ful. I ask you to give me the answer to the question: Seven times six are how many?" You know instantly. You have Memory and Drill been drilled on that. You know it in a usable way. "Seven times sixteen are how many?" You are not so sure of your answer. You may want pencil and pad for that, or you may do as one of my pupils did, say seven times eight are fifty-six, and two times fifty-six are one hundred and twelve. Note how he had to change the problem into forms that were drilled into him before he could mentally assert a conclusion. We must deepen the impression if we are to secure proper and prompt expression. You will not forget that good teaching also requires that the new thought-image is to be associated with other thought-images. Thus the binding force of association is utilized to enrich knowledge. Knowledge is not literary hash. It is an organic meal, each part of which is to complement each other part, and the laws of association are to bind them into a unit. Every time a former impression, or mental image, is recalled, it is brought into some new relation to other images. Even as simple an image as that of dog is made richer by recall. This enrichment is secured not only by increased vividness, but also by increased association with Enrichment of Memory Images other images in the mind. Every time I recall the figure of Jesus standing at dawn by the mistmantled shore of Galilee, the light striking across the hill-top, the small fire glowing in the twilight, and illuminating the face of the Master, -that splendid scene of a great life-light on a background of night and darkness,-I can increasingly comprehend his invitation to the nighttoilers: "Come and break your fast." I have pondered this scene until it is so vivid that I almost discern the awe, the sacred hush, that overcame the disciples; and the glow of the fire seems to me to illuminate a face that shines upon my soul all through the day, all through the night. I bless God for that picture of hope, of help, of Him. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. For testing one's grasp of the subject, and Note that the percept is also called an idea or an image. Do you see why this is necessary? Can you distinguish clearly the real cat, the picture cat, the idea or image cat, and the word cat? In what order should these be presented to the mind of the pupil? If we reverse the true order, what is likely to result? Name any instance known to you in which the idea recalled did not agree with the thing it represented. What explanation can you offer of this confused result? A child that had never before seen a fern called it "a pot of green feathers." Do you see why? If you have not thought of your primer for many days, where was the knowledge of the primer since last you thought of it until now? Could you have recalled it at any moment of this intervening time? Do we ever really forget? Do we know a fact when we can repeat it from memory? Consider the permanency of knowledge once set in the human soul. How do you proceed to make easy the power of the child to recall what you have once taught? What is the secret of interest in review work? What is the relation of memory training to the whole problem of education? Consider what drill means in education. What do the laws of association do with the facts in memory? VI RETENTION AND RECOLLECTION TWO important things for the teacher arise Directness Aids at this point. If the impression is to be deep and abiding it must be made when the attention is aglow with interest. 1. The fact we wish to impress must be given with directness and with emphasis. You have often noticed the tendency of children to study aloud. It is due to the fact that the sound of the words helps deepen the impression. I have known persons who would nod the head, tap with their fingers, or stamp their feet upon the floor that they might in these ways deepen the impression. We do know that a change in voice, a tension of muscles, a momentary pause, the raising of the hand, the repetition of the important words-all aid in making vivid the impression in the mind of the learner. We recall a place we have actually seen better than one we have read about, because the place seen is more vividly impressed,—its image is more distinct,-than is that of the place we have only seen indirectly through words. Teaching through objects has a value that teaching through words cannot possess. Interest Aids 2. The impression must be given when the mind is in right attitude to attend to it. If we are to retain the impression long, we must acquire it under conditions of interest. The boy who is excited over a game of ball is able for a long while to recall the details of the game. This keen interest secures a fineness of detail that is of tremendous significance. How futile it is to try to secure right memory-products when the mind of the pupil is attending to matters foreign to the lesson in hand! 3. The value of the impression is heightened when it is accompanied by strong feeling. This is the basis of our great orations, our great humanitarian societies, and our impassioned literature. Men and women under the stress of great emotion were so vividly impressed that they Feeling Aids could not remain quiet. The utterance of the feeling was imperative. They spoke, they sang, they wrought, because they felt keenly. 4. The value of the impression is also conditioned by the state of the body. If we are fatigued, if for any bodily or mental cause the vigor of the mind is in any degree impaired, Physical Basis of Memory the product in memory is weak. This analysis may seem somewhat tedious, but |