THE FACTORS CONDITIONING THE TEACHING PROCESS
If it is essential that the teacher approach her work with a clear
view of the ends which it is desirable for her to achieve, it is
quite as necessary that she be conscious of the factors which
condition the teaching process. The school, with its limitations
and its advantages, the community and home life of the child, and,
above all else, the child himself, his instincts, impulses, and
abilities must be the subject of most careful study. Much progress
has been made in recent years because of a better understanding and
a more sympathetic attitude toward children. Teachers are beginning
to see that education has its beginning in, and that it is always
conditioned by, the life of the child outside of the school building.
The possibilities of the school as an institution for the education
of children are just beginning to be realized.
While it is true that the school shares with the home, the church,
and the community at large the education of children, no one can fail
to recognize the fact that the responsibilities and the activities
of the school have been very greatly augmented during the past few
decades. Where other institutions have lost or have become less
effective, the school has gained, or has been forced to accept
new responsibilities. Changed industrial conditions and life in
cities have made it impossible for the home to continue to hold the
important place which it once occupied in preparing its members for
efficient participation in the productive activities. Whether we like
it or not, we are forced to admit that the church no longer exerts
the power over the lives and conduct of men that it once did. Along
with the specialization of function which is so characteristic of our
modern life, citizenship in our democracy has come to require less of
that type of participation in public affairs which was once a great
educative factor in our community life.
As these changes in the effectiveness of other institutions have
taken place, men have looked to the schools to make good the
deficiency. The schools have responded to the demand made upon them.
Our curriculum no longer consists of the three R’s. Cooking, sewing,
gardening, and many other kinds of manual work, music, physical
training, and fine art are already found in our courses of study.
We are coming to recognize the need for more systematic training in
morals and civics, and vocational training is being introduced.
What is the significance of these changes for teachers? Is it
not true that they must teach whatever is demanded by the course
of study; and is not this the only difference in the teacher’s
function brought about by changed conditions? The answer is, most
emphatically, no. The situation which has already made necessary
the change in curriculum demands also changes in method quite as
revolutionary. It is more essential to-day than ever before that the
school present opportunities for coöperation and for group work, a
chance for pupils to work together for common ends, because there is
so much less demand of this sort made upon children outside of school
than was formerly the case. We ought to do more than we do to develop
the independence and the self-reliance which were so characteristic
of the boy and girl who lived in an environment which constantly
made heavy demands upon their strength, skill, and ingenuity. The
responsibility for taking the initiative, and of measuring the
success of one’s efforts by the results produced, is all too uncommon
in the lives of our children. The school must, if it is to adequately
meet its enlarged responsibility, develop those habits of thought and
action which enable one to get along with his fellows. The school
life of the child must, in so far as this is possible, present such
opportunities, make such demands, and judge results by standards
essentially social. The child must learn in school to serve, to
accept responsibility, and to produce results socially valuable. We
could do much to increase the efficiency of the school if we planned
more carefully to have schoolroom activities find their application
in the homes of children.
School education begins not with the ignorance of children, but
with their knowledge. Children come to us with a great wealth of
experience. Our work as teachers is to enlarge and to interpret this
experience, to give it greater meaning and significance. Can any
one question, then, the necessity for acquaintance with the life of
the child outside of school? And this study of the out-of-school
environment must continue as long as the child is in school, if the
teacher’s work is to be most effective. It makes a great deal of
difference when you wish to teach nature study that your children
have always lived in the city, at a considerable distance from a
park. The problem of teaching a great commercial center to children
living on farms presents some difficulty. But it is not alone these
more gross differences in the lives of children which demand our
attention. There are differences in ideals, differences in social
custom, in short, in ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, which
one must know if one would claim any adequate knowledge of the child
to be taught. Probably the best opportunity to gain this intimate
knowledge of the lives of children whom we teach is to be had in
the work with parents and older brothers and sisters which should
be carried on in the school building when the smaller children are
not present. The school which is a center of community life, a place
for study, for recreation, for physical development, and for social
intercourse is the school that is fulfilling its mission in the life
of the people; and the teacher who works in such a school will know
her children.
There is one other responsibility which we as teachers must
acknowledge which again leads us beyond the schoolroom. We should
work for the welfare of our children during the time that they are
not with us. No other body of men and women knows the needs of these
children better than we do. Our work is conditioned by the life of
the child before he comes under our influence. Our work is ofttime of
no effect because of the adverse conditions outside of the school.
What does it matter that we try to develop morality in children, when
the forces of immorality in the streets more than counteract our
influence? what does it matter that we strive earnestly to provide
hygienic conditions for work during five hours of the day, when
filth and disease are doing their deadly work outside of the school
for nineteen hours a day? Who knows better than we that children
with starved bodies cannot do great things intellectually? If we
were only organized to improve these conditions, we could do much
for the welfare of the community. The time is coming when it will
be considered as legitimate for a body of teachers to discuss the
problems of impure food supply, of relief for the poor, of means
for the suppression of vice, and of better hygienic conditions for
the children of our cities, as it is to discuss the problems of
method or the organization of school work. What we need, if we are
to be effective in the work, is better organization, more craft
consciousness. We now possess potentially great power for social
betterment. We are exercising this power in the school, and, as
individuals, outside of the school. We will, let us hope, in time,
recognize the larger social demand and perform the larger social
service.
The children with whom we work come to us equipped with many native
reactions or tendencies to behave. In any situation the child will
react in accordance with some native tendency or habit which has
grown out of the original tendency. Success in teaching depends
upon a recognition of these instinctive tendencies, the development
of some, the grafting of new but similar reactions on others, and
the inhibition of the native reaction and substitution of another
in still other cases. The instincts which are of importance in
education have been variously named; among these those of greatest
significance for the work of the teacher are play, constructiveness,
imitation, emulation, pugnacity, curiosity, ownership, including the
collecting instinct, sympathy, wonder. We shall deal briefly with
each of these in relation to the work of the teacher.
_Play_: Possibly the lesson which teachers need most to learn is
that play has real educative value. Before the school age has been
reached, the child has learned chiefly by playing. In play the child
gets his first experience in those activities which are later to
make possible a happy, useful life in the community. The number of
possible reactions possessed by a child of six is largely determined
by the opportunity he has had to play. _This_ is why we value so
much a life free from restraint, and in contact with nature, for
little children. Contact with the trees, the rocks, the birds, the
flowers, and association with other children mean possibilities of
learning for the child which no amount of instruction or exercise of
authority can equal. The child plays now with this object and again
with that; and in consequence comes to know not only the objects, but
his own power. In an imaginative way he experiences all of the adult
activities about him, sowing, reaping, building, cooking, cleaning,
hauling, fighting; and he is wiser and better prepared for the period
of struggle, which must come later, because of these activities.
Nor should this period of play end when the child enters school. The
skillful teacher makes a game of many of the exercises of the school,
which might be otherwise drudgery. The desire to win is common to
children six years of age, and many a hard task will become play, if
the element of competition is introduced and sufficient variety in
procedure is provided for. By playing, children may learn to work.
To achieve the ends desired in a game may involve the overcoming of
difficulties which require the most earnest effort. There can be
no better preparation for life than the playing of games where team
work, self-restraint, and fairness are demanded.
We need more careful study on the part of teachers of children’s
games, and more planning that all may secure the benefits which
come from this sort of activity. In the schoolroom, wherever it is
possible, the spirit of play should pervade the work. There will
be cases enough where results will depend upon the exercise of
authority. Let us never forget that the reaction of play may mean
just as valuable results as the reaction of necessity, and that the
ideal life is the one in which all work is play.
_Constructiveness_: Closely connected with the play instinct is the
instinct to make out of the material at one’s command that which
will represent some element in the play. In the beginning, gestures,
sounds, and whatever objects are present suffice in the make-believe
world of the child. But soon the materials are rearranged or shaped
into some new form in order to represent the object desired.
Materials become to the child just what he can make out of them.
And it is not simply in power to construct or to represent that the
child grows because of this activity. To make something, to work out
in materials one’s idea, means growth in definiteness and control of
ideas. The one adequate test of ideas must always be some sort of
expression; and, for the adult as well as for the child, construction
is one of the most important forms of expression. We would gain
much in all of our school work in clearness and definiteness, if we
resorted oftener to construction as a test. Of course, construction
is not to be limited to the making of things of three dimensions. The
map, plan, or artistic representation belongs to the same group, and
is developed from the same instinctive tendency.
Just one more word of caution needs to be given with regard to work
of this kind. In constructive work, whether with wood or clay, or
with pencil or brush, the point of departure should be the child’s
idea, not the model or pattern provided by an adult. After the
child has made his attempt, then let him see where he has failed by
reference to the object which he has tried to represent. And we can
afford to be satisfied in the beginning with a crude product, so long
as it satisfies the child. As for technique, there will come a time
when the desire for a better product will call for greater skill and
will furnish the very best possible motive for the necessary practice.
_Imitation_: In both play and constructive work a most important
element is the instinct to imitate. The child constantly imitates
adult activities in play, and in construction he represents the
objects about him. As has already been indicated, it is in this
way that he clarifies his ideas, that he gains experience. In
imitation, which is truly instructive, the child does not consciously
plan to imitate; it is enough that the model is present. This
kind of imitation is sometimes called spontaneous imitation, in
contradistinction to the other type of imitation, in which the
individual persistently tries to reproduce the activity of another.
In the latter case he is conscious of the process; and this type is
sometimes called voluntary imitation. This distinction is important
for teachers in many phases of school work. There are cases where
the only satisfactory response is that which accords with the model,
the standard which society imposes. We do not want a child to try to
spell a word without being conscious of the form commonly accepted.
He will succeed in spelling because he has studied _this_ word, or
is able to build it up from his knowledge of its constituent parts.
On the other hand, wherever creative work is to be done, wherever
originality is required, the educational value of the exercise is
inversely proportioned to the degree in which conscious imitation
of a model has entered to produce the result. In such subjects as
English composition, constructive work, science work involving
observation and experiment, what we want above all else is the
attempt on the part of the learner to express his own ideas; and it
is only after this expression that any adequate appreciation of model
or of criticism can be hoped for.
There is one other factor in connection with imitation which is of
great importance in teaching; namely, that children persistently
imitate what they admire. This has a double significance for the
teacher. Those things which can be made less attractive will tend to
be less imitated; and, conversely, that which is held up as worthy of
great respect will be much imitated. If we were only wise, we would
devote our attention to the leader of the group, trying to secure the
appropriate or desired reaction upon his or her part, rather than
devoting ourselves equally to the whole group. We can depend upon
it, the crowd will follow the leader whom they admire. Our appeals
often mean little to children, and the models which we set up have
little effect, because, however admirable these standards may seem to
us, they are beyond the power of children to comprehend or admire.
Instead of giving a boy a letter of Jefferson as a model, better
give him the one written by his classmate. Do not expect the girl to
imitate the noblest women in history, but make your appeal on the
basis of the virtue of the girl she likes.
_Emulation_: Much that has been said above under imitation might
quite as well have been written under the head of emulation. As
social beings, we tend to do what others do. Consciousness of kind
compels us to lay great store upon our ability to do as others do.
When in Rome the difficult thing is not to do “as Romans do,” but
to do otherwise. The desire to do not only as well as others, but
to accomplish more, is responsible for much that is achieved in
the world. If we did not have others with whom we are constantly
comparing ourselves, few of us would do as well as we now do.
Rivalry will always be one of the greatest means of bringing about
improvement or advancement in social conditions. In school, as well
as in the world at large, rivalry, if kept free from jealousy and
envy, will justify its existence by the results produced. The boy or
girl who is anxious to distance his fellows in school is apt to be
the man of ambition and of success in later life.
_Pugnacity_: More prominent in boys than in girls, but present in
some degree in every individual, is the instinct to fight, the desire
not to be overcome either by persons or conditions which surround
us. In so far as this instinct leads to physical encounter, for all
except the unusually strong physically, the correction comes by way
of defeat. For all, the substitution of games which involve physical
prowess for fighting, and the substitution of victories of intellect
for the victories of physical combat, point to the utilization of
this instinct in education. It is sometimes possible to appeal to
this instinct when discouragement and defeat in school tasks seem
inevitable. No boy likes to be told that he has been downed by the
task in long division, or that he has failed to make good in spelling
or geography. The whole world hates a quitter, and normal, healthy
children are no exception to the rule.
_Curiosity_: Children are proverbially curious about things.
They want to know more, to enlarge and make more definite their
experience. This desire shows itself in their actions in handling
materials, in making and unmaking, in questions asked, in reasoning,
in play, and in imitating others. The most striking characteristic in
the mental life of children is the breadth of their interests, due to
this instinct of curiosity. Most adults _think_ along very narrow and
restricted lines; not so with children. While it is true that they do
little abstract thinking, there is scarcely an object or an action
which comes within the range of their senses that is not followed by
the desire to find out more.
Children have the spirit of inquiry, have many problems, in short,
are mentally active to a degree most uncommon among adults. The
problem of the teacher is how to keep alive this spirit of inquiry,
how to insure a continuance of this mental alertness. Much of our
school work has certainly tended in the opposite direction. Reciting
what is written in books, without thought or question, has too often
been characteristic of recitations. The appeal to authority, whether
of the teacher or of the book, instead of the appeal to experience,
to observation and experiment, or to other methods of establishing
truth, tends to kill rather than to strengthen the spirit of inquiry.
We should place greater value upon the intelligent question than
upon the parrot-like answer. Respect for the problems of children,
even when they seem of little account to us, rather than ridicule
or evasion, will tend to keep alive this most precious heritage. Of
course it is not wise to encourage the scatter-brained boy or girl
who never thinks about the same thing for two minutes in succession.
One great function of the teacher is to help children to concentrate
upon the main issue, to show a child that his question is irrelevant
to the problem under consideration, and to guide him on the path
which makes thinking pleasant and profitable.
It would be a good thing for every teacher to ask herself whether
while under her direction the children whom she teaches are usually
mentally alert, thinking, asking questions, or whether they concern
themselves only with repeating the thoughts of others. If there be
any doubt with regard to the children’s natural aptitude, let her
observe them when out of school and contrast the result. Mental
laziness is a habit acquired in spite of our initial advantage, in
spite of our desire for knowledge and the pleasure which comes from
thinking. The school and the teacher must always be judged by their
success in keeping children awake mentally; for it is power to learn
rather than knowledge which counts in later years, and learning is
most of all dependent upon the initial impulses toward inquiry.
_Ownership_: Very early in the life of the child the idea of personal
ownership develops. There can be no doubt concerning the importance
of this instinct in its effect upon the achievements of men, but we
are concerned chiefly, in dealing with children, with one aspect of
this tendency which is commonly known as the collecting instinct.
This desire to have the most complete collection of buttons, postage
stamps, pictures, birds’ eggs, shells, arrowheads, or whatever else
it may be, may often be utilized to great advantage. Illustrative
material for work in history, geography, nature study, and to some
degree for other subjects can be had in this way. Such a collection
will mean not only a much greater interest in the work, but also a
livelier appreciation of the subject, more images upon which to base
its generalizations. I have never seen a class that learned more
geography in a short time than was mastered by a class who followed
the American fleet around the world, collecting pictures, products,
and stamps for each of the countries visited, and writing a full
account of the country visited to accompany these illustrations.
Another class made most interesting collections in connection with
their study of colonial history. It is a mistake to suppose that
ready-made collections will answer the same purpose. They may
illustrate better, but the added interest and enthusiasm growing out
of the exercise of the collecting instinct will be wanting.
The collecting instinct may be utilized in work which deals with
ideas rather than things. Children may be just as keen in collecting
ideas about a subject in which they are much interested as in making
their collection of stones, or birds. The transition from the one
type of collecting to the other is apparent, in collections which are
interesting mainly for the ideas which they suggest.
_The Social Instinct_: The school has often overemphasized the
individualistic point of view. Competition is a legitimate motive;
but if all of school life centers around this motive, the child has
lost much in the non-exercise of that peculiarly human instinct which
demands coöperation and sympathy. At the foundation of our society is
the idea of working together for the common good. Boys and girls who
are to be most useful to their fellows, who are to do the most for
society, _i.e._ those who are truly educated, must have kept alive
and developed this spirit, more than altruistic, which sees in the
good of society the greatest individual gain. In a later chapter this
topic will be dealt with in considerable detail; suffice it to say
here that many opportunities should be found for group projects, for
service on the part of each member of the group of the sort that he
is particularly qualified to render.
_Wonder_: The instinct of wonder or awe, closely related to or
possibly identified with the religious instinct, is one that our
modern critically scientific attitude tends to discourage. No one who
has had the experience can doubt the value of this element in mental
life. To wonder at the glory of the heavens will doubtless make more
difference in the lives of most men and women than the smattering of
astronomy they may acquire. The man who wonders at the manifestation
of the power of the forces of nature may get more real joy out of
life than he who feels that he has solved all of her mysteries. We
are not as a people remarkable for our reverence. It may be well
urged that our schools have often been responsible for the opposite
attitude. This instinct of wonder will thrive only in a sympathetic
atmosphere. No teacher can directly inculcate or develop it. Only
that teacher who has preserved and nurtured the instinct in her own
life can hope to be effective in keeping alive the same spirit in
children.
In the first chapter it was claimed that teachers should work to
develop the socially sympathetic, intelligent, and active individual,
and that the ends to be expected from any exercises might be
classified as habits, knowledge, interests, ideals or appreciations,
and methods of work. In our discussion of the native reactions of
children, we have endeavored to show that the possibilities of such
accomplishment are the common possession of normal children. It is
for the teacher who would accomplish these ends most economically
to discover the instinctive basis for the habit to be formed, the
knowledge to be acquired, interest to be awakened, or appreciation
to be aroused. The instinctive interests of children will furnish
the most powerful motives, and will serve as a basis for the most
lasting results. Even when the native reaction is undesirable,
the successful process may depend not merely upon negation, but
upon a grafting upon the original tendency of one that is socially
desirable; or, in other cases, the substitution of another reaction
based upon some other instinctive tendency. We may not always follow
where instinct seems to lead, but we can never ignore these native
tendencies. Whether we blindly ignore or attempt to work against
nature, or wisely utilize the instincts, the fact remains that all of
our work is conditioned by the native equipment.
It has become more or less the fashion in recent years to decry the
theory of those who discuss the teaching process from the standpoint
of the child’s native tendencies, and with due regard to his
interests. The reactionary who continually harks back to the good old
times is still with us. The term of ridicule most commonly used in
lieu of argument is “soft pedagogy.” We are told that the only way
to develop men and women of strength is to begin by making sure that
we make our appeal on the basis of our superior authority, or even
brute strength, instead of finding the foundation for our work in
the instinctive curiosity and tendency to mental activity with which
children come to us. It is presumed by those who argue on the side
of the importance of authority that, unless children are compelled
by others to do hard tasks, they will never attempt anything that
involves effort. Again, they interpret interest to mean the blind
following of the child’s instinctive tendencies.
In our previous discussion we endeavored to show that education
concerns itself quite as much with the inhibition of undesirable
tendencies as with the encouragement of those which lead to desirable
activity. The process is not one of following where children lead,
but rather of availing ourselves of the native tendencies in order
that the ends we desire to achieve may be accomplished with the least
waste of time or energy. In reality, the choice between the two
positions is not whether we will have regard for childish instincts
and capacities, but rather whether we shall approach our task from
the standpoint of one who has faith in an appeal to the lower motive
of fear, or whether we believe that children are best prepared for
later activity who work out their own problems.
The best teaching can never consist in driving pupils to tasks which
they do not understand and which have little significance for them.
The standard of efficiency is found in ability to present to the
child a need, a purpose, or a problem which solicits his attention.
It may be that we shall be but imperfectly able to accomplish this
result, but, nevertheless, this must be our ideal. And it is not
for reasons of sentiment that we adopt it. The learning process is
explained in this way only. We make a new adjustment, reconstruct
our experience only in a situation which makes such a demand
upon us. When a child is compelled to do a piece of school work
without realizing the significance of that which he does, there is
substituted for this realization of need or problem an artificial
need; namely, to avoid an unpleasant consequence.
There is another important argument which must not be overlooked.
When a child works under compulsion, he usually gives just as little
attention to his work as may be necessary to escape painful results.
It is not uncommon for children to divide their attention most
skillfully between distasteful school tasks and the out-of-school
activities in which they are vitally interested. This lack of
undivided attention to the work in hand results in a habit of work
which cannot fail to be disastrous to the highest intellectual
attainment. It is true also that children who have been subjected to
such treatment come to look upon books and lessons as something of a
nightmare, and are only too glad when the opportunity presents itself
to leave school and go to work. The child’s attitude, growing out of
his school experience, is quite as important as any result which we
may achieve in knowledge.
Professor Dewey’s summary of the relation of interest and effort
defines most adequately interest in its true significance, and
indicates the place of effort in educative process. He says:—
“Genuine interest in education is the accompaniment of the
identification, through action, of the self with some object or idea,
because of the necessity of that object or idea for the maintenance
of self-expression. Effort, in the sense in which it may be opposed
to interest, implies a separation between the self and the fact to
be mastered or the task to be performed, and sets up an habitual
division of activities. Externally, we have mechanical habits with
no psychical end or value. Internally, we have random energy or
mind-wandering, a sequence of ideas with no end at all because not
brought to a focus in action. Interest, in the sense in which it is
opposed to effort, means simply an excitation of the sense organ to
give pleasure, resulting in strain on one side and listlessness on
the other.
“But when we recognize there are certain powers within the child
urgent for development, needing to be acted upon, in order to
secure their own due efficiency and discipline, we have a firm
basis upon which to build. Effort arises normally in the attempt
to give full operation, and thus growth and completion, to these
powers. Adequately to act upon these impulses involves seriousness,
absorption, definiteness of purpose, and results in formation of
steadiness and persistent habit in the service of worthy ends. But
this effort never degenerates into drudgery, nor mere strain of dead
lift, because interest abides—the self is concerned throughout.”[3]
Interest, as Professor Dewey defines it, is intrinsic. The pupil
does his work not because he hopes to escape some punishment or get
a high mark, but because the work of itself commands his attention.
The teacher must constantly choose whether she will work for interest
of this type, which depends upon the recognition of the worth of the
task to be performed, or resort to an interest which has no relation
to the work to be done. Shall she appeal to the child through his
instinctive delight in finding out, in constructive work, or other
form of expression, or shall she appeal to his instinct of fear of a
whipping or dislike of ridicule or nagging?
It is true that, after the teacher has done her best to appeal on
the basis of the child’s needs for growth and development, not all
children will respond equally, and so, as in the larger society
outside of school, the child will need to be kept from interfering
with others, and required to do that which those who are wiser have
decided that it is advantageous for him to do. But this resort to
authority, an acknowledgment of lack of ability on our part or the
result of unfavorable conditions, must come last; it should never be
the point of departure.
There is one other distinction which it is well to keep in mind when
we think of interest. Our discussion thus far has considered interest
as a _means_ for securing certain desirable ends. We may not forget
that to secure interest which will persist in many of the types of
activity found in the school should be considered as an end worthy
in itself.[4] We may hope to have a boy interested in his history
lesson in order that he may gain the knowledge contained in this
subject. Interest is the _means_ we employ to secure the desired
result. On the other hand, we may hope that the boy we teach will
continue to be interested in history throughout his life. In this
latter case the interest which we hope to secure in history becomes
an _end_ for which we work. As a result of any system of education,
we are justified in expecting, not only an increase in the command
of facts and in a knowledge of the best method of procedure in
working in subjects taught, but also in hoping for the development of
lasting interests which will make for a continuance of the period of
education and for greater joy in life.
_Heredity in Education_: An inquiry into opposing theories of
heredity is not relevant to our main purpose; but we are concerned
with certain facts, commonly accepted, which condition our work.
No one will dispute the fact that the children assembled in any
schoolroom differ in native capacity, as well as in experience.
Whether genius or its lack are apt to be reproduced in the children
of gifted or dull parents is not the question the teacher has to
solve. For her the demand is too often that she turn out a uniform
product from a group of individuals who range from the genius to
the dullard or mental defective. It is well for teachers to realize
that in any non-selected group the majority of individuals may
be expected to be of ordinary ability, and that a few will range
above this standard, and a few will fall below. The important thing
to remember is that a group of normal children cannot be ranged
in ability in two or three distinct groups with clearly defined
boundaries, but that if any adequate test be given, we will find that
they distribute themselves over a wide range, with small rather than
large differences between individuals. For example: if a searching
test in fundamental operations of arithmetic is given, we know that
some child will probably get nearly all of the work done correctly,
and, even with our care in grading, some child in the group will
probably fail in more than half of the work; and that between these
two extremes we will have almost every grade of ability represented,
with a tendency for a considerable number to group themselves at
about that point which we consider ordinary or average ability.[5]
Not only is it true that individuals differ in ability of any
particular sort, but it is also true that the child who has little
ability in one direction may be up to the average or have more than
usual ability in some other direction. In our teaching we should
have a minimum standard of efficiency for all who are not mentally
defective, and we should strive earnestly to have all reach this
goal. If wisely selected, this minimum will include that which is
absolutely necessary for further advancement along the line of work
pursued. The majority of the class should achieve results beyond
this minimum, and for the exceptionally bright child the maximum
should be fixed only by the child’s ability and the requirements
of good health. It is useless to attempt to make all alike; it is
wrong to limit the accomplishment of the gifted by the capacity of
the majority; these are the lessons which the consideration of the
capacities of any group of children should teach. We cannot furnish
ability, but we may create an attitude of listlessness and mental
laziness, if we do not give the bright child enough to do. Education
demands a recognition of peculiar abilities and their nurture. We can
never create genius from mediocre ability, and we may not assume that
genius is irrepressible.
FOR COLLATERAL READING
E. L. Thorndike, _Principles of Teaching_, Chapters V and VI.
E. L. Thorndike, _Individuality_.
E. A. Kirkpatrick, _Fundamentals of Child Study_, Chapter IV.
_Exercises._
1. What institutions contribute to the education of children?
2. Why has the responsibility of the school increased during the
past century?
3. How would you justify compulsory education? Medical examination?
Compulsory dental treatment?
4. Why do changed social conditions demand changed methods of
instruction as well as a different curriculum?
5. Why does the teacher need to know the home life of the children
in her class?
6. What is the significance of parents’ and mothers’ clubs, or any
other organization of the teachers and the patrons of the school?
7. Why should teachers participate in the campaign against
tuberculosis?
8. Give instances from your own experience of the educative value
of play.
9. Why can a boy write a better composition about making a kite
than on “Honesty is the best policy”?
10. What is the objection to providing children with model
compositions and asking them to write on closely related themes?
11. Give examples of a proper appeal to the instinct of emulation.
12. How do you account for the fact that in some classes children
seldom ask questions?
13. What value is there in a collection of birds’ nests, flowers,
minerals, woods, and the like, which one finds in some schoolrooms?
14. How would you hope to develop the social instinct in the pupils
you teach?
15. Give the children in your class ten problems in addition, score
one for each column added correctly, and compare the results. Can a
teacher create ability?
16. In a city school system forty per cent of the children have
been retarded one or more years during their school life. Do you
think that differences in ability justify the repeating of work one
or more years by so large a percentage of the children?
17. Should we try to have children develop equal ability in all of
their studies, or rather encourage them to do especially well in
one or two subjects?
18. Should a pupil who receives only forty per cent in his
arithmetic examination be compelled to repeat the grade?
19. State the argument of those who believe that disagreeable,
uninteresting work is most valuable in educating children.
20. What reasons can you give for the demand that teachers secure
the interest of their pupils in school work?
21. Why is it bad intellectually for a child to divide his interest
between his school work and some other activity while doing school
work?
22. There is always some motive present when work is accomplished
in the school. If the pupil is not interested in his work, what
motives will you be apt to find in operation?
23. Does the demand that children take an interest in their work
mean that we will require them to do only the sort of work which is
easy for them?
24. Name three situations in school work in which you would seek to
use interest as a means. Three cases in which you would consider
interests as ends.
25. In which situation will a boy write the better letter: when
asked to write a letter as a class exercise, or when he writes to
his uncle about their plans for his summer vacation?
26. The ends which we desire to attain may be relatively near or
remote. Classify the following aims presented to children according
to (1) the remoteness of the end to be achieved, (2) the interest
which you would expect children to take in the work for which these
aims are supposed to furnish some motive. Suppose the class to be a
seventh-grade group of boys.
1. Learn how to build a boat.
2. Become a writer of good English.
3. Gain in skill in the process of dovetailing.
4. Write for a catalog of sets of tools for boys.
5. Find out why England maintains the largest navy in the world.
6. Prepare a description of the building of the Panama Canal.
7. Decide why so many Russians come to the United States.
8. Make the drawings for a sled to be built for his own use.
9. Make a rabbit trap from plans furnished by the teacher.
10. Study algebra to get ready to go to college.
11. Write a story of an interclass basket-ball game for the
school paper.
12. Enjoy one of Kipling’s stories.