3O8 METHODS IN TEACHING 



of every teacher, the great problem of supplementary read- 

 ing is reduced to system, and ceases to be a constantly re- 

 curring bugbear. The teacher and the librarian should 

 work together for the good of the schools. It is a most 

 efficient aid in the use of books, and it is eventually for the 

 best good both of the public and of the library. 



In the seventh grade the time for history is doubled; it 

 becomes forty-five minutes a day for the year, instead of for 



five months, as in the preceding grades. 



Twenty minutes are usually taken for prepa- 

 ration, twenty-five for recitation. 



Pupils should be growing more independent in prepara- 

 tion, although the proportion indicated above of study time 



to recitation time shows that the influence 

 Preparation o f t h e teacher in guiding is still considered 



Recitation preponderant over the discrimination powers 



of the child in choosing for himself. Reci- 

 tations must include time for careful suggestions about read- 

 ing and methods of work. The value of definite assign- 

 ments can not be over estimated, but a failure to make clear 

 just what is to be done and how it is to be done is one of the 

 most frequent weaknesses of teachers. The lesson should 

 rarely, perhaps never, be assigned as so many pages. 

 Topics, even if only the paragraph headings, should be 

 plainly dictated. The alert teacher, however, will seldom 

 be satisfied to use these summaries as topics for the lesson. 

 More personal topics will be chosen, something that can be 

 made more a part of the class life than the headings from 

 any book, no matter how scholarly. They will be such as 

 the teacher will select, through a knowledge of the class, as 

 necessary to the promotion of some undeveloped thought in 



