A Guide to Methods and Observation in History Part 6

22. Do they merely "color" the map, or do they fill in all important geographical and historical items?

23. Are maps ever drawn, roughly, on the blackboards by either teacher or pupils? If so, is there decided merit in so doing?

24. Are wall maps used frequently? If so, who indicates locations--teacher or pupils?

25. Is it advisable to conduct the cla.s.s in person to near-by historic places?

26. Would it be wise to employ a.n.a.logously formed geographical territory that is familiar to the students to vivify and interpret far-distant historical places?

27. Does the teacher seek to impress the importance of "physical elements" in shaping history?

28. Does the teacher emphasize this element of history sufficiently?

29. How, in detail, can such influences be revealed to high school students so that their real significance can be recognized?

30. Is the significance of national or race spirit in producing history sufficiently emphasized by the teacher?

31. Can you give an ill.u.s.tration of its notable operation?

32. Has the influence of religious emotions and aspirations been shown by the teacher in its full significance?

33. Can you give an ill.u.s.tration of the complete modification of history because of "sentimental interests"?

34. Are such modifications somewhat common and important?

35. Does the teacher impress this fact upon his pupils?

36. Does the teacher make clear the significance of the _Zeitgeist_, or spirit of the age, in shaping history?

37. How much attention is given to the study of notable characters in history?

38. Ought biography to occupy a more important place in the high school course in history?

39. How is such study secured in the school you have observed,--through collateral readings by the cla.s.s, individual reports, or incidental cla.s.sroom discussions?

40. Does the teacher sufficiently stress the fact that all history is but the operation of cause and effect?

41. Are students _required_ to seek for causes back of the events?

42. Are students encouraged and expected to _trace causes_ through the various sequences of effects?

IX. _Methods of Approach to the Study of History._

1. Chronologically, since there is a continuity in the subject, and cause precedes effect. "The childhood of history is best for the child, the boyhood of history for the boy, the youthhood of history for the youth, and the manhood of history for the man."--_S. S. Laurie_, Sch. Rev. 4:650.

2. Counter-chronologically, i.e., from the present time and immediate surroundings to remote ages and distant peoples.

3. Spirally, i.e., covering the entire field of study in an elementary manner; then repeating the course on a more advanced plane; then taking up the work a third and fourth time, supplementing and expanding with each new attack.

4. Biographically, i.e., by means of biographies only.

5. Topically, i.e., tracing the development of particular elements in history, continuously and uninterruptedly, from the early stages to complete forms.

QUERIES

1. Which, to you, seems the best approach to the study of history?

2. May several of the above-mentioned modes be employed simultaneously?

3. Is it largely true that the personal or biographic appeals most to the child; the speculative, to the boy; the vitally and concretely constructive, to the youth; and the critical and philosophical to the adult? If so, what should be the character of the work in history in the high school?

X. _The Process of Learning History._

1. Acquiring and relating detailed facts.

2. Formulating a mental picture of the events.

3. a.n.a.lyzing the conditions and determining the vital, distinguishing characteristics.

4. Getting back of the outer forms, visible expression, or the vital facts to the real life of the people--their ideals, ideas, emotions, and beliefs.

5. Discovering the motives that produced the events considered.

6. Deducing the principles that operate in human relations.

7. Applying those principles to contemporary civilization to-day, and foreshadowing the probable trend of society in the future.

8. Holding consciously to the fact that history is dynamic, not static, i.e., that all historical material const.i.tutes a unity that is revealed under the two laws of continuity and differentiation.

"There are no breaks or leaps in the life of a people. Development may hasten or may slacken, and may seem to cease for a time, but it is always continuous; it always proceeds out of antecedent conditions, and if it be arrested for a time it begins again at the point where it ended."

"Since the essence of history is the real life of a people--their ideas and feelings--history develops as ideas and feelings develop.

But thoughts and feelings never exhibit themselves repeatedly in the same forms, but take on new modes of expression in the very process of growth."--_Mace._

QUERIES

1. Does the teacher observed lay emphasis on details as ends in themselves or as means to other ends?