1939-04-27 — Page 17

THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 27, 1999.

Is Repetition Necessary To Good Teaching?

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"If I've told you once,

I've told has not heard children (and you a dozen times." This remark grown-ups) say "What?" before is not infrequently made, in schools the question was well finished, ex- and out of them, and for every time pecting and knowing that laziness it is said, it is probably even more would be rewarded by its repetition: frequently in the thought of the ex- asperated teacher who feels that he has really shown quite exem- plary patience and teaching skill with no result whatever.

Is it possible that if the "telling" had been done only once it might have been remembered, without oc- casion for the useless repetition? One of the most interesting points made by Miss Charlotte Mason, the founder of the Parents National Educational Union, was that a child should be told or read a story only once, and that he could on this basis be trained to a very high degree of retentiveness.

Every teacher is exposed to the danger of talking too much and of repeating things “ad nauseam," with the laudable intention of seeing that no child has missed anything.

REPEATING MAY BE A HABIT

A tendency to this failing should receive attention in class, and the teacher who explains to his pupils the value of "saying a thing once" may expect their eager co-operation, for children love efficiency, and they can easily see how this kind of re- tentiveness leads to it.

If we are to be successful in our “saying once," we must be careful In the to start each lesson well. modern school one class succeeds another with only a few minutes' interval. It is easy for a teacher, eager to begin on his subject mat- ter, to forget that a moment spent in adjusting his group of pupils to the new work to be done is a wise preliminary.

The quiet pause be- collecting up, fore beginning, the with the eye, of all pupils in the .oom, the question about books ma- terials required all these help to bring the child gently into the new atmosphere to which he must now adjust himself, and nothing can be Not long ago

alert reten- after-dinner more relevant to the un speaker began by saying, "As there tiveness we are seeking. may be some of you who have not heard this story. . ." "There,” said my neighbour, "that man's a school- master. Now, a man of another pro- fession would have had the delicacy not to tell story

of this guests might have heard!" I prompt- ly countered with a spirited defence of my profession, but not without an uneasy feeling that the enemy had scored a point. Which of us

a

some

ORDERS CLEAR, SIMPLE, AND ESSENTIAL

GIRLICACA

(Oopycam, 1:50, by Tile 3.1l oynilcate, Inc.)

NO

TWO

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"One thing television will explain," says corpulent Cora, "whether the conductor of an carly morning broadcasting exer- cise really goes through his own programme."

more able children who probably suffer most from the excessive num-

ber of orders and the repetition to

We

which they have to listen while a I have said that children love ef-point is being pressed home for the

it, they slower members of the group. When they sce ficiency. will respect it; and this respect for must do everything we can to save may their work or our methods will be them from the boredom this enhanced by our seeing to it that induce, and which is so dangerous are clear, because it dulls the fine edge of such orders as we give

It is the curiosity, the essential to all learn- simple, and essential.

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been grasped indirectly.

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