and by perpetuating the 
 lower-order habits of work. Recognition of chil- 
 dren's mental and physical ailments avoids this 
 waste and, besides, creates the general feeling of 
 good will of which we spoke in the beginning. In 
 other words, it produces the condition which experi- 
 ments have shown to be necessary for mental effici- 
 ency. It were better to be deceived sometimes than 
 give the impression of unconcern for those in trou- 
 ble. When, however, the feeling of good will pre- 
 vails, deception is in less favor. The children are 
 likely to take care of that as we have found them 
 resentful of other sorts of indolence. Successful 
 shirkers are popular only in schools made up of 
 two camps the pupils and teacher each in a 
 state of armed truce and both watchful of each 
 other. 
 
 This is not a plea for less work but for more 
 efficient use of time. Greater advantage should be 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 145 
 
 A plea for more taken of the P eriods followin g the 
 efficient use of "warming up." This delay in 
 
 getting started is an unavoidable 
 
 explanation factor in beginning the day's 
 
 work in any subject. It probably consists, in part, 
 in connecting the thoughts of the previous day 
 as far as they enter into the task of the moment, 
 and in part, in switching nervous currents into new 
 channels. There is a complete break between geog- 
 raphy and arithmetic. The learner must, so to 
 speak, stop mental action and make a new start, 
 and starting always requires overcoming resistance. 
 Tashiro* has shown that "a resting nerve gives off 
 a definite quantity of carbon dioxide," that "stimu- 
 lation increases CO2 production" and that "CO2 
 production from the resting nerve proportionately 
 decreases as irritability diminishes. These facts 
 prove directly that the nerve continuously under- 
 goes chemical changes and that nervous irritability 
 is directly connected with a chemical phenomenon." 
 Since carbon dioxide is the result of oxidation, 
 a series of these oxidation phenomena would cause 
 an explosion wave. We may suppose the available 
 energy to depend upon the number of these ex- 
 plosion waves per second. Reasoning then by anal- 
 ogy from the results of chemical action with which 
 we are familiar, a certain number of explosion 
 waves must appear per second to make voluntary 
 attention possible, and the closer the concentration 
 
 * The American Journal of Physiology, Vol. 33, p. 95. 
 
146 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 > v 
 
 the greater the number within a given time. A 
 high degree of efficiency in study and thought will 
 be accompanied then by a correspondingly rapid 
 succession of explosion waves. By analogy, again, 
 we may venture to say that the delay required in 
 similar cases, with which we are better acquainted, 
 is alsoi needed here to produce the requisite rapidity 
 in successive explosions. 
 
 Efficiency, then, would seem to require that the 
 number of these delays be as few as possible. Why 
 A suggestion for should not the daily program be 
 getting results varied when the interest of the 
 class suggests the wisdom of the change? Results 
 are wanted and the time to mold the mind and 
 impress ideas is when the enthusiasm of the chil- 
 dren is at white heat. Stopping the recitation at 
 a vital point when the pupils are keen to follow the 
 thought to the end is a common experience with 
 all teachers ; and the next day the alertness is gone 
 and half of the period must be used in working 
 up the interest again, only to leave it unsatisfied 
 at another critical moment. 
 
 I am aware that continuing the work at times 
 beyond the hour would disturb the regularity of 
 Utilization of the classes but, again, I venture 
 enthusiasm to say that we are after results. 
 
 The irregularity would even up because the cir- 
 cumstances would not always require extending the 
 period with the same class. Besides, this plan would 
 stimulate the pugils to inquiry and reading outside 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 147 
 
 the school. A certain point in the development of 
 a topic must be reached before the children are 
 anxious to investigate a little for themselves, and 
 dismissing classes by the clock ignores the growth 
 of the subject under discussion and the enthusiasm 
 aroused. Critical moments, when the mental tem- 
 perature is high, are not the times to dismiss classes 
 if efficiency is the aim. When, on the other hand, 
 the interest has waned or the children begin to 
 show signs of fatigue, class work is unprofitable. 
 The pupils should then be given different work or 
 progress is delayed and dislike for the study en- 
 gendered. This plan would also help to conserve 
 the feeling of good will to which we have referred, 
 because it would tend to foster the feeling of pleas- 
 ure which we have found invariably associated with 
 effective work. Taking enthusiasms into account 
 always promotes pleasure and good will. 
 
 But the influence of the emotions on the learn- 
 ing process does not end here. Ruger found* two 
 Other hindrances forms of personal attitude both 
 to learning emotional inimical to success in 
 
 a problem presented for solution. These are the 
 x attitude of feeling that one knows the answer and 
 that of self-attention. Both of these emotional 
 states, as Ruger's investigations show, prevent the 
 attention from attacking the problem directly and 
 without prejudice. Those who have not acquired 
 the scientific habit of examining a problem before 
 
 *The Psychology of Efficiency, by Henry Alford Ruger, 
 "Archives of Psychology, No. 15, June, 1910, p. 1. 
 
148 i LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 drawing conclusions, and of holding these conclu- 
 sions tentatively even after examination has sug- 
 gested them, have yet to learn the first principle 
 of investigation. Freedom of mind is essential to 
 productive study, it matters not how elementary the 
 problem. Take, for example, the question, Why 
 is St. Louis a large city? The children may have 
 learned that a large navigable river tends to build 
 up a large city. If, however, they attack the ques- 
 tion on that supposition they will go far astray, be- 
 cause at present the Mississippi is a comparatively 
 unimportant factor in the growth of St. Louis. 
 
 Ruger observed that those with whom he worked 
 immediately made assumptions about the nature of 
 
 the problem and that they held 
 An experiment 
 
 them more or less in mind dur- 
 ing the work, to the serious detriment of their 
 progress. These assumptions, often accidentally 
 established in the mind, became thoroughly en- 
 trenched, Ruger says, without being subjected to 
 criticism. His learners watched for a cue or the 
 first glance suggested a particular way of stating 
 the problem or of defining the plan of solution 
 without any active search for other ways of looking 
 at the matter or any criticism of the method ac- 
 cepted. "In general, the solutions were not the 
 result of mere straightaway thinking and the con- 
 sequent formulation of a thoroughgoing plan of 
 action, but were the outcome of an extremely com- 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 149 
 
 plex interrelation of more or less random impulses 
 and ideas." 
 
 Children are prone to jump at conclusions. They 
 seize as the answer to the question the first idea 
 
 Importance of that COmeS tO them from thdr 
 encouraging past work. The teacher's plan of 
 
 education should demand exami- 
 nation of the problem before any conclusions are 
 drawn and the children should be taught to think 
 of possible solutions as questions for further ex- 
 amination in the light of the conditions and sug- 
 gestions of the problem, rather than as answers 
 immediately to be accepted. This is the method 
 of elimination by which the possible solutions are 
 gradually reduced in number as one after another 
 is eliminated from consideration until, finally, 
 only one or two remain. This is thinking. 
 It requires more time at the beginning but 
 in the end it saves time because the pupils 
 learn self-reliance by gaining power to study out 
 solutions for themselves. Besides, the recitation 
 advances beyond the guessing game which chil- 
 dren are prone to make it until they find that such 
 answers will not be accepted. A class is what the 
 teacher makes it. The children adapt themselves 
 to the conditions with which he surrounds them and 
 they will do just as loose or accurate thinking as 
 these conditions demand. But the method must 
 be used daily and relentlessly. This continued, se- 
 
150 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 vere insistence upon the scientific method of thought 
 in simple as well as in complex problems is what 
 Rousseau seems to have meant when he said : "May 
 I venture to state here the greatest, the most im- 
 portant, the most useful rule in all education? It 
 is not to gain time, but to lose it." 
 
 Some of the assumptions which interfered with 
 the solution of his puzzle-problems Ruger has said 
 
 The unconscious arose in the minds of the learners 
 factor in the without their knowledge and be- 
 
 learning process came established bef ore they were 
 
 subjected to criticism. This is an observation in 
 a particular instance of what is probably a general 
 fact in learning. Many of our methods of secur- 
 ing results in any field are unconsciously acquired 
 even when we are under guidance, and if untutored 
 practically all are gained in this way. Our study 
 of the psychology of learning has shown agreement 
 among investigators on the unconscious adoption 
 of short-cuts and other devices for hastening re- 
 sults. Let us now examine the pedagogical signi- 
 ficance of this. 
 
 First of all, it is clear that, if left to themselves, 
 children are liable to acquire uneconomical habits 
 
 The right mo- work ' A S ain > there is S rave 
 ment to help danger of over-help. Indeed, 
 
 many are convinced that to-day 
 children receive too much assistance. What then 
 is the solution of our problem ? When should help 
 be given? The investigations in learning have 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 151 
 
 answered the question. Suggestions are most valu- 
 able at the moment when the learner has hit on 
 a new way of meeting a difficulty. If he is not 
 yet aware of it, i. e., if the new method is still 
 in the unconscious stage, it may be pointed out and 
 its advantages or disadvantages made clear. A 
 learner is not interested in solving a difficulty be- 
 fore he meets it. Why should he be when he does 
 not know that he will ever encounter it? This 
 is human nature, especially child nature. We are 
 not interested in what we are wholly ignorant of; 
 and a difficulty of the future is of this sort. But 
 if children care to gain some skill in what they are 
 engaged on, the moment that they become conscious 
 of an obstacle in their way they are alert to any 
 successful plan of overcoming it. If help is given 
 too soon, the child goes on his way only partially ac- 
 quainted with the difficulty. Indeed, he may hardly 
 know that it is in his way. He has not yet met 
 it or tried to meet it, either successfully or unsuc- 
 cessfully. If, on the other hand, he actually strug- 
 gles with the situation, for at least a brief time, 
 he has learned to know it. He then appreciates 
 the better way suggested because he has tried his 
 hand and only partially succeeded and he knows 
 what the new method does and why it does it 
 His partial failure was really of advantage because 
 he now learns to be critical of plans of work. The 
 trial and error method, as used here, is valuable 
 up to a certain point because partial success or com- 
 
152 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 k 
 
 plete failure confronts the learner with the diffi- 
 culty. But he should be shown the better way be- 
 fore he has acquired uneconomical habits of ex- 
 ecution. 
 
 One need not look far for illustrations of what 
 we have been saying. In learning to write, chil- 
 dren unconsciously assume posi- 
 Illustrations . ,. , , , - 
 
 tions of body, arm and fingers 
 
 which, to a certain degree, meet the needs of the 
 situation. They do not consciously select these po- 
 sitions and they do not subject them to criticism 
 before their defects are called to their attention. 
 In this particular case it is probably of little im- 
 portance whether they are started right or whether 
 they are allowed to try their own varied ways of 
 doing the work long enough to become conscious 
 of their awkwardness before the disadvantage of 
 these positions is pointed out. In arithmetic, how- 
 ever, the wisdom of a little delay in suggesting 
 methods becomes apparent. Some of the children 
 at the beginning will write everything down and 
 use their fingers in adding. Others will do some 
 of the simpler processes mentally, putting only the 
 results on paper. The latter will, of course, finish 
 long before the others. No one wishes to do un- 
 necessary work, and besides, children are anxious 
 to equal or excel their associates. After the slower 
 ones have discovered that their methods do not get 
 results is, therefore, the psychological moment to 
 show them the better way. In foreign languages, 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 153 
 
 again, the application of the principle is evident. 
 Learners try to meet the same situation in different 
 ways. Some thumb their vocabulary for each word 
 in the order in which it comes. A few look up all 
 of the words in a paragraph and write the mean- 
 ings down, regardless of the sense. A day or two 
 is enough to prepare these children to appreciate 
 suggestions for a better plan of work. Those who 
 take the words in succession find that the author 
 of their book did not think in the English order 
 and the others discover to their surprise that only 
 one of the many English words fits the context or 
 even that the vocabulary contains no equivalent for 
 the thought. Now they see the problem and their 
 desire to hasten the preparation of their lesson, if 
 no higher motive operates, makes them receptive 
 to suggestions. Then, when they are told that by 
 reading a paragraph thoughtfully, half a dozen 
 times in the original language, they will "feel" the 
 meaning of certain words as well as their relation 
 to one another, and that soon they will find it un- 
 necessary to look up all the words in their vocabu- 
 lary, they do not resist the suggestion because no 
 one wishes to take unnecessary trouble. 
 
 Elemental habits must be mastered first of all. 
 Declensions, conjugations, rules in grammar and 
 
 tables in arithmetic must become 
 Overlapping of . 
 
 higher and lower automatic. But before this hap- 
 pens the observant teacher will 
 see that habits of a higher order are making their 
 
154 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 appearance. Some of the children will "feel" the 
 meaning and construction without certainty of the 
 reasons. But there is always a tendency to drop 
 back into more elemental ways of working. Chil- 
 dren who have acquired a little facility in reading 
 sentences in a foreign language without consulting 
 the vocabulary are prone to reduce their work to 
 translating words instead of thoughts. Care is 
 needed here to keep the pupils up to the higher, 
 order of habits while continuing the drill for mas- 
 tery of the lower. There is a kind of struggle for 
 existence, for self-assertion, among habits and the 
 economical ones should be helped to prevail. Ele- 
 mental habits must finally be replaced by habits of 
 a higher order or the child continues on a low level 
 of efficiency. In English grammar the pupil must 
 learn to "feel" the relation of parts of a thought 
 to one another without picturing words and dia- 
 grams. For this reason the use of diagrams should 
 not be too persistent or too long continued. In 
 Latin and German, again, a "good form" of exe- 
 cution has not been attained until the pupil can 
 translate simple sentences, after reading them in 
 the original, without a dictionary. 
 
 There are interfering associations among ideas 
 just as there are interfering movements in muscu- 
 Encouragement of ^r activity but these are grad- 
 individuality ua u y eliminated as efficient asso- 
 
 ciations become automatized. The elimination of 
 associations unprofitable from the point of view of 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 155 
 
 present need is usually an unconscious process un- 
 less an instructor is at hand to suggest a better 
 way. Teachers should always be watchful for 
 short-cuts. The learner naturally adopts them and 
 they should be encouraged. They represent the 
 pupil's personal reaction to the problems. This is 
 economy of method; and beyond this, the writer 
 has already called attention to the fact that there 
 is no one universally efficient way of approaching 
 and solving a problem.* Each child has his own 
 point of view and his manner of approach expresses 
 his thought just as our own represent ours. As 
 long as a pupil is logical his method is as cor- 
 rect as any other and if he finds a shorter process 
 so much the better. He should be praised for his 
 clearer vision. Adults are too prone to force their 
 methods on the young and in so doing they stifle 
 originality and crush interest. The importance of 
 taking into account individual differences in ways 
 of thinking has also been emphasized by Meyer- 
 hardt.f Compelling children to adopt another 
 method than their own before they have thoroughly 
 mastered the latter starts interfering associations 
 of which we were speaking. 
 
 BoltonJ found, in his study of memory in school 
 
 * See Mind in the Making, Chap. III. 
 
 ^Economical Learning, Pedagogical Seminary, Vdl. 13, p. 
 145. 
 
 $ The Growth of Memory in School Children, by T. L. 
 Bolton, American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 4, p. 362. 
 
156 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 children, that "ideas previously in the mind and 
 Cause of interfer- association forms of ideas are 
 ing associations factors in causing the confusion 
 of the memory image and its final loss." Berg- 
 strom established the same fact in another way.* 
 He tested students in sorting cards, first according 
 to one order and then according to another. The 
 second sorting, in a different order, required more 
 time than the first and a greater number of errors 
 was made. Evidently the associations formed the 
 first time interfered with the rapidity and accuracy 
 of the second series. "It is a mechanical struggle 
 of habits," is the way in which Bergstrom puts 
 it. Interference of associations was also observed 
 by the writer in his experiments, and by Book in 
 typewriting.! The importance of this for teachers 
 is obvious. Incorrect answers establish interfering 
 associations. Sometimes, in the effort to show why 
 an answer is wrong it is emphasized to such an 
 extent that its associative recurrence is a practical 
 certainty. Then memory surrounds it with such 
 semblance of truthfulness that its validity to the 
 child is assured. Incorrect English, false syn- 
 tax intended for correction, also violate the prin- 
 ciple that when children are getting their bearings 
 in the various subjects of study, as in the ele- 
 
 * Experiments Upon Physiological Memory by Means of 
 the Interference of Associations. American Journal of Psy- 
 chology, Vol. 5, p. 356. 
 cit. 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 157 
 
 mentary school, it is of the utmost importance that, 
 as far as possible, only true statements be made. 
 When wrong answers are given they should not 
 be stressed. 
 
 In our study of progress in learning we found 
 that beginners advance by sections. Certain habits 
 Importance of of execution improve for a time 
 nascent habits more ra pidly than others. Per- 
 haps, indeed, some habits will not seem to make 
 any progress at all toward automatization. The 
 inclination of the teacher is to ignore temporarily 
 the habits which are gaining and to spend all of 
 the time in trying to bring the others up so that 
 the pupil may present an even front. This is an 
 uneconomical procedure. Following nature is an 
 old phrase which has never had the same meaning 
 for different advocates, but if this vague expression 
 has any intelligible meaning it is that the momen- 
 tary bent of the child should be utilized and pushed 
 to the limit. Probably the correct method is to 
 urge the forward habits to complete automatization 
 but, at the same time, not wholly to neglect the 
 others. The reason for the latter action is that 
 otherwise the teacher does not know when another 
 habit is beginning to grip the pupil and he must 
 be ready to aid its growth the moment it appears. 
 Besides, moderate drill in a habit not yet nascent 
 is the incentive for its start. Without any stimulus 
 it would have no reason for beginning. A child 
 
158 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 should not be expected, however, to present an even 
 front as he advances. This same psychological 
 principle of unevenness in development is seen in 
 the so-called nascent periods for reading, drawing, 
 debating, and the scientific interests of various 
 kinds. They come at different times, and each, 
 for the moment, fills the child's whole mind. Of 
 course an interest does not always reveal itself in 
 the same way in different children. Its particular 
 form or, indeed, whether it shall appear at all, de- 
 pends on the environment. Interests require stim- 
 uli to draw them out. Next to supplying these 
 incentives, then, the important thing is to utilize 
 nascent interests to the full for growth when they do 
 appear. And it is the same with the habits of execu- 
 tion of which we were speaking. Stress to the ut- 
 most those that are in growth and, meanwhile, coax 
 the others out with enticing stimuli. The subtle in- 
 fluence of the school environment here as elsewhere 
 is the guiding, if not controlling, force. 
 
 Plateaus in the learning curve are but another 
 instance of the unevenness of progress. The differ- 
 
 Thc plateau as a ence is that here a11 P ro ress sto ? s 
 protest against as far as the teacher can observe 
 
 or marks indicate. As has been 
 said, however, it is a case where marks do not 
 show the facts. The rapid rise that follows pla- 
 teaus makes it clear that the periods of apparent 
 cessation of progress are very active moments. 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 159 
 
 The pupil has been gathering information and ap- 
 plying it as best he could, but now he is overloaded 
 and the mind is in danger of being clogged. Pla- 
 teaus are the mind's protest against being over- 
 loaded. Much of the pupil's information must be 
 so thoroughly assimilated that its application be- 
 comes automatic, if the confusion is to be clarified. 
 One need only think of the rules of English gram- 
 mar with so many exceptions and variations that 
 the rules almost cease to exist, and of the puzzling 
 complexities of foreign constructions and idioms, 
 to realize the exasperating disorder that fills the 
 minds of young children. 
 
 In order to learn whether the curve representing 
 the progress of school children differs essentially 
 
 Curve of learning from that of older persons, the 
 for a pupil in En- marks of a pupil beginning the 
 glish grammar Engl i sh grammar work of the 
 seventh grade were obtained. Care was taken that 
 the marks should be as accurate as possible for 
 the days indicated. The girl whose progress is 
 shown was of "average" ability. She made her 
 grade each year but did no more. For this rea- 
 son she seemed to be the best representative of 
 the usual run of school children. There were sev- 
 eral better pupils in the class whose curve of prog- 
 ress did not go so low as did this girl's, and there 
 were two who reached a lower level but did not 
 rise. They are the ones who must repeat the work. 
 
i6o 
 
 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 100 
 90 
 80 
 70 
 
 i 
 
 < 60 
 
 CO 
 
 2" 
 
 40 
 
 OA 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 X** 
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GRA 
 
 MMA 
 
 R 
 
 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 y 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _X] 
 
 '\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 z 
 
 IS/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 X, 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 20 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 DAY8 
 
 15 
 
 The curve shows that this pupil, beginning with 
 a grade of sixty, advanced during the first three 
 Description days to seventy and then dropped, 
 
 of curve with only one intervening rise, 
 
 to a grade of twenty. At that time steady work 
 began to show results and her marks improved, 
 with occasional recessions, until her standing was 
 ninety-eight. Her teacher says that the child now 
 seems to be permanently somewhere between eighty- 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 161 
 
 five an3 one hundred. The curve differs in details, 
 as those of individuals always do, but in its es- 
 sential characteristics it is the same as the others 
 we have shown. In this, as in the other curves, 
 progress is discontinuous and there are days when 
 no marked advance or recession is made. The elev- 
 enth and twelfth days and all after the seventeenth 
 illustrate these plateau periods. 
 
 The time finally comes when the nervous cur- 
 rents, drawn one way and another by conflicting 
 Confusion associated ideas and blocked by 
 
 of ideas interferences set up by the unor- 
 
 ganized mass of thoughts, refuse to run true. The 
 conflicting ideas and confused thoughts include 
 what the children have learned and have been told 
 about the innumerable exceptions, variations and 
 modifications of declensions, conjugations, rules, 
 and idioms that come under no rule. All of them 
 have their associations, some in agreement and some 
 in apparent disagreement with one another. And 
 this tangle of disagreement must be straightened 
 out and everything brought into order. The long 
 drop of the curve of progress of the grammar- 
 school girl, given before, represents just such a 
 condition of mental confusion. Work and time, 
 the latter no less than the former, are needed to 
 bring order out of the chaotic accumulation of 
 facts. 
 
 Clearly this is no time for tests or examinations. 
 Marks have no grading-value. Their use just now 
 
l62 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 *-* -A,.- ';... * 
 
 The use of tests * s to guide the teacher in her se- 
 at this time lection of topics for drill and for 
 further explanation, and to show the progress of 
 the automatization of forms and rules and prin- 
 ciples. Tests may be given but they should be re- 
 garded as merely written exercises and after the 
 papers have been corrected and returned the marks 
 should be discarded. The reason for returning the 
 papers to the class is that competition with one's 
 own record and with one's fellows is an incentive 
 for better work. Several writers, as we have seen, 
 have observed this in their investigations. 
 
 Plateaus in the learning process, of which we 
 have been speaking, are like the block signals on 
 Plateaus a signal a, railroad. They give warning 
 for special drill o f t h e danger of going ahead. 
 
 Now is the time for renewed drill on everything 
 that relates to the work. In arithmetic, the teacher 
 should return to the place at which the clear ac- 
 curate knowledge of the children ends and make 
 that the starting-point for vigorous and intelligent 
 drill. In English grammar, the rules should be 
 reviewed, exceptions and modifications made clear, 
 but always with endless drill, and with innumerable 
 examples, each pointed at a principle. And, again, 
 in Latin, declensions, conjugations, rules with illus- 
 trative examples, and idiomatic sentences committed 
 to memory, all must be revived with ceaseless drill. 
 Naturally, with such continuous, relentless drill 
 there is grave danger of monotony, and monotony 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 163 
 
 Effect of monotony has been found a potent influence 
 on plateaus j n prolonging plateaus. But as 
 
 long as delay in progress is caused chiefly by dis- 
 order in the mind, the treatment is clearly indi- 
 cated. The disorderly ideas must be brought into 
 subordination. Economic habits of execution which 
 constitute "good form" must be perfected. Declen- 
 sions, conjugations, rules and principles in mathe- 
 matics, languages and sciences must be so com- 
 pletely assimilated that their appearance at the right 
 moment is as automatic as the boy's jump at sight 
 of an object falling toward him through the air. 
 This leaves the attention free for larger questions, 
 for the higher order of habits to which reference 
 was made in the chapter on progress in learning. 
 The situation is wholly altered if monotony ob- 
 tains a hold. The delay in progress may then be ab~ 
 Suggestions to normally prolonged. The teacher 
 offset monotony should prevent this at all hazard. 
 It is the opportunity to use her ingenuity. While 
 there should be no advance, the work should be 
 entirely new. Fresh problems in arithmetic should 
 be gathered from many books and, after being 
 solved, they may be compared with others with 
 which the children are familiar to "set" the prin- 
 ciple; and so with English grammar. In German 
 and Latin new stories should be read but always 
 with the drill upon the facts and principles con- 
 cerning which the pupils are confused. This va- 
 riety of material, besides driving away monotony, 
 
i64 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 makes the children flexible in thought. They see 
 the same principle applied in cases that are alike, 
 yet different, and so they learn to compare and 
 judge and think, instead of forming mechanical 
 habits of thought which permit no variation. This 
 mental flexibility is what I understand Rousseau 
 to have meant when he said in his paradoxical way, 
 "The only habit a child should be allowed to form 
 is to contract no habits whatever/' 
 
 Finally, time is needed in the learning process. 
 This is but another point of view of the subcon- 
 scious utilization of experience 
 Time a factor T . 
 
 in growth of and Of plateaus. Learning is * 
 
 experience gradual growth toward economy 
 
 of effort in accomplishing that upon which one is 
 engaged. Let us see how this growth proceeds, 
 Every task, whether mental or manual, is a com, 
 plex of lesser achievements which contribute to the 
 whole. And it is these contributory factors the 
 problems or situations which must be met at each 
 moment in the progress of the work that serve 
 as stimuli for appropriate muscular movements or 
 thoughts, according as manual dexterity or mental 
 skill is required. At first the learner inadequately 
 meets the situation. As we have seen, the method 
 is that of trial and error. By degrees the useless 
 and less effective reactions are eliminated and some 
 measure of success is achieved. Many of the bet- 
 ter methods are acquired unconsciously, as we have 
 found, and are well along in use before the learner 
 
ECONOMY IN LEARNING 165 
 
 notes them. Now all this growth in economy of 
 effort requires time because the associative recur- 
 rence of a definite order of nervous discharges must 
 be established. Hastening progress by showing the 
 learner how to do the work ignores the laws of 
 growth and reduces him to the stage of imitation. 
 It stifles the desire to initiate action which is the 
 beginning of originality. Learning by imitation 
 subverts learning by doing. Suggestions too long 
 deferred, on the other hand, give time for bad 
 habits of execution to become fixed. The success- 
 ful teacher watches for the moment when the pupil, 
 conscious that his method is not securing the best 
 results, looks for help. Ability to know the eco- 
 nomic moment distinguishes superior teaching. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 HABIT IN LEARNING AND ACHIEVEMENT 
 
 IT was Walter Pater, I think, who said that form- 
 ing habits is failure in life; "for, after all," he 
 continued, "habit is relative to a stereotyped world, 
 and meantime it is only the roughness of the eye that 
 makes any two persons, things, or situations, seem 
 alike." 
 
 Habits of thought start in our environment. Men 
 are born into certain classifications of ideas. They 
 Our inherited are orthodox or unorthodox, con- 
 
 view-point servative or radical from birth. 
 
 Of course, I do not mean that these ideas are innate, 
 though they might almost as well be, for the very 
 atmosphere which the child breathes is surcharged 
 with them. Naturally, these points of view become 
 the customary ones and the ideas within the field 
 of the observer's vision come to have definite, fixed 
 relations to one another. It is as if a series of moun- 
 tain peaks were always seen from a river seat, with 
 no alteration in the relative positions which they 
 hold. Take those who have had only this view out 
 into a meadow with all the peaks in sight and they 
 can not discover an intelligible arrangement in the 
 
 166 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 167 
 
 panorama. They do not even recognize the moun- 
 tains so often seen from the river seat because the 
 new view-point alters the relative arrangement in 
 the picture. 
 
 Ideas which have been classified iand tied up in 
 bundles properly labeled give one a comfortable feel- 
 Futility of ' in S f mental security. All that is 
 classification necessary then in judging an act 
 is to test it by the classification; and when once it 
 can be brought under one of the categories of the 
 system the whole matter seems quite clear. This 
 method is convenient and easy. Its only fault is that 
 it does not lead one anywhere. A conspicuous illus- 
 tration of its failure was the comment on General 
 Nogi's suicide. Obviously, knowledge of the reli- 
 gion and the philosophy of Bushido was needed to 
 understand the act. Anglo-Saxon classification of 
 ideas is inadequate for its interpretation. 
 
 Ideas are like planets in being deflected from a 
 straight course by all others within their range of 
 Inadequacy of influence. The difference is that 
 settled ideas w i t h jd eas t h e amount of deflec- 
 
 tion is not easy to calculate. The significance of 
 thoughts can not be determined with mathematical 
 accuracy and it is just this difficulty that makes a 
 mobile state of mind unpleasant. Constant rear- 
 rangement of opinions and beliefs to meet the re- 
 quirements of new facts would keep one thinking, 
 and thinking is an effort. At any rate, one likes to 
 feel at times that certain questions are answered. 
 
168 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 To finish one thing after another and pack them 
 away seems to measure progress. "He settles ques- 
 tions and you can put it down in your note-book," 
 said a college student not long ago in praise of an 
 instructor. When one wishes to use these "settled" 
 opinions one pulls out a package of ideas as incon- 
 gruous at the moment as were those of Rip Van 
 Winkle when he awoke. It is like tying up a bundle 
 of clothes for future use only to find later when they 
 are undone that everything is out of date. 
 
 A great deal has been written about the impor- 
 tance of conserving ideas. Conservatism is society's 
 Conservatism safeguard, we are told. Were it 
 
 and habit not f or habit the classes would be 
 
 in endless strife, but men grow accustomed to their 
 lot and find things quite endurable. All this, of 
 course, is true. Conservatism, however, which is 
 only another name for certain kinds of habits, is so 
 firmly "set" in man as to require no effort to keep it 
 going. The difficulty is to break away from habits 
 of thought and action, and it is time to spread the 
 gospel of variation to encourage independent think- 
 ing. 
 
 "The peculiarity of arrested civilization," says 
 Walter Bagehot, "is to kill out varieties at birth, that 
 is, in early childhood, and before they can develop." 
 Altering even one belief requires a reorganization of 
 many ideas because of their dependence, one upon 
 another. This would disturb the system of thoughts 
 which has been brought, largely unconsciously, it is 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 169 
 
 true, into such pleasant harmony. For this reason 
 it is so hard for man to change his party he rarely 
 does unless convinced that his system of ideas 
 will be less disturbed by changing than by remain- 
 ing or for anti-vivisectionists to believe that it is 
 better for surgeons to experiment on animals than 
 on man. "Hardly any of us/' said William James, 
 "can make new heads (for ideas) easily when fresh 
 experiences come. Most of us grow more and more 
 enslaved to the stock conceptions with which we 
 have once become familiar, and less and less capable 
 of assimilating impressions in any but the old ways. 
 Old-fogyism, in short, is the inevitable terminus to 
 which life sweeps us on."* 
 
 The persistence of the argument for conservatism 
 is due to the desire for self-justification of those 
 Conservatism illus- who do not wish to change ; and 
 trated by history t h ere j s j ust enough truth in what 
 
 is said to make the argument sound plausible. As 
 long as discussion deals with the outcome of condi- 
 tions not yet realized, the conservatives have the 
 advantage in the argument because no one can dem- 
 onstrate what the future will bring forth. But when 
 we look back over history we have a clear view of 
 what it means. The pathway of progress has been 
 blocked by the neglect of men who made the sciences 
 upon which our comfort, health and lives depend, 
 and their crime consisted in resisting the conserv- 
 atism of their day. Before Harvey published his 
 * James' Psychology, p. 328. 
 
1 70 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 bode on the Motion md Uses of the Heart and 
 Arteries, in which he demonstrated the circulation 
 of the blood, he enjoyed a large practice, for he was 
 a skilful surgeon of reputation. But after the appear- 
 ance of the book "he fell mightily in his practice; 
 'twas believed by the vulgar that he wascrackbrained 
 and all the physym?*s wtrc af^inst h^n- Harvey 
 himself says regarding the reception of his dis- 
 covery, "These views as usual pleased some more, 
 some less; some chid and calumniated me, and laid 
 it to me as a crime that I had dared to depart from 
 the precepts and opinions of all anatomists. I trem- 
 ble lest I have mankind at large for my enemies, so 
 nrnch doth wont and custom become a second 
 nature."* 
 
 Conservatism, however, is suited to a fixed rather 
 than a changing condition of society. It suggests 
 no {dan for meeting the new con- 
 ditions that arise. One of the 
 purposes in the education of chil- 
 dren, pei haps the chief purpose, 
 is to train them to act appropriately to fit their 
 reactions to events and situations. The aim of 
 the education of young animals is the same, but 
 their limitations are much narrower. Primarily, 
 the nervous system consists of paths joining 
 sense organs with muscles. The connection be- 
 tween sensory and motor nerves is made through 
 
 *Sce The Mam Who Discovered the Circulation of tie 
 Blood, by Dr. D. F. Harris. Popular Science Monthly. VoL 
 8t pi 459. 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 171 
 
 switching stations, and the adaptability of reactions 
 to events in the external world depends upon what 
 transpires in the nervous Centers between the arri- 
 val of the incoming impulse at these switching 
 stations and the departure of the outgoing cur- 
 rent that produces the reaction. In the lower ani- 
 mals little is likely to intervene because their reac- 
 tions are largely determined at birth by the organi- 
 zation of their nervous system. A dog never refrains 
 from eating what is put before him because it caused 
 indigestion a few days earlier. Indeed, it is doubt- 
 ful whether he even recalls a single occurrence of 
 that sort when once the discomfort has passed. To 
 be sure, animals learn to avoid what causes pain 
 but the new reaction must be forced into the nervous 
 system by repeated experiences. 
 
 We see here the differences between man's reac- 
 tions and those of the lower animals. Man's nervous 
 system permits a longer delay between the arrival 
 of the incoming impulse and the departure of the 
 outgoing and with this delay comes an increase in 
 the number of possible reactions. Many motor 
 paths connect with the switching station and the 
 intervening time gives opportunity for inhibitory 
 and reenf orcing currents to become effective. Ideas 
 recalling the unfortunate outcome of a former act 
 may be associated with one movement and so inhibit 
 it. Or, again, thoughts of the value of time for de- 
 liberation, the better to judge the situation, may pre- 
 vent immediate action. 
 
172 '-LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 To the lower animals superficially similar situa- 
 tions are accepted as identical in all respects. Fishes 
 
 Discrimination a do not examine a worm before 
 test of mental snapping it to ascertain whether it 
 development . . 1 - - , ^r^i 
 
 is impaled on a hook. With some 
 
 fishes and in animals above them there is sometimes 
 delay, but in all such cases the caution, if it is not in- 
 stinctive, has resulted from repeated discomfort. 
 Now the extent to which man repeats the same re- 
 action to situations that appear superficially identical 
 measures his approach to the condition of the lower 
 animals. The same mischievous act of children, for 
 example, with its great variety of possible causes, as 
 stern or even cruel treatment at home, time to waste 
 after learning the lesson, desire for fun, revenge, 
 etc., may always bring the same punishment. In 
 this sort of action little or nothing occurs in the 
 teacher's mind between the arrival of the incoming 
 and the departure of the outgoing impulse. The in- 
 coming nerve current on its arrival at the switching 
 station immediately runs out to a muscle through 
 the nerve path which it has always taken. This is 
 habit. The difference between man's habits and 
 those of the lower animals is that the latter, except 
 as they have been changed by rigorous training, are 
 the habits of the species, while man's are acquired 
 individually. 
 
 Human evolution, whatever else it may be, is evi- 
 dently growth away from fixed reactions; it is 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 173 
 
 learning to alter responses to fit 
 An illustration . * . . , 
 
 the niceties of situations to which 
 
 the individual is reacting. But this requires greater 
 delicacy in interpreting situations. Conditions which 
 the unintelligent would group together in their class- 
 ification, with one reaction for each and all, are now 
 distinguished from one another because their differ- 
 ences are recognized. An illustrative incident was 
 recently reported to the writer. A boy came to 
 school "armed to the teeth" with wooden knives and 
 pistols. The teacher waited to see what would 
 happen and soon found out. A girl in front of him 
 was shot and those who passed his seat were 
 stabbed. Of course there was a good deal of excite- 
 ment, a part of which was natural and another part 
 added by the children to show their appreciation. 
 Now the conventional reaction was punishment, but 
 the teacher had learned the wisdom of distinguish- 
 ing between situations. She had escaped from ped- 
 agogical habits. So she asked the boy why he did it. 
 The answer was immediate and frank. He had 
 been reading about cowboys and wanted to become 
 one. 
 
 "But do you know/' continued the teacher, "that 
 real cowboys would have nothing to do with you 
 except to drive you away from their ranches ?" 
 
 This amazed the boy and he asked why. 
 
 "Because you are not courteous to girls," replied 
 the teacher. 
 
174 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 This unexpected bit of information gave a new 
 point of view and the aspiring hero dropped several 
 points in the estimation of his fellows. The teacher 
 then spent two or three minutes in telling the chil- 
 dren something about the good qualities of cowboys. 
 After that the subject and the knives were laid aside 
 until close of school. When, at dismissal, the boy 
 passed her desk the teacher asked him whether he 
 would like to read about cowboys. He was eager 
 for the books and so, on the following day, she 
 brought him several of the better sort. This marked 
 the beginning of his interest in reading and in his 
 teacher. 
 
 Skill in the interpretation of situations is largely 
 a matter of experience ; but experience is not gained 
 
 Experience as b Y merel ? livin throu g h a series 
 
 interpretation pf events. The question is, what 
 
 of events - - - , . x1 .> 
 
 meaning has been found in them ? 
 
 Things occur in apparent isolation or in a setting of 
 other things and happenings, some of which are im- 
 portant for their meaning and others are without 
 significance. Interpretation consists in finding the 
 relation of these things or occurrences to larger, 
 more comprehensive groups of events or ideas. 
 When fossils were first discovered they were just so 
 many strange objects to be wondered at or ac- 
 counted for. They were explained in several ways, 
 as patterns of animals which God had made and 
 then, dissatisfied, had thrown away. But Darwin's 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 175 
 
 principle of descent with variation brought them un- 
 der a general law. It revealed their meaning. Gain- 
 ing experience implies, among other things, break- 
 ing habits of thought, getting away from traditional 
 or environmental classifications of ideas. As long, 
 however, as the nerve current runs out through 
 habitual paths the customary associations arise, and 
 new relations the basis of meaning are not dis- 
 covered. The explanation of fossils as God's un- 
 used models of animals followed the conventional 
 classification of causes of things and events. If, as 
 we have seen, getting experience involves finding 
 new meaning in objects or situations, then following 
 habits of thought and action fails to give experience 
 because repetition affords no opportunity for a crit- 
 ical estimate of the comparative worth of responses. 
 Change is indispensable to critical, productive think- 
 ing. 
 
 The lower animals are prevented from discover- 
 ing meaning by the limitations of their nervous 
 
 Intelligence means S ^ m - The leSS intelli S ent an 
 variability in animal the more fixed must be its 
 
 habits of response. This is nec- 
 essary for survival. The habits instincts of ani- 
 mals low in the scale are so nearly uniform that for 
 many years they were thought to be invariable. 
 Those of higher animals have long been known to 
 be variable and it is because of this variability in 
 habits that the question of the intelligence and rea- 
 
176 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 soning of animals has arisen. In other words, in- 
 telligence and variability in habits progress together. 
 When we try to judge intelligence we at once ask 
 how well adapted are actions to novel situations and 
 how much meaning seems to be found in the events ? 
 But this inquiry involves the further question, to 
 what extent does the animal group objects or events 
 under one or a few classifications ? For, obviously, 
 if many dissimilar objects or events are grouped 
 together little or no meaning can be found in them, 
 since meaning begets contrasts and differences, from 
 which but only after differences have been seen 
 similarities appear, followed, again, by a deeper and 
 more comprehensive meaning. The final question, 
 then, in estimating intelligence, and one which in- 
 cludes all the others, is, to what extent does the 
 animal profit from experience? Clearly, there is 
 little profit if dissimilar objects or events are classed 
 together with the same reaction for each. Fishes, 
 for example, have a very limited range of classifica- 
 tion. If the day is right they snap at almost any- 
 thing that is thrown into the water. 
 
 Let us see the effect on human actions of a limited 
 classification of causes and effects. Obviously, the 
 result of shaping conduct by conventional rules 
 which are only environmental habits operating on 
 individuals can best be understood by observing 
 their cumulative effect on adults. 
 
 When one reads about the childhood of eminent 
 men and women one is amazed at the number who 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 177 
 
 Notable failures Were th ^ ht stu ? id . ^ 
 of conventional teachers. An investigation of this 
 judgment subject by the writer easily re- 
 
 vealed more than fifty such cases.* A study of the 
 way in which these children passed their time 
 showed, in many instances, that they were not idle 
 but were absorbed in things of which the school 
 took no account. Newton's idleness, for example, 
 was caused by thoughts about mechanical inventions. 
 During his play hours he was constantly engaged in 
 constructing models of machines. He made, among 
 other things, a water-clock, a windmill and a car- 
 riage to be moved by the occupant. Yet this busy 
 thinking child was rated lazy by the conventional 
 classification. 
 
 John Ruskin, who was engaged in original com- 
 position from seven years of age and who at ten 
 presented his father with an original play of no 
 little merit, at sixteen was characterized by his 
 teachers as "shaky" in scholarship and a little later 
 entered Oxford as a "gentleman-commoner" be- 
 cause it was thought doubtful whether he could 
 pass the examinations, f 
 
 Doctor Ehrlich, in the laboratory of his teacher, 
 was pointed out to visitors, with a smile, as of not 
 much good but a clever tissue stainer. Yet, at this 
 very time he was showing the ability and dogged 
 perseverance that later kept him at the same in- 
 
 * See the writer's Mind in the Making, Chap. I. 
 t See John Ruskin, by Frederic Harrison, p. 16. 
 
178 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 vestigation until he had made six hundred and five 
 combinations, all "failures" according to the usual 
 acceptance of the word, but all really successes, 
 since in each experiment he saw new meaning and, 
 finally, at the six hundred and sixth attempt, suc- 
 ceeded. 
 
 It would be a rash conclusion to say that these 
 children were not appreciated because of lack of 
 
 ability in the teachers themselves. 
 Their explanation _, f 
 
 The cases are too numerous for 
 
 that explanation. Besides, some of the teachers 
 are known to have been exceptionally able men. 
 The reason for their failure to understand these 
 pupils and appreciate their ability is that they had 
 adopted the conventional pedagogical habits. They 
 judged their pupils by the inadequate standard 
 classification. Another reason for accepting this 
 explanation is that some of the fifty "stupid" chil- 
 dren, who became men of eminence, had occasional 
 teachers who appreciated their ability, and, as far 
 as the writer has been able to learn, all of these 
 teachers were men who had freed themselves from 
 the conventional habits of the schoolroom. They 
 were like Joseph A. Allen, of whom Andrew D. 
 White says, he was "the best teacher of English 
 branches I have ever known. He had no rules 
 and no system; or rather, his rule was to have 
 no rules, and his system was to have no system. 
 ... He seemed to divine the character and enter 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 179 
 
 into the purpose of every boy. Work under him 
 was a pleasure/'* 
 
 Business men sometimes seem to think that 
 teachers have a monopoly on sterilizing habits but 
 
 if they would read the addresses 
 Business men as 
 
 well as teachers delivered at the Tuck School Con- 
 habit-bound ference on Scientific Manage- 
 ment, this belief would quickly vanish. Onef of 
 the speakers told of finding the proprietor of a 
 large printing house personally answering all tele- 
 phone calls. When remonstrated with for wasting 
 his time in office boy's work, he admitted his in- 
 ability to let subordinates attend to details for which 
 they were quite competent. 
 
 Another speaker^ quoted a conversation with the 
 proprietor of a large establishment: "I am con- 
 stantly doing things which I have no business to 
 do, but I can't seem to get away from them," was 
 the way in which this man confessed his slavery 
 to a pernicious habit. 
 
 The difficulty of throwing off conventional ideas 
 in the business world was shown by the assertion 
 of onefl of the speakers that the National Cost 
 Congress is advocating the use of an antiquated 
 cost system. 
 
 * Autobiography of Andrew D. White, pp. 8-9. 
 t M. L. Cooke. Report of the Conference, p. 245. 
 I Edwin S. Brown. Report of the Conference, p. 245. 
 fl M. L. Cooke. Report of the Conference, p. 242. 
 
i8o LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 We have been discussing a phase of human psy- 
 chology, the tendency to settle into- fixed habits of 
 The difficulty of thought or of action. It is one 
 changing habits manifestation of the physiological 
 law of parsimony. Certain conditions of life must 
 be met and the organism makes the necessary 
 adaptations in the most economical way. Modes 
 of behavior which resist adjustment are gradually 
 eliminated and new ways of acting adopted until 
 the adaptation meets, at any rate, the minimum 
 requirement of effectiveness. The process is com- 
 monly gone through unconsciously. We see here 
 the difference between the usual reaction to con- 
 ditions and that of reformers. The latter resist 
 adaptation. But this costs energy and we have 
 seen that man is physiologically inclined to be eco- 
 nomical in this expenditure. For this reason re- 
 forms come in waves. Continued resistance to 
 adaptation is impossible except with rare individ- 
 uals. The conventional reaction is easier and the 
 conventional is always conservative it repeats past 
 modes of reaction with just enough modification 
 to satisfy the minimum requirements of changed 
 conditions. This is the explanation of the anti- 
 quated cost systems urged by the National Cost 
 Congress, the reason why business men are so often 
 unable to break the habits acquired as subordinates 
 and the cause of the continual use of conventional 
 systems of classification and of traditional methods 
 in the schools. 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 181 
 
 Acquiring a habit is easy. It usually gets us 
 while we drift. Breaking one, on the other hand, 
 is exceedingly difficult because nerve currents per- 
 sist in running through the old paths which are 
 more easily traversed on account of constant use. 
 'The great difficulty which history records," says 
 Walter Bagehot,* "is not that of the first step, 
 but that of the second step. What is most evident 
 is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but of 
 getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing a 
 cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of cus- 
 tom; not of making the first preservative habit, 
 but of breaking through it and reaching something 
 better." 
 
 Bagehot has also pointed out the part uncon- 
 sciously played in history by conventional ideas. 
 Walter Bagehot I n the formation of national char- 
 on conservatism acter, "at first a sort of chance 
 predominance made a model, and then invincible 
 attraction, the necessity which rules all but the 
 strongest men to imitate what is before their eyes, 
 and to be what they are expected to be, molded 
 men by that model." t But adopting fixed habits 
 of thought and action, and adaptation by imitation 
 are methods suited to a static condition of society. 
 They offer no program for change. "Our habitual 
 instructors, our ordinary conversation, our inevita- 
 ble and ineradicable prejudices," continues Bage- 
 
 * Physics and Politics, p. 52. 
 . 3d 
 
182 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 hot, "tend to make us think that 'Progress' is 
 the normal fact in human society, the fact which 
 we should expect to see, the fact which we should 
 be surprised if we did not see. But history refutes 
 this."* 
 
 William Jamesf has called attention to the re- 
 lease of energy which sometimes follows a com- 
 The release of P Iete break with habits. The 
 mental forces sudden burst of energy and rise 
 
 of ability that accompany new plans and a change 
 of occupations has often been observed. Men un- 
 expectedly become adequate to the responsibilities 
 of much more important and difficult positions than 
 they have previously held. "I did not know it 
 was in him/' is a common remark. It was in him 
 but could not be drawn on as long as he held his 
 old position with its associated habits, to which he 
 had grown so accustomed that the work ran along 
 with the regularity with which one foot is placed 
 before the other in walking, and with scarcely more 
 attention. Habits of occupation reduce ability to 
 the lowest level that the work will stand. Man 
 does no more thinking than is necessary and habit 
 eliminates the need of thought. This is true even 
 in acts commonly felt to involve volition. 
 
 In speaking of the growth toward automatism 
 in choice-processes revealed in his investigations, 
 
 * Ibid., p. 41. 
 
 t Science, oiew series, Vol. 25, p. 321. 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 183 
 
 Warning against Barrett says* "regularity was 
 automatic habits manifested in every phase of the 
 choice-process, in the manner of reading the card 
 (to which the subjects reacted), in the manner of 
 reacting, and of realizing the choice. Automatism 
 entered into every detail of the experiment. Even 
 the experimenter came to perform the various func- 
 tions in a perfectly automatic way, so much so, 
 that the salient note of the whole experiment 
 toward the end of the series was its mechanical 
 regularity." "We see," also, "that the natural tend- 
 ency is toward automatic choosing. The times 
 grow shorter, the number of phenomena (admitted 
 within the field of choice by the subject) grows 
 less, only one alternative is considered; there is 
 economy in every sense, and finally, the motiva- 
 tion reaches such a point that it never, or practi- 
 cally never, deviates from a certain curve or mo- 
 tivation-track." In Barrett's earlier experiments 
 those who were being tested made many remarks 
 about motives, feelings and judgments which influ- 
 enced action, but toward the end they had little 
 to say. "There was nothing to remark. There 
 were no feelings, hesitations or motives to describe. 
 The mental act had become direct and simple. . . . 
 The will had gradually ceased to expend useless 
 effort. Volitional force was economized. . . . Au- 
 tomatism held sway, and there was nothing to 
 
 * Motive-Force and Motivation-Tracks, by E. Boyd Bar- 
 rett. 
 
184 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 record." That is a pretty good description of 
 death as far as mental activity is concerned; yet 
 it seems to be the final outcome of being possessed 
 by habits. Evidently, if one is to have living 
 thoughts, if, indeed, one is to think at all, it is 
 necessary to resist the encroachment of occupation- 
 habits by vigorous, determined change in methods 
 of work. 
 
 A new position sometimes forces change because 
 the old habits do not fit the new occupation, but 
 
 with teachers even a new school 
 How teachers may 
 
 prevent fixed hab- does not always require a mental 
 its of thought realignment. Clearly, then, a 
 definite policy must be followed if teachers would 
 avoid the mental sclerosis that always accompanies 
 a "setting" of thought and action. As to the 
 methods, that has already been indicated. If 
 teachers follow the thoughts and feelings and pur- 
 poses of their pupils, and build their method upon 
 these thoughts and feelings, fossilization may be 
 indefinitely postponed because the children will fur- 
 nish enough variety to make things both interesting 
 and fertile. 
 
 It is becoming possessed by a method and sys- 
 tem to which all children are trimmed that arrests 
 growth in pupils and teachers alike. Most of us 
 are like Montaigne, "besotted unto liberty" and we 
 resent being tailored to order. If the school is 
 made into a workshop instead of a task shop, 
 the teacher working with his pupils instead of over 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 1185 
 
 them, suggesting and guiding rather than command- 
 ing and forbidding, proposing problems and reveal- 
 ing just enough of their wonders to awaken 
 curiosity, he will be driven to the library to find 
 answers to questions and his own study there will 
 keep his mind fresh and alert. The resistless force 
 of suggestion has never been appreciated by those 
 engaged in training children. Doctor Adams, the 
 first teacher who understood Walter Scott and al- 
 most the only one of whom Scott speaks with affec- 
 tion, was accustomed to invite his pupils to attempt 
 poetical versions of passages from Horace and Ver- 
 gil, but never made them tasks; and Scott, called 
 "stupid" by his other teachers, was made to feel 
 by Doctor Adams that he had "a character for learn- 
 ing to maintain." 
 
 There is, however, another class of habits which 
 may be designated habits of behavior. These habits 
 
 are the slyest imps of conduct 
 Habits of behavior . . , 
 
 with which man has to deal. 
 
 They are always taking an unfair advantage, run- 
 ning their own course while we are off our guard. 
 When Benjamin Franklin conceived "the bold and 
 arduous project of arriving at moral perfection" 
 he found that while he was guarding against one 
 fault, he was often surprised by another. "Habit 
 took advantage of attention ; inclination was some- 
 times too strong for reason."* 
 
 If Franklin, with his naive striving for perfection, 
 
 * Autobiography. 
 
186 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 found himself outwitted by his habits, how can 
 
 _ we expect children to succeed? 
 .Program sug- 
 gested by Boy The children are in school only 
 Scout movement a small part Q ^ day and un _ 
 
 less we can bring to our support some force which 
 shall continue to exert its influence beyond school 
 hours, the undertaking seems hopeless. It is often 
 wise, when perplexed, to look beyond our own 
 work and see whether we can discover any social 
 phenomena which will aid us in analyzing and in- 
 terpreting our problems. Now we find just this 
 assistance in the Boy Scouts. The writer happened, 
 recently, to be on a crowded street-car with two 
 Boy Scouts in front of him, one seated and the 
 other standing. A gray-haired but vigorous man 
 entered and pushed his way up to the seat of the 
 Scout. Both boys saw him, but for a minute nothing 
 happened. Then the Scout who was standing took 
 his companion by the collar and pulled him out of 
 his seat, at the same time touching his hat to the 
 stranger and asking him to sit down. After the 
 man had thanked them and seated himself the boy 
 who had taken the active part whispered to his 
 comrade, "Don't you know that Scouts must be 
 polite?" 
 
 Why does the influence of the Boy Scouts' organ- 
 ization extend beyond the eye of the Scout Master ? 
 Explanation of There is only one explanation. 
 its influence The scouting idea appeals to the 
 
 racial instincts of boys and the enthusiasm which 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 187 
 
 it creates is carried over to behavior in other situa- 
 tions. Conduct then becomes an integral part of 
 their thoughts about scouting. The emotions of the 
 boys become allies in establishing habits of behavior. 
 But it goes farther than this. 
 
 In a school with which the writer is acquainted, a 
 boy began to improve in his studies and conduct 
 A power worth w ^h a rapidity that attracted his 
 utilizing teacher's attention. When she 
 
 asked him one day what had caused the change, he 
 replied : "I've joined the Boy Scouts and my com- 
 pany won't let boys stay in it if they don't keep up 
 with their classes." Evidently there is a tremendous 
 power here waiting to be utilized in training boys. 
 
 It has been found, however, that the scouting 
 idea is not the only one which draws power from 
 Use of pupil- the racial instincts of children, 
 
 government Experiments in pupil-government 
 
 show that the instinct to do things, to manage their 
 own affairs in short the instinct for workmanship 
 is quite as strong as that for scouting. Indeed, 
 the indications are that a large part of the power 
 which is utilized by the Scout Masters comes from 
 just this instinct to manage things. Joined with this, 
 of course, is the instinct to show off, to exercise au- 
 thority and, strangely paradoxical as it may seem, 
 the instinct to obey. Children do not object to obey- 
 ing when they are organized for obedience. 
 
 Pupil-government is often misunderstood. The 
 teacher does not surrender his authority and turn 
 
i88 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 the school over to the children. 
 A misconception __ 
 about pupil- He acts through the children by 
 
 government suggestion, conferring with the 
 
 leaders or letting them work out their difficulties 
 themselves, as his judgment may dictate ; and acting 
 through the children is much easier when there is 
 some organization. That pupil-government may be 
 understood it may be said to be in every way analo- 
 gous to an exhibition in which pupils and teacher 
 join. The children feel that this exhibition is theirs, 
 as indeed it is, and they organize for its success. 
 The fact that the teacher does not assert himself and 
 give directions does not mean that he is an unimpor- 
 tant factor in the preparations. If he is wise he re- 
 mains in the background, letting the children plan 
 and work, helping them, of course, by suggestions to 
 the leaders at the right moment, but always working 
 as one of them and emphasizing their ability, rather 
 than his own, to meet the difficulties. And every 
 teacher knows that his influence, though unaggres- 
 sive, is not less potent here than in the schoolroom. 
 Children like to work the machinery of an organ- 
 ization. Besides, the admonitions then have the 
 Fascination of sentiment of the school behind 
 organizing t h em . Disturbances, which are 
 
 usually popular and convert the trouble-maker into 
 a hero, because the mischief is directed against the 
 teacher, are now felt to be an infringement on the 
 rights of the pupils, an annoyance to the body-politic 
 of the school. 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 189 
 
 There are various forms which pupil-government 
 may take. The "Roman State," the "Athenian As- 
 sembly" and other experimental 
 ?e e ss S o? S v f arfous C " organizations referred to in an 
 
 forms of pupil- earlier chapter did not have the 
 
 government ' .- , 
 
 name of pupil-government and 
 
 the idea seems not to have been emphasized in any 
 of them. They all, however, represent organiza- 
 tions of the pupils to accomplish the things for 
 which they were attending school. These activities 
 appealed to the racial instincts to join together for a 
 definite purpose, to manage things, and they brought 
 to the support of the teachers that tremendously 
 powerful racial force which demands employment 
 and which will find it in escapades and trouble if it is 
 not given other outlets. When these instincts are uti- 
 lized and the teacher acts with them instead of 
 against them, the influence for behavior that makes 
 for success in the school and the larger world out- 
 side extends beyond the building because the work 
 that the pupils are doing is then their own. They 
 are doing it for themselves and not for the teacher, 
 and the habits which are urged take on a personal 
 interest. The children then move under their own 
 steam and the power comes from the inexhaustible 
 store of racial energy ; and the teacher assumes his 
 proper function at the wheel instead of pushing 
 from behind. "The school is, in fact, given to the 
 care of the pupils," says Demolins of the famous 
 L'ecole des Roches. "It is their task; they are re- 
 
I 9 o LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 sponsible for its order and its cleanliness. The con- 
 fidence and respect shown them develops self-respect 
 and self-confidence. I do not know that there is 
 any more efficient means to build up men."* 
 
 We have been trying to show the importance of 
 the environment in the school for acquiring effi- 
 Habit and school cient habits. It is commonly 
 environment thought that firm discipline and 
 
 good teaching are all that is required to make a 
 good school ; but after all, these requisites are only 
 prerequisites. The teacher may do his part ad- 
 mirably and yet the result be nullified by the at- 
 mosphere of resistance pervading the school; and 
 just now we are inquiring how this resistance may 
 be overcome. As in other matters which we have 
 discussed, this problem of habit- formation, when 
 reduced to its lowest terms, means making situa- 
 tions to which the children will adapt themselves; 
 and the conditions should be so planned that in 
 making the adaptation the desirable habits will be- 
 come "set." This, as we have seen, involves cre- 
 ating a school sentiment favorable to the employ- 
 ment of these habits. 
 
 A teacher's task is much the same as that of 
 a military general. If he has not a hostile army 
 
 Similarity between in front of him he > at an y rate > 
 task of a teacher has a body of children in more 
 and of a general 1 . , ,, ,,. 
 
 or less resistance to the things 
 
 they ought to do. Now a good general plans the 
 * Elementary School Teacher, Vol. 6, p. 227. 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 191 
 
 conditions of the battle. Nothing in the configura- 
 tion of the ground and no obstructions to the move- 
 ment of troops are overlooked. He tries to plan 
 a situation, by means of the contour of the field 
 and through obstacles to the movement of the op- 
 posing forces, that shall compel the enemy to do 
 the things he wants them to do. In other words 
 he forces adaptation to the situation which he has 
 planned; and he does it against the will of his 
 opponents by utilizing conditions at his disposal and 
 by creating others. Skill in this makes up his gen- 
 eralship. 
 
 The "setting" of the situation is as essential to 
 success in school as on the field of battle. At best 
 
 T t there are conditions, such as those 
 
 Importance of e 9 
 
 right school of the home, which can not be 
 
 atmosphere fu j ]y controlled; and this makes 
 
 those at the disposal of the teacher the more im- 
 portant. As long as there is no feeling of approval 
 among the pupils for the formation of desirable 
 habits it will be difficult, if not impossible, to make 
 them take a firm hold on the children. If, how- 
 ever, there is a feeling that those who do not adapt 
 themselves are obstructing progress and interfering 
 with the rights of their fellows, adaptation is cer- 
 tain to be forced; and that feeling prevails very 
 strongly when the pupils are organized among them- 
 selves to do the work of the school. Teachers 
 must certainly insist rigorously on the method of 
 work that leads to the formation of desirable 
 
192 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 habits. We are speaking, however, of the way in 
 which this insistence shall be made and of the man- 
 ner of winning the pupils' support. Teachers may 
 point out the value of certain habits and may in- 
 flict penalties upon those who fail to respond, only 
 to be discouraged by the results at the end of the 
 year. When, however, influence is applied through 
 the organized body of pupils the result of the com- 
 bined action is often amazing. 
 
 In the reaction against severity of discipline 
 a certain laxness has arisen. The effort to make 
 Laxness of studies pleasant has ended in mak- 
 
 discipline j[ n g them easy. There has been 
 
 too much sentimentality and too little frank inter- 
 action between teacher and pupils as coworkers for 
 the same purpose, with firm and ceaseless insistence 
 on exactness in the habits which are essential to 
 success. The scrub-woman of a friend of the 
 writer, in a city famous for its schools, recently 
 put it in this way to her mistress: "Annie, my 
 girl, goes to school and she does a little of this and 
 a little of that, and when the children are tired or 
 don't want to do the lesson they're on, the teacher 
 she changes them off to something easier, and you 
 know that's no way to train girls. All their lives 
 they'll have to do things when they're tired and 
 don't want to. Now, when I tell Annie to do any- 
 thing she says, 'Oh, I'm tired.' They don't teach 
 'em thorough, either. Last night Annie was doin' 
 the dishes an' her father he seen that she wasn't 
 
HABIT IN ACHIEVEMENT 193 
 
 half cleanin' 'em and he made her do 'em over, 
 and she says to him, * You're awful hard on me, 
 a sight harder'n teacher. She says I work real 
 
 good'; and that's just it, Miss , with the 
 
 teachers. Pretty well's good enough." 
 
 The view regarding habits of behavior toward 
 work which this scrub-woman expressed so crudely 
 The basis of good is good psychology. As we have 
 school habits seen ^ man expends just energy 
 
 enough to satisfy the demands of the situation in 
 which he is placed. If he can find ways of em- 
 ploying less energy by evading certain demands he 
 is likely to accommodate himself to this lower level 
 of requirement unless he has been trained to habits 
 of application in his youth. With adults, social 
 and business exigencies exert an influence entirely 
 unknown to children. Obviously, the effort should 
 be made to reproduce these efficient motives for 
 behavior in the school. This reproduction of busi- 
 ness incentives is one of the benefits of combining 
 school work with work in shops and trades, under 
 the regular conditions of these occupations; and 
 the organization of children into pupil-government 
 has the same effect, because the school then be- 
 comes a community with certain purposes and aims 
 which the children have banded together to pro- 
 mote. 
 
 Such organizations also furnish reasons which 
 the children can appreciate for the insistence of 
 the teacher upon industry and accuracy and other 
 
194 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 habits of behavior in the school. These require- 
 ments no longer seem to be arbitrary demands of 
 the teacher. They have their justification in the 
 work which the children are organized to do, and 
 which they wish to do successfully because it is 
 their own. The failure of any one to do his share 
 meets the same disapproval from associates that is 
 accorded "soldiering" on the football field. A child 
 who has passed the age of ten or twelve does what 
 he thinks his fellows will applaud; and when the 
 school is organized into an industrial and social 
 community with pupils for its officers, the motives 
 of the larger society outside the school prevail. 
 The children then applaud achievements, and in 
 doing things successfully the habits which are es- 
 sential to success in work are fixed. All of this 
 is only the application of the psychology of be- 
 havior to the school. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 NEW DEMANDS ON THE SCHOOLS 
 
 THAT was an epoch-making book that Her- 
 bert Spencer wrote on education. It fell like 
 a thunder-bolt out of a clear sky, and, like the 
 Two types storm, it cleared the atmosphere. 
 
 of books on Some books are perennial because 
 
 they touch human chords and set 
 them vibrating with music that quickens a respon- 
 sive mood in each. The strains they play are not 
 the same with different persons because the respon- 
 siveness of the nervous system varies with experi- 
 ence. Such a book is Rousseau's Emile. I rarely 
 find two persons who get the same meaning from 
 it; but all except those obsessed by the spirit of 
 exactness get something. 
 
 Spencer's Education, on the other hand, did its 
 work and passed. It appeared when the authority 
 of the ancients rested heavily upon the schools, and 
 it released them from the weight of tradition by 
 revealing a new body of knowledge and new prob- 
 lems modern problems which we had with us 
 all the time but had not discovered. 
 
 The change was made slowly. Indeed, it is not 
 
 195 
 
196 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 yet fully completed, for man rarely, if ever, breaks 
 
 _. suddenly and completely from his 
 
 Timorous thinking ,. . - ^ r 
 
 traditional moorings. Fear of 
 
 the uncertainty beyond drives him back to familiar 
 waters where he feels acquainted with the sound- 
 ings. Unless, like Spencer, he be a pioneer in think- 
 ing, and they are few, he charts the sea of new 
 ideas by paddling round the edges, going out a 
 little way at times but hastily returning when things 
 become too strange. Who has not had the experi- 
 ence of convincing a friend of a new belief only 
 to find him back in his old ideas the next day? 
 
 So, in spite of the revolution that Spencer started 
 there continues to be a great deal of uncertainty 
 
 The utilitarian and about the P ur p ose of education, 
 the philosophic Writers on this subject fall into 
 ideals of education , -^ ,< r 
 
 two general groups. For the first, 
 
 ability to make a living is what teachers should 
 keep in mind, while the others emphasize what may 
 be called the philosophical attitude toward life. 
 Our thoughts and aspirations, all that we include 
 under ideals, these philosophical educators insist 
 are the important things to seek. The former took 
 up Spencer's work where he stopped, and to-day 
 they are the advocates of industrial and vocational 
 training. They have secured a strategic advantage 
 in having a definite program to offer. The other 
 group is not so well organized because there is less 
 agreement among its members regarding the essen- 
 tials of education. 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 197 
 
 These two opinions seem to imply opposition if 
 not contradiction. Thinking is put over against do- 
 Harmonizing the ing and the implication is always 
 two views j n evidence that if children are 
 
 trained to the one the other must of necessity be ex- 
 cluded. But we have found that the two are only 
 parts of the response of mind to situations that con- 
 front us. Ideas of one sort or another are gained 
 through sense impressions, and the nervous current 
 thus started requires an outlet, and that is action. 
 We call the results when the mind has done its 
 share experience. The trouble is that with too 
 many the nervous paths from sense-organs lead only 
 to blind alleys. No action follows. The emotions, 
 started by thoughts or sense impressions, ooze away. 
 These are the inefficient people. They mean well 
 but do nothing. Every one knows them among 
 acquaintances and no teacher is without them in 
 the school. They are the children who lament their 
 failures and are always making promises that are 
 never kept. Among adults this state of mind af- 
 fords joy to some who revel in unintelligent op- 
 timism, and pain to others who bewail their fate. 
 Now this emotional debauchery is a habit that 
 has been acquired through the separation of thought 
 from action. 
 
 We are trying to find the meaning of education 
 and we may be helped by reducing it to its lowest 
 terms. We can then see what changes are needed 
 as it becomes more complex. 
 
198 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Among the lower animals education is fully 'de- 
 fined in terms of adaptation. No animal can live 
 
 Animal education that is not Adapted to its environ- 
 defined by ment, and fitness to survive is all 
 
 there is to animal education. But 
 adaptation alone does not go far. If the food 
 upon which a group of animals depends suddenly 
 fails, the animals perish. Evidently, even among 
 the lowest forms, ability to change, to readjust one's 
 self to new conditions, is advantageous and, as 
 we ascend the animal series, it becomes essential 
 to the survival of the species. Among the lower 
 animals, where adaptation is all there is to educa- 
 tion, nature provides for it through instinct. These 
 animals are endowed at birth with an almost un- 
 erring tendency to do the same thing under appar- 
 ently similar circumstances. In the great majority 
 of cases, this serves its purpose, which is preserva- 
 tion. It were better that fishes bite at everything 
 offered and occasionally be caught than that they 
 risk the loss of a meal by hesitation. Nature pro- 
 vides for the comparatively few fatal mistakes by 
 making animals prolific. Twenty thousand eggs are 
 laid by a herring and upward of sixteen million 
 by an oyster, while the conger-eel must lay fifteen 
 million annually to escape annihilation.* "Certain 
 bacteria multiply so rapidly that the descendants 
 of a single individual, if allowed to multiply un- 
 
 * See Lectures on the Darwinian Theory, by C. J. Marshall. 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 199 
 
 hindered for three 'days, would be represented by 
 the figures 47,000,000,000,000."* 
 
 Adaptation meets the needs of a static environ- 
 ment, but for sudden change nature has made no 
 Limitations of provision. Her penalty for fail- 
 animal adaptation ure to mee t t he unexpected is re- 
 lentless destruction, until by the slow process of 
 bodily reorganization new organisms are produced 
 suited to the conditions that destroyed their prede- 
 cessors. This is an expensive method. It costs 
 time and life. Now one of the aims of human 
 education, as distinguished from animal training, 
 should be to eliminate this waste by producing be- 
 ings capable of interpreting situations and of rapid 
 readjustment. But rapid adjustment requires abil- 
 ity to look at least a little way into the future, 
 else the change is here before one is prepared. 
 
 As I write, a despatch in one of the daily papers f 
 reports that a western county has been invaded by 
 millions of rabbits. 
 
 "Already a district of over two hundred eighty- 
 eight square miles has been swept clean by the pests, 
 and the rabbits are widening out, the main army 
 apparently dividing into two forces, one of which 
 is invading the lands farther north, while the other 
 is attacking the country farther west. 
 
 "The farmers of that region have been opening 
 up a practically new country, and the loss of their 
 grain crops leaves them facing starvation. The 
 
 *H. W. Conn: The Method of Evolution, p. 53. 
 
 t New York Times, July 1, 1913. Unessentials omitted. 
 
soo LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 rabbits came in hordes from the region to the west, 
 toward the Columbia River, when the tender feed 
 began to dry up, and the young grain fields have 
 been a luscious find for them. They cut down the 
 stalks of grain just below the head, leaving the 
 stubble standing. 
 
 "Authorities say that only the abolition of the 
 coyote bounty will avail in wiping out the rabbits 
 in that region." 
 
 This illustrates the adaptation to the static con- 
 dition of which we have been speaking. The legis- 
 lators and other inhabitants of that state seem to 
 have assumed that when the coyotes were killed 
 nature would freeze up, as it were, and changes 
 cease. The one thing on which these people fixed 
 their attention was that coyotes are the enemy of 
 sheep and stock. The related and, as it appears, 
 equally important facts that coyotes destroy vast 
 numbers of rabbits and so keep these little plagues 
 in their proper place of subordination were not 
 considered. Yet these facts are primer knowledge 
 to every westerner. 
 
 Of course, these people did not expect changes 
 to end after the coyotes were gone. Put in the 
 common vernacular, they "didn't think." If we 
 express it somewhat more scientifically, they used 
 the animal method, of which we have been speak- 
 ing, to meet the situation. Finding that coyotes 
 were killing sheep and stock, they took the first 
 and easiest means of self-protection. They offered 
 a prize in the form of a bounty for every coyote 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS aoi 
 
 killed. Since coyotes were numerous this bounty 
 gave an easy livelihood to many. As a result the 
 coyotes have passed, and with their passing has 
 come the change that should have been foreseen. 
 
 Adaptation clearly acquires a new and wider 
 meaning when applied to human beings. Foresee- 
 
 ing the future involves construct- 
 Difference in ..... f 
 
 meaning of animal ing an imaginary situation out of 
 
 the materials of experience but 
 with a different arrangement and, 
 perhaps, with some omissions. This is thinking 
 things in new relations. The people, for example, of 
 whom we spoke above, should have pictured a situ- 
 ation from which coyotes were missing. Then it 
 would not have been difficult to foresee the count- 
 less increase of smaller animals that they destroy. 
 Imagining new arrangements of materials and ac- 
 tions with which we are already familiar is the 
 basis of all invention whether in thoughts or things. 
 The aeroplane is only a new application of materi- 
 als and forces which had already been used in 
 other ways. 
 
 The trial and error method is used by man and 
 the lower animals alike. The difference is in its 
 The advantage application. The imagination of 
 of human the lower animals is probably 
 
 limited to mental reproduction of 
 what their senses give. It is doubtful whether, in 
 their memory image, they can add or subtract much 
 from the original presentation. This power to 
 
202 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 change the picture, to see it altered by one omission 
 after another, to imagine new situations with some 
 of the factors in the old omitted the ability to 
 reduce the number of possible causes by the proc- 
 ess of elimination enables man to discover causes. 
 But it is necessary to train him in its use. 
 
 A drove of sheep were being driven from one 
 pasture to another. The foremost jumped a rail 
 Imitation and so high that it required consider- 
 inefficiency a ft e effort to make the leap. 
 
 Soon, accidentally, one struck the rail and knocked 
 it down. But the rest of the sheep, even to the 
 last, gave the same leap that had been a part of the 
 successful series of actions of those who went be- 
 fore. Man, also, tends to repeat the program which 
 he has seen or learned. This is one of the factors 
 in his inefficiency and it is with the elimination 
 of these useless movements that the principle of 
 scientific management is concerned. Here, again, 
 it is a matter of trial and error joined with im- 
 proved capacity to recognize success and understand 
 its cause. 
 
 We have found that education reduced to its low- 
 est terms is adaptation to environment. As ani- 
 Adaptation di- ma * s Become more complex ability 
 
 rected by to foresee changes and to plan for 
 
 intelligence ,. . t1 , A .- 
 
 them is added. Adaptation is 
 
 then directed by intelligence and the old primitive 
 trial and error method acquires new significance. 
 Training for this higher mode of adaptation, and 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 203 
 
 practice in it, are essential parts of the education 
 of children. It was for this that man's longer pe- 
 riod of infancy was given. 
 
 The committee in charge of the Portland school 
 survey laid down three fundamental working prin- 
 The school and ciples which are as true for 
 community schools in other sections of the 
 
 country, and for small and large towns alike, as 
 they are for Portland. "First, the children and 
 youth of the community must be constantly and 
 sympathetically studied by teachers and principals, 
 in order that these may understand at all times the 
 condition, the capacity, the interests, and the edu- 
 cational needs of each child or youth. 
 
 "Second, the various present and prospective op- 
 portunities and needs of the community for worthy 
 service must also be studied, constantly and appre- 
 ciatively, particularly by those immediately respon- 
 sible for the education of youth soon to be called 
 upon to take effective part in the occupations and 
 life of the community." 
 
 It is interesting, in this connection to read in 
 the Carnegie Foundation's report on Vermont that 
 "Something is radically wrong with a school in 
 an agricultural community that develops motormen, 
 stenographers, and typewriters, and fails to develop 
 farmers, dairymen, and gardeners." 
 
 "Third, the instruction of each child and yeuth 
 the content, method, and the immediate purpose 
 of that instruction must be constantly adapted to 
 
204 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 the needs of that child or youth, in the light of 
 the needs of the community." 
 
 Change characterizes the present. Inventions are 
 so frequent that manufacturers find difficulty in 
 Change, a charac- meeting the expense of introduc- 
 teristic of the age ; n g them, and railway companies 
 are continually obliged to reconstruct or discard 
 cars and make over their road beds. A battle-ship, 
 with its tremendous cost of five million dollars or 
 more, is obsolete in about ten years and practically 
 worthless for its purpose a little later. The auto- 
 mobile has made necessary an entirely new science 
 of road building, and the farmer who a few years 
 ago was able to make a good living by merely hard 
 work is no longer able to compete with those who 
 foresaw the change and availed themselves of sci- 
 entific methods. Even the rotation of crops which 
 not long ago was regarded as the acme of the 
 science of farming is now compared by one ex- 
 pert to the effect on a bank-account of rotating a 
 check book among different members of the family. 
 
 The changes that are going on with such amaz- 
 ing rapidity call for correspondingly rapid readapta- 
 
 Success depend- tion of those who wish to suc " 
 ent on rapid ceed. But the period of acceler- 
 
 readaptation , , 
 
 ated progress came upon us so 
 
 unexpectedly that we have not yet succeeded in 
 adjusting ourselves to it. How sudden has been 
 the change the apprentice life of men still in active 
 business shows. When they were boys conditions 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 203 
 
 were comparatively stable. A son expected to fol- 
 low in his father's business, or, if not, he learned 
 a trade or selected some other occupation suited 
 to his taste. Permanency and stability were always 
 counted on. But how quickly was he undeceived. 
 Perhaps, with meager ability, little schooling and 
 parental demand for financial aid, he learned the 
 trade of making shoes. We know the disappoint- 
 ment of those who did. It was not long before 
 machinery drove them out of business. To-day, 
 they cobble and find it difficult to live. Resoling 
 shoes with the electric hammer has greatly reduced 
 their income. 
 
 Some time ago the writer made the acquaintance 
 of a machine and implement maker who learned 
 
 his trade when skilled hand work- 
 Instances 1 1 rn , 
 
 men were in demand. To-day 
 the university laboratory is the only place where 
 he can find employment. But laboratories large 
 enough to employ a skilled mechanic are not numer- 
 ous, so most of those who learned this trade have 
 been forced into other occupations. 
 
 We are all familiar with the change which the 
 mail-order houses and trolley lines have brought 
 on the general country stores. 
 
 These are a few of the instances which might 
 be cited to show the trend. Apparently the only 
 certainty to-day in trades or business is their un- 
 certainty. And those who are to succeed must be 
 prepared for change, since there is abundant ground 
 
so6 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 for the belief that industrial reconstruction has only 
 begun. 
 
 The significance of this for the schools is evi- 
 dent; for the changes of which we are speaking 
 
 have brought with them altera- 
 Significance for 
 schools of social tions m the home that have pro- 
 
 f oundly affected education. When 
 two interdependent institutions 
 grow up together their points of contact adjust 
 themselves to each other. For this reason the 
 home and school of fifty years ago fitted nicely into 
 the industrial conditions of the period. This is 
 one phase of nature's law of adaptation. She is 
 not concerned with the final outcome. . One result 
 satisfies her as well as another. But things must 
 work. If they do not the system is unstable and 
 alterations of one sort or another will occur until 
 a workable relationship is found. Public school 
 systems, for example, owe their origin to the in- 
 sistent demand for industrial equality, because de- 
 mocracy and the education of a selected few could 
 not come to a working agreement. As long as 
 a change is slow, adjustment keeps pace, but when 
 one part of the social organization outstrips another, 
 confusion arises and continues until a new state 
 of equilibrium is finally established. After that 
 adjustment must begin anew. To-day we are pass- 
 ing through such a period of readjustment on ac- 
 count of the revolutionary social and industrial 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 
 
 changes of the last few decades. Home life has 
 undergone a transformation with which the school 
 has not kept pace. 
 
 If the training for the business of life by the 
 home is possible to-day the difficulties in its way 
 
 Difficulty of are so & reat that f ew parents will 
 
 modern home in overcome the resistance. Easy 
 training for life f , . , , 1 
 
 access of the country boy to the 
 
 dissipations of the town, tenement life among the 
 city poor, apartment-house life with the well-to- 
 do and the high pressure social life of the rich are 
 not conducive to training for successful manhood 
 and womanhood. Of course it can be done, but 
 constant effort to overcome obstructions is difficult 
 and man finally settles down to the laissez-faire 
 attitude and education becomes a matter of the play 
 of chance forces of the environment. 
 
 It is useless to attempt to limit and define the 
 responsibility of the factors contributing to edu- 
 
 Task of schools cation ' We are Baling with a 
 to supplement situation, and if the homes fail 
 failure of home , ., Xl , T> 
 
 to meet it the schools must. Be- 
 sides, education is the business of the teacher. The 
 belief that duty ends with the instruction in the 
 three R's is very modern. In the colonial days 
 the schoolmaster was second only to the preacher 
 as guide and friend. To-day there is more reason 
 for the teacher to assume this function than in 
 earlier times, because the home has lost much of 
 
208 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 its machinery for the training of children. But 
 let us see the sort of development which parents un- 
 consciously gave their children fifty years ago.* 
 
 "I begin with winter, when men's industries were 
 most diversified, and largely in wood/' says G. 
 The home in Stanley Hall, speaking of his boy- 
 
 education fifty hood days. "Lumber or tim- 
 ber trees were chopped down 
 and cut by two men working a cross-cut saw, which 
 was always getting stuck fast, in a pinch which 
 took the set out of it, unless the whole trunk was 
 pried up by skids. Sometimes the fallen trees were 
 cut into logs, snaked together and piled with the 
 aid of cant-hooks, to be drawn across the frozen 
 pond to the saw-mill for some contemplated build- 
 ing, or, if of spruce, of straight grain and few 
 knots, or of good rift, they were cut into bolts, 
 or cross-sections fifteen inches long, which was the 
 legal length for shingles. These were taken home 
 in a pung, split with beetle and wedge, and then 
 with a frow, and finished off with a drawshave 
 on a shaving-horse, itself home-made. . . . Ax- 
 helves, too, were sawn, split, hewn, whittled, and 
 scraped into shape with broken glass, and the form 
 peculiar to each local maker was as characteristic as 
 the style of painter or poet, and was widely known, 
 compared and criticized. Butter-paddles were com- 
 monly made of red cherry, while sugar lap paddles 
 
 * Boy Life in a Massachusetts Country Town Forty Years 
 Ago, by G. Stanley Hall. Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 13, p. 
 192. 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 209 
 
 were made by merely barking whistle wood or bass 
 and whittling down one end for a handle. Mauls and 
 beetles were made of ash-knots, ox-bows of walnut, 
 held in shape till seasoned by withes of yellow birch, 
 from which also birch brushes and brooms were 
 manufactured on winter evenings by stripping down 
 seams of wood in the green. There were salt mor- 
 tars and pig-troughs made from solid logs, with 
 tools hardly more effective than those the Indian 
 uses for his dug-out. Flails for next year's thresh- 
 ing, cheese-hoops and cheese-ladders ; bread-troughs 
 and yokes for hogs and sheep, and pokes for jump- 
 ing cattle, horses and unruly geese, and stanchions 
 for cows. . . . Repairs were made during this sea- 
 son, and a new cat-hole beside the door with a 
 lateral working drop-lid, which the cat operated 
 with ease, was made one winter." 
 
 All of these activities the boys saw and helped 
 in according to their age and strength. The work 
 Education presented obstacles to be over- 
 
 through action come an( j problems to be solved 
 which called for thinking. It was training to do 
 things by doing them; and one of the duties of 
 educators to-day is to find an adequate substitute 
 for the home training of this earlier period. 
 
 Closely connected with the life of the boys of 
 that day were the "hemlock bows and arrows, or 
 cross-bows, with arrow-heads run on with melted 
 lead (for which every scrap of lead pipe or an- 
 tique pewter dish was in great demand) often fatal 
 
210 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 for small game; box and figure 4 traps for rats 
 and squirrels; wind-mills; weather-vanes in the 
 form of fish, roosters or even ships; an actual saw- 
 mill that went in the brook, and cut planks with 
 marino and black and white Carter potatoes for 
 logs ; and many whittled tools, toys and ornamental 
 forms and puppets. . . . How much all this has saved 
 me since, in the laboratory, in daily life and even 
 in the study/' continues Doctor Hall, "it would be 
 hard to estimate. 
 
 "I must not forget the rage for trapping and 
 hunting, by which we learned much of the habits 
 of crows, hawks, muskrats, woodchucks, squirrels, 
 partridges and even foxes, and which made us ac- 
 quainted with wide areas of territory. . . . We 
 (the younger boys of about ten) made collections 
 for the whole season, of wood, leaves, flowers, 
 stones, bugs, butterflies, etc." 
 
 Broom making, with its preliminary planting, 
 breaking, tabling and hatcheling, watching the local 
 tanner, gunsmiths and basket makers, visiting the 
 cooper-shops, carding mills, hovering around the 
 turning shops to see how they made wooden spoons, 
 bowls, etc., not to mention the blacksmith shops, 
 harness makers and shops in which shoes were made 
 and not merely cobbled, all of these places and many 
 more helped along the education of the New Eng- 
 land boys fifty years ago. "I know," says Doctor 
 Hall, that "I could make soap, maple sugar, a pair of 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 211 
 
 shoes, braid a palm leaf hat, spin, put in and weave 
 a piece of frocking or a rag carpet. 
 
 "The dull days in haying time brought another 
 sort of education. The men of the vicinity strolled 
 together in a shed, and, sitting on a tool bench, 
 grindstone, manger, wagons, chopping blocks, and 
 hog spouts, discussed crop prices, ditching, walling, 
 salting cattle, finding springs with witch hazel, taxes, 
 the preaching," etc., all of which afforded training 
 in common-sense philosophy, economics and citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 In the evening, as the family gathered around 
 the stove, or the old fireplace, stories were told and 
 books were read. "A pair of skates was earned 
 by a boy friend one winter by reading the entire 
 Bible through, and another boy bought an accordion 
 with money earned by braiding the plain sides of 
 palm-leaf hats where no splicing was needed, for 
 women at a cent per side." 
 
 The farm in those days was a great workshop 
 and laboratory surrounded by a limitless range of 
 
 fields and woods peopled with 
 The farm as a 
 
 workshop and innumerable wild animals waiting 
 laboratory to be watc hed or caught. It was 
 
 admirable training for the life of the period and 
 not so bad for present needs could we but imitate 
 its spontaneity. 
 
 The life of the boy to-day compared with the 
 freedom to construct, to plan, to think and grow 
 
212 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Failure of modern * n those earlier days is like that 
 substitute for farm o f t h e wild beast in captivity. To 
 be sure we have been trying lately to supply the 
 need, but our efforts have been hardly more suc- 
 cessful than the "jungle" in the New York Zoologi- 
 cal Garden by which it was thought to woo the 
 snakes of southern swamps. And yet this va- 
 riety of activity is more necessary to-day than in 
 former times because of the constant need of read- 
 justment to changing conditions. The best way to 
 make adaptable, versatile men is to make construc- 
 tive, creative boys. 
 
 We have said that the present age is character- 
 ized by change. Trades, when not abandoned, are 
 in a continual state of alteration. The great major- 
 ity of the boys who go out from the schools must 
 find their livelihood in some of the modest occu- 
 pations from which we have drawn examples. But 
 let us see if the situation is different higher up. 
 
 The president and general manager of a large 
 electric manufacturing company recently told the 
 Facts about busi- writer that his business is chang- 
 ness failures j n g an( j expanding so fast that 
 
 his greatest difficulty consists in finding among the 
 thousand in his employ men who are qualified for 
 the various grades of subordinate executive respon- 
 sibility. "The fundamental limitation of the ma- 
 jority of men, from the standpoint of availability 
 for promotion, consists/ 1 he said, "in lack of ca- 
 pacity to adjust themselves to new requirements. 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 213 
 
 "Modern business," he continued, "no longer 
 waits for men to qualify after promotion. Through 
 Imagination anticipation and prior preparation 
 
 and business every growing man must be 
 
 largely ready for his new job when it comes to 
 him. I find very few individuals making any effort 
 to think out better ways of doing things. They 
 do not anticipate needs, do not keep themselves 
 fresh at the growing point. If they ever had any 
 imagination they seem to have lost it and imagina- 
 tion is needed in a growing business, for it is 
 through the imagination that one anticipates future 
 changes and so prepares for them before they come. 
 Accordingly, as a general proposition, the selection 
 of a man for a vacancy within the organization is 
 more or less a matter of guesswork. Now and 
 then an ambitious, wide-awake young man works 
 into the organization and in a very short time is 
 spotted by various department managers for future 
 promotion, but the number of such individuals is 
 discouragingly small. The difficulty with which we 
 are always confronted is that our business grows 
 faster than do those within it. The men do not 
 keep up with our changes. The business grows 
 away from them and quite reluctantly the manage- 
 ment is frequently compelled to go outside for the 
 necessary material. We need, at the present time, 
 four or five subordinate chiefs in various parts of 
 the factory and I can fill none of them satisfactorily 
 from material in hand." 
 
214 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 When questioned further, this same man said, 
 "Capacity to vary and rapidly to readjust one's self 
 Rapid adjustment to ne w and changing conditions 
 essential i s not on iy essential to the busi- 
 
 ness success of individuals but it is quite as nec- 
 essary with respect to the business itself." He then 
 instanced several companies which ten years ago 
 were the leaders in their lines but which have fal- 
 len far behind because of the inability of the man- 
 agement to anticipate the future and to make the 
 necessary readjustment. One of these companies 
 did not see the significance of the revolutionary 
 advent of the steam turbine. "The management 
 sat by while other companies brought it to a suc- 
 cessful commercial basis. There is no standing- 
 still in the business world to-day. Methods, devices 
 and social tendencies in general, demand a constant 
 evolution upward in human capacity all along the 
 line." 
 
 The manager of a company that sells heaters 
 through a large part of the United States writes 
 Other types that when he assumed control he 
 
 of failure secured as agents men who had 
 
 been successful in selling other lines of goods. He 
 reasoned that selling goods was much the same 
 whatever the commodity. In any line of salesman- 
 ship the agents must learn to meet and deal with 
 men and the readaptation necessary with the change 
 of article would be comparatively easy. So he 
 thought it out. But to his amazement he found 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 215 
 
 that the men whom he employed could not make 
 even this slight readjustment. An entire year was 
 lost by the company in getting started. 
 
 This manager mentioned an instance of incapac- 
 ity for readaptation of a different sort from those 
 to which we have referred. "A man who had for- 
 merly held a railroad position in which he had been 
 obliged to deal with men and convince them of 
 the value of his propositions undertook to sell 
 heaters to school boards. He was an unusually 
 'good mixer.' He made friends easily and kept 
 them ; but he could not handle school boards. This 
 man, after trying all summer, with a wide experi- 
 ence in dealing with men, was wholly unable to 
 meet a situation and adjust himself to it. At the 
 end of the season he gave it up. 
 
 "There is no question in my mind," continues 
 this manager, "that mental flexibility is absolutely 
 Mental flexibility essential to a young man who ex- 
 and success pects to become active in the busi- 
 
 ness world. Business is made up of constantly 
 changing conditions and unexpected situations. One 
 who can not see ahead and have a plan for a new 
 situation before it comes had better stay out. Every 
 business day is apt to bring the unexpected, and 
 the man who is not ready, who has not the re- 
 sourcefulness to adjust himself to new conditions, 
 is eventually a failure. The man who is mentally 
 flexible and who studies the situations and looks 
 into the future is a success/' 
 
216 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 The assistant manager of the system of street 
 railways in one of the three or four of our 
 Problems of big largest cities writes as follows : 
 business concerns "All large employers of labor 
 need foremen and, in factories or other industries, 
 departmental heads. It is desirable that these fore- 
 men be not only well grounded in the particular 
 work which they supervise, but they should, in ad- 
 dition, have some executive ability. Since few men 
 are versatile enough or sufficiently equipped for the 
 work many large companies have training schools 
 in which instruction is freely given to the employees 
 who desire to avail themselves of the opportunity. 
 The hope is that from among the many who take the 
 instruction a sufficient number will develop the ver- 
 satility necessary for some of the executive posi- 
 tions. 
 
 "Another problem which employers of large num- 
 bers of men must meet is to keep good men. An 
 employer can not afford to be continually breaking 
 in a wholly new outfit of men. There must be 
 some permanency to his organization. This is one 
 of the cases in which the manager must be versa- 
 tile. To meet this need the following plans have 
 been put into effect by many of the large employ- 
 ers of labor, (i) A purchasing system; (2) an 
 employees' relief association which furnishes medi- 
 cal and hospital attention to sick employees; (3) 
 a cooperative purchasing system by means of which 
 employees have the benefit of the purchasing 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 217 
 
 power of a large corporation; (4} a loan depart- 
 ment; (5) a legal department; (6) entertainments, 
 such as baseball teams, basket-ball teams, dances, am- 
 ateur vaudeville, bands, orchestras, glee clubs, pic- 
 nics, etc. The company which I represent has in oper- 
 ation all of these except the relief association and 
 the purchasing department. These matters have been 
 under consideration for some time and it is prob- 
 able that in the near future the plans will be put 
 into effect. We have built a large entertainment 
 hall which is free for the use of our employees. 
 
 "A street railway system, like all other modern 
 business, is constantly changing. New problems 
 are continually arising and the old ones never die. 
 Among those with which we are always confronted 
 are problems in car construction, with improvement 
 in electric motors and railway trucks, changes in 
 track construction, which involve improvement in 
 paving material and new kinds of road beds to- 
 gether with a complete revolution in the method 
 of track laying. These are only illustrations of 
 the changes that are always going on. Many more 
 might be named." 
 
 One of the partners in a large wholesale grocery 
 house also writes that changes and readjustment of 
 
 Changes in whole- one sort or another ar ^ continu- 
 sale grocery ally forced on his firm. A large 
 
 number of commodities which 
 formerly were among their "best sellers" have been 
 taken from them and are now sold directly to the 
 
218 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 consumer by the importers or manufacturers. To 
 offset this loss the wholesale grocer has been obliged 
 to add articles which, a few years ago, were handled 
 exclusively by wholesale dry-goods houses and by 
 drug and hardware firms. "To name only a few 
 items, cotton gloves, hosiery, spool cotton, stable 
 drugs, patent medicines, ammunition, nails, wire 
 and even sewing-machines are sold by the whole- 
 sale grocer." The fact that the coffee, tea and 
 spice business has in a large measure been taken 
 away from the wholesale grocer, that sugar refi- 
 neries and tobacco companies are selling their goods 
 directly to the retailer, and that manufacturers are 
 more and more eliminating the wholesaler "has 
 brought about the curious result that the wholesale 
 grocer now carries a greater variety of other goods 
 than he does of groceries." All of these changes 
 naturally deprived wholesale grocers of commod- 
 ities with the details of which they were familiar, 
 and compelled them to investigate and find a mar- 
 ket for other articles to take their place. 
 
 Again, in earlier years, the purchaser sought the 
 seller, now the seller must seek the purchaser. As 
 a result of this the jobber "no longer owns his 
 trade. This is in a real sense the personal property 
 of the salesmen who take their customers with them 
 when they change from one wholesale house to 
 another." In this' way a jobber may lose an en- 
 tire territory in a day and then he is confronted; 
 with the problem of regaining it or of finding a 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 219 
 
 new territory to take its place. "The difficulties 
 of winning back the customers who have been taken 
 to another house are usually insurmountable because, 
 while formerly the relation between the jobber and 
 retailer was a close and personal one, to-day they 
 are unacquainted." 
 
 The changes in the woodenware business are 
 startling in their explosive swiftness. The follow- 
 Changes in wood- g letter from the senior mem- 
 cnware business b er o one o f the largest com- 
 panies shows how truly "eternal vigilance is the 
 price of profits." 
 
 "Thirty years ago," the writer says, "when I 
 entered the woodenware business it was strictly a 
 jobbing proposition, selling to both wholesalers and 
 retailers. Our trade was largely in items of wood 
 together with many small articles known as 
 'Yankee notions/ and brboms, the last of which was 
 one of our most important articles. This continued 
 for about twenty years, when a merry run of busi- 
 ness changes began. First, the wholesalers through- 
 out the country took the position that if we sold 
 to them we must not sell to the retail trade. After 
 five years of struggle we yielded. Then five years 
 later the wholesalers cut us out of their business 
 entirely and began to buy directly from the factory. 
 
 "Although we had never engaged in manufac- 
 turing we now saw that we must make that change 
 or be left behind. Now, starting factories for many 
 articles is expensive business. So we tried to look 
 
220 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 into the future and see which of our articles had 
 the best prospects. Finally we selected several, 
 among which were paper bags and galvanized iron 
 tubs and pails that were then just beginning to 
 replace the wooden articles. As a result of manu- 
 facturing paper bags our sales in this item alone 
 increased more than twelve times. 
 
 "School slates, a large item in our business, gave 
 way to paper tablets which we were forced to man- 
 ufacture. Our sales of this one article now amount 
 to about $200,000 annually. 
 
 "These are only a few of the many changes that 
 are in continual progress. Business is never sta- 
 tionary. When it is the end is near. We must 
 constantly watch the market and try to discover 
 a little of what the future is sending us. If we 
 fail in our interpretation more versatile men get 
 the business." 
 
 These illustrations are probably enough to estab- 
 lish the truth of the statements, a few pages back, 
 that change is the order of the day and that the 
 only certainty in business is its uncertainty. 
 
 "Efficiency" and "scientific management," so 
 much talked of to-day, originated in the need for 
 
 industrial readjustment of which 
 How scientific . 
 
 management we have been speaking. The 
 
 works out simplest plan, when a manufac- 
 
 turer finds it necessary to reduce the cost of making 
 his product, is to lower wages. This requires no 
 intelligence and for that reason is the common 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 221 
 
 method. Taylor, however, has found* that effi- 
 ciency, which is synonymous with low labor cost, 
 pays higher wages, and the investigations of N. 
 I. Stone, formerly Chief Statistician of the Tariff 
 Board, support this view. "Almost invariably the 
 (woolen) mills paying higher wages per hour 
 showed lower costs than their competitors with 
 lower wages. Thus, in wool scouring the lowest 
 average wages paid to machine operatives in the 
 thirty mills examined was found to be 12.16 cents 
 per hour, and the highest 17.79. Yet the low wage 
 mill showed a labor cost of twenty-one cents per 
 hundred pounds of wool, while the higher wage 
 mill had a cost of only fifteen cents per hundred."! 
 Again, "in the carding departments of seventeen 
 worsted mills, the mill paying its machine-opera- 
 tives an average wage of 13.18 cents per hour had 
 a machine labor cost of four cents per hundred 
 pounds, while the mill paying its machine-opera- 
 tives only 11.86 cents per hour, had a cost of 
 twenty-five cents per hundred pounds." 
 
 Even more astounding was the inefficiency 
 found in the carding departments of twenty-six 
 
 woolen mills. "The mill with the 
 Further details , . , 
 
 highest machine output per man 
 
 per hour, namely 57.7 pounds, had a machine-labor 
 cost of twenty-three cents per hundred pounds, 
 while the mill with a machine output of only six 
 
 * The Principles of Scientific Management, by Frederick 
 W. Taylor. 
 
 t Century Magazine, Vol. 86, May, 1913, p. 113. 
 
222 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 pounds per operative per hour had a cost of $1.64 
 per hundred pounds. Yet this mill, with a cost 
 seventeen times higher than the other, paid its op- 
 eratives only 9.86 cents per hour, as against 13.09 
 cents per hour paid by its more successful com- 
 petitor." 
 
 Taylor found on investigating the unscientific 
 act of shoveling that the same shovel was used 
 A result of ineffi- for i ron or e as for rice coal. In 
 cient method t h e former case the workmen 
 
 shoveled a load of thirty pounds and in the latter 
 four pounds, an absurdity on the face of it. Yet 
 this inefficient method had been employed for years 
 without attracting the attention of the foremen or 
 of the educated managers in the office. 
 
 The result of Taylor's reorganization of the ways 
 of doing things in the Bethlehem Steel Company 
 A result of scien- was a saving during the first year 
 tific management o f $36,417.69 and during the six 
 months following, "the saving was at the rate of 
 between $75,000 and $80,000 per year"; and the 
 workmen were earning higher wages. 
 
 Whatever else may be included in the meaning 
 of efficiency it is evident from the concrete evi- 
 Education for dence on every side that versa- 
 efficiency tility capacity for new adapta- 
 
 tions and the ability to see a little way ahead and 
 to employ one's knowledge in solving problems that 
 arise must not be omitted. The really needful 
 thing is to train children to be efficient rather than 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 223 
 
 to find jobs for them for which they are not fitted. 
 This is the way in which the Commissioner sum- 
 marizes a recent report on vocational training* pub- 
 lished by the United States Bureau of Education. 
 
 As to the method of training for efficiency, the 
 way is not so uncertain if we may judge from the 
 Successful human documents, given in the 
 
 methods fi rs t chapter, of the men who 
 
 have tried to analyze their boyhood feelings, and 
 from the experimental organizations for group- 
 work which have been cited. The motive power is 
 given in the racial impulses which drive children 
 with irresistible force to action. The problem is 
 then simplified. The teacher does not need to cre- 
 ate interest, in the work. Enough enthusiasm is 
 present in every school to furnish power to run 
 a hundred educational plants. The teacher's func- 
 tion is to divert this flow of racial energy into 
 social and industrial channels. How this may be 
 done has been indicated by the experiments of ear- 
 lier chapters. We have seen that children want to 
 do things for themselves. What they do and what 
 they manage does not matter much as far as the 
 available energy is concerned. They must feel, 
 however, that the work is theirs, that they are re- 
 sponsible for it and that the glory of its success 
 is theirs. 
 
 In striving to produce versatility, however, it is 
 
 ^Vocational Education Survey, by Miss Alice B. Barrows* 
 Bureau of Education, 1913. 
 
224 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 important that children engage in activities which 
 have not been mechanized with rules. This is pio- 
 neering and pioneers work their way through un- 
 known obstacles overcoming difficulties as they 
 arise. Under these conditions real problems exist 
 problems that relish because no one, not even 
 the teacher, knows the solution. The uncertainty 
 of such problems or situations gives the flavor of 
 adventure which answers a call of youth and 
 awakens zeal for achievement. The problems of 
 the school are usually artificial constructions. The 
 children are aware that the teacher knows their 
 solution and this deprives them of the impelling 
 force that incites to action in the real difficulties 
 of the outside world. In earlier chapters we have 
 shown how some teachers have tried to produce 
 living problems in their school. 
 
 This gives the cue for making children intelli- 
 gent, constructive workers instead of submissive 
 Originality and followers. Versatility and effi- 
 cfficiency ciency are not the offspring of 
 
 imitation. Originality is needed and this quality 
 of mind is acqtilreth only in an environment that 
 encourages its growth. The crude matrix from 
 which initiative may develop we have found in the 
 instincts for group-action, workmanship and plan- 
 ning, but their application to social ends must be 
 learned by the individual through acts stimulated 
 by his desire to work out definite social projects. 
 Contriving conditions which shall inevitably arouse 
 
NEW DEMANDS ON SCHOOLS 225 
 
 in children the impulse to meet difficulties by plans 
 which they themselves originate raises teachers to 
 their proper sphere of action, that of guide and 
 helper instead of driver. 
 
 Children, in managing situations thus created, 
 are learning to interpret conditions that arise and 
 
 are developing: a versatility that 
 Conclusion . 
 
 prepares them to meet similar 
 
 problems in the larger outside world where ex- 
 perience is dearer and failure more disastrous. In 
 a school thus organized the pupils are dealing with 
 situations of actual life instead of with the arti- 
 ficial conditions fabricated by traditional peda- 
 gogy. They learn to devise ways and means of 
 overcoming obstacles and they profit from their 
 mistakes. This is training in versatility, and it is 
 quite different from having the school life laid out 
 in assignments, rules and prohibitions. According 
 to the usual method the teacher plans the work and 
 the pupils regulate the amount of energy they put 
 into it with marvelous nicety by the "passing mark." 
 This is the most prominent standard of excellence 
 and so the children adapt their attainments to it. 
 The stimulus for a high grade of efficiency, which 
 we have found in organized group-work, is absent. 
 There is no incentive to versatility because con- 
 formity to the common type is popular. Whatever 
 intellectual competition there may be is on a low 
 level and mediocrity is not a stimulating environ- 
 ment for the production of versatile minds. 
 
226 f LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 When, on the other hand, schools are organized 
 into groups of pupils banded together for purposes 
 which the children themselves have conceived, with 
 the aid of tactful suggestions from their teachers, 
 they are alert to excel, to produce something new, 
 to be different from their fellows. This is a fertile 
 environment for versatility and efficiency. Each 
 one has a plan to offer to meet the difficulties that 
 arise in achieving what they have set themselves 
 to do. The enthusiasm of the many stirs the few 
 laggards. Laziness is at a discount and work at 
 a premium. The children learn by doing because 
 those who accomplish things are held in high es- 
 teem among their companions. The standard to 
 which the pupils make their adaptation is achieve- 
 ment which never lets them rest satisfied. The 
 customary method seeks to train children for adult 
 life. The plan here urged trains them in living 
 while they are yet in school. 
 
 THE END 
 
REFERENCES FOR FURTHER 
 READING 
 
REFERENCES FOR FURTHER 
 READING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey The Story of a Bad Boy. 
 Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. 
 
 Alexander, J. L. Boy Training. New York 
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 Burbank, Luther Cidtivate Children Like Flow- 
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 457- 
 Conover, James P. Personality in Education. 
 
 New York (1908) Moffatt, Yard & Co. 
 Denison, Elsa Helping School Children. New 
 
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 Forbush, William B. The Boy Problem. (1902) 
 
 Pilgrim Press. 
 George, William R. The Junior Republic. New 
 
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 Grahame, Kenneth The Golden Age. New York 
 
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230 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
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 Holmes William H. School Organization and the 
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 McKeever, William A. Training the Boy. New 
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 Thorndike, Edward L. The Original Nature of 
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REFERENCES 231 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
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232 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
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 CHAPTER III 
 
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 Suzzalo, Henry Education as a Social 'Study. 
 School Review, vol. 16, p. 330. 
 
 Wells, C. B. Some Experiments in Group-Work. 
 Elementary School Teacher, vol. 7, p. 329. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Book, W. F. The Psychology of Skill. Univer- 
 sity of Montana Monograph, no. 53. 
 
 Cleveland, Alfred A. The Psychology of Chess 
 and of Learning to Play it. American Journal 
 of Psychology, vol. 18, p. 269. 
 
 Dearborn, W. F. Experiments in Learning. Jour- 
 nal of Educational Psychology, vol. I, p. 373. 
 
 Leuba, J. H., and Hyde, Winefred An Experi- 
 ment in Learning to Make Hand Movements. 
 Psychological Review, vol. 12, p. 351. 
 
 Munn, Abbie F. The Curve of Learning. Ar- 
 chives of Psychology, no. 12, (1909) p. 36. 
 
234 j LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Ordahl, Louise E. Consciousness in Relation to 
 Learning. American Journal of Psychology, 
 vol. 22, p. 158. 
 
 Richardson, R. F. The Learning Process in the 
 'Acquisition of Skill. Pedagogical Seminary, 
 vol. 19, 376. 
 
 Ruger, Henry A. The Psychology of Efficiency. 
 Archives of Psychology, no. 15, (1910) p. i. 
 
 Starch, Daniel A Demonstration of the Trial and 
 Error Method of Learning. Psychological 
 Bulletin, vol. 7, p. 20. 
 
 Swift, Edgar James Mind in the Making. New 
 York (1908) Charles Scribner's Sons. Chap- 
 ter VI. Studies in the Psychology and Physi- 
 ology of Learning. American Journal of Psy- 
 chology, vol. 14, p. 201. The Acquisition of 
 Skill in Type-writing. Psychological Bulletin, 
 vol. i, p. 295. Beginning a Language. (Stud- 
 ies in Philosophy and Psychology.) Boston 
 (1906) Houghton Mifflin Co. The Learning 
 Process (Swift and Schuyler) Psychological 
 Bulletin, vol. 4, p. 307. 
 
 Thorndike, Edward L. The Psychology of Learn- 
 ing. New York (1913) Columbia University 
 
 Press. 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Bean, C. H. The Curve of Forgetting. Archives 
 of Psychology, no. 21 (1912) p. I. 
 
REFERENCES 235 
 
 Bogg, E. Pearl The Question in the Learning 
 Process. Journal of Philosophy, Psychology 
 and Scientific Method, vol. 5, p. 239. 
 
 Book, W. F. The Role of the Teacher in Most 
 Expeditious and Economic Learning. Journal 
 of Educational Psychology, vol. i, p. 183. 
 
 Jones, Elmer E. Individual Differences in School 
 Children. Psychological Clinic, vol. 6, p. 241. 
 
 Meyerhardt, M. W. Economical Learning. Peda- 
 gogical Seminary, vol. 13, p. 145. 
 
 Ogden, Robert M. Memory and the Economy of 
 Learning. Psychological Bulletin, vol. I, p. 
 177. 
 
 Pyle, W. H. Economical Learning. Journal of 
 Educational Psychology, vol. 4, p. 148. 
 
 Simpson, B. R. Correlation of Mental Abilities. 
 New York (1913) Columbia University Press. 
 
 Starch, Daniel Periods of Work in Learning. 
 Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 3, p. 
 209. 
 
 Swift, Edgar James Memory of a Skilful Act. 
 American Journal of Psychology,* vol. 16, p. 
 131. Memory of Skilful Movements. The 
 Psychological Bulletin, vol. 3, p. 185. Re- 
 learning a Skilful Act. 'Psychological Bulletin, 
 vol. 7, p. 17. 
 
 Thorndike, Edward L. Mental Work and Fatigue. 
 New York (1914) Columbia University Press. 
 
236 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Andrews, B. R. Habit. 'American Journal of Psy- 
 chology, vol. 14, p. 121. 
 
 Angell, James R., and Moore, A. W. A Study m 
 Attention and Habit. Psychological Review, 
 vol. 13, p. 245. 
 
 Barrett, E. Boyd Motive Force and Motivation- 
 Tracks. New York (1911) Longman, Green 
 &Co. 
 
 Bean, A. W. Habit and Progress. Mind, vol. n, 
 
 P- 343; 
 
 James, William The Laws of Habit. Popular 
 Science Monthly, vol. 30, p. 433. Talks to 
 Teachers on Psychology. New York (1901) 
 Henry Holt & Co., p. 64. 
 
 Reavis, William C. Some Factors that Determine 
 the Habits of Study of Grade-Pupils. Ele- 
 mentary School Teacher, vol. 12, p. 71. The 
 Importance of a Study Program for High 
 School Pupils. School Review, vol. 19, p. 398. 
 
 Rowe, Stuart H. Habit Formation. New York 
 (1909) The Macmillan Co. 
 
 Swift, Edgar James Mind in the Making. New 
 York (1908) Charles Scribner's Sons. Chap- 
 ter III. Youth and the Race. New York 
 (1912) Charles Scribner's Sons. Chapter III. 
 The Passing of the Dunce. Harper's Monthly, 
 
 VOl. 122, p. 284. 
 
REFERENCES 237 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Caldwell, Ottis W. The Laboratory Method and 
 
 High School Efficiency. Popular Science 
 
 Monthly, vol. 82, p. 243. 
 Carman, George N.- Cooperation of School and 
 
 Shop in Promoting Industrial Efficiency. 
 
 School Revieiv, vol. 18, p. 108. 
 Fernald, G. Guy An Achievement Capacity Test. 
 
 Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 3, p. 
 
 331- 
 
 Emerson, Harrington The Twelve Principles of 
 Efficiency. New York (1912) Engineering 
 Magazine. 
 
 Hall, G. Stanley Boy Life in Massachusetts Coun- 
 try Towns Forty Years Ago. Pedagogical 
 Seminary, vol. 13, p. 192. 
 
 Halleck, Reuben Post What Kind of Education 
 is Best Suited to Boys. School Review, vol. 
 14, p. 512. 
 
 Hunter, W. B. The Fitchburg Plan of Industrial 
 Education. School Review, vol. 18, p. 166. 
 
 Leake, Albert H. Industrial Education: Its Prob- 
 lems, Methods and Dangers. Boston (1913) 
 Houghton Mifflin Co. 
 
 Miinsterberg, Hugo Psychology and Industrial 
 Efficiency. Boston (1913) Houghton Mifflin 
 Co. 
 
238 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 Person, Harlow S. The Ideal Organisation of a 
 System of Secondary Schools to Provide Vo- 
 cational Training. School Review, vol. 17, p. 
 404. 
 
 Rynearson, Edward Cooperation of the Business 
 Men of Pittsburg with the Commercial De- 
 partment of the High School. School Review, 
 vol. 18, p. 333. 
 
 Snedden, David Problems of Educational Read- 
 justment. Boston (I9I3J Houghton Mifflin 
 Co. 
 
 Swift, Edgar James Mind in the Making. New 
 York (1908) Charles Scribner's Sons. Chap- 
 ter IX. Man's Educational Reconstruction of 
 Nature. Popular Science Monthly, vol. 72, p. 
 269. 
 
 Taylor, F. W. The Principles of Scientific Man- 
 agement. New York (1911) Harper & Bros. 
 
 Tuck School Conference. Hanover (1912) Dart- 
 mouth College. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 ACTION: demand of childhood for, 11, 12, 15-17, 20, 27, 33, 
 34, 188, 197; and education, 20, 30, 32, 70, 77, 99, 138, 
 140, 209, 223; and Boy Scout movement, 186, 187; and 
 pupil-government, 187, 189. See ADVENTURE, RACIAL 
 INSTINCTS. 
 
 ADAPTABILITY: illustration of, 41-43; not same as ca- 
 price, 44; a characteristic of childhood, 46, 149. 
 
 ADAPTATION: and economy of effort, 46; and habits, ^46, 
 49; school study and, 59; continued resistance to, im- 
 possible, 180; aided by school organization, 191; and 
 animal education, 198, 199; and progress, 199, 200; dif- 
 ference between animal and human, 201 ; and education, 
 202; and business success, 212-215. 
 
 ADJUSTMENT. See ADAPTATION. 
 
 ADVENTURE: quest for, 1, 2, 15-17, 20, 29; books of, 6; 
 and sports, 7; adult misunderstanding of, 5, 10, 11, 15, 
 16, 17, 18, 31, 34; adult recall of, 10-18; utilization of 
 spirit of, 12, 14, 19, 32, 99; among girls, 18-20; and 
 crime, 21, 22, 29; outlets for spirit f, 22, 28, 30, 99, 224; 
 truancy and, 30; experience in terms of, 33. See also 
 ACTION, RACIAL INSTINCTS. 
 
 ARITHMETIC: effect of physical fitness in learning, 143; 
 in relation to study of geography, 145 ; on teaching, 153, 
 162, 163 ; and plateaus, 105. 
 
 ASSOCIATIONS: time necessary for fixing, 127; the harm 
 from wrong, 142; interfering, 154, 156, 161. 
 
 ATHENIAN ASSEMBLY. See EXPERIMENT IN TEACHING 
 GREEK HISTORY. 
 
 ATTENTION: a test of, 50; in relation to plateaus, 126; 
 causes of fluctuation in, 141; an attitude unfavorable 
 to, 147. 
 
 AUTOMATISM. See HABITS. 
 
 BAGEHOT, WALTER: on breaking habits, 181, 182; on 
 
 arrested civilization, 168. 
 
 BAIR, on higher and lower orders of habits, 123. 
 BALDWIN, MISS MARTHA, on how children study, 52. 
 BARRETT, E. BOYD, on dangers of automatic habits, 183. 
 BERGSTROM, on habit, 156. 
 
 241 
 
242 INDEX 
 
 BILLINGS, JOSH, on thinking, 69. 
 
 BOLTON, T. L., on memory, 155. 
 
 BOOK: on higher and lower orders of habits, 123; on pla- 
 teaus, 126; on relation of efficiency and mental and bod- 
 ily states, 141 ; on interference of associations, 156. 
 
 BOY SCOUT MOVEMENT, significance of, 186, 187. 
 
 BRYAN AND HARTER, on higher and lower orders of 
 habits, 122. 
 
 BURBANK, LUTHER, on variability, 37. 
 
 BUSINESS HOUSES: problems of, 216-220; reasons for 
 failure in, 212-214. See Chap. VII. 
 
 CARNEGIE FOUNDATION, report of on Vermont schools, 
 
 23, 203. See SCHOOLS, SURVEYS. 
 CHANGE: characteristic of age, 204-206, 212, 214, 217-220; 
 
 indispensable to productive thinking, 175. See Chap. 
 
 CLEVELAND, on cause of plateaus, 125. 
 
 COMPOSITION, an experiment in, 72-76. 
 
 CONSERVATISM: and habit, 168; illustrated by history, 
 169; its relation to fixed conditions, 170; and the con- 
 ventional view-point, 180. 
 
 COOPERATION BETWEEN TEACHER AND PUPIL: 
 its importance, 11, 13-16, 18, 33, 34; its results, 30, 33; 
 methods of securing, 32, 133, 135-137, 140, 188, 189, 193- 
 203. 
 
 CURVES OF PROGRESS IN LEARNING: for irregu- 
 larity of process, 103, 104; for a psychology class, 106; 
 for an embryology class, 108; for learning Russian, 110; 
 for a price clerk, 115; for a copy clerk, 116; for mem- 
 ory test in typewriting and ball-tossing, 129, 130; for 
 learning English grammar, 160. 
 
 DARWIN'S principle of descent, significance of, 174, 175. 
 DEMOLINS, concerning L'ecole des Roche, 189. 
 DISCIPLINE: conditions under which unnecessary, 13; 
 
 cause of failure in, 14; versus sentimentality, 48, 192; 
 
 in student organizations, 80, 81; for girls, 140; laxness 
 
 of, 192. 
 DISCRIMINATION, a test of mental development, 172. 
 
 EARHART, MISS LIDA B., on habits of thinking, 51, 52. 
 
 ECONOMY OF EFFORT: a human characteristic, 46, 47, 
 64; in learning process, 122, 157. 
 
 EDUCATION: a problem of, 4, 32; suggestions for teach- 
 ing natural sciences, 23-25 ; and laboratory method, 25 ; 
 utilization of instincts for, 29; versus schooling, 34; 
 differences between human and animal educability, 36; 
 
INDEX 243 
 
 EDUCATION Continued 
 
 flexibility of method in, 44; interpretation 6f life, 68; 
 new ideas in, 133, 134; a purpose of, 170; two types of 
 books on, 195; two contrasting ideals of, 196; meaning 
 of, 197; and rapid readjustment, 199; and adaptation, 
 202; and industrial change, 206; through action, 209; 
 for efficiency, 222; in relation to farm life fifty years 
 ago, 208-211. See LEARNING, METHOD, SCHOOL. 
 
 EFFICIENCY: difficulty of ^ defining ^ human efficiency, 36; 
 a first essential of efficient teaching, 38; determined by 
 art of teacher's questions, 59; to teach children to think, 
 a problem of, 64; methods for gaining in teaching, 137, 
 146, 147, 223; relation of states of mind and body to, 
 141; use of time and, 145; and imitation, 202; origin of 
 term, 220; and originality, 224, 225; education for, 222; 
 a fertile environment for, 226; in business world, Chap. 
 VII. 
 
 EHRLICH: experiments of, 67; opinion of teachers about, 
 177. 
 
 EMBRYOLOGY, curve of and explanation, 107-109. 
 
 ENGLISH, an experiment in, 78-85. 
 
 ENTHUSIASM: transference of, 31, 34, 187; a source of, 
 76; caused by craft work, 77; a school asset, 136, 142, 
 146, 147, 223. 
 
 ENVIRONMENT: in relation to criminals, 22; and educa- 
 tion, 202 ; importance in school, 190 ; and versatility, 226. 
 
 EXPERIENCE: as interpretation, 68, 174, 225; in terms of 
 adventure, 33 ; in relation to habits, 175 ; in relation to 
 mind content, 31. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS : in suggesting methods of work, 55 ; their 
 success dependent on mental attitude, 67, 69; and prog- 
 ess, 69, 70; in relation to child problems, 70; which 
 vitalize work of teacher, 70, 71 ; in teaching composition, 
 72; effect of experiments on teacher and pupil, 75, 76; 
 in teaching physics, 76; in teaching English, 78-85; in 
 teaching American history, 85-89; in teaching Greek 
 history, 89, 90; in teaching Latin, 90-98; in learning Rus- 
 sian, 109, 110; on memory of typewriting and ball-toss- 
 ing, 128-131 ; factor of success in, 98. 
 
 FATIGUE, relation to maximum effort, 113, 114. 
 FEVEREL, RICHARD, educational method used with, 39. 
 FLEXIBILITY, importance of mental, 215, Chap. VII. See 
 
 also ADAPTATION, SUCCESS. 
 FOREIGN LANGUAGES: learning of, 25, 122, 123, 153, 
 
 154, 162, 163 ; plateaus in learning, 105. 
 FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, on habit, 185. 
 
244 INDEX 
 
 FREDERICK, THE GREAT, instance of adaptability of, 41. 
 FREEDOM, importance for children, 3, 4, 33. 
 
 GAMES : relation to normal growth, 3 ; perennial zest for, 7, 
 8; a natural outlet, 15; adult misunderstanding of, 16, 
 17. See also ADVENTURE, ACTION, RACIAL INSTINCTS. 
 
 GANG: psychology of, 136, 138; importance of winning 
 leader of, 139. 
 
 GENIUS, misunderstood, 177, 178. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY, teaching of, 23, 24, 145. 
 
 GOLDSMITH, OLIVER, a successful teacher of, 33. 
 
 GORDON, MARGERY, an experiment in teaching composi- 
 tion, 72-76. 
 
 GRAHAME, KENNETH, on view-point of childhood, 5. 
 
 GRAMMAR, ENGLISH: failure of logical method oi 
 teaching, 101; plateaus in, 105, 124; uneven progress in 
 learning, 120; on the study of, 154, 159, 161-163; curve 
 of learning for, 159-161. 
 
 GRAY, MASON D., an experiment in teaching Latin by, 90- 
 98. 
 
 HABITS: of thinking, 26, 29, 52, 53, 166; relation between 
 unconscious adaptation and habits, 46, 47, 150; respon- 
 sibility of teacher in forming, 47; difficulty of changing, 
 48, 180, 181; and adaptation, 48, 49; in solution, 59; in 
 learning process, 121, 142, 143 ; higher and lower orders 
 of, 122, 123, 143, 153, 163; how to prevent bad habits, 
 137, 142; and conduct, 135; elemental, 153, 154; con- 
 cerning nascent, 157; and environment, 166; and con- 
 servatism, 168 ^ difference between men and animals, 
 172 ; and experience, 175 ; pedagogical, 178 ; among busi- 
 ness men, 179; importance of change in, 182, 183; how 
 to avoid fixed habits, 184; and school environment, 190; 
 basis of good school habits, 193. 
 
 HALL, G. STANLEY, on farm and education, 208-211. 
 
 HAMMOND, MISS NELLIE, an experiment in teaching his- 
 tory by, 85-89. 
 
 HARVEY, treatment of for discovery of circulation of the 
 blood, 170. 
 
 HEREDITY, not a sure guide for judging children, 37. 
 
 HISTORY: teaching of, 24; form of questions in, 62; "town- 
 meeting" method of teaching history, 78; an experi- 
 ment in teaching American history, 85-89; an experi- 
 ment in teaching Greek history, 89, 90. 
 
 HOLMES, SHERLOCK, 6, 7. 
 
 HOME: its position in modern education, 206, 207, 212; in 
 education fifty years ago, 208, 211; industries of, 208- 
 211; a comparison, 212; investigation of home work of 
 pupils, 56, 57. 
 
INDEX 245 
 
 HUNT, MISS ELIZABETH H., an experiment in teaching 
 
 English by, 78-85. 
 HUXLEY, on material for nature study, 24. 
 
 IDEAS, continual reorganization needed for growth, 167-169. 
 
 IMAGINATION : an instance of, 1, 2 ; and racial instincts, 
 22; human versus animal, 201, 202; and business, 213. 
 
 INACTION, its dangers, 22, 28, 29, 33, 34, 197. 
 
 INDIVIDUALITY: study of in school method, 39, 40, 53; 
 encouragement of, 154. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL CHANGE: results of, 3, Chap. VII; effect 
 on play-spirit, 4; significance for school, 206; and causes 
 of business failure, 212. 
 
 INEFFICIENCY. See EFFICIENCY. 
 
 INITIATIVE: need of more pupil, 57, 58; loss of, 64; and 
 inefficiency, 202 ; reports of school surveys on pupil ini- 
 tiative, 58; source of, 224. 
 
 INTELLIGENCE, relation to variability, 175, 176. 
 
 INTEREST: children unaffected by derived interests, 5, 9; 
 source of, 26, 27; definition of, 27; secured through an 
 experiment, 73; and responsibility, 76, 95; and activity, 
 77, 223; and progress in learning, 147; expression va- 
 ries with individual, 158. 
 
 INVESTIGATIONS: importance in school, 25, 31, 65, 99; 
 concerning games, 8; of art of questioning, 60-65; con- 
 cerning wages, 221. 
 
 JAMES, WILLIAM: concerning the life of an infant, 68; 
 
 on old fogyism, 169; on release of mental forces, 182. 
 JUDGMENT, failures in conventional, 177. 
 
 KNOWLEDGE, its importance not understood by children, 32. 
 KNOWLTON, D. C, an experiment in teaching Greek his- 
 tory, 89, 90. 
 
 LATIN: an experiment in studying, 90-98; plateaus in rela- 
 tion to study of, 162. See FOREIGN LANGUAGES. 
 
 LEARNING: learning through doing, 64, 65, 77, 98, 99, 165, 
 209, 223, 225, 226; laws of, 101, 102; curves of, 103, 104 
 106, 110, 115, 116, 129, 130, 160; plateaus in, 104, 105, 125, 
 158; irregularity in, 102, 111, 112, 158; effect of physical 
 condition on, 113, 114, 143, 144; "warming up" period in, 
 114; similarity of process in class room and in a business 
 concern, 115-118; effect of monotony on, 118; effect of 
 encouragement on, 118, 119; psychology of learning 
 chess, 125; unconscious element in, 120, 142, 150, 164; 
 elimination of useless in, 121, 122, 153 ; economy of ef- 
 fort and, 122, 152; advantage of study of learning to 
 
INDEX 
 
 teachers, 132; economy in, 133, 143; significance of pu- 
 pil attitude in, 138; effect of external conditions on, 
 140; effect of certain mental states on, 141, 147, 148, 
 149; short cuts in, 155; importance of time in, 127, 164, 
 
 McMURRAY, FRANK, on pupil initiative, 57. 
 
 MEMORY: tests of, 128-131; T. L. Bolton on, 155. 
 
 METHOD : relative importance of, 27 ; need of flexibility in, 
 30, 31, 33, 40, 184; illustrations of flexibility, 40-42; and 
 interest, 26; in relation to instincts, 32; used with Rich- 
 ard Feverel, 39; in relation to efficiency, 39, 45, 223; re- 
 sults of an investigation of study method, 52; use of 
 study program, 54; which hinders initiative, 58; trial 
 and error, 66, 67, 151, 164, 201, 202; "town-meeting" 
 method of teaching history, 78; faults of logical method 
 in teaching, 101 ; a test of value of, 101 ; of elimination, 
 149; of teaching composition, 72-76; for gaining in effi- 
 ciency, 223. 
 
 MEYERHARDT, on individual differences in thinking, 155. 
 
 MODERN ROMAN STATE. See EXPERIMENT IN STUDY- 
 ING LATIN. 
 
 MONOTONY: revolt of children from, 10, 12, 17, 18, 19, 34; 
 and popular amusements, 20; means of offsetting, 18, 19, 
 163; and fatigue, 69; an effect of, 112; and retardation, 
 118; and plateaus, 162, 163. 
 
 MONTAIGNE: on contentment, 69; on liberty, 184. 
 
 MULLER, on learning process, 127. 
 
 MUNN, MISS ABBIE F.: on effect of physical condition 
 on progress, 113, 119; on effect of encouragement, 119; 
 on higher and lower orders of habits, 123; on use of 
 plateaus, 125, 126. 
 
 NATIONAL COST CONGRESS, 179, 180. See HABITS. 
 
 NATURAL SCIENCES, teaching of, 23-25. 
 
 NERVOUS SYSTEM: time necessary for nerve centers to 
 mature, 3; how nervous processes become "set," 128; 
 nerve currents take path of least resistance, 142; con- 
 nection between sensory and motor nerves, 170-172 ; 
 nervousness and inaccuracy, 123, 124; nervous currents 
 require outlet, 197 ; difference between nervous reaction 
 of men and animals, 170, 1/1, 175. 
 
 NEWTON, reason for idleness of, 177. 
 
 NOGI, GENERAL, concerning suicide of, 167. 
 
 ORDAHL, LOUISE ELLISON, on consciousness in karn- 
 ing, 121. 
 
INDEX 247 
 
 ORGANIZATION: its use in a school experiment in study- 
 ing English, 78, 79, 80; in studying American history, 
 86, 87; in studying Greek history, 89, 90; in studying 
 Latin, 90-92; its fascination for children, 188, 189, 191, 
 223-226; its use in school, 99, 136, 138, 189, 193, 194. 
 
 ORIGINALITY, and efficiency, 224. 
 
 PATER, WALTER, on habit, 166. 
 
 PERSISTENCE, importance of, 134, 149. 
 
 PHYSICAL CONDITION, effect on progress, 113, 141-144. 
 
 PHYSICS, an experiment in, 76, 77. 
 
 PILZECKER, on learning process, 127. 
 
 PLATEAUS: in learning process, 104, 109, 111, 164; signifi- 
 cance of, 105, 124, 125, 126, 159, 162 ; as protests against 
 cramming, 127, 159; monotony in relation to, 163. 
 
 PLAY. See ACTION, GAMES, RACIAL INSTINCTS, SPORTS. 
 
 PLAYGROUNDS, public, purpose of, 135. 
 
 PORTLAND SCHOOL SURVEY COMMITTEE, report 
 of, 23, 61, 203. See SURVEYS. 
 
 PRIMITIVE INSTINCTS. See RACIAL INSTINCTS. 
 
 PROGRESS: through trial and error method, 67; through 
 experiment, 69; in learning, 102, 105-107, 140; lack of 
 continuity in, 105, 107, 109, 111, 119, 158; relation of 
 high score to, 112; and monotony, 118; unevenness in, 
 119; effect of success and encouragement on, 118, 119; 
 through organized activities, 138; as affected by states 
 of mind or body, 113, 118, 141-144, 146, 147; and re- 
 adaptation, 204; through elimination of useless, 121. 
 
 PUNISHMENT, discrimination in, 172, 173. 
 
 PUPIL-GOVERNMENT: experiments in, 78, 85; moral ef- 
 fect of, 88; use of, 187, 188, 193; various forms of, 189; 
 misconceptions concerning, 188. 
 
 QUESTIONING, art of, 58, 59, 65. See METHOD AND TEACH- 
 ING. 
 
 RACIAL INSTINCTS: survival of, 2, 9, 17-20, 29; utiliza- 
 tion of, 4, 10, 12, 18-20, 23, 27, 29, 31, 32, 99, 137, 140, 
 189, 223; and school atmosphere, 11, 14, 15, 21, 136; and 
 public amusements, 20; control of, 18, 22, 23, 30; per- 
 version of, 17, 21, 28; and juvenile delinquency, 29; and 
 outdoor sports, 8, 9; and school interest, 26, 99; and 
 Boy Scout movement, 186; and pupil-government, 187, 
 189. See ACTION, ADVENTURE. 
 
 REAVIS, W. C, on habits of study, 53. 
 
 RELAXATION, adult reading for, 6. 
 
 REPPLIER, AGNES, concerning modern education, 133. 
 
248 INDEX 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY, how children react to a sense of, 64, 65, 
 
 76-82, 84, 85, 95, 136, 138. 
 RETARDATION AND MONOTONY, 118. 
 ROUSSEAU: on unnecessary effort, 46; on experience, 68; 
 
 on the most useful rule in education, 150: on habits, 
 ^ 164; his m\le, 195. 
 RUGER: on unconscious element in learning, 121, 150; on 
 
 hindrances to learning, 147; on progress in learning, 
 
 148. 
 RULES: their value in preliminary stages of teaching, 40; 
 
 importance of a few, 49. 
 RUSKIN, JOHN, his teachers' estimate of, 177. 
 
 SCHOOL: and utilization of racial instincts, 4, 11, 20, 23-25, 
 27, 29, 30, 31, 99; and laboratory method, 23-25, 211; 
 school surveys, see SURVEYS; school atmosphere, its im- 
 portance, 136, 140, 191 ; school and community, 203, 204 ; 
 as affected by industrial changes, 206; as supplement to 
 home, 207. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT: its success, 220, 222; Tuck 
 School Conference on, 179. See BUSINESS HOUSES. 
 
 SCOTT, WALTER, concerning his teacher, 185. 
 
 SELF-CONTROL, training in, 136. 
 
 SENTIMENTALITY: hostility of children toward, 138; 
 versus discipline, V 48; dangers from, 47, 48. 
 
 SPENCER, HERBERT, on education, 195, 196. 
 
 SPORTS, perennial zest for, 7, 8, 9. See GAMES. 
 
 STEVENS, MISS ROMIETT, investigations by, 59-65. 
 
 STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS, on adventure, 1, 6, 7. 
 
 STONE, N. I., on wages and efficiency, 122. 
 
 STUDY: use of study-program, 54; ignorance of how to 
 study, 51-58. 
 
 SUCCESS: relation of mental attitude to, 68; source of in 
 school experiments, 98 ; dependent upon rapid readapta- 
 tion, 204, 205, 212, 215, 216; in modern business, 213, 
 215 ; and mental flexibility, 215. 
 
 SUGGESTION: valuable moment for, 151, 165; an experi- 
 ment in, 55 ; in teaching, 185. 
 
 SURVEYS: report of recreation surveys, 28, 29; report of 
 Ohio State School Survey Commission, 58, 61, 63; re- 
 port of Portland School Survey Committee, 23, 61, 203 ; 
 report of East Orange School Survey Committee, 58; 
 report of Carnegie Foundation on Vermont Schools, 23, 
 58, 203. 
 
 TASHIRO, concerning chemical changes of nerves, 145. 
 TAYLOR, F. W., concerning scientific management, 221, 222. 
 
INDEX 249 
 
 TEACHING: factors of success in, 28, 40, 137, 140, 147, 170; 
 problems of, 4, 32, 64, 144, 224; a first essential of effi- 
 cient, 37; two opposite methods of, 38, 39; definition of 
 efficient method of, 39; importance of flexibility in, 44; 
 two guiding principles in, 45 ; a test of good, 53, 60, 65, 
 165; and a study program, 54; and pupil initiative, 58; 
 and art of questioning, 59, 60, 61, 62 ; a defect of, 62, 63 ; 
 and experiments, 70, 71, 72, 85; psychological moment 
 to help in, 150-153, 165 ; and fixed habits, 184; and school 
 atmosphere, 136, 140, 191; methods of, 134; use of sug- 
 gestion in, 185. See EDUCATION, LEARNING, METHOD, 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 TESTS, their use, 161, 162. 
 
 THINKING: training in, 25, 51, 83, 149; how to prevent im- 
 itative, 25, 30, 31; prerequisites of, 26; differences be- 
 tween mind content of child and adult, 32; a test of 
 habits of, 50-53, 55; and efficient teaching, 64; interpre- 
 tation necessitates, 69, 174; discrimination in, 149, 172; 
 individual ways of, 155; change, important for pro- 
 ductive, 175; timorous, 196; influenced by preconceived 
 notions, 148. 
 
 THORNDIKE, EDWARD L., on learning process, 119. 
 
 TRADITION IN EDUCATION, 135. 
 
 TRIAL AND ERROR METHOD, 66, 67, 151, 164, 201, 202. 
 
 TRUANT SCHOOLS, reasons for their success, 30. 
 
 TUCK SCHOOL CONFERENCE ON SCIENTIFIC 
 MANAGEMENT, 179. 
 
 U. S. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, on efficiency, 
 
 222. 
 U. S. COMMISSIONER OF LABOR, reports of, 77. 
 
 VARIABILITY: first conditions of, 37; and intelligence, 175, 
 
 176. 
 
 VERSATILITY : its use, 225 ; the environment for, 226. 
 VOCATIONAL TRAINING, 3, 4. 
 VOLTAIRE, on individual differences, 45. 
 
 WHITE, ANDREW D., concerning his teacher, 178. 
 WUNDT, on thinking, 69. 
 
 YOUTH: romantic spirit of, 1, 12; activity of, 11, 12, 15-17, 
 20, 21, 23; misunderstanding of, 2, 11. See ACTION, AD- 
 VENTURE, RACIAL INSTINCTS. 
 
The Childhood and Youth Series 
 
 HHHE Childhood and Youth Series is the first sys- 
 JL tematic attempt to give to parents, teachers, 
 social workers and all others interested in the care 
 and training of the young, the best modern knowl- 
 edge about children in a manner easily understood 
 and thoroughly interesting. The various volumes 
 present in popular style the results of research in 
 every phase of child-life, every topic being handled 
 with strict scientific accuracy, but at the same time 
 in a simple, concrete and practical way. 
 
 Special emphasis is laid on the everyday problems arising in 
 the activities of the home and school, the street and places ol 
 work and amusement. Each subject is discussed by a prominent 
 authority, competent to deal with it alike in its scientific and 
 practical aspects. It has been constantly borne in mind by the 
 author of each volume that the Childhood and Youth Series is 
 intended primarily as a guide for parents and teachers. 
 
 Much of the literature that we have had in the past dealing 
 with such subjects has had no popular appeal or application. It 
 has been dry, technical and unintelligible for the average mother 
 uninteresting to her, at least. The Childhood and Youth Series* 
 however, is not academic in any respect; it is intimate and con- 
 fidential, the authors taking the attitude of friends and advisers 
 and their style having all the characteristics of convincing heart- 
 to-heart talks. If they are always scientific, they are also always 
 sympathetic. 
 
 In the general field of the child's welfare and 
 progress in mind, body and emotions, the practi- 
 cal results of the latest scientific study are set forth 
 in clear and graphic form. 
 
 Questions of many and widely varying kinds are considered 
 questions which come up every day in the home and in the 
 school and which parents and teachers find it difficult to answer. 
 The problems of food, nutrition, hygiene, physical defects and 
 
The Childhood and Youth Series 
 
 deficiencies, nerves and nervous energy, sleep, stimulants and nar- 
 cotics, etc., receive careful treatment. The Intellectual phases 
 are considered in other volumes, devoted to perception, mem- 
 ory, reason and the imagination. Such emotions as fear, anger, 
 pride, shame and the like are adequately treated. 
 
 In matters that have to do with the child's moral and social 
 well-being, all the latest theories are tested and explained. The 
 causes and prevention of juvenile delinquency receive fullest 
 consideration. 
 
 All the aspects of a rational education based on 
 the nature and needs of childhood claim atten- 
 tion here. 
 
 The various types of schools, the various methods of teaching 
 particular subjects, the relation between work and play, learning 
 and doing, the school and the community, are discussed for the 
 benefit of parents and teachers. 
 
 Another group of volumes deals with special traits of child- 
 hood and youth, their reading and dramatic Interests, clothes 
 and personal appearance, the use of money, etc. 
 
 The entire series is under the general editorship 
 of Dr. M. V. O'Shea, Professor of Education, Uni- 
 versity of Wisconsin, and probably the best and 
 widest known authority on educational subjects 
 in America. 
 
 Every book in the Childhood and Youth Series 
 is of value to the parent who wishes the best for 
 his child and to the teacher who is seeking higher 
 efficiency. 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
AUTHORS OF BOOKS IN THE 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH SERIES 
 
 SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD 
 
 Dean of Simmons College, Boston ; author of Way marks fwr Teach- 
 ers, Stepping Stones to Literature, Etc. 
 
 J. CARLETON BELL 
 
 Professor of the Art of Teaching, University of Texas; Managing 
 Editor, The Journal of Educational Psychology. 
 
 FREDERICK ELMER BOLTON 
 
 Dean, School of Education, University of Washington; author of 
 The Secondary School System of Germany, Etc. 
 
 MARY MARTHA BUNNELL 
 
 Instructor in Home Economics, University of Wisconsin, 
 
 C. WARD CRAMPTON 
 
 Director of Physical Education, New York City Public Schools, 
 author of Physiological Age. 
 
 JESSE B. DAVIS 
 
 Principal of Central High School, and Vocational Director, Grand 
 Rapids; author of Vocational and Moral Guidance, 
 
 JASPER NEWTON DEAHL 
 
 Professor of Education, West Virginia University. 
 
 J. CLAUDE ELSOM 
 
 Assistant Professor of Physical Education, The University f 
 Wisconsin. 
 
 J. J. FINDLAY 
 
 Professor of Education, University of Manchester, England; author 
 of Arnold of Rugby, The School, Etc., Etc. 
 
 ARNOLD L. GESELL 
 
 Department of Education, Yale University; author of The Normal 
 Child, Primary Education. 
 
 MICHAEL F. GUYER 
 
 Professor of Zoology, The University of Wisconsin; author of 
 Animal Micrology. 
 
 COLONEL L. R. GIGNILLIAT 
 
 Superintendent The Culver Military Academy, Culver, Ind. 
 
 WILLIAM HEALY 
 
 Director Juvenile Psychopathic Institute, Chicago; Associate Pro- 
 fessor of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Chicago Policlinic; In- 
 structor Harvard Summer School. 
 
 W. H. HECK 
 
 Professor of Education, University of Virginia; author af Mental 
 Discipline and Educational Values, Etc. 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
AUTHORS OP BOOKS IN THE 
 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH SERIES 
 
 FLORENCE HOLBROOK 
 
 Principal of the Forestville School, Chicago; author of Hound the 
 Year in Myth and Song, Studies in Poetry, Etc. 
 
 DAVID STARR JORDAN 
 
 Chancellor of Stanford University ; author of Care and Culture of 
 Men, Footnotes to Evolution, Etc., Etc. 
 
 C. A. McMURRY 
 
 Director of Normal Training, Superintendent of Schools, DeKalb, 
 Illinois; author of A Series of General and Special Methods in 
 School Work. 
 
 JUNIUS L. MERIAM 
 
 " "upervision 
 Normal School Education, Etc. 
 
 JAMES T. NOE 
 
 Professor of Education, University of Kentucky. 
 
 RAYMOND RIORDON 
 
 Director of the Raymond Riordon School, onChodikee Lake, N. Y.; 
 author of Lincoln Memorial School A New Idea in Industrial 
 Education, Etc. 
 
 WALTER SARGENT 
 
 Professor of Art Education, University of Chicago ; author of Fine 
 and Industrial Arts in the Elementary Schools. 
 
 FRANK CHAPMAN SHARP 
 
 Professor of Philosophy, The University of Wisconsin ; author of 
 Shakespeare's Portrayal of the Moral Life, Etc. 
 
 ALFRED E. STEARNS 
 
 Principal of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass.; author of various 
 articles in the Atlantic Monthly, Outlook, Etc. 
 
 WINTHROP ELLSWORTH STONE 
 
 President Purdue University ; Member of the Indiana State Board 
 of Education. 
 
 THOMAS A. STOREY 
 
 Professor of Hygiene, College of the City of New York, Secretary 
 Fourth International Congress on School Hygiene. 
 
 M. H. STUART 
 
 Principal Manual Training High School, Indianapolis. 
 
 BLANCHE M. TRILLING 
 
 Director of Women's Gymnasium, The University of Wisconsin. 
 
 GUY MONTROSE WHIPPLE 
 
 Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, Cornell University; 
 author of Questions in Psychology, Etc. 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
The Childhood and Youth Series 
 
 NATURAL EDUCATION 
 
 Mrs. Stoncr explains the methods by which she made hot 
 daughter "the best developed child in America" mentally, mor- 
 ally and physically; the simple yet astonishing methods which 
 make for the health, happiness and wisdom of any normal child. 
 
 By MRS. WINIFRED SACKVILLE STONER 
 Director-General Women's International Health League 
 
 LEARNING BY DOING 
 
 The way to learn how to run an automobile is by running It 
 Professor Swift shows how this practical principle may be ap- 
 plied to history, literature and language-study. A book that 
 breaks up monotony in teaching, stirs enthusiasm, makes the 
 parent and teacher see the child's point of view. 
 
 By EDGAR JAMES SWIFT 
 
 Professor of Psychology and Education, Washington 
 University ; author of Mind in the Making, Etc. 
 
 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING 
 
 Can your child spell? Business and professional men think 
 the children of this generation poor spellers. What's the trouble 
 with the way spelling is taught at home and in school ? The 
 authors of this book make a simple but scientific analysis of the 
 whole question. 
 
 By WILLIAM A. COOK 
 Assistant Professor of Education, University of Colorado; and 
 
 M. V. O'SHEA 
 Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin 
 
 THE HIGH-SCHOOL AGE 
 
 The "teen age" is the critical age, the dangerous age of ado- 
 lescence, when the future of the child's life is largely determined 
 and the bending of the twig inclines the tree. Professor King here 
 shows parent and teacher how to solve the difficult and all-im- 
 portant problems of this crisis. 
 
 By IRVING KING 
 
 Professor of Education, University of Iowa ; author of 
 Psychology of Child Development, Etc. 
 
 Each volume with Special Introduction by the General Editor, 
 If. V. O'Shea, Analytical Table of Contents, Carefully Selected 
 Lists of Books for Reference, Further Reading and Study, and a 
 Full Index. 
 
 Each, 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
The Childhood and Youth Series 
 
 THE WAYWARD CHILD 
 
 A practical treatment of the causes of juvenile delinquency and 
 methods of its prevention, by one who has extensive experience 
 in dealing with the young. 
 
 By MRS. FREDERIC SCHOFF 
 
 President National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher 
 
 Association; President Philadelphia Juvenile Court 
 
 and Probation Association ; Collaborator, Home 
 
 Education Division, Bureau of Education 
 
 FEAR 
 
 A comprehensive, concrete discussion of (1) psychology of fear; 
 (2) varieties of fears found normally in childhood and youth; (3) 
 ways in which fears are expressed and their effects; (4) treatment 
 ef fear in home and school. 
 
 By G. STANLEY HALL 
 
 President Clark University, Worcester, Mass.; author of 
 Adolescence, Educational Problems, Etc. 
 
 SELF-HELP 
 
 Practical aid to parents and teachers in teaching children to 
 do things for themselves, written by a mother, teacher and keen 
 student of Madame Montessori, Froebel, Pestalozzi, et al. 
 
 By DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER 
 Author of A Montessori Mother, Eiiglish.Composition of Rhetoric. Etc. 
 
 THE USE OF MONEY 
 
 How to train the young to appreciate (1) what money repre- 
 resents in labor and privilege ; (2) how it may best be expended. 
 
 By E. A. KIRKPATRICK 
 
 Head of Department of Psychology and Child-Study, State Normal 
 
 School, Fitchburg, Mass.; author of Fundamentals of 
 
 Chll4-Study, The Individual in the Making, Etc. 
 
 THE BACKWARD CHILD 
 
 A volume dealing with the causes of backwardness among chil 
 dren and also the technique of determining when a child is back 
 ward, and practical methods of treating him. 
 
 By ARTHUR HOLMES 
 
 Dean of the General Faculty, Pennsylvania State College ; 
 author of The Conservation of the Child, Etc. 
 
 Each Volume With Special Introduction By the General Editor, M. V, 
 0'Shea, Analytical Table of Contents, Carefully Selected Lists of Books 
 lor Reference, Further Reading and Study, and a Full Index. 
 
 Each, 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publisher*. Indianapolis 
 
THE best-developed child in America, Winifred 
 Sackville Stoner, Jr., could speak several lan- 
 guages and wrote for newspapers and magazines 
 at the age of five, and yet retained all of the char- 
 acteristics of a healthy, playful child. 
 
 At the age of nine she passed the college entrance examinations, 
 and now at twelve, she has mastered eight languages, has written 
 nine books, is a teacher of Esperanto, an accomplished musician, 
 and is stronger physically than the average child of her age. 
 
 She Is not a GENIUS nor a WONDER CHILD, but 
 simply a NORMAL CHILD WELL DEVELOPED through 
 a system of NATURAL EDUCATION invented by her 
 mother, Mrs. Winifred Sackville Stoner, from whom she 
 has received her training. 
 
 Any mother can do for her child what Mrs. Stoner has done 
 for her daughter, if she employs Mrs. Stoner's methods. 
 
 Any mother can learn Mrs. Stoner's system from her book, in 
 which she analyzes, outlines and describes her entire plan as 
 carried out during the education of her daughter from the cradle* 
 t* her tenth year. 
 
 Natural Education 
 
 By WINIFRED SACKVILLE STONER 
 Director-General Women's International Health League 
 
 Is a book which every parent should read and study as one of 
 the first duties of devoted and successful parenthood. 
 
 Like all the books in the famous Childhood and Youth 
 Series, Natural Education is provided with a special in 
 troduction by the general editor, Dr. M. V. O'Shea, of the 
 Department of Education in the University of Wisconsin, 
 an analytical table of contents, carefully selected lists of 
 books and magazines for reference, further reading and 
 study, and a full index. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
HPHE "teen age" is the critical age. Boys and 
 JL girls cause parents and teachers more anxiety 
 between thirteen and twenty than at any other 
 time. That is the period of adolescence the 
 formative stage, the high-school age, the turning 
 point when futures are moulded. 
 
 It is, at the same time, the period at which the boy and the girt 
 are most baffling and difficult to handle; when an ounce of di- 
 plomacy can accomplish more with them than a pound of dictum. 
 
 As a specialist and an authority, Professor Irving King 
 has prepared a veritable handbook on parental and peda- 
 gogical diplomacy which will ease the way of parents and 
 teachers in dealing with children during the formative 
 period and lead to far better results. He devotes special 
 attention to the question of co-education and the question 
 of handling mature, maturing and immature children of the 
 same age. He clears up the problems so confusing to the 
 adult mind and offers helpful suggestions. 
 
 The physical changes which take place during the early ado- 
 lescent age; the intellectual and emotional developments which 
 parallel them; and questions of health and school work as well 
 as practical matters pertaining to the conservation of the energy 
 and efficiency of high-school pupils are given full consideration in 
 
 The High-School Age 
 
 By IRVING KING 
 
 Assistant Professor of Education, University of Iowa; author of 
 Psychology of Child Development, Etc. 
 
 No parent or teacher can read this work without feeling a 
 keener appreciation of the vital period in the child's life and 
 without being assisted to a better understanding of how to deal 
 most wisely with the boy or girl who is passing rapidly from 
 thildhood to maturity. 
 
 TiHE HIGH-SCHOOL AGE is one of the books in the 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH SERIES, undoubtedly the 
 most important collection of practical educational works 
 for parents and teachers ever produced in this country. 
 As a guide for the home or school it is unexcelled. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
CAN your child spell? Spelling takes more at- 
 tention in the home than almost any othef 
 subject taught in the schools. The drills and prao 
 tice exercises, the daily preparation for subsequent 
 work in the class-room call for the parent's co- 
 operation. 
 
 No subject taught in the schools requires more individual at- 
 tention than Spelling, on the part of the teacher, who is continu- 
 ally confronted with new problems as to how best the subject may 
 be presented to meet individual differences on the part of pupils, 
 
 William A. Cook, Assistant Professor of Education in 
 the University of Colorado, and M. V. O'Shea, Professor of 
 Education in the University of Wisconsin, have conducted 
 a series of investigations extending over a considerable 
 period, with a view to contributing to the solution of the 
 various problems connected with the teaching of spelling. 
 
 First, an examination of the spelling history and abilities of a 
 large number of pupils in a rather general way was carried on. 
 Second, a study was made of a small group in a very thorough- 
 going manner. Third, followed an examination of about 300,000 
 words in common usage, both in speech and correspondence, in 
 order to determine which words should receive attention in th 
 spelling vocabulary. 
 
 The Child and His Spelling 
 
 By WILLIAM A. COOK and M. V. O'SHEA 
 
 contains the results of these experiments, and presents a thor 
 oughgoing, practicable explanation of (1) the psychology of speU 
 ing; (2) effective methods of teaching spelling; (3) spelling needt 
 of typical Americans ; (4) words pupils should learn. 
 
 The material contained in The Child and His Spelling 
 will be found of the greatest value to teachers and to par- 
 ents who desire to co-operate at home with the work of 
 the school in the education of children. This work con- 
 stitutes one volume of the CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 
 SERIES. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
A HUNDRED thousand American mothers 
 venerate the name of Mrs. Frederic Schoff 
 (Hannah Kent Schoff). She has dedicated her 
 life to the work of making the new generation 
 better, stronger and more efficient, and has been 
 an inspiration to every woman in the land to do 
 her full part to insure the future of America. 
 
 Through her leadership of the National Congress of Mothers 
 *nd Parent-Teacher Associations, she is the presiding genius of 
 %he greatest educational movement this country has known. 
 
 As President of the Philadelphia Juvenile Court and Pro- 
 bation Association, she has had an opportunity to study 
 the wayward children of a great city. She has carried on 
 extensive investigations among men and women confined 
 in prisons and correctional institutions to learn from them 
 at first hand to what they attribute their downfall. 
 
 By this broad experience she is qualified to speak jwith 
 unique authority on the training of children in the home, 
 and especially on the problem of the wayward child. 
 
 She makes a forceful appeal to parents both because of their 
 natural desire to guard their children from all harmful influ- 
 ences and because they realize that home training, which comes 
 first of all in every child's life, moulds his morality. If any 
 parent doubts this, he needs more than ever to study 
 
 The Wayward Child 
 
 By HANNAH KENT SCHOFF 
 
 President National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations; 
 President Philadelphia Juvenile Court and Probation Association 
 
 She shows beyond all doubt that the early training in the home 
 can make or unmake characters at will, that homes in which 
 children have been brought up carelessly or inefficiently are 
 largely responsible for the wayward children who later make 
 up our criminal population. 
 
 THE WAYWARD CHILD is one of the books in the 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH SERIES, undoubtedly the 
 most important collections of practical educational works 
 for parents and teachers ever produced in this country. 
 As a guide for the home or school it is unexcelled. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
IF YOUR CHILD grows up to be a spendthrift 
 blame yourself. It is the fault of the training 
 received in childhood, or the lack of it. 
 
 But parents are hard pressed for ways and means 
 of teaching their children how to use money 
 how to save it, and how to spend it. 
 
 Should a child have a regular allowance? Should he be given 
 money when he asks for it or only when he really needs it? 
 'Should he be given money as a reward or as a payment for 
 services? Should he be allowed to work for money at an early 
 age? 
 
 Professor E. A. Kirkpatrick has made a special study of 
 children to learn their attitude toward money in the 
 home and the world outside. He has carried on investi- 
 gations to determine their natural inclinations and decide 
 how parents may encourage the right inclinations and 
 curb those which lead to the unhappy extremes in the 
 use of money miserliness or prodigality. 
 
 The Use of Money 
 
 By E. A. KIRKPATRICK 
 
 State Normal School* Fitchburg, Mass.; author of Fundamental! ef 
 Child Study, The Individual in the Making, etc, 
 
 It offers sound advice, which any parent will be fortunate to 
 obtain. It tells when the child should begin to learn the real 
 value of money and how to dispose of it properly, and suggests 
 methods by which this training may be given. It clears the 
 mind of all doubt as to how to induce thrift in the child, so that 
 in later life he will be better equipped, not only for business, 
 but in the conduct of the household and private affairs. 
 
 THE USE OF MONEY, like all the other books in the 
 famous Childhood and Youth Series, is designed to be of 
 immediate, practical benefit to the average parent, guard- 
 ian or teacher. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
HONESTY is not an inborn trait. It is not the 
 essential inheritance of children of "good 
 families." It is the delicate product of careful 
 training. A proper regard for mine and thine is 
 effected by a thousand subtle influences of hered- 
 ity and environment, hom and school and com- 
 munity conditions, physical and mental health. 
 
 Experts have subjected the whole question to minute scrutiny 
 and proved that the cultivation of honesty is a matter of personal 
 application to the individual child. They have laid the founda- 
 tion for an entire new "Science of Conduct." 
 
 Dr. Healy, Director of the Juvenile Psychopathic Insti- 
 tute and adviser to the Juvenile Court in Chicago, is one 
 of these experts. He gives the parent, teacher and social 
 worker the benefit of broad, sane, sound observation. 
 
 The quickest way to a cure for stealing, Dr. Healy believes, is 
 to find the way to the inner mental life of the delinquent, and 
 he reveals how this may be accomplished in 
 
 Honesty 
 
 By WILLIAM HEALY 
 
 His aim is to- prevent and to cure stealing by children. By the 
 faithful description of many actual cases of theft, their underly- 
 ing causes and successful or bungling treatment, he shows what 
 to guard against and what to foster ; how to make a proper diag- 
 nosis and effect the cure. He writes with tolerance, sympathy, 
 kindliness, for he loves children. 
 
 THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH SERIES, in which 
 HONESTY is issued, includes works on the special traits 
 of childhood, as well as books dealing with various phases 
 in the physical, mental, moral and social development of 
 the child. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
THE civilized world is awakening to the rights 
 of the child, and to the fact that its right of 
 rights is the right to be well-born. Heredity is 
 recognized as a factor of supreme importance in 
 determining the child's nature; yet there is no 
 subject on which there is such general ignorance 
 and so much superstition. 
 
 What is "prenatal influence," and what are its limitations? 
 What traits and habits may be transmitted ? How far does the 
 parent's body and brain and character affect the child's heritage 
 at birth, and how far the more remote ancestor's ? Do degen- 
 erate parents beget degenerate children? To what extent are 
 physical and mental defects due to inheritance and not to en- 
 vironment or training ? 
 
 On these and similar questions there is the widest 
 difference of opinion and belief, and the grossest error, 
 among intelligent people who are not familiar with the 
 latest results of scientific study. 
 
 Professor Guyer, of the University of Wisconsin, who has 
 studied the whole problem of heredity in a thoroughgoing way, 
 has prepared a book to take away the mystery and misunder- 
 standing, and to enlighten parents, teachers and social workers 
 on an all-important subject. He calls it 
 
 Being Well- Born 
 
 By MICHAEL F. GUYER 
 
 Professor of Zoology in the University of Wisconsin, 
 Author of Animal Micrology, etc. 
 
 His work includes an account of the new science of Eugenics 
 which is striving for the betterment of the race, the conservation 
 pf good stock and the repression of bad. 
 
 This concrete, practical book on Heredity and Eugenics 
 naturally falls in THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 
 SERIES, which undertakes to treat child-nature from 
 every viewpoint, and which is the most complete, scien- 
 tific and satisfactory collection of books on child-problems 
 npw published. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
WHEN is a child backward? May he be 
 backward in some ways and forward in 
 others? Are children backward by birth, or made 
 so by neglect or faults of training ? What are the 
 signs of backwardness ? Is there any way of de- 
 termining whether a child is permanently back- 
 ward? When and how may backwardness be 
 cured ? 
 
 These questions and others like them are of supreme impor- 
 tance to-day to teachers and parents. People are seeking light 
 from every source upon the problems of the backward child. 
 
 Dr. Holmes, Dean of the Pennsylvania State College, has 
 studied backward children in the clinic and laboratory as 
 well as in the home and school, and he is recognized as a 
 first authority in America on arrested development. 
 
 Out of a fund of scientific knowledge he has written his book 
 in simple, sympathetic and popular style to help those who are 
 striving to help slow boys and girls and reclaim the mentally 
 arrested. He tells the parent and the teacher what they need to 
 know in language they can understand. 
 
 Backward Children 
 
 By ARTHUR HOLMES 
 Author of The Conservation of the Child, etc. 
 
 Dean Holmes treats concrete cases of backwardness in detail 
 and pictures vividly the various types. Everything he says is 
 definite, practical, helpful. 
 
 THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH SERIES, in which 
 BACKWARD CHILDREN is issued, is a collection of books 
 by recognized authorities on the development and train- 
 ing of children, under the general editorship of M. V. 
 O'Shea, of the University of Wisconsin. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, One Dollar Net 
 
 The Bobbs-Merrill Company 
 
 Publishers, Indianapolis 
 
IOAN DEPT. 
 
 slO)476B 
 
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 174 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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