Part 7 (1/2)
=School and factory compared=--If she were one of the operators in a factory, she would not escape with the ue that he needed some one who could operate the machine up to its full capacity, and that, even if she should ithout salary, her presence in the factory would entail a loss in that the output of her er If one operator can produce a shoe in ten minutes and the other requires thirty minutes for the same work, the money that is invested in the one machine pays dividends, while the other machine imposes a continuous tax upon the owner This, of course, will be recognized as the line of argument of the efficiency expert, but it certainly is not out of place to call attention to the matter in connection with school work The subject of efficiency is quite within the province of the school, and it would seem to be wholly within reason for the school to exe expertness=--The teacher who requires thirty minutes for division of fractions which the other teacher compasses in ten minutes consumes twenty minutes unnecessarily in each recitation period, or two hundred minutes in the course of the day The efficiency expert would ask her to account for these two hundred minutes In order to account for them satisfactorily she would be compelled to take an inventory of her acquired habits, her predilections, her attitude toward her pupils and her subjects, and any shortco She would, at first, resent the i division of fractions is better than her own and would cite thewhich her method has been used When all else fails, tradition always proves a convenient refuge We can always prove to-day by yesterday; only, by so doing, we deny the possibility of progress
=The potency of right methods=--A teacher of Latin once used twenty minutes in a violent atteerund construction and the gerundive construction At the end of the time she had the pupils so completely muddled that, for months, the appearance of either of these constructions threw them into a condition of panic To another class, later, this teacher explained these constructions clearly and convincingly in three minutes In the meantime she had studied methods in connection with subject ned her position and explained her action by confessing that she had beco a certain phase of arithmetic that it was impossible for her to learn the newer one Such a teacher iven credit for honesty even while she illustrates tragedy
=The waste of ti the loss of two hundred minutes a day the teacher will inevitably co, and she may be put to it to justify her ently she tries to justify her method, theuse of the er, and she can neither blink nor escape the facts The other teacher led her pupils into a knowledge of the subject in ten ate nor amend the record As an operative in the factory she holds in her hand one shoe as the result of her thirtythat results in the school are not so tangible as the results in the factory, still we have developedresults in the school that have convincing weight with the efficiency expert We can estimate results in school ith sufficient accuracy to enable us to assess teaching values with a goodly degree of discrimination
=Possibilities=--It would be a comparatively si the year by the thirty-s that the pupils could accomplish in that time If the thirty-minute teacher could be transformed into a ten-minute teacher, the children could have three more hours each day for play, and that would be far better for the there in the class, the unwilling witnesses, or victiht read a book in the two hundred minutes and that would be more enjoyable, and the nuate quite a library
Or, again, they ains in mental achieveht learn to ith their hands and so achieve self-reliance, self-support, and self-respect
=Conservation=--In a word, there is no higher type of conservation than the conservation of childhood, in terms of time and interest The two hundred minutes a day are a vital factor in the life of the child and hly valuable The teacher, therefore, who subtracts this ti a responsibility not to be lightly esteemed She takes from him his most valuable possession and one which she can never return, try as she may Worst of all, she purloins this eleuise of friendshi+p The child does not know that he is the victim of unfair treatment until it is too late to set up any defense He is made to think that that is the natural and, therefore, only way of school, and that he ood soldier So he musters what heroism he can and tries to sht better be e, or in work
=The teacher's complacency=--This would seem a severe indict been proved by incontrovertible evidence its severity cannot be rieve that the facts are as they are and ardently hope for a speedy change The chief obstacle in the way of improvement is the complacency of the teacher
Habits tend to persist, and if she has contracted the habit of , she thinks her volubility should be accounted a virtue and wonders that the children do not applaud the bromidic platitudes which have been uttered in the same form and in the same tones a hundred times She is so intoxicated with her own verbosity that she can neither listen to the sounds of her own voice nor analyze her own utterances
While her neighbor is teaching she is talking, and then with sublime nonchalance she ascribes the retardation of her pupils to their own dullness and never, in any least degree, to her own unprofitable use of their time
=The voluble teacher=--And while she ra the children are bored, inexpressibly bored It is axio process does not flourish in a state of boredole and squirm about in their seats and this affords her a new point of attack She calls them ill-bred and unmannerly and wonders at the homes that can produce such children She does not realize that if these children were grown-ups they would leave the rooardless of consequences When they yawn, she re pearls before swine
All the while the twentyand the pupils have not yet learned how to divide fractions Over in the next room the pupils know full well how to divide fractions and the teacher is rewarding their diligence with a cookie in the for Out of the roo and resentful; out of the other room the children co=--Not alone did the former teacher use the time of her pupils for her own ends, but, even e thus inflicted cannot be estimated Many a child has deserted the school because the teacher reeable She was the wet blanket upon his enthusiaso forward upon her traditional track The teacher who can generate in the nition by her every movement and ill not be humiliated by desertions Indeed, the test of the teacher is the s and drawls through the lesson convicts the teacher of a want of expertness On the other hand, when the pupils are all wide-awake, alert, anier to respond, and dynaht this condition to pass and that she is a ten-less formalities=--One of the influences that tends to deaden the interest of children is the ponderous formality that soh she can see at a glance that there are no absentees This is exceedingly irksoirls who are avid for variety The sa of the roll day after day with no semblance of variation induces in them a sort of mental dyspepsia for which they seek an antidote in what the teacher denoood health on their part and is a revelation of the fact that they have a keen appreciation of the fitness of things They cannot brook monotony and it irks theer to do their work if only the teacher will get right at it But they are iless preli the roll when everybody is present and discredit the teacher who persists in the practice
=Repeating answers=--Still another characteristic of the thirty- the answers that pupils give, with the addition of so of answers is merely a bad habit or an effort on the part of the teacher to appropriate to herself the credit that should otherwise accrue to the pupils, it is not easy to say Certain it is that school inspectors inveigh against the practice ainst the effectiveness of the teaching Teachers who have been challenged on this point make a weak confession that they repeat the answers unconsciously
They thus make the fatal admission that for a part of the time of the class exercise they do not knohat they are doing, and ad as=--Another characteristic is her tendency to wander away fro irrelevant and inconsequential trifles So and enable her pupils to pass the time pleasantly, but they lack ”terminal facilities” They lead fro and fruitlessback no emoluments They leave a pleasant taste in the mouth but afford no nourishhtning they are beautiful but never strike anything They are soothing sedatives that never impel to action They lull to repose but never vitalize
=The ten-minute teacher=--It is evident, therefore, that only the ten-minute teacher is worthy of a place in the vitalized school She alone is able and willing to conserve, with religious zeal, the time and interest of the pupils To her their tie to trifle with them She knows the market value of her own time but does not know the value of the tiives to every child the benefit of the doubt and respects both herself and her pupils tootheir time for her own purposes Moreover, she never per, but kno to keep their minds tense Their reactions are never less than incisive, and, therefore, the truths of the lesson groove themselves deep in their consciousness
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1 What is ?
2 How is an operation in a factory timed? For what purpose? What are so of work by efficiency experts?
3 How can teaching be timed approximately? Is it probable that more of this will be done in the future by supervisors and investigators? Would you resent the ti of your work? Would you appreciate it? Why?
4 What may be done, in the matter of bodily positions, to improve mental time-reactions of the student? Of the teacher?
5 The literature of a typewriter manufacturer carries the precept ”Sit erect” What are the reasons?
6 What two factorsmental ith a view to time considerations?
7 If the attainment of school results by the teacher were treated as the attainment of factory results by the operator, ould happen if a large per cent of the time spent on a process were unnecessary?
8 Apply the factory ument in detail to the teacher's efficiency If you can, shoherein it fails to apply