stion-and-answer method evermore
implies analysis. But children are inclined to synthesis, which shows at
once that the analytic method runs counter to their natural bent. They
like to make things, to put things together, to experiment along the
lines of synthesis. Hence the industrial arts appeal to them. But
constructing problems satisfies their inclination to synthesis quite as
well as constructing coat-hangers or culinary compounds, if only the
incitement is rational. The writers of our text-books are coming to
recognize this fact, and it does them credit. In time, we may hope to
have books that will take into account the child's natural inclinations,
and the schools will be the beneficiaries.

=Thinking.=--In the process of synthesis the pupil is free to draw upon
the entire stock of his accumulated resources, whereas in the
question-and-answer method he is circumscribed. In the question-and-answer
plan he is encouraged to remember; in the other he is encouraged to think.
In our theories we exalt thinking to the highest pinnacle, but in our
practice we repress thinking and exalt memory. We admonish our pupils to
think, sometimes with a degree of emphasis that weakens our admonition,
and then bestow our laurel wreaths upon those who think little but
remember much. Our inconsistency in this respect would be amusing if the
child's interests could be ignored. But seeing that the child pays the
penalty, our inconsistency is inexcusable.

=Penalizing.=--The question-and-answer regime, in its full application,
is not wholly unlike a punitive expedition, in that the teacher asks the
question and sits with pencil poised in air ready to blacklist the
unfortunate pupil whose memory fails him for the moment. The child is
embarrassed, if not panic-stricken, and the teacher seems more like an
avenging nemesis than a friend and helper. Just when he needs help he
receives epithets and a condemning zero. He sinks into himself,
disgusted and outraged, and becomes wholly indifferent to the subsequent
phases of the lesson. He feels that he has been trapped and betrayed,
and days are required for his redemption from discouragement.

=Traditional method.=--In the school where this method is in vogue the
examination takes on the color and character of the recitation. At the
close of the term, or semester, the teacher makes out the proverbial ten
questions which very often reflect her own bias, or predilections, and
in these ten questio