History in the elementary schools; methods, courses of study, bibliographies

Introduction

THE course of study outlined in the following pages is first of all practicable. It has been subjected to the test of teachers and supervisors in elementary schools of the country and the city, and of Normal Training Schools. It is the result of years of experience in public schools conducted under ordinary conditions. It is easily adaptable to either graded or ungraded schools.

While it provides for a complete course of study in history from the first to the eighth grades inclusive, it is so arranged that it may be used in connection with any rational plan of correlation of history with other subjects, especially with industrial training, literature and geography. This is particularly true of the outlines for the first four grades. In ungraded schools and those only partially graded, doubtless the demands of the daily program render the adoption of some scheme of combining and coordinating allied subjects an actual necessity. This course provides the desired "core" or basis for the correlation of history, geography and literature and, in the primary grades, manual training, in a perfectly natural and interesting manner.

The course has also been prepared with the view of combining several grades into single sections or classes. For example, an ungraded rural school may be arranged into a primary and a grammar grade section. Type stories

4 INTRODUCTION

from the outline of the first four grades may be selected for the primary section, and from the outline of the fifth and sixth years for the grammar sections. The stories will be found exceedingly interesting to all the children of the respective groups, and if made the basis for work in manual training, literature and geography, as before suggested, all three subjects can be carried along with pleasure and profit without undue encroachment on the time allotment of the daily program. The outline of United States History for the seventh and eighth grades is, of course, available for any grammar school, graded or ungraded.

Most of the books and other equipment needed in carrying out this course may be supplied by the school district at very little cost. Practically everything outside of the books and some drawing material can be improvised by the resourceful teacher with the help of pupils and parents. In fact, one of the desirable purposes of the course is to stimulate the ingenuity of teachers and pupils as well as the sympathetic assistance of parents. Pupils should not be required to purchase more than the texts and materials authorized by the formal course of study prescribed by the school authorities.

This course of study had been completely elaborated and was in working operation some time before the Report of the Committee of Eight of the American Historical Association was published. It is pleasing to note that it embodies the spirit and purpose of that suggestive document. The main contrasts lie in the direction of practicability and adaptability to the requirements of elementary schools as at present organized. The report of the Committee of Eight seems to have been prepared from the viewpoint

INTRODUCTION 5

of the so-called "cycle" method of teaching history — a cycle of local, then one of general, history alternating throughout the grades. The essential differences between the two courses consist in the sequence of topics, the extent of the bibliographies, and the specific directions as to methods of teaching.

(1) The Report devotes more time in the primary grades to American History, omitting altogether stories illustrating primitive civilization. In the fourth and fifth grades American History stories occupy the whole year.

(2) The Report does not introduce stories of Greece and Rome until the sixth grade, the work in which is completed by stories from later European History.

(3) History of the United States is resumed in the seventh grade, and is continued into the eighth, which closes with a resumption of modern European History. It does not seem likely that such an illogical and incoherent course of study would ever commend itself as a whole to any large number of the supervisors and teachers of history in our elementary schools.

In the following course American History has by no means been neglected in the lower grades. On the contrary, every grade from the second to the sixth inclusive ends with typical stories of the history of our own country, but they have been introduced on the supposition that they illustrate naturally and logically the fundamental theme of these grades. Throughout the primary grades this theme is primitive civilization, the stories being gleaned from the primitive life of many peoples, ancient and modern, beginning with the tree dwellers and ending with the primitive civilization of American Indians and pioneer white men in

6 INTRODUCTION

America. The fifth and sixth grades are mainly occupied with stories illustrating life in the Middle Ages in Europe, and in the modern period in Europe and America, the principal themes being the progress of civilization, the development of nationalities, and the struggle for freedom, emphasis everywhere being laid on the life of the people. In the seventh and eighth grades the formal study of the history of the United States is pursued, closing with a course in elementary civics, which takes the direction of a discussion of the relations between the citizen and the community under present social and industrial conditions. The flexibility of the course, however, will permit it to be adapted easily to the use of schools in which it is desirable to follow closely the Report of the Committee of Eight. The principal claims for consideration of this course are:

(1) Its practicability, adaptability to any conditions.

(2) Its logical consistency.

(3) Its vital interest to the pupils.

(4) The sense of the unity of history which it arouses in the minds of teachers and pupils.

(5) The selected, workable bibliography, containing book lists especially suitable for the use of young pupils and of teachers who have had only the minimum of historical training.

(6) The introduction of a variety of methods of representation or reproduction by the pupils in the form of drawing, sand and clay modeling, handicrafts, simple dramas, etc.

The course claims no special credit on the score of originality. Like most practical and useful plans, professions and institutions, it is eclectic. Much of its merit, if it

INTRODUCTION 7

possesses any, is due to the suggestiveness of the work of Jane Andrews, John Preston True, Prof. E. W. Kemp, Miss Katherine Dopp, Prof. Lucy Salmons, and others. The excellent books or reports of all of these are frequently cited in the following pages.

Beyond all, however, the author is indebted to the patience, the intelligence and the resourcefulness of various teachers in elementary schools formerly under his supervision, and especially to the student teachers of the State Normal School of San Diego, California, for sympathetic and efficient assistance in working out this course of study.

STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.

Contents

I. THE COURSE OF STUDY . n

Determining Factors n

Intermediate Grammar Grades 14

Chapter I The Course Of Study Determining Factors

HISTORY is the story of the development of civilization. This development has been carried on by two great forces:

(1) Natural selection caused by adaptation to environment;

(2) Spiritual intuition and intellectual power which transcend the material and enable men to modify, direct and control the influences of ancestral inheritance and physical environment. The possession of this spiritual and intellectual potentiality differentiates man from the brute. All brutes are subject to the sway of natural selection. Man alone has been endowed with coordinated memory, the power of self-control, the faculty of "personal idealism."

Genuine history, therefore, deals with two lines of development:

(1) The reaction of man and his environment, which constitutes the material side;

(2) Man's interpretation of himself, his surroundings, and his contact therewith, as expressed in folklore, religion, literature, fine arts and philosophy.

ii

These two foundations of history we may designate the materialistic and the spiritualistic. They are basic and furnish the most fundamental and essential criteria of the course of study in this subject. •

The test of the curriculum next in importance is the answer to the question, Is the course of study adapted to the nature, experience and practical needs of the pupils? This question takes into consideration two propositions:

(1) The nature of the child, or the psychological factor;

(2) The environment of the pupil, the practical demands of the civilization in which he lives.

To get the point of view of the child, to reach its standing ground, to make a start at all and maintain the interest of the learner, doubtless we must be psychological, must adapt the materials and the methods to the stage of development through which the pupils are passing at any given time. This brings into view the so-called "culture epoch" theory, which certainly contains many suggestions worthy of consideration. It does not require a psychologist to be perfectly aware that the evolving child, in some measure, corresponds, in its various culture stages, to the evolving race; that it begins as a savage, becomes semicivilized, then enlightened, to use the old terminology, and finally, if the home and the school have performed their duties successfully, fully civilized, that is, becomes completely in harmony with its environment.

On the other hand, to enable children to acquire the large body of organized knowledge without which they can neither have adequate and correct conceptions of the course of true history nor become fitted for the responsibilities of good citizenship, this instruction, at least in the higher grades, must be both logical and chronological and present the precise kind of concrete facts with which every intelligent adult must be familiar in order to secure the respect of his fellows and to perform rationally his ordinary social and political duties.

The determining factors, therefore, in a well-balanced course of study in history for elementary schools would appear to be about as follows:

1. Fundamental and basic.

(a) Materialistic — man's reaction on his environment. (ti) Spiritual — man's interpretations and ideals.

2. Immediate and indispensable.

(a) Psychological — point of view of the child.

(b) Practical — social and political needs of the

learner, the content point of view.

The following course in history has been developed with these determining factors always in view. The basic criteria hold good throughout the course; the psychological are more in evidence in the primary grades; the practical predominate in the grammar grades.

In the primary or first four grades, and to some extent in the fifth and sixth also, the materialistic, interpretative and psychological factors harmonize; the logical and chronological are somewhat neglected. Primitive civilization furnishes the general theme in the primary grades, — not the primitive civilization of any particular nation or race, except for illustrative purposes, but primitive civilization in general. The instruction consists in the presentation of simple, realistic, dramatic and correct accounts of the development of the arts of living, grouped, perhaps, around the following topics: dwellings, clothing, securing and preparing food, war, social organizations, including religion, games, etc. Out of these spring ethical, aesthetical and culture ideas and the opportunity for the introduction of much interpretative matter in the way of myths, folklore, fairy tales, poetry, games, drama, pictures, etc. Concrete facts illustrative of primitive life are drawn from ancient sources, e.g., Egyptian, Persian, Hebrew, Greek, Roman, Teutonic; also from modern sources, as the Indians of North America and South America, Eskimos, native Africanders, Hawaiians, Filipinos, etc. The introduction of material from the latter sources materially increases the air of verisimilitude, and lends reality to the instruction.

As will be seen by an inspection of the details of the course, an attempt is made in the first four grades to develop in the consciousness of the children a series of impressionistic pictures showing the general sweep of civilization from the untutored savages of the forest to the dwellers in the cities. The aim throughout is to develop the historical imagination, to give some glimmer of the unity of history, and particularly to arouse curiosity and interest in the story of civilization.

INTERMEDIATE GRAMMAR GRADES

In the fifth and sixth grades the logical and chronological factors begin to be prominent, but still the movements studied and the ideas developed therefrom are general and universal rather than particular, though many authentic stories, anecdotes, episodes and personages are introduced, for the purpose, however, of developing general notions and composite pictures rather than of building up a body of coordinated facts. Here an attempt is made to teach something concerning the civilization of the medieval and early modern periods, as exemplified in the history of England, France, Spain, Holland, Switzerland, Germany and the United States. From the logical point of view the work in these two years forms a background for the formal study of American History, which occupies the next two years, and perhaps may not wholly be forgotten by those pupils who pass on to the high school. Ample opportunity is afforded by the topics of this portion of the course for the introduction of much matter along the line of interpretation in the form of ballads, romances, song cycles, dramas, pictures, etc. From the psychological side it has been fairly well established that children of this stage of development are hero worshipers, and that romance of action appeals to them very strongly. They are getting beyond the more purely imaginative period and now demand true stories. The myth and the fairy tale have lost their charms and must be superseded by tales of real heroes. In other words, children of these years are passing through the so-called "medieval" stages of development.

HIGHER GRAMMAR GRADES

In the seventh and eighth grades the "practical" criteria prevail. The "culture epoch" theory, "immediate interest/'" "line of least resistance " 'and the rest must, in some degree, surrender to the demands of the tyrant Knowledge. This is not only because it is customary and is demanded by the voice of the public, but also because it is an actual social necessity, in the present state of political and educational development, that the last two years of the elementary school course be devoted to the business of acquiring a comprehensive and fairly accurate account of the history and government of our own nation. It is not at all conceded that the process of securing such a broad and thorough conception of the history of the United States is necessarily devoid of interest, or that the psychological criterion is by any means lost sight of. On the contrary, for genuine personal interest and romance, there is no history that appeals more strongly to grammargrade pupils. But it must be acknowledged that many phases of the constitutional and institutional history of our nation do not specially interest pupils of this age. In fact, much of it ought to be omitted until the high-school period is reached. To attempt to introduce theoretical discussions of the science of government in these grades is to commit a psychological anachronism.

Ample provision is made, nevertheless, for a course in elementary civics suitable to pupils of these years. The work of each of the seventh and eighth grades closes with a study of "citizenship." Instead of the old-fashioned, formal analysis and discussion of the Constitution and the mere machinery of government, the relations between the citizen and the community are taken up. Beginning with the pupil's local environment, that is, the township, borough, or city, as the case may be, the various obligations resting on the citizen, and his duties, rights and privileges, are discovered, discussed, and traced through the various civil units up to the State and the Nation. Easily and naturally the learner is led to see the peculiar relations existing between the states of our Union and the national government. The effort is made to instruct children as to the duties and privileges of the average citizen and to inspire them with a desire to fulfill them completely, rather than to indulge in learned discussions of the abstract theories which lie at the basis of government.

Chapter II Primary Grades Methods Of Instruction

THROUGHOUT the primary grades the oral method of presentation should prevail both by preference and through necessity. To succeed, teachers must become expert storytellers. Here learner, content, method all agree, being primitive. The teacher, in imitation of the story-teller of the clan or tribe, must work up the subject-matter until it is literally at her tongue's end. With an outline or book on her desk as a guide only, to which reference may occasionally be made, the alert, sympathetic, resourceful, wellpoised primary teacher faces her eager pupils.

THE QUIZ

First, she prepares them for fresh knowledge and new ideas by a brief, coherent review of the work of the previous lessons. This is to be done by means of a "quiz," consisting of many brief, direct, specific questions, requiring precise but brief answers, reaching as many of the class as possible. These questions should not invariably call for statements of facts, but sometimes for answers demanding judgment on the part of the pupils and tending to arouse their curiosity. Such questions serve to develop an "inquiring attitude" of mind and prepare the children

for the "apperception" of new material.

INSTRUCTION

The teacher then proceeds to unfold the new installments of the story which furnish answers to these "anticipatory" questions. This portion of the recitation, while usually oral, must not consist in a mere reproduction of memorized words. If so, it becomes mechanical, lifeless, dull; and the children will soon discover its emptiness. Neither should it be reading aloud. In this case it is soothing, hypnotic in its effects. Children usually enjoy oral reading of any kind because they can drowse at their ease. It is the rhythm, the regular ebb and flow of sound, that delights. Almost any good reader can please little children by reading aloud even Paradise Lost or the dZneid in the original. The story must come to the children as if direct from the lips of the living teacher. But this story- telling must be somewhat informal, broken up by frequent questions, "anticipatory" and otherwise, with opportunity for questions and intelligent comment on the part of the pupils.

Reading aloud by the teacher is always permissible when the matter to be presented is already in literary form understandable by the pupils, such as poetry, dialogue, descriptions, etc., the spirit and significance of which would likely be lost or obscured by translation into the vocabulary of the teacher.

Beginning with the second grade much of the matter to be presented has been put into such form that the average child can easily and profitably read it. It is advisable that teachers give all the aid possible to encourage pupils to get notions, ideas and impressions from the printed page as soon as possible. Such books as can be read by pupils should be purchased by the school district in sets. Probably all these books should be supplemented by oral talks or stories by the teacher.

The use of chalk and the blackboard should not be overlooked by the ambitious teacher. Nothing is more effective in any grade of the elementary school, or higher schools for that matter, than the ability of the teacher to illustrate the story or lecture by pictures, sketches, maps, etc., quickly, though roughly, drawn while the instructor talks. Along this line all sorts of illustrative material should be utilized. Pictures from newspapers, magazines, and otherwise useless books should be employed. The resourceful teacher, at the beginning of her career, will commence the collection of such materials. The magazines of the day furnish abundant material of this character, not only in the literary department but in the advertising sections as well. Relics in the shape of weapons, utensils, clothing, etc., used by primitive peoples should be displayed to the classes. In many instances excursions can be made by the older pupils to historical spots, monuments, buildings, etc. All these are included

under the head of instruction.

REPRODUCTION

The next step should be the reproduction of various portions of the recent story by the pupils. Usually this should be in the form of a topical recitation, the children relating or discussing episodes or features of the story at the suggestion of the teacher. One important purpose of this form of reproduction is to develop the power, on the part of the pupils, to talk before the class or, in other words, the power of oral expression. The fundamental purpose, however, is to discover the mental images produced in the minds of the pupils by the instruction.

These may be ascertained in various other ways, the most important of which perhaps are simple games and dramas.1 Here the play instinct may be utilized with pleasure and profit. " Children's spontaneous plays are idealized reproductions of the real activities of primitive peoples," says Miss Dopp. This social instinct should certainly be employed in teaching history. These plays should be simple, devoid of elaborate ceremonies or costuming, and, as far as possible, spontaneous on the part of the children. As every one knows, little children are highly imitative, and if skillfully guided by intelligent teachers without too much design or authority being displayed, they will often work out for themselves simple and effective little plays illustrative of the life of the people under consideration. These are by far the most valuable for our purposes. Occasionally, however, the teacher will prepare a drama somewhat more ambitious, calling for more formal drill and some ingenuity and resourcefulness in costuming. The aid of older members of the families should be solicited, especially that of the mothers, who should, of course, be invited to witness the "full dress" performance.

Sand and clay modeling and drawing are also very important modes of expression and furnish great delight to the pupils. Most children learn to draw readily and derive great enjoyment from this method of story-telling.

1 For a number of simple dramas which beginning teachers have worked out along this line, see Appendix.

One of its great advantages lies in the fact that it is always available. Every schoolroom possesses at least blackboard and crayon; and a little colored crayon, charcoal and drawing paper are easily procurable at little cost. Blackboard work and charcoal drawing should be first introduced with beginners, followed by pencil, colored crayon, and, occasionally, water colors. No attempt should be made to produce drawings technically correct, though, of course, sufficient instruction must be given to enable pupils really to reproduce on board or paper some semblance of the actual picture dimly floating in their minds. As in the drama so in drawing, the greater the spontaneity the more valuable the results.

In all the forms of reproduction the children should be led, as far as possible, to live over again, at least in their imaginations, the lives of the people and the activities of the periods which they are studying. Very useful in this direction will be found the reproduction or imitation of certain primitive industries, such as hunting, fishing, developing fire, building wigwams, tents, etc., preparing skins for use, making clothing, weapons and primitive utensils, grinding grain, preparing and cooking foods, etc., — the list is almost endless. These activities not only afford great delight to the children and provide very effective means for representing their mental images, but also reenforce and vivify the formal industrial training which is becoming such a prominent feature in our elementary school instruction. Here comes the opportunity for important correlation of history with manual training as before suggested. It would, indeed, be possible to work out a course in industrial training based on the evolution of racial activities,1 that would not only appeal psychologically to the children, but would also prove thoroughly practical and utilitarian in the end. Some good work has already been done with this purpose in view. Miss Dopp's little books on the Tree Dwellers and Cave Men, supplemented by her important book The Place of Industries in Elementary Schools, furnish ample directions and suggestions for this phase of education.

Teachers must be cautioned, however, not to overdo these activities. It is very easy to run to extremes and turn history lessons into mere farces. In every instance of illustration by "doing" the real educative point must be kept in sight. The expedients above suggested are not ends but means to a larger end. If any study should induce sanity, equipoise, the happy medium between extremes, it should be history. The hope of reaching such results is one of the strongest pleas for teaching the subject in all grades. The pendulum of educational theory and practice is constantly swinging from one end of the arc to the other. History teachers should strive to aid in the movement to restore the equilibrium. The tendency just now is in the direction of exaggerating the value of so-called "objective" and utilitarian activities to the neglect of the "humanities." Teachers of history surely would not wish, at this late day, to return to the methods of Squeers and Do-the-boys Hall!

The use of maps and the teaching of geography in connection with history cannot be urged too strongly. His-

1 Such a course is now being worked out through the cooperation of the departments of history and manual training in the San Diego, Cal., State Normal School.

torical events have always taken place on the earth — never in the books or in the inner consciousness of the teacher or pupil. We must connect history with territory, location, defined space, or it evaporates into mist. Maps should be used constantly without any anxiety as to the psychological effect or whether the children conceive the earth as flat or spherical. The best map for young children is that made by the teacher herself, showing only essentials, omitting all useless details. Direction, distance, altitude, area should be developed, but referred to in general terms, — "long, long ago," "very far away," "across this great ocean," "up this very high mountain," are suggestive phrases, yet geographical nomenclature and specific distances, directions, and locations should rapidly be introduced as the work progresses, and by the time the fourth or fifth grade is reached, political geography should become a matter of habit with both teacher and pupil.

OUTLINES FOR PRIMARY GRADES

For plans for correlating this course with other subjects and adapting it to conditions in ungraded schools see Introduction. The suggestion is offered that in schools of one or two teachers, the first and second grades be united into one class and the third and fourth into another, perhaps reciting on alternate days.

A MINIMUM LIBRARY

[For a list of authors and titles mentioned in these courses, see Appendix.]

FIRST AND SECOND GRADES

1. Dopp, The Tree Dwellers.

2. Dopp, The Early Cave Men.

3. Dopp, The Later Cave Men.

4. Wiley and Edick, Children of the Cliff.

5. Wiley and Edick, Lodrix, the Little Lake Dweller.

6. Ayrton, Child Life in Japan.

7. Scandlin, Hans the Eskimo.

8. Fox, Indian Primer.

9. Norris, The Story of Hiawatha.

10. Snedden, Docas, the Indian Boy of Santa Clara, Parts I and II.

11. Pratt, America's Story for America's Children, Vol. I.

All of the above can be read by children of the second year.

THIRD AND FOURTH GRADES

1. Andrews, Ten Boys Who Lived on the Road from Long Ago to Now

(stories of Kablu, Darius and Cleon).

2. Haaren and Poland, Famous Men of Greece, pp. 9-173.

3. Wallach, Historical and Biographical Narratives, pp. 1-93.

4. Andrews, Ten Boys Who Lived on the Road from Long Ago to Now

(stories of Horatius and Wulf).

5. True, The Iron Star, I-VIIL

6. Snedden, Docas, the Indian Boy of Santa Clara, Part III.

7. Winterburn, The Spanish in the Southwest, pp. 1-160.

8. Pratt, Stories of Colonial Children.

9. Eggleston, A First Book in American History.

All of these books can be read by the children of the third and fourth years.

GENERAL RECITATION PLAN

1. Quiz and "anticipatory" questions, one sixth of the period.

2. Presentation orally of new installments of the story, two thirds

of the period.

3. Reproduction by pupils, if oral, one sixth of the period.

METHODS OF REPRODUCTION BY PUPILS

1. Oral reproduction usually.

2. Blackboard drawing frequently.

3. Charcoal drawing on paper occasionally.

4. Drawing on paper with colored crayon occasionally.

5. Water-color drawings occasionally.

6. Simple plays or dramas occasionally.

7. Sand or clay modeling occasionally.

8. Reproduction or imitation of primitive industries occasionally.

The underlying theme is Primitive Civilization, particular stress to be laid on the arts of living, grouped under the following heads:

1. Dwellings, modes of housing in general.

2. Clothing — sources, materials, styles.

3. Manner of securing and preparing foods.

4. Methods of warfare, offensive and defensive, weapons, etc.

5. Education, primitive schools and methods.

6. Development of trade and commerce — primitive exchange.

7. Interpretative materials, such as myths, legends, folklore, ballads,

religious ceremonies, beginnings of the fine arts.

FIRST GRADE

Teachers should read one or more of the books suggested below on Primitive Civilization in order to get a background and foundation for this work.

TOPICS

1. The Tree Dwellers.

2. The Cave Dwellers.

3. The Cliff Dwellers.

4. The Lake Dwellers.

5. Primitive life among the Indians of North America.

TEXTS TO BE FOLLOWED BY TEACHERS IN THE ORDER NAMED

bpic i.

Topic 2.

Topic i. Dopp, The Tree Dwellers.

( Dopp, The Early Cave Men.

\ Dopp, The Later Cave Men.

Topic 3. Wiley and Edick, Children of the Cliff. Topic 4. Wiley and Edick, Lodrix, the Little Lake Dweller. Topic 5. Jenks, The Childhood of Ji-shib.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES FOR TEACHERS

Most of these references are for the purpose of enabling teachers to get a glimpse into the very interesting field of primitive civilization. With the exception of the first three, the reading of one of the books will be sufficient.

Dopp, The Place of Industries in Elementary Education.

Kemp, History for Graded and District Schools.

Starr, American Indians.