QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS--CHAPTER VI 1. Discuss our obligation to grow. 2. Point out the difference between praying and merely saying prayers. 3. Discuss the various means which guarantee spiritual growth. 4. Comment on the thought that a personal inventory is as essential to teaching as it is to financial success. 5. What is your daily scheme for systematic study? 6. What plan do you follow in an attempt to know the scriptures? 7. Why is it so important that we assume the responsibilities placed upon us? HELPFUL REFERENCES Those listed in Chapter IV. CHAPTER VII NATIVE TENDENCIES OUTLINE--CHAPTER VII Importance of Child Study to teachers.--Teaching both a social and an individual process.--A Child's characteristics--his birthright.--What the nervous system is.--Types of original responses.--The significance of instinctive action.--Colvin's list of native tendencies.--Sisson's list.--A knowledge of native tendencies essential to proper control of human behavior. We have now discussed the significance and meaning of teaching, together with the consideration of the characteristics that constitute the personal equation of the teacher. It is now pertinent that we give some attention to the nature of the child to be taught, that we may the more intelligently discuss methods of teaching, or how teacher and pupil get together in an exchange of knowledge. Teaching is a unique process. It is both social and individual. The teacher meets a class--a collection of pupils in a social unit. In one way he is concerned with them generally--he directs group action. But in addition to this social aspect, the problem involves his giving attention to each individual in the group. He may put a general question, but he gets an individual reply. In short, he must be aware of the fact that his pupils, for purposes of recitation, are all alike; and at the same time he must appreciate the fact that they are peculiarly different. In a later chapter we shall consider these differences; let us here consider the points of similarity.