if the nature of the child
is to have full recognition. Without expression there is no impression,
and without impression there is no education that has real value. The
more and better expression in the school, therefore, the more and better
the education in that school. In the vitalized school we shall find
freedom of expression, and the absence of unreasoning repression. The
child expresses himself by means of his hands, his feet, his face, his
entire body, and his organs of speech, and his expression through either
of these means gives the teacher a knowledge of what to do. These
expressions may not be what the teacher would wish, but the expression
necessarily precedes intelligent teaching.

=Imagination.=--These expressions may reveal a vivid imagination, but
they are no less valuable as indices of the child's nature on that
account. It is the very refinement of cruelty to try to interdict or
stifle the child's imagination. But for the imagination of people in the
past we should not have the rich treasures of mythology that so delight
us all. Every child with imagination is constructing a mythology of his
own, and from the gossamer threads of fancy is weaving a pattern of life
that no parent or teacher should ever wish to forbid or destroy. Day by
day, he sees visions and dreams dreams, and so builds for himself a
world in which he finds delight and profit. In this world he is king,
and only profane hands would dare attempt to dethrone him.

=The child's experiences.=--His experiences, whether in the real world,
or in this world of fancy, are his capital in the bank of life; and he
has every right to invest this capital so as to achieve further
increments of life. In this enterprise, the teacher is his counselor and
guide, and, in order that she may exercise this function sympathetically
and rationally, she must know the nature and extent of his capital. If
he knows a bird, he may invest this knowledge so as to gain a knowledge
of many birds, and so, in time, compass the entire realm of ornithology.
If he knows a flower, from this known he may be so directed that he may
become a master in the unknown field of botany. If he knows coal, this
experience may be made the open sesame to the realms of geology. In
short, all his experiences may be capitalized under the direction of a
skillful teacher, and made to produce large dividends as an investment
in life.

=Relation to school work.=--Thus the school becomes, for t