The testing discussed here must not be confused with what we sometimes
call "tests," but which really are examinations, given at more or less
infrequent intervals. Testing may and should be carried on in the
regular daily recitations by questions and answers either oral or
written, bearing on matter previously assigned; by discussions of
topics of the lesson assigned; or by requiring new work involving the
knowledge or power gained in the past work which is being tested. The
following are some of the principal things which we should test in the
recitation:--

_a. The preparation of the lesson assigned._--The preparation of every
lesson assigned should be tested in some definite way. This is of the
utmost importance, especially in all elementary grades. We are all so
constituted mentally that we have a tendency to grow careless in
assigned tasks if their performance is not strictly required of us. No
matter how careful may be the assignment of the lesson, and no matter
how much the teacher may urge upon the class at the time of the
assignment that they prepare the lesson well, the pupils must be held
responsible for this preparation day by day, without fail, if we are
to insure their mastery of it.

Nor is it enough to inquire, "How many understand this lesson?" or
"How many got all the examples?" It is the teacher's business to test
thoroughly for himself the pupil's mastery of the lesson or the
knowledge or power required for the examples, in some definite and
concrete way. It will not suffice to take the pupil's judgment of his
own preparation and mastery, for many will allow a hazy or doubtful
point to go by unexplained rather than confess before teacher and
class their lack of study or inability to grasp the topic. Further,
pupils seldom have the standards of mastery which enable them to judge