Various

“ Is it not beyond dispute that much of our teaching of history in the past has failed of proper results for the reason that pupils advancing from grade to grade have been compelled to consider topics with which they have grown familiar? Who has not noted the deadening effect on the interest of pupils, especially in the history of our own country, where the prescribed course found in many schools has been faithfully followed, which provides a text in elementary American history for the fifth and sixth grades, succeeded by a grammar school American history in the next two grades? ”

“ What could be more charming or illuminating than Senator Hoar’s memoirs, Sherman’s recollections, Blaine’s story of his service in Congress, or Benton’s view of things? Were there space at my disposal I could fill this magazine with the topics on which I have secured informing notes from Hoar’s work. There are wit, and humor, and reality on almost every page. I suspect, and whisper it here under breath, that a student who reads it will know more about the Federal Government than one who devotes his time to memorizing the sacred Constitution, so prayerfully drafted by the Fathers. ”

“ The Declaration of Independence is, in every way, an ideal document for study in a secondary school. Every student in the class is undoubtedly familiar with it; he has heard it quoted, in whole or in part, on numberless occasions; he thinks he knows all about it, and yet the teacher can easily show him that it contains vast stores of ideas which up to the present time he has never even suspected. No document in all American history is so easy of interpretation: the language is clear and simple ”

“ Let us not be ultra-orthodox in our scientific view of history. In the reaction, the very proper reaction from the view of history which made it a mere record of wars and battles there is danger of making it a valley of dry bones. After all, it is the record of life, and the events which have stirred the imagination and aroused the patriotism of millions are not to be too lightly set aside. ”

“ As one sits in the gallery of the Sheldonian Theater one almost feels that a map of the social world lies below, and that the little groups of persons are types of the great nations themselves: the eager nations of Europe and America, the live nations which are searching after the solution of world-problems.
The Oxford Summer School of 1909 has undertaken to present courses in three major subjects: the contribution of medieval and modern Italy to world-civilization is its history course. ”

“ If, at the close of the work, the pupils of the fifth grade have a vivid picture of life on the border, if they have been led to sympathize with the dangers, the trials, the hardships of frontier life, and have gained an impression of the importance of Daniel Boone’s service to his fellow men, she has done a creditable piece of work. If they are bewildered, mystified, confused and glad to leave the subject, she has no one to blame but herself. ”

“ The public high school, supported as it is by the money of the people, must necessarily adapt itself to the needs of the children [68] sent to it; the vast majority of our pupils receive from us the “finishing touches” of their formal education, as they do not go to college, but plunge at once into “the world.” Such being the fact, what then should be the aim of the history teacher? ”

“ The attempt to bridge the period between the Hundred Years’ War and the Renaissance and Reformation is attended with a great many real difficulties, which are aggravated rather than lightened by the usual arrangement of material to be found in the text-book. There is not only an apparent absence of unifying elements, but the impression created on teacher and student is that of turmoil and confusion, with here and there a situation full of dramatic interest. ”

“ In spite of the groups of foreigners talking together in their mother tongues as they too hasten towards the meeting, in spite of the single women who wear English boots, and speak with the English gentlewoman’s mellifluous voice, in spite of tall blonde German students arguing vociferously but good-naturedly, in spite of the whole one thousand three hundred men and women, who are gathering together for another renewed quickening in modern thought along educational lines, one feels a throng of ghosts pressing in upon him—ghosts of memories which surge as really as does the crowd itself. ”

“ Some school historians and teachers decry the effort to mingle with the political history any study of Greek art. But to the writer’s mind that would be a robbery of the children. Our modern life is so saturated with things almost purely Greek in origin that our budding citizens, who may never get elsewhere a glimpse of the origins of so much that is beautiful, ought surely to get such glimpses now. ”

“ The rise of the House of Commons, extending over the last of the thirteenth and first of the fourteenth centuries, the great laws of Edward I’s reign, the growth of commerce, the national spirit induced by the national triumphs at Crecy and Poitiers are some of the larger landmarks in the forward march of the English nation during the hundred years following Henry III. Even the troubled years which followed the black death, the upheavals in society and religion in the latter fourteenth century, were the throes of progress. ”

“ In teaching science, suitable apparatus must be made for every four pupils. In teaching history and literature in a high school, reference books ought to be provided every four pupils in the same subject. The difficulty in teaching history in the high school is greater than in teaching science, as pupils pursuing different subjects, as ancient history, medieval history and modern history, often need the same reference books. If pupils are required to read four hundred pages, more or less, in some history other than the school text, a pupil may average about fifty pages a month. ”

“ In economics the discussion of industrial problems and trades-unions is drawing together large audiences, and arousing intense interest. Methods of education which shall bring a quickening to the professional world itself is a third line of thought. In connection with the historical course, the literature, science and art each finds a large place. Perhaps no former summer school has offered a more concrete and wisely-arranged program than that of this year’s summer meeting in Oxford. ”

“ Yet the elementary school needs the best thought that the nation can give to it; not the thought of elementary school men alone, but the clearness and directness and thoroughness which come so frequently with college training. It is superciliousness or inertia which leads a college instructor to say that he cannot realize the problems of the elementary school, and then to send his children to a class taught by a young girl fresh from the normal school or high school. ”

“ Almost any book, if rightly used, allows the teacher a little latitude not only in the choice of topics, but also in the order of presentation. If the teacher skips about too much it may lead to misconception and confusion on the part of the student. If, however, the text-book and the library facilities at the command of the teacher allow of considerable freedom in respect to order, it is at the best a very perplexing question to settle. ”

“ And while enforcing the importance of accuracy and exactness in thinking and in forming judgments of men and of events, it is not only our task to inculcate “the methodical search for truth,” but to throw open to the pupils the literature of the subject, to show them how to use books to arouse their interest in scenes and countries removed by time and space from themselves, to create, too, an interest in the social life of times present and past, and to inspire a sane spirit of pride in our country and loyalty to it. ”

“ The committee also suggests that an average of sixty minutes a week be devoted to civics in this grade, and that a text-book in civics, as well as a text-book in history, be placed in the hands of each pupil. The function of city, State and national government should be emphasized, rather than the machinery of each. The actual work of the government to-day, and concrete instances of civic duty should be discussed, and a special study of such topics as “Child Labor,” “Corruption in Politics,” “Best Methods of Work in Local City Governments,” is advised. ”

“ There is, of course, a great difference in mental power between pupils during the time devoted to Greek history and during that in which they are studying American history and civics; there are, too, great disparities in the children of the same grades and in different schools, and yet I think it is a safe generalization to declare that broadly speaking, our pupils are surprisingly immature and undeveloped mentally, even when, as “sweet girl graduates,” or their brothers, they leave us for the struggle of life, or for college. ”

“ Owing to the great number of publications purporting to meet the needs of the history teacher, from small outline maps costing less than a cent apiece to elaborate atlases costing fifty dollars, there is a great range of choice within which there is no little difficulty in deciding just what cartographical aids are best for the problem at hand. As the financial question is always dependent upon local and particular considerations, and as the actual handling of maps is a subject in itself large enough for a separate article, I will limit myself to the matter of the selection of the best maps. ”

“ It would be impossible to compare an American Summer School with the Summer School at Oxford. I have attempted to write only the first impressions that one gains in this university town. Each traveller gains a different impression doubtless, and in order to gain that impression he must come himself. My last word, therefore, to my reader is not to remember my impressions, but to plan to visit Oxford and gain his own impression, and his own individual quickening. ”

“ Allen compares the European method of doing things at school with the American method of getting things done.
No brief review can do justice to a work so inspiring that to be instantly effective it needs but to be read widely. It is filled with material that should be particularly at the command of every teacher, if not of every parent, in the land. Its especial interest to teachers of civics lies in its analysis of the relation of public health and its consequent economic conditions to organized government and to the body social. ”

“ In other words, Jefferson’s task was not to invent, as French publicists were prone to do on such occasions, new theories of government, but simply to express the ideas which were the product of the political discussion which was going on about him, and which would be familiar and acceptable to the men in America and in Europe to whom the Declaration was addressed.
That the document is partisan is of course true; but this is scarcely a valid criticism. Neither Jefferson nor any of his colleagues claimed to sit as judges between the colonies and the mother country. ”

“ Having at first no vital relation to the college, it is conceded that it should prepare for State universities, where such exist, and for colleges generally, but it must also serve the best interests of those not going to college. From the peculiar nature of our republic, its function to the pupil is of such a nature and must in such a manner be discharged that culture, habits of industry, a healthy civic spirit and increased social efficiency will be some of the many rewards for the great and increasing expenditure by the State. ”

“ Because organically or politically there is little correlation among the three parts of the system, each part attempts to ignore the others, rejecting suggestions concerning its own work, and grudgingly and condescendingly giving advice concerning the others. With a few notable exceptions, several of whom appear as contributors to this number of the Magazine, college men in America have kept sedulously away from the problems of history teaching in the elementary school, or if they have turned their gaze upon the schools, it has been to seek a market for a new elementary history textbook. ”

“ The difference between a good history teacher and a poor one lies largely in the skill and purpose of the former in making his work vivid. Vividness is best secured by a comparison of these ancient conditions with our own. ”