The Teaching of History Part 1

The Teaching of History.

by Ernest C. Hartwell.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

This volume is offered as a guide to history teachers of the high school and the upper grammar grades. It is directly concerned with the teaching methods to be employed in the history period. The author a.s.sumes the limiting conditions that surround cla.s.sroom instruction of the present day; he also takes for granted the teacher's sympathy with modern aims in history instruction. All discussions of purpose and content are therefore subordinated to a clear presentation of the details of effective teaching technique.

The reader into whose hands this volume falls will be deeply interested in the ideals of teaching implied in the concrete suggestions given in the following pages, for after all the value of any system of special methods rests, not merely on its apparent and immediate psychological effectiveness, but also on the social purposes which it is devised to serve. It must be recognized at the outset that history has a social purpose. However much university teaching may be interested in truth for its own sake, an interest necessarily basic to the service of all other ends, the teaching of the lower public schools must take into account the relevancy of historical fact to current and future problems which concern men and women engaged in the common social life. So the elementary and secondary school teachers of the more progressive sort recognize that the way in which historical truths are selected and related to one another determines two things: (1) Whether our group experiences as interpreted in history will have any intelligent effect upon men's appreciations of current social difficulties, and (2) whether history will make a more vital appeal to youth at school.

Certainly children, whose interests arise not alone from their innate impulses, but also from the world in which they have lived from the beginning, will be eager to know the past that is of dominant concern to the present. It is clear gain in the psychology of instruction if history is a socially live thing. The children will be more eager to acquire knowledge; they will hold it longer, because it is significant; and they will keep it fresh after school days are over because life will recall and review pertinent knowledge again and again. There can be no separation between the dominant social interests of community life and effective pedagogical procedure; the former in large part determines the latter.

Such educational reforms in history teaching as have already won acceptance confirm the existence of this vital relation between current social interests and the learning process. The barren learning of names and dates has long since been supplanted by a study of sequences among events. The technical details of wars and political administrations have given way to a study of wide economic and social movements in which battles and laws are merely overt results reinforcing the current of change. History, once a self-inclosed school discipline, has undergone an intellectual expansion which takes into account all the aspects of life which influence it, making geographical, economic, and biographical materials its aids. All these and many other minor changes attest the fact that a vital mode of instruction always tends to accompany that view of history which regards the study of the past as a revelation of real social life.

The author's suggestions will, therefore, be of distinct value to at least two groups of history teachers. Those who believe in the larger uses of history teaching, so much argued of late, will find here the procedures that will express the ideals and obtain the results they seek. Those who are not yet ready to accept modern doctrine, but who feel a keen discontent with the older procedure, will find in these pages many suggestions that will appeal to them as worthy of experimental use. It may be that the successful use of many methods here suggested may be the easy way for them to come into an acceptance of the larger principles of current educational reform.

THE TEACHING OF HISTORY

I

SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

_a.s.sumptions as to the teacher of history_

This monograph will make no attempt to a.n.a.lyze the personality of the ideal teacher. It is a.s.sumed that the teacher of history has an adequate preparation to teach his subject, that he is in good health, and that his usefulness is unimpaired by discontent with his work or cynicism about the world. It is presupposed that he understands the wisdom of correlating in his instruction the geography, social progress, and economic development of the people which his cla.s.s are studying. He is aware that the pupil should experience something more than a kaleidoscopic view of isolated facts. He recognizes the folly of requiring four years of high school English for the purpose of cultivating clear, fluent, and accurate expression, only to relax the effort when the student comes into the history cla.s.s. He knows that the precision, logic, and habit of definite thinking exacted by the pursuit of the scientific subjects should not be laid aside when the student attempts to trace the rise of nations. Let us go so far as to a.s.sume a teacher who is both pedagogical and practical; scholarly without being musty; imbued with a love for his subject and yet familiar with actual human experience.

_Actual conditions confronted by the teacher_

There are from one hundred and eighty to two hundred recitation periods of forty-five minutes each, minus the holidays, opening exercises, athletic ma.s.s meetings, and other respites, in which to teach a thousand years of ancient history, twenty centuries of English history, or the story of our own people. The age of the student will be from thirteen to eighteen. His judgment is immature; his knowledge of books, small; his interest, far from zealous. He will have three other subjects to prepare and his time is limited. Also, he is a citizen of the Republic and by his vote will shortly influence, for good or ill, the destinies of the nation.

The purpose of this monograph is to discuss the means by which the teacher can engender in this student a genuine enthusiasm for the subject, stimulate research and historical judgment, correlate history, geography, literature, and the arts, cultivate proper ideals of government, establish a habit of systematic note-taking, and possibly prepare the student for college entrance examinations.

II

HOW TO BEGIN THE COURSE

Very obviously each moment of the child's time and preparation should be wisely directed. Each recitation should perform its full measure of usefulness, in testing, drilling, and teaching. There will be no time for valueless note-taking, duplication of map-book work, ambiguous or foolish questioning, aimless argument, or junketing excursions.

_What should be done on the day of enrollment_

The day that the child enrolls in cla.s.s should begin his a.s.signed work.

In the first ten minutes of the first meeting of the cla.s.s, while the teacher is collecting the enrollment cards, he should also gather some data as to his students' previous work in history. This information will be of considerable a.s.sistance to the teacher in letting him know what he may reasonably expect of his new pupils. The cla.s.s should not depart without a definite a.s.signment for the next day. Let the preparation for the first recitation consist in answering such questions as:--

1. What is the name of the text you are to use? (Know its precise t.i.tle.)

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 t.i.tles 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 cla.s.s_

On the second day when the cla.s.s a.s.sembles, let as many of the students as possible be sent to the board to answer questions on the day's a.s.signment. The pupil will immediately discover that the teacher purposes to hold the cla.s.s strictly responsible for the preparation of a.s.signed work. The teacher will face a cla.s.s prepared to ask intelligent questions about the course they are entering upon. The cla.s.s will discover that work is to begin at once. The inertia of the vacation will be immediately overcome.

_Necessity for definite instruction in methods of preparing a lesson_

Having secured, by cla.s.s discussion and the work at the board, satisfactory answers to the first six questions, and having a.s.signed the lesson 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 a method of study. That very few students of high school age possess habits of systematic study, needs no discussion. In spite of all that their grade teachers may have done for them, their tendency is to pa.s.s over unfamiliar words, allusions, and expressions, without troubling to use a dictionary. The average high school student will not read the fine print at the bottom of the page, or use a map for the location of places mentioned in the text without special instruction to do so. He will set himself no una.s.signed tasks in memory work. It is the first business of the good instructor to teach the student _how_ to study. The first step in this process is to impress on the student's mind that systematic preparation in the history cla.s.s is as necessary as in Latin, physics, or geometry. Then let the following or similar instructions be given him:--

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 a.s.signed 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 cla.s.s.

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 a.s.signed 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._