graded
sequence, or ability to frame a series of questions designed to
stimulate and sustain the self-activity of the pupils. The born
college teacher remains the successful teacher. The poor college
teacher finds no agent which tends to raise his teaching to a higher
level. The temperamentally unfit are not weeded out. But teaching is
an art, and like all arts it requires conscientious professional
preparation, the mastery of underlying scientific principles, and
practice under supervision scrupulous in its attention to technique.

We have here outlined a few of the causes which keep college teaching
on a low plane. The remedial measures are in each case too obvious to
mention. It remains for college authorities to formulate a
well-conceived and adjustable program of means and methods of ridding
college teaching of those forces which keep it in a discouraging
state. It is our purpose in the remainder of this chapter not to
evolve a system of pedagogics, but rather to touch on the most vital
principles in teaching which must be borne in mind if college teaching
is to be rendered pedagogically comparable to elementary and secondary
teaching. We shall confine ourselves to teaching practices which are
applicable to all subjects in the college curriculum.

PRINCIPLES IN COLLEGE TEACHING

=A clearly conceived aim must control all teaching=

One of the very first elements in good teaching is the clear
recognition of a well-defined aim that gives purpose and direction to
all that is attempted in a lesson or in a period. The chief cause of
poor teaching is aimless teaching, in which the sole object seems to
be to fill the allotted time with talking about the facts of a given
subject. We sit patiently through a recitation in English literature.
Act I, Scene 1 of _Hamlet_ had been assigned for home study and is now
the text for the hour. Questions are asked on the dramatic structure
of this scene, on versification, on the meaning of words and
expressions now obsolete, on peculiarities of syntax, and finally a
question or two on a character portrayal. The bell brings these
questions to an abrupt end. Ask teacher and students the aim of all
these questions. To the former, they are means of testing the
students' knowledge of a variety of facts of language and literature;
to the latter they mean little, and serve only to repress a living
interest and appreciation of living literary text. How much more
effective the hour in Eng