Object Lessons. But how can such ideas be formed? By comparison, abstraction, and generalization, and by combining concepts so formed into complex concepts. That is why Pestalozzian teachers have made so much use of object lessons. Realizing that the only way the mind can form ideas of objects is by comparing them, then abstracting some quality, then generalizing, they have given systematic courses of Object Lessons in order that they might develop clear and definite concepts of objects in the minds of their pupils.

But systematic object teaching is not the only, or indeed the chief, way of teaching in harmony with this law of the mind. Object teaching- bringing the mind of the pupil into direct contact with the object out-of-doors, if possible, if not, in-doors-will be the method chiefly employed by intelligent primary teachers, because the great intellectual need of young children is clear and definite concepts of objects. Since all our concepts are either simple or complex, and since, of course, simple concepts must precede complex concepts, evidently the first step in education should consist in furnishing the mind with a stock of simple concepts. And since the mind of a child is for the most part employed with objects, since his interests lead him to direct his attention to the external world, plainly the thing to be done is to give him simple concepts of objects. But whatever the subject of thought, in order to get its simple concepts the mind must take the same path, pursue the same course, compare, abstract, generalize.

Objective Method of Teaching.

Whatever the nature

of the facts studied, whether objects that can be brought into the recitation room, or those that are physically in.

accessible, or facts that can not be correctly described as objects, such as the facts of history, mental facts, mathematical facts, the intelligent teacher will lead his pupils to begin with an examination and comparison of them, then go on to note their resemblances and differences, then to make generalizations, unless he is sure that they have a stock of perfectly definite, simple concepts, by the combination of which they can form the complex concepts he desires. Such a method of teaching has well been called the Objective Method or Objective Teaching, since it is an application of the method of teaching by Object Lessons to every department of instruction.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

1. Make a careful summary of the two preceding lessons. 2. What are the two uses of language?

3. In what sense can we communicate ideas?

4. How can we make indistinct and inaccurate concepts distinct and accurate?

5. What kind of particulars should we select, and why?

6. In what did the reform inaugurated by Pestalozzi consist? 7. What is the difference between object and objective teaching?

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

I. What is the difference between simple and complex concepts? 2. Strictly speaking, can we have simple concepts of objects? 3. Mention as many distinct and accurate concepts that a child of six is likely to have, as you can think of.

4. What differences would you expect to find between the concepts of a child who has lived in the country, and those of a child who has lived in a city?

5. Talk with a child of six and endeavor to ascertain his concept of sky, star, sun, moon, and other objects inaccessible to him, that he hears mentioned in daily conversation,

LESSON XXXII.

CONCEPTION.

(Continued.)

What the Objective Method Is.-The great importance of the Objective Method of teaching inclines me to think that it will be well for us to spend a little more time in making an effort to get a thorough comprehension of it— such a comprehension as will enable us to use it from day to day. To this end, I venture to quote further from Professor S. S. Green. "The Objective Method," he says, "is that which takes into account the whole realm of Nature and Art so far as the child has examined it, assumes as known only what the child knows - not what the teacher knows and works from the well known to the obscurely known, and so onward and upward until the learner can enter the fields of science or abstract thought. It is that which develops the abstract from the concrete which develops the idea, then gives the term. It is that which appeals to the intelligence of the child, and that through the senses until clear and vivid concepts are formed, and then uses these concepts as something real and vital. It is that which follows Nature's order the thing, the concept, the word; so that when this order is reversed the word, the concept, the thing the chain of connection shall not be broken. The word shall instantly occasion the concept, and the concept shall be

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accompanied with the firm conviction of a corresponding external reality. It is that which insists upon something besides mere empty verbal expressions in every school exercise in other words, expression and thought in place of expression and no thought.

"It is that which makes the school a place where the child comes in contact with realities just such as appeal to his common sense, as when he roamed at pleasure in the fields, and not a place for irksome idleness. It is that which relieves a child's task only by making it intelligible and possible, not by taking the burden from him. It bids him examine for himself, discriminate for himself, and express for himself — the teacher, the while, standing by to give hints and suggestions, not to relieve the labor. In short, it is that which addresses itself directly to the eye external or internal, which summons to its aid things present or things absent, things past or things to come, and bids them yield the lessons which they infold — which deals with actual existence and not with empty dreams— a living realism and not a fossil dogmatism.

"It will aid any

The Objective Method Illustrated. teacher in correcting dogmatic tendencies by enlivening his lessons and giving zest to his instructions. He will draw from the heavens above and from the earth beneath, or from the waters under the earth, from the world without and the world within. He will not measure his lessons by pages, nor progress by fluency of utterance. He will dwell in living thought, surrounded by living thinkers, leaving at every point the impress of an objective and a subjective reality. To him, an exercise in geography will not be a stupid verbatim recitation of descriptive para

graphs, but a stretching out of the mental vision to see in living picture, ocean and continent, mountain and valley, river and lake, not on a level plain, but rounded up to conform to the curvature of a vast globe. The description of a prairie on fire, by the aid of the imagination, will be wrought up into a brilliant object lesson. A reading-lesson descriptive of a thunder-storm on Mt. Washington will be something more than a mere conformity to the rules of the elocutionist. It will be accompanied by a concept wrought into the child's mind, outstripped in grandeur only by the scene itself. The mind's eye will see the old mountain itself with its surroundings of gorge and cliff, of wood-land and barren rock, of deep ravine and craggy peak. It will see the majestic thunder-cloud moving up, with its snow-white summits resting on wall as black as midnight darkness. The ear will almost hear the peals of muttering thunder as they reverberate from hill to hill." This long extract is worth all the study we can find time to put into it. The thorough comprehension and the practical appreciation of it will revolutionize our methods of teaching as completely as have been the methods of teaching in the best schools of the country in the last twenty-five years. But there are two or three sentences in it that are especially worthy of attention. Professor Green says that the Objective Method appeals to the intelligence of the child through the senses until clear and vivid concepts are formed, and then uses these concepts as something real and vital. What does he mean?

Real and Vital Concepts. I said in the last lesson that whatever the nature of the facts studied, whether objects that can be brought into the recitation room, such