semble one another are usually so grouped that their images mutually aid one another in recall. As I think of Christmas giving, I recall the observance of this act in the island of Porto Rico. There the gift-giving occurs at the anniversary of the coming of the wise men from the East, who came with gifts to Him whose star they saw in the east. I can yet in memory see the grassfilled boxes outside the doors of the peasants, and the simple faith of a childhood that believes the wise men will come on the backs of Resemblance donkeys. If a child has been naughty, the donkeys eat the grass and leave the box empty. If, on the contrary, the child has been good, the fragrant grass becomes the depository of the gifts that the wise men bear for those that are worthy. While I write this, a flood of similar observances in all parts of the world is recalled, and while I ponder upon the world-wide custom, my heart catches itself with a great joy as I recall the One in whose honor all this is done. This is but a type of a form of association that knits together in memory vast groups of related images. A wise teacher always seeks to establish association by resemblance. (3) Things that in some manner suggest opposition or contrast are generally so grouped in memory that they mutually recall each other. Contrast How full our lives are of contradictory things that thrust themselves forward in association. Upon Thanksgiving Day, when we had our home dinners, how common was the remark, "I wish every family in the city might to-day have as good a meal." It was our own comfort in association with the needs of others that caused us thus to recall the two together. The fabric of our thought is filled with these contrasted pictures of sorrow and joy, of pleasure and pain, of health and sickness, of right and wrong, of life and death. The Bible itself is largely a record of the conflict between two great opposing forces, good and evil, God and the evil one. Good teaching notes this form of association, and endeavors to impress truth by positive ideas of what truth is, and by negative ideas of what it is not. There is thus a basis in this law for positive teaching and for negative teaching. We do what is right by knowing what the right is, and also by knowing what it is not. One finds in these natural laws of association most important guidance in teaching. The wise. teacher will use his materials of instruction in such a way as to occasion in the mind large groups of related truths, bound together by every law of association through which the mind operates. In this way each new truth becomes a part of a system of thought. It is enriched, and it enriches by every proper association thus established. There are schemes of association that are devised to trick the memory into grouping things that are not naturally related. They are called memory systems. They employ some form of mnemonics to take the place of a natural law. From all these keep yourself free. If they have merit, it is due to their use of natural laws, which had better be used instead. If they are opposed to these laws, they are in the end pernicious. Nothing can be devised that is quite so useful as the laws God has set in the soul. Let us discover these laws and follow them. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. For testing one's grasp of the subject, and Consider the value of directness and of simple language in teaching. What things in your experience as a pupil in the Sunday-school do you recall most vividly? What suggestion does this offer to you? If fatigue has something to do with memory results, has it also something to do with teaching? What will the amount of sleep you secure Saturday night have to do with your usefulness as a teacher the next day? How do you secure repetition without at the same time resorting to the cramming process in teaching? Just what is the legitimate use of memory? Study your own mind processes to verify the statement that the mind naturally tends to recall former facts of knowledge. Is this recall a pleasurable activity? How do you enrich a fact of knowledge? Outline the laws of association, and write a paragraph based upon your own experience illustrating each law. Write out at length the laws of teaching that a study of the laws of association suggests. What laws of association, not named here, are suggested to you by a study of your own processes of recall? VII THE BUILDING OF IDEALS MEMORY is the soul's storehouse. In it is treasured all our past. From it we draw from time to time the elements of knowledge we need for present use, in determining both what to do with the new perceptions that are constantly forming in the soul, and also what to choose for guidance in conduct. Thus all that we have known is of use in interpreting new knowledge and in directing us to additional knowledge. Knowledge I A new object is presented to my senses. am not aware of having perceived it before. I am surprised. "What is it?" I ask. Memory and New At once all my remembered knowledge that in any way resembles it rushes to my aid. The soul is resolved to subdue it, if it can. It can, if it is not entirely new. But if it is entirely new I cannot answer the inquiry. The boy that for the first time tasted a new kind of candy,-called in the trade a sourball, found it at last sweet, then transparent, then hard, and finally thought he had identified it. He said: "It is sweet ice." This was the best he could do with it. |