cess by which he is taught. He enters into the whole activity through which he builds his spirit into greater power and clearer thought. Be always yourself in the presence of your class. Do not undertake to play a part. Avoid all affectation and unnatural and forced attitudes of mind and of body. Children soon find out any element of insincerity in the make-up of the teacher. Avoid unnatural and harsh and highpitched tones of voice. Sometimes teachers yell at their pupils. They think that intensity and earnestness are expressed by increased pitch of voice. Nothing quite so much upsets a class and breaks in upon the serenity of the thought and interferes with the purpose of the recitation as a teacher whose voice is out of harmony with the situation. Be Natural I recall now a teacher who taught with such a high and unnatural voice that the children were in a constant state of nervous excitement bordering on frenzy. I speak strictly within the truth when I say that as I approached the room where this teacher taught I heard his voice far out on the campus. I recall another teacher who had this same habit. Poor Teaching One day a friend called him from the class-room and said, "My dear friend, I have just had a telephone message from a gentleman six miles away, saying that his wife was ill, and begging me to request you to speak to your class in a little lower tone, in order not to disturb her!" He saw the point. He laughed, but he did not need that suggestion again. -- The Fine Art of Sometimes we talk too rapidly. Our words run together like the streakings of falling stars across the sky. The result in the mind of the child is confusing. If the things you say are worth anything to the child,-and they ought to be, time yourself in such a manner as to give force and purpose to your teaching. The most impressive prayer I ever heard was spoken most deliberately. It seemed as if every word was pointed and purposeful. It burned in consciousness like a star in the darkness of the night. There was an ominous pause, as if somehow each word had been sent on a long voyage, and we were waiting for the signal from the other side before another was launched. When the prayer was ended it seemed as if we could not lift our heads and open our eyes until we felt the echo of the Amen straight from the throne. Do we realize how much of all that is powerful in the things that we do depends on the way we do them? Let us fashion our way after the manner of our great Example. Let us endeavor, so far as in us lies, to teach as Jesus taught. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. For testing one's grasp of the subject, and for discussion in Teacher-Training Classes. When may an educational law be said to be honored by the teacher? Can we give to the child what we do not possess as teachers? What important conclusions do you draw from your answer to this question? Should the teacher know more than the pupil is to receive? Why? Is it important that a teacher should be constantly learning? Why should a pupil be given the facts before he is asked to formulate a judgment? What two prominent forms of reasoned activity should the teacher understand? Did Jesus teach inductively or deductively? Prove your answer. What is the real difference between analytic teaching and synthetic teaching? What danger grows out of undertaking to put too many things into a few words? Explain the statement-"Good teaching is generous giving." What did Pestalozzi give to his pupils? What did Jesus give? What are you giving? What is the value of the interchange of thought be tween teacher and pupil? What significance attaches to the tone of the voice in teaching? Formulate a brief outline of educational guidance from the statements made in this chapter. XXIV EDUCATIONAL METHODS USED BY JESUS J ESUS taught with infinite patience. He never was in a hurry. He had no time to be in a hurry, but he always had time to do a thing that should be done. Here is an example worth much to every teacher. How hard it is for us to understand that our best teaching is not always possible; that conditions determine results. A wise teacher will always labor to predispose the learner to receive the best instruction. In the entire round of the recitation there may be but one minute when all the conditions make possible fine teaching. It is the business of the teacher to mold the conditions and bring to pass this sublime moment and then teach as Jesus taught. Conditions in At the opening of Matthew 5, we have a striking illustration of the deliberate quality of this teacher. He sees the multitude. He then goes up into a mountain. Then he sat down, and after that his disciples came unto him, and he No Haste in opened his mouth and spoke unto them. Notice with what deliberation he predisposes the disciples to receive this great message. There is no sign of haste. There is no evidence of impatience. There is no attempt to hurry the conditions, but, with a masterful control of himself, he predisposes the conditions for favorable teaching. I have no doubt his sayings went all the more deeply into the conscience, and fastened themselves more securely within the soul of the disciples, because of this deliberate treatment of them. In a preceding chapter I called attention to this same quality when Jesus was at the Feast of the Tabernacles in Jerusalem. It will amply reward you to go through the Gospels and make a personal study of this same quality as it appears again and again in his teaching. Another quality in the teaching of Jesus that stands out with marvelous clearness is his treatment of common things to figure the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. We have an educational Use of Common law of great value which may be formulated in some such way as this: In teaching proceed from the simple to the complex, from the concrete to the abstract, from the individual to the universal. This law was never better honored or more steadfastly adhered to by any great teacher than by Jesus. It was his definite purpose to bring plainly to the understanding of his disciples and the multitude the significance of the kingdom of heaven. |