 Section 1 of the History Teacher's Magazine, Volume 1, Number 5, January 1910. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The History Teacher's Magazine, Volume 1, Number 5, January 1910 by various. Section 1, Introductory Course in History in Harvard College by Professor Charles H. Haskins. Perhaps the most difficult question which now confronts the College Teacher of History is the work of the first year of the college course. The problem is comparatively new and becomes each year more serious. Twenty-five or thirty years ago, the small amount of history taught in American colleges came in the junior or senior year and was not organized into any regular curriculum. With the recent development of historical courses, however, the teaching of history has worked down into the sophomore and often into the freshman year, so that the teacher of the first course in history is not only charged with introducing students to college work in history, but must also take his share of the task of introducing them to college work in general. At the same time, the enlargement of the curriculum and the improvement of instruction in history in many of our secondary schools result in sending to the colleges a body of students who have already some familiarity with history and cannot be treated in the same way as the great mass of freshmen. Moreover, the first college course in history in all our larger institutions attracts a considerable number of students, in some cases as many as four hundred, so that the management of a large class adds another element to the problem. And matters are further complicated by the fact that while some of these will continue their historical studies in later years, others must get from this course all the historical training which they will receive in college. I take it that no one pretends to have found the solution of these difficulties and that what is at present likely to prove helpful is not dogmatic discussion so much as a comparison of the experience of different institutions. The introductory course at Harvard, History One, is designed to be useful to those whose historical studies are to stop at this point, as well as to serve as a basis for further study. A period of the world's history is chosen which is sufficiently large to give an idea of the growth of institutions and the nature of historical evolution, yet not so extensive as to render impossible an acquaintance at close range with some of the characteristic personalities and conditions of the age, and an effort is made to stimulate interest in history and to give some idea of the nature and purposes of historical study. The field covered is the history of Europe including England from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. This period has generally received little or no attention in school so that students come to it with a freshness which they could not bring to ancient history or American history or are introduced to a new world of action and movement and colour which easily rouses their interest. The year devoted to the Middle Ages bridges the gap between their ancient and modern studies and not only gives a feeling of historical continuity but by showing the remote origin of modern institutions and culture it deepens the sense of indebtedness to the past and furnishes something of the background so much needed in our American life. Most introductory courses now give considerable attention to the Middle Ages. The difference is whether the attempt should remain to cover something of the modern period as well. Where a longer period has been chosen it has been quite generally found impracticable in a single year to bring the course down to the present time and such courses have ordinarily stopped somewhere in the eighteenth century leaving to a subsequent year the study of the more recent period. Thus the course which was given at Harvard until 1903 stopped at the Treaty of Utrecht assuming that two years are necessary for the satisfactory treatment of medieval and modern history for the purposes of the general student the question then becomes one as to the point where the break shall come and we believe that experience is in favour of placing this point fairly early. The pace should be slower in the first year than in the second so that students may not be confused and hurried while they are learning new methods of work and being emancipated from habits of close dependence on the textbook. There should be time for reading and assimilation as well as for thorough drill in a way that is not possible when too much ground is gone over. Good training in the first year makes it easier to cover considerable period in the second. Such at least has been the experience at Harvard where about half of the students in history one go on to the survey of modern history given in history two in the following year while most of the others go directly to modern English history or American history. It ought to be added that while about nine-tenths of the class of 300 select history one are freshmen, students who have given a good deal of attention to history in school are permitted to go on immediately to more advanced courses and for those who take only American history in their later years the introductory course in government is accepted as sufficient preparation. The class meets three times a week, twice in a body for lectures and the third hour in sections of about 20. The lectures do not attempt to give a narrative but seek to bind together the students' reading, comment upon it, clarify it, reinforce the significant points and discuss special aspects of the subject. The processes of historical interpretation and criticism are illustrated by a few simple examples and from time to time the work is vivified by the use of lantern slides. The reading is divided into two parts, prescribed and collateral and indicated on a printed list of references which each member of the class is required to buy. The prescribed reading from 75 to 100 pages a week is made as far as possible the central part of the students' work. At first this is selected largely from textbooks and illustrative sources. Later in the year textbooks drop into the background and narrative and descriptive works are taken up although the student is urged to have at hand a manual for consultation and for securing a connected view of events. The effort is made to break away from high school methods of study and to teach students to use intelligently larger historical books. Stubs, early Plantagenets, Jessups, Pryor's, Brice's, Holy Roman Empire, Brown's, Venetian Republic, Day's, History of Commerce, Rhinox, Apollo, and Robinson and Rolf's Petrarch are examples of the kind of books in which the required reading is chosen. Some sources are given in their entirety such as the Germania, the Life of St. Columbine, and Einhard's Charlemagne. But reliance is placed mainly upon the extracts given in Aug's Source Book and Robinson's Readings. It is found that the proper use and appreciation of sources is one of the hardest things for beginners to learn, and careful and explicit teaching is required both at the lectures and at the meetings of the sections. Each student is required to provide himself with two or three texts, a source book, and an historical atlas, and many buy a number of the other books used in the course. The books in which the reading is assigned are kept in a special reading room where the supply is sufficient to provide one copy of each for every ten men in the course. Duplicates of the works recommended for collateral reading are also furnished. At the weekly section meetings the students are held responsible for the required reading and the lectures of the week. There is always a short written paper about twenty minutes in length, including usually an exercise on the outline map. And the rest of the hour is spent in explanation, review, and discussion. No attempt is made at systematic quizzing as the work of the week is much more effectively tested by the written paper. These sections are held by the assistants, for and number, who are chosen from men who have had two or three years of graduate study, and generally some experience in teaching. For the collateral reading, certain topics are suggested each week, and every month each member of the class is required to read the references under at least one of the assigned topics. These topics have considerable range, and students are encouraged to select those which have special interest for them, and to read freely upon them. Thus, if a student takes the Northman as his topic, he will read the greater part of Curie's Vikings, and translated extracts from Norse poetry or sagas. If he chooses Henry II, he will have Mrs. Green's biography, and Stubbs' characterization in the introduction to Benedict of Peterborough. If he reads on monasticism, he will compare different views of the subject as found in specified chapters of Montalembert, Lecky, Taylor's classical heritage of the Middle Ages, and in Harnack's monasticism. On castles and castle life, he will read portions of Miss Bateson's medieval England, and Violet Leduc's annals of a fortress, and examine the illustrations in Enlart's manual, and Schultz's Hürfisches Leben. On St. Louis, he will have Jeanville, certain pages of Langlois, and William Stern's Davis' novel, Phalaise of the Blessed Voices. A certain fixed minimum of such reading is set for each one in the course, and a higher minimum for those who expect distinction, and ambitious students will read from 1,500 to 2,000 pages in the course of the year. The effort is constantly made to develop individual aptitudes and stimulate the better men. Every student has at least eight individual conferences with the assistant during the year. The conference is devoted mainly to a discussion of the collateral reading, but it also serves as an opportunity for examining notebooks, talking over difficulties, and in general for closer personal acquaintance between assistant and student. Sometimes small voluntary groups of men have been formed which meet the assistant weekly at his room for the reading and discussion of short historical papers written by students. Considerable attention is given to well-reasoned note-taking upon both lectures and required reading, a matter respecting which the freshman is at first likely to be quite helpless. Here the personal supervision of the assistant is of the greatest value, and is often exercised weekly. Special emphasis is put upon historical geography, not only by constant reference to wall maps and by special exercises involving the use of the principal historical atlases, but also by means of the regular use of blank outline maps. Members of the class are required to bring such a map to all meetings of the sections, and to be able to locate upon it important spaces and boundaries. The mid-year and final examinations also include a regular test of such geographical knowledge. More time than should be necessary is devoted to this work, but experience is shown that college students have at the outset only the vaguest ideas of European geography, and in this and in some other respects it is necessary to do in college work that ought to have been done in the secondary or grammar school. If the ordinary freshman brought with him an elementary knowledge of geography and the ability to read intelligently, the task of the college teacher of history would be greatly lightened. No attempt is made to require theses or formal written reports as such work is useful rather for those who are to continue their historical studies and as regular training of the sort is given in the second-year courses. Some attempts have, however, been made to coordinate the students' work in history and in English composition by having the results of reading upon a historical topic embodied in a brief essay, which is read and graded both by the instructor in history and the instructor in English. Such cooperative efforts are still in the experimental stage, but they are regarded favorably by those who believe that the occasion for writing good English is not confined to courses in English composition, and that a broader policy with regard to the students' work is necessary if the American college is to give an education as well as to teach particular subjects. End of section 1 Section 2 of the History Teacher's Magazine, volume 1, number 5, January 1910. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Colleen McMahon. The History Teacher's Magazine, volume 1, number 5, January 1910 by Various. Section 2 Impressions of American History Teaching. Extracts from Miss Burstahl's recent work, Impressions of American Education. Miss Sarah A. Burstahl, headmistress of the Manchester, England, High School for Girls, traveled in the United States during the year 1908, studying and inspecting American educational systems. Miss Burstahl has written out her experiences in America and a book entitled Impressions of American Education in 1908. The author was particularly interested in the teaching of history in American schools. The following extracts are printed in the belief that American teachers would desire to see themselves as others see them. In the chapter on method occur the following statements. Recitation is indeed an accurate description of what one hears sitting in an American classroom. The pupil stands up and recites what he has learned whether from the standard textbook or from other sources. The teacher may question some statement in order to make sure that the pupil understands what the teacher said. Other pupils will also question it. A girl will put up her hand and the teacher giving permission by looking in her direction will say, but I thought that I read in and will proceed to give some other view of the subject. A general discussion will follow which the teacher will not authoritatively close by giving her correct opinion. She will pass on to another part of the subject and ask another pupil to recite what he or she has learned about it. If the reciter makes a correction, the teacher will call upon another pupil to correct it. Very rarely does the teacher make a correction herself and still more rarely does she express her opinion. We were not struck by the good English or excellence of oral composition which we heard. The American boys and girls did not do any better in this respect than the English girls we know. One can hardly expect fluent, elegant oral descriptions and accounts except from practice speakers. With a 30 or 40 and a lesson period of 45 minutes, obviously not all in the class recite. Quite half may take no share except as listeners. The presumption is that they have learned up their work, that they are interested in listening to what others say about it. Their turn will come next day and in any case it is to their interest to follow carefully what goes on. Three criticisms must occur to even a sympathetic English teacher. First, the possibility of what in England would be a probable waste of time to the listeners. Americans say that these, though they often look indifferent and inattentive, are really attending. They are used to the method and they play the game, so to speak, by listening attentively as well as by reciting readily when their turn comes. Second, the whole thing is very dull and slow. Each pupil speaks very slowly with very little grace of delivery or beauty of language such as might be expected from the teacher and nothing like the same amount of ground is covered as is the case in a lesson on the oral method. With the recitation method in England we should not arouse sufficient interest to get the best out of our pupils. We could not get through the work we have to do in the time, nor would English boys and girls be sufficiently quick and clever to understand the difficulties in geometry, for example, or in Latin or French grammar unless they had clear and skillful explanations from the teacher, who presumably understands the art of making things clear. Americans would probably say that their students are quick enough and earnest enough to make progress without this careful exposition and without this atmosphere of interest and intellectual stimulus and there is probably some truth in the reply. Our pupils too often do not want to work and their minds do move more slowly. We have been obliged to find ways of making classwork attractive either by intellectual stimulus or by words and punishments since we have not that strong outside belief in education which makes the task of the American teacher much more easy. It is also true that the examination demand has forced us to explain clearly to the duller pupils in the class difficulties which the cleverer ones could see through for themselves. Probably here Americans are right and we are wrong. We make the work too easy by, as it were, peptonizing material before giving it to the hungry sheep who look up to us to be fed. Our aim has been to help them to assimilate the knowledge required not to develop in them the power to grapple with new material. This aim, the American recitation system undoubtedly develops and this is one of its great merits. Our third criticism is that the teacher appears to do too little. Her share in the lesson is at a minimum. The new ideas do not come from her. Her influence is direct. Here again the American would say so much the better. The democratic ideal is undoubtedly one cause for the existence and the popularity of the recitation method. The teacher and the pupils are very much on a level. She is not teaching them, she acts rather as chairman of the meeting, the object of which is to ascertain whether they have studied for themselves in a textbook and what they think about the material they have been studying. Clearly then, the master is the textbook and here we strike on a vital peculiarity of American education. Its aim has been intellectually the mastery of books. With us, education has always been very much more, always and everywhere, a personal relation. The children learn from the master or mistress with or without the aid of a book. The rise of the method can be explained from historical causes in the old ungraded rural school of America meeting perhaps only for a few months in the year, taught it may be by a woman in the summer and a man in the winter, there could be no classification or organization. Each pupil worked through an authorized textbook, much as in the old Scottish rural school, where a plowman might come back for a couple of months to rub up his arithmetic or English in the book if he did not finish before leaving school. The teacher went around and helped individual pupils over difficulties or heard them recite the lesson they had each learnt while the others went on with their own tasks. Then when the schools came to be graded, a number of pupils at about the same stage could recite together out of the book and so the recitation method developed, evolved by the American genius for invention to fit the necessities of the position. Among these conditions was the absence of a body of experienced and skilled teachers. Much of the work was done by all sorts of people, many with very scanty qualifications, who would teach school for a few months to earn enough to go on with some other occupation. Such people could not be in the true sense of the word teachers. They could conduct recitations and engage in the friendly questioning and discussion as an equal, which the American method implies. When first rate, highly qualified, skilled teachers come to play on this instrument, they bring forth from it a wonderful result. The writer was fortunate enough to see some very fine work by woman teacher, brilliant, systematized, full of interest and fire, the pupils really taking part and bringing their material, which the teacher skillfully percussed so that it kindled. Indeed, the recitation method at its best and our own oral method are almost identical in effect, and far excel as educational instruments anything that can be attained by lectures. But how rarely is it seen at its best? At its worst, of course, it becomes mere memorizer repetition out of the textbook with very little intelligence anywhere. Any teacher would do this who could keep order. It is hoped that this imperfect sketch may at least afford some idea of what is to be seen in the United States by teacher of history and of what we can learn from them. Probably there is more to be learned in this subject by English students of American education than in any other. And the study is the more interesting and profitable since the evolution of the present condition of history teaching there so recent. The present writer can only say that she has heard finer history teaching in more than one American institution than she ever heard in England though her experiences here have been fortunate and that such teaching has set for her an ideal standard of professional skill in our difficult art. England might learn too from the life and vigor of the subject in the common schools the breadth and thoughtfulness and the self-reliance in the history classes of secondary schools and the volume and power of the historical work in the colleges and technological institutes. The equipment is well worth our imitation if only we could get the money for it. Every good high school has a room or rooms for the history lessons. Cases of maps to be drawn down when required. A product of the American skill and mechanical appliances are universal and an average high school has a better supply of these maps than some of our colleges. Pictures of every sort abound. It is the opinion of one of the leading American authorities on the teaching of history herself a distinguished teacher that there is a very real increase of intellectual interest some of it may be superficial but it is at least widespread and NIDIS has been formed and there is a real advance in the subject. In England we have as things are the tradition of public service and the inner instinct of patriotism. Formal teaching of civic duty is not so much needed among the wealthier and more cultivated classes though more ought to be done than is done in the public elementary schools and in some of the new secondary schools. In America this sociological teaching given in connection with history is the one thing they have to train citizens for citizenship. Religious instruction has been excluded from their school system. Personal influence and corporate life play but little part compared with the powerful one they play here. There is no universal military service as in Germany and France to teach by hard experience the duty and the need of patriotism. The tradition of unpaid public work so strong in England is not known in the United States. The teaching of history and of patriotism through history is the one force which America has in her schools and colleges to stimulate and train the sense of civic duty. One cannot but conclude that to a half conscious conviction of this truth is due the system, the earnestness the concentration and the excellence that America achieves in the teaching of history throughout every grade of her education. End of Section 2 Recording by Colleen McMahon This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The History Teachers Magazine Volume 1, Number 5 January 1910 By Various Section 3 Municipal Civics in Elementary and High Schools By James J. Shepard Principal of High School of Commerce, New York City In in address at the dedication of an educational building at Albany a few days ago, Governor Hughes said I want to refer to the importance in this day of giving our teachers and of having them communicate to their pupils the proper sense of the responsibility of citizenship in this country. It is not enough to have patriotic songs sung. It is a fine thing to have the flag flying and to have it continuously before the youthful mind as a symbol of this great independent nation of the land of the free and the home of the brave. But as a distinguished man once said it is a very doubtful advantage to generate emotion which is no practical use and the emotions patriotism ought to be stimulated with regard to certain important and practical ends. Study of Civics, the knowledge of the actual operation of our government is most important. In this statement the Governor puts the case admirably. Civics should be taught in the schools and it should be taught in a practical way. In his investigations some half dozen years ago into the matter of instruction in municipal government in elementary and high schools it discovered two things. First, a lamentable lack of proper instruction in the subject in the schools of the country. And second, an earnest desire on the part of those in authority to remedy this lack. Advice and assistance were asked for by many who replied to your questionnaire. We were impressed with the importance of presenting something definite and concrete in the way of recommendations. It was easy enough of course to say that the subject should be taught in both elementary and high schools that it should be so placed in the curriculum as to reach all the pupils and that it should be as Governor Hughes puts it a study of the actual operations of our government. But the schools wanted something more directly helpful than this. Few, if any, textbooks suitable for the purpose were available. Practically all of them were written along the conventional lines of the scientific treatment of the framework of government, but with slight ineffective attempts to make the study other than one of broad generalizations of little direct and concrete meeting to the youthful student. Happily there has been some endeavor since the committee's first report to make texts which really meet the need, and there are now on the market a few books which are genuinely helpful. There is every reason to believe that the production of this class of books is greatly to increase. However, the committee believes that suitable texts can only help to solve the problem. Governor Hughes is quite right in emphasizing the importance of giving our teachers and of having them communicate to their pupils the proper sense of responsibility of citizenship in this country. That sense of responsibility will hardly be strong and effective if it is to come from purely academic study of government. It will be powerful and help if it comes from an earnest and sympathetic study of government and operation, a study of what the government is actually doing for the student, what it ought to do and what he himself can do to improve it. A study of this kind can hardly fail to give the future citizen a feeling of pride in his own city and a proper sense of his own responsibility in making its government honest and deficient. The municipal campaign recently concluded in New York seems to have been conducted largely on the idea that the average voter is more interested in personalities than policies. Such a campaign would be impossible before an electorate having even an elementary appreciation of the direct bearing upon its own personal interest of an honest and efficient administration of the city's affairs. It is plainly the business of the schools to use their extraordinary opportunity and extraordinary power to equip the voters of tomorrow with the training in these vital affairs of government that shall make them intelligent critics of what their servants in office have done and what claimants for their ballots propose to do. Here to fore the schools have been generally content to give instruction on matters of state and national government with but scantiest reference to municipal affairs in spite of the fact that municipal government is of the most direct and vital importance to the citizen, touching him in his daily life at every turn. If the schools could only establish firmly in the minds of the students just the one fact that party labels are of no importance in municipal matters, that honest and efficient administrators should be chosen regardless of party connection or endorsement that alone would be a tremendous gain. We have been going on the assumption that a knowledge of state and federal government will furnish enough insight into matters of administration to guide the voter in matters of municipal government. It would be far better if the choice were necessary to rely upon a proper knowledge and appreciation of municipal interests to guide the voter in the broader fields of government. The choice is of course not necessary state and national government should still be studied but in a more rational way much the same method may well be employed as in the study of municipal government. As has already been stated your committee believes that instruction in municipal government should reach every pupil in the schools. That means that it should not be delayed in the elementary school till the last year of the course or in the high school until the senior year as is still generally the rule. A large percentage of elementary school pupils drop out before they have completed even the seventh year of the course and a still larger percentage of high school enrollment is lost long before the graduation stage. The committee believes that there should be continuous instruction in civics during the last four years of the elementary course moving along in easy and progressive fashion from a very simple study of municipal housekeeping to a fairly comprehensive notion of the city's government activities. The course is outlined in the New York City program of studies for elementary schools has some admirable features. The course in its present form is due in no small measure to the work of your committee under the original chairmanship of Superintendent Maxwell. It provides in the fifth year for some study of the duties of citizens and public officials and also of civic institutions. The study begins very logically with the most obvious form of municipal activity the school itself and goes on to other departments like the Tenement House and Parks in each instance emphasizing what good citizenship involves in the pupils relation to the department. In other words the study is not merely descriptive it is personal as well. In the sixth year the outline calls for instruction concerning the Chief Administrative Office of the city. In the seventh year in the first half of the eighth year there is a return to the city government with increasing emphasis upon the duties and responsibilities of a citizen or as a member of a family as pupil, as employer or employed as voter or as office holder. The course would be greatly improved by making a study of the city's municipal activity in the first half of the eighth year in the first half of the eighth year the study of the city's municipal activities continuous throughout the four years. At present there was a break in the work from the end of the sixth year to the beginning of the last half of the eighth year. The difficulty is, of course, that of a crowded curriculum but the very great importance of the study ought to win for it a definite place in the curriculum even at the expense of some other study. Just how well the elementary course in municipal civics is administered in New York City or in other cities where it is prescribed it is impossible for the committee to say. A recent writer in the survey seemed rather skeptical of the results obtained in New York from her own showing however I think the situation is not so bad as she seems to imagine it. We who teach know the difficulty of getting pupils to do themselves justice in examinations or tests. They really know more than the answers indicate. Patient skillful sympathetic questioning will often reveal intelligence where only ignorance seemed to exist. It would be a matter for surprise however if our civics teaching was at present all that it ought to be it is a new thing in the curriculum both its content and its proper presentation must be worked out by experiment it can only be well handled by teachers with a keen love for the subject a genuine appreciation of its value and some taste for first hand investigation. Supervisory officers must give it cordial support and helpful direction. For the immediate future we must look to the high schools I think to show the most market development in the study of municipal activities the conditions of teaching are more favorable and the teaching force better qualified to meet the problem. History and economics are both more generally taught and certainly much better taught than they were a decade ago and it will not be difficult I think to interest instructors in these subjects in the new field of municipal government of prime importance is the place of the new study in the curriculum the general custom hitherto has been to postpone all teachings of civics in secondary schools until the fourth year when American history is taken up this is a serious error as it means no instruction whatever in the subject for the vast majority of high school students a relatively small proportion of whom complete the full course it should not be postponed until even the second year but should be taken up at once by the student upon entrance into the high school as a serious and important study Confessedly pupils of 14 or 15 are not well prepared to receive instruction in civics generally taught as a scientific study of state and national government with a historical background the latter may well continue to be a part of a well-rounded high school course modified only by the inclusion of much more work on the municipal side and greatly improved by more rational methods of teaching but your committee earnestly insists upon the place being made in the very first year of the high school course for this new work at present there is only one high school in New York which is doing this but it is interesting to note that no less than three committees are now at work in the city upon plans for a program of study in this subject and moreover two of these committees have been appointed by bodies of a public character who are asking and securing the cooperation of progressive teachers on the task of bringing about the desired change it is a very reasonable hope that in a comparatively short time all the high schools in the greater New York will be giving the civics instruction so urgently needed to all the boys and girls who enter their doors once New York or any other important educational center shows the way we may confidently expect the movement to spread rapidly judging from the numerous communications the chairman of your committee has received there is already widespread interest in the subject the time is therefore ripe apparently for us to offer definite recommendations in the makeup of a proper course of study in the new subject whose value as a part of the curriculum will depend chiefly upon the manner in which it is presented on the whole it is fortunate that a textbook is hardly possible except as a supplementary aid for there is grave danger that a study of municipal activities based upon a textbook would take too much of an academic character and interfere with or minimize the first hand observation and investigation on the part of both pupil and teacher which are of primary importance in realizing the aims of the work however there are some books with which the teacher should familiarize himself among them such work as Baker's municipal engineering the sanitation Eaton's the government of municipalities Fairleys municipal administration Wilcox's the American city Zublin's American municipal administration and Shaw's excellent books these are useful in a broad general way the teacher should make copious use of the city charter and reports of the various city departments such as health tenement house parks schools etc. the pupils chief reliance will be on the city charter apart from the teacher's instruction and his own observation and investigation the course might well be outlined in the following general way Roman numeral one a brief consideration of the way in which government in general arises with a discussion of the rise of a village and its development into the city the pupil will be led to note the extension of the cooperative idea from its simple manifestation in the primitive community to the comprehensive undertakings of a modern metropolis the relation of the city to the state will be made clear in this discussion and a proper understanding of what a city charter is be given Roman numeral two following immediately upon this brief introductory study which will take on added meaning as the course progresses should come a study of what may properly be considered the central element of city life the street here we can appeal directly to the pupils own experience and observation in a market degree and we are sure of his interest when the work is related so closely to his daily life which is probably worthwhile to give a pretty full outline of the topics to be taken up in a study of the city street the one which follows has been in successful use for several years in the high school of commerce in New York and naturally covers some points of slight importance in other cities the street the central element of city life how streets are made to whom they belong who pays for their improvement what they are used for and what they contain roadways for traffic sidewalks gutters sewers water pipes telegraph and telephone and electric light wires car tracks subways gas pipes conduits which of these belong to the city government who controls each of these exact officials is found in city charter how these public utilities came to be in the streets franchises what are they the street the proper arrangement of streets the defects of the local system is compared with that of other cities why our street system was laid out as it is the surface of the street paving various kinds comparative advantages and costs the importance of good paving to the business interests as shown in transportation charges why the surface of the streets is not better and who suffers from it poor paving at the beginning in the reason for it to bring up of the streets and failure to replace properly remedy for these evils the conduit or subway why we do not have it additional evils resulting from its absence waste of gas, waste of water difficulty of making repairs injury to health and vegetation poisonous gases uncleannliness the cleaning of the streets who has charge of it what it costs, why necessary the apartment is run what is done with refuse and what should be done duties of the householder how we may keep the streets cleaner the sprinkling of the streets by whom done the regulation of traffic who makes the regulations ordinances, rules who enforces them such as the direction and speed of traffic the encumbering of sidewalks and streets the restriction of certain streets remedies for the congestion of traffic as tunnels, belt lines, etc for freight the growth of business limited by traffic sidewalks regulations as to laying repairing, who has jurisdiction over them the stoop line right of the citizen to demand good sidewalks blocking the sidewalk gutters whose business to keep clear of ice snow or dirt business to enforce the law and who makes the law the sewer system how and by whom sewers are put in who pays for them, who has charge of them how connected with the houses how the sewage is disposed of what is done in other cities and what should be done here the importance of a good sewer system to the health of the community the water supply why the city and not the individual furnishes the supply of water in a great city where we obtain our present water supply and how it reaches us who has charge of the water supply the total and per capita supply of water in the city how water is paid for the danger of a water famine how it can be averted saving the water by repairing of leaks using meters, etc salt water for fires and cleaning streets new sources of supply the difficulties the advantages of city ownership over private company cost of water supply lighting the streets how is it done what it costs who has charge of it should it be done by the city or a private company the use of the streets for carrying pipes and wires who controls this use the control over these companies by the city or state ought the city furnish light should it purpose how the furnishing of light and fuel differs from furnishing meat and groceries who gives the right to place telegraph and telephone wires why should they be underground appearance, light, fire transportation by cars on the streets the giving of franchises why what is paid for a franchise who has jurisdiction of a street whale ways and what extent should the city own them importance of street passenger transportation in the life of the city what cheaper fares could do for the city the rights of citizens on the streets laws and ordinances which secure these as those against disorderly conduct crowding, ball playing excessive speeding in those regulating processions, banners, etc licenses to use streets what businesses required to be licensed and why how licenses are secured roman numeral 3 part 3 of the course takes up the matter of protection to life and property by the various departments of the city government as follows protection to life and property by 1. the police department 2. the department of education 3. fire department 4. the courts and department of correction 5. the health department 6. the tenement house department 7. the bureau of buildings 8. the park department and 9. the charities department 1. police policing the streets the organization and management of the police department the duties of policemen the importance of an honest and efficient police department why this department is so often criticized the rules of graft and why it exists state or county control of police should the head arise from the ranks should his position be permanent the rights of citizens as against the police how to make complaints serving warrants the police control of street traffic street crowds push carts etc 2. education the education law and why it exists why are the city furnishes free education the organization of the department of education the method of appointment of officials and the teaching force the advantages of the system of appointments kinds of day schools the total cost of education in the city the cost per pupil in each class of schools the cost in the high school the cost of books and supplies is it worthwhile special schools and colleges evening schools corporate schools the lecture system education playground aims and advantages of each why they exist what they accomplish the excellences and defects of our system of education is compared with that of other cities and countries supplementary education the natural history museum the botanical gardens the zoological garden the art museum 3. the fire department protection against fire it depends upon the building laws the water supply and the efficiency of the fire department how one becomes a fireman the organization of the department the influence of the insurance companies the poor construction of buildings the esprit de corps salaries and pensions 4. the courts and the department of correction civil courts municipal courts their jurisdiction the officers and district the city court county the supreme court criminal courts under the study of courts comes the work of the court officers and the processes connected with the trial the term of the office selection and salary of the various officials the meaning of the various terms used probation system the department of correction its management and duties in labor the indeterminate sentence system 5. the health department in relation to the ordinary resident in relation to the landlord in relation to the businessman a study of the actual regulations of this department as found in the code and a description of its activities together with comparison with the work done in other cities 6. the tenement house department when and why formed was subject to it how organized what it has accomplished why it needs a strong head illustrations from report of the tenement house department dictation of the most important provisions of law 7. building bureau how it differs in organizations from other departments the buildings subject to its jurisdiction why its inefficient management is so disastrous the temptation to graft and what it costs 8. the park department how it protects health how our park system arose and what it has cost how the parks are managed the need of small parks what parks have accomplished in new york boulevards as parks the need and benefit of playgrounds as conducive to health educative and preventive of crime the desirability of school playgrounds dangers threatening parks 9. department of charities the hospital and ambulance service outdoor relief asylums how the destitute may be aided the city's aid to private charitable institutions in this connection it is both desirable and feasible for the pupils to visit departments and get some first hand impressions of their work our experience has been that the city officials willingly and helpfully cooperate with the school not only have they furnished us much valuable material but they have also facilitated the inspection of their departments and have not infrequently themselves given helpful talks to the boys 9. roman numeral 4 following close upon the study of the departments comes a consideration of the cost to the city the pupil has noted the extensive activities of the municipality and the important question of how they are all paid for looms up before him the budget must be studied in the manner of levying and collecting taxes must be understood as well as the raising of money by loans under proper guidance he will come to realize how extravagant and inefficient government affects him personally how honest and economic government has a money value to every citizen he will want to know what city officers determine the amount of money to be spent and just what officers spend the money new york city has had a board of estimate and apportionment in control of its finances for a decade yet it remained for the recent three cornered fight for the mayorality with its resulting choice of a democrat mayor and a fusion board of estimate to bring home to the average citizen what the professional politician had long understood that this board have really much more to do with the government of the city than the mayor that in reality new york has a sort of government by commission roman numeral 5 we come finally in our study to a consideration of the citizens part in the registration of the municipal affairs topics such as the following should be taken up becoming a citizen becoming a voter registration voting voting but apart the party organization the cause of good or bad government how the citizen may govern the city through the party organization enrollment the district captain the district committee the district leader the general committee how the leader reaches his place organization the key to success in politics candidates for office how selected formally actually why the high school graduate should work through an organization for an honest business like government the preceding part of the course will have failed of its purpose if it hasn't established in the pupils mind certain elementary ideas and ideals concerning the purpose of government and a sense of the duty and responsibility which every citizen owes to the community in which he works and lives he will be an intelligent reader of the numerous items in the daily press bearing upon the administration of city affairs and he will know how as a voter he may take an active and effective part in that administration a like for his own best interests in that of the community the course outlined is not an artificial affair based upon pure theory it has been successfully carried on in one high school for half a decade winning the enthusiastic interest of first year pupils as well as of the teachers charged with its conduct it can be adopted to the high school of any community and will fail of its purpose only if it is managed in a perfunctory fashion by instructors who have not a professional interest in their work or a high sense of their great responsibility and their great opportunity it would be a splendid thing if we could require of all teachers in the public schools a knowledge of the governmental activities of the municipality they are called upon to serve for surely they of all citizens ought to be familiar with the purpose and practice of government end of section 3 section 4 of the history teachers magazine volume 1 number 5 January 1910 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain please visit LibriVox.org recording by Colleen McMahon the history teachers magazine volume 1 number 5 January 1910 by Various section 5 has history a practical value by professor J. N. Bowman University of California, Berkeley this question of the practical value of history rises not out of a theory but out of existing social educational conditions in a practical age where doing things receives such generous applause and ends are held in high estimation when results and very frequently material results are the norms of success and efficiency widens its meaning beyond the physical world then history as well as other subjects is called into question to render an account of itself before the judgment bar of the present life looms up great beyond all the parts of the high school system the eighth grade has its graduation into life as well as the high school and college the grades feel their responsibility to the great majority of their pupils who go directly into life in the east the high schools are breaking from the preparatory status to the college and are looking to the good they can do for their pupils who get no more schooling trade schools are growing up within and beside the high schools as the professional schools grew up the college itself is in question by labour union committees and inaugural addresses the university is becoming professional even arts and letters in preparing teachers and general practitioners of arts and letters the industrial movement has now the economic interpretation of history the market reports of the university have brought the ticker within the college walls students and parents are asking more and more insistently what is the use and what is the practical value the question is not new the questioners are not new the things questioned are new in olden days when schools existed primarily for the latin professions the question was answered these things prepare for law, medicine and the ministry schools now prepare for other professions and also for the trades but the question is not yet answered without condition, amendment or descent in those old days the members of the latin professions were the bearers of the highest culture but now with our ideas of democracy and opportunity and the general diffusion of knowledge these members are but a small fraction of the bearers of the highest culture the school system has grown from the school of the professions into the school of the people but do the schools prepare for the people as the older schools prepared for the professions a healthy growing institution like webster's mariner must constantly take its bearings in life to know how far the elements of fads, specialization and scholarly isolation are driving it from its true course practical relates to action use, practice it refers to ends or means to ends it is opposed to theoretical, speculation or ideal but there is nothing in the word to debar its use in mental as well as physical fields it may be used as the german uses u-bunk in his university courses value is the quality which makes something suitable for ends or purposes it permits the wildest limit of art for art's sake and equally permits one part of the art to be suitable to the ends and purposes of another part or of another art practical value then is the quality that renders a thing useful or desirable in meeting ends it does not by any means alone imply for revenue only has history a practical value it depends on the ends specialist as well as the broadest humanitarian will both agree upon the usefulness and desirability of history to meet their respective ends but they disagree upon what the ends are the specialist is interested in history for its own sake to him the element of history is the fact the tradition of the 17th to the 19th centuries has forced him to select his facts in the fields of politics, war and diplomacy the method he uses is a rather decided use of the natural scientific method he is interested in the facts for their own sake he is often too little interested in their value importance and interrelations he has performed a great service in the 19th century in correcting old facts and in finding new ones but now he has such mountains of facts that he is overawed by their mass and long practice in his method prevents him from using them so a great harbour professor is reported as saying keep on piling up facts their weight will squeeze out some kind of order in his attempt to be scientific the specialist has used only one side of the scientist's method he has forgotten that the scientist works not only with matter but with the activities and relations of matter he loves to brush the mold off the dry bones of the past perhaps he even has a dream of articulating a few of the bones into a cross-section of the skeleton of the political past this is a rightful part of the work I have spoken at length of this work for the reason that in this state there is required of all high school teachers a year of graduate work in some university of the American Association the specialist's method received there is all too often taken without adaptation into the high school and occasionally even into the grades so art for art's sake is perpetuated the boy is prepared for carrying on research when he expects to carry on business and the girl is expected to carry on business and the girl is drilled in turning out monographs when she expects to turn out biscuits here is where the parents and others raise the question what is the use the answer and the reform must come from the top downwards on the other hand the humanitarian is often so broad that his work contains but little of history it is so thin and transparent that it may justly be called culturine his pupils learn answers not the steps to the answers or they learn the fashion phrase of the example but not the steps of solution at every point in their journey through the past they are dependent on their betaker here again is where the question is raised what is the use it is not necessary to make a choice of either of these for the history work in the schools where the fact hunter ends his work the historian may begin his more important than either fact or generalization the method of getting at each so that the pupil may become self active if he learns these methods he can use the facts in finding other facts in explaining and interpreting other facts or in understanding other departments of life he can use facts inductively and through a process of analysis and classification reach generalization or like Kepler, Newton and Faraday he can work on the facts deductively he can follow lines of interest threads of activity he can view them from one viewpoint or from different viewpoints on the other hand he can learn and use the method of working a fact after the Senyabosian rules of the game so even within the narrower and professional field there is the practical value but the end is still in question the pupil goes from the grades high school and college into life to take his part as a workman some 8 hours of the day and as a citizen all 24 as an active creative worker through the prime of his life and as a member of society to his grave the parents and the people out in life ask the question of the practical value and they answer it from the standpoint of life and social efficiency does history stand the test? from this point of view the specialist fails the storehouse of facts is static efficiency is active the method of facts results only the cultureine teacher fares somewhat better he is active but unfortunately with empty symbols he deals with answers and not with problems with his betaker and not with the thing itself it is the long stretch between the two that is wanting the process the use the history work must be adapted to the life needs of the pupils as members of society those facts those generalizations and especially those processes one to the other that can make him an efficient member of society isolated facts will soon be forgotten generalizations will perhaps stick longer but methods of generalization can be used throughout life on new facts to reach new generalizations what are some of the things in life and society for which history may be used the ends to which it may be adapted in study and teaching someone has pointed out four ends but I should like to add another that is conscious of the accepting and varying relations between them reading, studying, teaching writing and I should like to add living writing is justly the work of the professional i.e. the graduate school yet if history ever becomes a science it is not at all impossible that living may not usurp this position in graduate work teaching in this state is also the work of the graduate school and the last years of the college this leaves then the learning and living that touch the history work from the grades to the college these also underlie the other two the basis on which all these rest is life itself and the interest one takes in life since one is here in this world he is interested in it to get as much out of and put as much into it as he can if he has no interest he at least exerts himself either to be a parasite or to shuffle off its weight this interest is the starting point of the interest in the past of this life the basis of the ascending scale from reading onward reading runs through all history work from the stories told and read in the grades to the reading after dinner by the evening fireside interest in life as it was is and is becoming the problems and policies the activity and struggle the peaceful life of the codder or the demon life of the battlefield or the work of Bach or Paracelsus from some life interest now one travels back to chosen places and times and under the lead of some Virgil and Beatrice does more than Dante in taking up temporary habitation then and there from a purely commercial point of view also the historian can hear benefit himself and his publisher in preparing a public to demand his books studying is a step beyond reading Virgil and Beatrice are here dismissed it explores some field of interest and follows some thread it reads pages and chapters and not volumes or series the books may be stories, texts or documents this story must be pieced together from many sources in reading the books lead the reader in studying the student leads the books it is the transitory inquisitiveness of the child become somewhat constant in the later grades in high school and fixed in the university in the professional study of Ut clauses reflection and study go hand in hand the latter to answer the questions of the former for the very great majority of people this is the nearest they ever get to professional history work it is of the greatest practical value to those who use history for other than the pleasant hours reading in living life and history unite this of course touches the live question of what is history the specialist and his methods are adaptable practically alone to a past not coming within 80 to 20 years of the present but the parent and the man in life deal on the one hand with human beings institutions, matter, etc and on the other with life forces and energies all these exist in different and modified forms in the specialist's past if this breach between the past and the present cannot be bridged then the laboring man is right in asking that history be displaced by things that can bridge it man in life is busy with the art of living can history help him in this if history is ever to be a science and be scientific it must consider as do the sciences the consequent question of being an art of reaching desired effects with known causes those who ask the question has history a practical value go from the present life into history from that viewpoint they see its workings and from life and society they draw their norm by which they judge it accept it in the curriculum and pay taxes for the history teacher's salary for such a purely selfish notice this history should not wait but should search out in society and life how it may be of service some way and somehow and through its teaching supply these needs it can then make itself indispensable and for stall all question of its practical value the practical value of history to life depends on a complex race, age, country, locality and the individual some phases of this value might be stated thus an ease in observing analyzing and classifying the life activities of today no other subject taught in the schools touches life at so many points and in so many of its activities through seeing in history the close interrelation of activities in the past the student can be led to see the close interrelation of the activities of his own day again he learns to see life as a historic whole his contemporaneous life in connection with the life of the race he thus learns valuations and norms for judging character he learns that Jeffries and Johnson are less valuable in life than Pasteur and Euken that even in the history of pugilism they perhaps are less noteworthy than either Sullivan or Corbett again history can help him to save experience he can learn to apply with due modification to present problems not the answers of the past to past problems but the ways of solving those problems material and social environments exist now as they existed in the days of the Greeks hunger and socialization love and ambition the desire to know and to feel are as effective now as in the days of Socrates the combination and the emphasis change the past cannot answer the problem of the present but can help him to answer again history can help him to be tolerant since our day demands tolerance in studying some struggle of the past he learns to see that question from two or more sides this practice helps with the practice and other subjects taught in the schools to consider a present question from its many sides historical impartiality is frequently misused impartiality plays its part in the consideration of questions but should not be allowed to mar decisions when once made the specialist in his pupils can easily stand off from and out of present active life like men from Mars tolerance then is desirable in the consideration of questions and of the activities acknowledged by society for tolerance like liberty does not mean license again history has a practical value in connecting the present almost is intimately with the past as hope does the present with the future it gives two or more points together with the present from which direction and tendency may be seen it can thus help to break down the loneliness of the present the life of each succeeding present must dictate its own norms of efficiency whether citizenship or patriotism character or individuality socialization or socialism etc the practical value of history is like the practical value of all other subjects it must adapt itself to life needs and by its leadership make itself indispensable to life and society also it must be a practical value to the individual for his pleasure his use and his business by its adaptability to these ends it makes itself indispensable to him it has this practical value for the pupils in the grades high school and college in contributing something for themselves and for their parts in life an Idaho cow puncher last summer defines life as just one damn thing after another it has also been pointed out that this is the best definition of history as all too often taught and written the cow puncher forms a small class and is rapidly disappearing history will soon be forced to adapt itself to another class and to a life otherwise defined in doing so it is hoped that it will not be by this chance and unconscious adaptation but that it will consciously and deliberately adapt itself to the class and its life I believe history has a practical value in life and a place in the school system and also that it can prove this value so efficiently that its critics will not wish to relegate history to the position of Greek and Latin and section four recording by Colleen McMahon section five of the history teachers magazine volume one number five January 1910 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson the history teachers magazine volume one number five January 1910 by Various section five a source of history of the United States by professors Caldwell and Persinger many of the literary histories written in the last half century have carefully avoided quotations or repents of documents in the early historical literature of America documents were inserted or appended to almost every history but this style gave way to the literary ideal of expressing the thought of the documents in the historians own words there are many volume histories written toward the close of the 19th century which make no pretense of reproducing the form or words of the source material it was but natural therefore that the study of history came to be taken up seriously in colleges and schools that teachers and scholars should desire to get away from the insipid literary generalizations and taste the freshness of the original sources it was this insistence upon a certain literary style which created the source book and today we have therefore the literary history and the source collection side by side early source books contained simply highly significant documents or documents which might be treated as types we have advanced far from this and now our editor aims to give the narrative of history in the language of the original documents casting aside all reverence for the document as a completed whole professors Caldwell and Persinger have cut out and trimmed every unnecessary phrase and sentence taking a few words from one document a few paragraphs from another a few pages perhaps from another by this process the volume is made to approach nearly to the consecutive development of thought and arrangement shown in the narrative histories the language and spelling of the originals are in all cases preserved and all omissions are indicated by the usual typographical means the work is divided into four chapters the first on the making of colonial America occupies 165 pages the second revolution in independence 1764 to 1786 fills 100 pages the third the making of a democratic nation 131 pages and the fourth slavery and the sectional struggle 1841 to 1877 86 pages or to put it in other words the period before 1789 is allotted 284 pages while that under the construction to 1877 is given 200 pages each chapter is subdivided into sections and these into smaller groups of sources taking for granted that the plan of the editors is a practical one the test as to whether they have done it well is to be found in the proportions assigned to the several topics and in the character of the extracts given or excluded the first thought which comes to mind is that too much space has been given to the colonial and revolutionary periods and too little to the constructional period an inspection of the several sections shows that the colonial period lends its out best to the form of treatment adopted by the authors and naturally they have emphasized that period the documents upon recent history particularly the civil war and reconstruction have not fitted so readily into the narrative yet it must be admitted that the editors have resolutely carried on their method to the close they give extracts from Lincoln's public papers and letters respecting slavery and reconstruction and arrange them in the same analytical form adopted for the extracts bearing upon the stamp act or on Bacon's rebellion one cannot but wish however that the editors had been as generous in their excerpts for the later period as they were for the earlier perhaps five pages of quotations is not too much for the effects of the English Revolution of 1688 upon America but surely two pages is too short for Lincoln's attitude towards slavery we welcome the ten pages of extracts from Washington's letters bearing upon the revolutionary war but we wish for more than two very short quotations treating the civil war the method of the editors can best be shown by noting the character of the illustrative material gathered by them upon several topics for instance in chapter one there is the subtopic colonial constitutional development 1689 to 1763 occupying 17 pages within this space we have quotations from the ordinance of 1696 creating the board of lords of trade and plantations and from the additional instructions of 1752 respecting the board there are as many as 14 extracts showing the increased parliamentary regulation of colonial affairs in the period 1696 to 1751 these include parts of the Navigation Act of 1696 Edmund Burke's account of the Sugar Act of 1733 extracts from the Woolens Act of 1699 the Hat Act of 1732 and the Iron Act of 1750 excerpts showing the bounties on naval stores Rice and Indigo and quotations from the Act regulating colonial coinage 1707 the Post Office Act of 1710 the Debt Recovery Act of 1732 the Naturalization Act of 1740 and the Land Bank Act of 1741 and the Paper Money Act of 1751 next there are four quotations showing the desire of the English authorities to reduce all the colonies to one form of government and the same number of extracts for colonial union then follow three extracts showing the desire to establish an Anglican Episcopate in the colonies and the section closes with papers illustrating the growing assertion of colonial rights under the latter heading we have four extracts relating to conflicts between the governors and the assemblies an account of the trial and acquittal of John Peter Zinger John Adams account of James Otis' speech against rites of assistance and a report of Patrick Henry's speech in the Parsons cause such an array of quotations shows not only wide reading and intensive knowledge of the documents but it also implies a keen judgment as to their pedagogical value and an ability to arrange the extracts into a working analysis in such a work one would naturally look for the treatment of Kulju Geshakti and indeed the editors have not neglected this side of their story an interesting section is that describing the industrial, social and religious condition of the country in 1840 the subject is analyzed minutely like all other parts of the work into such topics as business characteristics means of communication the standard of living democracy, the south and American morals the sources for quotation are almost exclusively the accounts of European mainly English travelers in the country at that period these accounts are well known to students of the period but it has been difficult here to fore for teachers to bring the flavor of these criticisms to the scholars of high school or even college classes the editors of the source history have selected and arranged a series of accounts from Buckingham, Martinau, Chambers Dickens, Grundlisle de Tocqueville and others which will be of service in both college and secondary school classes the two sections here mentioned the method of the editors not only have they selected their material with skill but they have also arranged it under such scheme of topics that it may be used by the Tyro in the study of history he does not need to dig the historical jewels out from the midst of documentary rubbish that has been done for him in addition the editors have placed extended series of questions upon the text at the close of each section and references to the standard textbooks there is an analytical table of contents but no index there are some typographical errors in the book which should be corrected in a later edition it is also to be hoped if we are to have any more such collections that a simpler typographical device may be invented to mark omitted matter the work is a valuable pedagogical device it marks the climax of the source method it should very widely extend the knowledge of sources in our high schools we shall watch its use with interest a source history of the United States from Discovery 1492 to end of Reconstruction 1877 by Howard Walter Caldwell and Clark Edmund Persinger pages 16 to 484 Chicago Ainsworth & Company price $1.25 A.E.M. End of section 5 Section 6 of the History Teacher's Magazine Volume 1, Number 5 January 1910 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by D. Rando The History Teacher's Magazine Volume 1, Number 5 January 1910 by Various Section 6 Editorial Conference A meeting of the editors and correspondence of the History Teacher's Magazine will be held in Teachers College Columbia University, New York on Tuesday, December 28 at 3.30 o'clock the meeting will be an open one and the attendance is requested not only of the editorial staff but also of contributors and others interested in extending the usefulness of the magazine such a conference giving opportunity for comparison of views should strengthen the policy of the paper it is planned to make the editorial conference an annual matter meeting at the same time and place as the American Historical Association The History Teacher and the Community The Teacher of History in Secondary School or College has a better opportunity to influence the community in which he lives than the Teacher of almost any other subject and if to history it be his or her lot to add economics and government as well the field of influence should be correspondingly widened Mathematics, Formal English Exact Science the foreign languages one and all must give way in human interest to that of Biography and History At the beck and call of the historian there are all our records of what man has thought and said and done shall the history teacher leave those fields untouched shall he keep his knowledge to himself alone shall he limit himself to textbook work in the classroom and do nothing to extend the interest in his subject throughout the community if this is his practice no wonder his subject is treated with disdain by school directors no wonder that he cannot get a library of books upon his subject no wonder that he becomes an irresponsible fossil in many ways the history teacher may influence the community he may advise and cooperate with the local librarians in the purchase and loan of books he may give public lectures upon historical topics he may write historical articles for papers or for publication in book form he may found or join societies for the study of local history he may use means to keep alive the local interest in history these activities will win respect for the teacher and the subject and develop in our American communities a similar respect for local history and tradition forthcoming numbers of the history teachers magazine will discuss in detail certain of these activities such as the relation of the history teacher to the public librarian and to local historical societies for the present mention will be made simply of those miscellaneous means the teacher may use to keep alive interest in local history a receptive attitude with reference to local tradition and history should always be taken by the history teacher he should know something about local history within a few weeks after he has entered a new community if he has not been able to study it in advance a young graduate student entering a small western colleges instructor found in the library no volumes upon the subject of his doctor's thesis he did not wait for the summer vacation to continue his studies in Europe but started at once to make certain local studies which were so successful that they gained for him a national as well as a local reputation and stimulated others to scientific study of the state's history in a similar way the instructor in any high school or college should familiarize himself with local history and aim if possible to make some definite contribution to its literature another subject in which the history teacher should be interested is that of local names the tendency of American legislatures is to obliterate local names particularly if they have not what is deemed a proper connotation and substitute for them the names of petty politicians or what is even worse some system of numerals compare for instance the system of numbering public schools in New York City with that of naming them in use in some other cities or that of numbering all streets the custom of keeping the old historic names much of the sentiment for us today would be taken from London or Paris or even our own Boston if a numbering system independent of local traditions have been adopted 200 years ago the proper marking of historic spots is a matter of interest to any community and the history teacher should be a leader in such an undertaking much is being done in this direction by individuals and societies but much more needs to be done in awakening public interest even by showing the authorities that it is economically wise to mark such spots for the encouragement and convenience of visitors the history teacher will win a respect from the community historical passions have been held in parts of Europe for centuries but recently they have been revived upon a large scale and already America has seen a growing high with those of Europe the patrons at Quebec Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in 1908 at Lake Champlain in 1909 and the Hudson Fulton celebration in New York all furnished excellent opportunities for education in historical facts and development such lessons will grow in number with increasing respect for the past and with the growing desire for meaning in pageantry rather than noise and sound and parade here also the history teacher will find wide opportunity for all his knowledge and experience surely it is the fault of the teacher and not of history itself if the community ignores him and his subject end of section 6 section 7 of the history teachers magazine volume 1 number 5 January 1910 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson the history teachers magazine volume 1 number 5 January 1910 by Various section 7 American History in the Secondary School Arthur M. Wolfson PhD editor foundations for the study of the foreign relations of the United States the ratification of the Constitution of the United States marks the end of one period of American history and the beginning of another at that point the teacher should pause and gather up with his class all the threads which he has thus far been following the problems henceforth to be presented are those of well established entirely independent nation first of all it should be noted that the history of the nation in 20 years of existence divides itself into 5 more or less distinct periods these periods are 1 the 30 odd years from 1789 to 1823 during which time the nation was settling the foundations of its political life internal and external 2 the 30 years from 1820 to 1850 during which the nation was moving forward under two diametrically opposed parties in favor of the extension of slavery and those opposed to its extension in the occupation of the vast tracts of land beyond the Mississippi 3 the 25 or 26 years from 1850 to 1876 during which these two parties finally came to blows and settled the constitutional questions involved in secession 4 the 20 odd years from 1876 to 1898 during which the nation is forced to deal with new and unaccustomed economic questions 5 the 10 years are more since the Spanish-American war the period of present-day practical politics such an outline is this of the entire course of American history may seem too many teachers to be a little forehanded yet it is our firm conviction that only that teacher who sees in the beginning the entire work of the term can deal with each lesson that arises properly of this outline even the class should not be entirely ignorant as to the first period the period of the establishment of our national policy in it the class will be confronted by two or more less distinct problems first the question of internal policy the solution of which can be found in the study of the activities of Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury and of his contemporaries these problems important as they are space requires that we leave for the present for the teacher himself to analyze and present to his pupils in passing we may say however that both teacher and pupils will find themselves amply repaid by a careful study of the reports of Hamilton and Jefferson which are to be found in McDonald's documents far more complex and far more difficult are the problems which are presented by the relations of the United States to its foreign friends and enemies the mere study of the textbook we have found leaves the pupils hopelessly confused and bewildered as the result of a number of years of experience we have come to believe that it pays at the beginning before one attempts to say a word about Washington's proclamation of neutrality about the principles involved in the struggles with France and England about the treaties with Spain and the purchase of Louisiana to devote at least one or two lessons to a careful analysis of all the elements involved in our relations with foreign nations in doing this we shall find that all questions of foreign policy fall under one of four headings one commerce two citizenship three territory four the position which the nation will take in case of disagreements between two or more foreign nations any class skillfully led will be able to furnish the teacher with these four headings and further analysis for instance the class will see at once that commerce in times of peace and in times of war must be conducted upon a different basis under the first condition commercial relations are usually settled by commercial treaties though under special conditions they may involve questions like the right of the nation to trade with the colonies of a foreign nation and the question of the open door of which we have heard so much in the last two or three decades in times of war the rights of neutral trade are much more complicated here they involve especially in the earliest period of United States history at least four different questions one what constitutes an efficient blockade two what articles may rightly be considered contraband three how far do free ships make free goods four is trade with ports of one of the belligerents closed in times of peace to the neutral in times of war rule of 1756 each of these questions we have found will offer opportunity for spirited classroom discussion none of them is simple and the teacher should therefore be sure that he has his own answer ready before he attempts to open the discussion to the class the question of citizenship is easier to begin with we all agree it is the duty of the nation to protect its citizens against unjust oppression but not all nations at the end of the 18th century or even today are agreed as to what constitutes citizenship does naturalization for instance destroy the obligations which the individual owed to the country of his original allegiance this is of course the single vital question involved in the dispute between the United States and England over impressment though there is a subsidiary question the right of entrance and search in times of war which the teacher should not neglect in presenting the subject the question of the acquisition of territory is again comparatively easy of analysis all that it requires is for the teacher to show to his class that it was the manifest destiny of the nation to acquire step by step all the land lying south and west of the original limit of the country as far west as the pacific ocean whether the nation was wise in going beyond the confines of the continent in the acquisition of territory may be left till later period for discussion finally there is the question as to the position which the United States should take in cases of dispute between the European nations here again the teacher should be prepared to show that south preservation required that the United States should assume a position of absolute neutrality that it was equally necessary on the other hand at least in the early years of the 19th century that we demand that the European nations refrain from interfering in the affairs of America coming now to the study of the specific events which illustrate these principles the teacher will be ready to develop and the class will be ready to appreciate the series of events which begin with Washington's proclamation of neutrality which are involved in the disputes with England which were settled temporarily by the J Treaty and later by the war of 1812 and the treaty of Ghent next the negotiations with Spain concerning the right of entry and deposit at the south of the Mississippi and the later negotiations with France concerning the purchase of Louisiana may be developed finally in this analysis the class will find the key to that series of proclamations and messages which begin with Washington's farewell address which proceed through the messages of Adams and Jefferson which end with Monroe's message on December 1823 commonly known as the Monroe Doctrine when all this is done the well-equipped teacher will be ready to discuss briefly with his class the later diplomatic history of the country the gradual modification of the principles for which Washington Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and Monroe contended but he will find to his surprise that until the very last years of the 19th century little change was made in the whole system in the study of this period the teacher is earnestly recommended to have frequent recourse with his class to the documents which illustrate the history most of them can be found in the convenient form in McDonald's documents in the American history leaflets and the old south leaflets and in Hills Liberty documents compared to the recent publication for further reading the teachers recommended not only to the standard histories of the United States like Shuler's diplomatic masters but also to the exhaustive work of Henry Adams history of the United States in the administrations of Jefferson and Madison finally there are the three or four diplomatic histories of the United States of which the best are John B. Moore's American Foreign Policy Hart's Foundations of the American Foreign Policy and John W. Foster's A Century of American Diplomacy in each of these works the teacher will find a thorough analysis of Monroe Doctrine its history and its application should he desire to examine the doctrine further he will find material in two special studies George F. Tucker's Monroe Doctrine and William F. Radaway's Monroe Doctrine the first is an American presentation of the subject the second that of an Englishman additional references one labor cyclopedia under such headings as blockade contraband naturalization neutrality etc two John Westlake international law part one chapter ten on citizenship part two chapter seven on blockades chapters nine and ten on contraband three William Hall international law part two chapter five on citizenship part four chapters five and six on contraband chapter seven on the privileges of these ships chapter eight on blockades four Theodore D. Wolsey introduction to the study of international law the standard American authority part one chapter three on citizenship part two chapter two on neutral trade into section seven section eight of the history teachers magazine volume one number five January 1910 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Larry Wilson the history teachers magazine volume one number five January 1910 by various section eight Ashley's American History reviewed by H. R. Tucker McKinley High School St. Louis, Missouri Mr. Ashley has added another excellent on American history to the numerous recent ones for secondary schools the course of events is carried down to nineteen seven the subjects have been grouped under topical heads the author has hoped to indicate by this means the relation of each historical change to the movement of the times and the relation of this smaller movement to the larger phases of our development which are given in the chapters preface the attention given to wars is arguably less than in texts of some years ago only one hundred pages out of five hundred fifty industrial and social development in economic phases are given one hundred pages these chapters are after the various epical periods they are complete and attractive over one hundred pages are given to the period since the civil war all these proportions are in agreement with the general trend in historical instruction today the relation of governmental institutions to historical development is especially clear the opening chapter is on geographic influences of America and the early European background such sections in the book as follows are illustrative of the clearness of topics usually difficult for high school pupils forty English Puritans eighty seven English colonists and their governors where the temperament of government is considered an important factor two hundred sixty five distinction between Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy three hundred thirty fundamental causes of succession three hundred thirty one slavery and state sovereignty versus nationality three hundred thirty seven to three hundred forty five conditions affecting union success it is a pleasure to note the comparative brief description of such complicated military or naval movements the naval episodes of the war of 1812 the Shenandoah Valley campaign of the civil war 1864 the Vicksburg campaign etc. the author is quite fair in that period in which every American historian is most open to the charge of being prejudiced the civil war he shows an impartial attitude he gives credit to both sides the account is written in true historical perspective without discrediting the value of the final result the bearing of lines of communication upon the course of wars are indicated many will appreciate the omission of the names and the assassins of the martyred president probably the first school texts to do this there are a few defects it is not evident from the account of the battle of Bunker Hill why it was called such though fought on Breeds Hill certainly J. Q. Adams' name should be given in connection with the the gag resolution of 1835 the sections of the copy of the national constitution should be subdivided into clauses for convenient reference all of these points however are of minor importance and hardly detract from the general high scholarship of the text there are many illustrations maps and diagrams which bear on the text these are of a general high order but some improvements might be made map page 58 of the New England colonies should be larger also one on page 97 of the intercolonial war no map of the important 1609 Virginia grant is given not enough as to the parallels and cost points is indicated on the map of Virginia 1606 grant page 40 on the map of the Louisiana purchase page 255 the Sabine River should be noted a map accompanied the description of the early Virginia campaign civil war would be helpful the map on page 400 is not clear it would be improved by designating rivers and railroads differently not all the necessary rivers on map page 406 are named some of the maps are without scale of miles i.e. page 403 page 406 etc all these points are non-essentials yet they are to be considered in the teaching of the subject the bibliographical aids are of several kinds there are marginal references throughout the narrative bearing directly upon it at the close of each chapter there are two classes of references topics and studies there being several exact pages given to the format and one to each of the latter there are from two to four topics and the number of studies averages about 10 it will thus be seen that the text is arranged in such a way that much or little reference reading need be done as the varying conditions permit suggested library lists are given however they would be more helpful to the busy small school teacher if publisher and price were noted there is a summary of the close of each chapter also questions which are not so much to test one's memory of the subject as to lead him to independent thinking the marginal analysis of the text is always helpful the appendix includes declaration of independence, constitution of the united states and tables of president and presidential elections and statistics of states the book is substantially bound and attractive from the book maker standpoint the index is very full the phraseology is clear and simple and the book is entirely adapted to any year of the high school or to more advanced classes and view of the extensive references Mr. Ashley has picked out all the salient points in American history from the standpoint of scholarship and pedagogical requirements this text will take high rank American History by Roscoe Lewis Ashley pages 47 557 the Macmillan Company, New York $1.40 net New Jersey History Syllabus the New Jersey State Department of Public Instruction has impressed another section of its syllabus for secondary schools covering the high school work in history and divided into the four topics of ancient medieval and modern English in American the committee which compiled the syllabus was composed of Arthur Arnold Chairman the portion of the syllabus dealing with ancient history is the work of Dr. Nolton Ms. LaVelle has arranged the European matter Mr. Howe the English and Ms. Dines the American End of section 8 section 9 of the history teachers magazine volume 1 number 5 January 1910 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Colleen McMahon the history teachers magazine volume 1 number 5 January 1910 by Various section 9 ancient history in the secondary school William Fairley Ph.D. editor a review not a review of the work we teachers have been doing with our friends the ancient Greeks but a digression which will be in some sort a review of a notable book will occupy us for a little there's recently appeared the lower lectures for 1908 to 1909 by Professor John P. Mahaffey of Trinity College Dublin on what have the Greeks done for modern civilization the book is all together helpful to the lover of the Greek world and to him not only but to the reader who through early limitations of culture may have but slight ideas of the importance of the Greeks a reading of this book should be what to one brought up in the dim light of a cave or in the dense shadows of some vast forest would be a first glimpse of the glorious orb of day the source of all the shaded light and all the warmth that had hitherto been his to enjoy without suspicion of the existence of the master light professor Mahaffey's glad some task is to impress the primacy of Greece in all our best thinking and truest living he is indeed an enthusiast occasionally the judicious reader will question some of the results of his enthusiasm but the author is the nester of the Greek scholars of the English speaking world he says of himself at the close of his lectures so now when my part in the race is nearly run there remains to me no higher earthly satisfaction than this that I have carried the torch of Greek fire a light through a long life no higher earthly hope than this that I may pass the torch to others who in their turn may keep it a flame with greater brilliancy perhaps but not with more earnest devotion in the parliament of men he bitterly decries the modern displacement of the study of the Greek tongue and the knowledge of Greek life at first hand but at the same time serves as an interpreter of what was best in Greece to those of us who are not quite at home in this language of queer type and involved syntax so in this close of our study of Greece for the current school year let me earnestly recommend the perusal of this book to all teachers of our department we cannot give a hundredth part of it to our pupils now or in later courses but it will serve to imbue ourselves deeply with the Greek spirit and help us to enforce the true value of our heritage from the Greeks the masterminds of all our thinking some of us will not have the opportunity to read the book for them let me try to give a few glimpses of its worth there are eight lectures introductory Greek poetry Greek prose Greek art one poetry and sculpture two painting and music science grammar logic mathematics medicine politics sociology law higher thinking philosophy speculative and practical theology the thesis of the whole is that the best in life is wrought out elaborately and with pains by men of deep thought and long reflection it is a glorifying of the ideal as over against the modern rush of practicality in his introductory lecture professor Mahaffey seeks not to account for the Greek preeminence that cannot be done but to assert it as one might extoll the sporadic genius of a Mozart he then shows how the Romans and the men of medieval Europe failed to grasp as our modern world since the Renaissance has been grasping the real meaning of Greece here comes his plea for the study of Greek he writes the danger I see before this generation is that which came upon the Roman world insensibly and which resulted in a decadence not arrested till it sunk into the night of the dark ages the later empire was content to take Greek art and Greek letters at second hand and to substitute Latin culture for the models which educated their greatest masters but the copy had not the life of the original so we too with all our science with our increase of material knowledge and our joyless running to and fro may sink into an ugly tame joyless conglomeration of societies for whom new discoveries supply hosts of new conveniences but no return to the happiness and contentment of a simpler age happiness does not lie here no nor in motors nor in turbines nor in wireless messages across the globe nor in daily newspapers full of inextricable fact and falsehood in the chapters devoted to literature with wealth of argument and illustration is pointed out our well known debt for rhythm and meter period and cadence in specific cases there can be no question that in the oratory of debate the Greeks taught the Romans then through them medieval Europe then after the Renaissance modern Europe practically so that even now they are the acknowledged masters in this splendid art and the laws of prose composition as devised and perfected by a Socrates are the most subtle and complete ever put into practice by any living man these supreme exemplars of prose and verse he declares have no lesson for us of unstudied eloquence and unpremeditated art everything was polished to the pitch of perfection with oil architecture and sculpture reveal the highest glories of Greek art the refinements of line by which optical delusion was corrected in the Parthenon are pointed out with admiration speaking of the freeze of the same temple he remarks there is even the subtlety in the detail of the work that as this band of figures was intended to be seen high above the spectator care was taken to carve the lower limbs slightly flatter relief than the upper and the limbs of the horses were even made a little lighter than in nature in order to counterbalance the predominance which the part nearer the spectator's vision might assume glimpses of genius pains and skill such as that are of high artistic yes and moral value to our youth attention is called to what so many of us ignore that color was freely used in both building and sculpture are flat whites have been unbearable to these masters their perfection in statuary is the loving despair of the world today in the chapter on science are a host of facts which are not unfamiliar to the scholar but which will serve to hush some of our modern boastfulness some things will be new to many readers such are the system of numerical notation almost as simple as our Arabic digits the extent of Greek mathematical investigation is better known of great interest is the account of Greek medicine which got so far beyond the nostrums the filters and superstitions to which medieval quackery returned in politics is found the weak point of Greece yet even here we must use the historical perspective and thus by contrast this ancient advance over oriental throttoms and tyrannies is all the more wonderful in matters of private law it is almost startling to come across a will like this taken from a papyrus of greosized Egypt this is the will of Paceus the Lycian son of X of sound mind and deliberate intention may it be my lot to live on in health and manage my own property but should anything human happen to me I bequeath to my children so much to my wife such and such things I set free certain slaves I set apart money for religious purposes and I appoint his executors such and such people a will like this would be admitted to probate in any surrogates court today the chapters on philosophy and theology are necessarily deep but of supreme importance for in them we are reminded of how by pure thinking the Greeks anticipated the best and latest of our modern thought the atomic theory the unity of the universe the oneness of God the eternal sanctions of the right the high behest of the moral law were all worked out over 2000 years ago if the time should ever come when men will no longer be led by revelation when they will reject miracle and prophecy and determined to be led by the mirror light of reason there will still remain the ethical types which Zeno and Epicurus have crystallized in their systems there will always remain the man of duty and the man of pleasure the man who lives for others and the man who lives for himself in terms of modern philosophic jargon the altruist and the egoist the spiritualist and the materialist it were well for our youth and their teachers to bow before a race who in that dim and early age could think the thoughts and set in motion the influences which are most vital among us of the later time the fall of the curtain a formal presentation of the closing scenes of purely Greek by the foregoing notice of Professor Mahaffey's work it may suffice to point out the three subjects most worthy of emphasis these may well be one the failure of the Greek federations before and after Alexander owing to jealousies two the extent and the political failure of the work of Alexander and three the Hellenizing of the Mediterranean basin and the lasting benefits accruing therefrom end of section nine recording by Colleen McMahon