Reports from the Historical Field

WALTER H. CUSHING, Editor.

A New Organization.

The history teachers of Colorado are about to organize an association and have appointed a committee, of which Professor James G. Willard is chairman. With so many questions in history teaching still unsettled, we welcome a new organization which by discussion and interchange of views will hasten the solution of these problems. The history teachers in about one-half the States of the Union are now included in organizations, with the American Historical Association as a sort of clearing house.

Raising the Standard in Louisiana.

Heretofore the State course of study has not provided for a satisfactory history program in the high schools, but with this year a new course of study goes into operation which gives about three years to history. At the request of the State Department of Education Professor Walter L. Fleming, of the State University, has prepared a syllabus covering the work, with suggestions for map work, reading, note-books, etc. In the future two or even three years’ work in history may be required of the candidates for the freshman class.

Considerable interest has been developed in certain fields of history by the Rally Day competition at the University. The high schools of the State send representatives to the High School Rally Day at the University in April. These pupils are chosen after local contests and sent to Baton Rouge. The pupils’ subjects for the debate and essay contests are published by the Program Committee.

To prepare teachers adequately for their work two courses are offered at the State University, one in “Methods of Teaching History,” and another in “Aids in the Studying and Teaching of History.” Instruction covers use of texts, sources, reference works, map work, pictures, advertising, material useful in history teaching, etc. Great improvement is already noticeable and especially good work is done in Shreveport and New Orleans.

Proceedings of the North Central History Teachers’ Association.

The annual report of this association, containing the papers and discussions of the April meeting, was issued during the summer. As usual, it contains much which will repay careful reading and reflection even by those who were fortunate enough to be present at the meeting. Professor Samuel B. Harding, of Indiana University, in treating of “Some Concrete Problems in the Teaching of Medieval and Modern History,” opposed the plan of teaching this field of history on the “single nation” plan. With regard to the proportion of time to be allotted the parts of this course, he advocated giving roughly one-third to the period 800 A.D.-1500 A.D.; another one-third to the period ending with 1789, and the final one-third to the French Revolution and the 19th century. He suggested several devices for emphasizing the “time” problem, or chronology, urged the use of maps, and especially called attention to the greatest problem, how to make history concrete, how to make it definite. The speaker advocated the regular use of note-books and urged a greater use of pictures.

In considering “What Changes Should be Made in the Report of the Committee of Seven?” Professor A. C. McLaughlin referred to the complaint, especially in the East, against the great length of the course in ancient history. He gave reasons why it had seemed desirable to the Committee of Seven to continue the study of Roman history to 800 A.D., and predicted that the Committee of Five will cling to that year, “but recommend, more decidedly and with more assurance than did the earlier report, the somewhat hasty perusal of the period from 300 to 800. It may be desirable to state very distinctly and definitely what topics should be taken up....

“The most perplexing question is how the general history of Western Europe should be treated from 800 or thereabouts to the present time.” The speaker would not change the general arrangement of the four blocks recommended in the old report, but advised a very hurried treatment of the first six or eight hundred years. (Compare Professor Harding, above.) There are serious objections to giving up a continuous and unbroken treatment of English history as is sometimes recommended.

In its recommendation on Civil Government the Committee of Seven seems to have been misunderstood. The old report did not advise that separate courses in civil government should not be given. It urged a strong combined course in American history and government in preference to two separate weak courses. In any case they should be taught as interrelated and interdependent subjects.

At the business meeting of the association, Carl E. Pray, of the Normal School, Milwaukee, was elected president, and George H. Gaston, of the Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, was re-elected secretary.

A Syllabus in Civil Government for Secondary Schools.

Considerable interest has been aroused in the forthcoming syllabus in Civil Government prepared by a special committee of the New England History Teachers’ Association, for whom it will be published late in the fall by the Macmillan Company.

There will be two parts to the book: An introduction of about twenty pages given to a discussion of the general subject and representing in a limited field the relation that the report of the Committee of Seven bore to the History Syllabus; and the syllabus proper consisting of approximately one hundred and twenty pages, with topics, diagrams, general and specific references and bibliographies. Specimen pages of the syllabus have been tried in the class-rooms of schools in widely different parts of the country, and the subject was discussed at the April meeting of the association.

Many problems confronted the committee at the outset, and at least a working agreement had to be reached upon the following questions:

1. What should be the position of the study and what time allotment should it reasonably expect?

2. What should be the aims of instruction in government in secondary schools?

3. What should be the scope and what should be the places of emphasis?

4. What should be its relation to other subjects of the curriculum?

5. What should be the point of attack and order of topics?

6. What should be the method?

7. What should be the form of the syllabus?

The conclusions reached by the committee may be briefly summarized. Two or two and one-half forty-five-minute periods a week should be allotted, and the subject should be correlated with United States history. Instruction in civics should aim to train the mind, to develop political intelligence, to awaken civic consciousness, to interest the pupil in civic duty, and to prepare him, through instruction and practice, for its exercise. The scope of the subject should include actual government as found in the local unit, the State, and the nation, with so much of the history of government as is needed to explain present institutions and conditions. Enough of the theory of government should be given to establish an orderly arrangement of the subject matter in the pupil’s mind. The ethical principles underlying government should be examined in a concrete way; and attention should be given to the application of these principles in the social duties of school life.

Civics should not be confounded with constitutional history. It is important enough to have its own field, and, while correlated with history, economics and ethics, should not be trammeled by either of these.

The most serious problem which the committee had to solve was that of the order of topics. Should local or national government come first? The majority of the committee favored local, State, national as the order. They also decided that not more than one-fourth of the time should be given to a study of the federal government.

Much stress is laid on the importance of studying local government, so far as possible, at first hand. This necessitates frequent, systematically-planned visits to local bodies and careful study of local documents, such as reports, specimen papers, etc.

No hard and fast form for the syllabus has been used. Sometimes topics, sometimes questions, and again statements are used wherever best adapted to the purpose.

The committee consists of Dr. Hay Greene Huling, English High School, Cambridge, chairman; Wilson R. Butler, High School, New Bedford; Professor L. B. Evans, Tufts College; Dr. John Haynes, Dorchester High School; Dr. W. B. Munro, Harvard University. Mr. Butler is editor for the committee.

Report of the Committee of Eight.

This report on history in the elementary grades has been prepared by a committee of the American Historical Association, Professor James A. James, of Northwestern University, chairman, and will be published this fall by “Scribner’s.” The work for each of the eight grades is treated in detailed topics accompanied by reading lists for teachers and for pupils. The object of the course for the first two grades is “to give the child an impression of primitive life and an appreciation of public holidays.” Grade three deals with Heroes of Other Times, Columbus, and the Indians. In the fourth and fifth grades emphasis is placed on Historical Scenes and Persons in American History. The object sought in grade six is to impress on the child’s mind that “the beginnings of American ways of living are to be sought far back in the story of the world.” The topics, therefore, seek to bring out the contributions made by Greeks, Romans, and the people of medieval Europe, especially England, closing with the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The seventh grade topics deal with the exploration and settlement of North America and the growth of the colonies to 1763. The eighth grade topics bring United States history down to the present time, and suggest subjects for supplementary talks on European history.

The report also contains a chapter on Methods, an “Outline for Teaching the Development of a Constitutional Government in the Eighth Grade in Three Lessons of Forty Minutes Each,” contributed by Miss Blanche A. Cheney, of the Lowell, Mass., State Normal School; an “Outline for Teaching the Birth of the German Nation in the Eighth Grade,” by Miss Blanche E. Hazard, of the Brockton, Mass., High School; an article on elementary civics, and appendices on history teaching in German, French and English elementary schools.

The subject of history in the elementary grades has also been treated in a stimulating manner in a course prepared by Superintendent W. F. Gordy for the schools of Springfield, Mass. The work is here outlined for nine grades, the last being devoted to English history as related to the history of our own country.

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION.

The next meeting of the New England History Teachers’ Association will be held on Saturday, October 16, in Boston. The Council seriously considered for a time the expediency of waiving the constitutional requirement and holding the meeting in the western part of Massachusetts, probably in Greenfield. The preference of a large minority of the members for Boston, however, led the Council to follow the regular practice of holding the annual meeting in Boston. The association has held meetings in Springfield, Hartford and Portland, and the wisdom of meeting once a year outside of Boston seems proved by the large attendance at those places.

Had the meeting been held in Greenfield, the subject would have been “Local Aids in the Study of History,” a most appropriate topic for a meeting in that richly historical region. For the Boston meeting the Council has selected the subject of “Economics,” which has been clamoring for recognition ever since the association was founded.

Topics in economics enter to a considerable extent into American history, but it is a question how far economic theory should be developed in a secondary school course. The field is a tempting one to a teacher filled with his subject: the fundamental principles of money, foreign trade, rent, capital and labor, corporate organization, socialism, these and many others the young man will inevitably come in contact with daily. What guidance shall he have and where shall he obtain it?

Bibliographies.

Of considerable value to all progressive teachers of history is the “Annual List of Books on History and Civics,” selected and critically reviewed with reference to their value for high school teachers and pupils prepared by a special committee of the North Central Association under the editorship of Professor W. J. Chase, of the University of Wisconsin. The list comprises new books on teaching history, ancient, medieval and modern, English history and government, United States history and government. Each title is accompanied by name of publisher and price. There is a critical estimate averaging half a page. Text-books and special treatises on a small field are not included. Copies may be obtained of Mr. G. H. Gaston, Wendell Phillips High School, Chicago, for twenty-five cents.

“The Atlantic Educational Journal,” published by the Maryland Educational Publishing Company, Baltimore, Md., has a “Bibliography of History for Schools,” prepared by a committee of the Association of History Teachers of Maryland under the chairmanship of Professor C. M. Andrews.

The Macmillan Company published in June the valuable bibliography prepared by Miss Grace Gardner Griffin, entitled “Writings on American History, 1907.” This is the second year of the publication of the work in this form; the volume contains a bibliography of books and articles upon Continental United States and Canada, and some references to other portions of America. Dr. J. Franklin Jameson, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has again supervised the making of the year-book.

A new commercial geography is announced by Henry Holt & Co. as in course of preparation by Dr. John P. Goode, assistant professor of geography in the University of Chicago.

EXCHANGE OF PROFESSORS IN THE SUMMER SCHOOLS.

An excellent result of the establishment of summer schools has been the interchange of the teaching forces of colleges and universities; and on a minor scale the employment of strong secondary school men in summer college courses. Much has been made of the international exchange of professors recently brought about; but unconsciously within our own country there has been established a custom which must prove very valuable not alone to institutions inviting outside instructors, but also to those instructors themselves, and to their own institutions. Thus, taking the history men alone last summer Harvard was represented at the University of California, Yale at Wisconsin, Leland Stanford at Kansas; Columbia at Chicago, Wisconsin at Illinois, University of the South at Michigan, Indiana University at Cornell; Michigan at Chicago; Brown at Harvard, and Pennsylvania at Columbia.

Such an exchange of instructors cannot but bring about a mutual education; and when it is remembered that the same policy of exchange is going on in many other subjects than history, it will be seen that we have here a great power for good.

Messrs. Ginn & Co. are continuing the excellent undertaking of furnishing source-material for history teachers and scholars, which they began so auspiciously with Prof. Robinson’s “Readings in European History,” and followed with Robinson and Beard’s “Readings in Modern European History.” Professor Cheyney’s “Readings in English History” was reviewed in the September number. The same publishers now announce two new books: “Selections from the Economic History of the United States, 1760-1860,” by Professor Guy S. Collender, of Yale University; and “Readings on American Federal Government,” by Professor Paul S. Reinsch, of the University of Wisconsin.

An “American Historical Series” made up of text-books that will be comprehensive, systematic and authoritative, is announced by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co., the publishers of the well-known “American Science Series.” In the new series Professor Colby, of McGill University, will prepare a book on Mediæval and Modern Europe, and one on the Renaissance and Reformation. Professor S. B. Fay, of Dartmouth College, is at work upon a volume entitled, “Europe in the XVII and XVIII Centuries;” Professor R. C. H. Catterall, of Cornell, will treat of the “French Revolution and Napoleon;” and Professor C. D. Hazen, of Smith College, will write the volume upon “Europe in the Nineteenth Century.” There will be also a history of the United States by Professor Frederick J. Turner; a history of Greece, by Professor Paul Shorey; and a history of Rome, by Director Jesse B. Carter.

FOOTNOTES:

A LIBRARY OF History and Exploration Invaluable for Every School.

The Trail Makers

Prof. JOHN BACH McMASTER, Consulting Editor. Each Volume Small 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With Introductions, Illustrations and Maps. 17 volumes. Each $1.00 net.

The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, and his companions from Florida to the Pacific, 1528-1536.

Translated by Fanny Bandelier. Edited with an Introduction by Ad. F. Bandelier.

Narratives of the Career of Hernando De Soto in the Conquest of Florida, 1539-1542, as told by a gentleman of Elvas, by Luys Hernandez De Biedma and by Rodrigo Ranjel.

Edited with an Introduction by Professor Edward Gaylord Bourne, of Yale University. In two volumes.

The Journey of Coronado, 1540-42. From the City of Mexico to the Buffalo Plains of Kansas and Nebraska.

Translated and Edited with an Introduction by George Parker Winship.

Voyages and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain, narrated by himself.

Translated by Annie Nettleton Bourne. Edited with an Introduction by Edward Gaylord Bourne, Professor of History in Yale University. In two vols.

The Journeys of La Salle and His Companions, 1678-1687. As related by himself and his followers.

Edited with an Introduction by Prof. I. J. Cox, of the University of Cincinnati. In two volumes.

Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793. By Alexander Mackenzie.

In two volumes.

History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark. With an account of the Louisiana Purchase, by Prof. John Bach McMaster, and an Introduction Identifying the Route.

In three volumes.

History of Five Indian Nations of Canada which are Dependent upon the Province of New York.

By Cadwallader Colden, Surveyor-General of the Colony of New York. In two volumes.

A Journal of Voyage and Travels in the Interior of North America.

By Daniel Williams Harmon, a partner in the Northwest Company (beginning in 1800).

The Wild Northland.

By Gen. Sir Wm. Francis Butler, K. C. B.

Descriptive Circular on Application to the Publishers

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11-15 East 24th Street, New York

Translations and Reprints

Original source material for ancient, medieval and modern history in pamphlet or bound form. Pamphlets cost from 10 to 25 cents.

SYLLABUSES

H. V. AMES: American Colonial History. (Revised and enlarged edition, 1908) $1.00

D. C. MUNRO and G. SELLERY: Syllabus of Medieval History, 395 to 1500 (1909) $1.00

In two parts: Pt. I, by Prof. Munro, Syllabus of Medieval History, 395 to 1300. Pt. II, by Prof. Sellery, Syllabus of Later Medieval History, 1300 to 1500. Parts published separately.

W. E. LINGELBACH: Syllabus of the History of the Nineteenth Century 60 cents

Combined Source Book of the Renaissance. M. WHITCOMB $1.50

State Documents on Federal Relations. H. V. AMES $1.75

Published by Department of History, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and by Longmans, Green & Co.

A New Book on American History

By PROF. H. W. CALDWELL Of the University of Nebraska

For a number of years we have published Professor Caldwell’s books, “Survey of American History,” “Great American Legislators” and “American Territorial Development,” which were originally issued in the form of leaflets consisting practically of lectures delivered by the author. In the making of the new book we propose to make it as nearly perfect as possible, typographically and mechanically. It has been decided to insert maps, the book being intended for advanced work in high schools and for students taking a special course in American History. It is proposed to divide the book into four chapters as follows:

CHAPTER I.—The Making of Colonial America, 1492-1763

CHAPTER II.—The Revolution and Independence, 1763-1786

CHAPTER III.—The Making of a Democratic Nation, 1786-1841

CHAPTER IV.—The Slavery and Sectional Struggle, 1841-1877

The tentative plan of the book as proposed is given above and includes the material as now prepared. It is estimated the book will contain about 600 pages.

Price, $1.40

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Standard Historical Works

A QUAKER EXPERIMENT IN GOVERNMENT.

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Haverford Edition, two volumes, profusely illustrated, half morocco, deckel edges, gilt top, $7.50.

SALLY WISTER’S JOURNAL: Being a Quaker Maiden’s Account of her Experiences with Officers of the Continental Army, 1777-1778. A real historic manuscript of great value and charm. Now first published in full. Illustrated with over seventy portraits, views, and facsimiles. Edited by Albert Cook Myers, M.L. 12mo, cloth, 224 pages. $2.00.

HANNAH LOGAN’S COURTSHIP. A True Narrative. The Wooing of the Daughter of James Logan, Colonial Governor of Pennsylvania, and Divers other Matters, as Related in the Diary of Her Lover, John Smith, Esq., 1746-1748. A diary of Philadelphia’s Colonial times, giving numerous personal and often important glimpses of the men and life of that day. Edited by Albert Cook Myers. Profusely illustrated. 12mo, cloth, 360 pages. $2.50.

THE FAMILY OF WILLIAM PENN: Ancestors and Descendants. By Howard M. Jenkins. A thorough and definitive presentation of the subject, executed with its author’s well-known accuracy and thoroughness, mainly from original sources, especially the “Penn Papers.” 300 pages, 19 full page steel plates, photogravures and half-tones, $3.50.

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