The case is precisely analogous to that of
the father, who walks with the step of a man, while his little son is by
his side, wearying and exhausting himself with fruitless efforts to
reach his feet as far, and to move them as rapidly as a full-grown man.
But to show what I mean by subdividing a difficult process so as to make
each step simple, I will take a case which may serve as an example. I
will suppose that the teacher of a common school undertakes to show his
boys, who, we will suppose, are acquainted with nothing but elementary
arithmetic, how longitude is determined by means of the eclipses of
Jupiter's satellites; not a very simple question, but still one which,
like all others, may be, merely by the power of the subdivision alluded
to, easily explained. I will suppose that the subject has come up at a
general exercise; perhaps the question was asked in writing by one of
the older boys. I will present the explanation chiefly in the form of
question and answer, that it may be seen that the steps are so short
that the boys may take them themselves.
"Which way," asks the teacher, "are the Rocky Mountains from us?"
"West," answer two or three of the boys.
In such cases as this, it is very desirable that the answers should be
general, so that throughout the school there should be a spirited
interest in the questions and replies. This will never be the case if a
small number of the boys only take part in the answers, and many
teachers complain that when they try this experiment they can seldom
induce many of the pupils to take a part.
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