This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ... I chapter vi planning the lesson and lesson plans The aim of education should be to better prepare for greater efficiency in doing that which our natural ability and inclinations are best suited to do. We should be prepared to follow some useful employment in which we can live a useful harmonious life, adapting ourselves to our surroundings. Society should permit no one to reach manhood or womanhood without being fitted for some useful employment. Thus education should prepare one physically, morally, socially, mentally, and vocationally for useful citizenship in a civilized society. John Dewey has said that social efficiency is selecting the experiences of the human race that are to be impressed upon the individual. Education then means a continual change in growth and development. The lecture method has no place in high school work; the conversational method is best suited for the development of the adolescent mind. Field trips should be taken in order to get first hand information to aid the solution of the problems at hand. The purpose of the lesson plan is to think through the lesson so as to have a definite object in view. The best teachers have never reached the point where preparation for a day's work is unnecessary. The teacher should vary the method of approach or development as seems to suit the needs best. The beginner should follow a lesson plan closely and the motive should always be preserved. Illustrative materials should be given and short trips taken when they are needed to make the work better understood. As an example, the class does not understand what the nodules on the alfalfa roots are and an alfalfa field is near the school house. At this point the teacher should take the class to the alfalfa field and there...