plex stands out prominently, the orange is something to eat. If the child is in a playful mood, another element of meaning relevant to that situation stands out, the orange is something to roll. In the process of experience many meanings get firmly associated together into one system, or concept. Within this system, any one meaning may quickly and more or less automatically suggest others along the line of relevancy to our problem. When, in thinking, a concept is brought before the mind, thought moves rapidly through the complex of meanings bound together in the concept until it comes to the one that is relevant to, or suggestive of, the proper reaction or the proper connection of thought. The vital work is all done at one little center, namely, the concept. The gain in efficiency is analogous to that which Ericsson introduced into naval warfare by mounting guns on a revolving turret so that they could swing easily and rapidly about and be fired in any direction without having to turn the whole vessel around.

(3) The increased efficiency of the logical concept.

It has already been pointed out that the logical concept is superior to the psychological as a tool of thought on account of the fact that the meanings have been made explicit through reflection and are thus more available for rapid and accurate transitions of thought. This point ought to be more clearly seen in the light of the preceding discussion.

In time of emergency it is not only well to have the appropriate tool to use, but also to know exactly where it is and to be able to lay hands on it at once. A carpenter may have all the tools that are necessary to do a certain piece of work, but it makes a vast difference to his efficiency whether his hammer is in the barn, his chisel in the attic, his plane in the tool shed, his ax out in the woods, etc., and he has to hunt them up when he wants them; or whether each is in the proper place in a compact tool chest or cabinet. In one's stock of psychological concepts, he may actually have the meanings that are necessary to carry through success

fully a line of thought which shall solve his problem; but those meanings are much more available for use and tremendously increase efficiency if they are all closely knit together in a logical concept and he is conscious of the exact place and significance of each one of them.

Logical concepts resulting from a vital thinking process and representing an actual organization of meanings for one's self cannot fail to increase the flexibility, freedom, and reach of one's thinking power in any field in which they are relevant. It becomes, then, a very important matter educationally both that children acquire logical concepts and that they acquire them in such a way that they become dynamic elements in thinking rather than empty or vague symbols merely. The next chapter will discuss in more detail some of the educational principles which follow from our psychology of the concept.

THE CONCEPT AND INSTRUCTION

1. THE CONCEPT IS NOT THE GOAL OF INSTRUCTION, IT IS TO BE ACQUIRED FOR USE.

(1) The concept a tool, not an end.

It is sometimes said that the concept is the goal of instruction. Is this view justified by the psychology of the concept just worked out? Concepts are necessary elements of technique in the thinking process. If the child is to be skilful in thinking, it is evident that instruction must concern itself with the task of building up a rich supply of concepts, and the process must be carried on until logical concepts are attained. But from the point of view of the thinking process, the logical concept, in the development of which so much thinking must be done, is not itself the goal. It is developed for the sake of use in solving further problems or in the control of action more efficiently. Only from *the point of view that education is concerned with the task of supplying the child with a stock of tools, which, at a later time, when he goes out into life, he is going to use, could the concept be viewed as the goal of instruction.

(2) Concepts to be acquired for use.

A better view of the function of education insists that the child must not only be supplied with a stock of tools, but that he must also be trained to an appreciation and understanding of their use and that he must have some practice in applying them. Application of the concept is as important a phase of instruction as acquisition. No father would think that he had done his duty by a son whom he expected to train up as a carpenter when he had put into his hands a complete outfit of tools and had explained their precise

nature. The boy would have to have some practice in their use also. So it is with the concepts of the various school subjects. They are only tools of thought or of action, and instruction must concern itself not alone with their acquisition but also with practice in their application. Modern psychology would teach that even if acquisition of these concepts were the sole aim, yet this acquisition could not be made perfect except through use.

2. CONCEPTS CANNOT BE GIVEN TO THE CHILD READY MADE. Our whole discussion of the concept has tended to emphasize the fact that concepts grow from a vague background of experience into more and more definite form as the result of a process of reconstruction. This process of reconstruction is itself conditioned, being initiated by some feeling of need engendered through the inadequacy of existing concepts. There is then no royal road of imparting concepts by short-cut methods that is in harmony with the normal processes of growth. Concepts cannot be handed out as ready-made, finished products by the teacher and appropriated by the child. They do not thus become his concepts. He must go through the process of getting vague ideas first and having these vague ideas repeatedly reconstructed.

This reconstruction becomes dynamic and real only when it is motivated by some feeling of need on his part. Teaching is as much concerned with the development of new needs on the part of the child as it is with the imparting of the facts. The process of reconstructing concepts cannot go on in a vital fashion any faster than it is made necessary by the development of new needs which make reconstructions of experience necessary. This development of new needs is in part dependent upon the natural development of the child and in part upon skilful instruction with that end definitely in view. Any process of instruction that does undertake to impart to the child ready-made concepts only builds up the habit on the part of the child of juggling with

symbols, concerning which reference has already been made. 3. INSTRUCTION WHICH AIMS AT THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTS MUST CULMINATE IN LOGICAL CONCEPTS. We have seen that thinking is most adequate when it goes on in terms of logical concepts. That aspect of instruction which concerns itself with the perfection of the tools of thinking must not, then, stop short of the attainment of logical concepts. It is essential that the child be confronted with situations which make the reflective reconstruction of his concepts necessary. One of the chief merits of Socrates' method was that he made the subjects of his questioning keenly feel the inadequacy of their own ideas. At the same time they got suggestions as to the lines along which their concepts needed reconstruction, and they became receptive to any ideas which might aid them in the solution of their problem.

Not only to know, but also to know that you know gives vigor and incisiveness to thinking. There is tremendous added power coming from the use of the best tools. Our age differs from the stone age in large part by virtue of the fact that we have superior tools in every department of life's activities. In perfecting the thought process of the child we must not stop short of giving him the most powerful tools,-logical concepts.

4. THE SCHOOL MUST CONCERN ITSELF WITH THE PROBLEM OF BUILDING UP A RICH BACKGROUND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN THE MIND OF THE CHILD.

(1) Argument from their basic character.

As psychological concepts are the matrix out of which logical concepts will come as the result of reflection and further observation, and as breakdowns in these concepts are going to furnish the problems determinative of the course of reconstruction, it is important that the child have a rich supply of concepts which spring quite directly out of his own experiences. This supply of psychological con