Pupil: Just after he asked her to go for her mother: “At this the father raised his hook”; he wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t been a working man.
Pupil: I don’t think he would have sent Lucy Gray after her mother in the snow; they would have been riding in a coach and four.
Teacher: How is it with some of the other early writers? Was Shakespeare more interested in common people or wealthy?
Pupil: Wealthy.[17]
The questions and answers quoted represent about two thirds of the work of a period.
Note the number of questions, their scope, the amount of thought necessary on the part of the pupils, the explanations offered by the teacher, and the relative amount of talking done by teacher and pupils.
CHAPTER XII
SOCIAL PHASES OF THE RECITATION
Emphasis has already been given to the social aim in education. This chapter will discuss in some detail the possibility of realizing this aim through the conduct of the recitation. The real advantage to be derived from grouping children in classes is found in the opportunity which is afforded for exchange of ideas. A group of children seated with faces to the front responding to the teacher’s questions and anxious only for her approval is an educational anomaly. The recitation is more than a place for the teacher to test the knowledge of the children, or to explain to them as a group some phase of their work with which they have had difficulty. It may be well to inquire concerning the motives which operate, the activities present, and the results commonly achieved by the recitation.
In many classes children seem to feel that the main purpose of the recitation is to please the teacher. Nor is the teacher’s attitude different. She praises or blames in proportion as the children answer her questions or follow her directions. Of course there are times when it is the main business of the teacher to test children or to direct their activity; but more commonly it is the office of the teacher to work as a member of a group who are working together for the realization of some worthy end. Both teacher and pupil should be pleased when progress is being made in the work at hand because of the active participation of all of the members of the group.