Teaching of history in elementary and secondary schools

Front matter

H

BRWgR si

Class-Li i

Preface

The literature called forth by school instruction in history during the last three hundred years is in some respects a melancholy literature. Much of it can, without great effort, be read as a sort of continuing diagnosis of unsound conditions. Something was apparently wrong in the seventeenth century, when history first began to be taught seriously as an independent school subject, and something has apparently been wrong ever since. This might be indicative merely of a progressive spirit forever discovering that the good of yesterday is no longer good to-day. But the facts admit of no such flattering interpretation. The ills on view in each generation have been in large part ills on view in each preceding generation. So, too, much of the advanced thought on how to improve conditions has been merely the unconscious revival of old thought. Before history had really begun to disturb the peace of schoolmasters, Comenius, in his Great Didactic, completed in 1632, made provision for the subject in every year of the school course and emphasized aspects of history which we, with the zest of pioneers, are emphasizing now.

XIV PREFACE

Before history had become more than a respectable exception in actual school programs, Christian Weise, in 1676, found the spell of the ancients over-potent and argued, much as we argue now, in favor of the modern period. By the end of the eighteenth century school instruction in history had been charged with most of the faults which we attribute to it now, and reformers had already anticipated most of the correctives which we are now striving to apply.

Similar impressions of continuing ills and of recurring advanced thought on how to meet them are left by other chapters in the history of human endeavor. But the conditions presented by the history of history teaching suggest a somewhat curious inconsistency. Teachers of history have labored diligently to improve the world in general through history in general. It does not appear from the record that they have labored diligently to improve their own calling through the special history of that calling. The joy of independent discovery is not a matter to be treated lightly. It is, moreover, better on principle to be an originator than to be an imitator. But teachers of history are committed by their own logic to a study of the experiences of other teachers. Believing, as they do believe, that the past of humanity in general is of value to humanity in general, they are scarcely in a position to deny that the past of history teaching is of value to teachers of his-

PREFACE XV

tory. Surely, to them, beyond teachers of any other subject, it should be apparent that there is an element of futility in sailing without charts seas that have already been charted and in making discoveries that have already been discovered. There are, it may be added, wide opportunities for independent exploration the nature of which can be understood only by those who embark with some knowledge of what has already been accomplished.

It is in this faith that the author has attempted in the following pages a broader survey of past and present conditions than has hitherto been included in a boe&on the teaching of history. The treatment is necessarily inadequate, but not, it is hoped, as superficial as the meager citation of authorities might suggest. Most of the generalizations are based upon materials of which the footnotes convey no hint, and of which they could not, without expansion unsuitable for a work of this character, convey any hint. The most that can be claimed for this part of the work is, however, that it may furnish some indication of what, in the course of three centuries, has been thought and done in the teaching of history.

The greater part of the book is devoted to a discussion of underlying principles and their application to present problems of history teaching in the United States. The aim has been to present as concretely as

XVI PREFACE

possible the fundamental conditions of making history of any kind effective in the schoolroom. There has been no concealment of a personal conviction that the study of history in school may be, and should be, a serious study of history. But this involves merely a further application of principles of presentation which are, it is believed, as valid for those who refuse to carry them beyond the story or information stage of history teaching as for those who believe that school history should include illustrations of how historical truth is established.

The author's own faith in the ability of boys and girls to cope with history is frankly greater than that commonly professed in educational discussion. But it has not been established "without works." Beginning, twenty-five years ago, with all the psychological and pedagogical tenderness that the latest defender of the rights of childhood could desire, the author has been led step by step, through direct experience in the classroom, to a conviction that history of almost any kind can be taught at almost any stage of instruction on the simple condition that it is taught in a sensible way. The evidence is in part the exercises suggested in this book, exercises which, however they may be judged on other grounds, have in every case been personally tested under average school conditions.

No headings nor marginal comments have been included in the body of the book, but a substitute for such

PREFACE XV11

aids to analysis of the text is furnished by the table of contents. A bibliography of history teaching, a list of guides to historical literature, a bibliography of illustrative material, suggestions for a collection of illustrative material, annotated references for further reading, and questions on the text will be found at the end of the volume.

The author has drawn freely upon portions of his earlier pamphlet, 1 but most of the present treatment is new. He is indebted to his wife for constant and

invaluable assistance.

HENRY JOHNSON.

New York,

1 The Problem of Adapting History to Children in the Elementary School. Teachers College Record, November, 1908. Out of print.

PAGE

Editor's Introduction vii

Preface * . . . . xiii

CHAPTER I WHAT HISTORY IS The Past and its Traces i

Traditions and remains 2

Primary and derived sources 3

Inadequacy of sources 4

The Historical Method 6

External criticism 7

Internal criticism 10

Results of criticism 16

Kinds of synthesis 17

Early Conceptions or History 19

Herodotus 19

Thucydides .21

Buckle's Estimate of Historians 23

The Scientific Conception of History .... 24 The search for laws of human action . . . .25

Generalization and the question of what is important . 25

The idea of development 26

Current Views of History 27

CHAPTER II General Attitude toward the Problem ... 28

Difficulties often pointed out 29

xix

Difficulties should not be exaggerated .

Tendency to apply preconceived ideas . General Theories

The doctrine of natural tastes and interests .

The culture-epoch theory

From the near to the remote ....

Approach from the Side of History

Conditions presented by the externals of life

Conditions presented by past mental states .

Particular facts and general facts • Grading, a problem in presentation Difficulties Common to all Conceptions of Grading

Localization essential

The time sense

The place sense

Summary of Possibilities

, CHAPTER III THE QUESTION OF AIMS AND VALUES

The Formulation of Aims of Instruction

Two modes of procedure

History shaped by predetermined good Aims Commonly Proposed for History

Contradictions and inconsistencies

Aims not peculiar to history

Objection to indiscriminate listing of aims

Tendency to treat aims as values Criticism of Values Claimed for History

Tangible results admitted and condemned

Nietzsche's diagnosis of historitis .

Protest of futurists ....

"Exaggerated respect" for the past not impossible

Tangible results denied

The Search for Specific Aims and Values Need of recognizing kinds of history- Conditions presented by uncritical history Conditions presented by critical history Controlling aim suggested by idea of development

Making the Social World Intelligible General procedure Incidental consequences Some objections examined Kinds of facts to be emphasized

History for its own Sake

PAGE

CHAPTER IV HISTORY IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN EUROPE Before the Seventeenth Century

Early use of traditions ....

Obstacles to more formal instruction

Sixteenth-century advocates of history . The Seventeenth Century ....

Comenius

Christian Weise

History in the schools of the Oratorians The Eighteenth Century

Conditions unfavorable to history

Leading advocates of historical instruction 1

General conceptions of school history . . .

Influence of Rousseau

The Nineteenth Century

Objections to history exceptional .

Patriotism turned attention to national history

Patriotism the dominant purpose

Effect of patriotism on school programs

Conceptions of grading history

History Programs for Secondary Schools

Programs for boys in France ...... 103

Programs for girls in France 109

Programs for boys in Germany no

Programs for girls in Germany 116

Programs in other countries 118

General Conditions in Elementary Schools . . .123 Some typical elementary programs . . . .124

Summary of Progress to the Present . . . .125

Chapter V History In The School Curriculum In The

UNITED STATES

Beginnings of Historical Instruction . . . .127

Conditions before 1815 , . 127

History in academies 128

History in elementary schools 130

Early conceptions of the subject . . . . -131

Development up to about 1870 131

Position of History, 1870-1892 132

The Madison Conference 134

Influence of College Entrance Requirements . .137 Committee of Seven . . . . . . .142

Committee of Five 148

Committee of Fifteen

Committee of Twelve

Various Suggestions for Elementary Programs

Committee of Eight

Comparisons with Europe ....

American Conservatism

Demand for Social Studies . . ./ .

Chapter VI The Biographical Approach To History

The Biographical Approach Defined . . . . 161 Early Conceptions of Biography 162

TABLE OF CONTENTS XX111

PAGE

Rousseau an Advocate of Biography .... 163

Biography Adapted to Schools 163

The Argument for Biography 164

Principles of Selection 165

Moral and Patriotic Aims 168

Biography and the Great- Man Theory . . . .171

Grouping Men about Events 173

Lack of Continuity in Biographical Treatment . .176

CHAPTER VII \ Differentiation from Biography 178

Group Activities in Early School History . . .179

Demands for a Larger View 179

Materials for a Larger View 180

Carlyle and Macaulay 181

Weber's Lehrbuch 182

The Campaign for Kulturgeschichte .... 183

Finding Group Characteristics 186

First Steps in the Study of Social Groups . . .189 Introduction through History of Manhattan Island . 190 Study of a Broom-corn Community . . . .194

Materials for Studies of Larger Groups . . .196

Biedermann's Plan 197

Need of a Comprehensive Scheme of Classification . 198

CHAPTER VIII The Process Involved 202

Use of the Community 203

Museums 205

Historical Excursions 206

Special Aids to Visualization 208

Casts and Models 209

Pictures

Maps, Charts, and Diagrams .

Conditions Presented by Verbal Description Generalities in elementary history- Appearance of interest may be misleading Need of concrete details

Obstacles to Use op Details .

Special Devices for Utilizing Details .

Realization of the Past at Best Difficult

PAGE 2IO 213

CHAPTER IX Primary Purpose 225

The Exhibition Idea . 226

Nature of the Images Evoked 227

Abstraction in Models and Pictures . . . .228

The Conception of Size 229

Visualizing Details 231

Interpretation 231

Study of a Roman House — Hensell Model . . .232

The Story Element in Pictures 234

Need of Supplementary Verbal Description . . . 235

The ^Esthetic Factor 236

Exercises in Identifying Models and Pictures . .237 Why Models and Pictures should be Accurate . . 239

CHAPTER X Data in Map Representation 241

Why Maps are Essential 242

The Pointing Exercise 242

Realizing Location 244

Estimating Extent and Area 247

XXV

Adjustment to Differences in Scales of Maps Adjustment to Differences in Map Projections Visualizing Actual Geographical Environment Geographic Conditions and Human Development Historical Geography Exercises in Map Construction Reproductions from memory Constructions from documents

Decree of Louis the Pious, 817

Route of Columbus, 1492

Land grants, Charter of 1606

Materials for other studies

PAGE 250 2SO

251 252

Chapter XI

Relation of the Textbook to School Instruction Classification of Textbooks ....

Characteristics of American Textbooks

Books for intermediate grades

Books for grammar grades ....

High school textbooks

Brevity Need not Imply Vagueness The Question of Accuracy .

Point of View and Proportions .

Pictures, Maps, and Diagrams .

References for Collateral Reading

Table of Contents and Index

Pedagogical Adds

Qualities that Make a Book Interesting

THE

Chapter XII Use Of Textbooks

Place of the Textbook in American Schools Place of the Textbook in European Schools

269 270 271 271 272 276

286 287

The Old-fashioned Textbook Recitation

Type of Recitation Determined in Part by Type

Textbook

Use of Summary Type

Use of Fuller Textbook Treatment

Preliminary Tests of Pupil's Abiliiy

Questions as Aids to Study

Outlines as Aids to Study

Problems as Aids to Study

Dictation and Explication in France

Need of Training in Independent Study ,

The Question- and -Answer Method

The Cooperative Outline

Teaching the Pupil how to Study .

Other Uses of the Textbook .

The Use of more than One Textbook

The Art of Questioning .

Written Work

Giving the Pupil a Chance

CHAPTER XIII v/

PAGE 289

291 291 294

THE SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT OF COLLATERAL READING

American Theory and Practice 323

Some Fundamental Defects 325

Preliminary Questions 328

Why Collateral Reading is Essential . . . .329 Differentiation of Aims and Treatment . . .331

Appeals to sense of reality 331

Readings for information 331

Readings for inspiration 332

Illustrating historical literature . . . . . S33 Illustrating the historical method 334

XXV11

General Range of Selection 335

Reading to the Class 336

Reading by the Class 339

How to Assign Collateral Reading .... 341

The Pupil's Record of Reading 343

Tests of Material 344

The Selection of a Library 345

A Bad Tradition 348

'/CHAPTER XIV t/

History as Assured Knowledge ....

3SO

Elementary school Columbus ....

A critical historian's Columbus ....

Arguments for a Dogmatic Treatment .

To avoid confusion

To further "salutary purposes" ....

Errors unimportant

His Story and History

Argument for Discrimination

Processes to be Illustrated

Raising the Question of How we Know .

Elementary Exercises in Historical Criticism

A textbook exercise

The Pocahontas story

An author and his sources

Elementary Exercises in Synthesis

Illustrations of the Historical Method for the Hige

School

Classification of materials

A printed form

Subjects for papers

Quests for material

• 380

Analysis of material

XXV111

Criticism illustrated by critics Exercises in grouping facts

CHAPTER XV v/

THE

CORRELATION OF HISTORY WITH SUBJECTS IN THE CURRICULUM

Incidental Correlation ....

Systematic Correlation ....

Conditions oe Systematic Correlation Relations between History and Geography

Correlation in European schools .

Conditions in the United States Relations between History and Literature

History for the sake of literature .

The search for mutual contributions

Claims for historical fiction

Historians and the historical novel

Contributions of history to literature

Contributions of literature to history . Relations between History and Government

Correlation in Europe

Views of Committee of Seven

Views of Committee of Political Science Association

Arrangement suggested by Committee of Five History as a Central Subject in the Curriculum .

PAGE

OTHER

CHAPTER XVI

Early School Examinations

European Examination Systems ....

School Examinations in the United States . General Conceptions oe the History Examination An Examination Paper in History Set in England

XXIX

Pro

An American College Entrance Examination in History Criticism of the Two Papers .

Answers of Examiners to such Criticism Truth on Both Sides ....

History Examinations should Include Tests of

cesses

Possible modes of procedure .

Illustrative exercises Map interpretation Comparison and appreciation Determination of facts .

Recognition of degrees of probability Finding what is important Adjustment to existing conditions

Appendix I.

Appendix II.

Appendix III.

Appendix IV.

Appendix V.

Bibliography of History Teaching Guides to Historical Literature Bibliography of Illustrative Material with Suggestions for a Small Col lection of Foreign Material Selected References Questions on the Text

PAGE

421 423 424 426

427 428

429 429

CHAPTER I What History Is History, in its broadest sense, is "everything that

ever happened. It is the past itself, whatever that

may be. But the past cannot be observed directly.

What is known about it must be learned from such

traces of former conditions and events as time and

chance and the foresight of man may have preserved.

Our practical concern in forming a conception of his-

is, therefore, with these traces, the method em-

d in studying them, and the results of the study.

Traces of past facts of any kind may be regarded as

Die material. We speak of a history of plants,

limals, and even of inanimate nature. But his-

in the usual acceptation of the term means the

ry of man. The materials to be studied are the

s left by his existence in the world, his thoughts,

igs, and actions.

le traces left by the human past are, by students of history, commonly called sources. They are found in forms so various that exhaustive classification is difficult and complete enumeration impossible. In some sense, everything that man now is or has is a trace left by the past : present personal memories, present mental habits, present ideals, present social customs and institutions, language, literature, material products of human industry, physical man himself and the physical remains of men. In general, two kinds of sources are distinguishable : (i) those that bear some evidence of conscious intent to transmit information ; and (2) those that have come down to us as mere relics or survivals of past conditions or events. Sources of the first kind are often called traditions. They include : (1) oral traditions, reports, that is, transmitted orally — legends, sagas, ballads, anecdotes; (2) written or printed records — inscriptions, genealogical tables, lists of officials, annals, chronicles, memoirs, biographies, narratives in general ; (3) pictorial representations — paintings, statues, photographs of persons or places, plans of buildings, of cities, of battlefields, maps, diagrams. Sources of the second kind are often called remains. They are, as the term suggests, actual survivals of the past in language, in literary or other artistic expression, in industrial productions, in laws and customs. The distinction thus indicated is, for some purposes, important. It is, however, not one that can be applied in any absolute way. Some sources may be regarded either as conscious or unconscious testimony, that is, either as traditions or remains, according to the point of view from which they are considered. A newspaper, for example, contains conscious representations of conditions and events ; it is at the same time, not only a direct material remain, but, even as a report, an unconscious reflection of the tastes, the interests, the desires, and the spirit, of its day. Not all remains are traditions, but all traditions are, from one point of view, remains.

Sources are further distinguished as primary and derived. Primary sources, called also original sources, and sometimes simply sources, are either direct material remains, or the direct impression or expression, in some form, of the age to which they relate. They may be roads, bridges, buildings, monuments, coins, tools, clothing, human remains. They may be personal memories of facts actually observed, reports made by actual observers, actual texts of laws, decrees, orders, charters, constitutions, judicial decisions, treaties, official instructions, business documents. Derived sources may be secondary, that is, representations based directly upon primary sources; they may be tertiary, that is, representations based directly upon secondary sources;

they may be representations based upon other representations to the nth degree. But here again the classification is not one that can be applied in any absolute way. In the first place, many sources are of a mixed character, partly primary and partly derived. Comparatively few observers confine their reports to what they themselves have directly observed. Statements based upon their own observation are mingled with statements based upon the reports of others. Similarly derived sources may be in part secondary, in part tertiary, in part of the nth degree. In the second place, the same source may for one purpose be primary and for another purpose derived. John Fiske's account of what happened at Lexington, April 19, 1775, is a primary source for determining John Fiske's conception of the events at Lexington ; it is a derived source for obtaining information about the events themselves.

The mass of existing sources is in the aggregate enormous. No single mortal mind can hope to explore them all. Yet most facts in passing leave no durable trace. Most of them, indeed, vanish almost immediately in oblivion. This is true of the twentieth century with all its marvelous agencies for discovering and recording itself. It is obviously true in a higher degree of earlier centuries. The farther back we go, the greater in genera the proportion of loss. The remoter past is thus lefi exceedingly obscure. Fragments of human skeletons and objects of human workmanship are found in such positions in the earth and in such relations to other remains as to suggest a great antiquity for man. Differences in workmanship and in the kinds of material used suggest certain broad stages of development. But little more of the earlier progress of man is indicated. Traces of particular events have not survived. No one knows, for example, how or when or where men invented the bow and arrow, how or when or where they first learned to make fire and to apply it in their arts, how or when or where they first tamed the dog and cow. For the transmission of information of this character traditions of some kind are indispensable. Without them so little can, on the whole, be known that the entire period for which they no longer exist is commonly described as "prehistoric." The duration of this period is uncertain. Current estimates of it reach tens and even hundreds of thousands of years. In any case, what is called the " historic period," the period, that is, beginning with recorded traditions, is in comparison relatively brief.

The oldest traditions can scarcely be dated back more than six or seven thousand years. The beginnings of any considerable accumulation of them can scarcely be dated back more than three thousand years, and even here the course of life is, in the main, indicated vaguely and in a disconnected way. The conditions are not of course uniform for all peoples and countries. The beginnings of the historic period in Egypt lie far back of the beginnings in Greece ; the beginnings of the historic period in Greece lie far back of the beginnings in England ; the beginnings of the historic period in England lie far back of the beginnings in America. In any case, however, it is scarcely until we approach the thirteenth century of the Christian era that traditions become relatively full, relatively definite, and relatively continuous. The distinction between prehistoric and historic is, therefore, somewhat misleading. There is no sudden nor general dissipation of darkness in passing from one / to the other. The historic period is, for most countries, in places quite as obscure as the prehistoric period. v Nor is there evidence of any sudden or general advance in the conditions of human life to mark the transition and justify the distinction. The most that can be said is that the sources, always fragmentary, are more so for some periods than for others, that most of the sources now extant relate to comparatively recent times, and that the oldest sources consist exclusively of unconscious material remains.

The method employed in studying sources is the historical method. It embraces two kinds of operations, criticism and synthesis. Criticism seeks, in the first place, to determine the specific character of a source. Is the source what it purports to be or is represented to be? Is it an original or a copy or reconstruction? If an original, has it been altered in the course of transmission? If a copy or reconstruction, does it reproduce with accuracy the original? Questions such as these belong to the domain of external criticism. Illustrations of the need of asking them are not far to seek. One has but to visit shops where " antiques" are offered for sale, or follow the interesting discoveries of "new historical material" reported from time to time in the newspapers. A wax bust acquired by a museum in Berlin is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, but claimed also for a modern Englishman. A letter credited to Grover Cleveland, and published as his shortly after his death, is repudiated by his executors. A facsimile of a colonial newspaper designed to throw new light on the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is shown to be fraudulent. Other recent discoveries include a runestone from Minnesota, alleged to have been left there by the Norsemen in 1362, and a copper cylinder from Michigan, said to contain the diary of Noah.

It is the province of external criticism to clear the field of spurious sources and to determine the origin and original form of sources accepted as genuine. In the case of written or printed documents, the aim is to produce a "pure text," with indications as to authorship and time, place, and circumstances of composition. This is often a complicated matter. In a multitude of cases the originals of documents have been lost and only copies have come down to us, many of them anonymous and undated, many of them made, not from originals, but from other copies. There is internal evidence that the scribes, even when capable and conscientious, were at best fallible and that often they were neither capable nor conscientious. Petrarch in his day found them so incompetent that he declared the task of writing a book easier than that of getting one properly copied. "Such," he says, "is the ignorance, laziness, or arrogance, of these fellows that they do not reproduce what you give them but write out something quite different." * With the introduction of printing, conditions were vastly improved, but the occasion for criticism like Petrarch's did not entirely pass away. Cotton Mather, reading his Magnolia fresh from the press, was moved to add to his catalogue of impossibilities a "book printed without erratas." Recalling other offenses of compositors, he went so far as to accuse them of having put into the Psalms, in one edition of the Bible, the statement, "Printers have persecuted me." 2 Such formal docu-

1 Robinson and Rolfe, Petrarch, 28.

2 Magnolia Christi Americana, Edition of 1853, p. xxxvii.

WHAT HISTORY IS Q

ments as wills, laws, charters, and constitutions are naturally drawn with care, and when there is occasion for reproducing them, whether in manuscript or print, they are likely to be reproduced with care. But the production of perfect copy, even in cases that put no special strain upon the intelligence, demands a degree of sustained attention difficult to attain. Witness the record of unsuccessful attempts to print the exact text of the Constitution of the United States. 1

External criticism is usually work for the expert and not for the layman. Different kinds of sources require for their criticism different kinds of special knowledge. For sources relating to ancient and mediaeval times, one kind of question may involve appeals to archaeology ; another to philology ; another to epigraphy, the science which deals with the classification and explanation of inscriptions ; another to paleography, the science which deals with handwriting ; another to diplomatics, the science which deals with certain special classes of documents, such as charters, contracts, and official registers ; another to chronology ; and another to still other special sciences. The criticism of modern sources is less formidable and the training needed for it is less technical, but even here the critic must be able to use a more or less highly specialized apparatus and

1 See American History Leaflet, No. 8, p. 2.

IO TEACHING OF HISTORY

to apply rules, principles, doctrines, and facts, beyond the ken of general readers of history. The labors of a long line of able and devoted scholars have been devoted to external criticism. Numerous fraudulent sources have been exposed. Multitudes of "pure texts" have been published. Many old monuments and buildings have been restored. Many more, like those of the Athenian Acropolis and the Roman Forum, have been reconstructed in drawings or pictures. Photography and the mechanical processes dependent upon it have in our day removed at least one factor of human error.

External criticism seeks to ascertain when, where, and by whom, a source was produced and to determine precisely its original form. The next step is to investigate the meaning of the source, and here the work of internal or higher criticism begins. The question of meaning, it is true, enters also into external criticism, but only as an aid in the determination of other questions. Internal criticism seeks the meaning as an end in itself. The ideal is to put ourselves in the place of the producer of the source, to reconstruct the mental states through which the painter passed in painting the picture, the sculptor in carving the statue, the author in writing the document. The procedure in approximating this ideal, at least in the case of the written or printed document, ought to be fairly familiar, for a very large part of the

WHAT HISTORY IS II

educational process consists in finding answers to the question, "What does the author mean?" The general rule is simple ; it is merely to study the source and not ourselves. The difficulty is in applying the rule. Take the case of the document. "What happens," says Fustel de Coulanges, "is that a kind of tacit contest goes on between the text and the preconceived opinions of the reader ; the mind refuses to grasp what is contrary to its idea, and the issue of the contest commonly is, not that the mind surrenders to the evidence of the text, but that the text yields, bends, and accommodates itself to the preconceived opinion. ... A man thinks he is contemplating an object, and it is his own idea that he is contemplating. He thinks he is observing a fact, and the fact at once assumes the color and the significance his mind wishes it to have. He thinks he is reading a text, and the words of the text take a particular meaning to suit a ready-made opinion." l