TEACHING 



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TEACHING 



must be guided constantly in every detail of 

 her work by a sensible, clear-cut, definite pur- 

 pose. In recent years it has come to be per- 

 fectly .evident that if the pupils' work is ade- 

 quately motivated, they, too, must be working 

 always under the guidance and inspiration of a 

 definite, attainable purpose or goal. In other 

 words, the activities and work of the school 

 should be so planned by the teacher that ques- 

 tions of vital importance to the pupils are natu- 

 rally asked by them as the work progresses. 

 These questions reveal the problems confront- 

 ing the pupils and the needs they feel. The 

 next work of the school should then be so 

 planned that the pupils find their needs sup- 

 plied, their questions answered and their prob- 

 lems solved. 



Under their teacher's leadership, the pupils of 

 a school decided to remember the birthday of 

 an elderly, poverty-stricken woman who lived 

 all alone near the school. They not only wished 

 to send her some flowers and a more enduring 

 present, but likewise they planned to go to her 

 home at the dinner hour on her birthday, tak- 

 ing with them food for a substantial dinner and 

 spending the early portion of the evening with 

 her, following the dinner with an appropriate 

 little program of entertainment consisting 

 mainly of a talk by one of the pupils present- 

 ing the present and of singing songs which they 

 thought she would enjoy. For a number of 

 days, the execution of this plan afforded the 

 children very profitable work. In the arithme- 

 tic class, they estimated how much each child 

 should earn in order that they might have 

 enough money with which to buy the presents 

 and meet the expenses of the dinner. In the 

 composition class, they developed the talk 

 which was to be made by the pupil presenting 

 the presents. In the music classes, they se- 

 lected and practiced the songs which they sang 

 on the evening of the birthday party. Under 

 the inspiration of carrying through successfully 

 what they had decided to do, their school tasks 

 which enabled them to accomplish their end 

 were . interesting and attractive. They worked 

 not only with enthusiasm but with accuracy. 



Any teacher who wishes to motivate the work 

 of her pupils needs, in the first place, to be so 

 familiar with the interests and tendencies which 

 are natural to children that she is able to think 

 in terms of their attitudes and wishes in plan- 

 ning her work. School work which is built upon 

 one or more of the following tendencies or in- 

 terests which are normal to children is rather 

 certain to be well motivated. 



(1) Earning Money and Acquiring Property. 

 While this tendency in children needs to be 

 used guardedly as the basis for school work, 

 yet every experienced teacher knows that al- 

 most irrespective of a child's age or condition, 

 difficult tasks become attractive if one result of 

 his work is having some money or property of 

 his own. As employed in school, this tendency 

 is less dangerous if the commercial gain sought 

 goes to a group or class rather than to a single 

 pupil. Writing or other contests in which pu- 

 pils have an opportunity to participate for com- 

 mercial gain are many, and excellent results to 

 the children follow from participating in these 

 contests, but due care should be exercised to 

 avoid the objectionable results which follow 

 from too great use of prizes of value in stimu- 

 lating effort in school work. 



(2) Competing for Results, a Reward or an 

 Honor. A pupil who is striving to attain any 

 one of these ends through school work has a 

 strong motive for effort. The instincts of own- 

 ership, ambition, emulation, rivalry, love of 

 approbation and courage are all appealed to. 

 The efforts put forth by pupils in spelling, ora- 

 torical, music and debating contests are largely 

 the result of the native tendency in children to 

 compete for results. 



(3) Playing Games. Play is the dominant 

 activity in childhood. Any work which may be 

 done, or any result which may be accomplished 

 through play or through taking part in a game, 

 is strongly motivated. Any child willingly pre- 

 pares and practices that he may do his part 

 well in a game. He sees that his only right to 

 take part with a group engaged in a game is 

 ability to aid in winning the game. Modern 

 education makes large use of the interest of 

 children in such games as the relay race in 

 spelling and numbers; bean bag in language, 

 spelling and numbers; mail carrier and Santa 

 Glaus in beginning reading; baseball in spell- 

 ing and numbers, and so on. A large variety 

 of games are employed in language work in 

 teaching polite usage and the correct use of 

 idiomatic language. One reason dramatization, 

 which is so much used in reading and language 

 work, secures such good results is because of 

 the game and play element involved. 



(4) Making Things. The constructive in- 

 stinct is strong in children of all ages. They 

 like to manipulate materials and see what they 

 can produce as a result. The small child works 

 with its blocks to see what it can produce, 

 while the child a little older may take paper 

 and scissors, or a piece of wood and a jack- 



