fruitage of inductive methods, but that a thoughtfulness, a careful assimilation of knowledge, an organic building-up of thought-masses, results, which gives the best sort of thoroughness and mastery of studies. In schools where the formal steps have been systematically worked out and applied, such thoroughness has been one of the main results aimed at. It shows itself especially in the power to use what has been learned. In Chapter VII, where the acquisition of particular notions is treated, and in the chapter on the Application of General Notions, there was an unusual and varied emphasis of this perfect mastery. In addition to this we may evidence the fact that in closing up the work of the second and fourth steps, careful and thorough reproductions and drills are held to be an essential part of this plan of teaching. At these two stations we can afford to stop and summarize the results of study. These are the two points where a thorough knowledge of the individual notions (second step) and general notions (fourth step) is rendered indispensable. Careful repetitions and drills and systematic ordering of facts and principles are insured first by oral exercises in the class, and secondly by clear and logical outlines and full written statement of principles and rules, in a blank book carefully kept or in the text-book form. But in addition to these important stations on the recitation road specifically devoted to careful fixing of ideas, there are two other places in which the final complete mastery of knowledge is tested; namely, in the apperceptive use to which all our resources of knowledge and experience are put in the first step, and in the applications which are so completely worked out in the fifth step. The greatest difficulty which lies in the way of a psychological procedure in teaching, which is adapted to the needs of the children and to the material treated, is the whole traditional method of instruction now in vogue. No one teacher or group of teachers is responsible for this. The plan which commonly prevails of allowing children to prepare their lessons at their seats, and come to the recitation to recite, the prominence of the text-book with its brief statement of facts and principles and the rigid dependence of teacher and pupils upon it, the emphasis put upon testing and examining by teachers—all these things are matters of long-established custom, and are firmly rooted in the habits and convictions of our teachers of all grades of excellence. The plan of recitation which we propose runs counter, in important points, to these traditional methods. It calls for much greater mastery of the subject taught, a closer acquaintance with the children's experience, greater skill in instructing, and more shrewdness and ability in throwing the children upon their own resources and self-activity. It is a plan for developing greater tact, originality, and expert skill in every phase of instruction. For this reason it cannot be accepted at once by all teachers. It calls for too great a change from routine methods to methods based on clear insight and skilfully applied. A misconception that needs to be carefully guarded against is that every recitation should show the full treatment of a topic through the series of five steps. On the contrary, it is seldom that a single recitation will reveal the treatment of a subject in this complete series. Frequently it requires one or several recitations to handle merely the second step of a lesson unity. Sometimes the application of a principle (fifth step) will require the whole recitation period or more. The unit of instruction is not the time of a single recitation, but the central truth to be worked out and applied in a lesson unity. Another misconception is that any given method whole (or lesson unity) must be worked out completely through the five steps before another method whole is taken up. On the contrary, it will often happen that one method unit will be carried through the first and second steps, and then dropped for a while, other unities being treated in the interval. Later on new examples or data illustrating the first unity come up for treatment, and comparisons are made with the earlier lesson unit, which lead on to the statement of a general truth and its further application. If, for example, the children have studied the upper Mississippi as a lumber stream, other topics, as the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley, Niagara Falls, etc., intervening, they will later come upon the lumber streams of Maine, and make comparisons with the upper Mississippi as to the mode of collecting and distributing lumber, and draw a larger general truth from it than was possible with the Mississippi alone. In history, likewise, the children have studied the battle of Bennington long before they read of the battle of King's Mountain. Many other topics have come in between these two events. But when King's Mountain has been described, it is a fitting time to make the comparison with the battle of Bennington (third step), and lead on to a statement of that common spirit which animated the patriots in both these battles (fourth step), while still later conflicts of the Revolution and of the Civil War may furnish the best applications of the same idea (fifth step). This conception of the free use of the formal steps, according to the necessities of the study, and of the particular topic under treatment, puts the teacher under no narrow compulsion and removes the necessity for cramping any lesson into an artificial method scheme. CHAPTER XIV LESSON PLANS THE preceding text demands that every progressive teacher carefully prepare for the teaching of any topic. This requirement necessitates lesson plans of some sort. These should be written out in detail by the inexperienced teacher, as often as time and strength permit. It makes comparatively little difference, with the experienced teacher, whether they be written out or only thought out, provided a well-digested plan is in her mind before instruction begins. The best assurance, however, that a plan has been properly digested, is its existence on paper in proper form. Following are suggestions as to the principal features desirable in such a plan. (Full text of poem "Excelsior" at this point.) PLAN FOR TEACHING "EXCELSIOR " Age of pupils, 12-13 years (6th year of school). Teacher's principal Aims — b. Appreciation of a certain same. |