Organization of Routine
The anticipation of social needs passes insensibly into the organization of regular forms of routine to be followed in the class exercise itself. The class exercise is not different in its essentials from any social gathering. It has been found necessary in meetings of any type to require one who would speak to secure the floor. It would lead to social chaos if everyone in an assembly spoke his mind according to his own personal impulse.
The difficulty in applying this analogy to the classroom and the difficulty in general about all fixed routine is that free discussion is often defeated by formality. The teacher is anxious, if he understands his task, to draw out the enthusiastic response of every member of his class. How to do this and at the same time avoid confusion which will disturb the whole group is a nice problem of adjustment. Formal methods should be required and adhered to far enough to insure the smooth operation of the social life of the class, but spontaneity should be prized and conserved.
Another and perhaps more fortunate example of routine to avoid confusion is to be found in an effective beginning of a class exercise. When a recitation is about to begin, it is a matter of major importance that the teacher be ready with something which will attract the attention of the whole class. Some instructors accomplish this with the first question; some resort to such a device as the announcement of the next assignment; some begin with a summary of the last lesson; some have the members of the class write for a few minutes. In sharp contrast with these methods which indicate that the instructor is ready and knows what he wants done are the aimless wanderings of some instructors who look over their desks for a book which seems to be lost in the débris, or the time-consuming roll call indulged in by others.
A third type of illustration of orderly procedure is the systematization of methods of passing in material. If pupils arrange their written work or their books or other material in a regular fashion, there will be no disorder in handling them. The social group will move as a unit, and this common movement will itself make for social solidarity.
There is much sanction in social psychology for this emphasis on routine. The customs of primitive peoples take on the character of sacred rites, so essential are they to the common life of the social group. Even in civilized society the demands of the group are paramount. There is in the family a fixed time for eating meals, not because hunger coincides in its reappearances with the movements of the clock but because the joint activities of a social group proceed better when they are systematized.
The routinizing of school work can go too far. The requirement has been imposed within the memory of this adult generation that pupils sit in their seats through long recitation periods with their hands behind their backs. Marching in lockstep from class to class has sometimes been required. The list could be lengthened indefinitely. The trouble in most of these cases is that the teacher loses sight of the educational motive of all discipline and begins to think of so-called order as an end in itself.