A Manual for Teaching Biblical HistoryKohn, Eugene
Religion
A Manual for Teaching Biblical History
Kohn, Eugene
Jewish religious education of children -- United States
=The teacher's question as a stimulus to self activity.= Inasmuch as
there are in every class those of the type mentioned in the Haggadah
"who know not how to question", it often becomes advisable for the
teacher himself to put to the class the question that he wishes to
have answered. And indeed an occasional question from the teacher
in the very midst of the story may go a great way toward arousing
interest and securing a clearer comprehension. Thus it may be that
the teacher is telling the story of Joseph. He reaches the point
where Joseph's brothers come to him to buy corn and explains how
Joseph, having recognized them without their having recognized him,
had them wholly in his power. He then asks, "Now what do you think
you would do if you were Joseph and your brothers had treated you so
cruelly and then they come to you for food and you have them in your
power?" At once he has the class interested in the question of what
Joseph actually did and their interest in the rest of the story as
well as their better comprehension of the motives that underlie it
is secured.
=The pupil's recitation.= So much for the teacher's original
presentation of the lesson. This completed, the child must be
called upon to recite it, not primarily, as most teachers seem to
think, in order to give the teacher a chance to find out whether
the child had learned the lesson, but because the necessity of
telling it over to the teacher forces the child to think about the
subject of the lesson and once more appeals to his self activity.
The questions asked by the teacher should not be merely such as
call for items of information but such as require the exercise of
intelligence on the pupil's part and give evidence not only of his
remembering the story but of his understanding it. If for example
the teacher wishes to question the child on the story of creation,
such formal questions as "In how many days did God make the world?
What did he make on the first day? What did he make on the second
day?" etc., are not enough, as they test the memory only. He should
ask such questions as these: "Why do we rest on the seventh day of
each week? What was the last thing God made? Why did God make man
last?" For these test not only the memory but the understanding as
well. The story that the children tell when thus asked to repeat the
lesson will give the teacher an idea of what points have impressed
themselves on them and what have not, and on the basis of these he
must question further. In general there ought to be fewer questions
beginning with "what" and more beginning with "why".
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