THE TECHNIQUE OF LESSONS 203
A Good Finish. When the child has voluntarily given up his^
work, which means that the impulse which urged him to make-
use of the material has been exhausted, the mistress., if need be,,
may, indeed must intervene in order to see that the child puts the
material back in its place and that everything is returned in prefect
SECOND PERIOD: THE LESSONS
The second period is that when the teacher intervenes in order
to fix more securely the ideas of the child, who after having
been started, has already carried out many exercises and has
succeeded in identifying the differences presented by the sense
The first intervention consists in teaching the exact names of
things. This helps the child to speak correctly, which is easily
done at this tender age.
By our method one of the most delicate tasks of the teacher
must be that of presenting words which are exactly fitted to convey
the idea which the material has to fix in the mind of the child.
In giving these words the teacher pronounces them correctly and
clearly, breaking them up into their component sounds, without
however, adopting a style differing from ordinary speech, that is.
without any exaggeration.
THE LESSON IN TEREE STAGES
For this purpose I have found to be excellent even for normal,
children the lesson divided into three stages, used by Seguin, to
obtain in the defective child the association between the object
and the corresponding word; this form of lesson has been adopted
in our schools.
First Stage: The Association of Sense-perception with the Name*-
The teacher must first of all pronounce the necessary names and
adjectives, without adding another word, pronouncing the words
very distinctly and in a loud voice, so that the various sounds of"
which the word is composed may be distinctly and clearly appre- -
hended by the child.