The Discovery Of The Child

THE TECHNIQUE OF LESSONS 205*

In repeating the question a great many times the

repeats that word which finally will be remembered, and at ev£FT"
repetition the child, responding by pointing to the object, has
repeated the exercise of associating with it the word which he is
learning and fixing in his mind. If, however, the mistress notices-
at the very start that the child is not disposed to pay attention to
her and makes mistakes in answering without making any effort
to do well, she ought, instead of correcting and insisting, to suspend
the lesson and start it again at another moment, on another day.
Why should she correct him? If the child did not succeed in asso-
ciating the name with the object, the only way in which he can
succeed will be to repeat the act of sense stimulus as well as the-
name, namely to repeat the lesson. But when the child has made
a mistake, it means that, at that moment, he was not disposed
towards the -mental association which was hoped for from him;
therefore it would be necessary to choose another moment.

Supposing that along with the correction one had said: ** No,.
you have made a mistake, it is this," all these words which contain
a reproof, would have made much more impression on him than
the other (e.g. smooth, rough); they would have remained in the
child's mind, retarding the learning of the names. Instead of that,,
the silence which follows the error leaves clear the field of the
child-mind and the next lesson will follow on the first successfully..

Third Stage: Remembering the Name Corresponding to the
Object. The third stage is a rapid verification of the lesson taken
first. The mistress asks the child: "What is this like?" and if'
the child is ready to do so he will reply with the correct word:
" It is smooth," " It is rough."

Since the child is often uncertain in his pronunciation or
these words, often new to him, the mistress may insist on having
them repeated once or twice, exhorting the child to pronounce
them more clearly, saying: " What is it like? " " What is it like? "
If the child shows marked defects in speech, this is the time to
make them perfectly clear so that definite corrective exercises in.
pronunciation may be.given afterwards.