The Problem Method

BERGOTH SANDS, SARANAC LAKE, N. Y.

MANAISTENMANNK♣NE OF the most satisfactory methods in modern teaching is the Problem Method. Quite often

O this is confused with the Project Method, but the

difference is very distinct.

In the second, a subject of more comprehensive scope is chosen, such as "Silk" or "Lumber." All the subjects of the ordinary school curriculum may be pressed into service in the teaching thereof. For example, problems of the silk industry in Arithmetic, supplementary reading on the History of Silk or the Silk Industry in Europe for Reading, map and graph study of silk-producing countries for Geography, and oral or written compositions on Visiting a Silk Mill, for English. In undertaking a Project, the Problem Method is used, often unconsciously by the teacher. It simply means that she centers the whole lesson around one essential fact, converting that fact into a broad problem.

The sooner the teacher thoroughly grasps the numerous ways in which the Problem Method may be used, the sooner will she be fitted to undertake various projects, for the former is a stepping stone to the latter. It is used to reach the "core" of the lesson in an easier, more practical way. Teachers have done this for a long time in Arithmetic. How much progress would our children have made if we had simply asked them to study the theory, instead of solving problems from the first grade up?

Yet this is what we have been doing in Geography and History particularly. We have assigned certain pages for study. Then the pupils recited them, parrot-fashion, in class. The brighter ones grasped the meaning in one third of the time allotted, and then waited for the "Slow Johnnies." The latter

recited without understanding. The simple proof of this is to question the child on the text. Often you will find that although his recitation was perfect, it had no meaning for him.

In the Problem Method this is avoided. Although it may be used in any of the grades, it is especially suited to the upper. Supposing you are to teach New York City to a fifth grade. In the class period before the children have studied, you explain that the lesson is on New York. You ask what they already know about the city. Invariably its size is mentioned. Then you ask what they would like to know about it and very soon you will get the answer, "Why has New York City grown so large?" This then is the problem and you write it plainly on the board. The brighter pupils are eager to answer it without studying but the wise teacher merely tells them that the answer to the problem is in the text book. She adds that it can be answered more fully if they will read the supplementary geographies on the reading table, but they must read the text book first. The children rush to their seats, eager to begin the lesson. Even the dullest, least interested pupil wonders if he can find the answer, and a triumphant smile appears on his usually discontented face when he does so. The lesson has more of a definite purpose, an incentive, than it had when he was merely ordered to study New York!

The next day in the recitation period the pupils will suggest the topics dealing with the problem. With the aid of the teacher they make an outline of it. The wise teacher will now give the more backward pupils who rarely did any voluntary reciting before, the opportunity to suggest the most obvious topics, derived from the text books, thus giving them great encouragement. The brighter pupils, capable of much more extensive reading in the limited period allowed, have sought out interesting minor details which they are delighted to recite in class. The more important points are placed under the topics. When the outline is completed, the children copy it into their notebooks and keep it for future reference. They

enjoy even the copying, for it is a thing of vital interest to them; they have all taken part in the making thereof.

Although I contend that this method is more necessary and satisfactory in teaching geography, it may well be used in any ordinary subject. In Reading, if the subject should be Warner's "Hunting of the Deer," the following problem may be placed on the board, "Why could not the doe return to her fawn?" In Penmanship it may be, "What are the difficulties to remember in making the letter M?" In Physiology it may be, "Why is the blood of the arteries red and that of the veins blue?" To the ingenious teacher hundreds of problems will suggest themselves daily and she must learn to discriminate between the worth-while and the time-wasters.

To sum up let us consider the advantages of the Problem Method.

1. It eliminates the question of discipline.

2. It reaches the "core" of the lesson.

3. It demands thorough preparation on part of both teacher and pupil.

4. Little "bluffing" is possible.

5. It arouses keen interest.

6. It encourages thought.

7. It leads to more extensive reading and study.

8. It stimulates verbal expression.

9. It gives the "Slow Johnnies" a chance.

10. It prevents the teacher from falling into a rut.

These are the most essential, but the beneficial possibilities of this method are unlimited. Even for these advantages it surely is worth trying.

American Notes-Editorial

Teaching success, and consequent scholarly attainments by the pupils, depend largely upon the personality of the teacher. Personality can be cultivated. It is not necessarily inherited; or, if so, it can be and usually is, greatly modified by a variety of outward and inward conditions and habits. We are sometimes inclined to believe that there should be a "Professorship of Personality" in every Normal School and College in the land. The incumbent would have a vast field of usefulness. He would study the physical, mental and spiritual endowments, tendencies and conditions of human beings in general and of his pupils in particular. There is no doubt but that he could eliminate many common faults and erroneous notions from the minds of those under his care,-who would otherwise go out to teach and who would have to have these faults knocked out of them in the hard and costly school of experience,-if, indeed, they ever did get rid of them.

Unquestionably, we have all had numerous opportunities to experience or to observe the usefulness and value of a well-balanced, tactful personality in the teacher. Unfortunately, however, many of us have suffered the consequences of the absence of these qualities in some of those who have essayed to teach us or our dependents. The question is thus raised as to what is personality and how can it be attained?

The derivation of the word personality will give us at least a "lead" in the search for an answer.

The Latin "per" (through) and "sonus" (sound) were united to form the word "persona" which meant "a mask for actors." The Actor, behind the mask was "an individual and rational being; a being possessed of self-consciousness, recognitive memory, powers of rational inference, and with ethical and esthetic feelings, conceptions and ideals as distinguished not only from inorganic but also from the merely organic and animal existences." (Standard Dictionary.) The Actor, a mind and spirit, spoke through the mask,—a material thing. The personality of the teacher is his real, spiritual and intellectual self, apart from the organic, material, animal body in which his Spirit lives, and through which (as through a mask) he speaks and acts. He can cultivate personality almost indefinitely. He can make it a mighty force in the uplift of humanity. In the profession of teaching he must guard against too much speaking. Telling is not teaching. Many teachers, with more zeal than discretion, greatly overdo expression and explanation. A few kindly words that direct

the work which the pupil must do for himself, if it is to be made clear to him and become his own possession, are far more effective than an exhibit of the teacher's knowledge of the subject. A winning personality is the sine qua non of the teacher. He must attain it, or fall short of the highest ideal of the profession.

We have rarely seen as full and adequate a statement of what school and college offers to the student as that which we reproduce from The Journal of the National Education Association, and originally made, as we understand, by R. W. Getchell, Iowa State Teachers' College, Cedar Falls, Iowa:

College buildings are the workshops, books and laboratories the tools, and the students the materials in the Nation's greatest industrybuilding lives through education. The formal examination helps to correlate the term's work; it helps to indicate fundamentals; it helps in placing subjects according to their relative importance; and it helps in crystallizing hazy comprehensions.

But knowledge is not education; expertness is not education; experience is not education; neither are high grades alone a measure of your educational attainments. Pencil or ink cannot write from your hand a record, for man to read, of the success of college training in your life.

English, chemistry, cookery, languages, sewing, athletics, economics, recreation, all will lose their identity and blend into a life; lose their identity and become your stock in trade, your assets, your capital.

Think seriously! Are you becoming truly educated? Are science, art, religion, ethics, molding you into the genuine college-bred man or woman? Let us inquire. Herein lies today's examination,-an introspective sort, a serious sort.

HERE ARE THE PROOFS.

You are not too proud to be seen in old clothes, doing honest, though menial, work.

You respect age, be it clothed in silk or cotton.

You find no pleasure in the discomfort of others.

You speak only good of other people.

You stand for your principles, even though friends oppose.

You never shut common folks away from you by a wall of false dignity, of envy, of slander, or of priggishness.

You always keep your promises, be it an engagement, an errand, or a duty to be performed.

You find the greatest pleasure in the highest types of literature, art, music and entertainment, be it the drama, the club or the movie.

You seek as friends those who bring out the best there is in you,