The Recitation | Page 8

so familiar with the nature and use of each
that he almost unconsciously passes from one to the other as the need
for it arises.
Not many teachers are equally skilled in the use of testing, teaching,
and drilling. Some have a tendency to put most of the recitation time on
testing whether the class have prepared the assignment, and devote but
little time to teaching or drilling. Others love to teach, but do not like to
test or drill. It is highly desirable that every teacher, young or old in
experience, should examine himself on this question and, if he finds
himself lacking in any one of the three, carefully set to work to remedy
the defect. The ideal for us all to reach is equal skill in each of the three
processes of the recitation, testing, teaching, and drilling.

II
THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION
1. Method varies with aim
In the last chapter we discussed the aims or purposes of the recitation.
We now come to see how these aims affect the methods we employ.
For it is evident at the outset that the method we choose must depend
on the aim sought in the recitation. If we seek to-day to make the
recitation chiefly a test of how well the lesson has been prepared, or

how much of yesterday's work has been retained, we will select a
method suited for testing. If we aim to introduce the class to the subject
of percentage for the first time, the method must be adapted to teaching.
If we wish to make the recitation a drill in the diacritical markings or
the multiplication table, the method must be still a different one. In
other words, the method must be planned to accomplish certain definite
ends if the teaching is to be purposeful and effective.
2. Fundamental principles of method
There are certain fundamental principles of method which underlie all
teaching, and which, therefore, are to be sought in every recitation, no
matter what the special method used may chance to be. The first of
these principles may be stated as follows:--
a. Interest is the first requisite for attention and all mental activity.--A
recitation without interest is a dead recitation. Because it possesses no
life it cannot lead to growth. Nothing can take the place of interest. Fear
may drive to work for a time, but it does not result in development.
Only interest can bring all the powers and capacities of the child into
play. Hence the teacher's first and greatest problem in the recitation is
the problem of interest. To secure interest he must use every resource at
his command. This does not mean that he is to bid for the children's
interest with sensational methods and cheap devices. This is not the
way to secure true interest. It means, rather, that he is to offer to the
class subject-matter suited to their age and experience, and presented in
a way adapted to their capacity and understanding; that he is to have all
conditions surrounding the recitation as favorable as possible; and that
he is himself to be constantly a source of interest and enthusiasm. If
these conditions are all met the problem of interest will present few
difficulties.
b. The natural mode of learning is to proceed from the known to the
related unknown.--This is a statement of what is known as the principle
of apperception or the learning of the new by connecting it with the old
already in the mind. To make use of this principle it is necessary to
freshen up what the pupil knows on a topic by asking him questions or
otherwise causing him to think anew the facts previously learned that

are related to what he is about to learn. For example, when beginning
the subject of percentage, the subject of decimals should be reviewed,
since percentage is but an application of decimals and can most easily
be learned and understood as such. Likewise in beginning the study of
the Civil War, the question of slavery and that of the doctrine of states'
rights should be reviewed, since these are fundamental to an
understanding of the causes of the war. In similar manner we might
apply the illustration to every branch of study, Indeed there is hardly a
single recitation which should not start with a brief review or a few
questions to freshen up in the minds of the pupils the points related to
the coming lesson. Not only will this insure that the lessons themselves
shall be better understood, but the entire subject will in this way come
to possess a unity instead of consisting of a series of more or less
disconnected lessons in the mind of the child.
3. The use of special forms of method
Having