A Guide to Methods and Observation in History Part 4

(_e_) It gives a fund of information for use in conversation and public utterances.

(_f_) It breaks down provincialism; develops toleration, sympathy, and human interest; and hence makes intercourse with fellowmen more frictionless and cordial. (See Social Value.)

(_g_) It creates an interest in the resources, raw materials, tools, and processes of one's vocation, and fosters pride and contentment with labor.

(_h_) It explains racial, economic, religious, and social cleavages and prejudices, and makes for a truer democracy of feeling.

(_i_) It gives insight into legal, governmental, and business inst.i.tutions and forms, and hence makes easier the adjustment to governmental and business requirements. (See Social Value.)

6. Cultural or Personal.

(_a_) It gives an elevated viewpoint from which better to observe all aspects of civilization to-day and thereby to comprehend them more fully.

(_b_) It furnishes an inexhaustible source of pleasure and satisfaction for leisure hours and for the consolation of old age.

QUERIES

1. Can you name any other "values" that should be included in the study of history?

2. Does the study of history yield equal value in each of the groups mentioned?

3. Which one of the groups of "values" seems to you most important and hence should receive greatest emphasis?

4. Can you suggest other items under each group of values?

5. Ill.u.s.trate how a teacher might proceed to exercise the power of (_a_) imagination; (_b_) reasoning; (_c_) memory; (_d_) judgment; (_e_) comparison; (_f_) cla.s.sification; (_g_) generalization.

6. From your observations do the teachers consciously strive to realize these values in the cla.s.s?

7. Do the teachers seek to get back of the records of events and to discover the motives, ideas, and ideals that produced those events?

What is the method used to do so?

8. Do the teachers a.s.sume "hard, dogmatic, and uncompromising"

att.i.tudes toward the interpretation of the facts, or do they give students opportunity to use their own judgment?

9. Does it seem to you that students really do put themselves back in imagination and live through the period they are studying? What is the secret of attaining this ideal?

10. Are students constantly seeking for "causes" of the historical events? How does the teacher secure this effort?

11. Are the textbook facts remembered largely as words, or do the students really enter into the spirit and significance of them? What evidences have you for your conclusions?

12. Does rote memory or a.s.sociative memory receive the emphasis?

13. Does the teacher correlate the history lesson with other subjects of study? If so, how is this done?

14. Does the teacher correlate the history lesson with the life interests of the pupils? If so, how is this done?

15. Does the teacher explain the inst.i.tutions, forms, and procedures of the past by reference to their counterparts of to-day? Are such interpretative means employed with sufficient frequency, completeness, variety, and clearness?

16. Does the teacher inspire patriotism? If so, how is this accomplished?

17. Is the work of such a character that students are infused with a spirit of toleration, sympathy, and respect for others outside their immediate circle of interest?

18. Does the teacher encourage the weighing of motives and actions with reference to their righteousness? Do you approve of this practice?

19. Does the teacher seek to have the students "be like" n.o.ble characters in history? What can you say for and against this practice?

20. Ought the teacher to strive consciously to use history to develop ethical ideas in pupils?

21. How does history exert a religious influence on its students?

22. Does history "inspire a love of truth" to any different degree than does any other subject of study?

23. Does the teacher seek to bring out the aesthetic values of history?

How does she do so?

24. Should appeal be made frequently to the emotional side of pupils'

natures?

25. Is adequate opportunity given pupils to develop literary expression? How is this done?

26. Are you satisfied that a taste for historical reading is being developed in the pupils? What observations make you think as you do?

27. Does the teacher so conduct the cla.s.s work that the "practical values" of history are realized?

28. Does the cla.s.s really appear to enjoy the work? What evidences have you of this?

29. Does the cla.s.s feel that the recitation period is a delight or a bore? What evidences have you that this is so?

30. Which phases of the work receive the greatest emphasis: (_a_) acquisition of facts, (_b_) mental training, (_c_) moral training, (_d_) arousing interest in independent historical study, (_e_) development of patriotism and public spirit, or (_f_) power of judging men? Do you approve of this distribution of emphasis?

31. Which of the following aims should the teaching of history in the high school emphasize, viz., (_a_) giving to youths the knowledge and power for the right interpretation of the civilizations of the past, (_b_) a.s.sisting youths to an understanding of the development and significance of present-day civilizations and aiding them to adjust themselves to these civilizations; (_c_) giving a perspective from which to pre-view, in part, the trend of the future and to plan one's career accordingly?

32. From your observations do the teachers stress the events, or the motives, the ideals, and the ideas that gave rise to the events? What would be your aim here?

33. Of what does thinking consist?

34. Are pupils in the cla.s.ses observed expected to think for themselves? Are they encouraged to express their personal reactions to the facts presented?

35. What guiding principle should a high school teacher or textbook writer set for himself in selecting from the infinite ma.s.s of data recorded the material to be used in the high school, (_a_) that which reveals the development of personal liberty--political, religious, economic; (_b_) that which reveals the development of democratic inst.i.tutions; (_c_) that which reveals the growth of altruism or the humanitarian spirit; (_d_) that which reveals the development of commerce, industry, and finance; (_e_) that which reveals the development of thought and the inst.i.tutions that aim to develop and train it; or (_f_) that which reveals the development of social relations and activities?

VIII. _Elements of History._

1. Time Element: The when, or chronology.