etimes blunder back to my early impression that any
given portion of the earth's surface is constructed upon a skeleton
consisting of two crossed bars, terminating in arrowheads which pin
the cardinal points into place; and if I want to find any desired
point of the compass, I am inclined to throw myself flat on my nose,
my head due north, and my outstretched arms seeking the east and west
respectively.

For in the schoolroom, as far as the study of the map went, we began
with the symbol and stuck to the symbol. No teacher of geography I
ever had, except the master I referred to, took the pains to ascertain
whether I had any sense of the facts for which the symbols stood.
Outside the study of maps, geography consisted of statistics: tables
of population, imports and exports, manufactures, and degrees of
temperature; dimensions of rivers, mountains, and political states;
with lists of minerals, plants, and plagues native to any given part
of the globe. The only part of the whole subject that meant anything
to me was the description of the aspect of foreign lands, and the
manners and customs of their peoples. The relation of physiography to
human history--what might be called the moral of geography--was not
taught at all, or was touched upon in an unimpressive manner. The
prevalence of this defect in the teaching of school geography is borne
out by the surprise of the college freshman, who remarked to the
professor of geology that it was curious to note how all the big
rivers and harbors on the Atlantic coastal plain occurred in the
neighborhood of large cities! A little instruction in the elements of
chartography--a little practice in the use of the compass and the
spirit level, a topographical map of the town common, an excursion
with a road map--would have given me a fat round earth in place of my
paper ghost; would have illumined the one dark alley in my school
life.

CHAPTER XI

"MY COUNTRY"

The public school has done its best for us foreigners, and for the
country, when it has made us into good Americans. I am glad it is mine
to tell how the miracle was wrought in one case. You should be glad to
hear of it, you born Americans; for it is the story of the growth of
your country; of the flocking of your brothers and sisters from the
far ends of the earth to the flag you love; of the recruiting of your
armies of workers, thinkers, and leaders. And you will be glad to hear
of it, my comrades in adoption; f