It cannot be denied that many of the school exercises are justifiable only in so far as they produce such habits. Granting this, it imposes upon the teacher the responsibility of determining the habit that any particular material is fitted to fix and of drawing upon this subject-matter until the result is obtained. It is very doubtful if any subject should be studied solely for this purpose.

Individual Difference. -Much of schoolroom practice is based upon the assumption that children are essentially alike. Seats of a uniform size for all children of a grade, a uniform course of study required of all, an absolutely minimum requirement for promotion, and like punishment for like offenses, are some earmarks of the prevailing practice, which reveal the common notion that children are alike.

Expert evidence is not wanting to prove that children have traits in common. many Neither is it needed to prove that children have marked individual traits. The former have been unduly emphasized. in the past. The latter will receive more attention in the future.

Sense Differences. Even under normal conditions of the special senses, there is a variation in sense appreciation. The probabilities are that a few children in a large school group are keenly eye-minded. When we realize that probably 20 to 40 per cent of the children in the grades have defective eyes and ears, the problem of proper individual care becomes decidedly serious.

We have known of a color-blind pupil reaching the seventh grade, and an extremely near-sighted pupil reaching the upper classes of the high school without these defects being known by any of their teachers.

Apparent stupidity, indifference, laziness, and oftentimes

insolence are frequently due to defective senses. One of the first duties of the teacher is to determine the status of the eyes and ears of his children. An equally important duty is to make adequate provision for the correction of these defects. Tonsils, adenoids, and teeth, though not affecting the immediate work of the classroom to the extent that defective eyes and ears do, undermine the child's health, lower his vitality, and ultimately reduce his desire and capacity for work. Proper care of the teeth alone furnishes a problem sufficiently large to require the vigilance of all the altruistic forces of any community. The potential health conditions of children in most communities are an ignoble monument of monstrous proportions to the ignorance, indecision, and irresponsibility of the group consciousness in these communities. Teachers must see to it that a similar monument is not erected to the memory of the next generation.

Instinctive Differences. — Other deep-seated differences in children will not be overlooked by wide-awake teachers. Shyness, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, self-confidence,· and stubbornness prevent a spiritual unity. The negatively reactive and positively reactive children are the source of many perplexing situations in the schoolroom.

There is no "cure-all" for these conditions which may be secured by a six-weeks attendance at a summer normal school. Each condition requires a specific remedy. A broad sympathy, an interest in educational psychology, and a spirit of research and experimentation are some essential factors required in the solution of this problem. The negatively reactive child needs a different set of stimuli from the positively reactive child, and conversely. The latter are frequently the teacher's pets while the former have

been a source of no little annoyance to those teachers who lack interest in individual differences.

In the last analysis the key to teaching is the reactive attitude of the child. A teacher's consciousness of this factor may not always be explicit. It is his duty to make it as nearly so as contact, sympathy, and sane experimentation with children and a familiarity with the literature on child psychology will warrant.

CHAPTER VI

TEACHING BASED UPON WAYS OF LEARNING

Meaning of Teaching. Teaching consists in the conscious direction of stimuli to the end that the teacher's aim or purpose is realized in terms of desired pupil controls. Controls thus purposed by the teacher may be obtained through the direct stimulation of conscious or unconscious imitation, inductive or deductive thinking, one or all combined. It matters little whether the results be higher ideals, worthy prejudices, better habits, an increased number of facts, or richer generalizations, the conscious direction of the stimuli that results in the change is teaching. He who consciously directs such stimuli is a teacher.

Relative Value of Means and Ends. Means and ends as factors in the teaching process are inseparable. Remove the latter, and an incoherent and aimless reaction results; remove the former, and dreaming and sentimentality prevail. Preaching and teaching are distinct in that the former lays more stress upon desirable ends of attainment, while the latter emphasizes the goal to be secured and the means by which it is to be secured. From the standpoint of method, means is decidedly the more important factor. There are many teachers who know "what were good to be done," to one who is efficient in

choosing and directing the appropriate means in its realization.

In the last analysis teaching should be judged in terms of behavior. Changes in the child's ways of feeling, thinking, and acting are not necessarily the results of educational endeavor, since there are many environmental influences other than teaching which affect the child. It is reasonable to suppose, however, that the quality of one's teaching varies directly as the worthiness of the feelings, thoughts, and acts of the pupil varies during his school life. If this be true it is fundamental, first, that the teacher know the status of the child's controls; secondly, that he determine the changes in these controls which his teaching should stimulate; and thirdly, that he direct the natural processes by which these controls are acquired. The first two of these items are to be given consideration elsewhere. The last will be considered here.

METHODS OF LEARNING

Imitation a Method of Acquiring Control. - One may have the opinion that free trade is the best revenue measure possible for America. This opinion may have been formed from reading such an assertion of some political economist, from hearing a political speech, or from listening to the declarations of would-be philosophers. In each case it is an imitated judgment if it is accepted as whole cloth on faith. One's notions of the possessions of nations, the population of cities, the severity of climates, the relative size of oceans and rivers, the worthiness of rulers, the selfsacrifice of leaders, are in the main imitated judgments.

Conventionality-the essential factor of social continuity, coöperation, and a sympathetic understanding — is the off