in an upper class of a grammar school said Pfefferberg, the
name of a beerhouse near by, and for all Berg was a place of
amusement. This would cause an entire group of geographical
ideas to miscarry. Others knowing the words pond or lake
only from artificial ponds or lakes in the park, thought these
words designated water holders, which might or might not
have water in them. A preliminary survey showed that many
children in each city school had never seen important monu-
ments, squares, gardens, etc., near their own home and school-
house, and few knew the important features of their city at
large. With the method of geographical instruction in vogue
that begins with the most immediate surroundings and widens
in concentric circles to city, country, fatherland, etc., these
gaps in knowledge made havoc. School walks and excursions,
object-lesson material, as well as the subject-matter of reading,
writing, etc., should be regulated by the results of such inquiry.
This circular, which was accompanied by a list of points for
inquiry, ended by invoking general and hearty personal coöper-
ation. It was not sufficient to have seen a hare, a squirrel, etc.,
but the hare must have been seen running wild, the squirrel
in a tree, sheep grazing, the stork on its nest, the swan swim-
ming, chickens with the hen, the lark must be singing, the
butterfly, snail, lark, etc., must be in a natural environment.
The returns for 13 of the 84 schools of Berlin were worthless.
Other tests suggested but not reported on were colors, knowl-
edge of money, weights, and measures how many have seen a
soldier, sailor, peasant, Jew, Moor, or a shoemaker, carpenter,
plasterer, watchmaker, printer, painter, etc., at work; how
many knew how bread was made out of grain; where stock-
ings came from; how many could repeat correctly a spoken
sentence, say a poem by heart, sing something, repeat a musical
note, had attended a concert, have a cat, dog, or bird, etc.
As an essential object of these inquiries was to distinguish
to school from those

the concepts which children brories

acquired there, returns made some weeks or months after the
children entered school had little value, yet were worked up
with the rest. The very slight interest shown by teachers in
making these inquiries was also remarked. As only about one
third of a minute for each question to each child was the time
taken, there could be no collateral questioning, so that confu-
sion and misunderstanding no doubt invalidated many returns.
The sources of error to be constantly guarded against are
errors in counting, imagination, or embarrassment of the chil-
dren. When the answers were taken in class nearly twice as
many children asserted knowledge of the concept as when they
were taken in groups of 8 to 10. Nearly half the boys and
more than half the girls on entering school had never seen to
know by name any one of the following conspicuous objects
in Berlin: Lustgarten, Unter den Linden, Wilhelm Platz, Gens-
darmenmarkt, or the Brandenburg Gate. From the large num-
ber of returns, those from 2238 children just entering school
seem to have been pretty complete for 75 questions; but other
returns were usable for a part of the questions, and some for
other questions, so that in the tables the number of children
is recorded on the uniform basis of 10,000. Arranged in the
order of frequency the first Berlin table is as follows:

Thus, e.g., out of 10,000 children, 9026 had the idea of dwell-

ings, while but 527 had any idea of the Botanical Garden.

The same returns otherwise presented are as follows :

This table shows that out of 10,000 boys, 7478 on entering

the Berlin schools have an idea of the number two; out of

10,000 girls, 7380 have it; out of 10,000 children of both sexes

indiscriminately, 7436 have it, etc. Here the concepts are