7. Which is the better, to have a girl study her geography lesson to please the teacher or to have her at work trying to solve a problem in which she is interested?
8. What sort of results do teachers secure who compel children to learn their lessons through fear of being ridiculed or otherwise punished? If these children know as much as other children whose teacher has them at work satisfying their idea of pleasure,—which will result in being able to read well to the class, prepare their part of the class drama, or investigate in fields in which they are much interested,—would you, then, consider the first sort of teaching as satisfactory as the second?
9. To what degree can you depend upon the awakening of intellectual interests to provide a motive for good work on the part of pupils?
10. Do you think the following list of questions would prove intellectually stimulating to a group of sixth-grade pupils:—
“Where is Philadelphia? What is the capital of New York? What are the principal rivers of the Middle Atlantic states? Where is Pittsburgh? For what is Pittsburgh noted? What river forms the eastern boundary of Pennsylvania? Bound Virginia. Locate the capitals of the states in this group. Name two valuable products raised near the coast. Describe the surface of this group of states.”
11. How many children in your class find satisfaction in their school work sufficient to keep them at it if no marks were given and no one compelled them to attend school? Are there some subjects or parts of subjects where you secure this sort of enthusiasm for school work? Why do you succeed better in these phases of school work than in others?
12. What is wrong with the boy who is quiet during the recitation, apparently absorbed in the work, but who gets nothing out of it?
13. Why does the teacher who speaks in a loud tone of voice in order to compel attention have to speak louder and louder as the day advances?
14. What is wrong with a class which does good work in long division at the beginning of the arithmetic period, and very poor work at the end of thirty minutes?
15. Give examples of passive attention, active attention, and secondary passive attention, from your own classroom work.