Decide on Your Plan. 67 PART I. The Teacher's Work. CHAPTER 2. Essentials of the Teaching Process. teachers to be instructed in the methods of teaching best adapted to them and to their classes, through Teaching the study of any one set of rules and precepts. It is for each teacher to decide for himself the method of teaching which, all things considered, is most desirable for him, in the teaching of the lesson in hand to the particular scholars he is set to teach. The great question is, not, What are the different approved methods of teaching? not, What method of teaching is most commonly successful in the Sunday-school? but, What method of teaching am I to adopt, in the Another teaching of this lesson, to this class? or, How am I to cause these scholars to know these truths which I know, and which I want them to know? That question settled, and there is another point gained in preparation for teaching. point gained. THE TEACHING PROCESS. 3. ITS ELEMENTS. PART I. Teaching Work. CHAPTER 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. AND now we pass from the essentials for the Teacher's teaching-process, to the several elements of that process; from that which is requisite for its attempting, to that which is involved in the act itself. The teaching-process being, as is already shown, of a twofold nature, involving teaching on the one hand and learning on the other, its elements are threefold, including a portion for each party separately, and a third portion for the two parties conjointly. and two.. The teacher must be ready to impart; the scholar must be ready to receive; teacher and scholar must combine for the transfer. Neither party can comOne and one plete the work without the other; nor can the two parties complete the work without conjoint action. To begin with, the scholar must be attentive to the teacher who would cause him to learn. Then the teacher must make clear what he would have the scholar learn. Then the twofold work of the teach From the Teacher's Stand-point. ing-process, which is also the learning-process, can go on by the combined endeavor of the teacher and the learner. Hence it would appear that the elements of the teaching-process, as viewed from the standpoint of the teacher, are: Having the scholar's attention, making clear that which is to be taught, securing the scholar's co-work with the teacher. Without these three elements the teaching-process cannot be complete. 69 PART I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. CHAPTER 3. Elements of the Teaching Process. PART I. CHAPTER 3. I. HAVING THE ATTENTION OF THOSE YOU No Teaching without Attention; What Attention is; Attention on the It is obvious, that, even when the teacher has his scholar before him; has, also, in his own mind, welldefined facts or views, which he would transfer to the mind of his scholar; and has, furthermore, a well-defined plan of teaching;—all this preparedness amounts to just nothing at all, unless the teacher has and holds the attention of his scholar. Without the attention of his scholar, the best teacher in the world cannot be a teacher to that scholar. The best and speare says: the worst. "The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark, When neither is attended;" Shake and the poorest teacher can do no worse than the best teacher, when neither has attention. So far, perhaps, all will be ready to agree. Every teacher expects to have his scholars' attention; and Attention Defined. 71 PART I. CHAPTER 3. What atten many a teacher flatters himself that he has it, hen nothing like it is given to him. What is attention? Attention is literally the stretching of one's self toward a thing: it is "the energetic application of the mind to any object," "with a view to perceive, understand, or comply." Attention involves the giving of one's self, by an intelligent surrender or devotion, to the one thing reached after, to the ex- tion is. clusion or forgetfulness, for the time being, of everything else. Attention is something more than being silent; silence is very often the result of listlessnessor of slumber. Attention is something more than looking straight at the person or the thing needing attention: staring at vacancy gives all the fixity of gaze that the best attention calls for; but staring is by no means the giving of attention. Attention is something more than hearing: one may hear the clatter of the steam-cars in which he rides, the din and rattle of the city streets along which he walks, or the rush and roar of the storm outside his house as he sits at home on a wintry night, and yet give no attention to that which he hears. His attention may be wholly on the book he is reading, the business matter he is considering, or the picture he is examining, Hindrances while the discordant sounds about him are heard without being heeded. Attention is something more than having an interest in a subject before one. Every man has an interest in his health, in his reputation, in his spiritual welfare; but not every man to attention. |