Everyday problems in teaching

Front matter

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Chapter I Problems Of School-room Government

The importance o£ good order — The methods of an earlier day — The factors which have produced a new regime in respect to school government — Problems in securing and holding attention — The influence of the eye upon a pupil's attention — Cultivating distractions — A feasible and effective remedy — ^A potent cause of dullness as well as disorder in the school-room — Frequent relaxation periods absolutely imperative — A concrete instance of a disorderly school — The teacher's relaxation — The stormiest season of the school year — Bring pupils by degrees to the work of the school in the autumn — The problem of vacation — Physical defects and irritants as causes of dullness and disorder.

CHAPTER H

The "spoiled" child — The "spoiled" child is hardly ever a happy one — Higher and lower tendencies in human life — Short-sightedness in the training of children — How animals are "broken" — Children must be let alone more than they now are — The favorite pupil — New times bring new problems in training — The elimination of masculinity in the training of children — Hypertrophy of our sensibilities — Corporal punishment — Soft methods in training — No cure-all in discipline — The charlatan in ethical training — From the pupil's standpoint —Positive methods in discipline.

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Chapter III Fair Play In The School-room

A typical case requiring correction — Securing the cooperation of pupils in cases of discipline — Pupils should not be challenged to a contest of wits in discipline — Group loyalty — Gaining the respect of pupils — Why pupils lose their respect for a teacher — Gaining the assistance of capable pupils — School-room injustice breeds disrespect — Typical cases — Feelings of success, not of failure — As a rule, correction should be individual and private — It should also be quiet — The problem of communication in the school-room — The impulse to communicate — Outside of school the child is encouraged to communicate freely — The most effective way to control the evils of communication — Devices for suppressing communication.

Chapter IV

Necessity the spur to clear thinking — The supreme test of a good method — The test applied to a history lesson — Formal exactness rather than effective thinking — Historical ideas that relate to every-day life — Lack of effective thinking in civil government — Developing clear thinking by a dift'erent method of teaching— Thinking straight on the subject of taxation— Tracing governmental relations in social groups — Clear thinking in arithmetic — Mere verbal reading of problems — ^Verbal study of weights and measures as an example — Clear thinking and useful problems in arithmetic — Making problems relate to the pupil's actual needs and experience — A concrete instance illustrating the vital teaching of arithmetic — ^Useful problems for the city pupil — The cure for inaccurate thinking in this field — The evil of inaccuracy in school work — Self-correction of inaccurate work.

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CHAPTER V TEACHING PUPILS TO THINK — (Concluded)

Clear thinking and a good memory — An example of obscure teaching — Attacking the problem in another way — An illustration from geography — The method in mathematical geography — Teaching facts- without binding them together in causal relations — A plausible but erroneous principle of teaching—: Geography a good subject for effective teaching — Teaching pupils to become self-helpful — An illustration of a failure to observe the principle of self-activity — Making it unnecessary for pupils to use their experience — Home study by pupils and training in self-helpfulness — The typical parent's method of "helping** the child — ^An illustration of bad methods in home instruction — Teaching to satisfy formal requirements instead of to train a pupil in self-helpfulness.

Chapter VI

Spelling as a typical technical subject — A practical test — Ability to use words the true test — Shall we have spelling lists ? — How shall we choose words for spelling? — Harmful drill in spelling — When the value of drill ceases — An error in teaching spelling — One source of confusion in teaching — Syllabication in spelling — Dangers to be avoided in the analysis of words — Evil habits of study must be guarded against — Wasteful and ineffective methods of preparing lessons — Auditoryfamiliarity in spelling — Facility in manual execution; a lesson from abroad — The change made in one's style according to the needs of expression — An illustration of exalting technique above content — Instruction in technique — Too great emphasis upon technique may lead to nervous overstrain — Developing the ideas of lightness and rapidity in the place of power and effort.

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CHAPTER VII TEACHING PUPILS TO EXECUTE — (Concluded)

An illustration from instruction in music — Execution in singing — Elementary facts of technique — Development of an appreciation of rhythm — General motor before special vocal execution — The child's interest in action songs — One reason why singing is often formal and mechanical — First steps in teaching a novice to read music — The relation between reading linguistic as compared with musical symbols — We must begin with the largest unities possible without going beyond the pupil's ability to execute readily — Reading musical S3rmbols at sight — The value of the simplest musical elements — While emphasis is put upon the higher unities, the lower ones must not be slighted — An illustration from the teaching of drawing — Reproduction vs. representation — Automatic facility in arithmetic — Relation of reasoning to automatic facility — Applying principles until their right application becomes "second nature" — Danger of over-emphasizing analysis.

Chapter VIII Teaching The Arts Of Communication

How the child gets the meaning of words — The chief distinction between the child and the adult in attending to objects and situations — When true learning begins — Acquisition of meanings by the learning of dejfinitions — Fundamental defects in dictionary definitions — Words must be learned in their contextual relations — The social basis for language learning — The motive for requiring the art of expression — A suggestion for the teacher of language — Unconventional language — What is objectionable in one section may be acceptable in another — Specimen phrases trying to acquire respectability — Con-

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servative people resist new styles in speech as in manners or dress — The unconventional speech of to-day may become the conventional speech of to-morrow — The attitude of the teacher toward the use of slang — Naturalness in expression — Concerning the teaching of expression — A typical instance of affectation in expression — An instance of naturalness in expression — Waste in learning selections for recitation — Appreciation of meaning as an aid to memory — An experiment in memorizing.

Chapter IX Tendencies Of Novices In Teaching

Some typical defects in teaching — Special and technical work too early — "Shooting over the heads" of pupils — Spiritless teaching and the causes therefor — Vital vs. formal teaching — Narrowness of view — Inaccurate knowledge — Failure to make pupils self -active — Dynamic vs. static attitudes — Appropriate reaction is the thing — The teacher must not be neutral in his class — The- need of effective lecturing — The quiz-master — Making formal rules cover too many cases — The teacher who lacks authority — The imperious teacher — Undue haste in the class-room — Humor in the school-room — Cultivating an appreciation of the humorous.

Chapter X

A new educational experiment station — A home-maker's course — A home atmosphere — Education for training merely — Vital studies arouse interest — Spread of the movement for vital education — A serious defect in domestic science instruction — A curriculum based on discipHne — Does algebra, as an example, train the mind for all needs ?— Appreciation of

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changing phenomena— The study of foreign languages— Training in the humanities— A course for the girl of to-morrow— The value of history for the girl — The study of nature — Vocational training.

EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS REFERENCES FOR READING

Preface

' The character and purpose of this book may be best indicated by describing in a word or two how it has been developed. For a number of years I have been accustomed to write out a rather detailed account of examples of effective teaching or the reverse which I have observed in any department of education, from the kindergarten to the university. During this period I have had opportunity to inspect teaching in many sections of the country, and in a variety of schools, with the result that I have accumulated a considerable number of instances of actual school work, with comments thereupon ; and I have been able to test the value of the methods employed by actual trial upon a group of children whose training has been committed to my care. This volume is composed mainly of the more typical and practical of these concrete examples of teaching, together with discussions of the principles involved. The treatment throughout is based almost wholly upon the description of typical lessons, given in sufficient detail to indicate the aim in each one, and the method of attaining it.

In respect to style, it has seemed to me desirable to use rather simple sentences for the most part. When one is elaborating theory without regard to immediate application, complex sentential construe-

PREFACE

tion will serve his purpose best. But when one is aiming to interest the practical teacher, his sentences will probably have the best effect if they are not very intricate. Involved sentence structure suggests absorption, with inhibition of action. But the teacher must have an active relation toward the problems of the school- room ; and a style that will stimulate dynamic attitudes will undoubtedly achieve the best results. If one were writing for philosophic students he would, of course, employ a style different from the one adopted in this volume.

For the purpose of influencing practice most effectively, it seems to me one must make frequent pauses in the discussion of any theme, so that when the practitioner has appreciated a given point he may proceed at once to test it or to apply it. Then he may come back the following day or week without feeling that he must start at the beginning in order to comprehend the next point. The practical teacher ought not to have to go entirely through a book before he discovers what are the principles to be applied. This would be quite proper for a student who is interested in gaining only a theoretical view of a situation, which sometime later he may be able to work out in its concrete bearings. But in this book the needs of the philosophical student pure and simple have been taken account of only in indicating how a given theory of teaching may be applied in specific, concrete instances.

While a strictly theoretical treatment of teaching is not likely to be of interest to the practitioner, and not apt to influence his action, nevertheless concrete

PREFACE

instances should be at least loosely unified under large principles of method. To illustrate: I have discussed a number of examples of teaching under the general heading, "Teaching Pupils to Think." While it is not necessary for the reader to go entirely through this chapter in order to appreciate the point of view vi^hich is developed, and while he might stop in a dozen places and test the principles presented, still all the points made relate to the general problem of teaching so as to develop an original as contrasted with a mnemonic type of mind. And what is true of this chapter is true of most of the chapters in the book.

In this volume the point of view is maintained that effective method requires that the pupil work out problems for himself. I have endeavored to observe this doctrine by giving a number of Exercises and Problems requiring the testing of each principle developed, and the application of it in a variety of ways.

In the appropriate place I have given lists of references relating to the principles developed in each chapter. I have aimed in these lists to suggest books and articles easily accessible to most teachers, and written from the standpoint of contemporary educational thought. In the index I have sought to analyze the entire material of the book, and to indicate, either by direct or by cross reference, every point considered in any chapter.

It is a pleasure to be able to say that I have frequently discussed the various principles presented in this volume with my assistants in the University

PREFACE

of Wisconsin, Charles D. Bohannon, William A. Cook, Edith E. Hoyt, and Guy F. Wells, all^ of whom are thorough students of modern education, and who have had extensive and varied experience in practical teaching. In many ways I have profited by their good judgment and assistance.

M. V. O'Shea.

The University of Wisconsin.

EVERYDAY PROBLEMS IN TEACHING

EVERYDAY PROBLEMS IN TEACHING

Chapter I Problems Of School-room Government

It is safe to say that the majority of teachers go into their schools every September worrying more The importance of about one particular problem good order than all others combined ; and

this is the problem of government in the class-room. Probably nine out of ten trustees and members of boards of education esteem good order more highly than anything else in teaching. In some communities the only school topic that is discussed is the order which the teacher keeps. He is regarded as a success just in the measure that he can make the children "mind", or "toe the mark". Perhaps this is as it should be, for! "order is Heaven's first law"; and it must be the first rule of the school, as most people think. I

In a very real sense, good order is absolutely es- I sential to a healthy tone in a school, or anywhere else, for that matter. It requires that people, young and old, must so control themselves that all can perform effectively the tasks in hand. When a group of persons are out of order, they can not pull together; they interfere with one another, and both time and energy are wasted. Moreover, in the case of the young, bad habits may be formed which may later make it impossible for them to adapt themselves to the laws and rules of the society in which they must live. So it is not surprising that parents and school officers have placed good order above every other consideration in teaching. It shows they have appreciated, with greater or less clearness, the fundamental necessity in human society, whether in the school-room or outside.

Memory carries the writer back to the district school in which he had his first experience in teach- Tlie metliods of ing. There was a painted line runan earlier day ning across the floor in the front of the room. This had been used by a whole generation of predecessors to secure good order in their recitations. Whenever a class was called, the pupils came forward, faced the school, and ''toed" this line, with their feet turned out at an angle of 60*^, face to the front, and hands held behind the back, except when one was needed to hold a book. It v/as the custom then to insist on rigid motor restraint on the part of all children in every recitation. The teachers of the day gave more attention to government than to instruction proper. They used to have "disciplinary" periods, when all pupils were required to sit erect in their seats for fifteen minutes at a stretch, with arms folded, and every muscle tense. All communication during school hours was forbidden. Not even a friendly word now and then with one's seat-mate was permitted. Quiet and dress-parade behavior were constantly striven after. And yet there was a great deal of bad order in the schools, of which this one was typical. The pupils were fidgety in spite of the frequent chastisements; and they seemed often to be looking for a chance to start a rebellion. The teacher lived in continual fear of revolt in those schools; and not infrequently he was compelled to make a hasty and unconventional exit from the school-room, being aided thereto by the "big boys" in the school. At best there was a continual armed neutrality in the typical district school of New York State twenty-five years ago.

But to-day there is a very different tone in the school referred to. A new school building has replaced the old one, and the painted line has disappeared. One does not hear much now in that community about the teacher's keeping order. The pupils have grown better. They are happier in school than they used to be, speaking generally, and they have a genuinely agreeable time with the teacher. Rarely now is a child whipped, whereas, in an earlier day, a school without frequent floggings was quite exceptional. Some of the readers of these pages can probably bear witness to the fact that during the last quarter of a century, nothing short of a revolution has taken place in the relations of teachers and pupils in the rural schools of the United States.

What has been responsible for this change? It has come about as a result, mainly, of two forces The factors which acting together. In the first

have produced a new place, there is now more inregime in respect to teresting teaching of more vischool government tal studies than there was formerly. And in the second place, teachers to-day permit a greater indulgence of the spontaneous activities of pupils than they did formerly. It is believed now by most people that good order does not require the too rigorous suppression of the impulsive actions of the young. There seems to be reason in this latter point. I ask a five-year-old to look at a pair of stairs, and he is likely to begin going through the process of climbing stairs. If I show him an engine, he pufTs ; a dog, he barks ; a lion, he roars ; and so on ad libitum. What goes in through the senses is apt to run straight to the muscles, so that the child whose mind is being actively stimulated, can not keep "absolutely still" but for very brief periods at a time. Speaking generally, the older one gets, up to maturity, the more controlled he becomes — the steadier, the better poised, the better behaved. The increase of experience makes him so. The secret of it all is that a great blocking system gradually gets established in the central nervous system, and in consequence energy may be turned aside from special motor routes in ever-increasing quantities.

What, then, is the practical word for discipline? First of all, hold the attention of your pupils. The moment you lose their attention the energy will flow back into their muscles, and you can not make a law which will prevent the inevitable "restlessness" which will follow. And how can you hold their attention? Mainly through the vigor, concreteness, and liveliness of your teaching. You never saw disorder in a room where there was magnificent teaching going on. Conversely, you never saw good order for any length of time where there was weak teaching. Put this down as the primal law of good order.

In nine cases out of ten, probably, a pupil who does not attend to the activities of the school is sim-

Problems in se- ply dominated for the time being, curing and hold- or perhaps permanently, by unreing attention ^^^^^ ^^^j^^ ^^ thought, or feel-

ings which are the results of recent experiences. Suppose, for instance, you have a class in history, to which the pupils come direct from a class in English literature. Let us say that the topic for discussion in this last class was interesting to all the members, and made a deep impression upon them. It stimulated their emotions, which, of course, tended to persist after the inciting stimuli were removed. The pupils come intO' your class, and your teaching does not arouse lively feeling, but instead fails to awaken much response in either the thought or the emotional attitudes of the students. The impressions made in the preceding class, having established themselves in consciousness, are determining the trend of thought of some or all of your pupils. It is a fundamental law of human nature that an individual will yield to the most persuasive and potent appeals to consciousness. In no other way could he adjust himself to the world in Vv^hich he lives. Sometimes, of course, it would be better if he resisted stimuli that appealed to him strongly ; but the law is that he can not on his own volition make unimpressive, uninteresting, and dull things seem to be of importance. This is the task of the teacher. It will not do simply to say : "Give me your attention", or "If you don't attend, you must leave the room", or anything of the kind. These latter expedients may temporarily arouse attitudes which will hold the distracting emotions in check; but this inhibition will not last long if there is nothing else to awaken strong feeling, and so to claim the attention.

There are many details respecting the arrangement and conduct of a class which tend to favor the persistence and domination of interests foreign to the work of the hour. If significant noises are made anywhere within the hearing of pupils, they will be likely to arouse irrelevant trains of thought and feeling. Continuous and more or less undifferentiated noise, as the roar of a waterfall, the sighing of the wind, etc., — noise that does not suggest any particular past or anticipated experience to pupils, is much less distracting than periodical noises which awaken curiosity, as of people walking or talking in the hall outside the class-room, and the like. Any sound or any movement striking on the pupil's senses, and which has been associated with some interesting or vital incident in his life, will be likely to shunt him from the concerns of the class-room into irrelevant trains of thought. Human nature is constructed on this plan, which is carried through most completely in the early years.

There is another source of distraction found in many school-rooms. A pupil may sit in his seat hid- The influence of den from the view of the teacher the eye upon a by heads in front of him. Now, it pupil's attention jg g^ simple matter of human nature that the moment you lose the eye of pupils, you release your strongest hold on them. Under such circumstances, the chances are that the stimuli you are presenting to your class will soon become impotent, and the more interesting experiences outside will get the upper hand in their consciousness, with the result that their attention will wander. Often pupils (usually those who are least strongly attracted by the work of the class) occupy corners of the class-room remote from the teacher, so that his personality as revealed through his eye, the timbre of his voice, and the changing expressions of his features can not play upon their extra-school emotions and trains of thought, and hold them in check. Of course, if the teacher could make his work of such absorbing interest that it would awaken profound emotional states, it would hold the wandering pupils anyway. But generally the new thing one must present in the class-room very much needs reinforcement by every possible expressional accompaniment of voice and face and eye, (which is perhaps the greatest factor in discipline)'

and even bodily attitudes, in order that it may capture and hold the attention of pupils.

The coming and going of people in a class-room after the work has started is always a source of Cultivating confusion. Once the signal has been distractions given for beginning the duties of the hour, no one should be admitted to the class, except on the most urgent business. The practice in some schools of allowing any one to enter a class any time he pleases is wasteful, and destructive of attentive attitudes on the part of pupils. Sometimes principals have the habit of sending messages to teachers while they are conducting classes, with the inevitable result that a general air of distraction is spread throughout the entire school. When a teacher is given a message by the janitor, all pupils set to work to figure out what it contains. It is safe to say that every message a teacher receives during the progress of a class wastes at least five minutes of the pupil's time ; and it may spoil the whole hour.

An open door of a class-room may keep an entire class in a constant state of distraction, if there is any activity whatever going on in the hall without. It is inevitable. Groups of adults even are always interested in people who come late to meetings, or who pass by an open door of the room in which they are congregated. It is a law of human nature, as lo EVERYDAY PROBLEMS

true of college faculties as of high-school or elementary-school pupils — that people who are in action about us attract our attention. It is a more or less automatic and perhaps instinctive reaction, which makes it all the more difficult to control.

In some schools the doors of the class-rooms are provided with glass panels, so that a principal, superintendent, or visitor may at any moment look in to see what is going on. Usually the doors are in such a position that the inspector can peer into the eyes of the pupils, and the pupils can look at the visitor, which is exactly what they will do as long as he has his face glued to the panel. One sometimes hears it said that pupils will easily get accustomed to this sort of thing; but the experiences of daily life show such a statement to be, as a rule, false. It would be entirely justifiable for a teacher to hang curtains over the glass panels in the doors of his class-room, provided his superiors do not object too strenuously. He could certainly do better work by eliminating all distracting influences of this character.

The method of seating pupils is often a source of distraction in a class-room. Arranging pupils in a semicircle so that one member may see the faces of the others when they are reciting, greatly favors attentive attitudes toward the vv^ork in hand. When a

SCHOOL-ROOM GOVERNMENT ii

pupil sits at the rear of the room for an entire hour, gazing only at the backs of the heads of his classmates, thus rarely seeing their countenances when they are talking, and being remote also from the teacher, the chances are he will not give his attention long to the duties of the hour. Moreover, when a pupil who is not performing can see the expressions of the one who is, he receives a constant stimulus, which otherwise he would miss, to give heed to what is being said.

Again, when pupils sit next to those of their associates with whom they have lively experiences outside of school, it is probable that these extra-school interests will become supreme in consciousness while they are in the class-room. The mere physical presence of intimate friends stimulates communication along the lines of their typical experiences in the world. This is important at every stage in life, but it is particularly so in the early years. The teacher, then, who expects to secure attention from all her pupils must devise some plan whereby they may be distributed over the room so that cronies will not sit within communicating distance of one another.

It has already been said that a school must be kept in order or teaching will be impossible. At the A feasible and same time, any attempt at rigid effective remedy suppression of communication will aggravate rather than cure the malady. Is there any way to harmonize these difficulties? Many teachers are solving the problem to-day by a simple and wholesome method. In substance it is this: pupils are required to apply themselves to the tasks of the school for brief periods only; in the primary grades not longer than fifteen, or at the outside twenty minutes at a time without relaxation. During the intervals of three to five minutes, pupils may communicate freely. They may move around as they choose, and in a sense be in complete disorder. In this way the impulse to communicate is gratified for the time being. The experiences of the preceding hour are communized, and the children are relieved of the tension which otherwise would be difficult if not impossible to endure.

A teacher who has not tried the plan of having brief periods of concentrated application, followed by short periods of complete relaxation, has not yet discovered how best to accomplish the tasks of the school, and at the same time to work in harmony with the nature of the child. Literally thousands of years of experiment in teaching give warrant to the proposition that it is impossible to conduct an ordinary school by keeping young children rigidly restrained for an hour and a half at a time. When the attempt is made to do this, it is apt to result in conflict between teacher and pupils, to the disadvantage of both. If any reader who has not tried the plan suggested will do so, let him have his pupils first clearly understand that while they are engaged in study they must apply themselves with all their energy, and then there will be opportunity for perfectly free play and social intercourse. We could accomplish more in every way — in the intellectual advancement of pupils, in avoiding conflict between teacher and pupils, in forming good habits of study in the school-room, and in making the school a happier place for children — if we could work along the lines indicated above.