The Educator-journal

VOL. VI.

APRIL, 1906.

NUMBER 8.

THE VALUE OF THE HISTORICAL METHOD OF STUDY.
ADELAIDE STEELE Baylor, SUPERINTENDENT CITY SCHOOLS, WABASH, IND.

When the study of history took its place by the side of the physical and biological sciences, the application of the historical method of study to all lines of thought was soon in evidence, and today it is quite impossible to have thoroughly treated any subject without a careful investigation of its past, that it may be seen in all the phases of its development.

Even in the study of the more exact sciences is this true. The student of astronomy will know his subject best when he has studied the origin in astrology, and knows something of the conclusions of Thales, Anaxagoras, and Pythagoras, the failure of the Ptolemaic system and the rise of the Copernican, the work of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Laplace. The history of the growth of physics and chemistry, the time and conditions under which their important laws and principles were established are items not overlooked by the careful student, while the newer texts in mathematics are giving some space to the history of certain problems and propositions as well as to the growth of the fundamental principles, themselves.

In the study of institutions and society, this method is deemed most essential, and origins are sought even back of civilization. Those making a study of political assemblies declare that their beginnings are found in the simplest and rudest gatherings of primitive peoples, and that from these, through various natural and progressive steps, the great ruling bodies of today have come. complete survey of the steps in the evolution of the State must be made from the simplest religious observances in the

old civilizations through the establishment of the Athenian and Spartan constitutions, the work of Cleisthenes, Justinian, Machiavelli, Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson, and all these various acts and personages, that the State of today may be understood.

Aside from the increase in the content of one's knowledge, the swelling of his budget of information, there is a deeper and more potent service from such a method of study.

The investigator who approaches a subject in this way is given a broader view, a higher point of observation. He can see all along the line and know the relation of each part to all that precedes and all that follows it. To the teacher this sort of view is indispensable in the proper treatment of any subject.

If he knows the history of arithmetic he can intelligently omit certain topics from the text-book, because he sees that peculiar social conditions have created. them, and these conditions having passed away, there is no longer valid reason for the retention of such topics in the teaching of the subject. Thus the obsolete and effete matter can be eliminated understandingly, and the purpose and place of the matter retained better understood. If the entire history of mathematics is a familiar subject, the teacher can better relate one part to another and avoid the breaks that are often so apparent in passing from one branch of this subject to another.

Again, what has been difficult for the race will be difficult for the individual, who is, in a measure, an epitome of the race, and the method of solution that

has been adopted by the race will appeal to him.

But even of greater importance, it seems to me, than this attitude of mind toward specific lines, is the general intellectual training, the habit of mind that, through this method of study, is forming in the individual and in the

race.

Such a method requires, in the first place, honest, earnest effort toward some end, for the inquirer is seeking the truth of some proposition through an examination of facts, and not metaphysically, and will be careful to distinguish the true from the false, the temporary from the permanent. The necessity for making a careful selection from the multitude of facts that are thus presented, will cultivate the power of discrimination, a power sadly needed among teach

ers.

Looking carefully into the history of a subject leads to grouping the important facts about certain principles, and cultivates the habit of forming generalizations. Old knowledge is organized and new knowledge properly placed. Memory is strengthened and reason encouraged. New acquisitions are made more readily, for the mind naturally seizes upon all data that will strengthen its general principles. Thus a power to think deeply, earnestly, and honestly is acquired, and through this a personality created that will possess an influence and an ability to cope with others, not common to many individuals.

False theories are corrected and the fatal tendency to theorize in the face of facts will lessen. One of the most brilliant persons I have known was a teacher who refused to allow a fact to get in the way of his theory. His ideas always seemed remarkably clear, were beautifully stated, and so apt that even the most practical would be tempted to accept them in the face of numerous facts to the contrary, and yet his failure in the profession was due, undoubtedly, to this tendency to neglect the evidence.

This sort of inquiry leads to originality in thought and action, and surely one thing needed today, in all lines of work,

is originality in forming estimates based on true evidence, and fearlessness in expressing these estimates. On the other hand the impulsive and enthusiastic young social and political leader, trained by this method, will weigh his conclusions more carefully, and will know why he advocates certain principles, while all citizens will better understand their obligations to the State, because they know the history and meaning of its existence, its needs and how best to contribute to them.

The mental power developed by the establishment of these habits of thought will have much to do with the moral nature of the individual. The old idea that sharp habits of thinking, careful inquiry into origins and causes would destroy the religious and moral sentiments. is rapidly giving way to the knowledge that the greater the mental discrimination of the individual, the more his ability to determine matters of right and wrong, while the greater his love for truth in the scientific and historical world, the higher his appreciation of it in active social life. Herbert Spencer, in his Autobiography, thus refers to one of his co-workers and companions: "He was the son of Dr. Jackson, at that time foreign secretary to the Bible society. Of somewhat ungainly build, and with an intellect mechanically receptive but without much thinking power, my friend was extremely conscientious-one whose sense of rectitude was such that he might be trusted without limit to do the right thing. Without limit, did I say? Well. perhaps I should make a qualification, and say that in all simple matters he might be implicitly trusted. For I remember once observing in him how needful an analytical intelligence is in cases where a question of right and wrong is raised out of the daily routine. The moral sentiments, however strong they may be, and however rightly they may guide in the ordinary relations of life. need enlightenment where the problems are complex."

A mind in this attitude is ever on the alert, and not moving through life like Nickolai Gogol's "Dead Souls," who were

still counted on the tax list of the owner, though the serfs themselves had long since ceased to exist.

Nothing is more pathetic than to see people in the world with no real interest in affairs. This picture given by Stephen Phillips, of "The Woman with the Dead Soul"

"A sober dress of decent serge she wore Uplifted nicely from the smirching floor;

And with a bunch of grapes her hat was crowned,

Which trembled together if she glanced around.

Speckless, arranged; and with no braid awry, All smoothed and combed she sewed incessantly.

ous strength of each one. The person who has a conscious and constant question in his mind, which he is attempting to solve by a study into its origin and history, can not lose the quality of in-.

terest.

The historical method of study, then, it seems to me, is serving to transform the world of thought and action, by transforming the individual who adopts it from mechanical and uncertain methods to original ones, and thus modifying the character and conduct of society in general.

By teachers this method of approaching questions is worthy of adoption-not as a principle to be applied in the school room, especially, but as one to be used in their own investigations. Whether studying pedagogy, for a better understanding of the principles of teaching, or outlining an entire subject, or planning a single

She turned her eyes on me; they had no ray; But stared like windows in the peer of day. So cold her gaze that I bowed down my head Trembling; it seemed to me that she was dead. And that those hands mechanically went, As though the original force was not yet recitation, the teaching ability will be

spent-❞

is not more gruesome than the instances furnished in real life by people whose

interest in their work seems to have vanished.

Hamerton in his valuable series of papers entitled "The Intellectual Life" devotes one letter to a young man stil! in the freshness of his intellectual life, to whom he says: "I have been thinking about you frequently of late, and the burden or refrain of my thought has been, 'What a blessing he has in that first freshness, if only he can keep it.'"

Alexander Humboldt, Cuvier, and Goethe are mentioned by Hamerton as intellectual workers who never lost real interest in affairs, and we have only to recall their achievements to know the marvel

reinforced by a consideration of each in its past relations, and the teacher will be surprised at his own ability to seize upon new data pertaining to his work and to grasp the underlying principles.

Not only will the foundation for all his work be strengthened by his mental attitude and real interest, but an abundance. of appropriate material will be at hand with which to amplify and illustrate his work, for fragments of thought on whatever subject he may be investigating will be gathered whenever and wherever he can find them, and by the very organizing power of his own thinking, acting in a definite direction, these fragments will arrange themselves into an orderly whole, from which they may be drawn, at any time, and applied.

A STUDY IN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH: THE COURSE OF STUDY.

M. E. HAGGERTY, HEAD OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, HIGH SCHOOL, ANDERSON, IND.

In the following study I have refrained from expressing comment of my own. I have tried to state with scientific accuracy the facts discovered in the courses under consideration. The study is based upon the following nine courses in English for high schools:

Male High School, Louisville, Ky. d. Girls' High School, Louisville, Ky. e. Manual Training High School, Louisville, Ky.

f. Central High School, Kansas City, Mo.

g. Proposed Course of Study in English for the Secondary Schools of the State of New York.

h. Report of a Committee on a Proposed Course of Study in English for the Chicago Public High Schools.

i. Course of Study Proposed by W. F. Webster and adopted by the N. E. A. at Los Angeles, 1899.

These courses represent leading educational centers of the middle West and a somewhat comprehensive judgment of high school men as to what should constitute a course in high school English.

The points of interest in this study may be grouped under the following headings:

2. A course in general reading. 3. A course in the practice of composition.

Incidental work in rhetoric.

5. Incidental work in literary history. Incidental work in grammar in more than half the courses.

b. The Literary Selections offered for Study.

The report here deals with the literary selections offered for study in the class. The nine courses studied offer three hundred nineteen different selections from one hundred twenty-one writers. Almost every considerable writer from Chaucer to Kipling is offered in some one or more courses. The selections cover the fields of epic, lyric, and dramatic poetry, the essay, speech, novel, short story, history, biography, travel, animal and plant life, civics, mythology, criticism, philosophy, and natural science. The significance of the large number of literary selections offered is more clearly seen from the following table, which shows the number of selections offered in each of the several years of the course: Freshmen

136

Second semester

Unclassified as to semester.... 88

Junior

Senior

Although the number of classics offered for study in each of the several years of the course is very large there is yet a more or less unifying principle in each year's work and the entire list shows something of a gradation from simple to complex. However, this gradation is by no means rigid and there are wide variations from it at every stage. The order is as follows:

The work of the first year is narrative, usually short and simple in the first half and longer and more complex in the latter half. There are, however, variations from this. A few somewhat complex narratives are given in the first semester and in the second there are selections which are essentially descriptive and expository.

In addition to the use of complex narrative in the second year, there is a tendency to the use of more expository selections. The essay and the speech assume a considerable place.

In the Junior year more difficult selections are introduced, although many things offered here are offered in other courses in earlier years. The college entrance requirements assume an important place here.

The first three years' work lead, in a number of cases, to a study in the Senior year of the entire field of English literature not covered before. This is done in most cases in connection with a survey of literary history.

While there are approximately three hundred different literary selections offered for class study, only forty-eight are used in more than one course. This list follows (the figures to the right indicate. the number of courses in which this selection is studied):

Merchant of Venice..