In the first place,
his knowledge extends indefinitely beyond the range of the
pupil's acquaintance. It involves principles which are beyond
the immature pupil's understanding and interest. In and of
itself, it may no more represent the living world of the pupil's
experience than the astronomer's knowledge of Mars represents a
baby's acquaintance with the room in which he stays. In the
second place, the method of organization of the material of
achieved scholarship differs from that of the beginner. It is
not true that the experience of the young is unorganized -- that
it consists of isolated scraps. But it is organized in
connection with direct practical centers of interest. The
child's home is, for example, the organizing center of his
geographical knowledge. His own movements about the locality,
his journeys abroad, the tales of his friends, give the ties
which hold his items of information together. But the geography
of the geographer, of the one who has already developed the
implications of these smaller experiences, is organized on the
basis of the relationship which the various facts bear to one
another -- not the relations which they bear to his house, bodily
movements, and friends. To the one who is learned, subject
matter is extensive, accurately defined, and logically
interrelated. To the one who is learning, it is fluid, partial,
and connected through his personal occupations.
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