EXERCISES
1. Name anything outside of school work that you have been called upon to explain during the last week or two.
2. Name anything outside of school work that you have recently learned through explanation.
3. Name three topics in each of your studies for to-day that call for explanation.
4. Name some topic in which the text-book did not seem to make the explanation clear.
+Theme LXXXVIII.+—Write out one of the topics mentioned in number three of the preceding exercise.
(Have you included everything that is necessary to make your explanation clear? Can anything be omitted without affecting the clearness?)
+154. Clear Understanding.+—The first requisite of a good explanation is a clear understanding on the part of the one who is giving the explanation. It is evident that if we do not understand a subject ourselves we cannot make our explanations clear to others. If the ideas in our mind are in a confused state, our explanation will be equally confused. If you do not understand a problem in algebra, your attempt to explain it to others will prove a failure. If you attempt to explain how a canal boat is taken through a lock without thoroughly understanding the process yourself, you will give your listeners only a confused idea of how it is done.
The principal reason why pupils fail in their recitations and examinations is that in preparing their lessons, they do not make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the topics that they are studying. They often go over the lessons hurriedly and carelessly and come to class with confused ideas. Consequently when the pupils attempt to recite, there is, if anything, an additional confusion of ideas, and the recitation proves a failure. Carelessness in the preparation of daily recitations, negligence in asking for additional explanations, and inattention to the explanations that are given, inevitably cause failure when tests or examinations are called for.