Speaker 1: Section thirteen of Birds and All Nature, Volume seven, two
Speaker 1: February nineteen hundred, recorded for LibriVox dot org by Larry Wilson.
Speaker 1: Geography Lessons. It is possible for a pupil to study
Speaker 1: geography diligently every day and forget apparently nearly everything he learns.
Speaker 1: Both geography and history are studies which may be pursued
Speaker 1: in such a way that nearly all that is acquired
Speaker 1: in any given month is lost in the next month.
Speaker 1: Those who are inclined to doubt this have but to
Speaker 1: test a class where the text has been the subject
Speaker 1: of acquisition. Test them on what they learned a month previously,
Speaker 1: and even those inclined to believe this statement will be
Speaker 1: astonished that so little is retained of what wants seemed
Speaker 1: to be known so well. Mister A sweeps his barn
Speaker 1: with the doors open and the wind blowing against his work.
Speaker 1: He works with much energy and some apparent efficiency, but
Speaker 1: the wind brings back the chaff to such an extent
Speaker 1: that there is never much clear space on his floor.
Speaker 1: Mister B takes advantage of the direction of the wind,
Speaker 1: and every stroke counts for success, and is more than
Speaker 1: doubled in effect by the help of the wind, the
Speaker 1: chaff flies before him, and his floor is clear. In
Speaker 1: a short time. I have seen a steamer waters opening
Speaker 1: upon the Bay of Fundy, pouring out black smoke, beating
Speaker 1: the water into foam, and apparently making great progress. But
Speaker 1: observation of the distant shore proved that she was actually
Speaker 1: standing still. The adverse tide was such that she could
Speaker 1: not contend with it successfully, so she dropped her anchor
Speaker 1: and save coal and the ware of machinery. Two hours
Speaker 1: later she swung with her cable. The anchor was hoisted,
Speaker 1: and she moved rapidly in the desired direction, without the
Speaker 1: aid of a pound of steam. In Passamaquaddy Bay are
Speaker 1: so many islands and channels, and such a great fluctuation
Speaker 1: of tide that the rivers are racing in various directions
Speaker 1: at all times. Fishermen study their courses and never attack
Speaker 1: against the tide. Those who go out every day do
Speaker 1: not leave home at the same hour Tuesday as on Monday,
Speaker 1: but just fifty minutes later they do not go and
Speaker 1: return over the same courses. For many times, the strongest
Speaker 1: flow of tide does not run where there was the
Speaker 1: swiftest ebb with them. The proverb the longest way round
Speaker 1: is the shortest way home is often true, and I
Speaker 1: have heard them quote those words frequently. In psychology, there
Speaker 1: are both a wind and a tide. The wind is
Speaker 1: what the pupil thinks of the subject as to its
Speaker 1: usefulness in his future life. The tide is his natural
Speaker 1: interest in the thing for its own sake. Wind and
Speaker 1: tide are sometimes both against us, and it is a
Speaker 1: poor skipper who lacks the sense to tie up for
Speaker 1: a short time or take another course when he finds
Speaker 1: both set against him. But there are teachers who battle
Speaker 1: fiercely against the desires and interests of their pupils, bound
Speaker 1: to compel them to learn, making a tremulous fuss, filling
Speaker 1: families with tears and tremblings, threatening scoldings and reviewings, all
Speaker 1: with no permanent results of value. There is a natural
Speaker 1: interest in children for birds. It is so strong and
Speaker 1: absorbing that it amounts to a psychological tide. The things
Speaker 1: of the bird world act upon the child mind rather
Speaker 1: instinctively than mentally. The whole child is active and alert
Speaker 1: when the subject is such that it fully interests him.
Speaker 1: A little effective teaching just at that time is worth
Speaker 1: more than hours of perfunctory drudgery over a similar task
Speaker 1: presented in the wrong way. There are birds wherever man lives.
Speaker 1: They differ in color, form, and habit according to environment.
Speaker 1: The pupil who seems to be interested at least in
Speaker 1: the ordinary things of the text book in geography is
Speaker 1: the very one, as a rule, to be caught with
Speaker 1: the birds and animals of various parts of the earth.
Speaker 1: The pupil who will not retain information about the products
Speaker 1: of a country may be induced to consider intelligently something
Speaker 1: about the fauna of that country, and pass readily to
Speaker 1: an interested study of the flora and from what grows
Speaker 1: there to what is shipped from that place into section thirteen.
Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain.