Eliot, Charles William (1834-1926)

Inaugural Address

October 10, 1869

"Recitations alone readily degenerate into dusty repetitions, and lectures alone are too often a useless expenditure of force. The lecturer pumps laboriously into sieves. The water may be wholesome, but it runs through."

There has been much discussion about the comparative merits of lectures and recitations. Both are useful--lectures, for inspiration, guidance, and the comprehensive methodizing which only one who has a view of the whole field can rightly contrive; recitations, for securing and testifying a thorough mastery on the part of the pupil of the treatise or author in hand, for conversational comment and amplification, for emulation and competition. Recitations alone readily degenerate into dusty repetitions, and lectures alone are too often a useless expenditure of force. The lecturer pumps laboriously into sieves. The water may be wholesome, but it runs through. A mind must work to grow. Just as far, however, as the student can be relied on to master and appreciate his author without the aid of frequent questioning and repetitions, so far is it possible to dispense with recitations. Accordingly, in the later College years there is a decided tendency to diminish the number of recitations, the faithfulness of the student being tested by periodical examinations. This tendency is in a right direction, if prudently controlled.
(p. 564)

Liquid::Water Uncategorized::Sieve Container

Reading Sean Michael Morris's "Collegiality As Pedagogy: A Response To Ron Srigley" (December 15, 2015). <Link to seanmichaelmorris.com>

Text from The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, vol. 12 (Boston: Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association, 1903-4): 556-576. <Link to Google Books>

Reprinted from Eliot's Education Reform (Century Company, 1898)

01/07/2016