8. For directions “How to Tell Stories,” see Ibid, pp. 54-56.
9. For directions “How to Have Stories Reproduced,” see Ibid, pp. 57-58.
10. For a discussion of the difficulties of oral instruction, see Ibid, pp. 59-66.
A Type Lesson for the Grades
BY ARMAND J. GERSON.
THE SPANISH CLAIM.
A Type Lesson.
Of the many complaints made by history teachers in secondary schools regarding preparation given in the grades perhaps none contains a greater amount of truth than the oft-repeated statement that while pupils leave our elementary schools with a large stock of historical terms and phrases they often lack a real grasp of their significance. I know of a pupil who after a whole year of Sixth Grade work defined tax as “money that is paid for tea,” and who honestly thought that George III’s ministers were “a sort of clergymen.” Still more frequent are the instances where the pupil’s notions of terms used are so hazy and inadequate as not to admit of definition at all.
This condition may be variously explained. The trouble is often caused by an improper use of the text-book, the incompetent teacher resting content if the pupil commits the words on the pages and recites them with some semblance of intelligence. In most cases, however, it is safe to say that the misconceptions are the result of the teacher’s failure to grasp the child’s difficulties, his inability to put himself into the pupil’s place and realize the mental equipment which the child brings to the grasping of the new ideas. Be the cause of the difficulty what it may, the recognition of its existence must be the first step toward its removal.
The word “claim” occupies a prominent place among the disturbers of the peace. In the course of the history work the children become familiar with the fact that the voyages and explorations of the Spanish, English, French and Dutch somehow give rise to “land claims” whose overlapping results in interesting international conflicts. Judicious questioning, however, is apt to disclose a surprising lack of definiteness as to the meaning of this word “claim.” In accordance with the type-lesson method this vagueness of comprehension might readily be avoided if the “claim” concept were developed thoroughly in connection with the explorations of a single European nation. In other words, the teaching of a typical claim forms the surest sort of basis for the comprehension of land claims in general. Spain, because of the early date of its explorations, naturally suggests itself as the type. Let the pupil understand intensively all that we can teach him about the Spanish claim—how far it extended, on what it was based, what it meant—and there will be no difficulty when we come to develop the claims of England, France and Holland.