to thoroughly understand a book, students must seek
to frame the questions which it answers. They must also know how to use
books to answer their own questions. This means they must know how to
turn from part to part, gleaning here or there what they need. It means
training in the ability to skim, omitting unessentials and picking out
essentials. It means the ability to recognize major points, minor
points, and illustrative material. Children must be taught to use the
table of contents, the index, and paragraph headings. They must, in
their search for fuller information or criticism, be able to interpret
different authors, use different language, and attack from different
angles, even when treating the same object. Children must in their
studying be taught to use books as a means to an end--not an infallible
means, but one which needs continual criticism, modification, and
amplification.

Study may be supervised study, or unsupervised study. To some people the
requirements in learning to study may seem too difficult to be possible,
but it should be remembered that the process is gradual--that one by one
these elements in study are taught to the children in their supervised
study periods. These periods should begin in the primary grades, and
require from the teacher quite as much preparation as any other period.
Many teachers have taught subjects, but not how to study subjects. The
latter is the more important. The matter of distributed learning
periods, of search for motive, of asking questions, of criticizing
achievement, of use of books; each element is a topic for class
discussion before it is accepted as an element in study. Even after it
is accepted, it may be raised by some child as a source of particular
difficulty and fresh suggestions added. Very often with little children
it is necessary for the teacher to study the lesson with them. Teachers
need much more practice in doing this, for one of the best ways to teach
a child to study is to study with him. Not to tell him, and do the work
for him, but to really study with him. Later on the supervised study
period is one in which each child is silently engaged upon his own work
and the teacher passes from one to the other. In order to do this well,
the teacher needs to be able to do two things. First, to find out when
the child is in difficulty and to locate it, and second, to help him
over the trouble without giving too much assistance. Adequate
questioning is nee