=This interest in practice.=—­The recitation in question strives to generate a proprietary interest in the enterprise on the part of every member of the class so that each one may have a share in the joy of success.  Such an interest gives direction and efficacy to the work of the class exercise.  Given such an interest, the pupil will not sit inert through the period unless stimulated by a question from the teacher, but will ask intelligent and pertinent questions to help the enterprise along.  Moreover, each pupil, because of his proprietary interest in the enterprise, will feel constrained to bring to class such subsidiary aids as his home affords.  His interest causes him to react to clippings, pictures, magazine articles, books, and conversations that have a bearing upon the topic, and these he contributes opportunely in his zeal for the success of the recitation.  His pockets become productive of a varied assortment of materials that the tentacles of his interest have seized upon in his preparation for the event, and so all members of the class become beneficiaries of his explorations and discoveries.

=The potency of ownership.=—­A child is interested in his own things.  The little girl fondles her doll in the most tender way, even though it does not measure up to the accepted standards of excellence or elegance.  But it is her doll; hence her affection.  Volumes have been written upon the general subject of interest, and we have been admonished to attach our teaching to the native interests of the child, but the fundamental interest of proprietorship has strangely enough been overlooked.  If we want to discover and localize the child’s interest, we have but to make an inventory of his possessions.  His pony, his dog, or his cart will discover to us one of his interests.  Again, if we would generate an interest in the child, we have but to make him conscious that he is the owner of the thing for which we hope to awaken his interest.  This is fundamental in this type of recitation.  The teacher effaces herself as much as possible in order to develop in the pupils a feeling of proprietorship in the exercise in progress, and the pupils are quick to take the advantage thus afforded to make the work their own.

=Exemplified in society.=—­The socialized recitation has its counterpart in many a group in society.  In the blacksmith shop, at the grocery, in the barber shop, in the office, at the club, and in the field, we find groups of people in earnest, animated conversation or discussion.  They are discussing politics, religion, community affairs, public improvements, tariff, war, fashions, crops, live stock, or machinery.  Whatever the topic, they pursue the give-and-take policy in their efforts to arrive at the truth.  They contest every point and make concessions only when they are confronted by indisputable facts.  Some feeling, or even acrimony, may be generated in the course of the discussion, but this is always accounted a weakness and a substitute for