The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1877-05-31
INTEREST THE CLASS.

tact in managing the class. They know
all about the subjects taught, pass first
class examinations before the examiner,
have excellent credentials .'and recommen-
dations, and yet, their recitations are un-
interesting and as a consequence unfruit-
full. s.
As soon as teacher finds the interest
of his pupils becoming weakened, it is
high time to find remedy to counterfeit
this worst of all evils. Nothing can de-
stroy his power so soon, or render school
work tiresome and unpleasant than the
general Generalization of his pupils. He
knows that his most lucid explanations
fall upon inattentive and discouraged
pupils while he feels that his teaching is
the worst form Of drudgery. .-a.@-
Proper attention to few facts will
greatly aid the teacher in preventing such
a state of circumstances, and should such
a condition exist, may direct to the means
of recovering and retaining the power a
teacher ought to possess.
Once of the most potent influences for
obtaining lively interest in a class is the
constant employment of every member
during recitation.
If each feels that he is involved at all
times in the work being done, there is no
doubt but that proper attention will be
given and as general thing careful and
diligent preparation will be made
Some teachers permit one or two pupils
to make nearly the entire recitation, trust
ing to the attention and guessing of the
remainder to bring out all they do not
exactly understand. Enter such a school
and you will find listless, uninteresting
recitation and poor progress in study.
A teacher must direct his pupils into
ways Of doing for themselves. 1t will
not do to send a pupil to the board to
solve a problem he has not tried and the
teacher in the presence of the class direct
the solution. 1t might do in the case OF
very diligent scholar, but the idle and
Gstless are the ones usually selected to
perform such work. The next day, he
expects the same and learns to depend
upon the goodness Of the teacher. Such
teaching Injuries the instructed and leaves
him bound by chains of helplessness and
indecision.
A recitation should never be- allowed
to drag. If it is too leng and the class
becomes weary, it is better to quit than
to founder through and not make lasting
impressions.
A subject should be taught in such a
manner as to show that the textbook is
just what it pretends to be-Only tert
to the matter in hand. The text is
worthless unless its meaning is made;
and yet, many teachers are only teaching
the text, filling the MINDS of their pupils
with abstract principles and not seeming
to care what may be the result of their
labors.
We are pretending to make sensible
men and women in our public schools and
yet many of US are using our entire time
in trying to produce ''soalkimg cyclopae-
dias," ready to give definite information
on any subject.
Arithmetic is taught and not one pro-
blem expected outside of the peculiar text
book. The teacher himself often cannot
trust his reputation beyond the prescribed
list, and would regard such work as unnec-
essary. This is the kind of teaching that
is done and yet we wonder why our girls
and boys are not practical mathematiciaRs.
If work is given outside of the book, the
text only used as nucleus around which to
gather and classify more knowledge-we
will be surprised at the activity OF our
classes.
Interest must be gained and maintained
if the true object of the recitation is
realized.