Excerpt from The Socialized Recitation: A Study in Method With Stenographic Reports of Actual Recitations

These pages present a method and plan for the use of the socialized recitation as developed in one elementary school, and adopted by many teachers elsewhere with great success. This contribution to the subject is addressed to teachers who are seeking a way to bring about or foster in their classes the initiative and independence that modern education demands. It is a small attempt toward making the schools safe for democracy.

Now, the vital thing about socialized or democratized class-work is not at all the form of procedure, but the spirit and attitude of the pupils. The form in which the class carries on its work may vary infinitely, and yet the interchange and crystallization of ideas, the discussion and planning, and all the give - and-take of group life can not go on at random. Just in proportion to the energy and complexity of the initiative is the need for orderly pro cedure. Form, restraint and control, if they come from within, do not hamper initiative, ' but heighten it, and give it range and scope. In a well-organized parliamentary body, for example, each member has a chance to make himself heard and to influence events in proportion to his ability, while in the formless mob the individual is sub merged and genuine initiative lost.

But this very necessity for form and method makes it hard to describe the procedure without so fixing attention on it that the more precious thing, the spirit of it, slips out between the words. This is why it seemed that next to actually showing the children at work, and far better than merely describing the procedure, would be the pre sentation of a faithful stenographic report of some actuallessons. Yet even here, allowance must be made for the fact that the life of the discussion has escaped, and we are left with the mere dead form of it, the things that were said. Anyone who has heard crisp public discussion or the dramatic examination of a witness, or who has been touched by the sparkle and speed of a debate, knows how little of the real thrill of it all survives in the cold type of the official report. The thing itself may have an absorbing interplay of human forces that seemed like a game, or a drama; but the report may read like a string of common places. So, in the report of a recitation we miss the alert faces of the pupils following every turn of the discussion, their rising in twos or dozens eager to speak, the nod of recognition to designate the next speaker, the quick inter play of question and answer, the correction or explanation, and through it all the swift, vital motion that keeps initia tive in play and expectancy tense. It is like a canoe dancing along in a rapid stream, sometimes sweeping for ward with the main current, sometimes swirling in an eddy, but never at rest. And there is for the voyagers the same fascination. No one knows from moment to moment what the next turn will bring, or what rocks lie near the prow. And just here the joy of it all comes in: they themselves Wield the paddles, and steer the course.

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