It is quite worth while to put up a list of historical novels bearing on their period, for older as well as for younger classes.
Home-work: (a) Viva-voces.How are we to test the work done by the pupils? Lord Acton quotes from Sir W. Hamilton: “I must regard the main duty of a professor to consist, not simply in communicating information, but in doing this in such a manner and with such an accompaniment of subsidiary means, that the information he conveys may be the occasion of awakening his pupils to a vigorous and varied exertion of their faculties”.
By means of viva-voce questions and paper work, the class should be tested between each lecture. The object of the teacher is to find out with as little expenditure of time as possible, that the work set has been thoroughly done. I know no better means of doing this than by what are called written viva-voces. The teacher prepares two sets of questions called respectively A and B. The alternate girls write the answers to the A and B questions in small exercise books which they keep for the purpose. They rule two margins, the left-hand for the number of the question, the right-hand margin is used by the corrector. Ten minutes can test an hour’s lesson. The books are changed so that the Bs correct the work of the As, and have to attend to the answers of the questions they did not do. The teacher repeats aloud the answer to each question. Each corrector signs her name and puts the mark obtained. The teacher, when she looks through the books afterwards, can thus bring home any careless correction to the right person, and anything like favouritism in correcting is prevented. This viva-voce work ensures accurate knowledge of facts, and I have known girls find it sufficiently useful, to continue the same system among themselves after they have gone up to the university.
(b) Essay-writing.The most valuable exercise for the pupil is the writing of essays. These may begin on a subject already dealt with in class (care being taken that the essay is not a reproduction of notes of the lesson), but the pupil will soon be trained to read and think out for herself subjects which she has not previously heard discussed. She will learn experimentally what Lord Acton calls, “those shining precepts which are the registered property of every school, that is to say, learn as much by writing as by reading; be not content with the best books, seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites; keep men and things apart; guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing; be more severe to ideas than to actions; do not overlook the strength of the bad cause or the weakness of the good”.
The giving back of the essays ought to be a very valuable lesson. Happy passages should be read aloud, weak passages criticised, each paper estimated as a whole, and the pupil ought to leave the class, feeling that if the work were to be done again, she at least understands the general drift of the subject and could treat it more adequately than before.
I venture to illustrate my meaning, the subject set being a discussion of the policy of Francis I. in his relations with Charles V. The essay should show that Francis I., like his predecessors in the Italian expeditions, Charles VIII. and Louis XII., failed to realise in what direction lay the true interests of France, with regard to the new problem of balance of power. By entering into personal rivalry with Charles and striving for territorial conquest in Italy, Francis lost the opportunity which should have belonged to France, of controlling the European situation. If he had only been content with securing gateways into Italy and making alliances with the northern Italians and German Protestant princes against Imperial encroachments, he would have gained the casting vote in European affairs and have held the key to the problem, which it was not permitted to France, till the time of Richelieu, to solve.
Post-school work.A word or two as to the way in which the teacher can help her old pupils to read history. There are a fortunate few who pass on to the universities. An increasing number can attend University Extension lectures and become members of a local Students’ Association. But it is those who are not within reach of any local organisation, who are glad of a little help. To these, when they first leave school, an old girls’ Reading Society is generally welcome. The regular reading it requires is a training in methodical arrangement of time, and schemes of reading, with plenty of choice, are a help to those who have hitherto had all their intellectual work arranged for them. Teachers have sometimes found it possible to take up parties to the Summer Extension meetings. Parents are willing to let their daughters go with responsible guardians, and the preparatory reading is a great interest, besides the stimulus that the lectures themselves give to subsequent work at home.
Conclusion.The educational value of historical study does not belong to this paper, but I end by quoting three passages, which are full of encouragement to the teacher of history. They are referred to by Lord Acton in his famous lecture at Cambridge.
“The study of modern history is, next to theology itself and only next in so far as theology rests on a divine revelation, the most thoroughly religious training that the mind can receive.” (Bishop Stubbs.)
“History is full of indirect but very effective moral teaching. It is not only, as Bolingbroke called it, philosophy teaching by examples, but it is morality teaching by examples. It is essentially the study which best helps the student to conceive large thoughts. It is impossible to overvalue the moral teaching of history.” (Sir J. Fitch.)