Excerpt from The Socialized Recitation: A Study in Method With Stenographic Reports of Actual Recitations These pages present a method and plan for the use of the socialized recitation as developed in one elementary school, and adopted by many teachers elsewhere with great success. This contribution to the subject is addressed to teachers who are seeking a way to bring about or foster in their classes the initiative and independence that modern education demands. It is a small attempt toward making the schools safe for democracy. Now, the vital thing about socialized or democratized class-work is not at all the form of procedure, but the spirit and attitude of the pupils. The form in which the class carries on its work may vary infinitely, and yet the interchange and crystallization of ideas, the discussion and planning, and all the give-and-take of group life can not go on at random. Just in proportion to the energy and complexity of the initiative is the need for orderly procedure. Form, restraint and control, if they come from within, do not hamper initiative, but heighten it, and give it range and scope. In a well-organized parliamentary body, for example, each member has a chance to make himself heard and to influence events in proportion to his ability, while in the formless mob the individual is submerged and genuine initiative lost. But this very necessity for form and method makes it hard to describe the procedure without so fixing attention on it that the more precious thing, the spirit of it, slips out between the words. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.