Common sense is the best guide in introducing a new method of work. Any
sudden transition is likely to be disastrous. Responsibility in new fields
should be shifted from teacher to pupils as rapidly as they are able to
carry it, but it should never be transferred in wholesale fashion. This is
especially true of a class that is accustomed to wait for the teacher's
permission or command in all the small details of schoolroom life, such as
speaking, moving about the room, etc.

The freer methods may be introduced by either of two plans. In carrying
through the first sand-table project, for example, the teacher may plan
the details quite as definitely as is her custom in general work, assign
each part to a particular pupil, and guide his execution of it as far as
necessary. With each succeeding project more and more freedom may be
granted, as the children become accustomed to community work and learn how
to use the materials involved. Or, the work may be introduced by allowing
two or three very trustworthy pupils to work out, quite alone, some simple
project which will appeal to the entire class as very desirable. Other
projects may be worked out by other pupils as they show themselves worthy
of trust. Such a plan sets a premium upon independence and ability to
direct one's own actions, and has a beneficial effect upon general
discipline. Each individual teacher must follow the plan which best
accords with her individual habits and the conditions under which she
works. No rule can be rated as best under any and all circumstances.

=New and Different Projects.=--Teachers frequently spend time and nerve
force seeking new projects supposedly to stimulate the interest of the
children. Often a careful examination into the true motives back of the
search would prove that it is not so much to stimulate the interest of the
children as to call forth the admiration of other teachers. Because a
house was built last year does not hinder the building of another this
year. If the children are allowed ample freedom, the houses will not be
alike. If the teacher is centering her interest in the development of the
children and not in the things the children make, the projects will always
be new because worked out in a new way by a different group of children.
Monotony comes about through the teacher's attempt to plan out details and
impose them upon the children, a process quite similar to the use of
predigested foods.

=Quality of Work.=