^l ^' . ^^" ^ / ^ Sf^ =^ * ^^' V . .r.^^ iS . , . . .:^T.;/^^^ .^. ,^ o.:- -oo^^^.>; "-^0^,^ .# %, '..^eii ^^^^- O. *y .^^ C" . .^^^ ^^ % ?^^!i;;:^%'°" ^^^^i:^^^' '*^ ..s^'\^^ -^ EVERYDAY PROBLEMS IN TEACHING Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/everydayproblemsOOoshe EVERYDAY PROBLEMS IN TEACHING /V/^'SHEA M Professor of Education, The University of Wisconsin isa INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS n\ Copyright 1912 The Bobbs-Merrill Company PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTER^S BROOKLYN. N. Y^ i: i r g:CU309940 68 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS door exercise constantly in order to avoid more or less serious physical disturbance. Shortly after the principal issued her manifesto regarding the grass-plot, this boy was caught tres- passing by one of the teachers. Other boys were very near the danger line, but he was the only one who had actually offended. He was told by his teacher that he could not leave his room during any of the recesses for a month. He declared that he was not to blame for his apparently disobedient act ; the boys had pushed him against his will on to the lawn, which statement was, in all likelihood, true, for the boys with whom he played were pretty rough and fond of adventure. Quite thoughtlessly they wanted to see what would happen if they could get this boy caught on forbidden ground. How- ever, they did not feel moved to acknowledge that they were at fault ; and there was really no occasion for them to confess that they were guilty, for the teacher did not ask them, and the spirit of fair play was not highly developed in the school. After the boy had lost his recesses for two or three days, his parents realized that if this penalty should be long continued it would work ruin to the health of the victim. So they remonstrated with the teacher, but the latter resisted their petition for clemency, saying that the boy had broken a rule of FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 69 the school, and he must suffer the penalty for dis- obedience. After one week, the parents removed him from the school, and he remained out for a while, being idle and wholly discontented during the time. At this writing he has just gone back to his work, and the matter has been adjusted so that he is not deprived of his recesses. But the parents are in mortal terror lest he will fall into trouble again, which will bring on another season of strain and stress and conflict with the teacher. Experienced reader, you who have been through many school-room trials, what would you have done in a case of this sort? Would it have been better for the principal to have defended her pupils against the demands of the street commissioner, and appealed to the citizens to assist her in resisting an unjust requirement, which made the problem of gov- ernment in that school a most trying one? If no re- lief from a serious burden could be had in this way, should the teacher have deferred to the parents' judgment regarding the treatment of the boy in question, substituting another punishment for the deprivation of his recesses? The teacher proceeded according to the doctrine of natural consequences, in which so many people have faith to-day, — if a pupil can not be at large and obey the rules of the school, then he must be confined so that he will not 70 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS have an opportunity to break these rules. If the teacher had yielded to the demands of the parents, and let the boy go free, would it have been possible for her to maintain effective control over her school thereafter? Would it have been morally injurious to the boy to be pardoned, and thus to be relieved from the necessity of paying penalties for his mis- deeds, v^hen his parents begged mercy for him? Even if the infliction of this penalty should prove a hardship, and be in one sense an injustice, would the boy not take particular pains in the future to avoid getting into trouble again ? Suppose we attack this problem from another point of view. The boy maintained he was really Securing the co-op- not at fault ; he was the victim eration of pnpils in of the mischievous action of his cases of discipline playmates. Suppose the teacher or the principal had brought the matter before the school as a whole, taking as much time as might have been necessary in order to discuss it fully and frank- ly. First, the entire school could have been led to ap- preciate that the teacher in making her rules had simply obeyed instructions from the authorities of the city. Certainly pupils from the fourth grade on can be guided to see that when authorities make commands, even if they seem to be unjust, they must nevertheless be obeyed, unless those who made theni FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 71 can be convinced that they are not fair, and so should be withdrawn. If it seemed clear that the order issued by the street superintendent was unfair, and that it ought to be rescinded, could not the prin- cipal have led the school to view the thing in a rea- sonably calm way, taking due account of the com- missioner's side of the case as well as their own? Could she not then have helped her pupils to see that a good plan might be to draw up a petition to be sent to the authorities, urging a reconsideration of the order? Meanwhile the pupils should obey the command, awaiting the outcome of their petition; this would seem reasonable to every one. If any in- dividual pupil failed to comply, then in fair play he should be made to suffer for lack of conformity to the rule, which was agreed to by the school as a whole, because it was reasonable and necessary. If any group of pupils should be the cause of getting one of their number into trouble, then in fair play again, that group should bear the penalty of the misdeed, rather than the particular individual who was made the instrument of their disobedience. But some teachers will ask, "How can the guilty group be detected, and their misdeed located upon them?" In any school where there is a reasonably wholesome sentiment, boys will insist upon fair play in such situations as the one in question. This J2 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS is a factor in discipline that can be counted on al- ways. The instinct of the young from the eighth or ninth year forward is for square dealing, in a sort of crude way it is true; but nevertheless, they will demand fair play in the simple life on the play- ground. Even groups of boys who have trans- gressed the conventions and laws of the community in which they live, and have been sent to reform schools and other institutions — even such groups re- tain the elemental sense of fair play among them- selves. One can find in the city and rural schools in every part of the country principals and teachers who Pupils should not be know how to appeal to their cliallenged to a con- pupils, especially in the test of wits in discipline higher grades, so that the general spirit of square dealing can be made to pre- dominate in their group life. Of course, the views of boys and girls regarding fair play in subtle situa- tions is not so keen as it is among adults ordinarily, but it is sufficient in order to avoid most of the difficulties which occur on playgrounds, when the attempt is made to control the relations of boys al- together from the outside. When the principal makes the pupils in a school conscious that they are being watched, and if they are detected in error they will be punished, he is liable to develop in them the FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 73 tendency to match their wits against his. If they can get the start of him, they regard it as perfectly justifiable. One who has opportunity to listen to the spontaneous talk of pupils, especially of boys when they are away from school, can not escape being con- vinced that much of our discipline is of the nature of a challenge to pupils to get the better of us if they can. The writer knows schools in which the sentiment of fair play has become so strong in the sixth, sev- enth, and eighth grades that no group of rough fel- lows could get an innocent boy into trouble, and lie about their conduct, without drawing upon them- selves the condemnation of their fellows. The pupils as a whole know what is going on. They can tell what individuals or groups are likely to create a dis- turbance, even if the teacher can not detect them. And when an appeal is made to this sense of fair play, without any moralizing, but simply in a hearty, vigorous way, a principal or teacher can avoid such a playground tragedy as was described at the begin- ning of this chapter. If the boy in question had real- ly been the victim of a group, that group would have acknowledged their guilt. If they had offended but had claimed innocence, the school as a whole could ordinarily have been trusted to act effectively in re- gard to the matter. 74 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS Before taking final leave of this special topic, we should notice a very important trait of childhood, Group which is often the cause of much trouble in loyalty the school-room. And to illustrate with a concrete instance: a ten-year-old boy, upon return- ing home from school recently, complained bitterly of his teacher because she had kept him after hours as a punishment for not giving her some facts he possessed regarding the misconduct of one of his playmates. He stubbornly refused to tell on his companion, and the teacher as stubbornly insisted that he would have to stay every night after school for a half-hour, until he became docile and obeyed her commands. He felt it would ''queer" him with the boys if he should "tattle" on one of the group, and she thought he was wilfully disobedient, because he did not help her to find the offender against the law and order of the school. This is a typical case of discipline arising in many schools, and it is often a source of serious discomfiture alike to the teacher and to the pupils. Any one who knows the by-laws of boy life un- derstands that "tattling" is regarded as about the worst possible offense in a member of a school or a gang. One of the first lessons which groups of boys, and often girls as well, teach a new-comer is that he must stand by the crowd, and not "tell" on any FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 75 one. He must keep its secrets against all inquisitors, whether teacher, minister, or policeman. To be loyal to the members of your set is a funda- mental law of any group, and this has proven of tremendous service in the development of so- ciety. However, this thing is doubtless carried too far often, by boys especially, who keep secrets which they ought to make public for the good of their crowd, as well as for effective discipline in the school and on the street. But it does not seem to be a wise course for a teacher to go after an individual boy, and try to overcome his impulse to shield an offender who hap- pens to be a member of his "crowd". It would probably prove much more satisfactory to all con- cerned if the teacher would deal with the group as a whole, and endeavor to develop therein a keen sense of fair play in the relations of the pupils to herself, so that any individual would not feel he would lose caste with his set if he should give pub- licity to offenses against reasonable rules of order, but rather he would gain with the crowd. It surely is possible for a school group to be made to appre- ciate that necessary rules must be insisted upon, and it will be better for every one if these are observed without any failure. If, then, one member of the group will not conform to the rules, but under- y(i EVERYDAY PROBLEMS handedly breaks them, his conduct must be brought to the light in order that he may receive his just deserts. A mode of procedure Hke this will preserve the group's feeling of loyalty among its members, and it will at the same time enable the teacher to se- cure the cooperation of her pupils in bringing of- fenders to justice, without any particular child be- ing singled out as a "tittle-tattle". This sort of pro- cedure is being followed with the greatest success in newsboys' associations and similar groups, in which the boys are less responsive than are school pupils to an appeal to the sense of fair play. Many of these problems we have been consider- ing arise from the fact that pupils do not have the Gaining the re- proper respect for the teacher, spect of pupils whatever may be the reason for this. Have you ever happened upon a group of lively boys who were expressing themselves freely regarding you and your work? If you have heard them find fault with you, what has been your atti- tude in the matter, alike toward the boys and toward the faults of which they complain? Have you acted on the assumption that your pupils o.ught to respect you anyway, simply be'cause you are in the position of teacher? Have you argued that if they do not respect you it is because they have not been properly trained, or that they are naturally vicious? And FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM ^^ have you attempted to develop different attitudes in them by punishing them, or perhaps by delivering a general lecture before your school upon the sub- ject of "Respect for Teachers"? What would you do in a case of this kind? A group of boys averaging eleven years of age are classmates in the sixth grade of a public school in a western city. They come from the "best" homes in that city. They have from infancy listened to conversation upon a great variety of topics relating to current events, to historical incidents, to art and music, to the phenomena of nature, to ethical and moral conduct, and the like. They have had oppor- tunity to engage in all sorts of games and plays. Most of the boys have had gymnastic apparatus in their own homes, in the use of which they have de- veloped skill and courage. They have organized foot-ball and base-ball teams. Taken as a group they can ride horseback and on a bicycle; skate, coast, play hockey; row, swim, and fish; shoot straight with the bow and the gun ; use tools with consider- able success; — in short they can "do things". But they do not know as much arithmetic or history, or geography as they should; and they do not know how to write good English, as they will need to do in maturity; and their parents send them to school to have these deficiencies corrected. 78 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS The teacher in this sixth grade has not had so broad and varied experiences as these boys have had. She can not use tools effectively, or row, or swim, or shoot, or ride a horse or a bicycle ; she can not per- form on gymnastic apparatus, or play foot-ball or base-ball; she is not good on the ice or the snow; and what is most serious of all, she has not read so widely as have most of these boys, and she has not listened to as cultivated conversation. So they are really superior to her in all these respects. She is not so strong physically as most of the boys, nor in as vigorous health, partly because of the severity of her labor, and also because of the serious way in which she takes her work, due largely to the fact that she is rather conscious of her limitations, so that she feels the necessity of being somewhat stern and austere in order to prevent any expression of disrespect from her pupils. The boys comment upon her physical weakness, and some of them remark unpleasantly upon her Why pupils lose their lack of varied experience in respect for a teacher life. She has not traveled as much as a few of them have ; and when she teaches them geography she is dependent usually upon the formal statements of the book, while some of her pupils have seen the objects and places described, and they can fill in with concrete, first-hand facts FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 79 which the teacher, most unfortunately, tends to re- press, because she does not know them herself. She is inclined to criticize pupils if they do not recite the words of the book, and stop at that. These boys have discovered, whether by their own insight or as a result of the comments of injudicious parents, that the teacher takes this attitude probably because of her shortcomings. Only one consequence can fol- low from this ; her pupils are rapidly losing their re- spect for her. This teacher shows up at her worst when she at- tempts to lead these boys in physical exercises in the school. She tries to set them a model for their imi- tation ; but they are much more expert in the use of their arms and bodies than is she. They are quite ready in exhibiting their superiority, but she is self- conscious in respect to her abilities, and she scolds them for their ^'smartness." Inevitably this arouses antagonism and resistance in them, and they are looking for occasions to show their disrespect for her. The situation is an unfortunate one for all con- cerned. The teacher is really having a hard time of it, and the pupils are not profiting greatly by their school experiences. Indeed, some of them are being injured, because they sit in their seats day after day in this indocile attitude, which is likely to become a fixed habit with them. Nothing could be 8o EVERYDAY PROBLEMS more disastrous to any individual than to become habitually disrespectful toward those in authority. What course should the teacher follow in this par- ticular case? It seems that the first thing for her to Gaining the assistance do would be to become per- of capable pupils fectly frank with her pupils in acknowledging her limitations, and in recognizing their superiority in any direction in which they can excel her. Take, for example, a recitation in geog- raphy. If she should freely and without embar- rassment say to her class that she had not seen Gibraltar, for instance, while she knew members of the class had seen it; and if she should cheerfully in- vite these latter ones to tell all they knew about it — to become for the time being teachers of the class on that topic — she would score several points in her favor. She would stand a good chance of winning the confidence and good will of her pupils; and they would be likely to admire her for her frankness, instead of finding fault with her for her lack of ex- perience. Moreover, the class would profit more from such instruction than from what she is able to give them. A teacher should endeavor early to dis- cover the activities In the school In which she can be a true leader, and win the respect of her pupils, and then she should concentrate her efforts upon these matters. Frankness and good sense in reference to FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 8i failings will help greatly to solve such a situation as the one that has been described ; while the exhibition of anger, faultfinding, and suspicion will be fatal, alike to discipline and to teaching. A teacher often loses the good will and respect of his pupils because he is not fair or consistent in his School-room injustice demands. Take, for example, breeds disrespect the following concrete in- stances. The writer was recently an observer in the eighth grade of a city school. The teacher was a graduate of an eastern college for women, and she appeared to be well-informed upon the subjects she was teaching. But she had got the impression from some source that accuracy and speed were greatly to be desired in education, and she strove to attain these desirable qualities in much of her work, es- pecially in mathematics, spelling, and all written ex- ercises. The outcome of her method was especially apparent in her class in arithmetic. She dictated problems to her pupils, first warning them that she would give them but twenty minutes in which to write and solve seven of them. While the pupils were working, she urged them onward every three or four minutes in such terms as, "make haste" ; ''you are not working fast enough" ; 'T don't want any laggards in this school"; ''som.e of you might better be back in the seventh grade than here." S2 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS Other stimulating remarks like these were thrown out during the progress of the exercise. At the completion of the twenty minutes, all work ceased. The papers were exchanged and marked. Then they were returned to their respective authors, and the errors computed. It was found that most of the pupils made at least one error; and some of them made nothing but errors. Then the teacher "sailed into" these latter unhappy individuals. She asked them why they did not take time enough to do their work accurately. She said : "If there is anything I can't stand it is mistakes. One who makes mistakes isn't good for anything. If you can't do work more accurately you better go back to the third or fourth grade, and learn how to do it." After the dismissal of the school for the day, the writer overheard two boys talking about the teacher. They said : "She yells at you if you don't hurry. Then if you do hurry and make mistakes, she yells at you because you hurry. There is no way you can keep her from yelling at you, anyway," and so on. The moral seems to be that if one must "yell" at pupils, he should try to have his "yelling" all along the same line, so that they will not get the impres- sion that he is inconsistent and unjust. A certain grammar school in a large city is situ- ated on two very busy and very noisy streets. Even FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 83 Other when the windows are closed, one can hear cases ^i^Q. clatter of hoofs, the rattle of wagons, and the jargon of drivers and pedestrians. The sixth-grade room in this school is so located that it gets all the noise of the street when the windows are open; and even when they are shut it is impossible to keep it out. The teacher in this room usually sits behind her desk and dictates words in spelling, gives explanations when they are asked for ; and in short, she conducts all her work from this position. The children in the rear of the room often can not hear what is said. If they raise their hands as a sign that they have not understood, she charges them with being inattentive, and holds them up to the scorn and ridicule of their classmates. She makes it so unpleasant for them if they complain about her voice that they usually hesitate to inform her when they can not understand her, and they generally pre- fer not to hear what she says, than to take the chances of being scolded if they raise their hands. As a result the children in the rear often make mis- takes, which are due solely to the fact that they can not hear the words which are pronounced, or the directions which are given. Then they are upbraided because they make errors. Still another case may be mentioned. A certain teacher, who has been teaching for many years, has 84 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS fallen into the habit of holding examinations for three or four days at the opening of school each year. She makes these examinations "stiff", be- cause she says she does not want any children in her grade "who haven't brains." Twenty minutes after the pupils are in her room on the first day of school, she gives an examination in grammar. She asks of these eighth-grade pupils numerous ques- tions which could not be answered by their parents, some of whom are "highly educated." These pu- pils have, of course, not been thinking about gram- mar for at least nine weeks. What brains they pos- sess have lost the grammatical habit more or less during the nine weeks of out-of-door life, but the teacher has refreshed herself on these important matters, so that she may be ready to display her learning before her pupils. Following grammar comes one examination after another. As might be expected, there are a good many failures. Even the best pupils make numerous errors. Then comes the season of strain and stress, when the teacher tells the pupils what she thinks about them. We have it on the best of authority that for at least twelve years this teacher has told every new class that they were the most ignorant good-for-nothings she had ever had. She threatens to exclude a third or a half of the class, sending FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 85 them back one or two or three grades "where they belong". Usually several pupils are prevented from going on in her room; and once she refuses to re- ceive a pupil, nothing will do but that he must spend a whole year some place else. In the past, the prin- cipal and the superintendent have intervened in cer- tain cases but without success. They say the teacher is so strong in most ways that they think it better she should be humored in this one regard. Some teachers think it is a sign of their own high standards if they find fault with the work of the teachers who have preceded them, and humiliate every new class that comes to them. In discussing this matter recently a prominent city superintendent said : "I think I have succeeded in impressing upon each one of my teachers the conception that it is their business to take any pupil sent to them and teach him according to his needs, and not to find fault with what he has previously had. If one of my teachers gives an examination at the opening of school, she does it for the purpose of finding out how she is to instruct her class, rather than to com- plain over what they do not know. No teacher in my force ever tells me but once how poorly her children have been taught by the teachers who have preceded her." It would seem that this would be a good policy for all superintendents to adopt, 86 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS The teacher last referred to seems to find pleasure in takmg the heart out of some of her pupils. She Feeling^s of success, tells them they do not amount not of failure to anything, and probably never will. This attitude, frequently to be noted in teach- ers, suggests a very important principle of disci- pline. One point of view respecting it may be pre- sented in a quotation from an educational article in which a professor gives expression to some pessi- mistic views respecting certain tendencies in mod- ern schools. He says in part : "Teachers do not make pupils feel the seriousness of their work so much as they did when I began teaching. In those days we never hesitated to make a pupil bear the misfortunes of his conduct, or his failure to prepare his work properly. We used to think that it was even a better discipline of pupils to make them conscious of their failures than to reward them for their successes. Now teachers seem to take a different view of this matter. And I should like to ask how pupils are to gain in strength if they are not made conscious of their shortcomings so they can guard against them and rise above them. I would rather a boy of mine should learn that if he ever makes a mistake he is going to hear from it, than to have his successful work made too prominent. The method that was in FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 87 fashion when I started teaching produced strong men, and I doubt whether the modern methods can accomplish so much." As to the question whether it is better to make a pupil more conscious of his failures than of his suc- cesses in order to develop his moral and intellectual vigor, the present writer takes a view contrary to that of the author quoted above. It is a simple principle of human nature, that if you magnify one's failures you are more likely to weaken than to strengthen him. Let a person endeavor to speak to his fellow citizens, say fifteen times, and fail every time. It is practically certain that he will fail the sixteenth time and every time thereafter, unless he ceases trying for a period, and has experiences which will give him feelings of success. As long as he is possessed by the fear of failure, the chances are he will fail. Nothing could be more simple than this, or more freely illustrated in the happenings of daily life. What we want to do as a rule is to fill the minds of our pupils with the thought of themselves as suc- ceeding in whatever they undertake. Of course, if they are careless or indifferent or reckless, and in consequence thereof fail in what they take up, then they must temporarily be made exceedingly con- scious of their failures in order that they may exer- 88 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS cise caution, and give proper attention to the task to be performed. But as speedily as possible the consciousness of failure must be supplanted by that of success. A child who is not succeeding in spell- ing, say, so that he is required to go to the foot of his class every day for a time, is likely to become dominated by the fixed idea that he can not stay at the top no matter what he may do, and he will in- evitably be hai-med by getting into this frame of mind. If there is any way to give him the feeling of himself succeeding in competition with his fellows, the teacher must make full use of this. She must arouse the consciousness of failure only as a pre- liminary to putting greater emphasis upon success. Suppose one should review the work of a single day in any school, and should find that most of what the teacher has said has related to failure of one sort or another, and that in her relations with individual children she has constantly emphasized their faults. What would probably be the outcome upon pupils of that day in school? Let any teacher go over his own experience in this regard, and see whether he has been helped most by encouraging or by discour- aging suggestions. Who has done him the most good, the friend who has talked to him about his successes, or the one who has constantly held be- fore him his weaknesses? In this connection a FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 89 teacher might consider whether she will help or will injure pupils by prophesying failure in much of what they undertake to do. The principle of making success and good behavior more prominent than the opposite in any school- As a rule, correc- room suggests a vital problem tion should be in- of discipline which different dividual and private teachers solve in different ways, as illustrated in the following cases. In a city in the Middle West, two teachers have in their care pupils of about the same age and of the same general character. Some of the pupils in both these classes come from homes where courtesy and gen- tleness prevail, while other pupils come from homes of a notably different sort. So the problems of dis- cipline in these rooms are unusually difficult. The children from the so-called better homes are accus- tomed to a good deal of freedom, and they do not always know how to interpret the attitude of the teacher who chastises them for activities which are thought to be entirely proper in their own homes, and for which they are often commended by their parents and friends. The children from the so- called poorer homes are rather callous to the ordi- nary disciplinary measures of the teacher; and her complaints and comments on their behavior slip off their minds as easily as water runs off a duck's back. 90 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS The teachers who have charge of these classes at present show very different conceptions of how their problems should be solved. In one room the teacher always gives publicity to each case of correction. She corrects any individual pupil in such a way that every one in the room can hear her criticisms. She has the habit of speaking to the school as a whole, usually at the opening exercises in the morning, of the typical sorts of misconduct which should be guarded against. Being under strain and stress, her voice reflects her tension so that pupils usually feel she is complaining. The effect of this method upon the school is to give prominence to the work of cor- rection, so that this is really more conspicuous than the instruction itself. The pupils all feel it, though they are not always explicitly conscious of each case of discipline. But nevertheless the air is surcharged with criticism, faultfinding, and the administering of penalties; and these are the matters pupils talk about outside of school. The second teacher referred to pursues an alto- gether different method in the discipline of her It should also room. She rarely speaks to a pupil be quiet by way of correction before the en- tire class. If she finds it necessary to *'talk to" any child during the progress of the work, she goes to his seat, and speaks to him as privately and quietly as FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 91 possible. Of course, the class may realize that disci- pline is being administered, but it is accomplished so inconspicuously that it is rather impressive than ir- ritating. Quietness and privacy are the predomi- nant characteristics of this method. Now, quietude in the leader of a group always suggests quietude to those who are being led. And the opposite of this is equally true. Much of the discipline of this room occurs when most of the pupils are not present at all. During the day the teacher jots down the names of those who need to be restrained in respect to some tendency, and she invites them to remain with her after school. She then has a conference with each one privately, so that the full force of what she says may be spent on him alone. In nine cases out of ten probably — though not in every instance — this will have a much better effect than to try to disci- pline an individual when there are fifty onlookers, who usually sympathize with the victim. In the lat- ter case, the force of criticism or exhortation is apt to be nullified; though if the group be in thorough sympathy with the teacher's program, and reinforce her commands, the result will be more beneficial than it could be under a different method. But the constant public presentation of criticism will fail in the end to secure the right sort of response from the school as a whole. Occasionally it should be used 92 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS in serious cases of discipline, and then it may be a valuable aid to the teacher. As a general proposition, it can be stated unquali- fiedly that he is the best disciplinarian who deals most directly with individual offenders, and he is the least successful who makes all his discipline so conspicuous that every one is affected by it, thus creating an atmosphere of unrest and disorder. The chief aim of the teacher should be to make the le- gitimate work of the school most prominent. His voice should be heard in praise and instruction far more frequently and predominantly than in fault- finding and correction. Often teachers get into the habit of complaining about restlessness and noise in a room, charging the entire group with misconduct, when only certain individuals are at fault. This is wrong ; it tends to spread disorder in the room, and to impress it upon the minds of pupils as the really vital thing in a school. Ask a pupil in such a school what has happened during any day, and he will be likely to speak of cases of discipline, and of the an- gry expressions of the teacher. It is human nature perhaps to follow the plan of criticizing and com- plaining publicly when matters are not going right in a school-room; but one must fight against the tendency, and deliberately cultivate a different mode of procedure in this important phase of teaching. FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 93 Before leaving the subject of fair play in the school-room, something should be said regarding the The problem of chief source of conflict between communication in the majority of teachers and the school-room their pupils, though it has been referred to in the preceding chapter. In all times teachers have been troubled with the problem of communication. Young teachers especially are gen- erally much perplexed over the apparently uncon- trollable impulse of children to "whisper" in the school-room. It does not take long for a novice even to realize that if the work of the school is to be ac- complished, pupils must concentrate their attention upon the tasks in hand ; which is not likely to be the case if they commune with one another whenever they "feel like it". The chances are that in such communication they will discuss topics foreign to their studies. In the consideration of this subject at a recent teachers' convention, all those who spoke upon it maintained that when communication is permitted during school hours, the attention of the children is usually distracted, because they do not talk about their work. The interests they wish to visit about lie outside of the school, and concern the incidental happenings in the school-room. Often they will communicate regarding some peculiarity of the teacher in manner or dress, or some trait of 94 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS a classmate which tends to excite hostiHty or ridi- cule. Probably most teachers will agree that the legitimate work of the school does not stimulate children to communicate with one another as do most extra-school activities. Herein lies the chief difficulty in respect to communication in the school- room. We ought at the outset to appreciate that the im- pulse to communicate is one of the deepest and most The impulse to urgent tendencies in child life. Evi- communicate dently nature says to a human be- ing: "Share your experiences with your fel- lows. Tell them all that happens to you, and try to get them to tell you their experiences. Talk over the traits of other people with your friends and as- sociates. Keep nothing to yourself, and do not let other people conceal their experiences from you. By making everything public in this way, you will give others the benefits of your experience, and you will at the same time profit by their experiences, so that whenever anything valuable has been discov- ered all may profit by it. Also, if you express your- self freely regarding the traits of those around you, you will as a rule help to conserve what is best and to eliminate what is objectionable in the conduct of people. If every one will talk about these mat- ters freely, a sort of public opinion will be estab- FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 95 lished, and this will effectually control the behavior of most persons to whom it relates. If you do not communicate with others respecting their experi- ences and your own, and if you do not present your point of view regarding other people and get their opinions regarding you, then every one will be likely to go on in his own way, and it will be im- possible to determine what really is permissible in people's actions, and in what respects they ought to restrain themselves.'* Any teacher who will observe a child from two years on, can not fail to note that his most absorb- ing ambition is to have people react upon what he does. If he builds a toy house in his nursery, he teases every one in his home to come and examine it. What he wants is their approval; but if they should condemn it, or be indifferent regarding it, it would be a sign to him that he ought to abandon that sort of activity. To give a better example: suppose he catches a bird, and begins to pull off its wings, and he calls to every one around to ob- serve him. Suppose people react in a hostile way to his performance. Let them show in their faces, in their bodily attitudes, and in what they say that they disapprove of this conduct. The chances are that the child will not try it again ; in many cases one ex- perience will be sufficient. But suppose that instead 96 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS of condemning him for his action, the people praise him for it. Suppose they laugh at what he does, and so make him feel that he is doing a clever thing that others enjoy, which is just what is likely to happen in a typical "gang". In such a case the boy will re- gard his act as a means of entertainment for others, and one way of gaining distinction for himself; and he will be likely to repeat it every time he gets a chance, when he thinks there is any one around to appreciate it. The instances cited are very simple, commonplace illustrations of the passion of the child to have others view his thoughts and his actions in order that he may discover which ones will please the people around him and bring distinction to himself, and which ones will arouse the hostility of others, or win him a bad reputation. Of course, the young child is not very sensitive regarding his "reputation," ex- cept in respect to a very few matters, such as being a "coward," or being "mean," and so on. But as he develops he becomes increasingly anxious to have a good reputation in respect to more and more subtle qualities of body, intellect, and character, and he is always eager to express himself in the presence of others so as to secure their approval for the acts which he regards as most worth while. It can be seen that without this trait social adjustment would FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 97 be impossible. If a child should live to himself alone, without caring to express himself in the pres- ence of others, or to have them express themselves in his presence, he could not become a social being. Communication between people is the fundamental requirement for the development of social feeling and social ability. Before the child comes to school he is usually given great freedom in sharing his experiences with Outside of school ^^^ose around him. Parents or- the child is encour- dinarily allow their children to ag^ed to commiini- communicate freely on every cate freely topic which interests them, and to solicit communications from their playmates. Perhaps at table the child may be given some lessons in restraining his passion to express himself. But in modern American life children are granted a large measure of freedom to express themselves at table, and in all other situations in which they are commonly placed. Indeed, children who tell their experiences readily are regarded with more favor in America than are those who are inhibited in this respect. Free communication is, as a matter of fact, generally rewarded outside of the school-room, so the tendency is actually fostered in children, at least in present-day American homes. Thus when the child comes to school he is really without much, if 98 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS any, experience which has taught him while in the presence of others to "hold his tongue". Fortunately the atmosphere of the school-room is usually different from that of his home or of the street, and this tends to restrain him in a measure. The more he feels the dignity of the teacher and the school-room, the more inclined he is to be self- restrained, and to become attentive to the expres- sions of the teacher and of his associates. In most familiar situations outside of the school, the child spontaneously expresses himself as the occasion re- quires; but in the class-room, where the whole regime suggests that action should be based upon the initiative of the teacher, he is apt to concentrate his attention upon the teacher as a leader, instead of heedlessly following his own promptings. In an environment in which he feels perfectly at home, the individual generally seeks to take the lead; but in a new and strange environment the tendency is for him to become a learner. Now, if the teacher can keep him in this attitude, so that he may con- tinue to feel the dignity and importance of the school-room, he will be likely to remain docile, seek- ing constantly to discern the teacher's plans, and striving eagerly to follow her directions. In such a case he will not give much trouble on account of ^'whispering", because he will feel the necessity of FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 99 apprehending the expressions of the teacher and of his associates, whenever the latter are asked by the teacher to express themselves. The best way to control the evils of communica- tion is to keep pupils in a learning, docile attitude. The most effective so that they will be alert always way to control the to the suggestions which the evils of communi- teacher makes, and aim to fol- (^^^^on 1q^ them. If they can be made to see that the regular work of the school is interest- ing, and that it is worth while to master it and to show that they are getting it in the proper way by expressing themselves when they are given oppor- tunity to do so by the teacher, then their communica- tions will be legitimate, because they will concern the proper activities of the school. The problem is one of really making the work of the school dominant in the class-room. In every well-governed school-room pupils are made to feel that the best way to attain distinction is to show a mastery of the regular duties. Doubtless some readers will object to this, because they think it improper to commend a pupil in any way for excellence in the work of the school. But until human nature is fundamentally changed, it will be necessary in order to stimulate pupils to give proper attention to the work of the school and to restrain tendencies hostile thereto, to cause them loo EVERYDAY PROBLEMS to realize that when they do adapt themselves to the regime of the class-room and express themselves effectually regarding it, their faithful and successful work will become known to classmates, to parents, and to others. Possibly their names will be pub- lished in the city paper even, and thus their distinc- tion will go beyond the confines of the school-room. It is certain that harmful communication in the school-room can not be satisfactorily controlled when Devices for ^^^ pupils feel that it is not of much suppressing account to stand well in the regular communica- work. Many teachers resort to all *^°^ sorts of devices to restrain communica- tion, except the most effective one of teaching in such a vital, vigorous way that the interests of the school predominate over those of the life outside. Pupils are made to report at night how many times they have whispered during the day; tasks are assigned as penalties for whispering; the seats of the pupils are shifted about frequently to see if communication can not be restrained by changing seat mates; and often pupils are kept after school for whispering, or whipped for it. But really, punishment can not per- manently restrain communication to any appreciable extent, though it may be the only remedy on certain occasions. But if pupils can not actually whisper, they may nevertheless communicate constantly FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM loi through the eye, or by means of grimace, gesture, "deaf-and-dumb language", or bodily contortion. One may see school-rooms in which certain pupils are communicating constantly, though they may not speak a word to one another. The only way to con- trol such pupils is to get hold of them in some way on the side of their interests; or if this is impossible, to eliminate them from the school-room. Sometimes one finds pupils who can not be made to appreciate the work of the school, and who have a hostile attitude toward it. Such pupils tend to ridicule the school and its work. They may strive to annoy the teacher, and to distract others from their duties. In short, they may try in every way they can to upset the order of the school. They ought to be removed, and put together in a school where their special needs can be properly looked after. The evil of communication in any school-room could be greatly lessened if frequent intervals could be arranged for, during which there could be com- plete freedom for pupils to visit with one another. Suppose that with young children there should be three minutes of visiting after twenty -minute periods of study or recitation. This would serve to release the tension which is developed when pupils can not communicate. During the three-minute intermis- sions, pupils could gratify the passion to express I02 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS themselves spontaneously, and they would then come back to the regular work in a different attitude from that which they will have if kept at their tasks without a break. It could be made to seem reason- able to pupils that if any particular individual could not restrain himself during the period of work, he should forfeit the period of relaxation. If the pupils as a whole will not preserve silence during the working period, then the relaxation period will have to be withdrawn. It is in accordance with human nature that one should deny himself pleas- ure for the moment in order that he may secure it in more abundant measure later on, and it is proper that the teacher should utilize this in the discipline of her school It should be appreciated that harmful communica- tion in the school-room is dependent in large meas- ure on the personality of the teacher. A "weak" per- sonality can not control the spontaneous impulses of the young. It is a simple psychological situation. Pupils come into school bringing with them interests which have engaged their attention outside. If the life of the school-room is not stronger than that without, then they are going to keep on with this extra-school life, even in the class-room. That is to say, they will communicate about it, and will make fun of the situations in the school. We all tend to FAIR PLAY IN SCHOOL-ROOM 103 follow in the lead of a strong personality, while we always try to dominate those weaker than our- selves, or at least we refuse to be led by them. So in the school-room, one must be a leader in a large sense in order to cause pupils to give attention to the legitimate work. One who by nature is lacking in the quality of leadership, which will command the attention and obeisance of pupils, ought to abandon the teaching profession, for otherwise his days will be full of misery. He might succeed admirably in a situation in which the quality of leadership was not essential ; but it is the chief requisite in the suc- cessful control of the school-room. CHAPTER IV TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK The writer has been examining a large number of programs of teachers' associations, with a view to noting what topics are most frequently discussed in our times. In many of them appears the subject, "Teaching Children to Think". Looking up the pro- ceedings of some of the associations for the last few years, and reading what has been said on this topic, it seems that a majority of those who have dis- cussed it maintain that there is some definite for- mula for thinking which can be taught the young. Various rules are given for developing thought in children ; but it will not be worth while to reproduce them here. The present writer believes that prac- tically all of these rules are mainly verbal and formal, and prove useless when applied in the school- room. It is hardly in accord with present-day psy- chology to speak of teaching the potver of thinking, as though It were an art dissociated from the actual processes of thought. AVhen an individual inter- prets any immediate experience in the light of past 104 TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 105 experiences, so that he can adjust himself aright to the new thing, he is thinking in a vital way. Whenever he reacts upon the phenomena occurring about him so that he can trace the causal relations between them, he is thinking. The only function of thought is to organize experience and use it to help one adjust oneself to new situations. Is it impossible, then, to develop in a novice the ability to think, as the phrase is popularly used? necessity the If we can, from the beginning, put a spur to clear pupil in situations where he must dis- thinking cover the vital connections between objects and phenomena in order to adapt himself to them, we can give him a set in the direction of trying always to find true relations. The race has devel- oped the power of thought through endeavoring to secure more complete control over the environment. No one would ever acquire thinking ability unless he were in need of it to gratify his curiosity, or to minister to his wants of one kind or another. Neces- sity is the mother of intellectual acumen. If one should put pupils in a seat and ask them to memorize the words of a text-book; and if he should then test their success in learning by requiring them to repro- duce the words verbatim, he could not arouse gen- uine thinking activity in these pupils, no matter what formulae he might employ. The human mind is not io6 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS built on that plan. The chief reason why pupils do not learn to think as we wish them to is because our teaching situations often do not require thought, in the sense in which we use the terni. Many of our school-room exercises employ verbal memory largely, if not wholly. When a pupil is required to make a box, say, of prescribed dimensions, and for a definite purpose, he has a constant and unvarying standard by which to test the efficiency of his thinking. When he is brought face to face with a concrete situation where things must be made to fit together, or operate to- gether, then he is compelled to think, and he is made sooner or later to realize that he can not go on in a mechanical, verbal way, and come out right. Whenever a person is obliged to make things work, he will think as effectively as it is possible for him to do. If in our teaching we can arrange a program of exercises of this concrete, dynamic character, we can keep pupils thinking up to the limit of their con- stantly enlarging capacity. Really the art of teach- ing consists mainly in realizing this plan to its full- est extent in all studies — in arithmetic, geography, nature study, language, and all the rest. It should be recognized in this connection that some of the greatest thinkers among us have never been trained in the schools; and some of the men one knows TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 107 who have been through all the schools are babes in thinking ability. Of course, these are extreme in- stances, but they illustrate the psychological law in- volved in the problem before us. The more one sees of teaching the more convinced he becomes that the genuinely successful teacher is The supreme the one who knows how to bring pu- test of a good pils to the point where they can see method things as they are, and can discover the causal relations between experiences. In school- rooms where pupils have got into the habit of going to class and reciting memoriter the words and rules they have learned, the skilful teacher will follow them right through, and cause them to deal with concrete cases and illustrations, in order to show whether they actually know what they are talking about, or whether they are just reciting. There is no cut-and-dried method of accomplishing this, but it ought to be the chief concern of teachers from the kindergarten through the university. In this way, pupils may be got into an attitude or habit of think- ing, so that in due time they will, as a matter of course, endeavor to discover the causal connections between all their experiences, which, as we have seen, is the only reason for which thinking has been preserved in the race. Recently the pupils in the junior class of a high io8 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS school were required to write down a list of "forty The test applied important events which hap- to a histoiy lesson pened in European history." They were expected to give the exact date of each event, and the names of the men and women con- nected therewith. It was not asked that any rela- tionship be shown between the different events men- tioned. The whole forty might relate to a particular period, or might concern any one man even, pro- vided the pupils could hunt up forty of his deeds which were of sufficient importance to become mat- ters of record. The aim of the teacher in assigning this task was to compel her pupils to "memorize at least forty events covering the period of European history which had been studied." In executing this task the pupils made constant use of their text-books. They would start looking through the table of contents ; and when they came upon a phrase such as "The Battle of Waterloo", they would make a note of the date and event. Then they would run on until they came across something else that seemed to be an "event," and they would jot it down to be memorized. Frequently the pupils would ask one another, and any older persons to whom they could gain access, whether "The Battle of Waterloo" was really an "event", or what it was. They said the teacher made it absolutely imperative TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 109 that they should get only "events". When some of these pupils V\^ere asked what there was In history besides "events", they were unable to respond. And what is more serious, they were not very much in- terested to find out what else there could be. What they wanted to do was to get the names of forty events in order to meet the test which the teacher would make at the appointed hour. The present writer tried out some of these pupils by asking them what difference there was between a cause in history and an event; and there was not one reasonably satisfactory answer given. The responses indicated that these particular pupils had gained no clear notion of causes operating in European history. They had been impressed mainly with the supreme value of unrelated dates, names and events. Certain of the pupils being observed with refer- ence to their method of performing this task. It was Formal exactness noticed that their chief fear was rather than ef- that they might not get the exact fective thinking ^j^tes. They were sure it would not be satisfactory to say that a given event occurred in such a period or about such a year — for instance, that Alaska was purchased about such a time. The precise year must be memorized for the examina- tion. But it was evident that the exact year for any event would not be permanently remembered. Al- no EVERYDAY PROBLEMS though the class had previously been over these events, it is significant to note that not one pupil in ten could be sure of any date without hunting it up in his text-book or elsewhere. What possible value could it be to these pupils to try to remember forty dates? Was it not a positive injury to right his- torical thinking to require the memorizing of the precise year of an event by novices, since this would be forgotten, and the event itself would not be located in its relation to other events in European history? If the pupils had been asked simply to learn about when, and especially in connection with what related events any event occurred, they would have been more likely to have got a feeling for the relation of important periods to one another. The chief defect in such a lesson as the above, which is typical of much that may be seen in the schools, is that it fails to exalt what is of prime im- portance in the study of the subject in hand. If the teacher had said, "Bring me an account of five events in European history, and show me what led to these events, what followed them, and how Euro- pean life and history were affected by them," she would have drawn the attention of her class to knowledge of genuine value, and within the range of Interest and capacity of pupils In the junior year of the high school. It will not be doubted by any TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK in one who has reflected upon it that the service of history in education is dependent upon the extent to which the abihty is thereby developed in pupils to trace causes and effects in human society. The memorizing of isolated historical events can hardly be of value in any individual's life; and what is of chief consequence, when much work of this sort is required of him, it tends to establish a habit of mind which makes him content with the mere ac- quisition of disjointed facts, which is hostile to the development of thinking ability. While we are considering the teaching of history, attention may be called to the character of the ideas Historical ideas presented, as well as to the method that relate to of presenting them. We wish our every-day life pupils to gain from their work in history some help in thinking straight in respect to matters of contemporary interest in society. But can this be accomplished when instruction relates mainly to war, and but very little to peace? The writer has just come from a conversation with a high-school sophomore regarding his study of his- tory. It was an informal talk about the matters that have interested the boy in the history he has studied in the elementary school, and during his first year in the high school. In this conference the fact that im- pressed the writer most deeply was the boy's strik- 112 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS ing ignorance of the men who had contributed to the literary, esthetic, commercial, educational, and re- ligious development of the race, and particularly of our own country. He is rated as a good student, in both the elementary and the high school, and he probably has gained as much from his history as any of those who have been taught with him; and yet here in the sophomore year of the high school, history is to him principally a record of wars. He knows the names of many of the military heroes of ancient and modern times, and he can talk intelli- gently about the outcome of some of the world's great battles; but in school his attention has been called in only the most casual way to the really vital movements in the history of mankind. He knows something about Napoleon, but practically nothing about Pasteur. He can describe the principal achievements of Wellington; but Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and Gladstone are mere words to him. This boy apparently knows little if anything about the life of the Greek and the Roman people, except such of it as was displayed in their military adventures. He has read somewhere of Raphael and Angelo, but he has no distinct idea what they have contributed to the development of the race. He can not recall that he has ever heard of Pestalozzi, Frobel, or Horace TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 113 Mann ; but he is well up on Washington, Stonewall Jackson, and General Grant. How much longer must we continue to teach history as an account principally of war and military heroes? Is it impossible to interest students of any age in heroes of peace as well as in heroes of war? Can it be that it is more important for a boy tO' know who has fought the battles of a nation than who has contributed to its peaceful development? What would be the loss to the average elementary and high- school student if the tale of war in history should be reduced to one-tenth of the importance which it now occupies in some places, and other interests should receive attention in its stead? If we could train up a generation of boys and girls who knew less about the wars of the world, but much more than they now do about the struggles of man to overcome disease, to subdue the earth through science, to increase the comfort and safety of life, to make education universal — if we could do this, would not our civilization be more stable than it now is ? And would not individuals be more capable than most persons now are of adjusting themselves to a peaceful order in the world, and thinking clearly in respect to the problems which now confront us ? This leads on to the question of teaching pupils 114 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS to think straight in respect to the problems of mod- Lack of effective ern social life. Not long since, the thinking^ 121 civil writer was a guest in a class-room government ^^gre first-year high-school stu- dents were studying civil government. They had memorized verbatim the constitution of the United States ; and at this particular time they were learn- ing the composition of the national congress and its functions. The teacher stated that it was the plan to have classes learn how the state legislature was organized, how its members were chosen, and what part the legislature played in government. Finally, they were to learn the organization of city and town government, following the plan of the study of national and state government. The work was almost wholly a memory exercise on the part of the pupils. In a formal, remote way they analyzed the thing they called government, much as they would dissect a plant or an animal in the biological laboratory. They classified the parts of the governmental organism and described the func- tion of each, but they were not led to appreciate the living whole as it manifests itself in life, and as they are related to it. One sometimes sees a student dissecting a plant who has little knowledge of the conditions under which the plant lives, its provisions for maintaining life, its struggle for existence, and TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 115 the relations which exist between the plant and the animal life about it. The plant is to such a student a rather lifeless thing, without relations, and largely without function. He simply follows a formal rule in separating it into parts, which he describes mechanically according to his formula. If he should see the plant in nature he might be unable to identify it. It is practically certain he could not give its life-history, or tell any significant fact about its con- test for survival, and how it serves or injures man or other creatures. Now, the students in this particular class were studying civil government in some such remote and ineffective way as plants are often studied in labora- tories. They learned the names of offices and their incumbents at the time then pending, and they de- scribed their duties according to the formal method of the text-book. But just what part the congress- man from their district played in determining the welfare of people in their community, as a society and as individuals, they could not tell. The pupils will leave that class without any adequate idea of government as a living, vital, dynamic thing. So far as their study is concerned, they will be quite unable to think clearly concerning the problems of contemporary interest in government; and it is rea- sonable to say that very little has been done for them ii6 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS which will help them to be better citizens, when it comes to deciding any complex question of social action. Here is the way a group of boys about eleven years of age were taught to think effectively in re- Developing clear ^pect to problems in civics. The thinking by a lessons started with observations different method of a voting booth. The boys were of teaching interested in watching the men come to the booth, get their tickets, retire into a private room, emerge therefrom in due course, have their names called out, and their tickets received by the inspectors. The question arose why the men had to go into a private room, and this gave oppor- tunity for a twenty-minute discussion on the ques- tion of corruption in voting, and how people have had to devise some way to prevent bribing voters, or coercing them into voting a certain way. The Australian method of voting was considered ; and t?ie chances of any one stuffing the ballot-box aroused unusual interest. The boys were led to see why it was necessary for every man to have his name on the voting list, and why it should be called out when he deposited his ticket. The following day the tickets left over from the previous day were distributed among the boys, and a discussion was held upon the different offices TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 117 which had to be filled. It was a town election ; and the officers elected were a mayor, several aldermen, several justices of the peace, a clerk, and a treasurer. The boys were greatly interested in determining why each of these officers was needed in the town. Why could not one man attend to all the business? What would be the result if there were no clerk or treasurer or justice of the peace in the town? How is each resident of the town benefited by contribut- ing to the support of these different officers? What would happen if the offices were all abolished? Who is the most important officer in the corporation? For the next day's lesson the boys were asked to mention one or more respects in which their own comfort or safety in their homes or on the streets was dependent upon faithfulness on the part of the various officers of the town. Every boy came to the class with several suggestions of ways in which all citizens were helped through the activities of these officers. Most of the boys agreed that without! water, for instance, furnished by the town and under the charge of a supervisor of waterworks, life would be very different from what it now is in most places. The same is true in respect to light for the streets, homes, and stores, and so on. Next, the boys were led to inquire how these vari- ous officers were supported, who determined what ii8 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS Thinking straight work should be done, how the on the subject of various officers received their taxation ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^_ ^j^.^ j^^ ^^^j^^ to the subject of taxation — usually a most difficult topic for children. But when it is approached from this standpoint, the necessity and the method of raising funds to defray public expense can be made reasonably intelligible even to pupils eleven years of age. In this manner, basing everything that was discussed in the class upon actual situations which children could observe, the government of the town was worked out in detail. At every point questions were raised respecting the danger of officers neg- lecting their duty; the desires of some men to get more than belonged to them ; the necessity for every one to take a hand in seeing that money was not wasted in doing all these things that must be done in every community in order to protect the people and provide for their comfort. All manner of sugges- tions came up in the class regarding ways in which money could be wasted and officers could be unfaith- ful; and as a matter of fact every suggestion made related to forms of corruption which are apt to appear at one time or another in the development of any community. After the organization and government of the city had been gone over in a very concrete way, the TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 119 Tracing govern- question of the relations which mental relations people had to the government of ° ^ the county came up. These pupils had hardly any notion of what the county is, and why there needed to be this unit in government. However, they were led to see that it would be con- venient and more effective to have the people living in a section twenty miles square, say, govern them- selves in certain respects than to have the govern- ment come from some central place in the state or the nation. It was shown that in supervising country schools, for instance, it would be best to have a section called a county, which could be looked after by one man. The teachers in this section could gather together at one place for instruction, and so on. It seemed to be simply a matter of convenience to have the state divided into smaller sections. Then the pupils were led to see that there had to be some general control over the various counties, and we call this a state government. The boys knew that there was one man from the town who had been sent by the people to the capitol of the state, and they were instructed to find out why he was sent there, and what his duties were. They knew there was a governor, and the question arose — What duties has he to perform that are not attended to by the officers in the town or in the county ? Could this I20 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS particular town get along without having any gov- ernmental relations with other towns? Is it neces- sary that there should be some one over the mayors and other officers in all towns? If so, in respect to what matters would he have authority? It was not possible to make every point perfectly clear to these pupils ; but all that was essential was appreciated by them. It became perfectly apparent to them that any one town or county is so closely related in many of its interests to other towns and counties that its welfare will be best promoted if it lives under certain general rules which should apply to them all. These general rules must be determined by people chosen from the various communities, and they must be enforced by some man who will take the part of the mayor in the town. Further, these rules must be interpreted by some persons who will take the part of the justices of the peace and the city judge. There was no ver- bal memorizing in this method of study. The pupils first appreciated the necessity for organization and government, and this made the learning of the names of officers seem simple and natural. Finally, the question was raised whether any one state could get along best without regard to other states. Or do all states have some such rela-^ tions to one another as towns and counties do, which TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 121 require that they should live under certain common rules that should apply to them all ? Once the idea of state government was made clear to the pupils, it was easy enough for them to get the idea of the necessity of a national government. They had no difficulty in working out the main requirements in respect to national government, and the functions of the various officers. It is not too much to say that there was not a barren or dull lesson in this series. And the pupils have acquired an insight into the nature of govern- ment, both local and general, which, if it can be extended as they go through the schools, will be pretty certain to make them intelligent and dynamic when they come to play the role of citizens. The principal characteristic of this teaching was that it made the entire business perfectly reasonable and natural. There were constantly kept before pupils these queries : What rules are necessary in order that people should live together in the best way? Who should make these rules ? How should the people be selected to make them? What should be done to persons who will not observe them? What is nec- esary in order that it may be found out whether a person has broken a rule or not ? And so on. This sort of teaching will not only lead pupils to think straight in regard to government, but it is likely to 122 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS arouse in them a keen interest in the matter, and a disposition to take a hand in it when they shall be given an opportunity so to do. Let us now pursue our principle of clear thinking into the field of mathematics. The writer was recently asked by a teacher in the fifth grade to suggest an explanation of the constant Clear thinking failing of one of her pupils in his in arithmetic arithmetic work. She said he was a bright boy in most subjects ; and he was always in earnest, and eager to get a high standing in his studies. He appeared to be in good health, and was unusually vigorous in his play out-of-doors, so that one would expect him to excel in "reasoning" branches, as the teacher said. In the class in nature study he was easily the brightest pupil. He was alert in observing the essential points in whatever was taken up for study ; and he was ready and accurate in discovering relations between things, and drawing really sound inferences, from what could be seen. In short, he was a thoroughly normal pupil, en- dowed with good physical and mental vigor, and his failure in arithmetic appeared to be a mystery. It should be stated that he was not particularly ready and accurate in the fundamental operations. He was not so quick as some others in his handling of figures, even in the simplest processes. In going TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 123 over his work in school and outside, it was found that he had probably not had enough drill in the rapid use of numbers. He was not so much inter- ested in that kind of thing as he was in work which was more concrete, and which required the use of his hands. True to child nature, he moved along the lines of least resistance; so he went on from grade to grade without becoming facile in handling figures in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. As a result, when he reached the fifth grade and had to work rapidly in order to solve the problems which were assigned him every day, he made fre- quent errors, even in the fundamental operations; with the outcome that he began to feel that he could not avoid making errors. It was the regular thing for him to receive not more than fifty per cent, in his arithmetical work. Naturally he lost his courage in attacking his arithmetic lessons. He began tO' feel that he should fail anyway ; and what was the use of trying? When a pupil reaches this stage in any sub- ject, the chances are he will not progress rapidly. But the principal source of his difficulty in the fifth grade was that he had not acquired the habit of Mere verbal reading his problems so as thoroughly reading of to comprehend what the conditions problems were. He would get a general and hazy impression of the conditions in a problem; and 124 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS then when he came to solve it, the chances were that he would not see the relations in the right way, and so his work would be erroneous. When I became interested in him, I asked him at the outset to read and interpret orally every problem which had been assigned him by his teacher. Out of six problems to be solved the first day I worked with him, he under- stood only one correctly. He had not learned to read problems with sufficient attention to each fac- tor. In an arithmetical problem every word is sig- nificant, while in the ordinary reading lesson it is quite different. This boy could get impressions from his reading lessons readily and with sufficient ac- curacy to meet all requirements; but in arithmetic this may not be enough. The first work which was required of him was to read one problem at a time, and to explain in his own words what the relations in the problem were, and to supplement his interpretation by diagrams whenever possible, which could be easily done in all problems requiring the determination of lengths, areas, volumes, etc. In problems involving opera- tions in weights, measures, money, etc., the boy was asked to illustrate actual relations by using the proper units. In this way he constructed each prob- lem concretely. After a month's work of this kind, there were very few problems encountered, the con- TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 125 ditions of which the boy could not illustrate con- cretely in some way. In the last resort he could by gesture indicate the relations described in his prob- lems. After a few weeks' work of this sort, the boy's improvement in his arithmetic was occasion for re- mark on the part of his teacher and his classmates. He is not yet always accurate in his fundamental operations ; but he has made the beginning of a habit of finding out definitely what a problem means be- fore he attempts to solve it. He can now be set six problems a day to solve, and he will write out in his own words the relations described in each prob- lem. It may be remarked in passing that he has gained much from this experience besides efficient thinking in his arithmetic. It has been a good train- ing for him in reading, for he was required to read with such care and attention in order to grasp the significance of every phrase and even every word that it has given him ability in accurate interpreta- tion that he did not have before. Of course, reading of this sort could be carried too far — so far that it would arrest the child's free- dom in his reading in non-mathematical subjects. But every individual in his daily life needs, at least occasionally, to read selections where the minutest detail must be appreciated with mathematical exact- 126 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS ness. How can this ability be gained more effect- ively than in the accurate reading of arithmetical problems? The writer feels that a teacher should require children from the third grade on to read and interpret problems every day, the aim being to have them acquire a habit of determining precisely what is stated in any given problem. Let us look at the results of mere verbal teach- ing in other phases of arithmetical work. I have Verbal study ^^^^ observing in a certain school- of weights and room in which the teacher has measures as an been endeavoring to teach weights e55:aniple ^^^^ measures to children who have had experience outside with few if any of the units which they have been studying in the school. And how are they studying these units? The teacher had the pupils learn by heart the table of linear measure, as an instance. So far as one could tell, these children had not handled a foot ruler. They certainly had only a dim idea of what a yard measure was ; and a rod and a mile might mean the same thing to them. But they had said over and over again that ''twelve inches make a foot", "three feet make a yard", ''five and a half yards make a rod", and "three hundred twenty rods make a mile". The teacher frequently gave problems like these for drill: "How many inches in one-third of a foot?" TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 127 "In three yards ?" and so on. "How many yards in two rods?" etc. In this work the effort of the chil- dren was to remember their tables, and to perform correctly the multiplication processes given by the teacher. They were not actually imaging any of the situations which the teacher presented. She ap- parently never once thought of asking them to indi- cate the length of a yard, either on the board, or by extending their hands, or in any other way. It did not occur to her as necessary that she should have the children draw a line an inch long, a foot long, and so on. Her principal aim was to have her pupils remember verbal statements they had learned, and apply these in the special, formal situations which she presented. But these situations really did not in- volve any knowledge of actual measurement, only a knowledge of words. The teaching of weights or measures of any sort which does not require pupils to deal with the actual units, so that when they solve a problem they do not think of the result in terms of actual distance, or area, or weight, or size of the measure employed, is defective. Of course, if the pupil has had the actual experience of using units of measure, and constructing higher out of lower units, then he should have experience in solving rapidly problems in which he simply performs the process involved 128 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS without attempting to visualize each factor and the resuks. But care must be taken in the early years to make his arithmetical thinking definite and con- crete, so that he can translate correctly, when need be, the results reached in the solution of his prob- lems. As an aid in this work, he should be required to make diagrams to illustrate all problems involving weights and measures, unless such diagrams should be too complex, which would rarely be the case. In estimating areas, for instance, the pupil should at the outset always make his diagram according to scale. In finding cubical contents this can be done. Chil- dren in the third and fourth grades can easily make drawings illustrating the ratio and size of the dif- ferent units in dry and liquid measure. When a pupil is required to do this work he gains a compre- hension of the meaning of his processes which he can never do if he simply learns tables, and then tries to apply them to situations in which he does not have actually to construct anything. No teacher of arithmetic could fail to be inter- ested in reviewing the changes which have been Clear thinking rnade in text-books on this sub- and useful ject during the past twenty-five problems in years. Perhaps the most signifi- arithmetic ^.^j^^ change which has occurred relates to the character of the problems which pupils TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 129 have been and are now asked to solve. In the olden- time text-book, problems were all of a certain general type form. Pick up a text-book which was in use twenty-five years ago, and you will not find many problems concerning the actual situations in which a pupil would be placed outside of school. The exer- cises were much the same in all the text-books of that time — formal, remote problems in buying and selling, for instance. The articles bought and sold, the price of the same, and the conditions under which the transactions were made were more or less exceptional or unreal. They were not such as pupils would actually have to deal with if they should engage in buying and selling most of the articles used in daily life. Again, there vv^ere prob- lems involving the application of various tables of measurement, of weight, of money, and the special tables relating to masonry, etc. ; but these problems too, as one reads them to-day, seem remote from real life. A pupil might be able to solve the ma- sonry problems given in his book, but be quite help- less when he was presented with an actual masonry problem in the building of his father's house. The writer has been able to see this principle illus- trated in some work done by pupils to-day in schools where the old style text-books are in use, or where teachers set problems of a form.al pattern. In one I30 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS such school, typical of many others in a state in the Middle West, the teacher sets most of the prob- lems to be solved, and not ten per cent, of all those she gives her pupils have any connection with their needs outside of school. She is teaching in a pros- perous farming community, and she could utilize a great many problems relating to agriculture, to the mechanics of the farm, to the cost of the pro- duction of crops, their harvesting, storage, trans- portation, etc. ; but it has not occurred to her that such problems could be or ought to be used in the arithmetic class. In this community the pupils study percentage, taxes, and the like ; but the school trustee has to employ an accountant to make out the tax roll for this district. Farmers whose sons solve type problems in cubic measure build their granaries and their cisterns by guesswork. The arithmetic instruction in the school does not reach out vitally into the practical work of the farm. In a teachers' meeting held recently in the county in which the woman referred to teaches, the fol- Making proWems lowing question was proposed : relate to the pu- "Should the problems in arith- pil's actual needs metic be drawn from the pupil's and experience ^^^ily life, or should they be nu- merical problems given them for the purpose of drilling on the fundamental operations in the ap- TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 131 plication of tables?" It was significant that most of the teachers who attended that meeting had not thought of the possibility or the desirability of draw- ing problems from the pupils' actual experiences out- side of the school. While theoretically they believed that arithmetic should be taught for the purpose of helping the child in his daily needs, still practically they taught it as though it were for the pur- pose of drilling him in formal processes, without employing these in useful ways in actual life. Of course, pupils who were so trained could not fail to gain something which would be of benefit to them in their practical affairs; but it is equally certain that they could get the benefit of drill, and at the same time learn to solve problems which would greatly illumine the situations in which they were placed outside of school. The writer knows of some authors who are at work upon arithmetic text-books especially de- signed for country schools. These authors are drawing all their problems from the operations on the farm, and from interests that are related there- to. For instance, some of the problems relate to the average yield per acre of wheat and other grains throughout the country. This affords an oppor- tunity for excellent drill in long division. At the same time it gives the pupil information which is 132 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS of interest to him, and which he can not get effect- ively in any other way. If he should sit down and learn by heart a table giving the yield per acre of wheat in the different states of the country, it would be a distasteful task for him; but when he works it out arithmetically the results become fixed in his mind, and the information he gets helps to make the process tolerable. The writer has had an interesting experience illus- trating the point involved here. A pupil in the A concrete instance seventh grade of a city school illustrating the had for his lesson one day to vital teaching determine the yield per acre of of arithmetic wheat in the different states of the country. The total acreage and the total yield in each state were given. At the outset he was angry at such a task. He thought it was simply a problem in long division, which he had already learned to dislike, because up to this particular day his problems had all been of the numerical kind. But on this occasion the boy's father went through the process with him; and as they worked they talked about the results, and commented upon the variation in productivity in the different states. This led to a consideration of why one state pro- duces so much more than another state. The boy worked at this task for about forty minutes, which TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 133 was twice as long as he usually applied himself, and he solved all the problems. When he got through he was genuinely interested in his results, and the father asked that other problems of like char- acter be worked out on succeedings evenings, which was done, and with uniform pleasure to the boy. Now, note that he was profiting in at least two ways. He was receiving valuable drill in one of the fundamental processes in arithmetic, and he was ac- quiring information which was of interest and of distinct profit to him. The writer thinks this kind of knowledge can be better given in arithmetic than in geography, though, of course, it is in one sense geographical information. This is perhaps a fit place to remark that many of the most useful problems in arithmetic can be drawn from geog- raphy, particularly commercial geography. For pupils who live in the city, there are all sorts of situations which permit of arithmetical Useful problems treatment, and in which the pupil for the city pupil will be genuinely interested. Take the matter of laying out streets, the selling of lots, the cost of paving, the total length of water-mains in a city, having given the average length of streets and the amount on any one street, the cost of city government, the rate of taxation for various pur- poses, and so on ad libitum. A teacher could easily 134 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS accumulate data regarding all these matters in his own city, and have them for his pupils year after year. The gathering of the problems at the outset would involve some labor, but once collected they would be of service without modification for a con- siderable period. The point is that what is needed in arithmetic is to apply it to the practical situa- tions presented in the pupil's daily life. Most of the necessary drill can be secured through the solution of such problems. It is not intended to say that problems should all be of this character; but most of them should be. It is cause for rejoicing that the new text-books in arithmetic are eliminating the formal, remote prob- lems, and bringing the study right to the door of the pupil, and making it interpret and illumine his en- vironment. This kind of arithmetic will make a pu- pil more appreciative of what is going on around him than he would be without it. He can be led to think of the amount of rainfall in his region in pre- cise terms, the amount of energy generated by a ton of coal, the average growth of plants per day, the relative amount of heat energy expended by the sun at different seasons, and so on at any length. If arithmetic could be generally treated in this way, it would become of far greater interest and greater dignity than it has been in the past, and than it now TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 135 is in many communities where the traditional atti- tude toward it is maintained. We may look now for a moment at inaccurate thinking in this field. Many of the errors in arith- The cure for in- metic made by pupils after the accurate think- fourth grade are due to their in- ing in this field ability correctly to interpret the re- lations expressed in problems. When a teacher finds pupils inaccurate in this way it will do no good for her to say, "Now, be more careful next time," or, "If you do not pay closer attention, I will keep you after school", or, "I will put you back in a lower grade", and the like. Pupils who have not formed habits of accuracy can not correct their inaccuracy by simply saying to themselves, "Now, I must not make any errors." It is an easy thing for us to as- sume that a pupil can on his own initiative eliminate errors from his work, if he only wills so to do ; but experience should teach us that no good comes from threatening or exhorting pupils who have developed inaccurate methods of work. The efficient teacher will analyze the situation before her, seeking to dis- cover the cause of a pupil's errors ; and then she will set about developing new habits. For after all, in- accuracy is a habit of mind which is the result of a relatively long process of doing a thing in a certain way. This habit can not be broken up in an instant ; 136 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS it can be corrected only by slowly building up a dif- ferent sort of habit, which will in time replace the undesirable one. This last point will bear elaboration. Most teach- ers find that their chief difficulty in the teaching of The evil of in- arithmetic to young children is to get accuracy in Jhem to be accurate in their work on school work tj^ejj- ^^^ initiative. Indeed, in some schools the only trouble teachers encounter is in re- spect to the errors which even the brightest children make. Any observing teacher knows that young pu- pils do not readily detect their own errors ; and this is, of course, true of them in other work than in arithmetic. When the novice executes anything, whether it be a process in arithmetic, or spelling a word, or writing a sentence, he is practically unable to go back over the detailed steps, and detect the one that is wrong. It is a trait of the child mind to view things as wholes ; and once executed they must be right. This is one reason why many teachers ac- complish so little when they give the following di- rection to their pupils : "Now look over your work, and see that it is correct." It is difficult enough for even an adult to detect errors in what he has done. The very fact that he has solved a problem in a cer- tain way, or constructed a paragraph after a given pattern, is evidence that he thinks it is correct; and TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 135 when he goes over it he tends always to see it as correct and not as erroneous. If it is difficult for the adult to restrain the tendency to see as correct what has once been executed, how much more likely is this to be characteristic of young pupils. And how futile it must be to keep urging them to *'look over your work to see that it is right." And yet we must, to the fullest extent possible, develop in our pupils the ability to review their work Self -correction of and detect errors. They can be inaccurate work made self-helpful in eliminating mistakes from all their work, but especially from their arithmetic, by requiring them always to check every process and *'prove" every problem. No so- lution of a problem should be accepted from a pupil until it has been checked. When a pupil goes back over his own work and discovers his error, this fur- nishes the greatest precaution against his making the error again. In this way he learns what his ten- dencies are, and he will be on his guard against thern. Then in this work of checking, pupils receive valu- able drill in performing the fundamental operations, and in seeing the relations in a problem in every way they can be viewed. To know how to check a problem is just as valuable as to know how to solve it. Of course, as pupils go on into the fifth or sixth grade, there may be no need for checking v/hen they 138 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS are working upon familiar problems ; but whenever they attack new processes, it is always well to re- quire them to "prove" their results, and never to submit a problem unless they have assured them- selves by a checking test that their work is accurate. CHAPTER V TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK — CONCLUDED We may here glance at the relation which exists between clear thinking and a good memory. An Clear thinking and earnest teacher was recently ob- a good memory served instructing what she said was a dull class. The pupils were taking their first lessons in fractions, and they were progressing very, very slowly. Indeed, after twenty-five min- utes of struggle and tension, it was not easy to dis- cover that they had learned much, if anything, concerning the topic being taught. The teacher felt discouraged, and her state of mind was expressed in her tone of voice, her features, and even in her bodily attitudes. She was irritated over what she thought was wilful stupidity. She felt her pupils could grasp the simple relations she was trying to teach them, if only they would make an effort so to do. During the entire period she was chiding them, upbraiding them for their lack of application, and charging them with carelessness and indifference. It 139 I40 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS was a disagreeable hour, alike for the pupils, for the teacher, and for the visitor. One of the phrases which the teacher used most freely in the attempt to quicken the mental processes of her pupils was, "I told you that yesterday; why can't you remember it to-day?" This phrase is heard very frequently in the class-room, and it al- ways comes readily from the tongue of almost any teacher. When one has told a pupil a fact, it would seem that he ought to retain it for a day at least. The teacher can easily retain it himself, and the pupil could do so, *'if he was only in earnest about the matter". But is this sound psychology? Can a novice remember any fact as readily as one who is already familiar with it? The very question sounds absurd; and yet it is an entirely reasonable one, con- sidering the attitude of most teachers toward a learner who forgets what has been told him. It is likely to seem so simple to the instructor that he can not easily forgive any pupil who fails to retain it when it is presented to him. Let us take a concrete instance. A teacher is en- deavoring to lead her pupils to discover what is the A concrete instance result of multiplying one-fourth of obscure teacMng by one-fifth. They sit on the recitation bench while she talks about multiplying the numerators together for a new numerator, and TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 141 the denominators for a new denominator. When she uses the term "numerator" she does not indicate it expHcitly, or have her pupils come to the board and indicate it, simply because it is so familiar to her that she thinks by calling attention to it once or twice in a general way her pupils will grasp it cor- rectly. In the same manner, when she uses the term "denominator" she does not make it entirely clear what "denominator" means. It is so perfectly ob- vious to herself that she thinks it is a waste of time, and even throwing a sop to stupidity, to keep dwell- ing on it. The inevitable result is that as she talks to her pupils there is confusion in the minds of most of them; and when the lesson is over, no clear, defi- nite impression has been established. How then can they remember what was developed when the orig- inal perception was so obscure ? Suppose that instead of merely talking to her pupils about this process, she had caused each one Attacking the prob- of them to work the whole lem in another way thing out for himself, and to describe the operation in his own words, based exact- ly upon what he had done. Suppose she had taken forty splints, we shall say, or similar objects, and had asked her pupils what was meant by taking one- fourth of one-fifth of them. Before this problem could be taken up, the pupils would, of course, have 142 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS had experience in finding fractional parts of a unity, or a group of objects. They could now find one- fifth of these forty splints, and then they could easily find one-fourth of this one-fifth. Then readily they could determine what part of forty was the group of two splints, which was gained by taking one- fourth of one-fifth of forty. Next, they could look at the original statement, and note how one-twenti- eth could be obtained by simply performing the required operations on the figures themselves. In order to fix the principle the teacher could give problems like these: Find two- fourths of one-fifth of forty; three-fourths of one-fifth of forty; three- fourths of two-fifths of forty ; and so on through a large number of processes. The outcome of this work would be that, through having actually carried a statement out into its concrete results, the pupils would become so impressed with it on account of handling objects in executing the relations stated in the problems, that they would be likely to remember their experience. But when they have no experience, except working with mere figures, nothing can in- duce them to remember a process except incessant repetition. Perhaps a better way to proceed than to use splints would be to have each pupil draw a circle, and then perform upon it the operations which his TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 143 problem requires ; and the teacher can propose many problems involving the same principle, which will tend to fix it securely. These operations can be per- formed on a line, or better still on a square or ob- long, where the pupil can see, and especially where he can feel through actual execution, what it means to take a part of a part, or, as we teach it, to mul- tiply a fraction by a fraction. Even with this sort of experience, of course, he may go astray in the first stages of his work, and I, as his teacher, may feel that he is stupid, because the thing seems so fa- miliar to me. But we must not forget that a novice is always likely tO' make mistakes in dealing with any situation which is new to him. The reason for this is that just exactly the sequence of things necessary to think through any problem accurately has not become established in his mind as a result of con- stant repetition. Such a sequence has become estab- lished in the expert's mind, because he has gone through it so frequently, and he has blazed a trail, as it were, which he can follow without difficulty whenever he starts upon It. But when one is new in any situation, he can not recognize a trail, and he is apt to wander here and there without knowing pre- cisely what Is the right direction. The only possible way by which he can discover this right direction is to go over the route frequently with a good guide, 144 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS who will make him take account of every possible circumstance and condition, and work his own way as far as possible, and then he will be likely to ap- preciate the circumstances and conditions when he comes that way again. In other words, he will the better remember what has been taught him. Every one will doubtless agree that it is of vital importance that a pupil should acquire the habit of An illustration thinking clearly, and as far as pos- from geography sj^ie profoundly, regarding the world of people and objects with which he must come into relations, either immediately or remotely. The study of geography should develop in pupils this ability to think effectively in respect to- certain aspects of the world about them. To illustrate preva- lent methods of presenting this subject in the schools, we may glance at the plan pursued in a series of lessons recently observed in a fifth-grade class. On the first day the lesson related to the ele- vation of the land masses out of the water, and the action of various agents, atmospheric and otherwise, upon rock formations, leading to the disintegration of the surface of the rocks. This brought up a dis- cussion of erosion, and the making and movement of detritus. The children in the class averaged about nine years of age. They had had but little previous work in geography. All they had gained was ac- TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 145 quired from an elementary text-book, which they had learned memoriter. They were now studying the advanced geography, which treated the subject in a logical, technical way, using terms which many adults even could not readily pronounce, to say nothing about understanding them. The writer, after listening to this recitation, asked several in- telligent grown people what detritus was, and they all threw up their hands in utter helplessness. There were in this lesson a number of such expressions as atmospheric agents and the like, which the majority of the children could not pronounce, even after some instructions by the teacher. The pupils had been required to "study" the les- son at their seats. When they came to the recita- tion, it was evident that the majority of them had not assimilated so much as one clear idea from their struggle with the text. The whole thing, content as well as terminology, was quite beyond them, largely, though not wholly, on account of the tech- nical character of the terms used, and the general abstract treatment of the subject. The man who had prepared the geography stated his facts and principles in the briefest way he could, viewing them through his adult experience. His statements were, of course, intelligible to himself, and he naively in- ferred that a child in the fifth grade ought to under- 146 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS stand a thing that was so simple and clear to him- self, though he had been for at least forty years dealing at first hand with the data upon which his propositions were based. The statements presented were all condensed generalizations of a large body of observations and concrete materials. The teacher of this fifth-grade class commended the text because of its brevity. She thought it could be easily memo- rized by pupils, and so learned by them for later use, even if much of it was over their heads now. The lessons for the rest of the week were much like the first one on Monday morning. They dealt with the building of continents, the conformation of the surface of continents, the establishment of drain- age systems on the surface of the earth, etc., etc. In every case the author of the text stated his princi- ples without leading pupils to discover anything as a result of their own observations, and to draw in- ferences from the facts given. There was very little if anything really concrete in the work throughout the week. The pupils' experiments in the world out- side of school were not utilized to any extent. There was no modeling of geographic features in this school, nor even questions on the part of the teacher of the text leading children to work out by their own efforts some of the principles which were being learned. To illustrate this latter defect : when the TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 147 conception of a continental divide was being gained, the teacher simply tried to get the pupils to recite the statements in the text. There was no reference, even remotely, to the physiographic features in the neighborhood, which might have introduced the idea of a watershed and a divide. There was no globe in the school ; and while there was a map in the text- book, it was not evident that it had been intelli- gently consulted in working out this lesson. It is doubtful if it would have been of assistance anyway. During the preceding week the pupils had had lessons upon mathematical geography. They had The method in mathe- learned statements regarding matical geography the revolution of the earth on its axis and in its orbit, the inclination of the earth, meridians of longitude, parallels of latitude, the zones, etc. Three days after the class had fin- ished these lessons, some of the pupils were tested on their knowledge of latitude and longitude. Every pupil manifested a certain amount of confusion as to whether meridians of longitude extended from pole to pole, or girdled the earth parallel to the equator. When asked why it was desirable to learn longitude and latitude, they were quite bewildered. The question was put to them, "What use do people anywhere in the world make of longitude and lati- tude?" and not a child could tell clearly. Looking 148 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS into the faces of those children as they were being tested, one could see that their only reaction upon the question was by way of attempt to remember the statements that they had learned in the book. The question was again put to them, "Is there lati- tude and longitude in this school yard?" and they were confused. They had apparently never thought of meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude as existing anywhere except on the map in their text-book. It was represented to the visitor that the class had discovered that the seasons were caused by the movements of the earth in its orbit. The questions above referred to were asked the pupils on the twen- tieth day of October. They had observed that the days were growing shorter, though it happened to be warm at this time; yet they realized from out- door experience that the year was dying, and that winter would soon be upon us. They were asked to say why the days were becoming shorter, and they could not explain the fact in any way other than to say that the "sun is going south." One might, off- hand, take such a statement as an indication that the pupils understood what they were talking about; but when the matter was followed up, it became per- fectly apparent that the children had not gained the true conception of why there is a change in the sea- TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 149 sons. It is doubtful whether pupils of this age can gain such a conception anyway, or ought to be re- quired to attempt it ; but it is reasonably certain that the methods employed in this class could not develop any adequate idea of the phenomenon in question. The lessons were mostly words devoid of meaning- ful content. It is of such importance to teach geography so that pupils may get a real and vital knowledge of the TeacMng facts earth as the home of man that we without binding may glance at another series of them together in lessons illustrating merely formal causal relations j^^^hods frequently seen in the school. For a number of months the work in ques- tion has comprised mainly learning by name ( i ) the capitals of all the states of the Union; (2) the five most important cities in each state; (3) the three largest rivers flowing through each state; (4) all the counties in Wisconsin; (5) the fifteen largest cities of the state; and (6) all the cities, towns and vil- lages in the particular county in which this school is situated. The attitude of the pupils toward this task is significant. From beginning to end their aim has been principally to acquire mere names by cease- less repetition, in the hope of fixing them in a vocal series, so that, for example, when the word Massa- chusetts would be mentioned it would automatically I50 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS call up other words, as Boston, Lowell, Lawrence, Springfield, Worcester, and the names of three rivers. The pupils as a whole do not have any ade- quate conception of why the particular five cities mentioned have become the leading ones in any state, or why the rivers take the special course they do through the state. The teacher, in defending her method, maintains that even if her pupils do not at present know any- thing vital concerning the cities and rivers, the names of which they are memorizing, they will sometime hear facts regarding them, and it will then prove of advantage to the children to have fixed the names firmly in memory. This seems very unsound doctrine. It is formalism at best. It makes teaching in this special subject a dull and wasteful business. If before learning the name of any city except the one in which they live, pupils had been made familiar with the general climatic and physical conditions of the state being studied, the fertility of its soil in different regions, the natural drainage courses, and the occupations of the people in vari- ous sections determined by the physical conditions; and if in the light of these facts they had been led to discover about where cities would be likely to develop, then the names learned would have acquired gorne meaning for them. Each name of a city or TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 151 river would have become a symbol to which could be attached a body of real and vital knowledge, which could not fail to interest even children; and this is the only sort of knowledge that will be of service to them in after life. It is probable that pupils who are required to memorize geographical names dis- sociated from vital content will develop a vicious habit of mind, which will later tend to make them satisfied with names for things, instead of the real- ities themselves. A correspondent, knowing the opinion of the writer on the subject under discussion, wishes to A plausible but know what valid objections there erroneous princi- can be to requiring pupils ten or pie of teaching eleven years of age to learn the largest cities in each of the states of the Union, and the principal countries throughout the world. He says : "Pupils will need some time to know the names of these cities and countries; and why should they not learn them while they have a memory for such things? If they wait until they are seventeen or eighteen years of age, it will be very difficult for them then to learn these details." This position appears reasonable from one stand- point; but there is a fundamental error implied in it. It is of doubtful value to any person to have memorized the names of cities, if he has not previ- 152 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS ously learned some facts about them which will make it worth while to remember them. Moreover, it is psychologically difficult and wasteful to memor- ize a geographical name dissociated from political or other characteristics of a physiographic setting. Memory depends primarily upon associating things according to temporal, spatial, or natural connec- tions. But a name of an unknown city, as far as the child is concerned, can hardly be connected with any- thing which will serve as a bond in memory. It must be memorized by constant repetition, so that it will become fixed in a vocal series. This is actually what young pupils dO' for the most part when they are required to learn the names of a number of cities in each state. First, they give the name of the state, and then recite the cities in a certain order; and they go over this "piece" so often that it gets established in vocal habit after much time and labor. It seems clear that the proper way to help a pupil to remember any given city is first to have him study the characteristics of the region 'round about, which have led to the establishment of this city. Then he should be made familiar with the industries and other interests and activities of the city which have contributed to its development. It will be of greater value to a pupil to learn in this manner ten cities in America during the first two or three years of study TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 153 of geography, than to learn a hundred cities merely by name; and the principle applies to the learning of cities and countries throughout the world. Study of the sort advocated will get pupils into the way of thinking cause and effect in geography, which, is of primary importance. The chief danger to be avoided is reliance upon verbal memory. No subject in the curriculum affords a better op- portunity for effective teaching than geography. Geography a good The facts of this study are con- subject for effec- crete and definite, and are well tive teaching adapted to the child mind, if they be presented in the right order and at the proper stage of development. Most of the fundamental conceptions of geography can be gained by young children if the work be done out-of-doors, or at least if constant reference be made to the geograph- ical conditions in the environment, and if assistance be gained from relief maps and globes, lantern views, and the like. But probably in no subject has the adult point of view been so persistently followed in the treatment of the material as in geography ; in consequence of which there is, as there has always been, waste in the teaching of the subject. And what is to be chiefly regretted in this ineffective teaching, there are established mental habits which militate against vital work later on in any study. A child 154 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS who learns geography as a mass of verbal statements mainly, the most of which he does not comprehend and in which he is not interested, is likely to be in- jured in all his mental processes. He is apt to acquire a verbal rather than a real and dynamic attitude toward his environment ; or in other words, his thinking power will not be properly developed. It has been the purpose thus far to show that the "power of thought" implies the ability to handle Teaching pupils to oneself aright in a new situa- become self -helpful tion. This requires that one should have facility in organizing his past experi- ences in respect to any situation, and in using them as a search-light to illumine dark places in the road ahead. A thinker is always a person who can see his way through problems which differ in some re- spects from those he has previously encountered and solved. Such problems would be inscrutable to the non-thinking type of individual, because he has got his set in the direction of abandoning any new prob- lem, or going to others for help in solving it. One sees such persons in every walk of life; and they are comparatively helpless and ineffective. So it seems reasonable to say that the chief aim of the teacher in the teaching of all subjects must be to make his pupils take the initiative in all they do ; to become self-helpful. A child can not be made to TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 155 think in the concrete situations in actual life, unless he acquires the habit of working his own way through most of the difficulties presented in the class-room. The following illustration may indicate the way in which many teachers fail to put into effect the An illustration of fail- principle of self-activity in lire to observe the prin- teaching. In a certain ciple of self-activity school a boy in the fourth grade was recently asked to spell the word "sirloin". He rendered it in this way : "sir lion'\ The teacher said, "No, that is not right. You must try once more." The boy again spelled it as he did the first time. The teacher then said : "Now, you must dis- cover your own error. You spell it as though it were *sir lion' (pronouncing it), but it is not *sir lion' but 'sir loin' (again pronouncing). You have learned that when you have the sound of oi (pronouncing) you must use the letters 0, i. Now I want you to try the word again. You need not spell 'sir' since you had that right ; simply spell 'loin/ re- membering what I have just told you." With this aid the boy did spell "loin" correctly. But was he self-active, in a true sense, in this experience? Did not the teacher do the essential thing in leading him to correct his mistake ? In order that the boy should have been self -helpful in correcting his error, he 156 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS should have been required to pronounce the word slowly, so that he might apprehend the sound of each element thereof. If after this experience he should still have been confused in regard to the last syllable, the teacher should have asked him to pro- nounce it very slowly so as to separate it phonetic- ally, when he could not have failed to discover his error. The teacher should not have called up any special thing she had taught him. By means of skil- ful questions she should have led him to analyze the situation before him, so that he might apply to it what he had been taught that would help him to solve his problem. Then he would have been self- helpful in a real sense, because he would have learned how to assist himself on similar occasions in the future. During the recitation period in which "sirloin" was being spelled the expression "all right" came Making it unneces- up for attention. One pupil sary for pupils to use spelled it "alright". The their experiences teacher said, "You are not correct; try it again." This time the boy said "al- write". Then followed this comment by the teacher : "When you spelled it the first time the last part, 'righf, was correct. You should not have changed that, but it was the first part that was wrong. Now try it and spell *air." In this way the pupil was led TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 157 to spell the word correctly. This case, like the first, shows a lack of skill in training a pupil to be self- helpful. The teacher should not have told him that "right" was correct until he himself had discovered from an analysis of the word and its meaning that it was so. She should have required him to state what the word to be spelled meant, and then what "write" meant; and this would have led him to see that it was wrong to use this latter form. He was, of course, confused by the identity of the sound of the two words, and he was not really thinking of what the word to be spelled denoted. He was pro- ceeding more or less automatically in response to the sound, which is apt to become a habit with pupils who are depending upon others to assist them in straightening out their errors. If in all their work children could be held to an analysis of what they were attempting to do, so that they might bring to bear on the thing in hand their past experience with similar things in respect alike to meaning and to form, they would acquire a tendency to do this on every new occasion, which would be the greatest safeguard against the making of errors.^ This is really what the principle of self-activity demands; and the teacher who can utilize it to the greatest de- gree will certainly achieve the highest success in his work. 158 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS Most teachers feel they ought to assign tasks to be done by their pupils at home. It is expected that Home study by pu- parents will render assistance in pils and training in the performance of these duties. self-helpfiilness Indeed, teachers often say it would be impossible for their children to accomplish the necessary work of the school without some help in the home. It is a common thing to hear teachers tell their pupils they should get aid from their fa- thers and mothers ; but at the same time they "must do the work themselves". How many teachers ap- preciate that a large part of the tasks many pupils do at home with the assistance of their parents is largely mechanical ? It is probable that not one par- ent in fifty knows how to guide his children so that they will take the initiative in their study. Observe a father helping his nine-year-old son in arithmetic, let us say. It is req^uired to solve this simple problem : "A boy in going to school walks for fifteen rods along the street on which he lives. Then he turns to the right on a street that runs at right angles, and walks for twenty-five rods. Then he turns to the left on a street that runs at right angles and walks eighteen rods. He goes to school in the morning and in the afternoon, and comes home for his luncheon. How many rods does he walk in going to and from school each day ?" TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 159 Of course, there is nothing in this situation which a fifth-grade pupil should not understand readily enough, if he be guided to think through the condi- tions step by step. But when he first reads the prob- lem he is apt to be confused, because all the condi- tions surge into his mind at one and the same time, and he has not learned how to pilot his way through them point by point. He is apt to say then, "1 do not know what to do." This always means that the total situation is confronting the novice, and he can not start at the beginning, and follow the straight path along to the end. Good teaching would lead him to do just this. A skilful teacher would not tell the pupil anything unless it appeared to be neces- sary. Such a teacher would simply lead the novice to start at the proper point in his thinking, taking up each factor in order, and making drawings so as to help him break up the total situation, writing down distances in the right places, and so on. But what is the parent apt to do ? His most active impulse is to ''help" the learner, which, as he thinks, The typical par- requires him to relieve the child ent's method of of his difficulties, and this "helping" his child means to enable him to get the answer with the least effort so he can present it to the teacher. The typical parent is Interested in hav- ing his child arrive at the result most easily, rather i6o EVERYDAY PROBLEMS than in having him gain the experience of construct- ing the situation in his own mind, discovering the causal relations, and thus really solving the prob- lem. So the parent will in most cases tell the novice what to do. The parent may even take the pencil and do the figuring, partly because of his eagerness to *'help," and partly because of his unwillingness to take the time to cause the pupil to work every- thing out for himself. It is probable that most of the work done in the home is of this character. Needless to say, it develops vicious habits of mind in pupils, habits which it is difficult for the teacher to overcome. Let us glance at another instance of a common method of home instruction. A teacher sends a pu- An illustration of pil home with instructions to bad methods in look up in the dictionary the new home instruction words in his reading lesson, and to select from the definitions given for any word one which might be substituted for the original. The teacher tells the child he can have his mother "help" him, but that he *'must do the work himself". Now when the pupil comes to the mother for assistance, this is the way they attack the situation. The first word the child needs to look up is, we will say (this is an actual case, reported exactly as it happened) triumphal. He has not had much experience in TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK i6i manipulating the dictionary, so he starts at the be- ginning, and in a blundering way proceeds to go through the whole book until he discovers the let- ter T. What does the mother do in her role as as- sistant? When she sees how inexperienced he is, she says, "Why, you know the letter T comes after S, and is near the end of the alphabet. You must look toward the end of the dictionary. Find R; R comes before 5". Let me show you how to find it," she adds ; and she takes the dictionary and hunts out the letter T. But the novice does not understand how to go forward, even when he has the letter T; for he does not know what comes after T in the original, and he asks his mother. The mother then spells out the first syllable. She adds: "You know R comes to- ward the end of the alphabet, so you must look way along toward the end of the Ts." Then when he finally gets the Tri, and wants to know "what comes next," she tells him every letter as he needs it, and she also tells him its relative position in the vocabu- lary. All the child does is to go through the manual process of turning over the leaves. He has not really thought his way through any of his difficulties. Since he was not led to take the initiative at any point, he will be practically helpless if he is ever placed in another situation like this, because he has 1 62 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS gained little, if anything, from his experience to-day which will make him self -helpful in the days to come. Some teachers depend altogether upon home assistance in the child's learning how to use the dictionary, which is, by the way, one of the most difficult feats for the novice, and one of the most im- portant, in order that he may avoid waste of time and energy. A distinguished physician recently said that the vision of a good many children is ruined from the use of the dictionary; and when one ob- serves the fruitless, unintelligent wandering through a dictionary of the typical fifth and sixth-grade pu- pil, he can appreciate that it is a serious tax on his physical and mental constitution. But let us continue with our typical case. The pu- pil finally happens upon the word triumphal, and it Teaching to satisfy for- i^ defined by the use of two mal requirements in- or three synonyms, none of stead of to train a pupil which is any more familiar in self-helpfulness to him than the word he is looking up. What does the typical parent do in such a crisis? He reads the synonyms to his child, and then tells him what one he had better choose to em- ploy as a substitute for the original. He does not. lead the novice to get some kind of a hold on the meaning of the unfamiliar words — either the orig- TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 163 inal or the substitutes. He simply asks him to learn memoriter the substitute agreed upon, so that he may satisfy the requirement of the teacher, whether or not he derives any useful training in the process. As intimated above, the parent is not concerned pri- marily with the value of the experience of a child in performing a task, but only in assisting him to get at the result, so that when the hour of need comes in the recitation, he can render up what he has memorized, and so satisfy the teacher. Of course, if the teacher would always make the proper test with a pupil to discover whether he had himself taken all the steps leading up to any conclusion, she would quickly discover that he had accepted the re- sult worked out by the parent, and absorbed it by sheer force of memory. If the lessons in any subject be mastered at home, there is some danger that the work will be done in a mechanical, memoriter fashion. It is the writer's opinion that the chief difficulty with modern teach- ing, as with teaching in all times probably, is that it seeks to get at formal results without regard to the sort of experience which the individual has in reach- ing the same. It requires patience and supreme skill to teach a learner to take the initiative in all that he is learning — to go ahead of the teacher instead of to follow on ; and in this way to be self -active in a i64 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS genuine sense. When a teacher says to her pupil, "You must do the work yourself", the latter Is apt to think this means learning by heart a process which has been Initiated by some one else. If the teacher could in any way make certain that the pupil would receive In his home expert guidance In taking the ini- tiative in his work, then there would be a distinct ad- vantage In having some tasks done there, because the parent could give his child individual attention. It ought to be possible to impress upon sixth-grade pupils, say, the value of doing most of the original work in any process themselves, seeking assistance only by way of guidance. And there Is a fundamen- tal difference between guiding and helping, as these words are ordinarily interpreted. In guiding an In- dividual, one simply causes him to consider the situ- ation before him so that he may see how he ought to move. In the hands of a skilful guide, the novice is led to consider all the conditions involved in mak- ing up his mind what he ought to do, v/hether in arithmetic, In geography, or in anything else. If he is attacking a new situation, he must be stimulated to call up all he has experienced that bears upon it. His Inclination will be not to do this. If he would do It spontaneously, there would be no need for teachers, of course. The tendency of the untrained person in a new situation is to become confused. TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 165 Not until he has had long training in using his ex- perience will he gain such momentum that he can, without any guidance whatever, employ it effectively so that he can solve his own problems. A well- trained college graduate ought to be able to do this on all occasions. A well-trained high-school pupil should be able to do it in most of the situations in which he finds himself in the high school. An eighth-grade pupil should be completely self -helpful in respect to much that he studies — ^practically every- thing in reading, very much in geography, most of arithmetic, and everything in spelling. The pupil in the first grade is, of course, the least able to use his experience so as to solve new problems. But no mat- ter what point he has reached in his educational de- velopment, skilful teaching can lead him to take the initiative in most of what should be taught him. CHAPTER VI TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE In the preceding chapters we were occupied with a discussion of the teaching of subjects dealing with matters of content, or perhaps with ideas, as distin- guished from forms, or the means of expressing thought. When we were considering the method of presenting content studies to pupils, we were in- terested wholly in the development of thinking ability; but now that we must give attention to the acquisition of form subjects, we will need to inquire -how pupils can most readily and economically gain facility in the use of technique in spelling, in pen- manship, in singing, and so on. The attainment of clear thinking should be the end kept in view in teaching history, science, geography, and the like; but automatic execution must be the goal to be aimed at in the teaching of all symbolic or technical sub- jects. The functions of the content vs. the technical subjects are essentially different in human life, and they ought to be taught differently in the schools. Let us first glance at the teaching of spelling, i66 TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 167 which is a good example of a technical subject in Spelling as a typical which the aim must be to technical subject acquire automatic facility in execution. It is probable that no subject in the curriculum is so much discussed in our times as spelling. Newspaper writers are constantly com- plaining of the inability of graduates of common schools to spell ordinary words correctly. These writers lay emphasis upon spelling as the most essen- tial thing in the school. Of course, bad spelling is easily detected. One can not express himself in writing at all without revealing his ability or the lack of it in this regard ; and this is one reason why deficiencies in this subject are so readily detected by laymen. Recently a pupil in the fourth grade in a good school, as schools go, brought to his home a list of words to be learned for his spelling lesson. Here is the list: Honest, fanner, fence, potato, summer, cultivate, generally, harvest, threshing, company. These words were taken by the teacher from the selection which the pupils had in their reading lesson that morning. It is her practice to have the spelling lessons depend upon the reading, geography, and language lessons. She says that in this way she can select words which the pupils understand; and she is an ardent advocate of the theory that the child 1 68 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS should be able to spell anything he can read. She believes, too, that if a pupil can spell a word he will be able to read it the more readily, so that the spell- ing will help the reading if the two be developed to- gether. See, now, how one's educational theories may often persist in spite of obvious facts indicating A practical quite contrary principles. The pupil re- test f erred to above was asked by his teacher on the day he was given the agricultural spelling list to write a little essay on some experience he had had on the way to or from school. When he proceeded to his task, he declared he could not vv^rite anything. "What shall I say?" showed the vacuity of his mind. The teacher had to "develop" the notion that on the way to school he had seen several birds, and she instructed him to tell something about them. So, after much wriggling in his seat, and gazing around to see what his classmates were doing, he finally produced the following: "On the stret (street) to school I saw sevn burds tha (they) were robins I tryed to cetch (catch) them but tha flu (flew) away tha were going sowth (south) for winter." The teacher had in her career handled a great many "essays" similar to the specimen given, but TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 169 still she held to her view that the way to teach a child to spell is to take ten words a day from his reading and other lessons, and cause him to learn them as a list. At the same time, she would not think of asking her pupils to write essays in which they would employ words as difficult to spell as those they were being drilled on in their formal spelling exercises. When I suggested that, instead of asking the children to prepare an essay on some subject they had observed on the way to or from school, she should require them to write a story, using the ten words of the spelling lesson, she objected vig- orously. It seemed to her to be unreasonable to ask young pupils to treat such a difficult subject, and her point was well taken, probably, considering what experience the children had had in expressing them- selves in this way. I have been interested for some years in keeping the spelling lists of a group of children, and noting Ability to use the relation between these lists and words the the development of the children's true test actual spelling ability. I have found, and this may be familiar in principle to all my read- ers, that pupils may commit to memory lists of words every day, but be quite unable to spell many of them when they need to express themselves. And 170 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS the reason for this disparity between learning for mere recitation and learning for use seems clear. It is one thing to learn a word as a separate, isolated entity, and an altogether different thing to master it so it can be employed in its connections in a sentence. I am now observing a pupil who is required to memorize ten words a day; and he so establishes them in his visual memory that if I begin pro- nouncing at the bottom of the list, he may start spelling at the top. If I start at the beginning and go down to the fifth word, say, but skip it and go to the sixth or seventh, he will spell off the fifth with perfect confidence. He fixes the words in a mechan- ical order only. He really does not establish con- nections between the sound of any given word and its visual form. Much less does he gain such famil- iarity with words that he can use them as instru- ments of expression, simply because he does not have experience in using them in this manner. Do you suppose one could learn to use knives by simply learning the names of all the varieties made at Shef- field, and arranged in lists? The only way a pupil can acquire the ability to employ words readily and accurately is to learn them as he zvill need to employ them in the practical situations of life. Does this mean that it is useless to have spelling lists? Not at all. But it does mean that spelling TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 171 Shall we have is to be gained mainly by writing spelling lists ? sentences, rather than by the mem- orizing of isolated words. Without question the novice should first learn to write his words sep- arately; if he attacks a sentence at the outset he may be overwhelmed by the complexity of it. He should have gained some freedom in handling the indi- vidual words of a sentence before he attempts to em- ploy them as a unity; but he must not leave any word he has attempted to learn until he can use it readily in its usual connections. It is certainly a wasteful, Ineffective method to introduce a new list of words every day, so that a large number may be learned in a year. I have tested pupils who have been taught in this way, and I have found that lists learned last week, say, may be almost entirely forgotten this week. They are not used; that is the trouble. They may be im- pressed consciously for an hour or for a day, but they are not fixed for good. They can be made secure only by a generous repetition in a variety of familiar situations. They must be got into the muscles, as it were, and not left merely as unused visual images, which may soon fade into nothing- ness. It will hardly be doubted that it is advisable to choose for spelling drill those words and phrases 172 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS How shall we that the child Is seeing and employ- choose words ing most frequently every day in the for spelling ? regular work of the school. One ob- jection to the old-type spelling-book was that the lists of words offered were compiled without regard to what the pupil was studying in any grade. But even when the spelling lists are made up from the other studies being pursued at the time, there is still danger that if they are learned as lists they will be readily forgotten. It seems to be a law of the human organism, as true of the mind as of the body, that when a member or an idea is not used it is likely to degenerate. If you tie up the arm, the muscles will soon begin to decline. Let a person lie on a bed for two months, and he may discover that he can not walk when he makes the attempt. The muscles necessary for locomotion not being put to service, they become weakened, and begin to go out of busi- ness. So in mental function ; any image or idea which is not utilized in daily adjustment is likely to be eliminated readily. Nature seems to proceed on the doctrine that what is not necessary for use might better be got rid of as speedily as possible. Any one who has observed the changes taking place in his own memory must have noticed how this law applies to things which he once had at his tongue's TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 173 end, but which, on account of not being used, have been forgotten, partially or completely. Further, when one develops any power of muscle or of mind, he can employ it in the way in which he has acquired it, but not in a different manner. One who has developed his muscles in a blacksmith shop can not use much if any of this special strength in vaulting, say. If one should wish to learn to vault a pole, he ought to get up his muscle by practising on this particular activity, and not on something altogether different therefrom. The same principle is true in respect to mental training. A ticket agent told the writer recently that the moment he enters his office he can answer any question pertaining to the time-table of his railroad, the price of tickets to the remotest cities of the United States, and so on. "But," he continued, "when I am away from the office, and a man asks me a question about the time any train leaves, or the price of a ticket, I can not remember the simplest matters often. I do not understand why when I leave this office I seem to forget all the details of my business." The explana- tion appears simple enough. We tend to recall any- thing in connection with the circumstances under which it was originally learned, so that if we change the circumstances, we are apt to forget for the time being. 174 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS Now as to spelling. In real life we hardly ever need to spell isolated words. We practically always are required to write them in sentences. But if we have learned them in isolated groups, even though they have been chosen from the regular studies, the chances are we will not be facile in spelling them as they will be used in daily life. Even if we require pupils to learn words in groups, we ought to follow this up with the requirement that they write them in typical sentences in which they will be likely to occur in the emergencies of real life. In this con- nection it should be noted that a pupil's spelling vocabulary can not keep pace with his reading vocabulary. Reading is a much simpler and more expeditious process than spelling. A pupil ought to progress far more rapidly in mastering words in reading than in spelling. If an attempt be made to keep his spelling up with his work in reading, geog- raphy, language, and other subjects, harm will result either to his spelling or to the subjects upon which it is based. It is a rule of pedagogy that through repetition any impression may be permanently fixed. Teachers Harmful drill who acquire their art by learning in spelling^ rules rather than by obseiwing chil- dren in the school-room often take this rule literally and seriously. Such teachers commonly assign a TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 175 lesson like this : "Write each word in your spelling lesson twenty times." One teacher whose methods the present writer has been studying, applies the rule referred to very vigorously in the matter of spelling. If a pupil misses one word in a lesson she requires him to write it twenty times ; if he misses two words he must write each word forty times; three words, sixty times ; four words, eighty times, and so on. Recently a child in her room missed seven words in a lesson, and he was required to write each word one hundred and forty times after school. This made a total of nine hundred and eighty words that had to be written without an intermission by this unfortunate pupil. When he completed his task he was quite unstrung. He went to his home and cried over the affair for a long time. He was in such a nervous state that he could not restrain himself. An examination of the papers upon which he had written nine hundred and eighty words showed that during the last quarter of the task he frequently misspelled words. He might write a word correctly twenty-five times, and then the letters would be interchanged, and in some cases letters were omitted and others added. Now, will the reader please notice particularly that after the pupil had written the word correctly twenty-five times, he was likely then to misspell it ? What good 176 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS did that drill do him? In respect to spelling, pure and simple, was he not injured in the performance of such a task? Any observing teacher may notice that after a child has written a word twenty-five times he is When the value likely not to gain any benefit from of drill ceases continuing to write it. What he does after that is apt to be entirely mechanical. Consequently he may not connect what he is writing with the visual or auditory form of the word. The moment he ceases to connect his execution with the way the word looks or sounds, at that moment the value of drill ceases. It may be that the average child can not write a word profitably more than ten times without a break. Certainly to write it one hundred and forty times as a penalty is a waste at best. It may be remarked in passing that the most serious consequence of such a proceeding is the un- wholesome effect upon the nervous system of the victim. It is safe to say that no child in the ele- mentary school can, after the close of school, write nine hundred and eighty words without nervous overstrain. A few experiences of this sort are likely to develop in a pupil marked distaste for the subject of spelling. The principle of repetition is a good one, but like everything else it may be easily TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 177 abused ; and if carried to excess it may react, and prove of positive disadvantage. We may turn now to an interesting psychological problem in teaching spelling. A spelling exercise An error in was recently observed in which the f ol- teaching lowing words, among others, were used, spelling — surprised, sentence, picture, multipli- cation, together, signing, frightened, and minuend. The pupils had been given ten minutes or so in which to prepare themselves for the test. In study- ing their lesson they first looked at the words, then said over the letters, and endeavored to repeat them often enough to fDn them in a vocal series. After the test had been given, it was found that a number of the words had been misspelled by a majority of the pupils. Picture, frightened, and multiplication seemed to be especially difficult, though each word troubled one or more of the pupils. When the teacher came to correct the errors, she wrote each word on the board, and required the children who had misspelled it to look at the correct form for a moment, and then to attempt to repro- duce it accurately. This method was successful in some cases, but it failed altogether in other cases. For instance, one boy of average brightness looked at the word surprised for a moment, but when he 178 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS came to spell it, he could not put the various letters in their proper places. The teacher was inclined to be severe with him, thinking that if he had really looked at it he could have perceived it and repro- duced it accurately. During the ten minutes while misspelled words were being corrected, there was much faultfinding on the part of the teacher, be- cause the pupils did not grasp the words at first glance. Was this teacher skilful in helping pupils to over- come their difficulties in this special field? While some phases of her method were highly commend- able, it was seriously defective in one respect. She wrote the word surprised, for example, on the board, and asked som.e pupil v/ho had missed it to look at it and then reproduce it. She knew she could herself see at a glance the entire word cor- rectly as a unit ; and why could not the pupils do the same if they earnestly tried, as they should do? As a matter of fact, most of what the teacher thought she saw when she looked at the word, v/as read into it from her previous experience with it. The word was really in her imagination, as we say; and she got a suggestion from the form before her, which revived the image established *'in her mind's eye." If a foreign word had been put there instead of a word she understood, she would have been confused TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 179 in exactly the same way that the pupils were who had not seen surprised before. When a child who can not spell a word simply glances at it as a whole he may feel that he sees it so that he can reproduce each element, but the chances are that he does not see it at all clearly. In such a case the teacher should ask him to pronounce or write or spell orally the first syllable, say, then the second, and so on. If he has trouble with any particular part of a word, it should be separated from the rest, and he should spell it orally and write it until he gains a feeling of familiarity with it. Then it should be learned in its connections with the other parts constituting the word as a unit. The present writer is always distressed when he hears a teacher upbraid a pupil who is trying to One source of master* a complex thing, whether a confusion in word or anything else, when the lat- teaching^ ter is confused because he can not apprehend the elements thereof. It is extremely harmful to scold children because they can not per- ceive these complex units, which seem simple to the teacher who has had a great deal of experience with them. It is a principle of universal application, re- ferred to in a previous chapter, that when a child is dealing with involved objects of any sort, whether w^ords or plants or animals or cities or what-not, and i8o EVERYDAY PROBLEMS he does not appreciate the elements, the teacher must lead his attention away from the situation as a whole, and get him clearly to apprehend the par- ticular parts thereof which are the cause of his trouble. Complaining at a pupil who can not grasp the complex thing serves no useful end. Indeed, it tends further to confuse the child, because it arouses painful emotions, and distracts his attention from the thing in hand. We are led now to consider the relation of analysis to synthesis in teaching a subject like spell- Syllabication ing. We have already noted that one in spelling of the chief difficulties with the pupil in learning to spell is due to his practical inability to analyze words into their elements. When the child comes first to school, and for several years there- after, his acquaintance with words is primarily in their oral form, and words when spoken are in many respects quite different from what they are in their written forms. In the child's use of words, he con- tinues to the greatest possible extent to employ them as unities, so that groups of letters as rendered orally appear tO' him to function as a single letter. To the child of six years of age, spoken words are indivisible unities, and it is a more or less difficult process for him to learn that they are composed of syllables, and of letters that have independent TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE i8i values. When he attempts to spell a word familiar to him in his speech, he attacks it on the basis of its oral form as he has been speaking it ; and this makes it impossible for him to concentrate his attention upon each element, with the result that he is likely to go astray in his spelling of it. Let any teacher obsei-ve a pupil in the fourth grade, say, who has not been trained to apprehend the syllables in the words he is learning to spell. For experiment, I pronounce to such a pupil the word granary, with which he is not familiar so far as spelling is concerned. He pronounces it after me, and it is evident that he is not aware of the three syllables it contains as more or less independent fac- tors in the word. When he pronounces it, the sec- ond syllable may not come out distinctly at all ; and if he starts to spell the word, he is likely to lose his way. It does not meet the situation for the teacher to analyze the word for the pupil, as many teachers tend to do, because they become impatient when the pupil does not analyze so readily and quickly as could be desired. What the teacher must do is to re- quire the pupil to make the necessary analysis for himself. If he goes astray at any point, the teacher must call him back to the word as a whole, and require him to pronounce it slowly, stressing each element if necessary, until the syllables get a certain 1 82 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS distinctness and individuality in his attention. As soon as he acquires the tendency to do this on his own initiative, he will have become possessed of a method which will be of great service to him. There is a special caution which the teacher must observe in this analysis of words. There is a strong Dangers to be tendency to give a false value to avoided in the individual letters, when the sylla- analysis of words bles are treated more or less independently. Take, for instance, the word men- tioned above, granary. As spoken, the second syllable has the value of u. Now, if the teacher in her syllabic analysis gives this letter the value of a, in order to have the child apprehend the letter for pur- poses of spelling, there will be danger of her pupil being led into error. That letter a never has the value of a in this word, and the teacher must lead the pupil to associate it with its actual value in the word in question. The way this can be done best is first to give the letter the value which the pupil ordi- narily attaches to it, which will be a, we will say. Then he must be led to appreciate that when it is used in the relation found in granary, it is always shortened up or softened down in speech. We are here, of course, face to face with the first difficulty in learning to spell. In a great number of our words the letters do not function in combinations accord- TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE i8 o ing to their characteristics in isolation, and this is a source of great confusion to the novice. In help- ing him out of this difficulty, familiar words must be pronounced and analyzed as suggested, so that he may acquire the feeling that a often functions as u, as in usable, workable, etc. The principle applies, of course, to the treatment of all the vowels. Even as early as the second grade, pupils can be intro- duced to this matter of the variability of function of letters in English words. It must be impressed here that while in the first stages of learning to spell, pupils must be made con- scious of elements, still, the ultimate aim must be to lead them quickly beyond this stage so that they can use words as unities quite automatically. We are apt to gO' astray in respect to both these processes in our work in the class-room. There is danger that at the start we will not make elements stand out clearly enough for a novice, and that later we will not cause them to be fused together into unities, as the pupil becomes familiar with them in actual em- ployment of them in every-day expression. And, of course, this fusing can be secured only through con- stant use, in which the attention of the pupil is kept mainly upon the thought to be expressed, rather than upon the technique of the words he is employing. In this connection, attention may be called to the 1 84 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS necessity of the teacher paying attention early to the Evil habits of habits of study of her pupils. To study must be give point to a suggestion to be guarded against made here, a concrete instance may be cited. A class in the third grade was re- cently studying a spelling lesson. The teacher had written ten words on the blackboard, and she had in- formed the class that after fifteen minutes the words would be erased, and the pupils would be required to write them as she pronounced them. Three or four members of the class took paper and pencil, and wrote the words several times during the study period; but most of the children spent their time looking at the words, and saying them over "in their minds". It was noticed that these latter pupils were easily distracted from their task, showing that their method of study was not favorable to the concentra- tion of attention upon what they had undertaken to do. When it came to the test, those who had written the words succeeded very much better than those who had tried to memorize them by oral drill. This is exactly the result one would expect, since the mere vocal repetition of words could not develop a large degree of ability and accuracy in reproducing them in a graphic way. What is of greater importance, the process of writing the words during the study period stimulated clear visual perception of them. TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 185 and required rather prolonged attention in order to execute them. Here is another instance of wasteful and inef- fective methods of studying a subject like spelling. Wasteful and inef- The revival in spelling which fective methods of is passing over the country re- preparing lessons cently overtook a large high school in a western city. The question of the im- provement of the spelling of pupils was frequently discussed in teachers' meetings, and it was at last de- cided to give special attention to the subject, with a view to eliminating the errors which appeared so frequently in all the written work of students. The method of accomplishing this end was to assign lists of one hundred and fifty words at a time to members of the freshman and the sophomore classes. Then an examination was held every alternate Friday afternoon upon these lists. No instruction was given the pupils regarding the way in which they should prepare their words. It was thought to be sufficient simply to assign the lists, and then to warn the pupils that in case of failure in examination they would be conditioned in the subject, and could not be promoted until the condition was removed. Most of the teachers maintained that all that was required in learning these words was for the pupils to ''work hard" upon them. i86 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS It is significant to note the manner in which a large number of students studied their words. Quite generally they attacked the entire list in the effort to go through it at one sitting. The usual method was to keep the list before them, to look at a word, and then to say it over "under the breath," until they felt they had so fixed it in memory that it could not escape from them. The majority of the students did not spontaneously write the words, and no sug- gestion was given them that they should pursue this method. The teachers took it for granted that one method was as good as another, only so that the pupils worked hard in the efrort to master the words. Many words in the lists were comparatively new, and most of them really had to be learned de novo. It is true that many of them had been previously memorized in the elementary school; but inasmuch as they had not been used since they were acquired, they were almost, if not entirely, forgotten. Not one of the students observed could remember that he had ever used in his writing in school or outside at least three-fourths of the words given in five lists which had been assigned in the high school. Certain of the pupils thought they had learned all the words in the elementary school, while other pupils could not recall whether they had learned most of them at any time. TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 187 Practically all the words seemed more or less familiar, but when the pupils were asked whether they were familiar because they had read them or because they had spelled them, they could not at first tell. HoAvever, upon reflection they usually reached the conclusion that the words appeared familiar be- cause they had seen them, and not because they had ever reproduced them in writing. Now, there are at least two serious mistakes which the majority of the pupils made in their effort to acquire these spelling lists. In the first place, they relied upon mastering them orally by reciting them over and over again. This method was wasteful and ineffective, because their tests were always written. Som.e of the pupils who could spell off the lists orally when their parents pronounced the words, missed a number of them when they came to write them. They said it was because they were excited, or had to write too rap- idly, or something else ; but the real reason probably was that they were not familiar with them in a manual way, so to speak. They could run them off vocally, no matter how rapidly they were pro- nounced, because they had fixed them in vocal habits ; but they could not readily transfer vocal into manual facility. There was another mistake which these pupils made In their method of study. They tried to learn 1 88 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS the entire list at once, with the result that at least some confusion and fatigue resulted therefrom. In certain cases, pupils made practically no headway after three-quarters of an hour of steady applica- tion, because the first words learned were obliterated by later impressions. It is safe to say that one hun- dred and fifty more or less unfamiliar words can not be recited over at one sitting without waste. In order to comply with the requirements of economy and efficiency, not more than twenty-five words should be learned at one sitting. Then there should be an entire change of occupation for a considerable period. If a student had one day in which to learn one hundred and. fifty words, it would be more effective for him to divide them up into six groups, leaving an interval of an hour-, say, between the learning of each group, rather than to try to mem- orize them all at one time. Of course, if the words are already familiar, so that new impressions and habits do not have to be established, then a large number can be acquired without a break. While we are speaking of methods of study, we may mention another important matter pertaining Auditory to economy and efficiency in spelling. familiarity It happened that a number of pupils in in spelling ^he class referred to could not correctly pronounce certain of the words in the spelling list. TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE i8g As a consequence, when the teacher pronounced them they did not appear famihar, and the pupils went astray on most of them. In certain cases they substituted for a given word an altogether different one, showing they had no conception of the indi- viduality of the particular word in question. This sort of thing is a serious obstacle in learning to spell. If a pupil is required to reproduce a word when it is pronounced, he should, when he studies it, have clearly in consciousness its correct pronunciation, else he can not associate its reproduction with its sound. Teachers need to exercise the greatest care in assigning words to be certain that every pupil is familiar with them, to the extent at least of being able to pronounce them. In the preceding discussion of spelling, principles were mentioned which apply fully to the teaching of Facility in all verbal subjects, in which the manual execution; aim is to have the pupil acquire a lesson facility in employing words and from abroad phrases in the graphic form. It will be proper now to ask how he can acquire most expeditiously and effectively the technique of man- ual execution, as in handwriting. Any teacher of young children would be interested in observing the methods of teaching this subject employed in the elementary schools of Italy. The chief thing aimed 190 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS at in these schools is to get the pupil to be neat and accurate in his work from the veiy beginning — ■ to make a calligrapher out of him in fact. The youngest pupils are not permitted to start with any- thing as complex as a letter. They are drilled for a long time in simply making lines. The greatest care is taken to have every stroke made correctly and esthetically from the very start. The lines are dotted out, and the pupil is expected to trace over them. Then, when in due course he comes to make the letters, all the proportions and space relations are indicated by guide lines and dots, and he is required to draw his lines according to the specifications given him. All the way along in his handwriting the pupil is kept working at his technique in the hope that he may become perfect in it. The Italians exalt tech- nique above everything else. They do finer, neater, and more complicated work in technical drawing than may be seen in any of our own schools, as far as the writer's observations go. But they do not use drawing as a means of expression. They do not represent anything, except conventional designs, by means of their elaborate technique. One rarely sees pupils in an Italian school expressing content through drawing. Now, a pupil who could repro- duce the most intricate formal figures with exquisite TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 191 skill might be quite at a loss to know what to do if you should ask him to represent any familiar object or scene. The psychology of this matter seems perfectly simple. A familiar illustration of the principle is found in one's use of language. When one tries to express himself in a foreign tongue, of which he is not master, he at once sees that his thought becomes formal and disconnected. When one must give focal attention to the means of expression, he can not at the same time give proper heed to the content to be expressed, and the latter must suffer thereby. So in music ; one who is very conscious of technique while executing can produce only fonnal, and more or less mechanical results. It is apparent how this principle applies to handwriting. A pupil who has been so trained that technique monopolizes his atten- tion can not do vigorous, connected thinking while he is attempting to express himself. One who will study the autograph letters and manuscripts of great men and women, preserved in such collections as those to be seen in the British Museum, and in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, will see that those who have done really good thinking have rarely if ever been calligraphers. Scarcely any of the specimens one may see in these great collections would be tol- erated in an Italian school, or in some schools at 192 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS home. The teachers would say that pupils who wrote so "abominably" would" "never amount to anything". And it is possible that if Shakespeare or Johnson or George Eliot or Herbert Spencer or hundreds of others like them, were pupils under some of the teachers in our own schools, they would have very hard sledding on account of their hand- writing. Some studies made by the present writer have shown that a large proportion of the members of a The change made college faculty have changed in one's style fundamentally the style of their according to the writing since they left the ele- needs of expression ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^j ^^^^ ^^^^ were in school great care was taken with them to develop a "fine", "neat" hand; but when they came upon the necessity of expressing themselves readily and effectively they acquired a style suited to their special temperaments. It is probable that every per- son has certain natural peculiarities which may prop- erly show themselves in his writing, as in his speech or his walk or his gesture. And economy and efh- ciency require that we should not attempt to make all pupils write just the same hand. What we should demand is legibility, with a reasonable amount of neatness ; and then let each pupil preserve his individuality in his style. Certain it is that if TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 193 we keep at a child incessantly because of defects in his handwriting, we will be likely to make him so conscious of mere technique that he will hardly be- come able to employ it automatically. Here is a type of man who will illustrate the principle. When he sits down to write a simple letter to a friend, he goes at the task as though it were a momentous undertaking. He writes slowly, and takes infinite care to have all his lines and spaces just right, mathematically and esthetically. In the course of his writing, one can observe him staring into vacancy several minutes at a time, and frequent- ly he scratches his head to incite his brain cells to greater activity. When he is all through one can see that he has wrought out only a rather stiff and formal product. It is technically good, but on the side of content it is more or less empty and lifeless. This man's writing furnishes a good illustration of a faulty method of teaching — a method which has exalted form above content. It may be instructive to give another instance, showing how undue emphasis put upon technique An illustration of may work harm to a child. J. exalting technique did not enter the public schools above content ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^g ^i^^ years of age. She had been prepared at home so that she could go directly into the fifth grade of a school in an eastern 194 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS city. When she began her school life she could write readity in a slant style adapted to her peculiar temperament. Her handwriting had a personal character; it was not precisely like the writing of any one else. It was legible, though it was not beautiful ; but she could write automatically for the most part. However, when she entered the fifth grade, her teacher was not satisfied with her pen- manship, especially since the vertical style was in- sisted upon in that school. So it was ordered that J. should change her writing to the vertical form, and the teacher required that she should have a drill period every day in the school, and that she should also be given some special attention at home. Throughout the entire year in the fifth grade, J. tried to acquire this vertical hand. She became self- conscious about her writing, whereas before she en- tered school she would dash off whatever entered her mind without thinking much about the penmanship. But at the completion of the fifth grade, she had learned to write slowly and painstakingly in the effort to attain the technical perfection which her teacher desired. J. is now a junior in the high school. Her hand- writing is distinguished for its cramped, formal character. She still writes the vertical hand, and writes it rather slowly and laboriously. The teacher TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 195 in the fifth grade impressed upon her so profoundly the necessity of taking great care that she can not free herself from the habits estabhshed at that time. It is not beyond the fact to say that she is now handicapped on account of her writing. Had she been allowed to develop freely she would probably have acquired a reasonably attractive style. At any rate, penmanship would not have been so great a barrier to her expression as it is now. The fifth-grade teacher who turned J. on the wrong track greatly overstressed the importance of uniformity in handwriting. She endeavored to m.ake all her children write in the same style. She would set vertical copies, which all her pupils were required to imitate. When their work was passed in each day, she would criticize it mainly from the point of view of technique. She would not accept anything which showed any individual variation from the conventional style in favor in her room. She exhibited in her school-room the writing of those children that was nearest like her own, and that showed the fewest individual characteristics. It is not unreasonable to say that this kind of teaching exerts a hannful Influence upon the de- velopment of facility in the use of writing as a means of expression, not only because it exalts form too highly, but also because it suppresses individual- 196 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS ity. One can usually distinguish a person by his intonation. It is a part of his make-up. In the same way, one should be able to distinguish individuals by their handwriting. Individuality ought to reveal itself through the hand as well as through the tongue. It would be wrong to make all pupils intone in the same way, or gesticulate in exactly the same manner, or assume the same facial expression in response to any stimulus. So it seems wasteful to try to force a certain style of penmanship on all pupils, regardless of their individual temperaments. It is not intended to imply that a pupil should have no guidance or instruction in handwriting. Of Instruction course, he must be guided in his efforts in technique to write a legible form, especially in the beginning. It will be of help to a child when he is beginning to walk to give him assistance. Also one can do something toward helping him to acquire spoken language, though formal instruction can not accomplish much in this regard. Perhaps more at- tention should be given to writing at the start than to any of these other activities. But once a pupil gets started in the use of penmanship as a means of expression, then the chief emphasis should be put always upon the thing to be expressed. If his writ- ing is not legible, there will be need for greater care, just as when his speech can not be interpreted he TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 197. must make an effort to improve it so that he can be understood. It is probable that if we should follow this principle in our criticism of a pupil's handwrit- ing, we would accomplish the most we can for him. It may be mentioned in this connection that a study of the life of a child outside of school will show that he learns a great deal more or less inci- dentally while he is active in other directions. This is especially true in respect to his acquiring the means of doing things. The child never gives much, if any, conscious attention to walking; he simply keeps in his attention the objects he wishes to attain. Again, the child gives very little conscious attention to the learning of oral language. He endeavors to make himself understood. His mind is always filled with some idea to be conveyed, and the very compli- cated processes of speech are required with but slight deliberate effort. The child of three or four years is an expert in gesture, in facial expression, and the like, and yet he rarely endeavors consciously to acquire these arts. So one might go on at length to mention activities, skill, and ability which the child acquires without making them a matter of formal study. In all such cases, the end to be at- tained is the thing in the focus of consciousness, and the means of attaining it are gained on the side, as it were. The principle undoubtedly applies to the 198 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS mastery of technique in handwriting and the like, though not to such an extent as in speech, perhaps. This question of magnifying technique, especially in the early years, brings up other problems asso- Too great emphasis ciated directly with it. The upon technique may Italian children are, as a rule, lead to nervous neurotic. They show nervous overstrain , • • ^^ r j. overstrani even m the first grades of school. There are undoubtedly many reasons for this; but it is probable that a potent cause of nervousness is too great insistence upon finely coordinated w^ork in writing and the like. The problems arising here have been well presented in a letter to the present writer from a teacher in an eastern city. She says: *Tn an institute last sum- mer, a lecturer stated that children just start- ing to write ought not to be permitted to make small-sized letters. He said their writing should be three or four times as large as the ordinary writing of a grown person. He thought it would injure the child's writing if he did fine, small work at the outset. But I have found in all my experience that the youngest children like to write as small as possible. I can not remember any child just starting in to write who ever of his own accord wrote in a large way, such as the lecturer advised. H the thoughts presented in the lecture are TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 199 correct, why is it that very young children always wish to write in such a small hand ? I have noticed that they grasp their pencils tightly and bear on." It is unquestionably true that children five or six years of age, when required to write with a pen or pencil, will tend to make unusually small forms. They will seize the writing instrument tightly be- tween their fingers and "bear on". So far as I have observed, all teachers of young children must con- stantly work against the child's tendency to write in a cramped way, provided it is thought that this is in- jurious, either to his nervous system or to the de- velopment of efficiency in writing. The letter sug- gests that it is "natural" for children to write in this manner; and this brings up a difficult problem. It seems reasonable that if children almost uni- versally write as indicated, this style must be "nat- ural." But we should doubtless look at the matter from another standpoint. It is probable nature never de- signed that a child of five years should write with a pen or a pencil. At this tender age he has not ac- quired delicate, precise coordination of his fingers, such as is required in fine writing. Test him in threading a needle, for instance, and you will see that he grasps the thread and the needle in an ex- tremely tense way, much as he grasps his pen when 200 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS he tries to write. On the other hand, if you ask him to execute a task requiring crude strength rather than dehcate coordination, you will find that he can perform it without undue strain or stress. For in- stance, he can use a knife in whittling usually with success, because he can grasp it with the whole hand, instead of simply with the tips of the thumb and fingers. Nature probably intended that a child of five or six should apply himself only to tasks that permit of rather coarse, non-precise actions, instead of fine coordination and precise control. Ask a child of five to perform delicately coordi- nated movements, and he will try to execute them by using crude power rather than precise coordina- tion. When he undertakes a delicate task he ap- pears to say: "Now I must make a great effort to do this." And "great effort" means using muscles for all they are worth. It means "bearing on" or pushing hard or grasping tightly with the fingers, and so on. In the adult's consciousness, a fine task like writing is interpreted to require exact control of the fingers without the use of the biceps, so that there is no undue force exerted. One can not ob- serve in a well-trained adult when he is writing, any muscular tension in the face, in the hands, or even in the fingers which are controlling the pen. There is practically no muscular effort ; there is simply very TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 201 neat coordination. But now observe a beginner; you will notice tensions all over his body — not only in the fingers that are being used, but in the fingers that are not used, and even in the toes. One who has made no observations along this line will be sur- prised to note how extensively the muscles through- out the body are made tense when a child of five is just starting to write with a pen, or even with a hard lead-pencil. I agree with the lecturer quoted, that young chil- dren ought to write a large, free hand; and if we Developing tlie ideas can do so we ought to pre- of lightness and rapid- vent their making small, ity in the place of cramped letters in the begin- power and effort ^-^^ But how can we ac- complish this? When I received the above letter, I began an experiment with a girl of six years of age, who had been having little lessons in writing for three or four weeks. She wrote in the small, cramiped way described in the letter. She had learned to write several words, like "hen", "wig", and ''pig". When I would ask her to write one of these words, she would grasp her pencil tensely and bend over her paper. Her body would become rigid, her head would go around with her fingers; and she would write slowly and with muscular ef- fort. She illustrated exactly the typical child who 202 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS is permitted to follow his own course in a matter of this kind. That is to say, she accentuated effort instead of coordination. This particular child had used a pencil of very small diameter, which aggravated the tendency to grasp it in a tense way. I substituted for the small, hard pencil one of soft lead and large diameter. Then I asked the child to take the pencil v/ithout any tension, simply holding it in her fingers. Next, taking her hand in my own, I asked her to swing it around lightly with me on the letter h. (We were practising on the word "hen".) I called attention to the light-looking line we had made compared with the heavy-looking one she had been making, and said to her that we wanted to make as light a line as we could. After we had written the letter rapidly and lightly, I asked her to try it herself. Of course, when she felt the full responsibility of the task, her tendency was to grip the pencil, and "bear on" in the execution of the task. By observ- ing her and taking her hand again, and emphasizing the idea of writing quickly and making a light line, it was not long before I was able to impress upon her the idea of rapidity and lightness, so that vv^hen I would release her hand she would tend to move rapidly and lightly; though, of course, she would easily slip back into her original practice. TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTF 203 We kept at this for five minutes and then let it go. In the afternoon we had another exercise ex- tending over ten minutes, in which first the letter h was written, and then the whole word "hen", in a rapid way, with the idea of making lightness and rapidity prominent. It should be said that the pur- pose of emphasizing the idea of a light line was to counteract the tendency to make a heavy one. I knew if I could establish the notion of making a very- light line, that this would be the best way to release the tensions, and to resist the impulse to apply great muscular power. A child of six can control his muscles in writing if he can only get the idea of doing the thing rapidly and lightly. And if once he can gain the feeling for lightness of line, later on he can make it heavier if this be thought desirable. But what we want to do in the beginning is to give the pupil a set in the direction of making light marks, and running them off swiftly. The last point should be impressed. It is practically certain that if a child works slowly, tensions will develop, and he will "bear on". He will become too conscious of the de- tails of his task, which he will endeavor to execute by giving attention to each element thereof. CHAPTER VII TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE — CONCLUDED The writer has for several years been following the method used in the teaching of a girl, now four- An illustration from teen years of age, to play the instruction in music piano. She began her lessons at the age of ten, and has been faithfully practising up until her fourteenth year. She had had no experi- ence in playing previous to beginning instruction with her present instructor, who impressed upon her at the outset the notion that the first requirement was to gain facility in the use of the fingers. The teacher insisted from the start that correct habits must be gained in the control of the hand, the fingers, the wrist, the elbow, the arm, and the body as a whole. The novice was not permitted to practise any exer- cise in the teacher's presence unless she observed all the technical details mentioned. At the end of the first year, the pupil could play only two or three simple airs; and her chief aim in these was to main- tain correct bodily positions, and to exhibit the ap- proved sort of technique in execution. It would be 204 TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 205 apparent to any observer that she did not feel the spirit of the thing she was executing. She did not play her selections mainly because she enjoyed them, but rather because they gave opportunity to practise on technique. Her own consciousness was concerned more with accuracy in technical execution than with the spirit, life, and color of the music itself. At the end of the first year of instruction, nothing could induce the pupil to take liberties with the mechanics of playing; and at the end of the fourth year, while some freedom has been gained in execution, never- theless the thing that looms up in consciousness as of chief value is correct technique. At no point in this girl's instruction has she been made clearly to appreciate that the sole reason for observing me- chanical rules at all is to enable her to secure the effects which she desires In her musical expression. She does not view her technique as a means to an end, so much as a thing of value in itself and for its own sake. Let us now glance at a method of teaching sing- ing in which technique is exalted to the place of Execution chief importance. In a certain eastern in singings city, the supervisor of music not long since issued instructions to the teachers regarding certain details in the teaching of vocal music. First, he complained of the lack of order and self-control 2o6 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS which he found in many of the rooms he visited during the singing periods. He maintained that pu- pils should be required to sit erect in their seats, and to keep their bodies still. He said that often during a singing exercise the boys especially would tap out the tune with their feet, which he thought was a grievous error; and he urged the teachers to pre- vent any unnecessary and distracting actions of that sort. He advised his teachers to insist that while singing pupils should always stand erect, with their heels together, the body being kept under per- fect control. The head should be kept to the front, the book should be held in the left hand on a level with the chin, and the right hand should hang at the side. In the city referred to, the teaching of music is not begun until the second grade. There is some rote Elementary facts singing in the kindergarten, and of tedinique occasionally a song Is sung at opening exercises in the first grade ; but little if any importance is attached to this as a means of devel- oping either musical appreciation, or freedom and efficiency in expression. It is thought that musical instruction proper is begun in the second grade, when the children commence to learn elem.entary facts of technique. They are first required to "sing the scale", which is written on the board before the TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 207 children. The teacher executes it, and requires the pupils to follow her imitatively. When she thinks some facility has been gained in "singing" the scale, she introduces the names of the symbols employed in musical notation. These names are defined, and the definitions are learned by heart by the children. It is maintained in this community that no progress can be made in reading music until the symbols as employed in its expression are understood; and by understanding is meant mainly the ability to give correct formal definitions. So this work goes on throughout the second and the third years, attention being given almost en- tirely to the learning of definitions of musical sym- bolism, and the execution of elementary technique, the "singing" of scales, and the producing of tones in reaction upon symbols read or dictated. After a time, songs are introduced and are learned through the use of the notation which has been memorized. These songs are not first sung "by ear" and then by note; but in the very beginning pupils are re- quired to read the song, so to speak, through the symbolism which they have learned. The teacher asks, "What key is this song written in?" "Where is the first note located ?" And she adds — "Sing the notes by syllable in the first measure." "Now sing the words instead of the syllables." In this way each 2o8 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS song is learned. The aim throughout is to drill upon technique. The children get their set in the direc- tion of giving heed mainly to the mechanics of sing- ing. The teacher does give some attention to what is called "expression"; but this is again mainly an application of technique which has been memorized. At a particular point in a given song, there may be written a symbol which indicates accent, stress, live- liness, loudness, or some other quality; and then the pupils are required to apply what they have learned in interpretation of this symbol. It is exactly such a method in principle as was followed some years ago in teaching a pupil to read. To observe punctu- ation in reading, pupils were required to stop for one count at a comma, two counts at a semicolon, three counts at a colon, and four counts at a period. Under such instruction, a novice in reading always attempted to apply his rules instead of to give nat- ural expression to the thought which was under- stood and felt, and which ought naturally to be ex- pressed in a given way. It is a simple matter of psychology that in its fundamental character rhythm concerns muscular Development of an ap- action rather than mere au- preciation of rliytlim ditory appreciation. Indeed it would be impossible to have auditory appreciation without some motor response. It is doubtful if the TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 209 ear alone could ascribe a rhythmical character to sounds. It is only as the organism, or some mem- ber thereof, adjusts itself to the sounds in a regu- lar way that a rhythmical is distinguished from an unrhythmical series. At any rate, the novice can not comprehend any complex rhythm in song or musical instrument by simply listening to it. He must first act it out. Nature seeks to encourage him in this, because he will spontaneously tap with his foot or hand in response to rhythm which is more or less unfamiliar to him. Often, of course, people continue throughout life to respond by hand, foot, and body to clearly accented rhythms, such for instance as one finds in the ordinary dance music. What nature has taught the child to do sponta- neously, the teacher should do with distinct purpose General motor before before a song is sung. By special vocal execution children in the primary grade the song should be clapped out in response to the teacher's singing. If the whole body can be brought into play in reacting in harmony with the song, it will help to establish its rhythm. The more completely hands, head, body, and feet can be at- tuned to the rhythm in the beginning, the more read- ily will it be grasped by the ear, and the more easily can it be executed by the voice. Before an attempt is made to sing a song, it ought 2IO EVERYDAY PROBLEMS to be hummed through with the sole purpose of marking the rhythm in the voice. To sing words in a rhythmical way is far more difficult for the novice than simply to vocalize in a rhythmical way. In the latter case, consciousness is occupied solely with the marking of rhythm vocally, just as in the beginning the aim is to mark it in clapping, or in tapping with the foot, or in movements of the head. But when words are introduced, there is the complicated process of pronouncing them in rhythmical phrases or patterns. Before the novice undertakes this task, he has spoken his words without regard to the rhythms which must be observed in song. And when he tries to utter them now in these new patterns, he must resist the old habits to speak them straight off without regard to phrasing, except as the thought may require it. Any observer of young people must have noticed that they can often *'sing" a scale, us- ing such a syllable as la, but when they com.e to re- produce the words of a song instead of the syllable they are often confused, and unable to perform the task. As the novice must first execute rhythm in a mo- tor way, so his appreciation of rhythm in song and The child's inter- in instrumental music is deter- est in action songs mined largely by his interest in action. The young are fond of songs which sug- TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 211 gest action. On the vaudeville stage, which appeals so strongly to the "crowd", the singers are always in movement, which is consonant with the rhythm of their songs. The novice is pleased in part by the song, but more largely perhaps by the rhythmical movement. Unquestionably the chief reason why the young are so passionately fond of the singing in the vaudeville theaters is because of its muscular character, so to speak. A singer who does not ac- cent the rhythm of his song with bodily movement of some kind can not claim the enthusiastic atten- tion of young auditors. When a vaudeville audience disperses, one may observe that a large proportion of the people — the young especially — begin to re- peat the songs, and they always reproduce the ac- companying rhythmical movements. They rarely sing over the songs which may in themselves be rhythmical, but which have not been presented with appropriate motor accompaniment. This principle is seen In the songs which children choose in the schools when they are given an oppor- tunity so to do. Rarely will children below the sev- enth grade show preference for songs which aim to celebrate the beauties of nature, say, in color or in form. The writer has been able to observe a teacher instructing a group of fourth-grade children in sing- ing a song describing the attractions of the pussy- 212 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS willow. It was evident that the teacher felt the sen- timent of the song; and she expressed her feeling for it in her vocal and facial expressions. One could not doubt that the teacher's singing was genuine. There was an indication of true feeling in it, and it impressed the observer as being natural, pleasing, effective. But the children sang in a mechanical way for the most part. They seemed to observe the formal rules with respect to pulsation, duration, and position; but the essential qualities of vocal music were lacking, except, perhaps, in the case of two or three of the older girls in the group. So far as one could tell, the boys were wholly unaffected by the song; they were apparently performing a task merely because it was required of them. The explanation of this seemed obvious. The pussy-willow, which meant so much symbolically to the teacher, and which incited her to appropriate ex- pression, did not affect her pupils at all as it affected her. The tendency to assign attributes of tenderness, delicacy, heroism, and the like, to objects in nature unquestionably develops slowly, and is not at all prominent before adolescence. It is only as the in- dividual becomes more or less introspective, and be- gins to feel the tragedies of life, so that tenderness and grief and heroism and delicacy acquire definite meaning for him, that he can ascribe them to the TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 213 objects around him. The child is probably nearer than the adult to the realities of life. He tends to view objects without preconception or sentiment. He regards the pussy-willow, for instance, from the point of view of its construction, and how he can use it, and he does not read into it qualities of cour- age, aspiration, etc. Doubtless education should utilize every phase of nature which will enable the child to objectify his experiences and sentiments, and then to enjoy them or to admire them as if they actually existed outside of his own consciousness. But we must not move too rapidly in respect to this matter. If the child be asked to simulate feeling be- fore he actually experiences it, his performances will be mechanical and artificial ; whereas the expression of the adult in a similar situation might be real and vital. Here, then, is seen one reason why much of the singing in the schools impresses one as being artifi- One reason why sing- cial and formal. Songs are ing is often formal often chosen for their senti- and mechanical mental value, as viewed by the adult; while the child would, if left to his own choice, select songs that are full of action. Let him sing a song in which he has an opportunity to imitate a bass drum, say, and there will be no difficulty in claiming his interest, and making his expression 214 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS genuine. Let him accompany his vocal activity with marching, and he will at once enter into the situation with his whole being; face, voice, and body will reveal his appreciation of it, and the naturalness of his expression. This instance is typical of the sort of songs that are appropriate for the young, while they are in the stage of development in which motor needs pre- dominate over appreciation. In the course of development, the point will be reached when motor activities will subside, and appreciation will become ascendant. When this period is reached, the individ- ual can then celebrate in song experiences which are mainly appreciative, and which portray sentiment In the way of aspiration, hope, and the delight in what is symbolically beautiful and moral in nature. But all this is suitable only for the adult whose needs give importance to those values. In the high school, the songs should concern nature in its esthetic forms and its symbolism of human qualities, and they should also relate to human life in its aspira- tions, hopes, trials, triumphs, and so on. Thus there should be a gradual evolution in songs from those re- quiring motor expression mainly to those requiring ethical, esthetic and moral appreciation. Nothing has been said thus far of the course which the child needs to pursue in learning to Inter- TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 215 First steps in teaching pret musical symbols, so that a novice to read music ^hen he looks upon a page of music the forms suggest to him automatically appropriate tonal qualities and vocal expression. In teaching the novice to read linguistic symbols, it is the aim of good teachers now to lead him as speed- ily as possible to interpret readily groups of words which portray an idea. In reading, the sole object is to have the consciousness of the reader filled with meaning rather than with words as mere forms or symbols; and as meaning is not conveyed by isolated words, much less by parts of words, so it is necessary to read by phrases or clauses, or even by sentences as unities. Indeed, some persons seem to have the ability to make the paragraph rather than the separate sentences constituting it the unit in reading. At least they give attention in only a minimal way to separate sentences, but in a maxi- mal way to the paragraph; and this is advisable often, since the unit of thought in much of what the individual reads is actually in the paragraph rather than in any of the smaller linguistic unities. Economy and efficiency in reading linguistic sym- bols seems to apply to the reading of musical sym- The relation between bols, though this principle reading linguistic sym- is not yet appreciated by bols and musical symbols a good many teachers, 2i6 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS and apparently not by the majority of musicians. This may account in part for the very different re- sults obtained in the teaching of reading as com- pared with the teaching of music. Of course, more time and energy are usually devoted to the former. But even in schools where as much time is given to music as to reading, the pupils seem to make greater progress in the latter than in the former. In the teaching of reading to-day, good teachers have aban- doned the practice of first memorizing the alphabet, then joining letters together to make syllables, and then combining words into sentences — two-word sentences at first, and later on others more involved. Hardly any teacher in touch with contemporary thought would fail to put emphasis at the outset upon the word or the sentence when introducing a child to reading. In due course, she would lead him to analyze the words into their sound elements to which the appropriate letters would be attached, in order that he might be aided to make out new words for himself; but this analysis would come after, not before the learning of words. So in the teaching of music, the novice ought first to execute a phrase or a song as a unity ; and later he should discover how the phrase or song may be written in appropriate symbols. Before ever a word is said about any mu- sical symbol, the pupil should have worked out in his TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 217 body and voice the rhythms of easy songs. Also he should have gained facility in the vocal expression of rhythm, just as he should gain facility in the use of language before he learns to read. No one would think of asking a child to learn visual linguistic sym- bols before he had learned to speak. The visual sym- bols must relate to language which he has already thoroughly mastered. In the same way, to introduce a child to musical symbols before he has gained some ease in singing seems uneconomical and inef- fective. When this is done the result will be that he will learn rules for vocal execution, but he will not master musical symbolism in the true sense, which sliould be simply suggestion of oral and au- ditory qualities. As in linguistic symbols isolated letters have no value, so in vocal music the Individual note is prac- We must begin with tically without significance. But the largest unities i^ the novice be led at the out- possible without go- set to execute notes in isolation, ing beyond the pu- giving them distinct individual- pil's ability to exe- jty, they will come to occupy a ^ "^ ^ more or less independent place in consciousness. This simple law is familiar to all capable teachers of reading. The child who early is made to learn isolated letters tends to acquire a set in the direction of giving them independent value, 2i8 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS with the result that in his linguistic training he is likely to be handicapped in the effective use of words in the gaining of ideas. At the same time, when the pupil is first introduced to reading, he must often deal with separate words, because sentences may be too complex for ready comprehension. But he is not permitted to dwell upon the individual words until they get a prominence which they will tend to keep later on, when they really ought to lose their indi- viduality. In the consciousness of a good reader, ninety-nine out of every one hundred words are sim- ply dimly apprehended elements of some larger lin- guistic unity. This principle in its application to the teaching of singing would require that while the pupil might begin with the individual notes and dwell upon them just long enough to get a feeling for their individu- ality, still he must very speedily come to handle them in musical phrases or sentences. He must not be permitted to get his set on giving attention to separate notes; he must get in the habit of fusing them, into larger unities. He must be trained so that when he looks at a musical phrase, it will be inter- preted as a unity. It is only when the organic rela- tion of any particular note with other notes in a phrase is appreciated that the musical thought is ap- prehended. TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 219 There is, perhaps, no greater fault in current mu- sical teaching than the failure to develop early in pupils the tendency to interpret and execute in terms of large unities, instead of being confined to mere elements which are without value in themselves. Often pupils in the elementary school, and even in the high school, whose musical training has pro- ceeded according to the analytic method, wherein primary importance is given to the simplest ele- ments, never reach the point where these elements coalesce into unities expressive of true musical ideas. One who has taught children linguistic reading realizes that he must constantly guard against the Heading musical tendency of a novice to devote his symbols at sight attention to the smallest unities. Without question, a novice regards it as more diffi- cult to handle a sentence as a whole than the indi- vidual words of which it is composed. The very length of the sentence may frighten him. Naturally he will tend to work with what appears to be the easier unit. The teacher then must make use of de- vices to encourage him to grasp the larger unities in one pulse of attention. She must stimulate him to interpret rapidly. She must give him a limited amount of time in which to grasp a phrase or a clause or a sentence, or even a paragraph. In the very beginning, she will assist the reader to perceive 220 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS large unities by swinging her pencil over a phrase or a clause, thus suggesting to the eye that it should be apprehended as a unit. Now, in the teaching of mu- sical symbols there exists the same need to incite the novice to grasp unities as a whole. Singing at sight will assist in this process, just as reading at sight is a stimulus to the novice to push rapidly through linguistic symbols to their meaning. When the novice is given plenty of time, he will be in- clined to dawdle over isolated elements. But if he be required to get the meaning of a sentence or a paragraph within a limited period of time, he will strive to go directly thereto, and this will compel him to give heed to significant rather than to mere structurally simple unities. With practice the novice may acquire a set in the direction of attending to meaning, and interpreting symbols more or less au- tomatically. Any method of teaching which will fa- cilitate this process is to be commended, for it will help to accomplish one of the chief ends in the mas- tery of musical technique — to employ it easily and readily in the largest unities possible. There are certain differences betwen linguistic and musical elements which should be appreciated by the The value of the sim- teacher. The sounds of indi- plest musical elements vidual letters in language are without emotional or ideational value to children; TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 221 thovigh in certain systems of teaching reading, there has been an attempt made to associate artificially the sound elements with the noises made by animals. But in music every tone has a certain peculiar value. The la tone, for instance, has a special value for most if not for all persons. Do has a different value ; and so each tone produces a characteristic ef- fect upon those who hear it. It results, then, that when these are put into combination the result is sad, gay, cold, cheerful, inspiring, or disheartening, according to the predominance of one or another of these tones. The novice can be easily led to appre- ciate that any given song is expressive of certain mental states or attitudes or feelings, because of the prominence of particular tones. The instant he looks upon a page of musical symbols expressing a song, its general character should be revealed to him, much as when he looks upon a human face, the lines and all the expressive media suggest the character of the individual, and indicate whether he is habitually joyous, melancholy, generous or the reverse. It should not be necessary for a pupil to "hum through" a tune in order to determine its character. The eye alone, grasping the musical phrases, should reveal the nature of the song in respect to its funda- mental, emotional value. Of course, this result can never be attained if the pupil is kept over-long in 222 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS dealing with individual notes, laboriously decipher- ing the songs which he is required to sing. V/e may now glance at another phase of our problem. The writer had an opportunity recently to While emphasis is put observe a series of lessons upon the higher uni- being given on the piano, ties, the lower ones ^he teacher is an expert in must not he ignored ^ i • i ^- i • ^ technical execution, and is regarded by his colleagues as one of the best-trained musicians in the country. The pupil is a girl four- teen years of age. She has had two or three years of more or less incidental musical instruction, her attention being given miainly to her work in the ele- mentaiy and in the high school. She has no inten- tion of becoming a professional musician; her par- ents simply desire that she should acquire an ''ear for music", and that she should be able to play a lit- tle, principally "for her own amusement". During this lesson, the teacher dwelt mainly upon the meaning of the selection being studied. He talked about the scenes which came into his mind's eye as he read one after another of the musical pas- sages. Then he would show his pupil how he would express these visual images which he said were very clear in his own mind. Even a novice could under- stand that this man felt music, and was trying to have his pupil appreciate what most impressed him- TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 223 self. He was not thinking about the technique of the thing ; he was concerned whoHy with its content. But as a teacher, his musical appreciation served rather as a handicap than as a help to him. The mu- sical symbols and the technical processes in execu- tion had become thoroughly automatic in his case. For him the sole requisite now is to develop the con- tent for musical symbolism. The more truly and at the same time deeply he feels a musical situation, the more effectively will he render it, because the means of expression have become automatic; just as a good reader is unconscious of the letters or the words he sees, or of the vocal movements required to pronounce them; or just as a child who has learned to walk is unconscious of the details of an object he sees, and of the locomotive technicalities required to secure it. As a result of his mastery of technique, this teacher could not readily put himself at the point of view of his pupil, who lacked ability to read the symbols readily or to execute them. As one watched her he saw her ti*ying quickly to make out a musical passage, and then striving to render it on the keyboard. It appeared that her attention and energy were given wholly to these technical processes. And the instructor only increased her difficulties by talking to her constantly about the content, showing how he felt about it, and what 224 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS images were awakened In his fancy in different parts of the selection. The effect of all this was really to overpower the novice, and the hour passed without any particular progress having been made. She could not appreciate the content because she was struggling with the technique, and she could not make rapid headway in mastering the latter because of the instructor's failure properly to help her. Let us leave the subject of music at this point, and glance at the teaching of drawing. The writer can An illustration remember the time when instruc- from the teach- tion in drawing throughout the ing of drawing country was confined mainly to the reproduction of outline copies of conventional ob- jects in copy-books. The aim in this instruction was to have pupils reproduce formal copies with tech- nical accuracy. It was evidently thought by many teachers in an earlier day that experience in this work would develop ability to represent actual ob- jects readily and accurately. It is worthy of special remark, however, that these teachers rarely if ever made actual tests with pupils to determine whether as a matter of fact they acquired the ability to por- tray real objects as a result of their drill in reproduc- ing outlines. The writer recently asked a teacher whose pupils had often drawn dogs in outline, if she would have them represent a particular dog which TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 225 had come to the school that day with one of the chil- dren. The teacher permitted the pupils to attempt the task, but she expressed grave doubt whether they could successfully accomplish it, for the reason that they had had no experience whatever in such work. They had been in school for six years on the average, and they had been drawing in copy-books more or less regularly for at least four years. When they came actually to represent the dog, they were quite helpless even to take the initial steps in the process. It was almost as though they had never seen the object, though they had drawn it in outline a great many times in their copy-books. Ap- parently they could discern no connection whatever between the copy which they had been reproducing, and the living reality which they were now asked to represent. The terms reprodtiction and representation denote quite different psychological processes. In the for- Keproduction mer case, the individual is required vs. merely to execute point by point a representation ^opy which is set before him. What he seeks to do is to make his work resemble exactly the original. The requirements in such a case are, on the motor side, facility in execution, and, on the mental side, an appreciation of the direction of lines, and spatial relations. But when an individual must 226 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS represent a real object, the process is altogether dif- ferent from that required in mere reproduction. In the latter case, the factor of the third dimension is eliminated. The copy is presented in a plane ; and of course the reproduction must be executed in a plane. Moreover, in simple reproduction the pupil takes account of lines only, and in his own execution he attempts to construct lines exactly like those in his copy. But when he views a real object, he never sees lines, for these are mental constructions which are employed to suggest the object. In the real ob- ject, if it be at all complex, there is presented a vast number of details which must be overlooked, and only those characters represented which will be suf- ficient to distinguish the object, and enable the one who views the representation to interpret its per- sonality, as it v/ere, and its meaning. Thus while in reproduction the process is not one of selection of aspects, but one of mere repetition of whatever is seen, and also while there is no transfer- ence from real appearance to suggestion in line and color in actual representation, these are just the es- sential processes in representation. A representation is in every respect different from the reality it por- trays, but still it must suggest the reality. This indi- cates the psychological process involved in the indi- vidual's learning to represent realities. He must dis- TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 227 cover what qualities and relations of lines, shades, and colors will suggest real characteristics to one who views his handiwork. A representation is a creation in the sense that it is never a mere photo- graph of a reality; it is a translation of real appear- ances into suggestive characters. The point is that experience in reproduction alone gives little or no training in this process of trans- lating realities into representative forms. It does not enable the individual to discover how he can employ his lines and his colors to portray realities. More- over, in simple reproduction the eye can easily fol- low a line point by point until an entire figure is ex- ploited. But in viewing a dog, for instance, the eye of the novice is unable to trace it point by point ; but rather the complex thing as a whole tends to domi- nate his vision and attention, though some one strik- ing trait may be focal in consciousness. But the representation of this trait alone would in no sense be a representation of the object itself. In follow- ing a copy there is usually no particular phase of it which arrests the attention, as there is likely to be in respect to the real object. A mere outline is con- ventional, so that striking individual characteristics are usually eliminated. But in natural objects it is these individual impressive traits that are likely to monopolize attention. This is without doubt the 228 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS most effective arrangement for purposes of percep- tion and adjustment to these objects, but not for representing them; and herein is found the funda- mental difficulty in drawing, which must determine the method of teaching. Dwelling upon the mere technique of drawing can not develop efficiency in representation. One may be able to execute beauti- ful lines, but not be able to employ his skill in por- traying objects, for the reason that he has acquired his skill as a thing in itself apart from its use in representation. What is needed in the teaching of this subject is to develop skill through actual em- plo3mient of it in the way in which it will be re- quired to meet the real needs of daily life. That is to say, the pupil should have experience in drawing, and not be confined to drill upon the mechanics thereof. Finally, we may consider for a moment how the principles concerning the development of automatic Automatic facil- facility in execution apply to a ity in arithmetic study like arithmetic. Arithme- tic, more than any other subject, except writing and spelling, perhaps, should be taught with a view to making many of its processes automatic. In the teaching of history there are very few topics that need to be learned so that they will become mechan- ical. Most of history should appeal to reason and TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 229 appreciation, and it should not be reduced to auto- matic facility. This is equally true of most of what is taught in literature, geography, nature study, geometry, and the like. But the greater part of arithmetic will be of genuine value to the individual only as it can be used without any conscious effort or direction. Again, one who must "think" how he should spell a familiar word has not been well trained in spelling. The same is true of writing; and it is just as true of most of what will be used in arithmetic. However, many teachers regard the lat- ter subject as one appealing to reason, and they teach it with a view to training reason rather than to ac- quiring facile habits. But a pupil who is left to "rea- son out" the product of two numbers when they are to be multiplied, or the sum when they are to be added, or the remainder when they are to be sub- tracted, or the quotient when they are to be divided, is not properly prepared in arithmetic for every-day needs. In the same way, an adult who must "reason out" the application of most of the tables to the practical situations of life has not been well trained. Take two children who are sent on a shopping errand. They must go to a grocery, purchase certain articles, and pay for them. One calculates auto- matically the amount to be paid. He does not have to go through a conscious and therefore more or less 230 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS laborious process of comparing the numbers in- volved. He has so often seen certain figures together with their sum or product or quotient or remainder that now the moment he beholds them in any given relation the inevitable result appears instantly in his mind. To illustrate the principle : an adult,when he sees two and two together in the relation of addition, immediately sees four. He does not have to go through the process of building up from two to the amount of two more. He automatically associates 4 with 2 ■\- 2. In the same way, any properly trained adult who sees eight and four in the relation of multiplication instantly thinks of thirty-two. It is not necessary that he should count up four eights to see how many they make in total. But some teach- ers who endeavor to make these elementary proc- esses automatic with their pupils, never attempt to do the same in dealing with more complicated rela- tions. The second boy mentioned above suffers from this latter kind of training. He must take time to work consciously through all his processes ; he must "reason out" everything he does. Which boy is bet- ter trained in the use of numbers? What has the second boy gained from his reasoning process that the first boy has missed? The first one jumps over a number of steps which the second must take slowly. There is no more value in taking these short TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 231 steps in arithmetical work than there would be in walking. One person might take a six-inch step while another could step three feet, covering all the intermediate points in one stride. Of course when a pupil first performs any new process it is necessary that he should see the reason B.elation of reason- why it must be done in a cer- ing to automatic fa- tain way. This is important so cility in aritlimetic that in the future if need be he can work his way through problems somewhat like this, but the solution of which he has not made au- tomatic. However, in all arithmetical processes which will need to be repeated often in practical life, the plan should be to make them so facile that the pupil can execute them without hesitation, or even without consciousness of the detailed steps involved; and this can be accomplished only by causing him to repeat the application of a principle until he gets be- yond the point of having to think it through, in the sense that he will not wonder what he should do, and his mind will not run here and there, because it has learned to proceed in a certain definite direction. Much of what teachers call reasoning in arith- metic is nothing but the mind of the novice wander- ing into by-paths because he has not learned which path will lead to the goal he wishes to reach. In the affairs of daily life, the expert can go straight to 22,2 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS the mark, while the novice must try this route and that one, because he does not know which is the proper one. There is no advantage in the develop- ment of the mind for the novice to keep trying wrong routes, and having to return when he has dis- covered his errors. Many people are left in some such a condition in respect to many of the adjust- ments of daily life. They wander here and there because they have not learned how to decide at once which course to pursue, and so they proceed slowly, and are always making errors. The expert in any field, who has made many processes automatic, rarely makes errors, and he gets forward rapidly; while the beginner never knows when he is right, and he is apt to be halting and indecisive in all he does. In the teaching of arithmetic, it is the common failing of teachers to leave principles hanging in the Applying principles air, so that every time a pupil until their right has occasion to use them he application becomes ^i^st try various routes before "second nature" -, ■, i u he happens more or less by ac- cident upon the right one. But the wise teacher, whenever any principle is developed, will have the pupil apply it in so many ways that he will get a secure feeling for the way in which the thing is to be done. It v/ill become "second nature" to him. TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 233 This means that he must be presented with a great variety of concrete situations in which any principle is to be applied; and the more skilful the teacher is in making interesting and practical problems in- volving the application of principles, the greater suc- cess she will have in making her teaching secure in the pupil's life. Take, for instance, the process of computing areas. When this principle is being con- sidered, the good teacher will have her pupils deter- mine the areas of so many surfaces in the school- room and outside that a habit of proceeding in a certain definite way when area is to be determined will become thoroughly fixed. But if only a few book problems are solved one week this year, say, and then a few more solved next year, there never can be developed automatic facility in handling these problems. The principle applies to the teaching of all processes in arithmetic. Many teachers think there is some extraordinary value in having pupils "analyze" every problem they Danger of over- solve. Often one sees a pupil emphasizing who can grasp the relations pre- analysis sented at once, and reach the solu- tion without delay ; but when he comes to state what he has done according to the formula insisted upon by the teacher, he may be slow and incompetent. The writer knows a pupil who is marked very low in 234 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS his analysis because he stumbles and halts, and can not choose the right terms when he attempts to go through with the form given him by the teacher. He can explain in his own way so that it will be clear to any one; but his mind seems to resist the par- ticular formula which the teacher wants him to use. He can work very rapidly through any problem pre- sented to him, and he is quite accurate; but his teacher thinks the matter of supreme importance is that he should follow her form in explaining what he does. She attaches more importance to his analysis according to the formal pattern in use, than to his being able to reach the right results rapidly and without error. Analysis has its place when the pupil is beginning to solve anything which brings in new relations or new processes, but it is of value only because it re- quires him to grasp these relations in the right way. The moment he can do this he ought to abandon his analysis, and cultivate speed and facility. He ought not to be at all conscious of any formula; and if he be kept upon analysis it will simply hinder him in his development. That pupil who can eliminate the greatest amount in his arithmetical work, provided he reaches the right results, is the one who has gained most from his training. What we must strive after in our arithmetical work are accuracy TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 235 and speed, with all unnecessary processes eliminated. If a child can regularly solve a problem involving any sort of arithmetical relations he should not be asked to analyze it; the fact that he can solve it is sufficient evidence that he has grasped those rela- tions. Much less should he be required to analyze ac- cording to a special form of v^hich the teacher ap- proves. We are coming to appreciate in education that there is no value in doing things in a formal, elaborate way just for the sake of being complete and explicit. We must eliminate every place we can ; and in no work is this more essential than in arith- metic. CHAPTER VIII TEACHING THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION Observe a child six months old when he is just beginning to make connections between words and How the child the things or experiences they gets at the mean- symbolize. If you notice care- ing of words f^Hy y^^ ^^ ^^^ ^|^^^ jj^ ^^^^ ^^_ ginning he gets his cue as to meaning from the facial and bodily expression of the one who is speak- ing, and also from the tone and timbre of the voice. Words at first denote emiotional states to the child ; and emotions can be deciphered by means of the vocal and bodily expressions of the speaker more easily and accurately than by means of pure symbols. This is probably true in the case of adults, as it certainly is true in respect to the child, and to some animals, as the dog and the horse. But, unlike the dog and the horse, the child, if he develops normally, can associate words as formal, conventional symbols with definite objects and phenomena and abstrac- tions. 27,6 THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 237 The first thing that strikes one as he studies the babe getting at our meanings for verbal symbols is the latter's lack of precise discrimination as to what is denoted by the words we employ. Let us suppose he is looking out of the window, apparently at the sky, and I say, *'sky, sky", and I point at the object, look up at it, and try to get him to look where I do. This is the way people usually proceed with the babe; and they do this because they think he will connect the things he sees with what he hears, and will thus bind together the word and the object designated. This seems to be good logic; but the trouble is with the premises. It is assumed that the child sees what the speaker does; and this assump- tion amounts ordinarily to a stupendous error. The child does not differentiate the sky proper, as I regard it, from everything else within the range of his vision. If there are clouds in view, these are in- cluded; if there be smoke floating in the air, this may occupy a more important place in his attention than the ethereal blue I wish him to direct his vision upon. If there be a tree or a house in the picture, the chances are that these will stand out much more distinctly than the sky. When I ask him next day, "Where is the sky?" and he points to the chimney of the house opposite, I 238 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS The chief distinction am amazed, since I took so between the child and gj-eat pains to teach him the the adult in attending ^j^ ^^ ^.^^.^^^ ^^^^ ^.^.^^^ to objects or situations , . ^^ , ., thmgs. He must be stupid. From the standpoint of the adult's ability to differ- entiate in attention specific objects or qualities from a general whole, the babe is stupid, for he can not do it. If he could do this he would be mature; for really that is the chief characteristic of maturity as distinguished from immaturity. The principle ap- plies to some extent, of course, to the five- and ten- and fifteen-year-old, as compared with the fully matured adult. How often one sees a teacher directing a child's attention to a new situation, pointing out som.e special phase of it which she appreciates, the while expecting the novice to see it as she does. Then the next day, when the learner shows that he is con- fused, that he did not make the discrimination ex- pected of him, the teacher may be impatient, and she may hold up the unfortunate pupil before the school as a dunce or a goose. The chief error in most of our teaching is that we do not skilfully isolate just the thing we want attended to, and then employ such effective methods that the learner's attention can not go astray. It is a simple psychological law that attention always tends to follow the lines of least THE ARTS OF COIMMUNICATION 239 resistance, which are the lines that have previously been followed ; so thct we have literally to coerce it to make new differentiations. I do not mean that we should attempt to coerce it by dermal excitations. Stimuli of this sort will disperse the attention, in- stead of focus it on a point, which is what we try to do in every possible teaching- situation. If one knows how to attract (not drive) the attention of his pupils to the particular new point he wishes them to learn, he can teach. Otherwise he will be more or less of a failure in the business. Now, suppose my year-old child has gained the idea of a chimney associated with the word ''sky" ; how can he be led to correct the error? Certainly not by repeating to-morrow the same thing he did to-day. No ; I must get him to indicate his notion of the meaning of the word, and let him go through all the possible notions he might have accidentally formed ; and then I must in every way I know how make it clear to him that it is not the chimney, or roof, or clouds, but the particular thing which people have in mind when they use the word. I must get him to employ the word or react upon my use of it, and he can tell from my expressions when he is cor- rect. I can never be sure what a learner has in the focus of his attention when I am teaching him a word until he reacts upon it or uses it himself. This, 240 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS I think, is a principle of universal validity in the teaching of language. Mere formal defining of a word may afford the teacher no opportunity to tell just what mental, content a novice has for it. Really, a child begins to learn words effectively only when he commences to use them, and notices When true how people react upon them. A little learning boy looking at a picture of a donkey begins ^^j^^j ^ soldier read underneath, *'Going home on his furlough", and he naturally associated "furlough" with this special sort of animal. But the moment he began using it he discovered from the way people took what he said that he must be wrong, and he was in a frame of mind to get at the true meaning. Those persons who live with children who express themselves spontaneously see the prin- ciple here in question illustrated constantly. If a child were never required to use language so as to produce definite reactions in those who listen to him, I doubt if he would learn the precise meanings of any but the most concrete terms relating to the objects he meets very frequently. Use is at once the test of understanding, and the motive for per- fecting the understanding of words. The words which the child first learns accurately are, of course, those which relate to the vital ex- THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 24.1 periences of every-day life. These are always con- crete. They can be tested by the senses, and they can be clearly distinguished from one another. When he comes to terms that relate to things remote from every-day life, or to those of an abstract nature, or to broad conceptions or large generaliza- tions, he will have trouble. The best he can do in such cases is to make guesses at meanings, and try on the terms to see if they will work as he conceives them. Take a word like "virtue," for instance. It is a long time before the child can get the precise content of this term, if, indeed, it has a certain definite meaning for adults even. Try to define that term yourself; then ask six or eight of your friends to define it. Are there not differences in your notions ? This term did not formerly have the meaning which many persons give it to-day; and a hundred years from now it will probably not have the meaning it now has for most people. As the race develops, meanings of terms change constantly; they tend to become more and more general. At first they are always concrete ; and this seems to be the same with the child. Abstract meanings must grow slowly; and we must be content with approximations to the true meaning of abstract symbols on the part of the child. It is useless to try to get ten-year-old chil- 242 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS dren, say, to learn by definition or any other way the precise meanings of general terms when first they meet them. This leads naturally to a consideration of the acquisition of meanings by the learning of defini- Acqnisition of tions. In going through many pro- meanings by grams of educational meetings re- the learning cently, I found this topic in a large of definitions ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^j^j^ .^ evidence to the effect that teachers have not yet found just what use should be made of the dictionary. Look- ing up the literature on the subject, one discovers that most writers have urged that the dictionary- be systematically employed in the school-room from the fourth grade on. "Teach children early to go to the dictionary for all words they do not under- stand," is the advice given by several writers. Others say, "Never tell a pupil anything he can find out by consulting the dictionary. He should as. soon as possible acquire the habit of learning the definitions of all strange terms." There are those who have little faith in the dictionary for pupils below the seventh or eighth grade, but they are in the minority apparently. The advocates of the dictionary seemingly have reason on their side; for how can a child gain the meaning of an unknown word except by learning its definition? And if he THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 243 does memorize what the dictionary gives for any term, he can not fail to comprehend it, according to the views of many teachers evidently. But the fallacy of this latter argument will be apparent to any one who will take the trouble to examine the definitions which children in the fourth grade, say, learn from the dictionaries in common use. I have made a collection of the dictionaries sold to children in the grades in different sections of the country, and they are much alike in fundamental characteristics, though they differ in size, type, and the like. But most of them follow the same method in defining words. They aim to be brief, for the sake of compactness, and so they give a few syn- onyms, without concrete examples showing the usage of any word in its ordinary contextual rela- tions. There lies before me a much-used common- school dictionary, which is a good illustration of the principle in question. Opening it at random, I chance first upon this word: ''typical; having the nature of or constituting a type. Figuratively rep- resentative ; emblematic; symbolical." Now I stop long enough to search out a sixth-grade boy, and I ask him to learn this definition. When he has "mas- tered" it, I have him "recite" it. Then I proceed to have him exhibit what sort of an understanding he has of It. I ask him to give me an example of some- 244 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS thing that is figuratively representative ; also some- thing that is emblematic or symbolical. The result need not be described to any observant teacher. The boy is utterly at sea in respect to these terms ; and he is no better off as to the phrase, having the nature of or constituting a type. The dictionary gives no illustration of the use of typical or of any of the synonyms used to define it; in consequence of which not a ray of light has entered the learner's mind. Turning over the pages of this dictionary, I find that practically all of the words are defined accord- Fundamental ing to the method indicated in the defects in instance cited. One could not easily dictionary devise a more wasteful and less efii- definitions ^^^^^ method. And the smaller the dictionary the more blunders it makes, for it elimi- nates all concreteness, and leaves only incompre- hensible terms, so far as the novice is concerned. The man who made this dictionary had one aim in view, — to ''boil down" the definitions so that they could be presented in brief space, and easily learned by the pupil! Think of it; making definitions easy by shortening them! This dictionary maker must have been a mathematician and a financier; he cer- tainly was not a psychologist or a teacher, or he would have known that the more condensed he made his definitions, the greater the likelihood that they THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 245 would be meaningless to the learner. If he had understood his business he would have endeavored to define his words mainly by presenting familiar examples of their uses. A child who has never seen a horse, say, or heard of one, could not gain an understanding of him by memorizing a definition presenting the general traits of a horse. The babe gets the meaning of any term by noting all the expressions of those who use it, and by taking account of all the circumstances under which it is used. In this way he comes to feel its significance. He could never sit down in a chair, and acquire meanings by learning definitions "by heart." Slowly he comes to see what is denoted by any term used in his presence through observing the relations be- tween it and environing events, objects, or condi- tions. He could not possibly learn any word if it were abstracted from everything concrete. Nor can a pupil in the high school learn words in any other way than by observing how they are used in a great variety of situations, thus gradually coming to feel what they mean because of their contextual rela- tions. The contextual relations of words, not formal dictionary definitions, give a pupil his cue to their meanings. The pupil who reads the most will, other things being equal, be the one who will acquire the meaning of words most readily and ac- 246 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS curately. Conversely, one who reads little can not acquire a wide range of meanings, no matter how much he studies the dictionary. He would get on best, however, if he should study some of the large dictionaries which go into detail in giving illustra- tions of the uses of words. So a teacher must rely upon her regular work rather than upon the dictionary in helping pupils to Words must be get the meaning of words. Of learned in their course, as the pupil grows into the contextual higher grades and the high school, relations ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ dictionary to better and better advantage ; but even here too much faith must not be placed in it. The aim must be always to see how words are used in their usual connections rather than in isolation. Words really have mean- ing only as they are employed with other words in the expression of thought. We should serve our pupils best if we would have them spend in reading much of the time consumed in hunting up words in the dictionary. We must hold them for the sub- stance of what they have read, and the meaning of special phrases, perhaps, though we need not be too precise with young children. They must first get glimpses before they can see the details in their pre- cise relations. In the past, we have been anxious to have children learn formal definitions for all new THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 247 words met in their reading. It is better that the sig- nificance of many words should be felt only. If one tries to give definitions for some words he really understands fairly well he will be formal merely, and fail to present the really vital elements. The writer has observed the work of a teacher who is a dictionary "fiend". She requires her sixth- grade pupils to write out ten words each day, giving all the diacritical markings, and the formal diction- ary definitions. It consumes much time and energy to do this work, and the results are of very doubt- ful value. Testing the pupils, one finds that all they do is largely mechanical. They merely copy the definitions, and often they can not even pronounce the terms used to define other terms. How much more profitable it would be if they should devote more of their time to reading within their range of comprehension, and getting at the meanings in this way. Even when a dictionary makes an efifort to be '"simple" in its condensed definitions, it is likely to be ineffective, or to lead the learner astray. Caroline Le Row gives some samples of definitions written by pupils, which may illustrate the point. Take bivalve, for Instance; the pupil gains from the dic- tionary the Impression that it has reference to fold- ing doors. Then he applies it as follows: "Our 248 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS parlor is a bivalve, because it has folding doors." So with austere; the pupil catches the meaning sour, and he interprets it as revealed in the phrase, *'My mother makes flapjacks of austere milk." Note the following : Monopoly, ''Our grocer is a monop- oly because he keeps on a corner all alone ;" Cursory, "The boy was cursory when he ran to catch the train;" Ensued, "The dog ensued the man to the brook;" Exhilarated, "The man was exhilarated to a better place." Examples might be multiplied to any length, showing that the learner can not, as a general principle, gain a correct appreciation from a dictionary definition alone of any term which is strange to him. Hence the rule: Always strive to have the pupil see how words are used in the typical relations in which they are found in sentences. Let us turn now to a consideration of the teach- ing of language as a means of communication. Any The social one who has observed a child during the basis for first three months of his life must have language ht^n impressed with his taciturnity. In ^*^i^5 i^is instinctive way, he gives expression to his fundamental needs; but he does not manifest a desire to communicate with those about him. He stares in a wondering manner at the objects sur- rounding him, but he makes no effort to get into eommunion with them. At about the third month, THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 249. however, he shows clearly that he is beginning to reciprocate his mother's expressions. She "coos" and "crows" over him, and he makes a feeble effort to return her salutations. Nothing but the presence of the mother, or perhaps the father or brother or sister, will call forth these efforts. It is apparent now that the child is really commencing to feel the desire for communion with people, and this is the very first step in the development of language proper. During the following months all of his linguistic activity has relation to persons with whom he desires to communicate. In time he may seek to share his experiences with his dog and all his pets ; but the motive in every case for expression is the desire to communicate or share experience. Language is first, last, and always a social instru- ment. It is the means par excellence of sharing ex- perience, which is the most significant impulse in child life. All through the early years, while the child is mastering the technique of linguistic ex- pression, he has as a constant stimulus the need to reveal his thoughts, feelings, and desires. It is from the beginning to the end a severe struggle to acquire a language ; and the child would escape it if he were not strongly urged by stern necessity to acquire it for purposes of social intercourse. Children who are brought up alone never master a language as 250 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS readily and effectively as those who have vital rela- tions with others, and who, in order to get on hap- pily with people, must become master of the means of expression that will go to the mark most directly. When the child enters school he still possesses his original interest in language as a means of com- munication. He will not hesitate to attack any linguistic difficulty, if he realizes that by overcoming it he can express himself more effectively in the ordi- nary situations in which he may be placed. Outside of school one may often listen to children practising new words and phrases by the hour, because they hear them used by persons in whom they are inter- ested, and with whom they are anxious to communi- cate more effectively than they otherwise could. On the other hand, I have never heard a child en- deavoring to master the expressions of a person in whom he has no interest. Observe children in groups who are using language spontaneously, and you will see illustrated the fundamental motive for learning it in any form — the need of communion zvith comrades and associates. If in the school-room we could always make our pupils feel that by mastering any special forms of expression, oral or written, they could thereby com- municate more precisely with the people in whom they are interested, they would attack these forms THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 251 with readiness, and master them with comparatively little difficulty. The writer is now observing a group of children who have become enthusiastic over the notion of publishing a "newspaper". Each mem- ber of the group must write something every day for the journal. These children will go to any one who will help them, and ask how they should express this or that thought, what words they had best choose for any given expression, and so on. They are just in the attitude in which they can learn to express themselves in writing most economically and effect- ively. As a matter of fact, these children are making progress eveiy day in linguistic development as a result of their journalistic enterprise, while they are entirely unconscious of any set purpose to learn. If we could devise means in the school-room which would stimulate a desire for expression, such as these children now have, we should be pursuing the natural course in promoting linguistic development. The chief difficulty in linguistic teaching in most schools is that there is no real motive for acquiring The motive for new and effective modes of ex- acquiring the art pression. Ask a child to talk for of expression ^-^^ j^^j.^ formal purpose of im- proving his speech, when there is no clear gain, so far as he can see, in communication with his fellows, and he will make little headway. Often the subjects 252 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS which are set in written exercises seem to the child remote from his daily needs, and he is constantly in a hostile attitude toward the work. And when a pupil is trying to avoid a task, he is in an attitude which makes learning wasteful and ineffective. The teacher who can in all her linguistic training place her pupils in situations closely resembling those of daily life, and who can, further, make them feel the need of constantly mastering improved means of expression, will be likely to succeed in her efforts, where otherwise she would become discouraged. During the early years, when the child is follow- ing out nature's plan in his linguistic development, he always plays a great deal with his vocalizations. Even when he is alone you will hear him constantly babbling, and running over all his words and ex- pressions in a variety of combinations. It is evi- dently the plan of nature in this activity that he should practise linguistic gymnastics for the serious needs of later life. Regular set speech will in time grow out of this spontaneous playing with- the language. The child who never plays linguistically is not apt to gain an effective mastery of this means of communication. In any home where an effort is made to prevent this linguistic play, the children show the results in lack of ease and facility in the employment of language. The requirements for THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 253 effective use of speech, or writing either, in maturity- necessitate a great wealth of spontaneity in the early years. There is a suggestion here for the teacher of language. The writer has in mind a young school- A suggestion master who has become possessed of for the teacher the notion in s^ome way that he of language should require his pupils to use set, formal phrases in all their expression. He believes that if he should indulge children's love of sponta- neity at all, their speech would become corrupted. He insists, when a pupil is called upon to express himself, that he should first be sure of just the formal words he ought to use, and then use these, and no others. When the child has spoken his formal sentence, he must cease talking and be seated. This schoolmaster is very hard on those pupils who rush ahead to express themselves, and then back up to make corrections and try different words and phrases. He aims to exclude from the school-room all expressions, terms and phrases peculiar to the life outside. Every day he gives his pupils examples of "good English", which is always book English, got out of the grammar or rhetoric. He will not tolerate anything else in his school. He attempts tO' suppress the spontaneous expression of his pupils so that they will employ only "pure diction". 254 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS This young man is the victim of an unsound educational philosophy. He maintains that what is "best" should always be placed before children and required of them; and what is "best" is that which the adult regards most highly, or which has become conventionalized in books. However it may be in reference to other matters, it is certainly an error to maintain that formal, stereotyped modes of ex- pression should be required of children in order to make them efficient in expression. In the school- room of this teacher, one rarely hears genuinely effective expression from pupils. They do not ex- press themselves ; they try to remember stilted phraseology, which they will cast to the winds the moment they get outside the school-room door. To the teacher of young pupils: encourage chil- dren to express their thoughts readily, vividly and forcefully, and make suggestions at the psychologi- cal moment regarding more appropriate words, terms and forms than those employed; but do not unduly inhibit the child in his spontaneity. It is better to encourage freedom and adventure in ex- pression, even at the risk of occasional errors and vulgarisms, than to stifle spontaneity by insistence upon formal expression. The children who grow linguistically are those who talk readily and dar- THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 255. ingly, even though they trip and fall at times. This is nature's method in all development. Doubtless some readers are now asking : Shall we tolerate unconventional speech, even slang, in our Unconventional school-rooms ? As a test, let us see ; language is the expression, "It's up to you", slang? Recently I asked this question of a group of two hundred upper-class students in a university in the Middle West. Something like two-thirds of them voted, on the spur of the moment, that it was not slang, while the others either thought it was, or were undecided about it. I asked those who de- clared it was a conventional phrase whether they would feel quite at ease in using it anywhere and on all occasions, if it would serve their purpose effectively. The majority of them believed they would have no greater hesitation in any situation in employing this than any other expression in cur- rent use. It had become so familiar to them, and it slipped off their tongues so handily, that it did not appear to be in any respect peculiar or exceptional, or not in good repute among respectable persons. They could not understand how it could be offensive to any one who should hear it, or how in using it they would be doing violence to the proprieties of life. 256 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS Some of the students said they were in the habit of using this expression in the give-and-take of con- versation with their associates, but they always "cut it out" in the class-room. They thought it was very well adapted to informal and rather intimate inter- course among friends and comrades, but it was not altogether proper in more formal and conventional situations. Why this should be so, they could not explain fully; they simply felt the force of it. It seemed clear that these latter persons were in a transitional stage with regard to the employment of this unconventional phrase, if we may so character- ize it here. When they first heard it, they con- sidered it to be slang ; but as their ears became more accustomed to it, it began slowly to lose its strange and disreputable character. In due course they ventured shyly to try it on occasionally in their own expressions, when no one was looking, as it were. Seeing that it worked well, and that no tragedy re- sulted therefrom to themselves or to others, it gradually became established in their informal inter- course as a serviceable and dynamic phrase. But on account of their uncomfortable feeling when they disregard the conventional requirements of speech, they have not yet reached the point where they can employ much of their every-day language in the more impressive situations of life. They change THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 257 their speech as they change their clothes, when they attend the president's reception or go to take tea at the woman's club. Other people are less appre- hensive about the evil results of taking a little liberty with precedents, in speech as in other matters, so they give rather free rein to their tongues whenever they are incited to communicate on any topic or on any occasion. If I should ask of a group of men and women in a drawing-room in Brookline, Massachusetts, the What is objectionable question which I put to stu- in one section may be dents in the university above acceptable in another referred to, nine out of ten of them would say the phrase mentioned is slang, and ought not to be used by cultured persons. But if I should put the same question to a drawing-room group in Chicago, or Cincinnati, or Oakland, or Seattle, or Butte, or Iron wood, the majority would say the expression is entirely acceptable, that it is picturesque and effective, and that it ought to be freely employed, even in formal intercourse, when an opening for it occurs in conversation. If again I put the question to a group of business men any- where west of the Ohio River, practically every one of them will say the expression may be used with propriety on all occasions. Once more, if I should ask the professors at Oxford, England, whether "it's 258 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS up to you" is good English, they would probably condemn it as a vulgarism. But if I should go to Eton or Rugby and publish it, the young fellows there would be glad to hear it, and they would seize upon it as a welcome addition to their dynamic vocabulary. As a matter of fact, there is a special lexicon of original terms and expressions published at Eton, so that visitors may^ be aided in getting some sort of a line on the language used by the boys. I have tested students, as well as laymen of varied interests and training, on other expressions Specimen phrases which are regarded by some as trying to acquire slang, and by others as conven- respectability tional speech. I have received various expressions of opinion regarding the re- spectability of such words and phrases as the fol- lowing: "Stunt"; "Dope"; "She's a peach"; "Scratch gravel"; "It cuts no ice"; "He's off his base"; "He went up in the air"; "He's a shark"; "He's a dandy"; "His nose is out of joint"; "He's up against it"; "He's got up on his ear"; "He's barking up the wrong tree"; "He's a tightwad"; "Straight goods"; "Half-baked"; "He's a sore- head"; "At rock-bottom price"; "Wide open with the lid off" ; "Pass in your checks" ; "I will not take any back talk" ; "Don't monkey with the buzz-saw" ; THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 259. ''Forget it"; ''He didn't do a thing to him"; "He flew off the handle"; "Chew the rag"; "Tender- foot"; Head him off"; "I have been through the mill" ; "He must face the music" ; "He can deliver the goods" ; "He always eats a square meal" ; "He's off his feed" ; "He's a lobster" ; "I wish you would put me next"; "He has taken to the tall timber"; "Wouldn't that jar you"; "Paint the town red"; "We had a swell time"; "Nothing doing"; and so on ad libitum. Many persons say that these phrases are all pungent and pregnant with meaning; while others say they are inelegant, grotesque, or even low and coarse. Among those who take the latter view are some who might be called "cultured" ; but there are also those whose range of knowledge and ex- perience is extremely limited, but who affect literary appreciation and ability. There are some expressions in current use in many sections of the country which seem to be pure slang to every one I have questioned about the matter. For instance, "Fade away" appears to all people as still without the bounds of proper, con- ventional speech. The same is true of "Cut it out" ; "Skiddoo" ; "His trolley is off" ; "He's pretty well teed up" ; "He has a jag on" ; "He has bubbles in his dream-box" ; "He thinks he is the chief squeeze", or 26o EVERYDAY PROBLEMS "the maiii guy"; "Cough up some chink"; "Ad- jective jerker"; "You are giving me hot air"; and the like. While most persons regard the sort of expressions mentioned in the latter group as slang, they often think it legitimate and even becoming to use them on appropriate occasions — in the give-and-take of their linguistic relations with one another. They feel conversation is more sprightly, interesting, and effective when it is pretty well sprinkled with these decidedly unconventional phrases. The very sound of them has a marked emotional value, which is pleasing to persons of an adventurous disposition, and rather eager for a wide range of experience, linguistic and otherwise. However, such expressions are rather too wild and unsettling for the typical adult, especially when Conservative people he has reached the sixth age. resist new styles in When one begins to get his speech as in manners get, alike in his muscles, in his brain cells, and in his ideas, his chief desire then is to prevent innovations in everything of vital interest to him — politics, re- ligion, society, dress, and speech, for he can not readily adapt himself to new modes of thinking or acting. Such a person will, of course, resist as vig- THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 261. orously as he can any departure from what he is pleased to call "the proprieties of speech". It may be added that some people get their set soon after they leave the teens. Teachers and ministers are in most communities expected to observe the conventions, and they are likely to feel the necessity of resisting any liberties being taken with the precedents in respect to speech, as to everything else. But teachers and ministers are much less conventional than they were twenty- five years ago, a fact revealed in freedom in dress and conduct, as in speech. So that now in many places one may hear them employ on occasion such expressions as "We'll all chip in" ; "He has a screw loose" ; "One ought not to be a knocker" ; "He was given the cold shoulder"; "He was put in the cooler" ; "He made good" ; "He got balled up", and so on. Custom has compelled women to be more circumspect than men about their speech, and they tend often to resist any new styles in expression. However, this is not quite the case as it applies to university women students, who conform less will- ingly and fully to the conventions of life than their sisters out in the world. From my window I look out across a lake, and there come to my mind a number of expressions 262 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS The unconventional originally referring to the phe- speech of to-day nomena to be observed thereon. .' t 1 In an earlier day these were de- conventional speech. . , „ . of to-morrow cidedly unconventional, though they are now regarded as en- tirely proper. No one thinks it would be bad form to employ under any circumstances such an expres- sion as "he will not be able to weather the storm," when reference is made to a man's contest with moral, intellectual, or business difficulties. So we can with perfect propriety tell a young fellow to "steer clear" of this or that moral danger. We can ask him whether he is "making headway" in his university work, or whether he is likely to "suffer shipwreck" in his undertakings. I can inquire whether he will be "on deck" in the morning; or I can say to the president of the university that I am glad he has decided "to take the helm, and guide the ship safely to port." Among virile, growing people every vital activity is likely to contribute some dynamic expressions to general speech. It is a simple principle in psychol- ogy that a plastic mind often discerns subtle rela- tions between things which apparently have no connection with one another. Especially when intel- lectual, moral, or abstract matters of any kind are being discussed, a resourceful mind is apt to discover THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 263 illustrations in physical situations with which people are generally familiar. An effective speaker will then be constantly making use of conceptions brought over from life on the sea, or on the farm, or in the mountains, or on the crowded streets of the city, or in the forest, and so on, to vivify his description of abstruse situations. In order to use language with marked success, one must be able to call to his service a great variety of expressive terms that appeal to the every-day, stirring experience of indi- viduals. When the minister urges his flock to "hit straight from the shoulder" in dealing with their besetting sins, he is using slang, of course, but he is making his expression go to the mark. Now, take a person so conventionalized, if one could be found in the world, who would decline to use that expres- sion, because it was a vulgarism ; what effect would he have on the sinners in the pews in front of him. ? Militant experience, combat in real life, has fur- nished many effective phrases for the description of moral attitudes and situations. One hears it fre- quently said that a certain man has been ''overcome", or "conquered", or "knocked out" by drink. Again it is "nip and tuck" whether a man will succeed in his undertaking; or he will fight his moral enemies "tooth and nail". It is not right for a man to "show 264 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS the white feather"; also he ought always to "play fair". It is perfectly proper for a student to "wres- tle" with problems, or for men to "cross swords" with one another in debate. I might go on at any length in calling attention to expressions once slang, but now heard on the lips of the most "proper" per- sons, who have but slight conception of the origin and history of the words and phrases they imitate from "cultured" people. Should those who feel themselves charged with preserving the proprieties, and especially those who The attitude of are engaged in leading the the teacher toward young along safe paths, coun- the use of slang tenance the use of "racy" lan- guage? Let us agree that highly conventional per- sons ought not to use any expression that might seem to be slang. They should condemn it, as be- fits their nature and their interests. On their lips, much of the speech of buoyant youth would seem grotesque. One's language ought to be congment with the rest of his personality; it would jar on his associates if he should be unconventional in one re- spect, while a strict conformist in all other ways. But should such persons set standards for those who are of a venturesome disposition, and especially for the young, whom nature has designed to be plastic and original, ever searching after new styles and THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 265 effects In every phase of life and conduct? Child- hood and youth were invented so that there might be a period in human life during which innovations of every sort could be introduced and tried out. But in carrying out this plan, violence is often done to custom and the proprieties, as viewed by the peo- ple who have ceased to be plastic. In youth the aim is always to be fresh and orig- inal. Of course, there is danger in plasticity. For one is as likely to go to the left as to the right when he moves, unless he be guided by some one who knows the safe route. But progress is always secured by taking risks. People who will not take any chances never go forward fast. Now, the best thing one can do for the young is to develop in them good taste, so that they will feel what is appropriate to be done in any situation. It surely is possible to establish in a youth a certain sensitiveness to pro- prieties in speech as in other matters, so that he will be keen to avoid offending people by what is said or done in their presence. In respect, then, to the use of unconventional language, of the sort indi- cated above, one who might be quite free in its use on a college campus or at his club, might be wary about employing it in a drawing-room or a school- room, or any other place where it would seem un- refined. In Butte or Seattle or Chicago he might 266 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS realize that he would be regarded as strait-laced and dull, unless his conversation were quite well en- livened with these picturesque phrases, developed out of a vigorous, adventurous, exhilarating life, but not a life of vulgarity by any means. In America v/e ought to make contributions to the English language, in respect alike to its vocabulary and to its idioms. Especially ought we in this coun- try to give our speech a flavor characteristic of the peculiar nature of our thought, feeling, and con- duct. Often so-called "purists" who seek to pre- vent any changes whatever in our speech and writ- ing, do not appreciate what a language is or should be. Such people forget, or ignore the fact, that since the days of Chaucer we have gone a long distance in transforming the English language. The terms and phrases of Milton or Shakespeare com- ing from the tongues of people to-day would be re- garded as intolerable; and the forces which have been at work in modifying the language of these masters are far more active in these piping times than they have been heretofore, because life is surg- ing forward at a more tremendous rate. To put a check on linguistic plasticity and inventiveness would be folly, even if it were possible so to do, which it probably is not. THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 267 So we must allow youth some linguistic swing, and age, too, if it can enjoy it, and indulge in it without danger to life or limb; but we must make our young people sensitive to the peculiar demands of their environments, so that they will adapt themselves thereto, not offending in speech any more than they offend in dress or in action, but still showing fresh- ness, originality, force in all their expressions. Again, we will not permit the use of mere unmeaning jar- gon, or grotesque and offensive terms, which are sometimes affected by persons merely to be different from others, and not because such terms are really dynamic and effective. Genuinely figurative language usually springs from a highly intellectual source; but jargon emanates from a low origin, and denotes rather an absence than a fullness of thought. Hence, we condemn the latter, while we indorse the former when employed in harmony with environing con- ditions. Our discussion leads on inevitably to a considera- tion of the larger aspects of the great problem of Naturalness training pupils to be effective in ex- in expression pression. The right use of proper language is but one phase, and possibly the least im- portant phase, of this matter, as we must be con- cerned with it in teaching. One phase of the gen- 268 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS eral question is brought out clearly in the following letter from an observing teacher in the eighth grade of a city school. She writes : "The chief trouble I have with my children is to make them natural when they come to read or speak. On two Friday afternoons of every month we have general exercises, to which parents are invited. I always have some pupils recite selections ; but I have about decided to give up this practice, because the pupils are always so awkward and self-conscious. Are children so in all schools, or is there something the matter with my teaching? Is there any way to make pupils seem natural in what they do before others?" There are probably few teachers of children from the age of six or seven to the age of twenty who have not been distressed over the awkwardness of pupils when they have been required to perform in a public way. I have often asked myself the ques- tion, why children who are so spontaneous and un- concerned on the playground seem so embarrassed and confused when they appear before their class- mates, and especially before invited guests. Of course, we must recognize that all of us have prob- ably inherited a certain amount of timidity in the THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 269 presence of a company of our fellows, when we are called upon to Instruct them or to entertain them. Probably the majority of people, even in adult life, are not quite natural when they are required to speak or sing or play in public. One who will ob- serve adults called upon to give a public address or even to speak at an informal meeting of a club will notice that they often show self -consciousness in eveiy expression — in face, body, voice, and gesture. Everything about them is likely to become more or less strained and tense. The consciousness of be- ing before persons who are studying us is apt to get into the muscles and into the nervous system of most of us. Can anything be done to keep pupils natural? Often one sees quite young children who are not markedly self-conscious when they read or speak before their fellows. Probably self -consciousness can be avoided by the employment of proper nieth- ods in the school-room. It has been my experience that in any school where the daily regimen encour- ages pupils to talk much to their fellows, they are not likely to become embarrassed and awkward when they are placed in more formal situations. On the other hand, if in all their reciting they are required to assume formal attitudes, and to talk in measured, formal sentences, they will hardly assume 270 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS ease and naturalness on any occasion. If one asks a child to come forward from his seat, to square away before his classmates, and to recite in a more or less mechanical way sentences which he has learned by heart, he can not gain experience which will keep him natural. One can not maintain natur- alness in voice or facial expression unless his whole being assumes an easy, normal attitude. The reason people are self-conscious in any situation is because they do not feel at home in it. Under such circum- stances everything is apt to become strained in them; this is really what is meant by awkwardness and embarrassment. It is questionable whether speaking pieces on Fri- day afternoon helps much to overcome awkwardness and undue self -consciousness. It may possibly serve to develop these unhappy conditions. If a pupil is frightened every time he renders a selection, stage fright may become the habit of his life. If a teacher observes that a timid pupil does not gain greater confidence and ease as he goes on in his speaking, she might better excuse him altogether than to try to cultivate confidence in him. The very act of coming forward before a school to render a selection is a formality which tends to awaken feelings of timidity and constraint in many children. How would it do to have pupils speak THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 271 single stanzas or paragraphs from their own seats, permitting them tO' be natural in their positions, though of course not slovenly or indifferent? In this way a number of children might be heard from frequently, and the experience would not be over- powering. With many repetitions of this experi- ence, ease would be likely to be cultivated. The per- formance would gradually lose its terror for many children, even if they have already become self-con- scious and fearful. This may be seen in any school- room where pupils recite freely while standing at their own seats. The present writer frequently ob- serves school-rooms in which children seem per- fectly natural in speaking to their classmates, be- cause they have experience in it nearly every day they are in school. They are permitted to speak in their own way for the most part, and are not unduly impressed with the necessity of being conventional and formal. In some of our schools formal lessons are given in the art of expression. Rules are learned, the pur- Concerning the teach- pose of which is to enable the ing of expression pupil to use his voice so as best to express his thought. In these schools, the teachers usually insist upon certain bodily attitudes being assumed by the children when they are read- ing. The directions commonly given are that the 2^2 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS reader must stand with his heels together, holding his book in his right hand, while his left hand should hang becomingly at his side. In one school of this sort, observations were re- cently made upon the way in which the teacher her- self read, and to what extent she observed the rules she was teaching. She was very insistent upon her pupils observing these rules; but she broke every one of them herself. She was reading a long poem to her grade, and hardly once during the whole process did she look at her pupils. She kept her eyes fastened on the book, and her whole expression in- dicated that she did not have her pupils in mind, with a view to impress upon them the thought and feeling contained in the poem. As a result, scarcely any of the pupils followed her entirely through the poem, and perhaps few of them were much influ- enced by it. It seemed to the observer to be more or less of a failure, mainly because the teacher had not delivered it effectively. Why is it that so many of us as teachers are in- effective before our classes? The majority of in- structors probably find it impossible to speak or to read to a class in a really effective way. At edu- cational conventions most teachers have to read papers upon topics which they should be able to dis- THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 273 cuss freely. Often the authors of papers read them through from start to finish in a way which indi- cates that they do not have in mind persons to be entertained, or enlightened, or aroused to some new line of action. It is to be feared that the entire system of de- veloping expression in the schools needs vitalizing. Learning rules about good speaking or effective reading may be and probably is worse than useless. The rule-taught speaker or reader is apt to keep his rule in mind, and it may stand as an insuperable barrier between him and his audience. The only principles of expression that seem really to accom- plish much are those which are driven Into the pupil unconsciously through the response of his fellows to what he says or reads to them. The sole justification for any principle of expression is found in its suitability to make those who listen see clearly and react appropriately. This law should determine how the art of expression should be acquired. The candidate for a public career must from start to finish in his training be aware of persons who will listen to what he says and reads, and who must be helped to understand, to feel, and to enjoy what- ever he presents. The writer is familiar with a school in which there 274 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS are two teachers who illustrate diametrically oppo- A typical instance site modes of treating this sub- of affectation in ject of expression. One teacher expression j^^g reduced the entire matter down to a rather elaborate system of principles and rules. Every year she receives a new class of pupils, and she complains constantly of their lack of train- ing in expression. So she puts them through their paces, and in this way she develops a certain degree of spectacular skill in handling the body and the voice in reading, and also in reciting. Nevertheless, she really injures the expression of her pupils as a whole. Many of them lose naturalness, force, and efficiency in their speaking and reading in her room. Her regime impresses one as being mechanically perfect, but lacking vitality. The pupils do not speak or read from the point of view of pleasing or influencing those who listen to them, but only with a view to observing the rules of the game. Outside of that room, they would hardly think of employing such high-flown and artificial vocal and bodily effects in their talk. They would be laughed at by their fellows if they did, simply because they would seem stilted, affected, unnatural. The teacher is herself unnatural in her school-room. She could not tell a story to her pupils so that they would be deeply interested in it for its own sake. They might keep THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 275 good order, because they would be afraid to be mis- chievous in her presence, but they would not be greatly influenced by what she might say or read to them. Her voice, her face, her bodily attitudes all seem formal, and unsuited to the highest type of ex- pression, in which one individual seeks to impart to another something which will be of genuine interest to him. In the second school is a teacher who does not secure such striking dramatic performances from An instance of her pupils, and who does not im- naturalness in press casual visitors as forcefully expression ^g ^j^g jQi-gj- teacher; but she can tell a story to her school, and every one will be wrapped up in it. When she reads to her class, she uses her book more or less incidentally. She really talks when she reads, because she looks into the faces of her pupils, and her language seems to be more familiar and natural than that found in the book. She gives her pupils few, if any, rules of expression, which is a source of criticism by her associate across the hall ; but her pupils have, in the opinion of the present writer, better expressive ability than the children in the room mentioned above, because they are natural and unaffected. This teacher succeeds quite well in making her children feel the presence of their classmates, and this has an irre«istibl© in- 2^6 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS flitence upon a pupil's talking, and alsO' upon his reading. Doubtless more could be done along this line than the teacher in question is able to accom- plish ; but she is following the right method. After all, the test of effective expression is found in the reaction of those who listen, and not in the skilful execution of a system of free-hand gymnastics, without regard to the persons who are to be influ- enced thereby. In most good schools pupils are required to learn selections for recitation, and it is a matter of a s^ood Waste in learn- deal of importance to have this ing selections work accomplished in an econom- for recitation j^al and effective manner. But sometimes it is not done in this way, as the follow- ing instance shows. The pupils in the fourth grade of a certain school were required to learn for recita- tion The Landing of The Pilgrims. In assigning the task, the teacher stated simply that each pupil should be able within ten days to recite the selection without error. Nothing was said regarding the character of the selection as a whole, or of any of its parts. It seemed evident that what the teacher desired was that the pupils should fix in memory the several stanzas verbatim, whether or not they com- prehended what the content of any stanza was. THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 277 The writer was much interested to observe how certain of the pupils to whom this task was assigned proceeded to their work. Here is the way one boy, rather above the average in brightness, went at it. He labored through the first stanza : "The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rockbound coast, And the woods against a stormy sky Their giant branches tossed." His aim was to pronounce the words correctly. When he had gone through this stanza once, he went back and read over the first line two or three times. Then he closed his book, and endeavored to repeat it. This he did for a half-dozen or more times, be- fore he finally felt he had any particular line secure. Next he read over the following line, and repeated the process which he adopted in memorizing the first. So he worked his way through the four lines in the first stanza. Then he went back to see if he could say the lines as a whole. He discovered that he could not put them together when he first made the trial ; so he ran through the first line, and opened his book to see how the second line began. Then he recited the two lines together until he felt he had acquired them. So he went on down with the other 278 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS lines, though after twenty-five minutes he was un- able to recite the stanza without any prompting whatever. He learned only one stanza during the first bout. The book was put aside then until the next day, when more of the selection would be mastered. But when he came tO' the task the following day, and he was asked to recite the first stanza, he could not do it, unless he was prompted on the first word or two of each line. He had fixed the words in each line in an automatic series, so that once he got started he could go through with some readiness; but he could not couple the lines together in the right way, because the bond of unity between them was not strong. After he had made the attempt to recall the stanza, he was asked if he remembered what it was about, and he apparently had only a very dim conception of its content. When he read it originally he did not stop to picture to himself what it described. He was con- Appreciation of cerned solely with getting the words meaning as an established in memory, so he could aid to memory cattle them off at will. He gave lit- tle if any attention apparently to the meaning of each line, or of the stanza as a whole. Consequently, when he could not think of the first word of each series he could not release the combination. Follow- THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 279. ing this plan, he could not learn to recite the selec- tion except by incessant repetition, wherein he could make automatic the mere vocal series, so that once set a-going, he would run along a certain route, because he had followed it so often that he had worn a groove from his brain to his tongue, as it were. One need not hesitate to say that this is an ex- tremely wasteful method of procedure. And it is worse than wasteful. It tends to develop a bad mental habit. An individual who has much expe- rience of this sort is apt to reach the stage where he can deal with words only, and he may lose his feeling for the meanings behind them. His mind gets set according to a verbal pattern, which pre- vents him from being plastic in regard to realities. The writer was able to make an experiment in memorizing by directing this boy in his learning the An experiment remaining stanzas of The Landing in memorizing of the Pilgrims. The first step taken was to have him read the selection as a whole, help being given him with the unusual words, so that he would not delay long over them. The pur- pose in this method was to develop in him a feeling for the situation in its entirety as described in the poem. Then going back, he read each stanza, and was asked to indicate the situations which it de- 28o EVERYDAY PROBLEMS picted. He needed some assistance in getting the content of certain of the stanzas and particular lines in the selection ; but the poem as a whole was easily within his grasp, when he was guided a little in interpreting it. After he had gone through in this way with each stanza, indicating his understanding of the scenes described, he was asked next to talk about the situa- tion as a unity, and he was able to do so with pleas- ing fullness and definiteness. As a result of this exercise, he declared he could see the waves and the coast and the Pilgrims, and the difficulties under which they made their landing, and the conditions of forest and sky when they landed. He also appre- ciated their trials in dealing with this new and strange world in which they were placed. He was interested in the description of the types of indi- viduals in the party, and of their courage and hero- ism in the face of tremendous obstacles. So much for the first day. The next day he was asked at the outset to begin with the first stanza, and to describe the scenes which it depicted. He could readily tell the content of that stanza in his own words. Then he was asked to note how the poet expressed each thought. The first lines seemed to him straight and orderly, containing for the most part the ordinary expressions of daily life. But it THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 281 was different with other hnes, as in the one, "And the stars heard, and the sea." When asked why the poet did not say, "And the stars and the sea heard," the boy at once saw that it would not sound right. "It would not be poetry to speak in that way." This impressed him with the poetical order in which the simple thought conveyed could be best expressed. Then when he came to recite the line he experienced little difficulty. He had the content, and he also had gained the idea of the poetical form of expression. Proceeding in this way with the remaining stanzas, the boy got a preliminary acquaintance with each one in a few minutes. Then going back and reciting two or three stanzas as a unit, because they described a situation which could be apprehended as a whole, he could in this way bind them to one an- other in memory. The thread which held them to- gether in his thought was the progression of events which they narrated, and which was perfectly nat- ural and orderly, such as he is familiar with in his daily experience. Once this matter of progression of ideas is appreciated, the remaining task of getting the details of expression Is comparatively easy; but without this thread of connection being grasped, it becomes a process of remembering by main force. The only way this latter sort of memorizing can be accomplished is by establishing a purely automatic 282 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS series, in which there is no bond of natural connec- tion, except that any given word may release the word which has followed it through a large number of repetitions. There is so much that children should become pos- sessed of in the schools to-day that every effort ought to be made to eliminate waste in memory work. It will not take long to impress upon chil- dren in the fourth grade that when they are mem- orizing a poem they must first get the situation described in each stanza, so that they can begin at the beginning and tell the story, running through the stanzas to the end. Next they must see how the poet expresses each thought developed, and thus they can fix the poet's form of expression. A method like this will not only conserve energy and time, but it will also give pupils an appreciation of the content and poetical mode of expression of the poems which they are memorizing. CHAPTER IX TENDENCIES OF NOVICES IN TEACHING The writer recently sent letters to one hundred high-school principals and superintendents of schools in the Middle West, asking them to give the results of their experience with new teachers, speci- fying their strong and their weak points as they had occasion to observe them in the practical work of the school-room. The opinions gained in this way were then compared with reports upon the strong and weak points of one thousand teachers made after careful inspection of class-room work by a special committee of a state university. The principals and superintendents declared, with scarcely an exception, that the secondary-school Some typical teacher fresh from college commonly defects in falls far short of large success in his teaching teaching, mainly because he has no adequate conception of what a high school ought to accomplish. And when he begins he often lacks genuine sympathy with the kind of work the high school must do. Further, he frequently has but 283 284 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS slight appreciation of what should be the proper re- lation of his department to other departments in the high school. His ambition usually is to push his subject to the front regardless of its relative im- portance for secondary-school pupils. Speaking generally, he has given but little serious thought to the question of the values of studies, and conse- quently he has only a meager notion of how to con- struct a well-balanced program of studies for the high school. He has been thinking, even up to the moment of beginning his teaching, about mastering his college physics, or Latin, or algebra, and his mind is quite destitute on the subject of the needs as a whole of high-school boys and girls. Such teachers often strenuously insist upon doing special and technical work before their pupils have Special and gained a general view of a subject. technical An enthusiast in physics may spend work too early ^ whole year on such a topic as light; a biologist may decline to teach anything in his department but the frog; a Latinist may en- deavor to get the subjunctive mood in all its breadth and depth set right in the minds of the immature classicists under his care. And so it is apt to go through all the studies. The teacher has himself passed beyond the general view of his subject, and he has come to feel the necessity of going deep into TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 285 some special problem. He is eager to push toward the frontier, and take a look into the unknown country; and, naturally enough, he feels that what is of chief interest to himself ought to be of chief interest to every one else. Here again it is im- pressed upon us that most of the tragedies of the class-room arise out of the inability of the teacher to put himself at the point of view of the learner, with the result that the latter may remain quite un- touched by his instruction. Eighty-five of the principals and superintendents consulted mention a third very common defect in "Shooting over the high-school teachers especially; heads" of pupils they lecture to their pupils in a formal way, and consequently "shoot over their heads." And the lecturer is apt to reason that if he is not followed and appreciated the class is at fault, and so he gives his pupils a good "dressing down" frequently. It is his business to expound the truth, and the pupils' business to absorb it. He does all that can be expected of him when he spreads out wisdom before these callow youths. The reports upon one thousand teachers made by university inspectors point out a half-dozen or more Spiritless teaching and common defects, the one the causes therefor mentioned most frequently being spiritless teaching. The causes for this are 286 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS numerous ; but dry, text-book work is at the bottom of most of it. One type of teacher insists upon verbatim rendering of a text, which at best is only partially comprehended by the pupil. Out of one thousand teachers, one hundred and thirteen teach in this lifeless way. The pupils see little or no rela- tion between the parts of the subject they are study- ing; and, worst of all, what they are trying to assimilate has but slight connection with the real situations of daily life. Such teachers, as far as they have any clear end in view in their work, and some of them probably have none at all, are dominated by the aim of formal discipline — to "develop the mental faculties" of their pupils. The way to accomplish this is to require them to learn a text, and give it back verbatim. This sort of work will, moreover, in the opinion of these teachers, develop habits which will be of great importance In after life — habits of attention, perseverance, long-suffering (al- though the instructor would not call it by this name), and the capacity for doing disagreeable and uninteresting tasks. It will develop contentment with plodding, and docility in the performance of drudgery; and since life is one long struggle in doing things one hates, a pupil had best get used to it while he is in school. It seems probable that all novices, and par- TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 287 ticularly those who teach in the high school, would Vital vs. be saved some unhappy hours, and would formal become a more helpful guide to youth, if teaching j^g could be made to realize that he ought to try to teach his subject so that it will explain in a real and vital way some phase of the pupil's environ- ment, and give him a mastery over it. Elementary teachers have been hearing so much the last decade, or longer, about mere formal teaching, that even a novice in the grades can hardly escape being in- fluenced by the discussion; but this is not quite so true of high-school teachers. A considerable num- ber of the latter fail because they are satisfied with more or less verbal, mechanical, definition teaching. This is why things move so slowly in the classes of some of these novices. Pupils are "eager to get out of the class at the close of the hour"; "they seem bored"; their faces "show lack of intelligence and appreciation"; they seem ready to "cut up pranks at every opportunity" ; "they make the teacher's life miserable" ; "there is a good deal of nagging going on in these class-rooms much of the time." This style of teacher has a hard time himself, and he makes things hard for his pupils. Most unfortunate of all, he is apt to waste their time, and to develop in them a distaste for everything that has to do with school life. 288 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS The second fault which the inspectors find most frequently is not entirely different from the one just Narrowness mentioned; it is narrowness of view. of view Teachers sometimes go into a great deal of minute details, without leading pupils to an appreciation of their bearing upon the large ques- tions involved. Again, pupils are kept immersed in forms, definitions, rules, and fail to grasp the con- tent to which they refer. They do not get into the spirit of the subjects they study. This defect is noticed more often in the teaching of English litera- ture and foreign language than elsewhere, though it is seen also in history and other branches. In these subjects, which are so full of human interest, the novice is apt to keep the pupils plodding along on the dusty road, rarely leading them up on the heights where they can get a view of the landscape lying around. Of course, this defect must be due primarily to the teacher's lack of a broad and genuine apprecia- tion of the subjects he essays to teach. He has dined off the husks of knowledge, and knows not the taste of the real grain. He regards a language as a body of verbal forms, being related to one another accord- ing to the rules described in rhetoric and grammar; and he looks upon these rules as having final value in themselves. History is for him not so much a TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 289 story of human life in times past as it is a glossary of names and tables of dates. Literature for such a teacher is not primarily a portrayal of concrete situations in human life; it is a drill-book in rhetor- ical and grammatical formulae. One may find some teachers who have gained a broader view of these things for themselves, but who, when they come to instruct others, abandon it, and give them- selves up to rules and forms and dates and names and definitions. Next in the list of demerits comes inaccurate knowledge, which is found most frequently in the Inaccurate teaching of foreign language and his- knowledge tory. One sees teachers who make an effort to give instruction in German, but who have got all they know out of a book, and who have not spoken or read it to any extent outside of the school- room. They have never had occasion to use the language in a serious way. They have never thought at first hand in it, or interpreted thought presented in it. Consequently most of the subtle peculiarities that really constitute the personality of the language and distinguish it from others have escaped them. Here, as we should expect, teaching is apt to become mechanical and artificial. One who gets only a teaching knowledge of Ger- man or any other foreign language can hardly lead 290 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS the young into possession of the same in a really effective way. What has not come into one's own life in any important, vital manner, can never be taught to others economically and dynamically. The teaching relation must always' be imperfect unless the teacher seeks to impart to the learner knowledge which he has found of value in his own adjustment to his environments. Any other kind of knowledge will be cold, inert, sterile in the teacher's hands. The human mind is so constructed that it will work effectively in those situations only where lack of such efficiency will bring discomfort. It will not ex- ert itself to be exact or agile where the result of its efforts are indifferent. So if we would develop in our teachers the capacity to do accurate work in any study, we must, in their preparatory training, put them into vital situations, where they will, from hard experience, come to realize the necessity of absolute accurac}^ ; and this principle holds as well in the teaching of their pupils. The inspectors referred to above frequently report a defect which is regarded as very common and Failure to serious by principals and superintend- make pupils ents alike. The reports indicate that self-active many teachers fail to get any zvork out of their pupils. The '^teacher is too prominent" ; "she does all the talking"; ''she manipulates all the TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 291 , apparatus herself"; "she asks a pupil to solve a problem, and then does it herself"; "she draws all the illustrations", etc. The defect in such work is, of course, that pupils are not reacting upon what is presented to them, and so are not making it their own. Neither elementary nor high-school pupils have had sufficient experience ordinarily to organize what is offered them in the class-room with systems of thought and conduct already established, unless they actually do for themselves the most of what is done in the class. They can not fully comprehend an experiment unless they get together and in work- ing order the apparatus to perform it, for otherwise they can not see how a phenomenon is produced. So to have the pupils sit in their seats day after day, and look on while the teacher performs experiments to illustrate principles, is poor teaching. The ulti- mate purpose in teaching physics, or any science in the. high school or elsewhere, should be, of course, to enable a pupil to interpret the phenomena which occur outside of school. He must be led to see be- hind the infinite variety of happenings about him great laws and principles which really simplify the world, and in this way he may gain poise, stability, and confidence in the midst of otherwise bewilder- ing phenomena. But this end can not be achieved when the pupil is merely an onlooker in the class- 292 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS room or m the laboratory, and not self-active in producing and interpreting events. It is certainly reasonable to say that he alone can be a successful teacher who knows how to produce Dynamic appropriate reactions right along from vs. static those he is instructing. This does not attitudes rnean that the whole of any class exer- cise must be devoted to give-and-take between teacher and pupils, when once the latter are in a re- active attitude. The instructor may be able with profit to take the reins in his own hands for a good part of the hour; but the moment the class comes to realize that he is certain to hold the boards for the entire period, so that they can lie back and let him work — at that very moment he ought to cease giving, and get his class into an active attitude. This can be put down as a primary law of teach- ing: there can be no effective learning in any class where the pupils are not in a dynamic attitude toward the thing which is being presented. And they can not be dynamic for any considerable length of time at a stretch unless they are self -active in organizing and setting forth in some way — lin- guistically, laboratorially, representatively, or other- wise — the material which they are endeavoring to assimilate. When a teacher has had a group of pupils for one month, say, a visitor can tell in five TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 293 minutes whether or not he has developed in that class the fundamental attitudes essential to effective learning. It really is not of so much importance whether a teacher asks a question that can be answered by yes Appropriate or nOj the hete noir of pedagogy, pro- reaction is vided his method as a whole will cause the thing i^jg class to react vitally in the appro- priation of what is offered. Some of the more widely exploited rules of pedagogy relate to the mere external, artificial, and superficial aspects of teaching. One might ignore every one of these popular and much-lauded rules, and still be a great teacher. Of course, he would be a better teacher if he violated no sensible rules, whether they be of fundamental or only of secondary importance. But no matter how many rules he learns for asking ques- tions and organizing and managing a class, he will be a dead failure if he does not keep his class in a constant dynamic relation toward the subject he is teaching. The writer once saw a teacher of geology who was a crude-looking man, and who was conducting a class while coatless. His hands looked as though he had been out gathering specimens re- cently. These specimens were arranged around the sides of the room in which he was teaching. He 294 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS had all kinds of charts and other apparatus for illus- trating the principles of geology. He murdered some of the popular rules for asking questions and the like, but he was conducting one of the best classes the writer has ever observed. The pupils were learning geology that was geology, and not mere words. Any kind of method that will secure results of this sort is sound. Some teachers go too far in doing nothing in the class-room on their own initiative, except to question The teacher their pupils. They have heard some- fmiist not where that self -activity must always be be neutral attained in teaching, and that: the best m his class ^q^^.^^^^ ^Qgg the least ; and they inter- pret this to mean that the pupil should have nothing done for him, but to be quizzed and exhorted. The rule is made to apply as well to the senior in the high school as to the child beginning his primer. But a teacher who is accustomed to base his prac- tice upon careful observation of the reactions of his pupils would realize that the senior in the high school has experiences which will often enable him to appre- hend and organize effectively what is presented to him for the first time, so that it is not always nec- essary that he should be stimulated by the question- and-answer method in respect to everything he is learning. He can dispose of some things as fast as TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 295 the teacher can give them to him. The farther along the scholastic route a pupil gets, the greater stock of elementary ideas he becomes possessed of, and the better chance he has of interpreting new ideas and working them into his mental fabric upon their first presentation to him. A wise teacher would tell his pupils as much as they could comprehend, and just as fast as they could grasp it, because of their experience with similar things in the previous work of the school, or in their lives in the world without. But some one may ask how we are able to tell when a pupil com- prehends a principle unless we quiz him. An efficient teacher can tell from the thousand subtle signs in eye and body whether what she teaches is finding lodgment in the minds and wills of her pupils. She will attach least importance to the mere verbal reaction of a pupil. He may speak out of the top of his mind, and use words and phrases that have no content for him; but the features are a bulletin- board upon which is written plainly to the experi- enced eye what is happening within. It seems to the writer that we do not hear enough about teachers striving to cultivate the art of telling The need of ^^'^^^^ Herbartian pedagogy is the chief effective offender in this direction, I think. It lecturing has exalted quizzing to the detriment 296 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS of effective lecturing. To illustrate this point, take the teaching of any topic in history. A genuine teacher would have more than intellectual concep- tions in this subject; he would have an emotional attitude toward every question which could arise. Sometimes he would approve, while at other times he would disapprove, and a genuine teacher would help his pupils to interpret facts for their own guid- ance by his emotional attitude toward them. And he can best express the results of his experience when he takes some part in a class besides quizzing. He can not arouse the emotional life of his pupils best when he simply questions them, and so he can not push their convictions over into action. Every one realizes that there is a vast deal taught in the schools that does not influence the active life of pupils in any large degree. Even if they really apprehend the principles that are aimed at, the latter do not strike deep down into the springs of conduct, and get coupled up with the motives and impulses which are the regulators of conduct. And there is nothing which can bring about this fusion of prin- ciples and impulse so readily as the personality of a teacher. If his beliefs have become organized into action, they will be revealed in many subtle ways through voice and facial expression and manner, which will more or less subconsciously be imitated TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 297 by the learner, and this will tend to incite in him such attitudes as are taken by the teacher. It is said often that a teacher has no right to put his own interpretation upon the facts he teaches; he must not let his pupils know how he feels about anything. But this is certainly an erroneous view of the function of the teacher. Whatever adjustment the teacher has made and has found of service, he should seek by every means in his power to get adopted by those whom he teaches. Of course, in matters in which he is in doubt he will lead his pupil to see the reasons therefor, and leave the latter free to resolve the doubt by his own experience. But there is much relating to belief and conduct we teach in the schools that we may consider as settled, and our business is to get this embodied in the behavior of the young in the most economical and effective way possible. The point to be impressed is that the teacher who makes up his mind not to tell anything to pupils, but to draw everything out of them, can never, no matter how skilful he becomes, make much more than half a teacher, especially with older pupils. The writer knows a teacher of music who receives compensation at the rate of three dollars an hour for The quiz- private lessons. This teacher is giving master instruction to several young people; and 29B EVERYDAY PROBLEMS his method consists in assigning lessons and criti- cizing them from time to time. He does not really teach his pupils, in the sense that he follows them carefully through their difficulties, and helps them to appreciate properly, and to establish habits of cor- rect execution. He says they should each practise at home three hours a day; and they must have assistance from some one who can help them to work out their tasks successfully. He thinks it is his duty simply to decide when they have the right habits — not to be responsible for the making of them. That is to say, he acts as a critic, and de- pends upon some one else to do the actual work of teaching. He says this is the proper function of an instructor. The pupil must learn somewhere else than in his own studio. He will point out errors in the student's work, but he will not attempt to study the pupil to find out why he makes these errors, and how he can eliminate them most economically and effectively. There are teachers in the schools who look upon teaching in much the same way that this instructor of music does. They think their function is to ask examination questions, and to fail a pupil if he does not give the right answers. They do not think they should find out why a pupil can not give correct answers, and help him to overcome his difficulty. TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 299 The writer has talked with such teachers, who frankly say that their mission is to assign lessons and to test a pupil's mastery of them in the recita- tion ; and they expect the pupil to get the lessons out- side of the recitation. If he needs help he must get it at home or in some other place. This really makes of the teacher an examiner , not an instructor in the true sense. Viewed in the proper light, an instructor is a person who shows a novice how to gain new knowledge and skill in the most economical and effective ways. Mere exam- ination is incidental to his true work. The German instructor more than most others realizes that his main business is to help the pupil to acquire new knowledge accurately and without w^aste of time or energy. He would rather delegate to some one else the process of mere drill work. Of course, both offices can be combined in the same individual; but if either function must be neglected, that of simple testing is the less important. By no kind of courtesy can the sort of teaching referred to be regarded as satisfactory. It is pos- sible that music teachers especially have got into the way of thinking that their work should be confined to listening to the performance of their pupils and pointing out errors and ways of improvement, and then leaving it for others to bring about the develop- 300 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS ment which is desired. This may be one reason why with years of constant application many persons make only indifferent progress in the learning of music. The moral is applicable to the teaching of every subject. Defects often appear in the work of novices which are due to the tendency to make formal rules Making formal cover a great variety of cases where rules cover too the circumstances are not precisely many cases ^i^g same. Here is one teacher who has learned that pupils ought always to rise when they recite, and so she keeps at her flock day in and day out to get up from their seats whenever they say even as much as a single word. She wastes time in nagging at her pupils, and she sometimes arouses an antagonistic attitude in them. Doubtless there are conditions under which a pupil ought to rise when he recites. If the class is a large one, those farthest away from the one reciting will not be apt to give their attention to what is going on unless they can see and hear the speaker. They need this help in order to hold their thoughts to what he may say. Then, when a class has been long sitting there is a physiological advantage in standing. Again, if a pupil is to speak for some time he can doubtless have better command of himself and speak with greater force if he rises. But precious time is TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 301 wasted when pupils are kept jumping up continu- ally, and it may get to be a mere matter of form with them, which may detract from the spirit of the recitation. When the class is small and the teacher is in close proximity to all the pupils, a much bet- ter spirit is engendered by an informal method of recitation. For the teacher here to insist upon a pupil always rising is to place form before sub- stance; she is likely to alienate instead of to win her class. Still again, when pupils are seated in a semicircle, so that they can all see one another, the spirit of the class will often be best when pupils recite sitting rather than standing. Once more, a timid pupil is easily embarrassed when he arises, and for him it would often be better to recite in the way in which he can do it with the least con- fusion. The inspectors as well as the superintendents and principals lay emphasis upon lack of authority The teacher who as a serious defect in many nov- lacks authority ices. Often they can not "com- mand the respect and confidence of their pupils"; "they can not discipline well" ; "their class-rooms are in disorder much of the time" ; "pupils follow their own sweet wills"; "the serious work of the school is not the most prominent thing in the minds of the pupils" ; "they are bent on mischief" ; "pupils will not 302 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS apply themselves to their studies, but waste the pre- cious hours in dawdling away their time, or in rais- ing Cain" ; and so on ad libitum. The special teachers reported upon could not cor- rect their failing because they lacked self-confidence. They could not muster enough courage to subdue the spirit of mischief surging up in the bosoms of their pupils; or they were lax in their conception of what should be demanded of pupils ; or they had certain mannerisms which operated to their disad- vantage. In some cases they lacked physical strength for the needs of the school-room, which fact was re- vealed in their voices and faces. Probably the most serious of all defects in a teacher is a weak person- ality, in the sense in which this is generally under- stood. Pupils come into the school bringing with them tendencies which have to be replaced by others of a different character. When they are inside the school, primitive impulses seek inevitably to come to the front, and there is needed a power constantly acting which will noiselessly yet surely put a quietus upon these impulses, and give encouragement to others of a more estimable kind. Now, this power which must work in silent, unobtrusive, but yet ef- fective ways is the personality of the teacher. It will countenance certain kinds of conduct and con- demn others. And what a powerful teacher regards TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 303 with favor will thrive in the pupil's thought, feel- ing, and action; and what he censures will lie dor- mant in the pupil's springs of conduct. Certain it is that if the personality of the teacher is not more dynamic than that of his pupils, the latter will hold their own course, right or wrong. Contrasted with the faltering teacher is the one who has at all times an imperious manner to- The imperious ward his pupils. He is usually sar- teacher castic in his treatment of the weak and the erring. He rarely excuses failures of any sort ; he will not be satisfied with anything less than the whole bond. A timid girl may try to answer the teacher's question, but may get confused and retire under a volley of sharp criticism. Such a teacher misses no opportunity to rasp his pupils. He is al- ways in a critical, faultfinding mood. One rarely hears him saying anything agreeable in his class- room. The result is, of course, that there is an un- happy relation existing most of the time between in- structor and student. Pupils get into the way of expecting something distressing to occur. The school in such hands becomes indeed a primitive institution. Truth is gained in such a place at con- siderable cost to good feeling and happiness on all sides. Teachers sometimes get the notion that they must 304 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS be "full of life" in the class-room. They think that Undue haste in work must always be crowded the class-room through ; pupils must be made to hurry in their tasks, since speed is of primary con- sequence in every activity of life. One may visit the class-room of a teacher who has been advised in this way, and who attempts to follow the advice in her teaching, and he can observe the baneful influ- ence of such doctrines. The teacher is usually rest- less in her work. She constantly says to her pupils — ''Hurry up!" "I will give you one minute to do that work. Why do you take so long?" 'That prob- lem is easy; you ought to do it at once!" If a child is working at some arithmetic problem, say, and he is striving to see his way through it, the teacher may break in and spoil everything by criticism, when she ought to hold her tongue. It requires self-control for a teacher to wait un- til her pupil thinks his way through his problems; but one who can not so wait can not teach. A com- petent teacher will follow the expressions of a child's face, and detect when he really needs help or stimu- lation. She will keep hands off just as long as the pupil is at work on a problem ; and she will develop in him confidence that he will not be interrupted while he is trying to solve his difficulties. One can see in the pupils under an impatient teacher a mor- TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 305 bid fear that before they can finish their work he will interrupt them, either to tell them or to scold them or to prod them. This is deadly in its influence on the intellectual and emotional development of a child. It irritates and annoys and discourages pu- pils. Many men have written on the beneficent effect of humor in every-day life, but not much has been Humor in the said regarding the desirability of a school-room teacher having an appreciation of humor, and a disposition to indulge in it on appro- priate occasions in his relations with his pupils. The writer of these lines recently went through twenty books on pedagogy and methods of teaching, and he did not find the word humor mentioned in one of them. It should be added that while in three rather modern books, there is no direct statement regard- ing the value of humor in teaching, still its value is implied in the general suggestions given for han- dling pupils. It seems safe to predict that in the educational books of the future, chapters will be de- voted to a discussion of the psychology of humor, and its extraordinary service in keeping a school- room sane, cheerful and interested. A teacher with a sense of humor can solve many difficult problems in discipline, where a teacher with- out it would fail altogether. The errors of the 3o6 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS school-room, in respect alike to intellectual work and to conduct, may often be best corrected if the teacher will take a humorous rather than a tragical view of them. Then, in the stress and strain of modern life, children need the relief which really good humor al- ways yields. Teachers ought to cultivate the habit of taking a cheerful view of many experiences which otherwise would be irritating. Conflict is often ren- dered more intense by solemn, sedate, angry atti- tudes in the teacher. Humor releases nervous ten- sion, brings into action the better feelings, and causes one to take a more joyous view of things; whereas if he be utterly without humor, it may take him days to change the unhappy set of his nervous system. Nothing will restore equilibrium in the over- tense nerves so quickly as humor. Can the sense of humor be cultivated? Modern psychology has tackled this difficult problem, but it Cultivating an has not yet solved it to the satis fac- appreciation of tion of the psychologists them- tlie humorous selves. But one can not go astray in saying that a teacher should have near at hand some book that in a thoroughly wholesome way presents the humorous side of life. Within the last decade, publishers have brought out a number of series of books containing the wit and humor of the world. Some of these books are probably not very good, and TENDENCIES OF NOVICES 307 others may be stale ; nevertheless, taken as a whole, they present the sort of thing that has for centuries made men laugh, and it is doubtless based upon a real need of human nature. If a teacher could spend a few minutes every day over one of these books, it would release his own tensions bred by conflict with unruly things, and this would help him in meeting the tragedies of his profession. Goodness knows there are tragedies enough at best, and if there is any way to turn some of them into humor, we ought to do it. What is the use of taking a pessimistic view of everything? This only makes solemn things the more gloomy. For several years the writer has been able to study the influence of a number of different teach- ers upon a certain group of children. One of these teachers is a thoroughly pessimistic individual, who never laughs with her pupils. She scolds on slight provocation. If a child makes a slip with his tongue, or his pen, it is made the occasion for faultfinding, — never for a smile. This teacher has a hard time herself in her work, and every pupil in her room is more or less unhappy. Fortunately, children are usually quite insensible to scolding; but still they can not ignore this teacher altogether. Contrasted with her is another teacher who is ex- ceedingly autocratic, and who drives her children 3o8 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS at a rapid rate much of the time; but she has one saving quahty which offsets her faihngs in other respects. She sees the fun in much that happens in the school-room, and sometimes she and her chil- dren can be heard in laughter all over the school building. Her pupils are very fond of her, al- though she deprives some of them of peace of mind and sleep at night if they lag in their work. But she laughs with them, and they feel she is human. Peo- ple who laugh together can not long bear harsh feelings toward one another. This last teacher is a very hard worker, but her ability to let go sometimes saves her from nervous breakdown. Alienists say that sanity and mental poise require frequent change in the set of the nervous system ; and while there are other ways of producing this change, humor is one of the simplest, sanest, wholesomest, cheapest, and most effective ways of securing it. CHAPTER X THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS Fifteen years ago very few people outside of Dunn County, Wisconsin, knew anything about Me- A new educational nomonie, a little lumber town, experiment station situated in a sparsely settled section of the state. To-day every one interested in educational progress in any of the leading countries has at least heard of it. Most American teachers are keeping watch of it. And when one visits England, France, or Germany, and talks with school men, the chances are he will be asked to describe the educa- tional reforms which are in process of being worked out in this place. Many leaders in educational and social progress from every part of the world have recently visited Menomonie for the purpose of ob- serving for themselves whether the new theories of education being tried out there are a success. It is an exceptional day now when Menomonie does not entertain distinguished visitors bent on educational errands, and speaking various languages. The thing which attracts these people from afar is the report 309 310 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS that the Stout Institute is demonstrating the prac- ticabihty and efficiency of new methods in educa- tion, and particularly in the training of girls. The pilgrimages being made to Menomonie to- day, remind one of similar attractions a hundred years ago at Burgdorf and Yverdon, where Pesta- lozzi illustrated the principle that children should be made to deal with real objects in all their education, instead of simply to learn words. It suggests also the vital reforms initiated at Keilhau by Frobel, where he gave a practical demonstration of his the- ory that the pupil ought to be self -active in all his work, instead of simply following the lead of his teacher. It suggests once more the epoch-making work in our own country by Sheldon in Oswego fifty years ago, and by Parker a little later in Quincy, Massachusetts. Each of these places was, in Its day, the Mecca for educational reformers. Each has contributed in an important degree to edu- cational development. Some of our most highly valued educational methods to-day were first given a practical test at one or another of these experi- mental stations. The feature of the work in the Stout Institute which attracts most attention is the "home-maker's A home-mak- course". There are training courses er's course in manual arts and domestic science THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 311 for those who wish to teach these branches ; but the course in home-making is designed for girls who have no intention of becoming teachers, but who are interested in studying scientifically the problems of the home. The subjects pursued in this department relate directly to one or another phase of home life, though some attention is given to such studies as history and literature. But the list of subjects in the home-maker's course would seem peculiar to a girl pursuing the traditional courses in the typical high school or college. There are no foreign lan- guages in the course, and no mathematics, except such as are applied concretely tO' the problems of home life. Also there are no formal courses in sci- ence, though there is a good deal of work in the application of science to the problems of food, sani- tation, and the like. In the home-maker's course, primary attention is given to the discussion of practical problems con- cerning foods and food-stuffs, their nutritive and market values, their care and preservation, the foods that are suitable for persons of different ages and occupations, methods of determining the purity of foods, modes of preparing food-stuffs for persons in health and in sickness, the best ways of serving foods, and so on. Next the girls study matters per- taining to textiles, and the making of garments and 312 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS articles used for the decoration of the person. Again, there are subjects that deal with problems of furnishing and decorating a house. The needs of persons of varying means are kept constantly in view, so that a girl may learn how to make her house attractive according to the funds at her disposal. She receives instruction regarding the proper way to purchase whatever is essential in the maintenance of a house, the balancing of expenditures for differ- ent purposes in the home, and efficient methods of keeping accounts of all household transactions. She studies the relations of individual homes to society. She finds out what local and general associations there are that relate to the home, and what should be its attitude toward organizations pertaining to the industrial, ethical, and moral welfare of its members. Finally, each girl pursues courses relating to the proper modes of caring for children, and of mem- bers of the home when the}^ are sick or recovering from disease. She learns the best methods of home nursing, what should be done in cases of typical ac- cidents, the use of antiseptic agents in disease, ef- fective methods of making a house sanitary, and so on. In order that these practical subjects may be securely grounded, students are required to study the sciences on which they are based — chemistry, THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 313 physics, bacteriology, psychology, and child study. But these sciences are presented in a somewhat dif- ferent way from what they are in the typical high school or college. Mere technical knowledge is not emphasized. What is aimed at is a mastery of those fundamental principles which bear most directly upon the actual problems of home life. There is a home atmosphere about the institute. The girls take a part in the actual activities in which A home at- they will find it advantageous to par- mosphere ticipate when they return to their fa- ther's home, or establish homes of their own. The atmosphere about the traditional high school and col- lege is one of learning, often of memorising simply. The work has little or no relation to the actual con- ditions in the home, any more than it has to those of the office or the shop or the store or the farm. School men have said that this is the best plan, since then these subjects will be of value to every stu- dent, no matter whether he comes ultimately to have charge of a home or a store or an office or a farm. The argument is that when subjects are taught with- out reference to their practical application they will train the student's mind, and he can then utilize his training, though not his knowledge, in whatever sit- uations he may be placed in maturity. Observing people of affairs, as well as students of 314 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS human nature, have abandoned the doctrine that the Education for purpose of education should be to training merely train the mind without regard to the specific needs of an individual in real life. Men look about in the world and see persons whO' have been through a long course of formal schooling in the traditional subjects of study, which have been so presented that they have had no relation to every- day problems of life, and it is seen that these per- sons are usually helpless in any practical situation until they learn by actual experience how to adapt themselves thereto. They have often to begin prac- tically de novo J and master whatever they are called upon to do in real life. An unprejudiced person can find plenty of such people among his acquaintances. And the principle is particularly applicable to the home. Students of the matter have been saying for a good while that the formal studies in the high school and college, as they have been taught, do not adequately prepare a girl to be happy and effective in her home life, though it is not questioned that they have a certain intellectual value, and will be of service to girls who have no interest in, and no need to give attention to, any of the practical affairs of life. It has been generally observed that girls who graduate from high school and college get on best if they abandon the home and go to teaching, or THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 315 take up clerkships, and the like. The Stout Insti- tute is a concrete expression of the prevailing dis- satisfaction with the influence of the traditional subjects of study upon the girl's interest and capa- bility in the home. It must be impressed that in the past the training in the high school and the college has been directed toward the so-called discipline of mental faculties, and not toward practical situations of any sort. Un- der such a regimen, a girl can not make application of much of what she gains in school to real problems in life. For instance, a pupil may devote one-half of her time in the high school to foreign language and grammatical studies, and yet she may not have an understanding of how a child most readily develops efficiency in oral and written expression. She may have learned the names of a long list of English authors, the dates when they were born and when they died, the names of the works of each author, and the qualities of his style which are set out in a text-book, and still she may not be able to tell a story to a child so as to interest or help him, or to em- ploy really happy and effective expressions in asso- ciation with her children or with her neighbors. Any person who keeps his eyes open, and who is not possessed by preconceptions relating to such things, can observe women who have been through 3i6 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS higher branches of mathematics, but who can not keep accounts correctly in their own homes, and who can not figure out successfully many of the practi- cal financial problems with which they should be concerned every day. Again, it is rather the excep- tion than the rule to find girls who, having learned many dates and names in history, really understand the political and social tendencies of the day so that they can talk about them intelligently, or who could take a hand in establishing sound government in the communities in which they live. Let any doubter study the situation in his own community, and note whether the women who are really "doing things" in the best w^ay, domestically and socially, and who are getting the most out of life, are those who have had the greatest amount of traditional education. Of course, it will be granted that even a formal training is better than nothing, much better ; but this is not the point at all. There is no reason why edu- cation should not be adapted to the needs of the times. There is no reason why it should continue to be remote from the actual problems which women must meet and solve in order to get the most out of life for themselves and for those who are dependent upon them. It may be remarked in passing that the girls whom one sees at Menomonie and similar schools have a THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 317 Vital studies rather different attitude toward arouse interest their work from the majority of girls one sees pursuing the so-called "training" courses. Many a girl studying foreign language, mathematics, technical science, and formal history and hterature in the high school or college is ordi- narily not very enthusiastic about her work. She would not exert herself in mastering it if she were not impelled to it by the desire to get a diploma, or by some other more or less extraneous motive. She is not apt to talk informally and spontaneously about what she is learning in school or in college. For her, school is one thing, and life is another and a different thing. One who is much in contact with such girls can not avoid asking himself why it is that what they are learning in all these traditional subjects does not play a larger role in their every- day thought and conversation. But it is really dif- ferent in an institution like the Stout school. Every observer notices this difference. The girls here seem happier, too. They appear to be more spon- taneous and enthusiastic in respect to their school work. One finds girls in this institute who have not taken kindly to high school and college work in other places. They have had to be coaxed and even driven to exert themselves sufficiently to keep from being sent home. But they appear to have become aroused 3i8 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS at last, partly because so much of their work now requires the use of the hands, and also because it is concrete, and has a direct bearing upon every-day problems. This sort of thing takes hold of at least many girls who can not become enthusiastic over memorizing studies divorced from all practical situ- ations. The sort of work which has been commended above Is now being Introduced in all progressive Spread of the high schools, and In some of the movement for colleges; though when compared Vital edueation ^jth the traditional studies, it has not yet made much of an impression in most places. In every up-to-date secondary school there is work offered in domestic science; and In some schools there are good courses In vocational subjects for girls. In the leading universities, especially those under state control, there are numerous courses deal- ing with household arts. However, a considerable part of this work Is still rather formal, and remote from the actual needs of girls. Domestic science is not Infrequently taught In a verbal and mechanical way. One who Inspects schools often sees girls studying this subject who have not clearly grasped the idea that It relates to the actual problems con- nected with the management of a home. One typical Instance may illustrate this principle. A girl had THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 319 reached her junior year in a high school in the Mid- dle West. She had had lessons in domestic science once a week for four years — since she entered the seventh grade of the elementary school. She had filled a note-book with formulae relating to the com- position of food-stuffs, as potatoes, flour, beans, and the like, and relating also to the methods of pre- paring them for the table. But she was requested one day while she was at the dinner-table to tell what was the nutritive value of the bill of fare on this particular occasion. She was asked whether it illustrated a well-balanced dietary; whether it was adapted to the special needs of the different per- sons who were dining at the time; whether the ar- ticles were properly cooked ; whether the foods were adapted to the time of the year and of the day when they were served; and whether they were used in amounts calculated to preserve the right proportion of elements necessary for proper nutrition. It will be noticed that these were reasonable questions, and they should have been answered readily by one who had studied the subjects of food and nutrition for four years. But this girl, who had made a record of excellent in her domestic science, and who was regarded as one of the best students in the high school, could not answer satisfactorily any of the questions asked her regarding this particular meal. 320 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS Her responses indicated that she was not really di- recting her attention tO' the situation immediately before her. The expression of her face and the re- moteness of her answers showed that she was try- ing to recall what she had memorized sometime in the past. For four years she had been engaged mainly in memorizing facts presented in text-books, or in lectures; and in recitation she had been exer- cised principally in recalling these. The supreme test of efficiency in her case had been her ability to pass an examination, not her power to execute the thing she had been studying. She had not been placed very often in situations where she could try out her knowledge to see whether she really knew what she had learned ; and whether she could apply what she thought she knew to concrete instances. This kind of teaching can, of course, yield only ver- bal mechanical results. There is not yet so much of a home atmosphere in the domestic science department of the typical A serious defect high school and college as there in domestic sci- should be ; and this is a serious de- ence instruction fg^.^ which can not be easily over- come in any institution where most of the work has no practical bearings. The majority, perhaps, of those who give instruction in domestic science have not themselves made homes. They have studied the THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 321 problems of the home at long range. Some of them do not have a very lively home feeling. What they have acquired regarding the home they have gained for purposes of teaching, and not with a view to actual utilization in real situations. Under such cir- cumstances, it is impossible to give girls genuinely helpful instruction. It should be added in fairness that teachers of domestic science probably have a rather more vital attitude toward their work than the teachers of some other subjects. The typical in- structor in foreign language in our country is often a grammarian. Usually he does not think in the language he teaches, nor does he speak it or read it well. But he has mastered the grammar of the lan- guage, and for the most part this is what he teaches. Foreign language not being a matter of much prac- tical consequence in our country, our people are not very critical of the kind of instruction given there- in, though they like to feel that in some mysterious way the minds of pupils are being trained or disci- plined by linguistic study. Again, those who give instruction in botany often have only a slight knowledge of living nature, and sometimes not a great amount of sympathy with it. Like the teachers of language, they have mastered the technical side of their subject, and this is v/hat they teach. Not infrequently pupils come 322 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS from the study of botany who understand but Httle concerning the conditions under which plants Hve, how they may be made of service to man, what is their relation tO' the anim.al life surrounding them, and so on. And what is true in respect to the teach- ing of language and botany holds also for physics, geography, rhetoric, and other subjects. Ever since Locke's day students of education have been wrestling with the problem of making teaching vital instead of merely formal. It is com- paratively easy to teach any subject that is worked out logically in a series of definitions and general principles considered apart from the concrete par- ticulars to which they relate. It is always more diffi- cult to deal with actual conditions in human life or in nature than to deal v/ith abstractions. The world as it actually exists is so diversified that it over- whelms many a teacher, and he clings to his gener- alizations because of their formal simplicity. Many a man teaches psychology, for instance, who feels himself in a strange land when face to face with live human beings, and required to describe their mental processes and their tendencies. Text-book psychology is a far simpler thing than a science of concrete human life. These matters are mentioned merely to show how natural it is for a teacher to present domestic science in a formal, remote, ab- THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 323 stract way, as a body of rules and formulae to be memorized. But the situation in respect to this sub- ject in the high schools and colleges is certainly no worse, and it is probably not much better, than the situation in respect to some of the older subjects. In the foregoing discussion, it has been to some extent assumed that most girls at any rate should be A curriculum based required to devote a consider- on discipline able part of their time in the public schools to the scientific study of the specific problems of the home. But some readers may think we have assumed too much. There are those who will say : ''We are not anxious that our girls should be taught household arts anyway. What we wish is that they shall have their minds trained. We want our girls to acquire good judgment ; to gain insight, to be disciplined in respect to accuracy in thinking and facility of expression. We do not care what sort of facts they learn ; all we are concerned about is that they shall be rightly disciplined. Training is the thing, not the acquisition of a body of facts in any subject." A large number of people in our country to-day think a girl in the high school should study only algebra, geometry, Latin, German, gram- mar, rhetoric, history, and English literature. These are the subjects. It is claimed, which will really give training in accurate reasoning, in sound 324 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS judgment, in keen perception, and in faithful mem- ory. At least half of our people are still exalting studies that "discipline the faculties". They de- Boes algebra, mand that every girl in the high as an example, school should study algebra for a train the mind year and a half, to take a typical instance. This, they say, will make her keen in her perceptions, and accurate and pro- found in her thinking. Suppose, by way of a little analysis, we look at the matter in this way : A girl spends one hour a day studying a lesson in algebra, and forty-five minutes in reciting it. While she is preparing her work, she is bent over a book, looking at letters and figures arranged in certain patterns. What Is required of her in the solution of any prob- lem is to rearrange these letters and figures into new patterns, following the rules of the game, which have been previously memorized. These letters and fig- ures are never modified in nature or in essence. The only change that can be made in them is a change in relationship, and even this change will not occur un- less the girl brings it about herself. She can take her time to it; nothing will happen unless she makes it happen. She can close her book at any moment, and come back the next day or the next year, and the situation will be exactly as she left it. She does not THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 325 have to anticipate any transformations which will come about from changes in the situation itself. She is not required to act promptly; she suffers no pen- alty if she does not think quickly and to the point, because there is no disaster impending upon her tardiness or obtuseness or negligence, unless it be arbitrarily imposed by the teacher. Now, what does this girl gain which will be of help to her in every-day life? The chances are she will spend some of her time In a kitchen. Seventy- five per cent, of all girls in the public schools will be required to supervise, at any rate, work in kitchens. For a girl to be ready and effective in adapting her- self to the situations presented therein, say in judg- ing the value of foods, her eye must be quick and accurate in noting variations in the color, form, size, texture, and mechanical composition of the food-stuffs before her. There is a great variety in the signs which she must appreciate in order wisely to choose and to prepare food. What has her algebra accomplished by way of quickening her perception in these things ? In her book she has had experience only in perceiving letters and figures devoid of color, or variety in forms, and absolutely lacking in quali- tative characteristics. The very fact that they are symbolic indicates that they have no qualitative val- ues. But In the kitchen, the girl must deal with 326 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS qualitative characters solely, and the chances are her algebra will be as much of a hindrance as a help to her. For it is a simple matter of psychology that when the eye, or any sense, has perceived in a certain way for a year and a half it will tend to continue to perceive in the same manner. The girl's experience with algebra has deadened, if anything, the appre- ciation of qualitative characters and values. If she should read qualitative characters into the literal and figurative symbols before her, she could not proceed at all in algebra ; the condition of success is the elim- ination of all qualities, of all values in structure and function, and of all expression of qualitative constitution. Imagine a girl who has had experience with noth- ing but algebra; how absolutely helpless she would be in any situation in real life! Exactly the same effect would result from the study of linguistic sym- bols and grammar, provided the girl did not push through the mere symbols and technique, so that she could appreciate the content denoted by them. Of course, if the girl should be required to study engi- neering, or any branch of physics or mechanics, then algebra would be absolutely necessary for her. However, not more than one girl in a hundred thousand in the public schools will need algebra for engineering or mechanics. The majority of boys. THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 327 perhaps, will have need for algebra as a tool; and people go on requiring of the girl what will pos- sibly be of service to the boy, but what is practically certain not to be of value to herself. Let us stay a little longer in the kitchen with our girl — the one who has spent a year and a half in Appreciation of Latin, two in German, one in changing phenomena algebra, and perhaps four in rhetoric, one in mathematical physics, and four in English. We find her now confronted with the problem of cooking some dish, say broiling a beef- steak, or baking bread. In order that she may be successful, her eye must be ready to note the constantly changing characteristics of the thing which is being subjected to heat. Not only must her eye be sensitive to transforming phenomena, but her ear and her sense of smell must be equally sensitive to the changes taking place. She must have some standard by which she can detennine whether the changes which are occurring should take place, and if not, what should be done to prevent them? Also, if the changes desired do not take place, what may be done to bring them about ? Will any one say that experience in keeping one's eyes on a book in alge- bra for an hour a day for a year and a half will make one's eye or ear or olfactor}^ sense or sense of temperature any the keener for situations like S28 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS these? One has only to present the matter to Im- press the absurdity of such a contention. There may be some reader who has followed us through to this point, but who will now say : "Alge- bra trains the girl's judgment; and sound judgment after all is the main thing to be thought of in educa- tion." When a person holds a view of this kind, it is almost impossible to convince him of the fallacy of his psychological thinking. The whole matter is so complicated, and the terms used are so general and undefined, that people ordinarily do not make much progress in discussing it The only way to get at the truth in respect to this matter is to take a girl in any of the typical situations in which she will ultimately be placed. In comprehending the social and natural forces in her environment, or in keep- ing her house sanitary, or in making it attractive, or in decorating herself, or in conversing with her neighbors, or in instructing and entertaining her children; in all these situations she must reach con- clusions readily in view of directly related past expe- rience, and not by means of the method of the equation utilized in algebra. Not once in a thou- sand times is a woman placed in a situation in which she can equate the factors to be considered, and act accordingly. If she should try to reduce the phe- nomena before her to the form of the equation, she THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 329 would be overwhelmed by them. No one would be so foolish as to say that a study of algebra would give a woman better judgment in deciding whether it were better to send her boy to school at five or to wait until seven; whether or not she should permit her daughter of fifteen years tO' go out without a chaperon on a sleigh-ride with a boy; whether it would do good to scold her twelve-year-old son for making noise in the house, or whether she might better give him a little leeway in indulging his mas- culine impulses; whether she should devote herself mainly to social life or mainly to her home, and so on, ad libitum. But these are precisely the typical problems that a woman must solve in her every-day life. Of course, we are not now speaking of the very rare woman who goes into mechanics, and so who must master algebra and other branches of mathematics with great thoroughness. We have in view simply the women who will live the typical woman's life, and who must continue to do so in order that society may prosper. An important source of waste in the education of girls who go through high school and college is the The study of failure to make the study of foreign language foreign language effective. Inves- tigations made in various places have shown be- yond a doubt that not one girl in fifty who 330 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS studies a foreign language in this country mas- ters it so that it becomes a ready instrument, either for the gaining or the expression of thought. Interesting facts bearing upon this matter may be observed in graduate schools. All such schools require that a student must have a reading knowledge of German and French before he will be given his doctor's degree. It is the usual thing for candidates for such degrees to go up to the last year, and then begin to get up their languages so they can pass a simple examination in them; and these stu- dents constitute a very small, select group, devoted to scholarship, and planning to lead an academic life. They have not been using the languages, al- though they had studied them for several years in high school and college. It is a common thing to hear persons who have obtained their doctor's degree say they can not read the foreign languages with any measure of success. It is very rare indeed to find an undergraduate student who has been put through foreign languages in high school and college who can either read them or speak them. The writer has often asked such students to get the substance out of an article or a book written in French or German; and where one student can do it there will be forty- nine who will not even attempt it, claiming it would be an utterly fruitless and most wearisome task. THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 331 But some readers who are devoted to things hn- guistic may say : ''Our girls ought to be trained in Training in the the humanities. Men have ex- liumanities pressed their hopes and fears and aspirations through language, and this is the best material for the training of youth of either sex." Humanism has been a term with wdiich men have conjured throughout the recent history of education. ''Culture" is another such term, which men have used without having any clear notion of what it denotes. I have tried it upon hundreds of intelligent seniors in the university, who were in the habit of using the term approvingly as the aimx of education ; but when asked to analyze it, and show precisely what is essential in a course of study in order to have pupils secure it, they would go wandering into space and never come back. Such terms, through long non-critical usage, have become loaded up with obscure, undefined, aspirational feeling, and with this content they are now often put forth as indi- cating the proper aim of education. A girl will absorb humanism from the study of the grammar of a foreign language in the high school in about the measure that she would acquire astronomy by studying an almanac, or psychology by looking at a phrenological chart. If we interpret humanism to mean a participation in the life of the ZZ2 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS race^ — its life, not merely its forms of communica- tion — then we may accept it as a worthy end to be striven after in education. But the simple fact is that girls in the high school and college who have spent their time largely in languages are apt to know very little about the real life of our ancestors. And yet there are people in America who go on making the claim, shutting their eyes to facts to the contrary to be found all about them. What sort of an educational regime will the American girl of to-morrow be put through? First A course for tlie of all, she will not receive pre- girl of to-morrow cisely the same treatment as a boy does. Those who first urged that girls as well as boys should be educated, maintained that the former were entitled to everything the latter received. For a long time boys had the opportunities of schooling; and when it was decided to give the girls an equal chance with them, it was natural that the system already worked out for the latter should be adopted for the former. The demand all along has been — let our girls have as good an education as we give our boys ; and this has been interpreted to mean the same education. Without doubt this is the way it should be inter- preted in considerable part, but there are exceptions which will be noted presently. We may first glance THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 333 at the training which the girl will receive in common with the boy. Of course she will be taught to read, to write, to spell, and to make arithmetical calcula- tions adequate to her needs. The elementary school gives her this sort of thing quite effectively to-day. However, there is still left, even in the elementary school, some work based on the aim of disciplining the faculties. There are problems set in arithmetic for mere exercise, without regard to their bearing upon any phase of practical life. Happily, though, in most of our progressive communities this kind of arithmetical work has been eliminated, and what remains is of genuine value for all individuals, girls as well as boys. Not so much can be said for spell- ing, however; in the majority of schools there is still a considerable amount of work which is purely formal, and largely valueless. A girl who completes only the elementary or even the high school will never have to spell more than twenty-five hundred words at the outside. But in some places the ele- mentary school still requires the girl to practise on from seven to ten thousand words, with the result that often she does not learn to spell surely and auto- matically some of the simple words which she will frequently use in real life. Within the last decade the reading in the element- ary school has been largely revolutionized, so that 334 EVERYDAY PROBLEMS now pupils read for the purpose of enjoyment and appreciation, and not for mere discipline or ''cul- ture". Here, as fully as anywhere, is seen the triumph of a rational view of education, which is gaining headway in this country. The elementary school in advancing communities gives the girl some experience in music and drawing, though not so effective as could be desired. But every year one may witness evidences of growth away from formalism toward efficiency in the teach- ing of these important branches. Of all the subjects in the curriculum, none will be found of greater im- port in the life of the girl than miusic and drawing. Any one who looks upon hum.an life from the larger standpoint sees that a vital need of woman is to attain harmonious social adjustment, to become at- tractive in conduct, in personal appearance, in the capacity to interest people, and to provide for their enjoyment in agreeable ways. Drawing and music, taught so as to give pupils an appreciation of har- monies in all the varied situations of real life, and ability to create such harmonies in form and color and soi-:^(! and ^^-eneral arrang-ement will prove of great servi''^: to anv o-irl, no matter in what places her li^n;-. ; ^ ^ : v^ ; "^^'-^ these subjects must be presenlea so iii:.L ilieir real and vital values, instead THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 335 of mere technique, may be gained; and this is already being achieved in many of the public schools in this country. The elementary school of to-day is seeking to give to its pupils some insight into the history of the The value of his- race. This v^ork has been severely tory for the girl criticized during the last few years, because history has been presented largely as a catalogue of dates and names. However, this subject is now receiving the constant attention of progressive educators ; and already in many schools it is being made an attractive, while at the same time faithful, account of the life of our predecessors, em- phasis being given to the experiences of men in their efforts to adjust themselves to one another and to nature. Here again is a study of the greatest im- portance for the girl as well as for the boy, but especially, perhaps, for the girl, because when prop- erly presented it will give her a picture of human life in its ethical and moral relations, in which she should be made particularly interested. The boy is better suited to deal with the laws of nature on the mathematical and physical side, for which the girl is not so well adapted. The elementary school in some places, unfor- tunately not in most places yet, endeavors to get its 33^ EVERYDAY PROBLEMS The study pupils Into rapport with nature, and es- of nature pecially with the Hfe of plants and ani- mals. No study could be of greater value for the girl than this. Her temperament fits her admirably to appreciate living nature. Her range of enjoy- ment in life will be vastly increased when she is helped to feel the great forces that tend forward and upward in the world about her. She needs that sort of acumen, too, which may come from close communion with nature during her plastic years. Her mode of life in times gone by made her more subject to fear and superstition than has been the case with man. The untaught woman is apt to live in dread of the phenomena of nature a good part of the time. She does not easily think of natural events as springing from impersonal causes. She is animistic by inheritance. But the daily study of nature throughout her educational course should replace fear by confidence, and superstition by scien- tific insight. The failure of most of our schools to- day to give a girl daily experience In tracking out the laws of nature in Its varied manifestations con- stitutes one of the greatest weaknesses In contempo- rary education, and indicates a defect which ought to be remedied without delay. These subjects the girl must pursue In common with her brother in the elementary school. They THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 337 Vocational constitute the fundamental require- training ments, no matter in what particular sphere of life the girl may be placed. However, many girls must earn their own living, and they must begin soon after they leave the elementary school, which makes vocational training a necessity. But the girl can not get such training during the elementary school course. This course is none too long for her to acquire the general education which is absolutely essential for a well-poised, successful life. This suggests a pressing problem which has already been taken up in some communities — the lengthening of the elementary school period by a year or two, which must be devoted to vocational training. There can hardly be any doubt that in our own country the period of schooling for all chil- dren should be lengthened. There is no reason why it should not be. The eight-year plan for the ele- mentary school can not be regarded as final. There is nothing in human society or in nature which re- quires that most pupils should cease their school work after the completion of the eighth year. In the past, economic necessity established eight years as the limit of universal compulsory schooling. But our financial condition is improving, knowledge is increasing by leaps and bounds, and more is being constantly demanded of the rising generations in 33^ EVERYDAY PROBLEMS order that they may adapt themselves adequately to contemporary civilization. All this means that the compulsory school period must be extended for the girl, as well as for the boy. For those girls who have leisure and means to go through the high school into college, the way is open to carry forward the lines of work begun in the elementary school. The fundamental needs of the woman can be ministered to best by art, music, history, literature, science, and the subjects that bear directly upon social and ethical problems, and the problems of home-making in a large sense, special importance being given to the care and culture of children. No matter how long her interest and her economic condition will permit her to continue her studies, these great fields will offer attractions to her, for it is practically impossible to exhaust them. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS GOOD ORDER 1. What can be said for and against the proposition that the chief problem in the school-room is to preserve good order? First say what "good order" means, specifying concrete details. 2. Discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of requir- ing pupils once or twice each day for five or ten minutes at a time to sit erect in their seats, fold their arms, and keep the body as quiet as possible, not moving the head, the eyes, or the feet. Does it make a difference whether the pupils are in the elementary, in the grammar, or in the high school? Does it make a difference whether the school is in the city or in the country? 3. What changes have occurred in the methods of securing good order in the schools in which you had your training? What are the results of these changes on the behavior of pupils ? 4. Describe in concrete detail five actual instances in which a teacher caught and held the wandering attention of pupils. Point out in each case the educational principle involved. 5. Should good order in the school-room be maintained pri- marily for the benefit of (a) the individual, (b) the class as a whole, or (c) the teacher? Discuss in detail. 6. Describe, as in 4, several actual instances in which a teacher failed to hold the attention of pupils. Point out the precise reason in each case. 7. Make a concrete report upon an actual recitation you have attended, showing why the class as a whole, or individual 342 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS members thereof, were Inattentive during the entire period; or some part of it. Get at the reason in each case. 8. Describe a typical school-room in which irrelevant trains of thought are frequently suggested. How would you remedy the situation? 9. What are the chief sources of irrelevant trains of thought in country schools? In city schools? Is there a dif- ference between younger and older children in this respect? 10. Mention possible objections to the plan of having an in- terval of three or five minutes after every recitation or study period of twenty minutes in the primary grades, thirty minutes in the grammar grades, and forty-five minutes in the high school? Are these objections fundamental and vital? 11. Suggest practicable methods of relieving the tensions of pupils without giving them frequent intermissions or relax- ing periods. 12. How can a teacher discriminate between fatigue and lack of interest in the school-room? 13. Suggest how a teacher may discriminate between disor- der which is intentional and malicious, and that which is due to an overflow of "animal spirits". 14. Should a teacher stand while engaged in teaching? Say why, whatever your answer may be. 15. Would you seat pupils alphabetically? Would you adopt such a plan of seating the first day of school? Give reasons. 16. List different methods of regulating communication dur- ing study hours. Discuss the adaptability of each to different grades. 17. Some of our largest and best high schools have abol- ished recesses. Some have instituted a single session daily from 8:30 a. m. to 1:00 or 1:15 p. m. without intermissions. Discuss the advisability of such an arrangement. 18. Recently a superintendent was asked to forecast the weather. He replied, "A storm is certainly coming, for the children act as if possessed." Should disciplinary standards be EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 343 adjusted to barometric variations? Do you ever feel "mean" before a storm? 19. Do pupils in city schools require as frequent intermis- sions or relaxing periods as pupils in rural schools? Do they need more of such periods? Why? 20. What arguments may be offered in favor of and against abolishing all recesses in schools of all grades, in the city and in the country? 21. Discuss the plan proposed in some places of keeping schools in session throughout the year, with one-week inter- missions at quarterly divisions of the year. 22. Discuss the plan of lengthening the school-day by add- ing one or two hours, pointing out the advantages and the dis- advantages of such a scheme. 23. Point out characteristics in a teacher which tend to incite disorder in a school. In the same way point out charac- teristics which have the effect of encouraging good order. Can these characteristics be modified by training, or by volun- tary effort on the part of the teacher ? Have you known teach- ers who have corrected traits of personality which were a handicap to them in the school-room? 24. Suggest feasible and effective ways in which a teacher may get rid of his own tensions which follow upon arduous work in the school-room, to the end that he may not incite disorder in his pupils by overstimulating or irritating them. 25. Does a long vacation, extending over two or three months, help a pupil to give prolonged and concentrated atten- tion to the work of the school in the autumn? Discuss the principle or principles involved, and make practical applica- tions to the every-day work of the school. 26. Describe concrete cases of pupils who are disorderly because of physical defects or deficiencies. How would you remedy the defects? 27. Comment on the part that skilful questioning by the teacher plays in determining attention and good order on the 344 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS part of the class. Indicate what Is meant by "skilful question- ing", and give a few concrete examples in illustration of it. 28. May most children above the fourth grade be allowed, without asking permission, to move quietly about the school- room when necessary, or even to leave the room for a brief time? 29. When pupils are passing from their regular recitation- room into another part of the building for manual or gym- nastic work, for example, should they be given freedom to move in irregular groups, and engage in conversation, if not boisterous or unduly noisy? Or should they be compelled to march in a definite order, and with military precision, without any communication whatever? 30. Is it probable that the utilizing of the school-house as the civic and social center of the community will simplify the problems of good order in the school? Why? II DISCIPLINE 1. Describe the behavior in school of a boy who has been "spoiled", as you regard the matter. Describe the behavior of a girl who has been "spoiled". Do they get more out of life than their associates do ? Give concrete evidence in support of your view. How should they be treated by the teacher? By their associates? Why? 2. Give an account of the early training of a boy or a girl who seems to be in conflict much of the time with his parents, his teacher, and his associates. In your opinion, could the in- dividual have been trained so that he would now adjust him- self easily to people about him? How? 3. Discuss the advisability of children appearing in public at an early age under circumstances marked by great popular approbation, as on Children's Day, etc. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 345 4. Are country children more frequently "spoiled" than are city children? Or is it the other way around? What is the evidence upon which your answer is based? 5. Have you ever seen a dog or a horse or a kitten which has been "spoiled" ? Have you seen one "cured" of its faults ? How? 6. Are problems of discipline more serious and difficult in American homes and schools now than they were twenty-five years ago, say? Or is the reverse true? If any changes in this respect are taking place, show what forces are producing them? How is it in the community in which you spent your childhood? 7. Describe the intellectual, social, ethical, and physical traits of a boy or girl who is a favorite with his parents or his teacher. Is he to be congratulated upon being a favorite? [Why? 8. Are influential parents as a rule more eager to have their children shown special favors than teachers are eager to favor them? 9. Is the proportion of men teachers in rural schools in- creasing, or is it becoming less? Why? With what results in respect to the training of boys especially? 10. Most of the teachers in city schools are women. In the vast majority of elementary schools, there are no men at all. Has it been or can it be shown that definite evils in such schools are due to the absence of masculine influence? Do not be satisfied with a mere conventional answer to this ques- tion ; in some way, get at the actual facts in the case. 11. Have you known women teachers who' could discipline boys better than the typical male teacher could do? If so, describe these women, and show what methods they employed. Do men teachers get along with girl students as well as women teachers do? 12. According to your experience, are athletic teachers bet- 346 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS ter disciplinarians than others? Comment on the facts as you find them. 13. "My science teacher one morning said: 'G — and J — came late to class again this morning, and I told them yester- day that I would send them back to the study hall the next time it happened.' 'Did you send them?' I asked. 'No,' said he, 'but if they are late to-morrow, I'll send them out for a week.' This teacher dealt out the heaviest penalties in our entire faculty, and had by all odds the worst discipline." Did you ever know of a similar instance ? How would you explain the case? 14. Is there any direct relation between personal attractive- ness in the teacher, and successful teaching and discipline? In your own experience, did the matter of appearance and dress play any large part in determining your attitude toward your favorite teacher? 15. Ought any form of school work to be made a punish- ment for a pupil's misconduct? Be specific. 16. What artificial standards of conduct might the school set up by a too rigid insistence upon rules against whispering, moving about the room, and others of like import? Is this likely to lead to confusion in the child's mind regarding rela- tive values in moral conduct? Make a list of ten school-room offenses, and point out those that have in them a moral or ethical aspect, and those that have not. 17. Is it ever advisable to allow boys to settle their quar- rels on the school grounds by fistic contest? Comment on Dr. G. Stanley Hall's view: "I would have every healthy boy taught boxing at adolescence, if not before." 18. Describe five cases of correction of pupils in which the principle of suggestion was employed effectively. Describe any case you may know in which the principle was not successful. 19. Describe one or more instances in which the use of cor- poral punishment as a means of correction proved to be (1) effective, or (2) an injury to the child. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 347 20. When, If ever, should corporal punishment be adminis- tered in the presence of an entire school? 21. Assuming that children differ greatly in temperament, training, and experience, is it possible in any school to use the same means of correction, or to apply the same rules of conduct to each individual ? If not possible, how is the teacher to escape the charge of favoritism? 22. Is Spencer's theory of "natural" punishment for miscon- duct feasible under ordinary school conditions? Illustrate with concrete instances. 23. In meting out punishment to an offender against good order in the school-room, what is the fundamental principle in- volved ; — that the child must be corrected for his own good, or because his conduct is opposed to the welfare of the school as a whole? Are these two ends antagonistic in the final out- come? 24. Comment on the principle laid down by Bagley, that "Punishment should not be used for the purpose of 'making an example'." 25. Is the following advice by Locke ever applicable to school-room situations? "Pay no attention to those faults in children that time is bound to cure." Mention a few of such faults. 26. Discuss the matter of preventing undesirable activities or actual misconduct in the school-room by substituting for the routine work of the school some other form of activity. Sug- gest some feasible and desirable substitutes. 27. Ought the school, as far as possible, to secure good con- duct by removing incitements or opportunities for wrong-do- ing; or ought it to give the pupil a chance to exercise choice in matters of conduct? 28. Is it proper to punish pupils for inattention? If so, suggest the circumstances under which it may be done, and the types of punishment that may be appropriate. 348 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 29. Ought a pupil ever to be sent home from school for mis- conduct, or kept in at recess, or after school? Ill FAIR PLAY BETWEEN TEACHER AND PUPILS 1. Take five actual cases of school-room discipline, and show whether the point of view of the teacher and of the pupil was the same or different in each case. Would you have treated the pupil differently in any or in all these cases? Why? 2. Describe five cases of unjust school-room discipline, and point out why each was unjust. What was the effect of such discipline on the pupil? Why? 3. Is it easier or is it more difiicult to administer discipline without injustice in city as contrasted with country schools? Why? Give typical concrete instances to illustrate the prin- ciple. 4. Can one rely upon a pupil's statement as to whether or not his teacher deals with him fairly? Does it make any dif- ference whether the pupil is in the primary school, the gram- mar school, or the high school? 5. Describe in detail two or three instances in which a teacher solved difficult problems of discipline by securing the cooperation of pupils. 6. Should the attitude of the teacher toward his pupils be one of authority, or one of good-fellowship? Are the two at- titudes antagonistic? 7. Should the teacher encourage pupils to criticize one an- other in the class-room in respect to either work or behavior? What are the advantages and the disadvantages of this? 8. According to your observations, do teachers as a rule appeal to the sense of fair play in respect to the government of the school, alike in the class-room and on the playground? Comment on the situation as you find it. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 349 9. Do women teachers govern their schools by securing the cooperation of their pupils more largely than men teachers do? Or is the reverse true? Why? 10. Is the sense of fair play as keen in country as in city schools? Give concrete evidence in support of your view, and suggest an explanation for the facts in the case. 11. How may a teacher use the sense of group loyalty to advantage in the government of the school? Can a teacher succeed in governing his school if the group as a whole resists his authority? Cite typical cases to illustrate the principle. 12. What traditions in a community may turn a group of pupils against a teacher without any fault of the latter? Is it the same in the city as in the country? How might a teacher deal successfully with such a situation? 13. Describe two or three actual cases in which a teacher lost the respect of his pupils. Could this tragedy have been avoided? 14. Discuss the matter of allowing a bright pupil to raise his hand continually in recitation, indicating his ability to an- swer a question no matter to whom it is addressed. 15. Point out the results in the kindergarten of having the teacher enter into all the plays and other activities of the children. 16. Is the problem of holding the respect of pupils more serious in the high school than in the elementary school? If so, v^^hy? Is it more serious in the country than in the city? 17. Mention several school-room situations in which a teacher should impress a pupil with his shortcomings. Men- tion several situations also in which a pupil would be injured by keeping his failings constantly before him. 18. Discuss this proposition: "A child can not grow in strength, intellectual or moral, unless he is made sensitive to his deficiencies, and is urged unceasingly to overcome them." 19. Do pupils respect a teacher who habitually praises them for their conduct and their work as much as they respect 350 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS one who habitually criticizes them sharply for their errors and failures? 20. If possible, read The Young Barbarians, by Ian Mac- Laren, and in view of the principles presented in this chapter, discuss the several types of teachers portrayed in the book. Read The Hoosier Schoolmaster also, and comment on the type of teacher presented therein. 21. Describe a concrete case in which censure or punish- ment of a pupil before his fellows was wholesome and effect- ive, alike for himself and for his associates. Describe a case in which contrary results followed public correction. Why in each instance? 22. Do you know a teacher who can govern a school with- out making any prohibitions regarding communication? If so, describe her methods. 23. Discuss the following statement made by a school prin- cipal : "I used formerly to say to my teachers, *Be partial al- ways.' Was my advice proper? Can it be followed when pen- alties are laid down explicitly in advance for every sort of misdem'eanor?" 24. Discuss the following: "I asked a very reliable high- school boy what per cent, of his fellows would lie to a teacher when driven into a corner. He said, 'Eighty per cent.' His answer in my opinion was altogether too high, unless he was thinking of special teachers." Will pupils lie to some teachers more readily than to others? Why? 25. The boys of a school were called together by the princi- pal. He said: "Boys, the great majority of you use and en- joy the dressing-room; but I can not longer tolerate certain misconduct connected with its use. I have no time to chase down the culprits, but I will lock the room if it seems neces- sary." Was an injustice done to the majority who were innocent ? 26. "I visited the Junior class of an English teacher to hear the scheduled debate. The class, with one exception, for fear EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 351 of the visitor perhaps, reported 'Not prepared.' After I left the room, the humiliated teacher administered a savage 'tongue-lashing' to the pupils. A, parent or two were highly offended, and one of the girls a year after graduation com- plained that this teacher was 'still telling lies about us'." What should the teacher have done In this case? 27. Give instances in which you think a scolding adminis- tered to a school as a whole will prove wholesome and bene- ficial. May it be a good tonic for individual pupils at times? 28. Is it advisable to post up conspicuously the names of pupils who have failed in any school exercise, or who have been remiss in meeting school obligations? Comment on the practice in vogue in some schools of giving badges or em- blems to Individual pupils because of excellence in school work. What different element enters into the case when a trophy is won by a school team for victory in basket-ball or debating? 29. As a rule is there greater cooperation betweens pupils and teachers of manual training, domestic science, and gym- nastics than between the same pupils and their instructors in other branches? If so, account for the difference. 30. Ought teachers in the high school to make a definite concerted effort to come into social relations with their pupils outside of school hours? Suggest some ways by which this can be accomplished. Comment on the desirability of having regular high-school dances, supervised by the teachers. 31. In any group of school children above the primary grades, what proportion will be well-disposed toward school- room conventions and ready to cooperate with the teacher? What proportion will probably be in a defiant attitude ? What proportion will be Indifferent, and ready to take sides either way. Toward which of these groups ought the tact and skill of the teacher mainly to be directed ? 32. From what kind of homes for the most part do children come who are noticeably deficient in the attitude of fair play 352 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS both toward the teacher and toward fellow-pupils? Is nation- ality a factor in determining this attitude? 33. What opportunity do written examinations, especially when made the test of promotion, afford for fair play on the part of both teacher and pupil? Do they as easily lend them- selves to opportunities for unfairness on both sides? IV TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK 1. It is frequently said that young children, under eight years of age or so, can not think. Do you agree with this view ? Why? If you believe that such children can think, give con- crete examples illustrating the principle. 2. Give concrete examples — at least one in each case- showing how a child might think in dealing (1) with his doll; (2) with his pet dog; (3) with a brother or sister; (4) in in- terpreting something that is said to him by his mother; (5) in a problem involved in repairing a broken toy. 3. Show how a lesson might be given on the history of the community in which you live that would require pupils to think in an effective manner. Indicate how the lesson could be conducted so that pupils would not be required to think at all in a true sense. 4. Suppose you are required to teach the history of the com- munity in which you live, so that your pupils may be able to think clearly and effectively when they are confronted with any problem of civic improvement; mention five principal topics which you would treat in such a course in history. How would you treat these topics? 5. Suggest a method of leading pupils to think accurately regarding the relations which should exist between the people of a community and the public utility corporations therein. 6. Present outlines of lessons designed to lead pupils to EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 353 think straight on the following topics pertaining to the govern- ment of the community in which they live : (a) the abandon- ment of all private wells in the community; (b) requiring plans for new buildings to be indorsed by a municipal in- spector of buildings before they can be carried out; (c) re- quiring that no person may erect a building so close to the edge of his lot that he must borrow air and light from adjoin- ing lots; (d) giving a board of public works the right to im- prove any street in a city, and requiring the property abutting thereupon to pay for the improvement. 7. Comment on the methods followed in the text-books in history which you studied in the elementary school; also in the high school. Comment in the same way on the books you studied in civil government, or civics. 8. Take some definite topic in history, say the passage of the fugitive slave law. Suppose the text-book to state, as usual, the time of passage of the bill and its provisions. Set three problems which you think would be appropriate for a sixth- grade class. 9. Which would you favor for civic training in the high school, the organization of a mimic house of representatives, or the orderly conduct of the affairs of the athletic association in the school ? 10. Comment on the following proposition taken from an educational book: "There is one study in the elementary school curriculum which is especially well fitted to teach pupils to reason, and this is arithmetic." 11. Suggest a feasible and effective method of training a pupil so that he may be able on his own initiative to correct his errors in spelling; also in grammar. 12. "A pupil will remember what he himself has done, not what he has simply looked at or listened to." Show how this principle applies to good memory in (a) history; (b) rhetoric; (c) reading; (d) Latin; (e) French; (f) physics. 13. Comment on the efficiency of the following method: 354 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS "On the day of the last presidential election, I tried the plan of holding at the high school with which I was connected an exact imitation of the original. All students, down through the fifth grade, voted. Students acted as election officers in every detail. The election was preceded by registration, rival rallies, etc.. I followed it with the meeting of presidential electors at the capitol in due season, and the final canvass at Washington." 14. Give some concrete examples of methods by which pu- pils may be made to feel that what is being done in school will be of practical value in the needs of daily life in maturity. 15. Point out some ways in which school-room play may be utilized to train children to think. 16. Is the ordinary written examination, especially when made the test of promotion, a means of cultivating the power to think? May it be made such a means? If so, show spe- cifically how it can be so utilized. 17. Comment on the practice of compelling pupils in the upper grades and in the high school to keep note-books in all subjects, these note-books being carefully filled out under the teacher's direction, and regularly inspected and marked. 18. Does the topical recitation, especially in grades below the high school, contribute to thinking ability, or does it call on memory only? Discuss the several forms of recitation from this standpoint. 19. Show how the use of pictures in history, literature, and geography may be made to contribute to definite thinking on the part of children. Are motion pictures better for this pur- pose than lantern or stereoscopic views? Why? 20. Contrast the two following methods in teaching a sixth- grade geography class the nature and origin of soil : (a) The following questions were asked: "What is soil?" "Name some of the kinds." "What is weathering?" "Ero- sion?" "Corrosive agent?" "Define denudation." "What is the disintegration of rocks?" EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 355 (b) The pupils were taken on a trip to a stone quarry. There they saw the formation of the soil actually going on. They noted the differences in hardness, compactness, and color between the upper and the lower layers ; the gradual gradation from solid to less solid rock, to rock waste, and then to soil. The relation of the rock to soil was unmistakable. The con- tribution of plants, air, and water to the formation of soil received concrete illustration. Then the class took up the discussion of the subject in the text. 21. Comment on the following instance of geology teach- ing: "A teacher in physical geography giving a lesson on rocks, brought his specimens to class, and lectured on them, holding up each kind to view as he talked. At the end of the period he carried away the rocks, and at the next recitation upbraided the pupils when they failed to recognize the various specimens when he again held them up." 22. Comment on this example of English teaching: "A second-year class in the high school was reading the Sir Roger de Coverly papers. The command was given: 'Point out the satire on page — .' A hand went up: — 'What is satire?' Teacher: — 'How many know what satire is?' No one re- sponded. Teacher: — 'Who can write satire on the board?' A child responded, was sent to the board, and wrote 'satyr'. The teacher then sent a pupil to the dictionary to see how 'satire' was spelled, and he happened on the right form. At her request, he read the definition of the word, which was probably meaningless to the class. Without any comment the teacher said, 'I hope to-morrow you will all know what "sat- ire" means 1'" 356 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS V TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK — Concluded 1. What studies taught you in the elementary or in the high school do you remember most vividly and fully at this time ? Try to account for the fact as you find it. 2. What studies or topics which you pursued in the elemen- tary or in the high school have been largely forgotten? Ex- plain the matter in detail. 3. Take a study like grammar, and mention principles taught you in the elementary school which have remained with you without becoming obscured. Are you aware of having forgotten some of the principles you learned in this subject? Look up the matter in a grammatical text-book, and say why you have remembered some principles, while others have been forgotten. 4. Discuss the subjects of rhetoric, algebra, geometry, and German according to the directions given in exercise 3 for the discussion of grammar. 5. What proportion of what you learned in geography in the elementary school have you forgotten? Take what you know about the products of different countries, and of different sec- tions of our own country, and try to determine whether this knowledge was gained in school, or in some other manner. Comment upon the results of your inquiry viewed in the light of the discussion in chapter V of the text. 6. Show how you could lead pupils thirteen 5^ears of age, or thereabouts, who live east of the Mississippi River, to think straight regarding the extraordinary development of the city of North Yakima, in Washington. Keep in mind that a very few years ago the entire Yakima Valley was a sage-brush desert. 7. Comment on the following in view of the principles de- veloped in chapters IV and V of the text : "I propose to have the children of Mississippi taught the geography of the state EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 357 by having them start with the study of cotton. I will have them work back from the cotton crop to soil, climate, etc., and forward to transportation, location of cities, etc." 8. When a certain pupil in the seventh grade first encoun- tered the word "genuine", he pronounced it "gentnne". How would you make him take the initiative in correcting his mis- take? 9. Show in detail how you would lead a pupil to take the initiative mainly or wholly in demonstrating the proposition, — "The sum of the interior angles of a triangle equals two right angles." 10. A mother was observed "helping" her eight-year-old child to prepare his reading lesson for school. Whenever the boy hesitated at a new word, the mother would pronounce it for him, he would repeat it after her, and go on to new difficul- ties. Comment on the efficiency of this method. 11. A father was observed "helping" a boy in the sixth grade to learn some definitions. The teacher asked the boy to look up the words assigned in the dictionary, and learn the definitions. The father assisted the boy to find the words. The former read the definitions to the latter, and decided which definition had best be chosen in each case. Then he required the boy to repeat the definition until he had memorized it. What do you think of this method? 12. Suppose a beginner in Latin, coming upon the word tempus, can not recall what it means. Indicate how you would lead him to work out the meaning. 13. Comment on the following lesson in geography, given to a class in the fifth grade : With four different maps on the wall, and with the aid of past lessons, the teacher derived the following facts about India from pupils who had never before had a lesson on that country, and who had as yet not been assigned a lesson on it in the text: (a) That India is in the hot belt, extending nearly to the equator, (b) That it is in the belt of trade winds, (c) 358 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS That rainfall is slight in winter, for the monsoons are out- ward-flowing winter winds ; and that the rainfall is very heavy in summer, for the monsoons are inzuard-flowing summer winds, (d) That the heaviest rainfall is on the slopes of the Himalayas because the winds laden with moisture are cooled by the air of the mountains and produce rain, (e) That the rainfall on the slopes of the Himalayas furnishes water to two rivers, (f) That the valleys of these two rivers are fertile, hence densely populated, (g) That the coast-line is very reg- ular, hence few good harbors, (h) That the products will be those of a hot moist climate, viz. : cotton, spices, etc. 14. Is the following testimony from a man, now principal of a high school, quite exceptional, or is it typical : "In the fifth grade we began the study of physiology. We were supplied with a text-book full of definitions, and contain- ing also pictures that filled me with horror when I first looked at them; — pictures of men with their body walls slit open, and turned back to reveal the internal structure. At class we were called on, and rattled off as many definitions as we could; so long as we were not required to explain them we were all right. It makes me smile to think of the queer ideas I got from this study. For instance, I learned that 'The ef- fect of alcohol on the nervous system is that it deadens it and upsets it.' My conception of the deadening was that the brain died, and remained decayed in one's head." 15. The following state examinations were set recently in different states. Comment on each question from the stand- point of its suitability to encourage pupils to study and teach- ers to instruct with a view to developing the power of thought in the subjects covered. In certain cases two examinations in the same subject are presented, so that you may compare them in respect to their relative value. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 359 PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE 95. (a) Describe an experiment with an animal membrane to illustrate osmosis. (6) (b) Mention two examples of osmosis in the human body essential to the continuation of life. (4) 96. (a) Discuss the necessity of a mixed diet. (4) (b) Make a list of food articles for a dinner that would insure a mixed diet, giving the nutritive value of each food mentioned. (6) 97. (a) Make a drawing of the alimentary canal, indicating each part (4) (b) Give hygienic direc- tions that should be observed in eating and give a reason for the observance of each. (6) 98. (a) Give the number and the position of each of the different kinds of teeth in a full adult set. (6) (b) State the main cause of the decay of teeth and the best method of preserving teeth that are partially decayed. (4) 99. (a) Name and locate the valves of the heart, (o) Describe the action of one set of the valves of the heart. (4) • • /.x 100. (a) State the necessity of respiration. (4} (b) Describe an experiment you have observed to illustrate the normal action of the chest and the diaphragm in breathing. (6) 101. State the effect of the habitual use of alco- hohc drink (a) on digestion, (5) (b) on the nerves. 102. (a) State the importance of getting rid of the wastes of the body. (4) (b) Mention three waste products of oxidation in the body and state how each is eliminated from the body. (6) 103. (a) Compare the structure and the method of control of the voluntary muscles with the structure and the method of control of the involuntary mus- 36o EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS cles. (6) Mention (b) two important voluntary muscles and (c) two important involuntary mus- cles. (4) 104. Describe the proper treatment (a) of a burn, (b) of a fracture. (10) 105. (a) State the dangers of dust. (4) (b) De- scribe proper methods of sweeping and dusting. (6) 106. Give iive practical suggestions for the care of the eyes. (10) 107. Describe adaptation of structure to function in each of the following: (a) spinal column, (5) (b) shoulder joint. (5) Or 108. Describe the gross structure and state the chief function (a) of the brain, (5) (b) of the spinal cord. (5) 109. Describe experiments you have observed to show the presence (a) of proteid, (5) (b) of fat. (5) PHYSIOLOGY 1. Explain in full how muscles are fastened to the bones. 2. What is the value of absorption? Explain by examples. 3. Name and locate the bones of the skull. 4. How does reflex action aid a person in walking? Explain reflex action. 5. Explain the con- struction of the heart by diagram or otherwise. 6. Name all the digestive juices, and the function of each. 7. Explain your method of ventilation in a school-house. 8. Name four texts on Physiology, and designate the one you teach. 9. What is the function of the kidneys? 10. Distinguish between contagious and infectious diseases. AGRICULTURE 1. Name (a) three distinct breeds of dairy cows EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 361 and (b) three of beef cattle, and indicate the coloring of each of these breeds. (6) 2. What is the typical distinction between dairy and beef cattle in respect to (a) form, (b) tempera- ment, (c) suitable ration? (6) 3. What is the most obvious difference between the teeth and between the digestive processes of cows and horses? (4) 4. State precisely the precautions that must be taken from cow to consumer, to keep milk clean, (6) 5. Name (a) three breeds of hens that are noted for laying, (b) three noted for meat production, (c) three noted for general utility. (9) 6. Describe a suitable house for hens in respect to (a) location, (b) light, (c) ventilation, (d) fixtures, (e) construction materials. (A lettered drawing can be used to advantage.) (10) 7. Name £ve common birds of New York and state definitely in what respects they are useful or harmful to agricultural interests. (5) K 8. Distinguish between the robin and the English sparrow in respect to (a) color markings, (b) food, (c) nesting habits. (6) 9. Name a gnawing insect harmful to crops, that ■you have specially studied, describing (a) its size, (b) its color markings, (c) its method of travel, (d) the distinctive stages of its life history, (e) the stage in which it is most destructive, (f) how it is best controlled. (12) 10. Name ten common forest trees with which you are acquainted and make a model outline describing one of them so as to identify it to a pupil or teach- er. (5) 11. How do you distinguish between a maple and 362 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS an apple tree in respect to (a) height, (b) bark, (c) seed production? (5) 12. Name from one to three varieties of each of the fruits commonly grown in New York. Under- score those that are commercially most important in your county (named). (5) 13. How is corn pollenized? (b) What is the botanic function of the "silk" of corn? (c) How many silks are there, approximately, on an ear of flint corn? (d) of dent corn? (5) 14. Explain three reasons for tilling the soil to promote the growth of crops. (6) (b) How would you destroy two noxious weeds that are prevalent in this state? (4) 15. (a) Name three legume crops commonly grown in New York, (b) Which is most valuable? Why? (6) 16. How should school work in agriculture be re- lated to the agricultural conditions, resources and interests of the local community? Illustrate by ref- erence to some definite section or county in this state. '(Write about three hundred words.) (20) 17. Outline the plan you would pursue in assist- ing teachers to develop a cooperative interest be- tween the school and the community in improving agricultural knowledge and practice. (Write about three hundred words.) (20) 18. What natural instincts and educational incen- tives may be appealed to in the teaching of agricul- ture? (10) 19. Outline a practical field or garden experiment in one of the following types: (1) testing fertilizers, (2) spraying, (3) ear-to-row testing, (4) hill selec- tion, (5) treating seed for scab, smut, etc. (15) (b) For what grades would this experiment be suitable? EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 363 (5) (c) Does the experiment illustrate the prin- ciple of using a "check" or "control"? (5) 20. (a) Outline a suitable program for a district teachers' meeting at which the teaching of agricul- ture is to be discussed. (15) (b) What agencies within the state can be called on to furnish speakers on agricultural topics for teachers' meetings? If possible, specify a particular topic and name a person qualified to discuss it. (6) (c) What agencies with- in and without the state can be called on to assist in establishing a working library for the teaching of ag- riculture? (4) AGRICULTURE 1. What advantages do you see in teaching agri- culture in high schools? 2. Outline your idea of how agriculture should be taught in high schools. 3. De- fine the following terms : Mulch, green fodder, green manure, gypsum and nodules. 4. Explain the system of dry farming. Where is this system used? 5. What is the San Jose scale? How should trees be treated that are afflicted with this scale ? 6. What are insecticides? Name two. 7. How many pounds of the following seeds make a bushel in Ohio: Wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and beans ? 8. Who is the State Supervisor of Agriculture in your district? What are his duties? 9. What is the Babcock milk test? How is this test made ? 10. For what purpose is the Bordeaux mixture used? How is this mixture pre- pared ? AGRICULTURE 1. What advantages do you see in teaching agri- culture in the rural schools ? 2. Outline your idea of how agriculture should be taught in the elementary schools. 3. Define the following terms : Subsoil, hu- 364 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS mus, ensilage, formalin, and seedling. 4. What Is meant by propagation of plants ? Explain the process of layering. 5. Explain the process of fertilization in corn. 6. What have Dr. S. M. Babcock and Luther Burbank done to promote agriculture? 7. What is meant by a model farm? A model farmer? 8. Give five rules that you would observe in transplanting a tree. 9. Name five varieties of trees that are suitable for planting on school grounds. Why are these suit- able? 10. Who is the State Supervisor of Agricul- ture in your district? What are his duties? CIVIL GOVERNMENT 1. Write about the work of the recent special ses- sion of our National Congress. 2. Give the duties, term and salary of a member of the Supreme Court. Of a congressman. 3. In what ways have English laws and customs affected our laws and government? 4. Name some great national compromises and tell what were the issues that were involved. 5. Write briefly of the government of a township. 6. Define eminent domain, patent, copyright, bill of attainder, party government. 7. What limits the powers of congress? What authority is the final interpreter of the acts of congress? 8. Mention all the sources of state revenue. Name the items of expenditure. 9. Describe the different ways in which a bill may be- come a law. PHYSICS 1. Name and define five properties of matter. 2. What is the difference between inertia and momen- tum? Between mass and weight? 3. Draw and ex- plain the siphon. 4. Draw and explain the still. 5. Define sound, music, refraction, critical angle, work, EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 365 and focal length of a convex lens. 6. Describe how you test for two kinds of electrification. 7. How does the dynamo produce an electrical current? 8. Give the theory of heat. 9. Describe with a diagram, the microscope. 10. How may it be shown that air has weight? That it has elasticity? That it has compressibility? THEORY AND PRACTICE OF TEACHING 1. Define consciousness, memory, imagination, per- cept, concept, and sense-perception. What psychical elements are involved in sense-perception? 2. What would be the condition of the man with only presenta- tive and representative powers? Distinguish between corporal and psychical feelings and state what is in- cluded in each. 3. Define and distinguish between intellectual power and skill. Distinguish clearly be- tween science and art in teaching. How do you com- ply with the law in reference to scientific temper- ance instruction? 4. What do you understand by the term "common sense didactics"? Define good dis- cipline and state some of the ways by which it may be secured. What is the relation between interest and attention? 5. State the most essential factors in the school and then the most essential elements with- in the factors stated. Define habit and state how they (sic) may be cultivated and controlled. VI TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE 1. In learning to ride a bicycle, would it be well for a boy to practise each elementary process for several weeks before he should attempt to execute the complex act? Will he make greater progress if he endeavors to ride from the beginning? S66 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 2. In learning to whistle, would it be advisable for a child to master the elements of the act before trying the act itself? Why? 3. Discuss the following: "In order that one may think clearly and effectively, he must have such command of the means of expression that he can employ them without con- scious effort." Does the child's thinking power grow parallel with his acquisition of the instruments of expression so that they can be used automatically? 4. If the principle presented in Exercise 3 be a sound one, show how it applies to the mastery of the native tongue in its spoken form. Is the sequence in one's thought apt to be broken when he can not easily find words in which to express himself? Why? 5. State in exact detail the processes in consciousness when a child is striving to express a thought, but he can not remem- ber the appropriate words therefor, nor can he portray the thought through gesture. 6. If you are an American, and have studied a foreign lan- guage, say whether you can think clearly and effectively when you attempt to express yourself in the foreign tongue. De- scribe your experience in detail. 7. Would it be of assistance to a pupil in learning to spell to write words always very slowly and carefully, pronouncing each letter while writing it? Why? 8. Would it be of advantage to a pupil in learning to spell to analyze each word phonically before writing it? 9. Would it be a good method in teaching spelling to re- quire pupils to write all their words with proper diacritical markings ? 10. What method would you advocate in the study of a spelling lesson by a class of twenty pupils in order to make the strongest appeal to different types of imagery? 11. Will it assist a pupil in learning to speak a foreign EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 367 tongue to write out all the words he uses, keeping his speak- ing and writing ability parallel ? 12. Suppose a pupil is required to learn a selection to be recited before the school. Should he devote most of the time at his disposal to writing it? Why? 13. If a pupil were preparing himself for a position as book- keeper in a grocery store where he would need constantly to perform multiplication processes, would it be most advanta- geous for him constantly to recite the multiplication tables orally in school? Why? What place should so-called "mental arithmetic" have in his preparatory training? 14. Do you now write the same style of hand that you were taught when you were a pupil in the elementary school? If not, what led you to change? 15. Which should be emphasized at the outset of a child's learning handwriting, — neatness and technical accuracy, or speed and automatic execution? Can neatness and speed be secured at the same time? 16. Should a left-handed pupil be made to use his right hand when writing? Why? 17. Are our neatest writers our clearest and most original thinkers? Give definite, concrete instances to illustrate your answer. 18. Is there any correlation between the quality of the hand- writing and the mental attainments of pupils in the elemen- tary school? In the high school? Nothing but concrete evi- dence will be acceptable in answer to this question. 19. Do you think a child would master the technique in a subject like penmanship if the teacher paid little attention to the matter? Would he acquire it as he acquires the mother tongue, — ^by imitation? 20. Comment on the following lesson in writing: "Copy- books, pens, and ink were distributed. The teacher then began to count. At one the pupils opened their copy-books; two 36S EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS picked up their pens ; three dipped them in the ink. Then the teacher began again to count one, two, etc., and each pupil wrote one letter for each count." 21. Comment on this examination in orthography: 1. Define censor, accumulate, decease, gentian, feud. 2. Mark so as to show proper pronunciation: Force, usage, apricot, cyclone, auricle, route, lose, deference, calendar, and fairy. 3. Define sufKx and give two or more rules for the use of suffixes. 4. What is a word? What is the science of words? 5. When would you have the pupils learn correct pronunciation? How teach it to them? How teach pupils to break up the habit of pronouncing a word wrong ? 6-10. Spell : Gauge, cymbal, acquaint, helm, irrevocable, disguised, perse- vere, suburb, ensuing, onyx, laboratory, besiege, essentials, in- tuitive, encore, semester, vitiate, piracy, transact, spinach, lyceum, rivalry, prejudice, rhythm, irrelevant 22. Comment on the practice in vogue in some schools of giving all pupils written examinations in music. 23. Should girls taking sewing in grades below the high school be required to draft patterns of ever3^hing they make before they begin the actual making of a garment? Discuss the principle involved. 24. What can be said for the plan of requiring children be- low the fifth grade to make raffia baskets? 25. In a certain school, sewing was begun for the girls in the fourth grade. Each girl was required during that year to complete a canvas bag, upon which was worked in color all the various stitches that are ever used in sewing. No other sewing was done in school during the year, and the satisfac- tory completion of the bag was made a requirement for pro- motion. Comment on the value of this work. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 369 VII TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE — Concluded 1. Comment on the following: "I like to see a person in- terpret music in his own way. But when we consider group performance in music, it is a different matter. The counting plan for evaluation of punctuation might be very helpful or even necessary in unison reading." 2. If you have studied instrumental music, say whether you think your skill in execution is proportionate to the time you have spent in practice. Compare what you have gained in music with what you have acquired in other subjects upon which you have spent an equal amount of time. If you have not studied music yourself, then get data relating to the above questions by observing or questioning some one who has. 3. What psychological and educational significance is to be attached to the oft-heard phrases, — "I can not play for you be- cause I forgot my notes," or "because I am out of practice," and so on? 4. Gather reliable data bearing on this problem: Did the greatest musicians, such as Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, and oth- ers, start in their career by giving attention to the technique of music first, or did they at the outset try to express their musical feeling, and later perfect their technique as it was re- quired to express their feelings and conceptions the more truly and adequately? 5. It is said by persons who ought to know that the pupils trained in American schools have little interest or ability in vocal music. If this be true, what is the explanation? 6. When a pupil is beginning to learn penmanship, would it be wise to require him at the outset to write a sentence as a whole, because it is the "unit of thought"? Why? 7. When a student is beginning the study of German, would it be well to require him at the outset to pronounce three-syl- 370 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS lable words say? Why? How should one begin in teaching a novice to render correctly elementary sounds in German words? 8. Describe your experience in the study of drawing in the elementary school, mentioning the amount of time you spent in this work, the method you followed, and your present abil- ity in this direction. Do the results in your case justify the method employed? 9. Discuss this proposition: "One can draw or paint any- thing which he can clearly perceive." 10. Which would you insist upon at the outset in teaching a child to draw, — accuracy and neatness in executing lines, or a portrayal — rough and crude and imperfect, probably — of the essential visual characteristics of objects? 11. Would you encourage a novice in drawing to proceed slowly and painstakingly with elementary processes in repre- senting an object, or to work rapidly with the thing as a whole, seeking to portray only its principal phases, and not stopping to make the elements technically accurate? 12. What topics or processes in the following studies should be taught with a view to making them automatic: (a) geog- raphy; (b) history; (c) psychology; (d) physics; (e) man- ual training; (f) rhetoric; (g) German. 13. Should any or all of the propositions or theorems in geometry be taught so that the demonstrations can be given automatically? Why? 14. Should ethics be taught with a view primarily to de- velop habits of action, or with a view to inculcate right rea- soning on ethical questions? 15. Discuss the following proposition with reference, first, to the facts in the case, and then with reference to the educa- tional principle involved: "Most of us understand ethical con- duct much better than we practise it." 16. Which of the common-school studies are predominantly EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 371 technical or formal? Which of the high-school studies are of this character? 17. How early should a pupil who has been taught to read by the word or the sentence method, be able to give all the letters of the alphabet in their proper order? 18. Respond to the following query, asked by a high-school principal: "In commercial arithmetic in the high school, I have found it almost impossible in, say, 50% to 60% of the cases to teach pupils a nev/ and shorter method of doing an old problem. They can not learn to use the 60-day method in interest, and seem bound to find 162-3% of a number by cal- culating first 1% and then multiplying that by 162-3. What is the trouble?" 19. Ccm.ment on the f ollovv'ing state examination in music : 1. Name one idea that should be developed in each of the first four years of teaching music in the public schools. De- scribe briefly how you develop one of these. 2. What is your method of bringing up a child that is backward in music? One who is careless and yet can learn music easily? 3. Write the ascending scale of D minor in Harmonic and Melodic form. 4. Name four of the masters in music and tell of what nation each was a native. Name four authors of vocal music and name a selection of each. 5. Explain each figure of the meter signature fully as to a class. 6. Write the relative and abso- lute pitch names in the key of D. 7. What are bars ? A time signature? Triple time? A tie? Accent? A chord? 8. How m.uch individual singing do you have your pupils do? Why? 9. What is meant by the science of music? The art of music? By musical idea? 10. What is the cause of fault}"- intonation? How correct it? W'hat are monotones? How remedied? 372 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS VIII TEACHING THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION 1. Give three examples of dictionary definitions o£ words which would be fully intelligible to a novice, and which are true and adequate definitions of the words in question. 2. Give three examples of dictionary definitions of words which would be unintelligible to a pupil, say in the sixth grade. 3. Give in concrete detail an explanation made by a teacher of a point in any study not understood by a pupil, which ex- planation explained fully, clearly, and impressively. Also give an example of an explanation, so-called, which had a con- trary result. 4. Write out, without consulting a dictionary, what you think of when you hear the word "goodness". Trace the steps by which this word has come to have its present significance for you. 5. Write out in detail how you would make the following words intelligible to a pupil in the eighth grade: (a) generos- ity; (b) evolution; (c) overture; (d) specific gravity; (e) tariff; (f) Romanesque. 6. Write out a list of words, the meanings of which you feel you know, but yet which you can not state to your satis- faction. Explain the fact that you can not define what you believe you understand. 7. Would you employ the dictionary in schools for certain purposes earlier than for the learning of definitions? If so, for what? 8. Is the ability correctly to define a word wholly inde- pendent of an appreciation of its meaning? 9. Comment on the ease with which a boy of twelve will learn such new words as "chauffeur", "ignition", "cyclometer", "cylinder", "magneto", "carbureter", and many other long and seemingly difficult words, while he has difficulty with "nomi- EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 373 native", "subjunctive", "multiplicand", "integer", and the like. 10. Do children who live in the country, with but few com- panions, use language as a means of expression as readily and effectively as children who live in the city, and who have many playmates? Give concrete evidence. Avoid a merely conven- tional answer. 11. Among the adults you know, do those who lived in the country until they reached maturity use language as fluently and effectively as those who have lived in the city since their birth? What is the principle involved? 12. Suggest feasible methods of leading children in the ele- mentary school to talk readily and to the point. Suggest methods also to be used with high-school students. 13. Do you enjoy expressing yourself through writing? Do your companions? Comment on the facts as you find them. 14. Discuss the following creed of a well-known teacher: "I believe it is my mission as a teacher to get my pupils to accept and to use the highest standards of English, and to prevent them from using the inelegant and crude vulgarisms of the hour." 15. What has been the attitude of your teachers in the ele- mentary and in the high school with reference to confining your reading to "standard" literature? Would you let a child under your control read a biography of Buffalo Bill, or the History of the Dalton Gang, and the like? Give reasons for your answer. 16. Speaking of conventionality in the use of language, do linguistic scholars agree on the spelling and the pronunciation of all familiar words? Do they agree on spelling reform? Would they all approve such an expression as "It is me"? Do they agree on the use of the cleft infinitive? 17. Discuss the practice of having children learn long pas- sages from the Bible, the meaning of which is beyond their grasp, in the belief that in later life the meaning will become clear. 374 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 18. Give a list of ten words or phrases, not mentioned in the text, which are thought by some people to be in accord with the best standards, while others regard them as slang. Give your own opinion regarding their respectability. 19. Why do college students use slang as readily and copi- ously as they do in all parts of our country? If you could have your way, would you suppress college slang? Why? 20. Would you permit pupils in the elementary or the high school to use the language of the street in the class-room? Why? 21. Are the students who make the best records in the reg- ular work of the school or the college the most ready to in- vent and to employ slang phrases? Or is it the other way 'round? Get precise data on this point, 22. Do city children use more slang than country children? Why? What is the case with regard to adults? 23. According to your observation, can the graduates of the elementary or the high school speak freely and to the point when they are placed in public situations? Are those who have been in school for many years freer and more effective in their public speaking than those who have not had much schooling? 24. Is it possible that the dread of "speaking pieces" before the school may give a pupil such a distaste for similar activi- ties that he never can become an efficient public speaker? 25. Might the dramatizing of favorite stories be made a satisfactory substitute for individual recitation? What is the value of having debates on live questions in which the children are interested, and on which they are informed? 26. Does the insistence of teachers of English composition upon "Purity, Propriety, and Precision" in words have a tend- ency to develop clearness in thinking, or does it tend to inhibit somewhat the thinking process, and stifle originality? Give concrete evidence illustrating the principle. 27. Are "memory gems" as learned by children in school EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 375 of any real worth? Discuss the plan oF having children learn a large amount of poetry and prose of classic value for the purpose of enlarging the vocabulary, and also for the pur- pose of giving a feeling for melody and rhythm in language. 28. Which method of memorizing do pupils habitually fol- low, the "whole" or the "part" method? What implications are contained in your answer? 29. How would you meet the need that exists in every school of having definite instruction and practice in the proper and effective use of the voice ? 30. Comment on the rule insisted upon by many teachers, that in recitation each pupil must answer every question in complete sentences. 31. Do children in grades below the high school take any account of style in prose writing? Are they interested mainly in the form or in the content of what they read? How may a taste for good style be developed? 32. Comment on the following testimony from an elderly man : "When I was a boy back East, we read and analyzed every sentence in Book One of Paradise Lost. Nothing ever did me so much good !" ZZ. Justify if possible the placing of Burke's Speech on Conciliation or Emerson's Essay on Self-Reliance in the list of required readings for college entrance. 34. Comment on the following examination in grammar from the standpoint of its putting emphasis on efficiency in expression : 1. Explain the difference between the etymology and the syntax of words. 2. Are infinitives and participles classified as parts of speech? 3. What is your opinion of how the in- finitive and participle should be classified? 4. Show by an outline that you understand the classification of the adjective. 5. Show by sentences the difference in modification of adjec- tives and adverbs. 6. Show the value of analysis and syn- thesis in the study of grammar. 7. Write a simple sentence. 376 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS A complex sentence. A compound sentence. 8. Make a list of twenty propositions. 9. Write the following words in sentences (first, as nouns; second, as adjectives; third, as verbs) : Stone, block, and hurt. 10. Analyze or diagram: It is worth the effort to be honest. 35. Comment on this state examination set for a teacher's certificate : READING 1. Name two or more good systems of teaching reading to beginners. Which do you use? 2. What can you tell about the proposed constitutional convention? What are some of the reasons for holding it? 3. Why are these persons so prominent in the news of the day: Woodrow Wilson? La Follette? Ella Wheeler Wilcox? Judson Harmon? Madero? The present Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court? 4. What is the earliest historical event that occurred in your county of which you have authentic information? The earliest event in the history of our state? 5. Give your plans for overcoming the fault of mere word calling by a pupil in his oral reading. 6. When was your county settled? By whom? What is its area? Its population? What are its leading pro- ductions ? IX TENDENCIES OF NOVICES IN TEACHING 1. As you look back over your school work, what seem to you to be the chief defects therein? How would you modify your school course if you were going over it again? 2. What sort of teachers have left the most lasting and the best impression upon you, — those who were just beginning their professional work, or those who were practised in the business. 3. Mention some good qualities in novices which they are EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 377 likely to lose as they become familiar with their work, unless they keep constantly on their guard. 4. Have you known a novice in teaching who had prominent faults in the beginning of his career, but who outgrew them as he gained experience? Did he discover his shortcomings without criticism or suggestion by others? 5. Are there "born teachers" ? Are they the same as "teach- ers by the grace of God"? Describe such teachers, showing how they differ from those who have been "made" by special training. 6. Look up the record of three of the strongest teachers you know now, or have known at any time. Were they spe- cially trained for their work? What characteristics made them strong and capable? 7. If you could control the certification of teachers, what would you require for a certificate entitling the holder to teach in a rural school? In a city elementary school? In a city high school? In a township high school? 8. Comment on the following: "I like the emphasis placed on other than verbal criteria of the reactions of pupils, but I think it may be overdone. While I may be able to tell un- mistakably by visual evidence whether I have the attention of a class, I have no assurance that they are getting points in their proper perspective, or that they are getting the proper points at all^ or that they are getting any points if the discus- sion be abstract or otherwise difficult. I have often followed a discussion so closely that I have missed its organization and progression. I always get the most when occasionally I with- draw my attention for brief intervals from the speaker, or pause in my reading a minute for reaction." ^ 9. What factors or conditions may cause a teacher to be timid and halting before his class? In your answer, take ac- count of the teacher's health, etc., as well as the character and attitudes of his pupils. 10. Describe a so-called "egotistic" teacher. What influ- 378 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS ence will such a person have on a typical group of pupils? Be concrete and specific in your answer. 11. Describe a "sarcastic" teacher. Give a specimen of harmful sarcasm in a school-room, indicating all the circum- stances of the case. Do you know of instances in which sar- casm in the school-room has proved of service? 12. Do you think the following point is important: "It seems to me there is one very common failing in young teach- ers especially. It is a lack of frankness toward superiors re- garding difficulties in discipline or actual teaching. They seem to feel that a confession of needs is a confession of weakness, and likely to injure their standing. This is a very dangerous condition of affairs in small schools where adequate supervision is impossible, and in larger ones where the high school has a teaching principal and a superintendent who de- votes most of his attention to the grades. Consequently things often come to a 'pretty pass' before the superior finds out the conditions. I have some specific cases in mind which, in my own experience, have driven in this point hard."' 13. Is it a wise use of time in class for the teacher to take one-fourth or one-half of the period for the purpose of care- fully assigning the next lesson, and indicating at the same time the best way to prepare it? Comment on this sort of an assignment given hurriedly after the closing bell has sounded : "Take the next three pages." 14. Is the following case a typical one : "It was reported of a certain teacher that she conducted a very orderly school. 'Her pupils maintain such good positions; the boys never have their hands in their pockets; the girls never put their elbows on the desk,' the people said. Upon visiting the class, the report was found to be true, but it was also discovered that the teacher had made an absolute rule requiring upright positions, both feet on the floor, hands on the desk, all the time. If one of the pupils became tired or changed his posi- tion, he was immediately called to order. Thus, in an intensely EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 379 interesting discussion, for the teacher was very strong in her subject, a bright boy^ disagreeing with what another pupil had said, turned about in his seat to face the class, ran his fingers through his hair, while his face showed his desire to express his idea on the subject. Quick as a flash came the teacher's reproof for his position, which the boy immediately corrected; but all his enthusiasm was gone. Embarrassed by the reproof, and the attention it had gained him from the class, he was unable to find words to express the idea he had in mind, and sat down with a sense of having failed." 15. Comment on the following testimony from an experi- enced and successful teacher of English : "When I began to teach composition, I tried to teach six rules of punctuation in one day to a freshman class in high school. Now I spend two days preparing for one rule, and on the third, I let the class frame it from the experience they have had working with sentences on the two previous days." 16. What common faults in inexperienced teachers do the following incidents illustrate? (a) A teacher of a second-year high-school class studying Wordsworth's poems gave one recitation period of forty min- utes to a discussion evidently derived from college lecture notes on the difference betwen Romanticism and Classicism. She illustrated her remarks by passages from Pope and Wordsworth. (b) In a high-school freshman class in English studying Irving's Christmas Eve, a period of forty minutes was spent in questions and answers on the traits in the character of Mr. Bracebridge. The teacher merely asked questions based on the text, and the children found the answers in the text. 17. Comment on the following assignment for a seventh- grade geography class : "Starting at the mouth of the Missis- sippi river, look up all the cities located on this river, and find out all the interesting things about each one either in the text- book or the cyclopaedia. Be able to sketch on the board an 38o EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS outline map of the United States, showing the location of this river and these cities." 18. In the Teachers' College Record (Teachers' College, Columbia University) for September, 1910, is a stenographic report of a lesson in high-school English. The report is said to be an exact reproduction of the questions asked by the teacher, and his remarks, and the answers given by the pupils. Com- ment on (a) the character of the questions and the teacher's re- marks as to their content and their form, and (b) on the re- sponses from pupils. (Only the first half of the lesson is here given.) Teacher. Before we begin to talk about modern ballads, let's see what you got from your first impression of the old ballads last time. In the first place, give four or five subjects that the old ballad writers were especially interested iiL Pupil. Fighting, principally, and some romance. T. What do you mean by romance? P. Romance — that is all. T. People meant different things — fighting, or love— do you mean lovef P. No, fighting— romance. (Teacher writes on board "ro- mance".) That is about all I know, in the first— old ballads : oh, yes, one gruesome one, about c — . T. Corbies? P. Yes. T. Horror, perhaps. P. Yes. T. (Names special pupil). P. It only happened once, — lovers separated and met again. T. Yes. (Writes "Fighting, Tales of Horror, Shipwreck, Parted Lovers.") Is that a fair list? I should think so. Let us see about the spirit in which they were written, that is, the kind of qualities the people in those ballads showed, and the kind of qualities in human nature people of that day liked. P. I think bravery. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 381 T. (Writing "bravery".) Anything else? P. A hero and a villain. T. Hero and villain ; in other words you take sides ? P. Yes. T. What other qualities besides bravery? P. Treachery, of the kind in the ballad of Johnnie Arm- strong. T. Yes, and the hero shows what quality? P. He believes in the king even when he is summoned be- fore him. T. Good faith on one side, and treachery on, the other. Anything else? P. Honor. T. Honor, yes. (Writes "honor".) P. A great deal of honor among themselves. T. Loyalty to each other; and as regards their enemies, what? P. They used to fight for fun, and they had certain rules ; they were not really angry, they had to keep certain rules. T. In other words? P. They couldn't do just as they wanted to. T. There were rules of honor even toward your enemy, a sort of amateur spirit. P. Courtesy to their enemies. T. Courtesy, — and perhaps we might say this includes being true to the rules. Could we say anything about the style in which these poems were written, kind of language, and kind of verse form? P. Could be put to music. T. Easy to sing, for one thing? P. Yes. T. Complicated tunes, or simple? P. Simple. T. How about the words, the English? P. Old English and Scotch. 382 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS T. Old English and Scotch; easy or hard to understand? P. After you have read two or three, I don't think it is hard. T. If you had been an old Scotchman of those times, should you say they were written in hard or easy language? P. Simple, — quaint. T. Simple and quaint — old-fashioned. Let us turn to the ballads you had for to-day; see how they compare with these old ones. The first one, Lord Ullin's Daughter — as regards the subject matter, is it the kind of story you think would appeal to ancient writers? P. It seems so; this one was about an elopement, they seem to write that kind of story. T. Anything else? P. Shipwreck. T. Do you think the old ballad writers would have been satisfied with the way the story came out? P. I don't think so; they liked to see their side win; the lovers won in this case, but were drowned; I don't think they would have liked it that way. T. If they are going to get away from the father, they ought to get away clear. I think that is true ; things end sim- ply in the old ballads, it is an out-and-out tragedy or a happy ending. P. They had some death, like Johnnie Armstrong, where the hero was killed. T. How was he killed? P. By treachery. T. Was there any here? P. No. T. Were they killed through anybody's fault, or by acci- dent? P. By accident. T. How is it in the old ballads? P. In the first stories they were not,— a shipwreck. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 383 T. But in most cases it is a matter of somebody's treachery. In Sir Patrick Spence who gets drowned? P. The Scotch nobles. T. There it is the lords and all those other fine noblemen. As far as the style goes in Lord UUin's Daughter, should you say that the story goes rapidly, as rapidly as possible, or should you say that if an old ballad singer were telling the story, there is something that could be left out? P. I think so. T. Can you see any group of verses that could be left out without breaking the story up? P. I think where it described the boat (reads) : — "The boat has left a stormy land, A stormy sea before her — When, oh ! too strong for human hand, The tempest gather'd o'er her." Those descriptions could be left out; and (reads) : — "For sore dismay'd, through storm and shade, His child he did discover : — One lovely hand she stretch'd for aid, And one was round her lover." T. You think the picture of how she looked in the boat does not count? P. I like it, but It could have been left out. T. The old ballad singers would have left out that part. Are there things in the earlier part of the poem that could be left out if you just wanted the story? P. The first verse. T. Better if they got started at once, perhaps. Miss Weiss? 384 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS P. The third verse : — "And fast before her father's men Three days we've fled together, For should he find us in the glen, My blood would stain the heather." He says right after that that the horses are right behind him, so he could have left that out. T. He spends too much time in talking to the boatman, that is true. P. The seventh verse: — "By this the storm grew loud apace. The water-wraith was shrieking; And in the scowl of Heaven each face Grew dark as they were speaking." T. You can't help wondering why they didn't get in the boat, and stop talking. The old ballad writers pared it all down to nothing but the story. Turn to the next one,-^Lady Clare; would that have pleased the old ballad writers? P. I think it would have. It is just the kind of love story they liked, — it all turned out well. T. Turns out well in the end; and in it the lovers show what kind of quahties? P. Faithful. T. You like that? P. Yes. T. The sort of things anybody would like, all the admirable qualities of a good love story. I wonder if any one noticed the language of this poem, anything that would show that Tennyson was trying to imitate the language of the old bal- lads? P. "I trow they did not part in scorn." EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 385 T. "I trow" — that sounds old-fashioned. Anything else? P. The way he brings in the nurse : — "In there came old Alice the nurse, Said, 'Who was this that went from thee ?' *It was my cousin,' said Lady Clare ; *To-morrow he weds with me.' " and "thee" and "thou." T. How about the word "Said"; has that any subject? P. "Alice the nurse" is subject of both came and said. T. Yes : anything else ? P. The last of that verse, "To-morrow he weds with me." T. That sounds old-fashioned; anything else? P. Some of the repetition. T. What line? P. "Are ye out of your mind, my nurse, my nurse?" T. And "Yet here's a kiss for my mother dear, My mother dear, if this be so," sounds like the kind of repetition a man would make on a guitar, or something like that. " Tlay me no tricks,' said Lord Ronald, 'For I am yours in word and in deed. Play me no tricks,' said Lord Ronald, *Your riddle is hard to read.' " It comes again and again. When you come to Lucy Gray, a poem which was very famous, and which is, perhaps, a little hard to get the real spirit of at first; did any one feel espe- cially attracted by that? Miss Graves? What did you like about it? (The lesson was continued for about twenty minutes longer.) ^S6 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS X THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 1. Discuss the following: "Girls who graduate from col- lege and from the high school have, as a rule, little interest in home-making." Is there any direct reHable evidence bearing on this problem? 2. What subjects ordinarily taught in the high school are, when pursued with understanding, of marked service to a girl who is required to manage a home. Show just how these studies may be of service to her. 3. Write out a statement showing what "making a home" really means, or ought to mean. 4. Should a girl while in the elementary school pursue studies different from those pursued by the boys? Why? Dis- cuss this same question in respect to the work of the high school. 5. Point out the advantages and the disadvantages of co- education in (a) the elementary school; (b) the high school; (c) the college. 6. Would it be desirable in an ungraded rural school to attempt to give the girls a somewhat different training from the boys? Why? 7. Should the elementary school endeavor to prepare a girl for other duties and responsibilities than those involved in making a home? Be specific. What should the high school do in respect to this matter? 8. Show in what particular the "highly educated" women in the community in which you live are better adapted to their environments, physical and social, than those who are not so highly trained. Are the former more contented with their lot than the latter? Are they of greater service to the people of th community? 9. What seem to you to be the effects upon the health of EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 387 women of high-school and college education? Exact data are needed here, if you can find them. 10. Do you think a girl should pursue any study simply be- cause of the mental discipline she may get from it? Is it any different with a boy? 11. Show how some or all of the following studies may be made directly applicable to the special needs of girls : Latin ; botany ; chemistry ; physics ; rhetoric ; civics ; geometry ; Eng- lish literature ; French ; bookkeeping ; typewriting. 12. Is drawing a valuable study for every girl, even though she may have no particular talent in this direction, or may never produce anything of value in this line outside of school? 13. According to your observation, are girls who study do- mestic science in the high school more helpful at home than those who do not study it? Do they grow to like house-work on account of this training? 14. Has the introduction of domestic science in the schools helped to solve the servant-girl problem? Has it raised the social status of those who do housework? 15. Discuss the plan of having a course in millinery given in every high school in connection with work in sewing. 16. Ought there to be specially prepared text-books for girls in such subjects as chemistry, physiology, and physics? 17. Comment on the following. (Tyler, Growth and Edu- cation, p. 172.) "The teachers in our women's colleges are learned, intelligent, very highly cultured, and ambitious. They have been eager to prove that the average woman has more intellectual ability than any man. This question any man of any experience will unhesitatingly and emphatically answer in the affirmative, without the evidence of a ^college diploma or degree of Ph. D." 18. In certain government schools for Indians, sewing-ma- chines are but little used, improved laundry apparatus is em- ployed for only a part of the washing, and cooking is done on old-fashioned wood-stoves instead of up-to-date ranges. Is 388 EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS this condition, a result of lack of funds In some cases, a very great disadvantage to the pupils? 19. When a school man says that one of his primary aims in the teaching of household arts is the securing of direct vo- cational efficiency, is he in accord with contemporary educa- tional thought on this subject? 20. If you were in charge of a system of schools, would you hold public graduating exercises and grant diplomas at the completion of the eighth grade? Would you have gradu- ating exercises in the high school? If so describe any rules or regulations you would make for the control of excessive expenditures for dresses, etc. 21. How would you deal with the problem of dancing on the part of girls who are students in the grammar school or the high school? Would you limit the number of "parties" a girl might attend during the school year? Why? How? REFERENCES FOR READING REFERENCES FOR READING In selecting the following lists of references for further reading, the needs of the practical teacher have been kept con- stantly in mind. It has been the aim to suggest helpful books and articles which are easily accessible, and to this end consid- erable use has been made of the more important educational and psychological magazines and the Addresses and Proceed- ings of the National Education Association (previous to 1907 the National Educational Association), which are usually found in any general or professional library. In deciding upon any particular reference, the topics presented In the Ex- ercises and Problems were kept in mind especially, although it was the aim to suggest not less than three references relating to each principle discussed in the text. Inasmuch as this book does not attempt to consider questions of the curriculum or any phase of the history or philosophy of education, no refer- ence has been made to readings relating to these fields. Some of the references are designed wholly for those who have had no previous study of psychology or education, and they are in- dicated by (E), while others, denoted by (A), are more ad- vanced, and may be read to greatest advantage by those who are familiar with the elements of biology, psychology, and education. I GOOD ORDER ALDRICH: The Story of a Bad Boy (E). Boston (1892), Houghton Mifflin Co. ANGELL: Habit and Attention (A). In The Psychological Review, vols, iii, and v. i REFERENCES FOR READING BAGLEY: Class-room Management, chaps, iv, ix, x, xi, xii, (E). New York (1909), The Macmillan Co. BAGLEY: The Educative Process, chap, xxiii, (A). New York (1907), The Macmillan Co. BALDWIN: Mental Development,— Methods and Processes, chap. XV, (A). New York (1895), The Macmillan Co. BETTS: The Recitation, chaps, i, ii, iii, iv, v, (E). Boston (1910), Houghton Mifflin Co. BOLTON: Principles of Education, chaps, vii, xxvi, (A). New York (1910), Chas. Scribner's Sons. BRYAN: Nascent Stages and Their Pedagogical Signifi- cance (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vii. CHAMBERS: The Evolution of Ideals (E). In The Peda- gogical Seminary, vol. x. COOLEY : Human Nature and The Social Order, chaps, iii, xii, (A). New York (1910), Chas. Scribner's Sons. CROSWELL: Amusements of Worcester School Children (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vi. DE GARMO: Herbart and the Herbartians, chap, v, (E). New York (1895), The Macmillan Co. DE GARMO: Interest and Education, chap, viii, (A). New York (1906), The Macmillan Co. DEWEY: Interest as Related to the Will (A)'. Chicago (1889), National Herbart Soc. Year Book. FORBUSH : The Boy Problem, A Study in Social Pedagogy (E). Boston (1907), The Pilgrim Press. GROOS: The Play of Man, Part III, (E). New York (1906), The Macmillan Co. GUILLET: Recapitulation and Education (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vii. HALL and SMITH: Curiosity and Interest (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. x. HANCOCK: Work and Play (E). Educator, vol. xxv. HORNE: Psychological Principles of Education, chap, xxv, (E). New York (1906), The Macmillan Co. ii REFERENCES FOR READING JAMES: Talks to Teachers, etc., pp. 199-288, (E). New York (1906), H. Holt & Co. JOHNSON : An Educational Experiment (E). In The Ped- agogical Seminary, vol. vi. JOHNSON: Education by Plays and Games, chaps, i and ii, (E). Boston (1907), Ginn & Co. KIRKPATRICK : Fundamentals of Child Study, chap, xvli, (E). New York (1903), The Macmillan Co. KIRKPATRICK: Genetic Psychology, chap, v, (A). New York (1910), The Macmillan Co. LAING: An Inductive Study of Interest (E). Educational Review, vol. xvi. LOCKE: Some Thoughts Concerning Education (E). Lon- don (1892), Cambridge University Press. McDOUGAL: Interest and Development (E). In the Jour- nal of Pedagogy, vol. xv. M'LENNAN: Emotion, Desire, and Interest (A). In the Psychological Review, vol. ii. PUFFER: A Study of Boy Gangs (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol, vii, pp. 175-212. ROSS: Social Psychology, chap, ii, (A). New York (1909), The Macmillan Co. ROWE: Habit Formation and The Science of Teaching, chaps. V and vi, (A). New York (1909), Longmans, Green & Co. RUEDIGER: Principles of Education, chap, ii, (A). Bos- ton (1910), Houghton Mifflin Co. STEARNS: Children's Ideas of Right and Wrong (E). Archives of Psychology, No. 12, 1909. SULLY: Studies of Childhood (E). New York (1896), D. Appleton & Co. THORNDIKE: Principles of Teaching, chap, vii, (A). New York (1906), A. G. Seller. TRIPLETT: A Study of the Faults of Children (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. x. iii REFERENCES FOR READING TUCKER: Comparative Observation on the Involuntary Movements of Adults and Children (A). American Jour- nal of Psychology, vol. viii. TYLER: Growth and Education, chaps i-iii, and xiii, (A). Boston (1907), Houghton Mifflin Co. VANDEWALKER: The Culture Epoch Theory from an Anthropological Standpoint (A). In the Educational Re- view, vol. ii. WRIGHT: Some Effects of Incentives on Work and Fa- tigue (A). In the Psychological Review, vol. xiii. II DISCIPLINE ADLER: The Moral Instruction of Children (E). New York (1895), The International Education Series, D. Ap- pleton & Co. ALLEN: Civics and Health, Part II, (E). Boston (1909), Ginn & Co. ANDREWS: History as an Aid to Moral Culture (E). Na- tional Educational Association, 1894, pp. 397-409. ARISTOTLE: Politics. Translated, with an Analysis and Critical Notes, by J. E. C. Welldon, Book IV, chaps, xiv- xvii, and all of Book V, (A). New York (1897), The Macmillan Co. BALDWIN: Bashfulness in Children (E). In the Educa- tional Review, vol. viii, pp. 434-441. BALDWIN : Social and Ethical Interpretations, chap, ix, (A). New York (1895), The Macmillan Co. BARNES: Punishment as Seen by Children (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iii, October, 1895. BENDER: The Teacher at Work, pp. 176-213, (E). Chi- cago (1902), Ainsworth & Co. IV REFERENCES FOR READING BLAKE : Importance o£ Hearing Tests in the Public School (E). National Educational Association, 1903, pp. 1013- 1019. BOHANNON: The Only Child in the Family (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. v, p. 475. BREESE: On Inhibition (A). In the Psychological Review, vol, iii, and Monograph Supplement. BUCK: Boys' Self -Governing Clubs (E). New York (1903), The Macmillan Co. BURK: Teasing and Bullying (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iv. BURNHAM: Health Inspection in Schools (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vii, pp. 70-93. BURNHAM: Hygiene of Home Study (E). In The Peda- gogical Seminary, vol. xii, pp. 213-229. BURNHAM: Hygiene of the Nose (E). In The Pedagog- ical Seminary, vol. xv, pp. 155-168. CHANCELLOR: Education for Social Control (E). Add. and Proc. National Educational Association, 1901, pp. 619- 626. CURTIS: Inhibition (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vi, No. 1. DARRAH: Children's Attitude Toward Law (E). In Studies in Education, edited by Earl Barnes, vol. i, pp. 213-216, 254-258. DE GARMO: The Value of Literature in Moral Training (E). National Educational Association, 1894, pp. 388-397. DEWEY: Interest as Related to Will (A). Second Supple- ment to the Year Book for 1885 of the Herbart Society. DEXTER: The Child and the Weather (E). In The Ped- agogical Seminary, vol. v, pp. 512-522. FOREL: Nervous and Mental Hygiene, chaps, ix-xi, (A). New York (1907), G. P. Putnam's Sons. FREAR: Class Punishment (E). In Studies in Education, edited by Earl Barnes, vol. i, pp. 2iZ2-Z2)7. V REFERENCES FOR READING FREAR: Imitation; A Study Based on E. H. Russell's Child Observation (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iv. FREAR: What Children Imitate (E). In The Pedagog- ical Seminary, vol. iv. GREENWOOD: Eye Defects of Feeble-minded and Back- ward Children (E). National Educational Association, 1903, pp. 1023-1028. GUILLET: A Study in Interests (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xiv. GULICK: The Time to Quit Work (E). In The World's Work, August, 1907. HALL and SMITH: Showing Off and Bashfulness as Phases of Self-Consciousness (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. x. HUGHES: Harmony Between Control and Spontaneity (E). National Educational Association, 1892, pp. 187-198. JORDAN: Nature Study and Moral Culture (E). National Educational Association, 1896, pp. 130-141. KEITH : Elementary Education, Its Problems and Processes, chaps, vi and vii, (E). Chicago (1905), Scott, Foresman & Co. KIDD: Savage Childhood (E). London (1906), Adam and Charles Black. KIRKPATRICK: The Individual in the Making, chap, ii, (A). Boston (1911), Houghton, Mifflin Co. LINDSEY: Childhood and Morality (E). National Educa- tion Association, 1909, pp. 146-157. LINSLEY: All Crime is Disease (E). National Educational Association, 1905, pp. 914-920. LOCKE: Education, Sections xxix-Ixvi, (E). MARSHALL: Biological Lectures and Addresses, chap, xii, (A). London (1894), David Nutt. MORRISON: Juvenile Offenders (A). New York (1897), D. Appleton & Co. vl REFERENCES FOR READING MOSSO: Address at the Decennial Celebration of Clark University (A). Published in the Memorial Volume. MOSSO: Fatigue, Translated from the French by Mar- garet and W. B. Drummond, chaps, i-iv, vii-xii, (A). New York (1906), Putnam. MULFORD: The Throat of the Child (E). In the Educa- tional Review, vol. xiii, pp. 261-272. MUNROE: Child Study and School Discipline (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xvii. O'SHEA: The Right Physical Start in Education (E). In The World's Work, August, 1903. O'SHEA: When Character is Formed (E). In Popular Science Monthly, September, 1897. PLATO : The Republic, Books ii-v, Translated by Alexan- der Kerr, (E). Chicago (1902-1907), Charles H Kerr & Co. PYLE: Outlines of Educational Psychology, chaps, v-viii, (A). Baltimore (1911), Warwick & York. ROUSSEAU: Emile; or A Treatise on Education, Abridged, Translated and Annotated by Wm. H. Payne, (E). New York (1893), International Educational Series, D. Apple- ton & Co. ROWE: Habit Formation and The Science of Teaching, chaps, ix, X, and xii, (A). New York (1909), Longmans, Green & Co. SCOTT: Social Education' (E). Boston (1908), Ginn & Co. SEARS: Home and School Punishment (E). In The Ped- agogical Seminary, vol. vi, pp. 159-187. SIDIS: The Psychology of Suggestion, Part I, (A). New York (1898), D. Appleton & Co. SMALL: The Suggestibility of Children (E). In The Ped- agogical Seminary, vol. iv. SMITH: Arnold at Rugby (E). In the Educational Re- view, vol. iv, pp. 417-421. vu REFERENCES FOR READING SMITH: Obstinacy and Obedience (E). In The Pedagog- ical Seminary, vol. vii, pp. 27-54. SPENCER: Education, Intellectual, Moral, and Physical, chap, iii, (E). New York (1878), D. Appleton & Co. STREET: A Study in Moral Education (E). In The Ped- agogical Seminary, vol. v. TANNER : Relation of the Child's Development to his Con- trol (E). National Educational Association, 1905, pp. 734-740. TARDE: The Laws of Imitation, New York (1903), trans- lated from the second French edition by E. C. Parsons, chap, ii, (A). TERMAN: Pathology of School Discipline. In the New England Magazine, vol. xli, p. 479. THOMPSON: Efifect of Moral Training upon Civic Life (E). National Educational Association, 1906, pp. 42-48. Ill FAIR PLAY IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM AMICIS : The Heart of a Boy, Translated by G. Mantellini, (E). Chicago (1899), Laird & Lee. BALDWIN: Social and Ethical Interpretation, chap, x, (A). BARNES: The Child as a Social Factor (E). In Studies in Education, edited by Earl Barnes, vol. i. BARNES: Children's Ideals (E). In The Pedagogical Semi- nary, vol. vii, April, 1900. BOHANNON: A Study of Peculiar and Exceptional Chil- dren (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iv. BONSER: Chums; A Study in Youthfuf Friendships (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. x. BRYAN: Economic Interpretation of History (E). Na- tional Educational Association, 1899, pp. 186-196. CRAMPTON: Anatomical or Physiological Age (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol, xv. REFERENCES FOR READING DEWEY: The School as a Social Center (E). National Ed- ucational Association, 1902, p. 2)72). FORBUSH: Social Pedagogy of Boyhood (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vii, pp. 307-345. GESELL: Jealousy (A). In the American Journal of Psy- chology, vol. xvii. GRAHAM: The Golden Age (E). New York (1898), John Lane. HARRIS: Rank and File in Our Public Schools (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xvi, pp. 305-313. HOWERTH: Education and the Social Ideal (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxiv, pp. 150-165. HUGHES: Twentieth Century Schools (E). National Ed- ucational Association, 1897, pp. 162-169. KENNEDY: Individual Instruction in the Public School (E). In the Journal of Pedagogy, vol. xiv. LILLIE: A Plea for the Inconspicuous Child (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. iv, pp. 347-353. LOTI: The Story of a Child (E). Translated from the French by Caroline F. Smith. Boston (1902), Birchard & Co. MONROE: Editor, Cyclopedia of Education; Exceptional Children, vol. ii, p. 540, (E). New York (1911), The Macmillan Co. PARKER: Finding the Individual (E). In the Journal of Pedagogy, vol. xix. PESTALOZZI: Leonard and Gertrude, Translated by Eva Channing, (E). Boston (1907), D. C. Heath & Co. ROSS: Social Control, chaps, iii, iv, and xiv, (A). New York (1910), The Macmillan Co. RUSSELL: Exceptional Children in School (E). In the Educational Review, vol. ii. SADLER: Moral Instruction and Training in Schools (E). Introduction. London (1908), Longmans, Green & Co. IX REFERENCES FOR READING SCHALLENBERGER: A Study of Children's Rights as Seen by Themselves (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iii. SHELDON: Student Life and Customs (E). New York (1901), D. Appleton & Co. SISSON : The High School's Cure of Souls (E). In the Ed- ucational Review, vol. xxxv, pp. 359-372. 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DE GARMO : Principles of Secondary Education, chap, i, (A). New York (1907), The Macmillan Co. DEWEY: Science as Subject Matter and as Method (A). In Science, Jan. 28, 1910, pp. 121-127. DEWEY : The Psychological and the Logical in Teaching Geometry (A). In the Educational Review, April, 1903, pp. 387-399. EARHART: Teaching Children to Study, chap, ii, (A). Boston (1909), Houghton Mifflin Co. ELLIOT: A Type of Positive Educational Reform. In the Educational Review, vol. xxxiii, p. 344. HALL: English, Latin, and Algebra (A). In The Pedagog- ical Seminary, vol. ix, pp. 92-105. HALL: The High School as the People's College (E). Na- tional Educational Association, 1902, pp. 260-268. HANCOCK: Children's Ability to Reason (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xii. xi REFERENCES FOR READING HANUS: Educational Aims and Values, chap, i, (E). Bos- ton (1899), Houghton Mifflin Co. HODGE: Foundations of Nature Study (A). In The Ped- agogical Seminary, vol. vii, pp. 95-nO and 208-228. JACKMAN: The Relation of Arithmetic to Elementary Science (E). In the Educational Review, vol. v, pp. 35-51. JUDD: Genetic Psychology, chap, iv, (A). New York (1908), D. Appleton & Co. KIEHLE: Practical Application of all Learning to Better Living (E). National Educational Association, 1902, pp. 182-188. LANGE: Apperception, Part II, (A). Boston (1894), D. C. Heath & Co. LE CONTE: The Effect of the Theory of Evolution on Education (A). In the Educational Review, vol. x, pp. 121-136. LLOYD AND BIGELOW: The Teaching of Biology in the Secondary School (A). Chap. ii. New York (1904), Longmans, Green & Co. MANN : Science in Civilization and Science in Education (E). In the School Review, Nov., 1906, pp. 664-670. MAXWELL: Education for Efficiency (E). In Popular Science Monthly, vol. Ixvii, pp. 363-371. McMURRY: How to Study, chaps, i and ii, (E). Boston (1909), Houghton Mifflin Co. McMURRY: Improvement of the Study Period (E). Na- tional Educational Association, 1906, pp. 102-108. MILLER: Psychology of Thinking, chaps, ii, ix, and x, (A). New York (1909), The Macmillan Co. MYERS: Modernized Arithmetic (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. vi, pp. 91-101. O'SHEA: Education for Social Efficiency (E). In the American Journal of Sociology, vol. xi, p. 646. PARSONS: Aim of Productive Efficiency in Education (A). In the Educational Review, vol. xxx, p. 300. xii REFERENCES FOR READING PARSONS: Making Education Hit the Mark (E). In the Atlantic, vol. xcvii, p. 433. REDWAY: Influence of Environment on U. S. History (A). National Educational Association, 1898, pp. 139-149. REPORT of the Committee of Five : The Study of History in School (E). New York (1911), The Macmillan Co. RICE: A New Standpoint for the Selection of Elementary History Material (E). In the Elementary School Teach- er, vol. v, pp. 449-461. SARGENT: Competition and Culture (A). National Edu- cation Association, 1910, pp. 223-228. SMITH: The Teaching of Arithmetic (A). Teachers' Col- lege Record, Jan., 1909, pp. 1-100. SMITH: The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics (A). New York (1900), The Macmillan Co. SPENCER: Education, chap, i, (E). New York (1908), D. Appleton & Co. STOCKWELL: Development of Penmanship (A). Ar- chives of Psychology, No. 12, 1909. TERM AN: Commercialism, the Educational Bugbear (E). In the School Review, vol. xvii, pp. 193-195. WILSON: The Relation of the High School Course to the Student's Life (E). In the School Review, vol. xvi, pp. 469-474. WISSLER: Interests of Children in Reading in Elementary Schools (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. v, pp. 523-540. WOLFE: The Human Side of Geography (E). Add. and Proc. National Educational Association, 1903, pp. 143- 153. WOODBRIDGE: Pragmatism and Education (A). In the Educational Review, vol. xxxiv, pp. 227-240. YOUNG: The Teaching of Mathematics in the Elementary and the Secondary School (A). 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In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. ii. CABOT: An Experiment in the Teaching of Ethics (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxxiv, pp. 433-447. CARLETON: Education and Industrial Evolution, Part II, (E). CARPENTER: Commercial Geography: The New Science (E). National Educational Association, 1903, pp. 732-737. COOLEY : Adjustment of the School System to the Changed Conditions of the Twentieth Century (E). National Ed- ucation Association, 1909, pp. 404-410. COULTER : The Influence of the Teacher's Research Work upon his Teaching of Biology in Secondary Schools. In School Science and Mathematics, Feb., 1905, pp. 94-103. xiv REFERENCES FOR READING DARLING and SMITH : The Geography Course in the Chi- cago Normal School (E). In the Journal of Geography, Feb. and Mar., 1904, pp. 55-64 and 122-131. DEWEY: Psychological Aspect of the School Curriculum (A). In the Educational Review, vol. xiii, pp. 356-369. DOPP: The Relation of History and Industry (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iv, pp. 477-482. DOPP: Industries in Elementary Education (E). Chicago (1903), University of Chicago Press. DRAPER: Desirable Uniformity and Diversity in American Education (E). National Education Association, 1908, pp. 215-232. DUTTON : The Relation of Education to Vocation (E). In the Educational Reviezv, vol. xii, pp. 335-347. ELIOT: Educational Reform and the Social Order (E). In the School Reviezv, vol. xvii, pp. 217-222. FARNSWORTH: Education Through Music, chaps, ii-v, (A). New York (1909), Am. Book Co. FELMLEY: The Modern High-School Curriculum (E). National Educational Association, 1905, pp. 524-531. FINDLAY: Principles of Class Teaching, chap, vii, (A). London (1902), The Macmillan Co. GUYER: The Question of Method in Nature Study (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, March, 1905, pp. 86-92. HAILMAN: Organic Relation of Studies in Human De- velopment (A). National Educational Association, 1896, pp. 325-338. HALL: Physics and Manual Training (A). In The Peda- gogical Seminary, vol. ix, pp. 193-204. HALLECK: Why First- Year Pupils Leave High SchooJ (E). National Educational Association, 1905, pp. 436-443. HIRSCH: The Moral Aspect of Industrial Education (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxxv, pp. 449-454. HODGE: Nature Study and Life (E). Boston (1902), Ginn &Co. XV REFERENCES FOR READING HOLTZ: Nature Study (E). New York (1908), Charles Scribner's Sons. HOYT: Love of Nature as the Root of Science Teaching (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iii, pp. 61-86. JACKMAN: What Should be Emphasized in Teaching Bi- ology (E). In the School Review, Jan., 1904, pp. 60-62. MANN : Physics and Education (A). In Science, July, 1910. MANN: The Aims and Tendencies in Physics Teaching (E). In School Science and Mathematics, Dec, 1906, pp. 72Z-730. MANN: The New Movement Among Physics Teachers (E). In School Science and Mathematics, March, Nov., and Dec, 1906, pp. 198-202, 696-702, 787-794, April, 1907, pp. 328-334, June, 1908, pp. 522-525. McMURRY : Omissions Advisable in the Present Course of Study (E). National Educational Association, 1904, pp. 194-202. McMURRY: Special Method in Geography (E). New York (1903), The Macmillan Co. MEAD: Adjustment of Education to Contemporary Needs (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xix, pp. 472-480. MONROE: History of Education, chap, xiv, (A). New York (1901), The Macmillan Co. MUNROE: Secondary Schools and Vocation (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xvii, pp. 440-450. PAULSEN: Humanistic vs. Realistic Education (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxxiii, pp. 36-45. RICE: Futility of the Spelling Grind (E). In the Forum, vol. xxiii. SALISBURY: The Teaching of Geography: A Criticism and a Suggestion (E). In the Educational Bimonthly, June, 1909, pp. 2>S6-Z6Z. SCHMUCKER: The Study of Nature (E). Philadelphia (1908), The Lippincott Co. XVI REFERENCES FOR READING TABLETON: How to Increase Attendance of Boys at High School (E). National Educational Association, 1903, pp. 801-808. SUTHERLAND: The Teaching of Geography (E). Chi- cago (1909), Scott, Foresman & Co. TERRY: The New Movement in Physics Teaching (E). In the Educational Review, Jan. 1909, pp. 12-18. THOMPSON: The Neighborhood as a Starting Point in Education (E). National Educational Association, 1879, pp. 28-37. VAN SICKLE: Is the Curriculum Overcrowded? (E). Na- tional Educational Association, 1901, pp. 95-100. VINCENT: Social Science and the Curriculum (E). Na- tional Educational Association, 1901, pp. 124-131. WALKER: What Should be the Education of a Business Man (E). National Educational Association, 1905, pp. 674-678. WHITBECK: The Fundamental and the Incidental in Geog- raphy (E). In the Journal of Geography, February, 1906, pp. 66-7Z. WOODHULL: How the Public Will Solve Our Problems of Science Teaching (E). In School Science and Mathe- matics, March, 1909, pp. 267-280. WOODHULL: The Teaching of Physical Science (E). In the Teachers' College Record, Jan. 1910, pp. 1-82. YOUNG: How to Teach Parents to Discriminate Between Good and Bad Teaching (E). National Educational Asso- ciation, 1887, pp. 245-249. VI TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE BAIN: Development of Voluntary Control (A). In the Psychological Review, Sept., 1901. xvii REFERENCES FOR READING BARNES : The Art of Little Children (E)'. In The Peda- gogical Seminary, vol. iii. BROWN: Notes on Children's Drawings (E). University of California Studies, 1907. BURNHAM : The Psychology and Hygiene of Spelling (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xiii. CARMEN: The Cause of Bad Spelling (E). In the Jour- nal of Pedagogy, vol. xiii. CORNMAN : Spelling in the Elementary School (E). Bos- ton (1902), Ginn & Co. DEARBORN : Motor-Sensory Development (A). Baltimore (1910), Warwick and York. DEARBORN: The Psychology of Reading, chaps, iv-xiil, (A). New York (1907). DE GARMO: Relation of Industrial to General Education (A). In the School Review, vol. xvii, pp. 145-153. DOOLEY: Practical Education for Industrial Workers (A). In the Educational Review, vol. xxxviii, pp. 261-272. DOWNEY: Control Processes in Modified Handwriting (A). In the Psychological Review, vol. i, April, 1908. ELLISON: Acquisition of Technical Skill (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xvi, pp. 49-63. FINDLAY: Principles of Class Teaching, chap, xiii, (A). GESELL : Accuracy in Handwriting as Related to School In- telligence and Sex (A). In the American Journal of Psy- chology, vol. xvii. HANEY: Vocational Work for the Elementary School (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxxiv, pp. 335-346. HATCH: Technique in Elementary Manual Training (A). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. v, pp. 159-163. JACKMAN: Constructive Work in the Common Schools (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xvii, pp. 105-123. KIRKPATRICK: Development of Voluntary Movement (A). In the Psychological Review, voL vi. xviii REFERENCES FOR READING LAMPREY: Development of Children in Quickness of Per- ception and Movements (A). Studies in Development and Learning, Archives of Psychology, No. 12, 1909. LEE : The Boy Who Goes to Work (E). In the Ediicational Review, vol. xxxviii, pp. 325-343. LINDLEY: A Preliminary Study of Some of the Motor Phenomena of Mental Effort (A). In the American Jour- nal of Psychology, vol. vii. MARCH: The Spelling Reform (E). Bureau of Education, Washington, (1893). McAllister : Researches on Movements Used in Writing (A). Studies from Yale Psychological Laboratory, vol. viii, 1900. McANDREW: Industrial Education (E). In the Educa- tional Review, vol. xxxv, pp. 109-128. MONROE: Editor, Cyclopedia of Education; Apprenticeship and Education, vol. i, p. 149 ff, (E). O'SHEA: Children's Expression Through Drawing (E). National Educational Association, 1897. PATRICK : Should Children Under Ten Learn to Read and Write? (E). In the Popular Science Monthly, vol. liv. THORNDIKE: Handwriting (E). Teachers' College Rec- ord, March, 1910. WHIPPLE: Relative Efficiency of Phonetic Alphabets (A). Baltimore (1911), Warwick & York. WOODWARD : The Rise and Progress of Manual Training (E). Report of the Commissioners of Education, 1893- 1894, vol. i. VII TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE — (Concluded) BAGLEY: On the Correlation of Mental and Motor Ability in School Children (A). In the American Journal of Psychology, vol. xii. XIX REFERENCES FOR READING BALLIET: Association of Ideas in Reading (A). National Educational Association, 1893. BOGGS: How Children Learn to Read: An Experiment"! Study (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xii. BURK: Development from Fundamental to Accessory, etc., (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vi, No. 1. BURK: The Genetic Versus the Logical Order in Draw- ing (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. ix, pp. 296- 323. BURNHAM: The Hygiene of Drawing (E). In The Peda- gogical Seminary, vol. xiv. COOKE: The A. B. C. of Drawing (E). Report of Educa- tion Department, Great Britain. CUSHMAN: Elementary Art Teaching in the Laboratory School (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. iii, pp. 680-685. DAMROSCH: Music as a Fart of Life (E). National Edu- cational Association, 1903, pp. 713-718. DUNCAN : A Few Suggestions on the Teaching of Art (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. i, pp. 401-405. DUNCAN: A Plea for Outline Drawing for Little Children (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. iii, pp. 488- 498. GILLES: An Experimental Study of Musical Learning (A). Archives of Psychology, No. 12, 1909. HALL: The Psychology of Music (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xv, pp. 358-364. HARVEY: Manual Training in the Grades (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. vii, p. 390. KERN: Elementary Music Teaching in the Laborarory School (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vo4. iii, pp. 686-693. KIRKPATRICK: How Children Learn to Talk (4). In Science, Sept., 1891. XX REFERENCES FOR READING LUKENS: A Study of Children's Drawings (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iv, pp. 79-110. MEYERHART: Economic Learning (A). In The Peda- gogical Seminary, vol. xiii, pp. 145-191. MONROE : Editor, Cyclopedia of Education ; Art in Schools, vol. i, p. 225 ff, (A). New York (1911), The Macmillan Co. O'SHEA: Some Aspects of Drawing (A). In the Educa- tional Review, vol. xiv, pp. 263-284. REEDER: The Historical Development of School Readers and Methods in Teaching Reading (E). New York (1900), The Macmillan Co. SCOTT: Some Conditions of Expression in the School Room (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. iv, pp. 168-177. SEARS: Studies in Rhythm (A). In The Pedagogical Sem- inary, vol. viii. SEAVER: Development of the Artistic Sense (A). Ar- chives of Psychology, No. 12, 1909. SMITH: Possibilities in Music Study (E). In the Elemen- tary School Teacher, vol. iv, pp. 605-177. SWIFT: The Acquisition of Skill in Typewriting (A). In the Psychological Review, Aug., 1904. SWIFT: Studies in the Psychology and Physiology of Learning (A). In the American Journal of Psychology, vol. xiv, April, 1903. VIII TEACHING THE ARTS OF COMMUNICATION BARNES: How Words Get Meaning (E). In Studies in Education, vol. i, (Stanford University). BOWDEN: A Study of Lapses (A). Monograph Supple- ment to the Psychological Review, vol. iii, No. 4. xxi REFERENCES FOR READING BRYAN and HARTER : Studies in the Physiology and Psy- chology of the Telegraphic Language (A). In the Psy- chological Reviezv, Jan., 1897, vol. iv, and July, 1899, vol. vi. CHAMBERLAIN: The Teaching of English (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol, ix, pp. 161-168. CHAMBERS: How Words Get Meaning (A). In The Ped- agogical Seminary, March, 1904, vol. xi. CHRISMAN: The Secret Language of Children (E). In the Century Magazine, vol. Ivi, 1898. CHUBB : The Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Secondary School, chaps, ii, iii, vi, vii, viii, xix, (E). New York (1900), The Macmillan Co. COLLINS: The Genesis and Dissolution of the Faculty of Speech (A). New York (1899), The Macmillan Co. COLVIN : Invention versus Form in English Composition : An Inductive Study (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. ix. COMMITTEE of Twelve of the Modern Language Associa- tion of America (A). Report of the U. S. Commissioners of Education, 1897-1898. CONRADI: Children's Interests in Words, Slang, Stories, etc., (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. x. CONRADI: Psychology and Pathology of Speech Develop- ment (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xi. CRAIG : The Development of the Dramatic Element in Edu- cation (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xv. CURTIS: The Dramatic Instinct in Education (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xv, pp. 299-344. DEAHL : Imitation in Education : Its Nature, Scope, and Significance (A). Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and Education. New York (1900). DEAN: The Boy of To-morrow (E). In The World's Work, vol. xxi, (April, 1911), p. 14282. XXll REFERENCES FOR READING DORAN: A Study of Vocabularies (E). In The Pedagog- ical Seminary, vol. xiv. ELDER: Aphasia and the Cerebral Speech Mechanism (A). London (1897), H. K. Lewis. GALLOP: The Boy of To-morrow (E). In The World's Work, vol. xxii, (May, 1911), p. 14405. GOUIN: The Art of Teaching and Studying Languages. Translated by Swan and Betis, chaps, xi, xiv, xv, (A). London (1892), Geo. Phillips & Son. HALL: What Children Read, and What They Ought to Read (E). National Educational Association, 1905, pp. 868-871. HUEY: The Psychology of Reading (A). New York (1910), The Macmillan Co. INANTZ: Problems in the Psychology of Reading (A). In the Psychological Review, vol. ii, No. 1, Monograph sup- plement. LUKENS: Preliminary Report on the Learning of Language (A). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iii. PILLSBURY: The Reading of Words (A). In the Ameri- can Journal of Psychology, vol. xii. SCHERZ : The Dramatic Sense an Aid in Learning a For- eign Language (E). In the Elementary School Teacher, vol. iv, pp. 579-587. TERMAN: The Relation of the Manual Arts to Health (E). In the Popular Science Monthly, vol. Ixxviii, p. 602. WISSLER : The Interests of Children in the Reading Work of the Elementary Schools (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. v. IX TENDENCIES OF NOVICES IN TEACHING BELL: A Study of the Teacher's Influence (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vii. xxiii REFERENCES FOR READING BENSON: The Personality of the Teacher (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxxvii, pp. 217-230. BOOK : The High School Teacher from the Pupil's Point of View (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xii. BROWN: The Fine Art of Teaching (E). In the Educa- tional Review, vol. xvi, pp. 328-341. CALL: Power Through Repose (E). In the Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 1895. CHAMBERLAIN: Standards in Education, chap, x, (E). New York (1908), American Book Co. GREENWOOD: How to Judge a School (E). In the Edu- cational Review, vol. xvii, pp. 334-345. HALL: Certain Degenerative Tendencies Among Teachers (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xii, pp. 454-463. HUGHES: Dickens as an Educator (E). New York (1901), International Education Series, D. Appleton & Co. KRATZ : Characteristics of the Best Teachers as Recognized by Children (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. iii. LARNED: An American Teacher in a Prussian Gymnasium (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xii, (March, 1911), p. 345 et seq. McKENNY: The Personality of the Teacher (E). Chicago (1911), Row, Peterson & Co. McTURNAN: The Personal Equation, chap, viii, (E). New York (1910), Atkinson, Mentzer and Grover. MERIAM: Recitation and Study (E). In the School Re- view, vol. xviii, pp. 627-633. O'SHEA: Teachers by the Grace of God (E). In the Jour- nal of Pedagogy, vol. xiii, No. 1. PALMER: The Teacher, chaps, i-iii, (E). Boston (1908), Houghton Mifflin Co. SCHURMAN: Self-Activity in Education (E). National Educational Association, 1893, pp. 703-704. SISSON: The Essentials of Character (E). Chap. iii. New York (1910), The Macmillan Co. xxiv REFERENCES FOR READING SNEDDEN: The New Basis of Method (E). In the Edu- cational Review, vol. xxxv, pp. 227-241. SPALDING: The Teacher and the School (E). National Educational Association, 1896, pp. 162-174. TERMAN : A Preliminary Study in the Psychology and Ped- agogy of Leadership (E). In The Pedagogical Seminary, vol. xi. WEST: The Personal Touch in Teaching (E). In the Edu- cational Reviezv, vol. xxxvi, pp. 109-120. WILSON: The Motivation of Children's Work in Elemen- tary Schools (E). National Education Association, 1910, pp. 418-426. YOUNG: Saving Time in Education (E). In the Elemen- tary School Teacher, vol. iv, pp. 65-72. THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS ANDREWS: The Girl of To-morrow (E). In The World's Work, vol. xxii, (June, 1911), pp. 14526 et seq. ARNOLD : Cross-Purposes in the Education of Women (E). National Education Association, 1908, pp. 93-99. DRAPER: Co-Education in the United States (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxv, pp. 109-129. HALL: Co-Education in the United States (E). National Educational Association, 1903, pp. 446-451. HAMILTON: What Kind of Education is Best Suited to Girls? (A). National Educational Association, 1906, pp. 65-71. HOPKINS: Co-Education in the Boston Public Schools (E). In the Educational Reviezv, vol. i, pp. 46-48. HUTT: The Education of V/omen for Home-Making (A). National Education Association, 1910, pp. 122-132. SACHS: Intellectual Reactions of Co-Education (E). In XXV REFERENCES FOR READING the Educational Review, vol. xxxv, pp. 466-475. SISSON: Co-Education of the Sexes in the United States (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxxviii, pp. 469- 484. TERMAN : A School Where Girls are Taught Home-Mak- ing (E). In the Craftsman, vol. xx, p. 63 (April, 1911). WOOLMAN: Manhattan Trade School for Girls (E). In the Educational Review, vol. xxx, pp. 178-188. INDEX INDEX ABSTRACT MEANING, developed very slowly, 242-244. See Arts of Communication, Dictionary, Meaning. ADENOIDS, as cause of dullness and disorder, 31-32. ALGEBRA, as adapted to "discipline the faculties", 323-327. ANALYSIS, dangers of in learning to spell, 182-183; evil of over-emphasizing, 233-235. See Arithmetic, Drawing, Spelling. ANIMALS, illustrations from the training of, 37; illustra- tions from the spoiling of, 39; illustrations from the "breaking" of, 43. ARITHMETIC, dynamic method in the teaching of, 122-138; a concrete case of failure in arithmetic work, 122-123; verbal reading of problems, 123-124; correcting defective reasoning, 124-126; verbal study of weights and meas- ures, 126-127; dealing with actual units, 127-128; useful problems in relation to clear thinking, 128-130; problems should relate to actual needs and experience, 131-133; useful problems for the city pupil, 133-134; automatic facility in, 220-223; relation of reasoning in to automatic facility in, 231-232; making principles automatic in their application, 232-233; evil of over-emphasizing analysis in, 235. ARTS OF COMMUNICATION, teaching of, 236-282; get- ting at the meaning of words, 236-237; distinction be- tween the child and the adult in attending to objects or situations, 238-240; using words or reacting upon them the test of meaning, 239-241; abstract meanings come very slowly, 241 ; acquisition of meanings by the learning of definitions, 242; the use of the dictionary, 242; illus- trations of faulty dictionary definitions, 243-244; the xxvii INDEX chief trouble with adult-made definitions, 244-245; learn- ing words in their contextual relations, 246-248; social basis for language learning, 248-253; language as a so- cial instrument, 249; the motive for acquiring expression, 251-253; suggestions for the teacher of language, 253- 255; inhibiting spontaneity, 254; freedom and adventure in expression, 254; unconventional language, 255-267; difference of opinion regarding unconventional speech, 255-258; variation in different sections of the country, 257-258; phrases in process of acquiring respectability, 258-260; conservative people resist innovations in speech as in manners or dress, 260-261 ; changes taking place among us, 261 ; the unconventional speech of to-day may become the conventional speech of to-morrow, 262-264; attitude of the teacher toward slang, 264-266 ; youth must be allowed some linguistic swing, 267; naturalness in expression, 266-276; self-consciousness in expression, 268-270; influence of speaking pieces on self-conscious- ness, 270-271; the teaching of expression, 271-272; the teacher's efficiency in expression, 272-273; learning rules about effective expression, HZ', affectation in expression, 274; an instance of naturalness in expression, 275; learn- ing selections for recitation, 276-282; evil habit of mem- orizing, 277-278; appreciation of meaning as an aid to the memory, 278; an experiment in memorizing, 279- 282. ATTENTION, problems of, 5-17; distraction as due to weak teaching, 5; futility of demanding attention, 7; influence of the eye upon a pupil's attention, 8-9; common sources of distraction in the class-room, 9-11; the influence of communication upon attention, 11-12; a remedy for com- munication, 12-13; nervous tension as a source of dis- traction, 13-15. AUDITORY DEFECTS, as cause of dullness and disorder, 33-34. xxviii INDEX AUDITORY VALUES, In spelling, 18S-189. See Spelling. AUTOMATIC. See Drawing, Execution, Music, Spelling. AUTUMN, as the stormiest season of the school year for government, 23-24; difficulty of readjustment, 24-25; gradual introduction to school work, 25-26. BULLY, the outcome of spoiling a child, 37; how bullying is regarded at a later period, 43. See Discipline, Favor- ite Pupil, Spoiled Child. CAUSAL RELATIONS, failure to bind facts in, 149-151. See Thinking, Ability. CHANGING PHENOMENA, must be dealt with in real life, 327-329. CHILD, the spoiled, 35-45; the unhappy child, 36; the bully, 37; the "cunning" child, 42; the insolent child, 42; the favorite pupil, 46-49; children of distinguished parents, 48-49. See Discipline. CIVIL GOVERNMENT, dynamic method in the teaching of, 114-122; formal, remote teaching of vital affairs, 114— 116; teaching the subject of taxation, 118; teaching re- lations of social groups, 119-121. COMMUNICATION, as a source of distraction, 11-12; feasible remedies, 12-13; as a source of conflict in the school-room, 93-103; the impulse to communicate, 94- 96; communication rewarded outside the school-room, 97- 98; how self-restraint is developed, 98; devices for sup- pressing communication, 100-102; leadership in the teach- er the chief requisite, 102-103. See Fair Play, School- room Government. CONFLICT, communication as a source of in the school- room, 93-103. See Attention, Communication, Discipline, School-room Government. CONTENT, relation of to means of expression, 191-192; exalting technique above, 193-196. See Drawing, Music, Reading. xxix INDEX CONTEST OF WITS, in school-room discipline. 72-73. See Fair Play. CONTEXTUAL RELATIONS, in the gaining of meanings, 246-248. CO-OPERATION, of pupils in cases of discipline, 70-72; pupils can help to make rules for school government, 71 ; the instinct for fair dealing, 72. See Fair Play. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT, 55-58; as practised in France and in Germany, with results, 55-56; soft methods in training, 56-58; no cure-all in discipline, 58-63. CORRECTION, should be individual and private for the most part, 89-90; should be inconspicuous, 90-92. See Corporal Punishment, Discipline, Success. DEFINITIONS. See Contextual Relations, Dictionary Mean- ing. DISCIPLINE, problems of, 35-66; the spoiled child, 35-45; a concrete case, 35-37; the spoiled child not happy, 36; the spoiled child as a bully, 37; illustrations from the training of a dog or a horse, 37; higher and lower tend- encies in human life, 38; how an animal may be spoiled, 39; short-sightedness in the training of children, 41-43; the "cunning" child, 42; developing insolence, 42; how bullying is regarded at a later period, 43; how animals are "broken", 43; children must be let alone, 44-45; starting right, 45; the favorite pupil, 46-49; being favored for superficial reasons, 47-48; children of distinguished parents, 48-49; sentimentality in dealing with the child, 49 ; new times bring new problems, 50-55 ; problems con- nected with increasing luxury and complexity of social life, 50-51 ; effect of social tension on the home, 51 ; elim- ination of masculinity in the training of children, 52-53; masculine vs. feminine methods in training the young, 53 ; hypertrophy of our sensibilities, 53-55 ; corporal pun- ishment, 55-58; as practised in France and in Germany, with results, 55-56; soft methods in training, 56-58; no XXX INDEX cure-all in discipline, 58-63; suggestions from scientific medicine, 58; the charlatan in ethical training, 60; the prison and the whipping-post do not reform young crim- inals, 61 ; prophylactic vs. therapeutic measures in the training of the young, 62-63; from the pupil's standpoint, 63-65; a typical case, 63-64; chief source of tragedy in school discipline, 64-65 ; positive methods in discipline, 65-66. DISCIPLINARY PERIODS, 3. See School-room Govern- ment. DISTRACTION, as due to communication, 11-12; as due to nervous tension, 13-15; as due to other causes, 17-20; the most critical time of the year for distraction, 22-25. See Attention, Communication, School-room Government. DOMESTIC SCIENCE, instruction in, 310-313; lack of home atmosphere in, 322-323; concrete instance of inef- fective teaching, 324-327. See Girls. DRAWING, relation of technique to content in, 224-228; teaching of in an earlier day, 224-225; reproduction vs. representation, 225-228. DRILL, in spelling, 174-175; waste in drill exercises, 176. DULLNESS, as caused by physical defects, 29-34. See Adenoids, School-room Disorder. DYNAMIC TEACHING, essential to the development of clear thinking, 106-108. See Arithmetic, Civil Govern- ment, Geography, History, Home Study, Self -help fulness. ETHICAL TRAINING. See Corporal Punishment, Disci- pline, Favorite Pupil, Spoiled Child. EXECUTION, teaching pupils, 166-235 ; teaching of spelling, 167; as a typical technical subject, 167-168; a practical test, 168-169; a true test, 169-170; spelling lists, 171; choosing words for spelling, 172-173 ; learning to spell words against a future time of need, 172-174; relation of reading to spelling, 174; harmful drill in spelling, 174- 175; waste in drill exercises, 176; an erroneous method xxxi INDEX of teaching spelling, 177-178; confusion in dealing with complex unities, 179-180; syllabication in spelling, 180- 181; dangers in the analysis of words, 182-183; words as unities, 183 ; evil habits of study, 184-185 ; wasteful meth- ods of preparing lessons, 185-187; attempting too big a task at one time, 187-188; auditory familiarity in spelling, 188-189; a lesson from Italy, 189-191; relation of means of expression to content to be expressed, 191-192; rela- tion of legibility in writing to "neatness," 192-193 ; a con- crete case of exalting technique above content, 193-196; instruction in technique, 196-198; nervous overstrain from too great emphasis on technique, 198-201; develop- ing ideas of lightness and rapidity in the place of power and effort, 201-203; relation of technique to content in music, 204-224; a concrete case of undue emphasis on technique, 204-205; exaltation of technique in singing, 205-206; learning elementary facts of technique, 207-208; development of an appreciation of rhythm, 208-209; gen- eral motor before special vocal execution, 209-210; action songs, 211; songs which children choose spontaneously, 211-212; songs portraying ethical and ideal feelings not chosen until adolescence, 212-215; formal and me- chanical vocal music, 213-214; relation between learn- ing to read words and learning to read music, 215- 217; begin with largest units possible, 217-219; reading musical symbols at sight, 219-220; im- portance of the simplest musical elements, 220-221; smaller unities must not be neglected, 222; illustra- tion of confusion from attacking too complex unities, 222-224; relation of technique to content in drawing, 224- 228; teaching of in an earlier day, 224-225; reproduction vs. representation, 225-228; automatic facility in a subject like arithmetic, 228-230; relation of reasoning to facility in executing, 231-232; making the application of princi- xxxii INDEX pies automatic, 232-233; evil of over-emphasizing analy- sis, 233-235. EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS, 341-388; good order, 341- 344; discipline, 344-348; fair play between teacher and pupils, 348-352; teaching pupils to think, 352-365; teach- ing pupils to execute, 365-372; teaching the arts of com- munication, 372-376; tendencies of novices in teaching, Z76-Z^6; education of girls, 386-388. FAILURE, avoid feelings of in school-room, 86-89. See Correction, Fair Play, Success. FAIR PLAY, in the school-room, 67-103; a typical case in- volving the principle, 67-72 ; cooperation of pupils in cases of discipline, 70-72; pupils can help to make rules for school government, 71 ; the instinct for fair dealing, 72 ; challenging pupils to a contest of wits in discipline, 72- 73) appeaHng to the sense of fair play, 73-74; group loyalty, 7A-76; attitude of the group toward "tattling," 74; dealing with the group as a whole, 75-76; gaining the respect of pupils, 76-81 ; how a teacher may lose the respect of pupils, 77-79; gaining the assistance of capable pupils, 80; school-room injustice as a cause of disre- spect, 81-85; expecting the impossible of pupils, 82; pun- ishment for unavoidable mistakes, ^2) ; teaching pupils ac- cording to their needs, 85 ; establishing feelings of success rather than of failure, 86-89; making correction individual and private for the most part, 89-90; making correction inconspicuous, 90-92; communication as a source of con- flict in the school-room, 93-103; the impulse to communi- cate, 94-96; communication rewarded outside the school- room, 97-98; how self-restraint is developed, 98; the best way to control communication, 99-100; futile devices for suppressing communication, 100-102; leadership in the teacher the chief requisite, 102-103. FEMININE METHODS, in training the young, 53. See Discipline, Sentimentality. xxxiii INDEX FLOGGING, frequent in the olden-time school, 4. See School-room Government. FOREIGN LANGUAGE, in a girl's education, 329-330. See Girls. GEOGRAPHY, d\Tiamic method in teaching, 140-141; diffi- culties in mathematical geography, 147-149; failure to bind facts in causal relations, 149-151; a good subject for effective teaching, 153-154. GIRLS, the education of, 309-338; a new educational experi- ment station, 309-310; a home-maker's course, 310-313; development of a home atmosphere, 313; education for training merely, 314-316; failure of the traditional high- school course to prepare the girl for real life, 315-316; vital studies arouse interest, 317; movement for vital ed- ucation spreading, 318; instance of mere formal learning of matters pertaining to the home, 318-320; the lack of a home atmosphere in much domestic science instruction, 320; the problem of the ages, 322-323; the curriculum based on formal discipline, 323-324; a test of the doctrine of formal training, 324-327 ; real life requires dealing with changing phenomena, 327-329; studying foreign language, 329-330; training in the humanities, 331-332; a course for the girl of to-morrow, 332-338. GOOD ORDER, the importance of, 1-2 ; essential to a healthy tone in a school, 2; emphasized by parents and school officers, 2; good order in the olden-time school, 2-3. See Attention, Disorder, Distraction, Dullness, Flogging, Irri- tants, Physical Defects, Relaxation Periods, School-room Government, Stormiest Season, Vacation. GOVERNMENT. See School-room Government. GROUP, loyalty of the individual to the, 74-76; attitude of the group toward "tattling," 74; dealing with the group as a whole, 75-76. See Discipline, Fair Play, School- room Government. GUIDING, vs. Helping pupils, 164-165. xxxiv INDEX HELPING. See Guiding, Initiative. HISTORY, d3aiamic method in the teaching of, 108-114; formal exactness vs. effective thinking, 109-110; facts that relate to every-day life, 111-112; heroes of peace as well as of war, 113. HOME ATMOSPHERE, development of, 313; lack of in much domestic science instruction, 320. HOME-MAKER'S COURSE, 310-313. See Girls. HUMANITIES, training in, 331-332. HUMOR, in the school-room, 305-308. See Novices. IMPERIOUS TEACHER, 303. See Novices. INACCURACY, in thinking, 135; self-correction in inaccu- rate work, 137-138, INITIATIVE, teaching pupils to take, 154-155; concrete illustrations, 135-137; home study by pupils in relation to taking the initiative, 158-163; methods of "helping" a child, 159-162; teaching to satisfy formal requirements, 161-164. INJUSTICE, in the school-room, 81-85; cause of disrespect, 82; demanding the impossible of pupils, 82-83; punish- ment for unavoidable mistakes, 83. INSOLENCE, the development of in the spoiled child, 42. See Discipline, Spoiled Child. INTEREST, aroused by vital studies, 317. See Arithmetic, Civil Government, Drawing, Geography, Girls, History, Music, Spelling, Thinking Ability. IRRITANTS, as causes of dullness and disorder, 23-24, 30- 33. See Adenoids, Autumn, Teeth. ITALY, a lesson from respecting relation of content to form in teaching, 189-191. See Drawing, Spelling. LEADERSHIP, as the chief requisite in the teacher, 102-103. See Communication, Conflict, Injustice. LECTURING, the need of effective, 295 ; the teacher should put his own personality into his teaching, 297. LEGIBILITY, relation of to neatness in writing, 192-193. XXXV INDEX LIGHTNESS, developing ideas of in the place of power and effort, 201-203. MASCULINITY, in the training of children, 52-53. See Discipline. MEANING, of words, 236-237; a true test of understanding of, 239-241; abstract meanings, 241; acquisition of by the use of the dictionary, 242; faulty definitions, 243-244; adult-made definitions, 242-245; getting at meanings from contextual relations, 246-248; appreciation of as an aid in memory, 278. MEANS OF EXPRESSION, relation to content to be ex- pressed, 191-192; instruction in, 196-198. See Content, Drawing, Music, Nervous Overstrain, Reading. MEMORIZING SELECTIONS, experiments in, 279-282. See Meaning. MEMORY, relation! of clear thinking to, 139-140; results of obscure teaching, 140-141 ; actual execution in relation to memory, 143-144. MUSIC, relation of technique to content in, 204-224; exalta- tion of technique in singing, 205-206; elementary facts of technique, 207-208; appreciation of rhythm, 208-209; gen- eral before special execution, 209-210; action songs first, 211; songs which children choose spontaneously, 211- 212; songs that are chosen late in development, 212-215; formal work in vocal music, 213-214; reading linguistic symbols vs. reading musical symbols, 215-217; begin with the largest unities possible, 217-219; reading musical symbols at sight, 219-220; values of elementary units in music, 220-221; smaller unities must not be neglected, 222; confusion from dealing with too complex unities, 222-224. NARROWNESS IN TEACHING. See Novices. NATURALNESS, in expression, 266-276; self-consciousness, 268-270; value of speaking pieces, 270-271; the teaching xxxvi INDEX of expression, 271-272; value of learning rules, 273; af- fectation in expression, 274. NECESSITY, the spur to clear thinking, 105-107. See Arith- metic, Civil Government, Dynamic Teaching, Geography, History, Initiative, Self-helpfulness, Thinking Ability. NERVOUS OVERSTRAIN, from too great emphasis upon technique, 198-201. NEUTRAL TEACHER. See Novices, NOVICES, tendencies of in teaching, 283-308; lack of ade- quate conception of what a high school should accomplish, 283; special and technical work too early, 284; "shooting over the heads'* of pupils, 285; spiritless teaching, 285; vital vs. formal teaching, 287; reliance upon definitions in teaching, 287; narrowness of view, 288; inaccurate knowl- edge, 289; lack of self -activity in pupils, 290; dynamic vs. static attitudes, 292; inability to arouse appropriate re- action, 293; the neutral teacher, 294; the need of effective lecturing, 295 ; the teacher should put his own personality into his teaching, 297; the quiz-master, 298-299; formal rules made to cover too many cases, 300-301 ; the teacher who lacks authorit)^, 301-303; the imperious teacher, 303; making too great haste in the class-room, 202-204; humor in the school-room, 305-308. ORDER. See Good Order. PHYSICAL DEFECTS, as cause of dullness and disorder, 29- 34. See Adenoids, Aiiditory Defects, Visual Defects. POSITIVE METHODS, in all discipline, 65-66. See Cor- poral Punishment, Discipline, Prison. PRISON, in reforming young criminals, 61 ; the whipping- post in reforming young criminals, 61 ; prophylactic meas- ures in the training of the young, 62-63. PROBLEMS. See Exercises and Problems. PROPHYLACTIC MEASURES. See Positive Methods, Prison. QUIZ-MASTER, 298-299. See Novices. xxxvli INDEX RAPIDITY, developing ideas of in the place of power and effort, 201-203. READING, relation of to spelling, 174. See Spelling. READJUSTMENT, difficult in the autumn after vacation, 24-25. See Autumn, Vacation. RELAXATION PERIODS, as means of releasing nervous tensions, 15-17. See Communication, School-room Gov- ernment. REPRESENTATION. See Drawing. REPRODUCTION. See Drawing. RESPECT, of pupils for the teacher, 76-81 ; losing the respect of pupils, 77-79; using the abilities of capable pupils, 80; injustice in the school-room as a cause of disrespect, 81- 85; demanding the impossible of pupils, 82; penalties for unavoidable mistakes, ^?). See Discipline, Fair Play, Good Order, School-room Government. RESPECTABILITY, in language, 258-260. See Unconven- tional Language. RHYTHM, development of an appreciation of, 208-209. See Music, Songs. SCHOOL-ROOM GOVERNMENT, 1-34; importance of good order, 1-2 ; methods of an earlier day, 2-3 ; disciplin- ary periods, 3; effect upon pupils, 3; a different tone in the school of to-day, 3; factors which have produced a new regime, 4-5 ; problems of attention, 5-17 ; weak teach- ing the cause of disorder, 5; futility of commanding at- tention, 7; conditions which favor distraction, 7; influence of the eye upon a pupil's attention, 8-9; common sources of confusion in the class-room, 9-11 ; communication as a source of distraction, 11-12; feasible remedies, 12-13; nervous tension as a source of distraction, 13-15 ; frequent relaxation periods imperative, 15-17; inhibiting power pro- duced by fatigue, 17; a concrete case of a disorderly school, 17-20; influence of the teacher's health on pupils' conduct, 18-19; the teacher's need to relax, 20-22; fresh- xxxviii INDEX ness and buoyancy in the teacher necessary to a healthy tone in the school, 22; the critical season of the year for school-room government, 22-25; irritating influences dur- ing the first weeks of autumn, 23-24; the difficulty of re- adjustment, 24-25 ; gradual introduction to school work in the autumn, 25-26; problem of vacation, 26-29; a shorter school-day but a longer school year, 27-28; physical de- fects as causes of disorder, 29-34; the effect of decaying teeth, 30-31; the effect of adenoids, 31-32; description of concrete cases, 32-33; influence of visual and auditory de- fects, 33-34. SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, in expression, 268-270. See Nat- uralness. SELF-HELPFULNESS. See Initiative. SENTIMENTALITY, in dealing with the child, 49; elimina- tion of masculinity in the training of children, 52; mas- culine vs. feminine methods in training the young, 53; hypertrophy of our sensibilities, 53-55; corporal punish- ment, 55-58; soft methods in training, 56-58. SINGING. See Music. SLANG. See Unconventional Language. SOCIAL BASIS, of language learning, 248-253; language as a social instrument, 244-249 ; motive for acquiring expres- sion, 251-253. SONGS, action, 211; which children choose spontaneously, 211-212; portraying ethical and ideal feelings, 212-215. See Music. SPEAKING PIECES. See Naturalness. SPELLING, the teaching of, 167; as a typical technical sub- ject, 168; a practical test, 189; a true test of ability to spell, 169-170 ; spelling lists, 171 ; choosing lists of words, 172-173 ; learning spelling for future needs, 172-174 ; read- ing vs. spelling, 174; carrying drill too far in spelling, 174-176; a wasteful method of teaching spelling, 177-178; waste in attacking too complex unities, 179-180 ; syllabica- xxxix INDEX tion, 180-181 ; analyzing words, 182-183 ; spelling words as unities, 183; wasteful habits of study, 184-187; too long lessons, 187-188; the ear as an aid in spelling, 188-189. SPIRITLESS TEACHING. See Novices. SPOILED CHILD, 35-45; a concrete case, 35-38; how the spoiled child is made unhappy, 36 ; development of a bully, 37 ; illustrations from the training of a dog or a horse, 37 ; how an animal may be spoiled, 39; short-sightedness in training a child, 41-43; danger of spoiling the "cunning" child, 42 ; how insolence may be developed, 42 ; how bully- ing is regarded at a later period, 43 ; "breaking" an animal, 43; letting the child alone, 44-45. SPONTANEITY, in the use of language, 254. See Arts of Communication, Unconventional Language. SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITIES, necessary in the school- room, 4. See School-room Government. STUDY, evil habits in, 184-185; waste in preparing lessons, 185-187. SUCCESS, establishing feelings of, 86; making school-room correction individual and inconspicuous, 89-92; having the tone of success rather than of failure dominate the school- room, 90-92. SYLLABICATION, in spelling, 180-181. See Spelling. TEETH, decaying, as causes of distraction and disorder, 30-31. THE FAVORITE PUPIL, 46-49; tragedy of a child being favored for superficial reasons, 49; children of distin- guished parents, 48-49. See Discipline, Spoiled Child. THERAPEUTIC MEASURES, in the training of the young, 62-63. THINKING ABILITY, development of in pupils, 104-165; the chief topic in present-day educational discussions, 104 ; the spur to clear thinking, 105-107; dynamic teaching essential to, 106; the test of a good method, 107; under- standing vs. reciting, 107-108; the test applied to a his- xl INDEX tory lesson, 108-114; formal exactness vs. effective think- ing, 109-110; dealing with facts that relate to every-day life, 111-112; teaching heroes of peace as well as of war, 113; the test applied to teaching of civil government, 114- 122; formal, remote treatment of vital affairs, 114-116; a concrete case of a dynamic method, 116-118; thinking straight on the subject of taxation, 118; tracing govern- mental relations in social groups, 119-121; test applied to teaching arithmetic, 122-138; failure of a typical pupil in his arithmetic work, 122-123 ; mere verbal reading of prob- lems, 123-124; an experiment in correcting defective rea- soning, 124-126; verbal study of weights and measures, 126-127; dealing with actual units, 127-128; useful prob- lems in relation to clear thinking, 128-130; problems should relate to actual needs and experience, 131-133; useful problems for the city pupil, 133-134; the cure for inaccurate thinking, 135; self-correction of inaccurate work, 137-138; the relation of clear thinking to a good memory, 139-140; concrete instance of obscure teaching, 140-141; another method of procedure, 141-143; actual execution essential to clear thinking, 143-144; test applied in geography, 144-151; difficulties in mathematical geog- raphy, 147-149; failure to bind facts in causal relations, 149-151; a good subject for effective teaching, 153-154; teaching pupils to take the initiative, 154-155; concrete illustration, 155-157; home study by pupils and training in self-helpfulness, 158-163; the typical parent's method of "helping" a child, 159-162; teaching to satisfy formal requirements only, 162-164; guiding vs. helping pupils, 164-165. UNCONVENTIONAL LANGUAGE, 255-267; tests regard- ing unconventionality of special phrases, 255-258; varia- tions in different localities, 257-258; phrases in process of acquiring respectability, 258-260; attitude of conservative people toward, 260-261; changes taking place among us, xli INDEX 261; how unconventional becomes conventional speech, 262-264; attitude of the teacher toward slang, 264-266; giving youth its linguistic swing, 266-267. UNITIES, relation of simple to more complex in teaching spelling, 179-183; in the teaching of music, 217-219; im- portance of the smaller unities, 222; confusion from at- tacking too large unities, 222-224. VACATION, problems of, 6-29; a shorter school-day but a longer school year, 27-28. See Autumn, Readjustment. VISUAL DEFECTS, as cause of dullness and disorder, 33-34. VITAL EDUCATION. See Arithmetic, Civil Government, Drawing, Geography, Girls, History, Music, Spelling, Thinking Ability. ^^^ 17 1912 ai Q K^^-^ \^^'' : ^ J a^O. <, ■» %,# ^^- .-;<