Correlated courses in woodwork and mechanical drawing

by Ira Samuel Griffith

Here one sees the necessity for a well organized course. Each lesson must have its subject matter connected with previous knowledge of the class.

A successful demonstration demands an equipment such that each boy may see what is being done by the instructor. The closest of attention should be demanded. The matter to be demonstrated should be unfolded step by step. It is not necessary that all the steps be given. Any steps that have been given in a previous demonstration may be presupposed. Little time should be lost between the demonstration and its application.

The remainder of the lesson, the recitation, is to be given at the beginning of the next period or session. If shopwork has been lacking in one thing more than another it has been in the failure of the instructor to “clinch” his instruction. “The best test that a person has understood a thing is, that he can reproduce it in his own way in his own words.”

The woodshop instructor has a right and, in justice to the boys and his work, should insist that they stand squarely upon both feet and express the information asked for in good, plain, correct English. A boy who says he “knows but cannot tell it” only half knows. Unless he learns the lesson well enough to express it well, that lesson will soon fade so that when the instructor attempts to build upon that knowledge later, as he must, there will be trouble for both teacher and boy.

In written tests insist upon a definite form and neat papers. For example, on one line have the date and name, one to the left side of the paper and the other to the right. In the middle of the paper on the line just below this, have the name of the subject. Insist upon marginal spaces at either side of the paper. Do not have the questions copied upon the boys’ papers, but insist that their answers shall be in the form of complete statements, a subject and predicate—so complete that the instructor need not refer to the question to mark the answers.

At all times use good English, never rough language if you expect the boys to respect you and the surroundings. Quietly correct their grammatical errors. These things cost little in effort and assist in overcoming the slovenly tendencies so characteristic of boys at this age.

In the Lesson Outlines will be found questioning hints under Recitation. Some fifteen or twenty years ago our text books in geography, grammar, history, etc., had suggestive questions after each lesson. These questions were very helpful but like many another good thing they were abused. Weak teachers found it easier to conduct a recitation by putting these questions to the students in routine order, instead of using them merely as hints to enable them to present to the pupils all the matter of the lesson. To conduct a recitation by asking routine questions like conducting a recitation with a text open before the teacher when pupils are required to recite without the text, is not the sign of the highest type of teaching and is bound to result in more or less formalism and lack of vital interest.

Of recent years, texts have gone to the other extreme and not a few educators are wishing texts would give some hint as to the points of importance in the lesson. This the present book aims to do in the hints by questions under Recitation. These questions are purposely put in an incomplete form so that the instructor must needs formulate them before putting them to the pupil. They are intended, as are any public speaker’s notes, merely to enable him to carry on the discussion or recitation in a systematic and logical manner, missing none of the important facts to be brought out.

The whole time taken in any one lesson for recitation, preparation for demonstration and demonstration should not exceed, ordinarily, twenty-five or thirty minutes.

It is a skilled teacher who can present a lesson to the best advantage. The best possible presentation is a subject that manual training men can investigate with profit. Asking questions and getting answers and giving demonstrations may mean much or may mean little in the way of developing the boys—nor can you tell always by the material results obtained—it all depends upon how these things are done.