is the _response of the class_. Are the children alert? Are they keen
for discussion, or for listening to stories told or applications made?
Do they think? Do they enjoy the lesson hour, and give themselves
happily and whole-heartedly to it? Is their conduct good, and their
attitude serious, reverent, and attentive? Are they all "in the game,"
or are there laggards, inattentive ones, and mischief-makers?

These questions are all crucial. For the first law of all learning is
_self-activity_. There is no possibility of teaching a child who is not
mentally awake. Only the active mind grasps, assimilates, remembers,
applies. The birth of new ideas, the reaching of convictions, the
arriving at decisions all come in moments of mental stress and tension.
Lethargy of thought and feeling is fatal to all classroom achievement.
Therefore, no matter how keenly alert the teacher's mind may be, no
matter how skillful his analysis of an important truth may be if his
class sit with flagging interest and lax attention.

Results a test of instruction.--The _second_ test of good instruction
is our skill in handling the material of the lesson, and _shaping the
trend of thought and discussion_. Are the children interested in the
right things? Are the central truths of the lesson being brought out and
applied? Is the discussion centered on topics set for our consideration,
or does it degenerate into aimless talk on matters of personal or local
interest which have no relation to the lesson? In short, does the
recitation period yield the _fruitful knowledge_ we had set as a goal
for this lesson? Does it stimulate the _attitudes_ and motives we had
meant to reach? Does it lead to the _applications_ in life and conduct
which were intended? _Does it get results?_

The four points of this lesson are of supreme importance in teaching