Part 5

It is frequently worth while to spend a few minutes of the recitation in characterizing the epoch in which the events of the lesson take place or in listening to a brief character sketch of the men contributing to these events. Care should of course be taken that biography does not usurp the place of history, but it materially adds to the interest of the recitation if the kings, generals, and statesmen cease to be merely historical characters and become human beings.

His acquaintance with the great men and women of history will be vitalized

It is needless to say that characterizations of men or epochs should not be assigned without instruction as to how they should be prepared. In the case of a great historical character, what is needed for class purposes is not a biography with the dry facts of birth, marriage, death, etc. The report should be brief, but bristling with adjectives supported in each case by at least one fact of the man's life. These may be selected from his personal appearance, private life, amusements, education, obstacles overcome, public services, political sagacity, or military prowess. The sketch may close with a few brief estimates by biographers or historians of his proper place in history.

If a characterization of a period of history is to be required, the teacher should explain that such a characterization should be an exercise in the selection of brief statements of fact reflecting the ideals, institutions, and conditions of the period being described. From histories, source books, fiction, and literature, let the student select facts illustrating such things as the spirit of the laws, conditions at court, public education, amusements of the people, social progress, position of religion, etc. A little time spent in characterizing a period of history and a few of its great men will assist in changing the recital of the bare facts given in the text to an intelligent understanding of conditions and a vital discussion of events. For instance, the ordinary high school text, in dealing with the French and Indian war, speaks briefly of the lack of English success during the early part of the struggle and then says that with the coming of Pitt to the ministry the whole course of events was changed because of the great statesman's wonderful personality. The teacher who wishes to make such a dramatic circumstance really vital to his class must have more information with which to work. A picture of the coarse, vulgar England with its incompetent army and navy, apathetic church, and corrupt government, followed by a stirring character sketch of the great Pitt, will cost but a few minutes of the recitation and will metamorphose a moribund attention to a vital interest.

Care should be taken that the characterizations given in class be properly prepared. To this end it will be well to assign the preparation of these sketches at least a week in advance, at the same time arranging a conference with the student a day or two before the recitation. In this conference the teacher should make such corrections in the pupil's method of preparation and selection of matter as seem necessary. The characterizations should not be read, but delivered by the student facing the class, precisely for the moment as though he were the teacher. Future tests and examinations should hold the class responsible for the facts thus presented. If, as is too often the case in work of this sort, the student giving the report is the sole beneficiary of the exercise, the time required is disproportionate to the benefit derived.

He will correlate the past and the present

If there are facts recounted in the lesson that may be clinched in the student's mind by showing the relation of those facts to present-day conditions or institutions, a few advance questions calculated to bring out this relationship may well be assigned.

It is generally conceded that one chief purpose of history instruction is to enable us to interpret the present and the future in the light of the past, but it all too often happens that current history is forgotten in the recital of facts that are centuries old. Candidates for teachers' certificates in their examinations in United States history show far less knowledge about the great problems and events of the present day than they do of colonial history. The student in English history in our high schools to-day knows all about the Domesday Book, but almost nothing of the recent history of England. Quite possibly the text has nothing to say about it, and it is equally likely that the class may fail to cover the text and miss the little that is actually given. No opportunity should be missed to indicate the bearing of the past on present-day conditions. Even if the events of the lesson exert no direct influence on affairs to-day, their significance may be brought home to the student by an illustration from current history. The account of the Black Death gives excellent occasion for a brief discussion of modern sanitation and the war on the White Plague. The efforts of Parliament to fix wages can be illustrated by some of the minimum wage laws passed by recent legislatures. John Ball's teachings suggest a brief discussion of modern socialism, daily becoming more active in its influence. The medieval trade guilds and modern labor unions; the monopolies of Elizabeth's time and the anti-trust law of to-day; George the Third's two hundred capital crimes and modern methods of penology; the jealousy of Athens in guarding the privilege of citizenship and the facility with which immigrants at present become American citizens are only a few illustrations, indicating the ease with which the past and the present may be correlated.

He will be required to memorize a limited amount of matter verbatim

In assigning a lesson it is sometimes desirable to require certain matter to be learned verbatim. In American history the Preamble to the Constitution, the principles of government contained in the Declaration of Independence, the essential doctrine in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, certain clauses of the Constitution, and extracts from other historical documents may well be required to be memorized accurately. It is scarcely to be supposed that the student can improve on the clarity and definiteness of the English in such documents. He is expected to understand the principles which they assert. He may well be required to train his memory to accuracy by learning certain assignments verbatim. If memory work received a little more attention in our high schools to-day, we should be less likely to hear the statement of a political creed neutralized by the omission of an important word. We should be less likely to see the classic words of Lincoln mangled beyond recognition by messy misquotation.

The assignment of advance questions such as have been suggested possesses several advantages. It makes it possible for the teacher to hold the class responsible for definite preparation, very much as the teacher in algebra is able to do with the problems assigned in advance. It forces the students to do most of the talking. It encourages an intelligent use of the library in a manner calculated to develop the student's powers of investigation. If the pupil forgets most of his history, but retains the ability to investigate carefully, thoroughly, and critically, the plan has more than justified itself. The plan enables the teacher to spend his time in explanation of what the pupil has been unable to do for herself, and thus effects a considerable saving in time. It would be interesting to secure a statement of how much of the teacher's time is ordinarily spent in doing for the student in recitation what he should have done for himself before coming to class. It substitutes for the pupil's snap judgment, given without much thought and too frequently influenced by the inflection of the teacher's voice, an opinion that has resulted from research and deliberation unbiased by the teacher's personal views.

It is too much to expect high school pupils to solve historical problems extemporaneously. If inferences and contrasts other than those given in the text are to be drawn, if statements are to be defended or opposed, the high school student should be given time to prepare his answer. Aside from the injustice of any other procedure, it is a hopeless waste of time to spend the precious minutes of the recitation in gathering negative replies and worthless judgments.

Methods of preparing questions assigned in advance

It may be urged that such an assignment of a lesson as that proposed is too ambitious and that it exacts too much of the teacher's time. In answer it should be said that specialists in history ought surely to have read widely enough and studied deeply enough to be able to select intelligent questions of the sort suggested. We have assumed that the teacher has made adequate preparation for his work. Certainly, then, he should be ready to explain the social, geographical, and economic relation of the events mentioned in the lesson. He should know their bearing on current history. He should always have ready a fund of information, additional to that given in the text. In preparing advance questions for distribution to the class the teacher is preparing his own lesson. He may be doing it a day or two earlier than he would otherwise do, but surely he is performing no labor additional to what may reasonably be expected of him. As to the time required to prepare copies of the questions for distribution when the class convenes, it may be said that a neostyle or mimeograph, with which all large schools and many small ones are equipped, makes short work of preparing as many copies of the questions as desired. If there is a commercial department in connection with the school, an available stenographer, or a willing student helper, the teacher may easily relieve himself of the work of supplying the copies. If none of these expedients are possible, it is no Herculean task to write each day on the board the few questions for the next lesson. It will entail no great loss of time if the class are asked to copy them when they first come to recitation. If it is possible to copy them after the recitation, so much the better. And beyond the obvious advantages of a carefully assigned lesson it must be remembered that in the assignment of special topics, in private conferences with the student, in the correction of notes, in giving assistance in the library, the teacher has an opportunity to cultivate a sympathetic relation between himself and the class of inestimable service in securing the best results.

THE METHOD OF THE RECITATION

Assumptions as to the recitation room

Let us now assume that the recitation will be held in a quiet room free from the distracting influence of poor light, poor ventilation, and inadequate seating capacity. The blackboard space is ample for the whole class, the erasers and chalk are at hand, the maps, charts, and globe are where they can be used without stumbling over them. The teacher can give his whole attention to the class. Discipline should take care of itself. The pupil who is interested will not be seriously out of order.

What the teacher should aim to accomplish

The problem, then, is so to expend the forty-five minutes in which the teacher and class are together that:--

1. So far as possible the atmosphere and setting of the period being studied may be reproduced.

2. The great historical characters spoken of in the lesson may become for the student real men and women with whom he will afterwards feel a personal acquaintance.

3. The events described will be understood and properly interpreted in their relation to geography, and the economic and social progress of the world.

4. Causes and effects shall be properly analyzed.

5. And that there shall be left sufficient time for the occasional review necessary to any good instruction.

Work at the blackboard

The first five minutes may profitably be spent at the board, each member of the class being asked to write a complete answer to one of the assigned questions. Whatever may happen later in the recitation each student has had at least this much of an opportunity for self-expression, and his work should be neat, workmanlike, complete, and accurate. By this device the alert teacher will secure in the first five minutes of the recitation hour a fairly accurate idea of each student's preparation, the weak spots in his understanding of the lesson, and the errors to be corrected. He may even be able to record a grade for the work done.

Special reports

The class having taken their seats, the next order of business should be the reports on special topics assigned for the purpose of making the period of history under discussion more interesting and vital. As has been said, these reports should not be read, but delivered by the pupil facing the class. The class should be encouraged to ask questions on the report when finished and the student responsible for the report should be expected to answer any reasonable inquiry. If other students are able to contribute to the topics reported on, they should be encouraged to do so. Let the teacher be sure that he has sounded the depths of the students' information and curiosity before he himself discusses the report. If the device of reports delivered in class is to justify itself, the matter contained in them must be so arranged and discussed that the whole class receives real benefit. The ingenious teacher will be able to establish a tradition in his course for a careful preparation and critical discussion of these reports. The rivalry of students for excellence in this work is not difficult to stimulate. A premium should be put on criticism which finds mentioned in the characterization qualities inconsistent with the facts recorded in the text, or omissions which the facts of the text seem to justify.