_What should be done at the first meeting of the class_

On the second day when the class assembles, let as many of the students
as possible be sent to the board to answer questions on the day's
assignment. The pupil will immediately discover that the teacher
purposes to hold the class strictly responsible for the preparation of
assigned work. The teacher will face a class prepared to ask intelligent
questions about the course they are entering upon. The class will
discover that work is to begin at once. The inertia of the vacation will
be immediately overcome.


_Necessity for definite instruction in methods of preparing a lesson_

Having secured, by class discussion and the work at the board,
satisfactory answers to the first six questions, and having assigned the
lesson for the next day, the remainder of the hour and, if necessary,
the rest of the week should be spent in outlining for the student a
method of study. That very few students of high school age possess
habits of systematic study, needs no discussion. In spite of all that
their grade teachers may have done for them, their tendency is to pass
over unfamiliar words, allusions, and expressions, without troubling to
use a dictionary. The average high school student will not read the fine
print at the bottom of the page, or use a map for the location of places
mentioned in the text without special instruction to do so. He will set
himself no unassigned tasks in memory work. It is the first business of
the good instructor to teach the student _how_ to study. The first step
in this process is to impress on the student's mind that systematic