It may be urged that such an assignment of a lesson as that proposed is too ambitious and that it exacts too much of the teacher's time. In answer it should be said that specialists in history ought surely to have read widely enough and studied deeply enough to be _able_ to select intelligent questions of the sort suggested. We have assumed that the teacher has made adequate preparation for his work. Certainly, then, he should be ready to explain the social, geographical, and economic relation of the events mentioned in the lesson. He should know their bearing on current history. He should always have ready a fund of information, additional to that given in the text. In preparing advance questions for distribution to the class the teacher is preparing his own lesson. He may be doing it a day or two earlier than he would otherwise do, but surely he is performing no labor additional to what may reasonably be expected of him. As to the time required to prepare copies of the questions for distribution when the class convenes, it may be said that a neostyle or mimeograph, with which all large schools and many small ones are equipped, makes short work of preparing as many copies of the questions as desired. If there is a commercial department in connection with the school, an available stenographer, or a willing student helper, the teacher may easily relieve himself of the work of supplying the copies. If none of these expedients are possible, it is no Herculean task to write each day on the board the few questions for the next lesson. It will entail no great loss of time if the class are asked to copy them when they first come to recitation. If it is possible to copy them after the recitation, so much the better. And beyond the obvious advantages of a carefully assigned lesson it must be remembered that in the assignment of special topics, in private conferences with the student, in the correction of notes, in giving assistance in the library, the teacher has an opportunity to cultivate a sympathetic relation between himself and the class of inestimable service in securing the best results. IV THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION _Assumptions as to the recitation room_ Let us now assume that the recitation will be held in a quiet room free from the distracting influence of poor light, poor ventilation, and inadequate seating capacity. The blackboard space is ample for the whole class, the erasers and chalk are at hand, the maps, charts, and globe are where they can be used without stumbling over them. The teacher can give his whole attention to the class. Discipline should take care of itself. The pupil who is interested will not be seriously out of order. _What the teacher should aim to accomplish_ The problem, then, is so to expend the forty-five minutes in which the teacher and class are together that:-- 1. So far as possible the atmosphere and setting of the period being studied may be reproduced.