Classroom Management; Its Principles and Technique (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV The "batavia System" Of Class-individual Instruction I. The class system, which has come to dominate formal education, possesses certain advantages over an individual system of instruction, (a) It is more economical in its maintenance (and this is, of course, the chief reason for its extensive use), (b) It involves in itself a certain educative influence in that it teaches the subordination of individual impulses to the welfare of the class as a whole, (c) Its greatest advantage, however, lies in the stimulus that is gained from competition, emulation, and the group interests. On the other hand, the class system involves some disadvantages that may, under some conditions, quite overbalance its desirable qualities, (a) It may lose sight entirely of individual differences, becoming a "machine" in the worst sense of the term. (J) It tends to impart instruction with reference to an ideal "average child," who may have no existence in reality, (c) It may involve conditions that are injurious to the health of the weaker pupils in the worry and overstrain that result from an attempt to keep "up to grade." (d) It undoubtedly tends to discourage a certain proportion of pupils and to keep them from continuing with the work of the school. 2. It is clear, therefore, that some form of compromise between individual and class instruction is essential to the best work of the school. Furthermore, it is clear that any readjustment, to be practicable, must not be too radical. The existing machinery of the educational system must be employed, but some steps should be taken to render its operation more efficient. A system of pure individual instruction is obviously impracticable and is also to be condemned because it would eliminate the stimulus...