ities for good teaching. The good teacher will
help just enough, but not too much; just enough so that the class will
know how to go to work with the least loss of time and the greatest
amount of energy; not enough so that the lesson is already mastered
for the class before they begin their study.

But it is necessary to help the class on the hard points not only in
assigning the lesson, but also in the recitation. The alert teacher
will in almost every recitation discover some points which the class
have failed to understand or master fully. It is the overlooking of
such half-mastered points as these that leaves weak places in the
pupil's knowledge and brings trouble to him later on. These weak
points left unstrengthened in the recitation are the lazy teacher's
greatest reproach; the occasion of the unskillful teacher's greatest
bungling; and the inexperienced teacher's greatest "danger points."

_c. Bring in new points supplementing the text._--While the lesson of
the textbook should be followed in the main, and most of the time
devoted thereto, yet nearly every lesson gives the wide-awake teacher
opportunity to supplement the text with interesting material drawn
from other sources. This rightly done lends life and interest to the
recitation, broadens the child's knowledge, and increases his respect
for the teacher. In this way many lessons in history, geography,
literature--in fact, in nearly all the studies,--can have their
application shown, and hence be made more real to the pupils.

_d. Inspire the pupils to better efforts and higher ideals._--The
recitation is the teacher's mental "point of contact" with his pupils.
He meets them socially in a friendly way at intermissions and on the
playground. His moral character and personality are a model to the
children at all times. But it is chiefly in the recitation that the
_mental_ stimulus is given. The teacher who is lifeless and
uninspiring in the teaching of the recitation cannot but fail to
inspire his school to a strong mental growth, whatever else he may
accomplish.

Most pupils have powers far in excess of those they are using. They
only need to be inspired, to be wakened up mentally by a teacher whose
mind is alive and growing. They need to be made hungry for education,
and this can be accomplished only by a teacher who is himself full of
enthusiasm. Inspiration is caught, not taught.

_e. Lead pupils into good habits of study._--It is probably not too
m