es? Of
wild flowers? Of weeds?

5. Observe the work of an elementary school for the purpose of
determining:

a. Whether the instruction in geography, nature study, agriculture,
etc., calls for the use of the eyes, ears and fingers.

b. Whether definitions are used in place of first-hand information in
any subjects.

c. Whether the assignment of lessons to pupils includes work that would
require the use of the senses, especially out of doors.

d. Whether the work offered in arithmetic demands the use of the senses
as well as the reason.

e. Whether the language lessons make use of the power of observation.

CHAPTER VIII

MENTAL IMAGES AND IDEAS

As you sit thinking, a company of you together, your thoughts run in
many diverse lines. Yet with all this diversity, your minds possess this
common characteristic: _Though your thinking all takes place in what we
call the present moment, it goes on largely in terms of past
experiences._

1. THE PART PLAYED BY PAST EXPERIENCE

PRESENT THINKING DEPENDS ON PAST EXPERIENCE.--Images or ideas of things
you have seen or heard or felt; of things you have thought of before and
which now recur to you; of things you remember, such as names, dates,
places, events; of things that you do not remember as a part of your
past at all, but that belong to it nevertheless--these are the things
which form a large part of your mental stream, and which give content to
your thinking. You may think of a thing that is going on now, or of one
that is to occur in the future; but, after all, you are dependent on
your past experience for the material which you put into your thinking
of the present moment.

Indeed, nothing can enter your present thinking which does not link
itself to something in your past experience. The savage Indian in the
primeval forest never thought about killing a deer with a rifle merely
by pulling a trigger, or of turning a battery of machine guns on his
enemies to annihilate them--none of these things were related to his
past experience; hence he could not think in such terms.

THE PRESENT INTERPRETED BY THE PAST.--Not only can we not think at all
except in terms of our past experience, but even if we could, the
present would be meaningless to us; for the present is interpreted in
the light of the past. The sedate man of affairs who decries athletic
sports, and has never taken part in them, cannot understand the wild
enthusiasm which prevails between rival