IV. THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
By Henry Johnson, A.M.
I. What History is
1. The Word “History” may denote:
a. Past facts themselves.
b. Traces left by past facts.
c. The study which investigates such traces.
d. The knowledge thus obtained.
e. An account or narrative in which such knowledge is embodied.
2. The Sources of Historical Knowledge.
a. Primary sources.
1. Material remains—roads, buildings, tools, weapons, clothing, any material object shaped by man or associated with his life on the earth.
2. Reports of conditions and events made by actual observers. Such reports may be oral, written or printed, pictorial.
b. Secondary sources—reports or accounts based upon primary sources.
c. Accounts based upon other accounts in varying degrees of removal even from secondary sources.
d. Existing sources relate to fragments only of man’s total experience in the world.
3. Historical Criticism—the Foundation for the Determination of Particular Facts relating to the Past.
a. External criticism—investigation of the origin and transmission of sources; a study of form, language, writing. Is the material remaining authentic? Who was the author of the document? What did he say?
b. Internal criticism—investigation of the content of sources. What did the author mean? Are his statements true?
c. The need of historical criticism finds daily illustration in the schoolroom, in ordinary conversation, in the newspapers.
d. Historical criticism first formally applied by the Greeks. Not fully developed until modern times.
4. Historical Synthesis—putting the Facts together into a Body of Organized Knowledge.
a. The chronological order—facts arranged according to time of occurrence.
b. The geographical order—facts arranged according to place of occurrence.
c. The logical order—facts arranged according to their intrinsic nature.
d. One order used exclusively.
5. History as an Account or Narrative.
a. The subject embraced.
1. A single person.
2. A single people—whole known period or a part of it.
3. The whole world—universal history.
b. General conceptions of history writing.
1. A narrative of memorable events. Aim, mainly to please. Content determined by taste of authors and their public. Epic poets and story-tellers early contributors. Classical type fixed by Herodotus, the “father of history.”
2. A collection of precedents supposed to be useful to statesmen, generals, and others. Aim, didactic. Content determined by the kind of examples or lessons needed. But these, according to early conceptions, to be valuable must be true to the facts. Facts largely political and military. A conception introduced by Thucydides and developed by Polybius.
3. Scientific history. Aim, to exhibit the past as it was and to explain how it came to be what it was. Content determined by what is regarded as significant in illustrating the idea of development in human affairs.
c. These general conceptions correspond roughly to stages of human culture.
d. History generally regarded merely as a branch of literature up to 1850.
e. Side by side with scientific histories, works of the older types are still being produced.
References: Langlois and Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of History, pp. 63-70, 211-231, 296-321. Bernheim, Einleitung in die Geschichtswissenschaft, pp. 5-13, 33-43, 72-78. Fling, Outline of Historical Method, pp. 5-124. Robinson, History, Columbia University Press, 1908. Rhodes, in Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXXXV, pp. 158-169. Winsor, in Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LXVI, pp. 289-297.
II. The Problem of Adapting History to Children
1. Special Guidance sought in the “Natural” Tastes and Interests of Children.
a. These determined by experiment.
b. Sometimes regarded as a final criterion.
c. Reinforced by the culture epoch theory.
d. Conclusion: “The childhood of history for the child, the boyhood of history for the boy, the youthhood of history for the youth, the manhood of history for the man.”
e. The conclusion interpreted.
1. Facts to be selected and arranged according to their cultural stages and not according to time or place of occurrence.
2. Manner of treatment to accord in general with the conception of history first developed by the race.
3. Scientific history thus excluded.
f. General comment: Important to distinguish between the natural tastes and interests of children and the cultivated intelligence of children.
2. Approach from the Side of History.
a. Kinds of historical facts.
1. Facts relating to physical appearance of men and their material environment.
a. Possibility of direct appeal to the senses.
b. The simplest illustration of change in the world.
c. Material aspects of the past sufficiently unlike those of the present to be interesting.
2. Facts relating to what men did.
a. Direct sense appeal not applicable.
b. Only actions now in progress can be observed.
c. With these as a basis actions in progress in the past more or less readily imaged.
d. That action appeals to children an axiom of history teaching.
3. Facts relating to thoughts and feelings of men, the motives that moved them to do or to say.
a. Known only through deeds and words.
b. Real understanding of the past measured by pupil’s ability to enter this inner life of history.
c. Important to recognize difficulties and limitations.
d. The mental states of a Clovis, a Charlemagne, a Napoleon, or even of a cave-man, an Indian, a pioneer, largely beyond the experience of children and of most adults.
4. In each of these groups the simplest facts relate to particular objects, particular acts, thoughts, feelings.
5. Collective facts, facts relating to social groups, to institutions, to general causes that act in history, much more difficult.
a. How represent a wave of prosperity? a panic? a revolution? society itself?
b. Such expressions made intelligible by resolving them, so far as possible, into their concrete elements.
b. The kinds of facts enumerated common to literary, didactic, and scientific history.
c. Degree of difficulty presented by a given type of facts not essentially different for different kinds of history.
d. A principle of grading thus suggested as applicable to one kind of history as to another.
1. Any facts readily visualized possible material for school history.
2. Clear visualization a factor in stimulating interest.
3. Clear visualization of the man, the act, the situation, a necessary key to his mental states.
4. Elementary history, therefore, to be largely descriptive and narrative, to be made up of concrete examples rather than generalized knowledge.
e. Time and place relations essential to the conception of any fact as historical. As difficult for one kind of history as for another.
f. Special conditions imposed by scientific history.
1. Facts in palpable conflict with present knowledge not to be regarded as historical.
2. Facts to be characteristic of persons, peoples, places, periods; not exceptional, abnormal, bizarre.
3. Facts to be so presented as to exhibit relations, cause and effect, continuity.
4. Facts to be so presented as to arouse some consciousness of how we know what we know about the past and why we do not know more.
5. These conditions quite possible to meet within the limits suggested by the principle of grading already set forth.
References: Teachers College Record, November, 1908, pp. 1-25. Bernheim, in Neue Bahnen, Vol. X, pp. 265-300, 337-357. Seignobos, L’Histoire dans l’Enseignement secondaire, pp. 3-25. Muzzy, in Association of History Teachers of the Middle States and Maryland, 1906, pp. 13-28, especially 17-19. Channing, in North Central History Teachers’ Association, 1907, pp. 14-18. Laurie, in School Review, Vol. IV, pp. 655-660. Salmon, in Year Book Society for Scientific Study of Education, 1902, pp. 47-54; McMurry, in same, 1903, pp. 47-51. American Historical Association, 1905, pp. 135-145. Hinsdale, How to Study and Teach History, pp. 42-52, 67-74. Rice, in Educational Review, Vol. XII, pp. 169-179; Burnham, in same, Vol. XXVII, pp. 521-528. Peabody, in National Education Association, 1893, pp. 284-285. Barnes, Studies in Historical Method, pp. 57-105. Mace, Method in History, pp. 255-308. Suzzallo, in Teachers College Record, May, 1904, pp. 11-19; Marker, in same, pp. 20-33.
III. The Question of Aims and Values
1. The Faith of Educators in the Utility of History attested by Programs in the Subject for every Grade of Instruction from the Kindergarten to the University.
2. Current Discussions Confusing.
a. Aims sometimes defined without reference to the nature of history. History then repudiated wherever it happens to interfere with “the uses of history.”
b. Aims sometimes inconsistent with each other.
c. Little to indicate that one of the aims of historical instruction is to teach history.
3. Aims commonly Proposed.
a. Discipline—training of the memory, the imagination, the judgment.
b. Culture—“enriching the humanity of the pupil.”
c. Inspiration—furnishing ideals of conduct, patriotism, social service.
d. Practical knowledge—teaching pupils how to act in the present.
e. The illumination of other studies, especially literature and geography.
f. The cultivation of a taste for historical reading.
g. The explanation of the present—nothing in the world to-day really intelligible apart from its history.
4. Special Modern Emphasis upon the Social Value of History.
a. An application of a general point of view in education.
b. Special demands upon history.
1. Must show in the form of concrete examples what society is and how it works.
2. Must “give a vivid and intense realization of social duties and obligations.”
5. Pertinent Questions.
a. Are the aims proposed in fact promoted by a given kind of instruction?
b. Are they promoted as effectively as they might be by some other kind of instruction?
c. Are they the most useful of the possible ends that history might serve?
6. Observations and Experiment needed to furnish Data for Answers.
References: McMurry, Special Method in History, pp. 1-17. Kemp, Outline of Method in History, pp. 104-113. Barnes, Studies in Historical Method, pp. 106-121. Lloyd, in Spencer, Aims and Practice of Teaching, pp. 141-148. Rice, History and Literature, pp. 3-26, 149-166. Woodward, in Essays on Teaching of History by Maitland and others, pp. 69-78. Hinsdale, How to Study and Teach History, pp. 2-17. Bourne, Teaching of History and Civics, pp. 77-92. Year Book, Herbart Society, 1898, pp. 25-56. Snedden, in Journal of Pedagogy, Vol. XIX, pp. 259-268. Proceedings, National Education Association, 1892, pp. 348-352; 1894, pp. 397-412; 1895, pp. 139-142, 306-308; 1896, pp. 410-413. Report, Committee of Seven, pp. 158-162. Kirk, in Education, Vol. XVI, pp. 15-18; Crawford, in same, Vol. XXII, pp. 281-286; McMahon; in same, Vol. XXIII, pp. 109-114. Langlois and Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of History, p. 331. Lea, in American Historical Review, Vol. IX, pp. 233-246. Harrison, Meaning of History, pp. 1-23. Teachers College Record, November, 1909, pp. 55-56.
IV. The History Program for the Elementary School
1. The Preparatory Period—The First Three or Four Years.
a. Myths, fairy tales, fables, Oriental, Greek, Roman, later European. Some use of American folk lore.
b. Simple biographies from American or world history. May or may not be arranged chronologically.
c. Stories connected with anniversaries, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas.
d. Stories from the Bible.
e. Stories of primitive life.
f. Stories of inventions.
g. Stories from local history.
h. Various studies of a geographical or sociological character.
i. Several or all of these types of material may be represented in a single program.
j. Some schools carry this kind of work into higher grades.
2. The Intermediate Stage—Fifth and Sixth Years.
a. Beginnings of textbook instruction.
b. More attention to chronological order and geological setting.
c. Subject: ancient history, the Middle Ages, English history, American history. Chief emphasis on American history.
d. Material usually biographical.
e. Some schools begin this stage of work in the fourth year.
3. The Last Two Years.
a. Subject usually the United States.
b. The subject often divided.
1. Colonial period for the seventh year.
2. Later period for the eighth year.
c. Some schools have English history in the seventh year.
d. Civics frequently combined with history, especially in the eighth year.
e. Occasionally some Greek and Roman or general European history in one or both of these years.
4. The Program proposed by the Committee of Eight.
First grade: Indian life. Explanation of holidays.
Second grade: Indian life. Holidays. Local history.
Third grade: Heroes of other times. Holidays.
Fourth grade: Historical scenes and persons in American history, colonial period.
Fifth grade: Historical scenes and persons in American history continued. Great industries of the present.
Sixth grade: European background of American history.
Seventh grade: American history to the Revolution. European background continued.
Eighth grade: The United States since the Revolution. Great events in European history.
References: Bourne, Teaching of History and Civics, pp. 72-74, 106-114, 353-365. Reports of Committees: Committee of Ten, pp. 163, 177-181; of Fifteen, pp. 62-67; of Twelve, pp. 171, 174-175; of Seven, pp. 162-172; of Eight, pp. 1-91; Salmon, in Year Book, Society for Scientific Study of Education, 1902, pp. 31-60. McMurry, Special Method in History, pp. 18-33, 238-268. Kemp, Outline of Method in History, pp. 133-263. Elementary School Record, Vol. I, No. 8, pp. 199-216. Rice, History and Literature, pp. 27-74. Magnusson, in New York Teachers Monographs, March, 1903, pp. 90-97. Greene, History in the Kindergarten. Warfield, in Education, Vol. XIV, pp. 1-5. Gordy and Twitchell, Pathfinder in American History, Part I, pp. 43-50; Part II, pp. 5-20. Proceedings, National Education Association, 1892, pp. 310-316; 1905, pp. 304-308, 360-370; 1897, pp. 58-67. Payne, Elementary School Curricula, pp. 22, 24-39, 50.
V. General Methods of Instruction
1. The Preparatory Period—the First Three or Four Years.
a. Presentation of material usually oral.
1. Reading the story.
2. Telling the story.
3. Developing the story by questions.
4. Pointing the moral.
b. The children’s part in the lesson.
1. Telling the story.
2. Writing the story.
3. Solving problems suggested by the story.
c. Stories of the preparatory period may be so managed as to form a real basis for later history—training in putting things together, in seeing simple relations, in developing a sense of continuity.
2. The Intermediate Stage—the Fifth and Sixth Years.
a. Some oral presentation along the lines indicated for the preparatory period.
b. The general tendency toward textbook work.
1. Regular lessons assigned and recited.
2. The lesson read with the class during the history period.
c. Character of the textbooks.
1. Rarely the work of historical experts.
2. Aim to tell a story rather than history.
3. Accuracy a minor consideration.
4. Show little sense of historical proportion.
5. Their merit is that children can understand them.
6. Some recent books conceived in a more serious spirit and much better as history.
d. The use of maps, pictures, and other special aids to visualization increasing. Still much to be desired.
3. The Last Two Years.
a. Textbook work becomes more formal.
b. Types of textbook recitations.
1. “Hearing” the lesson.
a. Teacher announces the heading of paragraph or opening words of sentence.
b. Pupil carries the story forward until relieved by “next.”
c. A test of memory.
2. The question and answer method.
a. Teachers’ questions suggest analysis of text.
b. Short answers by pupil.
c. Memory test prominent.
3. A good general plan.
a. Teacher announces topic.
b. Pupil tells what he knows about it.
c. Corrections, additions, and questions by other members of class.
d. Corrections and additions by teacher.
e. Questions by teacher designed to apply what has been learned.
1. Comparison with other topics previously studied.
2. Comparison with conditions in the present.
c. The use of two or more textbooks.
1. The pupil prepares his lesson from two or more different books.
2. Different pupils have different books.
3. Aim to bring out difference in point of view or in statement of facts with a view to making pupils think.
d. Outside reading.
1. Other textbooks.
2. Poems and novels.
3. Some references to standard histories and to simpler primary sources.
e. Notebooks.
1. Making and keeping outlines.
2. Reports of outside reading.
3. Reports of class discussions.
f. The use of maps, pictures, and other special aids increasing.
g. Character of the textbooks.
1. A number of recent books written by competent students of history.
2. Reasonably good as history.
3. Inferior to more elementary books as apparatus for teaching.
4. Responsibility for the “whole story” tends to reduce textbooks to outlines and tempts to generalizations which are largely meaningless to children.
5. The class recitation thus in danger of becoming an exercise in mere words.
References: Bryant, How to Tell Stories to Children, pp. 13-21, 83-109. McMurry, Special Method in History, pp. 50-85. Hinsdale, How to Study and Teach History, pp. 53-66. Bourne, Teaching of History and Civics, pp. 148-168. Gordy and Twitchell, Pathfinder in American History. Foltz, zur Methode des Geschichtsunterrichts, pp. 174-216. Teachers College Record, November, 1908, pp. 26-32.
VI. The Biographical Approach to History
1. What the Biographical Method is.
a. The study of individual men and women as individuals.
b. The study of individual men and women as representatives of movements, periods, social groups.
c. The persons selected for study usually great or famous.
2. Reasons for Prevalence of the Method.
a. Offers units that are simple, concrete, interesting.
b. Satisfies ethical demands made upon historical instruction.
c. German experience a potent example.
d. Supported by “great man theory” of history.
1. “The history of what man has accomplished in this world is at bottom the history of the great men who have worked here.”—Carlyle.
2. “Great men sum up and represent humanity.”—Renan.
3. The Kinds of Persons that interest Children.
a. Men of primitive instincts—cave-men, Indians.
b. Men who “did things”—especially brigands, pirates, adventurers, generals, kings.
c. These types fully exploited in books for children. Possibly cause as well as effect of children’s tastes.
d. Relatively few tests of children’s attitude toward scholars, writers, artists.
4. General Criticism.
a. Personal element essential to school history.
b. Events can to some extent be grouped about individuals.
c. But “great man theory” not well applied.
1. Persons selected for study often not representative. May be exceptional. Often at best merely picturesque.
2. Historical characters often distorted for moral ends.
3. Doubtful anecdotes used to excess.
d. The “great man theory” not generally accepted by historians.
e. Individuals often more easily grouped about events than events about individuals.
f. The general tendency of the biographical method is to leave a series of disconnected impressions.
References: Kemp, Outline of Method in History, pp. 264-295. Hinsdale, How to Study and Teach History, pp. 30-31, 44-45. Bourne, Teaching of History and Civics, pp. 18-20, 86, 356. Mace, Method in History, pp. 289-294. Lawless, in Nineteenth Century, Vol. L, pp. 790-798. Bernheim, in Neue Bahnen, Vol. X, pp. 338-342.
VII. The Social and Economic Point of View
1. Great Men not excluded, but the “Masses” included.
2. Emphasis upon Social and Economic Conditions,—
Occupations, industries, inventions, commerce, manners and customs, education, amusements, food, dress, upon whatever serves to illustrate the common life.
3. The Point of Departure.
a. The daily life and material environment of the community in which the school is situated.
b. The development of some special invention, trade, art, industry, related to the immediate neighborhood.
c. The constructive activities of children—sewing, weaving, cooking, making furniture.
d. Local history.
4. Application to History in General.
a. Limited by the nature of the material available.
b. Difficult to arrange a connected narrative.
c. German experience—Biedermann’s Kulturbilder. The conditions of German life at selected stages described, compared, and contrasted.
5. A Growing Recognition of the General Point of View.
a. Influence of democratic ideals.
b. Industrial education an important factor in securing change of emphasis.
c. An enlarged view of history.
1. Carlyle’s protest against the older historians.
2. Macaulay’s theory of history.
3. The work of John Richard Green.
4. McMaster’s People of the United States.
d. The economic interpretation of history.
e. Material supplied by Documentary History of American Industrial Society, 10 volumes, to be published, 1909-1910.
References: Dopp, Place of Industries in Education, pp. 97-260. Rice, in Year Book, Society for Scientific Study of Education, 1903, pp. 9-14. Wood, Report on Teaching History, pp. 11-17. Lamprecht, What is History? pp. 3-35. Dodd, in Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LXIII, pp. 418-424. Seligman, Economic Interpretation of History. Biedermann, Geschichtsunterricht ... nach Kulturgeschichtlicher Methode, pp. 5-45. Bernheim, in Neue Bahnen, Vol. X, pp. 285-300.
VIII. Making the Past Real
1. Where the Textbooks Fail.
a. Reading matter usually insufficient for clear images of material aspects of the past or for definite impressions of past mental states.
b. Within certain limits definiteness and simplicity secured by brevity of statement.
c. But the principle of making a thing elementary by not saying much about it carried too far.
d. Stories inherently simple often expanded; those inherently difficult often abridged. School history would be more intelligible if the conditions were reversed.
2. Special Aids to Visualization.
a. Material remains in vicinity of school. Visits to historic places.
b. Casts, models, pictures, visualization charts, maps.
c. The stereoscope, lantern, and other similar apparatus. Moving pictures.
d. Illustrations in textbooks.
e. Historical albums.
3. “Living the Past.”
a. Exaggerated views illustrated by demand that pupil “identify himself completely with the thought, passion and resolution of the time” under consideration.
1. Such a demand scarcely met by the most expert historians.
2. Realism of this type not attainable by children and not even desirable.
b. Some impression of how men thought and felt essential.
c. Special aids.
1. A man’s own words expressed in letters, diaries, personal reminiscences, speeches, state papers.
a. Value varies with character of person and circumstances of utterance.
b. Words often no clue to real sentiments of author.
2. Characteristic stories and anecdotes.
3. Dramatization of history.
a. Plays composed by children. May be based on good historical material.
b. Ready-made plays less effective.
c. Historical pageants.
d. Historical drama of the professional stage.
4. Imaginary letters, diaries, speeches, prepared by pupils. Answering the questions: “How should I have felt?” “What should I have said or done?”
5. Historical poems and novels.
a. Value for history easily exaggerated.
b. A distinction to be made between those that ate contemporary with scenes represented and those that are merely later attempts at reconstruction.
c. General use in school due in part to tradition which so long made history a mere branch of literature, in part to more general acquaintance with this kind of material than with material more distinctly historical.
6. Material supplied by detailed histories.
References: Teachers College Record, November, 1908, pp. 12-25. Wilson, Mere Literature, pp. 161-186. Crothers, Gentle Reader, pp. 167-200. Stephens, in California University Chronicle, Vol. VI, pp. 159-168; French Revolution, Vol. II, p. 361. Matthews, in Forum, Vol. XXIV, pp. 79-91. Langlois and Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of History, pp. 215-225, 301, 319, note. Seignobos, L’Histoire dans l’Enseignement secondaire, pp. 15-19.
IX. Time and Place Relations
1. Time Sense in Children.
a. Rudimentary at age of entering school. “Yesterday,” “last week,” “last month,” have a meaning. “One hundred years ago” has not.
b. The sense develops slowly. Even children of twelve or thirteen often measure short periods of time vaguely.
c. From this an argument advanced against dating any events in distant past for children. Can mean only “a long time ago.”
d. The difficulty in part removed by objective assistance—chart, rolls, knotted cords, and other devices.
e. Dates properly introduced at least as early as the fifth year.
2. Dates to be remembered.
a. Famous events.
b. Important events.
c. A few in each year fixed as a permanent possession.
d. Evidence at present of recovery from extreme reaction against learning dates.
a. The way prepared by geography.
b. Maps to be introduced as soon as children have learned to read them.
c. Two kinds of historical geography.
1. Contemporary maps.
2. Modern maps.
d. School history should show how events were influenced by geographic conditions. Natural features of the earth determine in great part:
1. Climate, productions, physical development, employments, habits.
2. Facilities for commerce.
3. Advantages for military and naval defense or aggression.
4. Intellectual tendencies, but to a less extent.
e. Place relation to be fixed under same conditions as time relation.
References: Hinsdale, How to Study and Teach History, pp. 75-100; 111-126. Vaughan, in Contemporary Review, Vol. V, pp. 29-49. Turner, in Year Book, Herbart Society, 1899, pp. 7-41. Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions. Brigham, Geographic Influence in American History Report, New England History Teachers’ Association, 1907.
X. School History and the Historical Method
1. History for School Purposes usually treated as a Body of Assured Knowledge.
a. The problem of elementary instruction held to be interpretation and not criticism.
b. Controversial matters omitted so far as possible.
c. Little to indicate varying degrees of probability in historical facts.
d. Uncertainties covered by dogmatism of textbooks.
2. Raising the Question of How we know.
a. Makes for more intelligent view of history.
b. Often adds to interest in the subject.
c. Affords material for exercise of reasoning power.
d. Directly related to everyday problems.
e. The question usually excluded from elementary history on ground of the difficulties involved.
3. A Simple Approach suggested.
a. When anything has happened we may know about it because:
1. We were present when it happened—direct observation.
2. Some one has told us—oral tradition.
3. We have read about it—written or printed tradition.
4. We have seen a picture of it—pictorial tradition.
b. In how many ways may we know
1. That John was absent from school yesterday?
2. That Lincoln delivered an address at Gettysburg in 1863?
3. That the “Mayflower” crossed the Atlantic in 1620?
c. Which is the best way to know about a thing that has happened? Is that way always possible? Why? How do we get most of our knowledge of things that have happened?
d. Application to material remains.
In how many ways may we know about
1. The spelling-books of our grandfathers?
2. The bows and arrows used by Indians?
3. The house that George Washington lived in at Mount Vernon?
4. Some Simple Illustrations of Problems connected with Historical Method.
a. The story of how the Egyptians found out that they were not the oldest people in the world. Herodotus, Book II, chapter 2.
1. How did Herodotus know?
2. Is the story true?
b. Petrarch’s troubles in getting books copied. Robinson and Rolfe, Petrarch, p. 28.
c. The adventures of the manuscript of Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation. Introduction to edition published by the State of Massachusetts.
d. The boundary provisions of a colonial charter. Teachers College Record, November, 1908, pp. 40-43.
5. Such Exercises necessarily Limited in Number.
References: Teachers College Record, November, 1908, pp. 33-44. Historical Sources in Schools, Report to New England History Teachers’ Association, pp. 1-17. Bourne, Teaching of History and Civics, pp. 169-187.
XI. Historical Reading for Children
1. Books designed especially for Children.
a. Principles of grading not well defined.
b. Many books needlessly inaccurate.
c. Literary style often bad.
d. Some unnecessary “writing down” to children.
2. The Use of Standard Histories.
a. Availability of historical works for school purposes not in inverse ratio to size and scientific value.
1. Treatment of special topics often simpler and more concrete than treatment of same topics in textbooks.
2. Many passages in detailed histories and biographies of special interest to children.
a. Some of these can be read by children.
b. Some can be read to children.
c. A factor in cultivating taste for history.
d. Talks about writers of important works stimulate interest in the works.
3. Real obstacles to more general use.
a. Cost of standard histories.
b. Lack of acquaintance with such works on the part of elementary teachers.
4. Much good material available in abridgments and volumes of extracts.
3. Teaching Children how to use Books.
a. Indexes and tables of contents.
b. Attention to marginal references and footnotes.
c. Special questions to give facility in finding and using books.
d. The number of books need not be large.
4. Management of Collateral Reading.
a. Class divisions.
b. Special library periods.
c. Books used outside of library periods.
d. Books taken home.
e. References to be exact.
f. References to be posted in library.
g. Pupil’s record of readings.
1. Full name of author.
2. Full title of book.
3. Publishers, place, and date of publication.
4. Number of pages read.
5. Personal impression.
References: Andrews, Gambrill and Tall, Bibliography of History for Schools and Libraries; Report of the Committee of Eight; Teachers College Record, November, 1908, pp. 45-50. Parsons in Educational Review, Vol. XXIII, pp. 400-406. McMurry, Special Method in History, pp. 271-291. Rice, History and Literature, pp. 167-187. Mace, Method in History, pp. 309-311. Gordy and Twitchell, Pathfinder in American History, Part I, pp. 101-102; Part II, pp. 235-251. Sullivan, in Metropolitan Teacher, November, 1904, pp. 193-198.