The subject of history in the elementary grades has also been treated in a stimulating manner in a course prepared by Superintendent W. F. Gordy for the schools of Springfield, Mass. The work is here outlined for nine grades, the last being devoted to English history as related to the history of our own country.
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?
Bibliographies.
Of considerable value to all progressive teachers of history is the “Annual List of Books on History and Civics,” selected and critically reviewed with reference to their value for high school teachers and pupils prepared by a special committee of the North Central Association under the editorship of Professor W. J. Chase, of the University of Wisconsin. The list comprises new books on teaching history, ancient, medieval and modern, English history and government, United States history and government. Each title is accompanied by name of publisher and price. There is a critical estimate averaging half a page. Text-books and special treatises on a small field are not included. Copies may be obtained of Mr. G. H. Gaston, Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, for twenty-five cents.
“The Atlantic Educational Journal,” published by the Maryland Educational Publishing Company, Baltimore, Md., has a “Bibliography of History for Schools,” prepared by a committee of the Association of History Teachers of Maryland under the chairmanship of Professor C. M. Andrews.
The Macmillan Company published in June the valuable bibliography prepared by Miss Grace Gardner Griffin, entitled “Writings on American History, 1907.” This is the second year of the publication of the work in this form; the volume contains a bibliography of books and articles upon Continental United States and Canada, and some references to other portions of America. Dr. J. Franklin Jameson, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has again supervised the making of the year-book.