them, and looked at him with mild curiosity. But, after standing before them for
a few moments, he suddenly withdrew, as had been arranged by the instructor.
The class were then asked to write such a description of the stranger as would
enable a person who had never seen him to identify him. But so poor had been
the observation of the class that they ascribed to him clothes of four different
colors, eyes and hair each of three different colors, a tie of many different hues,
height ranging from five feet and four inches to over six feet, age from twenty-
eight to forty-five years, and many other details as wide of the mark. Nor is it
probable that this particular class was below the average in the power of
perception.
School Training in Perception.—The school can do much in training the
perception. But to accomplish this, the child must constantly be brought into
immediate contact with the physical world about him and taught to observe.
Books must not be substituted for things. Definitions must not take the place of
experiment or discovery. Geography and nature study should be taught largely
out of doors, and the lessons assigned should take the child into the open for
observation and investigation. All things that live and grow, the sky and clouds,
the sunset colors, the brown of upturned soil, the smell of the clover field, or the
new mown hay, the sounds of a summer night, the distinguishing marks by
which to identify each family of common birds or breed of cattle—these and a
thousand other things that appeal to us from the simplest environment afford a
rich opportunity for training the perception. And he who has learned to observe,
and who is alert to the appeal of nature, has no small part of his education
already assured.
6. PROBLEMS IN OBSERVATION AND INTROSPECTION
- Test your power of observation by walking rapidly past a well-filled store
window and then seeing how many of the objects you can name. - Suppose a tailor, a bootblack, a physician, and a detective are standing on the
street corner as you pass by. What will each one be most likely to observe about
you? Why? - Observe carefully green trees at a distance of a few rods; a quarter of a mile; a
mile; several miles. Describe differences (1) in color, (2) in brightness, or light,
and (3) in detail. - How many common birds can you identify? How many kinds of trees? Of