Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

The committee suggests the relative amount of time to be devoted to each sub-topic in this grade. Ninety-four recitation periods are required to cover the work outlined, 19 of which are given to F, 16 to B, 15 to G; C and D have 12 each, and A and E have 10 each. The committee also suggests that an average of sixty minutes a week be devoted to civics in this grade, and that a text-book in civics, as well as a text-book in history, be placed in the hands of each pupil. The function of city, State and national government should be emphasized, rather than the machinery of each. The actual work of the government to-day, and concrete instances of civic duty should be discussed, and a special study of such topics as “Child Labor,” “Corruption in Politics,” “Best Methods of Work in Local City Governments,” is advised.

Fifteen pages are devoted to a discussion of the preparation of the teacher. The suggestions offered are helpful, and in accordance with the best educational theories. The entire chapter, though brief, shows clearly the need of special preparation, if a teacher hopes to make a success of her work. The entire book is a teacher’s book. The outlines given are not for the class-room; they are to serve as a suggestion to the teacher, who will make her own outlines, based upon the principles laid down in the report, and dealing with the phases of subject-matter which the committee selected. No attempt has been made to go beyond what is already being done in the best schools of the country. The committee has tried to show what is possible in elementary grades. The report will doubtless tend to improve the work in the less favored sections of the country. The plan of work presented is a very definite and carefully-considered plan, which is certainly entitled to a fair trial on its merits.

[“The Study of History in the Elementary Schools--Report to the American Historical Association by the Committee of Eight.” New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1909. Pp. xvii, 141. 50 cents.]

FOOTNOTE:

[3] James Alton James, Chairman, Henry K. Bourne, Eugene C. Brooks, Wilbur F. Gordy, Mabel Hill, Julius Sachs, Henry W. Thurston, J. H. Van Sickle

Suggestions on Elementary History[4]

BY PROFESSOR FRANKLIN L. RILEY, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI.

Outline for Oral Lessons on Westward Immigration.

(Adapted to the Third or Fourth Grade.)

1. The Western Country and How It was Reached--Virginians and their neighbors moved oftener than the colonists to the north. Attracted by “mineral springs,” “salt licks” and “blue grass.” Buffalo paths converge at Cumberland Gap. Wilderness Road, two hundred miles long, from Virginia through this gap to Kentucky, made by Daniel Boone in charge of thirty men. At first only a narrow path for horsemen and footmen. Pack saddles, how made and used.

2. Daniel Boone, “Columbus of the Land.”--Born in Pennsylvania, father settled in Wilkes County, North Carolina, when Daniel was about 13 years old. Early life on frontier farm, used gun almost as early as hoe. Little log home. Married at 20; five years later he decided to move, wanted “elbow room.” “If these people keep coming, soon there will not be a bar in all this country.” Prospecting trip across the mountains, with two or three backwoodsmen at the time of the French and Indian War. Up a tree to escape from a bear. “D. Boone cilled a bar on this tree in 1760” on a beech tree in Eastern Tennessee.

3. New Homes in the Wilderness--Nine years after killing the bear in Tennessee he went to Kentucky to find a new home. Wild game, deer, bear, buffaloes, wolves. Shelter of logs open on one side. “Dark and Bloody Ground.” Indian tricks, imitating turkeys and owls. “Killed” a “stump.” Captured by Indians. Escape after seven days. Alone in the wilderness, 500 miles from home. Forty new settlers from North Carolina. Capture of Boone’s daughter and two other girls by Indians and their rescue. Elizabeth Kane and the grapevine swing. Boone a prisoner in Detroit. Indians refuse $500 for him. His escape. Removal to Missouri. Death and burial at Frankfort.

4. A Frontier Home--Log cabin in a clearing near the fort. Ladder against wall for stairway and pegs in wall for clothing. Rough boards supported by four wooden pegs for dining table. Dirt floor.

5. Life of a Pioneer Boy--Taught to imitate notes and calls of birds and wild animals, to set traps and to shoot the rifle. At 12 he became a fort soldier, with a porthole assigned to him. Taught to follow an Indian trail and to conceal his own when on the warpath.

6. Suggested Topics for Other Lessons:

(1) The Story of James Robertson.

(2) The Story of John Sevier.

(3) The Story of George Rogers Clark.

(4) Stories of the French in America and the Struggle for the
Mississippi Valley.

7. Bibliography--Gordy’s “American Leaders and Heroes” (Charles Scribner’s Sons); McMurry’s “Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley” and Hart’s “Source Reader in American History,” No. 3, and Eggleston’s “Stories of Great Americans” and “First Book in American History” (A. B. Co.); Catherwood’s “Heroes of the Middle West,” and Blaisdell and Ball’s “Hero Stories from American History” (Ginn & Co.); Aunt Charlotte’s “Stories of American History” (D. Appleton & Co.).

Methods of Primary Instruction.

1. Oral presentation. These stories should be given by the teacher in a simple, animated style, adapted to the mental status of the child. They should abound in narration rather than description. Children like action. During the first two years they should be related rather than read.

2. Illustrations. Frequent use should be made of blackboard illustrations. Printed pictures, objects, etc., should also be used.

3. Construction. Children should do constructive work along lines suggested by the lessons--draw pictures, make log houses, bows, arrows, wigwams, etc.

4. Reproduction. The stories should be frequently repeated by the pupil until they are thoroughly mastered. They should also be reproduced in written form as soon as the child is sufficiently advanced.

5. Note books. The children should copy their stories after they have been corrected into their history note books. Neatness should be emphasized.

6. Memory work. The children should memorize historical poems and brief extracts from historical literature, which are thoroughly comprehensible to them.

7. Reading. The children should be encouraged to acquire new facts for themselves from books that are easily comprehensible to them.

8. Reviews. There should be frequent reviews. These exercises should be varied as much as possible and should be often held at unexpected times. Call on different members of the class to tell of their favorite characters; give characteristic incidents not already related, in the life of a person, and let the children guess who it is; let them guess what certain pictures represent, etc.

9. Rewards. The child should be occasionally rewarded with something to read about his favorite character. Reward the mind, but do not permit it to be surfeited.

10. Problems. In the latter part of the primary course special attention should be given to historical problems. See McMurry’s “Special Method in History,” pp. 66-74.

Suggestions on Primary History.

1. Have the purpose and outline of the story well in hand before presenting it, and let your presentation be independent of the book. The outline of your story should be very carefully prepared.

2. Avoid complex details. Tell story vividly. “The educational value of these stories does not depend upon literal accuracy.”

3. The sequence of events and their relations are more important than dates. “A long time ago” means more to a child than 1492.

4. Lay special stress on ethical teaching; cut down wars and military campaigns as much as possible.

5. Go slowly. Haste is a poor policy. A teacher may sometimes devote weeks to a single character to advantage. Do not cram facts indiscriminately into children’s minds.

6. Do not repeat stories to the same children from year to year.

7. For directions “How to Select Stories,” see McMurry’s “Special Method in History,” pp. 34-40.

8. For directions “How to Tell Stories,” see Ibid, pp. 54-56.

9. For directions “How to Have Stories Reproduced,” see Ibid, pp. 57-58.

10. For a discussion of the difficulties of oral instruction, see Ibid, pp. 59-66.

FOOTNOTE:

[4] Editor’s Note.--These and many other helpful suggestions have been privately printed by Professor Riley in a syllabus entitled “Methods of Teaching History in Public Schools,” University, Miss., price 25 cents.

A Type Lesson for the Grades

BY ARMAND J. GERSON.

THE SPANISH CLAIM. A Type Lesson.

Of the many complaints made by history teachers in secondary schools regarding preparation given in the grades perhaps none contains a greater amount of truth than the oft-repeated statement that while pupils leave our elementary schools with a large stock of historical terms and phrases they often lack a real grasp of their significance. I know of a pupil who after a whole year of Sixth Grade work defined tax as “money that is paid for tea,” and who honestly thought that George III’s ministers were “a sort of clergymen.” Still more frequent are the instances where the pupil’s notions of terms used are so hazy and inadequate as not to admit of definition at all.

This condition may be variously explained. The trouble is often caused by an improper use of the text-book, the incompetent teacher resting content if the pupil commits the words on the pages and recites them with some semblance of intelligence. In most cases, however, it is safe to say that the misconceptions are the result of the teacher’s failure to grasp the child’s difficulties, his inability to put himself into the pupil’s place and realize the mental equipment which the child brings to the grasping of the new ideas. Be the cause of the difficulty what it may, the recognition of its existence must be the first step toward its removal.

The word “claim” occupies a prominent place among the disturbers of the peace. In the course of the history work the children become familiar with the fact that the voyages and explorations of the Spanish, English, French and Dutch somehow give rise to “land claims” whose overlapping results in interesting international conflicts. Judicious questioning, however, is apt to disclose a surprising lack of definiteness as to the meaning of this word “claim.” In accordance with the type-lesson method this vagueness of comprehension might readily be avoided if the “claim” concept were developed thoroughly in connection with the explorations of a single European nation. In other words, the teaching of a typical claim forms the surest sort of basis for the comprehension of land claims in general. Spain, because of the early date of its explorations, naturally suggests itself as the type. Let the pupil understand intensively all that we can teach him about the Spanish claim--how far it extended, on what it was based, what it meant--and there will be no difficulty when we come to develop the claims of England, France and Holland.

In presenting the type lesson on the Spanish claim the teacher must carefully distinguish and strongly emphasize the type-elements, _i. e._, those aspects of the subject which help form a clear concept or pattern. Chief among these type-elements may be mentioned the following: A clear understanding of what we mean by “right of discovery;” some notion of the distance a claim may be said to extend beyond the point or coast explored; a definite comprehension of what is meant when we speak of a nation “owning” land; a mental attitude toward the rights of the original inhabitants. Reference to these fundamentals will have to be made repeatedly when the claims of other European nations are in their turn presented to the class, but this mere reference is all that will be required if the type-elements developed in connection with the Spanish claim have been thoroughly grounded. The particular incidents of the Spanish story, pedagogically speaking, are of less fundamental significance.

In connection with the Columbus story the class will have been brought to see that the chief political consequence of that event consisted in the extension of Spanish dominion. “For Castile and Leon Columbus discovered a New World” contains an ethical principle immediately recognized by every boy of ten. This principle contains the essence of the whole theory of discovery and exploration, and should, for a time at least, be allowed to remain undisputed. It might be well even to reinforce this theory by reference to the widely accepted principle applied by our boys and girls in their everyday life,--“finding is keeping.” Ownership of what we find may indeed be disputed by others, but the finder may at least be said to have a “claim” to it. It is in this sense that Spain had a “claim” to the New World.

But a nation’s claim to newly discovered land is in many ways different from a boy’s claim to a marble he has found. First of all, the boy has probably picked up the whole marble and put it in his pocket. The Spanish explorers, on the other hand, only caught glimpses of part of the edge of a great continent. Had they a good claim to the whole continent or could they only claim the parts they had found? Difference of opinion on this point is very possible and may give rise to profitable class discussion. Ignorance of the size and shape of the continent, concentration of Spanish interest in the south, and the decree of Pope Alexander should all be pointed out as determining elements in the gradual defining of the Spanish claim. The work of each of the Spanish explorers should be reviewed in this connection, and the claim finally located on the map.

It is important, in the next place, that the pupils should devote some thought to the question of what we mean when we say Spain “owned” Florida, Mexico, etc. In this connection attention may well be called to the theory of government generally held in the sixteenth century. The modern notion of government existing for the sake of the governed had scarcely taken form in the minds of men. The nations of Europe were avowedly selfish. Spain “owned” America in the sense that she could make laws for its people, dispose of its territory, and control its resources.

Finally, a complete notion of European claims to the New World must perforce include some reference to the rights of the natives. The comparative rights of the natives and Europeans is fortunately not a question upon which we are called upon to pronounce a verdict. As an element in all colonizing activities it requires our attention, however, and it certainly affords admirable opportunity for cultivating our pupils’ human sympathies.

Reference should be made to the pre-eminence of the Spanish claim on the score of priority. It is to be borne in mind that our type-lesson, besides forming the basis for the teaching of subsequent claims, will have still greater significance when the conflict of European nations leads to the great international struggle for the New World. Constant reference to maps and charts, and, more important still, the making of claim maps by the pupils themselves, constitute an obvious, but none the less essential, means of rendering definite and permanent the results of the “claim” lesson. A progressive map upon which the conflict of claims could be developed will be of particular value.

Our endeavor throughout the Spanish claim lesson should be to proceed as slowly and carefully as possible. Much of the detail presented need not be retained as such, but will serve its most useful purpose by forming a setting for the salient points. The aim of the type-lesson is to construct a firm and sure foundation for later work.

The Hudson-Fulton Celebration

From the 25th of September, when the Half-Moon and the Clermont left their temporary berths in the Kill van Kill, in Staten Island, to October 9th, when they reached the city of Troy, the people of the city and the State of New York devoted themselves with remarkable singleness of purpose to the celebration of two historical incidents of world-wide importance: the discovery of the river by Henry Hudson in 1609 and the successful completion of the first steamboat voyage up the river to Albany in 1807. For months before, laymen and professional historians and history teachers had been busy preparing for the celebration, and the result of their work was to be seen in the parades and pageants. Circulars, instructions, maps, pictures, and even historical treatises, succeeded each other in almost endless succession. Of them all, the pamphlet issued by the State Department of Education, entitled “Hudson-Fulton Celebration, 1609-1807-1909,” and the printed circular issued by the New York City Department of Education, entitled “Hudson-Fulton Celebration--Suggestions for Exercises,” are especially recommended to teachers who are looking for suggestions as to plans for similar celebrations. Both can be had by application to the proper authorities.

The parades and pageants which marked the week’s celebration in New York City have been so thoroughly described in the newspapers and reviews that it would be useless to discuss them once again in this connection. From the point of view of the teacher, the naval parade of Saturday, September 25th, the historical parade of Tuesday, September 28th, and the school commemorative exercises of Wednesday, September 29th, and Saturday, October 2d, were the most important and the most significant. Though none of these was perfect in all its details, still all of them gave to the children of the city opportunities for visualizing conditions as they existed in the past such as no other method could have done. Pages and pages of description, for instance, could give the child no such idea of the difficulties of navigation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as the brief view of the top-heavy, clumsy and poorly-constructed model of the Half-Moon did. More valuable still were the exercises, largely in the form of dramatization, in which the children of every grade, from the kindergarten to the last year of the high school, participated, both on Wednesday morning and on Saturday afternoon. Here the work was the result of the children’s own constructive imagination, aided and directed by skilled teachers and historians. Once again, as far as possible, the children were allowed to relive their lives under conditions which approximated those which surrounded their predecessors during the last three centuries.

As to the permanent results of the celebration, it may be said, first, that New York City and New York State are to-day richer than they would otherwise have been in historical monuments and commemorative tablets which are of constant educational value. Further, both the city and the State have been stirred to an extraordinary pitch of civic pride and civic activity and in both the children have participated largely. What the past has accomplished has been thoroughly emphasized; what the future demands has by no means been neglected. The lesson has thus been both historical and political. As a model for other cities this celebration will long stand preëminent. Though there were many errors and many shortcomings, other communities will, nevertheless, find in the exercises and in the pageants much to copy that was valuable. Though the time and energy expended were great, the results were commensurate.

A. M. W.

* * * * *

The History Teacher’s Magazine

Published monthly, except July and August, at 5805 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., by

McKINLEY PUBLISHING CO.

A. E. McKINLEY, Proprietor.

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EDITORS

=Managing Editor=, ALBERT E. MCKINLEY, PH.D.

=History in the College and the School=, ARTHUR C. HOWLAND, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of European History, University of Pennsylvania.

=The Training of the History Teacher=, NORMAN M. TRENHOLME, Professor of the Teaching of History, School of Education, University of Missouri.

=Some Methods of Teaching History=, FRED MORROW FLING, Professor of European History, University of Nebraska.

=Reports from the History Field=, WALTER H. CUSHING, Secretary, New England History Teachers’ Association.

=American History in Secondary Schools=, ARTHUR M. WOLFSON, Ph.D., DeWitt Clinton High School, New York.

=The Teaching of Civics in the Secondary School=, ALBERT H. SANFORD, State Normal School, La Crosse, Wis.

=European History in Secondary Schools=, DANIEL C. KNOWLTON, Ph.D., Barringer High School, Newark, N. J.

=English History in Secondary Schools=, C. B. NEWTON, Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, N. J.

=Ancient History in Secondary Schools=, WILLIAM FAIRLEY, Ph.D., Commercial High School, Brooklyn, N. Y.

=History in the Grades=, ARMAND J. GERSON, Supervising Principal, Robert Morris Public School, Philadelphia, Pa.

CORRESPONDENTS.

HENRY JOHNSON, New York City.
MABEL HILL, Lowell, Mass.
GEORGE H. GASTON, Chicago, Ill.
JAMES F. WILLARD, Boulder, Col.
H. W. EDWARDS, Berkeley, Cal.
WALTER F. FLEMING, Baton Rouge, La.

EDITORIAL POLICY.

It is not the purpose of the editors of the MAGAZINE to espouse any particular pedagogical policy. Articles may appear in the paper which advocate new policies or radical changes of method in the school or college curriculum; but such papers express the views of the contributors only, and not necessarily of the editorial staff of the paper. Rather it is their wish to make the paper a mirror of the best thought and practice in the profession, and to this end they will welcome correspondence and contributions upon all phases of questions arising in the teaching of history. Let us have a frank and full discussion of the problems facing the teacher, and of the best way of solving the problems; not fads or hobbies, but sound experience and strong pedagogical ideals. The editors invite the coöperation of their readers in making the paper a “clearing-house for ideas in the profession.”

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HISTORY.

It may be a matter of surprise that a paper devoted largely to the interests of teachers of history in secondary schools and colleges should print in one number nearly five pages of matter relating to history in elementary schools. Yet there should be no need of an apology. Were not the several parts of the American educational system so independent of one another, our secondary and college teachers of history would not pride themselves upon their ignorance of conditions in the elementary schools. Because organically or politically there is little correlation among the three parts of the system, each part attempts to ignore the others, rejecting suggestions concerning its own work, and grudgingly and condescendingly giving advice concerning the others. With a few notable exceptions, several of whom appear as contributors to this number of the MAGAZINE, college men in America have kept sedulously away from the problems of history teaching in the elementary school, or if they have turned their gaze upon the schools, it has been to seek a market for a new elementary history textbook.

Yet the elementary school needs the best thought that the nation can give to it; not the thought of elementary school men alone, but the clearness and directness and thoroughness which come so frequently with college training. It is superciliousness or inertia which leads a college instructor to say that he cannot realize the problems of the elementary school, and then to send his children to a class taught by a young girl fresh from the normal school or high school. It was not thus that the schedules for history in the Prussian or French schools were made. It is not by thus leaving the determination of policy to weaker employees that great corporations succeed. And how much more valuable are our children than corporate wealth!

The report of the Committee of Eight is beyond doubt the most important feature of the year in the teaching of history in America. It deserves to rank with the report of the Committee of Seven, and its influence may well be even greater. The report is remarkable for its sanity, its absence of theorizing, its understanding of the mind of the child at several ages, its clearness and general helpfulness. Not content with merely outlining the field of history for each grade, the committee has realized the weakness of the teacher, and has constructed a course of study for her, and has even gone so far as to advise the emphasis and amount of time to be given to each subject. Schedule-makers have previously had no advice from historians upon these points; they have been left severely alone to fix their days and hours and subjects as they might think best. The report changes all this by combining the scholarly knowledge of the historian with the skill of the pedagogical student and with the worldly wisdom of the schedule maker.

Of particular significance and originality is the arrangement of topics by years in such a manner that the student receives something new in each grade. Even although all the work centers about the history of the United States, yet there is no deadening repetition year after year. The topics are carefully selected for each grade with a view to increasing difficulty with the advancing years of the student. Perhaps no one feature of the report marks a more distinct advance than this arrangement.

Not only should the report have a strong influence upon the arrangement of the elementary history course, but it should also lead to a great improvement in the instruction of history. Not every teacher can meet the requirements set by the committee; the result will be a wider adoption of the “group” or “department” system, by which the teacher is given charge of one subject or of a group of allied topics, such as English and history, or geography and nature study. Such a division of labor is in accord with the tendencies of the day; it is in the interests of superior work in all subjects; and it means increased mental development not for the child alone, but for the teacher as well. The report would deserve a hearty welcome if it did no more than advance the cause of the departmental or group teacher.

It will do much more than this. It will add dignity to the work in history; it will give school administrators an ideal of work in the subject; and best of all, it will give the children of the nation a course in history which will be stimulating and of definite cultural value. Teachers of history and school administrators should unite to see that the new plan is given a fair test under the best possible circumstances. High school and college teachers should join with elementary teachers in endorsing this plan for raising the standard of history teaching in America.

Readings in Government and Politics

PROFESSOR BEARD’S WORK REVIEWED BY JOHN HAYNES, PH.D., DORCHESTER
HIGH SCHOOL, BOSTON, MASS.

This volume is an attempt to do for the student of Government what the source book does for the student of History. Prof. Beard has prepared it primarily to be used with his own “American Government and Politics,” which is now in preparation, but of course it can be used with any text-book on the subject. The selections include materials of many kinds, among them most of the Federal Constitution (groups of clauses bearing upon the same subject being given at the beginning of the appropriate chapter), parts of the constitutions of various States, decisions of the Federal Supreme Court and other courts of last resort, arguments made in Congress, State legislatures, constitutional conventions and political meetings, party platforms, letters, laws, treaties and proclamations. The Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation are given in full. Each selection is preceded by a brief introduction of a few lines which is admirable in giving a succinct statement of the main point or points of the document which follows.

The wide scope of the selections, both as to subjects and the sources from which they are taken, is a testimony to the generous amount of labor bestowed upon the preparation of the volume. On the whole, admirable judgment has been used in choosing the material. Still some things are absent which one might expect to find. The case of McCulloch vs. Maryland is very properly quoted at some length, but the famous Dartmouth College case, whose consequences were very important, is not cited. The book would be improved by the addition of selections designed to illustrate judicial procedure, like a charge to a jury, a declaration in a civil suit or an indictment. Examples of different forms of ballots might well be given, especially of the ballot used in Oregon when laws are submitted to popular vote.

The selections, which as far as possible are taken from the writings of men who have had practical experience in the conduct of government, have the great merit of giving a view of government as it really is. The seamy side is not hidden. There are documents illustrating the corruption of the police, the tyranny of the boss, the iniquities of the gerrymander, senatorial courtesy, corporations in politics and the unjust assessment of taxable property.

A great excellence of this book is its being up to date. Examples of this are selections from the Oregon law on the election of United States Senators, from Oklahoma’s Constitution, from the “Report of the Boston Finance Commission,” issued in 1909, and the “Report of the Minnesota Tax Commission” of the preceding year.

This volume, which is admirably adapted to its purpose, is a distinct addition to the resources of the teacher of Government. While the average teacher is likely to be more hampered by the entirely inadequate time allowed for the subject than by lack of good material, a contribution like this of Professor Beard tends to dignify the subject, which is all too likely to be treated as a tail to the history kite, and to secure for it the place which it deserves in school courses.

[“Readings in American Government and Politics.” By Charles A. Beard. New York. The Macmillan Co., 1909. Pp. xxiii-624. Price, $1.50.]

Civics and Health

DR. ALLEN’S WORK REVIEWED BY LOUIS NUSBAUM.

Dr. Allen has presented a work which in the directness, forcefulness and logic of its appeal for good health as a civic duty makes the book worthy to be considered as epoch-making. To quote Dr. Allen’s thought, changed conditions of social and industrial life have virtually eliminated from present-day politics the inalienable rights for which our ancestors fought and died, and in their stead has come the need to formulate rules which will insure to every citizen the economic and industrial rights essential to twentieth century happiness. And just as community of interest was the incentive to attaining those political rights in the past, so united action is necessary to secure health rights.

Scarcely any phase of the question of public health is left untouched in this interesting little book. From the consideration of sound teeth as a commercial asset, through the discussion of a long list of preventable and removable diseases and disorders, to the examination of tuberculosis as an industrial loss, Dr. Allen has made out so strong a case against the social losses due to disease, that one is necessarily aroused to a new sense of public duty. And it is in this very awakening of a slumbering public consciousness that the book will do its most effective work. As Prof. William T. Sedgwick says in his introduction, a reading of the chapter headings merely “will cause surprise and rejoicing.”

The facts of the existence of the health conditions revealed in this book are not new, but the immensity of these known conditions, as successively enumerated here, is almost astounding. For a brief moment in reading the book one is led to feel that it is the work of an extremist or enthusiast, to be discounted in effect for a certain measure of high coloring, yet a careful inspection reveals the fact that everything is told in an honest and direct, even if at times dogmatic, way.

Unlike the work of many pseudo-reformers, Dr. Allen’s book is comprehensive in its scope in that it not only reveals existing conditions, but it indicates how these conditions may be remedied and tells of the efforts thus far made to apply the proper remedies. After pointing out that the best index to community health is the physical welfare of school children, Dr. Allen compares the European method of _doing things_ at school with the American method of _getting things done_.

No brief review can do justice to a work so inspiring that to be instantly effective it needs but to be read widely. It is filled with material that should be particularly at the command of every teacher, if not of every parent, in the land. Its especial interest to teachers of civics lies in its analysis of the relation of public health and its consequent economic conditions to organized government and to the body social.

[“Civics and Health.” By William H. Allen, secretary, Bureau of Municipal Research, with an introduction by William T. Sedgwick, professor of biology in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston: Ginn & Co., 1909. Pp. xi-411.]

American History in the Secondary School

ARTHUR M. WOLFSON, PH.D., Editor.

A STUDY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

The Declaration of Independence is, in every way, an ideal document for study in a secondary school. Every student in the class is undoubtedly familiar with it; he has heard it quoted, in whole or in part, on numberless occasions; he thinks he knows all about it, and yet the teacher can easily show him that it contains vast stores of ideas which up to the present time he has never even suspected. No document in all American history is so easy of interpretation: the language is clear and simple; the phraseology is direct and unencumbered; the document is divided and subdivided so that anyone who takes the trouble can easily analyze it. The Declaration itself is to be found in almost every school history, and the sources and secondary authorities which illustrate it are easily accessible and not too difficult for the ordinary secondary school student.

Literature.

First, a few suggestions as to where these sources and secondary authorities may be found. Of primary importance is Macdonald’s “Select Charters Illustrative of American History--1606 to 1775;” second, though not so good, is Preston’s “Documents Illustrative of American History--1606 to 1863;” third, Hart’s “American History Told by Contemporaries,” Volume II, Part VI; fourth, the “American History Leaflets,” Numbers 11, 19, 21, and 33. Beside these the teacher may easily discover one or another of the documents in many other places. Of the secondary authorities, beside the ordinary histories of the American nation, all of which contain the leading facts and incidents upon which the Declaration is based, the teacher is referred especially to Friedenwald’s “Declaration of Independence.” Next to that, the most important works are Moses Coit Tyler’s “Literary History of the American Revolution,” and Frothingham’s “Rise of the Republic of the United States,” particularly the foot-notes. Furthermore, the teacher and the student will find illuminating essays on the political theories of the Declaration of Independence in Merriam’s “American Political Theories,” in A. Lawrence Lowell’s “Essays in Government,” in Leslie Stephen’s “English Thought in the Eighteenth Century,” and in Bryce’s “Studies in History and Jurisprudence.” By no means all of these works need be consulted; an examination of one or two of them will suffice.

The study of the Declaration falls naturally into three parts and students may therefore profitably be set to work separately or in groups on one of its three problems. First, there is the problem of the growth of the idea of independence; second, there is the problem of the validity and cogency of the numberless adverse criticisms of the Declaration. Is it merely a mass of “glittering and sounding generalities of natural right?” as Choate called it. Is it a partisan and unfair statement? Is its political theory false and therefore of no historical importance? Third, there is the possibility of submitting the Declaration itself to complete and thorough class-room analysis.

Idea of Independence.

Taking each of these problems separately, let us endeavor to set in order first, the sources which should be studied in tracing the growth of the idea of independence in the colonies. Up to 1761, though there had been causes for differences of opinion between the Crown and the colonies, none of these causes had led to an open breach. In 1761 came the difficulty about the Writs of Assistance in which James Otis took such a prominent part. Otis’ speech on the Writs of Assistance, and especially his “Vindication of the House of Representatives” and his “Rights of the Colonies” may therefore be studied with profit. In them will be found the first statement of the American theory of government. These documents may be found in Hart’s Contemporaries, in the American History Leaflets, and in various other places. Following then in quick succession come the various declarations of the colonies and the various petitions to the Crown, beginning with the Declaration of the Stamp Act Congress issued in 1765 and ending with the Olive Branch Petition issued in June, 1775. Most of these documents can be found most conveniently in Macdonald’s Select Charters and the teacher can make his own selection according to his taste and the size of his class. The only thing to be emphasized in the study of any or all of these documents is the fact that, as Friedenwald expresses it, in speaking of the First Continental Congress (Declaration of Independence, p. 28), “spirited and outspoken as were the resolutions of the Congress of 1774 in stating their demands, there is no sign among them all that can rightly be interpreted as indicating a wish for the establishment, even remotely, of an independent government.” The same facts can be gleaned from a study of Tyler’s “Literary History of the American Revolution,” Vol. I, p. 458 ff.

With the news of the rejection of the Olive Branch Petition which reached the colonies in November, 1775, begins a new phase of the American Revolution. Thenceforward, there is a rapid and steady growth of the idea of political independence. The development of this idea should be studied in such documents as the declarations of the various colonies, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights, June, 1776, and in the writings of the Revolutionary leaders such as Thomas Paine’s pamphlet entitled “Common Sense” issued in January, 1776, and the correspondence of John Adams. The idea culminates, of course, in the Declaration of Independence.

“Under this aspect,” says Tyler (Vol. I, p. 477) comparing the Revolution to the Civil War, “the American Revolution had just two stages; from 1764 to 1776, its champions were Nullifiers without being Secessionists; from 1776 to 1783, they were Secessionists, and as events proved, successful Secessionists.”

Criticism of the Declaration of Independence began with the animadversions of John Adams in his letter to Pickering in 1822 and has continued ever since. First, it has been declared that the ideas expressed in the preamble are not new, that “there is not an idea in it,” as Adams said, “but what had been hackneyed in Congress for two years before;” second, that the document is partisan and that the statement of grievances is unfair to the British Crown and to Parliament; third, that the political philosophy contained in the preamble is false and contrary to the facts of history.

Jefferson’s Reply.

In a short paper like this it is impossible to examine each of these criticisms in detail. The teacher who is interested can easily find in Friedenwald and in Tyler and in the other authorities mentioned above full and adequate discussion of each of these charges. Here it must suffice to say in answer to the first charge that Jefferson himself in a letter to Madison, dated August 30, 1823, declared, “I did not consider it any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no sentiment which had ever been expressed before.... I thought it a duty to be, on that occasion, a passive auditor of the opinions of others, more impartial judges than I could be of its merits and demerits.” In other words, Jefferson’s task was not to invent, as French publicists were prone to do on such occasions, new theories of government, but simply to express the ideas which were the product of the political discussion which was going on about him, and which would be familiar and acceptable to the men in America and in Europe to whom the Declaration was addressed.

That the document is partisan is of course true; but this is scarcely a valid criticism. Neither Jefferson nor any of his colleagues claimed to sit as judges between the colonies and the mother country. They were bound merely to put their claims as strongly as they could, and then leave the judgment of the case to “a candid world.”

Third, as long at the Declaration be studied merely as an historical document, it matters not whether its theories be false or true; it matters only that the student understand how completely its principles dominated the minds of the men who had a share in drawing up the document and the minds of men both in America and in Europe to whom it was addressed.

The Declaration Analysed.

Coming now to the analysis of the Declaration itself, we find that it falls naturally into three parts. First, there is the preamble in which Jefferson and his colleagues set forth the political theory current in the colonies in 1776; second, there is the enumeration of grievances by which the colonists hoped to prove that the king had violated their sacred rights, and finally there is the conclusion, namely, “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states.”

The political doctrine of the Declaration is well known. Summed up in a single phrase, it is commonly called the Compact Theory of Government; that is, that all men are born with certain “natural rights,” that to secure these rights they enter by their own consent into political unions (the compact), that when these natural rights are violated by those whom they have set up to govern them, they have a right to throw off the restraints of government, to enter into a new compact, “to provide new guards for their future security.” It used to be supposed that Jefferson derived this theory of government from the writings of the French philosophers, of whom Rousseau was the most famous. This idea, however, has long since been exploded. We know now that the American revolutionary statesmen from Otis to Jefferson were impregnated with good English ideas, that they looked to John Locke, not to Rousseau, as their master. The teacher should therefore make clear to his students just what the ideas of Locke were and especially the occasion which gave them birth. It is not a matter of chance that Locke’s Treatises on Government were issued in the period of the Revolution of 1688 and the student should be made to understand this. For a full discussion of the almost exact verbal relation between the Declaration of Independence and the writings of Locke the teacher is referred to the books mentioned at the beginning of this paper.

The Colonial Grievances.

Perhaps the most valuable class exercises in connection with the Declaration of Independence is an analysis of the grievances set forth in the document and the effort to find the specific acts upon which these statements are based. Several of them refer to acts and events whose history is obscure, but most of them can easily be traced to their sources. For a thorough analysis of the grievances, the teacher should go to Friedenwald, Chapters X and XI. Here we can give only the briefest outline. Thus, for instance, a search of the Journals of the Board of Trade will show that at least twenty important laws were rejected or suspended by the Crown in 1773, that the consideration of other laws was neglected sometimes as long as four or five years (Sections 1 and 2); that the king absolutely forbade his governors in 1767 and even earlier to allow the colonial assemblies to organize new counties in the Appalachian region unless they were willing to deprive these counties of representation (Section 3). The facts upon which Sections 4, 5, and 6 are based may be found in almost any school history. The grievances stated in Sections 7 and 8 are again somewhat obscure and cannot therefore be used with profit for class-room discussion. The next three sections, however, refer to acts and events which grew out of the attempted enforcement of the various acts of parliament between 1765 and 1775 and which can therefore be found without difficulty. Sections 12 and 13 likewise are based on facts which any student can discover in his text book. The facts upon which