IN DEFENCE OF REPETITION.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR'] SIR,—The writer of the article, " The Archbishop of Canterbury on Holidays," in your issue of December 31st, dealt with a number of problems that are interesting both to parents and pupils. There is one point on which, as a pro- fessional teacher, I should like to say a word. If I do not misread him, the writer appears to suggest that repetition is but a doubtfully useful exercise for the young idea, irksome and oppressive to many, positively odious, and practically beyond the powers of a considerable minority. I believe that many teachers will think that the writer exaggerates the numbers and importance of this minority,—judging by my experience in a school where repetition is held of the highest account, and where I hear some two hundred and fifty repetition lessons in the course of the year. Not five in twenty, hardly five in a hundred, boys are generally found by teachers to be incapable of "repetition" work if it is adapted to the average capacity of the form. Let it be granted that one or two of the five may be boys of real ability in other respects, and even then I cannot think the careful pedagogue would see his way to break up the unity of the form work for his or their sake. Surely, if memory is the most " physical " of mental powers, it is also the most capable of development by drill; and the schoolmaster would not be wrong in regarding the boy who at first seems unable to learn by heart as a cripple who must be cured, and by no means pampered with some alternative sub- ject. When the proper conditions are fulfilled, when the selection is sound and suitable, and the language and subject of the repetition is thoroughly understood, a condition as often absent in the learning of English poetry as of Greek choruses, surely there is no part of his work that a teacher may look upon with less misgiving. The lesson is quickly done and readily tested ; it is, I believe, often positively liked by boys, and few teachers would doubt that its effects on taste, style, scholarship, and power of expression are most fruitful. The writer " rather believes in learning by heart.' I cannot help thinking many schoolmasters believe a little more than " rather."—I am, Sir, &c.,
WILLIAM MARRIOTT.
The Corner House, Tonbridge, January 9th.
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