7. What should be the form of the syllabus?
The conclusions reached by the committee may be briefly summarized. Two or two and one-half forty-five-minute periods a week should be allotted, and the subject should be correlated with United States history. Instruction in civics should aim to train the mind, to develop political intelligence, to awaken civic consciousness, to interest the pupil in civic duty, and to prepare him, through instruction and practice, for its exercise. The scope of the subject should include actual government as found in the local unit, the State, and the nation, with so much of the history of government as is needed to explain present institutions and conditions. Enough of the theory of government should be given to establish an orderly arrangement of the subject matter in the pupil’s mind. The ethical principles underlying government should be examined in a concrete way; and attention should be given to the application of these principles in the social duties of school life.
Civics should not be confounded with constitutional history. It is important enough to have its own field, and, while correlated with history, economics and ethics, should not be trammeled by either of these.
The most serious problem which the committee had to solve was that of the order of topics. Should local or national government come first? The majority of the committee favored local, State, national as the order. They also decided that not more than one-fourth of the time should be given to a study of the federal government.
Much stress is laid on the importance of studying local government, so far as possible, at first hand. This necessitates frequent, systematically-planned visits to local bodies and careful study of local documents, such as reports, specimen papers, etc.
No hard and fast form for the syllabus has been used. Sometimes topics, sometimes questions, and again statements are used wherever best adapted to the purpose.
The committee consists of Dr. Hay Greene Huling, English High School, Cambridge, chairman; Wilson R. Butler, High School, New Bedford; Professor L. B. Evans, Tufts College; Dr. John Haynes, Dorchester High School; Dr. W. B. Munro, Harvard University. Mr. Butler is editor for the committee.
Report of the Committee of Eight.
This report on history in the elementary grades has been prepared by a committee of the American Historical Association, Professor James A. James, of Northwestern University, chairman, and will be published this fall by “Scribner’s.” The work for each of the eight grades is treated in detailed topics accompanied by reading lists for teachers and for pupils. The object of the course for the first two grades is “to give the child an impression of primitive life and an appreciation of public holidays.” Grade three deals with Heroes of Other Times, Columbus, and the Indians. In the fourth and fifth grades emphasis is placed on Historical Scenes and Persons in American History. The object sought in grade six is to impress on the child’s mind that “the beginnings of American ways of living are to be sought far back in the story of the world.” The topics, therefore, seek to bring out the contributions made by Greeks, Romans, and the people of medieval Europe, especially England, closing with the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The seventh grade topics deal with the exploration and settlement of North America and the growth of the colonies to 1763. The eighth grade topics bring United States history down to the present time, and suggest subjects for supplementary talks on European history.
The report also contains a chapter on Methods, an “Outline for Teaching the Development of a Constitutional Government in the Eighth Grade in Three Lessons of Forty Minutes Each,” contributed by Miss Blanche A. Cheney, of the Lowell, Mass., State Normal School; an “Outline for Teaching the Birth of the German Nation in the Eighth Grade,” by Miss Blanche E. Hazard, of the Brockton, Mass., High School; an article on elementary civics, and appendices on history teaching in German, French and English elementary schools.