reciting
by interrupting when there is a slight pause to think of the next
point, or a hesitation before pronouncing a word. Teachers sometimes
even interrupt a pupil who is reciting and themselves offer
explanations, make remarks, or continue the discussion, leaving the
child standing and not knowing whether he is excused or not. Of course
this is bad manners on the part of the teacher, and it is even worse
pedagogy. It is not encouraging to the pupil to feel that he may be
interrupted at any moment, and few can think clearly or recite well
when expecting such interruptions. The pupil should not expect to be
allowed to think out a lesson or a point when he is reciting, which he
should have thought out before coming to class. On the other hand, the
teacher must remember that the child's mind is working on what to him
is new and difficult matter, and hence cannot move as rapidly as the
teacher's.

_b. Distractions by the class._--Inattention, restlessness, and
mischief are great sources of distraction from the class themselves.
All these things have a tendency to be contagious, and in any case
always break in upon the train of thought of the recitation. Because
of this the teacher _must_ win the inattentive and restless, and
_must_ check the restless, if he would save his recitation.

Not infrequently, in the more elementary classes, a certain kind of
distraction is fostered and encouraged by the teacher with the aim of
securing the attention of the whole class to the one who is reciting.
This form of distraction consists in having the whole class watch the
one who is reciting, and, if they observe an error in the recitation,
at once raise their hands, when the one reciting must stop. This is a
mistake from almost every standpoint, and has very little to redeem
it. It may result in closer attention on the part of the class; but
the motive which prompts the attention is bad. It leads to elation and
rejoicing over the mistakes and failures of another, and it centres
attention on the mistakes rather than on the facts to be brought out.
Attention should be trained so that it will not have to depend on this
kind of motive, and the memory should be trained to note and hold a
correction until the one reciting has finished. Further, it is a most
serious distraction to the one who is reciting to be expecting that a
forest of hands may at any moment be wildly waving about his ears,
gleefully announcing that he has made an error