The Newtown bee., 1909-03-12

hAih HtNtseNHtT Nt NetNHNea1 Ah kHN | Geological Society of Amelica, the l American Geographical Society, and in an original membership in the Association of American Ge0graph- CTS, In 1906 he was elected an Ilon- 0rary Corresponding Member of the Brisbane Branch of the Royal Geo. graphical Society of Australasia.
 The Dodge series of geographles sets q new standard for geographic teat-books and marks a new era in 1 geographic study. These works have brought order out of chaos and iron, q new view point lead the pupil by q simpler, because a more definite. way to an understanding of this longtime neglected branch of science. Geo. grapy, once a dry-as-dust treatise on various and often wholly unrelated facts, has become . gradually unfold- ing and an intensely interesting yet practical story of the earth andman's relation to 1t; story fascinating alike to teacher and pupil. Prof Dodge, . scientist of training, saw the need of a definite course: 6 teacher by choice he knew the best way to reach the child: and a writer by nature, he blazed the way. His books teach the science according. to new and enlightening method. They make clear the meaning of geo. graphy in itsbroadest sense. Through them the teacher is awakened 10 new life and the pupil reused to new ef- fort. Geography is presented 10 the student according to a fixed, definite plan. The elementary geography is planned as the introduction of the pupil into the science of which it treats, and here the home geography aids him to become familiar with the method of study that will make his later work easy and profitable. The childs attention is drawn first to the familiar sights of his everyday life and to their interpretation and then IS carried almost imperceptibly to the conception of things that lie without his bounds. The observ- ational side of the work is made prominent. So, learning first of his relations to the life that pulsates in his own immediate neighborhood, he is soon launched upon the wider phases of his study. He comes now to know the interdependence of diff ferent communities within his own country and later the commercial and industrial interdependence of communities in the various countries of the globe. In following this line of study the pupi. finds the text con- tinually emphasizing the lives and occupations of the people, and he ab-
 sorbs the idea that geography is a study that goes far toward explaining the wherefore of the daily lives of humanity. Casual relations in the elementary book are brought out by fhductive reasoning from conse- quences back to causes. Thus the child is led to see the relationship of facts, and step by step to trace the connection of consequences and causes.
 in the advanced geography, as in i the book that precedes it, causal re-
 lations form the groundwork uf the
 treatment. Basic principles are
 shown to underlie geography and hu-
 man activity no matter in what part
 of the world they are found. Thus
 built up on a basis of physiography the subject acquires in the mind of
 the advanced pupil the unity and sig nificance so desirable for this study. 1 The reasoning in the advanced book
 is deductive, leading from causes to
 consequences, and developing the
 pupil in the way of logical inference.
 The text brings out the relations of physiography to human life and in-
 dustry, showing the dependence of 1 the latter upon the former. The life
 of each continent is carefully con-
 sidered, and the characteristic feat
 ures of the various grand divisions are brought into comparison by we'll
 selected review questions. An exten-
 sive range of practical information
 is placed within reach of the child in
 a form that assures it's retention and
 use in the sears following school life.
 In this work triple maps of each con-
 tinent are repeated, the series con-
 sisting of physical map, a political
 map more detailed in treatment than
 that of the elementary, and a com
 mercial map that gives a splendid
 general idea of land and water trade
 routes and the distribution of pro-
 ducts. Numerous other small maps
 reveal staries of earth. air and water.
 The diagrammatic maps are a delight
 in themselves. In an attractive, as
 well as a con prehensive mare., they