Ontario Teachers' Manuals: History Part 7

CURRENT EVENTS (10 MINUTES DAILY)

The teacher has suggested the kinds of events that are worthy of discussion, and the pupils come to cla.s.s prepared to tell what they have read in the papers about some of these. The teacher aids them to give fit expression to their information, and the pupil who has been chosen as editor writes a summary of the lesson on the black-board, and later, on a sheet of paper.

Ordinarily, the editors should be chosen from those who write and spell well.

Where the subject-matter lends itself to such treatment, these summaries may be placed in two columns--one, the _Girls' News Column_; the other, the _Boys' News Column_. The summaries on the sheets of paper may be arranged in order for a week or a month and be known as _The School Review_. Such a lesson includes history, and oral and written composition.

The following items of news were those discussed in a Form III room at the end of the week, when some time is taken to talk over the events of the week:

FEB. 5TH, 1915

Rescue of the crew of the j.a.panese cruiser Asama.

Rescue work in the earthquake in Italy.

Wireless message frustrates a German plot to blow up a French steamer.

Fire in a New York factory--rescue of the inmates.

Inhuman treatment of Belgian women and children.

British officer praises the enemy.

The Austrians are defeated by the Montenegrins.

Canadians wounded in France.

Importance of discipline and accurate shooting for Canadian troops.

Germany proclaims a war zone around Britain.

Two New York boy heroes of a fire.

Tsar honours a girl wounded while carrying ammunition to the troops.

Opening of the war session of the Canadian Parliament.

These items are sifted from a great many suggested by the pupils. In the sifting process, a very useful discussion is had as to what const.i.tutes real "news," and what is mere "gossip"; that is, what is of value as news to the world at large, and what is of purely local, personal interest.

In civics, current topics may be made very useful. Items of munic.i.p.al, provincial, or federal affairs furnish a concrete basis for the study of our system of government, and may also suggest moral examples.

LOCAL MATERIAL

One of the chief uses of local history in the cla.s.s-room is to make the study of general history more vivid and interesting (1) by making more real those facts of history a.s.sociated with the locality in which we live, and (2) by providing suitable ill.u.s.trations, from the pupil's own experience, of facts in general history. When a pupil has seen the place where an event of history has happened, he has an interest in that event that he could scarcely gain in any other way, and the history of that period may then be taught with more interest and profit to him. A pupil finds also in local history certain facts that he must understand in order to interpret the story of happenings, distant in time and place.

Some parts of Ontario are much richer in material than others, but in all historic spots may be found. On the St. Lawrence River, in the Niagara peninsula, in the Talbot settlement district, in York county, along the Ottawa River, in the Huron tract, there is no lack of useful material. But it is not necessary to confine such local history to the outstanding events of war or the larger happenings of civil progress. In every locality there are remains of the earlier Indian inhabitants, in the form of mounds, sites of villages, relics of war and the chase (arrow-heads, stone implements, beads, etc.); relics of the early settlers, in the form of roads and old log houses; relics of pioneer life consisting of furniture, household and outdoor implements, etc., that will serve as a basis for comparison with present-day conditions, and make real to the children the lives of the earlier inhabitants and settlers of Ontario.

CIVICS

The teaching of civics has a threefold aim:

1. To instruct in the mechanism of government. (Descriptive)

2. To instruct in the history of national inst.i.tutions so as to show the line of development, and also to impress the fact that existing inst.i.tutions are capable of development, are not fixed. (Historical)

3. "To show the cost of each inst.i.tution in the efforts and sacrifices of past generations and to quicken and make permanent the children's interest in public life and their sense of responsibility to their fellows." (Patriotic and Ethical)

Two points stand out clearly--to teach the machinery of government and to instil ideals of public conduct. Of these the second is by far the more important and the more difficult to teach directly. The best way to attempt it is by means of biography and personal references. There are great men and women in history whose lives are worthy examples to the young: Sir John Eliot, Pym, Hampden, who stood for freedom of speech and debate; Gladstone, who helped to right historic wrongs in the East; Lincoln, who stood for union and the freedom of the individual; many eminent Canadians, such as Sir John Macdonald, George Brown, Alexander Mackenzie, Egerton Ryerson, Sir Oliver Mowat, and Sir James Whitney; women such as Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Fry, Laura Secord and Sarah Maxwell. Besides these eminent examples, there are in every locality men and women who give unselfishly of their energy and time for the good of the community.

There should also be impressed on the minds of the young a sense of their responsibility for an honest and faithful use of the ballot, a right won for them by the long and earnest effort of their forefathers; and the necessity for purity of government in our democratic form of administration. In school life, a good deal can be done to create a sense of fair play, respect for the rights of others, and of the necessity for submission to lawful authority by encouraging the pupils to conduct all their school organizations, whether in play or in work, honourably and by right methods.

Some of the lessons that may be taught to children during their school life are as follows:

1. Respect for the rights of others. Pupils may be brought to see that misconduct on their part affects others, not themselves only.

2. Respect for the property of others. This may be secured best by teaching them to take good care of their own property first, for unless a child cares rightly for his own, he is not likely to take much thought for the things of others.

3. Respect for public property. This is something that needs attention badly. It is a very common thing to find people destroying trees, flowers, etc., in public places, throwing refuse on the street, and otherwise disfiguring their surroundings. A beginning of better habits may be made by getting the pupils to aid in beautifying and decorating the school building by means of pictures, either prints or their own work, by flowers in pots, by keeping the floor and walls clean and free from marks and litter; also in making the grounds around the school more attractive by means of flowers and shrubs. Arbor Day may be made of great use in this respect, if the spirit of that Day can be carried through the whole year. A pride in the attractiveness of the school will have its influence on the pupils in the wider life of the community.

A knowledge of the machinery of government may be based on the pupils'

knowledge of the organization of the school. The appointment, power, and duties of the teacher are the starting-point. The next step will be to investigate the composition of the board of school trustees. This may be done at the time of an election for school trustees. The following questions may serve as an outline of study for all the political bodies by which we are governed:

1. Who compose the board of trustees? (In the smaller local bodies, the names of the members may be mentioned, as giving a personal interest in the matter.)

2. How and by whom are they elected?

3. For what period are they elected?

4. How is the board organized for the conduct of business?

5. What powers do they possess?

6. What duties have they to fulfil?

7. How do they raise the money needed for their work?

8. How is the board rendered continuous? (By electing a successor to a member who resigns; by the trustees remaining in office till their successors are elected.)

Other governing bodies may be taken up similarly, for example: Munic.i.p.al Councils (towns.h.i.+p, county, village, town, or city council), Provincial Legislature, Dominion or Federal Parliament, Imperial Parliament. A suitable time to bring up the topic of how elections are conducted would be when an election for any of the above bodies is in progress.

Information on this topic may be found in _Canadian Civics_, by Jenkins; a fuller account is given in Bourinot's _How Canada is Governed_.

Lessons concerning special bodies of munic.i.p.al and civil servants may be taken; for example, the a.s.sessor, tax-collector, policeman, postal employees, firemen, etc. In connection with all of these, the question of taxation is constantly arising. It is suggested that something should be done to put the pupils in the right att.i.tude toward this subject.

Many people have an idea that when they pay taxes they are being robbed, because they do not stop to think of what they are getting in return for their money. The chief reason for this seems to be that the taxes are usually paid once or twice a year, while the services rendered are continuous. A good way to proceed is to have the cla.s.s calculate the value of the services given in return for the taxes. For example, suppose it is found that the yearly cost for each pupil in a certain section is $25.00. Divide this by the number of days (200) a pupil attends school during the year, and the cost each day for each pupil is shown be only 12-1/2 cents, not a very large sum for a community to pay for a child's education.

Other calculations may be made to show the saving to farmers by spending money in the construction of good roads to make teaming more profitable.

For example: In a strip of country served by a road ten miles long, there is room for eighty farms of one hundred acres each, all the produce of which would be hauled on that road. Let us suppose that this produce would amount to 3,000 loads, such as could be hauled on an ordinary country road. The average haul being five miles, two trips a day could be made. At $5.00 a day, the cost of haulage would be $7,500.

Suppose this road to be converted into a good stone road at a cost of $3,000 a mile, a total cost of $30,000. On this road, with the larger and heavier wagons that could now be used, the farmers could easily double the size of the load. This would mean that, instead of 3,000 loads being necessary, 1,500 would be sufficient. At the same rate as before, the cost of haulage would be $3,750, an annual saving of $3,750; so that the whole cost of the road would be saved in eight years, to say nothing of the greater ease and comfort of travel to both man and beast.

Better roads would also give the farmer access to market for a greater part of the year and thus enable him to take advantage of higher prices at certain seasons. It is believed that these figures are quite within the bounds of probability.

In large towns and cities the cost of public utilities may be calculated; for example, the expense of a fire-station in buildings, equipment, horses, men, etc., to show how the money raised by taxes is spent for the good of the whole community, and helps to keep down the rates for fire insurance. The kinds of taxation may also be discussed--direct and indirect; also the sources from which direct taxes are derived--customs, excise, etc.; methods of levying and collecting taxes; how taxes are spent for the various educational and charitable inst.i.tutions--schools, libraries, hospitals, asylums, homes for the poor and neglected, etc.; for the protection of life and property; for the administration of justice, etc. The distribution of taxes among public inst.i.tutions may be studied from the public accounts printed for the use of ratepayers.

The lessons learned about the fairness of taxation may be used to ill.u.s.trate certain periods of history when people struggled against unjust and arbitrary taxation; for example, Wat Tyler's Rebellion, the Civil War in England in the seventeenth century, the American and French Revolutions, Acts of Parliament in Canada from the Quebec Act to the Act of Confederation.

A Dominion or Provincial election offers a good opportunity for a lesson on how to vote and how we came to have the right to vote; on the const.i.tution of Parliament; on the sanct.i.ty of the ballot, etc.

A trial by jury in which the people of the district are interested may be used to introduce the history and purpose of the jury.