Visual Instruction In The Public Schools

VISUAL INSTRUCTION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS BY ANNA VERONA DORRIS HEAD OF DEPARTMENTS OF VISUAL INSTRUCTION AND GEOGRAPHY STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA INSTRUCTOR IN VISUAL INSTRUCTION, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, EXTENSION DIVISION GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON ATLANTA DALLAS - COLUMBUS SAN FRANCISCO MT. RAINIER AND REFLECTION LAKE, RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, WASHINGTON PREFACE Within the last decade the demands of society upon the public schools have increased greatly. As a result, many more topics and increased amounts of subject matter must be taught. The purpose, of course, is the better equipment of the child for lifes duties and responsibilities. In order to accomplish this additional work with econ omy and efficiency the modern school has been obliged to develop a new approach to its task. It has therefore dis carded the older methods of teaching, which proved them selves slow, cumbersome, wasteful, and very ineffective when applied to the larger load which the modern school must carry and it is rapidly utilizing the most effective procedures known to science for the promotion of learning. The endeavor of every progressive teacher at the present time is to plan school work so that pupils may master it much as efficient people outside the schools master their tasks. This is accomplished by giving children a fundamen tal understanding of the motives that underlie the work they do, so that there is implanted within the children themselves a never-failing source of inspiration to carry on. The teacher who has succeeded in this high endeavor finds in visual instruction one of the strongest methods of promoting natural learning and the proper motivation ofthe pupils efforts and in visual aids she finds the most efficient instruments wherewith to bring vividness and concreteness to the child in his attempts to learn. Through its use in modern education, many economies are made possible for it naturally follows that results are vi VISUAL INSTRUCTION more definite and are secured in much less time. Indeed, if visual aids are sufficiently and properly used, the greater load put upon the school in recent years may be satis factorily carried without prolonging the childs period of training and with much greater benefit to him in equip ping him for lifes duties. It is the realization of the great service which visual instruction, rightly used, can render to the classroom teacher that has led to the preparation of this book. This realization has come to the author gradually through sev eral years experience as teacher, principal, and supervi sor in the public schools, and as a trainer of teachers in the State Teachers College, San Francisco, and through the Extension Division of the University of California. The book brings together the results of this varied experience with visual instruction. Its aim is to guide the teacher so that she will be able to use visual materials of all sorts with proper economy and with the best possible results. The text is organized in three parts, each of which is divided into chapters. Part I seeks to give a background that will enable the reader to use understandingly the va rious types of visual aids in ordinary teaching situations. Part II is concerned with the modern methods of edu cational procedure and emphasizes, particularly, practical ways and means of using visual materials for the enrich ment of thevarious subjects of the curriculum. These chapters are concretely illustrated by reports of actual classroom experiences. Part III is devoted to the problems of training teachers in a larger use of visual instruction. The second chapter in this section offers suggestions for organizing and maintain ing a visual-instruction department in any school system. At the end of the book, in Appendix A and Appendix B, definite information is given to teachers who wish to PREFACE vii obtain the materials or apparatus needed for this work...