Various

“ The most vital thing in history teaching is the recitation, for no matter how well the teacher has been prepared in the subject matter or how admirably the field of study has been mapped out, poor work in the class room will mean general failure. The reason for this is not hard to discover; the recitation is that part of the work of the teacher in which closest relations are established with the minds of the pupils, and it is above all things important that teachers should realize this and make the most of their opportunities to guide and direct the pupils’ thought and study. ”

“ It is no longer possible for college professors to conduct classes and give lectures upon subjects unrelated to the student’s ability or to his year in the college course. All the world knows what each instructor is doing; questionnaires quiz him about methods and subjects; associations require him to talk about his work and consciously to face its problems.
Neither is it possible for a high school teacher to drag listlessly along, or arrange his history topics as he wishes. ”

“ Elaborate as such a provision of apartments may well seem to the teacher who to-day, like the wandering scholar of the Middle Ages, lectures wherever he can find a vacant room, it nevertheless is smaller than that generally allowed to the chemist or physicist. Of all the evils which present-day criticism of the college has brought to light, none is more serious than the evil of waste. ”

“ The history teacher who, under the conditions common to most American institutions of higher learning, should teach his subject as he would like to teach it and as he knows it ought to be taught, would spend in useless mechanical drudgery more hours than he spent in lecturing. Most institutions with endowment enough to entitle them to a place on the “Carnegie list” have ceased to expect this waste from professors of science, and there is no reason why the time of the professor of history, political science, or political economy should not be regarded as equally valuable. ”

“ Other things being equal, no scientist to-day would consider for a moment a call to an institution which could not afford him all of these things, nor would the scientific world reckon the instruction of an institution not so equipped as worth while.
When, however, we turn to those other departments of study still graciously referred to as the “humanities,” departments which older graduates and commencement orators still tell us embrace the subjects of the deepest human interest, the disparity in material equipment is commonly so great as to be almost ludicrous. ”

“ Too often the recitation is made a mere repetition of facts in the text-book, poorly organized and presented in an uninteresting and unconvincing way. History that is taught without understanding and enthusiasm and without proper organization of the subject matter had better not have been taught at all, as it results in dislike and contempt for the subject as being nought but a catalogue of meaningless names, dates and events. Yet how few history teachers seem to realize their opportunity to make history mean more than this. ”

“ History teaching to-day is entering upon the period of conscious endeavor, and neither college professor nor high school instructor can afford to ignore this fact. By far the strongest element in raising the standards of history teaching has been the historical associations and the organizations of history teachers, which, during the past twenty years, have faced many problems of the history teacher. It is well nigh impossible for all of us to solve all these problems individually, although some of us may solve some of them. ”

“ Let me express the pleasure which at least one California teacher finds in the new History Teachers’ Magazine. It certainly satisfies a long-felt need. In the October number I noticed the repeated statements of the lack of organization in history work, all of which is lamentably true; but I do believe we are improving here, due to the persistent and intelligent efforts of a wise and enthusiastic History Department in the University of California. Our school authorities are demanding trained history teachers, even though they have to handle some other subject. ”

“ If it be true, as it seems to be, that student interest, particularly among men, in literature, history, and philosophy, has declined markedly in recent years, may not something of the cause be found, not in the inherently greater attractiveness of mixing chemicals or dissecting cats and birds, but in the utter poverty and bareness of the quarters in which students of the humanities are commonly asked to do their work? ”

“ In the matter of the relative contribution of teacher and class to the discussion, it may be said that a teacher who talks too little is as bad as a teacher who talks too much. As a general rule the college graduate teaching history who is well informed in his subject matter tends to talk too much in the class room, and his study of the new lesson is more of a lecture than a recitation. ”

“ One of the best-known professors in Princeton Theological Seminary, some years ago, was locally famous for his curious mannerisms. It was said that at certain crises in his lectures he would put his watch in his mouth, to the huge delight of his class. But one is a great teacher in spite of one’s mannerisms, not because of them, and with most of us peculiarities in the class-room greatly detract from and handicap our usefulness as teachers. ”

“ If professors of history have fallen too much into the habit of lecturing, instead of teaching, may it not be due in part to the failure of the university to give even the ablest of them facilities for doing anything else? ”

“ After adverting to Herbert Spencer’s dictum that an industrial society and militarism are incompatible, Professor Ford demonstrated the falsity of that statement by instancing the cases of Switzerland and of Germany, where the harmonious development of both types is in progress. In Great Britain there is a movement to promote military efficiency for the very purpose of promoting industrial efficiency. While many details of wars may with profit be omitted from our teaching, we cannot afford to ignore those great forces in the development of national life and character. ”

“ With only the exceptions that prove the rule, our libraries are supported and administered on the assumption that one copy of a book is sufficient for the needs of the whole institution, and that every one who has occasion to use the book must seek it at the main or central repository. It would seem to be obvious, however, that wherever books form the fundamental material for study, and, from the nature of the case, cheap reprints of selected texts or a few duplicates of inexpensive volumes will not suffice, the library has need of as many copies of a book as there are departments to use it ”

“ No one who knows at close range the “plant” of a typical American university will be at a loss for striking and even painful illustrations of the unequal distribution of material equipment. Broadly speaking, the departments of physical and natural science and engineering do not seriously lack the primary facilities which the nature of their work demands. ”

“ The true history teacher will mingle knowledge with method, and will add to and amplify the subject matter by taking part sympathetically in the recitation, without, however, monopolizing the discussion. In calling on members of the class to take part in the discussion, attention should be given to those who need it most, rather than to the bright and well-informed pupils. The dull or inattentive pupil, who is whispering to his neighbor or not paying proper attention, needs more real teaching than the bright boy or girl. ”

“ We must not confound sentimentalism with ethics. The great responsibility laid on statesmen in a country of universal compulsory military service is a guarantee of no war except for good and unavoidable causes. The danger of war is less, he believed, than in a country with voluntary military service or in one with an army recruited from the lower orders of society. Germany’s militarism is a guarantee of peace, as was shown by her attitude last year in the acute stage of the Austro-Servian controversy. ”

“ The long control of Pericles, “the leader of the people,” illustrates finely the fact that the great man is sure to assert himself and to be used by his fellow citizens under whatever system of government, and whether he holds office or not. On the other hand, the theoretic division of executive responsibility, rising from distrust of one-man power, was a weakness. States must use and trust their great men, putting heavy responsibilities on them.
Contrast may well be drawn between a court at Athens and one in any part of the United States. ”

“ If the second method commends itself to the teacher, the schoolmen, limited both as to material and method, with their appeal to authority, can be presented in sharp contrast to the critics and scoffers of the Renaissance with their final appeal to the reason. ”

“ For the modern study of history, even of the elementary sort, one must be enabled to examine not only single books, such as may be got from a library and perused at leisure in one’s home, but also extended sets and collections of books and papers, and this under conditions which will admit of comparison and note-taking and the use of the volumes in the actual work of the class-room. For the preparation of maps and charts, facilities in the way of tables and instruments are required entirely beyond what the student can fairly be expected to have in his own room ”

“ It is safe to say that no pedagogical paper has been received so warmly, and from the outset been supported so loyally as has The History Teacher’s Magazine. Founded by private enterprise, with a prospect, said many advisers, of ultimate failure, its success to-day is assured.
HAS THE PAPER BEEN AS GOOD AS IT SHOULD BE? Of course not. Four months of labor has educated the editors more than their product has benefited the subscribers. They have seen their mistakes, they have found fields of usefulness which they did not know existed when their plans were first laid. ”

“ It has long been a matter of common observation that the cost of maintaining the scientific departments of a university, or even of a small college, is out of all proportion to the cost of the other departments of instruction, that it is met by governing boards with comparative readiness, and that it is often afforded, it must bluntly be said, at the cost of deplorable and systematic niggardliness in other directions. ”

“ Where the teacher of science is freely accorded a lecture room for his department alone, the teacher of language, history, or economics must, as a rule, share his quarters, poor as they are, with those of his colleagues whose principal apparatus is books, and must vacate his room promptly to make way for another class at the next hour. ”

“ In fact, the events which make up the greater part of the story of the Jay Treaty are by no means typical of treaties in general. It must be borne in mind, however, that to them attach a value and an interest of their own. Local color, objective reality, in a word, everything which makes history actual and living depends on the proper use of specific, characteristic, but not necessarily typical, details. The teacher’s task is to make such use of this auxiliary material as will bring into strong relief the type-elements. ”

“ Their supremacy in carving the human figure in marble needs to be connected with their devoted attention to the development of the living form by athletic exercise. In our larger schools will be found casts, perhaps, at any rate, pictures, of the best pieces of Greek art. Their restraint, their simplicity may be dwelt on. In the country where the one lone teacher, not an expert, either in history or art, has not even a “pallid bust of Pallas,” he or she can at least make use of the illustrations in the text-book. ”

“ The alma mater,—generous, inspiring, appreciative,—of historical study and teaching in America, is the American Historical Association. For twenty-five years its stronger members have given of their strength, its weaker members have received inspiration, and its younger members have been encouraged to higher work by its appreciation of their labors. Its membership is open to all interested in the study, the writing, or the teaching of history, upon the payment of a small fee. ”

“ In general, the critics of the recommendations of the Committee of Seven complain of the length of the field covered, and to it attribute the apparent present failure of the teacher of history to impress upon the student a knowledge of fact, and do not feel that such a weakness is due to the emphasis placed by that report upon the value of generalized knowledge, but rather believe it has been of especial value in leading our teachers of history to develop power in our pupils. ”

“ How can our government make a treaty with a foreign nation? With this question we bring our pupils face to face with the first type-element in the Jay Treaty lesson. The class has not long since taken up the story of the making of our Constitution, and may be assumed to realize its significance as the “fundamental law.” What has the Constitution to say on the subject of treaty-making? The President “shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.” ”

“ They usually have a hazy memory of seemingly endless drill in grammar school, and consider geography as one of those childish things which they have put away, but when their attention is called to the geographical causes for location of cities, its influence on the development of a country, plans of campaigns, strategic boundaries, they grow interested, and enjoy indicating these things, as well as treaties and territorial growth on outline maps. I use a McKinley wall map for Roman history, and we “paint it red” as we progress in the study of the Roman conquests. ”

“ The first freshness of the year’s work has worn off, “the daily round, the common task” is perhaps beginning to tell on us. Little ruts of expression, little oddities of speech or manner begin to creep upon us unawares. ”