I. INTENSIVE STUDY OF LARGE TOPICS VERSUS

ENCYCLOPEDIC TENDENCIES

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In geography. Older geography teaching like a crazy quilt." The contrast between the superficial encyclopedic study of many topics and the organization of the study around a few large central topics or projects is most strikingly illustrated in the teaching of geography, in which the encyclopedic tendency often prevails. If you have ever seen an old-fashioned "crazy quilt," you have a good object in mind with which to compare the older methods of teaching geography and the mental impression of geographical facts which remained from such teaching. These "crazy quilts" were made by sewing together hundreds of little patches of cloth, little odds and ends of all colors. The similarity between these strange arrays of patches and the ordinary geographies was described by the great founder of modern geography, Karl Ritter, about 1820, as follows:

[From the three traditional divisions, namely, mathematical, physical, and political,] our ordinary textbooks compile their usual aggregate of facts, and each becomes after its own pattern a motley in miniature. . . . A systematic exposition of geography is seldom to be found in them. . . . They are at the foundation only arbitrary and unmethodical collections of all facts which are ascertained to exist throughout the earth. . . . The facts are arranged as the pieces of a [crazy quilt], as if every one existed in itself and for itself and had no connection with others. . . The beginning is usually made with boundaries, which are generally most unstable and uncertain, instead of being made with some rudimental fact around which all others arrange themselves as a center. . . . These geographical treatises . . . form a mere aggregation and index of rich materials, a lexicon rather than a true textbook. And therefore ensues, despite the undenied interest of the subject and its high claims, the mechanical and unfruitful method only too common – the crowding of the memory without judgment, without thought. (3: 342)

Hodgepodge of detailed information from older geography. Doubtless the reader can easily call to mind illustrations of such geography teaching from his own experience. For example, in studying North America the dominant practice was to locate the capes, bays, and rivers, to bound all the states, to locate the capital and principal city of each state, to name the products of each, etc. In my own case I remember very vividly the awful confusion in my mind between the products of neighboring states when these were studied in the elementary school. For each state there was a paragraph containing the list of products. This had to be learned in each case and recited. No effort was made to emphasize the general characteristics of the region in which these states were located or the fact that they were merely convenient political divisions marked off in a region that was often largely uniform in its fundamental characteristics and products.

The outcome of such teaching was a general hodgepodge of more or less useful information with no comprehension of general geographic principles or large fundamental facts which would aid the pupil in further geographic study or in comprehending the world at large.

Contrast modern fourth-grade teaching of North America.— In contrast with the old-fashioned, crazy-quilt, hodgepodge type of geographic teaching, we may notice how North America is taught in a progressive fourth grade to-day, as set forth in the following quotation from the course of study of the Elementary School of The University of Chicago.

Pictures of great regions. The study of North America is introduced by a succession of pictures of significant regions. These pictures are grouped to show scenes typical of the various parts of the country. The children see, for example, the rocky New England coast and the fishing fleet, some typical parts of the Appalachian Highland, the farms of the rolling prairie, cattle grazing on the plains, the high peaks of the Rockies, something

of the life in the mining camps, the desert of the Great Basin, the big trees of the Sierras, the orange groves of California and the cotton fields of the South. The presentation of this material covers several days. As the pictures are shown, the children locate the regions upon the globe and upon the large relief model of North America. Many of the pictures are projected upon the screen. The children are encouraged to discuss them freely, to ask questions, to tell "what that man is doing," to say "I have been there," and so on. They are encouraged to tell what place they would most like to visit and why, and to describe some of these places in writing and in sketches. They discuss both orally and in writing such points as "the differences the pictures showed between the eastern and the western mountains." In these studies the children are led to notice especially the changes in climate as evidenced by the vegetation.

Realize variety of places and industries. - At the close of this period of work the question is asked informally, "What have all of these pictures meant to you?" Among the replies, these are found: "I never knew the people were doing so many different kinds of work in North America," I never knew North America was so big." In gathering up all the new ideas the children have gained of North America one large question is formulated in which the rest of the study centers, Why has North America so many kinds of places and so many kinds of workers?"

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Causes. The first answer is, "Because of its great size and its different kinds of climate." From the globe the children discuss the time consumed in journeys across the continent. They see that the continent stretches almost from the north pole to the equator.

In the search for another reason the children gather about the large relief map of North America which is placed upon the floor. They notice the eastern and western highlands bounding the great trough or central valley. The two highlands are compared as to trend, length, width, height, and general character. The children note the parallel ridges of the Appalachians. They see that the Rocky Mountains are separated from the Sierras by the Great Basin. They trace the Cascade and the Coast Ranges. In doing this they are led to see that the topography is another force in determining the variety of places and kinds of work.

Having found two reasons, the children search for another. They recall regions of forests, of grassy plains, and of deserts, and discover that there are variations in rainfall. They find out from maps and pictures where there is little precipitation, where there is a great deal, and where there is a moderate amount.

Study influence of regions on industries. The question now naturally arises, "What are all these places good for? and the children begin to locate the important industries upon the continent. Farming receives first attention. They know that some of the best farm lands are in river valleys. Several of the great rivers of North America are studied to find which basins offer the best opportunities for farming. The following questions are considered:

1. What part is the main stream and what are its most important tributaries?

2. Where do these streams rise and into what does the main stream empty?

3. What is the climate of the region through which this stream flows?

4. Does the climate vary in the different parts of the basin, and if so, how does this affect farming?

Some of the rivers studied in this way are the Mississippi, Missouri, St. Lawrence, Columbia, Sacramento and San Joaquin, Colorado, Mackenzie, and Yukon. The pupils find what in a large way are the most important crops of different parts of the continent. This establishes the idea of the wheat, corn, and cotton lands. The other important industries are indicated on the large relief map as their location is learned. The detailed study of these industries is postponed until the second semester. (7: 16)

Such improved teaching possible by young well-trained teachers. To one who knows only the old-fashioned encyclopedic geography teaching, the above account probably sounds far-fetched and impossible of realization in an ordinary fourth grade. Yet an examination of the most recent geography textbooks reveals the same type of materials and organization. Any intelligent normal-school graduate who has been given two years of good specialized training for

teaching in the middle grades could carry out effectively in a well-equipped school, using the best modern texts, such a method of teaching North America as that described above.

Large topics or projects in which this teaching centers.

For our present purposes we are interested in the way this teaching centers in certain large topics or projects. In reviewing the description we notice the following examples of such large topics:

I. Great natural regions, such as great mountain systems, great plains, great river basins, tropical regions, temperate regions, frigid regions, etc.

2. Great industries, such as fishing, farming, lumbering, mining, or, in more detail, wheat raising, cotton growing, coal mining.

3. Great geographical influences, such as the influence of climate on agriculture, the influence of topography on climate, the influence of river basins on agriculture.

Large topics give generalized knowledge, widely useful. -The type of knowledge which the children acquire from these great topics differs in two fundamental respects from the hodgepodge of details acquired in the old-fashioned geographies. (1) The large topics give first such an understanding of North America that the child would know the opportunities, possibilities, and needs in living in each region if he had occasion to travel there or read further about it. (2) The large topics give in the second place such a general understanding of industries and of geographical regions and influences that he can comprehend easily these fundamental facts wherever he encounters them in school in the study of any continent, or in after life in any part of the world. For example, after a child has been through a modern elementary course in geography he would be able to understand readily the fundamental geographical influences and social possibilities in some region of current interest, such as Russia or Mesopotamia, or comprehend easily such