s to get a good
impression in the beginning. Memory is revived experience. The more
vivid and intense the first experience, the more sure will be the later
recall. So if we wish to remember an experience, we must experience it
in the first place under the most favorable conditions. The thing must
be seen clearly, it must be understood, it must be in the focus of
consciousness.

The best teaching is that which leads the child to get the clearest
apprehension of what is taught. If we are teaching about some concrete
thing, a plant, a machine, we should be sure that the child sees the
essential points, should be sure that the main principles enter his
consciousness. We should find out by questioning whether he really does
clearly understand what we are trying to get him to understand. Often we
think a pupil or student has forgotten, when the fact is that he never
really knew the thing which we wished to have him remember.

The first requisite to memory, then, is to _know in the first place_. If
we wish to remember knowledge, the knowledge must be seen in the
clearest light, really _be_ knowledge, at the outset. Few people ever
really learn how to learn. They never see anything clearly, they never
stick to a point till it is apprehended in all its relations and
bearings; consequently they forget, largely because they never really
knew in the fullest sense.

Most teaching is too abstract. The teacher uses words that have no
meaning to the pupil. Too much teaching deals with things indirectly. We
study _about_ things instead of studying things. In geography, for
example, we study about the earth, getting our information from a book.
We read about land formations, river courses, erosion, etc., when
instead we should study these objects and processes themselves. The
first thing in memory, then, is clear apprehension, clear understanding,
vivid and intense impression.

(2) The second thing necessary to memory is to repeat the experience.
First we must get a clear impression, then we must repeat the experience
if we would retain it. It is a mistake to believe that if we have once
understood a thing, we will always thereafter remember it. We must think
our experiences over again if we wish to fix them for permanent
retention.

We must organize our experience. To organize experience means to think
it over in its helpful relations. In memory, one idea arouses another.
When we have one idea, what other idea will this arouse? It