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in the belief that self-analysis, by objective standards, is a power-
ful aid in the development of proficiency in any skilled activity.
It consists of a series of questions which the writer has prepared
to help teachers analyze their own work. The questions are stated
in the past tense on the assumption that the most favorable time
for an analysis of one's work is immediately following the close
of a piece of work. Vertical columns are found at the right, in
order that the teacher may size up her work at different times,
and thus check her progress.
A form of this kind can also be
advantageously used by the supervisor. When checked by the
supervisor and left with the teacher, it leaves something tangible
toward which to work while the supervisor is not at hand to
advise.

THE USE OF QUESTIONS IN THE RECITATION.
Prepared by A. E. Brown.

1. Did I have

notion as to whether the nature of the exercise called for rapid-fire, or slow, thoughtful questioning?

2. Was the pace suited to the thought movement?
3. If the answers were slow, was this condition

due to lack of clearness in the statement of
of the question? ....

4. If answers were slow despite clear question-
ing, were slow responses due to:

a. Lack of mastery of facts? ...

b. Nature and range of materials which
would have to be canvassed before mak-
ing a careful answer? ....

5. Did I recognize that varied types of responses
are desirable, such as factual, thoughtful re-
call, judgment, analysis, appreciation, fur-
ther questions, etc?

6. Did I avoid questions of the Yes and No answer type, where that was possible?..... 7. Was my questioning progressive and coherent?

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8. Would fewer questions have sufficed?..... 9. Did my questions appeal to most of the class? 10. Did I attempt to hold all responsible for thinking, by stating the question before calling on the individual? ...

11. Did I avoid giving indication that the answers were entirely satisfactory? If so,

how were wrong impressions cleared up?....

12. Did I conserve time:

a. By not repeating, unnecessarily, the questions?

b. By not repeating answers of pupils?.. 13. Did I attempt to adjust questioning to individual differences?

14. Were the pupils reciting cross-questioned by other pupils ?

15. Was I tactful in commending or reproving? 16. Did my questions favor group thinking?... 17. Were my questions fairly distributed among the members of the class?....

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A Back-Yard Project

FRANK HERBERT PALMER, EDITOR OF EDUCATION.

E had the privilege of listening recently to a remarkable address by a distinguished educator before a

Whighly cultured audience.* His subject was The

Problem Method, which he presented from the standpoint of the parent and the teacher. Shortly after hearing this address we had an opportunity to study at close range some of the details involved in an actual project, carried out spontaneously by a boy of thirteen in his home back-yard. We here present a few reactions to the lecture, and to the project as worked out by this boy without suggestions from any adult,—at least until he rested from his labors with visible satisfaction, after completing his project. Then, cautiously, we made one or two minor suggestions which he accepted readily and incorporated in the result of his work. We would add that we took no notes of the lecturer's address, and the statements that follow are purely the impressions of the hearer, who would not hold the lecturer responsible for anything that is here reported.

The lecture was a plea for the Problem Method. It was shown that this method was equally valuable from the standpoint of the parents and the teachers. It is based upon the processes of mind that are observable in all children and that can be cultivated and directed tactfully by parents and teachers, with excellent results. But great care should be taken lest the more experienced adult shall substitute his own "mind-set" for the child's, thus thwarting the very purpose for which Nature has set problems before the child, upon every hand. The child gains mentality, clearness of vision, depth of understanding, will-power, initiative, resourcefulness, perseverance in overcoming obstacles, and final success, only

•Professor William H. Kilpatrick, of Teachers College, Columbia University, at a conference of educators at the State Normal School, Bridgewater, Mass., under the auspices of the State Board of Education, September 9, 1921.

as he experiences "mind-sets" of his own and works out the problems involved by himself,-not as we work them out for him. The parent and the teacher have their place in the process but it iз a place in the background; they can tactfully guide, or restrain, where it is absolutely necessary in order to prevent disaster to the child or others; they can sympathetically suggest; but always just as far as possible they should leave the child alone to work out his projects as best he can,-even though the product is somewhat crude. For it not the product which we are after it is the boy or the girl.

An illustration was used, of a girl who was permitted to make her own dress, instead of hiring a dressmaker, or having her mother make the dress. She was encouraged to select and buy the materials, make the plan, get the information needed by consulting whom she pleased, and fashion the garment to suit herself. Of course, in such a case the parent knows that there will be some waste of material in the cutting, some mistakes in the fitting, some imperfections in the stitching, a better job would result from the hiring of a skilled dressmaker, etc. But in this experiment the parent is after the girl, not the dress. The girl finds deep interest in the experience. She learns, at every turn. She is preparing for the time when she will have a home and girls of her own, and she is learning many laws of economy, of carefulness and exactness, of perseverance, developing constructive abilities and resourcefulness that will stand her in good stead all through life. It is these things that are the really valuable things about her project. If everything is done for her and she gains the finished product only, without the experience, she has learned very little indeed.

The speaker showed how the parent and the teacher had a wonderful opportunity and responsibility to unobstrusively aid the child in the formation and development of the project, but should be exceedingly careful that he shall not have the feeling that it has been imposed upon him from without, and that he is being watched and "told," at every step.

The child will get his projects, and his methods of working them

out, very largely as a heritage of race-experience. This is a most fertile thought and was forcefully presented by the Lecturer. We can verify it by studying our own adult projects and by watching the work and play of almost any child or group of children. We have a truly great and goodly heritage from our ancestors. They did not toil and struggle in vain in overcoming obstacles, subduing nature both animate and inanimate, learning how to develop and conserve food supplies, how to get and shape clothing for themselves, defend themselves from their enemies, utilize the streams and navigate the seas, etc., etc. We follow in their trails and instinctively do as they did, and better. All progress comes from the working out of projects. The process is as follows: Something determines a man's or a child's mind-set; the strength of the mind-set determines him to attempt the project; he purposes, then plans, then executes, and finally judges his finished work, criticising it or appreciating it, as the case may be, but always feeling a certain satisfaction in what he has done, because he has conceived and done it. Nothing that he is told to do and how to do it, ever satifies him as his very own idea and work is sure to do. This is the way the child learns. This is the only true and really valuable education.

A peculiarly impressive opportunity to verify what this Lecturer had said was presented at about the time when we listened to his lecture, by a project which a boy of thirteen conceived and worked out in a back yard a view of which was commanded from our home abode. By the way, what an asset in any child's life is a pleasant back-yard! This particular one was broad and deep and shaded by beautiful trees, some of them the original trees of the forest which covered the spot before it was "reclaimed." On the one hand were flower-beds: on the other a vegtable garden of comprehensive proportions. A well-laden grape arbor near at hand stirred lurking memories of a far-away childhood which was not wholly devoid of projects, though the problem-method had not then been formulated. The time was late summer. The boy's project was the building of a hut,-a real, miniature house which should be his house, his very own in every sense of the word,—

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