relations must be mastered
before readiness in the use of language is reached. And so it is to a
large degree in the general plan of all studies. In spite of this no
principle is more commonly violated in daily recitations than that of
apperception. Its value is self-evident as a principle for the
arrangement of topics in any branch of study, but it is overlooked in
daily lessons. Instead of this new knowledge is acquired by a
thoughtless memory drill.

In this welding process we desire to determine how far an actual
concentration may take place _between school studies_ and _the home and
outside life of children_. The stock of ideas and feelings which a
child from its infancy has gathered from its peculiar history and home
surroundings is the primitive basis of its personality. Its thought,
feeling, and individuality are deeply interwoven with home experience.
No other set of ideas, later acquired, lies so close to its heart or is
so abiding in its memory. The memory of work and play at home; of the
house, yard, trees, and garden; of parents, brothers, and sisters, and
in addition to this the experiences connected with neighbors and
friends, the town and surrounding country, the church and its
influence, the holidays, games, and celebrations, all these things lie
deeper in the minds of children than the facts learned about grammar,
geography, or history in school. Any plan of education that ignores
these home-bred ideas, these events, memories, and sympathies of home
and neighborhood life, will make a vital mistake. A concentration that
keeps in mind only the school studies and disregards the rich funds of
ideas that every child brings from his home, must be a failure, because
it only includes the weaker half of his experience. Home knowledge
itself does not need to be made a concentrating center, but all its
best materials must be drawn into the concentrating center of the
school. But children bring many faulty, mistaken, and even vicious
ideas from their homes. It is well to know the actual situation. It
is the work of the school, at every step, while receiving, to correct,
enlarge, or arrange the faulty or disordered knowledge brought into the
school by children. We unconsciously use these materials, and depend
upon them for explaining new lessons, more constantly than we are aware
of. In fact, if we were wise teachers, we would consciously make a
more frequent use of them and, in order to render them