In the absence of these, a picture and a vivid description
are the best means at our disposal. The common mistake is in learning
and reciting the definition while neglecting the concrete basis. By
way of further illustration, try to explain to children, who have never
heard of them before, the egg-plant, palm-tree, cactus, etc.
It would be of interest to inquire into the process of concept-building
in each of the _school studies_, where it appears under quite varying
forms. The natural sciences are perhaps the best examples of
concept-building from concrete materials, advancing regularly through a
series of concepts from the individuals and species to the most general
classes of plants, animals, etc. In chemistry and physics the laws and
general principles are based on substances, experiments, and processes
observable by the senses. Grammar and language, when studied as a
science, advance from concept to concept through etymology and syntax.
In geography and history the concepts are less definite and more
difficult to formulate, and yet there are many typical ideas which are
to be developed and illustrated in each of these studies; in history,
for example, colony, legislature, governor, general, revolution,
institutions and customs, political party, laws of development, causal
relations, inventions, etc.
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