THE TEACHING OF HISTORY by ERNEST C. HARTWELL, M. A. Superintendent of Schools, Petoskey, Mich. Riverside Educational MonographsEdited by Henry SuzzalloProfessor of the Philosophy of EducationTeachers College, Columbia University Houghton Mifflin CompanyBoston, New York and ChicagoThe Riverside Press Cambridge 1913 CONTENTS EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION I. SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS II. HOW TO BEGIN THE COURSE III. THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON IV. THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION V. VARIOUS MODES OF REVIEW VI. THE USE OF WRITTEN REPORTS VII. EXAMINATIONS AS TESTS OF PROGRESS OUTLINE EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION This volume is offered as a guide to history teachers of the high schooland the upper grammar grades. It is directly concerned with the teachingmethods to be employed in the history period. The author assumes thelimiting conditions that surround classroom instruction of the presentday; he also takes for granted the teacher's sympathy with modern aimsin history instruction. All discussions of purpose and content aretherefore subordinated to a clear presentation of the details ofeffective teaching technique. The reader into whose hands this volume falls will be deeply interestedin the ideals of teaching implied in the concrete suggestions given inthe following pages, for after all the value of any system of specialmethods rests, not merely on its apparent and immediate psychologicaleffectiveness, but also on the social purposes which it is devised toserve. It must be recognized at the outset that history has a socialpurpose. However much university teaching may be interested in truth forits own sake, an interest necessarily basic to the service of all otherends, the teaching of the lower public schools must take into accountthe relevancy of historical fact to current and future problems whichconcern men and women engaged in the common social life. So theelementary and secondary school teachers of the more progressive sortrecognize that the way in which historical truths are selected andrelated to one another determines two things: (1) Whether our groupexperiences as interpreted in history will have any intelligent effectupon men's appreciations of current social difficulties, and (2) whetherhistory will make a more vital appeal to youth at school. Certainly children, whose interests arise not alone from their innateimpulses, but also from the world in which they have lived from thebeginning, will be eager to know the past that is of dominant concern tothe present. It is clear gain in the psychology of instruction ifhistory is a socially live thing. The children will be more eager toacquire knowledge; they will hold it longer, because it is significant;and they will keep it fresh after school days are over because life willrecall and review pertinent knowledge again and again. There can be noseparation between the dominant social interests of community life andeffective pedagogical procedure; the former in large part determines thelatter. Such educational reforms in history teaching as have already wonacceptance confirm the existence of this vital relation between currentsocial interests and the learning process. The barren learning of namesand dates has long since been supplanted by a study of sequences amongevents. The technical details of wars and political administrations havegiven way to a study of wide economic and social movements in whichbattles and laws are merely overt results reinforcing the current ofchange. History, once a self-inclosed school discipline, has undergonean intellectual expansion which takes into account all the aspects oflife which influence it, making geographical, economic, and biographicalmaterials its aids. All these and many other minor changes attest thefact that a vital mode of instruction always tends to accompany thatview of history which regards the study of the past as a revelation ofreal social life. The author's suggestions will, therefore, be of distinct value to atleast two groups of history teachers. Those who believe in the largeruses of history teaching, so much argued of late, will find here theprocedures that will express the ideals and obtain the results theyseek. Those who are not yet ready to accept modern doctrine, but whofeel a keen discontent with the older procedure, will find in thesepages many suggestions that will appeal to them as worthy ofexperimental use. It may be that the successful use of many methods heresuggested may be the easy way for them to come into an acceptance of thelarger principles of current educational reform. THE TEACHING OF HISTORY I SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS _Assumptions as to the teacher of history_ This monograph will make no attempt to analyze the personality of theideal teacher. It is assumed that the teacher of history has an adequatepreparation to teach his subject, that he is in good health, and thathis usefulness is unimpaired by discontent with his work or cynicismabout the world. It is presupposed that he understands the wisdom ofcorrelating in his instruction the geography, social progress, andeconomic development of the people which his class are studying. He isaware that the pupil should experience something more than akaleidoscopic view of isolated facts. He recognizes the folly ofrequiring four years of high school English for the purpose ofcultivating clear, fluent, and accurate expression, only to relax theeffort when the student comes into the history class. He knows that theprecision, logic, and habit of definite thinking exacted by the pursuitof the scientific subjects should not be laid aside when the studentattempts to trace the rise of nations. Let us go so far as to assume ateacher who is both pedagogical and practical; scholarly without beingmusty; imbued with a love for his subject and yet familiar with actualhuman experience. _Actual conditions confronted by the teacher_ There are from one hundred and eighty to two hundred recitation periodsof forty-five minutes each, minus the holidays, opening exercises, athletic mass meetings, and other respites, in which to teach a thousandyears of ancient history, twenty centuries of English history, or thestory of our own people. The age of the student will be from thirteen toeighteen. His judgment is immature; his knowledge of books, small; hisinterest, far from zealous. He will have three other subjects to prepareand his time is limited. Also, he is a citizen of the Republic and byhis vote will shortly influence, for good or ill, the destinies of thenation. The purpose of this monograph is to discuss the means by which theteacher can engender in this student a genuine enthusiasm for thesubject, stimulate research and historical judgment, correlate history, geography, literature, and the arts, cultivate proper ideals ofgovernment, establish a habit of systematic note-taking, and possiblyprepare the student for college entrance examinations. II HOW TO BEGIN THE COURSE Very obviously each moment of the child's time and preparation should bewisely directed. Each recitation should perform its full measure ofusefulness, in testing, drilling, and teaching. There will be no timefor valueless note-taking, duplication of map-book work, ambiguous orfoolish questioning, aimless argument, or junketing excursions. _What should be done on the day of enrollment_ The day that the child enrolls in class should begin his assigned work. In the first ten minutes of the first meeting of the class, while theteacher is collecting the enrollment cards, he should also gather somedata as to his students' previous work in history. This information willbe of considerable assistance to the teacher in letting him know what hemay reasonably expect of his new pupils. The class should not departwithout a definite assignment for the next day. Let the preparation forthe first recitation consist in answering such questions as:-- 1. What is the name of the text you are to use? (Know its precise title. ) 2. What is the name, reputation, and position of the author? 3. Of what other books is he the author? 4. Read the preface of the book. 5. What do you think are the purposes of the subject you are about to take up? 6. Give the titles and authors of other books on the same period of history. 7. What has been your method of study in other courses of history? _What should be done at the first meeting of the class_ On the second day when the class assembles, let as many of the studentsas possible be sent to the board to answer questions on the day'sassignment. The pupil will immediately discover that the teacherpurposes to hold the class strictly responsible for the preparation ofassigned work. The teacher will face a class prepared to ask intelligentquestions about the course they are entering upon. The class willdiscover that work is to begin at once. The inertia of the vacation willbe immediately overcome. _Necessity for definite instruction in methods of preparing a lesson_ Having secured, by class discussion and the work at the board, satisfactory answers to the first six questions, and having assigned thelesson for the next day, the remainder of the hour and, if necessary, the rest of the week should be spent in outlining for the student amethod of study. That very few students of high school age possesshabits of systematic study, needs no discussion. In spite of all thattheir grade teachers may have done for them, their tendency is to passover unfamiliar words, allusions, and expressions, without troubling touse a dictionary. The average high school student will not read the fineprint at the bottom of the page, or use a map for the location of placesmentioned in the text without special instruction to do so. He will sethimself no unassigned tasks in memory work. It is the first business ofthe good instructor to teach the student _how_ to study. The first stepin this process is to impress on the student's mind that systematicpreparation in the history class is as necessary as in Latin, physics, or geometry. Then let the following or similar instructions be givenhim:-- 1. Provide yourself with an envelope of small cards or pieces of note paper. Label each with the subject of the lesson and the date of its preparation. These envelopes should be always at hand during your study and preparation. They should be preserved and filed from day to day. 2. Read the lesson assigned for the day in the textbook, including all notes and fine print. 3. Write on a sheet of note paper all the unfamiliar words, allusions, or expressions. Later, look these up in the dictionary or other reference. 4. Record the dates which you think worthy to be remembered. 5. Discover and make a note of all the apparent contradictions, inconsistencies, or inaccuracies in the author's statements. 6. Use the map for all the places mentioned in the lesson. Be able to locate them when you come to class. 7. In nearly every text there is a list of books for library use, given at the beginning or end of each chapter. Make yourself familiar with this bibliography. 8. Read the special questions assigned for the day by the teacher. 9. Go to the library. If the book for which you are in search is not to be found, try another. 10. Learn to use an index. If the topic for which you are looking does not appear in the index, try looking for the same thing under another name; or under some related topic. 11. Having found the material in one book, use more than one if your time permits. When you feel that you have secured the material which will make a complete answer to the question, _write the answer on one of your cards for keeping notes. _ 12. Remember that the teacher will ask constantly _what_ was done, _when_ was it done, and, most important of all, _why_ it was done. Make a list of the questions which you think most likely to be asked on the lesson and ascertain whether you can answer them without the use of your notes or text. 13. If possible practice your answers aloud. It will make you the more ready when called on in class. 14. Keep a list of things which are not clear to you and about which you wish to ask questions. 15. Before completing your preparation, read over these instructions and be sure that you have complied with them. It may be claimed that no high school student can be expected to followsuch instructions and that to secure such a daily preparation isimpossible; in answer to which it must be admitted that merely aperfunctory talk on methods of preparation will accomplish little. Ifthe instruction just suggested is to bear fruit, the teacher must takepains to see that it is followed. Carefully to prepare his lessonaccording to a definite plan must become a _habit_ with the student. Facility, accuracy, and thoroughness are impossible otherwise. Haphazardmethods are wasteful of time and unproductive of results. The teachercan afford to emphasize method during the first few weeks of the course. The time thus spent in assisting the pupil to develop definite habits ofstudy will pay rich dividends for the remainder of the student's life. Daily inquiry as to the method of study pursued, frequent examination ofthe student's notes, questions on the important dates selected, thebooks used for preparation, new words discovered, and so on, will keepthe importance of the plan before the class and do much to foster thehabit of systematic preparation. _The question of note-taking_ On the question of notebook work, there will always be a considerabledifference of opinion. It is much easier to state what notebook workshould not be than to outline precisely how it should be conducted. Certainly it should not be overdone. It should not be an exerciseusurping time disproportionate to its value. It should not be requiredprimarily for exhibition purposes, although such notes as are keptshould be kept neatly and spelled correctly. Students should be encouraged to keep their envelope of note paperalways at hand during recitation and while reading. The habit of jottingdown facts, opinions, statistics, comparisons, and contradictions _whilethey are being read_ is most desirable and worthy of cultivation. Thestudent should be taught the wisdom of keeping his notes in a neat, legible, and easily available form. Shorthand methods should bediscouraged. With a little tactful direction early in the year, thestudent may be led to form a most useful habit. The greater theproportion of intelligent note-taking that is done without compulsion, the better. No more notes should be _required_ than the teacher canhonestly look over, correct, and grade. It is better to require no notesat all than to accept careless, superficial inaccuracies as honest work. One curse of high school history teaching is the tendency of youngteachers trained in college history classes to assign more work than thestudent can honestly do or the teacher properly correct. As has already been intimated, history notes should not be kept in abook. The required notes should be kept on separate sheets of paper. Thetopics should be clearly indicated at the top of each sheet. Theauthorities used in arriving at the answer should always be given, withthe volume, chapter, and page. The notes on related topics should be putinto an envelope and properly labeled. After the recitation the studentcan make any necessary corrections in his notes without spoiling theirappearance. He will simply substitute a new sheet for the old. If theteacher discovers in his periodic examination of the notes that some ofthe matter asked for has not been properly covered or that errors havenot been corrected, the notes needing revision can be detained for usein a conference with the student, while the others are returned. If atany time after completing his high school work the student desires touse the data contained in his notes or to add to them matter which hemay later read, they are in available form. For convenience andneatness, for present use, and future reference this device is farsuperior to the formal notebook. It has the further advantage ofaccustoming the student to the method of note-taking which will berequired of those who go to college. It would save much valuable time, at present frequently wasted inwriting useless notes, if the teacher constantly squared his notebookrequirements with questions such as these:-- 1. Is the notebook work as I am conducting it calculated to develop the habit of critical reading? 2. Does the time spent in writing up notes justify itself by fixing in the child's mind new and really relevant information not given in the text? 3. Is it teaching students to combine facts, opinions, and statistics, to form conclusions really their own? 4. Is the amount of work required reasonable when it is remembered that the child has three other subjects to prepare, that he is from thirteen to eighteen years of age, and more or less unfamiliar with a library? 5. Am I able carefully and punctually to correct all the notes required? Whatever the method the teacher thinks best to be used should beexplained early in the course and thereafter the student should be heldscrupulously responsible for such requirements as are made. _Instruction in the use of the library and indexes_ Having discussed with the class the questions assigned on the day ofenrollment and explained the method of study recommended for their use, it will be well for the teacher to devote some time to instruction inthe use of the library. It is possible that the older classes willrequire very little of this, but there are few classes where an hour, atleast, cannot well be spent in a discussion of indexes, titles, andrelative value of the works on various subjects. This hour need not bethe regular recitation period. A session before or after school could bedevoted to the purpose. The teacher's instruction, however, will begreatly assisted if the students are asked to prepare answers beforecoming to class to such questions as the following:-- 1. How much previous work have you done in the library? 2. Of what use do you think the library should be to you in the course you are just entering? 3. What is a source book? Of what use are source books? 4. What source books on this period of history are in the library? 5. What do you think will be the best references for questions on the artistic, industrial, political, social, economic, and military phases of the history you are about to study? 6. What encyclopedias and works of general reference are in your library? The preparation of answers to such questions as these will present tothe student some of the difficulties inevitable to his future librarywork and will send him to class prepared to ask intelligent questions. It will enable the teacher accurately to gauge how much his studentsalready know about a library and its uses. The value and advantage of library work should be carefully explained tothe class. It is a great error to allow pupils to think of theirlibrary work as drudgery, assigned solely to keep them busy or to makethe course difficult. There are too few boys to-day with a genuine loveof books, partly no doubt due to the fact that a reference library hasbecome for them, not a rich mine of interesting matter, but ahydra-headed interrogation point. A great good has been done the studentwho has been taught the pleasure of using books. Nor is such a thingimpossible. Nothing gives greater satisfaction to the normal high schoolboy than to find an error in the text, the teacher's statements, or themap. He takes pleasure in confuting the statistics or judgments quotedin class, by others of opposite trend, encountered in his reading. Heenjoys asking keen questions. If the student is told that the librarywork is for the purpose of cultivating his powers of investigation andadding to the matter in the text many interesting details; if thelibrary requirements are reasonable and wisely directed; if he is givenan opportunity to _use_ the information he has gathered from hisreading, his interest in books will steadily increase. The teacher should explain the value of remembering accurately thetitles and the authors of books used for reference. The silly habit ofreferring to an authority as "the book bound in green" or "the largebook by what's his name" is easily prevented if taken in time. The teacher should discover by assignments made in class what degree ofproficiency in the use of an index is already possessed by his pupils. There are few classes where the use of an index is thoroughlyunderstood. Time should be taken to demonstrate the quickest possiblemethods of finding what a book contains. The use of the catalogue andcard index should be carefully explained and illustrated. Attention should be called to the best sources on the various phases ofthe history to be studied. There ought to be no poor histories in thelibrary, but if there are any to which the students have access, warningshould be given against their use. The value of periodicals and current literature for work in historyshould be illustrated and the use of _Poole's Index_ and the _ReadersGuide_ explained. The class should be acquainted with the rules of the library andcautioned against the misuse of books. The necessity of leavingreference books where all the class can use them should be madeapparent. Direction in the use of the library, like instruction in the method ofstudy, is a prerequisite to the best results in high school historyclasses, for no matter how conscientious the teacher, the recitationwill be deadly if the student has no working knowledge of the librarynor proper method of preparation. A class unable to ask intelligentquestions about the work is not ready for the presentation of additionalmatter by the teacher. It is no difficult matter for a teacher toentertain his class for an hour with interesting incidents of the periodin which the lesson occurs. A history teacher who cannot talkinterestingly for an hour on any of the great periods of history hassurely missed his calling. But to keep a class quiet, to retain theirattention, to amuse and entertain, is far from making history vital. Ifthe recitation is to be really vital, the students must do most of thetalking, the criticizing, and the questioning. There can be none ofthese worth while without proper preparation. III THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON _Careful assignment will reveal to the student the relation of geographyand history_ The recitation can never hope to achieve its maximum helpfulness unlessthe lesson be intelligently assigned. The work required must bereasonable in amount, and not so exacting as to discourage interest. Daily direction to look up unfamiliar words, expressions, and allusionsmust be given until the habit becomes fixed. Warning against possiblegeographical misconceptions should be given when necessary, togetherwith directions to use the map for places, routes, and boundaries. A fewquestions asked in advance, with the purpose of bringing out therelation of the geography to the history in the lesson, will be of greatassistance. For example, if the class are to study the LouisianaPurchase, the full significance of that revolutionary event will be mademuch clearer if the student is asked to prepare answers before coming toclass to such questions as the following:-- 1. What States are included in the purchase? 2. What is its area? How does it compare with the area of the original thirteen States? 3. What geographical reasons caused Napoleon to sell it? 4. What influence did the purchase have on our retention of the territory east of the Mississippi? Why? 5. How many people live to-day in the territory included in the purchase? _His power of analysis and criticism will be stimulated_ A lesson should be so assigned that the student will read the text withhis eye critically open to inconsistencies, contradictions, andinaccuracies. With a text of six hundred pages, and with a hundred andeighty recitations in which to cover them, it is not too much to expectthat the average of three or four pages daily shall be studied sothoroughly that the student can analyze and summarize each day's lesson. The teacher should not make such analysis in advance of the recitation, but he should so assign the lesson that the student will be prepared togive one when he comes to class. A word in advance by the teacher willprompt the student who is studying the American Revolution, to classifyits causes as direct and indirect, economic and political, social andreligious. There is no difficulty in finding good authorities whodisagree as to the effect on America of the English trade restrictions. Callendar's _Economic History of the United States_ quotes five of thebest authorities on this point, and covers the case in a few pages. Areference by the teacher to this or some other authority will bring outa lively discussion on the justice of the American resistance. Let theclass be asked to account for the colonial opposition to the TownshendActs, when the Stamp Act Congress had declared that the regulation ofthe Colonies' external trade was properly within the powers ofParliament. Let the class be asked to explain a statement that theDeclaration of Independence does not mention the real underlying causesof the Revolution. A few suggestions and advanced questions of this sortwill stimulate a critical analysis of the statements in the text, andsend the student to class keen for an intelligent discussion. Ordinarily, when a class is averaging three or four pages of the textdaily, it is an error for the teacher to point out in advance certaindates and statistics that need not be memorized. Such selection shouldbe left to the student. During the recitation the teacher will discoverwhat dates, statistics, and other matter the student has selected asworthy to be memorized, and if correction is necessary it may then bemade. It dulls the edge of the pupil's enthusiasm to be told in advancethat some of the text is not worthy to be remembered. Furthermore suchinstruction does nothing to develop the student's sense of historicalproportion, for it substitutes the judgment of the teacher for that ofthe pupil. Advance questions asking explanation of statements made in the text, orby other authors dealing with the same period, insure that the lessonwill be read understandingly and that the author's statements will becarefully analyzed. Such declarations as the following are illustrationsof statements whose explanation might profitably be required inadvance:-- 1. "The Constitution was extracted by necessity from a reluctant people. " 2. "Oregon was a make-weight for Texas. " 3. "The greatest evil of slavery was that it prevented the South from accumulating capital. " 4. "The day that France possesses New Orleans we must marry ourselves to the British fleet. " 5. "The cause of free labor won a substantial triumph in the Missouri Compromise. " 6. "The second war with England was not one of necessity, policy, or interest on the part of the Americans; it was rather one of party prejudice and passion. " _The conditions in other countries will add to his comprehension of thefacts in the lesson_ In so far as the next lesson requires an understanding of the history orconditions of another country, the attention of the class should bedirected in advance to such necessity. Special references or briefreports may be advisable. A few well-selected advance questions willsend the class to recitation prepared to discuss what otherwise theteacher must explain. A few questions on the character of James II, hisideals of government, the chief causes of the revolution of 1688, andits most important results will do much to explain the colonialresistance to Andros. A few questions designed to bring out theimperative necessity of English resistance to Napoleon will make clearthe hostile commercial decrees, impressment, and interference with therights of neutral ships. Such questions reduce the necessity ofexplanation by the teacher to a minimum. _His disposition to study intensively will be encouraged_ If the teacher expects the class to deal more intensively than the textwith the matters discussed in the lesson, a few advance questions willbe of great assistance. Suppose, for example, that the text contentsitself with saying that for political reasons the first United StatesBank was not rechartered, and shortly after informs the reader that thesecond United States Bank was rechartered because the State banks hadsuspended specie payments. The student may or may not be curious aboutthe failure of the first bank to receive a new charter, the operation ofState banks, or why they suspended payment in 1814. If he has beenproperly taught, he probably will be, but if the teacher wishes todiscuss these considerations in detail at the next recitation it will beinfinitely better to have the facts contributed by the class than forthe teacher to do the reciting. It is quite possible that the individualanswers to advance questions assigned with such a purpose will beincomplete, but the interest of the class will be incalculably greaterif they themselves furnish the bulk of the additional matter required. Collectively the class will usually secure complete answers toreasonable questions. The teacher has his opportunity in supplying suchimportant facts as the students fail to find. Until the student may reasonably be expected to know the books of thelibrary having to do with his subject, the teacher in giving out anadvance lesson should mention by author and title the books most helpfulin the preparation of assigned questions; otherwise the student in aperfectly sincere effort to do the work assigned may spend an hour insearch of the proper book. It may be urged that this search is a valuable experience, but it isobviously too costly. As the year advances and the pupil learns more andmore about the uses of books and methods of investigation increasinglyless specific instruction as to sources should be given by the teacher. Early in the year, with four lessons to prepare daily, the pupil cannotafford an hour simply to search for a book. He needs that hour forpreparation of other work, and if by some fortunate conjunction ofcircumstances his other work is not sufficiently exacting to require it, he cannot hope to appear in history class with a well-prepared lessonif an hour of his time has been spent in simply looking for a book. It is frequently worth while to spend a few minutes of the recitation incharacterizing the epoch in which the events of the lesson take place orin listening to a brief character sketch of the men contributing tothese events. Care should of course be taken that biography does notusurp the place of history, but it materially adds to the interest ofthe recitation if the kings, generals, and statesmen cease to be merelyhistorical characters and become human beings. _His acquaintance with the great men and women of history will bevitalized_ It is needless to say that characterizations of men or epochs should notbe assigned without instruction as to how they should be prepared. Inthe case of a great historical character, what is needed for classpurposes is not a biography with the dry facts of birth, marriage, death, etc. The report should be brief, but bristling with adjectivessupported in each case by at least one fact of the man's life. These maybe selected from his personal appearance, private life, amusements, education, obstacles overcome, public services, political sagacity, ormilitary prowess. The sketch may close with a few brief estimates bybiographers or historians of his proper place in history. If a characterization of a period of history is to be required, theteacher should explain that such a characterization should be anexercise in the selection of brief statements of fact reflecting theideals, institutions, and conditions of the period being described. Fromhistories, source books, fiction, and literature, let the student selectfacts illustrating such things as the spirit of the laws, conditions atcourt, public education, amusements of the people, social progress, position of religion, etc. A little time spent in characterizing aperiod of history and a few of its great men will assist in changing therecital of the bare facts given in the text to an intelligentunderstanding of conditions and a vital discussion of events. Forinstance, the ordinary high school text, in dealing with the French andIndian war, speaks briefly of the lack of English success during theearly part of the struggle and then says that with the coming of Pitt tothe ministry the whole course of events was changed because of the greatstatesman's wonderful personality. The teacher who wishes to make such adramatic circumstance really vital to his class must have moreinformation with which to work. A picture of the coarse, vulgar Englandwith its incompetent army and navy, apathetic church, and corruptgovernment, followed by a stirring character sketch of the great Pitt, will cost but a few minutes of the recitation and will metamorphose amoribund attention to a vital interest. Care should be taken that the characterizations given in class beproperly prepared. To this end it will be well to assign the preparationof these sketches at least a week in advance, at the same time arranginga conference with the student a day or two before the recitation. Inthis conference the teacher should make such corrections in the pupil'smethod of preparation and selection of matter as seem necessary. Thecharacterizations should not be read, but delivered by the studentfacing the class, precisely for the moment as though he were theteacher. Future tests and examinations should hold the class responsiblefor the facts thus presented. If, as is too often the case in work ofthis sort, the student giving the report is the sole beneficiary of theexercise, the time required is disproportionate to the benefit derived. _He will correlate the past and the present_ If there are facts recounted in the lesson that may be clinched in thestudent's mind by showing the relation of those facts to present-dayconditions or institutions, a few advance questions calculated to bringout this relationship may well be assigned. It is generally conceded that one chief purpose of history instructionis to enable us to interpret the present and the future in the light ofthe past, but it all too often happens that current history is forgottenin the recital of facts that are centuries old. Candidates for teachers'certificates in their examinations in United States history show farless knowledge about the great problems and events of the present daythan they do of colonial history. The student in English history in ourhigh schools to-day knows all about the Domesday Book, but almostnothing of the recent history of England. Quite possibly the text hasnothing to say about it, and it is equally likely that the class mayfail to cover the text and miss the little that is actually given. Noopportunity should be missed to indicate the bearing of the past onpresent-day conditions. Even if the events of the lesson exert no directinfluence on affairs to-day, their significance may be brought home tothe student by an illustration from current history. The account of theBlack Death gives excellent occasion for a brief discussion of modernsanitation and the war on the White Plague. The efforts of Parliament tofix wages can be illustrated by some of the minimum wage laws passed byrecent legislatures. John Ball's teachings suggest a brief discussion ofmodern socialism, daily becoming more active in its influence. Themedieval trade guilds and modern labor unions; the monopolies ofElizabeth's time and the anti-trust law of to-day; George the Third'stwo hundred capital crimes and modern methods of penology; the jealousyof Athens in guarding the privilege of citizenship and the facility withwhich immigrants at present become American citizens are only a fewillustrations, indicating the ease with which the past and the presentmay be correlated. _He will be required to memorize a limited amount of matter verbatim_ In assigning a lesson it is sometimes desirable to require certainmatter to be learned _verbatim_. In American history the Preamble to theConstitution, the principles of government contained in the Declarationof Independence, the essential doctrine in the Virginia and KentuckyResolutions, certain clauses of the Constitution, and extracts fromother historical documents may well be required to be memorizedaccurately. It is scarcely to be supposed that the student can improveon the clarity and definiteness of the English in such documents. He isexpected to understand the principles which they assert. He may well berequired to train his memory to accuracy by learning certain assignments_verbatim_. If memory work received a little more attention in our highschools to-day, we should be less likely to hear the statement of apolitical creed neutralized by the omission of an important word. Weshould be less likely to see the classic words of Lincoln mangled beyondrecognition by messy misquotation. The assignment of advance questions such as have been suggestedpossesses several advantages. It makes it possible for the teacher tohold the class responsible for definite preparation, very much as theteacher in algebra is able to do with the problems assigned in advance. It forces the students to do most of the talking. It encourages anintelligent use of the library in a manner calculated to develop thestudent's powers of investigation. If the pupil forgets most of hishistory, but retains the ability to investigate carefully, thoroughly, and critically, the plan has more than justified itself. The planenables the teacher to spend his time in explanation of what the pupilhas been unable to do for herself, and thus effects a considerablesaving in time. It would be interesting to secure a statement of howmuch of the teacher's time is ordinarily spent in doing for the studentin recitation what he should have done for himself before coming toclass. It substitutes for the pupil's snap judgment, given without muchthought and too frequently influenced by the inflection of the teacher'svoice, an opinion that has resulted from research and deliberationunbiased by the teacher's personal views. It is too much to expect high school pupils to solve historical problemsextemporaneously. If inferences and contrasts other than those given inthe text are to be drawn, if statements are to be defended or opposed, the high school student should be given time to prepare his answer. Aside from the injustice of any other procedure, it is a hopeless wasteof time to spend the precious minutes of the recitation in gatheringnegative replies and worthless judgments. _Methods of preparing questions assigned in advance_ It may be urged that such an assignment of a lesson as that proposed istoo ambitious and that it exacts too much of the teacher's time. Inanswer it should be said that specialists in history ought surely tohave read widely enough and studied deeply enough to be _able_ to selectintelligent questions of the sort suggested. We have assumed that theteacher has made adequate preparation for his work. Certainly, then, heshould be ready to explain the social, geographical, and economicrelation of the events mentioned in the lesson. He should know theirbearing on current history. He should always have ready a fund ofinformation, additional to that given in the text. In preparing advancequestions for distribution to the class the teacher is preparing his ownlesson. He may be doing it a day or two earlier than he would otherwisedo, but surely he is performing no labor additional to what mayreasonably be expected of him. As to the time required to prepare copiesof the questions for distribution when the class convenes, it may besaid that a neostyle or mimeograph, with which all large schools andmany small ones are equipped, makes short work of preparing as manycopies of the questions as desired. If there is a commercial departmentin connection with the school, an available stenographer, or a willingstudent helper, the teacher may easily relieve himself of the work ofsupplying the copies. If none of these expedients are possible, it is noHerculean task to write each day on the board the few questions for thenext lesson. It will entail no great loss of time if the class are askedto copy them when they first come to recitation. If it is possible tocopy them after the recitation, so much the better. And beyond theobvious advantages of a carefully assigned lesson it must be rememberedthat in the assignment of special topics, in private conferences withthe student, in the correction of notes, in giving assistance in thelibrary, the teacher has an opportunity to cultivate a sympatheticrelation between himself and the class of inestimable service insecuring the best results. IV THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION _Assumptions as to the recitation room_ Let us now assume that the recitation will be held in a quiet room freefrom the distracting influence of poor light, poor ventilation, andinadequate seating capacity. The blackboard space is ample for the wholeclass, the erasers and chalk are at hand, the maps, charts, and globeare where they can be used without stumbling over them. The teacher cangive his whole attention to the class. Discipline should take care ofitself. The pupil who is interested will not be seriously out of order. _What the teacher should aim to accomplish_ The problem, then, is so to expend the forty-five minutes in which theteacher and class are together that:-- 1. So far as possible the atmosphere and setting of the period being studied may be reproduced. 2. The great historical characters spoken of in the lesson may become for the student real men and women with whom he will afterwards feel a personal acquaintance. 3. The events described will be understood and properly interpreted in their relation to geography, and the economic and social progress of the world. 4. Causes and effects shall be properly analyzed. 5. And that there shall be left sufficient time for the occasional review necessary to any good instruction. _Work at the blackboard_ The first five minutes may profitably be spent at the board, each memberof the class being asked to write a complete answer to one of theassigned questions. Whatever may happen later in the recitation eachstudent has had at least this much of an opportunity forself-expression, and his work should be neat, workmanlike, complete, andaccurate. By this device the alert teacher will secure in the first fiveminutes of the recitation hour a fairly accurate idea of each student'spreparation, the weak spots in his understanding of the lesson, and theerrors to be corrected. He may even be able to record a grade for thework done. _Special reports_ The class having taken their seats, the next order of business should bethe reports on special topics assigned for the purpose of making theperiod of history under discussion more interesting and vital. As hasbeen said, these reports should not be read, but delivered by the pupilfacing the class. The class should be encouraged to ask questions on thereport when finished and the student responsible for the report shouldbe expected to answer any reasonable inquiry. If other students are ableto contribute to the topics reported on, they should be encouraged to doso. Let the teacher be sure that he has sounded the depths of thestudents' information and curiosity before he himself discusses thereport. If the device of reports delivered in class is to justifyitself, the matter contained in them must be so arranged and discussedthat the whole class receives real benefit. The ingenious teacher willbe able to establish a tradition in his course for a careful preparationand critical discussion of these reports. The rivalry of students forexcellence in this work is not difficult to stimulate. A premium shouldbe put on criticism which finds mentioned in the characterizationqualities inconsistent with the facts recorded in the text, or omissionswhich the facts of the text seem to justify. _Fundamental principles of good questioning_ It is not likely that the teacher will find it advisable to requirereports at every recitation nor that the reports and their discussionwill consume, at the most, longer than ten or fifteen minutes of anyclass period. There must always be time for direct oral questioning onthe facts of the lesson; questioning that will test the student'smemory, ability to analyze, and powers of expression. Certain principlesare fundamental to good questioning in any recitation. 1. The questions should be brief. 2. They should be prepared by the teacher before coming to recitation. This will insure rapidity. A vast deal of time is lost by the unfortunate habit possessed by many teachers of never having the next question ready to use. 3. They should precede the name of the pupil required to answer it. 4. They should not be leading questions to which the pupil can guess the answers. 5. They should be grammatically stated with but one possible interpretation. 6. Except for purposes of rapid review they should not be answerable with yes or no. 7. They should be asked in a voice loud enough to be heard by all the class, and only once. 8. They should be asked in no regular order, but nevertheless in such a way that every member of the class will have a chance to recite. _Some additional suggestions for teachers of history_ There are additional suggestions particularly applicable to the teacherof history. 1. In all the questioning remember the purposes of the recitation. Ask questions knowing exactly what you wish as an answer. There is no time for aimless or idle questioning. 2. Inquire frequently as to the books used in preparation of the lesson. Let no allusion or statement in the text go unexplained. Let none of the author's conclusions or opinions go unchallenged. Ask the student for inconsistencies, inaccuracies, or contradictions in the text. Put a premium on their discovery. Insist on the student's authority for statements other than those given in the text. 3. Do not use the heavy-typed words frequently found at the head of the paragraph or the topical heads furnished by the text, if it can be avoided. The pupil should not be allowed to remember his history by its location in the text. 4. Be sure that the class have an opportunity to recite on the questions assigned for their advance preparation. Nothing is more discouraging to a student than carefully to prepare the work required and then fail of an opportunity either to recite upon or to discuss it. 5. Discover the tastes, shortcomings, and abilities of your individual students and direct your future questions accordingly. There will usually be in the class the boy who is glib without being accurate. He should be questioned on definite facts. There will be the student whose analysis of events is good, but whose powers of description are poor. Adapt your questions to his special need. There will be the pupil with the tendency to memorize the text _verbatim_. There will be the student who knows the facts of the lesson, but who fails to remember the sequence of events--the kind who never can tell whether the Exclusion Bill came before or after the Restoration. There will be the usual amount of specialized tastes, curiosity, timidity, laziness, and rattle-brained thinking. The questioning should probe these peculiarities, and stimulate the pupil's ambition to improve his preparation at its weakest point. Needless to say the questions should not be asked with the daily idea of making the pupil fail. Like any other surgical instrument the question probe should be used skillfully and with a proper motive. It would be as great an error to bend your questions continually away from the student's special tastes and abilities as to be perpetually guided by them. 6. The bulk of the teacher's attention should be given neither to the few exceptionally able students nor to the few very poor pupils. It is to the average normal boy and girl that the most of the questioning should be directed. The brilliant student should be called on sufficiently to retain his interest and to set a standard of excellence for the class. He should be given the most difficult of the assignments of outside work and if necessary an additional number of them. As to the few pupils whom the teacher deems exceptionally poor, it may be said that the effect of questioning should never be to discourage the pupil who has made an honest effort at preparation. During the early part of the course the efforts of the teacher may well be directed to asking the backward student questions to which he can make reasonably satisfactory answers. By saving the student from the daily humiliation of failure before the class, and by tactfully encouraging him to greater effort, the teacher may shortly discover that the poor pupil is far from hopeless. 7. Do not allow your questions to consume a disproportionate amount of time with details. Until very recently in all our history teaching, battles have been exalted to a place immeasurably greater than their importance. We are coming to see that the fighting is one of the least important things in the war. The causes and results, the financial, political, and social effects now absorb our attention. One or two battles in a course may profitably be studied in detail, particularly in the history of our own country, but in the press of considerations far more interesting and vital, it is a waste of time to give more than a moment's notice to the remainder. Student descriptions of battles are bound to be stereotyped. The ordinary textbook describes each of the thousand battles of the world in about the same fifty words. 8. Let some of the questions be directed towards cultivating the student's powers of oral description. History is not altogether a matter of analysis or generalization. There can scarcely be assigned a lesson in history that does not contain events which lend themselves to dramatic description. Their recital should be made the occasion of the student's best efforts in this direction. Let the pupils be taught to use adjectives and adverbs. Break down the barrier of listlessness or fear or self-consciousness which keeps the student from rendering a graphic and thrilling account of great events. 9. Let the questions from day to day develop the continuity of history. Avoid questioning that fails to unite the events of previous lessons with the one being studied. Bring out the connection of the past and the present. Slavery existed in America for two hundred years before the Civil War was fought. Your teaching of those two centuries of history should be so conducted that when the Civil War is finally reached, the class can tell the process by which anti-slavery sentiment was finally crystallized. The hiatus between the mobbing of Garrison in Boston and the extraordinary contribution of Massachusetts to the Northern army should be bridged, not by a heroic question or two when the war is finally reached, but by a daily attention to the events which effected the metamorphosis. 10. If the answer to your question requires the use of a map, ask it in such a way that the student can talk and use the map at the same time. The geographical provisions of a treaty, the routes of explorers, the grants of commercial companies, campaigns, or military frontiers should all be recited in this way. A wall map with simply the outline of the territory, with its rivers, will be of considerable assistance in testing the accuracy of the student's geographical knowledge. While reciting, let him locate with chalk or pointer the cities, arbitrary boundary lines, and routes he finds it necessary to mention in his recitation. It will require special attention early in the course to teach students the necessity for preparation of this sort. Like everything else, map work should be reasonable in its requirements. A knowledge of geography is imperative to the correct understanding of history, and the indifference or ignorance of teachers should never excuse inattention to this vital necessity. On the other hand, however, it is equally reprehensible to require of high school students the labored preparation of maps in the drawing of which hours of valuable time are spent in searching for places of trivial importance and small historical value. Map work in a high school history course should require no more than geographical accuracy in locating boundaries, routes, and places really vital to the history of the people being studied. If it does more than this it usurps time disproportionate to its value. V VARIOUS MODES OF REVIEW _The place of drill in the history recitation_ We have long since learned the folly of spending very many of theminutes of a recitation in drilling students in dates, outlines, andcharts. Work of this sort never made a recitation vital; never inspireda student with enthusiasm for historical inquiry; never really dispelledthe fog which surrounds, for the student, the cabinets andconstitutions, battles and boundaries, declarations and decrees, sobriefly treated in the text. _Good reviews will develop a knowledge of the sequence of events_ But it may be seriously questioned whether many teachers, in their zealto escape the over-emphasis of dates, have not gone to the extreme ofneglecting them altogether. That a student should remember sufficientdates to fix in his mind the sequence of important events is hardly opento question. That he can never do so without some special attention todates is equally indisputable. Without doubt, drill in important datesis necessary, but it should be so conducted as to take but little time. Each day the teacher has indicated the dates worthy to be remembered andhas been careful to select the landmarks of history. He has calledattention to the various collateral circumstances which might assist tofix the dates in the child's mind. The student has kept his list ofdates in the back of his text or in some convenient place of reference. Once a week for three minutes the teacher gives the class a rapid reviewon the dates contained in the list. Occasionally the class are sent tothe board and asked to write the dates of the reigns of the Englishmonarchs from William down to the point which the class has reached, orthe Presidents in their order, or some other similar exercise calculatedto give a backbone to the history being studied. The class will knowthat such a review is liable to be given at any time. They will endeavorto be prepared. The result will be that with the expenditure of a fewminutes at intervals in rapid review, history will cease to be aspineless narrative and become for the student an orderly procession ofevents. Drill in dates is only one method to this end. There may be arapid review in battles, generals, wars, treaties, proclamations, andinventions. Such exercises encourage the classification of facts andstimulate fluency of expression. It is of the highest importance for thestudent so to arrange in his mind what he has learned in recitation thathe can call to his command at a second's notice the fact, date, orillustration he desires. There will be many times in his school andcollege career when such an ability will be indispensable; in businessor the professions it is an invaluable asset, infinitely more usefulthan the history itself. It will be well for the teacher to inquire:"What am I doing to cultivate such an ability in my students?" _They will give a view of the whole subject_ Few teachers will deny that too little time is spent in giving thestudent a general view of the whole subject, either in its entirety orin its various phases. The text has been studied by chapters or bymonths or by movements. The history as a whole has never been seen. Bythe time the student has reached the "Aldrich Currency Plan" in Americanhistory he has forgotten all about the experiments with the first UnitedStates Bank. He could no more outline the financial history of theUnited States as given in his text than he could outline the industrialor political history of the American people. And yet he has studied thefacts given in his textbook; he has supplemented the text by his work inthe library, and in the recitation; he has done everything that mayreasonably be expected of him, except to assemble his historicalinformation and review it as a whole. If the student in American history is asked to go to the board atintervals and write an outline for the work covered on such topics asthe following, he will come much nearer understanding the progress ofour people:-- 1. History of the tariff. 2. Political parties and principles for which they stood. 3. Things that crystallized Northern sentiment against slavery. 4. Reasons for the unification of the South. 5. Diplomatic relations of the United States. 6. Additions of territory. 7. Financial legislation. 8. Growth of humanitarian spirit. There will easily be sufficient topics so that each member of the classwill have a different one. They can all work at the board, simultaneously. The amount of time used for exercises of this sort neednot be great, and the value received is incalculable. If the teacher wishes to review briefly on the military, diplomatic, social, political, or economic history of the people the class have beenstudying, it is no difficult matter to arrange a set of questions, theoccasional review in which will clinch in the student's mind whatotherwise would surely be forgotten. Such questions as the following onthe financial history of the United States are each answerable with afew words and will serve as an illustration of the method which may beemployed in reviewing any other phase of history:-- 1. By what means was trade accomplished before the use of money? 2. What are the functions of money? 3. What determines the amount of money needed in a country? 4. What has been used for money at various periods of our history? 5. What is meant by doing business on credit? 6. What is cheap money? 7. What is Gresham's Law? 8. What is the effect of large issues of paper money on prices? 9. What is the effect of large issues of paper money on wages? 10. Why does the wage-earner suffer? 11. At what periods in American history have large issues of paper money been emitted? 12. What were the objects of the first United States Bank? 13. Did the bank accomplish them? 14. Why was it not rechartered? 15. When was the second United States Bank chartered? 16. Why? 17. What case decided the constitutionality of the bank? 18. Did the second United States Bank accomplish the purpose for which it was formed? 19. Why was the second United States Bank rechartered? 20. What is meant by "Wildcat Banking"? 21. What are the dates of our greatest panics? 22. What were the chief causes? 23. What was the effect on prices? 24. What on wages? 25. Under what President was the independent treasury first established? 26. Is it in existence to-day? 27. When were greenbacks issued? 28. To what amount? 29. Who was responsible for the issue? 30. Were they legal tender for private debts contracted before their issue? 31. When was the Resumption Act passed? 32. Are the greenbacks in circulation to-day? 33. What is free silver? 34. What was the "Crime of '73"? 35. What was the "Bland-Allison Act"? 36. What was the Currency Act of 1900? 37. What is Bimetallism? 38. What is meant by "Mint Ratio"? 39. What is meant by "Market Ratio"? 40. What is meant by "Free Coinage"? 41. What is meant by "Gratuitous Coinage"? 42. What is meant by "Standard Money"? 43. With the market ratio at 30 to 1 and the mint ratio at 16 to 1, which money would tend to disappear from circulation if both metals are freely coined and made full legal tender? 44. Why is silver not the standard to-day? 45. What is the "Aldrich Plan"? 46. What is a United States bond? 47. Is it a secure investment? 48. What is its average rate of interest? 49. By whom is a national bank chartered? 50. May it issue paper money? 51. When was the first National Banking Act passed? 52. Why? 53. Why should banking business be profitable under the act? 54. What advantage did the Government expect to receive in passing the act? 55. Are deposits guaranteed? 56. May States emit bills of credit? 57. Is it constitutional for banks chartered by the State to emit bills of credit? 58. Do they do so to-day? 59. Why? Obviously as the year advances, the list of questions for review growslonger. An increasing amount of time should therefore be devoted to workof this sort. _They will insure a better acquaintance with great men and women_ The most superficial observation will suffice to convince anyone thathigh school graduates know very little about the great men and women ofhistory. The character sketches suggested earlier in the chapter, supplemented with occasional reviews, will do much to improve thiscondition. These drills may be conducted by asking for brief statementson the greatest service or the most distinguishing characteristic of thegreat men and women met with in the course. The same thing isaccomplished by reversing the process and asking such questionsas, --"Who was the American Fabius"? or "The Great Compromiser"? or the"Sage of Menlo Park"? etc. Questions on the authorship of greatdocuments, the founders of institutions, the organizers of movements, reformers, philosophers, artists, statesmen, generals, accomplish thesame purpose. _They will be economical of time_ There are a vast number of review questions answerable with _yes_ or_no_. The student's knowledge of the subject may be quickly discoveredand a rapid review conducted by a series of such questions. Thefollowing list on American history will illustrate the method:-- 1. Was Cromwell's colonial policy helpful to the American colonies? 2. Did the Revolution of 1688 have any effect on the colonies? 3. Were the Huguenots excluded from Canada? 4. Were the Writs of Assistance used in England? 5. Did America ever have a theocracy? 6. Did the rule of 1756 affect the people of the colonies? 7. Was the Sugar Act legal? 8. Was there any effort to amend the Articles of Confederation? 9. Does funding a debt lessen it? 10. Did Hamilton's measures tend to centralize power? 11. Did the members of the Constitutional Convention exceed their instructions? 12. Is a cabinet provided for in the Constitution? 13. Does the Constitution of the United States prevent a State from establishing a religion? 14. Is it possible for a State to repudiate its debts? 15. Does the constitutional provision for uniform duties protect the Territories? 16. Was impressment practiced in England? 17. Did the Whigs favor internal improvements? 18. Did the North favor the Force Bill of 1833? 19. Did Massachusetts favor the Tariff of 1816? 20. Did the Republican party stand for the abolition of slavery in 1860? 21. Did the Emancipation Proclamation free all the slaves in the United States? 22. Did the working-men of England favor the South during the Civil War? 23. Was it necessary for the South to resort to the draft? 24. Could a man in 1860 consistently accept both the Dred Scott decision and the doctrine of popular sovereignty? 25. Did Lincoln's assassination have any effect on the reconstruction policy? 26. Does the Federal Constitution compel negro suffrage? 27. Was the Anaconda System successful? 28. Was a President of the United States ever impeached? 29. Were the claims for indirect damages in the Alabama claims allowed? 30. Did Calhoun favor the Compromise of 1850? 31. Did Thaddeus Stevens favor the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution? 32. Did Lincoln favor the social equality of the white and black races? 33. Did Grant favor the Tenure of Office Act? 34. Did Lee make more than one attempt to invade the North? 35. Was the "Ohio Idea" ever strong enough to affect legislation? 36. Did Spain have any part in calling out the Monroe Doctrine? 37. Has the United States any control over the debts of Cuba? 38. Has a joint resolution ever been used to acquire territory other than that included in Texas? 39. Has the United States ever resorted to a tax on incomes? 40. Has the Federal Government ever attempted to restrict the power of the press? 41. Is it illegal to-day for a railway to give a cheaper rate to one shipper than to another? 42. Has the Republican party ever reduced the protective tariffs of the war? 43. Did the Civil Service Act passed in 1883 include postmasters? 44. Did the Wilson-Gorman Act reduce the tariff to a revenue basis? 45. Can a railway engaged solely in intra-state business carry a case, involving a reduction of their rates by the State legislature, to the Supreme Court of the United States? 46. Is Utah a part of the Louisiana Purchase? 47. If the mint ratio is 16 to 1 and the market ratio is 17 to 1, will the gold dollar be the standard if there is full legal tender and free coinage for both gold and silver? 48. Is the Canadian frontier fortified? 49. Are the functions of government in this country increasing? 50. Is it possible for a man to be defeated for the Presidency if a majority of the people vote for him? The great disadvantage of this kind of review is that the students havefor their answer a choice between two words, one of which is bound to becorrect. Knowing nothing whatever of the subject, they will still standa fifty per cent chance of answering correctly. The alert teacher shouldbe able to reduce this haphazard answering to a minimum, while stillreaping the advantages of rapidity and thoroughness which the planpossesses. Few other methods will cover as much ground in as short time. On the Federal Constitution there are infinite possibilities for "yesand no" questioning, which afford a brief and effective means of reviewin the principles of American government. _They will secure fluency_ Review for the purpose of securing fluency is a consideration frequentlylost sight of by high school history teachers. It may be too sanguine toexpect fluency of the average student reciting on a topic for the firsttime. But when it is considered how very many important questions arenever recited on but once, the wisdom of an occasional review to securerapid, fluent, and complete answers to topics previously discussed isreadily seen. Select a list of topics that will at one and the same timecultivate fluency and strengthen the memory for the importantconsiderations of history. Fluency in itself does not possess sufficientvalue to justify the expenditure of recitation time. Facility ofexpression needs to be cultivated in discussion of the conclusionsreached in class which need to be clinched in the student's mind. Suchquestions as the following will serve as illustrations of the kindadaptable for such purpose, at the middle of a year course in Americanhistory:-- 1. Give three distinct characteristics of French colonization in America; three of Spanish; three of English. 2. What things did the English colonies possess in common? 3. What were the results to the colonies of the French and Indian War? 4. To what extent was the Revolution brought about by economic causes? 5. What were the defects in the Articles of Confederation? 6. Account for the downfall of the Federalist party. 7. In what ways has democracy advanced since 1789? 8. What were the results of the struggle over the admission of Missouri? 9. Discuss the growth of the sentiment for internal improvements? 10. Describe the social life of the Western pioneer? _What the student may do with "problems" in history_ Still another kind of review of great value in strengthening thestudent's ability to generalize and analyze, consists of what might becalled "problems in history. " They are given out in much the same way asoriginal problems in geometry, assuming that the student is acquaintedwith the facts from which to deduce the answers to the question. Theobject of such a review is to give the student practice in originalthinking. He is not supposed to use a library, but only the facts whichare in his text or which have been previously brought out in classrecitations. The following are examples of questions adaptable for this purpose:-- 1. Why can the American people be regarded as the world's greatest colonizers? 2. Why could Washington be regarded as only an Englishman living in America? 3. Is it true that the South lost the Civil War because of slavery? 4. In what particulars did Andrew Jackson accurately reflect the spirit or the ideals of the new West? 5. What is illustrated by the attempt to found the State of Franklin? 6. What considerations made the secession of the West in our early history a likely possibility? Questions of this kind, not answered directly in class or in the text, may be given out a day in advance and the answers collected at the nextrecitation. VI THE USE OF WRITTEN REPORTS _The purpose of theme work should change as the course continues_ A method frequently employed by teachers of history is to requirewritten reports or themes on various phases of the history as the workprogresses. This plan is particularly valuable for the students in thefirst two years of high school history, for the reason that theirlibrary requirements are less exacting and their need of fluency greaterduring that time than later in their course. The objects of theme workin history courses are usually to arouse the pupil's powers ofobservation, description, and narration, and to provide means of drillin the exercise of these powers. These should not be the sole purposesof theme work, however. As the year advances, an increasing amount ofthe written work should be on subjects requiring some generalization oranalysis of the facts brought out in the text or in the recitation. Thepupil who has written a theme describing the appearance of the Pyramidshas completed an exercise in history less valuable than that of thestudent who writes a theme on the errors of the Athenian Democracy. To summarize, reviews in history should consist of both oral and writtenwork; they should be rapid enough to insure quick thinking, alertattention, and small expenditure of time; they should occur withincreasing frequency as the year advances; they should stock the memory, fix in the student's mind the order of events, stimulate fluency, insurea permanent acquaintance with the personnel of history, and give to thestudent a better view of the subject as a whole and in its variousphases. VII EXAMINATIONS AS TESTS OF PROGRESS _The examination should determine how much the student has progressed_ The time is coming, if it is not already here, when the public will cry outagainst the nervous fear and sleepless nights with which their childrenapproach the semi-annual torture of our inquisitorial examinations. Thatreasonable examinations are essential and beneficial is hardly open toquestion. That a student should be expected correctly to answer a fairpercentage of reasonable questions on work which has been properlytaught is not a cause of complaint from anyone. But that children shouldbe frightened into a state of nervous terror by the bugaboo of animpending examination, and then be forced to attempt a series ofconundrums propounded by a teacher who takes pride in maintaining a highpercentage of failures, is indefensible. An examination should not beconducted with the primary object of making it a thing to be feared. However desirable such a questionable asset may seem to certain collegeprofessors, it is a serious fault in a high school teacher to have anyconsiderable number of normal children fail. The ambition of the goodinstructor is to give an examination which shall at once be thorough, reasonable, and intelligently directed toward finding what the studenthas really learned. His purpose is to test accurately the variousabilities which he has endeavored to encourage in the student during hiscourse. He wishes to ascertain how much the student has reallyprogressed. _Specific suggestions on formulating questions_ In order to do this the examination must be on the really materialconsiderations of the history. Questions on unimportant details shouldbe omitted. The student should not be expected to burden his memory withthe limitless mass of petty isolated facts contained in the averagehistory text. The questions should be on considerations that have beencarefully discussed, and not on facts that have received but cursoryattention. The examination should not require too much time for writing. Theseveral hours' continuous nervous tension sometimes exacted by tooambitious teachers does the average child more harm than theexamination can possibly do him good. The examination should consist of questions that will jointly orseverally test the student's powers of description, generalization, andanalysis. They should test his knowledge of the sequence of events, hisability to use a library or a map, his knowledge of the various phasesand the various periods of the history studied. In every examinationthere should be at least one question dealing with the time and theorder of events, one each on the geographical, political, and socialhistory, one that is analytical, one that requires generalization, onethat will test his knowledge of the library, and one that will test hispowers of description. It is not necessary to limit the questions to thecustomary number of ten. It is frequently advisable to give a class somedegree of choice in the selection of their questions by requiring anyten out of a larger number asked. Certainly such a plan gives thestudent a more favorable opportunity to demonstrate his ability withoutin the least diminishing the value of the examination. Examination questions, like all other questions, should be definite, clean-cut, and reasonable. If possible, each student should be suppliedwith a copy, instead of having the set written on the board. Theyshould cover only those portions of the subject that have been properlytaught. The teacher should not expect the boy who has kept no usefulnotes, whose library work has been haphazard, and whose methods of studyhave not been supervised, to perform at examination time the miracle ofaccurately remembering what he has never been properly taught. OUTLINE I. SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 1. Assumptions as to the teacher of history 2. Actual conditions confronted by the teacher II. HOW TO BEGIN THE COURSE 1. What should be done on the day of enrollment 2. What should be done at the first meeting of the class 3. Necessity for definite instruction in methods of preparing a lesson 4. The question of note-taking 5. Instruction in the use of the library and indexes III. THE ASSIGNMENT OF THE LESSON 1. Careful assignment will reveal to the student the relation ofgeography and history 2. His power of analysis and criticism will be stimulated 3. The conditions in other countries will add to his comprehension ofthe facts in the lesson 4. His disposition to study intensively will be encouraged 5. His acquaintance with the great men and women of history will bevitalized 6. He will correlate the past and the present 7. He will be required to memorize a limited amount of matter verbatim 8. Methods of preparing questions assigned in advance IV. THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION 1. Assumptions as to the recitation room 2. What the teacher should aim to accomplish 3. Work at the blackboard 4. Special reports 5. Fundamental principles of good questioning 6. Some additional suggestions for teachers of history V. VARIOUS MODES OF REVIEW 1. The place of drill in the history recitation 2. Good reviews will develop a knowledge of the sequence of events 3. They will give a view of the whole subject 4. They will insure a better acquaintance with great men and women 5. They will be economical of time 6. They will secure fluency 7. What the student may do with "problems" in history VI. THE USE OF WRITTEN REPORTS 1. The purpose of theme work should change as the course continues VII. EXAMINATIONS AS TESTS OF PROGRESS 1. The examination should determine how much the student has progressed 2. Specific suggestions on formulating questions