Front Matter

Preface

The author has for many years taught Practical Geography to classes of teachers, and has found that there is a general feeling that outdoor work with the children is very desirable. The difficulty has been that such lessons have often been somewhat aimless and out of touch with indoor work.

The present book has been written to suggest a course of work which it is hoped will lead to observation and thought likely to make classroom teaching both easier and more fruitful.

Each teacher must choose for himself the order in which he will give the lessons. It will depend upon the weather, the season, the situation of the school, and other circumstances. No attempt has been made to indicate even the age of the children who should attempt a certain exercise. An experienced teacher will judge of this best by his knowledge of the capacity of his pupils, and many of the exercises can be made easy or difficult as the teacher may wish. Some lessons should be repeated, e.g. Lesson 12 should be given several times at different seasons. There will probably, therefore, be enough material in the book for an outdoor lesson once a fortnight, on the average, from Standard III to the top of the elementary school. The lower forms of the secondary school should work the harder exercises, some of them perhaps in a more advanced way.

The author is indebted to Miss F. C. Cliff, B.A., for help in choosing the quotations from English literature, to Mr. A. J. Fawthrop, B.Sc., for many valuable suggestions and criticisms, and to Mr. A. I. Burnley for general assistance, particularly with the illustrations.

Introduction

P ERHAPS the best definition of Geography is "the study of the earth in its relations to man".

It is obvious that, in order to obtain a real knowledge of the earth, the child must observe for himself. Books and oral descriptions only give him second-hand knowledge. Maps, models, and sections provided for him are purely conventional and artificial, and cannot be properly understood unless he has constructed similar ones from nature.

Such observation is carried on to some extent by every child on his own account. Outdoor lessons, however, will be much more effective, because the teacher can call attention to the important points and direct the child's mind along the lines desired. The interest in geography so caused will lead to many valuable observations being made by the child when the teacher is no longer with him.

Books and maps will then have a much fuller value, because the knowledge they give is dependent upon the knowledge of the real world that the pupil possesses before he uses them. Outdoor work is therefore particularly valuable in the elementary school.

It is as impossible to learn geography well from books and maps only, as it is to learn chemistry or botany from books and diagrams only. In both cases the value of such artificial aids comes in after some knowledge is obtained from experience of the real things  which we are studying.

Many exercises in "practical" geography books consist of work on section-drawing from maps, drawing curves from statistics, etc. Such work may be valuable, but it should come after  more truly practical observations based on facts themselves and not on artificial representations of facts.

Outside the classroom lies the great world of men. It is that  which we have to study, and the best way to commence is to observe the part of it that we can reach. A knowledge of the regions beyond must be founded by comparison and contrast on what we can learn by the evidence of our senses.

Correlation with English Literature

T HERE may be a danger of the treatment of geography becoming too cold and mathematical. If such a danger exists it arises from the teacher and not from the subject. Certain branches of geography should be studied in the same way as science or geometry, but the poetic and romantic view of the subject also exists and should be given due prominence.

The following extracts have been chosen because of their bearing on outdoor geography. In the English lesson they should be discussed from other points of view. For instance, referring to Extract 4, it should be explained that the conversation is between conspirators plotting an assassination. While their leaders are speaking aside, the others, no doubt in a state of nervous suspense, are talking, not of the coming tragedy which fills their minds, but of trivial matters in order to pass the time.

It is suggested that the extracts should be learnt by heart by the children after the lesson to which they relate has been given.