this
ponderous volume effectively is one of the important steps in teaching
them how to study. Here, too, it is easy to be pedantic. As I shall
insist strenuously a little later, the chief factor in insuring a
transfer of training from one subject to another is to leave in the
pupil's mind a distinct consciousness that the method that he has been
trained to follow is worth while,--that it gets results. The dictionary
habit is likely to begin and end within the schoolroom unless steps are
taken to insure the operation of this factor. It is easy to overwork the
dictionary and to use it fruitlessly, in so great a measure, in fact,
that the pupil will never want to see a dictionary again.

Aside from the use of the dictionary, is the use of the helps that
modern books provide for finding the information that may be
desired,--indices, tables of contents, marginal and cross-references,
and the like. These, again, are most significant in the work of the
upper grades and the high school, and here again if we wish the skill
that is developed in their use to be transferred, we must take pains to
see that the pupil really appreciates their value,--that he realizes
their time-saving and energy-saving functions. I do not know that there
is any better way to do this than to let him flounder around without
them for a little so that his sense of their value may be enhanced by
contrast.

III

Another important step emphasized by the recent writers is the need for
training children to pick out the significant features in the text or
portion of the text that they are reading. This, of course, is work that
is to be undertaken from the very moment that they begin to use books.
How to do it effectively is a puzzling problem and one that will amply
repay study and experimentation by the individual teacher. Much studying
of lessons by teachers and pupils together will help, provided that the
exercise is spirited and vital, and is not looked upon by the pupils as
an easy way of getting out of recitation work. McMurry strongly
recommends the marking of books to indicate the topic sentences and the
other salient features. Personally, I am sure from my own experience
that the assignment is all-important here, and that study questions and
problems which can be answered or solved by reference to the text will
help matters very much; but care must, of course, be taken that the
continued use of such questions does not preclude the pupil's own
ma