the recitation. Many different meanings are associated with the term.
Some of these are suggestive but quite vague; and others, although
more definite, are but partial truths that hinder as much as they
help. It is not surprising that a confused usage of the term is
current among teachers.

From one point of view, the recitation is a recitation-period, a
segment of the daily time schedule. In this sense it is an
administrative unit, valuable in apportioning to each school subject
its part of the time devoted to the curriculum. Thus, we speak of five
recitations in arithmetic, three in music, or two in drawing, having
in mind merely the number of times the class meets for instruction in
a particular school study. A recitation here means no more than a
class-period, a more or less arbitrary device for controlling the
teacher's and pupils' distribution of energy among the various
subjects taught.

From another point of view, the recitation is a form of educative
activity rather than a mere time allotment. In this sense the
recitation is a process of instruction, a mode of teaching, wherein
pupils and teacher, facing a common situation, proceed toward a more
or less conscious end. It is a distinct movement in classroom
experience, so organized that a definite beginning, progression, and
end are clearly distinguishable. Thus we speak of the method of the
recitation, the five formal steps of the recitation, or the various
types of recitation. Such a usage makes "recitation" synonymous with
"lesson." Indeed, when we pass from general pedagogical discussion to
a detailed treatment of special methods of teaching, we usually
abandon the term "recitation" and use the word "lesson." Although
there is always some notion of a time-period in the curriculum in our