A Charlotte Mason Moment:
“There are two rational ways of teaching Geography. The first is the inferential method, a good deal in vogue at the present time; by it the pupil learns certain geographical principles which he is expected to apply universally. This method seems to me defective for two reasons. It is apt to be misleading as in every particular case the general principle is open to modifications; also, local color and personal and historical interests are wanting and the scholar does not form an intellectual and imaginative conception of the region he is learning about.
The second which might be called the panoramic method unrolls the landscape of the world, region by region, before the eyes of the scholar with in every region its own conditions of climate, its productions, its people, their industries and their history. This way of teaching the most delightful of all subjects has the effect of giving to a map of a country or region the brilliancy of color and the wealth of detail which a panorama might afford, together with a sense of proportion and a knowledge of general principles.
I believe that pictures are not of a very great use in this study. We all know that the pictures which abide with us are those which the imagination constructs from written descriptions.”
(Home Education by Charlotte M. Vol. 6, pp. 227-228)
