Part 3 (1/2)

”A assignment

Mace's History, pp 125-197

Make use of questions and suggested collateral reading at your own option”

For fifth and sixth grades there is assigned a ses for one or two lessons per week The two years of the seventh and eighth grades are devoted to the es of text While there is incidental reference to collateral reading, as a matter of fact the schools are not supplied with the necessary rades The true character of the work is really indicated by the last sentence of the eighth-grade history assignhlyto which we reat value of history for an understanding of the multitude of complicated social problems met with by all people in a democracy In a country where all people are the rulers, all need a good understanding of the social, political, economic, industrial, and other problems hich we are continually confronted It is true the thing needed is an understanding of present conditions, but there is no better key to a right understanding of our present conditions than history furnishes One co how it has come to be History is one of the most important methods of social analysis

The history should be so taught that it will have a de up courses of study in the subject for the grah school, the first task should be an analysis of present-day social conditions, the proper understanding of which requires historical background Once having discovered the list of social topics, it is possible to find historical readings which will sho present conditions have grown up out of earlier ones

Looked at from a practical point of view, the history should be developed on the basis of topics, a great abundance of reading being provided for each of the topics We have in ical Aspects of War Territorial Expansion Race Problems Tariff and Free Trade Transportation Money Systems Our Insular Possessions Growth of Population Trusts Banks and Banking Ie Centralization of Government Strikes and Lockouts Panics and Business Depressions Coriculture Postal Service Army Government Control of Corporations Municipal Governes Courts of Law Charities Crime Fire Protection Roads and Road Transportation Newspapers and Magazines National Defense Conservation of Natural Resources Liquor Proble Health, Sanitation, etc

Pensions Une Pure Food Control Savings Banks Water Supply of Cities Prisons Recreations and A Insurance Hospitals

After drawing up such lists of topics for study, they should be assigned to graree of maturity necessary for their comprehension Naturally as rades Such as cannot be covered there should be covered as early as practicable in the high school, since so large a number of students drop out, and all need the work Of course, this would involve a radical revision of the high school courses in history It is not here recoes be attempted abruptly There are too many other conditions that require readjustrowth

Naturally, students eneral tiical movements of affairs before they can understand the more or less specialized treatment of individual topics Preliminary studies are therefore both necessary and desirable in the intereneral background During these grades a great wealth of historical materials should be stored up Pupils should acquire much familiarity with the history of the ancient oriental nations, Judea, Greece, Rome, the states of ive a general, and in the beginning a relatively superficial, overview of the world's history for the sake of perspective The reading should be biographical, anecdotal, thrilling dramas of human achievement, rich with hue of the work on the level with the understanding and degree ofcan be covered rapidly Given the proper conditions--chiefly an abundance of the proper books supplied in sets large enough for classes--pupils can cover a large around, obtain a wealth of historical experience, and acquire a great quantity of useful information, the main outlines of which are remembered without much difficulty They can in this manner lay a broad historical foundation for the study of the social topics that should begin by the seventh grade and continue throughout the high school

The textbooks of the present type can be e Read in their entirety and read rapidly, they give one that perspective which comes from a comprehensive view of the entire field But they are too brief, abstract, and barren to afford valuable concrete historical experience They are excellent reference books for gaining and keeping historical perspective

Reading of the character that we have here called preliminary should not cease as the other historical studies are taken up The general studies should certainly continue for soh school, but it probably should bematerials rather than recitation and exah schools give careful attention to the recommendation of the National Education association Coanization of the Secondary Course of Study in History

CIVICS

Civic training scarcely finds a place upon the eleests that one-quarter of the history tirades should be given to a discussion of such civic topics as the departe disposal, health and sanitation, the city water supply, the mayor and the council, the treasurer, and the auditor The topics are important, but the tirades are so immature that no final treatment of such corades, the manualbecause Cleveland is a city in which there has been no end of civic discussion and progressive human-welfare effort The extraordinary value of civic education in the ele civic welfare, should have received nition

The eleht profitably make such a civic survey as thatthe topics that should enter into a grarade course

The heavy erades of the ele accoh schools, those who take the classical course receive no civics whatever It is not even elective for thelish courses may take civics as a half-year elective

In the technical high schools it is required of all for a half-year

The course is offered only in the senior year, except in the High School of Commerce, where it is offered in the third As a result of these various circumstances, the majority of students who enter and coh schools of Cleveland receive no civic training whatever--not even the inadequate half-year of work that is available for a few

Whether the deficiencies here pointed out are serious or not depends in large measure upon the character of the other social subjects, such as history and geography If these are developed in full and concrete ways, they illue numbers of our difficult social probleer part of the inforh these other social subjects