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National Geographic : 1894 Jan 31
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V. B. Powell-GeographicInstruction. instance, to see springs and know their causes; to see the wear ing of river banks and the changing of the courses of streams and know their causes; to see the denuding of elevations and know its causes; to see the filling and making of valleys and know their causes. This, however, can be done by a systematic course of training. The steps of such training, however, to in sure the desired result, must be sequential and each must have its definite and well-outlined purpose. Another important end to be secured by studying geography, and one which sequentially follows the first step, is that training which will enable the learner to see geographic facts and to understand geographic phenomena from symbols or from the examination of maps and by reading text in connection there with. An attempt to teach geography by reversing these steps will prove fatal to educational success, for it anticipates the strength of the mind and its power to receive. The result of such instruction is not knowledge but rote-information. The latter purpose has in the past constituted the main effort of teaching geography in our schools. The first step, that of train ing the child to understand geographic phenomena when he sees them, has in the main been omitted. A third purpose of teaching geography is the acquisition of knowledge. This purpose is easily secured, when the work for the accomplishment of the first two purposes has been done systematically carried out. If first knowledge is obtained in the right way its value is almost inestimable from either of two points of view : First, as an acquisition of the mind on which it has made an impression because obtained by contact with phenomena first hand or from original sources, it will serve ever after as an interpreter of kindred information, whether received first hand by contact with things or through symbolic channels. Second, as a possession of the mind it is a nucleus to which all future information on the same subject obtained by original investigation or through symbolic channels will be added natur ally and logically, thus insuring a well-arranged body of infor mation on that subject at every step of acquisition. The process of learning to see is slow. It is, however, easy if the beginning is made simple and each step is made a sequential advance on its predecessor. The young mind grows by slow increments; it expands by short stages, but it grows and ex- 138
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