We might seek the differences of the pupils in the
schoolroom in still another direction. We niight ask
16 229



PSYCHOLOGY AND THE TEACHER

about their mental equipment. There may be one child
who has never seen green grass or a cow or a sunset^ and
another child who has traveled with his parents over the
globe. One child may have been brought up in the slums,
another in fashionable quarters. Moreover, we do not
need the contrast of extremes. Even in the same sphere
of external life the one child brought up in the father's
library under the personal supervision of considerate par-
ents, the other brought up in a nursery under silly care-
takers may show no less contrast of psychical equipment.
Careful statistical inquiries have frequently been made.
The children who entered the school were examined as to
the things which they had seen and heard and knew, and
much valuable information was gained from that. But
while all this goes on in the midst of the pupil's mind, it
can hardly be called a trait of his mind as such. It is es-
sentially a sociological problem to inquire what material
has been gathered by a child before he enters the school.
Certainly careful notice must, be taken of it for the class-
work. It would be absurd to presuppose in the instruc-
tion acquaintance with ideas which have never before
reached the child's mind. But the teacher's interest in this
kind of differences among his pupils is not psychological
but pedagogical.
