METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
Every successful teacher presents his subject in conformity with some universal principles of method. While these cannot be mechanically systematized and used according to unchanging rules, they form a necessary part of an instructor's equipment. The teacher who knows the subject and is master of the technique of instruction is sure of success, while the one without method will fail.
It seems that the pedagogues of Norway have formed a happy combination of some methods of instruction. They appreciate the value of the class meeting and with them "teaching goes on chiefly in what we call the recitation. This is the teacher's point of contact with his pupils; here he meets them face to face and mind to mind; here he succeeds or fails in his function of teaching."[34]
The excellence of the work of instruction in Germany has long been recognized. That "the German teacher teaches" is very generally known. He transcends all texts and is an authority on the subjects he presents. By pedagogic training he has been exalted to a place of eminence in his profession. It is possible that they over-emphasize the work of the instructor and neglect the part that pupils should play.
In America various methods of instruction are in use. One plan is to regard teacher and pupils as cooperators in activities wherein interests are common. The teacher, having had experience, exercises control and serves as chief guide through the most critical places in the way of progress. So far as possible the pupils are encouraged to exercise individual initiative and to become independent. They are not to be merely recipients from the teacher's vast store of knowledge, but with him they are to become genuine participators in the world's thoughts and activities.
Another plan in all too common use may be designated as the "text book method." According to it the major portion of information comes from the voluminous, logically developed, well-arranged, and somewhat attractively printed and bound readable text. The function of the teacher is largely testing knowledge gained from books, assigning lessons in the text, supplementing the work of the pupils from his own store or by reference to other works on the subject, and stimulating them to earnest effort in every possible way.
President Hall would not regard this text book plan of work as very worthy procedure. He writes that some teachers take time "telling pupils what to do and testing to see if they have done it. But this is not teaching; but a device of ignorance, laziness, or physical weakness, or all combined. The real teacher teaches and reduces recitation to a minimum. Whoever has visited the best continental schools or studied comparatively such national educational exhibitions as those of St. Louis must have been acutely impressed with the fact that we exhibit what the pupil does, Europe what the teacher does. Here he says, 'Go, do this, and prove to me that you have done it.' There he says, 'Come, let us study together; I know and will inform, interest and inspire you to go on.'"[35]
The instructors in the schools of Norway are true teachers but they do not rely wholly upon their own activity. The text finds a place not so large as in American schools but of some consequence. The pupils are privileged to act on their own initiative to some extent though they are not granted unlimited freedom. They cooperate with the teachers in many lines of school work where they find interest and profit. Demonstration is largely in the hands of the teachers. The testing of lessons studied is a common exercise with them, and their class hours are given to intensive activity in which every individual member is expected to be a participant and contributor. They, like we in America, aim to suit instruction to pupils of average ability rather than to the brightest as they do in Germany and France.