We shall thus be able to compare and
contrast and so arrive at some clear judgments that may be used as a
basis for generalizations. We may assume, for convenience and for
concreteness, that the lesson is division of fractions. There will be
substantial agreement that the principle involved in this subject can be
taught in one recitation period. The reasons for some of the steps in
the process may come later, but the child should be able to find his way
to the correct answer in a single period. Now if one teacher can achieve
this result in thirty minutes and the other in ten minutes, there is a
disparity in the effectiveness of the work of these teachers which is
worthy of serious consideration. The ten-minute teacher proves that the
thirty-minute teacher has consumed twenty minutes of somebody's time
unnecessarily. If the salary of this thirty-minute teacher should be
reduced to one third its present amount, she would inveigh against the
reduction.
=School and factory compared.=--If she were one of the operators in a
factory, she would not escape with the mere penalization of a salary
reduction. The owner would argue that he needed some one who could
operate the machine up to its full capacity, and that, even if she
should work without salary, her presence in the factory would entail a
loss in that the output of her machine was so meager. If one operator
can produce a shoe in ten minutes and the other requires thirty minutes
for the same work, the money that is invested in the one machine pays
dividends, while the other machine imposes a continuous tax upon the
owner.
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