The Tree-Dwellers Part 22

_Lesson XXVI._ The suggestions in this lesson, together with those under _Basketry_, pp. 138-139, are probably all that are required.

_Lesson XXVII._ Let the child suggest other uses to which fire might have been put than those named here. Let him also suggest other ways in which food might have been cooked accidentally. Encourage him to make a connected story which will embody what he has thought. Lead him to discover some of the advantages that arise from the use of cooked food.

Reference: Katharine E. Dopp, "Some Steps in the Evolution of Social Occupations," III., IV., _The Elementary School Teacher_, March and April, 1903.

_Lesson XXVIII._ The purpose of this lesson is to supply an experience that will pave the way to an understanding of cooperative action.

_Lesson XXIX._ This lesson ill.u.s.trates the way in which leisure hours were used so as to secure not merely recreation, but a training for the Serious activities of life. The child will readily appreciate the significance of the primitive dance, for it is closely related to his own spontaneous play.

Reference: Katharine E. Dopp, _The Place of Industries in Elementary Education_, pp. 25-34.

_Lesson x.x.x._ This lesson explains one very important reason for wearing ornaments. The child's instinctive love of ornaments may be utilized to train him in habits of industry just as easily as the same process took place in the development of the race. Really beautiful necklaces and bracelets may be made by children, if they take pains in stringing seeds of various sorts in such alternations as to give pleasing effects. It is worth the while to encourage the child to see the beautiful in nature and to train him to adapt nature's forms so as to secure still more pleasing effects.

Reference: Katharine E. Dopp, _The Place of Industries in Elementary Education_, pp. 25, 27, 115.

_Lessons x.x.xI. and x.x.xII._ These lessons serve the purpose of making the transition from the mild, equable climate which characterized the early part of the mid-Pleistocene period to the colder climate of the later part of the period. The early part is the age which is characterized in this book. The later part will be treated in the next book. (For information regarding the animals referred to, see _Supplementary Facts_, pp. 143 and 146.)

_Lesson x.x.xIII._ This lesson is intended to still further satisfy the child regarding the questions which will probably arise in his mind from the first, and which were partially satisfied then. The attempt has been made in all cases where it has seemed possible, to speak frankly and directly to the child. Had the aim been merely to please him, to excite him by dramatic stories, it could have been done in a much easier way.

The simple and plain statements of fact have been made so as to enable the child to _understand_. The suggested activities, together with other normal forms of work and play, furnish sufficiently rich emotional reactions. In the light of the racial experiences embodied in the stories, these emotional reactions maintain their normal function as the most powerful factor in the education of the child.

[Ill.u.s.tration]