On circus day the children, again, have a common interest
which affords the teacher a supreme opportunity. The day has been
anticipated by the teacher, and the pupils have cause to wonder how and
whence she ever accumulated such a wealth of pictures of animal life.
All day long they are regaled with a subjective menagerie, and when they
attend the circus in the evening they astonish their parents by the
extent and accuracy of their information. They know the animals by name,
their habitat, their habits, their food, and their uses. In short, they
seemed to have compassed a working knowledge of the animal kingdom in a
single day through the skill of the teacher who knows how to make the
school reenforce their life interests.
=The quality of life.=--If we now extend the scope of common interests
that belong in the category with the snow and the animals, we shall
readily see that the analogy of the filtration-plant holds good in the
entire regime of the vitalized school. But we must never lose sight of
the additional fact that the quality of life that issues from the school
is far better because of its passage through the school. The volume may
be less, through unfortunate leakage, but the quality is so much better
that its value to society is enhanced a hundred- or a thousand-fold. The
people who pass through the school have learned a common language, have
been imbued with a common purpose, have learned how to live and work in
hearty accord, have come to revere a common flag, and have become
citizens of a common country.
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