NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION.
The next meeting of the New England History Teachers’ Association will be held on Saturday, October 16, in Boston. The Council seriously considered for a time the expediency of waiving the constitutional requirement and holding the meeting in the western part of Massachusetts, probably in Greenfield. The preference of a large minority of the members for Boston, however, led the Council to follow the regular practice of holding the annual meeting in Boston. The association has held meetings in Springfield, Hartford and Portland, and the wisdom of meeting once a year outside of Boston seems proved by the large attendance at those places.
Had the meeting been held in Greenfield, the subject would have been “Local Aids in the Study of History,” a most appropriate topic for a meeting in that richly historical region. For the Boston meeting the Council has selected the subject of “Economics,” which has been clamoring for recognition ever since the association was founded.
Topics in economics enter to a considerable extent into American history, but it is a question how far economic theory should be developed in a secondary school course. The field is a tempting one to a teacher filled with his subject: the fundamental principles of money, foreign trade, rent, capital and labor, corporate organization, socialism, these and many others the young man will inevitably come in contact with daily. What guidance shall he have and where shall he obtain it?