In more
definitely laying out the parts of this course the natural interests
and capacities of children in their successive periods of growth must
be taken into the reckoning. When a course of study has been laid out
on this basis, bringing the three great threads or cables of human
knowledge into proper juxtaposition at the various points, we shall be
ready to speak of the manner of really executing the plan of
concentration.
Even after the general plan is complete and the studies arranged, the
real work of concentration consists in _fixing the relations_ as the
facts are learned. Concentration takes for granted that the facts of
knowledge will be acquired. It is but half the problem to learn the
facts. The other half consists in understanding the facts by fixing
the relations. Most teachers will admit that each lesson should be a
collection of connected facts and that every science should consist of
a series of derivative and mutually dependent lessons. And yet the
study and mastery of arithmetic as a connection of closely related
principles is not generally appreciated. With proper reflection it is
not difficult to see that the facts of a single study like grammar or
botany should stand in close serial or causal relation.
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