il.

#53.# Just what the proper activity is may be seen by a consideration
of a fourth principle: #First presentations of new knowledge must be
made objectively in all grades of the school.# Ideas cannot be taught
through words. They can be taught through objects, and the ideas can
then be named. The name is the word. This law may be stated as "ideas
before words." It stands as a protest against abstract and formal
teaching. It demands that knowledge shall be fitted to the nature of
the soul's growth. The child that for the first time was shown a
growing fern in a vase and called it "a pot of green feathers" was on
the right track. He will in due time acquire the right word. His idea
is clear. It follows also that _the only words in which knowledge can
be presented to the soul are words that name known things_.

#54.# These and many other principles are the basis of the whole
teaching process. Happy that child whose teacher has thought his way
through these essential laws and observes them in all the activities
of the recitation. No teacher can grow in power or skill without
mastering the meaning of these laws, which may be called the alphabet
of the teacher's preparation. These laws the teacher should always
have in mind as guidance. They are not to be announced to the pupil.
Jesus always followed great educational principles, but he never
announced these to his disciples. When you say "That is a good
lesson," you mean that the lesson is in harmony with laws of teaching
you know to be good. There is no other basis of judging the worth of a
teacher.

Test Questions

1. What is meant by a law of the soul?

2. Why are educational principles needed?

3. What is the first law as to the subject matter of teaching? The
second?

4. What is the earliest power that becomes educationally active?

5. What maxim sums up the order in which the soul-powers should be
exercised?

6. State the third law of the soul. The fourth. Illustrate.

Lesson 7

What an Educational Method Is

#55. Applying Principles.#--When the teacher puts an educational
principle to work in the act of teaching he uses a method. A method is
a principle applied, put into operation. Principles make up one's
educational theory; methods make up one's educational practise. It is
as important to have a good method as it is to have a good law. The
way a law is applied is a method. When we agreed that it would be a
good thing to teach scientifi