The unprepared or lazy teacher is also in danger of relying on the
textbook for his questions even when he does not formulate them in the
language of the printed page. Not infrequently teachers conduct the
whole of a recitation with the text open before them, hardly taking
their eyes from the book, and seeming to have no inspiration or
questions not immediately gleaned from the page before them. In
extreme cases of unpreparedness they may even have to test the
correctness of the answers given by the class by reference to the
text. Of course this is all the highest degree of inefficiency. It
should not be called teaching at all, for no one can teach another
that which he does not himself possess as a part of his own mental
equipment. Nothing can be more deadening to a class than to see a
teacher, whom they look upon as their intellectual leader, floundering
in such a vain attempt to teach something that he does not himself
know.

The eyes and the mind of the teacher must both be free in the
recitation--the eyes to look interest and encouragement into the eyes
of the class, the mind to marshal the points of the lesson and watch
the effects of their presentation on the minds of the pupils. A
recitation at its best consists of an animated and interesting
conversation between teacher and class. And no conversation can be
live and interesting when one of its participants has mind and eyes
riveted to a book; for conversation involves an interchange of
expression, of spirit, and of personality as well as of words.

It is not meant that a teacher must never have a textbook open before
him during a recitation. Often it is not only desirable, but necessary
that he should do so; but only for suggestion and reference, and never