ment, trial-and-error, generalization, verification and
conclusion. This is the inductive method in its pure
and simple form, even simpler than that of the induc-
tive recitation. A laboratory lesson is indeed an in-
ductive recitation in which every pupil is instructed by
himself, and for the time being the class does not exist.
The lecture is anything whatever that suits the special
55
CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT
needs, at the time, of the lecturer as a teacher or teller
of the facts and principles that he wishes to expound.
It may be pure narrative, such as belongs in the presen-
tation stage of an inductive lesson. It may be a body
of applications. It may be an exposition of some gen-
eral truth as in the second stage of the deductive lesson.
The lecture as a teaching device makes an excellent
summary for reviews in some kinds of subjects in the
secondary school, and is the typical mode for the uni-
versity. But the lectm-e itself has no typical mode.
The oration is supposed to have its standard form from
introduction to peroration, but not so with the lecture,
whose content and special purpose entirely control its
form. It comes under the head not of pedagogy, nor
of oratory, but of literature in its broadest sense.
The lecture should have some inner logic due to its pur-
pose and subject and should be properly proportioned
for the occasion. It should aim to create in the listener
the same mood as that of the lecturer. The lecture is a
poor instrument whereby to convey facts. The printed
page is far better. The recitation is best of all. A good
lecture is an exposition of principles and a work of art.*
The seminar likewise, though a practical teaching
process, in the higher stages of education, is essentially
a form of conversation, or of conference, and knows no
other law than that of its specific purpose and subject.
Sometimes, the teacher of teachers indulges in ad-
dresses or lectures, and sometimes he organizes seminars,
for the special study, by proficient members, of some im-
portant subject more or less closely connected with
education. It is perhaps permissible, therefore, to
* Tolstoi, What Is Art? p. 74. (Johnston, translator.)
56
THE TEACHING PROCESSES
mention a few features of good lecturing and of well
sustained seminar work.
A lecture should seldom overrun the fatigue limits
of average adults, which are not over an hour except in
times of high emotional excitement. It should deal with
but a few main points and those in logical and, if pos-
sible, chmacteric sequence. It should have some variet}'
at least of illustration in order to avoid monotony. It
should be carefully prepared to the least detail, even
though delivered without manuscript. Not even a school
superintendent, though burdened with both great and
petty responsibilities and duties, or a principal, has any
right to appear before his teachers and improvise.
The lecture should have one clear conclusion.
A seminar should consist of but a small number of
persons who are really interested in the subject, — not
over a dozen and better but half as many. It should
meet regularly and at least once a week under condi-
tions of time and place that guarantee no interruptions.
It requires both a leader who is a scholar and also work-
ers who can follow his method and utilize his sugges-
tions. Attendants who come simply to listen should be
barred: they may become censorious critics. These are
suggestions relating only to externals; but for want of
heeding them, most seminars in and out of universities
are relatively disappointing.
A highly developed and notably specialized form of
lesson is that known as translation. Its process in-
volves the following steps — viz.:
1. Study of the passage sentence by sentence, phrase by
phrase for grammar and meaning of words.
2. Literal translation into English.
57
CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT
3. Smooth translation into idiomatic English.
4. Giving the translation in class recitation.
5. Construing and parsing.
6. Exposition of the author's meaning in content and in
context.
In method, this lesson combines features of the study
lesson with an oral report of it and also features of the
inductive lesson and even of the scientific labora-
tory lesson. In practice, because of faulty private
study, it generally becomes an oral study lesson in which
the pupils are assisted by the teacher.
Last is the teaching process that is incidental to
library work. Here again the method follows closely
that of the study lesson. It is necessary to add but one
item — the teacher who directs learners to any kind of
library should himself or herself actually know reason-
ably well the material that he or she expects the learner
to study. Otherwise, the learner is likely to follow
false leads and to waste time as well as to risk serious
discouragement, or absolute misinformation. A great
library is like a great city full of pitfalls as well as of
palaces. Even a small library is dangerous to ill-
informed wayfarers.
The place of tests and examinations in school life can
be justified only in so far as they are educational in-
struments; and they should be strictly limited in their
scope and frequency to this use as educational instru-
ments.
A test samples one's knowledge or' skill.
An examination is supposed to exhaust it.
The test finds out what one knows or can do.
The examination is supposed to find out what one
58
THE TEACHING PROCESSES
does not know or cannot do: it reaches to the hmits of
one's knowledge or skill.
Though tests are usually shorter than examinations,
the distinction between them does not rest upon this
fact but upon the difference in their aims.
The test displays whether or not a pupil has been well
taught; the examination should display what he needs
to be taught next. "Test" means "trial"; "examina-
tion" means "point from."
There are many familiar objections on physiological
and psychological grounds to giving tests and examina-
tions in elementary schools. Pupils fear them. The
nervous children do badly in them. Failure brings dis-
couragement and sometimes ill-health; success often de-
velops undue ambition and unfortunate vanity. It is said
that in life the daily work rather than the crisis counts.
And yet tests and examinations continue, despite
these and many other objections. Like marks, they
appear to be necessary, though evil. What then should
educators do?
First: We should discover the true uses of tests and
examinations. These are (1) focalizing knowledge or
skill upon centers; (2) giving the teachers correction-
points for their guidance in future instruction;
(3) setting up goals of attainment for the learners;
(4) eliminating the less necessary and thereby emphasiz-
ing the essentials.
Second: We should discard the false uses of tests and
of examinations. Among these are (1) frightening or
threatening dullards; (2) stimulating the ambitious;
(3) glossing over deficiencies in daily work by cramming
for the written tests; (4) setting up fictitious goals for
ourselves.
59
CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT
Third: We should postpone examinations as late in
the school life of pupils as is reasonable. To be specific :
— (1) Shall we examine for high school admission?
(2) How often thereafter? My own opinion is regard-
ing the first — In good school systems, no. In poor
ones, yes. As to the second, my opinion is, — In some
studies, twice a year. In others, not at all. The entire
matter, however, is one that displays education at the
limits of exact knowledge based upon scientific investi-
gation and consideration.
Fourth: In our elementary schools we should give
more tests in some subjects than in others; more in
higher grades than in lower.
Fifth : In length, neither tests nor examinations should
transgress the fatigue-limits set by Nature in these off-
spring of human nature.^
Sixth: Every test and examination should be ''fair,"
— I. e., should inquire into only those topics which have
been thoroughly and completely canvassed in the daily
work whether that be in laboratory or in library, in
class-room or in study-hall; and the desired answers
should be only such as were plainly indicated in the
advance lessons and exercises. The negative correlate
of this is that the test or examination is no place for
demanding that the pupil draw some advanced con-
clusion, see some new point, push forward some liitherto
unconsidered argument. The test or examination may
indeed require reasoning but not reasoning upon new
grounds. It is fear of originals in their strict sense, new
problems involving new premises, processes and ma-
terials that in anticipation breaks down our nervous
youth. In psychological terms, the test or examination
1 See pages 122, 123.
60
THE TEACHING PROCESSES
may properly call upon memory, judgment, standard
reasoning but not upon imagination or initiative. The
only exceptions are examinations for the highest aca-
demic and professional degrees, by which society needs
to be protected from such as do not have all their re-
sources, native and acquired, at prompt command.
Seventh : Preparation for tests and examinations is no
fit incentive for the daily work. They must be kept out
of mind.
Eighth: Tests should be formal reviews, whether
written or oral, and should conform to the principles of
the oral question-and-answer or "heuristic" lesson.*
Tests are mile-posts in the process through a subject.
Examinations determine whether or not the wayfarer has
reached the destination. It follows, therefore, that only
a pedant would voluntarily test and examine youth in
the self-testing and self-examining subjects, in which in
truth every advance lesson tells any competent observer
all about the youth's knowledge of and skill in the sub-
ject to that point.^ To be specific: There are no
grounds for testing or examining English composition,
penmanship, reading, music, or drawing.
Some subjects require no tests, but do permit ex-
aminations, because in them every lesson is a test, — as
arithmetic and grammar, laboratory sciences and semi-
' See page 46, above.
^ I do not mean to raise here any question about entrance examina-
tions to higher institutions of learning, i. e., passing from the jurisdic-
tion of one school to that of another not within the system. I have
convictions on this point; but they do not concern a text that deals
with class teaching. I believe heartily in the plan of accrediting
schools by official visits to and examination of the schools as such
(not of their product) and of accepting their certificates for the
graduates.
61
CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT
&f)
o
o
a:
CO
1— I
Pi
o
T3
oi
fl
w
X
03
w
.Si =«
5 s o
Ph
S 2^ fl
'J o 5 «3
^ -»j Cu CJ
- o -,y=
-^^ S &
.-; (N CO TjJ ic CO t-^
2 IS
O
w
Q
H
02
0)
G
G
o
o
G
s
a;
c
o
5
3
tr
+3
73
c
CO
bt
^
tJO
e
73
a
bfi
M
-,
•^
irl
c3
fc£
G
O
.12
bt
3
bt
G
bL
•;2
tCbC
0)
bL
7
c3
G
.^
G
G
r^
^
TS
G
-o-o
O
G
u
C
OS
03
03
rA
^
U.
O)
X
0)
h(
y.
fnw
2:;
Ph-<-5W
^ IM fO â– * iC O t^
W
CQ Pi
o
O
^2 =
.- G, "^^
a. 3
ii c
c3 c— ,
G B-'g
O '^ ^
11"^
o
I— (
H
I— (
o
CO
.2 o
.2 a S
•■5 S S
5 02
flj 5J fl
G r- lu
fS c3 52 03
'-' o G :s
0>m
G^
O c3
'•^ S
•s >^-2
cc '- J3
t5*? O G
03 gr- OJ
i ^.s a
;Ph
O 02
G*S
o3 « ^
-ii-G >»
« O O
I (M CO
in
l-H
Q
H
CO
<
O
<
O
«
•2-^.2 g.2
-g ^ -^3 .^ -^
£ u 02 O O-
flHPL,<:0<
i-i(N CC-* lO
§.2
S S^
a
o i^ o o £ >
i-H (N CO TJ< W O t^
THE TEACHING PROCESSES
nar studies. Others require only tests and no examina-
tion, — as physical culture, carpentry, cookery. And
still others permit both tests and examinations, — geog-
raphy, history, literature (historical), translation of
ancient and foreign literature.^ Subjects taught by
lecture methods of necessity require examinations. But
what the value of either tests or examinations may be
as educational instruments in the case of the subjects
taught by laboratory methods, it is difficult to see. In
these subjects, indeed, it would appear that the examina-
tions given to the pupils are rather intended as exam-
inations of the instructors.
In conclusion, one who duly considers the situation is
not unlikely to come to the opinion that in graded
schools, the tests and examinations given by the higher
authorities to the pupils are essentially devices designed
to test the teachers and to help grade the classes and
so to preserve the uniformity of work in the different
schools. Seldom, I was about to say never, should
these tests and examinations be entered as part of the
record of individual students. The teacher's own tests
and such as have been made and given by higher
authorities with the teacher's advice and consent may
be entered as part of the record.
* There is no call for examinations or even for tests in the process
of teaching French, German, Spanish, Italian, or other foreign lan-
guage conversation.
"The common school, improved and energized as it can
easily be, may become the most effective and benignant of
all the forces of civilization/' — Horace Mann, Annual
Report, State Board of Education, Massachusetts. 1848.
bjl J«.i'A.v
CHAPTER III
DEPARTMENT TEACHING — GRADE TEACHING — DIS-
TRICT SCHOOL TEACHING
Reasons for the several kinds and grades of schools. — The lower
limits of department teaching and the upper limits of grade teaching.
— The several principles of department teaching. — The principles of
grade teaching. — The causes of the rural school consolidation mo\'e-
ment. — Grading the district school that has but one teacher. — Ad-
vantages of such a school. — In aU kinds of schools, written work,
re\iews, examinations. — Change and progress.
A SUBJECT is something put under; in the case of
teaching, the subject is the material used as the
means of teaching; in the case of education, the sub-
ject is the person who is being educated. There are,
then, two subjects in the school, the things taught, and
the persons educated.
The lower the grade of the teaching, the more im-
portant in the mind of the teacher should be the person
who is the subject, while the higher the grade of the
teaching the more important must be the thing that is
taught. But always the teacher has two subjects, the
study or exercise and the pupil.
In elementary schools, the main interest should be in
the pupils, while in the university graduate and other
professional schools the main interest should be in the
subjects of the curriculum. The small child does well
to cover a page of new material a day. The university
6 67
CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT
student may master a serious book a day, or the equiva-
lent. The small child can master his page only with the
help of a skilful teacher at every letter. The university
student is assigned reading passages without comment.
At five years of age, one does not cover per day one-
thousandth of the material covered at twenty-one years
of age.
Such, at any rate, is the superficial appearance of the
matter. Upon closer examination, it will be discovered
that the process of combining sounds with signs with
ideas and of then transferring the ideas back to signs,
to sounds, — that is, the organic-psychic process of hear-
ing, seeing, interpreting, writing and speaking, — this five-
fold complex of unrelated simple processes, this ration-
alizing of man through languages, is precisely the most
difficult of all the things man ever learns, and constitutes
what is essentially a miracle. The more the thing is
studied, the more marvellous it is seen to be. Nothing
that the university man learns is as hard to learn as
this elementary matter of words.
In all its varieties of forms and modes, reading is a
subject so difficult to master that it practically never
is mastered without much teaching through many
years. In tliis large sense, nearly all the time and
energy of both teacher and pupil in the elementary
school, and much of the time in the secondary school,
is spent upon speech, oral and written, — upon words,
their meaning and use. Not until the later years of the
secondary school do ideas as such become of the greater
importance.
This fact governs the nature of the teaching in the
different grades of school. In the lowest grades, since
the content of what is taught is relatively unimport-
08
DEPARTMENT TEACHING
ant, the teacher teaches all subjects. In the middle
schools, he teaches several subjects. In the college,
he teaches in a department. In the university, one
distinct specialty is all that the teacher can ade-
quately present.
There are clearly to be discriminated four several kinds
or modes of teaching, — district school teaching, grade
teaching, department teaching, special teaching, — and
there is one other educational line, research work di-
rected by a specialist, which must be understood as
coming within the educational purview. Each has its
own methods. Of these five educational gradations of
the teaching business, the first three are within the field
of the present subject. But class instruction and man-
agement, as usually understood, does not contemplate
the relations of a speciahst with his students, however
large be their number, and is no part of the problem of
the director of research work.
These four several kinds or modes of teaching in-
volve adaptions of the various kinds of recitations and
lessons discussed in the preceding chapter. These
adaptations are required by the conditions of organiza-
tion in the several kinds of schools and by the kinds of
learners in attendance. For the reason already stated,
the first or highest kind of class teaching, that of the
specialist in college or university, is so entirely depend-
ent upon the nature of the subject-matter and the
special conditions of the institution as to be without
the purview of this book. The question as to how to
teach a class in the history of English literature of the
period of Shakespeare is indeed a question of pedagogy;
so is the question as to how best one may present the
theory of torts to a law school class. But no treatment
09
CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT
in a general text-book of pedagogy would be sufficiently
edifying to warrant its appearance.
The next lower grade of teaching has come to be
known as "department teaching." We find this in
colleges, in high schools and academies, and occasionally
in the upper grades of elementary schools.
A department teacher is one who shares with several
other teachers the teaching of several classes and in
those classes teaches one or more related groups of
subjects.
Illustration: — A high school has ten teachers. One has
both French and German, another the mathematics of the
higher grades and physics, another the first-year mathe-
matics, etc. There are six periods a day, and each teacher
takes five periods a day for teaching. The school may have,
therefore, fifty recitation and ten study periods daily under
teachers. When the school has four years of courses, this
averages twelve classes to a year. Such is department
teaching.
Where the teacher meets several different classes
daily and shares with several other teachers the in-
struction in the school, but teaches subjects not allied,
as for example, history and algebra, or English and
chemistry, there one sees not true department teaching
but grade or even district school teaching mixed with
department teaching.
As an instructor, the first thing for the true depart-
ment teacher to do is to determine the method of in-
struction best adapted to bring the subject-matter
before learners of the ages and qualifications in his
class within the Hmits of the irmer logic and of the
special method of his subject.
70
DEPARTMENT TEACHING
Here names are apt to be misleading. ''Latin" in
the first year is not the same kind of subject in respect
to its method as is Latin of the second year. " EngHsh "
covers many kinds of discipHne. German by the in-
ductive method, German by the conversational method,
and German by the eclectic method are as different as
iron ore, pig iron, and steel. Each contains German.
The second inquiry of the department instructor is
what time in fact do his students have for out-of-class
study. The inquiry is not as to what time they ought
to have. A deal of the bad department teaching springs
from assimaptions and expectations and hopes. This
out-of-class study should invariably be only the carry-
ing out of directed plans. The new passage in the
foreign language should be run over by the teacher
before it is attacked by the pupil. Assigning lessons that
are absolutely new is almost research work, required per-
haps ten years before the pupil has reached the research
stage of mental power and habit. It is a sure way to
drive learners out of school and college. But shall the
learners never undertake new work? Yes, in class, with
their teacher to guide them.
It is a safe principle that when the learners have but
little time for home study, the teacher as far as pos-
sible shall follow inductive methods of instruction. This
involves going forward but slowly in the subject. Where
the time available for home study is large, one may fol-
low deductive methods more safely. Of course, some
subjects, and some topics in other subjects, have their
method virtually prescribed by their very nature, but
in many instances there is opportunity for choice.
It is one of the limitations of the department organiza-
tion of the higher schools of learning that seldom does
71
CLASS TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT
the teacher of a subject have charge of the study of
lessons by the learners even during the school study
periods. It is a common practice of teachers in second-
ary schools, and often a requirement of the superiors,
that the entire time of the teaching period be devoted
to oral or written recitations or other instruction. In
some subjects, actually more progress will be secured
by utilizing a portion of even a relatively brief period
for directed study. This does not amount to an ap-
proval of what are sometimes denominated as ''recita-
tions with the book open." It means direct study
under the teacher's guidance.
A third point that the department teacher needs to
regard is securing an equitable portion of the time and
interest of each pupil for his work in comparison with
the time and interest secured by other teachers for their
work. This does not necessarily mean that to each
subject shall be given the same amount of time and
interest. But all of a student's courses belong within
the field of his duty, and the boy or youth who learns
to slight any one of them is learning something that
goes far to offset the gain made by perhaps greater
diligence in other lines. Learning to shuffle an obliga-
tion is wholly unfortunate in its effect upon character.
This point is a matter for arrangement with the
superior officers and with one's colleagues as well as a
requirement to be enforced upon the learners themselves.
The advantages and disadvantages of department
teaching are much discussed. In these discussions, one
essential consideration is often ignored. Department
teaching is a necessity in the higher stages of the prog-
ress of the learner in education; and the true question
is simply at what point to introduce such teaching.
DEPARTMENT TEACHING
The necessity for department teaching in the higher
ranges of education arises from several facts. First,
no human mind can compass at one time adequately
and efficiently all the subjects that a class of learners
should study. Second, as youths grow older, they
benefit by meeting several different persons as teachers.
They are brought consequently to several different
points at which to look out upon and to get their own
bearings in the world. Third, the subjects of the higher
education have not only special methods but constantly
increasing bodies of knowledge and of opinion; and the
interests of teachers are in these subjects rather than
in the learners. To give all the subjects that a class