The teacher has two great functions in the school; one is that of
organizing and managing, the other, that of teaching.

In the first capacity he forms the school into its proper divisions or
classes, arranges the programme of daily recitations and other
exercises, provides for calling and dismissing classes, passing into
and out of the room, etc., and controls the conduct of the pupils;
that is, keeps order.

The organization and management of the school is of the highest
importance, and fundamental to everything else that goes on in the
school. A large proportion of the teachers who are looked upon as
unsuccessful fail at this point. Probably at least two out of three
who lose their positions are dropped from inability to organize and
manage a school. While this is true, however, the organizing and
managing of the school is wholly secondary; it exists only that the
_teaching_ may go on. Teaching is, after all, the primary thing.
Lacking good teaching, no amount of good management or organization
can redeem the school.


1. _The teacher and the recitation_

Teaching goes on chiefly in what we call the _recitation_. This is the
teacher's point of contact with his pupils; here he meets them face to
face and mind to mind; here he succeeds or fails in his function of
teaching.

Failure in teaching is harder to measure than failure in organization
and management. It quickly becomes noised abroad if the children are