134 METHODS IN TEACHING 



essential subjects as reading and arithmetic. The number 

 of sections is determined by the needs of the class, the 

 teacher being the judge. With a class of 

 Work forty pupils the number of sections will 



vary from three to six and even to eight. 

 Not only do the number of groups vary in the different 

 rooms, but the number of pupils in each group and the 

 time given to the group vary as well. In the drill work 

 the group usually gathers around the teacher, and the rest 

 of the class is given carefully prepared busy work in arith- 

 metic, in drawing, or in language. This method not only 

 enables the teacher to develop the child along the line of 

 his needs, but it leads to self-reliant habits of study on the 

 part of the pupils at their seats. 



" The following aims have been kept constantly in mind 

 in teaching arithmetic in the primary grades in the Stock- 

 ton schools: i. The securing of accuracy in 

 Aimg all mechanical processes. 2. The applica- 



tion of the number facts learned, first to 

 the experiences of the child, later to other experiences that 

 he can readily grasp. 



" The incidental work of the first three terms is a prep- 

 aration for the later systematic study of arithmetic. Only 

 as the child feels the need of number in 



Thc expressing the relations that arise in his 



Incidental t . , .. , ,. , T 



Period other work, is number supplied him. Na- 



ture study, reading, drawing, and other 

 studies furnish ample material for developing the number 

 idea during these three terms. With their interest aroused 

 through seeing the need of number, and with the maturity 



