Special method in history; a complete outline of a course of study in history for the grades below the high school

Front matter

jfreto fiorfe

ifetate College of Agriculture

at Cornell Mntoersfitp

Preface

This book contains a plan of a complete course of study in history for the grades below the high school. It is an attempt not only to outline this historical course, but also to point out with definiteness the materials which may appear in each year's study, to estimate the value and fitness of the matter selected for each grade, and to discuss and illustrate at some length the method of handling these materials.

A separate chapter is given to a somewhat full discussion of each of the four grades of work.

The chapter containing the course of study names the topics for each year's work, and also points out at length the correlations with geography, reading, and literature, while a separate chapter discusses the value of these correlations.

The final chapter contains for each year a carefully selected and arranged series of books for children and teachers. It is hoped that this list will enable the teacher to carry out practically the course of study which precedes it.

In order to carry out the plan of oral instruction advocated for fourth and fifth grades, the author has prepared three small volumes of Pioneer History Stories of America, which are designed to furnish vi PREFACE

the suitable story-material which may be easily arranged for any part of the country, according to local geographical position and needs.

This book is one of a series of Special Methods in the common school studies. The others of the series are The Special Methods in the Reading of Complete English Classics, in Primary Reading and Oral Work with Stories, in Geography and in Natural Science.

The entire series of Special Methods is designed to work out and apply in the detail of each study the broad principles discussed in the General Method and in the Method of the Recitation.

A complete Course of Study for the Grades of the Common School is in preparation, which will bring together in two volumes the comprehensive plans, outlines of courses, and full references for all the studies of the common school.

This course of Study in History, while it establishes American history as the central body of historical material, also draws extensively from the history of England and of Europe, and, in connection with reading and literature, looks for a still wider extension of the child's horizon of thought.

CHARLES A. McMURRY.

Palatka, Florida, March 34, 1903.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Aim of History Instruction i

II. Selection of Historical Materials Suitable

Chapter II

THE SELECTION OF HISTORICAL MATERIALS, SUITABLE FOR THE COMMON SCHOOL GRADES

To select the best historical material which the world can furnish to children in the common school is not an easy task. It is necessary to keep in mind both the children's capacity to appropriate historical knowledge and the character of those historical materials which are needed to interpret modern life. We must also remember the chief aim to socialize and humanize the child by causing him to experience the best epochs of historical growth.

We may first draw the line of separation between history and several very closely related studies with which it is frequently confused. Some writers are accustomed to include the mythologies and folklore commonly taught in the primary grades as a part of history, but for our present purpose we wish to discriminate history from the myth and legend and to limit it chiefly to what is now understood as authentic history which will stand the tests of modern methods of verification.

We are also disposed to draw a sharp line between 18 history and literature, such literature, for example, as the Homeric poems, the old English ballads, the Arthurian legends, Virgil's "iEneid," the story of " Siegfried," " Marmion," and many other historical poems and classics. Historical novels, likewise, even the best of them, are not included in the term " history " as we are now using it in connection with the school course. All of these literary materials are wrought into the school course, partly in the oral story work of the primary grades, partly in the regular study of reading throughout all the grades, and partly in supplementary readings both at school and home. This line of demarcation between history and literature casts no discredit upon literature, mythology, and historical fiction. A full course of study in the best literature of America and of other countries should be provided in the common school curriculum, and is presupposed. This whole subject has been fully discussed in the " Special Method in Reading of English Classics," and in the "Special Method in Primary Reading and Oral Work in Stories," of this series.

History proper deals with materials which have historical veracity, which are based upon good authorities and may be accepted as true. The teacher of history is expected to assume the standpoint of the modern scientific historian, at least so far as the use of authentic material is concerned. Not that the teacher himself is a historian, but he should use materials which good historians have pronounced trustworthy. It is not expected that the teacher himself will become a technical critic or that he will try to make such critics of the children. But there are certain credulous, one-sided historical books which he should avoid. Biographies giving undue praise and credit to historical characters should be avoided. Books which are ultra-patriotic in their approval of all things American are not healthful historical books. On the other hand, it is not expected that children shall be trained to a carping criticism of great men, or that they should exercise a premature wisdom in judging the leaders in history. What is needed is, rather, a solid respect for historical truth and a disposition to know the facts and to learn the lessons which history really teaches.

In laying out a course of study in American and other history we may get at a good result by the negative process of deciding what historical materials should be excluded from our school course. We will attempt, therefore, to fix a table of exclusions.

1. Anything like a full chronology, either of American or European history, is out of the question in the common school. This sort of systematic chronology has been in vogue in our schools to a considerable extent, but it is rapidly passing away. For children it is certainly necessary that only a few important dates be learned.

2. A brief systematic survey of the history of the whole world, which has been strongly recommended by some teachers, seems to have very little real basis in the needs of children or of society. Such an outline, if at all appropriate, should be the result of historical study at the end of the course, rather than a preface to it. It is inevitably a dull piece of work and cannot be defended even upon the ground of pure discipline, the belief in which is fast giving way to a more rational conviction.

3. The genealogies of kings and royal houses, and the endless series of court intrigues which once constituted a good share of the text-books in history, are now recognized as worse than valueless to children. Some critics, like Herbert Spencer, have almost totally rejected the study of history in our common schools because it was made up of such trash.

4. Many large periods of European history can be esteemed of no particular value to children up to the age of fourteen. They should not be dragged over the whole long chain of events as a prelude to the study of later ages.

5. The study of wars and military campaigns should be cut as short as possible. There are, indeed, some honorable and some horrible lessons to be learned from the study of war, and the impression of its destructive and devastating character, its ruinous influence upon society, should be made as plain as possible. Thus far, curiously, in the history work of schools, war has been chiefly glorified and its inhuman and distressing phases overlooked. If taught at all, the truth about wars ought to be told and its brutalities, as well as its heroisms, exposed. This can be done by an occasional detailed treatment of a military campaign or battle. In a Christian nation it is quite admissible to bring out the selfish and unrighteous causes which have led to war, and the plundered fields and towns, and the broken and mangled families which are the sure and incurable results of war.

6. The philosophy of history is not a thing to be taught in the common school, and this applies also to some of those generalizations which even our text-books commonly supply. It is, however, of little value to children to memorize these general inferences. They presuppose just such a knowledge of the facts as the children should be engaged in accumulating. Both teachers and text-books easily drop into this humdrum method of summing up historical events. The pupils get little out of it except a routine drill which dulls the sensibilities.

7. Recent and contemporary history is perhaps the most difficult of historical studies, and for this reason have little appropriateness to children. The history of a hundred years ago can be much more easily understood by children than the current events of to-day. It takes a very wise and experienced scholar and man of the world to judge correctly any of our present political and social controversies.

We may say, on the one hand, that it involves the whole purpose of the course in history to bring the child to a point where he can get an intelligent insight into the present life of the people, but on the other side it may be said with equal truth that it is no part of the business of children to solve our present problems. It is the province of the course of study in history to put children in possession of those facts of our historical growth which will bring them to the threshold of the present with an intelligent equipment for these modern problems. We may say, therefore, that the schools can spend very little time in discussing our present political and social problems.

In this table of exclusions we have named a number of things which are of little value in our historical course because they are not educative in the best sense. Not appropriate to the thought and activity of childhood.

As to positive demands, our course of study calls for the selection of a few leading biographies and larger topics of American and of European history. ' These great topics should be appropriate to children, and educative in the sense of our aim. They should j be topics in which the impulsiv e life of the children can find free and adequate utterance. They should i appeal strongly to their interest and understanding, and enhance social spirit and intelligence.

These requirements are fulfilled first of all by biography, but biographies are of many sorts, and the great majority of them are not of special interest or value to children. Biographical stories of the true stamp have a wonderful attraction for boys and girls, and even for men and women. There is perhaps nothing more interesting and instructive than the strong and manly effort of individuals under the stress and strain of life's problems.

There are also certain epochs of history which have a marked attractiveness for young people. For «example, the age of chivalry and knight-errantry, the age of maritime exploration, the war of Greek Independence against the Persians, and the American Revolution. As children grow older their interests change and centre upon more complex and difficult historical personages and events. It has been one of the chief aims of educators to find out the series of epochs in the world's history which are most interesting and instructive to children in their successive stages of growth. As yet there seems to Jbejio .general agreement upon this point, and therefore our courses of study are in a shifting and uncertain condition; but so much, at least, seems to be established, that a few important epochs well treated in a descriptive and even dramatic fulness, are far better than a systematic, chronological survey of the history of many nations.

There are also important topics which show a continuous development, working out step by step, through many years, an important result. For example, the discovery, exploration, and settlement of America, or the origin, growth, and outcome of slavery. It is an interesting and worthy study to trace out one of these topics in its causal sequence of events. Even a single event, like the adoption of the Constitution, is the important culmination of a long and complex series of historical causes which it is one of the great lessons of history to trace out. In these different ways important topics should be selected and arranged in the course of study which will give a full and adequate exercise of the mental powers of the children, awaken their spontaneous interest to a vigorous action, and help them to appreciate the chief historical influences.

In projecting the course of history for American children, it will be acknowledged on all hands that American history should have a prominent place. Thus far, in our common schools, it has practically occupied nearly the whole time given to history. But English and European history have received some attention, and are getting more and more recognition as a part of our school course.

It is well, therefore, to inquire definitely into the scope and educative value of American history. It is not only our own, but it is extremely rich in educative elements.

1. It exhibits the movement of political, social, and industrial forces, through the chief stages, from the simplest crude arrangements of the early settlements up to that vast system, with its great complexity of institutions, which we now call our national life. I think it would be impossible to find any other nation in which the chief stages of modern history are better illustrated, and in which there is less backward movement or halting progress. The growth of institutions has been steady, incessant, and rapid. To trace out this movement in our history is as good a preparation as can be made for the understanding of our present political and social affairs. Professor Turner says : —

" Loria, the Italian economist, has urged the study of colonial life as an aid in understanding the stages of European development, affirming that colonial settlement is for economic science what the mountain is for geology, bringing to light primitive stratifications. 'America,' he says, 'has the key to the historical enigma which Europe has sought for centuries in vain, and the land which has no history reveals luminously the course of universal history.' There is much truth in this. The United States lies like a huge page in the history of society. Line by line, as we read this continental page from west to east, we find the record of social evolution. It begins with the Indian and the hunter; it goes on to tell of the disintegration of savagery by the entrance of the trader, the pathfinder of civilization ; we read the annals of the pastoral stage in ranch life; the exploitation of the soil by the raising of unrotated crops of corn and wheat in sparsely settled farming communities ; the intense culture of the denser farm settlement; and finally, the manufacturing organization with city and factory system. This page is familiar to the student of census statistics, but how little of it has been used by our historians. Particularly in eastern states this page is a palimpsest. What is now a manufacturing state was in an earlier decade an area of intense farming. Earlier yet it had been a wheat area, and still earlier the ' range ' had attracted the cattle herder. Thus Wisconsin, now developing manufacture, is a state with varied agricultural interests. But earlier it was given over to almost exclusive grain-raising, like North Dakota at the present time."

2. At every stage in this progress our country has been fortunate in the character of its leading men. Looked at from the standpoint of the education of the young, what can be more fortunate than that we should have among those persons with whose life and deeds every boy and girl is to become well acquainted, such men as John Winthrop, William Penn, Columbus, Roger Williams, Franklin, Washington, Samuel Adams, Marion, Robert Lee, Champlain, La Salle, and many others who were persons of very unusual force and excellence of character. It can hardly be called boasting to say that no other country has, in its early history (that part which children most study), such a remarkable and superior body of representative men. When the persona\ history of these people is once properly presented to our boys and girls, its social and moral influence upon the character of the youth of America must be incalculably great.

3. This history is complete, authentic, and reliable, so that the truth can be told without disparagement to its culture effect. From the very beginning of our history the main facts are well established. There is no dim twilight of myth and legend, such as is peculiar to the history of every European state. We know the essential truth about the men and women who settled the thirteen colonies ; what hardships and dangers they met, and what sort of character they exhibited. All this is thoroughly interesting and instructive to children, even more so, perhaps, than the heroes and exploits of mythical antiquity.

4. The story of our earlier national history in colonial times is full of those simpler, ruder forms of industrial life which furnish suitable working problems for the children in manual construction. The tendency of children to reproduce the conditions and surroundings of those whose lives and adventures are thoroughly interesting is well known. The early pioneers in America were builders and workers, hunters and fighters, men who knew how to make and use the spade, the axe, the oar, and fishing tackle, the spindle and the loom. Their first constructions were of the rudest and simplest character. Log-houses, breastworks, forts, and palisades were among their first necessities. They were compelled to build up everything from the simplest beginnings in a land where absolutely none of the conveniences and products of civilization were to be found. They not only built their own houses and made their own furniture and fireplaces, they also prepared their own clothing from furs and hides, or from coarse cloth which they had spun and woven. From the forests they cut down the trees, from which to construct homes and forts, boats and ships. They cleared the ground and raised their own crops. They went out in fishing smacks and soon became bold and hardy fishermen along the coast of New England, or equally bold and fearless Indian fighters, or emigrants into the region farther west. The clothing, tools, implements, and weapons which they employed, the axes, levers, wedges, guns, and cooking utensils, boats, and tackle, were such as boys love to bring together for their hunting and outing trips. The necessities of the home and of the family caused them not only to make clothing, but also to produce salt and sugar, to put up meats and fruits, to raise vegetables, poultry, and domestic animals, and to supply themselves thus with all the means of food, shelter, and clothing which their ingenuity could devise. With their own hands, little by little, they actually produced all the material objects of a civilized society.

The Indian life furnishes additional construction for boys and girls. Manual employments, suggested and stimulated by interest in these history stories, are undoubtedly a strong means of converting history into personal experience, and of causing the boy to realize, in the fullest degree, the historical events in which he is absorbed.

For these and other reasons, we are disposed to grant an unusual importance to early American history, and to give it a large place in the school work. In fact it may well serve as the backbone of this part of the course of study in history. Such parts of European history as contribute to a better understanding of American history or deal with equally important or kindred epochs in the life of nations will be brought into proper relation to the similar subjects in this primary course in American history.

The Selected Parts of European History

In the vast array of important historical material furnished by the history of Europe, it is plain that only a few striking and prominent incidents can be incorporated into the graded school curriculum. First, because much of that history is beyond the comprehension of children, and second, because the time possible for historical instruction is very limited.

It would be a sad mistake to overload the children with a mass of memorized detail, or to distress them with a schematic outline of the whole.

There are certain epochs in European history, like the coming of the Angles and Saxons to England, the Norman Conquest, the Reformation, and the Puritan Revolution, that have a world-significance. They are like mountain peaks which tower aloft and show the trend of great mountain chains. There are also certain lofty characters, like Alfred the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, Luther, Alexander, Isabella, Cromwell, and Napoleon, who have taught the world such commanding lessons that every child should have a chance to grasp in a few points the significance of their lives. These great events and personages belong to the supreme thought and experience of the race, and children should carry with them from school a distinct remembrance of such characters. In making the selection of these few conspicuous topics we must always regard the age and capacity of the children, and the real educative or culture value of the material selected.

It is evident that biography must here also have the lead. A few individuals of striking and convincing personality must be selected. Hannibal in the Punic wars, Caesar in his conquest of Gaul and England, John Hampden in the contest with Charles I, Bismarck in the Unification of Germany, sum up in their personalities the most important political ideas and events. In intermediate grades the hero tales of Regulus, Alfred the Great, Richard I, Robert Bruce, and Leonidas may be employed.

Again, many of the topics in earlier American history have their other half in Europe, and the immediate events in Europe demand a clear presentation. The stories of Raleigh, of Penn, of Columbus, of Magellan, of La Salle, and of all the colonial settlements have their preliminary basis of action in Europe, and the preceding events in England or Spain or France need a clear statement. Even the lives of Franklin, of John Paul Jones, and of other Revolutionary leaders are largely European in their surroundings and influences.

There are also European topics which are but enlarged treatments of American topics. The English Revolution and the Commonwealth, the Reformation, and the Colonization of America as viewed from Europe are enlargements of the points of view which we gain from the study of similar and closely related events in America. As will be later seen, many American subjects can be far better understood in England or France after kindred events have been studied on a smaller scale in American history. This close causal connection between events on the two shores of the Atlantic needs to be clearly traced out in order to get a true understanding of the importance and meaning of each.

It seems clear that children, by the time they leave the common school, should have at least gained not only a bird's-eye view of the large and far-reaching events in European history, but also considerable insight into a few striking characteristics of each of the leading nations, as of the Romans, the Germans, the Spaniards, the French, and the English. When did these nations stand out most prominently in the world's work? Are they still progressive or have they dropped behind in the world's march ? A few of these conspicuous persons and peoples may be treated with sufficient detail to arouse a real interest and to produce intelligent insight into their character.

Chapter III History Stories Used In Fourth And Fifth Grades

We assume that American history will furnish us the chief materials for our course of study in history.

In the three primary grades we plan for no regular historical instruction. The use of a few simple history stories in primary grades at Thanksgiving and Christmas time, and on national celebrations, may serve as a prelude to the steady and purposeful studies which begin in the fourth grade. In the third grade also it may be well to discuss the family and neighborhood traditions, and the stories of a few of the early settlers in the home district.

The regular course in American history may begin in the fourth grade with a number of choice pioneer history stories of the United States. In selecting and arranging these stories we are controlled by two considerations. First, that they be taken from the simple, primitive period of early discovery and settlement, and not from the complex surroundings of a more advanced stage of society. Second, that the best early stories of the home state should be studied first, and that the movement be gradually outward toward the neighboring states and to the whole of North America and the world. For example, in the Mississippi Valley states the pioneer stories of that region should be the first history lessons for children, and later, the stories of the eastern and far western states. In New York state the stories of Hudson and Champlain would naturally come first, while in Virginia, Raleigh and Smith would have the preference. The order in which the stories are taken up will thus vary in different parts of the United States. Two chief reasons may be assigned for this. First, the character of pioneer exploration and discovery is essentially the same in all parts of the United States. It has everywhere the same simplicity and the same difficulties and dangers to meet. Second, the chronology of pioneer events has at first little importance for children. The great thing is to produce strong impressions by a complete, animated, realistic portraiture of a few leading characters and the events in which they figured.

In nearly all cases the more difficult stories of Columbus, Magellan, Cortes, and Drake may be handled to better advantage in the fifth grade. Two years (fourth and fifth) are thus given to the pioneer period of American history dealing with the life experiences of explorers and the very earliest settlers.

As indicated in the course of study, a number of English and European history stories should be handled in these same grades. They spring from the earliest historical epochs, and have primitive surroundings which children may understand. They fit in well with the American stories.

It is our opinion that in teaching all these stories, both American and European, the geographical background should be kept clearly in mind. Wall-maps, globes, and blackboard sketches should be used in every story to make clear the simple geographical surroundings in which the action takes place. One reason why the stories of Columbus and Magellan are more difficult than those of Boone and Champlain is that the former requires a knowledge of the whole earth and of the maps then used, and of the vague ideas then prevalent on geography.

Our first American history belongs to the heroic age. It was the blossoming time for deeds of individual heroism. But it is practical and real. The old heroes of mythical times had to do with monsters and demigods, or with the huge forces of nature in uncouth personifications, as Polyphemus, Scylla, and Charybdis. The heroes of this new world had more real and tangible hardships. Mountains, forests, rivers, stormy oceans, wild beasts, and Indians, and other untold hardships and distresses of people far from their sources of supply. The early explorers and settlers of our land first discovered and opened up its stretches of forest, mountain, and desert ; then struggled manfully against savage difficulties to gain possession of its soil, and finally labored slowly and painfully to build houses, roads, villages, and all the later institutions of culture. It can hardly be said that the earliest of these history stories can be used to advantage before the fourth grade, but for children of this grade they are well adapted.

It is not uncommon to find history stories in use in the first and second grades, and some even of our kindergartners employ the story of Columbus and of Washington and of others with still younger children. They claim also that much interest is awakened by such stories. We believe that children of the first and second grades are not mature enough to grasp these historical narratives in their geographical setting. We wish to use the stories at that point where they will produce their full educative effect. Nor do we believe that a story should be repeated from year to year in successive grades. Let the story, with its full accompaniment of local and geographical environment, be told by the teacher and reproduced by the children at that time when they are able to understand it clearly and receive a strong and permanent impression. We have tested these pioneer histories from time to time upon children of the third and fourth-grades, and have reached the conclusion that third grade pupils are not quite equal to a satisfactory grasp of them. An exception to this rule has been noted in the use of a few stories in connection with Thanksgiving and other holidays.

The following discussion will make plain the qualitative elements in these stories that fit them for use in the fourth and fifth grades rather than at other periods of the school course.