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the class, and often problems arise from them for the students to discuss. The present and future are brought in, as well as the past. This gives rise to personal opinions on the part of the students. Personal opinions create great fundamental questions such as: "In what respects were the conditions immediately following the Industrial Revolution like the labor troubles of today?" That is the kind of question that is "close to home." It makes thinkers out of students.

The pupils, to prove their points, must necessarily read outside information, and this they are willing to do, because they have the proper incentive. Questions or suggestions put the students into action. The teacher is there to formulate problems and to help the students formulate problems, but not to supply answers before the questions have been raised within the learner's mind.

What a pupil gains in working out his problems will make a much deeper impression upon his mind than if he were storing up knowledge just for the sake of having it. His desire to prove his points, to establish his conclusions, will lead him to acquire a vastly greater, more helpful store of material than if he were studying his text-book page by page and doing a certain amount of collateral reading every week. Still more books are read; magazines and newspapers come into their own in the classroom. Instead of one book there are twenty. This creates broadmindedness and more actual knowledge. Instead of one opinion there are several. This creates tolerance of other people's ideas, but more often it shows a student how foolish a certain opinion is, for "full and frank discussion by the pupils leads to the truth.”

As the class must work together to gain the desired results, co-operation becomes a part of the training. Instead of each pupil working solely for his own benefit, each works for the benefit of the whole class.

The average student does not stop to think, "Through Socialized Recitations I become more capable, self-reliant, responsible, and confident in myself; I develop a democratic nature, initiative and originality." But he does realize that recitations instead of being monotonous are wide-awake, full of "pep," and inter

esting. He notices that he is a better student, for his own interest never lags. There are very few among the student-body of a school who would not stand by Socialized Recitations.

Class discussion converts the recitation period into one of hard and quick thinking, in which the student does his best studying under the stimulus of his fellow students and teacher. The text book serves as an outline of topics to be considered. Where there is no interest in a subject, where there is no question in the student's mind, there can be no searching for an answer. Where there is no problem there is no occasion for the mind to think hard. The problems we discuss are not only those given by the teacher, but those coming from the pupils, and therefore interesting to them.

By this method of gaining knowledge the student learns the fundamentals of American citizenship, and it is an old truth that the things we learn in our youth are the things that fashion our lives; so by the Socialized Recitation we not only broaden our views for the present, but we learn to always value the thought of others, and thereby materialize the ideals of Democracy.

Progress is made by considering new ideas. A student under the socialized recitation must make progress, not only in the subject, but also along other lines. The student's interests are widened; new paths of knowledge open to him. He is started thinking along new lines and awakened to better things. The business world of today is looking for men and women with initiative and originality. The socialized recitation stimulates both of these qualities in the students.

"Long live the Socialized Recitation."

FOOT-NOTE: The views presented here were gained in part from papers written by Violet Harrison, Everett Miller, and Jack Cunningham.

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Outline Study of King John

OUTLINE STUDY No. 83.

KING JOHN.

(WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, 1564-1616.)

A. PREPARATORY WORK: Source of the Drama; Character of the Work; Historical Notes.

B. FIRST READING: Narrative of the Drama and Study of the Text.

C. SECOND READING: Character Study; Analysis of the Drama.

D. SUPPLEMENTARY WORK: Resumè of the Story; Theme Subjects; Test Questions.

A. PREPARATORY WORK.

I. SOURCE OF THE DRAMA.

Note 1. Shakespeare's King John was founded upon an old play of the Queen's men, called The Troublesome Reign of King John. This was published in 1591 and again in 1611. The incidents in the two plays are much the same; but Shakespeare's dialogue owes little or nothing to that of the older play.

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Note 2. King John, published in 1658, one of Shakespeare's historical plays, has for its subject an episode in English history, covering in action and allusion the years 1199-1216, when John was King of England.

III. HISTORICAL NOTES.

Note 3. The scene of King John opens in the summer of 1199 A. D., soon after John had succeeded to the throne of his brother, Richard I. England and Normandy accepted John as King and Duke. Aquitaine was secured for him by his mother, Elinor; but, influenced by Philip Augustus, King of France, Anjou, Touraine and Maine declared for Arthur, Duke of Brittany, a boy of twelve years old, son of Geoffrey, a younger brother of Richard and an older brother of John. Philip, how

I.

ever, disgusted the Angevines by attempting to annex their country to France, and they revolted to John.

Act II opens in the Spring of 1200 A. D. The treaty which closes the act was signed in May of that year; the wedding of the Dauphin Louis (afterward Louis ·VIII of France) with Blanche, daughter of Alfonso IX of Spain (Act iii) took place in the latter part of 1200. Here Shakespeare's play departs from the order of history. The threat of papal interdict (Act iii, scene 1) took place at Mirabeau in Provence (not Angiers) in the latter part of 1202; the murder of Arthur (Act iv) occurred (if at all) in the Spring of 1203 and at Rouen in Normandy, not in England. John gave up his crown to the Pope and took it back as a vassal of the Papacy, May 15, 1213 (Act v); the invasion of England by Louis occurred in May, 1216; and John died October 19, 1216, at Newark from exposure in the campaign.

Note 4. John claimed England and Normandy in right of his descent from William the Conqueror. He claimed Anjou, Poictiers, Touraine and Maine from his father, Henry II of England, son of Goeffrey, Count of Anjou, and Matilda, daughter of Henry I. Aquitaine he claimed as the representative of his mother, Elinor, daughter of William IX, last Duke of Guienne. This princess is the Elinor of the play. In 1199 she was seventy-seven years old, and she died in 1204.

Note 5. According to the true principles of hereditary descent as now practiced and even then understood, Arthur, as the son of an elder brother, had a better right than John to all these realms.

B. FIRST READING.

NARRATIVE OF THE DRAMA AND STUDY OF THE TEXT. 1. Place of Action: England and France. 2. Outline of the Narrative.

a. Act I.

(1) Scene 1, to line 49.-Northampton, England.
(a) Chatillon, ambassador from France, demands
that John yield his kingdom to Arthur Plan-
tagenet, John's deceased brother Geoffrey's

son.

(b) John accepts the alternative of war and sends his defiance to Philip, King of France.

Note 6. The story, from line 50 to the end of the scene, is as follows: Two brothers, Philip and Robert Faul

conbridge, appeal to King John to decide the validity of the latter's claim to his father's lands on the ground that Philip, the elder, is the natural son of John's brother Richard. John decides that Robert's accusation is true, and easily persuades Philip to abandon his claim to his supposed father's possessions and to become one of the King of England's followers.

Suggestion 1. Study Notes 4 and 5. Paraphrase Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France. What was Elinor's real opinion regarding John's claim to the throne? How was the money for the proposed invasion of France to be raised? Quote the lines. Identify Elinor from Note 4. Identify Constance. Explain strangest controversy from Note 6.

Note 7. Behaviour here means the manner in which one personates the character of another, i. e., In my represenlative character, etc.

b. Act II.

(1) Scene 1.-France. Before the walls of Angiers.
(a) Louis, the Dauphin, presents the Duke of
Austria to Arthur as one who has come

To spread his colors, boy, in thy behalf,
And to rebuke the usurpation

Of thy unnatural uncle, English John.
(b) Chatillon enters bringing the news that
England

hath put himself in arms and that his legions even now are landed.

(c) Drums are heard; King John enters.

(d) The Dauphin says,

England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine,
Maine,

In right of Arthur do I claim of thee.

(e) King John replies,

My life as soon: I do defy thee, France. (f) The citizens of Angiers are summoned to the walls to decide

Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's. (g) The citizens refuse to open their gates until the two forces have decided whether Arthur or John be rightful king.

He that proves king,

To him will we prove loyal: till that time Have we rammed up our gates against the world.

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