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SCHOOL-ROOM CLASSICS. II 
 
 THE ART 
 
 OF 
 
 QUESTIONING 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSHUA G. FITCH, M. A. 
 
 NINTH EDITION 
 
 SYRACUSE, N. Y. 
 C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1879, BY DAVIS BARDEEN & CO. 
 

 
The following paper contains the substance of 
 a lecture delivered to training classes established 
 in connection with the British Sunday- School 
 Union. In editing it for this series of educa- 
 tional publications, I have omitted such por- 
 tions as pertained exclusively to the work of 
 mission Sunday-schools, and were unessential 
 to the continuity and completeness of the work 
 as a valuable manual for public-school teachers . 
 
 C. W. BARDEEN. 
 
 Syracuse, January 22, 1879. 
 
 341170 
 
THE ART OF QUESTIONING 
 
 I have undertaken to say a few words 
 to you on the "Art of Questioning/ ' It 
 is a subject of great importance to all of 
 you who desire to become good teachers ; 
 for, in truth, the success and efficiency of 
 our teaching depend more on the skill 
 and judgment with which we put ques- 
 tions than on any other single circum- 
 stance. 
 
 It is very possible for a teacher to be 
 fluent in speech, earnest in manner, happy 
 in his choice of illustration, and to be a 
 very inefficient teacher, nevertheless. 
 We are often apt to think it enough if ^we 
 deliver a good lesson, and to forget that, 
 
78 Art of Questioning 
 
 after all, its value depends upon the de- 
 gree in which it is really received and ap- 
 propriated by the children. Now, in or- 
 der to secure that what we teach shall 
 really enter their minds, and be duly 
 fixed and comprehended there, it is above 
 all things necessary that we should be 
 able to use effectively the important in- 
 strument of instruction to which our at- 
 tention is now to be drawn. 
 
 I have called questioning an art. It is 
 so, inasmuch as it is a practical matter, 
 and to be learned mainly, not by talking 
 about it, but by doing it. We can be- 
 come"good questioners only after much pa- 
 tient practice; and, as is the case with 
 every other art, proficiency in this one 
 can be attained only by working at it, 
 and*education in it only by the teaching 
 of experience. 
 
A Science as well as an Art 79 
 
 But if this were all I should not have 
 ventured to make questioning the sub- 
 ject of an address to you; for the only 
 advice appropriate in such a case would 
 be, "Go to your classes, work in them, 
 and learn the art of questioning by 
 questioning." 
 
 The truth is, however, that there is a 
 science of teaching as well as an art ; every 
 rule of practice which is worth anything 
 is based on some principle ; and as it is the 
 business of every good artist to investi- 
 gate the reasons for the methods he 
 adopts, and to know something of those 
 general laws which it is his business to put 
 to a practical application, so it will, per- 
 haps, be worth our while to dwell for a 
 little on the general principles which 
 should be kept in view in questioning, and 
 
80 Art of Questioning 
 
 to ascertain not only how a wise teacher 
 should put questions, but why one way 
 is better or worse than another. 
 
 Questions as employed by teachers 
 may be divided into three classes, accord- 
 ing to the purposes which they may be 
 intended to serve. There is, first, the 
 preliminary or experimental question, by 
 which an instructor feels his way, sounds 
 the depth of his pupil's previous knowl- 
 edge, and prepares him for the reception 
 of what it is designed to teach. 
 
 Then, secondly, there is the question 
 employed in actual instruction, by means 
 of which the thoughts of the learner are 
 exercised, and he is compelled, so to 
 speak, to take a share in giving himself 
 the lesson. 
 
 Thirdly, there is the question of exam- 
 
Three Kinds of Questions 81 
 
 ination, by which a teacher tests his own 
 work, after he has given a lesson, and as- 
 certains whether it has been soundly and 
 thoroughly learned. If we carefully at- 
 tend to this distinction we shall under- 
 stand the meaning of the saying of a very 
 eminent teacher, who used to say of the 
 interrogative method, that by it he first 
 questioned the knowledge into the minds 
 of the children, and then questioned it out 
 of them again. 
 
 Perhaps I can best illustrate the nature 
 of what I have called preliminary or ex- 
 perimental questioning, by referring for 
 a moment to the history of a very cele- 
 brated man — an Athenian philosopher — 
 who lived more than two thousand years 
 ago, but whose name and influence^sur- 
 vive even in this age. 
 
82 Art of Questioning 
 
 Socrates had the reputation of being a 
 very great teacher, yet he never lectured 
 nor preached. He had not even a code 
 of doctrine or of opinion to promulgate. 
 But he lived in the midst of a keen, cul- 
 tivated, yet somewhat opinionated peo- 
 ple, and he made it his business to ques- 
 tion them as to the grounds of their opin- 
 ions; and to put searching and rigid in- 
 quiries to them on points which they 
 thought they thoroughly understood. He 
 believed that the great impediment to 
 true knowledge was the possession of 
 fancied or unreal knowledge, and that the 
 first business of a philosopher was, not 
 to teach, but to prepare the mind of the 
 pupil for the reception of truth, by prov- 
 ing to him his own ignorance. This kind 
 of mental purification he considered a 
 
Socrates 83 
 
 good preparation for teaching; hence he 
 often challenged a sophist, or a flippant 
 and self-confident learner, with a ques- 
 tion as to the meaning of some familiar 
 word; he would receive the answer, then 
 repeat it, and put some other question 
 intended to bring out the different senses 
 in which the word might be applied. It 
 not unfrequently appeared that the def- 
 inition was either too wide, and included 
 too much, or too narrow, and compre- 
 hended too little. The respondent would 
 then ask leave to retract his former def- 
 inition and to amend it; and when this 
 was done the questioner would quietly 
 proceed to cross-examine his pupil on the 
 subject, applying the amended definition 
 to special cases, until answers were given 
 inconsistent with each other, and with 
 
84 Art of Questioning 
 
 the previous reply. Now, as Socrates 
 never lost sight of the main point, and had 
 a remarkable power of chaining his hear- 
 ers to the question in hand, and forbid- 
 ding all discursiveness, the end of the ex- 
 ercise often was, that the pupil, after 
 vain efforts to extricate himself, admitted 
 that he could give no satisfactory answer 
 to the question which at first seemed so 
 easy. 
 
 I will give you a translation from one 
 of Plato's dialogues, in which this pecul- 
 iar method is illustrated. There was 
 one of the disciples of Socrates, named 
 Meno, who had been thus probed and 
 interrogated until he felt a somewhat 
 uncomfortable conviction that he was 
 not so wise as he had thought, and who 
 complained to the philosopher of what he 
 
The Method of Socrates 85 
 
 called the merely negative character of 
 his instruction. 
 
 "Why, Socrates," said he, "you remind 
 me of that broad sea-fish called the tor- 
 pedo, which produces a numbness in the 
 person who approaches and touches it. 
 For, in truth, I seem benumbed both in 
 mind and mouth, and know not what to 
 reply to you, and yet I have often spoken 
 on this subject with great fluency and 
 success. " 
 
 In reply Socrates says little, but calls 
 to him Meno's attendant, a young slave 
 boy, and begins to question him. 
 
 "My boy, do you know what figure this 
 is?" (drawing a square upon the ground 
 with a stick.) 
 
 "O yes. It is a square." 
 
 "What do you notice about these 
 lines?" (tracing them.) 
 
86 Art of Questioning 
 
 "That all four are equal." 
 
 "Could there be another space like 
 this, only larger or less?" 
 
 "Certainly." 
 
 "Suppose this line (pointing to one of 
 the sides) is two feet long, how many 
 feet will there be in the whole ?" 
 
 "Twice two." 
 
 "How many is that ?" 
 
 "Four." 
 
 "Will it be possible to have another 
 space twice this size?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "How many square feet will it con- 
 tain?" 
 
 "Eight." 
 
 "Then how long will the sides of such 
 a space be?" 
 
 "It is plain, Socrates, that it will be 
 twice the length !" 
 
The Method of Socrates 87 
 
 "You see, Meno, that I teach this boy 
 nothing; I only question him. And he 
 thinks he knows the right answer to my 
 question; but does he know? 
 "Certainly not," replied Meno. 
 "Let us return to him again/ ' 
 "My boy, you say that from a line of 
 four feet long there will be produced a 
 space of eight square feet; is it so ?" 
 "Yes, Socrates, I think so." 
 "Let us try then." (He prolongs the 
 line to double the length.) 
 "Is this the line you mean ?" 
 "Certainly." (He completes the square.) 
 "How large is become the]whole space ?' ' 
 "Why it is four times as large." 
 "How many feet does it contain?" 
 "Sixteen." 
 
 "How many ought double the square 
 to contain?" 
 
88 Art of Questioning 
 
 "Eight." 
 
 After a few more questions the lad sug- 
 gests that the line should be three feet 
 long, since four feet are too much. 
 
 "If, then, it be three feet, we will add 
 the half of the first line to it, shall we?" 
 
 "Yes." (He draws the whole square 
 on a line of three feet.) 
 
 "Now, if the first square we drew con- 
 tained twice two feet, and the second 
 four times four feet, how many does the 
 last contain?" 
 
 "Three times three, Socrates." 
 
 "And how many ought it to contain?" 
 
 "Only eight, or one less than nine." 
 
 "Well, now, since this is not the line on 
 which to draw the square we wanted, tell 
 me how long it should be ?" 
 
 "Indeed, sir, I don't know." 
 
Knowledge of Ignorance 89 
 
 "Now observe, Meno, what has hap- 
 pened to this boy; you see he did not 
 know at first, neither does he yet know. 
 But he then answered boldly, because he 
 fancied he knew; now he is quite at a loss, 
 and though he is still as ignorant as be- 
 fore, he does not think he knows." 
 
 Meno replies, "What you say is quite 
 true, Socrates." 
 
 "Is he not, then, in a better state now 
 in respect to the matter of which he was 
 ignorant?" 
 
 "Most assuredly he is." 
 
 "In causing him to be thus at a loss, 
 and benumbing him like a torpedo, have 
 we done him any harm ?" 
 
 "None, certainly." 
 
 "We have at least made some progress 
 toward finding out his true position. For 
 
90 Art of Questioning 
 
 now, knowing nothing, he is more likely 
 to inquire and search for himself." 
 
 Now I think those of us who are prac- 
 tical-school teachers can draw a practical 
 hint or two from this anecdote. If we 
 want to prepare the mind to receive in- 
 struction, it is worth while first to find 
 out what is known already, and what 
 foundation or substratum of knowledge 
 there is on which to build ; to clear away 
 misapprehensions and obstructions from 
 the mind on which we wish to operate; 
 and to excite curiosity and interest on 
 the part of the learners as to the subject 
 which it is intended to teach. For "cur- 
 iosity/' as Archbishop Whately says, "is 
 the parent of attention; and a teacher 
 has no more right to expect success in 
 teaching those who have no curiosity to 
 
Curiosity Parent of Attention 91 
 
 learn, than a husbandman has who sows 
 a field without ploughing it." 
 
 It is chiefly by questions judiciously 
 put to a child before you give him a les- 
 son, that you will be able to kindle this 
 curiosity, to make him feel the need of 
 your instruction, and bring his intellect 
 into a wakeful and teachable condition. 
 
 Whatever you may have to give in the 
 way of new knowledge will then have a 
 far better chance of being understood. 
 For you may take it as a rule in teaching, 
 that the mind always refuses to receive — 
 certainly to retain — any isolated knowl- 
 edge. We remember only those facts 
 and principles which link themselves 
 with what we knew before, or with what 
 we hope to know, or are likely to want 
 hereafter. Try, therefore, to establish, 
 
92 Art of Questioning 
 
 in every case, a logical connection be- 
 tween what you teach and what your 
 pupils knew before. Make your new in- 
 formation a sort of development of the 
 old, the expansion of some germ of 
 thought or inquiry which lay hid in the 
 child's mind before. Seek to bring to 
 light what your pupil already possesses, 
 and you will then always see your way 
 more clearly to a proper adaptation of 
 your teaching to his needs. 
 
 I said at the outset that there were 
 two other purposes which might be 
 served by questioning, besides this pri- 
 mary one which I have just described. 
 It may serve the purpose of actual in- 
 struction in the course of giving a lesson, 
 and it may also be the means of exam- 
 ining and testing the pupils after the les- 
 
Connect the New with the Old 93 
 
 son is finished. Some teachers seem to 
 think that this last is the only use of 
 questioning; but, in truth, it is as a means 
 of deepening and fixing truth upon the 
 mind that it possesses the highest value. 
 Hence, every fact you teach, before you 
 proceed to another, ought generally to 
 be made the subject of interrogation. 
 
 I will suppose that most of the instruc- 
 tion which you are in the habit of giving 
 in a Sunday-school is connected with 
 Scripture reading lessons. The usual 
 plan is to let a certain portion of the word 
 of God be read, verse by verse, in turns 
 by the children of the class, then to 
 cause the books to be closed, and then to 
 proceed to question on the lesson. Now, 
 in my own classes in a Sunday-school, I 
 have generally found that the mere 
 
94 Art of Questioning 
 
 mechanical difficulty of reading, and the 
 fact that so much of the phraseology of 
 the Bible is unfamiliar and antiquated, 
 were sufficient to prevent the lesson from 
 being understood by all the children. 
 So, if I reserve my questions until the 
 end, it has often happened that many 
 important truths of the lesson proved to 
 have been overlooked by the children, 
 and the result of the questioning has been 
 most unsatisfactory. To remedy this the 
 best plan seems to be, to put brief, point- 
 ed questions during the reading, to take 
 care that no difficult or peculiar words 
 pass unexplained, and constantly to arrest 
 the attention of the class, when it flags, 
 by inquiries addressed to individual mem- 
 bers of it. You will also find it a good 
 plan, especially with the younger chil- 
 
Question as you go along 95 
 
 dren, after the whole lesson has been 
 read twice or thrice by the class, to read 
 a short passage yourself, generally two 
 or three verses, in a slow, distinct man- 
 ner, with as much expression as possible, 
 and then question thoroughly upon the 
 passage, exhausting its meaning before 
 you go on to the next. When this has 
 been done with each successive portion 
 of the lesson the books may be closed, 
 and the whole recapitulated by way of 
 examination. You will find this plan 
 answer a double purpose ; it will improve 
 the reading of the class, by giving to it 
 a model clearness and expression, and it 
 will enable you to question systematically 
 on every fact you teach as soon as you 
 have taught it. By thus making sure 
 of your ground as you proceed, you will 
 
96 Art of Questioning 
 
 become entitled to expect answers to 
 your recapitulatory or examination ques- 
 tions; and this is a point of great impor- 
 tance, for nothing discourages and de- 
 presses a teacher more, or sooner de- 
 stroys the interest of the children in a 
 lesson than the asking of questions which 
 they cannot answer. 
 
 Thus the advantage of questioning on 
 each portion of a lesson, rigidly and care- 
 fully, as it is learned, is, that you then 
 have a right to demand full answers to all 
 your testing questions when the lesson 
 is concluded. You will, of course, go 
 over the ground a second time much 
 more rapidly than at first; but it is al- 
 ways desirable to cover the whole area 
 of your subject in recapitulation, and to 
 put questions at the end to every child 
 in your class. 
 
Simultaneous Answers 97 
 
 I have only one other observation to 
 make as to the distinction to be kept in 
 view between the questioning of instruc- 
 tion, and the questioning of examination. 
 In the former it is often wise to use the 
 simultaneous method, and to address 
 your questions to the whole class. This 
 kind of collective exercise gives vigor 
 and life to a lesson, and the sympathy 
 which is always generated by numbers 
 helps to strengthen and fix the impres- 
 sion you wish to convey. But you must 
 never be satisfied with simultaneous an- 
 swers; they should invariably be fol- 
 lowed up by individual questioning, or 
 they will prove very misleading. It may 
 seem a paradoxical assertion, but it is 
 nevertheless true, that a group of chil- 
 dren may appear intelligent, while the 
 
98 Art of Questioning 
 
 separate members of the group are care- 
 less, ignorant, or only half interested. 
 Without intending to deceive, children 
 soon learn to catch the key-note of a 
 word or a sentence from their fellows, 
 and to practise many little artifices by 
 which knowledge and attention are sim- 
 ulated, and by which a very slight de- 
 gree of interest may be mistaken by their 
 teacher for sound and thoughtful work. 
 So, while you will often call for collective 
 answers in order to retain the vivacity 
 and spirit of your lesson, you should al- 
 ways suspect such answers ; and in every 
 case let them be succeeded by individual 
 appeals to separate children, especially to 
 those who appear the least attentive. 
 Of course the recapitulatory or examin- 
 ation questions, should be entirely in- 
 
Individual Answers 99 
 
 dividual; in a small class the questions 
 may well be put to each child in turn, 
 but in a large one they should be given 
 promiscuously ; so that every learner may 
 feel sure that he will be personally chal- 
 lenged, and that the knowledge of the 
 rest will form no cloak for his own ig- 
 norance. 
 
 But, leaving for the present all dis- 
 tinctions as to the purposes which ques- 
 tions may at different times be made to 
 serve, let us fix our attention on some 
 points which should be kept in view, as 
 to the language, style, and character of 
 all questions whatever. 
 
 First, then, cultivate great simplicity 
 of language. Use as few words as pos- 
 sible, and let them be such as are adapted 
 to the age and capacity of the class you 
 
100 Art of Questioning 
 
 are teaching. Remember that questions 
 are not meant to display your own learn- 
 ing or acquirements, but to bring out 
 those of the children. It is a great point 
 in questioning to say as little as possible ; 
 and so to say that little, as to cause the 
 children to say as much as possible. 
 Conduct your lesson in such a way that 
 if a visitor or superintendent be standing 
 by, his attention will be directed, not to 
 you, but to your pupils; and his admir- 
 ation excited, not by your skill and keen- 
 ness, but by the amount of mental ac- 
 tivity displayed on their part. 
 
 There is an old Latin maxim which, 
 translated, means, "It is the business of 
 art to conceal art." I suppose this 
 means, that in the case of all the highest 
 and noblest arts their results are spoiled 
 
Simplicity of Language 101 
 
 by any needless display of mechanism, 
 or any obtrusive manifestation of the 
 artist's personal gifts. At any rate you 
 may take it for granted, in relation to 
 your art, that the best questioning is 
 that which attracts least attention to the 
 questioner, and makes the learners seem 
 to be the most important parties con- 
 cerned. You will do well, therefore, to 
 practise yourselves in using great plain- 
 ness of speech, and in constructing ques- 
 tions in the fewest possible words. 
 
 Connected with this is another hint of 
 importance : Do not tell much in your ques- 
 tions. Never, if you can help it, com- 
 municate a fact in your question. Con- 
 trive to educe every fact from the class. 
 It is better to pause for a moment, and 
 to put one or two subordinate questions, 
 
102 Art of Questioning 
 
 with a view to bring out the truth you are 
 seeking, than to tell anything which the 
 children could tell you. A good teacher 
 never conveys information in the form 
 of a question. If he tells his class some- 
 thing, he is not long before he makes 
 his class tell him the same thing again; 
 but his question never assumes the same 
 form, or employs the same phraseology 
 as his previous statement; for if it does, 
 the form of the question really suggests 
 the answer, and the exercise fails to chal- 
 lenge the judgment and memory of the 
 children as it ought to do. I may, for 
 instance, want to bring out the fact that 
 Jerusalem is the chief city in the Holy 
 Land. Now suppose I do it thus: "What 
 is the chief city in the Holy Land?" 
 "Jerusalem." "In what country is Je- 
 
Do not Tell much 103 
 
 rusalem the chief city?" "The Holy 
 Land/' Here each question carries with 
 it the answer to the other, and the con- 
 sequence is that they test little or noth- 
 ing, and serve scarcely any useful pur- 
 pose. 
 
 For this reason it is always important, 
 in questioning on a passage of Scripture, 
 to avoid using the words of Scripture; 
 otherwise we may greatly deceive our- 
 selves as to the real extent of knowledge 
 possessed by the class. I will suppose, 
 for example, that you are giving a lesson 
 on the meaning of the Christian injunc- 
 tion, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
 thyself," and that the class has first been 
 questioned as to the meaning of it, and 
 proved unable to give a full and satis- 
 factory explanation of the scope and 
 
104 Art of Questioning 
 
 meaning of these memorable words. The 
 parable of the good Samaritan has been 
 chosen as an illustrative reading lesson. 
 It has been read twice or thrice by the 
 class in turn, and then the teacher takes 
 the first verse and reads it slowly to the 
 class : 
 
 "A certain man went down from Jeru- 
 salem to Jericho, and fell among thieves y 
 which stripped him of his raiment, and 
 wounded him, and departed, leaving him 
 half dead. ' ' Luke x :30. 
 
 Some teachers would proceed to ques- 
 tion thus: 
 
 Whom is this parable about ? A certain 
 man. Where did he go from? Jeru- 
 salem. Where to ? Jericho. What sort 
 of people did he fall among? Thieves. 
 What did they do with his raiment? 
 
A Change of Wording 105 
 
 Stripped him of it. What did they do 
 with the man himself? Wounded him. 
 In what state did they leave him ? Half 
 dead. 
 
 Observe here that the teacher has cov- 
 ered the whole area of the narrative, and 
 proposed a question on every fact ; so far 
 he has done well. But it is to be noticed 
 that every question was proposed as 
 nearly as possible in the words of the 
 book, and required for its answer one 
 (generally but one) of those words. Now 
 it is very easy for a boy or girl, while the 
 echoes of the Bible narrative just read 
 still linger in the ear, to answer every 
 such question by rote merely, with 
 scarcely any effort of memory, and no 
 effort of thought whatever. It is very 
 possible to fill up the one remaining word 
 
106 Art of Questioning 
 
 of such elliptical sentences as those which 
 have just been used as questions, without 
 having any perception at all of the mean- 
 ing of the sentence as a whole. 
 
 So, if you desire to secure a thorough 
 understanding of the sacred narrative, it 
 will be necessary to propose questions 
 constructed on a different model, avoid- 
 ing the use of the exact phraseology of 
 Scripture, and requiring for answers other 
 words than those contained in the nar- 
 rative. 
 
 Let us go over the same subject again, 
 first introducing it by one or two prelim- 
 inary questions; for example: 
 
 Who used these words? 
 
 To whom were they spoken ? 
 
 Why were they uttered ? 
 
 Repeat the question which the lawyer 
 asked. 
 
Do not Suggest the Answer 107 
 
 What is the parable about ? (Various 
 answers.) One says, A man who went on 
 a journey. What do you call a man who 
 goes on a journey? A traveller. In 
 what country was the man travelling? 
 Judea. Let us trace his route on the 
 map. 
 
 In what direction was he travelling? 
 Eastward. Through what kind of coun- 
 try? (Here the teacher's own informa- 
 tion should supply a fact or two about its 
 physical features.) What should you 
 suppose from the lesson was the 
 state of the country at that time? 
 Thinly peopled] road unfrequented, etc. 
 How do you know this? Because 
 he fell among thieves. Give another 
 expression for " fell among. " Hap- 
 pened to meet with. Another word for 
 
106 Art of Questioning 
 
 " thieves. M Robbers. How did the rob- 
 bers treat this traveler? They stripped 
 him of his raiment, What does the word 
 raiment mean? Clothes. Besides rob- 
 bing him of his clothes, what else did they 
 do ? Wounded him. Explain that word. 
 Injured him] hurt him very much, etc. 
 How do you know from the text that he 
 was much hurt ? They left him half dead. 
 They almost killed him. 
 
 Now observe here that the aim has 
 been two-fold. First, not to suggest the 
 answer by the form of the question. 
 Hence another sort of language has been 
 adopted, and the children have therefore 
 been made to interpret the biblical lan- 
 guage into that of ordinary life. Sec- 
 ondly, not to be satisfied with single 
 words as answers, especially with the 
 
Single Words not Answers 109 
 
 particular word which is contained in the 
 narrative itself, but always to translate 
 it into one more familiar. Children 
 often give the word which suffices to 
 answer their teacher's inquiry, and are yet 
 ignorant of the whole statement of which 
 that word forms a part. After going 
 over verses like these in detail, I should 
 recommend varying the form of the ques- 
 tion, thus: 
 
 "Now, what have we learned in this 
 verse?" 
 
 "That there was a traveller going from 
 the chief city of Judea to another town 
 near the Jordan, on the northeast.' ' 
 
 "Well, and what happened to him?" 
 
 "He was robbed, and half -killed, and 
 left very weak and helpless." 
 
 A teacher ought not, in fact, to be sat- 
 
110 Art of Questioning 
 
 isfied until he can get entire sentences 
 for answers. These sentences will gen- 
 erally be paraphrases of the words used 
 in the lesson, and the materials for mak- 
 ing the paraphrases will have been de- 
 veloped in the course of the lesson by 
 demanding, in succession, meanings and 
 equivalents for all the principal words. 
 Remember that the mere ability to fill 
 up a parenthetical or elliptical sentence 
 proves nothing, beyond the possession of a 
 little tact and verbal memory. It is worth 
 while to turn round sharply on some in- 
 attentive member of the class, or upon 
 some one who has just given a mechanical 
 answer, with the question, "What have 
 wejjust said?" "Tell me what we have 
 justjlearned about such a person." Ob- 
 serve that the answer required to such 
 
Unmistakable Questions 111 
 
 a question must necessarily be a whole 
 sentence; it will be impossible to answer 
 it without a real effort of thought and of 
 judgment in the selection of the learner's 
 words, and without an actual acquaint- 
 ance with the fact that has been taught. 
 It is of great importance, also, that 
 questions should be definite and unmis- t ~ 
 takable, and, for the most part, that they 
 admit of but one answer. An unskilful 
 teacher puts vague, wide questions, such 
 as, ' ' What did he do ?" ' ' What did Abra- 
 ham say?" "How did Joseph feel at 
 such a time?" "What lesson ought we 
 to learn from this?" questions to which 
 no doubt he sees the right answer, be- 
 cause it is already in his mind ; but which 
 perhaps, admit of several equally good 
 answers, according to the different points 
 
112 Art of Questioning 
 
 of view from which different minds would 
 look at them. He does not think of this; 
 he fancies that what is so clear to him 
 ought to be equally clear to others; he 
 forgets that the minds of the children may 
 be moving on other, rails, so to speak, 
 even though directed to the same ob- 
 ject. So, when an answer comes which 
 is not the one he expected, even though 
 it is a perfectly legitimate one, he rejects 
 it; while, if any child is fortunate enough 
 to give the precise answer which was in 
 the teacher's mind he is commended and 
 rewarded, even though he has exerted no 
 more thought on the subject. 
 
 Vague and indefinite questions, I have 
 always observed, produce three different 
 results, according to the class of children 
 to whom they are addressed. The really 
 
Results of Indefinite Questions 113 
 
 thoughtful and sensible boy is simply be- 
 wildered by them. He is very anxious 
 to be right, but he is not clear as to what 
 answer his teacher expects; so he is silent, 
 looks puzzled, and is perhaps mistaken 
 for a dunce. The bold and confident boy 
 who does not think, when he hears a 
 vague question answers at random; he 
 is not quite sure whether he is right or 
 wrong, but he tries the experiment, and 
 is thus strengthened in a habit of inac- 
 curacy, and encouraged in the mischiev- 
 ous practice of guessing. There is a 
 third class of children whom I have 
 noticed, not very keen, but sly and 
 knowing nevertheless, who watch the 
 teacher's peculiarities, know his methods, 
 and soon acquire the knack of observing 
 the structure of his sentences, so as to 
 
114 Art of Questioning 
 
 find out which answer he expects. They 
 do not understand the subject so well, 
 perhaps, as many others, but they under- 
 stand the teacher better, and can more 
 quickly pronounce the characteristic 
 word or the particular answer he ex- 
 pects. Now I do not hesitate to say, 
 that as far as real education and de- 
 velopment of thought are concerned, each 
 of these three classes of children is injured 
 by the habit of vague, wide, and am- 
 biguous questioning which is so common 
 among teachers. 
 
 For similar reasons it is generally nec- 
 essary to abstain from giving questions 
 to which we have no reasonable right to 
 expect an answer. Technical terms, and 
 information children are not likely to 
 possess, ought not to be demanded. 
 
No Technical Terms 115 
 
 Nor should questions be repeated to those 
 who cannot answer. A still more ob- 
 jectionable practice is that of suggesting 
 the first word or two of a sentence, or 
 pronouncing the first syllable of a word 
 which the children do not recollect. All 
 these errors generate a habit of guessing 
 among the scholars, and we should ever 
 bear in mind that there is no one habit 
 more fatal to accurate thinking, or more 
 likely to encourage shallowness and self- 
 deception, than this. It should be dis- 
 countenanced in every possible way; and 
 the most effective way is to study well 
 the form of our questions, to consider 
 well whether they are quite intelligible 
 and unequivocal to those to whom they 
 are addressed, and to limit them to those 
 points on which we have a right to expect 
 clear and definite answers. 
 
116 Art of Questioning 
 
 There is a class of questions which 
 hardly deserve the name, and which are, 
 in fact, fictitious or apparent, but not 
 true questions. I mean those which sim- 
 ply require the answer "Yes" or "No." 
 Nineteen such questions out of twenty 
 carry their own answers in them; for it 
 is almost impossible to propose one 
 without revealing, by the tone and in- 
 flexion of the voice, the kind of answer 
 you expect. For example: "Is it right 
 to honor our parents?" "Did Abraham 
 show much faith when he offered up his 
 son?" "Do you think the author of the 
 Psalms was a good man?" "Were the 
 Pharisees really lovers of truth?" Ques- 
 tions like these elicit no thought what- 
 ever; there are but two possible answers 
 to each of them, and of these I am sure 
 
Yes or No Questions 117 
 
 to show, by my manner of putting the 
 question, which one I expect. Such ques- 
 tions should, therefore, as a general rule, 
 be avoided, as they seldom serve any 
 useful purpose, either in teaching or in 
 examining. For every question, it must 
 be remembered, ought to require an ef- 
 fort to answer it; it may be an effort of 
 memory, or an effort of imagination, or 
 an effort of judgment, or an effort of per- 
 ception; it may be a considerable effort 
 or it may be a light one; but it must be 
 an effort; and a question which chal- 
 lenges no mental exertion whatever, and 
 does not make the learner think, is worth 
 nothing. Hence, however such simple 
 affirmative and negative replies may look 
 like work, they may coexist with utter 
 stagnation of mind on the part of the 
 
118 Art of Questioning 
 
 scholars, and with complete ignorance of 
 what we are attempting to teach. 
 
 vSo much for the language of question- 
 ing. But it is worth while to give a pas- 
 sing notice to the order and arrangement 
 which should always characterize a series 
 of questions. They should, in fact, al- 
 ways follow one another in systematic 
 order; each should seem to grow out of 
 the answer which preceded it, and should 
 have a clear logical connection with it. 
 
 Much of the force and value of the in- 
 terrogative method is lost in a loose, uncon- 
 nected, random set of inquiries, however 
 well they maybe worded, or however skil- 
 fully each separate question may be de- 
 signed to elicit the thought and knowl- 
 edge of the learners. If the entire im- 
 pression left on the mind of the learner 
 
Arrangement of Questions 119 
 
 is to be an effective one, all that he has 
 learned on a given subject ought to be co- 
 herent and connected. We cannot se- 
 cure this without acquiring a habit of 
 continuous and orderly questioning, so 
 that each effort of thought made by the 
 scholar shall be duly connected with the 
 former, and preparatory to the next. 
 There will thus be a unity and entireness 
 in the teaching, and what is taught will 
 then have a reasonable chance of a per- 
 manent . place in the memory. For we 
 must ever remember that whatever is 
 learned confusedly is remembered con- 
 fusedly, and that all effective teaching 
 must be characterized by system and con- 
 tinuity. Hence, in proposing questions, 
 it is very necessary to keep in view the 
 importance of linking them together; of 
 
120 Art of Questioning 
 
 making each new answer the solution of 
 some difficulty, which the former answer 
 suggested, but did not explain; and of 
 arranging all questions in the exact order 
 in which the subject would naturally 
 develop itself in the mind of a logical 
 and systematic thinker. 
 
 A very good example of this peculiar 
 merit in questioning may be found in the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church Catechism, 
 especially in its latter section. I do not, 
 of course, enter here on any controversy 
 respecting the subject-matter of this 
 catechism; but the arrangement of the 
 questions will certainly repay an atten- 
 tive examination. Look at that portion 
 which relates to the sacraments. It will 
 be found that each answer serves to sug- 
 gest the next question, and that the 
 
The Skill of Lawyers 121 
 
 whole body of answers, in the order in 
 which they stand, furnish a systematic 
 code of doctrine on the subject to which 
 the catechism refers, with every fact in 
 precisely its right place. The excellence 
 of the method adopted here will be best 
 understood by contrasting it with many 
 popular modern works in a catachetical 
 form. 
 
 We have often been struck, I dare say, 
 in reading the newspapers, to find what 
 plain and sensible evidence the witnesses 
 all appear to give at judicial trials. We 
 recognize the name of some particular 
 person, and we know., perhaps, that he 
 is an uneducated man, apt to talk in an 
 incoherent and desultory way on most 
 subjects, utterly incapable of telling a 
 simple story without wandering and blun- 
 
122 Art of Questioning 
 
 dering, and very nervous withal; yet 
 if he happens to have been a witness at 
 a trial, and we read the published report 
 of his testimony; we are surprised to find 
 what a connected, straightforward story 
 it is; there is no irrelevant or needless 
 matter introduced, and yet not one sig- 
 nificant fact is omitted. We wonder 
 how such a man could have stood up in 
 a crowded court, and narrated facts with 
 all this propriety and good taste. 
 
 The truth is, that the witness is not 
 entitled to your praise. He never recited 
 the narrative in the way implied by the 
 newspaper report. But he stood op- 
 posite to a man who had studied the art 
 of questioning, and he replied in succes- 
 sion to a series of interrogations which the 
 barrister proposed to him. The reporter 
 
Connection of Answers 123 
 
 for the press has done no more than copy 
 down, in the exact order in which they 
 were given, all the replies to these ques- 
 tions; and if the sum of these replies reads 
 to us like a consistent narrative, it is 
 because the lawyer knew how to marshal 
 his facts beforehand, had the skill to de- 
 termine what was necessary, and what 
 was not necessary, to the case in hand, 
 and to propose his questions so as to 
 draw out, even from a confused and be- 
 wildered mind, a coherent statement of 
 facts. 
 
 We may take a hint, I think, from 
 the practice of the bar in this respect; 
 and, especially, in questioning by way of 
 examination, we may remember that the 
 answers of the children, if they could be 
 taken down at the moment, ought to 
 
124 Art of Questioning 
 
 form a complete, orderly, and clear sum- 
 mary of the entire contents of the lesson. 
 Of course I do not mean to insist too 
 rigidly upon an adherence to this rule. 
 Misconceptions will reveal themselves in 
 the course of the lesson, which will require 
 to be corrected; hard words will occur, 
 which need explanation; new trains of 
 thought and inquiry will seem to start 
 out of the lesson, and to demand occasion- 
 al digression; it will, in fact, often become 
 necessary to deviate a little to the right 
 hand or to the left from the main path, 
 for the sake of illustration, and for other 
 good reasons. No good teacher allows 
 himself to be so enslaved by a mechanical 
 routine as to neglect these things ; we must 
 not attempt, even for the sake of logical 
 consistency, to adhere too rigidly to a 
 
Keep Purpose in View 125 
 
 formal series of questions, nor refuse 
 to notice any new fact or inquiry which 
 seems to spring naturally out of the sub- 
 ject. Still, the main purpose of the 
 whole lesson should be kept steadily in 
 view; all needless digression should be 
 carefully avoided, and any incidental dif- 
 ficulties which are unexpectedly dis- 
 closed in the lesson should rather be re- 
 membered and reserved for future in- 
 vestigation, than permitted to beguile a 
 teacher into a neglect of those truths 
 which the lesson is primarily designed to 
 teach. 
 
 A good deal of the success of a teacher 
 depends upon the manner in which ques- 
 tions are proposed. Perhaps the most 
 important requisite under this head is 
 animation. Slow, dull, heavy question- 
 
126 Art of Questioning 
 
 ing wearies children, and destroys their 
 interest in a lesson. It is by a rapid suc- 
 cession of questions, by a pleasing and 
 spirited manner, by dextrously chal- 
 lenging all who seem inattentive, and, 
 above all, by an earnest feeling of inter- 
 est in the subject, and of delight in seeing 
 the minds of his scholars at work, that 
 the teacher will best kindle their mental 
 activity, and give life and force to his 
 subject. 
 
 Hence it is necessary to avoid long 
 pauses, and all monotony of voice, 
 or sluggishness of manner; to vary the 
 phraseology of your questions, and to 
 seek in every way to kindle interest and 
 enthusiasm about the lesson. But in 
 doing this let us remember that we cannot 
 give more than we possess; we cannot 
 
Animation 127 
 
 raise the minds of others above the level 
 of our own; and therefore it is important 
 that our manner should show a warm in- 
 terest in the subject, and that our own 
 love for sacred truth should be so strong 
 as to convey itself, by the mere force of 
 sympathy, into the hearts of those whom 
 we undertake to instruct. I have seen 
 Sunday-school teachers whose cheeks 
 glowed, and whose manner became suf- 
 fused with earnestness as they spoke the 
 words of healing and of life, I have seen 
 their eyes glisten with tearful joy as one 
 little one after another had his intellect 
 awakened to receive the truth, and his 
 heart touched with sacred impressions. 
 And I have known well that these were 
 teachers who, whatever their intellectual 
 gifts might be, were the most likely per- 
 
128 Art of Questioning 
 
 sons to obtain an entrance into the hearts 
 of children, to exercise a right influence 
 over them, and to find, after many days, 
 that the seed they had thus sown in hope 
 and fear had been watered by the divine 
 favor and benediction, and brought forth 
 rich and glorious fruit. Of course we 
 must not counterfeit an emotion which 
 we do not feel, nor use an earnest manner 
 as a mere trick of art, or as a machine 
 for making our teaching effective; but 
 a Sunday-school teacher will never be 
 worth much unless his own heart kindles 
 at the thought of the permanence and 
 preciousness of the truths he has to teach, 
 nor unless he feels a positive pleasure in 
 witnessing every new proof of the un- 
 folding of mind on the part of his class. 
 Such feelings are sure to give vigor to his 
 
Preparation for the Lesson 129 
 
 teaching, a vivid and picturesque char- 
 acter to his illustrations, earnestness to 
 his manner, animation to his voice, and a 
 quick, active and telling character to his 
 method of questioning. 
 
 For these reasons I think it very un- 
 desirable for a teacher to use a book of 
 questions, or to have teaching notes in 
 his hand while he gives the lesson. The 
 value of such assistance is great if you 
 avail yourselves of it beforehand: if it 
 helps to systematize your own thoughts 
 and prepare you for the right develop- 
 ment of the lesson. But in the presence 
 of the children the use of the text-book 
 has a chilling and depressing effect; it 
 destroys their confidence in their teacher, 
 it prevents him from feeling at his ease, 
 and it gives a sluggish and mechanical 
 
130 Art of Questioning 
 
 look to the whole proceeding. Whether 
 our questions be good or bad, it is quite 
 certain that they should be our own, not 
 read out of a book, or from notes, but 
 growing spontaneously out of our own 
 minds, and adapted not only to the pe- 
 culiar character and requirements of the 
 class; but also to the time and circum- 
 stances, to the special turn which the 
 lesson has chanced to take, and to the 
 particular inferences which the teacher 
 feels it most important to draw from it. 
 For it must ever be one of the first 
 requisites in all good teaching, that the 
 minds of the teacher and of the taught 
 should come into actual contact. The 
 words of some one else, read or quoted to 
 me, never can have half the force of 
 the actual utterance of a living present 
 
Actual Contact of Minds 131 
 
 being, whose own thought seeks en- 
 trance into my mind, and is intended 
 specially to meet my needs. We all 
 know the difference between reading a 
 sermon to children, and delivering orally 
 a far inferior address, but one attended 
 with gestures and looks and tones which 
 prove its genuinesness. and give it direct- 
 ness of application. The same difference 
 is noticeable in questioning, and there- 
 fore it is far better that a teacher should 
 make a few blunders and inaccuracies 
 while he is educating himself into the 
 habit of independent questioning, than 
 that he should be rigidly exact and care- 
 ful by the help of notes or books. Swim- 
 ming with corks is not, strictly speaking, 
 swimming at all; and so the reading of 
 certain inquiries from a catechism or a 
 
132 Art of Questioning 
 
 book is not, in fact, questioning at all, 
 but an indirect and very inefficient sub- 
 stitute for it. 
 
 Perhaps it may be worth while to say 
 a word or two about the answers which 
 questions may receive. We ought not 
 to be satisfied with obtaining a right 
 answer from one child, nor even from the 
 whole class collectively. In most cases 
 it is necessary to repeat a question which 
 has been answered, to some other child 
 who may have appeared inattentive. 
 And if a question is first given to one who 
 fails to answer it, and then to another 
 boy or girl who gives the right answer, 
 it is generally a good plan to go back to 
 the first child, and put the same ques- 
 tion, again, in order to test his attention 
 to what is going on in the class. We can 
 
Get Answers from All 133 
 
 secure a hold upon the more indolent 
 scholars only by making each one feel 
 that he cannot possibly escape, but that 
 his own personal knowledge of the subject 
 is sure to be challenged at the close of the 
 lesson. Hence, all questions should be 
 well distributed throughout the class, 
 and no one child should be allowed to 
 avoid the frequent appeals of his teacher. 
 Wrong answers will often be given, yet 
 these should never make us angry, but 
 should be reserved for awhile, and shown 
 to be incorrect by subsequent examina- 
 tion. Of course, if random or foolish 
 answers are offered, it is a proof that the 
 discipline of the class is bad, and the 
 offence must be regarded as a breach of 
 rule, and treated accordingly. But a 
 mistake arising from ignorance ought 
 
134 Art of Questioning 
 
 never to be treated as a crime. A teacher 
 may meet it by saying, "Will some one 
 tell me why that answer is a wrong one ?" 
 Or, if the answer is very wide of the 
 mark, by saying, "We will go into that 
 presently;" or, "We will have a lesson on 
 that subject, and you will then see why 
 the answer was a bad one." And, in the 
 very numerous cases in which an answer 
 is partly wrong, and partly right, or in 
 which an answer, though right in sub- 
 stance, is wrong in the mere language or 
 form of expression, it is always desirable 
 to alter the language of your question, to 
 propose it again to an elder child, to add 
 a subordinate question or two to disen- 
 tangle the precise truth, and then at last 
 the question should be repeated in its 
 original form, and an amended answer be 
 
Mistakes in Answers 135 
 
 required. But all this implies patience 
 and judgment; a condescension to the 
 weakness and obscurity of infant minds; 
 a considerate, forbearing tone; and a 
 constant desire to sympathize in their 
 difficulties, rather by offering a friendly 
 help in escaping from them than by solv- 
 ing them at once. 
 
 It may occasionally happen to a teach- 
 er to be much vexed and puzzled because 
 he can obtain no answers to his questions 
 at all, or because all the answering comes 
 from one or two prominent children. In 
 such cases it is needless to find fault, or 
 to complain and scold for the inattention. 
 It is far better to look into ourselves, and 
 see if we cannot find the reason there 
 for our want of success. Perhaps we 
 have allowed the lesson to proceed in dis- 
 
136 Art of Questioning 
 
 order, and nothing is known, simply be- 
 cause nothing has been taught; and in 
 this case our own method is in fault. Or, 
 perhaps, we have been asking questions 
 above the comprehension of the chil- 
 dren, which they are positively unable to 
 answer, and which we have no right to 
 ask. Or, it may be that we have put 
 our questions in an indistinct or unin- 
 telligible way. Let us always, in case of 
 failure, suspect ourselves, take the ig- 
 norance of the children as a censure upon 
 our own methods, and endeavor, with 
 God's blessing, to turn the experience of 
 such a lesson to good account by rec- 
 tifying our plans, simplifying our lan- 
 guage, or studying more accurately the 
 nature of the beings with whom we have 
 to deal. 
 
Mutual Questions 137 
 
 Occasionally it will be found advan- 
 tageous to vary the exercise by the em- 
 ployment of mutual questions ; by setting 
 the children, especially of an upper class, 
 to question one another in turn on the 
 subject of the lesson. They will be very 
 shy, and unwilling to do this at first ; but 
 after a little practice they will learn to 
 like it, and in the act of framing questions 
 their own intelligence will be greatly 
 strengthened. Lord Bacon said "a wise 
 question is the half of knowledge;" and 
 it is quite true that it takes some knowl- 
 edge of a subject to enable us to put a 
 good question upon it; such mutual in- 
 terrogation as I have described will 
 therefore be, in a double sense, a test of 
 the knowledge and thoughtfulness of a 
 class. 
 
138 Art of Questioning 
 
 Every encouragement should always 
 bje offered to the children to put ques- 
 tions to their teacher, and to give free 
 expression to whatever difficulties and 
 doubts may be in their minds. A good 
 teacher will never think such questions 
 irksome or out of place, but will welcome 
 them, and all the trouble they may bring 
 with them, as so many proofs that the 
 minds of his pupils are at work, and so 
 many hopeful guarantees of future suc- 
 cess. 
 
 For, indeed, the whole sum of what may 
 be said about questioning is comprised in 
 this : It ought to set the learners thinking, 
 to promote activity and energy on their 
 part, and to arouse the whole mental 
 faculty into action, instead of blindly 
 cultivating the memory at the expense 
 
Stimulate the Mind 139 
 
 of the higher intellectual powers. That 
 is the best questioning which best stim- 
 ulates action on the part of the learner; 
 which gives him a habit of thinking and 
 inquiring for himself; which tends in a 
 great measure to render him independent 
 of his teacher; which makes him, in fact, 
 rather a skilful finder than a patient re- 
 ceiver of truth. All our questioning 
 should aim at this ; and the success of our 
 teaching must ever be measured, not by 
 the amount of information we have im- 
 parted, but by the degree in which we 
 have strengthened the judgment and en- 
 larged the capacity of our pupils, and im- 
 parted to them that searching and in- 
 quiring spirit which is a far surer basis 
 for all future acquisitions than any 
 amount of mere information whatever. 
 
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