The Use of Geography.
To make these people of antiquity anything but mummies we must compare them and their doings constantly with ourselves. We speak much of our American resources: our broad prairies, our mighty water-powers, our fine harbors, our majestic rivers. These largely condition our lives. Before the coming of modern means of communication and transportation, natural surroundings had even more to do with the destiny of nations. The use of the map (preferably, by all means, the outline map, whether on board or paper, so that it may be drawn on) will be an early essential. And the study of the two great valleys, the Tigris-Euphrates and the Nile, will be emphasized. A good subject for special report in these connections would be a comparison of the Nile with the Hudson; of the Tigris and Euphrates with the Mississippi and the Missouri.
A Few Concrete Bits of Knowledge.
In many of our schools the whole Oriental period is merely skimmed, with the idea of leaving simply a general impression. The demand on time seems to render this imperative. What can we pick out from these earlier lessons and insist on its being retained?
The latest fashion is to regard the Babylonian or Chaldean Empire as antedating the Egyptian. Beginning with that, then dwell on the fact that this was a Semitic race. Relate them to the Jews of to-day, and to Abraham, a Semite from “Ur of the Chaldees.” Place Sargon the Elder at 3800 B.C. as marking, so we are told, the earliest verified date of history. Coming down to 2250 B.C., we reach Hammurabi, certainly the most interesting character of his people. Here again is a good occasion for special report. Some of the text-books give extracts from his code. Let one pupil find out from such extracts, or better yet, from the school library, some of the highly moral and kindly edicts. Let another show what trades and businesses these Babylonians had corresponding to our own, making special note of the fact that the commercial and business practices were highly developed.
The essential thing about the Assyrian Empire is that it was the first power to reach out broadly for world control and to subjugate its neighbors.
The Phœnicians are notable as the great traders of antiquity. Their skill in the arts gave them something to sell, and their location on the Mediterranean developed their powers of navigation. They seem to have been the first over-sea colonizers. Their trade routes and colonies would form a good report topic. By way of anticipation note Carthage, the coming rival of Rome. And our great debt to the Phœnicians is for the phonetic alphabet.
Religious prejudice, or the fear of touching in public schools anything bearing on religion should not be allowed to make us neglect the Hebrew people. True or false, right or wrong, religion is one of the prime forces with mankind. And here we have another Semitic race developing as a matter of fact, regardless of any theories as to its origin, the most sublime monotheism and the purest code of morals which the world had yet seen. Why this should have been so is as mysterious as was the flowering of Greece in the Periclean age. But there is the fact, and every young student should be made familiar with it.
Suggestions for a Lesson on Egypt.
What follows is simply an illustration of one method sometimes used. The whole class is directed to read the account of Egypt. The work is then subdivided for more minute study. Depending on the size of the class, it is divided into topics, one of which is assigned for special preparation to a student or a group of students. At the recitation period ten minutes are given in which each student or group is to write out what has been learned on the particular topic. It will probably not be possible in a large class for each pupil to read the work thus written. But one or two treatments of each topic may be read, and a different set of pupils called on at some other time. Thus the work will be participated in by all. As each topic is read criticisms and suggestions from the class are called for; and first of all from those who have not had that special topic; then in closing, from some student who has written but not read on that particular field. If note-books are used, the teacher may guide as to what shall be written down as the summary of each topic after it is read. A variation of the foregoing scheme is to send as many pupils as possible to the board to write out their topics. Appoint to each writer one or two critics. Let one criticize the English, the spelling, the punctuation (every lesson in history may be a lesson in English); and another the facts. A sample list of such topics for a lesson on Egypt is offered.