The conduct of the recitation has been discussed at length in preceding chapters. It may be well to emphasize here the more essential criteria. In a well managed recitation all of the children are responsible for the progress of the class all of the time. To this end the teacher addresses her questions to the whole class before calling on any individual. The pupils are held responsible for the answers which are given. The teacher does not constantly repeat and explain answers. When they do not understand, children are expected to ask each other questions. To secure these ends the class should, when possible, be seated so that the one reciting may easily face the other members of the class. The ideal seating is found in the kindergarten circle. In a room with sufficient space in front, the children may be seated or may stand in such a way as to gain most of the advantages of the circle. If pupils must sit in rows of seats with their backs to each other, it may help to have the children reciting face the majority, and to encourage those whose backs are toward the speaker to turn in their seats. It would seem possible that we may sometime furnish our schoolrooms with reference to our ideals of education; that a classroom may sometime become a place fitted for a group of children who are to work together in the solution of their problems.
The lack of proper management of a class may hinder the work of a teacher whose work is excellent in other respects; but no skill in management, however efficient in keeping children in order, can take the place of good teaching. Most men and women who know how to teach learn to manage a room full of children. There are still a few who call themselves teachers who exalt management unduly. For them the essential elements in school teaching are discipline, control, organization. To the young teacher, or to the one who would grow, the ideal of better teaching must constantly lead toward greater efficiency. Observe any successful teacher, and you can discover the devices of management which allow her to work to best advantage, and the use which she makes of the opportunities which the school presents to develop self-control and social responsibility on the part of her pupils.
For Collateral Reading
W. C. Bagley, Classroom Management, Chapters I to VIII inclusive.
J. A. H. Keith, Elementary Education, Chapters VI and VII.
Exercises.
1. Distinguish between class management as a means and as an end. Give examples of each.
2. How would you hope to have pupils feel their responsibility for good order in the class?
3. Why do schemes of “pupil self-government” sometimes fail?
4. What is the argument in favor of having pupils pass into or out of the building without marching in line?