Teaching by types in our ordinary school work has been applied most frequently to the subject of geography. Applying the principle stated above, we shall be careful in teaching rivers, mountains, cities, commerce, or any other geographical notion to see to it that the individual cases considered are as widely different as possible. To teach New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago only would give children a very erroneous idea of the concept “city.” They are all exceptionally large, all American, all modern. There are cities smaller, with peculiarities due to age, to location, and to the ideas and resources of the people building them. A better selection would be New York City, London, Tokyo, Venice, Cairo, and Munich. Objection could still very well be offered that this list is too short to include all classes. There can be no doubt that to have taught any city carefully will aid greatly in understanding the notion “city” and in appreciating other cities, but manifestly any final generalization concerning cities must wait until our knowledge of geography has been widely extended. The same conclusion would be reached were any other notion of geography, or any other study, subjected to the same test. There is, however, no harm in forming tentative judgments. Indeed, we must all do this every day of our lives. The main issue is to see to it that there is no mistake as to the tentative character of the conclusions reached, that the open-minded attitude be preserved.
For Collateral Reading
C. A. and F. M. McMurry, The Method of the Recitation, Chapters VI to IX inclusive.
John Dewey, How We Think, Chapters XII to XV inclusive.
Exercises.
1. What is the purpose of the step of preparation in the inductive lesson? When would you begin an inductive lesson with a statement of aim or problem? What value is there in having children state the aim of a lesson? When during the lesson should the aim be referred to?
2. How would you hope to have country children get a clear idea of a city? Could you develop this idea with sufficient definiteness by asking questions?
3. What preparation would you think necessary for a class that were taking their first trip to a dairy?
4. What was wrong in the class where, after a trip to the country, a small child said, “A cow is a small animal with four legs that likes to live in the mud and grunt”?
5. Would you allow a boy to perform an experiment in nature study that you knew would result unsatisfactorily?