The Teaching of History Part 2

A lesson should be so a.s.signed that the student will read the text with his eye critically open to inconsistencies, contradictions, and inaccuracies. With a text of six hundred pages, and with a hundred and eighty recitations in which to cover them, it is not too much to expect that the average of three or four pages daily shall be studied so thoroughly that the student can a.n.a.lyze and summarize each day's lesson.

The teacher should not make such a.n.a.lysis in advance of the recitation, but he should so a.s.sign the lesson that the student will be prepared to give one when he comes to cla.s.s. A word in advance by the teacher will prompt the student who is studying the American Revolution, to cla.s.sify its causes as direct and indirect, economic and political, social and religious. There is no difficulty in finding good authorities who disagree as to the effect on America of the English trade restrictions.

Callendar's _Economic History of the United States_ quotes five of the best authorities on this point, and covers the case in a few pages. A reference by the teacher to this or some other authority will bring out a lively discussion on the justice of the American resistance. Let the cla.s.s be asked to account for the colonial opposition to the Townshend Acts, when the Stamp Act Congress had declared that the regulation of the Colonies' external trade was properly within the powers of Parliament. Let the cla.s.s be asked to explain a statement that the Declaration of Independence does not mention the real underlying causes of the Revolution. A few suggestions and advanced questions of this sort will stimulate a critical a.n.a.lysis of the statements in the text, and send the student to cla.s.s keen for an intelligent discussion.

Ordinarily, when a cla.s.s is averaging three or four pages of the text daily, it is an error for the teacher to point out in advance certain dates and statistics that need not be memorized. Such selection should be left to the student. During the recitation the teacher will discover what dates, statistics, and other matter the student has selected as worthy to be memorized, and if correction is necessary it may then be made. It dulls the edge of the pupil's enthusiasm to be told in advance that some of the text is not worthy to be remembered. Furthermore such instruction does nothing to develop the student's sense of historical proportion, for it subst.i.tutes the judgment of the teacher for that of the pupil.

Advance questions asking explanation of statements made in the text, or by other authors dealing with the same period, insure that the lesson will be read understandingly and that the author's statements will be carefully a.n.a.lyzed. Such declarations as the following are ill.u.s.trations of statements whose explanation might profitably be required in advance:--

1. "The Const.i.tution 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 acc.u.mulating 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 pa.s.sion."

_The conditions in other countries will add to his comprehension of the facts in the lesson_

In so far as the next lesson requires an understanding of the history or conditions of another country, the attention of the cla.s.s should be directed in advance to such necessity. Special references or brief reports may be advisable. A few well-selected advance questions will send the cla.s.s to recitation prepared to discuss what otherwise the teacher must explain. A few questions on the character of James II, his ideals of government, the chief causes of the revolution of 1688, and its most important results will do much to explain the colonial resistance to Andros. A few questions designed to bring out the imperative necessity of English resistance to Napoleon will make clear the hostile commercial decrees, impressment, and interference with the rights of neutral s.h.i.+ps. Such questions reduce the necessity of explanation by the teacher to a minimum.

_His disposition to study intensively will be encouraged_

If the teacher expects the cla.s.s to deal more intensively than the text with the matters discussed in the lesson, a few advance questions will be of great a.s.sistance. Suppose, for example, that the text contents itself with saying that for political reasons the first United States Bank was not rechartered, and shortly after informs the reader that the second United States Bank was rechartered because the State banks had suspended specie payments. The student may or may not be curious about the failure of the first bank to receive a new charter, the operation of State banks, or why they suspended payment in 1814. If he has been properly taught, he probably will be, but if the teacher wishes to discuss these considerations in detail at the next recitation it will be infinitely better to have the facts contributed by the cla.s.s than for the teacher to do the reciting. It is quite possible that the individual answers to advance questions a.s.signed with such a purpose will be incomplete, but the interest of the cla.s.s will be incalculably greater if they themselves furnish the bulk of the additional matter required.

Collectively the cla.s.s will usually secure complete answers to reasonable questions. The teacher has his opportunity in supplying such important facts as the students fail to find.

Until the student may reasonably be expected to know the books of the library having to do with his subject, the teacher in giving out an advance lesson should mention by author and t.i.tle the books most helpful in the preparation of a.s.signed questions; otherwise the student in a perfectly sincere effort to do the work a.s.signed may spend an hour in search of the proper book.

It may be urged that this search is a valuable experience, but it is obviously too costly. As the year advances and the pupil learns more and more about the uses of books and methods of investigation increasingly less specific instruction as to sources should be given by the teacher.

Early in the year, with four lessons to prepare daily, the pupil cannot afford an hour simply to search for a book. He needs that hour for preparation of other work, and if by some fortunate conjunction of circ.u.mstances his other work is not sufficiently exacting to require it, he cannot hope to appear in history cla.s.s with a well-prepared lesson if 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 in characterizing the epoch in which the events of the lesson take place or in listening to a brief character sketch of the men contributing to these events. Care should of course be taken that biography does not usurp the place of history, but it materially adds to the interest of the recitation if the kings, generals, and statesmen cease to be merely historical characters and become human beings.

_His acquaintance with the great men and women of history will be vitalized_

It is needless to say that characterizations of men or epochs should not be a.s.signed without instruction as to how they should be prepared. In the case of a great historical character, what is needed for cla.s.s purposes is not a biography with the dry facts of birth, marriage, death, etc. The report should be brief, but bristling with adjectives supported in each case by at least one fact of the man's life. These may be selected from his personal appearance, private life, amus.e.m.e.nts, education, obstacles overcome, public services, political sagacity, or military prowess. The sketch may close with a few brief estimates by biographers or historians of his proper place in history.

If a characterization of a period of history is to be required, the teacher should explain that such a characterization should be an exercise in the selection of brief statements of fact reflecting the ideals, inst.i.tutions, and conditions of the period being described. From histories, source books, fiction, and literature, let the student select facts ill.u.s.trating such things as the spirit of the laws, conditions at court, public education, amus.e.m.e.nts of the people, social progress, position of religion, etc. A little time spent in characterizing a period of history and a few of its great men will a.s.sist in changing the recital of the bare facts given in the text to an intelligent understanding of conditions and a vital discussion of events. For instance, the ordinary high school text, in dealing with the French and Indian war, speaks briefly of the lack of English success during the early part of the struggle and then says that with the coming of Pitt to the ministry the whole course of events was changed because of the great statesman's wonderful personality. The teacher who wishes to make such a dramatic circ.u.mstance really vital to his cla.s.s must have more information with which to work. A picture of the coa.r.s.e, vulgar England with its incompetent army and navy, apathetic church, and corrupt government, followed by a stirring character sketch of the great Pitt, will cost but a few minutes of the recitation and will metamorphose a moribund attention to a vital interest.

Care should be taken that the characterizations given in cla.s.s be properly prepared. To this end it will be well to a.s.sign the preparation of these sketches at least a week in advance, at the same time arranging a conference with the student a day or two before the recitation. In this conference the teacher should make such corrections in the pupil's method of preparation and selection of matter as seem necessary. The characterizations should not be read, but delivered by the student facing the cla.s.s, precisely for the moment as though he were the teacher. Future tests and examinations should hold the cla.s.s responsible for the facts thus presented. If, as is too often the case in work of this sort, the student giving the report is the sole beneficiary of the exercise, 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 the student's mind by showing the relation of those facts to present-day conditions or inst.i.tutions, a few advance questions calculated to bring out this relations.h.i.+p may well be a.s.signed.

It is generally conceded that one chief purpose of history instruction is to enable us to interpret the present and the future in the light of the past, but it all too often happens that current history is forgotten in the recital of facts that are centuries old. Candidates for teachers'

certificates in their examinations in United States history show far less knowledge about the great problems and events of the present day than they do of colonial history. The student in English history in our high schools to-day knows all about the Domesday Book, but almost nothing of the recent history of England. Quite possibly the text has nothing to say about it, and it is equally likely that the cla.s.s may fail to cover the text and miss the little that is actually given. No opportunity should be missed to indicate the bearing of the past on present-day conditions. Even if the events of the lesson exert no direct influence on affairs to-day, their significance may be brought home to the student by an ill.u.s.tration from current history. The account of the Black Death gives excellent occasion for a brief discussion of modern sanitation and the war on the White Plague. The efforts of Parliament to fix wages can be ill.u.s.trated by some of the minimum wage laws pa.s.sed by recent legislatures. John Ball's teachings suggest a brief discussion of modern socialism, daily becoming more active in its influence. The medieval trade guilds and modern labor unions; the monopolies of Elizabeth's time and the anti-trust law of to-day; George the Third's two hundred capital crimes and modern methods of penology; the jealousy of Athens in guarding the privilege of citizens.h.i.+p and the facility with which immigrants at present become American citizens are only a few ill.u.s.trations, indicating the ease with which the past and the present may be correlated.

_He will be required to memorize a limited amount of matter verbatim_

In a.s.signing a lesson it is sometimes desirable to require certain matter to be learned _verbatim_. In American history the Preamble to the Const.i.tution, the principles of government contained in the Declaration of Independence, the essential doctrine in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, certain clauses of the Const.i.tution, and extracts from other historical doc.u.ments may well be required to be memorized accurately. It is scarcely to be supposed that the student can improve on the clarity and definiteness of the English in such doc.u.ments. He is expected to understand the principles which they a.s.sert. He may well be required to train his memory to accuracy by learning certain a.s.signments _verbatim_. If memory work received a little more attention in our high schools to-day, we should be less likely to hear the statement of a political creed neutralized by the omission of an important word. We should be less likely to see the cla.s.sic words of Lincoln mangled beyond recognition by messy misquotation.

The a.s.signment of advance questions such as have been suggested possesses several advantages. It makes it possible for the teacher to hold the cla.s.s responsible for definite preparation, very much as the teacher in algebra is able to do with the problems a.s.signed in advance.

It forces the students to do most of the talking. It encourages an intelligent use of the library in a manner calculated to develop the student's powers of investigation. If the pupil forgets most of his history, but retains the ability to investigate carefully, thoroughly, and critically, the plan has more than justified itself. The plan enables the teacher to spend his time in explanation of what the pupil has been unable to do for herself, and thus effects a considerable saving in time. It would be interesting to secure a statement of how much of the teacher's time is ordinarily spent in doing for the student in recitation what he should have done for himself before coming to cla.s.s. It subst.i.tutes for the pupil's snap judgment, given without much thought and too frequently influenced by the inflection of the teacher's voice, an opinion that has resulted from research and deliberation unbiased by the teacher's personal views.

It is too much to expect high school pupils to solve historical problems extemporaneously. If inferences and contrasts other than those given in the 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 waste of time to spend the precious minutes of the recitation in gathering negative replies and worthless judgments.

_Methods of preparing questions a.s.signed in advance_

It may be urged that such an a.s.signment of a lesson as that proposed is too ambitious and that it exacts too much of the teacher's time. In answer it should be said that specialists in history ought surely to have read widely enough and studied deeply enough to be _able_ to select intelligent questions of the sort suggested. We have a.s.sumed that the teacher has made adequate preparation for his work. Certainly, then, he should be ready to explain the social, geographical, and economic relation of the events mentioned in the lesson. He should know their bearing on current history. He should always have ready a fund of information, additional to that given in the text. In preparing advance questions for distribution to the cla.s.s the teacher is preparing his own lesson. He may be doing it a day or two earlier than he would otherwise do, but surely he is performing no labor additional to what may reasonably be expected of him. As to the time required to prepare copies of the questions for distribution when the cla.s.s convenes, it may be said that a neostyle or mimeograph, with which all large schools and many small ones are equipped, makes short work of preparing as many copies of the questions as desired. If there is a commercial department in connection with the school, an available stenographer, or a willing student helper, the teacher may easily relieve himself of the work of supplying the copies. If none of these expedients are possible, it is no Herculean task to write each day on the board the few questions for the next lesson. It will entail no great loss of time if the cla.s.s are asked to copy them when they first come to recitation. If it is possible to copy them after the recitation, so much the better. And beyond the obvious advantages of a carefully a.s.signed lesson it must be remembered that in the a.s.signment of special topics, in private conferences with the student, in the correction of notes, in giving a.s.sistance in the library, the teacher has an opportunity to cultivate a sympathetic relation between himself and the cla.s.s of inestimable service in securing the best results.

IV

THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION

_a.s.sumptions as to the recitation room_

Let us now a.s.sume that the recitation will be held in a quiet room free from the distracting influence of poor light, poor ventilation, and inadequate seating capacity. The blackboard s.p.a.ce is ample for the whole cla.s.s, the erasers and chalk are at hand, the maps, charts, and globe are where they can be used without stumbling over them. The teacher can give his whole attention to the cla.s.s. Discipline should take care of itself. 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 the teacher and cla.s.s 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 a.n.a.lyzed.

5. And that there shall be left sufficient time for the occasional review necessary to any good instruction.