The History Teacher's Magazine, Vol. I, No. 2, October, 1909Various
History
The History Teacher's Magazine, Vol. I, No. 2, October, 1909
Various
History -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals
A second crying need is for better equipment of the historical
department. The development of school libraries has not yet made
much progress, and the use of public libraries by large classes has
obvious practical limitations. Schools which willingly spend money
for scientific apparatus decline to spend money for books, pictures,
and other illustrative material. The equipment of wall-maps is often
exceedingly poor, historical maps being often lacking altogether
except in the field of ancient history. Until this lack is supplied,
we must expect that the teacher will from necessity rely mainly upon
the textbook, at the cost of failing to meet the most fundamental
condition of the newer methods of history teaching.
Perhaps the most serious charge that is lodged against the new
method is that it fails to give the pupil exact knowledge, and even
discriminates against exactness and precision. My observation as an
examiner of applicants for admission to college leads me to believe
that there is force in this charge. Undoubtedly the amount of ground
which is expected to be covered by those who take any one of the four
fields recommended by the Committee of Seven is very great, in the
field of medieval and modern European history quite too great. Where
the time allotted to the course in the curriculum is insufficient,
as it often is, or where the teacher is incompetent, or where the
facilities of the department are inadequate, it is inevitable that
the work should be slighted and the results upon examination appear
unsatisfactory. Undoubtedly, also, in our zeal for the broad view and
the vivifying treatment, we have tended unconsciously to depreciate
the value of exact knowledge, and have allowed ourselves to think that
because the function of memorizing may easily be overworked, the memory
has no place in the study of history at all.
The examiners in history for the College Entrance Examination Board
have learned that, unless they ask for dates, no dates will be
given; that the treatment of specific questions of limited scope is
prevailingly slovenly, indicative of loose thinking and tolerated
looseness of expression; and that the simplest questions will often be
carelessly misread. I am sure that we have not yet solved the problem
of examining in history either in school or in college, but I am also
compelled to think that the greatest weakness of history teaching at
present, in those schools in which the new program is being applied,
is that it so often fails to give the pupil a definite knowledge of
anything. I do not despair, however. There are signs of improvement,
growing in number and significance every year; and with the increased
employment of skilled teachers, the provision of better facilities for
teaching, and the more generous recognition of the importance of the
subject, we may, I think, confidently look for results commensurate
with those admittedly attained in other branches of the school
curriculum.
Training the History Teacher
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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