interests and purposes will differ. The time was when a boy took the equivalent of our high school academic course only if he were going to college. The total number of academy or high school pupils in the country was then small. The wonderful increase in the number of high schools and in the number of pupils attending them means, for one thing, that the high school has been reaching down an attractive and helping hand to those who would otherwise have but a grammar-school education. It is holding pupils who would ordinarily go to work as soon as the law allows. If then, we can serve the purposes of the many by offering them something which vitally affects their material welfare, and at the same time, perhaps without their knowing it, give them something which feeds their souls, are we not doing more good for humanity than to minister exclusively either to the body or to the soul?

Now consider for a moment what has been done for the welfare of the human race in those countries where the principles of Democracy, the principles of equal and unsurpassed opportunities for everyone, have found expression either in the form of a limited, constitutional monarchy or in the form of a republic. Think of Davy, Watt, Stephenson, Newton, Nightingale, Pasteur, Welles, Fulton, Morse, Whitney, Hoe, Lincoln, Edison, Burbank, and a legion of others. Those same principles of Democracy require that education be the common heritage of all. One of the means to this end is the presence in our high schools of uplifting, inspirational courses which are nevertheless vocational. We cannot omit them if our high schools are to appear worth while to the many; but we must not allow these courses to crowd out the humanities if we would have anything but a nation of Peter Bells, of whom Wordsworth said:

"He travelled here, he travelled there;-
But not the value of a hair

Was heart or head the better.

"He roved among the vales and streams,
In the green wood and hollow dell;
They were his dwellings night and day,-
But nature ne'er could find the way
Into the heart of Peter Bell.

"In vain, through every changeful year,

Did Nature lead him as before;
A primrose by the river's brim

A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more."

To sum up, education contains two elements, the higher and the lower, the poetic and the prosaic, that which leads to spiritual well-being and that which leads to physical well-being. It is neccessary that part of one's education shall be preparation for one's life work. The longer this special preparation can be postponed, within reason, the better chance one has for spiritual development. Few of us can escape work in this life; none of us can honorably do so in democracy. Our danger, then, is not that we shall lack acquaintance with work, but rather that we shall fail to rise above it; that we shall be what has been described as "Sons of Martha" rather than "Sons of Mary".

It is with all this in mind that the position of Greek and Latin should be determined in any school. The mere facts that one learns in a vocational course are not nearly so valuable as the learning to view one's work as part of the world's work, to see it in its relation to other work and other people, to make it, perhaps, the point of departure from which one may penetrate by means of the humanities to the circumference of a broad horizon, which shall include all men and all times.

The wisest plan, the safest course has been outlined for us by Ovid, and we can hardly do better than follow the wisdom of the ages, "Medio tutissimus ibis."

History from the View Point of the Grammar

Grade Teacher

JAMES LE COUNT CHESTNUT, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, WASH,, D. C.

3.

4.

Introduction.

(History, Reformation).

The teacher's preparation.

A. All embracing.

I. Explain.

B. Should develop analytic powers.

I. Through study of Cause and Effect.
II. Through Power to outline.

C. Cultural product.

Outline as teacher's point of classroom attack:

A. Ease with which History allows this.

B. The orderly form of thought thus developed.
I. Value for training.

II. Need for proper interpretation of history.

C. The character of the outline.

D. Proof of the fitness of this method for grammar grades.
Conclusion.

U

ANTIL within the last twenty or twenty-five years there was no course in the curricula of American Universities that was more abused than history. This was the left over subject and was thrust upon the instructor quite irrespective of his fitness. As a result, the rich returns which ought to have accrued from a thoroughly rational study of this important branch were never realized. And still more to be lamented-in as much as great incentives to educational methods of procedure have found and probably always will find

their origin in the higher institutions the secondary and elementary schools fell prey to the same evil.

Within the limits of the time above indicated, however, a reform movement started to make itself felt. And at present the struggle for better and more sane history teaching has found firm footing even in the secondary school world and is also beginning to be felt in the realm of the elementary school.

II. TEACHER'S PREPARATION.

The truth of the statement that knowledge of a subject does not necessarily carry with it power to teach that branch is beyond question. On the other hand, however, the fact cannot be overlooked that, without a knowledge of a subject all attempts to teach it are futile. By virtue of this last statement, then, our attention is focussed on the problem of the teacher's preparation.

Nothing short of a thorough, all embracing preparation can suffice. But let us set a standard as to what ought to be considered a thorough, all embracing preparation. In the first place the present day teacher of history in the grammar grades should be familiar with the important happenings of Ancient History, of Mediaeval and Modern European History and of U. S. History. In the second place, these events should be appreciated in their full significance. In each instance the social, economic, religious and constitutional aspects should be well defined and clearly established in the mind of the one who is to teach.

The need of such a preparation can be made clear very easily by the citation of a few practical cases which will forcefully instance the claim. Take for example our present day jury system. Who can be thoroughly familiar with it or fully appreciate its largest significance unless he be acquainted with the activities in the time of the Early Plantagenets which gave us this priceless boon? Again, who can be a good teacher of colonial history without first being intimately acquainted with the phase of English religious history that incited these new world settlements? For another case, turn to the epoch-making voyage of Columbus. No one can thoroughly understand or comprehend this magnificient work unless he has been a good student of European History of at least two or three hundred years previous to this time. Still another instance is found in the pre-revolutionary taxation struggle.

The slogan of the colonies was "No taxation without representation". But to fully understand and appreciate the positions of England and America, necessitates a perfect understanding of the ideas that each had of representative bodies. Again, our difficulties in forming a Constitution can only be comprehended as one is cognizant of the structure of the English constitution. So also any insight into the War of 1812 premises a knowledge of the activities on the continent due to the Napoleonic upheaval. Last, let the question be asked, who can understand the real true issue of nullification which later disguised itself as Secession, without being aware of the great economic "hand behind the throne"? In the same manner connections could be traced still further back and our present legal and municipal systems could be shown to bear a strong Roman coloring. And again and again this relating process might be continued back to the earliest times.

Thus it is seen from these few instances that the activities of the whole world from the beginning are but a series of connected events. From this it becomes evident that all happenings are related. The whole great world is one stage; it is but different phases of the great drama of human progress that are enacted in the histories of different countries.

The necessity of such a well rounded preparation is well emphasized by the following words taken from the report of "The Committee of Seven": A person with a meagre information cannot have a wide outlook; he cannot see the relative importance of things unless he actually knows them in their relations.*

Right at this point, a consideration of the benefits aside from the pure academic training, which a teacher will gain from such preparation suggests itself.

Professors Dewey and McClellan say in their book entitled "The Psychology of Number", that what the teacher needs is "Power to master, and not be mastered by the facts and ideas of whatever kind which may be crowding in upon the mind . . . to take in a word and 'chaos' of experience and reduce it to harmony and system." This power, they claim, "is an essential mark of the clear thinker" and "is the prime qualification of the clear teacher." And it is identically such a result as this that will be produced by the accurate study of history. The laws of cause and effect which

* See History, in the School Report of the Committee of Seven, page 3.