“Form, geometry, number and arithmetic are the indispensable means for the study and investigation of the laws of the universe acting through matter; therefore form and number must be studied in order to understand any and all subjects of thought.
“Attention is the one mode of study. Attention may be divided into three modes of thinking: (1) observation, (2) hearing language, (3) reading or book study. The subjects or objects of attention are the natural sciences, geography and history—therefore observation, hearing language, and reading are the means of knowing and thinking. The subjects of knowing and thinking should be immediately educative. Therefore, all acts of attention, observation, hearing language and reading should be concentrated upon these subjects, and objects of intrinsic thought. For example: all reading should be the most educative thinking, and therefore should consist of the purest and most thoughtful literature. Every word and sentence learned by the pupil should be learned under the immediate impulse of intrinsic thought.
“Under the theory of concentration, the modes of expression—gesture, music, modelling, painting, drawing, speech and writing, are used as the direct and immediate means of intensifying intrinsic thought, and under these impulses and stimuli the technical forms of expression in each mode are adequately acquired.
“The central and sole design of concentration is the harmonious development of individual character—knowledge, skill, are means, not ends—the eternal is the end. It goes without saying that the application of this doctrine of concentration requires the highest grade of knowledge, skill, art and devotion to human development.
“Considering this course of study from the standpoint of ‘knowledge for the sake of knowledge,’ taking the subjects presented in the light of ‘going over,’ ‘going through,’ ‘being marked upon,’ ‘final tests by written examinations,’ there must be a hopeless confusion; the burden would be greater than any corps of teachers could possibly bear.
“A course of study is a means to an end, and that end the full development of all the possibilities for good and growth in a human being. It should consist of all the subjects of thought, the germs of which a child spontaneously assimilates and enjoys before he enters school. A course of study should be very carefully arranged and adapted to the successive stages or steps of development.
“Its application, however, depends wholly upon the knowledge and skill of the teacher, the teacher who watches closely and sympathetically every movement of her pupil’s mind; the teacher who looks upon a course of study as a rich storehouse of mental food, to be presented as the mind needs it, or rejected when the conditions are not favourable to growth.
“Following or ‘going over’ a course of study belongs to the trade of school keeping, and not to the art of teaching.
“This course of study cannot be understood by studying the work of one grade alone—it must be studied as a whole and applied with the comprehensive knowledge of the whole.
“The final decision as to what should be applied to each individual pupil must be left to the teacher of that pupil.