Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/90

 76 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

are to be exercised ; the acts of respiration, circulation, and diges- tion are to be facilitated ; the brain is to be given intellectual and moral exercise suited to the situation of the moment. The physical exercises, care for good air and food, should go along with psychical exercise ; and this demands cultivation of the organs of sense, particularly those of sight and hearing. The visual and auditory impressions are to be placed in right relations with the cerebral power. This constitutes an instruction in intuition i^Anschauungsunterricht of the Germans) . Thus the visual and auditory impressions will be firmly fixed, and the cere- bral assimilation and the provision of material for the faculty of reasoning will be promoted.

This progressive culture of the intelligence by means of the training of the principal organs of sense is to the youth a very great satisfaction, a real stimulant, since in this way he assimilates only useful things, of which he comprehends the value and necessity.

Frequently it is the teacher's want of understanding which is the cause of the indifference of pupils and of their slowness of movement. It is necessary that the master should know how to make an estimate of the intellectual strength of the pupils. If the most of the students, who are of average ability, can follow the class, it will be necessary for the others, less advanced, that the master should know how to individualize and discover means of awakening certain faculties still dormant in the child.

The program of secondary studies ought to be the continua- tion of those of primary instruction. Matters of little or na importance should be excluded. Why teach children things of which in coming years they will not hear a word ? We should respect the natural tendencies of youth, and we should not hinder the course of studies because they have given proofs of a prefer- ence for certain other matters, which may have given the teacher the conviction that this factor will be of no use in the career of the young person's choice, or in the one which his parents have selected for him. Too often it happens that the severity of the master leads to the grief and discouragement of the pupil, and consequently the austere and injudicious master becomes the ■