Pupil learns through his own responses, reactions, attitudes, behavior. The first fact referred to is that a pupil learns through his own responses, reactions, or behavior. Thus he learns to swim through trying to swim; he learns to like simple rhythmic poetry through the rhythmic feelings which it sets up in him and the rhythmic enunciation it induces in him; he learns to exercise self-control through "holding himself in," time and again; he learns to exercise careful judgment by time and again taking the attitude of "Let me see." It is obvious in all these cases that he could not learn through having somebody else do the thing for him; through having someone else swim, or get the rhythmic feelings, or "hold himself in," or take the attitude of "Let me see." Only by making these responses himself can the pupil acquire skill in swimming, rhythmic enjoyment of poetry, and habits of exercising self-control and careful judgment.

Self-activity of the pupil, not the teacher's activity, educates him. This general fact that the pupil is educated through his own responses, or reactions, or behavior is sometimes called the doctrine of self-activity. The term "self" suggests the contrast with the teacher's activity, and brings out the fact that it is what the pupil does that educates him, not merely what the teacher does. The teacher's actions are effective only to the extent that they get each pupil to make the desired response. For example, the swimming teacher may go through the motions, but the pupil makes no progress in learning unless he endeavors to imitate the motions; the literature teacher may emphasize the rhythms while reading aloud, but if the pupil lacks a sense of rhythm, as some pupils do, he may make no rhythmic responses, get no rhythmic feelings or enjoyment, and, as a consequence, he may be quite puzzled at the teacher's enthusiastic liking for the poem and ecstatic remarks concerning it.

Pupil inattentive to teacher is often learning through surreptitious self-activity. Regarded from the standpoint of the pupil's self-activity, the teacher is merely one part of the situation which may influence the child and which includes also furniture, books, and other pupils. Often a child learns much more from other pupils than he does from the teacher, because they call forth more responses from him. Thus a pupil may devote a large part of his activity during the day to learning from other pupils through writing notes, making spitballs, making a pin hum or sing, drawing pictures of the teacher, etc. while the latter is fruitlessly trying to secure his attention. Often if he is very bright and the teacher is quite slow, a pupil learns more through surreptitious reading of books or through general mind-wandering than he does through the responses which the teacher stimulates him to make. Thus a bright child may be examining a map in his geography and playing a game of locating places while the slow teacher is pursuing a stupid child or correcting misbehavior. Hence, bright children may learn in school in spite of a dull or slow teacher through their own devices in finding things to play with, to think about, or to read.

Slow children may be merely passive or scared observers of rapid-fire teacher. At the opposite extreme from the slow teacher who fails to influence the self-active responses of the bright pupils we find the energetic, nervous, active, scintillating teacher who may proceed at such a fast pace that only the bright pupils can grasp what is going on. There is abundant teacher activity and satisfactory pupil activity in a few cases, but most of the pupils, while apparently attentive, are either completely swamped or mere passive observers. Their self-activity often consists merely in wondering what it is all about, or in idly watching the teacher's gyrations, or in thinking, "I hope she won't call on me."

Recitations judged by relative amount of teacher activity and pupil activity. The contrast between the teacher's activity and the pupils' self-activity is often made the basis

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of criticizing and evaluating recitations observed. Very commonly a teacher may know all about a subject and give much evidence of this fact by the large amount of talking which she does in a recitation, but the teaching be ranked as poor because the children are given so little opportunity to respond. Hence, prolonged lecturing to pupils is condemned as well as the use of many long questions by the teacher with brief or monosyllabic answers from pupils.

Another example of superfluous teacher activity which kills pupil self-activity is found in the impatience of teachers when children are trying to think out the answer to a problem. Self-activity in this case involves the children's thinking over their related knowledge and trying to recall ideas to be used in the solution. This process takes time. A skilled teacher may stand quietly before the class for fifteen seconds while the pupils think. This may occur many times during a half-hour lesson in history or geography in the middle grades. The nervous, unskilled teacher, however, fails to realize the mental activity that the pupils need to carry on; she is anxious to secure the objective results, to get the answer. Hence, she is continually pushing, nagging, suggesting, asking ten questions where one should suffice. Such a teacher usually creates a similar situation with her disciplinary measures, by constantly reproving, scolding, threatening. The discipline comes to depend upon her activity instead of depending upon the pupils' holding themselves in restraint, which is one of the highest forms of self-activity.

Self-control, self-restraint, and inhibition are high forms of self-activity. The fact that self-control, self-restraint, or self-repression are important and valuable parts of a pupil's self-activity is emphasized by Thorndike in the following paragraph :

Finally, activity may as well result in the inhibition as in the production of ideas and feelings and movements. A fifth-grade schoolroom in which children sit quietly reading or move about in a businesslike way may represent more real activity than a room

in which the children are waving their hands, incessantly making comments and asking questions. The first room may, it is true, represent mere repression and absence of interest and work; but it may represent interest, thought, and work plus the inhibition of aimless expressions thereof. It must not be forgotten that not to think the foolish irrelevant thought is [an] essential of reasoning; that not to follow the wrong impulse is the essential of character; that not to make the aimless and crude movement is the essential of skill. Success is in great measure not making failures. What a man does depends upon what impulses are neglected or overcome. We are what we are by reason of what we are not what we do not permit ourselves to become. Activity is inhibitory as well as impulsive. (2: 40)

Mental experimentation, often with crude results, accompanies self-correction. It is important to notice that such self-correction as Thorndike emphasizes is only possible, however, if the children are given some opportunities for mental experimentation, some chances to think the wrong thoughts and to correct themselves, some opportunities to make crude drawings and to improve them. We had in earlier chapters two good illustrations of neglect of this fact. The first occurred on page 70 in describing the work of kindergarten teachers who prepare the materials for pupils so completely that there is little left for the children to do, and, as a consequence, the latter fail to develop independent ability in handwork. The other example of failure to give children opportunities for mental experimen- ̧ tation was noted in the efforts of Pestalozzi to organize simple-to-complex alphabets which were to be fed to children in spoonfuls, as it were, so that they could progress, step by step, without any chance of making a mistake. The facts concerning self-activity, however, make it clear that you can't feed a pupil ready-made education by carefully graduated spoonfuls, but that his learning depends upon his own efforts in thinking, feeling, talking, writing, drawing,

and making; that these efforts may be quite crude at first; that they improve through his own efforts at self-control; and that mental experimentation by the pupil is often necessary to eliminate crude and incorrect ideas or performances.

Self-correction relatively easy to suggest where product is objective. The doctrine of self-activity thus tends to focus the attention of the teacher on the reactions and responses of the pupils as individuals. Where the end to be attained is represented by some objective product, such as a pile of blocks or a doll's dress in the kindergarten, or a drawing of a farmhouse in the first grade, or correct notes in singing, or letters in handwriting in later grades, it is a comparatively simple matter to decide whether each pupil has made the desired response and to proceed accordingly. For example, in handwriting, if the pupil grips his pen too tightly, the teacher can observe this fact and have the pupil correct it; in singing, if the pupil tends to be a monotone, he may be placed close to the piano or to the teacher. Even in such cases, however, it is sometimes difficult to give the right cue or suggestion which will enable the pupil to make the correct response. For example, mispronunciations are easily observed and commented upon, but a Western teacher had great difficulty in getting a pupil from New York City to cease saying "feller" and "idear." The pupil could not see the difference between his pronunciation of "idea" and the teacher's; he insisted, "I don't say 'idear,' I say 'idear' just like you do."

Inner responses, thoughts, and feelings of pupils difficult to determine. When we come to consider the inner mental responses of pupils, it often requires great skill to determine if each pupil has made the correct response. Very often we have to depend on what the child says, but his words may belie his thoughts. For example, a first-grade class in a wealthy community read very glibly, "The three little pigs went out to make their living," but not a child in