PEBBLE
1437
PEDAGOGICS
COLLARED PECCARY
Peb'ble, a small, round, water-worn stone of any kind, but with jewelers sometimes agates — agates being frequently found as loose pebbles in streams, those of Scotland being designated as Scotch pebbles. Deposits of pebbles occur among the rocks of all periods; but the older pebbles are seldom loose; they are generally cemented together by iron oxide, lime or silica. Pecan. See HICKORY. Pec'cary, a small pig-like animal inhabiting the forests of the New World. There
are two species. The more northern or collared peccary occurs as far north as Red River in Arkansas, and ranges south to Rio Negro in Patagonia. This species is about three feet long; it occurs singly or in small herds of eight or ten, and is comparatively harmless. The white-lipped peccary is about forty inches long, and, like the collared peccary, is covered with thick, bristly hair. Its range is between Paraguay and British Honduras. They occur in herds of fifty to one hundred or more, and are dangerous when excited. Both kinds live on roots, fruits, worms and the like. In cultivated districts they are destructive to crops.
Peck, Harry Thurs'ton, a critic, author and language scholar, was born in 1856 at Stamford, Conn. In 1881 he graduated from Columbia University, where in 1888 he became professor of Latin and, after several years, instructor in Sanskrit and Latin. Professor Peck was an editor of Harper's Classical Dictionary, The International Encyclopedia and the New International Encyclopaedia. He is editor of The Bookman, and is the author of many reviews and of The Semitic Theory of Creation; Suetonius; A Manual of Latin Pronunciation; The Personal Equation; a volume of verse entitled Gray stone and Porphyry; What is Good English? and The Adventures of Mabel.
Pedagogics (ped-d-goj'lks). The term pedagogics as now used embraces the whole field of education, though formerly it was restricted to the formal phases of the subject, as school organization, methodology and the philosophy of education.
There are certain subconscious forces always at work in the education of the youth as well as of the adult, which in a general way may be denominated his environments. These are the environments of the age as well as of the community. The movements and sentiments of the world at large often affect the youth in a profound manner. This is more true in these days
of rapid transit and intercontinental telegraphic communication than formerly. Great economic, political, international and social movements in any part of the globe quickly attract the attention of the reading youth, provoking more or less sympathetic discussion, with consequent enlightenment and enlargement of conceptions of the problems involved. Thus the world-spirit of an age exercises influence in the education of the youth, particularly among civilized nations.
In like manner the institutions of one's own country and community, including every private and public interest which touches their lives, are active factors in the intellectual and moral development of the people. The community-spirit, though influenced largely by the world-spirit has a distinct and positive character of its own that in certain directions is often more potent than the formal educational machinery of the schoolroom. It affects the- ideals, language, occupations, tastes, manners and customs of every one in such a way that he easily reveals his locality wherever he goes. The various institutions of civilization — church, home, press, scientific and professional associations, political and fraternal organizations, commercial and industrial unions, each of them making a more or less formal attempt at education in certain lines — conspire to educate the masses of the people of all classes and of all ages. The fact that these different forces often are antagonistic to each other does not in any way lessen their efficiency as educational factors.
It will readily be conceded that, however universal and effective these influences may be, at best they accomplish little in systematic development of the activities of the child. They serve rather to contribute a continuous stream of varied information, to stimulate interest, to shape sentiment and to influence conduct.
The systematic development of the activities of the child, which is the true end of formal education, can be accomplished only by the directing influence of an individual will; a will which sets up an ideal which the child is to realize and then proceeds in a methodical way to help it realize that ideal. Herein is found the specific function of the teacher. For this purpose the school is organized, equipped and maintained. It anticipates the larger life of the community and of the adult by so developing his activities as to fit him for the wider sphere of action to which he is destined. It strives to give that freedom in thought and action which will make him independent, self-reliant and successful in the affairs of life.
All the activities of the child emanate from the will. The will performs a double function. It sets up ideals and then sets about to realize them. In childhood the imitative impulse is strong, and the child
