stering the new
experiences.

VALUE OF PREPARATION

=A. Aids the Understanding.=--The main advantage of this preparatory
work is that it brings into clear consciousness that group of ideas and
feelings best suited to give meaning to the new presentation. Without
it, the pupil may not understand, or only partially understand, or
entirely misunderstand the lesson. (1) He may not understand the new
matter at all because he does not bring any related facts from his past
experience to bear upon it. Multiplication of decimals would in all
probability be a merely mechanical process if the significance of
decimals and the operation of multiplying fractions were not brought to
bear upon it, the pupil not understanding it at all as a rational
process. (2) He may only partially understand the new matter because he
does not see clearly the relation between his old ideas and the new
facts, or because he does not bring to the new facts a sufficient
equipment of old ideas to make them meaningful. The adverbial objective
would be imperfectly understood if it were not shown that its functions
are exactly parallel with those of the adverb. The pupil would have only
a partial understanding of it. (3) He may entirely misunderstand the new
facts because he uses wrong old experiences to give them meaning. Such
was evidently the difficulty in the case of the young pupil who, after a
lesson on the equator, described it as a menagerie lion running around
the earth. Many of the absurd answers that a pupil gives are due to his
failure to use the correct old ideas to interpret the new facts. He has
misunderstood because his mind was not prepared by making the proper
apperceiving ideas explicit.

=B. Saves Time.=--There is the further advantage of economy of time,
when an adequate preparation of the mind has been made. When the
appropriate ideas are definitely in the forefront of consciousness, they
seize upon kindred impressions as soon as these are presented and give
them meaning. On the other hand, when sufficient preparation has not
been made, time must be taken during the presentation of the new problem
to go back in search of those experiences necessary to make it
meaningful. Frequent interruptions and consequent waste of time will be
inevitable. Time will be saved by having the apperceiving ideas ready
and active.

=C. Provides for Review.=--One of the most important values of the
preparatory step is the opportunity given for the revi