EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS I GOOD ORDER 1. What can be said for and against the proposition that the chief problem in the school-room is to preserve good order? First say what “good order” means, specifying concrete details. 2. Discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of requiring pupils once or twice each day for five or ten minutes at a time to sit erect in their seats, fold their arms, and keep the body as quiet as possible, not moving the head, the eyes, or the feet. Does it make a difference whether the pupils are in the elementary, in the grammar, or in the high school? Does it make a difference whether the school is in the city or in the country? 3. What changes have occurred in the methods of securing good order in the schools in which you had your training? What are the results of these changes on the behavior of pupils? 4. Describe in concrete detail five actual instances in which a teacher caught and held the wandering attention of pupils. Point out in each case the educational principle involved. 5. Should good order in the school-room be maintained primarily for the benefit of (a) the individual, (b) the class as a whole, or (c) the teacher? Discuss in detail. 6. Describe, as in 4, several actual instances in which a teacher failed to hold the attention of pupils. Point out the precise reason in each case. 7. Make a concrete report upon an actual recitation you have attended, showing why the class as a whole, or individual members thereof, were inattentive during the entire period, or some part of it. Get at the reason in each case. 8. Describe a typical school-room in which irrelevant trains of thought are frequently suggested. How would you remedy the situation? 9. What are the chief sources of irrelevant trains of thought in country schools? In city schools? Is there a difference between younger and older children in this respect? 10. Mention possible objections to the plan of having an interval of three or five minutes after every recitation or study period of twenty minutes in the primary grades, thirty minutes in the grammar grades, and forty-five minutes in the high school? Are these objections fundamental and vital? 11. Suggest practicable methods of relieving the tensions of pupils without giving them frequent intermissions or relaxing periods. 12. How can a teacher discriminate between fatigue and lack of interest in the school-room? 13. Suggest how a teacher may discriminate between disorder which is intentional and malicious, and that which is due to an overflow of "animal spirits". 14. Should a teacher stand while engaged in teaching? Say why, whatever your answer may be. 15. Would you seat pupils alphabetically? Would you adopt such a plan of seating the first day of school? Give reasons. 16. List different methods of regulating communication during study hours. Discuss the adaptability of each to different grades. 17. Some of our largest and best high schools have abolished recesses. Some have instituted a single session daily from 8:30 A. M. to 1:00 or 1:15 P. M. without intermissions. Discuss the advisability of such an arrangement. 18. Recently a superintendent was asked to forecast the weather. He replied, “A storm is certainly coming, for the children act as if possessed." Should disciplinary standards be adjusted to barometric variations? Do you ever feel "mean" before a storm? 19. Do pupils in city schools require as frequent intermissions or relaxing periods as pupils in rural schools? Do they need more of such periods? Why? 20. What arguments may be offered in favor of and against abolishing all recesses in schools of all grades, in the city and in the country? 21. Discuss the plan proposed in some places of keeping schools in session throughout the year, with one-week intermissions at quarterly divisions of the year. 22. Discuss the plan of lengthening the school-day by adding one or two hours, pointing out the advantages and the disadvantages of such a scheme. 23. Point out characteristics in a teacher which tend to incite disorder in a school. In the same way point out characteristics which have the effect of encouraging good order. Can these characteristics be modified by training, or by voluntary effort on the part of the teacher? Have you known teachers who have corrected traits of personality which were a handicap to them in the school-room? 24. Suggest feasible and effective ways in which a teacher may get rid of his own tensions which follow upon arduous work in the school-room, to the end that he may not incite disorder in his pupils by overstimulating or irritating them. 25. Does a long vacation, extending over two or three months, help a pupil to give prolonged and concentrated attention to the work of the school in the autumn? Discuss the principle or principles involved, and make practical applications to the every-day work of the school. 26. Describe concrete cases of pupils who are disorderly because of physical defects or deficiencies. How would you remedy the defects? 27. Comment on the part that skilful questioning by the teacher plays in determining attention and good order on the |