means of establishing sympathetic relations between her and the
child, who thus becomes willing to look at the question from the
teacher's point of view. A sounder morality can be developed by honestly
facing the facts with the child and by giving him the benefit of a
broader experience, than by leaving him to face the situation alone in
the light of but part of the facts. The problems with which the child at
this time is grappling are so similar in character to those of the race
during the early periods of its development that they afford the child a
rich background of experience suited to his own needs. The successful
solution of these problems is as important with reference to the
development of the individual to-day as then in determining the welfare
of the race. A firm basis for the development of the intellectual, the
moral, and the physical life can thus be laid at this time by a wise use
of the experiences of the race when it was laying the foundations upon
which our civilization rests. It must be remembered that there is as
wide a difference between the real situation in the hunting life and the
scenes depicted in this book as there is between the real attitudes of
primitive people and those of the child, which are idealized forms of
the same attitudes.[1] The child would shrink in terror from the real
conflict. His interest is in the dramatized form. If this dramatic
interest of the child is satisfied, it can be made to pay tribute to the
sciences and the arts. If it is ignored or repressed, it is liable to
find expression in acts of cruelty.

[Footnote 1: See Katharine E. Dopp, "Some Steps in the Evolution
of Social Occupations," _The Elementary School Teacher_, May
and September, 1903. The University of Chicago Press.]

METHOD

The subject-matter is presented with the view of economizing the energy
of the teacher as well as that of the child. The attempt has been made
to base each lesson upon the experience of the child or at least upon
that which he may be enabled to experience if he has not yet done so.
This experience is so treated as to secure problems for advance thought.
The purpose of "_Things to Think About_" is to awaken the _inquiring
attitude_. It is at this point of the lesson that the child is given
the opportunity he prizes so highly of telling what he has seen, heard,
or done. Here he meets with the new problems which compel him to
reconstruct his experiences. The printed ques