13. In what way may a good history lesson differ from an inductive lesson in geography?
14. Do you think it essential that children should always have problems to solve in their lessons in literature?
15. Choose a poem which you teach in your grade. Tell what it means to you. What may it mean to the children? Write four questions which you would ask to help bring out meaning which might escape the pupils.
CHAPTER VIII
THE STUDY LESSON
That it is the main business of the teacher to render her services unnecessary cannot be too often reiterated. To be able to reason clearly one’s self; to have control of one’s habits; in short, to know how to use one’s energies to best advantage when the problems of life are encountered, is the greatest benefit to be derived from education. We shall concern ourselves in this discussion with study as it involves controlled thinking, whether inductive or deductive; with the most economical method of making knowledge more available for use by increasing the possibility of recall; and with the possibility of reducing certain knowledge or responses, whether physical or mental, to the basis of habit.
In general, our problem in teaching children to study consists in making them conscious of the best methods to be employed in logical thinking, or in the formation of habits, and then in giving sufficient practice in the use of these methods to make them the habitual manner of reaction, as far as this is possible. It is true, of course, that one who applies the logical method to a question of mathematics or geography may be swayed by prejudice when the question concerns politics or religion; and that the man who knows best how to form desirable habits may be so bound by some other that he will fail to achieve that which he knows to be desirable. Be this as it may, if the school makes the child conscious of the most economical methods of work, the chances for later efficiency are greatly increased.
Strangely enough, what we have been prone to call good teaching has not always accomplished this desired result. It has too often happened that the direction and help offered by the teacher have tended to make the child dependent, utterly unable to do a piece of work for himself. Even when children have supposedly been required to do much thinking, the teacher has sometimes weakened her work by continually stepping in to propose the next step whenever a critical point has been reached. The argument which proves conclusively that children do not learn to work independently is found in their inability in the upper grades, in the high school, and even in the college to use their time to good advantage.[11]
In teaching children how to study, the first step involves a clear statement of the problem to be solved. The teacher who says “take the next five pages” cannot expect that the children will do anything more, so far as learning how to study is concerned, than waste time in fulfilling her demands. We think hard when we have a problem to solve. If it be true that children need to have an aim clearly in mind when they are at work with the teacher, it is much more essential that they should have clearly in mind the goal toward which they are striving when they work alone. Whenever children are expected to do any work at their seats or at home, the type of assignment becomes a determining factor. It is a mistake to suppose that a minute or two at the end of a recitation will be sufficient to make clear to the pupils the problem involved in the work to be accomplished during the study hour. The best time to make assignments is when, as the subject is developed, a problem arises which cannot then be solved. A good recitation ought to culminate in the statement of the questions yet to be answered quite as much as in a statement of what has been accomplished. If the class has been kept intellectually alert, there ought to be raised by the children many questions, which may be assigned either to the whole class or to individuals for report at a succeeding recitation.
A very good incentive to study is found in making assignments to individuals or groups for report to the whole class. Even if the problem itself is not of surpassing interest, the desire to contribute one’s share to the group project, and the wish to do as well as one’s neighbor, will stimulate to greater effort. It would be well if teachers tested their own work and the children’s comprehension of the assignments made by asking frequently during the study period for a statement of the problem. To read a book intelligently, to perform an experiment to advantage, children must know what they seek. The attitude which we hope to develop should lead a child to ask, when in doubt, such questions as these: “What am I to try to find out from reading this chapter?” “What am I to look for on the excursion?” “What is the problem which we are now discussing?” “Is the report which has just been made to the point?” “Did John’s answer have anything to do with the question we are discussing?” and the like. When children have learned to expect to work toward the accomplishment of some definite result in thought as well as in action, when they hold to the main issue regardless of the allurements of subsidiary problems which should be held for later investigation, when they become critical of the contributions offered by books or by their companions, then, and not until then, have they taken the first step in learning to study.