Katharine Elizabeth Dopp

“ The need of practical activity, which for long ages constituted the entire education of mankind, is at last recognized by the elementary school. It has been introduced in many places and already results have been attained which demonstrate that it is possible to introduce practical activity in such a way as to afford the child a sound development—physically, intellectually, and morally—and at the same time equip him for efficient social service. ”

“ Knowledge gained through the use of sight and hearing may be superficial; that which comes through the use of the muscular sense is wrought into the very fiber of one’s being.
Among the more simple modes of using the muscular sense are gesture and pantomime. They are within the reach of every teacher. They require no materials. A worthy idea and the desire to communicate it are the essential conditions for profitable work. Gesture and pantomime are too powerful tools in education to be used carelessly. ”

“ They were crashing through the underbrush along the banks.
Straight-tusked elephants were trumpeting and bellowing.
Lions were roaring.
The hunted animals were seeking a place of refuge.
Sharptooth was used to these sights and sounds.
She felt safe in the old oak tree.
She tied herself to a strong branch and soon was fast asleep.
She slept all through the long night.
Many of the wild beasts, too, were soon asleep.
Some of the hunted creatures found places of refuge.
Some beasts of prey were soon satisfied.
Then they stole back to their dens and slept. ”

“ The teacher who knows that she has good ground for her convictions is not afraid to look upon a question from all sides. The fact that the teacher is willing to look at a question from the child’s point of view is a 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 134 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. ”

“ In schools where little work has yet been done in pantomime, drawing, modeling, and other kindred modes of activity, it will probably be the better plan to have many of the suggestions carried out in hours of play. If the teacher takes an interest in what the child does outside of school hours as well as in what he does in regular recitation and work periods, and if she utilizes the 136 experiences of the child that are gained in informal ways, she will have no difficulty in securing the heartiest coöperation in the work of the school. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But even the child can get an idea of development, of change, which will prevent the formation of such static conceptions of life as are still only too prevalent in many of our institutions of learning. ”

“ We have no other ground for thinking ourselves superior to our forefathers, the Tree-dwellers, than this: We live at a time when it is possible to take advantage of what has been accomplished during many long ages. ”

“ The child who has difficulty in expressing his image by means of drawing and painting should be given the opportunity to experiment by means of pantomime until his image has become so clear that he can express it in a less real way. Few children fail to draw and paint reasonably well when afforded this opportunity that should be denied to none. In order to secure the best results the teacher should be careful not to repress spontaneity by criticising too severely ”

“ The test of a book is the service it can render. The character of the service demanded by it is determined by the needs of those to whom it is devoted. This book was not written for the child of five or six years, although children of that age have shown an interest in it. The child of five or six is absorbed in the activities of his own home and his immediate environment. ”

“ The printed questions, which map out the main features in the development of the lesson, should be discussed freely. Care should be taken to avoid mechanical answers. It is much better to leave questions unsettled, or to leave the subject with several different solutions that the different children have worked out, than it is to secure uniformity by imposing upon the child the judgment of the teacher or of the author of the text. ”

“ The question that is perplexing educators at the present time is, therefore, not one regarding the value of practical activity, but rather one of ways and means by which practical activity can be harnessed to the educational work. ”

“ Is it not the better plan to tell the child frankly of the way in which people lived at the time when they did what he would like to do now, and lead him to discover the changes that have taken place that lead us to disapprove of actions which, under different conditions, were considered good? ”

“ The teacher should aid the child in discovering the real motive which animated the character to be represented. She should appeal to the best in the child. In so doing she will be able to use gesture and pantomime in such a way as to transform activities, which when undirected are liable to degenerate into vicious habits, into activities of great moral significance. ”

“ When Bodo started out with his firebrand the wild animals ran to their dens.
Sometimes Bodo pursued them.
113
He chased some of the animals home to their dens, but he never went to the caves.
Sabre-tooth and the cave-bear were too large and fierce.
The hyenas were small, but they lived in packs.
So Bodo learned to let them alone.
“Bodo would build a fire at the mouth of the hole”
114
But he was not afraid of the gophers and badgers.
He chased them to their holes and tried to smoke them out.
He would build a fire at the mouth of a hole. ”

“ The portrayal of the situation which caused our early forefathers to rob birds’ nests and kill young animals will no doubt shock the sentimentalist who orders eggs or veal as a matter of course. There might be good ground for his feeling were there not present in the child the instinct to do similar deeds even though living under social conditions that do not justify such acts. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Teachers who have tried gesture and pantomime as a preparatory step to other modes of activity have found it invaluable as a means of securing a genuine growth of imagery and free expression in a variety of forms. ”

“ The geographical phases of the work are referred to so frequently throughout the text as well as under the special suggestions for each lesson, that little need be added at this time except to emphasize the fact that the teacher should make use of every opportunity to cultivate in the child an intelligent interest in his natural environment. Perhaps nothing will contribute more toward developing this interest than field lessons. ”

“ Since the removal of industrial processes from the home the public has awakened to the fact that the child is being deprived of one of the most potent educational influences, and efforts have already been made to restore the educational factor that was in danger of being lost. ”

“ Moss, twigs, grass, stones, toy animals—all help to make the scene more lifelike. By sprinkling the sand with lime water it hardens so as to keep its shape for a long time.
138
Clay Modeling. Although clay does not respond so quickly to the touch as sand, it preserves its shape more easily. The more skill that the teacher has in clay modeling the more freedom she will feel in the work, but she should not hesitate to make use of this mode of expression even though she has to learn with the child. ”

“ No part of a book is more significant to the child than the illustrations. In preparing the illustrations for this series as great pains have been taken to furnish the child with ideas that will guide him in his practical activities as to illustrate the text itself.
Mr. Howard V. Brown, the artist who executed the drawings, has been aided in his search for authentic originals by the late J. W. Powell, director of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D.C.; by Frederick J. V. Skiff, director of the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, and by the author. ”

“ But there comes a time when the ideal and the real world begin to separate. No longer content with a “make-believe” process, and unable to control the complex processes of modern life, he feels a need that cannot be satisfied by the resources of his neighborhood alone. ”

“ Plant Life. The characteristic trees of the mid-Pleistocene period were evergreen. Of these the most abundant forms were the spruce, the fir, and the yew tree. The trees which shed their 147 foliage were represented by the oak and the birch. The banks of rivers were shaded by thickets of laurel and by the sloe, the original form of the wild plum tree. The marshes afforded rich pastures for grass-eating animals as well as hiding-places, for they were partly covered by a heavy growth of alders. Wild peas, beans, stringy-rooted carrots, ruta-bagas, and turnips grew on the hillsides. ”

“ Remains of similar animals have been found in the United States mingled with the bones of the mammoth.
Living Species. Of the living species there were present in mid-Pleistocene times, the brown bear, the grizzly bear, the wolf, the fox, the stag, the roe, the urus or the wild-ox, the aurochs or European bison, the hippopotamus, the horse, the wild boar, the beaver, the water rat, the lion, sometimes spoken of as the cave-lion and being the same species as the Felis leo of to-day, the lynx, the panther or leopard, the wild cat, the spotted hyena, the otter, the musk sheep, and the marmot. ”

“ The lessons in this book afford ample opportunity for the use of the fundamental forms of language in communicating actual experience. Many of the stories may well be supplemented by stories that the child tells himself. Care should be taken, however, to keep the child within the limits of what was possible during the age to which his story refers. Much benefit is derived from allowing the children of the class to dramatize a story after they have read it and represented it by means of pantomime. ”

“ In places where it is impossible for the children to go to an uncultivated place, the teacher may substitute for the suggestions at the close of the lesson other work. But she should in some way give the child an idea of grassy plains, wooded hills, and dense forests. ”

“ The Sabre-toothed Felis (Machairodus latidens) . This animal has usually been spoken of as the cave-tiger, but Professor W. Boyd Dawkins has shown that it was no more closely allied to the tigers than to other felines, and that “the very tempting name of ‘sabre-toothed 145 tiger’ must therefore be given up as implying a relationship that does not exist. It differs from the genus Felis in the enormous development of the serrated upper canines, as well as the presence of a third lobe on the sectorial edge of the upper premolar.” ”

“ In the transitional movement it is not strange that new factors are being introduced without relation to the educational process as a whole. The isolation of manual training, sewing, and cooking from the physical, natural, and social sciences is justifiable only on the ground that the means of establishing more organic relations are not yet available. ”

“ They are characterized as dull-witted creatures with dim eyesight, exceedingly impulsive and dangerous. They rarely attacked other animals, for they lived upon vegetable food; but if they were molested they were formidable creatures. At such times they would root up young trees with their tusks, and pierce and rend the bodies of their most powerful assailants. A full grown rhinoceros was seldom attacked by even a mammoth or the 143 sabre-toothed felis. Its thick skin served as an impervious shield, protecting it from the most powerful blows of the fiercest animals. ”

“ That we are not yet in possession of all the facts regarding the life of the early Aryans is not considered a sufficient reason for withholding from the child those facts that we have when they can be adapted to his use. ”

“ The wild bulls were formidable antagonists when enraged. It is thought by some that the Chillingham cattle are descendants of the urus. The color of the urus is not known. Some think that it was white, but others doubt that the species would have been able to survive with such a conspicuous covering. On account of their fear of the beasts of prey the wild cattle probably kept under cover of the trees during the day and went out to the grassy uplands only when darkness came on. The feeding grounds of the grass-eating animals determined the haunts of the beasts of 146 prey. ”

“ The data from which the part of the story that deals with the way in which Sharptooth carried her baby was constructed was derived from the practices of contemporary tribes in the lowest stages of culture. It is a well-known fact that all young infants during the first few hours after birth possess the power to grasp and to hang suspended by the hands for several minutes. ”

“ When based upon observation, as it always should be, it is unsurpassed as a mode of developing and communicating adequate conceptions of topographical features. Sand pans should be provided so that there will be at least one pan for every two children. If each child can have a pan, the conditions will be still more favorable. Whether sand pans are available or not, every primary school-room should be supplied with a large sand box—two or three if there is room for them. ”

“ Lesson XV. Wild horses usually associate in large herds sometimes numbering several hundred. This large herd is subdivided into several smaller herds, each of which is led by the handsomest and strongest stallion of the group. The younger and smaller horses keep on the outskirts of the herd.
If the paper animals which the children cut are mounted in groups upon the blackboard or on a large sheet of manilla paper it will greatly add to the vividness of the child’s image. ”

“ Even though many of the processes that he observes are complex, it matters little to the child at this time; for so easily do they lend themselves to dramatic play that they cause him little difficulty. ”

“ The value of these lessons will depend upon whether an adequate motive is aroused in the child for taking the trip and upon whether he is given the opportunity to make use of the experience gained in a practical way. There are schools in crowded quarters of large cities where it does not yet seem practicable to take an entire class out on a field lesson. ”

“ The process at first must have been crude, but savage women very early developed a skill in basketry that we are not able to find among civilized peoples. By encouraging the child to think of the different articles that he uses that were made by weaving, and by examining the beauty of the work, he will be prepared to grasp something of the significance of the simple act of Sharptooth, which was an expression of the same kind of mother love which he enjoys, but which he accepts as a matter of course.
Explain to the child that the Tree-dwellers did not have such music as we have. ”

“ How many toes does a horse have on each foot? On what part of the foot does he walk? Where is the horse’s heel? Do you think the horse’s foot has always been the same shape that it is to-day?
On what part of the foot does the cow walk? How many toes does she have?
On what part of the foot does the cat walk? How many toes does she have?
66 Ancestors of Our Mammals
The wild horses that Bodo saw were about the size of ponies.
Long before the Tree-dwellers lived there were horse-like creatures the size of a fox.
Long before that there was a time when there were no horses at all. ”

“ Unless he has such an experience as this he will not be able to deal with the problem of finding a place where the Tree-dwellers might have lived. The teacher’s problem at the close of this lesson is the one that constitutes the central thought of the next two lessons. It is this: How can the child get such an experience as will enable him to select a place where the Tree-dwellers might have lived? In these days of cheap transportation there are few schools where it is not possible for some of the children to visit places that are sufficiently wild to answer the purpose. ”

“ The language of the Tree-dwellers was probably in a very undeveloped state. That fact is merely suggested in the story.
Lessons X. and XI. The first of these lessons conveys the truth that people have taken many suggestions from animals in order to better their condition in life. This does not imply that man is inferior to the animal, but merely that he is inferior in some one respect, or that he depends less upon instincts and thus has a greater need of training. ”