to try again.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Story of Jack Horner on poster and sand table.
Snowflakes in background. First grade. Columbia, Missouri.]

For example, after telling the story of Mother Hubbard, the children may
be interested in cutting out dogs. No picture or other guide should be
used at first, since every child knows something about dogs. The first
cuttings are likely to be very poor, partly because the children have not
sufficient control over the scissors and largely because their ideas are
very vague. In a general comparison of work they will help each other with
such criticisms as, "This dog's head is too big." "That dog's legs are too
stiff." They are then ready to try again. Only when they have reached the
limit of their power to see flaws in their work do they need to compare it
with the real dog or its picture. Only after a child has attempted to
express his idea and has become conscious in ever so small a degree of the
imperfection of his expression will he really be able to see differences
between the real object and his representation of it, and thereby clarify
his mental picture.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Paper cutting. Second grade, Columbia.]

The child's imagination is so strong that he is apt to see his productions
not as they are but as he means them to be, and he is unable to
distinguish between the original and his copy of it. If the picture or
silhouette is presented at first, his work becomes to a large extent mere
copying rather than self-expression. If the teacher cuts out a dog and
displays it as a sample, the class will be apt to see that piece of paper
only and not a real dog. If the children are permitted to draw the outline
either freehand or around a pattern, still less mental effort is required,
and in cutting they see only the bit of line just ahead of the scissors
and not the object as a whole.

Such methods (_i.e._ the use of outlines, silhouettes, etc.) will produce
better immediate results. It will be easier to distinguish dogs and cats
from cows and horses if a pattern is provided, but it will not produce
stronger children. Such methods only defeat the chief purpose of the work,
which is to stimulate the mental effort required to hold the mental image
of the object in the focus of attention during the time required to
reproduce it in the material form.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Paper cutting. Second grade.]

It is also often asked whether the children shal