CHILDREN'S QUESTIONING, 809 



"applying theory, or putting acquisitions into practice, and for 

 personally using for productive ends their disciplined powers." 

 So they learn to stand up unembarrassed, to lose self-conscious- 

 ness, to think on their feet, to set conditions as well as comply 

 with them, to lead thought as well as follow it, and get that real 

 practice in adapting themselves to constantly changing condi- 

 tions that will serve them so well when school life has ended. 

 All this work tends directly to that most important acquisition, 

 self-control in body and mind. 



Perhaps the greatest benefit derived from mutual questioning 

 is of an ethical nature, since it affords the best opportunity in 

 school for the cultivation of the most refined human relations. 

 The pupils become habituated to deference, self-restraint, polite- 

 ness, kindness, unconsciousness of self, and equality of rights as 

 regards time, attention, instruction, and opportunity to work 

 without interference. Egotism, selfishness, plagiarism, the desire 

 for display, and the struggle for personal rewards have little room 

 for growth on account of persistent practice in ways that make 

 for qualities of an opposite character. The teacher's illustrations 

 from the workings of society and the administration of govern- 

 ment find their appropriate places and are immediately put into 

 practice in this genuine, embryo part of the body politic. The 

 pupil's judgment is constantly appealed to. As teachers have 

 said many times, the pupils seem like one great family, each mem- 

 ber working for the common good. The educational value of the 

 boy teaching the boy by simple language and blackboard illustra- 

 tions is recognized. The reflex action of teaching is seen to be as 

 valuable to the boy as to the teacher. 



The ethical value of mutual questioning is especially notice- 

 able in the pupil's graduating exercises, which are the legitimate 

 results of their regular work. Each pupil has an opportunity to 

 do according to his ability. There are no picked scholars, no 

 exhaustively trained precocities, no survival of the fittest, no false 

 show, no tragic or comic declamations or mere mouthings of the 

 misty words of statesmen and poets ; but each reveals his own 

 thoughts in his own way, pruned and strengthened by his train- 

 ing. The ease, interest, energy, self-reliance, and politeness with 

 which they carry on their impromptu exercises in the presence of 

 five hundred people can not be understood by even distinguished 

 educators, versed in traditional methods only, who may be present. 



The doctrine of opportunity has not been preached enough, 

 and the wonderful constitution of the mind and its power to de- 

 velop itself by its own energies when fully aroused have been so 

 often and so unjustly claimed as the direct results of systematic 

 or dogmatic instruction that the truth, when held up to view, 

 may not be recognized and acknowledged. 



