Teachers' Manual to accompany Frye's Geographies

Front matter

Teachers' Manual TO ACCOMPANY FRYE'S GEOGRAPHIES BY ALEX EVERETT FEYE r^ Author of " Child and Nature," "Brooks and Brook Basins," " Primary Geograph;/," " Complete Geography," etc. Boston, U.S.A., and London GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 8Tbe SUbenæmit press , Entered at Stationers' Hall Copyright, 1896 By ALEX EVERETT FRYE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS. Pages Part I. — General Notes . . . . . . . 1-36 The suggestions in this part of the Manual are appli cable to both geographies of the series — Primary and Complete, and in general to other subjects, such as history and reading. Part II. — Primary Geography Lesson Notes . . . 37-90 These notes apply specially to the Primary Geography of this series. Part III. — Complete Geography Lesson Notes . 91-190 These notes relate to the Complete Geography of this series, and suggest how td| use the material of the book, — the maps, pictures and text.

I. GENERAL NOTES. 1. Ideas vs. Words. No wide-awake teacher of to-day wastes his own time and that of his pupils by forcing them to memorize the exact words of a text-book. Such work is not teaching, and is not worth the smallest salary paid in the poorest school district. The pupil who studies the text of a lesson and then expresses the thoughts in his own words becomes master of the lesson. A pupil who merely recites parrot-like the words of the text may not have grasped a single thought. Even if every sentence were backed by the proper thought, what a cruel waste of energy would result from trying to fix the exact words in mind for a day or at most for a week ! No teacher really believes in such work, for no teacher ever takes the trouble to force himself to mem orize the text. He often drives pupils to this task because he does not know how to teach them to grasp an author's meaning.

He thinks the meaning must be in the words and that the pupils must swallow them. Such a teacher needs to learn how to teach ! Definitions. — Of what use are definitions of hills, rivers, etc. ? In daily life do we ever use them ? Must a child define in order to know ? Does he not know a chair, a shoe, a horse ? — yet has he learned to define them? Nay, he learns to know such things by seeing or sensing them. Among countless objects that affect our life, why should teachers select the forms of land and water and claim that these few can best be known or studied through their definitions ? Is it because pupils can hide ignorance in empty words and thus make a good showing in that form of examination which calls for husks instead of grains of thought ? Let us hope not ; yet if it be true, the number of teachers of this class is small, for the thoughtful teachers of to-day show by their work that they believe in the study of things, — not mere word-shells.