The voluble teacher.—And while she rambles on in her aimless talking the children are bored, inexpressibly bored. It is axiomatic that the learning process does not flourish in a state of boredom. Under the ordeal of verbal inundation the children wriggle and squirm about in their seats and this affords her a new point of attack. She calls them ill-bred and unmannerly and wonders at the homes that can produce such children. She does not realize that if these children were grown-ups they would leave the room regardless of consequences. When they yawn, she reminds them of the utter futility of casting pearls before swine. All the while the twenty minutes are going and the pupils have not yet learned how to divide fractions. Over in the next room the pupils know full well how to divide fractions and the teacher is rewarding their diligence with a cookie in the form of a story, while they wait for the bell to ring. Out of the room of the thirty-minute teacher come the children glowering and resentful; out of the other room the children come buoyant and happy.

The test of teaching.—Not alone did the former teacher use the time of her pupils for her own ends, but, even more, she dulled their interest, and the damage thus inflicted cannot be estimated. Many a child has deserted the school because the teacher made school life disagreeable. She was the wet blanket upon his enthusiasm and chilled him to the marrow when he failed to go forward upon her traditional track. The teacher who can generate in the minds of her pupils a spiritual ignition by her every movement and word will not be humiliated by desertions. Indeed, the test of the teacher is the mental attitude of her pupils. The child who drags and drawls through the lesson convicts the teacher of a want of expertness. On the other hand, when the pupils are all wide-awake, alert, animated, eager to respond, and dynamic, we know that the teacher has brought this condition to pass and that she is a ten-minute teacher.

Meaningless formalities.—One of the influences that tends to deaden the interest of children is the ponderous formality that sometimes obtains. The teacher solemnly calls the roll, although she can see at a glance that there are no absentees. This is exceedingly irksome to wide-awake boys and girls who are avid for variety. The same monotonous calling of the roll day after day with no semblance of variation induces in them a sort of mental dyspepsia for which they seek an antidote in what the teacher denominates disorder. This so-called disorder betokens good health on their part and is a revelation of the fact that they have a keen appreciation of the fitness of things. They cannot brook monotony and it irks them to dawdle about in the anteroom of action. They are eager to do their work if only the teacher will get right at it. But they are impatient of meaningless preliminaries. They see no sense in calling the roll when everybody is present and discredit the teacher who persists in the practice.

Repeating answers.—Still another characteristic of the thirty-minute teacher is her habit of repeating the answers that pupils give, with the addition of some inane comment. Whether this repeating of answers is merely a bad habit or an effort on the part of the teacher to appropriate to herself the credit that should otherwise accrue to the pupils, it is not easy to say. Certain it is that school inspectors inveigh against the practice mightily as militating against the effectiveness of the teaching. Teachers who have been challenged on this point make a weak confession that they repeat the answers unconsciously. They thus make the fatal admission that for a part of the time of the class exercise they do not know what they are doing, and admitting so much we can readily classify them as belonging among the thirty-minute teachers.

Meanderings.—Another characteristic is her tendency to wander away from the direct line and ramble about among irrelevant and inconsequential trifles. Sometimes these rambles are altogether entertaining and enable her pupils to pass the time pleasantly, but they lack “terminal facilities.” They lead from nowhere to nowhere in the most fascinating and fruitless meanderings. Such expeditions bring back no emoluments. They leave a pleasant taste in the mouth but afford no nourishment. They use the time but exact no dividends. Like sheet lightning they are beautiful but never strike anything. They are soothing sedatives that never impel to action. They lull to repose but never vitalize.

The ten-minute teacher.—It is evident, therefore, that only the ten-minute teacher is worthy of a place in the vitalized school. She alone is able and willing to conserve, with religious zeal, the time and interest of the pupils. To her their time and interest are sacred and she deems it a sacrilege to trifle with them. She knows the market value of her own time but does not know the value of the time of the possible Edison who sits in her class. She gives to every child the benefit of the doubt and respects both herself and her pupils too much to take chances by pitting herself against them and using their time for her own purposes. Moreover, she never permits their interest to flag, but knows how to keep their minds tense. Their reactions are never less than incisive, and, therefore, the truths of the lesson groove themselves deep in their consciousness.

Questions and Exercises

  1. What is meant by the time element in teaching?
  2. How is an operation in a factory timed? For what purpose? What are some of the results that have accrued from the timing of work by efficiency experts?
  3. How can teaching be timed approximately? Is it probable that more of this will be done in the future by supervisors and investigators? Would you resent the timing of your work? Would you appreciate it? Why?
  4. What may be done, in the matter of bodily positions, to improve mental time-reactions of the student? Of the teacher?
  5. The literature of a typewriter manufacturer carries the precept “Sit erect.” What are the reasons?
  6. What two factors must be considered in estimating mental work with a view to time considerations?
  7. If the attainment of school results by the teacher were treated as the attainment of factory results by the operator, what would happen if a large per cent of the time spent on a process were unnecessary?
  8. Apply the factory manager’s argument in detail to the teacher’s efficiency. If you can, show wherein it fails to apply.
  9. What result besides waste of time may come of a cumbersome method of teaching?
  10. How can one acquire a clear-cut method?
  11. A professor of physics was asked by a former student who was beginning to teach for suggestions on the teaching of physics. His only reply was “Know your subject thoroughly.” Was this a satisfactory response? Give reasons for your opinion.
  12. If the teacher can have lessons finished with greater rapidity, what can be done with the time thus remaining?
  13. Show that the teacher must attend to the conservation of time in order to protect the child.
  14. In what way besides the direct waste of the minutes is the expenditure of undue time unfortunate?
  15. In what particular way do many teachers lose much of the recitation-lesson or study-lesson period?
  16. What are the results of an undue expenditure of time in this way?
  17. What is the relation between the waste of time in school and the exodus of children from the upper grades?
  18. What do you think of a teacher who persists in “meaningless formalities”?
  19. How does the repeating of answers by the teacher affect the pupils?
  20. A teacher says she repeats answers often because pupils speak low and indistinctly. What are the proper remedies for this?
  21. What should be the teacher’s rule in regard to digressions?
  22. Why should every teacher strive to be a “ten-minute” teacher, and why should every supervisor strive to recommend no others?
  23. What corollary can be drawn on the advisability of the employment of no teachers except those recommended by competent supervisors?