s thought, brings out new meanings,
and leads the mind to right conclusions. Poor questioning leaves the
thought unawakened, fails to arouse interest and attention, and results
in poor mastery and faulty understanding. To the uninitiated it appears
easy to ask questions for others to answer. But when we become teachers
and undertake to use the question as an instrument of instruction we
find that it is much harder to ask questions than to answer them, for
not only must the questioner know the subject and the answer to each
question better than his pupils, but he must be able constantly to
interpret the minds of his pupils in order to discover their
understanding of the problem and to know what questions next to ask.

Questions slavishly dependent on the text.--Not infrequently one finds
a teacher who uses questioning solely to test the knowledge of the
pupils on the lesson text. Probably the worst form of this kind of
questioning is that of following the printed questions of the lesson
quarterly, the pupils having their lesson sheets open before them and
looking up the answer to each question as it is asked.

The following questions are taken from a widely used junior quarterly,
the Bible text being Luke 10. 25-37: "Who wanted to try Jesus? What did
he ask? What did Jesus say? What reply was made? What questions did the
lawyer ask? How did Jesus answer him? What is such a story called? What
is the name of this parable? Where was the man going? Who met him? How
did they treat him? What did they take from him? Where did they leave
him?" No one of these questions appeals to thought or imagination. All
are questions of sheer fact, with none of the deeper and more
interesting meanings brought. All of them may be answered correctly, and
the child be little the wiser religiously. Such a method of teaching
cannot do other than deaden the child's interest in the Bible, create in
him an aversion to the lesson hour of the church school, and fail of the
whole purpose of religious education. The teacher must _be able to use
living questions, and not be dependent on a dead list of faulty
questions embalmed in print_.

Questions arising spontaneously from the topic.--One who does not know
his lesson well enough so that he can ask the necessary questions
practically without reference even to the text, let alone referring to
the printed questions, or asking questions in the words of the text, is
not yet ready to teach the lesson. In o