The problem of review is really one of the most fundamental processes in
education. It is the great key to learning. Anyone who has enjoyed the
fun of teaching young children how to read has been impressed with the
fact that the child has to be led to see and repeat the simplest words
over and over again before they are really mastered. It is really
astonishing how many times as simple a word as "ran" has to be repeated
before the beginner in reading gets it fully into his consciousness.
This very difficulty of teaching mere words or letters has led to the
abandonment of the old "A-B-C" drill as the first step in reading, and
the substitution for it of an indirect method wherein, through the laws
of association, groups of words and sentences are mastered as the
symbols which express concrete and objectified ideas. But by way of
experiment, one of the most impressive experiences open to teachers is
to take a child of four or five that has not been taught to read and
attempt to drill into its consciousness a group of half a dozen words as
simple as these: cat, fan, hat, get, man, jam. To the teacher who has
attempted such an experiment no argument is necessary to prove the
significance of review and repetition.
Review, then, first of all, is vitally essential because it makes
possible impression through repetition which insures the fixing of
ideas.
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