The question-and-answer method is also suitable to employ at the
beginning of a recitation to recall to the minds of the class previous
lessons to which the lesson of the day is related. There is hardly one
recitation in a hundred that does not require an introduction of this
kind. The only true method in teaching is to build the new knowledge
on the related old knowledge which is already in the mind. This is
what is meant in pedagogy by "proceeding from the known to the
related unknown." And the known must always be fresh and immediately
present to the mind. Hence the necessity for the introductory review.

This method is also serviceable in reviewing former lessons. By the
use of well-selected questions a large number of important points
already passed over can be brought before the class in a short time.

On the whole, it is probable that we do not review frequently enough
in our recitation work. We review a subject when we have finished the
text upon it, or before examination time, but this is not enough.
Careful psychological tests have shown that the mind forgets within
the first three days a large proportion of what it will finally fail
to retain. Further, there is great economy in catching up a fading
fact before it gets wholly away from us. This would suggest the
constant use of the question-and-answer method to fix more firmly the
important points in ground we have already passed over.

One of the most important uses of this method is found in _inductive
teaching_. The famous "Socratic method" was simply the question-and-answer
method applied by Socrates to teaching new truths. This noted teacher
would, by a series of skillful questions calculated to call forth what the
pupil already knew, lead him on to new knowledge without actually telling
the youth anything himself. And this is the very height of good