The dull drill upon
grammar, arithmetic, reading, spelling, and writing, which are regarded
as so important as to exclude almost everything else, has convinced
many a child that school is veritably a dull place. And many a teacher
is just as strongly convinced that keeping school is a dull and sleepy
business. And yet the sources of interest are abundant to overflowing
for him who has eyes to see. That these sources and materials of
knowledge, arousing deep and lasting interests, are above other things
adapted to children and to the school room, is a truth worthy of all
emphasis.
Interest is a good test of the _adaptability_ of knowledge. When any
subject is brought to the attention at the right age and in the proper
manner, it awakens in children a natural and lively feeling. It is
evident that certain kinds of knowledge are not adapted to a boy at the
age of ten. He cares nothing about political science, or medicine, or
statesmanship, or the history of literature. These things may be
profoundly interesting to a person two or three times as old, but not
to him. Other things, however, the story of Ulysses, travel, animals,
geography, and history, even arithmetic, may be very attractive to a
boy of ten.
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