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It was his practice to teach by questioning, and as a general rule, he never gave information except as a kind of reward for an answer. His explanations were as short as possible, and his questions were of a kind to call the attention of the boys to the real point of every subject, and to disclose to them the exact boundaries of what they knew and what they did not know. Let me add to this Archdeacon Bather's account of how he became a catechist. He says in his
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Hints on Catechising:
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Perhaps, gentle reader, before I actually enter upon my task of teaching you to teach others by catechising, it may be as well to tell you how I became a catechist myself; for the thought seized upon me and occupied me much in very early life. I was at school at Rugby, and at the time I speak of, was in what we called the '_upper third_.' The '_upper fourth_' was under the care of Mr. Innes, afterwards Head Master of the Royal Free Grammar School at Warwick. As I was sitting one evening in the room of my private tutor, Mr. Homer, some one knocked at the door, and in came Mr. Innes. 'Bather,' says he, 'when Mr. Homer has done with you, will you come up into my room? I want to speak to you; you will find nobody there but O---- (naming one of my school-fellows) and myself.' Of course I went; and Mr. Innes, motioning my companion to a chair and myself to another, took his own and addressed us thus: 'I am going to set you two boys very hard at work. Pray, O----, do you know anything about astronomy?' 'Not much, I am afraid, sir.' 'And you, Bather?' 'Not so much as O----, I am afraid.' 'Well, now, do not flatter yourselves that I am going to tell you anything about it, for I shall do no such thing. Nevertheless, you shall know more about it, and a good deal, too, before you go out of this room.' He then put questions to us both, by which he soon elicited all the particulars of such little knowledge as we possessed; and then he questioned us further, soon causing us to make many blunders, and then making us correct our answers, so that we certainly did quit the room with fuller and more orderly notions of the matter than we brought into it. He says, although this did not make him an astronomer, yet it led him to think and discern what must be the most effectual way of imparting knowledge, for
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Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, etc.
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Then was Jesus. What do you mean by
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(Hesitates.)
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Then took Mary a pound of ointment. What do you mean by
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Then Mary took. What do you mean by
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and the answer came readily,
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Then Jesus was. Now you shall question me. Put me a question to which each clause shall be a reply, beginning with the first.
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When was Jesus led up to be tempted?
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Then. So here you are taught--what? The time when these things took place. Put me a question to which the words
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shall be an answer.
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What was done to Jesus? He was
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Put a question for the word
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Spirit.
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Who led him up?
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The Spirit. So of the word
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Whither did the Spirit lead him?
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Into the wilderness.
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A lady came one day to my school and requested me to let her hear the children catechised. The class happened to be reading the third chapter of the Acts, the first of which reads thus: 'Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.' 'Well,' I said to the teacher, 'stop there and question them on that verse.' 'At what time of day?' said he, 'did those things take place which are here set down?' 'At the ninth hour,' replied the class. But then a poor boy became a little frightened at something or other, and consequently puzzled; and after some hesitation said, 'Well, then, at the ninth hour, _who went where?_' The first boy in the class smiled a little, but made no answer; the next seemed to think a little, but still no voice came. I took care that nobody should answer out of his turn, and the question was put to every boy severally to the bottom of the class. The lady turned to me and expressed her surprise that out of a class of five-and-twenty boys nobody could answer. 'Well, ma'am, I am afraid you will consider these five-and-twenty boys very stupid, but let us look a little further into the matter.' And then, turning round, my eye caught that of Jack Thompson. 'Jack,' said I, 'how many stupid boys have we got in our second class?' 'One, sir,' says Jack. 'And who may he be?' 'The teacher, sir.' 'You must prove your words, Jack: come and teach the class yourself.' Now Jack was not an impudent boy; but as he advanced and saw the lady looking at him, he did not appear so confused as poor Peter had done before, and he betook himself at once to business. 'You have told us,' said he, 'that the things related in this verse took place at the ninth hour of the day; to what was that hour wont to be devoted?' 'To prayer.' 'And what was the building called that was open, at that time, to receive the worshippers?' 'The temple.' 'Are not some persons specially mentioned who came to the temple at that time?' 'Yes.' 'How many?' 'Two.' 'What were their names?' 'Peter and John.' 'Where did Peter and John go at the ninth hour?' 'Into the temple.' 'What for?' 'To pray,' etc. The lady began to perceive that the children did know something about the matter, and Jack Thompson, being concerned for the conduct of his class, proceeded to ask them a great many more questions, to which the answers were very satisfactory. The lady good-humoredly expressed her approval, and I said, 'Now, madam, you see that all that was the matter was, that poor Peter, being a little confused, put his questions in a clumsy manner. Depend upon it, he will not soon do the like again.'