_Home study_

The first condition to be met in regard to home study is to assign
only such work as the pupils are known by the teacher to be able to do
rightly, and without too great physical strain. With the attention to
method of study that has been urged, this condition can be easily met.
That means, however, that many a topic cannot be assigned for the home
as it is approached, for it will first require some consideration at
school. Thus the home study of a lesson will very often follow rather
than precede its study at school.

The assignment of lessons merely by pages is now often decried, and
justly, because it leaves the child so utterly without a guide as to
method. But, when method of study has been properly taught, such an
assignment would often be fitting. The responsibility would then fall
upon the pupil of determining what it was good for, of selecting and
reorganizing the principal parts, etc.; but he could meet that
responsibility because he would understand what things he was to do
and would know how to do them.

Parents should not be expected to take a hand in teaching their
children how to study, for that is altogether too large a task, and
involves too much special preparation. If they observe that a child
does not know how, they would better leave him alone, directing him to
apply to his teacher for instruction. Parents are more bent upon
obtaining results and getting rid of their children--so far as school
work is concerned--than are teachers, so that the duties assigned to
them should be few and of a simple character.