LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA PRESENTED BY ALMA WILLIAMS UCSFB PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY BY S. M. BARRETT PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGY, CENTRAL STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, EDMOND, OKLA. BOSTON, U.S.A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1911 COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY S. M. BARRETT. PREFACE THIS work is designed to present in a brief, concise manner a few principles and rules of teaching, and to discuss their application to methods and management in public or common schools. Only such rules and principles are presented as the author has been able to apply successfully year after year in actual schoolroom work. Necessarily, therefore, the work is brief; but it is hoped that it is vitalized by the true teaching spirit, and that being born of experience it will be of practical value. If this volume renders assistance to students in normal schools and training classes, to young teachers who have not received a course of instruction in a profes- sional school, but who are compelled to prepare them- selves by independent efforts for the work of teaching, its purposes will have been accomplished. S. M. BARRETT. CENTRAL STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, EDMOND, OKLAHOMA. CONTENTS PART I METHODS CHATTBR PAGE I. IDEATION 3 II. THE RECITATION 9 III. READING 19 IV. ARITHMETIC 34 V. SPELLING 43 VI. GEOGRAPHY 48 VII. ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR ... 58 VIII. UNITED STATES HISTORY 64 PART II MANAGEMENT IX. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 73 X. CLASS MANAGEMENT 79 XI. THE TEACHER 95 XII. PUNISHMENT 106 XIII. TEACHING MAXIMS in XIV. SELF-DIRECTION 119 REVIEW QUESTIONS 129 PART ONE METHODS PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY CHAPTER I IDEATION IN order to secure the best results from a study of methods of teaching, it is well first to review briefly the psychological processes by which ideas are formed, and then to hold these processes of ideation firmly in mind as a means by which to determine the worth of proposed methods of instruction. For that reason this review of the processes of ideation is given. Sensation. We shall begin with sensation, which is the earliest and most elementary of mental processes and may be defined as a mode of conscious experience in the use of an organ, or sense, of the body. This provisional definition of sensation serves to show that a study of elementary sensation is not of prime impor- tance in this discussion of ideation ; hence, the province of pure sensation will be overstepped and attention called to the process by which new sensations are de- termined or modified, not only by immediate sensations, but also by others more remote in time. This takes place by the new sensation reexciting former sensations. 3 4 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Sensations are deepened by repetition, and the psy- chological importance of this consists in the fact that (the power of reproduction being assumed) it is possible for consciousness to combine earlier with later sensa- tions or experiences. Not only is this repetition valuable in deepening impressions and combining earlier with later sensations, but sometimes the influence of it, coupled with memory, will call up duplicates of sensa- tions which otherwise would not rise. Percepts. The recall of an earlier sensation or experience does not amount to an accurate and distinct image of it, because reawakened sensations fuse imme- diately with the present sensation or sensations, and cannot be said to stand out as free and independent representations, but rather to undergo an involuntary recognition. This immediate and involuntary recogni- tion and fusing is called perception, and we may describe this psychological process of perception as the fusing of a reproduction and an actual sensation. The result, a percept t is therefore compounded out of representation and sensation without the representation coming into consciousness as a free or independent factor. Sensa- tions fuse only in case of similarity of the present and former sensations, and the more frequently this act is performed, the more easily and quickly will former sen- sations be recognized and percepts formed. The more percepts of a given subject are formed in the mind, the more permanent and valuable the result. IDEATION 5 Memory Images. From these percepts united with other sensations and other percepts come free ideas or memory images, and the more numerous the free ideas or memory images, the more there is formed in con- sciousness an independent field of free ideas or memory images which confront with more or less independence all sensations and percepts that may arise from imme- diate environment. This field of memory images enables the mind properly to classify and fully recognize all new sensations, images, and percepts that may be pre- sented. These free ideas combat new ideas in such a way as to subject them to strict analysis, which may result in adoption, modification, or rejection. Thus we have in our minds two distinct currents of thought, one the modified, rising from immediate envi- ronment, and the other the free, rising from representa- tion. We cannot completely isolate ourselves from the external or immediate ones, because sensations are received at every instant, even when we are principally occupied with free ideas. One of these currents might be called the ascending current in the mind, and the other the horizontal. Equilibrium can never, by the very nature of the case, be established between these two opposing currents. Frequently by our own will we abandon ourselves almost completely to the one or the other of these currents of thought, as to immediate sensation when listening to music, and, again, to repre- sentation when concentrating our mind upon a book or lesson. 6 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Sometimes the attention (which may be defined as inhibition of all impressions and memory images except those to which the mind is directed, or as " intensified consciousness") can be directed almost wholly to one of these trends of thought. At other times the atten- tion vibrates from one to the other, and we have the so-called divided attention. But it should be borne in mind that attention is necessary in all the processes of ideation. Attention, however, is never absolute, but merely relative. The process of attention is, therefore, the relative inhibition of one or the other of these two currents of thought, the modified or the free. Both ele- ments or currents are present in every state of con- sciousness, but with different degrees of strength. In some moments we are almost wholly under the control of sensation and perception ; in others, of reflection and deep thought; but never are we under the control of both at the same time. Concepts. The process of associating or fusing the common properties of images and percepts is called con- ception, and the result a concept, which is the finished product in the process of ideation. It should be re- membered that in order to obtain a valuable concept it is necessary to have a predominant interest, so that the attention may be firmly directed to such images and percepts as are employed in forming the concept ; also that the concept may be vivid rather than indis- tinct. IDEATION 7 It will be observed that the elements in ideation are arranged as follows : first, sensations ; second, percepts ; third, mental images, or free ideas ; fourth, a concept, The first three processes, sensation, perception, and the forming of memory images, should be experienced many times, and each of the four processes should be per- formed with close attention if the final result the con- cept, which is to become a permanent mental equipment is to be of much value. If these principles are applied to schoolroom work, the absolute necessity of performing these processes in the order given should be obvious. To illustrate : if a child undertakes to form a concept from one memory image, he might only make the mistake that the little son of a chaplain of a penitentiary made. As this five- year-old boy was finishing looking through an elemen- 8 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY tary book, he came to the picture of a zebra and said, " Mamma, here is a convict mule ! " He had formed but one percept and had but one memory image of indi- viduals in stripes, and whatever wore stripes it seemed to him must be a convict; hence, his formation of an imperfect and immature concept. He had not had enough repetitions of sensations and percepts ; hence, the concept was not in accordance with psychological prin- ciples and was unreliable. Numerous other illustrations might be added to show the correctness of these statements concerning the essential processes of ideation ; but since this work is in- tended primarily for teachers, those who have some knowledge of psychology, it is not thought necessary. Those who undertake to teach should hold in mind the processes of ideation and see to it that their methods of instruction do not violate these psychological princi- ples. Perception supplies raw material, conception elaborates crude percepts into finished concepts. Percepts must be, in order that concepts may be. Here we find the key to correct teaching. Joseph Baldwin. Percepts are stored in memory, and from this accumulated store we draw as we need. Out of percepts we build concepts ; but per- cepts themselves give us many of our keenest pleasures and purest delights, as in the colors of a sunset sky, or an October forest, or in the blending of musical tones. Ruric N. Roark. CHAPTER II THE RECITATION Mental Growth. It is usually true that a student's advancement will be in proportion to his diligence in study, and this is what we naturally expect. But there have always been enough instances of successful men who were poor students to keep some excellent people explaining, and to afford great comfort to indolent and conceited pupils who want the reward of hard work without being willing to do the work. Then there are, in every community, people who have no aspiration for mental or moral improvement. Their feeling toward all that is above them is one of envy and hate, with no ambition to attain this excellence themselves. If then we desire to promote mental growth, let us try to apprehend clearly the conditions and the means of this growth. There are certain processes of devel- opment which go on in us unconsciously. This passive growth is no more credit to us than our increase in stature or avoirdupois. Such growth, however, never raised any person above mediocrity. The growth that leads to real excellence is always accompanied with conscious effort. Intellectual growth requires first, a consciousness of one's need of growth ; and second, a consciousness of one's 9 10 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY capacity for growth. There are some people who feel no need of improvement; they are self-complacent in the belief that they are already great. And there are some people whose sluggish and benighted minds never discover their own ignorance and feebleness. It is only as one realizes his need that we can hope for his improvement. Many who are conscious of their need distrust their capacity for growth. Faith in ourselves, in the ca- pacity of our faculties to respond to the demands that will be made upon them, is no less essential than the consciousness of our need of improvement. It is safe to say that no one ever attained to eminence who did not have a definite knowledge of his need of improve- ment and unbounded courage to follow out his plans for development. Pupils develop their powers by over- coming the difficulties which confront them. They that are over-confident neglect the preparation necessary to success. But they that are self -distrustful cannot rouse their powers to their fullest exertion, and are apt to yield to difficulties that might be overcome. It is the duty of the teacher to show the over-confident the need of preparation and to encourage the self-distrustful to undertake greater things. In earlier childhood great dependence should be placed on the elementary processes of ideation gath- ering from immediate sensation ; but with more ad- vanced pupils the use of representation free ideas or mental images may be more fully relied upon. In THE RECITATION II every instance vigorous effort toward a definite aim should be the rule, and the teacher should never lose sight of the fact that the recitation is for the benefit of the pupil ; hence, the pupils, not the teacher, should do the reciting. The application of the principles of mental growth to schoolroom instruction is essentially a study of the recitation, and hence is of vital importance. We shall therefore discuss in detail the different steps in the recitation, which are as follows: a. Preparation. b. Presentation. e. Association. d. Recapitulation. e. Application. Preparation. The assignment of the next lesson should usually be at the beginning of the recitation. Frequently it is not assigned until the end, and then in the hurry the teacher says, "Take the next two pages," or, " Take the next lesson," and the pupils go to their seats without any definite idea of what is expected of them and they become discouraged in their prepara- tion. A few words of wise discussion and instruction from the teacher at the time when the lesson is assigned would enable the pupils to proceed intelligently with their work. It should always be a part of the assign- ment of the new lesson to call attention to essentials ; to point out special difficulties ; and to give the neces- 12 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY sary suggestions as to method of study. If the lessons are thus properly assigned, the pupils will not only know what the task is, but will also know how to accom- plish it. Not only is it important that the assignment should make plain what is to be learned and how the work is to be accomplished, but the programme and the manage- ment of the school should be so arranged that a pupil will not be allowed to turn from one lesson to another at every impulse. " A place for everything and every- thingin its place;" also " One thing at a time and that the right thing" are appropriate mottoes for study periods in the schoolroom. This would tend to prevent pupils from studying in a desultory manner and would insure honest and systematic effort on their part in preparing lessons. It is not the length of time spent on the lesson, but the intensity of the work, that counts. Therefore it is important that the pupils know the value of concentra- tion in the preparation of any and all lessons. They should be trained to bend their whole energies to the task at hand. Presentation. When a pupil is called upon to recite, he should feel that this is his opportunity to express himself, and the teacher should see to it that the pupil does express himself and not repeat the words of the author in a meaningless, mechanical manner. To be sure that the pupil has expressed himself the teacher THE RECITATION 13 should require frequent illustrations; in fact, illustration rather than definition should be the rule. It has been said that an ounce of illustration is better than a pound of definition. It would be valueless for the teacher to proceed in conducting a recitation without the attention of the whole class. " Yes " and " No " questions, so frequently asked, are usually void of any power to stimulate thought. Questions should, of course, be simple and clear, so as to leave no doubt in the mind of the pupil as to what the teacher means, and they should also be given in logical sequence so as to prevent any confu- sion in the child's mind ; but these questions should be the outgrowth of the teacher's fuller knowledge of the subject and not stereotyped text-book questions. Under no condition should the teacher do the reciting. The only time at which the teacher should do the talking is when the pupils have expressed all they know of the subject and all that they could be reasonably expected to know. Then, and not until then, may the teacher offer some added suggestions to throw new light on the subject. Association. Again and again the teacher will find it necessary to bring the new and the old ideas into relation that they may become assimilated and familiar. The field of free ideas in the child's mind will help him to identify all new percepts, but the teacher must be sure by associating the unknown with the known that 14 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY the child's mind performs this process correctly. Only by repetition and drill in a variety of methods, by numerous devices, illustrations, and careful question- ing, can the teacher know that this process has been accomplished. Recapitulation. When the pupil can restate the whole theme of his lesson in a summary, the lesson has been well learned. The best way to train children to acquire this power is to require them to state the princi- pal thoughts that have been brought out in a recitation. The teacher should not direct by asking suggestive questions, but should require the pupil to make the selection of important topics and to discuss them in the order in which they occur in the lesson. In this work the teacher should be careful that the readier pupils do not trespass upon the rights of the slower ones and cheat them out of their opportunity. Each pupil should be held severally responsible for every important point made during the recitation, and should understand that he is required to give an account of it when called upon without being guided by suggestive questions from the teacher. Application. The final purpose, of course, is to apply the knowledge gained to everyday life ; to bring school life into touch with everyday duties; to find in the home the practical application of the themes treated in school. The cultural and the practical should be brought into complete harmony. THE RECITATION 1$ Occupational Education. It is evident that the trend in education is now toward the useful, but this does not in any way imply that the tendency is away from the cultural. It implies simply that true culture may be ob- tained from practical as well as from obsolete subjects. This tendency toward what we shall term occupational education may be illustrated by familiar examples, and the conclusions drawn will then be forcibly impressed. For instance, if we asserted that teachers should receive normal (occupational) training ; that physicians and lawyers should have professional (occupational) training; or that ministers should be trained for the ministry (occupational) training, no one would deny it. The same line of reasoning will lead us to assert that the farmer, the mechanic, the housewife, in fact, persons entering any occupation, should, in addition to the usual cultural knowledge gained in school, receive some rudimentary occupational education to fit them better for their life work. A part of this result can be obtained if the teacher is tactful enough to apply the knowledge gained in the schools to such occupations as predominate in the com- munity in which he teaches. To illustrate : in a com- mercial center, when supplementary work is given in arithmetic, let it be calculations from the trades of the commercial world. In an agricultural community let it be calculations from the farm life, and always let there be calculations from the household. Not only may these applications be made in a study of arithmetic, but added i6 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY material may be brought to each subject, and this added material used to illustrate and verify. By so doing the pupils will be better prepared for the various occupa- tions which they will enter. Questioning. Socrates, the greatest questioner of the ages, sought to lead persons to see the defects of their own definitions or statements. The Socratic method of teaching may be illustrated by the following example : Meno. Socrates, we come to you feeling strong and wise ; we leave you feeling helpless and ignorant. Why is this? Socrates. I will show you (calling up a young Greek and making a line in the sand). Boy, how long is this line ? Boy. Soc. Boy. Soc. It is a foot long, sir. How long is this line ? It is two feet long, sir. How much larger would be the square con- structed on the second line than on the first line ? Boy. It would be twice as large, sir. Under the direction of the boy, Socrates constructs two squares in the sand, thus : THE RECITATION 17 Soc. How much larger than the first did you say the second square would be ? Boy. I said it would be twice as large. Soc. But how much larger is it ? Boy. It is four times as large. Soc. Thank you, my boy, you may go. Meno, that boy came to me full of confidence, thinking himself wise. I told him nothing. By a few simple questions I led him to see his errors and discover the truth. Though really wiser, he goes away feeling humbled. This is the method which practical teachers of to-day use leading, by judicious questions, the young pupil to discover his own errors. Questions, whether oral or written, should be so ar- ranged as to bring out what the pupil knows and how he knows it, and to test his statements thoroughly. In oral questioning a good plan is to propound the question and then designate the pupil who is to recite. It is well to form a habit of asking a question but once ; for to repeat the question is to cultivate or allow inatten- tion in the recitation, which is one of the worst possible faults. Non-reciting pupils should never be allowed to ask questions while the teacher is conducting a recitation. Their wants can be attended to after the recitation is finished. Nothing should come between the teacher and the reciting pupils. It is well to encourage pupils to ask questions when 18 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY there is a point in the lesson that they cannot under- stand, or when they desire more information than the text furnishes. But they should not be allowed to waste the time of the recitation with unnecessary or unimportant questions. A good recitation is one of the best tests of the pupil's moral character. It gives him an opportunity to describe himself. William T. Harris. Give laggards and dullards a chance. After a pupil has made two or three failures call on another pupil to do the work, but do not forget to give the one who made the failure another trial. /. N. Patrick. Good methods of teaching are important, but they cannot supply the want of ability in the teacher. The Socratic method is good, but a Socrates behind the teacher's desk to ask questions is better. Thomas M. Ballitt. CHAPTER III READING THE mental processes involved in reading and the consequent nature of the problems which its teaching presents form the content of this chapter. The men- tal processes in reading are discussed only in so far as methods of teaching will influence the learner. To the child it makes little difference what the mental pro- cesses are or whether he understands these processes; but to the teacher these processes determine what is correct and what is incorrect in methods of teaching this subject. Psychology of Reading. The understanding of speech is gained through a process of trial and error, the concepts being corrected and thoroughly established through frequent exemplification, and also through use in repeated, persistent practice. When a child enters school he has relatively few concepts of word sounds and no concepts of conventional word symbols. He has, however, a working vocabulary of several hundred words, the use of which he knows. The first step in the task of teaching reading is to familiarize the child with these same words in their written and printed forms. 19 20 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY The mastery of the system of conventional symbols in which written language consists is somewhat compli- cated by the fact that the ideas for which many of the words stand are only partly known, so that the young reader is confronted with a world of realities as well as with an unfamiliar set of signs. Translating the written symbols into mental images creates friction in the child's mind ; hence, the selection of reading matter should be from elements that are already familiar to the child, so that as nearly as possible his whole attention may be given to fixing in mind the relation between the sym- bol and that for which it stands. The means by which this task must be accomplished consists in the child's possession of oral speech, which enables him to translate the printed symbols directly into significant terms. It is this which differentiates learning to read from the acquisition of speech itself. In the earliest processes the child sets out with no such interpretive basis, but has to discover the meaning of each sound or each combination of sounds from the situation in which they are uttered and from the action with which they are associated. After the child has mastered oral speech, learning name words is compara- tively easy, but there still remains this difficulty : that in becoming conventional and abstract any logical rela- tion between the sound and the thing signified vanishes, and the child must ask and be told the meaning of each term. The only modification of this rule is embodied in the READING 21 phonetic method by which the translation of any written combination into its auditory equivalent is performed according to definite rules. If our language were log- ically constructed, such a method would be of utmost value; but the value of this most excellent method is restricted in its application in proportion to the phonetic irregularities of the English language. The several steps in the formal teaching of reading are usually enumerated as follows : First. Word mastery recognizing a whole word in one mental effort. Second. Sight reading, or recognizing and calling at sight short sentences as wholes. Third. Getting the sense from the printed page. Fourth. Interpreting, or oral expression. To these we shall add another, Fifth. Creating and fostering a taste for good litera- ture. First Step. In this step the object should be asso- ciated with the word until the recalling of one suggests the other. Concepts are represented by words, by common nouns, but these words are meaningless un- less they awaken in the mind of the child correspond- ing mental images or concepts already acquired. It is impossible to teach words that do not symbolize ideas already in the mind of the child. The teacher cannot give pupils ideas. Instruction can only awaken and enlarge what the mind has already acquired by its own 22 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY activity. The clear recognition of these psychological facts is the beginning of success in teaching reading. Charts containing pictures of familiar objects, and, where possible, the objects themselves, are invaluable aids in associating words and ideas. Teachers should be in no hurry to get pupils to reading in the formal classes, but, rather, patiently train them to see the many things in the pictures or in the objects; then require them to tell what they see. Words are learned in their written and printed forms that they may be used in these forms. Each word taken up should be practically mastered on the day that it is taken up, so that ever afterward it will be instantly recognized at sight by the child and he will be impelled to pronounce it properly and promptly. The proper mastery of a word means further that the sight of the word instantly calls into the child's mind the object or quality or act which the word represents. Mechanical word mastery comes first in the steps to be taken in the teaching of reading, because it makes possible the succeeding steps. Nearly all the words found in the first reader are words that are already used by the child in his oral vocabulary. Teachers should apply the sentence method with the words learned as soon as possible. The object of this is to do away with mere word calling. The blackboard is perhaps the best means of introducing the sentence method, for by it pupils may be early trained to see words in groups. This may be done by placing the READING 33 sentence on the blackboard and asking the pupils to see what it says ; then erasing the sentence and having them tell what they read. Second Step. This step in reading is simply an ex- tension of the first process of substituting sentences for words in sight recognition. Pupils, of course, should recognize the words which they learned in the first process ; but there are always new words in the lessons, so that the first step is necessarily continued while the second step is in process. Sometimes when children are learning to read, they hesitate to pronounce the words. When this is the case, it is evident that they are not reading, but have fallen back to the first step and are applying all their powers to recognizing the words. In such cases the preparation has not been sufficient. Pupils should not attempt to read a lesson aloud until all the new words and new ideas have been studied and mastered so that they will see a sentence in one mental effort, just as in the beginning they learned to see a whole word in one mental effort. In these earlier steps of reading quality should be sought rather than quantity, and it should be ever borne in mind that correct expres- sion depends upon correct interpretation. Third Step : Getting the sense from the printed page. Pupils should understand the subject of the lesson before they attempt to read it aloud, but the only means by which the teacher may know that the pupils 24 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY understand the subject is by having them state the con- tent of the lesson before reading it. Each lesson should be studied by the pupils and the teacher, and discussed by the pupils in class, so that it may be known that this step has been performed before reading aloud is under- taken. This step is one which in the main the pupils must make alone. The teacher should, however, give proper instruction for preparation, and then before allowing the pupils to recite, find out that the prepara- tion has been made. When pupils read without a good understanding of what they are saying, the recitation is valueless. Fourth Step: Interpreting, or oral expression. In this step there are few important preliminaries that it is safe to omit. Pupils who are reading aloud should stand or sit in correct position in order that the respira- tory organs may have free, easy, and natural action. They should be taught to inhale and to exhale so as to economize breath in reading and convert it into sound. They should hold their books at a correct distance from the face and in such a position that both eyes may see the words at the same visual angle. The human voice is an instrument of wonderful power and is susceptible of great improvement; therefore it is necessary that in all these exercises the voice and all of the organs controlling the voice should be devel- oped in a rational manner. In order to teach reading properly the teacher must know what are pure tones of READING 25 the voice and must understand and apply the most im- portant principles of voice culture to insure in the pupils proper cultivation of the voice. Since few pupils attend school more than a few years, it is very important to urge the necessity for correct instruction early in life, and especially so in teaching reading to primary classes. In all of this instruction the teacher should remember that the pupil in after life must help himself, and that reading is a foundation study and its importance not to be lost sight of for one moment. Upon correct reading getting the sense from what is printed or written depends every other scholastic acquisition. Since pupils cannot properly express what they do not thoroughly understand, the teacher should instruct them in the use of the dictionary and require them to refer to it day after day until finding the meaning of every word in the lesson before attempting to read becomes a fixed habit. By this means it is possible to get pupils to read with understanding and feeling. Fifth Step. Creating and fostering a taste for good literature requires a knowledge of authors and of their works as well as exercise in interpreting thought. This training is usually deferred until pupils enter the high school, but since only about one tenth of our pupils ever enter high school, it is quite evident that this training should be begun in the grades. Reading, therefore, should include the imparting of a knowledge of good 26 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY literature and the creating and fostering of a love for it. If, then, to accomplish our full purpose in teaching reading we must create and foster a love for good litera- ture, it is incumbent upon us to impart at least a cursory knowledge of the best authors and also to cultivate in each pupil some power to judge of literary values. The latter is most important, because no one can know what authors are to come prominently before the reading public, and it is ever necessary to select only the best from the great writers. Pupils do not select inferior literature for their home reading because of any inherent sin of humanity, but simply because they have not been taught to know the excellent and have, therefore, through ignorance, chosen the inferior. This is a reading age, and our pupils will always be influenced by thoughts from the printed page. We should be almost as anx- ious to have pupils read good books as to have them keep good company, for aside from the company they keep no factor will so much determine their character as the quality of books they read. A reader of good books is always in good company, and is thus fortified against the majority of temptations that beset him through life. Good books are such books as teach forcibly some principle or principles of right. Bad books are those the teachings of which are in conflict with morality. Books that simply entertain, but may not be classed as either positively good or positively bad, are not worth READING J/ reading. Good books stimulate the mind and con- science, bad books poison them, and negative books only make the mind weary. The prevalent erroneous idea that only those having academic or higher educational training should be trained to judge of literary values, would lead to a con- dition wherein not more than one tenth of our people would know what to read or have the ability to appre- ciate good literature. If such results are to come from the work of the public schools, we should close the doors, drive out the teachers and put them to manual labor. A good way to accomplish this fifth step is by con- trolling as nearly as possible the general reading of all the pupils of the school. In order to do this the teacher should occasionally take a list of the various books recently read by the pupils, and speak at length on the good books which some have read ; but he should be careful not to mention any of those which have been read but are of little value. Teach pupils to swoop down, as it were, upon a mass of words and bear away the ideas expressed, for with the average modern writer the words are so many and the ideas so few and so well concealed that it re- quires the eye of a hawk and the power of a magnet to discover and drag out the little truths from the tan- gled pile of rubbish. By having the pupils give to the class the central thought in any good book recently read, you may teach them in a way to do this. 28 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY After the pupils have read through their readers once it is a good plan to let them read again all the selections from some author agreed upon, to give quotations from that author, or to bring to class selections from his writings. Of course it would not be wise to treat every author whose name appears in the book in this way, but at least several authors may be studied in this manner. Poetry. If literature is an expression of life, the study of literature should consist in the interpretation of life. Poetry portrays the moral side of life and expresses the joys, hopes, fears, strivings, and aspira- tions of humanity. The study of poetry teaches the pupils the love of the beautiful, brings them into the world of the imagination, and encourages them to do and to be. It will be well at times for the teacher to read to the pupils some poem so as to bring out the music. They will soon feel that music is varied, some flowing smoothly, some rough and broken, and again light and quick or heavy and slow of motion. If a number of poems by a single author are read, pupils will find that there is a sameness about his way of singing. For instance, they will discover that Tennyson's music is varied and polished ; that Bryant's music is deep, full, and resounding; and that Riley's is dainty and light. If the teacher will have pupils look for the pictures in the poems they read, they will discover that Scott's pictures are highly colored; that Tennyson gives us READING 29 landscapes; and that Byron paints the grandeur of nature ; that while some pictures are painted in detail, others are only suggestive. If pupils are asked to point out the passages which they like best, whether in prose or poetry, those express- ing patience, inspiration, truth, and faith will be selected. The boys of a school will select passages which treat of heroism and of military glory ; the girls, those that tell of sweet charity. Each can give reasons for the selections made, which is expressing judgment of lit- erary values. This fifth step in reading carries with it the whole culture value of the subject in the grades, and is most important whether denominated as literature or reading. In teaching pupils to judge of the literary values and to exercise their ethical judgment in the study of com- position great tact and care should be used. The steps in studying a selection in this way might be: first, to get the author's thought; second, to get the pupil to think with the author by seeing relations; and third, to knit the knowledge gained from the author to that which the pupil already has. The first step is getting the general idea of the composition; then analyze the parts upon which the general idea is based, that is, the things which go to make up the picture in a descrip- tion ; the events which form the narrative ; or the points in the author's argument. In this the student is seeing relations of these parts to each other and to the general idea he is discriminating, comparing, judging. 30 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Of course the pupil has been using the knowledge he already had in order to interpret the knowledge offered by the writer, but he ought to bring up what he already knows on the subject or has gained through experience or previous reading and unite this with what he is read- ing. If he has been reading of the author's idea of good men, he should reproduce the opinions of other writers as to good men, supplement this with his own idea of what constitutes good men, and in this way produce a more nearly perfect concept of good men. Supplementary Reading. There are two general classes of supplementary reading. The first is col- lateral reading, such as books intended to supplement the work in history, geography, science, etc., and to enlarge the pupil's view of the subject in hand or to help clear up doubtful points and strengthen impres- sions upon his mind. This reading undoubtedly adds to the pupil's interest in school studies, and no doubt unconsciously he is influenced by the author's style as well as by his thought. But in this reading the main purpose is the improvement of the pupil's thought and bringing him into relation with the best minds in the literary world upon the points under discussion. The second class of supplementary reading is that which is designed to train the pupil in reading good books or designed to create and foster a taste for good literature. This kind of reading meets the demand of those who claim that having taught the child to read, READING 31 we should teach him what to read. It contributes to the aesthetic culture of the pupil ; broadens and deepens his daily living; and makes his mind more keenly alive to all that is beautiful in nature and in art. It enriches life by bringing into it the inheritance of the best thought of the present and past ages. This with the young is a potent factor in the building of charac- ter. If the psychology of character building is summed up in four sentences : " I see, I like, I wish I were, I will be," then the greatest possible amount of character building can be obtained by observing fully this fifth step in reading. General Suggestions. Pupils learn to read by being drilled in reading. Drill, drill, drill, is a proper motto for the reading class. Every child should read at least two first readers and two second readers, or the equiv- alent. Drilling in what he can understand is his only hope of learning to read with expression. Drill, drill, drill the pupil until he can recognize and pronounce words without a conscious mental struggle. He should be drilled until he does not stop to think. Teacher, if the reading in your school is soulless, it is your fault. Take a spirited selection and drill upon it until the pupils catch its spirit It is necessary to teach reading in all that pupils read. Why observe the punctuation marks in the reader and not in the history, geography, or arithme- tic ? Why teach a pupil to observe in one study a thing 32 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY that he does not observe in another study or exercise ? Why permit a pupil to revive a bad habit by indiffer- ence on your part ? One virtue of teaching is persist- ency of purpose. Many teachers fail because they are spasmodic in their efforts. There is an infinity of dif- ference between a well-developed purpose and a spasm. The more uniform and exacting a teacher's methods, the less time and labor required to establish a habit. Habit is the result of methodical and persistent repeti- tion. Education ends in habit. An earnest and per- sistent purpose is back of every success. God gives nothing for the mere asking. Effort accompanies all successful prayers. " Faith without works is dead." If teachers would interest pupils in a reading lesson, they must be interested in the lesson themselves. In- terest begets interest. The sincere and purposeful teacher can become interested in the simplest stories. A teacher can no more interest a class in the first reader without preparation than he can interest a class in the " Binomial Theorem " without preparation. We teach him to read without implanting in his soul such love of the good in literature that he will choose the good and no other, and we have opened for him doors into evil paths as well as good, without power to withstand the temptations of the one and to steadily pursue the other. Sarah L. Arnold. There are some people, old and young, who will never read ; there are many who can easily be made to read too much. It is READING 33 possible to read too many books, even good books. The Sunday school library, and even the public library, sometimes bring to the young people too many books for their mental development. We need to emphasize the use of books rather than the reading of books. A. E. Winship. It is apparent that familiarity with the English Bible, as a master- piece of literature, is rapidly decreasing among the pupils in our schools. This is the direct result of a conception which regards the Bible as a theological book merely, and thereby leads to its exclusion from the schools of some states as a subject of reading and study. We hope for such a change of public sentiment in this regard as will permit and encourage the reading and study of the English Bible as a literary work of the highest and purest type side by side with the poetry and prose which it has inspired and in large part formed. We do not urge this in the interest of sectarian instruction of any kind, but that this great book may ever be the teacher's aid in the interpretation of history and literature, law and life an unrivaled agency in the development of true citizenship as well as in the formation of pure literary style. Resolution of National Educational Association^ 1902. CHAPTER IV ARITHMETIC To presume that the ability to "figure" is the whole aim in teaching arithmetic is to see only the smaller part of the purposes ; to suppose that a knowledge of how to solve the problems is the only aim is peda- gogical myopia. The latter fault is more frequently found, the former more loudly condemned; either is inexcusable. If we consider arithmetic as an educational end, then what value is there in it if it be inaccurate ? Who would accept your business calculations if you were known to be inaccurate in arithmetic ? If we consider it as an educational agency, there is still more demand for exactness. The purposes in teaching arithmetic, aside from the necessary fund of useful information gained, are to culti- vate exact reasoning and accurate mechanical execution. Therefore any method found to be deficient in develop- ing these powers should be condemned. It is not necessary to argue that we teach arithmetic to cultivate exact reasoning, for that is generally under- stood and asserted. And it will also be readily admitted that the teaching of arithmetic should cultivate accuracy 34 ARITHMETIC 35 in mechanical execution ; but we must own that much work accepted by many teachers in their daily teaching is not characterized by severe accuracy. Incorrect Methods. To illustrate that the usual methods of teaching are not always conducive to the development of self-directed accuracy, we give the following : Ten pupils are sent to the blackboard and given work. Presently the teacher says : " John, where did you get seven per cent? Don't you see that it says eight per cent ? " John erases the seven and begins to multiply by eight. Soon that delightful (?) sound (snapping fin- gers by non-reciting pupils) is heard, and John, heeding the warning, examines his work and finds that he has said (mentally or perhaps in audible whisper), " Six times seven are thirty-six." This he corrects and again begins operations. This time a hand that is waving frantically is recognized by the teacher, and Mary (at her seat) says, "John has divided by three instead of four; three months equal one fourth of one year." John promptly changes divisors and proceeds. And what is true of John is true of each reciting pupil. In fact, throughout this recitation the pupils at the board are deprived of the privilege of self-direction. They do nothing by themselves ; hence, they are not benefited or developed. Reader, will you argue that this is an extreme case ? Well, so it is ; but the tendencies here mentioned actually 36 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY exist in many of our schools. If you require proof, you have only to go in your imagination to the schools you attended, the schools you have taught, and the schools you have visited ; then say for yourself whether these things exist. It is allowable to help pupils to understand problems, but it is wrong to solve their problems for them. The reasoning may be above their ability, but the mechanical operation should always be required of them. This does not mean that they should not be required to reason for themselves, but when they cannot understand, they may be helped. Neither does it mean that new mechanical processes should not be fully explained, but when a process is understood, the work should be accurately done without help. Remem- ber that the various problems are only applications of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Re- member also that these fundamentals are mastered, or should be mastered, during the first four years of school, and then all this helpful criticising will appear not only unnecessary, but clearly harmful. Too much attention cannot be given to the funda- mental processes of arithmetic in primary grades, for if pupils do not become accurate in these processes be- fore the end of the fourth school year, they seldom do so at any later time. Model Solutions. Pupils should not learn to solve problems by patterns or recipes, for that destroys all opportunity to cultivate the power of reasoning, and ARITHMETIC 37 reduces the work to mere mechanical imitation. They should be required to give logical analysis, but each pupil should give his own analysis. The teacher should have a mind so alert and a nervous system so adjustable as to be able to follow each pupil in his individual analysis, and reject all illogical processes. If the pupil is re- quired to give the teacher's analysis, the principal's analysis, or the superintendent's analysis, wherein is he developed ? He is certainly not developed in power for self-directed thinking. To be sure, the "machine" is thereby completed, the work is beautifully (?) done, but at the child's expense. The following instance will illustrate the fallacy of such methods. A boy asked his mother to analyze a problem for him, but when she did so, he insisted that the analysis was wrong. The father was a graduate of one of the best universities, and taught mathematics in another, so the matter was referred to him. He sustained the mother by saying that the analysis was logical and the result correct. On the following day the boy gave this analysis in class and was mortified by a correction from the teacher. Upon his return home he met his parents with this remark : " I told you that you couldn't do that sum. You left out two ' hences ' and a ' therefore.' " His teacher should have been enlightened or dismissed, and yet there are others of her kind. Correct Methods. Teachers should always have prob- lems solved from the individual view point of the pupil 38 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY solving it, and should remember that model solutions are almost useless for educational purposes. When work is to be done at the board, the teacher should know (by previous discussion or otherwise) that the pupils understand the problems, and then see to it that the pupils at the board do the mechanical work and do it correctly. Each pupil should have a statement of what is required, should finish his solution without in- terruption, and then face the school ready to defend his work against all criticisms. He should stand alone and succeed, or standing alone, fail, and feel that he has failed. A pupil who cannot solve problems correctly without helpful criticisms from the teacher or pupils is either a dullard or has not been properly taught. Mental Arithmetic. Mental arithmetic concerns itself with principles rather than processes, and empha- sizes meaning rather than mechanical observation. It lays stress upon the science of number rather than the art of computation. It is true that no good texts on this subject ignore the practical side of arithme- tic, but they present it as subordinate to the scientific side. Mental arithmetic is not a substitute for written arith- metic. They are both necessary ; in fact, they are com- plements of each other. No teacher who has had opportunity to observe the influence of mental arithmetic on the pupils' work in written arithmetic will doubt for a moment the great value of the former. ARITHMETIC 39 Pupils gain from mental arithmetic ability to reason correctly in the use of numbers, and can be more confi- dently depended upon to apply proper principles to the processes of written arithmetic after having had thor- ough drill in mental arithmetic. For this reason, each topic or subject in arithmetic should be treated orally before the written processes are attempted. FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES Addition. Children should be taught to name the sum of any two numbers at sight. There is no more excuse for counting numbers together in adding than there is for spelling the letters of a syllable together in reading. To find the sum of two small numbers requires but one mental act. Only forty-five combinations of two figures each can be formed with the nine significant digits ; only seven- teen different words are required to name the results. Twenty-five of the forty-five combinations make sums of ten or less. When the combinations are learned, the mind recognizes them as different forms of numbers without regard to the figures themselves. Pupils should be so familiar with the forty-five combinations that the sum of two numbers is seen as quickly as the number itself. The forty-five primary problems in addition are as follows : 40 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY I 2 3 2 4 3 5 4 3 6 5 4 I I i 2 i 2 i 2 3 i 2 3 7 6 5 1 4 8 7 6 5 9 8 7 6 i 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 i 2 3 4 5 9 8 7 6 3 8 7 6 9 8 7 5 2 3 4 5 9 4 5 6 4 5 6 9 8 7 9 7 9 8 9 9 5 6 7 f 6 8 8 8 9 9 Subtraction. Subtraction is simple when addition is mastered. Subtraction finds what number added to the smaller of two numbers makes the larger. That is, find- ing the difference between two numbers is finding the wanting part of the sum of two numbers when one num- ber is given. The minuend is the sum of two numbers, the subtrahend is one of the numbers, and the wanting part is the difference. Subtraction is thinking to the smaller number a number which makes it equal to the larger number. ' When a pupil knows the forty-five combinations, he sees at a glance the number which, added to the smaller number, makes the larger one. The mind almost un- consciously calls up the wanting part of the combina- tion which makes the larger number. So strong is the law of association that to know addition thoroughly is to know subtraction also. ARITHMETIC 41 Multiplication. Children should be taught that mul- tiplication is a form of addition that the multiplier shows how many times the multiplicand is to be taken or repeated ; that the multiplier is always an abstract number; that we cannot repeat a number five cents times or five yards times, but five product is the same as the multiplicand because repeating a number or quantity does not change its nature or quality. Thus, five units taken five times are twenty-five units, five yards taken five times are twenty-five yards. There should be no hurry to solve problems. Pupils need understanding more than they need answers. The formal act of multiplying adds nothing of value after the mechanical part is learned. Pupils do not solve problems to learn to "cipher," but cipher when necessary to solve problems. A little thinking is better than much ciphering. Division. One number is contained in another as many times as it can be taken from the other. Division is a sort of subtraction. One number cannot contain another dollars times, but merely times. The remainder is the undivided part of the dividend ; hence, it is like it. Pupils should be made so familiar with the mechanical work of arithmetic that adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing will be automatic, i.e. done without much conscious mental effort. If pupils are permitted to pass over the ground rules in an indefinite, slipshod manner, 42 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY the probability is that they will always blunder in the purely mechanical work of arithmetic. Pupils should be trained to solve arithmetical prob- lems by brief and intelligent methods and kept free from set rules and formulas. What a pupil does in arithmetic, he should do consciously, not mechanically. Memory, or rule arithmetic, always fails when most needed. Principles should be inductively developed in the class and then consciously applied by the pupils to the solution of text-book problems, and to problems prevalent in the everyday life and occupations of the community. CHAPTER V SPELLING THE spelling of a word involves the recall of certain memory images and concepts, such as the visual image of the written or printed word ; the memory images of the phonetic elements or the endings, prefixes, and suf- fixes of certain classes of words. In the spelling of English words silent letters and other etymological peculiarities impose a tremendous task upon the learner. In the primary grades, especially, the chief reliance is upon the sense of sight. Pupils must acquire correct mental images of words or they cannot recall their cor- rect spelling. They must be trained to see words ; to see the different syllables of a word ; to see the correct form of a word; to pronounce each syllable distinctly and correctly ; to commit to memory a few of the rules of spelling, and then drilled, drilled, drilled in the use of the rules. They should also be required to use every word in their formal spelling lessons in thoughtful sen- tences. The mere spelling of a list of words orally counts for little. Written Spelling. As we spell only when we write, the eye should be trained from the start to recognize 43 44 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY the combinations of letters which represent the different phonetic elements. As soon as a pupil can write, he should be required to copy the spelling lessons in his reader. If he is required to copy his spelling lessons, he will give closer attention to the form of the word than when he merely studies the lesson and spells the word orally. Written spelling lessons are also exercises in penmanship, and they afford the teacher a rare op- portunity to train pupils in habits of order, neatness, and promptness. Pupils should spell and respell new words as they occur in each study. In this way spelling is taught with all the other branches. Pupils should spend no time in spelling words that they will seldom or never use, such as unimportant geographical and historical names. It is enough that a pupil recognizes these words readily in reading. In the first three grades, or during the first three years of a child's school life, the spelling lessons should consist largely in copying sentences and new words. In this way pupils in the lower grades acquire by imita- tion the correct spelling of simple words. The teacher should keep lists of words frequently misspelled and make special lessons of them. This will concentrate the attention of the class upon the mis- spelled words. The teacher should ascertain, if possible, why these words were misspelled ; should call attention to the very letters in these words which most probably caused the pupil to misspell them, and should bring SPELLING 45 into clear consciousness the correct form of the mis- spelled words. Oral Spelling. The direct usefulness of spelling is not limited entirely to what one writes. People in dif- ferent vocations will use different words. Nothing less than an unabridged dictionary would contain all of the words used in the English language, and few people live long enough to commit this formidable list to mem- ory. Good spelling is indispensable; still we do not believe that words are written simply to be spelled, and that men are born simply to spell words. Twenty-five hundred words are probably all that are in everyday use by the masses, and this is about the number that an average pupil in the grammar grades should be required to learn to spell. In the lower grades spelling is an invaluable aid to proper pronunciation. Especially is this true if the pupils are required to syllabify words; for in so doing they will get more distinct mental images of the form and sound of the separate syllables and hence retain a more definite concept of the word. It is a good plan to have the pupils in oral spelling first repeat the word so that the teacher may know that his own pronunciation has been understood, then each syllable pronounced as the word is spelled, and the word re-pronounced, defined, and used in a thoughtful sentence. When a pupil has recited his spelling in this way, he has deepened the mental image of the whole word form, and 46 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY the form of each syllable, also the mental image of the word sound and its several phonetic elements. In addi- tion to this the form and sound of a word are more easily retained if the word has been mastered by learn- ing its meaning and use if it has become a part of the pupil's vocabulary. The plan of spelling all the words in the book as rapidly as possible without giving any attention to rules or reason is a schoolroom farce that should have no place even in the poorest school. Simplified Spelling. Frequently the movement for simplified spelling is thought to be simply a movement for phonetic spelling, but the two movements are not identical. In the matter of phonetic spelling or spelling by sound, the present alphabet will not serve perfectly and as yet no alphabet has been found that is complete. Until such an alphabet is invented phonetic spelling cannot be universally adopted. The present current spelling of our language is needlessly difficult. It is estimated that the letters in our written language are at least ten per cent more numerous than is necessary. The learning of spelling in English requires a great amount of extra time and retards the learner's progress in all subjects. At least one year's time in the grammar grades is consumed in learning the difficult spelling of our tongue. Simplified spelling would prevent this needless waste of time and effort in the schooling of the young. Spelling reform is accomplished by gradual change as SPELLING 47 the language is simplified or as a close parallelism is established between the correct sound and the written or printed form of words. If one should write fysche for fish, sunne for sun, trewe for true, cuppe for cup, etc., as our ancestors did, he would realize how much needless effort they expended in recording word symbols and and would cease to cry, " Spare the spelling of our fath- ers." When we have written through for thru, prologue for prolog, programme for program, etc., we can begin to understand the necessity for eliminating superfluous letters in our language. When letters are in no sense helpful, leave them out, is a good rule for teachers to follow. A silent letter may be needed to indicate the sound of an adjacent letter, as a in the past tense of read, or it may be needed to indicate the sense of a word, as the u in Saviour. When there is use for a letter in a word, we must keep it, whether our spelling is ever reformed or not. Reform in spelling must be a growth a gradual change. It cannot be brought about by decree any more than it can be stopped by ridicule. Teachers should take a sensible view of this subject and lend reasonable help to the simplification of spelling. CHAPTER VI GEOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHY may be defined as the science which de- scribes the earth in its relation to man. From this pro- visional definition we must conclude that geography is a science study that a knowledge of it must be based upon sense perception. To illustrate that our knowledge of geography is based upon sense perception we have only to think of trying to form the concept " mountains" without seeing a mountain and without the use of the concept " hill." In the extension of our knowledge of this subject we rely upon the imagination and the re- corded knowledge gained by others through sense per- ception, but in adopting or rejecting methods of teaching geography we must remember the scope and nature of our subject. In teaching geography we should emphasize those features which influence human life and action. When geography is made a technical study of names, bounda- ries, and locations, it loses its usefulness and the pupils lose their interest. In fact, these things are not usually important, and however faithfully a teacher may work in attempting to fill the minds of his pupils with these dry, statistical facts, he cannot arouse interest in the subject or secure any valuable results. 48 GEOGRAPHY 49 Geography properly taught gives pupils a knowledge of the life (plant and animal) of a country as well as of its climate and the environment of its people ; it becomes an inspiring and extremely profitable study; it trains the pupils to create mental pictures of the surface of the earth ; to see lakes, oceans, rivers, hills, mountains, vil- lages, and cities; to note the positions upon the earth where environment favors man, or to discover how man may profit by his environment. To a pupil properly taught, the marks and dots on the map suggest real representations. Primary Geography. Before a child enters school he has acquired a considerable geographical knowledge, and the tactful teacher begins his task by finding out how much the pupils know. Should he desire to teach the shape of the earth, he would introduce the study by a simple inductive exercise which will develop a clear concept of the sphere from the pupils' knowledge of familiar objects (ball, orange, marble, etc.) that are round. Next in order, perhaps, would be the surface of various familiar objects, including the earth's surface as the pupils have seen it By inquiry the teacher can lead the class to discover that they have not seen all of the surface of the earth, but in so far as they have ob- served the surface of the earth is composed of land and water. But is it nearly all land ? Is there more land than water ? At this point the teacher may introduce the globe and let the pupils help to find out that there 50 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY is more water than land and then teach them the exact proportions. We should teach distances, foot, yard, mile, etc., and have the pupils think these distances ; then try to think how many miles around the earth. One pupil has been to a distant point How far ? Can he think ? Let him bring the globe and show to the class the points from and to which he traveled. After this exercise the teacher should give the circumference of the earth ; he should first get the concept formed and then place the figures before the pupils. To teach the motions of the earth and other planets, the pupils should be led to form mental images of the spherical bodies revolving in space : to see the earth, mentally, swinging in space ; to see the sun, moon, and stars floating in space. If they can form these mental images, they can begin to understand the courses of the seasons and of day and night. With proper instruction they can do this. If pupils do not know the cardinal points of the com- pass, these should be definitely fixed in their minds by calling attention to the position of the sun and by re- peatedly requiring the pupils to recognize and give these directions. Before a pupil can understand the maps in his geog- raphy he needs to be given some instruction and practice in making maps. It is well to begin this by having him make on his tablet a map (representation) of the bot- tom of his ink-well, the map being the same size as the GEOGRAPHY 51 object ; next requiring him to make a map of his book, the map being the same size as the object. Next he should try to make a map of the top of his desk ; but as it is too large to be drawn on his tablet, let him make it only one tenth as large necessity for scale devel- oped. Next let him make a map of the schoolroom, placing the north part of the room at the top of his paper. Require him to locate on his map certain objects in the room, and he will thus discover the manner and need of indicating latitude and longitude. If the teacher will extend this exercise until the school district, the county, the state, the United States, North America, and the world have been mapped, the pupils may be able, by the use of a map and the accompanying description, to form a somewhat reliable and accurate concept of the location of places they have never visited. When these introductory and fundamental facts are clearly understood by the pupils, the teacher should give them text -books. This can usually be accomplished by the end of the third year. Teachers should give the pupils these exercises and see that they are understood before introducing a text-book in geography. Pupils should devote much time to the geography of our own country and little to that of foreign countries. The geography of Africa and Australia should be studied only in a general way only as wholes. The small political divisions of Europe, South America, and Asia might be entirely omitted. Descriptive geography furnishes ample opportunity 52 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY for the teacher to train his pupils in the use of lan- guage, oral and written. Every important geographical fact should be described orally in the class recitation, and afterward reproduced in the form of composition. Written descriptions deepen the images and give them greater symmetry of form than oral description. In primary geography the book should be used chiefly as a reader, not as a work to be committed to memory. Advanced Geography. One of the most interesting fields of study and thought is here opened to the stu- dent. Here he is to learn how the three great king- doms, mineral, vegetable, and animal, each having an independent form, are related to the earth's surface and to human history. Geography opens the gateway to organic and inorganic nature and reveals the manner in which the earth was prepared for the habitation of man. It also teaches how certain races or nations have made advancement in civilization while others have made no appreciable progress. Thus we see that geography lays the foundation for natural science and also for social and political economy. Geography should enable the pupil to know some- thing of his social and political rights and duties and to understand something of the complex relations between various industries and occupations. But if geography is treated as a mass of discon- nected, unrelated, dry facts, the student will not be developed in the least. Helen Keller once remarked GEOGRAPHY 53 that her main objection to college was that she had to study so much of the time that she had no time to think. Too often the pupils in geography have a simi- lar experience. Field Exercises. The out-of-door study of geography is a good means by which to develop thought. Field excursions and field exercises are included in all inter- mediate plans of study in this work. Field exercises are more useful with small classes and field excursions with large ones. In field exercises each pupil is re- quired to do the work, but in field excursions the pupils are to make observations for themselves and the teacher is to lead in class work. To illustrate this work in a field excursion we will suppose a class of twenty pupils to be standing upon a hill somewhere in the great valley of the Mississippi River, and the teacher to be endeavoring to impress them with the magnitude of the work of erosion. The teacher says, "Now, pupils, face the south and look across the little stream below us to the top of the hill on the other side. Now close your eyes and imagine that it is level from the top of this hill to the top of the one you are facing. Imagine also that it is level with this point far across the river into which the stream below us flows, and still level across the wide Mississippi River to the hills beyond it. Now imagine that there are none of these streams in existence, but that it is level prairie from here to the Gulf of Mexico. 54 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Imagine that a rain falls on the northern shore of the Gulf ; clods of moist earth fall into the Gulf, leaving an opening down which runs the water from the level; other rains fall and other earth when moistened crum- bles and falls into the same channel, which deepens, widens, and reaches farther inland ; ages of rain storms are poured upon the land and this channel becomes a creek, then a mighty river, its source receding north- ward until it is far north of where you now stand. Then some earth falls into the river from the bank on this side, and a channel is gradually worn and a stream formed flowing from near here ; it is the river just below us into which the stream just at your feet is now flowing, and this stream was formed in like manner by clods falling into the river and continued crumbling and washing away of earth until all that is left on the former great level plain is the tops of these hills on one of which we are now standing. Open your eyes and tell me how much earth the water has swept down toward the Gulf, and how long it took to form these hills." It would be impossible for those pupils ever to forget such a lesson, and it would be impossible for them to fail to think. But this is only one of many out-of-door lessons a tactful teacher can give. Industries. Our text-books on geography are too incomplete and fragmentary. This defect is probably due to the plan of treating all or a. large part of the GEOGRAPHY 55 world in one book; but a tactful teacher can supple- ment this in the industries by collecting specimens of farm products or of manufactured articles in process of production. Samples of crude oils and of the same when refined, together with the samples of the by-prod- ucts obtained, afford material for valuable exercises in the geography class. Another illustration would be in silk manufacture. In studying this have a cocoon, the silk unwound, and dyed, and certain finer fabrics of silk after manufacture. Such articles as these mentioned can be easily obtained from the factories, and the teach- ing of the industrial part of geography in this manner will undoubtedly be more beneficial than committing to memory condensed statistical statements contained in the average descriptive geography. Map Questions. In studying location of places it is well occasionally to put the class at the board and ask them, for illustration, to draw a rough outline map of the United States, indicating the chief rivers, lakes, and mountains ; then, as the teacher calls number one, New York, let the pupils place the figure one on the map where the City of New York should be located; number two, San Francisco, etc., until the principal cities are located. Again, let the teacher call the word wheat, the word corn, the word cotton, etc., and let the pupils write the word on that part of the map where the article is produced. The same should be done with the products of the mines. At the words coal, iron, 56 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY gold, or silver, the pupil should write these words ap- proximately in the places where the products form an industry. Map questions in the geography may be made in- teresting if they are extended. As an illustration, let us suppose that we are studying France. Let the pupils use their maps and find the latitude of France. Let them compare it with the latitude of the state in which they reside. Using the scale let them find the length and average width of France and compare this with the dimensions of their own country and state. Then have them make a list of the seaports of France and for comparison another list of the seaports of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Have them examine an isothermal chart and state how France compares with their own state in temperature. Ask them if it snows in Paris during the winter and if the people sleigh- ride and skate. Have the pupils determine what part of France is best adapted to agriculture. After a comparison of the population and area, the teacher should see if the pupils think France's agricultural products will supply her demands. This line of ques- tions may be continued indefinitely and supplemented by printed lists, while also awakening some real interest in the study of the country of France. In studying any foreign country the pupils should bring to the class such articles as they have which are imported from that country, and discuss the production of these articles. It is also a most excellent plan to GEOGRAPHY 57 introduce the study of a foreign country by associating historic events with certain localities. Inasmuch as geography is a science study, any reci- tation in which the laboratory method is approached, i.e. out-of-door geography, illustrated subjects as of commercial commodities, and comparative studies of different countries, should be made study recitations. That is, the teacher and pupils should investigate and recite what they find out as it is learned. In this, as in all other subjects, no one method is best; but there are fundamentals which determine whether methods are proper or improper, and the suc- cess of these methods when employed must, of course, depend somewhat upon the tact and energy of the teacher. The teaching of geography has received much attention in recent years because of the change from the old method of catechism teaching of questions and answers. It is to be hoped, at least, that the painful sight of the teacher reading the question from the geography and then sending his finger in a rapid search for the location, receiving the answer from the class, and hur- rying through the next question in the same manner, will not be witnessed longer in American schools, but that geography will be taught by methods which are in accordance with the needs of the pupils in making geography a natural science study, a useful study, a bright and interesting topic in the schoolroom. CHAPTER VII ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR WHEN the principal characteristic of a teacher is purpose, he is greater than any method ; and he seeks not to make pupils recite, but to make them think. To the teacher, the best evidence of clear thinking is clear expression. The value of any lesson may be determined by the amount of clear expression called forth, but this is especially true of lessons in English. Language. In teaching elementary English the end sought is expression clear, pure, simple. The teacher must know methods of teaching. He must also know both the art and the science of expression. The former is language work the art of expression ; the latter is technical grammar or the science of language. In expression, as in all else, pupils readily learn from example. The language of the teacher, therefore, may be a very potent factor in aiding pupils to acquire the power of correct expression. If the teacher is accurate in the selection of words and careful in the construction of sentences, the pupils will desire to use good language, and by imitation, gradually learn to do so. A teacher who habitually uses incorrect language who is care- less in expression cannot teach English successfully. 58 ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 59 As accuracy of expression depends upon clearness of thought, a pupil should never be asked to express him- self until he knows clearly what he is to say. The reflective use of words in the expression of original thought is a most valuable exercise in the cultivation of the power of expression. In the primary grades, sense perception should be the basis, and descriptive composition the finished product. Little children may be able to describe what they have seen, but they should not be expected to discuss abstract subjects or produce argumentative compositions. The order should be oral exercises first, written last; the former more abundant. The subjects assigned should be such as are familiar to the children, objects of which each child has frequently had and still retains clear visual images. Every incorrect expression should be questioned by the teacher and corrected by the pupil; every wordy statement should be revised by the pupil until it is clear and concise. The use of language, good or bad, is a habit a growth. Habit results from repetition. A tactful teacher will ever be on the alert in regard to the language used by his pupils and keep them on their guard as to what they say. He will watch them until thoughtful expression becomes a fixed habit with them. When a pupil makes use of an incorrect expression or when his statements are not made in clear, smooth Eng- lish, the teacher should question him until by his own re- vision the pupil is able properly to express his thoughts. 60 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Letter Writing. Few pupils know how to write let- ters in credible style. This fault is due to a lack of proper instruction in school. Instruction in letter writ- ing is not complete until by application, in writing letters, the pupil is able to demonstrate that he can apply the principles of written expression in business and social correspondence. Teachers of different schools could be mutually help- ful if they would have their pupils correspond. Pupils from our city or state should write letters discussing familiar subjects to pupils of corresponding grades in other cities or states. By this means much interest may be created in the manners, customs, and occupa- tions of people in various localities. Besides this, real practice in letter writing is ahvays a valuable drill in written expression. These letters should, of course, be criticised by the teacher before they are sent through the mail, but the superior wisdom of the teacher should not be allowed to discourage the pupil. Reproduction. As soon as pupils can write fairly well they should be required to reproduce from memory the best selections from then- readers. It is all the better if they have committed to memory selections which they are asked to reproduce. "Friday after- noon speeches" are valuable in fixing correct words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in the minds of the pupils. Exercises of this character should form part of every course of study. ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 6l Selections memorized by the pupil or dictated by the teacher, when written by the pupils, aid materially in giving the idea of the sentence and paragraph. This exercise will also aid in teaching the correct use of capital letters and marks of punctuation. In written, as in oral, expression pupils should be made to see their own mistakes, and to correct them as part of the recitation. Grammar. If most of the time now spent in teach- ing the facts of grammar were spent in expressing thought, it would not be long before the average high school graduate could use good English. A pupil can- not learn to use good language by reciting the rules that govern forms of speech. Many pupils can recite readily the rules of syntax and rapidly imprison sen- tences in diagrams, but cannot express the most com- monplace event in clear, smooth English. Yet, of course, we must know the science of language before we can become perfect in expression. We must know the science as well as the art, for the application of the science of expression constitutes the art of expression. What we should do is to require the pupils to use grammatical facts as soon as they have learned them. Use fixes knowledge. Pupils are not properly interested in grammar unless they are using their acquired knowl- edge in the construction of thoughtful sentences. They should recite, but they should also create. Part of every day should be spent in sentence building or in 62 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY some other form of composition work. Pupils should be required to write business letters, biographies, de- scriptions of journeys, narrations of events, as part of their work in grammar ; in short, they should use their knowledge. There is really very little to commit to memory in English grammar, and therefore undue time should not be given to unimportant topics. Pronouns. Pupils should be thoroughly drilled in the use of pronouns. Many of the mistakes in writing and in speaking arise from ignorance of their correct use. But the mere recitation of grammatical rules that govern their use will not fix the correct forms of pronouns in the minds of the pupils. Students of grammar should be required to use all the forms of pronouns in sentences and tell why a certain form should be used in preference to another form. They should define, of course, but they should surely be required to illustrate. Personal pronouns have fixed forms for different uses: number forms, person forms, gender forms, and case forms. These forms should be mastered and their uses exhibited in thoughtful original sentences. Verbs. Irregular and auxiliary verbs should be treated in a similar manner. The mere conjugation of irregular verbs will not fix their correct forms in the minds of the pupils. Pupils must be led to see the correct use of irregular verbs through their meaning. ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 63 They must think the correct forms of pronouns and auxiliary verbs into habitual use or they cannot be relied upon at all times to use them correctly. The changes in the form of the verb to correspond to changes in its subject are very limited. With the ex- ception of the verb be, in the indicative mode, present and past tenses, singular number, there are but few changes in the form of the English verb to denote per- son, tense, mode, or voice. These changes should be learned and thought into use by repeated drills in the construction of sentences. Adjectives. The adjective keeps the same form whether joined to a singular or to a plural noun. It is inflected to show degree only. Most adverbs are derived from adjectives and take the same inflection. Thus we see that the English language is, comparatively, an unin- flected language. In the study of adjectives, as in the study of other parts of speech, the teacher should re- member that use fixes knowledge, and that thoughtful practice in the application of grammatical facts and principles will result in habitual use of correctly gram- matical language. We should teach the essential facts of English gram- mar, but we should also let our major effort be the con- struction of English, i.e. the power to use good language correct expression. CHAPTER VIII UNITED STATES HISTORY In teaching history the objects sought are to cultivate the memory, impart useful information, stimulate ethical judgment, and develop the power of probable reasoning ; and these objects taken collectively produce what we commonly call good citizenship. This good citizenship is, therefore, the paramount object in offering courses in United States history in elementary schools. Methods of teaching history seem to vary more widely than those of teaching any other given subject, and yet there seems to be less excuse for such variations than for variations in teaching other subjects. If we con- sider history a culture study, we can say briefly that we teach history to build good character. Now the applied psychology of character building may be briefly summed up in these words : " I see, I like, I wish I were, I will be." The first teaching of history should be largely bio- graphical, for in the life of an individual the young student can follow readily the right and wrong of con- duct, and exercise freely his ethical judgment. Teachers should not stop to say, " You should not like this," or " You should not like that," or dwell on a religious cate- chism of rights and wrongs, but present facts of history 64 UNITED STATES HISTORY 65 in such a way that the child will see instantly that this conduct is right or that conduct is wrong, and then he will " see," will " like," will " wish he were," and will " be " a part of the good in the lives studied. Later the teaching should lead to a knowledge of institutional history. Topical Method. We must at this point apparently digress from method to curriculum, and state that it is advisable to have an elementary course somewhere in the lower grades, and this work is that which should be " largely biographical." In the eighth, or last year of the grades, history should be taken up systematically by topics. For instance, in the study of the early ex- plorations and settlements, assign to the class such topics as the Discoveries, Explorations, and Settlements made in North America by the Spanish, the English, the French, and the Dutch. In the recitations develop an outline, or have the children develop it, and you will find that it will appear about as follows : SPANISH 1. Columbus, 1492. 2. Ponce de Leon. 3. Balboa. 4. De Soto, 1541-1542. 5. Cabrillo. 6. Espejo. 7. Menendez, 1565. 66 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY ENGLISH 1. Cabots, 1497-1498. 2. Frobisher. 3. Drake. 4. Raleigh. 5. London Company, 1607. 6. Plymouth Company, 1620. FRENCH 1. Verrazanni, 1524. 2. Cartier. 3. Ribault. 4. Laudanier. 5. Champlain. 6. Marquette. 7. La Salle. DUTCH 1. Henry Hudson, 1609. 2. Adrian Block. The mastery of this outline will require three or four weeks' study. In this assignment are found several important dates upon which rest the claims to territory by discovery, by exploration, and by occupation, of these nations within the boundaries of what is now the United States. Do not require pupils to memorize unimportant dates or else they will remember no dates. UNITED STATES HISTORY 67 This outline need not be exactly as above given, but approximately so. After this comes the study of the intercolonial wars, and the pupils, if taught as above suggested, will more readily understand the claims and conditions of the various nations involved in these inter- colonial difficulties. They will readily develop an out- line of this and succeeding periods. History should be outlined in the class, by the class, and for the class. History lessons should be assigned by topics, never by pages. Study of Wars. The causes, the general plans of campaign, perhaps, and certainly the results of wars, should be known ; but wars should not be the most im- portant topics in history, for if Macaulay is right in saying that " the changes, the movements, and the de- velopments in the life of a people is that people's his- tory," then many other things should be studied as well as wars. However, every pupil should study fully, and in detail, some few important battles, that he may know something of what actual war means. Reviews. After the historic events, somewhat in the order of occurrence, have been covered in this way, reviews should be given in parallels. As an illustration of that method we would suggest that the teacher assign for one parallel Financial Panics ; for another, Slavery ; for another, Treaties with Foreign Powers ; for another, Acquisitions of Territory, etc. 68 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY When the pupils of the eighth grade have finished the study of history, they have received some practical benefit as well as the intended culture ; they should know something of the institutional history of our own country. Culture Value. History, if properly taught, is an excellent culture study, and one of its most fruitful les- sons is patriotism. In the study of United States his- tory we learn that five hundred years of history have become crystallized in our American notion of patriot- ism five hundred years of passionate struggle for liberty. Oppressive forces, organized into institutions, have been resisted and overcome. Feudalism, villenage, serfdom, chattel slavery, and constitutional absolutism have, one after another, gone down in battle. Free towns, free men, and free states have come successively into being. During this entire time the whole western world has been a militant host. To secure and main- tain the rights of man thousands have died in battle, in prison, and at the stake. Speak of patriots and we think of William Tell, William the Silent, Cromwell, Mirabeau, Bolivar, La- fayette, Washington all men with the sword in hand. In the opening chapter of his " French Revolution," Carlyle wrote : " Borne over the Atlantic to the closing ear of of Louis, king by the grace of God, what sounds are these muffled, ominous, new in our cen- UNITED STATES HISTORY 69 turies ? Boston harbor is black with unexpected tea; behold a Pennsylvanian congress gather; and, ere long, on Bunker Hill, Democracy an- nouncing in rifle volleys, death-winged, under her starry banner, to the tune of ' Yankee-doodle- doo,' that she is born, and, whirlwind-like will envelop the whole world." For a hundred years, to American children, Bunker Hill has been presented as a type of patriotism in the concrete. After the Civil War, new names were added to the list. Lincoln and Grant in the North, and with precisely the same sentiment, Lee and Jackson in the South. Our late war with Spain has increased this list still further. As a perpetual stimulus to this emotion we have put the flag over our schoolhouses and have taught our children to salute it, and this is right, but it is not our whole duty in the teaching of patriotism. The practical question for us to consider is, What does it all mean, and what is to be the outcome of it all ? Here is a sentiment of tremendous power, widespread and deeply felt Hitherto, this sentiment has had the weakness of the old theology which aimed to teach men how to die. Shall this sentiment of patriotism be al- lowed to expend itself in mere effervescence in Fourth of July orations, and after-dinner speeches on battle anniversaries ? Shall it pride itself chiefly in patriotic ancestry, or shall its energy be transmuted into useful 70 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY work ? Shall not our people be willing to live for their country while waiting to die for it ? This great, independent nation composed of free and equal people will not have to fight over the old battles, or to meet again the old foes. The demands now to be made upon the love and devotion of our citizens will be to meet new enemies, and will call for new weapons. When we have come to know what these new ene- mies are, we shall realize that the work of patriots is no longer to be done under the glamour of military glory ; that the humblest citizen in the most commonplace things may show himself to be a glorious patriot ; that no grander character ever wrote a mighty name across the pages of history than has sacrificed its desires in humble but heroic services, perhaps never to be known. The potentially great, whom circumstances have buried in obscurity instead of lifting into prominence, have been legion. In teaching history teach the problems of human life that the human race has been gradually growing stronger, better, and wiser. Train the children in jus- tice, mercy, purity, goodness, faith, hope, and love. Teach them to live for their country, and sacrifice for the common good. Make them see the beauty and the necessity of altruism. In teaching history, BUILD CHARACTER. "The lovely things men build in the days of strength are but the reproduction of the lovely thoughts that were whispered in their hearts in the days of tender youth." PART TWO MANAGEMENT CHAPTER IX FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES The School an Organism. The school includes the pupils, the teacher, the parents, the trustees, the com- munity, the taxpayers, the funds, the house, the appa- ratus, and the state. The purpose of these several factors is primarily to bring the pupils and the teacher into cooperation, and the work of this organization is the school process. The pupils and teacher are the center of all these diverse parts. All of these factors should cooperate to one end : bringing the pupil from the imperfect to the ideal state of development. Since the diverse acts of these several factors focus them- selves in the one single act for which all acts are per- formed, namely, improving the child, the work of the school is an organic process, the purpose of which is to serve the child's needs. This process is the thing to be controlled and directed. School Management. School management is the control and direction of the school process, and since the laws for this management are based upon a work- ing, moving process rather than a fixed or stationary object, it is evident that it cannot be externally imposed 73 74 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY but is inherent in the school process itself. Actual school methods follow man's advancement in civilization and indeed are the result of his advancement. Ideal school methods are far in advance of real school methods, and the strain between these two the real and the ideal is continuous but perhaps varying in tension. This tension and the forces producing it are governed by inherent laws. Laws for the government of schools, like other laws, should be based on the consent or on the approval of the governed ; that is, laws of government should be inherent laws. The state itself proclaims laws for its own governing and obeys these laws because they are inherent laws. Just rules are indorsed even by the offender, because they embody the requirements of his own nature. The laws of a school, therefore, should express the require- ments of the pupil's nature, and if they are in accord- ance with this, they will not only be just, but pupils will be constrained to obey them. Since school laws are for the government of all school factors, the pupils alone cannot prescribe laws, but their judgment should approve them. Cooperation. All of the complex factors of the school process should work harmoniously. If the teacher, who is one of the important factors, should neg- lect or antagonize any of these diverse forces, the school would suffer. If the directors should antagonize or 75 counteract the teacher or any other factor of the school, evil results would follow. The same is true of any other of these various factors. Primarily the school exists for the pupil. Sometimes directors lose sight of this fact and use the school for other ends, and always in such cases evil results are sure to follow. The self-interest of those in authority is the most formidable obstacle to the just laws of a school. When some school trustee uses the money of the district for his own private ends, he is properly branded a criminal; but when he uses the school or the influence of the school to further his own interest, he is not generally so designated. If the trustee, in order to use the influence of the school in his own be- half, will drop a true and tried teacher of valuable experience for one that is doubtful and untried, he is jeopardizing the interests of the pupils, and he may do more harm than the man who appropriates the school funds to his own use. Again, when a school trustee yields to local pressure and retains an incompetent teacher, he is sinning against the children by reducing the efficiency of their training. Yet the common opinion of these acts is so different that he who takes the money from the child's fund is called criminal, and he who robs the child of his opportunity may remain an honored citizen. When any factor of the school process fails to act in accordance with the interests of the school organism, the action is not in accordance with the law of the 76 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY school, however strictly it may be in literal accord with the school law of the state. The law of the school the really potent governing force is inherent in the school process itself. One of the best means of secur- ing obedience is by consulting with pupils whose actions indicate that they are inclined to be disobedient. The mere fact of a teacher's considering a pupil and consult- ing with him will forestall any opposition and at the same time will tend to make the pupil a student of school conduct. Importance and Source of Law. Rational school management management that recognizes these funda- mental principles, is better than any direct moral in- struction, and as good moral character is the greatest purpose of the school, it is quite evident that proper management is more important, even, than proper in- struction. These fundamentals in school management are fundamentals in all management. These laws in school government are universal laws. The source of the origin of all social and political institutions is the fact that the real man seeks to become the ideal man, and that the institutions which he composes naturally formulate such laws as express his nature. The organi- zation compels its individual members to conform to the general rule of action, and therefore, at base, all government is democratic. A school may be crushed into obedience by the power of the teacher, but such obedience is really disorder. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 77 A teacher who so governs must have the erroneous idea that the school is his private enterprise; that he must be obeyed and his pleasure and convenience con- sulted ; that the school exists for his benefit. The fact is, that the pupils originally organized the school and that to-day the school is organized in sympathy for pupils who are not able to organize and maintain their own schools; that while the teacher is an impor- tant factor, the pupils compose an indispensable factor. It is not intended to argue that school management should be turned over to the whims of pupils, but it is asserted that school rules of management should be in accord with the judgment of pupils as well as with the judgment of parents and teacher, and should express their nature. The pupil government established in many cities is of value because it secures the students' approval of all law, and is thus far founded on cor- rect principles. Whether this method of managing schools can be properly employed depends on whether the rights of all are considered, i.e. whether the rights of the pupils and the teacher, as well as the rights of all other factors of the school in question, receive due consideration. As the value of an institution depends upon the character of the individuals composing it, the value of a school depends on the character of the teacher and pupils, on the parents and trustees, and the community and state in general. Our whole social fabric is an organization to promote man's purpose to realize another self and may, therefore, 78 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY be termed a complex school to elevate man from the real to the ideal conditions of life. All rules or laws of management in the social fabric that are just are in- herent in the body politic, and the school itself is the more or less complex organization to assist the pupil to realize his other self; to develop from the real to the ideal and just. Just school rules and laws of govern- ment are inherent in the school organization. School laws that are based upon these fundamental principles are just and equitable. School management governed by these principles will be successful, for each of the several factors will be given due consideration, but impelled by the whole organization to cooperate in the school process. " Order is heaven's first law," and it is scarcely more essential to the harmony of heaven than it is to the happiness and success of the school. David Page. " Discipline is the result of training and study. In physical cul- ture it gives a man control of his muscles, so that they are obedient to his will. In mental culture it gives him control of his intellectual powers, so that he is able under all circumstances to do the best work possible. In moral training discipline gives a man such con- trol of himself bodily and mentally that he can resist temptation, discern good from evil, and make the best choice." CHAPTER X CLASS MANAGEMENT THE personality of the teacher, his presence, the impression which the teacher makes upon those with whom he comes in contact, is undoubtedly the greatest force in class management. There are, however, many duties in the management of classes which are common to every schoolroom, and a knowledge of the best methods employed by successful teachers in class man- agement will be an aid to any teacher, whether his personality makes management easy or whether it makes it difficult. Classification. First among the many duties involved in the management of classes is the arrangement of the pupils in the grades for which they are fitted. This is usually denominated classification of pupils. In all well- regulated schools the teacher will find that his prede- cessor has provided a record of the classification of pupils and it is encumbent upon him to follow his prede- cessor's recorded classification. Unless he should find, after careful and continued investigation, that some part of his classification is radically wrong, he should adhere to it strictly. 79 80 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Into every school will come some pupils who have not been classified. They will bring various statements from schools which they have attended, and these will be supplemented by added information from the parent or guardian. In such cases it is well for the teacher to be careful and deliberate before making a permanent classification of the pupil. It is especially important that he shall refrain from expressing any adverse criticism. The tactful teacher will not only succeed in classifying the pupil, but by due counsel and advice he will satisfy the pupil and the parents that the classification is the best one that could be made for the pupil's welfare. Program. No thoughtful teacher will attempt to begin school without a carefully prepared program, both of study and recitation. This program will necessarily be tentative, but the teacher should either follow his program or change it so that it can be followed. By following the program is meant beginning the classes on time and closing the exercises on time. It is an item of no small moment that the teacher be on time in teaching : that he is punctual in beginning, punctual in closing, punctual in everything. Punctuality is an essen- tial element in the law of order, and therefore should be cultivated in the student body. The best way to do this is for the teacher himself to be an example of punctual- ity and insist that pupils shall be punctual in all things. In making a program due care should be taken to CLASS MANAGEMENT 8l provide proper length of recitations and to avoid crowd- ing recitation periods too close together. The recitation period in the grades should vary in length from ten minutes in the primary grades to thirty minutes in the grammar grades. No teacher should adopt a program until he has modified it to suit his individual notion and to comply with the particular conditions in the school where it is to be used. This does not imply that there is no general plan in common use, but that details, so long as they violate no pedagogical principle, may be arranged to suit the local conditions. The following program is only a suggestive one, cop- ied from the 45th Annual Report, Department of Public Instruction, New York, 1903, Appendix 4. This pro- gram for a school arranged in four classes, by shorten- ing a few recitation periods, can easily be so amended as to provide four periods for individual instruction. PROGRAM TlMB FIRST YEAR THIRD YEAR SIXTH YEAR EIGHTH YEAR 9.00 to 9.10 Opening ex. Opening ex. Opening ex. Opening ex. 9.10 9.30 Reading Reading Reading Reading 9.30 950 Copying Reading Reading Reading 9.50 o.io Employment Reading Arithmetic Arithmetic o.io 0.25 Dismissed Arithmetic Reading Arithmetic 0.25 0.35 Recess Recess Recess Recess 0.35 0.45 Number Arithmetic Arithmetic Arithmetic o 45 i-OS Drawing Arithmetic Arithmetic Arithmetic 1.05 1.25 Employment Arithmetic Arithmetic History l.5 1-45 Dismissed Reading, Spelling Arithmetic History 1.45 2.00 English Geography History 82 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY PROGRAM continued TIME FIRST YEAR THIRD YEAR SIXTH YEAR EIGHTH YEAR I.OO " 1.05 Singing or other exercises 1.05 " 1.20 Reading Reading, Spelling Geography English 1.20 " 1.30 Copying Reading, Spelling Geography English 1.30 " 1-45 Drawing* Drawing* Drawing* Drawing* 1.45 " 2.00 Physiology * Physiology * Geography English 2.00 " 2.2O Dismissed Miscellaneous Phys., English English Writing -35 " -35 a-45 Recess Recess Recess Recess 2.45 " 2-55 General lessons 2-5S " 3.00 Miscellaneous Geography Phys., English Civil government 3.00" 3-'5 Tracing Geography Phys., English* Phys., Civ. gov.* 3-15 " 3-3 Dismissed Geography Spelling Civil government Dismissed 3-3 " 3-45 " 3-45 4.00 Spelling Special work 1 Drawing : two or three classes ; two recitations a week. 1 Physiology : two classes ; two or three recitations a week. 8 English : two classes ; three recitations a week ; more if possible. 4 Civil government may be alternated with some other study. The second program (on page 83) is a suggestive program prepared for a crowded country school in which there are fifty pupils, and recitations are required in each of the eight grades. Class Instruction. The first school consisted of the pupil and the teacher ; but after schools became numer- ous a school consisted of the pupils and a teacher. Ne- cessity demands that one teacher must instruct many pupils. This kind of instruction is called class instruc- tion, and this is the kind of instruction in almost uni- versal use. It is in general use because of the many advantages it offers over individual instruction as well EIGHTH GRADB f : : : i I : : : \ . I : : ! M c t E SEVENTH GRADE ! !! ll- | i i i| | ; ; i ; ;& M i ::::!:: :J * i i : i : 1" 8 : : : : : S w . : : : -c i 1 : : : : 12 j . Civil gov. Spelling 5 d program, showing *2 o>O ..g^.'.j3 S * tj; *cu : : ; : 1 1 : : 1 i J : : : J S I Geography . Spelling a very crowde . r nr ;n,i;,,;,iii-.i s w || H W illlj .I'l'lll'lljlllj r. . . .-a *?!: '5w . a o j . o a - c o ; u---'C-.o-:-- ^u : : : : .5 % : : | : : : * : : : | : : .o 1 "& ^0 S k. B o > 3 c o* bfl 2 | O '"ij O in .e 2 .J3 8 1. ii a ! JS! Hj si 3-i ^ * M K a j 82 : : : M : : : : $ : : : 3 :::&:: i::^::^::^:::*:::^.:^^ : v : I J : g v J | II IJ: :3: :3:j jllijJl :SJ =3 ; a' ' ' ' |i||n |j|}|||j|(l| O en .S 1 8.! V ( o_ 1 k, 1 J : bo L, U |3 1: : : : i i i ': 5 . : j i i . : i Eted by designatin ^ :::: * : : : : * : * : : : : * o O m >n O O a T3 z u H M i- 1 g d\ d> c> en o* o* d d d H J H N H H M H H n ci ' 1 t &8 I- 2^ H 8 "2 "g V& VV R Vs V Vs "s "2 " Vft Vff i a 8 2 3.8, f> <*> IO fO C*> 84 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY as because of the fact that purely individual instruction is impossible in the public schools. When the class is called to recite, the teacher should announce the topic or ask the questions and then desig- nate a pupil to recite. If for any reason the teacher requires another pupil to recite on the same topic or question, each member of the class will be benefited by listening to the treatment of the subject from the differ- ent view points of the reciting pupils. When all pupils have recited, if there is any added light to be thrown on the subject, the teacher gives additional instruction and each member of the class is benefited by this added information; so that when class instruction is properly given, twenty or thirty pupils have investigated the sub- ject from several individual view points and the time occupied is not much greater than that which would be required for one pupil to recite by the individual method. Individual Instruction. If teachers follow a pro- gram of continuous recitations throughout the school, day, many pupils, through lack of application or proper direction from the teacher, will fail to make thorough preparation and in course of time fall behind the class. Frequently teachers remain after school to help these delinquents and to try to get them to strive more ear- nestly to keep up with the class. Frequently this keep- ing in after school is an annoyance to the parents and very inconvenient for the teacher, while it is usually in- jurious to the child. CLASS MANAGEMENT 8$ If teachers have no definite periods during the regu- lar school hours at which individual instruction may be given, these pupils who are falling behind are apt to become discouraged and fail to make proper effort. Every teacher should so arrange his program that there will be a period between recitations during which he may inspect the seat work of the pupils, and during this inspection, whenever it is necessary, he should give such encouragement or instruction to individual pupils as will stimulate them to try and maintain their class standing. This individual instruction should be pro- vided for as a regular part of the day's teaching, and not as an occasional or accidental exercise. The Batavia Plan. In 1898 Superintendent John Kennedy of Batavia, New York, reported to the Board of Education that an additional teacher was needed in the grades. The Board were willing to provide an extra teacher, but all the schoolrooms were occupied. One of the schoolrooms was very large and had a seating capacity for sixty or seventy pupils. This condition suggested to the superintendent that as an expedient they might place two teachers in this room and have one keep the room and help the pupils with their studies while the other conducted recitations. Upon his recommendation the board so provided. The suc- cess of this plan was so pronounced that other large rooms in the Batavia schools were similarly organized, and in each instance exceptionally good results followed. 86 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY After this the whole system of the Batavia city schools was organized in such a way that the teachers employed half their time in class recitations and half in individual instruction. This movement attracted the attention of educators throughout the whole country, and many school systems have copied the principal features of the Batavia plan. It is not here asserted that this proportion of class instruction and individual instruction is the proper one, but without doubt proper school management would include some individual instruction given in a regular and systematic way according to a definitely arranged program. Tactics. In the good old days now nearly forgotten the teacher called in metallic tones, "Third reader class ! " "Geography class!" or "Mental arithmetic class!" etc., and a shuffling of feet and slouching forward to the long recitation bench followed. To-day many teachers are advanced but a few degrees beyond such methods. They have learned certain signals and tactics and use them in a lifeless manner. It is not uncommon to hear the teacher say in a monotone, " B class in reading rise ! pass ! be seated ! " without ever giving any attention to whether the signals are being obeyed accurately or dis- regarded. Whatever the signals in class tactics, they should be given in a quiet, yet distinct, well-punctuated manner, and the teacher's eye should note accurately that one signal has been promptly and quietly obeyed CLASS MANAGEMENT 87 before another is given. Signals should always be given in a pleasant, proper tone of voice. If the teacher designates the classes and gives taps as signals, a lead pencil is a far better instrument for tapping than a hammer. Signals should be given so as not to attract the attention of pupils who are studying or to startle the pupils who are expected to obey the command, and certainly not in such a manner as to alarm the com- munity. Seat Habits. The teacher should assume and the pupils expect that non-reciting pupils should so demean themselves that they will occasion no annoyance to any one in the schoolroom. But unless students are drilled in their seat habits this conduct will not be the rule. Order is the first condition to active cooperation in school, and the laws of order involve the law of silence. Pupils should not be permitted to indulge in the practice of " lip study." There is no more reason why pupils should use their lips in whispered tones while studying than that they should repeat the words aloud. If it is argued that the student body will soon become so accustomed to the lip study that they will not be annoyed thereby, it might be argued with equal force that the same student body would become accustomed to the noise of studying aloud. Neither of these posi- tions is tenable. All unnecessary noise in the school- room creates friction and should be eliminated. Perhaps with many pupils the real reason for per- 88 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY sisting in lip study is that when lip study prevails, it is very difficult for the teacher to know whether the pupil is whispering to his neighbor or whether he is studying his lesson. It need not be argued that whispering is an annoying and needless evil habit in the schoolroom. It usually occurs in an annoying manner when seat mates become chummy. Whenever seat mates or pupils sitting near each other become so chummy that their fondness for each other detracts their attention from study, and their attention to each other attracts the attention of the class, the teacher should separate them. The attitude of reciting pupils should be one of com- posure and thoughtfulness. This does not preclude a spirit of enthusiasm, but the violent snapping of fingers and waving of hands sometimes witnessed during a reci- tation is more properly physical exercise than mental drill. If the teacher were partially deaf, it might be necessary for a pupil to make considerable noise in order to attract his attention and gain permission to recite. On the other hand, if the teacher is so nearly blind as not to be able to see the pupil's hand when it is stationary, it might be permissible for the pupil to wave his hand, even frantically, to gain the teacher's atten- tion; but a teacher who has nofmal sense of sight and hearing is inexcusable if he gets into the habit of allow- ing the recitation period to be diverted from its real purpose thoughtful expression to that of violent physical exercise. There should be a time for calis- CLASS MANAGEMENT 89 thenics, but these exercises do not properly form part of the ordinary recitation. Neatness. The best results cannot be obtained if the schoolroom is not kept in a neat, orderly manner. The ethical effect of an attractive, well-kept schoolroom is not to be overlooked. A teacher who would allow his own desk, books, and papers to become disarranged who does not keep himself and his schoolroom property in perfect order has no moral right to insist upon great neatness in the class habits of his pupils. The teacher should be equally neat. No work should be placed on the board in a slovenly manner; no work should be left on the board unless it is neat work, and then only when it is to be used at some subsequent time. It is easy to keep the blackboard erased; in fact, easier and more economical than to keep it rilled with awk- ward figures and scrawling letters. It is easier to keep the floor free from scraps of paper and crayon than to keep it littered. Pupils will delight in caring for these little details of neatness provided the teacher leads by his example. When the teacher's desk, the blackboard, and the floor are kept in a neat and tidy condition, it is no trouble, and in fact is a pleasure, to a majority of pupils to keep their desks and their books in a similarly tidy condition. If such habits of neatness can be incul- cated, and they can easily be inculcated, the pupils have received a lasting benefit, and the burden of class management will have been greatly reduced. 90 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Grades. The grades which are entered upon the pupil's monthly report card, and form a part of the per- manent record of the school, should be based upon progress in the class determined largely by daily recita- tion. Examinations as a means of promotion in ele- mentary schools should not be employed. If the teacher who hears the pupil recite each day in the month does not know before examination whether the pupil has made his grade, he does not know after the examination. Examinations are, however, valuable as a review and as a test of the teacher's work. But when examinations are used as a test for promotion, and results are issued in per cent, it is quite difficult to understand how Johnnie, who made an average of 69.1%, and therefore did not pass, is much below Susie, who made an average of exactly 70%, and therefore passed. Class standing should be recorded on report cards by rank. A pupil is either good, bad, or indif- ferent, and may be so designated; but the accurate distinction between the scholarship of pupils whose averages vary only a few hundredths requires keener discernment than the ordinary teacher possesses. Reviews. Reviews are, perhaps, the most beneficial recitation, because they recall and deepen concepts and memory images that the pupils have acquired, and there- fore are permanent in their results. Ethics. Thedemocratic organization of the school fac- tors places each student upon equality with every other CLASS MANAGEMENT 91 student, and every student should have a proper regard for each of his fellow-students. No less essential is it that the teacher should have proper regard for each and every pupil. This proper regard for others is manifested in courteous treatment and consideration, and its expression in the aggregate is termed politeness. True politeness is based upon appreciation of our fel- lows, but the expression which we call politeness is often largely a matter of form. Pupils may have proper regard for fellow-pupils, and yet their intercourse with each other and their conduct toward each other might not appear polite. It is a function of the school organization to teach habits of politeness ; to require each member of the school to be polite toward each other member of the school community. It is the duty of the teacher to be an example of politeness and to lead the pupils to form habits of politeness. The complex organism of school is perpetuated only by the cooperation of the various members. It is es- sential that the relation of each factor to each other factor and to the whole organization be a truthful rela- tion ; that each expression of the different members of the student body be a truthful expression ; that each student understands clearly that he owes it to the student body to be truthful in all his communications. This would imply refraining from any dishonesties in recitation, in review, in examination, and in all the school exercises. Truthfulness includes all forms of fair and honest 92 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY dealing and is essential to unity in any organization. If the school organization can cultivate habits of truth- fulness, habits of fair and honest dealing, its value is permanent. Weakness is the penalty for inaction ; strength the reward of effort. In the school organization the weaker pupil knows that he must exert himself or else he will either delay the progress of the class or fall be- hind. He knows that he must be industrious or the penalty will follow, and the school organization under the direction of the teacher seeks to cultivate industry. A school is not a place of entertainment, but a work- shop. Its purpose is to do to do in order to grow. Pupils should be taught that work is not drudgery, but development ; not degrading, but ennobling. The very object of the schoolroom is industry effort effort to lift the pupil from the real to the ideal. The whole purpose of the school is ethical. It is intended to develop the pupils by cultivating the intellectual activities and the emotional and volitional experiences. School life is really a transition from the family to the larger, more complex social life of the world. A strict sense of justice should characterize every act of the teacher in the schoolroom and should guide the pupils in their conduct. Herbert Spencer has said in this connection that " every man has freedom to do as he will, provided he infringes not on the equal free- dom of any other man." A clear understanding of this principle will project into the school-life lines of CLASS MANAGEMENT 93 conduct which pupils will by their own natures be im- pelled to follow. Justice impels us to respect the rights of others. In the larger social organism the state the member who does not respect the rights of other members finds himself antagonized by the whole organism, usually resulting in punishment, unless the unruly member reforms and revises his actions. In the class any misconduct is an infringement on the rights of the other members and is honestly resented by them. This disapproval of the class is the strongest controlling power for discipline. When any foreign power infringes upon the right of our country, our sense of justice is outraged. It is also aroused and intensified. Intensified justice constitutes active patriotism. This may be occasioned by injustice to our country from a foreign power or from one or more of our own citizens. Patriotism impels us to fight for our country or to live for our country to see that our home land receives justice. This principle can be developed by proper class management. Pupils not only pass from the family life into school membership and from school membership into citizen- ship within the nation, but they also pass into a world citizenship. Altruism is based upon this world citizen, ship and is higher than patriotism. While patriotism impels us to respect the rights of others, altruism impels us to promote the rights of others, to seek for the good of others. Justice may be stern and exacting; the patriot will defend the rights of his country in battle, at 94 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY home, or at the ballot box ; the altruist will sacrifice self for the good of others. He is given to the exercise of kindness, gentleness, mercy, and love, but in the end these have more value to the giver than to him who receives. Not only should class management develop a spirit of justice and patriotism, but it should also develop a spirit of kindness, gentleness, mercy, love it should lead to altruism. CHAPTER XI THE TEACHER THE secret of success in the schoolroom lies almost wholly in the spirit of the teacher. Knowledge of sub- ject-matter and skill in methods are added advantages. A knowledge of the history of educational thought or any other professional training makes possible better teaching and insures greater success in the schoolroom ; but after all, aside from the student body, the greatest factor for good is the proper spirit and character of the teacher. Personality. Good physical, mental, and moral qual- ities of the teacher are essential. No teacher should be employed who has any physical defect which would in any way influence his work or detract from his useful- ness as an example. A teacher should have a healthy, well-developed body. Physically he should be at least not defective. The mental qualities of the teacher are, however, more important than the physical qualities. Not only should a teacher have a mind capable of understanding text-book information, but he should have a mind so alert that he will be able to make his knowledge an instrument of intellectual culture. 95 96 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Industry. " In the school, as elsewhere, good, hon- est toil is a remedy for many of those ills that come where idleness and looseness prevail. Every boy who does a piece of work thoroughly and completely is a different boy from what he was before." l As industry is an essential in class management it should be exemplified in the teacher. Pupils cannot continue to grow if placed under the watchful care of a teacher who has ceased to be a student. Neither can they develop habits of industry under the guidance of one who is not industrious. It is frequently asserted, and sometimes truthfully asserted, that the teacher is inclined to be inactive and lazy. When this is the case, the individual should be classed as a school keeper in contradistinction to school teacher. An inactive person cannot lead, cannot draw out, cannot educate. Integrity. In all matters it is essential that the teacher be not only honest, but that he should possess integrity. Integrity reaches farther than honesty. A business man may take advantage of the conditions and gain profit at the expense of others. He will still be called honest, but his action has not been characterized by integrity. The teacher should exemplify in his con-, duct the principles of integrity. Cheerfulness. One of the most distressing sights is that of a class of bright, active, happy pupils under the direction of a nagging, unhappy teacher. Above all 1 Samuel T, Dutton. THE TEACHER 97 things, he who aspires to teach should possess a happy disposition. School boards frequently jest about em- ploying the best-looking teachers, but there is more philosophy than foolishness in such selections ; not that a pretty face is indicative of power to teach, but a face that reveals a happy disposition is evidence of one of the most important qualifications of a teacher. Good health and a happy disposition, with a bright mind and a lofty purpose, are essential qualifications. Beauty is not essential, but intelligence and happiness should be written in the face of a true teacher. A teacher should also possess patience and sympa- thy. Perhaps sympathy is the strongest element in the life of a teacher. The heart of the child will respond quickly to loving words or kind deeds, but a teacher who is not sympathetic need not expect his pupils to be responsive. A teacher should possess patience, but he should combine this with firmness. His conduct should display an abiding interest in the welfare of each indi- vidual pupil, and he should see their faults as improper growth in character which should be eliminated by the cultivation of proper habits. His firmness should insist that correct habits be formed by the pupils, but insist- ence should not in this case amount to severity. The teacher should possess serenity of disposition. If a mischievous pupil can by " habitual forgetfulness " in matters of conduct annoy the teacher, it is quite probable that he will continue in this habit. The teacher should be so adjusted mentally that his equilibrium will 98 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY not be disturbed by every schoolroom excitement When a teacher allows himself to fret, he loses thereby the greater power of reason, and surely he needs all of his faculties in the schoolroom. Teachers should remember that power works with ease; weakness fret- continually. The teacher who is not patriotic has not a sense of justice high enough to be of great value as a leader of children. Not only should a teacher be patriotic, but he should be broad enough in his sympathy and deep enough in his convictions to be altruistic. Habits. No person is prepared to teach who has not acquired proper habits. Indeed, the process of educa- tion is a process of forming habits habits of thought, habits of politeness, habits of conduct, habits of integ- rity. The uneducated person has not a trained mind ; that is, he has not acquired proper habits of thought He is doubtless uncouth ; he has not formed habits of politeness. If he is truthful, he has been educated in the home until he has formed the habit of truthfulness. No other factor in education is so important as habit. If habit could be taken out of our civilization, instead of order and system we would have disorder and anarchy. Now, in youth we own our habits, later in life we are owned by our habits. Therefore the person who has arrived at maturity without having formed good habits is not a fit person for an example in the schoolroom. It is not necessary to enumerate here the bad habits in the list of " don'ts," but only to discuss habit as an THE TEACHER 99 educational factor. The intelligent teacher can investi- gate personal habits in detail for himself. Training. J. G. Fitch has said with truth that " A true teacher never thinks his education complete, but is always seeking to add to his knowledge. The moment any man ceases to be a systematic student he ceases to be an effective teacher." And David P. Page urges all who propose to teach " to recollect that the very basis of fitness for teaching, so far as it can be gained from study, is a broad and accurate scholarship." A teacher who has not had academic training equiva- lent to a good four years' high school course, supple- mented with professional training, is deficient in scholar- ship for grade teaching. A teacher who has not had collegiate training equivalent to a bachelor's degree, in a reputable institution, and this supplemented by professional training, is deficient in scholarship for high school or academic teaching. By a reputable in- stitution of higher education is meant a college or university which is in its requirements at least equal to the standard of the better American colleges. Our educational standards are low enough at best, and it is an insult to the teaching profession for so-called colleges which are in reality only academies second-class academic institutions at that to pretend to confer degrees. It is a lack of professional spirit for one claiming to be a teacher to offer as evidence of scholar- ship diplomas from such institutions. 100 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Adequate professional training for a teacher includes a knowledge of elementary psychology, history of edu- cation, philosophy of teaching, methods and manage- ment, school law and practice teaching. There are many excellent teachers who have neither had this ideal training nor its full equivalent ; but they have, at the expense of the schools in which they were employed, learned the science and art of teaching by experience. This, however, is an expensive and needless method of preparing teachers. If teachers were properly prepared before they were certificated, teaching would rise to the proper position of a profession. When teachers are properly prepared and certificated, it is worse than useless to have them frequently examined in order to grant them only short lived or temporary certificates. A license to teach should be a license for life, just as a license to practice law or medicine is a license for life. When teachers are required to have full literary and professional train- ing, then, and not until then, the state should issue them permanent license to practice their profession. Who would employ to prescribe for his family in sick- ness one who had never graduated in a medical college or received professional training in the science and art which go to make up the profession of medicine ? Answer, no one. Who would intrust an important case in court, involving large interests, to a professed lawyer who had never graduated in a law school and served an apprenticeship ? Answer, no one. Who would intrust THE TEACHER IOI the physical, mental, and moral well-being of all the children in a community to a professed teacher who had never graduated from a literary or professional school or served an apprenticeship in practice teaching? Answer, . . . Reader, consider these parallels of con- ditions in important professions and determine for your- self whether teachers, as a rule, are properly trained in our own country. Responsibility. The teacher is responsible to the school for his personal example. First, he is respon- sible for his personal appearance. No teacher should appear untidy in his dress. It is not necessary that his apparel be expensive, or that his dress be of the latest style ; in fact, it is better that his dress should be plain ; that it should attract no attention on account of being untidy or highly fashionable. Care of the hair, nails, and teeth should not be forgotten, as these small details are necessary to proper personal appearance. A teacher's moral standing in the community should be unquestionable. There is no more potent factor for good than the example of a noble Christian teacher. There are many acts which are not in themselves sins, but which are distasteful to the people whose children are under the teacher's care. In such cases the teacher can well afford to refrain from these questionable acts. Paul said, " If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth." The perform- ance of a certain act, the enjoyment of a certain pleas- 102 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY lire, might in nowise defile the teacher, but if it offend the moral sense of the community, or any considerable portion of the community, it will detract from the teacher's usefulness. When Horace Mann sat on a stool at the table in Antioch, partaking of food indif- ferently cooked, some one said to him, " Mr. Mann, how can you endure all this ? " He replied, " I can endure all things for the sake of these young people." The conscientious teacher can well afford, when ques- tioned as to why he refrains from certain "innocent" amusements, to say, " I would rather refrain from these pleasures than to forfeit the confidence of the people of the district, or to lessen my influence over the pupils under my charge." It will not usually be necessary, however, for the teacher to make any explanation. He will always have some duties to perform which will re- quire his attention, and he can always, with due courtesy, ask to be excused, and keep silent regarding the con- duct of others. It is well for young teachers to re- member that when gossip goes the rounds, silence is golden. These statements do not argue that the teacher should not have positive ideas of right and wrong, or that he should not willingly incur opposition and criti- cism to avoid doing wrong; but when his conduct in- volves no sacrifice of principle, let him keep it in accord with the ethical judgment of the best people in the community. No teacher can afford to criticise another teacher. THE TEACHER IO3 He cannot afford to lower himself to an unprofessional plane. The professional spirit is necessary in all the members of the teaching body. This professional spirit includes more than a proper regard for the standing of fellow-teachers ; it includes a will to protect the stand- ing of fellow-teachers and to be identified with the organized effort of pupils in their strife to attain the ideal conditions from the real. That is, the profes- sional spirit, in addition to exerting itself for the good of fellow-teachers, impels the teacher to feel that he is responsible in part for the progress or the failure of his pupils. "Education can only develop and form, not create. It cannot undertake to form a being into anything other than it was destined to be by the endowments originally received at the hands of nature. Education can only develop and unfold ; it cannot create anything new." 1 The teacher has also the responsibility to himself. He knows full well that he cannot give mind to pupils, or develop what God did not create. It is well, how- ever, for him not to publish his knowledge of the defects of children under his charge. Here, again, silence is golden. The least utterance of his which would tend to disparage unfortunate pupils would be repeated and possibly multiplied. Certain it is that it would not be diminished. There are seemingly few exceptions to the rule that the teacher becomes the 1 Rosenkranz. 104 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY subject of conversation and criticism wherever pupils or patrons are congregated. These discussions of the teacher may be with good intent, but if the teacher is indiscreet enough to make damaging statements, he may be sure that these will be repeated and form the subject of comment. Above all of these things the teacher should do what he believes to be right, and refrain from doing that which he believes to be wrong. He should per- form his duty as he sees it perform his whole duty, and then if results do not follow in every instance, he should not worry. He is not primarily responsible for the deficiency in the mental make-up of pupils or the disinclination on the part of parents to cooperate with the school. He should strive to retain his own self- respect ; to secure his own approbation, which is his greatest reward. The inspiration of the school is the presence of the living teacher W. H. Payne, None but true ladies and gentlemen should be employed as teach- ers. John A. Vincent. Society is waiting, calling, earnestly, anxiously, for men and women of broader culture and nobler nature men and women of quick intelligence, of enlightened understanding, of large heart and generous impulse, to take these little ones by the hand and lead them into the pleasant ways of wisdom, virtue, usefulness, and hap- piness. George Howland, PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 105 The teacher should be patient, full of hope, of a cheerful spirit, generous, a lover of children, full of benevolence, just, a lover of order, a reverencer of God and his laws, conscientious, firm, with a talent to command. The School and the Schoolmaster. THE SCHOOLMASTER'S PRAYER Lord, deliver the laddies before Thee from lying, cheating, cowardice, and laziness, which are as the devil. Be pleased to put common sense in their hearts, and give them grace to be honest men all the days of their life. Ian Maclaren in " Young Barbarians" CHAPTER XII PUNISHMENT PERHAPS no ground within the field of pedagogical research has been trodden with more trepitude than this which we now propose to traverse. Discussions by pedagogical writers usually include discipline, and contain ample advice as to what to avoid, without giving directions regarding the proper course to pursue when administering correctives. In this article we shall dis- cuss not only the fundamental principles which underlie theories of corrective discipline, but also actual condi- tions which arise in everyday school life. Purposes of Order. There are two broad general aims in securing order in the schoolroom ; namely, to secure order for order's sake that there may be quietude to promote study and work, and to cultivate the power of self-direction in pupils, that they may become com- petent to adjust themselves to their environment at present and in later years, and thereby develop into law-abiding citizens. Rewards. The means employed to secure order are usually classified as hope of reward and fear of punish- ment, and the tendency in modern government is from 1 06 PUNISHMENT 1 07 the latter toward the former. Those who lead in this advancement follow the rule that all just punishments are remedial. Nature of Punishments. Among savages punish- ment rests upon revenge getting even with the offender. Whenever this element is apparent in the punishment inflicted by a teacher, it is evidence of a lack of refinement and a sense of justice. Among civilized people, the history of punishment reveals the fact that whenever school punishments have differed materially in kind from punishments inflicted in the best homes, or by the state, they have been con- demned by public opinion. To illustrate, when crimi- nals were placed in the stocks by the law, it was not considered improper for the teacher to use the dunce cap the trouble is that the school is not quite keeping pace with the state. Again, when the adult delinquent was punished at the whipping post, the delinquent pupil might expect to be flogged for missing three words in the old blue-backed speller. " Lickin' " and " larnin' " went together. Query : Which was the first abandoned the whipping post for adults or the birch rod in school ? A teacher who has tact enough to keep her pupils busy during study hours will not punish her pupils for having poor lessons. It is noted with satisfaction that as civilization has advanced, or in other words, as intelligence and virtue have increased, punishments have become less and less 108 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY severe, and tend more and more to become remedial. It is also noticeable that under such conditions hope of reward operates more and more as an incentive, and fear of punishment is less and less used as a means of securing obedience to authority. Let it be distinctly understood that hope of reward as herein used does not mean the cheap device of prizes offered for good behavior, but the reward that includes self-approval, as well as the approbation of teacher and fellow-pupils. This kind of reward is forcibly illustrated in the pupil government instituted in many progressive schools. The most frequent punishment should be the with- holding or withdrawal of privileges abused. The same means may be employed to serve as a reward, for when the pupil gives evidence that he will not abuse present privileges, other privileges may be granted until he becomes free rather than restrained in his daily work. This use of privileges serves to secure proper obedience to authority by acting at once as either a fear of punish- ment or a hope of reward. Corporal Punishment. Teachers agree that it is sometimes very remedial to administer corporal punish- ment to an incorrigible who becomes rebellious, espe- cially if this is the corrective to which he has been accustomed at home. Note that the term used is incorrigible when rebellious, not when lazy or mis- chievous. If there is open rebellion and the dignity or the authority of the school (not the dignity of the PUNISHMENT 109 teacher) is involved, do not hesitate ; maintain order you cannot do otherwise. But do not use drastic means when milder means would serve. There is, however, a more serious condition than this in our schools ; that is, when a pupil is habitually unruly or obstreperous, when he is not really a fit member of the student body. If we had reform schools, such a case would be easily adjusted ; but when expulsion means loss of all culture and training, it seems that it might be justifiable to use corporal punishment as an example, and make the example so plain that other students might understand. This is, of course, not an ideal way, and is not prescribed for ideal conditions. If the pupil may be sent to some reformatory school, let him go ; but if he must be cast out on the street, remember the words of Solomon, and govern yourself accordingly. Do not consider this a privilege to be rushed into, but as an unpleasant duty that must be performed in order to save the child. Be deliberate and judicious. It is not argued that corporal punishment is a proper corrective ; but when necessity presents two evils, ex- pulsion to remove a bad example of conduct from the student body or corporal punishment, not with any certainty of remedial effect upon the pupil punished, but to deter others from following, and at the same time keep the refractory member in school, that he may not become a hardened criminal, then choose the lesser of two evils, and the lesser appears to be corporal punishment HO PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Teachers true teachers, one and all wish that corporal punishment could be abolished in the schools, but until it is less frequently used in the home, and until schools of correction are established, it will be use- less for us to attempt to abolish this last remedy for re- bellious incorrigibles. But let teachers remember that it is better to prevent wrongdoing than to punish for wrongs done. " Through discipline rather than instruction the teacher renders it possible for the child in youth and the adult in later life to raise himself to higher levels of .living." From simply commanding he should proceed to explain the reasons of his commands ; from these again to the expression of desires and the manifestations of a generous confidence, and from these to the frequent option and discretion of the child, preparatory to the moment of giving him entirely into his own hands. William T. Harris. The prevention of crime is the duty of society. But society has no right to punish crime at one end if it does nothing to prevent it at the other end. Society's chief concern should be to remove causes from which crime springs. It is as much a duty to prevent crime as it is to punish crime. Sarah B. Cooper. CHAPTER XIII TEACHING MAXIMS A SITTING, dreaming, inactive teacher cannot inspire pupils. Nothing can take the place of earnestness in the schoolroom ; but, to be effective, it must be genuine. Teachers, especially young teachers, talk too much. If they would divide their words by two, their efficiency would thus be multiplied by four. Telling is not teaching. When a pupil has exerted every reasonable effort to secure the desired informa- tion, then, but not until then, should the teacher " tell " him. A teacher's aim should be to keep every child in school and to create and maintain an interest in every class. The personality of the teacher is the real power in every school. A school may inspire and develop men- tal and moral power or it may stupefy and destroy them this depends almost wholly upon the personality of the teacher. in 112 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY Try to inspect the tones of voice you use habitually in the schoolroom. Do not fret or worry power works with ease ; weakness frets continually. To repeat the answers given by pupils is to encour- age inattention. Every member of the class should be held strictly to account for each answer given. Strict attention in the recitation should become a fixed habit. Teacher, you often write complaining notes to par- ents. How often do you write encouragingly to them ? How much would a tired mother's heartache be relieved if she should receive a note from you stating that John- nie is doing well in his studies, and that if he continues so to do, he will be promoted ? Do not promote your pupils unless you are quite sure they are prepared for promotion. Lack of thorough- ness is the crying evil of the common schools. Do not try to get all the pupils into the high school, or into higher studies. Nothing will float you so buoy- antly at first, and nothing will so surely sink you in the end. Do not get up a part of your class for a " show off." When you are visited by the superintendent or parent, let every part of your school be shown and let honest work be done. Every " show off " is a reflection on your honesty and a slander against your school. Your TEACHING MAXIMS 113 pupils honestly resent it and they charge you with dis- honorable motives. The teacher who does not have a place for every- thing and everything in its place who is not orderly in his personal habits ; who does not keep desk and papers in perfect order has no moral right to com- plain of petty disorder in pupils. A teacher who allows himself to be tardy, or who is not habitually on time with all his work, has no moral right to complain of irregularities in the attendance of pupils. Such a teacher should correct his own habits or quit the profession. Teachers, be generous with kind words. Into the lives of many who come to you is cast much gloom and little sunshine. If you doubt, go to their homes and you will soon be convinced that the children do not, as a rule, hear too many kind words. Of course, justice must often be stern with childish willfulness ; but when- ever you can, let justice, when meted out to childhood, be tempered with mercy. Do your pupils wave hands and snap fingers to attract your attention in class ? If the teacher is par- tially deaf or almost blind, this performance may be necessary ; but if the teacher can see and hear, these are very annoying habits and certainly are not indica- tive of a thoughtful attitude on the part of pupils. 114 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY When a pupil answers in an indefinite or incorrect manner, the teacher should simply say again, and from that the pupil should know that his answer is to be revised. Frequent and persistent use of the little word again will accomplish wonderful results in diminishing the number of careless answers. Teachers who can find no time to read professional literature or attend teachers' institutes should be re- lieved of the burden of teaching. Do not help your pupils too much. If they ever walk alone, they must first learn to stand alone. Help- ing them to help themselves is teaching; helping them to do their work or doing their work for them is not teaching. " He who avoids exertion must remain weak." You do them a kindness if you see to it that they learn their lessons ; you do them an injury if you prepare their lessons for them. Duty well done is the only true claim that any teacher has for reappointment, and is the only require- ment that a school board has a right to make. Every teacher should feel that there is a tenure of position which will end when good, honest work ceases. Some- times school boards do not reemploy teachers known to be competent, because they think that these teachers are too " high priced." When such conditions arise, it is well to remember that nothing is so costly as incom- petence, nothing so cheap as ability. TEACHING MAXIMS 115 Incompetence is seldom reemployed except by school boards. Before directors conclude to drop a teacher, however, they should be very certain that a much better teacher can be secured. Sometimes the incompetency is not known to the directors. If such is the case, it is their own fault, for they should inform themselves as to what is being done that they may vote intelligently ; and when justice demands it, they should not hesitate on account of business, church, political, family, or any other relations, to vote against the retention of an incompetent teacher. Would you employ a person for your physician who had never attended a medical school, read a medical journal, or spent any time as an apprentice under a competent physician ? Would you employ as the teacher of your children one who had never had any normal training, studied the art of teaching, or served an ap- prenticeship in the schoolroom ? What an average pupil accomplishes in school de- pends upon what is required of him and by whom the requirement is made. An average pupil needs the stimulating influence of an earnest, working teacher ; he needs the personal influence of an aggressive, exacting, sympathetic per- sonality. When a teacher has both intelligence and devotion, he should be let alone for the most part. The wise super- Il6 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY intendent does not meddle. It is his business to know that the teacher is headed toward the goal and is going forward with reasonable rapidity. To know when to keep silent is one of the highest qualifications of a supervisor. A superintendent is not necessarily indif- ferent to clear and positive ways of arriving at results which he himself would follow if the teaching were left to him, but he must be tall enough to look over his own fences, and see that his is not the only road to educa- tional success. In some particulars the country schools are the most important part of our great school system. If we are to judge the future by the past, a large majority of the men and women who will be most prominent and influ- ential in the nation forty years hence are those who are laying the foundation of their education in the country schools of to-day. The tactful teacher not only studies the pupils, but he studies the parents as well. He seeks to arouse the interest of the parents in the school. At first parents may seem indifferent, but if you observe closely, you will find that the interests of parents are centered in their children, and when you have convinced them that you are interested in their children and that you really are helping them to build up a stronger manhood and womanhood, then you will have secured the parents' cooperation, and will have assured the success of your school TEACHING MAXIMS 1 1/ During the opening week of school is the opportune time for teachers to secure the cooperation of parents. If an opportunity does not seem to present itself then, make one. A personal talk, showing your interest in the children and giving suggestions about the best methods for each individual child is the most effective plan. This, however, is not always possible, and the tactful teacher will either " find a way or make one " that will reach the parents of every child in the district. No school can be an entire success unless the parents take an active interest in all that concerns it. It is idle to demand or expect the teacher to display great zeal in school work when the parents are indifferent in regard to the school. Doubtful Amusements. Every year the same discus- sions are had as to what amusements are proper and what are improper for teachers. With the awakening of the discussion of moral and religious training in school, these questions are likely to become more serious and affect the standing of the teacher more than ever. Without entering into this discussion with reference to specific amusements, we wish to place a principle before young teachers which, if followed, will keep them free from censure. Young teacher, since you occupy in a measure the relation of parent to your own pupils, it is reasonable to suppose that your influence upon their moral develop- Il8 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY ment will be vital, hence you should be careful as to your conduct, for parents will scrutinize and perhaps criticise your actions. When in doubt as to any given course relative to " questionable amusements," do nothing that you would not wish your own parents to do. CHAPTER XIV SELF-DIRECTION In the moral life we govern ourselves. In the immoral life we are governed by our needs and passions. Wagner. ELSEWHERE in this work it has been said that the psychology of character building is summed up in four short sentences : " I see," " I like," " I wish I were," " I will be." There still remains an element not herein mentioned, the power to be, the power to direct self in the performance of the task involved in character building. The will is necessary, and we say that " where there's a will, there's a way," but self-direction is the ability to find the way quickly, to find it now, not after endless effort, to find the most direct way. This power to direct self according to reason rather than ac- cording to passion and necessity, is the secret of strong character, ability, and success. From the foregoing it will be seen that the discussion of the principles of self-direction involves a discussion of theories of life, and hence in some particulars tran- scends the province of purely pedagogical discussion. However, such phases of this subject as in no wise appertain to the work of the teacher and pupils in their relation to the school process will be omitted. If we consider morality as it really is, one of the 119 120 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY greatest aims in education, it will be readily granted that the discussion of this subject is clearly within the teachings of pedagogy. The State Demands the Moral Education of the People as the Safeguard of Order, Liberty, and Progress. Motto of the Boston Public Library. It is from this view point that this subject is dis- cussed. Self-direction means more than self-control. Many persons are capable of controlling their own acts sufficiently to avoid dangers, but incapable of leading into an unknown region of difficulties, and must rely wholly upon precedent or else be without either chart or compass. It is not because the culprit does not know the law protecting private property, but because he could not direct his own acts under temptation to steal, that he becomes a criminal. Organized society should protect its immature and weak members, and direct them or place such influences around them as will enable them to be self-directing. Children are not always able under trying circumstances to direct themselves according to their ethical judgment, and one violation of conscience paves the way for an- other and another and another. Schools and churches are institutions that supplement the efforts of the state and family by helping in the work of directing the children until they are capable of self-direction, but sometimes these combined agencies fail to reach all of the little ones. SELF-DIRECTION 121 The things in society or in everyday life that tend to hinder man in his efforts to be self -directing, to live and act according to reason rather than fall under the rule of passion and impulse, are called vices, temptations, and evils, from which he desires protection and from which the young especially should be protected by society. Since the school stands for character building, it is concerned in building up all forces that tend to develop character. On the other hand, the school is rightly opposed to all forces or conditions that tend to destroy character or prevent self -direction. It is therefore within our province to discuss some of these conditions. In order to make the discussion more concrete in its illus- trations, we shall describe some hypothetical cases in which organized society fails properly to protect those who are unfortunate enough to be placed in positions where self-direction is difficult. Our first case is only illustrative of the thousands who through the ineffective- ness of our government, including schools, are not sup- ported in their weak efforts, and losing the power of self-direction, are cast out from the companionship of the better classes of people. This is one case : An Orphan. Wandering alone in want amid plenty, unheeded among the city's throng, is seen the frail body of a motherless little girl. She remembers " Thou shalt not steal," which mother taught her to say before 122 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY father died, but she is hungry, the battle is soon lost, and self-direction is abandoned. Twenty years pass by, and the November clouds shed the only tears that moisten the grave of a fallen woman. The courts re- corded her infamy, humanity condemned her life, and that sentence is perhaps just. Disease incident to vice completed its task, and at the grave an inquiring passer- by wonders how the Master would judge the people who neglected to direct t:nd protect the orphan's life until self-direction became possible. A school for orphans, a compulsory school law pro- viding for the maintenance of indigent pupils, the sympathy and the example of some noble Christian teacher, in this instance, might have added a useful member to society and reduced the number of tragic, joyless lives. The second case is this : A Drunkard. A youth in a throng health, wealth, and friends were his. He knew that he should not " look upon the wine when it was red," but the law of the land placed within his easy grasp the enchanting cup. Self-direction held out but a short time against legalized temptation. Twenty years later time wrote over his grave, " A ruined home, a wasted life." Men say he was a common drunkard but the old man whose son he was is thinking, now that it is too late. He is wondering if the teacher could not have helped his wayward boy, and whether there was enough effort SELF-DIRECTION 123 exerted to help his son to become self-directing ; whether he himself did all he could have done ; whether the organized society, of which he is a part, is blame- less. Gambling. The speculative tendency of mind so common in our people is an excellent quality when the possessor is self-directing, but dangerous when his life is governed by passion and needs instead of reason. There is an element of chance even in a conservative business enterprise. There is an element of chance in every undertaking, and this unknown, unknowable element is one of the fascinations which are offered for effort. Yet, if we really produce value by our effort, the element of chance is far less than if we wander up and down seeking for hidden or uncertain treasures. One who undertakes to earn an honest living for him- self and for those who may be dependent upon him, has entered upon his plain duty and realizes the solid comfort of self-approbation. If he should not succeed abundantly, he may experience the pain of want, but not the pangs of a guilty conscience. When desire to speculate is not coupled with good business judgment, the man is a failure in business. The degree of success or failure may not always be exactly proportional to the ratio existing between de- sire to speculate and good business judgment, but this ratio is approximately correct. One who throws aside his judgment, depending upon 124 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY chance, or puts aside his conscience, depending upon fraud, would have no consolation if unsuccessful. Now, there is an aim, an " ultimate Thule," to which each vocation tends failure causes it to fall short of the mark complete success, to reach its objective point. The laborer sees as a final achievement content and competency in his own cottage home. The soldier sees glories won on hard-fought fields. But what is the highest aim of him who is a gambler ? Let us try to imagine the brightest picture that can present itself to a gambler's vision the so-called " gam- bler's paradise." On the northwest coast of the Mediterranean, in one of the most beautiful spots of the Franco-Italian coast, lies the province of Monaco. Eight square miles, its area, and twelve thousand souls, its population. Nearly or quite half of this population is in Monte Carlo the gambler's ideal resort. Splendid palaces, gardens of choicest flowers, marble halls flooded with light radiant against alabaster and gold, floating per- fumes filling the air which vibrates with sweetest strains of music. This is the " gambler's paradise." All its inhabitants are free from tax ; all live in luxury. Yes, but in this smallest of all principalities, in this fairest of cities, are seen more sadness and more despair than in any other land. The sweets of well-earned sleep are strangers there. Quietude of conscience, con- tentment, and self-approbation never stay within its SELF-DIRECTION 12$ borders. Early morning drives their feverish forms from nights of vileness to sleepless couches, or perad- venture to self-destruction. When they assemble in their marble hall around their sumptuous board without appetite for their first meal, their twelve o'clock break- fast, they ask wearily " who snuffed the candle last night ? " (meaning, who lost all and committed suicide ?) And ere the feet of those who bear away the bodies of these self-destroyed beings have returned, there are others, dead by their own hands. Such is the end toward which those who abandon self-direction tend. Their vocation leads contrary to the dictates of their inner self they have abandoned self-direction until remorse dictates self-destruction. Clearly, these hypothecated cases indicate that there is great need of moral guidance for the young, and certainly the schools all the factors of education should help in this matter. The Passions. Of the eleven passions, love, hate, desire, aversion, joy, sadness, hope, despondency, courage, fear, and anger, which education seeks to control or direct in youth, at least two of the concupiscible pas- sions, love and joy, and two irascible passions, hope and courage, are more responsive to religious influence than to any other power. In order to cultivate these virtues and in teaching them to recognize their true basis, which is the Christian religion, it is not necessary to inculcate sectarian doctrine. 126 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY " The home life and the school life of the child should prepare him for transition to freedom by effective train- ing in self-control and self-guidance, and to this end the will must be disciplined by an increasing use of motives that quicken the sense of right and make the conscience regal in conduct." 1 Good Moral Character. If we define good moral character as volitional inclination toward the right, this provisional definition will indicate clearly that the con- science is to be quickened by pure motives. Some of these motives are religious motives, but should never- theless be employed by the teacher. Now the first step in morality is to avoid doing that which is evil, but a step that is also necessary is to do good. The funda- mental conditions of a moral life are the selection of a considerable sphere of common good to be our end and aim, and an exercise of self-direction to accomplish that aim. Morality is grasping some picture of large good and translating it into fact. It is not possible to judge a single act. To say that seeking riches or reputation, or that any common act, is in itself evil, is erroneous. The size of the ends we see and serve is the measure of our own soul's dimen- sions, and it is the only true measure. Some ex- ternal act may be good for one man and bad for another. For instance, political office for a man who has solved his own problems, and has time and 1 Emerson E. White. SELF-DIRECTION 12JT capacity to solve public problems, may be the very gate- way to heaven, while to the office seeker who is aiming to get out of the public a living which he is too lazy or too incompetent to earn in private employment, this same office becomes the broad and easy descent into hell The principles of self-direction are principles of life which should be inculcated in the lives of the pupils and exemplified in the life of the teacher. A life directed by inner law is an ideal life. If pupils could be absolutely self-directing, it would be an easy matter to bring them from the real to the ideal state of devel- opment. Since pupils are not at the beginning capable of guiding their acts according to reason, it becomes the duty of the teacher by precept and example to develop this power in his pupils. Educate for Simplicity. The first duty of him who exercises power is humility. A teacher who forgets this and assumes that he is of vast importance in a community is liable to receive a rude awakening. Ma- terial wealth, power, position, knowledge, or any other acquisitions are blessings if they do not serve to nourish pride ; but if they do, they are far from blessings. It is not the teacher who is the law ; the law is inherent in the school process, the teacher only interprets it. No teacher who is sensible of the responsibility resting upon him will feel or appear proud or vain. No teacher who is an example of pride can hope to cultivate sinv 128 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY plicity in his pupils. As a teacher strives to be better he becomes more humble, but in this he loses naught of respect, for " he reaps the more respect in that he has sown the less pride." The King. The teacher who learns well the lesson of self-direction ; whose life is ruled by reason ; who realizes that " pleasure and money are not the two wings of the same bird " ; who knows that egotism is a destroyer of pleasure ; that " to serve is to shine " ; who respects all men and reverences God, and whose life exemplifies these things, is an ideal teacher : a man who can a king. He may occupy some unimportant place in the social fabric; may stand in the most obscure place; but by his life he is pointing humanity to the right life and he shall have his reward in the inner consciousness of hav- ing done right because it is right, in having attained the ideal life. Blessed is such a man. He who assists childhood to attain to such living is thrice blessed. He needs no pitying because the wages of teaching are small. Wealth to him is not essential bee ause he has learned to distinguish what he has from what he is. He needs no friends in high places, for the lowly the little children are his friends. He needs no consola- tion from man because his lot is lowly ; for when the great Master shall stand in judgment, he shall receive a crown. REVIEW QUESTIONS THE questions herewith submitted in no sense cover all the phases of pedagogy treated, nor are they in- tended to serve such a purpose, but rather to assist teachers who must study the subject alone, or to serve as a guide to teachers' reading circles. The teacher of pedagogy will, of course, frame such questions for his use as will call for a more careful and thorough study of this subject. CHAPTER I. IDEATION Pages 3 to 8 I. Define (a) sensation; (b) percept; (c) memory image, or free idea ; (d ) concept. II. How are sensations modified? (b) How are they formed into percepts ? III. Describe fully the process of perception. IV. How are memory images or free ideas formed ? V. How are new ideas analyzed ? VI. Describe the two currents of thought arising from immediate sensations and from representation. VII. Define (a) attention; (fr) "divided" attention. VIII. Describe fully the process of conception. IX. Outline the process of ideation. X. Illustrate the necessity of knowing the process of ideation before attempting to teach. 129 130 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY CHAPTER II. THE RECITATION Pages 9 to 1 8 I. Give two prerequisites of intellectual growth. II. What is the duty of the teacher to {a) the over- confident ? (b) the self -distrustful ? III. Why should the earlier process of ideation, which gathers from immediate sensation, be emphasized with pupils in the lower grades ? IV. " The pupil, not the teacher, should do the recit- ing." Why? V. Enumerate the different steps in the recitation. VI. What is meant by occupational education ? VII. Explain and illustrate the Socratic method of questioning. VIII. Why should the assignment of lessons usually be made at the beginning of the recitation ? IX. " Illustration rather than definition should be the rule." Why? X. How should the teacher bring the cultural and the practical into complete harmony ? CHAPTER III. READING Pages 19 to 33 I. Why should the words in primary readers be "household" words, or words with which the child is already familiar ? II. Enumerate the several formal steps in teaching reading. REVIEW QUESTIONS 131 III. What is (a) the word method? () the sentence method ? IV. " Correct expression depends upon correct inter- pretation." What method in teaching reading is based upon this principle ? V. Why is it essential to teach correct bodily posi- tions in reading classes ? VI. Why should we emphasize the fifth step in reading ? VII. What is the " dictionary habit"? Why is this so important ? VIII. How may pupils cultivate the power to judge of literary values ? IX. Give the value of each of th two classes of supplementary reading. X. Why is constant, persistent drill in reading neces- sary ? CHAPTER IV. ARITHMETIC Pages 34 to 42 I. What are the purposes in teaching arithmetic ? II. What are the faults in methods shown by the recitation which is given in this chapter as an illustra- tion of poor teaching ? III. Why are the fundamental processes so impor- tant in primary grades ? IV. Why are " model solutions " of so little value ? V. What does mental arithmetic emphasize ? VI. Give the forty-five primary problems in addition. 132 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY CHAPTER V. SPELLING Pages 43 to 47 I. Spelling is essentially a memory study. By what several means are images of words impressed upon the mind ? II. Why should pupils be taught the rules of spelling ? III. Is there any educational value in requiring pupils to use the words of the spelling lesson in original sen- tences ? Explain. IV. If in life we spell only when we write, what is the value of oral spelling ? V. What is (a) simplified spelling? (6) phonetic spelling ? VI. How has the spelling of words in our language been changed ? VII. Give (a) a rule for omitting letters from a word; (b) for retaining letters that are not primarily necessary. CHAPTER VI. GEOGRAPHY Pages 48 to 57 I. (a) Define geography. () What features of geog- raphy should be emphasized ? II. How should the subject of geography be intro- duced? III. How should measures of distance be taught? IV. Outline a series of lessons in mapping. V. What use should be made of the text-book in primary classes in geography? REVIEW QUESTIONS 133 VI. What is the scope of advanced geography ? VII. What is meant by (a) field exercises? (b} by field excursions ? VIII. How would you emphasize the industries in teaching geography? IX. Describe a rational method of teaching map questions. CHAPTER VII. ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR Pages 58 to 63 I. In teaching elementary English what ends are sought ? II. Why is it important that the teacher should use correct language ? III. Why should the pupil be required to revise his own incorrect expressions ? IV. Give a good method of teaching letter writing. V. What is the value of having pupils reproduce given selections ? VI. "Use fixes knowledge." What is the practical value of this principle in teaching grammar ? VII. What parts of speech should be made the subject of special study ? Why ? CHAPTER VIII. UNITED STATES HISTORY Pages 64 to 71 I. In teaching history what powers of mind should be developed ? 134 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY II. Why should elementary history be largely bio- graphical ? III. What is meant by the topical method in teaching history ? IV. In the study of war periods what points should be emphasized ? V. How should reviews be given ? VI. In what does the culture value of history consist? VII. How do we teach patriotism in the history class ? CHAPTER IX. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES Pages 73 to 78 I. Show that the school is an organism. II. What are the factors of the school ? III. Why are school laws inherent in the school process ? IV. What is the logical relation of teacher and pupils ? V. Show that rational school management is an aid in the inculcation of the principles of morality. VI. Show the functions of all social organisms in- cluding the school CHAPTER X. CLASS MANAGEMENT Pages 79 to 94 I. Should the teacher follow the classification made by his predecessor? II. Give the length of recitation in each of the eight REVIEW QUESTIONS 135 grades for the reading recitation, the number or arith- metic recitation, and the spelling recitation. III. What are the advantages of class instruction rather than individual instruction ? IV. Discuss the Batavia plan. V. Describe the ideal plan of arrangement for study and recitation periods and write out an ideal program for a country school VI. Describe proper schoolroom tactics in calling and dismissing classes. VII. What are proper seat habits for pupils ? VIII. Enumerate three improper seat habits and dis- cuss methods of correcting each. IX. What means should the teacher employ to secure neatness in the classroom ? X. Would you place per cents or ranks on pupils' report cards ? Why ? XI. How may politeness be taught ? XII. Why should a strict sense of justice character- ize every act of the teacher ? XIII. What constitutes active patriotism? XIV. How is altruism greater than patriotism ? CHAPTER XI. THE TEACHER Pages 95 to 105 I. Describe the personality of the ideal teacher. II. Why should a teacher possess patience and sym- pathy ? 136 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY III. Why should a teacher be optimistic, patriotic, and altruistic? IV. Why should one who has not formed good bodily habits not be employed as a teacher ? V. What academic training should a grade teacher possess ? VI. What professional training should a teacher re- ceive ? VII. Why are people who have not received proper academic and professional training employed as teachers ? VIII. For what is the teacher responsible to (a) the school ? (b) the community ? IX. Why should teachers not participate in question- able amusements ? CHAPTER XII. PUNISHMENT Pages 106 to no I. What are the two general aims in securing order in the schoolroom ? II. In what way has the nature of punishment in school failed to keep pace with the improvement in the nature of punishment administered by the state ? III. In what class of cases is corporal punishment justifiable? IV. How may the withholding of privileges and the granting of rewards aid in school discipline ? REVIEW QUESTIONS 137 CHAPTER XIV. SELF-DIRECTION Pages 119 to 128 I. What is self -direction ? II. Why should society provide for protecting youth from errors ? III. Why are those who depend upon chance or fraud so despondent in case of failure ? IV. To what does the speculative tendency of mind lead when coupled with (a) good judgment and honesty ? (#) with a lack of conscience ? V. Define good moral character. VI. How may we " educate for simplicity " ? DC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000 905 305 9