A RESTATEMENT BY JAMES ALTON JAMES, OF NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE.
Teachers of history, the country over, have for the past ten years been grateful that the American Historical Association assumed that history for the secondary schools offered problems in which its members were vitally interested. In all of our schools to-day some effect of the revolution wrought by the report of the Committee of Seven may be observed. It was not going far afield, then, when the same association, observing the heterogeneous condition existing also in the presentation of history in the elementary schools, should have proffered some assistance. At the Chicago meeting of the association, therefore, teachers of history from elementary and high schools, from normal schools and colleges, were invited to a conference on the topics: (1) Some suggestions for a course of study in history for the elementary schools; and (2) the preparation most desirable for the teacher of history in these schools. Following the discussion, the resolution was adopted that it was deemed desirable that a committee should be appointed to make out a program in history for the elementary schools and consider other closely-allied topics. In response, the Committee of Eight was selected to consider the problems suggested and prepare a report. Care was exercised in making up the committee to secure a majority who should be in actual touch with the work of the elementary schools. As originally composed, the committee consisted of three superintendents of schools, two teachers in normal schools, and two from the colleges. It cannot be said, therefore, that the report finally presented after four years of labor is the result of the working out of fine-drawn theories on the part of college men.
In fashioning the report, present conditions were kept steadily in mind. Looking towards some uniformity in the program for history in our elementary schools, due praise must always be accorded to the report of the Madison Conference on History, Civil Government and Economics, which was published in 1893, and to the supplementary report of the Committee of Seven. In these reports we find the first significant declarations that history is entitled to a place of dignity in all secondary and elementary school programs. Some two hundred superintendents of schools in different parts of the country have submitted for the consideration of the committee what they believed to be the best programs, and many elementary history teachers have been consulted on various features of the report. Opportunity for discussing the most important phases was given in a number of teachers’ associations in various sections of the country. Through these letters and discussions the committee has obtained many practical suggestions.
The committee has attempted to present a plan of study which would bring about concerted endeavor, avoid duplication of work in the several grades, and produce unity of purpose. To this end, our fundamental proposition is, that history teaching in the elementary schools should be focused around American history. By this we do not mean to imply that American history has to do with events, alone, which have occurred in America. The object is to explain the civilization, the institutions, and the traditions of the America of to-day. America cannot be understood without taking into account the history of its various peoples before they crossed the Atlantic. Indeed, too much emphasis has heretofore been laid upon the Atlantic as a natural boundary not merely of the American continent, but also of the history of America.
The grouping of the subject matter for the several grades is as follows: In the first two grades, the object is to give the child an impression of primitive life and an appreciation of public holidays. To the succeeding three grades is assigned the study of great leaders and heroes; world heroes in the third; American explorers and leaders in America to the period of the Revolution in the fourth; and leaders of the national period in the fifth. In addition, there should be noted the manners, customs, and, so far as possible, the industries of the various sections of the country at the period under discussion.
The sixth grade, as outlined, will at first glance present the greatest difficulties. With full appreciation of this tendency, the committee has carefully and at greater length than for the other grades, defined its position. It is recommended that there should be presented to pupils of this grade those features of ancient and medieval life which explain either important elements of our civilization or which show how the movement for discovery and colonization originated. A glance at the outline shows that it is not intended that the topics should be presented as organized history. It goes without the saying that pupils in this grade are not prepared to study scientific history in its logical and orderly development. But, as stated in the report, they are prepared to receive more or less definite impressions that may be conveyed to them by means of pictures, descriptions, and illustrative stories, arranged in chronological sequence. In receiving such impressions, they will not understand the full meaning of the great events touched upon, but they will catch something of the spirit and purpose of the Greeks, the Romans, and other types of racial life.
For the seventh grade, it is recommended that the growth and settlement of the colonies be taken up with enough of the European background to explain events in America having their causes in England or Europe. Here should be considered also the American Revolution.
The subject matter of the eighth grade would include the inauguration of the new government, the political, industrial and social development of the United States, westward expansion and a brief study of the growth of the great rival states of Europe.
Is it not beyond dispute that much of our teaching of history in the past has failed of proper results for the reason that pupils advancing from grade to grade have been compelled to consider topics with which they have grown familiar? Who has not noted the deadening effect on the interest of pupils, especially in the history of our own country, where the prescribed course found in many schools has been faithfully followed, which provides a text in elementary American history for the fifth and sixth grades, succeeded by a grammar school American history in the next two grades? To secure continued interest, it is advised that there be offered, in each of the several years, one distinct portion or section of our country’s history; that this be presented with as much fulness as possible and that the recurrence in successive years of subject matter that has once been outlined be avoided.
While the proper distribution of historical subject matter is the prime feature of the report, the committee would emphasize the consideration of other items, such as the outline presented for elementary lessons on government; the training suitable for the teacher; the correlation with geography and literature, and the methods to be employed.